One of the biggest surprises of UFC 158 on Saturday night was Jordan Mein and incredible first round TKO over the veteran Dan Miller, although the UFC’s newest welterweight prospect is hardly a rookie. Mein has been fighting professionally since the age of 16, when he made his debut against another UFC welterweight rising star and super hipster, Rory MacDonald. But still, to win in the first round of his first UFC fight like Mein did was inspirational at the very least, and he’s already looking ahead.

According to MMA Junkie, Mein has a list of every welterweight in the UFC on a whiteboard so he can cross each one out as he knocks them off.

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Pre-show notes:

- Comments, shares, likes, and especially Reddit submissions/up votes are appreciated. If you aren’t sending me a Christmas present, at least make my column slightly more popular with strangers!

- Follow us on Twitter @withleather, follow me personally @MrBrandonStroud and like us on Facebook.

- Next Tuesday is Christmas, so the Best And Worst Of WWE Raw will take a one-week vacation. I’ll still get up an open discussion thread for Christmas Eve, and we’ll pick back up formally on January 1.

- Smackdown is live tonight on the USA Network, so be sure to come back to With Leather and hang out with us in the Super Smackdown Live open discussion thread. I am probably not going to do a Best and Worst report for it, because I’ve already done two this week. If that makes you sad, go read the Best and Worst of TLC again!

- Thanks for a great year of reports, everybody. I couldn’t do this without the generous comments and feedback you guys give me. I love you all dearly.

Please click through to enjoy the last Best And Worst Of WWE Raw column of the year, for December 17, 2012.

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Tonight’s the big night when WWE Raw celebrates an unprecedented 1000 episodes, and With Leather is throwing a party. In addition to tonight’s normal open discussion thread, we’re bringing in a few special guests to talk WWE, pop culture, and most importantly: WEDDINGS.

Raw 1000 begins at 8 PM EST on the USA Network, but be here at 7:30 to chat with DENNIS HASKINS, aka Mr. Belding from ‘Saved By The Bell’. He’s one of my favorite television characters ever and he’s shown up in everything great on TV, including ‘It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia’, ‘Mad Men’ and … well, WWE Raw. Dennis is stopping by to do a little Q-and-A and chat about the first half hour of Raw, and we couldn’t be more excited to have him.

Joining us around 9 PM EST is rap superstar ACTION BRONSON. You may have seen him getting love on The Smoking Section and the UPROXX main page, and if you haven’t, go learn about him right now. Bronson’s chatting with us as long as he’d like, and as soon as he leaves a comment he becomes the coolest person to ever click a link on With Leather.

Finally, joining us throughout the night (whenever he has time) will be WWE Superstar, NXT Protagonist and general Friend Of The Site DERRICK BATEMAN. D-Bateas has been nice enough to chat with me on the With Spandex podcast and wear our shirt on television, so show him a lot of love now so he’ll still like us when he’s Super Famous. Capital letters.

If that all wasn’t enough, we’re tossing a special commenting badge your way. To commemorate Mr. Belding knowing who the hell I am, we’re giving you a chance to unlock the BIG BOPPER commenting badge. All you have to do is participate in tonight’s discussion by clicking the “like” button to share the thread on Facebook or use that “tweet” button to tell everyone you know about the chat on Twitter. You’ll want to rep Bayside High with this badge forever, because their girls are the cutest and their guys are the hippest, too. Oooh.

As always, the top 10 comments from tonight’s open discussion thread will be featured in tomorrow’s Best And Worst Of WWE Raw 1000 column. To nominate a comment for top 10 status, reply to it with a +1.

Thanks in advance to everyone for hanging out tonight. Here’s to another 1000 episodes!

With Spandex celebrates its milestone sixth episode by welcoming a very special guest, the second most famous man to wear an UPROXX network-related t-shirt in public, former NXT season 4 rookie and current WWE Smackdown superstar Derrick Bateman.

The timing couldn’t be better, as the epic 60+ week run of NXT Redemption has finally come to an end (with Bateman winning by default?). On the podcast we discuss some of Derrick’s favorite memories from the show, his experiences living and wrestling in beautiful Cleveland, Ohio, his “Indy No Mercy mod” of the greatest wrestling game of all time and cap things off with a dramatic reading of some Derrick Bateman fan fiction. At one point a guy on a really loud motorcycle drives by while we’re taping. It’s fun for everyone!

After you’re done listening, make sure to follow the Cadillac Of A Man @DerrickWWE, like him on his WWE Universe Facebook page and cheer for him when he shows up on TV, be it in a winning effort against Titus O’Neil or losing to the Funkasaurus in roughly a minute. Oh, and watch NXT. He’s an absolutely top-shelf future superstar and deserves your support. If you don’t agree, I’ve provided a few select videos in the notes section below.

Subscribe to With Spandex on iTunes here: With Spandex on iTunes

RSS Feed: feed://withleather.uproxx.com/tag/with-spandex/feed

Direct download of the episode here: With Spandex Episode 6 – Derrick Bateman

Podcast notes:

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Pre-show notes:

- First and foremost I’d like to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ give a huge thank you to Bill Hanstock for filling in on the WWE Raw Open Discussion Thread and to Chris Trew for his excellent fill-in job for me on yesterday’s Best And Worst Of Raw. I’ve been in an airport for seemingly the last month and a half so I had to miss everything. Yes, it was spoiled for me before I got home. No, it won’t be as good when I get to write about it next week.

- Comments are appreciated. I’ve gotten a lot of WHERE’S THE WRESTLEMANIA THING feedback, so let’s hear what you thought about the show below. Shares, Facebook likes, Pinterests (?) and Google Plussage are all appreciated.

- Thanks again to THESTINGER for helping me out with show images and gifs. Anything that wasn’t grabbed from TV was taken by me, or someone holding my camera.

- I am extremely tired!

Please click through and enjoy my take on the live experience of WWE Wrestlemania 28. It was … something.

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Pre-show notes, largely copy and pasted from last week (just like Raw!):

- Don’t be afraid to leave a comment on this report. We’ve build a great community of intelligent, funny wrestling fans and you should be a part of it, because seriously, you aren’t gonna find it anywhere else.

- Big thanks again to Casey/THESTINGER for helping me out with gifs and pictures. Be sure to visit his gifs Tumblr for the stuff I didn’t use, especially the one of D’Lo Brown beating the crap out of the Undertaker.

- Follow us on Twitter @withleather, follow me personally @MrBrandonStroud and like us on Facebook.

- A.J. actually shows up on Raw this week (!!), so if you’re just browsing through for pictures of her, you’ll be pleasantly rewarded. P.S. Don’t do that.

- Don’t forget, I’m going to be at Wrestlemania this year, so if there’s any chance you’ll be there too and want to hang out or say hi (or buy a t-shirt, a la the nWo), just let me know.

Anyway, please enjoy the Best and Worst Of WWE Raw for February 27, 2012.

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