The UFC unveiled their new Legacy Championship belt, which will be awarded to those who win title bouts and used for the duration of their career inside the octagon. The belt is customized for each individual champion by the athlete’s country and weight class. The red stones on the side plates represent each title defense.
The women’s championship belt will be slightly smaller. However, identical to the men’s belt in every other detail. Each belt comes with a plate on the backside with a unique serial number assigned to the specific champion. UFC President Dana White’s engraved signature is also included for authenticity.
The first eight countries that were home to UFC champions will represent flag iconography on the belt. USA, Canada, Brazil, Netherlands, Poland, Belarus, UK, and Ireland. Mark Coleman (USA) was the inaugural heavyweight champion.
The first belt will be presented at the UFC’s debut on ESPN+ streaming service when Henry Cejudo defends the flyweight title (125 lbs.) against bantamweight king (135 lbs.) T.J. Dillashaw. Both fighters will enter the octagon with the proceeding title belt, which the new legacy design and awarded to the winner.
The global motif of the belt is representative of a true world championship. The belt actually says “world champion,” unlike the previous incarnation. The center plate looks clunky and lacks a certain sleekness.
Overall, the new title looks very 2019 and carries an ambitious exhibit of accomplishment and celebration.
WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles were revealed on Monday, and the inaugural champions will be crowned at the Elimination Chamber on February 17, 2019. Three teams from Raw and three teams from SmackDown will compete in an Elimination Chamber match.
Women’s tag titles have been rumored for some time with their inclusion being confirmed by Vince McMahon on the Christmas Eve edition of Raw. The belts were revealed for the first time during Alexa Bliss’ talk show segment, A Moment of Bliss.
Old school wrestling fans will remember the previous set of WWE women’s tag team titles in the 1980s. Velvet McIntyre and Princess Victoria were the first champions and eventually lost them to the Glamour Girls (Leilani Kai & Judy Martin), managed by Jimmy Hart.
Jumping Bomb Angels
The high flying sensations known as the Jumping Bomb Angles (Noriyo Tateno and Itsuki Yamazaki) defeated The Glamour Girls at the first Royal Rumble event in 1988. Six months later, the Glamour Girls regained the titles and remained champions until they were deactivated in 1989.
There will be one pair of champions defending the titles on both Raw and SmackDown as opposed to each brand having their own set of women’s tag titles. If this concept is done correctly, the championship will mean more than most since the title holders will be the only wrestlers in WWE that can appear on both shows.
With the possibility of the first ever all-female WrestleMania main event looming, it’s surprising the titles are going to be decided before the granddaddy of them all. However, WWE a lot of shows to fill, so it’s easy to forgive them this time around.
Sasha Banks and Bayley are the favorites to win titles. However, they don’t need to be champions coming out of the gate. Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose are getting more play on SmackDown. Perhaps, the imposing duo of Tamina and Nia Jax could be the team to beat. The Iconnics (Peyton Royce and Billie Kay) are green and should stay away from anything to do with a chamber match.
Depending on what happens at the Royal Rumble, imagine the possibility of Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair, somehow, being forced to enter the chamber as a team? Maybe the Bellas will return. It will be interesting to see which twelve wrestlers will be involved as the evolution of the women’s division continues.
In the current landscape of professional wrestling, women’s wrestling is more prominent than ever before. WWE, ROH, Impact, and the Indies are producing longer matches, better matches, and main event matches. This is becoming the norm instead of the exception. In 2018, one name rose to infinity and beyond. My pick for Wrestler of the Year is Becky Lynch.
Becky Lynch is a talented wrestler who consistently puts on strong performances. However, WWE booked Charlotte Flair to be the queen bee of the women’s division. Going into last year’s SummerSlam, inept booking that shoved aside Lynch, in favor of Flair, created a perfect storm of opportunity. Lynch capitalized on it spectacularly to become the most popular wrestler in WWE today.
What makes Lynch’s ascension even more gratifying is she did it while embracing a heel role that everyone thought she was too sweet to pull off. Gone is the happy go lucky “Irish lass kicker” and now we have a gives zero f%$#* persona of “The Man.”
