Video Games

Ranking the Nintendo 64 Legend of Zelda Temples

To this day the two Legend of Zelda titles for the Nintendo 64 rank among the greatest games of all time. A big reason is because of tremendous level design for the temples that make up each game’s core. But which ones are the best? Here it is, a ranking of each of the main Nintendo 64 Legend of Zelda dungeons. To be clear, there are no side dungeons on here, which means no Ice Cavern, no Bottom of the Well etc.

  1. Great Bay Temple – Majora’s Mask

greatbay

For the record, I only dislike two of the N64 main temples, and here is one of them. While I appreciate Great Bay Temple’s difficulty, it’s a pure pain to get through with its strong water currents. There are times that if you miss a certain jump, you’ll have to swim around just to get back to where you need to be. The music surprisingly misses as well, with a mechanical, mysterious theme that feels out of place. Definitely the weakest part of Majora’s Mask. The boss, Gyrog, is pretty cool but feels pretty cheap as well. I believe they changed the battle for the 3DS version as a result.

  1. Inside Jabu Jabu’s Belly – OOT

jabujabu

Jabu Jabu’s Belly has one thing going for it, you get the boomerang here. Otherwise this is probably the most boring temple in the N64 era. Most of the time you’re just hitting tentacles with the boomerang. You’re also carrying Princess Ruto around and that’s quite annoying as well. The sub-boss here isn’t designed well, as you need to run in a circle to avoid a big Octorok, but you have to avoid some spikes in the middle. Barinade is an okay boss though.

  1. Inside the Deku Tree – OOT

dekutree

Ten good dungeons out of twelve isn’t bad. Inside the Deku Tree is a fun opening temple that allows players to get used to all of Link’s brand new 3D controls. The puzzles are simple, yet rewarding. Queen Gohma is an iconic boss, easy as she is. While playing this, you had to know OOT was going to be a great game.

  1. Woodfall Temple – Majora’s Mask

woodfall

Woodfall ‘s difficulty quickly shows that Majora’s Mask is probably going to be a tougher game than Ocarina of Time. Admittedly Woodfall is a bit plain, but I think it does a great job establishing the tone we’re going to get in Majora’s Mask. It’s darker, it’s creepier. You hear the spirits in the theme song that probably belong to Odolwa. There’s a lot to like here.

  1. Fire Temple – OOT

Flare-Dancer

The Fire Temple is a standard straight forward dungeon, but it has a great sub and main boss. The Flare Dancer is an interesting sub-boss that might not do a whole not, but it’s better than a random Lizalfo (although we get that too). Volvagia is awesome as a main boss of course. There’s a nice story in the Fire Temple as well, as you’re looking to rescue all of the Gorons imprisoned. Megaton Hammer is a great item pick-up as well, even if it’s underused throughout the game.

  1. Shadow Temple – OOT

Shadow_Temple_Bird

Unfortunately for the Shadow Temple, the creepiness vibe that it gives off pales in comparison to the Forest Temple. It’s still a good dungeon in its own right. It uses the Lens of Truth well and the end with the ship and the maze of Wall Masters is pretty cool. Bongo Bongo is quite the let down as far as bosses go though.

  1. Water Temple – OOT

darklink

As a kid, the Water Temple halted my progress for months because of one key. While it’s not really that difficult looking back at it, the challenge it can provide new gamers is a major plus and I remember being very disappointed with the Master Quest version as a result. The Water Temple has probably the worst boss in OOT though in Morphia. Even more puzzling is that it has probably the best sub-boss as well: Dark Link. So the question here is…why wasn’t Dark Link the main boss? The Water Temple also has an awesome theme.

  1. Snowhead Temple – Majora’s Mask

snowhead

A really fun dungeon that goes upwards, which was a nice touch that we only saw in the Fire Temple in OOT. Snowhead does it a lot better though. There’s a lot of Fire Arrow action, a lot of Goron Link action and just a good time to be had all around. Wizzrobe is also a fun sub-boss, and Snowhead’s main boss, Goht, may be the most fun N64 Zelda boss of them all. Unless you do it the Fire Arrow way…

  1. Dodongo’s Cavern – OOT

dodongo

There’s no bad part of Dodongo’s Cavern really. It’s just a straight up get through this dungeon and have fun doing it kind of experience. Beat down some dodongos, light some torches, blow up some statues and just have a good time. It also has a great main boss too in King Dodongo, a boss that is a heck of a lot easier with the Hylian Shield (one of the two times that whole “get the Hylian Shield” thing actually mattered). Dodongo’s Cavern also does a couple of things really well. First, it teases the boss really early on with that really cool dragon (dodongo) head in the main room, and it uses the item you get in the dungeon, bombs, very well. Bonus points for the need to come back here as an adult to get some extras.

  1. Spirit Temple – OOT

spirittemple

It’s time for the top tier of Zelda 64 Temples. The Spirit Temple I do think is a distant third, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that it’s pretty awesome. It has the second best boss in the game in Twinrova (we are getting there), has a really cool story (Child Link meets Nabooru, saves her seven years later) and is really fun to get through. We get to face off with a couple Iron Knuckles as well. To top it off, the music is absolutely awesome as well. Really gets bonus points for having a child and adult section and connecting them well.

  1. Stone Tower – Majora’s Mask

stonetower

What a tough choice between the top two! I would have sworn that the Stone Tower would have been number one, but there was one deciding factor which I’ll get to. Anyway, the Stone Tower owns in pretty much every way. To even get to the main part of the tower you need to figure out some puzzles with the Elegy of Emptiness. Once you get to the top, you enter the main part of the Tower which is where the fun really begins. The creepiness of Majora’s Mask really sets in when in the Stone Tower, as the music, in my opinion the best Zelda has to offer, really sets the mood and tone.  The best part about the Stone Tower is that you have to use all your forms at some point, which is a great trait for a final Temple. You also have a bunch of mini-bosses you’ll have to contend with: Wizzrobe, the Garo Master and Gomess. Light Arrows and the Giant’s Mask are also acquired here. By the way, once you get through it…you’ll have to spin the Tower upside-down and climb through it again. It’s awesome how a treasure chest you found when it’s right-side up turns out to be a crucial hookshot spot later! Awesome design. It’s too bad the main boss kinda sucks.

  1. Forest Temple – OOT

phantom ganon

While there were a few moments beforehand, to me the Forest Temple is the part of OOT that says “okay, now it’s time to take things seriously”. Before as a child you had Zelda talking some nonsense about an evil man and a prophecy. Now? Now she’s disappeared and all the places that were full of fun as a kid have turned into places full of monsters. What’s the first thing you do as an adult? Call Saria and find out where she is. It’s a brilliant storyline and a perfect set-up. Suddenly, the temple right next to your home may be the creepiest place you’ll ever go, with ghosts, twisting hallways, wallmasters and wolves everywhere. Skulltulas climb the vines. The Forest Temple does such a tremendous job at being creepy that it unintentionally undermines the Shadow Temple later. The music is fantastic, the deisgn is fantastic, and in the deciding choice between this and the Stone Tower…the main boss is the best in all of Zelda 64. Phantom Ganon is awesome. Amazing all around.

 

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWE Hell In a Cell 2009

WWE Hell in a Cell 2009
October 4, 2009
Newark, NJ

In 2009 WWE decided to brand their PPVs after match titles. As a result, No Way Out became Elimination Chamber, No Mercy became Hell in a Cell and Armageddon became TLC. Unfortunately, and especially in the Hell in a Cell case, this forced WWE to use these match types at these respective events. Instead of organically having a feud that led to a Hell in a Cell match, fans would expect a feud that began in August or September to have a Hell in a Cell match in October. Also, this ruled out having Hell in a Cell matches at any other point in time, taking away a potentially exciting twist for feuds that take place during any other part of the year. (This led to tons of excitement when HHH-Taker at Mania XXVIII became a Cell match, since it was absolutely unexpected).

The other issue with this was that WWE had become PG. Now, WWE had become PG about 15 months earlier and Edge and Undertaker had a great Hell in a Cell match anyway, so all hope wasn’t lost. The idea of three HIAC matches on one show had fans salivating at the possibilities of what could happen.

The Card

World Heavyweight Championship: Hell in a Cell
CM Punk© vs. The Undertaker

We had another Montreal Screwjob at Breaking Point, where Teddy Long turned heel and called for the bell when Punk had Taker in the Anaconda Vise. Taker captured Teddy and this forced Teddy to make Punk vs Taker at Hell in a Cell (first point to make about the PPV title…of course we knew this was happening already because the next PPV was Hell in a Cell). So here we are.

This is a surprising opener for sure. Being there live this was the match I was most looking forward to. I was really getting into Punk’s character here…and the Undertaker is the Undertaker.

Match starts fun enough with Taker throwing Punk into the cage.

Taker shoves Punk off the ring apron into the cage. Again, really fun start.

Suicide dive from Punk into Taker and the cage!

Legit shocked at a Punk chair shot to the head to Undertaker. When were headshots banned? I forgot.

The Undertaker pins CM Punk to win the title in 10:24. We get a really fun back and forth for five minutes…then Taker finishes Punk. Man, this was a really fun match that just gets cut off. Give this 6-7 more minutes and you potentially have a classic. Despite the good match, it’s still pretty disappointing in the name of Hell in a Cell. At least at the time it was.

Intercontinental Championship
John Morrison © vs. Dolph Ziggler

At the time Morrison seemingly looked like the future while Ziggler was just a midcard guy. Funny how that’d change over the next two years.

Ziggler starts with some solid mat wrestling, which is something he should do more of honestly.

Match has mostly been Ziggler, but it’s turning into a fun back and forth.

John Morrison retains by pin in 15:41. Starship Pain for the win. Really good match here, but I have to question this going five minutes longer than the opening World Title match. Match did tell a good story in regards to Ziggler getting close but not close enough. I don’t remember what the led to though.

Mysterio and Batista interview. Does a great job with Mysterio referencing his past with Chris Jericho and even hints a little bit about Batista’s future heel turn.

Diva’s Championship
Mickie James © vs. Alicia Fox

Michael Cole mentions…with no hint of irony…that many are shocked Fox is the #1 contender this early in her career. I love Alicia now, but she was awful back then.

This is pretty solid to start, although sometime you can tell Fox’s timing is off (like when she takes the neckbreaker).

Mickie James retains by pin in 5:20. Mickie hits a Tornado DDT that Alicia doesn’t take correctly, and while it looks devastating you have to fear for Alicia there. Anyway, this didn’t seem bad at all, but it was pretty boring and the crowd was dead for it.

World Tag Team Championship
Chris Jericho and Big Show© vs. Batista and Rey Mysterio

It should be noted that Chris Jericho pretty much saved rescued the tag division in the latter half of 2009. He also helped a floundering Big Show, who despite being in a World Title match at Mania and a feud with Cena, had been regulated to fighting Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne before Jericho’s 1st partner, Edge got injured.

With these four top guys contending for the tag belts, it really feels like the Tag belts matter.

Big Show is just killing Rey and it’s awesome. Brutal slap that sends Mysterio to the floor!

Jericho and Show’s beatdown of Mysterio is fantastic. What a good match so far.

Tornado DDT from Rey to Big Show! Wow!

Great sequence where Big Show gets 619ed, then Jericho gets dumped on him. Show catches him, but Batista takes them both down.

Big Show and Jericho retain when Show pinned Rey in 13:41. Rey goes for a springboard, but Show punches him right in the face as he comes down to win it. KO Punch was just getting established here, but it was working for sure. Awesome match. Jericho, Show, Batista and Rey just have awesome chemistry together. It was the perfect finish too, Big Show pinning Rey doesn’t hurt Rey and further established Big Show.

WWE Championship: Hell in a Cell
John Cena© vs. Randy Orton

Orton beat Cena at Summerslam, but Cena got Orton in an “I Quit” match at Breaking Point. Rubber Match time.

Shocked this isn’t the main event. I think that’s a problem too. Either Punk-Taker or Cena-Orton should be main eventing this.

Cena and Orton also went to the top of the Cell on RAW. It was good build for sure.

Here’s the problem with this match. There’s nothing here that’s done to really use Hell in a Cell. It’s just a regular match inside the Cell. I mean what’s the point?

Randy Orton pins John Cena to win the title in 21:24. Orton traps Cena in the ropes and chokes him out…and then finishes with the Punt to regain the title. I liked the finish and Orton’s mannerisms were spot on. He really became an awesome heel in 2008-2009. I still am quite disappointed in the match though.

R-Truth vs. Drew McIntyre

McIntyre is new, and there’s a respect problem between the two. R-Truth has a pretty good promo before the match.

McIntyre still had generic rock music here too. That didn’t help him at all.

No be honest, no one cares. Boring chant breaks out. McIntyre would never make it as a high level guy either…although he definitely had the potential for sure.

Drew McIntyre pins R-Truth in 4:38. Future Shock DDT. If this was designed for the crowd to take a break after Orton-Cena, it succeeded.

Orton tells Dibiase and Rhodes that once you enter Hell in a Cell, you don’t just walk out. I’d take him more seriously if he actually used the Cell in the match.

United States Championship
Kofi Kingston© vs. Jack Swagger vs. The Miz

Miz hilariously runs down Newark. What the heck happened to him? He was so good on the mic.

