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Beginners guide to Jiu-Jitsu

Trying out Jiu-Jitsu can be a huge challenge for beginners. Firstly, this is a form of martial arts that is focused on grappling, submission holds and ground fighting. Initially, you would be overwhelmed with the number of techniques used in Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu but it is something that anyone can catch on. As a beginner, you would be fascinated with the variations, combinations, and impressive fighting stances and moves that you see on Jiu-Jitsu players.

To get there, you should be able to master the basics first.

Be Coachable

The most important thing, as with learning anything, is that you are able to be coached. This is a part of the discipline required of the sport. The first thing a coach will teach you is your fighting stance. This is the very first pose that you would be doing for every fight. You would also be taught some key principles including distance management. This is when you react to your opponent by doing the opposite, if they step forward, you have to step back, and vice versa. This is covered in lessons about footwork. Training on the proper way of standing up from the ground called technical stand up will also be taught.

The Basic Movements In Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu

It is easy to get ambitious and want to learn the movements you see on players when they fight. These are common among professionals whenever you see them on the TV or in actual fights. But before you can even get to learning those complex techniques, you need to master the basic BJJ movements for beginners first. These basic movements will be your foundation in creating those techniques. The first one is what you call shrimping and bridging. These movements are what sew most of the techniques together. Gripping is also one of the most essential parts of training for Jiu-Jitsu to make the succeeding techniques easier. Your grip strength will become more powerful over time as you train and improve on your movements. Breathing properly is also taught throughout all your training. The most difficult among these is passing the guard, a way to make your opponent open up his guard to prepare for an attack. The most complex one is armbars which can be executed from different positions.

Patience Is Key

Patience is important in learning Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu. You should be able to take time to master the basics and commit to training to the best of your ability. If you go on ahead of yourself, you are at risk of injuring yourself and injuring others as well. This is just like any other sport too wherein you have to train your body outside of Jiu-Jitsu in order to gain muscles, improve your physique, and get a stronger body overall.

Jiu-Jitsu is a great combat sport to learn about self-defense that you can use in times of danger. Learning Jiu-Jitsu would require you to submit yourself to your coach and be teachable. It will also teach you that the basics are important and being patient will get you to master the sport.

NXT Cruiserweight title tournament rules and participants announced

WWE has revealed the format and participants of the upcoming tournament that will crown an interim NXT Cruiserweight champion. The news was announced last week by William Regal due to the current champion, Jordan Devlin, being stuck in Ireland and unable to defend the title.

The eight-man tournament will be split in two groups of four with Superstars competing against each of the three other members of their group. The one with the best record in each group will advance to the championship match and any ties will be broken by head-to-head record. The winner of group A will then face the winner of group B to determine the new interim NXT Cruiserweight champion.

Those in group A include Kushida, Drake Maverick, Tony Nese, and Jake Atlas while those in group B are Isaiah “Swerve” Scott, El Hijo del Fantasma, Akira Tozawa, and Gentleman Jack Gallagher.

The tournament begins this Wednesday live on NXT on USA Network.

Goldberg puts over Reigns and discusses WrestleMania 36 card change

In the latest episode of the CarCast podcast with Adam Carolla, Matt D’Andria, and Goldberg, the former Universal champion wondered why WWE even considered Reigns as his opponent fully knowing the situation with him and the risk it carried due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Goldberg put over Reigns for willing to go ahead with the plan despite the risks but that went all down the drain when someone showed up at the Performance Center sick. That someone was eventually outed to be The Miz.

“I think what happened was somebody was sick and Roman heard about it. They didn’t have the virus, they just had the flu. But just the fact that someone was sick in those circumstances…at the end of the day he just couldn’t do it,” Goldberg said, giving him props for still wanting to get it done until this incident happened. “But you’ve got to love the guy because up to the 11th hour, he was still willing to do it.”

The former champ said that “literally until the 23rd hour,” it was still a possibility that they were going to wrestle but as it often happens in the wrestling business, plans change in the last minute. Goldberg also said that after he and Strowman filmed the match there was still a possibility for him to do the match with Reigns before WrestleMania aired but plans for that fell through.

