Back To The Wrestling Future

I've spent the past few days listening to old radio shows from the spring of 2001 and have found them to be intriguing.

The shows in question are from the now defunct online radio station - eYada - which had Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez's Wrestling Observer Live on each weekday.

I'd spend the evenings listening to this show back in the day and managed to download tons of archived shows about two years ago and have been going through them whenever I have time to kill.

I'm finally on the shows that were going on when the wrestling world changed. ECW went out of business and WCW was sold off in a fire sale to Vince McMahon's WWE.

I mean 'WWF' as it was a year before the panda won his court case.

In yesterday's rehearing, I caught the episode of the day that the WCW sale went through and I couldn't help but feel that a similar day couldn't be that far from the future with TNA being such a mess.

With that said, and with the benefit of hindsight - the mistakes World Championship Wrestling made are massive compared to TNA. I still cannot shake off the feeling we'll see things repeated again but not on the same level.

It was funny listening to the callers - in the days leading up to the sale - thinking that they were being worked by the company after Time Warner had pulled the plug on WCW's television presence.

WCW had conned the fans far too many times that some thought they were being tricked again. Scary stuff.

These MP3s can be a great source for someone who was planning on writing a book on professional wrestling. It captures the emotion and feelings of the audience in those dark days greatly.

A lot of said audience switched off for good that day.

Never to be seen again.

Mark Hughes To Fulham

It's looking like Mark Hughes has agreed to boss Fulham over the next two years.

I feel this is a decent choice of manager for the London-based club as Hughes is one of my favourite managers in football.

Okay, part of it may be because he is a fellow Welshman.

When he coached the Welsh team, he brought out the best in them and they played better than any Wales team I had seen before.

Or since.

His latest job at Manchester City saw him treated abysmally by the owners. They gave up on him too early, if you ask me.

I felt he was the ideal person to take the helm at Celtic earlier this year but the Scottish club decided to rely on Neil Lennon.

After their result this week, I wonder if they're regretting it now.

Celtic's lack of foresight is Fulham's gain.

Shawn Michaels' Internet Presence

Shawn Michaels released a video recently where he is promoting his new website - TheShawnMichaels.com.

Michaels used this video to draw attention to the number of fake accounts on social networking sites where the users are claiming to be him.

It is common knowledge to people who have followed Michaels that he dislikes computer technology so I was always suspicious when I saw 'official Shawn Michaels' Twitter accounts springing up everywhere.

I couldn't wait to see the official Shawn Michaels website so clicked on it and was met by a message from the server saying it was under maintenance.

I guess he still hasn't figured it out!

Celtic Or Rangers? Don't Ask Me, I Still Don't Know!

I walked to the paper shop on Tuesday morning and had a look at the front of this week's Racing & Football Outlook and noticed that I had to buy it.

I always buy this paper during the season but usually stop getting it over the summer. I don't like horse racing that much so I don't see the need in purchasing the newspaper until a few weeks before the season.

I had pencilled in Tuesday August 3rd as the day I would pick up another copy as they usually have a pullout to the upcoming season in the Championship and the leagues below it.

This week's issue had a guide to the Scottish leagues so I thought I would buy it in order to get an angle on the Scottish leagues should I decide to bet on them in my season bet.

The front page of this guide has 'Everything points towards it being Celtic's season', the second page furthers this by recommending a bet on Celtic to win the Scottish Premier League and then - in the middle - it has a write up about all the teams with projections for the upcoming season and they have Glasgow Rangers down as winners.

I know there are different writers with opposing theories but this is ridiculous.

I could have saved £1.80 and threw the money in the air and used heads-or-tails to decide who would win the league.

It would have generated a definitive result.

And I would still have £1.80 to waste on something else.

The Raw Mystery G.M.

It has been a few weeks since WWE introduced a mystery general manager to the show and I still don't like it.

The mystery manager interacts with the show via emails that are sent to a laptop which is situated at ringside. When a mail is received, it sets off an iPhone message alert noise.

It's kind of lame.

No - strike that.

It's very lame.

The emailer leaves little hints in the context of his messages to hint at who it is.

