Thiago Alves Slated to Return to Welterweight to Face John Howard at UFC 124
by Geno Mrosko on Sep 2, 2010 9:53 PM EDT
in UFC
0 comments
After Thiago Alves embarrassed himself yet again at UFC 117 by not making weight, there was a ton of talk that he would finally have to make the inevitable move up to Middleweight. Turns out he's made nice with Dana White and company and they've given him a matchup with John "Doomsday" Howard at UFC 124.
Mike Pierce was campaigning for a fight with Alves going so far as to tweet this to UFC president Dana White:
@danawhite for my 30th bday wish I want a fight with Thiago Alves. Maybe in Dec so he has time to make the cut.
Talking smack is usually a quick way to get a fight booked but it didn't work out for Pierce in this case. I should think that most fans are happy about that too. Pierce likes to use his wrestling to control his opponents. We've all seen the trouble Alves has had dealing with wrestlers. He won't have any problems like that when he fights John Howard. The leather that will by flying around in this fight is enough to make one's mouth water.
Raven: "Chairshots to the head should only be banned if you don't know how to throw one properly."
by Bix on Sep 2, 2010 7:15 PM EDT
in TNA
8 comments
At his official website, Raven put up a rather interesting blog post where he talks about chairshots to the head, steroids, booking logic, and more as part of a "current wrestling pet peeves" list:
I would like to point out a few of my current wrestling pet peeves. It could be written more clearly and concisely but I dont have much time before I have to go out of town but I wanted to get them off my chest.
A) Chairshots to the head should only be banned if you dont know how to throw one properly. A suplex can be deadly in the wrong hands. If you throw a chair shot correctly, or know how to bump so the chair shot only grazes you hard enough to make a noise, they are fine. It is idiots who swing for the fences or morons who dont bump with them that should be banned.
B) I guarantee you that more concussions are had by wrestlers from endless nonsensical high spots that the sheets promote as making a better match than chair shots to the head.
C) I guarantee you that more concussions are had by wrestlers from working strong style that the sheets promote as making a better match than chair shots to the head.
After the jump, we'll look at the rest of Raven's list and Dave Meltzer's reply.
The woman on the right will be participating in WWE NXT season 3. She will go by the name Aloisia and her pro will be Vickie Guerrero. She is 6 feet 9 inches tall. Meaning she can almost stand eye to eye with the Big Show. Wonder how this is going to work out.
KJ Noons Calls Nick Diaz a "Trash Talking, Pot-Smoking Chump"
by Geno Mrosko on Sep 2, 2010 6:16 PM EDT
in MMA
2 comments
Despite the fact that no one wanted to see this fight and we were all looking forward to Diaz squaring off with Mayhem Miller, we're in for some entertaining build up and probably an even better fight. Noons has fired the first shot against Diaz saying this:
"I already got one up on Nick. I beat the crap out of the guy. He’s had a good run, and there’s a lot of build-up for this rematch. We’ve both improved, this is a different weight class now, he’s gotten better, I’ve gotten better…it’s a different situation. But at the end of the day, I’m a true mixed martial artist, I have respect for the sport, and I am a good role model… Nick’s good for entertainment, but I come from a family of fighters. I started early, and I have respect for martial arts. It teaches you discipline, how to become a good person, and I feel that I am. On October 9th, I’m fighting a guy that, if I had a kid, I wouldn’t want him looking up to. He’s a trash-talking, pot-smoking chump… This is beyond a grudge match. I’m going to light him up like a Christmas tree. He’s going to have to kill me to lose. It’s very personal."
Emphasis from Middle Easy. I find it kind of funny that Noons would say that he's a true mixed martial artist. Isn't he a boxer first and an MMA fighter second? Despite how much trouble he's caused and been in before, Diaz is definitely a true mixed martial artist. I'm not a big fan of the way the whole Mayhem thing was handled from the incident in the cage at Strikeforce: Nashville to the ensuing PR disaster with Miller repeatedly calling him out and him never really responding. His camp did finally say that Strikeforce never offered the fight and instead this is what we're getting.
It wasn't the next Diaz fight that I wanted to see but I'm excited nonetheless. The whole, "He's going to have to kill me to lose" line has been said many times before and it doesn't hold much water but it shows the underlying issues these two have. Can't wait for the next shot.
Randy Couture vs Stone Cold Steve Austin Fight Scene
by Geno Mrosko on Sep 2, 2010 5:11 PM EDT
in Video
4 comments
From The Expendables. What do you think, would old Stone Cold have ever made for a decent mixed martial artist? Yeah, probably not.
TNA iMPACT! is going LIVE on 10/7. Remember my tweet about how TNA is going to change forever? Stay tuned.
From the Twitter account of Dixie Carter.
Frank Edgar Thinks The Storyline Between Himself and Gray Maynard Will Sell
by Geno Mrosko on Sep 2, 2010 4:01 PM EDT
in business
5 comments
When both Frank Edgar and Gray Maynard emerged victorious at UFC 118, fans and media who are fascinated by the business side of the UFC cringed. Not because of the style match up or because we feel like it will be a bad fight. But because Edgar and Maynard both suffer from the same debilitating promotional disease: a near total lack of charisma.
They're boring. They induce the absolute worst feeling in fans, which is apathy. Nothing that either of them do makes us love or hate them in any way. They seem like good men. They're both really great fighters that have put the time in to rise to the top of their weight class. They've met before, with Maynard coming out on top, and now they will meet again but with much higher stakes. Will that narrative sell? Frank Edgar thinks so:
"It's going to take time, just like it took time for GSP to be considered to be the best welterweight because Matt Hughes was so good for so long. Now GSP has so many wins and people think he's the best. It just takes time for me to get my respect and that's how it works. You have to earn your time ... Being a marketable champion takes time. I've got to get some more exposure. I've been in the main event on the main card two times in a row and that helps out some. As far as the storyline goes, I think it's a great storyline. [Gray Maynard] got a win over me and I've got the title. He's worked his way up and is undefeated. My only loss is to him. I think it's a great storyline. People will want to see that."
I don't agree. Being a marketable champion sometimes does take time but again, you have to have something that the audience can connect to. Either you act ridiculous and we hate you and want to pay to see you get beat or you have charisma, great looks and a story that's easy to get behind and we want to pay to see you succeed. Just being in the main event and holding the title is not the recipe to becoming a draw.
The not so sad truth of the fight game is that a fight itself is not going to draw huge numbers. The UFC has always had issues with main events such as this where they have to manufacture drama. How will the UFC go about promoting this? I don't think they're going to worry about it. I think they'll throw this on a card where they won't have to be the primary selling point like the Anderson Silva-Chael Sonnen rematch or the GSP-Josh Koscheck rematch. Because as much as Edgar likes to think it will, the storyline of his fight with Gray Maynard just won't help sell their bland personalities.
"Not withstanding our extensive Talent Wellness Program for current Superstars, WWE goes to great lengths to help our former talent who may have substance abuse problems, offering complete drug rehabilitation at no cost to them. Ultimately, however, stars in any form of entertainment should be held personally responsible for their own actions. Prescription drug overdose is a problem not only with former WWE talent, but society as a whole according to the Center for Disease Control, as it is the second leading cause of unintentional death (particularly among younger people) in the U.S."
WWE issued statement regarding the many deaths as of late of former wrestlers such as Lance Cade and Luna Vachon.
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