Becky Lynch vs. Ronda Rousey in the main event of WrestleMania is the current marquee match of the industry. Let that sink in for a moment. A subgenre once considered bathroom break fodder is now the apple of everyone’s eye.
Lynch attacking Rousey on Raw: 11/12/18
Most of the wrestlers in the division lack the believability to beat the former UFC champion. Lynch exudes attitude and the requisite authenticity to dethrone Rousey, which makes the match even more intriguing.
While the word on the street says the aforementioned match will end up a Triple Threat with the inclusion of Charlotte Flair, Lynch is too popular for the WWE to not only ignore but to not push as the featured attraction. On SmackDown, Becky Lynch got the better of John Cena, who WWE just started marketing as the greatest of all-time.
Topping off a fantastic 2018, Lynch had a career-defining match against Charlotte at WWE’s first all women’s pay-per-view event Evolution. Their Last Women Standing encounter has received match of the year accolades and told a gripping story from beginning to end.
Lynch was marginalized for the first half of 2018. She capitalized on a creative blunder, which yielded maximum results. A growing social media presence, match of the year caliber performances, a character people love, a hot selling t-shirt and one-half of the biggest match in the industry gives Becky Lynch the blue ribbon.
While other wrestlers such as Kenny Omega, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Seth Rollins are more than worthy of this distinction, Lynch’s story is truly unique, and her impact is undeniable.
-Wrestle Kingdom 13 Results – 1/4/19 – Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan
–PRE-SHOW: Most Violent Players (Togi Makabe & Toru Yano) & Ryusuke Taguchi won a gauntlet match to become #1 contenders to the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship.
-Will Ospreay pinned Kota Ibushi by pinfall with Storm Breaker to win the NEVER Openweight Championship. Ibushi was taken out on a stretcher out after the match. I’m not sure if this was a work or a shoot.
-Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI & Shingo Takagi) defeated Roppongi 3K (SHO & YOH) and Suzuki-gun (El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship when Takagi hit SHO with Last of the Dragon.
-Zack Sabre, Jr. submitted Tomohiro Ishii to become the new RPW British Heavyweight Champion.
-Los Ingobernables de Japon (EVIL & SANADA) defeated Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa) and The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship when SANADA hit Matt Jackson with a moonsault for the pin.
-Juice Robinson pinned Cody w/ Brandi Rhodes after hitting two Pulp Frictions to win his second IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship.
-Taiji Ishimori beat KUSHIDA with Bloody Cross to become the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion.
-“Switchblade” Jay White w/ Gedo pinned Kazuchika Okada after coming back from a spinning Rain Maker and delivered a Blade Runner
-Tetsuya Naito defeated Chris Jericho in a No Disqualification Match to win the IWGP Intercontinental Championship
-Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Kenny Omega with High Fly Flow to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship for a record eighth time.
Jay White
-Thoughts:
Wrestle Kingdom delivered on all fronts and capped off by a main event for the ages. Every match told a different story that was intriguing and didn’t involve wrestlers peeing their pants of being thrown in a commode.
Sabre, Jr. vs. Ishii was the submission master trying to ground the heavy-handed striker while Ibushi vs. Ospreay saw two all-around specialists trying to out-athlete each other. The tag team title matches of both divisions exhibited all-out action, and Juice Robinson got a much-needed win over Cody after losing a lot of the steam he gained last summer.
Jay White beating Okada clean in the middle of the ring was shocking and the way it came about was brilliant. Okada not only put on his best performance since Dominion in June, but he returned as the RAINMAKER. Tights instead of pants, extravagant robes instead of a t-shirt and his trademark blonde hair instead of red.
Usually, when a wrestler returns to form, they never lose their first match back. Okada was super over in the Tokyo Dome, and he lost as clean as a sheet. “Switchblade” failed to have that star-making match last year against Tanahashi. However, he more than held up his end this year.
Jay White has arrived!
Tetsuya Naito and Chris Jericho’s No Disqualification Match was a fun brawl that highlighted how multi-talented these two wrestlers are.
Kenny Omega and Hiroshi Tanahashi exuded the sheer will to win more than any match I’ve seen in the last ten years. Skill, pedigree, and conflicting ideologies created a story that was unique on its own merits, yet so familiar.
