Shootclub Online Wrestling Game

Just wanted to take a couple of minutes to let you guys know about a pretty cool little game and community. I used to be a huge professional wrestling fan, but over the last year I’ve more or less stopped watching completely. The problem for me is that the characters and stories have become pretty stale. If you feel the same way and have thought, “I know I could do a better job than McMahon and company are doing right now,” you finally can have your chance to prove it in the Shootclub Online Wrestling Game.

The game gives you a chance to create your own wrestler (free at first, and after 5 month long cycles it is just a small maintenance fee) and off you go. Cut promos/interviews against the competition, compete in matches, win titles. Its all there for you to conquer. If you are interested, go check out the website at Shootclub Online Wrestling Game. If you are a wrestling fan you will not be disappointed. It’s the closest thing to being in the business, without being in the business.

Monday Tube Time

Week 2 of the quest to bring television appreciation to the masses.  Monday is still lacking a few shows still on midseason hiatus, such as Prison Break, Heroes, and Studio 60, but there are a few shows worth your time.

What to watch:

• 24 – 8:00 on Fox – the normal time slot for the show, but extended an extra hour tonight to get us into the swing of things.  As I said yesterday, this is a show you need to be watching.
• No Reservations – 10:00 on The Travel Channel – As I described to my roommate last week:  It’s a show about a guy who travels to a different city each week, where he tries local and exotic food and hits some sites while drinking and smoking throughout.  Anthony Bourdain is not a TV host who travels and covers food, but rather he is a chef and travel who got put on TV.  Give him a try.

Sunday Tube Time

Football games notwithstanding, we are going to take a look at an absolutely stacked night of primetime viewing.

What to watch:

• 24 – 8:00 on Fox – The best show on television.  Even if you haven’t seen the 1st five seasons you can easily get into this.  Watch it, you have no excuse.
• Demetri Martin – 10:00 on Comedy Central – I’ve never seen his standup, but he is funny on the Daily Show, and it’s not like people have ever left that show and done anything successful (Colbert Report, The Office, et al).
• Frisky Dingo – Midnight:30 on Cartoon Network – Adult Swim tends to ebb and flow, and right now this is the only show worth watching.  Truly absurd, but each outrageous circumstance builds on the prior ones leaving you aching for more.

What to tivo:

• The Apprentice LA – 9:00 on NBC – I’ve been an a fan of this show since season one, though last season I didn’t watch because it was up against 24 or something.  This season they move to the west coast and the losers live in shanty town tents.  The privleged having to slum it up always makes for good TV.  You could also probably catch this later in the week on CNBC, Bravo, or MSNBC at some point.
• Gordon Ramsay’s F Word – Midnight on BBC America – You may know chef Ramsay from Fox’s Hell’s Kitchen.  He’s made to look like a foul mouthed ass on that show.   This show shows him in a better light.  He’s very demanding, but he’s also just dedicated to his craft.  This is the replay, it originally airs at 9:00.

Catch it On Demand:

• Rome – HBO – originally airs at 9:00, replays on HBO-W at midnight.  It also airs on various HBO outlets throughout the week, so if you don’t have On Demand check the listings for a replay.  Based loosely on the historical period of Augustus and the group.  The end of the 1st season saw Caesar get stabbed to death by the Senate (et tu Brute).  This season picks up right after that.  Titus Pullo is a bad ass.

NFL Playoffs – Round 2 Picks

Last week was the trial run for me to see if I knew any better heading into the playoffs than I did the first half of the season in predicting games, both straight up and against the spread.  I think I did fairly well last week, though not exceptional.  It’s time to prove my worth.

