Wrestling

On Saturday, May 18th, I had the great fortune of being in attendance for the Chikara Tag World Grand Prix in my hometown of Chicago, sitting front row for my first ever experience with the promotion and excited as could be. I must admit that I've only been aware of Chikara for about eight months now, but thanks to the wonderful cSs Commentariat, I was convinced that I needed to see them live after enjoying a few videos on YouTube. I brought my little marble pad to take notes because I knew that I wanted to do a fan post about the event. The Tag World Grand Prix hadn't been done in four years, as ring announcer Gavin Loudspeaker informed us during his introduction, but it was a massive event, so it had to be broken up into two stages, an afternoon card and an evening card, with the evening card boasting two bonus singles matches in addition to the conclusion of the TWGP. A sixteen team, single elimination tournament was guaranteed to have a lot of great moments. Overall I watched 17 (technically 16) matches over the course of about six and a half hours. I don't want to fully spoil the first round results for everyone, so bear with me as I offer my overall impression first. Before the show started, I was able to buy Colt Cabana's "I * Colt" shirt (finally) and I had the pleasure of shaking his hand. I bought Estonian Thunder Frog's shirt, which he thanked me in his best Eastern European accent followed by a hug. I also shook Bryce Remsburg's hand finally and had him sign my event poster. Let it be known here that everyone involved with Chikara was super nice and should be commended on being so friendly and engaging. Chikara is truly a sight to behold. Behind all the gimmicks, masks, comedy, and other absurdities lies some truly amazing wrestlers who are dedicated to the sport and put on a great show. I knew that Chikara advertised itself as a "family friendly/all ages" atmosphere, which I foolishly thought would be kind of corny and diminish the overall experience, but I could not have been more wrong. There was something for everyone but I can safely say that all the fans connected with the whole show. I hate to make this comparison, but it struck me Sunday morning: WWE needs to take notes from Chikara on how to run a PG show. WWE's version of PG is largely boring as it is "sports entertainment". Hell, it seems like WWE is forgetting the "Wrestling" part of World Wrestling Entertainment. Sure, WWE doesn't really acknowledge its competition (except to sign their talent), but for a company that has so much money and so many resources (and lots of talent), they could surely do a better job of making a PG show that's entertaining on a more consistent basis, especially in regards to the actual wrestling. ::steps off soap box:: Now, without further ado I present the first round match-ups, results, and reactions. Keep in mind that this was my first time seeing a lot of these performers, so I didn't know much about them or their gimmicks. Match 1- The Baltic Siege (The Estonian Thunderfrog & Latvian Proud Oak) vs The Young Bucks (Nick and Matt Jackson) The Baltic Siege came out to a huge pop, with Thunder Frog carrying his version of Thor's hammer (which came into play later). Holy cow the roof almost came off of the building because everyone was so excited to see The Young Bucks. The match was fast-paced and featured many great spots, including the Bucks trying (and failing) to use Thunder Frog's hammer against him and another massive pop when Baltic Siege did a leapfrog into the corner on the Bucks. The tide turned quickly after that as the Bucks landed a spike tombstone on Thunder Frog to end the match.Winner- The Young Bucks Match 2- The Colony: X-treme Force (Orbit Adventure Ant and DeviANT) vs The Spectral Envoy (Frightmare and Hallowicked) The match started off with a bang when the Spectral Envoy came out second and immediately stormed the ring to attack X-treme Force. Frightmare was a ball of energy, flying all o

Does JR Think WWE Would Ever Work with TNA? Following a recent interview during which TNA President Dixie Carter said she would be open to a crossover WWE & TNA event, Jim Ross posted the following on JRsBarBQ.com offering his opinion on whether or not WWE would be open to the idea: WWE is about as likely to work w/ Impact Wrestling on an event as I am wearing burnt orange to the Oklahoma-Texass Red River Rivalry Game. Ain’t gonna happen. WWE has zero to gain by this and I’m surprised that some fans actually think that it “could” happen. TNA Owner Dixie Carter is a bright lady and made a timely sound byte that many fans, I’m sure, were excited to read but let’s be honest…it’s not going to happen. Footage of The Shield's Post-Extreme Rules Promo The following video is a post-Extreme Rules promo cut by The Shield, who were victorious in both their PPV matches:

