ITVR Podcast

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Goodbye to a Late-in-Life Wrestling Fan

My grandfather took to wrestling late in life. In fact, for the fifteen years or so that I enjoyed wrestling and he didn't, he used to make fun of me. Boxing was better, he said - it was real. THEY didn't stop their feet when they punched one another.

But somewhere in my early twenties he became a fan - and even more of one than I was at times! I was his 'go-to' girl if he had questions. We mourned Eddy Guerrero and the Benoit family together. One of my best memories with him was a weekend spent housesitting together while my grandmother attended a wedding; in a 48 hour period, we literally watched the entire 3-disc Undertaker's Deadliest Matches set. Hour upon hour of footage of his favourite wrestler. I tired of it before he did!

We never got to Wrestlemania together, as I promised him we would if it ever came back to Canada - in the time of his fandom, it never did, and he passed away last week after a long battle with a body long plagued by diabetes, heart problems, hip problems ... you name it. One of his last joys in life, as he lost mobility, vision and hearing, was wrestling. When I was no longer sure what to buy him for Christmases and birthdays - what he would enjoy - I bought him wrestling DVDs, which he watched by the hour, along with UFC (which I never got into myself).

Grampa's funeral was the reason for the lack of posting this week. Needless to say, he was more than worth it. And he will be missed very much by all who knew him. XOXO Grampa - go now in peace and may the love of God surround you everywhere you may go.

Survivor Series Predictions

Due to some visitors, and a death in the family (RIP to my beloved Grampa Cal Wilson, a late-in-life wrestling fan but one of the biggest I've yet to meet) we were unable to get ITVR up this week - but with two hours to show time we did want to at least post our Survivor Series predictions before the show went on the air. We'll go match by match, with Ari's and my predictions beneath. And after this past week (with Little Tyke's birthday, my grampa's passing, and a heavy workload), things honestly SHOULD slow down now until the holidays at least, so we should be back to at least 2-3 postings a week if not more - and of course as we head into the Royal Rumble-Wrestlemania stretch, we always pick up our game (as does WWE, apparently lol).

So with no further ado ... Survivor Series Predix.

Divas Champion Beth Phoenix vs. Eve in a Lumberjill Match

SARAH:
Who cares? If this weren't about to become a cluster-mess, I'd be fine with this, but with EVERY diva involved ... OK I'll pick Beth Phoenix and leave it at that.
ARI:
I think Beth too, they're not particularly pumping Eve, so I don't see any reason other than that for a quick turnaround.

United States Champion Dolph Ziggler vs. John Morrison

SARAH:
I'm going with Ziggler here - they've only just started building JoMo up again after months of a losing streak; and while they're acknowledging said streak is a good sign, he's just not there yet, and I don't think they're ready to take the US title off Ziggler and push him up OR down the ladder either.
ARI:
I haven't followed what's been going on with Morrison as much, but I feel they like Ziggler and would want to roll with him a bit longer.

Team Orton vs. Team Barrett
(Randy Orton, Sin Cara, Kofi Kingston, Sheamus and Mason Ryan vs. Wade Barrett, Hunico, Jack Swagger, Dolph Ziggler and Cody Rhodes)

SARAH:
I'm actually going with the heels here - I think Sheamus and Wade Barrett are going to end it and Wade Barrett (plus whoever else is left on his team) is going to win. It really is Barrett and Sheamus (possibly Mason Ryan and Cody Rhodes for an honourable mention) that they want to push here, so expect some good stuff highlighting those performers.
ARI:
I definitely have high hopes for this match, it could be disappointing, it could be really good. They've got some good people there. I'm going with the faces, but as with any traditional Survivor Series match that doesn't have a condition attached to it, there's no particular reason to think that so, just call it a feeling.

NOTE: Dolph Ziggler will be appearing this match in his second of two Survivor Series appearances replacing the injured Christian.

WWE Champion Alberto del Rio vs. CM Punk

SARAH:
This is a toughie and let me say right up neither would surprise me here. But I'm going to go with CM Punk. Alberto del Rio held the title through their Mexican tour and it's been at least a couple of pay-per-views; Why not have Punk go for it? Also - just as a note - how sad is it that, per the WWE website, the WWE Championship match is third down on the card?
ARI:
Well when you've got two championships, that only takes one bump. I'm going with Punk as much because I hope so as ... that's actually a good old 'I hate the heel and I want to see the face win'. And he's had it long enough that's not implausible.

