WWE's Great Summer 180

So, pre-WM29 I was really down on the WWE.  The WWE had again gone to the well for big matches that would do little to push superstars post Mania.  The Undertaker, HHH, the Rock, and Brock Lesnar are at best part time stars, but where all involved in the pivotal matches at Mania.  That's how you build a buyrate, but it does nothing for the long term as evidenced by the ratings post mania and the need to bring CM Punk back sooner than planned.

The Post Mania world seemed like an even worse place to be.  Lesnar and HHH re-matched with very little fan fare and it appeared the WWE was going with a concussion angle.  That angle seemed like it was really in really poor taste and it seems like have steered away from it.  That seemed like their first good decision in months.

Going into Extreme Rules I thought the WWE was in major hot water, but then it happened.  Things started falling into place just one week out.  The Punk match took on a life of it's own.  Heyman carried the buildup.  Curtis Axel got introduced and although that wasn't earth shattering news it was interesting.  I think we all want to believe he's special because he's with Heyman.  Let's face it Heyman is the WWE's best character.  I hope they realize it.  He's working on putting his face up their with Heenan on the Mt. Rushmore of great managers.

The Shield who I felt like were being force feed won titles and looked impressive doing it.  While I feel they could stand to lose the army tack gear and just come down to the ring from the entrance, I'm starting to think the over push is paying off.  I really look at them as invincible to a degree.  The angle still has mileage.

The I COULD SEE IT FROM A MILE AWAY team Hell No break up went better than I thought.  Why, because they didn't really break up.  They kind of just melted down in and interesting way, and Daniel Bryan got a huge push out of the deal.  Suddenly Bryan was the hottest thing going.  Also, the continued mileage out of Kane's career just keeps going.  He's really an unsong hero for the WWE.  He's not great in the ring or on the mic, but he just keeps staying relevant.  I think he's so underrated or better yet under appreciated.  People can rip him all they want he's had a great career.

Cena and Henry had a great build up to their MITB match.  The retirement speech was a master work by Henry.  It was a little weird that Cena stuck around and gave him the belt, but I think it fooled a mass majority of people.  Henry was suddenly the WWE's top heel, again.  It was just another time we all wanted to watch a John Cena match.  You know that guy who can't wrestle, but is still the must see guy.  Longer than Hogan!  Longer than Stone Cold!  How does he do it?  I don't seem him not being in the title picture anytime soon and frankly why wouldn't he be.  Say what you want about Cena he puts asses in seats and works his ass off in the ring.

Del Rio pulled off a pretty solid turn heel turn.  One that many probably didn't expect and it was done with vicious force.  A sudden turn that really deserves a lot of credit.  Dolph was the victim.  I haven't been happy with the handling of Dolph's face turn, but the crowd seems to have taken with him a bit, in some but not all instances.

The Wyatts cut some great promos.  Sometimes the promo's don't do guys justice unless it's a really big star, but in this case I was intrigued.  The promo's they cut the night of their first appearance were top notch, but the entrance was even better.  I liked it up until the Kane attack.  I know it served a purpose, but I think you could make a case for having them jump the main event with Punk and Orton.  That's how big I think they have gotten over already.

AJ Lee has done a great job getting over as champion and making Kaitlyn look really bad and good at the same time.  I was actually interested in the outcome of her title match and the promos she has cut since.  Wait, I'm interested in the Divas?!?!  What's going on here?  A year ago I hated AJ and was annoyed with her whole concept.  What changed?  She got a little more of an edge and stopped being totally mental.  Think about it.  The angle where she created the fake admirer for Kaitlyn was savvy.  I can't believe I wrote this much about it!

There have been a few fumbles here and there.  Fandango is probably the biggest.  He was a layup and at least had a good six month run of singing crowds and fanfare, but the WWE botched it up because they didn't know how to handle it.  Having him come out the next week after his big get over show with Lawler was a huge flop.  WWE needed to turn him face and play up the crowd interaction.  He didn't even need to talk.  Just point at the sky and dance.  He could have gone a little further.

