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UFC Fight Night Holm v Aldana Fight Predictions
Hello! I hope everyone is doing excellent this week, and if you're not, I hope it gets better. This has unfortunately been a horrible card to talk about, I felt very little motivation to write this... it was very hard to promote this fight because a lot of these fighters aren't ranked and really don't have a lot to risk if they lose. So, not too much going on here, but that isn't to say the event will be boring, no event is. Lets get down and dirty. (c) - Champ (D) - Debut FLS - Fight Lose Streak FWS - Fight Win Streak NS - No Streak (#x) - Rank in Division Lets go! Prelims Lightweight Jessin Ayari (16-5-0, 2 FLS) v Luigi Vendramini (8-1-0, NS) - There’s not much to say about this fight considering both fighters are coming back from a two year hiatus. Ayari is a fairly decent stance switch striker, he tends to be pretty patient with his offensive movement and attacks, he kinda luls his opponent into attacking him in which he moves out of range to land a counter, but the one thing I notice when watching his fights is that he’s sometimes too hesitant and thus doesn’t throw as much as he should, which probably explains why he lost his last fight, with Stevie Ray getting the heavier shots in whilst Ayari was waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Whilst that’s great, it's obviously quite detrimental to his record because he’s on a losing streak now. Vendramini is returning from a hiatus and a meniscus injury, so i’m not too sure how much that will affect his performance coming into this fight, whether or not he will be slower. It’s also pretty difficult to see any comparison videos because his debut against Zaleski Dos Santos was purely a destructive loss. He only landed 4 solid strikes throughout the fight and got absolutely tooled throughout the bout. Despite his loss, he has a one hundred percent finish rate, 4 submissions, 4 knockouts. At a young age of 24, it’s clear to me that one set back isn’t going to slow this young and talented fighter down. He still has quite a bit to go and is yet to stretch his wings in the UFC, and Ayari is certainly a good match up to test his capabilities. Ultimately though, I feel like Vendramini has this, but considering both fighters are coming off a long hiatus, it’s hard to tell how they’re gonna fight. Vendramini via KO R2 Bantamweight Casey Kenney (14-2-1, NS) v Heili Alateng (14-7-1, 4 FWS) - Kenney isn’t afraid to bang it out with the toughest of them. Get in range and he’s going to throw hands very fast and hard. He has the tendency to get close, slip off the centre line, and land a hook to the side of his opponents head, This seemed to be the game plan when fighting Louis Smolka, he consistently used excellent head movement and left right hook combos to land significant damage to Smolka, eventually rocking him. His only recent setback was against Merab Dvalishvili and well, you’ll always have trouble when fighting a machine like Merab. Alateng has a very wrestling-heavy approach to MMA, he isn’t known for his excellent striking or anything like that, in fact he often gets out striked by his opponent, but what he does exceptionally well is drive for takedowns and manage to control his opponent movement on the ground. He is very strong and will battle for the better position in a clinch in order to get a trip or takedown. Very interesting fight but at the moment i’m leaning on Kenney getting this one. I love what I see when Kenney fights, he just needs to avoid the wrestling of Alateng. Kenney via UD Women’s Strawweight Loma Lookboonme (4-2-0, NS) v Jinh Yu Frey (9-5-0, NS) - Again, another fight where there’s not a whole lot to talk about. Lookboonme is a very experienced Muay Thai fighter who is currently somewhat struggling in the MMA circuit. Now, her striking is great, but her opponents know that, and they start to grapple, and that’s where Lookboonme looks pretty bad. If the fight stays on the feet, then I fully expect Lookboonme to look exceptional, but it all depends on how Frey will fight. Frey was the Invicta Atomweight champion back in 2018 through to early this year, prior to her transition to the UFC. She hasn’t really been too exciting to watch as a fighter and in her debut she got absolutely dismantled by Kay Hanson. She seems to be relatively well rounded, and has decent striking, but is it enough? I guess we’ll see in this fight, last time we saw her get tested on the ground, now we’ll see where she stands when it comes to a striking exchange. I know I keep predicting that Lookboonme is going to win, and this time it won’t be any different, so please feel free to not bet based on this prediction. Lookboonme via UD Middleweight Jordan Williams (D) (9-3-0, NS) v Nassourdine Imavov (D) (8-2-0, 5 FWS) - What is with all these filthy pothead fucks who keep getting caught for having the filthy devils lettuce in their body? That of course is sarcasm. Williams had two bouts in DWCS, his first attempt at the notorious and highly lustrous contract for the UFC was successful until the fated drug test in which he was caught with marijuana and thus the fight was overturned. He’s back with a vengeance though, and he made very quick work of his opponent and now, finally after all these years, he’s made it to the UFC. Williams is a powerful striker, he throws hammers but he’s not ready for the UFC in my opinion. During his fight against Rodriguez, he looked very sloppy, he was getting hit a lot, he didn’t have a lot of head movement, it was all aggression, and whilst that’s fun to watch, it’s not good in the long run, what i’m seeing here is a cocky young fighter who just got a ticket to the chocolate factory, what i’m very curious about is how he’s going to handle a dangerous striker in Imavov. imavov is a tough fighter coming out of France, and he has a very high finish rate. He is called the “Russian Sniper” but he also has garnered quite the resume of submission victories. Now, I haven’t seen a whole lot of Imavov so I am judging this off his record and the performance from Williams. This is a very big stretch, but i’m leaning on Imavov. Not a very good analytical prediction, i know, but there really isn’t a lot to say about this one, with neither fighter having fought in the UFC yet, so, an educated guess let’s say. Imavov via Sub R2 Lightweight Joshua Culibao (8-1-0, NS) v Charles Jourdain (10-3-0, NS) - This is a fight with “Fireworks” written all over it. Culibao might be very new to the UFC, but watching his regional fights, it’s very clear that he lets his hands go and they land with some oomph. But, this is the UFC, and the calibre of fighters in the UFC is exceptionally high, and I highly doubt that Culibao has faced anyone like Jourdain. Jourdain is a very powerful fighter, both on the ground and on the feet, and despite his recent loss against Fili, he has one significant win, and that’s over our boy, Doo Ho Choi. Now, it’s questionable how good Choi was during that fight, he did seem like a shell of his former self Either way, with the rate that Jourdain finishes his fights, it’s very clear to me that he’s as well rounded as they get, his only losses were decision losses so regardless of those losses, his fights are full of highlights. This is a fun fight and i’ve got eyes on Jourdain winning this one. Jourdain via KO R2 Welterweight Carlos Condit (30-13-0, 5 FWS) v Court McGee (19-9-0, 2 FLS) - You know, I've been doing these predictions for quite a while, never have I seen a 1-9 record being shown on Tapology, 0-5 for Condit, and 1-4 for McGee, just thought I'd bring that up before I talk about this bout. There is no doubt in my mind that Condit has been a veteran of the sport, he has fought the who's who of the division and for the most part, gotten out of that fight with a victory. But recently, or, well, since 2016, and there has been very little sign of Condit bouncing back. Now, i’m sure this is attributed to the fact that the UFC is extremely fast moving with its up and coming talent. Condit is clearly on his way out, it’s extremely hard to bounce back from a 5 fight losing streak and I don’t see how he’s going to fight this one. Condit was an excellent, scrappy fighter who always got into these violent brawls, but there is one interesting tidbit I would like to tell you all about, the takedowns. In all of his fights in the UFC, Condit has successfully landed 10 takedowns, but he has been taken down 70 times. Now, I’m sure that’s due to the aggressive style of Condit, and those rare moments that Condit decided to take down his opponent, but I just thought that was interesting. McGee is also on a very fine line in terms of his recent performances, losing back to back against some very tough up and comes in Sean Brady and Dhiego Lima… His Brady fight was nothing but gorgeous violence and if he brings that energy into this fight against Condit, Condit might retaliate and we’ll see a classic banger, but I feel like McGee will be smarter than that, he’ll wrestle and land some solid ground and pound on Condit. Other than that, I don’t see the fight going to the distance. McGee is going to retire Condit, as hard as that is to type. McGee via KO R1 Main Card Middleweight Dequan Townsend (21-11-0, 3 FLS) v Dusko Todorovic (D) (#1 Europe Balkans) (9-0-0, 9 FWS) - This is an interesting one for sure. Townsend has yet to win a fight in the UFC. In each of his fights, he has been absolutely dominated, especially in his fight against Clark. I don’t see Townsend making a comeback to be honest, and he’s coming up against an extremely talented newcomer in Todorovic. Townsend does indeed have power in his hands, but its a style issue, it’s too predictable and the easiest way to handle him is to take him down. Todorovic is an interesting debutant who at the moment is undefeated. Todorovic has been on an absolute tear in his career and just last year won a fight on DWCS, it wasn’t an insane finish but it was a fairly competitive win and just showed us that he can go all 3 rounds and be totally fine. Now, that was one year ago so it makes me wonder how he will adjust to the Fight Island training regiment, no gym, just working out in your hotel room. This is mostly an interesting fight because I’ve heard nothing but good things about Todorovic, his pace and his aggression seem to be his main selling points, and frankly I can’t wait for this fight to happen. It’s also a curiosity to see if Townsend has found himself also. Todorovic via KO R2 Bantamweight Kyler Phillips (7-1-0, 2 FWS) v Cameron Else (D) (10-4-0, 6 FWS) - Apparently, Else is from the BMF Ranch (According to Tapology), so that’s already a very interesting note for that fighter. Phillips had a stint in TUF Season 27 but didn’t make it very far. Since then though, he has worked hard to get back his opportunity to be in the UFC, and on his debut, he absolutely put on an excellent performance against Gabriel Silva. The incredible pace and the ability to just keep his opponent guessing with his very creative striking. He’s always moving and he’s always throwing everything, never the same punch, never the same kick, always something different, and that’s going to be key to many victories coming forward. However, he is still very green and he’s fighting a slightly more experienced fighter in Else. Else has a 100% finish rate and whilst that’s incredible to see, it makes me wonder how he’ll handle a 3 round fight, as he has never gone past round 2. Phillips is a very active striker so if Else can handle the pace and counter Phillips, he has a chance. But, I have never seen Else fight before, and I’m not too sure if him fighting out of the BMF Ranch (that is, if it’s true) is a good idea. We only know of one decent fighter to come out of there, and that’s its creator Donald Cerrone. So, it’s definitely going to be an interesting fight. I’m not sure who is going to win this one but i’m leaning on Phillips. Phillips via UD Women’s Bantamweight Germaine De Randamie (#1) (9-4-0, NS) v Julianna Pena (#7) (9-3-0, NS) - These rankings make very little sense, well, they make sense but it’s just ridiculous, and probably shows how constipated the division is. De Randamie is one of the best kickboxers in the division, she is a very experienced competitor and has always put on a striking clinic against her opponent, even Amanda Nunes. The only thing she has to worry about is competition catching up to her, lucky for her though, she’s not facing a super dangerous opponent, the only thing she’s facing is time, she’s getting up there in age and whilst at the moment there’s no signs of slowing down, there are signs of competition catching up. Pena is an infrequent fighter who is coming back after an almost two year hiatus (i’ve used that word a lot this post), and I’m not too sure how she’s going to fare against GDR. Her only real way of winning is to wrestle, and Pena is a fairly adept wrestler and that’s all she will have against GDR. Will she land takedowns? Maybe, maybe not, but ultimately this comes down to the barebones, basics of MMA matchups, a striker versus a grappler, and I wholeheartedly believe that GDR will absolutely outstrike Pena. De Randamie via KO R3 Co-Main Event Heavyweight Yorgan De Castro (6-1-0, NS) v Carlos Felipe (8-1-0, NS) - I don’t know why this is the Co-Main and the previous one isn’t. De Castro is a very one dimensional fighter, and has only one decent thing going for him, and that’s his power, other than that he’s not exactly a well rounded Martial Artist, he’s just a big boy with big hands that land hard. His performance against Greg Hardy was very questionable, he didn’t retaliate after round 2, he kinda just froze and didn’t do anything, and whilst Hardy is indeed a powerful brawler, De Castro had the slight edge in technique, yet still didn’t do much. That makes me question his abilities coming into this bout. Now, i’m not saying he’s gonna freeze against Felipe, but if he does then that’s just not a great look for him. His only highlight was that knockout against Tafa, and that was a year ago. It would have been incredible to see him knock out Hardy but it just didn’t happen. Felipe had a relatively rough debut against Spivak a couple of months ago, and it was clear to me that he needed to work on his ground game, he didn’t even show any defences or know-how to defend said takedowns… I get it, Spivak is a really good grappler, but he should have come in more prepared. Felipe is very similar to Yorgan De Castro in terms of fighting style, they’re both powerful punches, so I fully expect them to clash many times in the Octagon, I don’t expect either fighter to show off style or flair when they strike, it’s going to be a bar brawl, and frankly I don’t know who is going to win. I’m leaning on Felipe, but for no particular reason, it’s literally a coin toss in my opinion. I could be wrong and according to Tapology, i’ll be a part of the 12% who think Felipe is going to win. So be it, bet based on your own thoughts on this one haha. Felipe via KO R2 Main Event Women’s Bantamweight Holly Holm (#2) (13-5-0, NS) v Irene Aldana (#3) (12-5-0, 2 FWS) - I swear to fucking god, if Dana White, or any MMA Media pundit or even the promo’s say “She knocked out Ronda Rousey” I’m gonna fucking scream. Holm has lost all 5 fights in the UFC, Tate, Shevchenko, GDR, Cyborg and Nunes, all of them are, and were champs. Holm had her time in the limelight, and since her fight against Rousey, she has been the UFC’s super star in WMMA, but it’s clear to me that she’s no longer in her prime. Holm is an excellent kickboxer and has a great cardio, she’s built for a 5 round fight, and numerous times, she’s gone all 5 rounds, and despite her losses, she’s always shown heart and the ability to just keep moving and keep fighting, she’s never looked defeated mentally, she’s never given in to pressure, but she has lost some dominating fights, almost all of them were championship fights, and I don’t know what the UFC is planning for her after this, if she wins, she fights Nunes, then loses again. With that said though, I don’t think she’s winning this one. It’s time for the younger generation to step up and take the throne. Aldana is one of the toughest and most talented fighters who hasn’t fought for the belt yet, With 6.16 strikes landed per minute on average, she has become one of the most dominant strikers to step up to the occasion and her rise to the title has been nothing short of beautiful. The combo’s and pressure she puts on her opponent is dangerous and something you really need to see. In almost all of her fights, she has thrown 200+ strikes, not necessarily landing them all, but just imagine that amount of pressure coming at you for three, long, gruelling rounds. That would break any opponent, and I feel like Holm will be on the receiving end of said pressure. See, holm is great at distance and when she’s in control of the striking exchanges, but Aldana is great everywhere, she adjusts to the range, changes up angles and just goes crazy. It’s truly a beautiful thing to see and I can’t wait to see it this weekend. I got Aldana on this one. Aldana via KO R4 And that's it! Thank you for reading, i sincerely apologise if it's not my best work, there's just, not a lot going on in this card. If you would like to follow me on twitter, you can find me @Slayer_Tip or if you want, add me on discord and we can have a super friendly chat about all things MMA: Slayertip#7013 With that said and done, I hope everyone has a beautiful week, take care of yourselves, feel free to start a conversation down below, i'm more than happy to have a chat! Take care and much love. o/
Going through old issues of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and posting highlights in my own words. For anyone interested, I highly recommend signing up for the actual site at f4wonline and checking out the full archives. PREVIOUSLY:
In a shocking turn of events, NWA-TNA announced last week that Vince Russo was joining the promotion, less than 3 weeks after he returned to WWE. Russo's return to WWE was announced as joining the company as part of the creative team on 6/20, but after his first creative meeting, he was demoted to consultant and was paid $1,000 a week to sit at home and send in written critiques of the weekly TV shows. Russo didn't have a contract and it's no secret that his return was deeply unpopular in the locker room and even more unpopular in the office among those who still resent him for how he left in 1999. Russo has told friends that he feels like WWE is a mess and it won't change because Vince McMahon won't remove Stephanie McMahon from her position as head writer. Russo recently sold his record store in Atlanta and was planning to move back up north (he never liked living in the south, but moved there when he went to WCW) but he hasn't moved yet. According to TNA sources, Russo will essentially help with production and writing of the shows. TNA is way understaffed when it comes to people with experience producing live shows like this. Russo was introduced to the staff on 7/9 and, much like in WWE, there were a lot of unhappy people who weren't the least bit happy to see him. He's not exactly the most well-liked guy in the business. But he's still good friends with Jeff Jarrett and Russo had already been contributing ideas and storylines for this company before the brief WWE return anyway. At the time, Russo's involvement was being kept secret because of his lawsuit with Hulk Hogan. AOL/Time Warner was representing him (since the incident happened in WCW). They only agreed to represent him as long as he didn't go work for another wrestling promotion. When the WWE offer came along, Russo managed to get AOL/Time Warner to drop that stipulation, which allowed him to go work for WWE. And now, subsequently, TNA. The lawsuit with Hogan is still ongoing and AOL/Time Warner's lawyers are still repping Russo.