Miz and Swagger double team Kofi for most of it, but Miz betrays him.

Crowd is dead for this too.

We get some fun three-way spots at least. Kofi’s putting a show on out there.

Kofi Kingston retains when he pinned Miz in 7:53. Swagger hits Miz with the Swagger Bomb, but Kofi knocks him out with Trouble in Paradise. I enjoyed this for the most part, but again, crowd really wasn’t into it and seemed burned out.

Hell in a Cell: Legacy vs. DX

For all that’s said about HHH and HBK holding people down and whatnot, they made Legacy look like stars throughout this feud.

Great booking decision here: Legacy attacks DX during their entrance.

Great brawl to start outside of the ring. Legacy take out Triple H, then slam the cage door on Michaels’ knee. Again, brilliant booking in this one.

In more brilliant booking, Legacy traps HBK in the Cell and lock HHH out!

Legacy proceeds to beat the living crap out of Shawn in the Cell with HHH trying to find ways to get in.

A Million Dollar Dream and a Figure Four around the ringpost at the same time is a pretty awesome double submission. HHH makes his way back in.

DX now trap Dibiase outside of the Cell. Poor Cody.

DX win when HBK pins Rhodes in 18:02. Cody gets a Sweet Chin Sledgehammer, and it’s over. Fantastic booking. I remember being disappointed when I first saw this, but I really don’t know why. This was fun and different, and actually used the HIAC in a unique way. Also, Legacy controlled most of the match, and even in losing looked like future stars. Of course, only Cody would take advantage of that.

Hell in a Cell is an interesting show that promises one thing, but you get something totally different. Sure Taker vs. Punk and Orton vs. Cena were good, but given expectations both fell short. The main event at least did something totally different. The second half of the card also falls off a cliff, as the US Title match and McIntyre-Truth just kills the crowd. IC Title match was fun and Tag Title match stole the show.

Sadly, CM Punk would get pushed down the card for some reason after this (well, after Survivor Series), but everything else storyline wise would progress nicely.

It’s a fine show, but I just can’t get past the expectations of what three Hell in a Cell matches were supposed to be. This was the beginning of WWE watering down its ultimate feud ender.

Final Grade: B-

Basketball

Top 100 Greatest Basketball Players Ever: #50-#41

#50: James Worthy

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NBA Finals MVP: 1x (’88)

NBA All-3rd Team: 2x (’90, ’91)

All-NBA Rookie 1st Team: ‘83

NBA All-Star: 7x (’86, ’87, ’88, ’89, ’90, ’91, ‘92)

NBA Top 10 FG%: 5x (’83,’85, ’86, ’89, ’90)

NBA Top 10 Offensive Rating: 1x (’86)

NBA Top 10 WS/48: 1x (’86)

2nd Best Player on Two Champions: ’87 Lakers, ’88 Lakers

3rd Best Player on One Champion: ’85 Lakers

2nd Best Player on Two Runner-Ups: ’89 Lakers, ’91 Lakers

3rd Best Player on One Runner-Up: ’84 Lakers

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 50th

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 58th

A really tough career to project since he was Magic’s wingman for virtually his whole career. Simmons compares Worthy to Tom Chambers, and Chambers barely made the top 100 without the help of a Magic Johnson, so there’s that. Reason why he couldn’t drop lower than the Top 50? He was “Big Game” James. In the 1984 Finals, Worthy put up games of 29 PTS on 11/12 shooting, 30 points on 14/17 and three other 50%+ FG 20 point games in a tough loss to the Celtics. He made up for that by putting up 29 on 12/22, 33 on 13/17 and 28 on 11/15 in Boston, all wins for LA, in the 1985 Finals. He opened the 1987 Finals with a 33-10-9. He finished off the Bad Boy Pistons in 1988 with a 36-16-10 in Game 7…and even dropped 40 in the deciding game when they lost the next year (with no Magic). More evidence points to Worthy being great than not.

#49: Dennis Johnson

top100djohnson

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NBA Finals MVP: 1x (’79)

NBA All-1st Team: 1x (’81)

NBA All-2nd Team: 1x (‘80)

NBA All-Defensive 1st Team: 6x (’79, ’80, ’81, ’82, ’83, ’87)

NBA All-Defensive 2nd Team: 3x (’84, ’85, ’86)

NBA All-Star: 5x (’79, ’80, ’81, ’82, ’85)

NBA Top 10 Defensive Win Shares: 1x (’80)

NBA Career Assists: 45th

NBA Career Steals: 43rd

3rd Best Player on One Champion: ’79 Sonics

Starter on Two Champions: ’84 Celtics, ’86 Celtics

2nd Best Player on One Runner-Up: ’78 Sonics

Starter on Two Runner-Ups: ’85 Celtics, ’87 Celtics

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 54th

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 53rd

DJ gets the nod over Worthy for a few reasons. For one, we don’t know how Worthy’s career projects without Magic Johnson…but we do know Johnson could thrive without Bird since he did in Seattle. Also, Worthy’s main attribute was big game scoring. DJ’s was big game defense and he could score as well. Big difference. In an All-Time defensive team, DJ fits right in there with Jordan, Payton, Moncreif in the greatest defensive guards before 2000 conversation (and maybe of all time as well). He hounded Magic in the ’84 Finals and also shut down Andrew Toney (Toney gave Boston tons of trouble in the early 80s and was a big reason the Sixers made the Finals in ’83). DJ was the best guard on teams that won 47, 52, 56, 57, 46, 53, 62, 63, 67 games.

#48: Bill Walton

top100walton

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NBA MVP: 1x (’78)

NBA Finals MVP: 1x (’77)

NBA All-1st Team: 1x (’78)

NBA All-2nd Team: 1x (‘77)

NBA All-Defensive 1st Team: 2x (’77, ‘78)

NBA All-Star: 2x (’77, ‘78)

NBA Defensive Rating Leader: 2x (’78, ’86)

NBA Top 5 Rebounds: 1x (’77)

NBA Top 10 Blocks: 2x (’77, ’78)

NBA Top 3 WS/48: 2x (’77, ’78)

NBA Top 10 Defensive Rating: 5x (’76, ’77, ’78, ’85, ’86)

Best Player on One Champion: ’77 Blazers

Sixth Man on One Champion: ’86 Celtics

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 27th

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 74th

Bill Simmons’ asks whether or not you would want two and a half transcendent years and twelve other years full of injuries or fourteen quality years. He took the two and a half, a big reason why he had Walton so high up (he compared him to David Robinson) in his pyramid. At one time I agreed, but looking at it now Walton’s peak came in the messy late seventies. Theoretically the league was full of talent, but teams still weren’t able to figure out styles and such after the merger. When Walton went down in 1978 (he was so good that year he rightly won MVP after playing only 58 of 60 games anyway…Portland was 50-10 at the time) Portland went down with him, failing to even win one playoff series.

An idea of how good Walton was? He averaged 19-19-5-4 in the ’77 Finals where Portland won, including a 20-23-8-7 in the deciding game. He had pretty much no supporting cast (Mo Lucas, Bobby Gross, Lionel Hollins?) and it didn’t matter. As a bonus, he was an iconic sixth man on the ’86 Celtics. If he doesn’t get hurt, Walton probably gets into the Top 15.

#47: Stephen Curry

top100curry

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NBA MVP: 1x (’15)

NBA All-1st Team: 1x (’15)

NBA All-2nd Team: 1x (‘14)

NBA Rookie 1st Team: 1x (‘10)

NBA All-Star: 2x (’14, ‘15)

NBA Steals Leader: 1x (’15)

NBA 3 PT FG Leader: 3x (’13, ’14, ’15)

NBA FT% Leader: 2x (’11, ’15)

NBA WS/48 Leader: 1x (’15)

NBA Top 10 Points: 3x (’13, ’14, ’15)

NBA Top 5 Assists: 4x (’10, ’13, ’14, ‘15)

NBA Top 2 Steals: 2x (’14, ’15)

NBA Top 5 WS/48: 2x (’14, ‘15)

NBA Top 10 Win Shares: 3x (’13, ’14, ’15)

NBA Top 10 PER: 2x (’14, ’15)

NBA Career Offensive Rating: 50th

Best Player on One Champion: ’15 Warriors

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): Not Ranked

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): Not Ranked

Obviously not ranked on Simmons or Slam due to the fact that Curry began peaking in 2014. Gets the nod over Walton because his peak took place in an extremely talented time in the NBA (won MVP over LeBron for example). It’s absolutely terrifying to watch Curry if he’s playing against your team. A League MVP, a great WS/48 season and best player on a title team status? That’s good enough for top 50.

The difference between Curry and Derrick Rose is that Curry’s MVP doesn’t really have any doubt attached to it. Yeah, you can consider James Harden, but no one actually thinks Harden was robbed. In 2011, Rose was probably the third best player in the league that year, behind LeBron and Dwight Howard. And LeBron destroyed him in the Eastern Conference Finals. Curry had so such issues (although he did luck out as opposing PGs got hurt).

#46: Ray Allen

top100allen

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NBA All-2nd Team: 1x (’05)

NBA All-3rd Team: 1x (‘01)

NBA Rookie 2nd Team: 1x (‘97)

NBA All-Star: 10x (’00, ’01, ’02, ’04, ’05, ’06, ’07, ’08, ’09, ‘11)

NBA 3 PT FG Leader: 1x (‘06)

NBA Offensive Win Share Leader: 1x (’01)

NBA Top 10 Points: 2x (’05, ‘06)

NBA Top 10 3 PT FG: 11x (’98, ’00, ’01, ’02, ’03, ’05, ’06, ’07, ’08, ’09, ’11)

NBA Top 10 FT%: 14x (’98, ’99, ’00, ’01, ’03, ’04, ’05, ’06, ’07, ’08, ’09, ’10, ’11, ’12, ’13)

NBA Top 10 Win Shares: 2x (’01, ’09)

NBA Top 10 WS/48: 1x (‘01)

NBA Top 10 Offensive Rating: 4x (’00, ’01, ’06, ’09)

NBA Career 3 PT FG: 1st

NBA Career FT%: 7th

Third Best Player on One Champion: ’08 Celtics

Role Player on One Champion: ’13 Heat

Third Best Player on One Runner-Up: ’10 Celtics

Role Player on One Runner-Up: ’14 Heat

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 62nd

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 79th

Pretty much Reggie Miller with a better post-season resume. Allen was very close (and probably deserved to be) the best player on a runner-up with the 2001 Bucks. He was clutch in the 2008 Finals against the Lakers. Everyone remembers the big comeback in Game 4…but somehow Allen playing all 48 minutes and closing the game out by driving past Sasha Vujacic in crunch time is forgotten. He was kinda robbed of Finals MVP in that series as well (50-50-90% shooting, 20 PPG). He hit a game winning three with no time left against Chicago in Round 1 in 2009, and also had a 51 point game later in the series. He also set a record with 8 threes in Game 2 against the Lakers in the Finals…although he fell apart later in that series. Of course he cemented his legacy as a clutch three point shooter, possibly surpassing Reggie as the best ever with his dagger of a three that saved LeBron’s legacy and the 2013 Miami Heat season. Most of that is just the late stage of his career. He was the top guy for a very good Bucks and a very good Sonics team (a Sonics team that gave the 2005 Champ Spurs a nice six game scare).

 #45: Chauncey Billups

top100billups

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NBA Finals MVP: 1x (’04)

NBA All-2nd Team: 1x (’06)

NBA All-3rd Team: 2x (’07, ‘09)

NBA All-Defensive 2nd Team: 2x (’05, ‘06)

NBA All-Star: 5x (’06, ’07, ’08, ’09, ‘10)

NBA Offensive Rating Leader: 1x (’06)

NBA Top 10 Assists: 2x (’06, ’07)

NBA Top 10 FT%: 11x (’99, ’02, ’03, ’04, ’05, ’06, ’07, ’08, ’09, ’10, ‘11)

NBA Top 10 Win Shares: 5x (’04, ’05, ’06, ’07, ’08)

NBA Top 10 WS/48: 6x (’03, ’04, ’05, ’06, ’07, ‘08)

NBA Top 10 Offensive Rating: 5x (’05, ’06, ’07, ’08, ‘09)

NBA Career FT%: 5th

NBA Career 3P FG: 7th

NBA Career Offensive Rating: 18th

Best Player on One Champion: ’04 Pistons

Best Player on One Runner-Up: ’05 Pistons

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): Not Ranked

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 124th

Easily the most underrated player of all time and it’s all due to perception. So let’s get to those perceptions and debunk them.

Number 1: The starting five for the 2004 Pistons were all equal…they were a real team and that’s why they won the title. Now defensively, I give Ben Wallace all the credit in the world and he did receive some consideration for my Top 100 due to his performance on the defensive end for the 2004 and 2005 Pistons. But offensively? Rasheed Wallace was a nice mid-season addition for a Pistons team that had already made a Conference Finals the year before with Billups. All I know is in Phil Jackson’s book The Last Season, he thinks about the Finals and starts off by thinking they are a team of equals…only to come to the conclusion that Billups was the key all along. That and when Chauncey left in 2008 the entire team fell apart. Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince have done nothing of note since Chauncey left them. Not true for Chauncey…leading us too…

Number 2: Carmelo Anthony led the Nuggets to the 2009 Conference Finals. Let the record show that Carmelo had the worst season of his early career in 2009 (.105 WS/48, 45% FG, 23 PPG, didn’t make the All-Star team), although he played great in the playoffs) and the Nuggets didn’t fall off at all. The Nuggets with Carmelo also made it past the first round for the first time…Chauncey had a 135 offensive rating in the playoffs. Detroit meanwhile fell out in Round 1. The difference was Chauncey.

