While the Rock’s latest performance was quite awesome, I was left more so scratching my head at exactly what they’re building to. Last night on Rock’s Facebook page, he posted a photo of a boot stomping on a John Cena hat, which whet the appetite at the possibility of him coming on Raw to answer John Cena.

Cena and The Miz cut a terrible promo together with Cena’s stuff seemingly taken from the Brian Gerwitz comedy hour that did more harm than good in building up their WrestleMania main event match. Cena made Miz look like a small child, someone who isn’t worthy of holding the title and is more jabroni than main-eventer. I fail to understand how that type of booking makes anyone want to see a match. This is worse than how WrestleMania X-8 Chris Jericho was booked.

And if Cena made The Miz look like a small child, the Rock made Cena look like a bug underneath his shoe, or maybe a Cena hat underneath his shoe. The Rock massacred Cena, but did it in a way where all he was really doing was sticking up for himself, using Cena’s own material against him. It was brilliantly done, but at the end, I felt like two things were for sure. One, that Cena isn’t on Rock’s level. And two, they’re building up a match that’s not taking place, better than the match that is taking place.

Check it out for yourself:
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The attendance was 18,186 and the gate was 3.5 million, a million more than last year’s show.

No Dana at the press conference.

Here were the bonuses ($75,000):

Fight of the night – Brian Ebersole vs. Chris Lytle
Submission of the night – Kyle Noke
Knockout of the night – Mark Hunt

Highlights of the press conference:

Michael Bisping says that Dana told him to keep it cool after the fight.

BJ Penn says he doesn’t think he’d deserve the shot at the welterweight belt if GSP vacates it. Jon Fitch said he’d fight BJ for the title if GSP moves up to 185.

Bisping says the illegal knee wasn’t on purpose even though Jorge Rivera’s camp thought it was. He says they just need to get over it and move on.

BJ says that he doesn’t know what he would’ve done had he lost and he’s disappointed that he gave away the third round. Fitch says he expected more out of himself.

BJ says that he was tired of boxing and moving away and decided to get back to being a grappler. Fitch says the strategy threw him off until the second round.

Bisping says that the trash talking motivated him, but he’s emotional and he speaks from his heart.

Fitch says he’s not sure if he gets a title shot now and leaves it up to the bosses.

We live blogged the Ion prelims earlier if you missed it.

In my opinion, the story of the night will be if BJ Penn has greatness left in him, or if a wrestler can now just overpower him. GSP and Frankie Edgar are both really good wrestlers, but they didn’t overpower Penn to the ground. GSP used his standup to set up his great shots, while Edgar used his quickness to out-strike Penn, and eventually get him down a couple of times. But Fitch’s game isn’t necessarily to use his strikes to set anything up. He uses his strength and will to stick to his game plan and wear guys out. It’s a good match-up. He’s also probably going to be at least 15 pounds heavier than Penn come fight time.

1. Chris Camozzi vs. Kyle Noke

Camozzi had a nice little combination, but got caught, went in for a clinch, was immediately taken down and submitted in a rear naked choke. It was fast and it wasn’t really competitive.

Winner: Kyle Noke by way of 1st round submission

2. Brian Ebersole vs. Chris Lytle

Ebersole immediately tried a cartwheel kick to start out the fight. Lytle is just loading up his right hand. Ebersole shot in and was immediately stuck in a guillotine. Ebersole flipped over and turned his body to get out of it. Ebersole tried to get out and was put right back in the guillotine. Ebersole fought out of it and ended up on top of Lytle throwing shoulder thrusts into his face. He must’ve cut him with one of them.

Lytle is loading up on that right hand again and not even really setting it up. It’s predictable, but it looks harsh every time he throws it. Ebersole has countered off it a couple times, but not with much on it. He landed a knee on Lytle and Lytle’s legs went out from underneath him. Ebersole went for a D’Arce choke to try and finish him. He had him up against the cage, stuck his head underneath Lytle’s arm and picked him up and slammed him. What a crazy round this is.
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The UFC is going all out on the prelims tonight and it’s actually sort of funny because this is one of their weaker cards of late. Out of the twelve fights, their plan is to show ten of them (two on Facebook, three on Ion, and five on the PPV).

The main event of the Ion fights features Spencer Fisher against Ross Pearson.

The results of the Facebook fights saw Chinese fighter Tiequan Zhang stop Jason Reinhardt very quickly with a guillotine choke and Anthony Perosh submit Tom Blackledge in the first round with a rear naked choke.

Nick Ring faces Riki Fukuda in the first prelim fight on Ion.

1. Nick Ring vs. Riki Fukuda

It was a nice little back and forth to start the show. Fukuda is pretty relentless and scored two takedowns, one right at the end of the round. Ring’s leg kicks and overall striking game was better, and the mix of styles made it a really solid round.

Both guys look good. It’s going to be a close fight if it goes all the way to decision. Fukuda got another takedown, and much like the first round, Ring had the better striking, though Fukuda held his own.

Fukuda got another takedown and actually held position for a bit and then shot in and got another one. Ring should be fighting with a little more urgency, but he’s not. Even though Ring looked like the stronger person, Fukuda was able to hold him down. Ring may have just been tired. This was easily Fukuda’s round.

Winner: Nick Ring by unanimous decision

The scores were 29-28 all in favor of ring. I would’ve had it the other way around. I’m not sure how Ring won that second round at all, and he for sure was outclassed during that third round.

2. Alexander Gustafsson vs. James Te Huna
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I know most fans are lamenting that the undercard is lacking. I pretty much agree. There aren’t too many big names before the main event, and that will probably hurt the buy rate. But whenever I get a chance to watch BJ Penn fight, it’s a positive thing.

Jorge Rivera has also done a yeoman’s job to hype his fight with Michael Bisping. If you haven’t seen the UFC 127 Countdown show, see it. Their piece on Rivera was riveting.

The FGB crew, along with Stevie J from Angry Marks, and friend of the site JP, have predictions ready for what we consider the top three fights on the show.

George Sotiropoulos vs. Dennis Siver

Duan: Sotiropoulos by 2nd round submission
Alan: Sotiropoulos by 2nd round submission
Stevie J: Sotiropoulos by 1st round submission
JP: Sotiropoulos by 2nd round submission
Cactus Jim: Sotiropoulos by 3rd round submission
GG: Sotiropoulos by 2nd round submission

Duan says:

I hate keep busy fights. There’s far too much room for error at this level, especially when there is one eye on a bigger match-up further on up the road. That’s exactly the position George finds himself in now. A title shot can’t be too far off, but first he must get through Siver, who is a decent fighter at 155. George’s class should ultimately tell though. Look for a submission finish towards the end of the second.

Alan says:

As much as they got Siver’s spinning back kick (aka Rolling Sole Butt) over in the Countdown to the point where I really wanna see him win with it, I’m still rooting on Georgie as he’s one of my favourites, and a very entertaining fighter. He’ll need to weather a storm here, but I think he’ll be able to do so. He’ll drag Siver into his world on the ground and finish him with relative ease (by arm triangle).

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The best match I’ve seen so far this year, an absolute belter for All Japan’s junior title. Minoru and Kaz Hayashi, two of the smoothest, most gifted pro wrestlers of our generation tear it down in Korakuen Hall in a match filled with fluid technical wrestling, beautiful strikes, elaborate counters, bigtime nearfalls all building to a dramatic finish. Enjoy!!!