The Top 5

The other night my I had an interesting conversation with my good friend about who the top 5 wrestlers of all time are.

Obviously any list of this nature is an opinion only, with the fact that some people have all time favorites that didn't last long or that weren't transcendent but rather, they just were a personal favorite. For me, Kevin Fertig (who first did the Mordecai and then the Kevin Thorn characters in WWE) would fall into that category.

So I needed to come up with a criteria.

First of all length of career is important. A wrestler like the Ultimate Warrior was huge for a period of time but he did not stick around for a long time.

Secondly a significant impact on the wrestling world. I mentioned Kevin Fertig above. Yes the characters he played were a little more gimmicky and brought something different to the table but you can't say that he had a significant impact on the wrestling world. He was just a cool character for a period of time.

Third; DO NOT consider their personality outside of wrestling. For example we all know that Ric Flair is a complete mess outside the ring. He's been divorced so many times and has no money left. He also is known to drink too much and party too hard, but I'm not going to hold that against him. We're only talking in a wrestling context here, not personal life.

Fourth; Championships do not matter. They sure don't hurt of course but, you can not compare numbers. Brunno Sammartino had the WWWF had only 2 title reigns but they lasted a combined 11 years. Meanwhile Triple H has won 13 world championships which haven't lasted half the time Sammartino was champion. Of course Roddy Piper never won the NWA/WCW/WWE world championship and is still considered an all time great. On the flip side Ric Flair has won 16 world championships....or 21 as he says. Which proves the point that there are many discrepancies. So world championships are not to be taken into consideration, though they tend to be associated with the all time greats.

I should also note that these are NOT my all time favorite wrestlers. In fact only one of these 5 would make it to my top 5 list of personal all time favorites (which may be a blog post for the future).

With that all said. My top 5 (in no particular order)

Ric Flair: I don't see how anyone can have a top 5 list and leave out Ric Flair, for over 40 years he's been one of the top names in wrestling. Known for his playboy gimmick (going so far as to once arrive to a wrestling event in a helicopter) and lavish clothes Ric Flair had the rare ability to wrestle good matches and work the mic very well. His trademark "Woo" can still be heard at wrestling shows today when a series of chops is preformed. The 16 time world champion was the hottest thing going in the NWA/WCW and became famous for his feuds with Ricky Steamboat, Sting, Dusty Rhodes and, Harley Race. He was the lead member of the famous 4 Horsemen group that through it's lifetime created many new stars. Through the 70s and 80s Ric Flair was the star of the NWA/WCW while Hulk Hogan was the star of the WWF. Then in 1991 Ric Flair jumped ship WITH the WCW championship belt. You see back in the NWA days the champion had to pay a deposit on the world championship belt when they won it. The NWA thought that would be the way that they could ensure getting the belt back when it was time for a champion to loose it. Ric Flair dropped and won the belt back so many times that he never bothered to collect his deposit and felt that he was owed his deposit back now that he changed companies. WCW sued him and eventually Flair gave the belt back and just wore a replica version on WWF TV, but for the first little while both WCW's and WWF's championship belts were on WWF tv, another reason Ric Flair is one of the all time greats, he made memorable moments at every turn. Eventually he went back to WCW in 1993 and, like most big names who wrestled in WCW during the late 90s/early 2000s he became a bit stale. When WWF bought WCW Ric came back, first as an owner of the Raw brand, then as the elder statesman of Evolution, a group that included Triple H, Batista and, Randy Orton and was very 4 Horsemen like. Right up until 2008 Flair remained a somewhat active wrestler and wrestled the big names you never got to see him wrestle like Shawn Michaels Triple H, Edge and, Chris Jericho.
Flair has gone on to sints in ROH and TNA as well, in both cases as the authority figure role with limited wrestling.
Without question Ric Flair's signature robes and crimson masks are some of the most memorable moment's in wrestling history and generations later up and coming wrestlers still claim he has been part of the reason they have gotten into wrestling.
That's why Ric Flair makes my top 5.

