Pro Wrestling has become GARBAGE!! Part 2: (Can it be saved)

Well boys and girls in my last installment, I was talking about how pro wrestling has become garbage or boring to well guys in my age demographic (18-35 year olds) and how it has become for kids and not have any great storylines or not even good wrestlers. The question is can it be saved?

Before I go into that I watched this past Monday Night Raw which had The Rock confront the Miz and John Cena with the Rock beating up the Miz but getting F-5 by John Cena in the pic above it shows good hype to Miz vs John Cena at Wrestlemania 27. I liked the confrontation with Triple H and The Undertaker for their Wrestlemania match in which The Undertaker's undefeated streak is on the line. The Randy Orton/CM Punk angle was good, so was Jack Swagger vs Jerry Lawler in order to hype up Lawler's match with Michael Cole the annoying bad play by play guy

The only bad thing for that Raw was after the Santino Marella-Justin Gabriel match they made Kane who used to be a monster heel look ridulous celebrating with Santino, Vladmir Kolzov, and the Big Show with that hornet celebration. But I can look past that. I still can't get over the fact that Snooki is wrestling. Here is the footage from Raw with Trish Stratus while they were at the Jersey Shore.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsU1cKalcQw
Snooki sounded drunk and it seemed like like a longer pause from the time the question was asked to  when she answered, and they both catfight with Lay-Cool.
This is also footage from the Wrestlemania Press Conference
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ9eusztZ_c
So watch out for the Brunette Mafia!!!!!!!

I admit that after watching I'll still be a casual follower but not religiously like to the point where I attend the house shows or go to Pay Per Views like I did back in 1996 when SummerSlam was in Cleveland. I remember the Bolier Room Brawl between The Undertaker and Mick Foley at that one.

I think with the times changing and with the Internet, Twitter, Facebook, Wrestling News Sites the business has changed and the wrestlers are pretty normal, well somewhat. Check out the Iron Sheik's twiter page. http://twitter.com/the_ironsheik For even funnier stuff type in Iron Sheik on YouTube and listen to his promos.

 One other big reason is after 9/11 we realize who the real heros and villians are in the world. Also, I bet you all remember the Chris Benoit double murder suicide of his wife and son and how steroids and multiple concussions played a major role in that tragedy.

I know TNA is trying to get the competion but they are seriously lacking behind the WWE. They have great wrestlers such as A.J Styles, Kazarian, Samoa Joe, Abyss, and Jay Lethal and a couple of pretty good wrestlers that worked in the WWE like Kurt Angle, Mr. Anderson, Rob Van Dam, and the Hardy Boyz.  But, so far there owner has Hulk Hogan and Eric Biscoff run the show which is a big mistake because as much as what Hulk Hogan has meant to Pro Wrestling he shouldn't book shows neither should Bischoff. They haven't been pushing the X Division as much which is the one thing that separted them from the WWE since the WWE got rid of their Cruiserweight Division. Their women's division is weaker than the WWE's but the tag team division in TNA is a little stronger. TNA, however just lacks the direction to be competive.

Here are my suggestions for both TNA and WWE.

TNA

1.) Keep pushing the younger and talented guys like Styles, Anderson, Lethal, Samoa Joe, The Pope, and RVD.
2.) Have less of Hogan on my TV. He's just in it for the celebrity now and not the wrestling part. I used to watch his reality show "Hogan Knows Best" but unfortunately he didn't, Brother.
3.) Make the Tag Team and X Divisions stronger. Make the Dudley Boyz reform, have more X Division matches.
4.) Try to make the Television Championship a legitamite secondary title like the WWE does with the Intercontental and United States Titles.
5.) Or if all else falls why don't you and the Wrestling Promotion "Ring of Honor" just form into one big company and take on WWE. From what I hear ROH has some good wrestling.

