• Boffo's Realm of World of Warcraft
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• Dave's Wrestling Match Database
• Dave's Works
• boffo.flactem.com Classic
• Disclaimer

• Our Oasis - The Blog!: It's a Family Thang
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• Boffo's DVDs: What Boffo Could Be Watching

• 2006
• 2007, Janurary-June
• 2007, July-December
• 2008

Let's continue with Dave's Ultimate Pointless DVD, shall we? 

- Shawn Michaels vs. Mankind for the WWE Title, September 22nd, 1996, WWE: In Your House: Mind Games 
- Shawn Michaels: Boyhood Dream, History of the WWE Championship, Mick Foley's Greatest Hits and Misses 

I believe this is the match that finally knocked one of his matches with Sting out of the spot of "Mick Foley's favorite Mick Foley match ever", much to Sting's disappointment, as Sting would always ask him "Is mine still your favorite?" according to "Have A Nice Day". And it's a really good match. It even has a little fun psychology worked in (Shawn stomps on Mankind's hand to neutralize the Mandible Claw.) The ending is a pretty big cluster, but it's a fun one. 

- Lance Storm vs. Rob Van Dam, April 13th, 1997, ECW Barely Legal 
- Rob Van Dam: One of a Kind, ECW Barely Legal 

This is important because it's the birth of the Mr. Monday Night character. One odd thing about this match is that I got RVD: One of a Kind and Rise & Fall of ECW at the same time and they have very different stories about this match. On the RVD disc, Rob makes it out to be that he was a last second replacement on the card (for Chris Candido) and because he was angry about that and because ECW gives creative freedom, he cut this promo extemperaneously. On the Rise & Fall disc, this was made out to be more of a planned angle, and those two stories really don't work well together. The match itself is pretty good, and it's always fun to see Lance Storm rocking the rat tail. 

- Stevie Richards vs. Terry Funk vs. The Sandman in a Three Way Dance, April 13th, 1997, ECW Barely Legal 
- Terry Funk vs. Raven for the ECW World Title, April 13th, 1997, ECW Barely Legal 
- Blood Sport: ECW's Most Violent Matches, ECW Barely Legal 

I put these two together because they follow one right after the other. In fact, Blood Sport didn't even bother advertising that it contained the second so as to not spoil the first. This definitely does have historical value though, it's the main event of ECW's first PPV, and it's thanking the old veteran who did so much for the company. 

- Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio in a Mask vs. Title Match for the WCW Cruiserweight Title, October 26th, 1997, WCW Halloween Havoc 1997 
- Cheating Death, Stealing Life: The Eddue Guerrero Story, Rey Mysterio: 619 

Two future WWE main eventers go at it in what both describe as one of their best matches. The superior version is on Eddie's DVD because you can access alternate commentary with Eddie, Rey and Michael Cole (I believe). Rey hits at least one move that he admits that he hadn't hit before and will never hit again. Keep a lookout for Eddie being a bit too eager with tearing Rey's mask and Rey having to worry about that for the rest of the match. 

- The Undertaker vs. Mankind in a Hell in the Cell Match, June 28th, 1998, WWE King of the Ring 1998 
- Foley's Hits & Misses, Tombstone: The History of the Undertaker 

What is there left to even say about this match? If this database included videotapes, I know offhand I'd go up to having this match at least four times. This is what I show people who chide me that wrestling is fake. 

BONUS TIP! 
How to beat DarkHelm in a Hell in the Cell match in the PS2 SmackDown games: 
1. Start match. 
2. Wait for DarkHelm to stupidly fall off cage repeatedly. 
3. Pin DarkHelm. 

- Triple H vs. Cactus Jack in a Street Fight for the WWE Title, January 23rd 2000, WWE Royal Rumble 2000 
- Foley's Hits & Misses, History of the WWE Championship 

The second to last match of Foley's regular career, and some say the neglected sibling of the followup Hell in the Cell match. Ironically, I don't have that one at all on DVD, though it is on the video tape Three Faces of Foley I believe. This is just a brutal, bloody encounter. In fact, it led to the setup to the following Hell in the Cell being "no small metal items". 

- Hulk Hogan vs. Mr. McMahon in a Street Fight, March 30th, 2003, WWE Wrestlemania XIX 
- Hulk Hogan Anthology, McMahon 

Ha! I bet you thought we were done with Hogan matches! This is a fun match though. When Vince wrestlers, he really puts it out there. Is it a technical masterpiece? No. But it's fun. Easy visual of the match comes when a completely bloody-faced McMahon rises up over the ring apron holding a pipe and looking like Satan himself. This is one of the two best Vince images ever (the other being Vince flipping the double bird and crying from the Steel Cage match with Austin at St. Valentine's Day Massacre, also on the McMahon DVD), with both possibly being the best images ever period. 

- Mr. McMahon vs. The Undertaker in a Buried Alive Match, November 16th, 2003, WWE Survivor Series 2003 
- McMahon, Tombstone 

Been a while since I've seen this one. But from what I remember, it's largely Vince getting the crap kicked out of him until Kane interferes. 

- The Undertaker vs. Kane, March 14th, 2004, WWE Wrestlemania XX 
- Tombstone, Wrestlemania XX 

And this wraps up that storyline from the last match. We see the glorious return of Paul Bearer (at least for a few months) and The Undertaker go to basically a combination of all his previous gimmicks. There's a nice comedy bit at the beginning of the match with Kane yelling "You're not real!" and closing his eyes and reaching out to touch him, only to get slugged for his troubles. Isn't it nice now that Taker's been able to forgive the attempted murder and team with him again? 

So that's my Waste of Time DVD as of right now. It'd be a waste of time if *I* bought it... though for some of you out there, this might be a pretty swank DVD. 

Well, I have finished up compiling my project into Dave's Wrestling Match Database which you see linked to your left, or... just right now. 

A couple more notes on those $5.50 DVDs. Steve Austin not only dated Chris Adams' ex-wife, but married her... that's why if you ever hear Austin's children, despite the fact that he's a *self described* south Texas redneck, the kids sound like they came out of Mary Poppins. She's their mother. 

Also, the funniest, yet saddest moment of the Superstars of Yesteryear DVD is that after the Eddie Gilbert-Jimmy Valiant match, they have an interview segment with Jimmy to ask him about what it was like working with Eddie. He literally just brushes THAT question off with "Yeah, Eddie Gilbert was great" and proceeds to embarrassingly beg people to come to his wrestling museum and school. It's a real wonder they left it in there. 

Now on to the final bit for the DVD Database Project. I've been teasing a "Dave's Ultimate Waste Of Time" DVD. As I've told one of you and some of you may have guessed, it's a fantasy lineup of a DVD that if ever released, there's no point at all in me getting it because I already have all these matches multiple times. I'll even throw in some analysis here. We'll see how this goes. 

- Hulk Hogan vs. The Iron Sheik for the WWE Title, January 23, 1984 
- I have it on The Ultimate Hulk Hogan Anthology, History of the WWE Championship and Greatest Wrestling Superstars of the Eighties 

The birth of Hulkamania. In an OO article that I crossposted to the OO blog, I listed this as #1 in my Top 5 Most Influential On The Industry Matches Of All Time. Hogan was the horse McMahon saddled up and rode as he took over all the territories. In a bit played on Greatest Wrestling Superstars, which seems to just have its footage reused on the Hogan Anthology, the Iron Sheik admits to getting an offer $100,000 from Verne Gagne to break Hogan's leg during the match and bring the title belt to the AWA. Sheik says he declined out of his religious convictions and how good Vince, Sr. was to him, but it'd be a very different business today if he accepted. Ironically, before this match, Hogan told his wife that if he could get one more good year, he could retire from wrestling... and one good year turned into 20. 

- Hulk Hogan vs. "Rowdy" Roddy Piper for the WWE Title, February 18th, 1985, "The War To Settle The Score" 
- I have it on the Hogan Anthology and Greatest Wrestling Superstars 

Mainly a promotional deal for Wrestlemania, but this was pretty huge back in the day, broadcast on MTV and the Rock N' Wrestling Connection was in full force. Noteworthy for that history. 

- Hulk Hogan vs. King Kong Bundy for the WWE Title in a Steel Cage, April 7th, 1986, Wrestlemania 2 
- Hogan Anthology and History of the Championship 

Wrestlemania Main Events are always at least historically noteworthy. Hogan still talks about how ON Bundy was for this match and how lucky he was to escape it. Bundy apparently works pretty stiffly. You'll get a chuckle out of Elvira holding her own on commentary and even zinging Jesse Ventura a couple of times. 

- Hulk Hogan vs. Andre The Giant for the WWE Title, March 29th, 1987, Wrestlemania III 
- Hogan Anthology and History of the Championship 

Hogan vs. Sheik was the birth of Hulkamania... this was its rite of passage. Arguably the hugest match WWE had to that point. Was it the most technically proficent? No, but the heat was simply off the scale. 

- Hulk Hogan vs. "Macho Man" Randy Savage for the WWE Title, April 2nd, 1989, Wrestlemania V 
- Hogan Anthology and History of the Championship 

I'm detecting a theme here. Anyone reading this probably already knows the story behind it. One of the funnier legacies of this match is that it would later spawn the "Reviving Elbow". Since in this match, at one point, Hogan no sold Randy's diving elbow, first time that had ever been done, WCW had Hogan knocked out by a Sleeper and Savage hit Hogan with the elbow, so he would immediately stand up, which seems silly. This match had great heat and Jesse's post match rant is classic. 

- Hulk Hogan vs. The Ultimate Warrior for the WWE and Intercontinental Titles, April 1st, 1990, Wrestlemania VI 
- Hogan Anthology, History of the Championship and Wrestlemania VI 

This was supposed to be Hulkamania passing the torch. More than 16 years ago. But before you blame Hogan and ego and politics and all these things the smarks tell you are going on so you must accept them as gospel, a big part of it that a lot of the crowd didn't want Hulkamania to go away. There are a few wrestlers who were fans during that period, Edge in particular who was in attendance, who were basically diehard Hulkamaniacs, to the point of hating the Warrior that day. I think a big part of it too is that Hogan, especially after he got married is simply a lot more stable of a person than Warrior W. Warrior is. Great heat for the match, and good execution (I've heard rumors it was meticulously worked out blow for blow in advance). 

- Hulk Hogan vs. Sgt. Slaughter for the WWE Title, March 24th, 1991, Wrestlemania VII 
- Hogan Anthology, Wrestlemania VII 

You know, this is what I get for buying the Hogan Anthology before starting on a project like this. Anyway, yes the Iraqi sympathizer gimmick was silly by today's standards, but it drew heat... maybe too much heat. At a later Mania, Slaughter said there was a death threat against his family the day he beat Warrior for the title. This character would never work today... but in the classic days of Hulkamania, we got to cheer for the American Hero to beat the traitor. On a side note, I forget who said it, but the quote was funny... they had to turn Slaughter face again before he retired, otherwise he couldn't go out and buy a loaf of bread without being shot at. It might have been Slaughter himself. 

- Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart for the WWE Title in a 60 Minute Ironman Match, March 31st 1996, Wrestlemania XII 
- Shawn Michaels: Boyhood Dream, History of the Championship 

Ha, bet you thought this would be Hogan and Sid from Hogan Anthology and Mania VIII! Anyway, definitely a historical, but I think a bit overrated. Because of the length issues, there's a lot of restholds, but there's some nice moments too (Bret ducking out of the way as Shawn kicks a ring attendant to hell is a personal favorite). The McMahon DVD reveals a nice bit of trivia. Vince was the first to try out the harness that Shawn used for his entrance. In hindsight, though, this was one of the two big events that didn't help Bret's image when Montreal came. Since he lost the title, he took his ball and went home for something like 8 months. The other event was when he lost the title to Sid in early 1997 and went on a profanity filled rant, including shoving Vince down... when Montreal came, it begged the question "Maybe Bret's just a whiner?". 

Anyway, this is turning out longer than I thought so I will conclude it tomorrow. 

Finishing up the whole database project, we now visit the selections that I couldn't place anywhere due to lack of date information. 

Forever Hardcore: 

• Terry Funk vs. Sabu
• New Jack vs. Vic Grimes
• Sandman vs. Konnan, Psicosis & MMW
• Shane Douglas vs. Chris Candido
• Jerry Lynn vs. Chris Hamrick

Grandmasters of Wrestling, Volume I: 

• Ace Darling vs. Dangerous Devon Storm
• King Kong Bundy vs. Iron Mike Sharpe
• The Metal Maniac vs. Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka

Steve Austin, The Early Years: 

• Steve Williams vs. The Punisher
• Steve Austin vs. The Medicine Man
• Steve Austin vs. Chris Adams
• Steve Austin, "Gorgeous" Gary Young, Jeff Gaylord and Skandar Akbar vs. Jeff Jarrett, Eric Embry, Bill Dundee and Percy Pringle in an Eight Man Tough Man Match
• Steve Austin vs. Chris Adams
• Steve Austin & Jeannie Clark vs. Chris Adams & Toni Adams

Also, you'll notice the many matches vs. Chris Adams. Adams trained Austin, then Austin dated his ex-wife. :) 

Cactus Jack, The Early Years: 

• Cactus Jack vs. The Patriot
• Cactus Jack & Gary Young vs. Jeff Jarrett & Chris Adams
• Cactus Jack & Gary Young vs. Dewayne Medors & Mickey Finn Jr.
• Cactus Jack, Gary Young & Iceman Parsons vs. Brickhouse Brown, Cowboy Tony & Wild Bill Irwin
• Cactus Jack vs. Doug Masters
• Cactus Jack vs.Cowboy Tony
• Cactus Jack vs. Brickhouse Brown
• Cactus Jack vs. Eric Embry in a Loser Leaves Town Match

Superstars of Yesteryear: 

• Nick Bockwinkle vs. Curt Hennig for the AWA World Title
• Cowboy Bob Orton vs. Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart
• The Fabulous Freebirds vs. Dr. Death Steve Williams and Ted DiBiase
• Eddie Gilbert vs. The Boogie Woogie Man Jimmy Valiant
• "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka vs. The Kodiak Bear
• The Junkyard Dog vs. Jerry "The King" Lawler

Booker T: The Early Years: 

• Booker T vs. Beach Boy Sean Summers
• The Ebony Experience vs. The Lasertrons
• Booker T vs. Action Jackson
• Booker T vs. Mike Davis
• Booker T vs. Alex Porteau
• Booker T vs. The Super Destroyer
• Booker T vs. Alex Porteau

And finally, 'Cause Stone Cold Said So is an awesome DVD, but really didn't seem to include any matches on it complete enough to warrant inclusion in the database. 

