Sports Weekend

It was quite a packed weekend with another wild NFL weekend, two MMA shows and an almost forgotten TNA pay-per-view show. On the NFL front, Hollywood Nations's favorite team, the Rams, won to take their record to 6-6. Six wins! Who could have dreamed of this during the Linehan Era? I think we should stop the season right now. Props to Jonathan Brookins, who looks like the nicest guy to ever win the title of Ultimate Fighter. The Strikeforce show on Showtime was really good and featured three straight bouts were dudes just got knocked the F out. Dudes were falling forward on their faces like Ric Flair. It was quite a night.

Don't Mess With Vickie

Check out this clip of WWE NXT (at the 1:30 mark) from a couple of weeks ago where Vickie Guerrero cracks on her smart-ass rookie during a Newlywed Game-style competition:

Howard Finkel Introduces The Wedding Party

If I ever get married, it's gotta be like this:

News and Notes

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I only had one plate, but it could have fed a third world country for about a week. I'm taking it easy today, but here's some thoughts on things the last couple of days:

- Dancing with the Stars Finale: What a dreadful two hours. An hour and thirty minutes of filler plus the giant-headed Bristol Palin moping around the dancefloor yet again (and still getting scored higher than Kyle by that shithead judge in the middle) made for an agonizing show. In the end, the right person won (although Brandy would have given Jennifer Grey a run for her money) and Bristol gets to drive five hours back to Alaska in her truck, where she can use her newfound dance skills at the Wasilla Scores.

- New Release Monday: Picked up the new CDs by Kanye West and Nicki Minaj. These are must-have discs! Awesome lyrics and tremendous production work. You won't be sorry you bought these! (I haven't listened to them yet).

- Juan Cena: Despite WWE's storyline where John Cena was fired, local shows are advertising appearances by John Cena's Mexican cousin "Juan Cena". Ridiculous; they're starting to make TNA's writing team look like the writers of CSI.

That's all for now. Gotta catch the rest of this Good Times/Sanford and Son marathon on TV Land.

Your New World Champion

Congratulations to The Miz, who was crowned the new champion WWE Champion after cashing in the Money in the Bank briefcase and beating Randy Orton last night on Raw. I have to give props because this guy went from being a totally inept scrub to going to the top of the mountain. I never would have seen this day coming back when he was flubbing lines on the Diva Search segments. Good job!

AMAs on FF

I recorded the American Music Awards on the DVR and watched it on fast forward for the most part. It seemed pretty tame. Has the Taylor Swift backlash started yet? I seemed to fast forward just a little more when she was on. I stopped a bit for Rihanna, Katy Perry and Usher. The performance of the night (at least what I saw of it) was Christina Aguilera. I knew it wouldn't be too long before the clothes were off again. Good marketing. The show finale at the end was pretty funny with Backstreet and New Kids giving a preview of their upcoming tour. I guess next Color Me Badd and N'Sync will hit the road together.

DWTS Rant

What a mess on Dancing with the Stars last night. Poor Brandy, the best dancer of the whole season, got cut and the slow-motion, charisma-challenged Bristol Palin survived yet another week. The fun got taken out of the show like a balloon with a hole in it. I don't know if I will even bother to watch the finals next week. Who wants to see them put the crown on Bristol's giant head? I'd rather watch something with more integrity, like pro wrestling. Plus if I have to see that clip of Bristol sticking her tongue out and playing air guitar one more time, I might get sick.

Old School Raw

I only caught about half of the show last night, but I enjoyed WWE's presentation of "Old School Raw", which saw the return of WWE Legends and TV setup and graphics from the 80's and 90's. The highlight for me was Jim Ross returning to call the Daniel Bryan vs. Jack Swagger match (although it was almost ruined with their insistance on inserting this Michael Cole heel nonsense). The show just seems to improve about 1,000 percent with the addition of Ross. Hopefully the thickheaded management will see this and bring the man back to his rightful place on the show.

Dancing with the Stars

This Bristol Palin thing is really bringing a damper on the season. Even two performances from the Roots and John Legend couldn't save last night's show. They're going to have to bring in Janet Jackson, Prince and Ric Flair next year to make up for this debacle. In the meantime, here's a show that never disappoints, the Spin Cycle!:

The Next Superman

According to a report at moviefone.com, The Rock and current WWE Superstar John Cena are under consideration to play the lead role in the upcoming Superman movie. The Rock would do okay, but I don't know if America is ready for that. Cena would bring the franchise to a screeching halt. Maybe if they are planning to release the movie straight to VHS, but otherwise I can't see it.

