T.G.I.F. with Matt Dawgs: #166

Good day to you all and welcome to World Wrestling Insanity. I am your host for today, Matt Dawgs and this is my column. Today is the end of the work week and the time to look back at all the goings-on over the past seven days as I wrap it up with a bow and spout it out bit by bit. Buckle up. Let's go...

CLUB WWI NEWS: GO LISTEN. CLUB WWI !!! DO IT!!!! DO IT NOW!!!!!

MATT NOTE: Congrats to my 5 year old son Mateo as he received his first stripe on his white belt in Gracie Jiu-Jitsu yesterday. One step closer to eventually dethroning Jon Jones or Anderson Silva from their respective Light Heavyweight or Middleweight titles.

MATT RANT: I do not think for a second that there is anyone who can honestly tell me with a straight face (and not be trolling me) that WWE has been better than TNA over the last six weeks. Anyone who has watched both shows straight without fast forwarding cannot honestly believe that. NO ONE. RAW was once again back to its illogical, nonsensical mindless crap again this week. There were literally 4 matches on the show that went less than 3 minutes. FOUR. Now you WWE defenders will jump at the ready to defend this but you are the same people who would cry and complain when TNA did this all the time. Admittedly I popped when I heard the iPhone Text Tone to bring back the anonymous RAW General Manager gimmick even though I absolutely abhorred it since it was entertaining for one night only and technically they never wrapped it up as they just moved into the Triple H running RAW as CFO without having him get rid of the computer. Plus I knew it would get heel heat from the fans and thus make the crowd hot. Then….it was revealed that the GM was Hornswoggle. Seriously; WWE did this. So it appears that Hornswoggle has been a heel for an extended period of time because why else would he make the decisions he did. By the way, how does he write in perfect English when in fact he doesn’t speak and he does ridiculous, primitive things such as biting people and kicking their shins?

RAW QUESTIONS AND THOUGHTS:

• 1,000^th RAW is STACKED. The Rock has been confirmed as making a live appearance on the show which is already featuring Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Mick Foley, Bret “Hitman” Hart, Steve Blackman (no that is not a typo, Steve Blackman will be on the show), Brock Lesnar, Paul Heyman, Rey Myserio and lord knows who else. WOW.
• There is also a strong push from management to get the Undertaker to appear on the show in some form.
• As I said in previous columns, A.J. is awesome. That being said, she still has a ways to go when it comes to working on the fly. The opening segment with her, Punk and Bryan went WAY too long. Her long pauses and losing her train of thought were the culprit in making a 10 minute segment last 20. UGH.
• The pop she got when she proposed to Punk was incredible.
• Whose cereal did Jack Swagger piss in? Remember when this guy was a former World Champion?
• Tensai power bombing Tyson Kidd on the ring apron, SICK!!
• Bob Backland. The crowd was oblivious as to who Backland was. NONE at all.
• Why in the world would WWE BURY CM Punk the way they had Eve do? It is not his fault that no championship match has headlined a PPV in 2012. But to have Eve say that Punk has been overshadowed by John Cena, HHH, The Rock and even Brock Lesnar is a f*cking slap in the face to the guy who is admittedly their number 2 man in the promotion. There was no reason to point that out unless Punk is turning heel.
• If you are an MMA fan like CM Punk and saw the Silva/Sonnen match last weekend then you will get a kick out of THIS SEQUENCE from RAW on Monday.
• Brodus Clay squashed Drew McIntyre in a one minute squash. Never have I seen a match that short be so bad. Amazing.
• I already ranted about Hornswoggle above so I will refrain from ranting about it again.
• Michael Cole vs. Jerry Lawler? UGH.
• Continuity please? Darren Young & Titus O’Neil win a number one contenders match for the tag team titles SEVERAL weeks ago on RAW. They have yet to receive their title shot. At Money In The Bank on Sunday, R-Truth & Kofi Kingston defend the tag team titles against Hunico & Camacho? WTF? How did they get a title match before the #1 contenders?
• Was the finish to the Show/Jericho vs. Cena/Kane match the lamest finish on WWE television all year? Even worse than the infamous “walk out and get counted out” finish? Seriously, getting DQ’d for pulling someone outside of the ring when it happens in almost every single tag team match. HORRIBLE. This horrible finish was compounded by the fact that they wasted 20 minutes of time building to it including going to commercial TWICE. Why book the match for so long only to have a lame non-finish like that? I understand not wanting to job anyone in the main event a week before the PPV. That is fine. But that finish was cheap. I would have actually preferred the “walk out” to this.
• WWE gets RAWactive ?

WWE News and Notes

WWE/TNA LAWSUIT NEWS: The court met on July 3^rd and dissolved the TNA injunction against WWE noting that no injunction is needed. They also ruled that there is no need to expedite the discovery process meaning that both companies can decide on the timeline to exchange evidence, etc so long as it works to their schedules (meaning they can draw it out for longer). There is also no immediate danger of WWE causing irreparable harm to TNA and that WWE would immediately have to contact TNA and the court should Brian Wittenstein attempt to reach out to them and try to provide them with additional material. Another hearing is set for today in regards to the case but by the looks of the judges’ decisions so far, TNA is not coming out on top in this lawsuit as the majority of the rulings seem to point to WWE having no fault in anything that happened.