I was able to check out AAW Day of Defiance this past weekend and made a blog post of Sami Callihan vs Shane Hollister in a last man standing match. You can also click through to my Flickr page to see photos of the entire event. Also on my Flickr page are photos from the first half of CHIKARA's Tag World Grand Prix from Saturday. I'll have the rest up today or tomorrow. www.thisisawesomephoto.blogspot.com I'd love to hear some feedback on what I've got on there so far, Thanks fellow cagesiders. I was able to check out AAW Day of Defiance this past weekend and made a blog post of Sami Callihan vs Shane Hollister in a last man standing match. You can also click through to my Flickr page to see photos of the entire event. Also on my Flickr page are photos from the first half of CHIKARA's Tag World Grand Prix from Saturday. I'll have the rest up today or tomorrow. www.thisisawesomephoto.blogspot.com I'd love to hear some feedback on what I've got on there so far, Thanks fellow cagesiders.

The Voice of Wrestling with Chris Cash and Nick Paglino returns live tonight from 6:30-7:30pm EST, leading you into Monday Night Raw. Join Chris and Nick as they break down the latest in pro wrestling this week, review last night's Extreme Rules pay per view, preview Raw tonight, and much more. On Tonight's Show: - Nick's Pay-Per-Review for WWE Extreme Rules - Raw preview tonight - The Shield wins big last night, their future - Cena/Ryback moving forward - "Hot Topics of the Week" - Much more! You can visit WrestleZone for the live feed to tonight's show, plus visit VOWLive.com for the LIVE CHAT ROOM during the show. Follow Chris Cash on Twitter Call into the show at 323-300-5350

Her company is bad, and she should feel bad.Photo via Kayfabe NewsRemember the Wrestling Retribution Project? I do. I was reminded of its existence today, when Ben Muth, whose main job is writing about football intelligently, was announced to be joining SB Nation. Muth's interests also included making his wrestling debut for the long-in-mothballs project. This project was announced almost two years ago. Filming has been in the can for more than a year, but Jeff Katz has either had trouble finding distribution for it, or he lost interest in it in a baffling manner. I don't know why this interesting project fell by the wayside, but it has, and it makes me sad. Obviously, there were names involved in this show that piqued my interest, including Chris Hero, Joey Ryan, MVP, Chris Masters, and Colt Cabana, and some of the promotional stills, especially for Dr. Luther's Father Dante, looked phenomenal. This had the potential to be one of 2012's best wrestling-related projects, and it not only hasn't seen the light of day yet, it may never.The main reason why it bums me out is that the model, a season-based on-demand service, had the potential to shake things up. It was the kind of idea that could have caused a boom in the wrestling business, and even if it didn't overtake how wrestling was distributed for consumption, it could have at least provided a viable alternative to WWE, something that hasn't existed on the mainstream/corporate level since Vince McMahon bought out WCW. Let's face it, TNA is not in WWE's league, and I'm not even talking about just in the ring or in distribution, either. They are trying to overtake the market leader by being exactly the same as it in some areas, and being markedly worse in others.Everything about its distribution models and in-ring product are similar or exactly the same as WWE. They run weekly television to set up pay-per-views as the main mode of resolution (and a hefty chunk of money via at-home sales). Obviously, that model has been scaled back this year with their cutting back to four live events, but that's merely a cosmetic change. They tour, just like WWE. They poach a good bit of talent who made their name in WWE to varying degrees of success. Obviously, they've reinvented some of these wrestlers, especially Bully Ray, but for everyone like him, there are at least two Kurt Angles. Even in storytelling mode, they are remarkably similar to what is offered from Titan Towers. They recycle a lot of old stories using flimsy covers on the basis of identity, and they continue to rely on authority figures and edgy anti-hero faces as major mechanisms.However, the area where they are dreadfully worse than WWE is in the way they treat their talent. McMahon didn't get to the level that he got to by being a philanthropist, that's for sure. However, if a wrestler suffered an injury on his watch, he made sure that performer was taken care of. I'm not sure if there are any examples of McMahon paying for treating sicknesses unrelated to the ring like cancer (ETA: As mentioned in the comments and corroborated by cursory checks, both MVP and Great Khali had problems corrected on WWE's dime that were both found via the Wellness Program), but the fact that he has provided rehab for wrestlers who were long past their employment dates is far better than anything Dixie Carter and TNA have done for most of their contracted talent.The Zema Ion incident is but the latest in the many black eyes for TNA, but one might argue that since it came out of the ring, that it's out of their purview. In a sense of personal responsibility, one arguing in TNA's favor here might be technically correct, even if the attitude is colder than nights on planet Mercury. However, how can anyone be in their corner when it comes to how they treated Daffney? Her injuries stemmed from being forced to go into the ring against a barely trained Rosie Lottalove, and TNA balked at paying her medical bills to the point where she had to sue. Her c

