Bleacher Report - Articles by The Boston Hooligan

Fantasy Wrestling Matchups—Week 1 "The In-Ring Debut"

The Boston Hooligan — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 17:21:33 -0500

Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls of the world, I am pleased to introduce the first ever Fantasy Wrestling Matchups.

Fantasy Wrestling Matchups is a weekly wrestling article that will pair up present day wrestling superstars, celebrities, and the Legends of Wrestling themselves in a fight contest. There will be four matches per week and I welcome any suggestions for matches which I will analyze to see if they are worthy for a spot in this article.

Now without further to do: Today's matches include the FWM Tag Team Championship to be on the line and the FWM World Heavyweight Championship will be on the line to crown the first ever champions as well as two other great matches.

Match No. 1—"Y2J" Chris Jericho vs Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat

The Beginning—Y2J starts off the match in a great pace which tires down Steamboat but The Dragon would not give up. The Dragon lashed out a fury of punches and gave Jericho a bodyslam.

Jericho eventually reversed one of Steamboat's moves which led to the match being a back and forth contest even with Steamboat nailing his signature crossbody Jericho continued to fight back until...

The Middle—Y2J landed the Codebreaker out of nowhere! Jericho went for a pin but Steamboat immediately put his arm up. Jericho continued to lay an offensive on Steamboat and eventually was able to give him a cut. This sparked a fire in Steamboat and he fought back against Jericho and gave the the seated double chicken wing which was to no avail.

The beginning of the end—Jericho looked like nothing was left in him after the offensive by Steamboat. Jericho had enough energy though to stand up and continue to fight. Steamboat did not care for Jericho's perseverence as he just smacked Jericho all over the place. Jericho was able to reverse a dropkick by Steamboat and was able to place the Walls of Jericho. Steamboat got to the ropes but Jericho continued the Walls up to a four count by the ref.

The End—Jericho brings Steamboat to his feet and gives him an irish whip. Steamboat dodges the clothesline and tries to nail the crossbody but Jericho nailed a dropkick to Steamboats body. Jericho hits the Lionsault on the down Steamboat and wins the match by pinfall.

Match No. 2—King Kong Bundy vs The Great Khali vs Andre the Giant vs the Big Show

The Beginning—This was a match between the most unmovable forces in wrestling. All contest immediately charged towards each other anmd caused mass chaos in the ring. Khali hit his signature chop on Andre but Andre just immediately follows up with a punch. It seemed that every shot that the contestants nailed was to no avail until...

The Middle—The ref was knocked out by Andre causing Bobby "The Brain" Heenan to bring in a steel chair. Andre used the steel chair on all of his opponents.

All fall to the ground except for the Big Show gives a big boot to Andre's face. Big Show picks up the chair and swings for all of his opponents. Everybody is pinned on the ground until Heenan throws his cane as the head of the Big Show.

Heenan runs for his life and giving enough time for Andre to get up and bodyslam Big Show onto the steel chair. The ref wakes up and bans Heenan from ringside. With no more distractions the opponents are at each other's throats until...

The Beginning of the End—Vader interferes in the match and knocks out all of the opponents. Bundy throws Vader out though just before he was hit with a steel chair. Khail nails the chop on Bundy knocking him out cold. Andre clotheslines Khali out of the ring. Big Show is about to nail the Knockout punch when Vader comes back in and hits Show with a steel chair.

The End—Vader goes onto the top rope and nails a Vader Splash. Andre gives Show the Belly to Belly Piledriver and gets the pin for the win.

Match No. 3—FWM Tag Team Championship Match between the Road Warriors and the Hardys (Pre-Heel Matt/gained weight Matt)

The Beginning—Matt and Hawk start it out. Matt starts out with many high flying maneuvers. Hawk ends up reversing a crossbody into a backbreaker. Hawk uses his strength to wear out Matt and then tags in Animal.

Animal leaves no room for error as he continues the assauly on Matt. Matt kicks Animal in the knee which gives him enough time to bring in Jeff. Jeff hits a flying clothesline and hits springboard splash. Animal stops Jeff in his tracks and gives him a bodyslam.

The Middle—Animal gives Jeff a scoop slam and gives gim a body splash. Hawk is tagged in but Jeff nails a dropkick. Hawk doesn't let Jeff get the tag and gives him a suplex. Jeff reverses an Irish whip and he immediately nails the Whisper in the Wind! Jeff tags in Matt who nails a Hardy leg drop.

The Beginning of the end—Matt gets Hawk on his feet and nails the Twist of Fate. Animal interfeers and throws Matt out of the ring but Jeff clotheslines Animal out of the ring as well. Hawk throws Jeff out of the ring and awaits Matt.

The End—Matt is thrown back into the ring and Hawk gives him a running powerslam. Hawk sets himslef up on the second rope and nails his signature flying clothesline on Matt. Hawk gets the pin and The Road Warriors become the first ever FWM Tag Champions.

The Main Event—FWM World Heavyweight Championship Match between The Rock, Hulk Hogan, and John Cena

The Beginning—Cena charges towards Hogan but Hogan gives Cena a hip toss. Hogan attacks The Rock and knocks him down. Hogan stays in control but Cena stops Hogan and takes control back.

The Rock doesn't let Cena have control for long a givs him the Rock Bottom. Hogan doesn't let The Rock breathe for air and nails a scoop slam. Hogan takes control back of the match but The Rock hits the Rock Bottom on Hogan but Cena surprises the Rock with an FU (Throwback?).

Cena tries to attempt a pin but Hogan puts Cena in a sleeper hold. The Rock doesn't let the submission happen and kicks Hogan in the face.

The Middle—The Rock takes control of the match for the first time but is short -lived as Cena nails a fury of punches which is stopped by Hogan's big boot. The Rock hits a running shoulder block on Hogan and stays in control. He gives Cena another Rock Bottom, but Hogan surprises the rock with a powerslam.

Hogan nails the Atomic Leg Drop but Cena gives an FU to Hogan. Cena attempts another pin, but the Rock stops him in time. The Rock gives a huge clothesline to Cena and gives the People's Elbow. Hogan gets up just in time to stop the Rock from getting the win. He throws Rock into the turnbuckle and hits the superplex where the Rock lands on Cena.

The Beginning of the End—Stone Cold interferes in the match and gives Hogan a stunner, stopping him from getting the wind. Cena gets up and also gets a stunner. The Rock gets up but reverses the stunner in a rock bottom. Rock goes for a pin on Hogan but Cena has enough energy left to stop him. Cena gives the Rock another FU delivered right on top of Stone Cold.

The End—Hogan gets up and suprises Cena with a big boot. Hogan goes for the Atomic Leg Drop and nails it! Hogan then throws Stone Cold out of the ring giving enough time for the Rock to nail another Rock Bottom and give Hogan the People's Elbow. The Rock gets the three count and wins the match and becomes the first ever FWM World Heavyweight Champion.

That ends the first week of FWM but come back next week to see what else we have in store for you.

The ECW World Title: The Big Excuse

The Boston Hooligan — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 14:45:10 -0500

Ok I have been wanting to write this article for a while and now I finally have a chance.

The ECW Title has turned into something as a sort of excuse to give guys world titles. The title is not extreme as is the rest of the ECW. For some reason ECW is only extreme when people feud with Tommy Dreamer and they don't even do a good job with those Extreme Rules matches.

They gave the title to Chavo Guererro (I might have spelled his last name wrong), who in recent memory isn't exactly in feuds or anything. I think I last saw him face Triple H in a squash match of some sort.

The title, I thought, was to make guys into main eventers which worked out horribly for Chavo. Mark Henry it almost worked but he is in main events with with Finlay and I could care less about that feud. Kane also had the title and he did a pretty good job with it. Although Kane went back to RAW and soon turned heel and got a slap in the face and has not received a world title shot.

The plan has worked out for CM Punk (a former World Champion) and John Morisson who is involved with feuds on other tag teams in other brands because ECW doesn't have their own tag team title.

Matt Hardy deserves better than this title. He has been in the WWE for 10 years now and he has not gotten a WWE or World Heavyweight Championship. Jeff though just got his WWE championship despite him taking drugs and Matt not the one. So Matt despite him being proud of his brother deserves a better title now.

Back to the title.

The title is just giving mid-carders world title to give them a push and seeing the results, it is a 50/50 shot. Chavo and Mark have been the failures but on the other hand Morisson and Punk have done well.

This title though needs to have more of a better effect. ECW needs to put more of a bigger effect on this title than they do. They are giving Jack Swagger a shot now and I am all for pushing young guys but this is dangerous territory. Jack has only been in a feud with Dreamer that ended abruptly.

Also every title match has to be EXTREME RULES. Currently ECW has lost all of its extreme and needs to have at least some. Matt is one to deliver good Extreme rules matches so this could be a good chance to give the title an edge to it.

So all I am saying is this title is an excuse for people who have never gotten a world title and want one but doesn't give the title a good feel. Chavo lost his title in eight seconds. Mark lost his title to Matt after an OK feud. CM Punk feuded with Morisson and gave them both main event matches.