WWE

1.) Use Stone Colds appearances on "Tough Enough great. By the way Stone Cold was on 97.1 The Fan on Tuesday while I was driving home and it was fun listening to him.
2.) Since The Rock is making certain appearances now and then just have him be the RAW General Manager instead of that annoymous GM in which gives instructions to Michael Cole. Speaking of that.
3.) Fire Michael Cole!!! He sucks as a play by play guy and he is favoring the Heels, especially The Miz, Play by Play guys don't favor the bad guys they just call the action and try to be fair when the bad guys attack the fan favorites. You could have other guys that can do decent play by play. Or if you want to keep him just make him the Evil General Manager if the Rock is just going to make part time appearances.
4.) Try to look at other guys getting runs as World Champion. I know a few that would make great World Champions like John Morrision, Christian, and especially Daniel Bryan. They are very talented guys that can be rewarded. I mean John Cena wasn't terrible as champion. He's your big cash cow but try to reward those talented guys.
5.) Keep The Miz as a heel. I don't mind him as WWE Champion once in a while but he's annoying in real life. How he ever got together with Trishelle Cannatella on The Real World is a mystery but Trishelle has been known to be loose.

6.) Make the tag team division strong again. Have tag team go from Raw to Smackdown competing with each other.
7.) Do something interesting like bring back the Cruiserweight Division. There are some lightweight guys that can have the cruiserweight to fight for.

I mean you can't bring back many casual fans but the product could be better. I think wrestling can still be watchable in TV-PG if you have something to offer the younger kids, teenagers and 20 something males.

I hate to admit it but we are a blood thirsty society and we might as well watch UFC more or wait for another Stone Cold or Rock to come into pro wrestling. I'm D-Money and that's my two cents!!!

Pro Wrestling has become GARBAGE!! Part 1

As many of you know. ,From the time I was in 1st grade until I think late 2004 I watched Professional Wrestling almost religiously. I know all of the moves, remembered a time when it was on Saturday mornings and evenings and even a time when World Championship Wrestling was still in business and they competed against the World Wrestling Federation when it was called the WWF, now it's the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment). This especially when they competed against each other on Monday Nights.

However, just 10 years ago due to horrible business decisions WCW went under and was bought by the WWE. Making the WWE the only dominant pro wrestling business. But, slowly over the years wrestling has become GARAGE, CRAP, S***!!! It has gone from great moments like Stone Cold driving a beer truck
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u82_bqMRDiU
to Snooki being on RAW (see pic above). Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi or as I call her "THE SNOOKI-MONSTER" is going to wrestle with Trish Status, and John Morrison against Layla, Michelle McCool, and Dolph Ziggler at Wrestlemania 27.

I know celebrities have played a part in pro wrestling for years good or bad. For bad see David Arquette winning WCW Title http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLVEgE94ghc one year later they were bought by WWE. I hope to god Snooki doesn't get the pin or win in the match it shows that promotors care about money rather than good wrestling and story lines which is a waste of their talents.

This is my true image of her from the South Park episode this year. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cq_EV-H4ykI  SNOOKI WANT SMOOSH SMOOSH!!! And she is going into pro wrestling!! This is my point that Pro Wrestling has become GARBAGE!!!

And that's not all many of our favorite wrestlers such as The Rock, and Stone Cold Steve Austin have found more success outside of the squared circle by going into movies. But, now instead of hearing of THE ROCK's great promos. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uJL2N9hn24 & this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtMML_zdfxA  we now get  to see a lot of John Cena

In which all he says is "YOU CAN"T SEE ME" and it has turned the WWE from TV-14 to TV-PG. I understand he appeals to the kids and he is a good role model which I understand but his character and the fact that there is no good action, storylines, or over exposing wrestlers like him, Randy Orton, Edge, and don't get me started on the MIZ!!

You have pretty much turned off some traditional wrestling fans and the casual ones. It makes me miss the old School days where you not only had The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and crazy Mick Foley lead the WWE Attitude Era but  I also loved watching my favorite wrestlers such as

Macho Man Randy Savage

Bret "The Hitman Hart

Shawn Michaels

Ric Flair  (WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLP-hzEX6Uc

and THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR

who I was for last Halloween

(by the way I need an early suggestion for my next Halloween costume, any pro wrestler would do)

But back to my point. Pro Wrestling has become almost unwatchable. I've been trying like many other guys to follow MMA/UFC. The main question can pro wrestling become popular again? I try to answer this in my next blog!!

14 years of distance running

April 3rd, 1997

Why is this date important, well you could venture that it was the first dual meet of the track and field season my freshman year of high school. I had to go online to see the calendar date for this date. This was exactly 14 years ago that you could say my distance running journey even started. 
 

