#termeer

Chris Termeer Reporting from New Zealand - The Marlborough A&P show is the annual event featuring some of the most talented and niche sport competitors in the New Zealand area and even the world. Guests and athletes came from far and wide to see wrestling matches, wood cutting duals, and other outdoor activities.

  Some of the Southern Championship Wrestling stars were in attendance and put on quite a show for spectators. Whether it was the applause for Jonny Idol or the boos for Taylor Adams, it would appear that everyone was involved in the matches and enjoyed soaking up the sunshine at the outdoor event.

  Taylor Adams said of the competition, "I think this crowd could be better. I'm the best wrestler this region has ever produced and I don't think I get the respect I deserve. For me, it's all about me. I don't wrestle for these dweebs, I wrestle for me and nobody else." In spite of his egocentric personality, Adams was able to send the crowd and his opponents into a frenzy. The wrestling portion drew several hundred viewers and at times the cheers and boos melded into loud, indecipherable screams.

  Stirling Hart, a Canadian lumberjack appeared at the show and stated, "it's a real kid favorite but some of the jokes are more for the adults. It's no different to watching something like Shrek though, where some of the jokes fly straight over the children's heads. We want everybody to have a good time and it makes it more fun for us too." The experience is one of entertainment and education: traits that organizers have embraced for a number of years.

Chris Termeer Reporting - Canadian wrestler Jeff Adamson wrapped up competition at the 2011 Pan American Games just a couple of weeks ago and is now seriously considering his future as a professional wrestler.

  It was just about a year ago that he finished in third-place at the Canadian senior wrestling championships, but managed to qualify and travel to Guadalajara for the October 2011 Pan Am event. Jeff Adamson earned bronze at the international event and will no prepare mentally and physically for his next competition which is slated for the Huskie Open on November 26th and then the Canadian trials on December 15th.

  The 26-year-old Adamson has been wrestling for twenty years: starting as a youngster releasing energy and culminating as a college wrestler at the top of the rankings in 2007 and 2008. In recent years he has taken on the task of assisting the University of Saskatchewan's wrestling team, while he trains under Todd Hinds in the same gym.

  Speaking out on his career, Adamson said, "for me, it's do or die. It's coming down to this and it's exciting. It's going to make it all worth it. Win or lose, I think if I wrestle my best, I'll come out on top. Even if I don't, I'll know that I gave it my best and I'll have no regrets. I almost quit a long time ago and I'm glad I stuck with it because I've taken a ton of stuff out on it. I owe a lot to the sport. I've got one year left and then I'm done. I'm making this last push. I was really happy to get a medal for Canada. I would have liked to have gotten a gold, but it felt a lot better than I thought it would. I didn't put a lot of importance on the games, but then I realized how big it was."

Chris Termeer Reporting - Wrestling is one of the few sports that can truly incorporate an alternative ego with one's natural personality. The show or gimmick that professional wrestlers put on makes the sport more popular than say the traditional, grecco-roman style wrestling.

  For the entirety of professional wrestling there has been the mystery and popularity of storylines, acting, and gimmicks. Whether it is comparing the out-of-date outfits of Shawn Michaels to John Cena or the antics of George the Animal Steel to Stone Cold Steve Austin one thing remains in common: building a successful gimmick. In order to bring about a believable story or gimmick, the WWE past and present must rely on the traits of its athlete-actor. For example, George the Animal Steel acted like an animal by bumbling around, tearing up the set, and even eating elements of his outfit. Another reason why Steel's persona was successful was because he was covered in hair, which immediately links the name to the image.

  Stone Cold Steve Austin on the other hand, was a tall, muscular, bald man dressed in black. His image matched the motto and the antics within the ring defined a "stone cold" personality. John Cena is one of the active wrestlers that embodies a successful gimmick. While Cena does possess the strong-bodied characteristics, his outfit for instance downplays the modern, serious persona. However, when in the ring Cena is all business and the jean short, combat boot image is all but forgotten: it is embraced.

Chris Termeer - The University of Maryland wrestling team made a big entrance into their 2011-12 season by winning 27 of 30 matches. In the Terrapin Duals, Maryland hosted Johns Hopkins, Franklin and Marshal, and Bloomsburg.

  The Terps were able to sweep the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays 51-0 including two decisions made by more than 10 points and a Blue Jays forfeit for the 285 pound match. As for the Franklin and Marshall competition, Maryland claimed all, but one match: the 141 pound category where Terrapin Lou Mascola fell to Richard Durso in an 8-5 decision. In the Maryland-Bloomsburg matchup, the Terps lost at the 149 pound and 157 pound intervals, but cleared major decisions in several of the meetings.

  Kerry McCoy, head coach of the University of Maryland wrestling team, said, "we won 27 out of 30 [matches] today. We didn't wrestle the way we wanted to wrestle necessarily in every one of our matches, but to come out and win 27 out of 30 matches is not bad." One of the matches McCoy thought his team did not necessarily wrestle the way he wanted and one he considered "heart-breaking" was Kyle John's Bloomsburg matchup. McCoy said, "He wrestled real well and just gave up one position and ended up losing the match giving up the takedown right there at the end. It was a great match."

  Spencer Myers, Ty Snook, Jimmy Sheptock, Kyle John, Ben Dorsay, Geoffrey Alexander, and Shane Genrty each won two matches at the event, while All-American Josh Asper and Christian Boley declared victory in all three of their decisions. For Geoffrey Alexander and Lou Mascola, they were able to claim their first wins on the college level at the Duals.

The official website for the TNA was hacked not once, but twice over the weekend of November 5th. ImpactWrestling.com was eventually shut down by TNA staffers after a second hacking, but as of November 7th the site is up and running. A hope from fans and the firm indicate that there should be a 'hacker-free' website to be launched in the near future.

