7/31/2011- Plaxico Burress signs with the Jets, WWE Recap, Yankees, Mets, more

Hey everyone! I hope everyone had a great weekend. As you may know that this is the last blog of July as tomorrow is August 1st. Let's get down to it, shall we.

NFL

As you have already heard, recently reinstated NFL player Plaxico Burress has signed a 1 year contract with the New York Jets. For those who don't know Plaxico, here's a short explanation. Plaxico Burress is a wide reciever who is best known for his time with the Pittsburgh Steelers (2000-2004) and the New York Giants (2005-2008). Unfortunately near the end of the 2008 season, an incident occurred where he "accidentally (but not lethally) shot himself in the leg" at a nightclub. Charges were pressed against him since he didn't have a license to own a handgun in the state of New York. Burress later pleaded guilty and spent 2 years in prison. In June 2011, he was released from prison after serving his sentence.

I am glad that the New York Jets have given Burress a chance and hopefully him and Mark Sanchez can get on the same page when it comes to the field.

MLB

For the Yankees, after defeating Seattle Mariners 2 out of 3, the Bronx Bombers then hosted the Baltimore Orioles in a 4 game series. Originally, it was scheduled to be 3, but a postponed game from April was pushed to this weekend. Nonetheless, they have defeated the Orioles 3 out of 4. The Yankees will now head to US Cellular Field to face the Chicago White Sox this week in a 4 game series. This will definitely be an interesting match up as these are my 2 favorite teams in the AL Division. Although I have respect for the Chicago White Sox team, I will have to give the edge to the Yankees on that one (sorry White Sox fans).

On the other side, the Mets have had a tremendous week last week as they have swept the Cincinatti Reds in a 4 game series, but their luck ran out as they have lost to the Washington Nationals this weekend 2 out of 3. The Mets will have a chance to recover as they will host the Florida Marlins in a 3 game series this week.

WWE

As you may know last week on Raw was a historic one as it was the first Monday Night Raw of the "post-McMahon era". Raw kicked off with the finals of the WWE Championship tournament as Rey Mysterio def. The Miz to win the vacant WWE Championship. During the 2nd half of Raw, Triple H made a speech about what new things are coming. Raw marked the return of Jim Ross (much to Michael Cole's chagrin), and John Morrison. Also, Rey Mysterio defended his title against John Cena during the main event of Raw. After a good performance, John Cena won the WWE Championship, but something happened. CM Punk returned to Raw with his WWE Championship title. So the question is, who is the "actual" WWE Champion?

Later that week on SmackDown, Triple H appeared again and said that he will resolve this issue this Monday on Raw. Also, he announced that Christian will defend the World Heavyweight Championship in a No Holds Barred match against Randy Orton.

That will do it for now. Have a great week everyone!

-NYCKNP

7/25/2011- NFL Lockout is Over!!, Bellator 47 results, WWE, Yankees, Mets

Hey everyone. I hope you all had a great weekend, and for those who were in the heat wave, I hope you guys were safe because it was a sauna. All right then, lets get down to business as there's a lot to talk about.

 

NFL

Yes, you have heard it. The NFL Lockout is officially over as the owners and the NFLPA have come to agreements on a new CBA that made it work for both parties. Now, all the teams are resuming work and very soon preseason & regular season will start. The kickoff game is scheduled to be on September 8, 2011 with the Packers and Saints will play against each other, while the regular season starts on September 11, 2011. Pertaining to the teams that I talk about in the blog, the NY Giants will head to FedEx Field to face the Washington Redskins while the NY Jets will host the Dallas Cowboys in a prime time game.