It may interest people to know that my collection includes matches from: 

• AAA
• AWA
• ECW
• GWF
• MACW
• NWA
• ROH
• SMW
• USWA
• UWF
• WCCW
• WCW
• WWE
• WWF
• WWWF
• XPW
• XWF

Tomorrow I wrap this puppy up with the project within a project, Dave's Ultimate Waste Of Time DVD. And soon, this project as a whole will become its own subpage so that future additions could easily be edited into the whole. 

I hear what all y'all are saying out there... bring it home, daddy! Especially since I know I have a rep for leaving projects unfinished sometimes. So today, I'll hit 2005, 2006 and the addendum of the two DVDs I got since I began this project: 

2005: 

• June 12th: ECW One Night Stand 2005: Mike Awesome vs. Masato Tanaka (BS)
• June 26th: WWE Vengeance 2005: John Cena vs. Chris Jericho vs. Christian in a Triple Threat Match for the WWE Title (HIST)

• March 18th: Triple H & John Cena vs. Kurt Angle, Rey Mysterio & Randy Orton (WM22)
• March 18th: Trish Stratus & Mickie James vs. Victoria & Candice Michelle (WM22)
• March 18th: Shawn Michaels vs. Shane McMahon in a Street Fight (WM22)

• 18 Man Interpromotional Battle Royale (WM22)
• The Big Show & Kane vs. Carlito & Chris Masters for the WWE World Tag Team Titles (WM22)
• Ric Flair vs. Rob Van Dam vs. Shelton Benjamin vs. Matt Hardy vs. Finlay vs. Bobby Lashley in a Money In The Bank Ladder Match (WM22)
• Chris Benoit vs. JBL for the WWE United States Title (WM22)
• Mick Foley vs. Edge in a Hardcore Match (WM22)
• The Boogeyman vs. Booker T & Sharmell (WM22)
• Trish Stratus vs. Mickey James for the WWE Women's Title (WM22)
• The Undertaker vs. Mark Henry in a Casket Match (WM22)
• Shawn Michaels vs. Mr. McMahon in a No Holds Barred Match (WM22)
• Kurt Angle vs. Rey Mysterio vs. Randy Orton in a Triple Threat Match for the WWE World Title (WM22)
• Torrie Wilson vs. Candice Michelle in a Playboy Pillow Fight (WM22)
• John Cena vs. Triple H for the WWE Title (WM22)

1980: 

• March 24th: Hulk Hogan vs. Tito Santana (HHA)
• September 13th: Hulk Hogan vs. Andre The Giant (HHA)

• August 8th: Hulk Hogan vs. Sonny Rogers & Chuck Greenly (HHA)

• April 24th: Hulk Hogan vs. Nick Bockwinkel for the AWA World Title (HHA)

• January 23rd: Hulk Hogan vs. The Iron Sheik for the WWE Title (HHA, GWS, HIST)
• September 22nd: Hulk Hogan vs. Big John Studd for the WWE Title (HHA)

• February 18th: WWE The War To Settle The Score: Hulk Hogan vs. "Rowdy" Roddy Piper for the WWE Title (HHA, GWS)
• March 31st: WWE Wrestlemania: Hulk Hogan & Mr. T vs. "Rowdy" Roddy Piper & Paul Orndorff (HHA)

• January 4th: Hulk Hogan vs. Terry Funk for the WWE Title (HHA)
• April 7th: WWE Wrestlemania 2: Hulk Hogan vs. King Kong Bundy in a Steel Cage for the WWE Title (HHA, HIST)
• August 28th: Hulk Hogan vs. "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff for the WWE Title (HHA)

• March 29th: WWE Wrestlemania III: Hulk Hogan vs. Andre The Giant for the WWE Title (HHA, HIST)

• March 12th: Hulk Hogan vs. King Harley Race (HHA)

• April 2nd: WWE Wrestlemania V: Hulk Hogan vs. "Macho Man" Randy Savage for the WWE Title (HHA, HIST)

• April 1st: WWE Wrestlemania VI: Hulk Hogan vs. The Ultimate Warrior in a Title vs. Title Match for the WWE and WWE Intercontinental Titles (HHA, WM6, HIST)
• August 27th: WWE Summerslam 1990: Hulk Hogan vs. Earthquake (HHA)

• March 24th: WWE Wrestlemania VII: Hulk Hogan vs. Sgt. Slaughter for the WWE Title (HHA, WM7)
• December 3rd: WWE This Tuesday In Texas: Hulk Hogan vs. The Undertaker for the WWE Title (HHA)

• July 17th: WCW Bash At The Beach 1994: Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair for the WCW World Title (HHA)

• August 10th: WCW Hog Wild 1996: Hollywood Hulk Hogan vs. The Giant for the WCW World Title (HHA)

ECW Barely Legal, April 13th, 1997:

• The Dudleys vs. The Eliminators for the ECW World Tag Team Titles (BL)
• Lance Storm vs. Rob Van Dam (BL, RVD)
• Great Sasuke, Gran Hamada & Masato Yakushiji vs. Terry Boy, Dick Togo & Taka Michinoku (BL)
• Shane Douglas vs. Pitbull #2 for the ECW World Television Title (BL)
• Tazz vs. Sabu (BL)
• Stevie Richards vs. Sandman vs. Terry Funk in a Three Way Dance (BL, BS)
• Raven vs. Terry Funk for the ECW World Title (BL, BS)

• December 28th: WCW Starrcade 1997: Hollywood Hulk Hogan vs. Sting for the WCW World Title (HHA)

• November 14th: Hulk Hogan vs. Curt Hennig (HHA)

• March 17th: WWE Wrestlemania X8: Hulk Hogan vs. The Rock (HHA)
• April 21st: WWE Backlash 2002: Hulk Hogan vs. Triple H for the WWE Undisputed Title (HHA)
• July 4th: Hulk Hogan & Edge vs. Billy & Chuck for the WWE World Tag Team Titles (HHA)

• March 30th: WWE Wrestlemania XIX: Hulk Hogan vs. Mr. McMahon in a Street Fight (HHA, McM)

• August 21st: WWE Summerslam 2005: Hulk Hogan vs. Shawn Michaels (HHA)

• June 7th: WWE vs. ECW Battle Royale (ONS06)

• Tazz vs. Jerry "The King" Lawler (ONS06)
• Randy Orton vs. Kurt Angle (ONS06)
• The F.B.I. vs. Super Crazy & Tajiri (ONS06)
• Rey Mysterio vs. Sabu for the WWE World Title (ONS06)
• Mick Foley, Edge & Lita vs. Terry Funk, Tommy Dreamer & Beulah in a Mixed Extreme Tag Match (ONS06)
• Balls Mahoney vs. Masato Tanaka (ONS06)
• John Cena vs. Rob Van Dam for the WWE Title (ONS06)

• (BS) = Blood Sport: ECW's Most Violent Matches
• (HIST) = The History of the WWE Championship
• (WM22) = Wrestlemania 22
• (HHA) = The Ultimate Hulk Hogan Anthology
• (GWS) = Greatest Wrestling Superstars of the Eighties
• (WM6) = Wrestlemania VI
• (WM7) = Wrestlemania VII
• (BL) = ECW Barely Legal
• (RVD) = Rob Van Dam: One Of A Kind
• (McM) = McMahon
• (ONS06) = ECW One Night Stand 2006

While I've mentioned One Night Stand 2006, can I declare a moratorium on "If ______ wins, we riot" signs? The first one was funny because it was the truth. They honestly could have been facing a very serious situation with that hardcore ECW crowd (pardon the pun) if Cena beat RVD. But all signs following have just been empty cliches. If Muhammed Hassan came back, beat Cena, and THEN proceeded to piss on a flag, you MIGHT see a riot from a WWE crowd. But even then, it's questionable. 

Tomorrow, I hit up all the matches on DVDs that I couldn't place datewise... and then I finish up this project with a mini project within a project... "The Ultimate Wrestling DVD That Would Be A Complete Waste Of Dave's Time And Money". 

Be here. 

Let's go ahead and hit up 2004. Like I said, I got a few PPVs during this year. It actually could be worse, but I sold No Way Out once I realized I had the one memorable match on it elsewhere. Wrestlemania 20 contains the special "Wrestlemania's Ten Greatest Matches Ever", but I didn't count that because it runs afoul of one of my rules: No severely clipped matches. 

2004: 

WWE Royal Rumble 2004, January 25, 2001:

• Molly Holly vs. Victoria (RR04)
• The Dudley Boyz vs. Ric Flair & Batista in a Tables Match for the WWE World Tag Team Titles (RR04)
• Rey Mysterio vs. Jamie Noble for the WWE Cruiserweight Titles (RR04)
• Eddie Guerrero vs. Chavo Guerrero (RR04)
• Brock Lesnar vs. Hardcore Holly for the WWE Title (RR04)
• Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels in a Last Man Standing Match for the WWE Title (RR04)
• The 2004 Royal Rumble (RR04)

• February 15th: WWE No Way Out 2004: Eddie Guerrero vs. Brock Lesnar for the WWE Title (EG)
• March 7th: The Dudley Boyz vs. Lance Storm & Val Venis (WM20)

• The Big Show vs. John Cena for WWE United States Title (WM20)
• Rob Van Dam & Booker T vs. The Dudley Boyz vs. Garrison Cade & Mark Jindrak vs. La Resistance in a Fatal Four Way for the WWE World Tag Team Titles (WM20)
• Chris Jericho vs. Christian (WM20)
• The Rock 'n' Sock Commection vs. Evolution in a Handicap Match (WM20)
• Sable & Torrie Wilson vs. Stacy Keibler & Miss Jackie in an Evening Gown Match (WM20)
• Chavo Guerrero vs. Jamie Noble vs. Funaki vs. Ultimo Dragon vs. Rey Mysterio vs. Nunzio vs. Tajiri vs. Shannon Moore vs. Billy Kidman in a WWE Cruiserweight Championship Open (WM20)
• Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar with Stone Cold Steve Austin as Special Guest Referee (WM20)
• Scotty 2 Hotty & Rikishi vs. The APA vs. The Basham Brothers vs. The World's Greatest Tag Team in a Fatal Four Way Match for the WWE Tag Team Titles (WM20)
• Victoria vs. Molly Holly in a Title vs. Hair Match for the WWE Women's Title (WM20)
• Eddie Guerrero vs. Kurt Angle for the WWE Title (WM20)
• The Undertaker vs. Kane (WM20, UT)
• Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H vs. Chris Benoit in a Triple Threat Match for the WWE World Title (WM20)

• Val Venis vs. Matt Hardy (BL04)
• Shelton Benjamin vs. Ric Flair (BL04)
• Tajiri vs. Jonathan Coachman (BL04)
• Chris Jericho vs. Christian & Trish Stratus (BL04)
• Victoria vs. Lita for the WWE Women's Title (BL04)
• Randy Orton vs. Cactus Jack in a Hardcore Match for the WWE Intercontinental Title (BL04)
• The Hurricane & Rosey vs. La Resistance (BL04)
• Edge vs. Kane (BL04)
• Chris Benoit vs. Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels in a Triple Threat Match for the WWE World Title (BL04)

• (RR04) = WWE Royal Rumble 2004
• (EG) = Cheating Death, Stealing Life: The Eddie Guerrero Story
• (WM20) = WWE Wrestlemania XX
• (UT) = Tombstone: The History of the Undertaker
• (BL04) = WWE Backlash 2004

Next time, I finally catch up to the present, with 2005-2006. Whoo! 

