So, another edition of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament is about to begin - better known as "March Madness".
Really, the "March Madness" lies in the crazy sprint to the end of the regular season, followed by conference tournaments, followed by the NCAA Tournament itself.
I think that the American sporting league that has the most in common with the structure of European soccer is actually NCAA Basketball. And because of these similarities, I think that NCAA could improve March Madness by taking an idea introduced by UEFA for Champions League qualification, which is the "UEFA Coefficent".
Essentially, UEFA assigns a point value to wins/losses/draws when clubs from different nations compete against each other in official competition. This is done at both the league level, and at the club level, and it gives UEFA a tangible number to use to decide which leagues deserve what amount of Champions League entrants.
The NCAA should look at doing something similar.
The way that NCAAA Basketball is currently setup, regional conferences play a league schedule, then have a post-season championship tournament. Then, the best teams in each conference meet in the NCAA Tournament. In European soccer, each team plays a full league schedule, a national championship cup tournament, and then the best teams in each nation square off in the continentwide "Champions League".
In both the NCAA Tournament and the Champions League, the stronger conferences are allowed more entrants into the tournament. In soccer, originally only league winners were allowed to compete in "European Competition", the same as the NCAA. Over time, the NCAA added more "at-large" teams to the tournament, and the Champions League also expanded to allow more teams in.
But the UEFA Coefficent provides a mathematical formula that allows the Champions League qualifiers to be spread fairly throughout Europe based on results of head-to-head competition. Doesn't it make sense that the NCAA would do the same? If a conference such as the Big 12 has a proven record against other conferences, shouldnt they be rewarded with more entrants in the NCAA Tournament?
Sunday, March 11, 2018
Sunday, November 26, 2017
Floppies ~vs.~ Graphic Novels
I love comic books.
As a kid growing up in the late 1970s and 1980s, we didn't have anything like the Marvel and DC movies we have now. I grew up in an era where the Hulk was a bodybuilder painted green, and this was what my Spiderman looked like:
I really only loved super heroes at this point and not comic books, because I was a little kid and couldn't read. I consumed all the other media though; Things like the toys, cartoons, and coloring books. Some of my earliest memories involve playing with these giant plastic superhero toys that didn't have movable arms while runing around my house in Underoos.
My introduction to actul comic books happened around first grade or so, when I somehow acquired a stack of comics, brand spanking new for 1984! There was everything from Spiderman and the X-men from Marvel, to Batman and the Titans from DC. I wore out that stack of books, pretty much teaching myself to read on those issues. I even still have a few - some of my most precious possessions from childhood!
When I got a few years older, a comic book shop opened up close to where I lived. Every time I saved up some money from my allowance or doing odd jobs, I begged my parents to take me down so I could buy new comics. Back then comics were like $.75 brand new, and with $5, I could get a handful of new issues. I quickly learned that I didn't have to wait a month for the next chapter in the adventure to arrive - I could go over to the back issues and buy stories that I had never read before. That was pretty much when I discovered that some of that older comics could get pretty expensive.
I kept on collecting comics through that late '80s and early '90s, and comics started getting more expensive. Instead of $.75 cents for a new issue, they became $1.00, then $1.50. There started being more and more titles crossing over with each other, so to get the whole story, I had to buy more and more books. I couldn't just read the Amazing Spiderman every month, I had to get Spectacular Spiderman, Web of Spiderman, and Spiderman too! It kinda got expensive.
As I got a little older comics became less and less important for me to buy every month. I started wanting to spend my money on things like music, cars, and girls. I got a job at a grocery store, and I would go over on my break and grab a few comics from the shelf and read them - so I was able to keep up pretty good with stories and the latest adventures.
The landscape of comics completely changed between when I acquired that stack of comics from 1984, and how comic books are now. Comic books ceased being a monthly periodical on cheap newsprint, and is now a slick and brightly colored magazine. Rather than being able to walk up to a newsstand or magazine rack and purchase a handful of issues for $5, single issue "floppies" cost $5.00 a pop now. In addition, rather than a popular title having a long run of uninterrupted issues, titles and characters are constantly being rebooted to cash in on collectors buying "first issues" and such. Plus, issues are constantly late, stories are going on hold for crossover events, and story-arcs are tailored for the "trades" - collections of issues in "graphic novel" format.
When I was in journalism school in college, I saw the internet as the future of publication, despite many of my instructors and professors taking the position that print journalism would never go away. They thought that people would always want to wake up and enjoy a coffee and a smoke while reading the newspaper, or that people would always have a magazine rack next to their toilet. They couldn't fathom that ever going away.
Comic books are part of that same landscape, although clearly a different art form. Somewhere along the line comic books got away from what they were created as - cheap and disposable entertainment - and became a "collectible" . Comics are no longer available at grocery stores, newsstands, or many of the other places they were available in the past. Now, comics are available at comic book shops, and at bookstores in trade paperback form. Monthly "floppies" are relatively expensive. Kids don't get comics the same way my generation did, but the companies publishing them still make them the same way.
At what point will the comic book publishers, most notably Marvel and DC, cease publishing monthly ongoing series, and instead just hire creative teams to create stand alone graphic novels? Ongoing monthly titles are clearly going the way of digital comics, and as services like Marvel Now become more popular, there will be a distinction between folks that read for the stories, and those that purchase as a collectible.
In the future, kids are going to discover super heroes the same way I did - thru other media besides comic books. I do not think comics will ever completely go away (just as books and magazines have not completely gone away), but just as kids discover new music and videos digitally, they are going to discover the art of comics digitally as well. Shouldn't the medium adjust to this?
As a kid growing up in the late 1970s and 1980s, we didn't have anything like the Marvel and DC movies we have now. I grew up in an era where the Hulk was a bodybuilder painted green, and this was what my Spiderman looked like:
I really only loved super heroes at this point and not comic books, because I was a little kid and couldn't read. I consumed all the other media though; Things like the toys, cartoons, and coloring books. Some of my earliest memories involve playing with these giant plastic superhero toys that didn't have movable arms while runing around my house in Underoos.
