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More weekend feedback, TNA, Bellator and more



 
Thumbs Up
Best Fight: Chris Lozano vs. Brent Weedman
Worst Fight: None
 
All fights Welterweight Tournament Quarterfinal Round Fights.
1) Douglas Lima d. Steve Carl by UD:   Lima is the current Maximum
Fighting Championship Welterweight Champion out Canada which has cards
on HDNET, but they never acknowledged it.    Lime is one of the
brightest young stars in MMA.  I figured Lima would roll over on Carl,
but Carl nearly pulled off the upset by connecting with a shot early
sending Lima down.  Lima recovered was able to take the last two
rounds.   Lima was one of my picks to be a finalist of the Season 5
Welterweight Tournament.   I expect a much better performance in his
next fight.
 
2) Luis Santos d. Dan Hornbuckle by UD:  This reminded me of a WWWF
type of mid-card match with pushing a new challenger (Santos) against
an aging, one time main eventer (Hornbuckle).    Hornbuckle was a
Bellator favorite, but looks like his days are number in this company
after now losing three straight.  Santos is scray with his leg kicks.
Hornbuckle had no answer for Santos.
 
3) Ben Saunders d. Chris Cisneros in RD3 via TKO:   Opening packaging
on Cisneros on finally getting on a big stage and wanting to win to
provide for his family.  After that well made video package, you really
wanted Cisneros to win.   Never thought much of Saunders, but he shows
some real personality and is flourishing in Bellator going 2-0 so far
in the company.  Cisneros looked nervous and Saunders was too much for
him.  Would love to see Saunders vs. Santos in the semifinals.
 
4) Chris Lozano d. Brent Weedman:  What a fight.  Exciting all three
rounds.  Weedman dominated Round 1, but Lozano came back with some
bombs in Round 2.   Weedman look some vicious shots, but still could
not get knocked down.  Round 3 was winner take all and it was close.
Lozano controlled enough of the round to win.  Weedman was my pick to
make to it the finals again, just as he did in Season 4.
 
Overall Analysis:  Good start to Season 5.  Lozano v Weedman was a
fight that makes Bellator so exciting.  Young up and coming hunger
fighters going all out.   Bellator 50 with the quarterfinals of the
Season 5 Middleweight Tournament this coming Saturday is a show I would
highly recommend not to miss.
 
John LaRocca
San Jose, CA

Thumbs Down
Best Match: Austin Aries vs. Brian Kendrick
Worst Match: Mickie James vs. Winter
Yet another pedestrian, forgettable PPV outing from TNA with predominantly mediocre matches and terrible booking. The quality of the PPVs this year from TNA has been totally horrendous aside from Destination X.
Kid Kash vs. Jesse Sorensen was alright, decent opener but it had some rough moments. Kash was a bit sloppy but the match wasn't that bad.
Bully Ray vs. James Storm was boring as hell. Ray did way too much stalling and most of the match was just Storm going for a bunch of submissions. Ending was really stupid because at this stage in the tournament these DQs should absolutely not be happening. Bad match.
Mickie vs. Winter was another atrocious Knockouts match, and they literally did the exact same booking as they did at Hardcore Justice. The finish was ludicrous and overcomplicated. Match had way too much overbooking and turned into a clusterf***.
Mexican America vs. The Pope and Devon was average but tainted by the excessive interference. As if the last match didn't have enough overbooking already. The stuff with Rosita/Sarita was just ridiculous and way too much.
Samoa Joe vs. Matt Morgan was a bit better than I thought it would be but also not that good and things really slowed down after a hot start. Finish came out of nowhere as well.
Bobby Roode vs. Gunner was extremely dull and one dimensional. Just Roode working the arm. Fine story but hard to get into and kinda boring.
Austin Aries vs. Brian Kendrick was the only good match of the night. Nice back and forth battle with some cool moves and near falls. Glad to see Aries as the champion.
Bobby Roode vs. Bully Ray was another dull match. Again too much stalling from Ray. Sure he's a great heel but he just doesn't bring it in the ring and relies way too much on his character to compensate for his total lack of work rate. Roode winning was nice but this match dragged a lot.
Kurt Angle vs. Sting vs. Mr. Anderson wasn't a very good main event and the crowd was dead. Just came off very flat because everything here was so predictable. That finish with Hogan was laughable. The rest of the match was okay but it felt like these three were just going through the motions.
Overall the show sucked. Not PPV quality at all. TNA shouldn't be charging people $35 each month for these TV quality PPVs. Not interested at all in Bound for Glory.
Jared Silberkleit

Thumbs in the middle. a classier show than usual, but too many fuck finishes in pure TNA style.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who noticed that on the BFG Series leaderboard, 4 men were listed as "injured" - and 3 of those 4 men competed on the show. it's like they never learned from the debacle with RVD returning on the show his successor champion would be crowned. but oh wait, this is TNA, they never learn from anything. Thank god they didn't book Jesse Neal versus Rosita in a BATTLE OF THE TERROR VICTIMS. knowing russo, he would have made it a flag match with 2 american flags.
all that said, the matches were still pretty good. i wish i could think of them without their finishes.
 
Michael Bernstein

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