Brock Lesnar Wants Back!

To say that former WWE Champion Brock Lesnar left the company that made him a household name on bad terms would be putting it mildly. After being given a push very few wrestlers receive in their careers and to leave to make a name for himself in another sport without helping to create a replacement star, Brock possibly made the biggest mistake in his life. In an article with the Bismarck Tribune, Brock Lesnar explains why he left — and shows a change of heart.

Brock explains to the paper that he just wasn't ready for the work despite his desire to succees: "I committed to myself," he continued. "I committed to Vince McMahon and I wanted to be a pro wrestler. From the day I signed on the dotted line, I turned that switch, and I just wanted to become an entertainer. I got the same feeling out of it as I did as an amateur wrestler."

When he was promoted to the main roster, Lesnar was given the moniker "Next Big Thing" and quickly was pushed to the top, winning the WWE championship within months. But even as Lesnar continued to evolve into a strong all-around performer for McMahon, he began to struggle with the demands of the business.

"I wasn't ready for what (McMahon) had put on my plate," Lesnar said. "I couldn't eat it all. I tried to, you know. That's just me being me. He asked me, 'Are you ready for this?' And I just said, 'Bring it on. Let's go.'

"I wasn't ready to be traveling 300 days a year," he said. "I wasn't ready for the money. I wasn't ready for the responsibilities. I wasn't ready to be a father. I wasn't ready to be a husband. I wasn't ready for a lot of things. I had a lot of growing up to do. I was forced to grow up."

After deciding to leave the company, Brock attempted to join the NFL. As we all know, this didn't exactly pan out. After the season ended Brock got an invitation to watch a New Japan Pro-Wrestling show. This proved to be a mistake on his behalf and ultimately resulted in the lawsuit he filed against the WWE. Because he was introduced to the fans in attendance, the WWE contends that he appeared for another wrestling promotion which is strictly forbidden by the no compete contract he signed.

Brock, an athlete, feels that this contract unfairly keeps him from earning a living wage given his lack of skills in other job markets. After repeated stalling by lawyers on both sides of the issue, Brock now realizes his error in judgment.

"I'm ready for it now," he said. "... With the lawsuit and everything going on, I just hope we can resolve this thing, and Vince can open his doors to me and just give me a second chance.

"I have no idea (where it stands)," he added. "I guess it stands on the end of your pencil, when it gets on the Internet. That's probably where he'll catch the news. It's either that or me calling him. But I don't know what else I'd be. What else is there for me?"

For wrestling fans, this is only part of what could be fantastic news. Brock was an immensely popular and gifted professional wrestler. With him as the WWE Champion of the SmackDown brand television ratings, merchandising sales and house show ticket sales all increased. The fan reaction to his final match at WrestleMania XX was loud, angry and full of hurt. They had taken to this man and he was leaving them for another sport. If fans didn't care then there would have been little reaction at all.

The next move, and the right move, for Vince McMahon to take would be to allow Brock Lesnar back into the fold — with provisions of course. Vince certainly needs to protect his own product and investment. First, they would need to have a clause that if Brock should attempt the company in the same manner he did the last time then the no-compete clause is back in effect.

Next, Brock needs to work his way back to his former spot. WWE can't attempt to bury him for his actions though. There is far too much money to be made by both parties to be playing that game.

Lastly, the company needs to be sure that the situation doesn't happen again. By this I mean that they need to keep an eye on him. Any signs of stress and they need to talk with him, give him counseling, time off, something. Life on the road is very stressful. But when you have a talent of Brock's caliber then you need to be sure that he can handle his workload. It might not seem fair to others but it is for the best for the health and wealth of all involved in the company.

I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say the fans will welcome Brock back to the squared circle. We're ready to forgive him if he's ready to accept his role in the company as well. Brock Lesnar is without a doubt one of the most talented rookies to step foot in the WWE ring since 2003. Here's hoping that the isues between the two parties can get resolved.

Quick thoughts on the return of TNA Impact

After a month's absence, TNA has returned to putting out first-run television. Unless you have Sun Sports, it's likely you'll have to watch the show online on tnawrestling.com.

In a funny bit, TNA had big problems getting the video file up on time yesterday and their server was totally swamped with people trying to download the show. In response, TNA put up a BitTorrent file of the show! See, there *are* legitmate uses for that application RIAA! It's really worth checking out if you haven't seen a show in a while, because Scott D'Amore and Mike Tenay do a really great job of booking the show. It's also commerical-free so you don't have to listen to Borash shill DVDs in his fake announcer voice.

We open with still shots of the last PPV that nobody watched. Raven is new champ or something.

• Michael Shane (w/Traci) defeated James Storm (w/Chris Harris) at 8:46.

Really surprisingly good match since I thought it was going to suck. I remember Storm was supposed to be the weak link of AMW but he more than held his own here. Shane did a nice job of showing he's not just HBK Jr. in the ring with some different moves. Alex Shelley interfered here to help Shane win.

Backstage, Jim Mitchell tried to convince Abyss to let him be his manager! This is about three years overdue but it really clicked. I can't believe it's taken them this long to give Abyss a great mouthpiece.

"Earlier" in the day, Mike Tenay is interviewing the 2 Live Kru about B.G. James being missing in the ring, when the Outlaw shows up. Apparently the soundstage's PA is on and there are live mics backstage, but that's nitpicking. Monty Brown shows up dressed like B.G. James and punks 2 Live Kru out and then parodies the New Age Outlaws schtick with Gu^^^ the Outlaw.

• Shark Boy defeated David Young at 3:39.

Short little match to let the announcers recap other angles, put Shark Boy's lawsuit against Disney over and extend David Young's jobbing streak. It served its purpose.

Backstage, Triple J whines about not getting a title shot. Larry Z blows him off and says Abyss deserves another title shot. I can't wait for the skit showing Larry Z selling his soul to Mitchell in exchange for getting a shot at the Champions Golf Tour.

• Samoa Joe defeated Delirious at 3:34.

Joe just murdered, murdered Delirious here. Squash that put Joe over like a superstar. I wasn't sure how he'd look in TNA but he has a star presence with the way he carries himself, and so far his offense hasn't been neutered.

• Christopher Daniels defeated Prime Time Elix Skipper at 11:58 in a non-title X Division match.

Prime Time hid in front of the heel entrance waiting for Daniels. I guess the Impact time limits are gone which is beyond sweet. Pretty darn good match with a hot crowd. I think I personally liked it better than Rey/Eddy on Smackdown. Nice focus on the neck by Daniels and some good exchanges here.