- Kia Stevens a.k.a. Kharma noted on her Twitter that she has been moved to the alumni section of WWE.COM. She did NOT in fact confirm her release contrary to reports. But she did in fact get released. WWE prefers to formally announce releases on their website on Friday (today) in order to slow the discussing of news since weekends are slow for them. WWE may delay announcing it because of the leak as WWE has constantly changed plans (remember the cancelling of the FCW tapings and FCW program which was set to be cancelled then when it got out, they denied it and kept it going for months before turning it into NXT V2?). Basically someone let the cat out of the bag earlier than expected.

- One person NOT expected for the 1,000^th RAW is Ric Flair. WWE still does not plan on signing him until the lawsuit is settled (unless it is settled/dismissed today).

- In other Raw 1,000 news that WWE did NOT want to hear, TMZ.com is reporting that Charlie Sheen is shutting down his Twitter account. This is a major negative for WWE since Sheen was announced as the RAW "Social Media Ambassador" for the 1,000^th show.

- Dave Batista, not going to be at the 1,000^th Raw either. He has just signed for his first ever MMA fight on October 6th for a promotion called CES MMA. He is fighting newcomer Rashid Evans (not Rashad Evans from UFC).

- As I reported back in APRIL, Fit Finlay is officially back with the WWE. He signed his contract back in April but was allowed to finish all of his independent dates before returning to the road for WWE. His final independent dates are this coming weekend and he begins back with WWE full time next week.

- I am assuming this is being advertised for local purposes only as a dark appearance but WWE is stating that Rey Mysterio is scheduled to appear on the July 20^th Smackdown taping from his home town of San Diego. Considering the 1,000^th episode of RAW is just three days later, you would think they would hold him off for that. So I am assuming it is an off camera appearance.

- In a surprise, former WWE Star Bobby Lashley was backstage at RAW and Smackdown this week visiting.

- WWE has assisted in helping to fund the Tout video messaging service which is a social media platform that allows people to post 15 second video messages. It is a video mash-up of Twitter and Instagram. Expect this to get a major push during RAW over the next few weeks.

- John Laurinaitis is officially COMPLETELY out of power in the WWE hierarchy. The only management responsibility he has is talent payroll. Triple H has taken over the main duties of Talent Relations and has hired people under him to assist in running the group. Laurinaitis actually may have saved his career by performing so well in his swarmy GM heel role because it is expected that he will be brought back to television sooner rather than later in a talent role.

- The WWE website has posted the MITB CONTRACT online. See if you can notice the interesting tidbit in it. I wonder if they posted it up for that tidbit?

- CM Punk following the TNA Destination X PPV: "I didn't see it, but congrats to @austinaries @SamoaJoe and @zematna Looks like somebody finally gets it. Kudos."

- Speaking of Punk, his WWE DVD “Best in the World” is set for an October 9^th release date.

- I am not sure if this is part of the HHH New Talent Initiative or what but last week WWE has signed both top independent female talent Sara Del Rey as well as UK high flying sensation PAC to deals. DEL REY has been one of the best “in-ring” females in all of wrestling for the past few years. As for PAC, he does some incredible high flying things. So much so that he has earned himself the nickname “The Man That Gravity Forgot”. Think about that. LOL.

- PAC HIGHLIGHTS .

- WWE is also showing interest in independent female Mercedes Martinez as she participated in the same tryout that Sara Del Rey attended. Martinez was not signed yet but WWE is interested. WWE also wants to talk to Dragon Gate USA star Johnny Gargano. Gargano made waves last year when he wrote his own angle for DGUSA claiming to be signing with WWE (which he wasn’t although he did speak to them at the time).

- Bray Wyatt (Windham Rotunda a.k.a. Husky Harris) tore his pectoral muscle and will be out of action for about 6 months or more. Wyatt was developing his new gimmick and was expected to be called back up to the main roster soon.

- According to his latest blog, Jim Ross states that WWE is creating a NXT Champion with a tournament which started yesterday.

- Whatever happened to Jinder Mahal?

- WWE has also shown interest in UFC Middleweight Chael Sonnen. It is unlikely that Sonnen will work for WWE full time as he is 35 years old and WWE would want him to wrestle, not just talk. At his age and due to his ability to talk people into watching a fight, he is worth more money in UFC. Plus, he is in all likelihood to be offered a job in broadcasting once his fighting career is over and UFC would gladly pay him a decent salary to announce. I do admit though that Chael would have been a license to print money had he been around in the 80’s or even during the Monday Night Wars. The man is gifted at cutting promos.

- Mark Henry is working hard to return to the ring and is currently weighing in at 405 pounds. That is down approximately 30 pounds from his weight when he was last in a WWE ring.

