Year-End Awards

Well 2005 was a pretty interesting year all around. Some things were good, some not-so-good, but it definitely gave me a few things to talk about.

So just like last year, I compiled a list of awards detailing certain events of the past year. Hope you enjoy!

Best Movie of the Year: The 40 Year Old Virgin/ Wedding Crashers (TIE)
1st Runner-Up: Sin City
2nd Runner-Up: Serenity
Honorable Mention: Star Wars: Episode III- Revenge of the Sith

So I know what you all must be thinking: "What? Revenge of the Sith isn't on the top of YOUR list???!?!?" And yes, you are right to be very surprised. This was one of the hardest categories for me to pick a winner. There were a lot of fun movies this year, and as much as I got caught up in the Star Wars hype it just wasn't the best movie of the year. I said it even in April when I saw Sin City, that it would be hard for Star Wars to top it. And then the summer was filled with even more great movies including the two instant classics- 40 Year Old Virgin and Wedding Crashers. These movies are already being constantly quoted among our group of friends and I'm sure they will be for years to come. And lastly, there was a big build up for Serenity for me, as I got really into the show, Firefly, leading into watching the movie itself. And in the end Serenity "out-sci-fied" Star Wars, by having good action AND great characterization. So that's my justification.


Best CD of the Year: Weezer- Make Believe
1st Runner-up: Fall Out Boy- From Under the Cork Tree
2nd Runner-up: The Darkness- One Way Ticket to Hell... and Back

This category was even harder than the previous to decide from, but for the exact opposite reason. There just weren't very many good albums this year! Now don't get me wrong, LOTS of stuff came out. Even new albums by a lot of my favorite artists like Foo Fighters, Our Lady Peace, Disturbed, Judas Priest, System of a Down, etc. But none of those albums really stood out to me. Not that they were bad. Actually each of them were pretty good. Each of those albums had a few pretty awesome songs on it. However, they weren't as solid from beginning to end as many of their previous efforts were. Which is why they were not ranked in my top 3.

Picking the top choice was pretty hard, cuz I liked both albums a great deal. I gave the edge to Weezer though, b/c I've had the album since May and it was also extremely "office friendly" so it got a TON of play from me. Actually, CD's being "office friendly' factored heavily into my decision this year, mostly b/c I listened to my CDs a lot in my office. So if an album was filled with too many curses, or if it was just too heavy, I didn't play it as much (maybe only before the boss came in). All of my top choices were decently office friendly (yeah, even the Darkness believe it or not), but like I said, I had the Weezer album the longest so it gets the nod.

The Fall Out Boy album is quite awesome though. But I only discovered it towards the end of the year (prob around Oct-Nov). They got me hooked with their video for "Dance Dance," which is what made me decide to get the album and I've been playing it non-stop since. Plus, they score points for having their band name be a Simpsons reference.

Oh, but before I move on to the next category, I gotta give honorable mention to two other albums: Zebrahead- MFZB and Lost Prophets- Start Something. They are not from this past year which is why they did not qualify for an award, but I re-discovered these albums in the early summertime and they are STILL in heavy rotation in my CD player. So that's saying something. These are two great albums that I whole-heartedly endorse, so do yourself a favor and check them out.


Best Book of the Year: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
1st Runner-Up: Angels & Demons
2nd Runner-Up: The DaVinci Code

Ok, so obviously this category is for books that I have read in the past year. And I'm eliminating the whole "it had to have come out this past year" qualification for this category only b/c otherwise it severely limits me. The winner was easy to pick. The hype for the Harry Potter book's release was huge and was only surpassed by the quality of the book itself. Once I started reading the book I could NOT put it down. I finished it within a matter of days partly b/c I was scared of hearing/reading any spoilers online, but mostly b/c it was just so good. And the ending... damn that was just about one of the saddest things I've ever read.

