Elsalvajeloco

Man, Straight Time is one of my favorite films. However, totally forgot he was in that.

smol and swol Saya imo Also, we need to go all the way with this and we get the Mai Sakurai obligatory Paul Levesque finger point photo in NXT. That's the true litmus test to loyalty.

Rossy Ogawa: We signed Mai Sakurai and her various hats. Hat game recognize hat game.

Man, I am so glad Jose Aldo is coming back this year so I can hear "Run This Town" and Rihanna's yodeling.

Just saw the latest episode while working at home. Suffice to say, the Dark Side/Vice folks intentionally put the episodes the way they did so they can work their way into the more depressing shit. I brought this up before, but in 1995-97, the WWF was hiring A LOT of people who needed the work and the WWF braintrust being made up of basically all ex territory guys brought in a bunch of guys who were good hands as well. If that was 1998, they were not hiring brain fried Terry Gordy. However, then, that roster was lacking in depth to say the least and you could easily slide guys in. So of course, Terry being available and being so respected, they thought "well...shit, it can't be that bad." Then, it was.

I would boxing in there as well cause that's basically public enemy #1 when it comes to all that even boxing had far and above some of the largest payouts in sports for almost a century. When it comes to a union, I think all the major stick and ball leagues had an advantage of that they were pretty much (once you got past the NBA/ABA and AFL/NFL stuff obviously) one league centric/dominated. There was a central figure to attack. Yeah, pro wrestling had the NWA but we saw by the late 80s/early 90s, that itself was just a facade and sand castle that could be easily knocked down. With combat sports, the barrier for entry as a promoter, matchmaker, participant is so extremely low that the gap between one end to other is absurd. You can call yourself a pro wrestler and be paid in a hot dog and $50 in Monopoly money. You can also be paid millions to work WrestleMania or All Out. Same with boxing. You can make nothing to show up and do a four rounder at the some Ramada Inn on the weekend. That's the floor. However, the ceiling is making well over $100 million a year. You're absolutely right comparing wrestling to acting. However, to get SAG eligible, you still have to meet certain qualifications. The reason combat sport promoters can absolutely exploit labor is there are NO qualifications.

It technically was. I think the idea though was trying to still run seperate shows under the Bellator brand name due to the number of fighters being inherited. They released a good chunk of some of the pre sale Bellator roster in the transition, however, the plan was always to run shows with the branding especially on the international front.

Well, they were seeking $800m to $1.6 billion. Had they won, there was a possibility they would have been awarded triple what they were seeking. Problem is...everyone knew the plaintiffs had a very tough hill to climb (proving the UFC was suppressing wages through oppressive contracts). When the lawsuits were filed in 2014 and on, they were trying to use not only UFC business records from recent years at that time but important competitor business information. I remember Bellator wanted no part of that. Vehemently against. However, as the years wore on, what helped the UFC's case is the fact that free agency largely started to shift. IMO it didn't change much because the free agents largely weren't big enough names to stop the UFC's momentum. However, you had the emergence of Bellator as more of a competitor than usual once Scott Coker took over for the ousted Bjorn Rebney, you had WSOF which is the present day PFL on ESPN, and you had ONE FC out in Asia which spends a hell of a lot on MMA free agents (former UFC and Bellator fighters) and homegrown talent in MMA and kickboxing/muay thai. You had all these Bare Knuckle promotions start up, which pick up a bunch of past their prime UFC/MMA fighters as well as folks like a Mike Perry or Paige VanZant who had notable mildly successful runs in the UFC. A lot of those folks got good money AFTER they left the UFC. So you can say that being signed to the UFC was crippling financially, but once that contract was over and you were free and clear, you had a chance to make the same or much more than what you made in the UFC. According to Paul Gift, who is one of the people who covered this for the longest, the plaintiffs were basically using models to prove that the UFC's wage share was unreasonable and unjust. The larger issue with that is once the UFC presents their evidence, everything is basically open to interpretation. You are asking folks to basically understand the inner workings of the financial side of MMA when people who have covered the UFC, MMA, and combat sports for a living basically don't understand the inner workings of MMA business (sound familiar?). The plaintiffs survived a few motions to dismiss and they had some victories in discovery, which uncovered what folks like Ronda, Conor, Brock, etc. made in the UFC. The UFC was putting a lot of their money though on proving the UFC was just one stop in a fighter's journey and that their business dealings were normal for how any major sports league operates. According to Gift, there was going to be some emails that come out or have came out from Dana and other Zuffa/UFC brass at the time which probably would have been ugly. However, based on my understanding, there was no real smoking gun or absolutely damning piece of evidence AGAINST what was formerly Zuffa and the UFC. They had enough to stop the lawsuit from being dismissed over the matter of several years, but IMO not enough to prove what from the outset they wanted to prove and that's UFC using fighters as pawns to intentionally keep fighter wages low. The fighters lose face in that a lot of the original goal was lost throughout the years. I mean how could it not when it just went on and on for almost ten years. They also lost basically two years due to the coronavirus pandemic. It also didn't help after the first year or so, no one covered it outside maybe three or four people on any substantial level for the better part of eight or eight and a half years. Every now and again, you would hear about a ruling on this or that in discovery. That was pretty much it up until the class certification stuff, which was relatively recent. However, I remember the day the lawsuit news originally came out in 2014. That was basically when the UFC was largely having a really rough time (some below standard PPVs due to a rampant injury bug, oversaturation, drug test failures/issues, fighter negotiations playing out in the media). You would have thought the MMA world was being shooked to its very core. Now? For it to finally end (the settlement still has to be certified) like this, I cannot think of a bigger victory for TKO and the UFC. The lawyers are going to get 1/3 of that money. The fighters are going to get the rest, but it's not exactly clear how that's going to be divvied up yet.