Kevin Nash will be out of action for god knows how long after tearing his left quad in a match on Raw. It was Nash's first match back since suffering a bicep tear back in March. After tagging in, he tore his quad on the first move. It's the same injury Triple H suffered that kept him out for over 7 months and there's no way that Nash—who's 10 years older than Triple H—is about to put himself through the same grueling rehab that Triple H did. Triple H moved to Birmingham and lived there 24/7 doing Dr. James Andrews full-time rehab program. Nash has kids and a family and shit, he's probably not moving to Birmingham so he can do rehab 3 times a day. Dave suspects this is gonna take a bit longer for Nash (ended up being around 9 months). The injury occurred in a 10-man tag match that Nash wasn't even scheduled for until he found out the day of the show. Nash's original return to the ring was supposed to be on house shows later that week. The match was planned and designed to get Nash over as a huge monster and build him into one of the top 5 or so major main event stars in the company, because the plan was to do Nash vs. Triple H at Summerslam in one of the top matches (with Rock/Brock and Hogan/Vince penciled in as the other top matches). But as soon as Nash tagged in, he kicked Booker T, but then tripped over him when trying to step over Booker and collapsed, grabbing his thigh and screaming in pain. The match fell apart and nobody knew what to do until Shawn Michaels (not even in the match, just outside the ring) took charge and started telling guys what to do and calling spots. He improvised a superkick on Booker T and told Big Show to chokeslam him to finish it. The next day, Nash underwent surgery from Dr. James Andrews, who has done several previous surgeries on Nash (knee, bicep, elbow, and more). All in all, not a bump gone wrong or anything, just a freak accident.
Bret Hart has written a new column in the Calgary Sun, his first since suffering his recent stroke. Dave copies and pastes the whole column here, but I'll just cliff notes it: Bret is doing as well as can be expected. Made a stupid mistake by bike riding without a helmet because he'd been too lazy to fix the broken chin-strap. Hit a pothole, crashed his bicycle, hit his head, believes he suffered a stroke on impact. Was unable to move the left side of his body. Used his cell phone to call for help. Thanks fans, doctors, nurses, wife, kids, family, friends, etc. for being there for him. Promises he'll recover. Dave says Bret's progress has been slow but steady over the past week. He can take small steps with help but is mostly still confined to a bed and wheelchair and is only just now getting feeling back in his left leg. He's spending his time doing therapy and working on his autobiography which is apparently already 960 pages deep and he's only up to the late-80s so far. Doctors were surprised Bret was able to work on his book since they expected him to have memory issues or problems writing due to the stroke, but he has neither. Dave says Bret has talked about dividing the book up into 3 parts and releasing them that way due to the length (it only ended up being around 600 pages so he must have had a merciless editor).
WWE reached an out-of-court settlement this week with the Parents Television Council which will award WWE $3.5 million and a public apology from the PTC, as well as a promise that they will leave WWE alone. As part of the settlement, PTC agreed to never have any involvement with WWE business in the future, to never urge boycotts of WWE or of WWE sponsors. PTC head L. Brent Bozell had to issue a public apology to the WWE and Vince McMahon and the apology must be posted on the PTC's website home page for 6 months. They also must remove all other content from its website relating to WWE, its advertisers, or the accusations that WWE held any responsibility in the deaths of several children. Also, if WWE decides to make him do so, they can request Bozell meet with WWE advertisers personally to further explain his apology, and he'll be required to do it. Long story short: the PTC got absolutely fucking SPANKED here. The PTC will not be paying the settlement out of pocket, it will be paid by insurance, which is the only thing that is allowing them to even stay in business because without them, that $3.5 million would have killed the organization. The case was expected to go to trial in September and WWE was seeking $55 million in damages. And they likely would have won easily, so the PTC didn't have much of a choice here. They had to settle.
In addition to the above, attorney Jim Lewis (who represented Lionell Tate, one of the kids who was convicted of murdering a young girl) must also publicly apologize for claiming that Tate's actions were inspired by what he saw watching wrestling. Dave recaps the history of the PTC going after WWF at the height of its Attitude Era success, crusading against WWF by targeting their sponsors. At first, the PTC made some valid points about some of the extremely questionable content WWF was producing. Problem is, then they started outright lying and their claims got more and more outlandish, and Bozell turned it into a personal mission to take down Vince McMahon and the WWE, to the point that they crossed over into libel and defamation. They also used fake and misleading statistics when pressuring sponsors. All of this led to WWE taking them to court and mollywhopping dat ass. (I've actually done a lot of research on this WWE/PTC case for some other thing I'm writing and it's a really fun case to read about. WWE's past is pretty indefensible sometimes, but Bozell was out of his mind obsessed with destroying them. He's a hardcore right-wing conservative and his battle with WWE was literally a moral and religious crusade to him. To this day, I bet it eats Bozell alive that he got owned so thoroughly and had to release such a humbling apology. And oh, bet your ass, we're about to read that apology):
Bozell's and PTC's public apology on their website reads the following:
`Media Research Center (MRC), Parents Television Council (PTC), Dr. Delores Tucker, Mark Honig and I have in the past made statements regarding so-called wrestling deaths — children killed by other children alleged to be mimicking “professional wrestling” moves they saw on television. We made such statements to members of MRC and PTC, the media, advertisers on World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) SmackDown! program, retailers that sell WWE-related toys and merchandise, public officials and the public. MRC and PTC also produced a videotape as part of a fundraising campaign in connection with its “National Campaign to Clean Up TV Now!”, which advanced the notion that the murder of Tiffany Eunick was caused by the influence of professional wrestling on Lionel Tate. The videotape included interviews with Lionel Tate’s lawyer advancing the notion that the murder of Tiffany Eunick, the victim, was directly caused by the impact that professional wrestling had on Lionel Tate. We based our statements on media reports and source information. We now believe, based on extensive investigation and facts which have come to light since making those statements that it was wrong for MRC, PTC, their spokespersons and myself to have said anything that could be construed as blaming WWE or any of its programs for the deaths of the children. Simply put, it was premature to reach that conclusion when we did, and there is now ample evidence to show that conclusion was incorrect. I now believe that professional wrestling played no role in the murder of Tiffany Eunick, which was a part of our “Clean Up TV Now!” campaign and am equally convinced that it was incorrect and wrong to have blamed WWE or any of its programs for the deaths of the other children. Because of our statements, PTC, MRC and the WWE have been in litigation since November 2000. WWE vigorously advanced its position that neither it, nor “professional wrestling” led to these deaths. WWE also contended that MRC, PTC, their spokespersons and I had misrepresented the number of advertisers who withdrew support from WWE’s SmackDown! television program after receiving communications from the PTC, some of which regrettably connected the WWE and SmackDown! to the deaths of children. As such, WWE exercised its right to initiate this litigation, during which facts came to light that prompted me to make this statement. By this retraction, I want to be clear that WWE was correct in pointing out that various statements made by MRC, PTC and me were inaccurate concerning the identity and number of WWE SmackDown! advertisers who withdrew support from the program. Many of the companies we stated had “withdrawn” or pulled their support had never, in fact, advertised on SmackDown! nor had any plan to advertise on SmackDown! Again, we regret this error and retract any such misleading statements. Finally, concerning the statements about child wrestling deaths, it was wrong to have stated or implied that WWE or any of its programs caused these tragic deaths. Specifically concerning the Lionel Tate case, recent developments lead us to believe that others and we were given, and relied upon, false information provided by parties close to the case. The information that we were given and relied upon may have been designed to make a national example of the Florida murder trial, pinning the blame on WWE. For example, we were told by a source that Lionel Tate was watching a WWE program when he assaulted Tiffany Eunick. In fact, Lionel Tate was watching the “Flintstones” and a cartoon entitled “Cow and Chicken.” We were also told, by a source, that Lionel Tate killed Tiffany Eunick while executing a wrestling move unique to a WWE character called the “Stone Cold Stunner”. We have since learned that this was not true, nor was there any evidence that it was true. It is now well documented that after the Tate trial concluded, the presiding Judge said it was “inconceivable” that Tiffany Eunick’s injuries were caused by Lionel Tate mimicking wrestling moves. Indeed, since the trial ended, Lionel Tate’s new lawyers have filed court papers in which they admit that the “wrestling defense” was, in their words, “bogus.” Given these facts, WWE was within its rights to be angry at the MRC, PTC, their spokespersons and I for contacting WWE’s advertisers to go beyond complaining about WWE content but passing along accusations which we now know were false. Because I feel a simple retraction is not sufficient, I have personally extended my apology to Vince McMahon and the WWE on behalf of MRC, PTC, Dr. Tucker, Mr. Honig and me. Through this letter, I now make this apology public and specifically directed to the advertising community that has in the past, is currently or may in the future consider advertising or sponsoring WWE programming. The PTC can have its concern with the content of WWE’s television programming – though these concerns have been reduced significantly over the past years as a reflection of WWE’s changed standards. But nowhere in that debate, including in the correspondence and statements to the advertising community, should there have been any discussion of “wrestling” deaths. I regret this happening. It wasn’t fair to WWE. And I say this emphatically: Please disregard what others and we have said in the past about the Florida “wrestling” death. Neither “wrestling” in general, nor WWE specifically, had anything to do with it. Of that I am certain.’
PRIDE and K-1 announced their plans to put on the biggest event in MMA history, with a joint show in August, with hopes to draw 100,000 people to the Tokyo National Soccer Stadium. The original plan was for the show to take place on Aug. 29th, but they changed it to the 28th to avoid going head-to-head with a major NJPW show at Buddokan Hall which would have drawn many of the same fans they're trying to get. However, this is during monsoon season in Japan and it's an outdoor stadium, so just in case, they've got the stadium on reserve for several days in the event the scheduled date gets rained out. Here's the problem: this stadium only holds 60,000 for soccer games, so even if you add ground seating, realistically, you can only pack probably 80,000 at most. So the claim that they're going to draw 100,000 fans is "just as legitimate as the 93,173 number that WWE uses for its record." Dave notes that the real record for biggest paid attendance for a wrestling show is Summerslam 92 with the Hart/Bulldog match drawing 78,927 confirmed paid. But whatever. The plan for this show is for it to be an 8-9 match card, with every fight being dream matches featuring big name fighters. Rules for each fight will be unique and it will air on prime time TV in Japan. The main event will be Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Mirko Cro Cop, plus Dave breaks down a bunch of other planned or rumored match-ups.
Dave looks at some business numbers and it ain't good news. Just to give one example, WWE's average attendance-per-show was 4,711 during the month of June, which is the lowest month for attendance since Feb. 1997. And most of the tickets for those shows were sold before Austin walked out. So once fans realize that Austin really is gone (at least for now) and not coming back anytime soon, the coming months could look even more dire for ticket sales.
AAA's Triplemania X event took place last week (again) and ended with Octagon unmasking Pentagon in a mask vs. mask match. I only mention this because there have been lots of "Pentagon" characters over the years in AAA and later the indies in Mexico, portrayed by different people. But this match ended up being the last time the Pentagon gimmick would be used in AAA for the next decade.....until AEW star Pentagon Jr. began using the gimmick in 2012.
Keiji Muto is apparently trying to shorten what's left of his career by being a complete madman. Muto is already beyond banged up, with knees that should have retired him years ago. He has no business working a full schedule at this stage in his career, but he's AJPW's biggest star and best draw, so he is continuing to work every show. But now he's taking it a step further. Muto will be working 3 separate matches in one night for AJPW's upcoming Budokan Hall show. He's doing the Mick Foley gimmick, where he will wrestle under a different gimmick for each match. He'll be wrestling as Muto, Great Muta, and Kokushi Muso (the gimmick he uses only when he teams with Hakushi and paints his body in similar fashion). So yeah.
Vader was arrested in his hometown of Boulder, CO earlier this month for allegedly spitting at a police officer, threatening the officers with rocks, resisting arrest, drinking and driving, careless driving, and leaving the scene of an accident. It ended up taking 8 officers and 2 police dogs on the scene before Vader agreed to be arrested peacefully, and they used multiple sets of handcuffs. It started when Vader crashed his van into some bushes, but then backed out, left the scene, and drove home (about a block away). Police came to his home and found Vader severely intoxicated and barely able to stand. At some point, Vader told the police, "I will and can kick all of your asses! Let's fight!" The police brought in the police dogs, but Vader still wouldn't back down and threatened to kill the dogs if they came at him. Then he picked up rocks and threatened to throw them and spit at one of the cops, but missed. The other cops showed up and they eventually calmed him down and arrested him. According to records, Vader has 2 prior DUI arrests in Boulder. This all occurred just days before he was scheduled to leave for Japan for the latest NOAH tour but he still went and is over there working shows now.
Kenta Kobashi finally made his real in-ring return after more than a year out of action (aside from the one comeback match where he re-injured himself for 4 more months). Kobashi has been told in no uncertain terms that one more knee injury and he's done for good. Dave figures that knee injury is inevitable. Kobashi is working opening matches all week, teaming with the rookies and doing hot tag spots for now.
Former IWGP champion Kazuyuki Fujita is scheduled to make his return to NJPW next week after being out of action the past 7 months with a torn Achilles that caused him to vacate the IWGP title. He's going to continue doing shoot fights as well.
Manami Toyota, arguably (is it even arguable) the greatest female wrestler of all time, announced she is leaving All Japan Women and jumping ship to Gaea. Toyota has spent her entire 15 year career working for AJW so this is a surprise and a pretty big blow to AJW.
Jesse Ventura was rushed to the hospital this week with a blood clot in his lung after complaining of chest pains. He's now in stable condition, on blood thinners, and should be okay. Ventura has a history of blood clots and a pulmonary embolism in 1984 took him out of action right before he was about to start a lengthy (and surely lucrative) feud with Hulk Hogan. He eventually returned and wrestled for another year, mostly in tag teams and such, before retiring due to the health issues.
Dave has some anecdotal evidence of how TNA's viewership numbers are going and it ain't pretty. Between week 1 and week 2, there was a full 50% drop in responses to the reader poll Dave put out on the show. That was to be expected. But the drop from Week 2 to Week 3 was another 41% drop from that. So we're only a few weeks in and it appears this company is already hemorrhaging viewers. Internally, TNA is basically flaunting the preliminary numbers they got from the PPV providers that show they're doing big buyrates. Dave feels sorry for them because he's been following the PPV industry since it began and the preliminary numbers from the providers are ALWAYS wrong and ALWAYS substantially higher than what the real number ends up being. Dave basically says TNA is getting excited over fake numbers and if they're basing their future on what they expect to pull in financially, they're going to be VERY disappointed a few months from now when the real numbers are revealed and those PPV checks end up being way less than they're expecting. TNA's weekly production costs are around $200,000, which means they need at least 50,000 buys per week just to break even on the production costs (and that's not counting all the other costs like paying the wrestlers, advertising, etc. that I'm sure they'd like to have some extra money for). So we're only a few weeks in and, yet again, this whole project still does not seem sustainable.
