It was quite the tale of two shows last weekend. On one hand, you had UFC 129, which broke the UFC attendance record headlined by one of their biggest stars, George St. Pierre, fighting in Toronto. On the other hand, you had a show that the world generally forgot about with WWE Extreme Rules. That usually happens the month after WrestleMania.

However, the forgotten show seemed to be at least even with the huge UFC show, even if there wasn’t much hype to it.

The FGB crew gives you their thoughts about both shows below.

UFC 129

Alan
Thumbs Up
Best Fight: Mark Hominick vs. Jose Aldo
Worst Fight: Jake Shields vs. Georges St. Pierre

Fun show to watch. Lots of drama, cool atmosphere and on pace to be one of their best shows before the disappointing main event.

Cactus Jim
Thumbs Up
Best Fight: Mark Hominick vs. Jose Aldo
Worst Fight: Jake Shields vs. Georges St. Pierre
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WrestleMania 27 has come and gone and there are mixed emotions. There was a good and bad things about the show, but because of all the hype concerning the show, I think most of us were a bit let down when it was all said and done. Big D is back to give us his thoughts, and since he has many, we’ll let him hit clean up.

Here’s what we thought of the WrestleMania 27:

Duan
Thumbs In The Middle
Best Match: HHH vs. The Undertaker
Worst Match: John Cena vs. The Miz

A couple of weeks ago, I spoke with GG about how Wrestlemania 25 was the only time I was ever disappointed with a Wrestlemania. Sure there have been worse cards in the past (much worse in fact), but this was a show which could have been great, but WWE blew it. I now view 27 in much the same light.

They got the match ordering spectacularly wrong again. Winning The Royal Rumble now earns you the prestigious honour of being beaten and humiliated in the opener. Months of building Del Rio as the next big star went out the window. And why? To protect Edge who isn’t even over in the first place. Their use of time was appalling. My God, they wasted a lot of time on this show. Eleven months of the year they cope just fine with three hours on PPV. You give them an extra hour and suddenly there’s no time for anything. How does that even happen? Danielson’s match was cut entirely. Two others only went a matter of seconds. Why would you even bother having the eight man tag if it’s only going to last a minute? It served no purpose other than burying The Corre. On the other hand, Lawler/Cole got way too much time. The beating Cole got really didn’t live up to the build, and reversing the decision just furthered soured me on the match.

The Rock’s involvement throughout the night was worse than useless. If you are considering arguing this point, JUST STOP. You are wrong. People give Cena flak for being cheesy. Rock’s stuff in the last couple of weeks (and particularly on this show) was nothing short of embarrassing. His opening speech was excruciating, the backstage vignettes, worthless.

It wasn’t all bad though. Cody vs. Rey had its moments, and Orton/Punk was actually a really good old school wrestling match. But when the pressure was on it was the two old men who stood up and were counted. HHH and Undertaker gave us one of the all time great Mania matches. For my money, this was HHH’s best ever performance. Whether it topped either of Taker’s matches with Shawn is really irrelevant at this point. It saved the show from being a total disaster.

I thought beforehand that Cena and Miz would be fine closing out the PPV. Boy, was I wrong. It fell flat, the booking was horrendous, and it just wasn’t any good anyway. To have this match finish the biggest show of the year can only be considered a colossal disappointment. Other than the Taker/HHH classic, this is not a show I ever want to relive.

Alan
Thumbs In The Middle
Best Match: HHH vs. The Undertaker
Worst Match: Michael Cole vs. Jerry Lawler
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UFC 128 was built around one man, and one man only; Jon Jones. Fortunately for the UFC, Jones won, and won big. It was quite a risk building the entire show around him, including putting together a SpikeTV special for him that aired just days before the show. It seemed a bit odd considering Shogun Rua was their champion and he was being dwarfed in the media by Jones, including being a huge underdog with the books in Vegas.

Here’s what we thought of the UFC 128:

Duan
Thumbs In The Middle
Best Fight: Jon Jones vs. Shogun Rua
Worst Fight: Dan Miller vs. Nate Marquardt

A dull show with a newsworthy main event.

Nothing on the undercard really warrants being talked about, so let’s skip straight to what matters. This was a fantastic win for Jon Jones, but people have got wrapped up in hysteria following the show. This is still a really young guy with a lot left to learn. Everybody is going on like he’s the second coming of Muhammad Ali. No pressure kid! It’s absolutely ridiculous.

To bring sanity back to proceedings, let’s recap what I have been saying for the last twelve plus months.
1. The UFC Light heavyweight division is a far cry from what it was in the Liddell glory days.
2. The title belt has been bouncing around like it was booked by Vince Russo.
3. Shogun looked like a champion against precisly one opponent, Lyoto Machida, who he matched up well against. Last weekend he looked a lot more like the guy who was stopped by Forrest Griffin and gassed out after two minutes against a 300 year old Mark Coleman.