Number 3: Chauncey was only good because of the slow it down style of the Pistons. Of course, this makes no sense as he succeeded with the Nuggets too.

Number 4: The Pistons era was overrated because the East was bad all those years. Of course, this isn’t fair to Chauncey as others have gotten this benefit too (and he got to the Conference Finals in the West anyway). Being the best player on a team that made seven straight Conference Finals is impressive no matter what the situation. His Pistons ended the Kidd era Nets, ended the Shaq-Kobe Lakers, nearly upset Duncan at his peak and even knocked LeBron down once. Sounds good enough for me.

In addition to all of that, Chauncey has great advanced numbers and a few All-NBA teams. He’s a great player.

#44: George Gervin

top100gervin

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NBA All-1st Team: 5x (’78, ’79, ’80, ’81, ’82)

NBA All-2nd Team: 2x (’77, ‘83)

ABA All-2nd Team: 2x (’75, ’76)

ABA All-Rookie 1st Team: 1x (’73)

NBA All-Star: 9x (’78, ’79, ’80, ’81, ’82, ’83, ’84, ‘85)

ABA All-Star: 3x (’74, ’75, ’76)

NBA Points Leader: 4x (’78, ’79, ’80, ’82)

NBA Top 6 Points: 8x (’77, ’78, ’79, ’80, ’81, ’82, ’83, ’84)

ABA Top 7 Points: 3x (’74, ’75, ’76)

ABA Top 10 Blocks: 3x (’74, ’75, ’76)

NBA Top 10 Win Shares: 6x (’77, ’78, ’79, ’80, ’81, ’82)

ABA Top 10 Win Shares: 3x (’74, ’75, ’76)

NBA Top 10 WS/48: 3x (’77, ’78, ’79)

ABA Top 10 WS/48: 1x (76)

NBA Top 10 PER: 6x ( ’77, ’78, ’79, ’80, ’81, ’82)

ABA Top 10 PER: 3x (’74, ’75, ’76)

NBA+ABA Career Points: 15th

ABA Career Blocks: 9th

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 34th

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 45th

The Iceman was one of the all-time great scorers…and that’s about it. Horrible defensive player and seemingly only cared about scoring points. But he was great at it, and in the late 70s where everything was screwed up roster wise, that was good enough to be one of the best players in the league. It never got him to the Finals though as he failed to get past those Unseld-Hayes Bullets teams. And once Magic and Bird came along, Gervin was never seeing the Finals.

Recently, his record of 33 points in a quarter was broken, but it tells you just what kind of scorer he was. His peak was too good to leave out of the Top 50.

#43: Sam Jones

top100jones

Resume

NBA All-2nd Team: 3x (’65, ’66, ‘67)

NBA All-Star: 5x (’62, ’64, ’65, ’66, ‘68)

NBA Top 10 Points: 2x (’65, ‘66)

NBA Top 10 Win Shares: 5x (’62, ’63, ’64, ’65, ‘66)

NBA Top 10 WS/48: 10x (’59, ’60, ’61, ’62, ’63, ’64, ’65, ’66, ’67, ‘68)

2nd or 3rd Best Player on Six Champions, Won Ten Championships Overall (’59 Celtics, ’60 Celtics, ’61 Celtics, ’62 Celtics, ’63 Celtics, ’64 Celtics, ’65 Celtics, ’66 Celtics, ’68 Celtics, ’69 Celtics)

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 33rd

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 65th

Simmons gave the nod to Jones over Gervin because of the teammate aspect, the fact that Bill Russell praises Jones as his crunch time scorer. While I can’t say I’ve seen much of Sam Jones other than some Youtube highlights, but I have seen Gervin and I know he’s a me-first guy and probably the biggest reason the Spurs didn’t win a title. So I’ll take Simmons word on this.

I’ll also provide the list of great playoff games Jones had that Simmons provided, which was more than enough to sway me.

Hit a game winner in the Eastern Conference Finals vs. ’62 Sixers in Game 7, scored 27…Scored 35 against the ’62 Lakers in the Finals…scored 27 in Game 7 of the ’62 Finals vs. the Lakers…scored 47 against Oscar and the Royals in another Game 7…37 in Game 7 of the ’65 Sixers series…34 Points in Game 5 of the ’65 Royals series…hit a game winner in Game 4 of the ’69 Lakers series. That’s not all of them…but you get the point.

#42: Clyde Drexler

PLEASE NOTE THIS IMAGE IS FOR USE VIA THE CONSUMER POD SITE ONLY. PORTLAND, OR - JANUARY 1: Clyde Drexler #22 of the Portland Trail Blazers dunks during a game on January 1, 1989 in Portland, Oregon. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory copyright notice: Copyright NBAE 1989 (Photo by Mike Powell/NBAE/Getty Images)

Resume

NBA All-1st Team: 1x (‘92)

NBA All-2nd Team: 2x (’88, ‘91)

NBA All-3rd Team: 2x (’88, ‘95)

NBA All-Star: 10x (’86, ’88, ’89, ’90, ’91, ’92, ’93, ’94, ’96, ‘97)

NBA Top 10 Points: 3x (’88, ’89, ‘92)

NBA Top 10 Assists: 1x (’86)

NBA Top 10 Steals: 6x (’85, ’86, ’87, ’88, ’89, ’95)

NBA Top 10 Win Shares: 6x (’88, ’89, ’90, ’91, ’92, ‘95)

NBA Top 10 WS/48: 6x (’88, ’89, ’90, ’91, ’92, ‘95)

NBA Top 10 PER: 4x (’88, ’89, ’92, ‘95)

NBA Career Points: 29th

NBA Career Steals: 7th

2nd Best Player on one Champion: ’95 Rockets

Best Player on Two Runner-Ups: ’90 Blazers, ’92 Blazers

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 44th

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 42nd

I’ll just start off with saying I agree with Michael Jordan…that Drexler was a poor man’s Michael Jordan.

It may not seem completely fair, but that’s what he was. Primarily an inside drive guy with a shaky outside shot…only Drexler wasn’t remotely a good three point shooter either. His peak in the late 80s and early 90s was impressive…he got to the Finals before Jordan did…but he failed at that level and then was destroyed by Jordan in ’92. Amazingly, he begins to decline at age 30 in 1993 in what only could be described as a player who’s confidence was destroyed.

 There’s not much else to say about Drexler. He was a really good player, sometimes great, that couldn’t get his teams to the finish line. His career was swallowed up by Jordan. It goes farther than the ’92 Finals. Remember, Portland didn’t pick Jordan because they had Drexler. And of course, Drexler’s ring came in the 2nd of Jordan’s baseball years.

And of course…there was the 1992 Finals. Poor Drexler.

#41: George Mikan

George Mikan, right, honored earlier this year as one of the 50 greatest NBA players of all-time, led the Minneapolis Lakers basketball team to six championships. This photo is from a game against Rochester at the old Minneapolis Auditorium on March 29, 1954. Star Tribune file photo.

Resume

NBA All-1st Team: 6x (’49, ’50, ’51, ’52, ’53, ’54)

NBA All-Star: 4x (’51, ’52, ’53, ’54)

NBA Points Leader: 3x (’49, ’50, ’51)

NBA Rebounds Leader: 1x (’53)

NBA PER Leader: 3x (’52, ’53, ’54)

NBA Offensive Win Share Leader: 2x (’49, ’51)

NBA Defensive Win Share Leader: 5x (’50, ’51, ’52, ’53, ’54)

NBA Win Share Leader: 3x (’49, ’50, ’51)

NBA WS/48 Leader: 1x (’53)

NBA Top 4 Points: 6x (’49, ’50, ’51, ’52, ’53, ’54)

NBA Top 10 Assists: 1x (’49)

NBA Top 3 Rebounds: 4x (’51, ’52, ’53, ‘54)

NBA Top 4 Win Shares: 6x (’49, ’50, ’51, ’52, ’53, ’54)

NBA Top 10 WS/48: 3x (’52, ’53, ‘54)

Best Player on Five Champions: ’49 Lakers, ’50 Lakers, ’52 Lakers, ’53 Lakers, ’54 Lakers

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 38th

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 29th

Obviously a product of his era. Once the shot clock and bigger lane came into play, Mikan was done. He absolutely dominated the early NBA and even the NBL. He was basketball’s first great player and dominated the league. That has to count for something.

NASCAR

Predicting the 2015 Chase for the Cup

First let’s look at our sixteen Chase drivers.

1. Jimmie Johnson (4 W, 11 T5, 17 T10): It is impossible to ever count out Jimmie Johnson in any Chase scenario and to me, he’s probably the second favorite this year. Jimmie has 25 career Chase wins in the 11 years the Chase has been run. That’s more than double 2nd place (Tony Stewart, 11). Jimmie won at Texas, Dover and Kansas this year and all three are Chase races.

2. Kyle Busch (4 W, 6 T5, 9 T10): Kyle put up those statistics in merely 15 starts, so you can argue he’s in fact been the best driver on the circuit this year. Here’s why I’m not counting Kyle as a Championship contender just yet: He’s historically been a disappointment come Chase time. He has one victory in the Chase and that happened early in his career when he wasn’t a Chase participant. He’s had huge regular seasons before and came up way short (like in 2008). Prove it to me Kyle.

3. Matt Kenseth (4 W, 10 T5, 16 T10): The class of the Gibbs cars that on paper look to be dominating this season. Kenseth got hot late this season and is obviously a contender…but unlike Johnson all of his victories came at tracks that aren’t in the Chase. I wouldn’t count him out though.

4. Joey Logano (3 W, 16 T5, 20 T10): Sliced Bread just keeps getting better, posting a ridiculous a great 8.6 average finish this season. Logano is right up there with Johnson for me in terms of being the second favorite. He almost won this thing last year and won at New Hampshire and Kansas. Wouldn’t be surprised to see him in the final four again.

5. Kevin Harvick (2 W, 18 T5, 22 T10): Easily the favorite. Has twelve top 2 finishes this season, which is insane. Harvick’s season so far has reflected the poor man’s version of Jeff Gordon’s 1998 season. He had three wins in the Chase alone last year, including the last two races. Make no mistake, he’s the driver to beat.

6. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2 W, 12 T5, 17 T10): A real dark horse to win it all this year. He has Talladega where he’s the favorite to win and is a cut off race. He won the Martinsville race after he was eliminated last year. He’s won at Texas and Phoenix in his career. I can’t say he’s a true contender though and he’s been historically subpar at Homestead though.

7. Kurt Busch (2 W, 8 T5, 14 T10): Probably a favorite to land somewhere in the 5th through 8th range. He’s had hot streaks in the late races before, but that was a long time ago.

8. Carl Edwards (2 W, 3 T5, 9 T10): Picked up a fuel mileage win at Charlotte that no one really took seriously, but then proved critics wrong with his win at Darlington. Nonetheless, he’ll need to be more consistent to have a shot at Homestead. I don’t see it.

9. Brad Keselowski (1 W, 6 T5, 18 T10): Keselowski seems like the guy who knows what he has to do in order to advance in this thing…I was probably the only fan who thought the way he drove last year was the right way to do it. He’s been more consistent this year, and perhaps maybe that’s his plan to get to the end? We’ll see.

10. Martin Truex Jr. (1 W, 7 T5, 17 T10): Kudos to Truex for having what seems to be the best season of his career. He peaked way too early with his top 10 streak and has fallen apart since then. My pick for the driver to have a Ryan Newman in 2014 type run.

11. Denny Hamlin (1 W, 9 T5, 13 T10): Another darkhorse to win it all. Hamlin’s had strong Chase runs before and was in the final four last year. As for his torn ACL, I recall him winning a few years ago with a broken leg or something, no? Always a threat at Martinsville (won there in the Spring), to which if he’s alive and wins there he’ll be in the final 4 again.

12. Jamie McMurray (2 T5, 7 T10): Finally! McMurray makes his first Chase. And while I’m counting him out as his resume is a good reason we need to slightly limit the Chase, McMurray does have an outside chance of doing something here. He absolutely can win Talladega (won there in 2009 and 2013). So we’ll see.

13. Jeff Gordon (3 T5, 13 T10): The sentimental favorite, and of course you can’t count out someone like Jeff Gordon, but it will be an uphill climb for him. Nonetheless he’s a threat to win everywhere and with solid finishes he could find himself at the end.

14. Ryan Newman (4 T5, 12 T10): Ultimately his big point penalty didn’t mean anything. I guess he could “Newman” the Chase again. He finished 2nd at Homestead last year so if he somehow gets there he has a legit shot to win it all.

15. Paul Menard (2 T5, 4 T10): Let’s be clear, if Menard wins the format needs to be revamped again.

16. Clint Bowyer ( 2 T5, 11 T10): Has the talent to make something happen in the Chase. Definitely a Talladega threat. Not sure how much his team has left though.

This is how I see the Chase breaking down.

