Cage Fighting Step Brothers

This should be one of those easy blogs to write since I have a good bit of stories from different variations to get out there. In this one we'll get to talk about the past week of course. A quick preview shows that we'll get into one of the longest sleeps I've had in quite some time, a Circuit City marathon day, out to the movies, a rare bar appearance, cage fighting in Ohio, Red Lobstah, Waffle House, Starbucks, and MUCH more! You know based on that you're ready to sink your teeth into this blog. Or better yet, feast your eyes on the text if nothing else



I've been wanting to put a new stereo in my car, so I went with an in-dash touchscreen Pioneer model. It's a pop out and has all the options, but that's not the story. I take it in to Circuit City on Tuesday to get it taken care of. I go at 3:00 in the afternoon and drop it off in the garage. They told me it'd probably be an hour or so. With that, I just drove myself and left the car there. I walked down to the hill to eat Arby's (best fast food place I always say) while taking my Wrestling Observer Newsletter with me to kill some time to read as I ate. Then I ran across 4 lanes of traffic, always fun, to hit up Staples. While there, I got some ideas for back to work in a few weeks and talked to someone I worked with there, that also killed some time for me. I walk back over to Circuit City and this was around 4:30. By the time I got out of there, it was 8:30, no kidding. I could've called for a ride for someone to pick me up, but from what they were saying, it'd be done in no time, so I did the marathon. It was brutal as I can't stay still, so I'd either be walking around, reading my wrestling and MMA stuff, or listening to the iPod.

Oh yeah, I didn't even mention that they didn't finish the job on Tuesday. I'm not much on cars, but something how I needed an extra fuse attached and to come in on Friday when the big chief comes in or pay more somewhere else to get it done before that. I figured I'd wait. Besides, the big chief and the other guy working took care of me as far as getting me in and knowing what was up, so I just stayed there. Friday I roll in at 10 in the morning and went home not taking chances I'd be there all day. As soon as I get home, they call and say to pick it up, imagine that. Either way, it's in and even with all of the pain and me being impatient, I'm digging it a lot. Today's moral with that story? When people give you a time that something will be done, don't always take it for granted. Regardless, the Circuit City guys did their thing and was probably a lot cheaper than going to some rich boy place to get the same job done.



I haven't done a movie review in a while, so I'm well overdue. Last year I hit up a good bit of movies. This year, as Borat would say, not so much. Shawna came into town last week, so we went to hit up Step Brothers and whatever else action we could get into the rest of the night. She had already seen it once and liked it so much that she wanted to go a second time. It seemed like my kind of movie on paper, so I was in for sure. Give me a stupid comedy with not much plot and I'll probably like it more than the average viewer. I know Will Ferrell is the same character in every movie, but it worked for this one and then some. Him and John C. Reilly together are a riot. I ended up giving this a 7.6 out of 10 and one you need to see, you'll be rolling the entire time. It's not a movie you want to watch with the family though, it'd surprise ya how over the top the language and it being so vulgar, but again, that's my kind of movie, it gets me laughing.

After going out to eat some Italian and hanging with some buddies as ours as we watched some football, it was time to head back to Shinnston. We didn't feel like getting into much that late at night after running around Clarksburg most of the day, but Ashley kept texting and wondering what was going on. Most know I'm not a bar guy at all and Shawna didn't want to hang there either, but since Ashley hadn't seen her in a while and the bar was closed except for a few local legends, we figured we'd head in. All night it was a running joke that Shawna didn't text Ashley about who she was with and stuff and wanted to keep her thinking just because. I guess that's what girls do? Who knows. When she called and said we were about to walk in, I said that Ashley would be more surprised I was coming into the bar rather than I was with Shawna. The words out of her mouth when she first saw us cracked me up, "What the fuck is Ed doing here?" A quick trip there and without it being crowded to where you have to scream at someone 2 feet away from you, not too shabby at all.



Saturday and me and Spank had a little road trip planned the whole day. Cage fighting in Ohio, how can you go wrong with that? We leave town around noon and it's about 2 hours away to St. Clairsville, Ohio or so. We got in the area way early as we like to do and I wanted to check out the casino and dogtracks just to say I've been there. I'm not a gambling guy at all, but the complex is big time. One guy asked for my ID and he saw 1979 and didn't know what to think. He did a double take and said that can't be right, hah. I've never been to Vegas, so I know this is very small time to it, but it reminded me of a little Atlantic City. It was funny to me how you roll through this dirty area of Wheeling and then you look up less than a block away and there's the casino. I watched probably 4 or 5 dog races and that was just fun to watch. I didn't throw any bucks down, as I'm a cheap Italian when it comes to betting (can't beat the system unless you're blog reader TheAnswer), but it was something to see for a bit before we ran out. I also checked out the poker room and then it's ridiculous how crazy some people get on playing machines. It's like their coke, it just never appealed to me.

As usual on our road trips with us two, it has to be rap all the way up and back. We don't get to do that in any other cars with our crew, so we take advantage of it. We were starving, so it was time to hit up Red Lobstahhh. For once, we didn't have to wait when we went. We walked right in, so that helped things out. No big stories here though, but I ended up getting salmon and crab alfredo linguini. It was good in my book, no complaints. We were near Starbucks and Spank was wanting to hit that up. I'm not a coffee guy at all or any of their stuff actually. I've been to a few with some buddies before, but don't think I ever ordered a thing. Spank, by the time we were out of there, cranked through 4 different large drinks. I guess he'd be awake for the cage fighting show, that'd do it. I was bored and got a banana/chocolate smoothie. It wasn't bad, but with the espresso added in, it had too much of a coffee taste, so that didn't help things for me. It reminded me of a protein shake, so I was able to drink most of it, but don't see me getting it again.



