Thats right everybody. The Outsiders Edge is BAAAAAAAAACK in the Saddle again. Screw the correspondents. They all apparently jumped off a cliff and died. SJX is still practicing his Ric Flair like fake retirement, so the OE is a solo venture for now. Lets be honest, you all loved me more than all of the others anyway.

Welcome back dear friends. It has been far too long and I have missed each and every one of you.

Quite the busy summer in terms of the sports world. The World Cup was all-encompassing and long, and it seems far too early to be worrying about another soccer season, but the time is near. My close personal friend Bret Hart is participating in the main event of Summer Slam, UFC has been awesome lately, and NFL is right around the corner. However the EPL season is about to start. I really enjoyed last year’s preview, and I feel like its my constitutional duty to do another one for 2010-2011. Last year I had some highs (predicted Chelsea-Man U at 1,2, saw good things for Everton, disaster for Portsmouth and Hull) and some lows (good call on Liverpool in the Top 3 and West Ham in the top 10). I’ve been consulting the constellations and my magic 8 ball and feel as confident as ever this quiet August night.

The transfer market has been about as exciting as The Outsiders Edge this Summer. Namely, nothing of interest has taken place (Manchester City spending like drunken rednecks who just won the lottery has gotten old fast). However, I would like all of you to check out my recent interview with Baltimore writing legend John Eisenberg. We had a grand discussion about his trip to the 2010 World Cup, the NASL, Texas high school football, and so much more. It was a great show and I encourage, no beg all of you to listen to it.  http://www.blogtalkradio.com/elevationradio/2010/07/15/elevation-radio-with-john-eisenberg

You should also hear the World Cup preview I did with my pal Johnny Moorhead, where I made a complete and utter dumbass of myself. Good job by me. Still waiting for Mexico to make the semifinals. Good times. Johnny is the kicker for the George Mason football team and really, really loves all things New Zealand. I think he may have had a sexual encounter with Karl Urban at some point. (Just Google it if you don’t know who that is)

The Mexican team celebrates making Elevation look like a moron.

Without further ado, lets get on with the preview before I get even more angry and go drive my car into the side of a Mexican restaurant.

Outfield Player of the year: Ryan Giggs

Manager of the year: Owen Coyle

First manager sacked: Chris Hughton

All XI:    Paul Robinson, Ashley Cole, Ryan Nelsen, Gary Cahill, Kolo Toure, Ryan Giggs, Frank Lampard,  Steve Gerrard, Cesc Fabergas, Wayne Rooney, Didier Drogba

Champion’s League winner: Real Madrid

World Player of the Year: Christiano Ronaldo

Christiano Ronaldo will carry Real Madrid on his strapping, tan, toned back.

20- Blackpool

Poor Blackpool. They are going to be one of the worst EPL sides of all time. Lets face it, since the table is organized by alphabetical order before the season begins Blackpool is able to benefit from the B in their name. They are currently in 5th, and that is the highest they will go all season. Charlie Adam can score a goal or two, but this team is so bad winning the Trebble for Blackpool means they were able to get 3 wins all season. Ian Halloway is an exciting manager, but he still falls in comparison to Blackpool’s most famous resident Mr. William Regal. The Tangerines are going to get juiced. Just be happy with the pay day and enjoy the games against teams like Man U and Chelsea. Blackpool would be lucky to survive relegation in the MLS.)

Local lad William Regal reacts to reading Blackpool's roster list.

19- WBA

West Brom are the second member of the “great season if we don’t finish last club.” WBA have a few notable team members including English international Scott Carson. I can’t even say Carson played enough with England to have a cup of coffee. He actually just licked the coffee filter a few times. For some reason Carson started the 2008 qualifying match against Croatia that knocked England out of contention for a spot in the Euros that season. He had a complete howler against Spurs favorite Niko Kranjcar. The only other WBA players of any note are veteran Irish international Steven Reid and New Zealand’s Chris Wood. If your three best players are Scott Carson, veteran Irish international Steven Reid, and New Zealand’s Chris Wood, you’re going to get demoted. The Throstles will get throttled.

18- Newcastle

Drink up Newcastle fans, its going to be a long season. Yes, I believe all 3 of the promoted Championship teams from 2009-2010 will get demoted back to the Championship. I think it will be a positive experience for all three. At least none of the three will experience financial death by strangulation like Portsmouth FC. Portsmouth actually had the gall to go on a Summer tour of the states back in July. I imagine the marketing campaign of “come see the worst financial calamity in the history of professional sports” yielded great ticket sales. But I digress, the addition Sol “I’ve got Soul but I’m not a Soldier” Campbell will not be enough for Newcastle to avoid demotion. Maybe they can get Nicky Butt to un-retire so we can see a reunion of the 2002 England World Cup team that the world has been clamoring for.

17- Wolves

I love me some Big Mick McCarthy. I believe the last Irish World Cup manager will squeeze enough blood from the rock to allow the Wolf Pack to continue to hunt in the EPL in 2011-2012. I enjoy telling tall tales and fables about Big Mick McCarthy. The man went eye to eye and survived a war with Roy Keane. You really think he’ll allow a Newcastle, Blackpool, or WBA to finish higher than Wolves? He is kind of like the angry English cousin of Roger Sterling from Mad Men. I can only imagine the tales those two would share together. My respect for Big Mick McCarthy grew over the World Cup. He was a guest contributor for The Guardian’s World Cup coverage and actually named Matthew Upson to his all XI for the first round of the World Cup. If that isn’t the sign of a man who was drunk for the entire month of June, I don’t know what one is. I like Wolves alot because they are heavy on the Irishman. Kevin Doyle, Andy Keough, Stephen Ward, Stephen Hunt, The Edge, and Kevin Foley are all on the squad among others. I enjoy the first name repetition. Kevin Doyle is actually a hell of a striker. They also have American GK Marcus Hahnemann. He made the trip to South African and played as many games as I did.

16- Wigan Athletic

Wigan Athletic are a hearty little squad that has been able to stick around the EPL by a shoestring since 2005. Roberto Martinez is another manager I really like. He did a great job with Swansea and I really enjoyed his analysis as a member of the 2010 ESPN crew. He did a great job of flying above the bluster of Alexi Lalas and Steve McManaman and the complete ambivalence of Ruud Gullit. I like their team. Paraguayan defending midfielder Antolin Alcaraz  was a handy little signing. He scored a beautiful goal in the World Cup. He joins Wigan’s talented South American contingent that includes Mauro Boselli and Hugo Rodallega. They could probably use 2 or 3 more players to cement their EPLness.

15- West Ham

West Ham were really quite terrible last season. This is the second EPL preview in a row where I completely forgot to include West Ham in my prior list. What can you say about West Ham? They are just a feeder system for the bigger EPL squads. The likes of Rio Ferdinand, Frank Lampard, and Jermaine Defoe have all passed through Upton Park on their way to bigger and better things. The Hammer Academy is always impressive and thriving, but the actual team completely underacheived last year. They have a few notable players including English internationals Matthew Upson, Scott Parker, Carlton Cole, and most famously Rob Green. Rob Green is a great man. He was one of the best players for Team USA in the 2010 World Cup. His disastrous howler led to England’s eventual self destruction and crisis. Hopefully his American teammate Jonathan Spector shares America’s gratitude to Rob Green every single day in the training ground. The Hammers are managed by the Jewish Sven, Avram Grant. I believe this quote from 2008 from current Hammer and fellow Israeli Tal Ben Haim about a previous encounter between Grant and Haim tell you everything you need to know about West Ham’s prospects in 2010:

If I knew Avram Grant was going to be the coach I would have signed for another club. It was Jose who brought me here and no one except he and I know the conversation we had when he tried to sign me the first time a year ago last January. The fact is while Jose was the coach I played most of the games and people who know me know that I would not have come here to be a reserve. I knew nothing good would come for me with Grant as Chelsea coach.”

Capello, don't get mad at me. I wasn't the one who decided to start Rob Green and Matthew Upson.

14- Birmingham City FC

BCFC were able to survive their promotion last season thanks to a rock solid defense and sturdy home record. They really overachieved and defended their way into a 9th place finish. I just think losing the great young Joe Hart at goalkeeper was a huge loss. Man City ended his loan and recalled him to be a part of their 45,874 man squad. They picked up Ben Foster from Man U to replace Hart. I was not overly impressed with Foster’s Man U efforts and have no idea why he keeps getting recalled to the English squad. As President of the American-Irish soccer appreciation society I should also add that BCFC are captained by Stephen Carr. He is the 47th Irishman named Stephen we have mentioned in this preview, and there are still 14 teams left. Lets keep hope alive. BCFC are still decent and will be very tough at home. I just think they lost a little too much this offseason to finish in the top 10 again.

13- Stoke City FC

Stoke fans are stoked for this season. Teams better not play physical against Stoke, or Ryan Shawcross will truck them and potentially end their career. Getting Trinidadian forward Kenwyne Jones was a big addition for Tony Pullis’s side. They need goals and he can help create and score them. I was reading a bit about Stoke and found out they had a player named Sir Stanley Matthews. He was an active player until he was 50 years old. He even played a competitive game at age 70 for Hibernian. Apparently he was childhood friends with Gandalf from Lord of the Rings. He can be viewed as a contemporary to David Beckham who will be 65 years old when he suits up for the Galaxy this Autumn.

12- Sunderland

Sunderland were a bit of a disappointment for me last season. I predicted them to be a team that surprised people. They were doing swimmingly until the beach ball goal last season. I think it was fate. You should all watch this clip of Darren Bent’s goal. The announcers are so ridiculuously in the tank for Sunderland that they completely discount the fact that the soccer ball  HIT A FREAKING BEACH BALL before it went into the net. Sunderland have some good players. Lee Cattermole is a nice defending midfielder. Darren Bent is a top 5 EPL striker. All he does is score goals. Fabio Capello was absolutely moronic to leave him home in favor of Emile Heskey for the World Cup. Emile Heskey is one of the worst soccer players on the planet. He has less scoring prowess than a Special Olympian. I think Danny Welbeck, who is on loan to Sunderland from Man U will be a nice player for them. He looked in fine form during Man United’s summer tour of the states, he just can’t break the deep Man U roster.