The Softest Tour Ever

New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys are going on tour together. In 2010. This tour is so soft that it should be sponsored by Charmin. Madonna won't come to my town but I KNOW this abomination will.

She's Doing What?

According to several online reports, Kim Kardashian is in the studio preparing to make an album. This reminds me of how every three or four years somebody gets the idea "hey, wouldn't it be funny if we let the wrestlers make a record?" She should probably stick with what she does best... standing there. This thing better have a hell of a CD booklet.

(Photo from allposters.com)

Election Day

It's Election Day across the country. Be sure to vote or you might let Mariah down. According to the shirt, she's taking this pretty seriously. And here's your theme song for the day, courtesy of Duran Duran:

News and Notes

The highlight of the weekend was The Rally to Restore Sanity/Fear on Comedy Central. The show opened with a forty minute set from The Roots, who were joined halfway by John Legend. If the place had a roof, they would have blown it off. The below footage isn't from the rally, but this is one of the epics they performed:




And don't forget to check your local listings for this week's Family Feud, featuring The Beautiful People (and an assortment of other wrestlers). It's my understanding that electronic stores nationwide can barely keep TVs in stock because of this. Here's a preview:

I Think I'm Gonna Be Sick

I almost want to move to Connecticut so I can vote against her:

Call The Waaambulance

The gall of these people. They got called out on all the deaths, classifying employees as independent contractors to screw them out of benefits, no off-season for wrestlers, and they respond with this whiny campaign:

Kim Kardashian Makes The Cover of W Magazine

I'm not even sure what W Magazine is, but I bet it makes for some intriguing reading:

Christina Single Again?

It's been rumored that Christina Aguilera and her man have split. Sorry to hear that, but it can only mean one thing-- the return of the assless chaps!:

"THEY"

This is one of those weeks where you wish TNA Wrestling would just fold up and go away. It started on Impact last Thursday with the Ric Flair vs. Mick Foley match. It was just sad to see two of my favorite wrestlers bleeding and rolling around in thumbtacks. I started having flashbacks to the movie The Wrestler (and not the scenes with Marisa Tomei's ass). They followed this up with their biggest show of the year on Sunday, Bound for Glory, which saw the reveal of their long awaited "THEY" angle result in a heel turn of their most popular wrestler and merchandise seller, Jeff Hardy. Sounds smart to me. Finally at last night's TV tapings, they had a guest appearance from Jersey Shore's Jwoww which according to TMZ cost them $15,000. Are you kidding me? For 15 grand, they could have gotten J-LO. These idiots. No wonder Paul Heyman stayed away.

WWE Legends on Chuck

Here's a clip of former wrestling superstars "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Stacy Keibler on NBC's Chuck from Monday:

News and Notes

I thought last night's confrontation between Ric Flair and Mick Foley was kinda sad and pointless, but I'll be glued to the set tonight when these two legends face-off on Impact. Glad to see this company is going with a youth movement. In other bouts, there will be a battle royal and a tag match to see who gets the name "The Beautiful People".

In other notes from the week, they got my hopes up that Bristol Palin was leaving Dancing with the Stars this week but it turned out to be Margaret Cho, who I thought gave a good effort. Probably Mrs. Brady and Palin will be next, although you can never count out the random black person ousting that inevitably occurs at some point in the season. Also, I'm glad we no longer have to deal with the annoying Jimmy T. on Survivor after this week. Looks like we might get new teams next week, which is for the best because the old people tribe was getting steamrolled.

The Spin Cycle

Here's a new edition of my favorite internet show, the Spin Cycle. This week's special guest is the one and only Angelina Love of the Beautiful People (oh, and a couple of other wrestlers). Enjoy:

News and Notes

I'm back! Here are my thoughts on some of the things I've missed the past couple of weeks:

Dancing with the Stars: I really love this season's cast but they've already ruined it in week two with atrocious judging (what else is new?), Team Palin's country asses, and saying that Bruno went too far in cracking on Michael Bolton. My favorite this season is Kyle, who seemingly came out of nowhere (at least in my household) to capture America's heart. It's about time someone represented for the chubby black guys. My shitfit when he gets voted out before Bristol Palin should be monumental.

