Oh no! G has invaded again!! BOO!!! BOOOOOO-URNS!!!!!
This week I return to give PatMan a break and bring you some Stampede Classics… or something related to the Stampede Wrestling professional wrestling promotion from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. This week brings a famous Hart brother and an innovator of Mixed Martial Arts to a head… and in of all places… (more…)
I guess I should explain what I’m doing. I won’t really do a linear recap. You’ll be able to find many great recaps. These are just my meditations and reflections of the weekend that was.
-First and most important lesson. Do NOT ever do a weigh-in outside in North Texas on June 17th. It had to be 108 degrees out there. You could tell that most people there were hungry for MMA, but then there were some blood-thirsty fame-seekers, too.
-Shirts not to wear at an MMA weigh-in: this or this.
-One of the most popular personalities there by far was Jacob Stitch Duran. The man was treated like a god, and many people wanted their picture taken with him. He was just out in the crowd, standing with the people.
-When you are speaking to a fighter or an MMA personality, show some respect. If you are trying to get somebody’s attention, start with their nickname. And if they don’t respond, start with their last name. Especially if they are as old as Stitch.
-After the weigh-in my dad and I were walking to the car, we saw, walking the other direction, Renato “Babalu” Sobral (who was cornering Marco Almeida). After having a minor freak-out moment, a group of guys behind us spotted him, too. They asked him for a picture. He didn’t have much time but took one anyway. I thought that was classy.
-The actual event was fun even though the fights pretty much blew. There was a tool who went apes*** over the fact they didn’t open the door at 5:59:30. He got the officer to open the door to tell him to shut up (we think).
-We had floor seats and they were very well-guarded so there weren’t any scrubs paying $12 and then finding a floor seat. I really hate it when that happens.
-There were some fight sponsors giving out their t-shirts for free. I felt they needed a plug. http://www.feartappingout.com/
-Those of us on the floor were kind of like a double-decker tour bus taking a Hollywood tour of homes. Every new body that came out, it was like “Who is that?” We found Bas Rutten and Michael Schiavello pretty early in the night. When he was able to, Bas took pictures with whomever he could. I was shocked how little Mauro Ranallo and Jimmy Lennon Jr. were bothered. Miesha Tate was spotted in the crowd, as was Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva. Herschel Walker and Michael Irvin were also in the crowd. Miesha and Bigfoot were very accessible and took a lot of pictures with whomever they could.
-I had a 13-year-old girl Justin Bieber moment when I first saw Miesha Tate. I squeed like a girl when I saw her. I gave her a new nickname that night-“Gina who?” I tweeted, “Just saw @MieshaTate in person. Or as I call her, ‘Gina who?’ Camera does not do her justice.” I was actually responded to by her. “@justinruff Lol thanks! I don’t think Im very photogenic lol”. I’ve been tweeted by some celebrities before. I think that was one of the biggest for me.
-The first fight was Brian Melancon vs. Isaac Valle-Flagg. This was the first of the bulls*** decisions from the judges. Melancon looked great in the cage, and I hope he gets several opportunities. Nothing against Isaac (who had Keith Jardine in his corner), but it was 29-27 Melancon at best.
-During the first fight, we had the ring girls stand ringside. At first the one in front of us looked hot and athletic and stuff. And then I realized. The poor thing has never eaten. The great Sir Mix-a-Lot could not have said, “Red beans and rice didn’t miss her.” I again tweeted “Somebody get the ring girl some food. Give me @Mieshatate any day.” I was responded with a “Hahaha lmao” from the lovely Ms. Tate herself.
-Nah-shon Burrell was great in his fight, and even though Joe Ray tried to put him under every submission imaginable, Burrell fought back. I wrote that Burrell does not feel pain.
-Conor Heun took on Marco Almeida. While I am happy that Heun got the win, I started out the fight as a fan of Heun and ended up a fan of both by the time it was over. There was no way Heun got that decision.
-Gesias “JZ” Cavalcante is a man who cannot catch a break. His last fight was a decision that even the winner said “There’s no way that was 30-27.” And then an accidental eye poke. Love JZ. Wish him lots of luck, because the guy has no good luck at all.
-Chad Griggs looked great against Valentijn Overeem. The crowd was definitely “Team Overeem.” I was just glad to see a finish.
-Apparently they forgot to tell Jeff Monson he could hit too. It was a pretty disappointing fight.
-KJ Noons-Jorge Masvidal was my fight of the night choice. What was so surreal was that I was watching the moment where Masvidal punched Noons and the cut happened. That this fight lasted a round was a small miracle. I have to say that after this round, Stitch is the greatest miracle worker in humanity.
-Josh Barnett had a great submission victory against Bret Rogers.
-You’ll hear 30,000 different opinions on Overeem-Werdum. It was just such a styles clash. To compare, it was like AJ Styles having a pro wrestling match against Mad Man Pondo. Or the Dallas Mavericks playing the Green Bay Packers in baseball. I think that Werdum is going to get a lot of flack. All he wanted to do was fight his style. It was a pretty awful main event. I’m just glad Overeem won.
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So, the burning question on the minds of the WWE Universe has to be, “Who is the new anonymous RAW General Manager?” I think I’ve got the answer. That answer, my friends, is Bryan Danielson.
If you think about it, that makes perfect sense. It subtly answers questions I’ve had about the whole NXT invasion angle and ties up a few loose ends nicely.
“But, Bryan Danielson is working the indies again” you say. Remember when Matt Hardy was fired from WWE over the whole Edge and Lita thing? Matt came back to WWE and they let him promote the ROH show he was still booked for. During NXT, they promoted the hell out of the fact that Danielson had been an indy wrestling star before coming to WWE. He gets “fired,” he’s back on the indy scene, and most people take that to mean that he’s really been fired by WWE.
A few people may have put as much thought into the Bryan Danielson theory as I have and realized that it makes perfect sense. The biggest clue became obvious to me earlier tonight: Michael Cole. A lot of you know that I spend most Monday and Tuesday nights running our twitter account, @BrdWrstlngFn. Earlier I got to thinking how odd it was that there was a storyline brewing with Michael Cole hating the internet, but now he’s in charge of reading the e-mails from the RAW General Manager. That’s when it hit me.
Much was made of the fact that Danielson was an indy star who reached fame on the internet. Michael Cole used to blast him every week on NXT for it. Suddenly, Danielson is gone from the company with conflicting reports about why he was fired, Bret Hart conveniently has issues with his insurance company after an angle the following week, then suddenly, there’s an anonymous General Manager who will only communicate with Michael Cole, who supposedly hates the internet, via e-mail. Running with that idea, don’t you think that if the Nexus wanted to get to Michael Cole, they would have by now?
Two weeks after Danielson gets “fired,” Mr. McMahon is on RAW, proclaiming that there is a new General Manager, who promptly books Mr. McMahon as an outside official for the main event between John Cena and Sheamus. The NXT guys run off the participants, and Mr. McMahon announces that he was the one behind the NXT attacks. The Nexus turn their attention to the Chairman, leading one to believe that there was somebody else behind the attack on Mr. McMahon. Perhaps as a sign of good faith, Mr. McMahon gave the GM job to Danielson, who used that position to put McMahon in a situation where his associates could attack him, payback for “firing” him from the WWE.
This is just a hypothesis, an educated guess as to who it could be. I could be completely wrong, and it’s highly likely that I am, but thinking about it this way gives it a certain air of plausibility, does it not?