Evil Gringo

Will he have actually left Lucha Underground though? I know he has left AAA and they own a percentage of LU but that doesn't mean he has to have left them as well.... does it?

When Ronda came in to the game there was no other fighter you could argue at 135lbs who was fully pro AND had her background in fighting. She had been training to be a judoka since she fell out of her mothers womb, her mum was a world class judoka as well and due to her medal winning exploits at the Olympics she had money and sponsors that let her move into MMA full time with no other job to constrain her time wise and hamper her training. What happened next was women who weren't as good as her because they couldn't train as much or been a martial artist for as long getting hip tossed, controlled and armbar, armbar, armbar. Ronda wins the 135lb title in Strikeforce and all of a sudden, with the UFC purchasing the company, Dana decides seen as he has Tate and Ronda he can do women's MMA. He has the rematch everyone wants to see in Tate v Ronda (Tate suffered a broken arm rather then tap out to Rousey), the sport has come along way and people will pay to see it so Dana White goes for it and goes all in on the Ronda bandwagon. She carries on the same way, beating everyone, including Tate, but people start asking, can she do anything else other then armbar people? To be fair she knocks out a couple of people after that but she starts to stray away from what brought her to the dance whilst all the while the same coaching team she has had since day one tell her she is the greatest, Dana tells her she is the greatest, movie and TV offers come in as well as the whole Travis Browne relationship crap flaring up with him being a married man and all (or was at the time of them getting together) so you have a whole lot of smoke blowing, a whole lot of hype and a whole lot of not actually training to raise her game because she is either on set somewhere, doing promo work or believing she already has the skills to beat everyone. Enter Holly Holm. She has won titles in pro boxing at Light Welterweight, Welterweight and Light Middleweight, a one point she was the unified Welterweight champion of the world. She also had extensive training in kicking boxing with three pro fights as well and people still believed that Ronda would kill her. But Ronda seemed distracted, she seemed tired (it was the first time anyone had completed three title defenses in a year within the UFC), all she had done is fight camps, fights and media work all year... Holm came in fresh as a daisy and beat the living tar out of her, so bad she needed plastic surgery on her lips and teeth and kicked her so hard in the head with the knock out blow that Ronda required a six month medical layoff because she couldn't prove she hadn't suffered a brain injury. She literally rearranged her face and gave her brain damage, however temporary. Since then Ronda has been recovering but still she was doing media, because she is a big star, planning a wedding if it is to be believed to Travis Browne, shooting the Road House remake where she is going to play Swayze's role (I know, WTF?!?!) and generally not seeming ready. In that time Tate beat Holm, Nunes, the current champ, beat the hell out of Tate and finally Ronda was cleared to return and was granted a $3m payout straight away with a title shot against Nunes. Who ate her alive. See in the end there is a lot of factors. Ronda made people elevate their game and the women in the MMA world have done that. Not just Ronda but other early pioneers like Cat Zingano, Miesha Tate, Liz Carmouche and such have been passed by now by a younger and hungry generation who have benefited from the increased money, the increased facilitates and the rewards that Ronda's mainstream and UFC success has allowed them. Her success as well as making it easier for women to get into the sport also made her a target, when you are so dominant people will spend all of their time looking for ways to defeat you and find that allusive chink in the armor and now they have. Not only that though but the amount of time Ronda now spends away from MMA is huge. Nunes spent all her time being ready for this fight as did Holm when she beat Ronda. Ronda however, unlike when she first started hasn't. When she first started she had her team and the desire to fight and that's it, MMA was her life. Now she is thinking of marriage, openly admitting she doesn't believe she will be fighting for long win, lose or draw, doing movies and TV - the laser like focus is gone and she has stagnated as a fighter allowing the others chasing her to catch up. But the biggest factor was, she got beat and beat badly by Holm. Ronda has had lumps and bruises and cuts before, her style is mainly to wade through her opponents shots to land her own and then clinch for a takedown. But Holm crushed her, she had power where as no disrespect, very other women fighters at 135lbs (bar a select few) in the world don't. She had technique and let me tell you, Holm's boxing is better then 99% of the men on the UFC roster, let alone the women and when you add that to the power you see devastation. Ronda had never been defeated and on top of that she was murdered and she just never seemed the same afterwards. Part of her confidence was just crushed, her aura was gone and she has now partially stopped believing in herself and is scared of taking hits like those Holm dished out again - which is why once Nunes tagged her she just froze like a deer in the headlights and got mowed over. Long answer I know but when it looks like the career of one of the most dominant Women's MMA fighters of all time could well be over... well it raises a lot of talking points.

