Favorite Wrestling Moments in 2011

Well, I know there's still some time left in the year, but so much has happened this year that really had me excited about being a wrestling fan, and I wanted to showcase a few of them.

1. CM Punk sounds off starting the Summer of Punk



How awesome was this. Even knowing wrestling is scripted and they wouldn't let something like this last more than two seconds if it wasn't supposed to be there, it had people talking again and created a buzz that professional wrestling has been lacking for a long, long time. It was great to see someone vent the frustration not only he was feeling, but a lot of jaded wrestling fans too.
I still get chills watching this.

2. Davey Richards wins the ROH Championship

The build up was great, the story was emotional, and the match was incredible. Davey Richards finally reached the top of the ROH ladder when he defeated his former tag team partner Eddie Edwards at Best In The World 2011 to become the Ring Of Honor Champion. The speech at the end was very moving, especially since all he said was true. I was laying in bed with the flu watching this on Go Fight Live and even as sick as I was I remember being so excited for him.

3. Daniel Bryan wins Money In The Bank



I know he is the World Heavyweight Champion right now, but this had more emotion to it. No one really expected WWE to give him the chance. When he reached up and got the briefcase after a dramatic ending, I remember having goosebumps, and being proud. This guy has worked his ass off, as have Punk and Richards as well, and it paid off.  *the video was the best quality I could find*


Other Moments

James Storm becomes TNA Heavyweight Champion - I HATE TNA and this moment was one I had to witness and was actually happy. But they fucked it all up.

CM Punk crashes comic con - It just added to the realism of the summer of punk storyline. adding to the buzz CM Punk created.

Kevin Steen crashes Best in The World - He is the Anti-Christ of professional wrestling. Such another buzz worthy moment for ROH


What were some of your favorite moments of the year?

I have high hopes for 2012, should be a good one.

Until next time, keep it rockin'

Background Noise

It's the age of the internet, right? Where do people go for their news? The Internet. They hit up TMZ or Perez Hilton so many times a day seeing how many high profiled snatches were in view for the day.

That's just sad.

A lot of people have lost the whole idea of giving a shit about what is going on in their own backyard, and they only care about following up on what is happening on the main story on US Weekly.

When you really look for it, there is coverage of talent on your area...and also, the talent is in who is covering it.

Have you been checking out Background Noise? If not I can't tell you how much you need to be checking this podcast out.

Luke James, Devin Deuville, Derrek Ord, and Jon Sangster are a group of fellas who are in touch (not like that bullshit tabloid riddled shit-zine) with what is going on in the local HRM scene and in "mainstream".

They have an opinion, a discussion and it's not fabricated shit like you see Mario Lopez (I am a Slater fan, but fuck off) or Seacrest ramble on about.

You'll hear what they say, and why they're saying it, and say "holy shit!....That's why I feel that too." I guarantee you.

It's just good to hear a real point of view on what is happening in the world.
There's too many times stuff is sugar coated because of a pay off we're not seeing.

It's sad but this is how it has become in life, "Real is Rare". "Reality" is scripted with most people, but goddamn Background Noise is a small sliver of what he have left that is real.

I have found myself, in the past few years looking for an outlet of how I feel. I mean, really, who am I? Just a guy who hosts a radio show on a small station and writes out a few opinions that he can share on twitter.....@bradfordml ;) anyways, I have been taking the train home and back to here and there's only so much music you can listen to to get you through a 7 hour ride. Thank god for twitter! Seriously! I don't know how myself and the BGN fellas got connected, but I can't thank *insert your higher power here* enough for it. Not only have I gotten through long rides but I have battled homesickness with it.


Bottom line - If you want to feel connected to an issue, feel a part of something, and not feel insulted by political bullshit, Background Noise is for you. You know what's going on and are not brainwashed by a specific party. Imagine having a conversation about a topic and not hating someone after it despite them having a different view.