- Chris Jericho noted via Twitter that his third book will be released in late 2013.

- Congrats to WWE Hall of Famer “Stone Cold” Steve Austin as he has been cast in a role in the next Adam Sandler film which is the sequel to “Grown-ups”

- Rumored for the 2013 WWE Hall of Fame? Steve "The Brooklyn Brawler" Lombardi. True story. Randy Savage isn't in but Steve Lombardi is.

- I know i had previously posted THIS VIDEO of current WWE Diva A.J crying after meeting Lita. I am posting it again because Lita and A.J. both discussed it via Twitter earlier this week. Lita was asked by a fan if it was in fact A.J. in the video which Lita replied: "Yes, LOL. So cute." A.J. then replied to Lita's tweet saying: "HAHA. Proof I stalked you before I stalked anyone else!!"  A.J. credits Lita as the reason she became a professional wrestler.

- In an interesting note, the twitter account of Sid Vicious which was followed by several wrestlers in the business was deemed fraudulent by Twitter and suspended indefinitely. Considering he got into it with the girlfriend of Matt Hardy and conversed with WWE Hall of Famer Sunny, many thought it to be legitimate.

- BEHIND THE SCENES of the WWE 1,000 Commercial.

- Boy oh boy does Nikki Bella look “ DIFFERENT ” since leaving the WWE.

- Episode 74 of " Z! True Long Island Story "

- WWE FAN NATION .

WWE MONEY IN THE BANK PPV is THIS SUNDAY from Phoenix Arizona and the line-up is as follows:

• WWE TITLE: CM Punk © vs. Daniel Bryan with special referee A.J.
• WORLD TITLE: Sheamus vs. Alberto Del Rio w/Ricardo Rodriquez
• WWE TITLE MONEY IN THE BANK LADDER MATCH: John Cena vs. Big Show vs. Chris Jericho vs. Kane
• WORLD TITLE MONEY IN THE BANK: Tensai vs. Christian vs. Santino Marella vs. Tyson Kidd vs. Damien Sandow vs. Cody Rhodes vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Sin Cara vs. TBD
• YOU TUBE MATCH: WWE TAG TEAM TITLES: R-Truth & Kofi Kingston © vs. Camacho & Hunico

IMPACT WRESTLING News and Notes

- In a big blow to TNA, Viacom and Direct TV reached an impasse in regards to a contract dispute they were having and this all Viacom networks are now “dark” on Direct TV for the time being. Spike TV falls under the Viacom network umbrella and TNA Impact did not air on Direct TV last night nor will it air in the immediate future unless a new agreement is reached. This is going to put a huge blow on the ratings for Impact since Direct TV is in 25% of all homes in the world (18% in the US).

- Yet ANOTHER solid TNA PPV in Destination X. The X-Division matches were a little lackluster compared to past X-Division matches as well as Ultimate X matches. The newer guys used were a little green in the ring but show a lot of promise. Sonjay Dutt is a warrior as his injury was in fact legitimate and not a work. He dislocated his shoulder landing wrong on a standing shooting star press and had to be helped to the back. He had his shoulder popped back into place, taped up and then he came back to continue wrestling. He will now miss a few weeks of action as he recovers. WOW.

- Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe took it old school with a match that would have been the best match on any PPV TNA has produced all year. Only problem (well not problem but you get it) is that it was not even the best match on this show. That says how good the top three matches were.

- A.J. Styles and Christopher Daniels did exactly what they should have done, FIGHT. They were booked in a “Last Man Standing” match and normally when people have last man standing matches, they wrestle. It happens all the time in WWE and most of the time in TNA. The match is supposed to be a grudge match and instead, the guys lock up and do “moves” but not here. AJ and Daniels fought. Blood spilled everywhere and while they in fact did some of their usual moves, for the most part, they just brawled everywhere. It was a fantastic match and a very good way to advance their feud and show their hatred for each other.

- The main surprise of the entire show was Austin Aries defeating yearlong champion Bobby Roode cleanly to capture the TNA Heavyweight Title. This is TNA doing something right. Aries has garnered a lot of steam over the past few months with great matches, great promos and clean wins. He had momentum, was red hot and rather than let it falter, they let him shine. Hopefully TNA realizes this and allows him to hold onto the title and have success rather than go back to the original plan of having Roode vs. James Storm for the title at “Bound For Glory” in October. I think there is so much that can be done with Aries as champion and he should hold onto the title for a few months. Either go with Aries/Roode at BFG or a three way with Storm included but don’t take the title off of him just to stick to the plan. Call an audible. If not, he needs to at least hold the title until the September PPV. DO NOT HAVE HIM DROP IT NEXT WEEK ON IMPACT!!!

- With the vacating of the X-Division title by Aries becoming official at the PPV, Aries cemented himself as the longest reigning X-Division champion in TNA history as he officially held the title for 300 consecutive days.

- Hey, do you guys remember the time when WWE did not want Austin Aries participating in the last season of Tough Enough and had him removed by producers so that they could replace him with Big Andy Leavine? LOL.