Raven hits the ring for an interview and some of the crowd is confused whether to cheer him or not. He cuts his normal promo which doesn't fly with the marks but the smarks pop like crazy. Mitchell enters and this sounds like two college professors having a philosophy discussion. Abyss shows up, Black Hole Slam, Mitchell gives a Skeletor laugh or two and Abyss chokes out Raven with his chain.

Impact has really improved tenfold lately, and this show was no exception. Some good wrestling, entertaining angles that make sense and surprise you, and feuds starting to be built for the PPV.

Wrestling News June 25, 2005

There’s an excellent interview with Kurt Angle in the Miami Herald today. Angle tells a story about what happened the day he got drafted to Raw:"Vince doesn't tell anyone until the day of or the day before. I flew from New York to Syracuse and took a limo from Syracuse to Rochester. Funny thing is I ended up going into a convenience store to get something to drink.

"When I walked in, there was a fan saying, `Hey Angle, what are you doing? You're getting traded.' I said, 'No. I have an appearance up here. Then we're going up to Hershey. We have a show in Hershey tomorrow.' He's like, 'Yeah, right.' I said, `No. I'm serious.'

"Here is this guy two hours away from the city where we're in. He was going to the show that night, and I finally talked him into believing me. I thought, `Jeez. I better not get out of the limo again."

SD: This is major problem with how the draft is being conducted this year. There’s too many problems by trying to make it a surprise per show. This is one of them. Another is missing the excitement and reaction of the crowd and the wrestlers themselves as their names got read off on tv.

Angle on the difference between Raw and Smackdown: "On SmackDown! the guys were a little more like a family," said Angle, who did it all on Thursday nights including a stint as General Manager. "They helped each other out and wanted each other to excel. Everybody wanted everyone to make it to the main event level.

"On Raw there seems to be more of a competitive edge where guys are scraping, fighting and clawing there way to the top while they're trying to keep everyone else down. I think that has a lot to do with the individuals on Raw. I think it's more old school.”

From there he discusses the roles the brands played and how SmackDown stars were angry at being considered the B-show despite drawing better ratings and making more money. On his character, Angle is all for a tweaking: "I believe I have the ability to have a character that is as intriguing as Stone Cold Steve Austin," said Angle. "When I was the top good guy in the company, Vince McMahon wasn't sure what to do with me because I was kind of goofy as a bad guy.

"Therefore, when I was the top good guy he wouldn't let me cut any promos because he didn't know what to do with me. He didn't want me to be funny. He didn't want me to be goofy, but he didn't want me to be like Stone Cold…. I think now is the time to tweak my character and not push me to decide but let the fans decide. Instead of forcing me one way or another but just going with the flow and let the fans decide where they want me to be. I strongly believe I will end up being a good guy eventually.''

SD: Given that Kurt’s past interviews have tended to include some spoilers on the direction of the company, I think we can look for him to become a face in the near future. The other day I stated that Angle and Triple H could share the burdon as top heels of the Raw brand while Christian and Jericho could potentially be moving just under them. It looks like I could be wrong about Kurt’s role. This can mean good news for both Christian and/or Jericho fans but it’s still wait and see.

Depending on how the triple threat match for the WWE Championship goes and the end result of the draft lottery and trades just after it are handled we could be seeing a very different Raw main event scene. As Kurt said in the article, the SmackDown brand is about the changes and upward mobility of its stars, so the how main event looks over there is usually always changing like it would in a real sport which is a definite positive. As usual, wait and see how both brands develop. I am remaining cautiously optimistic.

One of the fastest rising stars in wrestling today, Christian, doesn’t like to say a whole lot about the company he works for. Of the infamous glass ceiling on Raw he says: “You can't worry about things you can't control. It's all hearsay anyway."

And his thoughts about Chris Jericho being added to his WWE Championship match against John Cena?

“I've always had great matches with Chris," he said. "I think this match has a good dynamic, but at some point, I would definitely like to have a singles match with John Cena."

SD: I would love to see it as well — but only if done right. Far too many of Cena’s matches lately have been nothing more than glorified squash matches. Christian deserves far better. A clean win for Christian against Cena would do wonders for both men’s careers and the company itself.

He then says about his character of recent months: "I've just tried to make the character grow up a little bit," he said. "I got an opportunity to step up and I jumped on that wave and tried to ride it. I feel like I've been in the zone, and I'm not thinking too much about what I'm doing. I'm just going out and doing it and the fans have been responsive to me."

SD: Yes, we most certainly have. There was only so much that could be done with the former overgrown child gimmick he used for so long. The new self-absorbed nerd meets Eddie Haskel routine fits him well and is a natural progression. The confidence he is exhibiting out there suggests to me that this is probably his own personality amped up for an audience. The WWE has the golden ticket in their hands. Will they use it to get back into the Chocolate Factory?

RVD expressed his thoughts on ways to improve the state of wrestling today while on Off the Record. Taken from PWInsider: “He says that wrestling needs to go back to enhancement matches. He says they have gone away from them during the Monday night wars, where now, every match on the card is a main event. He states that the current matches hurt one main eventer as much as it helps another, plus it always become political & complicated in how the match ends. He said that with enhancement matches, even if fans know who is going to win, the superstar gets to put on an exhibition to the fans and show them everything they can do, against someone who doesn’t want to get themselves over. He says that if those matches are meant to feature RVD and all his ‘kick ass’ moves, then maybe you’ll want to buy a ticket to see RVD fight another established main eventer. He says that the business needs to go back and showcase the wrestlers as the big superstars they are.”

SD: All I can argue with is that “all the matches are now main events.” Some most definitely aren’t but I definitely agree with the sentiment. Witness Smackdown’s forays into enhancement talent recently: the Kurt Angle Invitational doe exactly as RVD says. Heidenreich and Matt Morgan facing enhancement talent put over their new characters in a huge way. They are now in major feuds. And Eddie Guererro’s DQ loss to ROH star Jimmy Jacobs recently really put his heel persona over big. It works and keeps WWE workers healthier.

It continues: “Micheal Landsberg asks that if RVD was to book a match for himself on Monday night, what he would do. He said that he would fight a television matches against a ‘Bill Jones’, a local enhancement talent and would come out ‘smokin’” & get to show off all of his moves. He then mentioned Paul London, who he called ‘really good’ and said that he would build to a match with Paul London because while Van Dam gets to show what he could do, he would also bring the best out of London, at the same time.”

