What was Ken Shamrock thinking? A bad feeling about one of the top WWE No Mercy matches

Sunday, October 5 – 11:17 A.M. (CT)

-Tough break for Ken Shamrock last night. I'm not sure why he decided to do the type of training he did on the day of his fight. Ken's brother Frank Shamrock questioned on CBS commentary what he was doing. Dot Net's own Rich Twilling, who is training for an MMA fight, wrote me last night and asked what Shamrock was thinking. Heck, even my girlfriend asked me, "Why didn't he wear headgear or something?"

Speaking of my better half, she had her first exposure to a women's MMA bout last night. She's watched several UFC events over the years, but I wouldn't describe her as an avid fan of the sport. Nevertheless, she was glued to the television during Gina Carano's fight against Kelly Kobald.

I don't think she even realized that there was female fighting until last night. She loved it. And she got ticked off when I told her that UFC president Dana White won't use female fighters. I tried to explain that female fighting may not sit well with advertisers, but she wasn't listening to logic at that point because she was too busy venting and saying how stupid UFC is not to feature female fighters.

I'm not a big fan of the Elite XC product. The show last night was more entertaining than the brand's first two shows on CBS despite Shamrock bowing out, but it still feels minor league compared to UFC. That being said, I am looking forward to the Carano vs. Cyborg fight more than most of the upcoming UFC main events. Now that Kimbo has been exposed, Gina is the biggest star in Elite XC. If nothing else, Elite XC has one star that UFC can't or won't compete with.

-I'm fired up for tonight's ladder match between Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels. The rest of the show? Not so much. I want to be excited about Triple H vs. Jeff Hardy, but WWE has been sending the message for weeks that Vladimir Kozlov is going to interfere in this match.

I'm trying to convince myself that Kozlov's interference will lead to a surprising finish, but I have a bad feeling that his interference will be the actual finish. I hope I'm wrong. The rest of the show features solid, yet unspectacular matchups. It's possible that one or two of those matches will surprise me, but at this point it looks like a two-match (and one of those could be headed to a DQ finish) show.

Fortunately, the main event should be so damn good that it will probably make up for a forgettable undercard. Jericho vs. HBK should be a tremendous match and I'm really looking forward to sitting back and enjoying the action. Of course, I will be covering WWE No Mercy live tonight, so feel free to watch along with me.

-Looking for last minute fantasy football advice? Check out the weekly bench/start article I write for UGO.com.