Amanda Nunes: The G.O.A.T. of Women’s MMA

Amanda “The Lioness” Nunes is widely regarded as the greatest of all time (GOAT) in women's mixed martial arts. With an impressive record and a slew of accolades, she has cemented her position as a dominant force in the sport.

Born on May 30, 1988, in Salvador, Brazil, Nunes began training in martial arts at a young age. She started with karate and later transitioned to Brazilian jiu-jitsu and taekwondo. Nunes made her professional MMA debut in 2008 and quickly rose through the ranks.

Nunes' impressive resume includes:

- 2x UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion

- 2x UFC Women's Featherweight Champion

- 14 consecutive wins in title fights

- Most consecutive title defenses in women's bantamweight division

- Winner of multiple Performance of the Night and Fight of the Night bonuses

- Held the UFC Women's Bantamweight and Women's Featherweight championships simultaneously, a rare and impressive feat in the sport. 

Nunes' aggressive fighting style, combined with her well-rounded skills, makes her a formidable opponent. She is known for her:

- Devastating striking: Nunes' powerful kicks and punches have resulted in numerous knockouts and stoppages.

- Elite grappling: Her Brazilian jiu-jitsu background gives her an edge on the ground, where she excels at submissions and takedowns.

- Adaptability: Nunes has shown the ability to adjust her strategy mid-fight, making her a difficult opponent to prepare for.

Nunes has defeated some of the biggest names in women's MMA, including Ronda Rousey, Cris Cyborg, Miesha Tate, Holly Holm, Valentina Shevchenko, Raquel Pennington, Megan Anderson, and Juliana Peña. These victories showcase her dominance over a range of talented opponents.

Nunes is a trailblazer, being the first openly lesbian champion in UFC history. Her confidence and pride in her identity have made her a role model for many in the LGBTQ+ community.

After a remarkable career, Nunes retired from professional MMA in June 2023, vacating her titles. Her legacy continues to inspire a new generation of female fighters in the MMA world.

Nunes is married to former UFC fighter Nina Nunes (née Ansaroff), and the couple has two daughters together.

 

Nunes' dominance has raised the bar for women's MMA, pushing other fighters to elevate their game. She has:

- Inspired a new generation of female fighters

- Helped increase visibility and recognition for women's MMA

- Set a high standard for competition in the women's divisions

Conclusion:

Amanda Nunes is the embodiment of excellence in women's MMA. Her impressive record, dominant performances, and lasting impact on the sport solidify her position as the GOAT. Her retirement marks the end of an era, but her legacy will continue to inspire and influence the sport for years to come.

Why WWE’s ECW reboot failed

There's an old saying: "Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should."  Such was the case of WWE's reboot of ECW.

What was ECW?  Some will tell you that it was the greatest wrestling promotion ever, others will tell you it was all barbed wire, fire, blood and guts, etc. and they might all be right but although ECW was best known for it's hardcore style, it also had solid wrestling matches as well.  ECW was basically an alternative to WWE (Then WWF) and WCW.  While WWF & WCW's product at the time was more family friendly, ECW was counter culture and utilized edgier moments.  While WWF was running in big arenas, ECW was running in a bingo hall affectionately known as the ECW Arena (now the 2300 Arena) in Philadelphia, PA.  Some of the most memorable ECW moments included Shane Douglas throwing down the NWA World title and declaring himself the ECW World Champion, Raven crucifying Sandman on a cross, the Blue World Order, Eddie Guerrero vs Dean Malenko, RVD vs Jerry Lynn, and other things that there would be No Chance in Hell (pun intended) that Vince McMahon would put on his shows.  However, bad business decisions forced Paul Heyman to close ECW in 2001.