I can't rave this podcast enough. Seriously! Check out their main site here


I may have to go back and edit this blog because I will be more informed on them, but go check them out right now!!!!




I'm online on twitter @bradfordml but also follow Luke of Background Noise @lukejamesbgn or Derek @derrekbgn


Until next time, keep it rockin'

Ready to Ramble

I don't get on here as much anymore and I'm honestly not sure why.

A lot has happened in Pro Wrestling and I'm just going to throw some opinions around about a few stories.

Bobby Roode comes up short against Angle

Well let me be honest. I streamed this event for free...and that is actually a huge sign of me finally caring about what TNA has been doing, cause up until now, I couldn't even be bothered to do that. The build for Bobby Roode has been amazing, they were really on the right path with establishing a home grown talent. But politics again took charge and prevented a major moment from happening for a company who desperately needs one.

But it's supposed to be okay because even though Roode came up short in a fine match against an injured Kurt Angle, apparently James Storm beats Angle within minutes on Impact to become the new champion....there's the big picture, brother!

Hogan and Bischoff have this goal to swerve the IWC, and that's pretty damn sad considering Bischoff went on calling the IWC the 10 percenters that don't matter.

I'm happy for Storm don't get me wrong, I think he's awesome, but this build for Roode was too good and the flushed it down the shitter...again.


JR gets fired, again

Johnny Ace is a great character to hate. Or is that go away heat he has...either way, you just know that he's as much of a weasel behind the scenes as he is on camera, and that makes you just want to see him get his ass kicked at some point.

But the whole firing JR thing just pissed me off to where I wanted to turn the show off. I'm sick of the way that man gets treated. Whether it's on camera following a script (that he never knows about) or behind the curtain.
Vince needs to get his jollies because he wants people to know he calls the shots. The people want JR and Vince wants to stroke his ego.

Sorry Vince, JR is way better than anyone else you can bring in. Especially Michael Cole, who as a heel, dip shit character should not be your play by play commentator.

I really hope Josh Matthews gets a promotion soon. But I hope for his sake, the people don't praise him or he'll end up kissing Vince's ass on television.


The falling stock of Morrison

This poor bastard! He's talented, he's over with the fans. Sure his mic skills need ..well..a lot of work, but give him a manager or something. Oh wait, none of that matters, because he dates a girl who doesn't work there anymore, who has caused problems backstage when she was there. So, the best way to handle her issues is to not only fire her and have the problem be gone, but we'll take this could be future Champion and job him out worse than T.L. Hopper.

There's got to be more to it than that.

There's reports that his contract is almost up and he may go to TNA where he'll become Morris Johnson, or John Hennigan, or who knows what. But it'll continue the pattern of TNA where since he has WWE on his resume, he'll be pushed to the moon over their own talent. I wouldn't mind a push for Morrison there, but not because of where he came from.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see...but I don't know how much more burying I can watch.



ESPN E:60 Scott Hall Special


If you didn't see this, you can by clicking here, but it isn't the easiest thing to watch. I remember being a kid and Razor Ramon was larger than life. He was a mega star in my eyes, and a great IC Champion. He had it all.
Nowadays, he might as well change his name to Randy "the Ram". Except he still has family by his side, including his son Cody whom Hall is helping train to become a pro wrestler.

I just hope Cody sees how things went for his father and learns through him more than just how to fall on the mat.


That's my ramblings for now about what has happened in the world of Pro Wrestling.

you can follow me on twitter @bradfordml

Until next time, keep it rockin'

#DearVince

Dave Lagana has been doing a great job in getting a social media movement going as far as making Professional Wrestling be a mainstream topic of discussion.

One of my favorite hashtags he started was #DearVince. I don't know how it didn't become a trending topic (or maybe it did) but it brought out some very interesting tweets.

As I've been watching wrestling lately, even me, one of the most naive fans who is willing to put up with a lot, has really been pushed to almost just turn it off. Things have not been making sense even more so than usual.

So I figured here I would just write out a few #DearVince tweet style messages questioning recent story lines.

