Avengers vs. X-Men #2 | Writer: Jason Aaron | Art: John Romita & Scott Hanna | Colors: Laura Martin | Price: $3.99
This book was just as hard to find as the last one…and I understand why. The opening shots have been fired as the battle begins on Utopia.
Continue reading “Avengers vs. X-Men #2 Review”
UFC 145: Jones vs. Evans
Phillips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia
– Facebook Prelims
Marcus Brimage over Maximo Blanco via split decision
Chris Clements over Keith Wisniewski via split decision
– FX Prelims
Mac Danzig (TUF 6 Winner) over Efrain Escudero (TUF 8 Winner) via unanimous decision
Anthony Njokuani over John Makdessi via unanimous decision
Matt “Immortal” Brown over Stephen Thompson via unanimous decision
Travis Browne over Chad Griggs via submission by arm triangle in Round 1
– Pay-Per-View Main Card
Mark Bocek defeated John Alessio via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28): The story of the fight was Mark Bocek implementing his game plan with superior wrestling and solid ground and pound in the first two rounds. Alessio picked up the pace in the third with some effective punches but Bocek’s grappling was just too much. One judge scored the third round for Alessio.
Eddie Yagin defeated Mark Hominick via split decision (29-28 across the board): First round saw Yagin drop Hominick with a right uppercut and connected with a left hook on the way down and landed some vicious ground and pound that produced a cut on Hominick’s left eye. Hominick got back up and connected with some body shots while Yagin was swinging for the fences. Yagin dropped Hominick in the second round with a right hook and landed some vicious shots to Hominick’s left eye. Hominick got back up and they engaged in the center of the cage where Hominick landed a solid shot to Yagin’s nose which is caused a lot of blood to pour out. It appears he is having a hard time breathing. The third round was the Mark Hominick show as he found his range and picked him apart with his superior striking while using good head movement to avoid Yagin’s wild clothesline haymakers. I scored it for Hominick but it could have gone either way as the second round was the difference-maker.
Michael McDonald defeated Miguel Torres via KO @ 3:18 of the 1st Round: McDonald pushed the pace by overwhelming Torres with strikes until he landed a vicious left hook that knocked the former bantamweight champion out and hit him with three more punches to seal the deal.
– They skipped entrances for the first three fights since there are six fights including a title fight.
Ben Rothwell defeated Brendan Schaub via TKO @ 1:10 of the 1st Round: Schaub went in for the kill right away as both fighters got into a wild firefight with neither man backing down. Rothwell connected with a right hook that knocked Schaub down and out. Post-fight interview Rothwell thanked the fans and said he would be nothing if it wasn’t for them.
Rory MacDonald defeated Che Mills via TKO @ 2:20 of the 2nd round: Rory MacDonald just obliterated Mills with strikes on the ground in the 1st round and Mills ended up with a bloody face and a busted cheekbone. The second round told the same story with MacDonald taking down Mills and taking his back to finish him with some vicious punches. This was hyped as MacDonald’s coming out party and he delivered in spades as Mills never had a chance.
UFC Light Heavyweight Championship: Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans:
Round 1: Jones kept Evans at bay by mixing up his strikes and used his reach to his advantage. Evans rocked Jones with a partially blocked right head kick with 17 seconds left in the round and attacked with caution and Jones caught him with a punch to the mouth right when the bell rang.
Round 2: Jones stayed in Evans’ range while they exchanged well-placed strikes. Jones connected with an overhand right and Evans walked away and make an ass wiping gesture. Jones connected with two elbows to the mouth that rocked Evans ad Jones went in for the kill. Evans tied him up against the fence while working body shots. The end of the round saw Evans catch a kick but Jones hits Evans with a left hook right at the bell.
Round 3: Jones did an amazing job of cutting off the cage and connecting with anything he wants while staying in Evans’ range. Evans attempted two takedowns but failed. Jones kept switching his stance throughout the round and is fighting with utter confidence. Jabs and elbows from Jones close out the round. Evans went to his corner taking some deep breaths.
Round 4: Jones lands some elbows to the head as a knot is starting to form over Evans’ right eye. Evans is breathing out of his mouth but connects with a stiff jab but Jones sticks his tongue out at him. Evans shoots for a takedown but Jones stuffs it and they clinch in the center of the cage and Jones connects with some shoulder shots to the jaw of Evans. The round ends with Jones shooting for the takedown. Evans’ walked back to his corner with his head down and dejected.
