Tonight is the WWE’s 25th Royal Rumble. It is a pretty lack luster card, but with the Rumble the first of the WWE’s Big Four shows for the year. Of course the main event of the night is the 30-man Royal Rumble match in which two men start and every two minutes another competitor enters the ring. Eliminations take place when a wrestler is thrown over the top rope and both of his feet touch the ground. The last man standing wins a world championship match against either Raw or SmackDown’s champ at WrestleMania. The Rumble match is always fun and the main reason to order the show, though the undercard should be entertaining enough though there are no United States or Intercontinental title matches. Here’s the deal:
John Cena vs. Kane
This is a bizarre grudge match. Kane has returned once again wearing a mask with long hair that is so terribly fake and attached to the mask and trunks so bootleg looking with flames on them I almost didn’t believe it was actually Kane at first. Kane has repeatedly gone after Cena demanding that Cena embrace the hate of the WWE fans. Kane went so far as to brutally attack Cena’s friend and current United States Champion Zack Ryder and “injure” him. This has caused Cena to go nuts and beat the shit out of people with no remorse. This angle has been extremely lame and random as it serves no purpose other than to just give Cena something to do while he waits for The Rock to get done promoting movies so they can hype up WrestleMania. Cena doesn’t lose, and I don’t see him losing at one of the biggest shows of the year to a guy who is hardly relevant anymore. Cena wins easily.
World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan vs. Mark Henry vs. Big Show in a Steel Cage
The whole gimmick for this feud is that Bryan is such a little guy and Henry and Show are so huge. Bryan has spent weeks running away from both of them and retaining his belt in cowardly fashion, which of course means he will win convincingly tonight. I could not care any less about this match. Bryan Wins.
WWE Champion CM Punk vs. Dolph Ziggler with Guest Referee Raw General Manager John Laurinaitis
The whole CM Punk-Laurinaitis (here-in referred to as Johnny Ace since that was his name when he was a shitty wrestler) feud is a rehash of the Stone Cold Steve Austin-Vince McMahon feud from the 90s meant to tide Punk over until he likely builds for a program with Chris Jericho at WrestleMania. Johnny Ace of course wants Ziggler to win, but for the sake of his job he will most likely call the match fair and square. That said, Ziggler has done a pretty good job working his way up into the main event and will likely become champion before the year is out. However, don’t expect that to be the case tonight. Punk is the top guy right now and is, as he says over and over, the best wrestler in the world. And really, how am I not going to pick the guy I put in the banner for our site as the winner? This is going to be the best match on the undercard and most likely of the entire night since you have the best in the business and another very good wrestler in the ring. In terms of storyline and such though, the finish of the match isn’t really a mystery. CM Punk retains of course.
30-Man Royal Rumble
The event is taking place in St. Louis, the hometown of 2009 Rumble winner and former WWE and World Champion Randy Orton. He was WWE’s early pick to win but he was sidelined with an injury earlier this year and just returned this past week on SmackDown. They wrote him off in terms of storylines by having Wade Barrett beat the hell out of him, and Barrett’s feud with Orton hasn’t really been resolved. The show is in Orton’s hometown and WWE does have a thing with no longer having the winner of the Rumble be a new main eventer (the last few years have seen Undertaker, Edge, Cena, and Orton all win), so Orton seems like an obvious choice. It is also worth noting that WWE has always loved Orton and pushed him in spite of problems backstage and the fact his in-ring work is a little on the bad side and he is staler and stale.
The only other likely winner is the recently returned Chris Jericho. Jericho is one of the greatest in-ring performers and mic workers in the history of the business, though he has yet to wrestle and the only time he has spoken was to say this past Monday on Raw that the Rumble would be the end of the world. The big rumor is that it will be Jericho and Punk at Mania so having Jericho win tonight would set the wheels in motion. Orton has been a perennial main eventer for years so he doesn’t really need the win, and his program with Barrett isn’t done. I could easily see this ending some stupid way with Jericho coming out and just high fiving everybody sitting ringside like he has been then running backstage and as Orton eliminates Barrett at the end Jericho just pops up behind him and throws him out. Regardless of how it happens I still think Jericho wins.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Thursday, January 12, 2012
What's Up with the Association's Top Teams?
We are slightly farther into the NBA season and even though it has only been a few days since I last shared my thoughts on the world’s greatest game, there have been some developments worth discussing regarding some of the league’s biggest and brightest teams.
Wow have these last few days been a learning experience or what? First, we find out Dwyane Wade may have plantar fasciitis. For those unaware, that is a very painful inflammation in the foot. After missing three games due to soreness in the foot, Wade was adamant he was fine and returned against the Warriors on Tuesday and looked very good, scoring 34 points and shooting 48%. However last night he shot 35% en route to to 17 points and a loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. With this vicious schedule putting teams in action with hardly any rest, that foot is going to be a nagging issue that could come back to haunt Miami big time since Wade has hit both game winners for the team this season.
As for LeBron James, he spent the summer training with NBA legend Hakeem Olajuwon to improve his post game. Hakeem’s career highlight is leading the Houston Rockets to back-to-back championships, leading to the city being dubbed “Clutch City.” Apparently Hakeem couldn’t do much for him as LBJ has spent the last two nights constructing “Anti-Clutch City” for himself and his fellow Heatles by performing miserably in the fourth quarter and overtime of both games. LeBron did practically nothing against the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday, notching three points in the fourth and overtime...combined. Then last night LeBron went 1-6 in the fourth and overtime, and missed several crucial free throws down the stretch. Granted it was one game in January, but it is worth pointing out the Heat have won on two game winners this season and they weren’t LeBron. Now when he’s had the ball in his hands in the clutch he’s been ineffective and cost the team. It is great LeBron has taken his game inside the three point arc and is using his superior athletic skills, but until he gets over whatever it is in his head the Heat are in serious trouble if Wade is out.
I get so nervous thinking about Chicago's issues so I look at this to relax
You want to talk about a team in trouble? Chicago has the deepest team in the league and may very well be the best team in the league, but there are some concerns moving forward. The most important is Derrick Rose’s health. He missed last night’s game with a sprained toe and has been having issues with his left elbow. He says he is fine, but who is really going to come out and say “Yo I’m fucked up, man”? If his toe is hurt badly then he won’t be able to drive as much and this is not a good thing. No Rose means no offense in the Windy City since there is not one person on that team who can create for themselves consistently.
The other major issue here is Carlos Boozer and Joakim Noah. The Bulls are paying them a whole lot of money and in the fourth quarter of the last few games they’ve been doing a whole lot of sitting on the bench. People have theorized that coach Tom Thibodeau doesn’t trust them enough to play them in the late game situations, but I feel it is too weird that they are sitting for an entire quarter. My theory on it is that they are both injury prone so he is going to limit their minutes in the early season to play them longer stretches come playoff time. At least that is what I hope this is all about. If Rose is jacked up, their next best scoring options are Boozer, Rip Hamilton, and Luol Deng. Rip is nursing a groin injury, Deng plays too many minutes to be relied on too often, and if Boozer isn’t even playing then this is all very bad. And Joakim Noah’s defense and rebounding is key to the team’s success, but if he isn’t being used due to ineffectiveness, then Chicago is in some serious trouble in their quest for a ring.
People are saying Durant and Westbrook are fine, but I just don’t buy it. I also don’t like how Westbrook’s percentages are going up, but his assists have stayed the same. I don’t buy that Westbrook and Durant will coexist peacefully and win a title. Well maybe they can win one, but I don’t know how great this relationship will be in the future. The Thunder also have a bit of an issue now with Eric Maynor, their back-up point guard, going down for the season with a torn ACL. He was an important piece of that Thunder depth and if the injury bug starts hitting them harder this is going to be a long season.
Some will say Kobe is playing great, I will say Kobe is hogging the ball because he wants to send some kind of a message that he’s still good. Yeah good for him, let’s see how taking 30 shots a game works for them come playoff time. I still refuse to believe that the FIFTEEN YEARS of wear and tear on his body aren’t going to come back and haunt him during this insane schedule. He is already nursing like four different injuries, and if doesn’t take time to heal and keeps trying to do so much this won’t end well. And even if the injuries don’t pile up for Kobe, the Lakers can’t win a championship if he is playing like this. I am glad for Mike Brown that the Lakers are playing better than people thought they would, but sadly reality is going to hit this team at some point.
