RavishingRickRudo

It is a pure, organic, clean, heterosexual love that we all have for Season 5... not a dirty, animalistic, "what the hell did you just do", perverse orgy love. Just making that clear.

Michael Cole: WHAT THE HELL? What is the relationship between TheDames and RavishingRickRudo?? Tazz: Oh I dunno bruddah, but this doesn't look good for Mole. Mole: Ah Crap.

It's amazing how they protected Mark Henry more than Goldberg in that match. By "amazing" I mean "horrendously stupid", and by that I mean "typical of the WWE"

AKA: How to suck Ric Flair's cock.

Well c'mon guys, can Goldberg lift Cars and bend Bars? Yeah, exactly - shut up.

I'd just like to note that the last Buffy-related thought in that thread involved Mole saying that Season 5 was the best and that I was right... Muhahaha. RRR: Champion of the Buffy thread. "Classic" Champion...

What's great about that time in UFC history is that's when it all started to change. It stopped being the clash of singular styles, and started the hybridization that we now see today. They began to form rules and weight divisions. Fighters that are superstars today were just staring out and the crap was getting weeded out. Anything from 10-on is some really good stuff that I recommend getting (hell, even UFC 5,6,7, were good) except for maybe UFC 16 (and that had Frank vs. Zinoviev, TK vs. Kimo, and Jackson vs. Bohlander - 3 great fights... but it had Pat Militich boring it all up). You won't be able to find anything after UFC 20 (at least, I haven't found anything on-tape after that) since that was the UFC's "really dark period". So if you get the opportunity, get UFC 12, 13, 14, 15, UFC Japan, UFC Brazil, UFC 17, UFC 18, UFC 19, UFC 20. And if you want to see the raw form of MMA, rent UFC 2... *shudders* such pain... such wonderful horrendous pain... And if you survived Severn vs. Shamrock, you can watch anything.

Who says What's Gay? FightGirl Erin Toughill.

How did the other WB shows do?

Brock vs. Angle. That whole thing. From the storyline to the matches.

Because the ghost of the Fake Undertaker still haunts the hallowed halls...

There's always something good going on, it's just a matter of looking... or you could get into MMA... yeah, that's the ticket. It's *always* getting better, always improving, always evolving.