Round 5: This round was all Jon Jones with repeated jabs. Evans circles on the outside, but can’t find his range. The crowd is not happy with the pace but this is the Jon Jones show at this point. Jones connects with a mixture of jabs and low kicks. They clinch in the center of the cage and Jones hits Evans with more shoulder strikes. Jones sweeps Evans to the floor but Evans gets right back to his feet. Jones pulled guard from the stand up position in the closing seconds of the round but Evans couldn’t do anything with it.
Winner: Jon “Bones” Jones via unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 50-45)
Post-fight interview: Jones said this was his most satisfying victory. He went on to say he threw a lot of elbows in the fight which you never do to a training partner and felt a lot stronger in his wrestling. Evans said Jones was pretty crafty and creative and he could not get his timing right. He did say he felt that Jones did some things better in practice than he did tonight in the fight.
Fight Stats: Jones landed 114 strikes with 71 of them to the head while Evans landed 48 strikes with 22 of them to the head
Fight of the Night: Eddie Yagin vs. Mark Hominick
Submission of the Night: Travis Browne
Knockout of the Night: Ben Rothwell
$65,000 to each fighter
Dana White confirmed at the UFC 145 Post Fight Press Conference that Dan Henderson will get the next shot at Jon Jones.
– Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans Preview & Predictions (Column I wrote for gerweck.net)
Many elite fighters have entered Jackson’s Mixed Martial Arts in Albuquerque, NM. None of them are more reputable than Rashad Evans, however. That is, until Jon Jones became the pinnacle of the light heavyweight division. Jones’ rise to prosperity and eventual clash with Evans surprised no one. The former champion however paints a different picture of a pact not to fight forged by solidarity and friendship. The idea of them fighting each other was the elephant in the room that no one wanted to bring up. Sometimes a good friend can prove to be your fiercest rival.
Continue reading “Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans Preview & Predictions”
There is nothing wrong with the UFC sponsoring Jon Jones for his upcoming bout with Rashad Evans on Saturday night. After all, their broadcasts are riffed with Tapout, Affliction, Muscle Pharm, Throwdown, and other fighter apparel.
Yes, these companies pay the UFC over $100,000 for the right to sponsor a fighter, but that is the price of doing business with Zuffa. This is their first time sponsoring a fighter, and it won’t be the last. In fact, Jones’ manager said in an interview that if it happens, Alistair Overeem will be wearing UFC gear, presumably in his next fight with Dos Santos.
This shroud of favoritism suggests the company wants Jones to win, and maybe they do, but it wouldn’t be the first time. Remember the last time Evans fought in Atlanta? He ruined a big-money fight between Chuck Liddell and Forrest Griffin with his sniper-like knockout over the Iceman. I don’t think it is anything personal, though; it’s just the business.
At Boxing events, you never see fans wearing WBC or WBA merchandise. The opposite occurs at UFC events, where that acronym has taken on a life of its own in combat sports. Why shouldn’t Dana White and the company capitalize on fighter apparel sales? It’s their company. It seems unfair, but history dictates that they will do what is best for them, and anyone who signs a contract with them knows this to be true.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship makes its first venture into Sweden with an exciting card that will be seen by millions across Europe and maybe two hundred thousand people in the United States. I’m one of the many who doesn’t have Fuel TV so I won’t be able to watch it live. The eyes of the MMA world will be on Alexander Gustafsson, who many expect to emerge as a future challenger for the light heavyweight title and some even feel he is the heir apparent to Jon Jones’ crown.
Continue reading “UFC on FUEL TV 2: Gustafsson vs. Silva Predictions”
It’s official folks. Brock Lesnar will wrestle John Cena at Extreme Rules on April 29th in Chicago, Illinois. This will be Lesnar’s first WWE match in eight years and his first professional wrestling match in 4 ½ years. The WWE’s ineptitude to book talent the right way is staggering. You can’t book Lesnar like he is everybody else. The ratings have already suffered as they were down 3 points from last week . He has a presence unlike anyone on the roster and the legitimacy to boot. The company’s booking formula of everyone sounding and looking the same is bordering on obsolete.
Continue reading “Quick Rant on Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena”
Bret “Hitman” Hart is one of the best technical wrestlers of all time. I don’t even know how anyone could make a list of Bret Hart matches because he never had a bad match. Everyone has their opinion on what matches make a list like this. My list is based on match caliber as compared to career importance. Let’s take a look at the five greatest matches of the excellence of execution.
