#like brocks doing NOTHING for this company and i feel like ronda is going to be the same

[divinebeauty37]

I want to like Ronda rousey I do but everytime she’s on my screen all I see is another Brock Lesnar

[dalekofchaos]

Hot take. Constantly putting Roman Reigns, and the 4HW in the spotlight for 6+ years has done nothing but hurt WWE’s product.

They’re great athletes don’t get me wrong, but it starts to get a bit old to see them in the spotlight ALL THE TIME.

This is beginning to feel like HHH’s Reign of terror in 2003 and Jeff Jarrett’s decade of terror in TNA and John Cena’s decade of doom. 

“But why do they boo” BECAUSE WE ARE TIRED OF SEEING THEM YOU BLITHERING FUCKING MORON

"You good, and they cheer you. You do too well, and they turn on you"

No Becky, we turned on you because of the terrible booking. We turned on you because the minute you were capable of wrestling again, you ended Bianca’s reign and made Wrestlemania 37′s main event mean NOTHING. 

As soon as Vince has his top stars, everyone did everything to get over, their progress means nothing.  Charlotte Flair is back? Sorry Rhea, your win at Wrestlemania no longer means anything and you never get to get your win back from Charlotte.  Becky is back? Sorry Bianca you’re no longer needed as champion and you don’t get to seek your revenge against Becky and take your win back.

Liv did look good and has a promising future, but considering the fact that they seem to want to keep the belt on Becky, I don’t believe she’s dropping it anytime soon. It’s pretty obvious they want Becky to hold onto the belt till she can get that Wrestlemania match with Ronda. Come on, we know that’s why she’s champion at the expense of Bianca.

While we’re on the subject of Liv. WHY are you saying Ruby and Sarah’s releases were on Becky? It was the company’s fucking choice. I don’t give a shit if it was Vince’s call to write that promo, she STILL defended it a few days before Raw. This wasn’t just on Liv, this was also on Edge and McAfee. The whole situation was as bad as The McMahons returning and blaming the bad ratings on Baron Corbin. Blaming any of the wresters in kayfabe for low ratings or constant releases is just stupid.

Don’t even get me started on the dumpster fire that is the Toni Storm and Charlotte Flair feud(if you can call it that). They are feuding over pie. PIE. What is this shit, the fucking Divas era? Charlotte has been doing everything in her power to make Toni look bad. Doesn’t help that they’ve been keeping Toni off TV FOR MONTHS. 

Yet non of this is their fault, cause it’s the way they are booked. But god, could they fucking book the babyfaces to look like credible threats? One of the worst things that has happened in WWE in the last 10 years was Daniel Bryan’s underdog storyline. WWE think babyfaces get over when you beat the shit out of them and make them look like geeks and are never allowed to look good.

Since I said 4HW in the beginning, I need to clarify. I do not blame Bayley nor Sasha as they actually DID make WWE interesting in 2020 and actually MADE a star out of Bianca Belair. Becky and Charlotte only make themselves look good. 

The only person Roman Reigns made look good was Jey Uso. The feud with Kevin Owens was dragged out for too long. We finally think Cesaro was going to get his time, but he didn’t even look good in the feud against Roman, the only one allowed to look good against Roman is Brock.

Speaking of the men’s big champion, why is the WWE Champion constantly made to feel like the secondary champion? Why has Big E, Bobby Lashley, The Miz and Drew McIntyre’s reigns ALL felt inconsequential? Why is it the WWE Championship, despite having DECADES of lineage is constantly made to feel inferior to the Universal Championship? You look me in the eye and tell me they are doing right by Big E as Champion.

This is WCW all over again. Why do you think they went out of business? They relied on the same old guard over and over again and refused to take a chance and make stars. Sure they gave Bianca a chance. They gave Big E a chance and they give Rhea a chance, but time and time again proves that Vince only cares about pushing his stars and will yank the rug right under the popular stars and keep his favorites on top. 

Keeping the same 3 people in the spotlight has done more damage to WWE’s product than AEW can ever hope to cause.

[wrestlingisfake]

You may have noticed a fierce backlash to Charlotte Flair winning the Royal Rumble.  But don’t worry, WWE has their galaxy brain guy on top of the real issue:

Let’s be fair: There are fans who soured on Becky Lynch throughout the past year, because you can’t push anyone without somebody feeling that you’re pushing them too hard at someone else’s expense.  Some fans were tiring of Hulk Hogan in the 1980s.

But Corey Graves’s simplistic analysis is that some wrestlers suffered huge backlashes after a megapush, therefore fans ultimately resent megapushes in principle.  Which tells me he’s bought into the company line about “fickle” fans, because nobody in this company is ever going to learn their lesson.

Fans didn’t reject John Cena simply because he won all the time.  They turned on him because they wanted someone else in that spot.  (Whether that was a reasonable demand at the time is a separate issue.)  WWE doubled down, and soon there was nothing Cena could do to win them over except to step aside.  So every time he didn’t do that--every time he celebrated a big win instead of passing the torch--the resentment festered.  We’ve been seeing this happen for years with Charlotte.  Becky’s entire megapush began by opposing this phenomenon--by having actually giving the fans the Charlotte-killer they were demanding.

Graves also cites Ronda Rousey and Seth Rollins as beloved megastars that the fans turned on for being too successful, but I don’t think those examples are very relevant.  Rousey was red-hot when she was beating up Stephanie McMahon, but after that her Brock Lesnar act was always controversial, and she’s never been very good at making the fans believe she represents their interests.  Rollins started 2019 with the benefit of being an alternative to yet another Brock Lesnar-Romain Reigns feud, but then they booked him like a chump, and chumps don’t really serve the fans’ interests either.

As for Becky, she’s still riding high because she still hasn’t dropped the gimmick of rebelling against overpushed/overrated corporate-approved stars.  I would have thought this would get silly once she headlined Wrestlemania, but fans are still mad at Charlotte for winning all the time.  So Becky is exactly what WWE fans want, which is far more than I can say about the career peaks of Flair, Reigns, Rollins, Rousey, or Cena.

[emblem-333]

Rebooking WrestleMania 35

What stays the same:

Kofi beats Bryan

Whatever else I didn’t care enough about to mention.

Brock Lesnar retains vs Seth Rollins

Why: Is Brock a good champion? No. He works very few dates and his best in-ring days are long gone. But give me him over Rollins as a Babyface. Rollins is a fine wrestler, one of the best in the WWE. However, his microphone skills are nonexistent and his feuds subsequent winning the strap from Lesnar have either been uninspiring or downright pathetic.

Still, there was a groundswell of support from fans eager to see the Universal Championship around the waist of a full timer once more. The secondary WWE title has had many misadventures. It’s inaugural champion Finn Balor suffered a legitimate shoulder injury and relinquished the belt the day after winning it at SummerSlam. WWE held a fatal-4-way match on Raw a week later between Kevin Owens, Roman Reigns, Big Cass, and Seth Rollins - the winner being Owens. He went on to hold the belt for nearly 200 days, but his reign came to a screeching halt when Goldberg returned and steamrolled him.

Since Owens ate a Goldberg spear, the belt spent nearly two-years around the waists PF part-timers. Frankly, I’ve forgotten it’s existed at points. To be honest, I was glad to see Rollins win initially for these reasons alone. Then came the night after ‘Mania, Rollins is in the middle of the ring out comes Triple H, his former rival who tried to derail his career... and they hug. THEY HUG. Instantly I get this feeling Rollins is a corporate backed champion packaged as a Babyface. While every WWE champion is a corporate champion at the very least give me the veneer Rollins isn’t a suck up behind the scenes by making him one during the show.

But the WWE is infatuated with themselves. They were so satisfied to have pulled off the angle and believed to have gotten Rollins over as a Babyface they couldn’t help but rub it in for all of us to see.

Lesnar, in hindsight, needed to remain champion. Rollins simply wasn’t the guy. But Vince McMahon isn’t going to put over someone like Samoa Joe- and let’s be honest, neither is Triple H or Stephenie. Whoever beats Lesnar has to be a creation of the WWE laboratory. If not Rollins, then there’s nobody on the Raw roster worth giving a look at.

If I was booking the WWE, I’d have Kurt Angle’s last match be against Lesnar and call it a night.

Sasha Banks and Bayley retain vs The IIconics, Nia Jax & Tamina, Beth Phoenix and Natalya

Why: The Women’s Tag Titles are the offspring of Bayley and Sasha’s constant lobbying. It is odd the women’s division does not have a tag championship in the first place. For all this talk of a “Women’s Revolution” and the idiotic elevation of “The Four Horsewomen” as if on par with “The Four Horseman,” the whole thing proves to be a farce despite the wrestlers being insanely talented and effective.

Heading into the eight women tag match the “Boss ‘n Hug Connection,” the inaugural champs had held the belts for 49 days. While their defense wasn’t something to write home about the whole point of their run was supposed to add legitimacy and mystic to the strap. Yeah, the IIconics are solid heels, but after winning the titles their reign didn’t last long either ending in 120 days before dropping them to Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross, who later lost it to the current champions Asuka and Kairi Sane after their heel turn. (Why are the tag titles primarily held by heels?)

Just let Bayley and Sasha keep the belts. Since ‘Mania, Bayley’s won Money in the Bank, cashing in on Charlotte Flair and is still the champion today. Holding the belt for 197 of the last 202 days. The interim period occurred when Flair beat Bayley at Hell in a Cell. On the following Smackdown, Bayley returned for her rematch with a new look and a new attitude. The lovable hugger with a back bone became a chicken shit heel over night. Instantly undercutting months of booking. While she did get a main event slot at pay-per-view at Survivor Series, she was treated as an afterthought by many inside and out of the company. The morning after Shayna Baszler made Bayley submit, the WWE twitter account reminded fans that Baszler didn’t beat “The Man” a.k.a the champion they actually care about. (https://twitter.com/wwe/status/1198805122681147392?s=21)

It’s a damn shame how Bayley’s been booked. A complete waste of her character and even from the standpoint of solely caring about making money, WWE circumvented an avenue of revenue by turning her heel. Bayley’s whole character is designed to appeal to young kids, girls in particular. Changing her to someone who makes them cry is a fun thing to do on paper, but in actual practice is awful.

Batista def. Triple H

Why: Triple H is 46. He sucks as a Babyface and is a fraud. He should retire. He does the same goddamn thing every year where he wears a suit, acts as an authority figure and then takes the suit off because things have gotten serious. This happens every year. It’s beyond annoying.

Bobby Lashley retains vs “The Demon” Finn Balor

Why: Poor Finn. Never able to find his footing on the main roster. Such a big star at NXT putting on clinics against Samoa Joe and Kevin Owens. Ironically, neither of them have been properly booked since their NXT days came to a close. WWE has a habit of restraining their talent. Balor fell prey to this and his run as Intercontinental Champion wasn’t relevant and later would lose it to fellow roamer of purgatory Shinsuke Nakamura.

I don’t see a reality where Balor as I.C champion works out. He was a lukewarm, forgetful player on the main roster. It’s good he’s back at NXT. They let their talent express themselves a little more than WWE. Best thing for him.

The Main Event:

The main event between Ronda, Becky and Flair was.. okay. Nothing special. I was happy for Becky. Initially booked to turn heel after SummerSlam in 2018, her promo the night after Flair stole her title made her a star overnight and plans changed to have her turn Babyface and keep Flair heel. Despite numerous attempts by WWE to make Lynch a heel fans simply weren’t allowing it just so Flair could win another title. That didn’t stop them from giving Flair titles, but at least it won’t be at Becky’s expense anymore.

Why did this culmination of months long storytelling feel so underwhelming in its conclusion? Simply put, it wasn’t a good story. Every participant was an absolute fool and the WWE doesn't remember how to book Babyfaces anymore. Becky failed at the Royal Rumble losing to Asuka clean. Then hijacks the No. 30 spot in the rumble when there were more deserving candidates available. What makes matters worse is Asuka would have the rug pulled out from under her a week before WrestleMania losing the belt to Flair. So why bother having her retain against Lynch and making things more complicated?

Following the rumble, Flair and Lynch battled for the right to go to WrestleMania. Despite being cleared to compete weeks before the PPV she still entered the ring on crutches and got the crap beaten out of her before Rousey inexplicably crashed the party, got Flair DQ'd and doubled the chances of her losing her title making the match a triple-threat.

The main event of WrestleMania didn’t need to be a triple-threat. It didn’t need Charlotte. And most certainly didn’t need to have both belts on the line. You had an actual fighter in Ronda Rousey and someone from the wrestling world who took an actual punch to the face, broke her nose and suffered a concussion so both participants had credibility entering.

In my eyes, the WWE could’ve done the following, dominate the headlines for their inclusivity, make everyone who needed to look good look good, and not marginalize Asuka in the process:

Becky Lynch def. Asuka for Smackdown Women’s Title at the Royal Rumble, Flair wins the rumble:

Asuka submits to the “Dis-Arm-Her” and Lynch is once again on top of the world after being unceremoniously knocked off by Nia Jax. Flair wins the rumble, and demands both belts are on the line to prove she’s the “Queen.” Both parties oblige and volià! There’s your WrestleMania main event done without unnecessary detours.

Or

Asuka retains vs Becky Lynch, faces Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville in a triple-threat for the title; Banks wins vs Rousey, Ronda is the one to enter No. 30 into the rumble and turning heel in the process.

Pushing Flair to the side here. She’s had enough moments in the spotlight and she’ll have tons more. Being omitted from me, WrestleMania isn’t the end or the world. This year belonged to Becky and Ronda. Let them have the spotlight.

I kind of think a Ronda heel turn would have worked if they paired her up with Paul Heyman. Would’ve made sense since she isn’t much of a talker and is from the ultimate fighting background as Lesnar. But that’s far too simple! And we can’t forget about The Queen. Heavens, no!

Sasha Banks wins vs Rousey; Flair wins the rumble. Lynch vs Rousey has no belt on the line. Banks vs Flair for ‘Mania:

Oooh, this is probably my worst take, but c’mon the Becky Two Belts story didn’t really lead to anything besides Bayley’s revival when a simple win over whoever was champion at the time would’ve done the trick.

Sasha Banks and Ronda had a very nice battle for the Raw Women’s Title. Perhaps the best match of Ronda’s one year stint in the WWE. If anyone doubts Banks’ in-ring capabilities, tell them to look at how she guides the green Rousey through the match. Booking Banks to win the title is a risky proposition. Ronda built a mystic of being unbeatable. A real fighter. Not a fake entertainer pumping ‘roids. Beating her essentially undos all of that. I guess Banks’ could have turned heel here and used a chair when the referee is unconscious and smashed it over Ronda’s head knocking her out of commission for a couple of weeks.

Anyways, Banks defends the title versus Flair. Asuka defends vs Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose; Becky Lynch and Ronda Rousey have an old fashioned grudge match settled at ‘Mania. How’s that for inclusivity? Why aren’t I working for the WWE? Is it because my ideas suck and have no basis in reality? Probably.

[thesportssoundoff]

DWTCS Season 3 Opener; A Preview

Joey

June 15th, 2019

On Tuesday, Dana White's Tuesday Night Contenders Series will return at an all new location, making the move from Fight Pass to ESPN+. The Contenders Series is broadening the scope a little bit, going from just American based fighters to sprinkling in some new countries and locales to the mix. The Contenders Series has its flaws (it's based primarily on the whim of one man, it will always favor finishers over non-finishers) but it's proven to be an intriguing place to find exciting new young talent. At the very least, we can see it's impact on weight classes that needed some new faces like welterweight (Geoff Neal, Dwight Grant), middleweight (Edmen Shabazyan, Ian Henisch) and light heavyweight and heavyweight (Karl Roberson, Juan Adams, Alonzo Menifield, Ryan Spann to name a few).  It tends to favor raw athletes who finish fights over polished established names and I kind of don't think that's a bad thing. I'm a big gamble on upside guy and this show tends to seek out upside.