I saw some of the rough calculations by some of the folks who have been following the lawsuit religiously over the past several years. Yeah, that is it pretty much in summary. $150k-$180k per fighter is nothing when the damages being sought was into the billions. The fighters actually got some (small) victories over the last year or so right before it was set to go to trial. For them to settle now and for that little, it's not a good look for Nate Quarry, Cung Le, etc. This goes especially since back in December 2014 and the next year or so this whole thing was suppose to change the entire landscape of MMA.

I think I saw about 79. Edit - Okay, it looks to be 1,200, actually. 79 is from one of the 5 lawsuits that got eventually consolidated into one.

I was going to do an addendum, but this is a good enough place to add what I was to add: 1. Apparently, this is going to be that spread over 10 years. None of that covers the lawyer fees, which will be massive. 2. None of that changes what was the primary goal and the crux of the lawsuit: changing the language in contracts, which favor the company and not at all beneficial to the fighter especially when the UFC was making a lot of money in 2014 and is now making an incredible amount of money in 2024. Those contracts where copied by everyone in the MMA space. So this settlement allows the UFC to keep doing business as they plan to do business and have been doing. I just saw the tweet from Nate Quarry and yeah, it seems like the fighters involved need the money and ten years was all they could hold out.

This should be a huge story but it is not somehow: Basically, TKO basically won by settling and doesn't really have to deal with the blowback of something that had been brewing for literally 9 and 1/2 years. A good portion of that time, they didn't even own UFC. $335 million is enough to buy the fighters silence.

A Pebbles song? Aging Yourself 101 by Dolfan.

It's Sasaki/Nagata from 2004 and everything after that is fighting for #2.

I guess that certainly makes sense if he was legit from south Georgia or living in like north Florida where what he was getting paid (which likely wasn't much) didn't give him enough motivation to come back. Again though, it's still strange for him to bolt like that after being booked strongly for an entire month. At least lose the Beat the Champ status on TV. Damn, I guess Bad Boy Billy Black don't do no jobs. I am noticing a trend here in 1995 where people work 1 or 2 SMW tapings then quit. First Eddie Gilbert a few weeks before his passing and then Billy Black. When it rains, it pours....