 

More details can be found on this article: http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d820f4c7f/article/vote-now-in-hands-of-brady-plaintiffs-after-player-reps-approve-deal?module=HP11_breaking_news

 

Bellator

Bellator Summer Series continued this past Saturday with the featherweight tournament semi finals. The bout took place at Casino Rama in Ontario, Canada. Commentator Sean Wheelock mentioned that this was Bellator's first time hosting an event in Canada (and outside of the USA in general). Overall, there were 7 fights on the card, but only 5 were televised. Here are the results:

 

1. Neil Grove def. Zak Jensen via TKO at Round 1

2. Chris Horodecki def. Chris Saunders via unanimous decision

3. Alexandre Bezerra def. Jesse Gross via technical submission

4. Marlon Sandro def. Nazareno Malegarie via unanimous decision to advance to the Bellator Summer Series Featherweight Finals

5. Pat Curran def. Ronnie Mann via unanimous decision to advance to the Bellator Summer Series Featherweight Finals

 

Overall, it was a so-so event. The under card wasn't as good as I thought it would be but the main focus was the Featherweight Tournament and those fights on the tournament were much better.

 

Bellator will conclude their Summer Series on August 20th 2011.

 

WWE

What a week it was for the WWE last week. Last week on Raw, the WWE Championship was vacated and a tournament was done to crown the new WWE Champion. However, the finals of the WWE Championship tournament was postponed to this week as there was a shocking moment that occurred. Vince McMahon has been relieved of his duties as the Chairman of the Board and has been succeeded by Triple H. WWE has officially called this the "Post-McMahon Era". Here's a preview of tonight's WWE Raw:

 

Also, later that week CM Punk "invaded" Comic-Con and had a confrontation with Triple H:

 

At the end of the week on Friday Night SmackDown, SmackDown's MiTB winner Daniel Bryan announced that he will be cashing in his contract at WrestleMania 28. I'm not sure whether that claim will be true so stay tuned to find out.

 

MLB

Over the weekend, the Yankees faced the Oakland Athletics and defeated them 2 out of 3 in what was considered to be the heat wave game. Friday's win was the tremendous won as they scored in the double digits. Meanwhile, the Mets went to Miami, Florida to face the Marlins and although they won on Friday, the next two days weren't good for them at all.

 

The Yankees will host the Mariners this week from today til Wednesday, while the Mets will head to Cincinnati to face the Reds in a four game series.

 

This is all I have to say for now, so have a great week and I will attempt to write on Friday to preview this upcoming events. The good news is that NFL is back and it will be football heavy on this blog starting this fall.

 

Salutations,

NYCKNP

 

7/18/2011- WWE Money in the Bank results, Analysis of The Rock's recent YouTube post, Yankees, Mets, more

Hello everyone. This will be a very interesting blog post as last night was a groundbreaking moment in the history of not only the WWE, but also professional wrestling. WWE Money in the Bank took place last night at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, IL. The main event of the PPV was John Cena vs CM Punk for the WWE Championship. Here are the results for the PPV:

WWE
Money in the Bank

• Daniel Bryan wins SmackDown Money in the Bank!!! (other participants included Kane, Sin Cara,  Sheamus, Cody Rhodes, Justin Gabriel, Heath Slater, and Wade Barrett)
• Kelly Kelly def. Brie Bella to retain the WWE Divas Championship
• Mark Henry def. The Big Show
• Alberto Del Rio win Raw Money in the Bank (other participants included The Miz, Alex Riley, Rey Mysterio, Kofi Kingston, Jack Swagger, Evan Bourne, and R-Truth)
• Christian def. Randy Orton to become the World Heavyweight Champion*
• CM Punk def. John Cena to become the WWE Champion** (Match of the Night)

*= The stipulation for that match was that if the match became a DQ or bad officiating was involved, Orton would lose the title. Orton hit a low blow on Christian, thus DQing himself to which as mentioned above.
**= CM Punk's contract with WWE would then expire after the end of the PPV. The stipulation was that if CM Punk won, John Cena would be "fired".

The last match of the card was considered by many the Match of the Night as both put a stellar performance. According to PWTorch, that match was considered to be 5 stars.

Shifting gears, earlier last week, The Rock posted a video on YouTube regarding John Cena's comments. I will post this again and give some analysis of the promo.

In this video, The Rock says that "He is back and he is never going away". According to Rock, Cena understood it as he must appear at every single show because he is back, but Rock says "that is not what I meant". The Rock says that he has done it all.

• Reaction: When The Rock says that he came back and is never going away means that The Rock is under a WWE Legends contract. The WWE Legends contract means that the performer under that contract doesn't have to appear as a full time wrestler but will make special appearances. This is what Rock was trying to say. Also, when he says that he has done it all, it meant that he paid his dues to the business and worked a full time schedule in the past.