Picking the runner-ups was harder. I actually read the Dan Brown books in order (Angels & Demons first), so I have a slightly different perspective than many other people out there who probably read the books in reverse order. I REALLY enjoyed Angels & Demons. It was well thought out, dramatic, funny and just all around captivating. However, even though DaVinci Code shares those same qualities, I can see the reasons why many people like the DaVinci Code more. The DaVinci Code is fairly realistic, while Angels & Demons is a bit more out there. So people might be a bit turned off when asked to suspend their disbelief like they had to for a few scenes in Angels & Demons, since that wasn't really required much in the DaVinci Code. But in the end, I just liked the overall story of Angels & Demons more.

-As I've mentioned in a few posts this year, I've probably read more books this year than in the last few years combined. But obviously they can't all be the best, but I do wanna mention how quality many of the Star Wars books are. I read pretty much all the "Clone Wars" books that led up to Episode 3 and I enjoyed them all. So if you're a Star Wars fan I'd advise picking up a few of them- especially Labyrinth of Evil and Shatterpoint.


Video Game of the Year: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2- The Sith Lords
1st Runner-Up: Ultimate Spider-Man
2nd Runner-Up: X-Men Legends

This year wasn't a great year for video games (at least not for me). Star Wars: KOTOR2 was cool b/c it's a Star Wars RPG and it's fun to kill things with lightsabers but it was NOWHERE near as good as the original. Actually, KOTOR2 loses a lot of points b/c it was VERY glitchy (I blame X-Box and all those at Microsoft). It actually won only by default b/c the two Runner-Ups, while of much better quality, were just too short.

Ultimate Spider-Man was a LOT of fun. The controls were even easier than that of Spider-Man 2 and the graphics and storyline were excellent (it was like playing out a comic book). But as I said, much like it's predecessor, the game was just way too short. But the creators should keep up the great work. Give me a few more hours of gameplay and they'll be good shape to get the number 1 spot next year.

The final spot was hard to pick. I almost gave it to DragonBall Z: Budokai Tenkaichi b/c that game has just a lot of fun. The graphics were amazing and the controls, while hard to pick up at first, become second nature after a few tries and flows really well with the gameplay. But I gave the edge to X-Men Legends b/c hell, that was the reason I bought a Gamecube in the first place (I was originally misinformed that the game would only be available for the Gamecube). The story and graphics were great and the added fact that it was multi-player, so me and Ariana were able to go through the whole game together made it a lot of fun.


Best TV Show of the Year: 24
1st Runner-Up: Coupling
2nd Runner-Up: Lost/ My Name is Earl (TIE)
Honorable Mentions: Robot Chicken, Firefly

24 is the winner of this category hands down. No other show came close. Last season was so freakin awesome (and OMG, did any of you see the season premiere for season 5 last week??? Craziest first fifteen minutes of a show I've ever seen). It also gains points for the fact that they started the season late (in January) so that way it could be presented straight through til May with no interruptions, unlike in previous seasons where there might be 2-4 weeks between new episodes (which as any fan of the show can tell you is absolute TORTURE).

I chose the BBC show Coupling (yes the original British version, not the American one, which I've actually never seen) as first runner-up b/c it was just about the funniest show I've seen in a long time. I've already mentioned reasons why you should watch this show in a previous post so I won't go into detail all over again. But I must say that I don't know if I've ever seen a show that was as consistently funny as Coupling was. Not a bad episode in the bunch.

The final choice was hard to pick b/c the two shows are just SO different (thus, why I gave them a tie). I didn't watch Lost the first time through, but I heard soooo much hype that I decided to watch the reruns in the summer and I got hooked. I along with the rest of America are just waiting to see where they go with this show. Is it based in reality and things happening are just coincidences? Is it actually a sci-fi show in disguise? Who knows? But they have me along for the ride. As for My Name Is Earl, I watched it initially just b/c Jason Lee is a funny dude. But the show has turned out to be a surprise hit. The chemistry among the cast is great and makes it a very fun show to watch.

I give an honorable mention to Robot Chicken mostly b/c it's more of a bunch of shorts than a show (each episode is listed at fifteen mins but usually they are more like only eleven). But they are usually 11 mins of hilarity. It's like watching an animated version of Twisted Mego Theatre or Big Shots from Toyfare magazine. Just fun and insane stuff.

