Mike Jurewicz’s Blog

I have been a fan of professional wrestling for quite some time.  I think it goes back to 1st grade.  My first memory of wrestling was flipping through the channels and coming across the Undertaker beating someone and putting them into a body bag.  Of course I didn’t know at the time what I do now and thought I was seeing this scary dude kill another dude.  But the I was instantly hooked.  And with the WWF I got into WCW and with that came ECW.  ECW being the hometown, hardcore, pure wrestling promotion that wanted to be different from the big two.  My parents wouldn’t let me and my brother watch ECW because it was too violent but I would sneak to the channel whenever I could to see what those guys were up to.

But sooner or later the competition was no more.  ECW went bankrupt and the WWF purchased their assets.  WCW was sold to WWF.  It was a wrestling monopoly.  And later the WWF would start running stupid gimmicks and become way more about theatrics than wrestling.  Why?  Because they could.  There was no viable alternative.  A few companies came around to try to make there be competition but many failed.  A select couple started doing something though that gave the fans that just wanted wrestling an alternative.  Total Nonstop Action (TNA) out of Nashville (now Orlando) and Ring of Honor (ROH) out of Philadelphia (the real home of pro wrestling).  TNA caught on quick being able to bring in some bigger names and using young up and comers that were doing amazing things.  Unfortunately booking changes at TNA made the actual product become a watered down version of WWE (formerly WWF).  But there was that little company in Philly that was staying true to their line.  They offered wrestling.  They used young, talented grapplers from all over the world.  They would even begin bringing in some of the top talents from Japan.  ROH hooked me.  I had lost a lot of interest in wrestling but they brought me back in.  They have even helped produce a lot of wrestlers that have moved on become quite big stars like Samoa Joe, CM Punk, Austin Aries, Alex Shelley and more.

Well for awhile the only way I could see ROH was by DVD.  They don’t have a TV show and they only really do shows through the northeast and midwest.  When I heard they were coming to Orlando during Wrestlemania weekend for two shows I had to go.  I convinced my brother and his girlfriend to go with me and I bought our tickets months in advance.

We arrived Friday afternoon, the day of the first show. (more…)

This Saturday is going to be one of the most eagerly anticipated matches in MMA when the UFC Middleweight champion Anderson “the Spider” Silva takes on the Pride 185 lbs Champion Dan Henderson. Last year Zuffa Entertainment, the mother company of UFC, bought out Pride Fighting Championship and with it many of Pride’s fighters signed contracts with the UFC. Henderson is one of those fighters to come aboard to UFC.

Henderson is a decorated Greeco Roman wrestler with a chin of stone and one of the most dangerous right hands in the world. He has fought some of the toughest fighters in the world, many of which out of his weight class. Last year while being the reigning Pride 185 lbs champion he shocked the world when he defeated the practically unstoppable Wanderlai Silva to capture the Pride 205 lbs championship, the equivalent of the UFC’s Lightheavyweight title currently held by Quinton Jackson.

Anderson Silva was a veteran of Pride before making his way to the UFC but had some lackluster performances in many people’s eyes while in Pride. But upon entering the UFC Silva was like a beast unleashed. His deadly striking ability came to the forefront and he quickly put himself into the Middleweight title picture. He took advantage of the opportunity when he knocked out then champion Rich Franklin in very short work. Ever since Silva has laid to waste much of the competition in the Middleweight class including a much anticipated rematch with Franklin.

UFC had the plans of having unification fights between the Pride champions and UFC champions of those particular weight classes. The UFC was unable to sign Pride heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko to a contract so that one was out. Dan Henderson lost in his 205 lbs unification match with Quinton Jackson in a very hard fought match. The UFC requested Henderson to drop down for a unification match with Silva. Henderson at first denied the request stating he wished to continue fighting at 205 lbs and not at 185 lbs, but after a little thought he accepted.

So now we have a great match set. Silva is the dominant, hard striker versus Hendeson the world class wrestler that has never been knocked out in his career. I look very much forward to this and I’m going to be rooting for Dan, not because I don’t like Silva but Henderson has the heart and desire I admire. When i saw him fight Antonio Rodrigo Nougeria in Pride it was unlike any fight I’ve ever seen. He constantly escaped submission attempt after submission attempt from the then Pride Heavyweight champion. He eventually lost in the last round to an armbar submission but he showed then he is the real deal.  So if you watch the fights have fun!

So while I sit here at work on a Sunday the morning after a major server migration I am lucky to have something to keep me entertained.

The Perry Bible Fellowship is an online comic strip that’s name does not represent comics for the Jesus loving variety. There really isn’t any continuity any of the comics but are merely amusing. Some are funny in any normal sense, some take some actual thinking to get the joke and others and just blunt and to the point, maybe even a little mean. There are plenty of them so if you have a lot of time to kill these will help pass the time. I personally like the one entitle Guntron Alliance Force. I didn’t get it at first but after looking at it again I got the joke and it’s great.

Check it out yourself by going to www.pbfcomics.com and enjoy!