Justin Kendall

Cyclone, writer, ginger, managing editor of The Pitch
wrestlingdelorean: Cody Rhodes interview: Here’s the extended version of my interview with The Essence of Mustachioed Magnificence: The Rhodes wrestling family has spilled a lot of blood in rings around the world, including Kansas City. Patriarch “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes was a champion in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s (holding the NWA Central States Heavyweight Championship in ‘68, and dropping the NWA World Heavyweight Championship to Ric Flair in September 1981 at Memorial Hall). Cody Rhodes was destined to follow his father and his half-brother, Dustin “Goldust” Rhodes, into the business. As a teenager, he refereed matches for his dad’s now-defunct independent promotion and sneaked into mini matches when he thought his dad wasn’t looking. “I never imagined doing anything else,” Rhodes says. The second-generation star is keeping his family tradition alive in the world’s biggest wrestling company. On May 20, Rhodes is one of the featured grapplers on Monday Night Raw, broadcasting live from the Sprint Center on the USA Network. After a lengthy tour of the United Kingdom, Rhodes called The Pitch from his home in Johns Creek, Georgia, to talk about his memories of Kansas City, his mustache and his challenge to Morgan Freeman. The Pitch: You grew up in the business. Do you have any memories of Kansas City wrestling?Cody Rhodes: I have tons of memories of different events that I went to with my father, specifically Kansas City. Kansas City was a hotbed for the NWA. The one thing, this was real true, and this was something he told me when I was real young about Kansas City and St. Louis, but specifically those two markets was that the ring was traditionally way harder in Kansas City. This was something that other superstars from his era actually felt the same way. Ric Flair talked about it in his book. Certain guys, you’d see them flying all around the ring maybe in Virginia or Georgia, but you’d get to Kansas City and it was a bit slower pace. This was the ‘70s and ‘80s. I don’t know why they always had the harder ring. Harley Race hails from that area, and he’s probably the toughest guy in wrestling history, and maybe that ring is the reason why. Did he blame Kansas City promoter Bob Geigel? No, he didn’t blame Geigel. I’ve heard him blame Geigel for other things, but he certainly didn’t blame Geigel for the ring, no.You’ve seemingly always been involved in the business. Did you have any other aspirations? From an extremely early age, this was all that I wanted to do. My first memory is pro wrestling, but there was a brief period when I was 19 years old and I thought I wasn’t physically big enough to be involved with sports entertainment. I was real concerned and I took a shot at going to acting school and lived in Los Angeles for 11 months and kind of lost 11 months of my life. As soon as I turned back in to Monday Night Raw or SmackDown or any of the pay-per-views, I knew I was not in the right place.  You have a fantastic mustache. Whose idea was it to grow a mustache? Well, my fiancee is sitting right next to me, and she hates the mustache. So I don’t know if it’s as fantastic as you say, but thank you very much. It was mine, but it wasn’t really this huge overreaching grand design. The only time that I’ve ever been injured in my career, I had x amount of days that I didn’t have to be on television — and in that time I grew originally a very poor mustache. It’s grown into being rather full bodied now. It was something that when I came back, everyone appreciated the fact my partner at the time, Damien Sandow, had the massive 19th century beard and I had the mustache with the intent of taking it away from the modern hipster and putting a little civility back into it. I think you’ve done that.Thank you. Is is this something that is going to be put on the line in a stipulation match, say at Extreme Rules pay-per-view that night before Raw in KC?Well, I know that you can’t shave anything — your head, your facial hair — you can’t do anything like that in sports entertainment unless it’s public. I’m pretty confidant you’ll see the mustache on the line somewhere down the line. Extreme Rules would be a wonderful venue for it actually. I don’t if the WWE Universe would be very stoked about a mustache being on the line when the title of the pay-per-view is Extreme Rules. But I guess I extremely want to keep it. I wouldn’t be surprised.Maybe you could put it on the line against Daniel Bryan’s beard? You know what, I’d be doing everybody a service. All of us who love Daniel Bryan, he’s something else. Man, from when he showed up clean cut, all-American guy to this now, i’s ridiculous. I was on a plane with him a few days ago, and people are always staring at him. In this case, they’re just looking at how this man with this legitimate caveman like beard is sitting up in first class and I want to know his story. Is it an unspoken thing that you don’t shave the mustache since this is wrestling or has the boss actually said you’ve got to keep this thing until we put it on the line? It was one of those things that I got confirmation from my superiors that I do need to keep it. I just saw a Mattel headscan of an action figure with the mustache. There’s a shirt with the mustache on it. It’s one of those things that you’ve got to keep everything current as far as being apart of this era of myself. It wasn’t something that I was necessarily mandated to keep. But poor Mattel. If this thing comes out in a month or so and I don’t have the mustache. In my mind, I like it currently. You recently challenged Morgan Freeman to a fight. Has he answered?That was such a bizarre thing. I did an interview in London, and that’s where the challenge was laid out. But it really wasn’t like that. That’s just a question that I’ve been asked: What celebrity would you like to compete with? I just kind of off the top of my head said Morgan Freeman because of his outstanding voice and he could do a March of the Penguins-type-style documentary on our match, where he’s talking about everything. But the fact that it got such buzz about it, now at this point I’m hoping for some rebuttal from Morgan Freeman and his camp. That would make my day as a huge fan. Haven’t heard anything yet, but looking forward to it.A young man asked me who was a celebrity that I’d like mixing it up with, and I tried to give him an answer other than an action star. Now look what I’ve gotten myself into. Now I’m going to see Morgan Freeman somewhere down the line, and he’s going to end up cold cocking me in the face, and I’m going to feel horrible. You mentioned your partner Damien Sandow. You guys have been on and off. What is the status of Team Rhodes Scholars?When we broke up on SmackDown in such an amicable way, that was truly the break up of the team. But we’ve kind of been paired together. We still do more singles wrestling than we do tag wrestling. But it’s sort of a utility thing. We can do both. We don’t really consider it a team. A lot of people like tag team purists like to say we’re a team. We’re not. We do like one tag-team maneuver. Other tag teams put a shame to us. As far as two singles competitors who are extremely good, I think that’s why we’ve had success. Some teams are just two guys in matching trunks. Damien is a very funny individual. And there’s a lot of variety involved in what you would see in a wrestling match. You don’t see a lot of amicable breakups of wrestling teams?Never.It was refreshing that you’ve been able to maintain your friendship.I’ve known Damien for a very long time. It’s almost frustrating that we are grouped into the tag team division because we both want so much more. From a singles perspective, we want so much more. I’ll be curious to see how the next year unfolds heading to WrestleMania 30 in New Orleans and where Damien Sandow and myself will be. Who do you most want to face at WrestleMania 30?It being the thirtieth WrestleMania and here in the south where I’m from, I’d really like to do something with some personal gravity to it. But if I had to think reality-wise where we’ve been, I’d really like to compete with someone from my generation. WrestleMania has a lot of characters from the past, legends, and a lot of cameo appearances, perhaps. But I’d really like someone from my generation to step up with me and be across the ring. There’s tons of guys who fit that bill. There’s Antonio Cesaro. There’s Dolph Ziggler. There’s Kofi Kingston. Hell, there’s even Damien Sandow. You could even see fighting your best friend on the biggest show of the year?Oh, honestly, what better place to put up a mustache or put up a beard. What is the end goal for you? What is the pinnacle of what you want to do in WWE? Anyone who knows me well enough knows that I don’t do this for the money. I’d like to headline multiple WrestleManias, and I’d like to be WWE champion, and I’d like to be world heavyweight champion. Anything that describes the top of my field at the time, is where I’d like to be. It’s kind of ambiguous because what we do is entertainment, but certainly those top tier titles are not something that are given, they’re earned. That’s where I’d like to be.Do you feel that you’re ready to do that now?I think so. I think it’s a matter of the WWE Universe … the cool thing is they’ve seen me grow up on their television. I didn’t show up a fully polished superstar. I showed up rather undersized and underwhelming and had to grow. People who thought that they might move ahead of me, I moved ahead of them. It’s been quite a ladder to climb already, but I think in their eyes that I’m ready, and that’s all that matters because they truly dictate what’s happening on television and that’s a good thing.  You and your brother, Goldust, had an encounter at this year’s Royal Rumble. Would you like to feud with him? I think WWE moving forward is focusing more now on developing its younger talent. And that kind of leaves Goldust out. But it got such a good response that I’m pretty confident that you will see something somewhere down the line. I don’t know when, and I don’t know where. You were once known for not wearing knee pads, but you’ve been wearing them the last couple of years? Why the change?Originally the reason I didn’t have knee pads on was I looked at this photo of “Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers when he was WWWF champion and I thought that’s exactly what a professional wrestler should look like. He had the trunks that were a quarter inch higher. He had the boots with the socks sticking out just above. He had no knee pads, no tape. And I just like that classic, throwback-style look. But when I did it, it didn’t necessarily translate. People just got upset because my lower legs were smaller than they should be for a sports entertainer. A lot of men were really irritated by it, bizarrely. The change happened only because the pace I was working was rather fast and aggressive and I didn’t want to run the risk of doing a moonsault and landing right on my knees and being out. Booker T likes to joke that I went from having no kneepads to having the biggest knee pads of all. But I’m glad I made the change.Any other challenges you want to throw out while you’re on the phone?Oh, no. I’ve got a full plate ahead of me, especially in case I ever see Morgan Freeman. No, I’m very curious to see what unfolds. Monday night raw, is more specifically what we’re talking about, and that’s three hours where anything and everything tends to happen.

