LowerCaseRepublican

QUOTE(mr_genius @ Jun 22, 2007 -> 04:38 PM) whites who grew up in bad circumstances, but managed to go to college, need not apply. what is a BLGT? Bi/Lesbian/Gay/Transgendered, I would guess.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 21, 2007 -> 10:12 AM) I see what you are saying about acting locally. But I also think that police "brutality" in Chambana is not even sniffing the same level of evil as what these countries are doing. It's not even related to the post specifically but just about all the people blathering about "This foreign country. I am going to help this place thousands of miles away!" I'm just saying that there are a bunch of people who end up walking over the homeless guy on the corner -- kicking him out of the way, to try to go be charitable to whatever cliche cause hits the news (9/11, Darfur, et al.) It's more of a condemnation of the people who can't get off their rhetoric clogged asses to actually do anything about the local issues they see in front of their faces every day.

QUOTE(Brian @ Jun 20, 2007 -> 07:10 PM) I would be more gung ho if some of the TNA guys were still with them to draw me in and let the more unknown guys surprise me. Some of the shows I suggested have current TNA/WWE guys in them. Death Before Dishonor III (6.18.05) 1. BJ Whitmer & Jimmy Jacobs vs. Jimmy Rave & Fast Eddie (ROH Tag Team Title Match) 2. Carnage Crew vs. Dunn & Marcos (Anything Goes Match) 3. Samoa Joe vs. Colt Cabana (ROH Pure Title Match) 4. A.J. Styles vs. Petey Williams 5. Izzy & Deranged vs. Roderick Strong and Jack Evans 6. James Gibson vs. Nigel McGuiness vs. Homicide vs. Azrieal (Four Corner Survival Match) 7. Low Ki vs. Jay Lethal 8. Austin Aries vs. CM Punk (ROH World Title Match) Glory By Honor V Night 2 (9.16.06) 1. Davey Richards vs. Jack Evans 2. Adam Pearce vs. Delirious 3. Christopher Daniels vs. Colt Cabana vs. Jimmy Jacobs 4. Homicide & Samoa Joe vs. Jay & Mark Briscoe 5. Austin Aries & Roderick Strong vs. Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli (World Tag Team Title Match) 6. Naomichi Marufuji vs. Nigel McGuinness (GHC Heavyweight Title Match) 7. Bryan Danielson vs. KENTA (ROH World Title Match) Death Before Dishonor IV (7.15.06) -- Not only are the matches great but this is the culmination of a very well built CZW vs ROH feud. Half the crowd is CZW fans and the other half is ROH fans. It leads to a very hot environment that make the matches much more entertaining. 1. Delirious vs. Seth Delay 2. Jimmy Rave & Sal Rinuaro vs. Colt Cabana & Jay Lethal 3. Nigel McGuinness vs. Roderick Strong (Pure Title Match) 4. Jay & Mark Briscoe vs. Irish Airborne 5. AJ Styles vs. Davey Richards 6. Bryan Danielson vs. Sonjay Dutt (ROH World Title Match) 7. Samoa Joe, Adam Pearce, BJ Whitmer, Ace Steel, & Bryan Danielson vs. Chris Hero, Necro Butcher, Nate Webb, Claudio Castagnoli, & Eddie Kingston (CAGE OF DEATH -- follows the old War Games rules) And you can't go wrong with anything from the Fifth Year Festival because it was a lot of the TNA stars last few shows (esp. Samoa Joe) before the TNA ban came in to effect. The FYF: NY Samoa Joe vs Takeshi Morishima match was damn good.

QUOTE(The Critic @ Jun 20, 2007 -> 08:14 PM) TNA will hire a hot Mexican piece of ass to walk to ringside with LAX and have interruptions/run-ins whenever they try to do a promo - PROBLEM SOLVED! Konnan is a good mic guy, but he gets a bit stale and relies too much on catchphrases. The basic premise of LAX ("Whitey" keeping La Raza down) could only stretch so far anyway IMO. So let me get this straight - McMahon is still "presumed dead" because they can't find the body, yet they can find loose strands of DNA? f***ing horrible. You know what this means?! CSI: WWE. C'mon, they can use a new spinoff. And as for LAX, it is true that they can only stretch it so far but it is still an amusing/interesting angle. Doesn't help though that the impact Zone cheers for them despite them being heels. At least at Slammiversary, LAX got heel heat at the PPV.