Tanahashi is a modern traditionalist while Omega spearheads the new wave of vastly athletic wrestling that is sweeping the industry. Both styles were on display in the Tokyo Dome by two master class professional wrestlers. Forty minutes of…Bottom line, there is no amount of me telling you how excellent this match was that will prepare you for how awesome this match is.
-What’s Next?
Wrestle Kingdom 13 was not only a great show but a highly newsworthy one as well. Not only did every single title in the promotion change hands, but all of the wrestlers who are rumored to be leaving New Japan lost.
Cody, Brandi Rhodes, Hangman Page, and The Young Bucks have officially signed with All Elite Wrestling.
KUSHIDA is rumored to be WWE bound.
Kota Ibushi’s future destination is a mystery.
Chris Jericho’s next stop is unknown but faintly rumored to be going with All Elite Wrestling
Kenny Omega…ANYTHING can happen with him at this point.
New Japan Pro Wrestling will be just fine no matter who stays or who leaves. They drastically hit the reset button, made a new star and are well on their way to making more.
After weeks of speculation, All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and All In sequel “Double or Nothing” has been officially announced. The announcement came at the end of the latest episode of the popular YouTube show Being the Elite (BTE).
There is a “Double or Nothing” rally at TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville, Florida on Tuesday, January 8 at 5:00 pm. A special announcement is expected to be made at this rally, which is free to the public.
Jacksonville Jaguars co-owner Tony Khan is President of the company and the money behind AEW. Tony is a longtime wrestling fan and the son of billionaire Shahid Khan.
Wrestling Observer reported earlier today Cody Rhodes has officially signed with the company and The Young Bucks (Nick and Matt Jackson), while not signed yet, are expected to sign within the next 48 hours. All three wrestlers reportedly turned down offers from WWE.
Kazarian, Daniels, and Sky
Hangman Page, Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian, and Scorpio Sky are all staples of Being the Elite and are also expected to sign with AWE. All four wrestlers turned down offers to resign with Ring of Honor as their contracts expired at the end of December. Page reportedly turned down an offer from WWE back in October.
The final three members of the BTE crew are spoken for to various degrees. “The Villain” Marty Scrull is reportedly under contract to ROH until the end of April. Flip Gordon recently signed a new two-year contract, which takes him off the board for the foreseeable future.
Kenny Omega – credit Sports Illustrated
Then there is Kenny Omega who is under contract to New Japan Pro Wrestling until January 31st. It will be interesting to see what happens on Friday when Omega defends the IWGP Heavyweight Title against Hiroshi Tanahashi in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom 13.
Omega is highly regarded by many as the best wrestler in the world. He is in the driver’s seat from a financial standpoint. New Japan, under their new leadership, is offering more significant money contacts than ever before. WWE wants zero competition, has more money to play with than ever before due to their massive TV contracts beginning this year, and are signing anyone with name value.
WWE traditionally doesn’t offer high six or seven figure contracts to wrestlers who made their name outside of the company. The last time they did was for AJ Styles, and it worked out exceptionally well for both parties. Omega can command such a dollar amount. While AEW would be the emotional favorite to sign Omega, WWE could very well sweep in with an offer too good to refuse.
Make no mistake about it, from a talent perspective, Kenny Omega is the ace in the deck While it wouldn’t derail AWE if they couldn’t sign him, it would be a big blow that would almost have them walking uphill coming out of the gate.
Hey Kids, it’s Chris Jericho.
Wow, I almost forgot about Chris Jericho.
Y2J has done a fantastic job of reinventing himself in New Japan Pro Wrestling. He holds their Intercontinental Title and will defend it against Tetsuya Naito at Wrestle Kingdom 13. Jericho wrestles on per date basis and is currently not under contract to any promotion.
Over the last year, Jericho has lessened the reigns on his self-imposed restriction to not work for any other promotion except for WWE. He worked for New Japan, appeared at All In, did guest spots on Being the Elite, and helmed a successful wrestling cruise. AEW being able to land both Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho will make it a lot easier for the company to get a television deal, which is already rumored to have several offers.