Speaking of SMW, my 1995 continued on as I watched the 3/18/1995 episode for SMW. It may be the most random and also unintentionally entertaining hour of wrestling. First off, Bullet is strangely missing from the show. I am guessing that's going to be explained next week or he just failed to make it in. Either way, I think it was a SMW requirement to have Bullet Bob all over the goddamn show. Second, this is the beginning of the Undertaker vs. Gangstas stuff and New Jack once again proves he is the promotional MVP by his amazing sell of this announcement of the Undertaker coming in. The return and inclusion of Killer Kyle in the Gangstas is weird, but whatever. I want ALL OF THIS. Ok, now that said, it does feel like the promotion is not on a death march as it is they are stuck in a serious rut. God bless the dead, but Buddy Landell is trying several different acts and none of it is working. Ole's kid disappeared after getting a push. Al Snow and Unabom are basically doing what Candido and Brian Lee did the previous year right down to Snow doing commentary while Unabom is wrestling 2-on-1. DWB is stuck in the Landell Vortex of Mediocrity™. RnR Express are somehow feuding with Al Snow and Unabom but also feuding with the Gangstas. However, since Undertaker is a "real" star, a WWF guy is basically taking their place along with Smothers against the latter. Bobby Blaze is SMW champ just so they could get the title off Lawler and also get a hometown pop beating both Lawler and Landell the same night. Except now it's weird to have an enhancement talent being your main champ unless you've already done the pre conditioning ECW did with Whipwreck where his gimmick is he takes ass whippings and backdoors into a win. And oh yeah, I am going to need someone to explain Bad Boy Billy Black showing up in SMW, getting a big push for 3-4 weeks, winning the Beat the Champ TV title over Boo Bradley, and then apparently walking out of the promotion. Has Cornette ever explained what happened? I saw that he was one of those guys who worked from time to time in Japan, but he doesn't have another match again until early 1996. Was he hurt?* Did Cornette not have enough money to afford the services of one Bad Boy Billy Black? Here, Killer Kyle replaces him on the show against Boo Bradley and apparently that's the last of Billy Black. WHY DIDN'T HE FINISH THE STORY?! Now I don't even get a payoff for this one guy carrying a bag around with this mysterious creature for weeks like a Dollar Store Jake "The Snake" Roberts. *Prior to Boo Bradley vs. Killer Kyle, New Jack exclaims the reason for the substitution is that Bad Boy Billy Black "was taking a shower, slipped, and fell in his own tobacco spit". I am guessing that's just going to have to suffice as my answer for right now.

Amorim gave her a jiu-jitsu lesson she ain't ever gonna soon forget.

The NWO angle morphed into something else that was entirely different than what it began as. I don't know if you can compare it to the Invasion. That and the first several months of it, there was enough control of it where it was one of the best things WCW ever did from a creative standpoint. That's not anything you can say about the WWF Invasion angle in 2001.

I am a Bret vs. Austin mark, but Shawn and Austin had a HEATER at King of the Ring 1997 (Shawn literally takes a bump for Austin every 5 seconds...it's absurd). It may not be THE Match of the Year especially since Shawn's 1997 included the first Cell match and the finish was whatever so both guys could be protected. However, had Shawn not been in terrible shape mentally and physically for the Mania match the next year, THAT (the rematch) would have been Austin's best match. Maybe Shawn's as well.

"...He was also tight with his mama." was the line of the episode. Maybe the series. Buff's dad, given his local celebrity status, probably had a family across town that nobody knew about. He talks about his wife and kids in such a casual way that it's almost complete detachment. Even the way a near death experience is mentioned is all detachment. Then again, based on the person he married, maybe they as a family had just learned how to compartmentalize EVERYTHING.

