Scott's Blog of Doom

There were some REALLY close votes in this round, as you’d expect by this point, but you probably wouldn’t expect which matches were so close.

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I’ve been laid up this weekend with either mild pneumonia or H1N1 (medical science seems to be unsure at this point) so I figured that since I was on the couch all day anyway, I might as well brave the entire uncut Sengoku show from HDNet.  And it was really good!  Randleman looks damn good for a 38 year old (not, like, Randy Couture good, but good) and there was some entertaining featherweight matches with Japanese guys, and a couple of upsets, but mainly Michael Schiavello was awesome on commentary and totally made the whole thing enjoyable for the whole time.  He was coming up with crazy, off-the-cuff lines (“Those punches have less weight than Kate Moss!”) on a live TV show and it’s tremendous to hear someone who’s obviously such a fan of the sport.  I love Mauro Renallo, but “The Voice” is the guy that Strikeforce needs to lend more cred to their product.  Anyway, I think the edited three-hour version of Sengoku is repeating on HDNet Fights, and it’s well worth checking out, questionable judging aside. 

Also tonight, Strikeforce on CBS, and that went about as well as the network could have hoped for, I think.  All the fights went pretty much the time they needed to go, all the fights were mostly good (aside from the Shields-Miller match, which started hot and then dragged once both guys realized that it was a 5 round fight), and Fedor now looks like a guy who can carry a PPV.  Seriously, what a great fight, and did you SEE that punch?  This was no Kimbo situation where the great hype was exposed as nothing, he backed that shit up, man.  With a BROKEN NOSE, no less. 

So to sum up, coughing + fever + chills = bad, MMA = good.

OK, these are all runaway victories, so let’s call it now and move on:

- Eddie & Chavo Guerrero (71%) cheat and steal their way over Strike Force (29%), as Eddie bribes Martel into turning on his partner with promises of giving him the low-rider.  Of course, Eddie steals it back afterwards.

- RVD & Sabu (72%) handle the Fantastics (28%) without much trouble, as they finish off Fulton with Rolling Thunder to advance into the Sweet Sixteen.  They got a REALLY lucky draw thus far, I’ll say that for them. 

- The British Bulldogs (74%) manhandle the Dudley Boyz (26%), as D-Von gets the tables, but Dynamite comes off the top with a sunset flip to pin Buh Buh Ray in the meantime. 

- And in the biggest rout of the bracket, Tully & Arn (80%) squash Haas & Benjamin (20%) after a spirited go by the World’s Greatest Tag Team. 

So the next round will give us:

- Eddie & Chavo Guerrero v. RVD & Sabu

- The British Bulldogs v. Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson

And that final round of sixteen begins NEXT!

OK, one last bracket to go, and then this weekend we’ll merge everything into one big 16-team tournament to crown the winners.

These are all pretty decisive, so let’s speed things up and get to the next bracket.

- Kane & Undertaker (59%) take out Beer Money (41%) in the closest match of this bracket, but Beer Money were never in serious contention.  Undertaker no-sells the beer bottle and chokeslams Roode to finish.

- The Hollywood Blondes (79%) destroy Money Inc. (21%) in something of a surprise, as Austin finishes Dibiase with the Million Dollar Dream to advance.

- Owen & Bulldog (65%) finish off the Andersons (35%) as Anderson hits the spinebuster on Davey, but Owen comes off the top with a Slammy Award to finish and advance.

- The Hart Foundation (83%) finish off the Hardy Boyz (17%) in a landslide.  Really?  No love for the Hardy Boyz, or are the Harts just that much of a force?  They’re not actually my pick to win the tournament, but I can see it happening.  Jeff misses the Swanton and the Harts finish him with a Hart Attack. 

So for the semis, we’ve got:

- Kane & Undertaker v. The Hollywood Blondes

- The Hart Foundation v. Owen & Bulldog

Whoa nellie, I wanna buy that PPV!

OK, these are all pretty decisive, so I’m calling them now so we can move on.

- Edge & Christian (92%) steamroll the Quebecers (8%) in the Battle of Canada, where the promos were probably awesome. 

- The Outsiders (68%) beat the New Age Outlaws (32%) in the battle to win HHH’s love, as Kevin Nash no-sells the belt shot and powerbombs Billy Gunn to win it. 

- The Megapowers (83%) beat the Koloffs (17%) in an 80s dream match that ended up being little more than a squash.  Big boot and legdrop for Uncle Ivan finish this one off, although you have to wonder how much longer Hogan & Savage can work together.

- The Midnight Express (54%) beat Miz & Morrison (46%) in a wonky result because someone was power-voting for M&M, which completely skewed the numbers to the point where I had to turn off the honor system and restrict voting.  More realistically the numbers would have been about 80%-20% in favor of the Midnights, but either way they advance. 

So for our semi-finals (which I think everyone already predicted) we have:

- Edge & Christian v. The Outsiders

- The Megapowers v. The Midnight Express

That’s gonna be some interesting voting right there.

HDNet is free this month, although I have no desire to drop another $10 a month to get it, no matter how awesome the MMA offerings might be.  Seriously, random K-1 history shows?  AWESOME. 

Anyway, point being, I finally got a chance to sit down and watch an ROH TV show on Monday, and it wasn’t terribly impressive.  I know it’s probably at the end of a taping cycle and the crowd is burned out, but it just didn’t feel like anything special, and what’s with booking a no contest in the Briscoes-Bucks match?  This is supposed to be the land of clean finishes!  Nice to see Nigel putting over Colt Cabana clean on the way out, but it was only like a ** match.  I’ve got another three weeks of shows to catch, though, and it’s something different, so what the heck. 

I also watched a good chunk of TNA Impact this week because I was laid up on the couch with a 100 degree fever tonight and little desire to change the channel before Deadliest Warrior came on, and man, this show is every bit as Russo-riffic as advertised.  They hype up a big Homicide-Red title match at the PPV, then have Bobby Lashley squash Homicide like a bug, and then Red gets his revenge already.  What?  And what’s with giving away a Styles-Daniels match for free, putting Styles over clean, and then expecting us to pay $40 to watch a rematch with Samoa Joe involved as well?  AJ just beat his challenger clean in the middle of the ring, where’s the suspense?  A four year old could book this show better.  Bring on Hulk and his friends, I say, it can’t be any worse.