Goldberg revealed that he had a two-match contract with WWE, one against Wyatt and one against Reigns, which turned out to be against Strowman, so he’s done with WWE for the time being until they request him back.

WWE defends decision to resume live TV broadcasts

WWE logo

Following the first COVID-19 positive case within WWE, the company issued a statement to ESPN defending their decision to resume live television broadcasts from tomorrow night at the WWE Performance Center.

“We believe it is now more important than ever to provide people with a diversion from these hard times. We are producing content on a closed set with only essential personnel in attendance following appropriate guidelines while taking additional precautions to ensure the health and wellness of our performers and staff,” the statement said. “As a brand that has been woven into the fabric of society, WWE and its Superstars bring families together and deliver a sense of hope, determination and perseverance.”

The individual who tested positive for the coronavirus is an on-screen talent but the company did not specify who it was. The person got infected after he hung out with two other people who work in the health sector after WrestleMania tapings. WWE did not hold any tapings for two weeks after WrestleMania so the individual was not in contact with anyone in the promotion. WWE has said that the person has fully recovered.

How WWE is being allowed to continue to operate in Florida when the state remains under lockdown remains a mystery as well. ESPN reached out to the office of Governor DeSantis but a request for comment was not immediately returned.

Total Bellas S5 E2 rating

Episode two of season five of Total Bellas, titled The Book of Bella, did a total of 454,000 viewers, down 109,000 viewers from last week’s episode. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

Rousey doubles down on comments as Jax threatens to “knock her the f*ck out”

Ronda Rousey has doubled down on her comments that sparked outrage among wrestling fans and women in the business and said that anyone who is mad that she called pro wrestling “fake fights for fun” has never been in a real fight.

“While you all are tip toeing around bruising some pro wrestlers’ huge soft egos — no one is thinking about all the REAL fighters you’re insulting when pretending pro wrestling is somehow on the same level of realism,” Rousey said.

The former UFC and Raw Women’s champion admitted that wrestling 300 days for years on end is incredibly tough on the body and a difficult profession but asked what would happen if you got in 300 real fights a year. “You would be dead,” Rousey concluded while also using the hashtag #kayfabekiller.

She then uploaded another tweet with a video saying goodnight to “jabronie marks without a life that don’t know it a work when you work a work and work yourself into a shoot, marks!”

Meanwhile, Nia Jax also responded to Rousey’s comments and said she cannot wait for Ronda to return to WWE. “Even if WWE orders me to make Ronda look good in the ring, which is the ONLY way for Ronda 2 look good in the ring w/me. I’ll risk my job 2 go down in history as the one from this biz that knocked her the F**K out,” Jax said, adding her own hashtag #TestMeBitch. Jax is not one of Ronda’s fans and she reported her to management when Bliss was getting injured everyday when wrestling Ronda during the Summer of 2018.

So far, only one person has jumped to Ronda’s defense, and that’s fellow Four Horsewomen member Shayna Baszler. “How dare Ronda care more about her family than pleasing fans that are never happy?” the former NXT Women’s champ tweeted.

WWE on-screen talent is first employee to test positive for coronavirus

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Ryan Satin of ProWrestlingSheet.com revealed that WWE reported its first case of coronavirus among its talent.

The person infected is not a member of the roster but an on-screen talent according to Satin. The name of the person was not revealed.

WWE confirmed the news and issued a statement saying, “A WWE employee has tested positive for COVID-19. We believe this matter is low risk to WWE talent and staff, as the individual and a roommate became symptomatic in the days following exposure to two people working in acute health care on the evening of March 26, after WWE’s TV production on a closed set was already complete,” the statement said. “The employee had no contact with anyone from WWE since being exposed to those two individuals, is doing well, and made a complete recovery.”

All talent went home for 14 days following the conclusion of the WrestleMania tapings.

The company taped Smackdown last night, the first tapings since WrestleMania 36 was recorded over two weeks ago. WWE resumes live broadcasts from next week.

Two female Superstars respond to Rousey’s “fake fighting” comment

Two WWE female Superstars didn’t react nicely to Ronda Rousey’s latest interview where she said she loves fake fighting and the theatrics that come with professional wrestling.