So if you haven't seen UFC 207 yet, be prepared for a lot of decision matches going the distance until the main event. Then Ronda has a bit of a bad day... again. Seriously I think this is it for her. She has lost two on the bounce, plateaued as a fighter and due to her public profile she has it seems spent more time either making movies, appearing on talk shows and talking about her relationship with Travis Browne then actually improving and training as a fighter. You have to question, with quite a bit of money in the bank (plus she got paid $3m for that that fight last night) - is her heart actually in it anymore?

I'm not doubting his talent, despite the fact that no one in the world needs a gazillion finishing moves as he has, but he doesn't like toeing the line and that was part of what led him to fall out of favor last time. Plus he is on the network as Kassius Ohno, which means the WWE will want to bring him back as Kassius Ohno or KO... which is like Kevin Owens... which he hated and oh there is just too much wrong with all that side of things. Then again maybe because they need to gut NXT to fill out the roster so they will need to fill out NXT once more they will actually make a fist of it and seen as people like Owens and Zayn who have previously been a pain in the ass have done as they where told and behaved in the WWE maybe Hero will. Plus seen as NOAH has been bought out and is being restructured to use less outside talent and that was his main bread winner outside of PWG it might be wise to seek the money the Big W can offer. As for Adam Cole, he said on the last Meet the Elite livestream (although it should have been meet the Dream Team) that if the right offer with the right money came in he'd go to NXT or WWE. So did the Young Bucks and Omega to be fair but given their opinions of themselves and how much they think they are worth I think those are a pipedream, Cole on the other hand seems more down to earth outside of the ring and has less of an ego and whilst I am a fan of Omega and the Bucks there is no doubt they are full of themselves ego wise. On slightly related note, the Bullet Club announced via video package at the last NJPW show that Cody Rhodes (sorry Runnels) will be their new member as well. He is going to face Juice Robinson (aka CJ Parker) at the Tokyo Dome show on the 4th.

He's even fatter then when he was in FCW and NXT last time though - this is not going to end well either this time. In fact aside from some work in PWG, his exposure and level of people giving a damn about him is also less then last time. Big gamble for him and not one I think will pan out.

Basically with NOAH it all started because all but four wrestlers on the All Japan roster back in 2000 where fed of up of Giant Baba's widow who was running the company. So they left and formed NOAH. The idea was to finally have Kobashi on top as THE ace and have him and Akiyama as the pillars of the fed whilst Misawa and Taue took a back seat and they tried to bring the next generation through as well as more emphasis on the junior heavyweights because they where ignored by and large in AJPW as well. Then Kobashi blew his knees out on the first weekend of shows and Misawa had to step in and be the man again. They he tried to get Akiyama over as a headliner and it didn't work - but to be honest at this time in 2002 it was a rough time for the wrestling business in Japan as a whole bar for AJPW which had rejuvenated by linking with NJPW in a cross promotional feud that ended with Kendo KaShin, Kojima and Muto all jumping ship to AJPW in the end as well. They hit their stride when Kobashi came back and defeated Misawa in 2003 for the main belt and went on a stellar 2 year run with the title... but then when the time came to drop the belt they failed to build up the man who would dethrone him properly so the fans didn't buy it. Takeshi Rikio had a disappointing run on top and never got out of the likes of Akiyama, Kobashi and Misawa's shadow. In fact no one did - the fans wanted to see them and when they where not on the card attendance fell. Problem was Kobashi got kidney cancer, then a knee injury again, then damaged the ligaments in one elbow... then the other... from 2007 to his retirement Kobashi in 2013/14 was officially f**ked. Then it was a case of shooting people to the top of the card - Marufuji was over as a Junior so they promoted him to Heavyweight and put him right at the top of the card, Go Shiozaki came out of the dojo and was put under Kobashi's wing... then as soon as he was out they shot him up to the top of the card as a mini-Kobashi, completed with Lariat, Moonsault and at one point the Orange Crush too. KENTA had a run on top and did ok, Takeshi Suigura, for all his bad ass amateur achievements was boring during his long first run with the gold, Morishima was over but was always injured and never had a long enough run on top to cement himself either. Bad luck, bad choices and greenness in some cases hurt some of these guys badly. Couple this with Misawa dying in the ring. Kobashi having to leave, half the old guard leaving due to loyality to him, a downturn in wrestling globally since their peak in 2005-2007 unless you are NJPW it seems, the companies inability to make new stars due to poor long term booking and now here we are today. They have talent on the books, they have potential, they are no where near as bad as TNA (that would be AJPW from 2010 onward's) but they basically have a long way to go before they can be seen as challengers for the number one promotion in the country ever again.