My introduction to actul comic books happened around first grade or so, when I somehow acquired a stack of comics, brand spanking new for 1984! There was everything from Spiderman and the X-men from Marvel, to Batman and the Titans from DC. I wore out that stack of books, pretty much teaching myself to read on those issues. I even still have a few - some of my most precious possessions from childhood!
When I got a few years older, a comic book shop opened up close to where I lived. Every time I saved up some money from my allowance or doing odd jobs, I begged my parents to take me down so I could buy new comics. Back then comics were like $.75 brand new, and with $5, I could get a handful of new issues. I quickly learned that I didn't have to wait a month for the next chapter in the adventure to arrive - I could go over to the back issues and buy stories that I had never read before. That was pretty much when I discovered that some of that older comics could get pretty expensive.
I kept on collecting comics through that late '80s and early '90s, and comics started getting more expensive. Instead of $.75 cents for a new issue, they became $1.00, then $1.50. There started being more and more titles crossing over with each other, so to get the whole story, I had to buy more and more books. I couldn't just read the Amazing Spiderman every month, I had to get Spectacular Spiderman, Web of Spiderman, and Spiderman too! It kinda got expensive.
As I got a little older comics became less and less important for me to buy every month. I started wanting to spend my money on things like music, cars, and girls. I got a job at a grocery store, and I would go over on my break and grab a few comics from the shelf and read them - so I was able to keep up pretty good with stories and the latest adventures.
The landscape of comics completely changed between when I acquired that stack of comics from 1984, and how comic books are now. Comic books ceased being a monthly periodical on cheap newsprint, and is now a slick and brightly colored magazine. Rather than being able to walk up to a newsstand or magazine rack and purchase a handful of issues for $5, single issue "floppies" cost $5.00 a pop now. In addition, rather than a popular title having a long run of uninterrupted issues, titles and characters are constantly being rebooted to cash in on collectors buying "first issues" and such. Plus, issues are constantly late, stories are going on hold for crossover events, and story-arcs are tailored for the "trades" - collections of issues in "graphic novel" format.
When I was in journalism school in college, I saw the internet as the future of publication, despite many of my instructors and professors taking the position that print journalism would never go away. They thought that people would always want to wake up and enjoy a coffee and a smoke while reading the newspaper, or that people would always have a magazine rack next to their toilet. They couldn't fathom that ever going away.
Comic books are part of that same landscape, although clearly a different art form. Somewhere along the line comic books got away from what they were created as - cheap and disposable entertainment - and became a "collectible" . Comics are no longer available at grocery stores, newsstands, or many of the other places they were available in the past. Now, comics are available at comic book shops, and at bookstores in trade paperback form. Monthly "floppies" are relatively expensive. Kids don't get comics the same way my generation did, but the companies publishing them still make them the same way.
At what point will the comic book publishers, most notably Marvel and DC, cease publishing monthly ongoing series, and instead just hire creative teams to create stand alone graphic novels? Ongoing monthly titles are clearly going the way of digital comics, and as services like Marvel Now become more popular, there will be a distinction between folks that read for the stories, and those that purchase as a collectible.
In the future, kids are going to discover super heroes the same way I did - thru other media besides comic books. I do not think comics will ever completely go away (just as books and magazines have not completely gone away), but just as kids discover new music and videos digitally, they are going to discover the art of comics digitally as well. Shouldn't the medium adjust to this?
Wednesday, November 15, 2017
Initial Meeting Bears No Deal to Keep Crew in Columbus
Earlier today, Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther and CEO of the Columbus Partnership Alex Fischer met with Columbus Crew SC owner
Anthony "Trust Fund Tony" Precourt and MLS Commissioner Don "The Soccer Done" Garber.
Based on statements just released by both parties, it appears that the Columbus Partnership went into the meeting at MLS Headquarters in New York City with the idea that MLS and Precourt Sports Ventures would be immediately willing to fully commit to keeping the Crew in Columbus. Conversely, it appears that MLS & PSV expected a full-blown dog-and-pony show style presentation from the Partnership which would give them everything they ever imagined possible, and on a silver platter.
Everything that happened today is, more than likely, just the beginning of the public negotiations. Neither of these two expectations were realistic, and the statements released after the meeting were clearly posturing for the press, the public, and Crew supporters. This was the first real meeting of the two sides since the news of the potential relocation of the original MLS club broke weeks ago, and neither side was going to give in on anything right off the bat. Thinking otherwise is unrealistic.
The reality of the situation is that at today's meeting, the Partnership let MLS & PSV know that they are not willing to negotiate with PSV without a commitment to keep the Crew in Columbus. And PSV let the Partnership know that they are perfectly content to move the team to Austin.
There is no way that the Partnership is going to let PSV take any number, figure, plan, or idea that they could possibly present to keep the Crew in Columbus, as a bargaining chip for PSV to use in negotiations with Austin. Think of it this way - perhaps the Partnership is willing to finance a new stadium, willing to give a plot of prime downtown real estate to build a stadium, or something akin to a great concession from the Partnership that would show Columbus is willing and able to keep the Crew. The Partnership does not want MLS & PSV to to schedule a meeting with the Austin folks and use their offer as a bargaining chip.
If PSV is able to do that, then all you really have is PSV auctioning off the team to the highest bidder, with Garber serving as the auctioneer. The Columbus Partnership is looking for a guarantee that the city will not be used to sweeten a deal in Austin; The Partnership wants PSV to negotiate in good faith.
Although that is an admirable position for the Partnership to take from a public relations point of view, PSV and MLS have not done any business in good faith yet in this matter, and making a pledge to do so only damages their position, and would be seen as a concession. Committing to keep the team in Columbus destroys PSV's leverage to negotiate in Austin. As long as Columbus is a viable option for PSV, then PSV will have leverage to negotiate in Austin, so why would PSV give that up? Again, why would PSV give up anything right off the bat, during the first real conversation on the matter?
