I say this every year and I’ll say it again; the Royal Rumble is my favorite show of the year. There’s something about the intrigue of the Royal Rumble as it pertains to the booking on the Road to WrestleMania.
Underneath the big rumble, The Undertaker and Rey Mysterio should be fun, and Randy Orton vs. Sheamus will be interesting to say the least. Let’s hope young Randall Orton keeps his cool if Sheamus isn’t exactly in the right spot.
1. Christian vs. Ezekiel Jackson
Early on, it was a cat and mouse game with Christian running around like a chicken with his head cut off. They had some fun big man/little man stuff that was fun. When Big Zeke was on the offense, he hit all his big power moves and Christian sold very well. But the match slowed down a little.
They showed some creativity during the finish as Christian was looking to hit the Killswitch/Unprettier and Zeke was looking to hit power moves. Christian finally hit his finisher for the win. It was much better than it had any right being and that’s thanks to Christian, but Zeke was fine too.
Winner: Christian
To show you how out of touch the WWE can be at times, Cryme Tyme was trying to get into the Royal Rumble and tried to finagle The Great Khali out of his spot so they could both get in. The Great Khali said no, and Ranjin said that they learned their hip talk from watching Family Matters reruns. On queue, Khali said, “Did I do that?” And then Teddy decided to start singing Pants On The Ground at Cryme Tyme. The Miz came out and Teddy told him that he has to face MVP next. Then Khali started to sing, “Who let the dogs out?”
Cody came out and told Randy that he was on board, but Ted wasn’t and Ted wanted to win the Rumble and face Orton for the World Title (of course assuming that he could beat Sheamus tonight).
While Herschel Walker’s pro debut and Bobby Lashley’s Strikeforce debut have been more of the focal point of this show, it’s Nick Diaz and Marius Zaromskis that will be in the main event for the Strikeforce welterweight championship.
The rest of this card should be fun. Cris Cyborg is defending her title against Marloes Coenen and Robbie Lawler is fighting Melvin Manhoef in what should be a slugfest.
1. Bobby Lashley vs. Wes Sims
Well, we saw enough of Wes Sims on the last season of The Ultimate Fighter. Sims took the fight on one week notice and he doesn’t look in shape at all.
Sims tried to get Lashley to contest him in a test of strength but Lashley wasn’t having it. It wasn’t much of a fight. Lashley took Sims down and unloaded about 15 short rights to his face. Sims gave up his back because he couldn’t keep Lashley off and flattened himself out. Lashley landed a few more shots before the referee stopped the fight.
Access Atlanta is reporting that the city of Atlanta, GA has won the bid to Wrestlemania 27 in the Georgia Dome in 2011. This Monday there is a press conference scheduled there at noon.
Historically, Atlanta has always been a hotbed for professional wrestling in the 1980s, with Ole Anderson and the Briscoes presenting Georgia Championship Wrestling from the legendary Omni in Atlanta. Once Jim Crockett Promotions purchased Georgia, they ran numerous events in the territory including Starrcade, the biggest annual event.
In the 90s, there have been a handful of big pro wrestling shows from Atlanta, capping off with two record-breaking WCW Nitros. The summer of 1998 had a record 40,000+ fans watch the undefeated Goldberg beat Hulk Hogan for the WCW Championship in what many consider the biggest Nitro of all time (and the biggest crowd in WCW history). January 4th, 1999, WCW hoped to top it even further by presenting another historic Nitro, but this show was historic for other reasons: the finger poke of doom.
Many people thought that this Nitro “killed the town”. If that didn’t do it, who can forget the historic 2001 episode of Raw is War where WWE brought back ECW, led by Paul Heyman and the debuting Rob Van Dam and Tommy Dreamer to battle the forces of the WWF and WCW… until the end of the night when Stephanie McMahon was revealed to be the owner of ECW and aligned with WCW. This became the biggest flopped angle in wrestling history. If WCW didn’t do damage, THAT certainly did.