Mil Mascaras: Much like Antonio Anoki (who I'll talk about later) Mil Mascaras was a huge cultural icon who helped revolutionize wrestling. It all started in 1965. Mascaras rose to fame quickly because he was a well conditioned luchador in a heavyweight division that was dominated by foreigners at that time. Unlike most luchadores, who tend to be short and not heavy enough to be heavyweights, Mascaras was able to compete in Mexico, the USA and, Japan as a heavyweight. This alone set him apart from most luchadores. He was also one of the first luchdores to complete outside of Mexico in non-heel rolls and was known for being an expert when it came to countering moves. He's also credited for being one of the first wrestlers to bring the luchador style of wrestling to Japan.
1968 was the year Mascaras made his debut internationally, starting to wrestle in the Los Angeles area predominately gaining his fame by wrestling Ernie Ladd. In 1971 he debuted for All Japan Pro Wrestling and defeated Kantaro Hoshino. During this period in time he gained fame by wrestling an American masked wrestler known as The Destroyer.  During the '70s, Máscaras also had feuds with Mexican wrestlers such as TNT, El Canek, El Halcon, and Angel Blanco. These feuds took place mostly in Mexico and the USA, and were broadcast on Spanish language stations in the USA. Interesting little fact: during the 70s Mascaras was also the heavyweight champion of the IWA wrestling promotion, which was founded by Eddie Einhorn, and still holds the title to this day.
Mascaras made his wasy to the WWF in the late 70s after a ban on masked wrestlers was lifted specifically for him. During his time in the WWF he had a feud with "Superstar" Billy Graham over the WWF Championship. in the 1980s and 1990s Mascaras went over to Puerto Rico to wrestle for World Wrestling Council on a regular basis.
Mascaras ended up in WCW in 1990 and wrestled Cactus Jack at clash of the champions and, would make his return to WWF in 1997 at the Royal Rumble.
In 1991 Mascaras won his last championship, the WWA (Mexico) World Heavyweight Championship. He held that title until 1994 and at that time he assumed a semi-retired role in the wrestling world.

Clearly Mil Mascaras wrestled all around the world for all the big promotions but, he also was a massive movie star in Mexico. That career all started in 1966 when he was cast to be in a wrestler/horror movie which was the popular genre at the time. In fact, this movie was the launching point of the Mil Mascaras character and his wrestling career started as promotional appearances for this movie. You see at the time Enrique Vergara (a Mexican film producer) had issues with his 2 stars walking out on him. Those 2 starts were actually Blue Demon (who was actually injured) and Santos (contract dispute). So, because Vergara didn't want to stop making his films, which were quick to make and successful, he decided to use Mil Mascaras as he was new and relatively unknown to the wrestling world at the time and, his wrestling trunks were very flashy. Perfect for the movie world.
So, Mascaras was scheduled to appear in 2 movies. The first was simply called Mil Mascaras and was a black and white origin story about a kid who adopted by scientists and was created to be a superhero of sorts. Very "comic book-esk". Los Canallas was the second movie in which Mascaras fought a gang.
Federico Curiel directed the next 2 movies Mascaras was in. Enigma of Death and Las Vampiras. Both featured John Carradine as the "bad guy". Enigma of Death had Mascaras facing off against an underground Nazi group while Las Vampiras had him facing off against a cult of femlae vampires.
In 1970 Curiel then had a brilliant idea, it was time to make a couple "team up movies". First one was The Mummies of Guanajuato in which Mascaras, Blue Demon and, El Santo teamed up to take on a team of mummies. That movie became the highest grossing Mexican wrestler film of all time. The Champions of Justice (also 1970) saw Mil in action with fellow wrestlers Blue Demon, Tinieblas, El Medico Asesino and La Sombra Vengadora (who all joined together as sort of a super-team to fight monsters, mad scientists, criminals, evil dwarves or whatever else crossed their paths.) He would continue to do team up movies through 1983 gaining the reputation as the "team up king". The one exception being 1972's A Rose in the Ring.
In 2007 Mil Mascaras vs the Aztec Mummy (or Mil Mascaras: Resurrection) was the first movie in the wrestler genere done by "the big 3" (Mascaras, Blue Demon and, Santo) to be made in English. The film was screened at film festivals around the world and even got a magazine cover as late as 2012. Mascaras is not retired from movies and is currently working on his 20th film.

Mascaras, like many traditional luchadores, has made it very important that his real identity is not seen and wears his masks in public at all times. He's never been unmasked in the ring. He is also an uncle to the current world heavyweight champion in WWE Alberto Del Rio. He also has appeared on 3 stamps in Mexico.

For being the predecessor to what The Rock is now doing, for being an international wrestling star and, for being a defining figure in Mexican pop culture Mil Mascaras makes my top 5.