In the end these situations come down to the character.  If he's got talent he will make it no matter what, but in this case it seems like gimmick is stronger than the performer and that doesn't bode well for the future of Fandango.  Look at Stone Cold, given a bad gimmick and he survived it.  Had a chance interview where he blew up and never looked back.  In the end it's always the performer and never the gimmick.

So here we sit.  Another eventful PPV by the boards.  Interesting angles abound and for once instead of thinking the show is an hour too long I'm wondering if the show will be long enough.  Kudos to you Vinny Mac.  Just when I thought I was over you and ready to walk away you pulled me back in.

Random Thoughts on Football 7-6-13

Some times I get a random thought on Football and then try to blog the whole thing into a piece.  Most of these don't get published.  Instead of doing that I've decided to just start blogging some minor thoughts in one blog.  Here is my first attempt at it.  Enjoy;

• Does Barcelona give Messi, Xavi, Inesta, Pedro and Pique off for until mid August?  They had a lot international duty and could use the time.  Don't know how much value they will get from playing those guys in the early friendlies, but I also don't know what they are committed too.
• When I think about Bayern I think what scares me the most is the lack of a best player.  I mean that in a positive way.  Robben was a backup most of the season and ended up being their best player in the UCL final.  Mazduric was not in the first leg of the semi against Barca. They won that 4-0.  Gomez was a back up, but lead them in scoring the previous season and some considering him top 5 in the world.  This is truly a team.  Next year winning the treble or at least a UCL/League double puts them in some rare air and you have to start talking greatest of all time after a season like that.  Still feel nobody is really paying attention though.
• I thought Gonzalo was a done deal at Arsenal on Thursday and would be announced Friday, but instead Real released a statement that they wanted more money.  Then I heard nothing for the rest of the day.  Doing business with Real sucks.  
• Read an article that Isco was the future of Real Madrid and then another article that the signing came too soon as he wouldn't see the pitch much.  I kind of thought Real needed a holding mid more than an attacking mid.  I also thought a back up striker to replace Gonzalo was in order, but there is still time for this.  I'm surprised they haven't been linked to Gomez from Bayern.  In the end Real has too many high quality attacking mids.  Why keep Modric now?  
• I might have to apologize to the Dortmund fans of the world.  There has not been a mass exodus as originally thought.  I had them written off for this season.  I wonder now if they can be as good.  I wasn't a big Gotze fan and getting off to that awkward start in his press conference maybe is a sign of things to come.
• Barcelona are yet to sign a center back.  I'm more conservative in my thoughts on this topic. Mats Hummels would have been a good signing, but rumors of that disappeared weeks ago. I think they just need a B quality guy to work into that rotation would suffice.  Neymar adds defense because teams will have to respect him more, which will draw back the attack of many teams.  Still think the biggest issue with Barca will be trust from the coaching staff in other players.
• I guess Gerrad Delfeou is either not as good as Barca thought or they want to get him some experience.  I would have thought he was quality enough to sit behind the many strikers on the team with Pedro and Tello, but I guess Barca is going a different direction for now.  Gives me a reason to watch Everton if it happens officially.
• Is Man U getting Thiago or not?  I would have thought this saga would have ended this week.  It kind of happened in slow motion, but it's a problem when you have such a great three piece midfield.  I can't blame him for leaving or staying.  I hope he stays.  I think it's the toughest decision a player could have.  
• The International Champions Cup is a great tournament on paper.  Fully realizing that these are just glorified preseason matches I still think the final will be contested especially if Chelsea and Real meet.  That's really the pay off for this tournament.  I think both sides would go full speed in that case.  I would love to see it, but don't hold your breathe.
• You have to wonder with PSG.  Will they be the next Man City or the next Malaga?  Leonardo acted like a jackass and got himself suspended.  The suspension was harsh, but his behavior was so goofy you have to say maybe it was justified.  Extending it now to 13 months is crazy.  Losing their coach after just a season has to hurt.  Monaco jumping into the frey also has to hurt.  I sort of want to watch Ligue 1 this year.

That's all for now.

