What were the top stories last week?
Here’s what missed the top five:
Pro Wrestling
– Jeff Cobb and JR Kratos had a great title match for my local indy, Premier. You can see the finish and Kratos’ post-match interview here:
– You can also see photos from the event.
– Dixie Carter finally acknowledged that TNA is on borrowed time with their current TV deal.
– Results from CMLL’s 82nd Anniversary show.
– Jay Lethal defended both titles at ROH’s All-Star Extravaganza.
MMA
– Scott Coker wants Bellator to be better than Pride was.
Boxing
– Creed looks great.
– Frank Bruno isn’t in good shape.
– If the goal is to get to Crawford vs Matthysse, it could be huge.
– USADA responded to Thomas Hauser’s article that we linked to last week.
– Not sure if it’s entirely fair for Andre Ward to call out Triple G, but hey, at least he’s building a possible future fight.
– Speaking of Ward, it looks like he’ll be on the Cotto vs Canelo PPV.
And now, the top five.
5. Fedor returns on New Year’s Eve.
One of the major pieces of news to come out of Saturday night’s Bellator show (and more on that below) is that Fedor Emelianenko has signed on to fight on New Year’s Eve in Japan for former PRIDE president Nobuyuki Sakakibara.
Scott Coker mentioned that Sakakibara would be making a comeback later this year all the way back in April.
For Fedor, it takes him out of a big money fight or two in the UFC. But he gets to fight where people remember him best.
4. Nick Diaz is suspended for five years.
Talk about a story that’s polarizing the MMA community. Last week, the Nevada Athletic Commission suspended Nick Diaz for five years after the commission hearing which seemingly went forever.
Diaz was told to not say anything and the officials took offense to him not talking. With help from Ariel Helwani, he penned a statement that was easy to sympathize with.
Diaz has skirted around the drug issue his entire career, making the testing process seem foolish in the process. While some may think that the commission is overreacting to the failures, I think what they may be reacting to are the times in which he’s not been caught as well as his unwillingness to be forthright.
As can be the case with fighters, Nick Diaz is his own worst enemy.
3. Mayweather vs Berto does a terrible buyrate.
If this was Floyd Mayweather’s last dance, he surely didn’t go out on a high note from a buy rate perspective. Kevin Iole reported that the Mayweather buy rate will probably ring in at lower than any Mayweather buy rate since his fight against Oscar De La Hoya in 2007.
It was a mistake for sure, and one Mayweather had some freedom in making considering he and Manny Pacquiao made Showtime and HBO a whole lot of money for their fight earlier in the year.
2. Some of the news coming out of Night Of Champions.
Early on in the show, which we wrote about last night, WWE announced Brock Lesnar’s Hell Tour. In addition to the Madison Square Garden house show on the network that he’s wrestling at, he’ll be on the Stone Cold Podcast and main event Hell In A Cell with the Undertaker. That’s a quick turnaround on that match and it’s possible that it changes the plans for WrestleMania.
Also, coming out of the show, Sting injured his neck, but we’re not sure the severity quite yet. His match with Seth Rollins was stopped so that they could get the doctor to check on him, but he restarted the match. It looks like he was originally booked on Raw, but is now home instead.
1. Bellator Dynamite 1 was interesting to say the least.
Though I didn’t get the opportunity to attend live, I did like the Bellator Dynamite 1 show as a TV show. It was a tad long, but if you take away the kickboxing matches, the show would’ve been the perfect length.
The production was top notch and they made it seem like it was a big show. Some of the interviews were subpar and it sucked that King Mo was hurt as that would’ve been a helluva tournament final. But overall, I was entertained. I’m more dialed in on the current Bellator than I’ve ever been in the old Bellator.
And it sure seemed like Tito Ortiz thought it was the perfect time to announce his retirement, but couldn’t go through with it. That would’ve been a fantastic time to do so.
Even though I missed the show, I did get the opportunity to attend the weigh-ins (and posted some photos from them) as well as the Fanfest. I didn’t think the Fanfest was all that interesting though friends enjoyed meeting the old fighters. The wait times were pretty bad and the restaurant was packed. They could probably charge a few bucks next time and have it run a bit better.
See you next week.