via cdn.bleacherreport.net

With Wrestlemania 28 just a few days away (and having abit too much time on my hands) I figured I would pop in my copy of Wrestlemania 27 and re-watch the event beginning to end for the first time since it was originally broadcast on pay-per-view.

Alot of initial impressions called 27 one of the worst Wrestlemania's of all time and I remember having a general feeling of disappointment after the show. However, with the benefit of a year's worth of cushioning has the event gotten better with age or is it still a turd?

The Rock's opening promo is the same promo he's been cutting since he's returned. "Fruity Pebbles" this, "Cena Sucks" that, hit all of his catchphrases, and flash the million dollar smile. I remember this promo being alot better when I first watched it happening, but at that point nostalgia was driving everything. I would've marked out if Rock had taken a dump in the middle of the ring if he followed it up with "IF YOU SSSMMMMMEEEEEEEEELLLLLL WHAT THE ROCK IS COOKING!!!!"

World Heavyweight Championship

Now after a promo even Triple H would've wrapped up quicker we get our first match, the World Heavyweight Championship!

This match still baffles me to this day. How the Royal Rumble winner (Del Rio) and future Hall of Famer (Edge) curtain jerk Wrestlemania still makes me scratch my head. Still, the match itself is an entertaining one that has plenty of good spots. Edge winning makes less sense considering he would retire the next night on Raw, but his victory celebration (smashing Del Rio's car with crowbars) was still great.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Cody Rhodes vs Rey Mysterio

Next up on the card is Rhodes vs Mysterio. This match is when Rhodes was beginning to use that stupid mask gimmick and generally just acting nuts. Still, between the black overcoat and the mask, WWE films missed out on a slasher movie starring Rhodes in this gimmick. Mysterio came out in a nifty looking Captain America attire to a solid pop.

I had totally forgotten about this match but upon a repeat viewing this was arguably the best match on the card. It was filled with near falls, high spots, and just generally excellent in ring execution. The ending perfectly punctuates the match. We would be so lucky if Rhodes vs Show is half as entertaining.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Backstage Segment #1

And now we're starting to get to the parts of the show where many fans cried foul. We have a singing contest hosted by Snoop Dogg himself! Pre-internet sensation Zack Ryder singing "Friday" is good enough for cheap laughs and William Regal is his usual awesomeness but on the whole it just felt terrible. If WWE really bumped Daniel Bryan vs Sheamus for the US title for these skits they cut off their nose to spite their face.

8 Man Tag Team Clusterf**k

A 90 second or so match where Big Show, Kane, Kofi Kingston, and Santino squash The Corre.

Rating: 1.5 out of 5

Backstage Segment #2

Rock pandering, Mae Young trying to get into the People's Struddle, God save me........

Ok the stare down between Austin and Rock was pretty awesome

Randy Orton vs CM Punk

A match I remembered liking and it held up over the last year. It could be slow at times, but the in ring work by both men is next to flawless. The ending is maybe the single most awesome moment on the whole show. Too bad this match was stuck in the middle of a black hole of shit because I think more people would remember this as the match of the night if it weren't.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Backstage Segment #3 and WWE Hall of Fame Introductions

Pee Wee Herman and Drew Carey, I'll just leave it at that

Jerry Lawler vs Michael Cole (w/Jack Swagger), Stone Cold Steve Austin as Special Guest Referee

This match is largely remembered as what really brought the show down and it deserves everybit of criticism you can think of.

Any match where Michael Cole is in control for 10 minutes is 10 minutes too long, and this one went for almost 15. Whatever heat the crowd regained from Orton vs Punk was sucked out of the building. Words can't describe just how bad this match really is.

Rating: 0 out of 5

Undertaker vs Triple H

Universally hailed as the match of the night, upon re-watching I would say Taker vs HHH was good but not great. Compared to the shit that came before it (besides Punk-Orton), this match is absolutely 24 karat gold but in a vacuum it is not quite an All-Time Great.

There was abit too much time in between the big spots which disrupted the flow for me. Also, Trip's antics at the end while trying to get out of the Hell's Gate were abit much for me. He takes nearly 2 minutes to tap from when Taker first set in the Hell's Gate. I get it that WWE isn't MMA, but going that long really threw out my suspension of disbelief.

Still the match is about as solid as they come from two veterans, and if you don't mark out when Taker kicked out from Trip's delivering the Tombstone you're a more jaded smark than me.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Celebrity Match with Snooki

I've been subjected to enough torture, I'll just go to the main event.