Pro Wrestling NOAH news... They have been bought out as I posted the other month and it seemed that the presence of NJPW wrestlers might be over as the company sought to restructure and make itself more self sufficient in the long run. But since then NJPW wrestlers have still been on their shows, the likes of Iziuka, Yano, Davey Boy Smith Jr., Lance Archer, El Desperado and Taichi who along with freelancers Taka Michinoku, Kanemaru and the leader Minoru Suzuki make up Suzuki-Gun with NOAH employee Takashi Suigura. Until this week they have been titles holders in the stable and challengers from the stable for other belts within NOAH. Jado is still supposed to be the booker of the company as well as the co-booker of NJPW along with Gedo. Then it all went a bit mental. Minoru Suzuki was going after the GHC Title but lost to Nakajima and part way through the match, Suzuki releasing he couldn't get it done on his own, called for his stable to come and help... and no one moved from the back at all. Suzuki lost the match and then Suigura came down to the ring, hit his finisher on Suzuki, tore off his Suzuki-Gun T-Shirt and left. Then the next night Suzuki-Gun for the first time in 2 years lost every match in a night. Davey Boy and Lance Archer lost the GHC Tag Belts, Taichi failed to win the Jr. Heavyweight title back and in the main event Suzuki faced his betrayer Suigura... and lost. Suzuki-Gun was disbanded as a result and you'd have to think that all of the talent contained therein will be leaving NOAH. Problem is, what does NJPW do with them? The whole reason they where loaned to NOAH is because whilst they had biggish reputations in the company they where still expendable and they nothing for them to do at the time. The company also had CHAOS, Bullet Club and other factions aside from Suzuki-Gun so it made sense to let them do their thing in NOAH to avoid being ignored or underutilised whilst also helping NOAH out in a pinch after half their wrestlers left for AJPW in the wake of them not renewing Kobashi's contact and forcing him to possibly leave the company (he then retired rather then leave) as well as the loss of KENTA to the WWE, the death of Misawa and the retirement of Takeshi Morishima. Now NOAH has a much smaller roster, so I image they will be running 6 match shows or smaller like AJPW have been doing (after over half their roster left to join Wrestle-1) but it is unclear if Marufuji will be staying as he left his position as vice president of the company after the takeover and also if Jado will be staying on as the booker. Weird and interesting times for a company who in the not too distant past sold out the Tokyo Dome twice in two years.

So I beasted Mafia III which is fun if you don't expect GTA V based in the 60's. Could have done with fast travel but hey hum. Currently I have to play through... XBox One Batman: Telltale Series Rainbow Six Siege (still) Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens Walking Dead Michonne Episode III Tales from the Borderlands (still) PS4 God of War III Remastered The Last of Us Remastered Beyond Two Souls Remastered Heavy Rain Remastered Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection Uncharted 4 I'm trying to play PS4 exclusives only on the PS and play XBox exclusives and multi platform launches on the One as my gamerscore is such I don't want to abandon it (192,500 at the moment). I never had a PS3 so I never played any of those titles first time around and having done some trading in I had about £70 to go mental with and picked up all of those PS4 games as a result bar the Uncharted titles as one is a Boomerang rental and the other came with the console. I still haven't found time or money to pick up Gears 4 or Battlefield 1 yet and I am torn on actually giving Infinite Warfare a rent or not but then I haven't played a COD since 2013 or so.

Been a good old week for the golden oldies of the sport still plying their trade on the indie and Japanese circuits.... Dory Funk Jr - the man, the myth, the legend and the inventor of the Texas Cloverleaf wrestled at the grand old age of 75 and won as well as part of a six man tag match on the Tokyo Gurentai show that took place yesterday in front of an amazing 777 people. On that same show, Mil Mascaras, who is 74 years old, retained his IWA World Title, which he has held since 1975 and defended 18 times in all of that time (that is 41 years, averaging a defense every 2.2 years lol) He also holds their Tokyo Tag Titles with his brother Dos Caras (Alberto's dad), who is 65. They won them in 2013 and haven't defended them yet. I know Gurentai don't run shows often but jesus. Also a few days ago, Onita (yes, the man who invented death matches in Japan because he failed at being a junior heavyweight in All Japan) who is 59 and Fuchi, who is 62 won the All Asian Tag Titles from Aoki and Sato at the recent All Japan Sumo Hall show that is supposed to have drawn 6,000 people. They became the 100th ever champions by beating two guys in their 30's with the oldest man who usually opens the show (Fuchi) getting the win over Sato who has been the Jr. Heavyweight champion, the Jr Battle winner and All Asian champion this year. Jun Akiyama, your booking makes no sense to me you loon. People going mental over Goldberg coming back after 13 years and beating Lesnar should be thankful... if the WWE was run by Japanese standards at the moment then it would have been Terry Funk with a moonsault inside of a minute.