  Although investigations are underway with regard to the hacking, there is already controversy stirring about the incident. In the first hacking incident, an image of a westward facing eagle draped in an Algerian flag filled the screen. This of course raised the concern that potential international terrorists accessed the site, but those thoughts may have been abandoned when the message of "I love you Mindy" appeared below the picture. The second hack was seen by fewer people apparently and TNA officials or other investigative agencies are not commenting on what that image or message said.

  In the hours that the site was down, visitors were diverted to the TNA's merchandise page, which goes to show that even when under siege, the wrestling industry is still concerned with selling its products. In response to the redirection, the TNA attempted to strum up business with the launch of a "Black November Sale." However, sales figures have not been released by the TNA and there is no way of telling at the moment if the hacking incident has resulted in increasing revenue.

Rusty Brooks, a former WWE wrestler from the 1980s is back in the ring. No, not as a competitor, but Brooks will be teaching young wrestlers and coaching them to the big time from his Florida backyard. The announcement came in early November and the move is set to take place by the end of 2011.

  "We were in a warehouse for a little while but with the economy being what it is the back yard is perfect. There's no overhead," said Brooks. His aptly named Rusty Brooks Pro-Wrestling Academy opened in the early 1990s in his backyard, but eventually made a local West Park, Florida warehouse the company's home. However, the sport has lost attendance and interest in recent years and with the hard-hitting economy putting the burden on niche small businesses, Rusty Brooks made the decision to bring the Academy back to its original home: his.

  So what do his students feel about the shift from a fully-outfitted, indoor facility to Rusty's backyard? Chris Jones, a 21-year-old student of Brooks says, "It is not the nicest of places. I mean it's his back yard. But you go here because of Rusty. He's a book of knowledge. He knows his stuff and the history of the sport. That goes a long way." The fact that the once famed Academy is now on the brink of extinction and being hosted on the dry Bermuda grass of the owner is a far cry from Rusty's more illustrious, recent post-career endeavors.

  Northern Illinois University opened up their 2011-12 wrestling season over the weekend with a victory at home.

  The Huskies took down North Central in the first match by a 30-15 margin, but went on to struggle and lose in a subsequent meeting against Stanford. Huskies head coach Ryan Ludwig said of the event, "It was a dual meet that I thought we let slip away. We had great momentum, and we were only a couple of shots away from winning the whole dual. Our technique needs to improve in those areas and once we get that down, we'll start locking those matches down."

  Ludwig also commented on the individual performances of Nick Smith and Kevin Fanta; "Nick Smith really had an impressive day today. I thought his conditioning was fantastic. He stayed on the attack and put up a lot of points. Kevin did a great job for us. He's more of a banger and a grinder, and I thought he did a great job."

  Both Fanta and Smith won their matches against both North Central and Stanford, but could not make up for the rest of their Huskie teammates. Fanta was able to outlast Andrew Zoback, North Central's only 40-match winner from 2010-11, and then Alex Manly of Stanford in a physically draining competition. Smith, on the other hand, posted the greatest win margin of the day with his 20-9 Cardinal conquer as well as his 13-4 North Central takedown.

  Meanwhile, Matt Mougin of Northern Illinois had one of the most impressive victories of the day coming against Stanford after dealing with some pre-match jitters. Mougin stated, "[my strategy] against Stanford was to just go out and wrestle. My first match I got too nervous. It was really terrible; I'm out of shape. But I just went out there and wrestled my match and had some fun." Mougin held off Stanford's Garrett Schaner in a 2-1 match, but faced a upsetting defeat against North Central in spite of his club beating that school.

  Jason Borrelli, head coach of the Stanford club said, "NIU wrestled very well. They are well conditioned, well coached; they wrestled through hard positions and out-hustled us at a lot of positions. So hats off to coach Ludwig and these guys for being ready to go."

The WWE may have seen better days in its ratings and attendance, but there is still time for the struggling enterprise to rebuild and retool: including kicking some of the old, irrelevant athletes to the curb.

  What seems to be happening in the WWE Raw Super Show is that many of the big names in the brand are routinely appearing and winning, which is keeps the fans coming back. However, these wrestlers are now taking on some unknown and unentertaining figures. Of course this comes along with the cancellation of the online show sponsored by WWE: Superstars. Essentially, what the show and the brand are doing is making some of the names on its roster irrelevant by either not having them compete or having them lose miserably.

  So who are some of these aging stars?

  Wade Barrett was once a top competitor in the WWE, but never truly shined. It wasn't that he lacked opportunity, but he never really capitalized on what opportunities were presented. On that note, he has made several enemies in the ring, and the entertainment company has either passed up those opportunities to bring the rivals into the ring or have just given up on Barrett. In any event, his status with the league is certainly in doubt.

  Daniel Bryan is another popular figure now facing extinction. He declared victory at the Money in The Bank match and would go on to incite several feuds after cashing in his Money in The Bank at Wrestlemania. He has not appeared on the circuit lately, which may be of concern to some, but for those turned onto the lime-light, he is just another lame duck.

  Finally, another wrestler suffering from the poor scheduling system in the WWE would be John Morrison. Although he has been recovering from a back injury in recent months, his character and role in wrestling has been falling fast. He managed to entice R-Truth to a feud for some intense and career-revitalizing matches, but got himself in a bit of hot water when WWE fired his long-time girlfriend, Melinda.

  Some of these athletes were once legendary, but now find themselves at the pitfall of their careers due to the political or entertaining agenda that sets precedent over anything else. A number of these potential Super Show stars in need of a promotional make-over and may be better off sitting out the next round or perhaps finding a new agent.