Let's get right into the swing of things with 2002 & 2003: 

2002: 

• January 20th: WWE Royal Rumble 2002: Mr. McMahon vs. Ric Flair in a Street Fight (McM)

• Da Hit Squad vs. The Christopher Street Connection (EOHB)
• Jay Briscoe vs. The Amazing Red (EOHB)
• Xavier vs. Scoot Andrews (EOHB)
• Quiet Storm vs. The Amazing Red vs. Brian XL vs. Chris Divine vs. Joel Maximo vs. Jose Maximo with Mikey Whipwreck as Special Guest Referee (EOHB)
• Prince Nana vs Eric Tuttle (EOHB)
• Ikaika Loa & Spanky vs. Oz & Michael Shane (EOHB)
• Super Crazy vs. Eddie Guerrero for the IWA Intercontinental Championship (EOHB)
• Low Ki vs. The American Dragon vs. Christopher Daniels (EOHB)

• May 19th: WWE Judgment Day 2002: The Undertaker vs. Hulk Hogan for the WWE Undisputed Title (UT)
• May 27th: Eddie Guerrero vs. Rob Van Dam in a Ladder Match for the WWE Intercontinental Title (EG)
• June 23rd: WWE King of the Ring 2002: Rob Van Dam vs. Chris Jericho in a King of the Ring Semifinals Match (RVD)
• July 21st: WWE Vengeance 2002: The Rock vs. The Undertaker vs. Kurt Angle for the WWE Undisputed Title (HIST)
• July 23rd: Rey Mysterio vs. Chavo Guerrero (RM)
• August 25th: WWE Summerslam 2002: The Rock vs. Brock Lesnar for the WWE Undisputed Title (HIST)
• September 12th: Rey Mysterio vs. Kurt Angle (RM)
• September 26th: Rey Mysterio vs. Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit (RM)
• October 20th: WWE No Mercy 2002: The Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar in a Hell in the Cell Match for the WWE Title (UT)
• November 17th: WWE Survivor Series 2002: Los Guerreros vs. Edge & Rey Mysterio vs. Kurt Angle & Chris Benoit in a Triple Threat Elimination Match for the WWE Tag Team Titles (EG)
• November 21st: Rey Mysterio vs. Jamie Noble (RM)

• January 19th: WWE Royal Rumble 2003: Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit for the WWE Title (HIST)
• March 30th: WWE Wrestlemania XIX: Mr. McMahon vs. Hulk Hogan in a Street Fight (McM)

• Eddie Guerrero vs. Chris Benoit in a Tournament Final Match for the WWE United States Title (EG)
• The Undertaker vs. John Cena (UT)

• September 3rd: The Undertaker vs. Kurt Angle for the WWE Title (UT)
• September 29th: Rob Van Dam vs. Christian in a Ladder Match for the WWE Intercontinental Title (RVD)
• October 19th: WWE No Mercy 2003: Mr. McMahon vs. Stephanie McMahon in an "I Quit" Match (McM)
• November 16th: WWE Survivor Series 2003: Mr. McMahon vs. The Undertaker in a Buried Alive Match (McM,UT)

• (McM) = McMahon
• (EOHB) = ROH The Era Of Honor Begins
• (UT) = Tombstone: The History of the Undertaker
• (EG) = Cheating Death, Stealing Life: The Eddie Guerrero Story
• (RVD) = Rob Van Dam: One of a Kind
• (HIST) = The History of the WWE Championship
• (RM) = Rey Mysterio: 619

Sorry... old joke from my OLD Jakked reviews no one will get anymore. 

Doing this actually revealed a mistake in the inclosed material in Tombstone. The bonus match on Disc 3, the September 3rd, 2003 affair between Angle and Taker is billed as a match for the Undisputed Title. However, they messed up, since the title stopped being Undisputed in 2002 when the reigning titleholder Brock Lesnar announced he would be SmackDown exclusive from that point and Eric Bischoff declared him to have forfeited RAW's share of the title and thus presented it to the named Number One Contender, Triple H. 

This also makes sense because Undertaker was on RAW and jumped to SmackDown to continue to pursue Brock, something which pissed my mother off to no end because she didn't get SmackDown on her satellite system until about a year ago. Any annoying situation that came up, her idea of the perfect solution was "I want the Undertaker back." Seriously, her idea of the best RAW of all time was the one where Undertaker and Kane just repeatedly annihilated anyone who even attempted actual wrestling. 

And I'm not going to argue with her. 

See you next time for 2004. Since I was doing well that year, I actually got a few PPVs. 

Well, I did something to make this project go a little pear shaped. I went and picked up the Ultimate Hulk Hogan Anthology (with the Wal-Mart Bonus Disc) and ECW One Night Stand 2006 (with ECW Barely Legal as a bonus disc). What I've decided to do is just go ahead and continue without those two in the list and then make an addendum after I finish up the project. 

One interesting note to report now is that the ECW Barely Legal bonus disc throws off the results of one of the policies I had with this project. On Blood Sport, they did not include the Terry Funk vs. Raven match in the match listing, perhaps out of not wanting to spoil the results of the Funk-Sandman-Stevie Three Way Dance. However, the One Night Stand DVD has an additional insert for the card of Barely Legal, which DOES include Funk-Raven in its match listing. So once I hit the addendum, I'll include that match and properly credit it as being on Blood Sport as well. 

In a nice touch, the Barely Legal disc does not have the WWE Logo or World Wrestling Entertainment printed on it it anywhere. 

Anyway, back on track, let's hit 2000 & 2001. You'll very shortly see why I did another combo year here. 

2000: 

• January 9th: ECW Guilty as Charged 2000: Mike Awesome vs. Spike Dudley for the ECW World Title (BS)
• January 23rd: WWE Royal Rumble 2000: Triple H vs. Cactus Jack in a Street Fight for the WWE Title (HIST, MF)
• February 25th: Rhino vs. The Sandman (BS)
• March 3rd: Super Crazy vs. Yoshihiro Tajiri vs. Little Guido in a 3 Way Dance (BS)
• August 27th: WWE Summerslam 2000: The Rock vs. Triple H vs. Kurt Angle (HIST)

ECW Guilty As Charged 2001, January 7th, 2001:

• Tommy Dreamer vs. C. W. Anderson in an "I Quit" Match (BS)
• Rob Van Dam vs. Jerry Lynn (RVD)

• Lo' Down vs. Kai En Tai (RR01)
• The Dudley Boyz vs. Edge & Christian for the WWE World Tag Team Titles (RR01)
• Chris Jericho vs. Chris Benoit in a Ladder Match for the WWE Intercontiental Title (RR01)
• Ivory vs. Chyna for the WWE Women's Title (RR01)
• Kurt Angle vs. Triple H for the WWE Title (RR01)
• The 2001 Royal Rumble (RR01)

• Mr. McMahon vs. Shane McMahon in a Street Fight with Mick Foley as Special Guest Referee (McM)
• The Undertaker vs. Triple H (UT)
• The Rock vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin in a No Disqualification Match for the WWE Title (HIST)

• July 22nd: WWE Invasion: Rob Van Dam vs. Jeff Hardy for the WWE Hardcore Title (RVD)

• The Dudley Boyz vs. The Hardy Boyz vs. The Hurricane & Lance Storm vs. The Big Show & Spike Dudley in a Fatal Four Way Elimination Match for the WWE Tag Team Titles (UN01)
• Perry Saturn vs. Raven (UN01)
• Edge vs. Christian for the WWE Intercontinental Title (UN01)
• The Undertaker & Kane vs. Kronik for the WCW World Tag Team Titles (UN01)
• Rob Van Dam vs. Chris Jericho for the WWE Hardcore Title (UN01)
• The Rock vs. Booker T & Shane McMahon in a Handicap Match for the WCW World Title (UN01)
• Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Kurt Angle for the WWE Title (UN01)

• December 9th: Vengeance 2001: Chris Jericho vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin to unite the WWE Title and the World Title (formerly the WCW World Title) as the WWE Undisputed Title (HIST)

• (BS) = Blood Sport: ECW's Most Violent Matches
• (HIST) = History of the WWE Championship
• (MF) =  Mick Foley's Greatest Hits and Misses
• (RR01) = Royal Rumble 2001
• (McM) = McMahon
• (UT) = Tombstone: The History of the Undertaker
• (RVD) = Rob Van Dam: One of a Kind
• (UN01) = Unforgiven 2001

And yes, Matt, you have permission to steal this. After all, I stole the idea myself, with some major modification, from the queen of blog. 

Here we go with 1998... and since it's a little on the short side, I'm going to combine it with 1999 as well. Here we go! 

1998: 

• March 1st: ECW Living Dangerously: Taz vs. Bam Bam Bigelow for the ECW World Television Title (R&F)

• The Undertaker vs. Kane (UT)
• Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Shawn Michaels with Mike Tyson as special "Enforcer" referee for the WWE Title (HIST)

• April 4th: Rob Van Dam vs. Bam Bam Bigelow for the ECW World Television Title (RVD)
• April 13th: Mr. McMahon vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin (McM)
• April 26th: WWE Unforgiven 1998: The Undertaker vs. Kane in an Inferno Match (UT)
• May 4th: Mick Foley vs. Terry Funk (MF)
• May 31st: WWE Over the Edge 1998: Dude Love vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin (MF)
• June 1st: Chris Benoit vs. Booker T (MNW)
• June 28th: King of the Ring 1998: The Undertaker vs. Mankind in a Hell in the Cell Match (MF, UT)
• July 6th: Hollywood Hulk Hogan vs. Goldberg for the WCW World Title (MNW)

• Eddie Guerrero vs. Chavo Guerrero, Jr. in a Hair vs. Hair Match (EG)
• Rey Mysterio, Jr. vs. Chris Jericho in a No Disqualification Match for the WCW Cruiserweight Title (RM)

• August 2nd: ECW Heatwave 1998: Taz vs. Bam Bam Bigelow in an ECW Death Match (BS)

• January 4th: Mankind vs. The Rock for the WWE Title (MF)
• January 17th: Taz vs. Shane Douglas for the ECW World Title (BS)
• February 14th: WWE St. Valentine's Day Massacre: Mr. McMahon vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin in a Steel Cage Match (McM)
• March 21st: ECW Living Dangerously: Rob Van Dam vs. Jerry Lynn for the ECW World Television Title (RVD)
• May 16th: ECW Hardcore Heaven 1999: Rob Van Dam vs. Jerry Lynn for the ECW World Television Title (RVD)

• The Undertaker vs. The Rock for the WWE Title (UT)
• Mr. McMahon & Shane McMahon vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin in a Handicap Ladder Match (McM)

• July 5th: The Dudley Boys vs. Spike Dudley and Balls Mahoney in a Falls Count Anywhere Street Fight for the ECW World Tag Team Titles (BS)
• July 25th: WWE Fully Loaded 1999: The Undertaker vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin in a First Blood Match for the WWE Title (UT)
• September 16th: ECW Anarchy Rulz: Rob Van Dam vs. Balls Mahoney for the ECW World Television Title (RVD)
• December 12th: WWE Armageddon 1999: Mr. McMahon vs. Triple H in a No Holds Barred Match (McM)

• (R&F) = The Rise & Fall of ECW
• (UT) = Tombstone: The History of the Undertaker
• (HIST) = The History of the WWE Championship
• (RVD) = Rob Van Dam: One of a Kind
• (McM) = McMahon
• (MF) = Mick Foley's Greatest Hits and Misses
• (MNW) = The Monday Night Wars
• (EG) = Cheating Death, Stealing Life: The Eddie Guerrero Story
• (RM) = Rey Mysterio: 619
• (BS) = Blood Sport: ECW's Most Violent Matches

Was it just me or did the "fall back" really sneak up on everyone else this year? 

Well, so far, I haven't heard much feedback on this. If you're viewing this and enjoying it, how about a shoutout in your blogs directing other people to come check it out? 

Let's hit up all over 1997. 

ECW was still continuing to make noise louder and louder, but WCW was really running roughshod in the ratings battles. WWE tried to answer by taking some of ECW's philosophies (whether intended or not) and using them, but at least one performer was very vocal in his opposition to such tactics. And he would hold the WWE Title for most of the year, despite getting a lot of feelers from WCW about a potential jump. 

1997: 

• January 19th: WWE Royal Rumble 1997: Shawn Michaels vs. Sycho Sid for the WWE Title (BD)
• February 1st: ECW Crossing The Line Again: Rob Van Dam & Sabu vs. The Eliminators for the ECW World Tag Team Titles (RVD)

• Rob Van Dam vs. Lance Storm (RVD)
• Terry Funk vs. The Sandman vs. Stevie Richards (BS)

• April 20th: WWE In Your House: Revenge of the Taker: Mankind vs. The Undertaker for the WWE Title (UT)
• May 12th: Rob Van Dam vs. Jeff Hardy (RVD)
• May 26th: Stone Cold Steve Austin & Shawn Michaels vs. The British Bulldog & Owen Hart for the WWE World Tag Team Titles (MNW)
• June 6th: ECW Wrestlepalooza: Tommy Dreamer vs. Raven (R&F)
• August 3rd: WWE Summerslam 1997: The Undertaker vs. Bret Hart for the WWE Title with Shawn Michaels as special guest ref (UT)
• August 9th: ECW Born to be Wired: Sabu vs Terry Funk for the ECW World Title in a Barbed Wire Match (BS)
• September 7th: WWE In Your House: Ground Zero: The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels (UT)
• September 14th: WCW Fall Brawl 1997: Eddie Guerrero vs. Chris Jericho for the WCW Cruiserweight Title (EG)
• September 20th: WWE One Night Only 1997: The Undertaker vs. Bret Hart for the WWE Title (UT)
• September 20th: ECW As Good As It Gets: Beulah McGillicutty vs. Bill Alfonso in an Intergender Match (BS)
• September 22nd: Cactus Jack vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley in a Falls Count Anywhere Match (MF)
• October 5th: WWE In Your House: Badd Blood: The Undertaker vs. Shawl Michaels in a Hell in the Cell Match (UT)
• October 26th: WCW Halloween Havoc 1997: Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio in a Title vs. Mask Match for the WCW Cruiserweight Title (EG, RM)
• November 30th: ECW November 2 Remember 1997: Rob Van Dam vs. Tommy Dreamer in a WWE vs. ECW Flag Match (RVD)
• December 15th: Shawn Michaels & Triple H vs. The Legion of Doom (MNW)

• (BD) = Shawn Michaels: Boyhood Dream
• (RVD) = Rob Van Dam: One of a Kind
• (BS) = Blood Sport: ECW's Most Violent Matches
• (UT) = Tombstone: The History of the Undertaker
• (MNW) = The Monday Night Wars
• (R&F) = The Rise and Fall of ECW
• (EG) = Cheating Death, Stealing Life: The Eddie Guerrero Story
• (MF) = Mick Foley's Greatest Hits & Misses
• (RM) = Rey Mysterio: 619

Maybe it's just me, but I'm noticing a lot of matches falling on April 20th and my mother's birthday of August 3rd. Also, I note One Night Only and As Good As It Gets being on the same day... of course, they were vastly different times, given that One Night Only was WWE's old U.K. only PPV and as such was done at a massive time difference, but it'd be something fun to remember while watching either match next time. 

