Falls Count Anywhere

02-07-08

Perfect. Just perfect.

UFC
I joined Lon Lopez at Jack’s in San Jose to watch the UFC show on Saturday. It was, without question, the four most exciting UFC matches I’ve seen from one show in ages. I only saw the top four matches, but they were all exciting and all had clear and strong finishes.

Nate Marquardt and Jeremy Horn fought. Horn’s a vet and a great grappler. I was pulling for him. Nate has a total of 6 fights. The first round was solid. Horn got taken down and Marquardt got some ground and pound in. Horn was on his back most of the time and even managed to hit a really good kick. The first round was an easy win for Marquardt, but Horn didn’t look totally outclassed. The second round saw Marquardt slip after taking a kick from Horn and that allowed Horn to get on top, but Marquardt got the Guillotine for the tap. A solid match, exciting with neither guy backing down at any point. I’d wanted Horn and he lost. 0-1 for me.

The second match was David Heath (NOT the guy who played Gangrel) and Tim Boetsch. Boetsch is new, but I’ve seen Heath fight and I was pulling for Boetsch. The fight was pretty boring for the two minutes. It was Boetsch kitting kicks and both guys going in and out of range. It was a positioning game and I wasn’t impressed. Boetsch then started to get the clinch and launched some knees into Heath. Really, the fight was over after the first few knees because he had Heath hurt and he never got back in it.

The biggest moment was after his second flurry of clinched knees, Boetsch tossed Heath down and he went hard onto his head. It was brutal-looking and it was what really ended the fight. Boetsch then got on and fired some more punches for the win. The last minute made up for the rest of it and I’m hoping that we see more of Boetsch because he looked really good. I was even at 1-1.

Lesnar lost. That’s the news. It wasn’t a blow-out, and for a while it looked like he was dominating Frank Mir, but it was a loss. Now, I’m not sure he’s lost all that star power quite yet, but he needs to get a couple of wins. It started off with Lesnar diving and getting Mir down at will. He then threw hard blows down on him, a couple of which went to the back of Mir’s head, causing a ref stop and a point from Lesnar.

If they hadn’t done that, I really think Brock would have gotten the stoppage for good because it looked like the ref was ready for it. Mir was over-powered and down.

After the restart, Brock got him down again and his punches were more effective, but that Mir fellow was tricky. While he was reeled, he managed to try for an armbar, but Lesnar powered out and fit a few more punches. Lesnar did a nice spin move to get some clearance, but got his leg caught and Mir made him tap with a kneebar. It was a fast fight and a good one. Brock actually looked really good with the way he came out and pounded Frank.

Afterwards, the Mir interview was decent, but Brock came out, said that Frank was the better fighter and then the crowd cheered him. They actually gave him a bigger reaction leaving than coming in. They were into the fight, which was a good short fight, and I think there may still be some magic in Lesnar. Time will tell. I was 1-2 in my predictions.

The main event was Minotauro Nogueira vs. Tim The Maniac Slyvia. This was a helluva fight. Slyvia dominated the first round and it looked like it was gonna be an easy night for Tim. His punches were working and he beat up Minotauro pretty good. By the end of the first, I was thinking KO in the second. There was a time where Minotauro looked like he was beat. Very sluggish and somewhat dazed, but he got a good clinch and came out of it. Poor Nogueira only managed one takedown, right at the end of the round, so they stood them up before he could work any submissions.

The second round saw more damaging punches from Sylvia, but Nogueira had a few of his own and a couple of legkicks. He did little on the ground, but not enough to make a difference. The third round saw Nogueira take a few punches, and get taken down by Sylvia, but he reversed and managed to get the Guillotine for the win! It was an exciting finish and I have to say that it was one that I had hoped for. I was 2-2 on the night! Call me Mr. .500!

No fights were bad, and even the slow feeling out period of the Boetsch vs. Heath match was far over-shadowed by the incredible finish and especially with the throwing of the poor guy onto his head. I’m hoping for more Lesnar and that he’ll improve his game. He looked tough (and he might have gotten the win if they didn’t do the stand-up for the lost point) and I think he could be the UFC’s biggest star if he gets a couple of wins.

The Most Important Player of 2007
So, the awards are all out now and the consensus winner for Wrestler of the Year is John Cena. Both Pro Wrestling Illustrated and Wrestling Observer Newsletter gave him the nod. No question, a great choice. But was he the most important player? Did he draw the most money? I’m not so sure.

The most important money player when it came to 2007 had to be Donald Trump. Yes, Vince McMahon was a part of that feud, but Vince’s hair up against anyone else wouldn’t have worked to that level. I could think of maybe three people in wrestling (Hogan, Piper, Bischoff) who would make serious money with Vince in a Hair vs. Hair match. In fact, I don’t think any of them would do great business, but Vince vs. Trump drew good ratings, great money and was the real Main Event of WrestleMania.

While day-to-day there was only one guy in the world who drew houses like Cena (a fellow named Mistico in Mexico, though his drawing power slipped and he was injured a fair deal) no one made more cash for the company than Trump did for the WWE. Now, you could say that the name WrestleMania drew a large amount of the house, but above the regular amount, they drew far more using Trump. Plus all other increases (and whatever Bobby Lashley meant before he got hurt) could be draw specifically to Trump’s involvement with the match.

So to Donald Trump, I say…You’re the Man!

That’s all for this week. More next!

Chris Garcia