Me personally, I wanted it in Miami. Oh well… can’t win em all.
Atlanta’s Phillips Arena is the site for this Sunday’s Royal Rumble PPV.
I put this piece together for Fanbase, but also wanted to add it here so those fans who don’t really know of Herschel Walker’s college and pro football career, could learn a little about him before he has his first fight, which is January 30th, on Showtime.
The story of Herschel Walker almost seems made up. Most have heard the stories about how he supposedly has never lifted a weight in his life, about how his granite-like body is the result of thousands of push-ups and sit-ups every day. The fact that it seems so far fetched only adds to the greatness of his story.
Or how about the story that he eats only one meal a day which consists of chicken soup, bread, and salad? He’s stated that it was because he was always transitioning from sport to sport and never had time to eat on a regular schedule. The eye-rolling that story inspires only adds to his legend.
He was one of the greatest college running backs ever to handle the pigskin. After finishing his collegiate career at Georgia, he held eleven NCAA records including most rushing yards as a Freshman (1,616), Sophomore (1,891), and most yards rushing in three seasons (5,259).
After just one year at Georgia, he contemplated leaving school for the Canadian Football League for a 3-year 1.5 million dollar contract.
He flirted with challenging the NFL’s rule that a college athlete couldn’t come out of school and into the draft until he had four years in school after only his Sophomore season because he thought the rule was unconstitutional. Continue Reading »
You’ve heard the stories, well WE’VE got the video folks. This is TNA Director of Set Production Steve Small telling the Impact Zone fans that they are “cast members” and to “watch their language”. This is from the January 18th TNA Impact Tapings that concluded a few hours ago. He tells them to know their role… seriously.
The first TNA PPV of the Hulk Hogan era is in the books and is getting all sorts of mixed reviews all throughout the interwebs. GG and I were the only ones who got to see it from FGB, so here are our thoughts:
GG Thumbs in the middle
Best match – Kurt Angle vs. AJ Styles
Worst match – Tara vs. ODB
I don’t mind sacrificing great wrestling to push angles if you deem them important first off. But none of the stuff they pushed as huge was really all that big. Ken Anderson was a huge let down. There were only two matches that were really good. I liked Desmond and Pope because it was something different. It was long and had some boring spots, but it was easy to follow and they told a good story. Angle and AJ was good, but not great. I don’t like AJ as a heel or as a Ric Flair like character. It looks like something that’s doomed to fail.
Also, Daniels losing to Morley was terrible. That kind of stuff is a what makes people change the channel and what doomed WCW. I give them a bit of a mulligan because they don’t have their stuff together, but also can’t give this anymore than a thumbs in the middle.
Big D Thumbs in the Middle
Best match – The Pope vs. Desmond Wolfe
Worst Match – Tara vs. ODB
We saw a bunch of changes, including a new set, ramp, and now FOUR-Sided ring. But these are NOT necessarily the changes I hoped for with Hogan and Bischoff in control. The “WWE jobbers” as I call it were put over way too often, with Ken Anderson flopping in his victory over Abyss and the former Val Venis botching in HIS win over Chris Daniels, who by the way was MAIN EVENTING the last two TNA PPVs and having classic matches in both. Some good stuff though was the main event and the awesome Pope vs. Wolfe match, which I think stole the show. At first I was lukewarm to the idea of AJ Styles as a heel, then I realized he’s too short and not believable as a bad guy. I’m a wrestling fan and I’m supposed to BOO AJ Styles and Ric Flair? Huh? Big mistake. There were a LOT of mistakes made on this show, and some small improvements… so it’s gotta be in the middle.
I say this every year and I’ll say it again; the Royal Rumble is my favorite show of the year. There’s something about the intrigue of the Royal Rumble as it pertains to the booking on the Road to WrestleMania. 
While Herschel Walker’s pro debut and Bobby Lashley’s Strikeforce debut have been more of the focal point of this show, it’s Nick Diaz and Marius Zaromskis that will be in the main event for the Strikeforce welterweight championship.
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