Also, Andrew Bynum is going through the best stretch of his career. Let’s give it about six more games before he gets injured. And that is very sad because Bynum and Gasol up front gives LA an advantage over almost everybody, but for some reason Kobe is taking the most shots per game he has since 2006...when they had Kwame Brown and Smush Parker. Keep in mind Kobe is older and more beat up than he was back then. The Lake Show is almost over so we should enjoy it while we can. Kobe doesn’t have Phil Jackson there to stop him from being so enamored with being Kobe. Mike Brown is an enabler who allowed LeBron James to build up the biggest ego on the planet, so we can expect more of the same here.
That is it for now. There are games on TNT tonight that will be so bad I will more than likely spend my night reading Keith Richards’ autobiography and watching WWE’s Bret Hart compilation from 2005. Why on Earth do I want to watch the unbelievably overrated Knicks take on a Grizzlies team missing their best player? And why would I want to watch Dwight “I am half-assing it because I don’t want to be here in Orlando” Howard play the Warriors? Yuck.
Miami Heat:
Artist rendering of LeBron James last night
Artist rendering of LeBron James last nightWow have these last few days been a learning experience or what? First, we find out Dwyane Wade may have plantar fasciitis. For those unaware, that is a very painful inflammation in the foot. After missing three games due to soreness in the foot, Wade was adamant he was fine and returned against the Warriors on Tuesday and looked very good, scoring 34 points and shooting 48%. However last night he shot 35% en route to to 17 points and a loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. With this vicious schedule putting teams in action with hardly any rest, that foot is going to be a nagging issue that could come back to haunt Miami big time since Wade has hit both game winners for the team this season.
As for LeBron James, he spent the summer training with NBA legend Hakeem Olajuwon to improve his post game. Hakeem’s career highlight is leading the Houston Rockets to back-to-back championships, leading to the city being dubbed “Clutch City.” Apparently Hakeem couldn’t do much for him as LBJ has spent the last two nights constructing “Anti-Clutch City” for himself and his fellow Heatles by performing miserably in the fourth quarter and overtime of both games. LeBron did practically nothing against the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday, notching three points in the fourth and overtime...combined. Then last night LeBron went 1-6 in the fourth and overtime, and missed several crucial free throws down the stretch. Granted it was one game in January, but it is worth pointing out the Heat have won on two game winners this season and they weren’t LeBron. Now when he’s had the ball in his hands in the clutch he’s been ineffective and cost the team. It is great LeBron has taken his game inside the three point arc and is using his superior athletic skills, but until he gets over whatever it is in his head the Heat are in serious trouble if Wade is out.
Chicago Bulls:
I get so nervous thinking about Chicago's issues so I look at this to relaxYou want to talk about a team in trouble? Chicago has the deepest team in the league and may very well be the best team in the league, but there are some concerns moving forward. The most important is Derrick Rose’s health. He missed last night’s game with a sprained toe and has been having issues with his left elbow. He says he is fine, but who is really going to come out and say “Yo I’m fucked up, man”? If his toe is hurt badly then he won’t be able to drive as much and this is not a good thing. No Rose means no offense in the Windy City since there is not one person on that team who can create for themselves consistently.
The other major issue here is Carlos Boozer and Joakim Noah. The Bulls are paying them a whole lot of money and in the fourth quarter of the last few games they’ve been doing a whole lot of sitting on the bench. People have theorized that coach Tom Thibodeau doesn’t trust them enough to play them in the late game situations, but I feel it is too weird that they are sitting for an entire quarter. My theory on it is that they are both injury prone so he is going to limit their minutes in the early season to play them longer stretches come playoff time. At least that is what I hope this is all about. If Rose is jacked up, their next best scoring options are Boozer, Rip Hamilton, and Luol Deng. Rip is nursing a groin injury, Deng plays too many minutes to be relied on too often, and if Boozer isn’t even playing then this is all very bad. And Joakim Noah’s defense and rebounding is key to the team’s success, but if he isn’t being used due to ineffectiveness, then Chicago is in some serious trouble in their quest for a ring.
Oklahoma City Thunder:
I have no clever image for this one
People are saying Durant and Westbrook are fine, but I just don’t buy it. I also don’t like how Westbrook’s percentages are going up, but his assists have stayed the same. I don’t buy that Westbrook and Durant will coexist peacefully and win a title. Well maybe they can win one, but I don’t know how great this relationship will be in the future. The Thunder also have a bit of an issue now with Eric Maynor, their back-up point guard, going down for the season with a torn ACL. He was an important piece of that Thunder depth and if the injury bug starts hitting them harder this is going to be a long season.
Los Angeles Lakers:
This is all I think of when I think of Kobe
This is all I think of when I think of KobeSome will say Kobe is playing great, I will say Kobe is hogging the ball because he wants to send some kind of a message that he’s still good. Yeah good for him, let’s see how taking 30 shots a game works for them come playoff time. I still refuse to believe that the FIFTEEN YEARS of wear and tear on his body aren’t going to come back and haunt him during this insane schedule. He is already nursing like four different injuries, and if doesn’t take time to heal and keeps trying to do so much this won’t end well. And even if the injuries don’t pile up for Kobe, the Lakers can’t win a championship if he is playing like this. I am glad for Mike Brown that the Lakers are playing better than people thought they would, but sadly reality is going to hit this team at some point.
Also, Andrew Bynum is going through the best stretch of his career. Let’s give it about six more games before he gets injured. And that is very sad because Bynum and Gasol up front gives LA an advantage over almost everybody, but for some reason Kobe is taking the most shots per game he has since 2006...when they had Kwame Brown and Smush Parker. Keep in mind Kobe is older and more beat up than he was back then. The Lake Show is almost over so we should enjoy it while we can. Kobe doesn’t have Phil Jackson there to stop him from being so enamored with being Kobe. Mike Brown is an enabler who allowed LeBron James to build up the biggest ego on the planet, so we can expect more of the same here.
That is it for now. There are games on TNT tonight that will be so bad I will more than likely spend my night reading Keith Richards’ autobiography and watching WWE’s Bret Hart compilation from 2005. Why on Earth do I want to watch the unbelievably overrated Knicks take on a Grizzlies team missing their best player? And why would I want to watch Dwight “I am half-assing it because I don’t want to be here in Orlando” Howard play the Warriors? Yuck.
Sunday, January 8, 2012
2011: The Year of the Retirement
While 2011 saw the rise of new champions like Jon Jones and the potential development of new stars at lightweight and welterweight, it also saw the (alleged) retirement of several big names in the sport. Let’s take the time to look back at them (or at least the ones I can remember), their careers, and if it was the right decision.
Randy Couture: The Natural announced his retirement prior to his April 2011 fight against Lyoto Machida, one where he was absolutely pasted with a jumping crane kick to the jaw that popped out a few teeth. For Couture, retirement has always been a matter of when. He’s pushing 50 and has found a lucrative job in movies, plus he has accomplished so much in his legendary career, that there was really nothing left for him to prove. He took on what turned out to be an insurmountable challenge against Machida, but he had always been about risk and testing himself against the best fighters, so he couldn’t go out any other way. Despite the loss, Couture can retire with his head held high and that’s something most people in his line of work don’t do.
Matt Hughes: The former longtime UFC Welterweight Champion hasn’t officially retired, but he effectively closed the door on his career after getting knocked out by Josh Koscheck this past fall. For Hughes, I feel like he stuck around for one or two more fights than he needed to. His desire to fight had seemed to noticeably wane over the past several years, and the strength and wrestling advantage he held over everyone during his heyday no longer existed. He probably should have retired after beating Ricardo Almeida in August 2010 and definitely after BJ Penn levelled him in November 2010, but he seemed to waffle on the idea of it throughout the bulk of 2011. I’ve always been of the opinion that if you are unsure of whether or not you want to continue, you should stop. So much of fighting is mental and if you aren’t 100% committed to the idea of fighting, you shouldn’t be doing it. I would think that losing to Koscheck is enough to put Hughes out to retirement, as he lost to a guy who had just fought for the title in his previous fight. It’s not like he was beaten by Dan Hardy or someone who he would have tooled seven years ago and needs to regain some modicum of self respect.