*Insert joke about Morrision being whipped but Melina is still a whore*

The Miz vs John Cena for the WWE Championship

The entrance for The Miz is probably the highlight of his career to this point. His package detailing his journey from Real World reality star to being the WWE champion, all to "Hate Me Now" is the WWE production team at the top of their game.

The match on the other hand is one of the worst main events in the history of Wrestlemania. A friend of mine summed this match up as "It was like one guy was speaking Chinese, the other English, and the match was supposed to be in French."

Both guys were totally off of their game and had no real chemistry. The Double Count out to "end" the match only furthered just how bad that match really was.

Only then the Rock come out to restart the match and delivers a Rock Bottom to Cena and then Rock Bottoms Miz after Miz gets the cover.

Wrestlemania 27 ends with The Rock standing tall because to hell with building up new stars or tradition, The Rock is back!!

Overall

Wrestlemania 27 has 4 good-very good matches, a terrible main event, and alot of filler. If this was some random "B" pay per view I don't think people would treat this show as badly as they have been. But this is Wrestlemania and our expectations are adjusted accordingly. The show is worth a watch for the opening matches and isn't on the level of Wrestlemania 9, but it is still one of the weakest Mania's ever.

Simple topic: knowing what we know now, how would you book WrestleMania 28, which is being billed as the biggest WrestleMania of all time?

John Cena vs The Rock

Too many ways this can go in a match that sounded like a great idea on paper but has been troublesome in practice. I have a feeling we're going to get a finish nobody will be happy with but the show closes with Cena eating a Rock Bottom and People's Elbow regardless.

CM Punk (c) vs Chris Jericho for the WWE Championship

Punk goes over clean in what should be a fantastic title match, particularly after the abomination that was Cena vs. Miz last year. In fact, Punk will have either won or retained the WWE title at SummerSlam, Survivor Series, Royal Rumble, and WrestleMania in consecutive pay-per-views. Not too shabby.

Daniel Bryan (c) vs Sheamus for the World Heavyweight Championship

I think Randy Orton's injuries are still too much of a concern to make this a triple threat and I think the WWE wants this to be Sheamus' launching pad as a top babyface on par with Cena, Orton, and Punk. Sheamus goes over clean.

Undertaker vs Triple H in Hell in a Cell

Despite what everyone is fearing, I can't see Triple H going over here. If there is one guy on the roster who could override anything Triple H wants it is Undertaker. The streak continues.

The rest of the card after the jump.

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When the SEC signed their mega 15 year $3 billion dollar TV with CBS and ESPN the entire landscape of college football seemingly changed over night. Ever since then, massive realignment that has seen Nebraska go to the Big 10, Texas A&M and Missouri to the SEC, the Big "East" stretching from Connecticut to California, and a whole host of other changes.

This has all been fueled with TV dollar signs in everyone's eye. $25 million, $35 million, $40 million a year, figures are being tossed around so frequently that it makes your head spin. All of this is done with the presumption that value of rights fees, particularly those for football, are only going to go up and up into infinity. Does this situation sound at all familiar to anyone?

The driving factor behind all of these rights increases has been ESPN. Just by merely having a seat at the negotiating table ESPN bumps up the prices that NBC or FOX are going to have to pay to get major college sports.

On top of what ESPN dishes out to the SEC, they give the NFL $1.8 billion for the rights to Monday Night Football, $800 million to the NBA, approximately $250 million to MLB, $125 million for the BCS, as well as its various deals with other major college conferences.

How is ESPN able to afford dolling out all of this cash every year? Simple, they have easily the highest TV cable carriage fees in existence. Somewhere between $4.50 and $5 (estimates differ) of your cable/satellite bill every month finds its way to Bristol, Connecticut. To give you a comparision, no other cable network has a carriage fee over $2. Not to mention the major networks (CBS, NBC, FOX, ABC) do not have any kind of carriage fee.

Cable and satellite companies have been growing increasingly vocal about their displeasure at the kinds of fees ESPN has been charging, and it may well be coming to a head sooner rather than later. The resounding "Meh" the Longhorn Network met even within Texas may be the opening salvo for cable companies to try and get ESPN to lower their carriage fees. It is easier for a Noles fan to pick up SunSports in Texas than a Longhorns fan in Dallas to get the LHN.

The NFL is by far the most successful sports league in the country and perhaps the world. For years they have tried to blackmail cable providers to add the NFL Network by having the Thursday Night Football package but it has been to no avail.

