At long last we conclude Misawa Week here on FightGameBlog. Today we present one of the biggest matches in Japanese Puro history. This match is regarded as one of Misawa’s finest moments.

On May 2nd, 1999, All Japan Pro Wrestling ran the world famous Tokyo Dome in a tribute to the founder of the company and it’s primary mentor – Shohei “Giant” Baba, who passed away earlier in the year. A sell-out crowd of 55,000 fans witnessed history in the making. In the highly anticipated main event, the most feared gaijin, perhaps of all time, Super Vader, would defend his AJPW Triple Crown Title. Vader was a feared monster in Japan and the fans had seen him throughout the years lay waste to their grandest heroes. In his debut, Vader annihilated Antonio Inoki in seconds, something that had never been done. Then in the mid 90s, Vader defeated Nobuhiko Takada to win the UWFI’s “Original Pro Wrestling World Title”. Vader was unbeatable. On this day, he faced Mitsuharu Misawa, the other hero. Misawa was competing for his unprecedented FIFTH AJPW Triple Crown Championship. Could Misawa fight for his fallen mentor, vanquish the beast, and bring the AJPW Triple Crown back into Japanese hands?

WWE has changed the names of two more of their upcoming PPVs.

As was reported by the various news sites, this Sunday’s PPV, now titled “The Bash” was originally titled “The Great American Bash” and was in July. In addition we learned that September’s “Unforgiven” PPV has been changed to “WWE Breaking Point” and is now a submission-themed PPV where we assume that the matches can only be won via submission (which will likely blow chunks).

We’ve learned today from wwe.com that two more PPVs are undergoing a name change. Early October’s No Mercy PPV (scheduled for October 4th) has now become “WWE Hell In A Cell” and yes, it is as we feared – an all Hell In A Cell PPV. Let’s just kill THIS gimmick match like we did our regular cage match why don’t we! WWE planned a Randy Orton vs. Triple H (groan) Hell In a Cell match as one of the main events of this year’s Summerslam show, but will they still do it now that they’re going to have an ALL HIAC show?

In addition, the October 25th Cyber Sunday PPV is apparently done-for. Now the show will be called “WWE Annihilation”. One can assume the voting gimmick has been put to rest.

While I am happy to see some of these changes, some just make my head ache. Cyber Sunday was a failed concept that should’ve been dumped years ago, and if you look at the dwindling buyrates for that show, you’d agree. WWE Annihilation sounds like a regular run-of-the-mill B-PPV show, which is really no different than Cyber Sunday except that it won’t have the “interactive” gimmick.

The Hell in A Cell show will excite some fans, but to me, it’s a horrible idea. It’s bad enough that WWE has a no blood policy currently in effect, but how often can you do a Hell in a Cell match where you don’t start reusing spots until they become played out? Foley fell off the top and through the cage, Edge went through the side door, Batista used a chain on Triple H, what ELSE can you possibly do inside of that structure that hasn’t been done? So we may have to sit through Maryse inside the Cell on PPV? This is a ridiculous idea that will kill the gimmick. Sure, skeptics will say “but D, TNA does an all cage PPV”. Yeah, and since when has TNA had a good idea? Then there’s the “UFC takes place in a cage” argument, which is laughable in every sense of the word. Will the show do good business? I’m going to assume that it will, but I think it will hurt WWE in the long run.

Maybe they should change Armageddon’s name to WWE No Buys.

I’m not sure I’ve ever linked to a Facebook fanpage to talk about a news item before, but, according to HBO Boxing’s fanpage, Floyd Mayweather vs. Juan Manuel Marquez has been rescheduled for September 19th.

Lots of folks were wondering if the fight would happen again or if Floyd would simply try to move on and fight Manny Pacquiao, but with Miguel Cotto and Pacquiao seemingly now a done deal, we’ll still get Floyd vs. JMM.

About that Pacquaio vs. Cotto fight…

The Sweet Science (Frank Lotierzo) has an article up about why Bob Arum would rather make a Pacquiao vs. Cotto fight, rather than letting Shane Mosley get after the Pac-Man.