Lana said she has “no words” for Rousey’s audacity to say WWE is fake fighting and questioned why Paige and Tyson Kidd couldn’t wrestle anymore if it’s fake. She also questioned why Edge couldn’t wrestle for nine years if this was fake. “This is a contact sport where REAL things happen,” Lana said.

WWE Women’s Tag Team title holder Alexa Bliss also took issue with the comment, saying, “Hm. Was out for almost a year. Must have been ‘fake.'”

It is safe to say that Rousey wasn’t the most popular woman backstage when she was around and got along mostly with Natalya and The Riott Squad. In a recent chat, Nia Jax also said she went to complain to management when Bliss was getting thrown around like a rag doll and getting injured every day by a particular person and requested that she take her place and see what happens instead. Jax was referring to Rousey, who had a string of matches with Alexa Bliss in the Summer of 2018.

Smackdown rating for 04/10/2020

Friday Night Smackdown on FOX this week drew 2,303,000 viewers, down 71,000 viewers from last week and the lowest number of 2020 so far. That is off 2,372,000 viewers in the first hour and 2,235,000 in the second hour. The show did 0.6 in the 18-49 demographic and trailed a bunch of shows. Smackdown usually tops that rating on Friday nights. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

New NXT episodes to have 7-day delay before hitting WWE Network in UK

All NXT on USA Network episodes will now be uploaded on the WWE Network seven days after their original air date in the UK.

Up until last week, the shows were being uploaded the next day, making it easier to skip the live broadcast and catch it on-demand the next day. But the show is now on a week delay on the Network, most likely due to TV rights issues with BT Sport. The latest NXT shows up for non-UK subscribers, meaning that WWE is using geo-targeting to limit what shows go up depending which country you are in.

The week-long delay before being available on the WWE Network was confirmed by the company’s support team on Twitter. “Please be advised that NXT will be available on WWE Network on demand 7 days after it’s original airing date,” said a tweet to a user who questioned why this week’s episode was not online yet.

WWE resuming live television broadcasts next week from the Performance Center

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Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer is reporting that WWE will be resuming live broadcasts of their weekly television shows Raw, NXT, and Smackdown starting from next week. Last night’s Smackdown was taped but was a regular episode with minimum replays of old footage and followed the usual format, with Michael Cole also regaining his broadcast partner Corey Graves.

Meltzer says that WWE’s television deal with NBCUniversal and FOX only allows them to do a certain number of taped shows, with the rest contracted to be live. The report says that there were fears that if WWE continues to tape shows during this pandemic rather than be live, the television networks would be in a position to withhold money or pay less money due to a violation of contract.

WWE television ratings, while they were in decline before, has suffered greatly since going taped and in front of an empty arena. The constant replaying of old footage, such as long WrestleMania matches, was also a turn off for many fans as they occupied a huge chunk of the broadcast when factoring in commercials.

The decision to go live was taken yesterday afternoon according to Meltzer and this will require all WWE Superstars to fly in to Orlando every single week unless they find temporary housing in the area. Florida remains under lockdown but WWE has been allowed to operate within the closed set for the time being.

Money In The Bank 2020 qualifying matches starting next week

While the Money In The Bank pay-per-view will not take place from Baltimore’s Royal Farms Arena, the show will go on as scheduled on May 10 and qualifying matches from Smackdown’s side will start from next week’s show.

Two qualifying matches were announced last night with Daniel Bryan vs Cesaro and Naomi vs Dana Brooke. The winners of these matches will advance to their respective MITB ladder match which usually features eight WWE Superstars – four from Raw and four from Smackdown.

Last year, Bayley and Brock Lesnar won the MITB ladder matches, with Bayley successfully cashing in her briefcase just an hour later against Charlotte Flair.

Smackdown to celebrate 25 years of Triple H in two weeks with special broadcast

In two weeks, Smackdown will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of Triple H in the WWE with a special broadcast. A teaser ran yesterday during Smackdown on FOX announcing the broadcast.

Triple H, as the Connecticut Blueblood Hunter Hearst Helmsley, made his WWE debut on April 30, 1995 during an episode of Wrestling Challenge, defeating Buck Zumhofe. It wasn’t until 1997 that his career took off in WWE when he joined D-Generation X and as they say, the rest is history. The Game had a total of 24 title reigns in 25 years, including nine times as WWE champion and five times as World Heavyweight champion.