World Heavyweight Champion Mark Henry vs. Big Show

SARAH:
Go with Henry on this one - Show hasn't been back long enough, nor has he been hot enough, and Henry has been having the best year of his 15-year career by far, to me a shoo-in for 'Most Improved Wrestler' this year. I wouldn't take the belt off of him for Big Show, at least not right now, as much as I love Paul Wight.
ARI:
Yeah definitely. Mark Henry is having a very impressive run of just crushing people and okay, Big Show won't be crushed, but he's another great big boom for Henry to make.

John Cena and The Rock vs. The Miz and R-Truth

SARAH:
They have to mess with this one bigtime. I'm predicting - one - the heels winning because the faces seem so invincible and the Miz and Truth have seemed so completely beatable and lost so much heat this is the only way to go. Cena and Rock's team won't be sustainable and if WWE is smart, I predict - two - a Cena heel turn right about here. Just because one of them has to, and the fans won't boo the Rock vs. John Boy. Don't be shocked at - 3- a run in by Mick Foley, Kevin Nash, John Laureneitis or one of the myriad other players who have so far been involved in this drama.
ARI:
Agreed the odds of some sort of outside interference seem to be at least 80-90%. That's the easy thing to predict. I was going to predict Rock and Cena before you filled me in on what's been going on ... hmmm ... I guess I'll still go with Rock and Cena just because that was my gut, however ill-informed. Sometimes you wind up being wrong overthinking so I'll just stick with my first instinct.

1 hr. 45 mins. to curtain up guys - enjoy the show from Madison Square Garden, as the Rock returns fifteen years after his debut at the same event, in the same city. Here's hoping this marks a great turning point for the WWE. These fans hope so!

3 Hour Raw Supershow Tonight

Hi all,

Ari, nor I was feeling especially well over the weekend - thanks Little Tyke - so we didn't get a chance to do ITVR with all the evenings' interruptions etc. But I wanted to take a quick second to remind everyone that Raw Gets Rocked tonight an hour early, with the return of Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson on a 3-hour Raw special. Be sure and tune in at 8pm in the US, although I believe here in Canuck-land it still starts at 9pm. Be sure and tune in as well over the next few days for our ITVR Survivor Series predictions show - it won't be Friday this week as it's LT's third birthday, but we will be sure and git 'er done before, so we can share our thoughts on this weekend's pay-per-view before life gets all busy on us again (because it ever stops ... lol).

Cheers, Sarah

Quick Hits

Hi guys,

So, after 2-3 weeks of pretty steady posting, we were foiled by a busy weekend, three twelve-hour workdays in a row and a sick toddler, which all got in the way of blogging this week, but never fear - we will be back tomorrow with our next episode of In This Very Ring. Before that though I wanted to be sure and hit some of the big stories coming out of the world of wrestling this week.

• Chyna has a ... well, adult video venture coming out (or just out ... I don't exactly follow these things closely), and went on Howard Stern this week to promote it and talk about some of her experiences in the wrestling world. She spoke of having written to Vince McMahon recently proposing they 'do business together' again, and while his response was that 'at this time they would take a pass', she was pleased at the acknowledgement and considered that the communication was at least a bit of a thaw in her relations with the WWE. Given her difficult history with Vince's son-in-law Triple H his daughter (Trips' wife) Stephanie, while it's good a detente could be reached, if I were Chyna I wouldn't be holding my breath at any kind of full-time work with the WWE anytime soon.
• Former wrestling Henry Godwinn was in a very serious car wreck earlier this week landing him in the ICU. We of course wish him all the best in his recovery. The same wishes go out to Barry Windham, who seems to be recovering nicely from the double-blow of a heart attack and stroke ... a long road ahead, but with support from both his medical team and family, it sounds like optimism is the watchword in Windham's case.
• And lastly, happy belated birthday to one of my personal favourites, Chris Jericho, who turned 41 years old yesterday. Many happy ... uh ... returns, Chris. Please???? :)

Tune in to hear much more about all the above, and our thoughts on the last week or two of wrestling, tomorrow night, In This Very Ring.

XO Sarah