Andre the Giant: The 8th wonder of the world, Andre the Giant's career spanned over 30 years and across the globe, a popular name in both North America and Japan. In his early days, he was a hot commodity for territories who needed a boost at the gates and Vince McMahon sr. would loan him out all over the country and as a result his career's wins and losses were lied about and he was billed as an undefeated Giant. He grew to the main event level in WWf in the late 80s wrestling names like Ken Patera and King Kong Bundy. It was during this era he made his appearance in the classic film "The Princess Bride" and was one of the first crossovers from wrestling to movies, something that hulk Hogan would later do to a bigger degree. Then in 1987 Andre turned heel, setting up the "biggest match of all time" as Hogan was the top babyface at the time. It all culminated at Wrestlemania 3 at the Pontiac Silverdome just outside of Detroit, Michigan. Andre was being billed as "the only undefeated wrestler in professional wrestling" as well as weighing 520 pounds and seven feet tall. Of course, in those days it was easier to lie about all this stuff as WWF had just become the first national promotion and the history of wrestlers was very blurry from territory to territory. Andre went on to loose via bodyslam and leg drop to Hogan and that helped cement Hogan as one of the all time greatest.
Andre went on to be the "goon" for the Million Dollar Man, winning the WWF championship and "sold" the championship to Ted DiBiase in one of the more famous and original storylines of all time. From there he went on to feud with Jake Roberts, team with Haku and, eventually became the guy who was constantly used by WWF to make up and comers look better.
For being the first wrestler to star in multiple movies, for his involvement in making huge starts like Hogan and DiBiase, for being the "8th wonder of the world" and, for becoming a worldwide wrestling legend Andre makes my top 5.

Chris Jericho: This may see a little surprising as Jericho is a WWE guy and why wouldn't I pick the The Rock or Stone Cold over Jericho? Well I plan on telling you.
It's been almost 30 years that Jericho has been in the business, believe it or not. From his training at the Heart Brothers Wrestling School where he met Lance Storm and immediately set out as one of the best tag teams on the independent scene to becoming the go-to guy in WWE right now Jericho has done it all.
Jericho started wrestling in 1990 exactly and was a hot commodity in the Canadian independent scene fairly quick. Being known for partnering with Lance Storm and feuding with the guys who eventually would be Christian and Edge. Only a year into his career Jericho made his way to Japan, Germany and, eventually Mexico's famous CMLL. Along the way he wrestled names like Ultimo Dragon, Silver King, Gedo, the Rock n' Roll Express and, the Pegasus Kid (Chris Benoit).
Jericho came to ECW by 1996, just over 5 years into his career. He didn't stay in ECW long due to his strong matches with RVD, Taz, Sabu, 2 Cold Scorpio and, Shane Douglas.
In August of 1996 Jericho made his way to WCW, making his name by competing as part of the cruiser weight division that had gotten it's reputation as having fast paced matches and was lined with stars from Mexico and Japan. His work with wrestlers like Rey Mysterio, Alex Wright and, Juventude Guerrera got him a push in WCW which is something that was rare for wrestlers in that cruiser weight division. in 1998 Jericho made his way into the the TV championship picture and really started to blossom. His character became an ego maniac that did really weird things all the time, including one night on Nitro when he listed the 1,001 holds that he knew and during his feud with Saturn constantly asking for matches with weird stipulations like "the looser wears a dress match". During this time Jericho could not get booked as a main event star and became annoyed with WCW and eventually just let his contract run out so he could go elsewhere.
That's where the famous Y2J problem came to be. A series of videos, playing off the "Y2K" computer scares would pop up on WWF shows counting down a debut. It caused tons of conversation "who is it?". Finally on August 9, 1999 the Y2J problem arrived in WWF.....and we would never, eeevvveeerrr be the same again. The first long feud Jericho was involved in was for the Intercontinental championship and it was against Chyna in which they shared the title. Right off the bat Jericho was being different and making a name for himself. Buy 2001 Jericho was one of the most over babyfaces in WWF due to his incredible mic skills and when WWF decided to merge the WCW and WWF championships Jericho got his first huge push and became the first ever undisputed champion, which he held until Wrestlemania 18.
He then went on to one of my all tiem favorite fueds/teams with Christian. The were originally a tag team, with Jericho having a love intrest in Trish Stratus which they agreed would not work due to a bet over 1 Canadian Dollar that was offensive to women, They made amends, making Jericho face and eventually Trish turned on Jericho, revealing her and Christian were a couple which lead to a match between Jericho and Christian. Jericho continued his persuit of the world championships until he left WWE in 2005.
In 2007 Jericho returned after spending time with his band, Fozzy and working on various TV projects.
He returned with a similar countdown clock, this time in a more Matrix style clock. When he returned he claimed that he was coming back to WWE to save all the fans from the how boring things had become. He was a cocky, well dressed heel that was a self proclaimed savior of the WWE. He started feuding with the big names like Shawn Micheals and Randy Orton, Even teaming with Big Show as Jeri-show. It was this period in time from 2007 to 2010 in which he cemented himself as a main event star. He left again in 2010 and wouldn't be seen until September 2011. Again working on his band and other various projects.
His 2011 return he re-invented himself again! He came out with a jacket that had flashing lights and would be jumping and high fiveing fans but every time he went to speak on the mic, he could find the words. Essentially, Jericho turned himself heel (as he was a face at his return due to the crowds cheers) without saying a word! Since his 2011 return he's been used in feds with up and coming stars to help them get over by giving them a good match every night.
Jericho's band, Fozzy, has released 5 studio albums and have gone from being a gimmicky cover band to a serious rock band. Jericho has also written 3 books, 4 movies, been part of 7 TV shows, participated in sketch comedy troupes and, has been a main actor in a theatrical production called Opening Night.
For his ability to constantly reinvent himself as a wrestler, his microphone skills and, his ability to be a significant part of popular culture Chris Jericho makes my top 5 wrestlers of all time.