11- Fulham

2009-2010 was a great season for Fulham that featured a 9th place EPL finish and a run to the finals of the Europa League. Unfortunately for Fulham, 2010-2011 has to happen. Fulham lost their fantastic manager Roy Hodgson to Liverpool over the Summer. He was replaced by extraordinarily average Mark Hughes who had a gift for snatching draws from the jaws of victory before getting sacked at Man City last season. Fulham have done nothing of note in the transfer market and are expected by most to lose their goalie, the great Australian Mark Schwarzer. That will leave a gaping hole in the back. Fulham will rely heavily on the offensive stylings of English forward Bobby Zamora and American midfielder Clint Dempsey. I like Dempsey but he occasionally has a tendency to fall into lapses where you aren’t completely sure whether he is still a member of the living. I do expect him to have monster games against West Ham this season. Due to the World Cup, he now owns Rob Green so much, he has the right to make Green change his name to Toby.

Rob Green, as Clint Dempsey imagines him.

10- Aston Villa

Aston Villa is in a very similar state of franchise as Fulham. Both are upper mid level clubs that are stuck in place and trying to recover from managerial departures. Fortunately, Fulham had enough of an opportunity to get Mark Hughes as a decent replacement to Roy Hodgson. Aston Villa had no such luck and are stuck in a terrible position after their previous manager Martin O’Neill decided to take his ball and go home 5 days before the seasons. Reports say he was dissatisfied with ownership’s commitment to selling  off Aston Villa’s good players and cutting payroll. Hard to believe that a soccer team owned by the Cleveland Browns ownership group would ever find themselves in a state of crisis. I expect James Milner will be leaving shortly, but Villa do still have a good amount of notable talent in Ashley Young, Gabriel Agbonlahor, Brad Friedel, John Carew, Richard Dunne and Stephen Warnock. (Could I be anymore of an Anglo-Saxon shill?) Young and Agbonlahor should have been on the English national team. They would have brought a bit of pace to the proceedings. Villa will be decent, but I don’t think they have the depth to stick around the top of the table for a 38 week season. Aston Villa also have Emile Heskey. He is the worst soccer player on the entire planet. I have nothing else to say about him. He has the pace of a triceratops trapped in the La Brea Tar Pit.

Emile Heskey plots an attack on the net.

We’ve come quite a long way with the preview. How about a quick musical interlude to allow you to do a bit of a stretch and to grab a cold one from the fridge.

9- Bolton

And we’re back! I think big things are in store for Bolton. Owen Coyle is one of the best manager’s in football. Bolton were very lucky to poach him from Burnley last season. He was doing great things for Burnley, but felt a calling to the Reebok. They made one of the best transfer season moves of the summer by getting Bulgarian midfielder Martin Petrov on a free. Petrov was a very useful player for Man City, but just could not find the pitch enough. I think he will fit in wonderfully for Bolton. They also have several other players I enjoy. Stuart Holden is a great American midfielder. I think he will do good things for Bolton once he recovers from injury and adjusts his game from the MLS to the EPL. Gary Cahill is a great, versatile defender who deserves a shout with the English national team. Lord knows England needs help in the back with the virtual disintegration of John Terry and the continued injury woes of Rio Ferdinand. A Michael Dawson-Gary Cahill duo could be in the future for England. Kevin Davies is one of my favorite strikers in English football. He is an institution at Bolton and well worth a pick up for your fantasy squads. I think all signs point to a great season for Bolton unless Coyle’s Burnley ghosts intervene and the team bus runs over a land mine or something.

Owen Coyle blows a kiss at the legion of Burnley fans chasing him with pitchforks.

8-Blackburn

I believe Blackburn are the team to reach up and grab the Birmingham City mantle of “team that overachieves due to a staunch backline and great goalkeeping.”  His international adventures aside, Paul Robinson is a fantastic domestic goal keeper who was one of the best in the position during the 2009-2010 season. I think the combination of Robinson and a staunch defensive back line led by New Zealand homeboy Ryan Nelsen and the likes of Samba, Gillet, and Salgado will make Blackburn a very difficult side to steal 3 points from. Sam Allardyce is another one of the managers who knows what the hell they are doing. I doubt this Rovers side will bring back memories of Kenny Dalglish and the magical 1994-1995 squad. Shearer and Sutton aren’t walking through that door, but I think this team will defend its way to a top 8 finish.

(I just gave them the kiss of death.)

7- Everton

7 and above is where things reach the coin flip territory. These teams are all strong. They all have weaknesses. It will be a crapshoot.

I’m going to go with Everton to finish 7th. I love their squad. Tim Howard, Jack Rodwell, Stephen Piennar, the soccer ninja Tim Cahill, Saha, Artetta, Baines, Neville, Jagielka, etc. David Moyes is a tremendous manager. However, this team has had too many horrific starts, and terrible injury spells to make a serious top 4 run in recent years. They were fantastic in the second half of 2009/2010 but injuries and a slow start led them too far off the pace. They are healthy right now, but I think the bug will hit them and they won’t have the depth to overcome those issues like the Top 6 will. Much in the vain of Martin Petrov, I believe Jermaine Beckford was a great addition to Everton and will bring scoring up top. He will at least be better than Yakubu.

6- Liverpool

I think this will be another transition year for Liverpool. They are kind of caught in a spin cycle until something can be done about their ownership situation. Hicks and Gillette have been disastrous as owners. I’m just worried about what happens if they get sold to some nameless, faceless international mystery man or corporation. Things could turn out well for them like Man City who hit the jackpot or apocalyptic like Portsmouth who are probably going to be a distant memory in 2 years.I like the addition of Hodgson as manager. I think the team needs a few impact players. Retaining Torres was huge, if he can stay fit. Gerrard will always be Gerrard. I think Kuyt and Macherano will be out the door at some point. Maxi Rodriguez needs to follow them. Pepe Reina is a good goalie, assuming he sobers up following his World Cup high. Liverpool has made some nice acquistions this Summer including Milan Jovanovic, Christian Poulsen and Joe “Lionel Messi” Cole. I think some slight improvement this year, and then a new owner will come and break the bank open.  Cheer up Liverpool, at least Macca still sounds good!

5- Arsenal

Arsenal are a giant team with, with a small team mentality. They are talented and play entertaining soccer, but they tend to guard their wallet as though spending a large amount of money for an impact, good player will spell doom for the entire rest of the world. It was a victory for the Arsenal when they were able to fend off Barcelona’s attempts to basically adopt Cesc Fabergas this offseason. Barcelona engaged in the definition of tampering. For a team that has to take out loans to pay its staff, and already have a loaded midfield, Barcelona were just ridiculous in their behavior. Grow up. If Aresenal has a weakness, it is basically their defense. They need a central defender. And they really, really need a goalie. Manuel Almunia moves in the net about as well as someone named Manuel Aluminum. They have some nice up and coming talent in Jack Wilshire, Kieran Gibbs, and Samir Nasri. Thier placement in the table will be heavily dependent on the health of Robin van Persie, which if you know a bit about the Notorious RVP is never a certain thing.

4- Tottenham

Come on you Spurs! They are my favorite squad. However, I sadly believe that Robbie Keane’s last days are at hand in White Hart Lane. He is the captain of the Irish team, so you just know I have a man crush on him. I think Tottenham will advance to the group stage of the Champions League. They have a first round matchup against a team called the BSC Young Boys. They are based out of Bern. I believe they are managed by Gary Glitter. Making the Champions league group stage will be a big deal for Tottenham. They probably need 2 or 3 more players, but I think they have the depth to do well in the EPL and the Champions League. Ledley King and Michael Dawson from a strong defensive pairing in the middle. Guys like Aaron Lennon, Luka Modric, Gio dos Santos, and Niko Kranjcar can create chaos in the open field. Gomes was one of the best keepers in the EPL last season. Guys like Jermaine Defoe, Peter Crouch, Roman Pavlyuchenko, and hopefully either Craig Bentley or Robbie Keane form the best Strikeforce since Santana and Martel. I’m hopelessly biased, so take everything I say with a grain of salt. Also keep an eye on 20 year old Danny Rose who scored an absolute firecracker of a goal in his only game last season. I expect great things for him in the future domestically and for England. The team is set. Redknapp is back at manager. Hopefully this team of stars has the same chemistry as the cast of The Expendables. Oh my God, how freaking awesome does that movie look? I love me some Sly Stallone, Randy Couture, Steve Austin, Dolph Lundgren, and Mickey Rourke among others.

Tottenham in 2010-2011.

3-Manchester City

Gordan Gekko on Manchester City’s recent transfer market habits:

What can you say about Man City? They are just a walking All Star team up and down their entire roster. From Given and Hart in net to the Nigel de Jong to the Brothers Toure to Adam Johnson to Carlos Tevez to Gareth Barry to Adebayor to Balotelli to Jerome Boateng and David Silva. They are so stacked. They also have way too many players. Teams like Blackburn, Sunderland, Tottenham, Bolton etc. will benefit when the likes of Stephen Ireland, Joeleon Lescott, Roque Santa Cruz, Wayne Bridge, etc. all get dispersed to other teams. EPL teams can only carry 25 men on their active roster, and Man City have nearly half that. Administrative issues aside, they are loaded and I think they will continue to gel nicely as the season roars on. Roberto Mancini will be under a great deal of pressure to get this team moving int he right direction. He might get sacked, but I think their talent will rise and they will be playing Champions league football in 2011-2012.

