Hell's Kitchen:Final Four (7/27/10)

Alot of people don't even realize that I'm a big Hell's Kitchen fan. I haven't missed a season since Mandy got me started on it when I moved here. I think Gordon Ramsay is awesome at what he does and this show is always entertaining. This season has been a wild one, random eliminations and just craziness all the way around. But after last night, the show came down to the final four. So much like I always do, here are my thoughts on them at this point.

1. Jay
This guy is my pick to win the show. He's improved majorly over the last few episodes and is finally developing himself as a leader. He communicates and hasn't had a bad service in weeks. He was a dark horse weeks ago but now he could win the whole thing.

2. Autumn 
How the hell has she made it this far? She's been on the chopping block too many times to remember, she's had some terrible service. In my view she doesn't belong here. Maybe Ramsey sees something we aren't seeing on TV, but at the moment she doesn't seem to really have a chance in hell of winning.

3. Benjamin
Oh Ben. I can't stand this guy. He's arrogant and annoying. I thought for sure with all the communications problems they have had with him this season, he would have been gone. Ramsey gave him an undeserved pass this week. I won't be surprised if it's Jay vs. Ben in the finale in two weeks but he can't lead and run a kitchen on his own, thus then doesn't deserve to win this show.

4. Holli 
Now finally, Jay's little "g/f". I think she's really good in the kitchen, definitely stronger than Autumn. The only problem I see is that she's not consistent enough. She seems to always come through in the end but she seems to choke when it starts up. I don't think she's going to win this show, but I won't be surprised to be honest if she makes it to the final 2.

WWE:NXT-Good Riddance to Bad Wrestling (7/27/10)

Last night the latest NXT rookie poll came out and the latest elimination went down. Overall, I wasn't surprised at all but said elimination but I will give my latest opinions on the rookies and where I think they will end up as we go on in the competition.

1. Michael McGillicutty
This cracked me up this morning because they made this big deal out of him winning the immunity last week and he ended up not only not needing it, but ended up jumping to the #1 spot. It doesn't really surprise me, he is undefeated and word is finally getting to the fans that he is Curt Henning's son. He deserves to be here.

2. Kaval
Former #1, dropped down a spot. Weirdly I don't mind him dropping because it adds major realism to the ranking system. He's my personal favorite and the dark horse for this competition. I just wish he'd win more often.

3. Alex Riley
Ah, Michael Cole's favorite rookie. The guy that alot of people have ranked to win the show. I give this guy credit because he had a near-death concussion three weeks ago at FCW and is still not only wrestling but putting on very good matches. I won't be surprised if he becomes a major force to be reckoned with.

4. Percy Watson
Showtime is so entertaining. The problem I have is that he tries WAY too hard to get his gimmick over. He's a good wrestler and great on the mic, he's just got to turn the energy level down a tiny bit. Being too over-the-top might turn off alot of people at home and lead to an earlier exit than expected.

5. Lucky Cannon
The only issue I have with Lucky is the fact that he's boring. He doesn't have a great personality or even that good in the ring. I hope he improves but right now he has no chance to even be a dark horse.

6. Husky Harris
I was sooo hoping he was going home this week. I don't like this guy. He tries to be the "everyman". He says he's overweight and not in shape as part of his gimmick. I think it's pathetic. Also he's extremely sloppy in the ring and he's going to really hurt someone one day.

7. Eli Cottonwood
If Husky wasn't going to go home, I'm glad it was Cottonwood. He doesn't belong in a WWE ring. Go back down to FCW and get better please. He's sloppy in the ring, he can't talk and he's just blah. I'm happy to see him go and I'm glad the fans are realizing we have to start trimming the fat and getting to the GOOD wrestlers, not the crappy ones.

New Look, New Attitude, New Future

Yesterday, Lou Lamoriello dropped a stunning bomb that completely changed the face of the New Jersey Devils.


Ilya Kovalchuk signed a 17 year contract worth $102 million. 17 years? That part is still going through my head.


17 years is such a long time, it's just hard to even clinch how far ahead that is.


But this is turning point for this franchise, and in my opinion about time. This is the first time since the salary cap era started after the lockout that the Devils did something like this, and Lou again showed how much of a genius he truly is. He took the hottest free agent in the league and made him a $6 million cap hit. That means that they can very easily sign RFA Zach Parise sometime before July 2011. This means that Lou is looking ahead to the future. This means that for the first time, that little team in New Jersey are actually on the center stage with more than just an all-star living legend goalie.


