Woman's Hockey - The Fight For Survival

Late last week the 4 day summit on the state of hockey on various levels and both the men's and woman's games drew to a close. The day 4 focus was where the game is more so internationally in the woman's game. We all know that there are really just 2 teams at the top of the mountain, Canada and the USA then there are the rest. Sure there are some countries that are making some great strides over the last few years to make their woman's programs a little more competitive but there is still a big gap. The big question continues to be how big is this gap and is there enough ground being made up on a year by year basis by the lesser countries to make woman's hockey a viable option in the Olympics.

It is great when you are Canadian and you know that the worst you are going to finish is 2nd but if it all goes by the waste side what is the point. When you get 2 good teams like Canada and the USA play you get a good game and they put on a good product. If the other countries can make a solid effort and keep growing then the game will make it on its own merit and this won't be an issue after the next Olympics.

The woman are looking to create a strong "pro league" and that can only help grow not only the sport but the overall awareness and maybe get more players involved at younger ages if they know that there is actually something to aspire to and shoot for. I look at a woman's North American Pro League like that of junior hockey. When we see players on the national team, either on the USA or Canada we can choose our favorites but after that tournament they are gone from our sports viewing. if they went back to club teams then you can follow them better and become fans. It is similar to professional wrestling, in the past there were all these regional promotions and splinter cells all around. Then they were all eventually absorbed into bigger more national entities. then you get a WCW/WWE type production which is big. Bigger names, more recognisable players and teams and a stronger more structured set up (provided that it is done correctly). I think that there would be a market for that and with the right amount of team in the right markets it could not grow the game and thrive but help good players from other countries have a chance to not only play with better players but also and maybe more importantly practice with better players and coaches.

I like the men's game for the tough and skilled play, but I also like the woman's game with little or no hitting because it make the game faster and more free flowing. the less contact the less obstruction and the faster the pace. The skill can still be there and tempers can still get high but it doesn't happen as often or needlessly. If there are 2 things that I just can't stand is every time there is a whistle that all the players have to skate into a pile and start face-washing each other and the other is every time a player gets hit there has to be a fight. Even if the hit is clean players seem to think that everything needs to looked at as being predatory and "If you are a good teammate you'll stick up for your guy". What a load of crap...clean is clean, just play the game. It is a collision game, collisions will happen.

Both men's and woman's games have pros and cons but one thing they have in common is they both deserve to stay as Olympic Sports.

Welcome To The iMPACT Zone

Monday nights will never be the same! Sure we have heard that before but it will sure be nice to see 2 competing rival and separate companies compete head to head in the world of Professional Wrestling. Total Nonstop Action (TNA) wrestling’s flagship series will air live every other week from Universal Studios in Orlando, Fl.

"TNA iMPACT!," Spike TV’s highly-rated two-hour weekly series, is moving from Thursday nights to Monday nights beginning Monday, March 8 (9:00-11:00pm), it was announced by TNA President Dixie Carter and legendary pop culture icon Hulk Hogan at a press conference. The TNA Brand has been around since 2002 when it was founded by Jeff Jarrett and Jerry Jarrett. TNA was established after the fall of WCW and the sale of the company from Ted Turner and his media companies to the WWE and Vince McMahon. It was a nice little alternative to WWE but had a low budget and not a huge following. As the company grew it soon has become the world’s fastest growing professional wrestling company, currently airing in over 120 countries worldwide.

The first ever Monday live "TNA iMPACT" ran as a three-hour special head-to-head against WWE RAW on Monday, January 4, 2010. It managed to draw a franchise-record 2.2 million viewers. Two wrestling companies have not broadcast head-to-head weekly since the "Monday Night Wars" in the late 1990’s between WWE and WCW. A lot of names you will recognise for either past work in the WWE and some older names that fans have seen back in the WCW days. For example,"The Icon" Sting has signed a new contract and will be involved in tonight’s broadcast. If that wasn’t enough to make not only the wrestling fan flip over at lest for a peak the main event is slated to feature Hulk Hogan’s return to the ring as he teams with Abyss to face TNA World Heavyweight Champion "The Phenomenal" AJ Styles and the legendary "Nature Boy" Ric Flair!