The first meeting has established the "Mexican Standoff", where both parties are standing feet away from the other, each with a gun in hand, poised point blank at the other's head. The bullet that is in the chamber of the Partnership's gun is that the entirety of soccer fandom is against MLS & PSV, and that the publicity nightmare the relocation scenario has caused will render a move to Austin untenable. A few feet away, PSV has its finger firmly against the trigger that is the speculation that a pile of cash can be generated by putting the first professional sports franchise in Austin.
One of them is bluffing, even if they do not know it yet. Either way, both may end up taking a bullet at close range.
Based on statements just released by both parties, it appears that the Columbus Partnership went into the meeting at MLS Headquarters in New York City with the idea that MLS and Precourt Sports Ventures would be immediately willing to fully commit to keeping the Crew in Columbus. Conversely, it appears that MLS & PSV expected a full-blown dog-and-pony show style presentation from the Partnership which would give them everything they ever imagined possible, and on a silver platter.
Everything that happened today is, more than likely, just the beginning of the public negotiations. Neither of these two expectations were realistic, and the statements released after the meeting were clearly posturing for the press, the public, and Crew supporters. This was the first real meeting of the two sides since the news of the potential relocation of the original MLS club broke weeks ago, and neither side was going to give in on anything right off the bat. Thinking otherwise is unrealistic.
The reality of the situation is that at today's meeting, the Partnership let MLS & PSV know that they are not willing to negotiate with PSV without a commitment to keep the Crew in Columbus. And PSV let the Partnership know that they are perfectly content to move the team to Austin.
There is no way that the Partnership is going to let PSV take any number, figure, plan, or idea that they could possibly present to keep the Crew in Columbus, as a bargaining chip for PSV to use in negotiations with Austin. Think of it this way - perhaps the Partnership is willing to finance a new stadium, willing to give a plot of prime downtown real estate to build a stadium, or something akin to a great concession from the Partnership that would show Columbus is willing and able to keep the Crew. The Partnership does not want MLS & PSV to to schedule a meeting with the Austin folks and use their offer as a bargaining chip.
If PSV is able to do that, then all you really have is PSV auctioning off the team to the highest bidder, with Garber serving as the auctioneer. The Columbus Partnership is looking for a guarantee that the city will not be used to sweeten a deal in Austin; The Partnership wants PSV to negotiate in good faith.
Although that is an admirable position for the Partnership to take from a public relations point of view, PSV and MLS have not done any business in good faith yet in this matter, and making a pledge to do so only damages their position, and would be seen as a concession. Committing to keep the team in Columbus destroys PSV's leverage to negotiate in Austin. As long as Columbus is a viable option for PSV, then PSV will have leverage to negotiate in Austin, so why would PSV give that up? Again, why would PSV give up anything right off the bat, during the first real conversation on the matter?
The first meeting has established the "Mexican Standoff", where both parties are standing feet away from the other, each with a gun in hand, poised point blank at the other's head. The bullet that is in the chamber of the Partnership's gun is that the entirety of soccer fandom is against MLS & PSV, and that the publicity nightmare the relocation scenario has caused will render a move to Austin untenable. A few feet away, PSV has its finger firmly against the trigger that is the speculation that a pile of cash can be generated by putting the first professional sports franchise in Austin.
One of them is bluffing, even if they do not know it yet. Either way, both may end up taking a bullet at close range.
Saturday, November 11, 2017
So, I'm kinda starting over here.
This blog has been around since 2010, although it hasn't had many posts in the last couple of years. Before that, I regularly posted on MySpace (remember that!) and LiveJournal (that too!) - but a lot of that stuff really was just about my adventures in the pro wrestling business.
A few years ago I tried to start writing about music a little bit, but I was forcing myself to do it, rather than actually wanting to write. Recently though, I have got the bug to start writing again.
I thought about creating a new blogs somewhere and "starting fresh", but in the end I decided to just revive this space, rather than starting new. But this blog will not be focused on wrestling, especially my now dormant career in the squared circle.
I have a degree in Journalism & Communication from The Ohio State University. I haven't really ever done much with that degree, honestly. When my focus was 100% on making a living as a professional wrestler, I always viewed everything else I did as a side-hustle, or a gig that helped pay the bills. Considering that I haven't wrestled since 2011, and my "side hustle" somehow turned into working for the same company for a quarter of my life, well, maybe I need something else to do on the side.
This blog has been around since 2010, although it hasn't had many posts in the last couple of years. Before that, I regularly posted on MySpace (remember that!) and LiveJournal (that too!) - but a lot of that stuff really was just about my adventures in the pro wrestling business.
A few years ago I tried to start writing about music a little bit, but I was forcing myself to do it, rather than actually wanting to write. Recently though, I have got the bug to start writing again.
I thought about creating a new blogs somewhere and "starting fresh", but in the end I decided to just revive this space, rather than starting new. But this blog will not be focused on wrestling, especially my now dormant career in the squared circle.
I have a degree in Journalism & Communication from The Ohio State University. I haven't really ever done much with that degree, honestly. When my focus was 100% on making a living as a professional wrestler, I always viewed everything else I did as a side-hustle, or a gig that helped pay the bills. Considering that I haven't wrestled since 2011, and my "side hustle" somehow turned into working for the same company for a quarter of my life, well, maybe I need something else to do on the side.
Recently I saw an interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates, where he said that his blog allowed him to hone his craft. I am very much interested in becoming a better writer, a better communicator, and I am not really interested in diving into social media beyond Twitter.
So, here we are.
What I am looking to do here is to get more of my thoughts down "on paper". Rather than posting half-ass responses on Reddit or something, I am going to try to put my thoughts down here, writing things with some kind of perspective. I want the thoughts that I put down here to be coherent if someone actually ends up reading them. Plus, I want to do things like add links, sources, photos, stuff like that. That isn't to say I will not be active on Twitter, because I most certainly will be.
The last couple years have just been really frustrating. Much of life is actually going real well for me, personally, but society has taken an amazing nose dive. I want to talk about some of the things I see going on in this world. Right now, I do not have any children, but what is going on right now needs to be talked about. So, I am going to talk a little bit about life on here, on how thinsg are, how they used to be, and what my opinions are on what is going on.