Notes from TNA Weekly PPV: this was by far the weakest of the 3 shows so far. Dave thinks they're trying too hard to copy much of WWE's formula, rather than focusing on what makes them different or what they can do better. They were in Nashville this week, with about 2,000 fans (1,100 paid, the rest freebies). There's a lot of young talent here and they have potential, but so many of them aren't ready for the national stage and it showed. They did almost nothing to promote or build for next week's show, which is a killer when you're depending on people to pay for it every week. Dave thinks it felt like an episode of WCW Thunder. More production mistakes (wrong names on the screen during introductions, etc.). They announced Japanese wrestler Takao Omori and Christopher Daniels will be there next week, but made no effort to educate fans on who those people are or why anyone should care. Monty Brown made his debut and Dave is impressed, since he looks good, was athletic, and has some good mic skills and he thinks TNA did a better job of debuting and protecting him than WWE usually does with new guys. Another angle with NASCAR driver Hermie Sadler and it sucked, leading Dave to joke that Sterling Martin carried their tag team last time. 6 matches into the show and Dave says not a single one of them has even reached the 1-star mark. Thankfully, AJ Styles and David Young saved the show with a 2.25 star classic. Brian Christopher turned heel on Scott Hall, leading Hall to do a stretcher job in what was a pretty good angle but, ya know....it's Jarrett and Brian Christopher.
Various other TNA news and notes: they've been taking out radio ads to promote the shows, with the tagline, "If you're tired of that other wrestling..." Dave is flabbergasted that TNA brought Jackie Fargo in for the debut shows (in Huntsville, where he wasn't really a big name) but didn't use him at all in Nashville this week, since he's the biggest drawing star in the city's history. Vince Russo and Disco Inferno were backstage at the show. TNA's new backstage interviewer Goldylocks was in the Los Angeles airport during the shooting there last week that left 2 people dead and several others injured. She was even interviewed by the local news about it.
More fun political games in WWE. Paul Heyman and Pat Patterson came up with an angle to continue John Cena's momentum following his debut match with Kurt Angle, in which Cena would slap Vince McMahon in the face and then have a match with Jericho in which he would almost win and Jericho would have to cheat to get the pin. You know, make him look strong in defeat kinda thing, same as the Angle match. Well, Triple H apparently went to Vince and convinced him to nix the angle, saying nobody should be laying hands on Vince right now since they're building to Hogan vs. Vince at Summerslam. This turned into a major issue backstage because most of the locker room doesn't like the "NWO group" (basically, Nash, X-Pac, Shawn Michaels, and Triple H, even though he's not part of the group on TV). The usual Kliq stuff. Some of the wrestlers said that everyone can see that Cena has major star potential and they feel like Triple H cutting him off at the knees like this is more about protecting his own spot. They compromised and had Cena slap Jericho instead (Dave says it was a hell of a slap, and on his podcast, Bruce Prichard has told this story. Apparently Jericho insisted that Cena really lay in the slap to make it look good. And so Cena damn near killed him). Patterson in particular was furious that his idea got scrapped and told everyone who would listen about it, feeling the original angle would have gotten people talking about Cena (something they haven't been able to do with any of the other news guys) and felt the compromise angle didn't really have the same effect. Dave notes there's been a lot of resentment towards Nash and Michaels because they're getting some of the biggest pushes in the company right now despite not working full-time like everyone else. And Triple H is going to always be a target of it because of his real-life relationship with Stephanie McMahon. And, of course, X-Pac is basically protected by all his friends and has gotten out of doing multiple jobs in recent weeks when Nash or Michaels complained on his behalf. For what it's worth though, Hulk Hogan is said to be the total opposite, doing exactly what is asked of him and working as hard as he's capable of doing, has had no problem doing jobs or putting anyone over, and is pretty much avoiding all this Kliq drama. So at least one of these guys is redeeming their reputation here a little (just don't turn any hidden cameras on when he's having a conversation).
Chris Jericho has agreed to a new WWE deal, but hasn't yet signed the contract and is actually working without one at the moment. His previous deal expired a week or two ago and he's been hammering out details with WWE ever since. With declining business and no real competition to use as leverage, Jericho's negotiating power was obviously not great. But he is one of the company's key guys and word is Jericho considers the offer "fair, under the circumstances." So probably not as good as he was hoping, but that's what happens when you work for a monopoly.
Notes from Raw: "one of those nights best left forgotten," Dave says, as WWE's 2002 continues to suck. Booker T cut a promo challenging the NWO, but Eddie Guerrero answered the challenge instead, "I guess since they could get him to do a job on TV without complaining," Dave quips. And indeed, Booker won. Chris Benoit was embroiled in the beginnings of an angle with Austin and Flair, but when Austin left, everything got changed, and now Benoit is feuding with Bubba Ray Dudley, which is quite the demotion. Shawn Michaels cut a promo talking about the Kliq days, full of insider references that were lost on most of the crowd and it was so quiet that you could even hear one heckler yell, "Get to the point!" Dave doesn't understand why they're fondly reminiscing about a time that was by far the darkest, lowest period in the last 30 years of the business, but whatever. William Regal lost to Jeff Hardy, leading Dave to wonder whatever happened to the Regal/Molly Holly storyline that has seemingly been dropped with no explanation. And, of course, the Kevin Nash injury to end the show.
Oh yeah....and then there's this. Raw also featured a match with Trish Stratus & Bradshaw vs. Chris Nowinski & Jackie Gayda, which Dave calls "the longest 3:14 in pro wrestling history." Basically every spot that Gayda and Stratus did was completely blown, some so badly that Dave can't even figure out what they were trying to do. Nowinski and Bradshaw brawled into the crowd. "I think they were running out as fast as they could to preserve whatever reputation they have left." Jim Ross on commentary used the dreaded "bowling shoe ugly" phrase which is JR Code for "holy shit this is a bad match." The ending was completely botched but this time, Gayda at least had the sense to realize that they botched the finish so bad that she probably shouldn't eat a pin from it, so she tried to kick out instead. But Trish and the referee didn't get the memo and so the ref counted the 3 anyway, which made the whole thing look even worse. Crowd booed this like crazy and Dave says it was clear to everybody that Gayda has no business on Raw yet, she's still waaaaaaay too green (If you haven't seen it, this match is legendarily bad and is widely known simply as "That Jackie Gayda Match."
Notes from Smackdown: on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, this was a great show. Lillian Garcia singing "America the Beautiful" was interrupted by Team Canada, who got the most heel heat Dave has seen anywhere in wrestling in a long time. They're trying to redo the 1997 Hart Foundation/Canada angle, except this time, it's Christian, Test, and Lance Storm. Whether it will be successful or not depends on who the babyface is. In 1997, it was Steve Austin. If they pick Rikishi or somebody here in 2002, it's not gonna get over near as big. Batista working tag matches is the best thing for him, because he's looking a lot better lately while being able to hide his weaknesses. The Cena/Jericho angle was good (though probably not as good as the original idea would have been). During the Billy and Chuck segment, Chuck had a line about being tired from walking all day on Sunday. The joke wasn't explained, so if you didn't get it: that recent Sunday was the day of a lot of major national gay pride parades in major cities around the country. And Hogan and Edge won the tag titles in a fun match that the crowd was nuclear hot for.
Chris Benoit didn't do any actual matches in developmental before his return, he was just there training and taking bumps, so the matches he's been doing on TV the last week or two really were his first actual matches since the neck surgery. Benoit is said to be in less pain than he expected to be and is hopeful to get back to his old self.
Dave saw a recent picture of Rey Mysterio and he's worried. Mysterio has bulked up waaaaay too much for his frame. Dave compares him to The Patriot, another masked wrestler who's career was pretty much ended due to repeated muscle tears from being too steroided up. With Mysterio's size, there's zero reason or advantage to him being so muscular and it's only going to increase his risk of getting injured, especially when he starts working that 200-dates-per-year WWE schedule (yeah, this proved to be pretty accurate. Despite the success he had during that time, the next decade or so of Mysterio's career is pretty much injury after injury after injury).
Latest on Goldberg is that he has no plans to do anything in wrestling until later this year, if at all. Dave thinks that's smart, since WWE business looks like it's going to keep plummeting, at which time they'll be even more desperate for him to come in. Dave thinks Goldberg could probably command a pretty large offer to come in around the beginning of 2003 and build to a big Wrestlemania match (close, but not quite what happens).
Various WWE notes: Triple H has been out of action since King of the Ring after getting elbow surgery. He's been back in Birmingham again, doing 24/7 rehab. Stephanie McMahon hasn't been working in the WWE offices for the last few weeks because she's been with him. Stacy Keibler asked for time off because she's burned out and was replaced with Dawn Marie for all her scheduled bra and panties matches on house shows this week.
During the Sunday Night Heat/Raw tapings, someone held up a sign that said "Big Show is not over" when Big Show was out during Heat. Show saw the sign, flipped the guy off, and pointed it out to security. They tried to get the sign but I guess the guy holding it ran away and actually escaped them. Later during the night, when Big Show was out again (this time on Raw), the sign got held up again. Show once again saw it, once again pointed it out to security, and this time, they jumped the rail and caught the guy and took his sign. Imagine being that sensitive.
NEXT WEDNESDAY:Eric Bischoff debuts in WWE, X-Pac suspended, more on Russo in TNA, and more...
[Online Poker] Poker Forum Help Homeless Player Attempt The Shot of a Lifetime.
Link to Previous Tales From 2+2:Poker player steals $1m+ chips and tries to sell it on 2+2 poker forums More Tales From 2+2: A Very Controversial $70k prop betIf you or a friend are familiar with online poker and want to see the unedited version of this post then click here Here's another Tales From 2+2 post, this one is a bit longer but well worth the read. It follows the story of an online poker player posting on the 2+2 online poker forums and that takes him on the ride of a lifetime. I have made some light edits so it's easier to understand for non poker players, my explanations are within [these brackets]. If you want to understand how to play the poker watch this 3 minute how to play poker video.
Still Booming
The year is 2010. The effects of the 2003 poker boom are still being felt and Black Friday [Black Friday is when online poker was forced to shut down in the USA, it hit the industry hard] is a year away. Americans, Europeans, Australians and almost the whole world are playing side by side on Pokerstars and Full Tilt [The two biggest online sites at the time]. Hundreds of people are signing up for poker sites each day. Tournament guarantees are at an all-time high. Poker sites’ pockets are overflowing and sites are offering generous bonuses and promotions. Poker TV is popular worldwide and Poker After Dark just entered its 6th season. The 2+2 poker forums are in full swing, it’s the epicenter of poker communication. Dozens of threads are made on popular subforums like NVG (News, Views and Gossip) or BBV (Beats, Brags and Variance) every day. BBV is a subforum of 2+2 where the moderation is far laxer than the rest of the 2+2. People often create posts showing off their tournament wins or lamenting huge downswings. After the initial post is made, the trolls would descend and replies like this were often seen:
Colin_Piddle: Ur a clown OP Tank Home & Away: Somebody call Donald Trump. OP thinks online poker is rigged. FranFran: Shut up. Idiot. Dave Coulier: LOLLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL OLLOLOLOLOLOLOL
The BBV Post
On 20th Feb 2010 Jared Huggins, posting under RelaxedPrecision, visits BBV to vent his frustration over busting his meager roll playing 100nl HU:
RelaxedPrecision: Beat: HU vs drooler, lost my $100 bankroll ($100 table obv.) He raised preflop every single hand including out of position. Called 75% of my three bets with trash. Only pot bet, regardless of board, his holdings, or position. He is -$1132 in 2000 hands, -33/bb 100 We played 250 hands. This guy was a corpse and I ran so cold it was insane. Only hitting any pair or a decent draw a couple of times. Twilight zone. Brag: Not homeless again till the end of the month. Getting a third job today. This week I've begged for food at fast food joints and have scored two steak tacos and 1 piece of chicken.
[Jared is complaining that he lost the last of his poker bankroll, $100] The usual procedure in BBV is for the BBV regulars to berate the original poster, usually in meme form. Jared’s thread is no exception:
Sobad87: FAIIIIIIL, homeless shelters exist for a reason. SmilingOrange: rock bottom itt Sump: in b4 homeless
However, the thread takes a darker turn when Jared starts to post more details about his living and financial situation.
RelaxedPrecision: I'm 5 peanuts and 2 cups of water into my day. Finding some awesome links about food for broke people in LA. RelaxedPrecision: Last time round, 6 month period, I chose cruising the back streets near my job/sleeping in car, rather than driving hours per day to/from shelter and risking jail/car impoundaments/belongings confiscated.
Jared seems to be not only in dire poverty but also grinding microstakes [microstakes in poker is buying in for $2-10 dollars] for any cash he can get. He posts that the roll he lost was from a referral payment on a poker website but he cant’t withdraw it. The posters start to get a little more sympathetic:
FastPlaySlow: Wow. I feel bad for ya OP. Kidlover: Keep your head up bro. Gimme a call if you want
A user named Airwave16 offers helps in his own way:
airwave16: create youtube vid of you dancing to around the world by daft punk in your boxers with a large sign that says "i love burningbend" and i'll ship you $30
Within 40 minutes Jared accepts this:
RelaxedPrecision: Never thought I'd do something like this, but I don't have much choice. RelaxedPrecision: Don't want to go back to living in my car. Last month some guys tried to break into my car while I was inside of it. Terrible experience.
The next day, to the surprise of many he posts a video on Youtube of him around his room, just as Airwave16 asked. Unfortunately the video is lost to time but this small photo of the video remains. 2+2 posters start to show more compassion when they see how desperate Jared is for money:
mcfals02: Hilarious video. Hope you run good at life soon OP. shikari424: If you've got a ftp [Full Tilt Poker,] account i'll ship something over bro[money could be sent between accounts], made me laugh
Ccuster_911 then offers a little more money for another challenge:
Ccuster_911 : Make a video of you going outside on the streets in LA offering people free HUGs(holding a sign ldo), I will ship you 30$, I want at least 10 random people being hugged
Others start to offer extra money to shoot this video:
cds0699: I'll chip in $10 for this. Greeson08: $20 more here...$30 more if you paint yourself green before doing the hug thing.
Jared is very thankful for the support and lets his fellow posters know:
RelaxedPrecision: I'm really overwhelmed and surprised. Thank you guys so much, you have no idea how good it feels that people on 2+2 would reach out to me like this. I'm totally blown away. Thank you so much. This is one of the best things that has happened to me in a very long time. Talked to the lady who rented me this room for 2 weeks. I got 5 days left here, then I'm back living in my car. I am going to do everything in my power to get back on my feet. I am so close. Every suggestion, I will do. I'll dance for penny. I'll come to your house and clean your toilet. That's where my mind is at
A user asks for him to take a photo with ‘Free Pageh’ on his head, he posts this
swd805: that pic is disturbing RelaxedPrecision: Mission accomplished.
Jared gives an insight into his mood while performing these tasks
RelaxedPrecision: Please do laugh at me. I laugh at myself as much as possible. I cried twice. 1st when Airwave propositioned me and I felt different inside, like "time to get desperate man". It was a nasty feeling. 2nd time I cried, when I finished the video & began to ask myself whether or not I would do various things for $ & heard some of the answers in my head. Both times I fought the tears back & realized I got no choice, need the $. So let's get some more ideas & keep this ball rolling. You guys are helping me, thank you
He also gives insight into his poor mental state and reveals that a 2+2 poster gave him a small stake [someone will send Jared money to play and Jared will split the profits]:
RelaxedPrecision: My friend (who's house I crashed at) is a pro MMA fighter , he lets me attend his MMA/BJJ class once a week. At class today, he yelled at me for doing a takedown wrong. I had a meltdown & broke down in tears in front of the class cuz I've barely eaten in 6 days. Shed 12 pounds this week. Just real drained. Prop update: Got staked to play $5 Sit n Go's [a one table tournament] on FTP. 5 hours of play, up a few bucks. 4 days till I'm homeless again.
Jared tells a story and hatches a plan while working at his new job:
RelaxedPrecision: Today, this big husky girl with linebacker shoulders came in2 my job today to buy shoes...size 11. She looks exactly like a man. She had this big lady with her who told me the size 11 girl liked me. So I gave her my digits. I hope she calls me soon. If she calls me I'm going to try & seduce her & go live with her. Wherever she lives, I'm sure there's plenty of food.