Last night we were led to believe it was either Shawn Michaels or Triple H - a few weeks earlier, the tease was Steve Austin.

In reality, I don't think the writers even know who it is and they are booking themselves into a corner because they have to give the audience a pay-off at the end.

They've teased some big names. It would be a major letdown to those at home if it isn't a major figure.

Premier League Season Handicap Betting

I spent yesterday night looking through the season handicap betting that some bookmakers are offering.

These bets are confusing for the lay bettor but here is my best way of explaining:

For example, Newcastle United have 37 points in this bet. In May, when all the games have been played, these points are added to the amount the Magpies have accrued throughout the season. So - say they have 24 points in the proper Premier League table - the total, including the handicap points, would be 61.

Then you have to factor in the points attained by all other teams as well as the handicap points that the bookmakers have assigned to each team.

It seems tricky doesn't it?

A few years ago, I tried this bet with the Scottish Premier League picking Celtic who didn't have any extra points.

I lost the bet as there were other teams within the league who were able to beat Celtic with their added points tallied up.

The Premier League 2010/11 season handicap intrigues me. I've looked at the last few seasons and averaged out the points that each team have made and then applied the extra points just to see what the potential results could be.

The teams standing out right now are - Tottenham Hotspur (+19 points at Stan James, +16 everywhere else), Aston Villa (+25 points) and Blackburn Rovers (+37 points).

With each-way betting paying out on first to fourth place, I am contemplating putting one of these teams into my season bet.

It's a crapshoot of a bet but it's one that has a good payout if you're lucky.

Below are the teams and points that are currently available at Stan James:

Chelsea (scr)
Man Utd (+3)
Arsenal (+9)
Tottenham Hotspur (+19)
Man City (+7)
Aston Villa (+25)
Liverpool (+15)
Everton (+23)
Birmingham (+36)
Blackburn (+37)
Stoke (+39)
Fulham (+37)
Sunderland (+33)
Bolton (+38)
Wolves (+42)
Wigan (+42)
West Ham (+39)
Newcastle (+37)
West Bromwich Albion (+46)
Blackpool (+49)

What's The Mystery?

With my mother being unable to fly for a few months, my father decided that they would go away on a coach trip in August and travel again in September.

The August holiday begins next Monday and was described as a 'Mystery Trip' so I took great pleasure in telling everyone who asked that I didn't know where they were going.

And nor did they.

Until yesterday.

The company sent them the tickets naming the hotel and place they were staying. The letter also revealed what the holidaymakers will be doing each day of the vacation.

I always thought a mystery trip was meant to be an excursion where you didn't know your destination until you were there.

It's a ridiculous way to advertise a holiday.

My father rang to query the mystery and he was told that the company has to tell its customers so they can prepare their suitcases.

Why not just write 'Bring clothes for beachwear' or 'Bring clothing suitable for city breaks' rather than giving the game away a week before the coach departs?

To lighten up the situation, I told my parents that they could have gone on the murder mystery weekend and would have known who did it before they got there.

I got a groan in response.

Is Wrestler's Rescue A Scam?

In the autumn of 2008, former wrestling valet - Dawn Marie - set up a charity titled Wrestler's Rescue. Its mission was to help retired wrestlers who were in need of aid.

The charity seemed like a good cause. I had heard of fundraisers taking place and had even read that Steve Williams was given a voice box when he was battling the cancer which eventually killed him.

Or so I thought.

News broke this week - via the Hit the Ropes radio show - that Wrestler's Rescue was being investigated by the FBI. It is alleged that Dawn Marie, and the people associated with her charity, have failed to help anyone other than themselves.

Mike Aldren, editor of The Wrestling Globe Newsletter, in an email correspondence with Irv Muchnick wrote that former friends of the valet claim she uses the money from the charity to fly herself across the world to appear at fan conventions and, as she has paid her own flights, asks for a free vending table.

Aldren was sent legal wording from Dawn Marie's lawyers but Aldren - who writes for The Sun newspaper - shot back asking for evidence that Wrestler's Rescue was a registered charity.

It isn't.

I wrote a few years ago about the essay writing scam that Terri Runnels was pulling when she was offering her house to the winner. Of course, the small print read that each contestant had to pay $200 per entry and there had to be five thousand essays for the competition to open.