Now, I’m not saying that Jones can’t be THAT guy for UFC, but let’s not get too ahead of ourselves just yet. Give him some time to grow into the role of champion first.

UFC’s presentation style is beyond annoying at this point. They have made every single aspect of the show cliche. I’m sick of feeling like I’m watching a three hour long commercial. Look, I don’t care who sponsors Bruce Buffer’s hair, Joe Rogan’s beard or Dana White’s watch. Stop trying to squeeze every miserable penny imaginable. There will still be profit enough.

Alan
Thumbs In The Middle Leaning Up
Best Fight: Kamal Shalorous vs. Jim Miller (no real standout FOTN type matcheson the main broadcast, but this was my favourite)
Worst Fight: Dan Miller vs. Nate Marquardt (not too bad a fight at all, but probably the most boring on the card)
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Is it possible that Sergio Martinez, at 36 years old and after 51 fights, is still getting better? It sure looked that way last Saturday night when he outboxed, outfought and just outclassed Sergiy Dzinziruk. After all, Sergio only started to Box in his twenties. We are talking about a guy who always keeps himself in phenomenal shape and who hasn’t had the years of wear and tear that a lot of these other fighters have had. The same set of rules just won’t apply to him. Another late starter in the game was Bernard Hopkins. He’s a decade older than the Argentinian and has no plans of quitting anytime soon. Father time just got sick of chasing B-Hop once he passed forty, so I wouldn’t count on any sudden decline from Maravilla either.
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When I started going back through the UFC video catalog after I became a hardcore dedicated fan, there were some shows that seemed left of center. Patrick Cote was a contender for Tito Ortiz’s belt? How did that happen? Vitor Belfort beat Randy Couture? How did that happen. There have been some flukey shows in UFC history. That’s how I feel about UFC 127. It was quite the flukey show.

When new MMA fans go through the catalog, they’ll probably wonder, “Who in the blue hell is Brian Ebersole?” And, “Why did Michael Bisping knee Jorge Rivera right between the eyes when he was down?” Or, “How did George Sotiropoulos screw up his title shot?” The show was just odd, but I enjoyed it for its odd charm. The rest of my FGB crew didn’t like it was much as I did.

Here’s what we thought of the UFC 127:

Duan
Thumbs Leaning Down
Best Fight: Dennis Siver vs. George Sotiropoulos
Worst Fight: Chris Camozzi vs. Kyle Noke

There was nothing particularly wrong with this show per se. It just lacked any sense of finality. There wasn’t a clear-cut winner or stand out performance in any of the three major fights on the card. Sotiroploulos/Siver could have been decided on a coin flip. It was a stupid match to make in the first place as I alluded to in the preview. A future main event was lost with nothing gained. I believe the Bisping fight would have finished in much the same way regardless, but the result was tainted by the illegal knee in round one. And then the main event ending as a stalemate really just capped the whole thing off. I thought Penn clearly won the first two rounds before losing the last one big. My card was 29-28 Penn, but a draw was probably a fair reflection of the fight overall.

Alan
Thumbs In The Middle
Best Fight: Jorge Rivera vs. Michael Bisping
Worst Fight: None that I watched were any worse than the others
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You could say the WWE is two for two in 2011. Elimination Chamber picked up right where Royal Rumble left off and if this is not the best WWE PPV of the year, we may be in for a good year.

Here’s what we thought of Elimination Chamber:

Duan
Thumbs Up
Best Match: Alberto Del Rio vs. Kofi Kingston
Worst Match: Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel vs. Santino and Koslov

That PPV gap between Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania can be tricky to fill, but they absolutely nailed it this year. Everything on this show was exactly what it need to be: matches, character development, storyline progression; all perfect. This is quality pro wrestling so enjoy it while it lasts.

This show gave Alberto the shot in the arm he needed heading into Mania. While I still don’t believe Edge is the right man to have across the ring from him, it was clearly the direction WWE were committed to. Given only that option, they have done their best with it. I can still see the match dying a thousand deaths come April 3rd, but the build has been quite well booked.

If John Morrison never manages to take that final step up in WWE, it wont be from lack of trying. I’m somebody who in the past questioned his legitimacy as a true top contender, but the guy has done absolutely everything you could ask of him these past few months. He was the star of the show again last night and that was amongst good competition.

Alan
Thumbs Way Up
Best Match: Smackdown Chamber
Worst Match: Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel vs. Santino and Koslov
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