- Jesse Sorensen made his return to TNA television at the Destination X PPV when he came out before live crowd and cut a promo stating that his health is rapidly improving and that his doctors told him once his neck is fully healed, he can absolutely go back to wrestling again. He stated that he plans on wining the X-Division title upon his return. This was good long term planning as later in the show, Zema Ion won the Ultimate X match to capture the X-Division title and following the win thanked Sorensen as Ion was the one who broke Sorensen’s neck and if it wasn’t for that, he would have gotten the drive to be the best regardless of the consequences. Good heel promo.

- Kenny King is expected to sign (if he hasn’t already by press time) a contract with TNA. Amazing how TNA can take someone like King from ROH who was under a handshake agreement with ROH and use him on television without repercussions yet on the other hand they can sue WWE for damages when WWE did nothing to sign any TNA talent. PS – this isn’t the first time TNA has screwed over ROH as when ROH was using Christopher Daniels TNA has requested to use him again (he had previously been under TNA contract but was let go) and ROH granted permission but only if he wrestled under the Curry Man gimmick. TNA agreed and then shortly after debuting Curry Man, went back to using Daniels without the mask.

- The Joe Park/Abyss angle last night on Impact was AWESOME. I was debating earlier today with WWI's own Aaron Wood about how if most of the stuff that happened on Impact were to happen on RAW, people would sh*t all over it. That is in fact NOT TRUE. Impact has been on a roll lately because of the slow burn of the angles and the continuity between them. If WWE would just book long term angles rather than hot shot things for the sake of hot shotting them, then the show would improve. There is a reason why I enjoy the CM Punk/Daniel Bryan/AJ storyline and it is because the angle has been simmering for months. Same with TNA. Impact has been building things for so long that they take time and succeed rather than in the past where they start something in the opening of the show and end the angle at the end of the show. Joe/Park/Abyss/Bully Ray has been on going for months. A.J. Styles/Dixie Carter/Christopher Daniels/Kazarian has been going on for months. The only thing they hot shotted was the Austin Aries title win and that was done because TNA FAILED in epic proportion last year with the Bobby Roode/James Storm pushes and botched that completely. This year, they saw that Aries was WHITE HOT and called an audible to build a new star.

- If you carefully follow the BFG Tournament, you will notice the subtle storyline of Samoa Joe. Joe is purposely trying to win all of his matches by submission to maximize the amount of points he can get. Smart booking. All of his losses have bene because he has gotten greedy and went for the submission only to lose via pinfall. Joe is the current points leader in the tournament with James Storm in second.

- The reason TNA ran with Sting's return last night rather than in a few weeks was because they needed an angle to write out Hulk Hogan. Sting and Hogan were scheduled to team at Bound for Glory to face the masked group now being billed as the "Aces & Eights". Sting was set to return down the road but they decided to bring him in because Hulk Hogan is scheduled for another back surgery and a longterm idea was needed for him to be written out. So with both sting and Hogan being attacked, they can be held off television for the immediate future before being brought back before October.

- TNA management has had discussions about signing Wes Brisco (son of WWE Hall of Famer Jerry Brisco) to a deal. Wes had been in WWE developmental for a few years before being released after blowing out his knee). Many in WWE management feel it was a mistake to let him go as he was main roster ready from an in ring technical standpoint and his father is a longtime WWE faithful employee. He was likely cut die to his size as he is only about 5’8 or 5’9.

- In a complete unnecessary move, TNA is going to have a new, one hour recap show called “REWIND” every Thursday going forward which essentially make Impact a 3 hour show. UGH.

Independent / International News and Notes:

- Based on the Kenny King departure from has cause ROH to vacate the tag team titles held by the All Night Express and forced ROH to hold an 8 team tournament for the tag team titles. The Briscoes have been the first team announced for the tournament. Not for nothing but ROH doesn’t have 8 teams so new teams will be brought in. The tournament begins with the first round taking place at the August 3^rd television taping in Baltimore. It is worth noting that Shelton Benjamin is booked for a tour of Japan the first two weeks of August and will not be able to participate at the TV taping so Wrestling’s Greatest Tag Team are likely not in it.

- In an interesting note, as stated last week, Davey Richards was removed from all ROH cards until the fall which was set to be an angle where he was despondent over losing the rematch to Kevin Steen. The talk backstage at the time was that Richards was given the summer off to heal and rest up. Problem is, Richards isn’t taking the summer off and is instead taking a bunch of independent bookings around the country.

- Ring of Honor always on the ball when it comes to these things. Earlier this week they released a “Best of Austin Aries” DVD which is timely considering he just won the TNA World Title. The DVD will feature Aries best ROH matches including his title win over Samoa Joe which dethroned Joe’s World Title run after 21 consecutive months.

- Ring of Honor announced their annual Wrestlemania Weekend show will take place on Friday, April 5th 2013 from the Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC.