• Quote (paraphrased) from The Rock: "When you were back in college, studying "douchebag-o-nomics".It was The Rock and all of his boys from the Attitude Era "the greatest era in professional wrestling", we were on the road every single night, city, & state. Every country around the world! We were laying it down! The Rock was earning the nickname of his life "The People's Champion!" ............ We were paving the way for chicks like you!"
• Reaction: What he said was partially true. During his time with then WWF, he was working a full time schedule and touring around the world to pave the way for the next generation. About the part of the Attitude Era being the greatest era, I'm going to have to disagree a little bit on that one. Sure the Era had a lot of stars but there were some bad things about the era. However, your mileage may vary.

• Quote from The Rock: "Here's a fact John Cena. You are an employee of the WWE. The Rock is NOT. You are obligated to go to every single show, every single night. If you don't, guess what, you get FIRED".
• Reaction: The part about John Cena obligated to appear for every single WWE event is true. However, The Rock should've chose better words. The reason why because WWE classifies their personnel as "independent contractors", NOT "employees". When Linda McMahon was running for senator, the media and the Democratic Party of Connecticut used that part about independent contractors against her. It's rumored that Linda may run for senator again in 2012. Don't be surprised if part of this video clip appears on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart during election time in 2012.

• Quote from The Rock: "You know why men boo you around the world John? You know why men don't like you or respect you?....... You wanna know WHY? Because The Rock is a MAN. And the majority of the men see through bullshit. We can smell a phony punk a mile away".
• Reaction: What he said was definitely a work.

• Quote from The Rock: Oh, sure. You've got your fans who are men. Sure you do. Believe me, they are all over The Rock's Twitter. They are all over The Rock's Facebook, defending you........ (to Cena fans): OH! GET YOUR PUNK A** OFF THE ROCK'S TWITTER!!!
• Reaction: I have to agree with The Rock on that one as there are way too many trolls on the internet nowadays.

Pretty much this video is self explanatory. It's hinted that The Rock may appear at SummerSlam or Survivor Series later this year.

Tune in to Raw tonight.

MLB
After the Yankees-Blue Jays traded wins making in 2-2 & Phillies def. Mets 2 out of 3, the Yankees face Tampa for the next 4 days. The Mets will have a make-up game with Florida and will face St. Louis later this week.

This is all I have to say. WWE is no longer in a lull period, so I will be updating on a regular basis.

Salutations,
NYCKNP

7/14/2011- The Rock cuts a promo on John Cena, Yankees, Mets, more

Welcome everyone. As you may know the 2011 MLB All Star Game is now in the history books, which marked the 1st half of the 2011 MLB Season over. The All Star Game was the official end to interleague play in the regular season. The team that won the bragging rights and home field advantage this year was the NL All Stars. The 2nd half on the season starts today, which means that the Yankees will play at Rogers Centre in Toronto in a 4-Game Series while the Mets will return to Queens and host their division rivals the Philadelphia Phillies tomorrow in a 3-Game Series. Here are the current standings for Team New York thus far in the 1st half of the season.

Yankees: 53-35 (2nd place in AL East)
Mets: 46-45 (3rd place in NL East)

Once the 2nd half starts, its make or break time for these guys as Postseason is almost around the corner and both of these teams hopefully will step it up in order to make the rankings for postseason.

WWE
Shifting gears to the WWE, this past edition of Monday Night Raw featured CM Punk in what could be his last appearance on Raw. The previous week, Punk was "suspended" from WWE televised events due to a shoot promo that he made. However, Vince reinstated Punk after Cena's insistance. On Monday night, CM Punk and Vince McMahon had a "public contract negotiation". Here's the video of their negotiation as this speaks louder than what I will say.

 Also, later that week The Rock posted a video regarding John Cena's comments from the past. I suggest this video as a must-watch as its a really great promo that was cut from The Rock. Its a mixture of old school with elements from the 21st century. If you are a fan of ROH VideoWire, you will love this. I'm impressed that The Rock and John Cena kept their WrestleMania 28 rivalry alive via social media.