When this competition failed to generate the number of entries needed, refunds were meant to have been issued minus a $20 'administrative fee'.

I'm not going off in a tangent. There is a reason why I am bringing up the 'Make the World Write' scam as Terri Runnels is alleged to have been involved with Wrestler's Rescue as well.

The charity seems dodgy but should we be surprised?

Professional wrestling has had a long history of being associated with con men and fraudsters.

Wrestler's Rescue seemed like a genuine cause and I would hate to think that a lot of people have handed over their money believing they are helping their heroes when, in reality, they were sponsoring an alleged con artist using the dark, post-career fate of many as a hook.

With that said, the evidence against Wrestler's Rescue is strong.

Too strong.

Ban 'Em

One of the things I am not looking forward to in the upcoming football season is something that I thought I had seen - or rather heard - the last of a few weeks ago.

Vuvuzelas.

Thankfully, a lot of clubs have issued bans on the instrument that ruined my enjoyment of the 2010 World Cup.

There are, however, certain clubs that are embracing the horns.

Blackpool - for instance - believe that the drone can inspire the players.

Yeah, whatever.

The Royal National Institute for Deaf People has recorded that the sound is over 125 decibels - that's more than a road digger.

I say ban 'em.

Season Betting

Now that we're only a few weeks away from the first day of the football season, I am looking at ideas on which teams to put in my annual antepost bet.

I don't even know which bet to do this year.

My 2009/10 bet receipt is still inside an envelope and in a drawer in one of my bedrooms - I have not had any courage to walk into the betting shop and cash it in.

I would look a right plank handing it over.

My calculations - after Brazil were knocked out of the World Cup - showed that I was only expecting a few pence back so I didn't see the point of cashing it.

It would be embarrassing to walk in with an £80 bet receipt and leave with a little over 40p.

It could have been worse.

But I doubt it would have made me feel any better!

Christmas Movies... But, It's The Summer!

I have been babysitting my one-year old nephew the past few days and have sat through tons of kids TV shows in an attempt to occupy him.

Did you know that Fireman Sam is now computer animated nowadays?

Well, now you do.

Whilst surfing through the cable box in search of the children's channels, I landed upon the Movies 24 station which I always use to watch the Christmas films for my Christmas Day posts on this blog.

I was surprised to see that there was a festive movie on at the time I was browsing through the listings.

And then I noticed the next film on the schedule was a Christmas themed.

And the one after that.

The entire day was filled with Christmas made-for-TV movies.

I bet the summer holidays got off to a good start in some homes with the children giving their parents a list of things they would like in five months time.

The 2008 and 2009 Christmas Film posts can be viewed here.

Drogba To Manchester City?

I had heard the rumours of Didier Drogba being linked to Manchester City and the move seems even more possible with the daily papers revealing that the Northern club have offered £20Million for the Ivorian.

I was high on Manchester City this time last year. I felt the club had the potential to win the Premier League or - at the very least - break into the top three.

They didn't.

This summer, I am not so positive on their chances mainly due to the letdown of last term.

Having Drogba will help them but it's going to take a lot more to etch a mark on the dominance of Manchester United and Chelsea.

I can see the Citizens having a good cup run but topping the Premier League table is a long shot.

I have been wrong before, though.

Walking A Golden Mile

I found William Regal's autobiography - Walking a Golden Mile - to be one of the most interesting wrestling books that has been written.

Regal, born Darren Matthews, was born in Staffordshire and became a professional wrestler during the time wrestling was a main fixture on ITV.

His career is chronicled throughout the book starting with his debut in the carnival-type bouts he took part in up in Blackpool all the way to his current employment as a star for World Wrestling Entertainment.

I found the stories of his time working in the UK and Europe to be very interesting as it's a territory that only Tom Billington and Bret Hart have covered in their memoirs.

His comical interactions with Giant Haystacks were a charming read.

I first learned of Regal when he was under the alias 'Lord' Steven Regal when he worked for World Championship Wrestling in 1993.

His bout against Ric Flair in the Cardiff International Arena was also mentioned. I have fond memories of that show myself as it was the first American wrestling event I attended.