If ECW is going to have a world title then they better do a better job.They are doing a bad job with the title so now they should wake up and help ECW. I am sick of the Finlay-Henry feud being the main event. DO BETTER.

I will take any criticism for the article but this is what I believe.

Nebraska—Oklahoma:The Sooner Review

The Boston Hooligan — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 12:07:39 -0500

One word" Obliteration.

Oklahoma defeated the Nebraska Cornhuskers 62-28. This is a rivalry right? It sure didn't seem like one.

Nebraska is definitely not the team they used to be. They basically proved that they will not be able to put up a good fight this season. What I saw from them looked like a bad case of no spirit. To even make it worse Oklahoma OBLITERATED them.

Oklahoma's defence most certainly woke up and were able to hold back the Nebraska offence. Now yes they did give up 28 points but honestly, did they really have anything to worry about.

Sam Bradford once again showed Heisman contention while he led the offence to 62 point and showed all of the Big 12 that they are ready to fight.

With this win Oklahoma should move up a spot thanks to the Texas Tech Raiders as they beat Texas in a great contest. Now Texas Tech should move up to No. 2 and Oklahoma should move up to No. 3.

Texas Tech will face off against Oklahoma State next week. OSU is looking good but after this big win for Texas Tech, it should be able to get their morale up and beat OSU.

Oklahoma will be facing off against Texas A&M next week. A good match-up, but on paper you should see Oklahoma with the win. I'll agree with the paper and see Oklahoma on top but stay tuned for more in-depth analysis on my weekly preview on Friday.

In summary, Oklahoma had a fantastic week this week and will move up in the polls. Oklahoma is going to have a good match-up with Texas A&M this coming week and should win.

Oklahoma will be having Texas Tech after this coming week so expect a big game between the two. Expect Texas to not have as good as morale due from this lost so good news for the Sooners.

All signs point towards good things for the Sooners this coming week.

The Fanatic is done but stay tuned for this week's preview.

Oklahoma Sooners Basketball Preview

The Boston Hooligan — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 11:17:34 -0400

Sooners Basketball has high expectations this season.

The Sooners, in the first AP poll, have been ranked at No. 12 in the top 25. The ESPN poll has them at No. 14 in the top 25. The point is, their average is at least in the top 15.

I expect the Sooners to have a really good season this year and to see them in March Madness. Their main competition to becoming Big 12 Champs is Texas.

Texas has been ranked in the AP at No. 7, and in the ESPN poll No. 8. The Longhorns will most likely start in the top 10.

How can Oklahoma beat them? Oklahoma needs to go all-out this season. They need to play their absolute hardest everyday and make a statement every game. If they do this, then you can see them win the Big 12. Then, you can then see the Sooners in the top 10. Thus, you will see them in March Madness.

The Fanatic is done here, but stay tuned, as I will bring you a weekly preview and review of Sooners basketball.

ECW: Where Young Guys Get Their Big Push

The Boston Hooligan — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 14:15:42 -0400

Why is ECW getting a little bit better so far?

The answer: class—Florida Championship Wrestling

Evan Bourne had the biggest moment of his career so far in facing Matt Hardy for the ECW championship. This was Evan's big main event push and in my opinion it worked out great. Evan now had his first big match, and even though he lost he showed that he has what it takes to be a main eventer.

Now ECW has another main eventer and another chance for a two-hour format. FCW guys should specifically ask Vince for a contract on ECW. The guys will get their main events there and their big push to the top.

CM Punk is an example of this. He won the ECW Championship, World Championship, and now the world tag team championship. So far everything is working out for him. Kofi Kingston has gotten the Intercontinental and world tag team title. What does it say that ECW can give guys their big break?

Let's put Kozlov on their roster. Kozlov has gotten his main event push thanks to Smackdown, yet somehow people didn't vote him in on Cyber Sunday.

Granted, I was the one who said they shouldn't give Kozlov the title. But after seeing what they are doing with him, Kozlov should get his chance. They should then put him on ECW and let him get the title by beating Matt Hardy or Mark Henry.

Ricky Ortiz. The kid seems to have a good chance at main eventing on ECW. Heck, he already had one main event; let's give him another.

Jack Swagger is having a pretty good storyline with Tommy Dreamer, and I want to see an Extreme Rules match put in that rivalry. Swagger will most likely main event at some point and could be a potential title shot guy.

Has anybody seen Gavin Spears lately? I haven't. Can we bring him back to ECW? I see some potential with him.

Let's get Kizarny on here, too. Although I want him to be called Sinn Bowdee because it sounds more extreme. Then again, we do have the Boogeyman on there, so I guess Kizarny could stick...not.

