And you thought Brock Lesnar wouldn’t do the Ultimate Fighter TV show.

For whatever reason, Dana White is wearing a Saturday Night Live shirt. Also, there will be no fighting to get into the house. They are also bringing back the wild card.

Lesnar and Dos Santos are evaluating talent. Lesnar should go all wrestlers. Dos Santos isn’t talking to as many guys as Lesnar is because he doesn’t speak English as well.

Dana brings them into his office and he flips a coin to choose who gets to pick first. Brock wins the coin flip and he gets to choose first.

Brock chose Len Bentley first. Dos Santos chose Shamar Bailey.

I’d list the rest of the picks, but they didn’t put names on the screen while Dana was announcing them.

Junior gets to pick the first fight. I have a feeling they’re going to limit his talking. He’s not all that confident speaking on camera. Myles Jury tweaked his knee when they were wrestling in the cage and the diagnosis is a torn ACL. Brock also chose him. The doc said he shouldn’t fight. He wants to stay in the house to learn from Brock, but Dana won’t let him. Dana says he’ll be back. Maybe he’ll invite him to be on another season. Chuck O’Neil replaces him. I wonder if Junior picks him immediately?

JDS picks his first pick Shamar to take on Brock’s last pick Nordin Asrih, who is one of the more veteran guys. Shamar says there’s a difference between European fighting and American fighting. Asrih wants to stand up and Bailey wants to wrestle.

Asrih is a bit taller, but Bailey has a much larger wingspan.

Nordin Asrih vs. Shamar Bailey

Shamar walked right into a couple of shots and Asrih grabbed a guillotine. Bailey immediately took him down and pretty much fell into side control. They were back on their feet and Shamar landed a knee and then got another takedown. He pretty much stayed on top of him for the rest of the round.

It was more of the same in round two. Shamar finally go the mount and started throwing bombs from the top and did so until the round was over.

Winner: Shamar Bailey by way of unanimous decision

I don’t imagine this fight did well in the ratings. It was horrendously boring. Also, the Lesnar/JDS dynamic wasn’t much yet. Hopefully it gets better as the season goes on. None of the fighters really got a chance to stand out either, personality-wise.

Maybe the best thing about this episode is that Dos Santos’ team beat Lesnar’s by straight wrestling.

Big D from Superfriends’ Universe and I cut a two-part podcast covering WrestleMania’s Greatest Matches and previewing WrestleMania 27. This is part one.

(If you want to check out part two, go here: WrestleMania 27 Preview Part Two.)

We first cover the matches that were ranked from 25-16 on our list before going over Raw and where things stood on the go-home Raw, including talking about what could possibly happen with Edge, Christian, and Alberto Del Rio, the great HHH/Undertaker angle and the John Cena/Miz/Rock ending to the show.

Right click to download or stream below.

Big D from Superfriends’ Universe and I cut a two-part podcast covering WrestleMania’s Greatest Matches and previewing WrestleMania 27. This is part two.

(If you missed part one, go here: WrestleMania 27 Preview Part One.)

In part two, we get right back to the list of WrestleMania’s Greatest Matches starting with 15-6. We segue into the match-by-match preview of WrestleMania 27 and our thoughts on what matches may be good, which may not get time, and which may simply be fillers.

We then finish off the WrestleMania’s Greatest Matches list and also talk about who is in our WrestleMania Mount Rushmore.

Right click to download or stream below.

Much like the event itself, it seems like the tradition around these parts is for the Emperor himself, the most handsome man on the radio, the most cunning, witty, mentally superior being in the history of the internet absolutely MUST do the most expansive and extensive preview of the biggest pro wrestling event of the year – Wrestlemania. Don’t let them fool you, this is still pro wrestling.

It’s been 10 Years since Wrestlemania X-Seven, considered by nearly everybody to be the greatest Wrestlemania of all time, and the buzz around this one is centered around a man who main evented that particular show: The Rock. WWE’s failure to make a star on the level of the Rock can’t really be blamed solely on them: they come along once in a blue moon. Still, there have been even more stacked lineups to Manias in the past few years (last year is a great example) and even THEY have not been able to touch X-Seven.

