2/27/2012- UFC 144 results, preview of WWE Raw, review of Ring Ka King

Hello everyone! I hope all of you had a great weekend! I will share the results of UFC 144 that took place in Japan, as well as my review of the latest Ring Ka King episodes. Here we go!

UFC
UFC 144 took place last Saturday (or Sunday morning in Japan) at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. Overall, there were 12 fights on the card. 1 streamed on Facebook, 4 aired on FX, while the rest aired on PPV. Here are the results:
Facebook

• Issei Tamura def Zhang Tiequan via KO at Round 2

FX

• Chris Cariaso def Takeya Mizugaki via unanimous decision
• Riki Fukuda def Steve Cantwell via unanimous decision
• Vaughan Lee def Norifumi Yamamoto via submission
• Takanori Gomi def Eiji Mitsuoka via TKO at Round 2

PPV

• Anthony Pettis def Joe Lauzon via KO at Round 1
• Hatsu Hioki def Bart Palaszewski via unanimous decision
• Tim Boetsch def Yushin Okami via TKO at Round 3
• Jake Shields def Yoshihiro Akiyama via unanimous decision
• Mark Hunt def Cheick Kongo via TKO at Round 1
• Ryan Bader def Quinton "Rampage" Jackson via unanimous decision
• Ben Henderson def Frankie Edgar via unanimous decision to become the NEW UFC Lightweight Champion

The title fight between Henderson and Edgar was controversial with the judge's decision to call the fight. There are talks that a rematch would happen soon.

Ring Ka King
This weekend's episodes of Ring Ka King were to determine the number 1 contender for the Ring Ka King Heavyweight Championship, as well as the hype for a "mysterious boss" to purchase RKK. Saturday's episode was really good, especially the 6 man tag match between Matt Morgan, Chavo Guerrero, and Bulldog Hart vs Scott Steiner, Brutus Magnus, and Sonjay Dutt. The crowd in Pune was extremely loud during the 6 man tag match, and the most interesting part was when "The Monster" Abyss made his RKK debut attacking Morgan, Chavo, and Hart. After attacking those 3, Abyss then scared the audience away to end Saturday's episode.

The next episode started off before the opening credits which stated "In Loving Memory of Dharam Prakash Bhojwani (Chotu) 29th August 1982- 7th January 2012, Succumbed to a Cardiac Arrest". Unfortunately, a wrestler of Ring Ka King named Chotu who was 7 ft tall died of a heart attack while production of Season 1 was going on and the episode taped in advance was his final appearance of the show. Chotu's last appearance occurred in a number 1 contenders battle royal for the RKK Heavyweight Championship, which was eventually won by Brutus Magnus.

WWE
Tonight on Raw will feature an appearance of The Rock. Also, a rematch will be scheduled from the past SmackDown between CM Punk and Daniel Bryan per request of the Executive Vice President of Talent Relations and Interim General Manager of Raw John Laurinaitis. Here's a preview:

Also, for those who participate in WWE Live Chat on WWE.com, Trish Stratus will be on-line to join the discussion.

That's all I have to say for now. Have a good week.

-NYCKNP 

2/24/2012- Review of WWE Raw and Super SmackDown, preview of UFC 144, more

Hello everyone! Hope you all had a great week this week. In the world of professional wrestling, the Road to WrestleMania is getting closer than you know it. Outside of pro-wrestling, UFC will have a PPV in Japan for the 1st time since UFC 29. I'll share more details as you read along so here we go!

WWE
This past Monday on Raw was the day after the Elimination Chamber PPV. Raw kicked off with Eve Torres turning heel saying that "she used Zack Ryder" to her advantage. Eve was also planning on manipulating John Cena but was caught red-handed and things didn't go too well for her.

After that opening segment, Eve was not seen on Raw. However, WWE YouTube did load a "candid" backstage video asking her thoughts, but she refused to comment.

After that unusual opening segment, it was time to get back in business as the rest of Raw was hyping up for WrestleMania. One important segment was The Undertaker calling out Triple H to face him at WrestleMania 28. Here is the entire dialogue between Taker and HHH:

At the end of Raw was a battle royal to determine who will face CM Punk at WrestleMania for the WWE Championship, and at the end Chris Jericho won the battle royal. Here's an updated card of WrestleMania 28:

• The Rock vs. John Cena
• CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho for the WWE Championship
• Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan for the World Heavyweight Championship
• Undertaker vs. Triple H in a Hell in a Cell match

More matches will be announced as the weeks go on.

