Well after my first week and what I felt was a pretty successful daily run, I've returned yet again for another week. Now unfortunately I'm going to have to keep today's installment a little on the short side due to me leaving town for an all day music festival. Should be fun times. Tomorrow things should be back to normal but for now I'm going to have to keep it short. So as promised in yesterday's entry, I'm going to give a quick rundown on my thoughts of last nights UFC 101 event.
MMA
Josh Neer vs. Kurt Pellegrino Just as I predicted, Pellegrino was too much for Neer to handle and Kurt controlled most of the fight. Neer had a few little explosions and one at the end that given a little more time may have been able to win it for him. Unfortunately for Neer though, the judges all scored the fight 10-9 for all three rounds giving the fight to Pellegrino.
Kendall Grove vs. Ricardo Almeida Much like the first fight on the card this fight was mostly one-sided with Grove only landed a limited amount of offense. To his credit though, Almeida got real sloppy at one point in the second round and found himself deep in an arm bar. Also like the first fight Grove had an outburst towards the end of the bout. For the most part Almeida looked solid, though he was seeming very gassed bringing his cardio into question. Still his dominance of the fight led to a decision win with all three judges scoring it 10-9 throughout.
Amir Sadollah vs. Johny Hendricks Lot to say about this fight, but first it's such a shame that Amir has had very issues force him on the sidelines for so long following his TUF win. He started early with some impressive head kicks but left himself open for some vicious uppercuts from Hendricks. Not to take anything away from Hendricks' win but I do agree that the stoppage was a bit premature. I do understand why the stoppage occurred but hopefully these guys get a chance to hookup again in the future, as I don't feel that Amir was out. Again though, the ref was only looking out for Sadollah's best interest and you can't fault him for that.
Shane Nelson vs. Aaron Riley I don't know what it was about this bout, but it just bored me. I think the main issue was the fact that Riley was able to dominate the entire fight yet was unable to finish Nelson. It's a shame when the announcers start talking about a separate fight not involving either fighter in the octagon. Riley wins a lackluster bout by dominating every round 10-9 for the 30-27 unanimous win.
Anderson Silva vs. Forrest Griffin I love Forrest Griffin and he's one of those guys that you can't help but root for. He's kind of like the UFC's very own Rocky Balboa. That being said, Anderson Silva is a freak and obviously wanted to come into this fight to prove something. The skill level he displayed just made Forrest look silly. First he put Griffin on his ass early on, even helping him up in a rare sight. After that it was just a pure display of boxing skills with Silva bobbing and weaving to avoid every punch thrown while standing right in front up Forrest. Just to show how talented Silva is, the KO came with Silva stepping back and catching an advancing Griffin with a jab for the knockout in the first round. An obviously embarrassed Forrest got up and immediately run out of the cage to the back. At this point I'm inclined to agree with a comment Forrest made in which he said that Silva has a way of making great fighters look bad. With yet another win you have to start to wonder, what's next? Assuming Machida retains against Shogun (he will) we might get a Machida/Silva super fight. Right now though one can only wonder if Silva is even beatable in the UFC; time will tell.
BJ Penn vs. Kenny Florian Speaking of something to prove, after a loss to GSP Penn felt he need to show fans that he still is one of the best in the business. While Florian is no slouch and certainly hung in there for four rounds, Penn was just too much for him to handle and once it went to the ground it was over. The downside to this bout for Florian fans is that he's now made it to the top of the mountain twice and failed to walk away with the victory. Mentally that has to be quite the blow to Florian and he has to wonder "where do I go from here?"
All in all, a decent night of fights with both main events delivering which is all you can ask.
That's going to wrap things up for today, so be sure to check in tomorrow right here where I'll return for more thoughts.
Monday August 10th, 2009
So I'm pretty wore out following my concert experience yesterday but I had a good time. More information can be found on that in the "Live concert" thread in the forum where I posted some of my thoughts.
