WWE met with officials from SyFy a few times throughout the past few weeks focusing around shutting down the ECW brand, removing the letters ECW, and repackaging and rebranding their Tuesday Night timeslot into another wrestling show. The talk is to move the big names such as Christian, Regal, Benjamin and others to Smackdown or Raw and the idea of the show is to focus on up and coming young talent, which, other than the established guys, is exactly what that show has turned into.

Syfy and WWE’s Kevin Dunn both feel that the ECW brand is not strong enough. Kevin Dunn has been against ECW since the onset of the brand. Shane McMahon’s original plan for the ECW brand was to bring back the hardcore original ECW fans and use the ECW originals to do so, then slowly fade them out to bring in the new stars, which is sort of what they did in 2006 and 2007. In addition, they were supposed to run small arenas and compete against indy groups in the northeast (ROH, JAPW, etc). Shane’s plan was crushed by the narrow-minded Kevin Dunn, who feels WWE needs to be more sizzle than steak 100% of the time, as well as Stephanie and Vince McMahon who stuck their fingers in the pot and made it like every other WWE brand.

The current ECW on Syfy deal ends in December, so this move is not scheduled to take place until the first quarter of 2010. It will be interesting to see how they do this in storyline too.

I thought UFC 106 was a really strong show based on the action and number of fights we were able to see. D was a bit so-so about it, but Cactus Jim and I thought it was strong. It simply might be a case of too much MMA and nothing really standing out, but to me, this show stood above some of the others we’ve seen lately.

Here’s what we had to say about the show:

Big D
Thumbs in the Middle
Best Fight: Tito Ortiz vs. Forrest Griffin
Worst Fight: Paulo Thiago vs. Jacob Volkmann

To me, this is the fourth numerical UFC in a row that has been ehhh.. just okay. There was some good stuff on the card, such as the ultimate triumph of Little Noguiera, the first two rounds of Ortiz/Griffin, the post fight promo of that fight, but also some bad such as the replaying of the same undercard fights for both the special and for the PPV (I could’ve done without one), Baroni/Sadollah and that awful Thiago fight. Overall, not worth the hefty price tag.

Cactus Jim
Thumbs Up
Best Fight: Luiz Cane vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
Worst Fight: Josh Koscheck vs. Anthony Johnson
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Big D needed the night off as he prepared for his own Thanksgiving show, so Stevie J joined me to talk about the things in the MMA, pro wrestling, and boxing world we were thankful for.

We discussed Andre Ward vs. Mikkael Kessler and the rest of the Super Six World Boxing Classic. Stevie also wanted to give his thoughts on the possibility of a Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao fight.

We talked about UFC 106 and Tito Ortiz in general. Is the bloom off the rose of Tito Ortiz?

We wrapped up the show by chatting about WWE’s Survivor Series, Raw, and the upcoming TLC PPV.

Listen below.

Right click to download.

For those who aren’t familiar with the Super Six, or who might’ve started watching after it started this past October, here’s what Wikipedia says about the format of the tournament:

The competition starts with a group stage where each boxer will fight three times. A boxer is awarded 3 points for a win by knockout or technical knockout, 2 points for a win on points, 1 point for a draw and 0 points for a loss.

The top four from the group stage will continue to the semifinals, matching the leader against no. 4 and no. 2 against no. 3. The winners of the semifinals proceed to the final, for the tournament.

The WBC Super Middleweight Championship and WBA Super Middleweight Championship will be on the line for each of the champions’ fights. The winner of the Super Six World Boxing Classic will also be unified champion of the super middleweight division.

In the event of a fighter being unable to continue in the contest, a reserve boxer will enter in his place continuing from the previous fighters points.

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WWE presented their annual Survivor Series event last Sunday, traditionally highlighted by multi-man elimination tag matches. This year, we got three of those, plus one grudge match and two championship threeways. Was it any good?