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Chris Benoit vs Lord Steven Regal from Pillman Memorial Show 2000
Back when I was still a student at Ohio State, I had already started training to be a professional wrestler, and I had a handful of matches under my belt as I started my senior year. As a Journalism major, I was lucky enough to spend a lot of time my senior year going to different sporting events and either photographing them, or writing about them. When the 3rd Annual Brian Pillman Memorial Show rolled around, I used some of my contacts in the wrestling business to get a press credntial, and I was able to cover the event for The Lantern. I was able to get backstage access, and to be at ringside to take photos of the event.
While the match between Chris Benoit and Lord Steven Regal has achieved an almost mythical status, the entire card had an amazing atmosphere, and was a real "event". More than just an evening of wrestling matches, the spectacle lasted most of the day with a "Fantasy Camp" and a "Legends Fest" where fans had access to the wrestlers for pictures and autographs. The card itself was absolutely loaded. Les Thatcher's Heartland Wrestling Association was the promotion putting on the show, and if you were an independent wrestler, it was a career-making booking. Naturally, Thatcher used this event as a stage for the students of his wrestling school, as well as his chums in the business. The card itself was amazing, as it was one of only of a handful of events where the different talent from the major promotions, WWF, WCW, and ECW, were able to not only appear together, but interact in some cases. The atmosphere was different than any indy show, or a major promotion's house show - it was a real event. When it was all said and done, I don't think anyone left unhappy.
The Matches
Rory Fox & Logan Caine vs Jeremy Lopez & Jet Jaguar - Fox is the "Paperboy" from the MTV True Life special. Caine is Al Snow's brother, and for quite awhile was traveling partners with Chris Hero before a series of knee injuries made him cut back his schedule; I ended up working a lot of shows with him, but as he advanced farther thru medical school, he wrestled less. Lopez was a Dean Malenko trainee that was a regular at NWA Wildside, and was often appearing on the Jimmy Hart version of WCW Saturday Night. Jet Jaguar was a hot indy name in Florida for a long time, and may have been a Malenko student too.
BJ Payne vs Rico Constantino - BJ Payne was in development forever, and never got the call up. This is the same Rico that ended up getting called up to the WWE a few years later as the flamboyant manager for Billy & Chuck.
Chuck Palumbo vs Sean O'Haire - two WCW guys, who at this point in their career were just stating to appear as enhancement talent on WCW's B-Shows like Worldwide and Saturday Night. In a few months they would both start to get pushed on the main WCW shows as part of the "Natural Born Thrillers" stable.
Scotty Sabre vs Reckless Youth - Two developmental guys... if Reckless was still under contract at that time. Reckless Youth was one of those guys that was just a bit before his time. Back in the mid-1990s Youth was one of the most celebrated indy wrestlers out there working the circuit, but he never really made it to tv for a major promotion, and was pretty much semi-retired before the indy boom in the early 2000s. One of the founders of Chikara with Quack.
Cody Hawk & Anthony McMurphy vs Flash Flanagan & Matt Stryker - This was a pretty good match, if I remember correctly, but the crowd didn't really care because they were all local HWA guys (Flanagan working both HWA & OVW regularly). I think the finish of this match saw heel valet Hellena Heavenly get involved, only for Taxi (McMurphy was known as "the Taxi Driver", as he did a taxi driver gimmick) to gorilla press her and throw her over the top rope onto Stryker/Flannagan on the floor. This Stryker is the one who made a name for himself in ROH, the "unibrow" version, not the future Lucha Underground commentator. Hawk ended up being the head trainer at HWA, and eventually bought the company from Thatcher. Thatcher later repossessed the company's assets when Hawk failed to make his payments on time, before selling them off piecemeal to various folks.
Shark Boy vs Jamie Noble - This was at the absolute peak of Shark's indy notoriety, as Discovery Channel was there filming vignettes for "Shark Week". At this point Shark had been booked for darkmatches and tryouts for WWE, had been on WCWSN as Shark, and was mythical on the indy circuit. This was the start of the "main show", and it was a great opener for the HWA Cruiserweight Championship. Tony Mamaluke was there in Noble's corner, and when he interfered Shark bit his ass, it got a massive pop.
Race Steele vs Chip Fairway - Up until this point, HWA had never really had a heavyweight champion, because the first champion they crowned (D-Lo Brown) was signed by WWF, and never came back to drop the strap. Race Steele was a big muscle head, and Fairway (doing a heel golfer gimmick) was a helluva hand, but too short and stocky to have a real chance at one of the big promotions, despite being good enough to work dark matches for WWE against Kurt Angle. These guys did as much of a brawl as Les would let his guys get away with, and Fairway got a good match out of Steele, who won the strap. A few years later Steele would leave wrestling to pursue an MMA career, and Fairway would have a near-fatal car accident. Fairway died in his sleep in 2011.
Anthony McMurphy vs Cody Michaels - Taxi did double duty because someone no-showed, but I cannot remember who. Michaels was a Dom Dennucci trainee that had a pretty solid career in Memphis, and had trained alongside Shane Douglas & Mick Foley. Michaels was a successful chiropractor in his hometown of Pittsburgh, and still promoted and wrestled on indy shows in the Pittsburgh area.
Tim Horner vs Tom Prichard - This was two old-time wrestlers that didn't really go out and do anything memorable. Two guys that had been mid-card talent in the territory days that were booked on their show because of their connection to Thatcher. I don't think a vast majority of the fans at the show knew who these two were.
The Harris Brothers vs Billy Kidman & Disco Inferno - I totally do not remember any of them being there. Or perhaps I was just hanging out elsewhere because it was Ron & Don Harris.BIlly Kidman was massively over at this point as a multi-time Cruiserweight Champion in WCW, and he was accompanied by Torrie Wilson, who was also massively over. The Harris' and Disco were not.