QUOTE(Brian @ Jun 20, 2007 -> 06:48 PM) Just noticed there is an ROH show in Chicago this weekend, but too late for me to get off work. I still want to go sometime and bring my "RKO > ROH" sign. I'm kidding of course. I do wanna see what the hype is all about sometime. Guess I will just have to get the PPV. I'm making it up there with a friend. If you want to know what the hype is about, drop about $20 and get a DVD of a show. I'd suggest almost anything from the FYF series, Death Before Dishonor IV if you like gimmick matches, Glory By Honor V Night 2 (for KENTA/AmDrag I) or Joe/Punk trilogy. You could also go with one of my favorites, Death Before Dishonor III.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/200/story/17133.html They are looking to give $6.5 billion or an 18% increase to VA hospital discretionary funds but are facing some opposition from the White House. The bills are increasing the requests originally made by the White House. The House of Rep. bill includes an extra $604 million for new initiatives in treating mental health, post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. It includes an extra $508 million for maintaining and renovating buildings. I really hope this passes.

As one of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Jason David Frank became famous for his work on TV and movies. He doesn't fight monsters anymore. Now, he fights in a cage. "I just like to fight," Frank said. "It's always been in my blood." It's true. Frank has been training in Karate and mixed martial arts since he was 5-years-old and has opened four karate schools. Now Frank is scheduled to fight against Ron 'The Badger' McMasters June 23 at the Williamson County Pavilion in Marion. The fight will be one of 14 fights in the Illinois Cage Fighting event. Each fight will last three rounds. The event will also spotlight 13 contests between other amateur fighters. After years of restrictions from fighting because of contracts with Disney, Frank is now getting a chance to show his skills. But Frank said he's doing this for more than the rush in a fight. "It's not just fighting, it's the training and preparation before you fight - the training, the sparing," he said. Frank won his two previous bouts, but he said fighting is something he wants. It's not necessary for him. "I don't need to fight for money like all these other guys," he said. "I just do it because I like to." Although Frank will get paid, most amateurs don't receive money for fights, said Jim Thomas, president of Fists of Glory, the organization sponsoring the event. "If they get paid, they become a professional," he said. "Different guidelines. These are amateurs." Mark Ratner, Ultimate Fighting Championship vice president of regulatory affairs, who is not involved in the June 23 event, said the sport is becoming more mainstream. Ratner said when UFC - the largest promoter of mixed martial arts in the world - first began it was no-holds barred, but the athletic commission would not accept it as a sport. Political pressure was also thrown on the sport. Sen. John McCain (R-Az) coined the UFC as "human cockfighting" in 1998, which caused fights to be outlawed in many states. The rules were added so the sport could be sanctioned. Ratner said the UFC continues to expand across the globe thanks to regulation of the sport. The UFC is waiting for a law to be signed by Gov. Ron Blagojevich that would regulate the fights throughout the state. UFC would then be allowed to hold fights in Illinois. "The sport is blowing up," Ratner said. "Most of young males know about the sport, whereas they might not know so much about boxing."

This is not directly related to Alpha's specific post. Living close to the college campus still with a short commute to my job, the college kids are always out rallying and sending out e-mails of abuses going on in foreign countries and discrimination being faced in foreign countries. They keep talking about all these issues in the rest of the world. Then, I just look to issues of police brutality in Champaign-Urbana (there has been a lot about the Patrick Thompson case, a cop being taken to task for tasering an inmate for no real reason even according to other police that were there, et al. All politics is local. How can they be for these issues to help people that they never met and cannot see when they cannot/do not go out to help those people whom they can actually see daily in their community?

QUOTE(The Critic @ Jun 20, 2007 -> 11:29 AM) Won't miss either of them all that much. Konnan was mildly interesting with LAX, but still no big loss. Ron Killings = exactly zero. Konnan was a great mic piece for LAX. They had Hernandez (aka the Tex Mex T-Rex -- one of the greatest nicknames ever that he gave himself in IWA:MS) for the power and brute force, Homicide for the high flying/strong style and technical work and Konnan for all the mic work. Not having Konnan might leave a bit of a black hole in the promo department for LAX.

Konnan has quit TNA before the tapings of impact! yesterday. Supposedly, he's been granted his release. Ron Killings also has asked for his release.

QUOTE(Brian @ Jun 19, 2007 -> 09:48 PM) It's amazing that great heels of the past, Rude-Flair-Perfect-etc, used rest hold of some sort and were still very good. I admit Orton is not that great on the mic, but to knock the guy cuz he uses headlocks just irritates me. Especially when his finisher effects the head. It's ring psychology. It's not an issue of just restholds being used. They have their place to build up the pace of a match and make the bigger moves mean more when they are used. But, the wrestler eventually does have to use those bigger moves. For example, Chris Hero's finishers work the neck and head (Hero's Welcome, etc.) and he can find other moves that are more high impact to use and more flashy to use in his matches during the logical progression in the match. Putting a chinlock in after a Garvin stomp though makes no sense when he could easily hit a higher impact move in that match. Besides, if he's supposed to be the cocky heel then why not use those sort of moves. Granted, I did mark for the Garvin stomp yesterday to Cena. That was great. Punk v Benoit at Vengeance. Wow, giving us that already.