Here is the template for this week: EVENT #23 Lux Fight League 41: Calvo vs. Locote (03/15/2024) - Monterrey, Mexico (Showcenter Complex) Jorge Calvo Martin vs. Kike Gonzalez - Martin, SUB, R2 Emilio Saavedra vs. Emmanuel Rivero - Saavedra, DEC Luis Rey Gallegos vs. Eduardo Alvarado - Alvarado, TKO, R3 Victoria Alba vs. Ivonne Caro - Caro, DEC David Mendoza vs. Santiago Prieto - Prieto, SUB, R2 Uriel Uribe vs. Carlos Gómez - Uribe, TKO, R2 BONUS EVENT #1 Hollywood Fight Nights: Walsh vs. Yeleussinov (03/15/2024) - New York, NY (The Theater at Madison Square Garden) Callum Walsh vs. Dauren Yeleussinov - Walsh, TKO, R4 Feargal McCrory vs. Carlos Carlson - McCrory, DEC Brian Ceballo vs. Elias Espadas - Ceballo, DEC Cletus Seldin vs. Jose Angulo - Seldin, TKO, R3 Joe Ward vs. Derrick Webster - Ward, TKO, R5 Reshat Mati vs. Irving Macias - Mati, DEC Giovanni Scuderi vs. Brandon Carmack - Scuderi, DEC Nisa Rodriguez vs. Jozette Cotton - Rodriguez, DEC EVENT #24 Cage Warriors 168: Clamp vs. Byfield (03/16/2024) - Manchester, England, United Kingdom (BEC Arena) Andy Clamp vs. Matthew Byfield - Byfield, TKO, R2 Luke Riley vs. John De Jesus - Riley, TKO, R3 James Power vs. Gianluca Rocca - Power, TKO, R1 Sam Kelly vs. Alessandro Giordano - Kelly, TKO, R2 Adam Cullen vs. Harel Cohen - Cullen, TKO, R2 Liam Gittins vs. Roberto Hernandez - Gittins, DEC EVENT #25 KSW 92: Wikłacz vs. Jojua (03/16/2024) - Gorzów Wielkopolski, Poland (Arena Gorzów) Jakub Wikłacz vs. Zuriko Jojua - Wikłacz, DEC Piotr Kuberski vs. Michał Materla - Kuberski, TKO, R2 Wiktor Zalewski vs. Adrian Zieliński - Zalewski, DEC Daniel Rutkowski vs. Julio Cesar Neves - Rutkowski, DEC Kamil Szkaradek vs. Miljan Zdravkovic - Zdravkovic, TKO, R2 Tomasz Jakubiec vs. Wojciech Janusz - Jakubiec, DEC Maciej Jewtuszko vs. Marius Žaromskis - Žaromskis, TKO, R2 BONUS EVENT #2 Golden Boy Boxing on DAZN: Zepeda vs. Hughes (03/16/2024) - Las Vegas, NV (The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas) William Zepeda vs. Maxi Hughes - Zepeda, TKO, R5 Floyd Schofield vs. Esteuri Suero - Schofield, DEC Tristan Kalkreuth vs. Marquice Weston - Kalkreuth, TKO, R4 Darius Fulghum vs. Norberto Gonzalez - Fulghum, TKO, R2 Eric Priest vs. Jose Charles - Priest, TKO, R2 Joel Iriarte vs. Bryan Carguacundo - Iriarte, DEC EVENT #26 UFC Fight Night on ESPN+ 97: Tuivasa vs. Tybura (03/16/2024) - Las Vegas, NV (UFC Apex) Tai Tuivasa vs. Marcin Tybura - Tybura, TKO, R2 Bryan Battle vs. Ange Loosa - Battle, DEC Kennedy Nzechukwu vs. Ovince Saint Preux - Nzechukwu, TKO, R1 Christian Rodriguez vs. Isaac Dulgarian - Dulgarian, DEC Pannie Kianzad vs. Macy Chiasson - Kianzad, DEC Gerald Meerschaert vs. Bryan Barberena - Meerschaert, SUB, R2 Mike Davis vs. Natan Levy - Davis, DEC Josiane Nunes vs. Chelsea Chandler - Nunes, DEC Ode Osbourne vs. Jafel Filho - Filho, SUB, R2 Joshua Culibao vs. Danny Silva - Culibao, DEC Cory McKenna vs. Jaqueline Amorim - McKenna, DEC Thiago Moisés vs. Mitch Ramirez - Moisés, SUB, R2 Chad Anheliger vs. Charalampos Grigoriou - Grigoriou, TKO, R2 The Friday events deadline is March 15, 7:15 p.m. CT. The Saturday events deadline is March 16, 1:30 p.m. CT.