twiztor

all solid choices, but that women's match was just pitiful on so many levels. it gets my vote.

looked at the list of choices. saw Thomas Almeida, thought "he'll be tough to beat". saw Joanna Champion, thought "she's gotta be a lock". saw Holly Holm, thought "damn this was a good year!" gotta go with Joanna.

I think one of the downfalls in Arlovski's game is he has to get his counterstriking started. Against guys you can time with a sundial, he's your guy because some of his technique is impeccable. The problem he runs up on with his skillset is you either got people who are about as fast with enough technique (basically someone like Miocic) to soundly beat him or people who sometimes don't throw enough offense for him to counter. The latter is what led to the dreadful fights against Schaub and Mir. Rogan brought it up in the broadcast, but I have to repeat it. It's a shame that he waited so long to leave Chicago to go to Greg Jackson and Mike Winklejohn. He might not have the chin to really be one of the HW greats, but I think his athleticism at his peak plus those guys would have got some great performances. Now, he's a bit heavier and sacrifices the movement he had earlier in his career for better defense on the feet. He's basically doing the best he can with not a whole lot left in the tank and having veteran experience. I would be fine with him fighting a Gonzaga, JDS, or somebody like that. man, people have complained about Arlovski's chin since the days when he got KO'd by Sylvia (and especially Fedor). Arlovski has always had a decent enough chin. what kills him is that his defense was complete shit for the longest time (i'm looking at you, Strikeforce run!) you can see the improvement that Jackson/Wink have made to this gap, but it's still sorely lacking. honestly, this latest UFC run is almost a fairy tale run for someone who's been around as long as him and even three years ago people were writing him off as done with no chance of ever competing in the UFC again. until the day of retirement, WAR ARLOVSKI!

i'm not a man with high hopes as far as Fedor's MMA future goes. everyone keeps talking about UFC, but i can't believe that anyone thinks that is likely. my choice is Kharitonov if he wants to pretend like he's still fighting top competition or Kimbo if he's just in for a big payday/buyrate/viewer number. there honestly isn't much out there as far as heavyweight names that would move any sort of needle. Lashley possibly, but he hasn't done much in Bellator, so i doubt people would care. i see Mariusz "Pudz" Pudzianowski bandied around a lot, but i really don't see that garnering a lot of eyeballs. people still mention Randy Couture as a challenger, but he's (i believe) still under a UFC contract, plus he's been retired for like 4-5 years. i guess Cheick Kongo is an option, but seriously? could former UFC champ Ricco Rodriguez be bullied into getting into shape and be propped up long enough to be hyped as a challenge? am i missing any serious contenders?

finally watched this today (the Spike TV airing, although i have both nights downloaded in Russian commentary). holy shit i loved this card(s). it honestly felt like a PRIDE show from the very beginning, and that's the highest compliment i can offer it. looking forward to checking out the tourney's first round. King Mo looked good enough in victory. Sakuraba came out with a look on his face like he was about to get killed. then he, in fact, had his career murdered. hope to never see him again. (<3 saku) that women's fight was atrocious. i honestly can't believe they aired that. in the era of Ronda Rousey and Holly Holm it was such an embarrassment. Fedor crushed a can. NYE is alive and well. if Fedor doesn't face Kharitonov or Kimbo next i will be disappointed.

a bit gutted after the Arlovski-Stipe fight. don't get me wrong, i knew it was long odds for AA, but such a tough loss after an odds-defying streak he's been on. there were 4 of us watching, all rooting for Andrei, and literally seconds after it was all over we were all like *deep breath* "well fuck. let's get on to Lawler-Condit". no complaints, no questions, just acceptance and moving on. and damn, that main. delivered on all expectations and then some. the knockdown from Condit in R1 had me worried, but R2 confirmed that this was a war of attrition. had Condit up 3-1 headed into R5 (R3 being a coin flip) but had no idea what would happen with the judges' call. happy to see Lawler win, and if they rematched now you'd never hear a word of complaint from me. fun night of fights all around. 2016 rocks!

