Hawkius Maximus

As soon as Gonzaga's nose exploded, it was really just a matter of time before the fight ended. Before that, I thought Couture was winning, but he wasn't really hurting Gonzaga a whole lot. After the nose blowing up, Gonzaga got desperate, but it was mostly Couture just griding him down. I don't know the extent of Gonzaga's injury, but I wouldn't be surprised if his orbital bone got smashed as well. He couldn't see, which is what he tried to tell Herb Dean. Unluckily for him, Dean's a dick, and just got mad. If Gonzaga's seeing was limited, and he couldn't breathe, then as much of a Couture fan as I am, I'm not really impressed by the win. It'd be more like random shit occuring took place that beat Gonzaga with Couture just making it worse.

To me, out of all the Ninja Warrior "all stars" the one that I always end up rooting for is Shingo Yamamoto. He's not some insane super athlete...he's just...a GUY. He was a fucking Gas station worker when the show started. Now he like owns his own. He's by far in the top three or so of the competitors, and he had it won one year...and then blew out his shoulder on the fourth stage. Every season since, he'll do his damnedest, but his shoulder will give out on events like the body prop, and he fails. It's so heart breaking, because he wants to win SO BAD that he's the only person to have been on every single tournament. Katsumi Yamada never making it doesn't bother me...because while he's given everything to the tournament, he also has made a living off his successes, or failures. Nagano, Yamamoto, Takeda, and Shiratori all have a regular job. Yamada makes everything from being famous. I'm a big fan of Asaoka, or the "Sasuke Sensei" who always has his class there to cheer him on. Shunsuke Nagasaki will likely be the next to beat the course if Nagano doesn't repeat...His natural athletic ability for just being 18 or so is insane.

Honestly, all that needs to be said about kickboxing is thus: If you fight in K-1, Semmy Schilt WILL jab you until you die. And if he feels motivated, he may actually kick you in the face.

Bah! You can't link to the sheer greatness of Hard Gay vs. Esperenza without a backstory. Basically: Nobuhiko Takada created the Monster Army to destroy HUSTLE, and thereby Pro-Wrestling. Esperenza is the cybernetic reincarnation of Takada himself. He's a robot, and he's the greatest power in HUSTLE. Hard Gay is the new ace of HUSTLE, who after watching Esperenza litterally almost murder TAJIRI, has accepted to fight the Esperenza. There's also the backstory that the HUSTLE Army found the critical weakness of the Esperenza. The tone of the Ocarina. If played, it disrupts the machine's abilties causing it to be beatable. Greatest story in 2006.

With Rikio out, this tournament has become a three horse race. I'm backing Akiyama, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Morishima or Marufuji win. If I was going to continue the Marufuji in the heavyweights, I'd let him win the tournament for a number of reasons, the first and foremost would be to reward him. He's been on FIRE since his big push in 2006. Marufuji's always been a good worker, but he's drastically upped his game since then. The second reason would be to give him some credibility for a future title reign.

It's pretty much a given now that Nakamura was going over. They hastily rebooked the finals when his injury happened. Ironically, this is the second time in recent NJPW history this has happened. A few years ago, Nagata was supposed to win the IWGP Championship in a one night tournament for it, but Tenzan accidently basically squashed Nagata's head on a Moonsault, knocking Nagata out legit. Tenzan went on to the win the tournament and the IWGP title. Tanahashi is clearly one of the top names in NJPW now, and as long as they push him as such, he'll eventually be seen as such. He's got a new character, and seems to either have a strong egotistical streak to him, or he's preparing to turn heel...With Chono forming an "Kings" group with other old timers, it leaves some doubt on who the top heel will be...Tanahashi could turn and become a leader of a new army. Or just join GBH now that they've lost a member (Koshinaka). Who really knows.

Takayama's a freelancer. He's also not far removed from nearly dying from brain injuries. He works a variety of feds, but the only one he works with any kind of consistentcy is Zero One, and even then he's kept primarily in tags/six mans. Simply put, there's no telling if Takayama could SURVIVE a round robin tournament anymore. The fact that he works pretty much the same exact style from before his injury makes it a little more insane. Suguira's never going to be seriously pushed in NOAH as a heavyweight singles threat. The reason? He's 5'10, and is a pretty much a borderline Junior. He might, one day, get a GHC tag title reign with Takayama or someone, but he'll never be a GHC title contender. He's just too small for his style against heavyweights for them to push him.

