If you are a MMA fan or Sports Entertainment fan.  You may want to check out this site run by fellow Canadian mega fan TestSubjekt.  It is been running for about a year now and I have found it to be an impressive way to keep up to date with the goings on in the sport especially if you are unable to watch a show or PPV (videos usually get posted up in sections within a day or so).  Membership is free and they are always looking for new members.  Posting is encouraged as the more opinions that are shared the more interesting the site becomes.

Check them out on Facebook

If your a fan go to the Yuku site: http://ringofviolence.yuku.com/ register and post to gain access to the video Library but more importantly post to discuss MMA and Wrestling news, opinions and more.

UFC president Dana White spoke to MMA Fighting exclusively about why the historic purchase happened, the terms of the deal, what this means for the Strikeforce brand and fighters and much more.

Well, I am taking a bit of a hiatus from blogging during the holiday break to spend time with family but I will back in 2011.   So there probably will not be any posts until the new year.  I hope you have enjoyed my little posts each weekday and wish you the best during the holidays with friends and family.  Okay on with the final post of 2010…

The last match of the WEC ended is spectacular fashion between lightweight champion Ben Henderson and #1 contender Anthony Pettis.  Many fans are calling the fight of the year.  The back-and-forth war was an edge-of-your-seat roller coaster ride that epitomized what the WEC brought to the landscape of mixed martial arts.

Taking a page out of Chun Li from Street Fighter, or Neo from the Matrix, the kick was one of the most spectacular flying kicks I have ever seen in the history of MMA.  Heck that fight was one of the most gratifying performances I’ve seen in a long time. What a fitting way for the WEC to have it’s final match after 9 awesome years.  The kick downed Henderson immediately, but his survivability kept him in the conscious world, barely allowing him to make it to the final bell.

I don’t know how long these will last on Youtube, but we will give it a shot:

The WEC is now merging with the UFC and is adding two of these exciting weight classes to the UFC roster (see ufc-and-wec-merger).  2011 will be an exciting time for MMA.

See ya next year!

The UFC is making some pretty big changes  with the merger of the WEC and UFC brands. They are adding the much needed 2 lighter weightclasses and possibly a 3rd in the future. The UFC taking their product to the next level by folding the WEC’s bantamweight and featherweight divisions into its stable, giving it seven weight classes in total.

The UFC currently has lightweight, welterweight (170 pounds), middleweight (185), light heavyweight (205) and… heavyweight (265+).  There is also a  rumor that they plan to bring a (125) weightclass in to the mix but nothing has been confirmed as to when or what it will be called.

I think it’s a smart play because with 7 weightclasses it means that at every PPV there will be a champion defending his title.

Check these 2 interviews:

If you want to see one of my favorite matches in MMA history, check out a previous post here at the elfsar blog: MMA-and-UFC-82

Now although I find this merger is a step in the right direction, I personally want to see more changes in how the fights are presented.

PRIDE certainly set the bar to beat in terms of how to present the fighters and was able to present its events in a different light. When you watch Pride, you come to see the sport more as competition between fighters of various ethnic and combative backgrounds.  Much can be said about the audience and the demographic of PRIDE. The audience for the most part was educated especially about the art of fighting.

Watch any PRIDE event and listen to how quiet the audience is while a match is taking place, only clapping when a reverse is made in grappling or when good strikes are thrown.  I’m not saying that the audience of the UFC is just a bunch of 18-34 year old douche-bags “who just want to see 2 guys bang”.  In fact, the UFC audience is becoming more educated and a deeper understanding about “what MMA is” improves with every PPV event. The North American audience/appeal is in fact growing and maybe one day we will see a match where you will not hear booing when fighters are locked in a interesting chess match as far as grappling is concerned.

But presentation is everything.  The UFC could learn a thing or 2 from PRIDE and how the fighters enter the arena and ring.  Bringing in a bit more theatrics would not hurt the cause for this sport to be more widely accepted as well.

Time for my annual Predictions….

Wrestlemania 26

No DQ, No Count-Out – The Streak vs. The Career
The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels
In what was considered one of the greatest matches ever at Wrestlemania last year,  HBK and The Undertaker will see their current rivalry culminate in a Streak vs. Career match at this years Wrestlemania.  HBK’s obsession with Undertaker’s streak has seemed to bring him to the edge of sanity at certain times. While the Undertaker seems dead-set on extending his unparalleled streak to 18-0.  I want HBK to win. I can’t think of another Wrestler who can make me believe that Undertaker could loose.   It’s hard to imagine wrestling without HBK but it seems that is what will happen. But nothing is forever (except of course for the streak) and don’t worry, I am sure we will see HBK coming out of retirement for a future PPV. In the meantime, HBK needs some time off.