Antonio Inoki: I think if I left this gentleman off the list it'd be one of my biggest mistakes. Antonio Inoki met Japanese superstar wrestler, Rikidozan at the age of 17 and (along with another future star, Giant Baba) became one of Rikidozan's "disciples" or students right up until the time of Rikidozan's death.
During the 1960s Inoki wrestled in the USA from time to time and flipped between Japan Wrestling association and Tokyo Pro Wrestling. It wasn't until 1971 when Inoki was fired from Japan Wrestling Association (he was planning a takeover of the promotion) that his significance went from being a popular wrestler to becoming a massive hero in Japan.
It was 1972 when Inoki started New Japan Pro Wrestling, A promotion that was considered as saving pro wrestling from the Yakuza and all the scandals that happened during Rikidozan's days. Inoki, became a big legend in Japan when he fought Muhammad Ali in 1976 in a "Boxing vs wrestling" match. Unfortunately it was for the wrong reasons as the match was scored a draw, Anoki, who's strategy was to lay on the ground and kick up at Ali, said later that he had, in fact, won but lost points due to penalties. Of course Ali just called Inoki a cheater. To this day people still are not certain if this was a worked match or not.
Inoki continued his legacy on November 30, 1979 when he beat WWF champion Bob Backlund in Japan for the WWF title. Then on December 6 they had a rematch which Backlund won but the title did not change hands due to interference but, Inoki refused the title and it was declared vacant. Later, Backund won the belt back and WWE still does not recognize this event as a title change (this is why you see one title reign for Backlund from 1978-1983 as the official record).
Inoki became so popular in Japanese culture that in 1989 Inoki established his own political group, the sports and peace part and was elected into the Japanese Legislature. In fact, in 1990 he was sent to negotiate with Saddam Hussein  over the release of Japanese prisoners being held hostage in Iraq.
1995 saw another high profile match involving Inoki. The Japanese and Korean governments had arranged a 2 day peace festival. Part of the festivities was a TV segment in which Inoki went to Rikidozan's grave site and paid tribute to his career. The day after Inoki and Ric Flair had a match in which Inoki won.
From 1994 to 1998 Inoki had his retirement tour billed as "the final countdown". The series was all re-matches of his famous matches culminating in a match with Don Frye.
As the years went on Inoki's influence with New Japan continued to decline, culminating in selling his 51.5% share in the company to Yuke's (A video game company). He has since started a new promotion (in 2007) called Inoki Genome Federation.

For being a pioneer of Japanese pro wrestling, for being in some of the most high profile matches of all time and, for remaining relevant in Japanese wrestling AND politics since the 1970s Anotnio Inoki makes my top 5 wrestlers of all time.

With that said, this is just how I feel.
I realize that there are names out there like Lou Thez, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Hulk Hogan, Shawn Michaels, Gorgeous George, Buddy Rogers, "Whipper" Bill Watson and, Sting (just to name a few) that deserve consideration for this list. Don't get me wrong, these people all deserve a place in wrestling's history and I'm not taking anything away from them, I just think these 5 are the biggest influences on the wrestling world.

