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Sunday, August 3, 2014

Picking a favorite team

I know that sports are foreign to some people, to some people it doesn't make sense.  To others it's a way of life, something you follow passionately, something you wait for during the off-season and during the season you can't wait to see your team play again; to see your favorite player do their thing to help your team win the game and make it one step closer to sports immortality.  But how do you go from not having a team to having that level of passion?  Let's take a look in this blogisode on how to do that, how do you get a favorite team?  Let's get one thing clear right off the bat ---- There is no right or wrong team to pull for, it's your opinion and your right to pick any team, any player and like them.  It's also your right to not be bullied about the team you pick, yes they may have never won a championship or lose every game, but they can still be your team.  I pull for the Chicago Cubs as one of my baseball teams, they haven't won a championship in over 100 years. 

What is wrong however is when you think someone else is wrong for not liking your team.  Respect all fans and hopefully they'll respect you as well.  Bottom line, we are all pulling and rooting for someone, whether it’s an athlete, our own relative, or someone we will never meet, that person, whether in sports or in some other event (spelling bee's come to mind), you want people to succeed, be respectful when doing anything competitive (this goes for you online gamers too!)

Now let's look at ways teams are picked by fans to root for them.

Option 1 - Born into it. 
This is by far the easiest way to pick a team, find the team your parent(s) like and just go that route.  It's simple, it most likely helps a bond grow, and who better to hang out with during game day than pops?

Option 2 - Home Town Team
I'm in this category, I grew up in East Texas and during my teen years is when Dallas won 3 Super Bowls in a 4 year span.  Find the closest geographical team to your residence and pull for them.  For some individuals this makes the team change as they move from town to town etc.  For others, the bond with one team remains after they've left the area and with technology today it's not hard to still catch your team even if you’re out of their viewing market.  Being 1,000 miles from Dallas I still catch every game (somehow they're the NFC local team here and not the Arizona Cardinals?) 

Option 3 - Who's Winning Now
This is what's traditionally referred to as a bandwagon fan.  Pull for the hot team and move on to the next team that's doing good when this team starts to lose.  When picking your first team, it's OK to pick the hot team, to avoid the "Bandwagon" moniker stick with that team even when they aren't doing good later down the road.  The Yankees don't win every year and I remember the Cowboys when they were 1-15. 

Option 4 - Who's everyone else pulling for?
Peer pressure can be a ... insert expletive here.  If all your friends pull for one team and tell you to jump off a bridge if you don't like them... find new friends!  This is an option but as I've said in other blog postings, be a leader in life, not just a follower, find out why they like that team, if you agree or understand the reasoning, be my guest, jump on and enjoy the ride with that team; however if you disagree, never feel that you have to like a team because Jim-Bob Billy Jo Johnson likes them.  One of my best friends is a Redskins fan and another an Eagles fan, me being a Cowboys fan, I just look at it as a reminder that not everyone is perfect :)~ 

Option 5 - Research!!!!
If you put a little effort into this, since after all it may be a decision you live with forever, you can find out things about teams and if that suits your liking, then enjoy!  There are some people who like the history of the Yankees, the way the Packers are owned and operated, or pulling for the underdog (Most Cleveland fans!).  Ask your sports knowledgeable friends/family about different teams to see what makes them, their fans, and their players unique and then make an educated decision after critically thinking about this possible life altering decision. 

Option 6 - If ALL ELSE FAILS - Pick a team based on their jerseys and your favorite colors. 
Seems simple enough, after all you do want to like looking at them when they play. 

Be respectful of other fans and their opinions, enjoy whatever sport you choose to fall in love with, and always remember to be realistic, your team will lose, all records are made to be broken, and nothing lasts forever.  My sport of choice is football and the format I prefer is the NFL.  I hope everyone that reads this becomes a fan of something in their life.  Have a good night and congratulations to the NY Giants for winning the NFL Hall of Fame game to kick off the 2014 NFL Preseason (Yes, even in preseason competition I pull against my team's rivals).  

Here's some NFL Team Jerseys just waiting on a fan to find a home with their team!


Saturday, July 26, 2014

Raw from 7/21

Here's what I jotted down during Raw, thank the Lord for my DVR.

