Styles

I'm not making any predictions. The Wiz are still fighting for the 4th seed and home court and are just one game behind the Bulls for it, and hold the tie breaker with them. If matched up with Chicago, Washington will handle them. Don't know beyond that though. It's just a thrill that the Wizards are a playoff team again and I won't put a cap on how far they can go, just enjoy the ride.

Well luckily I was able to watch the show the next night. Pretty good with my predictions, nailing the Hughes win (EDIT: Again, it's real late and I just realised it was a first round submission, not a second) and of course one notable exception. It's real late and I need to sleep (I'm probably ditching classes tommorow, thanks UFC!) so I'll keep my comments brief (EDIT: so much for that idea!) and maybe have more tommorow. Liddell's knockout was stunning. I'm a little suspicious though that right before that, Randy got poked in the eye and looked like he couldn't see. He's a champ for wanting to continue though, not wanting the main event stopped like that, but I have a feeling he was only seeing out of one eye which led to the opening for Chuck's knockout. That said, congrats to Chuck because he deserves it, I really didn't want to see either guy lose honestly. Hughes vs. Trigg was amaizng. I was rooting so hard for Trigg. Ever since Penn got stripped of his title and then watching St. Pierre come 1 second away from defeating him basically, combined with Trigg's charisma, I really didn't like Matt Hughes. My respect for him just grew about a billion percent. Matt Hughes is amazing. He gets kicked in the groin, looked for all the world to be TKOed, then choked out and not only does he get out of it, but does it with a ferocious slam and a choke of his own. Just an amazing performance. St. Pierre is indeed awesome and he needs a rematch with Hughes right now. Miller looked like a crazy motherfucker. Dude always smiling and jumping around. First round especially was awesome, and you got to love St. Pierre pulling out the Wanderlei stomps (which I thought were illegal in UFC, but I guess not) and other fun stuff like the return of the spinning kick and and a back fist too. I felt really bad for Patrick Cote. I don't know if I just have an affection for him after seeing him live as a total underdog thrown into a main event with Tito and coming inches away from knocking him out, but I really want to see him suceed. His strikes look deadly and I don't know how Doerkson survived that. Hopefully Predator is brought back. Lindland fight was boringest of the night as expected. Hughes at 185 vs. Lindland? Whaah? Or Jeremy Horn back in UFC. Which is more likely? Babalu with a nice armbar, him and Chuck in a rematch for the title? I like Salaverry, he's got excellent submission skills. Rogan's right, Middleweight is STACKED. I was going to say give Salaverry the Franklin/Tanner winner, but I guess Lindland would be next in line. Sp UFC 53 as was previously leaked is Arlovski/Eilers and Tanner/Franklin. I really like the latter match and hope it's the main event. I guess if Mir's not ready yet, there's not much else they could do, so hopefully it's an entertaining squash or a shocking upset. Hopefully they stack the undercard with some good fights. Hope to score comps again! fingers crossed! Overall an excellent show. New UFC fans are sure getting a treat with the Ultimate Fighter finale and then this show. But the best might be yet to come, as next week is the Pride Middleweight Tournament opening round. I encourage all you new MMA fans who can spend the PPV bucks to give Pride a try. It's a little bit of a different style, but this is an excellent show to start on as every match looks stacked with some of the best fighters in the world. I'll be at home next weekend and will order it live.

Definitely helped Petey become a name and is helping Daniels establish himself as a top star. Also helped Style maintain "champion" status.

I will not be watching the show live since I don't have PPV here at school. Rest assured I'll watch the show hopefully tommorow, but until then, I probably won't step into this folder, to avoid results. Enjoy the show for those watching! Predictions: Couture, unanimous decision. Hughes, 2nd round submission Babalu, 1st round KO Lindland, unanimous decision St. Pierre, 1st round KO

That's the Powerplex, which was actually Triple X's finisher and I only recall AMW using it to beat XXX in ironic fashion at Turning Point. The Death Sentence is the same move as the Midnight Express' Vegomatic.

OK!

So...should I vote against the trade or not?

I don't think that match would have been any better without blindfolds. Hell, if the viewer is blindfolded it would be a better match. One of only 2 weak matches on the card, the rest look good.

Yes, they now accept Visa, Mastercard and Discover.