wrestlingdelorean:

Cody Rhodes interview: Here’s the extended version of my interview with The Essence of Mustachioed Magnificence:

The Rhodes wrestling family has spilled a lot of blood in rings around the world, including Kansas City. Patriarch “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes was a champion in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s (holding the NWA Central States Heavyweight Championship in ‘68, and dropping the NWA World Heavyweight Championship to Ric Flair in September 1981 at Memorial Hall).

Cody Rhodes was destined to follow his father and his half-brother, Dustin “Goldust” Rhodes, into the business. As a teenager, he refereed matches for his dad’s now-defunct independent promotion and sneaked into mini matches when he thought his dad wasn’t looking. “I never imagined doing anything else,” Rhodes says.

The second-generation star is keeping his family tradition alive in the world’s biggest wrestling company. On May 20, Rhodes is one of the featured grapplers on Monday Night Raw, broadcasting live from the Sprint Center on the USA Network. After a lengthy tour of the United Kingdom, Rhodes called The Pitch from his home in Johns Creek, Georgia, to talk about his memories of Kansas City, his mustache and his challenge to Morgan Freeman.


The Pitch: You grew up in the business. Do you have any memories of Kansas City wrestling?

Cody Rhodes: I have tons of memories of different events that I went to with my father, specifically Kansas City. Kansas City was a hotbed for the NWA. The one thing, this was real true, and this was something he told me when I was real young about Kansas City and St. Louis, but specifically those two markets was that the ring was traditionally way harder in Kansas City. This was something that other superstars from his era actually felt the same way. Ric Flair talked about it in his book. Certain guys, you’d see them flying all around the ring maybe in Virginia or Georgia, but you’d get to Kansas City and it was a bit slower pace. This was the ‘70s and ‘80s. I don’t know why they always had the harder ring. Harley Race hails from that area, and he’s probably the toughest guy in wrestling history, and maybe that ring is the reason why.

Did he blame Kansas City promoter Bob Geigel?

No, he didn’t blame Geigel. I’ve heard him blame Geigel for other things, but he certainly didn’t blame Geigel for the ring, no.

You’ve seemingly always been involved in the business. Did you have any other aspirations?

From an extremely early age, this was all that I wanted to do. My first memory is pro wrestling, but there was a brief period when I was 19 years old and I thought I wasn’t physically big enough to be involved with sports entertainment. I was real concerned and I took a shot at going to acting school and lived in Los Angeles for 11 months and kind of lost 11 months of my life. As soon as I turned back in to Monday Night Raw or SmackDown or any of the pay-per-views, I knew I was not in the right place. 

You have a fantastic mustache. Whose idea was it to grow a mustache?

Well, my fiancee is sitting right next to me, and she hates the mustache. So I don’t know if it’s as fantastic as you say, but thank you very much. It was mine, but it wasn’t really this huge overreaching grand design. The only time that I’ve ever been injured in my career, I had x amount of days that I didn’t have to be on television — and in that time I grew originally a very poor mustache. It’s grown into being rather full bodied now. It was something that when I came back, everyone appreciated the fact my partner at the time, Damien Sandow, had the massive 19th century beard and I had the mustache with the intent of taking it away from the modern hipster and putting a little civility back into it.

I think you’ve done that.

Thank you.

Is is this something that is going to be put on the line in a stipulation match, say at Extreme Rules pay-per-view that night before Raw in KC?

Well, I know that you can’t shave anything — your head, your facial hair — you can’t do anything like that in sports entertainment unless it’s public. I’m pretty confidant you’ll see the mustache on the line somewhere down the line. Extreme Rules would be a wonderful venue for it actually. I don’t if the WWE Universe would be very stoked about a mustache being on the line when the title of the pay-per-view is Extreme Rules. But I guess I extremely want to keep it. I wouldn’t be surprised.

Maybe you could put it on the line against Daniel Bryan’s beard?

You know what, I’d be doing everybody a service. All of us who love Daniel Bryan, he’s something else. Man, from when he showed up clean cut, all-American guy to this now, i’s ridiculous. I was on a plane with him a few days ago, and people are always staring at him. In this case, they’re just looking at how this man with this legitimate caveman like beard is sitting up in first class and I want to know his story.

Is it an unspoken thing that you don’t shave the mustache since this is wrestling or has the boss actually said you’ve got to keep this thing until we put it on the line?

It was one of those things that I got confirmation from my superiors that I do need to keep it. I just saw a Mattel headscan of an action figure with the mustache. There’s a shirt with the mustache on it. It’s one of those things that you’ve got to keep everything current as far as being apart of this era of myself. It wasn’t something that I was necessarily mandated to keep. But poor Mattel. If this thing comes out in a month or so and I don’t have the mustache. In my mind, I like it currently.

You recently challenged Morgan Freeman to a fight. Has he answered?

That was such a bizarre thing. I did an interview in London, and that’s where the challenge was laid out. But it really wasn’t like that. That’s just a question that I’ve been asked: What celebrity would you like to compete with?