I'll post the matches then the promo spots per hour.  I'll also do this for TNA Impact that I recorded on Thursday 7/24 but will do that in a separate blog.

Hour 1

Roman Reigns vs. Orton & Kane




Reigns Orton/Kane A lot of pinfall attempts, unnecessary, and punches
1 2












2 3
Kane gave away finish by constantly checking for it.   Looked for the superman punch 3 times and on the last one stayed staring at RR.
4 on 1 Alicia Fox, Eva Marie, Naomi, and someone else against Nikki Bella
Nikki Others
Whole thing reaked of suckage

Bo Dallas vs. Sandow (King James version)



Bo Dallas Sandow






1
Punch spot by Bo




1 1 Taunting back and forth by both guys while the other rested
1 Sandow Front chin lock



1 Taunting like he was shooting the ball


1 Taunting the crowd before an elbow drop

Promo Spots - 1st Hour ONLY

Opening Segment with HHH/Orton
Divas backstage



Steph Pre match



Steph Post Match



WWE Network Promo


Replay from Steph Post Match for the 2nd time.  
Sandow as LeBron James


Promo for Fozzy "Lights go out"

Promo for the Highlight Reel


The Highlight Reel The Wyatts attacked Y2J in the back then cut a promo


Hour 2

The Miz vs. Ziggler A few high spots, no one counts and more 2 counts than I cared for.
Miz Ziggler
Nice Figure 4 by Miz, turned out to be a decent match
2
Started the match by rolling out of the ring, gimmick spot
1 1 Front face lock by miz reversed to a sleeper hold from dolph
1
Chin Lock





1 1 Both men are down after miz misses something like a bronco buster
1 Dolph goes off, then suddenly can't get up, was he gassed?
1
Frustrated after a 2 count, gave ziggler a break

Paige/AJ vs. Emma/Naty

It was a better diva match than the other, but was less than 5 mins.
Paige/AJ Lee Emma/Naty






1
AJ Skipping around the ring with Emmas hair in her hand
Fandango vs. Zac Ryder w/Layla and Summer Rae




Fandango Ryder Quick match with Layla assisting by removing fandango's foot from the rope


Promo Spots in Hour 2

Bray Wyatt continues his Promo to start the 2nd hour
Y2J being tended by Medical, he wasn't even there on Monday night!
Flo Rida seen walking through the back, greeting the talent
HHH and Seth Rollins backstage with Cesaro
AJ Lee skipping backstage with Paige

Battleground review of Paige/AJ Lee

Paige betrays AJ with an immediate replay of course
Flo Rida Promo



Replay of Steph and Bri Bella again

Flo Rida attacking Heath Slater spot

Flo Rida "concert" he clearly had a cd going and was lip singing to it

Final Hour

Big E and Kofi vs. Rybaxl

Good seeing the crowd getting behind Ryback again with Feed me more
Big Kofi Rybaxl
Nice win by Ryback, rolling through a Kofi high spot for the pin

1 Ryback using kicks





Rusev vs. Kali








Rusev Kali









No real chance for either man to have a low spot given Kali's ring pace is malasses
Dean Ambrose vs. Cesaro







Ambrose Cesaro








1 Some kind of arm wrench





1 Re application of the same move



1
2 count and then rested




1
Both men down after a suicide dive through the ropes by Ambrose
1
Ambrose goes for a chair





Hour 3 Promo Spots including the final 20 minute spot by Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar

Steph gets arrested




Replay of Steph getting arrested


HHH talking with someone named Jimmy to get Steph out
Xavier Woods recruiting Big KofE


HHH on the phone about Steph.


Replay of Bray Wyatt attacking Y2J


Rusev vs. Swagger review from Battleground

Lana attempted a promo but was interupted by Kali (this late in the show?)
Royal Pains promo cause Sheamus was in the episode
Stardust and Goldust Promo



Another replay of Steph and Bri, now adding Steph's arrest
Renee Young update on Steph



Renee Young interviews HHH about Steph

WWE Network Total Divas promo


HHH announcement on who's against Cena at Summerslam
Paul Heyman shows up with Option C







And there you have it, let's do a quick break down:
Total Matches: 9, so 3 per hour
Total Promo spots: 36 (Bray Wyatt was counted 1 times as his just continued into the second hour)... so 12 Promo spots per hour.  I bet TNA does a bit better job on that front. 
Total "Rest Spots": 38 divided by 9 matches, that's over 4 per match and the saddest part is, I didn't count them in the Divas match or in a couple of matches.  So that number goes up to about 7 per match where I counted them.   Here's hoping TNA does better.