BJ Penn: While on the topic of guys who aren’t 100% into fighting, let’s get right to BJ Penn. BJ claimed he was retiring after an exciting, but decisive loss to Nick Diaz this past October. Since destroying Diego Sanchez in December 2009, his interest in fighting and intensity level has waned. Frankie Edgar’s a tough guy, but there is no way a fully committed BJ Penn doesn’t beat the tar out of him. At his best, BJ is a fighter who can do it all - wrestle, box, and use top notch jiu jitsu - and do it better than anyone else. His weakness has always been in training. A notoriously lazy trainer, it has become obvious that even though he wants to fight he doesn’t want to put in the work to keep himself in peak condition for fights. Before the Diaz fight, he spoke openly about fighting at welterweight so he wouldn’t have to cut to lightweight (even though he is much better at lightweight and wouldn’t face the massive size disadvantages at welterweight) and generally didn’t seem too thrilled about fighting anymore. I think that if his retirement sticks, it’s a good move. His legacy has taken a huge hit over the past few years due to that lack of desire to work hard and dominate like he did during the early part of his career and his 2007-2009 run as UFC Lightweight Champion. Lately, there have been rumblings that he is interested in fighting again. I hope that he only does this if he truly wants to be the best again. Anything less than that and he goes from being a legend to a “Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda Been” that had a couple of good but unsustainable runs at the top.
Mirko Cro Cop: The Croatian heavyweight finally called it quits after losing to Roy Nelson in October 2011. This was expected, and came three or four years too late. He has openly debated retirement since shortly after his stunning knockout loss to Gabriel Gonzaga in 2007 and has noticeably declined over the years. The combination of several injuries to his knees that ruined his ability to throw his patented head kicks with the devastating fury he had in his PRIDE days and an increasing lack of motivation to fight made his drop off from 2006 Open Weight Grand Prix Champion to cannon fodder for up and comers especially depressing to see. It’s a shame that UFC fans never got to see Cro Cop at his best during his killing machine days in PRIDE, where he laid scores to waste. Instead, they got to hear about a guy who was a lethal striker but really seemed afraid to pull the trigger in most of his fights after the Gonzaga loss. During his last two losses (Schaub and Nelson), he appeared to regain some of that fire and came close to finishing both men before getting knocked out himself. In some ways, this was better than just watching him get pummeled by Junior Dos Santos with no response. It showed that he still had some of the desire he had in his younger day. On the flip side, it was heartbreaking because five or six years ago Schaub and Nelson would have been two more notches on his record. Regardless of the disappointment of his UFC stints, I’ll still remember Cro Cop fondly for his time in Japan and excellent use of Duran Duran as his entrance music.
Brock Lesnar: Following his first round finish at the knees of Alistair Overeem, Brock Lesnar became the latest MMA star to call it quits. I have no doubts about his sincerity in the matter. He has shown a propensity to bail on things when the going gets tough, but in this case I don’t blame him. His bout with diverticulitis really crippled his career as a fighter. It did this in multiple ways. First, it weakened him and when combined with aging, robbed him of his greatest attributes - freak strength and speed. Once he lost those gifts, it exposed the significant holes in his game, namely being that he had poor stand-up, an adversity to getting punched, and a one dimensional gameplan based solely on securing a takedown and going from there. He had shown improvement in his striking and transitions going from Herring to Couture to Mir, but the illness severely limited his ability to grow and learn new skills. If anything, he severely regressed against Carwin, Velasquez, and Overeem. While the first two names on that list have solid wrestling skills to limit Lesnar, Overeem does not and he was able to stop Lesnar’s lone takedown attempt. Once Lesnar lost that option, he became a punching bag (or kicking bag in Reem’s case) to those men. If he was younger or MMA was a viable option when he left college instead of WWE or hadn’t missed nearly two years of training due to illness, who knows what Lesnar would have been able to achieve. While his fight career is not impressive, the amount of new eyes he was able to bring to the sport is and should be considered his greatest achievement. Without Lesnar, there’s no UFC on Fox or a lot of the big pay per view buys Zuffa pulled in during his time.
While I doubt 2012 will have nearly as many notable retirements as 2011, there are quite a few that wouldn’t surprise me: Tito Ortiz, Wanderlei Silva, and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira are three that spring to mind.
Randy Couture: The Natural announced his retirement prior to his April 2011 fight against Lyoto Machida, one where he was absolutely pasted with a jumping crane kick to the jaw that popped out a few teeth. For Couture, retirement has always been a matter of when. He’s pushing 50 and has found a lucrative job in movies, plus he has accomplished so much in his legendary career, that there was really nothing left for him to prove. He took on what turned out to be an insurmountable challenge against Machida, but he had always been about risk and testing himself against the best fighters, so he couldn’t go out any other way. Despite the loss, Couture can retire with his head held high and that’s something most people in his line of work don’t do.
Matt Hughes: The former longtime UFC Welterweight Champion hasn’t officially retired, but he effectively closed the door on his career after getting knocked out by Josh Koscheck this past fall. For Hughes, I feel like he stuck around for one or two more fights than he needed to. His desire to fight had seemed to noticeably wane over the past several years, and the strength and wrestling advantage he held over everyone during his heyday no longer existed. He probably should have retired after beating Ricardo Almeida in August 2010 and definitely after BJ Penn levelled him in November 2010, but he seemed to waffle on the idea of it throughout the bulk of 2011. I’ve always been of the opinion that if you are unsure of whether or not you want to continue, you should stop. So much of fighting is mental and if you aren’t 100% committed to the idea of fighting, you shouldn’t be doing it. I would think that losing to Koscheck is enough to put Hughes out to retirement, as he lost to a guy who had just fought for the title in his previous fight. It’s not like he was beaten by Dan Hardy or someone who he would have tooled seven years ago and needs to regain some modicum of self respect.
BJ Penn: While on the topic of guys who aren’t 100% into fighting, let’s get right to BJ Penn. BJ claimed he was retiring after an exciting, but decisive loss to Nick Diaz this past October. Since destroying Diego Sanchez in December 2009, his interest in fighting and intensity level has waned. Frankie Edgar’s a tough guy, but there is no way a fully committed BJ Penn doesn’t beat the tar out of him. At his best, BJ is a fighter who can do it all - wrestle, box, and use top notch jiu jitsu - and do it better than anyone else. His weakness has always been in training. A notoriously lazy trainer, it has become obvious that even though he wants to fight he doesn’t want to put in the work to keep himself in peak condition for fights. Before the Diaz fight, he spoke openly about fighting at welterweight so he wouldn’t have to cut to lightweight (even though he is much better at lightweight and wouldn’t face the massive size disadvantages at welterweight) and generally didn’t seem too thrilled about fighting anymore. I think that if his retirement sticks, it’s a good move. His legacy has taken a huge hit over the past few years due to that lack of desire to work hard and dominate like he did during the early part of his career and his 2007-2009 run as UFC Lightweight Champion. Lately, there have been rumblings that he is interested in fighting again. I hope that he only does this if he truly wants to be the best again. Anything less than that and he goes from being a legend to a “Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda Been” that had a couple of good but unsustainable runs at the top.
Mirko Cro Cop: The Croatian heavyweight finally called it quits after losing to Roy Nelson in October 2011. This was expected, and came three or four years too late. He has openly debated retirement since shortly after his stunning knockout loss to Gabriel Gonzaga in 2007 and has noticeably declined over the years. The combination of several injuries to his knees that ruined his ability to throw his patented head kicks with the devastating fury he had in his PRIDE days and an increasing lack of motivation to fight made his drop off from 2006 Open Weight Grand Prix Champion to cannon fodder for up and comers especially depressing to see. It’s a shame that UFC fans never got to see Cro Cop at his best during his killing machine days in PRIDE, where he laid scores to waste. Instead, they got to hear about a guy who was a lethal striker but really seemed afraid to pull the trigger in most of his fights after the Gonzaga loss. During his last two losses (Schaub and Nelson), he appeared to regain some of that fire and came close to finishing both men before getting knocked out himself. In some ways, this was better than just watching him get pummeled by Junior Dos Santos with no response. It showed that he still had some of the desire he had in his younger day. On the flip side, it was heartbreaking because five or six years ago Schaub and Nelson would have been two more notches on his record. Regardless of the disappointment of his UFC stints, I’ll still remember Cro Cop fondly for his time in Japan and excellent use of Duran Duran as his entrance music.