Harvick makes a point and wins Chicagoland, Logano takes New Hampshire and Kurt Busch proves he’s a contender and wins Dover. He lose Menard, McMurray, Bowyer and Edwards. Jeff Gordon shows he’s not done and wins Charlotte, Kansas goes to Johnson and McMurray wins Talladega, although it’s too late for him. We lose Newman, Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Keselowski, who never got it going. Dale Jr. repeats at Martinsville, Johnson wins at Texas and Harvick takes Phoenix. Gordon, Kenseth, Kurt Busch and Truex Jr. go out. This leaves Dale Jr., Johnson, Logano and Harvick. Harvick outright wins again, taking home a 2nd straight title while Logano finishes in the top 5 (and 2nd in the standings), Johnson ends up about 10th and Dale Jr. ends up in the 20s.

It probably won’t shake out this way…but that’s how I’m calling it! Let’s hope we get an entertaining Chase!

Video Games

Ranking the Super Mario 64 Courses

It may be hard to believe, but it has been nineteen years since Nintendo established the 3D adventure platforming model with Super Mario 64. One of the most amazing feats of the game is that despite it being one of (if not the first) of its kind, it managed to put together memorable and awesome worlds. Here is a ranking. While I’m intending to rank these based on what I think is the best, the word best of course is subject to debate. Also, I am only ranking the main courses. No Cap Switch Palaces, no Bowser levels etc. Nonetheless, here we go!

  1. Tiny-Huge Island

mario64tinyhuge

The idea behind Tiny-Huge Island is tremendous. Problem is that it doesn’t quite work in Super Mario 64. When everything is huge the world is a chore to get around, but at least it’s not terrible. But when everything is tiny Tiny-Huge Island is the worst. Tiny Goombas run around like crazy and knock your giant self off the small island. It’s an absolute plan to get through most of the time. The red coin challenge in Wiggler’s Cave also feels awkward, but at least we get some solid platforming out of it. It has some good moments, like Wiggler making an appearance and the Koopa the Quick rematch, but overall as I said before, it’s a pain to get through.

  1. Tall Tall Mountain

mario64talltall

Pretty much the most boring course in the game. Tall Tall Mountain has four notable features: it’s tall, it has a bunch of mushrooms to platform through, it has an annoying monkey and it has a somewhat difficult slide. Only the slide is a positive here. Being tall would be a good challenge, but Tick Tock Clock does the “scale the tall world” thing a lot better.

  1. Dire Dire Docks

mario64diredire

Right up there with Tall Tall Mountain with being boring. Dire Dire Docks is simply two sections of water. It contains the Bowser sub, which unlocks Bowser at the Lava Sea. Problem there is there is next to no challenge upon boarding that sub. There’s also barely 100 coins here (I think 108 total?) so the entire challenge there is making sure you don’t screw up the blue coins. One of its potentially most interesting stars, Collect the Caps, is rendered useless as it’s actually easier to ignore the metal cap here. The only good star is the red coin challenge, as you must jump from one pole to another to collect them. Also has an area that if you get sucked in you end up in the moat outside the castle, which is an unnecessary time waster. It does have awesome music, so there is that.

  1. Shifting Sand Land

mario64sandland

Probably the worst level I would consider good (which means Mario 64’s worlds are 80% good. That’s pretty awesome actually). The outside is a pain, as normal plains are slow moving quicksand traps, so if you stand in place for too long it’s hard to run out if you need to. There are tons of other instant death sandtraps, specifically around pillars you need to land on or the main pyramid. The pillars themselves are annoying to get to the top of as the physics around them are strange, and trying it with a shell, while possible and fun, is probably unnecessarily dangerous. There is a lot of good in the Shifting Sand Land though. Crazy boxes are cool. The pyramid itself is quite fun and there’s a fun little boss battle in there.

  1. Hazy Maze Cave

mario64hazymaze

An interesting course for sure. Being that it’s a maze, it is easy to get lost and not find everything, but there’s nothing wrong with that. For the most part, this course is good. My only issue is that some of the stars seem a bit awkward to obtain. Riding Dorrie’s head is a bit weird. The actual maze with toxic fumes can be tough to navigate with beavers throwing rocks at you. The red coin star can be frustrating. But in the grand scheme of things, no biggie. Hazy Maze Cave is good and enjoyable and an interesting course to explore.

  1. Cool Cool Mountain

mario64coolcoolmount

Cool Cool Mountain has a couple of good things going for it. The slide and penguin race is a lot of fun. The baby penguin star can also be a lot of fun. Wall Kicks will work, also a lot of fun. On the flip side, the snowman lost his head star is a bit weird. Other than that, Cool Cool Mountain is another solid, fun level, but it’s only tenth as other than the slide, there is nothing special about it at all.

  1. Whomp’s Fortress

mario64whomps

One of the most interesting ideas that seemed to get dropped early on in Mario 64 is each world having a theme related to an enemy. The first world was a war between the Bob-ombs. Here we have the fortress of the Whomps (later, we’d have the house of the Boos). Anyway, Whomp’s Fortress is fantastically designed for the most part. Only issue is there’s a piece of the course when you’re platforming on small platforms that don’t really fit in with the rest of the level. Other than that, it’s thoroughly enjoyable and the Whomp King is pretty funny.

  1. Snowman’s Land

mario64snowman

Gets the nod over Whomp’s Fortress as Snowman’s Land has many different interesting sections. Of course, there’s the whole point of the world which is climbing up the big Snowman, which is fine. There’s also an igloo, an ice sculpture you have to jump through, a big bully and some shell shredding. Overall, a really fun course.

  1. Jolly Roger Bay

mario64jolly

This would be where I would start calling the levels great. Jolly Roger Bay may be the first recorderd water level that I really enjoyed in a video game. The music is beautiful (same as Dire Dire Docks…which gets all the credit for some reason as this came first) and provides a peaceful break in between all the platforming you did in Bob-omb Battlefield and Whomp’s Fortress. There is a tricky star where you have to launch yourself to a pillar and jump onto a small alcove in the wall, which gave me a lot of trouble as a kid. There’s also the ship, which leads to another section. Lastly, there’s a small cave that’s some fun as well. It does have one awkward star, the one that you try to take off the tail of the eel, but overall Jolly Roger Bay is great and so much better than Dire Dire Docks.

  1. Bob-omb Battlefield

mario64bomb

One of the best first levels in gaming history. When I first saw that Chain Chomp as a kid I realized that gaming was in a totally different world now. Bob-omb Battlefield is the perfect first world to get used to how Mario works in his new 3D environment. We even get our first tease in regards to the Switch Palaces. There are also some great characters introduced as well, including the Bob-omb King and Koopa the Quick! It would be higher, but flying through the middle of rings of coins is an odd star.

  1. Rainbow Ride

mario64rainbow

There’s so much to do in Rainbow Ride! There’s two different main path ways that you need to ride a magic carpet to get to…as well as a platforming maze and a whole lower level. Rainbow Ride is a fun test of platforming. I specifically liked some of the stars here, such as Tricky Triangles. A real great last test of your platforming abilities near the end of the game.

  1. Lethal Lava Land

mario64lethallava

Really up here for its awesome picture and it’s awesome first section. The first section has a Bowser matching part for 8 coins that is unnecessary but cool nonetheless. Otherwise, you can shell shred the entire world and it may be the most fun part of Super Mario 64 period. The volcano is pretty bland admittedly, but there is some good platforming to be had here.

  1. Tick Tock Clock

mario64ticktock

I would say that this begins the top tier. Easily the most interesting course in Super Mario 64. Tick Tock Clock does the whole “climb a huge level” deal way better than Tall Tall Mountain does. There’s tons of different places to go here with each having a different challenge. Tick Tock Clock is easily the most difficult 100 coin star in the game, with only Rainbow Ride coming close, and yet the challenge of getting all 100 coins is quite satisfying. Really fun. Pretty hard, especially if you don’t know what you are doing. As a bonus, the level reacts differently based on which number you enter the clock in. Great stuff.

  1. Big Boo’s Haunt

mario64boo

Another level with a myriad of places to explore. If Tick Tock Clock is the better Tall Tall Mountain, then Big Boo’s Haunt is the better Hazy Maze Cave. The 100 coin star requires you to interact with the main enemies of the course, which of course are the Boos. There are boos all over the place which is to be expected. I had another crazy childhood moment with that damn piano. Anyone who claims they weren’t at least startled by is lying. Also has a really cool star which requires a cap, a wall jump and some running. Has only small flaw…falling into the basement is a bit of a pain. But whatever, the rest of it is great.

  1. Wet-Dry World

mario64wetdry

Another course that changes based on how you jump into it (the higher you jump…the higher the water level). Wet-Dry World at first seems small until you check out all of its areas. You realize then that his course was just made for platforming. Arrow lift star is cool…even though you can actually avoid it altogether. Getting to the Top of the Town and finding five secrets force you to explore the level. This doesn’t even include the downtown area…another fun platforming level with a fun 8 red coin star and a time based one based on the invisible cap. Wet-Dry World just has no holes. It’s an awesome course in an awesome game.

Football

2015 NFL Season Predictions

We are merely hours away from kickoff for the 2015 NFL Season! For a few years parity has actually been escaping the NFL although no one has seemed to notice or care. The NFL is more popular than ever and if recent events involving Commissioner Roger Goodell doesn’t dent that popularity than nothing will. Back to the parity point, for years many claimed that parity, that any team could win and perhaps go to the Super Bowl any year, was a big reason for the NFL’s popularity. Only the last three years have shown otherwise. The AFC Title game for the past four years have been Patriots-Ravens (2012 postseason), Patriots-Ravens again (2013), Patriots-Broncos (2014) and Patriots-Colts (2015). On the NFC side it has been 49ers-Giants (2012), 49ers-Falcons (2013), 49ers-Seahawks (2014) and Seahawks-Packers (2015). It isn’t even as if the Packers and Colts or even Giants were new to this either. So while another team may surprisingly win the division or even sneak into the Conference Title game, the days of the surprising 1999 Rams or 2003 Panthers seem to be over. That’s fine, as it makes things easier to predict.

With that being said…RDT’s 2015 NFL Predictions.

NFC East

nflpredeli

Giants: 11-5
Cowboys: 10-6
Eagles 9-7
Redskins 6-10

It has been a few years since the Giants last surprised us with a Super Bowl run. While I don’t necessarily think a Super Bowl is in the cards this year this is the first time in a few years where I think the Giants aren’t being talked about enough (and I live in NY!). The Giants were a slightly better team than expected last year (7.5 Pythagorean Wins against 6 actual wins). With Odell Beckham giving Eli Manning his best weapon in his career, Eli just has to hope that whatever’s left of his offensive line can keep him protected. For two years now Eli’s O-Line has been decimated by injuries over the last couple of years and some of that lingers today. If he can get the ball out, Giants will have a chance on that side of the ball. The other thing going in the Giants’ favor is the absolute dysfunction of Washington and Philadelphia. The Redskins had their whole Robert Griffin III drama and now Kirk Cousins is starting, so that’s a mess waiting to happen. Philly has all the talent in the world, but Chip Kelly’s trade for, then lack of faith of, Sam Bradford sounds like a problem waiting to happen. I really think the ship has sailed on Kelly. What seemed revolutionary a couple of years ago now looks like a coach with too much roster power making crazy moves with a gimmick offense. I guess we’ll see. Dallas should be fine…they were arguably a play away from the NFC Title game last year…but I’ve been far past completely trusting Dallas and Tony Romo at this point.

NFC North

nflpredteddy

Vikings: 11-5
Packers: 11-5
Lions: 8-8
Bears: 7-9

It’s not just the return of Adrian Peterson, which may not even work out anyway (2,000 career caries), but that Minnesota is a young team that should only get better. They were 7-9 anyway without their best player. Part of that is Teddy Bridgewater and how well he played in his last six starts last year. According to Grantland, Teddy was 12 in QBR, completed 69% of his passes for 1,440 yards, 10 TDs and 6 INTS. Best of all, it was an improvement over his first six starts. If Bridgewater improves and Peterson is still a monster, that’s suddenly a super dangerous combination. Green Bay is always going to be there as long as Aaron Rodgers plays quarterback, and him alone is enough to make Green Bay a Super Bowl contender (they almost got there last year). While they won’t fall that much, Detroit losing Ndamukong Suh is going to hurt too badly for them to be able to deal with Green Bay or Minnesota. Their offense should be fine unless Calvin Johnson regresses. The Bears should be okay, unless Jay Cutler is completely done.

NFC South

nflprednewton

Panthers: 10-6
Saints: 8-8
Falcons: 7-9
Buccaneers: 4-12

This division is still a mess and really any of the four teams can take it. I like Carolina because despite not being the most talented team, Coach Ron Rivera’s transformation into “Riverboat Ron” (leading to taking chances on 4th down and such) and Cam Newton’s play gives Carolina a shot to win any game. Atlanta may be more talented, and who knows, perhaps the Matt Ryan-Julio Jones connection will be unstoppable this year, but I’ve never truly believed in Matt Ryan as a top tier quarterback. He always seemed like the guy with every single weapon at his disposal (Jones, Tony Gonzalez, Roddy White, Michael Turner). Their defense was horrid last year as well. Atlanta’s just going to have to prove it to me. I also think I’m over the Saints. I love Drew Brees, but losing Graham is going to hurt and I think their peak is over. And let’s give Jameis Winston a year to see what he’s got first.