Can Boogeyman come back already? We saw him put worms in Chris Pontius' so we might as well have brought him back the next night.

Do I like the talent initiative? Yes. Do you? Let me here your opinions.

The Fanatic is done here.

Is ECW the New OVW?

The Boston Hooligan — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 10:20:22 -0400

I have been watching ECW lately and I gotta tell ya I have never seen so many guys from OVW make their debut this quick. For those of you who don't know OVW is Ohio Valley Wrestling which was the minor league system of the WWE. After OVW left they were left with FCW or Florida Championship Wrestling. Lots of OVW wrestlers were moved there.

Although WWE came up with the idea of "Hey lets send those guys to ECW!" Not saying it's bad idea but its just Ricky Ortiz, that Spears guy, and possibly Evan Bourne (can't remember if he was OVW) are all in ECW.

In my opinion a step in the right direction for ECW. My plan would have been the same so ECW could turn these guys into big superstars, get ECW their two hour format, and better story-ines rather than having Mike Knox actually touching the mic (if they make Mike Knox a main eventer somehow I will be amazed).

My only problem is the WWE Draft. CM Punk, Kofi Kingston, Shelton Benjamin, and Kane all left ECW. Now they should have at least kept Kofi Kingston there. Kofi was one of the big stars on ECW and was fun to watch on there.

So what would I do with ECW? Get some more FCW guys on their turn them into big superstars. Get Kofi and Punk back on the show. Start a two hour format once these guys have turned the show around. Also let the main event every week be Extreme Rules!

That is just my plan and my opinion. Now let me know what you guys think about this.

The Fanatic is done here but will be back with more articles coming your way!

EURO 2008: Catching up on Things

The Boston Hooligan — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 05:19:16 -0400

Wow did one team make it to the Finals already? Well I am back and going to give a short summary on what has happened so far. Spain beat Italy in a classic shootout and Russia beat the Netherlands getting into the Semis for the first time since they were Communists. Now for the big article. Germany vs Turkey.

Now I do recall making a big prediction in saying "Germany will beat Turkey". I was right but was almost wrong. Turkey put up a great fight against the Germans near the end of the game. Germany scored first then Turkey. It went into the next half 1-1 and soon Germany scored again in the 75th minute.

Now sportscenter brings up the fact about Turkey coming back and winning after the 75th minute but I was positive this was Germany's game. Germany seemed to be in control for most of the half after that but not until the 88th minute. Where, once again, Turkey tied it up! So here we go into another-. Wait just one minute look at Germany.

In the 90th minute Germany goes all the way down and scored giving Germany a great victory against Turkey sending them into the EURO 2008 finals. Great match and I do have to send out my apologies to Turkey for saying they were awful. Turkey put up a great it was just not enough this time.

So will it be Germany vs Spain or Germany vs Russia. Oh this could be another chance for Russia to get back at Germany again. The Fanatic is done here but come back for some more EURO 2008 action.

Open Mic: What Happens when I am Danny Ainge

The Boston Hooligan — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 05:04:46 -0400

So with the end of the 07-08 NBA Season, ESPN needs something else to talk about besides the 2008 NBA draft and the 08-09 NBA Season (Mostly the NBA Draft).

Currently every General Manager in the league is thinking of their draft strategy on what certain players they need to get, or just need to get a star player.

Now if I was general manager of any of the teams, I would look at what the team needs. If we need a center, then I will scout the best centers. For me, it is all about what players we need instead of what players we want. Also if we need to think of a trade I will think about it, but mostly I would draft the players we need.

Would I listen to input from the owner and coach? Of course. It is always good to have other opinions to think about instead of just going of and selecting the person you need or want.

Now what team would I manage? I would manage the Celtics. I am basically being a hometown boy here, but I love the Celtics and I would be a child at Christmas (unless the present that the child got was socks) if I was chosen to manage that team.

Next question. Which sport needs the general manager the most or least? Well I think baseball needs the general manager the most because he is the one that calls most of the shots on what to do. The least would be maybe football because the coach of the team has a little more control.

In which sport is it easiest to see how the talent would develop? I would say basketball because you see the player in the games, in practice, maybe even in his college. The coach and general manager would be able to track his talent easier those ways.

Which sport is the toughest at tracking talent? I say it would be baseball. In baseball it is hard to know if the player is injury prone, has his bad days at bat, or can't catch the ball well. It would be way harder to tell if that is the way the player naturally is, or if he is having an off day.

Now in late rounds in drafts it gets harder to see talent and I will go with my last answer. Basketball is easier and baseball is not.

Well I'm done here but stay tuned for more from the Fanatic. Have a good day.