WWE
Following what was a surprisingly good (in my eyes anyway) night of Monday wrestling last week the WWE heads to Calgary tonight in a Raw that will be hosted by Sgt. Slaughter. While I try and remain optimistic about the show tonight I simply have trouble believing that tonight can follow suit. Bottom line is Slaughter isn't the most entertaining person in the world to say the least. Of course WWE (mainly Jim Ross) tries to persuade us by name dropping Bret Hart as if he'll actually be there.
By all means, I hope I'm wrong and I hope tonight can be an exciting night of action but I just have a feeling I'll end of being let down. Hopefully we'll kick some new feuds into gear though with SummerSlam around the corner.
One thing though that I'm a bit "iffy" about is the rumor of a Jack Swagger U.S. title bout at the pay-per-view based on his recent comments. With the ongoing feud with M.V.P. back underway, one has to assume that we'll be seeing yet another "multi-man" U.S. title match. I hope I'm way off base on this one, but logic seems to dictate that being the case if Swagger wasn't talking out of his ass. In my opinion, let's see a M.V.P. vs Swagger bout for the # 1 contender spot and let Swagger gain the big win. Not only does that get Swagger back on the winning track but it also gives us a solid Swagger/Kofi singles match.
I will say yet again though, that I'm intrigued as to where the HHH/HBK against Legacy feud will go even though we all know Shawn will be at the big event. Still the whole "HBK being retired" story interests me.
Again, here's hoping that the show is better than expected.
INDY
For those of you who considered themselves to be Brian Kendrick fans check out his match with PWG versus Bryan Danielson coming up on August 28th. I'm pretty sure it'll be featured on an upcoming DVD release so if you aren't in the area and able to make it, be sure to pick up the DVD of it. Not only should that bout be solid, the card from top to bottom is pretty good.
Well guys and gals, I'm a bit out of it today and thus will take my leave for now. Be sure to check back tomorrow where I'll give a rundown of my thoughts on Raw amongst other things.
Tuesday August 11th, 2009
WWE
-Nice intensity by John Cena in the opening promo and the good news is we don't get the cliche "two guys who are facing each other at the PPV are going to fight the tag champs" bit. No, they are saving that for next week.
-Surprisingly good diva 4-way bout. Really wicked finisher by Gail Kim and we should be in for a decent title match with Mickie, though I still say Beth needs to have some sort of role but we'll see.
-The Slaughter bits were stupid. The only entertaining part was the closeup of the guy who ripped his Sgt. Slaughter sign in half.
-Swagger and Bourne was decent yet again yet seemed to end out of nowhere.
-Though it does involve me eating a little bit of crow, the Miz is back in the most obvious unmasking ever. While I wouldn't have predicted it last week, the moment I saw the supposed "Calgary Kid" I knew what we were in for. He still will be fired by this time next year.
-Nice to see Big Show looking dominant against the champion but on the downside I'm getting a little tired of seeing Big Show not get the pinfall or submission win in the last couple of weeks.
-Holy shit, sweet drop kick by Chris Masters and even in a loss he looked decent. Maybe there is hope after all.
-What other PG product out there features a little girl getting kicked in the face? Exactly, Raw is fucking war.
-Violence against children and midgets, now there's the WWE I love.
-A no contest in the main event, what is this Monday Nitro.
From an entertainment point of view there were some decent things going on but both marquee matches didn't have a decisive winner which brought the show down. It's weird when the best match is the diva's bout, but I really have to hand it to the ladies last night.
All in all, the show was passable but just barely. Should have been better than it was but there is no reason to ever have more than one DQ or CO finishes on one show. Plus they dropped the ball on two separate stories. The HBK/HHH story could have been dragged out more for suspense as could have the Miz storyline. Seemed kind of silly for both of them to be settled within a week.
Well assuming no major stories break tomorrow I got something a specific topic I'm looking to talk on tomorrow so be sure and check that out.
Wednesday August 12th, 2009
Before getting into today's "column" or whatever you wish to call it that I'm doing; I'd like to explain something. You may be asking yourself "how come you only review some of the shows?" Well the answer is a simple one. For starters I don't get the channel that Smackdown comes on unfortunately. As for the other shows, currently my wife is still on maternity leave and with that being the case I try not to occupy the television with wrestling too much during the week. Given she'll watch it with me, but not being a fan it gets a little hard to have her watch several hours during the week. Next month when she returns to work though I'll get in the habit of delivering my thoughts on a wider variety of wrestling shows.