Calin Wild

The Wild Beast

Last week I posted a player profile on Brampton's own Jason Pitton. This week I'm following it up with the second signing announced by the Beast at Oscar's Roadhouse on July 11.

Calin "The Wild Beast" Wild (Yes I'm going to try to get that nickname to stick) has had a more direct path to Brampton that Jason Pitton has. As we were told, he currently lives in Brampton but he is originally from Winnipeg. He's 6'1, weighs 180 pounds, plays center and, shoots left.

Calin started his career with the Winnipeg South Blues in junior "A" in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League. That was the 2004-05 season and he scored 21 points and amassed 41 penalty minutes.

From there, Calin went to university. He spent 4 years (2006-07 to 2009-10) playing for the University of Manitoba while obtaining his bachelor of commerce. His 4 years at university consisted of 111 regular season games in which he scored 44 points and 104 penalty minutes. In addition to that, he played 6 playoff games in 2009-10 where get obtained 2 PIM. Calin received the Mike Ridley award in 2006-07 which is for "superior athletic ability, good academic standing and, high level of leadership as a full time student.". He also participated in a 100 hour non-stop ball hockey game that same season. It set the Guinness world record for the largest non-stop game of ball hockey and raised money for the Canadian Cancer Society.

For the 2010-11 season Calin signed with the then Texas Brahmas of the Central Hockey League. In 55 games he scored 21 points and 24 PIM. He also played 4 playoff games in which he scored 1 goal, 1 assist and 2 penalty minutes.

In August 2011 Calin signed with the Gwinnett Gladiators of the East Coast Hockey League. Unfortunately that didn't stick and he was released by the Gladiators in October but returned to play the 2011-12 season with the Texas Brahmas. The 65 games he played that season brought him 23 points and 33 PIM. The Brahmas went a little deeper into the playoffs and in 12 games during the 2011-12 season he scored 1 goal, 3 assists and, 4 PIM.

October of 2012 was a little nicer to Calin than October of 2011. The Brahmas, who were bought by a Fort-Worth based investment group and re-named the Fort Worth Brahams, signed Calin to a 1 year extension. 2012-13 saw only 43 games for Calin but he managed 32 points (the most he has gotten in the CeHL) and 17 PIM. The Brahmas then went to the playoffs and Calin scored 2 goals and 1 assist with 2 PIM during the 9 games.

Unfortunately, there were ownership issues in Fort Worth. Some of the financial contributors never ended up coming to the table with the money promised and during the 2012-13 season the Brahmas struggled financially. As a result of the financial difficulties the franchise announced that they would go inactive for at least the 2013-14 season while trying to find a more favorable lease as well as financial backing. With the Brahmas going dormant the CeHL made the players on the Brahmas all free agents. This is how Calin ended up a member of the Brampton Beast.

I'll leave you with a little interview Calin did while in Gwinnett:

Jason Pitton Profile

Last week I did a little re-cap of the Brampton Beast player signing announcements. Today I wanted to take the time out and do a little player profile on Jason Pitton.
Jason is actually a Brampton native, which is a nice tie-in for the team. He's a 27 year old who was drafted by the Islanders in the 2004 Entry Draft. Jason stands at 6'2 and weighs 215 lbs.

Jason started his career on the path to pro hockey in the 2002-03 season with the Brampton Capitals of the OPJHL (junior B). He did manage to get 1 game in with his OHL team that season, the Sault Saint Marie Greyhounds.

For the 2003-04 and 2004-05 seasons Jason spent the time with the Greyhounds scoring 66 points and 76 penalty minutes.
2004 was the year of his draft and he was selected by the New York Islanders in the 8th round, 244th overall. The Islanders decided to send him back to the OHL for some more seasoning and, In his final OHL season (2005-06) Jason was traded to the Guelph Storm about halfway through the season. That season he came up with 50 PIM and 42 points.

The 2006-07 season was spent with the Islander's AHL affiliate, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Jason scored 19 points that year but came out with 65 penalty minutes.

2007-08 was split between the ECHL's Utah Grizzlies and Bridgeport. over 44 games in the 2 leagues Jason scored 18 points and 45 PIM.

2008-09 was a bit of a step up as Jason managed to stay in the AHL all season, but he only scored 4 points. He came out with 47 PIM.