Big D:

Thumbs Up.
Best Match: Team Orton vs. Team Kofi
Worst Match: Batista vs. Rey Mysterio

While the title matches were decent and the Batista/Rey match was simply an angle to get Rey off of TV and establish Dave as a relentless monster, it was the 5 on 5 Traditional Survivor Series Elimination Matches that made the show and more importantly – established new stars. Since the onset of the concept in 1987 with Bam Bam Bigelow battling Andre the Giant on his own in an effort to make him a big star (this was before he jobbed to a football player), WWE has used this event to introduce as well as catapult new stars. Sheamus, Drew McIntyre, and Kofi Kingston were all made huge here. Kofi Kingston got a pin over two former World Champions and they established a future CM Punk vs. Christian program.

Overall, a pretty fun show!

Duan:
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I remember being jazzed about the Survivor Series as a kid because after the turkey and gravy, there was something else to look forward to. You got to see some wrestling. Because the Survivor Series was on Thanksgiving and because they were tag team elimination matches, the show always had a special appeal. They weren’t always the best shows, but you always looked forward to it because what else were you going to do after eating turkey than fall asleep?

Well, that was a long time ago. But for some reason, this show still intrigues me. I always end up buying it no matter what. This year’s show has two stale matches on top, but there are still some interesting questions to be answered. Will Kofi Kingston push continue on this PPV? In the showcase of the youngsters, who survives in the match between Team Miz and Team Morrison? And how badly does Big Dave beat up poor Rey tonight? Well, we don’t have to wait much longer.

I will say this now just in case it happens, but if Shawn Michaels wins the title tonight, I think it’d be a nice capper, though they will never let him keep it longer than a month.

1. Team Miz (The Miz, Dolph Ziggler, Jack Swagger, Drew McIntyre, and Sheamus) vs. Team Morrison (Evan Bourne, Finlay, Matt Hardy, Shelton Benjamin, and John Morrison)

I guess I haven’t kept up with my ECW. Shelton is a good guy?

Matt Hardy and Evan Bourne did a double team elbow drop. Now that I think of it, that might be a pretty good tag team.

Dolph Ziggler is the first one out after being hit by Bourne’s “Air Bourne”. I guess the bloom is off the rose for him. Then Bourne walked into a big boot and double underhook DDT from McIntyre and he’s eliminated. We’re down to 4-4.

Sheamus in with Finlay which is the whitest match possible in WWE history. Sheamus big booted Finlay and he’s done.

The Miz and Hardy are in together and there’s just too much purple going on in the ring. And what’s up with Matt Hardy’s hairline?

Morrison hit the Starship Pain on Swagger for the pin. Now it’s 3-3 again.

After some help from Sheamus, The Miz hit Benjamin with the Skullcrushing Finale for the pin. Can’t we just call it the Stroke? It’s 3-2 in favor of Team Miz.

McIntyre hit the DDT on Hardy so it’s 3-1 Team Miz with Morrison left. This should be fun.

McIntyre’s hair is ridiculous. He looks part women’s bodybuilder part WNBA player.

Wow. Sheamus was the one to get the pin on Morrison. He hit him with the Razor’s Edge to win it. I loved the booking with this one, but I would’ve had McIntyre pin Morrison just because they’re on the same brand and could feud.

The Miz, Drew McIntyre, and Sheamus are the sole survivors.

Winner: Team Miz

They did a promo with Team Kofi simply to point out that Christian is the only white man on the team. It was funny and I laughed, but Christian is the ECW champ right?

2. Rey Mysterio vs. Batista
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Andre Ward is fighting in his hometown. Mikkel Kessler is the champion and favorite. This is really the defining fight in the young career of Ward. For Kessler, it’s a fight that will probably give him troubles, but is a fight that the champion wins. We’ll see what happens tonight.

Duan had Kessler winning by KO in the 9th. I have Kessler winning by decision. Tim Kawakami took Kessler by decision as well. But Kevin Iole has Ward winning the entire tournament, and Tim Starks has Ward winning by decision here as well.