And a final note:  WWE, if you just showed us something, don't immediately do a replay, you're not the NFL, NBA, etc, you made that clear when you said you were "Sports Entertainment", so quit acting like you need instant replay to show us literally what just happened, we saw it when it happened, remember, like a few seconds ago when it happened.  Quit showing the same clip of a story nobody cares about in Steph vs. anyone, she's not an in-ring performer and the whole "arrest" gimmick was about as real as her "puppies" to use the old WWF term for a woman's chest.  And last but certainly not least, decide if Bray is a heel or a face and please quit acting like the WWE Universe is full of naive idiots.  Jericho wasn't there, it was all over the dirt sheets etc that he wasn't in the back, so amazingly you have footage of him getting jumped, please be more original, if you have to leave a story alone for a week or two, then do so, you still have Rowan and Harper in tag competition and Bray can cut a promo on an absent Y2J, problem solved.  It just felt horrible watching the Wyatts try to do anything, like watching Kali, ever. 

Sunday, July 20, 2014

July 20th, 2014 TNA and other forms of entertainment.

So I mentioned that there would be an update and in it I'd talk more than just Cowboys football (which I personally feel will be crap this year, 3-13 seems hopeful after Sean Lee went down for the year) and so here I am, blogging during the WWE Battleground PPV which I didn't get and could in all honesty not give a crap about because WWE creative isn't very creative these days.  So with that lead in I'll discuss WWE first.

So in the past decade or 15 years since WCW was bought by Vince and company, WWE has become very lazy in their storylines and on a rare occasion you'll see something amazing.  The best part of the RAW shows is usually when someone from the past comes back.  As I go into storylines I'll post images of the people so you can have an idea of who I'm talking about for those of you who aren't hip to the world of Wrestling Entertainment.  Truthfully if it came down to TNA vs. WWE at this point, sorry WWE but you'd lose again (referring to the Monday Night Wars between WCW and WWE).  So let's get into some of the problems right now.

There's a group that comes out with Adam Rose, I don't get the friggin point of this whole gimmick, it reminds me of Fandango and that was crap also.  I want to be entertained by Wrestling, not dancing or party antics.  See below (The video does not belong to me, I take no responsibility for it).


So let's quit with the bull crap dance offs and trading of women over twitter (Fandango lost Summer Rae over twitter and that's about all they said about that (insert Forrest Gump voice over).  WWE has 1 Heel (bad guy) that's legitimate right now and it's not Wade Barrett, it's Rusev, he gets the most heat, plain and simple.  Great job bringing back the same crap storyline from 1990 with Hogan vs. Iron Sheik, we're at war with his country or on the verge of it, whatever, so let's draw heat from that.  Other than that, there's nobody gaining the right heat, Barrett is hurt so he's drawing no heat and will get a face reaction when he returns.  The Wyatts are hit and miss, if Bray is with them they get a good guy feel, if he's not, the other two have a creep you out factor that makes them a heel.  JBL is probably the best heel they have right now and he's an announcer.  Everyone else is in a tweener type roll including the authority who put Vickie Guerrero over for her finale, great heel job. 

On a more positive note, Sting has been moved from the WCW Alumni page to the active Superstars section as seen here.  He cut a promo for a 2k video game, it's seen below.  I wish TNA had WWE's financial backing since the in ring product is so much better.  WWE's product is full of moves that allow the guys a break in the ring.  If you can't go 5 minutes in the ring without needing a breather, then hell, why do you lift all them weights?  I'm going to put a counter up from Raw this week vs. TNA this week to see how many rest holds per match there are, I think the results will be staggering.  If you're not familiar with the term rest hold, it means where the athletes lock up in a head lock or other non submission move that allows them to catch their breathe.  This becomes stagnant when it's every other move.  No wonder the crowd isn't behind anything WWE does other than Daniel Bryan, the Uso's, and Dolph Ziggler, the guys that keep moving and keep it... dun dun dun... ENTERTAINING... remember that word, it's from your acronym WWE World Wrestling ENTERTAINMENT... 4 guys on a roster of over 30, way to go. 

