Sports

Cheap Pops - February 25, 2015

by Chris Delloiacono, Mike Maillaro and Jeff Ritter

This week!

• WWE Fastlane Results

by Chris Delloiacono, Mike Maillaro and Jeff Ritter

Chris: I've got to say, I'm not really certain where a lot these matches are going.  WWE TV has certainly picked up on the Road to Wrestlemania.  Roman Reigns' stock has risen in my eyes because he has Daniel Bryan there to help get him over.  My first thoughts on the show are a lot of title changes.  I miss Elimination Chamber, which was a super fun gimmick match, but this is shaping up to be a solid show with lots of fresh matches.

by Chris Delloiacono, Mike Maillaro and Jeff Ritter

This week!

• NXT Takeover: Rival Results

• All Time Favorite Wrestlers

This week!

• NXT Takeover: Rival Predictions
• NJPW: The New Beginning
• NXT Takeover: Rival
• Current Favorite Wrestlers

Mike: My name is Mikey Rage and this is my tag team partner Christopher Truth!  Together, we are Ragin’ Truth!   Let’s get to Truthin’!

WWE NXT Takeover: Rival Predictions

No Disqualification Match:
Baron Corbin vs. Bull Dempsey

Mike’s Prediction: Dempsey

Chris's Prediction: Corbin

Whenever I'm offered an opportunity to review children's material, I jump. To be honest, I'm basically a little kid at heart, but that's not the real reason. My 22-month old son, Nate, is the driving force behind reviews like this. I'm so excited to share with him all the things I grew up loving.

Baseball has been one of those passions my entire life, so I'm thrilled to review Marla McKenna's nifty double play of titles. Let me start with Mom's Big Catch from Tate Publishing. It's obvious McKenna understands the game of baseball and the passion we fans feel for our team. Even more, she has chosen to enter the story on an ambition of many denizens of the ballpark--catching a ball!

by Chris Delloiacono and Mike Maillaro

This week!

• Raw Gets Snowed out

• NJPW

• Pro Wrestling Syndicate: Frozen Fallout

• NXT Update

by Chris Delloiacono and Mike Maillaro

This week!

• Royal Rumble Recap

• Where’s Wrestlemania 32?

• Justin Gabriel Quits the WWE

This week:

• Macho Man Goes into WWE Hall of Fame

• Where’s Alberto Del Rio?

• Royal Rumble Predictions

• And More!

Raw Reactions (Episode from January 19th, 2015)
Mike Maillaro and I are going to be doing a weekly wrestling column called Cheap Pops starting this Wednesday. I wanted to get out ahead of it and offer some brief commentary about this week's Raw. Hope to "see" you all later in the week.

Raw hasn't been particularly entertaining the past few months. Wrestlemania season is off and running, though, do things have picked up a bit, The Legends Reunion each January is always a lot of fun. Let's take a quick look hour by hour.

Hour One
Pretty typical opening mess of a segment. Fifteen minutes of talking with HHH, Lesnar, Rollins, Cena, etc. Only real thing coming out of it was Cena wrestling again tonight to try and bring back Ziggler, Ryback, and Rowan. Do we really need idiotic melodrama like this? Cena failed last week, of course he's going to win this one.

At last night's NXT tapings, it was announced that their next special would be taking place on February 11, 2015.  They also announced three matches for the card:

WARNING!  THIS CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS ABOUT

UPCOMING NXT EPISODES!

NXT Title Match
Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn

NXT Women's Title Match
Sasha Banks vs. Bayley vs. Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte

#1 Contender's Match
Finn Balor vs. Adrian Neville

I would also expect that they will probably add another match between Baron Corbin and Bull Dempsey.  

Match Analysis and Predictions

Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn - NXT Title

Welcome to 2015 and what I hope will be a fairly regular series on sports. I’m a baseball fan first and a basketball fan somewhere after curling and badminton, tied with soccer, so that will give you some idea what to expect.

This time of year, with snow blowing outside my window, makes me long for baseball season. Hot stove league discussions keep warm thoughts of summer days with that perfect bouquet of stadium scents helping me to forget about the notorious St. Louis humidity. It’s also the time of year where the Baseball Writers Association of America, the self-appointed arbiters of enshrinement in baseball’s Hall of Fame in bucolic Cooperstown, NY, holds their annual elections. Lately, these votes have left me cold.