i've always been a fan of Chip Kelly's fast-gun approach to football, and i thought he made a hell of a coach. then he lost his damn mind last offseason and thought it was a grand idea to trade off the most talented members of the team, bring in a rival RB, and start from scratch. i was skeptical, but willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. good riddance.

wow. rip to a legend

there is no current fighter that i am a bigger fan of than Andrei Arlovski. he really is the last of the old guard that can still be a top contender. this fight with Stipe is a huge challenge, and i put AA as the underdog, but i'm pulling for him hardcore. Just the prospect of an Arlovski title shot has me super pumped up right now.

i stopped watching WCW in the summer of '98 and switched completely to WWF. a few things got me to switch channels, namely the return of the Ultimate Warrior and certain main events. the debacle that was their big Atlanta show on 1/4/99 made me never watch their program again. i'm actually looking forward to seeing what happens in 99/00 as i have little/no recollection of storylines, title changes, etc. should be an entertaining trainwreck if nothing else. it's an interesting look back, since i'm not invested in any storylines, or at least not as much as i would have been live.

so about 3 years ago i decided to go back and watch nWo-era WCW again, in real time, starting with the first Nitro. As far as WCW goes, i am watching everything i can find. that means Nitro, Thunder, Saturday Night, Worldwide, Main Event, Pro, and PPVs.some say i'm a glutton for punishment, and i really can't argue. but i'm having a blast. I just finished Starrcade '98 (Nash vs Goldberg) which leads me to a bit of a rant, although not the usual rant you hear about this era (push the younger guys!) 1. WCW rant: so for the last three months, WCW has not delivered an advertised match for their monthly PPV events. October / Halloween Havoc / DDP vs Goldberg- now we all know this was due to not properly utilizing PPV time November / World War 3 / Scott Norton vs Booker T- this is at the time when Norton was IWGP champ and demolishing everyone. i was interested in how the booking goes. hell, they don't even have this on Nitro anytime around it. and granted, it was announced on WCW Saturday Night, but it was still announced. December / Starrcade / Scott Hall vs Bam Bam Bigelow- no idea why this never happens since it was announced ahead of time and both guys were obviously there. can you please deliver what you promise? 2. Goldberg rant: one of my side projects while doing this viewing has been counting Goldberg's matches. after the loss last night to Nash, he stands at 89-1. i know, i know, WCW's streak includes house shows. but they never count ANYTHING from house shows. Benoit won and lost the TV title over a weekend on house shows but isn't considered a former tv champion. Goldberg lost his first match in a dark match, and that's not counted. they had Hogan vs Sting in a steel cage at a house match and didn't even mention it. HOUSE SHOWS DON'T COUNT. a record of 89-0 is nothing to sneeze at, but when you're defending the World Title against jabronis like Rick Fuller, Scott Putski, and Al Green (early September '98) then who freaking cares? P.S. Perry Saturn is massively over and consistently has great matches. why does he not get more love?

I know it's been a full month, but I wanted to also congratulate you on completing such a feat. I'm currently doing something similar but with select DC and Marvel titles and will eventually meet up with some Image books. Batman is one of the books that I'm reading and it's such a heavy yet awesome amount to read. i hope you enjoy your journey as much as i enjoyed mine!

to highlight just a small portion of that excellent read, my wife has been watching the UFC fights with me and the guys (since we always host) and, up until Rousey lost, she was completely convinced that Ronda could compete with anybody in the mens 135 division. this was my main point in trying to convince her otherwise, but it wasn't until the Holm decimation that she even understood what i was saying.

i'm good either way. if he fights Conor again in 6 months in a big rematch, that's cool. dude's been the champ forever and it's his first loss in 10 years. totally deserves it. if he gets another fight against a top 10 guy in the interim, with the winner potentially getting a title shot, that's fine too. He was decisively knocked out.