Well, Cotto right now is probably the bigger name and is also a better match-up for Manny, but according to the article, Mosley thinks the reason is a bit different.

He (Arum) gets all the money in a fight between Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto.

While I still think Cotto/Pac is the bigger fight, though not by a lot, I’m sure it is much easier for Arum to make that fight, which is one people want. He will then have a few fights to choose from for either guy, so he’ll hold all the cards. If Pac wins, he’ll have the winner of Mayweather/Marquez and Mosley sitting right there. Same for Cotto. It’s a win win. He’ll hold all the cards.

Don’t forget to check out Victor Ortiz this weekend as he faces Marcos Maidana on HBO. Originally, also scheduled for the show was the rematch between Rocky Juarez and Chris John, but John pulled out because of an issue with a blood disorder.

Tim Starks dares you to try to not like Victor Ortiz.

Lastly, if you haven’t checked out the new EA Sports game, Fight Night Round 4, check it out. I played the demo a few weeks ago and enjoyed it and just purchased it the other day. It features Mike Tyson in his first video game in many moons, as well as many of the great fighters in the game today and some legends.

My cousin’s boyfriend Mike Strangis shows off his jiu-jitsu by tapping someone from the rubber guard.

Notice the voice in the background saying that he had no angle. Well, he just created one.

According to MMAJunkie, Former UFC Heavyweight Champion Andrei Arlovski is done with Affliction.

Affliction Vice President Tom Atencio refused to offer Arlovski a contract renewal after his two-fight deal with Fedor expired. Arlovski was knocked out by Fedor in the first round at Affliction’s second Pay Per View event in January. Since then, Arlovski has gone on to get massacred in 22 seconds by heavyweight upstart Brett Rodgers at the June 6th Strikeforce show from St. Louis.

We can’t confirm this, but one can assume that after suffering two first round knockouts back to back and not looking anywhere near being formidable since 2005, Atencio probably assumed Arlovski’s power as a drawing card and serious contender was rapidly dying out.

What does the future hold for Arlovski? Well the Russian has stated a few times that he wants to get into pro boxing, but with a jaw that is apparently as soft as feathers, he’ll probably get owned even by a lower level fighter. Arlovski made over 2 million dollars in his two fights with Affliction and that is plenty of money. Maybe he can be an accountant.

Monday’s historic commercial-free edition of WWE Monday Night Raw scored it’s highest rating in quite some time – 4.5. While a part of me is happy for WWE and I’m sure people are doing cartwheels at Titan Tower, I feel they failed to put on a blowaway show. If I have to watch another boring Big Show vs. John Cena match again, I think I may just drop WWE altogether. Orton vs. Triple H was another lackluster match, but nowhere near as terrible as the Wrestlemania match. Still – other than a couple of fun angles – I don’t think the show succeeded in drawing people back next week.

When I think about it, there are numerous reasons as to why the show did such a good number, but I’m not really sure what really pushed it that high. The show had a series of pay-per-view caliber matches in terms of booking (in fact a lot were rematches from the past couple of PPVs and Wrestlemania) as well as the presence of WWE superstars from all three brands. However, the main draw of the show was that it was the first (and we would find out last) night with Donald Trump as the “Owner of Raw”. They did a big press conference and whatnot to build up hype for the show and perhaps that popped the rating and got most of the casual audience to watch.

Therefore, a number of theories pop up as to why this show was so successful in terms of viewership:

- Commercial Free Aspect
- Because of the presence of all three brands
- Because of Orton vs. Triple H on Free TV
- Curiosity views from people who thought Trump bought Raw legitimately
- Other

So us here at FightGameBlog want to hear from YOU – the readership. We appreciate each and every one of you who check out our little site that could and want to hear your thoughts. Tell us what YOU think helped Raw get a 4.5 and why. To answer, click the little comment button underneath this post and let us know! When you click it, it will ask you for your name, e-mail, and website (if you have one) as well as a blank box. Feel free to fill in what you think and let us know (and don’t worry – e-mails are kept private).