Internet fans will buy anything from the official homepage.......the common TNA redneck fan don't own credit cards and have bad credit. TAKEDOWN MASTERS RULZ! I don't know what you're talking about here. First of all I never mentioned anything about RF being gay. I am referring to his long time held shady record with sending out the correct tapes in good condition. The one time I ordered from RF Video my tapes were nearly unwatchable. The point I was trying to make has nothing to do with "TNA's redneck fans" (which is a ridiculous statement since their base in now in Orlando and almost all of their PPV orders come from internet fans) but that when Victory Road was released on their website many posters here complained about it not being avaliable in stores and would only buy it when they got a national distribution deal, which is ridiculous when I know many of those same people have no problem ordering from Ring Of Honor, who when run through RF video would be a much less secure order then from TNA's website who I've never heard problems with and personally have had nothing but good experiences with.

Well assuming they can't bring in others from the outside and do like Austin vs. Goldberg or something, there really isn't much of a "money match" they have. Their "money match" is the X division and to a lesser extent the tag division. It's what makes them different then WWE, what made them stand out even 3 years ago and what got them high praise for a couple of their last PPVs. You can't see unique high flying innovative junior action in WWE nor can you often see a good old school tag match. So I think just focusing your cards on the likes of Styles, Petey, Sabin, Shocker, Daniels, AMW, Kash/Hoyt, etc. is their best bet. As for a world title match? I agree Jarrett vs. Styles is the best they can do unless they build up Raven again. Maybe Monty Brown with the hope of winning the title could draw too...

It's all legit material that would be posted on the WWE board if it applied to them. The problem with TNA is like I said, since there's a 3 week lag between tapings, once everyone has discussed those, there's a disinterest and a lag so even though new stuff is being posted say at their website, no one bothers to make threads on it here. I'll try to be more proactive with that... When you have to openly state in your posts you're doing it to try and save the board --- you're saying you don't have material and you're trying to stretch it. -=Mike Come on Mike, I was being ironic and a little sarcastic. Like I said, the material is there and we obviously get responses to it, it just needs to be posted. I'll try to be more proactive in the future so I don't have to bomb the board with 8 new threads at a time...

Jeff Hardy is going to take a Mankind bump from the top of the cage to the outside, I reckon. Swanton from the top through the table, bet on it.

It's all legit material that would be posted on the WWE board if it applied to them. The problem with TNA is like I said, since there's a 3 week lag between tapings, once everyone has discussed those, there's a disinterest and a lag so even though new stuff is being posted say at their website, no one bothers to make threads on it here. I'll try to be more proactive with that...

Why don't you like Harris or AMW? Their matches are formulated but they do the formula to perfection. They rarely have bad matches and often steal the show. They don't have the greatest personalities or promo skills but that's not always neccesarry especially for a babyface tag team...

And I was just thinking before anyone bitches about how its only avaliable through their website and not in stores, why is it that people seem to have no problem ordering from ROH's website (for a long time trusting the notorious Rob Feinstein to take your order and send it our correctly and in one piece) yet don't want to order from the TNA website and insist on waiting until there's a national distribution deal? That just bugs me. Anyway, again for anyone looking to see TNA at their best, definitely pick this show up for the excellent cage match and very good X title match and if nothing else a rare interesting match with Randy Savage.

Heh, trust me I'm far from an EXPERT ECONOMIST~! I can barely add and subtract. That last one was just a slip of the keystroke, I meant to say "save the folder" but typed board and you can't edit your subtitles..

It was a great match! The whole Naturals vs. AMW feud was excellent. The regular match where they switched the belts and the ladder match were also quite good.

Closest I can think of would be Uncensored which featured bad matches...I mean gimmick matches all night. Lethal Lotery when done was all random tag matches and then a battle royal....so I believe this is the first time in wrestling history (on PPV at least) that all matches will be in a steel cage...a 6 sided steel cage no less.

A-1 is Allister Ralphs (center in the above picture), newest member of Team Canada filling in for Johnny Devine while he's on injury hiatus. He's a student of Scott D'more's and is one of the bigger men on the TNA roster...