Over the next few hundred posts the mood of the thread becomes caring and many people are asking Jared about his current lifestyle. He tells the thread about his struggles with permanent housing, a bad back, hunger and employment. He posts photos of his car (where he sleeps) and a video of him dancing at work. Jared reveals intimate parts of himself and his passion for writing and music. He also posts that he has encountered problems with substance abuse and has been sober for a while. The trickle of small donations from posters becomes a steady flow:
JeReMyHaSSpoKen: pm me western union or paypal And ill ship you some cash Greeson08: Jared, hit me up on Skype. Sending $11.11 via FTP.
A month after Jared creates the BBV thread, March 9th, Jared posts the long awaited video of him hugging strangers that Ccuster_911 requested. Luckily, the video is still on YouTube. Here is the link. At this point he fittingly reveals his name is Jared Huggins and his nickname in school was Huggy. His fans love the video and let him know:
Doomriders: amazing nice job brothaa cds0699: Very amazing vid and I wish you nothing but the best Talking Poker: Video is awesome. Thread is awesome. You are awesome.
And he really enjoyed the experience:
RelaxedPrecision: I was surprised by the number of people who literally RAN into my arms. It was a day & an experience that I will never forget. If you enjoy the video half as much as I enjoyed making it, I'll be happy.
He tells 2+2 more about his life:
RelaxedPrecision: You guys reaching out to me is very much appreciated. I've had my fair share of obstacles in life. Born in a crack house, father died when I was 9, mother is an alcoholic, one brother a heroine addict, the other a crack dealer who was beaten and left for dead and never fully recovered his mind. Last year ran bad at life...lost my job, ripped my meniscus in two places, had a terrible reaction to prescription stress meds..etc etc. I ended up living in my calosing contact with my family... cuz my cousin is hooked on muscle relaxers & vicodin and it hurts too much to watch people I love hurt themselves.We all have challenges, and obstacles. Life is tough for everybody. I'm healthy, normal, moving in a positive direction
Jared’s birthday comes on the 12th of March and many posters wish him a happy birthday. At this point the donations from 2+2 posters continue and totals $1k. A few weeks later and Jared posts an amusing and NSFW story about living in a car. It’s long and not essential to the story so I won’t quote it. Read it here. Jared thanks the community again:
RelaxedPrecision: I've never had people care about me like this before, let alone strangers. From the bottom of my heart I would like to thank all of you.
The Big Game
Poker TV was very popular in 2010. The WSOP and other TV shows were broadcast across America and other countries. Pokersites were very keen on poker advertising appearing on TV, it was a very effective way to promote online poker sites. Full Tilt sponsored and regularly advertised on Poker After Dark. Full Tilt is even included in the show's title, which for a time prompted players associated with Pokerstars to stop appearing on the show. Pokerstars did not have as big a presence on TV as Full Tilt and they wanted to change that. How better than creating their own show? They would be able to have a majority of Pokerstars pros on TV and have players wearing their advertising patches. Thus, Pokerstars created The Big Game. The Big Game was a televised cash game [a cash game is different to a tournament, the players' chips represent cash explained more here] with a novel concept: each episode featured a loose cannon. The loose cannon is a recreational player, who is given $100k to play 150 hands of high stakes poker. The loose cannon gets to keep any profits from their session and the biggest winner from the season also gets $50k in NAPT tournament entrance costs. Any Pokerstars player is welcome to try to become the Loose Cannon. The line ups consisted of some popular pros who have a lively table presence like Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth and Tony G. It also had some of the strongest players of the time like Ike Haxton and Phil Galfond. Joe Stapleton made his debut on the show as an announcer. He who would go on to do a great deal of poker commentating over the next decade. Each episode aired on The Fox Network and Pokerstars.tv. In the same BBV thread Jared started, one of the posters has a bright idea:
MasterWolf: I think you should apply to be a Loose Cannon on the Big Game. I know you'd get tons of 2+2 support, plus, you are awesome at making videos.
One of the Jared’s strongest supporters on 2+2 takes a keen interest in this idea:
John_Wray: THIS! Is this something we can make happen? I don't know anything about the process.
Others agree:
Rusemandingo: Would be amazing. AyinHara: for the producers of the Big Game, this is an easy one. snap it up! King Fish: PokerStars Steve was looking for 2p2 recommendations awhile ago. I sent him a text nominating OP but have not heard back. I suggest all of you PM him, and point him to this thread. Would make a much better story than anyone on here, and he has the video to back up both the story and personality already shot.
But how can Jared apply to go on The Big Game? Pokerstars run several tournament qualifiers for The Big Game on Pokerstars. These are details taken from The Big Game website:
There are free-to-enter Big Game Round 1 satellites running four times a day. Finish in the top 300 and you’ll advance to Round 2. Make it into the top 1,000 in a Round 2 tournament and you’ll get a seat in the Big Game Final Round qualifier. All players that finish in the top 200 in the final will be invited to send PokerStars a casting video, telling us why you think you should be on TV’s best new cash game show. Impress us with your video and you’ll be heading off to Las Vegas to star on the show as a Loose Cannon qualifier. Once the video is posted, people will vote on the their favourite video.
The freerolls are popular and attract about 5000 people for each round 1 freeroll. Jared would need to finish in the top 6% of the round 1 freeroll then he’ll be in the round 2 freeroll, he would need to finish in the top 15% to qualify for round 3. In round 3, only 200 qualify to make a video. The round 2 and 3 qualifier only ran once a week so Jared had a limited amount of attempts. John_Wray starts a new thread in support of Jared being considered to be a loose cannon on The Big Game. Within 24 hours the thread has over 400 posts, most of them people putting down their support for Jared to be on The Big Game. Boosted J hears of Jared’s story and posts in the petition thread. Boosted J is the screen name of Justin Smith, a skilled professional player. Boosted J offers Jared a potential job, poker coaching and access to his private mental coach. Boosted J would go on to get Jared in a Dr Dre video as an extra. At this point RelaxedPrecision is one year sober and life is looking good for him. He posts a video rapping about overcoming life’s obstacles. Daniel Negreanu notices and tweets about his rap:
RealKidPoker: Homeless guy Jared Huggins rapping about being sober 1 year, powerful lyrics. Guy has an amazing story to tell.
John_Wray reports that Jared has already started playing the freeroll qualifiers [a freeroll is a free to enter tournament]:
John_Wray: Jared's in a hotel tonight grinding the freerolls .
Jared is ready to play all four round 1 qualifiers on days he had free:
RelaxedPrecision: Going to grind as many of these things as humanly possible. RelaxedPrecision: I got out my schedule for the month, there will be for sure be days coming up where I will play all 4 first round games.
Support pours in:
CrazyNL: awsome man gl NomoneyHU: I'd like to wish you good luck man , i'm currently watching your video. Happy that things is going your way from now! I hope that you do qualify for the PS Big Game and ship all the manies. Sump: I hope you win this and double up on Big Game, ship the NAPT Passport
People start to watch him play and offer him advice. Jared found the journey hard at times:
RelaxedPrecision: Watched guys ship all in preflop with 72o for 4 hours straight. I get an above average stack, get it in with 10 10, run it smack dab into KK. And encountered his fair share of bad beats: RelaxedPrecision: Survive that, get it in with. 58 on a 8s7h6d flop vs Js7s, turn and river are spades, and it's time for a cold shower. lol
[Here he is saying that he feels the other players in the tournament are not playing well but he feels when he played well he felt he was unlucky] Jared starts a new day of round 1 qualifiers, ready to play all 4.
RelaxedPrecision: Fresh day of freerolls starts in 20 minutes. Playing more aggressive today. Feeling optimistic.
He starts playing a round 1 tournament qualifier and is doing well. He’s getting closer:
pokernutssss: 322/379! 79 to go GL jared John_Wray: just fold into the win now. you've got enough chips
Until:
MicroRoller: Congrats! 1 down 2 to go. RelaxedPrecision: YEEEEEEEEEEHAW!!! Feels good to be out of round 1. Just gotta find a way to run good [getting lucky]!
The next day, Jared enters round 2 and plays this hand in the middle stages:
Poker Stars Freeroll No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t500/t1000 Blinds + t250 - 9 players BSKid (BTN): t47500 M = 12.67 bones_522004 (SB): t119200 M = 31.79 tanwaruw (BB): t59200 M = 15.79 carlo 1959 (UTG): t1500 M = 0.40 mydream4u (UTG+1): t16200 M = 4.32 berdootim (UTG+2): t47150 M = 12.57 dickblow (MP1): t1750 M = 0.47 Life Guru (MP2): t42350 M = 11.29 Jared Huggins (CO:) with 6s6c : t9300 M = 2.48 Pre Flop: (t3750) 4 folds, Life Guru raises to t2000, Jared Huggins raises to t9050 all in, 3 folds, Life Guru calls t7050 Flop: (t21850) TcQh7s (2 players - 1 is all in) Turn: (t21850) Jh (2 players - 1 is all in) River: (t21850)Jd (2 players - 1 is all in)
Final Pot: t21850 Life Guru shows 8dAc (a pair of Jacks) Jared Huggins shows 6s6c (two pair, Jacks and Sixes) Jared Huggins wins t21850 [Jared plays well and wins]
RelaxedPrecision: **** yeah
But then falls:
John_Wray: ugh. You played great though.
After Jared asks about poker training sites, Taylor Caby pops into the thread to offer Jared membership to his training site: CardRunners:
Green Plastic: Hey Jared, if you'd like to try out CardRunners for free shoot me a PM, I'll have someone set you up over there.
After making a few deep runs in the round 1 tournaments, Jared has several round 2 tickets and is putting his newly found membership to good use:
RelaxedPrecision: Won 3/4 round 1 tournaments today. Now I have four round 2 Tokens saved. Watching Cardrunner.com videos all day tommorrow, and grinding more freerolls
A few days later and Jared makes the final round of freerolls:
Amnestia: gg, jared, good luck in round 3 Isitdur?: It would be the sickest rags to riches story ever if you got on The Big Game, Jared. I really hope you do it. Good luck in Round 3 I will be railing along with all of your other supporters!
Jared registers and plays a round three qualifier tournament and encounters this hand:
Preflop: Jared Huggins in MP1 with AcKc UTG bets t1200, Jared Huggins raises to t3000, 1 fold, MP2 calls t3000, MP3 calls t3000, 4 folds, UTG calls t1800 Flop: (t14250) 3c6sKs (4 players) UTG checks, Jared Huggins bets t10000, MP2 calls t10000, MP3 calls t1950 (All-In), 1 fold Turn: (t36200) Ac (3 players, 1 all-in) Jared Huggins bets t25000, MP2 raises to t26050 (All-In), Jared Huggins calls t1050 River: (t88300) 4d (3 players, 2 all-in) Total pot: t88300 Results: Jared Huggins shows AcKc (two pair, Aces and Kings). MP2 shows Js9s (flush, Ace high). MP3 shows KdTs (one pair, Kings). Outcome: MP2 won t88300 [Jared plays well but get unlucky in a large pot and is out of this round 2 tournament]
Jared is out and continues to grind the qualifying tournaments. A week later and he registers for a round three freeroll and is going deep. A fan posts his position:
MasterWolf: Current Stats: 81,262 chips. avg: 142,959. position 247 / 348. Top 200 get in
Jared gets closer…
MasterWolf: 44 left. he's got 7th shortest stack in tourney. BUT HE CAN DO IT! Go Jared!!
Jared gets increasingly close but is very shortstacked [doesn't have many chips]: The railbirds [players who watch online poker] watch on:
__27__: Never been so happy railing [watching] a freeroll, this is some crazy ****.
Hard bubble and the tournament goes hand for hand [this means there is only 1 player left to go out, when they do all remaining players qualify for the video round]:
MasterWolf: 1 person left
Jared posts. He has qualified!
RelaxedPrecision: I can't believe this is actually happening.
Jared has done it. With the full support of his fan base Jared is one big step closer to getting onto The Big Game. The posters go crazy in his sweat thread and dozens of people congratulate him. Afterwards, Pokerstatic interview Jared and he opens up about his difficult upbringing and life. Link to summary here. Jared is very popular on 2+2 and has a keen fan base but not everyone likes the attention and donations Jared is getting. Later on a Jared opposition thread would be created. Here’s an example of opposition towards Jared:
Lchampag: Its just the way everyone here is completely giving this story all their faith. Just reminds me of those old people that get scammed is all. I work in the coal mining industry. Pay starts out at around $20/h for the first six months(for"red hats") and then goes to around 25 after that for a general laborer. There are men hired at my mines everyday, come and get a freaking job! I guess this work is too hard for those that would just rather get handouts...
Some people were upset he was getting so much in donations. In 2010 he received $6k from 2+2 members. Jared’s fans respond with posts like this:
Srkbigdaddy: i dont know why people would bother posting in a thread that actually has a ton of heart with their snide and rude remarks. obviously its okay to post your feelings but if they are not gonna help the situation then they are pointless. you are basically just stepping on someone who is down
John Wray gives an update on Jared and his health:
John Wray: Jared is seeing his therapist again, and has just moved into a new place. He's very happy with it as it is within his price range and his landlord is a former deacon. They plan to attend services together on Sundays. His bad back is still a big problem, one that needs to be addressed immediately.
Grayson Physioc also known as Spacegravy on 2+2 is a SNG [Sit 'n' Go, a one table tournament] crusher who fought his way from from microstakes to highstakes [A common story for skilled players to deposit $100 on a pokersite, fight their way up the ranks and turn it into millions]. He arrives in the thread and offers to fly Jared to Maimi and coach him, Jared flies out and posts this from Miami:
RelaxedPrecision: Spacegravy flew me out here to Miami to learn Sit N Go's, I'm totally blown away! He is an A+ human being! Haven't gone to the beach, haven't gone sight-seeing, haven't gone anywhere, just straight up grinding poker. Grinding as much as possible!
While in Miami, Jared’s mind is on making the best video he can to ensure he gets onto The Big Game. John_Wray helped, by the 28th of October it is finished and posted. Jared’s Big Game Audition Tape November the first rolls by and the audition tapes of all the qualifiers are uploaded and ready to be voted on. Jared is looking good and is in second place with 1.1k votes. 2nd November and Jared returns from Miami. He’s up $800 on SNGs from his time playing and getting mentored by SpaceGravy. The weeks pass by. People can vote on one video per day so Jared’s fans are visiting and voting as much as they can:
8Nilor: Voting everyday btw. and got others to also.
The thread builds with excitement. With so many fans in the poker world Jared is sure to be selected to go on The Big Game. In December, Jared posts that all is going well with him. He has two jobs and a room to stay in. Jared gives a few updates:
RelaxedPrecision: When I'm not at work, I am working on my game everyday, grinding 50NL 6 max deep on Stars, going over hand histories, and getting coaching when I can.
[50nl deep is a type of poker played with 6 maximum players on the table buying in for $50-100] 2011 begins. In January the voting closes and Jared can only wait. And then the news that Jared and many 2+2 posters have been waiting for is here. Jared notices an email from Pokerstars. He reads the news from Pokerstars about The Big Game. He receives the results and rushes to 2+2 to share the news:
RelaxedPrecision: I got an email from PokerStars informing me that I was not selected to compete as a Loose Cannon on next season’s PokerStars Big Game. I wasn’t given any specific reason why I wasn’t selected, but I was thanked for trying out. TwoPlusTwo.com, thank all of you for supporting me and showing me love. To be loved was a dream come true for me. I'm convinced that love cures most illness.
Jared was not successful. It's crushing news to the community. All their efforts spent helping Jared onto The Big Game was for nothing. The community reply to the news:
AlienSpaceBat: Wow, Jared, I'm really sorry to hear this Isitdur?: So bummed to hear this news, Jared. 2ndUnit: I am very, very disappointed of this decision by PS. Don't let it bring you down Jared, keep going.
A few weeks pass and there’s not much news from Jared. He settles back into working and improving his situation.