Brock Lesnar: Following his first round finish at the knees of Alistair Overeem, Brock Lesnar became the latest MMA star to call it quits. I have no doubts about his sincerity in the matter. He has shown a propensity to bail on things when the going gets tough, but in this case I don’t blame him. His bout with diverticulitis really crippled his career as a fighter. It did this in multiple ways. First, it weakened him and when combined with aging, robbed him of his greatest attributes - freak strength and speed. Once he lost those gifts, it exposed the significant holes in his game, namely being that he had poor stand-up, an adversity to getting punched, and a one dimensional gameplan based solely on securing a takedown and going from there. He had shown improvement in his striking and transitions going from Herring to Couture to Mir, but the illness severely limited his ability to grow and learn new skills. If anything, he severely regressed against Carwin, Velasquez, and Overeem. While the first two names on that list have solid wrestling skills to limit Lesnar, Overeem does not and he was able to stop Lesnar’s lone takedown attempt. Once Lesnar lost that option, he became a punching bag (or kicking bag in Reem’s case) to those men. If he was younger or MMA was a viable option when he left college instead of WWE or hadn’t missed nearly two years of training due to illness, who knows what Lesnar would have been able to achieve. While his fight career is not impressive, the amount of new eyes he was able to bring to the sport is and should be considered his greatest achievement. Without Lesnar, there’s no UFC on Fox or a lot of the big pay per view buys Zuffa pulled in during his time.
While I doubt 2012 will have nearly as many notable retirements as 2011, there are quite a few that wouldn’t surprise me: Tito Ortiz, Wanderlei Silva, and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira are three that spring to mind.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
You Were Always On My Mind: Early NBA Season Edition
The NBA season is off to a hot start after the dreadful lockout robbed us of about two months of action. As the season goes on the quality of game will most likely drop since so many people will be worn down thanks to the brutal 66-game schedule, but for now the games have been pretty good. Some players aren’t totally in game shape again - *COUGH* Mavericks *COUGH* - but in spite of that there have already been some crazy games and moments. Most teams have played seven to nine games at this point, and while that isn’t a huge sample size to determine how this season will go, there are still details that can be picked from the games. Sadly I haven’t watched many games thus far, but from what I’ve been paying attention to, here are the players that I’ve had on my mind:
Kobe Bryant: Dude is taking a LOT of shots. Granted Andrew Bynum was suspended for the first four games, but still Pau Gasol is there dude. LA’s offense is a lot of Kobe standing around then jacking up some shots he shouldn’t. I wonder if Mike Brown is coaching! Kobe has been scoring a ton and looked to be efficient in three of the first four games, but then he shot 12-46 over the course of two games before rebounding with a 48% shooting performance on Tuesday night. Here are the causes for concern: Kobe is getting injections in his torn wrist before every game, he has a dead finger, and bad knees. His body is not going to last during this brutal schedule. At least he had a great quote after his 6-28 shooting performance in a loss to the Nuggets. Kobe Bean said, “I do what I do. If guys are open, I kick it to them, if they're not, I shoot it. I play my game." He plays his game. A lot of the time that will be going into multiple defenders and shooting, often times missing as he’s lost a great deal of his explosiveness. But he plays his game. Neat stat: When the Lakers were on a three game win streak, Kobe took 17 shots then 17 again then 18. They’ve since gone 2-2 and Kobe has attempted an average of 27.25 shots per game, taking no fewer than 24 in a loss to Portland. A loss where if you check the play by play you’ll see he started taking too many shots he missed after getting dunked on by Gerald Wallace and looking for revenge. But he plays his game.
LeBron James: I hate the guy, but my sweet lord am I happy to have him on my fantasy team! The self-proclaimed King is shooting a ridiculous 59.5% and has attempted only one three so far. He had attempted 23 threes at this point last season. His free throw percentage is up as is his scoring. LeBron has been playing like an animal so far and if he can keep this going through the rest of the season he will probably be MVP. With Dwyane Wade already missing games because of injury, LeBron will have to handle a great deal of the work for Miami. The only problem is that Miami has won two games thanks to big shots late, and both were from Wade. LeBron filling up a stat sheet is nothing new, and after only seven games we can’t make too big of a deal out of how he’s been doing, but he’s still going to need to prove the Heat can count on him when the chips are down. He also missed the other night’s game with an ankle sprain so depending on how that heals we may see a change in his game. After all it was only last season Derrick Rose sprained his ankle and stopped driving and began settling for far too many jumpers, sending his field goal percentage down and costing his team.
Kevin Durant: He is a great man and has the Thunder tied for the top seed in the West. His scoring ability is ridiculous and he is currently shooting 50% from the floor, including 42% from deep. The only thing worth worrying about right now is the fact he has as many turnovers (26) as assists, but he does average more turnovers than assists for his career so this isn’t out of the norm. It is however horribly inefficient. Durant’s bigger issue here is...
Russell Westbrook: The ball hog of ball hogs, Westbrook is undoubtedly my least favorite player in the league. Why? When you have the best scorer in the NBA on your team you don’t need to take every shot in the fourth quarter, bro. Though it is still early, Westbrook’s shooting percentage is down, his three point percentage has dropped to 13%, his free throw percentage is down, his assists are down, and his turnovers are up. Eek! I guess him and Durant got in a fight on the bench during a game too. They say they are fine, but Kobe and Shaq said they were fine too and look how that ended. The Thunder are going to need to trade Westbrook if they want to contend for real, because when the chips are down and the alpha dog needs to take over, there is too great a risk that Westbrook is going to want to be that guy over Durant.
Derrick Rose: Wow. Granted I am an unabashed biased Bulls fan, even though I said they would lose to Miami last year, but is this kid good or is this kid good? Twice in eight games he has come two rebounds shy of a triple double. His assist average is up so that makes up for his shooting percentages going down. His big problem is that he takes too many threes. There is no reason for Rose to attempt 4.8 threes a game, and that is why his field goal percentage is down since he doesn’t exactly have his legs back yet and is taking a shot he’s only decent at. Enough with the threes. LeBron has grown out of that phase evidently, but it took a few years. I hope Rose can do it much quicker since it is not a good habit to have and could cost the Bulls. His free throw percentage is up though, and while some may be concerned about his scoring being down we must point out that CARLOS BOOZER IS PLAYING WELL. Booz can be relied on for 20 points some nights, Deng can score, and the addition of Rip Hamilton, even though he’s missed a few games, has taken some scoring pressure off Rose. And even if Rose isn’t shooting as well as he did last year in these first eight games, he has still been a killer. LA found out on Christmas, then against the Hawks the other night Rose turned into the Hulk in the fourth and scored 17 of his 30 points in the quarter including two highlight drives over Josh Smith to put the Bulls up. He is clutch and as long as he’s passing more then the scoring average going down isn’t a big deal, but he needs to shoot better. He elevated his game against Chris Paul, going 8-14 to the tune of 29 points, 16 assists, and 8 rebounds, but he needs to do that every night, not just in big match ups. It is also a bit of a cause for concern that Rose hurt his elbow the other night and has been wearing a compression sleeve and won’t say if the x-rays were negative or not.
That’s it for now. Games have been pretty entertaining thus far, except the injury bug has already hit a lot of people. If Rose is hurt bad I’m going to be done with basketball since that is about the worst thing that could happen in life. I wanted to talk about the Clippers in here but I don’t have much to say other than they are a great team in 2k12 and hopefully they can replicate that success in real life. Either way, I’m glad the NBA is finally back.
Kobe Bryant: Dude is taking a LOT of shots. Granted Andrew Bynum was suspended for the first four games, but still Pau Gasol is there dude. LA’s offense is a lot of Kobe standing around then jacking up some shots he shouldn’t. I wonder if Mike Brown is coaching! Kobe has been scoring a ton and looked to be efficient in three of the first four games, but then he shot 12-46 over the course of two games before rebounding with a 48% shooting performance on Tuesday night. Here are the causes for concern: Kobe is getting injections in his torn wrist before every game, he has a dead finger, and bad knees. His body is not going to last during this brutal schedule. At least he had a great quote after his 6-28 shooting performance in a loss to the Nuggets. Kobe Bean said, “I do what I do. If guys are open, I kick it to them, if they're not, I shoot it. I play my game." He plays his game. A lot of the time that will be going into multiple defenders and shooting, often times missing as he’s lost a great deal of his explosiveness. But he plays his game. Neat stat: When the Lakers were on a three game win streak, Kobe took 17 shots then 17 again then 18. They’ve since gone 2-2 and Kobe has attempted an average of 27.25 shots per game, taking no fewer than 24 in a loss to Portland. A loss where if you check the play by play you’ll see he started taking too many shots he missed after getting dunked on by Gerald Wallace and looking for revenge. But he plays his game.
