Once again it’s time for the best wrestling in Australia… and the results of the battle between some of the worst of politics in the democratic world. And way too much sport.
So I apologise for the rants, but I hope they make you at least think a little bit about the democratic system and how it has been hijacked and taken away from the people. From us.
We need to take it back.
Australian Rules Football
AFL Round 21
Geelong 18.13 (121) def Carlton 12.7 (79)
St Kilda 17.13 (115) def Richmond 14.10 (94)
Hawthorn 24.11 (155) slaughtered Fremantle 5.9 (39)
Controversy! Fremantle essentially sent a second-string side to Tasmania. They virtually conceded the game. What this has done is not only knock North Melbourne out of the finals race, it will most likely leave Fremantle in fifth spot and a guaranteed home final in the first week of the finals. Planned? That’s the controversy.
Collingwood 6.18 (54) def Adelaide 7.9 (51)
Adelaide were ahead for all but nine minutes of the game. And still lost.
Sydney 17.12 (114) def Western Bulldogs 10.10 (70)
Port Adelaide 17.10 (112) def Melbourne 11.17 (83)
Essendon 10.8 (68) def by Brisbane 14.11 (95)
West Coast 14.10 (94) def by North Melbourne 16.14 (110)
News:
In a sign that the world has, indeed, gone completely arse-end up, the World Boxing Council’s vice president Kovid Bhakdibhumi has said that the AFL is not doing enough to protect its players from serious long term head injury by sending concussed players back onto the field. Boxing telling another sport to watch for head injuries? Really? And, seriously, this is an issue for all concerned. The studies coming out of The Sports Legacy Institute indicate how seriously underestimated the problems of concussion and brain injury really are. The NFL in the USA is taking measures to limit the damage, while the WBC itself has some pretty strict concussion based guidelines. In the AFL, players are sent back onto the field. Now, look, I’m not saying we are going to have a Chris Benoit brain-snap situation… although with the amount of alcohol taken by players and the revelations of a small illegal drug culture within playing ranks, how long will it be before something more serious does happen?
SANFL Round 22
West Adelaide 3.4 (22) def Port Adelaide Magpies 2.4 (16)
Norwood 5.10 (40) def by Sturt 8.3 (51)
These two games were played on Friday night in the worst conditions you can imagine, hence the low scores.
Woodville-West Torrens 11.9 (75) def Central Districts 7.9 (51)
Something of an upset, showing the Eagles are possibly finding their early season form and the Bulldogs are beatable.
Glenelg 22.14 (146) def South Adelaide 10.10 (70)
Bye: North Adelaide
News:
The Port Adelaide – Port Adelaide Magpies merger is back on the table in a last desperate effort to save the SANFL version from extinction and stave off creditors in the AFL version. The other clubs are asking what has changed since this was last tabled earlier this year, but now it’s all another wait and see situation as the SANFL slowly but surely relegates itself to even more obscurity and irrelevance.
Rugby League
NRL – Round 24
Penrith 54 def South Sydney 18
Newcastle 44 def Brisbane 18
Manly 19 def Warriors 16
North Queensland 20 def by Canterbury-Bankstown 22
Melbourne 24 hammered Cronulla 4
Canberra 32 def St George Illawarra 16
Parramatta 18 def by Wests Tigers 20
Sydney Roosters 14 def by Gold Coast 23
News:
Where to start?
First off, players are being asked to, as of next year, sign legally binding statutory declarations that when they sign contracts they are not helping a club blow out their salary cap. This without any input from any players group. Somehow the onus is being put on the players to know and understand the inner workings of a rugby league club. The NRL are, effectively, shifting all the blame for the Melbourne Storm fiasco onto those who know the least – the players. But then the ugly situation of player managers rears its head. What about these guys? They should well know who’s getting paid what – maybe they should be held more accountable for salary cap breaches as well, with their ridiculous demands on behalf of their clients. No, the players will cop the blame. Not their greedy managers or their sneaky clubs. Well done, NRL, and you wonder why players are shifting codes.
Next, referees are under pressure and are making mistakes as the NRL goes overboard with technology. Bill Harrigan, arguably one of the best refs produced in the country, has been stood down indefinitely because of a bad call on a try when he was video ref last weekend. Several other refs are under just as much pressure. The problem the NRL faces is that with all this technology and their willingness to use it the game will eventually become like Gridiron was in the 1990s – so bogged down waiting for video replays, etc, that a game could last for hours. But as shown, the NRL only cares about being seen to do the right thing, not actually doing it by, I don’t know, supporting their game officials.