It’s all over
Jared had not made the cut for The Big Game. But it’s not all bad. Jared is in a much better position than he was a year ago. He has a roof over his head and steady employment. The past year was a crazy ride for him and he’s made many friends from 2+2. His poker skill is improving and he has top players coaching him. But no one predicted what would happen next month. In the middle of February 2011, a Pokerstars representative dropped into 2+2 to post unbelievable news:
PokerstarsSteve: The seven Loose Cannons scheduled for the July 2011 showing of The PokerStars.net Big Game are: Gonzales Cannon II - Sacramento, CA Courtney Gee - Vancouver BC Jared Huggins - Los Angeles, CA Massimiliano Martinez - Rome, Italy Cari Bershell - Las Vegas, NV Kenneth Hrankowski - Vancouver BC Anton Dunyushkin - Moscow, Russia
Jared Huggins is confirmed to appear on The Big Game Season 2. This is shocking to the community because there was no knowledge on 2+2 that he was even considered for season 2. The community erupts:
ak47: YESSSSSSSSSSSSS! ROADHEAD: WOW NO WAY, WHAT THE HECK JUST HAPPENED!! MrPowell222: WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO! TayWolf55: GO GO GO GO GO Jared!
Almost exactly a year after living in his car and making his BBV thread he has the shot of a lifetime for fame and fortune. But first, Jared needs to prepare for the biggest shot of his life. Jared dedicates four months to preparation for going on The Big Game. He plays as much online cash game poker as he can. He has access to a training site and receives free coaching from top pros. To simulate The Big Game he plays 50,000 hands of 6max deep online [6max deep is the poker format played on The Big Game] and even plays tough opponents who would drop down in stakes to play with him. In 2011 he makes three trips from LA to Las Vegas to practice and get used to live play. He practices chip handling, breathing and getting comfortable going from online to live. He reads Caro’s Books of Tells and would sit at the lowest stakes while studying every player closely. He never parties on these trips, just play and study. He watches all 72 episodes of The Big Game Season 1 and analyzes every hand. While watching he would have seen Season 1’s biggest winner, Bob Ferdinand, win $181,500 and $50k in NAPT tournament entries. In this time Jared remakes his Free Hugs video and once again, wanders LA shores with a sign and offers free hugs to the public. Jared uses some of the money from this video and donates $1k to charity. Reshot video here The line up for The Big Game is announced: Seat 1: Jared Huggins Seat 2: Nick Cassavetes – A recreational player. Cassavetes works in the film industry. Seat 3: Barry Greenstein – Poker legend known for his Philanthropy Seat 4: Vanessa Selbst – An aggressive and skilled player. Won NAPT Mohegan Sun Main Event back to back. Seat 5: Antonio Esfandiari – An accomplished player who would go on to win The Big Drop for $18m next year. Seat 6: Prahlad Friedman – An experienced cash game player. Played under Spirit Rock and used to crush online games Reserve: Phil Lakk - An entertaining professional player. There are certainly some tough opponents on this table. Fortunately, Jared has a recreational player on his left [at the poker table players on the left are more likely to apply pressure than players on the right. Because Cassavetes is a recreational player he should be applying less pressure on Jared than a pro]. The community reacts:
blackjacki2: hard lineup J0hny: Best of luck to you !
Then the day of filming arrives. Jared drives to Las Vegas to play in the biggest cash game of his life. He’s had months of training for this one moment. Hundreds of people on 2+2 are following his progress and Jared will soon be broadcast across the USA playing with seasoned professionals.
Now, the story is almost at an end. You have three options on how to consume the finale:
You can watch all four episodes of The Big Game to see what happens, links below. When you are finished watching, click the spoiler box below and read the end of the story.
If you don’t want to watch all 4 episodes then I’ve posted some timestamped links of Jared’s biggest hands, I’ve linked one hand per episode. There are 12 minutes of clips. When you are finished watching, click the spoiler box below and read the end of the story.
If you don’t want to watch any Big Game then click the spoiler box below and read on. [If you want to watch some of The Big Game it may be a good idea to watch this video I linked in the introduction again]
Jared did not end up profiting on the episode. He played until hand 126 of 150 when he ran his QQ into Cassavetes’ KK. Jared doesn’t hit and is off The Big Game.[KK is the second best hand in poker and QQ is the third best, so it was unlucky for Jared to get QQ and another player has KK. However, Jared was playing poorly and too passively in other hands in the episodes] Posts from 2+2 were mixed, many posts in the thread were not kind towards his play. The community criticized some of the hands he played:
Jazzed23: the dude played like crap. No 3 betting, no bluffing, no floating and turn barrelling. he was playing scared and tight. Blew away $25k just by folding. cobrastatus: How could this guy... get so much free coaching... and be so terrible... trip_kings12: what a waste of a week for this show. Jared, the loose cannon, was almost unbearable to watch. I doubt I've ever seen a tighter, more scared loose cannon in all my years in poker.
[The posters here are saying that he was playing poorly and passively] One fan posts this:
LolDonkamentz: I'll admit I was kind of disappointed with the result of this. I enjoyed all the build up and was really excited for this to be the climax of the Jared Huggins saga but it wasn't to be. His awkwardness at the table combined with his below average performance made for bad television
And Jared replied:
RelaxedPrecision: To you and others Donkamentz, sorry if I wasn't able to do my part to entertain you. It's a big show with lots of people on it, so I don't feel solely responsible for your entertainment, any more than I feel responsible for not hitting a huge hand. Thank you for caring about how I did.
Most of the posts were neutral or negative but there were still some positive posts:
kevmode: Gl to you in the future Jared. You are a nice guy, just block out the negative and think positive.
So, what happened to Jared after The Big Game? After The Big Game, Jared stopped posting so much in 2+2 and he slowly faded from posters’ minds. Shortly after The Big Game, he posted a post show reflection where he thanked the community, he spoke of how he enjoyed playing with the pros and his heartbreak after busting. He wished he had talked more and played some hands differently. He finishes with a final thought:
RelaxedPrecision: I'm happy and grateful for what this journey has been. I made some amazing friendships, saw amazing places, and had my dreams come true. I had amazing experiences, that I will never in my life forget, memories that I will always look back upon with a smile.
In 2012 he posted this post where he shared his battles with health conditions and how he still plays poker. In 2016 he posted this in a thread about poker in developing countries. He wrote about living in China for 9 months.
BJJ and complexitity - why i dont believe you should say any martial art it's "harder" or "better" or "easier to learn"
So another user made up a post about judo being harder to learn than bjj, and i was going to repply but it got too long so i decided to make a post of my own explaining my thoughts on the subject. I ve discussed this a topic many times with multiple people and while i do enjoy a good argument, it's not something so simple to put into words. I'll try to be as brief as i can and as always thanks for reading. Some of the basic arguments:
it's much harder to submit someone than to take them down
jiu jitsu has far more options and it's far more complex than judo or wrestling
this complexity isnt necessarily good . It does bring it's own problems and it's directly tied to the rules of competition
So let's start with number 1. To submit someone you need : a) To take them down ,pass the guard, control the position and then go for the finish. b) To pulll guard correctly, control the position and THEN get the submission. c)To pull guard correctly, sweep and then work from the top until you get the finish. d) Do a flying a submission which also requires athleticism e) Do leg locks which have a huge amount of details. There are some submissions like wristlocks and chokes from the front headlock that kinda break these rules. The front headlock is a position very common in wrestling as well and it's not that easy to learn. The guillotine (any type) also has it's own details, while wristlocks arent a very high percentage move, so it's not very reliable. So my point is that the amount of KNOWLEDGE require in submissions in general is much higher. The biggest proof can be seen in MMA, where athletes who dedicate their lives to fighting have a very hard time getting submissions.We see far more takedowns and failed submissiions attempts. Even from top bjj guys miss basic things like armbars from the mount. If we're talking about people with no knowledge of fighting in general, then it becomes even easier to take them down, since regular people have poor balance. Not so much for submissions. I'm sure you've experienced the frustration of trying to submit someone who had far less experience than you , and you still missed it.It's hard , especialy if they are heavier than you. Let's go for number 2 now Compare the turle position, which is common in all three sports. What can a wrestler or a judo guy do? Compare that to the possibilities available in bjj. I know the rules play a big role in this. The goals in each sport are very different and that obviously has a huge impact. Why would a wrestler want to learn how to attack with their backs against the mat if that position isnt allowed in their sport? Likewise, wrestlers dont care about exposing their necks in the turtle position,mostly because of the rules. A judo guy on the other hand can just close himself completely and just wait,since in judo they dont have too much time to work on the ground. For a bjj guy that position can be a nightmare to escape depending on who's attacking. But then again, talk about that with Eduardo Teles and you'll see a whole different perspective on the subject. Again- i know this is directly related to the rules and goals of each sport. My point is not that wrestling or judo are inferior because they have less details .They might have more details in some other situations where a bjj guy might not be so familiar with. But the fact remains In BJJ we need to deal with a 100% of the human body. And i'm not just talking about leg locks No other martial art puts so much emphasis on attacking ( and therefore defending) the back.Meaning , in bjj we have to work with front and back of the human body. We might be able to avoid learning takedownds in IBJJF by pulling guard, but not so much in ADCC where it is not allowed. Generally speaking i think everyone would agree that learning the stand up would be very useful for a bjj guy. Not so much the reverse. Again- why would a wrestler learn how to play guard? Almost every (if not all) of wrestling and judo moves are applicable in bjj but the reverse is not true. For wrestling, the guard is useless and for judo is very hard to pull it off due to time constraints. We also need to learn how to deal with all available postures. The fight starts on the feet just like judo or wrestling, but then it moves to the ground where your opponent might be sitting (buttefly, sit up guard), laying on his back (closed/open guard), on his side ( half guard) or even upside down posture (berimbolo and tornado guard). etc. So you need to learn how to deal with different postures that simply do not exist on wrestling or judo. You might not be the biggest fan of attacking from these positions and you dont need to USE them yourself, but you do need to learn how to DEFEND it. Same thing for the back and side control. Bottom line is : we have FAR MORE things to learn than wrestlers and judo guys. Now here comes number 3 i've been trying to argue that BJJ is more COMPLEX than judo or wrestling, NOT BETTER. I dont believe that. Complexity brings it's own problems. One of the issues in bjj is that is much easier to lie to yourself and stay lazy. The guard has a very seductive nature. It's easy to stay on the guard and stall, while expending no energy at all. How many times you've seen a guy that is out of shape, plays half guard and passes with over under? That guy probaly wouldnt last 2 min in a wrestling or hardcore judo training session. So it's easier for an out of shape guy to do well in bjj. And he might think "man, i'm so technical". Well, that's up for debate. Other people might say he's just lazy. I myself have experienced some drawbacks from the complexity. I was playing too lose with my white belt students, switiching from one guard to another. "Flowing" It was good for them since they had a better chance of getting something and moving. And it was good for me since i could stay more relaxed and avoid injuries. I still had other classes to teach after that anyway. But when i went against other black belts i was having problems. I realized i was being too laidback. You cannot play as loosely against a black belt. I had to be more agressive and spend more energy. I believe jiu jitsu guys have a lot to learn from wrestlers when it comes to beast mode. Grinding, pushing through the pain, imposing your will on your opponent these are all valuable things that wrestlers and judo guy excel. THEY HAVE TO. It's in the nature of their sport. They have to fully commit to the thrown, otherwise it wont work. THEY HAVE to use more power and i don't think this is necessarily a bad thing. However one thing that i think most wrestlers (and many bjj practitioners themselves ) dont appreciate about bjj is the level of nuance required to master A SINGLE submission, let alone the sport as whole. How long it takes for you to be REALLY sucessfull with a move in BJJ? You see, someone who trains jiu jitsu like a wrestler is usualy looked down on. Not because bjj guys are pussies and cant handle tough training, but because these people are usually blue belts who lack the finesse to fully control your opponent and get things done without too much power. We admire black belts who can pass the guard without pushing too hard,beause that shows that they fully understand our sport and are able to neutralize things with posture, balance, grip fighting and get what they want without getting too tired. Beasts in bjj dont really look like beasts. Think of technical guys like Roger and Lucas Lepri. There were not very explosive or fast in their movements at least compared to other high level wrestlers and judo guys , and their physiques were not as muscular as some other high level athletes. But that's because they didnt need to. It's precisely because bjj has more options that people with unimpressive bodies can still compete To me comparing takedowns in general (wrestling, judo) x guard playing and ground work (bjj) it's like comparing the 100m dash vs a marathon. You can be the fastest man alive, with a very impressive body. Do you think Usain bolt could actually finish a marathon?Let alone win? Now consider the reverse. I bet there are many kids who can run faster than most marathon runners , because that the sport they have trained. Now in the other post, some guy was saying something like. "you go to bjj class, you learn an armbar, you can shown it to your friends. But if you go to judo, you can't do the same for a thrown". Well that's a very common mistake i've seen many students make. They confuse knowledge with information i can watch a muay thai video right now and "teach" someone how to thrown a punch or a kick. Does that make me a muay thai fighter? Does that mean that muay thai is "easier to learn" than judo? Well, you can say a punch is more "intuitive" than a takedown, i agree with that, but it's not "easier" . You can certainly show an armbar to your friends but what about the things i've said before? All the implicit knowledge require to fully understand and execute the submission? You are also showing the armbar from the mount arent you? That's how usualy people get taught. But the fight doesnt start on the mount. That's why i mentioned all the implicit knowledge. Even if the fight did start from the mount. How many times have we've seen people even in MMA missing the armbar? It's not that easy to DO IT .And it's not that hard to defend the armbar either, all you need to do is connect your hands.I'm sure you've experience the situation of missing the armbar against a beginner who was bigger than you.Breaking the grips of someone stronger than you isnt that easy. So the real question is ; CAN YOU EXECUTE this armbar on someone who KNOWS how to defend it? If you can't, then i'm sorry, you dont know it. There's no merit in defeating someone who has no skills. As a black belt , would anyone here give me congrats if i won the world championship of the white belt division? We want to compare ourselves with people with skills, that's the proof we need to know that we ourselves have skills. Giving people information isnt the same as showing or having skills. So i'm sorry, i find this argument to make no sense at all.Maybe you can explain it a little better on the comments. I think overall there's no reason to compare STYLES, only PEOPLE. There are some judo guys like Teddy Riner that could kill me easily . I'd rather fight a bear than Alexander Karelin and i dont think i can submit him with anything. However, does anyone here has any doubts that Rafa Mendes would destroy the average judo guy?How many wrestlers alive could pass his guard? I can keep going with this comparisons and finding "oh this judo guy would destroy this bjj guy " , but then "well Buchecha would defeat everyone in that division" and so on. That's fine. It makes sense to compare PEOPLE, but overall i dont think one martial art is BETTER since you can always find another guy that beat your guy. As for complexity, like i said, i think BJJ is "harder" to learn . It's much more complicated. However wrestling and judo might be "harder" to execute, and require more repetitions, PRECISELY because there's less details to learn. I put the quotes because i'm not sure these words are very useful, but i cant find any other way to express this. You might say "judo requires more precision" , but i believe this is in part because in bjj we have more options. If i fail at a triangle, i can still go for the omoplata, an armbar etc. At the very least i might be able to reset get back to full guard or even a sweep. But if i fail at a uchi mata, what else can i do? Im not saying it's impossible to comeback or to connect techniques in judo/wrestling, but i believe "flowing" in bjj is easier. That has it's own advatanges and disadvantages. Again- i dont think one is BETTER than the other, But they certainly are different. Jiu jitsu has more options to attack and control, and that makes you save energy when you actually know how use them properly. But it also requires more knowledge and time for you to master not only the attacks but the defense and transitions as well. And then when you finally learn it, people looking from the outside will think BJJ doesnt require so much energy since you can be more relaxed and still be pretty effective. Of course, there are exceptions. Not every bjj sparring session is going to look like yoga. Go for an Atos competition training session to see it . Not all judo/wrestling training sessions are going to look like deathmatches either. I understand that, i'm just saying that in general, in bjj we CAN be more relaxed and still be very effective even against people who knows how to defend things, by chaining submissions and sweeps together. Not so much for takedowns. If someone has a proper defense, i'll have to use more power. It's not possible to do a "gentle" takedown AGAINST SOMEONE WHO KNOWS HOW TO DEFEND IT . This an important thing to emphasize, because if someone doesnt know how to defend things, then yeah, you can always do it gently ,save energy etc regardless of the move you're using. This is the trade-off that i've been trying to argue so far. In the end, It will be up to the individual to decide if something is easier FOR HIM Learning the double leg wasnt nearly as hard for me as the triangle. I'm not a tall guy so changing levels and getting to the legs are not very difficult things to do for me. On the other hand, learning the triangle was a nightmare precisely because i have short legs, which are not very useful to finish people with this choke. Each person has not only a different body type, diferent schedules and backgrounds but also different personalities which all come into play when you're learning how to fight. You might think jiu jitsu is easier to learn after you've done x amout of years in judo . But who's to say if you had done the other way around you wouldn't find the opposite ? I know a lot of black belts in judo that say that bjj is harder for them, especially the guard. Learning one thing helps you learn another, so maybe BJJ was easier for you because you had already developed some basic skills and work ethic in some other sport. So these are some of my thoughts I think i'll extend this post to talk about that old debate "what martial art is better for street fights" and so on. Let me know what you think in the comments thanks again for reading. .