Vampiro vs General Rection - At this point Vampiro was a fresh face in WCW and was crazy over, and the former Hugh Morrus was getting the biggest push of his career as the leader of the MIA. Both men were at their WCW peaks, and these guys went all over the building and had a helluva brawl. Everything on this show had pretty much been in the ring at this point, and these guys went up in the stands and the crowd ate it up. Morrus powerslam. Vampiro Driver.
Chris Benoit vs Steven Regal - The fact that this was not the main event was crazy. Thatcher was getting off on this match; He started watching this match from the Gorilla position, then crept out from behind the curtain, and by the end of the match was at ringside and grinning like he just ate a shit sandwich. This match took place after Regal had been released by WCW a second time, but before he debuted in the WWF as William Regal. According to interviews with Tom Pritchard, this match won Regal his WWF spot. Lethal submission! Crippler Crossface! Benoit! Piledriver! With as many awesome wrestlers that I have worked with, and shows I have been on, this is the best match that I have ever seen live and in person. I don't like watching it on video because it doesn't come off the same way. Awesome match, and the crowd ate it up.
Diamond Dallas Page vs Shane Douglas - This was scheduled as a match, but the match didn't happen. Douglas came out in street clothes and gave a heartfelt speech about Pillman. Then he started going heel, which brought out DDP, who hit the cutter, and walked away. That was it, and it got a better reaction then if they had worked a 20 minute barn burner.
Justin Credible vs Raven - At the time, this was one of the top feuds in ECW. Raven had just recently jumped back from WCW, and these two were feuding over the ECW Championship, held by Credible. They worked an ECW house show championship match. Although Regal had hardaway color from headbutts earlier, Credible did the only legit color job of the night, getting a lot of blood going. Not a classic by any means, but a solid match, where Raven was over with the crowd. Raven was on something, and was bitching in the lockerroom about the quality of the lockerroom and catering spread for the wrestlers.
D'Lo Brown & Eddie Guerrero vs Perry Saturn & Dean Malenko - I believe that this main event was supposed to be Guerrero vs Brown, with the winner being named "King of the Frog Splash" or something like that. That was how this match started, but Malenko & Saturn attacked and turned it into a tag match. This match wasn't anything special, and was basically a house-show tag match where they screwed around and had fun. At this point in time a lot of the Cincinnati Reds were really big wrestling fans and quite a few of them were involved with this match. Closer Danny Graves was in the corner of D-Lo Brown, while slugger Dmitri Young was with Guerrero. Can you figure out who the referee for this match was?
Kevin Nash was there to do two things: 1) Drink Beer 2) Fuck Missy Hyatt.
A big part of the festivities was auctioning things off for the Pillman family. Missy Hyatt was there to auction off her wedding dress. Kevin Nash was probably a case deep by this pint in the show, and he came out to ringside and grabbed the mic. He then offered to donate $20K to the Pillman family if Hyatt got naked right then and there in the middle of the ring. Les was in the ring hosting the auction, and tried to play it off like Nash was just joking, but then Nash pulled out a credit card and said he was serious, and that if Hyatt got naked right now the Pillman family would be $20K richer. At this point it got reeeeeeeeal uncomfortable, and Hyatt started yelling at Nash not to do this here, because there were kids. Finally Nash took a seat at ringside, but it might have been because he was too drunk to stand anymore.
While the match between Chris Benoit and Lord Steven Regal has achieved an almost mythical status, the entire card had an amazing atmosphere, and was a real "event". More than just an evening of wrestling matches, the spectacle lasted most of the day with a "Fantasy Camp" and a "Legends Fest" where fans had access to the wrestlers for pictures and autographs. The card itself was absolutely loaded. Les Thatcher's Heartland Wrestling Association was the promotion putting on the show, and if you were an independent wrestler, it was a career-making booking. Naturally, Thatcher used this event as a stage for the students of his wrestling school, as well as his chums in the business. The card itself was amazing, as it was one of only of a handful of events where the different talent from the major promotions, WWF, WCW, and ECW, were able to not only appear together, but interact in some cases. The atmosphere was different than any indy show, or a major promotion's house show - it was a real event. When it was all said and done, I don't think anyone left unhappy.
The Matches
Rory Fox & Logan Caine vs Jeremy Lopez & Jet Jaguar - Fox is the "Paperboy" from the MTV True Life special. Caine is Al Snow's brother, and for quite awhile was traveling partners with Chris Hero before a series of knee injuries made him cut back his schedule; I ended up working a lot of shows with him, but as he advanced farther thru medical school, he wrestled less. Lopez was a Dean Malenko trainee that was a regular at NWA Wildside, and was often appearing on the Jimmy Hart version of WCW Saturday Night. Jet Jaguar was a hot indy name in Florida for a long time, and may have been a Malenko student too.
BJ Payne vs Rico Constantino - BJ Payne was in development forever, and never got the call up. This is the same Rico that ended up getting called up to the WWE a few years later as the flamboyant manager for Billy & Chuck.
Chuck Palumbo vs Sean O'Haire - two WCW guys, who at this point in their career were just stating to appear as enhancement talent on WCW's B-Shows like Worldwide and Saturday Night. In a few months they would both start to get pushed on the main WCW shows as part of the "Natural Born Thrillers" stable.
Scotty Sabre vs Reckless Youth - Two developmental guys... if Reckless was still under contract at that time. Reckless Youth was one of those guys that was just a bit before his time. Back in the mid-1990s Youth was one of the most celebrated indy wrestlers out there working the circuit, but he never really made it to tv for a major promotion, and was pretty much semi-retired before the indy boom in the early 2000s. One of the founders of Chikara with Quack.
Cody Hawk & Anthony McMurphy vs Flash Flanagan & Matt Stryker - This was a pretty good match, if I remember correctly, but the crowd didn't really care because they were all local HWA guys (Flanagan working both HWA & OVW regularly). I think the finish of this match saw heel valet Hellena Heavenly get involved, only for Taxi (McMurphy was known as "the Taxi Driver", as he did a taxi driver gimmick) to gorilla press her and throw her over the top rope onto Stryker/Flannagan on the floor. This Stryker is the one who made a name for himself in ROH, the "unibrow" version, not the future Lucha Underground commentator. Hawk ended up being the head trainer at HWA, and eventually bought the company from Thatcher. Thatcher later repossessed the company's assets when Hawk failed to make his payments on time, before selling them off piecemeal to various folks.