SD: Who wouldn’t want to see that? It has potential to be the next RVD/Jerry Lynn series. One problem with the current direction is exactly what RVD is saying here. All the big matches are being given away for free when they don’t have to be. If they are given to the house shows and ppvs only suddenly revenue dramatically increases in both. Now, for television not every match has to be this way. The “bigger” matches can be scattershot throughout the show. Since nobody expects the enhancement matches to last as long as the superstar matches you suddenly have a little more time to advance angles for ppvs and to get talent over via promos, video packages, whatever. It’s win/win.

In TNA news, Bill Banks had some injuries to report in his column: There were several injuries at Tuesday’s TV tapings, including Michael Shane and James Storm (both hyper-extended knees suffered during their Impact match airing this week), Alex Shelley and Petey Williams (busted noses) and The Outlaw, who suffered a nasty cut on the top of his head. None of the above are expected to miss any ring time.

On a side note, the injuries to Shane and Shelley forced them out of a match later on that night against AJ Styles and Sean Waltman, with Canada’s A1 and Bobby Roode taking their place in the bout.

SD: Two injuries in the opening match of the taping? Then more after? I’m getting flashbacks to WWE New Year’s Revolution. Good to know that the injuries won’t miss ring time. Hopefully the changed match won’t be too damaging to the storylines.

Later on he hints: “On this week’s Impact, Championship Committee member Larry Zbyszko informed Jeff Jarrett that “new talent” were on their way to TNA Wrestling. I wonder who Larry Z was referring to? July should be an interesting month for sure, especially “No Surrender”…”

SD: Most likely it is Matt Hardy which wouldn’t be a shock to anybody. He also discusses returns to the company both in production and talent, clearances, merchandising and that they are finalizing a deal for Video On-Demand with Adelphia and Cox. Finally, he announces that the September 11 ppv will be called “Unbreakable”. I’m hoping that they use a green motif for the faces’ ramp and purple for the heels’.

Ed Ferrara comments on the pitfalls of being a WCW writer:“…we had a major angle planned for Sid that spanned the entire show. Sid flatly refused to do what we had planned (which I felt was odd, because I had never had any problems with Sid prior to that, and he was usually quite reasonable). Sid left in the late afternoon, and I was literally re-writing the ENTIRE show on the fly as it was progressing... when we went live at 8 p.m. EST. I only had the first three segments written and booked out. I was desperately trying to keep the show going, booking matches and writing segments for the boys that they were getting literally two or three segments before they had to go on.”

SD: Remember, WCW was the home of guaranteed contracts or as Aleister Crowley put it "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law". But if you think having to rewrite a television show almost as it is happening was bad enough, he continues:

“… halfway through the show, as I was desperately trying to figure out what should happen next, I look up from my seat at Gorilla position, and there I see Scotty and Page rolling around on the floor in the dark, looking like they were trying to kill each other. It was the perfect crescendo for one of the most f---ed-up days I ever spent in WCW... and that's saying a LOT.”

SD: Scotty and Page being, obviously, Scott Steiner and DDP who had been kept apart from each other for weeks. I really think the WCW situation needs to be given another look over. The Death of WCW book by Bryan Alvarez and R.D. Reynolds got into a lot of it but they also glossed over a hell of a lot more which was disappointing to me. I think a tabloid style book with similar stories as told by Ferrara here would be extremely enjoyable. Out of the two paragraphs Ferrara uses to discuss WCW I got a hell of a lot more sense of how horrible it really was than from Death of WCW.

Gabe Sapolsky (whose name I can never remember) of ROH said recently to the PWTorch Newsletter: "I thought that Samoa Joe's TNA debut was perfectly booked and then perfectly executed by Joe and Sonjay Dutt. It was the perfect introduction of Joe to a new product and I'm sure TNA will do some great business with him and they really have people hungry to see more of him. It was very nice of them to mention ROH and Joe's history in ROH and I'm glad they could use it to give Joe some accolades in his debut."

SD: It’s good to see the two feds on working terms again. That can only be good for the sake of the industry. I haven’t watched the Slammiversary yet so I can’t comment on the match and Samoa Joe’s debut but judging by how great Joe and Dutt are as performers I can’t see it being bad at all.

Rumor has it that Ted DiBiase’s sons, Ted Jr. and Michael, will be joining the WWE as a tag team sometime in 2006. The rumored tag team name will the “The Million Dollar Brothers”. Will they be they first third generation tag team in WWE history?

The Passion of the Wrestler

Last night I decided to pop in one of the discs in the RVD set released by WWE some months back, and my match of choice was RVD/Sabu from Hostile City Showdown 1996. As I was watching RVD and Sabu put on a hell of a non-stop show for nearly 20 minutes, it started to dawn on me what set ECW apart from other "independents" at the time, and it's something that partly explains why ECW was able to achieve the degree of success it had, and why I think there might be a dearth of (foreseeable) competition to WWE.

I had discussed the idea of this post with Krusty, and he was able to sum it up with one word: Passion.

Passion is what I was watching when I watched Sabu and RVD tear down the house. Whether you think ECW was a viable source of competition, or was even nothing more than glorified "garbage wrestling" is not the point. The point is that these two men WANTED to be out there doing what they were doing. It reminds me of a comment Joey Styles made during One Night Stand. He noted that Sandman, Dreamer, and the Dudley Boys were absolutely beating the bloody hell out of each other, and that they loved every minute of it.

Now, I realize that part of Heyman's success with ECW was that he was able to bring in established stars like Kevin Sullivan, Eddie Gilbert, Cactus Jack, and Terry Funk, but he also had guys who wanted to be professional wrestlers. These weren't guys who happened to wrestle. These were guys who wanted to do this for a living, and to devote their lives to it.

This "simple" distinction is what I think typifies the fact that right now we don't have widespread competition to WWE. In the indy scene, you have a bunch of guys who play the part of some character for one or two nights a few times a month. They might call themselves wrestlers, but they're not. They are guys who wrestle. This is a very important distinction.

RVD, Sabu, and the others were/are wrestlers. They believed wrestling to be a craft, to be perfected and molded. Personally, you know which guys on the indy scene draw my interest? I notice the guys who act like they care, like they have a vested interest in their own matches. They're not out there just to earn a quick $15 and impress some chick with their moves (well, maybe not completely). They're there because they want to learn. They're there because they want to grow. Even in my local fed, the guys who impressed me were the guys who had WWE aspirations, who worked dark matches and B-show matches when WWE was in town.

