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Thumbs up. Card was maybe marred by fights less competitive than they looked on paper but elevated by so many highlight reel finishes they didn't all make air.
Best fight: Palaszewski vs. Darabedyan
Worst fight: Taurosevicius vs. Davis
KO: Anthony Pettis
Sub: Benavidez, Jorgensen, Vasquez, Palaszewski, miney, mo
Palaszewski vs. Darabedyan got the TV card off to a flying start. Karen was all over Bart and looked to have him in trouble but Bart came up with the Nog finish.
DT and LC proceeded to kill it. Nobody's fault but the two southpaws were almost identical in all attributes (except tan level) and techniques and completely nulled each other out. Local yokel ref kept calling pointless breaks when both fighters were trying to work. I had all three rounds even and give Blatnick credit for being the only judge with the courage to call the fight a draw.
Vasquez hopefully has sent Pulver riding off into the sunset for the last time. Fight was completely onesided and Vasquez was in a lot more danger from the crowd, which sure didn't like no Latinos and seemed about ready to break out the bedsheets and pointy hats. Pulver had another redneck emofest after the fight and almost promised it would be the last one. Past time. btw I think the ref was Rich Franklin's brother.
Jorgensen, who should have been main card already after beating Mizugaki, was fed some guy in a dark match that made air, and which he won in seconds with a really scary Guillotine which included lifting the guy in the air by his neck from the front facelock position.
Torres did a lot of talking about changing up but he changed up all the wrong things and just seemed to have lost all his instincts, not just the bad ones, and just seemed to be thinking in the ring and confusing himself, and Benavidez had a pretty easy night of it and finished him in highlight reel fashion. Crowd solved the problem of what to do about TWO Latinos by booing both of them. Classy bunch over there in Ohio.
Castillo vs. Pettis dark fight was clipping along nicely in the 1st when Pettis decided to kick Castillo's head into orbit around Mars. Same local yokel ref was so fat and took so long getting in that Castillo absorbed about six unnecessary punches on the ground.
In the main, Bowles seemed to have the unorthodox Cruz timed in the first exchange, but broke his hand and became a sitting duck for Cruz' erratic movement, punching accuracy, and takedowns. Cruz put on a stunning performance and pathetically had to beg the redneck crowd not to boo him on his promo. They booed Bowles too, for losing the title to a mud person and letting down the Aryan race I guess. Cruz has now blown away Bowles and Benavidez, which leaves WEC in a trick bag, because Benavidez is now the logical #1 contender, but their fight was so recent and so onesided I can't see much interest in a rematch.
Mir was being punished and was replaced by Bonnar on commentary. It was not a plus. Crimson Mask Hi Guys, You remember how MVP was given the losing streak gimmick that was going to make him a huge star as a babyface and it was a complete failure. He instead ended up completely buried and the crowd gave up on him. Now, Jens Pulver is doing the same thing in MMA and becomes a bigger star with every loss. This is completely unintentional, but amazing. Shawn Michaels is doing a losing streak deal to a lesser extent, he still gets to win sometimes. However, it is not making him a bigger or lesser star. It is part of an angle, which the losing streak is doing a great job of advancing. So it is not really comparable. Thanks, Jereme Warneck I give WEC 47 a thumbs up.
Best match: Pettis vs. Castillo. Sick head kick to end the fight. This and the choke out by Scott Jorgenson where he basically lifted George off his feet to make him tap. Nothing else really spectacular on the show. Bowles' performance was obviously dissapointing, as was Torres's, but it sets up some good rematches with Benavidez vs Cruz and Torres vs. Bowles hopefully. Taurosevicius vs. Davis was a good fight but it gets a bit tiresome when both men just neutralize each other the whole time, but the match had good spots. I had it 29-28 for Davis although that first round was incredibly close. A draw wouldn't have been surprising here. Is the solution to too many groin shots to just ignore them and pretend they didn't happen? Seemed that way on this show and on the strikeforce challengers show last week. Good promo by Pulver at the end of his loss. Like to see him come back but he really needed that win. The next WEC looks really good, the card is stacked, but I think they need a couple more good matches. In my opinion, they are trading in a really good TV rating for bad buy rate.
| Jason McNeil Thumbs Up
Never has such a good show left me so disappointed. It's not Zuffa's fault, but the wrong guys won all three key fights, leaving me deflated, and from the sounds of it, the live crowd was deflated too.
This isn't pro wrestling, but if it was, this was the equivalent of bad booking at its worst. This was the Horsemen losing in the Carolinas. This was fans in Montreal being told to get over the '97 screwjob. This was the Road Warriors Dusty finish in Chicago at Starrcade '87.
Torres is my favorite fighter, so seeing him lose twice in a row just sucks. Pulver is such a crowd favorite and so likable, and seeing him go down once again is sad, frustrating, and downright depressing. And to top it all off, Bowles goes down in anti-climactic fashion, making it three strikes in a row for the final fights of the evening.
Pulver cut the promo of the year (at least until Brock's next fight), and if Zuffa lets him go, they're nuts. Win or lose, people want to see him fight. And while none of tonight's results were the fault of the company, watching my favorites go down hard certainly doesn't make me want to pay to see the upcoming WEC PPV.
Good action show, but damn, the outcomes sucked big time.
Jeff Gagliardo Thumbs up Best match: 3-way tag Worst: Kendrick/Jacobs I must admit I wasn’t paying as close attention as usual due to being in an apartment full of people making conversation but this totally came off as a skipable show. I don’t regret seeing it as nothing was bad and there was good wrestling throughout but nothing seemed “can’t miss” or a match of the year candidate or anything. Even though I know who all the Japanese wrestlers are they were starting to run together by the end of the show. I’m really starting to believe DGUSA is something cool to see the Japanese stars as a novelty but I’m not sure how it can sustain long term as a promotion. Tim Noel
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