My Thoughts: The opening needs work. "T-K-O... T-K-O.... T-K-O... something something something.... more somethings.... yada yada yada.... blah blah blah.... nothing really rhymes in their lil opening theme...." and I've seen better fight montages on-line (hell, I've made better montages with the freakin Windows Movie Maker). The opening is so integral as it sets the stage and pace for the show; this one was just bad. I prefer the "news-style" set-up they had last time, rather than just have all in-ring action. The introductions from each match take 3 minutes each (in both English and French), just cut them up and use that time to set up the match in-studio. Or just eliminate one match and use the time for the pre-fight introductions and a spotlight on a fighter. There's a reason why the WWE, Pride, the UFC start their shows with the announcers - you don't quite get the same effect with two faceless guys; it's not as personable. The announcing was good but it was missing the little things that great announcers do. I know that this was taped 8 months after the event aired, but it would have been nice to get some more background on the fighters. The success of anything relies on familiarity with the product - in this case the fighters and the product. ANYTHING helps - be it their favourite colour, or TV show, mentors, other fighters whom they look up to, why they got into MMA... ANYTHING. It helps the viewer relate to the fighters; they become human. We begin to forge an attachment with them and become more invested in their fighters. They should have ended each segment with "You're watching TKO ___ on TSN" and made reference to it throughout the show. They should have brought up the history of the promotion, the great fans and support in the area, other fighers in the division, the CHAMPIONS in the division.. there's more to announcing a match than just the match (jeez, am *I* saying this?). As I mentioned, this was taped 8 months ago but they just did the studio work recently, so their commentating was skewed towards the winning fighter, rather than a more unbiased, impartial, stance. And my final criticism on the commentary was that there wasn't enough analysis of the fights. I know that the 3 matches were not epic encounters, but it would have been nice for some explanation on what's going on, what the fighter should do to get out of the situation, how this may impact the fight when match gets long, etc, etc. I know there's a lot of stuff to be covered, but it takes a few seconds to do each of these things, and in that time all they did was harp and repeat on things a dozen times over. But these are things that make *great* announcers, both Jon and JT were perfectly fine and for the most part I enjoyed their commentary. It flowed well, they had really good chemistry, both were very natural in calling the match and have a solid base to work from. My suggestion would be hiring Jeff Marek to produce and/or commentate. He knows all those little things and his speaking-style is very Quadros-esque. The Production -aside from the opening montage- was good. It wasn't anything flashy or outrageous; it was simple. And Good Simple is always better than Bad Outlandish. What? There were FIGHTS on the show?? Oh yeah... Samuel Guillet over George Peters via TKO (Strikes) at 2:10 in Round 2 Guillets striking stance is very Ludwigy, as are his flurries, but those were few-and-far-between and not nearly as satisfying (still fun though )... oh, and they were mostly all punches. Not bad low kicks, but they were a 0.01 on the Rizzo-scale... Man, was I jonesin for a High Kick... Peter's was generally clueless with just-plain-bad striking skills, but does he cut a great promo or what!?! He is the devil, and he is BRINGING HELL WITH HIM!!! Nice finish with the rubber legs and fish dance and a Silva/Mezger-style right to the jaw. I would like to see more of this young James Carvellesque Samuel Guillet. Stephane Vigneault over Shane Rice via Decision (Unanimous) after (2) 5:00 min rounds ACK! C'mon, I can see giving the 2nd round to Vigneault, but that 1st round was all Rice. He had a triangle for crying out loud! He got the takedown and passed the guard with ease and got the mount! That's a TON more than "SIMBA" did. All Stephane did was land lowkicks -and yes, those low kicks did damage- but I don't think it was enough to outweigh the takedowns, the guardpass, the mount, and the triangle done by Rice. This was an example of the 8 month delay effecting the commentary as they were heavily biased towards Vigneaut and against Rice. Shane is a freakin tank with some great power and good technique and they completely ignored it. Joel Pigeon over Dirk Waardenburg via TKO (Strikes) at 1:38 in round 1 This was just "there". Nothing particularly outstanding in this fight other than than KO (which was good ) and Pigeon's hair and demeanor... which is to say, I think he was drinking before the fight. I would probably have put this on second and the Vig/Rice on last as the longer match tends to be more satisfying than the shorter match in the Main Event. I enjoyed this show and found it very refreshing compared to the humdrum of the WWE, and if JT's comments at the end were true it seems like there will be one next week (it sure did sound like he was setting it up), which will make me very happy... though no Rush doesn't ...

From The Underground ... The other UCC shows shown on TSN were really good, and they will probably show some George St.-Pierre, who is really a fighter you need to keep your eyes on.

Zzzzzzzz

Stop comparing Bret's injuries to Foleys and Michaels. We're talking about a *brain* injury. Falling off his bike gave him a stroke and it took months of rehab just to be able to go about his daily life. Wrestling is out of the question. That's a fact.

HEY! I remember that... Vince on Raw... Man, that was -what- 3 months ago?

Production costs must be really high for the show.

Steph is a fucking plague to wrestling.

http://www.tsn.ca/magezine/F3_feb_pg1.asp Here's an article about the UCC (it's a bit dated, but it's still very good)

The UFC show was originally made for UK audiences to hype the "UFC: Brawl and the Hall" show which features the Carlos Newton/Matt Hughes rematch. It is now airing on the Sunshine Network in the states. I really enjoy these shows too as they feature a lot of really great matches (Shonie Carter vs. Matt Serra comes to mind, as does Pedro Rizzo vs. Josh Barnett). I would love to see a deal between the UFC and TSN come to fruition, but the TSN used to run "Full Contact Fighter", hosted by TSN 'reporter' Dave Amber and featured various co-hosting fighters (Pat Militich and Jens "Lil Evil" Pulver for example) - which used to promote UFC events (though they did talk about other organizations as well). I don't know why they stopped (well, I can guess), but it shows that TSN is willing to carry a show about MMA.

*wakes up* *See's that Confidential still sucks.* Zzzzzzzzzzzz

TSN aired another UFC show last week (same time), but I totally forgot about it (and it's one I really wanted to see!). Which is why I am posting this - there isn't a whole lot of information out there, and TSN's MMA schedule is irregular at best. It seems that they'll show it when ever they feel like it. I'll try to do this for every show in the future, increase awareness and whatnot. I don't understand why they don't put it on before RAW anymore - but it's probably an ad thing where advertisers would rather have them put boxing or bodybuilding or fitness programs on rather than MMA. It just seems like a perfect fit, as there is a cross-over audience and putting MMA on at Midnight on Saturdays isn't exactly premium showcasing.

Yes, that must be it.

Zzzzzzzzzzzz.