Andre Ward vs. Mikkel Kessler

R1
Good round for Ward. He looks quick and is scoring with jabs and left hooks and is staying away from Kessler’s right hand.

R2
Better round for Kessler. He was able to close the distance better and scored to the body. Ward went back and forth between stances. They got into a clinch battle near the end and Ward got off a couple of good shots.

R3
This was Ward’s best round and he’s up 3-0. He’s beating Kessler to the punch and is able to get off punches when Kessler seems to be reloading and not ready for them. He hit him with a nice flush right hand that was the best shot of the fight thus far.

R4
Ward caught Kessler with a great straight hand after they were in a clinch. It’s the story of the fight thus far. He’s throwing punches and landing when Kessler isn’t expecting them. Yet another strong round for Ward. He landed a nice flurry late in the round and he’s up 4-0.
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What I really like about this card is that we should get some answers about contenders in two divisions. Is Tito Ortiz still the real deal? Can Forrest Griffin get over two straight losses? Is Anthony Johnson the real deal? Can Josh Koscheck make the leap? I have a feeling we’ll get most of those questions answered tonight.

1. Phil Baroni vs. Amir Sadollah

That was a pretty fun first round. Both guys came out strong. Baroni came out throwing bombs. Sadollah stuck him in the clinch by grabbing the back of his neck and starting ripping up knees. Baroni was also landing uppercuts from that spot. Baroni got a takedown and Sadollah looked like he wanted to grab an arm bar, but nothing happened. As is usually the case, Baroni got tired about half way in and Sadollah took over.

It’s actually pretty amazing that Baroni stayed on his feet for the entire round. Or, Sadollah isn’t a good finisher. Sadollah was all over him for the entire round. Sadollah was using kicks to keep Baroni at bay and digging with knees in the clinch. Baroni had a few nice shots, but you can tell that there wasn’t as much on them as there was in the first round.

Baroni took a beating the likes of very few this year. He was a mess by the time the fight was over. He was getting hit with kicks to the thigh, shin, and body, elbows and punches to the head, and knees to the head. It was really hard to watch Baroni take so much punishment late in the round, but he wouldn’t go down.

Winner: Amir Sadollah by way of unanimous decision

2. Antonio Rogerio Noguiera vs. Luiz Cane
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Tonight sees Mikkel Kessler and Andre Ward face off for the WBA Super Middleweight title in Showtime’s Super Six World Boxing Classic.

This is Andre Ward’s chance to make a real name for himself in the Super Middleweight division. Ward is a Gold medalist from the 2004 Olympics, who has gone undefeated in 20 bouts since turning pro. The guy is a superb natural athlete, incredibly quick, and has exceptional technical skills. He has everything that is required to become a breakout star, but he has never truly been tested inside the professional ring. Tonight, he will be.
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I was able to catch some of the Strikeforce Challengers show on Showtime last night. I have to admit that I was intrigued to see Kerry Vera and Kim Couture, more so to see how far Vera has come as I enjoyed her on the Oxygen show “Fight Girls”, which also starred Gina Carano. And I wanted to check out Tyron Woodley as well.

I’ve seen Kim fight live and she has a ton of heart, but isn’t ready for some of the better female fighters. But she sure as heck doesn’t shy away from contact. Vera is a kickboxer and is as quick as a hiccup. It didn’t bode well for Couture. Couture did something odd in her stand-up and I think it was so that she could throw her right hook. Her stance was right-handed and then right before she threw a punch, she’d chance her stance and throw a lunging right hook. I don’t think she landed with that once. But she did land a few hard jabs, only to receive a shot in return from the quicker Vera.

Vera was impressive in that she was in and out and she was landing with accuracy. Couture had much slower hands and as much as she tried to cut off the cage, Vera was just too quick. Vera got her up against the cage and just unloaded on her. Couture had a noticeable hematoma and was bleeding from what looked like her nose.
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