RavishingRickRudo

I think they were going for a "Joe went to Far" / "No one deserves that" kinda thing. In the match, and even leading up to it, Daniels wasn't acting like a heel. He had a good case for being a team leader - he had the most experience, he was X division champ the longest. He gave Joe the credit of being the strongest wrestler, but Daniels was the smarter wrestler. Daniels was visibly happy that Joe was teaming with him - giving Joe a pat on the back for saving his ass. When I was watching it, I was like "Daniels is a heel? Why should I boo him??". And then I was expecting Daniels to turn on Joe at the end. I wasn't shocked that Joe turned on Daniels, but I didn't expect it.

But how was it a heel turn? Was Joe a face before? Were Joe and Daniels best friends? This was a power play. Daniels was a bad guy. Joe is badder. That Joe "turned" on Daniels isn't the point, it's the severity of the beatdown which is the point. THAT is what Tenay and West were getting over.

I think it was more like Joe taking out someone that was in his way. Joe is neutral, he's in it for himself. Good or Bad? The heel/face dynamics aren't really relevant, fact is you had Joe DESTROY Christopher Daniels. Daniels, the longest reigning X Division Champion. A guy who took AJ Styles to his limit. And Joe fucks him up like he was nothing. AJ Styles comes out and witnesses the result of Joes fury. If Joe could do that to Daniels, what could he do to AJ?

I second the theme music thing. Very good. Especially by TNA standards.

I emailed Meltzer about this, but do the families get anything after a wrestler dies? Do they have insurance plans? Will the WWE take care of Eddies family? I don't mean for a life time, but will there any aid given in general?

Full Guard is when the guy on the bottom has his legs around the guy on the top and the feet are locked together. Open Guard is when the feet are unlocked. Half guard is when both legs are grapevined around the opponents one leg. Then there is the butterfly guard, which was mentioned before. There's the guard where you triangle the body. And there's the rubber guard where you put your legs way up on your opponents back/shoulders.

Six Corner Frog Splash Salute

Eddie vs. Ohtani from Starrcade 95 was great cause it showed PLUCKY YOUNG FACE Eddie.

Eddies promo (with Chavo) on Benoit from Smackdown where Benoit doesn't say a word and Eddie goes through 50 emotions trying to convinve Benoit he's his friend. Eddie vs. Rey Halloween Havoc 97. Eddie bring so much hate to the match. Just him walking down to the ring sneering at the fans is classic. The rest of the match was Eddie giving one of wrestlings best shitkickings to Rey. Eddie vs. Lesnar NWO 04. Eddie totally makes this match telling a superb story of a guy who has to be resourceful and use the ring to his advantage over the bigger, strong, champion. Eddie vs. Malenko Hostile City Showdown - I thought this was better than their 2/3 falls going away match. It had smarter mat wrestling and... I should probably watch it again...

Ideally, Bas would still be doing colour on cards that he WAS fighting on. "Try to take ME down? LIVER SHOT! They underestimate it!"

Netwon vs. Miller Newton vs. Sanchez Newton vs. Parisyan Newton vs. Diaz

Frank definitely is the first that comes to mind. Especially with the welterweight and middleweight divisions now. Frank vs. Franklin. Frank vs. GSP. I was watching a Gilbert Yvel highlight reel, and if he dropped the weight, Yvel vs. Loiseau would be KILLER.

So, which fighters were ahead of their time? Or, which fighter do you think would compete well today (or would be fun to see fight today), and it's a shame they existed in an earlier period of MMA?

Which I SO am going to do. You just have to realize that I don't work with and within the same conventions of time that everyone else does.

"The UFC plans to run twelve live fight specials on Spike TV during 2006. If two of those twelve specials are live Ultimate Fighter season finales and the other ten are simply live fight shows that have no connection to TUF, it would seem likely that the TUF season finales will be the two most-watched UFC TV shows of 2006." I got this off UG, but it wasn't sourced.

Then I haven't seen them. Son, you don't understand. He did a turnbuckle punching spot and he was hitting the dude WITH HIS WRISTS.

http://www.ufc.tv/index.cfm?fa=MultiMedia.Detail&gid=1857 Forrest Griffin interview. The guy clearly wants to be somewhere else, yet he still manages to deliver a good interview. Man that guy can talk. The more you listen, the more his southern accent comes out.

We need to decide if episode lists are spoilers.