LeBron James: I hate the guy, but my sweet lord am I happy to have him on my fantasy team! The self-proclaimed King is shooting a ridiculous 59.5% and has attempted only one three so far. He had attempted 23 threes at this point last season. His free throw percentage is up as is his scoring. LeBron has been playing like an animal so far and if he can keep this going through the rest of the season he will probably be MVP. With Dwyane Wade already missing games because of injury, LeBron will have to handle a great deal of the work for Miami. The only problem is that Miami has won two games thanks to big shots late, and both were from Wade. LeBron filling up a stat sheet is nothing new, and after only seven games we can’t make too big of a deal out of how he’s been doing, but he’s still going to need to prove the Heat can count on him when the chips are down. He also missed the other night’s game with an ankle sprain so depending on how that heals we may see a change in his game. After all it was only last season Derrick Rose sprained his ankle and stopped driving and began settling for far too many jumpers, sending his field goal percentage down and costing his team.
Kevin Durant: He is a great man and has the Thunder tied for the top seed in the West. His scoring ability is ridiculous and he is currently shooting 50% from the floor, including 42% from deep. The only thing worth worrying about right now is the fact he has as many turnovers (26) as assists, but he does average more turnovers than assists for his career so this isn’t out of the norm. It is however horribly inefficient. Durant’s bigger issue here is...
Russell Westbrook: The ball hog of ball hogs, Westbrook is undoubtedly my least favorite player in the league. Why? When you have the best scorer in the NBA on your team you don’t need to take every shot in the fourth quarter, bro. Though it is still early, Westbrook’s shooting percentage is down, his three point percentage has dropped to 13%, his free throw percentage is down, his assists are down, and his turnovers are up. Eek! I guess him and Durant got in a fight on the bench during a game too. They say they are fine, but Kobe and Shaq said they were fine too and look how that ended. The Thunder are going to need to trade Westbrook if they want to contend for real, because when the chips are down and the alpha dog needs to take over, there is too great a risk that Westbrook is going to want to be that guy over Durant.
Derrick Rose: Wow. Granted I am an unabashed biased Bulls fan, even though I said they would lose to Miami last year, but is this kid good or is this kid good? Twice in eight games he has come two rebounds shy of a triple double. His assist average is up so that makes up for his shooting percentages going down. His big problem is that he takes too many threes. There is no reason for Rose to attempt 4.8 threes a game, and that is why his field goal percentage is down since he doesn’t exactly have his legs back yet and is taking a shot he’s only decent at. Enough with the threes. LeBron has grown out of that phase evidently, but it took a few years. I hope Rose can do it much quicker since it is not a good habit to have and could cost the Bulls. His free throw percentage is up though, and while some may be concerned about his scoring being down we must point out that CARLOS BOOZER IS PLAYING WELL. Booz can be relied on for 20 points some nights, Deng can score, and the addition of Rip Hamilton, even though he’s missed a few games, has taken some scoring pressure off Rose. And even if Rose isn’t shooting as well as he did last year in these first eight games, he has still been a killer. LA found out on Christmas, then against the Hawks the other night Rose turned into the Hulk in the fourth and scored 17 of his 30 points in the quarter including two highlight drives over Josh Smith to put the Bulls up. He is clutch and as long as he’s passing more then the scoring average going down isn’t a big deal, but he needs to shoot better. He elevated his game against Chris Paul, going 8-14 to the tune of 29 points, 16 assists, and 8 rebounds, but he needs to do that every night, not just in big match ups. It is also a bit of a cause for concern that Rose hurt his elbow the other night and has been wearing a compression sleeve and won’t say if the x-rays were negative or not.
That’s it for now. Games have been pretty entertaining thus far, except the injury bug has already hit a lot of people. If Rose is hurt bad I’m going to be done with basketball since that is about the worst thing that could happen in life. I wanted to talk about the Clippers in here but I don’t have much to say other than they are a great team in 2k12 and hopefully they can replicate that success in real life. Either way, I’m glad the NBA is finally back.
2011 Fighters of the Year
2011 has been quite an eventful year for MMA. It opened with a Fight of the Year candidate in January between Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard and ended on December 30th with the highly anticipated Brock Lesnar-Alistair Overeem clash of the heavyweight titans. Generally speaking, the year saw some incredible performances and there were a bevy of fighters that had banner years. The men who made this list of fighters of the year have all fought at least twice and went undefeated for the year against some solid competition. Without further ado, here is the list counting down from five to one.
5.) Nick Diaz: Nick Diaz had a whirlwind of a 2011. He defended the Strikeforce Welterweight Title twice this year, dominating Evangelista Santos en route to a submission win and knocking out Paul Daley in one of the wildest one round slugfests in ages. To top it all off he ripped into the UFC like a tornado, gaining then losing then regaining a shot at UFC gold. His spectacular boxing display against BJ Penn and post-fight tirade put him back in the main event. All three of Diaz’ fights this year were memorable and he set himself up for the next year or two as a major name in the biggest MMA promotion in the world.
4.) Benson Henderson: Bendo went from losing the WEC Lightweight Title last December to main eventing UFC 144 in Japan against Frankie Edgar this February. Quite a turnaround, especially considering all the doubt cast towards the championship aspirations of the WEC lightweights. Bendo went 3-0 this year against tough competition. He beat the solid Mark Bocek in April,and followed it up by dominating the top contender Jim Miller during the summer. It was Miller’s first loss since March 2009. For an encore, he had a fight of the year candidate against Clay Guida on the UFC on Fox prelims. This fight showed off his diverse set of skills and relentless tenacity. Between his insane cardio, granite chin, and all-around skills, he poses a serious threat to Edgar when they face off.
3.) Anderson Silva: Another year passes for the Spider without a defeat, going 2-0 this year. While the win total isn’t jaw dropping, the fashion in which he won certainly is. At UFC 126, he had the knockout of the year with his front kick to the jaw of Vitor Belfort. It was possibly the only strike Silva even threw in the three minutes of the fight and it came out of nowhere to devastating effect. His second fight was at UFC Rio, where he utterly humiliated the longtime middleweight contender Yushin Okami in about a round and a half. Okami started the fight by getting Silva in the clinch, where Anderson nullified any Okami advantage. The second round saw Silva absolutely abuse Okami, dropping him twice with jabs while keeping his hands at his side. Never before had Okami been dominated like that, but it was par for the course for Silva. To boot, Silva’s wins over fellow Brazilian (and noted celeb) Belfort and Okami turned him into a megastar in his homeland. It’s now been nearly six years since Silva has lost (via illegal kick) and seven since his last real defeat to Ryo Chonan’s flying heel hook. Not too shabby.
2.) Dan Henderson: Any other year, and Hendo is likely the year’s top fighter. He started it off by winning the Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Title just months shy of his 41st birthday, knocking out Rafael Calcavante. He followed this up by fighting the greatest heavyweight of all time, Fedor Emelianenko, giving up nearly 30 pounds in the process. The result was a first round knockout, the first such loss in the Russian’s mythical career. He capped off 2011 by returning to the UFC and cementing himself as a top contender for the 205 lb. title with a decision win over Shogun Rua in one of the greatest fights of all time. It was certainly one of the top two or three fights I’ve had the privilege of seeing. With the type of year Hendo had, he certainly eradicated all the doubts about him after his loss to Jake Shields last year in his Strikeforce debut. While I and most people don’t expect him to win against the man who is ranked number 1 in this list, if there’s one thing that Hendo has shown it’s that you can’t count out his heart and that nuclear missile of a right hand.
1.) Jon Jones: I’m not a fan of Jones due to his personality and some questionable tactics during fights, but there is no denying he had the best year of any fighter in MMA in 2011. In fact, it ranks as possibly the best year in MMA history. Off the top of my head, Shogun Rua’s 2005 run is the only major competitor for best year ever. Regardless, Jones went 4-0 this year and won each fight by finish. In February he beat (at the time) fellow prospect Ryan Bader by submission, just absolutely dominating him. Six weeks later he got a title shot against Shogun Rua. While part of Rua’s poor performance was due to his rehab from knee surgery, it’s not an excuse and Jones utterly abused him into a fourth round TKO. In September, he fought Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and picked him apart from range until submitting him in the fourth round. Last week, at UFC 140 he recovered from a first round that saw him get outstruck significantly by Lyoto Machida and turned in a sick standing guillotine in the second round to win. Of all his performances, this was the most impressive due to the composure he showed after getting blasted for the first time in his young career. He became the first fighter to beat three former champions and the fact he finished all of them is even more impressive. Now, he is two to four opponents away from clearing out the entire division. Talk about bringing stability to your weight class.