What TNA also has going for it is a solid group of youth sprinkled with some vets with name recognition to draw in the fans that may have been lost from the WCW days and also they have a Women’s Knockout division which are not only decent on the mic but for the most part can handle themselves decently in the ring.

This comes at a much needed time for the sports entertainment world. The flagship show for the WWE - RAW has become uninteresting of late using guest hosts that are on to pimp their upcoming projects and except for a very select few have been big flops that are uninspired and attempt to be funny but fall well short. There seems to be more crap and filler then actual matches and decent plot lines. Hopefully the WWE is using this time to set up some good storey lines as they may need it if the new Monday TNA Impact lives up to it’s name and actually makes an Impact. Cool Pyro and a nice set can only keep the viewer for so long.

It will be interesting to see how a head to head showdown will push both WWE and TNA Products and take it back to a time when it was so strong.

New Chief For Kyle

Kyle Busch will have a new crew chief after this weekend’s race at Talladega Super speedway, with Joe Gibbs Racing replacing Steve Addington on Tuesday after a season that fell far short of expectations.

“We evaluate all of our teams on an ongoing basis and believe this is a change that will make the 18 team stronger as we prepare for next season,” said JGR president J.D. Gibbs.

After last nights appearance on WWE RAW it looks like John Cena will have the inside track for that position.

A Good Case Of The Mondays

Big day for a Monday upcoming the plate is full and the cup runneth over. There is a big game coming up in the NFL Monday night’er between the Bronco’s and the Chargers. This actually sets up to be a big game that was probably on nobody’s radar at the beginning of the season but that should be a good one. It will be interesting to see if San Diego can pull this out as it is almost a must win so they don’t fall back too far in the division.

Even better there are 2 baseball games today and the beauty is that one of those games are actually going to be played in the afternoon or early evening depending on your location. The fact that it is a Yankee’s game that is not the one in prime time is probably the biggest shock of all. There is something to be said for having a game played while just about the whole country is awake to see it. Sure an afternoon game in LA is going to be pretty hot but that is part of the fun. In the second game it looks like the Phillies will be able to finish off the Dodgers after laying the boots to them last night. After a game like that it will be tough to come right back in an elimination game.

The NHL may only have 3 games on the sched but of those 3 games Dany Heatley and the Sharks are playing the 7-1 Rangers and then at 8:30 the Kings take to ice in Dallas so this is a case of quality over quantity. Not too often that you can get so many Western Conference games shown before 10pm eastern. Now that I like the Blues and Kings there is much less of a west coast/east coast bias over here and the more games that I get to see from them the better.

And of course one can’t forget that the special guest host for WWE Monday Night Raw is none other then the D-O double G! That’s right Snoop Dogg will be in the house and lending his hand at running the Sports Entertainment show. The potential for Ron "The Truth" Killings and Chryme Tyme getting in some rhymes with the Dogg is enough to make you...switch to the baseball game.

Layn’ The Smack Down

The WWE and the NBA’s Denver Nuggets have a bit of a problem. Both are slated to be in Denver next Monday. The Nuggets are to host the LA Lakers in the Conference finals while the WWE has booked the arena for their show Monday Night Raw. There does not seem to a clear direction on how this is going to end but you get the feeling that it should end with a steel cage match rather then any litigation or legal involvement.

Any PR for the WWE is good PR and this is all good for them. There have been many statements put forth by WWE Chairman Vince McMahon that have called out Stan Kroenke (owner of the Nuggets and the Pepsi Centre). The WWE who reserved the Pepsi Center on Aug. 15 and had already sold more than 10,000 tickets for its the Monday Night Raw event. It would appear that Yanni has more power then the WWE as the NHL bowed to him whereas the NBA has said that the playoff date is not movable and for the Nuggets to figure it out themselves, but basketball was going to be played in Denver that night.