It is an exciting time in the wrestling industry. AEW could be the first promotion to compete with the WWE in eighteen years. It will be interesting to see where everything ends up between now and when the first bell rings on the inaugural episode of AWE television.
Tom “Dynamite Kid” Billington has passed away at 60 years old. Today is also Billington’s 60thbirthday. The cause of death is unknown at this time. He has had a litany of health problems and was confined to a wheelchair.
Most wrestling fans will remember Billington’s time in WWE as one half of the famed tag team The British Bulldogs alongside his real-life cousin Davey Boy Smith.
Diehard wrestling aficionados, however, will remember Billington as one of the most influential in-ring workers of a generation, and perhaps, of all time. His famous series of matches in Japan with Tiger Mask (Sayama Satoru) revolutionized the industry and put jr. heavyweight or cruiserweight wrestling on the map.
When I got into internet tape trading, the best of Dynamite Kid compilations were a prerequisite for any collection. It was one of the first tapes I obtained. The utter brilliance that Billington exhibited in the ring was awe-inspiring on a level that may never be duplicated.
His jaw-dropping matches in Japan with Tiger Mask are to this day admired and studied by every independent wrestler looking to make it to the next level. Stu Hart’s Stampede Wrestling in Canada also produced many memorable Dynamite Kid matches.
Billington exuded intensity in all facets of his in-ring work. He ran over opponents with his brutal clotheslines, and his vertical snap suplexes set the standard for the popular maneuver. At5′ 8″and 228 lbs. Brit would glide in the air with his swan dive headbutt.
Unfortunately, Billington’s career is as revered as it is cautionary. The constant high impact bumps and injuries that come with wrestling in such an aggressive style caught up with him and he became wheelchair bound in 1997.
Not one to shy away from controversy, Billington was known behind the scenes for being a bully and his callous ribs on fellow wrestlers. There will be many good and not so good things said and written about him over the next few days.
Pure Dynamite, Billington’s autobiography is a sometimes grandiose, but brutally honest, account of his career and the wrestling business as a whole. Wrestlers naturally like to put themselves over. However, Billington admitted things about himself that others wouldn’t even think of talking about in a public forum.
For the initiated, Dynamite Kid is a true legend in professional wrestling. It’s a shame that he wrestled during a period where showmanship and size trumped wrestling ability at the box office.
Today, the tide is turning rapidly in the other direction as the technical, high flying, knockdown drag-out style of wrestling is highly attributed toGolborne, Lancashire, England resident, Tom Billington.
Written for and published by Forces of Geek October 2018
Green Lantern/Huckleberry Hound Special #1 | Writer: Mark Russell | Artist: Rick Leonardi | Publisher: DC Comics
An image of the KKK waving hello to Huckleberry Hound as they drive by his house on a Mississippi evening utterly conveys the edgier settings of the critically acclaimed Hanna-Barbera/DC Comics one-shot crossovers.
Set against the turbulent backdrop of the early 1970’s, John Stewart, a rookie in the Green Lantern Corps goes home to Earth where the political upheaval of the Vietnam War and the violence of the Civil Rights movement confronts him at every turn.
Many of us have probably wished at some point in our lives for a superhero to leap out of the comics and fix the world’s problems.
Russell examines the pros and cons of this real-world scenario as for whether Stewart, who wields the most powerful weapon in the universe should use it to stop racial atrocities.
The narrative uses a struggling Huckleberry Hound as the voice that is begging for the power ring to be used, while other plot elements argue the opposite.
Stewart’s struggle to resist smacking down those who worship evil’s might is what brings everything together to produce an entertaining and provocative story. Artwork checks all of the boxes and makes excellent use of expressive character work to convey what word balloons can’t.
It can be hard to take these one-shot comics seriously because the Hanna-Barbera side of things is a far cry from what we used to know. Putting that aside makes a pairing such as Green Lantern and Huckleberry Hound an exceptional way to approach serious issues without trivializing them while using a unique hook to provide enough of the escapism readers look for in comic books.
Written for and published by Forces of Geek September 2018
BORDER TOWN #1 | Writer: Eric M. Esquivel Illustrations: Ramon Villalobos | Publisher: Vertigo
What if your town has a problem with otherworldly monsters, only to bring upon its victims a most gruesome death?