2011 saw a lot of great performances in MMA. I can’t wait to see what 2012 brings. In the meantime, feel free to leave your thoughts here or on facebook.
5.) Nick Diaz: Nick Diaz had a whirlwind of a 2011. He defended the Strikeforce Welterweight Title twice this year, dominating Evangelista Santos en route to a submission win and knocking out Paul Daley in one of the wildest one round slugfests in ages. To top it all off he ripped into the UFC like a tornado, gaining then losing then regaining a shot at UFC gold. His spectacular boxing display against BJ Penn and post-fight tirade put him back in the main event. All three of Diaz’ fights this year were memorable and he set himself up for the next year or two as a major name in the biggest MMA promotion in the world.
4.) Benson Henderson: Bendo went from losing the WEC Lightweight Title last December to main eventing UFC 144 in Japan against Frankie Edgar this February. Quite a turnaround, especially considering all the doubt cast towards the championship aspirations of the WEC lightweights. Bendo went 3-0 this year against tough competition. He beat the solid Mark Bocek in April,and followed it up by dominating the top contender Jim Miller during the summer. It was Miller’s first loss since March 2009. For an encore, he had a fight of the year candidate against Clay Guida on the UFC on Fox prelims. This fight showed off his diverse set of skills and relentless tenacity. Between his insane cardio, granite chin, and all-around skills, he poses a serious threat to Edgar when they face off.
3.) Anderson Silva: Another year passes for the Spider without a defeat, going 2-0 this year. While the win total isn’t jaw dropping, the fashion in which he won certainly is. At UFC 126, he had the knockout of the year with his front kick to the jaw of Vitor Belfort. It was possibly the only strike Silva even threw in the three minutes of the fight and it came out of nowhere to devastating effect. His second fight was at UFC Rio, where he utterly humiliated the longtime middleweight contender Yushin Okami in about a round and a half. Okami started the fight by getting Silva in the clinch, where Anderson nullified any Okami advantage. The second round saw Silva absolutely abuse Okami, dropping him twice with jabs while keeping his hands at his side. Never before had Okami been dominated like that, but it was par for the course for Silva. To boot, Silva’s wins over fellow Brazilian (and noted celeb) Belfort and Okami turned him into a megastar in his homeland. It’s now been nearly six years since Silva has lost (via illegal kick) and seven since his last real defeat to Ryo Chonan’s flying heel hook. Not too shabby.
2.) Dan Henderson: Any other year, and Hendo is likely the year’s top fighter. He started it off by winning the Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Title just months shy of his 41st birthday, knocking out Rafael Calcavante. He followed this up by fighting the greatest heavyweight of all time, Fedor Emelianenko, giving up nearly 30 pounds in the process. The result was a first round knockout, the first such loss in the Russian’s mythical career. He capped off 2011 by returning to the UFC and cementing himself as a top contender for the 205 lb. title with a decision win over Shogun Rua in one of the greatest fights of all time. It was certainly one of the top two or three fights I’ve had the privilege of seeing. With the type of year Hendo had, he certainly eradicated all the doubts about him after his loss to Jake Shields last year in his Strikeforce debut. While I and most people don’t expect him to win against the man who is ranked number 1 in this list, if there’s one thing that Hendo has shown it’s that you can’t count out his heart and that nuclear missile of a right hand.
1.) Jon Jones: I’m not a fan of Jones due to his personality and some questionable tactics during fights, but there is no denying he had the best year of any fighter in MMA in 2011. In fact, it ranks as possibly the best year in MMA history. Off the top of my head, Shogun Rua’s 2005 run is the only major competitor for best year ever. Regardless, Jones went 4-0 this year and won each fight by finish. In February he beat (at the time) fellow prospect Ryan Bader by submission, just absolutely dominating him. Six weeks later he got a title shot against Shogun Rua. While part of Rua’s poor performance was due to his rehab from knee surgery, it’s not an excuse and Jones utterly abused him into a fourth round TKO. In September, he fought Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and picked him apart from range until submitting him in the fourth round. Last week, at UFC 140 he recovered from a first round that saw him get outstruck significantly by Lyoto Machida and turned in a sick standing guillotine in the second round to win. Of all his performances, this was the most impressive due to the composure he showed after getting blasted for the first time in his young career. He became the first fighter to beat three former champions and the fact he finished all of them is even more impressive. Now, he is two to four opponents away from clearing out the entire division. Talk about bringing stability to your weight class.
2011 saw a lot of great performances in MMA. I can’t wait to see what 2012 brings. In the meantime, feel free to leave your thoughts here or on facebook.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
The Montreal Screwjob
Most people dismiss professional wrestling as a silly, fake sport filled with bad acting. While the matches are pre-determined and the wrestlers often have to showcase some less than stellar acting, the wrestling business is one of the most fascinating things you could ever read into. For a fake sport, there are times when egos and emotions run wild and the business becomes very real. On November 9, 1997, wrestling became real for a few brief moments that changed the entire business forever.
World Wrestling Federation Champion Bret “Hitman” Hart was nearing the end of his contract with the company and WWF—remember, this was pre-WWE—owner Vince McMahon found himself in a strange position. Here was a champion nearing the end of their contract and getting ready to jump ship to the WWF’s competition, World Championship Wrestling. Two years previous, WWF Women’s Champion Alundra Blayze went to WCW with the WWF belt and threw it in the garbage on the live broadcast of WCW Monday Nitro. This put McMahon in a tough position as now he had to find a way to take the belt off of Hart to prevent something similar from happening. Hart was more than willing to drop the belt, but dropping it to Shawn Michaels in Montreal at the 1997 Survivor Series was something he refused to do. What came next is perhaps the most infamous moment in WWF/E history.
First some background. Bret Hart was a 14 year veteran of the WWF. He was a two time tag team champion, a two time Intercontinental champion, and was tied for the most WWF title reigns (5) with Hulk Hogan. He was a loyal company man through and through, never refusing to lose matches or make somebody look good, and in 1996 he took a 20 year contract offer from Vince McMahon rather than sign a three year deal with WCW. With this WWF contract, he wouldn’t have made as much as he would have in the WCW deal until about 2008. Despite this decrease in pay, the main part of the contract was that Hart would receive full compensation if he was injured and would also have creative control of his character over his last thirty days in the WWF.
In the early fall of 1997, Vince told Bret he’d be unable to make a few payments on Bret’s contract. A few days later he told Bret he’d be unable to pay the entire contract and he’d be better off signing with WCW. Bret was in the midst of a unique storyline that made him a heel in America but a face in every other country. He’d constantly cut promos talking about Canada’s superiority over the United States. International fans ate it up. Bret Hart was voted as one of the 50 greatest Canadians by the Canadian people. He is a national hero there.
The WWF played that up in the feud between Hart and Shawn Michaels. Michaels and Hart had been rivals since 1996 as they were the two best wrestlers in the company/world. While the rivalry had been mainly on-screen, by 1997 much of their heat carried on back stage. Their feud began to intensify on screen and off with Michaels attacking Hart’s family in promos and humping the Canadian flag, and Hart carrying a great deal of anger towards Michael’s handling of the WWF Championship picture in the months previous.
Back at WrestleMania XII in March of ’96, Hart and Michaels faced off in an hour long ironman match. Hart put Michaels over, giving Michaels his first WWF title. Michaels had serious ego and drug issues and they only got worse over the course of the next year. At WrestleMania XIII, Michaels was expected to face Hart and drop the belt to Bret as a return for being put over the year before. Instead, Michaels claimed he might have to retire because of a knee injury and the title was vacated. Within a couple weeks, Michaels was cleared to return.
This infuriated Hart, and their feud escalated from there with Hart cutting promos saying Michaels wasn’t really hurt and Michaels cutting promos breaking “kayfabe”—the fictional universe in which wrestling storylines take place—to take real shots at Hart, like the accusation that he slept with the valet Sunny. In August of ’97 Hart regained the WWF Championship and was going to carry it into a match at Survivor Series with Michaels, but suddenly those plans seemed to be derailed.