The other honorable mention I gave was to Firefly. It couldn't win any awards b/c the show came out before this year, but I only discovered it this past summer. In a way I'm glad I never saw this show during its initial run on FOX a few years back. Because it was an AWESOME show, and I would have been heartbroken to have gone through the whole cancellation process. It's bad enough that I had to go through it with Angel. I couldn't have bared to lose another great Joss Whedon show. But it's a show any Buffy/Angel/Sci-Fi fan should watch. There are only 13 episodes which you can get on DVD, or you can catch them on Friday Nights at 7pm on the Sci-Fi Network.


"D'OH!!!!" Moment of the Year: The Dismantling of the Florida Marlins
1st Runner-Up: KROCK's format being changed to "All talk"
2nd Runner-Up: John Cena's long and annoying WWE title reign

I didn't even both bringing up any of the stupid things Pres. Bush has done this year. I could make an entire list of just his mistakes alone. But I'm through bitching on that subject- you, America made a big mistake, you shall have to live with it. As far as the other moments go, I decided to make them more broad. I was tempted to go the personal route and ramble about my court case, or not being accepted into Fordham grad school or the car ticket drama, but I've already talked about those things at length and I'd rather not bore you all (or depress myself) by reliving them. So these are more things that just generally suck rather than life changing events.

So yeah, the thing with the Marlins really sucks. But I dedicated an entire post to their situation so I won't repeat myself here. The 1st Runner-Up really annoys me though. The fact that New York no longer has a rock station is a crying shame. Granted, I really don't listen much to the radio b/c of my car's CD player or my mp3 player but I would tune in every once in awhile. I liked to keep on top of things and see what's new in the music world, or to hear a classic tune. But now I no longer have that option, and that just plain sucks. It's ridiculous that NY has like 3 hip-hop and 3 Spanish stations but now no more rock (and the stuff they play on Z100 and PLG does NOT count). I understand that rock isn't the most popular format in NY but still. There are TONS of rock fans in the area and now we have nothing. What makes it worse is that the shows they replaced the music with really SUCK. I gave them a try just to see what they were like and man, just terrible. So yeah like I said, a damn shame.

The 2nd Runner-up almost placed higher b/c it affected me on a weekly basis (much like how Orton irritated me last year, and continues to do). I haven't been able to stand John Cena for quite some time. His rapping white-boy gimmick stopped being amusing about 2 months after he started it (right around the time he was feuding with Brock Lesnar which was like almost 3 years ago). I was ALWAYS against him winning the title and even went about explaining other ways WWE should do things. But of course, they went down the road they stubbornly wanted to. And it worked for a little while overall (although never with me), but after they started putting Cena against guys who were just cooler than him (like Christian, Chris Jericho and finally Kurt Angle), people realized that Cena is just a bratty poser and it was fun to boo him. Call it schadenfreuden, or whatever you want, but it became FUN to boo the Hell out of Cena (which is why this didn't get ranked higher), but it was also annoying when he would pull a freakin "superman" and still win. But he finally lost the title, so unless they put it back on him I'm safe from him for awhile.

And finally, the big award:

Best Concert of the Year: The Offspring @ CBGB's
1st Runner-Up: Foo Fighters/ Weezer @ Continental Arena
2nd Runner-Up: Green Day w/ Jimmy Eat World @ Giants Stadium

Now this was definitely the hardest award for me to decide on. This year, I did not go to as many shows as I normally go to. I guess I went more for quality over quantity (although looking back I believe I went to a few more shows this year than I did last year). But regardless, almost every show I went to ranged from really good to freakin awesome, which is what made it so hard to actually rank the shows. So I boiled it down to a few sticking points- how close was I, how was the crowd, how well the band performed, etc.

I chose The Offspring show as the best show just b/c it felt like a huge event to me. The Offspring are my favorite band and to see them at such a tiny venue was amazing. The opening band, even though I had never heard of them before, were good, The Offspring played a great set, the crowd was fun and I was less than 10 feet from the band the entire show. Not to mention I got to meet the whole band and got Dexter's autograph on my Smash CD. All those factors together had to garner it the number 1 spot.