Soccer
A-League Round 3
Adelaide United 3 def Melbourne Heart 2
Perth Glory 1 def Newcastle Jets 0
Brisbane Roar 0 def by Sydney 1
Wellington Phoenix 2 def Central Coast Mariners 0
Melbourne Victory 2 drew with North Queensland Fury 2
News:
Nothing like a losing team sniping at one another. Robbie Slater has said some not too nice things about former team mate Harry Kewell (Slater is now retired), essentially saying that Kewell is no longer of International soccer standard calibre, but let’s be serious, that’s just his opinion. Opinions, let us not forget, are like arseholes – we all have one. He also said something about Kewell being told where to go in no uncertain terms by a Socceroo team mate. Kewell denied the claims rather angrily on air to Slater and threatened to take him somewhere and deal with him. Gotta love it when a team implodes [/sarcasm].
Netball
Back next week.
Professional Wrestling
Riot City Wrestling – Ascension 2010
Still the best wrestling in Australia and another show that confirms just that.
We start in front of a relatively small crowd – only around the 200 mark – and with a new commentator Bjorn, whose knowledge of the sport really comes through. The crowd, though small, is hot all night!
Match 1 – Voodoo v Tim Burgundy
Good back and forth opener with some nice stiff shots. Voodoo wins with a top rope cannibal destroyer (Canadian destroyer).
Match 2 – Elliot Sexton v Fuzion
Sexton’s OTT entrance and persona make him stand out from the rest (in a good way). This match was very similarly structured to the first one (including the same referee distraction to allow a testicle shot) but played more to strength than speed. Sexton wins with a roll up after distracting the ref with a sock to allow for a second testicle kick.
Post-match Sexton beats Fuzion down, calling for Rocky. Lights go out, Rocky’s music plays and… Brad Smyth comes out. He and Sexton do a stare down before Sexton leaves and Brad lays into Fuzion for a while.
Match 3 – Blue Blood & Luke Santamaria v The Rude Ones (Del Taurino and Marvel with El Presidente)
Standard formula tag team match, with Blue Blood playing the face in peril. Blue Blood’s taking of the punishment well is what made this match work as well as it did. The Rude Ones win after Del Taurino hits the Taurino bomb on Blue Blood for the win. Not too shabby, but after the tag matches recently, this lacked that ‘something special.’ Mind you, it’s always good to go back to the basic formulas some times as well…
Match 4 – Brad Smyth (with Savannah Summers) v Mimic for the BPW Australian title
Added stipulation – if Mimic wins, Brad has to fight Fuzion next show. The first five minutes were a chain wrestling clinic of move and counter move. And, fortunately, appreciated by the crowd. Some great counters to higher impact moves are also utilised. Savannah is ejected for interfering once too often, and then the match picked up, going back and forth until Mimic wins with his new driver variation – a small package driver of sorts. Match Of The Night.
Match 5 – Key To The City Rumble
The idea is that there are ten men entering every minute and a half, the final two then go on to a best of three series for the Key to the City. Sounds convoluted, but it actually worked well last year, resulting in some awesome matches.
Order in and out: Del Taurino in, Luke Santamaria in, Marvel in, Tim Burgundy in, Luke out (Rude Ones), Voodoo in, Burgundy out (Voodoo), Elliot Sexton in, Mimic in, El Presidente in, El Presidente out (Voodoo and Mimic), Mimic out (Rude Ones), Blue Blood in, Brad Smyth in, Brad out (Fuzion), Blue Blood out (Rude Ones), Fuzion out, Sexton out (Voodoo), Marvel out (Voodoo). So our best of three will be between Voodoo and Del Taurino. Did not overstay its welcome, with constant action, and considering all men had been involved in hard matches earlier in the night, the brevity made sense.
Match 6 – Sway (with Miami) v Harley Wonderland
Wonderland’s RCW debut, and like many debutantes, looks like taking time to adjust to RCW’s tight style. It was good to see Sway back in the ring wrestling again. Sway sold the leg well throughout, and it was good to see Wonderland working a limb. Sway won with a reverse bubba bomb variation (I think).