QUOTE(Brian @ Jun 19, 2007 -> 09:29 PM) Careful, Shadows. The haters will come out and knock Orton because he uses a headlock in his matches. And nobody in the history of wrestling has ever done that. Needs more restholds! Workrate. Workrate. Workrate. I understand being a heel and using moves like the cravate (i.e. Chris Hero) for the sole purpose of pissing off the fans but even heels know that there are times where they gotta step up their A game and put the restholds to the side except for the times that they are appropriate -- i.e. to rest. I don't think Randy got that memo yet.

QUOTE(GaelicSoxFan @ Jun 19, 2007 -> 01:41 PM) A little late to the party, are we? Don't you mean Blackberg or Black Lesnar ? It's Choc-Lesnar get it right.

QUOTE(Brian @ Jun 19, 2007 -> 08:21 AM) I thought the Diva match last night was actually good. Jillian can wrestle and I'm shocked how good Candice has gotten. Mickie keeps looking hotter. I didn't see any botches and that is rare for a women's match. Only botches I noticed were JR botching move names and people involved in the match. During the Londrick match, I was amazed that he didn't call Spanky's finisher "Two slices of bread".

Another decent episode of Raw. And if the Iron Sheik gets his own interview segment, I mark. They are laying the Vince died angle on really really thick. And this 3 hr. Raw next week to lay it in more is going to be "Meh" at best. The wrestling was good. The angle/shoving the "OMG! Teh expl0si0nz!" was getting a bit grating. It's really setting up a Vince faked his own death storyline though. God, I hope a good payoff comes from it. Can't wait for ECW though. Cor Von vs Punk and Benoit vs Burke with the winners to face off at Vengeance for the strap.

QUOTE(MHizzle85 @ Jun 18, 2007 -> 05:28 PM) Expect Melina/Candice for the Women's strap to be announced for Vengeance tonight. Paul London recieved a "tongue-lashing" for having that grin on his face during Vince's "last walk" Who are Deuce and Domino going to feud with on Vengeance?

Kurt Angle is TNA World Champ. Damn good match they put on. Pretty damn entertaining.

Abyss pinned Tomko in the no DQ. Abyss took a sick powerbomb bump into some thumbtacks, then took a face bump into some broken glass. Both took a bump off a scaffold through some boxes. Then Tomko took a Black Hole Slam into a pile of broken glass. It was a true "Holy s***!" moment. Jeff Jarrett video saying that a wrestling ring is the last place he needs to be and therefore does not want to be the 5th man in the KOTM match. So, Wildcat Chris Harris is taking his slot. It was a really emotional video about the anniversary of TNA and then about his wife's fight with cancer and eventual death. Christian v Joe v Angle v AJ Styles vs Wildcat

Dudleys win with the Dudley Death Drop on Rick Steiner. Good match and finally a clean, non roll-up finish.

Wycheck and Lynn beat Killings and Storm. Wycheck pinned Storm via piledriver. Backlund pinned Shelley with a rollup. VKM pinned the Bashams with a small package. LAX beat up Hector Guerrero. Robert Roode and Eric Young still going. Young lost initially after a cheap chair shot and the match was re-started by Cornette. Showtime wins with a small package. Babyfaces have won every single match so far. Steiner's mystery partner is...Road Warrior Animal due to Scott's injury in Puerto Rico.

Sonjay Dutt is now a peace loving guru preaching non-violence? How is this going to get over in a wrestling environment? Sabin vs Black Machismo up now for the X Division title. "Tonight, I have several of my children out here. I feel like Jim Jones." - Kevin Nash Black Machismo is now the X Division champ.

The Rhino/Senshi (Low Ki) vs LAX match was pretty entertaining. Good curtain jerking match. LAX jobs to Rhino and Senshi to open the show after Hector G. hot shots The Notorious 187 Homicide. Then he got Gore'd. Not quite sure why Senshi was there instead of the jobber from the former AMW tag team that isn't heel. This is my first TNA PPV, so I wanted to give it a chance.

Attempted to order the TNA PPV and for some reason it failed. On the phone with customer service. Yippee. 2nd time in 2 PPV orders for my cable provider.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england...ide/4253849.stm I read this and in a falsetto voice happened be able to say 'Ow'.

QUOTE(MHizzle85 @ Jun 17, 2007 -> 04:04 PM) Eh, other than Nitro & Kenny moving brands to hopefully see them get a push of some sort, the supplemental draft kinda sucked. I mean what the hell is Victoria gonna do on Smackdown. SmackDown and ECW got hosed. Like civil rights worker in 1960's Mississippi hosed.