Picking the runner-ups was REALLY tough though. Both the Foozer and Green Day shows were excellent. They each featured two bands that I really like (and for the Foozer show, each played a full set), the crowds were great at each show and the seating while not the best, was pretty good and worked b/c I didn't want to be GA for those shows. I wound up giving the edge to the Foozer show though b/c even though Green Day probably had an overall better individual performance, both Foo Fighters and Weezer put on great FULL sets (as opposed to only the half hour for Jimmy Eat World). Plus my seats were a little better for the Foozer show.

I also have to give a few honorable mentions. First to the Amsterjam show on Randall's Island. That was probably one of the most well organized "big" shows I've ever been to. Plus all the bands put on great sets (and the show was like ten and a half hours long for only $45). Second mention goes to Judas Priest w/ Queensryche at the Mohegan Sun arena. This was an awesome show, but it was almost the same show as the year before (which won best concert), so I decided to give it to something else. And the final mention goes to The Killers @ Central Park Summerstage just b/c it was a cool venue and it turned out to be a beautiful day and a fun show.

And that my friends is the conclusion to this year's awards. Thank you for sticking with this post through all the rambling. Hope you enjoyed it and if you have any comments, please feel free to share.

The rest of my vacation post (finally)

Ok, I know this is a few week's late but I just have to get through this (for posterity's sake at least).

I went through most of the major happenings of my vacations in other posts, but these are some of the other things I did.

-Went to see The Chronicles of Narnia- The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe in the last week of December with my whole family. I just just finished re-reading the book a few days before, so it was quite fresh in my mind. And with that said, I must say they did a very good job in keeping true to the book. They only altered a handful of scenes and only left out one or two parts, but in it turned out for the better for the movie in each instance. So props to the makers of the movie. I enjoyed it greatly.

-Went to the Museum of Natural History with Ariana, and my aunt, her husband, and Mitchell a few days later. We had a good time, but OMG it was sooooo crowded that day! I believe it was a Thursday, and I couldn't believe how many people were there. Granted it was during Christmas vacation, but still... I just thought it was a random Thursday, I had no clue why it was so jam-packed. So we only stayed for a few hours, but still made a day in the city. We walked across Central Park to 86th and Lex to grab a bite to eat, then took the train down to 59th and went to FAO Schwartz.

Now I hadn't been to FAO Schwartz in a VERY long time, but I could have sworn I remember it being both bigger and a lot more cool when I was younger. I mean they still have the floor keyboard, which they had people demonstrating a la the movie- Big. But other than that, the store was fairly unimpressive to me.

However, on the other end of the spectrum, we went to the Disney Store on Broadway right after and that place was pretty sweet/ They had lots of Christmas stuff on clearance so we all picked up some stuff for next year (including me purchasing a few items of my favorite Disney chracter-Stitch, like ornaments for my tree and stuff). So that was cool. And then after that, we ended our day by going to see the Rockefellar Christmas tree and took a few pics there. So all in all it was a fun day.

*****

-As for New Year's Eve, it was a more laid back day for us this year. We decided to spend it with family and all went to my grandparents house. I brought the PS2 with me there and we played some DDR as well as a good amount of Karaoke Revolution with the whole family (which was quite amusing). And that was pretty much it.

-The rest of the week was fairly uneventful. Hung out with the family more, before they had to leave back to Florida, played lots of Dance Dance Revolution, watched lots of movies, caught up with a bunch of shows on DVR, etc.

-Only other thing of note that I haven't already mentioned was that me and Ariana went to see the Producers a little over a week ago. It was a fun movie, and I recorded the original on DVR the other week, so now I'm looking forward to watching that one to compare it.

-Oh, one last thing, I was at Bestbuy last week and while in line waiting to purchase something for Ariana, I noticed singing comedian- Stephen Lynch came out with a new CD, so I picked it up. It was hilarious as expected. If you're a fan, you should check it out.

