Officials: 9 to be held to account on Tillman - Military Affairs - MSNBC.com
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March 23, 2007
Less-Violent Mixed Martial Arts a Booming Business
By Pat Graham
Associated Press
AP Business Writer Adam Goldman in New York and AP Writer David Eggert in Michigan contributed to this report.
Ken Shamrock threw his opponent on the mat and cranked his rival's leg back, snapping his ankle moments into the match. The vicious attack didn't begin to satisfy the crowd. They wanted blood, and Shamrock, who calls himself the world's most dangerous man, had merely given them a broken ankle. ''They were throwing things at me,'' said Shamrock of the Denver audience at the first Ultimate Fighting Championship in 1993. ''They were so mad that I had a hard time getting out of the arena. Can you believe it? I broke his ankle, and they wanted more.''
Now, less has become so much more for mixed martial arts, which combines judo, boxing, karate, Muay Thai, kickboxing, tae kwon do, jiu-jitsu and wrestling.
By restricting the violence, the sport has found its way back into the spotlight, attracting new fans without alienating its original hard-core base. ''The way I look at it, it's a fight, and violence sells,'' said Ron Kort, CEO of New Era Fighting, a new MMA series. ''WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) is great, but it's fake. UFC is great, because the violence is there. We're trying to add entertainment with violence.'' And business is booming.
The International Fight League has deals in place with Coca Cola's Vault energy drink, Suzuki and Microsoft's Xbox. Meanwhile, the UFC is challenging WWE in pay-per-view profits, and networks are scurrying to line up MMA shows. The UFC, Japan-based Pride Fighting Championships, King of the Cage and newcomers IFL, Elite Xtreme Combat and New Era Fighting, to name a few, have turned MMA into a big-money venture.
UFC president Dana White, who, with the help of brothers Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, took over and revitalized the struggling company in 2001, welcomes the competition. But he worries a serious injury in any series will damage the sport's carefully refurbished image — one he has spent years and millions of dollars crafting.
''Anyone who can rub two nickels together to buy a cage, and can combine three letters together, is coming into the sport,'' White said. ''But the bad guys and shady companies can end up hurting it. I'm always worried that something bad is going to happen. And it will reflect bad on us.''...More?
source: the.honoluluadvertiser.com
Lord of the Ring
Vince McMahon is the WWE's biggest villain, and he loves it
Adam Graham / The Detroit News
Few people can get away with threatening to shave the heads of an entire arena full of people, but Vince McMahon pulls it off with conviction, style, and -- dare we say -- grace.
While pro wrestling is overflowing with over-the-top, larger-than-life characters, the WWE Chairman is perhaps the most oversized character of all, and he relishes his role as the company's biggest villain.
"This is fun, this is exciting, and that's what the WWE is," McMahon told The News by phone on Thursday. "It's so much fun being me."
It shows. In anticipation of WrestleMania 23 April 1 at Ford Field and his hair vs. hair "Battle of the Billionaires" match against Donald Trump, McMahon talked to us from the WWE World Headquarters in Stamford, Conn., about his in-ring character, Trump, and the steroid scandal that targeted several WWE performers earlier this week....More?
source: www.detnews.com
Queen of Soul to sing for WWE
Adam Graham / The Detroit News
King Booker won't be the only royalty on hand at WrestleMania 23 April 1 at Ford Field.
The Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, will perform "America the Beautiful" at the event, the WWE announced Thursday.
The performance will mark a homecoming, of sorts, for Franklin: She also performed "America the Beautiful" at WrestleMania III in 1987 at the Pontiac Silverdome, and her "Who's Zooming Who?" acted as the event's official theme song.
More than 65,000 tickets have been sold to WrestleMania 23. WWE officials say tickets have been sold in all 50 states and in 22 countries outside of the U.S.
WWE officials announced Thursday they will release between 500 and 700 additional seats for WrestleMania 23 as early as Friday.
source: www.detnews.com
March 21, 2007
March 20, 2007
Triple H vs. The Game - J.R.'s Comments
....So the rapper who calls himself “The Game” is looking to rumble with HHH? Sounds like the rapper needs some publicity. I suggest he attempt to produce more hits and not put himself in a position to be embarrassed not that the real “Game” would give him the time of day. Publicity seeking is all this is....
source: http://www.jrsbarbq.com/blog
Jessup's Doors Slam Shut for Good
This is long overdue. I know people that worked there as correctional officers and a lot of the violence over the years never made it to the press. What should they do with it? I think they should modernize it and move the inmates back. We still need a place to put the scum.
washingtonpost.com
March 19, 2007
More Fallout from Florida Steroid Raid
Wrestlers allegedly tied to drug ring
Documents: 'Edge,' 'Hurricane' allegedly ordered HGH
By: Luis Fernando Llosa and L. Jon Wertheim
....In total, there were 11 professional wrestlers listed in the documents that we saw. Some of these wrestlers are working as independents; some are out of the business entirely; others are first-tier stars. Consider Randy Orton, who allegedly received eight prescriptions for six different drugs -- stanozolol, nandrolone, anastrozole, Clomiphene citrate, oxandrolone and testosterone -- between March 2004 and August 2004. (Through the WWE, Orton declined comment.) Interestingly, according to the documents, Orton's prescriptions came from the same two doctors whose names appeared on the prescriptions in major league outfielder Gary Matthews Jr.'s file.
SI.com: Most of the athletes named in your previous stories were allegedly receiving human growth hormone. It sounds as though the professional wrestlers were allegedly mostly receiving steroids.
Llosa/Wertheim: Right. At some level this stands to reason: The skill-set required for pro wrestling is obviously different from that of most other competitive sports. According to the documents two prominent wrestlers, Adam Copeland, a.k.a. Edge, and Shane Helms, a.k.a. The Hurricane, received HGH. (Through the WWE, Copeland and Helms didn't respond to a request for comment.) But virtually all the others allegedly received a wide variety of anabolic steroids. In each case these were supplied by Applied, the Mobile, Ala., compounding pharmacy that was raided last fall....
source: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com
March 17, 2007
WWE to MIT
MIT University has added a course focusing on professional wrestling. Several WWE personalities including Jim Ross are scheduled to lecture. Below is an official press release:
Good Old JR heads to MIT!
WWE® RAW® Announcer Jim Ross™ Kicks Off Pro Wrestling Lecture Series At MIT
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 15, 2007 –"The Voice of Monday Night RAW" Jim Ross will kick off a series of class presentations and lectures involving WWE personalities to be held at MIT this semester as part of a Comparative Media Studies course focused on pro wrestling in America.
"Good Ol' J.R." Jim Ross will be speaking to students on Wednesday, March 21, and Thursday, March 22, to share his thoughts on the growth of pro wrestling into a global phenomenon through his experience as one of the greatest wrestling announcers ever in the business, as well as his role in handling talent relations and business development for World Wrestling Entertainment® (WWE). Ross will share experiences from his many years in the television industry, as the wrestling industry has moved from TV syndication to cable to pay-per-view to prime time broadcast television, and now to digital media, including DVD, video on demand, the web and mobile phones.
His appearance will culminate in a lecture to students and the public in Room 4-370 at 5 p.m. on March 22 entitled, "This One's Gonna Be a Slobberknocker: A Q&A with WWE's "Good Ol' J.R." Jim Ross," moderated by Sam Ford, the class instructor......More? Click here.
source: www.wrestlingnewsworld.com
Oderint Dum Metuant: Let Them Hate As Long As They Fear