NFC West

nflpredsherman

Seahawks: 12-4
Rams: 6-10
Cardinals: 5-11
49ers: 4-12

Even though I think Seattle is slowly on the way down they could easily be just fine and their division is weak anyway. I can’t find a powerhouse in the NFC that’s going take the regular season crown away from them. The Rams are a fun choice I guess, but I’m not going to believe in Nick Foles at QB. While they upset Seattle last year and have a good defense I need to see more before I go in with them. The Cardinals are a prime example of a team to fall apart. Without Carson Palmer they couldn’t score a point, and now we’re getting back a 35 year old Palmer coming off a torn ACL. Palmer’s been done as a top tier QB for years and I think 2014 was just an outlier. Then again, perhaps Arizona just needs him to be merely average. We’ll find out. I assume two people retired from the 49ers as I was writing this. I’m not putting any stock whatsoever in them. You don’t drop Jim Harbaugh and get better.

I just can’t find a way to bet against Seattle making the Super Bowl again. Unless there’s a crazy Giants team (don’t rule this out…happens every few years apparently) or Aaron Rodgers really is the GOAT (don’t rule this out either, although losing Jordy Nelson makes it so much harder on him) I’m going to have to pick Seattle here. Even if they are getting hit with “The Disease of More”.

AFC East

nflpredbrady

Patriots: 12-4
Bills: 9-7
Dolphins: 7-9
Jets: 6-10

An angry Patriots team is a scary Patriots team. While some key losses may seem to hurt them (Revis), you’re going to have to find a really good argument to convince me that New England isn’t going to make at least their fifth straight AFC Title game.  Remember how well Brady played after there were jokes that he was done and Jimmy Garoppolo was going to start? How did that turn out for the NFL? The Bills will be decent because Rex Ryan can get the best out of a smashmouth football team, but he’s still in the wrong era and Buffalo’s QB situation is appallingly bad. Miami seems to be a popular choice to surprise, but they have no secondary and Ryan Tannenhill is their quarterback. The Jets have Ryan Fitzpatrick running their offense. So unless the defense wants to carry them like they did for Geno, it’s just not going to happen.

AFC North

nflpredflacco

Ravens: 11-5
Steelers: 9-7
Bengals: 6-10
Browns: 3-13

The Ravens have some red flags…mainly their only legit WR is an aging Steve Smith and the running game looks like it has a lot to be desired. That’s okay though, their defense should carry them to at least the 9-7 range alone, and I’m more of a Joe Flacco fan than not at the moment. I think the Steelers are a bit weaker overall (and have a tough schedule…they play teams like the Colts where Baltimore doesn’t). The Bengals run of one and dones are going to end eventually, and until they move on from Andy Dalton I’m going to pick this season for that. You can’t help but feel bad for the Browns. Josh McCown and Johnny Manziel? Maybe Manziel figures it out. Don’t sleep on the Ravens though…you always have to give a real chance to well coached teams.

AFC South

nflpredluck

Colts: 12-4
Texans: 6-10
Titans: 5-11
Jaguars: 3-13

This is simple to figure out. The Jaguars are still a mess. Unless Mariotta is great right away the Titans will be bad once again, and the Texans somehow downgraded from Ryan Fitzpatrick at QB (although it wouldn’t surprise me if J.J. Watt somehow won 10 games by himself at this point). That leaves the Andrew Luck Colts. I don’t think the Colts are as good as everyone says…they’re right now a popular Super Bowl pick. People are forgetting that the only reason the Colts got by Denver in the playoffs last year was because Peyton Manning was hurt. Otherwise you had a Denver-NE rematch going. Colts will be fine, Luck might be better (which is why their record doesn’t fall), but they’re still behind New England and Denver.

AFC West

nflpredcharles

Chiefs: 11-5
Chargers: 11-5
Broncos: 10-6
Raiders: 6-10

Put a big asterisk here, because we don’t know what Peyton Manning we are getting. Is he healthy? Is he still hurt from last year? I think that fear combined with the changes made coaching wise will hurt Denver a bit…although a 10-6 Broncos team can absolutely make the Super Bowl.  The Chiefs are a stereotypical Andy Reid team. They’ll probably win the division and lose in the opening round to Denver. I’ve always been a bit of a Philip Rivers fan and thought he played well the last two years. I think this may be San Diego’s last shot at anything. Remember last year they started 5-1 and just had a rough schedule down the stretch.

Ultimately I see a rematch in the Super Bowl. While there are some teams that I think can threaten Seattle and New England, I feel there are too many flaws out there for them to overcome their weaknesses. I think Seattle wins this time though.

 

 

 

 

 

Basketball

Top 100 Basketball Players Ever: #60-#51

#60: Bernard King

top100king

Resume

All-NBA 1st Team: 2x (’84, ‘85)

All-NBA 2nd Team: 1x (’82)

All-NBA 3rd Team: 1x (’91)

All-NBA Rookie 1st Team: (’78)

NBA All-Star: 4x (’82, ’84, ’85, ‘91)

NBA PPG Leader (55 G): 1x (’85)

NBA Top 10 Points: 4x (’78, ’81, ’82, ’84)

NBA Top 5 Win Shares: 1x (’84)

NBA Top 2 WS/48: 1x  (’84)

NBA Top 10 PER: 2x (’81, ’82)

NBA Career Points: 42nd

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 58th

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 69th

I’ll admit to being a little skeptical overall of King, considering that his resume is quite short. With one (major) exception, it looked like King had one of the unluckiest careers in NBA history regarding injuries and style clashing. Bill Simmons described King as unstoppable from 1983-1985. This seems relevant as that’s part of one of the toughest eras in professional basketball history. This didn’t matter to King, the lone blue chipper for the early 80s Knicks, as he put together two NBA 1st teams and led the Knicks to the playoffs a couple of those years as well. In 1985, while leading the league in scoring he blew out his knee and never was the same. That, combined with King being stuck in Hubie Brown’s slowdown style, limited King to what he could have been.

Of course, King’s career is also hampered by cocaine use early in his career. His drug use limited him just as much as his later injuries would, I mean, isn’t it odd that King took so many years to peak, and when he did he was downright unstoppable in a tough era? Those King years at the top represent the player we wanted Carmelo Anthony to become, only it never quite happened for Melo (and probably isn’t at this point).

And then there’s this. Despite the injuries and such, King came back in 1991 and randomly put up a 28.4 PPG season at age 34. Combine that with his reputation, his long standing record of 60 points at MSG (which Kobe broke when Wilson Chandler couldn’t guard him) and that he was so good that his 55 game 1985 season still got him All-1st Team honors over Michael Jordan, and well I’ll have to push my skepticism to the side.

 #59: Elvin Hayes

top100hayes

Resume

All-NBA 1st Team: 3x (’75, ’77, ‘79)

All-NBA 2nd Team: 3x (’73, ’74, ‘76)

All-NBA Defensive 2nd Team: (’73, ’74)

All-NBA Rookie 1st Team: (’69)

NBA All-Star: 12x (’69, ’70, ’71, ’72, ’73, ’74, ’75, ’76, ’77, ’78, ’79, ‘80)

NBA Points Leader: 1x (’69)

NBA Rebounds Leader: 2x (’70, ’74)

NBA Defensive Rating Leader: 1x (’75)

NBA Defensive Win Shares Leader: 3x (’71, ’74, ’75)

NBA Top 10 Points: 7x (’69, ’70, ’71, ’72, ’75, ’77, ‘80)

NBA Top 10 Rebounds: 13x (’69, ’70, ’71, ’72, ’73, ’74, ’75, ’76, ’77, ’78, ’79, ’80, ’81)

NBA Top 10 Blocks: 8x (’74, ’75, ’76, ’77, ’78, ’79, ’80, ’81)

NBA Top 10 Steals: 1x (’75)

NBA Top 10 Win Shares: 3x (’74, ’75, ‘77)

NBA Top 10 Defensive Win Shares: 12x (’69, ’70, ’71, ’72, ’73, ’74, ’75, ’76, ’77, ’78, ’79, ’80, ’81)

NBA Top 10 WS/48: 1x (’75)

NBA Top 10 PER: 2x (’81, ’82)

NBA Career Points: 9th

NBA Career Rebounds: 4th

NBA Career Blocks: 22nd

Best Player on One NBA Champion: ’78 Bullets

Best Player on Two Runner-Ups: ’75 Bullets, ’79 Bullets

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 51st

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 23rd

Looking at the resume you’re likely to side with Slam’s ranking of Hayes than Simmons. Here are the following quotes about Hayes from various publications and sportswriters at the time:

“During his four years with the Rockets, Hayes was variously considered a ball hog, a rotten apple, a dumbbell and a guaranteed loser.” –Sports Illustrated, 1974

“Individualism overcame Elvin in yet another big contest.”

“Hayes once more disappeared in the moments of crisis.”

“It’s imperative for the Bullets that their only real name player and 10 year All-Star justify his status by not dissolving at the end of the seventh game [of the Finals].” – Curry Kirkpatrick, Sports Illustrated, 1978

“You stay away from that no-good fucking prick.” – Rockets’ Coach Bill Fitch, on what he reportedly told rookie Ralph Sampson when Hayes said he wanted to mentor him.

Now, being a jerk and being hated by the sports media doesn’t mean you’re a bad player (although, it’s a good sign that you’re a terrible teammate and a potential locker room cancer), so let’s go with a couple of game related stories.

Hayes may be the worst “best player on a title team ever”, and it’s debated about whether or not he really was the best player on that 1978 title team (Unseld). The defining story? After scoring a total of 19 fourth quarter points in six Finals games in 1978, and calls for him to step up in Game 7, Hayes fouled out with 10 minutes to go in the fourth quarter of that Game 7. The Bullets, on the road, managed to win the title without him as Unseld won Finals MVP. Not exactly MJ against Utah. Speaking of Utah, in terms of clutchness Hayes is regarded as the poor man’s Karl Malone. That’s not a compliment. All of this combined with that he peaked during a weak era of pro basketball, the 1970s, and his lowish ranking starts to make some sense.

#58: Paul Arizin

top100arizin

Resume

All-NBA 1st Team: 3x (’52, ’56, ‘57)

All-NBA 2nd Team: 1x (’59)

NBA All-Star: 10x (’51, ’52, ’55, ’56, ’57, ’58, ’59, ’60, ’61, ‘62)

NBA Points Leader: 2x (’52, ’57)

NBA Win Share Leader: 1x (’52)

NBA Offensive Win Share Leader: 1x (’52)

NBA Top 10 Points: 9x (’51, ’52,’55, ’56, ’57, ’58, ’59, ’60, ’61)

NBA Top 10 Rebounds: 2x (’51, ’52)

NBA Top 10 PER: 4x (’52, ’56, ’57, ’59)

NBA Top 10 Win Shares: 8x: (’51, ’52, ’55, ’56, ’57, ’59, ’60, ’61)

NBA Top 10 WS/48: (’52, ’56, ’57, ’59)

First Player to average 20+PPG for Nine Straight Seasons

Best Player on One NBA Champion: ’56 Warriors

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 56th

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 71st

The first player to ever use a jump shot, which seems important from a historical point of view. Arizin was the best player on the last pre-Russell NBA Champs, the ’56 Warriors. He had a killer post-season that year (29-8, .262 WS/48). Would have probably had more All-Stars, but in ’53 and ’54 he was forced into military duty and didn’t play. He ended his career on a high note, averaging a 23-7 for the Sixers as they almost beat the ’62 Celtics. Arizin is one of the top examples that Wilt Chamberlain in fact had great players as teammates too.

#57: Dolph Schayes

top100schayes

Resume

All-NBA 1st Team: 6x (’52, ’53, ’54, ’55, ’57, ’58)

All-NBA 2nd Team: 6x (’50, ’51, ’56, ’59, ’60, ’61)

NBA All-Star: 12x (’51, ’52, ’53, ’54, ’55, ’56, ’57, ’58, ’59, ’60, ’61, ‘62)

NBA Rebounds Leader: 1x (’51)

NBA FT% Leader: 3x (’58, ’60, 62)

NBA Win Share Leader: 1x (’58)

NBA WS/48 Leader: 1x (’54)

NBA Defensive Win Share Leader: 1x (’55)

NBA Top 10 Points: 11x (’51, ’53, ’54, ’55, ’56, ’57, ’58, ’59, ’60, ’61, ‘62)

NBA Top 10 Rebounds: 12x (’51, ’52, ’53, ’54, ’55, ’56, ’57, ’58, ’59, ’60, ’61, ‘62)

NBA Top 10 Assists: 3x (’50, ’51, ’57)

NBA Top 3 FT%: 10x: (’53, ’54, ’55, ’56, ’57, ’58, ’59, ’60, ’61, ‘62)

NBA Top 10 PER: 10x: (’53, ’54, ’55, ’56, ’57, ’58, ’59, ’60, ’61, ‘62)

NBA Top 10 Win Shares: 11x: (’50, ’51, ’52, ’53, ’54, ’55, ’56, ’57, ’58, ’59, ’60)

NBA Career Rebounds: 26th

Best Player on One NBA Champion: ’55 Nationals

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 52nd

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 35th

Like Hayes, an outstanding resume that merits Schayes being ranked higher. Schayes issue is the era he played in: the 1950s. Before Bill Russell showed up Schayes was one of the best players in the early NBA along with George Mikan (who we’ll get to). After Russell (and others), Schayes stopped winning in the playoffs. That’s fine. The total weight of his resume gives him a decent amount of credit, and I put him above Hayes as Schayes defining story (playing a full season with a broken arm and just switching his main hand) is a lot better than Hayes.