It will be interesting to see how WWE tackles this special tribute episode…hopefully with not a lot of old replays!

Ronda Rousey slams “ungrateful” WWE fans, says would not return full-time

Former Raw Women’s champion Ronda Rousey has said that if she returns to WWE, it will not be a full-time affair and blamed the “ungrateful” wrestling fans for that.

Appearing on the Steve-O podcast Wild Ride, Rousey admitted that she loved WWE and all the women in the locker room and she had a great time in the year that she was there leading up to WrestleMania 35. “Running out there and having fake fights for fun is just the best thing! I love choreography…love acting. I love theater…live theater and some of the last forms of live theater,” Rousey explained.

But while she enjoyed all of that, she didn’t enjoy the time away from her family and claimed she was only home a day and a half every week when she was working. “It was just not worth it for my family because we were eliminating all of our expenses and living this lifestyle…we didn’t need it…we didn’t need the money,” Ronda said.

And then came the dig to the fans. WWE fans, while most accepted Ronda, there were still many who did not appreciate her crossover from MMA and those fans were very, very vocal about it. Ronda questioned why was she doing wrestling and not being able to spend time with her family when in return she’s entertaining those fans. “What am I doing it for if I’m not being able to spend my time and energy on my family, but instead spending my time and my energy on a bunch of f*cking ungrateful fans that don’t even appreciate me?” Ronda added.

“I love performing. I love the girls. I love being out there…but, at the end of the day, I was just like, ‘F*ck these fans, dude.’ My family loves me and they appreciate me and I want all my energy to go into them. So that was my decision at the end of the day,” the former champ concluded.

Ronda has not been seen on WWE television ever since main eventing WrestleMania 35 with Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch. She was recently pictured at the WWE Headquarters with Cain Velasquez. Ronda took time away from her WWE deal to concentrate on starting a family. (Credit to ProWrestlingSheet.com for quote transcripts.”

Total Bellas S5 E2 episode recap: The Book of Bella

More drama took place in this second episode of Total Bellas than in the previous episode. This proves, that this family has no shortage of drama with which to entertain us.

This week, the drama centered around the twin’s father. They haven’t always had the best relationship with their father due to his addiction to drinking. The twins have begun to write a book based on their lives which included mention of their father’s drinking problem, as well as their parent’s marital problems. Naturally, the person who is helping them write their book told them they needed to ask their parent’s permission before writing about them. Their mother felt bad about not leaving her husband sooner to spare her children the trauma of growing up in household where there intense anger and fighting that was detailed in the chapter on the twin’s childhood.

Furthermore, Cathy, the twin’s mother, felt that when people read the chapter they would judge her harshly for not removing her children from a bad situation sooner. I, however, feel that many of the twins’s readers will understand Cathy’s reasons for not wanting to divorce her husband until her kids were grown, as well as her concerns about raising three kids on her own and won’t judge her to harshly.

However, the ramifications of the contents of the twin’s book wasn’t Cathy’s only concern. She was also shocked to learn that her daughter, Brie, had been seeing her father without letting her know. Cathy exploded with anger and actually stormed away from her girls. As is usual with all Bella family fights, Cathy and Brie eventually made up, but, that didn’t mean that Cathy wasn’t still mad when she learned that both of girls would be seeing their father for dinner along with Nicole’s boyfriend, Artem. While, the twin’s father seemed contrite about his previous actions I still didn’t think it was really smart of him to pull out the strict father card by questioning Artem’s intentions with Nicole.

As far as I’m concerned, his intentions are honorable, and even better he seems a little more discreet than Nicole, who had no problem making overt sexual comments in a hardware store in front of elderly patrons. Nicole also seemed to confused about what she wanted with regards to Artem, while she had decided not to have Artem move in with her, yet she had no problem with asking Artem to help her fix problems with her new house. This help seems to for-tell future good relations between the two. However, we will have to see what the next episode brings.

Vince McMahon’s XFL suspends operations and terminates all employees

ESPN’s Field Yates reported today that during a conference call with XFL employees, the league’s COO Jeffery Pollock notified them that they are suspending operations and all employees are being terminated.