I'll have more later but with the huge top 50 list below already done I need to hit the sack, so enjoy the rest of this and I'll be back again soon.




On a side note, WWE.com has posted the top 50 Superstars from WCW and I wanted to list them here for convenience as I was a huge WCW guy, hated WWF/WWE back in the day after WCW got hot.  Here's the list

#50 Jeff Jarrett
#49 Juventud Guerrera
#48 Dennis Rodman (are you serious?) (sided with nWo Black and white)
#47 Meng
#46 Larry Zbysko
#45 Kanyon (a.k.a. Mortis)
#44 Bobby Eaton
#43 Perry Saturn
#42 Dustin Rhodes (Later known as Goldust in WWE and a member of the Wolfpack for like a minute, literally).
#41 Bret "The Hitman" Hart (this list did not include his endeavors in WWE and what he accomplished there. Member of the nWo off and on).
#40 Kevin Sullivan
#39 Curt Hennig (a.k.a. Mr. Perfect in WWF, member of the nWo black and white, joined the Wolfpack then defected back to the black and white. - RIP)
#38 Michael "P.S." Hayes (P.S. means Purely Sexy in case you were wondering)
#37 Cactus Jack (a.k.a. Mick Foley, Dude Love, and Mankind)
#36 Ultimo Dragon (one of the best luchadore wrestlers I ever saw)
#35 Lord Steven Regal (seems biased that he's this high in my opinion)
#34 Konnan (K-Dawg in the Wolfpack)
#33 Terry Funk (A hardcore legend with Mick Foley, go here to see some not for children stuff)
#32 Lance Storm
#31 The Great Muta (nWo b&w member)
#30 Raven (such a contrast to who the wrestler was in real life)
#29 Billy Kidman (Possibly the best cruiser-weight not named Rey Mysterio, Jr.)
#28 Buff Bagwell (a.k.a. Marcus Alexander Bagwell for a bit, member of the nWo black and white)
#27 Chris Jericho (I still wish he did the Walls of Jericho move like he did the Lion Tamer back in WCW).  (Congrats on winning versus Bray Wyatt tonight at Battlegrounds).
#26 Rick Rude (member of both nWo's, but was primarily a b&w member - RIP).
#25 Eric Bischoff - guess we're counting guys who barely took bumps
#24 Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat (Simply amazing, youtube some of his matches)
#23 Barry Windham (best at floating over for a pin)
#22 Rey Mysterio (Best Luchadore in the world, hands down)
#21 Rick Steiner
#20 "Flyin" Brian Pillman (RIP Brian)
#19 The Giant (a.k.a. Big Show in WWE, nWo b&w member)
#18 Eddie Guerrero (RIP Eddie, one of the best lucha style guys ever)
#17 Arn Anderson (4 Horseman member in their best incarnation that I remember, him, Malenko, Benoit, and of course Flair).
#16 Ron Simmons (a.k.a. Farooq I believe)
#15 "Stunning" Steve Austin (Yes, the man that became Stone Cold Steve Austin, part of the Hollywood Blondes with Brian Pillman)
#14 Sid (Hey WWE, want a Heel, go watch film of this guy, then recreate, it'd be better than Bad News Barrett).
#13 Dean Malenko (4 Horseman "Man of a Thousand Holds")
#12 Scott Hall (a.k.a. Razor Ramone in WWF/WWE and member of The Outsiders with Kevin Nash in the Wolfpack, founding member of the entire nWo with Nash and Hollywood Hulk Hogan)
#11 Big Van Vader (some of the best feuds in the WCW were him and Sting).