I just kind of off the top of my head said Morgan Freeman because of his outstanding voice and he could do a March of the Penguins-type-style documentary on our match, where he’s talking about everything. But the fact that it got such buzz about it, now at this point I’m hoping for some rebuttal from Morgan Freeman and his camp. That would make my day as a huge fan. Haven’t heard anything yet, but looking forward to it.

A young man asked me who was a celebrity that I’d like mixing it up with, and I tried to give him an answer other than an action star. Now look what I’ve gotten myself into. Now I’m going to see Morgan Freeman somewhere down the line, and he’s going to end up cold cocking me in the face, and I’m going to feel horrible.

You mentioned your partner Damien Sandow. You guys have been on and off. What is the status of Team Rhodes Scholars?

When we broke up on SmackDown in such an amicable way, that was truly the break up of the team. But we’ve kind of been paired together. We still do more singles wrestling than we do tag wrestling. But it’s sort of a utility thing. We can do both. We don’t really consider it a team. A lot of people like tag team purists like to say we’re a team. We’re not. We do like one tag-team maneuver. Other tag teams put a shame to us. As far as two singles competitors who are extremely good, I think that’s why we’ve had success.

Some teams are just two guys in matching trunks. Damien is a very funny individual. And there’s a lot of variety involved in what you would see in a wrestling match.

You don’t see a lot of amicable breakups of wrestling teams?

Never.

It was refreshing that you’ve been able to maintain your friendship.

I’ve known Damien for a very long time. It’s almost frustrating that we are grouped into the tag team division because we both want so much more. From a singles perspective, we want so much more. I’ll be curious to see how the next year unfolds heading to WrestleMania 30 in New Orleans and where Damien Sandow and myself will be.

Who do you most want to face at WrestleMania 30?

It being the thirtieth WrestleMania and here in the south where I’m from, I’d really like to do something with some personal gravity to it. But if I had to think reality-wise where we’ve been, I’d really like to compete with someone from my generation. WrestleMania has a lot of characters from the past, legends, and a lot of cameo appearances, perhaps. But I’d really like someone from my generation to step up with me and be across the ring. There’s tons of guys who fit that bill. There’s Antonio Cesaro. There’s Dolph Ziggler. There’s Kofi Kingston. Hell, there’s even Damien Sandow.

You could even see fighting your best friend on the biggest show of the year?

Oh, honestly, what better place to put up a mustache or put up a beard.

What is the end goal for you? What is the pinnacle of what you want to do in WWE?

Anyone who knows me well enough knows that I don’t do this for the money. I’d like to headline multiple WrestleManias, and I’d like to be WWE champion, and I’d like to be world heavyweight champion. Anything that describes the top of my field at the time, is where I’d like to be. It’s kind of ambiguous because what we do is entertainment, but certainly those top tier titles are not something that are given, they’re earned. That’s where I’d like to be.

Do you feel that you’re ready to do that now?

I think so. I think it’s a matter of the WWE Universe … the cool thing is they’ve seen me grow up on their television. I didn’t show up a fully polished superstar. I showed up rather undersized and underwhelming and had to grow. People who thought that they might move ahead of me, I moved ahead of them. It’s been quite a ladder to climb already, but I think in their eyes that I’m ready, and that’s all that matters because they truly dictate what’s happening on television and that’s a good thing. 

You and your brother, Goldust, had an encounter at this year’s Royal Rumble. Would you like to feud with him?

I think WWE moving forward is focusing more now on developing its younger talent. And that kind of leaves Goldust out. But it got such a good response that I’m pretty confident that you will see something somewhere down the line. I don’t know when, and I don’t know where.

You were once known for not wearing knee pads, but you’ve been wearing them the last couple of years? Why the change?

Originally the reason I didn’t have knee pads on was I looked at this photo of “Nature Boy” Buddy Rogers when he was WWWF champion and I thought that’s exactly what a professional wrestler should look like. He had the trunks that were a quarter inch higher. He had the boots with the socks sticking out just above. He had no knee pads, no tape. And I just like that classic, throwback-style look. But when I did it, it didn’t necessarily translate. People just got upset because my lower legs were smaller than they should be for a sports entertainer. A lot of men were really irritated by it, bizarrely. The change happened only because the pace I was working was rather fast and aggressive and I didn’t want to run the risk of doing a moonsault and landing right on my knees and being out. Booker T likes to joke that I went from having no kneepads to having the biggest knee pads of all. But I’m glad I made the change.

Any other challenges you want to throw out while you’re on the phone?

Oh, no. I’ve got a full plate ahead of me, especially in case I ever see Morgan Freeman. No, I’m very curious to see what unfolds. Monday night raw, is more specifically what we’re talking about, and that’s three hours where anything and everything tends to happen.

ashfordstamper: Pitch Cover 32/37 Illustrated by the great PJ McQuade. Props to Kelly Watts for filling in as Art Director for me while I was on vacation this week. Great job Kelly!

ashfordstamper:

Pitch Cover 32/37

Illustrated by the great PJ McQuade.

Props to Kelly Watts for filling in as Art Director for me while I was on vacation this week. Great job Kelly!

WWE teased the return of The Undertaker in a Google Plus post that has since been removed. It looks like Taker wrestled in a tag match against Damien Sandow and Wade Barrett. The video teaser read: “The Deadman cometh! The Undertaker shocked the WWE Universe at the SmackDown Live Event in Texas as his bell tolled. See the moment below…” I fully expect The Undertaker to return on Raw to set up his WrestleMania match with CM Punk. Taker lives! twitter.com/RickWWESignGuy… — Rick Achberger (@RickWWESignGuy) February 24, 2013
WWE teased the return of The Undertaker in a Google Plus post that has since been removed. It looks like Taker wrestled in a tag match against Damien Sandow and Wade Barrett.

The video teaser read: “The Deadman cometh! The Undertaker shocked the WWE Universe at the SmackDown Live Event in Texas as his bell tolled. See the moment below…”

I fully expect The Undertaker to return on Raw to set up his WrestleMania match with CM Punk.