The Contenders Series is a fun way to burn an hour and a half most of the time and I can’t think of an episode where I’ve walked away feeling like my time was wasted or feeling like somebody undeserving got a contract. As such, I’m going to be trying (TRYING) to do some detailed previews throughout the season. Her’es what I got for episode one:

Punahele Soriano (5-0, 26 years old, pro since 2017) vs Jamie Pickett (9-3, 30 years old, pro since 2011) Middleweights

Punahele Soriano Where He Fight At? Punahele has basically been fighting in name regionals since he turned pro. Backed by Xtreme Couture, Soriano's second ever pro fight was on one of the first PFL cards and he's had pinch hit opportunities in LFA and Titan FC. Who'd He Ever Beat? Nobody you'd know necessarily. Punahele's fought what I'd refer to as "regional fluff", dudes with records that are puffy on paper but thinner the deeper you get into them. It's like Nasim Richardson's theory that you have to go beyond who the guy is and dig into who HE beat too. Puna's last fight was against Jhonoven Pati who at the time was 4-1. Record Of Opposition At The Time Of Their Fight? Punahele's opponents were a combined 10-6 going into their fights with records ranging as spiffy as 5-1 to as bad as 0-3 (his debut). Why Is He Here? Punahele Soriano's spot here is primarily due to the division he fights in, the way he fights and the fact that this entire show concept is MADE for dudes like him. He's young and he fights at middleweight, a division in renaissance but still riddled with arthritic dudes. He's finished every fight he's had in the first round and often in impressive fashion. He's more athletic than everyone he fights and it shows every time. This is the sort of format where a dude like that gets a test fight like this to determine how much of his skills are fact and how much of it is fiction. Puna probably gets signed with a win.

Jamie Pickett Where He Fight At? Jamie Pickett is ACTUALLY a DWTCS alum. He fought Charles Byrd on the first season of the Contenders Series and lost in the first round. Outside of that and a Legacy Fighting cameo? Pickett has mostly fought in the Carolinas like Ric Flair in the 80s. Who'd He Ever Beat? Nobody you'd really know. His best win is Cristhian Torres, a 185/205er who fights primarily in Florida and owns a 14-10 record. Torres is a reliable proven regional busybody though so while it's not the greatest win, it's a solid name for the level. Torres is one of two fighters that Pickett's beaten who at the time of the fight had a winning record, the other guy being a fella by the name of Brian McGinnis who was 4-2 at the time. Record Of Opposition At The Time Of Their Fight? Jamie Pickett's record of opposition is 52-47. His best opponent was 7-4 Charles Byrd who got a contract from the UFC (eventually) and has gone 1-2 in the organization. Outside of that you have a bunch of fellas who were 1-2, a few guys who were 8-9 and the aforementioned Torres (12-8) and McGinnis (4-2). Why Is He Here? On paper, Pickett's here to fill a spot. There's nothing wrong with that necessarily! Pickett's job is to test Soriano and see if he's the goods or not. Granting Pickett the caveat that he took the fight vs Byrd on short notice (although I may have that flipped around depending upon who you ask), it's not a record that inspires you to believe he's here to do anything but give Soriano a challenge. We've seen Dana and company do this before; the exciting guy gets a name opponent by regional standards who is stylistically all wrong for him. Soriano is a great wrestler and Pickett's wrestling has never been what I'd consider to be a strength. He's here to be "the opponent" but the Contenders Series has seen the opponent win before. That's kinda what makes it great.

Brok Weaver (13-4, 26 years old, pro since 2013) vs Leon Shahbazyan (7-1, 23 years old, pro since 2016) Welterweights

Brock Weaver Where He Fight At? Brok Weaver has been casually cutting his teeth down at Island Fights, a little promotion that hid in obscurity before it wound up on Fight Pass. They've churned out some guys like Mike Perry, Alex Nicholson and Mike Davis. Weaver's primarily spent the entire of his career in Florida. Who'd He Ever Beat? I don't necessarily know if folks would consider these names quality but Weaver has fought and beaten Charles Bennett (THAT Charles Bennett), Contenders Series alum Mike Mustaki and regional dudes like Elvin Brito and Socrates Pierre. You kinda got beat those two dudes to get anywhere in Florida MMA.  He's also lost to Socrates Pierre, current rising WW Demarques Jackson and Titan FC vet Martin Brown. Record Of Opposition At The Time Of Their Fight? Removing our pal Krazy Horse from the mix, Weaver's opponents at the time of their fight own a pretty good 74-39 with some really good fighters since pretty much his 6th or 7th pro fight. Adding Krazy Horse to the mix, the record is 104-75. Hard to argue with that sort of competition especially in Florida. Why Is He Here? I don't know if Weaver is UFC quality but this feels like rewarding a guy who has done really well against relatively good competition in a pretty tough division. He's on a six fighting winning streak against competition with winning records minus one guy who was 7-9. He's beaten the fighters you'd know if you follows regional MMA on a more heavy basis. I also assume there may be some bareknuckle rub since dude fought (and lost) to Joe Riggs.

Leon Shahbazyan Where He Fight At? California! Leon has fought primarily against less than stellar competition on the California regional scene at places like Gladiator Challenge. Who'd He Ever Beat? Nobody. Tapology is very good at what they do and I have to assume they have no reason to lie when you look at the names and records. The first fighter Leon fought with a winning record was also his only pro loss. Record Of Opposition At The Time Of Their Fight? I feel bad for even writing this up but Shahbazyan's opponents were 16-70 with two guys making their debuts, one guy at 0-1 and one fella rocking an 18-40 record. The one fighter he faced with a winning record at 4-2 was Bellator vet Gabriel Green. Why Is He Here? Let's begin with the outside of the cage stuff first. Shahbayzan's here because he's trained by Edmund Tarverdyan, fights out of Glendale, is managed by Ronda Rousey AND his little brother Edmond is 2-0 in the UFC. Watching his fights on youtube, there's really nothing to suggest he's ready for this spot. That said as we've seen with Sergio Pettis, you tend to have the training wheels taken off of you when your brother is a big deal. The experience difference is so vast in this fight that I'm almost on paper uncomfortable with how bad it COULD wind up. Or Leon blows through Weaver and makes me look stupid.

Kali Robbins (6-2, 34 years old, pro since 2015) vs Hannah Goldy (4-0, 27, pro since 2016) Women's Strawweight

Kali Robbins Where She Fight At? If you're a fan of Invicta then Robbins is not new to you. She's fought in the organization twice as well as making her debut in RFA. Who'd She Ever Beat? Sharon Jacobson is the best win on Kali's resume, perhaps made more impressive by the fact that it was her fifth pro fight. Robbins' two losses are pretty quality too in UFC vets Pearl Gonzalez and Hannah Cifers. Record Of Opposition At The Time Of Their Fight? Kali Robbins' opposition is not bad, pulling in at 31-25. Her strength of schedule is skewered by beating Sharon Jacobson when she was 4-1. Her losses are to Pearl Gonzalez at 6-3 in Invicta and then 7-3 Hannah Cifers in Cifers' last fight outside the UFC. Why Is She Here? Well for starters, the UFC is going to need more strawweights eventually. As women's flyweight picks away at the depth, opportunities in the ranks will open up. Robbins is far from the least qualified contestant fighting for one of those spots. She's got a bit of a name, she's been around the block so to speak, her window is closing given her age and it's pretty much now or never for her to get into the organization.

Hannah Goldy Where She Fight At? Hannah Goldy is another fighter who has spent her time down in Island Fights. Who'd She Ever Beat? Hannah Goldy made her pro debut against UFC veteran Gillian Anderson and beat her by decision. She also fought Elisa Blaine, the Bellator fighter who beat Ana Julaton. It's a pretty good record for someone with just four fights. Record Of Opposition At The Time Of Their Fight? Not much to report here since Goldy's record of opposition is 4-1. Two debuts, 2-0 and 2-1. Easy math that even I could figure out. Why Is She Here? The association with Roy Jones Jr doesn't hurt I suppose. Roy's a big Island Fights guy and RJJ has tweeted her out/mentioned her before. Goldy's 4-0 record is also pretty impressive with some damn good strength of competition. There's no reason why she shouldn't be here as the UFC tries to find more faces for strawweight and flyweight. Goldy also has viral buzz as she's the lady Alex Nicholson proposed to on the scales before a UFC event and as mentioned before, RJJ tends to up her a bit on social media.

Bill Algeo (12-3, 30 years old, pro since 2012) vs Brendan Loughnane (16-3, 29, pro since 2010) Featherweight

Bill Algeo Where He Fight At? Bill Algeo's resume reads like a dude who has been fighting since 2012 all over the Northeast. We've got WSOF (yeah, he was around before the name change), CFFC and ROC. Basically all of the cool places for regional MMA at the time. Who'd He Ever Beat? Algeo's record isn't loaded with names so to speak but he's been the ROC featherweight champion for a good long minute now. He's beaten former TUF contestant Jeff Lentz, regional MMA fighter Tim Dooling and John De Jesus. His losses are REALLY impressive and well worth keeping an eye on with guys like UFC top 10 FW Shane Burgos and solid UFC veteran Jared Gordon in the mix. Record Of Opposition At The Time Of Their Fight? Bill Algeo's quality of competition record wise is FIERCE with a 71-36 combined record at the time of their fights with Algeo. Jeff Lentz is probably the best opponent he has with the 11-4 record and his losses are to dudes like 4-0 Shane Burgos and 11-1 Jared Gordon. Worst fighter on his record numerically is the 10-6 John De Jesus. Why Is He Here? He's really good? Bill Algeo's a really solid regional featherweight who is worthy of the opportunity. He may be overaged for the Contenders Series but 30 isn't a death sentence even in a tough division like 145 lbs. Algeo's earned this shot and I'll always be in favor of long term regional champions getting the opportunity.

Brendan Loughnane Where He Fight At? The UFC! Loughnane was apart of the UFC's Smashes season pitting Australia against the UK. That's the same season that gave us Robert Whittaker, Ben Alloway, Mike Wilkinson and Norman Parke. Outside of that, he's popped around ACB and BAMMA quite a bit as well. Who'd He Ever Beat? If you've been around since 2010, you've probably beaten your fair share of quality dudes on the European scene. Brendan Loughnane has wins over Mike Wilkinson, Ali McClean and Jason Cooledge. His losses are to Mike Wilkinson in the UFC, "Fire Kid" Tom Duquesnoy via split decision and a split decision loss to long time veteran Pat Healy. Record Of Opposition At The Time Of Their Fight? Brandan has been around a good long minute so again, no surprise he's got a pretty solid quality of competition record. Loughnane's opponents were a combined 158-98 at the time of their fight. The best opponents record wise are obviously Pat Healy at 30-23, 10-1 Tom Duquesnoy, 7-0 and later 9-3 Mike Wilkinson and 11-1 Paata Tsxpella. Loughnane went a combined 2-3 against those guys. Why Is He Here? When Dana White first started talking about the Contenders Series, he spoke about the idea of fighters maybe struggling to make it in the UFC being given the opportunity to earn their keep on the show. That idea was toyed with in parts but not fully implemented and keeping with that theme, the UFC also toyed with using the Contenders Series as a spot for dudes who flamed out of the organization to fight their way back in. We've seen guys like Joby Sanchez and Julian Erosa primarily make good on this (although the combined 0-5 record suggests some dudes are best left out) and now Brendan Loughnane looks to try his hand at it. He's at least earned the chance.

Yorgan de Castro(4-0, 31 years old, pro since 2017) vs Alton Meeks (3-0, 25 years old, pro since 2018) Heavyweight

Yorgan de Castro Where He Fight At? CES MMA primarily. The promotion that once held Batista's first pro fight has been a bit of a hot spot for DWTCS guys. Who'd He Ever Beat? Nobody I've heard of. Yorgan has only had 4 fights and it's regional HW MMA so he hasn't fought anybody anybody has heard of. Record Of Opposition At The Time Of Their Fight? Case in point? The record of opposition at the time of their fights is a rather blegh 10-11. His best opponent in record is 3-1 Ras Hylton which is on youtube if you wanna check it out. His best opponent in actuality is probably 7-6 veteran gatekeeper Carlton Little who lost to TUF Contestant Justin Frazier. Why Is He Here? Welp. A look at Castro's fights have me assuming that he's probably better suited a weight class down. He looks IMO like a Cannonier type; a dude who can fight at HW but also at 205 lbs if need be or even lower. He's here because the UFC was trying to set up Penn State wrestler Jimmy Lawson for a DWTCS spot. They asked him to a win a fight and IF he won, he'd get de Castro. Lawson lost and de Castro was kept on with a new opponent. From cannon fodder to potential UFC deal. Dude loves his naked leg kicks and his overhand rights too so chances are he's either getting flattened or flattening someone.

Alton Meeks Where He Fight At? Some in Florida, some in Georgia. Who'd He Ever Beat? A lot of nothin'. Alton Meeks' wrestling credentials and his college football background suggest his best opponents probably aren't the dudes on his MMA ledger. Record Of Opposition At The Time Of Their Fight? His opponents are a combined 4-6. His best win is probably 2-3 Baraq Hunter who also fought Alex Nicholson (and lost). Why Is He Here? It's actually interesting but the UFC might've tripped and fell into somebody. Meeks is the Jimmy Lawson replacement but some digging suggests there's some stuff here. He's apparently a good enough wrestler to have had some Olympic aspirations and he played college football which suggests the athleticism is there. He apparently took up  fighting after a few weeks of training and so he might actually be capable of getting even better. Meeks is here because one HW pulled out and the UFC needs HWs. Just collect big doughy dudes.

[poison-mist]

I Thought We Called It Scripted?

Rowdy Ronda Rowderson Rousey Rowdy has a video out where she says "hey, hey, this wrestling shit's fake"...or something similar.

I've seen a lot of wrestling twitter's and wreddit's opinions on the matter and since (in the grand scheme of things) they don't mean shit, I figured I'd blow the dust off this tumblr and write my opinion. So yeah, another one that doesn't mean shit.

The short version is that I think this whole thing is dumb as fuck. Triple H using shoot names in a promo is silly, but I feel like saying "wrestling is fake" in the build towards the biggest show in the company exists on its own plane of stupidity.

The nature of my being is rambling and forgetfulness, so let me try to recap the angle before I start talking about Ronda's vid.

The story was almost perfect at first. Nia Jax SHOOT PUNCHES ⁽ᵇʸ ᵃᶜᶜᶦᵈᵉⁿᵗ⁾ Becky Lynch in the face on Raw. She bleeds, it's a great visual, good shit. Becky Lynch is taken out of the match at Survivor Series against Ronda Rousey and is replaced by Charlotte. Alright, I guess.

But hey, the crowd loves an underdog that's being held down by the system. What an easy story to tell, so of course WWE chose to overcomplicate things.

Becky wins the Rumble. Two things come from this: Yay, Becky vs. Ronda to maybe main event WrestleMania. Boo, worked injury shenanigans.

Then fast forward a bunch of bullshit and we have corny twitter back-and-forths, "mugshot" t-shirts, Charlotte still being here for some reason, and Becky having to fight to have the 'Mania match that she's supposed to have anyway 'cause she won the Rumble...

WHATEVER, TO THE POINT!

The story's a convoluted mess already, and Ronda's "promo" for lack of knowing whatever the fuck else to call it, is indicative of that.