#10 Scott Steiner (a.k.a. Big Poppa Pump, member of the best tag team in history, The Steiner Brothers with his brother Rick, member of the nWo b&w)
 #9 "Macho Man" Randy Savage (RIP Mach, nWo Wolfpack member as "Madness" and also a b&w member for a while, most older fans remember him for his time in WWF/WWE feuding with Hogan over the likes of Miss Elizabeth)
#8 Booker T (sorry but I felt that he was much better in Harlem Heat than he was out of it, gave the Steiners a run at the best tag team of all time, not excluding the Hardy's and Dudley's but they were not in WCW now were they?)
#7 Lex Luger (nWo Wolfpack member, best friend of Sting, amazing strength)
#6 Diamond Dallas Page (@DDPYoga on the Twitter!, the People's Champion and in my opinion, one the best if not the best guy in WCW)
#5 Kevin Nash (a.k.a. Diesel, Big Sexy, and Big Daddy Cool in WWE, founding member of the Wolfpack and also the nWo period, tag partners with Scott Hall.)
#4 Goldberg (Some of the shortest matches ever, but "The Man" was bad, the video selection will be from WCW first, but then there's a special one from Elimination Chamber in WWE, the only thing that could stop him was creative!)

 Now for the Elimination Chamber, OMG moments!  (Go to about the 2:10 mark for Goldberg.)

#3 "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan - A ton of great feuds throughout his career, from Andre the Giant, to Ultimate Warrior, then on to Sting, he helped forge the foundation for modern wrestling, love him or hate, you have to understand that. 

#2 Ric Flair (founder of the 4 Horsemen, 17 time champion or something ridiculous like that, the "Nature Boy" loved to style and profile).
#1 Sting - From WWE.com's article -
There is no face more recognizable or more closely associated with WCW than the man called Sting. Making his NWA/WCW debut in 1987, The Stinger remained with the Atlanta-based organization until it was acquired by WWE in 2001. Dubbed “The Franchise of WCW,” Sting was one of the few major stars to never join WWE, remaining one of WCW’s most popular grapplers throughout his career. Once sporting colorful face-paint and ring attire, the charismatic competitor went through a drastic transformation in 1996, becoming a silent avenger of WCW as The nWo’s power expanded. With his baseball bat in tow, Sting descended from the rafters to disrupt the plans of “Hollywood” Hogan and the nefarious faction.
Throughout his tenure, The Stinger amassed six WCW World Titles, three WCW Tag Team Championships, two WCW International World Titles and two United States Championships before battling his longtime rival Ric Flair on the final Nitro. — K.P.

He is, was, and always will be my favorite wrestler, from the neon colored version, to the crow version, the Wolfpack, even the TNA Heath Ledger Joker version.  He has signed with WWE in some capacity and they've finally shown a promo for him, at least for their newest video game, WWE 2K15, that video is below as well as one from WCW.  He alone went to war against the nWo when it first came out, and well, it made for the best storyline I've ever seen in the business.  Enjoy.

 And now for some good old fashioned WCW vs. nWo action. (I apologize for the video quality on this one, it's not mine, none of these are, but I hope you still get to enjoy it.)


And there's the top 50 of WCW per WWE.com, mind you I feel they left off a few guys, like Glacier, the Barbarian, and since Rodman made the list and Bischoff, where's Mean Gene, Mike Tenay, or Tony Schiavone?  Anyway, that's a wrap for tonight, I hope you all enjoyed this one, and in the words of Stone Cold Steve Austin, I'll catch your ass down the road!

Saturday, July 19, 2014

A much needed update is on the way.

I haven't posted on either of my blogs in a while, I'm here to fix that, turns out I really enjoyed communicating and getting creative things out of my brain and here onto the interweb.  On the sports side of things, I plan to do a bit more of a broader spectrum, covering more MLB, TNA, and WWE than I have in the past.  I'll be back in a few hours to start with both updates.  Let me know what you would like me to cover in sports and I'll at least give it a consider. 

Saturday, May 10, 2014

Cowboys 2014 NFL Draft Selections

Here are the video linkss for the Cowboys Picks this year.  In order of where they were drafted. (Will be updated as Dallas continues the Draft.)