The following day was a live edition of SmackDown where the main event was Champion vs. Champion. Overall, the match between CM Punk and Daniel Bryan was really good, but the thing was the match had no finish. Here are the highlights of the match:

If you saw the argument between Interim Raw GM John Laurinaitis and SmackDown GM Theodore Long, there is a feud between the 2 general managers as to who should run both Raw and SmackDown. Overall, both Raw and SmackDown were okay this week, but I hope things will pick up by next week. Speaking of next week:

That's right! The Rock will return next week on Raw to make regular appearances up to WrestleMania 28. Stay tuned for next week on Raw!

UFC
As you all know, UFC will be making it's return to Japan since 2000 when UFC 29 took place over there. The event will take place Sunday in the morning of February 26th, but due to time differences it will be aired live on Saturday here in the United States at 10 PM EST. The two major fights on the card are Quinton "Rampage" Jackson fighting against Ryan Bader and Frankie Edgar defending his Lightweight Championship against Ben Henderson. Here's a promo of UFC 144:

ROH
10 years ago, Ring of Honor was born after WCW and ECW went out of business. After a successful 10 years, Ring of Honor will have a 10th anniversary event on March 4th. Here is a recent video wire on the latest of ROH.

That's all I have to say for now. Have a good weekend!

-NYCKNP

2/20/2012- WWE Elimination Chamber results, more

Hello everyone, I hope all of you had a great weekend. As you all know, the promotion for WrestleMania 28 is in full gear and there will be a lot of wrestling talk for the next few weeks. Here we go.

WWE
WWE Elimination Chamber PPV took place last night at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Here are the results from the PPV:

• CM Punk def The Miz, R-Truth, Chris Jericho, Dolph Ziggler, and Kofi Kingston in the Raw Elimination Chamber match to retain the WWE Championship. R-Truth was eliminated 1st via CM Punk, then Dolph Ziggler and Kofi Kingston respectively were eliminated by Chris Jericho. Jericho was eliminated via TKO, and The Miz was last eliminated by CM Punk.
• Beth Phoenix def Tamina to retain the Divas Championship
• Daniel Bryan def Wade Barrett, Cody Rhodes, The Big Show, The Great Khali, and Santino Marella** to retain the World Heavyweight Championship. Khali was eliminated 1st by Big Show, then Show himself was eliminated by Cody Rhodes. Rhodes, and Barrett were eliminated by Marella, and Marella was last eliminated by Daniel Bryan.
• Jack Swagger def Justin Gabriel to retain the United States Championship
• John Cena def Kane in an Ambulance Match

**- prior to the PPV, Randy Orton was scheduled to participate in the Elimination Chamber. Orton was not able to compete due to a concussion and Santino Marella replaced him after winning a "wild card" battle royal on SmackDown.

In the Chamber event, Interim Raw General Manager John Laurinaitis announced an idea of making him not only the permanent General Manager of Raw, but also the General Manager of SmackDown. Therefore, setting up a storyline feud with the current SmackDown GM Theodore Long.

After the PPV ended, it was announced on WWE.com that Sheamus will face Daniel Bryan for the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 28. Also, Chris Jericho shared his thoughts on WWE's YouTube channel on why CM Punk didn't deserve to retain the title:

Here's a preview of this Monday's Raw, as well as the live edition of SmackDown coming tomorrow.

Ring Ka King
This weekend's episodes of Ring Ka King featured the inaugural Ring Ka King Tag Team Champions Chavo Guerrero Jr. and Bulldog Hart, and RKK Heavyweight Champion Matt Morgan making his 1st successful title defense against Isaiah Cash. Overall, RKK was good, but more needs to be done to appeal to the masses.

That's all I have to say for now. Have a good week!

-NYCKNP

2/13/2012- Review of WWE SmackDown, thoughts on Ring Ka King, preview of UFC on Fuel TV, more

Hello everyone! I hope all of you had a great weekend! For the 1st time in a long time I won't be mentioning football since NFL season is over. The good news is that WrestleMania season is going on and spring training is coming soon, but for now here is what I'll be talking about.

WWE
This Friday's episode of SmackDown was average as nothing special happened in that episode. What I did like was the match between Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton. Even though the match ended in DQ, it was still pretty good for what's in store at the Elimination Chamber PPV.

This Monday on Raw, Shawn Michaels makes an appearance to give his thoughts on a possible rematch between The Undertaker and Triple H.