3 years later, WWE now owned the ECW name, trademarks, video library, and other assets, so they released a DVD titled The Rise and Fall of ECW which easily became their best selling DVD.  Shortly thereafter Rob Van Dam approached Vince McMahon about an ECW reunion PPV.  Vince gave the ok and Paul Heyman and Tommy Dreamer began writing it.  The 2005 ECW One Night Stand was a great success and of course Vince took notice so he decided there was one thing to do: revive ECW!

When the "old school" ECW fans heard that ECW was coming back full time, they were thrilled but it didn't take long for that joy to turn to disappointment.  Although the new show on Sci Fi/SyFi was a ratings success at first, it could've been better and I think Vince deep down knew that.

Joey Styles did return on commentary and we did have Dreamer, Sandman, RVD, Sabu, & Balls Mahoney, and even the blown out brick wall entrance way, but unfortunately Paul Heyman wasn't in charge.  EVERYTHING that comes through the WWE’s doors is signed off on by Vince.  Also the ECW originals had to change to PG and couldn't use their old entrance themes (remember singing along with Metallica's Enter Sandman or AC/DC's Big Balls?) and to make matters worse, it wasn't it's own touring brand.  To save costs, ECW was on the same route as the Smackdown roster as an opener for them.  That's right, ECW was now the new Velocity.  I'm not even going to get into the Zombie or Kelly Kelly doing the worst striptease dance.  I realize it couldn't be exactly the same as the original ECW but come on, couldn't you at least keep the no DQ, no count outs?

They got rid of the familiar entrance way and replaced it with... whatever the hell this is supposed to be!

At the end of 2006, a PPV exclusive to the ECW brand, December to Dismember, took place but was the worst selling PPV of all time (nuff said!) and after that a fight between Paul Heyman and Vince McMahon led to Heyman's departure from the company and Vince became a staple on the ECW brand and....

No, this wasn't a photo shopped image, sadly.  Vince McMahon actually became the ECW Champion!  This was when I became convinced that Vince's true intentions with ECW was to destroy it and prove that WWE was the superior brand.

For the first two years of WWECW's existence, the familiar belt went through some changes:

I'll be honest, I wasn't too big on the original but I do like how the details are outlined in the WWE version of this belt.

But then came this:

(facepalm) and why was this the ONLY title on the ECW brand, what about the Tag-Team titles, what about the TV title?

Toward the end, Joey Styles was replaced by Mike Adamle (the former American Gladiators host) who didn't have a clue about wrestling *cough*Jeff Harvey*cough*.  In 2010, Vince McMahon announce he was folding WWE's ECW and nobody cared.  But it was all good though as by this time the only thing this version had in common with the original was the name.  Paul Heyman was long gone, Joey Styles was gone, the ECW originals were gone, its familiar opening theme was gone, it was no longer counter culture, it was no longer extreme.  It was now "Sports Entertainment", the very thing ECW rebelled against.  There was basically NOTHING to remind the fans of the show they once knew and loved.  It was replaced by NXT, which was a reality show at the time.  I didn't like NXT at first because it was like a watered down Tough Enough but when it was changed to the 3rd brand, It became great.  If WWECW was run the same way NXT is now, I think it would've been successful and maybe even still be running today.

To be fair, the ECW reboot wasn't totally bad.  It did serve as a place for younger talent and underutilized talent from RAW and SmackDown a chance to shine.  Guys like CM Punk, the Miz, John Morrison, and even Cody Rhodes.

Dana Dameson Shoot Interview Review

If you don't know who Dana Dameson is, prepare yourself because if this ring rat did leave a legacy during the very short time she was in the wrestling business (less than a year), it's definitely not a pretty one.  I never met her but I've heard all the stories - she's an all around horrible human being who makes Missy Hyatt look like a nun!  She's well known for being a racist, threatening to kill other women in wrestling and sleeping her way into the business.  But she's best known for a backstage incident with Homicide.

    After she was forced out of the business, she did a shoot interview with RF Video (owned by former ECW cameraman, ROH co-founder, and well known pedophile, Rob Feinstein of "lol ill pretend u said 18" fame).  But I was curious about what she could have possibly accomplished in just under a year to deserve a shoot interview and against my better judgement, I bought it.