For the first time, the Devils have multiple offensive threats and even after Elias's contract expires in 2012, they will have two stars who can guide and lead this team into the future in this wide open league.


In a sport that is more prone to parody then any other than football, is it time for the Cup to come home to New Jersey for the first time in 8 years? I hope so! I want a reason to celebrate!!!!

2010 Emmy Nominations

The 2010 Emmy Noms came out today and I figure I'll do my predications early, mainly because I have nothing to really write about lately and it's definitely worth having some fun with.

OUTSTANDING COMEDY
Glee-My Pick
Modern Family
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Nurse Jackie
30 Rock 
The Office

OUTSTANDING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY
Lea Michele (Glee)-My Pick
Tina Fey (30 Rock)
Toni Collette (The United States of Tara)
Julia Louis-Dreyfus (The New Adventures of Old Christine)
Edie Falco (Nurse Jackie)
Amy Poehler (Parks and Recreation)

OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A COMEDY
Larry David (Curb Your Enthusiasm)
Alec Baldwin (30 Rock)
Matthew Morrison (Glee)-My Pick
Steve Carell (The Office)
Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory) (but he really deserves to win eventually)
Tony Shalhoub (Monk)

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY
Chris Colfer (Glee)-My Pick
Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother) (won't go home empty handed)
Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Modern Family)
Jon Cryer (Two and A Half Men)
Eric Stonestreet (Modern Family)
Ty Burrell (Modern Family)

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY
Jane Lynch (Glee)-My Pick (is there a doubt?)
Kristen Wiig (Saturday Night Live)
Jane Krakowski (30 Rock)
Julie Bowen (Modern Family)
Sofia Vergara (Modern Family)
Holland Taylor (Two and A Half Men)

OUTSTANDING GUEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Mike O’Malley (Glee) (tough call, won't be pissed either way)
Neil Patrick Harris (Glee)-My Pick
Fred Willard (Modern Family)
Eli Wallach (Nurse Jackie)
Jon Hamm (30 Rock)
Will Arnett (30 Rock)

OUTSTANDING GUEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Christine Baranski (The Big Bang Theory)-My Pick
Kathryn Joosten (Desperate Housewives)
Kristin Chenoweth (Glee) (doesn't deserve it)
Tina Fey (Saturday Night Live)
Betty White (Saturday Night Live) (would be awesome but won't happen)
Elaine Stritch (30 Rock)
Jane Lynch (Two and a Half Men)

OUTSTANDING DRAMA
Lost-My Pick
Breaking Bad
Dexter
Mad Men
True Blood
The Good Wife

OUTSTANDING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA
Julianna Margulies (The Good Wife)
Mariska Hargitay (Special Victims Unit)
Glenn Close (Damages)
Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer)
January Jones (Mad Men)
Connie Britton (Friday Night Lights)-My Pick

OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A DRAMA
Jon Hamm (Mad Men)
Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights)
Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad)
Hugh Laurie (House M.D.)
Michael C. Hall (Dexter)
Matthew Fox (Lost)-My Pick

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA
John Slattery (Mad Men)
Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad)
Martin Short (Damages)
Terry O’ Quinn (Lost)-My Pick
Michael Emerson (Lost)
Andre Braugher (Men of a Certain Age)

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA
Sharon Gless (Burn Notice)-My Pick
Christine Baranski (The Good Wife)
Christina Hendricks (Mad Men)
Rose Byrne (Damages)
Archie Panjabi (The Good Wife)
Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men)

OUTSTANDING GUEST ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Beau Bridges (The Closer)
Ted Danson (Damages)
John Lithgow (Dexter)
Alan Cumming ( The Good Wife)
Dylan Baker (The Good Wife)
Robert Morse (Mad Men)
Gregory Itzin (24)-My Pick

OUTSTANDING GUEST ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Mary Kay Place (Big Love)
Sissy Spacek (Big Love)
Shirley Jones (The Cleaner)
Lily Tomlin (Damages)
Ann-Margret (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit)-My Pick
Elizabeth Mitchell (Lost)

OUTSTANDING REALITY SHOW HOST
Ryan Seacrest (American Idol)
Phil Keoghan (The Amazing Race)
Tom Bergeron (Dancing with the Stars)
Heidi Klum (Project Runway)
Jeff Probst (Survivor)-My Pick

