Hey guys…it’s your boy AH, in case anyone is looking for a fun liveblog, I’m sitting cageside at the Elite XC show in newark so feel free to stop by and make yourself comfortable here.
Also, we will be posting some post-fight video interviews so stay tuned for that…enjoy the fights!
By now, you’ve surely seen this clip of Bill O’Reilly flipping out on set:
But as soon as I saw this clip, it reminded me of working with Mauro Ranallo!
Pollock’s POV: I Love Working With Mauro Ranallo
by Alan Counihan, JarryPark.com contributor
Many have questioned the ability of World Wrestling Entertainment to produce future stars. Furthermore, WWE’s current developmental system has been strongly questioned. The system headed by Jim Cornette and Danny Davis in Louisville (which produced Cena, Orton, Batista and countless others) is now a thing of the past and a new system based in Florida is where the current crop of young WWE hopefuls are learning the ropes. The decision to scrap OVW has been criticized mainly because there are now 70+ guys being trained in one school, all learning the same in-ring style, cutting the same promos etc.
Thus, the output of the system will most likely be a lot of clones. I’m a firm believer that you need a wide variety of characters and wrestling styles on your roster and limiting yourself to just one developmental territory is a mistake when you could have had the Florida territory, the Louisville territory and who knows how many more all over the country. WWE just had one of their best financial quarters ever, so money does not appear to be a problem.
Now, I may be completely underestimating the current system. It may well produce the next generation of main eventers. But what if it doesn’t? In that case, one must look to the current roster and see what guys have the tools to break out and become bigtime players, guys who are only a push away from really making it.
I’ve picked out two wrestlers who fit this category: John Morrison and Lance Cade.
John Morrison:
Strengths: I don’t think WWE could ask for a guy with a better look than Morrison’s. He’s perfect for the character he plays with his movie star looks, Rick Rude-esque body, and, perhaps most importantly, he carries himself like he’s above everyone else. He also gets better every time I see compete in the ring. With the help of Joey (Mercury) Matthews, he became a good tag team wrestler several years ago and in recent years he’s become a great tag wrestler, as evidenced by his current run with The Miz. More important than his tag skills, though, is he’s development as a singles wrestler. He recently had a match with Batista which was, without a doubt, his best singles match ever. The bottom line is that the improvements Morrison has made in his solo efforts have been remarkable.
Weaknesses: His promo ability is still a little weak right now. He can definitely cut an entertaining promo but I’m not sure if he’s able to cut a “money” promo. There’s an important difference between the two.
Chances: Very good. I’d be shocked if Morrison didn’t get a chance to run with the ball at some point in the next two years. He’s got everything Randy Orton has minus the behavioral problems.
Lance Cade:
Strengths: Cade is, as Jim Ross would so eloquently put it, “a hoss.” Wrestlers as big as Lance Cade who move as well as he does are a rare breed. He has improved leaps and bounds as a worker over the last few years after initially not looking like anything special when he initially debuted on the active roster. He’s an underrated talker too.
Weaknesses: He has been stuck in mid-card status for so long that fans might forever view him as a second-tier performer.
Chances: Uncertain. A lot will depend on how his current program with former partner, Trevor Murdoch, pans out. The fact that the turn has been largely forgotten isn’t a good sign.
Welcome, Ladies and Germophobes (that would be me), to the inaugural edition of “THE MMARated Radio Show.”
I have always struggled with the notion of whether I should put together an online show. The main strike against the idea was that I hated 99.99% of the shows out there because I thought most of them sounded way too campy and amateurish. Since I would never want to be viewed in that light I thought it would be better to just stick to the interviews.
Well, after experiencing UFC 84 weekend in Las Vegas, I had way too much on my mind so I thought, “hey, this might be a good time to record those thoughts.” The result is what you are listening to right now.
I’ll tell you this much, I thoroughly enjoyed talking to myself for 40 minutes. Reminded me of my college days.
Hope you enjoy the show and, as always, thanks for any and all feedback.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE SHOW
By now you’ve heard the news that Mark Coleman has been forced to pull out of his UFC 87 fight against Brock Lesnar due to a torn MCL. I guess that’s the risk in promoting a fight featuring a 43-year-old five months in advance.
While Coleman’s injury is certainly a bummer, the UFC did help turn our frowns upside down by announcing today that Georges St. Pierre will defend his newly-won welterweight title against Jon Fitch at UFC 87. I have a feeling this fight was going to take place on this card anyways but it certainly softens the Coleman injury blow by announcing both items on the same day.
This is the second-time in six months that GSP has been used to “save” a card. Of course, he recently stepped in to replace an injured Matt Serra at UFC 79 against Matt Hughes. It’s safe to say that he has officially paid the UFC back for pulling out of two major fights in the past; A September 2006 rematch against Hughes and a February 2007 fight against Serra.
Meanwhile, UFC 87 is shaping up to be the battle of the really nice guys and that might seem a little strange to us after a string of intense grudge matches. We’ve had GSP-Serra II, Penn-Sherk, Tito-Dana and, coming up, Jackson-Griffin. UFC 87 features St. Pierre, Fitch, Roger Huerta and Kenny Florian – four of the nicest fighters in the sport. Don’t expect a ton of trash-talking coming from these candidates (although, I must say that Huerta and Florian have been showing signs of fire as of late).
A couple of notes to close the day with…
* Check out my latest Media & Cultural Rankings at MMARated.com. I really enjoy doing these and think it’s kind of different from what everyone else is doing with that ever-so-popular rankings concept.
