Elsalvajeloco

That was a damn barnburner.

Here is the template for this week: EVENT #76 UFC 307: Pereira vs. Rountree Jr. (10/05/2024) - Salt Lake City, UT (Delta Center) Alex Pereira vs. Khalil Rountree Jr. - Pereira, TKO, R2 Raquel Pennington vs. Julianna Peña - Peña, DEC José Aldo vs. Mario Bautista - Aldo, DEC Roman Dolidze vs. Kevin Holland - Holland, DEC Kayla Harrison vs. Ketlen Vieira - Harrison, SUB, R2 Stephen Thompson vs. Joaquin Buckley - Buckley, DEC Marina Rodriguez vs. Iasmin Lucindo - Lucindo, DEC Alexander Hernandez vs. Austin Hubbard - Hubbard, DEC Ihor Potieria vs. César Almeida - Almeida, TKO, R1 Ovince Saint Preux vs. Ryan Spann - Spann, TKO, R2 Carla Esparza vs. Tecia Pennington - Pennington, DEC Tim Means vs. Court McGee - Means, DEC The Event #76 deadline is Saturday, October 5, 5:30 p.m. CT.

UFC 307: Pereira vs. Rountree Jr. October 5, 2024 Salt Lake City, UT (Delta Center) UFC Light Heavyweight Championship: Alex Pereira © (205) vs. Khalil Rountree Jr. (205) (third defense) - Pereira, TKO (strikes), R4 (4:32) UFC Women's Bantamweight Championship: Raquel Pennington © (135) vs. Julianna Peña (134.5) (first defense) - Peña, DEC (split) José Aldo (136) vs. Mario Bautista (136) - Bautista, DEC (split) Roman Dolidze (185.5) vs. Kevin Holland (185.5) - Dolidze, TKO (corner retirement), R1 (5:00) Kayla Harrison (136) vs. Ketlen Vieira (136) - Harrison, DEC (unanimous) ESPNews / ESPN+ Preliminary Card: Stephen Thompson (171) vs. Joaquin Buckley (170.5) - Buckley, KO (punch), R3 (2:17) Marina Rodriguez (115.5) vs. Iasmin Lucindo (116) - Lucindo, DEC (split) Alexander Hernandez (156) vs. Austin Hubbard (156) - Hernandez, DEC (split) Ihor Potieria (185.5) vs. César Almeida (185.5) - Almeida, DEC (unanimous) ESPN+ / Fight Pass Preliminary Card: Ovince Saint Preux (205.5) vs. Ryan Spann (205.5) - Spann, SUB (guillotine choke), R1 (1:35) Carla Esparza (115.5) vs. Tecia Pennington (115) - Pennington, DEC (unanimous) Tim Means (171) vs. Court McGee (170) - McGee, SUB (neck crank), R1 (3:19) Event Bonuses ($50,000) Performance of the Night: Ryan Spann Performance of the Night: Joaquin Buckley Fight of the Night: Alex Pereira vs. Khalil Rountree Jr. Attendance: 17,487 Gate: $5 million

Speaking of that: Yesterday at work, as we have TVs set up all over including all the different break rooms, I saw an Acorn Stairlift commercial. I swear that ad has to be 25 years old now. But yeah, Fox spent a lot of money trying to compete with ESPN on that front. Then, ESPN started offloading people left and right in the 10-11 years since then.

FS1 was screwed when they decided to build around a man nearing 70 (now over 70 years of age), and then had to rebuild after said man pissed off the only person he had chemistry with and made that person leave. Now that man is gone as well after he suddenly left. They also reshuffled their daytime lineups as well as the panels in a panic multiple times. Time for a complete rehaul. Too much of the same since it started ten plus years ago.

Okay... 1. Maika is having too much fun with this Toni stuff. This is like the Japanese version of Footloose. Also, what is this dance she's doing? It's like someone's drunk aunt dancing at a cookout. Ok, since it's some unknown hoochie mama dance, I am going dub it the "The Hoochie Maika". It's going take the world by storm! 2. Question: Did Maika dislocate her elbow or tear a bicep and never tell Stardom? She's being wearing that arm wrap for over two years now. She might as get the giant Psycho Sid body glove elbow pad at this point.

FINE FINE PARTY POOPER...unaired* episodes of Thunder in Paradise. *unfortunately, I think all of them made air...

Silk Stockings?

Wasn't the LAST movie possibly the last Clint Eastwood directed movie?

So let me get this right...pro wrestlers barely know how to act, but you can stage an entire 2 1/2 hour football game with lower level football players without people being able to see through it? Also, I love that the bookie is taking bets on a league where folks maybe know three players for any of the teams involved. 100% of the marketing was SMASHMOUTH FOOTBALL. I think they may have worked that phrase in no less than 9,000 times. Between that and the kickoff change, it was evident that their only leg up with virtually mostly unknown players was trying to make it a car crash derby.

"That wasn't 10, hoss." “I never could count.”

I think there also is a thought of a happy medium. For every Steamboat, Flair, and handful of other guys you produce, you're producing probably as twice as many who can't work to their save their life. All they've shown is they can endure incredible punishment which I guess is great if you want them to be able survive a tough schedule on the road. However, you're also basically creating a Dynamite Kid. Incredible worker, but a physical wreck before he's thirty and a life of hell after wrestling.