So, I don't like Ronda. Like at all. I despise a lot of what she's said in the past and I don't particularly enjoy her in-ring work. BUT, her character (despite the video) is what it should've been months ago. A legitimate fighter who knows her worth as a "superstar", and doesn't give a fuck what anyone thinks about it. Kinda like Brock, I guess.

There's a lot of people taking the most extreme sides of the spectrum. The "if you're mad, she's a good heel" group, and the "she's killing the business" group. Neither of these are right, and if you subscribe to either schools of thought...fuckin relax.

To expand on my aforementioned short version, had she made this video before ever stepping in the ring, it honestly would've been okay. More than okay, it probably would've great. The story of a person from an outside sport who knows enough about wrestling to know that it isn't entirely real, but shows nothing but arrogance and a complete lack of respect towards it. Like she's just doing it for fun. But all that changes after her first match.

Dude, the thing writes itself.

Instead, we have the Raw Women's Champion who's wrestled on TV, PPVs and headlined Evolution basically saying none that matters. Every time she reacted to a move in the ring was just pretend. Every person she was in the ring with was playing around. And any accomplishment that she or any other wrestler has in the sport of professional wrestling is bullshit.

Assuming this was WWE's idea (which I highly doubt it wasn't), my biggest issue with this is...what's the endgame?

You can't completely disprove what Ronda's said, because she's been in the ring enough times to know what's real and what's not. You can't say "The beating you're getting at WrestleMania is real" because that's basically saying "Yeah, you're right about before but this one's different".

And with that being the case, what do you even do in the match? Ronda has no reason to sell anything. Shit, nobody needs to sell anything. We've basically been told "hey, we know you know it's fake but now we're acknowledging it in the context of an ongoing angle so you really shouldn't get invested." What's the point of that? Nobody gains anything in any outcome.

Just throw WrestleMania away, then.

Replace it with KofiMania.

Closing this off before I start to lose sleep over finding out wrestling's fake, the issue with Ronda's video is less about just saying "wrestling's fake" and more about the perception that comes from saying it at this point in time. We're a month away from 'Mania, and this video has made what was at one point the hottest feud going in, then a mindboggling clusterfuck, even more of a fucking headache.

It also shines more light (in case it wasn't bright enough already) on WWE's inability to capitalise on an organically built story and the complete loss of subtly and nuance when they make a half-arsed attempt to do so.

So yeah,

What the fuck, Ronda?

[hazyheel]

Monday Night Raw 2/25/19 Review

This was a weird night. It was filled with the highest of highes when we found out that Roman was coming back, but also pretty bad lows. Boring matches, weird booking, and things are still feeling like the Becky vs. Ronda vs. Charlotte match is the only one that matters for Wrestlemania. But we are starting to build up other stories, the card is getting into shape, and fastlane doesn’t look too bad either.

So, the review this week is gonna start about twenty minutes in, given that Roman’s segment really transcends wrestling. So, after that amazing news, there was an aura of positivity in the air, and we started out with Ricochet and Aleister Black vs. The Revival. The Revival jumped the faces before the match, but Black and Ricochet were able to gain control. As the match just started to heat up, in very short work, Ricochet hit a backflip to the outside to Wilder, and Black in the Black mass on Dawson for the win.

Grade: D-. This match was not long enough to get going. Plus this is the second time that the Raw Tag Team Champions lost a non title match, this time to people who weren’t even a tag team. Just bad booking, and the match was just not long enough to mean anything. Just putting the belts on the Revival is not enough to keep them in the company, WWE. You need to book them well too.

Backstage, Charly talked to Baron Corbin about some very offensive things he said about Roman, like that people need to move on, and that he hoped Roman would never come back. Corbin said that he was under a lot of stress at the time, and no one could understand what he was going through. Charly countered by asking if Corbin’s struggle was harder than Roman’s, and Corbin just said that Roman should hope that the two don’t run into each other. Weird way to get heat on Corbin, but its one way to start a feud.

Elias came out to sing, but was immediately interrupted by Lacy Evans doing a catwalk. She was in and out. But then Dean Ambrose came out and challenged Drew McIntyre to a no DQ match. Elias just played his guitar to get people’s attention, and the two bickered. Elias made fun of the Atlanta football team, cheap heat. Ambrose then asked him to play Dirty Deeds, to which Elias responded by swinging the guitar at him. Dean ducked it and hit Dirty Deeds. As Ambrose walked away, the Riott Squad came out for their match.

Grade: F. Yes, it was kinda funny to hear Dean being his old wacky self again, but this served no real purpose. I don’t know why they are now burying Elias. The Interruptions are supposed to be funny, but its just stupid.

Next, we had Ronda Rousey and Natalya vs. Ruby Riott and Sarah Logan, with Liv Morgan at ringside. The heels were very much in control, which was only made harder with Morgan around. So, the faces took her out with an elevated elbow smash, almost a Hart Attack. As the match came to an end, Ronda hit Logan with her samoan drop finisher, only for Becky Lynch to show up. Natalya tried to keep the piece, but ate a punch to the face for it, causing the DQ.

Grade: D-. Another match that really didn’t mean anything, and ended in a DQ. Luckily, it was quickly overshadowed by the next segment.

As Lynch attack Ronda at ringside, there was a huge pull apart, with various security guards holding them both off. Lynch was even put in handcuffs and led backstage. Funny enough, Becky was telling security to be careful with her hands, because she needs them to hold up the women’s championship. After the commercial, Rousey got into the ring and called out Vince McMahon, but Steph came out instead. Rousey told her to reinstate Lynch, because the attacks need to stop. Steph said, “Becky Lynch did this to Becky Lynch.” Rousey even played to Steph’s ego, saying that it will put her down in history as a great authority figure if she books the historic woman’s triple threat. When she still refused, Rousey got right in her face, and demanded the match. Steph said that the were both bad people, and Ronda responded with an epic promo about how the belt is worth nothing if it isn’t defended against the best of the best. She then left the belt in the middle of the ring and walked backstage.

Grade: A. The angle was phenomenal. They are drawing comparisons to Steve Austin with the arrest, and Bret Hart with the “Becky Lynch screwed Becky Lynch.” She is the ultimate anti hero right now. And then Ronda is playing an awesome champion in distress. Ronda refused to be viewed as anything less that the best, and said that a belt that isn’t defended against those that deserve it is worthless. The Raw Women’s Championship is the most important belt in the company right now, and it is all because of this feud, and how much Ronda cares about it. Even the authority figures are doing well, talking about how they are only trying to do what is right for the company and for their employees. It was Ronda’s best promo, and it was awesome. Best segment of the night.

Jinder Mahal came out with the Singh Brothers in tow, and he was mad that he wasn’t invited to Ric Flair’s birthday party, I think. I don’t really know, I saw Jinder and lost all interest. Kurt Angle came out to have a match with him, Mahal quickly took the lead. Kurt was able to fight back with some suplexes, and tapped him out to the Ankle Lock.

Grade: C-. Fine match, but no story. Another one that didn’t matter. I guess it was good to see Jinder, even though I accidentally paid less attention to the segment after he showed up.

Next, we had a Moment of Bliss with Alexa Bliss. She talked about how she would be a reliable replacement for either Lynch or Rousey. It was funny that she is trying to manipulate her way into Wrestlemania. She then welcomed Finn Balor out, congratulates him on winning his title, and started to flirt with him. She asked to see his abs, and then she would show her..... cut off by Lio Rush (much to Corey’s anger). Rush then demanded a rematch for Lashley. Balor took it as a challenge from Rush, and accepted it, despite Rush not really wanting the match. Rush didn’t want to take it, but Bliss goaded him into it. The match happened next, and we jumped right into it. Not gonna grade it, because it was basically a backstage segment that went kinda long.

Finn Balor vs. Lio Rush for the Intercontinental Championship. Lots of high flying offense between the two, with Lio Rush hitting a moonsault and a pair of suicide dives. Finn was able to counter the big splash with his knees. However, this hurt his knee, and created a target for Rush. It was weird to see a match where Balor had the strength advantage, but that is how the match progressed, with Rush even working the knee. After a series of strikes, Finn hit a sort of underhand brainbuster and then the Coup de Gras for the win.

Grade C+. It was a good match, although not spectacular. It was a pretty fresh matchup to see a genuine one on one match between the two. They clearly weren’t going all out, but they were entertaining enough. Balor defending his belt is not a bad thing at all.

Backstage, we had Tucker of Heavy Machinery being confronted by the Ascension. They made fun of Otis, and when Otis eventually showed up, he attacked them. Otis is very funny to watch, with his loud voice and weird mannerisms. Could be a good comedy tag team. Also backstage, Bobby Lashley insulted Rush for taking a match for himself, rather than getting Bobby a rematch.

Bobby Lashley and Lio Rush then went out to the ring for a match against Braun Strowman. Lashley attacked before the bell, but he was still able to take control. The match didn’t end up starting, they just brawled a bit and then Braun beat them up a bit.

Grade: D. It was fine, I was just hoping for an actual match. Fun beatdown

Backstage, Seth Rollins talked about his destiny to win the Universal championship, and how happy he is that Roman is healthy again. He left Charly to go drink with Roman as Ric Flair arrived for his birthday celebration.

Next, the no Disqualification match between Dean Ambrose and Drew McIntyre. The match revolved around a leather belt, used by both of the competitors, but mostly on Ambrose. It looked really painful. Dean was able to hit a elbow drop to the outside from the corner post, looked quite cool. Ambrose also hit a drop toe hold as McIntyre came at him with the steel steps, driving his face into the steps. As Ambrose was about to win, Elias assaulted him with his guitar, and McIntyre hit the claymore for the win. After the match, Corbin and Lashley came out to attack Ambrose, and the four heels beat him down. Seth Rollins came to his aid, alongside Roman Reigns in his return. Roman hit superman punches on just about all of them, Rollins smacked Elias with his chair, and hit the Curb Stomp. Reigns hit the Spear on McIntyre, and they both walked out. They had left Ambrose in the ring, but turned to face him at the top of the ramp

Grade: B. The match was nothing too special, but the unnofficial shield reunion was quite fun, and even suggested a redemption for Ambrose. Roman looks as good as ever, and seeing him kick ass again was awesome. Good old fashion beatdown from the faces. Hopefully Dean will rejoin them by the time Wrestlemania rolls around, because I have fallen in love with the idea that Brock is beaten by a triple powerbomb.

Bayley vs Nia Jax was next, with their partners at ringside. The match showed how strong Bayley is, while still treating her as the underdog. Jax tossed Bayley around like a ragdoll, while Bayley tried to be crafty and speedy to get around the strength of her opponent. At one point, Nia held Bayley in the tree of Woe, and hit a rough hip attack. Banks tried to cheer Bayley on, and Nia grabbed Banks’ hair. Bayley then hit a running high knee, and the macho man elbow for the win.

Grade: C+. Decent action building towards their title match at Fastlane. It may not be the most exciting match it the world, but I’m into the build. Tamina and Nia are monsters right now, and are being treated as such.

And now the main event. where we celebrate Ric Flair’s 70th Birthday. Triple H and Steph introduce the honored guests: Shawn Michaels, Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat, Kurt Angle, and even Sting. They showed a nice video package of Ric Flair and his career. They even made a custom gold belt for Flair. When Flair didn’t come out when he was announced, a camera man showed Batista running into Flair’s dressing room, and attacking him. He then looked down the camera after dragging Flair’s unconscious body out of the room, and called out Triple H.

Grade: B+. Honestly, i am embarrassed to admit that I completely forgot about the Evolution Reunion at Smackdown 1000, and the very brief interaction between Batista and Triple H. But, I did, and I was kinda shocked when Batista turned up. The whole 70th birthday party was always a weird concept so I liked the take on this. So, this is a clear set up for a Wrestlemania match between Triple H and Batista. Its a match that could be fun to see, and a story I can get behind.

Overall Grade: D+

Pros: Awesome Rousey Promo; Roman Reigns returns; Flair Attack

Cons: Revival loss; weird Elias promo; Alexa being weirdly sexual again; Strowman non-match;

Commentary Quote of the Night: Corey Graves “If the afterparty is good enough, maybe the Singh Brothers and I will end up in the cell next to Becky Lynch”

[northstatenerd]

WWE Fastlane 2019 Preview

WWE’s Fastlane takes place this Sunday in Cleveland, Ohio and it is the last big stop before Wrestlemania. For the most part this event will further the storylines we have seen over the last few weeks, but it will also launch a few others that will likely culminate at “The Grandest Stage of Them All” in April. Here are the biggest stories to keep your eye on.

1. The Shield will reunite for, what is supposedly, the last time ever. Roman Reigns returned last week to announce that his leukemia is in remission. He wasted no time reuniting with his Shield brother, Seth Rollins. However, since he left after his diagnosis, Dean Ambrose turned on Rollins and the two have been at odds ever since. This week, Reigns asked the two to put their differences aside and team up again. Ambrose finally agreed late into Monday’s episode of Raw. They are touting this as the last time ever, because Rollins will be preoccupied at Mania with Brock Lesnar and the WWE Universal title to team up again, and it has been announced that Ambrose will not renew his contract when it runs out after Wrestlemania. The interesting part of that is that WWE, as far as I know, has never announced a wrestler will be leaving before they actually do. So this could all be an elaborate work, and maybe we see the ‘Hounds of Justice’ back in action again, but I would plan on this being their last match together for a long time at least.

2. Somehow, the WWE has been able to keep the Becky Lynch, Ronda Rousey, Charlotte Flair story interesting for most of this year. After Becky was suspended until post-Mania, Ronda laid her title down and said she wouldn’t compete until Becky was reinstated. This week, Becky was reinstated and a match was set for her to face Charlotte Flair this Sunday at Fastlane. At the contract signing on Monday night, Ronda attacked Becky from behind and reclaimed her title. The stipulation was added that if Becky wins on Sunday she will be added to the Wrestlemania match. The best part of this entire feud is Becky Lynch and Ronda Rousey going at each other on Twitter. The two of them do not seem to be holding back at all and it is fun to watch.  WWE is not known for being able to maintain a compelling story over a long period of time, but so far so good here, and hopefully they can keep it up for another month.

3. The Ronda/Becky story is so nice, WWE decided to do it twice! After Elimination chamber, Kofi Kingston was awarded a championship match against Daniel Bryan at Fastlane. Vince McMahon came out before the contract signing and replaced Kofi with Charlotte Flair. Sorry I mean Kevin Owens. Déjà vu. The crowd was so firmly behind Kofi and him finally getting a shot at the title, that we have to assume this is a placeholder until Mania. There isn’t currently a clear path for Kofi to earn his shot, and hopefully they don’t continue to follow the Women’s story, but I do believe Kofi will face Daniel Bryan at Wrestlemania for the WWE Championship, and I believe he will win it. It is absurd at this point that WWE has never had an African American champion, and someone who has been with the company for so long like Kofi would be a perfect choice for that honor.

The Card

Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair

If Becky Lynch Wins, She is Added to the Wrestlemania Match for the Raw Women’s Championship

Prediction:

Becky Lynch has to win this. This is the best way to set up the Wrestlemania match we all want. After several weeks of surprise attacks and beatdowns to both Charlotte and Becky, I’d imagine we’re going to see a great storyline in this match of both competitors working specific body parts of the other. Becky will work Charlotte’s arm, to set her up for the Dis-Arm-Her, while CHarlotte will focus on Becky’s already injured leg. With how hot this storyline has been, I expect this will main event, and Ronda will be involved at some point. Possibly even helping Becky to win.

Daniel Bryan (c) vs. Kevin Owens

WWE World Heavyweight Championship

Prediction:

Daniel Bryan retains. I expect this to be an excellent match between two of the best wrestlers in WWE, but I am going all in on Bryan holding the belt going into Wrestlemania, and dropping it there to Kofi Kingston.