In 2009-10 Jason signed a contract with the Stockton Thunder of the ECHL. So did younger brother Bryan who plays goaltender. Jason spent 38 games with the team scoring 24 points and 48 PIM. As a result, he earned a professional tryout agreement with the Spingfield Falcons of the AHL. He spent 25 games with the Falcons and scored 1 goal, 1 assist and got 22 PIM. He then returned to the Stockton Thunder of the ECHL for the playoffs. In 15 playoff games he scored 14 points and added 20 PIM..

2010-11 Was a really interesting season for Jason. He returned to the Stockton Thunder and in 41 games during the course of the ECHL season he scored 30 points and 73 PIM. The thing about the season that made it so interesting was that Stockton loaned him to 3 separate AHL teams during the course of the season. I haven't been able to find out exactly why in each case, but I can assume that it was either to cover for a call up to the NHL or injury related. He spent 1 game with the Manitoba Moose where he did not score and ended up with 2 PIM. Jason spent 9 games with the Worcester Sharks where he scored 2 goals, 1 assist and, got 7 PIM. Finally he spent 16 games with his old team, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. He scored 1 goal and 4 assists in Bridgeport and also ended up with 7 PIM.

For the 2011-12 season Jason decided to head over to Italy. He signed with HC Asiago of the Italian "La Serie A di hockey su ghiaccio" or "A series of ice hockey" in hockey. Asiago was the 2 time defending Serie A champions. He played 32 games with Asiago ending with 21 points and 86 PIM. Unfortunately there was no repeat.

2012-13 took Jason to the EIHL (Elite Ice Hockey League) in the United Kingdom. He joined the Fife Flyers, a team based in Scotland. The Flyers were actually established in 1938 and have won 60 Scottish and British titles over the years.
Jason was reunited with his younger brother Bryan, who himself is a former member of the Brampton Battalion. In 50 games in the UK Jason scored 58 points and got 187 PIM.

Here is a video done by the Fife Flyers about Jason

Now, it's all come full circle. Jason is back at home and ready to play 2013-14 for the Brampton Beast.

Darren O'Dea

I was reading Duane Rollins' recent column over at Canadian Soccer News about Darren O'Dea leaving Toronto FC.

The paragraph that really hit home is this one:

What we do know is that a 26 year old player, good enough for his national team and good enough to be named captain, who could have been part of Toronto FC for a number of years into the future won’t be sticking around. Regardless of the arguments over its necessity, and obvious lack of efficacy, the culture of disposability at TFC hasn't been changed.

This signing was one of the best signings in club history in my opinion. A young player who is clearly one of the best from his country (being an Irish international) who wanted to come to TFC and help fix the struggling back line. To boot, due to his age, he could have stuck around for a long time and started to turn TFC into a place for some higher profile players to consider coming to.

I strongly believe that this is one of the worst moves TFC has made to date. O'Dea is worth the $200K they are were paying him in my opinion.

I'm really not happy about this.

Beast Unleashed

On Tuesday night I received a tweet from the Brampton Beast, inviting me to come out to a player signing announcement event. I thought that was really cool of the team and it goes to what I was saying in my previous blog post about the Beast in terms of their goal to reach out to the community and actually try to sell tickets (as opposed to the Battalion who never advertised).

So my good friend and I went down to Oscar's Roadhouse, a local Brampton restaurant, to check out the event. I have to admit, I was surprised when we arrived to find that the restaurant was packed. We got a seat in the back corner and settled in to hear the news.

The first person we heard from was Carey Kaplin. Carey is the President, General Manager and, co-owner of the Beast. The first thing he mentioned was that the team has sold 2,000 tickets to every game thus far (keep in mind he did not say that they sold 2,000 season seats) and that the club feels that they are trending towards getting sell out crowds. I remain in the "I'll believe it when I see it" frame of mind. In all fairness, that's not directed towards the team but rather the citizens of Brampton and how much they really care for hockey.
Carey also mentioned that the Beast will have both an NHL and a AHL affiliation team and that will be announced in the next couple of months. Personally that was the biggest news of the night to me. If the team can gain an affiliation then they may get a chance to be loaned an AHL player coming back from an injury which can't hurt the ticket sales.
The next piece of information is that the new scoreboard is about to begin construction. Apparently it will be big one too, spanning from blue line to blue line. I got the impression that it will basically be a mini version of the scoreboard the Dallas Cowboys have in their new stadium, which is to say a big video screen in a rectangular shape.
There was also mention that the team's jersey will be unveiled soon and there will be another event for that (which I'm looking forward to) but we were basically told to "stay tuned" for that information.
We were also told that the Beast intend on having plenty of give-a-ways at all of their games and theme nights. I'm sure my friends over at the Chris Creamer Sports Logo Community will look forward to those themed nights (and potential themed jerseys) as much as I will.