I had the opportunity to attend a friendly exhibition between Man City- and Inter in Baltimore back in July. It was a fun experience among a small crowd in M&T Bank Stadium. The pre game tailgate with my pals Johnny and Wank was fun after Wank and I walked the entire circumfrence of the stadium trying to find the right parking lot. I recently purchased an Irish National Team goalkeeper’s range. I brought it with me because Shay Given was playing for Man City and how often is the Irish goalkeeper going to be playing a game an hour away from my house? However, it was also quite warm and humid so I never actually wore the jersey. I just carried it the whole time and wore my cut off sleeve shirt the entire time. I felt a bit like Larry the Cable Guy. Man City weren’t quite able to Git ‘er done and got stomped 3-0. They played most of the game with 10 men after Viera was sent off. It was more an acrimony than a friendly. Most of the guys in for Man City like Ireland and SWP will probably get loaned or sold off anyway, so you couldn’t get a real sense of the club. Like usual Joeleon Lescott played like hell. Everton should get arrested for highway robbery because of that deal. My God they owned Man City there.

2-Chelsea

This was the toughest call for me. Chelsea are the defending champions by 1 point from 2009-2010. They return most of their major stars. Joe Cole, Ballack, Deco, and Carvalho are all gone. I think they can live without most of those guys except for Carvalho. Alex and John Terry ahve to step up their play for 2010-2011. This has just been a horrible summer for JT. Starting with the sex scandal involing Wayne Bridge, the failed World Cup mutiny against Fabio Capello, and his overall poor play. I don’t know if he has lost a step or his head is in the gutter, but me must snap out of it. However, I tend to think he is one of the most oblivious individuals in the history of the world, so good luck with that. Otherwise they are still deep. Drogba will be Drogba. Frank Lampard always dominates in the EPL. The return of Essien will be huge. Ashley Cole seems to be sticking around. He is the best English player in the entire world. Petr Cech wears a neat hat. Its going to be a very close race again, but I think Chelsea will overcome their age issues to finish near the very top of the table again. I just think they will get nipped by Man U.

Tool.

1- Manchester United

The Red Devils are going back to the top of the mountain in 2010-2011. People like to make hay over how old the likes of Ryan Giggs, Edwin Van der Sar, Gary Neville, and Paul Scholes are but they can still play a great game of soccer. I think Wayne Rooney will bounce back from his summer of discontent. Unlike Capello, Alex Ferguson knows how to put The Roon in positions where he can succeed and put the ball in the back of the net. Javier Hernandez was a great signing and I think he and Macheda will play a big role up top for Man U this season. If they can get 7 or  goals out of those two kids it will be golden. Rio Ferdinand is always injured, but Johnny Evans is a very capable backup. I watched quite a few of Man U’s summer games in the United States and Ryan Giggs was awesome. He hasn’t slowed down at all and still places a pass better than anyone in world football. They have the best football manager in the world. The team is relatively healthy and may ever snag a Mezut Ozil or someone like that before the transfer window is closed. However, I think the team is still loaded, deep, and ready to take names this season.

2010-2011 will bring Red Dead Redemption to Old Trafford.

Man U are about to play a little Redemption Song.

Here is a link to John’s Amazon page. All his books are 4 stars and higher. He has written about horse racing, Baltimore, Dallas football, and the NFL.
http://www.amazon.com/John-Eisenberg/e/B00…t_athr_dp_pel_1

We will be discussing the World Cup which John just attended for 2 weeks, Baltimore sports, his time covering Dallas High school football, his new book about Vince Lombardi, current projects and so much more.

I will also be covering the latest in UFC, World Cup, the LeDecision, and more.

Your calls are requested at 646-716-5746. You’re always welcome.

Elevation Radio with John Eisenberg

You know you do

Coach’s answers in bold. Be sure to visit his website

The Dragon Slayer is a man of virtue and posseses the warrior spirit.

JPK- Hello Coach, I appreciate you taking the timeout to answer a few of my questions. First of all, prior to your involvement in Survivor: Tocantins and Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains did you undergo any sort of training regimen to prepare yourself physically or mentally for your time in the game?

CBW- The first time I went to Tocantins I worked out, but all in the wrong way. I was doing heavy weights and an hour of cardio. WRONG. Worst thing you can do. Survivor is all about sprint spring jackass all over the place. So the second time (whats the saying? First time shame on you, second time shame on me) I trained like a warrior. I knew what to expect. I worked out three times a day, sprinted on the sand, weights, swimming, and then I would sit down exhausted and work out a puzzle. That’s the key.

JPK-How did you become a part of the Survivor franchise? Did you decide to apply and audition for the show on your own, or did family or a group of friends get the word out about you?

CBW-I sent in a tape with an application. My coaching staff was asking me to apply for a show, the soccer players wanted me to go on the bachelor, and one thing let to another and voilla

JPK-Did you find it more challenging to play the game in Survivor: Tocantins where all the contestants were total strangers or in Heroes vs. Villains where many of the contestants already had relationships with each other coming into the game?

CBW- Tocantins was by far better because we all had a fair shot. It was a lot of getting to know people and fencing mentally every day to see who you wanted to go with. On an all stars the fate of some are decided before they even walk on the first challenge.

JPK- During this past season, you like many others were extremely critical of Russell. Now that you have had the chance to look back and see the way he played the game from a different perspective, has your opinion of Russell as a person and as a competitor changed at all?

CBW-I respect all competitors and if you read my interviews you will see that I have lightened up in terms of other people and my opinion of them

Good to see that Coach and the Evil One are back on the same page

JPK- I agreed with your vote of Parvati as champion for Heroes vs. Villains. Do you think it is fair that Sandra won solely because she was not Russell or Parvati?

CBW-Life is not fair. Survivor, without question, is atrociously not fair. I think that the strongest should win, and the most noble, but that just doesn’t happen sometimes. Its frustrating but you gotta learn to deal with it

JPK-It seemed like in the Survivor: Tocantins season you spent a great deal of time sharing your tremendous survival experiences, such as the awesome getting captured by pygmies story. Did you make a conscientious decision not to be as forthcoming about your past experience in the Heroes vs. Villains season or were they mostly edited out?‘

CBW-I told a story every single night. I think if I had gone farther they would have shown them more. I love telling stories they are part of what makes me me.

JPK-You seem like a very spiritual and philosophical person. Are there any particular authors or works of literature that were particularly important in your philosophical development?

CBW-Shantaram is the best book I have ever read. A Voyage Beyond Reason isn’t a slouch either I love all philosophers, because there is something that you can learn from each teacher if you just open your ears to hear, your mind to mold, and your body to breathe it in (I just made that up, literally in five seconds)

JPK-Are there any particular lessons you learned on Survivor that have changed your approach to soccer coaching or working with symphonies?

CBW-Be true to your self no matter what

Walk the way of the noble warrior even when everyone around you does not

Don’t take yourself so seriously

You can admit wrongs and defeat

Be more humble

JPK-In your work as a Maestro with the Susanville Symphony, I’m assuming that you primarily work in the work with the classical music medium, however on the Survivor Ponderosa show, we saw you Courtney and J.T. delve more into the rock and roll/ electronic dance music side of things, coming off that experience do you expect to spend more time creating and performing rock music?

CBW-I would love for a producer to come along right now and say lets record your band. I like creating, whether it is the character of the dragonslayer or the classical music of a symphony or the rock and roll of a band.

JPK-Are there any coaches in soccer, or any other sport, that influence your philosophical and day to day style of coaching?

CBW-No. I look to people outside of soccer to be my mentors because although some people say soccer is life, life is not soccer and you must branch out of your own world to truly see.

JPK-Since you are a collegiate soccer coach, do you follow the professional game at all, and do you have any prediction on who will win the 2010 World Cup?

CBW-Look for Ivory Coast to make a strong showing. I think that England might look good, and if Argentina coach gets it together than maybe we will see something good from them too.

Coach + Drogba could equal World Cup gold for the Ivory Coast.

JPK-Coach, now that Survivor Heroes vs. Villains has wrapped up, are you exploring any other potential acting or reality television roles for the future? America needs more Ben Wade.

CBW-I just wrapped up filming a movie called Isabel, filmed by the Ketola brothers in Maine. I have a supporting role there. I am also staring in the movie 180 www.180film.com that is filmed this summer. Both movies will be out later this year or early next year. Another door is opened and Im kickin it in.

JPK-Now finally Coach, do you have any future plans to head back down to South America and kick a little Amazonian pygmy ass?  I think it’s time you got a little pay back.

CBW-HAHA That’s a good one. I have always wanted to go back and kick some ass down there but the time for retribution has passed. I am now more the peaceful warrior than the vengeful ahole.

Don't piss off the half pint pygmy.

I want you to know that I will be doing a radio show this Wednesday night at 10PM EST with my buddy Johnny Moorhead who is a soccer expert. Listen to us here. We really want your calls.  We will break down all the groups, and share the teams, players, coaches that you must look out for during the tournament. I promise no gratuitous Diego Maradona cocaine jokes. Besides our World Cup chat, I will be revealing the contents of my exclusive e-mail interview with the great Coach Ben Wade from Survivor. Coach was my favorite contestant from the last season on Survivor. He wasn’t able to make the radio show, but he was kind enough to take part in an e-mail interview with me. The Dragonslayer was in fine form and it will be quite entertaining.

Coach: Part Man, Part Myth, Part Dragon Slayer

I will reveal my final 4 for the tournament which includes one CRAZY, IDTIOTIC, PSYCHO surprise.
I’ll be back in a few days with the Coach interview, NHL and NBA thoughts, and World Cup.

It was a solid show. I’m not going to sit here and say that it will be forever on the consciousnesses of the wrestling fan’s mind like Mania X-7 or something ridiculous like that, but it was an entertaining way to spend 4 hours.

Here is a run down of the card:

Yoshi Tatsu won a 26 man dark match battle royale. Nobody except the live people saw it, so I can’t really comment. Seeing as how he hasn’t been on Raw the last two weeks since winning, it clearly was a career changing moment. He is a fine man.

The show began with a long ass video package talking about how special WrestleMania is. Thank you WWE. I’m already going to be sitting in a chair for 4 hours watching the damn show, I don’t need to be reminded about its specialness.

