Vive La Lucha in Los Angeles! Holy Guacamole! The popular Luchadores (Mexican wrestlers) were part of last weekend’s event I attended at Club 740 in the historic theatre section of downtown Los Angeles. Hosted by boxing veteran Adolfo Perez Sr. and his son Adolfo Perez…
Pro Wrestling (WWE, TNA)
Headline Posted by Ryan Clark on 12:22:21 PM Jun 30, 2010
— BuzzerBlog has an interview up with Chris Jericho about Downfall. No mention of WWE in the interview.
– The Nexus theme music is “We Are One” by 12 Stones.
– Wrestlicious is filming some wrap arounds and vignettes this week, not new matches as previously reported.
– SPOILER ALERT: Here is the updated Money In The Bank card:
* Sheamus vs. John Cena in a WWE Title Steel Cage Match* Rey Mysterio vs. Jack Swagger in a World Title Match* John Morrison vs. Randy Orton vs. Edge vs. R-Truth vs. Evan Bourne vs. Chris Jericho vs. Ted DiBiase vs. The Miz – RAW Money in the Bank Ladder Match* Kane vs. Christian vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Big Show vs. Matt Hardy vs. Cody Rhodes – Smackdown Money in the Bank Ladder Match
Wrestler Jericho plays it safe on `Downfall’ show
LOS ANGELES — Pro wrestler Chris Jericho is willing to take hits in the ring but will be playing it safe as host of ABC’s new game show “Downfall.”
“Downfall” is staged atop a 10-story downtown Los Angeles building, with contestants vying for prizes and up to $1 million cash by taking a trivia quiz. Players face the risk of being pushed off the roof — strapped into a decelerator harness — if they lose.
Jericho is on the rooftop, too, but tethered to a platform to avoid an unexpected trip.
“It’s scary when you get up there and stand on the edge,” Jericho said. “That’s the reason I’m the host. I don’t ever have to go over the edge — unless the show gets canceled, in which case I’m the first one that gets thrown over.”
Jericho’s sense of humor has been on display elsewhere, including regular appearances on VH1 and E! and as guest host on shows including “The Best Damn Sports Show Period” and “MadTV.”
He draws parallels between his World Wrestling Entertainment experience and “Downfall” beyond their show business elements. The game show begins its six-episode run Tuesday at 9 p.m. EDT on ABC.
“They’re both high-intensity, energetic games,” Jericho said. “You’re putting something on the line.”
Besides the suspense, he said, “Downfall” is also an “amazing spectacle.”
The show’s setup includes a huge conveyer belt that sends replicas of prizes, up to and including cars, as well as contestants’ personal mementos crashing to the street.
“As a kid, you want to stand and drop eggs or GI Joes off the building and see if they fall apart. That’s the primal instinct that makes the show so interesting,” Jericho said.
But, he hastened to add, no players were harmed in the filming of the show.
Oak Ridge High has built a strong wrestling program partly because of the strength of the youth wrestlers at area middle schools and with the El Dorado Hills Wrestling Club.
Many of those wrestlers met last week at the annual El Dorado Hills Wrestling Camp to learn new moves and develop skills in an attempt to stay sharp over the summer and to expand and improve their knowledge of the sport.
Oak Ridge High graduates, Andy Wagner (2006) and Kyle West (2009) ran the camp with a hand from Benjamin West, who’s a coach within the wrestling club.
About 25 kids ranging from second graders to high school students attended the camp. From Oak Ridge senior and state runner-up Vinny Waldhauser, who stopped by Tuesday to get some work in, to wrestlers just starting out enjoyed the camp.
Rey Punao, 13, had never wrestler before attending the camp.
“It’s a lot of work but it’s pretty fun,” Punao said. “I’ve learned a lot and I’m getting better each day.”
Bret McNamee, 13, has wrestled for three years and has a lot of the basics down, but still picked up some new moves and new ways of doing things on the mat.
“You learn more moves at camp than you do during a regular practice,” McNamee said. “I learned some takedowns and some moves from the top position I can use. This camp’s fun because we also play a lot of games.”
McNamee liked learning from Wagner and West, two young men who came through the program.