What does this all have to do with competition to WWE, and why watching some ECW match from nearly 10 years ago sparked a thought? I don't think there are enough people out there these days on the indy scene who want to be wrestlers. You have feds full of guys who wrestle, but not feds that are full of wrestlers. There is simply no "next generation of wrestlers." This is undoubtedly related to the lack of any kind of territory system (which is another discussion in and of itself), but I think no one out there wants to be a wrestler anymore. They want to play the part for a night, and then go back to their "regular" lives. They don't want to pay the dues, they don't want to travel to lots and lots of independents in order to make their name.

Ring of Honor and TNA can only offer so much competition because they don't have the exposure to "make it big" (let alone booking, commercial appeal, etc). And I think they run the risk of finding guys on the indy scene who although they have some love for being wrestlers, are picked up before they can develop well rounded skills, out of the simply need to have someone with some sense of professionalism. I think this is why TNA and RoH have the "spot fu" and/or "lots of pieces of wrestling with no real storyline in the movements" reputations they do. The newer wrestlers might love what they do, but we're seeing them as they start to learn, something that should be done before they hit "the big leagues," so to speak.

I am sure this has always been the case with the indepedents, but I think it's becoming more transparent now that the indies are the source of (future) competition for WWE. I look at the guys wreslting in my locale, and I don't see anyone who really could move on the national scene and do well there, and I bet a lot of other people have similar experiences. I don't think wrestling by any means is dead, but if anyone is to rise up and provide a viable, different, widely captivating product, he needs to make sure he wants to rise up all the way to the top, as opposed to going along for the ride and bowing out when the going gets tough.

Abu Dhabi 2005

Man, I'd love to get my hands on a copy of this year's Abu Dhabi in Long Beach, California. Every review I've read says it was one of the best ever. A friend of mine's boss is sponsoring Diego Sanchez, and from what I hear, he was really impressive there and surprised a lot of people. If anyone has seen a copy of this floating around, be sure to let me know!

SD: Say hi to Krusty, everybody. He wanted to publish this even before we were ready to launch LOL It's up now, guy. Now give us some substance!

Wrestling News June 24, 2005

There's an excellent, excellent interview with Kurt Angle up at IGN.
On his WM21 match with HBK:I'd have to say the Shawn Michaels match was the best, though, because I've had a lot of wrestlers come up to me, legends, former wrestlers like Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, Paul Orndorff, Jesse Ventura call me personally and tell me that it was the best match they've ever seen in their life. There were also current wrestlers like Chris Benoit and JBL who came up to me and said "Kurt, I've never seen a match like that. That's the greatest match I've ever seen. That's what wrestling is all about." It surprised me, because when I was out there, I was feeling it, but I just did what I did then walked to the back like any other match. Before I knew it, everyone was on their feet clapping and I was like, "Wow, I didn't know it was that good." It made me very, very excited because at that point, it was something I needed. With all of the injuries I've had with my neck, what I needed was something to revive me, and that did. I think it showed Vince that I'm still at the top of my game and that my neck is no longer an issue. So he traded me to Raw and has given me a fresh beginning so now I can have an opportunity to make a run for the title. I think Vince was very concerned about my neck, and I think that's why you didn't see me in the title picture for a while, but now you're going to see me there.

SD: That was just an amazing match. But I do question the logic of him having to move to Raw to get back into the title scene. It does give the show another main event heel wrestler besides Triple H so hopefully they have some plans.


On amateur wrestling: And I think that finally, amateur wrestling as a community, they always felt like they took a backseat to pro wrestling and they felt that in people's minds, pro wrestling was just the next step of amateur wrestling. They were out there trying to say pro wrestling was fake and they were real. But pro wrestling is not fake, it's sports entertainment. We go out there and we perform, and a lot of what we do out there is real, but we're not going to insult anyone's intelligence, there is a predetermined winner. It's just the fans don't know who it is, and that's what makes it so intriguing. Amateur wrestling finally realized that by entering professional wrestling, I wasn't taking the next step, I was taking another career path and I opened it up for other wrestlers to follow.

SD: And we all owe Kurt a debt of gratitude for this. Shelton, Charlie and Brock are all amazingly talented in-ring performers. The era of crash tv is over so let's get back to the basics. In Terry Funk's autobiography he said that his father would train new wrestlers in amateur wrestling before they started doing pro-wrestling techniques. It gives them toughness, stamina and a solid chain wrestling background that the fans love if done right.

Check out the rest of the interview. It's well worth the time.

On SmackDown, Teddy Long announced a 6-man match for the new SmackDown Championship. Comic book author and screenwriter Steven Grant writes to the Observer and puts it all in perspective for all of us:
"So if they don't unify the World and WWE titles, do they really thinking having yet another title will make the titles seem more important? If they're not shifting one or the other to Smackdown, what's the point of
sticking yet another title on Raw when they don't do anything with the ones they've got?"

SD: If you'll recall, Grant is a long time wrestling fan and even wrote a few WWF comics for the now defunct Chaos! Comics; among them the Stone Cold Steve Austin and Mankind books. As to his entire letter, he's exactly right. Here we have wrestling fans who have been watching this sport for years and even we get confused as to who the champions are. Imagine what it must be like to the casual fan or even a first time viewer? I'm not suggesting they get rid of some titles. I just think they need to remember the sport in sports-entertainment. It's perectly acceptable to have storyline and personality conflicts. They are part of wrestling tradition as well. But the titles are just as important. Make people chasing the titles a primary goal again. This is the absolute easiest way to get over the wrestlers, the titles and the product itself.

After I wrote up that last tidbit, I found this article about former WWE Womens and Cruiserweight Champion Jacqueline. She agrees with me: "They tend to do more soap opera than wrestling," she said. "Have you noticed that? That's OK. We need that. But I think they need to focus more on wrestling. They need to bring it back.

"Right now, they are using a lot of Playboy models, a bunch of T & A. I have nothing against that. There is plenty of room for that, but there is room for both. People love to see pretty women, but you can see them anywhere. Get back to wrestling."

SD: The problems with WWE are so minute but everybody sees it. It just needs a little twist in the right direction and viewership will show upward mobility again.


The NWA World Championship stirs up strong feelings within TNA according to the PWTorch newsletter. Jarrett made the decision to bow out of the match voluntarily. Raven was instead added to the match during the pre-show. According to reports, Jarrett was upset that he wasn't being booked by the new writing committee in TNA to win back the NWA World Title on Sunday. Jarrett reportedly felt that it would have been damaging to his character to not win the match after putting himself over as the "King of the Mountain" all year in TNA. Dixie Carter was said to have stood her ground regarding the decision and would not allow a change in the match to take place to give Jarrett the win.

