Falls Count Anywhere

06-25-07

Just don't try affordin' housing.

NEWS
Biff Wellington, a Stampede wrestler who was one of their best workers for years, passed away this week. No word on his age. He was still close with Chris Benoit, and thus, Benoit pulled out of Vengeance. I remember seeing him in a few of his WCW matches. He was really good.

Shamrock vs. Baroni Strike Force
In what was easily the best MMA show of the year, almost all of my predictions came true which was nice. It also proved that Frank Shamrock is probably the toughest man in the world.

Seth Kleinbeck beat Sam Spengler with punches from the mount. I had picked Kleinbeck mostly due to the fact that I saw Spengler lose once and I figured that there’d be a good chance that Kleinbeck could do well.

Chris Cariaso won a decision over Anthony Figueroa. Figueroa is a helluva fighter and I’d never seen Cariaso before, but I think this was the weakest match on the card. The crowd was only a little into it.

Rex Richards is one of my ten favorite fighters. He’s a former member of our San Jose Sabercats Arena Football team. He’s a huge guy and he can move. Ray Seraille was the punching bag for the match. He took punch after punch and it was over in less than a minute. Just big punches that waylayed Ray and way too much fury. Good stuff.

Jason Von Flue was on Ultimate Fighter 2 and he got beat by Cung Le a few months back. Luke Stewart isn’t a bad fighter. The first round was solid, with Stewart doing more. They took turns pushing each other into the cage and working each other. Stewart got a solid takedown towards the end of the first. The second was almost all Stewart. Stewart got Von Flue’s back, but then he turned and Stewart just pounded him. They stopped it after a couple minutes into the third. I loved this fight. It was a very smart fight for Stewart.

Mike Pyle was the only one I got wrong. I thought that Aaron Wetherspoon was going to take it, but I was wrong. Pyle took the first round, though I didn’t think he dominated it. I wish a 10-point must system did not exist, because this could have also been a 9-9 round. Pyle worked hard in the second and threw all sorts of kicks. Wetherspoon got a good shot or two in. Wetherspoon was busted and Pyle just kept coming at him. Pyle tried for a takedown which Wetherspoon blocked at first. After that Pyle got him down and hit elbows. He won all three rounds on the cards. Decent fight.

The battle of the Niks. Nikk Covert got battered by Nik Theotikos. Covert was destroyed. They had to bring out Emergency Medical to help Covert.

Victor Venezuela lost to Enson Berto. No question that Berto rocked Victor, finishing him with a Heel Hook. Enson is a star waiting to happen.

Paul Buentello came out with Mariachis. That was awesome. Everyone gave him a huge ovation. I didn’t think that would be matched all night. I was wrong. Carter Williams came out and looked really bad. Rich Boy was rapping for Carter while he came in to the ring. The first round was solid. They traded blows, Buentello tried for a guillotine and then attacked with knees and punches.

They traded punches for a while and Williams almost destroyed Buentello with a huge punch. It was one of those great rounds that you want to see from two Heavyweights. After about ten seconds into the second, Buentello came out swinging and that was the finish. Good fight, though Carter was not in shape..

Joey Villasenor and Murilo Ninja Rua had a great match. I love Rua, though the rest of the crowd seemed to have no clue who he was. Maybe a couple of hundred knew him. The fight was so good. They worked hard with Rua doing his thing and working some submissions and Villasenor threw some good leather. Ninja KOed him and that was just great. I think that Rua will be much bigger the next time he’s in town. Hell, he could be bigger if he were to show up on a big UFC card. I’m interested to see him fight Daniel Puder.

Josh Thompson is a bad man. He just ran over Nick Gonzalez. Thompson took him down and then got his back and choked him out. That’s the kind of match you like to see once in a while, but a card full of them would suck.

In the biggest pop I’d heard recently, Cung Le came out to fight Tony Frycklund and there were Vietnamese flags everywhere and the crowd was nuts. It’s incredible how a guy like Cung Le is over with the crowd in San Jose, and I’m betting he could be big nationally if he got the chance…and I think he will.

The match was great, with Le throwing a lot of his great kicks. Frycklund tried for a backfist, but Le ducked it. Gotta say that Le looked great and dominated the fight, but he was tiring a little bit. Le won with a big right that set him down. Great crowd reaction and the fight was good enough too.

Frank Shamrock came out to an insane pop. Almost as big as Cung’s. Baroni is a punk but he worked hard, trying to overwhelm Frank at first but not succeeding. Shamrock came in with a torn MCL. Baroni had a hernia. Baroni took Shamrock down, but that gave Frank an opening for an armbar. Baroni let him go back up and Shamrock got a great high kick. I thought that was gonna be it, but I was wrong.

Baroni came back, but Frank lost a point for punching to the back of the head. It didn’t look like the damage was very great though, and Baroni got a rest period. They traded and Shamrock was rocked a bit. Then Shamrock got a couple of knees and after Baroni tried for a take-down, Frank got his back and put the choke on, leading to Baroni going out and the match being called.

All in all, the show of the year. The final fight might be close to the match of the year. The best part of the whole thing was the fact that it showed the guys so well. Le, Rua and Shamrock were great and they’re going to be big for the next few shows. Who knows how long Shamrock will be out, though.

That’s all for today. I’ll have Vengeance and RAW on Thursday!

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Chris Garcia