What is to say in the next few years a DirecTV or Comcast decides that ESPN's next increase in rights fees (which they undoubtedly will do to help offset all the new college football and NFL deals) is too much and they pull ESPN? ESPN is very much dependent on the steady stream of revenue coming in to make sure the bills are paid. Ultimately, ESPN would have to settle for less and it would cause a massive cascade effect.

All of these new deals that ESPN has signed have been with the their current carriage fee (and future increases) in mind. What happens if they are forced to lower them? They will undoubtly have to release some leagues from the agreement and ultimately without a massive warchest, Fox and NBC do not have to constantly outbid them, which causes any new deals to be lower.

The bubble that was caused because of ESPN's massive carriage fees is going to go burst one day and it will cause the same kind of massive landscape change their original SEC deal made.

FanPost edited and promoted to the front page by CagesideSeats.com.

After tossing around a few ideas, I thought I would give my own spin on the well worn topic that is WCW's fall from grace. I'm sure most of you will know what will lie ahead, but I have a few personal items that I rarely see mentioned, and hopefully I'll give it enough of my own spin to make it seem fresh.

With that in mind, let's start the countdown with one of WCW's worst attempts at a bait and switch.

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Hello BRB denziens

Once again our teams collide in a series that has made both fan bases collectively groan. 

As far as the Monday Night game goes, your guess is as good as mine. Honestly, it is the kind of thing I halfway expected, as Del Rio has a habit of pulling a rabbit out of his ass when he needs it most. Scary thing is that if the Jaguars win on Sunday the team is just one game out of the AFC South lead.

Let the pillow fight begin!

Awhile ago when I had some time on my hands I thought out a 16 team "pod" structure if FSU were bolting for the SEC. I put in the other hot teams to the SEC and thought it made some sense. However, since it looks like FSU is staying put  in the ACC I've decided to apply it here. For this instance, I'll say the ACC actually surprises us and adds Notre Dame and UConn.

Notre Dame is Notre Dame, only question is IF they ACC can get them. With the Irish in hand and Syracuse on the way, the NYC market is taken so no need for Rutgers. Unless Penn St gets massively pissed with the Big Ten, the only real viable option is the Huskies.

With all of that set, the pods would go as

Northeast: Notre Dame, Syracuse, Boston College, UConn

Mid-Atlantic: Pitt, Maryland, Virginia, Virginia Tech

Carolinas: UNC, Duke, NC State, Clemson

South: Florida State, Miami, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest

The pods are based on geography, with a little readjusting for competitive balance (switching Clemson and Wake)

Each team would play the 3 other teams in their pod and have a home and home with the other pods. This means that most teams would play each other twice in a 6 year period.

The 8th conference game would comprise of two series. An "A" series and a "B" series. The "A" rival would be a cross-pod game that would be played every year. The "B" series would be played when your team was playing the pod that your "A" series team is in and would need a replacement for the 8th conference game. So you would play your "A" series every year, and the "B" series 4 out of 6 years.

My thoughts for "A" series?
Florida State-Notre Dame

Miami-Virginia Tech

UNC-Virginia

Clemson-Georgia Tech

Duke-Wake

Syracuse-Pitt

NC State-BC

UConn-Maryland

Too much thinking involved for the "B" series games right now. What do the residents of TN think of this plan?

via bigsandyarena.com

There has been a lot of talk recently about the WWE's plans regarding the future of Smackdown and Raw. It does seem that we're in a transitional period that will end the brand extension era. The biggest fear is what will happen with the roster. What will happen when you try to jam twice as many people into the top of the card. We had a taste of that when both John Cena and Randy Orton were on Raw together, and most fans would like to forget that.

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Per WWE facebook

There have been plenty of opinions spouted off in recent weeks about the current situation involving Sin Cara. Originally intended as a repackaging of Mexican superstar Mistico, the whole idea of the character has now gone into limbo. Sending FCW producting Huncio out as the character (hereafter referred to as Hunico Cara) while Mistico was still suspended for a Wellness Violation was egregious enough, but last night's remarks by Michael Cole finally sent me over the edge.

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Promoted from FanPosts by CagesideSeats.com.

WWE Money In The Bank 2011 drew 265,000 buys, according to the latest performance indicators released by the promotion, which is over 100,000 more buys than last year's edition of the PPV and the WWE's third best selling pay-per-view (PPV) of the year, behind only Royal Rumble and WrestleMania.

What does this tell us?

Despite Raw's ratings staying within their usual range, between CM Punk's merchandise sales and Money in the Bank's PPV numbers, it is clear the Punk storyline has reinvigorated the hardcore audience in a way that hasn't been seen in years.

