Weekend Wrestling/MMA news & notes (4/13/07)

By Art Shimko
shimko_7@hotmail.com

PRO WRESTLING NEWS
-- From WWE.com: For the first quarter of 2007, individual episodes of WWE Monday Night Raw accounted for six of the top ten highest rated cable telecasts among households, according to Nielsen Media Research. Among adults 18-49, individual episodes of WWE Raw accounted for eight of the top ten highest rated cable programs with Raw achieving the second, third and fourth highest individual ratings in that demographic finishing only behind the NBA All-Star game.

-- This Friday night edition of Smackdown is the 400th episode.

-- Steve Austin will be the Grand Marshall at Sunday's 500 NASCAR Nextel Cup at the Texas Motor Speedway in Dallas/Fort Worth.

-- Edge has an NHL blog here.

-- Where Are They Now? Percy Pringle

-- Wrestler Foley's Lecture Packs a Punch

-- Cheats and codes for the WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2007

-- The Times Herald out of Port Huron, MI has an article on D'Lo Brown and the Springfield Stallions, a Continental Indoor Football League team that he co-owns with Justin Gettys, who are currently 0-1. Brown, a defensive end at the University of Maine during early 90s, has been wrestling for All Japan Pro Wrestling but took some time off to help with the team. "Things are going very well," said Brown, 36, a former World Wrestling Entertainment grappler. "It was an easy mix to lend myself to the team and become part of the organization. They're still trying to get me on the field."

-- The Torch's James Caldwell has an article about the Don Imus controversy.

-- IGN has an interview with Christopher Daniels.

-- Myself, Casey Trowbridge and Euan Taylor (both from Old Country Times) recorded a podcast to attempt previewing this Sunday's TNA Lockdown pay-per-view. You listen to the podcast here but if you get easily offended then don't listen.

-- Christian Cage, Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle will be appearing at Wrestlefest on 4/22 at Bristol Central High School in Bristol, CT at 5PM. The show will feature 8 matches and a meet-and-greet with Joe, Christian and Angle at 3PM. Tickets can be purchased at: FYE Music and Video stores; Bristol Central High School' main office; Tropical Suntan Center [194 Main St]; the Webster Bank on Queen Street in Southington; S & S Sports Apparel [117 Broad St.]; Curves for Women on Farmington Avenue; Southington's Modern Formals and Fazo's Deli in Waterbury; through www.northwestwrestling.com or by calling (860) 874-1244.

-- IWA Mid-South Saturday night at Southwestern High School in Shelbyville, IN: Demolition Ax vs. Tank; Honky Tonk Man vs. "Marvelous" Mitch Ryder; Danny Basham vs. Ian Rotten; Josh Abercrombie vs. Brandon Thomaselli (Tables, Ladders & Chairs match for the IWA Light Heavyweight Title); Chuck Taylor vs. Drake Younger (IWA Mid-South Heavyweight Title); "Spyder" Nate Webb vs. C.J. Otis; Mickie Knuckles vs. Kristy Summers (IWA Mid-South Women's Title); Puppet vs. T.O.; Iron Saints vs. Billy Roc & Tony Kozina; Vortekz vs. Diehard Dustin vs. xOMGx, Jack Thriller vs. Ricochet vs. ?

-- Mike Quakenbush will be special guest referee for Claudio Castagnoli and Chris Hero's match at Chikara's Rey de Voladores event on 4/22 at the New Alhambra Arena (Viking Hall) in Philadelphia.

-- Director Lovestruck on wrestling

-- A 64-year-old pro wrestler set to perform in Newbury

-- Power Team spreads message in Statesboro

-- MCRD Parris Island sailor lived professional wrestling dream

MIXED MARTIAL ARTS NEWS
-- A post-fight piss test revealed that Melvin Guillard tested positive for cocaine following his 4/5 Fight Night match with Joe Stevenson. This is just plain fucking stupid. So far we've seen two stoners compete in MMA, guys who don't make weight three months before a title fight and don't make weight for a TV show where 155-pounders are competing and guys doing blow before their matches... recreation is great and all, but god damn these guys know they have a fight coming up and that the commission tests for drugs or that they MUST make weight for a fight... like Ric James said, "that cocaine is a helluva drug!"