I will post this video again and give an analysis of the video in the next blog post.

That's all I have to say for now. Have a nice day!

Salutations,
NYCKNP

7/10/2011- A lot of things happened while I was on hiatus, 1st ever Q & A Session coming up

The title says it all, a lot of things occured while I was on hiatus due to 4th of July weekend. Since I don't want to sit for hours typing, I will just give a summary of what happened the last week leading up to now. Here goes..

WWE
Nothing newsworthy has happened at all, except that CM Punk has been "reinstated from his suspension" after an argument between Vince McMahon and John Cena took place on Raw regarding the freedom of speech. The new stipulation is that for the WWE Championship match that will occur at the Money in the Bank PPV, "If CM Punk wins the WWE title, John Cena is fired". If you don't know why the stipulation is being put, here's a brief explanation. After the MiTB PPV, CM Punk's contract expires with the WWE, and it's unknown whether Punk's contract will be renewed. For the World Heavyweight Championship match that will take place, if anything controversial happens, Christian will become the World Champion. In my opinion, WWE now needs to step up their game for SummerSlam if they want to regain their fanbase that don't usually tune in after WrestleMania. 

Bellator
Orginally for the upcoming Bellator event that is scheduled to occur on July 23rd, Joe Warren was originally set to defend his Bellator Featherweight title against the number 1 contender, Patricio Freire. However, due to an injury from the latter, this fight will not take place. It's unknown what will happen for that day. Stay tuned as I will keep you updated.

MLB
After the Subway Series, the Yankees had a little bit of bad luck earlier last week as they have lost to Cleveland 2 out of 3, and lost a game to Tampa Bay while a Friday game was considered a no-contest. However, their luck returned yesterday as not only did they win the game, but also Derek Jeter made his 3000th hit in his professional baseball career. It occured in the 3rd inning when Jeter was up on bat with 3 balls and 2 strikes. After a curve ball was thrown, Jeter hit the ball and made a solo home run. Everyone at the stadium stopped what they were doing to congratulate Jeter as if the Yankees just won the World Series.

For the Mets, during their West Coast tour, the Mets def. the Los Angeles Dodgers 3 out of 4. The Mets also def. San Francisco Giants on Friday, but lost on Saturday. Tonight is the night where Mets will conclude their West Coast tour and face the Giants as part of ESPN Sunday Night Baseball.

In a later blog post for MLB, I will hype up the MLB All Star Game and give a mid-season stats for both the Yankees and the Mets.

Other News
As you may know, I will be starting a Q&A session for an upcoming blog post where I will answer your questions. More details will follow soon.

That is all I have to say for today.

Salutations,
NYCKNP

7/1/2011- Subway Series, Crosstown Classic

Hello everyone, its the 1st day of July! It means that in Canada, it's Canada Day while this weekend is the 4th of July in the United States! Today's blog will strictly be baseball. As you may know, this weekend is the unofficial end to interleague play for the regular season in the MLB (officially ends on All Star Night). My two favorite interleague series are the Subway Series and the Crosstown Classic. Here are the results for today's game and a review of the Yankees-Mets game

White Sox def. Cubs 6-4

During the Yankees-Mets game, the Yankees made a 3 run lead and pretty much coasted for the entire game (with the exception of additional 2 runs). The Mets only have made 1 run and struggled the entire game to make another run. One moment I really disliked was when the 3rd base umpire made a bad call to Jose Reyes as he wasn't out at all and Alex Rodriguez's glove didn't touch Reyes. If you were watching YES Network, you would see a different viewpoint, but I was watching the game on New York's CW Affiliate WPIX so they offered the replay with a different angle. I'm not saying that I'm a pure Mets fan, it's just that I don't like bad officiating. I already seen it enough before. Anyways, I'm glad one of my New York teams won.

The Subway Series and the Crosstown Classic will continue tomorrow and Sunday. I suggest this as must see as the next interleague play in regular season will be in 2012. There's a possibility that it could happen at the World Series, but it's highly unlikely.

Anyways, I'll be back after 4th of July weekend is over. Have a great 4th of July weekend. Enjoy it and have a good time.

Salutations,
NYCKNP