SD: If true, I have two opinions of Jarrett on this. First, I think it was really short-sighted of him to be doing the entire "King of the Mountain" as part of his gimmick. It was a gimmick match. He had to know there would be more. You don't see the Undertaker or Triple H calling themselves the Hellion of the Cell. Edge needs to be careful with this as well when referring to himself as "Mr. Money in the Bank". Second, I feel bad for him that the company he founded is moving ahead without his influence. From a company standpoint it is the right thing to do. But for him it has to be frustrating. Raven, who wasn't even supposed to be in the match until the situation developed had another reaction:

When Raven was informed hours before Slammiversary that he would be winning the NWA World Heavyweight Title, he reportedly broke down and cried. Being a long time fan and student of the wrestling business, Raven could recognize the history of the NWA Title and the significance of being put in the record books as a champion.

SD: Who says titles don't mean anything? The oldschool wrestlers (of which Raven is probably the last of) really understand the signifigance of being world champion. Unlike the mid-to-late '90s it seems the World titles are becoming important again in the industry. To be now listed in the record books as an NWA champion is an honor for Raven and makes his decision for a career path all that much sweeter for him. I'd like to publicly congratulate Raven for his accomplishment. You've earned it.

An interview with former New York Ranger, Chris McAllister had this little snippet:
Question: You're 6-foot-7. When was the last time you had a crush on a girl who was taller than you?

Answer: I wouldn't say I had a crush on her but I remember some girl who was 6-foot-8 coming up to me and saying, "You're cute." Scary. She was one of the girls from the WWE's Tough Enough TV series. She was a big girl.

SD: After a little research it turns out this girl was probably Paulina who is 6'3". Maybe she wore heels? If you recall Paulina later ended up making a couple appearances in TNA.


Here's a picture you've probably already seen of Mark Henry at the USA network's rebranding party:


Feel free to snark on it.

This item was also in a major American newspaper, the Oregonian, about a house show card at the Rose Garden Arena: "Batista better win it big time," she [Holli Dery] said before the big bout. And added her friend from Coos Bay, Victor Baldwin, 15: "Triple H is lame and his moves are getting old!"

SD: The move of Kurt Angle from SmackDown to Raw will help a lot with this image problem. Triple H is in the WWE for the long haul. Most likely that means he will remain at the top of the card. Now with Angle there and the potential upward mobility of Christian and Jericho (who both are among the top 6 Raw stars for the Raw-to-SmackDown draft graphic) Triple H can relax some and refocus on evolving his ring style and character some.

MMA Masterclass: Heavyweights (Part 1)

In the first regular installment of this hopefully long-running series, I’m going to run down the top names in the Heavyweight division of both UFC and PRIDE, give you a historical overview, and pick out some names to watch out for in the months to come. A little background may come in handy, so let’s begin.

Historically, “Heavyweight” in Mixed Martial Arts / No Holds Barred fighting has been somewhat of a misnomer; in the very early days of the sport there were no weight classes, with lighter weight divisions added as the sport matured. The UFC have a nominal upper weight limit for their Heavyweight title of 264.9lbs, and the upper limit for the Light Heavyweight division is 204.9, but fighters below that weight may still compete for the higher title. Confused yet?

The Heavyweight divisions of both companies are generally similar in fight style – the overwhelming majority of competitors over 205 are fairly slow, heavy hitting and either overweight or chemically enhanced. For these reasons, truly skilled fighters are few and far between, although it makes for highly entertaining bouts. In amongst the mix, each company has a supremely skilled grappler from a jiu jitsu background who dominates nearly all comers, a precision striking specialist and a brawling all rounder.

UFC’s Top Stars

In realistic competition in the UFC’s heavyweight division, there are only two truly main event names for the marquee: Andrei Arlovski and Frank Mir. Confusingly, and confusing is something you need to adapt to in order to follow the UFC, both men are currently World Heavyweight Champion.

Frank Mir is the appointed Chosen One of the UFC’s heavies. Mir began his stay in the company in only his third fight, with only one loss to Ian “The Machine” Freeman on his way to a title shot against then-champion “The Mainiac” Tim Sylvia. Mir's style is undoubtedly the most technical of any UFC heavyweight in the company's history, with heavy reliance on submissions but - as always - enough striking ability to stand for as long as neccessary with whoever he's facing.

Disaster came for Mir with a career-threatening motorcycle accident that put him out of the ring for well over a year. While Mir has not vacated the title, this is yet another fork in the road that has cost the Heavyweight division its crown as the #1 draw in mixed martial arts. Over the last couple of years, the belt has been vacated twice due to steroid test problems (first Josh Barnett, and then Tim Sylvia). The "Interim" title was created and given to Andrei Arlovski after he defeated previous champion Sylvia in a play-off for the belt.

Arlovski is truly a man deserving of his nickname, a status that can only really be equalled by "The Axe Murderer" Wanderlei Silva. Making his UFC debut way back in 2000 before a couple of losses to more high profile opponents in Ricco Rodriguez and Pedro Rizzo put his career on the temporary backfoot, Arlovski worked his way back up to the top with wins over Ian Freeman (who, don't forget, has the only win over Frank Mir so far), Vladimir Matyushenko, and the one that put him over the top with the fans, Wesley "Cabbage" Correira - all by knockout. The defeat of Cabbage in such spectacular fashion, which made Arlovski the first man to actually knock the big man out (Cabbage has a previous TKO loss by corner stoppage to Sylvia in the UFC), made Arlovski a shoe in for a title shot.

Perhaps the most shocking thing about Arlovski's win over Tim Sylvia was that he utilised a keylock submission hold to get the victory. Sylvia had undoubtedly trained for a stand up war with his kickboxing opponent and was caught off guard as Andrei picked off an arm to take the Interim Heavyweight title.

Tim Sylvia, the "Mainiac", is the lead heavyweight in the Miletich Martial Arts stable of fighters. Very much in the classic mould of UFC "swingers", Sylvia stands an impressive six feet eight inches tall and weighs a near-limit 260. As well as the UFC, Sylvia is also a regular of Hawaii's Super Brawl events, and the Extreme Challenge cards. Sylvia's record at the time of writing is an impressive 17-2-0, with his only losses being the title fights to the above named fighters. Sylvia may not be the most technically impressive fighter to hold a UFC belt, but for the average fan he sure can be fun to watch.