It’s always going to be tough to rank the 1950s guys. They will always take a hit (half of Dolph’s career was even before the shot clock existed) ranking wise. Dolph’s resume was too good to drop outside the Top 60.

#56: Dominique Wilkins

top100wilkins

Resume

All-NBA 1st Team: 1x (‘86)

All-NBA 2nd Team: 4x (’87, ’88, ’91, ’93)

All-NBA 3rd Team: 2x (’89, ’94)

NBA All-Star: 9x (’86, ’87, ’88, ’89, ’90, ’91, ’92, ’93, ’94)

NBA PPG Leader: 1x (’86)

NBA Top 10 Points: 9x (’85, ’86, ’87, ’88, ’89, ’90, ’91, ’93, ’94)

NBA Top 10 Win Shares: 2x: (’86, ‘87)

NBA Top 10 WS/48: (’87, ’93)

NBA Career Points: 12th

NBA Career Steals: 56th

NBA Career Offensive Rebounds: 31st

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 55th

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 43rd

If you’re siding with Dominique to be 15-20 spots higher, you’re rewarding individual and arguably selfish play over team ball. You can look at the fact that ‘Nique never got past round 2 in two ways: he clashed against the Bad Boy Pistons, Bird’s Celtics and Jordan’s Bulls…or you can come to the conclusion that a self-absorbed  all O and no D scorer who did nothing to make his teammates better couldn’t will his teams to the finish line.

It doesn’t mean that Dominique wasn’t a great player. His Hawks teams routinely made the playoffs and even won 50+ games from ’86-’89 (peaking at 57 in 1987) and he didn’t have that much of a supporting cast (Kevin Willis and Doc Rivers were his best teammates). So he has to get credit for that. He had one chance to get to the Conference Finals, but his 47 wasn’t enough (Bird scored 20 in the 4th and Boston won by 2). But again, his defense was a problem for the Hawks in that game as well. How far can a no defense guy get in the playoffs without a strong defensive unit around him or a top shot blocking center? Not far enough it seems.

#55: Chris Paul

top100paul

Resume

NBA Rookie of the Year: ‘06

All-NBA 1st Team: 4x (’08, ’12, ’13, ‘14)

All-NBA 2nd Team: 2x (’09, ‘15)

All-NBA 3rd Team: 1x (‘11)

All-NBA Defensive 1st Team: 5x (’09, ’12, ’13, ’14, ’15)

All-NBA Defensive 2nd Team: 1x (’08)

All-NBA Rookie 1st Team: ‘06

NBA All-Star Game MVP: 1x (’13)

NBA All-Star: 8x (’08, ’09, ’10, ’11, ’12, ’13, ’14, ‘15)

NBA Assists Leader: 3x (’08, ’09, ’15)

NBA Steals Leader: 5x (’06, ’08, ’09, ’11, ’12)

NBA Win Shares Leader: 1x (’08)

NBA Offensive Win Shares Leader: 3x (’08, ’12, ’15)

NBA WS/48 Leader: 1x (’08)

NBA Top 10 Points: 2x (’09, ‘15)

NBA Top 10 Assists: 10x (’06, ’07, ’08, ’09, ’10, ’11, ’12, ’13, ’14, ’15)

NBA Top 3 Steals: 8x (’06, ’08, ’09, ’11, ’12, ’13, ’14, ’15)

NBA Top 10 Win Shares: 7x (’08, ’09, ’11, ’12, ’13, ’14, ’15)

NBA Top 10 WS/48: 8x (’08, ’09, ’10, ’11, ’12, ’13, ’14, ’15)

NBA Top 10 PER: 8x (’08, ’09, ’10, ’11, ’12, ’13, ’14, ’15)

NBA Top 10 Offensive Rating: 8x (’08, ’09, ’10, ’11, ’12, ’13, ’14, ’15)

NBA Career Assists: 16th

NBA Career Steals: 26th

NBA Career APG: 3rd

NBA Career SPG: 4th

NBA Career Offensive Rating: 1st

NBA Career Win Shares: 32nd

NBA Career WS/48: 3rd

NBA Career PER: 6th

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 90th

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 107th

On paper, CP3 is already one of the greatest basketball players ever. He either holds or is on pace to hold many different records (both traditional and advanced). He would hold a spot on the starting five best two way players in the NBA right now, and would even have a chance at an all-time version. He was absolutely robbed of the MVP in 2008 (sorry Kobe fans) where he put up 21.1 PPG, 11.6 APG, 4 RPG and 2.7 SPG while only having 2.5 turnovers a game for a 56 win Hornets team. Only players in NBA history to put up 20 PPG, 11 APG and 2 SPG in a season are CP3 and Isiah…although CP3 did it with less turnovers and shot a higher percentage.

So what holds CP3 back from a higher ranking? For some reason or another he also can’t get past round 2 of the playoffs. Twice he’s gotten to Game 7 of the 2nd round and once to a super close Game 6, and each time he fell short. In 2008 a 22 year old Paul has been dominating the playoffs and had a 3-2 lead on the Spurs…but the Spurs shocked the Hornets in Game 7 as Paul was “held” to a 18-14-8-5. He was masterful for the most part in the six game loss to the Thunder in 2014, averaging 22-12-4 and 2 and a half steals for the series, but Durant and Westbrook were too good and the Thunder prevailed. Both of those losses though could be justified. What wasn’t justified was the Clippers blowing their series against Houston last year. Putting that together with the up 3-2 against the Spurs and the Thunder series (famously lost Game 5 despite being up 7 with 50 seconds to go) one has to wonder why Chris Paul teams keep blowing huge games (even in round 1 last year against the Spurs, a series that the Clippers won and Paul was masterful in Game 7 in, there were several blunders along the way, especially in Game 2, which made you question the toughness of the Clippers). Until he can rectify this, I don’t know if he’ll ever crack the top 40.

But I think he’ll do it eventually. He’s 30 years old now and should still have 3-4 elite years left. The talent is there. The coaching is there. They have beaten great teams (like the Spurs last year). Is Chris Paul the leader we all think he is? Or is there a little bit of Oscar Robinson in him…someone who’s teammates play in fear of him and as a result screw up in the clutch? We’ll find out.

#54: Billy Cunningham

top100cunningham

Resume

ABA MVP: 1x (’73)

All-NBA 1st Team: 3x (’69, ’70, ‘71)

All-NBA 2nd Team: 1x (’72)

All-ABA 1st Team: 1x (’73)

All-NBA Rookie 1st Team: ‘66

ABA Steals Leader: 1x (’73)

NBA All-Star: 4x (’69, ’70, ’71, ’72)

ABA All-Star: 1x (’73)

ABA Steals Leader: 1x (’73)

NBA Top 10 Points: 3x (’69, ’70, ’71)

ABA Top 5 Points: 1x (’73)

NBA Top 10 Assists: 1x (’75)

ABA Top 3 Assists: 1x (’73)

NBA Top 10 Rebounds: 2x (’69, ’70)

ABA Top 5 Rebounds: 1x (’73)

NBA Top 10 Win Shares: 1x (’70)

ABA Top 3 Win Shares: 1x (’73)

Sixth Man For One Champion: ’67 Sixers

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 49th

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 41st

At first it doesn’t feel like he has the resume, although both Simmons and Slam rank him quite highly. His ABA MVP year is nothing to sneeze at: 24-12-6 with 2 and a half steals per game. Ranked in the top 5 in points, top 3 in assists and top 5 in rebounds while leading the ABA in steals during his MVP year. Simmons thought he was good enough to be the 1969 MVP (22-11-3). He’s regarded as the best small forward for a five year stretch. He’s another example that Wilt played with great players during his career, and Cunningham was a solid 6th man (15 PPG) for that ’67 Sixers team that won the title (in regards to his playstyle, he’s compared to Manu).

#53: Hal Greer

top100greer

Resume

All-NBA 2nd Team: 7x (’63, ’64, ’65, ’66, ’67, ’68, ‘69)

NBA All-Star Game MVP: 1x (’68)

NBA All-Star: 10x (’61, ’62, ’63, ’64, ’65, ’66, ’67, ’68, ’69, ‘70)

NBA Top 10 Points: 6x (’63, ’64, ’65, ’66, ’67, ’68)

NBA Top 10 Assists: 4x (’64, ’65, ’66, ’68)

NBA Top 10 Win Shares: 3x (’63, ’66, 68)

2nd Best Player on One Championship Team: ’67 Sixers

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 48th

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 59th

Another not quite impressive resume…but Greer gets ranked this high for being Wilt’s 2nd banana (scoring 27.7 PPG in the ’67 playoffs where the Sixers won the title) as well as for his consistency year in and year out. There’s not much else to say about Greer. Players from his era respected his work ethic and thought he had a beautiful jump shot. He also shot free throws with his jumper. Nonetheless, season after season of 20 PPG as primarily a 2nd banana with a Championship is nothing to sneeze at. More proof Wilt played with great players.

#52: Nate Thurmond

top100thurmond

Resume

All-NBA Defensive 1st Team: 2x (’69, ’71)

All-NBA Defensive 2nd Team: (’72, ’73, ’74)

All-NBA Rookie 1st Team: ‘64

NBA All-Star: 7x (’65, ’66, ’67, ’68, ’70, ’73, ‘74)

NBA Top 10 Rebounds: 8x (’65, ’66, ’67, ’68, ’69, ’71, ’72, ‘73)

NBA Top 10 Blocks: 2x (’74, ‘75)

NBA Top 5 Defensive Rating: 1x (’75)

NBA Top 10 Defensive Win Shares: 8x (’65, ’66, ’67, ’68, ’69, ’72, ’73, ’75)

NBA Career Rebounds: 10th

2nd Best Player on One Runner-Up: (’67 Warriors)

Starter on One Runner-Up: (’64 Warriors)

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 45th

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 34th

Probably in the starting lineup for the all-time underrated team. He mad no All-NBA teams but for a very good reason: his career coincided with Wilt, Russell, Kareem and Reed (and there was no Third Team back then). Regarded as the 2nd best defensive center in the league after Russell. Recorded 2.9 BPG when he was washed up in ’74…it was the first year the NBA recorded blocks. Had the first recorded quadruple double (22 PTS, 14 REB, 13 AST, 12 BLK) in 1974.

His lack of championship success was because of two things. One, he was ridiculously unlucky as Rick Barry bolted the Warriors for the ABA. Had he stayed, some of those early 70s titles probably go to the Warriors. When Barry came back the Warriors traded him to Chicago to save money…and Thurmond almost made them pay as the Bulls took the Warriors to 7 games in the Western Finals.

The second part was what kept him off of all those All-NBA teams. He wasn’t getting past Russell, Wilt or Kareem. Kareem and Wilt both said Thurmond was their toughest defender in the early 70s. Just think of the rich man’s Dikembe Mutombo here.

#51: Wes Unseld

top100unseld

Resume

NBA MVP: 1x (’69)

NBA Finals MVP: 1x (’78)

NBA All-1st Team: 1x (’69)

All-NBA Rookie 1st Team: ‘69

NBA All-Star: 5x (’69, ’71, ’72, ’73, ‘75)

NBA Top 10 Rebounds: 10x (’69, ’70, ’71, ’72, ’73, ’75, ’76, ’77, ’78, ’80)

NBA Top 3 Offensive Rating: 1x (’79)

NBA Top 10 Defensive Rating: 2x (’75, ’76)

NBA Top 10 Win Shares: 5x (’69, ’70, ’73, ’75, ’76)

NBA Top 10 WS/48: 2x (’69, ’75)

NBA Top 10 Defensive Win Shares: 8x (’69, ’70, ’71, ’73, ’75, ’76, ’77, ‘78)

NBA Career Rebounds: 12th

2nd Best Player on One NBA Champion: ’78 Bullets

2nd Best Player on Three Runner-Ups: ’71 Bullets, ’74 Bullets, ’79 Bullets

Simmons Pyramid Ranking (2010): 42nd

Slam Magazine 500 Ranking (2011): 33rd

A strange resume that you’ll have to ignore statistics to appreciate. Defensively, Unseld wasn’t a shot blocker…yet put up some really good defensive rating and defensive win shares numbers. He wasn’t a scorer, yet was really efficient offensively. He was arguably the best player (I know we said Hayes, but ugh) on that ’78 Bullets team for doing all the dirty work (screens, rebounding) and for being the greatest outlet passer in NBA history (Red Auerbach said that perhaps only Russell was better). So it’s just going to be impossible to capture the impact Unseld had through awards and statistics.

Here’s the thing. Back in the 60s and early 70s…the players voted on the league MVP. Sure they got carried away with it and Unseld wasn’t the correct choice…but it’s something that he did win MVP, no? His opponents thought he was that difficult to deal with playing against him. And Unseld showed it was at least somewhat of a worthy accolade as he’d win the ’78 Finals MVP. So there’s more evidence that he’s a great player than not. What a tough player to rank.

