Hollywood Joe Does the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

Bringing Honor to WWE

Devitt and KENTA

Over the last month WWE has signed three of pro wrestling top free agents. It started with the signing of KENTA in Japan, (Prince) Fergal Devitt and finally Kevin Steen. It is no secret that these three are highly talked about on the internet and all over the world.

I am truly excited for what these three bring. I have been following ROH for a long time and have seen what KENTA and Steen can do. Devitt has been a mainstay in New Japan for a long time and was even apart of the famous faction "The Bullet Club." The Bullet Club consists of AJ Styles, Karl Anderson, Scott D'Amore, Luke Gallows, The Young Bucks, and now Jeff Jarrett. It's a group Devitt started and is well respected in Japan and in the states where they appear.

KENTA has been featured in Pro Wrestling NOAH and Ring of Honor where he has been in matches with like Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Samoa Joe, and many other well known WWE and TNA Superstars. He is the originator of the move Go 2 Sleep which was adapted by former WWE Superstar CM Punk. Punk admitted he took the move from KENTA citing that KENTA was one of his inspirations.

Then there is "Mr. Wrestling" Kevin Steen who has been apart of CZW, PWG, and ROH in the last ten years.  Over those ten years he has faced the likes of Chris Hero, Sami Zayn(El Generico), AJ Styles, Cesaro, Fit Finlay, Seth Rollins, and Steve Corino. Kevin Steen has had love of the fans for the longest time whether he was heel or face.

I see the future of WWE being brighter then ever if they push these three the right and proper way. If CM Punk and Daniel Bryan can have major success there is no reason these three can't have the same success. Being a Ring of Honor fan makes me partial to the guys that have come from ROH. You can have OVW, FCW and NXT but the best pro wrestling talent has come from ROH. I am always solidly behind Rollins, Cesaro and Bryan because they are ring generals. CM Punk was a great ring general in his time in WWE.

Honor has arrived in WWE and I hope they bring back some pure wrestling and classic matches. Honor will always live in ROH but hopefully some will be brought to the WWE in the near future.

Kevin Steen with Triple H at NXT

Review of The Expendables 3

I generally don't write about movies unless they are about sports or athletes are involved in the movie themselves. In this case we have two MMA starts and a former Welterweight boxing champion that star in The Expendables 3. Randy Couture returns to his regular role as Toll Road while Ronda Rousey and Victor Ortiz are the newest additions to The Expendables. Both Rousey and Ortiz played their very roles very well. It makes me wonder if there will ever be a female addition of The Expendables

The movie itself was great and had much more of a story to it then the first two did. It gave insight into the lives of the new recruits as well as the older generation. I was disappointed that Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis or Chuck Norris did not return for the 3rd film. However the addition of Harrison Ford and Antonio Banderas were done well. For me Banderas was the star of the movie for me. His performance and character were totally awesome. He definitely made you laugh and made you feel sorry for him. 

Each Expendables has had a great villain. The first movie had Eric Roberts, the second had Jean-Claude Van Damme and this one had Mel Gibson. I really enjoyed Mel Gibson's character because he was an Expendable and knew what had to be done in order to survive. He played all the tricks and was a great adversary for The Expendables. 

If you enjoyed the other Expendable movies you will enjoy this one. I am not sure if they will continue with the series or not but if they don't this was a great way to end it. Be sure to check out The Expendables 3 in theaters everywhere.

Review, Recap and Results of WWE Summerslam 2014

I've seen a lot of horrible things in my time in WWE but that Summerslam was right up there with some of the horrible I've seen. For a company that just lost 350 million a few months ago they sure aren't doing much to improve their situation. How do you build the future? You build the future by showcasing the future. These results are hardly signs of improvement:

-Brock Lesnar def. John Cena (c) (WWE World Heavyweight Championship Match)
-Roman Reigns def. Randy Orton
-Stephanie McMahon def. Brie Bella
-Bray Wyatt def. Chris Jericho
-Seth Rollins def. Dean Ambrose (Lumberjack Match)
-Rusev def. Jack Swagger (Flag Match)
-Paige def. AJ Lee (c) (Divas Championship Match)
-Dolph Ziggler def. The Miz (c) (Intercontinental Championship Match)
-Rob Van Dam def. Cesaro (Kickoff Match)

Cesaro losing again on a pre-show match was start of my frustrations for the night. I was also frustrated that Rusev and Swagger was not a traditional flag match. If it was traditional it would have been a great way for Swagger to win without having to make Rusev submit or be pinned. I also think the Chris Jericho-Bray Wyatt feud has been less then memorable. They don't seem the mesh very well in the ring together. I really feel like Bray has lost steam since Payback and is not as convincing as he once was. 