As for up and comers in the 205+ class for the UFC... there's a good reason the Heavyweights are to make up one half of the forthcoming second season of The Ultimate Fighter. Quite simply, there has been no one recently on the UFC undercard who could hold a candle to either the wounded Champion or his more than capable Interim stand-in. The most exciting fighter on the undercard lately has been the hugely entertaining Paul Buentello, whose overwhelming resemblence to "Darkman" star Larry Drake apparently has no effect on his punching power.

In Part 2 of this article tomorrow, we'll take a look at the Japanese organisation, PRIDE, and the state of play in their heavyweight division, where the picture is somewhat rosier.

WWE Needs to Give Future Stars Time to Grow

At one time, wrestling had a fairly carefully maintained regional farm system that would slowly teach and elevate a young wrestler until he was ready for the big leagues, be it the NWA, WCW, WWF or what-have-you. Of course, this system as with anything else in wrestling suffered from politics and in-fighting and territorial disputes, but regardless by the time you saw a guy on your TV odds were very good he knew what he was doing. One could make the argument that this was as much because during this period of time (up through the early 90s) there were not a lot of wrestlers in North America doing the truly amazing athletic spots and bumps that we regularly see today but be that as it may this “farm system” was a necessary part of training young wrestlers.

Today, there is no such system. With the dissolving of WCW – and to a lesser extent ECW – wrestling has become exceedingly fractured. WWE is of course the big dog, but in terms of availability feds like TNA and ROH are easily available to a much broader group of wrestling fans than ever before, thanks in very large part to the internet.

Unfortunately, this has led to some wrestlers making it all the way to the top without truly learning how to wrestle. “Fake” or not, wrestling is a dangerous sport and these days kids are being pushed far too early into positions where they can legitimately injure someone. Witness Chris Masters, who spent approximately one year in Vince McMahon’s so-called minor league fed, OVW, and the very first night he’s on RAW he breaks Steven Richards’ nose. John Cena is the most over regular wrestler in WWE right now, and he can barely perform the most basic of moves.

It is imperative that Mr. McMahon follow through with the regional system that has been discussed for at least a year now and that he stop relying on OVW to rapidly produce the superstars of the future. Wrestlers that are not ready, no matter how charismatic they are, should not be put in a position to injure veterans simply because they were rushed onto television.

Vince seems to have a natural reluctance to rely on aforementioned indy feds like TNA and ROH to produce quality wrestlers for WWE and that is disappointing. There’s a plethora of wrestlers working for both those companies that have learned the business and are ready for a chance to be in the spotlight. Thankfully, in the last month or so, it appears WWE’s position on this issue has shifted. Super Crazy, Psicosis, Juventud Guerrera and CM Punk are all indy acquisitions (of a sort) Vince has contracted recently and all of whom have actually made it onto television. Hopefully this is a sign that Vince is beginning to understand that he does no one any favors by pushing green kids into the spotlight.

State of the UFC Address

With the left-field success of Spike TV’s ‘The Ultimate Fighter’, the UFC is perhaps uniquely poised to travel to new heights in the pay per view business. TV ratings for tape delayed airings in the UK are now reaching numbers in excess of 50,000, PPV business in the US is better than it has ever been, and the balance sheets are looking very healthy. In spite of all this, the company just isn’t what it could be in the eyes of many hardcore MMA viewers. So why is this?

1. Lack of depth

Each weight division in the UFC has a handful of genuine star names within MMA, men who are exciting fighters and genuinely charismatic whose presence on the card sells tickets and pay per view plays. For every Randy Couture, however, there are half a dozen Bill Mahoods. For every Matt Hughes there are many Pete Spratts. Some divisions are decidedly healthier than others, but all could greatly benefit from the elevation of some more promising fighters to be drawing names.

A related problem to this is the sheer dominance of certain fighters. There is almost certainly not a single man in the company who could beat Matt Hughes at 170lb. The official list of heavyweight fighters contains names that could potentially make interesting matchups with current Interim (more on this later) Champion Andrei Arlovski, but on closer inspection pairing the Pit Bull with Ken Shamrock or Kimo Leopoldo may sell tickets in the short term, but the fights themselves would only serve to bury the names of the established legends rather than build Arlovski any further.

2. Sports as Entertainment

In its long standing determination to distance the superficially similar sport of mixed martial arts from the sports entertainment world of professional wrestling, Zuffa LLC and SEG before them have at times downplayed anything that even remotely looks like an angle to avoid the comparison. In this writer’s opinion, and that of many other writers before me approaching MMA from a pro wrestling background, this just isn’t good business sense.

The UFC has been around long enough for no one to question it’s legitimacy. While there has been at least one unquestioned “work” in the UFC, and several in PRIDE Fighting Championships, the percentage of rigged fights in the sport is undoubtedly lower than in boxing, a sport worshipped by countless true professional sportswriters and therefore held to be above reproach in the mainstream media.

Mixed Martial Arts lost its initial hook into the mainstream mindset when new owners Zuffa and the President they appointed, Dana White, decided to clean up the sport and take it truly legitimate by establishing a standardized set of rules and submitting their events to the approval of the Nevada, and New Jersey, State Athletic Commissions. No longer could the UFC conceivably be promoted as no holds barred brutality – the list of rules grew seemingly by the day. The safety measures introduced are certainly to be applauded, but this undeniably hurt the drawing factor.

A willingness to adopt professional wrestling concepts into legitimate sport is certainly nothing new – you only have to ask Dennis Rodman about how playing the heel can benefit your career… and also shorten it when you take it too far. The example in the history of the Ultimate Fighting Championships is the one, the only, Tito Ortiz.

Ortiz, along with Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock, is undoubtedly one of the shining lights of Mixed Martial Arts, and definitely a contender for the title of biggest star in the history of the business. Never one to mince words in an interview, Ortiz was a master of drawing heel heat by berating his opponent until fans literally could not wait to see him torn limb from limb in his next fight. Of course, once the fight was over, Ortiz managed to be just humble enough in victory to stop the entire industry turning on him completely… and then went right into promoting his next few fights. Pro wrestling 101.

In the coming weeks, we will be taking a more in depth look at the current stars of the UFC and PRIDE in a kind of Beginner’s Guide to MMA. We’ll fill you in on the history of the business as a whole, profile the biggest stars of yesterday and today, and run down the up and coming talent who’ll be making waves over the next few years. Be sure to keep dropping by.

Wrestling News 6/23/2005

Booker T signs for another 2 years

"I recently renewed my contract," Booker told the popular show Wrestletalk Radio recently. "I tried to sign for just one more year but the company believed in me enough to ask me to sign for two, so I will definitely be on your TV for two more years."