Vince McMahon announced the return of the XFL two years ago and the league started in February after McMahon pumped over $100 million of his own money into it. Just like all other sports, the XFL had to stop mid-season due to the coronavirus pandemic and it looks like it will not be revived for a second season, with the new XFL suffering the same fate of the first one.

XFL promised to be back for a second season when the league stopped but that is now completely out of the window and there are no plans for a restart. The league has also opted to pay all its employees and players the money they’re owed for what was remaining for the 2020 season.

While they were airing on FOX, FS1, FS2, ABC, ESPN, and ESPN 2, the league did not get any money from television rights. Viewership for the first week averaged 3.1 million, but by the fourth week the average dropped to 1.4 million.

The Revival released from their WWE contracts

Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder of The Revival have been released from their WWE contracts effective today, Friday, April 10.

A short statement on WWE.COM said, “Effective today, Friday April 10, 2020, WWE and The Revival have agreed on their immediate release from WWE. We wish them all the best in their future endeavors.”

The two have asked for their release a couple of times in the past but were always denied. Their last known request was in February of this year. Addressing the reaction from the fans when news broke that they have once again requested to be let go, Dawson wrote, “If we settle, you guys say we’re lazy & complacent. If we try to be better, you guys say we’re whining & complaining. Make up your mind.”

In January, Dawson and Wilder applied for a trademark for the name Shatter Machine, presumably the name of their tag team in their post-WWE life. Their deal was going to run out later this year and there were no intentions for the two to renew.

The two have been tag teaming in WWE since 2014, first under the name The Mechanics and then The Revival. They won the NXT Tag Team titles twice, the Raw Tag Team titles twice, and the Smackdown Tag Team titles once. At the 2016 NXT Year-End Awards, they were voted the Tag Team of the Year and also won the Match of the Year against DIY in a two-out-of-three falls match at Takeover: Toronto.

The Main Event now available on Netflix

Netflix today released The Main Event, a movie produced with WWE Studios about an 11-year-old who discovers a magical wrestling mask that grants him super strength and uses that to enter a WWE competition to achieve his dream of becoming a WWE Superstar.

Running for 1 hour and 43 minutes, The Main Event is available in all Netflix regions worldwide. Seth Carr, Tichina Arnold, Adam Pally, and Ken Marino are the leading stars in the movie.

Several WWE Superstars are in the movie including Keith Lee, Otis, The Miz, Sheamus, Babatunde, Kofi Kingston, Mia Yim, Corey Graves, and Renee Young.

Reviews so far has been positive for this family movie. This is the first movie collaboration between WWE Studios and Netflix. The two companies also produced The Big Show Show which is currently also available on the streaming service.

Money In The Bank 2020 not taking place in Baltimore anymore

The Royal Farms Arena, the planned host of this year’s Money In The Bank pay-per-view, announced that the show will not be happening at their arena due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“The WWE Money in the Bank event originally scheduled for Sunday, May 10 in Baltimore has been cancelled. Refunds are available at all points of purchase,” a statement from the arena said. Tickets purchased through Ticketmaster will be automatically refunded.

If WWE intends to still go ahead with the pay-per-view, the WWE Performance Center will be the one hosting the show as surely venues will not open to host fans over the next month or so.

WWE UK tour in May rescheduled, NXT UK television tapings cancelled

WWE has pushed back its UK tour from May to October of this year with other dates in other European countries set to be announced shortly.

The company embarks on a two-week hectic European tour every May and usually they visit the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, etc but obviously due to the pandemic, none of that will be happening especially since Europe is also a hotspot for the virus right now.

WWE has rescheduled the shows from Glasgow, Birmingham, Cardiff, Sheffield, and London to early October with Newcastle getting their turn in April 2021.

The UK tour wasn’t the only one canned as the company also officially cancelled the NXT UK television tapings they had set for May 1 and 2 in Bournemouth. NXT’s participation in the Download Festival where they were set to do additional tapings was also dropped. Unlike other WWE shows, WWE has not taped any additional NXT UK television shows since most of the major players behind the scenes are in the U.S. and cannot travel.