Wake Up!: The Roots and John Legend together on one CD. Album. Of. The. Year. Get it.

Survivor: I'm sorry to see the Jimmy Johnson gimmick end in week three, but it hadn't really panned out to be all that great anyway. Some of the most vile contestants in history. I don't have a favorite yet.

Wrestling: Raw ratings continue to sink and PPV buyrates are in a steep decline. They're in no danger of going under but if ratings and buyrates continue to erode, it will be difficult to get those lost fans back. I don't even see a way to turn things around. TNA is still hopeless, but I'm intrigued by whatever "special announcement" they have planned for next week. They're probably getting rid of the wrestling ring altogether.

Kim Kardashian: Still hot.

2010 MTV Video Music Awards

I thought the MTV VMA's were a decent show. Sure I missed about an hour of it, but what I saw was good. Chelsea Handler was hit and miss as host. I liked the skit at the start with all of the rappers and Lindsay Lohan (who looked respectable for once) slapping her on the behind. Gaga was the big winner of the night and I loved her big dresses where she had to be helped on the stage. Loved the Kanye West performance at the end, toasting the douchebags and the assholes. That's my new theme song. I'm glad they kept this thing to two hours. Other awards shows need to take heed.

NXT Season Three

OMG. Last night's season three premiere of WWE's rookie-in-training show, NXT, was Trainwreck TV at its finest. Take six barely trained wrestlers, er, sports entertainers fresh out of the WWE Florida development system, put them on national TV to participate in skits and have horrible wrestling matches and hijinx galore ensue. It was fascinating to watch between the dreadful interviews, announcers making fools of themselves, and more botched moves than a

Candice Michelle vs. Lacey Von Erich blindfold match. For the record, I'm going with Naomi to win this thing (hardly going out on a limb seeing as how she won three competitions already). With only six contestants, I have no idea how they are going to drag this thing out for three months. Hell, they barely made it an hour. But if they can make it through the season and create one new star and go without some poor broad getting injured on live TV, the season will be a success.

(Photo from wwe.com)

Keeping Up With The Kardashians

I seem to watch this show every other season, so I decided to catch last night's season premiere of Keeping Up With The Kardashians. As usual, this show is best watched with the sound down, but in the best interest of this review, I decided to listen in. This episode's main plot was that Kim was moving into her new mansion. MANSION! This broad done built an empire off of having a big ass! You have to give her credit though for working this thing to this level. Anyway, although she didn't want people touching anything in the house, her increasingly annoying mother decided to hold a housewarming party there. It ended in an embarrassing food fight. There was frosting all over the floor and her mother, who apparantly has never cleaned before, said that everyone should grab a broom.

The subplot involved Khloe not letting Kourtney's tool of a babydaddy in her house. I don't blame her; you can't help but hate this guy. At the end, Kourtney moved out of Khloe's house and into Kim's. This show raised three questions: 1) Why can't she get her own place?, 2) why on earth is she still with this guy with zero redeeming qualities?, and 3) how is this thing still on the air? I'll try to watch this again next week. Hopefully more ass and less talk.

(Photo from eonline.com)

The Expendables Movie Review

I went and saw The Expendables yesterday, which is projected to be the number one movie in the country this weekend. I mostly went to support Stone Cold. Here's what I can tell you about it:

1) Being black, I missed the first five minutes
2) There was a lot of shooting

If you're an action fan, you'll love it.

R.I.P. Lance Cade

Macho Madness

Wrestling nerds across the country (present company included) the countdown begins:

Lindsay in the Pen

Wow, I didn't think she would actually be put behind bars but as you can see above, Lindsay Lohan is rocking the orange jumpsuit. Sitting in a 5x7. Three hots and a cot. Making a shank out of a toothbrush. Having mashed potatoes for breakfast. Walking into rooms and saying "what you looking at? You don't know me, potna!" Being traded for cigarettes. Using Maxim magazine as currency. Sad times. What do the rest of the Mean Girls think? I hate to think of sweet little Lacey Chabert coming in on visiting day and giving the prison handshake. Maybe Herbie will visit and bring her a cake with a file in it.

