Month: December 2021

Sports Throwback Thursday: WWE Armageddon 2005

Today’s Sports Throwback Thursday will be about WWE’s Armageddon 2005. The pay-per-view event featured great matchups such as Chris Benoit vs. Booker T and Randy Orton vs. The Undertaker.

Chris Benoit vs. Booker T rivalry had a nice and slow build-up. The consistency of the writing is on point. Before they became rivals, they were solid tag team partners and worked well as a team. They had each other’s back when one of them would get attacked or outnumbered. Things began to change when Booker T’s wife, Sharmell, would interfere and distract opponents during the matches. Booker T would take advantage of those distractions to come away with a victory. It went too far when Sharmell interfered during the Benoit and Booker T match for the United States championship. Sharmell gave Benoit a low blow, which allowed Booker T to connect with the Scissors kick and capture the US championship.

Booker T thought about giving Benoit a rematch for the title in an episode of Smackdown, but he fooled everyone when he betrayed Benoit and became a villain. Once friends now became enemies.

Walking into Armageddon, Benoit trailed Booker T 3-0 in the best of 7 matchups. He was one loss away from being swept. During the match, both wrestlers performed efficiently. Booker T did all he could to win. Sharmell tried to help out again, but it didn’t work this time. Benoit got Booker T in the crippler-crossface and made Booker T tapped out.

The main event of Armageddon happened to be Randy Orton vs. Undertaker. It’s one of my favorite rivalries of 2005. Orton is a young talent known for his nickname “The Legend Killer.” The stipulation of the match was “Hell in a Cell.” Undertaker beat Orton at WrestleMania, and Orton beat Taker in Summerslam. Bob Orton, Randy’s father, interfered, but the Undertaker nailed him and performed a tombstone on him. One of the strangest moments of the match is when Randy Orton performs a tombstone on The Undertaker. It was risky because he could’ve messed up the tombstone and could’ve hurt the Undertaker. If you look at the match, Orton struggles while having Taker on a tombstone. Taker would kick out of the tombstone, and sooner or later, he gave Randy Orton a tombstone to win the match and end their rivalry.

NHL is Back After Six Days

After six days without hockey, we are finally to be able to see some action. Montreal Canadiens faced off against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The matchup was everything we’ve all wanted and needed. Both teams delivered a great performance on the ice.

Canadiens got on the board first with a goal by Lukas Vejdemo. Lightning would answer back with their own goal; center Brayden Point tied the game 1-1 in the first intermission. Point had two goals and one assist in this game. Canadiens defensemen Kale Clague scored his first career goal in his 39th NHL game. Montreal had two players scoring their first career goals (Rafael Harvey-Pinard and Kale Clague.)

Trailing 4-3 in the final minute of the third intermission, Lightning right wing Corey Perry tied the game to send the Lightning into overtime. In overtime, Ondrej Palat, assisted by Victor Hedman, scored the game-winning goal to give the Lightning a 5-4 victory over the Montreal Canadiens. Palat scored ten goals for the Lightning this season.

The Unforgivable – Movie Reaction

Sandra Bullock is one of the most underrated actresses of all time. I truly believe she doesn’t give as much credit as she should for her work. In the Netflix original movie ‘The Unforgivable,’ she again displays her excellent craft and performance as an artist. 

‘The Unforgivable‘ is about Ruth Slater, who was released from prison after serving a sentence for a violent crime. Ruth dealt with some heavy judgment from her hometown. Therefore, she redeemed herself by finding her estranged younger sister, who she was obligated to leave behind. 

I kept seeing “The Unforgivable” as the Top 10 most viewed watched on Netflix. So I just needed to check it out to see what it is all about. 

The most potent acting scene came between Sandra Bullock and Viola Davis. During a heated confrontation, Ruth Slater (Sandra Bullock) told Liz Ingram (Viola Davis) “she was only five years old” while breaking down into tears. It just blew me away. Anyone with a heart would get emotional watching that scene. This movie didn’t have a strong script, but the performance made this movie more intriguing for the audience to watch. 

Bullock delivered an Oscar-caliber performance. Sandra doesn’t even look like Sandra. She looks like the character she’s portraying. I can already tell she put everything into this. It’s one of the saddest movies of the year. If you think Sandra is great now, then you haven’t been paying attention. We can’t forget how good she was in Speed, Miss Congeniality, Bird Box, Gravity, The Proposal, Two Weeks Notice, The Blind Side. 

Sandra is a versatile actress: comedy, drama, action, thriller, romance. She can do it all. 

Sunday Sports Shorts

Cleveland Browns’ quarterback threw four interceptions for the first time in his career, and it came at the expense of the Green Bay Packers. The Packers’ defense was all over him in yesterday’s game. The browns had many opportunities to win on the road, but costly mistakes cost them the game. The Packers won, and now they won their fourth in a row yesterday, improving the team to 12–3. The Browns have now lost four of their last six and are two games back in the loss column behind the Bills for the No. 7 seed in the AFC.

In the second game of NFL Christmas Day, the Indianapolis Colts took on the Arizona Cardinals. It was a low-scoring game, but in the end, the Colts made the proper adjustments just enough to take one on the road. The Colts defense pressured Kyler Murray in the 4th quarter, forcing him to scramble and make incompletions. Cardinals started the season as one of the hottest teams in the NFL, but injuries and inconsistent play on the field are hurting them. Cardinals have lost three in a row, dropping to 10-5 and second place in the NFC West division.

Before the season began, everyone had Brooklyn Nets vs. Los Angeles Lakers to meet in the NBA Finals. So far, those predictions are looking slim. On Christmas Day, the Nets and Lakers faced off to give the fans a taste of a future Finals matchup. However, in this game, not every player was at full strength. No Kevin Durant, no Kyrie Irving, no Anthony Davis for this heavyweight matchup. A veteran guard stole the spotlight and the show, Patty Mills. He was sensational from behind the arc finishing the game career-high 34 points. It was the fifth consecutive loss for the Lakers, who fell to 16-18, while the Nets improved to an Eastern Conference-best 22-9 with an impressive 12-3 record on the road.

Miguel Mike Medina’s Favorite Christmas Movies

Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! There is nothing like the holiday season in December. One of the things we love the most about Christmas besides decorations, family reunions and traveling, is to watch Christmas movies at home. Here are some of Miguel Mike Medina’s favorite Christmas movies.

1) A Christmas Story

  • It’s a classic Christmas movie, and it’s a big part of my childhood. I watched the 24-hour marathon on TNT when I was a kid. Not the entire 24 hours, but I would watch it more than once. A little boy named Ralphie wanted a Red Ryder BB Gun for Christmas. Everyone kept telling him that he’d shoot his eyes out, but he got the present he wanted in the end. Jean Shepard did an outstanding job as a writer and voiceover. 

2) Elf

  • Just like A Christmas Story, if this movie is not in your Top Five Christmas movies, then I’ll feel insulted. When I was 12 years old, I went to see Elf in the movie theaters with my sisters. Elf is a beautiful Christmas movie and made Will Ferrell a star. The writing is impeccable in capturing the emotion and feeling between the character Buddy, played by Will Ferrell, and his father (played by James Caan). 

3) National Lampoon Christmas Vacation

  • Chevy Chase owned this movie. Without Chevy Chase, this movie would’ve been nothing. His comedic timing and facial expressions were gold. Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Doris Roberts were in this movie before they were part of great sitcoms like Seinfeld and Everybody Loves Raymond. One of my favorite scenes is the dining table scene with the entire family. Singing The Star-Spangled Banner was funny because of how Chevy Chase reacted to it, and I liked that they sang the anthem again towards the end of the movie; that was special. 