The Shield vs. Baron Corbin, Drew McIntyre, & Bobby Lashley

Prediction:

This match goes one of two ways. This gets treated as a feel good moment to have the Shield reunited, we get the entrance through the crowd, the old music, and they win after a triple powerbomb to probably Baron Corbin. If that’s the case, Reigns will likely face one of the men from the losing team at Mania. However, there is another road to take. Dean Ambrose screws over his brothers and costs them the match, setting up Ambrose to face Reigns at Mania. That scenario gives us a much better match, but WWE is in a delicate position, where they finally have fans cheering for Reigns and putting him against Ambrose in what could be his last match in WWE could jeopardize that.

Asuka (c) vs. Mandy Rose

Smackdown Women’s Championship

Prediction:

For as exciting as some of the storylines are going into Sunday, this one is nothing. There is absolutely no reason for this match to happen, and even less reason for Asuka to lose the title. Asuka is arguably the best female wrestler in the WWE, and making her drop her title to Mandy Rose would be disappointing to say the least. But then again, Vince McMahon loves blondes....

The Usos (c) vs. The Miz and Shane McMahon

SmackDown Tag Team Championships

Prediction:

Usos retain here and this will create the friction between the Miz and Shane that will lead them to their match at Wrestlemania against each other. Shane will probably attempt another move he is too old to do, like a Coast-To-Coast or a jump onto a table that will look cool, but will still not earn Vince’s love and respect.

Bayley & Sasha Banks (c) vs. Tamina & Nia Jax

Women’s Tag Team Championships

Prediction:

Bayley and Sasha will retain. They will likely keep the belts until Wrestlemania where they will face off against a pair of legends, likely Trish Stratus and Lita. Tamina and Nia do seem to be formidable opponents, but after Bayley beat Nia Jax on raw last week, they have proven that it is possible to overcome the size disadvantage.

The Revival (c) vs. Bobby Roode & Chad Gable vs. Aleister Black & Ricochet

Raw Tag Team Championships

Prediction:

This match could steal the show. Aleister Black and Ricochet are 2 of the most entertaining guys on the roster right now. The fact that this is a triple threat means there are no count outs, so there will be plenty of time spent outside of the ring, with everyone diving out of the ring onto everyone else. I think this will be a fun match but ultimately the Revival will retain. I hesitate to now include one single title change on this card, and if there is one I could see Roode and Gable reclaiming the titles here. I would be surprised if Black and Ricochet win, just because they are better off as singles competitors, and do not need to be stuck in a tag team. I imagine the only reason they are in this match is to promote the upcoming Dusty Rhodes Classic Tag team Tournament on NXT. I put the over under on flips performed in this match at 12.

Rey Mysterio vs. Andrade

Prediction:

Andrade and Mysterio have had some great matches over the last few weeks and this will be no different. I do think they will want to get Andrade closer to a title picture heading towards Wrestlemania though. With a guy like Mysterio, he really doesn’t gain or lose anything whether he wins or not, so I see Andrade getting the win and starting to move away from Rey and focusing on the new United States Champion, Samoa Joe.

[deadpresidents]

thoughts on mania? nxt or roh if you saw them?

WrestleMania was a weird one. It was good and it didn’t feel as ridiculously long as the past few years have felt, but it really took a weird turn during the last half of the show. I think they probably should have put the Kurt Angle/Ronda Rousey vs. HHH/Stephanie McMahon match on last but it was so good and the crowd was so hyped for it that nothing could follow it -- not even Styles vs. Nakamura. I expected Ronda to do well, but I did not expect her to be as sharp and as smooth in her very first match as she was tonight. And HHH and Stephanie played their roles perfectly. I’m guessing that WWE figures Ronda making Stephanie tap will be the Sportscenter moment, but the best part was Ronda kicking HHH’s ass. Charlotte vs. Asuka was amazing. Seeing Daniel Bryan back in the ring was great. I was a little disappointed by Styles-Nakamura. It felt like they were holding something back, but that might be because of the post-match storyline. It seems like it’s just the beginning of their deal and that’s fine with me. I wish the Usos and New Day would have been given more time to shine. The thing they did with Undertaker and John Cena finally explains why WWE didn’t advertise an actual match between them for the show. Braun Strowman winning the tag team titles with a 10-year-old kid was fun. And I was genuinely shocked at Lesnar beating Reigns. Roman Reigns legitimately took a beating from Brock for that match and it’s actually kind of sad that the crowd continued to shit on him. I don’t think I’ve seen someone bleeding that badly in a WWE match in years, and I’m pretty sure that was from an elbow strike by Brock because I didn’t see Roman blade at any point. It was a good show, and the next few weeks should be interesting, especially if Brock is really going back to UFC. It seems like WWE almost has to turn Reigns at this point.

I don’t really watch ROH, but Takeover was great, as usual. WWE should probably stop scheduling NXT shows on the Saturday night before their biggest main shows because the main roster shows are almost always a letdown. Everything on Takeover was great, though. Tomasso Ciampa is such a wonderful asshole. I loved that match. And I think Andrade Almas and Zelina are going to be huge stars if they’re presented the same way on the main roster (which should be where they are headed now) as they have been on NXT. There was a ton of good wrestling this weekend, and I only saw the WWE-branded shows, but I know that virtually every major wrestling company in the world was running shows in New Orleans this week.

[truesportsfan]

WrestleMania 36: What to follow in WWE with one month to go

WWE Elimination Chamber is behind us and WrestleMania 36 is less than a month away. Here are 36 observations as we get ready for the big show on April 5 in Tampa, Fla.:

1. Edge versus Randy Orton feels like the main event at WrestleMania — but it won’t be. This is a superb, clear and emotional story, and Edge reminded us on “Monday Night Raw” that he can go to that dark place, just like Orton. We are in for some theater from these masters.

2. I know WWE likes to announce things in advance in hopes of popping a rating, but did we really need to know Edge was going to be back on “Raw” on Monday? How about making his return a surprise, get a big pop and make people feel they need to watch the show to not miss moments like that.

3. The women’s Elimination Chamber match was not a great match and under-delivered in many aspects, but it was the best booking of Shayna Baszler we’ve seen on the WWE main roster: The quick tapouts and her brutalizing of Liv Morgan gave us a glimpse of the killer we loved to hate in NXT. You can make the case they didn’t go far enough with how she ran through her opponents. Break and bend some limbs. Maybe leave one opponent bloodied.

4. Baszler is starting to build the heat she needs going into WrestleMania. She will need it for her persona to better translate to the Raw audience, which will want nothing more than for their hero Becky Lynch to send Baszler back to NXT. If not, a Baszler-Asuka feud could be waiting.

5. Does anyone else feel as if Lynch is Rocky Balboa in “Rocky III” before he got destroyed by Clubber Lang? The Man has been positioned as overconfident, strutting her GOAT status. Her promo to open “Raw” did set a great tone going forward and finally brought Ronda Rousey into the storyline.

6. Why should the audience care about the implosion of the Riott Squad when WWE continues to treat them like jobbers and fails to let their story truly play out in the Elimination Chamber? Ruby Riott, not Liv Morgan (so much for her push), can be the breakout star of the group. Just give her time.

WWE

7. Say what you want about Brock Lesnar, but the last two years, he helped leave his WrestleMania opponents (Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins) in better standing than he found them. The cheers for Drew McIntyre keep growing, and Lesnar told McIntyre to grab the title while selling a beatdown from last week’s “Raw.”

8. I’m all here for Roman Reigns vs. Goldberg and The Fiend vs. John Cena at WrestleMania. I just wish the former was simply Spear vs. Spear, New vs. Old (without the belt) and the other was Cena going for The Fiend’s WWE’s title, which would be his record 17th world championship.

9. Charlotte Flair vs. Rhea Ripley is one of WrestleMania’s most intriguing matches. Flair, who has run through pretty much all of the main roster, would benefit taking the title: She would get fresh matchups in NXT, could help ratings and be used to put over Bianca Belair. Otherwise Ripley gets a big rub from beating WWE’s Golden Girl at WrestleMania. Either outcome has big implications.

10. Undertaker’s surprise appearance at Elimination Chamber was exactly how you should use him and added to the anticipation for his WrestleMania match with AJ Styles.

11. I do have a challenge for WWE: Get me an Undertaker WrestleMania feud that isn’t just about the next guy calling him out for a match. That may be asking a lot from a company that long-term booked Erick Rowan’s cage holding a giant fake tarantula, which McIntyre quickly destroyed.

12. What if this whole Undertaker-Styles feud is about getting Aleister Black a star-making rub? Black also went over Rollins on Monday’s “Raw.”

13. Black Mass is one of the best finishers in WWE. Tell me otherwise.

14. Rollins feels very natural in his Monday Night Messiah role, but how many multi-man tag matches can one wrestler be booked in?

15. Happy Sami Zayn finally earned a singles title on the main roster. It’s about time. But did it have to come at the expense of Braun Strowman so quickly? Strowman has been waiting for a championship run, too. WWE didn’t pull the trigger on him as a world champion a few years ago. Not sure he can afford another start and stop.

16. WWE playing hot potato with the Intercontinental Championship, even in a 3-on-1 handicap match, continues to devalue the once-proud title. It easily could flip back to Strowman at WrestleMania.

17. The feud among Andrade, Humberto Carrillo, Angel Garza and Rey Mysterio has been compelling and fun in the ring, even with being built around Andrade’s Wellness Policy suspension. But it is time to get to the next phase of this story. Any one of them is a worthy U.S. champion. Andrade and Carrillo are the front-runners. Would WWE think about doing Andrade vs. Zelina Vega’s real-life husband Aleister Black if Andrade retains?

18. As good as Andrade and Carrillo are in the ring, you can make the case the charismatic Garza comes across the best on screen. WWE could turn him babyface and make Vega choose between him and Andrade in a post-WrestleMania feud.

19. What Daniel Bryan is doing with Drew Gulak is fantastic. They told an excellent story during their match at Elimination Chamber in Gulak’s hometown of Philadelphia. Bryan also got Heath Slater and Curtis Axel some TV time. Hope the plug isn’t pulled too quickly on this, but WWE could want a more marquee match for Bryan in Tampa.

20. “Who sent Otis the text to spoil his Valentine’s Day date with Mandy Rose?” is a storyline WWE needs to make more prominent, despite Rose telling Otis she’s moved on. Otis vs. Ziggler needs to end with either Otis getting the girl or Sonya Deville being the one who sent the text. If not, what was the point?

21. At the least, WWE has an increasingly over, non-New Day babyface tag team in Heavy Machinery. Will they capitalize on it? Heavy Machinery was the second team out of the Elimination Chamber after getting a huge rub from the gauntlet match on last week’s “SmackDown.”

22. The SmackDown tag team match was the best on the pay-per-view as the division continues stealing the show. Please continue to give them the time and respect they deserve and keep them off kickoff shows.

23. John Morrison and his acrobatic move set has been a fun addition to the WWE roster. How soon until he turns on Miz and starts a singles run?

24. Thank you WWE for giving us more of Robert Roode’s glorious entrance. It used to be one of the coolest in wrestling, and is still up there.

25. Props to Lince Dorado for that shooting star press from hanging from the roof of the Elimination Chamber. Crazy.

26. Ricochet has been relegated to matches on Main Event. He deserves better than the burying he’s getting right now.

27. Does WWE actually have a women’s tag team division? The 24/7 title has gotten more or equal TV time in recent months. At least the Kabuki Warriors were revived on Monday.

28. The Raw tag team match at Elimination Chamber featured two singles stars in Rollins and Murphy against the Street Profits in a match that was more about advancing Rollins’ feud with Kevin Owens.

29. When does Kevin Owens get to work his magic at the top of the card or is he destined to be an upper-midcard storytelling star?

30. The Street Profits are fun, they bring energy and they have a great connection with a live crowd. They are stars. WWE needs to start booking them that way.

31. King Corbin feuding with Elias sounds about right.

32. The Revival’s contracts in WWE should be up in June. If and how they are booked for WrestleMania 36 could be a telling sign about their future.

33. Jeff Hardy is returning to SmackDown this Friday after a long hiatus. It was wonderful to see Hardy look refreshed and healthy on “WWE Backstage” last week.

34. Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder almost made it to the pay-per-view Sunday, but lost on the kickoff show instead.

35. WWE said last week WrestleMania 36 is going on as planned in Tampa, Fla., though they are monitoring the outbreak of the coronavirus. If other major sports, such as the NBA, NCAA or NHL start forbidding fans from attending games, at some point you have to take a long, hard look in the mirror and reevaluate.

36. Stone Cold Steve Austin returns to Raw for 3/16 Day. Oh, hell yeah!

source https://truesportsfan.com/sport-today/wrestlemania-36-what-to-follow-in-wwe-with-one-month-to-go/

[andymull]

WWE SummerSlam 2018 - Preview & Predictions

Hi all, welcome back for what now will be the longest night of the summer, so many matches on the card and kick off show so lets get into it and get out quickly.

ALSO, Tumblr YET AGAIN is playing up and has been for me the last 2 hours trying to get this done, 8 times ive tried so its just the text sorry

Brock Lesnar (c) vs Roman Reigns: WWE Universal Championship Match

Please let this be the last match between the two, please, we’ve had enough. Just let Reigns beat him finally for the title and move on with the title being defended more on tv, and IF Lesnar agree’s to a new deal lets all hope he gets it put in the deal that he gets to have fresh challenges in the future.

So, Roman wins the match as well as the belt the crowd boo’s like mad, Braun appears and cashes in his MITB contract and walks out of the show as the new champion with the fans going wild. This quickly moves the title with the fans not caring as someone they like has the belt in the end, Roman finally conquers Brock and gets that monkey off of his back, and they traverse well from Reigns/Lesnar straight into Reigns/Strowman so that Brocks move back into the UFC isnt the big story. - REIGNS

AJ Styles (c) vs Samoa Joe: WWE Championship Match

This will be an awesome match, the friends here have great chemistry together in the ring from working in different companies against each other.

I really want Joe to take the title tonight but I dont think its time just yet, plus I think there could be ALOT of potential title changes on the show so they may hold off as there’s plenty of room to explore in this feud over the next month or two - STYLES

Alexa Bliss (c) vs Ronda Rousey: WWE Raw Women’s Championship Match

Im surprised they've been able to keep theirselves from getting the title on Ronda so long, they probably should have waited longer but this seems to be her coronation time. All eyes will be on her tonight, dont be surprised if there’s a late decision on match order for the show with this coming in as a late contender for the main event slot if there’s going to be a title change. Personally im not sure if this is the perfect timing for it or maybe they should have it be the main event at the Evolution PPV........I know spoilers are out there for that show already but Ronda winning the title there might be bigger overall in impact than their current plans.

With so many bouts on the show I see one or two turning into pretty quick squash matches, this is potentially one of them, they just have to be careful of destroying Bliss by doing so but then again she could do with time away from the title after the past few years of her on Raw and Smackdown with the belts - ROUSEY

Braun Strowman vs Kevin Owens: Winner By Any Means Takes The MITB Opportunity

I dont think there’s much of a chance here of an upset win for Owens, he got that last month in the cage match, and really this is just a stop gap feud for Braun before his cash in.