Shark Boy vs Jamie Noble - This was at the absolute peak of Shark's indy notoriety, as Discovery Channel was there filming vignettes for "Shark Week". At this point Shark had been booked for darkmatches and tryouts for WWE, had been on WCWSN as Shark, and was mythical on the indy circuit. This was the start of the "main show", and it was a great opener for the HWA Cruiserweight Championship. Tony Mamaluke was there in Noble's corner, and when he interfered Shark bit his ass, it got a massive pop.
Race Steele vs Chip Fairway - Up until this point, HWA had never really had a heavyweight champion, because the first champion they crowned (D-Lo Brown) was signed by WWF, and never came back to drop the strap. Race Steele was a big muscle head, and Fairway (doing a heel golfer gimmick) was a helluva hand, but too short and stocky to have a real chance at one of the big promotions, despite being good enough to work dark matches for WWE against Kurt Angle. These guys did as much of a brawl as Les would let his guys get away with, and Fairway got a good match out of Steele, who won the strap. A few years later Steele would leave wrestling to pursue an MMA career, and Fairway would have a near-fatal car accident. Fairway died in his sleep in 2011.
Anthony McMurphy vs Cody Michaels - Taxi did double duty because someone no-showed, but I cannot remember who. Michaels was a Dom Dennucci trainee that had a pretty solid career in Memphis, and had trained alongside Shane Douglas & Mick Foley. Michaels was a successful chiropractor in his hometown of Pittsburgh, and still promoted and wrestled on indy shows in the Pittsburgh area.
Tim Horner vs Tom Prichard - This was two old-time wrestlers that didn't really go out and do anything memorable. Two guys that had been mid-card talent in the territory days that were booked on their show because of their connection to Thatcher. I don't think a vast majority of the fans at the show knew who these two were.
The Harris Brothers vs Billy Kidman & Disco Inferno - I totally do not remember any of them being there. Or perhaps I was just hanging out elsewhere because it was Ron & Don Harris.BIlly Kidman was massively over at this point as a multi-time Cruiserweight Champion in WCW, and he was accompanied by Torrie Wilson, who was also massively over. The Harris' and Disco were not.
Vampiro vs General Rection - At this point Vampiro was a fresh face in WCW and was crazy over, and the former Hugh Morrus was getting the biggest push of his career as the leader of the MIA. Both men were at their WCW peaks, and these guys went all over the building and had a helluva brawl. Everything on this show had pretty much been in the ring at this point, and these guys went up in the stands and the crowd ate it up. Morrus powerslam. Vampiro Driver.
Chris Benoit vs Steven Regal - The fact that this was not the main event was crazy. Thatcher was getting off on this match; He started watching this match from the Gorilla position, then crept out from behind the curtain, and by the end of the match was at ringside and grinning like he just ate a shit sandwich. This match took place after Regal had been released by WCW a second time, but before he debuted in the WWF as William Regal. According to interviews with Tom Pritchard, this match won Regal his WWF spot. Lethal submission! Crippler Crossface! Benoit! Piledriver! With as many awesome wrestlers that I have worked with, and shows I have been on, this is the best match that I have ever seen live and in person. I don't like watching it on video because it doesn't come off the same way. Awesome match, and the crowd ate it up.
Diamond Dallas Page vs Shane Douglas - This was scheduled as a match, but the match didn't happen. Douglas came out in street clothes and gave a heartfelt speech about Pillman. Then he started going heel, which brought out DDP, who hit the cutter, and walked away. That was it, and it got a better reaction then if they had worked a 20 minute barn burner.
Justin Credible vs Raven - At the time, this was one of the top feuds in ECW. Raven had just recently jumped back from WCW, and these two were feuding over the ECW Championship, held by Credible. They worked an ECW house show championship match. Although Regal had hardaway color from headbutts earlier, Credible did the only legit color job of the night, getting a lot of blood going. Not a classic by any means, but a solid match, where Raven was over with the crowd. Raven was on something, and was bitching in the lockerroom about the quality of the lockerroom and catering spread for the wrestlers.
D'Lo Brown & Eddie Guerrero vs Perry Saturn & Dean Malenko - I believe that this main event was supposed to be Guerrero vs Brown, with the winner being named "King of the Frog Splash" or something like that. That was how this match started, but Malenko & Saturn attacked and turned it into a tag match. This match wasn't anything special, and was basically a house-show tag match where they screwed around and had fun. At this point in time a lot of the Cincinnati Reds were really big wrestling fans and quite a few of them were involved with this match. Closer Danny Graves was in the corner of D-Lo Brown, while slugger Dmitri Young was with Guerrero. Can you figure out who the referee for this match was?
Kevin Nash was there to do two things: 1) Drink Beer 2) Fuck Missy Hyatt.
A big part of the festivities was auctioning things off for the Pillman family. Missy Hyatt was there to auction off her wedding dress. Kevin Nash was probably a case deep by this pint in the show, and he came out to ringside and grabbed the mic. He then offered to donate $20K to the Pillman family if Hyatt got naked right then and there in the middle of the ring. Les was in the ring hosting the auction, and tried to play it off like Nash was just joking, but then Nash pulled out a credit card and said he was serious, and that if Hyatt got naked right now the Pillman family would be $20K richer. At this point it got reeeeeeeeal uncomfortable, and Hyatt started yelling at Nash not to do this here, because there were kids. Finally Nash took a seat at ringside, but it might have been because he was too drunk to stand anymore.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Big East Dominance?
While on the way home today, I caught local sports talk radio host Mo Egger's show on ESPN 1530, as he was lamenting the loss of the Big East Conference as we know it now, but speaking hopefully of the "new" Big East's future.
