THIS IS FOR REAL?!?
What the heck - if it was not for show - nice going AJ -
I don't know what to say

Much Love
Wonder Woman

Sounds like a publicity stunt to me ... but I worry that the metastizing cancer that lurks in the White Sox clubhouse may have spread to the good Pierzynski. Like Darth Thomas (whose clubhouse cancer apparently went into remission under the treatment of Dr. Swisher and company in Oakland) he may need an appointment with a good radiologist.

(And yes, I do of course mean a good CLUBHOUSE radiologist.

Well, I agree with cubsalot, AJ, your hated enough already. Why push it?? Hated in baseball, now gonna be in TNA... Oh AJ, what the heck went wrong in your head?

cubsalot, you're funny... "spread to" AJ? he brought it with him!

Um, well, I....
I don't beleave it, but then again it's A.J. so maby I do.

Sounds staged to me. Remember, this was at a wrestling event.

not only did he & his trainer beat up the WS-MVP, who is himself as bite-size as our own beloved LNP, all because he didn't get "intro music", but he tore Eckstein's children's book?! i don't believe this - & i thought Ozzie was joking when he said even his own mother boos him. i am SO glad AJ is no longer with us. anyone recall that article from April's Onion? the one entitled "Pierzynski vows to lead AL in Offensiveness"? i think this is up there with stepping on a guy's head in football after the play has been blown dead. WTF?!

Is someone trying to imply that wrestling isn't real???

Nobody say a word about Santa!

The pretext for the fight--'he got an intro with music, while I was only introduced from the seats'--sounds contrived enough, and the fact that it happened at a wrestling PAY-PER-VIEW TV event should make you even more suspicious, but the detail of AJ tearing Eckstein's children's book cinches it. That was totally staged.

It even looks like the Miami Herald just printed a TNA press release. Check the text after the bullet points at the bottom of the story:

"• TNA Wrestling delivers a distinct brand of high-risk, athletic entertainment.

TNA's roster includes new, fresh talent like A.J. Styles, Christopher Daniels, Samoa Joe, Ron Killings, Chris Sabin, The Austin Ariess, AMW, Abyss, Homicide and recognizable stars such as Kurt Angle, Sting, Christian Cage, Jeff Jarrett, Team 3D, Konnan, Rhino, Kevin Nash, Norman Smiley, Raven, Shane Douglas and others.

TNA features the innovative six-sided ring and the high-flying X Division, as well as concept matches such as Ultimate X, King of the Mountain and Six Sides of Steel.

• TNA iMPACT! airs 9 p.m. ET/PT Thursdays on Spike TV. Spike TV is available in 90-million homes and is a division of MTV Networks, a division of Viacom International Inc.

• TNA Entertainment, LLC is a privately held company headquartered in Nashville."

That's not real news reporting. That's free advertising.

maybe AJ should start wearing one of those Luchador masks next season, like in Nacho Libre...

Happy Holidays Y'all
Gotta be fake........
Even AJ isnt that low

In a (real) fight between Eckstein and Pierzynski, no matter who lost, I would feel like I - nay, the larger society - was the true winner. It's overrated vs. just-plain-jerk.

Well, maybe.

I'm guessing in a real fight X could take A. J.

A non-story. This is why no one in the clubhouse was sad to see A.J. go. This is the kid stuff he's into. Can you imagine Torii or Joe putting up with that immaturity? Much less the coaching staff? A.J.'s grandstanding has always been the White Sox world - Deadspin (a self-proclaimed fan of BG) has already reported on A.J. and Ozzie's fascination with something that most Minnesotans got bored with after Verne Gagne lost his AWA promotion.

Hey, A.J...Dennis Rodman called--he wants his self-promotional schtick back.

Maybe A.J. needed the dough, since he didn't get a playoff check this year ;-)

Does whether or not it's fake even matter? Either way, the fact that A.J. is involved in such stupidity makes me glad he's not a Twin any longer. And my opinion of Eckstein has just dropped a notch or twelve as well...please, Joe and Justin and Cuddy and gang, watch and learn from this. (Not that any of those guys seems capable of such moronic behavior, but you just never know. A.J. just seemed a merry prankster at first, and then...)

Maybe AJ was trying to fake whoop Eckstein's ass for beating on the Twins in the '02 Championship Series.

Rally monkey this!

Be fair. If the Chairman pulled this, we'd be laughing right along with him.

I think "tearing the book" was pretty comical, and the whole concept of one of the biggest catchers vs. smallest hitters is pretty amusing.