And with that, I can now concentrate on completing my "Year-End Awards" (yes they will be coming SOON).

Then and Now...

Phil just sent along some disturbing pics the other day. Wrestling fans from the 90's will surely remember Tammy Sytch, probably better known in the WWF as "Sunny."

While WCW was kicking WWF's ass in the ratings and before WWF elevated guys like Stone Cold, Mankind, the Rock and Triple H; Sunny was one of the main reasons to tune into Monday Night Raw (at least for a 15 year old teenager they were, lol).

But sadly, Sunny has let herself go- BIG TIME. She had started to gain weight a few years back b/c she was on drugs. But then both her and her husband (the late Chris Candido) got themselves clean and were doing better. She wasn't back to her old looks yet, but she was improving. But then Candido passed away last year, and I guess that sent her into a downward spiral. Sad, b/c she used to be SOOO hot. Here's a pic of what she used to look like:


And here's what she looks like now.


Yeah, pretty bad, huh? And thing is, she's been through a lot, so fine she let herself go. But if she's gonna do it, she's gotta accept it and stop trying to go out there and be the hot chick. That time is past, she should let it be.

-And speaking of other ex-hot wrestling babes. Remember Kimberly Page? Wife of Diamond Dallas Page and former manager to Johnny B. Badd? She used to be another one of my favorite valets.

Well I just found out that she was in the 40 Year Old Virgin! Now I've seen that movie two or three times, but I only found out when I read about this the other day. She plays the woman in the speed-dating scene whose breast falls out of her shirt. But she just looks so much older that I didn't even recognize her!

Here's a pic of Kimberly in her prime:
and well I can't post the pic of her from the movie b/c it has nudity but I can link you to it here (it's obviously not safe for work). But yeah, let's just say the years haven't been kind, especially around the chest area.

So yeah, I just had to share, b/c it was kind of depressing. Not just for them, but for me also, b/c I guess I'm beginning to enter the years where famous women I found attractive as a teenager are no longer gonna be as hot. Has this realization come to any other dudes out there? If so, share who your former interest was, and we can cope together (lol).

Ha!

Here's an amusing comment from an article from CNN which Henry forwarded:

-For all of Bauer's toughness, his humanity almost sneaked into one episode filmed recently.

"There's a running joke among fans that Jack never goes to the bathroom," Sutherland recalls. "We had a scene where I was running towards a sign pointing 'BATHROOM' to the left and 'OFFICES' to the right. I did a double-take and ran towards the bathroom! We sent it in to the network, as a joke reel. But, quite frankly, nobody wants to see Jack Bauer go to the bathroom."

- I hope that makes the DVD.

****

And continuing with the funny here is a hilarious SNL skit someone forwarded to me. Basically it's the auditions for the original Star Wars movie. But the twist being that Kevin Spacey plays Christopher Walken as Han Solo and the late Walter Mattau as Obi Wan Kenobi. And Darrell Hammond plays Richard Dryfus as C-3PO. Amusing stuff.

- Also from the same site, an amusing TV Funhouse sketch starring the Peanuts from a few years back. It's the Christmas one, where the Peanuts gang realizes they have "mystical powers."

And hell this is the main site for u all to just browse through what they have.

****

Oh, I've also had this clip for awhile but kept forgetting to post it. It makes fun of the "relationship" between Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi. There are a few of these kinds of clips out there. They actually showed one of Harry Potter and Ron on a recent episode of SNL.

****

And lastly, Henry sent this out and I just had to share b/c it is pretty freakin hilarious. It's a clip from one of Robin Williams comedy shows (I believe it was the Broadway one). Enjoy!

The Champ is GONE!

John Cena lost the WWE title to Edge tonight and I can't be happier!!

Hell... screw happy, I'm freakin giddy! That was such an awesome ending to tonight's New Years Revolution PPV!!