(Photo from tmz.com)

Lady Gaga in St. Louis

Mariah Carey has her Lambs, Jimmy Buffet has his Parrotheads, Chris Jericho has the Jericholics, Shannon Moore has the Moorons and Lady Gaga has the Little Monsters. On Saturday night, about 20,000 or so of the Little Monsters converged on the Scottrade Center in St. Louis. Here is my report:

I got downtown around 7ish and searched for a parking spot. On the way in, all you saw was a constant stream of scantily clad women all headed to the arena, so it wasn't so bad being stuck in traffic for once. This also created such unique dilemmas as, "Do I concentrate on backing into this parking space OR do I concentrate on the woman with the World's Shortest Skirt?" Decisions. After I gawked then parked, I headed to the arena. It was a freakshow outside. It was reported that there was a protest outside but I didn't see it. I did see just about everything else under the sun though: Women wrapped in police tape, broads with their hair wrapped around soda cans, grown men in leopard pants, Gaga lookalikes, women wearing just balloons, a man in a flesh colored body stocking (he should have been protested), strippers, and even one guy in a dope Guns N Roses t-shirt (me). It was a circus.

After the opening act of Semi-Precious Weapons, the main event started about 8:45. Here are some notable moments not necessarily in this order (I'm old and forgetful):

- The show started with an awesome video on the giant video screen/curtain. The curtain opened to show a New York City street scene, including a big green car in the middle of the stage (which was later used as a piano). Lady Gaga evenutally emerged down the staircase (I believe the first song was "Just Dance") wearing a leotard with most of her ass out. The capacity crowd was on its feet and stayed there for most of the two hour show. It was during this portion of the show that you couldn't help but notice something. Yeah, it was pretty prominent. And I mean that in the most complimentary sense. I can't believe this wasn't the talk of the show. I know it was for me.

- There were several costume changes including the forementioned leotard, a nun outfit, a giant red cape that would have made Gene Simmons proud and an outfit that shot out sparks from strategic areas.

- During one part of the show, she kept asking the crowd "Do you think I'm sexy?" to which the crowd roared "yes!" each time. She then announced that she abuses this part of the show because she was a nerd in high school. This is the kind of stuff I would pull too.

- I believe this is the first production I have been to of any kind where the performer managed to fit in the phrases "Get your dicks out!" AND "Jesus loves everybody!"

- My favorite part of the show was when Gaga played her new and soon-to-be smash hit "You and I":



Uh, not that one, this one:



The fact that she did the song in a bikini and boots while playing a piano that was on fire only enhanced it.

- Text from Jeffrey Watkins during the show: "She's no dancer, but she tries." Pretty damn accurate.

- She did a gimmick during the show where uses her cell phone to call a Little Monster in the audience. The lady was overcome with joy and they had small talk across the arena. Gaga then received another call-- it was "Beyonce" (yeah, right), which led to their duet "Telephone".

- After an extended bit with her band and dancers, plus an appearance by a giant monster, she took the show home with a hyped performance of "Bad Romance". Overall, a great show with excellent visuals, costumes, dancing and singing. The crowd absolutely ate it up. One of the best shows that I've been to. (Although my favorite Gaga moment wasn't included-- check the 2:30 mark):

Lame!

Well, that was awful. I caught the big ECW/TNA brawl on Thursday's Impact and it was a hot mess. What were they fighting over? Why would Al Snow and Simon Diamond turn against TNA? Does anyone even know who Al Snow and Simon Diamond are anymore? Why did all of these grown men stop fighting because some broad said so? This was dreadful. If they thought this would get fans excited, in the immortal words of Martin Lawrence, somebody done told you wrong:

News and Notes

Here is Chris Brown's comeback performance from Sunday's BET Awards. I was a little suprised that they gave him the featured spot on the show, but I have to admit he did well. Hope he doesn't squander this second chance:

Ric Flair's Tennesse Lottery Commercial

This is fantastic:

More Rolling Stone Controversy

That should be a pretty funny exchange between President Obama and General McChrystal today in the White House. I imagine it will go something like this:

President Obama: "What is this?!" (holding up the Rolling Stone magazine)

Gen. McChrystal: "That's a hellafide rumpshaker, sir."

Obama: "Not THAT!"

The Big Day

It's New Release Tuesday and my favorite group (and Jimmy Fallon Show house band) The Roots is releasing their 9th studio album, How I Got Over, wherever you buy music.

This should be good. Also today, one of Hollywood Nation's other favorites, the multi-talented Chris Jericho will get a big break as he will host the new ABC game show Downfall tonight. I'd love to see this be a big success so he can go on to other major projects and finally get out from under Vince's thumb.