From what I've gathered, Verne's camps were pretty much designed to torture people. IIRC Ric quit like 2 or 3 times before finally finishing. That said, someone asked Ric to compare how the WWE PC does it and how Verne trained people. To be fair to Flair, he didn't as much shit on the new generation wrestlers as much as he said he wished he came up today versus the intent on making people quit method.

Nice to see that Bama scheduled Georgia Southern for a primetime game. ....wait, say what now?

I dunno about best ever, but it's certainly up there.

Here is the template for this week: EVENT #73 PFL Europe 3: 2024 Playoffs (09/28/2024) - Glasgow, Scotland (OVO Hydro) Stevie Ray vs. Lewis Long - Ray, DEC Robert Whiteford vs. Roger Huerta - Whiteford, TKO, R2 Mark Ewen vs. Yassin Chtatou - Ewen, TKO, R2 Lewis McGrillen-Evans vs. Dean Garnett - McGrillen-Evans, TKO, R2 Julien Pierre Lopez vs. Alexander Luster - Luster, SUB, R3 Jack Grant vs. Florim Zendeli - Grant, TKO, R2 Ibrahima Mané vs. Daniele Miceli - Mané, TKO, R2 EVENT #74 UFC Fight Night on ESPN+ 101: Moicano vs. Saint-Denis (09/28/2024) - Paris, France (Accor Arena) Renato Moicano vs. Benoît Saint Denis - Saint Denis, TKO, R2 Nassourdine Imavov vs. Brendan Allen - Imavov, DEC William Gomis vs. Joanderson Brito - Brito, TKO, R2 Kevin Jousset vs. Bryan Battle - Battle, DEC Morgan Charrière vs. Gabriel Miranda - Charrière, TKO, R1 Fares Ziam vs. Matt Frevola - Frevola, TKO, R2 Ion Cutelaba vs. Ivan Erslan - Erslan, TKO, R2 Oumar Sy vs. Da Woon Jung - Sy, SUB, R1 Ľudovít Klein vs. Roosevelt Roberts - Klein, TKO, R3 Taylor Lapilus vs. Vince Morales - Lapilus, DEC Ailín Pérez vs. Daria Zheleznyakova - Pérez, DEC Daniel Barez vs. Victor Altamirano - Altamirano, DEC Nora Cornolle vs. Jacqueline Cavalcanti - Cavalcanti, DEC Bolaji Oki vs. Chris Duncan - Oki, TKO, R2 EVENT #75 RIZIN 48 (09/29/2024) - Saitama, Japan (Saitama Super Arena) Roberto de Souza vs. Luiz Gustavo - De Souza, SUB, R2 Naoki Inoue vs. Soo Chul Kim - Inoue, DEC Seika Izawa vs. Kanna Asakura - Izawa, DEC Kyohei Hagiwara vs. Ryo Takagi - Takagi, TKO, R2 Yuki Motoya vs. Shinobu Ota - Ota, DEC Juntarou Ushiku vs. Shoko Sato - Sato, DEC Yuto Hokamura vs. Kyouma Akimoto - Akimoto, TKO, R2 Jo Arai vs. Nkazimulo Zulu - Zulu, DEC Yusuke Yachi vs. Sho Patrick Usami - Usami, TKO, R2 Karshyga Dautbek vs. Takeaki Kinoshita - Dautbek, TKO, R2 Juan Archuleta vs. Razhabali Shaydullaev - Shaydullaev, SUB, R2 The Saturday events deadline is September 28, 11:00 a.m. CT. The Event #75 deadline is Sunday, September 29, 12:15 a.m. CT.

UFC Fight Night on ESPN+ 101: Moicano vs. Saint-Denis September 28, 2024 Paris, France (Accor Arena) Renato Carneiro (156) vs. Benoît Saint-Denis (156) - Carneiro, TKO (doctor stoppage), R2 (5:00) Nassourdine Imavov (186) vs. Brendan Allen (186) - Imavov, DEC (unanimous) William Gomis (146) vs. Joanderson Brito (146) - Gomis, DEC (split) Kevin Jousset (169) vs. Bryan Battle (170) - Battle, TKO (punches), R2 (3:47) Morgan Charrière (146) vs. Gabriel Miranda (146) - Charrière, KO (punch), R2 (0:27) Fares Ziam (156) vs. Matt Frevola (156) - Ziam, KO (knee), R3 (2:59) ESPN+ Preliminary Card: Ion Cuțelaba (205) vs. Ivan Erslan (206) - Cuțelaba, DEC (split) Oumar Sy (205) vs. Da Woon Jung (205) - Sy, DEC (unanimous) Ľudovít Klein (155) vs. Roosevelt Roberts (155) - Klein, DEC (unanimous) Taylor Lapilus (136) vs. Vince Morales (135) - Lapilus, DEC (unanimous) Ailín Pérez (136.5)* vs. Daria Zheleznyakova (135) - Pérez, SUB (arm triangle choke), R1 (3:52) Daniel Barez (125) vs. Victor Altamirano (126) - Barez, DEC (unanimous) Nora Cornolle (136) vs. Jacqueline Cavalcanti (135) - Cavalcanti, DEC (split) Bolaji Oki (156) vs. Chris Duncan (156) - Duncan, SUB (guillotine choke), R1 (3:44) *Forfeits 20% of purse for missing weight Event Bonuses ($50,000) Performance of the Night: Chris Duncan Performance of the Night: Fares Ziam Performance of the Night: Morgan Charrière Performance of the Night: Bryan Battle Attendance: 15,449 Gate: $4 million