At an event in England, British superstar and Hart’s brother-in-law Davey Boy Smith was supposed to defeat Michaels to retain his European Championship, since England was his “territory.” At the last minute McMahon changed the booking to have Michaels go over Smith and become European Champion. Of course, Hart was upset by this. As Hart’s anti-America storyline continued, Michaels continually asked Hart to call him and Triple H “homos” and “gay” during his interviews. Hart began to suspect this storyline was being done to kill his drawing power in America when he went to WCW, and turn a lot of people against him since he would seem like he hates gay people.
In spite of the conflicts the two men had, Hart took Michaels aside in early October and told him he would have no problems dropping the championship to him. Michaels responded by saying he wouldn’t do the same thing for Hart. It was at this point Hart refused to do the job for Michaels in Montreal at Survivor Series. Michaels was throwing tantrums backstage, only looking out for his friends, and would threaten to quit for WCW if he didn’t get his way, making him one of the most disliked people in the locker room and Hart decided to stand up for the other wrestlers and the business and demand to put over somebody who honored the business over themselves. Since he had creative control over his last thirty days and he was leaving for WCW after Survivor Series, Hart began to come up with plans to drop the belt to anybody other than Michaels. Hart offered to drop the title to Stone Cold Steve Austin or Undertaker at any show before Survivor Series, but the Survivor Series plans with Michaels stuck.
Before the show, McMahon and Hart came to an agreement that there would be a double disqualification and the next night on Raw Hart would forfeit his championship and give a farewell speech to thank McMahon and all of the fans then leave. McMahon had secretly devised a much worse plan with Michaels, Triple H, Pat Patterson, and a few other members of his inner circle. Michaels would apply Hart’s finishing maneuver, a submission hold called the Sharpshooter, and the referee would simply ring the bell without Hart ever submitting, thus screwing him out of the title and humiliating him in front of the wrestling world.
The referee for the match was Earl Hebner, a friend of Hart’s. Hebner swore on the lives of his children that he would not screw Hart over. Other wrestlers told Hart to be careful about a screwjob, but Hart felt McMahon would allow him to leave with dignity after 14 years of loyal service and Hebner's word reassured him. The match was worked out that Hebner would get knocked out, Michaels would put Hart in the Sharpshooter, Hart would reverse it but with no referee Michaels’ submission wouldn’t count. Hart would then try to wake up the referee only to be given Michaels’ Sweet Chin Music, then another referee would come out but Hart’s brother Owen and Davey Boy Smith would break up the count, causing the brawl that would lead to the double DQ.
During the match Hebner was knocked down but rather than stay down, he popped back up. Michaels locked in the Sharpshooter but rather than allow Hart to reverse it as planned, Michaels gripped Hart’s legs harder so he couldn’t get up. Hebner yelled to the timekeeper to ring the bell. Vince McMahon had been standing at ringside during the match and ran to the timekeeper yelling, “Ring the fucking bell!” And just like that, Hart was screwed over.
Visibly stunned, Hart stood up and spit in McMahon’s face as Michaels ran out with the championship. Backstage, McMahon locked himself in his office while Hart confronted Michaels in the locker room to ask him if he had a part in the screwjob. Michaels denied it profusely and Hart said he would believe him based on how Michaels acted on Raw the next night. Michaels said he wouldn’t bring the belt out on Raw and wouldn’t insult Bret. Undertaker made McMahon come out of his office and apologize to Bret before the other wrestlers revolted, but when McMahon went to talk to Hart, Hart punched him in the face. According to Hart, and it is worth noting that WWE commentator and wrestling guru Jim Ross has said Hart’s story on what happened is the definitive one, a large majority of other wrestlers were on his side and threatened to quit, but Hart asked that they not jeopardize their own careers for him.
The next night on Raw, Michaels came out with the championship and bragged about beating Hart and brought a midget dressed as Hart to beat up. Hart’s brothers-in-law Smith and Jim Neidhart left WWF for WCW, but Hart’s brother Owen was unable to get out of his contract and died in a stunt gone wrong for his entrance on a WWF pay per view about a year and a half later. After the screwjob and Owen, it seemed unlikely that the WWF and Bret Hart would ever work together again.
After a stint where he was completely misused and made nearly irrelevant in WCW, Hart’s career would end tragically in 2000 due to post-concussion syndrome after being kicked in the head, and he would spend his time outside the ring writing a blog ripping apart other wrestlers like Shawn Michaels and Hulk Hogan. In 2002 he suffered a stroke though he has since recovered. Shawn Michaels retired in 1998 due to a back injury, but returned in 2002. During the time he was away from the business he sobered up and became a born-again Christian.
In 2005, Vince McMahon made amends with Hart and the WWE released a three-disc DVD set featuring a documentary and some of Hart’s greatest matches. The next year Hart was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame and asked that Michaels not attend the ceremony. Hart and Michaels have since made amends both in real life and in kayfabe, and last year sat down for an interview for a WWE DVD in which they broke kayfabe and discussed their rivalry and Montreal at length. When Michaels retired in 2010, he gave a speech where he thanked his best friend Triple H, the production team at WWE, Vince McMahon, and Bret Hart. He said Hart was right to say all the things he did about Michaels over the years, and he thanked Hart for forgiving him for his mistakes. Hart returned to WWE television in 2010 and McMahon had Hart crush him in a match at WrestleMania XXVI as an apology for Montreal.
The Monreal Screwjob had a major effect on the business, as it helped usher the WWF into what was known as the “Attitude Era.” The product became edgier in terms of violence and language. The character of Mr. McMahon was born, since it was never really acknowledged that Vince McMahon ran the company before Montreal. Now he was an on-air character as the vicious boss who would lie, cheat, and steal to get what he wanted. That led to a monster feud with Stone Cold Steve Austin that helped WWF beat WCW in the ratings wars and keep them as the premier company in sports entertainment. Bret Hart getting screwed ended up saving the business in a sick way.
The Screwjob helped to turn more of the locker room against Michaels. A few months later, Michaels was retiring because of his back injury but he was trying to politic his way into beating Steve Austin at WrestleMania XIV so he could retire as champion and surrender the belt on Raw the next night. There are different accounts on what exactly happened, but Undertaker threatened Michaels in some way and told him he had to do what was right for business and drop the belt. People aren’t sure exactly what Taker did but have heard he threatened to break Michaels’ legs or threw Michaels off a wall, and as recently as 2002 Taker said if Michaels didn’t do the right thing he would do what needed to be done and it would have been a “long night” for Michaels. Montreal also caused Shawn Michaels to be booed every time he appeared in Canada for the next 13 years.
The most interesting part of the entire Montreal saga is how McMahon and Michaels’ portrayal of events changed over the years while Hart’s has always stayed the same. In the 2005 documentary WWE released about Hart, McMahon said there is regret on both sides over what happened at Montreal, but Hart states at least three times that he stands by his actions. In the 14 years and about two months since the Montreal Screwjob happened, Hart has never changed his story or his belief that what he did was right.
World Wrestling Federation Champion Bret “Hitman” Hart was nearing the end of his contract with the company and WWF—remember, this was pre-WWE—owner Vince McMahon found himself in a strange position. Here was a champion nearing the end of their contract and getting ready to jump ship to the WWF’s competition, World Championship Wrestling. Two years previous, WWF Women’s Champion Alundra Blayze went to WCW with the WWF belt and threw it in the garbage on the live broadcast of WCW Monday Nitro. This put McMahon in a tough position as now he had to find a way to take the belt off of Hart to prevent something similar from happening. Hart was more than willing to drop the belt, but dropping it to Shawn Michaels in Montreal at the 1997 Survivor Series was something he refused to do. What came next is perhaps the most infamous moment in WWF/E history.
First some background. Bret Hart was a 14 year veteran of the WWF. He was a two time tag team champion, a two time Intercontinental champion, and was tied for the most WWF title reigns (5) with Hulk Hogan. He was a loyal company man through and through, never refusing to lose matches or make somebody look good, and in 1996 he took a 20 year contract offer from Vince McMahon rather than sign a three year deal with WCW. With this WWF contract, he wouldn’t have made as much as he would have in the WCW deal until about 2008. Despite this decrease in pay, the main part of the contract was that Hart would receive full compensation if he was injured and would also have creative control of his character over his last thirty days in the WWF.
In the early fall of 1997, Vince told Bret he’d be unable to make a few payments on Bret’s contract. A few days later he told Bret he’d be unable to pay the entire contract and he’d be better off signing with WCW. Bret was in the midst of a unique storyline that made him a heel in America but a face in every other country. He’d constantly cut promos talking about Canada’s superiority over the United States. International fans ate it up. Bret Hart was voted as one of the 50 greatest Canadians by the Canadian people. He is a national hero there.