Prediction – Winner: The Undertaker

No Holds Barred Match
Bret Hart vs. Mr. McMahon
In a 12 plus years in the making match, Bret Hart looks to seek revenge against the brains behind the infamous Montreal Screw-job and seek closure in this chapter of his kayfabe career with some of it spilling over to real life. But the egotistical Mr. Vince McMahon is dead-set on keeping with the tradition that Bret screwed Bret. Prediction: It seems to me it’s almost a given that Bret “The Hitman” Hart will come out on top here with all the adversity that he has endured on RAWs leading up to this point, the victories have been few and far between. I will be interested to see what type of capacity Bret’s physical activities will be limited to. I imagine it will be a whole lot of offense coming from Bret and not a whole lot from Vince. Some of Bret’s family may even get some licks in too. I would love to see Vince somehow get Bret in a Sharpshooter and get someone to ring the bell in order to screw Bret yet again only to be overruled and the match must continue. Many have predicted that Bret will screw over McMahon as payback, but I don’t see that happening. Two wrongs don’t make a right. However, since Vince has brought back the evil character that he created after the Montreal Screw-job, I would love to see Stone Cold make a run-in and screw over McMahon as a gift to Bret Hart. After all, how over did Stone Cold get after his famous I quit match with Bret? To me this would be the perfect ending to Bret’s last chapter of his book.

Prediction: Bret Hart

WWE Championship Match
Batista (C) vs. John Cena
This is the last match on the card? Ugghhh! In what will be the scripted main event of the evening “The Animal” Dave Batista will take on John Cena. You got to hand it to Batista in the promos leading up to Wrestlemania, he has been spectacular as a heel. I really like him as a heel, heck I really liked him when he was the Leviathan. It comes down to the fans siding with John Cena. Wrestlemania’s usually have a happy ending and rarely if ever have ended on any kind of sour note. This years will be no different, the biggest star of the post-attitude era will reclaim the WWE Title for his 7th time and 9th World Title overall.

Prediction: John (U can’t C my wrestling ability) Cena.

World Heavyweight Match
Chris Jericho (C) vs. Edge
As this years winner of the 2010 WWE Royal Rumble, Edge’s road to Wrestlemania has been deeply carved since that day. There wasn’t much doubt that when Chris Jericho captured the World Heavyweight Championship gold at the Elimination PPV and outlasted 5 other men that the two were destined for a collision course. This is the second match I am looking forward to the most. To me the outcome could go either way and I will be happy. This feud will definitely not end on March 28, and although my gut feeling is to choose Chris Jericho retaining the belt, I choose Edge.

Prediction: The Rated “R” Superstar, Edge

Money in the Bank Ladder Match
Christian vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Kane vs. Shelton Benjamin vs. Jack Swagger vs. MVP vs. Matt Hardy vs. Evan Bourne vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Kofi Kingston
Okay this is the hardest match to predict. If you would have asked me a couple of weeks ago who I thought was going to win this match I confidently would have said Christian. But now I lost a lot of confidence in that but he is still my favorite. He has basically been non-existent on WWE programming since winning his qualifying match. This will also be the biggest MITB competition ever with 10 Superstar wrestlers competing. Lets take a look at the field. Evan Borune, Shelton Benhamin, and on a little less of a level Matt Hardy are included for stunts and high spot moves to add aerial moves. Kofi Kingston, despite being a late add and being constantly buried and basically no showing on a few RAWs leading up to Wrestlemania has an outside surprise shot because of being so over with the crowd through all this. But he has already been given a title shot in the past and so it seems unlikely he will win. Drew McIntyre, Mr. McMahon’s hand-picked choice also has a good chance to win this, probably second best behind Christian. MVP and Jack Swagger (who I think both will make good main eventers one day) have been kind of lost in the shuffle on RAW. Dolph Ziggler? Push time? Maybe, he does have the most to gain from a win and he definitely deserves a push. Kane (or as I like to call him, Jobber to the Stars) at this point is just a gatekeeper for up and comers, so I don’t think they would go that direction.

Prediction: Christian

Side note: if Christian does win, and Edge wins the World Heavyweight belt, how cool would it be to see a future Edge vs Christan Championship Ladder Match?

Unified Tag Team Championship Match
Big Show & The Miz (C) vs. John Morrison & R-Truth
Other than John Morrison & R-Truth winning the number one contender-ship for the Unified Tag Titles, the other back-story this match involves is the fact that John Morrison and The Miz use to be former tag team champions together.
Okay, this match got only two weeks of build, translation? This feels like a filler match. Champions retain.

Prediction: Showmiz

Singles Match
Triple H vs. Sheamus
A feud that seemed to get thrown together at the last minute since none of them were in any other story-lines. HHH “The Veteran” vs. Sheamus “The Up and Comer” HHH has put over enough people in Wrestlemania pasts that it might be time for him to get back to winning some. But Triple H did retain his title vs Orton at last years Wreslemainia so I am thinking that HHH’s objective this year is to get Sheamus over.

Prediction: Sheamus

Triple Threat Match
Randy Orton vs. Ted DiBiase vs. Cody Rhodes
Wrestlemania has long been about culminations of feuds and this match-up isn’t any different. The slow dissolution of Legacy has been going on for months until a couple weeks back it reached a point of no reconciliation. I was hoping on the last RAW before Wrestlemania we would get a little bit of a wrench thrown into the friendship of Cody and Ted but that will have to wait until Sunday. Prediction: It’s hard not to see Randy winning this; Cody and Ted have not reached the level of winning at Wrestlemania in their respective careers yet. But I am going to out on a limb as I see Cody having the largest to gain at Wrestlemaina.

Prediction: Cody Rhodes

Singles Match
CM Punk vs. Rey Mysterio
The stipulation of this match is if Rey loses he must join CM Punk’s Straightedge Society. It should be a good match but CM Punk is one of the company’s top heels and Rey losing would make for a good storyline coming out of Wrestlemania.

Prediction: CM Punk

A message from the YBIA:  On February 11th and 12th, 2010, the Olympic Flame will travel throughout Vancouver on the Olympic Torch Relay Route, including the Downtown area. There will be rolling road closures of 10-20 minutes as the Olympic Torch travels through Vancouver so be sure to expect some delays- vehicle travel to or within Downtown Vancouver will be VERY challenging. However, don’t be discouraged to come out and celebrate as the flame makes its way through the city.  Just don’t bring your car – take transit, walk or cycle, and plan ahead for extra travel time. Tens of thousands are expected to gather every day at the LiveCity sites to watch live performances showcasing Vancouver’s creative excellence and cultural diversity.  We at Elfsar will continue to run our Olympic inspired sale thru the games, so if you are in the area, please drop by the store to say hi.  Come and check out our extra goodies and take advantage of our sale that is breaking records. 

 Okay, back on subject – To mark the flame’s historic arrival in Vancouver, an Olympic Torch Relay Celebration is being planned by the City for the evening of February 11th, 2010. The celebration will take place at 6:30pm at LiveCity Yaletown David Lam Park (only a few blocks away from Elfsar) and will feature live entertainment, athlete appearances, and much more. To support the Olympic Torch Relay Celebration, and to ensure the safe movement of pedestrians throughout the area, the following streets and sidewalks will be temporarily closed:

·         12pm – Pacific Blvd – east-side sidewalk closed between Homer St and Drake St

·         3pm – Pacific Blvd closed – east-bound lane between Homer St and Drake St

·         3pm – Pacific Blvd – west-bound parking (curbside) lane fenced off

No residential or business driveway access will be impacted during this period. More information is available on the Host City website at the link below:

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO

Wow, check out Vancouver's "Blackest Night" Rings...lol.

MARCH ORDERS ARE DUE TODAY WEDNESDAY the 27th!
Yep that time is upon us.  Orders are due, so if you have not done so already, please send us your order changes ASAP, Please and Thank you.  As usual we have our handwritten Elfbytes to help you make that final decision: http://www.elfsar.com/Elfbytes Articles/Elfbytes.htm This edition of Elfbytes is a bit special as it contains the information about what the new Free comic Book day book are and how much it will cost if you want to pre-order the books. 

Also the New Previews shipped today!

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THINGS ARE ABOUT TO GET INTERESTING
Due to the Olympics we will be opening a little later than normal.  We don’t want to give an exact time as we are still unsure how much the traffic and people situation will affect us in Yaletown. We remain hopeful but have our reservations.  It is best to play it by ear and see how it goes.  This means if the street is busy we will stay open.  If it is a ghost town then we will close at our regular store hours.  If you want to be sure just give us a call we can certainly let you know.  In any case, there seems to be a lot going on in the downtown core.  One of which is the LiveCity Yaletown event at the David Lam park which is providing nightly entertainment until 11pm every night.  The best part is …it’s FREE!  Check out more info: HERE

OUR SALE CONTINUES THROUGH FEBRUARY!
Yes our January boxing month sale is now technically over today on the 27th.  However after careful consideration we have decided to carry our sale over the Olympics in February.  If you don’t know what I am talking about yet, our sale is a Buy 2 get 1 Free on all Graphic Novels, Magazines and Comic Book Sets and 20% off all non reading material.  Items on the ‘New This Week’ racks and all special orders, audio/video, supplies and stuff on consignment are not included.   But there is so much on sale it will be difficult to miss a deal.  So in a way, we are taking on the spirit of the Olympics as we are breaking all previous records for longest awesome sale!

BACK ISSUE BIN SALE at 55% OFF!
The best part of our sale is our massive discount on back issues!  What is a back issue?  They are issues that are located in our back issue bins of course.  After about 4 or 5 months or sometimes even up to a year we put our unsold copies of comics in protective bags and boards and store them alphabetically in our long boxes.  We follow the comic book alphabet which means it is as normal except when there are logical groups to be made.  For example: The Batman, Superman, Spider-man & X-men books are grouped all together.  i.e. Amazing Spider-man, Spectacular Spider-man, Web of Spider-man …. are all under “S” for Spider-man.  Looking for something specific?  Or do you have a list of books you need?  Send it to us via email and we will do the work for you and let you know what we have.

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Okay, some of you may know that I am a Pro Wrestling fan.  Although it is getting harder and harder for me to watch wrestling on TV week after week, I still try to keep updated with the ‘goings on’ in the business. Back in the day it was the WWF vs WCW (and a helping of ECW on the side). Long gone are the days where two companies struggle for ratings, each trying to outdo the other.

Or has it?

It’s the first time in nine years that two Pro Wrestling companies have gone head to head.  On Monday night Jan 4th, the underdog TNA IMPACT will feature Hulk Hogan  who (among others) will be getting involved both in front and behind the scenes of their product against the giant WWE who is featuring Bret “The Hitman” Hart as there guest host this week on RAW. (note: Bret has signed a 3 month contract leading to this years Wrestlemaina.)

Is this the first of a  long run to make WWE increase the quality of their product and get out of their comfort zone while TNA pull out all the stops to get viewers? How much of a difference will Hogan make behind the scenes and how will the on air product change? Where does this leave Vince Russo? Will Bret Hart be able to connect with the modern day audience?

All things considered it’s an exciting time to be a Pro Wrestling fan and January 4th should be very, very interesting.

The most important question though is, which show will you be watching

4.5 Undertaker vs HBK
Wow! I enjoyed the pace of the Undertaker HBK match, they made another match for the young up and comers to study.  I swear I thought Taker broke his neck when he went over the top rope.  I would say this was almost a 5 star match and probably would have been without the botched Superkick and blown turnbuckle spot.

3.5 Hardy vs Hardy
Although I enjoyed the Hardy vs Hardy match it felt hella rushed.  I’m guessing they were told that they only had a certain alotted time and as an act to not disappoint fans they felt forced to squish as many spots in as possible.
3.0 Orton vs HHH
I felt Orton really should have won in the main event and provided a reason for people to turn into RAW on Monday.  In my opinion, it would have been the smarter play.
3.0 Jericho vs Legends
Seeing Mickey Rourke get into the ring was great to see but I would have thought they would milk it a bit more than a couple jabs and a two punch combo.  I somehow suspected that if Jericho wins, he would then turn to Rourke and ask him to get into the ring.  I also hoped that Jericho would say something along the lines of  “…I can beat any Hall of Fammer and that there is nobody in the Hall of Fame that could beat me.”   Then cue the shattered glass of the newly inducted 2009 Hall of Famer Stone Cold Steve Austin’s music.   Now that would have been a huge pop.  I guess getting Austin to put a stunner on the lionheart would cost the WWE too much $$$.
2.5 The MITB match
This match scared the heck out of me.  I hope MVP is alright.  We will be seeing this match on many episodes of botchamania shortly.  Without all the botches I would have ranked this match higher as it was still entertaining.
2.0 Cena vs Edge vs Bigshow
Meh… No Comment. It felt like just an episode of Smackdown.

1.5 Mysterio vs JBL
I guess this made room for the other matches.  But I can’t seem to shake that this match was an insult to previous Intercontinental belt holders.  This belt has always been known to be the “workers belt” and I can’t say that these two put the work in. We will be seeing JBL on commentary soon.  Seems the logical choice since Tazz is gone.
1.0 Mrs Wrestlemainia
What a waste of PPV time.  But hey it’s your token gimmick match.

My Final PPV rating: 2.625 out of 5

I can highly recommend a free download that allows you to watch live PPV streams.

TVU networks or  SopCast

They both have an MMA channel and I’ve watched the last 3 or 4 PPV’s on it.  They both are coming from the same feed, but depending on the traffic one is usually better than the other. Some of the time there are minor issues like the audio not syncing up etc, but most of us can deal with that.  Plus you get what you pay for.

Now if you are a new fan of the sport or are looking to see past matches and simply can’t afford every UFC, MMA or even WWE, TNA Wrestling PPVs Let me introduce you to http://www.thescoreboards.com/forums/
This is a free board where you can view PPV’s Shoot Interviews (I certainly love my Wrestling Shoot Interviews) and even DVD’s.  All you have to do is post six or seven times and you can gain access to the awesome Video Forum.   There is an impressive amount of fights from around the world on the board as well.

Put “Elfsar” as your referral and you can shorten your required amount of posts in half and gain access to the Video Forum sooner with less posts.