Matthews is brutally honest about his alcohol and drug addictions that could have ended his life. It was shocking to see what he put his body and his family through and was kind of inspiring to see how he managed to turn his life back around and regain his employment with WWE.

Money In The Bank

Tonight is WWE's latest pay-per-view offering - Money in the Bank.

It will be the first time that a PPV will be named after this gimmick match where a briefcase holding a WWE title contract will be hovering over the ring and each participant must fight each other in order to ascend the ladder to claim the prize.

The regular Money in the Bank match takes place at WrestleMania and the winner can cash in their contract at any point in the twelve months following their victory.

The gimmick has been well received and has led to furthering the careers of many of its winners.

I do have reservations about the matches tonight, though.

Out of the sixteen performers - in the two matches combined - five of them have already been world champion. There are others in these two matches that have already been in world title situations, too.

The magic of this gimmick is that it was given to someone fresh; I have a feeling that we'll see something stale by 3am UK time.

Playbook 2010 Football Handicapper's Yearbook

Last year, I bought a copy of the Playbook 2009 Football Handicapper's Yearbook in order to help me with the challenge of betting on American football.

It was such a headache trying to secure a copy as I had email communication with the editor and his staff and they were unsure how much it would cost to send me a copy of the magazine.

I had even tried getting my cousin in Arizona and my friend who moved to Canada to try and get a hold of a copy.

Eventually, I went back to the publishers and subscribed to their weekly newsletter for the NFL season and secured a free copy of the magazine although I did have to pay the cost of postage but that's fair enough.

As soon as the magazine was published this year, I went back into 'what shall I do?' mode and was finding ways to get the 2010 version.

Thankfully, I found old copies being sold on the High Stakes Bookshop (based in London) website so emailed the owner and asked him whether they would have the latest version in stock. He went out of his way and managed to get me a copy.

The magazine is a good handbook and gives a lot of pointers and historical data to look for in the upcoming season.

If I am to be completely honest, last year's issue didn't do me any good as I found myself in predicaments where I couldn't decide whether to bet on what was written or not.

I was torn with a lot of the decisions in the book.

I'm sure I will end up in similar situations this year but it's good to have the statistics there in front of me so I don't bet blindly.

Another Invasion

TNA is doing its own invasion angle.

I've just read reports from last night's episode of Impact and it seems that the former ECW stars that work for the company are going to be a part of a clique of guys hellbent on interrupting TNA.

Historically, it has worked.

But failed.

The main invasion storyline that worked wonders for business was the New World Order in World Championship Wrestling. This group was formed in 1996 and spearheaded the renaissance of pro wrestling in the latter part of that decade.

Eventually, however, the NWO were booked too strongly and the fans at home felt little compassion towards the WCW performers.

By 2001, WCW - as a company - was dead.

When WCW folded and Vince McMahon bought it's trademark, the WWF tried their own invasion angle featuring stars from WCW and ECW.

It flopped.

They tried other attempts at ECW invasions over the years and have yielded the same results.

Flops.

The most recent invasion angle on WWE television has seen the rookie stars of NXT become a nuisance to the regular WWE performers.

It's been more hit than miss and I am enjoying it. But, with that said, we still have a long way to go before we can look back and say whether it was a success or not.

Total Nonstop Action are in a spot where they are throwing mud against a wall and hoping something sticks. The Hulk Hogan experiment has been a failure (I really should write about that one of these days) and Dixie Carter has been desperately trying to talk Paul Heyman into joining the company as the head booker.

ECW was Heyman's baby so this angle may be one of the carrots being dangled in front of the writer. Ironically, in a recent interview, Heyman went on record to say that wrestling is in a major slump and - for it to go to the next level - it needs to move with the times.

ECW in 2010 is not moving with the times.

Oh, and let's not forget that TNA will have to do an ECW invasion angle without using the words 'ECW'. ECW is now a trademark of WWE so they'll have Mr. McDevitt ready to pounce if anything is said on TV to promote a WWE trademark.

Judging from the reports I read this morning, the opening angle was well done. But, like with the invasion going on in WWE right now, we can only judge the angle in weeks or months from now and not by the opening shot.