News and Notes

Week Three of the WWE NXT angle and while it is losing a bit of steam, all is not lost. I'm still mildly interested, although not like a couple of weeks ago. The beatdown of Vince was good although it kind of turned them face (which is probably why they still haven't touched Michael Cole) they might still get something out of this. Meanwhile, Smackdown is damn near unsufferable... Check out the cover of the upcoming Rolling Stone magazine with Lady Gaga on the cover above). I'm all for it. Although it's gonna be strange walking into Walgreens and seeing all that ass right across from the Snicker bars... I caught Warren the Ape on MTV again this week and it's downright hilarious. There is a guest appearance from Greg The Bunny on this week's episode which you don't want to miss. Be sure to catch it on one of the 1,038 replays on MTV this week.

News and Notes

This segment was ridiculous beyond belief but I laughed so hard at it. I don't know how anyone in the segment kept a straight face. My favorite line (from Real Flair): "You don't even know what sixty minutes is!" (around the 8:00 mark):





Also, hilarious was this late night ad that I just saw on TV. The funniest part was that it aired on TV One. Kinda like that time I saw a male enhancement ad on BET. Somebody better fire their marketing director:

Angelina Love Returns Tonight

She's one of my favorites and she returns to the ring tonight on Impact-- it's Angelina Love! But before that, you can check out this preview interview below. Be sure to check her out tonight on Spike TV (well either that or that Game 7 thing):

Katy Perry w/ Snoop Dogg-- "California Gurls"

It's the jam of the summer! Snoop Dogg kills it with "I'm all up on ya, 'cause ya representin' California":

News and Notes

Decent follow-up to last week's NXT angle on WWE Raw (despite the Bryan Danielson debacle over the weekend). I liked the mid-show brawl and the attack on Bret at the end. I didn't really care for the rest of the show. It's funny that they NXT guys are carrying the show. Who would have thought? I'm still looking forward to the next episode in a 90's-esque kind of way. Next thing you know I'll be watching some Melrose Place and listening to Puff Daddy records... I caught the series premiere of Warren the Ape on MTV and loved it. It's a spin-off of the old Fox series Greg The Bunny. Paired with The Hard Times of R.J. Berger and MTV is on a roll. I just hope I don't accidentally turn and catch a glimpse of The Hills one of these days.

News and Notes

WWE didn't really follow up on the NXT angle on Syfy last night (and according to the Smackdown spoilers, it wasn't followed up there either), but it's just as well, because they shouldn't burn out the angle early. I have to say this is the first time in years that I can't wait until Raw on Monday... Congratulations to Isaac Bruce, who retired from the NFL today as a St. Louis Ram. He was the heart and soul of the Rams glory period and scored the winning touchdown during the Rams Super Bowl victory in 2000. He will have his number 80 retired this coming season. If Orlando Pace retires this year, that will be a hell of a Hall of Fame class with Bruce, Pace and Kurt Warner.

Team NXT!

WOW! Last night's WWE Raw was embarrassing for about the first two and a half hours (I was actually covering my face in shame at one point) but man, that was a hell of an ending. If you didn't see it, the NXT rookies banded together and beat the hell out of John Cena, C.M. Punk, the SES, the announcers (Michael Cole escaped; if he had gotten beaten up it would have turned the group face), the timekeeper, and the ring announcer. They destroyed the ring and the ringside area. Cena was taken out on a stretcher. People were holding their mouths in the audience. This new audience hasn't seen such heinous acts. Welcome to wrestling. If they follow up correctly, they could really create some excitement this summer. I don't put much stock into it, but at least for one show they made it where I can't wait for the next show (and when was the last time that happened?).

R.I.P. Gary Coleman

Sorry to hear about the passing of actor Gary Coleman, who brought us all a lot of laughs from his roles in Diff'rent Strokes, Good Times and other projects. You can find some of his finest work on this clip (around the 7:30 mark). Also, below is a clip from his appearance in WCW from years ago:

News and Notes

Finally we are down to the final two in this wretched season of American Idol. Casey put in the same dull, soulless performance that he had all season (and why not? It was good enough to get him to the final three). Crystal was good. Lee was alright (the second song was really good-- the first performance of his all season that I liked) but it seemed the judges were trying to push him hard so we would have a competition next week. Can't wait... The funniest story I heard all day involved Eliza Dushku, the girlfriend of former NBA player Rick Fox. Fox was in the audience of Dancing with the Stars on Monday seated next to The Bachelor. The Bachelor's finance was looking a little to hard at Fox, at least to Eliza. So she tweeted: "I will cut you. Keep yo eyes on yo own meat." WTF! Has this girl been watching to much Maury? "Meat"? Plus when did Rick Fox start messing with the WWs? So funny on so many levels.