OUTSTANDING REALITY SHOW COMPETITION
Project Runway
Top Chef
The Amazing Race-My Pick (safe bet)
Dancing with the Stars
American Idol

OUTSTANDING REALITY PROGRAM
Antiques Roadshow
Dirty Jobs
Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution
Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D List
Mythbusters-My Pick
Undercover Boss

OUTSTANDING VARIETY, MUSIC, OR COMEDY SERIES
The Colbert Report
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
Real Time With Bill Maher
Saturday Night Live
The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien-My Pick (why else would it get a nom if it's not going to win)

MINISERIES OR MOVIE
The Pacific (HBO)-My Pick
Return to Cranford (PBS)

OUTSTANDING TV MOVIE
Endgame (PBS)
Georgia O’Keeffe (Lifetime)
Moonshot (History)
The Special Relationship (HBO)
Temple Grandin (HBO)
You Don’t Know Jack (HBO)-My Pick

Downfall...A New Game Show Concept

Last week ABC debuted a new show after Wipeout called Downfall. I was curious because the show is hosted by WWE's Chris Jericho and since I didn't know anything about the show, I DVRed it and watched it.

It was intriging. The concept is insane. You answer questions and play for a million dollars a section at a time, $5,000, $10,000, $25,000 and so on. The categories are fun. But the crazy part is that there is a moving belt hanging over a building over a backalley in L.A. and you have to answer the questions as fast as you can before the prizes fall off and if the money falls off you lose everything. Did I mention that there you are wearing a harness? And you get two "lifelines" persay where you can hit the panic button and then you have to put either a personal item on the belt or your guest that you brought with you? Confused yet? Try watching it.

While I will continue to give the show a chance, it can get confusing and right when you are getting into the flow of the show, an item falls off the belt and they cut to it and you lose your train of thought. I know I found myself yelling at the TV a few times because I wanted to know the answer to the questions but they were obsessed with showing the damage of the items instead of showing the answers.

I don't know if people are actually watching this show yet, or if it will even catch on. Jericho makes a great game show host but overall it might be too confusing for someone to keep up with even in the short term. I hope I'm wrong.

WWE NXT:6/29/10 (Surprise Elimination!)

When the new NXT season started I was going to limit my discussion about it till it got to it's first elimination. This was supposed to be a few more weeks away. So it was a major surprise when I tuned in this week to watch the show to see the first poll come out and find out that they moved the elimination date up, unadvertised and unexpected. So thus now here I am. To make it easier, I'm going to go through the top eight till the elimination and  talk about wrestlers one by one.


#1 Kaval
This is the one guy I personally voted for on Tuesday night. He's one of the only guys I've seen wrestle in the past and is a really good one at that. I'm also glad they gave him his first victory this week so he didn't have Daniel Bryan disease. His interaction with Laycool has actually been really entertaining and I think it's hysterical that he's wearing that terrible pink shirt every week now. This doesn't surprise me at all and I'm glad he's ranked this high.

#2 Percy Watson
This surprised me, but in an entertainment factor, it makes sense. This guy is extremely funny and will get over fast as long as they give him the time to do it. It also helps that they showed a package video for him while the voting was going on so he was fresh in people's minds.

#3 Michael McGillicutty 
a.k.a. Joe Henning, he's a really good performer, you can tell he takes after his dad. Deserves to get the credit he's getting and is a real treat to win this show.


#4 Alex Riley
This really surprised me. I had him at #2 on my rankings, and even maybe #1 if the anti-face voters got in. This guy is great on the mic, his interaction with Miz is amazing and he's one of the few that can just straight up wrestle. If you don't believe me, find the Kaval-Riley match from a couple of weeks back, it was fantastic, especially for a NXT match.

#5 Lucky Cannon
This guy earned immunity this week by winning the awful keg carry competition (seriously, who's idea was it to bring that back???), so he was safe no matter what. My only issue with him that he can get over, but he's got to stop using all the cliches all the time. Just talk from the heart and he'll be fine down the road.

#6 Eli Cottonwood
I honestly had this guy going home. He's super tall and while he's not as robotic as Great Khali, he's still not that agile. He also didn't deserve the win over Kaval. I'll be shocked if he makes it past the next elimination.