Sadly Owens isnt the guy in focus at the moment on Raw but does his job so well that he will get used alot to help others, hopefully he still remains a threat in managements minds and doesn't get looked at differently for being so useful - STROWMAN 

Dolph Ziggler (c) w/ Drew McIntyre vs Seth Rollins w/ Dean Ambrose: WWE Raw Intercontinental Championship Match

Dean’s new look wasn't that impressive for them to update the image for the match obviously lol

I think the title changes hands here and we move into these four guys interchanging in different matches, so Drew/Rollins and Dolph/Ambrose then tag matches - ROLLINS

Becky Lynch vs Carmella (c) vs Charlotte: WWE Smackdown Live Women’s Championship Match

Im kinda gutted that this was altered into a three way match with Charlotte being added, it felt the perfect setup for a one on one bout with Becky winning the title back finally. Now it has that weird feeling to it with her ‘best friend’ Charlotte around and them eventually fighting each other, hopefully the crowd stick with Lynch throughout and dont pick Charlotte to cheer and her to boo, hopefully.

Carmella’s reign has been worrying sadly, she’s ended up on commentary far too often lately when really she should have been added to some of the tag matches that have occurred. It really doesn't feel like they 100% trust her which is madness after they gave her the title, and its all on managements heads to be honest. When she won the MITB briefcase they should have had her in matches most weeks going 10 minutes or over with solid wrestlers to get her ready and improved for the eventual title reign, instead she got hardly any ring time to help develop herself and is now being found out at the time she needs the help the most.

Lynch should take the belt and have a good title run after not seeing the belt for a decent amount of time - LYNCH 

Daniel Bryan vs The Miz

Some great time and segments have gone into this feud over the years and hopefully the match lives upto it, not sure if this will be a feud that will continue for longer or it may be one that dies down after the finish only to be picked up again afew months down the road when one of these men get nearer to the world title scene.

I see Bryan winning here and maybe moving onto a feud with Nakamura or possibly Orton, him moving upto the world title scene wont occur yet, they haven't confirmed his new contract just yet so be prepared to wait till Mania time for them to pull the trigger big time to have him back at the top of the card - BRYAN

Shinsuke Nakamura (c) vs Jeff Hardy: WWE Smackdown Live US Championship Match

Hopefully this match doeskin end again with Randy Orton interfering again and they just leave the two have a solid 15 minutes, they seem to have some good chemistry together and freshness - NAKAMURA 

Finn Balor vs CUNTstable Corbin

I hate that this match is taking up time on the show, nothing against Finn as I love the guy and have supported him for years, but this bout is only happening because of the companies stupid booking and making everything 50/50. Finn should have gone over strong in the first match and then won the second, then have Corbin use his position to have Balor go against bigger names. Instead we have to have them beating each other all the time so that nothing ever matters, if Corbin is in a management position then he doesn't so much need the wins at the moment as he should be using his position more - BALOR

The Bludgeon Brothers (c) vs The New Day: WWE Smackdown Live Tag Team Championship Match

Im not sure of anyone really knows the direction they want to go with these belts, the Bludgeons should have been wrestling more as their reign hasn't really felt anything special which is sad for them. Whoever wins will most likely end up feuding with the same old names again, lets hope it gets changed up alittle and The Bar get involved more - BLUDGEON BROTHERS

Elias Performance

Im including this as I see it leading to a beat-down from Bobby Lashley

Cedric Alexander (c) vs Drew Gulak: Cruiserweight Championship Match (Kick Off Show)

Drew won the opportunity at the title after winning a fatal 4 way match and aims to end the rule of Alexander, it just doesn't feel right for a change here. The show still seems to be finding its way as 205 Live are doing great at booking small time feuds, but there really doesn't feel to be a longer plan in mind as to who takes the title next and where it goes from there - ALEXANDER

Rusev + Lane vs Zelina Vega + Andrade Cien Almas (Kick Off Match)

Im gutted for Rusev, he goes from fighting for the world title against Styles one month to being relegated to the pre-show the next, him vs Andrade should have been on the main card in a one on one match allowing them both to have a show stealer and impress everyone that still hasn't seen much of what Almas can offer.

Instead we have it built around the managers and Aiden English all not getting along, the less we talk about Lana having to act or wrestle the better, infact just go back at the second incident they all had and notice that they had to cut Lana’s bump out of the replays because it was that bad - ANDRADE/VEGA

The B Team (c) vs The Revival: WWE Raw Tag Team Championship Match

After retaining their titles on Raw The B Team have to defend their titles again against the Revival, this feels like one of those occasions where they will have the match here and then re-do it again on Raw, just that the title change will wait till Raw I predict - REVIVAL

I wonder if we get any surprise names around the show, maybe an NXT call up tonight or tomorrow???

Enjoy

Bye for now

Andy

[writingsubmissions]