- In the “one of these things is not like the other” section, “Nature Boy” Ric Flair will be on the annual “Gathering of the Juggalos” weekend run by the Insane Clown Posse. This will be Flair’s first post TNA wrestling appearance.

- WWE Hall of Famer Tammy “Sunny” Sytch getting her THONG REMOVED during a match at an independent show.

- The first talents set for Tommy Dreamer’s “House of Hardcore” promotion were announced. They are: Sami Callihan, Rhino, The Sandman, Luke Gallows & Chris Masters.

PRO WRESTLING SYNDICATE

MMA News and Notes

- The WAR is apparently over. UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson “Spider” Silva defeated “The American Gangster” Chael Sonnen by second round TKO (ref stoppage) in their much anticipated rematch last Saturday night in Las Vegas. As the fight started, the crowd erupted as it looked to pick up right where they left off in their first fight two years ago. Sonnen immediately took Silva down with very little resistance and he then proceeded to pound on Silva for 5 straight minutes earning himself an easy 10 – 8 round. If he had the stamina and strength to do it, he could have won the Middleweight title. Instead, just like the first fight, a mistake ended it for him. Sonnen missed a spinning back first early in the second round and fell to the floor. That is as bad a place you would want to be when fighting Silva as he pounced on Sonnen with a knee straight to the chest and then unloaded on him until he was helpless and the ref stopped it.

- Sonnen elaborated about the SPINNING BACK FIST when asked why he did it. His answer? “I don’t know. I really wish I did but I don’t. Listen, in fairness had it landed, we’d all be talking about what a wonderful spinning punch it was. It didn’t and I fell down like a doofus. I gotta live with that.”

- Chael Sonnen was planning on filing an appeal to the Nevada State Athletic Commission claiming that the knee that assisted in putting him down was thrown with bad intentions behind it and that Silva was aiming for Sonnen’s head which had it connected, would have been illegal since Sonnen was down thus would have disqualified Silva. NSAC Head Keith Kizer told Sonnen’s camp the process for filing however noted that it was unlikely the decision would be overturned. Sonnen’s camp then decided against filing a formal appeal however plans on appealing to Dana White and Joe Silva for a 3^rd encounter claiming the knee caused 9 stitches on the inside of his mouth as well as Silva constantly holding onto Sonnen’s shorts to prevent him from backing away and dodging punches. This is something I was not aware of during the fight but have seen two examples of still photos that show Silva holding on with a firm grip with his left hand to Sonnen’s shorts while punching with his right. That is DIRTY at its best.

- According to Dana White, Sonnen told him personally after the fight that he has the upmost respect for Silva. Sonnen said that he felt Silva “break” mentally and physically during the first round when he easily took him down and began pounding him with punches and elbows. The next thing he knew, Silva came out the second round and completely destroyed him. He said he has been fighting since he was seven years old and has NEVER seen anything like that in his life.

- A Silva/Sonnen RECAP .

- Dana White noted after the fight that International Fight Week was a HUGE success and that UFC 148 is the most successful PPV UFC has ever put on with the exception of PPV buys (which is currently trending to top 1,100,000 buys but fall short of the UFC record of 1.7 million). As part of International Fight Week, UFC held their annual fighter summit in Vegas with all the fighters discussing UFC, rules, social media, policies, drug testing, etc.

- What is up next for Sonnen is questionable. He stated that he only wants to fight in title matches or for chances of fighting in title matches. Problem is, a Silva/Sonnen 3 is hard to sell considering that he has lost twice, cleanly. Silva will probably get Hector Lombard in his next defense if Lombard wins his UFC debut. The other likely fight would be the winner of the Brian Stann vs. Michael Bisping fight. A surprising third option for Silva would be UFC Light Heavyweight Rashad Evans who stated following UFC 148 that he absolutely wants to move down in weight and fight Silva for the title. In all honesty, while Evans does not deserve a shot, a fight with Silva would be the biggest money maker of the options for UFC.

- Sonnen was asked earlier this week by ARIEL HELWANI why he stopped the trash talking leading up to the fight and why he did not have more of a reaction when Silva began unleashing a verbal bashing and even chin checked him during the weigh ins. Sonnen replied with the following: “Simple, I got a call from Renzo Gracie. When you get a call from a Gracie it’s like getting a call from Randy Couture. You don’t share your opinions or discuss anything. You listen, you say ok and you hang up. That’s it. He wasn’t overly happy with me but let’s leave it at that. There are certain guys that are off limits. The Gracies, Randy Couture, those guys are MMA royalty and if I am told something, that’s it.”

- Sonnen has been the big news story of the week as he has been conducting several interview following the fight as well as others in MMA talking about him. One of those men is Mark Munoz who was scheduled to fight Sonnen a few months back before suffering an elbow injury and having to be replaced vs. Sonnen by Michael Bisping. Munoz revealed that Sonnen had approached him after hearing of the injury and offered his condolences. Munoz said that Sonnen told him he knows how much this fight meant to him (because had Munoz won, he would have gotten the shot vs. Silva instead of Sonnen). Sonnen then told him that if Munoz needed any financial help in regards to his surgery, he would be happy to give him money to help pay for it. That is a noble gesture and shows that behind all the talk and bravado, Sonnen is in fact a decent human being.