The Endorsement

Last summer, I read a number of American football betting books and one that stood out the best was How To Beat The Pro Football Poinstspread by Bobby Smith.

I gained a lot of knowledge from this easy-to-follow guide that I emailed the author and told him how his insight had helped me gain a better understanding.

He replied thanking me for taking the time to contact him and that was the end of our communication.

I was online yesterday morning and - as I plan to reread the manual in a number of weeks - I decided to browse the website that the book spawned from.

While searching through the site, I found a page where there were testimonials for the book and noticed that someone called 'David' had been quoted.

There were so many things I took out of your book. Things that I had thought about before but had no idea how to implement so thank you for your insight. -- All the best, David

The 'all the best' before the name is exactly how I finish emails or letters so I had a look at my Hotmail account, found the email I had sent last May, and realised that it was definitely my words endorsing the book.

I stand by what I wrote. It is an insightful book if handicapping NFL games is your thing. Like I said a few paragraphs ago, I'll definitely be looking through it again with the season only two months away.

I guess there is only one way to finish today - all the best.

Renewed

The current domain name has been renewed for another year so I guess I've signed myself down to continue posting things on this blog.

I had a look back this morning to say how long my run has gone for and I was sort of surprised to see that I have passed the four year mark of ensuring I leave a post a day.

Of course, there have been times when I've cheated and written something to be published the following morning. Regardless, four years of continuous posts is a good milestone.

For me, anyway.

I've had the occasional day where I think it's not worth carrying on with the blog. My original plan was to do it for a year but I got into the flow and haven't stopped.

I want to see how long I can go before I miss a day.

I cannot see the daily posts ending any time in the near future.

It's going to take an act of God or Google, whichever happens to come first, that will put an end to my run of continuous posts.

7-1*

It has plagued me since the summer of 2005. Losing fantasy football to the man named, Turbo Chef!

I had taken part in seven competitions (5 Premier League, 1 Euro 2008 and 1 World Cup 2006 contests) and - in each and every competition - he was above me in the table at the close of the season.

We spend most of the time neck-and-neck or a few points adrift of each other through each competition.

But - he always ends up winning.

Not anymore.

I finally beat him at his own game in the fantasy World Cup 2010 competition.

It's a mild win for me, however, as he was sidelined with an illness a few days before making his picks and told us all that he would be unable to keep his team as perfect as he would like.

So, I'll take my win but put an asterisk next to it and hope he's well enough for the next six tournaments we take part in.

Eclipse

I went ever so slow reading Stephanie Meyer's Eclipse because I wanted to coincide me finishing it with the date the film was released.

I closed the book for good on Friday and saw the film on Saturday. Perfect timing, huh?

Both the novel and movie were good.

I obviously preferred the book as, just like I have mentioned in the Twilight and New Moon write-ups, there are certain parts that weren't in the movies.

The end of the book was missing from Eclipse and - as I haven't read Breaking Dawn yet (it's on order) - I cannot say whether the absence of this scene will help or hinder the next movie's narrative although it's possible the beginning of the next film could have it.

It's probably just me being nit-picky as usual, though.

World Cup Post-Mortem

Well, it's hours from being over so I guess it's time to throw out some observations from the past month.

- I read about vuvuzelas going in to the tournament and assumed that they would only be played during the games that South Africa were playing in. Instead, we had to endure this waspy sound through nearly every game. I bloody hate this things. Truth!

- Thank God for mute buttons and iPods.

- I spent four years telling anyone who would listen how I correctly predicted that France and Italy would be the finalists in the 2006 World Cup. I did the same bet this year, albeit guessing the two teams would be Argentina and Brazil. It won't sound as good saying how great I was predicting the 2006 World Cup now that there has been another one since.

- Hey, did I ever tell you I correctly predicted the 2006 World Cup finalists?

- Gary Lineker is so much better than Adrian Chiles. Chiles is the most unfunniest man in Britain.

- Damn, I forgot all about James Corden.

- It was great to see Diego Maradona again. He was one of my favourite players as a child and I would have liked to have seen him lift and kiss that trophy twenty-four years after doing it as a player.

- Brazil WILL win 2014.