“They know a lot of stuff and they’re able to teach it to you,” McNamee said.
Wagner, who wrestled four years at Cal Poly and will graduate in December, enjoys coming back to teach the younger kids.
“We’re teaching everything from the basic stance to complex moves and pinning combinations,” Wagner said. “We want to teach them as much as we can. Most of these kids have the basics down, but we can always show them stuff that they haven’t seen.
“I’ve been impressed with these kids,” Wagner continued. “You show them new stuff and they pick it up quickly. The little kids are great too. You get them out on the mat and they’re wrestling like they’re in their living room. They’re fun to watch.”
West, who not so long ago was attending this camp instead of running it, also enjoyed being back.
“This has always been a good camp and I always enjoyed coming to it,” West said. “Now I love coming back and seeing how much the kids have grown and improved. They’re excited to learn and they just soak everything up and pick it all up in one week.”
Just when you thought the Hart-McMahon war was over.
This time, though, the major combatants aren’t Bret Hart and Vince McMahon.
Martha Hart, widow of WWE star Owen Hart, filed a federal lawsuit last week against the Connecticut-based company and its owners, including Republican U.S. Senate candidate Linda McMahon.
The 21-page lawsuit alleges that they used Owen’s name and likeness in dozens of commercial videos and other materials without having rights to do so, and violated a contract restricting the use of his name, likeness and wrestling footage.
Hart, at the age of 34, died on May 23, 1999, during a WWE pay-per-view when a stunt went awry. The wrestler was to be lowered from the top of the Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Mo., to the ring. However, there was a malfunction on the harness he was wearing, which released early, and he fell nearly 80 feet to the ring.
The Hart family successfully sued WWE in 2000, and received an $18 million settlement.
Martha Hart says she wants nothing to do with WWE and is asking the court to stop the company from using her late husband in any way.
“I believe it is morally, ethically and legally wrong for the WWE to seek profit from Owen’s death,” she told reporters at a news conference held Tuesday at a hotel in downtown Hartford, Conn. WWE is based in Stamford.
“In the 11 years since Owen’s tragic and avoidable death, I have worked tirelessly to disassociate Owen’s name and likeness from anything related to WWE in order to protect our children from any reminder of the circumstances surrounding their father’s death, and to avoid any misplaced perception that I endorse WWE,” she said.
“Unfortunately, even though WWE, Vince McMahon and Linda McMahon were and are well aware of my wishes and desire to shield my children from WWE and its activities, I was shocked to learn earlier this year that they have been using Owen’s name and likeness in videos, websites, television programs and print materials.”
WWE has yet to induct Owen into its Hall of Fame, although he remains one of the stronger candidates and a favorite of fans. His widow’s complaint specifically refers to a new WWE video, released in April, called “Hart and Soul: The Hart Family Anthology.”
Martha Hart’s lawyers have demanded a complete accounting from WWE of sales and revenue from everything that has used the Owen Hart name or likeness.
The fact that former WWE CEO Linda McMahon is currently a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Connecticut has drawn more attention to Hart’s legal action.
Hart, who claimed she had not spoken with any of McMahon’s opponents or their campaigns before filing the suit, told Politico.com that the timing of the lawsuit had nothing to do with Linda McMahon currently running for Senate in Connecticut. She also claims that she sent a cease-and-desist letter to WWE this past March regarding the “Hart and Soul” DVD, but the company ignored the letter.
“This has nothing to do with Linda’s political career although, that said, certainly as a voter I would think that people should certainly question the moral character of this action,” she said.
“One must truly question the moral character of Vince and Linda McMahon and the manner in which they conduct their business. These same people whose dangerous exploitation of my husband led to his death are exploiting him once again,” she added.
“News of the lawsuit could be a setback for McMahon’s campaign, which has downplayed the candidate’s association to the more controversial aspects of the lucrative business she and her husband ran for close to three decades,” said CNN.com.
“For Vince and I and the WWE and fans of the WWE, our hearts and souls went out to Martha and her two young children. It was our desire to make sure Martha and their children were cared for for the rest of their lives,” Linda McMahon said in a recent interview. “This particular suit is a copyright issue, a contract issue that the WWE will be dealing with.”
