Sporctober

If you have read any of my previous blog entries you have come to the conclusion that I’m a pretty big sports fan. From football to baseball to basketball, all the way to UFC and pro wrestling -we could spend hours talking about pro wrestling and if I should call it a sport or not. While the results are predetermined, you need to be a complete athlete to perform the way the do, there is no denying that; so I do consider it a for of sports and entertainment- I love watching sports, I’ve played most of them (soccer, baseball, basketball, flag football, bowling) and without a doubt I love talking and writing about them.

That being said, I’m really excited by the way October is shaping up. October brings to us the MLB playoffs and the second month of the NFL season, also kicks off the NBA season (most likely not going to happen this year), so there are a ton of options on stuff to see live. The reason I’m so excited is because I’ll be going to a ton of events that month:

• UFC 136 – October 8th we get UFC 136 live from Houston’s Toyota Center. Just today I bought my plane ticket and made hotel and car reservations for this trip. The card is looking good so far: Demian Maia vs Jorge Santiago, Chael Sonnen vs Brian Stann, Jose Aldo vs Kenny Florian for the Featherweight title, and Frankie Edgar vs Gray Maynard 3 for the Lightweight Championship. If you follow MMA you know that these have the potential to be some of the greatest fights in a long time. Also during the day we get the UFC Fan Expo which should be an interesting event.

UFC 136 Edgar vs Maynard III Poster

• Raiders vs Texans – While these are two teams I don’t really care for, the game will be October 9th so I’ll be in Houston to catch it. Basically any NFL game I can catch live I’ll do. Reliant Stadium is a beautiful venue (was there last year for a great Chargers-Texans game), the Texans have a great high powered offense and I expect the Raiders to suck (which is good for us Charger fans) so the Texans will certainly score a ton of point. Not to bad of a quick Friday-Sunday trip up to Houston.

Reliant Stadium and Reliant Astrodome at night from Kirby Dr.

Inside Reliant Stadium

• WWE Raw Live – every chance I get to see WWE live I’m there, so I’ll take full advantage of them being in town for 2 straight nights. October 12th  is a house show (not taped for TV) but these usually provide the most interaction with fans as the wrestlers have no time constraints and can go out there and have a good time doing their thing. While they don’t bring a big screen and all the stuff you see on TV, you get that interaction that more than makes up for it.
• WWE SmackDown Live – The following night, the 13th, we get Smackdown for another live show. Same as the above, the interaction is well worth the price of admission; also getting to hear some of the guys curse in Spanish is pretty funny. I’m waiting to see who comes out with a soccer jersey (Monterrey has 2 teams), a couple of years ago Michelle McCool came out wearing a Tigres jersey looking for a face pop but half of the arena booed her – I guess most people in attendance were for Monterrey.

CM Punk & Alberto del Rio in Monterrey 05/14/11

• WWE Vengeance. On October 23 WWE will revive the Vengeance PPV (I was at the 2001 edition in San Diego, yeah the one were Chris Jericho was crowned the 1st ever Undisputed Champion, see video below) live from the AT&T Center. While at a Raw taping at the same joing in May WWE announced that the event would be Uprising but quickly changed that. The last couple of Pay Per Views have been really good, lets hope they keep the trend leading to October.

• WWE still has not announced any other events around the PPV, but we’ll most certainly get a show in Austin, maybe Laredo, McAllen or Corpus Christi. This would definitely will be a great way to close out what is shaping up to be a great month.

What cool events do you have on the radar for the coming months?

Mr Khakbaz out!!!

Edge retirement Speech

To go right along with my Thank You blog, here is the Raw part from this Monday where Edge retired.

The following is a fan shot speech Edge gives during Smackdown, not sure how much of it will air but it is a touching moment from one of the great performers of our generation.

A couple of really touching moments that any real fan will enjoy… no more words needed, just

THANK YOU EDGE!!!

Mr Khakbaz out!

Edge – Sayin’ goodbye to a Legend

So tonight on Raw we get the unexpected retirement of Edge. Being the pro-wrestling industry you get that a lot, angles like this come and go but from what I’m reading this is legit. Here a couple of reasons it think this is true:

• After his match at WrestleMania vs Alberto del Rio he destroyed his car in order to further their feud.
• This past Friday on SmackDown a rematch for Extreme Rules was set up.
• This does no fit into any storyline with ADR not making an appearance.
• They went behind the proverbial curtain as a goodbye to Edge.
• Nodq.com reports that everything that Edge said in the promo was legit.

In any case, if this was to be true this a sad/happy day for me as a wrestling fan. Sad because we won’t see one of the true greats of my generation perform for us, he will be truly missed. Happy because, if he said is true, he found out in time to be able to live a healthy life; he made a ton of money, is still young so he will be able to enjoy a great life.

I was fortunate enough to meet Edge during the WrestleMania X7 weeked in Houston (bare with my look, this is 10 long years ago and I was only 14)

The guy was a real class act and took time to greet the fans. He was coming back from the gym and was all sweaty, he kept telling fans that he’d be disgusted to take a picture with a guy as sweaty and smelly as him. He took time to ask every fan where they were from and who was their favorite wrestler (could I really lie by the t-shirt I was wearing?) I talked about Mysterio being one of my favorites and he said it was a dream of him to wrestle with him (that became true a couple of years later when Rey joined the WWE). Met a lot of guys that weekend but Edge was truly one of a kind.

Besides meeting him I was lucky enough to watch some of his greatest matches live. I’ve got 3 that really stand out:

• TLC Match at WM17. This match was the next day after the picture was taken; Edge said he was pretty scared as they were going to try out some crazy stuff, and boy he was not lying! This 3-way tag team match, Dudleys vs. Hardys vs. Edge & Christian was amazing and still one of my favorites 10 years after it happened

• My second favorite match is Edge vs Eddie Guerrero in a No DQ match at Smackdown in September of 2009. They had a PPV match the previous Sunday that was OK but nothing spectacular, but this match was something else. The crowd in San Diego was hot the entire night, but this match made them go overboard, it was about 15 minutes of intense action. Edge picked up the win after a huge DDT from the top of a ladder; after the match everyone gave Eddie a standing ovation and, I believe, this was where his huge rise to the top of the WWE started.

• My final favorite match is a TLC Match for the World Title vs The Undertaker at Extreme Rules. This was an awesome match that saw the Undertaker be fired from WWE, the match was amazing and words can’t do justice to what these to men did that summer night in San Diego

If this is the end of line for Edge, I am really happy for him, I hope he gets healthy and lives a full life and is as successful in anything else he does as he was in the WWE.

Thank you Edge.

Mr Khakbaz out!