I agree with Piranhtachew. In a real throwdown, I think Eck would take A.J. out. Because he's scrappy, you know. Real scrappy. And pesky. And gritty and determined. And he has heart. Miles and miles and miles of heart. And it's not the size of the dog in the fight that matters, it's the size of the fight in the dog. And when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Plus, Eck is a team player and there's no I in team, but there's at least a couple of them in Pierzynski.

Think about it.

a bit more on it, from deadspin:

http://deadspin.com/sports/baseball/david-eckstein-is-one-scrappy-gutty-wrestler-221223.php

Obviously a stunt. Even their comments sound scripted. I wonder if either of them was able to get through it without laughing.

It's a good thing Eck wrote a kids' book. If it were any thicker, A.J. probably wouldn't have been "man" enough to rip it.

I have no problem with this - I think it's funny. A lesson from my days of watching and following pro-wrestling semi-religiously:

It's not real.

AJ's had an association with TNA wrestling for around a year at least. Now they're setting up an "angle" (aka "storyline" or "feud") to get people that ordinarily wouldn't care about pro-wrestling interested. This will all culminate in a poorly worked match during a Pay-Per-View (neither AJ or Eckstein will do much more than throw a couple kicks or punches, maybe take a body-slam or two that's it. Their tag-team partners will do a majority of the work), with the hopes that people who buy it will watch the rest of the PPV and like it enough to keep watching on a regular basis.

It's not a new concept. WWE/WWF, WCW, and ECW did it lots of times. The aforementioned Dennis Rodman, Mike Tyson, Karl Malone, Jay Leno, Robert Wuhl (in character as "Arliss"), and of course Pete Rose (he's in the WWE Hall of Fame - had a wierd running feud with Kane, he'd only appear at the annual Wrestlemania shows only to wind up being choke-slammed or tombstoned by Kane) among many others.

Frankly, I'm surprised that they got the clearance from their teams to participate due to the risk of injury, but that's why they won't likely do much. Real pain and/or injuries occur in every match. David Eckstein won't be doing any flying-space-tiger drops, nor will AJ take a fall from the top of a cage.

Pro-wrestling is a soap-opera for guys that features muscle-bound gymnasts play-fighting - and I mean that in the most nostalgic and sentimental way possible.

I remember Hrbek and Puckett making a non-wrestling, in ring appearance during a local WWE match several years ago.

[attempts to remove tongue from cheek]
...
[fails]
But really, who would have guessed A. J. would be involved in a fight -- even a staged one? As Batgirl clearly showed last year (in Legovision! -- click my name if you've forgotten) his only crime is his delight in the game!

Batgirl,

If we ignore this, it will go away.

Best, RD

Was David Eckstein trying to be Ron Burgundy after the fight in "Anchorman?" "Wow, that really escalated. That really got out of hand. Brick, you stabbed a guy with a trident!"

Twayn, your tongue-in-cheek cliches made me laugh out loud. I don't know why they're so funny when they're all strung together like that, but they are. I especially love, "There's no I in team, but there's at least a couple of them in Pierzynski."

I can't believe some of you thought this wasn't staged.

Oh by the way, wrestling isn't fake, it's scripted. Big difference.

Ahaha! This site is always good for a laugh. That's honestly the funniest thing I've heard all day. Poor little X!

David Eckstein could kick anyone's ass he wanted to.

That's all i'm going to say.

This is awesome.

Oh how I miss AJ. He had real character.

Yeah, Twayn, you are so right - A.J. puts his pants on one leg at a time, just like the rest of us. Then pulls them up over his head.

Joe would never do this. And I wouldn't be laughing if he did. But maybe that's just me.

Now I feel dumb for even thinking anyone could think this wasn't staged. Probably nobody did.

But as we all know, there are things we know we know, and we know there are some things we don't know, but there are some things we don't know that we don't know. Or something like that.

Yeah, I honestly don't understand that advertisement/press release/"sports" story either. It's pretty much unreadable gibberish. But from what I gather, A.J. is tearing up children's books and fighting wee little Davie Ecky in fake wrestling. That's pretty frickin' cool. He's really got this lovable villain thing down pat. I miss that big jackass.

Fake??? Come on here people!!!

Prime time TNT wrestling can't be fake, that's like saying there's no Easter Bunny.

If you believe this was fake, you probably believe that crap about the dinosaurs roaming the earth and astronauts in space...errr...sorry. Just doing my best Carl Everett impression.

This AJ vs X was rather funny to me.

BTW, I like the crack about AJ needing more $ cause he didn't get a playoff share.

GO SOX!

I'm positive it was a staged event. Aj knows better. He's got a bad-boy reputation, but he's not that way at all.