I hope they've notified Griffin's next of kin. I would have actually backed Lyoto against Shogun, if only because of their styles. Griffin doesn't have a shot though. His only hope is that he can outbox Shogun, which I strongly doubt. One mistake against Shogun is near instant death, and Griffin tends to make mistakes. Lyoto/Nakamura's an interesting fight. Neither man really likes to engage on their own, and are counter-attackers, but Nakamura's decidely more aggressive then Lyoto is. However, Lyoto is an awesome counter fighter, so I don't see it working real well in Nakamura's favor. I'd say Lyoto by JD, unanimous. Could be a really great fight, or a REAAAAAAALLY boring one.

Morishima isn't going to win the GHC until he drops the ROH title. That's just how it goes. Having your champion lose another promotion's title while being your champion, in the eyes of promoters, harms the champion. Him vacating it would do no good either. Take Togi Makabe in NJPW. He held the WEW title for ages, but he recently lost it...The reason? Because he's a legit contender and may win the IWGP title. That's just how it works. Morishima gets good press for the ROH stuff, but until he loses the belt, he's going to be firmly be in a holding pattern in NOAH. As for the tournaments...The most logical choice to win the G-1 is Nakamura. Some people dislike Nakamura, I personally enjoy him, but he's really been in top form since his return. NJPW's been doing a long term storyline where Nakamura is "relearning" on how to bring his two styles together better. His power arsenal that he learned during his excursion, and his submission based fighting that he learned from the "Inoki System". Nakamura/Nagata is also a pretty fresh match up, and built up properly could pop a good house. Outside of Nakamura, there's really no one else to win it. Chono's too old and him winning would do NOTHING. Tenzan's a joke, who has pretty much been depushed and made second or third banana in the group he helped form. Nagata's the champion, and champions NEVER EVER WIN, Makabe just lost to Nagata. Same with Tanahashi and he's only recently returned from injury. Everyone else is either a midcarder or upper-midcarder, with no real room for advancement as it stands. It'll either be Nakamura or Makabe...Inless they get moronic again and put Tenzan over. The GHC League is a different beast. It should also be noted that this is only the second league NOAH's ever done. The NTV Cup didn't have a finals, and it BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMBED when it was found out that Kenta & Ishimori won on points. Major negative heat. They seem to have learned though. Looking at the list...there's four possible winners. Takeshi Rikio, Takeshi Morishima, Jun Akiyama, and Naomichi Marufuji. They MAY re-push Honda towards a title challenge, but I doubt they will. Rikio and Akiyama have the best chances. Morishima, like I said, won't get the title until he loses the ROH title. He's already lost a title challenge to Misawa so him rechallenging and not winning makes no sense. Marufuji, in NOAH's eyes, bombed as GHC Champion so he likely won't win this even though he's probably the best wrestler in the entire company right now. Rikio may get it, but I just have a feeling that he's always going to have a stigma around him of a "failed" top guy. So that leaves Akiyama. Misawa/Akiyama has been done waaaaaaayy too much, but if Misawa has to have another defense, then Akiyama's a bulletproof guy they can throw in there to get a decent match, some crowd heat, and some drama. Misawa's title run has been dreadful, as Misawa has had no motivation in the ring (when Bison Smith is doing all the work, it's pretty obvious), nor has his matches had any sustained heat. It's also ironic that two of his challengers aren't even IN this tournament, showing how little NOAH thought of them. So Akiyama winning it may give a boost...but I doubt it, because despite Akiyama's in-ring abilities, he can be lazy, AND he's pretty much viewed as boring, which...Is not good. NOAH's pretty screwed right now. NOAH fans always say that Kobashi coming back will revitalize them, but it just won't. You can't make up for the horrible job NOAH's done elevating talent. There isn't even anyone who'd be worth elevating in this tournament outside of Go. Go, if he had a few more years under his belt would be a strong contender for a good showing in this tournament, but I have a strong feeling NOAH's going to take the "traditional" route and have him job out.

I hadn't heard of this before it got bumped. Looks like fine, I've already set up a nation. Somehow I ended up being Libertarian Police State...

Danielson, Joe and Punk were all offered WWE deals at the same time and only Punk took it. Danielson decided to stay and help ROH and Joe went to TNA. This goes to everyone saying this. Nate, WWwhatever, and j00. You have no earthly idea what you're talking about. There is a HUGE, WORLD CHANGING DIFFERENCE between being overed a low scale developmental style deal, and being offered a legitimate year round full touring contract. We're talking THOUSANDS of dollars here. Punk accepted a developmental deal because he had already done everything in ROH and he hated TNA. Danielson LEFT WRESTLING because none of the big names would look for him. Joe went to TNA because at the time they were going to god push him and allow him to do ROH and other bookings. Hence why now it wasn't such a grand ole idea when his friend Punk is getting twice the legitimate sustained push. The ones who turned down those offers did so not out of loyalty, but either out of career practical sense or WWE was NOT offered them enough money. There is no such thing as loyalty in American Pro-Wrestling, the faster you accept that fact the better off you will be.