“The lawsuit by Martha Hart is nothing more than pure political orchestration,” responded WWE in a statement. “This claim has nothing to do with the tragic accident in 1999. It pertains solely to the use of intellectual property, which is not typically brought to the media’s attention through a pre-emptive press release, a dedicated website and a press conference before the filing of the suit. This case has no more merit than the one Martha Hart unsuccessfully brought against WWE recently in Canada, which was dismissed and Mrs. Hart was ordered to pay WWE’s counsel fees.”
WWE lawyer Jerry McDevitt told CNN.com that WWE is “well within their rights” to use the material and that an agreement had never been reached to refrain from using footage of Owen Hart. McDevitt also claimed the suit is politically motivated. “In 11 years (since the initial settlement), we have not received an e-mail, a letter or anything from Hart,” he said.
McDevitt says WWE owns the copyright to footage of Hart and insists that there is no provision in the 2000 settlement agreement that “WWE would give up its rights in this regard.” He says that Hart is part of WWE’s history and that the company has a right to tell its version of the Owen Hart story.
“Martha Hart does not have some exclusive right to tell the story of her husband. He was a public figure … he was part of WWE,” McDevitt told the Hartford Courant.
“They’d have to be living under a rock if they didn’t get that I don’t want any association with them whatsoever or Owen to be associated with them whatsoever,” said Martha Hart, who lives in Calgary, Canada, with the couple’s two children, now 18 and 14.
As for Owen Hart’s older brother, Bret, the onetime Vince McMahon nemesis reportedly is done with WWE.
Hart was “fired” by McMahon as part of a storyline on Monday night’s Raw, but reports indicate that the wrestler was having issues with an insurance settlement from the time of his retirement in 2000 due to a series of legitimate concussions suffered in the ring while he was in WCW.
Hart, 52, is getting married for the third time on July 24. He and second wife Cinzia Rota wed in 2004 but divorced three years later.
– Sixteen-time world champ Ric Flair has taken his successful lottery pitch to Tennessee.
Flair, who currently is featured in education lottery commercials in South Carolina and has done previous promotional work for lotteries in North Carolina, also is appearing in 30-second TV and radio spots tagged “Jack Up Your Jackpots” for the Tennessee Education Lottery.
Flair is shown slapping a hapless skinny fellow and encouraging him to turn puny jackpots into huge ones by playing Mega Millions.
“He’s an absolute delight to work with and everybody knows him,” said Rebecca Hargrove, president and CEO of the Tennessee lottery. “He’s a good representation of good people. Everything we do is geared to sell more tickets, and this ad has garnered a lot of attention.”
The spot will run for three weeks, but lottery officials have the rights to run it for a year. It had more than 2,000 views on You Tube in six days.
“It’s gotten the response we hoped,” Hargrove said. “I thought this was a perfect fit for him … People of all ages want his autograph.”
Mega Millions is a multi-state lottery in which players pick five numbers and then another number. It costs $1 to play.
Flair’s $5 scratch-off lottery tickets, which went on sale in South Carolina in May, have been among the state’s best-selling lottery items. The ticket sales have been accompanied by television commercials featuring Flair.
– Flair recently told Sport.co.uk that his biggest regret in the wrestling business was not leaving WCW sooner.
“I don’t really have any huge regrets, but I wish I had have left WCW earlier,” said Flair. “I could have, but I kept thinking it would turn around and I was loyal to the brand and loved being a NWA guy. I kept thinking there would be a turnaround, but as soon as Ted Turner left it just got even worse.”
Flair also said that he’s having the most fun he’s had in years in the business.
“I don’t think there is anything left for me to achieve, it is just up to me to maintain that high level of work rate. I’m back in that role now where people expect me to work hard and stay in great physical shape. You never know when you’re going to have do something in the ring. I’m tired of working out every day, that is a true story, I’m tired of it, but I will keep doing it because I am motivated and there will be a day where I won’t be able to wrestle again. I love it, though, it is the most fun I have had in years.”
– Scott Hall, pro wrestling’s self-proclaimed “Bad Guy,” has been released by TNA.