Hell, even with the XFL, Vince's whole mantra was we're bringing back your dad's football with the old school 1960-1970s gridiron brutality. I mean he failed miserably, but that was his logic. That itself was inherently flawed cause the same folks who would play in the XFL come from the same places where those "pussy ass" NFL diva players who get protected come from. They didn't make any new Jack Tatums who just somehow didn't get drafted to the NFL, surprisingly.

The average fan though had very little detail on some of the issues that MMA was dealing with at the time. MMA was one of those things where it looked like another fly by night fad. It was popular in a very niche way for three years and then all of sudden just went away. So the average person wouldn't even hear about it being bought. The UFC itself still wasn't on people's radar a year and change after Zuffa bought it until Ortiz vs. Shamrock I and the stuff on FSN. That itself was very pro wrestling oriented especially considering a former WWF star during the height of Monday Night Wars was involved in addition to Tito himself at the time was very pro wrestling oriented in terms of his personality. Instead of Joe Sports Fan, it would be the average wrestling fan who would be like, "hey, UFC is still around?...I guess I will watch" just like what happened in 2002 and three years later with TUF on Spike. Joe Sports Fan, just like with women's basketball/WNBA with Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark and the Olympic controversies, doesn't give a fuck until everyone else gives a fuck. That's when they start caring. Otherwise, it's too off the radar. Mind you, when the XFL happened, it was more the crazy pro wrestling czar wants to compete against the NFL and not football is about to rigged more than people already believe it to be. That was the angle people were using. And again, based on what real reasoning? It anyone thought for more than five seconds, none of that would make sense as MMA itself wasn't outlawed as much as politically, some of the states they wanted to get into, not being regulated was a non starter. They still ran shows in other places. Hell, pro MMA wasn't legal in New York state wasn't legal until eight or nine years ago. That ball only got rolling cause Sheldon Silver got ousted in 2015 as NY state assembly speaker and went to prison on corruption charges, and he was vehemently anti UFC because they were "shocker"....anti union. So pro MMA finally could be held at MSG. So they were still fighting that fight in modern times. The average sports fan wasn't following that and that's with UFC having 1000x more visibility. Plus, you cannot change over MMA into pro wrestling because regulatory bodies still would step in to regulate especially if you bill those fights as legit bouts. So the same issues they were facing at the time would still be relevant. The same people who have that logic are the same folks who believe the NFL wants to Chiefs to win all the Super Bowls cause of Taylor Swift. It's based on nothing that makes any type of sense.

In 1999/2000, outside of Japan, the general public wasn't really watching UFC or MMA. That was the dark period. You can probably say there would be a certain idea before 1998, but at the same time, the problem UFC had pre-regulation was MMA/NHB being considered too barbaric even though the IVC in Brazil and stuff going on in Russia was way, way more barbaric around the same time. Keep in mind, Vince was going to do a worked karate show in the mid 90s and it didn't get off the ground cause (according to ole Bruce Brown Nose) the guys didn't want to lose fake matches and thought it made them look bad. IMO, even though MMA has always been pro wrestling adjacent, after the first handful of numbered UFC events most people could spot what was worked and what wasn't. During the whole Gastineau worked boxing match era where you had confirmed dives, WWF helped promote Vinny Paz/Duran II on Raw as well as SRL's last comeback against Hector Camacho. I don't remember the public being like, "yeah, this is going to be fake" when actually working those fights would have been more advantageous by making the old men who used to be megastars not look so sad and pathetic in the ring (for some reason, Vince had multiple brushes with promoting SRL comeback fights). At most, just like now post sale, people would be wondering how much of a crossover there would be between the two worlds. What would be the reasoning otherwise?

Quick...someone wake up, @Matt D. His ship has come in.

Not really. There are yahoos who think most of the big time boxing and MMA fights today are works. Spoiler: They're not. Just because you pay 80 to 100 bucks for the show and it doesn't go the way you thought would even though you yourself watch 1 event every blue moon doesn't mean it's fixed. It's someone from the wrestling world is behind it the same people are going to exist no matter what. They're also still going to buy it even though they believe it may be fixed. Just like the idiots who believe every Super Bowl is fixed every goddamn year.

I don't think Ric and Wendy were ever officially married. They split in 2022 and then split again. Ric already has a new girlfriend according to Conrad so yeah.

Daniel Dubois put together a performance of a lifetime in dispatching Anthony Joshua. Then at the very end, avoided what could have been a disastrous sequence where AJ stunned him by hitting a beautiful counter right hand to put AJ down again and down for good.