Lemme tell you sumtin', if you weel. Just tink about eet! Tink about eet, all da matches, in da cage. All of 'em. And we got tables, and ladders and oh mercy theys gonna be blood and guts and vioooleeence if you weel, and da girls will be there, isn't dat right, and it's going to be da biggest thing eeeevah that yo eyes weel see, believe dat why don't chya. Or in English, yes it is. Dusty knows his days are numbered and has apparently lost his mind. Like I said it's guarenteed to be an entertaining show. They can never have another steel cage match ever again, but for what it is expect a trainwreck that could actually deliver some really good matches...

....well I think the smart thing to do would be to switch the belt to AJ next month. They could let Elix finally win the X title from Daniels at Lockdown and then let Styles and Daniel feud for a month for the belt since those 2 are gold together and headlining in a World Title match should sell some PPVs to the right audience. Then build back up Brown to take the title from Styles at the anniversary show. Then again Dusty is booking...

OK, I just saw the release on MMA Weekly. As mentioned, I hope to score tickets to the show, and was really looking forward to seeing Mir vs. Arlovski, but the last main event I went to got downgraded so I geuss the trend continues. Franklin vs. Tanner for the Middleweight belt will be on the show too. Hopefully that's the main event. At least a couple of title will be up for stake. Here's the press release: UFC RETURNS TO ATLANTIC CITY FOR UFC 53: Heavy Hitters; TICKETS GO ON SALE MONDAY, APRIL 18 Andrei Arlovski defends his interim heavyweight belt Las Vegas, NV, April 12, 2005 … There’s going to be some heavy hitting taking place on June 4 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, NJ, when Andrei Arlovski puts his interim heavyweight belt on the line in UFCâ 53: Heavy Hitters. Tickets for the action-packed 8-fight event, priced at $350, $250, $150, $75 and $35, will go on sale Monday, April 18 at the Boardwalk Hall box office in Atlantic City, at all Ticketmaster locations, www.ticketmaster.com or by calling 1-800-736-1420. For general information, call 609-348-7000. Tickets are subject to transaction fees. Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino, Trump Marina and Trump Taj Mahal are the hosts of the event. UFCâ 53: Heavy Hitters will be available LIVE on pay-per-view at 10 p.m. EDT on iNDemand, DirecTV, Dish Network, TVN, Echostar, Bell ExpressVu and Viewers Choice Canada. The suggested retail price is $34.95. Arlovski’s opponent and the remainder of the card will be announced as the bouts become official. The Ultimate Fighting Championshipâ brand is the world’s leading professional mixed martial arts association and offers the premier series of MMA sports events. Owned and operated by Zuffa, LLC, and headquartered in Las Vegas, Nev., UFCâ fight programs feature six live pay-per-view events annually through cable and satellite providers. In addition to its U.S. distribution, UFCâ fight programs are distributed internationally throughout the world, including broadcast on WOWOW, Inc. in Japan and Globosat in Brazil. Zuffa, LLC licenses the distribution of UFC video games through Crave Entertainment and Take Two TDK Mediactive and its fight show DVDs through Studioworks Entertainment, a Ventura Distribution company. “Ultimate Fighting Championship,” “Ultimate Fighting,” “UFC,” “Submission,” “As Real As It Gets” and the Octagon cage design are registered trademarks or trademarks owned exclusively by Zuffa, LLC in the U.S., Japan and other jurisdictions. All other marks that may be referenced herein belong to their respective holders. Historic Boardwalk Hall, which first opened in 1929, received a $90 million renovation to transform the building into a modern special events arena capable of variable seating for up to 13,800 people. The facility is the home to an array of events including concerts, boxing, family shows, and Atlantic City’s signature event, Miss America. Visit us at www.boardwalkhall.com. for more information. Boardwalk Hall is an SMG-managed facility. And also...

Wait, is it Arlovski vs. Eilers at UFC 53? I thought Mir was the still the champion, therefore Mir and Arlovski were going to fight each other in a unification match. What happened to that?

Wasn't defefended at Turning Point and that was one of their best shows. I mean, really, do people want to see Jeff Jarrett singles matches now? Do you really have to ask ME that question? I think you know the answer. And i thought turning point would have been twice as good with a world title match in there. I really don't know, so I assume you really are a Jarrett fan? Wow. Hey I'm a long time Double J fan too and supported him through much of his early criticism but he needs to drop that belt and just go on vacation or at least stay off TV for a couple months and regroup. He's anchoring down the company and driving fans away and his act and his match style have become too stale. If he came back with a re-energized spirit and a new fresh feud with someone new as champion it would help a lot...