Now with that being said; let's do this damn thing.
WWE
Lately there have been rumblings (yeah let's just call it that) about the elevation of new talent. One thing I think people forget when it comes to elevating new stars is that the process is one that doesn't happen overnight. For instance take a look at two of the most popular wrestlers in the last 10-15 years, the Rock and Steve Austin. The Rock at one point was booed mercilessly as a clean cut babyface. So much, that the WWE had no choice but to turn him heel. It wasn't until the aforementioned heel turn and that he was able to let loose in his promos that the Rock truly started to shine. The funny thing about the whole situation is that he went from being so hated as a face that they turned him heel to being so over as a heel that they turned him face. Point being though, it was a very tedious process and just because the character didn't click at first they didn't simply abandon it all together. They went back to the drawing board and simply reworked it.
The same can be said for Austin. When he debuted as the Ringmaster he was stuck in go nowhere feuds in the lower midcard with guys like Savio Vega. Being a huge Austin fan from his WCW days, I had actually grown quite impatient and honestly felt that he'd never really be given the chance to shine. Oddly enough his biggest break was never even supposed to be his, it was supposed to be Triple H's prior to the curtain call incident. Yet in a sign of good faith Austin was given the ball and he ran like hell with it. From that point on he went on a tear as a mega heel and entered into a classic feud with Bret Hart before eventually becoming arguably the top face of all time, thanks to his "feud" with Vince McMahon.
Nowadays though it seems that the WWE has a bad habit of just jumping the gun and bringing young talent to the main roster too early and expecting them to get over even though they don't fully understand all the aspects of playing a crowd. Then almost as quick as your push began, it's over. Look at Ricky Ortiz. Of course I would never try and argue that the guy was a great wrestler but he deserved better than what he got. It seemed like he was thrust into the spotlight in the small pond of ECW and given a mini push way before he should have even seen the main roster. When he ultimately failed to get over he would be doomed to nothingness before being shipped off to Smackdown, and finally released. In this case they gave the character time to expand but the problem was that the person behind the character was still too green to do enough to properly take advantage of the push.
Then you have cases like the duo of Priceless, two young second generation stars supposedly being groomed for stardom. Yet week in and week out they are being destroyed in handicap matches (in which they had the advantage) or being beaten down by a single person. We are supposed to believe that these guys are members of the most vicious group in wrestling yet they struggle to even defeat Triple H. The idea of keeping the duo together so they can come up at the same time is good, but also kind of pointless if you are simply burying them together rather then build them up.
That's just the thing though, nobody believes that Legacy can beat you up fairly, that's not their game. However, they are the top of group that should always (always) be able to come out on top when the numbers game is in their favor. While Ted and Cody still have some work to do on their in ring work, as characters they are supposed to be slowly built around their ability to take advantage of any little mistake you might make and get the upper hand. In essence, you should be working to hide their flaws while drawing attention to their strengths.
Back to the Rock, he was never an in-ring technician but he could entertain and work a crowd like nobody else. So did the WWE put him in a situation where he'd have to involved in a pure technical bout from start to finish? Of course not, they let him work the mic more times than not and his moveset was filled with more flashy crowd pleasing moves. Simply because it was what he was good at.
In short, let wrestlers stick to close to their comfort zone as much as possible and let their strengths shine. At the same time a wrestler who simply ok at everything but not at least good at any one thing, needs to stay in training. Seems simple enough, but sometimes you have to wonder.
Anyway, I'm just ranting at this point so I might as well draw today's effort to a close.
Thursday August 13th, 2009
You know what I like about this little blog experiment? There never has to be any method to my madness. All I do is I come home from work, eat some dinner, take a shower and then open up my "article manager" box and start typing. I never think about it and I don't limit it. I try to keep the feel as authentic as possible and more or less have it be the same thing you'd get if you asked me my thoughts on wrestling at that given time. I'll never claim that they are the best written pieces or the most complex, but I think it gives a decent look at the different thought patterns I have on different days.