The gist of his soliloquy was that the new Big East members are all a lot more similar, with many more things in common, then how the Big East is currently configured. He then stated that he thinks that the similarities of the new members, along with their similar sizes and resources, will bring parity to the conference, but at a high level unseen before in major college athletics. Then, he made a bold prophecy for the future of the conference: That if the Big East doe not expand beyond twelve members, in the first twenty five years of the conference, each team in the conference will win either a regular season or conference championship. He then began to re-emphasize that this is something that you do not see in the Big Ten, SEC, or other major conferences.
I wasn't so sure about that last part of his argument. You don't see that in other conferences? Well, I decided to take a look for myself.
Over the past twenty five seasons (since 1988), Purdue, Indiana, Michigan State, Ohio State, Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa and Michigan have all won a Big Ten regular season or conference championship. That is nine of the schools that have been in the conference the entire twenty five years - everyone except Northwestern. Northwestern has not even made the NCAA tournament as an at-large bid - ever, which seems to indicate that it is an issue with that school's athletic program, more so than a lack of conference parity, especially since Northwestern has long been heralded as an educational institution on par with the Ivy League with athletics as a secondary even for student athletes. The Big Ten has actually added two members (in Penn State in 1993 and Nebraska in 2012), to bring the total teams to twelve - although neither of those schools have won a conference title. In addition, the Big Ten didn't even have a conference tournament until the 1998 season.
But, the Big Ten is not just a top-tier basketball conference, it is also a tradition laden top-tier conference for football. Is there any kind of parity on the gridiron?
Since 1988, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan State, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Penn State, Northwestern and Purdue have all won the Big Ten Football championship - only Indiana and Minnesota have not. In addition, Nebraska spent 23 of those 25 seasons as a member of the Big Eight/Twelve, where they won eight conference championships.
Let's also take a look at the past twenty five years of the Big East conference, where most of the teams in the "new" Big East currently reside as members. Since 1988, Syracuse, Georgetown, UConn, Seton Hall, Providence, Villanova, Boston College, St. Johns, Pittsburgh, Louisville, Miami, Notre Dame, and West Virginia have won a regular season or conference championship. The Big East has certainly had a more fluid member lineup over its history when compared to the Big Ten (gaining and losing members) but schools that belonged to the conference that never won a tournament or regular season championship include DePaul, Cincinnati, Rutgers, South Florida, Marquette and Virginia Tech - roughly 31.5% of the league.
For the sake of argument, why not take a gander at Big East football? Miami, West Virginia, Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Louisville, Cincinnati, Boston College and UConn all won the Big East conference championship since the league began football play in 1991, leaving only Temple, and South Florida as football playing members that never won a conference title.
When you take a closer look at the Big East history, the basketball end of things was almost completely dominated by handfull of schools - mostly Syracuse, UConn, and Georgetown. In fact, over the past 25 years, the only schools in the "Catholic 7" that have won a Big East Championship are Georgetown (8), Seton Hall (3), St. Johns (2), Providence (1), and Villanova (3). In other words, of the 50 combined regular season and tournament championships, only 17 have been won by "Catholic 7" members, which is less than 34%. Marquette and DePaul, two members added in the past decade, have never won a Big East Championship.
While I certainly do think that the "new" Big East will be an exciting basketball conference, I do not see any reason to think that the conference will be a dominant basketball conference of pure parity unseen before in college sports. For the first few years of existence, the new Big East will be dominated by Georgetown, the crown jewel of the seven existing Big East schools, along with schools traditionally dominant in smaller conferences: Butler, Xavier and Creighton. The six remaining schools will certainly be great basketball schools in the revamped Big East, but none of them have shown recent performance levels to indicate that they will level out the conference. Perhaps over time the fortunes of those schools will equal out with their conferencemates, but I think that will be due in large part to the absence of strong hoops teams propped up partially by money from football revenue.
The gist of his soliloquy was that the new Big East members are all a lot more similar, with many more things in common, then how the Big East is currently configured. He then stated that he thinks that the similarities of the new members, along with their similar sizes and resources, will bring parity to the conference, but at a high level unseen before in major college athletics. Then, he made a bold prophecy for the future of the conference: That if the Big East doe not expand beyond twelve members, in the first twenty five years of the conference, each team in the conference will win either a regular season or conference championship. He then began to re-emphasize that this is something that you do not see in the Big Ten, SEC, or other major conferences.
I wasn't so sure about that last part of his argument. You don't see that in other conferences? Well, I decided to take a look for myself.
Over the past twenty five seasons (since 1988), Purdue, Indiana, Michigan State, Ohio State, Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa and Michigan have all won a Big Ten regular season or conference championship. That is nine of the schools that have been in the conference the entire twenty five years - everyone except Northwestern. Northwestern has not even made the NCAA tournament as an at-large bid - ever, which seems to indicate that it is an issue with that school's athletic program, more so than a lack of conference parity, especially since Northwestern has long been heralded as an educational institution on par with the Ivy League with athletics as a secondary even for student athletes. The Big Ten has actually added two members (in Penn State in 1993 and Nebraska in 2012), to bring the total teams to twelve - although neither of those schools have won a conference title. In addition, the Big Ten didn't even have a conference tournament until the 1998 season.
But, the Big Ten is not just a top-tier basketball conference, it is also a tradition laden top-tier conference for football. Is there any kind of parity on the gridiron?
Since 1988, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan State, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Penn State, Northwestern and Purdue have all won the Big Ten Football championship - only Indiana and Minnesota have not. In addition, Nebraska spent 23 of those 25 seasons as a member of the Big Eight/Twelve, where they won eight conference championships.
Let's also take a look at the past twenty five years of the Big East conference, where most of the teams in the "new" Big East currently reside as members. Since 1988, Syracuse, Georgetown, UConn, Seton Hall, Providence, Villanova, Boston College, St. Johns, Pittsburgh, Louisville, Miami, Notre Dame, and West Virginia have won a regular season or conference championship. The Big East has certainly had a more fluid member lineup over its history when compared to the Big Ten (gaining and losing members) but schools that belonged to the conference that never won a tournament or regular season championship include DePaul, Cincinnati, Rutgers, South Florida, Marquette and Virginia Tech - roughly 31.5% of the league.