Next a video was played showing pictures from the community event the Beast have attended, I do not recall the number mentioned now but I know it was over 100. That was pretty impressive.

Next up we had counselor Sanderson. He didn't really say anything in terms of news. He gave the Beast organization kudos for their community involvement, told us that he bought his season tickets and, told us to buy our season seats. The highlight of his speech was when he said the Battalion didn't ever do a thing to advertise. I found that funny. True, but funny. In fairness to counselor Sanderson, he did say that he wished the Battalion the best of luck right after.

At this point head coach Mark DeSantis came up and told the crowd that he has been constantly on the phone and the computer scouting and talking to player agents. He mentioned that his goal is to have a competitive team right off the bat. He admitted that it is hard as an expansion team to do so but he wanted a winning team. He then went into the player signing announcements:

Calin Wild is the first player announced. Cal is a Brampton resident who was born in Winnipeg. Calin played the last 3 season with the Texas/Fort Worth Brahmas organisation who are right now an "inactive" team looking for a new venue to play in. Calin seems to be about a 20 point a season who plays center. My friend kind of laughed when he heard Calin's last name mentioning that it was perfect to fit in with the club's branding. Calin "The Beast" Wild, ha ha ha.

The second player announced was Jason Pitton. Jason was born and raised in Brampton. Jason is a former member of the old Junior "B" Brampton Capitals, played with the Sault Saint Marie Greyhounds and Guelph Storm in the OHL. He's the older brother of former Battalion goaltender Bryan Pitton and spent last year with his brother in the UK playing for the Fife Flyers. Jason plays on the left wing.





Finally, Bret Smith (the first Beast signing) came up to the podium to confirm he will wear number 41. He mentioned that the Beast said they were so excited to sign him and that when he arrived in Brampton they gave him the number 14 and he started to wonder if they really wanted him (jokingly of course). He also said that he was glad to have some teammates because he wasn't sure if he could do it all himself. Seems like a pretty funny guy.

The night ended with a couple of questions from the audience, nothing serious, just wanting to know the players positions, ect.

All in all, pretty much what you would expect from a player announcement but it was cool that the team gave out so much information as to what they are working on so willingly.

Next week I plan on going into more depth on the players with a some player profiles, so stay tuned if you'd like to hear more about the Brampton Beast players.

***Edit: The nickname was to be Calin "The Wild Beast" Wild. My apologies Garrett!***

Diego Frolan to TFC?

I got a text this morning from a good friend of mine.

"Did I just hear that TFC is signing Diego? Fancy!".

I asked said friend what she (take note of the gender) thought of the signing. The response was basically "Well he is an MVP and he's sexy LOL".

Now don't get me wrong here, I'm not going to slag my friend at all. She's not exactly a soccer fanatic and she probably represents a large portion of the population. It's clear she has the perception that TFC is signing a star player (well he was 4 years ago in reference to her MVP comment). I even saw a New England fan tweet this morning that he would like to purchase a Forlan TFC jersey.

The stats speak for themselves. From 2007 to 2011 he played 134 league games and score 74 goals. He also played 62 international games and 22 goals. That was all part of his stay with Athletico Madrid. In this time frame he won the Golden Ball (best player of the tournament) at the 2010 FIFA World Cup and became Uruguay's all time leading scorer.

From 2011 up until the end of the 2013 season (in Brazil) he played 37 club games and scored 7 goals. Meanwhile he only had 2 appearances on the international stage, no goals. This time from was spent between 2 different clubs as well, Inter Milan and Internacional.

So now that I've laid out the stats to back it up, here's my opinion on this signing:

Stupid.

Yup, that's it. It clear that he's at a stage where he's older and more injury prone, This is not his fault, this is a common occurrence for players who are coming towards the end of their career. You can't blame the player for this, you can only blame TFC management.
I mean, a simple look on the internet would have told you his stats and that should be enough to think "maybe this isn't going to be a good idea, he obviously isn't as productive as he used to be.".

