Wednesday Link-Off: Simply Smashing

eva-longoria-mexicangq7After one Sunday Link-Off, don’t be surprised to see it moved or cancelled soon. Anywho, for now, we have Eva Longoria from her recent Mexican GQ shoot. After the jump, NASCAR driver Kyle Busch took his custom guitar trophy and pulled a Pete Townshend.

Picture this in your mind. It’s October 1995. You’re at the Skydome in some temporary grandstands surrounding a basketball court. “Ladies and gentlemen, get on your feet. Here is the starting lineup for your TORONTO TARANTULAS!” (Wall Street Journal)

Roger gets no respect. Federer won the French Open but he would have liked a little help from security. (Deadspin)

We’ve done a bit of wrestling reporting here at The Lowdown Blog but we’ve never covered any moments as amazing as these. (Bleacher Report)

I don’t think throwing this one back would be such a good idea. (St. Petersburg Times)

The recent European Union parliamentary elections produced an interesting result. Riding a wave of sympathy for their almost namesake file-sharing website, Sweden’s Pirate Party has won a seat in the European parliament. (CBC)

A look at the most bizarre children’s shows in the history of television. “Puff the Magic Dragon” should have made it simply for its name. Mind you, I always thought “Bananas in Pajamas” is actually a stoners’ show. (Boston Globe)

Your daily dose of the failed crime blotter. (Toronto Star)

Earlier this week, I looked at a possible F1 race boycott by the teams. It actually wasn’t the first time that the teams would have walked away from the race. (F1 Fanatic)

Some say he feeds by drinking pollen from flowers and he sheds his skin every autumn… All we know is he’s not the Stig. But he is the Stig’s horticulturalist cousin. (EADT24)

Well, this makes sense. An intern at a newspaper writes an article so good that it’s given the front page. Then he gets fired. (Canadian Journalism Project)

We may have jumped the gun on that Twitter lawsuit settlement with Tony LaRussa. Mind you, since the AP did too, you gotta cut us some slack. (Sporting Madness) Continue reading

WWE Monday Night Raw Semi-Live Blog

After all the arguing, insults, and general lunacy of last week, we’re set for another edition of Monday Night Raw. After the NBA announced the schedule for the Western Conference Finals, the WWE were thrown out of Denver’s Pepsi Center. Without a home for a couple of days, it was the home of the L.A. Lakers that stepped up to save the WWE. So tonight Raw comes to us live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles and we have all the action here as it happens. Continue reading

Breaking News: WWE Raw Going to L.A.

As reported by CNBC’s Darren Rovell, WWE’s Monday Night Raw will go live next Monday from the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Rovell says that no money changed hands but I would find that hard to believe because Denver wrestling fans have been jilted and the WWE has to sell tickets for the show. The WWE had also entertained an offer from Madison Square Garden in New York. Continue reading

Vince McMahon’s Greatest Feuds

I’m sure you’ve heard by now about the brouhaha that’s developed between Vince McMahon and Stan Kroenke. Of course, Vinny Mac is no stranger to controversy and he is never willing to back down from a fight. As a result, he’s been involved in a number of great on- and off-screen feuds. Continue reading

Wednesday Link-Off: Stimulus Package

olivia-wilde-3Headlining this post is Olivia Wilde who was just named the hottest woman in the world in the Maxim Hot 100. I guess we were wrong when we said that Megan Fox (#2) would take home the top spot. After the jump, I had planned on showing the new Celebrity Jeopardy skit from SNL but NBC is evil. Instead, we have Vince McMahon mocking the NFL and NBA.

Pfizer has come up with their own… Well, let’s call it their unique take on a stimulus package: Free Viagra for the unemployed. (Toronto Star)

Ever watch one of those strong man competitions where guys dead lift 700 lbs., pull firetrucks, and hold to cars in place that are trying to tear them apart? Well, a lot of time, effort, and especially money are put in by the competitors to get to the world championships. (CNBC)

Something that one could never live down: A NSF-High School pic in the yearbook. (WTSP)

British TV personality James May invaded the Chelsea Flower Show… with a plasticine garden. (Daily Telegraph) And don’t forget the accompanying slideshow. Although it didn’t win any of the best in show awards, May’s garden did get a special plasticine gold medal award for his efforts.

Some fathers reach a little when they pick out a birthday present for their teenage son. For example, a Polish immigrant in England tried to get his kid a hooker. (NY Daily News)

A man rolls up the rim to a prank gone horribly wrong. He wasn’t the target but he was the victim. Not that he should worry. Nobody wants a Venza anyway. (CBC)

What do you do when you lose $15 million at casinos in Vegas? Claim that you were drugged so you shouldn’t have to pay off your debts. (Las Vegas Sun)

Good news: The World Series will have all first pitches thrown before 8:00 this year. Bad news: It’s still baseball which means that from pre-game to final out, the game will take at least five hours for a nine inning game. (USA Today)

We mentioned the CIS All-Star gamea week-and-a-half ago. Here’s a look ahead to the 2010 CFL Draft that those all-stars were aiming for. (TSN)

The New York Times is planning on charging for some of its web content. No better way to beat the recession than to scare people away from their website. After all, why pay for content from the NYT when you can get it free on Google. (New York Observer)

A while ago, I mentioned you can track every athlete on Twitter. Now you can follow every sports blog on Twitter. (Sports Blog Tweets) Except, you can’t follow me on there. Not a big deal because you can find me @TheSteveMurray. Continue reading

WWE and Denver Nuggets Ready to Rumble

Whachya gonna do Denver? Whachya gonna do when Vince McMahon runs wild on you? That’s the question being asked after the NBA booked game four of the Western Conference finals at Denver’s Pepsi Centre on May 25th. The only problem is that, back in August of ’08, Nuggets and Pepsi Center owner Stan Kroenke booked an episode of WWE’s Monday Night Raw for the same night. Like an NBA game, Raw broadcasts live every Monday. Now we have a battle worthy of a Hell in a Cell match. Continue reading

Wednesday Link-Off: New Time, Same Channel

mandy-moore-details4I’ve decided to move my weekly link dumps up to Wednesdays and let Jackie have free reign on Saturday. I figure the change in programming can only serve to make this more irrelevant. Headlining the post isMandy Moore for no real reason. After the jump, my favourite soccer/shoe commercial ever.

Blame Vince McMahon for all of societies ills?  If I was a journalism school graduate, I would say why the hell not. Since I actually have some common sense, I like this article. (Bleacher Report)

The new Presidential CrackBerry is coming soon to a White House near you. (Daily Telegraph)

A list that Jackie would appreciate: We all know that China has lots of knock-offs of popular brands, but they don’t put much effort into coming up with new names. (Daily Mail)

Women take note: Experts say that faking it in the bedroom is a bad thing. (Edmonton Sun)

Haven’t we watched enough movies to learn this just won’t end well?  IBM is creating a supercomputer to play Jeopardy against real people. (New York Times)

The US Supreme Court decides that Freedom of Speech does not apply to network television. (BBC)

Since we talked about the NFL draft last weekend, here’s how much an undrafted free agent can expect to make in the NFL. (CNBC)

General Electric has announced a new disc technology.  It can store 500 GB and uses hologram technology. (PC World)

Anderson Silva, the best pound-for-pound fighter in MMA, has his next opponent: Former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Forrest Griffin. (Yahoo) Continue reading

Wrestlemania 25 Review

Since we’ve been mentioning the 25th edition of the WWE’s biggest show of the year, both here on the blog and on the radio show, it makes sense that I breakdown Sunday’s big dance.  Like any good wrestling reviewer, I’ll look at why a match may or may not have been good and then assign it a rating out of 10. Continue reading

Wrestlemania Moments

About a month ago, we teased you with some memorable Wrestlemania video montages.  Now, it’s time for the main event.  With Wrestlemania XXV coming up this weekend, what better time is there to look back on 25 years of amazing matches and moments that could only be provided on the grandest stage of them all. You’ll notice that there’s a slight bias to older Wrestlemanias because that’s what I grew up watching but these are all classic matches.

Continue reading

One Month to Wrestlemania XXV: The Road to Wrestlemania

One month from today, for the 25th time in history, the stars of the WWE will step between the ropes and enter the showcase of the immortals. The 25th edition of Wrestlemania brings to mind some of the great moments that Vince McMahon has given us. For all the crap that Vince takes, he’s given us Hogan/Andre, Rock/Austin, Warrior/Hogan, Savage/Steamboat, and I could go on and I’ll get to those moments closer to when the WWE takes to the grandest stage of them all.

Today, though, we build up to Wrestlemania. Almost as fun as the matches themselves is the feuds leading up to Wrestlemania unfolding. So to celebrate 25 Wrestlemanias, here’s some of the best video packages for Wrestlemania matches.

Wrestlemania 6 – Hulk Hogan vs. The Ultimate Warrior
This match was unprecedented for a number of reasons. The two combatants were champions going into the ring (Hogan holding the Heavyweight title and Warrior the Intercontinental) but one would leave empty handed. The match was also the first Wrestlemania main event where two babyface (good guy) wrestlers met which forced the crowd into making a choice to back Hogan or Warrior. And it led to some of the weirdest interviews ever like this one Warrior did.

Wrestlemania 14 – Shawn Michaels vs. “Stone Cold” Steve Austin
This match was the one that ushered in the Attitude Era of the WWE. The man who led the WWE into and through that era was beer drinking, hell raising, son of a bitch by the name of Steve Austin. But to get there Austin had to go through Shawn Michaels and this match’s special enforcer and HBK’s D-X comrade Mike Tyson.

Wrestlemania 17 – The Rock vs. “Stone Cold” Steve Austin
The Rock and Steve Austin was one of the great rivalries of the Attitude Era WWE. This match here though was their most iconic. The end of the match may have been the most shocking in the history of pro wrestling when Vince McMahon and Stone Cold joined forces. But what you knew heading into it was going to be a special match was given an equally as amazing video package to build it up.

Wrestlemania 18 – Hulk Hogan vs. The Rock
We’ll never see Bonds vs. Ruth. We’ll never see Ali vs. Tyson. We’ll never see Gretzky vs. Orr. But one night in Toronto, we saw the one of the biggest stars of the 80s take on one of the biggest stars of the 90s in a match for the ages. This match, like Hogan’s 15 years earlier with Andre the Giant, was the passing of the torch that launched The Rock into superstardom. On paper, this could have been one of the biggest train wrecks in history, it turned out to be an instant classic.

Wreslemania 24 – Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels
This could be one of the greatest pre-match video montages ever in the history of the world. Because Flair/Michaels could have been (and was) Ric’s last match, there was so much emotional investment in this match that everything about from the build-up to the video package to the match itself would seem to be the greatest of all time. And every wrestling fan has to admit that he (or she) gets a little choked up seeing the WWE highlight Flair’s career.

Wrestlemania 17 – Gimmick Battle Royal
Alright, this isn’t part of any feud nor is there a video package. Think of this as a bonus. This is all about old fashioned WWF (and I use that deliberately) fun. Okerlund and Heenan calling the action with some legends between the ropes as well isn’t an amazing Wrestlemania moment but is worth the watch for nostalgia’s sake.


For Part 2 click here.