Also, you see here my one and only non-WWE match that I have multiple copies of, Eddie-Rey from Halloween Havoc 1997 as both men put it on their personal DVDs. That may change in the near future as I have interest in the package of ECW One Night Stand 2006 and Barely Legal. The local Wal-Mart has it for less than $16 altogether, which would give me repeats of RVD-Storm, Sandman-Funk-Richards, and the unannounced Funk-Raven. 

Next time, just 1998. It's a pretty full year. 

Ah, 1995-1996... the WWE is just discovering that the whole trend of wrestlers who hold another job is a BAD idea (with one notable exception), and that perhaps the smaller guys can carry the ball. Over in WCW, Hogan and his buddies are running roughshod over the uppercard but are starting to hear some boos. Something big had to be done. And ECW is just hitting its stride. 

1995: 

• February 4th: ECW Double Tables: Cactus Jack vs. The Sandman in a Texas Death Match (MF)
• March 18th: ECW Extreme Warfare, Vol. 1: Sandman & Terry Funk vs. Cactus Jack & Shane Douglas (BS)
• July 1st: ECW Hardcore Heaven 1995: Ian Rotten vs. Axl Rotten in a Taipei Death Match (BS)
• August 26th: Eddie Guerrero vs. Dean Malenko in a 2 out of 3 falls match (EG)
• September 16th: ECW Gangsta's Paradise: The Pit Bulls vs. Raven & Stevie Richards in a 2 out of 3 falls match for the ECW World Tag Team Titles (R&F)
• October 17th: Rey Misterio, Jr. vs. Psicosis in a 2 out of 3 falls match (R&F)
• October 28th: Mikey Whipwreck vs. The Sandman in a Ladder Match for the ECW World Title (R&F)

• Rey Misterio, Jr. vs. Psicosis in a Mexican Death Match (BS)
• Cactus Jack & Raven vs. Terry Funk & Tommy Dreamer (MF)

• January 5th: Rob Van Dam vs. Axl Rotten (RVD)
• February 17th: ECW Cyberslam 1996: 2 Cold Scorpio vs. Sabu for the ECW World Television Title (R&F)
• March 9th: ECW Big Ass Extreme Bash: Cactus Jack vs. Mikey Whipwreck (MF)

• The Undertaker vs. Diesel (UT)
• Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart in a 60 Minute Iron Man Match for the WWE Title (BD, HIST)

• April 20th: ECW Hostile City Showdown 1996: Rob Van Dam vs. Sabu (RVD)
• April 28th: WWE In Your House: Good Friends, Better Enemies: Shawn Michaels vs. Diesel in a No Holds Barred Match for the WWE Title (BD)
• May 26th: WWE In Your House: Beware of Dog: Shawn Michaels vs. The British Bulldog for the WWE Title (BD)
• June 13th: ECW Heatwave 1996: Shane Douglas vs. Chris Jericho vs. 2 Cold Scorpio vs. Pitbull #2 in a Four Corners Elimination Match for the ECW World Television Title (BS)
• June 16th: WCW Great American Bash 1996: Rey Mysterio, Jr. vs. Dean Malenko (RM)

• Tommy Dreamer vs. Brian Lee in a Weapons Match (BS)
• Rob Van Dam vs. Sabu (RVD)

• June 23rd: WWE King of the Ring 1996: Shawn Michaels vs. The British Bulldog for the WWE Title (BD)
• July 7th: WCW Bash at the Beach 1996: Rey Mysterio, Jr. vs. Psicosis (RM)
• July 8th: Rey Mysterio, Jr. vs. Dean Malenko for the WCW Cruiserweight Title (RM)
• August 3rd: ECW The Doctor is In: Rob Van Dam vs. Sabu in a Stretcher Match (BS)
• August 18th: WWE Summerslam 1996: Shawn Michaels vs. Vader for the WWE Title (BD)
• September 22nd: WWE In Your House: Mind Games: Shawn Michaels vs. Mankind for the WWE Title (BD, HIST, MF)
• October 20th: WWE In Your House: Buried Alive: Undertaker vs. Mankind in a Buried Alive Match (UT)
• November 17th: WWE Survivor Series 1996: Shawn Michaels vs. Sycho Sid for the WWE Title (BD)

• (MF) = Mick Foley's Greatest Hits and Misses
• (BS) = Blood Sport: ECW's Most Violent Matches
• (EG) = Cheating Death, Stealing Life: The Eddie Guerrero Story
• (R&F) = The Rise & Fall of ECW
• (RVD) = Rob Van Dam: One of a Kind
• (UT) = Tombstone: The History of the Undertaker
• (BD) = Shawn Michaels: Boyhood Dream
• (RM) = Rey Mysterio: 619

You also see the sudden new burst contender for the match I have most often on DVD, Shawn Michaels vs. Mankind from Mind Games, which surprised me because prior to the DVD era, I never had it on video tape. The scary thing is if I had a bigger DVD budget and could get a couple more DVDs I wanted from the back catalog, I could have this match a scary FIVE times on DVD alone. It's also on Mick Foley: Hard Knocks and Cheap Pops, and Shawn Michaels: From The Vault. 

My old contender for most often repeated match on video, the Taker-Mankind Hell in the Cell, I only have twice on DVD as you'll see (Tombstone and Foley's Greatest Hits and Misses), but if you count VHS, I have it at least two more times there (Three Faces of Foley and my mom left me the tape The Undertaker: The Phenom). 

For next time, 1997 is looking pretty nice on its own, so we'll just do that. 

Finally, we've made it to individual years with 1994, though with noticeably sparse years in the future (I'm looking at YOU, 1995), I may find it apropos to combine again. Here, it would be appropriate to thank one Matt Sutton and name him the official research assistant for this here project. He may not be a walking encyclopedia of this stuff like some people, but he has a PWI Almanac, and he knows how to use it. His help was invaluable in asking if a certain ECW match was on Hardcore TV or some other source, or even the names of obscure ECW house shows. And in a piece de resistance, he actually found a date for the "Coliseum Video Exclusive" Casket Match between Undertaker and Jerry Lawler (of all people) off "The Undertaker: He Buries Them Alive". So, thanks again, Matt. 

On with the show! 

1994: 

• January 22nd: Royal Rumble 1994: The Undertaker vs. Yokozuna, Casket Match for the WWE Title (UT)

• Owen Hart vs. Bret Hart (WM10)
• Bam Bam Bigelow & Luna Vachon vs. Doink & Dink (WM10)
• Randy Savage vs. Crush in a Falls Count Anywhere Match (WM10)
• Alundra Blayze vs. Leilani Kai for the WWE Women's Title (WM10)
• Men on a Mission vs. The Quebecers for the WWE World Tag Team Title (WM10)
• Yokozuna vs. Lex Luger for the WWE Title (WM10)
• Earthquake vs. Adam Bomb (WM10)
• Razor Ramon vs. Shawn Michaels in a Ladder Match for the WWE Intercontinental Title (WM10)
• Bret Hart vs. Yokozuna for the WWE Title (WM10)

• April 17th: Spring Stampede 1994: Cactus Jack & Maxx Payne vs. The Nasty Boys in a Street Fight (MF)
• June 24th: Hostile City Showdown 1994: Cactus Jack vs. Sabu (MF)
• August 27th: Cactus Jack & Mikey Whipwreck vs. The Public Enemy for the ECW World Tag Team Titles (BS)

• Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart in a Steel Cage Match for the WWE Title (HIST)
• The Undertaker vs. The Undertaker (BTA)

• September 12th: The Undertaker vs. Kwang (BTA)
• September 28th: The Undertaker vs. Jerry Lawler in a Casket Match (BTA)
• September 30th: Cactus Jack vs. Sabu (MF)

• Rey Misterio, Jr., Latin Lover & Heavy Metal vs. Fuerza Guerrera, Madonna's Boyfriend & Psicosis (RM)
• Eddie Guerrero & Love Machine vs. Octagon & El Hijo Santo in a Hair vs. Masks Match (EG)

• November 18th: Cactus Jack vs. Chris Candido (MF)
• November 19th: The Undertaker vs. Jim Neidhart (BTA)
• November 23rd: Survivor Series 1994: The Undertaker vs. Yokozuna in a Casket Match (BTA)

• (UT) = Tombstone: The History of the Undertaker
• (WM10) = Wrestlemania X
• (MF) = Mick Foley's Greatest Hits and Misses
• (BS) = Blood Sport: ECW's Most Violent Matches
• (HIST) = History of the WWE Championship
• (BTA) = The Undertaker: He Buries Them Alive
• (RM) = Rey Mysterio: 619
• (EG) = Cheating Death, Stealing Life: The Eddie Guerrero Story

Let's move on with 1992 and 1993 on our timeline. It's also going to be a fairly short entry here. I should point out here, as astute readers may note with 1993, that I am including ONLY officially noted matches. So no Hogan vs. Yoko here, or other matches that either aren't noted (such as Funk vs. Raven later) or matches that may be included in their entirety in the video themselves (I don't own Self Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior, but it basically includes Warrior vs Honky Tonk Man during the video itself/) 

1992: 

WWE Wrestlemania VIII, April 5th, 1992:

• Shawn Michaels vs. Tito Santana (WM8)
• The Undertaker vs. Jake "The Snake" Roberts (WM8)
• Bret Hart vs. "Rowdy" Roddy Piper for the WWE Intercontinental Title (WM8)
• The Big Boss Man, Virgil, Sgt. Slaughter & Hacksaw Jim Duggan vs. The Nasty Boys, Repo Man & The Mountie (WM8)
• Randy Savage vs. Ric Flair for the WWE Title (WM8)
• The Natural Disasters vs. Money, Inc. for the WWE World Tag Team Titles (WM8)
• Owen Hart vs. Skinner (WM8)
• Tatanka vs. "The Model" Rick Martel (WM8)
• Hulk Hogan vs. Sid Justice (WM8)

• January 23rd: Robbie V vs. Pat Rose (RVD)
• February 8th: Robbie V vs. Scottie Flamingo (RVD)

• Tatanka vs. Shawn Michaels for the WWE Intercontiental Title (WM9)
• The Steiner Brothers vs. The Headshrinkers (WM9)
• Doink The Clown vs. Crush (WM9)
• Razor Ramon vs. Bob Backlund (WM9)
• Money, Inc. vs. Hulk Hogan & Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake for the WWE World Tag Team Titles (WM9)
• The Narcissist vs. Mr. Perfect (WM9)
• The Undertaker vs. Giant Gonzales (WM9)
• Yokozuna vs. Bret "The Hitman" Hart for the WWE Title (WM9)

• April 17th: Cactus Jack vs. Big Van Vader (MF)

• (WM8) = Wrestlemania VIII
• (RVD) = Rob Van Dam: One of a Kind
• (WM9) = Wrestlemania IX
• (MF) = Mick Foley's Greatest Hits and Misses

Let's continue with 1990 and 1991 on the timeline... this is actually going to be a fairly short list today: 

1990: 

WWE Wrestlemania VI, April 1st, 1990:

• Koko B. Ware vs. "The Model" Rick Martel (WM6)
• The Colossal Connection vs. Demolition for the WWE World Tag Team Titles (WM6)
• Hercules vs. Earthquake (WM6)
• Mr. Perfect vs. Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake (WM6)
• Bad News Brown vs. "Rowdy" Roddy Piper (WM6)
• The Hart Foundation vs. The Bolsheviks (WM6)
• The Barbarian vs. Tito Santana (WM6)
• Dusty Rhodes & Sapphire vs. "Macho King" Randy Savage & Sherri in a Mixed Tag Team Match (WM6)
• The Orient Express vs. The Rockers (WM6)
• Dino Bravo vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan (WM6)
• Jake "The Snake" Roberts vs. "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase (WM6)
• Akeem vs. The Big Boss Man (WM6)
• "Ravishing" Rick Rude vs. "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka (WM6)
• Hulk Hogan vs. The Ultimate Warrior in a Title For Title match for the WWE and WWE Intercontinental Titles (WM6, HIST)

WWE Wrestlemania VII, March 24th, 1991:

• The Rockers vs. Haku & The Barbarian (WM7)
• Dino Bravo vs. The Texas Tornado (WM7)
• The British Bulldog vs. The Warlord (WM7)
• The Hart Foundation vs. The Nasty Boys for the WWE World Tag Team Titles (WM7)
• Jake "The Snake" Roberts vs. "The Model" Rick Martel in a Blindfold Match (WM7)
• "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka vs. The Undertaker (WM7)
• "Macho King" Randy Savage vs. The Ultimate Warrior in a Retirement Match (WM7)
• Demolition vs. Tenryu & Kitao (WM7)
• Mr. Perfect vs. The Big Boss Man for the WWE Intercontinental Title (WM7)
• Earthquake vs. Greg "The Hammer" Valentine (WM7)
• Legion of Doom vs. Power and Glory (WM7)
• Virgil vs. "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase (WM7)
• The Mountie vs. Tito Santana (WM7)
• Sgt. Slaughter vs. Hulk Hogan for the WWE Title (WM7)

• November 27th, 1991: Survivor Series 1991: Undertaker vs. Hulk Hogan for the WWE Title (UT)

• (WM6) = Wrestlemania VI
• (HIST) = History of the WWE Championship
• (WM7) = Wrestlemania VII
• (UT) = Tombstone: The History of the Undertaker

Poor neglected blog. I know I'm not prolific like some of the other blog authors out there I admire, and I know things have happened that have me kind of down on the whole blog thing, but a two month plus absence is a little on the ridiculous side, I'll freely admit.

