...for me to get back to a combo EDITION! And you thought that tagline was dead...at least not yet.

Well, it appears as if it's PPV weekend again, and I have to say, I'm somewhat less than enthusiastic about the propositions. At least there's a hockey doubleheader on...

Projected good/bad/ugly:

Good: Kidman vs. Matt Hardy V1, maybe Jericho vs. Jeff Hardy, and depending on who they replace Edge with, the 6-man tag.

Bad: Storm/Regal vs. Kane/RVD, Rock/Hogan

Ugly: HHH/Steiner, Bischoff/Austin, UT/Big Show.

For those keeping track, that's like 75% undesirable, with the possibility of more, depending on how the booking goes.

Now, on to the shows, and you even get a regular calendar week this time!

SmackDown Thoughts (17.02.2003)

I guess all I can say is that with the hour I do get to see live, they aren't really pushing me all that hard to watch the other hour...

The Good:
Jeff Hardy/Shawn Michaels vs. Christian/Chris Jericho: Hey, I love the Canadian Chrises v2.0. But even at that, the match wasn't all that good, and I don't know why Michaels was even in there. Maybe Test should have been, if they wanted to shill the PPV non-stop. I guess if they are looking for some CONTINUITY and are trying to work on a WM match, that's one thing, but I doubt they've even thought of that yet.

Hurricane vs. Nowinski: I'm not even sure why they are having this match either, but I'll take it.

And here come the long lists!

The Bad:
Spike Dudley vs. 3-Minute Warning: They really burned out the handicap match in recent years. At least it wasn't as predictable as when Austin or Rock is in one. And why Rico gets stuck behind these morons every week is beyond me. Oh yeah, he doesn't weigh 300 lbs...

Steiner/Booker vs. HHH/Batista: Bad match, and I hope the usual isn't happening: give Booker some wins in meaningless TV matches so they can justify putting HHH over when it counts.

Rodney Mack vs. Al Snow: *sigh*

Women's tag match: You know, Jackie used to at least be watchable before getting those 38FFF implants. Just an irritating match.

The Ugly:
Jim Ross vs. Bischoff: It was bad enough when they teased pulling JR off the air, but this might be worse. And they way they pulled it of was REALLY LAME, in case you didn't know that already.

My advice? DON'T WATCH THIS SHOW EVER AGAIN

+++++++++++++++

Raw Thoughts (20.02.2003)

This couldn't actually be *worse*, could it?

The Good:
Rock promo: *sniffle*, it's just like 1998-9 all over again. This almost brings a tear to my eye.

Hardy/Moore vs. Kidman/Mysterio: Yes, this will do nicely, even if not near the quality of previous matches, it's still cool, and Matt Facts are freakin' hilarious!

Los Guerreros skit: I know some people just thought it was "interesting", but hey, I liked it.

Cena promo: Hilarious.

Hogan Promo: While some people out there are solidly against Hogan, my nostalgia meter is off the chart. Besides, I'd like to see him wrestle in a WWWhatever match, and was robbed last time they were through here, as they pulled Hogan off TV a week before.

The Bad:
Women's match: I know I make the point about women's wrestling on SmackDown every week, but I wish somebody would start listening to me. Besides Woody Paige. (More on that in the next sports column).

Brock Lesnar vs. Team Angle: You had to know that this wasn't going anywhere, but even from a wrestling standpoint, it wasn't good.

Chris Benoit vs. A-Train: Even if they keep putting Benoit over, it doesn't help him to beat a talentless slug that nobody cares about. I can see people 6 months from now saying "Hey, remember when Chris Benoit beat A-Train 2 weeks in a row?" Not worth a rematch.

Undertaker skit: I liked it better when Kanyon was in the box. If they're trying to recapture gold from the Sting angle in 1991, this isn't working.

Overall show: They've really de-pushed the wrestling over the last couple of weeks, and that's the reason I watch this show.

The Ugly:
Rikishi vs. Stamboli: Well, now 1Wrestling's Scherer is on the "retool Rikishi" bandwagon. Here's a better idea. They like to push weight-loss on other wrestlers, why noy this guy? Even if they want to make him "Make a Difference" Rikishi again, anything is better than this.

A group of friends and I put together this little project in 2003 as an outlet of out collective rage and anger about the subjects that each of us cared about. I was the editor-and-chief and games writer back then.

It was a blast to do and it to be involved in a great collaborative effort using the strengths of my friends was simply amazing. I hope you have fun reading our work as much as we had in creating it.