#DearVince, how the fuck can you get a meeting with board members when in storyline you were fired?

#DearVince why the fuck are you nice to a guy who tried to steal your company's championship and who caused you to lose your job in the first place?

#DearVince, Fuck off with the JR humiliation bullshit already! I hate listening to Michael Cole, and even more so when he's just your puppet.
#DearVince quit hot shotting angles for a tv rating that never improves.

#DearVince remember when you did good ratings? there was long term booking then. is it that hard to realize that you should go back to the methods that worked?

#DearVince when are you officially changing the WWE to WCW and your last name to Bischoff?

#DearVince when people say go back to the way wrestling was in 2000, they meant in WWE not WCW.

#DearVince fuck your ego!

I could go on and on and on, but I'll save that for later

If you have any #DearVince's of your own. throw them around on twitter. And give props to @Lagana since he was the guy who started that, and #IWantWrestling.

Listen to his I Want Wrestling Podcasts too, on iTunes and also his website iwantwrestling.com

you can follow me on twitter as well @bradfordml

Until next time, keep it rockin'

Importance of Ratings

Every week after Raw and Impact (other shows as well, but mainly these two) I and a lot of others await to see just how well did the shows do in the ratings.
Were they up? Down? The same? Are they bringing in new viewers? losing a certain demo?

I work a lot of back shifts as of late, which has resulted in me listening to a huge amount of archived Wrestling Observer Radio shows, and I heard the ratings for RAW a few years ago being in the high 3's. Today the average rating seems to be a 3.3 which is roughly 4-5 million viewers. (I'm horrible with guessing numbers like that.)

Then I got curious about what the highest rating was and looked back to see that in September of 1999, which had the "This is your life" segment featuring The Rock and Mankind pulled in an 8.4 rating with 11.5 million viewers.

What the hell happened? Where did all of those "loyal" viewers go? What made them stop watching the product?

WWE has become so obsessed with the weekly ratings, that as soon as they a drop in the ratings and analyze where they lost most viewers, that can have a dramatic effect on a Superstars push and storyline.
I can see where they're coming from, but aren't they acting too fast?

Is a weekly rating what they should be focused on mainly anyways?

I get curious when it comes to PPV buys too. WWE averages 80-100 thousand on an average B level PPV and anywheres from 350-1 million buys on a major show like Royal Rumble or Wrestlemania. What leads to a good buy rate, one would think, would be how well did they sell the event. Did they make it worth paying money for?

UFC fight night on Spike had one of their highest ratings in March of this year, with a 1.5!! Averaging 2.2 million viewers. Can you imagine if Monday Night Raw did that?? They would be re-formatting the whole show, pushes would be stalled and extreme measures would be taken.
For UFC that was a reason to celebrate. You know why? It's a free event that on paper an average fan would see as "Meh, I'm not too sure about the card. I may or may not watch." and when it comes to UFC Pay Per View, they give you the top fights you want to see, that have not been watered down, and PROMOTE THE HELL OUT OF IT like it's the biggest event you'll ever see.

UFC has had no problem breaking one million buys more than once a year. They have the promoting down. WWE could learn from them. Don't focus on weekly ratings for FREE TV!! Instead take those hours that viewers are tuning in for free and sell them on the idea that "if you think what you're seeing here is intriguing, you're going to not even want to think about not paying to see where these angles go and the matches involved."

This is all common sense that anyone can figure out, but for some reason the offices at WWE can't seem to wrap their head around it.

Ratings do not equal money.

A good way to put it is, I have nothing but free stuff on this site. No matter how many people come to this site, or click on a link to come here, I receive no money whatsoever. If I were to try and make money, I would use the free entries to promote why you should spend your hard earned money on me and whatever it is I'm selling, and make it worthwhile that the word starts to spread about it and boom! I'm making money.

That's my general thoughts on the whole idea.
As for TNA....well...they're satisfied with a 1.2 rating. Probably because UFC pulls in similar ratings, now if they could pull in UFC like PPV numbers? Well then I'll be the guy that shits golden eggs.