* I’m headed to Las Vegas tomorrow to cover UFC 84 for The Rated Republic (aka MMARated.com). We’ve got some potentially interesting things planned so keep it locked all weekend (and beyond, of course) for the latest and greatest.
* Quite the interesting conference call starring Gus Johnson, Mauro Ranallo, Frank Shamrock and Karyn Bryant today. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, once again, that’s alredy the best announce crew in the combat sports world.
* I totally missed this one but, apparently, Versus is airing the Hatton-Lazcano fight this Saturday. Seriously, I had no idea but that’s pretty cool news. From HBO’s 24/7 to Versus…interesting. But, seriously, go to Versus.com, you’ll have to work pretty hard to find any mention of the telecast.
* What the hell happened to TNA? For the first time in a while, I am having a real hard time watching iMPACT! I was always able to stomach their stupidities in the past but I am simply bored by the current product.
* Preach on, Lovemore. Preach on.
* Finally, William Regal. I’m still not sure what he was suspended for but I don’t care to ever watch him on my television again. For a close friend of Chris Benoit’s to get suspended TWICE following that whole tragedy is a tragedy in itself. Actually, its a joke. How many chances is Regal going to get and what kind of monster push is he going to receive when he returns?
The last time we saw Elvis Sinosic compete was in December 2007 for Cage Rage. An eleven-year veteran of the sport, Sinosic has fought all over the world, including in his home-country of Australia.
So, where has he been? Well, that’s a good question, I was wondering the same thing.
“The King of Rock ‘n Rumble” has been looking for a good fight and may be on the verge of finding one too. He’s mixed it up with the likes of Tito Ortiz, Frank Shamrock, Forrest Griffin and Michael Bisping and is now itching to get back in there.
Thanks to our friends at Lojak Fightwear, we caught up with Sinosic to talk about his career and other topics:
* His stalker fan page
* His loyal fan base in Australia
* When is he looking to fight next?
* Which major promotions has he talked to recently?
* Does living in Australia make him less attractive to bookers?
* How popular is MMA in Australia?
* A look at some of his memorable opponents
All that and much more from the veteran fighter.
LISTEN TO THE ELVIS SINOSIC INTERVIEW HERE
We’re doing some hard-hitting journalism over MMARated.com today while taking a look at the best MMA WAG’s around.
The good folks over at The Sun (UK) ran an interesting feature recently on the sexiest WAGs in MMA.
For the uninformed, “WAG” is an acronym for “Wives And Girlfriends.” It’s a popular term used to describe the countless number of beautiful soccer wives and girlfriends floating around Europe.
The paper’s website ran down their favorite MMA WAGs so I thought I would recreate the magic by posting their picks. As you can see, they, expectedly, made a plethora of mistakes along the way.
Every season of the “The Ultimate Fighter” always seems to have a happy-go-lucky guy who comes off as just feeling blessed to be on the show. There’s also usually a guy who gets a second chance to chase his dream due to an injury or some kind of controversy.
Just so happens that Patrick Schultz played the role of both those guys on TUF 7. The Massachusetts-native lost a prelim bout to Luke Zachrich but after Paul Bradley’s herpes epidemic, he was quickly brought back because no one wanted to see Rampage get the “heeby jeebies.”
So, there was Schultz with a golden opportunity to advance to the quarter-finals with only Cale Yarborough standing in his way. That was also his biggest problem; Cale Yarborough was in standing in his way.
Schultz lost a tough two-round affair via decision with some even thinking the bout should have gone three rounds (I, on the other hand, thought the judges made the right call).
MMARated Radio spoke to the new father (his wife gave birth to a baby girl an hour before the interview!) about his experience on the show and a few other issues:
* Finding out that he had to fight his way into the house
* What happened after the loss to Zachrich?
* How did he find out that he was back on the show?
* The reception he received from his teammates when he returned
* Training with Rampage
* What went wrong against Yarborough
* The injury he sustained in the bout
Nice to hear how genuinely happy and excited Schultz was to be on the show.
LISTEN TO THE PATRICK SCHULTZ INTERVIEW HERE
Very excited to see Mick Foley back in the WWE mix, especially in his current role. Of course, the hardcore legend is now the color analyst on Smackdown and, in case you haven’t been paying attention, he’s doing, expectedly, a masterful job. Foley seems to understand the business and, more importantly, the art of selling a storyline to the public better than most.
On a seperate Foley note, he appeared on MLB.com’s “The Dish” to talk about meeting Barry Bonds and a bunch of other things. I could have sworn that I saw him wearing the exact same leopard shirt outfit on Smackdown a couple of weeks ago (or was it last week?).
This certainly isn’t new territory for Foley as we all know his wardrobe cycle is quite limited but now that he is representing the sport on the other side of the camera, so-to-speak, I think he needs to clean up his act a little. Basically, the look worked as a wrestler but not so much as announcer.
And before you tell me wrestling announcers are supposed to have their own style (see: Ventura, Jesse) let me say that I completely agree with that notion. Except Foley looks more like the guy who hangs out at the corner of my street than a man wearing sunglasses and boa. I think it must be the hair. I am glad to see wrestling move on from the long hair, fanny pack days. That was a much need evolution. However, it appears as though Foley didn’t get the memo.
I will always love his work but, for some reason, his appearance in this video just sort of rubbed me the wrong way.