So far McMahon has stated "Quite frankly, it's my view that Stan Kroenke should be arrested, should be arrested for impersonating a good businessman, because he's not a good businessman," McMahon said on ESPN. "A good businessman doesn't book a World Wrestling Federation live televised event on Monday night realizing that his team in all likelihood would not make the playoffs." and McMahon blamed Kroenke for not believing his team was good enough to still be playing in mid-May.

"The fans in Denver had a lot more faith in making the playoffs than the owner." Ironically it sounds just like an interview you would see on RAW.

Rest assured they will come to a resolution and the WWE will come out ahead in the public opinion poll and will no doubt be well compensated. Worse case scenario McMahon said he needs to fulfill his obligation to the USA network and put on a card...even if it means putting on a show in a parking lot. (And don’t think for a second that he would do it and it would probably be a success.

Here is a great Idea for a match - a Battle Royal between the Nuggets Cheerleaders and the WWE Divas....then everyone is a winner.

"Test" Failed - Former WWE Wrestler Found Dead

Well I guess that it was just a matter of time. Yet another pro wrestler has died at a very young age. Canadian Andrew “Test” Martin was found in his Florida apartment March 13th after a neighbor noticed that he hadn’t moved in several hours. Test was one that may not come as as big a surprise that he passed so prematurely. When your ring name is a short form for “Testosterone” there is little left to the imagination. Although there has not been an official cause of death, foul play was not suspected. I guess that is up for ones definition of foul play. Martin failed a drug test and was suspended under the promotion's wellness policy in February 2007 and that could be construed as foul. He was arrested on a DUI charge near his Tampa home in April 2008. Clearly Test had many demons, and it would appear that they eventually caught up to him.

Despite all his troubles he has had his share of success in the ring holding several titles and romances with Stephanie McMahon and Stacey Keibler and outside the ring with a real life romance with Keibler and most recently with Kelly Kelly.
He must have been a decent guy in real life because he sure came off as a real douche as a wrestler and really not a very good one. He was just big, not overly talented.

Martin joins a long list of young wrestlers who prematurely died, most from causes stemming from substance-abuse. Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Mike "Crash Holly" Lockwood, Bryan "Crush" Adams, Davey Boy Smith, Rick Rude, Miss Elizabeth are among Martin's WWE contemporaries who have passed away. Just remember as well, this is a very small portion of the list of wrestler's who have passed very early. The list is just too long to get into in its entirety.

It is sad that this Male Soap Opera has such a dark side and takes so many so young.

Say It Ain't So, Joe

Disgraced ex-NBA official Tim Donaghy was sentenced to 15 Months in jail hopefully bringing an end to this storey.
Is it just me or did the NBA make it through pretty clean in this whole mess? This had the potential to bring down the league and even when it was in the news everyday it didn’t seem to carry a lot of weight. Same thing with the baseball steroid mess. It seems to now be a back burner issue after it looked to rock the sport. Sure some individuals like Clemens and Bonds have taken much of the hits but on the whole the sport has fared pretty well. It is interesting in a sport that still brings up the 1919 "Black Sox" that these new issues don’t carry the same power.
It is just like WWE Wrestling, very few bodies can look like that naturally and it is easier to assume that everybody is juicing and the sooner we realize that the quicker we can move on and just appreciate it for what it is, entertainment and a distraction.
It will be interesting to see with the upcoming Olympics if that is the case there as well. Will the stories of success and unanticipated victories carry more weight then the inevitable positive drug tests that are sure to come in the coming weeks.
Are we as a society at the point that the sports we follow are a mere escape for us from our daily routine and troubles? Maybe we have much less interest in some of the more shady dealings and just take it at face value and just enjoy.
For the record i did not include the Tour De France in this list as i do not deem it of any relevance as it neither compelling nor interesting even if it does have the most enhancing by its performers.