Greetings!

I'll be honest, I don't have alot to say. The world of wrestling has been extremely ho hum as of late. There have been some things that have caught me off gaurd but nothing that has made me stand up and take notice. Nothing that got me excited.

Low Ki returned to TNA last night at Lockdown under the name of Senshi (uhhhh, yeah...*cough*) Christy Hemme made her debut but that was expected and Raven returned somewhat earlier than I expected but we all knew he would be back eventually.

On the fed side of things Backlash is coming up and the KOTR is progressing just as I had predicted (how sad), and there is a general feeling of lethargy in wrestling...

But there is one paticular news item I (and I'm sure many others) are interested in.

ECW! ECW! ECW! ECW!

Why waste my time writing about an organization that died 6 years ago? Well there is that nifty little pay per view coming up in June, but thats not the reason.

In case some of you don't know yet, ECW is back...for good! Aparently Vince McMahon has decided that ECW is valuable and profitable enough to start up again. In September Tommy Dreamer and Paul Heyman will begin booking ECW shows on the house circuit and pre - TV taping events. The idea is to have some old ECW stars from the past (apparently Sandman, Francine, and Balls Mahoney have all been sent contracts) with up and coming OVW talents(C.M Punk, Albright). Rumor has it that this NEW ECW will replace OVW as the WWE farm system.

So why aren't I ecstatic. I'll admit I'm not the biggest ECW fan, but I did really enjoy their work. I should be happy, but I'm cautious instead. It's great that ECW will be making a comeback, but just what kind of ECW will it be? It can't be the ECW of old, for a number of reasons

#1. It's not Paul Heyman's ECW, its WWE's ECW. I guess this can really be summed up in one word: Freedom. ECW was great because it was different. It gave WWE and WCW the finger and then laughed about it. With this ECW, Heyman will answer to Vince ans we all know its Vince's way or the highway.
This is going to stiffle the creativity we saw from ECW

#2. Out with the old, in with the....old? ECW was fresh and different. Now its nostalgia (sp?). Soon enough, people are going to get tired with ECW and once the novelty of ECW wears off, they ahd better hope to have something compelling enough to keep fans interested.

#3. The fans. ECW became huge with its rabid, cult like fan base. The truth is, some of those fans would rather spit on this WWE ECW than embrace it. It will be impossible to win over those fans because in their mind no matter what they do...its still Vince McMahon.

But, maybe I'm a cynic. Perhaps I've learned to anticipate the bad so that when it actually happens it softens the blow and makes it seem better than it actually is. Maybe this ECW will be a second coming and will capture our imaginations again. Hopefully it'll give me something to write about.

Well, I didn't start out with alot to say...So I guess they're off to a good start.

Class Dissmissed!

wow, almost a full month of no postings...yeesh!!

I do have the time however so lets get right to it. Wrestlemania happend not thta long ago and my reaction has been good but not great. It felt more like a great pay perview and more like a below average Wrestlemania. Thats not a good thing. when the highlight of the evening for you was watching both HHH and John Cena make total fools of themselves, you know they dropped the ball somewhere...to their credit however they did the best they could. They lost Batista and Eddie who were huge integral parts of the Mania picture, so I'm sure that hit them hard. Overall, better than wrestlemania 9, but not better than Wrestlemania 8.

TNA is on Thursday nights starting this week. should be a good show with Samoa Joe v. Chris Daniels for the X Division Title and Sting making his selections for the lethal lockdown match. I'm calling it right now that Sting's team will consist of Sting, Ryno, Ron Killings, and AJ Styles.

So Randy Orton got suspended huh? Seems like WWE has a real problem with Orton. They like him as a performer and they've invested ALOT of time into him, but he just keeps pissing off (and maybe even on??) people backstage. So heres my question to all of you out there: Is Randy Orton worth the trouble he causes? Let me know what you think.

The King of the Ring is back!! I know my brother Jeff is dancing around the room. He loves the KOTR and although I'm sure he's dissapointed its not interbrand, hes happy nonetheless. In case you didn't know these are the brackets for the tournament:

Kurt Angle v. Randy Orton: Well I think we all know whats gonna happen here....

Matt Hardy v. Booker T: I would love to see Hardy take this one all the way and win, but my gut says that won't happen. However I do think Hardy will make it past Booker. Look for the Boogeyman to be involved somehow.

Chris Benoit v. Finlay: WOOHOO!! thank god! I don't even care who wins this match!!! It's gonna rock the house. For the sake of arguement I'll say Finlay will win this and Benoit will continue his feud with JBL.

Mark Henry v. Lashley: All in favor of this match raise your hand...I didn't think so. Lashley will win this thing.

