Also, I finished the Nikki Sixx book (The Heroin Diaries), which is incredible.  It was so amazing to read diary entries from 20 years ago at the peak of Nikki’s drug use.  It made me want to start documenting my own life in a journal, and I suggest all of you do likewise.  Not that we’re so important, but it would be cool to look back in 20 or 30 years and read them.  Even now, wouldn’t it be cool to go back and read how your life was many years ago?  I sure wish I could go back and read how my life was 20 years ago, as a 5th grader.  Back then, the WWF was my life.  I had a big WWF calendar, and would put count down the days with big X’s until WrestleMania and Survivor Series.  The WWF was so cool with 10-year-olds back then.  Everyone outgrew it a couple years later, except me.  10 years later, wrestling was back to being the coolest thing (at least WCW was).  Today, in 2007, wrestling seems to have gained a more family oriented audience that watches SmackDown and takes their kids to see John Cena.  Adult fans from the 80s and 90s eras have largely left, mainly watching UFC now.  Even on this site, I see a huge difference in articles we write about the current product vs. articles about storylines that only older fans would know.  Except for the few hardcores, that audience is gone.  Very, very sad.

Congrats to our very own James “Jimbo” Swift for landing a gig as ECW recapper for TheWrestlingFan.com.  This is a big opportunity for him, and we hope he does well and gets the recognition he deserves.  Jimbo, for those who don’t know, was “discovered” by all of you guys.  In early 2005 we did a contest called Armpit Idol, which was a mock of American Idol, in which we posted sample guest columns from readers and had Armpit fans vote on the best.  I knew from reading Jimbo’s first entry that we had a winner, hands down.  He won, and became a mainstay with us ever since.  Way to go, Jimmy.

Sunday was my wedding anniversary, and what a nice present it was to wake up and see near record traffic for this website at just 8am in the morning.  We got plugged (our Backstage Fights page, what else) on a large wrestling forum, leading to several pages of reader discussion.  We are so thankful to people who link us in message boards, because it helps us get discovered by more people, and only good things can come from it.  The more people see us, the more popular we become, and the more time we can justify spending on it, which leads to a higher quality of content.  This site is capable of so much more than what it is, but like everyone, we lack time and resources.  That’s why we’re go grateful to Rivera, Jimbo, and Shannon for their great guest columns.

That anniversary present was a lot better than what my parents and sister gave us, which so far has been nothing.  Oh, but if WE were to forget their anniversaries??  They’d raise Hell.  Funny how that works.

Well, since this could be curtains for this blog, thanks to everyone who read us during the extremely short time we had it up.  Enjoy the rest of the year, and make sure you catch UFC on 12/29, which should be an historic show.  Adios.

Oh, and Chris Jericho looks F’n ridiculous with that short haircut. His comeback would’ve been the most awesome thing ever if he had come back with his old look. Oh well.

What a strange weekend. It’s mid-November, and we’re having gorgeous summer weather out here in the Bay Area. Heck, it’s better than summer weather, because it wasn’t hot, but warm. No clouds to be found, and sunshine all around. Perfect weather to walk in, and that’s what we did. You know, one day we’re going to get hit with a massive earthquake or two, but to me it’s worth it to live here. The California Bay Area is great, as long as you stay away from San Francisco.

Saturday was UFC 78, and it was a very underwhelming show. Rashad Evans has zero charisma, and while Bisping does, he’s still not over enough yet to where he can headline a PPV in the country’s biggest market. The New Jersey crowd was dead, barely popping for anything and not popping at all when people like Matt Hamill were shown on camera. Interesting to see Randy Couture. I’ll never understand that dynamic. Dana and Randy are having something of a war of words, and there they are, a few yards from each other. Do they look at each other and say “Hey?” Do they pretend they don’t see each other? How awkward is that?

Houston Alexander suffered an unfortunate loss to Thiago Silva, which really sucks because he had potential to be a big star. It would’ve been so perfect if he had destroyed Thiago and popped the crowd, but of course, it didn’t happen. It’s moments like those that make pro wrestling superior to MMA, because they could’ve booked it the way they wanted. Oh well.

Haven’t seen Survivor Series yet, but all reports are that the Batista-Undertaker match was awesome. That makes them 3 for 3. They’re not Flair-Steamboat, but the Undertaker-Batista series has produced some excellent matches, which is a feather in both of their caps.

UFC was fighting for its life back then, losing millions of dollars in search of a TV deal and government acceptance. UFC 40 featured the best possible match-up that could draw back then: Tito Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock. Shamrock was only a few years removed from a major WWF run in which he was on top during the peak of WWF’s popularity in 1998 and 1999. Not only that, he was a UFC legend who drew big PPV numbers long before he ever went to the WWF, during UFC’s early 90s heyday (which didn’t last very long). If you recall, he also wrestled for TNA when they opened up shop in 2002, and in the promos for UFC 40, you can see Shamrock wearing a TNA shirt. This fight marked his return to UFC, and the attention and hype led to a PPV buyrate that breathed some life into UFC.