- My lucky cap says so.

-Well, it's not that lucky.

- I have to stick to my guns and cheer on Spain tonight. As I have written on here before, I noticed there was a lot of hate towards their chances on a Las Vegas message board I frequent and I felt it was undeserving considering how great the team have been since around the time of the 2008 European Championships.

- Where can I buy a fortune telling octopus? I need one for September.

Evening update - Spain win!

2nd & 3rd Losers

Is there any point in having a third place game at the World Cup?

To me, it's a waste of time sitting there watching a game for ninety minutes - or more - with both teams fighting to become the third and fourth place in the tournament.

It must be even more uninspiring to play in a game where, whether you win or not, you're still a loser.

I have a feeling Uruguay will win tonight's game.

I'm basing this on which squad will be more likely to phone it in and Germany strike me as that sort of team now that they have nothing to play for.

I'm not going to bet on it, though.

Lex Luger : Where Did It All Go Wrong?

I had kept meaning to write something about Lex Luger but, every time I was thinking of a topic, he was always far away from my mind.

Until now.

Luger was the shining example of an '80s wrestler. He had the muscular looks and an average to terrible work-rate. A lot of his matches were the pits. There are always exceptions but it had more to do with who his opponent was than anything else.

In recent years, Lex Luger is a shell of his former self having spent years confined to a wheelchair and now in use of a walking stick.

Gone is the larger than life frame. What is left is a down on his luck human being.

I heard a radio interview with him a number of months ago and I found him to be a very humble person who has now found God and realises the mistakes he had made through his life.

Luger, you see, had a reputation for being a prima donna during his times in WCW and the then WWF.

Arrests, the death of his girlfriend Miss Elizabeth and other things in the 21st Century have brought him down to levels where he could be classed as the real-life version of Mickey Rourke's Randy 'The Ram'.

And then some.

Luger was supposed to be the 'Next Hulk Hogan'. Wrestling magazines would tout this throughout the latter part of the 1980s all the way through the 1990s.

The closest he came to being the successor came in 1993 when he was pushed to the moon by Vince McMahon's promotion machine in the build up to that year's SummerSlam where he went on a publicity tour throughout America on board a bus titled The Lex Express.

The hype was big all summer long for the new American hero as he was making a bid to unseat the WWF champion, Yokozuna.

And then the event came along and Luger won.

Via count-out.

As a lot of fans will realise, titles can never be won in this manner so the glorious moment of seeing Luger raise the WWF title fell by the wayside.

It's incredible to think about all that promotion they put behind the star only to have his legs pulled out from under him at the moment where they should have put the strap on him.

With WrestleMania X taking place the following year, it's conceivable to believe that the original idea was for him to chase the belt all the way to the more marquee event. The fans weren't buying it, however.

Luger's opportunity had been and gone - they wanted Bret Hart to reclaim the belt.

And so he did.

Luger went on to wrestle in the midcards and eventually left WWF in the autumn of 1995 when he made his debut on the first ever WCW Monday Nitro only twenty-four hours after wrestling for the WWF. The reason why he was able to jump ship with no notice was because he had been working without a valid contract.

After the surprise appearance, he was the name of the industry yet again.

It didn't last, though.

Luger was back to being in upper midcard positions on the wrestling cards and only seeing occasional main events and world title victories.

I often wonder what would have happened had he won that belt at SummerSlam '93. I was a young teenager at the time and I too felt letdown at the close of that match.

If he had won that title, he would have been the standard bearer for years to come and it's hard not to wonder whether fate would have dealt him such bad cards later in his life.

Of course, we'll never know the answer but the fall of Lex Luger - as far as I can see - began the moment he was denied the opportunity to be the top guy in the WWF and, more importantly, the next Hulk Hogan.

Buffering, Buffering, Buffering

I usually wake up in the early hours of the morning and turn on an American radio station to listen to to make me drop back off to sleep.

It's usually a host interviewing stars of sport and I sometimes get lucky in knowing who is being interviewed.

There are lots of times, however, where I am listening to something I have no knowledge of. This morning was not one of those occasions.

The guest was Shaun Assael who was on to promote his book - Sex, Lies & Headlocks: The Real Story of Vince McMahon and the World Wrestling Federation.