When your biggest babyface appeals mostly to children, you will always run into the same problem. Said children have no disposable income, which means they have to run begging to their parents with pleas of, "But PLEASE, can I get the new Cena shirt," or, "PLEASE, I have to see Cena win at SummerSlam."

When you have a babyface that appeals to guys in their 20s and 30s, that is the demographic that has the disposable income and interest to drop $20 on a shirt or $50 on a PPV.

Summerslam's buyrate will probably be the make or break moment for Punk's rise. If Summerslam cracks a half million buys, I think its safe to say Punk will be a made man in the company from now on. Will it?

Stay tuned.

For complete coverage of Money in the Bank 2011 click here and here.

Correction by Keith Harris with the title of the post edited appropriately:

Dave Meltzer of f4wonline.com insists that the line graph on page 4 of the performance indicators document on the WWE corporate website is erroneous, as the number for the Money In The Bank PPV includes 91,000 late buys from the preceding quarter, most of which came from WrestleMania, which did considerably better than they thought even a few weeks ago.  He says that the real numbers are 185,000 worldwide with 132,000 of them coming from the domestic market.  This tallies up with the Average Current Period buys bar chart on page 3, as there has only been one PPV event in the quarter so far.  It should be noted that Money In The Bank wasn't broadcast on PPV in the UK, which probably cost the event around 30,000 buys, which should be taken into account when it's compared with other shows that were broadcast on PPV in the UK (Elimination Chamber is the only other WWE PPV this year that was also broadcast for "free" on Sky Sports in the UK, the equivalent of a premium cable channel like HBO or Showtime in the US, instead of on their PPV channel).

It is that time of year again folks. Granted, with the Thursday Night PRIMETIME schedule the draft now doesn't allow for quite the same shenanigans, it still provides plenty of alcohol fueled fun. With that in mind, the ground rules

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It seems my journey at BCC is at an end

What started in the summer of 2008 has run its course and I can't be happier. I've been on major radio shows, credentialed media for the Pro Bowl, and a whole bunch of other things I never thought possible when I asked Chris to give me a chance. I'm sure when I have enough distance, I'll remember this entire journey as one of the true highlights of my life.

Just to be perfectly clear, my resignation has nothing to do with the current drama going on with Stampede Blue. Simply put, it just hasn't been fun for awhile. For the better part of two years, I check this site several times a day and it was a joy to see this site become a tour de force in the Jacksonville Jaguar community. However, events (both in real life and on the internet) have started to take their toll and I simply want to check out for awhile.

Plenty of you have called me an asshole, idiot, and other names. And others have given my articles recs. I want to thank all of you for giving me all the feedback.

See all of your on the other side

Jonathan Loesche

Paul Kuharsky recently updated posted an updated tally of fan votes for the Pro Bowl. It appears Jaguar fans really got out the vote after seeing that Josh Scobee was the only player in the Top 5 of fan voting a few weeks ago, or one over zealous fan sent out a votebot.

Maurice Jones-Drew's movement into the Top 4 is certainly deserved, and still underrates him. However, the more puzzling players are Garrard and Lewis. Lewis has jumped from not being in the Top 5 all the way to #2 overall. Granted, it's certainly deserved, but how many votes has he gotten over the last few weeks? The same could be said for Greg Jones.  As for David Garrard, congratulations on now being 4th in AFC fan voting.

H/T to Paul Kuharsky

Quarterback

1) Tom Brady; 2) Peyton Manning; 3) Philip Rivers; 4) David Garrard

Running backs

1) Arian Foster; 2) Peyton Hillis; 3) Chris Johnson; 4) Maurice Jones-Drew

Fullbacks

1) LeRon McClain; 2) Mike Tolbert; 3) Vonta Leach; 4) Tony Richardson; 5) Greg Jones

Tight ends

1) Antonio Gates; 2) Marcedes Lewis

Kicker

1) Sebastian Janikowski; 2) Adam Vinatieri; 3) Josh Scobee

During the Jaguars 38-31 win over Oakland, QB David Garrard threw his 20th touchdown pass of the season. With that, he tied Mark Brunell's record for most TD passes in a season. Just wanted to congratulate him on that achievement.

Oakland Raiders (6-6)	Week #11	Jacksonville Jaguars (7-5)
	VS.

1st Quarter Thread

2nd Quarter Thread

3rd Quarter Thread

4th Quarter Thread

Use this thread for pregame chatter before going to the 1st quarter thread. Posting links to any illegal streams of the game will result in a 24 hour suspension.

