In the two big early fights, Kid Yamamoto was tapped out by Vaughan Lee in the first round and Takanori Gomi knocked out Eiji Mitsuoka. I didn’t see it, but it sounds like the building exploded when Gomi put him away.

1. Joe Lauzon vs. Anthony Pettis

Well, the show started with some electricity. Lauzon must’ve been looking for something other than a high kick because Pettis drilled him with one and he went down hard. Pettis followed up with punches and it was over.

Winner: Anthony Pettis by way of 1st round TKO

2. Bart Palaszewski vs. Hatsu Hioki

Hioki was amazing, but so was Palaszewski. Hioki knocked him down early, but it was the submission game that had Palaszewski near close to being finished. Hioki went triangle to arm bar, to arm bar again and it looked like Palaszewski’s arm was going to snap, but he stayed calm and was able to get on top of Hioki. Has to be 10-8.

Much better round for Palaszewski. He was kicking and moving, staying away from being taken down. He and Hioki traded strikes and Hioki went for a takedown, didn’t get it, but moved to the back before the round ended.

Hioki got a strong-man takedown and went right to the ground and pound and much of it from side control. Palaszewski turned over and Hioki immediately got his back. Palaszewski fought the rear naked choke even with Hioki’s body triangle. Palaszewski survived. Really good fight.

Winner: Hatsu Hioki

The scores were 30-27, 29-28, and 30-28

3. Tim Boetsch vs. Yushin Okami
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After tonight’s PPV, we should know where things are going for WrestleMania. Santino Marella was put in the Smackdown chamber match after Randy Orton was declared out because of a concussion. But was a tweet earlier today from Christian that alerted us that he may be in Milwaukee for a show. Might Santino be out of the chamber before he was even in?

Looks like we’re opening up with the Raw chamber match, which may lead to a title change in the Smackdown chamber match, or it may not. But it’s a little surprising that the Raw chamber match opens up the show.

1. Raw Elimination Chamber (Chris Jericho vs. The Miz vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. R-Truth vs. Kofi Kingston vs. CM Punk)

Order of entrance: Punk, Kofi, Dolph, R-Truth, The Miz, and Jericho.

Order of exit: R-Truth, Dolph, Kofi, Jericho, Miz

Chris Jericho gets to be the last guy in the cage after winning the match on Raw. CM Punk and Kofi Kingston open up the match. Truth was the first guy to go out after eating a flying elbow drop from Punk. Kofi is the star of the match with all of his athleticism. Jericho finally came in and he and Punk had a minute or so with each other and then Jericho gave Dolph the Codebreaker. Down to four.

Kofi with the high cross from the top of the pod and onto Miz and Punk. Kofi tapped out to the Walls of Jericho. When they were pulling Kofi out of the chamber, Punk kicked Jericho out of the chamber and he took a big fall. Jericho is still out. Miz hit the Skull-crushing Finale for a close two-count on Punk. Punk hit the GTS to beat Miz to keep his belt. Jericho was counted out?

Winner: CM Punk

2. Tamina vs. Beth Phoenix

Crowd doesn’t care at all about this match. They weren’t all that loud for the Raw chamber either. Tamina hit the Superfly splash, but Beth kicked out. There goes Tamina’s gimmick. Beth then finished her with a Glam Slam. Match was fine, neither good or bad.

Winner: Beth Phoenix

Laurinitis came to the ring and campaigned for the Smackdown GM job. He wants to be GM of both brands. Alberto Del Rio returned and backed him. So did Mark Henry. And finally, so did Christian. I can’t believe we paid for that. Otunga took a photo of all of them together in the ring and tweeted it out.
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It’s my favorite PPV of the year and it generally delivers. We’ve done tremendous coverage on the show on the site so far with our preview articles and all that’s left is the wrestling.

1. Daniel Bryan vs. Mark Henry vs. The Big Show

The story of this match is that Daniel Bryan is a pinball and he’s bouncing around for Big Show and Mark Henry. Mark Henry couldn’t really do anything. He was not the world’s strongest man tonight. He could barely get his foot off the ground.

Bryan went to the top of the cage to try and leave, but the every so swift Big Show kept catching him. Big Show trapped Daniel Bryan’s arm and then also had him by his head so it looked like Bryan was hanging from the top of the cage, which was pretty cool. Show had a grip on him and Bryan was hanging from Show’s wrists, and finally let go and won the match.

Winner: Daniel Bryan

Bryan did the “Yes” screams after the match. (Photo sent in by my friend Jenn who is there live.)

2. The Bellas, Natalya, and Beth Phoenix vs. Alicia Fox, Eve, Kelly Kelly, and Tamina

Beth Phoenix tagged herself in by slapping one of the bellas pretty hard, immediately gave Kelly Kelly the Glam Slam for the win. Beth projects her character better than most of the dude wrestlers.

Winner: The Bellas, Natalya, and Beth Phoenix

3. John Cena vs. Kane
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This UFC on Fox show is a big picture show. In pro wrestling, if you were to book the winners, you’d have Rashad Evans beat Phil Davis to set up his big fight with Jon Bones Jones. You’d also have Chael Sonnen slaughter Michael Bisping to set up his big fight with Anderson Silva. But it doesn’t always happen the way you want it to. The UFC has taken a risk in making both of these fights. If Davis and Bisping have an upset state of mind, those big fights become smaller fights and hurt the UFC’s bottom line. But that’s why this sport is so great. Anything can happen.