Mick Foley is in KCK to tell his funniest wrestling road stories: January 9, 2013 In the wacky and wicked world of professional wrestling, Mick Foley is regarded as the hard-core legend. Known for his multiple personalities — brawler Cactus Jack, ’70s burnout Dude Love and maniacal Mankind — Foley left fans wondering if he felt pain as his opponents battered him with barbed-wire baseball bats and steel chairs or threw him off — and through — a 16-foot steel cage known as Hell in a Cell. Mrs. Foley’s Baby Boy didn’t just win over fans with his bloody brawls. He proved to be the funniest grappler in the game, dispatching his enemies with his tube-sock tag-team partner, Mr. Socko. His humorous autobiographies became best-sellers. So it’s no surprise that Foley’s life after competing in wrestling rings has led him to comedy festivals and clubs around the world, including a two-night, four-show performance January 11–12 at Stanford’s Comedy Club. (Shows are at 7:45 and 9:45 p.m. Tickets cost $15–$50.) Fourteen years to the day after WWE televised his first WWE Championship victory over the Rock, Foley spoke with The Pitch. The Pitch: What’s pushing you to try your hand at comedy? Foley: I really enjoy being up onstage. It reminds me of my days as commissioner in WWE in 2000 when I had a microphone and could basically say anything I wanted to. I miss those days, so I take advantage of the opportunity to re-create that feeling. [[MORE]] Who comes to the shows? It is predominantly a wrestling audience, but I try to make it very welcoming to those brave enough to wander in from the cold. Probably my favorite review of one of my shows was from a decidedly non-wrestling fan, reviewing me for a decidedly non-wrestling online magazine called Broadway Babies. Her final line was, “If you’re interested in wrestling, you’ll love it. And if you’re not, you’ll like it.” A lot of reviewers have gone out of their way to state that they enjoyed the show despite not being a wrestling fan. I take a lot of pride in that. How much of your act is wrestling stories? Almost all of it. And if it’s not a wrestling story, I try to base it on something that I learned during my 27 years on the road traveling the world. Basically, if people have enjoyed my books, which had plenty of non-wrestling stories in them, they’ll enjoy the shows. Are you finding that you enjoy this as much as wrestling? It’s not a vast departure. It’s just an extension of wrestling. Do I enjoy coming to Kansas City as much as I enjoyed winning the WWE title 14 years ago? Nothing’s going to stack up to that. But I really enjoy it. I’ll be cutting way back in 2013 on the number of dates I do. I believe KC is the first show where I’m doing multiple dates. It’s usually one and out. The idea of doing four here, that means that it’s different. It’s not the type of show that casual comedy fans wander into. So it’s really going to take some participation from my wrestling audience to make these shows work. Your name has been thrown out as the first inductee in the 2013 WWE Hall of Fame class. What would that mean to you? It would mean that the rumors that I started spreading about it were effective. It would be a huge honor, especially in Madison Square Garden. WWE does a great job of trying to induct people in geographic areas that mean something to them. For me, being inducted in an arena that I specifically used to hitchhike to and take trains alone to would be a great honor. In wrestling, the peak is being champion or main-eventing WrestleMania. What is your WrestleMania of comedy? I really enjoyed a couple of my Edinburgh shows last summer, and I enjoyed my Montreal shows. I think the idea that I could go into the two biggest and most prestigious comedy festivals in the world and impress people in the comedy world and be accepted by people in that world as being a good performer, as opposed to a curiosity, was probably my WrestleMania moment in comedy so far — until I set foot on the stage of Stanford’s. Louis C.K. has famously gone out of his way to say how much he hates Kansas City. [Laughs.] That’s right. He had that great spot with the morning zoo. Do you have any reservations about coming to KC? Not until you mentioned that. I don’t know. Did he single it out on any occasion other than that? Yeah, he went on The Tonight Show and told Jay Leno how much he hated coming to Kansas City, that it’s a dump and he wasn’t telling the people anything they didn’t already know. Then he worked it into an episode of his FX show with the morning zoo. But he kept plugging Stanford’s. No kidding. I met Louis years ago. He’s a big wrestling fan. And I was asked to be on the show, and I couldn’t get the time off — this was a few years ago before I went back to WWE. Wish I’d have done it. I’ll have to judge for myself. You end up making your own good time. I’ve had some of my best times in comedy with some of the smallest crowds in some of the worst places. I’m not calling Stanford’s one of the worst places by any means as I’ve never been there. They had the faith to book me for four shows in two nights, so I’m looking forward to it. Probably now more than ever.

Mick Foley is in KCK to tell his funniest wrestling road stories: January 9, 2013

In the wacky and wicked world of professional wrestling, Mick Foley is regarded as the hard-core legend. Known for his multiple personalities — brawler Cactus Jack, ’70s burnout Dude Love and maniacal Mankind — Foley left fans wondering if he felt pain as his opponents battered him with barbed-wire baseball bats and steel chairs or threw him off — and through — a 16-foot steel cage known as Hell in a Cell.

Mrs. Foley’s Baby Boy didn’t just win over fans with his bloody brawls. He proved to be the funniest grappler in the game, dispatching his enemies with his tube-sock tag-team partner, Mr. Socko. His humorous autobiographies became best-sellers. So it’s no surprise that Foley’s life after competing in wrestling rings has led him to comedy festivals and clubs around the world, including a two-night, four-show performance January 11–12 at Stanford’s Comedy Club. (Shows are at 7:45 and 9:45 p.m. Tickets cost $15–$50.)

Fourteen years to the day after WWE televised his first WWE Championship victory over the Rock, Foley spoke with The Pitch.

The Pitch: What’s pushing you to try your hand at comedy?

Foley: I really enjoy being up onstage. It reminds me of my days as commissioner in WWE in 2000 when I had a microphone and could basically say anything I wanted to. I miss those days, so I take advantage of the opportunity to re-create that feeling.

Read More

(Source: wrestlingdelorean)

Scott Pioli’s future with the Kansas City Chiefs is no longer undetermined. He has no future with the franchise. The Chiefs and Pioli “have mutually agreed to part ways,” according to a press release issued Friday by the team. “After several productive conversations, we made the difficult decision to part ways with Scott Pioli and allow him to pursue other opportunities,” Chiefs chairman and CEO Clark Hunt said in a statement Friday. “Scott has been an invaluable member of the Chiefs family since joining us in 2009, and we sincerely appreciate his tremendous contributions over the last four years.” The move comes a day after ESPN reported that the Chiefs were on the verge of hiring former Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid. Multiple reports have indicated that Reid would bring in his own general manager. Pioli also issued a statement through the Chiefs: “I would like to thank Norma, Clark and the Hunt Family for the opportunity that they gave me four years ago. I’d also like to thank the players, coaches, scouts and countless other employees, throughout the organization and at Arrowhead Stadium that have worked so hard during my time here. I would also like to genuinely thank Chiefs fans. “The bottom line is that I did not accomplish all of what I set out to do. To the Hunt family - to the great fans of the Kansas City Chiefs - to the players, all employees and alumni, I truly apologize for not getting the job done.”

Scott Pioli’s future with the Kansas City Chiefs is no longer undetermined. He has no future with the franchise.

The Chiefs and Pioli “have mutually agreed to part ways,” according to a press release issued Friday by the team.

“After several productive conversations, we made the difficult decision to part ways with Scott Pioli and allow him to pursue other opportunities,” Chiefs chairman and CEO Clark Hunt said in a statement Friday. “Scott has been an invaluable member of the Chiefs family since joining us in 2009, and we sincerely appreciate his tremendous contributions over the last four years.”

The move comes a day after ESPN reported that the Chiefs were on the verge of hiring former Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid. Multiple reports have indicated that Reid would bring in his own general manager.

Pioli also issued a statement through the Chiefs:

“I would like to thank Norma, Clark and the Hunt Family for the opportunity that they gave me four years ago. I’d also like to thank the players, coaches, scouts and countless other employees, throughout the organization and at Arrowhead Stadium that have worked so hard during my time here. I would also like to genuinely thank Chiefs fans.

“The bottom line is that I did not accomplish all of what I set out to do. To the Hunt family - to the great fans of the Kansas City Chiefs - to the players, all employees and alumni, I truly apologize for not getting the job done.”