Well, I have a bit of a special project to help keep things busy.

I've seen aforementioned prolific admired blog authors database a subset of their wrestling video collection, and it inspired me to similar ideas. But to avoid being sued for gimmick infringement, I'm putting a bit of my own twist on it.

I've inventoried all my wrestling DVDs (who watches video tapes anymore?) and placing them into a spreadsheet. Now that I've done, I've sorted that list by date. I have decided to leave out my budget DVDs because there was no trace of dating on the matches and there didn't seem likely to be any. Forever Hardcore: Platinum Edition's bonus matches also lacked dates, but someone out there might have the info.

I'll post the database in chunks of time (eventually working towards years once individual years get busy enough), thus using my collection as a microcosmic timeline of just what the wrestling industry was doing from before I was born till today.

.... well, I think it's cool.

I'll go ahead and start, and hopefully, you'll agree.

The 1970s & 1980s:

1971:

• February 8th: Ivan Koloff vs. Pedro Morales for the WWE Title (HIST)

• April 29th: Bruno Sammartino vs. Killer Kowalski for the WWE Title (HIST)

• April 30th: Bruno Sammartino vs. "Superstar" Billy Graham for the WWE Title (HIST)

• February 20th: "Superstar" Billy Graham vs. Bob Backlund for the WWE Title (HIST)

• May 19th: "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka vs. Bob Backlund for the WWE Title in a Steel Cage (GWS)

• January 16th: Bob Backlund vs. Greg Valentine for the WWE Title (HIST)
• February 3rd: Ric Flair vs. Jay Youngblood (GWS)

• May 23rd: Sgt. Slaughter vs. Bob Backlund for the WWE Title (HIST)
• November 24th: Greg Valentine vs. Roddy Piper for the NWA US Title in a Dog Collar Match (GWS)
• December 26th: Iron Shiek vs. Bob Backlund for the WWE Title (GWS)

• January 23rd: Paul Orndorff vs. Salvatore Bellomo (GWS)
• January 23rd: Iron Shiek vs. Hulk Hogan for the WWE Title (GWS, HIST)
• May 21st: Sgt. Slaughter vs. The Iron Shiek (GWS)
• November 22nd: Dusty Rhodes vs. Ric Flair for the NWA Title in a $1,000,000 Challenge (GWS)

• February 18th: Bob Orton vs. Jimmy Snuka (GWS)
• February 18th: Roddy Piper vs. Hulk Hogan, "The War To Settle The Score" (GWS)
• March 17th: Greg Valentine vs. Tito Santana for the WWE Intercontinental Title in a Lumberjack Match (GWS)
• November 7th: Junkyard Dog vs. Randy Savage in the Wrestling Classic Tournament Finals (GWS)
• November 28th: Ole & Arn Anderson vs. Wahoo McDaniel & Billy Jack Haynes for the NWA National Tag Team Titles (GWS)

• April 5th: Wrestlemania 2: Hulk Hogan vs. King Kong Bundy for the WWE Championship in a Steel Cage (HIST)
• September 13th: "Jack" Foley & Les Thornton vs. The British Bulldogs (MF)

• January 3rd: Hulk Hogan vs. Mr. Wonderful Paul Orndorff for the WWE Championship in a Steel Cage (HIST)
• March 29th: Wrestlemania III: Hulk Hogan vs. Andre The Giant for the WWE Championship (HIST)

• February 5th: Hulk Hogan vs. Andre The Giant for the WWE Championship (HIST)
• June 25th: The Ultimate Warrior vs. Bobby "The Brain" Heenan in a Weasel Suit Match (GWS)

• Hector, Chavo & Mando Guerrero vs. Cactus Jack & The Rock and Roll RPMs (EG)
• Jerry "The King" Lawler vs. Kerry Von Erich to unify the AWA and WCCW Championships (GWS)

• February 20th: Ricky Steamboat vs. Ric Flair for the NWA Title (GWS)
• April 2nd: Wrestlemania V: Randy "Macho Man" Savage vs. Hulk Hogan for the WWE Title (HIST)

• (HIST) = History of the WWE Championship
• (GWS) = Greatest Wrestling Superstars of the Eighties
• (MF) = Mick Foley's Greatest Hits and Misses
• (EG) = Cheating Death, Stealing Life: The Eddie Guerrero Story

We're one preseason game into the books, and I think it's a good time to talk about my St. Louis Rams, specifically because we're ending one regime and starting another.

I'm a lifer Rams fan. I became a fan in 1979, not because of the Super Bowl run that year, but because that was when I considered myself old enough to care about football. My mother had been a fan since 1970, because they were the local team at the time. When they moved, it sucked, but we didn't see any reason to stop supporting the team.

I believe strongly that there's only two reasons for a fan of integrity to stop supporting their team and pushing for them to win with all their heart:

1. The team begins being blatantly favored by the officials and only wins by systematic cheating (a la the San Francisco 49ers and the New England Patroits during their glory years)

2. The team begins to become predominatly composed of unpunished criminals (a la the Baltimore Ravens). I was very worried when Leonard Little was accused of a second DWI violation, but when his defense managed to show that the arresting officer was responsible for a clear majority of DWI arrests in a department of 20-30 officers, and that both the arresting officer's partner and the station officer testified that Little did not appear drunk, it strongly made it appear that Little was simply the victim of a cop who sees DWI everywhere he looks. If, instead, Little took a plea bargain and the Rams continued to let him play (a la Ray Lewis and Jamal Lewis), it would have been rather disturbing, and I would have had a difficult choice to make.

Notice that this list does not include reasons like hoping for a better draft choice, or hoping that a certain player or coach is let go. These are failure states. Winning is always preferable to the true fan.

Before Mike Martz came to town in his role as Offensive Coordinator, the Rams were 4-12 in their last season. They were the losing-est team of the 1990s and not seen as having much hope of shedding that label. Dick Vermeil (whom I do have a lot of respect for, but this comes in important later) had been facing player revolt over perceived overly harsh practices and was in danger of being fired. He was also strongly considering a trade offer from the Washington Redskins for the "Original Ram", WR Isaac Bruce, the last remaining player who played on the team while it was in Los Angeles.

Martz came to town and convinced Vermeil to keep Bruce, and when the Rams' big hope free agent QB signing Trent Green went down with a season ending injury, Martz convinced Vermeil not to go out and sign Jeff Hostetler, but go with some guy named Kurt Warner.

They were pretty good that year.

As a result, Martz became very coveted by teams who were looking for new coaches and signed an agreement that he would stay on with the Rams in exchange for being guaranteed to be the next head coach. When the Rams win the Super Bowl, Vermeil retired, making this sooner, rather than later. Hardly his fault.

The next year, the offense was even better, but it was really hurt by a defense that hadn't really changed much from that 4-12 team in 1998 other than getting older. In 1999, they were really helped by the offense, but in 2000, not even that was enough.

This is when I began to hear some strange rumblings from my "fellow fans".

Apparently, football is no longer a team sport. Because Az-Zahir Hakim somehow managed to lose a playoff game ALL BY HIMSELF by fumbling on a late special teams play.

Mad Magazine once ran a cartoon that stuck with me. It's a Little League game. Bottom of the last inning. First panel shows a child I'll dub Kid A getting his third strike and striking out. Second panel shows Kid B doing the same. Third panel shows Kid C doing the same, game over. Last panel shows Kid A and Kid B yelling at Kid C "You lost the game for us!"

Hakim made the last mistake, but not the only one. Football is a team sport. The entire team wins, and the entire team loses. Blame goes all around, and credit goes all around. This seemingly simple concept would really start eluding people the next year.

In 2001, the entire defense was retooled, and the Rams were even more dominant than they were in 1999. Unfortunately, something happened on September 11th. I might skip mentioning it here because it seems we live in a country who've forgotten anything happened on that day anyway. But in any event, Patriots owner Robert Kraft uttered the delightful statement "Wouldn't it be great if a team called the Patriots won the Super Bowl after 9/11?" as if the Rams represented Al Qaeda or something.

And I guess the refs bought into that because the fix was in. In particular, both the Patriots' touchdowns should have been nullified for penalty. With 8:49 left in the 2nd quarter, Ty Law intercepted a Kurt Warner pass and ran it back for a touchdown. Many people have observed that Roughing The Passer went uncalled on the play and should nullified the interception and touchdown. In addition, with just 26 seconds left in the half, Tom Brady threw a pass to David Patten who got one foot down in bounds, and then landed on both elbows out of bounds before his second foot came down. The pass was called a touchdown. Finally, at the end of the game was an officiating error that the NFL has admitted as the game ended on an Adam Vinatieri field goal, but there should have been 2 more seconds on the clock. With those two more seconds, it's not unheard of that the Rams could have run the kickoff back for a touchdown.

With that kind of fix in, plus the success the Patriots have had since, a reasonable fan might conclude that the game wasn't as much as a gimme as would seem to be anticipated... but some fans instead chose to be upset... and in fact direct that ire solely at Mike Martz. As if any other coach (Dick Vermeil's name came up here often, despite his previously cited lack of success with the Rams before Martz and his failure to get the Kansas City Chiefs to a Super Bowl) or trained monkey could easily win the game. Or as if the obvious answer was a more traditional game plan... even though a traditional game plan was clearly not what brought success in 1999 or what got them there in 2001.

To a reasonable fan, reaching a Super Bowl is something special. Once it becomes a minimum expectation, then you've lost something... you'll never be happy again. All you'll ever have is "fulfilling minimum expectations".

2002 was snakebit.There was horrific injury problems, particularly at QB, and indications that Kurt Warner was being dishonest with himself regarding his health. He went 0-6 as a starter (though to blame him solely for this is as unfair as it is to blame Martz solely for the team's problems). In the meantime, his backup, Marc Bulger compiled a 5-0 record in every game he started and finished before HE got injured. The Rams finished 7-9.

In 2003, Martz tried to stick by Warner, but Warner developed a concussion on the 2nd play of the game against the Giants and kept himself in the game, putting together an awful game in which he fumbled 6 times. (Some blame Martz for keeping him in the game. Given that Martz has no medical degree, I blame the medical staff for this one). Bulger started the next week. In week 3, Warner was healthy, but Bulger kept starting. I disagreed with this decision. I respect Warner. I have his jersey. But I still backed the team. The team finished a respectable 12-4 and won the NFC West. Heartbreakingly, they lost a double overtime game (can you get any closer to a coin flip than that?) to the eventual NFC Champions, the Carolina Panthers. The same old sole Martz blamers solely blamed Martz. I was glad the team won the division and came heartbreakingly close to winning that game, which led to a Philly team that was a turnstyle to the Super Bowl that year.

2004 was another snakebit year. Warner was officially gone, cut in July for salary cap reasons, and in addition to that, the Martz haters had a new target for scorn. Lovie Smith had been lured away from the Rams' defensive coordinator spot and the Rams hired former Arizona defensive coordinator Larry Marmie to replace him. The Martz haters started ranting that Martz had made the hire of an incompetent solely as a personal favor, ignoring just how insane that was. How many of us would hire an incompetent friend if it meant he would make me lose a job paying them millions? But now, for the haters, not only was any fault the fault of Martz, but any fault in the defense was the fault of Marmie's as well. This had to be great for the defense in a certain way. Have a bad play? Just don't feel like showing up? Any one of a myriad of problems? It can't be your fault. It's Larry Marmie's. Feh. But the Rams impressed by not only pushing past the injuries when they were 6-8 and everyone was assuming they had given up on Martz and were doomed to 6-10, but they actually made it to 8-8 and made the playoffs, and won a game (over the technical NFC West champ Seahawks) before being crushed by Atlanta... which was of course Mike Martz's fault. Unless it's Marmie's.

2005 is hard to even call a Mike Martz year. Early in the year he took at least one game off due to illness before discovering that the illness was a infection in the muscles of his heart and took a leave of absence for the rest of the season. He ended up being released largely due to conflicts with other personnel in the Rams organization. The idea that these conflicts could be the fault of these other personnel went unexplored by the haters, but I do worry about Linehan if he gets on their bad side. They already ran one guy out of town.

And what did that one guy do?

I'll leave out 2005 because I'm not sure exactly when he took his leave of absence (I think they were 2-4 at the time) or if he missed a game or two before then) and is it really fair to count when a guy had the muscles in his heart INFECTED anyway?

Total won-loss record: 54-33 (.621 winning percentage)
NFC Title: 2001
NFC West Titles: 2001, 2003 (and we did beat the NFC West champions 3 times out of 3 in 2004, including eliminating them from the playoffs)
Playoff Berths: 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004

And this is just in 2000-2004 we're talking about. And I'm not going divorce him from the Playoff Berth, NFC West Title, NFC Title and Super Bowl Title in 1999 just because he wasn't the Head Coach. He was the major coaching change from the 4-12 club the year before.