Going through old issues of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and posting highlights in my own words. For anyone interested, I highly recommend signing up for the actual site at f4wonline and checking out the full archives. PREVIOUSLY:
NOTE:Sorry about no post on Friday. Real life shit got in the way.
WWF finally took the plunge and went through with the long-rumored brand split this week, all while Steve Austin was sitting at home. Austin walked out after Wrestlemania and didn't appear on TV this week for the draft. He was expected to be the #1 pick fro Raw, so they changed the angle and explained that he couldn't be drafted due to a contract situation. Austin still has a year left on his WWF deal, so he can't go anywhere, but he isn't hurting for money so he can sit at home and be just fine. Austin's issues date back a couple of months and he was vocally unhappy about working with Scott Hall and the NWO in general. Morale in the company has sank since those guys came in, got main event spots, and started getting everything they wanted creatively and professionally. Some in the locker room see Austin's walkout as him protesting the state of the company, with an unhappy locker room that no longer has any leverage since all the other companies are dead, and Austin is the one guy with enough "fuck you" clout that he can stand up to Vince. Most of the wrestlers are said to be on his side, though the NWO guys and Triple H and co. obviously don't feel the same. But it goes back further than that. Austin was telling people 6 months ago that he would go home if the job stopped being fun.
Anyway, Dave breaks down the rosters of each show. Triple H and Jazz (men and women's champs) will float between both shows and work about half the house shows for each brand. Raw gets the IC, Euro, and Hardcore champions. Smackdown gets tag titles and cruiserweights. Several notable names were undrafted. Rhyno, Mike Awesome, Steve Blackman, and Chris Kanyon are all injured and weren't placed anywhere. Developmental names like Randy Orton and Ron Waterman are expected to be called up soon, among others. If Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio are brought in, they'll likely be on SD with the cruiserweight division (Dave says Guerrero canceled his NJPW bookings for April which is a pretty solid sign that he'll be returning soon). Many of the lower-card wrestlers had no idea where they were going to end up and had to log on to wwf.com later that night to legitimately find out their futures. Tag teams like the Dudleyz and the APA were split up in the draft. Dave can't see the logic in splitting the Dudleyz and hopes it's the beginning of an angle that eventually reunites them. As for the APA, that's fine. Faarooq's career is winding down anyway and they've been talking about pushing Bradshaw as a single's star for over a year.
Raw is missing its top draw (Austin) and is pretty weak overall. Lumbering giants like Undertaker, Kevin Nash, and Big Show all ended up on Raw so don't expect a lot of great matches coming out of that brand. Plus they drafted Brock Lesnar to that brand, so his impressive size isn't going to stand out as much among those guys. With the cruiserweight division, plus guys like Jericho, Benoit, and Angle, you can bet Smackdown is going to have the better matches. Plus they have The Rock and Hogan for star power. But much like Raw, Smackdown might be in danger of not having its top draw either. Rock is expected to be gone for much of the summer to film another movie and he's continuing to get more and more movie offers, which means more time away from wrestling. And Hogan can't be a long-term weekly top draw anymore, no matter how much nostalgia popularity he has right now. Which means it's vital that they finally commit to pushing Angle, Jericho, and Benoit as real top stars.
Dave reviews the latest UFC show, with Josh Barnett winning the heavyweight title from Randy Couture in an upset. Long detailed recap full of the usual news and stuff, but it's MMA sooooo...
And the next story is about Cael Sanderson of Iowa State becoming, record-wise, the single greatest collegiate wrestler in U.S. history by winning his 4th NCAA championship and ending his college record at 159-0. So MMA and college wrestling. On to the next...
AJPW notes: after long negotiations, AJPW failed to secure a new TV deal. The normal TV season in Japan is starting next week and they were hoping to have a deal signed by now, but no luck. Also, they're interested in bringing in Super Crazy for their junior heavyweight division but it'll likely depend on whether he gets an offer from WWF instead (neither happens right now. He spends the next 2 years bouncing around NJPW, CMLL, and Zero-1 before he finally ends up in WWE in 2005).
Already halfway through the issue and past the major stories. This seems like a slow issue wrestling-wise, but the UFC and Cael Sanderson stories were both big chunks so....sorry this one kinda blows.
NOAH junior champion Naomichi Marufuji dislocated his knee when landing wrong on a moonsault and had to be stretchered out at a recent show. No word on how long he'll be out of action for (must have been a pretty bad injury. Looks like he comes back 2 weeks later, wrestles a match to drop the title, and then is out of action for the next 10 months).
Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Masahiro Chono won the vacant tag team titles at the latest NJPW show, beating Nagata and Manabu Nakanishi in a tournament final match. The titles were, of course, vacated when Keiji Muto jumped ship to AJPW, leaving his partner Taiyo Kea and the belts behind. Nagata ate the pin here. And in fact, Nagata also recently did several submission jobs to Tadao Yasuda at some shows and Dave jokes that Nagata is getting the Chris Jericho push. You know, beat him to death for months on end until the fans see him as a midcarder, then put the title on him with almost no build-up, and then wonder why he's not over and blame him when business is down (indeed, Nagata wins the IWGP title just a week or two after this and even though he holds it for 13 months, business goes in the toilet. And it's through no fault of Nagata's).
Antonio Inoki announced that he is bringing in Chyna to the NJPW 30th anniversary show at the Tokyo Dome in May. Remember a week or so ago when Inoki talked about how successful WWF's recent show in Japan was and admitted that maybe he has some stuff to learn from it? This is it. Inoki realized the huge popularity WWF has in Japan right now and reached out to one of their biggest stars of the last few years to bring in as a celebrity guest. The idea they teased in the press is that she would come in and work a match and probably defeat one of NJPW's lower card guys, which Dave thinks would be a horrible idea (yeah, that would suck. Better idea: how about she goes over Yuji Nagata and Jushin Liger in her first match, how's that sound Dave? Because that's exactly what we get. Fuckin' Inoki, man...)
NJPW's latest show in Tokyo did a disappointing attendance number and Dave says that's what happens when you make Tadao Yasuda your world champion. No matter how much publicity he got off his upset MMA victory a few months ago, and no matter how nice his underdog comeback story is, he flat out sucks as a pro wrestler and the crowd sees it and don't buy him as champion. Even worse, they had him go over Tenzan by submission. With NJPW's depleted roster, Tenzan is one of the only cool, not-washed-up wrestlers they have left. Anyway, this sets up a Yasuda match with Nagata at the next show in Tokyo and if NJPW has any smarts at all, they'll get that belt off him and onto Nagata ASAP (they do, thankfully).
Bobby Heenan is currently recovering from surgery to remove his lymph nodes. following his recent cancer diagnosis and is said to be in good spirits.
Various notes: Goldberg filmed an episode of the HBO show Arli$$ recently. Ken Patera did an interview and said the strongest men in wrestling from his era were Andre The Giant, Bruno Sammartino, Ivan Putski, Billy Graham, and Tony Atlas, in that order, and praised Bruno for being extra impressive because he never used steroids. Shane Douglas' Time Warner contract is expiring in a few weeks and it's rumored he'll be working with XPW as a wrestlebooker.
Jerry Jarrett's new promotion is expected to start in June and there continue to be rumors that Vince Russo will be ghost-writing the show. Dave says the differences between a Russo show and a Jarrett show should be pretty glaringly obvious within the first few minutes of the first show, so we'll just have to wait and see (I don't know if he was involved in the very first shows or not, but he joins the company within the first month).
Remember the WCW KISS Demon? Well his real name is Dale Torborg and he now works as a coach for the Florida Marlins baseball team (his father Jeff is the manager of the team). Anyway, Torborg recently got into a confrontation with relief pitcher Antonio Alfonseca that is rumored to have gotten physical and resulted in Alfonseca locking himself in a trainer's office to get away. Everyone on the team is being hush-hush about the incident. Alfonseca apparently has a bit of a reputation of being hard to deal with, but since the incident, he's allegedly been on his best behavior because apparently the KISS Demon put the fear of god in him (here's a news article from it at the time. Alfonseca ends up being traded to a new team a few days later, although the Marlins denied this incident had anything to do with it).
Ring of Honor has announced some new rules for its promotion. For starters, they're bringing back tag ropes (yeah, during this era, that was a small thing that sorta just got ignored by everyone for years). They're also not doing any count-outs. ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky said that outside-the-ring counts always go really slow and referees have to stall or find excuses to break the count and no one likes count-out finishes anyway, so why even have them? So now, you can fight on the floor all you want. Dave says AJPW pretty much did the same thing in the 90s. ROH also wants to have very little outside interference or ref bumps and clean finishes.
Apparently, Jake Roberts is being investigated in England by the RSPCA for animal cruelty. After a recent show there, someone complained that he was being cruel to his snake at the show. The next night, the RSPCA sent an agent to another show Jake was working to watch and they weren't happy with what they saw either, so they've opened an investigation (yeah, as a kid, this was of course the coolest thing ever. But as an adult, I hate watching the way animals have been used in wrestling over the years. Jake used to just throw that snake around like it was nothing, fling it across the ring, people would fall on it, land on it, step on it, whatever. Remember the scene where Jake locked Ultimate Warrior in a room full of snakes? Go back and watch it now, Warrior is just kicking the shit out of these poor little snakes. Or another example, I remember watching a British Bulldogs match a few months ago and they had Matilda the bulldog jump off the ring apron to the mat below. That's a 3-4 foot jump. As someone who has owned bulldogs, that is terrible for their spines. As a kid, all this stuff was whatever. But as an animal-loving adult, watching all that old footage now makes me real uncomfortable).
An indie promotion in Pittsburg called IWC had a tournament called the Super Indy Tournament featuring Chris Hero, Christopher Daniels, Low-Ki, Colt Cabana, and some kid named CM Punk.
Early estimates for the WWA PPV in Las Vegas are around 31,000 PPV buys. Keep in mind, early estimates are always about 10-25% higher than what the final number ends up being. WWA needed 35,000 just to break-even on this show so even with the inflated number, they didn't do it. So the show is undoubtedly a money-loser, but no idea just how badly yet (spoiler: pretty badly).
Notes from Raw: it was the WWF Draft show! Dave calls it "the latest Russo-like reset of the promotion." Rock was drafted #1 for Smackdown while Undertaker was drafted #1 for Raw. It was announced that Austin wasn't eligible for being drafted and will be a free agent, so they'll figure that out later. Dave says, if you follow the storylines, it makes no sense why Ric Flair would pick Undertaker as his #1 pick (this being the guy he just had a bloodbath with at Wrestlemania and they didn't even bother to explain why Flair picked him). With his next pick, Flair selected the NWO. Once again, just a few weeks ago, Flair was ready to sign over his share of the company and leave the WWF entirely to keep Vince from bringing in the NWO. And now, with no explanation, he's drafted them to Raw. Billy & Chuck and the NWO got drafted together as a team, but the Dudleyz got split apart. Why?! None of this makes sense and Dave is so frustrated with how little thought they put into this after having a year to plan it. (Rewinderman short rant: everybody talks about all the reasons WWE has declined in popularity over the last 20 years and there's always different theories. Bad booking, not creating new stars, not pushing the right people, etc. etc. But I have my own theory that I never hear anyone say: I think it's the lack of attention to detail. Ever since WCW went out of business, Vince has been painting in broad, dumbed down brush strokes, over-explaining dumb, simple storylines, with none of the attention to detail that makes people get invested in a story. Anyway, enough of my opinions). Brock Lesnar came out and beat up a bunch of people again, which he's been doing on every show since his debut. In this case, he threw Rikishi around like a rag doll and Dave says that's one strong fella. They did an angle where Stephanie lost a match and was forced to "leave the WWF" and she was dragged out by security while the crowd sang the goodbye song to her. But Dave says they did this exact same thing with Stephanie in November and that lasted all of 5 weeks before she was back so don't get too excited (sure enough, she'll be back 3 months after this).
Notes from Smackdown: Rico Constantino debuted as the stylist for Billy & Chuck and Dave says that's a dead-end gimmick if there ever was one. He also got a haircut and looks like a totally different person from his OVW days. Rico is a fantastic wrestler and everyone from OVW to front office guys like Jim Ross have gone to bat for him and said he's ready to be a star. But he's small and he's on the older side, so this is clearly where Vince sees him (yeah, even Bruce Prichard later said that pretty much everyone in the company saw star-potential in Rico.....except Vince). Edge vs. Booker T had a rematch that was much better than their Wrestlemania match. And X-Pac debuted (with "a new physique", wink wink) and joined the NWO and they beat down Hogan and got major heat because Hogan is so over right now.
Kevin Nash and Scott Hall showed up several hours late to the Smackdown tapings in Ottawa and the first thing Nash did upon arrival was complain loudly to anyone who would listen about Rock calling him "Big Daddy Bitch" the night before on Raw, saying Rock double-crossed him and Nash hadn't approved that line. Considering all the times Nash went against the script in WCW, needless to say, there were lots of rolled eyes at that. Especially after showing up late also. To make it up to him, during the tag match on Smackdown, they had a spot where Nash yelled "Who's the bitch now?" at him and Michael Cole made sure to bring attention to it on commentary so nobody missed it, so now they're even and now everything is okay I guess. Dave says Nash and Rock smoothed things over between them later because Nash is smart enough to know that making an enemy of The Rock isn't in his best interest. But he was extremely pissed about the line.
Variety reported the new movie Rock is going to be filming later this year will be called Helldorado. It's an action-adventure movie and Rock plays a bounty hunter who heads to the Amazon jungle to capture someone and ends up joining the guy to trying to retrieve something from a local mine (close enough. The movie ends up being renamed The Rundown).
Paul Heyman has dropped significant weight since he was last on TV back in November. Even if they're not a wrestler, Vince wants everyone on television to be "cosmetically presentable."
Assorted WWF notes: Lita is filming an episode of the FOX show "Dark Angel" soon (spoiler: this turns out very poorly for Lita). Steve Blackman is still out with a neck injury and now he gets crippling migraine headaches when he tries to work out or take bumps and Dave says it's possibly career-threatening (indeed, it forces him to retire). Chris Jericho's band Fozzy will be performing at WWF New York next week. The Rock is about to be featured on every TV show and on the cover of every magazine in existence over the next few weeks as part of the Scorpion King promotion.
Dave talks about the current second season of Tough Enough and how interest is way down from the first season. He also kinda gives it a brief review and just says it's boring and nothing really entertaining happens. In the first season, Tazz was the hard ass tough guy trainer to Al Snow's nice guy routine. When Tazz did it, it felt like he was doing it to teach the students respect and was trying to do it in a positive way. This season, Bob Holly is the "bad cop" and he comes across like a complete asshole who is bullying people without any intention of doing it in a way that makes them work harder or become better wrestlers (yeah, you think it's bad now, just wait until season 3 when he starts beating the shit out of Matt Cappotelli).
WWF is going to be working with the Ozzfest concert tour this summer. WWF wrestlers will sign autographs and introduce bands at many of the tour stops and several of the bands will perform on Raw later this year. "That's what happens when there's no Nitro," Dave deadpans.
Regarding the multiple hardcore title changes at Wrestlemania 18, there was discussions about having some of them happen at the CN Tower in Toronto. With the idea that they would brawl into the elevator and end up fighting out onto the outdoor observation deck (like, 100 floors up). But a few weeks before the show, for whatever reason, WWF changed their mind and decided not to pursue it.
Bret Hart recently agreed to work Jacques Rougeau's next indie event at the Molson Center. If you recall, just a few months ago, Rougeau drew a crowd of more than 10,000 to one of his indie shows there. When Vince McMahon found out Hart was going to work the show, he tried to pull a power move and get the Molson Center to give him an exclusivity deal, which would block Rougeau (and anyone else) from being able to run the building. Didn't work and Rougeau's show will go forward as planned as of now (Vince used to do that shit all the time in the 80s to Jim Crockett).