Hall was arrested on May 14 for disorderly intoxication and resisting an officer outside a Florida bar. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
“Scott Hall and I talked and together decided he needed time to focus on some personal issues. I am proud of the action he is taking,” said TNA president Dixie Carter.
Also apparently history is Sean Waltman, Hall’s longtime NWO and Wolfpack compatriot, who admitted in a recent interview on the Cowhead radio show that he had been diagnosed with Hepatitis C.
Waltman also revealed that he tried to commit suicide in Mexico by hanging himself with a garden hose and taking pills. The attempt was foiled when Alicia Webb, who appeared in WWE as Ryan Shamrock, found him and saved him.
– UFC heavyweight champ and former WWE titleholder Brock Lesnar called another ex-WWE champ, Batista, “a wannabe” during a recent press conference.
“Get in line. Everybody and their dog wants to get into fighting,” said Lesnar when asked about Batista’s claim that he had signed with the mixed martial arts promotion Strikeforce.
“Next questions. “We’re talking about a heavyweight championship fight, not some wannabe.”
Apparently in full agreement with Lesnar is another former champ, Booker T, who told TMZ that he didn’t think Batista could “match up” with the top fighters in Strikeforce, and that he doubted Batista would “last five minutes” with Bobby Lashley.
Booker might be in a position to know, since he reportedly got the better of Batista in a backstage fight while both men worked for WWE.
Batista, whose contract with WWE recently expired, reportedly is in the final stages of negotiations with Strikeforce, the No. 2 MMA group in the country, with financial and scheduling issues holding up a deal.
Batista also is considering a number of television and movie opportunities.
– Former WWE champ Chris Jericho told Fanhouse.com that he likes WWE’s new watered-down PG product, and that the Attitude Era, one of the company’s hottest periods, was “stupid.”
“PG, I think, is a great idea,” said Jericho.
“That’s not entertaining by anybody’s standards,” Jericho said of the Attitude Era. “That’s just stupid and I never liked that stuff.”
“For me, for them to go family oriented, I’m all for it,” Jericho added. “It’s family oriented, but in this day and age where you can still go out there and have kickass matches. It’s still edgy, there’s still great characters. I’ve got no problem with it. I like it much better than the Attitude Era because I thought the Attitude Era was just childish.”
– Philadelphia-based independent wrestler Trent Acid, whose real name was Michael Verdi, recently passed away at the age of 29.
Verdi had appeared for such promotions as Ring of Honor, Combat Zone Wrestling and Juggalo Championship Wrestling.
He had been arrested in April on charges of possession of heroin.
– Dos Caras Jr. (Alberto Rodriguez), the son of Mexican great Dos Caras (Jose Luis Rodriguez) and nephew of the legendary Mil Mascaras (Aaron Rodriguez), is expected to debut in WWE soon under the name Alberto Del Rio.
Caras, 33, was once part of Mexico’s national Greco-Roman wrestling team, placed third at the World Junior Championships in 1997, won the Central American and Caribbean Games in his weight division three times, and won a medal at the Pan American Games in 1999.
– Gregory Helms’ 90-day WWE no compete clause expired recently, and he is expected to debut soon in TNA. Helms, known in WWE as The Hurricane, is longtime friends with TNA’s Jeff Hardy and Shannon Moore.
– WWE released ring announcer Savannah (Angela Fong) last week.
The 25-year-old Canadian-born model, actress and former British Columbia Lions Felions dance team cheerleader was signed by WWE to a developmental contract in February 2008.
She was sent to WWE’s developmental territory, Florida Championship Wrestling, and started out as a valet, but made her way into the ring and was the first “Queen of FCW” before being moved up to the main WWE roster and having her ring name changed to Savannah.
She also appeared topless in National Lampoon’s direct-to-DVD movie “RATKO: The Dictator’s Sun.” The film was done before she joined WWE.
– Ashley Ann Vickers, who has been serving as the Memphis Grizzlies’ emcee, made her WWE debut last week as the newest member of the NXT broadcast team.
She will known in her new role as Ashley Valence.
– Rafael Nunez, a former world heavyweight champion in Mexico under the name Scorpio, passed away Friday at the age of 57.
He held the UWA world heavyweight title in Mexico in 1985.