You're going to say that Mike Martz had nothing to do with that? Or that he's not really a coach, he's just an offensive coordinator and that the Rams did that despite him? I will remember the 1990s and I will call you a fool. Does Martz deserve blame for the bad things? Yes. But he deserves just as much credit for the good.

But like I said, I'm a real fan. And even though I'm just as unhappy about Martz being gone as I was that Warner left, I have the same reaction. I wish Martz and Warner all the success in the world... so long as that success doesn't hurt the Rams in any way, shape or form. Martz is therefore lucky. He can at least win a division title then. But when Martz or Warner come to the Edward Jones Dome, or my boys go their house, you better believe I'm going to be rooting for my boys to kick their asses.

That's what fans do.

Best of luck, Scott Linehan.

Go Rams. 

Copied from a bulletin I posted onto MySpace (link to the left):

I know I'm usually the happy, jokey guy, but for once, I'll be the serious downer guy.

Some of you who have looked through my space after I took the time to finish it may have noticed a little note tucked away that my mother (RIP March 2006) was my hero.

Today, August 3rd, would have been her 53rd birthday.

Briefly, on Sunday, March 12th 2006, she had agreed to apartment sit for my best friend and roommate's mother (who was in the same complex) and she came over to our apartment for my help in getting her stuff upstairs.

That was the last time I saw her alive.

On Monday, March 13th, after repeated calls to her cell phone and knocks on the door went unanswered, we got worried and I convinced apartment management to open the door so we could check on her. She apparently turned on the TV, laid down on the couch, took a nap, and passed away of a heart attack in her sleep.

In some ways, it was somewhat comforting. What better way could there be to go? You fall asleep, you wake up, and there's Jesus waiting for you. And if you knew my mother, you'd have no doubt she's in Heaven right now.

But for me, my mother was my family. She was a single mother, and neither of us were ever treated very well by a lot of the rest of them, particularly my grandparents. If not for my roommate's family, I'd be pretty much alone right now.

This does have a point, other than to get you guys down with a sad story:

Cherish your family. Call your parents and tell them you love them if the relationships between you and them are good, and if you haven't done so in a while. It's my supreme hope that you'll have decades left with them still on this world, in addition to the same Eternity in Heaven that I look forward to, but you never know.

And it couldn't hurt. 

(I have been asked to clarify here that the blog entry that prompted this piece does not accuse me of lying, but merely states that the information is false. While I reject this charge as well, it is an important distinction, which I am respecting.) 

Some people will believe anything when angry. And just because some traitor crawls out of the woodwork and SAYS that a piece that exposes the truth about him isn't true, that doesn't mean it isn't true. 

So in the interest of preserving the truth on the web, here's a trip in the wayback machine to January, 2005. I'm not trying to stir up any trouble. I'm just saying once and for all that it was 100% true then and it's 100% true now, and deleting it was wrong. 

--- 

Information is a powerful thing. 

Information can build a friendship or dissolve it. It can make a reputation or it can break it. When information is one sided or flat out wrong, that can be a very dangerous and unfair thing. 

And that's why I'm here to explain the truth of what happened to me in the summer of 2003. Some may argue that too much time has passed to be concerned about it, but something being wrong for a long time doesn't make it less needful of being made right. If anything, it makes it moreso. 

I should point out before I start though that even though I assert that every word herein is completely true, I recognize that Libby is her own person, with her own mind and her own decisions. She does not necessarily endorse every word here as "the complete truth". And I do not speak for her. 

On December 21st, 2002, Libby and I began a relationship that developed beyond a friendship, but she wanted that kept secret because she had been burned on other online relationships before. I'm not going to pretend I ever was or am now an equal to Emily for her, that relationship was something that had a real-ness to it. It wasn't always a smooth road. Libby and I had been coming off nearly a 6 month period of not talking to each other because of someone whom I had figured out was a complete unworthy asshole, but took longer to show that to her. As well, we were dealing with issues involving my assimilation into IOP. There were a lot of arguments because of this, and half the blame for those is mine. And they set up what came later. 

On April 20th, 2003, I feel we were very close to getting these issues behind us, when a complication introduced itself. After a chat joke, Rob took it upon himself, without Libby's express permission, to post a chat snippet into IOP, and based on this joke, publically declare himself to be Libby's new e-boyfriend. From what I understand, this relationship was never real. Libby was always trying to find a way out of it without hurting someone she considered a friend, and the only time she enjoyed that relationship was when she was angry at me. But at the time, Libby and I were thrust into a hell of a spot and just trying to find some way to get out of it without having to throw away the form of relationship we had and without hurting Rob's feelings. We cared about him at the time, under a mistaken belief that he cared about either of us. 

This caused the problems between us to be multipled exponentially. Most of the time, we were arguing, and most of those arguments were as to when she was going to break it off with Rob, something I recognize now only made things worse. As an outlet to these arguments, Libby would begin to tell others on AIM, then through her new blog that I was upsetting her, but of course, the detail as to WHY was missing, making it seem like I was pissing Libby off for no reason. The only way I could have defended myself is to have spilled the secrets about our relationship, so I held my tongue. But this was the beginning of the reputation damage caused, and I argued then that this was a violation of the confidentiality we had at her insistence. 

Things began breaking down in July. I was knocked offline for a couple of weeks. When I left, Libby was insisting that I was her boyfriend still, and I left thinking that the break might be good for us. When I came back, Libby had posted several entries about how she was dreading my return, had started to allow Rob to post in her blog, and had deleted all content in a side forum that we had. 

But all that aside, it doesn't justify what I did next, and I sometimes have problems forgiving myself for it. Without talking to Libby first, I presumed that she had not only ended the relationship but ended all agreements pertaining to it in just about the cruelest way possible. I took it upon myself to tell Rob the truth, given that at the time, I thought he was a friend. When Libby came on, I came unglued at her, happening to call her a very nasty word  (the c-word) twice. I understand now that that word is something that is very offensive in the cultural circles of Libby and others. To me, it's a bad word, but there are far worse. My point in using it was only to try to convey the message "You call yourself a bitch sometimes and you take pride in that. This goes way beyond being a bitch. This was wrong." Still, I should not have used that word. I apologized soon after to her in private, and have repeatedly done so since. But it had been publicized by Libby, whereas the circumstances behind it, nor the apology had not been. 

Another complication arose out of this. At the time, we all assumed Rob was an okay guy. But as most of us know now, he has a self fixation which borders on a need for institutionalization. In passing, I had happened to let slip that Emily was a confidante to our relationship, given that I had to keep it secret from everyone else. Rob actually presumed that he had to be so important that Emily would betray her real life girlfriend in favor of some guy on the Internet to tell some secret that wasn't even hers. My revelation was a cause of Emily getting hurt. It wouldn't have happened without that. But Rob was the person who actually hurt her by giving her all sorts of shit about not being more important than her real life girlfriend and revealing secrets that weren't hers to reveal. I received the punishment for this, he got rewarded for at least another eight months. 

That night when I talked to Libby, she was upset, and quite justifiably so. But, the next night and later that week, there seemed to be little hints dropped here and there that this wasn't the way she wanted things to go, and that not only did she still want to be friends, but there was still a chance she wanted to be boyfriend and girlfriend again. It was enough that I not only stayed friends with her, but still wanted things to be like they were before. It was in pursuit of this that I decided to stay quiet after that first night, even in the face of some severely harsh things being said about me. 

And about a week and a half after things broke down, Libby blocked me on AIM. That's known. What isn't is that it was about 4 days later that she unblocked me, and we have talked ever since. I told her my intention was to repair the friendship between us and to win her back as a girlfriend. I had hopes that within a month or two, Libby and Rob would have an amicable "breakup", her and I would get back together, I'd return to IOP, and everything would be happy. I believe the biggest flaw in that theory was that Rob's self fixation showed up again in that rather than caring about her enough to get her calmed down and thinking about who she really wanted to be with, just "took his win" and continued to stir the pot against me after turning on me himself. 

In September 2003, Libby and I privately decided to call ourselves friends again. For her own reasons, Libby did not apologize publically until around January or so and did not admit she talked to me until late March. And even then, the way she wrote this information implied that it was a recent development. 

In a possibly related fact, a bit after this, Rob and Libby broke up over matters which seem to be related to the fact that Libby wouldn't allow Rob to do or say whatever he wanted to do, including abusing her blog to pursue his vendetta against me as he had and has been doing to Krissie since January (something Libby received direct proof of, and was afraid he would do or had been doing to her blog). Shortly after he took his ball and went home, Libby killed all his power, and deleted every self indulgent post he ever made in her blog (which turned out to be all of them). Luckily, it turned out that we had repaired things enough for her to select me as her new Tech Support. 

Unfortunately, IOP was forced to close on April 30th, 2004 because of Delphi's money grubbing tactics. I never got to return there, primarily (I am told) because Libby was afraid of fights. And I believe that there would be fights. These fights had been started by Rob, James and Mike (all three of whom I will say more about later). Unfortunately, the way things went down, I was pre-emptively punished for their misdeeds. But by that time, because of their misdeeds, especially James', IOP had been reduced to a pale shadow of its former self. 

So that leads us to now. Libby and I both know Rob for the small, sad person he is, and he's out of the picture. Libby and I are publically known as friends, and this account helps set the record straight on what really happened. As to whether Libby and I will get back together, if we do AND we decide to make it public, you'll be the first to know. And for all you know, maybe we already are back together.. 

In thinking about the situation, yes, Libby and I made a lot of mistakes. And we hurt each other through those mistakes. And I am sincerely very sorry to her for ever hurting her. But I do not believe we ever acted out of malice. Unfortunately, the situation was made far worse by three people who DID act out of malice. 

Rob: You played the victim for all it was worth and gathered sympathy for it. But the truth is you wouldn't have been in this situation at all had you not taken that chat joke and posted it and pushed it without consent. You put Libby and I into a hell of a situation, and caused a ton of problems between us. But still, all that time, we were both worried about your feelings. My girlfriend said that she'd deal with the situation, and I trusted her to. But you and her were not a real relationship. That night I told you the truth, that was your chance to take this relationship that wasn't real, and make it something that was real. But you failed utterly because you didn't care about anyone but yourself. You tried to just "take your win", and as it turned out, you only cared about Libby for as long as she did what you wanted her to do. Since, while crying crocodile tears about how sad you were that we broke up, you began using Krissie to try to hurt me. You whispered lies into Charlie's ears to break him and I apart (though that just proved he was never really my friend either), and most lately and most despicably, you tried to use Madonna when she was hurting badly as a tool for your little vendetta. You are a sickening, pathetic human being who never deserved to be my friend. And I would have been better off for never knowing you. 

Every friend you've ever had online, you've used and lied to. You pretend to care, you say all the nice little things, but it's only a charade, and it will all change the second they stop doing what you want. Those who still call themselves your friends just haven't been able to realize this yet. 

Now, you may go into your Trillian logs to try to find some old conversation with Libby to disprove something I've said here... but the truth is that Libby, and a lot of other people as well have had to be careful to only tell you what you wanted to hear so you didn't go berserk. 

James: You hated me from day one when I was in IOP. As to why, I'm not sure. Maybe it was inability to let a past that you only knew through hearsay go, even though everyone actually involved could. Maybe it was because you sincerely wanted IOP to be just you and girls, and I threatened that through being a high volume posting male. But for whatever reason, you hated me. Sean, your real life best friend, swore on his own reputation though that that hatred would never translate into abuse of your hammer against me. When things went wrong, Libby did indeed tell you to get rid of me, but that she would talk to Sean first. After a few days, and not hearing anything you made the call to go ahead and ban me. Twice in early August 2003, Libby calls it your call in the blog. But given your hatred of me, making that call on your own was a huge conflict of interest. A mod who really cared about the board and people on it would have done everything he could to avoid that. In this case, it would have been a simple matter to wait an hour or two and ask Libby for confirmation before you did it. You didn't do it, and I know why. You knew there was a chance she'd say no. However, by going ahead and making the call yourself, you changed Libby's decision from "Do I make the final call for the ban?" to "Do I overturn the ban AND buck James to do it?" And as you gambled, in her anger, she decided not to. 

By this action, you betrayed IOP. You also betrayed Libby by abusing her anger and the situation, and you betrayed Sean by going against his swear on his reputation. And that hurt IOP. There was the direct effect of the friendly atmosphere being gone. Nobody may have up and left in protest, but there were a lot of people in there knew this was utter bullshit... and who always had to worry if you might start plotting against them next. As well, all forums need to continue to grow and evolve, or they die. I represented IOP's evolution. You in fact posted that you would fight to the dying breath to make sure IOP wouldn't change, and your selfish, treacherous action was the ultimate outgrowth of that. And you got your wish. IOP didn't grow or evolve. 

It stagnated and died. 

And the fault lies completely on your head. 

Mike: Let's face it, Mike, you're an unworthy little pissant. You don't like me because when you did dumbass hurtful childish things, I held you to an apology for them. And you apologized... but like a little pussy, you resented me for it. And from thereon out, you used any opportunity you could to take little shots at me that got farther and farther away from reality, so this whole situation became a goldmine to you. And you posted your typical bullshit on it, not worrying about what lies you spread about your alleged friend Libby in the process. But, as typical, you didn't know word one of what you were talking about. The sad thing is though, you've done more reputation damage to yourself than me. I tend to be able to spot the mentally diseased assholes out there before other people can. I spotted Chaz first, no one else saw it and they all denied it, and I was right. I spotted Wade first, no one else saw it, and they all denied it, and I was right. And I've spotted you. And some people deny it. Some people see it just as much though. And you can't help yourself, it's only going to be a matter of time before everyone else does too. 