So, if my predictions are correct, then the brackets should look like this:

Angle v. Hardy
Finlay v. Lashley

Hm, you know come to think of ti, that doesn't look right. I'd like to change my selection here. I think Booker will defeat Hardy...AND angle. I know , it sounds crazy, but I believe something will happen (Mark Henry maybe) and Booker will go to the finals and meet up with Lashley...Who will destroy him much to my dismay. So there you have it, my prediction for the 2006 king of the ring winner - Lashley...

...ugh...

Lets pray I'm wrong.

Hello to all my readers;

Greetings from the cold area of Peterborough (the winds here are a bitch!)

Well folks, I'll be perfectly honest here in saying that I didn't really know what to write here today. There really has been a whole lot of the same ol same ol going around. So what I'm gonan do is tell you a story about a new friend I made here in Peterborough. His name is Jimmy. Lightshow Jimmy.

You see, a few years back I attended a WWE house show in Kingston Ontario. At the end of the show, John Cena brought a fan into the ring. A fan covered in lights and a cape and a chainmail headpiece. He had a blue beard and looked all the world like a smaller, more charismatic Scott Steiner. We all had a god time watching him and that was that. Never gave it another thought. Until a few weeks ago.

My roomate Grahm and a few of our friends were out at Chumleighs dvd and record store. The owner was there. 3 guesses as to who it was. Thats right, Lightshow Jimmy! I couldn't believe it. Once I figured out who it was we started talking about wrestling and I even mentioned that I did the Dux dance down the street earlier that day and made a couple of kids pop for me.

Since then I've come back many times to Chumleighs but not just to see what DVD's he's got in. I love talking to Jimmy as his demented love of over the top gimmicky wrestling matches my own. Jimmy has even gotten a few try outs with WWE as a manager and I sincerly hope they hire him one day. Watching him on the E would be a hoot.

Today I was talking to Jimmy and he informed me he had just purchased 40 lucha wrestling masks and was in the process of putting lights into each and everyone so they blink and light up. He said that he'd give me one because he knew that I'd actually walk arouind town in it.

Thats one piece of clothing I would proudly display downtown.

Hello my faithful readers;

Back at it again from Pembroke Ontario (gotta love reading week!)

Well, I decided to take a little bit of this time to talk about Wrestlemania, the grand daddy of em all. This year looks more like a alcoholic step-daddy than a grand daddy (ok, piss poor analogy but its the best I could do today)

For the first time since it became available to me, I'm thinking about skipping Wrestlemania all together. There were some glimmers of hope (Rey v. Angle) but now that the fed has screwed that main event up, its gonna take one spectacular undercard for me to plunk down the money to watch this year.

So I started thinking what most fans think about this time : How would I book Wrestlemania? So comes our topic for this week! Before I give you my card, let me run down the card so far for the actual Wrestlemania...

Kurt Angle v. Rey Mysterio v. Randy Orton
John Cena v. HHH
Undertaker v. Mark Henry
Money in the bank: Shelton Benjamin v. Ric Flair v. RVD v. ? v. ? v. ?
Edge v. Mick Foley (Hardcore match)
Shawn Michaels v. Vince McMahon

Thats whats on tap this year so far. Pretty dissapointing if you ask me. Now, here is my Wrestlemania card and my reasons for booking each match.

Main Event: Kurt Angle v. Rey Mysterio: This one is a no-brainer. Rey won the Rumble, and gets his shot. Angle and Rey would put on one hell of a fight and not even need some dramatic storyline about Eddie Guerrerro to do it. The underdog challenger against the ferocious champion bent on being the best of all time. It really is this simple.

John Cena v. HHH v. Edge: Ah, now here is a 3 way dance I can get behind, and to make things interesting, I'd have it go elimination style. Edge had a shitty championship reign and deserved better. And I'm telling you, putting Edge in that match would take some of the heat off of Cena and put it back on where its suppose to be...you know, on the heels!!!

Undertaker v. JBL: Look, I know these guys haven't exactly had the most amazing matches in..well, ever, but at least its believable that JBL could defeat Undertaker. Not by much but by some.

Randy Orton v. Chavo Gurerro: I know on paper this may not seem like a Mania level match, but I disagree. If they are going to exploit Eddie's death, at least THIS makes sense. And with the run ins these two have had in each others matches, its a perfect set up. Chavo is so underutilized, if you gave these two and good chunk of time they could pull off a great match.

Money in the bank: Actually I have no problem with it so far, with one exception. Replace Ric Flair with Carlito. Thats a crime right there.

U.S championship: Chris Benoit v. Finlay: If you've seen their matches from WCW, you'll know why. Two tough as nails wrestlers going out there and just beating the hell out of each other for the belt. Sounds like $ to me.

Women's Championship: Trish v. Mickey James: Another no brainer.