Before the track season even began I had no idea what I would be in for or what I would do in track. Our family moved back into Ohio after 11 years in West Virginia and when I was in Junior High I competed in the sprints (100, 200, 400) and the long jump. These were the events my dad had competed when he was in high school back then he was very athletic and skinny. LOL just kidding if your reading this dad. Anyway,I wasn't terribly excelling in these events so the distance coach told me to go run with the mid distance/distance kids and see what I think. It wasn't that bad. I was hoping to be able to compete with the mid
distance hoping to run just the 400-800 events, however as it turned out the coaches had other plans, strangely . This is where I would run with the guy who would get me started running. 

That person was J.J. O'Rielley. He was two years older than me, a junior. Very athletic for his 5'7 size and placed 10th at the state cross country meet that fall, he would become state champion his senior year. Along with classmates Mike and Tim who
were good mid distance runners and few guys and girls I was put in with made up the mid-distance/distance kids. One of the first workouts I ever did was on a Saturday two weeks before our first meet in which we went to Dice Hill in Dover and did hill repeats. I survived but ended up puking the orange juice I drink beforehand. What a crazy way to start distance running. 

Yet, I think what kept me motivated was the fact of the encouragement of my coaches, teammates, parents, and the fact if I scored enough points I would earn my first letter and be able to wear a lettermen's jacket. I guess the fact having a lettermen's jacket in High School seems like a big deal no matter what sport. 

Well, back to April 3rd. I was put into the 1600 and 3200 meter runs. Got 4th in the 1600 with a time of 5:28 and got 3rd in the 3200 meters with a time of 12:28 which I scored 1 point. It was a very humbling start for me into the sport. My freshman season ended with my fastes ttimes being 2:20 in the 800 meters, 5:14 in the 1600 meters, and 11:48 in the 3200 meters. However, I did letter thanks to scoring in a couple duals, tris, quads, and being on distance relays. This first year jump started me into running cross country. I've kept going since then and my times have gone down even further.

I wrote this post just to look back as now I'm preparing to run the Boston Marathon in less than a month from now. This has been a long journey in which I'm very happy to be competing in. The few blogs leading up I'll try to share a little bit of the good and the bad of how I got here. 

It's great to look back once in awhile but only to realize how much we have been able to move forward and keep going. And, that's my two cents!!!

Chad Ocho Cinco trys out for MLS Soccer

  Heh everybody!!!! Happy St. Patricks Day. Hope you filled out your NCAA Tourney Brackets and watching the MADNESS unfold. Just saw Morehead State beat Louisville.

With the NFL being lockout many players are trying for Arena Leagues and UFL or whatever to make money until it gets resolved. Now, Chad Johnson (aka Ocho Cinco or as I call him OCHO STINKO), Wide Receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals, is trying out for the Kansas City Wizards MLS Soccer Club.

http://kansascity.sbnation.com/sporting-kansas-city/2011/3/16/2054255/chad-ochocinco-soccer-sporting-kc-bengals

He says that this is his life long dream. I hope he makes it. The Columbus Crew play Kansas City on April 16. I leaving the morning of the 17th for Boston to run the Boston Marathon so I don't know if I can make that game.

But, heres my advice for my Columbus Running Company and C-bus pacers brethern if you go to that game and by chance Chad Ocho Stinko makes the team and plays. I want you guys to make Anti-Chad Johnson shirts where them to the game and Heckel him to death if he gets on the field. I will play for the shirts if all of this happens, it would be hilarious. Just my opinion to keep this in mind!!!

Proof the Government is screwing with us

Were the Tattoos worth it, Buckeyes!!!

I originally was going to write up an article on the craziness of Charlie Sheen but I will on Friday and trust me it'll be good, but now I'm writing on something that upsets me as a fan of THE OHIO STATE BUCKEYES!!! As you all may have know that 5 players this past December got suspendedfor selling their jerseys, gold pants, etc for cash, one of the players was star QB Terrell Pryor. They ended up playing in the Sugar Bowl and won so they are coming back to school to take the punishment and finish school. So it's all over, WRONG!!!