For the sake of argument, why not take a gander at Big East football? Miami, West Virginia, Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Louisville, Cincinnati, Boston College and UConn all won the Big East conference championship since the league began football play in 1991, leaving only Temple, and South Florida as football playing members that never won a conference title.
When you take a closer look at the Big East history, the basketball end of things was almost completely dominated by handfull of schools - mostly Syracuse, UConn, and Georgetown. In fact, over the past 25 years, the only schools in the "Catholic 7" that have won a Big East Championship are Georgetown (8), Seton Hall (3), St. Johns (2), Providence (1), and Villanova (3). In other words, of the 50 combined regular season and tournament championships, only 17 have been won by "Catholic 7" members, which is less than 34%. Marquette and DePaul, two members added in the past decade, have never won a Big East Championship.
While I certainly do think that the "new" Big East will be an exciting basketball conference, I do not see any reason to think that the conference will be a dominant basketball conference of pure parity unseen before in college sports. For the first few years of existence, the new Big East will be dominated by Georgetown, the crown jewel of the seven existing Big East schools, along with schools traditionally dominant in smaller conferences: Butler, Xavier and Creighton. The six remaining schools will certainly be great basketball schools in the revamped Big East, but none of them have shown recent performance levels to indicate that they will level out the conference. Perhaps over time the fortunes of those schools will equal out with their conferencemates, but I think that will be due in large part to the absence of strong hoops teams propped up partially by money from football revenue.
Friday, January 04, 2013
"Fuck You" - Sports Edition
I posted this awhile back in a thread of the same title on the DVDVR, and it has had enough positivity attached to it that I am reposting it here, for everyone to enjoy. Cheers!
FUCK YOU:
Fuck you Terelle Pryor, for being a loudmouth about your goddamn tattoos, and fuck Jim Tressel for lying about it to the NCAA. And Maurice Clarrett, for being a drunk asshole.
Fuck Pittsburgh Steelers Fans, for being the whiniest bunch of assholes ever. Every penalty called against the Steelers is the worst call ever and proof of an NFL conspiracy against you, and every call in your favor is a great fucking call.
Fuck Kobe Bryant & Ben Roethlisburger, for being a rapists.
Fuck Carson Palmer.
Fuck Mike Brown for being a shitty owner. (Although props for fleecing the Raiders in the Palmer trade).
Fuck University of Cincinnati fans, because you act like your school is a storied football program steeped in tradition and excellence, but you cannot even get 25K fans into your 32K seat stadium.
Fuck sports media in this city not covering The Ohio State University, but covering UK & Louisville like they are home town teams.
Fuck Lance McAllister, he is awful.
Fuck "SEC Fan". Root for your own team, that is cool, but don't act like every team in the conference is your team. Your conference has shitty football teams like Kentucky in it, so you can fuck right off.
Fuck Gary Bettman. Fuck no hockey team in Sask or Quebec City, but having ones in Phoenix & Miami.
Fuck the Columbus Bluejackets for a stupid name, and inept management.
Fuck Lebron James for being an asshole. No problem with you leaving Cleveland, but you were a giant asshole about it.
Fuck Tony LeRussa and the Cardinals. Whiny Little Bitches... the Pittsburgh Steelers of baseball.
Fuck Cubs fans that act like that organization is not one of the worst run in sports history.
Fuck the Yankees, and the AL East. Red Sox are the same thing as the Yankees, and I have trouble telling them apart.
Fuck foreign players not being part of the MLB draft.
Fuck "Fantasy Football Guy".
Fuck people who act like they care about helmet-to-helmet hits and brain trauma, but get pissed when a penalty gets called for it on "their guy".
Fuck ESPN.
Fuck NFL countdown shows where the guys are just having a good ol' time laughing and having a ball. And fuck the "comedy sketch" they throw in there too.
Fuck Tim Tebow.
Fuck Michigan.
FUCK YOU:
Fuck you Terelle Pryor, for being a loudmouth about your goddamn tattoos, and fuck Jim Tressel for lying about it to the NCAA. And Maurice Clarrett, for being a drunk asshole.
Fuck Pittsburgh Steelers Fans, for being the whiniest bunch of assholes ever. Every penalty called against the Steelers is the worst call ever and proof of an NFL conspiracy against you, and every call in your favor is a great fucking call.
Fuck Kobe Bryant & Ben Roethlisburger, for being a rapists.
Fuck Carson Palmer.
Fuck Mike Brown for being a shitty owner. (Although props for fleecing the Raiders in the Palmer trade).
Fuck University of Cincinnati fans, because you act like your school is a storied football program steeped in tradition and excellence, but you cannot even get 25K fans into your 32K seat stadium.
Fuck sports media in this city not covering The Ohio State University, but covering UK & Louisville like they are home town teams.
Fuck Lance McAllister, he is awful.
Fuck "SEC Fan". Root for your own team, that is cool, but don't act like every team in the conference is your team. Your conference has shitty football teams like Kentucky in it, so you can fuck right off.
Fuck Gary Bettman. Fuck no hockey team in Sask or Quebec City, but having ones in Phoenix & Miami.
Fuck the Columbus Bluejackets for a stupid name, and inept management.
Fuck Lebron James for being an asshole. No problem with you leaving Cleveland, but you were a giant asshole about it.
Fuck Tony LeRussa and the Cardinals. Whiny Little Bitches... the Pittsburgh Steelers of baseball.
Fuck Cubs fans that act like that organization is not one of the worst run in sports history.
Fuck the Yankees, and the AL East. Red Sox are the same thing as the Yankees, and I have trouble telling them apart.
Fuck foreign players not being part of the MLB draft.
Fuck "Fantasy Football Guy".
Fuck people who act like they care about helmet-to-helmet hits and brain trauma, but get pissed when a penalty gets called for it on "their guy".
Fuck ESPN.
Fuck NFL countdown shows where the guys are just having a good ol' time laughing and having a ball. And fuck the "comedy sketch" they throw in there too.
Fuck Tim Tebow.
Fuck Michigan.
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