Ring Ka King
As time progressed and Ring Ka King has an inaugural Heavyweight Champion, RKK has now started a RKK Tag Team Championship tournament. I gotta say, the tag team tournament seems to go pretty strong and they have a healthy tag team division right now. I wish WWE has a tag team division, but it is what it is. The one team that stood out was the team of Chavo Guerrero and Bulldog Hart (formerly David Hart Smith of WWE). More will be shared as more episodes air.

Impact Wrestling
I know I don't usually cover Impact Wrestling a lot, but I heard reports from ProWrestling.Net that prior to the Against All Odds PPV, Vince Russo was removed from his position as Head Writer and David Lagana assumed the role. However, this is not been confirmed as of yet. More will be said, as the details come forward.

If this report is true, then this is good news for Impact since it can grow as a brand. Also, Impact Wrestling has reported that New York Giants running back Brandon Jacobs will make an appearance this Thursday on Impact.

UFC
For the first time ever, UFC will host an event this Wednesday for their Fuel TV telecasted event. The main event will be Diego Sanchez vs Jake Ellenberger.

Outside of Sports
As everyone is aware, Pop Singer Whitney Houston has died this past Saturday at the age of 48. The following night at the Grammy Awards,  few singers have paid tribute to Whitney Houston, one notable singer was Jennifer Hudson. The cause of death is currently unknown, but the reports will be given in several weeks.

R.I.P. Whitney Houston

That's all I have to say for now. Have a good week ahead!

- NYCKNP

2/10/2012: Review of WWE Raw, UFC 143 Results, more

Hello everyone! I hope all of you had a great week this week. NFL season is finally over with Super Bowl XLVI concluding the 2011 NFL Season with a New York Giants victory. Also, I will giving my review of WWE Raw as well as the usual stuff.

NFL
The season finale of the 2011 NFL Season has come to a storybook ending as "The House that Peyton Built" crowned little brother Eli and the team of the New York Giants into a Super Bowl victory. Here are the highlights from the game.

This will be the last time that I will mention the NFL for a while, unless there is something newsworthy going on in the off season.

UFC
UFC 143 is now in the books as Carlos Condit became the Interim Welterweight Champion (albeit came with tons of controversy). Overall, there were 11 fights on the card. 2 were streamed on Facebook, 4 aired on FX, while the remaining 5 aired on PPV. Here are the results:

Facebook

• Stephen Thompson def Dan Stittgen via KO at Round 1
• Rafael Natal def Michael Kuiper via unanimous decision

FX

• Matthew Riddle def Henry Martinez via split decision
• Matt Brown def Chris Cope via TKO at Round 2
• Edwin Figueroa def Alex Caceres via split decision. Caceres was deducted 2 points for repeatedly kicking the groin area
• Dustin Poirier def Max Holloway via submission at Round 1

PPV

• Ed Herman def Clifford Starks via submission at Round 2
• Renan Barão def Scott Jorgensen via unanimous decision
• Josh Koshcheck def Mike Pierce via split decision
• Fabricio Werdrum def Roy Nelson via unanimous decision
• Carlos Condit def Nick Diaz via unanimous decision to become the UFC Interim Welterweight Champion

After the event, Nick Diaz announced that he was quitting the UFC, and planned to retire from MMA saying "I don't need this s%*t". Later in the week, it was announced by the UFC that Nick Diaz was tested positive for marijuana, thus failing a wellness policy violation. The UFC has suspended Diaz for 1 year.

 

WWE

This past Monday on Raw started off with Triple H's thoughts on the Undertaker's return last week. The main event was a 6-pack challenge between the Raw participants of the Elimination Chamber on who will enter last in the chamber. Chris Jericho won the 6-pack challenge, therefore starting last. Before the match, Jericho started a feud with CM Punk over plagiarism and who deserves the moniker "The Best in the World". Here is a promo of Jericho "breaking his silence".

Also, here's a clip after Raw ended of Chris Jericho talking to WWE.com backstage:

Overall, it was an okay show. The one thing that I didn't like was the ending when Kane scaring Eve backstage. Was that really necessary?

Earlier in the week, it was announced that February 21st will be a live SmackDown special via PWTorch.

