tomk

Who are the new seven?

I didn't really watch the WWF in the 80s. Went to one house show that had I want to say a pushed Siva Afi match on it and pretty much stayed away from the WWF. I've watched alot of 80s WWF in last couple years. Like a bunch of pre-84 WWF. Don't know if I would put a touring DK v Sayama MSG match on over a Zbysco v Bruno MSG match. There are a lot of post 84 WWF matches that I like: Barbarian v Boss Man, Tito v Koko, Hogan v Boss Man, Garvin v Valentine, Ultimate Warrior v Ric Rude, Rude v Piper, Tito v Ron Bass, Bret v Brunzell... Bunches of matches that I'd say are better than either Dibiase v Savage, or Brainbusters v Rockers. These are two Ultimate Warriro matches that I wrote positively about: I'd say that Ultimate Warrior v Ric Rude is easily better than either Brianbusters v Rockers or Dibiase v Savage. I can't imagie anyone seeing those three matches and not coming to the same conclusion. But there was lots of great wrestling in the 80s and don't know if Rude v Warrior would make a top 100. I don't hate Japanese UWF, but don't think the 7/23/84 tag match should probably be on a top 100 matches list either. I don't hate U.S. UWF, but don't think the Last Battle of New Orleans should be on the a list.

I suck at reading between the lines...but did he not think much of Reed? "best match I saw Reed in" vis a vis "gave one of the best performances"...makes the Reed match seem like Reed was more passive participant than Taylor. I don't think so. Especially when I can't imagine anyone thinking these two still belong. The decision to include any WWF tag match seems like an act of generosity and not an act of contrariness. Duggan is really great as reckless brawler in Mid-south with almost Sabu type abandon. Shane Douglas is essentially a non -participant in Last Battle of New Orleans (which really is an angle and not a match and shouldn't be on as it is really good post match brawl--but there have been better). Inoki is Inoki. and while short Koko Ware even pre-Brainbuster ruled. This is built to for along time, not just stip thrown out meaninglessly. Long program that culminates in a stip (no matter how over the top) isn't going to get the criticism of a bunch of stips thrown out with no explanation.

Did this get updated in 89 or so as I remember it having a really inexplicable Brainbusters match on it. Also looking through the one big thing that stuck out is: Of the New Japan 5 v 5 matches was their a period where that was the one people felt was the best? Is that still the case? Why? For whatever its worth: What Dean wrote: What Phil wrote: Stats on the matches from Other Japan 80s set: http://indeedwrestling.frih.net/dvdvr/ojmen80.html what we wrote about those results: http://deathvalleydriver.com/dvdvr/dvdvr165.html

So looking for pics of Buck Robley found this from Jrs bbq gallery with caption: Also JR comments on the Mitchell report on drugs in baseball.