Cena actually wound up winning the Elimination chamber match but oh man was the crowd ever against him!!! The best part were the four dudes in the crowd a few rows in with the huge "thumbs-up" sign which they turned upside down for a "thumbs-down" every time Cena was on offense, and back to thumbs-up whenever Cena was getting his ass beat. Pure gold.

Even when the final 3 guys were Masters, Carlito and Cena- Cena STILL wasn't cheered (well maybe a little but not by real choice, only b/c Masters and Carlito aren't ready for the big gold and the audience knows it). They booed like Hell when he won, but then once Vince McMahon came out to announce Edge was cashing in his "Money In The Bank" title shot, the crowd perked up again (and so did I, as I was nearly jumping out of my seat).

Edge almost beat Cena immediately with a spear but freakin Cena kicked out (and nearly had me scared they wouldn't do the title change), but when Edge nailed Cena with a second spear, I knew, as well as the whole live audience, that it was over and I jumped out of my seat onto the floor to count with the referee to three and then me and Ariana proceeded to jump around and celebrate in her apartment. Oh what a glorious moment it was! Especially since I called it happening earlier in the night (even before the PPV started).

So yeah, it hurt at first to spend the $35 for the PPV, but dammit, it was worth it for the ending alone. PLUS, I got to tape it. So I can rewatch the magic whenever I want. What a great way to end my vacation... God, I am giddy.

Dog Sees God

I'm skipping ahead of some stuff I did that I've yet to blog about b/c I just got back from seeing the Off-Broadway play- Dog Sees God and I just had to ramble on about it.

Dog Sees God is an unauthorized play all about the "Peanuts" gang ten years after the comic strip ends. Since it's unauthorized, they had to take a few liberties with names and stuff, but you could TOTALLY tell who each character was. Charlie Brown (played by Eddie Kaye Thomas- aka "Shitbreak" from the American Pie movies) was named C.B. but wore his trademark yellow shirt with the black stripe; his sister Sally (played by America Ferrera) actually wasn't given a name throughout the play (and is just credited as "C.B.'s sister); Linus was played by Keith Nobbs and was named "Van," although you could tell who he was right away when they make mention of his blanket; Lucy was played by Eliza Dushku (Faith from Buffy and Angel) and she also wasn't named throughout the show (credited only as "Van's sister) but it was obvious who she was, even having one of her "Doctor Is In" moments; Peppermint Patty was played by Kelli Garner and was named "Tricia" which went well with her new valleygirl/slut appearance; Marcy was played by Ari Graynor (who I wasn't familiar with but apparently she played Meadow Soprano's college roomate on the Sopranos) and was actually still named Marcy but she was made blonde to match Tricia (and of course they played up the possible lesbian tendencies of the two); Schroeder was played by Logan Marshall Green (from The O.C. and "Richard Heller" on last season of 24) and he was named Beethoven; and finally Pigpen was played by Ian Somerhalder (Boone from Lost) and he was named Matt (but they made mention of his old nickname, and also make fun of it by the fact he now has OCD and carries a bottle of handsanitizer on his hip).

Me & Ariana had FRONT ROW seats for the play, which was freakin awesome as the actors were just about 2-10 feet from us throughout the entire show.

And as for the show itself. It was just SOOOO freakin good. Some parts were just outright hysterical while others were a bit shocking (like I said, they DO take some liberties, yet they do manage to stay true to the overall sense of the characters). I don't want to spoil the show for anyone, b/c I think you should all try to make an attempt to see it (it's that good). But one part I can mention that had me rolling, was at the scene where Marcy was throwing a party and at one point all the characters start dancing... by doing the "Peanuts dance." It flowed in so well that it caught everyone off-guard and was just so funny.

There were a lot of other homages to the comic strip that they threw in that got good laughs as well. Once again, I can't mention too many as it might spoil some things but if you'd like to know you can IM or e-mail me and I'll let you know.

And finally, after the show Me & Ariana waited around for the cast outside and actually got to meet pretty much all of them and got their autographs too! The only two we didn't get to meet were Logan Marshall-Green and Eliza Dushku (boo!). We waited around for quite awhile to try to meet Eliza (being the big Buffy & Angel geek that I am) but she must have bolted like immediately after the show. So that was a bit of a downer, but we might be tempted to swing by the theater one night in the near future and see if we can catch her then (since it's right near the 14th St-Union Square train station).

