Hunter's Torn Quad

I can, and will, also blame Koscheck for not pressing the fight. His strategy was to win on points, and that's it. Great for putting ticks in the win column. Not so great for putting on exciting fights, which are what sells.

No one buys a PPV to see a fighter win boring fights. People dont' hate Koscheck for having a 'solid gameplan' or anything like that. They hate him because he's boring.

Koscheck won the fight, but I don't think he 'beat' Sanchez. Not even close.

The Rock/Hogan match from WM XVIII had at least one run through the week before.

The 'outsiders' angle, with apparently invading wrestlers from another promotion coming in to take on the home promotions wrestlers, has been done countless times in promotions all over the world, and with few exceptions, it ALWAYS WORKED. The reason it didn't work with WWE/WCW simply down to Vince's ego. That's it. It had nothing to do with not having any top names. Of the other, successful, invasion angles, not all of them had any 'top names' but the storyline in question still got over huge, still drew in the fans and still made money, because of how it was booked, which is the key to any invasion storyline. The 'Invasion' angle is not tricky to pull off. The booking required is pretty simple. The only problem, that has been mentioned, is it takes putting aside ego to do what's right for business. That is where the WWE/WCW Invasion failed. Vince would not put his ego in check. If you want to look at a successful, albeit small scale 'Invasion' angle, take a look at the ROH vs. CZW storyline. That one, believe it or not, made money. It drew. It had legs and it ran for a fairly long time, because Gabe Sapolsky put his ego in check and actually had the CZW wrestlers look strong, very strong in some cases, against the ROH wrestlers, before giving ROH the big, climactic win, in CZW's biggest gimmick match to boot. The 'Invasion' angle can work.

Sanchez/Koscheck was incredibly boring. Sanchez seemed to be waiting for Koscheck to do something he could counter, while Koscheck was content to do just enough to get a decision win without doing anything that Sanchez could counter, once again proving how unexciting he is. What more can be said about the main event? I can't see Dana White being too happy with Serra beating GSP. Instead of having their Canadian hero as the Welterweight champion to spearhead the UFC's movement into Canada, and a fighter that people can credibly believe is a top level fighter (whether he is or isn't doesn't matter), they've now got a Welterweight champion who is not even in the Top 10, who I don't think most MMA fans (the casual ones who make up the bulk of the record PPV buys) take that seriously, and who has no personality or charisma to make him marketable. UFC now have a Welterweight champion that instead of being marketed on on being a great fighter or a tremendous personality, is probably going to get marketed on being so weak that he could lose the title to anyone at any time. That Serra beat GSP doesn't mean a great deal, I think, because I don't see that it made anyone look at Serra as anything other than a guy who got lucky in this fight, and that if he and GSP had 100 fights GSP would win 99 and this just happened to be the one fight that Serra won.

In just the first show, UFC already got over six or seven personalities, got over the coaches to anybody who might never have heard of them before or know anything about them, and we've already got two brawls and a meltdown to look forward to next week. This could be the best season ever. And I hope Rob Emerson gets the crap kicked out of him in the first fight or tapped out in seconds.

Maybe if we collectively pray to the MMA Gods with enough fervor, they'll grant us a quick and decisive win for Sanchez.

Which raises the crucial question; what was the point of any of the interference?

The Countdown show, almost coming right out and saying so, portrayed Serra as having no realistic chance at winning. Which is accurate, because GSP is as close to a lock to win as you can get in any fight, and unless fortune is on his side, Serra is walking out of UFC 69 a broken man. I really want to see Diego humble Koscheck and tap him out in less than thirty seconds.

Unless it's the Rocky storyline, with Flair going for that one last title, then I don't see him drawing anything. He's been treated as anything but a legend for so long, even without the fact that he's clearly broken down and a shell of his former self, that he's lost what made him special. Add in the fact that Flair is broken down, and it shows, I don't see the people buying into Flair as any kind of world title contender, unless it's the aforementioned Rocky-type storyline, in which case people will, not necessarily buy Flair into being a potential world champion, but they'll want to him get that one last world title and it'll draw for as long as the storyline can credibly run.

About one second after someone pointed out that just letting Hart/Benoit wrestle for twenty minutes with no interference would be the best possible main event to have.

What makes the Bolen one potentially funny, is that I believe he was the guy who had his name tattooed on his stomach, figuring that way, he couldn't be stuck with a shit gimmick.

The fan/Malenko deal was an angle. Mayhem was just god awful bullshit with almost non-stop nonsensical booking. Seriously? What the heck point did that serve? Just to clarify, this is during the Filthy Animals/Revolution match. A fan gets close to Malenko waving the Canadian flag, Malenko yells and the fan appears to jab at him with the flag. It set up Malenko interfering in the main event dressed the same way as the fan was. The idea being that Malenko somehow managed to get the fan's gear, so when he showed up in the main event we'd think it was the same idiot fan again when it was really Malenko.

The fan/Malenko deal was an angle. Mayhem was just god awful bullshit with almost non-stop nonsensical booking.

What's w/ the difference in the numbers? Freebies, comp tickets, etc.

I don't buy this...80,000+ seems legit....the Detroit Free Press said at the beginning of the week that 76,000+ tickets were sold...the WWE also released standing room only tickets for $25....they could definetly sell 4000+ tickets for $25 a pop for an Event as Large as WrestleMania in a matter of days.. I believe that if no matter what Mania drew, Meltzer would say a lesser amount even though it's not that big of a deal And Vince would never lie about an attendance.....