Discuss the 1st Quarter

Discuss the 2nd quarter and halftime

Discuss the 3rd quarter

Discuss the 4th quarter

Join the BCC Editors as we discuss the current playoff picture and the Oakland Raiders

Click Here at 7:30 pm EST

As you've probably heard by now, Urban Meyer will be resigning as the head coach of the Florida Gators. (Yes, Again).

For four years, no team in college football was better than the Florida Gators. With Tim Tebow running Meyer's offense to perfection, it seemed as if he could do no wrong.

As blackouts and dysfunction began to grip the Jaguars after the 2007 season, the national media began an almost nonstop campaign to "Save" the Jaguars. The standard answer was to draft Tim Tebow, the local kid who would guarantee sell outs. The second part was to grab the miracle making coach, Meyer, and ride it to a Super Bowl.

Well, it appears that duo would've ridden the Jaguars somewhere. Off a cliff.

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Hello Raiders fans

I'm John, one of the editors at SBN's Jacksonville Jaguars site Big Cat Country. Just like everyone thought when this game was scheduled, the Jaguars and Raiders do battle in a game that has a lot of playoff implications. Both teams like to run the ball all day, so this should be a tough fought, hard hitting game.

If you have any questions about the game or the Jaguars in general, shoot!

Let's turn the clocks back a bit. Actually, let's turn them to about 4:30pm EST, October 24th, 2010. The Jaguars had just lost to the Kansas City Chiefs and were dead in the water at 3-4. Most Jaguar fans were resigned to a lost season and praising Todd Bouman for a gutty performance.

In addition, Jaguar fans were beginning to question their All-Pro runningback. After being shot out of a cannon to start 2009, it appeared that Jones-Drew has lost his MoJo. In a 15 game stretch, he only had two 100 yard games, both against the Colts porous run defense.The criticism came pouring in. He's just a #2 back. He's already washed up. He has to be in a backfield by committee.

Where is all of that now?

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For the 2nd straight week, the Jaguars took a big lead and all of the momentum with them into halftime. And then for the 2nd straight week, the Jaguars seemingly did everything possible to let their opponent back in the game. The difference was a defense that held up, and a few fortuitous Titan drops.

Taking a 17-0 lead into halftime, it seemed the Jaguars would hand the Titans a similar whooping that Tennessee gave the Jags on Monday Night. The Titans couldn't stop the Jaguars running game and the Titans offense was playing like they forgot their snow treads. Tennessee had a chance late in the first half. Randy Moss made a rare appearance, running wide open inside the five yard line. Kerry Collins under threw the ball, but Moss still got his hands on it and dropped it.

However, instead the Titans dug deep and managed to make things interesting. They took their opening possession of the 2nd half and drove down deep into Jacksonville territory. But Bo Scaiffe dropped a sure touchdown from Kerry Collins and the Titans had to settle for a FG.

The Titans then completely grabbed momentum blocking a Josh Scobee FG. The Titans had the ball on the Jaguars 11, with a chance to turn the game. But a holding call ultimately doomed Tennessee and they never seriously threatened again.

The Jaguars came out running the ball and never stopped. Anyone trying to argue Maurice Jones-Drew is still having a down year is completely out of it. MJD ran for a career high 186 yards and is over 1,000 yards for the 2nd straight season.

Tennessee Titans (5-6)	Week #13	Jacksonville Jaguars (6-5)
	VS.

 Jaguars Inactives: Mike Sims-Walker, Tiquan Underwood, Terrence Wheatley, Brock Bolen, Larry Hart, Leger Douzable, Kevin Haslam & Adam Terry

Kassim Osgood will start in place of MSW

Tennessee inactives: QB Rusty Smith (3rd QB), WR Kenny Britt, WR Lavelle Hawkins, T Troy Kropog, DT Sen’Derrick Marks, LB David Thornton, CB Ryan Moutin, S Robert Johnson

1st Quarter Thread

2nd Quarter Thread

3rd Quarter Thread

4th Quarter Thread

Use this for pregame chatter before moving to the first quarter thread. Inactives will be posted here as needed. Posting links to any illegal streams in the thread will result in a 24 hour suspension.

Discuss the 1st Quarter. After the quarter is over, go to the 2nd Quarter Thread

Discuss the 2nd Quarter. After halftime, go to the 3rd Quarter Thread

Discuss the 3rd Quarter. When the quarter is finished, go to the 4th Quarter Thread

Discuss the 4th Quarter