The other part of the equation was Ortiz. Ortiz (who has also done some work for TNA) was an amazing heel character. Even though he’s a classy guy in real life, he’s smart enough to know how to act in front of the camera to draw money. Ortiz’ skill level is not top 5 (top 15 maybe), but his charisma and aura are top 3. In 2002, he was the ultimate heel, and just so easy to hate. I remember hating him so much back then, before I fully understood what he was doing. The fact that he hung out with Fred Durst was reason enough for anyone to hate him.

As for the fight, anyone who knew fighting knew Ortiz would destroy him. He was bigger, stronger, younger, and his skills were more modernized. He trained with better coaches, and his ground game is still world class. Despite the obvious mismatch, this fight was a huge success each of the 3 times it has happened.

The entire UFC 40 card was great. The undercard was a who’s who of future MMA stars, including Matt Hughes, Chuck Liddell, Matt Lindland, Robbie Lawler, and Andrei Arolvsky. That means that today, you are seeing undercard guys who will be bigger stars in 5 years, including Forrest Griffin, Georges St. Pierre, BJ Penn (not a new name, but still very young), Rampage Jackson (already a star), Brandon Vera, and much of the PRIDE crew.

Another highlight of the show was a total pro wrestling style segment with Dana White introducing David “Tank” Abbott back to the Octagon. Tank came out, as charismatic as ever, to a huge pop. He cut a great pro wrestling promo, saying that in the time he has been away, all these young punks have come in with blond highlights. Tank was nowhere near top level, even back then, but it didn’t matter. UFC was dying, and signing him was a smart temporary move to bring back old fans, and the way they did it, in front of their biggest PPV audience, was brilliant.

I’ll say it again: UFC is/was pro wrestling the way it used to be and the way it should be. The booking is so darn simple and effective, and it works. Stars fight just a few times a year. Wins and losses mean something. Feuds matter, and the action is real. There are ring entrances and a slow build with long intros, so each fight means something. Less is more. New stars are nurtured and built up. Take every booking concept from pro wrestling, and UFC does it.

UFC is exactly what TNA would be if I ran TNA. UFC doesn’t have 2-hour TV tapings and an endless staff of writers. They don’t need them, because booking is supposed to be simple. And that is why TNA draws flies, and UFC draws hundreds of thousands of buys for even its low-level PPVs. And yet… no one learns from it. Absolutely amazing.

This morning I saw Tim Sylvia’s UFC debut from 2002.  It must have been during his steroid days, because he looked more fit and more muscular.  The fight was awesome, and the crowd was giving him a standing ovation for the action, which is so weird because normally he gets booed for his boring fights.  This fight made it obvious Sylvia was going to be a force to be reckoned with.  Sylvia is one of the best fighters in the world, period.

On that same show, Ricco Rodriguez beat the p*ss out of Randy Couture to win the belt.  Great fight.  Ricco will be making a comeback in 2008, and we wish him the best.  He fought a great fight because Randy was on his game.

As for Slice, he has superstar charisma. He’s not at the top level, or even middle level, as a fighter. But still, he won the fight in convincing fashion (there has been talk that his opponent took a dive, and the way he lost, it looks possible even though I think it was legit), and the crowd exploded. Tank lost on the same night he debuted, because back then, UFC did one-night tournaments, and Tank went 2-1 on his first night. The loss, in the final round to Oleg Taktarov, didn’t hamper his drawing power, and if anything, made him seem legit. He lost several fights later on, including to Vitor Belfort and Don Frye, which exposed him as a one-dimensional fighter. Slice will be exposed once he fights top guys, but right now, let’s just enjoy the moment. It has been years since we’ve seen a street fighter come in and make an impact, and damn it’s fun to watch.

So Booker T debuted with TNA last night. Good for him, as it will be good money for much less work and stress than WWE. But it’s funny to watch because he will make not one iota of a difference when it comes to ratings, PPV buys, or house show attendance. Sting and Kurt Angle were each good for one week of a bump in ratings, and one PPV that did higher than usual business. After that, it was business as usual. Yet TNA continues to pay them top dollar to employ them.

When will they learn? Never. TNA is doing the exact same ratings they were before Christian, Angle, Sting, and Booker. TNA has seen no uptick in ratings or PPVs since being moved to 9pm on Thursdays and expanding to two hours. Scott D’Amore, who was the best booker TNA ever had, was doing shows that did a 1.0 rating at Saturdays at 11pm, without Christian, Sting, Angle, or Booker. PPV business back then was even better, because the shows were great (thanks to the focus on good wrestling). TNA continues to spend more and more money on things they think will make them more money, and every single time, it comes up bust.