UFC on Fox 23 Preview

WHAT'S HAPPENING: *It wasn't much on paper, but in practice, UFC's offering on FS1 over MLK weekend wound up being perfectly fine, even though the ending was pretty much a total bummer. As a lot of people expected, Yair Rodriguez pretty much styled on B.J. Penn before becoming the first man (at least in UFC) to knock him down, eventually landing a ridiculous amount of blows on the ground against the Hawaiian legend before it got stopped, and leaving all of us wondering exactly what the hell we're doing here. The weird part is, in some ways Penn actually looked better than expected, at least technically - he had some brief early success clinching Rodriguez up, and landed a few solid strikes at one point based around his jab, but he just looked so old physically that the optics were absolutely awful, particularly once Rodriguez figured things out and was basically hitting Penn at will. It's kind of amazing looking back that Penn was once UFC's welterweight champion, given how small he looked here - nowadays, his natural weight class may be bantamweight, let alone featherweight. But anyway, Penn looked old even in his last fight two-plus years ago, so this was just...really, really bad. Anyway, who knows where we go from here - Rodriguez is now among the ranks of fringe contenders at featherweight, even though it's still unclear exactly how good he is - he's obviously talented and probably a top ten fighter or so at worst, but one does get the sense that there's a level where his dynamic but not particularly strategic style gets figured out and stifled. Though, on the other hand, there are guys like Anthony Pettis who can ride that all the way to a championship reign before it happens, so maybe Rodriguez is just in that class of fighter. And as for Penn, he should probably hang it up, moreso now than ever, but this is also the third or fourth straight fight of his where people have been saying that. *And a bunch of other fights happened, nothing too amazing, but also nothing too bad. Going through the rest of the main card, the biggest thing about the co-main was that two of the three judges seemed to be the only people in the building who thought Joe Lauzon beat Marcin Held, and this included Lauzon, who immediately started shaking his head after the decision was read for him and used his post-fight interview to make clear that he lost the fight. It was a bit of an ugly one, as after Lauzon had some success early, Held mostly just out-wrestled him and neutralized everything he did - on the one hand, Held didn't really do much with a lot of the advantageous positions he had, but on the other hand, Lauzon also didn't really do enough to win the fight either. Ben Saunders won a perfectly fine fight that could've gone either way that there's not much to say about, and I suppose the biggest win on the main card went to Sergio Pettis, who solidly won a fight over John Moraga and suddenly finds himself as sort of a contender. Sergio's sort of taken the complete opposite path of his brother Anthony - while Anthony burst onto the scene as a dynamic phenom, Sergio went through some struggles early in his UFC career and got kind of written off before putting together a really steady, well-rounded game and racking up decision win after decision win. So Pettis is now one of the best rising young fighters at flyweight, but unfortunately in a division with a champ that's currently cleaning house, that basically makes me worry that UFC doesn't rush Pettis into a title fight just for a lack of other available options. *As far as the prelims go, well, we already have 2017 submission of the year pretty much wrapped up, as Aleksei Oleinik hit one of the weirder ones in UFC history, an Ezekiel choke on Viktor Pesta while being fully mounted. On the one hand, Pesta probably should've seen it coming, as Oleinik already has close to double-digit wins via Ezekiel choke in his long career, but on the other hand, it's a strange choke that you don't really see often, and I don't think anyone expected it, least of all Pesta. As far as other standout performances, BJJ stud Augusto "Tanquinho" Mendes made good on his blue-chip prospect status, getting a narrow win over Frankie Saenz in a fight that looked like it was being set up for a Saenz victory. Although he's lost three straight, Saenz is a good fighter, so hopefully they hang onto him, especially since this was the best fight of the night. When it comes to other notable stuff, heavyweight Walt Harris looked good in picking apart fellow prospect Chase Sherman, Nina Ansaroff finally got her first UFC win with a one-sided performance over Jocelyn Jones-Lybarger, and Devin Powell continued the curse of Dana White's reality show, "Lookin' For A Fight", losing a one-sided decision to fellow debuting fighter Drakkar Klose. It's a funny one, that, particularly since it's Klose that's the projectable athlete and fits much more in the mold of who Dana White has personally signed, rather than Powell, a reedy brawler-slash-scrambler. *Well, Conor McGregor against Floyd Mayweather has progressed from "completely not a thing" to "almost completely not a thing," per a bunch of people. I'm assuming this basically has to do with WME-IMG looking at pay-per-view numbers for 2016, realizing that their biggest pay-per-view year ever was built on the backs of McGregor, Ronda Rousey, and possibly Brock Lesnar, and then realizing two of those people are gone and panicking about how to top it. The big thing a few weeks back was Dana White doing a radio appearance and offering Mayweather and McGregor $25 million each for the fight. This was dismissed pretty much immediately, given that it's less than Mayweather's made for a fight in years, and Floyd soon said as much, laughing off White as someone he used to remember carrying his bags. And to make the offer even stupider, $25 million is about twice as much as McGregor has made for a fight in his career, so you're pretty much telling McGregor his market value is double what he was already making, and now he has even more leverage to use that against you. Good work all around. Also, in a side note that should probably just be tagged onto this story, Nate Diaz applied for a boxing license in Nevada and is apparently close to getting it, so who the hell knows what long game the Diaz brothers are trying to play. *Bellator had a show. Tito Ortiz tapped out Chael Sonnen, who looked awful off the gas, in what was Ortiz's final fight, so now Sonnen is damaged goods, even though he'll be able to talk people into watching. I mean, the card did a really good rating, so there's that, but it never feels like Bellator is building momentum towards anything. Paul Daley kneed Brennan Ward's face in, so that was pretty cool, at least. *The Ultimate Fighter is coming back for a twenty-fifth (and perhaps final?) season, and the coaches have been announced - new bantamweight champ Cody Garbrandt and former teammate (and former bantamweight champ himself) T.J. Dillashaw. As long in the tooth as TUF is, these seasons start to live and die more and more based off the feud between the two coaches, and with the bad blood from Dillashaw's departure from Team Alpha Male, and Garbrandt replacing him as the top young fighter in the camp, this should be a good one. The two are slated to fight sometime after the show wraps, which will probably wind up being UFC's big July pay-per-view this year. As for the cast, it's going to consist of former TUF fighters, including some who are on the UFC roster, but none of the names leaked are particularly inspiring - either middle-of-the-road UFC roster guys like Zak Cummings or James Krause, guys who are past their prime like Joe Stevenson, or just fuck-ups there for personality who can't really fight, like the infamous Junie Browning. So...that'll be something. *A whole bunch of news is going on about various camps. First of all, it looks like the Blackzilians camp is pretty much no more after almost a year of rumors - team owner Glenn Robinson was going through issues with his main company filing bankruptcy, and apparently as time went on, this started to affect the camp. So, basically, a lot of the coaches, including striking coach Henri Hooft, and a lot of the team's best fighters, like Rashad Evans, Anthony Johnson, and Kamaru Usman, have all set up shop at Combat Club elsewhere in Florida, which essentially looks like the Blackzilians rebuilt under a new name. Meanwhile, the Blackzilians' main rival, American Top Team, lost one of its own mainstays, as former welterweight champ Robbie Lawler has surprisingly left the camp, where he pretty much revitalized his career, in favor of somewhere to be determined. And in a pretty interesting move, heavyweight Travis Browne has moved from the Glendale Fighting Club to Black House - it's interesting mainly because Browne is the boyfriend of Ronda Rousey, and moved to her team once the two started dating, and given how much of a hard line Rousey keeps when it comes to loyalty, this really does suggest that Rousey is done with Glendale coach Edmond Tarverdyan. On the plus side, at least the I.R.S. no longer considers Tarverdyan a fraud, as he's settled an ongoing case for a reported $160,000. *So the death knell for UFC Fight Pass may have come, as Eric Winter, head of the service, left after eighteen months on the job. Winter was a bit of a coup when he was hired from Yahoo! Sports, and he really did an awesome job with UFC's streaming service, getting the whole website re-designed, making sure a whole bunch of fights got cataloged and uploaded, and often making sure that the service would get one of the better fights on the card, as the "Fight Pass main event" was a landing spot for a lot of really excellent fights. Winter's stepping down to spend more time with his family, and it appears to be his decision, so it's unclear exactly where Fight Pass goes from here - 2017 has already been a bit down, since it looks like we're back to the service just getting the bottom-tier fights for the first two cards of the year, but then again, both of those cards have been so thin that that may not exactly be an indication of anything. *UFC re-booked Jessica Andrade and Angela Hill for the upcoming Fight Night in Houston, and it looks like this may portend an interesting change in UFC's drug testing policy. Basically, Hill, who was cut from UFC in 2015 and then spent 2016 moving up the ranks and becoming Invicta strawweight champion, was tabbed as a late replacement to face Andrade at UFC 207, but wound up falling victim to a quirk in the language of the drug testing policy - basically, anyone who was formerly in the UFC drug testing pool would be subject to a four-month window of testing before being allowed to fight again. This was to prevent guys from basically fake retiring, juicing up, and then suddenly returning, though, the rule only really initially came to light when UFC waived it to sign Brock Lesnar, who kind of wound up doing exactly that. Anyway, UFC I guess finally realized they could set the rules here and waived the rest of the four months for Hill, and the statement in which they did so included a note that apparently UFC and USADA are working to change this policy, so that fighters who are cut involuntarily from UFC aren't subject to these waiting periods, which would also make previous UFC fighters available once again as late-notice replacements. Good, smart stuff. *And now just a bunch of notes to wrap things up. UFC is currently off Russian TV, which is a bit odd as the company is seemingly set to expand into Russia as much as they can - basically, UFC I guess has left negotiating up to a third party who is demanding a much bigger contract from their Russian TV partner, and said network is balking. This all sort of feels like UFC's attempt to expand into China, which was scuttled as a bit of a disaster after a failure to understand the complex national politics going on. Invicta held another show - a good one as always - headlined by Megan Anderson beating Charmaine Tweet to become interim featherweight champion, basically the top true 145er out there with Cris Cyborg dealing with drug test issues. Anderson then called out the Holm/de Randamie winner, and given that the Australian prospect has marketable good looks and can beat the piss out of people, we should see her in UFC sooner rather than later. World Series of Fighting postponed their next show to a date a few weeks later, suggesting things aren't that great at everyone's favorite byzantine MMA pyramid scheme, and French prospect Tom Duquesnoy finally signed with UFC. Duquesnoy's topped prospect lists for years, and he's currently both the bantamweight and featherweight champion of BAMMA, one of the top promotions in Britain. Duquesnoy's reportedly had an offer on the table for years, but was just waiting until he felt ready to make a run in UFC, and even though he's just 23, apparently that time is now - I look forward to seeing what he can do. ------ BOOKINGS: *There's some actual pretty big stuff that's been announced, but let's do the usual run-through chronologically. First, as mentioned above, the Super Bowl weekend show in Houston added a fight between strawweight contenders Jessica Andrade and Angela Hill in a fight where Andrade will pretty much lock up a title fight if she wins. It'll be interesting to see what happens if Hill takes it, though - UFC just sort of threw her to the wolves as a 1-0 kickboxer in her first UFC stint, but she's improved greatly since then, and this would be a hell of a statement in a return. Plus with a few injuries on the card, some undercard fights got changed - with Sheldon Westcott out, Niko Price comes back from his debut win over Brandon Thatch to fight Alex Morono, Volkan Oezdemir will become the first Swiss fighter in UFC history when he steps in as a replacement against Ovince St. Preux, and with Evan Dunham and Johnny Case both hurt, their original opponents, Abel Trujillo and James Vick, will square off. And I guess to make up for the loss of a bout in that Trujillo/Vick shuffle, UFC added a late-notice heavyweight bout, with Anthony Hamilton facing the debuting Marcel Fortuna. *From there, we head to Brooklyn, where UFC 208 got a viable co-main to seemingly round out the card, as Anderson Silva will surprisingly return to take on Derek Brunson. The matchmaking makes sense if you figure the two are close in the rankings and Brunson was the best guy available for Silva to face on the date, but it's still a weird fight. Brunson isn't exactly a dream fight, someone UFC seems to be looking to build, or someone that Silva can just beat, so it's sort of minimizing the asset that is an Anderson Silva fight at this point, but it's still an interesting matchup to see exactly where both guys stand at middleweight from a purely sporting standpoint. Unfortunately, UFC 208 also wound up losing two fights in order to bolster the Halifax card a week later, but more on that in the next bullet point... *The original headliner for Halifax was supposed to be Junior dos Santos taking on Stefan Struve, but with Struve hurt and a search for a replacement turning up fruitless, dos Santos has been taken off the card entirely (more on him in a bit) and the new main is Derrick Lewis taking on Travis Browne in a fight originally slated for Brooklyn. It's not the biggest main event, but UFC actually wound up doing a good job filling out the rest of the card after a few weeks of radio silence. In what one assumes will be the co-main, Johny Hendricks will be moving up to middleweight to take on Hector Lombard, in a matchup of guys who badly need a win to rebound from a really rough 2016. Plus there's some other fun stuff - Liz Carmouche and Sara McMann will square off at bantamweight in a fight between two veterans who are suddenly relevant again, and with Gilbert Burns injured, Paul Felder's bout at UFC 208 has been scrapped, and he instead faces Canada's Alessandro Ricci here. Plus there are two fights in UFC's "let's get some Canadians on the card" division: British Columbia's Ryan Janes takes on Gerald Meerschaert at middleweight, and Halifax-based featherweight Gavin Tucker makes his UFC debut against Sam Sicilia. *And then there's stuff for March! The nightmare is finally over, as everything's finally agreed to, and Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson will face off at UFC 209 for the interim lightweight title. It's a hell of a fight between two excellent contenders, and the third time UFC has tried to put this fight together, but the whole interim title thing does feel a bit cheap since Conor McGregor is still fully healthy - this really seems like a deal where WME-IMG is just seeing the upside of having two title fights on a card without realizing that a second title probably doesn't really mean anything if it's just sort of made up, and if anything it just sort of hurts the drawing power of belts in the long term. One could say this is what UFC needed to do to have this fight go five rounds, but, well, they can just sort of arbitrarily decide that anyway. So that's the lone new fight for UFC 209, while the card the week after from Brazil added four undercard fights. Bethe Correia returns to face Marion Reneau, Jussier Formiga and Ray Borg square off in a fairly relevant flyweight fight, and in a fairly interesting featherweight bout, original TUF Brazil winner Rony Jason takes on Canadian prospect Jeremy Kennedy. Plus, UFC has signed TUF Brazil 3 alum Paulo Costa to debut on this show - he was initially matched up with Alex Nicholson, but Nicholson got hurt almost immediately after that fight was announced, so instead Costa faces South Africa's Garreth McLellan. And then we go to the London card, which still doesn't have a main event, but added two more undercard bouts to seemingly fill out the card - Tim Johnson and Daniel Omielanczuk square off at heavyweight, while bantamweights Lina Lansberg and Veronica Macedo square off in a bit of cruel matchmaking - Lansberg just fought Cris Cyborg at 145, while Macedo is so undersized for the division she might even be better off at strawweight. *UFC's still filling out stuff for March, but UFC 210 and UFC 211 are already set - 210 will be taking place in Buffalo on April 8th, while 211 heads to Dallas on May 13th. There's only one fight announced so far for Buffalo, and it's a good one, as Gegard Mousasi looks to keep breaking through in this latest run at middleweight by taking on former champ Chris Weidman. But it looks like UFC might be loading this one up, as there's a few big fights rumored for this card - the strongest one seems to be that this is where Daniel Cormier will finally defend his belt against Anthony "Rumble" Johnson, but there's also some whispers that the Jose Aldo/Max Holloway featherweight title fight may take place here, as well as a fight between Frankie Edgar and Ricardo Lamas, although all of that has yet to be confirmed by someone that credible. And as for Dallas, this all seems to be preliminary, but apparently the targeted main event is Stipe Miocic defending his heavyweight belt against Junior dos Santos, who I guess between Cain Velasquez's injuries and Fabricio Werdum feuding with UFC over money sort of wound up skipping the line, though JDS also has a win over Miocic in a pretty fun war that took place at the tail end of 2014. Also, there's two more bouts apparently set without a date just yet - as mentioned above, Cody Garbrandt is expected to defend his bantamweight title against T.J. Dillashaw after this coming season of TUF, and apparently Joe Rogan let slip that Anthony Pettis's return to lightweight will be against Russian striker Mairbek Taisumov. ----- ROSTER CUTS: 1) Tim Kennedy (18-6 overall, 3-2 UFC, last fought 12/10/16, L vs. Kelvin Gastelum): Longtime middleweight contender Kennedy retired, which had been brewing for a while, leaving behind a sort of complicated legacy. Kennedy kind of seemed like someone everyone could get behind - a former military sniper who earned a Bronze Star, Kennedy would fight between military commitments before being able to fight full-time as his career started with Strikeforce. And Kennedy had a ton of success as mostly a grinder - he would come up short in title fights against Jacare Souza and Luke Rockhold, but Kennedy was a solid third in Strikeforce's middleweight division, earning wins over guys like Robbie Lawler and Melvin Manhoef. And when Kennedy's UFC tenure started, it looked like he was pretty close to earning a title shot himself - he got a deathly boring win over Roger Gracie to start, but followed that up by knocking out Rafael Natal in the main event of a fight at Fort Campbell, which was a cool moment, and then getting another main event win in one-sided fashion over Michael Bisping. But Kennedy lost a fight to Yoel Romero in controversial fashion in late 2014 - Kennedy seemingly had Romero on the ropes at the tail end of round two, Romero's corner used a bunch of tricks like "forgetting" to take the stool out of the cage to buy Romero time to recover between rounds, and an obviously frustrated Kennedy took his eye off the ball and got knocked out in the third round. That loss and the way it happened seemingly broke Kennedy's will to compete in MMA for a bit, as he took about two years off and made an occasional bad headline. Kennedy spent his hiatus doing some weird reality show where he was hunting Hitler, and would just spend a lot of time in the alt-right sphere of things, appearing on shows with Alex Jones and firing off the sporadic crazy post on social media, highlighted by one where he talked about killing women and children while in the military, circling it all back to show that having PTSD is a choice, essentially calling those who suffered from it mentally weak "pussies." Just...gross stuff. So Kennedy finally returned in 2016, at first slated to fight Rashad Evans at Madison Square Garden, but after Evans had medical clearance issues, Kennedy wound up taking on Kelvin Gastelum this past December. And Kennedy looked like his old self, overpowering Gastelum for a bit, but that lasted about a round, as Kennedy suddenly gassed, and basically got wrecked before the referee called things off in the third round. So about a month after that, Kennedy retired via social media, and, say what you will, it looks like he'll be focusing on efforts to help unionize MMA fighters - hopefully that becomes a positive part of his legacy. 2) Jocelyn Jones-Lybarger (6-4 overall, 0-3 UFC, last fought 1/15/17, L vs. Nina Ansaroff): Jones-Lybarger announced her retirement a few days after her loss to Ansaroff, although honestly, she was probably getting cut after a 0-3 UFC record anyway. Jones-Lybarger, a former basketball player out of Arizona, is obviously an athlete, and was a solid pickup by UFC in late 2015, given that she was coming off a win against solid vet Zoila Frausto to cap a 5-1 record. But she never really showed much, as she seemed to struggle to impose her game against UFC-level athletes, even as the matchmaking sort of moved her down the ladder - a debut against top contender Tecia Torres did her no favors, the follow-up against Randa Markos was just sort of a sloppy affair, and a bout against Ansaroff, who was 0-2 in UFC herself, was just mostly a one-sided beating in her hometown. ----- UPCOMING UFC SHOWS: 2/4 - UFC Fight Night 104 - Houston, TX - Dennis Bermudez vs. Chan Sung Jung, Alexa Grasso vs. Felice Herrig 2/11 - UFC 208 - Brooklyn, NY - Germaine de Randamie vs. Holly Holm, Derek Brunson vs. Anderson Silva 2/19 - UFC Fight Night 105 - Halifax, NS - Travis Browne vs. Derrick Lewis, Johny Hendricks vs. Hector Lombard 3/4 - UFC 209 - Las Vegas, NV - Tyron Woodley (c) vs. Stephen Thompson, Tony Ferguson vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov, Mark Hunt vs. Alistair Overeem 3/11 - UFC Fight Night 106 - Fortaleza, Brazil - Vitor Belfort vs. Kelvin Gastelum, Edson Barboza vs. Beneil Dariush, Mauricio Rua vs. Gian Villante 3/18 - UFC Fight Night 107 - London, England - Corey Anderson vs. Jimi Manuwa 4/8 - UFC 210 - Buffalo, NY - Gegard Mousasi vs. Chris Weidman 5/13 - UFC 211 - Dallas, TX - Stipe Miocic (c) vs. Junior dos Santos ----- UFC on Fox 23 - January 28, 2017 - Pepsi Center - Denver, Colorado Even though UFC's slate for early 2017 is fairly disappointing in the wake of them loading up big shows in November and December, they did well to put together a solid card here, as the company continues to sort of nail down the Fox format. We've got a photogenic fight on top that may determine a title contender, the biggest test yet for what could be UFC's next great heavyweight, and two really solid action fighters. And even the undercard is pretty solid - the top two prelims are pretty strong, and while things rapidly go downhill after that in terms of relevance, thankfully a lot of the card is prospects with some upside, rather than low-ceiling veterans matched together due to there not being much else to do. At least on paper, this card looks like it could be the highlight of the first two months of the 2017 calendar, so hopefully it comes through in practice. MAIN CARD (Fox - 8:00 PM ET): Women's Bantamweight: (#1) Valentina Shevchenko vs. (#2) Julianna Pena Welterweight: (#5) Donald Cerrone vs. (#12) Jorge Masvidal Heavyweight: (#7) Andrei Arlovski vs. (#10) Francis Ngannou Featherweight: Alex Caceres vs. Jason Knight PRELIMINARY CARD (Fox Sports 1 - 5:00 PM ET): Middleweight: Sam Alvey vs. Nate Marquardt Bantamweight: (#4) Raphael Assuncao vs. (#7) Aljamain Sterling Welterweight: Jingliang Li vs. Bobby Nash Light Heavyweight: Henrique da Silva vs. Jordan Johnson Middleweight: Alessio Di Chirico vs. Eric Spicely Light Heavyweight: Marcos Rogerio de Lima vs. Jeremy Kimball PRELIMINARY CARD (UFC Fight Pass - 4:00 PM ET): Flyweight: Alexandre Pantoja vs. Eric Shelton Lightweight: J.C. Cottrell vs. Jason Gonzalez THE RUNDOWN: Valentina Shevchenko (13-2 overall, 2-1 UFC) vs. Julianna Pena (8-2 overall, 4-0 UFC): Welcome to the new normal, as this fight, which UFC has been trying to put together for a while, will probably determine Amanda Nunes's next challenger in the first fight of the post-Rousey era. And it's a pretty excellent fight, pitting striker against grappler in what's becoming a rarer and rarer matchup of the two obvious top contenders for a title. Back in late 2013, when Julianna Pena pretty much ran through the rest of the TUF 18 cast to become the first female Ultimate Fighter winner, there was some thought that she might be facing Ronda Rousey for the belt sooner rather than later - for one thing, she looked good in her fights, but with marketable good looks, a friendship with Rousey blood rival Miesha Tate, and a division that was still in an early state of flux, Pena had all the tools to work her way up the ladder in fairly short order. But that got derailed almost immediately thanks to a massive knee injury suffered before her first post-TUF fight, and things have gotten sort of weird from there. In the cage, Pena has done her job well enough since coming back, running through Milana Dudieva in her comeback fight and then getting wins over Jessica Eye and Cat Zingano, but outside of the cage, she hasn't really connected with the fanbase much, and if she has, it's been quite negatively. Essentially, if Pena pops up in the MMA news, it's usually for one of two things - either one of a surprising amount of bar fights she and her teammates seem to find themselves in, or just some weird comment where Pena apparently thinks she's a much bigger star than she actually is, demanding a title shot and just pretty much making it clear with every fight that we should be thankful she's fighting rather than holding out for a title shot she thinks she's already earned. All that talk is well and good, but there's a point where it becomes more delusional than anything, and Pena's probably past that - unless she manages to win this fight, of course. On the other side of things, Valentina Shevchenko just sort of quietly became a contender in pretty quick fashion - she came in as a late injury replacement on the last card of 2015 and beat Sarah Kaufman, and then had a performance that looks even better in retrospect against Nunes, becoming the second fighter to last fifteen minutes with the current champ and winning a fairly one-sided third round in a close decision loss. From there, Shevchenko was seemingly expected to be a set-up win for Holly Holm to rebound against after losing the bantamweight title, and I could see the logic - Shevchenko is primarily a striker by trade, and Holm had already theoretically proven herself to be the best striker in women's combat sports, but after a slow start, Shevchenko pretty much figured Holm out standing and then started to use her wrestling, earning an increasingly lopsided win and establishing herself as a top contender. So, yeah, this is a really fascinating fight - Shevchenko's proven herself to be a top-tier well-rounded fighter in just a little over a year in UFC, while Pena's still somewhat of a question mark, and it's unclear if she's truly at the level of a title contender, or just sort of at the top of the next tier. Pena's two most recent fights, those wins over Eye and Zingano to get her into this spot, are just weird ones because they're so one-dimensional - either Pena or her opponent just keeps looking for the clinch and to grapple, and Pena's been able to win narrow victories by using strength and positioning to do just enough to win. But she's really unproven on the feet - outside of some flailing punches early in the Eye fight that did not look good, there's just not enough to go on to call her striking game anything other than a question mark. Add in some questions about how good those wins over Eye and Zingano really are - Rousey's fall from grace has sort of shown that we're in the middle of an evolution process in women's MMA, and Eye's losing streak and Zingano's flat last few fights suggest those two may be on the wrong side of it - and