I don’t want to get too much into theories of management here, but: Years ago I was living across the street from the Howard University campus when Ted Turner came to speak to the business school. He gave an almost by the numbers entrepreneur speaks at minority business school speech with lots of “picking up own bootstraps” “grabbing your own oars” type metaphors (those may be just entrepreneur at all business school cliché’s and not just HBCU ones) but in among his clichés and homilies he built a long section around “never set goals in life, because then when you accomplish them you stop and stagnate”. This is kind of ridiculous bit of advice for those of us who don’t have a Midas touch but really was the guiding philosophy of modern era entrepreneur. Don’t set goals, surround yourself with competent people with strong work ethics and monetize one success to move onto the other. I think about that speech a lot when thinking about what I liked about Bischoff era WCW. Bischoff era WCW was all about almost indifferent Laissez faire leadership, surrounded by lots of guys with strong work ethics and lots of hours of wrestling. Nobody in management really cared about LWO v Rey feud, nobody in management really cared that much about the cruiserweights, about keeping track of wins/losses in Armstrong brothers/Villanos/Disorderly Conduct/Texas Hangmen series, etc And that was really the joy of late nineties WCW. “Hey awesome El Dandy is going 15 against Villano V in the main event of the Pro”, “ What the fuck? Konnan wants to embarrass Antonio Pena by having Villano IV work unmasked as Tony Pena against Regal, but Regal realizes that IV can go and so has a mat clinic with him instead of squashing him”, “ I thought Eaton was completely washed up but he’s having this fun match with some kid named Dinsmore on the Main Event”, “women’s cruiserweight tourney?”. Laissez faire management, large roster with guys with strong work ethics and lots of time to fill. Vince Jr is not known for laissez faire management. He’s not a guy who operates like a modern entrepreneur (more like turn of the century entrepreneur) . He’s known as an absolute control freak. The WWF under him (and Patterson) in the 80s and nineties was a tightly controlled ship. The whole “WhiFF” complaint about the WWF style being built around guys controlling their own bumps and move execution not mattering is a style that allows for management control (almost perfect information model where you can tell exactly what work labor is performing). The complaints about guys having their movesets limited, the real standardized formulas, the nature of the finishes, the way the promotion would get mad and change the crowd noise when the wrong guy was getting over, the way at one point I could tell you based on card positioning exactly how many exchanges would take place in any match (as a novelty party skill, this was not a skill I’m particularly proud of)…all that is very controlled style. I don’t want to sound critical of that style as sometimes you get great things out of it. Normally I point to Canadian Stampede as the peak of WWF style wrestling. The way that it’s worked is a very WWF way to of organizing labor. Style that is very different from early 90s All Japan 6 Man, or a Wargames match or New Japan v UWF elimination match. But I think it holds up well next to those. (And really if you wanted to explain to someone the “philosophical” differences between the different feds those would probably be the matches I’d show). I’d argue that the big difference between the 90s and the 00’s is that in 1999 Smackdown debuted ( I’d also be curious as to the exact time period when Patterson first left). And suddenly you had hours of WWF time to fill with stuff that management didn’t really care about. I don’t think much changed in the way RAW worked from a wrestling standpoint. Rock v Austin at Mania, Rock v Jericho stuff, the two HHH v Cactus PPVs, the 01 heel Austin run, Batista v HHH HIAC, Cena v Umaga are all things that stand up well against the top of the line 90s era WWF and feel like they are part of the same page. There is a lot of HHH stuff that I don’t care for that I don’t think you’d ever see in the nineties. The HHH matches that feel like instead of him working wrestling as a narrative story he’s trying to work wrestling as a speech (collection of talking points); the way in which Elimination Chamber matches have been worked and his signature 3-ways I don’t see happening in the nineties. But the real 90s-00 change is the addition of the extra hours of “lesser” (in booking importance) TV. In the nineties at the point that Bischoff and Vince didn’t give a rat’s ass about tag wrestling, if you wanted to see US style tag wrestling you watched Thunder/WCWSN or Too Cool v Hardys on Shotgun. Too Cool v Hardys wasn’t going to be given anywhere near the time that an Armstrong brothers match would get on Thunder or the Main Event. Smackdown is two hours which is a lot longer than Shotgun. It also at one point was running separate PPVS. Things like Eddy v Big Show, Eddy v JBL, Eddie v Benoit from Iraq , MNM main event run, the June 2005 Rey v Eddie Smackdown match etc. just wouldn’t have happened in the nineties. I’m not claiming that Smackdown is Thunder (maybe the worlds best Shotgun but that’s a different story).We’ve all seen Smackdown scripts. I’m not making the claim that Smackdown isn’t scripted and controlled. But in terms of choices for how time is allotted on a show, RAW is something that clearly the fed cares about more. So at its best this decade WWE has had these shows that are (outside of the HHH self aggrandizement that fucks shit up) carefully put together the way WWF traditionally puts together a card and plays to the WWF/Es strengths…plus you have this additional show where WWE doesn’t really care that much about what happens if you give Tatanka and Sylvain Grenier 20 minutes. It’s that element of guys being given time because management doesn’t care that I think is the big new positive feature of the WWF in the 00s.

I remember everyone of these guyseventually getting used other than Skandor. Am I forgetting a Skandor run? Ok I think I have all of this period of Continental and Southeastern start up on tape as they have the Woods as owner announcement and a plan for tourney that never happens. If you're going to keep this feature on prowrestlingonly going the Continental stuff is something I want to follow. I remember Peterson very quickly showing up in WWF after leaving AWA which even as a mark kid was the moment I went" Damn the WWF is just fucking with AWA bringing in Peterson." Seeing that Peterson gave notice and what not genuinely surprises me. Maybe my childhood memory is of a later DJ Peterson AWA angle interupted by him showing up in WWF. My Stampede knowledge is non-existant but uhh Steve Strong was working a fake Billy Jack Haynes gimmick? He was working as Northwestern Cowboy? Or was he a Canadian Cowboy? OrBilly Jack the movie character gimmick?