The Chair

So every now and again you have to depart from the goofy world of sports and July is probably the best month to do that.  So I give you the story of the chair.  It wasn't just any old chair.  It was a chair given to me and my roommate Nick Meo during our senior year of college in the fall of 2000.

Yeah remember 2000?  Seems like just yesterday.  Everybody had just got rich off of that Y2K stuff.  I still to this day couldn't figure out why my alarm clock was supposed to stop working?  It didn't even keep track of that date.  Yep 2000, the year the world didn't stop, or slow down.  It was the year of the famous chair.

In a standard Carthage College dorm (For those of you who don't know it's a small school right on Lake Michigan in Kenosha Wisconsin and trust me that's all you need to know.) you get two beds two wooden desk and two dressers.  All these things are wooden and highly uncomfortable.  During my entire stay at Camp Carthage myself and my 5 different roommates had come up with all kinds of ways to improve on this small space and the furniture that came with it.

During our senior year Nick and I decided we needed a chair to replace the one I had had in my room the prior year.  A recliner that was key to the whole room setup.  Pressed to not spend any money Nick remembered his sister had such a chair that she no longer needed.  His sister lived in western Milwaukee or in the Suburbs to the west of it.  So we headed up to her place to grab this chair, which we thought would improve our dorm experience greatly.

We got there to find that the chair outwardly didn't look like the recliner Nick had described.  It was more of a classical styled chair.  Four wooden legs and I didn't believe that it would recline.  Yet, to my surprise it did recline and we loaded into my truck and returned to school

The chair was a touch awkward and did not break into two pieces.  This proved to be a problem because it would not fit through the doorway of our room.  We tried for what seemed like an hour to get the chair in twisting it every possible direction with little or no luck.  We sought advice from many of our floor mates and friends, but they were little help.

We asked the two Joe's who had lived together for over a 2 years what they thought.  One Joe, Joe B, refused to be involved.  He did not want to be responsible for breaking the chair and having to ask his Father, a carpenter by trade, to fix it if that were to happen.  He dismissed himself from the situation as he often did to go....well we never knew what he did, but that's a story for another day.

The other Joe, Joe B 2 (yes both roommates had the initials JB, there were also both diabetic, crazy right?) was a martial arts expert.  He tried to use his green belt skills to get the chair through the doorway, but no amount of karate kicks and right had thrusts would work.  He suddenly felt a lack of sugar in his body and excused himself to have a class of orange juice.

A third friend named Peter entered the fray.  He was a large kid who thought he knew his own strength.  Kind of like knowing the incredible Hulk, but without the muscles.  He tried with all his might to get the chair in, but his lack of muscle and strength was not helping.  He grew tired and headed off to get something to eat.

We then set out the advice of a man who had previously lived in the dorms for many years, Chip.  Chip had to have seen this situation many times, but he had graduated so we had to contact him via phone.  We gave him the dimensions of the chair, and the things we had previously tried.  The situation intrigued him, but he was also of no help.  We let him off the phone so he could go back to doing whatever it is he did.

It should be noted that we could have taking the door off the hinge, but Nick was insistent that the chair would go without having to do that despite my many protests to stop and do so.  Nick grew frustrated like an old man trying to return soup at a deli.  He mustered up his new found strength he had gained from his summer weight loss program, where he had lost 100 lbs. in less than three months, and smashed the chair into the room.

With the chair now in the room we celebrated, but something was amiss.  The chair seemed to have been damaged because when you sat in it swayed, but Nick not willing to admit that he had broken it, climbed into the chair.  There he stayed for almost 5 hours eventually passing out in the chair that he was so proud of.  Then suddenly during the night, despite caring a much lighter frame than the previous year, the chair gave way crashing into pieces.

Nick finally was willing to admit defeat, and the chair was going to have to be sent to the garbage, but we both agreed that the comedy could not end there.  We rigged the chair up for our fellow floor mates to try out and crash over in.  The hilarity of it all was endless, but as large groups gathered to watch the latest victim the charm wore off and the chair ended up in the dumpster.  Sad end to a great chair.