– Old School Championship Wrestling is holding a show tonight at Omar Shrine Auditorium, 176 Patriots Point Road, Mount Pleasant. Former WWE star Al Snow will make his third OSCW appearance when he teams with Jon Malus to go against Brandon Paradise and Hexxon.
Bell time is at 6 p.m. Doors open at 5. Adult admission (cash at door) is $10; kids 12 and under $5.
For more information, visit www.oscwonline.com or call 743-4800.
Reach Mike Mooneyham at (843) 937-5517 or mooneyham@postandcourier.com.
For some, Chris Adams may be amongst the least-famous of the wrestlers showcased, as his connections with the WWF/E were not on-screen connections.
Some may remember him from a brief two-year stint with the WCW, but his real claim to fame is that he trained Scott Hall in 1984 and Steve Austin in 1989.
He is also famous as the first wrestler to popularize the famous superkick finishing move, which would later be used by dozens of other wrestlers (including Shawn Michaels’ “Sweet Chin Music”).
The “before he was famous” part?
Here’s Chris Adams wrestling in a British promotion, in 1978:
Giant Haystacks debuted in the United States for World Championship Wrestling under the ring name Loch Ness.
He served as a member of the Dungeon of Doom and feuded with Hulk Hogan.
However, the feud was short-lived, ending abruptly when he was diagnosed with cancer and returned to the United Kingdom.
The video below gives us a look at Loch Ness before he was famous. Although having watched the video, I’m not sure that’s something we wanted to see…
Thomas Billington: The Dynamite Kid, one half of the British Bulldogs, made his WWF television debut on August 29, 1984, where he and Bret Hart defeated Iron Mike Sharpe and Troy Alexander in a match eventually shown on September 15, 1984 on the Maple Leaf Garden broadcast.
Teaming up again with his cousin, Davey Boy Smith, the Bulldogs are perhaps best remembered for their feuds with real-life friends The Hart Foundation.
Sadly, these days, Billington is disabled and confined to a wheelchair due to his years of drug abuse and the high-impact style of wrestling in which he engaged.
Below is a look at The Dynamite Kid from younger and happier times. Watching the video, it appears in British Wrestling that grandparents were permitted to wrestle in the 1970s and that the championship belt is actually just a normal belt that’s worn to keep your pants up.
You can’t have one Bulldog without the other so, having included The Dynamite Kid, I felt I had to include his cousin, Young David, or Davey Boy Smith, as he’s probably better remembered.
The Bulldogs, along with Smith’s brothers-in-law Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart, were brought in to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) after Vince McMahon bought out Stampede Wrestling.
Sadly, Smith passed away on May 18th, 2002, after suffering a heart attack while on vacation in Invermere, British Columbia with his girlfriend, Bruce Hart’s estranged wife, Andrea Redding. He was 39 years old.
I think Young David was about 12 in the video below (and again, check out the title belt!).
No, not THAT Nature Boy; I mean “Nature Boy” Steve Regal, perhaps better known by his ring names Lord Steven Regal and William Regal, in the WCW and the WWF/E, respectively.
Having started his career wrestling on the carnival circuit in England, Regal moved on to wrestle around the world in countries such as Germany and South Africa, before being called up to World Championship Wrestling in 1993.
In 2000, after being fired from WCW, Regal joined the WWF/E, where he became commissioner. More recently, he has been general manager of Raw and also the 2008 King of the Ring.
In the video below, you’ll have to excuse what appears to be some sort of male bonding/mating ritual by the Road Warriors early on, but here’s a look at the young Nature Boy, wooo!
Long before Finlay arrived in America as a sprightly 84-year-old with an annoying leprechaun in tow, he could be found wrestling on the British circuits.
Finlay has held 22 championships in various promotions throughout his career, including the WCW World Television Championship and the WWE United States Championship.
In the video below, you can see a much, much younger David “Fit” Finlay, as the Light-Heavyweight champion, in a non-title match. He really hasn’t changed a bit.
(WWE) Money In The Bank PPV Poster Revealed, Flair Speaks, SD!, More – TWNPNews.com Headline
June 30th, 2010
Headline Posted by Ryan Clark on 7:04:52 PM Jun 2, 2010
— The 5/21 WWE Friday Night SmackDown! did a 1.7 broadcast rating, with 2.75 million viewers.