That was Joe. He was with Justin McCully; they go back to UPW and Zero One together. UFN was ok. I thought Florian and Mishima had a fun little fight, and even though Florian controlled most of the fight, Mishima hung in there almost until the bell, and I was really hoping he'd score a win with the heel hook. Antoni Hardonk vs. Justin McCully was ok for the most part, but I found it dull to be honest. Joe Stevenson vs. Melvin Guillard was shockingly quick. I was hoping for Melvin to put in a good showing at least, and I was wanting him to win, but he got schooled.

The latest Observer says the real attendance for WM was 74,687 with about 68,500 paid. They obviously did not break the Ford Field attendance record as claimed, with the inflated attendance figure being a Vince call so as to make it appear like they did.

While Austin walking out was the wrong move on his part, doing the match that soon was an incredibly stupid move, and the writing team only put it together out of spite because Austin criticized them on Byte This. When he returned in 2003, Austin also revealed that it wasn't just the proposed job to Lesnar that made him decide to walk out, his neck was in worse shape than he was letting on, but it was the last straw for him.

That is correct. Austin's problem was not with losing to Lesnar but with the the timing of it. Austin felt, rightly so, that he should be the final person Lesnar beats, not the first.

Then you might or might not want to read this:

This year's WM was a fine affair. The matches ranged from great to good to total DUD's. MITB: A good opener, but while there were some great spots, I don't think it was as good or as spectacular as the previous two. I'd say it was in the ***1/2 range. The Edge/Jeff Hardy spot was insane, and the Matt Hardy/King Booker spot where Hardy threatened Sharmell and forced Booker to get down off the ladder might be the start of a program between the two, and it might hopefully see the end of the 'King' gimmick. Great Khali vs. Kane: Not terrible, but a complete DUD. The fact that it didn't suck beyond belief is a miracle in itself, but that doesn't mean it was in any way good. That backstage skit: Am I the only one who thought it was terrible and in no way funny? Chris Benoit vs. MVP Couldn't tell you anything about the match because I had no interest in it at all and wandered off until it was over. I do know that MVP got no reaction coming out while Benoit got a tremendous reaction, which reminded me of his match with Orlando Jordan at Summerslam in 2005. That should be called the Orlando Effect. Donald Trump/Boogeyman skit: It sucked. The HoF clips: It seemed full of genuine emotion, and I'll stop at that. Undertaker vs. Batista: This was was shockingly good, with Undertaker working hard to carry Batista and Batista managing to hold up his end of the match just fine. I wouldn't call it ****; I think, like with Khali/Kane, the fact it was so much better than people thought it would be made the match seem better than it really was. It was still a good match, though. I'd say in the ***-***1/2 range. Tommy Dreamer & Sandman & RVD & Sabu vs. Elijah Burke & Marcus Cor Von & Matt Striker & Kevin A fair match, that was neither good nor bad. It was just there. The finish surprised me, and it looks like RVD is either staying or they're very confident he is. Bobby Lashley vs. Umaga: Very awkward and nowhere as good as a match between these two could be, which I think you can blame on the storyline surrounding the match, because without the need to involve anyone else, I think Lashley and Umaga could have a very entertaining brawl. Umaga was kept stronger than Lashley, getting to lay out Austin twice, while Lashley had to sell for Shane. Melina vs. Ashley: This was another 'match' that I had no desire to watch, so I went elsewhere. John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels: A very good match, but not quite as good as some people have said it was, and I'd even go so far as to call it disappointing. I thought it was very good, like I said, but I was expecting something special from these two, and while they produced a strong match in the ***3/4 to **** range, it wasn't what I think they're really capable of. The first ten minutes or so was pretty boring, and I wasn't all that excited by it. As the match went on, it got better, and they really had the crowd going by the time they hit the home stretch and some of the counters and near falls were very well executed. I'm not shocked to see Cena win via the STFU, and while I can see why some people aren't happy with it, Cena is WWE's golden child and is going to be in the main event scene for a long time. It makes total sense for Cena to win on the biggest stage of the year. How they build the rematch will be interesting, because they can't build any more tension between the two without Shawn going full blown heel on Cena, and I don't see that happening. All in all, a good WM. Not the best, but close to being one of the best. EDIT: Did anyone else catch this piece of WM feedback on the Torch site:

Batista/Undertaker going on this early has me a little concerned that Batista might be going over. Then again, it could be a very subtle tease of Batista going over as a way to create doubt over the result. In any event, I think this match going on so early is very weird. I'd have this going a little higher up the card.

Randy Couture vs. Fedor Emilianenko Chuck Liddell vs. Wanderlai Silva Anderson Silva vs. Frank Trigg Georges St. Pierre vs. Nick Diaz Andrei Arlovski vs. Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera Tito Ortiz vs. Alistair Overeem Rich Franklin vs. Dan Henderson Matt Hughes vs. Takanori Gomi Jens Pulver vs. Hayato Sakurai Tim Sylvia vs. Josh Barnett Michael Bisping vs. Sokodjou Dean Lister vs. Kazuo Misaki Josh Koschceck vs. Joachim Hansen Brandon Vera vs. Mark Hunt Jeff Monson vs. Kazuyuki Fujita BJ Penn vs. Mitsuhiro Ishida