- Not exactly sure if Munoz is 100% healed from his injury because he was absolutely DESTROYED by Chris Weidman on Fuel this past Wednesday. He lost via TKO (ref stoppage) in what was a very LATE stoppage as he took several unprotected shots when it was obvious he was finished. Weidman is now claiming that his jiu-jitsu is better than Anderson Silva’s and pushing for a title match against the middleweight champion claiming he plans on beating him via submission.

- The other big moment coming out of UFC 148 was the retirement of Tito Ortiz. Ortiz left it all in the octagon in what was given the fight of the night bonus as he lost in his final bout by unanimous decision to Forrest Griffin. After the fight however is where Ortiz’s retirement went downhill. Firstly, after the final bell sounded, Griffin immediately left the octagon to head to the locker room. This isn’t the first time he has done this as he did it a few years back when he was DESTROYED by Anderson Silva. Dana White was not having that this time around and left his seat to RUN after Griffin and tell him to “Get the f*ck back in the cage” (that is a direct Dana quote). Dana’s line of thinking was that it is absolutely disrespectful to Ortiz since it is his last fight. He wanted Griffin in the cage to either get his hand raised or watch Tito get his hand raised. He needed to be there for the official decision. Griffin did so, got his hand raised and then rather than let Joe Rogan interview Tito, he took the mic from him and conducted the interview himself. Rogan is a journalist and would have followed up with some questions; got into the moment and let Tito shed light on the fight. Griffin did not do that and kind of ruined Ortiz’s moment. Tito blasted Griffin in the post fight press conference and felt like he was overshadowed. He wanted Rogan to do the interview as Rogan was the first person to interview him in his debut fight 15 years ago.

- Dana White settled his friction with Alistair Overeem last week in Las Vegas. Overeem was in Vegas to do some media planned by his management team and not by UFC. White had not spoken to Overeem since Overeem failed his steroid test several months back. Overeem first met with Lorenzo Fertitta and when he walked past Dana White’s office, White saw him and closed his door. Overeem was then told following his meeting with Fertitta that White was on a call and could not meet him. Overeem waited for over 40 minutes before meeting with White and the two smoothed things over. Following the meeting White said that Overeem apologized for everything and they are now on good terms. White was holding a grudge because he felt that Overeem had lied to him more than once regarding several different things but now it is behind them. It is likely that Overeem is going to get the winner of Dos Santos/Velasquez for the UFC Heavyweight Title sometime 2013. Overeem has lost a significant amount of weight and is physically smaller than when he was for the Brock Lesnar fight.

- As of right now, there is no set date for the Dos Santos/Velasquez fight. Originally it was speculated to be on the September 22^nd show but the Dos Santos camp told UFC that he will not be ready. No injury or anything was announced and many feel that was Dos Santos way of getting the fight moved to the October show in Rio De Janeiro which would be Dos Santos home town. Due to the delay however, UFC is considering giving the fight to Fox in December since the ratings for Fox have been dwindling and Fox actually asked UFC for the fight. The request from Fox is forcing UFC to strongly consider it as they want to please Fox since they haven’t been delivering like they thought they would. Doing this however would cost UFC in excess of 500,000 – 700,000 PPV buys and several million in revenue.

- The coaches for The Ultimate Fighter Season 16 were announced yesterday and they will be Roy Nelson and Shane Carwin.

- Filming also begins this week for the Australia vs. UK season of The Ultimate Fighter titled “TUF: Smashes”. The coaches for the respective countries were named on Wednesday with Ross Pearson named as UK coach and George Sotiropolous names as Australia coach.

- Fuel, in their limited amount of homes, is bumping up their programming to about 3,500 hours of UFC programming this year which averages about 9 hours per day (if they wanted to format it like that). So essentially they are going to be the unofficial UFC channel. They recently filmed 36 hours of backstage footage from UFC 148 from the weigh ins to the post-fight for a documentary on the weekend. Everyone was filmed from the fighters to the production crew.

- It appears that B.J. Penn and Rory McDonald will NOT be undergoing independent VADA (Voluntary Anti-Doping Association) testing for their upcoming fight. VADA told Penn that they will make the results public when they receive them which Penn did not want because in the event that McDonald tests positive for something, he did not want to be training for 3 months only for the fight to be cancelled. He said they will go through with it if in fact they are allowed to fight if he or his opponent test positive for something via VADA testing.

- UFC Light Heavyweight Champion “ JAMES ” Jones?

- RONDA ROUSEY !!!