SD: Good news for his fans.
Of the controversial storyline with Kurt Angle:"I am definitely comfortable with it. It's TV, no different then anything else you can watch. If you take it too seriously you would get caught up on. Everything we have done has been good quality and good taste and I wouldn't let it be any other way. I don't have any say in writing the storyline but I have a say in what my wife and I are willing to do. We are all human beings, we have to leave that arena and come home so there has to be a certain level of respect."

SD: There you have it: Booker says he and Sharmell were fine with it. I do question the phrase "good taste" but compared to many other programs on television I can't really argue.

On his a Stevie Ray's training school:"When I was a kid everyone had their own unique style and you knew why you liked them or hated them. The way people are trained today the kids don't get that. I feel like I have an obligation to give back in that aspect and train kids and get them on the right track. Hopefully a few of them can go around the world and do their thing."

SD: Sentiments I'm sure we can all agree with. I talked a little bit about this with James Ray yesterday and how the lack of regional territories is hurting business. OVW isn't enough for the WWE's future generations. They need to be working different regions to really learn their craft.

The rest of the article he discusses WrestleMania, WCW and his wedding to Sharmell. It's worth a read.

Kid Kash shoots from the hip

"I'd been there for three years and not one single iota of a pay raise or anything. I asked many times for one, but it never seemed to be in the budget. Every time I turned around, somebody else was being hired. You can almost figure that they were making more than what I was making," said Kash. "It's a little slap in the face. I wasn't asking for hardly anything, really. I guess they appreciated me going out, putting guys over and making them look good, but they didn't appreciate me enough to make my effort worthwhile."

His trainer, Ricky Morton, agrees with Kash's decision:"I think it was one of the best decisions he made. When you come from a situation [like that], you're fighting a losing cause," Morton said. "It was a great decision for him to leave there. You can get caught up in that rat race; it's like scrambled eggs, dude. It was the best decision that I thought he made, especially if he's going to advance himself maybe to WWE. He's got a lot of potential. He's one of the best."

SD: In the article you can see Kash's comments on his own career, ECW and a fairly well known tag team. I don't see any positive benefits to shooting on his former employer and their stars. Kash is in his mid-30s already. If he dreams of wrestling at WrestleMania he needs to get in the company now.


Japanese group forced from venue

Kokusai Puroresu Promotion was forced to abandon their venue at a fruit and vegetable market in Yokohama after their diesel truck failed to pass exhaust inspections for the metropolitan area. The venue, which had 50 seats set around ringside, offered shoppers a chance to see a profesional wrestling in an intimate venue. For the past year, this group has been forced to only perform in venues with a ring already set up.

SD: Sounds to me like a backyard fed that caught on. Who knows...

New Group claims PPV deal

Dave Nelson, new owner of NWA Ohio, announced the formation of new wrestling fed, World Wrestling Association, based out of Columbus, Ohio and Orlando, Florida. He and "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan are working on this venture since they have pulled their offer to purchase controlling interest of NWA-TNA. According to the press release, their first ppv will be in October. They plan on staying with the NWA despite the name change.

SD: I should check out an NWA Ohio show one of these days. As for the news? We'll see...

From the Sublime to the Ridiculous

The collapse of the Japanese professional wrestling industry apparently knows no limits. Today in Tokyo, "HUSTLE-K" Toshiaki Kawada did a staredown with "Yinling The Erotic Terrorist", a Japanese porn starlet, in preparation for what must be the oddest week of his pro career.



On July 13th, Kawada will be facing some kind of bizarre insect creature (as Harry Knowles would say, MAN IN SUIT! MAN IN SUIT!) at the next episode in the HUSTLE debacle. "If" he defeats the poor indie worker roped in to don 50lbs. of foam and rubber, Kawada will be rewarded with a further confrontation with Yinling on the next HUSTLE show on July 15th in Osaka.

And then on Sunday, July 18th, Toshiaki Kawada will face Mitsuharu Misawa in the second or third match from the top of the card at what looks like the first sold out Tokyo Dome event in years.

For those of you with no clue what any of this means, I guess I'd better explain a couple of things.

HUSTLE: the latest in a long line of professional wrestling offshoots from PRIDE promoters Dream Stage Entertainment, HUSTLE is... a uniquely Japanese spin on the art of sports entertainment as perfected by Vincent Kennedy McMahon. The overriding angle of HUSTLE is that a small band of native workers, with the top two names being Toshiaki Kawada (Hustle K) and sometime-shooter Naoya Ogawa (Captain HUSTLE), feuding with "General" Takada and the Takada Monster Army - which consists of guys like Mark Coleman, Kevin Randleman, and a bunch of rubber monster suits that have more than a couple of times been filled by poor Steve Corino.

Meanwhile, Kawada and Misawa have one of the most intense, both on screen and off, and heated rivalries in Japanese, if not all of wrestling, history. Think about the heat levels of Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels and then extend it for ten years... and with more, better singles matches.

The Misawa-Kawada angle is timeless and like all successes in pro wrestling, grounded in reality. The two knew each other from high school age, with Misawa being the year above. Kawada followed Misawa into AJPW in 1981 having won his weight class in the national high school amateur championships, defeating Keichi Yamada (who grew up to be Jushin Liger, incidentally) in the finals.

While Misawa became the golden child of Baba's promotion in the second half of the 80s as Tiger Mask II, Kawada formed Team Footloose with the late Hiromichi "Kodo" Fuyuki, who found greater success as the head of FMW post-Onita. Footloose were the #3 and #4 boys in Gen'ichiro Tenryu's faction, while Misawa was Jumbo Tsuruta's #2 guy.

When Tenryu departed the company with a large number of midcard boys, Misawa and Kawada were thrown together and elevated to fill a hole. Misawa unmasked and began a feud with Tsuruta, who represented the old guard of the company, with Kawada his deputy and regular tag partner. When Tsuruta's health began to deteriorate, Misawa finally captured the Triple Crown. His first defense was against Kawada.

Between October 92 and April 94, Misawa set up a long reign as Triple Crown champion. The feud began when Kawada won the 1994 Champion Carnival tournament and announced he was going solo, with Misawa and the title as his target. Simplest booking around, but hugely effective. What followed was, with as much objectivity as is possible as a huge All Japan fan, almost certainly the best wrestling match in the history of mankind up until that point.

Kawada would have to wait, however, to achieve his first victory over Misawa - two and a half years, to be exact, and even then it was in a tag match with considerable help from his new regular partner, Akira Taue. Kawada scored a win in the 1997 Champion Carnival, before finally pinning his career rival for the Triple Crown in All Japan's first solo Tokyo Dome show in 1998.