I gave the card a solid thumbs up. Wasn't expecting much of the card and it exceeded my expectations.   Best Fight: Dunham vs dos Anjos Worst Fight: Hollett vs Maldonado Best KO: VitorBest Sub: Jacare   Thought the decision in the Dunham vs dos Anjos fight was suspect.   Thought the Natal vs Zeferino 50/50 leg lock attempts was entertaining as you don't see something like that in the UFC very often, the ref may have let them, go on a bit long in it though.   Also questioning Yamazaki not following thru on his warnings to Dias of holding the cage in the Lentz fight. He warned him after the 1st if he held the cage again he would dock him a point, 3 or 4 cage grabs later, no point deduction and again after the 2nd goes to the corner and warns him if he grabs the cage again he will dock him a point. Either dock him or don't make an idle threat of a point deduction which makes him look bad, especially after constant grabs after the initial warning.   Grant Zwarych Official Index of the Wrestling Observer NewsletterWWE Extreme Rules Thumbs Up Best Match: Brock Lesnar vs HHH Worst Match: Mark Henry vs Sheamus Did anyone else notice that Extreme Rules had four versions of the same match? Big monster versus overmatched babyface. Right away, JBL informed us that "Sheamus just can't beat Mark Henry." He came up with a similar line with Randy Orton against Big Show. And we still had to get through Ryback/Cena and Lesnar/HHH. Talk about vanity booking though. WWE pays through the nose for Brock Lesnar - and has him job right away to Cena as part of the post-WM rebuilding of Cena last year. Then who has Lesnar fought exclusively since then? HHH. First match - an out of shape HHH is beaten and his arm is broken. Second match - HHH is motivated, worked out, and beats Lesnar. Third match - An in-shape 40something HHH is able to take down and cripple Lesnar, who needs his manager's interference to win. How exactly does this help justify Lesnar's monstrous contract? How exactly does this help keep Lesnar packaged as a monster to fight the Rock, Undertaker, or anyone else? Having Lesnar lose to Cena last year looks even stupider now. With the dearth of opponents for Cena, the WWE has nobody left for their champion to fight unless to flip Randy Orton - and we saw that feud extensively in 2009. The chickens have come home to roost: WWE did not invest in any fresh heels and now they are scrambling and producing PPV shows to extend main event programs, since they have nothing stocked in the bank. NOTHING. Jeff Cohen Flushing, NY Podcast @ mrjeff2000.podbean.com * twitter.com/#!/MrJeff2000 A loaded bill that didnt quite live up to expectation , but overall THUMBS UP.Best match:HHH vs BrockWorst Match: Cena vs Ryback (on its way to best match but the lame finish killed it). RegardsDennis Murray

Jeff Hardy Added to NYC BaseBrawl Event According to PWInsider.com, Jeff Hardy has been added to the TNA BaseBrawl live event on July 5th in Brooklyn, New York. For more information, click here. Top Selling WWE DVDs According to The Wrestling Observer, the following WWE DVD titles were the most shipped releases in the last 11 months: CM Punk at 137,000 WWE Attitude Era at 129,000 NWO Revolution at 119,000 The Undertaker at 115,000 Best of Nitro: Volume 2 at 114,000 WWE Hall of Famer Joins Twitter WWE Hall of Famer Terry Funk recently opened a Twitter account at https://twitter.com/RealTerryFunk.