I now have a PS4 as well, search for me under evilgringo2004 like with my X-Box Live profile. I am nothing but consistent after all.

I think they are using wrestling to make money and try and get their on air staff over sometimes at the expense of the wrestlers. I like their channel, I like they are trying to get people interested in wrestling but ultimately, they don't give a crap so long as they make money and their channel gets more popular, such is business. In connection to my previous post on Io Shirari who is due to start with the WWE next year according to reports, the company have also offered a deal to Stardom's number 2 as well, Kairi Hojo... She is said to be interested but undecided at this moment in time as she is worried she may not pass their medical exams to compete due to suffering two severe concussions in the past two years. It would be great if she ended up with the WWE as well, well for everyone bar Stardom I suppose, the match she and Io put on the other year that ended in a time limit draw at 30 minutes was exceptional. If you had asked me a few years ago if two of my favorite Japanese male wrestlers would be working for the company and if my favorite female Japanese wrestler was about to sign I'd have called you a full on mental case. Heady times my friends, heady times.

Io Shirai, the Stardom champion over in Japan has according to rumors handed in her notice to the company and will be leaving to come to WWE. http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/prowrestling/images/a/a1/Io_Shirai_-_11255751.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150523165956 She is very, very good in the ring, a vet of 10 years now and would have excellent matches with Asuka, should Asuka still be around in NXT and not on the main roster by the time she officially signs, gets repacked and debuts. Also Pro-Wrestling NOAH has been bought out, Marufuji might be leaving the company as a result and they will no longer be using NJPW wrestlers or having Jado as their booker. God knows what this means for the company.

I've played through most of Forza Horizon 3 now, except the online features and it was a damn good bit of fun. Just started the Batman Telltale game and the first chapter of episode one had me giddy like a school kid, the tone and the atmosphere is just spot on so far. Shame there is only two episodes out so far but damn is it going to be good. I picked up WWE2K17 yesterday as well, well Becki did as it was £40 at Tesco and employees then got double discount (so £8 off) and I haven't been able to play it yet as the X-Box One version requires a whopping 11.1gb update. ELEVEN POINT FRECKIN ONE GIG! The lines in my building are capped at around 5mb so it is taking a lllooooonnngggg time to update. Damn I miss the days when you just put a disc in and played a game. Ahhh those heady wonderful times.

Worse. WCW lost money, dropped in ratings and the company that bought it's original parent company didn't want it as a result so they put it up for sale. Bischoff couldn't get a TV deal along with the company so he pulled out and WWE scooped it up. TNA never had good ratings, has been poorly run since day one even when Jarrett ran it hence why Panda had to come in and prop him up which allowed Dixie and her lot into the business in the first place. WCW for a while made money and posted good PPV buys and ratings. TNA has never done that because it has self sabotaged itself from the very beginning.

Whilst Nikki Bella is in the WWE then I doubt Maria will get signed. Even though Maria as a manager to Bliss would be a wonderful combination and much more welcome that Nikki actually is these days.

I've got Forza Horizon 3, Batman: A Telltale Series, LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the end of Witcher 3, Rainbow Six: Siege, Madden 17 and the last few missions of Worms: WMD to play through at the moment. That's before FIFA 17 comes out, as well as tonnes of other good stuff like WWE2K17, Gears 4, South Park: The Fractured But Whole and all that jazz in the run up to Christmas. My thumbs are going to be aching in joy.

Corgan can't surely have enough money left in the old piggy bank to save TNA? There is no bloody way. Vince is going to do a WCW here, let it die, buy the tape library and name, maybe a few of the smaller names for the Cruiser division and let all the bigger names who have dissed him and the company over the years find their own meal tickets on the indy scene.