Continue reading “Bret ‘Hitman’ Hart: A Look Inside The Pink & Black Attack”
Message board vultures are crapping all over the Punk vs. Jericho match from WrestleMania because it wasn’t the Steamboat/Savage encounter they were expecting. It’s an awful hard position to be in when you are expected to surpass what is arguably the greatest match of all time. It’s not as if Jericho and Punk said “Hey, let’s not try our hardest and see what happens”. They wrestled for 30 minutes and the crowd didn’t get into it until the 16 minute mark. Sometimes, when you put a wrestling match together, it sounds really good in your head but doesn’t translate as well when it’s time to execute the plan. They were hindered by a lack of crowd response, poor placement on the card and that stupid no disqualification stipulation. The last 10 minutes were fantastic to watch but it fell short of being one of those classic Mania matches you will remember forever.
Continue reading “Quick Rant on CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho WrestleMania Match.”
Daredevil #10 | Writer: Mark Waid | Art: Paolo Rivera | Colors: Javier Rodriguez | Publisher: Marvel Comics | Price: $2.99
A friend of mine who reads this column called me a Mark Waid fanboy. I just might be because I don’t think I could say anything bad about his writing if you paid me. His work on Daredevil is just that good and never ceases to amaze me. The same can be said for Paolo Rivera, who will be at Boston Comic Con this month!
Continue reading “Daredevil #10 Review”
I was a junior in High School when Wrestlemania 14 invaded the Fleet Center in Boston. I marked out like a schoolgirl at a Justin Bieber concert when it as announced a year earlier during the Wrestlemania 13 broadcast. Fast forward one year later, and I’m wondering how I’m going to skip school without my parents finding out to see the WrestleMania Public Workout at City Hall Plaza.
It was a well-timed endeavor that required me to leave my house and walk all the way around my neighborhood and double back to hideout at a friend’s house, who was also skipping school. My father is one of those folks who loves to look out the window and take in the sights. The only way to avoid him was to stand on the back porch banister and jump over a large un-climbable fence. I flew over the fence with the grace of a bear and hit the ground running on my way to the train station.
I arrived at City Hall Plaza three hours early, and there must have been 5,000 people already there. In-ring action saw Taka Michinoku pin Scott Taylor to retain Light Heavyweight title and the Headbangers defeated Los Boricuas to retain the NWA Tag Team Titles. The show ended with an in-ring confrontation between Steve Austin and DX, with Mike Tyson, in which Austin was jumped by Los Boricuas and tied in the ring ropes, allowing Tyson, HBK, and HHH to kiss Austin’s head.
Shawn Michaels received no love from the Boston faithful as some fan nailed him in the head with a battery. He left the ring in a heated frenzy, and HHH was left to pick up the pieces with a confused Mike Tyson. Shawn and Vince McMahon got into a heated argument in the entranceway and Vince had the angriest look I have ever seen on a human being as he yelled and pointed at the ring. Of course, HBK listened to the boss and went back to the ring.
Later that evening, my father summoned me to the living room. I had no idea what was coming as he calmly asked me to sit down and watch something he had recorded. He popped a tape into the VCR and I was treated to the six o’clock news courtesy of WCBV Channel 5 Boston. News anchor Natalie Jacobs provided a lovely voice-over saying, “You are watching a truant officer’s worst nightmare” as the camera panned by yours truly flipping the bird and yelling obscenities while proudly wearing my Austin 3:16 shirt.
My jaw hit the floor in sheer terror as he rewound the tape and asked me if I recognized the individual on the screen. I couldn’t believe it. He asked me what I was thinking, but my mouth could not produce an answer. He told me I was grounded for a week, and I could forget about Wrestlemania.
Around 2:00 pm on Wrestlemania Sunday, a sudden rush of courage came out of nowhere, and I knew I was catching that 2:49 pm train into Boston. As I left the house, my Mom asked me where I was going. I didn’t say anything, I just looked at her. She knew where I was going and gave me her blessing with a simple smile.
My friends and I arrived in Boston and the front door of the Fleetcenter was turned in a mini block party courtesy of the W.W.F. Every local radio station was giving out free food and swag. We bought stolen Wrestlemania t-shirts from some guy in an alley. I also bumped into Vlad the superfan that can be spotted in the front row of every W.W.F. pay-per-view in the ’80s to ’90s. I wanted to ask him how he always got such good seats but I was too scared to ask.
We secured our last row balcony seats and get ready for the grand-daddy of them all. The show opens with the worst rendition of the national anthem ever sang courtesy of Chris Warren’s D-Generation X band. I believe it was dubbed the “new wave alternative version.” They were booed out of the building, and if you heard it, you would have booed them too. Jim Ross tried to cover it up on commentary by saying, “That is what the W.W.F. is all about. The freedom of expression.”