• Indy heads to Baltimore to face a spit and vinegar, no frills, just win baby, Ravens team.  By this point in time you should know the story.  Indy is awesome at home, but slightly less so on the road, especially is the road is outdoors on grass.  They supposedly have a historically bad run defense, though they managed to stop Larry Johnson last week.  The Ravens play awesome defense and mistake free offense.  Head coach Brian Billick, who gained prominance as the offensive coordinator for the Vikings before taking over the Baltimore gig, started calling plays halfway through the season and the team started to score slightly more than just enough.  I see the Ravens winning, but not by much.  I’m thinking that the 4 points may be just a bit high, so take the Colts and the points when in Vegas.
• Philadelphia travels to the city that would not die, New Orleans, in Saturday’s late game.  Philly was less bad than the G’nts last week, but still only won with a last second field goal.  Brian Westbrook very well could have a field day on the ground, but that won’t be enough for the Eagles to keep pace with NFC MVP Drew Brees and the high powered Saints offense.  In a tale of two QBs, the better one will win.  The Superdome will be rocking tomorrow.  Take the Saints and the 5 points, it could be a route.
• Early Sunday the Seahawks travel to Chicago to take on my team, Da Bears.  As a Bears fan I am very frightened heading into the playoffs, because of . . . no, not Sexy Rexy Grossman . . . the once mighty defense.  The last few weeks of the seaosn the Bears top ranked D looked anything but.  However they get some injured players back this week in Tank Johnson and Nathan Vashar, which should be enough help to keep the Seahawks in check.  The ‘Hawks got lucky last week, and won’t have the  luxary of their aluminum clad home field advantage.  I don’t buy that that weather plays a role here, but the kickoff of this game is 10:00 am Seattle time and that does matter.  With the Seattle secondary in worse shape than the Bears’ I  can see Grossman having a good game.  The pick is the Bears.  9 points on the other hand seems really high, but if they are going to win its going to be running away.  They cover.
• The final game of the weekend features a coaching battle that doesn’t seem fair.  The Chargers finished with only two losses and the best record in the NFL.  The Patriots won a weak division, yet couldn’t capitalize with a first round bye.  Brady and Belichick have been here before and won before.  Schottenheimer has been here before too, but the last time he had success was over a decade ago, and Phillip Rivers is our  playoff virgin.  San Diego has more talent on the field, but that won’t decide this one.  In what is technically an upset, take the 4.5 points and New England, and watch the better coached team win outright.

Wednesday Tube Time

A pretty stacked night of television for Wednesday, and Lost and American Idol haven’t even started back up yet!  Unfortunately, everything seems to be on at the same time.  Let’s get right into it.

What to watch:

• The Knights of Prosperity, 9:00 ABC.  The pilot last week was histerical, let’s hope this isn’t bumped do to the President’s Iraq speech.
• The Sopranos replay, 11:11 A&E.  First airing is at 9, but that conflicts with stuff.

What to tivo:

• Mythbusters, 9:00 Discovery Channel.  Then watch it between the Knights and Sopranos.
• The Wire replay, 12 midnight BET.  It’s gonna be on Thursday normally, but they are churning out the first three episodes nightly through Friday.  First airing when everything else is on at 9.

Bronco Busters

When all was said and done one team was left standing apart from all others in college football’s premier division.  Division I (don’t call us AA) and division II found their best via traditional tournaments, though I’m sure even they will admit that to hang with a top tier program would be a moral victory for themselves.  The team I’m talking about made a statement this past week in the Bowl Championship Series.  They did what no other team was able to do, and that’s why, whether you like it or not, they are the team who should be taking home the crown.  Beating Ohio State was impressive, but Florida lost to Auburn.  Boise State lost to nobody.

Sure the WAC competition may not stack up against the talent in the PAC-10 or SEC, but everybody loses eventually . . . except for the boys on the blue field.  People gave the Broncos little chance against Oklahoma, especially since Adrien Peterson was playing, but look what happened in that game.  Boise State just wanted it more.  They may not  have beaten Ohio State, but they didn’t get the opportunity to either.  Everyone was counting out Florida before the opening kick, but look what they did.  Who are we to say that the little school from Idaho couldn’t do the same.

