Jan 28, 2007

Battle Of The Icons


ROH: Battle Of The Icons
Inman Sports Club - Edison, NJ
Ring Of Honor doesn't typically announce the name of their shows ahead of time unless it's one of their annual events, such as Glory By Honor, Death Before Dishonor or Final Battle.  However, this is the second time in recent memory that the Edison show was given a name before the date of the show.  Last year, the August 5th show headlined by a championship match between Bryan Danielson and Samoa Joe was billed as the Fight Of The Century.  This time around, the show has been called Battle Of The Icons, and Samoa Joe is once again in a main event title match, but this time he will be challenging Homicide for the ROH World Championship.



This was a hell of a good night of professional wrestling, featuring probably the best Jimmy Rave performance I have ever seen, a classic three way dance between the Christopher Daniels and the recently split Kings Of Wrestling, an incredible six man tag featuring Generation Next, and one of the hardest hitting ROH World Championship matches of all time.  Most of the past twelve months have consisted of one massive star-making match after another for HomicideROH seems to be going all in on building him up as the face of the franchise.

Results:

Jan 27, 2007

Giant Hamburger


Atlas Cheeseburger
Clinton Station Diner - Clinton, NJ
This cheeseburger is made with three pounds of beef and a hell of a lot of cheese on a delicious, buttery bun.  If you can eat it in 45 minutes, it's free.  There's no way on earth that is happening, but it's reasonably priced for the size, and it's very tasty.



The Atlas isn't their only cheeseburger of unusual size that you can order at the Clinton Station Diner.  The biggest one on the menu is called Mt. Olympus.  It's weighs 50 pounds total with 25 pounds of beef.  The next largest is the Zeus, which is a 12 ½ pound cheeseburger with 7 pounds of beef.  Next up is the Atlas, which is the one that I had (5 pounds total, 3 pounds of beef).  There's also the Hercules (3 pounds total, 2 pounds of beef) and the Achilles (1 ½ pounds total, 1 pound of beef).

If you want to go in the other direction, they make something called Nano Bites, which they claim are the world's smallest burgers (to the best of their knowledge) at 0.4 oz.

Jan 25, 2007

The Team To Beat


Jimmy Rollins
Shortstop - Philadelphia Phillies
At a media luncheon, Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins named the Phillies as the team to beat in the division.  It seems to have ruffled the feathers of Mets fans, who seem to believe that winning the 2006 NL East makes them the automatic favorite in 2007.

With a rotation of Freddy Garcia, Brett Myers, Cole Hamels, Adam Eaton and Jamie Moyer, and a potent lineup that includes Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Pat Burrell and Aaron Rowand, I think our shortstop is right.  The time is now for the Philadelphia Phillies (photo source: Philadelphia Inquirer - 1/24/2007).

Source: Lancaster New Era - 1/24/2007

Jan 21, 2007

Cuffed And Caged



Pro Wrestling Unplugged: Cuffed & Caged

ECW Arena - Philadelphia, PA
Pro Wrestling Unplugged is the current project of former ECW owner, Tod Gordon.  They've been having shows at ECW Arena for a few years now, and in an attempt to build off of the success of last year's ROH vs CZW inter-promotional feud, PWU have been in their own war with the Insane Clown Posse led Juggalo Championship Wrestling.  I haven't been to a JCW match since the 2004 Gathering Of The Juggalos so this show was a good opportunity to catch up on what they're up to while at the same time checking out a local indy promotion for the first time.


The show had a good mix of East Coast indy wrestling talent with members of the JCW roster and ECW veterans.  The main event was a 5-on-5 inter-promotional cage match between PWU and JCW, with each team had their leader handcuffed together.  Tod Gordon was leading Team PWU while Shaggy 2 Dope was representing JCW.

The cage match was fought under modified War Games rules.  Nosawa (JCW) and Trent Acid (PWU) started the match, and a new wrestler was introduced every two minutes, starting with a member of JCW because they won the coin toss.  Unlike a traditional War Games match, the main event was held under elimination rules that were similar to a Survivor Series match.  Wrestlers who were pinned or tapped out were eliminated until only one team remained.

The order of entry was:
Hardcore isn't my favorite style of professional wrestling, but this match was pretty damn entertaining.  I was especially impressed with Violent J's performance in the ring.  There have been quite a few celebrities from other entertainment industries to cross over into the world of professional wrestling, but I can't think of anyone who has put the work into it that Violent J has.  He's not going to be mistaken for the Dynamite Kid in the ring, but the dude can work and doesn't look the least bit out of place.

Nosawa, Trent Acid, Johnny Kashmere, Mad Man Pondo, Pete Hunter and Gary Wolfe were each eliminated from the match, which left Corporal Robinson in a 2-on-1 situation against 2 Tuff Tony and Violent J.  At this point in the match, Come Out And Play was played for the second time (Raven's original ECW entrance music) and out he came.  However, instead of giving JCW a 3-on-1 advantage, he attacked his teammates and knocked them both out with an Evenflow DDT.  It looked as if he was siding with PWU, but he then attacked Corporal Robinson as well before grabbing a microphone to declare that he was the biggest star in the building and not a member of either team.  Raven then attempted to walk out, but Shaggy 2 Dope and Tod Gordon put their differences aside to attack him and drag him back to the ring.  The two sides then took turns beating up Raven until he crawled away in defeat to the united PWU and JCW teams. 

It definitely wasn't the finish I was expecting, but I'm guessing that it was done to put an end to the inter-promotional feud without one side having to lose to the other while, at the same time, transitioning to the main event storyline that will follow.  You can never go wrong booking Raven in the main event in Philly, so I'm interested in seeing where it goes from here.


Results:

Jan 7, 2007

Gendo In The Yard


We rescued Gendo from the pound.  At the time, he was all skin and bones and he had difficulty breathing.  The vet put him on prednisone which helps him to breathe without coughing, but he's gained a lot of weight as a side-effect. He's a very happy cat who likes to run and play and lay out in the sun.  He's the only cat I've ever seen who can be let outside in the back yard and he stays right there.