Match 7 – Jacko Lantern v GD Grimm v TJ Rush (c) for the RCW Championship
Went outside the ring early and then in and out all match. Some good three way series, then a bunch of one-on-one match ups, then more three way – well paced and no overdone, long periods. And these three hit some stupidly insane moves (and I mean that in a good way). They went into the crowd, into the canteen, onto the stage. At one point TJ disappeared, and then reappeared from outside on the second storey lighting balcony to hit a somersault suicide dive onto Jacko and Grimm (and not like New Jack – this looked surprisingly safe and clean). Move Of The Year! A chair was shattered on Jacko’s head while Jacko was being attended by the referee. But this only leads to Jacko pinning Grimm for the win!
Winner and NEW Champion – Jacko Lantern!
What a match! The crowd explodes and the faces all come out on stage to cheer. Jacko makes a speech putting TJ over well. More crowd explosion (did I say they were hot? They were damn hot!). But Grimm isn’t happy and demands a first blood match with TJ for the right to the rematch with Jacko. This is given, so next month we already have Grimm v TJ Rush and Fuzion v Smyth.
This company constantly amazes with their product. From lighting, music, set up, entrance, the works – it looks the goods. And the in-ring action IS the goods. For anyone trying to break into this company, the standard is ridiculously high, and would be a struggle to match them. And that is a good thing, especially for Australian wrestling.
Now, I know some other Australian federations have ties to the US indy scene. Sorry, those US indies are all barking up the wrong tree. With the exception of EPW in Perth, no other company consistently matches what RCW are putting out there.
If you live outside of Adelaide, do yourself a favour, get a multi-region DVD player or put in a special formatting request, and get RCW DVDs from 2009-2010. You will not be disappointed.
Australia!
We had an election.
As of this writing it looks more and more likely we will have a hung parliament with the votes of the independents in the Senate and/or House of Representatives determining the government of this country.
Both sides are saying they won, and are thanking the Australian people for showing faith in them. This clearly indicates that both sides are full of morons.
The Australian people out faith in the Greens, because they were the real winners, with now 9 seats in the Senate and one in the House of Reps. If they put faith in either party, one party would have clearly won. But we didn’t. Because both major parties DO NOT CARE ABOUT AUSTRALIA.
The Liberal-National Party Coalition believes that public health is a waste of money, that public education is for poor people only and a waste of money, that anyone who comes to this country and is not a white Christian is a terrorist, that workers are slaves to their bosses and that the Global Financial Crisis was a good thing and Australia should have been allowed to go into recession. They want to keep us in a technological dark age. This party could well govern the country. They are like the Republicans in the US but without the charisma. They are supported by Family First, a Christian political party that would welcome Beck and Limbaugh into their ranks with open arms. And the Coalition have their own psycho-looney in Barnaby Joyce.
The Labor Party is the party of the unions. They are ruled internally by factions who think nothing of dumping a prime minister mid-term. They think very little of education in general and do not see that economics is important in politics; after all, most people hate the things they don’t understand or never had. They just want to spend and spend with no thought of where the money is actually coming from. They have no issues with companies being held to ransom by workers. And they want to censor us in every aspect of our lives. (The Liberals are a censorious bunch as well, but at least they have so far stopped at the internet… although Family First want the Internet filtered completely, so this could be interesting.) Labor also seem to not understand things like health, personal freedom and the media.
That’s what we have to deal with in this country. We need a legitimate third force – and not the Greens who really are just a mild version of Labor with some nice ecological feel-good policies thrown in for good measure. And definitely not Family First while they are informed purely by a religious belief that is divisive, and detrimental to the education in this country and to the rights of individuals, especially women and homosexuals.
No matter what, Australia is stuffed.
Look, I love my country. I think when you get away from our biased media outlets and our insensitive, greedy, power-mad politicians, Australians deep down are a great bunch of people who accept you no matter what. So long as you can talk about a sport (any sport) with some degree of knowledge, you’re accepted. Seriously. That’s the only criteria we seem to have for anyone. Sport. It doesn’t matter what your faith, what your place of origin, the colour of your skin, the accent of your voice – you need a sport to hang your hat on. It’s why we’re such an egalitarian society. But this is something the media and politicians (and religions) would take away from us. They want us to be divided and afraid. They don’t want us to be relaxed and content.
They all suck.
And that’s the View through to August 23.