Miz and The Big Show defeated R-Truth and John Morrison in a 3 minute nothing match that would have been better at a house show in Piscataway, New Jersey then the biggest wrestling show of the year. There was nothing special here. It ended with the usual “Big Show punching a guy in the face while the refs were turned away” finish we have seen 4356 times the past 10 months on Raw and Smackdown.

"What's Up?" Not your popularity among fans.

The WWE tag team situation really sucks right now. I don’t want to sound like Rick Pitino but, “The Steiner Brothers aren’t walking through that door. The Hart Foundation isn’t walking through that door. The Rockers aren’t walking through that door.”
Can The Mexicools at least walk through that door?

After that amazing exhibition in professional grappling we were greeted by the lightly anticipated three way between Ted DiBiase, Cody Rhodes, and Randy Orton. That sounded a little gay. However to be honest, DiBiase and Rhodes would probably be more recognizable to the general public if they had spent the last two years in gay porn than wrestling. Lets just say there is probably alot of homosexual men and frustrated housewives who would have rather seen those two “get swallowed by The Viper” than the actual match.

Moving on.

This match had a horrific build in the lead up to Mania. Rhodes and DiBiase should have formed a tag team called Mind and Matter. Nobody pays much mind to Cody Rhodes, and Ted DiBiase Jr. doesn’t matter at all. In the weeks leading up to Mania Orton was presented as a half face/ half heel which = zero reaction. The other two guys have been jobbers throughout their entire alliance with Orton and this feud did nothing to change that perception.

It was actually a pretty good match. Orton won with an RKO on DiBiase after punting Rhodes in the head. The action was pretty swift, and the people were really into Orton as a babyface. I have no idea why because the pre Mania Raw crowds could have cared less about him, but the Mania hardcores were completely into him as a face. The crowd stood up when he was about to hit the drapping double DDT on the other two guys like he was Hulk Hogan hulking up for the Atomic Leg Drop.

Randy Orton's reaction to reading the gay porn soliloquy.

Up next was MITB. It was a solid match, but did not feature the suicidal hilarity of most years. I imagine this was a result of the new emphasis on wrestlers’ health due to Linda’s stupid Senate campaign. Having someone like Shelton Benjamin getting injured from falling from a 10 foot ladder through an announce table onto Matt Hardy would probably look bad.

There really wasn’t anything too memorable here except for Kofi Kingston creating a pair of stilts from a broken ladder. That was pretty creative, but wasn’t exactly death defying or anything. There were 10 men here. Thinking back to this match a few weeks later, I have no memory of 8 of them.
Jack Swagger won after taking a hilariously long amount of time to unhook the briefcase from hanging hook. Time just completely stood still during this moment. It took Swagger so goddamn long to take the briefcase down, Stephen Hawking could have made a run in here. Swagger is now the champion on Smackdown. He has already jobbed twice to Randy Orton since winning MITB. I expect that to be the norm of his glorious title reign.

In the next match HHH defeated Sheamus clean in the middle of the ring with a Pedigree. I don’t really want to talk about this match because the result sickens me, but Hunter looked like he had been sleeping in a tanning bed for 9 straight days coming into this match. I wish he had just stayed in it.

Up next Rey Mysterio Jr. defeated CM Punk in a really good 6 minute match. This bout would have been better if they took away the stupid 5 minute pre-match video package and just given the guys more time in the ring. Rey came out in his stupid Mania super hero costume. He was dressed like one of the Na’Vi from Avatar. Yes, because I would definitely wear ring gear that pays homage to the Na’Vi tribe while engaged in a fight defending the blood honor of my family against a hated rival. I love CM Punk’s Straight Edge Society. That group has 5 members if you include Luke Gallows, Serena, CM Punk and the two bald men attached to Serena’ chest.

I didn’t really understand why Rey won this match. I would have loved to see him have to be a memmer of the Straight Edge Society. Plus, they are continuing the feud. Booking 101 says you have the heel win the initial matchup of a long feud so that the fans will pay to see the face get his revenge. Based on the results of the Cena, HHH, and Rey Jr. matches, Booking 101 is no longer a part of the WWE cirriculum.

Following Punk-Rey we go to witness a strange beat down 13 years in the making. With the exception of Shawn vs. Taker, Bret-Vince was my most anticipated match going into WrestleMania. It was just surreal seeing Bret out there on Raw the last few months and competing at WrestleMania after some of the comments he gave on my show back in January of 2009. Check out www.blogtalkradio.com/elevationradio to hear my interview with The Hitman.

Coming into this match, I knew that both men were going to be severely limited physically. Vince is now 64 years old, suffers from back pain and was never a great ring technician to begin with. He has had alot of good street fights through the years, but age has to be catching up with him. Bret is 52 years old, coming off a stroke, severe concussions that ended his active career, and a right knee replacement. That being said, both men actually did very well performing the physical elements of the match. Vince did a great job of selling and taking a massive beating, while Bret looked very good throwing on the sharpshooter, and hitting elbow drops, and some of the other basic offensive things he used to do during the early days. It was good seeing Bret get out there and receive a little peace and closure in his life through this match and his recent reconcilation with Shawn Michaels, however the match itself was put together in such a strange, backwards way.

Bret came to the ring first after a massive pop. Vince then came out and informed Bret that the match was now a lumberjack match and it would have a special referee. Vince than revelaed that the lumberjacks were all of Bret’s brothers, sisters, and member of the Hart Dynasty. The special referee was Bruce Hart who had been doing a stellar impression of Bernie Lomax from “Weekend at Bernie’s” throughout the previous night’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony and the beginning stages of this match. I think the aviator sunglasses were welded onto his face. This was a pretty interesting surprise, but it was kind of dumb when a minute later Bret revealed that actually, he had met with the Hart Family beforehand and that The Hart Family was actually on his side and had  created a unified front against Vince.

Alright, I understand pulling a fast one on Vince, but shouldn’t this surprise had been revelaed during the course of the match instead of beforehand? Just too much going on at once. So of course the Harts than turned on Vince and created what was basically a 1 vs 15 handicap match. I’ll be honest, it is kind of hard to cheer for a 64 year old heel getting beaten down by an entire family. This almost became a retirement match for Vince when he took a brutal bump from an off the rope Hart Attack administered by Tyson Kidd and Harry Boy Smith. After getting beaten on by the family for awhile, Vince then hid under the ring and pulled out a tool of some type and caused the Hart Family to back away like he was holding a thermal detonator like Leia when she was dressed as a bounty hunter in Return of the Jedi.

Vince then hopped in the ring and proceeded to get beaten down for a very, very, veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery long time by Bret. The beating included all sorts of elbows and kicks, and a crowbar. The worst part was when Bret hit Vince close to 20 times with a single chair. If it was any other performer taking a beatdown like this, they would be over to a Rock like level as a babyface, but this was Bret v. Vince, so the people weren’t going to start booing The Hitman and cheering Vince. Finally, after a ton of chair shots and teases that resulted in kicks to the man area Bret finally clamped down the Sharpshooter and we got the moment we had all been waiting for. Vince tapped out and The Harts all had a group hug. I wanted to give Vince a hug after this match. It was just booked so backwards and the psychology sucked. People want to see the face get beaten on forever and then have the heel get beaten in the end. They’d rather not see a 15 minute face family on heel beat down. Apparently Vince wants to retire the Mr. McMahon character so he wanted to go out by getting the holy hell beaten out of him. Whatever. People just wanted to see Bret hit the Sharpshooter, not the Vince McMahon vanity project. That was just strange to watch. Its good to see Bret is back in good health, but that was just weird.

I like Bret Hart's jeans in this picture.

Chris Jericho then defeated Edge in a very good singles match. Jericho did a fantastic job of working over Edge’s torn achilles. This match reminded me of alot of the older matches I saw on my Bret Hart DVD this week. I was watching some great singles matches from Bret against the likes of Ted DiBiase and Ricky Steamboat. I love watching the old time, slower paced style of one guy targeting the other’s specific body part and doing everything possible to work over that particular area. It gives the match a great story and makes every move feel important and logical. This is unlike today where most matches are clearly heavily scripted out and are basically Move A followed by Move B followed by Move C followed by the finisher. My favotie spot in this match was when Jericho worked over the achilles by putting Edge into a half Boston crab. Y2J got the victory after hitting Edge with the title followed by a kickout. The finish really caught me off guard. I guess I am just used to the typical WWE Mania finishes of the face kicking out of the heel’s finishing move and getting the victory. However, unpredictability can be good if done correctly. A very deliberate, retro early 90s WWE match. I’ll take a well worked story over a spot fest 8 days a week,

Following Edge-Jericho there was a horrific multi-woman tag team match. It was horrific. It is amazing how bad the female workers in TNA and WWE are at wrestling. They all look hot and a few are decent here or there, but the total divas’s division is filler. Gone are the days of Trish vs. Lita.
The final match for this review is Batista vs. John Cena. The two big men actually had a much better match than I was expecting. It was a little clunky in points, but had a nice mixture of athleticism and strength. The finish came when Cena was able to reverse a Batista bomb into a STF which caused Big Dave to tap out. Batista and Cena aren’t quite Kurt Angle-like ring technicians, but they are really good at all of their signature moves. All of their major moves are also super over so the crowd is always into their finishes. The five knuckle shuffle into a spine buster was another sequence of this match that I enjoyed. In a perfect world, Dave would have won this match. He has been the best heel in the company since turning last year. His promos and outfits have all been fantastic. The build for this match was tremendous, and the two giants  definitely lived up to the hype.

Batista may have lost to John Cena, but he is forever a bad ass.

You can read my review for Shawn-Taker in the entry that is just below this one.

Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker put on a match for the ages at WrestleMania 26 that was pretty damn close, if not better than the all time classic the two legends threw down at Mania 25. They are the two best in-ring story tellers alive today. I suppose Kurt Angle also belongs in the conversation, but he just doesn’t have the canvas you need to create a true masterpiece in the rinky-dink confines of TNA. From now on when friends or family bug you about why you follow pro wrestling, this is the match you must show them. The match last night had so many amazing moments. My favorite sport was the hellacious moonsault when Michaels (45 by the way) launched himself off the ropes into the air and landed onto a prone Undertaker who was stretched out on the announcer’s table. The impact of the crash destroyed the table and caused me to nearly take a bump on my basement floor because I was so blown away. Another great, little simpler moment, was when Shawn was able to reverse the Undertaker’s Hell’s Gate gogoplata submission into a pinning predicament. I actually thought there was a chance the match was going to end on that quick little reversal.

If this is really the end of Shawn Michaels' career, wrestling is going to suck.

Another thing that made this match feel so “big” was the stipulation of streak v. career. You actually felt like something was on the line, unlike most years where The Undertaker winning at WrestleMania feels like a mere formality. Please, did you really think the likes of Mark Henry, Ric Flair, Edge, Batista, The Big Show and A-Train actually had a chance in hell of winning? I actually predicted that Shawn would win going into the show. I thought the combination of everyone in the world knowing Taker was probably going to win plus it would create a natural storyline for Taker-Shawn III at WrestleMania 27. This little bit of uncertainty made all the near falls seems really important, because there was a little voice in the back of my mind saying “This Sweet Chin Music might actually be it.” But it was not to be. The match ended in a great sequence where Taker hit a tombstone pile driver that everybody thought was the end of the match. However, Shawn kicked out and The Undertaker said “What the hell do I have to do?” He then stood up and lowered the straps on his ring gear and looked ahead with an empty look in his eyes and implored Michaels to stay down. You could tell he wanted him to stay down. However, Shawn used the Undertaker almost like a railing and grabbed onto his chest and hoisted himself up while trying to keep his balance. Shawn than shocked Taker by doing the deadman’s throat slash gesture and smacking Taker right in the face. This enraged The Undertaker and led to him hitting Shawn witha  jumping tombstone. 1, 2, 3 bell rings, match over. It was amazing. The two men embraced after the match and Shawn Michaels went away taking in the adoration of the fans with a relieved look on his as he entered the next phase of his life.

I expect we will be seeing the steely glaze of The Undertaker at WrestleMania for years to come.

Its amazing the performance these two athletes were able to give despite all the physical issues plaguing them. The Undertaker must be in terrible pain since he is dealing with constant hip and knee pain. He has had several hip operations in the past few years and will probably get a full replacement like Konnan sometime soon. Shawn missed 4 years of his career due to severe back problems and also has to be hurting in his knees and legs. The Undertaker did a masterful job of selling a bum knee after coming down awkwardly on it while completing his famous “Old School” rope walk maneuver. Hell, for a few minutes I thought he had actually severely injured it until Michaels started going after it as much as he did. It was still a great performance by The Undertaker. Who knows, maybe there was some reality in all that limping? The combination of grit, craziness, excitement, mastery, fear, desire, and uniqueness made Shawn-Taker II one of the greatest matches to ever come down the pro wrestling pike. Its scary to think about a WWE without either of these performers. Where are our great matches going to come from? What performers are going to be able to draw out such an emotional response from crowds in arenas and at home? Will there ever be a match this good in the WWE again? I don’t know. Time is the only way to find out, but right now all we can do is sit back and thank The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels for laying it all on the line one more time. If this is truly Shawn Michaels’ last match, (Its wrestling, people) thank you for a magnificent career. From your early work with the likes Marty Jannetty, Bret Hart, and Razor Ramon to the modern stuff with Kurt Angle, HHH, Chris Jericho, John Cena, Ric Flair, and The Undertaker, you have blazed a trail that will be unmatched for decades to come. Your Mania matches with Flair, Razor Ramon, Chris Jericho, HHH and Benoit, Hart, Angle, and the two with Undertaker will be remembered until the end of time. Its been a hell of a ride.

Thank you for everything Mark Callaway and Michael Hickenbottom. The Dead Man and The Sexy Boy have created more memories and kicked more ass, and entertained more fans than almost anybody in this industry.

You two are the masters.

Shawn Michaels: Forever Awesome.

Thanks for stopping by everybody. I will offer my thoughts on the rest of the WrestleMania 26 card later this week. Come back to hear my thoughts on Vince-Bret, Batista-Cena, Edge-Y2J and everything else that happened in the biggest sporting event of the year.

The Predator is a great American.

March 2, 2010
Host: Elevation
Guest: Don “The Predator” Frye

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/elevationradio/2010/03/02/elevation-radio-with-don-frye

Don’s website: www.donfrye.com

Elevation Radio was proud to be joined by Don Frye, the rambunctious Charles Barkley of MMA last Tuesday. The Predator was in amazing form and shared many interesting tales, opinions, and memories from his legendary pro wrestling and MMA careers. Don offered his thoughts on a variety of topics including his long time friendship with Dan Severn, being a college wrestling teammate of Randy Couture, taking the MMA world by storm when he won the tournament at UFC 8 in a combined time of just over three minutes, how retirement is treating him, acting in movies like Public Enemies and Miami Vice, thoughts on forming a reality show with Gary Busey, his legendary mustache and so much more.

Here are a few highlights:

Don’s memory of facing WWE Hall of Famer Antonio Inoki in his retirement match before 75,000 people at the Tokyo Dome and the crazy aftermath:

“They had Muhammad Ali show up and light the torch like the ’96 Olympics in Atlanta, it was a great celebration to be a part of….after someone’s career of thirty years, who was the top athlete in the nation (Inoki), you’re supposed to give him you know a 30, 45, 60 minute retirement match, something to say goodbye to the to the crowd…about two minutes into the match I broke his ribs. You know, two or three ribs, hell 30 year career, ended in 4 minutes. So I ruined that right away. I thought he was going to have the Yakuza wipe me out you know, so I was telling my wife goodbye. We made it out and got to the airport, we were boarding got on the airplane, you know, and snapped my belt, let out a big sigh and grabbed my wife’s hand, petted her in the hand, and then I felt a tap on my shoulder, and I look up and the stewardess says ‘There’s a phone call for you outside.’ And I went ‘s***’, so I walked outside to pick up the phone and it was Inoki. He says ‘Hey, I wanted to thank you for the match.’ I felt that ‘oh man, I’m going to die’, but that’s how much power that guy had. He stopped the whole international airport to make a phone call. “

The Predator on the difficulties of being in a faction with Ken Shamrock in New Japan Pro Wrestling:

“You know Ken and I, they put us together as kind of a gang, you know, where we would be a tag team, a disgruntled tag team, and you know have more hate towards each other than our opponents, and that would prevent us from winning and we would eventually after the match get into a fight, and that was the whole storyline. That’s what happened. Hell, they (NJPW) called me up and said ‘Do you want to do the job?’ I said ‘why?’ ‘ Well, Ken Shamrock doesn’t want to do the job, (Keiji) Mutoh doesn’t want to do the job, the other guy doesn’t want to do the job, and now you don’t want to do the job. I said ‘Hell, I don’t give a s***, if somebody’s gotta do it, I’ll do it. That’s why I ended up doing the job and that kind of wound up biting me in the ass because the last 5 or 6 matches I did over there in Japan, they had me jobbing out. You can understand, its hard to decide who is going to do the job and who is going to go over, but in the fan’s mind they want somebody strong. The biggest mark is in the locker room in pro wrestling. Generally the person who runs around saying that is the biggest mark, because they’re trying to get everybody else to go their way.”

Frye’s memories about the time he and the WWF had a meeting regarding the Predator joining the promotion:

“Back in ’97 when I was fortunate enough to train Scott Ferrozzo for his fights, Scott and I had a contact with WWE. We went up there together, interviewed together, and apparently they didn’t like our attitudes you know. Scott was a used car salesman, and he walked in there with a used car salesman attitude you know, and I was pretty full of myself at the time. Those boys (The WWE), they don’t want somebody coming in there with their own idea, they want someone who is going to rollover and do what they tell them to do…….they keep everyone the same. The cookie cutter formula. That way they keep the son-in-law(HHH) on top.

Visit www.blogtalkradio.com/elevationradio to hear way more from Don including his memories of his legendary fight from PRIDE 21 with Yoshihiro Takayama, the potential creation of a Masters Division for older MMA legends, dealing with dishonest MMA promoters and much more.

Also check out John’s interview with the likes of Bret Hart, JJ Dillon, Dan Severn, Frank Shamrock, Vince Papale, Cullen Jones, Ivan Koloff and more!

Fresh off the greatest all around show in Elevation Radio history with Jamaican bobsled legend Devon Harris, I will be joined Tuesday March 2 by UFC and PRIDE legend Don Frye.

The recently retired Frye was the winner of the tournaments at UFC 8, UFC 10, and Ultimate Ultimate 96. He also had a storied career in Japan, including an illustrious run with PRIDE.

He holds career victories over:

Ken Shamrock
Tank Abbott
Gilbert Yvel
Gary Goodridge and many more.

His legendary fight with Yoshihiro Takayama is regarded by many MMA fans as the most exciting of all time.

Frye-Takayama slugfest

He is also a Japanese pro wrestling legend. He was the last opponent of Antonio Inoki. The match had an attendance of 70,000 people.

He was a college amateur wrestling teammate with Randy Couture.

Besides fighting, he is involved with acting and has made appearances in Public Enemies, the Miami Vice movie, and Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Also Don Frye is a modern day John Wayne. He is a complete nut just like his close friend Dan Severn and will not be afraid to express his political views, thoughts on being a badass and much more.

Check it out at: www.blogtalkradio.com/elevationradio

Don Frye: The greatest American of all time.

————-

Included on this jam packed show:

-My interview with Jamaican bobsled legend Devon Harris. It was a wide ranging interview, and we covered a large variety of topics including what the Olympic scene is like live in Whistler, his bobsled memories, his background, plus thoughts on Usain Bolt, Cool Runnings,  public speaking, and being an author.