-- In a CBS Sportsline interview with Brock Lesnar, when asked how Kurt Angle would do in MMA, he replies: I think Kurt would do rather well in the 205 category, but I think father time has caught up to him rather quickly because of the demand of professional wrestling and what he gave to professional wrestling, and what he gave his body to. I think that he might have a couple of fights in him but ... poor guy, he's given his life and his heart, mind, and soul to be a professional wrestler and he's hurt himself.
Lesnar's spent the last 10 months training and between 265-270lbs., he's trained with Pat Miletich and currently trains at Minnesota Mixed Martial Arts Academy. As far as training with Royce Gracie Lesnar says their schedules are unable to accomodate time to train together but maybe after the K-1 6/2 event at the L.A Coliseum they'll get to train. Lesnar confirms that his K-1 contract is for one fight only and says that Vince McMahon attempted to arrange Lesnar and Kurt Angle to have individual fights with Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson but the boxers nixed that idea.

-- Dana White loves Canada~! "Canada's been a phenomenal breakthrough market for us, the sleeper market," White told The Canadian Press in an interview. "When we were looking at this thing, when we first purchased it, we had no idea that Canada would become so huge."

-- Matt Serra talks about his recent win against Georges St. Pierre and has some words about Matt Hughes in this video interview.

-- Serra on rise in UFC after stunning St. Pierre

-- Here's an article on Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou; Prior to Sokoudjou's recent victories in Pride over Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Ricardo Arona he fought just three times for the Total Combat promotion in San Diego and Sportfight in Portland, OR. Sokoudjou arrived in the States six years ago to train for Olympic judo competition when he met Pride Middleweight and Welterweight Champion Dan Henderson as he was training to fight judo practitioner Kazuhiro Nakamura. From there Sokoudjou got into MMA but admits the transition wasn't so smooth: "I thought it would be easy, but it was really hard for me to kind of understand that judo and mixed martial arts are two different things," he said. "I thought, 'I know judo so I can go ahead and judo everybody." Sokoudjou has modest aspirations in this sport: "I would love to say I'm going to get a bunch of belts. Lots of people out there have a bunch of belts, but they suck," he added. "My goal is to put on a good show and make sure everyone who comes and watches me fight is always satisfied."

-- From the IFL: The International Fight League (OTC.BB: IFLI), the world’s first team-based professional mixed martial arts league, and USA Wrestling, the National Governing Body for wrestling in the United States, today announced a strategic partnership between the two organizations aimed at increasing the awareness level and creating unique grassroots programs and branding opportunities for both groups. “This is a great day for the IFL and for the sports of Mixed Martial Arts and wrestling,” said IFL Commissioner and Co-Founder Kurt Otto.“This partnership will give us the platform to reach a very passionate demo with one of the most respected National Governing Bodies. This cooperative program will help us further our mission to expose these great IFL athletes to a larger audience and show how they can use their wrestling skills as part of MMA.”

-- Dragons Cage at the Williamson County Pavilion in Marion, IL on Saturday 4/14. For more info long onto www.dragonscage.com or call (618) 699-4374.

-- There's an MMA show at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi on Saturday. Go to www.fightforce.org or www.bomberpromotions.com for more info.

-- Mixed martial arts notebook: Lindland ready for the fight of his life

-- Average Joes go head to head

-- Ex-Delawarean mixes hip-hop style with mean right cross

-- Local man using martial arts, religion to reach out to TYC youths

-- When in Rome...do as the Romans do
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note to webmasters/reporters: When recapping news or referencing commentary from this site please include a link to meanfilipine.blogspot.com as opposed to "Strong Style Shimko", "From The Mean Filipine Blog" or derivatives. Thank you~!

You can now receive up-to-the-minute updates from Strong Style Shimko in your email account through feedblitz.com by clicking this link.

You can also subscribe by going to meanfilipine.blogspot.com, scroll down the page and on the right side of the page you will see this bar:

Enter your email address in the white bar, press the "Subscribe me!" button and you should begin receiving Strong Style Shimko articles and updates in you inbox.

Note: you may have to check your spam inbox for these updates and mark them and "not spam" in order to receive the emails in your regular email inbox.

Again, we here at Strong Style Shimko: TheMeanFilipineBlog thank you for your continued support~!