Then there was the Main Event. I could write an entire article about how horrible the John Cena-Brock Lesnar match was. If you thought Lesnar's matches against Goldberg and Undertaker sucked well this one topped it. Two F5's and sixteen German Suplexes is all Lesnar did to win the WWE Championship. The annihilation of Cena was convincing but it was a horrible way for someone to drop the title. I am not a John Cena fan but it would have been great to see a young guy who is there long term and for the future to win the title from him.

The only things that made the PPV somewhat decent is the continued push of Roman Reigns, the lumberjack match between Ambrose and Rollins and Dolph Ziggler winning the Intercontinental Title. Those three things are part of the future. Ziggler is the best performer on the roster, Ambrose and Rollins are right behind him and Reigns does a lot more then 5 moves. 

The future of WWE is bright if they would just pushing the future and not putting the WWE World Title on a part timer who doesn't care about the business. I would give Summerslam a 4 out of 10 for lack of effort to give us anything epic and surprising. I hope that the buildup and the card at Night of Champions next month is much better then the second biggest pay-per-view was. 

Tony Stewart Should Retire Following Canandaigua Tragedy

On Saturday Night at Canandaigua Motorsports Park Tony Stewart struck and killed sprint car driver Kevin Ward Jr. after Ward climbed out of his car and attempted confront Stewart after Stewart spun him out. Ward was only 20 years old and spent most of his life racing. There are a lot of assumptions, finger pointing and blame going around but not all of the facts of this tragic accident have been determined. However there are so many different ways you can view this.

The main view is that Tony Stewart intentionally hit this young man or got close enough to him to try and intimidate him. It is also the view that Stewart has had a bad temper in the past and has a lot of altercations in the NASCAR circuit since he's been there. There have been many fatalities in Motorsports but this is the first of it's kind and there is no precedent for this type of tragedy. 

There is another view that a lot of people will take offense to but it has to be brought up. Kevin Ward Jr. put himself in danger by climbing out of his car and running into the middle of the track. A question that should be brought up is that how we do know that Kevin Ward Jr. wasn't trying to get his name out there because he knew he was wrecked by Stewart. A confrontation with Stewart would have elevated his name and his career but I don't think anyone thought that he would lose his life over a spin out on the track.

Regardless of what view you hold, what side you are on or if criminal charges get brought up the one thing I will say is that Tony Stewart should retire immediately. How can someone continue on with their career after a tragedy like this? How will he be able to focus on the races at hand when he took someone else's life? This tragedy has tainted his career, and his put the whole Stewart-Haas Racing team at steak. Many people will focus on what will happen to Stewart, his team, his sponsorship's and his career. The focus should be on the fact that a young man lost his life and his family and friends are devastated by this lost.

I will leave you with this question ask and answer for yourselves. Why should a man's career go on when another man's life was lost due to this mans passion for his career?

In Perspective How Much WWE Has Lost

I like many loyal die-hard WWE fans who have been fans of the product for 20 to 30 years were ecstatic when the WWE Network came out but during the Quarterly Reports these numbers came out:

WrestleMania XXX drew 690,000 buys, down from 1,039,000 last year

Extreme Rules drew 108,000 buys, down from 231,000 last year

Payback drew 67,000 buys, down from 186,000 last year

Money In the Bank drew 122,000 buys, down from 199,000 last year

Lets put this in the perspective in terms of money losses. The losses of pay-per-view buys in 2014 as compared to 2013 are roughly 35 million dollars if you average out the cost of pay-per-views from the various companies. I love the WWE Network but should some changes be made?

For example if WWE had charged a 5 dollar pay-per-view fee on the WWE Network they would have made 3,500,000 if all 700,000 subscribers would have bought the pay-per-views. However, because of all the losses in money they have had to cut superstars, corporate employees and have even cut out the WWE Magazine. Honestly the real cut should have been Brock Lesnar. He's a part timer making more then the regular roster and really doesn't do the company any favors only wrestling on big shows and not on TV. I would have worked harder to get a deal made with Sting and get him to work TV and pay-per-view but no house shows. Sting can still go and would have drawn major interest from fans. It's really should have, could have and would have at this point. 

Keep in mind WWE Network is only available in the USA right now. On August 12, 2014 it will be available in atleast 10 new countries. Maybe by the end of 2014 the Network will make progress but right now it's not profitable and I wouldn't be surprised to see more layoffs in the future.

The WWE Network is a great idea and concept but not a lot of thought got put into it. There are still a lot of bugs, and the complete history of Raw and Smackdown are not on the Network yet. There are a lot of things missing but there is a lot more to come. If WWE can survive these losses it will be amazing. For now they are going to have make the best with what they have.