– Here are some recent WWE attendance figures:
- WWE RAW on 5/28 in New Orleans did 6,000 fans and a $225,000 live gate.- WWE RAW on 5/29 in Monroe did 4,600 and $130,000.- The 5/30 show in Memphis did 6,500 and $195,000.- WWE SmackDown! on 5/29 in Las Cruces, NM drew 7,700 fans and $250,000.- The 5/30 show in Rio Rancho, NM drew 5,600 and $175,000.
– Part two of Ric Flair’s video interview with The Mirror UK has been posted. In the interview, Flair discusses his thoughts on MMA, why the desire to entertain wrestling audiences outweighs any personal financial concerns, a union for wrestlers, his sons, Lacey Von Erich and much more. You can watch the interview at http://www.mirror.co.uk/
– InDemand has released the poster for the Money in the Bank PPV. Here’s the synopsis for the PPV: “On Sunday, July 18th, a heart-pounding WWE match-up will take place 20 feet above the ring…in a steel briefcase! Don’t miss one second of the action as Jack Swagger, John Cena, Randy Orton, Triple H, Rey Mysterio, and all your favorite WWE Superstars battle it out in “WWE: Money in the Bank! Catch it live on Sunday, July 18th, on Pay-Per-View!” You can click here to view the Money in the Bank PPV poster now.
(WWE) Major Backstage Update On Barrett, McIntyre, WWE Inside – TWNPNews.com Headline
June 30th, 2010
Headline Posted by Ryan Clark on 10:06:13 PM Jun 29, 2010
Source: The Wrestling Observer
To follow up on our earlier report regarding the work visa issues with Wade Barrett and Drew McIntyre, we’re told at this point that WWE has no idea when McIntyre will be back and the hope was that Barrett would be able to return by next week but nobody knows for sure.
According to a source, WWE creative was told on Tuesday afternoon at the SD! tapings to presume both wouldn’t be back until after SummerSlam in August, making things extremely tough more so for Barrett given the way he was booked as the “leader” of the NXT/Nexus group on RAW. It is possible they could both be back sooner, but that was the initial word as of today.
It should be noted that current WWE Champion Sheamus was signed by WWE around the same time as Barrett and McIntyre. The belief as of right now is that he is okay in regards to his work visa, but given the fact how things were handled with Barrett and McIntyre he could possibly be next. This is definitely causing major issues for WWE creative.
By Scott Heritage
Probably the biggest story doing the rounds this week in the MMA world was an interview with consensus number one heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko, who said that he thinks about retirement more and more these days. At the age of 34, Fedor is probably still at or near his peak, and he will likely fight at least for another year or two. Enough time to take on both Fabricio Werdum and Alistair Overeem, and any other opponents that might rise to prominence between now and then.
Those hoping Fedor would eventually join the UFC and take on Brock Lesnar though are going to be disappointed, although to be honest this has never really looked like happening. Fedor and M-1 global come as a package it seems, and the UFC is certainly never going to agree to either co-promote or sign any other M-1 fighters. Even without the likes of Lesnar, Carwin or Mir on his record though, Emelianenko will retire with arguably the best resume of any fighter in the sport. The only two heavyweights who even come close would be Mirko Crocop and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, both of whom he has beaten.
The fighter once known as Jon Koppenhaver is going to jail for around a year after starting a fight at a bar. This isn’t the first time the former UFC fighter, now legally known as War Machine, has gotten himself into trouble with the law. Only a few weeks ago he got into an altercation with several of his co-stars from the adult entertainment industry at a birthday party. All too frequently War Machine seems to find himself in some sort of bother these days, veering from one calamity to the next with the odd MMA bout in between.
His latest transgression and subsequent incarceration was more a case of when rather than if it would happen. Mr. Machine also mentioned that a year in prison was just time away from his life and that it wouldn’t teach him anything. And sadly, this is probably the case, but what else are the authorities supposed to do with a professional fighter who appears to have an alcohol problem and a propensity for out of the cage violence? Something tells me that this won’t be the last time we hear about War Machine in conjunction with the court system. Incidentally, having to take the stand with a name like War Machine probably isn’t that great an idea either.