Throughout the interview she just shuffles around in that chair telling lie after lie after lie.  Interestingly, she wears a black Playboy sweater and complains a few times that it's cold in the room but halfway through the interview, she takes off her sweater and does the rest of it in a purple bra, and believe me when I tell you that she did NOT give me a hard-on (1000000% honest!)

She talks about Billy Reil "going down" on her and how he told people her vagina stank.  After she trashed him for a looooonnnnnggggg time, she said he was "a good guy" and one minute later she said if he didn’t have a kid, she hoped he would drop dead.  Dear readers, I can't make this stuff up!

She also said that she doesn't hold grudges.  Yeah, I believe that like I believe Lance Von Erich really was related to the Von Erich brothers or that April Hunter really was Arch Kincaid's sister!  When asked about racism, Dana said that there was no possible way she could be a racist because she had friends that were both Spanish and black and proceeded to say “The thing about blacks or whatever is you have to fear them.”  Tell me THAT wasn't a racist statement!

Most claim she's never trained a day in her life while she claims to have trained 3 times but said that if she knew .  Her words to advice to other girls interested into getting into wrestling is to “Do what makes you happy, don't listen to anyone else and if you don’t want to train, don’t.”  Take that advice and you too can quickly get exiled from the business!

She also said that she was never unfaithful to her boyfriend (of 3 years at the time), which is funny because earlier she mentioned Billy Reil going down on her, and Feinstein himself later admitted to sleeping with her.  USA Pro/UXW owner Frank Goodman said the first day she got into the wrestling business at a USA pro show, she was giving sexual favors to Billy Reil, and wound up breaking up Billy Reil and Becky Bayless because of her whorish actions.

Now for the Main Event: Her incident with Homicide!  She also created problems between herself and Homicide, when it was made public that she said that he had sex with one of his students, Valentina (a.k.a. Lizzy Valentine from the short lived Wrestling Society X).  This comment, which was not a fact, was Dameson's ignorant attempt to insult Valentina even though the two had never met. Why Dana was trying to insult Valentina when Dana has never met Valentina is beyond me but it affected Homicide's personal life. Dameson's recollection of the incident was that at an AWA show, Homicide confronted her while adding, “I think he said something threatening to me.” She claims she doesn’t remember falling down at the time and said, “maybe I did (fall down), maybe he pushed me.” but said she didn't press charges because she couldn't afford a lawyer.  She then claimed her comment was just a joke but why would she joke about something like that?

Homicide's version of the story is backed up by the rest of the AWA locker room: She walked into the AWA building, and walked right into the locker room, where she was not an invited guest.  Homicide saw her, and told her, "We need to talk." Dana immediately overreacted and shrieked. She ran away instead of talking her problems out with him.  I don't think he had any violent intentions toward her but does admit to accidentally ripping her jacket.  She ran into her car, and sped off, but not before hitting a car and driving off. For someone who has called the cops numerous times, you think she wouldn't commit a hit and run offense in front of so many witnesses. If she was indeed joking about that whole thing, she could've talked it out with him.

JAPW Booker, Ray Sager, said Dana Dameson would no longer be welcome at future JAPW shows as a fan or as a performer. 

Frank Goodman, of USA Pro/UXW, said that she will never be used again and that she was nothing but a disturbance from day one.  She also gave away USA Pro storylines to Carmine Sabia, and tried making Carmine tell me what to do." Kathleen Goodman, Frank's wife, added, "She even made our son's nose bleed!"

My personal opinion: she's an idiot.  If you're thinking about buying this shoot interview, do yourself a favor and don't! (unless you like being lied to).  The wrestling business is not for everyone and it’s definitely not for Dana Dameson.  Her only positive contribution was leaving!

     R.I.P. the career of Dana Dameson (2003-2004)