And speaking of SmackDown, here's a preview of tonight's episode:

Ring Ka King

During the gap between writing these blog posts, and the other time I mentioned Ring Ka King, I saw the other 3 episodes and I gotta say Ring Ka King is showing progress. Yes, it's not perfect but it will get better over time. I liked the fact that Matt Morgan became the inaugural Ring Ka King champion in episode 4, even though he said "dhanyavad" in a funny way to the crowd in Pune.

When more episodes show up on YouTube in the coming weeks, I will give more thoughts.



That's all I have to say for now. Bear with me for the next few posts if I talk a lot about wrestling and mixed martial arts. The reason why is mainly that NFL season is over, and MLB spring training doesn't start until March.

Have a good weekend!

- NYCKNP

 

2/4/2012- Review of Raw and SmackDown, preview of UFC 143, Super Bowl XLVI thoughts, more

Hello everyone! Hope all of you had a great week thus far. As you all know, this weekend is going to be a huge weekend for the entire sports industry as the Super Bowl will be this Sunday. I will give my thoughts on this Super Bowl as well as my usual stuff. Here we go...

NFL
As many of you are aware, the Super Bowl matchup between the New York Giants and New England Patriots is a really big deal in the Northeast, but are you all aware that history is repeating itself? If not, let me give you guys a refresher....

Back in 1986, the New York Mets faced the Boston Red Sox for the World Series title on the line. Around that time, the media in NYC was favoring the Mets, while the Yankees were under a lot of scrutiny around the 1980s. Fans considered it the worst World Series for Yankees fans and even Newsday referred to this as "Steinbrenner's nightmare". The Mets eventually won the World Series and the "Curse of the Bambino" would still live until 2004.

Now what does baseball have to do with football? Fast forward to Super Bowl XLII when the NY Giants and New England Patriots faced off for the 1st time in history to conclude the 2007 season.

3 years prior to the Super Bowl, the Red Sox ended the Curse of the Bambino and swept the St. Louis Cardinals to win the 2004 World Series. Yankees fans were looking for revenge that weekend and were hoping for the Giants to beat the Patriots. Around the time of the 2007 NFL Season, the Patriots had an undefeated streak of 18-0, but it came with a lot of controversy as the "Spygate" incident occurred in the beginning of the Patriots season when the NY Jets accused the Patriots of videotaping defense coaching signals of the Jets. The Patriots were later found guilty and had to forfeit their 1st round draft pick in the 2008 NFL Draft. Meanwhile for the Giants, the team was under a lot of criticism, especially Eli Manning's ability to become a good quarterback in the NFL. During SB 42, the Patriots were the favorites to win the game and have the "perfect season". However, the Giants rallied towards a 4th quarter comeback and won the game. The Giants win was not only a much needed win for the team, but also the entire New York Metropolitan Area since it was 6 years after 9/11/01 occurred and the entire area had something to be happy about after a very long time.

Now in this current era, the Giants and Patriots face each other once again only this time the Giants team has changed and so has the fan base. The Patriots on the other hand, don't have a perfect season on the line, and no controversy surrounding it. What's similar from the 1986 World Series to the 2012 Super Bowl is the scrutiny, but this time it's against the New York Jets. After 2 back-to-back AFC Championship Game appearances, the Jets were favored to headline the Super Bowl (or the alternative scenario, enter the postseason for the 3rd time under Rex Ryan as head coach). However, the Jets failed to make the postseason and ended their season 8-8. The NY media is referring to this Super Bowl as the "worst Super Bowl for Jets fans" and also calling this "Rex Ryan's nightmare" (similar to Steinbrenner's nightmare).

To conclude, history is indeed repeating itself, but will the Giants defeated the Patriots one more time? Tune in tomorrow at 6:30 ET on NBC to find out.

UFC
Tonight is UFC 143 and the main event will feature Nick Diaz and Carlos Condit for the Interim Welterweight Championship (due to Georges St. Pierre unable to defend the title while injured)

WWE
This past Monday on Raw was the fallout of the Royal Rumble PPV. The main plot of the episode was whether John Laurinaitis was going to be fired by WWE COO Triple H. Overall, I think it was a good episode seeing quality wrestling after a long time, and for the 1st time in WWE the match between CM Punk and Daniel Bryan (which led ROH fans to mark out). The surprising thing was seeing the Undertaker return and confront Triple H.  Later in the week on SmackDown, the main event was a No DQ match between Randy Orton and Wade Barrett in which the former won the contest. Next week, Orton will face Daniel Bryan in a non-title match.

That's all I have to say for now! Enjoy the Super Bowl!!

- NYCKNP