Fairytales don't always come true, however, and what should have marked the passing of the torch to a worker who could carry the company for the next few years was cut drastically short when Kawada dropped the belt to Kenta Kobashi in his very first title defense, six weeks later. It should be noted that Misawa had the book by this point, and was aiming to set up a lucrative feud with Kobashi to keep himself on top for the rest of the year.

January 1999 rolled around and Kobashi was busy with Vader, so once again Kawada was drafted in to the main event. With Giant Baba literally on his deathbed, his final command was that Kawada win back the title. As has been cruelly established as the pattern for his entire career, Kawada would break his right forearm during the match, continuing for a further 17 minutes and finishing the match as planned, only pausing occasionally to pop the bone back together. After the match, however, Kawada had to vacate the title.

Once Giant Baba had passed away, Misawa and the other natives in the company found themselves increasingly at odds with Baba's widow over the direction of the company. Within 18 months, every single Japanese wrestler in the company besides Kawada and Masa Fuchi, who remained loyal to the memory of their mentor, had departed to establish a new company by the name of Pro Wrestling NOAH with Baba's former business partners the Momota brothers.

... And that takes us pretty much up to date. Kawada and Misawa have all this history plus the personal animosity which has quietly rankled since the company split, and the match at the Tokyo Dome pretty much cannot be a bad one, no matter how beaten up they are now compared to their guaranteed-****1/2 prime. As for HUSTLE... at least it's amusing.

“It’s Not Easy Being The Big Red Machine”

The internet wrestling community doesn’t like Kane. He’s big. He’s slow. He doesn’t do a lot of moves. In short, he’s a hoss. By buying into the anti-hoss mentality, they’re doing themselves a disservice. They’re ignoring a guy who goes out night after night, week after week, and delivers a hell of a good show.

After a couple of disastrous angles that seemed designed to completely eradicate any heat Kane had built up over the years, he got put into a truly deplorable storyline involving Lita and Matt Hardy. In it, he raped Lita – in the process impregnating her – and then forced her to marry him due to a match stipulation.

Miraculously, instead of being the god-awful melodrama it should have been, the whole angle became one of the most entertaining events on RAW week in and week out. This was largely due to Kane’s amazing psychotic promos wherein he claimed Lita as his property and doted on his gestating child.

Eventually the angle culminated in a wedding that was one of the storyline highlights of RAW in 2004. Kane delivered huge that night, with great mic work, great facial expressions and an absolutely hilarious video package done to the song “You’re Having My Baby”.

Fast forward to ten months later. Kane is once again embroiled in an angle with Lita, this time involving her marrying Edge (she gets around). Week after week Kane has delivered great promos and sold the whole ludicrous angle all over again. Imagine how difficult it has to be to do nearly the exact same angle twice, but still be entertaining. And yet, reaction to Kane has remained mired in the same anti-hoss mentality that most wrestling fans adhere to.

Good wrestlers are able to make the worst angles entertaining and fun. Time and again Kane has managed to do just that, taking the worst storylines imaginable and running with them – Katie Vick being the one absolute exception, and not even the most charismatic of wrestlers could have saved that piece of garbage.

Do yourselves a favor, don’t be that fan that “only likes one thing”. Kane has proven to be a hard-working and entertaining wrestler that makes the people around him look good. It is true that hosses are a dime a dozen in this business, but that simply means it behooves us as fans to favor guys that really distinguish themselves. Kane has repeatedly done just that and he should be credited for it.

PRIDE card and picks

Tournament matches:

1. Wanderlei Silva v. Kazuhiro Nakamura

Umm... duh? There could be a couple of results in this tournament that will be regarded by some as upsets. If this is one of them I will shave my head and move to Ohio. Silva in the first round with time to spare.

2. Kazushi Sakuraba v. Ricardo Arona

Unless Sakuraba has found the fountain of youth and managed to undo the damage he's suffered over the past few years, Arona should walk this. Far be it from me to suggest that PRIDE occasionally leans on fighters to work light for the sake of the crowd, but it wouldn't surprise me if Arona took a very straightforward decision win for the sake of the native audience.

3. Mauricio Shogun v. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira

Realistically this could go either way, but I'd love to see Shogun vs Silva in the finals so I'll go with Rua Sr. over Nogueira Jr. Rogerio has more experience in this level of competition but damn... Shogun is a machine.

4. Igor Vovchanchyn v. Alistair Overeem

I hate Overeem. He's irritating, boring to watch and a bad sport in general. I'll be rooting for Igor but it depends how long it goes - Igor could come out and destroy him, or we could find out how good his conditioning, or not, really is now he's down to 205.

Non-Tournament fights:

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira v. Pawel Nastula

The only reason to watch this fight is to see how well Nastula performs. The kid clearly has moxy to take on one of the top three heavyweight fighters in the world (there, Jack Foley, I said it) in his first ever professional MMA fight, and he has the judo credentials, so I guess we'll see. Again, if PRIDE get Nog to go easy on him, this may go to a second round. Nogueira has apparently been training lots of Judo in preparation for his opponent's style, so we might see something very different.

Sergei Kharitonov v. Pedro Rizzo

Pass the torch or re-establish your name? That's the story here. Rizzo hasn't done much in years, Kharitonov looked like a world beater in the heavyweight Grand Prix. I'm picking Sergei for the win in a close contest.

Mirko Cro Cop v. Ibragim Magomedov

Hastily put-together squash match thanks to Fedor dropping out once again of defending his title vs. Mirko. Do I even have to name the winner here?

Kiyoshi Tamura v. Makoto Takimoto

Takimoto going over here is the only logical pick. If this turns out dull I wouldn't be surprised to see it dropped from the US version of the show for time reasons.

Welcome to Pillar To Post: Mission Statement

Welcome to Pillar To Post: Professional wrestling discussion for the intelligent fan! Our mission is to discuss the world of pro-wrestling and mixed martial arts with respect and intelligence. Part of this mission is to stick with the news, views and reviews of these forms of entertainment while not disrespecting the people who work so hard to entertain us. We may not like or agree with how something may be done but full-on negativity doesn't help anybody.

At Pillar to Post, we want to provide these workers and companies for whom they work with a respectful forum where they can see what works and what doesn't while providing our readers an entertaining exchange of views and ideas. We ask only that you respect the business, its employees and Pillar To Post itself by following our edict in our comments section. We won't be taking the low road so we only ask the same of you. That said, let's all have fun!