Think about it long and hard.
Now, imagine the cause of that problem being blamed on those “dang illegals” because isn’t everything their fault?
Racial tensions with a supernatural twist ushers in the ongoing weirdness that ensues in Border Town’s setting of Devil’s Fork, AZ.
Part social commentary and part horror story leaves the subtlety at home as writer Eric Esquivel delivers a hyperbolic memoir of his teenage years in Arizona.
The story is told primarily through the lens of a bi-racial Mexican/Irish teen, Francisco Dominguez, who goes by Frank.
Frank is the new kid in school and finds himself in trouble rather quickly due to the complicated relationship he has with his ethnicity.
Being biracial is not as simple as some may believe. Speaking as a biracial African/Irish person, some might feel consumed by the world at large. Society will look at someone in one light while the individual will see themselves in another. Along with his straight hair, Frank’s completion is light enough where he passes as Caucasian until the other half of his ethnicity is revealed.
From there on, his confrontation with a skinhead automatically makes him one hundred percent Mexican. Socially speaking, it’s hard not to have a say in your own ethnicity. In this maiden voyage, however, Frank seems to take it in stride. We meet Frank’s new friends including…well, imagine if Sloth from The Goonies was a masked luchador.
Political themes woven with the narrative’s eerie setting is unapologetic with its staunch conveyance. “Make America Great Again” is vigorously uttered by some Alt-right types while the tear in space and time that allows the monsters to invade our world is literally on the Mexican/American border.
That is the kind of irony that slaps you right in the face.
“What kind of Mexican is that?” asks a border patrol agent, in reaction to a sombrero-wearing, green hulking monster, which encapsulates Ramon Villalobos’ esthetic throughout the book. The style of illustration perfectly matches the story. The color palette of warm orange skies and peaceful desert landscapes highlights the beauty atop the abhorrent nature of things. Some would say this is the perfect way to describe Arizona today considering the state’s political climate.
Vertigo titles tend to make readers think more than your average cape and cowl book. Eric M. Esquivel’s script is as thought-provoking as it is ludicrous.
Observations, winks, nods, bloody imagery along with fun and insightful character development serves as a reminder that everyone has their fight in these politically charged times. Despite the very real message, it’s the ridiculous chronicle of events in this first issue that takes center stage. A skeleton monster demonically screaming, “…you fucked up!” made me wonder what the hell I had gotten myself into…and I can’t wait to see what happens next!
Once again, your boy was booked to work the wrestling show at Fenway Park as part of the El Mundo Latin Family Festival. The plan was to split ring announcing duties and do commentary on one match in particular since I knew all of the wrestlers involved. Well, I never got the chance to ring announce due to one slight problem. Someone forgot to book the timekeeper. You know, the guy that rings the bell.
In fact, no one realized that the actual physical bell was missing until the referee signaled for it. No ding, ding, and the referee Redd Roche’s calm wave turned feverishly angry as a quiet panic ensued at ringside. Even the DJ looked for a bell file in his music catalog to simulate over the speakers. The wrestlers said the heck with all this and locked up to begin the match.
Moments later, event promoter, Dante Luna found the bell, hustled through the audience and held it over the barricade for someone to grab. Slight problem, however. No one went to grab the bell. At that point, I knew what I had to do. I grabbed the bell, placed it on the table and banged it with a hammer to signal the commencement of combative theater…three minutes late.
My ringside seat.
Appointing myself as timekeeper sealed the fate of Loren Petisce as the sole ring announcer for seventeen matches over four hours. That is a lot of work and I couldn’t get the message to her until the after the third match…The joys of independent wrestling folks!
Overall, it was a fun show. The crowd really didn’t get into it until the second half. All of the wrestlers worked hard, it’s just one of those things that can happen when one act of a large festival full of events.
Wrestling All-Stars of New England Results 8/26/18
On the evening of April 5, 2009, Michael Hickenbottom and Mark Calaway didn’t put on just another excellent performance. They produced a classic match that a generation of wrestling enthusiasts look to as the capstone of their fandom. I knew Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 25 was going to be something special considering the landscape of WWE at the time. Continue reading “Favorite Matches #3: Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels”→
RingsideLogic.com 