In any event, for anyone who's read this up to this point, I thank you for your patience and willingness to hear out the long overdue second side to this matter. I hope that pretty much all of you (except for the three idiots just addressed here) now know there was a second side to what happened in the Summer of 2003. For those of you who have stuck by me even though you never knew any of this or only knew parts of it, I appreciate your loyalty. For those of you who thought less of me after hearing lies and one-sided truths, I hope you're big enough men and women to reconsider your judgments. In any event, I consider this a long overdue vindication. 

We interrupt the ECW coverage (which was kinda slow anyway, owing in part to the idea that I had picked up a few other things recently. Just as a by the by... pick up your copy of Wrestlemania 22 at Wal-Mart ASAP. The free bonus that comes with it is the entire Rey Mysterio 619 DVD, and I got that whole package, 4 discs, for $20!).

You know, I'm not the first king of controversy... I am the worst thing since Elvis Presley...

And that's what Matt calls me. I certainly seem to find myself in it fairly often.

Anyone who read my best bud's new blog will see that him and I recently quit our guild in World of Warcraft. Basically, what happened is that we were trying to urge people to prevent the community oriented guild from slipping into becoming centered around the 40-man raids (and thus ignoring those who didn't participate in those, and the needs of those people), which is what happened to his EverQuest guild, before it fell apart. Well, the guild at large got leaked a chat featuring some of the most hardcore of these raiders where they plotted usurpation of the guild and made a list of those they'd eject to make their version of the perfect guild. I made it in as public enemy number one, with DarkHelm right behind me. We were specifically called out for daring to criticize raiding when we didn't raid ourselves, a remark which confirmed that just for not raiding, we were viewed as second class citizens, even though our criticisms were actually regarding putting ANYTHING in front of the community.

Normally, this might be an insult... but the rest of the people on the "hit list" are pretty much most of the list I would make if asked to make a list of the nicest people in the guild, so being in the company of those types of people is actually an honor.

When this got out, a brief state of emergency broke out as one guild master ejected the other two from the Alliance side of the guild and vice versa on the Horde side. Peace ended up declared later that night as all three GMs stepped down and interim GMs took over. A number of people in this chat resigned in shame. A number tried laughably claiming they didn't mean it. But a very few, including some who had already left the guild, tried attacking both DarkHelm and I claiming we were trolling when we were standing up for not letting community take a second class seat to raiding. Unfortunately, they were not able to provide a single example outside of out of context responses to the attacks in the chat (as if the attacks made were okay, since those were by raiders). These people were so far gone into these 40 man raids being the most important thing, that they simply saw no possible point in anyone criticizing raiding. Any good person can recognize trolling. Good people were able to see the points DarkHelm and I made, in every single message.

DarkHelm had seen this coming and warned of it all along, and he was sick of it. He resigned. I supported my friend, because that's what friends do, and I left too. 

It's been leaving me kind of looking back over these last few days. 

On October 31st, 1989, I went online for the first time. Al Gore had yet to invent the Internet (or stop his wife from being a censor, but that's neither here nor there), so all I was left with were the old fashioned Bulletin Board Systems. Basically, think a very small Internet, confined to one town, where in most cases, only one user could connect at once... usually at very slow speeds, but there were multiple BBSes to try if your favorite was busy. Thriving communities built up, especially given that everyone was in the same town and could easily meet. This was, in fact, how I originally met DarkHelm a few years later. 

The exception to the one line rule was the one multiline BBS in town. On this BBS, up to a whole SIX users could log on at one time! Wow! Smell that modern technology! Most of the time, we used this for chatting. Just after I first logged on, the owner of this BBS decided to sell it as he had won a minor political office. And a lady named Deb, who was just as new to the scene as I was, had been looking to get into the BBS game, so she bought this one. 

At first, all went well, and I was actually one of Deb's few supporters after an unfortunate misunderstanding led the majority of the BBS community to believe that Deb was removing e-mail capability from the site when she really had no such intention. Unfortunately, Deb began to put a certain amount of her self worth into the BBS, often gleefully referring to herself as its dictator... and I did something she never really forgave me for. 

I questioned her authority. I refused to let it go. And when she put the matter to a poll, even though she loaded the question, I got a 40% yes response. I was that first little chink in the armor that the BBS, and all of us users, were her personal playthings. 

Over the next few years, it almost became a kind of cat and mouse game of her treating me badly and me evading it. She didn't want to outright ban me because there'd be some opinion backlash against her, but she tried to treat me shoddy wherever she could. Oftentimes, she would lecture me that there were complaints without identifying the source of the complaints... or do mean little tricks like go into the chat and invite everyone but me into a private discussion, having the effect of leaving me all alone (until other more friendly members of the board caught on and refused to participate in this nonsense) This reached the heights of ludicrosity when there was some discussion of a BBS trip to Disneyland. When no one spoke up to organize it, I volunteered. No one could have a problem with this, right? 

Deb told me there would be a board meeting at the local Carl's Jr. This was typical. We got together for little gatherings like this all the time. When I got there, it wasn't so typical. Besides me, it was basically everyone she viewed as a crony in a blatant attempt to outnumber me (a juvenile tactic that was actually repeated a few years back by one of the more modern idiots). Basically, the message she had for me is that these anonymous complainers (dum dum DUUUUUMMM!!!) had e-mailed her en masse to tell her they'd like a Disneyland trip... but not if I organized it. 

Yes... read that again. People supposedly had a problem with me ORGANIZING a Disneyland trip that no one else wanted to. 

Rock, can we get a judgment call here on this lunacy? 

That's what I thought. 

Finally, she thought she had me. Despite several others doing so with no issue, I was no longer allowed to have unpaid access, because the crippleware she wrote into the protocols for unpaid access (such as only a handful of messages per login session) were supposedly annoying the ANONYMOUS COMPLAINERS (in the distance, a woman screams!). This was somehow my fault. So I was given the ultimatum: Start paid service by Friday and stay there in perpetuity or lose all access. 

Don't give me ultimatums. You won't like it when you give me ultimatums. 

I wrote her a 4 page letter detailing all my grievances with her and the way I was treated, and telling her exactly what she could do with her board and my account. And I walked away proud that I quit her, instead of her letting me go (something I usually hold true to, despite recent rumors to the contrary). 

You might think that story ends there, but it doesn't. The sad truth is that if she had conducted business in a professional manner rather than seeing the BBS as a tool to prop up her psyche, she would have dominated the town. But by the way she acted, she created a huge potential market of people sick of her crap, so several other multi-line BBSes sprung up. And given that I was known as the first person to stand up to her, she accidentally made me a martyr, which got me a ton of good treatment and gifts on these boards. One board was even run by former confidantes of her's. When I first logged on, I got asked "Are you THE Wizard?" (Wizard was the logon name I used before Boffo). When I hesitatingly answered in the affirmative, she said she knew me because she was there when Deb opened that letter. Deb blew her stack. But even then, this woman secretly gained a respect for me and kept it for months without even knowing me. 

The good relations continued until I left for college in 1994. The BBSes went on for a few more years but ultimately couldn't compete with Internet Service Providers in terms of features you can access and people you can meet and chat with. 

In 1998, I first signed up for Delphi. I signed up there for two reasons: Both the New World Wide Web Order and the Niner Hater Society signed up for forums there. 

The NHS was a good idea. It was even a good idea to allow Niners fans the chance to defend their team and hopefully do so through productive dialogue. Unfortunately, as you'll see, the Internet never has been a haven for the sane (as you'll see later), and unfortunately we got those who showed up solely to try to silence them out of fear of what they had to say. When the board became inundated by nonsense, I volunteered for and was given the moderator reins, and when I refused to let them muck up the board, they tried turning on me. The idiot is obviously a stew of psychoses, unable to gain any pleasure in life except through trying (now quite impotently) to hurt me or other people. A sane mind doesn't create seven to eight THOUSAND (Delphi's estimate, not mine) accounts. His friends aren't much better. If they had an opinion and could present it in a mature and adult manner, they could have stayed, no matter what that opinion was. Unfortunately, they chose to personally attack and become otherwise disruptive instead. 

Over on the NWWWO, the management made the mistake of letting someone similarly obsessed with one of them stay due to popular demand. This was a mistake as it showed that it's okay to act like an idiot if you get popular support, and that the board won't act if someone crosses "just a little over the line". Basically, the IWC developed a very disturbing pattern that you can still see on popular sites today. The way you get status in the community is to see what everyone else hates and hate it more. 

Sean Shannon was a popular target for their derision. Over time, due to this pattern, people on the NWWWO board and it's successor, the Rantsylvania board began blasting him for less and less legitimate reasons, even ending up on the idea that it was okay to attack him for saying WCW sucked... at a time where it did suck and everyone else was saying it and not being attacked. I stepped in to try to defend the guy, and some of the hatred wiped onto me. I verbally embarrassed a few of them in response more than once, and that's the source of just why the main two Delphi cliques hate me so much they trained new members to hate me too. 

Not to mention I paid attention to the idea that Rantsylvania just let all the problems go until it reached it's breaking point. Then they said "Stop or else". Of course it didn't stop, so that board was killed, and the problems moved to another board, which died a similar death. Their current home is just a place that won't ever tell them to stop. (The experience in seeing how these and other boards die is a big reason behind the proactive approach I take to dealing with problems in Our Oasis... and surprise, surprise. We're still here.) 

Then when it gets into the more recent matters, I hit problems on two reasons.... one, this whole affair that happened nearly three years ago now, and two, because I run a board dedicated to having quality people in it, and sometimes people end up proving they were just good at hiding that they really weren't good people for a while. In some instances, I hit flack with a certain individual on both counts, and that's always fun. I should point out here that while this does reference some of the history, there are a certain group of girls from the Northeast that I did a lot wrong by as well that made things as bad as they got. None of the rest of this piece is meant to apply to them. 

There's been a lot of ink both here and in the OO Blog before this became my soapbox on the matter of false allegations that I was trying to control this person's or that person's blog. I realized this week I could have settled it a lot more simply. 

Imagine if you were in this situation. 

• You're just trying be friends with person X.
• Person X has person Y in a position of authority in their blog. Person Y is a former friend who screwed you over.
• Person Y begins abusing their position in person X's blog to attack you, and thus drag person X into their feud with you.
• Person X is either oblivious or uncaring.

But in this more modern era, from the Temple of Doom (RIP) on, it isn't like I've been dealing with the best people. Even without violating confidences (and it doesn't count as such if I never had a confidence with this person or if this is public information anyway), I've dealt with at least one or more person with the following: 

• Schizophrenia
• Autism
• Bipolarism

And now this. But at least this time, I have company in being the prime evil... and it's pretty damned good company if I say so myself. 

And it'll take more than any of you have got to make ME lose my smile. 

My name is Dave Hines. 

I'm a real person, not just text on a screen. 

I can be your best friend or your worst enemy. 

I try to be a good person, even though I don't always succeed. 

I go through rough times but am a basically happy and well adjusted person who can have fun through a variety of different things, but especially helping another good person to smile. 

I believe friendship is an honor and a duty extended to those of the highest character. I would take a bullet for any of my friends. And it is the hugest disappointment when someone accepts my friendship, and then forgets about it when the chips are down 

And this looks like a job for me, so everybody just follow me, 'cause we need a little controversy, 'cause it feels so empty without me.

Hey guys, I know I usually have been putting review stuff over in the OO Blog, and that's great, and I hope everybody is reading both blogs, but this is a special occassion.

Though there's some static between us right now, someone was really nice a few months ago for my birthday and got me too presents. Forever Hardcore, which I'll get to, and Blood Sport: ECW: The Most Violent Matches. I'm guessing that certain someone is combining birthday well wishes with a desire to educate me about ECW. It works for me since basically I got into wrestling back in the old hoary days of GLOW, and once they got really stupid in their third season (yes, GLOW ran by seasons and thus actually had repeats from time to time), I moved into WWF shortly before Wrestlemania III. I didn't get into WCW until 1996 with the NWO, and didn't get into ECW until after its death. I later got into TNA to some extent back when Impact was on Fox Sports, though I think it's way overrated by some smarks out there, especially certain elements. (Whatcha gonna do when Samoa Joe finally loses, huh?)

But I digress.

THIS is Extreme.

Perhaps TOO Extreme in parts.

After a typically nice intro piece, we start off in the old WWF Confidential studio. It must be some room at Titans Towers or something. Paul Heyman is there with the ECW logo flashing on the monitors. Paul is obviously far too happy for any mortal, as he narrates between the matches.

We start off in August of 1994

CACTUS JACK & MIKEY WHIPWRECK vs. PUBLIC ENEMY (RIP)

I strongly believe this is the match talked about in Foley's Have A Nice Day, and that Mikey performed his first offensive moves in. Is it just me, or is Joey Styles' voice slightly higher pitched now? Don't call Rocco a jailbird. I actually first saw this match just after Johnny Grunge passed away. Rocco Rock, of course, passed away few years earlier. Brave Sir Mikey's first move is to bravely attempt to run away, but Cactus stops that. I like Mikey. Mikey tags out after just a lockup... and then tries to run away again! Public Enemy understandably tire of this nonsense and go after Foley to bring him back to the ring. 2 on 1 beating ensues. Mikey comes back! He found his balls! And some cheap really thin board! I notice no Rams Fan Guy. Bummer. ECW's production values are noticeably lower here...  but I have seen FAR FAR worse. Things settle down and some nice little match breaks out. Cactus Clothesline through a table~~~~ Mikey is taking over on Johnny Grunge inside the ring!