Zack Martin - OG/OT Notre Dame.  #16 Overall Pick.


http://www.thefinsiders.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Zack-Martin.jpg

Demarcus Lawrence - DE Boise State #34 Overall Pick


http://static.nfl.com/static/content/public/photo/2013/12/28/0ap2000000304901.jpg

Anthony Hitchens - OLB Iowa #119 Overall Pick


http://hawkcentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/dmrdc5-6c4vxb6dadhg4awoada_original.jpg

Devin Street - WR, Pittsburgh #146 Overall Pick.




http://www.rantsports.com/ncaa-football/files/2013/03/Devin-Street.jpg


Ben Gardner - DT/DE Stanford #231 Overall Pick



Will Smith - OLB Texas Tech #238 Overall Pick



Ahmad Dixon - Safety, Baylor #248 Overall Pick



Ken Bishop - DT Northern Illinois #251 Overall Pick




Terrance Mitchell - CB Oregon #254 Overall Pick



I'll post my grades in the next week or so for all 32 Teams.  I personally feel Dallas did a good to very good job, a few guys I felt we should of grabbed that we didn't. 

Friday, May 9, 2014

For the Romo Haters....

Last evening a lady on Twitter simply refused to believe that the Dallas Cowboys will be OK taking something other than a QB named Manziel in the 1st round of the 2014 Draft.  Dallas stayed put and got help on the O-Line drafting Zack Martin from Notre Dame.  Martin is a great pick up as he was one of the top 4 offensive tackles in the draft and Aaron Donald (DT) was already gone.  Martin helps shore up a line that may or may not have Brian Waters come back this year and helps not just the passing game, but also the running game. 

Manziel and Dallas would have been a huge mistake.  While Manziel is a talent, don't get me wrong, he's not the right fit for this team.   Cowboys fans have a problem when Romo does something off the field, or gets paid, yet they wanted Johnny Manziel who literally uses the rubbing of his fingers to signal "making the money" as his "Discount double check" type move if you will, even doing it when Drafted last night at #22, not #1, but #22. 

http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/322e4242cc3c6beab28925fd1d81fcfadd2c1878/c=0-26-2200-1681&r=x404&c=534x401/local/-/media/USATODAY/USATODAY/2014/05/08//1399606093000-USP-NFL-2014-NFL-Draft-026.jpg

I get that he's a home town boy, playing at A&M.  Troy Aikman wasn't a home town boy and did just fine.  Maybe I'm just expecting Cowboys fans to understand how the NFL works and what it takes to win games.  If you have a crappy offensive line, your offense is dead.  If your defense can't stop anyone, it shows on the scoreboard (Dallas allowed 7 different teams to score 30 or more points on them last year).  It's one thing to score points, which is all Romo/Manziel would be used for, but today, on day 2 of the draft, we need to turn the focus to defense.  I'm not buying into "Defense wins Championship" (here's an article to help you understand why) gimmick, but Dallas's strong suit to make it to the SuperBowl historically has been a balanced offense and a solid defense.  Eight SB appearances using that formula, 5 Lombardi's to go with it.  And for those that understand stats, have a look here to see where Romo finished up last year, keeping in mind he missed the final game of the season.  Who's he finish right behind?  Oh, the guy that won the Super Bowl, wow, so Romo is clearly the problem (insert sarcastic tone).




Thursday, May 8, 2014

Round 1 of the 2014 NFL Draft Stats

Here's a breakdown for you.

Players picked by conference.


SEC 11
ACC 4
Big East 4
Big Ten 4
Pac-12 3
Big 12 2
Mid-American 2
Conference USA 1
IA Independent 1
Mountain West 0
Sun Belt 0
WAC 0

Players by Position (Zack Martin is officially a OT, but will play OG)

QB 3      DT 2
RB 0      DE 2
WR 5      ILB 1
TE 1      OLB 4
OG 0      CB 5
OT 5      SS 2
C 0      FS 2
K 0      P0

Players by Year of School.

redshirt So. 4  UnderClassmen 15
redshirt Jr. 2

Jr. 9

redshirt Sr. 4

Sr 13


Players taken by School.

Louisville 3
Texas A&M 3
Ohio St. 2
Alabama 2
Auburn 2
Clemson 1
Florida St. 1
North Carolina 1
Virginia Tech 1
Oklahoma St. 1
TCU 1
Pittsburgh 1
Michigan 1
Michigan St. 1
Central Florida 1
Notre Dame 1
Buffalo 1
Northern Illinois 1
Oregon St. 1
UCLA 1
Washington St. 1
Florida 1
LSU 1
South Carolina 1
Tennessee 1

Clearly the SEC is dominant.  More underclassmen every year it seems, and no running backs or centers taken, where'd the running game go?