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WCW Fall Brawl ’95

WCW Fall Brawl ‘95
September 17, 1995
Asheville, NC

The War is on! WCW Nitro had launched two weeks prior to this show and had surprised everyone by being competitive in the ratings with WWF Raw. WCW hit the WWF right where it hurt when they stole Lex Luger away and he made a surprise appearance on the first Nitro. The WWF, with taped shows already in the can, couldn’t do anything to stop WCW early on. WCW also had the first PPV since the Monday Night Wars started, and here it is. The main event here is a bit questionable…we have the four big faces (Sting, Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage and Lex Luger) against a heel group without remotely the star power to match the face team (The Dungeon of Doom) so you know who’s winning here. Should WCW just went for the kill right away with Luger and Sting vs. Hogan and Savage? We’ll never know.

Still, a good PPV here and the WWF would really be in trouble. Could WCW pull it off?

The Card

#1 Contender for the United States Championship
Flyin’ Brian vs. Johnny B. Badd

Badd looks exactly like he would a year later as “Wildman” Marc Mero when he was the IC Champ, red outfit and all.

Hilarious first moment. Badd tries to throw a Frisbee into the crowd, but accidentally hits the ringpost and it goes nowhere, getting a noticeable groan from the crowd.

Michael Buffer is announcing the opener. How confusing.

Pretty slow start here. Most notable moment in the first five minutes was a double dropkick.

Beautiful bridge trap by Pillman for a two count.

About eight minutes in Pillman starts to bring out the heel stuff. I expect this to pick up now.

Great variation of the surfboard from Badd. So far this is the best Mero match I’ve ever seen.

Buffer says five minutes remaining…so we know where this is going.

Thing really pick up at this point though. Badd starts to fly with a plancha onto the floor!

Pillman takes out Badd with an awesome dropkick as Badd comes off the top! Only two for that.

The big moves are coming! Powerbomb from Badd gets two, Tombstone from Pillman also gets two!

Badd counters the Tornado DDT from the top!
Ugh. Badd goes into a hold, which doesn’t make sense at this point. There’s only two minutes left!

We get to the time limit, but the referee declares that there has to be a winner considering they need a #1 contender…so overtime!

Great elevation on a top rope sunset flip from Badd. I woulda bought that as a 1995 finish for sure.

Top rope hurricanrana…but Pillman still kicks out.

Pillman hits the Tornado DDT this time…but Badd survives! Great idea for OT not to last a mere 2 minutes or something.

Badd throws Pillman off the top rope onto the guardrail! Ouch!

Pillman hits a suicide dive through the ropes and gets a lot of distance. Announcers claim Pillman didn’t really hit it, which is a shame because it looked awesome.

Johnny B. Badd pins Flyin’ Brian in 29:17. Double crossbody, and despite Pillman landing on top they make it seem like Badd got the best of it and he makes the cover for the win. Pretty disappointing finish considering everything else. I thought this was a great 20 minute match masquerading as a 30 minute match, but that doesn’t change that it was very good overall. Interestingly, both Badd and Pillman would be gone from WCW within six months. Easily the best Badd match I’ve ever seen.

Ric Flair on the mic and he really knows how to sell something special. He talks about the broken families he and Arn Anderson had went through and you can’t help but feel the damaged friendship between them.

Sgt. Craig Pittman vs. Cobra

I have no idea what this feud is about. Looks like a military vs. military thing or something.

Some random soldier comes down to distract Cobra as Pittman comes from the ceiling. Pittman chokes him out with his ammo belt.

Craig Pittman makes Cobra submit in 1:22. Code Red armbreaker for the win. At least this was short. Why was this on the PPV anyway? What was the point?

We get a video of Mr. Wonderful angrily doubting himself in the back. Some psychic tries to talk to him and get him back on track. Uh…Orndorff retired shortly after this. I don’t blame him, this was awful.

WCW Television Championship
The Renegade© vs. Diamond Dallas Page

The Renegade is an Ultimate Warrior ripoff.

Pretty funny how far DDP would come in the next 18 months. He looks ridiculous here.

DDP runs into the ring post by himself then takes a bump over the guardrail. That was strange for sure.

This was a time that Page and Kimberly weren’t getting along because Page treated her like crap. Page does manage to get all the heat here with no help at all from the Renegade.

Renegade’s comeback was pretty decent actually.

Diamond Dallas Page wins the title by pin in 8:07. Maxx Muscle holds Renegade’s foot, and DDP hits a pretty bad Diamond Cutter for the win. Nothing really to say here, although this could have been a lot worse.

WCW World Tag Team Championship
Bunkhouse Buck and Dick Slater© vs. Harlem Heat

The real point of this feud is that there’s some strange relationship deal with Sherri and Col. Robert Parker, which sounds awful just typing it.

Bobby Heenan reciting a poem is the highlight so far. Otherwise, we’ve just had a few minutes of punching and kicking so far.

The crowd is dead quiet here.

Terrible atomic drop from Slater.

Booker gets trapped in there and we get one of the most boring heat segments I’ve ever seen in a major tag team match. Were Slater and Buck just going through the motions here?

In the 2nd ring Sherri starts crawling toward Parker and they start making out…

Harlem Heat win the title when Booker pins Buck in 16:49. The Nasty Boys come out and take out Buck with a boot shot to the heat for Harlem Heat’s win. Parker would move onto co-manage Harlem Heat with Sherri…but they’d lose the belts to The American Males the next night. Anyway, this was awful. Seventeen minutes of just about nothing.

Ric Flair vs. Arn Anderson

Flair and Double A had been as close as brothers, but things began to go wrong thanks to Vader. The story pushes that Flair hasn’t been the same for a year since he lost the World title to Hogan. Anderson wanted to see Flair be the best again. Flair blamed Anderson for not helping him at crucial spots.

I love Double A’s demeanor throughout the opening sequence. Just straight out seriousness with the occasional mocking of Flair.

Smart booking decision to have Anderson dominate the early going. If there was anyone who thought Anderson wasn’t on Flair’s level, this would be showing them otherwise.

Commentators do a great job explaining why Anderson’s armbars hurt so much. That’s something that’s just missed in today’s wrestling.

Flair takes total control. Once again, the commentary is great, and now its question about whether or not Double A can hang with Flair. You really want Anderson to pull this one out.

Anderson blocks the Figure Four by holding Flair’s leg when he tried to come down with it. Can’t say I’ve seen that one before.

Crowd erupts when Anderson reverses the Figure Four. Hell, crowd goes nuts for each false finish here.

Arn Anderson pins Ric Flair in 22:37. Brian Pillman climbs onto the apron when Flair has Anderson down and kicks Flair in the head. Double A drops Flair with a DDT and gets the upset. Crowd ultimately was mixed on the finish (I think they were into the match…but this is still Flair country…nevermind that it wasn’t clean). All of this would lead to the reunion of the Horsemen, although I don’t remember how it played out.

War Games
Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Lex Luger and Sting vs. Kamala, The Shark, The Zodiac and Meng

If the Hulkamaniacs win, Hogan gets five minutes with The Taskmaster.

This was a cartoonish feud that didn’t really jive with the rest of what WCW was doing at this point. Kevin Sullivan’s pre-match promo/video is just laughable.

A side story to this is the debut of The Giant, who was being promoted as Andre’s son.

This has to be one of the most unbalanced multi-man tag team matches in wrestling history. There’s literally no way the Dungeon of Doom can win no matter how much the “can the good guys trust one another” story is shoved down our throats.

The Hulkamaniacs are in camouflage and have an American flag. Uh…is Kevin Sullivan not from the US or something?

Dungeon of Goom. Really Hogan?

Beefcake looks ridiculous, even for him, as the Zodiac.

We start off with Sting and the Shark.

Entertaining start, with Sting diving over both top ropes and taking out the Shark.

No idea if this was planned, but the Shark tries the same over both top ropes dive that Sting did earlier, but gets caught up on the ropes. I like John Tenta, but he shouldn’t be trying anything like that for sure.

Not a bad opening period. Of course the heels win the coin toss and here comes the Zodiac.

Things have slowed down since the Zodiac got in. Randy Savage comes in to save Sting from an uninspiring two on one beat down.

Kamala is next and this has just turned into a sloppy brawl.

Luger comes and evens the odds are again. Only decent part so far has been Sting-Shark and even that wasn’t that great.

Luger and Savage accidentally hit another and go at it…at least something interesting happens. Here comes Meng.

Luger sells a kick from Meng that doesn’t even remotely hit.

Hogan comes in and throws powder in everyone’s eyes. And he’s the top good guy!

Zodiac oversells some Hogan punches. That was embarrassing.

The Hulkamaniacs win when Hogan makes Zodiac submit in 18:47.

We get a terrible Camel Clutch (called a reverse chinlock) for the win. It’s not like Sting and Luger have finishers that are submission holds afterall. Hogan didn’t take one move, it was all offense and that was it for the Dungeon of Doom. Absolutely horrible all around here with a shit finish. Second worst War Games in the history of the match (’98 is worse for sure).

Hogan then beats up Sullivan for a while, before the Giant comes in and chokes Hogan and injures his neck. Even in getting beat down, Hogan doesn’t take a bump. What an embarrassment.

Two really good matches but a whole lot of garbage inbetween. WCW needed to move past this Dungeon of Doom thing, but really wouldn’t until mid-96 when Scott Hall showed up.

A least the Nitros have been good so far.

Final Grade: C

Pro Wrestling

RAW vs. NITRO Week 2 (9/11/95)

Week 2

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Nitro: 9/11/95
Miami, FL

We’ve got a big name World Title match tonight, Hulk Hogan vs. Lex Luger!

I think it’s awesome that Bischoff put Luger in a Nitro main event immediately. Luger was all over WWF TV just two weeks prior.

This is the go home PPV for Fall Brawl ’95.

Mongo looks ridiculous with glasses.

Bischoff says that Vader has gown AWOL. I think Vader was just fired. Anyway, he’s out of the War Games match.

Sabu vs. Alex Wright

We’re not in ECW are we anymore Sabu?

Sabu takes Wright over the top with a frankensteiner.

Sabu uses a chair as a springboard…but Wright moves and Sabu leg lariats the railing!

Awesome backflip off the top from Wright…which transitions into a German Suplex.

Sabu gets the three on Alex Wright after a top rope victory roll…but Sabu continues the attack and drives Wright through a table!

Alex Wright wins by DQ in 3:58. Ref reverses the decision. Pretty fun 4 minute match with nice spots. Good showing off of Sabu and Wright.

Here comes Ric Flair!

Flair compares himself to Joe Montana and Arn Anderson to Lawrence Taylor. Uh…

Lex Luger comes out to tell Flair “he’s too much” and leaves. Ok?

What an odd segment that was. I mean the interview was fine…but the Luger cameo was what?

Sting vs. VK Wallstreet

Wallstreet is an absolute Million Dollar Man ripoff here.

Bischoff says that “Shawn Michaels beat the big guy with a superkick!” I’m sure Vince McMahon had a heart attack right there. HBK vs. Sid was the main event on RAW…which was taped on August 28th, 1995.

Bischoff says of Wallstreet: “It’s all about power, it’s all about money, and that’s why he’s in WCW”. You think Hogan said that about his contract negotiation?

A very heavy anti-WWF segment here. Bischoff points out Luger was wrestling for the WWF nine days ago but left because he wanted competition. Ouch.

Sting pins Wallstreet in 4:13. Crossbody off the top for the win. Too short for my tastes, but it was fine and the crowd was into it.

Bischoff makes sure that we watch Saturday Night for the debut of Disco Inferno!

Scott Norton vs. Randy Savage

Norton was treated as a big deal early on. No one remembers his debut on the first Nitro…and by this time next year he’d be wrestling Ice Train.

Savage is selling like a million bucks for Norton at least.

Randy Savage pins Scott Norton in 5:39. The Dungeon of Doom hit the ring, and Norton and The Shark bump heads and Shark falls on Norton’s legs. This let’s Savage drop the big elbow for the win. Pretty weird finish. Dungeon of Doom attack Savage as a precursor to War Games. Weird to build up Norton to have him lose right away though.

WCW World Championship: Hulk Hogan© vs. Lex Luger

Hogan does put Luger over like a million bucks here. Well, right until he survives the Torture Rack.

We get the Hulk Up as well. Crowd kinda died during it.

Hulk Hogan wins by DQ in 5:28. Dungeon of Doom ruins this one too. Hogan of course legdropped Luger…so much for putting him over.

Sting and Savage run in, but the DOD don’t attack Luger! Now Hogan doesn’t trust him. This would set up the untruthworthy Luger deal. Sting defends him. How didn’t this lead to the Megapowers vs. Sting and Luger?

Luger will be Vader’s replacement this Sunday! Well, at least that’s what Sting wants. Savage is against him. Hogan, the deciding vote, says yes. Savage is brilliant here.

A solid outing for Nitro again, but I thought some things missed this time around. I liked Sabu vs. Wright…but the reverse decision blows. I don’t think anyone thought Wallstreet was beating Sting…and the announcers decided to use that time to talk about the WWF anyway. Flair’s interview was there. Scott Norton was put over in losing, but he wasn’t really the right guy to draw anyway. Hogan vs. Luger…booked as a dream match and all, went a mere 5 minutes. I feel like they could have cut Sting vs. Wallstreet here. It may have been the best quality match involving a big name, but also the least important.