there's just a lot of uncertainty around Pena's resume, though she's enough of a talent where any skepticism should also be laced with some optimism. Pena definitely still has a shot to win, particularly after re-watching Shevchenko's fight with Nunes - I remembered it being a lot closer of a fight before Nunes got tired and Shevchenko took over, but Shevchenko did struggle a lot early when Nunes was able to get her to the ground and get on top of her, and that pretty much figures to be Pena's gameplan. One would think that Shevchenko should just be able to keep the fight standing and probably handle Pena rather easily on the feet, but if nothing else, Pena's last two fights have shown she can usually get the fight where she wants, although that comes with the caveat that Zingano, and Eye in particular, have some questions about strategy. A Pena victory is certainly possible, but I just have too many concerns to call it, so I'll say that Shevchenko wins this rather handily, in fact keeping things on the feet and just out-striking Pena - I'm assuming Pena is better than some of those flailing punches she showed in the Eye fight, because if not, a quick finish is certainly on the table, but instead I'll say that this is more of an extended beatdown, finally ending late due to a TKO stoppage. Donald Cerrone (32-7 [1] overall, 19-4 UFC, 6-3 [1] WEC) vs. Jorge Masvidal (31-11 overall, 8-4 UFC, 5-1 Strikeforce, 2-1 Bellator): A fun fight here, as Donald Cerrone, as always, is keeping busy, and good on Jorge Masvidal for calling his shot. It's pretty impressive how quickly Cerrone regained his momentum in 2016 - after losing a lightweight title fight in one-sided fashion to Rafael dos Anjos, Cerrone pretty much seemed eternally cemented as UFC's top non-contender, a fan favorite who was probably better off fighting whoever's available as soon as possible and putting on a good showing rather than trying to make a focused run for a belt. And, well, Cerrone's sort of split the difference - he moved up to welterweight just to take another fight that eventually wound up being against Alex Oliveira, and with that his striking has taken another leap forward, as he became the first man to knock out Patrick Cote, the first man to knock out Rick Story, and the first man to cleanly knock out Matt Brown, quickly becoming a contender once again despite not really changing much in his approach to taking fights. At the moment, Cerrone doesn't really seem to have a clear path to a title shot, with Tyron Woodley and Stephen Thompson scheduled for a rematch, and the winner likely to get Demian Maia, who's holding out for a well-deserved title fight, so, as "Cowboy" is wont to do, he's just taking whatever fight is available, so here he is in his hometown against Jorge Masvidal. Credit to Masvidal for being a smart man, since while many fighters just say they'll fight whoever UFC puts in front of them, Masvidal straight up called out Cerrone after his win over Jake Ellenberger this past December, putting a fight on management's radar that nobody else was probably thinking of at the moment. Masvidal's had a strange career - he came up in the same Miami street-fight scene that birthed Kimbo Slice and turned into a pretty solid, well-rounded fighter, fighting all over the world in Japan, the nascent days of Bellator, and Strikeforce before landing in UFC. But Masvidal's also ridiculously frustrating - he's not much for overall fight strategy, and even when he's winning a fight based off his talents, he has a bad tendency to start coasting, making his wins closer than they need to be and even sometimes turning them into losses. Anyway, this should be a solid win for Cerrone - he has some flaws, particularly when dealing with fighters who can pressure him like Brown did, but I really don't have any faith in Masvidal to do what he needs to do and keep winning rounds - plus even the grappling game is sort of a wash, as both guys are underrated on the mat. I'll give Masvidal the benefit of the doubt that he's tough enough to survive all three rounds with Cerrone, since he hasn't been knocked out since 2008, even though Cerrone's on a streak of breaking formerly unbreakable chins. So I'll say Cerrone wins a clear decision in a fight that's fun and never quite reaches blowout status. Andrei Arlovski (25-13 [1] overall, 14-7 UFC, 0-3 Strikeforce) vs. Francis Ngannou (9-1 overall, 4-0 UFC): A really, really fascinating fight here, as Francis Ngannou is the rare blue-chip heavyweight prospect, and he has a shot to become a legitimate contender way quicker than anyone could've really anticipated. Ngannou was always viewed as someone with potential, as the Cameroonian fighting out of France is a giant mountain of a man built like a NFL defensive lineman, but he was only about two years into the sport when UFC signed him in late 2015. But, well, Ngannou wound up being a natural when it comes to picking things up, as you can trace a clear line of upward progression through his four UFC fights. In his first bout, against Luis Henrique, Ngannou mostly got taken down at will before uppercutting Henrique's head into the bleachers, and by his next fight, against stud wrestling prospect Curtis Blaydes, Ngannou was stuffing takedown after takedown without much of a problem. After a quick showcase win over Bojan Mihajlovic, Ngannou showed last month that he's somewhat scarily already learned submissions - Anthony Hamilton tried to clinch up with him and wear him out, but Ngannou just grabbed a kimura and basically took Hamilton, who's a large man himself, down by sheer force, getting the quick tap. So Ngannou is pretty much the prospect to watch at heavyweight, especially given that he's one of the younger fighters on the roster at age 30, though there's still a bunch of questions to be answered when he goes into deeper waters, like how he responds to getting hit and exactly how he'll deal when facing higher level athletes that he might not have such an obvious advantage against. It'll be interesting to see what type of a challenge Andrei Arlovski offers him, particularly as his career is sort of sputtering after the luck of his UFC comeback run has started to turn the other way. A former UFC heavyweight champ over a decade ago, Arlovski was sort of left for dead after a run of four straight losses in Affliction and Strikeforce from 2009 to 2011, three of which came via vicious knockout - basically, the book was out that Arlovski suddenly had a glass jaw, which at heavyweight is pretty much a death sentence. But Arlovski quietly rebounded a bit, racking up wins in various promotions, though when UFC re-signed him in 2014, it was still seen as little more than a novel signing for depth in an extremely thin division. But the next two years saw Arlovski make a run towards an unlikely title shot - it included deathly boring decision wins over Brendan Schaub and Frank Mir, but Arlovski also scored quick knockouts of Antonio Silva and Travis Browne that, admittedly, haven't aged particularly well. And in 2016, the luck pretty much ran out - Stipe Miocic ran through him in just 54 seconds en route to his own title shot, Alistair Overeem knocked him out, and while a loss to Josh Barnett was less one-sided, Arlovski eventually got tapped out late there as well. As it is, Arlovski's pretty much just a fringe top-ten fighter at this point - while he's not particularly physically imposing anymore, he makes up for that by just knowing what he's doing; despite the recent knockout losses, Arlovski's done a solid job of protecting his chin, especially compared to where he used to be, and he basically has a much better sense of physical space and technical striking than at any point in his career. So there's the chance that, by being the smaller and quicker guy, Arlovski can just use his veteran savvy to avoid danger and pick Ngannou apart - and hell, given that we haven't really seen Ngannou get hit, that may also turn downhill quickly into some sort of a knockout. But, more likely than not, Ngannou will probably use his athleticism to hit the great equalizer and put Arlovski's lights out. I do think Arlovski's a bit underrated here - Arlovski's currently between a three- and four-to-one underdog, and he really could just make Ngannou chase him and wear him out in an ugly fight - but I'll say Ngannou in fact does get another first-round knockout and makes the win look a lot easier than it actually is. Alex Caceres (12-9 [1] overall, 7-7 [1] UFC) vs. Jason Knight (16-2 overall, 2-1 UFC): UFC pretty much always opens up the main Fox card with a good action fight, and with this one, they've done it once more. Alex Caceres is a frustrating talent, since while he has a bunch of skills and often puts on an exciting show, it's unclear whether or not that's all coalesced into anything all that good. Caceres was more notable for his "Bruce Leeroy" persona rather than anything he really showed in the cage on season 12 of TUF, but UFC still saw fit to pick him up thanks to his potential. It took a bit for that gamble to pay off, as Caceres started 1-3 in the UFC, but it eventually did, as Caceres soon reeled off a five-fight unbeaten streak that was mostly over the lower reaches of the bantamweight division, but culminated with what was a big win at the time over Sergio Pettis. And even the fight that snapped that streak, a July 2014 loss to Urijah Faber, was considered a plus performance at the time for Caceres, since he gave a much better showing than expected from a non-contender. And then, well, the wheels came off a bit - Caceres lost in an upset to Japanese vet Masanori Kanehara, and then got blown out of the water by Francisco Rivera, causing Caceres to move back up to his original weight class at featherweight. Results have been mixed - after an obvious tune-up win over Masio Fullen, Caceres looked outstanding for two rounds against Cole Miller before almost losing the fight a few times in the third, and his main event fight against Yair Rodriguez over the summer was a strange one, as both guys just sort of did stuff without much of an overall plan, with Rodriguez mostly getting the better of things. And that's sort of still Caceres's game - he just kinda does stuff, even if you can see him mixing things up and picking his shots a bit more than he used to. On the other side of things, we have Mississippi's Jason Knight, who's quickly making a name for himself as a featherweight prospect to watch. After a completely nothing UFC debut where Tatsuya Kawajiri just kept taking him down, Knight showed out in his sophomore effort against Jim Alers, showing a propensity for trash talking, volume striking, and basically just not giving a fuck that led to him getting the moniker "Hick Diaz" in some circles. And he pretty much followed that up against Daniel Hooker in Australia this past November - Knight just throws a lot of volume and doesn't particularly care what you do to him, showing some Southern machismo the whole while. And I think that's going to throw Caceres off - while his performances are inconsistent from fight to fight, or hell, even round to round, they're still mostly predicated on dynamic bursts of offense, and I figure Knight is just going to get in Caceres's face, overwhelm him with punches, and just sort of prevent Caceres from gathering his bearings about what he's going to do next. I doubt Knight finishes him, since he hasn't shown much knockout power in the UFC to date, but I still think it'll be a fairly one-sided, but still pretty fun, decision win. Sam Alvey (29-8 [1] overall, 6-3 UFC, 1-1 Bellator) vs. Nate Marquardt (35-16-2 overall, 13-9 UFC, 1-1 Strikeforce): A solid enough fight here between veteran middleweights that could wind up in a pretty brutal knockout. It's nice that Nate Marquardt settled into a late-career niche and UFC figured out what to do with him; after a long stint as a middleweight contender and lower-tier card main eventer in UFC, then a brief run in Strikeforce, Marquardt's second UFC run was just sort of getting depressing. Marquardt lost four of five fights upon his comeback, and save a win over a similarly shot James Te Huna, it looked like Marquardt had just suddenly finally gotten old, as knockout artists like Jake Ellenberger and Hector Lombard destroyed him rather quickly, and younger, more athletic guys like Brad Tavares and Kelvin Gastelum made him look old and completely done as a fighter. But Marquardt was able to knock out C.B. Dollaway in a fight that seemed set up to be an easy win for Dollaway, and after being run through by another young athlete in Thiago Santos, UFC seems to have finally gotten the hint, realizing that Marquardt is a greatly diminished athlete, but still a dangerous veteran with knockout power, and putting him against fellow veterans in fights he can actually win. God knows there's enough non-athletes at middleweight. So anyway, after a brutal knockout of Tamdan McCrory, Marquardt returns to try and make it two straight against "Smilin'" Sam Alvey, who had a bit of a breakout in 2016. Alvey's always sort of been a weird cult favorite on the UFC roster, a giant, goofy ginger with a permanent grin that walks out to Train and gives these weirdly enthusiastic post-fight interviews, where he just sort of rants and raves about how great things are, including [insert city here] and calls out his next opponent. Alvey looked like he might be on the cut line after coming back from a broken jaw and losing to Elias Theodorou in June, but instead Alvey wound up fighting three times in under four months - his wife, always in his corner, and seemingly always pregnant (and a former America's Next Top Model winner - live the life, Sam), had another child, so he's gotta pay the bills - and has racked up three straight wins over Eric Spicely, Kevin Casey and Alex Nicholson. Alvey still doesn't have a ton of upside, but at least he seems to be carving out a niche, particularly since UFC seems to be putting him in more prominent situations on cards recently. This is a super-weird fight to call - Marquardt is still dangerous and has veteran savvy in spades, but sometimes he looks just awful out there, although that may just depend on his level of competition. And Alvey just has a ridiculously weird counter-striking style that's extremely low-percentage, but still works for him - Alvey just basically refuses to engage first, and just sort of hangs back and waits for an opening where he can blast his opponent with a power punch down the middle. When it works, it's an awesome knockout, but when it doesn't, things can turn into sort of a slog, as Alvey just kind of neutralizes his opponent while doing nothing himself. So this could go any number of ways. I sort of discount the possibility of Alvey winning via knockout, since I think Marquardt has enough experience to not give him the opening, but if this is one of those fights where Marquardt looks shot, that's entirely possible. So I could see this turning into a war of attrition where Marquardt isn't really able to do much, Alvey chooses not to, and this goes to the cards; but, I'll actually say that Marquardt is able to find an opening at some point and nail Alvey with a knockout shot, plus there's always the possibility that Marquardt just takes things to the ground, which he hasn't done in a while and doesn't really seem to be Alvey's strong suit. But as far as an official prediction, I'll take Marquardt via second-round KO. Raphael Assuncao (23-5 overall, 7-2 UFC, 3-2 WEC) vs. Aljamain Sterling (12-1 overall, 4-1 UFC): A really well-made and interesting fight here, pitting two fringe bantamweight contenders badly in need of a win against each other, as well as continuing the streak of Aljamain Sterling's fights being a little bit lower on the card than they probably should be. UFC's never really seemingly made him a priority, but Sterling's been a blue-chip prospect pretty much since he came onto the scene - Jon Jones comparisons were inevitable, given that Sterling's also a lanky black athlete who wrestled in upstate New York before starting in the same gym as Jones, but while it's not really an apt comparison in terms of style, it was looking pretty suitable in terms of results for a while. Sterling was pretty much using his wrestling at will to just keep running through opponents as he moved up the ladder, and after tapping out Johnny Eduardo to finish out his UFC contract, it seemed like the world was Sterling's oyster. But for whatever reason, MMA promotions just don't really seem to see much in Sterling, who's a charismatic and talented guy - Bellator reportedly didn't even make an offer, and while he got a pay raise from UFC, it still seemed low for a future marketable contender. And then things hit a further snag last May - in a bout against Bryan Caraway that seemed set to build Sterling towards a title shot, Sterling just sort of fell apart after a dominant first round, getting tired and showing a whole bunch of holes in both his striking and his takedown defense. Thankfully, Sterling's still at the point where he can fix some of those mistakes, but it was a concerningly poor performance late in that fight, and "The Funk Master" badly needs a rebound win against Raphael Assuncao, the dark horse of the bantamweight title picture. At the end of 2014, Assuncao seemed pretty much set for a title shot - he's sort of bland and won't get anyone excited, but he's damned good, and was riding a 7-0 record, all in the UFC, after cutting to bantamweight, including a win over then-champ T.J. Dillashaw. But an injury forced him out of a slated fight with Urijah Faber, and a long layoff pretty much killed all the momentum of Assuncao's career - he didn't return until UFC 200 after twenty-one months on the shelf, and even then there were rumors he fought injured while losing a rematch to Dillashaw in a fight where Assuncao still looked sort of good, but clearly lost all three rounds. Losing a fight to Dillashaw is no shame, but given where his career is and the fact that, frankly, he's not the kind of guy who'll get fans clamoring to see him in a big fight, Assuncao badly needs all the wins he can get, including one here. It's a really well-matched fight, but at the end of the day, I think it really just comes down to if Sterling can get Assuncao to the ground and keep him there, and sadly, I'm not really all that optimistic. Caraway just seemed to blow Sterling's game wide open, showing that at least as of last May, if you pressure Sterling and can counter his single strikes from a distance fairly effectively, he doesn't really do a whole hell of a lot while playing defense. And while Assuncao may not have the type of footwork to pressure Sterling quite like Caraway did, Assuncao's main strength is his ability to counter on the feet, so unless Sterling's patched those holes in his game (which is in fact completely possible for a talent like Sterling), the striking game figures to be all Assuncao. And Assuncao's takedown defense has pretty much been on point - Caraway and even Dillashaw, two talented wrestlers, weren't able to do much with him, and even when they got Assuncao to the ground, he pretty much popped right back up. Admittedly, Sterling might wind up being at another level, but again, it's somewhere else where I'm not optimistic. Despite my pessimism, I still give Sterling a shot here - mainly banking on his solid coaching at Serra-Longo and the fact that he's a top-flight kind of talent - but everything on paper favors Assuncao, so I'll say the Brazilian takes a clear decision. Jingliang Li (11-4 overall, 3-2 UFC) vs. Bobby Nash (8-1 overall): This could be a pretty fun fight, but I say this as someone who's a big fan of Jingliang Li, the one decent fighter to come out of UFC's now-abandoned efforts in China. And Li's not just decent by the low standard of Chinese fighters, he's pretty solid overall, as he could easily be 5-0 in the UFC - his loss to Nordine Taleb was a close split decision, and he was winning a fight against Keita Nakamura before getting caught in a last-ditch submission attempt. At first, Li lived up to his "The Leech" nickname, mostly being a one-dimensional wrestler, but he's developed a pretty solid boxing game over his UFC career, flashing some good technique and knockout power. After a few opponents fell out of fights on a few different cards, Li winds up here in Denver to fight Michigan-based newcomer Bobby Nash. Nash seems fine - he looks like an alright-enough athlete and has some solid striking himself, but honestly not a ton stood out, at least at the moment. That's alright enough for now, since Nash is just a little over two years into his pro career, and he seems like he could at least stick around if he's matched up against lower-level UFC opponents often enough, but I don't think Li is that. This should be a fight where Li is controlling most of it, since Li should be the better striker and the better wrestler, but the saving grace for Nash is that Li's defense is still quite poor in pretty much every area, and Nash has shown fight-ending ability both in terms of knockout power and submissions. But I expect Li to just do what he wants unless he gets stopped, and given that another negative for Nash is that I really didn't like the way he reacted to getting hit, sort of backing up to collect his thoughts, I'll call for Li to stun him early and move in for the kill for a first-round knockout. Henrique da Silva (12-1 overall, 2-1 UFC) vs. Jordan Johnson (6-0 overall): A perfectly fine light heavyweight bout here. Henrique "Frankenstein" da Silva has kept busy, with this being his third UFC fight in under four months, but it's hard to tell if he's actually any good - he didn't come into UFC with much in the way of expectations, and while he's had an alright amount of success mostly through sheer aggressiveness, all save one of his UFC fights have come against debuting opponents, and the level of competition doesn't seem to be all that high. So da Silva looks to rebound from the lone loss of his career, a submission to Paul Craig, against yet another debuting fighter, top light heavyweight prospect Jordan Johnson. A former wrestler at both Iowa and Grand Canyon University, Johnson's pretty much a raw grinder at this point, though he has some submission skills, and seems to have taken to striking well enough that he's been on a lot of top prospect lists at 205. And Johnson's done about as well as could be expected, getting six wins without a ton of trouble, and doing so in RFA, one of the top regional promotions you can go to in the US. This isn't quite a gimme - since Johnson's still just under three years into his pro career, I do have some questions about how he can react if da Silva decides to go into Frankenstein mode and just charges forward with little regard for defense - but Johnson does have enough wrestling skill, and da Silva has enough defensive liabilities, that I can just see Johnson grinding out a fairly one-sided decision by winning round after round, with a possibility of him getting a submission at some point. Alessio Di Chirico (10-1 overall, 1-1 UFC) vs. Eric Spicely (9-1 overall, 1-1 UFC): A neat fight here at middleweight. It's hard not to root for Eric Spicely - he came across as an easy fan favorite on season 23 of TUF, since he's overcome a pretty horrible amount of adversity, leaving a broken home as a teenager, pulling himself together after the death of his girlfriend in a freak canoeing accident, and just eventually got his life on track. But despite being a pretty solid fighter and making the final four of the season, there was some concern he wouldn't get a contract - Spicely's sort of a pudgy, physically unimpressive guy, and his grappling-heavy style seemed like something Dana White would really hate. But Spicely did wind up getting a shot, losing in what was honestly pretty embarrassing fashion via quick submission to Sam Alvey, and that seemed to be that for Spicely's career in the UFC. And, well, it was supposed to be, but a funny thing happened - in the whole purchase of UFC by WME-IMG, apparently the paperwork to terminate Spicely got lost in the shuffle. So, come August, Spicely apparently got a call explaining just that and offered him one of two options - to get cut, or to fight Thiago Santos, a top-fifteen fighter with destructive power, on about a month's notice in Santos's home country of Brazil. Spicely took the latter choice, and, wouldn't you know it, wound up out-wrestling Santos and scoring a first-round submission, getting one of the biggest upsets in UFC history, and the biggest one (at least per betting lines) of 2016. Good on him. So after that, Spicely returns a few months later to fight Alessio Di Chirico, one of UFC's recent signings out of Italy, a country that's increasingly starting to build a MMA scene. Di Chirico's solid - he seems to be a strong athlete, and has some solid boxing, though his grappling game is still a little bit of a question mark (at least at a UFC level) and he still seems rather raw overall. So this pretty much boils down to a striker-versus-grappler fight; Spicely obviously wants to get things to the ground, since that's the only place he's had any real high-level success, and Di Chirico should be able to take this if it remains standing. Di Chirico seems to have some decent takedown defense, with the caveat that Spicely might be the best wrestler he's faced to date, so I'll call for the Italian to mostly keep this on the feet and win a decision, though this is really a coin flip of a fight. Marcos Rogerio de Lima (14-4-1 overall, 3-2 UFC, 0-1 Strikeforce) vs. Jeremy Kimball (14-5 overall, 1-1 Bellator): This is one of those fights that doesn't really mean a whole hell of a lot, but pretty much exists to be a fun brawl, and I'm okay with that. Not a ton was expected of Marcos Rogerio de Lima off of TUF Brazil 3, but "Pezao" has done well enough for himself, getting over .500 in UFC by pretty much just being aggressive as hell and always searching for the finish, which has wound up with all five of his UFC fights ending in the first round one way or another. He was slated to face John Phillips, yet another Conor McGregor teammate being signed by the UFC, but with Phillips having visa issues, the late-notice call went to local Colorado fighter Jeremy Kimball. Not a ton of recent footage is out there on Kimball, but his M.O. seems to be the same as de Lima's - to just hit the other dude in the face really hard, and worry about the rest later. So these two guys are probably going to swing bombs at each other, and since de Lima's been doing it at a higher level, I'll say the Brazilian takes it by first-round knockout. But this is really just a fight wherever who hits the first big bomb wins it. Alexandre Pantoja (16-2 overall) vs. Eric Shelton (10-2 overall): This most recent season of TUF - built around flyweight champions from promotions all over the world competing in a tournament for a title shot against UFC kingpin Demetrious Johnson - was the best in years in terms of talent, but for whatever reason, UFC didn't really sign a lot of guys off the show, I guess figuring that since a lot of other top promotions don't have flyweight divisions, they could afford to be patient. But these two guys, both standouts on the show that made it to the final four, got the call and square off here. Brazil's Alexandre Pantoja, then the champion of top American promotion RFA, was the top seed on the season (even if most people beforehand did favor the eventual winner, Tim Elliott) and didn't really do a ton to dissuade that - while the Nova Uniao product wasn't all that dynamic on the show, he showed he could hold his own pretty much anywhere and do well against whatever opponent came his way. On the other side of things, Eric Shelton, an Illinois native who was the champion of Midwestern promotion Caged Aggression, pretty much came out of nowhere to go on a run through the show - Shelton was relatively unknown and seeded at number fifteen, and then just used his athleticism and a high-level wrestling and grappling game to impress time in and time out, even going close enough with Elliott that the decision easily could've gone the other way and sent Elliott to the finals. It's a hard one to call, but as a general rule, it's better to go off of pre-TUF resumes rather than the results during the season, which can be a bit fluky, so for that reason I favor Pantoja to get a decision, since he has more experience and a better camp behind him. But Shelton's gotten here by outdoing expectations time after time, so him doing so once more is entirely possible. J.C. Cottrell (17-4 overall, 0-1 UFC, 1-0 Bellator) vs. Jason Gonzalez (10-3 overall, 0-1 UFC): Somewhat surprisingly, this is the one clear fight on the card that's between two guys that are definitely on the cut line, as both lost their UFC debuts in rather one-sided fashion after coming in as injury replacements. Oklahoma's J.C. Cottrell stepped in on short notice and lost to Michel Prazeres via decision on the Holm/Shevchenko card this past summer; Cottrell's game is typically built around using his wrestling to set up spots where he can jump onto a submission, but I'm not really sure it'll work at a UFC level, and Cottrell looks like the sort of "quadruple-A" fighter who can take care of a lot of guys in smaller promotions but will struggle on a major stage. On the other side of things, we have California's Jason Gonzalez, who came in with a little bit of hype after a decent stint on TUF 22 and a career as a finishing machine on smaller shows - Gonzalez is a gigantic lightweight with knockout power, and has a pretty dangerous submission game to boot. But he got shockingly knocked out in the first round by Drew Dober at UFC 203, casting into doubt exactly how much success Gonzalez will have, since Dober isn't exactly a knockout artist. Still, he's impressed me more than Cottrell, so I'll say Gonzalez gets the second-round knockout, though it's hard to have a ton of confidence in either guy at the moment.