Tag Team Streetfight Grudge Match: The MaMahons v. The Rockers: Oh c'mon, like none of you want to see this? The Rocker's Reunion was a huge success last year and people seem to like Marty Janetty. We know Vince and Shane can work...Just not great, which is why we throw the streetfight into play and you've got a match to be remebered.

Thats my card. Only 8 matches, but really, do we need a whole lot of matches to make Wrestlemania great? I don't think so. Feel free to post your own WM cards for this year and why you chose those matches.

Allright, finally, we have my website of the week. This week, I'm featuring www.thewrestlingfan.com this is one funny site and in addition to the great commentaries they have some of the funniest doctored pictures I've ever seen (check out the RVD rocket...Almost cried from laughing so hard)

thats it for me guys. Till next time...

CLASS DISMISSED!

Welcome back my loyal readers!

Well Valentines Day was this past Tuesday so happy belated greeting card and chocolates day to all of you out there!

Christian Cage won the NWA World Championship this past Sunday. I'm very happy for him. He deserves it thats for sure.

To be honest, I really don't have anything insightful to say this week (yeah like I have anything insightful to say any other week!) so I'm just going to ramble on about what keeps popping into my head in the world of wrestling. Strap yourself in and come along for the ride...

Picked up a great DVD this week in Nevermore: The Best of Raven. Good work by the TNA DVD department here as they actually chronicle the first part of Raven's TNA career quite nicely in this 2 disc set. If your a fan of Raven or hardcore wrestling in general, its worth the 25 bucks for it.

No Way Out is happening this Sunday and it seems like WWE has roped me in once again. I'll most likely attend the evening's festivities for the undercard, particularly for the cruiserweight championship match of Helms v. Hotty v. Mexicools v. Funaki v. Nunzio v. Kidman v. London and the tag team champinship match of Matt Hardy and a mystery partner (rumored to be Animal ugh) against MNM. With the exception of Animal both those matches should be good. Plus the rest of the card doesn't look train wreck awful. If I do indeed decide to attend, I'll give you my review next Friday if I post.

Johnny Grunge of Public Enemy died yesterday. Sources say he died due to cmplications of sleep apnea. Sleep apnea, for those of you who don't know, is a condition affecting large, mostly overweight men where a person will actually stop breathing for a short period of time. Sometimes they stop breathing permanently. There is currently no cure for sleep apnea. I feel saddened by the loss of johnny Grunge but I take solice in the fact that it wasn't a drug reated death and that now he is at peace, reunited with tag team partner Ted Petty (a.k.a Rocco Rock), rocking the angels and putting the bad guys through stacked cloud tables in the sky.

To be honest, thats really all I have to say this week. I know its a little lackluster compared to my usual posts, but I feel thats really all I need to say today.

Until next time...

Class dismissed.

Welcome to a special Tuesday edition of Random Thoughts 101. I am your host, The New Old School and today we have a very SPECIAL blog.

Nah, I'm just kidding. Same old shit, diferent day. lol.

So the rumble is now over and my pick won it!!! I'm happy for Rey Rey, but unfortunetly, I hear that he may not be in the main event come Wrestlemania. WWE is very high on Randy Orton right now and that means come NWO he might face Angle for the belt at Mania....*sigh*

With Mania quickly approaching, it means WWE will be announcing the next inductees into the HoF. Rumour has it that Eddie Guerrero is almost a lock to be inducted, with WWE trying very hard to get Bret Hart as well. Hart has been said to be not interested, but we'll see what happens. I'd like to hear who YOU think deserves to be in the HoF this year. Personally, I'd like to induct the British Bulldogs. With tag teams currently needing a desperate boost, I think it would be great to pay homage to one of the greatest tag teams of all time.

Rumour mills are turning out that now that Edge has dropped the WWE title, his Mania opponent will be...Mick Foley...All opposed? (Raises hand) Edge is being robbed in my opinion. This match could be good, but it won't be great, and thats a real shame.

The card for Against All Odds is shaping up and seems really good. I'd like to see this one...too bad I can't get ppv...dammit.

Watched Impact this Saturday. As usual it was great, but I noticed something I'm feeling very positive about. The X division has been long touted as the future of TNA, but the one major complaint against it was that no one knew who these guys were. Not that they wetren't names, but there was hardly anything to distinguish each other. However on Saturday I saw Austin Aries come out looking like Jesse Ventura on acid, Chris Sabin looked like he just walked out of the New Japan Dojo, and Sonjay Dutt came out with a side ways baseball cap taking his "playa fromt he himalaya" gimmick to another level. It really distinguished each of the wrestlers in this fantastic tag team match and hell the outrageous characters even gave Roderick Strong another dimension to his charcter as the straight, "messaiah of the backbreaker" the more I watch him, the more he reminds me of Arn Anderson.