Just for the record, I'm aware that some of my average numbers may be a little off, but I hope you get the idea ;)
Follow me on twitter @bradfordml

Until next time, keep it rockin'

Ready to Ramble 3

Podcasting has been put on hold.

Welcome back to the blog. This segment is called Ready To Ramble, which is where I ramble about a few things going on pro wrestling.


As of writing this, there have only been four matches announced for Summerslam. I imagine at the Smackdown tapings there could be a couple of more matches announced for the card, but I am hoping that maybe they will be giving longer times to the top matches, or maybe even all of them. Realistically though, it could mean more time for stupid comedy sketches and backstage moments.

CM Punk is a gold mine. What more can I say? I've been a big Punk fan for years and years and I am so happy to see where his character is at and I hope they continue to do good business and not drop the ball as usual.

Triple H's character as the COO has been entertaining. Usually I don't care to see H show up, but now he adds to the intrigue and interest I have for WWE programming. Also, if rumors are true and there is a Triple H and CM Punk match at Survivor Series, I say Bravo!

When I think about TNA, I think wasted talent. Althought Beer Money and Austin Aries have been doing great. I want to see Samoa Joe as champ, or at least a top contender.

News Flash! Just being a big guy, doesn't mean he's championship material. I fucking hate Crimson, and do not buy into Matt Morgan. WWE has it right with this new reality era, while TNA is stuck in...well..god knows what, but they're stuck in bullshit thinking.

The recent string of talent releases put a sour taste in my mouth. But then again, I never like to see anyone lose their job. The one I hated to see the most, but knew it was coming was DH, er...excuse me, Harry Smith.
He's so talented. It's when talent like that slips through the cracks I can't help but want to scream out, "Fuck you, WWE!" I wish nothing but the best for Harry though, and I really hope he tries his hand at MMA. He would do a phenomenal job in the octagon, and I pray he does NOT go to TNA.

Colt Cabana had a dark match at last weeks Smackdown tapings. I haven't heard what the reaction to it was, but the guy is going to stay positive no matter what. I hope it isn't a one time deal, and maybe, just maybe he'll go on the road with the Smackdown crew and I'll be lucky enough to see him when they come here in September.

Be sure to check out his Art of Wrestling podcast every Thursday on welovecolt.com or on iTunes.

Daniel Bryan's new theme, Freefall by Two Steps From Hell is the theme of a champion. That's all I'm going to say about that. (Fingers crossed)

That's gonna do it for this brief segment of Ready To Ramble.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on these topics or anything else. Comment below, or follow on twitter @bradfordml

Until next time, keep it rockin'

In My Coma

I love twitter! What a bold, blunt way to start this off, but I really do.
There's so many interesting people I've met. So many interesting things to find out about and connections that can be made.

I don't know how in the blue hell someone randomly finds me and starts following me, but it happens, and one day I received a message saying that @IMCJasperJames was following me. So I checked it out and it turned out that this was the singer and guitarist from a Toronto based band, In My Coma.

They consist of  Vocalist/Guitarist, Jasper James (@IMCJasperJames). Vocalist/Bassist, Laura doll (@IMCLauraDoll) and drummer, Mike Paterson (@MikePaterson)

Not sure how this connection was made, but I'm glad it was, I checked out the group on YouTube and fell in love with this band.

Their debut album , "Magnets+Miracles" will be released at the end of the month, August 10th, available in iTunes. I've got an iTunes card ready for it.

This is their debut video for their song, Losing Sleep



I hope you dig this group as much as I do.

You can check out their myspace page here

Their facebook page here

Follow the group on twitter @InMyComa

I also came across a cool article on them from thepitmusic.com here

I wish nothing but big success for them, and really hope they play some shows out on the east coast. Show your support in any way you can.

you can follow me on twitter @bradfordml

Until next time, keep it rockin'