The Viking Raiders were brought up on such a whim that the WWE didn’t even know what to name them. I think they were The Viking Experience initially, which is just so painfully bad. Then they went to the Viking Raiders, because War Raiders actually made sense and was what got them over in NXT so it had to switch from that. It also initially had to change from War Machine which is definitely the best of the names. On top of that, they went from being Rowe and Hanson to Erik and Ivar. Those are also incredibly stupid names.
On top of that, they didn’t have a plan for them to relinquish the NXT Tag Titles so they just forfeited them instead of actually losing to a team. You would think that this meant that they needed them to look strong as they dominated the Raw’s tag division, but they mostly fought local talent so it’s not like they were protecting anything important.
In October they won the tag titles from what will go down as possibly the least memorable tag team champions in history, Dolph Ziggler and Bobby Roode who have gone on to become Baron Corbin’s cronies. Jesus, that was depressing to write.
And The Viking Raiders continued to face jobbers on Raw, mostly local talent and The OC. They had a completely meaningless tag title run for three months until Seth Rollins and Buddy Murphy tagged up for the first time ever and beat them for the titles. That’s a ridiculously talented team, but Rollins and Murphy could go down as the second least memorable tag team champions of all time.
They were immediately shuffled to the back of the line so Samoa Joe and Kevin Owens could challenge for the titles, so as of this writing, I’m not sure where they go from here. Everybody seems to be in awe of AEW’s tag division, but WWE could easily create just as impressive of a division if they wanted to.
I just realized that I got to the end of this article and still have no idea on what to do with the Viking Raiders. Like, they would be cooler if they turned heel and just became these irate bruisers, but all that would do is make them a poor man’s Authors of Pain. I think the only thing that can really help them is an overhaul of the tag division where they actually infuse talent and cohesive pairings in there. Still, Viking Raiders aren’t particularly my cup of tea, so I would rather see a dominant run go to AOP or Street Profits. Still, these guys have the skills to put on good matches, so maybe WWE should let them do that?
I used to love mixed martial arts. I would watch all the fights. It didn’t matter if it was in America, Japan, Russia, or Poland, I could find interesting things on cards all around the world. And now, it seems as there are maybe two fights a month that I even bother watching. If anything, there should be more talent in the sport which would lead to a better product. So why am I not into it? Ultimately, I think the talent is the problem.
It seems the greater the talent, the less exciting the fights become, and you just can’t match the excitement of early UFC cards. I’m a bad fan in that I love the Royce Gracie era as much as anything that has happened in mixed martial arts. Those fights were memorable. I remember him taking on the one-gloved boxer, Art Jimmerson and Jimmerson tapping out even though Royce didn’t even do anything to him on the ground yet. I remember Ken Shamrock tapping out but then trying to continue the fight. And I remember Royce Gracie holding his choke just a little bit long on Gerard Gordeau because that dude was a nasty son of a bitch.
I think about the best fighters of today, and although they are head and shoulders above that original crew, how many have truly memorable fights? I loved GSP, but honestly, his two most memorable fights are his two losses where he got caught in an armbar by Matt Hughes and caught with every punch imaginable by Matt Serra.
Jon Jones is the greatest fighter in the world, but I don’t vividly remember any of his fights. I remember the elbows he dropped on Matt Hamill, the armbar he escaped from Vitor Belfort, and that nasty ass choke he put on Lyoto Machida, but are any of his fights actually memorable? I know the Gustaffson and second Cormier fights were close (until Cormier got caught), but it’s not like I remember much of the back and forth.
Heck, I’m not even sure if I can name all of the champions, without looking, I think it’s Cejudo, Cejudo, Volkanovski, Khabib, Usman, Adesanya, Jones, and Miocic. For women it’s Zhang, Schevenko, and Nunes. Now there are more champions these days, but I could have named them in UFC, Pride, and Strikeforce back in the day. I think Horiguchi and Bader are Bellator champs but have no clue of anyone else.
It’s just not as much fun anymore. When I think about all the fighters I would love to see on a dream card, none of them are active today. Let’s just put out ten guys that would be super fun: Cro Cop, Wanderlei, Royce, Pudzianowski, Sakuraba, Mark Kerr, Hong Man Choi, Minowaman, Lesnar, and Akebono. Now, I’m going to use a random number generator to make the fights:
Cro Cop vs. Royce Gracie
Hong Man Choi vs. Akebono
Sakuraba vs. Wanderlei Silva
Mark Kerr vs. Brock Lesnar
Pudzianowski vs. Minowaman
Good God, I would not only watch that card with everyone in their primes, I would watch that card today, and consider it the greatest gift of entertainment in this world. The one exception is Kerr/Lesnar which, in their primes, maybe the hypest I could be for any fight in MMA history, and if it were to happen now I would pay money to make sure that doesn’t happen. Also, sorry to not put a women’s match in there, but I did not need to see the man vs. woman dynamic, and the greatest women’s fight has already happened so there is no point to ever try topping it.