I think WWE might have offered Joe a deal, but if they did, it wasn't anything ultra-serious, and probably around the same ballpark they offered AJ and Danielson. A dev deal not worth the effort. At the TIME it looked like Joe made a good decision by signing with TNA. Now? Not so much.

That's a joke right? I mean...it has to be a joke. EVERYONE in the United States marketplace wants to end up in WWE. Saying otherwise is naive to an extreme level. WWE has faults, and they don't push small workers...but you still get more money from working for WWE as a midcarder then you would as a main eventer in ROH, and likely TNA given their payout structure. TNA misuses workers to the point where most of their entire roster wants out. ROH doesn't pay NEARLY enough to compete with WWE salaries, nor does it run often enough. If you work in the United States, your goal is WWE. No if's and's or but's. If it isn't, then you're in the wrong profession. That'd be like saying you'd be content with working in the Arena Football League as a football player instead of the NFL. Doesn't work that way. To my knowlege there's only been TWO major indy wrestlers who turned down WWE deals. AJ Styles and Bryan Danielson, and they were both offered developmental deals instead of a locked WWE contract. You change that offer and you get both easily.

I'm still waiting for that PRIDE show that Sherdog reported... You may like Zach, you may dislike Zach. But he knows what he's talking about. UFC HAS been fucking up. PRIDE WAS stupid. Zach WAS right about the Yakuza, and still is. I just like to see people being given credit when they actually pull something off, is all.

The only reason I can think of, is they attempted to divide the two shows clearly between the two feds. Night one was NOAH, which is where Morishima is from. Night two was DRAGON GATE. ROH works with both, and they probably did this to keep the inter-promotional issues as low as possible. The problem is, NOAH's stronger across Japan. DRAGON GATE can draw crowds that rival quite a few NOAH shows, but only in their main bases. Plus, like I said the second night wasn't even half as strong as Night One. Also, like I said in a previous post, Tokyo is the hotbed for Pro-Wrestling. Osaka, while a big market isn't as hot as Tokyo. Combine all those factors, and ROH's relative lack of power in the Japanese market, and it's easy to see why they did that number.

That theme is HORRIBLE. If it lasts to the PPV I will be shocked.

That show did not do well. The Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium #2 holds 1,800. Doing 800 paid (if that) is not good. I say if that, because Japanese companies inflate their number. I could easily see DG and NOAH insisting on inflating the number so ROH doesn't look "indy" and by their association, them as well. Using Dragon Gate to run Osaka is a little weird. DG doesn't run Osaka much. Would have made much more sense to hold that show in a DRAGON GATE power base, or Tokyo...even then, that lineup isn't a drawing show by any stretch. The main event is almost hilariously one-sided. No way in hell would a team of CIMA and Marufuji lose to anyone in ROH. Or DRAGON GATE...or Any junior team in NOAH. Throw in Danielson, and that's amazingly telegraphed who is going to win. ROH would be smart not to try this again until they get more name value in Japan. Running Japan is a completely different beast then any other market in the world. Chalk it up to experience and move on.

Budokan holds 16,000+. ROH was at the Differ Ariake in Tokyo, which holds 1,800. Gabe's line about Budokan was just a way to say "We got crowd heat! Awesome!" Tokyo is the hottest place in Japan for Pro-wrestling. There's fans there that will see ANYTHING. Korakuen Hall probably has some of the hottest fans in the world. ROH selling out Differ is impressive, but at the same time it's not due to Tokyo's hardcore fanbase and other factors. On paper it sounds awesome...but the Japanese fans aren't like us. They will go see anything the first time it comes due to curiousity alone. It's AFTER the first few shows when lasting potential is tested. ROH did a smart thing by apparently having a fantastic show though, so who knows. As for the person who asked why Aries isn't on these shows: He's touring Dragon Gate right now. It's their annual "WrestleJam" tour where they bring in indy guys from around the world. Aries is considered "super important", and is pushed like a world beater. Hence why he missed the ROH shows.