Richards vs. Black

Great video for Ring of Honor's upcoming internet pay-per-view featuring Davey Richards vs. Tyler Black:

News and Notes

The final three of American Idol is the saddest in the show's history. It's so bad, that next week's Dancing with the Stars results show is starting to look very enticing. Now that's bad. Casey-- CASEY-- is in the top three! At this point, I hope he wins so they can put the show out of its misery... The people who declared they would never watch Impact again are looking like geniuses. What a wretched show this week. I love the roster, but with this "creative" team I see no hope. Why would anyone be inspired to buy that pay-per-view show on Sunday after seeing this show? Never has a more talented roster been squandered more. Congratulations Vince Russo; one more accolade to add to his list of staggering incompetent achievements. The dog from Family Guy could write a better show than this-- and he's not even real!

Sade's New Video: "Babyfather"

Well, damn. I can't believe this woman is 50:

News and Notes

Big Mike survived another week on American Idol. This guy may have set the record for being in the bottom two. Little Aaron got voted off this week and will likely have been forgotten by airtime on Tuesday. The only two good things about last night's show were Lady Gaga's performance and the Lane Bryant ad that had been been banned by other networks:



Seems like a lot of my favorite women in the entertainment world are now single: Halle Berry, Kim Kardashian, Sandra Bullock, Stacey Dash, and Kristal Marshall (and hopefully the broad from the forementioned Lane Bryant ad). It's a buyer's market! I need to get me a ticket to Hollywood to cash in on this... I just found out about a site called listentoamovie.com. You can plug in headphones and listen to movies while you go about your workday. There's even a "stealth" setting that changes the box to look like a spreadsheet. I'm going to listen to Goodfellas at work today. "Do I amuse you"?

News and Notes

Last night might have been the worst episode ever of American Idol. These people are almost as bad as the people that sing the songs on Dancing with the Stars. Frank Sinatra night was a disaster. I thought only Big Mike did a good job. The rest could all go home, including Crystal. I didn't understand the praise that was heaped on the last guy (I can't remember these people's names); I think that's one of those performances where the judges look back and say it wasn't as good as they thought. I'm guessing a Casey departure this week... I was surprised to see Pam Anderson cut on Dancing with the Stars. I thought she always put on solid performances. Glad to see Niecy Nash is still hanging in though, who is my favorite at this point... Big week for TNA Wrestling as they finally decided to move back to Thursdays AND fired that idiot Bubba the Love Sponge. Please fire Vince Russo and make it the trifecta of good decisions.

More Fanfest Pix

The Pope!

Lacey Von Erich

Eric Bischoff


Christy Hemme

STING!

Pictures from Last Weekend's TNA Fan Interaction

Ric Flair

Angelina Love

The Beautiful People

Jeff Jarrett

Rob Van Dam

News and Notes

Finally Tim Urban was sent packing from American Idol. He should have left seven weeks ago and the show is only six weeks old. He won't be missed. And over on Dancing with the Stars, Kate Gosselin was booted. I will miss her because I found her awful dancing a highlight of the show. Such a bittersweet week... Survivor continues to be incredible. Old girl pulled out TWO immunity idols. I swear, this show has some great writers. And I was so happy that J.T. got voted out since giving away the immunity idol was his idea in the first place. At the end he said "never trust a woman". No, never trust your own feeble brain, you idiot. Great strategy; see you at the reunion show.