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/sports/stories/2011/03/09/tressel-i-let-some-people-down.html?sid=101



We found out that Coach Jim Tressel according found out before OhioState did back in April when a lawyer e-mailed him about federalaccusations against this Edward Rifle who was buying these items fromthe players for tattoos and that this man was under federal indictment.In the 2nd e-mail the lawyer asked to keep this confidential or private.Tressel was scared as to who to forward this information to despite thefact that there is a legal offices on campus at Ohio State. My problem with this is why did the lawyer want to keep it confidentialdespite the fact he told Tressel in another e-mail 2 weeks after thefirst one? Ohio State did hold their press conference last night discussing Tressel's 2 game suspension and $250,000 fine for failing to inform themor the NCAA. Despite the self imposed suspensions they still praised forthe job he had done at Ohio State. Here are a few articles from the Columbus Dispatch giving their opinions on this.

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/sports/stories/2011/03/09/no-one-to-share-the-blame-with-tressel.html?sid=101

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/sports/stories/2011/03/09/this-was-not-the-time-for-compliments.html?sid=101

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/sports/stories/2011/03/09/tressel-shows-some-strain-on-the-hot-seat.html?sid=101




I really needed some time to step back after the press conferences, andthen hear what the national and local media and other people's opinions to form my own. I can tell you from a diehard obsessive Buckeye Fan like myself I am terribly disappointed on how Tressel handled this situation. As a fan I'm heartbroken about it. I've been one of the biggest Jim Tressel defenders and fans since he came on campus. 7 Big Ten Championships, 5 BCS Bowl Wins, 9-1 record against Michigan, and a National Championship in his 10 years. He has also written 2 books The Winner's Manual and Life Promises for Success which show what type of character he was. I think after this his reputation as god fearing, well mannered, sweater-vest wearing, coach has taken a fall.

Many of the national media and local media ripped on him and Ohio State kind of like they should. The press conference almost turned into a love fest with E Gordon Gee and Gene Smith saying what has happened but dispite what happened still praise Tressel for what he has done and is still the coach. That may be fine and dandy but still no excuse for what has happened and I think there will be more punishment to come.

There are many grey areas also to this story. If the lawyer who e-mailed Tressel wanted this federal investigation that involved 2 Ohio State players with this drug dealer remain confidental then why e-mail him. Why not do to the legal office of Ohio State University also and the athletic director which is what Tressel should have done in the first place to let them know then in April instead of finding out in December.

I still like Jim Tressel. He has made a huge mistake, we all have some time in our lives. He may have been at a standstill with what to do. He thought he was doing the right thing to protect his players or as everyone could mostly see it he was protecting his players so that they can play and the Buckeyes could still win which is what an outsider may proceive it. He still going to be punished with 2 games and $250,000 but it could be more by the NCAA.

 If I were Jim Tressel I would try to practice a little of what I have been preaching in the books that he has written and try to learn from it and become a better off from it. It's best to root for him to succeed not coming from as a fan but as a christian and a human being that makes mistakes just like the rest of us.

I'm Dustin Whitehair (D-Money) and that is my TWO CENTS!!!

Graditude

Today I want to post about the title of the sermon I heard in Church this past sunday. It's about Gratitude and thanking those whom effect our lives. The verse that was read was Paul's letter to the Philipians in Phil 1 Verses 1-8. In these verses Paul is giving thanks and praise to the church in Philippi for their grace and service. It was said he wrote this while in prison but despite his hardship he is thankful for what God has done.

This got to me to thinking about my training for the Boston Marathon, where I;m at in my job, my health, family, friends, and other good related things in my life and how thankful am I for everything.

Joshua house pastor not only preached about remember the good things and the grace given but also what can move us from having graditude. Failing to look back at what God has given us dispite what has given us and feeling entitled.

Their are times I sometimes feel entitled thinking that I should be faster, have more pay in my job, or even be married or in a long term relationship like many other of my friends.

However, the one thing I can be thankful or to have a little more patience which has grown over the years. I know I didn't become a very good runner overnight, it took hardwork time and sacrifice. Friendships and relationships with the opposite sex take time to develop and I have developed great friendships over the years with many more to continue. I'm very thankful to have a good job right now dispite the negativity they talk about the economy in the news.

I believe if we take time to have gratitude towards those who have effect our lives not only we would feel good but those around us would feel great about themselves.

In the weeks leading up to Boston I will talk more about those who have kept me going on the right path even though sometimes being human I fall off but in running need training partners to pull me along life's path.

....and that's my two cents for now!! :)