Andy Reid met for about nine hours Wednesday with Clark Hunt and officials from the Kansas City Chiefs. Today, it looks like the walrus-mustachioed former Philadelphia Eagles coach will be the Chiefs’ new leader. ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Chris Morten are reporting that Reid is on the verge of a deal with the Chiefs. Schefter wrote on Twitter: “From @mortreport and me: Chiefs on verge of a deal with Andy Reid. One source said ‘the major issues have been discussed and agreed upon.’” Mortensen wrote: ” Andy Reid and #Chiefs are on verge of a deal. Story up on http://ESPN.com short on on SportsCenter via myself and @AdamSchefter” Reid was supposed to interview with the Arizona Cardinals, but never made the trip to ‘Zona. UPDATE: NFL.com says not so fast. According to the league’s website, Reid still plans to interview with the Cards and the San Diego Chargers. From NFL.com: “Reid will interview with the Arizona Cardinals on Thursday as planned, according to NFL.com’s three amigos: Steve Wyche, Ian Rapoport and Albert Breer. Reid also plans to interview with the San Diego Chargers this weekend, which is near where he owns a home, someone with knowledge of the meetings told Wyche. “This is officially silly season when it comes to coaching news. ESPN reported just two days ago that there was a ‘95%’ chance that Reid would land in Arizona. Now the same network is reporting that Reid and the Chiefs are close to a deal. That may very well prove correct, but he still plans to meet with two other teams.” UPDATE II: NFL insider Jason La Canfora is reporting that Reid to the Chiefs is “now imminent” and the coach’s trips to San Diego and Arizona were canceled as “issues of staff and structure were hashed out today.” Is this the right move, Chiefs fans?

Andy Reid met for about nine hours Wednesday with Clark Hunt and officials from the Kansas City Chiefs. Today, it looks like the walrus-mustachioed former Philadelphia Eagles coach will be the Chiefs’ new leader.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Chris Morten are reporting that Reid is on the verge of a deal with the Chiefs.

Schefter wrote on Twitter: “From @mortreport and me: Chiefs on verge of a deal with Andy Reid. One source said ‘the major issues have been discussed and agreed upon.’”

Mortensen wrote: ” Andy Reid and #Chiefs are on verge of a deal. Story up on http://ESPN.com short on on SportsCenter via myself and @AdamSchefter”

Reid was supposed to interview with the Arizona Cardinals, but never made the trip to ‘Zona. UPDATE: NFL.com says not so fast. According to the league’s website, Reid still plans to interview with the Cards and the San Diego Chargers. From NFL.com:

“Reid will interview with the Arizona Cardinals on Thursday as planned, according to NFL.com’s three amigos: Steve Wyche, Ian Rapoport and Albert Breer. Reid also plans to interview with the San Diego Chargers this weekend, which is near where he owns a home, someone with knowledge of the meetings told Wyche.

“This is officially silly season when it comes to coaching news. ESPN reported just two days ago that there was a ‘95%’ chance that Reid would land in Arizona. Now the same network is reporting that Reid and the Chiefs are close to a deal. That may very well prove correct, but he still plans to meet with two other teams.”

UPDATE II: NFL insider Jason La Canfora is reporting that Reid to the Chiefs is “now imminent” and the coach’s trips to San Diego and Arizona were canceled as “issues of staff and structure were hashed out today.”

Is this the right move, Chiefs fans?

A Kansas City Chiefs player has allegedly shot his girlfriend and then himself, according to Kansas City Police Chief Darryl Forte’s Twitter account. The player involved is linebacker Jovan Belcher, according to CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora. La Canfora also reports that Chiefs GM Scott Pioli and Coach Romeo Crennel were outside team facility at the time Belcher killed himself. Belcher “thanked both men before taking his life, and that Pioli and Crennel did not feel threatened.” KCTV Channel 5 is reporting that the Chiefs player allegedly killed his girlfriend and then himself this morning. The woman was shot at 54th and Crysler Avenue around 8 a.m. There is a conflicting report: KMBC Channel 9 is reporting that the woman is in critical condition. Update: Kansas City police have confirmed that both the player and the girlfriend are dead. The only confirmation on the identities from police is that the player was a 25-year-old black male and the woman was a black female in her twenties. Here’s the official word from the Chiefs: “We can confirm that there was an incident at Arrowhead earlier this morning. We are cooperating with authorities in their investigation.” 610 Sports’ Danny Parkins sent this Tweet: “The player apparently was confronted with #Chiefs coaches in the parking lot before he put the gun to his head and committed suicide.” Deadspin has posted photos of Belcher, his girlfriend and their child.

A Kansas City Chiefs player has allegedly shot his girlfriend and then himself, according to Kansas City Police Chief Darryl Forte’s Twitter account. The player involved is linebacker Jovan Belcher, according to CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora.

La Canfora also reports that Chiefs GM Scott Pioli and Coach Romeo Crennel were outside team facility at the time Belcher killed himself. Belcher “thanked both men before taking his life, and that Pioli and Crennel did not feel threatened.”

KCTV Channel 5 is reporting that the Chiefs player allegedly killed his girlfriend and then himself this morning. The woman was shot at 54th and Crysler Avenue around 8 a.m.

There is a conflicting report: KMBC Channel 9 is reporting that the woman is in critical condition. Update: Kansas City police have confirmed that both the player and the girlfriend are dead. The only confirmation on the identities from police is that the player was a 25-year-old black male and the woman was a black female in her twenties.

Here’s the official word from the Chiefs: “We can confirm that there was an incident at Arrowhead earlier this morning. We are cooperating with authorities in their investigation.”

610 Sports’ Danny Parkins sent this Tweet: “The player apparently was confronted with #Chiefs coaches in the parking lot before he put the gun to his head and committed suicide.”

Deadspin has posted photos of Belcher, his girlfriend and their child.