I know, it makes me a terrible person to yearn for the freakshow matches, but the heart wants what the heart wants. And it’s not like I could make a better UFC card with current champions facing top contenders in fresh matchups.
155 - Khabib vs. Gaethje
170 - Usman vs. Masvidal
185 - Adesanya vs. Romero
205 - Jones vs. Johnny Walker
HWT - Stipe vs. Curtis Blaydes
Okay, so Khabib/Gaethje would own, obviously, but it’s a significant dropoff from there. I even put in Johnny Walker just for funsies. Hell, I couldn’t do it with classic champions taking on current champions.
155 - BJ Penn vs. Khabib
170 - Matt Hughes vs. Usman
185 - Anderson Silva vs. Adesanya
205 - Chuck Liddell vs. Jones
HWT - Tim Sylvia vs. Miocic
That list of fights isn’t nearly as exciting, and that’s even with me putting in Tim Sylvia in the main event.
I don’t know. Clearly the skills are much better, and it’s not like there aren’t a ton of exciting finishes, but I feel like the UFC has made itself the star, and it’s really hard to care about personalities in today’s world of mixed martial arts. Even though guys got like 30 seconds to explain themselves at early UFC events, you actually saw a personality, and I guess it was wonderful to see how delusional they were to think people would believe that they were 400-0. Now I feel like every fighter is varying degrees of Cowboy Cerrone, kind of stupid, tougher than I could ever imagine to be, and thinking that they are the best in every area but taught well enough to give their opponents respect instead of speaking their truth. Why should I care?
But damn, thinking about that Kerr/Lesnar fight in their primes, now that is something that I would very much care about.
Is Kairi Sane the least important champion in the WWE? The women’s tag titles, which had tremendous potential, have turned into an afterthought at best, and at Royal Rumble, she was nothing more than a sideshow for her partner’s challenge for a title that actually matters.
I mean, there are so many ways to make Kairi Sane important. They could actually feature the women’s tag division, because between the two brands, they have plenty of tag talent to keep it interesting.
And if that’s not an option, Kairi Sane can still be a viable singles star. I mean, why keep trying to make Lacey Evans a thing when she’s green as gooseshit when you could have Kairi Sane out there dropping elbows that would make the Macho Man proud. And it’s not like you need to give her promo time, she’s a goddamned PIRATE PRINCESS! That alone should make her a star.
I don’t know, I guess my grand solution for Kairi Sane is let her wrestle in important matches because she’s awesome. It really is that simple.
Football is finally here, and the first week of the XFL delivered. My notes are below, but there are plenty more that Jonah and I get into the episode so download, subscribe, and give us a 5-star review if you have the extra three seconds.
The defense dominated - Ben Heeney all over the place
Marc Trestman kicking a 23-yard field goal down 17 (Note: I actually messed up on how bad this was, because 17 points is still a two-score game because you can go for 3, so it’s actually even worse than I mentioned on the podcast)
Aaron Murray sucks
FREE QUINTON FLOWERS
Dragons vs. Defenders
I think Seattle is going to struggle with Silvers at quarterback
I know everybody was freaking out about Proehl but only 5 catches on 10 targets.
Will Sutton half a sack and QB hit, is he BACK?
Cardale is DA GAWD
Bradley Sylve got a pick, a guy we were both high on coming into this.
Battlehawks vs. Renegades
Battlehawks defense is for real
I really like Demornay Pierson-El
Ta’amu is more legs than arm
Hal Mumme’s offense concerns me.
Philip Nelson is the least exciting quarterback in the league
Flynn Nagel is their scrappy wide receiver
Roughnecks vs. Wildcats
LaTroy Lewis with two sacks
PJ Walker - MVP? - I’d slow down a bit on that talk
James Butler, Iowa boy, two touchdowns and a big return (after muffing it)
Sammie Coates - two catches on nine targets
Shawn Oakman got a sack.
Nelson Spruce is probably the early favorite for offensive player of the year.
Justin Herbert, widely considered the third best quarterback in this draft is permanently right on the verge of breaking out. He was ready to break out after his sophomore season, and then he put up a pedestrian junior year. Still, he was big and had a strong arm so he was likely a first round pick, but he came back to school in order to have his big college breakout. And it paid off as Oregon won the Rose Bowl on the strength of their...defense. Herbert still didn't break out.