But yeah, like I said, it's a show to try and check out and it's fairly inexpensive as well only $39.50, at least til the end of January. I definitely give it two thumbs up.

Smackdown Houseshow

Well as I stated in my last post, I went to a Smackdown houseshow at the Westchester County Center on the Monday right after Christmas. I went with Ariana, my nine year old cousin- Mitchell, Joe V, and James. Now the place is small enough as it is, but it was even better since I scored FIFTH row seats for us. It was the closest I've probably ever been for any wrestling show in my life (except maybe the time I saw WWF many years ago at the gym of Mount St. Michael HS). So I got some great photos.

As for the show itself, before I go any further I must mention that everyone at the show witnessed something major. In the match of Booker T vs Matt Hardy- Booker T got legitly hurt and it's serious enough that he might be out for about 4-6 weeks.

Here's what happened: In the end Booker T basically jobbed to a hiptoss. He had Hardy in an abdominal stretch, Hardy reversed it into a hiptoss and went for the pin. The ref counted to just about 3 but called a kickout even though Booker barely moved. So then Hardy got up and the ref started a count to 10 and Booker laid there not moving for the 10 count and lost.

So then after the match, Sharmell (Booker T's manager and real-life wife) got into the ring and the ref and her were looking at him and he wasn't moving at all. So the ref made the "x" sign (the "this shit wasn't planned sign") and called people from the back. And the whole time, Booker just isn't moving. They start checking his legs and stuff so people were thinking he busted his leg but I was like "Nah, I doubt it b/c if it was his leg, he would have moved and grabbed the leg in pain, he must've landed wrong, like on his neck or something and got a stinger." Thankfully he got up on his own (with some help) and left on his own 2 feet (athough he was leaning on the refs and stuff).
But yeah, the injury was serious, as they announced it on the WWE website the next day (turned out to be a groin injury in the end) and they had to change up the Booker T- Chris Benoit match for that week's Smackdown. So even though it really sucks for Booker and Smackdown as a whole, it was interesting to actually see something that would affect the TV show, rather than just tuning in on Friday night and being all like "Why the Hell is Booker T in crutches?" like the rest of America was.

Well when I got home that night I was talking with Chaz online and after I told him what happened at the show, he was all like "Dude, have you e-mailed to tell the wrestling newsites about this?" It hadn't actually even occurred to me to do that, but it was a great idea, so I sent it into the 3 main wrestling sites that I go to.

Two of the sites must've gotten their info from someone before me, but the next day as I was reading my favorite of the sites- Onlineonslaught.com, the main writer from the site actually credited me with the info! I was pretty psyched to see my name in print (in what is probably the most respectable of all the sites I had sent the info to). You can view what the guy put right here.

Or if you are lazy, this is what he printed:

• Back to some real news...
  
  Booker T has been injured. Badly enough that the scheduled Match 5 against Chris Benoit was pulled from this week's SmackDown!. I try to avoid spoilers as much as I can while still getting important news from TV tapings, but I believe I can say (without it being a huge breach of our Spoiler Trust) that what WWE did was allow Booker to select a replacement, and the result of the match will count towards the Best of Seven Series.
  
  And that works for one night. But the official word from WWE is that Booker has a severely strained groin, and the trainer says Booker should rest and rehab it for 4-6 weeks... the situation only becomes murkier when you consider that Chris Benoit's contract status is still unknown at this time, and WWE might still be counting on Booker to pull this series out if Benoit decides to depart.
  
  For whatever it's worth, the injury took place during a match against Matt Hardy on a Monday night house show. The spot preceding the injury looked like an innocuous hip toss according to OO Reader John-Eric A., who was sitting at ringside and didn't notice anything immediately amiss until Hardy and the ref started acting flustered. The eventual decision was to just count Booker down with a 10-count and give the match to Hardy, and then immediately trainers and officials hit the ring.
  
