Make sure to check out the Podcast section of So We Were Told for the two most recent editions of that show I co-host.
I won't give any spoilers because I know a couple of faithful blog readers are waiting to watch Extreme Rules a little later on, but I caught the show live and absolutely loved it. Much better top to bottom than Wrestlemania, and featured some real star-making performances. It's a shame that almost nobody bought it, coming the night after such a huge UFC show.
Speaking of, I went with Franz to catch said event, UFC 129: St-Pierre versus Shields at the Buffalo Wild Wings on Bethel Road, just a few storefronts down from Ashley's work. She joined us a couple of fights into the show, and Keith made it right before the destruction of Randy Couture.
Briefly, this was a fine show. And if you had asked me right after the fact, even considering a lackluster main event in Georges St-Pierre versus Jake Shields, I would have said there was no way WWE could top it the next night. Financially, they may do 1/10 the pay per view business. Artistically, Extreme Rules absolutely surpassed the Saturday show. Which is not to say anything particularly bad about UFC. WWE just happened to hit a home run.
Sorry, got side tracked by the current greatness of WWE that may well wash away by tomorrow night. UFC 129 had great atmosphere, a huge, raucous crowd, and some very memorable performances. The featherweight title fight between champ Jose Aldo Jr. and Ontarian challenger Mark Hominick, was an awesome war. Going in, I had only seen Hominick fight a couple of times and really gave him little chance to beat the seemingly nigh invulnerable Aldo. But he brought it for 25 minutes and actually, by the end of the fight was the much fresher and stronger of the two. He just ran out of time and lost a decision.
Lyoto Machida got back on track, scoring a second-round knockout of Randy Couture, ending the latter's amazing career hopefully once and for all. I'm a big fan of Lyoto. This is mostly down to me being an unapologetic Nipponophile when it comes to sports. He also won with a jumping front kick that he learned from STEVEN SEAGAL! I watched Steven being interviewed about it post-fight and it was pretty awesome. He spent half the interview answering a phone call from his wife and speaking Mandarin. Anyway, hopefully this puts Lyoto one big win away from a title shot. I don't think I would pick him over Jon Jones, but I do believe that stylistically he has the best chance of anyone in the division.
As for Georges, what can I say? He apparently couldn't see out of one eye, which does explain why Shields seemed to be a match for him standing in the later rounds. I'll let him off the hook here, maybe because I'm a big fan. But hey, even blind, he still went the distance with, and out-pointed, a very tough opponent. Nothing to be ashamed of.
Finally, OSAMA. Yup. Dude's dead. President Obama put a hit out and that shit got handled! That's how they do in the IL, ya heard!?
Yeah, seriously, not much to say about this. Good symbolic victory, I guess?
Anyway, until next time, check out the podcasts, leave a comment, and spike your hair.
EDIT: I just went to ESPN.com to check headlines, and their lead story is as follows: "Al Qaeda's Osama bin Laden is dead". Given the headline is coming from ESPN, it's very to take that in a sports context, like "Pittsburgh's Roberto Clemente is dead". Now it's all I'm going to be able to think about.
1 comment:
Extreme rules was pretty good! Got to see some Edge teeth, and I'm hoping that all of Booker's talk about how Kofi was finally taking it to the next level and getting aggressive and whatnot is a sign that they're really about to push him big time.
I hope we can watch something together via Skype soon though; that's the most fun!
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