You're just saying that because you're drunk. I know you'd never really say anything bad about Billy Rush.

It's probably the WWE's hope that enough people buy WWE 24/7 where, if need be, they can sustain themselves on television and the internet.

Brad had better conditioning than Reshad. Billy Rushes job was done, it was up to Brad at that point.

Dirty Dana should be, like, Swicks uncle who lives in the penthouse of the apartment and who gets Swick to run "errands" for him.

I never said Joe vs. Lyger was bad, I just said it was a bad performance by Joe. Everything that was memorable to me in that match was because of Lyger, while Joe -it seemed- was just trying to not stiff Lyger. Joe vs. Raven was another bad _Joe Performance_. In both cases it seemed like Joe didn't want to get the other guy angry, so he didn't go stiff on them. However, in not going stiff, Joe wrestled very lightly. It's like he had 2 modes, one is stiff and the other is light and he can't find the inbetween to just give the appearance of stiffness. I'm not refuting Joe as the WOTY, I'm just rounding out the discussion by providing a different perspective and experience. Joe vs. Lyger was a high profile match. And it certainly was one of the highest profile matches in Joes career, if not thee highest at this point. TNA advertising Joe vs. Lyger to 800,000 people on SPIKETV is pretty darn high profile.

http://www.ufc.tv/index.cfm?fa=MultiMedia.Detail&gid=1855 Real Quick with Mike Swick is the hottest thing going to-day! "Is she the lady who turns the letters?" G O L D