  Booker was assisted out of the ring, and I know he was on crutches last night at the TV tapings. Here's wishing Booker a full and speedy recovery.... SD! can't afford to lose another one of its few bankable performers.
  

****

But as for the show itself, it was fun. Nothing spectacular but cool nonetheless (I'm gonna list through the card now, mostly for my own recollection, but if you're a wrestling fan, you may also enjoy).

First match we got was a Triple Threat Match for the Cruiserweight title between Jamie Noble, Juventud and the champion- Kid Kash. Was a pretty cool match, but just a bit short (as most WWE cruiserweight matches tend to be). Kid Kash won with his brainbuster finisher on Juvy.

Next was the debut of some guy called Idol Stevens and he faced Orlando Jordan. James started to laugh and make fun of Orlando Jordan all like “HA! You gotta lose to this scrub Orlando?!? You suck!” And Orlando turned to James and was like “Shut up!” It was freakin hysterical. The joke did turn out to be on James though as Orlando Jordan shocked probably everyone in the building by actually winning the match. Weird to job out a new guy, but oh well.

Third match was Bobby Lashley in a handicap match against William Regal and Paul Birchall. The match was a lot better than the same one they had on the PPV the other week, so that was cool. The crowd got pretty into it as well but in a funny way, b/c a lot of people started chanting for Regal, so then other people started countering their chants with ones for Lashley, so that was amusing. Lashley won this match with the Dominator on Burchill. [Oh, in a slight tangent- I’ve mentioned this to people in person but I’m gonna state it to the public now. I totally believe Paul Birchall will be a huge star within the next few years. He’s got “the look” b/c he’s big enough to realistically go toe-to-toe with the rest of the big WWE guys, but is athletic enough to mix it up with cruiserweights as well. He’s also got some cool moves, including his sick ass finisher, which WWE had not allowed him to use until JUST this past week on Velocity, which is freakin sweet. So yeah, I can totally see this guy as like the next generation Benoit. Just remember I’m saying it here first].

Fourth match was the aforementioned Booker T vs Matt Hardy No-DQ match. Since I already talked about it before I won’t go into it much here. The one thing I do need to mention though is that when Matt Hardy came out to the ring, James started screaming insults at him including stuff like “You suck! You cost me points in fantasy league!” And at that point Hardy turned right toward James and smiled and laughed at him. And the best part about it was I got a picture of that exact moment. So that was funny as it was the second time that night where a wrestler acknowledged him.

After this there was about a 10 minute intermission but then we came back for our fifth match, which was MNM vs the Mexicools. The crowd was REALLY into this match (I’m guessing because a large percentage of the audience was Hispanic). But it was also the best match of the night up to this point. They gave the audience the “crowd-pleaser” ending by having the Mexicools actually win the match, which sent James into fit (once again due to Fantasy stuff from the week before, heh).

Sixth match was the Boogeyman vs Sylvan Grenier. This match was pretty lame, wrestling-wise, but the crowd was into it b/c of the Boogeyman’s antics. The Boogeyman won with his finisher in a fairly short match. The only thing of note for this match was that I got a great photo of Boogeyman kicking Sylvan right in the nuts.
The seventh match was actually the main event, which featured JBL & Randy Orton vs Batista & Chris Benoit. The crowd was going NUTS for this match (including myself, as I had a really fun time yelling insults and taunting Randy Orton the entire match. It was great, I really let all the vile and venom I have toward the man out during that match. I think one of my favorite things I said was calling him "Captain Chinlock," which actually got him to look at me kinda surprised. hehe), and it actually did turn out to be match of the night. Batista & Benoit won the match when Batista pinned JBL after a spinebuster. I got tons of great shots from this match, including an awesome one of Batista at the end when Ariana was standing on her chair doing the Eddie Guerrero dance and Batista saw her and did it right back to her. That’s the pic I posted below.

And after the show we were able to go right up to the ring and take a few photos of us standing next to it. That was a cool capper to the night. So yeah all in all a great time was had by all.