It seems like for me, each successive game has hurt my fandom of the series. I played TEW 2k4 like MAD, I'm talking two/three games that hit six plus years each...2k5...Not so much. Something about it turned me off, and I've never figured out what. Then 2k7 came out, and initially, I did not like it...then I played the demo enough toconvince myself to buy it...annnd... I barely touched it. Something in the transition from 2k4 to 2k5 lost me, but I've never decided what it was. I think what seals the deal with 2k7 for me, is the load times. They were supposed to be super fast in comparison to 2k5 and 2k4, which is exactly what they said about 2k5 to 2k4...but I then too thought the load times were the same or worse. With 2k7, load times take me FOREVER. Like three to five minutes per turn. I'm using the same exact PC with upgrades from 2k4, but it's just as bad, if not worse. It seems like any progress on making things fast was just inversely effected by the addition of all the NEW stuff that slows it back down again. I've wanted to get into 2k7 to justify the whole buying it thing...but those load times kill me every time. I got a 2.4 ghz, 768 ram, PC with one of the best PCI Video cards possible...While it's not a great PC, if I can friggin play Halo on max settings, I should be able to have shorter then five minute load times.

Way to go chief! You can generalize! Yay for you! No one in their right mind says Benoit isn't at fault. If you are too ignorant to accept that there are circumstances surrounding the reason that Benoit would do this, then your delusional. A sane person doesn't just fucking wake up and decide to not only kill their family, but themself. And if they do? THEIR NOT SANE.

What's the point of all these condemnations of Chris Benoit? What he apparently did is horrible, and can never be forgiven...but he's DEAD, what the hell is the point with going "I hope he burns in hell!11one"? He's GONE, if you believe in heaven or hell, he's undoubtably there anyway. You're wasting your time. Anyone who believes that Benoit was some monster that was secretly inhuman and wanting to kill people his entire life is a fucking moron. Benoit's mind apparently collapsed, and over a seemingly long stretch of time. This can be attributed to MANY things, including Steroid and HGH use, depression, anger, and so on. Benoit apparently never opened himself up to anyone, so he likely bottled up any of that inside. I sincerely doubt Benoit was this evil crazed man that oh so many of you want to believe he is. It's MUCH easier to look at the world in black and white, but the simple fact is that 99% of the history of the world is painted in people who are neither good nor evil. With enough prodding, enough depression, enough pills, enough injections, ANY PERSON can snap. Do I justify what Benoit did? Fuck no. He killed not only his wife, but his child, in seemingly brutal fashion. There's never anything you can ever say to justify that, but get off your moral high horse because that stance is not realistic to the world and the events surrounding this. Who you all should be directing your anger to is NOT the man who killed himself by hanging. You should be directing your anger and frustration to WWE and Benoit's "friends". By the accounts that are coming out, Benoit's mind had been in a dark, dark place for a long time. Ask yourself this question, why did no one ever do anything to help him? If he was in this condition for years, then WHY did anyone never raise their voice and say "Benoit needs help"? Why didn't they know? Is it because they didn't know (highly unlikely), didn't think Benoit was capable of such a thing (maybe), or they were simply afraid of either upsetting Benoit, or getting bad publicity? Ask yourself that. Three people are dead, and one person technically killed them all. There's no point in condemnations anymore. If you believe in right and wrong, yin and yang, or judgement then he's already received it. Your mindless group activity telling a dead man to burn in hell does nothing except waste space.

There is a drastic, INCREDIBLY drastic difference from "covering MMA" to "covering MMA business". Sherdog does a fine job at covering MMA, I suppose. I used to go there, but honestly the major draw for me years ago was the previews and quite frankly their no where near the quality they used to be at. Neither here nor there. Zach Arnold is an egotistical jackass at times, but he KNOWS what he's talking about. There is no one who reports on the industry in English that is as connected to the Japanese fight game as he is. EVERYTHING he reported on PRIDE came true. EVERYTHING he reported on the PRIDE sale has come true. EVERYTHING he's reported on the aftermath has thus far come true. Go back and read his archives and you'll see that he's calling stuff when even his readers are calling him stupid. He may not be a great person all the time, but he has a big track record. And if Sherdog ONLY reports what you can verify...then why did Sherdog report the near phantom PRIDE show? There is NO PROOF of what the fuck is going on, outside of whats going on in the deepest depths of the Japanese fight game. It's *ALL* speculation, so you've just proven yourself wrong. In fact the Saitama Super Arena, that Sherdog reported was booked says it is *NOT BOOKED*, or has no information on being booked. That's hardly proven fact. I'm not attacking Sherdog, but don't come insulting someone whose had a fantastic track record on all this just because he does something better then Sherdog.