Watch it again.It's Slaughter and Iron Sheik competing to see who can take the nuttiest bump. Sheik wins by alot. All of my dads friends who played high level high school football have destroyed knees and are in constant pain. Hogan who worked a relatively safe wrestling style has a busted up knee and hip (if memory serves)... I imagine Abby has more physical pain and wear and tear than most men his age. Wrestling has always been on some level a ritualized performative act of physical self destruction. Theres nothing really wrong with that. My guess is the objections here are to level of destruction and brain trauma. The ROH needs road agents talking point is silly one. ROH has had Devito, Steamboat,Cornette, etc in the past. Veteran guys working backstage to put show together. No reason to believe that they don't have anyone in that role now. They don't do it as controlled and tightly as WWF or TNA but its done. Plus the idea that veteran wrestlers will somehow have magically different value systems than todays wrestlers is silly. So you prop Billington up against a locker room wall and have him go over everyones match before they step into the ring. Is he really going to tell someone "eeh that spot, not worth it"? Kevin Steen was trained by Jaques Rogeau, Roderick Strong trained by Neidhart. Do you imagine either of those veterans stepping up and telling those guys "Hey take less risks"? Or is it morre likely that they'd encourage them?

SWEET

I'm pretty sure that Smith has been on the last two weeks of Heat or so. I don't think they planted the Fragile X story, but they clearly pushed it and ran with it. In the days after a murder lots of false leads will end up reported...this is the one that the WWE grabbed hold of. Erasing Benoit from history leaves a bad taste. As its part of "this never happned and we move on" strategy. Whitewashing the past doesn't make it go away. A normal company would have done a "How to talk to your kids about this tragedy" segment, WWE opened ECW with a"we will never talk about this again" segment. It's about washing their own hands of blood.

Ok wait instead of taking apart part two: "the best five months of any weekly television show in wrestling history as it regards in-ring action"..What about part one: " the best five months in the ring of his career"... I mean I'm not a Shawn Michaels fan but I know that there was a point where he contributed positively alot more to hs matches than he is now. Michaels in 2007 is about the same age as DDP was in 1998. I have a hard time believing anyone would argue that Michaels has contributed more to his matches (had more to offer to them) than DDP did in DDP v Hogan, Malone/DDP v Hogan/Rodman, DDP/Leno/Eubanks v Hogan/Bischoff, DDP v Raven v Benoit, DDP v Goldberg, etc. Has Michaels brought as much to the table as DDP did in 1998? There have been periods in Michaels career where he had more to offer than DDP did in 1998. 2007 wasn't one of those periods. And I'm not much of a DDP fan. When a "Shawn Michaels" fan boy offers what he considers to be Michaels best 5 month run and it isn't as good as a Benoit five month run, or a Pirata or a Liger or Kawada run...that should come as no surprise. But when you're arguing that a Michaels five month run is the best "best five months in the ring of his career" and it's sub-DDP, that's really damning.

http://www.comics101.com/kentuckyfriedrass...&chapter=53

Ok I don't know a ton about powerlifting. but isn't the definition of raw lift v assisted lift that the first is done without supersuit while second is with one. So not " not 100% strictly raw (just without squat/supersuit)" means what? He was wearing part of a shirt/supersuit? The author doesn't want him clothed at all?

Looking at the results and the problems with the results of the nineties polls, if we were to do the nineties again (which we may end up doing) we would split stuff up more. It might as project be more manageable if we did it in five year blocks instead of decade blocks. I think we might split the US indies in regional blocks South East, Kentucky/Tennessee/Texas, West Coast. North East (I'd lump ECW in here), Midwest. I would split EMLL from AAA, possibly with AAAA category being AAA plus other lucha (Tijuana, UWA end , etc.) but I could see lumping other with EMLL group too. I don't know what you do with the other lucha, but point is not splitting Mexico is a mistake. Most importantly we would split the Other Japan up as just doesn't make sense to look at WAR, worked shoot promotions, garbage promotions, lucharesu promtions, SWS , etc as one block. We've talked about this before and think the best way to split would be in groups by spiritual forefathers; Children of Maeda, Children of Tenryu, Children of Hamada, and Children of Onita. There are problems with that setup; Super J Cup being judged within context of WAR instead of vis a vis lucha influenced juniors promotions...will skew things off. But I think benefits of breaking up this way outweigh negatives. If I were organizing a Prowrestling only project I think having a group like this do a thorough look at the Children of Tenryu category would be most interesting as really no one talks about SWS or WAR outside of the J Cup these days.