I'd personally pay money to see Ryback get destroyed in an MMA fight, like pay for flights, accommodation and a cage side seat to see someone shove his head up his ass. Is just trying to troll CM Punk? How knows, but there is no way he is going to get $500,000 like Punk did to get battered.

Cue being feed to Braun Strowman within the next two months... I kid, it was a damn good tournament, some MOTY candidates in Ibushi v Alexander and Gargano v Ciampa, a WWE signed guy winning to establish him as the head of the division and some stars made in the process. Think about this, Perkins has defeated Gran Metalik who was Máscara Dorada in CMLL and at one stage held four title belts at once, Ibushi who is a former three time IWGP Jr. Heavyweight champion as well as the winner of the New Japan Cup as well last year as well as the decorated Gargano and Swann during the earlier portions of the tournament. Not a bad way to start your reign! I know there was some mixed reactions from the crowd when he won, mainly I feel because they had hoped for a Sabre Jr. v Ibushi final but the fact is those guys where offered WWE contracts and they turned them down so it wasn't to be, it is possible one might have made it to the final to put someone over but in the end the WWE used them both to put two WWE-Signed talents over which is smart business really. Speaking of which... these guys are confirmed as signed and will be part of the division going forward when it hits Raw this week... Akira Tozawa Brian Kendrick Cedric Alexander Lince Dorado Jack Gallagher Gran Metalik Noam Dar Rich Swann Johnny Gargano Tommaso Ciampa Not a bad roster to start with is it really?

Thing is though, they haven't stated that the winner of the CWC will become the Cruiserweight Champion - if they said that then it would probably mean we wouldn't see a Sabre v Ibushi final. As it stands, because this is a stand alone tournament, on the network alone, no highlights being shown on Raw or Smackdown and quite clearly booked by HHH, then I think we can still see an Ibushi v Sabre final and seen as those two guys are the most talented out of who is left in the tournament (well at least in my opinion), then I'd be damn happy with that. Likewise we could see Metalik v Ibushi in the final with Metalik getting the win and the rub from beating the most hyped guy in the whole damn thing and then as a result be then crowned, in a surprise, as the new WWE Cruiserweight Champ on the following RAW.

It's a hard question really for me... Keaton was my first Batman and did a wonderful job playing the straight guy across from Nicolson's Joker but he wasn't the all action Batman you'd expect, mainly because he's Michael Keaton and also because the suit was so god damn restrictive. I actually really liked Val Kilmer as both the Bat and as Bruce Wayne in Batman Forever as well and have a special place in my heart for that film because it was mental and when it came out I was about 10 and loved Jim Carrey too. Bale for me was excellent as both Bat and Wayne except for that damn voice... GIMME THE GUN! Also Ben Affleck, has been good in otherwise disappointing films. He has been a highlight and much better then Cavill's boring, brooding Superman. I am really looking forward to seeing what Ben Affleck will do with the solo Batman film he is going to help screen-write and create, in fact, if he can keep WB away from it, it could be the best Bat film since Dark Knight. But in the end, I trumped for Keaton because, Tim Burton's first Batman film is a classic and to be honest, as good as Nolan's trilogy was... none of the three topped that original Batman for me, although Dark Knight came close.

Just been pottering through Witcher III, only 90 years after it came out. Good game though with several surprising Tarantino references in there despite it being based on a polish series of fantasy books. Been doing a lot of Pokemon Go with Becki. We are level 25 right now and have 105 Pokemon in the Dex. Completed Shadows of Mordor and its DLC, tried the new Mirrors Edge (it sucked), have Rainbow Six: Siege sat there ready to play, Assisians Creed: Chronicles as well and just got Worms: WMD and Madden 17. I still play too many games. Gamerscore update: 188,000 or thereabouts.

That is a damn ass long no complete clause if so. Shame because he would offer something brilliant to the Cruiserweight division when it arrives in September if he could appear. Also in Lucha Underground news, El Rey, the network that broadcasts the English language version of the show, have signed Rey Mysterio Jr. as a consultant and EP on both scripted and non-scripted shows and projects.

10th of October will see Okada v Marufuji for the IWGP Title off the back of Marufuji pinning Okada during the G-1 Climax. Should be a tasty match. Also the Young Bucks will be looking to become one of the few teams in history to have held the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight and full IWGP Tag belts when they face the Briscoe's on the 22nd of September as well

Also Will Ospray was busy over in NJPW becoming the first ever Brit to win the Best of the Super Juniors and then challenging KUSIHDA for the IWGP Jr. Title...