This was a REALLY good show. Nate Diaz going off on a rant was pretty fantastic too.

In a way, it's UFC's fault for rushing in but DSE also duped UFC. They didn't explain how things would work. UFC simply thought it'd be like a takeover and they'd get everything...Turns out, it wasn't. Virtually nothing but the tape library and the copywrites carried over. That's why UFC has had to manually engage in negociations with fighters. None of the fighters carried over. Henderson, Shogun, Nogueria, all them had to be negociated one by one with. UFC has NO IDEA whatsoever how to promote in Japan. They thought they could just walk in and get a TV deal based off the Zuffa name, but it doesn't work like that. Without TV, you cannot run in Japan. Simple as that. The fact that they thought an American could run the Japanese office says everything. The Japanese wouldn't have supported it even IF it got going. Dana also had a comment recently that shows how ignorant he is. He said the WEC would be "bigger then PRIDE ever was" which is...just absurd, on every single level. UFC isn't even at PRIDE's top level. Before PRIDE was sold, there was a big rumor that DSE would "kill" PRIDE and rebuild it as "CONDOR Fighting Championships" from the ground up using what they had. Namely the fighters. IF this is happening, that would be what the deal would be. The group would have a new name (since UFC owns the trademarks) but it would virtually be PRIDE 2.0 to the Japanese. Virtually none of the PRIDE fighters have really agreed to anything or moved on. They've been almost waiting. Waiting for K-1 or Zuffa to come after them...or just waiting for PRIDE to be rebuilt. I don't know, but it's pretty interesting that Takanori Gomi, Hidehiko Yoshida, Wanderlai Silva, Ricardo Arona, Shinya Aoki, and others have not done ANYTHING of note since PRIDE died. Be it their waiting for deals, or their simply waiting for it to return. It's hard to explain to people who don't follow the Japanese market carefully the impact PRIDE's selling has caused. There's been a shockwave effect across Japan that's even effected Pro-Wrestling. There *IS NO* MMA of importance in Japan right now. The once biggest market in the world now has nothing but bit-shows and K-1. K-1 hasn't moved onto PRIDE's territory because they can't risk it. They dodged a bullet with the LA show (They made money off that if you haven't heard) but they know that they have to hold their ground. In Japan, you make money off TV ratings so K-1 has to desperately cling onto their market share or they might lose it. On top of that, K-1 might be getting hit by their OWN Yakuza scandal which if it goes through would most likely cause the entire market to crash down completely. If you wanna follow this stuff, goto fightopinion.com, no other MMA site covers this type of thing. Zach gets info straight from Japan, and he's been roughly 90% to 100% correct on everything around this. He's an opinionated egotistical jackass sometimes, but the guy knows what the hell he's talking about.

That's not a Zuffa show. If you haven't been following this situation closely (and 99% of all MMA fans outside of Japan have not) then this is INCREDIBLY confusing. Zuffa is no where near ready to run a PRIDE show in Japan. In fact, they may never do so since the contracts weren't 100% transferable which is why all the PRIDE guys that have fought in UFC so far, UFC have signed to deals with them. The fight industry in Japan is so completely different then in America, that since from day one, Zuffa has had no idea what on earth they were getting into. No, that show's not Zuffa...It's DSE...technically. Once again, I point out that this is confusing. The former employees with DSE who have not been hired by Zuffa are "tired" of waiting, and are beginning to organize to form a NEW PRIDE that will be independent of Zuffa. Essentionally, if Zuffa gets things organized (which I strongly doubt they will), we will have TWO PRIDES in Japan. One ran by Zuffa, and one ran by the leftovers of DSE. Zach Arnold called it a "all out turf war" for the spot PRIDE had and for whats left of it's name. Alot of the fighters have been waiting to make moves (mainly the Japanese ones) so they MAY have seen this coming. To make matters even MORE confusing, the Saitama Super Arena has no information listed on if that date has been booked at all, and if it has, they are not listing by whom. But if that show does take place, it will *NOT* be Zuffa ran PRIDE by the looks of it. Also, I should mention. NEVER trust Sherdog for anything "business related". 90% of the time they do not do their homework and simply regurgitate what they've heard without any firm proof. Edit: I should add that all this, the PRIDE show, PRIDE outside of Zuffa...it may all not happen. Why? Because it's Japan. Japan has a level of bullshit that our industry couldn't match five times over.