I read this book way back in 2000 and, from what I recall, was a decent biography of Vince McMahon.

The only negative I can write about it is it's definitely outdated with it being over ten years since it was written.

The interview started off well although the nitpicker in me did notice Assael got a few years wrong when describing key moments in WWF history.

And then the buffering began.

I couldn't catch the flow of the conversation as the iPhone app began buffering. Ironically, with the book being published in 2000 it felt like I was listening to an Internet stream from the same timeframe with the amount of stop-and-start I was experiencing.

It was 56K modem time all over again.

The problem was finally resolved after ten minutes and I was laying there listening once more until it stopped dead in its tracks.

The thirty minute sleep timer I had set had kicked in.

Typical!

Eating European Humble Pie

It's looking like I'll have to cheer on Spain tonight.

With both Argentina and Brazil out of the World Cup, I decided I would like to see Uruguay win it.

Well, they disobliged last night by losing to Holland.

I'm certainly eating humble pie because - in the months leading up to the tournament - I discounted any European team's chance of success because of the trend that teams from the same continent have won the Cup.

The only exception to this rule are Brazil.

Go look at every other World Cup venue and winner and you'll notice the pattern, too.

Earflier this week, my friend told me that my anti-Europe theory was looking flimsy. I got into defence mode and exclaimed 'Hey, I still have a 25% chance!'

And then Uruguay lost.

I have respected Spain for a few years but I've been even more harsh on their chances of success this year.

My best friend is half-Spanish and I have ribbed him good and proper for the past few months. Every time he would argue for Spain, I'd let him know how succesful my theory was.

Just the other day, I ribbed him over it.

I bought him a Spain cap and hid it inside my coat when I was about to give it to him. I then put a Brazil cap I had also bought and put it inside a bag. I handed it over to him and said 'I've got you something'. He pulled the cap out and the look on his face was legendary. 'It's so you can support a proper team' I added.

He called me a 'cheeky twat' before I let him in on my deception.

He's laughing more now.

A European team will win the World Cup. There's no doubt about it now. I have no incetive to root for any team now that my favourites have been eliminated so I am going to pick Spain as my friend will profit from it.

Had I decided to bet on Argentina or Brazil in single bets, I would have ended up hoping for a Spain win, anyway.

Stan James - as I think I have written on this blog a while ago - are refunding all losing World Cup bets if Spain go on to win.

I would have needed them to win so I could get my stake back.

Martha Hart .VS. WWE

It has been a few weeks since I heard of Martha Hart attempting to sue World Wrestling Entertainment and I am still torn for an opinion on the whole thing

For those who don't know, Martha Hart is the widow of Owen Hart. He is the wrestler that was killed in a botched stunt at the Over The Edge pay-per-view in May of 1999.

The Harts were paid $18 million in a settlement and it is now alleged that part of this agreement was that Owen's name and likeness wouldn't be promoted for profit and that he would be erased from history.

Martha Hart learned that WWE were going to release a Hart Family DVD earlier this year and tried to put a stop to it by sending out a cease-and-desist letter.

As WWE owns the copyright to all their material, the courts felt there was nothing that could stop production.

Hart also claims that she has not been paid any royalties for any of her late-husband's appearances on WWE merchandise since the settlement in 2000.

I have a hard time believing that WWE would be foolish enough to not pay out on royalties. I've heard countless wrestlers state many times that WWE are good at paying out on royalties especially to those who have left the company.

It's scandalous to think they didn't pay anything to Owen Hart's widow for all these years.

As a wrestling fan, I would hate for all Owen Hart's career to be erased from history but, as a human being. I would like Hart and her children to get what ever they are entitled to.

An ESPN Classic

I received an email on Friday morning reminding me that ESPN will be airing classic episodes of Monday Night Football tonight.

The series will run for ten weeks as a build-up to the launch of the NFL season where ESPN have the rights to air Monday Night Football over here.

The email did sort of spoil it, however:

'First up - at 8:oopm on Monday July 5th - will be the 2006 matchup between Arizona and Chicago which saw the Cardinals almost pull off a dramatic upset at the previously undefeated Bears.'