That’s what you get when you have Vince Russo as your booker.

TNA’s problems are so easy to solve. Make me booker and watch me turn things around. The first thing I’d do is light a match and burn that studio in Orlando to the ground. You don’t need TV tapings. UFC doesn’t do TV tapings, and they draw 10 to 20 times as many buys on PPV. All you need is match highlights, a video camera, and a producer. You produce 60-minute shows that do nothing except promote the PPVs. No matches. I repeat, NO MATCHES unless you’re showing old clips of matches like UFC does. With these 60-minute infomercials, you hype the PPVs, focusing only on the top 2 or 3 matches. And no wrestler wrestles more than 3 times per year. Chuck Liddell will fight 3 times per year, and Kurt Angle will wrestle about 60 to 75 times. Think about it.

But whatever, they wanna do things the hard way. That company is still nowhere close to being profitable, so let them go their blind and merry way out of business once again. To hell with them, and f*ck Vince Russo.

Speaking of emotion, John Koppenhaver showed his human side last night on The Ultimate Fighter. You have to feel for the guy for all he has been through, with the loss of his mother and father at such a young age. Mentally, he’ll need to toughen up and that will be his hardest challenge. He’s got the physical tools and the look. He’s being way too hard on himself for how he performed in the fight. He knocked Tommy down and made him tap (everyone saw the tap except for the ref, and the fight wasn’t stopped), so he should be proud of himself. I think Dana will give him a shot in UFC, which he deserves.

Serra’s impersonation of Hughes was hilarious. As stated before, Hughes is one of my favorites, but this season has changed my opinion of him. Serra has a great personality and will be a great champion if he wins on 12/29.

Last night’s CNN special on wrestling was pretty good by the standards of mainstream media coverage of wrestling. CM Punk did very well, but everyone else looked really bad except for Kanyon (who looks much worse after he cut his hair). Dynamite Kid was made out to be a jerk, but it was interesting to see him again after all these years. Chris Jericho is doing his best to lose as much respect as quickly as possible, saying you don’t need to be on steroids to make it. Jericho thinks he’s “small,” which is such a joke. I’ll show him small. I’m still waiting for an explanation from him on how he appeared so much bigger and more cut after he won the unified title in WWE many years ago. He looks so ridiculous in short hair, and that will be more apparent when he starts wrestling with his shirt off. As for Vince, he looked huge, and I wonder why. As usual, he came off heartless and sleazy, as did the entire business.

When watching UFC 37.5 yesterday, I saw Joe Scarola accompany Nick Serra (Matt’s brother) to the ring. How sad. Everyone who watched this season’s Ultimate Fighter knows who Scarola is, and boy, did he ever blow his opportunity.

TNA Impact is tonight, but no one will watch it. I know I won’t. Please, somebody fire Vince Russo immediately.

Just got word from Keith Lipinski that Chris Masters was finally fired.  It was bound to happen.  Masters got tons of heat from wrestling fans for being an untalented bodybuilder who got hired for his muscles.  While he did get hired for that reason, he does not deserve the blame for that.  WWE deserves blame for bringing him up too soon, not Chris Masters.  I thought he had some talent, especially his promos, and had potential.  Unfortunately his inexperience caught up to him, and he didn’t have the natural talent to be that good that soon (few do).  We wish Masters well in his recovery, and hope to see him back some day after he has at least 5 good years of training under his belt.

Also, there’s a cool new message board up that’s very Armpit friendly.  It’s called Board with Everything (BWE), and you can see it here.  They’re also going to post our weekly quizzes, so be a good sport and register with them.

I love watching old UFC’s; they make my time in the gym so much more enjoyable.  I’m going though all the UFC’s in chronological order, starting from the very beginning.  Right now I’m at UFC 37, headlined by Chuck Liddell vs. Vitor Belfort.  This show actually aired on FSN at the time, so some of you may have seen it but don’t remember.

Remember tonight is Ultimate Fighter.

Someone plugged our Mock My Brain with Joel Gertner in the WrestleCrap message boards, which we very much appreciate.  However, the person who posted it said it was from our archives.  That’s half true, as the questions are old, but the responses were brand new.  We try not to post old columns anymore except for some of the guest columns.

Now imagine you tune in to Raw last night for the first time in years, just to check out what you’ve been missing.  To your dismay, you see DX doing an angle with a midget called Hornswoggle, with tons of bad comedy (the short jokes) and pathetic crowd laughs permeating the arena.  As someone who was used to seeing Rock, Austin, nWo, Goldberg, and Mick Foley, you just roll your eyes, tell yourself, “I’m sure not missing anything,” and change the channel.