Rey Mysterio hasn't signed with WWF yet but it's considered just a formality. They gave him a low-ball contract offer, far less than he would make just working indies. Of course, it's just his downside guarantee. When you factor in gate money, merch money, video game money, etc. then he stands to make far more than he would on the indies. But if he gets hurt, he'll be sitting at home making very little money. On the other hand, if he gets hurt on the indies, he'll be making no money so better than nothing. Anyway, sounds like Rey shot down the first low-ball offer but they're expected to agree on a deal soon.
Dave has seen more of the TSN Off The Record interviews they did with several WWF stars last week. Ric Flair talked about how much of a disaster WCW was and put over Vince. Dave says that this isn't just Flair publicly kissing the boss's ass. Privately for years, Flair has only said good things about Vince McMahon, dating back to his first run in the early 90s. Even all the years he was in WCW, Flair only had good things to say about him. During the interview, Flair was asked to name someone who could have been an all-time great but didn't have the work ethic. Flair said he couldn't think of anyone off the top of his head, leading Dave to write, "I was screaming Barry Windham but nobody heard me." Jim Ross was next and blamed the environment in WCW for the backstage problems Hall and Nash caused. Dave points out that Hall and Nash caused all those same problems in WWF before they left in 1996 so that doesn't exactly check out. Undertaker's interview was interesting for the rare experience of seeing him out of character, just being Mark Calaway. When asked about something he hates about how the business has changed, Undertaker talked about the internet spoiling things and how it hurts the product when fans know about things in advance. Dave, of course, disputes this and gives an example using the show Friends. Before this season of the show started, TV Guide reported that Ross was going to wind up being the father of Rachel's baby and it was common knowledge. But the ratings were still through the roof for the "reveal." He also jokes that they could have swerved everybody and made it Gunther instead. Then he says if Russo was writing the show, he would have made himself a character called The Scriptwriter and made himself the father of Rachel's baby. (I've never watched Friends, these references are lost on me)
Latest on WWF pay cuts: aside from the very top guys, the company is trying to get most of the roster down to $125,000-or-less per year downside guarantees. Those who work full schedules will still make a lot more than that with PPV/ticket/merch percentages, plus they're doing more house shows this year and with the split rosters, more guys should be working more dates. Plus they raised the price of PPVs so the PPV pay-offs will be bigger. So these pay cuts won't really hurt the full-time stars. But of course, if you get hurt and you're sitting at home only collecting your downside, that's gonna be a lot less money now. So that sucks. On the flip side, WCW used to do the opposite, where guys were hurt and they still collected their full salary, which led to a lot of guys milking "injuries" so they could stay home and cash big ol' checks. So then WCW decided to start cutting people's pay in half when they were out for too long, and that led to people who were legitimately injured coming back too soon because they had bills to pay. So there's a delicate balance that you have to strike there. Also, as part of the new contracts they're trying to get everyone to sign, they're attempting to lock everyone into 3-to-5 year deals because Vince wants to make sure nobody can jump ship and help one of these new start-up promotions like XWF or WWA or the new Jarrett company get off the ground.
Ric Flair is still working on his autobiography that Mark Madden was helping to ghost-write for him. WWF is now attempting to buy the rights for that book away from the original publisher so they can publish it on their own. No word if Mark Madden will still be included or if they'll re-do it (WWF did eventually get it and released it. It has another author listed but still says "edited by" Mark Madden so who knows how much of his contributions made it into the final product).
After Naoya Ogawa took pictures with several WWF names at Wrestlemania, he went back to Japan and I guess got the media stirred up about possibly working with them. Some media outlets have talked about WWF running a Tokyo Dome event headlined by Ogawa vs. The Rock. Dave says this is pure bullshit.
WEDNESDAY:AJPW Triple Crown champion Toshiaki Kawada injured, more on WWF pay cuts, business analysis, the history of wrestling/shoot fighting, more on Steve Austin walking out, and more...
Adventures of a Super-Cuck Painslut - Chapter 4: A Mother's Touch
Congratulations if you made it to the end of this rediculous story! This is the last chapter. I had several more planned, but I kind of lost interest. Maybe I'll return to it one day... ------- DISCLAIMER: All characters in this story are 18+ years of age. All characters and events depicted are completely fictitious...obviously. Max sat naked on the living room couch with a fresh bath towel between him and the upholstery. The old towel lay in the middle of the floor, a crumpled and slime soaked mess. How Max has gotten to the couch, or who had given him the fresh towel, he honestly couldn't say. Max couldn't remember many of finer details of the past 53 minutes and 47 seconds. He certainly wouldn't have remembered that specific time, except it was the length of the new video file on his mom's phone. Max stared blankly at the wall, his mouth ajar and drool forming in the right corner of his lip. He was quickly descending into one of the more extreme endorphin highs he'd ever experienced. His brain was delightfully tingly and his thoughts almost completely incoherent. Max was only vaguely aware of his step-mother and step-brother talking by the front door. From the bits he could piece together, Jake had already sent Stephanie a snippet of the video and she had been duly grateful to have her vengeance on the locker room peeper. She had invited Jake to come over that very night so she could show her knight-in-shining-armor just how thankful she truly was. She had also asked him to bring over a copy of the full video. Apparently, Stephanie and her roommates had found the short clip Jake sent them absolutely hilarious, especially the ridiculous noises Max made. Max envisioned Stephanie greedily sucking his step-brother's cock on a dorm room bed, while the rest of the girls on Stephanie's dormitory floor huddled around a laptop in a different room, giggling and laughing as they watched Max get booted over and over again in his naked testicles. This semi-delirious thought caused the still partially engorged python between Max's legs to twitch with excitement. Surprisingly, Max's left hand started twitching along in unison. Perplexed, Max looked down only to find his pointer finger stilled rammed down his own urethra. Considering the state of the drenched towel lying just a few feet away, using his finger as a makeshift cork hadn't been very effective. Even now, precum oozed from his impaled penis slit. Max stared down at as his cock in slack-jawed amazement. This certainly wasn't the first time his mom had ordered him to shove a finger up his own dick, but he had never made it all the way in before. His penis felt so full! Max just sat there mesmerized, feeling his monster cock throb from the inside. A gob of drool landing on his stomach finally broke his trance. Moaning, Max gradually pulled his finger free from his aching cock hole. It hurt, but it also felt strangely pleasant. He was wiping his finger off on the towel beneath him when a demented thought crossed his mind; why hadn't he finger-fucked his cock before? Naturally, he couldn't now with mom and brother in the room, but that didn't stop him from fantasizing. In his perverted little fantasy, he was completely naked on the stage of the university theater. He was seated on a short stool, with his mom towering over him holding a riding crop. From gazing out into the sea of people, it looked like the whole student body must have been in attendance. His mom snapped the crop on the tip of his huge, erect penis without saying a word; Max whimpered and obeyed. The audience loved it! They were practically rolling in the aisles with laughter. For added entertainment they began hurling eggs and tomatoes at him, pelting him until he was a disgusting mess. 'Faster' his mom would order, cracking the crop repeatedly on his bare ass. Max did his best to obey, his finger working like a piston. The inside of his massive member ached, but the outside actually hurt worse. He was so hard, so ridiculously hard... The slamming of the front door jarred Max back to reality. Jake had just disappeared into the night, flash drive in hand. While the past several minutes might have been a daydream, the fact that Max was now so hard it actually hurt was very real. His once again rock-hard cock lay pulsating on his stomach. His mom walked over slowly, analyzing the pathetic scene the same way a cat might stare at a cornered mouse. Standing nearly 6 feet tall, Sarah towered over her shrimp of a step-son. Max couldn't help but gawk at the beautiful amazon as she approached. Her golden hair and kind, blue eyes made Sarah look almost angelic, but the sadistic grin on her lips told otherwise. "You little turd," she said jokingly, giving her son's erect penis a poke with her finger. "I don't think you learned anything!" Reaching down suddenly, she gave Max's amazingly swollen plums a playful swat. Max howled, nearly jumping through the roof! It took Sarah almost a full minute to stop laughing. "I don't think I've ever..." she managed, before breaking into another fit of laughter, "I don't think I've ever seen them so swollen." Instead of sitting on the sofa, Sarah lowered herself to the floor, sitting cross-legged between her son's feet. "Look," she said, grabbing one of his enormous nuts in each hand, "I can barely fit my hands halfway around them!" Over the past 2 years, his mom had developed something of an obsession with seeing how big Max's testicles could swell. She treated it almost like a game. She would occasionally even take measurements. Max honestly couldn't tell if her interest was genuine, or if she was using it as just yet another way to humiliate him. Either way, he enjoyed it immensely! "Poor boy," she cooed, lifting Max's balls up away from the couch. "They must hurt so very bad." Max winced, as his mom's grip on his jewels tightened ever so slightly. "You must be in so much pain," she added, locking eyes with her hapless step-son. Max swallowed hard as he felt beads of sweat begin to form on his forehead. He took several rapid breaths through his nose, trying not to hyperventilate. It took all his willpower to meet her gaze, knowing full well that any moment now his bright red nut-meat would be bulging from his mother's vice-like grip. After what felt like an eternity, Sarah let out a cute little giggle and unceremoniously released her son's testicles. Sore as his balls were, just having them flop back into the sofa cushion made Max see stars. A small, rational part of Max was relieved at this surprising turn of events, but mostly he was just disappointed at a lost opportunity to suffer at his mother's hands. "Sorry," Sarah said. Standing up from the floor, she planted a kiss on Max's left cheek. "I shouldn't be so mean to you on your birthday." "You shouldn't be sneaking into the girl's locker room though," she added in a slightly more serious tone, while sitting down next to him on the couch. "I see Ms. Johnson already spoke with you," she added with a grin, as she pointed to the metal ruler markings painfully etched into Max's cock head. "You were the first one to ever put me in a locker," Max retorted, hoping that a little backtalk might make Sarah slightly less merciful. "First off, mister," Sarah replied defensively, but still with a tone of amusement, "that was a closet, not a locker. Secondly, it was a prank. It was homecoming week after all." Max remembered that Saturday night all too well. It was hard to believe that it happened a little over a year ago. Feigning anger at the B+ Max had gotten on a recent biology test, Sarah had ambushed him that fateful Saturday night with what she described as 'an early birthday present for her dunce of a step-son.' He had spent at least 30 minutes hogtied and naked in the trunk of his mom's car, followed by several hours, still trussed up, in a dark sorority house closet. Sarah had strategically surrounded him with the residents' used thongs and had written the words PANTY THIEF in bright red lipstick on his chest. When the pack of drunk sorority girls found him upon arriving home after bar close, that's when the fun had really started! Convinced that he was part of a prank by a rival sorority, they took to exacting painful revenge on poor Max, taking turns punishing him until well after sunrise. After that night, the rumors had quickly spread around the university, forever altering Max's college career. No longer was he seen as just some shy nerd. Instead, almost overnight, he became the resident campus pervert who needed to be taught a lesson. After that, college became a lot more interesting! "I could have been kicked out of school," Max whined, acting as though it hadn't been one of the best nights of his life. "Don't be silly, you know Tiffany and I belonged to the same sorority," Sarah responded incredulously. Max did indeed know this. Dean Johnson had been an undergrad around the time his mom was finishing up her doctorate; they were still close friends. "Plus, with the ridiculous amount of money I donate to that school each year, there's no way." "You know, with the way you're acting tonight," Sarah paused for dramatic effect, "it's almost like you don't want your birthday present." "No, please mom, I'm sorry," Max responded desperately. He had no idea what his birthday present actually was, but he knew he wanted it more than anything. "It's alright honey," Sarah responded, pulling her step-son's head to her chest. Max's eyes opened wide with surprise. He had never been this close to his step-mom's big tits before. He could feel his head squish against them underneath Sarah's sweater. "I can only imagine what a horrible day you've had." While Sarah delivered that last line perfectly, without any hint of sarcasm, in truth she knew better than anyone just how much her depraved, pain-slut of a step-son craved abuse. She never shoved it in Max's face though. She treated all the horrible things she had done to him these past 2 years as 'punishment,' always finding a reason to justify why unfortunate, little Max deserved to suffer. On his end, Max also did his best to keep up the charade, being sure to always whimper, cry, and beg for mercy, even as his erect penis throbbed violently. This unspoken arrangement was just another reason why Max adored his step-mom. "Should I go get it?" Sarah asked in a somewhat mischievous tone. Max nodded his head vigorously between his mother's enormous juggs. Sarah disappeared up the stairs to her bedroom. She returned after a minute or two carrying an oddly shaped, awkwardly gift-wrapped item. From what Max could see, it was wider at the bottom and narrowed as it reached the top. "What's that over there?" his mom asked, as she reached the bottom of the staircase. It took Max a moment to realize she was pointing at the box Ms. Johnson had sent home with him. "It has something to do with a scholarship." Max replied with a shrug. Since arriving home, he had almost completely forgotten about the mysterious box. "You got the scholarship!" Sarah exclaimed. "That's so exciting! I can't wait to read the details." Max was starting to suspect he was the only one not to know about his application to this program. He wondered whether it was his mother's idea or Ms. Johnson's...and also what the heck this 'scholarship' actually was. "Do you want to open your gift first, or read about the scholarship?" Sarah asked excitedly. "Gift please," Max responded all too eagerly. The two week buildup to this point, two weeks of not being able to play with his monster cock, had driven him nearly insane; he didn't want to wait another second. "Here you go," his mother said with a grin. Standing over him, she handed him the oddly wrapped gift. Max tore into it, quickly shredding the paper to get at the mystery object underneath. "Extra Hydrating, Moisturizing Body Lotion?" Max read off the bottle completely perplexed. His heart sank; it was just a stupid bottle of lotion. "Does this mean I'm allowed to masturbate again?" Max asked hopefully. "Something like that..." his mom responded in a sly tone, a smile creeping across her face. It was obvious she was enjoying her son's confusion. She gently took the bottle from him and began pressing down the nozzle repeatedly, until an excessive pool of creamy white lotion had formed in her left hand. Setting down the bottle, she smeared some of the lotion into the palm of her right hand before kneeling down on the carpet in front of Max. "What are you doing!?" Max yelped, as his mom took his giant penis in both hands. She had never touched his dick before...not like this! Sure, she had whipped it, spanked it, and punished it plenty, but never anything like this. "What does it look like I'm doing, silly?" Sarah responded with giggle, as she slowly slid both her well-lotioned hands from the base of Max's shaft to the very tip of his bulbous head. "I'm moisturizing you." "Does that feel good?" she asked softly, as she gently ran her hands back down her step-son's unbelievably engorged penis. It did feel good, so in good in fact that Max couldn't even begin to form words. He just lay there, slumped into the couch cushions, moaning with pleasure. "My goodness, you're such a big boy," Sarah said with true amazement in her voice. "I'm mean, it's one thing to just see it, but... look at this!" Wrapping her right hand as best she could around her son's massive pole, she slowly ran it back up his glistening shaft, while pointing with her left hand to the inch size gap between her middle finger and thumb. "Does mommy's big boy need two hands?" Sarah cooed the rhetorical question. "Tell me," Sarah asked, her right hand massaging her son's swollen cock head, while her left gently caressed the underside of Max's throbbing member, "how long have you wanted this? How long have you been desperately wishing that mommy would play with your big dick?" Eyes rolled into the back of his head and drool running down his cheek, Max was in no condition to answer. Even if her son had been able to speak, he wouldn't have had an answer. Never in his wildest dreams did Max imagine his goddess of a step-mother pleasuring his freak dick. It felt so unbelievably good...too good in fact! Max realized with alarm just how soon this was all going to be over. "Is mommy's birthday boy going to make a mess on the carpet?" Sarah asked, as if reading her son's thoughts. Max began to panic as he watched