Kobashi also "adapted" his style post injury. Hardly ever pulled out the moonsault (did he use it in any match between 2003-2005 outside of the Takayama title defense?). I remember joking in 2003 that he was a guy who needed to study some Arn tapes and learn some comedy spots as he didn't know how to kill time in the middle of his matches outside of exchanging suplexes. Insteading of looking to Arn he looked to Flair tapes...and added the rapid fire chop comedy spot and the opponent puts him in figure four section as his middle of match time killers. There were problems with this setup. Flair gets a lot of criticism for forcing all his opponents to work the same way (as though Luger and Gordy are the same guy). Kobashi forced all his opponents to work like Flair (innefectively chopping Kobashi in corner which is reversed, set upping and then applying figure four on Kobashi which he powers out of, etc) no matter who they were (Ogawa working like Flair makes sense, Rikioh is a power wrestler and kind of silly for him to be working same formula). And one can question the whole theory behind it as the Flair formula is one where the faces come out looking strong, the Kobashi formula of making opponent work like Flair made Kobashi look strong. But there were huge advantages. It is effective way to work a match, with lots of stuff that pops a crowd and protects his body during the time killing parts of a match alot more than exchanging headdrops did. And were just better matches. Chono adapted, Liger famously adapted. Austin had a bad neck injury and "adapted" his style to one where he ate more suplexes.

During Austin's last heel run (when Helmsley went down) Austin was doing the opponent reverses a suplex and Austin eats a suplex on the ramp spot in every match. Also was the guy who turned the three rolling suplexes spot into the count along equivalent of Hase's giant swing "EIGHT! NINE! TEN!".

Two guys moving a piano down a flight of stair is a different activity than one guy dropping a piano on another guy down a flight of stairs. Is moving furniture with someone just the exhibition form of dropping furniture on someone? Have you ever worked moving furniture? So you and this other guy are carrying a piano/couch down a flight of stairs, with a supervisor and client watching you. You and your partner cooperate carrying piano down the flight of stairs. Sometimes one guy slacks and the other guy has to carry more of the weight. Sometimes you do things to punish the other guy for slacking. Sometimes you will be paired with a kissup who will make a dramatic display of how hard he is working to either impress boss, prove worth to boss, or flirt with client. In response you can ignore these displays, help him flirt by playing role of slacker, or worry about your own job and make similar displays. Thoughout all this you must continue to cooperate. Sometimes someone will fuck up and something will be dropped on you, you'll be slammed into a wall etc. But the main point is that it is a physical task built on cooperation, there are competitive and theatrical elements built into it. But the nature of the task is cooperative. If two of you fail to cooperate-you fail as furniture movers. Two guys moving a piano down a flight of stair is a different activity than one guy dropping a piano on another guy down a flight of stairs. They are not the same activity. Pro-wrestling is built on two guys deliberately working together, cooperating to create the impression of a fight. MMA is built on two guys deliberately working against each other in a fight. If you deliberately fail to cooperate in a pro-wrestling performance---you are a bad pro-wrestler. If you deliberately cooperate with opponent in an MMA event--you are bad MMA competitor. They are completely different tasks. Pro-wrestling is far closer to piano moving than it is to MMA. Yo don't use everything in MMA. IN UFC headbutts aren't allowed. You can't kick a downed opponent. Can't fish hook. Can't eye gouge. Can't rabbit punch. Can't hit opponet with a hammer. MMA is a sport with rules about exactly what you can and cannot do. That's what makes it a sport.

Fuck, it looks like I missed two categories #7 in Category one was supposed to be Tag Team of the year #9 in Category two is best promoter. But I don't know who the candidates would be for either. I mean the Hardys had the match with MNM and the series with Cade/Murdoch and then it ended. Cade/Murdoch had the stuff with Hardys and then were sacrificed for the build to Michaels v Cena. Then there is the Briscoes and I need to watch more Noah tags. And promoter?