Extreme Rules 2013 lasted for 2 hours 54 minutes and 27 seconds (2h 54m 27s). Here is a breakdown of the timing for every single second of the show, in chronological order. The matches are in bold. The "pre-match" includes entrances, ring introductions, and any verbal promos that occur right before a match officially begins. The "post-match" includes any celebrations, replays, angles, or attacks that occur right after a match is finished. 0m 20s: WWE's "Then, Now, Forever" opening 2m 38s: Video hyping Extreme Rules 0m 52s: Cole welcomes us; Opening pyro 4m 52s: Pre-match for Jericho vs Fandango 8m 36s: Jericho vs Fandango 1m 11s: Post-match for Jericho vs Fandango 1m 15s: Sheamus backstage promo 1m 25s: Raw recap hyping Cena vs Ryback 1m 56s: Pre-match for Kingston vs Ambrose 6m 49s: Kingston vs Ambrose 1m 35s: Post-match for Kingston vs Ambrose 0m 30s: Commercial for WWE App 0m 17s: Cole talks about St. Louis 4m 46s: Pre-match for Sheamus vs Henry 7m 59s: Sheamus vs Henry 1m 24s: Post-match for Sheamus vs Henry 2m 16s: Kaitlyn and AJ backstage segment 1m 04s: Commercial for WrestleMania 29 DVD 0m 13s: Cole talks about Sheamus, Kaitlyn, and AJ 6m 29s: Pre-match for ADR vs Swagger 10m 32s: ADR vs Swagger - Part One 2m 27s: Post-match Referee Replay 0m 48s: ADR vs Swagger - Part Two 0m 55s: Post-match for ADR vs Swagger 0m 36s: Video - Don't Try This At Home 1m 03s: Ryback backstage promo 2m 23s: Pre-match for Hell No vs Shield 7m 25s: Hell No vs Shield 1m 22s: Post-match for Hell No vs Shield 0m 14s: Cole talks about arena attendance 0m 41s: Recap of Miz vs Cody 1m 45s: Hype for PPV Post-show with Foley 2m 59s: Pre-match for Orton vs Big Show 13m 02s: Orton vs Big Show 1m 38s: Post-match for Orton vs Big Show 0m 16s: Plug for PPV theme song 8m 07s: Pre-match for Cena vs Ryback 21m 14s: Cena vs Ryback 5m 29s: Post-match for Cena vs Ryback, Part One 0m 30s: Commercial for WWE Payback 1m 02s: Post-match for Cena vs Ryback, Part Two 7m 01s: Pre-match for Triple H vs Lesnar 20m 10s: Triple H vs Lesnar 6m 21s: Post-match for Triple H vs Lesnar The eight matches combined for a total bell-to-bell time of 96m 35s. That is equal to 55.4% of the total show time that was devoted to wrestling matches. I stopped the time for the Cena match when both men were offscreen right after the final spot. I hear that WWE is suggesting a phantom 10-count was made to conclusively end the match, but I did not add 10 extra seconds on to my time because there was no visible 10-count on the PPV broadcast. The pre-match pieces combined for a total time of 38m 23s, which is 22.0% of the total show time. Once again, this generally includes all entrances, ring introductions, several video packages and/or Raw recaps, and Zeb's promo during Swagger's entrance. The post-match pieces combined for a total time of 23m 24s, which is 13.4% of the total show time. This includes the referee replay time after the first finish of the ADR/Swagger match. This also includes the time allocated for Cena's stretcher job. That leaves about 9.2% of the total show time remaining for other miscellaneous things. This includes commercials, backstage promos, backstage segments, filler commentary between matches, hype for the post-show, the opening pyro, and so forth. The average match time at Extreme Rules was 12m 4s. The first 5 matches all fell short of this mark while the final 3 matches all surpassed this mark. Here is just the listing of the 8 matches, sorted by match time 21m 14s: Cena vs Ryback 20m 10s: Triple H vs Lesnar 13m 02s: Orton vs Big Show 11m 20s: ADR vs Swagger 8m 36s: Jericho vs Fandango 7m 59s: Sheamus vs Henry 7m 25s: Hell No vs Shield 6m 49s: Kingston vs Ambrose Daniel Bryan's combined bell-to-bell time at WrestleMania 29 and Extreme Rules 2013 is 13m 43s. Ryback's combined bell-to-bell time at those two shows is 29m 17s. So Ryback