I'm always looking for news and info about TNA, and now I have a site that caters to me. tnawrestlingnews.com is pretty self explanitory and gives you all the info you could want on Total Nonstop Action. check them out.

It should NOT be this difficult to find a copy of this month's Pro Wrestling Illustrated.

I have more to say, but not today. Gotta save soem for next time. Until then...

CLASS DISMISSED!

Hello again my loyal readers!

This Sunday is the Royal Rumble, one of, if not THE WWE pay per view I look most forward to every year. The great thing about the rumble is that there is still SOME mystique left to it. YeahI know that mystique is usually quelched down to three or four guys now, but still its there. If you don't already I suggest you order this pay per view with LOTS of friends, as bets get thrown around like candy...Hmm, come to think of it, I've never really thrown candy. Let me try that one again. If you don't already I suggest youorder this pay per view with LOTS of friends, as bets get thrown around like snowballs. Ah, much better. As a last resort, plunk down the 14.99 and go watch it at a famous players theater.

I'll get to the Rumble match in a moment, but lets first talk about the undercard:

JBL v. The Boogeyman: Ok, everybody knows I'm a Boogeymark, but there is a reason he doesn't wrestle much and is put in squash matches. This will NOT be a squash match. This would make a great opener if only for the people who order the ppv late, and won't miss anything important. If not, then this is the match to go fetch your snacks during. As fora winner, I'm picking Boogeyman. He's on a roll lately and I think they'll continue it, although I'm stating here and now that should be Matt Hardy's spot against JBL.

Mickey James v. Ashley Special Ref - Trish Stratus: Should be an OK match. Ashley has made improvements since winning the diva search, and Mickey James can work(Not half as good as Alexis Laree can, but I digress). This should be a really interesting match if only for where they go with the storyline here. It looks as if they're turning Mickey Heel, instead of the original thought of turning Trish heel, I'm not sure if this is a good idea. Actually to be honest this whole thing stinks. I mean right now, we have a good balance of diva heels and faces...now I know most of them can't work worth shit, but still, were gonna end up with a situation like last year where you had Lita and Christy against the entire WWE diva roster. Oh well, just my griping. My prediction? Trish will count the fall on James giving Ashley the win, even though James' foot will be on the bottom rope. Trish will claim to have not seen it, and James will believe her because she is her idol, but it will build the tension some more.

Kurt Angle v. Mark Henry: All right, I know Smackdown is desperate for some competition but Mark Henry? Ok, I shouldn't rag on the guy, he actually has gotten alot better since his last run. So much so that I think this might be a good match. Remember, hes in there with Kurt Angle. Angle can prettymuch pull agreat match out of ANYONE, so it may still be worth it to watch. Angle is definetly going over here.

Edge v. John Cena: Next to the Rumble, this may be the toughest call to make. Expect this match to be at the least decent, as Edge and Cena are both that...decent. The toughpart is calling the winner. On one hand, it would be easy to say that Cena will get the win so they can have the big Cena v. Triple H showdown at Mania, but on the other hand, many people are impressed with Edge as champion and it would probably be a good move to keep the belt on him for a while. In this case, I'm gonan let my wishes overlook logic. Edgde will hold onto the belt.

All right, lets get right down to it. The Royal Rumble match. So, we all know how it goes. Who is gonna win the Royal Rumble? Well that depends on who you talk to. Right now, there seems to be 4 prevalient thoughts about who will win the rumble (surprise surprise). The first andmost obvious thought is that Triple H will win the Rumble. This would set up what everyone seems to think the money match for RAW would be at Wrestlemania: Triple H v. John Cena. He has some good chances. However, what I'm also hearing from people is that the returning RVD has some good chances to win too. It is most definetly a long shot, but wordis that RVD is going to get aHUGE push now thathe has returned. On the Smackdown side there are two prevailing thoughts: the first beign Randy Orton. The WWE really wants to push Randy and give him another chance to be a top player. This might be it. The other thought is Rey Mysterio. He has to be themost popular star on Smackdown now and since dedicating the rumble to the late Eddie Gurerro, many are wondering if a Mysterio/Angle match could headline WM22.

So who is going to win the Rumble? I don't know. I think the safe bet is Triple H, and your obvious longshots are Mysterio and RVD. Orton has a good chance, but you never know. I've already bet on Rey Mysterio to winit simply because when you've got the odds like this, the fun thing to do is bet on who you want to win, and I want Rey to win. In the "ironman" category, or the guy who will last the LONGEST in the rumble. This one is either going to go to RVD or Lashley. But I'm gonna say RVD. If they want to give him a push, this is the best way to do it without having him win the rumble.

Thats all for me this week. Until then,

CLASS DISMISSED!!!