So year is more or less over and time to start submitting ballots so looking at this we have: 1.Lou Thesz Award This is John Cena's award with no other really legit candidates. Struggled to come up with a number two. Mitsuhara Misawa is the guy on top of NOAH right now and really a guy who clearly had no desire to be on top and is holding that role until they can find someone else. Normally when you talk about a wrestler being selfless your talking about a wrestler who is willing to put others over, with Misawa one gets the sense that putting himself over is the selfless act for the promotion. I really liked his title match vs. Sano and Bison Smith. That said I could see doing a ballott with no number two or three. 1.John Cena 2. Mitsuhara Misawa 3. Undertaker 2.MMA Most Valuable Fighter: Not sure if I fully understand this category. Meltzer has seperated Most Valuable Fighter from most Outstanding fighter. Most outstanding fighter is the fighter with best in ring ability and wins over top level competition. Which I guess means Most Valuable Fighter is the fighter that meant most to a promotion despite their in ring stuff being irrelevant. This will eventually become the Ken Shamrock Memorial award? 1. Chuck Liddell 2. Kimbo Slice 3. Cung Le 3. Most Outstanding Wrestler: 1. John Cena 2. Finlay 3. Bryan Danielson 4. Most Outstanding Fighter: Not watched any shooto this year so Faber is top featherweight gotten to see. 1. Quinton Jackson 2. Uriah Faber 3. Randy Couture 5. Best Box Office Draw- Again like Lou Thesz award this is all Cena. Meltzer says that this is based on “drawing big houses (or for that matter selling tickets to small houses as the case may be): 1. John Cena I guess I could do the same 2 and three 2. Mitsuhara Misawa 3. Undertaker But this just feels like you vote number one with a bullet 6. Feud Of the Year This isn’t a year that had a lot of feuds. WWE ran lots of good matches but not a ton in the way of feuds. WWE booked early part of the year around shows of respect angles. Michaels v Cena, Benoit v MVP, Batista v Undertaker. None of those were feuds. They did a really nice slow build to Hardys v Cade/Murdoch but as soon as Cade/Murdoch turned it was essentially over (built to a feud which never happened). As a feud Mcmahon v Lashley wasn’t compelling storyline and the matches stank. The same is true of Rated RKO v DX. Edge v Batista wasn’t good either. The matches in the Vicky Guerrero/Chavo vs. Rey and Benoit were really good but the less said about the actual “storyline” of that feud the better. 1. Jimmy Jacobs v. BJ Whitmer 2. Great Khali v. John Cena 3. Takeshi Morishima v. Bryan Danielson Chris Harris v James Storm resulted in the best match in TNA’s history but also had the blindfold match and also marked by TNA writing. And I could see that being another candidate. 7. Most Improved I’ve consisted enjoyed Hacksaw on Heat all year and all his offense (punches/big knee shoulder tackle have looked better than they have in years) but seems goofy to put him down as candidate. And well Misawa being forced into big title matches at point where he’s completely physically broken down has resulted in him working smarter than I remember him working at any other point this decade. So top candidates would be Misawa, Hacksaw, John Cena, MVP, Taji Ishimori 8. Best on Interviews 1. Jimmy Jacobs 2. Booker T 3. James Storm 9. Most Charismatic 1. John Cena 2. Rey Mysterio 3. Umaga 10. Best Technical Wrestler I only got to see two or three Navarro matches this year. And while Finlay was working a bunch of technical matches, he mostly stuck to brawling. Rey had a bunch of neat technical matches but also was mostly brawling, But top candidates. 1.Bryan Danielson 2.Finlay 3.Negro Navarro 12. Bruiser Brody Award Wow this real competition this year as lots of good candidates: Necro Butcher, Cena, Jimmy Jacobs, Nigel McGuiness, and Finlay are all worthy candidates. 13. Best Flying Wrestler: 1. Ricky Marvin 2. Rey Mysterio 3. Matt Sydal 14. Most Overrated This is Meltz’ goofy definition of overrated where refers to wrestler who gets biggest push vis-à-vis lack of ring ability or charisma. Top candidates here would be Shawn Michaels, Angle, Helmsley, 3D and Kane. And while it is kind of preposterous that Kane gets to be your non-Batista face challenger to Edge, it should be said that Kane was willing to hang around in the undercard for good chunk of the year in meaningless tag series with Boogeyman vs. Regal/Finlay. That’s kind of what all five of the candidates should be doing. Kane is the only one who actually did so that’s a strong thing in his favor and should keep him off the ballot. 