The difference between the top 50 teams in college football is not that great anymore, and I think we can all at least agree that Boise State is in that group, somewhere.   There are only so many scholarships to go around, and many innovative and great coaches can be found in the WAC or MAAC or the like, honing their skills.  Coaches like Chris Petersen, who avoided something no other coach was able to this season – defeat.

I don’t care how strong or weak your schedule is, you are never going to be able to bring you “A game” every single week.  When you keep winning the target on your back keeps growing larger and larger with each passing week.  Teams start gunning for you.  Ric Flair said, “to be the man, you’ve got to beat the man.”  Everybody wants to be the man in college football, even if its just for a week.  The difference is that nobody was able to beat the collective men from Boise State, my NCAA National Champions.

Monday Night Raw-ful

Towards the end of the first half beat down Florida was giving Ohio State I decided to flip over to wrestling on USA to see what was going on.  I used to watch WWE religiously up through my college days, but it finally got to the point of being so boring and unimaginative that I have more or less weened myself off of it.  I’ll still keep up with results and who’s champ now and then, but I haven’t watched in months and don’t feel any worse for wear.  Anyways, I read that Triple H, arguably the biggest star the WWE currently has, tore his other quad muscle (yes other, he tore the first about five years ago, talk about bad luck) at last night’s PPV that nobody ordered, so I decided to flip over and see if they got desperate and brought over a big name to make up for the loss.

No big name, but what I was treated to was Vince McMahon putting on a match between “Rosie O’Donnell” and “Donald Trump”.  Two piss poor look-a-likes actually tried to wrestle a match for at least five minutes while the sad sacks who actually paid to attend this epic event started chants of “Boooorrrrrrrrrr-ing” and “We want wrestling” after the confusion and shock went through their systems.  It was so bad that after flipping back to the football game I had the strong desire to keep going back to WWE just to see how bad it could possibly get.  It got worse.  Vince McMahon has lost all touch with reality.  WWE is dead.  Somewhere a Native American sheds a tear.  His name is Chief Wahoo McDaniel . . . or maybe Tatanka.

Monday/Tuesday Tube Time

With the winter television season (yes, there are four separate seasons now, as opposed to the classic spring and fall schedule) rolling out this week and next, I thought it would be a good time to give everyone some recommendations.  Realizing I should have started this last night (or really Saturday), you will get a double shot today for tonight (Monday) and tomorrow.  Future days will just cover the following day to give you at least 24 hours notice.  So without further ado, starting with Monday, followed by Tuesday (all times EST)…

What to watch:  The BCS “title” game on Fox at 8:00

What to tivo: No Reservations on The Travel Channel at 10:00

What to watch (Tues):  VH1 Classic is showing Pink Floyd’s The Wall at 9:00, and really that’s all I could find.  Go to the movies or a game instead.

Petrino to Coach Falcons

It has just been reported that the Atlanta Falcons have agreed to terms with University of Louisvilled head football coach Bobby Petrino for him to become their next head coach.  The move comes just one week after Jim Mora (don’t call me) Jr. was fired following a 7-9 season, during which he (jokingly or not) stated on a Washington radio station that he would drop everything to become head coach for the University of Washington, his alma mater.

Petrino was the top name on the Oakland Raiders wish list for this season, but instead opted to stay at the University of Louisville where he lead the Cardinals to the Big East crown and a win over Wake Forest in the Orange Bowl.  The reported deal is for five years and $24 million.

Upon Further Review

Quick recap of how my NFL playoff picks panned out for the opening round of the playoffs:

• Indy wins and covers (I picked correctly on both fronts)
• Seattle wins, but fails to cover (Picked the winner, lost the spread)
• New England wins in a route (Again got the winner, but not the spread)
• Philly wins on a last second FG (Missed the pick, but won the spread)

So 3-1 straight up, and 2-2 against the spread.  In what will probably be a continuing trend, the AFC favorites seemed to win handily, while parity (putridity?) kept the NFC games close til the very end.  Look for my picks for next weekend later in the week.