Sarah pick up the tempo, both hands tightening around her son's giant cock. Max stared on helplessly as his monstrous appendage trembled in his mother's hands, practically leaking like a faucet. (Clearly Sarah had given up long ago on keeping the carpet clean.) He couldn't let this happen! He couldn't let the most phenomenal moment of his life slip away in just a couple measly minutes. Desperate, Max realized he had to focus his mind on something else, something unpleasant. While his mother continued to aggressively polish his pole, Max let his memories drift back to a dark wedding hall nearly 3 years ago. Max sat slouched and dejected, alone at one of the many gaudily decorated tables. A cold beer sat in front of him with barely a sip missing. Sarah had snuck him the beer, thinking that her 18 year old step-son was being moody because he wasn't old enough drink. He remembered her asking if he was having fun; he had lied unconvincingly. She had smiled and given him a big hug, before running out onto the dance floor in her beautiful, white wedding dress. She and Max's father had danced and twirled, looking like the perfect couple. His father, still quite strong even at 50, had picked Sarah up at one point to much applause from the wedding guests. All the while Max just sat there, watching helplessly, as his father danced with the woman Max loved. "I'm so proud of you, honey," Sarah said with a giggle, her words snapping Max back to reality. "You're really making mommy work for it. Look, I'm sweating." Sarah stopped stroking her son's cock for a moment and made and exaggerated motion with her right arm, wiping a tiny bit of glistening sweat from her forehead. Then, without any warning, Sarah was pulling her sweater over her head. Max's eyes practically bulged out of his head as he gaped at his step-mom, now completely topless except for a blue push-up bra. Max's enormous cock began twitching violently. He had never seen his step-mom like this! At most, Sarah might show her perverted step-son a little cleavage on special occasions, mostly as an excuse to punish him when he was inevitably caught looking (what Max considered a win-win scenario). There she was though, kneeling in front of him, her huge tits bulging out of that tiny little bra. It was all he could do to keep from blowing his load right then and there. He just sat there dumbfounded, ogling his curvaceous step-mother. From her beautifully tan skin to her flat stomach, with just a cute little hint of love-handles rising above her tight fitting jeans, her body was utter perfection. "Ok, now I'm serious," Sarah said with a chuckle, as she latched on again to her son's meaty prick and began working his rod with renewed vigor. "It's only a matter of time," she added with a big smile. "When the time does come, you just let mommy know where you want to put it," Sarah said, giving her son a wink. "Do you want to gush all over mommy's face?" She asked, bending over so the head of her son's cock was aimed right between her eyes. "Or, would you prefer to blow your load in mommy's mouth?" Sarah giggled, watching as her son bit down on his bottom lip as he neared his breaking point. "I promise I'll try my best to suck down every last drop of my birthday boy's warm, salty cream." She pressed the tip of Max's huge dick to her lips and gave it a tiny kiss. She didn't even bother wiping off the strands of precum from her mouth when she pulled away. "How about on my tummy?" she inquired, laying down her back while still playing with her son's penis. "Do you want to see your juices pool on mommy's belly?" Sarah cooed. "I think I know what you'd like," Sarah said, getting back onto her knees while still tugging on her son's big, slippery cock. "Would you like to cream all over mommy's big titties?" She asked, leaning in so she could rub the head of Max's penis against her ample chest. It wasn't long before Sarah's breasts, nearly bursting out of that little blue bra, were glistening with her son's precum. "You're always staring at mommy's tits. I bet it would feel so good to, just once, cum all over them." Clenching his teeth and taking deep breaths through his nose, Max was just seconds away from the point of no return. Realizing that he had barely blinked in the past several minutes, Max closed his eyes for a moment. If he wanted to make this last any longer, he had to let his mind go somewhere else, somewhere dark. Then, there he was again, lying on his bed in the pitch dark exactly two years ago. His alarm clock read 3 AM, as Max lay there literally shaking with fear. He listened in abject despair to every soft click and muffled keystroke coming from downstairs, punctuated by the occasional shocked gasp that caused his stomach to tighten into knots. Max couldn't fully explain his actions earlier that evening; they certainly weren't rational. He had been so frustrated and angry. He was still furious with his father for running away to France with his 24 year old secretary less than a month ago. Added to that, Max had just found out that his asshole of a step-brother was banging the girl he had a crush on. The final straw had been coming home on his 19th birthday only to find his beautiful step-mother passed out on the couch for the third time that week, bottle of whiskey still in her hand. Max had grabbed the bottle of whiskey from Sarah along with her laptop. Seated right next to his snoring step-mother, Max had taken a deep dive into both the whiskey and all his preferred choices in pornography. He pulled up all his favorite male bondage videos, femdom videos, chastity videos, cuckold videos, and, above all else, ballbusting videos. He had watched dozens of clips that night dedicated to pain and humiliation, his two deep and dark desires that he had never shared with another living soul. When Max finally had his fill of both booze and porn, he simply left his mom's computer running, with at least a dozen porn sites still open, and stumbled upstairs to bed. This had been no accident. In Max's drunken stupor he had decided that he wanted Sarah to see all his perverted fantasies. Max had woken up sometime after midnight to a startled gasp coming from downstairs. It had taken him a minute to remember what he had done. The realization finally hit him along with a dose of gut-wrenching fear. He just lay there, wide awake and in a cold sweat, straining to hear each every little noise coming from the downstairs' living room. As the alcohol in his system had slowly dissipated, it was replaced by ever increasing terror. The minutes had ticked by so painfully slowly that night, as Max sat there in horror, praying his mom would finally just close her computer and go to bed. Alone there in the dark, and still quite inebriated, he had all but convinced himself that Sarah was going to have him institutionalized. Nothing like that ever happened though. There had been no therapists, medications, or padded rooms. Instead, when the sun finally rose the next day, Sarah had barged into Max's room and began dishing out the 'medicine' her deviant step-son really needed. Max remembered how her voice had trembled with uncertainty as she began scolding him for drinking her whiskey. Before Max knew what was happening, Sarah had thrown him to the floor and pulled his underwear down around his ankles. Sarah had let out a surprised gasps at the sight of his huge genitalia, but quickly carried on with her mission. It had only taken five hesitant kicks to her son's bare testicles before he had ejaculated all over the floor of his room. With growing confidence, Sarah had shoved Max's face into the mess he made and forced him to lick the floor clean. From that magical morning onwards, Max became mommy's personal punching bag, and he couldn't have been happier! Sarah didn't really drink much after that. Though she certainly would never admit it, Max knew his mother had found a new outlet to unleash all her pent up rage and resentment at being abandoned by her husband. In all honesty, Max took some perverse satisfaction at the thought that his huge balls were being constantly mashed and mangled as atonement for his father's failings. After all the pain his dad had put Sarah through by leaving her for a younger woman, it somehow seemed only fitting to Max that his son's testicles should pay the price. Max let out a soft groan. Letting his thoughts stray to that special morning two years ago hadn't helped his cause. He looked down in amazement at just how purple and swollen his enormous penis had become. It glistened with a mixture of lotion and precum, as his mom continued running her hands up and down his shaft, polishing her son's meaty cock. Max knew the game was over. "I...I...," Max began, his voice trembling. His eyes locked onto his target, Sarah's heaving chest. "You...you...?" Sarah taunted him, "want to read about your scholarship?" With no warning at all, Sarah released her tight grip on her son's penis. His massive member swung back violently, hitting Max's stomach with a wet sounding slap. It was all Max could do to keep from crying as he watched his cock throb fiercely against his stomach, just inches away from the finish line. Sarah stood up. Wiping her hands off on her stomach, she walked over and picked up the little box. After looking at it a moment, she carefully untied the ribbon that kept it shut. The first thing she pulled out was a picture. "Your new professor is very pretty," Sarah said, examining the picture for a moment. "I think you're going to like her." Sarah walked back over and handed the picture to her son. Max was totally stunned by the dark-haired supermodel staring back at him from the photo. She was gorgeous! In the picture, she wore a black crop top and was holding a leather whip. Around her neck hung a golden necklace, on which dangled one rather plain looking key. She looked surprisingly young to Max, possibly not that much older than him. Her olive-skinned body was toned, with noticeable muscles definition in her shoulders and stomach. Pervert that he was though, Max couldn't stop fixating on her chest. The woman in the photo was even more well-endowed than Sarah! "Ahem, ahem," Sarah said, pretending to clear her throat to get her horny step-son's attention. Setting down the box on the armrest of the couch, she held up a letter. "MAX," Sarah began reading, "I AM EXCITED TO OFFER YOU THIS OPPORTUNITY. I HAVE HAD THIS SCHOLARSHIP OPEN FOR SEVERAL YEARS, BUT YOU ARE THE FIRST CANDIDATE TO WHOM I HAVE MADE AN OFFER." "See," Sarah said laughing, "I always knew you were special." She composed herself before continuing. "YOUR TOLERANCE TO PAIN AND DEGRADATION IS QUITE IMPRESSIVE. I WANT TO MAKE IT CLEAR NOW, IF YOU ACCEPT THIS OFFER, I WILL MAKE YOU SUFFER IMMENSELY. YOU WILL BE PUNISHED BOTH TO FURTHER MY WORK AND SIMPLY FOR MY ENTERTAINMENT." "After today's locker room incident, I think a year with this lovely lady is exactly what you need," Sarah added with a wry smile. Looking back down at the letter, Max's step-mom paused with a surprised expression on her face. "IF YOU WISH TO ACCEPT THIS OFFER," Sarah read slowly, word by word, as if trying to decipher a riddle, "YOU WILL SUBMIT YOUR MANHOOD TO ME AT ONCE AND CARRY MY GIFT. YOU WILL BE ALLOWED NO FURTHER RELEASE UNTIL THE SCHOLARSHIP BEGINS NEXT SEMESTER. YOUR IMMEDIATE OBEDIENCE WILL BE VERIFIED VIA A LIE DETECTOR TEST UPON YOUR ARRIVAL. FAILURE OF THE TEST WILL RESULT IN THE LOSS OF THIS OPPORTUNITY. FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS TO FOLLOW ONCE YOU HAVE SENT PICTURES OF YOUR SUBMISSION. "P.S.," Sarah went on after a moment's pause, "I BET YOU LOOK REAL PRETTY IN PINK!" Sarah looked up at Max. "She just has an email address and a bunch of hearts after that." Max and Sarah both turned their heads at the same time to the little box sitting on the couch. Sarah picked it up again and removed the final item enclosed in a black velvet pouch. Loosening the strings on the pouch, Sarah turned it over in her hand revealing the tiny, pink chastity cage inside. "Max...honey," Sarah stammered after a shared moment of stunned silence, "please believe me I had no idea. Honestly sweetie...I had zero..." At a loss for words, her voice trailed off. Max chuckled weakly, even as he felt the tears begin to well up in his eyes. There was a certain humorous irony to the fact that by far the cruelest thing his mom had ever done to him she'd done by complete accident. "I'm so sorry..." Sarah stuttered, before Max cut her off. "It's aright mom," Max said. He paused a moment, before adding, "it's what a pervert like me deserves." "You're a good kid," Sarah said with a soft smile. Setting down the plastic cock-cage, she came over and planted a soft kiss on her step-son's forehead. Walking over to the closet, Sarah swapped out the bottle of silky lotion for the dreaded extra-strength capsaicin cream. Just seeing the flaming hot pepper cream produced a pathetic moan from her hapless step-son. Max's last encounter with the fiery substance had been a few months ago when Sarah's sister had pulled into their driveway unannounced one Saturday morning. She had wanted Max and Sarah's help loading some furniture into her pickup truck that she found at a local rummage sale. His aunt's unexpected arrival just happened to coincide with one of Max's various punishments. Sarah had immediately turned to her quick fix for those kind of situations. After all, it was much easier for Sarah to quick slather some capsaicin cream on Max's genitals and say that his eyes were watering due to allergies than to try explaining to her sister why her nephew had a cucumber in his pants so large that he couldn't even zip up his jeans. "On your knees, mister!" Sarah barked, as she applied disposable latex gloves to both her hands. Max scrambled to obey. Even kneeling on the carpet, his legs felt like jelly. It was all he could do to keep from toppling over. "Hands behind your back," Sarah order. Again, Max quickly followed his mother's directions. Sarah sat down on the carpet opposite Max, just a couple feet from the tip of her son's still throbbing 15-inch dick. She squeezed out a large glob of the white cream into her left palm. Locking eyes with her trembling step-son, she slowly lowered her right pointer finger into the cream, completely coating her finger with the devilish substance. With a wolf like smile, she lined up her pointer finger like a gun, the barrel aimed directly at her son's leaking cock hole. "Come closer, sweetie," Sarah said in a sickeningly sweet voice. It was only then that the light went on for poor Max. His whole body began shaking like a leaf. Sarah had never cooked him from the inside before. This was going to hurt so badly. Even better, for the first time ever, Sarah was actually going to be inside him; Max couldn't wait! He stumbled forwarded awkwardly on his knees, wincing every time one of his throbbing nuts happened to slap against his thighs. He stopped short, his rock-hard dick just a fraction of an inch away from the tip of his mother's finger. "Closer..." Sarah commanded in a playful, sing-songy voice. Max sniveled, realizing that Sarah wasn't going to make this easy on him. Sarah was going to make him do all the work, impaling himself on her sizzling hot finger. Max took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Waddling forward slowly, he felt his mom's finger push into his urethra. The burning came with it, slowly at first, but it wasn't long until his eyes were watering. He knew he didn't have long before his cock really started to cook. He tried pressing forward, but his mom's finger felt so large. He desperately wanted her fully inside of him, but he couldn't seem to push past her first knuckle. The burning was becoming more intense by the second. Max could feel his face turn bright red as beads of sweat began forming on his forehead. "Don't you want to come closer to mommy?" Sarah asked in hurt tone. Max could tell his mom was enjoying watching him struggle. In desperation, Max lunged at his mother, wrapping his hands around her bare back. Sarah gasped with surprise at her son's sudden tight embrace. "I love you, mom," Max moaned. Biting down on his bottom lip, Max thrust his hips forward with all his might. He was met with a moment of blinding pain, forcing him to cling to his step-mother to keep from collapsing to the floor below. It passed quickly enough though, and he rewarded for his efforts by feeling his mother's full finger buried deep inside his cock. There was nothing for Max to do now but let his huge penis cook like a skewered pig. "I love you too, honey," Sarah cooed, as she slowly began moving her finger back and forth, finger-fucking her son's dick hole. "Try to stay hard for mommy," Sarah added with a giggle, as she began working her left hand up and down his shaft, marinating the outside of his cock with the same pepper cream that was cooking him from the inside. Max responded with a whimper, his face now beet red. It felt so good to have Sarah playing with his cock again, even if each stroke of her hand brought fresh hellfire. Struggle as he might, the capsaicin cream ultimately triumphed; it always did. After nearly an hour, Max lay on the floor defeated, his once fearsome cock now red as a fire hydrant and not much bigger than an acorn. Resting atop two comically swollen testicles, Max's tiny deflated pecker looked especially pathetic. Carefully taking off her rubber gloves, Sarah walked back over to the couch and fetched the pink cock-cage. Fitting the base around Max's distended ballsack was a bit of a struggle, but soon everything was in place. All that was left to do was to close the lock. "You ready?" Sarah asked in a serious tone, looking Max in the eyes. Max nodded slowly. There was no pain, but even so the soft latching sound of the lock closing made Max wince. His penis was now the proud property of some nameless, raven-haired beauty. It was strange to think that both she and the key around her neck were likely hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away. Sarah wasted no time and immediately began taking pictures with her phone, sending them to Max's new owner. "So," Max began, pausing to wipe the leftover tears and snot from his face caused by the fading effects of the capsaicin cream, "do I look pretty in pink?" Sarah broke into hysterical laughter, followed by Max. "I'm glad you're still in a good mood," Sarah responded, still chuckling. "There's one final matter we need to settle tonight..." Her voice trailed off as she disappeared down the hallway. Max could hear her rummaging around the coat closet by the entry to the garage. When Sarah turned the corner again, she was wearing her favorite pair of MMA striking gloves. Max's heart began racing. "There's still the matter of what you did to my poor carpet," she growled with a sadistic smile, while at the same time pumping her right fist into the palm of her left glove. "No, please...they can't take anymore!" Max wailed quite convincingly. "My balls can't take anymore!" Max's delivery was made all the more believable given that Sarah couldn't see her son's cock as it bulged violently against the confines of its tiny, pink prison.
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