Sports On TV: 15 More Great Sports Moments From Saved By The Bell

Written by Brandon Stroud / 04.25.13


Saved by the Bell golfing

The very first show featured in our Sports On TV column was ‘Saved By The Bell,’ and with good reason. It’s one of those shows we’ve all seen whether we like it or not, and face it, you can’t spell “Internet” without ‘Saved By The Bell.’

Saved By The Bell’s 20 Greatest Sports Moments featured so many of the classics — Zack becoming an Indian to deal with track team stress, girls on the wrestling team, wheelchair basketball, Zack hitting a soon-to-be-dead-from-oil-spillage duck with a baseball — but it didn’t feature them all. It’s only fitting that the first part 2 entrant in Sports on TV history would be 15 MORE great sports moments from the show.

So, please click through to enjoy sports moments 21-35 from ‘Saved By The Bell.’ Warning: there is a lot of spooning-disguised-as-instruction gags in these entries. A LOT.

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RIP Reid Flair, 1989 – 2013

Written by Brandon Stroud / 03.29.13

Here’s some tragic news I never expected to have to report: Reid Flair, the 24-year old son of legendary wrestling champion “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair, has passed away at the age of 24. You read that correctly. 24 f**king years old. PWInsider has confirmed it, although details are sketchy.

If you aren’t familiar with Reid, he’d been training for a while, and had just returned from a tour of All Japan Pro Wrestling. He had a solid amateur wrestling pedigree, including a win in the AAU National Wrestling Tournament, and had even been slated to debut for independent promotion Ring Of Honor a while back until personal issues (including a series of arrests including assault and battery, DUI and possession of heroin) put him off track. Things were seemingly moving in the right direction for him, and now … this.

Reid never had much of a chance to make an impact in the wrestling world, but fans who grew up watching in the 90s might remember him from his appearances as a 10-year old on WCW Monday Nitro, wherein he shot a takedown on Eric Bischoff at the behest of Arn Anderson:

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Dana White Isn’t Surprised At All That The Olympics Booted Wrestling

Written by Ashley Burns / 02.15.13

Unrelated but wonderful.

By now you’re probably aware that the International Olympics Committee – long known for being a bastion of integrity and morality – has decided to do away with amateur wrestling as a Summer Olympic event. You know this because you read about it in a rational news source or Joe Rogan rage-Tweeted your feed or because Chael Sonnen screamed it into your eye holes, but either way it was bad news. And it sucks because there are dudes and young ladies around the world who busted their asses and devoted their formative years to something that they really loved. Now they’ll all probably turn to a life of crack and crime.

At least that’s what TV has taught me.

There are some people, though, who don’t care about who is hurt, and they just see this as a reality. Ultimately, we’re all going to have to get used to not watching amateur wrestling every four years, and guys like UFC President Dana White think that won’t be a problem because nobody was watching it anyway.

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The Olympics Is Getting Rid Of Wrestling, But At Least Our Worst Sports Celebrities Are Upset About It

Written by Brandon Stroud / 02.14.13

We’re all on the same page, right? The International Olympic Committee suggesting that wrestling should be removed from the 2020 games due to a lack of ticket sales or whatever is stupid, because it’s wrestling, and more or less the definitive human sport.

Chael Sonnen WrestlingAll we need now is for the IOC to hear passionate comments from athletes who value amateur wrestling, and are beloved and respected enough in the world of sports to be undeniable. People like … uh, Chael Sonnen, that punchman who preps for fights by calling his opponents super coward dummies.

A transcript of his thoughts:

“How do you get rid of wrestling? It is the oldest sport in existence. In no walk of society can you tell me seniority does not matter. Nothing can date itself back as far as wrestling. They didn’t have bikes, they didn’t have balls and they didn’t have bats — they were pushing and pulling on one another.”

“We have an idiocracy known as FILA that has ruined the sport. We have two knuckleheads that you couldn’t trust to run your local donut shop regulating our sport of wrestling. Wrestling has cannibalized itself from 10 spots on the world and Olympic team to nine, to eight, to seven. This is where they’re at it. It’s basic science, the number one rule in biology, you either evolve or you become extinct.”

That’s … actually pretty astute. If you need stupider comments, TMZ spoke with former WWF Heavyweight Champion The Iron Sheik, a 1968 Olympian for Iran who is most famous in his post-wrestling career for being a sort-of profane Wesley Willis who reacts to every situation with threats of violence and anal sex.

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So Much For That ‘Best And Worst Of Olympic Amateur Wrestling’ Idea

Written by Brandon Stroud / 02.12.13
Olympic wrestling

"Nope."

Wrestling is not a sport. No, I’m not talking about pro wrestling (for once). I’m talking about wrestling wrestling.

Following the removal of baseball from the Olympics in a quest to get Brandon to stop watching it completely, International Olympic Committee leaders are planning to drop amateur wrestling from the 2020 Olympics. You know, the sport that has been part of the games since 1896 and kinda-sorta represents the entire “man vs. man” thing the Olympics (and sports in general) are going for.

Oddly, the angle the Los Angeles Times write-up of the story takes is that modern pentathlon is being removed, and how nobody gives a shit about modern pentathlon, and what modern pentathlon is. They just lump wrestling in with table tennis and badminton somewhere in the middle.

The IOC will also review preparations for the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia — less than a year away — and the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro.

The sports expected to be on the hot seat for removal besides modern pentathlon: Taekwondo, wrestling, badminton and table tennis.

The report analyzes more than three dozen criteria, including television ratings, ticket sales, anti-doping policy and global participation and popularity.

… keeping in mind that synchronized swimming, handball, race walk, shooting and “Nordic Combined” will all still happen at their appropriate Olympics, just not wrestling or baseball. Pretty soon the Olympics is just going to be gymnasts posing on the sidelines of a soccer game, holding up a big sign that says PLEASE LIKE SOCCER, BECAUSE OLYMPICS.

But hey, golf is joining the Olympics in 2016. That’s exciting and athletic, right?

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It’s Wrasslin’ But With More Jesus

Written by Ashley Burns / 02.14.11

As a founding member of the Church of Blake Lively’s Chest, I’m a man who doesn’t like to talk too much about religion since it’s such a polarizing subject. But I do appreciate anything that helps spread positive messages to America’s youth, especially when so many kids are up to no good and always listening to the hip hop music and taking the weed. I also love talking about professional wrestling, and it just so happens that the people behind the Christian Wrestling Federation have been mixing action-packed wrasslin’ with messages of love and peace.

Because nothing says love and peace like a dropkick from the top turn buckle followed by a DDT into a camel clutch. After the jump, check out CWF founder Rob “Jesus Freak” Vaughn and his mission statement for his federation…

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