By Steve Borchardt Vitor Belfort knocks Luke Rockhold out with beautiful spinning wheel kick in UFC on FX 8 main event, TRT controversy intensifies. Have you ever read Goethe's Faust? If not, and you're wondering how an 18th century play relates to a sport where shirtless dudes whip the tar out of one another, hear me out for a second. Faust is the story of an eponymously named professor who sells his soul to a manifestation of the devil known as Mephistopheles in exchange for the demon agreeing to become his supernatural personal assistant. Although Faust initially claims he wants to use this brimstone beast's infernal power to expand his sphere of knowledge, he ends up primarily using it to make time with babes. This culminates in the ol' hornball getting stuck on the idea of bedding the legendary Helen of Troy. Mephistopheles makes this fantasy a reality, but it ultimately proves to be a temporary illusion: Faust can no more hold onto Helen than he can a passing cloud. He eventually ends up a curmudgeonly old geezer living alone in a giant tower, regretting his deal with the devil. Which brings us to Vitor Belfort and his spectacular spinning wheel kick knockout of Luke Rockhold at UFC on FX 8 this past Saturday. A devout Christian like Belfort may be the last person you'd usually associate with a story about making a pact with the devil, but I can't be the only one who sees something downright Faustian in the 36 year old Belfort's use of testosterone replacement therapy. Sure, the self-proclaimed "Young Dinosaur" may not be compromising his immortal soul by using TRT, but he may just be trading both his own integrity and that of the sport for a few extra years tacked on to the tail end of his career. Judging from his cavalier attitude whenever the subject of TRT comes up though, it isn't likely Belfort is losing any sleep at night worrying about intangibles like integrity at the moment. After all, he's busy earning six figure paydays and amassing a row of head kick knockout victims on his mantlepiece worthy of a witch doctor's collection of shrunken heads. The problem is, the rest of the world doesn't appear so willing to turn a blind eye to the artificial enhancement underlying Belfort's recent accomplishments. Just look at the reaction online to Belfort's victory over Rockhold. Normally fans would be falling all over themselves singing the praises of a fighter who just turned in an all-time highlight real knockout like that, but by and large that hasn't been the case this time. A quick scan of message boards and news site comment sections reveals more people questioning -- or outright condemning -- Belfort's TRT use than those celebrating his skills. For some reason, this one really seems hard to digest for a lot of people. Maybe it's the incongruity between Belfort's utterly jacked super hero physique and his claim to suffer from hypogonadism. Perhaps it's a combination of Belfort finding a lot of success lately and the shroud of medically prescribed steroid use hanging over that success like a giant question mark (let's not mince words, testosterone is an anabolic steroid after all). Those nagging doubts make it hard to sit back and enjoy Belfort's handiwork when we watch him dispose of talented middleweights like Rockhold and Michael Bisping with head kicks straight out of a Jet Li movie. Can we ever really know for certain if Belfort would have scored knockouts with those kicks if he wasn't getting a speed and power boost out of a syringe on a regular basis?  It's a fair question, but apparently it's not one Belfort is willing to talk about anymore. In fact, if you're a reporter who makes so bold as to even whisper the three initials most associated with Belfort these days in his presence, be forewarned he's not going to take it well. At least he didn't when MMAJunkie.com's John Morgan politely questioned the Young Dinosaur about TRT at Saturday night's post fight press conference. Belfort's first reactio

Last week we reported WWE Vice President of Television Production, "Big" John Gaburick finished his last week with the company. Initially, no details other than a farwell party with his co-workers were known about his departure. WZ can now report that sources inside the company say Gaburick leaving was not in fact his own choice. "You don't leave that kind of spot and money unless the right people have problems with you," is what one source told us. We learned that Gaburick always had a good relationship with Kevin Dunn, WWE's Executive Vice President of Television Production. However, Vince McMahon was never said to be the biggest fan of Gaburick. A source said, "Kevin protected 'Big' from Vince." When Gaburick was promoted to his VP position several years ago, his relationship with Dunn began to sour. It seems things finally got to a point where the company decided it was time for a change and Gaburick quietly left his position. Follow @JustinLaBar