#7 Husky Harris
I figured he would have been safe because of the storyline he's in with Cody Rhodes and Matt Striker, I guess I was wrong. He has the tools on the mic to be a very good heel, but his ring skills really have to improve in order to not embarrass himself every week. Then again if Miz can improve, I don't know why he can't too.

#8 Titus O'Neil 
And finally the guy who was eliminated first, Titus O'Neil, Zach Ryder's rookie. I honestly think he was good on the mic and had a chance to be good in the ring. He never got a real chance to shine and I was actually ready to give Ryder the benefit of the doubt as a pro. Oh well, so much for that.

Overall, an okay show. I just hope this surprise elimination thing doesn't become a normal thing. The ratings were terrible because all the casual fans thought it was just going to be a normal show. They have to advertise these things. Still, I have to admit, I'm looking forward to next week's show more than I did for most of season 1.

New Jersey Devils-A Look at the Future

It's July 1st and it's free agent day in the NHL. As a Devils fan, I should be on the ball especially with three major players on the market today. But honestly, I'm not going to worry about it.

This year the cap went up, but looking at the Devils roster and salary (capgeek.com) they don't have alot of real cap room. So looking at this season's UFA list, who can the Devils really afford to get?

As for the current roster, the three big names that are on everyone's minds and are being talked about are Ilya Kovalchuk, Paul Martin and Mike Mottau. So that's where I will start.

Kovi is gone. Simple as that. The Devils don't need him.  They have Parise and Elias to lead the team in scoring, especially if they are on seperate line, which with the addition of Arnott I see that happening. Kovi only came to NJ as a rental to make a playoff run, which didn't work at all. It was nice to see him in red and white in April when I was at The Rock, but he just doesn't belong on this roster. I'll be shocked if Lou pays him.

As for Paul Martin, I'd say move on. I honestly don't think he's that great of a player. He's a 2nd line defenseman at best. The only reason he got the playing time and spot he got was because they didn't have anyone else after Colin White, and then when White got injured especially, when Scott Niedermayer and Brian Rafalski left as free agents and Scott Stevens and Ken Daneyko retired. I'm sorry but Martin leaving is that a big deal. They played 50 games without him this season. They practically clinched a playoff spot without him. They can play without him. Why spend the money? It doesn't make any sense in my eyes.

As for Mike Mottau, he's a cheap player. I'd say giving him a 1.5 a year contract for a few years, make him your #2 with White and then the rest of the defense go younger.

That brings me to my next point. Youth. The Devils' three Cups were all built on youth. People always seem to forget that. I mean look at the 2000 Cup winner (airing at the NHL Network on August 8th if you want to see it again), Arnott was not a home-grown player but Elias was and still is. The whole 95 team was young players except for a few role players. The facts are there that the franchise is known for having young teams.

One thing that came out a couple of weeks ago that no one is really talking about is the John MacLean, the new Devils coach, lead the Lowell Devils to the playoffs last year. Why is that a big deal? The Devils' AHL team hasn't been relevant since the late 90s. They haven't made the playoffs in over 10 years. Yet Johnny Mac led this team to the playoffs and it didn't even get talked about by Devils fans. That's a major deal. How I look at is that MacLean knows that roster. He knows who is ready to move up to the main roster and I think he knows who he can trust. I have a feeling Lou and him have been talking about this and that's why they brought back Larry Robinson as assistant coach. Sure his experience will help MacLean is his rookie campaign but Robinson can groom and shape the young defensemen coming down from Albany (formerly Lowell) and make them NHL ready. PLUS during training camp they will have plenty of time to make a system and put it in effect and gross the new young players to their system. Everyone knows that it's easier to groom young players in a new system then older experienced players that are set in their ways.

Back to the subject at hand of this year. How I look at things, the team has to get younger. As if they are going to sign anyone in free agency, what they really need is a good second line winger, someone to lead their checking line, especially if Rob Niedermayer leaves and now that Jay Pandolfo is off the team and a good back-up goalie because the living legend is getting older and he can't play 70 games despite what he thinks. (On that note, I hope MacLean has the balls to sit Marty on the second of back-to-backs and against weaker teams that he doesn't have to play against. There are no more records to set, it's time to worry about having a strong goalie for the playoffs and he needs to play less for that to happen.)

Money is always going to be an issue and alot of people are looking at the fact that the cap went up this year as a good thing. But the Devils have to make sure they save some money just in case in the cap goes down next year, so they can afford their top player Zach Parise.