Now, If TFC comes out and says "look, we realize that he's not as productive as he once was but we wanted to bring in a player that has name recognition" then I'll be less upset. But who am I kidding? That's not going to happen. This is TFC trying to make the big name signing in order to get some more butts in the seats. That's fine too, but I have no disillusions of this being anything other than that and I think if TFC tries to sell us on this being a tactical signing then they are stupid.

I hate when players like this come into MLS. It's a wasted roster spot. If MLS has a grand vision of being one of the top leagues in the world by 2020 (tm: Don Garber) then they have to stop signing old players who aren't worth the insane amounts of money they sign for. We've seen this story with TFC before, Danny Kovermans (who by the way, I really like), Toresten Frings (another player I liked but was injury prone) and, Mista. They play so little because they are injured half the time and usually it all ends with a player being waived and a career ending. If TFC is going to be bad on the field, I'd rather they use that roster spot to sign a young Canadian player and let that player develop in MLS.

This signing may sell some more tickets but it's probably not going to help the team win at all.
It's starting to feel like nothing ever will.
That sincerely makes me sad.

The Beast

For those of you who don't know, the OHL's Brampton Battalion decided to pack up and move to North Bay. Poor attendance and an unfavorable lease agreement with the city of Brampton's Powerade Centre being the reasons. It was sad to see the Battalion go but, when butts aren't in the seats what do you expect will happen?

It didn't take long for the city of Brampton to come up with some alternative content to put in the Powerade Centre. The Brampton A's of the National Basketball League of Canada will be 1 option.
The Brampton Beast of the Central Hockey League is the other option.

Now, I'm not going to kid myself. These are 2 leagues that call themselves professional but are anything but professional. I'll go check out the A's mostly because I want to see what basketball will look like in the "Powerade" as I call it. That's not what I wanted to post about today though.

The Brampton Beast are the team I want to speak about. Let me give you a little background on the Central Hockey League.
The CeHL (as opposed to CHL because the Canadian Hockey League gets the CHL short form) is technically a mid-level minor professional hockey league. In terms of the North American hockey pyramid, it is tier 4. Currently the league does have NHL and AHL affiliates but rarely will you see NHL prospects play in the league.

The Beast themselves came to be on March 8, 2013. Clearly the OHL is considered a much better brand of hockey so the question lingers, why are the Beast and the CeHL going to work when the Battalion and the OHL didn't?

I don't know that they are, if I can be completely honest. This is the only Canadian team in the league, in fact the next closest team is located in Moline, Illinois (3 hours west of Chicago). So travel cost are going to be expensive. Obviously Brampton is not a "hockey town". The attendance number for the Battalion proved that to be the case and if the OHL is a better brand of hockey then what would make the people come out to see the Beast?

Well, there are a few reasons. Reason number one is that the city is working very closely with this team. As far as I have been able to find out, the city thought that the Battalion weren't going anywhere and could basically negotiate a nice chunk of change as rent for the Powerade Centre. Of course that caused a problem with Scott Abott (owner of the Battalion...and, side fun fact, co creator of the board game Trivial Pursuit) and was part of the reason he moved the team. I have to think the Beast are paying less than the Battalion ever did but, in all fairness, I don't know that for a fact. This time around the city has also committed to installing a new state of the art score clock.

Reason number two: advertising in the community. This was literally NEVER done with the Battalion. I guess the Battalion figured that because Brampton re-named all the rep hockey teams after the OHL team, that was advertisement enough. Of course not, the hockey community is going to know about the hockey teams they can go see, it's the people outside of that community that you need to advertise to! As of today, I've seen the Beast have representatives at every city event. Last night (July 1st) I saw them at 10pm in the park where the city's firework display was going off. I've seen them outside of Brampton's theatre for the preforming arts (called the Rose Centre) and, I've even seen them at the farmer's market. In fact; my grandmother, who couldn't care less about hockey, even saw them at an event for seniors and she asked me what kind of hockey the Beast are. That's getting your name out there.

Reason three is not a sure-fire thing,  but it helps. Brampton's minority owner and president/GM is Cary Kiplan. Cary is a former Canadian Soccer League commissioner and former president of the Hamilton Bulldogs. My feelings aside on the CSL (they are very strongly negative, but that's another story for another day) that's still a pretty impressive resume.

Don't get me wrong, I don't expect the Beast to be a success. According to the management of the club, they have sold 2,000 tickets for every game next season. This is about the numbers the Battalion did (including walk up) so the team has more work to do, but if they keep getting out there in the community and make sure that people know their name then maybe this team does stand a chance.