Posts Tagged ‘roster’

TNA’s EV 2.0 Faction Isn’t Going Anywhere

August 10th, 2010

TNA's Hardcore Justice was pretty much what everyone was expecting: nostalgic matchups about the "glory days." To be fair, Raven vs. Tommy Dreamer and RVD vs. Sabu exceeded my expectations, but that wasn't too hard. I wasn't expecting anything to begin with. 

This article is going to contain spoilers from last night's taping in Orlando. Although to be perfectly honest, I don't really consider them spoilers since we all knew it was coming. 

The ECW faction is raging war against Ric Flair's Fortune faction plus Matt Morgan and Douglas Williams. Reports show that Thursday's Impact concludes with Fortune battling EV 2.0. 

All reports indicated that EV 2.0 has a fairly large roster including Dreamer, Raven, Team 3D, Rhino, Mick Foley, Sandman, Sabu, Stevie Richards, RVD, Bill Alfonso, and Little Guido. 

And now the head shaking begins. 

TNA's roster is extremely unhappy by this ECW invasion. I can't really blame them. TNA has countless great wrestlers on the roster yet the best heels in the company are forced to do battle with these clowns. 

The size of the EV 2.0 stable is fairly alarming. The faction has twelve wrestlers yesterday and presumably could get bigger if Jerry Lynn or others choose to join. 

Either way, it's too big. 

Dixie talked about roster cuts a few months ago. It didn't actually happen and now there are even more wrestlers on the roster. PPV buyrates are at an all time low and the payroll is at an all time high. I don't think the Sandman commands RVD type money, but this is still unsustainable. 

Last night's taping shows that nothing in wrestling stays dead. Sure, this was supposed to be "One Last Stand" but anyone with half a brain knew that was a load of BS. 

These fools are here to stay. 

Samoa Joe was reportedly nowhere to be found at last night's taping. He has publicly voiced his displeasure about TNA's current direction and that could lead to his termination. That's a big shame. 

Who knows why Desmond Wolfe wasn't a part of Fortune. It's not like he's doing anything else... 

I'm losing it with TNA. I don't have much of an interest in watching this ECW stupidity play out. 

Oakland Raiders: Training Camp Risers and Fallers

August 10th, 2010

It happens every year, players who finished who finished at the top of the depth chart last season slide, and others who thought that they had little chance to make the roster or were underperfromers somehow rise.

Sometimes it is age, sometimes injury, or sometimes a player doesn't fit with a new scheme that the team wants.

The Raiders defensive scheme is certainly changing, and so will the offense under Hue jackson.

So who are this year's risers and fallers so far in camp?

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Mats-Zuccarello Aasen: What to Expect from the Rangers’ Norwegian Phenom

August 10th, 2010

In late June Glen Sather announced that he had signed Norwegian superstar Mats-Zuccarello Aasen (MZA). Last season, MZA won the MVP in the Swedish Elite Hockey League. Aasen garnered a lot of interest after scoring 23 goals and 41 assists (in only 55 games) for the SEL’s Modo Hockey Ornskoldsvik.

The Rangers won the bidding and acquired an extremely talented forward, but the 5’7” Norwegian phenom will have a lot to learn about the North American game before he cracks the Rangers' roster.

MZA will attend the Rangers' training camp this September, with hopes of making the team. Though the spots seem to be filled, there are ways the Rangers' front office can open up space for players like MZA.

I hope MZA will be on the ice in game one of the season against Toronto, but I do not expect him to make the team. A season in Hartford would not hurt Zuke at all—it will only help. It would give him the chance to develop with players like Evgeny Grachev and Derek Stepan.

If things are going well for MZA in the minors (if that’s where he starts out) and the Rangers have a spot to fill on the roster at any point in the season, expect him to get an opportunity to play with the Rangers for a few games. But if Zuccarello-Aasen does happen to make the Rangers' roster this season, and plays in all 82 games, expect him to play on the third line (maybe second line) and tally around 30 to 40 points (maybe 10-15 goals and assists).

The Rangers will not rush MZA’s development by putting him in the lineup opening night if they do not feel he is ready. But Torts will likely get him to play a few games in the NHL just to see what he has to offer. If he comes into training camp and plays the way he did in Sweden, then he may be able to crack a spot on the first two lines.

I only wish the Rangers had chosen him to play in the Traverse City Tournament so that everyone could get an earlier look at his ability, and so that he would have a better chance during training camp.

Thanks for the read, hope you enjoyed. Feel free to leave a response below.

Madden 11 Review: Do Not Buy EA Sports’ Awful “New” Product

August 10th, 2010

Here is a review for you:

EA Sports is about to commit the single biggest mass theft in the history of commercial industry.

People all over the country are lining up tonight to purchase a game that is actually worse than last year's version, and might be worse than any version since the 2006 edition. Or earlier.

It gets difficult to tell with the fact that the graphics for this edition are slightly cartoonish.

If you want to play cartoon football, I'd suggest digging around for Looney Tunes Party 1994. Thankfully, in case you were looking for an alternative, EA Sports put together this gem of a game.

And it might actually be worse.

EA Sports has actually gone out of their way to cheat literally everyone. They removed most of the important game play features (things like the turbo button, because apparently that was useless) and streamlined the play calling in a manner that actually makes things less fun, while simultaneously NFL "Blitz"-ing the graphics.

And then, after that, they decided to make zero changes to franchise mode or superstar mode, repackaged all of the sayings and videos, and slapped a new number on the cover.

They literally changed nothing about the interface... it is the exact same as 2010.

Only they made everything else about the game worse.

The only thing that could justifiably encourage anyone to purchase this game would be they are too lazy to make the roster changes themselves by downloading roster updates for Madden 10.

And on principle, just to keep EA Sports from making any more profit, I'll come over to your house and download the roster updates for you. If you give me that 60 bucks.

Heck, you'll have a better quality football game that way.

Basically, according to the Madden 11 blog, EA Sports wants everyone to send them suggestions for things they can do to make Madden 12 "revolutionary." They claim it takes more than one year to completely rewrite the game.

So instead they rewrite a few things to make the game worse for a year?

It's actually kind of funny, or perhaps it's evil genius, because there won't be a Madden 12 while the NFL is in lockout mode, which everyone claims is coming. So thanks for lying about that, too, EA.

It wouldn't have taken so long if they hadn't launched a massive, scam advertising campaign with Drew Brees all over the place playing off of people's emotions from the New Orleans Saint's Super Bowl victory. They could have just given that money to the game's designers.

But EA has gotten to the point that they don't care about you or about making a quality game that represents the NFL. All they want to do is turn a dime as easily as they possibly can, while enjoying a ridiculous monopoly on pro football gaming titles from the NFL.

They have either literally run out of technology and ideas to make improvements, or they just don't care, so they've started going backwards in quality in order to see how long they can get away with it.

Save yourself the money, and the sanity this year, and just skip Madden.

If we don't send a huge message by killing their expected profit returns and boycotting this game, we'll never end up with a quality NFL product.

It starts with you having enough self respect to skip being cheated out of your hard earned money.

Mariners fire manager Wakamatsu (AP)

August 10th, 2010
Instead of leading Seattle to its first postseason spot since 2001, Don Wakamatsu lost games at a stunning rate. Then, the Mariners manager lost his team -- first franchise icon Ken Griffey Jr., then Chone Figgins. Now, he's lost his job. The last-place Mariners fired Wakamatsu on Monday, more than halfway through a season that began with a boosted roster and high hopes.



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