People have really loved this interview and it makes for a great listen during the Winter Olympic season. This show should win the definitive bobsledding interview award for 2010. For more on Devon visit www.devonharris.com

-My phone call with The Ed where we yell at each other for 15 minutes about UFC, Randall Cunningham, Mike Tyson, and a variety of other topics.

-The call with my young old cousin Brendan. Maybe the best part of the show. I offered my life coach tips on his education, attitude, work ethic, video games and so much more. This was just surreal and hysterical.

- and my talk with my dad as he enjoyed creating dead air in the beginning of the interview and shared his thoughts on Brian Westbrook getting cut from The Eagles, live curling play by play and much more.

YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.

Elevation Radio with Devon Harris.

Devon joined me live from Whistler to provide one of the great interviews in Elevation Radio history.

First off I want to congratulate the New Orleans Saints and the people in the Crescent City for their amazing Super Bowl victory over the Indianapolis Colts at Super Bowl 44 in Miami. It is a hell of an achievement for their city and the franchise.

Enjoy some U2:

I have to say that I have really been enjoying the Winter Olympics so far. I really like the pace of the Winter games compared to the Summer because it gives you a chance to absorb all the action and you don’t feel completely overwhelmed knowing there are 45 other concurrently taking place on 45 different channels. It allows you to get a better understanding of the narrative and just enjoy what is happening.

Also the events have been awesome and full of drama. The men’s and women’s mogul events were extremely captivating to watch and came down to the very end. Americans won three medals in those two events and the tension just kept building and building after every run, especially with all the crashes.

Who will ever forget the Korean pileup that allowed Apolo Ohno and JR Celski to win silver and bronze in short track speed skating and wiped away the chance for a South Korean sweep?

Apolo Ohno and JR Celski celebrate the fact Asians lived up to their reputations as poor navigators.

Then you throw in the excitement and precision of luge plus all the drama surrounding the pre-event death of the Georgian and that made for an exciting event as well. Also, you will never forget the excitement of the end to the men’s Nordic Combined. I was stunned to see Americans finish 2nd and 4th. I thought for sure that was one of those events that only Norwegians and Russians would ever win.

Of course you do have to unfortunately deal with hours upon hour upon hours of figure skating. I appreciate the athleticism, will, and determination of those competitors, but I just can’t get into it. The music bores me and the scoring system is far too indecipherable to the common man.

The snowboard cross events have been pretty mixed. Seth Wescott winning the gold medal was very neat to see, but your heart can’t help but go out to Lindsey Jacobellis. She spent the last four years hearing every single day about how she made a fool of herself when she hotdogged away a medal in the 2006 games. She had a one shot deal at redemption and saw it all go to hell when she was DQ’d after veering off course and clipping a sign following a poor landing. Now she has to live with all this again. Snowboarders have a casual attitude about their sport and say that snowboarding is more about being stylish and having fun than metallic achievements. However, regardless of the talk you know Jacobellis has to be feeling a lot of pain right now. This was her moment, but fate had other plans. Life can be a bitch sometimes. Screw that. I’m going to call it right now. The blonde bombshell is going to win gold in Sochi Russia for the 2014 games. Mark it down.

Come on Lindsey. Make me look like an Oracle in 2014. And sleep with me.

My final Olympic note is that you must tune into Elevation Radio on Tuesday Feb. 23rd at 4:30 EST/ 1:30 PST when I will be joined live from Whistler Canada by Olympic hero Devon Harris. You may not recognize the name Devon Harris right off the bat, but you will.

Devon Harris was one of the leaders of the original Jamaican bobsled team that competed in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. Their story was the real life influence behind the movie Cool Runnings. Thats right baby, one of the main spirits behind the movie Cool Runnings will be joining me on Elevation Radio
to discuss his books, motivational speaking career, Cool Runnings,  the current games, and his Olympic memories and experiences as a member of the Jamaican bobsled teams.

Besides the 1988 “Cool Runnings” games, Devon later represented Jamaica in the 1992  Albertville and the 1998 Nagano games. He took part in two-man bobsled teams at those competitions.

It should be an awesome interview. Hopefully Devon can make me a little cooler just by talking to him.

Tune in at: www.blogtalkradio.com/elevationradio

Edge: The Master of Mental Chess.

#18 Edge

WWE (1998- Present)

4 Time WWE Champion

5 Time World Heavyweight Champion

12 Time World Tag Team Champion

2005 MITB Winner

2010 Royal Rumble Winner
The placement of Edge was one of the toughest decisions I had to make with the Best 20 countdown. I crafted my list together about a week before Edge made his shocking return to win the 2010 Royal Rumble, and I have been weighing what to do with him ever since. I decided to bump him up one spot over RVD as  reward for his perseverance.

The Rated R Superstar has been one of the WWE’s most consistent performers for the past decade. Edge is the second best talker in the WWE behind only Vince McMahon. He is so fantastic on the microphone and is naturally gifted as a heel performer. He has proven his versatility as a singles champion and a tag team champion. His most notable tag run of course came with Christian, but he also had entertaining championship reigns with Chris Benoit, Hulk Hogan, Rey Mysterio, and Randy Orton (as part of Rated-RKO). Nobody will ever forget the three-way Mania match between Edge and Christian, the Hardys and the Dudley Boys.

He has also consistently proven himself as a single’s star. He consistently carried Smackdown on his own from Early 2007  to mid 2009.

Edge never bullshits his way through matches and is similar to the Rey Mysterio, Shawn Michaels, and Kurt Angle in that I can never remember him having a horrible match.

Edge will also always be remembered for 4 particular moments and periods of his career:

1- His relationship with Lita. His live sex in a bed celebration in 2006 was one of the most memorable segments in the history of Monday Night Raw. He was the man.

2- His relationship with Vickie Guerrero. Thank God they never had live sex in a bed. However, Edge and Vickie were human heat machines who were able to completely enrage WWE audiences just by their mere presence. They were one of the most effective couples in wrestling history.

3- His feuds with Cena. the 2006 and 2009 versions of the feud were equally entertaining. I will never forget their Last Mand Standing match from Backlash in 2009. The spot where Cena threw Edge with an FU straight into the crowd was definitely a “HOLY SHIT” moment.

4- His work with Mick Foley. Their hardcore match Wrestle Mania 22 was one of the best of both their careers. The taking of the old “through a table through the fire without a shirt on” was particularly crazy. I really enjoyed when Foley turned heel and the two of them teamed up together to take on Terry Funk and Tommy Dreamer at One Night Stand later in 2006. Their mic work was spectacular and were able to drag a damn good match out of 156 year old Terry Funk.

So Edge, thank you for all your contributions to the WWE. Your future Mania main event against Jericho will be spectacular. Thank you for great feuds with Jeff Hardy, Matt Hardy, Mick Foley, Cena, Undertaker, Batista, and the Dudley Boyz.

Thanks for always reeking of awesomeness, Edge.

In case you missed my entry two spots below this one, The Elevation Countdown is an on-going effort by myself to rank the 20 best American wrestlers from 1990 to 2010. Their ranking is determined only by the things they did in the last 20 years, stuff from the 80s is not taken into account. Hopefully you can take a timeout from your Pro Bowl hysteria to read this entry:

DDP was #20. Here is #19:

RVD: The whole F'N show.

#19 Rob Van Dam

WCW: 1992   ECW: 1996-2001   WWE 1997 (part of ECW invasion angle), 2001-2007.

1 time ECW World Heavyweight Champion

1 time WWE Champion

6 time Intercontinental Champion

Everybody should be damn happy RVD came of age in the early 90s instead of the early 2000s. Due to his amazing athleticism and freaking strength, Rob Van Dam would have surely become an integral member of the UFC had he begun his combat training in 2000 instead of 1990. However, America lucked out and we were given the opportunity to lay eyes on one of the most exciting and entertaining wrestling performers of all time.

(Cue Mauro Ranallo blowhard voice) With his penchant for the Gange, current California residence, and incredible athleticism, is there any doubts that RVD would be rolling on the mats among other things with the Diaz brothers if he was a mixed martial artist in 2010?
In wrestling, RVD was able to succeed where many others failed and become an extremely interesting and viable character in two of the most different environments in recent wrestling history: the extreme, no holds barred, anything goes craziness of Paul Heyman’s ECW and the increasingly PG, cookie cutter infested, no blood at all world of the  late 2000s Vince McMahon run WWE.

It cannot be stressed enough how different these two eras were. In the original ECW, The Sandman used to smoke while he was wrestling, spill beer all over himself and the fans and get literally crucified by the ring. In the new WWE, The Sandman couldn’t even come out to a real version of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman”, had to stop drinking beer during his entrance because of a lawsuit from a fan, and made his first appearance on the new WWE run ECW brand by attacking a Zombie with his cane.

RVD was able to take part in amazing rivalries with a huge palette of super stars from Sabu to John Cena to Rhyno to Edge to Lance Storm to Randy Orton.

RVD also revolutionized the concept of pointing to your shoulders while convincing the fans to chant your initials. That is really a lost skill. Besides being a genius at getting himself over through things like working on the mic and creating cool arm gestures, RVD will always be remembered for his amazing move set.

The Five Star Frog Splash, The Van Daminator, The Van Terminator, Air Van Dam, The Chair surfboard. How crazy is that? Now-a-days our wrestlers are treated like visionaries if they are able to create such masterpieces as the 5 knuckle shuffle or the DDT using the ring ropes.

RVD winning the title against John Cena at One Night Stand 2006 was one of the biggest moments in wrestling from the past two decades. Beyond being an amazing match, it directly helped lead to the birth of the new ECW brand on SyFy and was one of the greatest moments of RVD’s career. He was also a tag team specialist and had memorable tag title reigns in ECW and WWE with Chris Candido, Sabu, Kane, and Booker T.

Some fans will choose to only remember RVD only for his unsurprising marijuana arrest in the car with Sabu while champion, but all wrestling fans who know what the hell they are talking about will remember Rob’s free spirit, amazing matches, and unmatched natural ability.

I’m sure he will pop up back in WWE or TNA at some point, but until then Mr. Monday Night will live on forever!