Keith Elam a.k.a. Guru, 1966-2010

Sorry to hear about the passing of The Guru of Gangstarr, who died on Monday from cancer. He was one of my favorite rappers in the 90's as the voice of Gangstarr, then he followed that up with his series of Jazzmatzz albums, which yielded some classic moments. Among my favorite songs of his were "Ex-Girl To Next Girl", "Mass Appeal", "Dwyck", and "Who's Gonna Take The Weight". He will be greatly missed. Here are some classic clips below:

News and Notes

For anyone out there who watches Survivor, can you believe the boneheaded move last night? Why would you give an immunity idol to anyone on the other team? They should have the next season of Survivor as Heroes vs. Villians vs. Dummies. I can't wait to see J.T. and Colby voted out... In anticipation of this weekend's TNA Lockdown pay-per-view, enjoy this interview with Velvet Sky of The Beautiful People:

News and Notes

It was another average week on American Idol. I thought Adam Lambert did a really good job trying to get something out of the hapless contestants. In the end, it was Andrew and Katie who went home, which was long overdue in both cases. Things are finally going my way; with this luck I should buy some lottery tickets and run out to Vegas and roll the felt... The best thing about this week's Monday Night "Wars" was the new TNA show Reaction that came on before Impact. It's amazing that TNA's best work always comes when the so-called writers aren't involved. Does anyone in charge of that company see a pattern?

News and Notes

Celebrity Apprentice continues to be an enjoyable show, with another fun episode tonight. Unfortunately it was model Selita Ebanks (above) who had to go this week (just one week after leading her team to victory). Oh well, at least the wrestlers are still there... Speaking of which, there are now SIX hours of Monday night wrestling between Ring of Honor on HD Net, WWE Raw on USA, TNA Impact on Spike, plus TNA now has a preview show at 6PM CST as a prelude to Impact's new time slot of 7PM to 9PM CST. I saw the first five minutes and it did a better job of promoting the product than any recent Impact segment ever did. Probably a good sign that the "writing" team has nothing to do with this new show. The spoilers didn't look promising but there will be a "Leather and Lace" match between Angelina Love and Velvet Sky. Not sure what a Leather and Lace match is but something tells me I won't be missing it... Shout out to my boy Common who had a role in this weekend's top movie Date Night. As a fan who's been down since the days of "Breaker 1/9", I'm loving this.

News and Notes

Not much to say about Wednesday's American Idol. The show continues its demise with this awful season. It's a complete joke now with one of its best singers finishing last (although the judges used the save to keep him). Vocal talent isn't even a factor anymore. They might as well just have the contestants come out and juggle apples. This show is useless... In brighter news, The fools that run TNA Impact actually made some good decisions yesterday. They signed one of my favorite people in the wrestling business, Christy Hemme (above) to a two-year extension and moved their Monday timeslot to 7PM to 9PM (CST). In addition they brought back the Thursday replay in their old time slot of 8 to 10. Next thing you know, they'll be bringing in a new writing staff... It was reported on perezhilton.com that Kanye West will be returning to his New York hip-hop roots on his next album and has enlisted the help of producers such as No I.D., the RZA, and Pete Rock. Now that's what I'm talking about.

(Photo from tnawrestling.com)

News and Notes

Lennon/McCartney Night on American Idol was about what I expected. Honestly, I was asleep for a great portion of the second hour. The personality profiles did flesh out these people a tad but it got old quick. Katie said she would go to the prom with whoever gave her the most votes; with her low finishes, five votes would probably get you that date. I have no idea why the judges praised her performance. I felt like I was watching another program. Mike was okay, Crystal was good, and Tim made me want to go hide. Same old story. Reportedly, Adam Lambert will be the guest mentor next week. That could be fun... Ratings are in and Impact lost handily yet again (no suprise) but it did a little better and Raw dropped a bit from last week. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter compared Impact to a high school boy who tries to get attention by eating worms. That was spot-on. I didn't see it, but I can't believe these idiots allowed one of their wrestlers to take a chairshot to the head in this day and age. Get a clue... I missed Dancing with the Stars, but caught the highlights. Kate Gosselin somehow escaped again. She was so bad, it was hilarious. I hope she stays for weeks. Glad to see Pam, 85, and Niecy advanced. I felt bad for Buzz Aldrin, but it was time for him to go.

Monday Night Wrestling

Due to the crowded schedule, I didn't get to see much of WWE Raw and I skipped through quite a bit of TNA Impact. Seems like Raw is hitting a bit of the post-WrestleMania letdown. Why on earth would WWE let their new champion Jack Swagger get pinned already? It makes no sense. I missed any David Otunga-Hudson segments that may have run. I did see him turn on John Cena at the end, which may set up a 9:00 squash match some time down the line. Over on Impact, why is Kurt Angle killing himself for a show doing an 0.6? I thought it was funny that TNA is in such dire straits that they actually listened to the ratings patterns and tried to showcase the Knockouts (although putting the title up in a luck of the draw box was stupid). They cut out some of the "comedy" and actually built two matches for next week. Baby steps.