The opening match was a Tag Team Battle Royal to determine the #1 contenders for the tag titles. Animal & Hawk won by eliminating The New Midnight Express (Bombastic Bob Holly & Bodacious Bart Gunn). They came in with a new look calling themselves L.O.D. 2000 and a new manager in Sunny. L.O.D. got a big pop when their music hit because they were in the midst of a break up the last time they were seen on T.V. There were a lot of makeshift teams, and the one that got the biggest reaction was Flash Funk & Steve Blackman. Taka Michinoku pinned Aguila with the Michinoku Driver to retain the Light Heavyweight title. Both wrestlers worked hard but their match equated to a firework show.
Triple H pinned Owen Hart to retain the European Championship after a low blow from Chyna. The main attraction of this match was whether or not Chyna could interfere in the match since she was handcuffed to Commissioner Sgt. Slaughter. Chyna threw powder in Slaughter’s face during the closing moments of the match, giving her the opening to cost Hart the match.
Marc Mero & Sable defeated Goldust & Luna Vachon in a mixed tag team match. Sable was unquestionably the star of this match as her Powerbomb on Luna got one of the biggest pops of the night. Ken Shamrock defeated the Rock via ankle lock submission to win the Intercontinental Championship…but the decision was reversed when Shamrock wouldn’t let go of the ankle lock and belly to belly suplexed the officials who tried to make him release the hold. At the time, I was extremely disappointed about this because I was a big Shamrock fan.
The best match of the night was the Dumpster Match, where Cactus Jack & Terry Funk defeated the New Age Outlaws to win the tag team titles. The finish came when Funk used a forklift to drop the champions in a dumpster backstage. The titles were declared vacant the next night on Raw since it was determined the Outlaws were dumped in the wrong dumpster…lol, you got to love this business.
The Undertaker and Kane wrestled each other for the very first time. Before the match, Pete Rose came out and called Boston the city of losers and made references to the 1986 World Series. Kane came out and hit Rose with the Tombstone for his trouble.
Undertaker won the match after hitting Kane with three tombstone piledrivers. Afterward, Kane recovered and tombstoned the Undertaker onto a steel chair. This was the match I was most excited about, and it didn’t deliver. It was slow-paced, and the fans were chanting “Holyfield, Holyfield” throughout the match
The main event featuring Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Shawn Michaels w/ Mike Tyson as the special guest enforcer was a great match, but it is known more for its historical significance. Austin winning the WWF Title in this setting solidified him as the biggest superstar in the industry.
Everything was executed to perfection. The finish came when Austin caught the superkick, and hit the Stunner. Tyson revealed he was wearing an Austin 3:16 shirt underneath his DX attire, and K.O.’d Michaels for his trouble. Watching this at the time felt like you were a part of something special. It is one of the most important WrestleMania moments of all time because it ushered in the Attitude Era.
My friends and I were on cloud nine as we walked down to the commuter rail platform, only to discover the 11:49 pm train was going to be delayed until 2:00 am. Great, I already was going to catch an ass whooping from my Dad, and now I won’t be home until almost 3:00 am. I should have called my folks to let them know, but I was too scared.
Outside it was pandemonium. Yelling, screaming, and people getting arrested were the sights of the evening. Fans jumped on the hood of any wrestler’s car that left through the front gate of the arena. A white limo pulled up to the gate, and security doubled in an instant.
The limo took a right-hand turn out of the gate and stopped in the middle of the street. A muscular bald guy in jeans and a black t-shirt emerged from the sunroof. He was looking in the opposite direction so no one could see his face. Fans rushed to see if it was him. I snuck by the police and made it to the limo. He turned to look at me and it was him! Stone Cold Steve Austin.
Like the biggest mark, I yelled: “IT’S HIM, IT’S REALLY HIM.” The police blockade became a wall of jello as fans ran towards the limo. Austin started slapping hands with everyone as the police pulled people off the limo. I hung on to the limo with my knees on the bumper and hands gripped tightly to the boomerang-shaped T.V. antenna until one of Boston’s finest knocked me down with a forearm shiver to the jaw.
Definitely not my proudest moment.
I got home a little before 3:00 am, and lucky for me, my Dad was asleep. It felt like I had only slept for two minutes, and it was already time to get ready for school. I told my Mom about the train delay and asked her if I could stay home, and of course, she said no.
I came home after going through school like a zombie, expecting my father’s wrath. He was at work, and I asked my Mom if he had said anything. She replied, “He didn’t say anything. Nothing at all”. I said, “How could that be?” and she said, “He should have known better than to think he could prevent you from going to WrestleMania of all things…You’re still grounded, though.”