You know, ECW refs have an easy job. They just count to 3.

I'm sure I'll hear about that remark.

Back in the ring, Public Enemy takes over on Mikey and Mikey does what he does best... take major beatings. The old "face in peril" formula works extremely well for Mikey. Then again, wasn't Foley's career based on "he take-a a nice bump"? Public Enemy has a move much like the Demolition Decapitation, but with Mikey's small size, the PE member doesn't have to kneel. It breaks down again as Rocco and Foley fight into the crowd... and screw up the nice seating arrangement... and using crutches from fans. Grunge gets some this... the camera has problems following as they fight deeper into the crowd, but luckily, PE is wearing ultra stylish blue and orange outfits. Coming to Paris next year.

They fight (and fight and fight and fight) back into the ring. PE sets up a table. Jack is laid up on it, and Rock moonsaults onto him and through the table. They go for the Drive-By, but Rock dances too long on top for his spot, and Jack knocks him off. Mikey rolls up Rock, and Mikey and Jack win the titles! Midway through the move, PE tagged so Rock would be legal... but it was a neutral cover.

I would imagine this match caused the promo I saw on Rise and Fall: "Mikey, the Public Enemy is real, real, mad. Do you know what that means?" "Yeah... it means I'm gonna die!"

Public Enemy has a mic and one of them is screaming as we cut back to Paul.

SANDMAN & TERRY FUNK vs. CACTUS JACK & SHANE DOUGLAS

Now, I BELIEVE this match came about through Sandman and Funk being heels and picking on Foley, and they had Douglas turn face to aid the real life friend whom he had trained with. Shane early on smashes everyone with a cane. Foley asks him what he's doing. Me: "Saving your bacon. What do you think?" But then Funk throws in a chair (no one beats Funk at chair throwing) and Foley cleans house with that... there's some weird rules here... but Shane had left and Foley is double teamed... until Shane comes back and beats people up with a cane agian. And now it's okay.

I *heart* me the Cactus Clothesline. And we get 3 in rapid succession. And a bit later, Cactus off the top with an elbow to Terry on the concrete floor.

A cool move later when Foley atomic drops Shane into a legdrop on Sandman. But it gets 2 as Funk saves.

The GUARDRAIL for the crowd gets thrown into the ring! Funk and Sandman throw it onto Douglas! Cactus throws chairs into the ring rather than, you know, help. Terry demonstrates the foolhardiness of this plan when he throws one right AT Foley. Douglas is thrown into guardrail across the ropes... and set up on it and clotheslined off. Foley is being attacked every time he comes into the ring, but Sandman misses a a spear, so Funk just chairs him. But Foley finally gets back in to thwart a spinning toehold and then tosses a chair at Funk to avenge his foiling from before. This is a great brawl. DDT on the floor from Funk to Foley!

Oops... Funk pulls out a toolbox to attack Sandman down near the entrance, but when he raises the box, it was open and tools rain all over his head. They work around it.

The Cane Dewey sign is there! Cane Dewey? You sick SOBs! Dewey Foley is a three year old boy! Foley always does his research for his heel turns, you have to admit that. Top rope legdrop from the Sandman onto a chair over Foley's face! Sandman saves.

Terry Funk decides to cut to the chase. The chase will today be played by a flaming branding iron! It gets applied and Cactus is unappy. More after he's piledriven onto the refusing to stop flaimng branding iron. That gets the pin. Shane exacts revenge by caning Sandman. Because it was HIS fault. Joey begs for medical attention.

And that's just two matches... a 10th of what's here. I'll stop for now.

Upon further review...

Emily, I'm really sorry that the last time we talked that it turned into what it did. I wasn't trying to upset you. I was actually trying to do something good, but it didn't come off right and it really hurt and upset you. And that really hurt and upset me. It wasn't intentional, and I hope it never happens again. I hope we can still be friends.

On "Special Hells":

It's kind of ironic that phrase was used. On Firefly, that phrase was used against someone who, if he wasn't totally innocent, was at least innocent of the horrible charge being inferred.

It's not like this is the first time that somebody has gone off half cocked and wrote things damning me while they were upset and only heard one side of the story, but at least this is the one blog that ever bothered to make it definitively right again. So there is still some hope.

I'm really sorry Emily was made upset. She is someone who is special to me, with whom I go way back. It isn't the first time I've been accused of upsetting her. Some times totally were my bad. The time I took it the worst though, someone else was 99% responsible for actually hurting her, and he not only got off scot free, he got rewards. And no one else has ever addressed this but me.

But here, there are mitigating circumstances that should be considered rather than just stopping thinking after "Grrrr! Emily was upset!". My motives were always pure this time, looking out for someone else. And the thing that got her upset was something that was never true in the first place, and it certainly wasn't an idea I put in her head.

I'm not the one who made this public. Because it has been made public, I had to say something. Like I said, other blogs have blasted me when they only knew one side of the conversation, and when they found out how things were on both sides, either didn't even bother setting the record straight (at my expense) or used such mincing in between language in setting the record straight that they might not even have bothered, even though in chat, they came to completely agree with me. This blog that I'm addressing here has class though, and I am publically asking them to do the right thing: Public retraction, and perhaps even an apology, just as I've offered mine above.

For most of you, this has been somewhat hard to follow, since to really explain what has been going on, I'd have to go into a whole long story, revealing stuff that might get me into trouble and I choose not to do that at this point. Just smile and nod and know there is another side to this thing.

It ended up being quite a while for me to make a second entry, didn't it?

It wasn't planned, I assure you.

Stuff got busy. Not the least of which is a fact that I was really disputing whether or not to say something publically about, partially out of worry that those who don't like me out there might be classless enough to latch onto it for purposes of trying to hurt me. Then I decided, honestly, that if they're the people who had to do that kind of thing, then I pity them, for they clearly have never had anyone special in their life.

Sometime between the night of March 12 and the morning of March 13, my mother, Linda Hines, passed away. From all indications, she slipped away very peacefully in her sleep, but it was far too young. I should have had at least another couple of decades with her.

Needless to say, this has thrown a lot of things into disarray. On March 31, we had her memorial service, and easily a couple of hundred people showed up. My mother was always helping people and always smiling despite dealing with a lot of pain, so she touched a lot of people. If there were no such thing as schedule conflicts or travel issues, she could have easily drawn more than a thousand.

I'll miss my mother, every day for the rest of my life. But I have absolute faith I will see her again. If I can be half the human being and half the Christian that she was, then I will really be somebody.

I love you, Mom. You did a wonderful job. I'll be seeing you again someday.

On a related note, I would like to profoundly thank Libby for finding a way to grieve with me while still respecting the idea that I did not know if I wanted to make tis public or not. Wise people have long said that grief shared is grief divided and happiness shared is happiness multiplied.

This also seems to be an appropriate place to lay out my appreciation for the presents I got for my birthday a couple months back. This might have been in the last entry, but some of the presents ran a little late.

First off is my mother, and what ended up being the last material gift she directly gave me, The Urbz: Sims In The City for the PlayStation 2. I'm a big Sims freak, and this seemed a good step to warm up for The Sims 2. And the gift means a lot more knowing it was the last money she had at the time too.

Second off, Libby came through in a big way two years in a row, and continuing the ECW theme from last year (when she got me The Rise and Fall of ECW and Rob Van Dam: One of a Kind). This year, she got Bloodsport: ECW's Most Brutal Matches and Forever Hardcore, the "independent" (a lot of those involved have strong ties to TNA) documentary that was basically the other side of Rise and Fall from those not on the WWE payroll. They also worked great together since a number of matches on the former disc were talked about on the latter.

She also threw in a little something really special to me. Way back when, she managed to get ahold of a now rare hardcover book called Superman: From the 30's to the 70s, and, as she might, she bragged about the find over in her blog. I was immediately jealous as I was pretty sure (and eventually was confirmed correct) that I once owned this book myself, but lost it in a manner that was extremely unjust, but I still remembered it and liked it. So she sent it my way because she knew it'd be special, and that unjust event irritated her. Mind you, this was so long ago that when I looked at it, I thought it might be the wrong book because it was too small... and then I realized, the book wasn't smaller, it was just that I was a lot bigger now.

She talks tough, but underneath it all, she's a big sentimental softie. A bit sentimental softie who will NOT bash in my brains with a chair for saying that.

I'll also be going more in depth about the DVDs later on too.

Finally, my best buddy of over a decade now, DarkHelm, came through in a big way. He's doing exceptionally well these days, and has decided to share the wealth. So when he got himself a new budget computer (an eMachines W3107, as he was impressed with how long my old eMachines eTower 600is has lasted), he decided to hook me up too.

Fate works in strange ways though, and when we got to Wal-Mart to buy my computer, they were out of the eMachines, and the only ones they had there were Compaq SR1703WM's. He felt bad about this, especially since the eMachine came packaged with a monitor and had a DVD burner. But he had just given me his old 17" monitor (which would have simply sat on the floor otherwise), and we were later to find out that things weren't all that bad with this one.
 

First off, a little gift from fate... even though what was SUPPOSED to be included in this computer was an 80GB Ultra DMA hard drive ended up being a 160GB Western Digital Caviar drive. And the smaller disk size of the Compaq was something that was bothering him. To upgrade that further, we transferred over my old computer's 120GB drive, also a Western Digital Caviar. He also upgraded the RAM from 256 MB to 2.75 GB (he bought us each 2 GB, and since my computer had an extra two ports for RAM whereas his did not, we installed both the 512 MB chip his computer came with and the 256 MB chip mine came with). I also added the DVD-ROM drive from my old computer, since this one only came with a CD burner so I could have DVD reading capability. All told, all I lost from the eMachines was a new 17" monitor as opposed to a used one and DVD burning capability as opposed to CD only. In the meantime though, I have apparently better CPU, possibly better graphics, more RAM, more HD space... I got a pretty good deal. Even though I wasn't going to complain in the first place.

It also helps that we got a passel of new games to play around with since.

• The Sims 2: DarkHelm bought this since I wasn't getting a monitor, and he was interested too. In the meantime, we agreed that a $100 gift card from Rent.com we received for finding this place through them would go towards the three expansions for the game, University, Nightlife and Open For Business, and indeed, it has. So we now have all of The Sims 2 until the Family Fun Stuff Pack comes out.
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2: DarkHelm wanted these games and didn't want an X-Box. Unfortunately, at least on my computer, for some reason it doesn't play right with the onboard graphics I have, so I'm not able to play them. They look cool though.
• Neverwinter Nights: Diamond Edition (or somesuch): Basically everything that's ever come out for the game.
• Star Wars: Empire at War: A new RTS involving Star Wars. One of the cool things is that once you have all your troops attacking, you can switch to "Cinematic Camera" and see a real time movie-like view (think a battle from Lord of the Rings) of the battle.
• Civilization 4: Just one more turn, I promise. Now with Leonard Nimoy! Plus, you can develop the world's religions. I like to play usually as someone who gloms up the territory I can, then peacefully sit there with a balls to the wall science budget. Now I can develop Christianity and spread it around the world. It makes other countries more friendly to me (as I'm a "spiritual brother") and if a country does go to war against me, it's unlikely the populace will support it for long.
• Black & White 2: Haven't really tried it yet as I found the first one just kinda eh... but DarkHelm was interested
• Madden 06: One I bought myself once it hit $20. Superstar mode is interesting, but I would much prefer some kind of control as to which team your superstar can go to. I was never able to get anything other than Patriots or Bengals. Also suffers a couple of annoying bugs: 1. Occassionally when you start the game, it wants to play at insane hyper speed, and you have to exit out of the game and go back in to fix it, and 2. For some reason, your team seems religiously opposed to punt blocking. They'll run into position and just stand there as guys run past them, making it so that 1-3 guys are waiting to kill me as soon as I touch the ball... which has led to more than a few cheap fumbles and a runback average of less than a yard by a guy with a 99 rating.
• Grand Theft Auto III: The one PS2 GTA I never managed to get, so I got it on PC instead. Lots of fun and only $10. I am loving being able to play with your MP3s as opposed to the radio stations (which were made up music in this one instead of real songs). I made DarkHelm laugh one time as I jumped a taxi and it went to slow motion just as the disco version of the Star Wars theme was playing.

Well, this is new, isn't it? And I know, if all the cool kids jumped off a ledge, would I jump off after them? 

Probably not. But I've been urged to come kicking and screaming into the blog generation. Thanks to the loons out there (including the ones I used to defend and call friend), it won't contain all my private hopes and dreams (though I might throw in one or two for giggles if the mood hits me). 

The next question I could see being asked is "Don't you already have a blog?" The answer... no. Our Oasis has a blog. And it is supposed to be more than just me, though in the past I've used it as a soapbox if I've needed one. The point of the Our Oasis blog is to be a place that would make those reading on the Internet say "Wow! I want to go there!" It's a cool place, and lots of fun. 

That brings me to another bit of news. The OO Blog is coming back! I've been wanting for a while now to pick a name that didn't identify ourselves with Delphi, but couldn't figure out a good one that wasn't already taken. But now, change your bookmarks, because we're coming back at http://our-oasis.blogspot.com/. Eventually, the plans for that place include boosting participating amongst other OO members and using it to start any and all threads that aren't of a personal nature. 

But in the meantime, if I need a soapbox... I have one now. And it's all mine. 

Be afraid. Be very afraid.