R.I.P. Chris Kanyon. Sorry to hear about his passing. He was always innovative in the ring and I always enjoyed his matches and persona. I always thought one of the leagues could have done much more with him.

(Photo from tnawrestling.com)

News and Notes

This week it was Didi's time to leave the show after an underwhelming performance on Wednesday. Somehow Tim managed to hang on despite the massacre of Anita Baker's "Sweet Love". I can only imagine what he's going to do with the Lennon/McCartney songbook this week (which if I recall correctly, led to disasterous results the last time they trotted these songs out). Oh well, it will be fun coming up with new insults... Monday will be loaded up again with the NCAA title game, five hours of wrestling, Dancing with the Stars AND two hours of 24 (why on this night?). Can't they save some of this stuff for Friday and Saturday when nothing is on?

Ass Wednesday

Have you checked out the video for Erykah Badu's "Window Seat"? The song is the bomb, but the video just came out and it's a real piece of work. It's tough to come up with an innovative music video these days but this is certainly unique. It's all done in one take on a public street in Dallas. But the big story: who knew she was carrying all that junk in the trunk all these years? As J. Anthony Brown said on the Tom Joyner Morning Show, not only could you put a drink on th at, you could put a whole bowl of spaghetti:



And speaking of ass, glad to see Brooke Adams (formerly of WWE/ECW) return to wrestling on Impact on Monday in the role of Eric Bischoff's secretary. At least this should make his eight segments each show more bearable.


Not that anyone saw her debut, as Impact did a dismal 0.6 in the ratings on Monday. That's about roughly half of what they had been doing before the Hogan/Bischoff era. Time to move back to Thursday and GET NEW WRITERS... I enjoyed this week's Dancing with the Stars, but hated to see Brenda of 90210 get the boot. That's just bad karma coming back on her. Should have been Buzz Aldrin or that bitchy reality mom. Maybe next week... American Idol was predictably wretched. The middle of the show was like a Murder's Row of bad singers. That summer tour is gonna be the joke of the summer.

Shawn Michaels Retires

One unexpected turn came out of WrestleMania 26 that I never really considered-- it looks like Shawn Michaels is actually retiring. He went out with a classy speech at the end of Raw last night. In honor of what may be his last match, I am posting a clip of my favorite Michaels match: the WrestleMania X Ladder Match against Razor Ramon:

WrestleMania XXVI

Last night was the biggest event of the wrestling year, WrestleMania. And it lived up to expectations. For the second year in a row, Undertaker and Shawn Michaels pretty much had the match of the year. Undertaker won, going 18-0 in the most treasured record in sports. Thus, Shawn Michaels has to allegedly retire, although few ever really retire in wrestling. I wonder if we'll see a Flair-esque retirement ceremony tonight. Somebody check Marty Jannetty's travel inteniary. John Cena regained the Raw title over Batista in a good match. Jack Swagger was a surpise winner in the Money in the Bank match. Overall, a great night. Great action, great food and great friends. Can't ask for more than that.

(Photo from wwe.com)

WrestleMania Sunday

Happy WrestleMania Day! I hope you got everything that you wanted under your WrestleMania Tree!

American Idol Results

This season of American Idol just keeps getting worse. Now the the eye candy of the show has departed with the elimination of Paige. Sure, her verison of "Against All Odds" was absolutely wretched, but there about three other people as equally bad. I can't believe Paula Abdul Boy talked his way through another song and didn't even make the bottom three this week. What a tour that is going to be this summer. They'd have to pay me to go. I'd rather sit through the Jonas Brother and that broad from last night again, which was like torture. Anyway, here is Paige in happier times:

American Idol

I think the most surprising thing about Tuesday's show was that Miley Cyrus was much less annoying than I thought she would be. Sure, her smokey, husky ass voice grates on your nerves but she gave good advice and seemed genuinely enthused. It was another poor night for the contestants, with Mike and Crystal as the standouts. I'm tired of the judges saying that it's bad song choices-- these people just can't sing! Were Ellen and Kara on crack when they heaped praise on Shirtless Boy's listless version of "Power of Love"? I think Paige might be in trouble, but Tim Urban and The Guy Who Sang The Paula Abdul Song deserve to go before her.