That being said today I was simply reflecting on what it is that has kept me a wrestling fan for twenty years. Which of course led me to reminisce about what got me into wrestling in the first place. That question is one I can't really answer directly, as my earliest memory of wrestling is watching WCW shortly after the switch from NWA with my brother and simply being enthralled by what I saw. For my young mind it was like boxing but with storylines. Obviously not in the sense of the fights themselves, but in the way that they were basically glorified fights, at least to a child.
Even when I knew it was fake (and believe me I was told right away)I still didn't care. The whole production of it just dragged me in, and more times than not I found myself rooting for the bad guys. Maybe it was due to the fact that with it not being real and simply being a form of entertainment I was able to root for the villains with zero quilt. After all, their underhanded deeds weren't real and the good guys would ultimately prevail anyway. Still I savored every moment that the bad guys did triumph, even if it wouldn't last.
When I watch today I may not find myself quite as connected but it's hard to. I mean when I was little I watched around ten or more hours of wrestling a week (not counting pay-per-views) and every time sat in the middle of the living room with a box bigger than me filled with wrestling toys. It became more than a television program, it became an experience.
I will admit that sometimes I watch, I simply watch because I always do. More times than not though I find myself genuinely excited. While some will call the product a shell of it's former self, I think some people's thoughts of the glory days are better than said glory days actually were. Wrestling has always pushed the entertainers over the wrestlers, and while I don't condone it (being a fan of "wrestling") I do wonder what it is that suddenly people seem to be so against it. People complain about a guy like John Cena's moveset, yet proudly wore red and yellow as a child.
We complain that the matches on television aren't as good as they used to be, forgetting that for years 90% of the televised bouts were one-sided squash matches featuring no named jobbers.
You see it's not that the product itself has changed, as it honestly hasn't that much. The faces may be different but the game they play is still the same. It is us fans who have changed throughout the years. For years the WWE catered to us as children and as we grew to teenagers they increased the amount of "adult" humor. It was almost as if they were growing up with us.
Now however we've gotten to the age where we've adapted this elitist attitude, and we shun the same product we so proudly hailed for years. That's when the reset happened and things went back to being PG. The WWE knew that the audience they had catered to had grown up and in some cases moved on. Seeing their audience shrink, they did what they had to. The WWE went after a new generation of children and like they did with us, will gradually adapt their product with their ever growing fanbase.
The WWE is still the WWE and always will be. We are the ones who are different and now we must decide whether we ride the wave again or whether we'll step aside and let a younger face take our spot. Are you willing to let go though? I guess the same can be said about the wrestlers.
Friday August 14th, 2009
With this weekend the latest Fact Or Fiction will drop, so I figured what better way to get people ready for it then give you a small taste of what is to come. How's that you ask? Well for anybody who has ever wanted the person asking the questions to turn the table and do some answering, then I've got just the thing for you. As a way of previewing the upcoming questions that will be featured as well as give my thoughts, I figured I'd answer the very questions I subjected everyone else to this month.
Question # 1) FACT or FICTION With the rehiring of Eugene, a three strike offender of the wellness policy, WWE has proved that their wellness policy is a joke.
FACT While I don't think that their policy is completely useless I do question whether or not they'll have the guts to truly pull the trigger on a main event level talent that had three strikes. Sure you might punish them to make the public happy, but if John Cena was a strung out junkie can you honestly say that the WWE would cut all ties with him? Sure I do know that Eugene has since been released but you have to think their was some additional pressure there and being that Dinsmore is considered to be expendable; no big loss right? I want to believe it WWE but until you prove me wrong I simply can't.
Question # 2) FACT or FICTION, it is possible for SummerSlam to be perceived to be just as big as Wrestlemania by your average wrestling fan.