4) Home Alone 1 and 2

  • Home Alone 1 may be the better film, but I like the second one more. Why? It was filmed in my hometown (New York). I love the cinematography of capturing Central Park, Fifth Avenue, World Trace Center. The supporting cast of the second one was slightly better than the first one. Adding Tim Curry and Rob Scheider in the movie was genius. The first movie was filmed in Chicago, and it was great to see Catherine O’Hara and John Candy together since they’ve worked in part in a comedy series in Canada. The Home Alone movies made Macaulay Culkin into a movie star, and he had a lot of momentum. 

Honorable Mentions: Bad Santa 1, The Santa Clause, This Christmas

I can’t forget about Hallmark and Lifetime movies. They are great at producing Christmas movies. They can be repetitive, but I love their messages and themes. Here are some of my favorite Hallmark movies:

  • Christmas Everlasting
  • A Royal Christmas
  • Christmas Waltz
  • You Make Me Feel Like Christmas 

Being the Ricardos – Reaction


Being the Ricardos was written and directed by Aaron Sorkin. Anything with Sorkin in it, it’s a must-see film. His writing style is incredible and genius. Some of his best works are A Few Good Men, The Social Network, Moneyball, The Newsroom, and the list goes on.

Being the Ricardos is about Lucille Ball (Nicole Kidman) and Desi Arnaz (Javier Bardem) and the multiple situations they go through in their complex romantic and professional relationship. In this film, we get a glimpse of how things were in the writers’ room, onto the soundstage, and behind closed doors with Ball and Arnaz during one critical production week of their groundbreaking sitcom “I Love Lucy.” Desi Arnaz made most business decisions.

In one scene, Lucille Ball dealt with age discrimination. She was told to consider doing radio. You can’t say to a woman, especially in today’s society.

Lucille also wasn’t the easiest person to deal with behind the scenes. She was very demanding and would constantly interrupt during table reads and rehearsals. However, the respect and admiration for Lucille are that she’s a person that’s not too submissive and doesn’t want to be treated like a puppet.

Nicole Kidman did a fantastic job playing Lucille Ball; Kidman delivered an Oscar-level performance. It’s one of my favorite performances from Nicole Kidman. Javier Bardem was also magnificent as Desi Arnaz. Lucille and Desi divorced the morning after their final performance together in 1960.

In one of the scenes, the writers mentioned different Latin names in the writer’s room. The way they were saying it could get them in trouble in today’s industry. Old school Hollywood was something else. The studios had lots of limitations. For example, Lucille Ball being pregnant was something that the studios or CBS weren’t ready for. Why? The studio didn’t want to see a pregnant woman shown on TV.

Hollywood was also racist back then, it’s still today, but back in the Golden Era of Cinema, it was a wild west. The industry has improved so much compared to old Hollywood, but more work needs to be done. 

We know that when it’s a movie based or inspired by true events, it’s not always going to be 100% accurate. What’s so great about this movie is the writing, direction, and performance. Being the Ricardos is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

Joe Johnson is Back in the NBA

The news that we didn’t see it coming. After a three-year absence, Joe Johnson is back in the NBA. At 40, Johnson is signing a 10-day contract with the Boston Celtics.

Johnson is expected to play in Wednesday’s game against the Cleveland Cavaliers. He last played in the 2018 Western Conference finals for the Houston Rockets.

The deal reunites Johnson with the team that drafted him in 2001. He played half a season for the Celtics in 2001-02 before being traded to the Phoenix Suns.

Johnson is a seven-time All-Star and has averaged 16.0 points in 1,276 career games. He’s played for multiple teams, but his best years came with the Atlanta Hawks.

Mark Kotsay Agrees to Three-Year Contract

Former Major Leaguer Mark Kotsay has agreed to a three-year contract through the 2024 season with the Oakland Athletics with a club option for 2025.

Kotsay, 46, never has managed at any level. Following a 17-year playing career, Kotsay joined the Padres’ front office in 2014 as a special assistant. Later that year, he was named their new hitting coach. Ahead of the 2016 season, Kotsay joined the A’s staff as a bench coach. He transitioned into a quality control coach in 2017 and served as Oakland’s third base coach before being named as the franchise’s newest manager.