After hanging around some of the fighters earlier during weigh-ins, and then getting back from eating, we're back at the Carnes Center to gear up for the show. This was around 6:30 and showtime started at 7:30. Spank works with a guy named Kenny and that was one reason we went to the show. We ended up getting ringside tickets off of Kenny's parents and they turned out pretty good. The setup of the arena was much better than I expected. I figured it'd be a dump, but this place was like brand new. I'd guess it held about 1200 people and it was jammed packed. People were paying $20 just to stand up. Before I even get into the show, if you've never been to a MMA show before, you must go see it in person, it's off the charts. The crowd reminded me of a mix between a Toughman crowd and a great indy wrestling show. It's nowhere you'd want to take a chick in other words.

The promotion Hard Knocks Cage Fights brought a good product. You can see their website at: http://www.hardknockscagefights.com. We got to see about 20 fights and it was all out action. Some guys didn't belong there, but the guys that really were on their game brought it and showed they have talent. In my opinion, with MMA, if you have a legit wrestling background, you have a decent chance of success. Sure, you can be a big slugger or something of that like, but I still like the odds of a wrestling or submission specialist to come out on top most times than not. Kenny was impressive as he made short work of his opponent. In the 145 pound class, he took this guy to the mat immediately. After that, they stand up and then Kenny finds the arm, drops to the ground while the guy is standing and is cranking on it with a smooth armbar. The dude had to tap out in no time as it was pretty sick. In all of the fights, I think we only saw 2 decisions all night. Some guys got jacked up out there and it gave for quality action I'd definitely go to again. The best fight of the night, some locals may know one of the names. He is Ronnie Green out of Wheeling. I'm guessing he's about 21 or so and is now the Featherweight Champion after his win. He was a 3-time WV state wrestling champ and him and Davis Sosa put on a clinic. They went to a split decision war and the crowd was pumped.



To the awesome crowd, the main event was the topper. A local guy by the name of Travis "The Terror" Clark is this guy that is tatted up to about every inch of his body. He was there selling merchandise and all of this and a guy we talked to who had been to the last show said we had to see his entrance and how the crowd goes insane for him. He came out to Walk by Pantera and that just got the crowd amped up the way it is. For the wrestling fans, you know how that one does from the old ECW days when Rob Van Dam would come out to that. Me and Spank both think that the guy they had him fight was just a tomato can, but either way, the crowd didn't mind. I'd say 95% of the people were just going ballistic for this guy and it blew me away how he was like a semi-god to these people. He came out and just busted this guy up bad and everyone left happy due to it. I had my cam on me, but didn't even think to get video of this part of the night. Actually, for the trip, I didn't get hardly any pics, I slacked on that one.

Some out there are wondering how the "Cage Girls" were at this event. For as good as the event was, these girls were beyond terrible. I just call them as I see them, but I wasn't the only one who thought so. Now I'm not expecting anything major out of some dirty ring girl, but these had no business up there. It was a running joke in our section as we'd be laughing at how bad their dancing was, how they'd do the same things, and that they didn't get a ton of reaction. Imagine that. It's bad when someone is out there bouncing around in a bikini and a lot of the guys (or chicks for that matter) don't even care.



On the way home, it was Waffle House time. The waitresses/cooks tonight were new ones we had to break in. We didn't plan anything this time, but it was some chick and this older pimp guy. They were waiting on the morning paper to get there and when the paper woman stopped in, they were pumped. Interesting. The lady comes in and he gets all excited and they give her free coffee. While we're eating, we're the only ones there and they go in the back and read the paper. Nothing wrong with that at all, plus the pimp would always make sure things were right for us on how he cooked it and that. You don't get that in some rich boy restaurant, dude was on his game. We hooked them up with a pretty good tip. I've talked about tipping before, but Spank is in the same mold as me with that. It doesn't have to be too crazy, but hook these people up, they aren't making a lot to begin with and gotta bust their butt. One thing I've cussed about before is the gratuity, which Waffle House doesn't do, but Red Lobstahhh does. I know most people can't be trusted to leave a good tip, but ugh. That's just an insult. We compared the tip thing on the way home to get gas. I absolutely hate when you pull into a prepay gas station. What am I gonna do? Just drive off like some bandit and not pay for my gas? I figure a few people may do that every so often, but come on people, that rarely happens. Then you try to guess on what it takes to fill up and it's never close and you still gotta walk away fired up at the pump. You gratuity and prepay gas people, stop with the insults and treat us like regular bums, you'll get your money regardless.

Bird's Dirty Thug Ho of the Week: http://www.myspace.com/ms_sandy_bacon

Bird's Video Moment of the Week: This was sent in to me by Corndog a few weeks ago. For some reason, I can watch flippy type moves and tricks all day and not get tired of it. Damien Walters is the guy here if you haven't heard of him, just some amazing stuff:





3 Quick Thangs:

1. We'll jump to Wednesday, August 13th for the birthday update. We start out with Fidel Castro, he's now 82. Danny Bonaduce of the Partridge Family and reality shows, 49. Former M's and Yankeees player Jay Buhner, him and his bald head are 44. #basketball alum, TyLaw is also doing it today for his 26th, have a good one man!

2. I haven't done a sleep update lately. I'm still on a weird schedule and I'm sure that'll change just a big come work time, but I'll adjust. On Tuesday night, I went wild and had 12½ hours of sleep straight, that's getting it done in a major way.

3. Today's fact to gain some knowledge? A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours.