W.W.E. Forgets Umaga

The W.W.E. has been completely classless in not acknowledging Eddie "Umaga" Fatu’s death on any of their t.v. programming. Many fans – including myself – have sent emails to the W.W.E. complaining. A U.K. Sun story here quoted a W.W.E. spokesperson who said he could not comment on the complaints. The W.W.E. is just being completely gutless on this issue.

Fatu passed away on December 4. He was 36. Umaga was a superheavyweight that had unbelievable speed and agility for a man his size; weighing in excess of 300 pounds. Fatu comes from a Samoan family that has produced such greats as the Wild Samoans and The Rock. He had just finished up the Hulkamania tour of Australia where his final match was against Ken “Mr. Kennedy” Anderson. Reportedly, he was supposed to return to the W.W.E. next month.

The day after Fatu died, Ring of Honor (R.O.H.) remembered Umaga with a 10-bell salute before a show. This is amazing to me, because Fatu never wrestled for R.O.H. but did spend a considerable amount of time working for the W.W.E. and his death only got a very cold corporate-type mention on their Website.

Who Cares

The Who and Teenage Cancert Trust (TCT) have teamed up to launch Who Cares, which is designed to raise money for TCT. The news is here. Basically, it's a new way for the fans to get involved in raising money for the charity.

Incidentally, a fan has an authentic Pete Townshend shirt up for auction on eBay, which comes with an autographed photo of PT wearing a similar shirt. The auctioneer says that all proceeds will go to TCT. The link is here.

Roger Daltrey and Eric Clapton Hitting The Road

Roger Daltrey will be teaming up with Eric Clapton in February/March of 2010 for a few shows together. Meanwhile, Clapton and Steve Winwood will continue touring into the early part of next year. More on the news can be found here. I couldn't find any video of Roger and Eric performing - unless you count Clapton in the movie, Tommy - so I have posted Clapton with Pete Townshend.

Slammy Awards Predictions

It's that time of year again that everyone looks forward to. Well, perhaps not, but the Slammy's could produce some interesting moments tonight on Monday Night Raw which will be hosted by Dennis Miller. Here are the nominees and who I think will take home each award:

Superstar of the Year Nominees:
Undertaker
John Cena
Randy Orton
CM Punk

Although, there is no standout, somehow I think it will be Randy Orton.

Diva of the Year
Nominees: All are eligible.

I'm going to go with Maryse.

Extreme Moment of the Year Nominees:
Kofi Kingston lands a Boom Drop on Randy Orton at MSG.
Big Show chokeslams John Cena into arena spotlight at Backlash.
Jeff Hardy jumps from ladder onto CM Punk at SummerSlam.
Triple H invades Randy Orton's home.

The Kofi Kingston move was even more special because it happened at Madison Square Garden, so that's the moment I'm going with.

Breakout Star of the Year Nominees:
Yoshi Tatsu
Drew McIntyre
Sheamus
Abraham Washington

New W.W.E. Champ Sheamus takes this one.

Shocker of the Year Nominees:
Batista turns against former friend Rey Mysterio.
Randy Orton DDTs Stephanie and forces Triple H to watch.
CM Punk forces Jeff Hardy to retire after Steel Cage Match victory.
Sheamus slams Raw host Mark Cuban through a table.

In order to spread the wealth among the three brands, I think they go with Batista turning on Mysterio.

Tag Team of the Year Nominees:
Jeri-Show (Chris Jericho Big Show)
D-Generation X (Triple H HBK)
The Legacy (Cody Rhodes Ted DiBiase)
The Hart Dynasty (David Hart Smith Tyson Kidd

Anything that will add to Chris Jericho's obnoxiousness is a good thing. So I think he and Big Show take home this award.

Match of the Year Nominees:
Jeff Hardy vs. Edge - Ladder Match at Extreme Rules.
Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker at WrestleMania.
John Cena vs. Randy Orton - "I Quit Match" at WWE Breaking Point.
Team Raw vs. Team SmackDown at WWE Bragging Rights.

Michaels vs. Undertaker may have been the best match ever, never mind 2009.

Raw Guest Host of the Year Nominees:
Ozzy & Sharon Osbourne
Bob Barker
Seth Green
Shaquille O'Neal

By a mile.....Bob Barker!!!

The "Oh My" Moment of the Year Nominees:
Chris Masters performs special "dancing pecs" routine for Osbournes.
Shawn Michaels superkicks little girl in cafeteria.
Michael Cole vomits on Chris Jericho at SmackDown's 10th Anniversary.
Santino Marella accidentally nails Vickie with a pie.

What would be an awards show without Santino Marella. I think he grabs this award.

The New York Sports Scene

Kind of lackluster if you ask me...

Football
Jets - Funny that Mike Francesa spent an entire WEEK talking about the Jets head coach crying, but he doesn't want to talk about Tiger Woods. Hmmm, maybe Jesse Ventura has a new topic for his Conspiracy Theory show.
Giants - Incredibly, IF they beat Dallas this weekend they are right back in the playoff hunt.

Hockey
Rangers - Are in trouble.
Devils - Rolling along, but don't get an ounce of coverage.
Islanders - Despite being 10-10-7, they are playing better than I would have expected. I have to give them credit for not tanking the season despite all of the off-ice ownership issues.

Basketball
Nets - 0-17
Knicks - Waiting for their savior, Lebron James. But what if he doesn't come next year...

College Basketball
St. John's - 6-0, although that will change against Duke on Saturday.
Fordham - Chuck Costello's Rams are 1-4.
Iona - Is 4-2 overall and tied with the Fairfield Stags, but conference play has yet to begin.

Baseball
Mets - Let's face facts: they are a joke of a franchise!
Yankees - Apologists think it's good for baseball if they land Roy Halladay.

Jesse Ventura Making The Rounds

Jesse Ventura hosted Monday Night Raw last week and then ripped Vince McMahon in an ESPN interview a few days later. Nice.

He walked out of the Opie and Anthony Show yesterday after getting into it with Jim Norton here over Ventura's 9/11 conspiracy garbage. But he had a more congenial interview with Kevin Eck of the Baltimore Sun here.

All in the name of promoting his Conspiracy Theory show which debuted last night on TruTv. I forgot it was on, oh well.

The End of E.C.W.

Old school E.C.W. fans can now celebrate as it has been reported that the W.W.E. will dispose of the E.C.W. brand next year, although nothing has been confirmed. What will come of the E.C.W. championship is anyone’s guess. But there will still be a wrestling show on Sy-Fy. The current E.C.W. brand never resembled the old version, but I think most people never believed that was a possibility. The W.W.E. is “corporate” and the original Extreme Championship Wrestling was anything but corporate. I do like the W.W.E. having a brand that is a step below Raw and Smackdown in order to rehabilitate talent, which is hopefully what is happening with Shelton Benjamin, or to bring in new stars. So we'll see what direction the company takes...

The Super Bowl Setlist

Twelve minutes is all the halftime act at the Super Bowl gets. “Won’t Get Fooled Again” is over eight minutes, so I wonder what direction the band will go. If Keith Moon and John Entwistle were still alive, I would suggest the same route they took with “My Generation” when they played Live at Leeds in 1970, which is above. Incidentally, the N.F.L. did a nice job on their promotion video for The Who performing at the SuperBowl, which you can watch by clicking this.

Townshend Wants His MTV

Speaking of MTV, the above video features Pete Townshend demanding his MTV and asking Americans to do the same. The promo, which aired in 1982 on MTV, also features Pat Benatar, Adam Ant, John Mellencamp, The Clash, Men At Work, Stray Cats, Joe Jackson, Hall & Oates and Billy Joel.