Dave Meltzer details Strikeforce shortcomings
June 17 Wrestling Observer Radio with Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez BRYAN ALVAREZ: I got a couple of criticisms about…
June 17 Wrestling Observer Radio with Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez
BRYAN ALVAREZ: I got a couple of criticisms about this show and one of them is the post-fight… I mean…
DAVE MELTZER: They didn’t do post-fight interviews and the show went short!
BRYAN ALVAREZ: Well, let me talk about this here very quickly. Until the middle, until after the first round of the main event, when they interviewed King Mo between round one and round two, I don’t want to come across like Vince Russo here and God knows, let me tell you, I don’t want to come across like Vince Russo but everyone they interviewed on this show could barely speak English. They interviewed Cris Cyborg and no translator and you could hardly understand a thing she was saying. Then they interviewed Werdum, no translator, you could hardly figure out what he was saying. And meanwhile, KJ Noons and Conor Heun have this slobberknocker of a battle and they didn’t find either of these men worth of a post-fight interview? I mean, I’m not saying…
DAVE MELTZER: I was dumbfounded and even more Kennedy goes out there and has this great win and he’s this guy with this great story and let me tell you something, Kennedy can talk. I talked to him a couple of times in the last week alone, this guy can talk, he’s pretty cocky, he’s not a shy guy and he will tell you that you know where he stands. He would a great television interview. I could not believe that they didn’t interview Kennedy and that you know Noons and Conor Heun, they should have interviewed both guys after that fight, those two guys put on a great show and you know Noons is a good talker and Noons would have said a lot of stuff because at the press conference, I mean among the things you know Noons said that he wants to win the title at 155. Right now, I think Gilbert Melendez in fact I know he’s got I believe a broken hand and he’s needing surgery and he’s going to be out for a while, but he wants to win the title at 155. Then he wants to beat Nick Diaz at 170.
—
DAVE MELTZER: I guess (Nick) Diaz is suspended.
BRYAN ALVAREZ: I did not hear that.
DAVE MELTZER: Yes, 90 days from, here’s the deal – Diaz is suspended 90 days from the time that he returns a form to Tennessee which will then count the suspension from that point.
BRYAN ALVAREZ: So he better get on that.
DAVE MELTZER: And they’re like scared that he’s going to like never return the form so he’ll be like suspended forever.
BRYAN ALVAREZ: That’s possible, actually. Very possible.
DAVE MELTZER: So they’re trying to make sure that he fills out that form and gets the clock ticking on that suspension so he can, because I was asking like when he’s going to defend the title and it’s like, you know, he’s got 90 days suspension right now, you know that he’s got to go through before he can fight anyone.
—
BRYAN ALVAREZ: Going back to the interviews. I don’t want to sit here and say that only people who speak good English should do promos but for God’s sake, you’re going to create stars by letting charismatic guys go out there and talk and the people that they had cutting the promos… Cyborg’s promo didn’t add a single viewer to the 26th. Werdum’s promo didn’t add a single viewer to the 26th. And the first guy, the first guy that speaks good English and is charismatic, King Mo, they interviewed him between round one and round two of Sobral and Lawler.
DAVE MELTZER: So he’s got to just get in and out, he didn’t have any time.
BRYAN ALVAREZ: Oh yeah, he had less than a minute. The girl asked him like a question and she kind of played the old Christy Hemme role where she asked a question, he got about four words ut, and then she cut him off and grabbed the mic to ask her next question and I was like, what was even the point of doing this? This was more counterproductive than anything. AND THEN, and then, they’re asking him about facing Sobral for the 205-pound title and he’s like, well, WE’RE FRIENDS. So, then at the end of the main event, they ask Sobral if you want this 205-pound fight with King Mo and he’s like WE’RE FRIENDS, I could never punch my friend. I want Dan Henderson. And I was like, you have got to be kidding me.
—
DAVE MELTZER: It was amazing because Scott Coker was billing this main event as if Lawler wins, he would probably get a shot at the Middleweight title but the deal on this is kind of weird because Shields is almost for sure leaving, I mean you know no one can say it because it’s not done, but he’s probably leaving. So they’re going to do an eight-man tournament, so if Lawler wins he gets in the eight-man tournament. Well, Lawler lost tonight and I’m almost sure he’s going to be in, you know, an eight-man for Strikeforce at Middleweight, I think he’s going to make the cut somehow. So he’s going to be in this tournament anyway even though he lost and I’m not saying he shouldn’t be, either, you know this is a split decision, he lost to a bigger guy and Sobral’s a good fighter, it wasn’t like he lost to a slouch and it wasn’t like he wasn’t competitive with him and perhaps if he had started a little quicker and been a little more aggressive in certain spots he would have won the fight. He could have won the fight. Sobral, if he won he was supposed to get a shot at Mo, so he won and he doesn’t want the shot and he afterwards I did not did speak to him personally, but there were people who did and he was apparently adamant that he would not fight Mo. And Scott Coker was you know ‘friends, if you got to fight you got to fight’ and apparently he’s…
BRYAN ALVAREZ: You don’t!
DAVE MELTZER: Well, yeah, you don’t! No one can make you fight someone you don’t want to fight. I mean, no promoter can do that, people can pressure you into this and that but I don’t see Sobral and Mo, they’re not going to fight each other, so there you go.