The WWF played that up in the feud between Hart and Shawn Michaels. Michaels and Hart had been rivals since 1996 as they were the two best wrestlers in the company/world. While the rivalry had been mainly on-screen, by 1997 much of their heat carried on back stage. Their feud began to intensify on screen and off with Michaels attacking Hart’s family in promos and humping the Canadian flag, and Hart carrying a great deal of anger towards Michael’s handling of the WWF Championship picture in the months previous.
Back at WrestleMania XII in March of ’96, Hart and Michaels faced off in an hour long ironman match. Hart put Michaels over, giving Michaels his first WWF title. Michaels had serious ego and drug issues and they only got worse over the course of the next year. At WrestleMania XIII, Michaels was expected to face Hart and drop the belt to Bret as a return for being put over the year before. Instead, Michaels claimed he might have to retire because of a knee injury and the title was vacated. Within a couple weeks, Michaels was cleared to return.
This infuriated Hart, and their feud escalated from there with Hart cutting promos saying Michaels wasn’t really hurt and Michaels cutting promos breaking “kayfabe”—the fictional universe in which wrestling storylines take place—to take real shots at Hart, like the accusation that he slept with the valet Sunny. In August of ’97 Hart regained the WWF Championship and was going to carry it into a match at Survivor Series with Michaels, but suddenly those plans seemed to be derailed.
At an event in England, British superstar and Hart’s brother-in-law Davey Boy Smith was supposed to defeat Michaels to retain his European Championship, since England was his “territory.” At the last minute McMahon changed the booking to have Michaels go over Smith and become European Champion. Of course, Hart was upset by this. As Hart’s anti-America storyline continued, Michaels continually asked Hart to call him and Triple H “homos” and “gay” during his interviews. Hart began to suspect this storyline was being done to kill his drawing power in America when he went to WCW, and turn a lot of people against him since he would seem like he hates gay people.
In spite of the conflicts the two men had, Hart took Michaels aside in early October and told him he would have no problems dropping the championship to him. Michaels responded by saying he wouldn’t do the same thing for Hart. It was at this point Hart refused to do the job for Michaels in Montreal at Survivor Series. Michaels was throwing tantrums backstage, only looking out for his friends, and would threaten to quit for WCW if he didn’t get his way, making him one of the most disliked people in the locker room and Hart decided to stand up for the other wrestlers and the business and demand to put over somebody who honored the business over themselves. Since he had creative control over his last thirty days and he was leaving for WCW after Survivor Series, Hart began to come up with plans to drop the belt to anybody other than Michaels. Hart offered to drop the title to Stone Cold Steve Austin or Undertaker at any show before Survivor Series, but the Survivor Series plans with Michaels stuck.
Before the show, McMahon and Hart came to an agreement that there would be a double disqualification and the next night on Raw Hart would forfeit his championship and give a farewell speech to thank McMahon and all of the fans then leave. McMahon had secretly devised a much worse plan with Michaels, Triple H, Pat Patterson, and a few other members of his inner circle. Michaels would apply Hart’s finishing maneuver, a submission hold called the Sharpshooter, and the referee would simply ring the bell without Hart ever submitting, thus screwing him out of the title and humiliating him in front of the wrestling world.
The referee for the match was Earl Hebner, a friend of Hart’s. Hebner swore on the lives of his children that he would not screw Hart over. Other wrestlers told Hart to be careful about a screwjob, but Hart felt McMahon would allow him to leave with dignity after 14 years of loyal service and Hebner's word reassured him. The match was worked out that Hebner would get knocked out, Michaels would put Hart in the Sharpshooter, Hart would reverse it but with no referee Michaels’ submission wouldn’t count. Hart would then try to wake up the referee only to be given Michaels’ Sweet Chin Music, then another referee would come out but Hart’s brother Owen and Davey Boy Smith would break up the count, causing the brawl that would lead to the double DQ.
During the match Hebner was knocked down but rather than stay down, he popped back up. Michaels locked in the Sharpshooter but rather than allow Hart to reverse it as planned, Michaels gripped Hart’s legs harder so he couldn’t get up. Hebner yelled to the timekeeper to ring the bell. Vince McMahon had been standing at ringside during the match and ran to the timekeeper yelling, “Ring the fucking bell!” And just like that, Hart was screwed over.
Visibly stunned, Hart stood up and spit in McMahon’s face as Michaels ran out with the championship. Backstage, McMahon locked himself in his office while Hart confronted Michaels in the locker room to ask him if he had a part in the screwjob. Michaels denied it profusely and Hart said he would believe him based on how Michaels acted on Raw the next night. Michaels said he wouldn’t bring the belt out on Raw and wouldn’t insult Bret. Undertaker made McMahon come out of his office and apologize to Bret before the other wrestlers revolted, but when McMahon went to talk to Hart, Hart punched him in the face. According to Hart, and it is worth noting that WWE commentator and wrestling guru Jim Ross has said Hart’s story on what happened is the definitive one, a large majority of other wrestlers were on his side and threatened to quit, but Hart asked that they not jeopardize their own careers for him.
The next night on Raw, Michaels came out with the championship and bragged about beating Hart and brought a midget dressed as Hart to beat up. Hart’s brothers-in-law Smith and Jim Neidhart left WWF for WCW, but Hart’s brother Owen was unable to get out of his contract and died in a stunt gone wrong for his entrance on a WWF pay per view about a year and a half later. After the screwjob and Owen, it seemed unlikely that the WWF and Bret Hart would ever work together again.
After a stint where he was completely misused and made nearly irrelevant in WCW, Hart’s career would end tragically in 2000 due to post-concussion syndrome after being kicked in the head, and he would spend his time outside the ring writing a blog ripping apart other wrestlers like Shawn Michaels and Hulk Hogan. In 2002 he suffered a stroke though he has since recovered. Shawn Michaels retired in 1998 due to a back injury, but returned in 2002. During the time he was away from the business he sobered up and became a born-again Christian.
In 2005, Vince McMahon made amends with Hart and the WWE released a three-disc DVD set featuring a documentary and some of Hart’s greatest matches. The next year Hart was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame and asked that Michaels not attend the ceremony. Hart and Michaels have since made amends both in real life and in kayfabe, and last year sat down for an interview for a WWE DVD in which they broke kayfabe and discussed their rivalry and Montreal at length. When Michaels retired in 2010, he gave a speech where he thanked his best friend Triple H, the production team at WWE, Vince McMahon, and Bret Hart. He said Hart was right to say all the things he did about Michaels over the years, and he thanked Hart for forgiving him for his mistakes. Hart returned to WWE television in 2010 and McMahon had Hart crush him in a match at WrestleMania XXVI as an apology for Montreal.
The Monreal Screwjob had a major effect on the business, as it helped usher the WWF into what was known as the “Attitude Era.” The product became edgier in terms of violence and language. The character of Mr. McMahon was born, since it was never really acknowledged that Vince McMahon ran the company before Montreal. Now he was an on-air character as the vicious boss who would lie, cheat, and steal to get what he wanted. That led to a monster feud with Stone Cold Steve Austin that helped WWF beat WCW in the ratings wars and keep them as the premier company in sports entertainment. Bret Hart getting screwed ended up saving the business in a sick way.
The Screwjob helped to turn more of the locker room against Michaels. A few months later, Michaels was retiring because of his back injury but he was trying to politic his way into beating Steve Austin at WrestleMania XIV so he could retire as champion and surrender the belt on Raw the next night. There are different accounts on what exactly happened, but Undertaker threatened Michaels in some way and told him he had to do what was right for business and drop the belt. People aren’t sure exactly what Taker did but have heard he threatened to break Michaels’ legs or threw Michaels off a wall, and as recently as 2002 Taker said if Michaels didn’t do the right thing he would do what needed to be done and it would have been a “long night” for Michaels. Montreal also caused Shawn Michaels to be booed every time he appeared in Canada for the next 13 years.
The most interesting part of the entire Montreal saga is how McMahon and Michaels’ portrayal of events changed over the years while Hart’s has always stayed the same. In the 2005 documentary WWE released about Hart, McMahon said there is regret on both sides over what happened at Montreal, but Hart states at least three times that he stands by his actions. In the 14 years and about two months since the Montreal Screwjob happened, Hart has never changed his story or his belief that what he did was right.
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