- Rousey is getting a heavy promotional push by Strikeforce/Zuffa. Not only did she make the ESPN: Bodies cover but she is also going to be featured in a two part special on Showtime profiling her. The first airs on August 8^th with the second on August 15^th. The specials are leading up to her August 18^th fight with Sarah Kaufman. This could potentially rocket her into the stratosphere with a convincing win because of the promotion behind her. Problem is, if she loses….uh oh. On a side note, how can Kaufman view this as anything less than a slight on her is insane. She has to be using this as motivation to provide the fight of her life because they are completely overlooking her and setting up a fight between Rousey and Cristiane “Cris Cyborg” Justino who is available to fight once her one year suspension is complete in December.

- UFC Octagon Girl ARIANNEY CELESTE .

STRIKEFORCE is TOMORROW NIGHT from Portland Oregon and the line-up is as follows:

• MIDDLEWEIGHT TITLE: Luke Rockhold © vs. Tim Kennedy
• Keith Jardine vs. Roger Gracie
• VACANT WELTERWEIGHT TITLE: Tyron Woodley vs. Nate Marquardt
• Robbie Lawler vs. Lorenz Larkin
• Roger Gracie vs. Keith Jardine

UFC 149 is on July 21^st, from Calgary Alberta Canada and the line-up is as follows:

• INTERIM BANTAMWEIGHT TITLE: Urijah Faber vs. Renan Barao
• Hector Lombard vs. Tim Boesch
• Matt Riddle vs. Chris Clements
• Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Cheick Kongo

UFC ON FOX 4 is on August 4^th from Los Angeles California and the line-up is as follows:

• Mauricio “Shogun” Rua vs. Brandon Vera
• Ryan Bader vs. Lyoto Machida
• Travis Browne vs. Ben Rothwell
• Terry Etim vs. Joe Lauzon

UFC 150 is on August 11^th from Denver Colorado and the line-up is as follows:

• UFC LIGHTWEIGHT TITLE: Ben Henderson © vs. Frankie Edgar
• Jake Shields vs. Ed Herman
• Yushin Okami vs. Rousimar Palhares
• Thiago Tavares vs. Dennis Hallman

STRIKEFORCE: “Rousey vs. Kaufman” is on Saturday, August 18^th from San Diego California and the line-up is as follows:

• STRIKEFORCE WOMEN’S CHAMPION: Ronda Rousey © vs. Sarah Kaufman
• Miesha Tate vs. Julie Kedzie
• Ronaldo Souza vs. Derek Brunson
• Roger Bowling vs. Tarec Saffiedine
• T.J. Cook vs. Ovince St. Preux

UFC 151 is on September 1^st from Las Vegas Nevada and the line-up is as follows:

• UFC LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE: Jon “Bones” Jones © vs. Dan Henderson
• Dennis Silver vs. Eddie Yagin

UFC on FOX 5 is on September 7^th from Indianapolis Indiana and the line-up is as follows:

• Bart Palaszewski vs. Diego Nunes

UFC 152 is on September 22^nd from Toronto Canada and the line-up is as follows:

• B.J. Penn vs. Rory MacDonald
• Jimy Hettes vs. Marcus Brimage

UFC ON FUEL 5 is on Saturday, September 29^th from Nottingham England and the line-up is as follows:

• Stefan Struve vs. Stipe Miocic
• Dan Hardy vs. Amir Sadollah
• Paul Sass vs. Matt Winman
• Duane Ludwig vs. Che Mills

UFC 153 is from Rio De Janeiro Brazil and the line-up is as follows:

• Quinton “Rampage” Jackson vs. Glover Teixeira (Rampage’s last UFC fight).

UFC 154 is on Saturday, November 17^th from Montreal Quebec Canada and the line-up is as follows:

• UNDISPUTED WELTERWEIGHT TITLE: George St. Pierre © vs. Calos Condit ©
• NUMBER ONE CONTENDER TO WELTERWEIGHT TITLE: Johnny Hendricks vs. Martin Kampmann

Random Thoughts, Links, Pics, ETC.

- Random VIDEO of the week: I think you’re doing it wrong man.

- BONUS Random VIDEO of the week: A recap of Silva/Sonnen 2.

- BONUS Random VIDEO of the week PART 2: Is a description necessary?

- BONUS Random VIDEO of the week PART 3: Viral advertising is GREAT!!

- BONUS Random VIDEO of the week PART 4: You know you f*cked up right bro?

- BONUS Random VIDEO of the week PART 5: Ronda Rousey discusses Kim Kardashian.

- BONUS Random VIDEO of the week PART 6: I would have brushed off and immediately went to play lotto because this is the luckiest man on earth. Seatbelts kids, wear them.

- BONUS Random VIDEO of the week PART 7: Up close video from last week of someone f*cking up the San Diego fireworks spectacular.

- BONUS Random VIDEO of the week PART 8: LOLOLOLOLOLOZ!!!!!!

- BONUS Random VIDEO of the week PART 9: Dredd.

- Random PIC of the week: GOLD!

- BONUS Random PIC of the week: Sellout.

- BONUS Random PIC of the week PART 2: Aubrey O’Day….yep, I would.

- BONUS Random PIC of the week PART 3: Yes it is blurry but here is Olivia Munn TOPLESS from Magic Mike.