Kyle James and Kemet “thePhantom*” Coleman come of age in KC’s music scene Kyle James is center stage at Club 906 in Liberty. Microphone in hand, shirt off, cut abs on display, he’s delivering his hip-hop single to about 20 people. A few people dance to the rhymes as they watch Mayor Sly James’ 24-year-old son, backed by Kemet “thePhantom*” Coleman, perform “Bender.” Drinking for three days, some might say I’m on a bender, James rasps. Get a bad chick back to da crib, then I bender … over. Play my shit on replay because I’m colder than December. We don’t need no sleep we keep it rolling off this liquor. I’m on a bender, bender, bender … I’ll take this bottle to the head just might drink till I’m dead. Next door, at Retro Bowl (the two venues are connected), two Liberty cops have blocked the doorway to a bathroom where they’re questioning a man who looks like a much shorter version of Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah. He’s bleeding and has stuffed brown paper towels into his mouth to stanch the flow. He tells the uniforms that he got jumped. The police turn their attention to another man, dressed all in white. It’s a strange night, made a little stranger by James and Coleman’s enthusiasm booming through the walls. While a Retro Bowl employee mops up the blood, the two rappers are playing to their small audience in the adjoining club as if they’ve sold out an arena. “There’s people here who had other shit that they could be doing, but they’re here wanting to hear what I have to say,” Coleman says when they come offstage. “I don’t give a shit if no one shows up. I’ll perform like there’s 1,000 people there.” James is looking for a victory cigarette. He says he stopped smoking two days before the show to keep his voice fresh. Sweat drips off him. “It felt great,” James says. [[MORE]] Kyle James is late. He’s meeting with Coleman and a reporter at Fric & Frac, on 39th Street. When he gets to the restaurant’s patio, wearing a powder-blue Royals shirt, shorts and a flat-billed baseball cap, he wants to talk about his rap, not his rap sheet — the rumored fights, the mug shot in the daily paper. In three days, he’s putting out his first mixtape. It’s called Barz4Daze, and it features Coleman, who also mixed and mastered it. The two have spent a year on it. “Bender” is already out, and James is shooting a video for it. “It’s probably going to be one of the coolest videos to come out of here,” James says. Modesty often eludes him. He and Coleman call themselves “Team COA,” for center of attention. They shout out the letters at shows, punctuate social-media posts with them, deploy them in casual conversation. It’s not just a slogan but an attitude, and what it sums up goes beyond music — at least as far as hiring “promo girls,” they say, and starting a line of merchandise. They call it a movement. “There’s a girl who got ‘COA’ tattooed on her,” James says. “I have to show you this. It’s crazy.” James pulls out his iPhone and reveals a photo of the letters inked onto a woman’s body. They say they’d joked with the woman about getting a COA tattoo. She didn’t hesitate. “There’s a lot of people who are the center of attention or think they’re the center of attention or want to be the center of attention,” Coleman says. “So they’ve definitely clasped onto that.” James has been the center of attention over the past year for confrontations at metro bars and nightclubs. The first on the record: an August 2011 fracas at Fran’s Restaurant. According to a police report, James threatened the job of an in-uniform, off-duty cop who had handcuffed him for acting unruly in the Power & Light District business and walking out on a $30 tab. James apologized a few days later and offered to pay his check. “As soon as that happened, I wasn’t Kyle,” James says. “I wasn’t K.J. I was the mayor’s son. People probably looked at it as ‘he wants some attention — it’s a gimmick,’ or something like that.” James is reluctant to rehash this and other scuffles, but he admits that he’s been wrong a few times. His mistakes, he adds, have just been a little more public than most people’s. “There’s also been times when things were blatant lies,” he says. “There’s also been times when my personality and how eccentric I am — people may not know how to react to it. I think it could be misunderstood.” By the end of August 2011, though, he was back in the news, accused of punching a woman in the face at a bar, the Point. TV news crews camped outside his apartment. Reporters knocked on his door, and James, scheduled to work that day, holed up to avoid the attention. “I actually lost my job,” James says. He’d been a server at Brio. “I couldn’t go to work because of this shit.” The assault case was scheduled for trial this past February but was thrown out after the woman failed to show up in court. By then, the TV crews and reporters were less interested. “I’m proven not guilty, and nothing’s even said,” James says. “Nobody even took the time to see if this is even fucking true. It’s just like, ‘He punched some girl in the face.’ Inaccurate. That’s part of the shit that comes with the territory.” Things got worse this past April 8. James was with Kendrick Williams that night when Williams was fatally shot in Westport. As the Middle of the Map Fest was wrapping up its weekend in the entertainment district, men in a car heckled Williams’ fiancée in the parking lot of the Sun Fresh market. Someone in the car opened fire on Williams when he moved to check on her. James saw a man point something from one of the car’s windows. He thought it was a camera phone. It was a gun. There was a pop. Williams got “hyped up” and pushed him, James says. “These dudes are shooting?” James says Williams told him. “This is crazy.” Williams’ fiancée was the first to notice that he’d been shot. Then Williams, 22, collapsed. “He was smiling when he passed away,” James says. “He told me, ‘You got this.’ I’ve internalized that and remembered that. I knew what he was talking about. That’s why I want to be unwavering in the whole approach to this because it’s bigger than just me. When you see something like that, it’s kind of hard to be scared of a crowd or be onstage or be scared to walk down a street. What do you really fear at the end of the day? And are you going to let that limit you?” Williams’ killing remains unsolved. James and Coleman now wear matching black and gold “Stop the Violence — In Memory of Kid” bracelets to remember their friend. The violence around James didn’t stop, though. In late April, Fox 4 reported that James was “beaten and bloodied” after a fight with a self-proclaimed martial-arts expert outside the Brooksider. James refused to press charges and accepted a ride home from police. “I didn’t fight,” James says. “I just stood there thinking I was doing a righteous thing.” In May, James was charged with disorderly conduct in Kansas City, Kansas. A judge ordered him to pay a $170.50 fine. He doesn’t want to talk about that one. It’s just another time when something happened to him, and people talked about it only because he’s the son of the mayor. “People think he’s getting spoon-fed by his parents,” Coleman says of his friend. “I could probably name how much money this dude has in his bank account, and it’s not very much. We’re both fucking broke as shit. But he’s a grown-ass man, so his actions are his actions.” “The No. 1 thing that I hate is how this reflects on a man who did everything for my brothers and sister that he possibly could,” James says of his father. “He worked his ass off, tried to put us in the best schools. This is literally the most inspiring person that I’ve ever been around in my whole life. And I hate how the things that I’ve done, even if they’re true or not true or whatever, how they reflect on him. Sometimes you have to learn in your own way, and I’m still learning.” Mayor Sly James didn’t return messages left by The Pitch with his spokesman. But Kyle James says his father, who played in bands as a young man, is supportive of his music career. “My dad is supportive of whatever I want to do that is legal, that is time-fulfilling, that is not going to outright harm other people,” James says. “He’s completely supportive of me being passionate about something. That’s hard to do. He’s letting me be me but at the same time giving me guidance and input.” And James insists that the dust-ups haven’t been about drawing attention to his fledgling hip-hop career. “Music wasn’t even on my mind at Fran’s,” James says. “I’ll just chalk that up to not having direction, not being focused, and allowing myself to be in a situation where I became vulnerable. And when I was vulnerable, I probably didn’t handle it or deal with it in the most mature way that I possibly could.” He goes on: “I want to be known for music. I want to be known for talent, not for rash decisions or trouble. I don’t want no trouble.” “He’s really driven to do what he wants to do now,” Coleman says. Inside Coleman’s Armour Boulevard apartment on this August afternoon, his caramel-colored cat, Achilles, roams the living room and flops down for attention. The one-0x00ADbedroom space is decorated with paintings, drawings and photos of famous black Americans: Jesse Jackson, Malcolm X, Michael Jackson, President Obama. Family photos share wall space. “I’m in my mother’s stomach,” he says when he points to a 1987 image of his parents in a church. There’s a shot of his dapper father in his law office. Coleman takes his fashion sense from his father and has the tie his dad wears in the picture. Coleman has just split a marathon push with James to finish the mixtape. As Coleman shows off his place, the mixtape has gone live for downloading and streaming on bandcamp.com — for free. “I wanted to make it as accessible to people as I could,” James says. “Especially being the first thing that I put out. All I want is as many people as possible to hear it.” Four hours after its release, the mixtape has been played about 500 times. James and Coleman were supposed to perform at the Riot Room as part of The Pitch Music Showcase August 4. They say “technical difficulties” kept them from playing their set that Saturday night. Coleman says the Riot Room had one sound person, working two stages, who told him that the club didn’t have the wiring needed to hook up his laptop. And then his computer crashed. (They found their way onto the stage later. DJ Sheppa let them freestyle on top of some beats at the Riot Room.) Coleman says he and James were sitting outside the Riot Room, figuring out what to do next, when a Foundry employee approached James. “This punk bitch from the Foundry comes up to him and goes, ‘You’re not going to start any trouble, are you?’ “ “This always happens,” James says. He kept his cool, told the guy: “Dude, I’m sitting here. I’m performing tonight. I’m not trying to come into the bar.” “You gotta let that shit roll and realize this all comes full circle,” James says. “Big reward, big shit.” Coleman says people have tried to steer him away from James. Someone even created a Twitter account to do so. “The only two tweets are to me,” Coleman says. He remembers the messages. “You’re putting yourself in a bad light if you’re hanging out with that James dude. He’s going to fuck up your reputation.” His ex-girlfriend warned him about James, too. Coleman says she told him, “I feel like you broke up with me to go be with Kyle.” Basketball and music brought James and Coleman together at Notre Dame de Sion. They made their first recording together in the basement of Coleman’s parents’ home when James was in sixth grade and Coleman in eighth. “We’d be up till, like, 6 in the morning, working on stuff,” James says. “Now it’s embarrassing if you listen to it. It’s like, ‘Oh, shit.’ “ “That stuff is whack,” Coleman says, “but it definitely showed that we had chemistry.” Coleman graduated from Raytown High School. James bounced from Rockhurst to Lincoln to Paseo. The two lost touch when Coleman went to college, first at the University of Central Missouri. “I partied a little too much,” he says. He moved to the University of Missouri–Kansas City. “Did too much music,” he says. “So I went to [Metropolitan Community College] Longview, and I actually got straight A’s there, for some reason. So I went back to UMKC and then kind of stopped.” After high school, James was accepted into UMKC’s Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. He thought he was done making music, but he says it pulled him back. So he dropped out. “My goal is to never go back to college and finish it,” James says. “I’m very tunnel-visioned. If I don’t have direction and I don’t have a goal in sight, then I can be here, there and everywhere. Once I have tunnel vision, everything seems to make sense. When I’m focused on something — and it’s something I love — it’s pretty attainable.” About 18 months ago, Coleman and James reunited. They released a song in April 2011 called “I Won’t Lose.” Coleman worked as a paid staffer for Sly James’ mayoral campaign, and when he wasn’t canvassing or working fundraisers, he cut a rhyme for his friend’s dad. At the same time, Kyle James became Coleman’s business manager, a job that reminded him how much he wanted to be onstage performing. James quit the job, and the two began making music again. They take different approaches to what’s in the music, though. James packs his lyrics with drug and alcohol references and sexual innuendo. Talk of partying and women, though, is less present on tracks like “Get Away” and “Make a Way,” which he wrote two days after Williams was shot and killed. “I try to paint pictures,” Coleman says, “and he’ll just shoot a bullet through that canvas.” “I’d rather keep it raw and honest for myself because that’s the only way that people will feel you,” James says. “He’s a little bit more calm and reserved and, honestly, a little bit more tasteful.” “Is tomorrow Thursday?” Coleman asks. “It all blends together,” James says. It’s about 3 p.m. They’re hungry. They talk about going for steaks at Plaza III. They settle for the $2.99 meal deals at Church’s Chicken. James’ left biceps is freshly tattooed with a pyramid with an all-seeing eye surrounded by a sea of flame — a basic, dollar-bill-style illuminati symbol — and the letters “COA,” which were drawn by Coleman. The birthday gift from his girlfriend took three hours to complete. The script for the words “center of attention” is hard to read on purpose, James says. He wants people to really look at it. On his right arm is a tattoo of an eagle and the word “freedom,” which he says he got when he moved out of his parents’ home at 17. James meets Coleman at his apartment. Coleman works on a Jimmy John’s “Italian Night Club” sandwich. James drinks an iced tea. They’re going to a meet-and-greet with Tech N9ne, who’s playing that night. “It’s the No. 1 way I’d want to spend my birthday,” James says. James and Coleman grew up idolizing Tech N9ne. Coleman modeled his style on the Kansas City rapper (along with Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, the Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac). Now Coleman and James are working with Tech, who they say showed at their recent RecordBar show and proclaimed his approval. After their performance that night, Tech bought shots. The party moved to the Riot Room for Caribou Lous. They made a makeshift VIP section on the patio to celebrate Tech’s “Caribou Lou” single going gold. Another night, the trio started at Luna and ended up at the Foundation. “We were all kind of messed up, and this fool gets onstage and starts rapping at the Foundation,” Coleman says of James. “I was trying to express myself,” James explains. “He starts freestylin’, and then somebody was like, ‘You’ve got to get off the stage,’ ” Coleman says. “They kick him off the stage, and this fool says, ‘Who the fuck are you?’ That shit was the most hilarious thing ever. Tech talks about that all of the time. We’ve got a song coming out with Tech called ‘Who the Fuck Are You?’ “ “It’s probably not one of those things that I would have done in the past five or six months,” James says. James is already working on the sequel to Barz4Daze, and he says he’s written a lot of it. “I’m going to try to knock that one out real quick after the first one comes out,” he says. “I’m already in my stride.” But they say their focus is on a COA album. “That album is going to be crazy,” James says. A couple of days ago, Coleman released the first song off an R&B project he’s almost done making, a come-on called “Believer.” He and James smirk as the track plays on a laptop. Your body is calling so you want to believe, Coleman sings in a smooth voice. I’ll make you scream Jesus. I’ll make you a believer … Call me the messiah because I’m back for the second coming. Coleman grew up in a religious home. His father became a pastor in 1997. Coleman says his parents made him read the Bible — an experience he says helps him write lyrics. “I’m spiritual enough to be comfortable saying those things,” Coleman says of “Believer.” “God is a lot cooler than people believe.” Kyle James is a different kind of believer. His faith is in his music. He believes he’s going to make it. He believes Coleman is going to make it. “Since the music has been picking up, I feel like a lot of people are like, ‘I understand that kid,’” James says. “My goal is to conquer this city,” Coleman says. “I want to be a household name with this guy.” “My buddy from L.A. just started a record label, and we’ve got some contractual things in the works,” James says. “We may not be here for long.” Photo by Brooke Vandever