The negotiations between Jake Shields and the UFC don’t appear to have gone as well as either party was hoping. After beating Dan Henderson and shortly after being pictured with Dana White at a UFC event, it looked certain that the StrikeForce middleweight champion would be jumping ship and leaving Scott Coker and company in the near future. Coker now reports though that he is in talks with Shields, and that there is a discrepancy between what the fighter believes he is worth and how much StrikeForce are willing to pay for him. Unless this is just some kind of ploy to force a bidding war on the part of Shields, he might be on his way back into the fold after all.
Here is the difficulty in putting a price tag on Shields, he is no doubt a talented fighter, and his resume speaks for itself. However, aside from talent both the UFC and StrikeForce weigh up what a fighter is paid based largely on how popular they are and how many tickets they can sell. Shields is not typically an exciting fighter, and as such StrikeForce aren’t going to want to pay a fortune to keep him and in effect lose money on him being the champion.
The UFC could market Shields as a challenger to either Georges St. Pierre or Anderson Silva and no doubt the event would sell well. The problem there though is that if Shields wins they are left with a less popular champion and if he loses then they will be paying over the odds for a contender who isn’t going to draw in huge numbers of fans and justify his high price. So although both the UFC and StrikeForce both want talented fighters like Shields, its difficult to justify paying them a lot when they aren’t bringing in much income to the company.
David Bautista, JR., better known as Batista of professional wrestling fame this week confirmed that he is taking up MMA full time and claimed to have a deal in place with StrikeForce. No word as of yet from StrikeForce on whether this is true or not, but it would appear he will be fighting somewhere in the near future. While he will no doubt be a big draw for any company he is associated with, I have my doubts about how well he will do in MMA.
To begin with, Batista is already 41 years old, not to mention he has the kind of physique that suggests a lifetime of taking questionable pharmaceutical products. And in fact he was accused but never caught using steroids back in his WWE days, after his name was linked to a pharmacy in Florida giving out illegal prescription drugs. Depending on who you talk to about the incident, he was also apparently getting the worst of it from fellow wrestler Booker T when the pair got into a fist fight backstage a few years ago. Standing somewhere between 6’2” and 6’6” (again depending on who you ask), and around 290 pounds, cardio will also be an issue in a prolonged real fight.
That aside he apparently has training in several aspects of MMA already, and at the very least will sell a lot of tickets. If he is brought along the right way he may even become a decent fighter, but at his age he will need to progress a lot faster than most if he ever wants to become a real star. It seems the public is less sold on the hulking Brock Lesnar-like monsters entering MMA these days than they used to be, and fellow walking sides of beef Maruisz Pudzianowski and Bobby Lashley have yet to really make a mark at the top of any rankings lists.
UFC news now, and ahead of his July 3rd fight against Brock Lesnar, challenger Shane Carwin has in a rather odd move revealed what he will be making for the bout. In one of his customary lighthearted blog entries, he revealed that he will be making $40k to show and $40k to win from the UFC. Now obviously there are other factors such as sponsors and merchandising deals to think of there, and for the time being Carwin isn’t a household name attracting the casual fans. Champion Brock Lesnar on the other hand makes in the millions for each of his fights, thanks largely due to a percentage of the pay per view money.
Not long ago though Dana white was urging Carwin to give up the full time engineering job he maintains alongside his MMA career, which Shane rightly refused to do. Even supposing Carwin fights three times per year without injury it’s clear why he has to stay working full time as well. At his age (36) there isn’t any guarantee that he will get much higher up the MMA food chain than he is now, and other than being a champion, being an undefeated heavyweight prospect in a sport always short on them is about as good as it gets.
Lance Storm runs PWA by the book
Kurt Sorochan, Lance Storm and Don Ferguson – the men behind PWA. – photo courtesy Kurt Sorochan
Lance Storm keeps pretty close to home these days. The former WWE, WCW and ECW star still lives in Calgary… Alberta Canada and focuses on running his StormWrestling Academy and being with his family. In November, he took on another role, as booker for the Prairie Wrestling Alliance.