FICTION WWE can try all they want but SummerSlam will never be thought of on the same level as Wrestlemania. Jeremy Piven couldn't even remember the name of SummerSlam. Your average fan may be willing to look at it as the # 2 ppv event, but that's it. Plus the history of WM alone will always put it light years ahead of the traditionally much tamer SummerSlam.
Question # 3) FACT or FICTION, the Miz will not be a member of the active roster by this time next year.
FACT Even with him being back on Raw already I just find it hard to believe that this guy will ever make a true impact. As I've mentioned before, a push usually means you are going over people week in and week out. Well who exactly has he gone over? It takes more than simply saying that you are awesome, to make it so.
Question # 4) FACT or FICTION, Bobby Lashley will be the first athlete to simultaneously be successful in wrestling and MMA.
FICTION While I guess it depends on your idea of successful, I look at success being thought of in the mainstream sense. While some may say guys like Severn and Shamrock were successful in both careers, neither maintained both simultaneously. I'm not taking anything away from Lashley but combat sports in general aren't the type of thing that you can get away with giving 90% to. I'm rooting for the guy, but if he doesn't make his stay in TNA a brief one it could come at the cost of his MMA career.
Question # 5) FACT or FICTION, if Jeff Jarrett loses his stake in TNA the company will change for the better.
FICTION This one is a hard one, simply because I don't buy that JJ is the root of all the trouble in TNA. I do agree that sometimes it's best to get a set of eyes that aren't in the inner circle to see things from a different angle (no pun intended) I also don't think it's as simple as removing one person's influence. Sure, you can't deny it will indeed shake things up but the real question it will the positive outweigh the negative?
Question # 6) FACT or FICTION, to succeed ROH must be able to get more providers to carry their pay-per-views.
FACT More people carry your PPVs, then more people can buy your PPVs. More people buy your PPVs, then you make more money. You make more money, you bounce less checks. You bounce less checks, you don't become the next ECW.
Bonus # 1) Charlie Haas vs Mike Knox, who gets fired first and why?
Got to go with Hass, since Vince still loves the big men and Charlie has been fired once before.
Marry - Austin Aries, guy has a way of making even the shittiest rings should good. (please don't hit the back button for that pun)
Fuck - Kevin Steen, fat people fuck well it's like necessity; a means of survival.
Kill - Brutus Beefcake, because nobody will notice
Saturday August 15th, 2009
Well it would seem that Kurt Angle has gotten himself into legal trouble yet again, as apparently he was arrested this morning following some sort of violent dispute with his girlfriend. The details are still a little sketchy at this point but what is known that Kurt was also in possession of human growth hormones; which he claims to have a prescription for. This is isn't Angle's first arrest this year as he was also picked up on a DUI charge earlier in the year.
At this point I got to ask the obvious; what the fuck is going on. It seems ever since his final days in WWE that Kurt has been spiraling out of control. Starting with his refusal to enter a treatment facility for his reliance on pain medication, which ultimately led to him leaving the WWE. Factor in the fact that he's lost his wife, been arrested twice, and sprinkle on his massive weight loss and you have to start thinking something is going on.
For quite some time people have been crying foul and saying that Angle was headed down the path of destruction and I disagreed with them. Now though, it's becoming harder and harder to ignore the obvious and you have to start thinking that Kurt needs serious help. Not only his health and well being on the line but even his standing with the company he works for has to be taking a hit. After all, he is set to be in the main event of tomorrow's Hard Justice pay-per-view and at this point it's not even known if he'll be free to make that appearance. The world champion of your company, not even able to make the pay-per-view due to an arrest.
On the other side I think it's time for TNA to take a stand seeing as this is the second time that Kurt has put the company in a similar predicament. At the very least he needs to be stripped of his title and I'd even say they should suspend him indefinitely pending him seeking psychological help. At this point there is absolutely no denying that the problem exists and the last thing we need is to have a similar situation like the whole Chris Benoit ordeal.
Bottom line, TNA needs to take a stand and Kurt needs to get some help for his own sake and the sake of those around him. Hopefully the next Angle headline isn't one of tragedy.
As always I am the Monkey, and you've just seen the world through my eyes.