Mr. Monday Night during one of the greatest periods of his career.

(Late Note- I just completed watching the Royal Rumble. I was completely caught off guard by Edge’s win. I had just assumed it was a mere formality that HBK, Cena, or Hunter would win the damn thing and that would be that. Edge’s return was a huge surprise and really enjoyable. I don’t know how the WWE is going to get to Wrestle Mania 26, but it is shaping up to be an awesome show. He looked really good despite coming back so quickly from a gruesome torn achilles. YOU THOUGHT YOU KNEW HIM! On a related note, I was cracking up laughing because my entry in a Royal Rumble pool I was a part of just happened to be Beth Phoenix. Beth wasn’t as dominant as Mrs. Cyborg at the Strikeforce show last night, but she did eliminate The Great Khali. However, she also had to take a brutal GTS from CM Punk. Can’t win ‘em all I guess.)

You will never be able to outsmart the master of mental chess.

We will be back soon with #18.

Send a few bucks along to help our poor pals in Haiti.

I personally used The Clinton-Bush Haiti fund as an  avenue to send a few bucks along. Their website accepts PayPal and its really easy.  You know that your donation will be used in a serious, helpful way with two Presidents leading the initiative. This fund was also extremely helpful in collecting relief aid for the Tsunami and Katrina victims.

Please visit: http://clintonbushhaitifund.org/

Like The Boss said tonight, “We shall overcome.”

That goes for you too Conan. Your final Tonight Show entertained the hell out of America. I’ve loved watching you for as long as I can remember, and you’ll knock ‘em dead wherever you land. The Free Bird final number with Beck, Will Ferrell, and Billy Gibbons was beyond surreal and extremely entertaining to watch.  On the other hand, Charlie Manson is more beloved in American right now than the long chinned jackass Jay Leno. For the love of God people, don’t watch Leno when he returns to the Tonight Show. He has less moral fiber than the Alien from Alien.

We all are.

And now for something completely different.

After watching TNA and WWE the past few weeks and seeing guys like Bret Hall, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, and Scott Hall stalk our televisions like its 1996, I have decided to create a little concept here at The Outsiders Edge that I will hopefully stick to for the next few months.

I have decided that for the next 20 weeks I will be doing a countdown of the 20 greatest wrestlers from the last 20 years. Now before a few of you purists start sending me angry e-mails like “You moron, where the hell is Misawa?!” or “Add Mistico or I will kill you!”, this countdown will only include American based performers who wrestled in WWE, WCW, ECW, or TNA.

Also this list only counts for performances from 1990 through 2010. Although Terry Funk, Ricky Steamboat and many other top legends from older decades performed in the 90s, they can only make this list for their in ring actions between 1990 and 2010. Lou Thesz was obviously bigger than Mick Foley in wrestling history, but Lou retired in 1990.
With that out of the way, I am proud to present number 20 on our list:

Self High Five

That’s right baby #20 from the last 20- Mr. Diamond Dallas Page

(Since 1990)  WCW: 1991-2001 / WWE: 2001-2002/ TNA: 2004-2005.

3 Time World  WCW Heavyweight Champion.

Who better to start our countdown than DDP?  Despite getting his start in wrestling at a very late age, DDP proved that hard work and amazing physical conditioning can defeat the perils of aging. For better or worse Diamond Dallas Page was one of the endearing faces of WCW. He was an expert at creating a unique brand all to himself (Diamond Cutter hand sign.) and for having an awesome finishing move. (The Diamond Cutter always looked way cooler than the RKO.)

People will remember his notable WCW feuds with many of the top guys in the company including Scott Hall, Randy Savage, Goldberg, and Hulk Hogan. His great Halloween Havoc 1998 match was completely overshadowed by the trainwreck that was the Hogan-Warrior main event at that same show (if we were doing a worst 20 wrestlers of the last 20 years list, Ultimate Warrior would be like the anti-Rock.)

With his foxy wife, sweet Smells like Teen Spirit entrance music, and ultra positive attitude, DDP emanated an attitude of coolness that few wrestlers have been able to give off.

Some people have complained that DDP’s matches were too formulaic and seemed too rehearsed, but I disagree. I always loved watching him and felt that his incredible natural charisma and tremendous drive helped overshadow any of those criticisms.

DDP also reached huge mainstream popularity in 1998 when he teamed up with Karl Malone to take on the team of Dennis Rodman and Hulk Hogan at Bash at the Beach 1998.  He followed that up by teaming up with Jay Leno to defeat Hogan and Eric Bischoff at Road Wild. He was also the main villain in the WCW centered movie “Ready to Rumble.” Unfortunately that movie led to David Arquette being WCW World champion. That was a bad thing.

His WWE and TNA runs were mostly forgettable due to political circumstances he could not control. He could have made huge money for the WWE had they handled The Invasion angle properly. A long-term feud with either the Rock or Austin would have done massive business for Vince McMahon. However, his Positively Page gimmick was extremely entertaining and his “That’s not a bad thing…it’s a good thing” lives on to this day in dozens of messages sent between former Edge co-founder SJX and myself.

All in all, Diamond Dallas Page was one of the most over performers in a period where WCW was the biggest wrestling company on the world. He was criticized by some, but DDP will never be forgotten.

DDP forever baby! Everoyne give yourself a self high five.

Alright everybody stay tuned for #19.

I think that I’m still drunk and full of unneeded food from the whole festive period. I mean, I know that the Christmas\New Years celebration season is meant to be a bit of a time of excess, but frankly this year it was utterly ridiculous. I’m not sure if it is a sign of the times or what, but seemingly both myself and pretty much everyone else I know just said ‘You know what, to hell with it’ and let loose a bit more than usual. End result is I am still in quite a bad way, and I do not regret a damned thing.

“Gluttony has never been more brilliant or erotic”

There was no point to that segway whatsoever, by the way. I just felt that I had to let you know. Anyway, to business?

The Top Of The Tree

Although I think I may have been a little on the quick side to anoint Chelsea as Champions-elect before Christmas, I’m still standing by them. This is despite coming at a time when the Blues are dropping points like they are going out of fashion and have some top players about to depart for the African Cup of Nations. I still think they have that edge on everyone else.

This is where succesful people live, and who can blame them?

I still think United are one more season away from being back to where they were and I don’t like the fact that Arsenal have neither Fabregas nor van Persie fit. Due to Arsenal’s stupidly good system, they are able to just fling players in at the last minute to any position and have a workable solution, but if I were a Gunner I’d be full of self loathing as well as feeling a lot more comfortable having at least one of the club’s two marquee players in the team. Nasri, Arshavin and Walcott are all more than capable young lads, but for me van Persie and Fabregas are needed, just like Liverpool thrive with Gerrard or Torres in the team.

Credit to them, though, Arsenal do have a game in hand on United. Assuming they win it, they would leapfrog United into second place. However, there is just something about Arsenal this year where they cannot decide for love nor money if they are a dominant top team or a wobbly group of nearly guys. Looking back at their results, they beat a good team like Spurs then collapse to a draw against West Ham. They beat Liverpool then can’t beat Burnley. When you sit down and watch Arsenal play, they either knock in 5 goals and look like Brazil or they get shut out and look like a group of guys trying to over complicate the matter. They are looking much more like the former these days, as their points tally proves, but my own personal jury is still out on them.

Elsewhere at the top, United are still on everyone’s radar, just 2 points off the top. All the pundits are back tracking on their early season gloom and doom and saying that United are finally ‘hitting their stride’. That being said, they still look like they are lacking a creative spark and have been absolutely taken-from-behind-in-a-dark-alley-and-ravaged by defensive injuries.

I suppose in my heart of hearts, after seeing all the teams play, I still see this ending Chelsea, Man Utd then Arsenal up top. And this comes from a United fan, by the way. Chelsea are just that little bit better than everyone else overall at the moment. And I can’t help but favour United over Arsenal for second. There are strong arguments for both, but I’m not convinced how Arsenal will cope without their two bestest players.

In the best of the rest contest, I still like Spurs over Villa, Man City and Liverpool. Liverpool are in a world of trouble and Villa are prone to late season slumps. Man City, though, with a new boss (more on that later) could well start winning the sorts of games that they drew before and be more dangerous.

Down Below, Where The Sun Don’t Shine

You can’t but ‘underneath the Christmas Tree’ for a relegation battle section, you know? Because that is where presents are kept, and presents are very, very good. These teams, however, are very, very bad.

Portsmouth…. oh god, we will give them their own little section in a minute. I can’t bear to write about them yet. It depresses me.

With Pompey all but certain to be gone from the Premiership, that leaves two slots available for other, less deserving clubs to share the same fate. I’m still standing by my early season picks of Portsmouth, Hull and Wolves to get the chop, but that is just me being stubborn. On a more analytical note, you want to see something cool? Alright, watch this…

The battle for 4^th place and the last Champions League spot is a straight shoot out between 5 teams seperated by 5 points – Spurs (37), Man City (35), Aston Villa (35), Liverpool (33) and Birmingham (32). Yeah, I know, I included Birmingham in that. If someone had said Birmingham in the Champions League discussion at the start of the season I’d have pointed and laughed as well, but they are 5 points off the pace and have a £40m transfer kitty. You sort of have to include them.

Anyway, if we take the same 5 point gap theory at the bottom of the table then every other team except Fulham is in the relegation battle. That’s right, have a look at the Premiership table and you will see that 9 teams are within two mistimed losses from tumbling out. Obviously, it isn’t that cut and dried but each and every one of those 9 teams is more than capable of such a collapse.

I said long ago that this stage of the season is just a land grab as teams try to stay afloat, so in the next 8 or 9 games I expect more than a few of those sides (Sunderland, Everton, Blackburn namely) to remove themselves from the relegation conversation. Right now, though, they are in it. The bottom of the table is just as interesting as the top, and right now there are no clear losers.

Well, that is a general overview taken care of. Lets have a little look at what else is going on, shall we?