[wrestlingisfake]

Elimination Chamber preview

Roman Reigns vs. John Cena vs. Braun Strowman vs. Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor vs. The Miz vs. Elias - This match will be held within the elimination chamber, a large cage composed of heavy chains stretched across a steel frame surrounding the ringside area.  The winner will challenge Brock Lesnar for the universal championship at Wrestlemania XXXIV.

Normally this is a timed gauntlet elimination match, where two wrestlers start and everyone else enters at five minute intervals. Eliminations can occur at any time by pinfall or submission, but the match can’t end until everyone has entered.  The last participant who is not eliminated is the winner.  The chamber structure comes into play in that everyone is locked inside until they are eliminated; everybody but the two starters are locked inside four “pods” until they are allowed to enter the match.  That assumes there’ll be six participants, but this time we have seven, and WWE has not explained how that will affect the rules.

The order of entry is notionally random, and revealed only during the course of the match.  Occasionally, though, the order is affected by matches held before the show; in this case, Elias gets to enter last while the Miz is forced to start.  Theoretically, it’s possible for many eliminations to occur before the last person even enters, which would be a gigantic advantage, although I can’t remember it ever really helping that much.

Rollins is probably going to be the sentimental favorite.  Originally he wasn’t supposed to be in this match, and was slated for something with Jason Jordan at Mania, but Jordan needed neck surgery.  So Rollins made an impassioned plea about how he doesn’t want to miss Wrestlemania again (like he did in 2016), and now we have seven guys in the match.  Then the 2/19 Raw featured all seven men in a gauntlet match, and Rollins wrestled for over an hour to beat both Cena and Reigns.  That doesn’t mean Seth is going to win here, but I expect a lot of people will be disappointed if he doesn’t.

Balor is probably the best choice for a dark horse.  Miz and Strowman are expected to face each other at Mania, so I’d look for Braun to do some crazy power moves, get fucked over by Miz, and then chase Miz out of the building.  You’d think Cena should be a favorite, but they seem to be doing a thing where he’s increasingly concerned that he won’t even get a Mania match, and the best way to advance that story would be an unexpectedly bad loss.  As for Elias, I will personally be surprised if he does anything but bring his chair and guitar into the chamber and do his shtick.

It’s been widely believed for nearly a year that Roman Reigns is facing Lesnar at Wrestlemania, so this match would seem to be a formality.  On the other hand, there have times when the build to a Reigns title win (or a long title reign) appeared “inevitable” and then suddenly collapsed.  A swerve where Reigns loses here (and perhaps has to get added to the Lesnar match for a three-way) is at least possible. But not very likely.

Alexa Bliss vs. Sasha Banks vs. Bayley vs. Mickie James vs. Sonya Deville vs. Mandy Rose - Bliss is defending the Raw women’s championship in the first-ever women’s elimination chamber match.  The winner is expected to be the defending champion at Wrestlemania.  The big angles in this one are that Banks and Bayley have been friends but may not be able to get along; James and Bliss have been enemies but may be able to get along; and Rose and Deville are members of the same stable and are expected to get along.

The problem with chamber matches where a title is at stake is that they always fall flat with me.  Either the champion defies the odds and retains, which makes me think “well what was the point of that?” or somebody that is not and will not be feuding with the champion wins the belt, which makes me think “well that was totally random.”  In this case I can’t shake the feeling that this match is designed to make you think Bliss is finally going to get her comeuppance, and then she’ll find a way to win anyway and smirk at everybody.  And its like, that’s wrestling for you, and it’s not a bad idea.  But it doesn’t excite me, and I feel like it’s going to cause a lot of grumbling Monday morning.

Asuka vs. Nia Jax - Asuka won the Royal Rumble to earn her choice of a title match against either the Raw or Smackdown women’s champion at Wrestlemania, but she hasn’t declared her intentions yet.  Raw general manager Kurt Angle decided that if Jax wins this match, Jax will be in the Raw women’s championship match at Mania no matter what Asuka decides to do.

So the winner of the women’s chamber match could end up in a three-way against both Asuka and Jax.  Or Asuka could win this match and choose to challenge the Smackdown women’s champion, so that there would be no top challenger for the Raw title.  At least, that’s how I understand it.  WWE hasn’t been very clear about any of this.

It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world for Jax to break Asuka’s winning streak now, to get it over with, and then you’ve got two pretty good world-beaters instead of one god-tier world-beater.  But I don’t expect that to happen.  Asuka wins, and we get a whole year of people whining about something expect Ronda Rousey to potentially do someday.

Matt Hardy vs. Bray Wyatt - OK, so in 2016 Matt developed this “Broken Matt Hardy” gimmick in TNA, and at one point he and Bray Wyatt were bickering on Twitter about whether it was a knockoff of Wyatt’s “folksy gibberish” gimmick.  Then when Matt left TNA was an ownership dispute so he couldn’t use it when he returned to WWE last year.  Then for months he kept teasing that he’d almost worked out the legal issues to bring the character back.  And finally, after losing a match to Bray, Matt “snapped” and became “Woken Matt Hardy,” and it looked like everyone was going to get the crazy stupid high-concept feud they always wanted.  Of course, that was November 27, the only pay-per-view action we’ve seen with these two has been a couple of minutes in the Royal Rumble.

So far the “Woken Matt Hardy” gimmick has been a letdown.  To put this into perspective, Broken Matt was boxing kangaroos and baptizing people in his lake of reincarnation and filming mini-movies with his aerial assault robots. Woken Matt just laughs and says “yaaasss” a lot.  If WWE is serious about doing this shit right, you’d figure they’re rolling it out slowly, to get to the real wacky stuff around Wrestlemania.  But that assumes WWE was ever serious about doing this shit right, whereas I always assumed WWE just wanted to keep other promotions from doing it.  Either way, I think this match will only be a place-setter for some more high-profile rematch later.  So both guys are going to be saving these best kooky weirdness for later.  Bray should probably win to set up motivation for Matt to step up his game.

Cesaro & Sheamus vs. Titus O’Neil & Apollo - Titus Worldwide beat Shesaro in a non-title match, so now they’re challenging for the Raw tag team championship.  On paper I can’t see a title change happening, but Sheamus has got some serious neck issues and WWE desperately needs to liven up the tag division so he and Cesaro don’t have to carry so much of the load.  I’m always pulling for Titus and Apollo, but experience suggests I shouldn’t get my hopes up.

Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson vs. Bo Dallas & Curtis Axel - This is set for the pre-show.  Curiously, Gallows was just saying that the Young Bucks owe it to themselves to come to WWE someday, because it’s “a worldwide platform and you can’t beat that.  Which is funny because I think Gallows and Anderson are at least as good as the Bucks, but here they are stuck in the pre-show because creative has nothing for them, while the Bucks are key figures in the big Kenny Omega vs. Cody Rhodes saga.  Point is, Luke and Karl are horribly underutilized and I kind of wish they would get the hell out of this company.  At least they have a 100% chance of wining this match, so there’s that.