Kyle James and Kemet “thePhantom*” Coleman come of age in KC’s music scene

Kyle James is center stage at Club 906 in Liberty. Microphone in hand, shirt off, cut abs on display, he’s delivering his hip-hop single to about 20 people. A few people dance to the rhymes as they watch Mayor Sly James’ 24-year-old son, backed by Kemet “thePhantom*” Coleman, perform “Bender.”

Drinking for three days, some might say I’m on a bender, James rasps. Get a bad chick back to da crib, then I bender … over. Play my shit on replay because I’m colder than December. We don’t need no sleep we keep it rolling off this liquor. I’m on a bender, bender, bender … I’ll take this bottle to the head just might drink till I’m dead.

Next door, at Retro Bowl (the two venues are connected), two Liberty cops have blocked the doorway to a bathroom where they’re questioning a man who looks like a much shorter version of Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah. He’s bleeding and has stuffed brown paper towels into his mouth to stanch the flow. He tells the uniforms that he got jumped. The police turn their attention to another man, dressed all in white.

It’s a strange night, made a little stranger by James and Coleman’s enthusiasm booming through the walls. While a Retro Bowl employee mops up the blood, the two rappers are playing to their small audience in the adjoining club as if they’ve sold out an arena.

“There’s people here who had other shit that they could be doing, but they’re here wanting to hear what I have to say,” Coleman says when they come offstage. “I don’t give a shit if no one shows up. I’ll perform like there’s 1,000 people there.”