African Cup Of Nations (aka How The Premiership Was Lost)

Didier Drogba. Michael Essien. Kanu. Toure. Adebayor. Song. Eboue. Yobo. Shittu. Bikey.

No, I am not just listing names here. These are all players who won’t feature for Premiership outfits at the beginning of 2010. Why? Because of the sodding African Cup Of Nations.

Its a wonder the whole continent doesn't get a headache looking at that stupid ball.

Like it or lump it, the African Cup of Nations falls in January instead of in the off-season. This means that a lot of teams lose valuable players. On a side note, it also happens every 2 years which is just ridiculous. Major international tournaments happen every 4 years. However, Africa didn’t get that particular memo it appears.

Up top of the table, Chelsea are the most hurt by this tournament – Didier Drogba, Michael Essien, Salomon Kalou and John Obi Mikel are all gone. At a time when they are dropping points and have a few injuries (most notably to Anelka, leaving them with no fit recognised strikers), that just sucks for them. I can see those losses, though, accelerating a few would-be summer transfers to this window. Down bottom, Portsmouth also loose four players, including their top league scorer Dindane. God knows they could do with all the help they can get.

There isn’t really a point of me mentioning this other than it is a current Premiership event and I feel somewhat compelled to. I mean, I have no opinion about it. If you are going to buy African players, you need to realise they are gone for this tournament. If you don’t realise this fact and then complain about it, then you are a dullard and deserve to be treated as such. You can’t ask these guys not to represent their country, so you have to just adapt.

Portsmouth Need To Be Put Out Of Their Misery

Portsmouth need to be put out of their misery. They need to be taken out back into the barn, given one last pat on the side and then be dealt with by the sort of tough love that only a heartbroken owner can understand. It’s time to tell the kids they have gone to another farm to live and then, before they can ask any difficult questions, give them a new action figure and whisk them off for a surprise trip to Disney Land.

DVD review of Portsmouth 2009/10 season.

From top to bottom, inside and out I have never known a more rotten Premiership organisation. Portsmouth, for already the third time this season, haven’t paid their squad their monthly salaries. They have an embargo on registering new players due to the outstanding debt they owe. Some clubs are threatening to begin very nasty legal proceedings to reclaim this money. Even the UK Government has a day in court with Portsmouth as they attempt to put them completely out of business over about $3m of unpaid taxes. In all likelihood, they will go into administration as a business and therefore have to take a 10 point reduction, sealing their fate.

What is worse is they have Avram Grant as manager. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the guy made his name managing in the 80′s and 90′s in Israel. That is hardly the multi-billion pound Premiership.

This is really, really sad for Pompey and their fans. I’m not even going to joke about it. Although I will joke about that fact that even Portsmouth can beat Liverpool….

Seeing any team in any sport fall into such a state is sad. I’m sure when Pompey fans had to see recently departed manager Harry Redknapp return to the city to accept a recognition award over their FA Cup win just a few years ago, they didn’t think it could get any worse. How wrong they were. Honestly, Al Davies could take over and it would be a marked improvement. Dan Snyder could organise a front office that would put this team at a metaphorical 8-8. Hell, I think their only hope is to put Vince McMahon in charge.

The Sackings Commence

Two more heads are on spikes down Management Alley – both Manchester City’s Mark Hughes and Bolton’s Gary Megson.

As for Megson, I both feel sorry for him and completely understand the decision. Although Bolton are firmly in the relegation battle, and are in the relegation zone, they have two games in hand on the rest of their bottom-of-the-table-buddies. They aren’t playing terrible football and an awful lot of their problems were caused when the fans turned against the management. Megson himself, in one of the emo moments which highlighted his last few games at the club, said that the fans never accepted him. I feel for the guy, as having rabid fan support is always more useful for a squad than any new player, coach or prostitute will ever be.

Maybe if I burn down the stadium, the people will love me.

That being said, Bolton are far from the club they were under the expert guidance of Sam Allardyce. His mixture of picking up veterans released from big clubs, somehow going after audacious signings successfully and finding a place for youth really worked. Megson’s rule has seen them still be far from a rotten club, but nowhere near where they were. His firing was one of those tough ones in the sporting world – you are doing okay under someone, but you want to be doing a whole lot better than just okay. Just look at Fulham – they were doing just okay, put Roy Hodgson in charge and all of a sudden were up, up and away.

Mark Hughes’ sacking was also thoroughly justified. He was never going to last with the new owners and basically all season long he has been doing a Jim Zorn impression. Man City have drawn a stupid amount of games, he has refused to alter tactics when he has needed to and all bar one of the high profile players he has chased has eventually gone elsewhere, which for all the pomp the club has come out with is a tad embarrassing. Sure, they got Adebyor and Tevez, but they would swap them in a heartbeat for Ribery, Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo. Mancini, Hughes’ replacement, is better at coaching world class players, a better tactician and has a better achievement list. He will attract better players who want to work with him. You could see this swap coming a mile off.

What is disgusting, however, is the way that Hughes was given the boot. Allegedly, Hughes knew his fate was sealed when he took charge of his final game. Mancini was even rumoured to be sat in the owners box at the City Of Manchester Stadium. According to some sources, the deal was done up to 13 days before Hughes was canned.

Although all of this has been denied, it is a stupid denial. Even if Hughes was fired on merit after the Sunderland game (which City won, albeit not convincingly), you don’t get a guy like Robert Mancini in on 36 hours notice. You have negotiated that contract a long, long time ago. You have made Mark Hughes a lame duck without him even knowing it. In any profession, from football management to warehouse management, you do not treat a guy like that. Period. You sac up and talk to someone face to face, not slyly force them out.

Does The Premiership Need English Players?

During the flurry of activity that made up the Christmas period, one game sprung into the forefront for all the wrong reasons. When Arsenal made the frankly depressing journey down to Fratton Park to play Pompey, there was a first time thing happening in the Premiership – no English players were involved in the starting line ups of either side. None. Zip. Zero.

Last time I checked, this was The English Premier League that we all watch and love. Foreign players bring in a great spark to the game, and they should absolutely be encouraged. Regardless of nation, it is always awesome to see top players in English football.

The point where this becomes a grey area, though, is when you get to fringe and squad players. Do you really need that French\Spanish\Italian\etc guy who you are paying a few million quid for for no apparent reason, or is there an English player around who can do the same job? Maybe it is because English teams don’t like buying from Championship teams, and it is just too expensive to buy from other Prem teams, that transfer targets often come from abroad. Perhaps it is just the prestige. Who knows. End of the day, though, don’t English Premiership teams have some sort of prerogative to develop English players for the England national team? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the positions where we are weakest at the National level – goalkeeper, wingers, prolific strikers – are the positions where most Premiership foreigners are found.

The truth of the matter, though, is this is a bit of a moot point. No matter what FIFA and UEFA and the FA and Me want to do about it, we can’t. Due to the super fun employment laws in Europe, anyone with a European passport can work anywhere in Europe. That goes for people born outside of Europe but who have ties to the continent, such as an Arsenal squad made up of players born in former French African colonies. It sucks, as I would love to see a requirement that in any match day squad at least 3 of the 18 English with two more just more generally British. But, allas, any attempt to do that would be firmly illegal. Humph.

FA Cup 3^rd Round

United just got dumped out of the FA Cup by old foes Leeds United. Words cannot describe how angry this has made me. Other than that, there were no other shocks. West Ham got booted out by Arsenal, but other than that nothing of note has happened. That is all.

2010 Predictions

Well that is pretty much it from me for the moment. I have gotten to the point where I would feel bad if I dumped on Liverpool any more so shall leave off them for this week. But, before I sign off and go set up the replacement Xbox 360 I just bought, let’s have a quick look forward to the footballing year of 2010 with some predictions, eh? I feel 10 is a disturbingly logical number of them for 2010. Therefore, I shall do 11…

1)      England get to the quarter finals of the World Cup, then lose on penalties. This always happens. It is like the changing of the tides. We should accept it and move on.

2)      Portsmouth will find a way to finish the season on negative points while confused owners try to understand why they got relegated instead of being able to draft Ndamukong Suh with the number 1 overall pick.

3)      American based players coming to the Premiership for 5 month slots will become the cool thing to do. Beckham does it. Donavan does it. In fact, I think UEFA and MLS should encourage it. I bet that Major League Soccer would get a lot more prestigious players if they knew that they would get loaned back to a Premiership squad  for the business end of the season.

4)      Drew Carey will try to capitalise on the success of the Seattle Sounders by integrating them into a ‘Whose Ball Is It Anyway’ style of show. In this, the Sounders will kick balls at Wayne Brady, Colin Mochrie, Ryan Stiles and a C-List comedian. On each ball will be a suggestion for a scene. Wayne will then sing and act like he has ADHD, Mochrie will break forth with self deprecating humour, Ryan will be grouchy and make himself laugh while the C-List comedian will try their hardest to steal attention and attract network scouts for that pilot show that him and his drinking buddy wrote. Drew will then subjectively award goals. You know what, I’d watch that show…

5)      Sir Alex Ferguson will explode with fury. Look at him at the moment, he is primed and ready to go.

6)      Inversely, Didier Drogba will implode with arrogance.

7)      Cristiano Ronaldo’s record £80m transfer fee will be broken, probably by Torres as rumours are already abound with Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Pee Wee Herman ready to bid around £120m for the baby-faced Spaniard.

8)      During the World Cup, there will be at least another 2 instances where video replay technology is obviously required. Sepp Blatter and Michael Platini will then say something has to be done, do nothing and blame The Premiership.

9)      Thierry Henry goes to MLS. This is not a joke, I can see it happening.

10)  Ryan Giggs’ renaissance will abruptly end with an injury. Sadly, this is not a joke either. As much as I love Ryan, 36 year old legs cannot bear his burden for much longer. He has a history of muscle problems and I doubt he will be able to carry on the way he is going.

11)  The London Chronicles will be declared the toast of the internet, the leading semi-regular Premiership column out there and between us, Seniór Elevation and I shall fight crime.