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.