Yes, WWE and TNA still ignore what fans are demanding and continue to focus on lame comedy, bizarre cartoon characters like Hornswoggle and Boogey Man, and aging, tired stars.  The new stars are incredibly impotent and look like smiling preppies (Cody Rhodes, DH Smith).  Announcers, interviewers, and short-haired rookies look like empty headed, Barbie-and-Ken, vapid, made-up Ryan Seacrest-types who don’t know the first thing about wrestling and command no respect from wrestling fans.

I’ve stuck with WWE and WCW through the worst times, but never has the product been as bad as this.  There’s just nothing interesting going on in WWE right now, and TNA is even worse.  Meanwhile, over in UFC, fans are clamoring for Serra-Hughes and Liddell-Silva.  We’re hanging on Randy Couture’s every word at press conferences, hoping he’ll come back to UFC.

As for Ring of Honor, it’s a non issue.  No one knows who they are, and no one cares.  After 5 years in business, they couldn’t even draw 300 fans in San Francisco.  The wrestling itself is solid, but the characters are 3rd rate and the production is laughable.  It’s glorified indie wrestling with lookalike nobodies doing dangerous moves that no one cares about outside of 300 East Coast fans who must have never seen ECW, because 12 years ago, ECW put out a product 100 times more entertaining.  That isn’t a knock on ROH guys, because some are extremely talented.  But the problem is, wrestling talent means little.  Personalities and promo skills are what matter, and as long as the wrestling is decent, fans won’t notice.  John Cena is okay as a wrestler, but his character and promos are strong.  He matters and he draws.  Fans who boo Cena are not doing so because he’s not a good wrestler, but because he’s portrayed as a smiling babyface with lame lines that are scripted for him.  Those same fans who were booing him were cheering him like crazy when he was a cool heel.

I was really jonesin’ to re-start The Armpit, but since the product has become so unwatchable, it is really hard to write about and even spoof the current scene.  Our MMA articles don’t get as many hits as our wrestling articles, but we love writing about MMA so much more.  It’s hard to please everyone, especially since it’s so hard to sit through a WWE program these days, even when fast forwarding through the sucky parts.

Sorry.  If you feel differently, let us know.  But like many other wrestling fans, my interest in the product is at an all-time low.

As for Ben Saunders whining and b*tching about not being woken up, give me a f*ckin’ break. George isn’t his mother, and hats off to George for doing the right think and calling him out on it. If you can’t get up at 10am, you deserve a smack in the mouth. The rest of us are getting up at 5am (or earlier), and not living in a mansion in Vegas. I hope George meets him later in the tournament and knocks him out.

This morning’s episode of the Howard Stern Show will go down as one of the most infamous in the 20+ year history of the show. You can’t create reality like that, and it was really intense listening to it live. For those who missed it, we strongly recommend getting a copy somewhere. At the very end of the show, Artie Lange and Sal the Stockbroker were really having it out, and Artie lost his cool. He threw a CD at Sal twice, aiming for his eye, and thankfully missing. Sal had to leave the studio and Howard had to really calm down Artie, who was daring Howard to fire him. Things had been brewing for a few days with lots of on-air fights, and it finally came to this. It was great radio, but it was an ugly situation because no one wants to see either guy fired. Howard eventually calmed them both down to where they could at least peacefully co-exist. This type of bickering and pent up aggression reminded me of how it must be in some pro wrestling locker rooms during times of bad morale.

In case you haven’t noticed, we don’t talk much about wrestling in our blog posts. It has gotten boring beyond belief, and I don’t even watch it anymore unless I read that something good happened. I still record all the shows, but never watch them, not even TNA. It’s very sad, because just think about how hot things were 10 years ago this month. The WWF was very good, highlighted by the Hart Foundation giving great promo’s, Steve Austin’s star rising, and well, that’s it. Raw was losing the ratings war, and deservedly so, because its product was inferior. But still, they were gaining steam.

Meanwhile, over in WCW, things were peaking. The nWo was red hot, Bill Goldberg had just debuted and was catching fire, and the undercard was chock full of cruiserweight action and interesting characters. ECW was also interesting, churning out entertaining PPVs. I was a senior in college at the time, 20 years old, and watching the Monday night shows was such a fun thing to do after a hard day at class.

It’s all extremely depressing. If it were not for UFC, I don’t know what I’d do for fun. Wrestling sucks and music sucks even more these days. Howard Stern and Sirius radio are great; that and UFC are my passions right now when it comes to entertainment. My weekends are spent writing for the site and spending quality time with my wife and all the nice downtown areas around us. Life is good, and thank goodness, because if it sucked and if UFC never existed, I’d hate to rely on wrestling right now because it’s horrible. Mark my words, Stephanie and HHH will be the death of that company, and Russo will be the death of TNA. But they are both going to take a long, long time to die. And we have to painfully watch it happen… or do we??