Curt Menafee says this is the first of four UFC shows on Fox this year. Well, at least if the shows bring in solid ratings or no one is violently hurt.

Menafee, Randy Couture, and Jon Jones are on the panel for the pre-game stuff. Menafee says that if Evans wins, he gets Jones at UFC 145 in Atlanta.

1. Chris Weidman vs. Demian Maia

You have a good wrestler and a great jiu-jitsu guy. Of course the first round is nearly all on the feet. Earlier, Maia seemed to be getting the best of it, but later in the round, Weidman was much more comfortable. Maia is telegraphing his right hand and Weidman was able to avoid it mostly. But Maia did land some nice knees. Weidman was varied with his kicks and punches. Weidman also got a takedown late.

Weidman had an early takedown and he fell immediately into side control. Weidman was tired for most of it and Maia was able to outstrike him, but not in any significant way. Pretty boring round until Weidman was able to secure another takedown and was working for Maia’s back. I think that last takedown and attempt toward submission may have secured him the round.

Maia is also tired and the third round suffered because of sloppiness. Maia was so tired that he went for a takedown, Weidman sprawled and Maia face planted. This isn’t necessarily the kind of fight that’s going to keep an audience. With Weidman having to cut so much weight, it was ripe for the taking for Maia and he just looks absurdly tired. I’d give the fight to Weidman simply because he closed rounds better and fought a smarter tactical fight than Maia did.

Winner: Chris Weidman by way of split decision

The scores were 29-28 once for Maia and the same twice for Weidman.

Bisping called Sonnen the UFC’s court jester. Sonnen cut a Saturday Night’s Main Event-like promo and said that fighting Chael Sonnen is hazardous to your health.

2. Michael Bisping vs. Chael Sonnen

Very active first round. Sonnen was all over Bisping early on and Bisping was on his heels. He took him down seconds into the fight, but wasn’t able to keep him down. Bisping looked flustered, but figured him out. Bisping’s striking was crisp while Sonnen’s was wild. Sonnen’s stand-up was so wild that it looked like he was going to conk Bisping in the head when he missed his left hand.
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Sometimes, cards that don’t look great on paper turn out to be fun. As a fan, your expectations are lowered and you can just enjoy the action. Let’s hope that UFC 142 is that way because on paper, it looks like a bit of an afterthought.

The big news yesterday was that Anthony Johnson’s body shut down when he was trying to cut weight and he weighed in at 197 for a 185 pound fight. Vitor accepted the fight as long as Johnson didn’t weigh more than 205 this morning and Johnson has to give him 20% of his purse. The fight will go on.

1. Terry Etim vs. Edson Barboza

The first round featured a ton of leg kicks and some nice boxing. Neither guy really got the advantage and while a lot of strikes scored, no one was in trouble. Leg kicks may hurt Etim in the next couple rounds.

Etim started to gain some momentum late in the round, but Barboza’s striking is more varied and he’s landing the harder shots. Etim needs to close out strong to win this one.

Holy cow! Barboza threw a wheel kick and caught Etim right in the face with his heel. Etim went stiff and out.

Winner: Edson Barboza by way of 1st round TKO

2. Carlo Prater vs. Erick Silva

Well, that was fast. Silva landed a right hand, then a knee when Prater buckled and them hammer fists on the ground and it was over. Uh oh. The referee is going to take away Silva’s victory because of shots to the back of the head. There have been many worse occurrences of hitting in the back of the head. Silva got a raw deal.

Winner: Carlo Prater by way of disqualification

3. Mike Massenzio vs. Rousimar Palhares
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As I said in the preview, I’m kind of surprised that this fight is happening. With all the injuries this year, the two biggest guys in the UFC made it through unscathed. It’s really a monster movie kind of fight. And, it’s also a your classic striker vs. wrestler match-up.

The undercard was all decisions. That tells me we’ll see all finishes on the main card.

1. Jimy Hettes vs. Nam Phan

Hettes owned the entire first half of the round. He took Phan down a couple times, locked in a guillotine, and was laying into him with the ground and pound. I thought it was going to be stopped. Phan was able to get back up, which tells me that Hettes might not be a hard hitter. Phan looked like he was going to start doing well in the standup, but Hettes hip tossed him. Hettes went for an arm bar, but Phan fought it, taking a beating in the process. Has to be a 10-8 round.

It was Hettes’ round yet again. Not quite 10-8 this round. He was using all kinds of throws to get Phan on his back and was going for submissions, but Phan was fighting them. If Hettes could punch a bit, this fight would be over.

Both guys are pretty tired. If Phan had a chance, it was when they were standing up and Hettes looked to be more tired. But soon thereafter, Hettes took him down again and was slamming him with punches and elbows from the top. He gave him another beating to easily win the fight.

Winner: Jimy Hettes by way of unanimous decision

The scores were 30-25, 30-25, 30-26.

2. Alexander Gustafsson vs. Vladimir Matyushenko
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