bigg jay

They aren't going with temp seating so the seating for the games at MAC will only be 6000. Not going to be pretty considering that only accommodates half of their season ticket holders.

I hope the guy who wrote those doesn't live in Saskatchewan or he's going to come home to a driveway full of manure! "We won't know until around Labour Day if this team is for real, but how great for the league's best fans is this?"

Removed Cornish due to concussion issues. Let's go with Grigbsy.

It's owned by the same company as Original Joe's. When they 1st opened S&M, it pretty much had the exact same menu as OJ's. I haven't been to either place lately though so I don't know how much the menu's vary now.

Theoretically speaking, you would click on the drop down list next to your name in the top right of the screen & click manage Ignore Prefs. On the next page you would then type in the user name you no longer wish to be trolled by & select your options for ignoring accordingly. Save the changes and you are done.

Willy did sound a bit "off" when he was on CJOB after the game. My wife commented that he needs to work on his interviewing skills but if he was doped up on Demerol, then that might explain it a bit. Maybe his head was a little more clear by the time they did the press conference?

It's 12:30 and I just got home. Left after the final knee, made no stops on the way. That's going to kill walk-up, especially on these Thursday nights. Vastly different experience for me. Left at the final whistle .. On University Crescent 10:54 last night .. walked in my front door 11:08 .. it was an absolute breeze. I didn't find the ride home bad either. We stayed right till the end and got back home at 11:40. That's pretty good considering it's a 15-20 minute walk to where we park & we live in Transcona.

At least he didn't call them the Ottawa Rough Riders like the PA announcer did! Patrick Swayze last week, Rough Riders this week... any guesses who's coming to town for the next home game?

I saw one the other day on Portage (near the U of W) beside a Panago & Pizza Pizza. It was near the corner of Portage & Langside. I don't know of any others in the city though.

I don't mind the burger itself from 5 Guys but for the money, it's not worth it. The only time I've been there lately is is I'm with someone who has never tried it but wants to give it a go. Haven't been to Harvey's in years... maybe I'll have to give that another go.

I'm a little over half way through season 2 of OITNB... so far I agree that season 2 is better (although I really liked season 1). Giving the back stories on inmates other than Chapman gets you more interested in their characters and should keep the show from quickly going stale.

Anthony Allen

Cornish

Sometimes people just want to take a swing at an athlete. Hell I remember hearing stories in Brandon about people trying to take a swing at the tough guys on the Wheat Kings just to try and prove a point. Kane has a reputation as a tough hockey player, maybe this guy figured he either gets to brag about how he took a swing at Kane and Kane pussed out, or he gets his ass kicked and he sues this prick of a hockey player for assault. Yes thats possible but thats actually pretty rare. Plus, this guy was identified as an employee. The fact they knew each other to at least a minor extent raises the suspicion level in my mind. I dont get the "ring of truth" from Kane's story. It could just be that this guy saw an opportunity to make some cash. Maybe he sees Kane in the bar a few times flashing cash and being the d-bag that he was rumored to be while in clubs here, and decides to provoke a confrontation (outside the bar where there are no cameras of course). It then becomes his word against Kane's (which could be why the cops didn't press charges) in a civil suit where he gets to use Kane's reputation against him. His worst case scenario is he takes a couple lumps and the best case scenario is that he wins his court case (or gets an out-of-court settlement) and cashes in. How's that for motivation?

They updated the website. practice is from 9:30-11:30 tomorrow

Do you think part of the drop in numbers is tied to the drop in popularity of the WWE since the Attitude Era? I always felt the local wrestling scene has always had too many people who would rather be a big fish in a small pond. They could be a mid-card guy on a good show or be a "champion" in front of 30 ten year olds at a community club.

If you're looking to make a living (either as a fighter or promoter) from mma, it's next to impossible. I know of very few fighters (and even less promoters) who are outside the ufc/bellator and are able to do it. Winnipeg has the lowest cost in the country (at least as far as commission fees go) and promotions still struggle here.