15. Most Underrated Again this is with Meltz’ definition of underrated being wrestler with most ability/charisma, etc who doesn’t get push commensurate with that ability. Several strong candidates here: A) The Naturals. Really nothing says lack of push more than lack of job altogether. Chase Stevens really consistently one of best in ring workers in TNA, Naturals really solid heel tag team that the TNA “braintrust” couldn’t figure out how to use. b)London/Kendrick- Both as individuals and a team these guys have been given squat to do this year. c) Matt Hardy Kind of preposterous to complain that a guy who is getting long showcase matches every week isn’t getting pushed enough. But after this years roster split Smackdown was anchored by a heel Edge and with undertaker and Rey injured had a tiny face roster of Kane, Eugene, Flair, Matt Hardy, Batista, and Jimmy Yang. When Edge went down with injury, show with title on the heel Khali and essentially same face roster (minus Eugene and Flair but with Chuck Palumbo). That at no point did it look like WWE even contemplated mixing Hardy into the face challenger mix with Kane and Batista seems kind of silly. d) Chavo Guerrero Jr e)Hector Guerrero f)sure I’m missing a bunch of folks 16. Promotion of the Year Top candidates would be CMLL, WWE, ROH 17. Best Weekly TV Show 1.Smackdown Not going to even bother with a two or three here. 18. Pro –Wrestling Match of the Year Top candidates would include: Nigel McGuinness v. Bryan Danielson ROH 6/23, Nigel McGuinness v. Samoa Joe ROH 3/3, and John Cena v. Umaga WWE 1/28 20. Rookie of the Year 1. La Sombra Really is there another candidate besides the 17 year old sensation. 21. Best Non-Wrestling Performer Does a ref count for this? Cause Scott Armstrong has really delivered. If not top candidates are Sharmell, Julius Smokes, and El Guapito. 22. Best Television Announcer 1.JBL 2.Frank Mir 3. Javier Llanes 23.Worst Television Announcer 1. Mike Tenay Really no one else comes close 24. Best Major Wrestling Show 1. Royal Rumble Royal Rumble had both the WWE’s best singles match this year (Cena v Umaga) and their best tag match (Hardys v MNM). [b]CATEGORY B AWARDS [/b] These all single picks 1. Worst Major show of the Year: I’m assuming this is some TNA thing but I didn’t watch it. 2. Best Wrestling Maneuver Nigel McGuiness Lariat My other top candidates would be Finlay’s Indian death lock and Necro Butcher’s punch. 3. Most Disgusting Promotional tactic Vince McMahon's death and mourning 4. Worst Television Show TNA Impact 5. Worst Match of the Year Rocky Romero v. Marifjui - Respect Is Earned 6. Worst Feud of the Year So the definition of feud of the year is based on “combination of having compelling storyline along having great matches that should strengthen the box office.” Worst Feud is the one where the storyline wasn’t compelling, the matches weren’t good and hurt the box office than this should be DX v. Rated RKO. They needed to drag out Flair to bleed to get anyone to care about the storyline. The matches were a mess. And having your secondary faces squash top two heels (and the heels that the promotion wanted to carry both brands) hurt the promotion at the box office. 7. Worst Promotion Is this which promotion has the worst shows, or which one is made up of the worst human beings. Assuming it's the first then: TNA 8. Best Booker Jimmy Jaccobs I assume he's booking his own stuff. Other candidates would be choshu and is Inoki booking IGF? 10. Best Gimmick Jimmy Jacobs Emo to Screamo I also like Festus but that’s really an undercard gimmick. 11.Worst Gimmick Born Again Shawn Micheals 12. Best Wrestling book Derek Bush’s “ The History of World Championship wrestling” 13. Best Wrestling DVD DVDVR Best of the 80's Mid-South/UWF

"Law and Order" is police work, just in it's exhibition form?

And I was responding that if you go into any hospital you can find a guy on PCP with multiple gunshot wounds and a knife jabbed in his major artery who still manages to fight hospital staff and police trying to restrain him. I guess your PCP addict is a seriously tough dude with a lot of heart.

Sorry. I thought telling people to read the article would clear up the misconceptions of it. Didn’t realize that I’d also have to explain it. Golden Boy Promotions is a boxing promotional firm with boxers under contract to them. It is not a sanctioning body. The WBA, IBF, and WBC are boxing organizations that sanction bouts and award titles. It is not a promotional firm. HBO is a broadcasting company. It is not a promotional firm or a sanctioning body. It isn’t in boxing’s best interest for either a promotional firm, sanctioning body or broadcaster to have too much control. It’s a system of checks and balances that in theory should help protect the interests of the fighters, the fans and the sport. As with every system of checks and balances it is extremely inefficient. UFC is both the promotional firm and the sanctioning body (as well as being in control of broadcasting presentation). has nothing to do with questions about multiple sanctioning bodies. The article treats them as seperate sports and seperate skill sets.