- BONUS Random PIC of the week PART 4: Kanye & Kim in 10 years.

- BONUS Random PIC of the week PART 5: Very underrated actress, Sarah Shahi

- FUN on FACEBOOK : In anticipation of the final Twilight movier, this is a legit question.

- BONUS FUN on FACEBOOK : Wow.

- BONUS FUN on FACEBOOK PART 2: Burn.

- BONUS FUN on FACEBOOK PART 3: Spellcheck!!

- BONUS FUN on FACEBOOK PART 4: This really works

- Random ARTICLE of the week: Concrete jungle where dreams are made of?

- BONUS Random ARTICLE of the week: Actor Ron Pearlman is AWESOME.

- BONUS Random ARTICLE of the week PART 2: Bro, I am pretty sure your plan would have worked out better had you not announced it on Facebook before hand.

- BONUS Random ARTICLE of the week PART 3: So when the Olympic committee met and debated the route of the Olympic flame, you are telling me that not one person thought about this happening? NOT ONE?

- BONUS Random ARTICLE of the week PART 4: And this is why you need your own personal “token” like Dominick “Dom” Cobb taught us.

- BONUS Random ARTICLE of the week PART 5: WWI’s own RD Lee is $1.2 million dollars richer (PS. I have no factual evidence to prove that this was him but I believe it was).

- BONUS Random ARTICLE of the week PART 6: I never understood the fascination or the reasoning behind the value.

- BONUS Random ARTICLE of the week PART 7: How does this make any sense? He is supposed to “work harder” when he already dominates as it is? The guy sets foot inside a pool and WINS. All the f*cking time. So he should work harder in practice? What happens then? He steps into a pool and WINS. All the f*cking time. Nothing is going to change about the result regardless of how hard he works.

- BONUS Random ARTICLE of the week PART 8: I am 100% convinced that the people who run this university are oblivious to how life in general works. Really? Someone thought this was a good idea. WTF?

- BONUS Random ARTICLE of the week PART 9: ……………………….?

- BONUS Random ARTICLE of the week PART 10: Dogs being dogs.

- Random LINK of the week: I am going to keep it here until EVERYONE looks at it and comments; simply heartwarming.

- BONUS Random LINK of the week: The Kanye nickname generator!!! I am now known as Ricardo The First.

- Random GIF of the week: Hypnotizing.

- BONUS Random GIF of the week PART 2: Hypnotizing Part 2.

- BONUS Random GIF of the week PART 3: Hypnotizing Part 3.

- BONUS Random GIF of the week PART 4: Hypnotizing Part 4.

- BONUS Random GIF of the week PART 5: Hypnotizing Part 5.

- BONUS Random GIF of the week PART 6: Hypnotizing Part 6.

- BONUS Random GIF of the week PART 7: Hypnotizing Part 7.

- BONUS Random GIF of the week PART 8: Hypnotizing Part 8.

- BONUS Random GIF of the week PART 9: Hypnotizing Part 9.

- BONUS Random GIF of the week PART 10: Hypnotizing Part 10.

- No details have been given other than Katie Holmes is given FULL CUSTORY of her5 daughter Suri with Tom Cruise getting “generous visitation rights”. It took Holmes attorney about 12 days to get Cruise’s attorney to reach a divorce settlement. People Magazine is reporting that both sides agreed to the settlement 100% and that it was amicable. Not for nothing but Holmes must have some real dirt on Cruise since she just up and filed for divorce unannounced and then got this settled in a few days. WOW.

- Actor Michael Fassbender (Magneto in X-Men: First Class) has signed to produce and star in the big screen adaptation of the hit video game, Assassains Creed. That sounds like it is going to be great.

- They are doing a "Hangover 3" set for Memorial Day 2013. Really?

- I saw the Amazing Spider-man last week. It was in fact a good movie. I liked it better than the previous 3 versions. However with that being said, apparently a lot of people did not agree. While it easily won the top spot at the box office with a $75 million dollar opening, it is still far behind the $115 million opening of the original, trailing the $130 million opening of part 2 and the $151 million of part 3. This is all with the higher ticket prices as well as more IMAX and 3D showings than the others. So in essence, it is a failure compared to the rest. But it is still green lit for a sequel which I will also see as I enjoyed this one.

- KATE MOTHERF*CKING UPTON !!!

- My Future Wife Kim Kardashian-Aponte in a new summer PHOTOSHOOT .

- Check it out at CLUBWWI.COM if you haven't had a chance yet. There are literally HUNDREDS of interviews with your favorite wrestling stars of yesteryear and today!!! If you're not a member then please do yourself a favor and JOIN CLUB WWI right NOW!!!! What are you waiting for? DO IT. DO IT NOW. Good stuff folks; don't miss out. You'll thank me for it.

Feel free to discuss whatever you'd like in the "Anger Management" section of the message board or whichever section you see fit. Also drop a comment in the comment box below as I try my best to answer in a timely fashion.