From Insidefighting.com Bad Ass Breakdown: UFC 56 (Co-Main Events) - 11/10/2005 by Phil Baroni Rich Franklin vs. Nathan “The Rock” Quarry UFC Middleweight Championship This is a “Joe Silva Special.” Rich Franklin comes in as the huge favorite for a reason. He’s fought the best in the division. He’s fought in the big show many times. And he’s got a proven record, with all of his wins coming by knockout or submission. In other words, he’s the real deal. Nate Quarry, on the other hand, is taking a big step up in class with this fight. His biggest test to date was a loss to Gustavo Machado in King of the Cage back in 2003. So he remains unproven against top competition – and Rich Franklin is certainly top competition. Basically, it’s a great marketing fight for the UFC. They’ve got a title challenger in Nate Quarry who’s a household name coming off “The Ultimate Fighter.” So they can use him to build Franklin. The UFC spent a lot of money on Franklin; he’s a big star now. This is the perfect fight for him after winning the title and coaching on TUF2. It will show what a great champion he really is. In terms of the matchup, Franklin is the bigger, stronger middleweight. He has the better standup. He’s got the better ground game. His conditioning is top notch - he seems to get stronger as the fight goes on, breaking opponents down more and more. And he has the single most devastating weapon of the two – his left high kick. Quarry’s only advantage in this fight might be his wrestling. Neither one of them come from a wrestling background, but I’d probably give the edge to Quarry since he trains everyday with Team Quest. Even though it is a big showcase bout for Franklin, this should be a great fight for the fans. Nate Quarry will almost surely stand with Franklin and try to bang him out of there. And that will let Franklin showcase his skills in an exciting, crowd-pleasing fight. Even so, this is also a good fight for Quarry, too. Franklin is better in every area, but Rich will stand there and bang with him, which is what he wants. If Quarry is ever going to win the title, this fight probably gives him his best chance. Quarry has a decent punch and he’s very herky-jerky on the feet. Some people criticize that, but there was also a boxer back in the day named Merqui Sosa who was also herky-jerky and he knocked out a ton of light heavies in his day. And let’s face the facts: Franklin chin is suspect. That’s not marketing hype. It’s true. He got knocked out by Lyoto Machida, a guy who cracked BJ Penn a few times and never staggered him. He also got hurt badly by Evan Tanner, a guy who isn’t known for punching power. That’s the only question on Franklin’s entire game, and it’s a big one. Granted, Franklin recovered very quickly after getting rocked by Tanner. But that says nothing about his chin. It means that he was in great shape. You can recover more quickly from concussive blows when you’re in great shape. The fact that he got hurt in the first place is the significant point. Quarry, therefore, has a puncher’s chance to win. That is what makes this fight interesting. So the question becomes can Quarry take a punch to land a punch? That’s what we’re going to find out next Saturday. On paper, Franklin is the huge favorite, because he’s better in every area. But that’s why we fight the fights, rather than deciding them on paper. UFC matchmaker Joe Silva did a great job putting this fight together. There wasn’t a true No. 1 contender in the division when he signed the fight. Now, you’ve got David Loiseau. But Quarry was the perfect choice for Franklin coming off the huge swing in his popularity after such a successful reality show. I expect Franklin to win inside the distance in a very exciting fight. Matt Hughes vs. Joe “Diesel” Riggs UFC Welterweight Championship This is a huge test for Joe Riggs to gauge where he is in his career. He’s still a baby – only 23 years old. So I expect him to fighting for the UFC title at least one more time, even if he loses. But Riggs can’t look at this opportunity in that way. Everyone said the same thing about Dan Marino when he lost to the 49ers in the Super Bowl, but he never made it back. So Riggs has to look at this as a once in a lifetime opportunity. Riggs was up in Salt Lake City, Utah training with Jeremy Horn, who also has a fight at UFC 56, when he got the call to fight Hughes. Because Horn and Hughes are such good friends and have a long history together, Riggs left camp. So he doesn’t have the same level of training partners as before. And that could be a big factor heading into the biggest fight of his life, both in terms of his preparation and his confidence. I actually volunteered to go up to Joe Riggs’ came to help him train because I know what it feels like to be training for the biggest fight of your life and basically get abandoned by your training partners. We’ll see if his training ends up being a factor on November 19. From a matchup perspective, this is a very interesting fight, one that should be decided by who secures the top position on the ground. Matt Hughes is the most dominant champion in UFC history. He destroys guys by taking them down, putting them up against the cage, and pounding them out. And that is exactly what he has to do against Riggs, because Hughes faces a serious disadvantage in the standup arena – more on that in a moment. Similarly, the only way Joe Riggs wins is if he takes Hughes down and bombs him out, because Hughes won’t let this fight stay on the feet. Is it impossible to take Hughes down? No. St. Pierre took him down. BJ Penn took him down. And Sean Sherk took him down. Anyone can get taken down in MMA. The question is what do you do with a guy after you take him down? For Riggs, that means unleashing the nastiest ground and pound in the division. He’s not worried about submissions or getting submitted. Instead, he throws crazy elbows and punches with a ton of power, and that’s the X-factor in the fight. People will say Hughes has the more devastating ground and pound, but his is more of a grinding attack. He wears guys down, rarely stopping them with one shot. Riggs can knock you out on the ground with a single elbow or he can open a fight-ending cut. That’s a big factor. Can Riggs do that? It’s a long shot. Hughes is the most dominant champion in UFC history for a reason. He’s very well rounded and is a master at controlling where the action unfolds. So if Riggs gets the opportunity for the takedown, he must take full advantage of it and end the fight. If the fight stays on the feet, it could be an early night for Hughes. While the champion is a very big favorite entering the fight, the odds swing overwhelmingly in Riggs’ favor if Hughes tries to box with him. But Riggs can’t go out there looking for the knockout. When you throw big shots on the feet, it’s very easy to get taken down. And I’m not sure how good Riggs is at getting back up. Even if he’s good, it’s very hard to get up if a guy really wants to hold you down – trust me on that one. So Riggs has to hold back and defend the takedown unless Hughes gives him an opening. Basically, Riggs has the edge in the standup and has the more devastating ground and pound. Hughes is the better wrestler. He is the stronger guy. His jiu-jitsu is better. And he is an expert at controlling the action once he takes a guy down. In terms of experience, they might have a similar number of fights, but Riggs hasn’t fought in nearly as many big fights or against nearly as many world-class opponents as Hughes. He is on a nice run of big fights against top UFC-level guys, but Hughes has fought nothing but the best for years. With that said, I wonder if Hughes will really show up in great shape. Was he taking Karo Parisyan lightly? Was he training hard up until Parisyan pulled out two weeks ago? If not, that could be an intangible that affects the fight. Styles make fights, and Riggs has a much more difficult style for Hughes than Parisyan. And the fight with Riggs could be more grueling. So Hughes can’t do his 30-day training bulls—t. He needs a good two months of training under his belt. I know Riggs will show up in excellent shape – training with Billy Rush guarantees that. I wonder if Hughes will show up in great shape, too. If I had to pick a winner, I’d go with Hughes by decision, but it’s a very tough fight for both guys.