James is looking for a victory cigarette. He says he stopped smoking two days before the show to keep his voice fresh. Sweat drips off him.

“It felt great,” James says.

Read More

Who has the best fans? Fannect wants to know Who are the best fans in the nation? The question has been debated on bar stools and message boards across the country, with no clear scientific answer. Until now. So say Hunter Browning and Will Coatney, whose Fannect app may at last definitively rank the most devoted fanbases in sports — and determine every pro team and university’s No. 1 fan. “The most fundamental core of Fannect is proving who has the best sports fans,” Coatney, 24, says. In the past, he adds, there was no metric “to quantitatively prove who has the best fans.” So the two men have set out to build a platform that would fill that void. “I wanted to let fans compete to be the best fan at their school and also earn their school points,” says Browning, an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Kansas. (He’s about to take a semester off to focus on Fannect.) “We want this to be the platform to measure fans’ passion, dedication and knowledge of their team and of their team against other teams.” [[MORE]] Browning was watching a Chiefs game when he first wondered how fans could become more engaged in the action. Coatney, whom Browning had met through a mutual friend, brings a Web-development background and a lot of connections to complement his partner’s training in engineering and physics. It’s a combination with serious legs: Fannect has raised $300,000 so far, a figure likely to grow after launch. When Fannect goes live November 20 (pending Apple’s approval), it will feature every major NCAA school as well as every MLB, MLS, NHL, NFL and NBA franchise. The app — so far only for Apple, though a website will allow anyone to play — is designed to capture the social aspect of sports. It combines the functionality of Foursquare with a social component similar to Facebook. As on Foursquare, fans check in, in this case with games and watch parties. Those check-ins earn points, as does getting a picture taken with players and coaches, guessing scores and building a roster of friends. “Since we’re all fans, we really do get what fans are looking for,” Browning says. Which means that even the sign-up process is a game. In a note that recalls the exclusivity of Facebook’s first period, Fannect users must hit a threshold (100 people) to unlock a favorite team or school. Networks for KU and Mizzou, Sporting KC, the Royals and Chiefs have already activated, Browning says. He adds, “We expect the other networks to be turned on within days.” Browning and Coatney subscribe to the mantra that an app dies without regular updates, so they’ve lined up more games to launch after the first 30 days. Their hope is that, a year from now, Fannect will have become a major part of college and pro sports. They envision fans whipping out their smartphones for bragging rights. Both men admit that they’d like for ESPN, Yahoo or some other company with deep pockets to buy Fannect eventually, so that they can pursue other projects. Browning says it’s not about money — he just wants Fannect to pay for his deeper scientific ambitions. He studied at Blue Valley Schools’ Center for Advanced Professional Studies and taught himself quantum mechanics and nuclear physics through MIT online programs in high school, and he holds patents that may lead to a hydrogen fuel cell to power cars. (“We didn’t get to take it as far as the theory would permit because we ran out of money,” he says.) The idea is for the next thing to benefit more people than just sports fans. “You only have so long that you’re here,” Browning says. “You might as well make some impact.” Photo by Sabrina Staires

Who has the best fans? Fannect wants to know

Who are the best fans in the nation? The question has been debated on bar stools and message boards across the country, with no clear scientific answer. Until now.

So say Hunter Browning and Will Coatney, whose Fannect app may at last definitively rank the most devoted fanbases in sports — and determine every pro team and university’s No. 1 fan.

“The most fundamental core of Fannect is proving who has the best sports fans,” Coatney, 24, says. In the past, he adds, there was no metric “to quantitatively prove who has the best fans.” So the two men have set out to build a platform that would fill that void.

“I wanted to let fans compete to be the best fan at their school and also earn their school points,” says Browning, an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Kansas. (He’s about to take a semester off to focus on Fannect.) “We want this to be the platform to measure fans’ passion, dedication and knowledge of their team and of their team against other teams.”

Read More

EyeVerify may be the key to keeping your secrets Maybe you have the kind of eyes that give you away. Now, though, your eyes — specifically, the blood vessels in the whites of your eyes — might keep all your secrets. “Each section of the white of your eye is the equivalent of a fingerprint,” says Toby Rush, EyeVerify CEO and founder. “It’s like four fingerprints staring at you.” EyeVerify’s authentication system, Rush adds, is easy compared with retina- and iris-scanning identification systems, which require special lighting. EyeVerify works with a cellphone camera. “All you have to do is hold it roughly in front of your eye, look right, look left, turn it around and it’ll be done,” he says. “It’s that simple.” [[MORE]] Reza Derakhshani, an associate professor at the University of Missouri–Kansas City, and Arun Ross, an associate professor at West Virginia University, first developed eye-vein verification in 2005. They received a patent in February 2008. After Rush came across the concept in September 2011, he negotiated a worldwide license for the technology and started EyeVerify the following January. Rush, who had spent the previous 13 years working in the mobile and wireless fields, raised $1.4 million in seed money from Think Big Ventures and a number of angel investment groups. A team of 12 people — five full-time employees, including Derakhshani, who is EyeVerify’s chief scientist as well as director of UMKC’s Computational Intelligence and Bio-Identification Technologies Lab — is working to make the application accurate and easy to use. If they succeed, Rush expects numerous industries to start relying on the company’s eye-vein biometrics for such everyday needs as money transfers, prescription records and building access. From deactivating your burglar alarm to activating your gun or weapon to accessing your medical history, there’s no shortage of uses for a portable technology that lets you prove you are who you say you are. “It is quintessentially who you are,” Rush says, talking up the benefits of biodentity software over the usual typed passwords. “Everything else is a proxy. Because you have a password, we assume you are who you are. Because you know this string of numbers, we’re going to assume that you are who you say you are. None of them actually answer the question. But we are definitely answering the question. … We’ve got to make it dead simple and accurate every time. That’s really the focus.” Besides countering identity theft, Rush says EyeVerify is also part of the Web’s evolution, moving a computer user away from anonymity toward verifiability. “I want to be known as a real person online,” he says, “and know that I’m dealing with who I want to deal with online.” A pilot program began this fall, ahead of a planned EyeVerify launch next spring. Rush says five companies are testing the application. He won’t name them, but he says they are “the biggest names in town in banking and health care.” “We’re going to protect your ID,” Rush says. “We’re going to make it convenient to share your identity with your phone and then the various applications.” EyeVerify is targeting a number of consumer and commercial industries besides banking and health care: government, travel, higher education, hospitality and gaming. But what Rush wants most is for the eyes to have it on Election Day. He believes his product could greatly increase voter participation. “It’s still my favorite application idea for the technology,” he says. So when voters choose the next U.S. president, the phrase “voter ID” may have an altogether new meaning. Photo by Sabrina Staires

EyeVerify may be the key to keeping your secrets

Maybe you have the kind of eyes that give you away. Now, though, your eyes — specifically, the blood vessels in the whites of your eyes — might keep all your secrets.

“Each section of the white of your eye is the equivalent of a fingerprint,” says Toby Rush, EyeVerify CEO and founder. “It’s like four fingerprints staring at you.”

EyeVerify’s authentication system, Rush adds, is easy compared with retina- and iris-scanning identification systems, which require special lighting. EyeVerify works with a cellphone camera.

“All you have to do is hold it roughly in front of your eye, look right, look left, turn it around and it’ll be done,” he says. “It’s that simple.”

Read More