Today we present the Ultimate Wrestlemania XXVII preview, featuring everything you need to know about Wrestlemania, detailing the big matches, predicting the winners and losers, and maybe speculating on what surprises may come.

This Year’s Panel Includes:
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WWE did many things right for WrestleMania 26 that they incorrectly at WrestleMania 25. The show was built around the same match – Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker. But for WrestleMania 26, rather than try to sell the title matches as the main event like they did at 25, they decided to put Shawn Micheals vs. The Undertaker on last and let them close it out.

They booked two strong title matches before the main event and overall, this was a very strong show. But there was one thing missing that is very apparent from the second you turn on the show. And it didn’t hurt my live viewing so I didn’t even know about it until I watched it back. What’s missing is Jim Ross.

The announcing was so subdued on this show that I barely noticed it. Sometimes that isn’t a bad thing. You can let the wrestling speak for itself. But at WrestleMania, nothing can be subdued. Everything has to be up another level. And without Jim Ross, the announcing took this show down a level. Live, I thought it was much better than it came across on the DVD. The announcing crew of Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler, and Matt Striker were off their game. Striker was stepping over Lawler’s punchlines and Cole was just pushing everything as positive which came off fake. If JR was there announcing, it might’ve made it one of the classic WrestleManias of all time.

For the most part, all the matches made complete and perfect sense. Like what happens at most WrestleManias, many matches were cut short on time. If some of the matches had more time, they could’ve been all-time classics. But, in a four hour show, you can’t have all classics. All the matches have to give the viewer and the audience something a little bit different. And WrestleMania 26 did this very well.

For your die-hard in-ring wrestling fans, Edge and Chris Jericho had a near 4 star quality match. Live, it was definitely 4 stars, but back on DVD it wasn’t as hot. I’m not exactly sure why. The finish, where Jericho won clean with the code-breaker was fine live, but seemed a bit anticlimactic on DVD. Also, after the match, when Edge speared Jericho off the announcer’s table and through the barricade, it was awesome live, and on the DVD, was just a fun stunt.
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The FGB crew has revised our top WrestleMania match list by adding matches from the past two WrestleManias. Thus, we have a new top 25.

Here is the final countdown, 5-1:

5. Kurt Angle vs. Shawn Michaels – Wrestlemania 21
Alan says:

It was a dream match in every sense of the word. The first meeting of Shawn Michaels vs. Kurt Angle was a bout that could have only taken place on the Grandest Stage Of Them All. In my opinion, this was the last classic Kurt Angle match. He’s had some good ones since and even a great one (vs. Yugi Nagata in 2008) but this match with HBK may have been his swan-song as far as matches of this caliber. Both wrestlers performed to the peak of their powers, wowing the crowd from bell to bell. The match culminated with some of the most dramatic nearfalls in Mania history and some absorbing submission teases. The spot where Shawn, with his tank past empty, mustered up one last superkick was incredible. It wasn’t enough though, as the ankle lock got synced back in and in a rarity, the babyface Shawn tapped clean.

Winner: Kurt Angle

(Remember Sexy Kurt?)

4. Chris Benoit vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H – Wrestlemania XX
GG says:

This match is going to be overlooked because of how WWE has tried to erase it from history and because of trying to erase Chris Benoit from history. Or, it’s going to be remembered even more fondly for the same reason. At any point, it was the perfect match with the perfect ending. I remember screaming at Triple H, pleading with him to tap so that Chris Benoit could finally win the strap. And when he did, I think I gained more respect for Triple H than I’d ever had. To me, at that point in wrestling, Benoit was everything that was right, and Triple H wasn’t. I’d be a fool for thinking that afterward, but not at that moment.

And who can forget the final scene in the middle of the ring with Chris Benoit’s family and one of his best friend’s in Eddie Guerrero standing next to him, congratulating him on winning something he’d earned because of hard work. WWE may try to erase that memory from history, but I’ll never forget it, no matter who Chris Benoit turned out to be.

Winner: Chris Benoit

3. Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker – Wrestlemania 25
GG says:

I feel pretty luck that I was able to see both Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker matches in consecutive years at WrestleMania, while also being inside of the building. There’s a good chance that I may never see WrestleMania live again, but for two years, I was able to be in the building to see two of the three greatest WrestleMania matches on our list.
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