But then he went to the senior bowl, and against simplistic coverages and a total lack of defensive creativity, Herbert had his big breakout and became the Senior Bowl MVP. As great as that accomplishment is, I decided to watch real football games instead of an exhibition in order to make my evaluation. I watched his games against Auburn, Washington, and Utah.
For the most part, I thought Herbert had good patience in the pocket. He also seemed to have a good feel for pressure as in the games I saw, he never seemed surprised by pressure.
Here, he takes his time, looks to the middle, then glances to the left before throwing right and hitting his receiver coming over to the ball.
He's also a guy that, despite being a big guy, can easily throw on the move.
Here, Oregon basically runs a double screen where it is more of a decoy on the left side, and then Herbert shifts his body and throws to the slot receiver on the right for nearly a 15-yard gain.
The easiest thing to enjoy about Herbert is he has very easy velocity on his throws.
Here, he does a nice job of scanning the field and getting the ball to his receiver between two defenders.
Here's another one where he shows very impressive arm strength while under heavy pressure.
Even though he's about to take a hit, he still steps through and delivers a nice ball.
Usually, he shows good mobility, but he did consistently struggle to make plays off schedule.
This is a super weird play as the inside receiver gets held up, so there are two receivers about five feet from each other.
On the following play, poor mechanics leads to an ugly throw.
Despite good blocking around him, he leans way back and doesn't get his legs underneath hi on the throw which leads to him sailing the pass beyond his receiver's grasp.
Here are back-to-back bad throws in the red zone.
Now, the first play, the right tackle gets badly beaten, but even before Herbert had any way of knowing that, he had already dropped eleven yards behind the line of scrimmage which makes things exponentially harder with the shortened field. He has to just throw it up and hope a miracle happens. The second play is just a bad throw behind the wide receiver in double coverage, and he's lucky neither of these was intercepted.
Here is my least favorite completion from Herbert.
3rd and 14 when a first down ices the game, and he throws it seven yards short. I don't know if it was scheme or what, but I just didn't see Herbert pushing the ball down the field. He has plenty of arm strength to do it, but the confidence didn't seem there to actually pull the trigger.
Here is his worst incompletion
Throwing a hail mary eight yards out of the end zone is inexcusable, especially since he was only throwing it from 39 yards away. He could have thrown it anywhere from 39-49 yards. Instead, he threw it 57. That is incredibly bad.
I feel like Herbert is a mixed bag. He has a good arm, he throws some accurate balls, and is athletic. But he does struggle making throws off schedule as he isn't always the best decision maker when his first read isn't there. My biggest issue is that I was just never wowed by him through three games. There were impressive plays here and there, but I was left edging when all I wanted to do was climax. Maybe that was because of how impressed I was with Tua, and I had to watch Herbert after that evaluation. Still, I'm left with a feeling that this guy's ceiling is a middle-of-the-pack quarterback, and reaching a ceiling is never guaranteed. I could see him being a late first rounder, but when it comes to quarterbacks being trucks or trailers, this guy is going to be a trailer who needs to be carried by the other pieces of the team if he's going to guide you to glory in the NFL.
I’m not a big Jeff Hardy guy, but even I admire how this guy has become a legend in the sport of professional wrestling. His latest run has been fine but a bit uninspired and a knee injury last year may have ended the Hardy Boyz run in the WWE.
I’m not sure how Jeff’s contract will work with the injury, but Matt seems to be on his way out, just two years after debuting at WrestleMania a day after having a crazy ladder match against The Young Bucks in Ring of Honor. That return was probably their high point, but Jeff managed another title run before his knee injury and a US Title run in between. The guy is definitely still relevant, but his body has taken some massive abuse so hopefully an easier schedule is in his future.
So what’s the best path to go with Jeff Hardy? Honestly, it’s time for him to take a step back and just be an older guy that can put on good matches. They’ve been doing something similar with Rey Mysterio, and I don’t even know if Hardy needs as much success as Mysterio. He brings big name power and can still put on good matches, especially with the emotional investment people have in his career. Sure, let him beat some lower level guys and maybe the occasional upset to get fans excited, but when it comes to your top talents coming in from NXT, have them get the big win and use it as a catapult into the upper echelon of WWE Superstars.
I know that doesn’t sound like an inspired solution, but I do think it is what’s best for WWE, and giving Hardy a lighter workload is probably best for him as well.
I know opening weekend already happened, but Jonah and I not only broke down our season preview where we predict who will win, who will lose, MVP, Offensive Player of the Year, and Defensive Player of the Year. There is a lot of exciting stuff in this one, but I didn't make many notes, so just download the damn thing and listen to it for yourself.
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