Was it necessary to give us the outcome of the game?

An Upset On The Horizon?

My gut instinct is kicking in once again and telling me that Brock Lesnar will lose against Shane Carwin in tonight's UFC event (in a few hours after this blog is posted).

Lesnar defends the UFC world heavyweight championship for the first time since July 11th 2009.

He hasn't fought since that time due to contracting mononucleosis which resulted in him being unable to train for a lengthy period of time.

He is meant to have been healed now and has been back in training for months in preparation for tonight's fight but I have a feeling we're in for an upset.

I'm basing this on the fact that he hasn't fought in nearly a year and is coming off a serious illness which could have forced him to retire.

With that said, he could also be more up for the fight and the time off may work in his favour.

Either way, it will be an interesting bout but I'm sticking with Carwin.

Sunday Update - Wow, how close was I? Lesnar was beaten to a pulp in the first round and took some incredible punishment but managed to hold on to the buzzer (or bell or whatever you want to call it). Brock ended up winning by tapping out Carwin in the second round and has now been given the moniker 'The Baddest Man on the Planet'. Sometimes, it's good to be wrong!

Brazil Out

Well, I did say I had probably ridden my luck so far in World Cup betting.

Brazil losing to Holland yesterday means that it was the first time I have lost a World Cup antepost bet since 1998.

I won in 2002 by backing Brazil and cashed in with both France and Italy contesting the 2006 final.

I'll be cheering Argentina on now. In fact, I have always believed they would win the trophy with Brazil finishing in second place.

As for Brazil - they'll be at an advantage in 2014 as they will be playing the tournament at home.

Injured Dragon

It was reported last night that Ricky 'The Dragon' Steamboat was hospitalised on Tuesday night after suffering a brain aneurysm.

Steamboat, who is fifty-seven years old, is under 24-hour observation in intensive care but has been listed as stable.

He was involved in an angle on Monday night's edition of Raw where he was attacked by the NXT rookies after they ambushed him and other legends during a segment on the show.

Ironically, a DVD celebrating his career was released on the same day that he was rushed to hospital.

'The Dragon' wrestled mainly in the NWA facing Ric Flair in some classic bouts.

He also wrestled in the then WWF and competed in one of the greatest matches in the company's history when he wrestled 'Macho Man' Randy Savage at the third WrestleMania in 1987.

He retired in 1994 after suffering a career ending injury but returned to the ring for numerous matches in the middle of last year following his induction into the WWE Hall of Fame.

A Step Too Far?

I subscribe to a comedy video uploader on YouTube but I was appalled at one of his recent videos.

Without giving him any publicity by naming him or his uncle, their videos are hidden camera pranks where they mess around with people in public places.

There are some that I don't find that funny.

The main ones they do are pranks where they have a fart machine and break wind beside people in order to catch their reaction. As an analogy, the best way I can describe these videos, is that it's a bit like the BBC 1 show - WipeOut - when you've seen it once is there any point watching it again?

It gets tedious.

The videos I find the most humour in is when him or his uncle are visiting supermarkets in the USA and they put items into other people's shopping trolleys claiming they 'don't need that' or taking things out of the carts saying 'I need that'.

The recent video went a step too far, however.

All of the previous videos featured a number of different people being pranked. The one from yesterday featured one old man.

The first skit showed the younger of the two comedians trying to take a 7-Up bottle from the man's trolley. The man, obviously frustrated, told the prankster to 'go away'.

It prompted more attacks from the two comedians throughout the video.

It made for uncomfortable viewing seeing this elderly person being treated in this manner. It got to the stage where they dumped a number of items into his trolley and the gentleman picked them out and threw them out at them.

I can't understand why they hounded the man. Decent people would have realised the joke had already gone too far.

A number of the comments on the site agreed with my stance on it. They too felt it had crossed the line and was bordering - if not landing right on - bullying and harassment.

My comment was immediately removed by the comedian along with all other messages that disgusted people had left. All that was left were appraisals from viewers who evidently don't know any better.

He removed the video later that day but there are still a lot of people posting messages on his channel page requesting him to repost it.

It's quite sickening to think there are people desperate to see this kind of stuff again.