That being said…we still got a show full of nonstop action, and Hogan put on his working boots for Luger for 4 minutes and 45 seconds. Savage did too. It’s also a good sign that the Nitro rating barely moved…even though it was up against RAW this week.

For the record I am all for Bischoff giving away the RAW results.

TV Rating: 2.4 (-0.1)
Grade: B+

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RAW: 9/11/95
Canton, Ohio

Now that Vince saw what the competition was offering it was time to outshine them and own Monday Nights.

Oh wait…the show is taped.

Yes, taped back in August. Next week’s show is as well. Fun fact that Lex Luger was in a the dark match for this show.

The WWF is coming off a pretty awful Summerslam (a one match care if there ever was one, although The Kid vs. Hakushi was fine too). Now they’ve lost one of their main players, how will Vince respond? Despite a pretty good talent roster, somehow this meant more pushing for Mabel. No idea why.

The main event here is a match that was originally scheduled for Summerslam: HBK vs. Sid for the IC Title. Watching Nitro first though…Bischoff told us how that would turn out.

We have The Bulldog vs. Razor too. Two pretty big matches!

No idea why the WWF went to this terrible intro in 1995…especially when the classic RAW theme outright owned.

Razor Ramon vs. The British Bulldog

The Bulldog just turned heel on Diesel. Ramon just lost the IC title Ladder Match…and also had problems with Dean Douglas.

The Bulldog cutting his hair short was a great look for him.

This has been a solid back and forth contest so far. Good heat for Davey Boy.

Accidental ref bump…leads to Douglas attacking Ramon after Ramon had hit the Razor’s Edge.

Kid makes the save…and takes an awesome bump off the apron!

British Bulldog wins by DQ in 7:10. Kid comes off the top, but misses the Bulldog and hits Razor. Shouldn’t Razor win by DQ? Anyway, pretty good opening segment.

Vince interviews Kid and Razor, and it turns into an argument with Kid and Ramon when Vince says Kid cost Razor the match. Kid says last week (during tennis?) Razor cost him the match. He challenges Razor to a match for next week! He makes sure to point out he beat Razor the first time. Ramon accepts.

Weird poem from Todd Pettengill. Anyway, Yokozuna and Owen vs. Mabel and Mo next week I guess?

The Smokin’ Gunns vs. Rad Radford and The Brooklyn Brawler

No idea who’s winning this one.

Smokin’ Gunns win when Bart Gunn pins The Brawler in 2:46. It was an action packed 3 minutes at least. Did the Gunns ever name that sidewalk slam flying legdrop combo?

Goldust promo. No idea what he’s talking about…but who cares. It owns. References The Undertaker here, interestingly enough. The Goldust character is brilliant.

I like that they use the helicopter stock footage that would appear in The Rock’s 2003 heel titantron.

D.D.S. Isaac Yank’em vs. Scott Taylor

Two Attitude wrestlers here!

Awful chokeslam there. Funny what a long way that move has come for the future Kane.

Yank’em pins Taylor in 2:14. He wins with the DDS…which yes…is a DDT. How many people switched to Savage vs. Norton here?

In Your House hype. All the matches set already it looks like. It doesn’t look too bad!

WWF Intercontinental Championship
Shawn Michaels© vs. Sycho Sid

No one knows how to get a solid match out of Sid like Shawn does.

Shawn makes Sid look amazing here.

Awesome nip up from Sid, which led to a chokeslam.

Shawn Michaels pins Sid in 7:21. Three superkicks…one of them a real superkick, gets Shawn the win. Shawn bumps everywhere for Sid, and it leads to a very good match…even if it’s a bit short.

In retrospect, it’s odd that Vince allowed Shawn to do a striptease in the middle of the ring.

One last backstage interview with Diesel and HBK before we call it a night.

The show had a very good beginning and end, but it’s hard to care about any of that stuff in the middle. Thanks to Nitro, RAW squash matches would begin to be phased out. Unless you thought people were sticking around for The Brooklyn Brawler and Scott Taylor.

That along hurts the show enough. The 5 minute In Your House commercial is bothersome too. Nothing is built up (on RAW at least) yet a whole card is set already? Should I be watching Superstars instead?

Again…the opener and main were good.

TV Rating: 2.5
Grade: B

Weekly Review

Watching Nitro made me feel like WCW had so much talent they had to get in on the show. Watching RAW made me wonder why the WWF didn’t use all their top guys. Now that Nitro set that standard, RAW would have to catch up.

Even though Shawn vs. Sid was the better match in terms quality, Hogan vs. Luger was a huge deal with the WCW World Title on the line and everything. Nitro had an action packed show from top to bottom. RAW had a good start and good ending with stuff no one cared about in the middle.

Plus, Bischoff told you what would happen anyway…

Great start for Nitro ratings wise. First week of competition and they lose by merely 0.1. Not bad at all.

TV Ratings Score: 1-0 RAW

Grade Score: 1-0 Nitro

Pro Wrestling

RAW vs. NITRO Week 1 (9/4/95)

Reviewed 9/3/14

September 1995 Background

The latest…and biggest shot has been fired.

The WWF had been the major player in wrestling for a solid decade at this point. The NWA and WCW were always a distant second place until about 1994. Before then it was the WWF’s big gimmicky promotions against the top tier wrestling of WCW (note, each would have a little of the opposite in them). In 1994 though the tides had changed in a big way. The WWF had moved to becoming a more athletic wrestling show led by Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. WCW signed Hulk Hogan to an insane deal and suddenly looked gimmicky all around (and a lot like the old WWF). WCW would continue to sign away big talent from the WWF through 1994 and 1995, with men such as Hogan, Randy Savage and others all jumping ship.

And for some reason, Vince gave up on the athletic type and went back to the superman big man. 1995 this didn’t work. ”Big Daddy Cool” Diesel turned out to be the worst drawing WWF Champion of all time (not all his fault to be fair). WCW also kept the pressure on, running 10 PPV events in 1995 and forcing Vince to run an “In Your House” event each month. Reviews on the IYH events ranged from mixed to poor. 1995 was just a bad year for the WWF. Bad booking, competition on the way, and stars leaving to WCW.

WCW meanwhile hit some big peaks in 1994 when Hogan showed up. Hogan’s popularity did plateau rather quickly though. But with bigger star power overall (Flair, Sting, Savage, Hogan vs. Michaels, Bret, Diesel) Ted Turner famously asked Eric Bischoff “Hey Eric, what would it take to compete with WWF?” Bischoff joking said Monday Night primetime. And Turner gave it to him. The Monday Night War had begun.

For September, we would see that WCW smartly began on a date that the WWF would be pre-empted. WCW would hit upon some big moments right away and immediately change how each show would be booked.

Note, the show that has the best review the week prior will go first in the post, as insignificant as that actually is.

Week 1

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Nitro: 9/4/95
Minneapolis, MN

It should be pointed out that Nitro debuted at a time where RAW was pre-empted for two weeks. Pretty smart right off the bat.

Nitro intro video is pretty cool even today. Theme is great too.

Very odd that Nitro is coming live from the Mall of America.

Nitro already puts something on that was pretty unique and cool, which is the opening match.

Steve McMichael calls Bobby Heenan “Bobby the Stain” for the whole show. Ugh.

Jushin “Thunder” Liger vs. Flyin’ Brian

Cool cartwheel kick to start. Bischoff on commentary is really pumping Nitro up as something never seen before in big league wrestling.

Pretty bad timing as Jushin Liger climbs up to the top rope and Pillman just stands there and takes the moonsault.

Wooo, surfboard!

Decent high flying stuff from Liger, including a somersault off the apron. Maybe it hasn’t aged great, but it was pretty cool stuff for its time, even if the 1-2-3 Kid was doing just as good stuff.

Pillman gets a perfect dropkick on Liger coming from the top.

Top rope hurricanrana from Liger!

Tornado DDT from Pillman! Maybe it’s just a bunch of spots, but it’s a fun match.

Brian Pillman pins Jushin Liger. Pillman gets a victory roll from the win. A fun little 6 minute match that wouldn’t be great if it was on PPV, but just fine for a TV show. Bischoff went right ahead in trying to get a good start for Nitro with something unique and he succeeded.

Sting promo. He’s gonna lock Flair in the Scorpion!

Hulk Hogan is promoting PASTAMANIA in the Mall of America! He hypes up the WCW Title match later in the show. PASTAMANIA is gonna run wild on Big Bubba brother!

WCW United States Championship
Sting© vs. Ric Flair

I’d almost be upset this wasn’t main eventing, but it makes sense as Hogan is Hogan.

One of the most historic moments in the entire war happens in the first show as Lex Luger walks down the aisle. Luger had just appeared at WWF Summerslam eight nights prior. No one in the WWF locker room knew it was happening. Want to complain about WWF no-competes these days, it was moments like this that caused them. This was absolutely brilliant from Bischoff.

Of course, Sting and Flair give him a look, since that’s who had history with Luger when he left in 1992. Another great thing about this moment is the less is more approach. All Luger did was just walk down the aisle. That was it. Big Luger chants too.

We get some typical Sting-Flair stuff, which is always great. Of course, it’s the shortened version, but that’s okay.

WCW’s star power was pretty much on display here. While the WWF did have big matches on RAW before this, you never really saw two top guys go at it (say, Bret vs. Shawn on RAW). Here, WCW could afford to do Sting vs. Flair since the roster was deep.

Arn Anderson is down here. This was a time that Anderson and Flair were not getting along.

I like how a great wrestler like Ric Flair had a finish that always seemed to get broken.

Sting retains by DQ. Arn Anderson just walks into the ring and breaks up the Figure Four. He proceeds to beat the crap out of Ric Flair. Good match, and it furthered the story for Anderson and Flair. Anderson got a huge reaction.

Scott “Flash” Norton confronts Bischoff, but is cut off by Randy Savage. Fans pop huge for this, I didn’t even remember this Norton moment to be fair. Savage wants to go right now, but it doesn’t happen. Still, really cool and another moment that showed anything could happen.

We get a Sabu hype video! Interesting Sabu didn’t get over in WCW. Probably cause he bought Mr. JL and Alex Wright every week. Still cool though.

We get some WCW Saturday Night hype. Then some Fall Brawl hype!

Michael Wallstreet debut promo. “I’m sure the IRS is going to be watching me real close.” Brilliant!

WCW World Championship
Hulk Hogan© vs. Big Bubba Rogers

Hogan vs. Bossman in 1995! It works though.

Hogan had actually been champion for some 13 months at this point.

We do get the announcement of Savage vs. Norton next week on Nitro! I’m actually excited for that one even though Norton would become a midcard guy.

Hogan looks better here than he did in WWF 1993, if that matters.

Oddly Hogan and the ref exchange words after Hogan gets his hair pulled by the ref. Interesting.

I always wondered how Hogan got away with heel moves like the double elbow foot eye rake deal.

The crowd is actually pretty dead for the Hulk Up.

Hulk Hogan retains by pin. But the pop huge for the pin. By the numbers Hogan match, but the Bossman sold for Hogan like a million bucks. Good main event considering who’s involved.
The Dungeon of Doom run in and attack Hogan…and Lex Luger runs in to fight them off! Hogan and Luger come back to back and nearly come to blows.

Luger challenges Hogan for a WCW World Title match, deriding the WWF in the process. He says some questionably true statements (“I’VE BEATEN WHO YOU’VE BEATEN”) and Hogan gives him credit…then offers him the title shot for next week’s Nitro! Sure, some words went wrong there (“I’ll shake your stinky palm” from Hogan and “you don’t have to wait till next week”, also from Hogan), but the whole segment was really effective.

This show was very good, and EXACTLY what WCW needed to kick off the Monday Night War. Vince probably watched this show and shit his pants, especially when Luger showed up. Now Vince had to go up against Hogan vs. Luger for the WCW Title next week. Serves Vince right for wasting Luger after he didn’t get over as the top guy in 93-94.

Not the best show, but a very good one that showcased a lot of great stuff for WCW. Historically, it’s one of the most important dates in pro wrestling history, and it laid the groundwork for RAWs you even see today, as this would be the end of squash matches against nobodies on Monday Night. Of course…that matters.

TV Rating: 2.5
Grade: A+

Weekly Review

RAW was pre-empted by the US Open and in fact had already taped all of their shows for the next two weeks. Nitro being live each week would put some serious pressure on the WWF to step up their game. The last RAW on August 21st, 1995 had MOM vs. two jobbers, the 1-2-3 Kid vs. The Brooklyn Brawler, The Undertaker vs. Tatanka, Jean-Pierre LaFitte vs. Scott Taylor (a nobody at this point) and Diesel and the British Bulldog vs. MOM. This show had Sting vs. Flair, Pillman vs. Liger and Hogan vs. the former Big Bossman. I mean…which show is the minor leagues again?

Nitro’s rating was also quite impressive. RAW had done (I am missing a source though) mid 2s to low 3s, so for Nitro to put up a rating in that range right off the bat was impressive.

The score remains tied at 0-0 here as there was no heads up battle…but next week will be a bigger story.

TV Ratings Score: 0-0

Grade Score: 0-0