Thanks for that... good reading! I'm familiar enough with the local wrestling scene ( I have a few different ties to it) that I remember Severn being brought in... and Ernie putting himself over if I remember correctly! That gong show is a whole different story though! The local commission back then was a mess too so I'm not suprised there were issues. When Condello was running shows a few years ago, he ran into issues when he started intermingling wrestling angles during the events (having masked guys "arm wrestling" which ends with one guy going through a table comes to mind). It would have been interesting to see if it would have worked. There's certainly a need for a local promotion nowadays. The last promotion to do it regularly was CFC and their promoter seems to have called it quits.

I'd love to hear more about what you had in mind. One of the problems that existed for a nation-wide promotion (and still does to an extent) in the past was that MMA was not legal across Canada. The Criminal Code of Canada left prize fighting to be a provinicial matter but the wording technically only allowed for boxing. It was a grey area that was updated with a new bill last year but still left it up to the individual provinces to regulate it. Previous to that, some provinces (ie Saskatchewan) would not even touch it until the Feds addressed it 1st. Other provinces came on board recently after extensive lobbying from the UFC (ie Ontario in 2011). The commissions themselves are another story altogether. Some places (Ontario & BC) are so expensive that unless you are the UFC or Bellator, it's next to impossible to make a profit (even a small one). Other commissions like Quebec & Edmonton (Alberta has left it up to the individual municipalities to form their own commissions) are notorious for either not following their own rules or creating new ones on the fly. Saskatchewan is currently setting up their commission so there still hasn't been pro mma there yet. I don't know much about the maritimes other than it's not legal in some places (like PEI) and other places (New Brunswick) are also in the process of creating a provincial commission. A mma version of the CFL would be great, and I'm sure other promoters have considered it... I'm just curious as to how you would have gone about it.

It was sarcasm (hence the ). Puder definitely took advantage of the situation and I don't blame Angle for not tapping since it was not a straight up fight. That being said, being too stubborn to tap isn't something new and usually doesn't end well for the guy who refuses to tap. Most guys like that end up admitting they should have tapped and would do things differently if they could do it over again. But like I said, in that case, I don't blame him. I would have been furious if that were me and I doubt I'd be thinking rationally. Also there's no guaranteed that the outcome would have been different . There have been gold medal wrestlers who have been submitted (and quickly!) before.

Angle would have been great in UFC. Just as good (if not better) a ground wrestler than Lesnar but a lot smarter and he would have learned to avoid and/or deflect strikes - something Lesnar couldn't do. Kurt would probably have countered submissions better but thats just speculation. Daniel Puder would disagree!

Kimbo was a no-lose situation for the UFC. Dana didn't expect much from him other than a pop in the ratings (which is what he got) but if he actually succeeded then they had themselves a new star who already had some fame to him. When he lost, Dana was able to say that he was just a an internet sensation who didn't have the overall skills needed to hang in MMA. It's the same reason why they signed James Toney... if he beat Couture, then they have a famous multiple time world boxing champ to boost ratings but when he lost (specifically with how he lost) they said it proved what they were saying about mma vs boxing since day 1.

Here's a good list of MMA ppv numbers since 2006. If you can find a cycle in there I'd love to know where. At a quick glance, it looks fairly steady except for a few spikes when they have a big main event (ie Lesnar vs Couture). http://mmapayout.com/blue-book/pay-per-view/

The UFC is 21 years old... not my definition of a long long time by any stretch of the imagination. The reason why it seemed to peak a few years ago was because prior to Dana White & the Fertita brothers spending years and about 40 million to start changing perceptions about the sport, it was banned by most states and most ppv providers. They called it the "dark ages" of mma for a reason. It was next to impossible for most fans to watch the sport back then. Lumping Kimbo (UFC debut in late 2009) in with the Shamrock/Gracie era (both debuted at UFC 1 in 1993) is laughable.

It's not a shot at Lesnar, just a fact that his striking game was not at the level needed to compete with guys like that. Considering the age he started at and how long he trained for, he did very well. He's a legit freak of nature, athletically speaking, he just got into the game too late.