i laugh every time i see this, so i am again sharing it.

if it's been an overly long/stressful day/week/month/etc, you can always find me playing Legend of Zelda. the original. i know that game forwards and backwards, so it is a tremendous relief on my mental faculties to just slay some octoroks and collect rupees. it still gives me a smile to beat some of the levels that were such a strain when i was younger. moral of the story: find something that gives you joy. i don't care if it's by yourself or with others. i don't care if it's loud or quiet. but do it, unashamedly, for as long as it takes until you feel happy.

so i'm 8 issues into X-Men. yes, i started at the beginning from 1963(ish). don't really have much commentary, but looking forward to seeing the developments. it's much more slower going than my Batman read was, due to changes at work, but should be entertaining.

I'm with Mad Dog. Anything I've seen Ranallo working on, he was not good. Bad News Allan shoulda hit him with the Ghetto Blaster when they were commentating new Stampede together. i'm only familiar with Mauro from Pride and other MMA gigs, but i've never been a fan of him. that being said, i can totally see why WWE would be interested. he has a unique style where he can coin a catchphrase or speak in sound bites tremendously. to me it always comes across as forced, and is one of the main reasons i dislike him, but i can definitely see the appeal.

tony skee-a-vone says hello

so, with "tater tot" being the key phrase for this week's Raw, it reminds me of the thing they did last year that everyone latched onto with dislike: the Reigns-Lesnar "tug-of-war" for the title. which was worse?

i feel like i SHOULD, but i'm just not a fan of very many of the designs. Especially in the Affliction vein. i'd rock the shit out of a plain blue tshirt with just the PRIDE logo across the front if i ever ran across one, tho.

it wasn't worked, per se, but the shows strongly hinted at the matches that they wanted to be set up. They built up Benjamin as a solid IC title contender (although Batista was no slouch in that department). i voted for Stevie Richards. Although since Benjamin won the IC title, it does make me wonder. if someone like Richards had won the vote, would he have won the title, or was it just a couple of people they planned on for that to be the case? it was like, Snitsky attacks Kane with a chair. the next week, Kane dismantles Snitsky with a chair. do you want them to have a CHAIR match? a LEAD PIPE match? or a CHAIN match? just obvious stuff like that. i went to this show live. it was awesome. great atmosphere, perfectly acceptable wrestling action, good crowd. had an absolute blast. all night, people were talking about who/what they voted for and what the upcoming matches would hopefully bring. like i said, a great atmosphere because everyone was so "involved". me and some friends were i think the only ones cheering for snitsky. i brought a "not his fault" sign. we were shocked that he completely destroyed Kane. was upset at the Bischoff getting his head shaved bit, because they played it exactly like WCW had a few years earlier. OMG he has grey hair under the black? who would have dreamed? remember liking the tag match. La Resistance was passable, but not great. Benoit was, of course, great, and felt like Edge leaving because he was upset about losing the vote to an injured Shawn Michaels was perfectly within his character and added some real intrigue. The HHH-HBK match was pretty good for what it was, but nobody really believed Shawn was winning. i thought the cage match was really lackluster. rooted for Orton. although i will admit, that when i watched it back on DVD i was more entertained than i was in person.

i grew up on WWF because it was, for all intents and purposes, the only game in town. i remember watching Superstars every weekend. i remember the few times i ran into non-WWF shows (these would've been later day AWA stuff) it wasn't the same and didn't have anybody as good as WWF (at least to my 7 year old eyes). i didn't even know NWA was a thing until the very late 80s, and even then we didn't get the show anyway. And then Ric Flair came to WWF and i hated him. gave me no reason to check out any other promotion.

when he fought in the UFC the first time (2009ish?) he won a few fights with KOs. i'm sure that's where Rogan's idea of power is coming from.

finally got around to watching Spectre. long story short, i liked it but i sure didn't love it. also, this is probably old news, but the theme song sucked. the video was decent but not spectacular, but the song is a shitty choice for a Bond film.