On Saturday November 25, WWE presented the 37^th annual Survivor Series pay-per-view from the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois. The event was given the name Survivor Series: Wargames because of the Wargames matches held. The event sold over 17,157 tickets, a nearly sold out crowd.

            The event began with the Women’s Wargames match, a match where two teams of four or five members compete in rings that are enveloped by a giant steel cage. The match starts with two competitors at first but at different time intervals a new member of each team enters the rings, the match does not officially begin until every member has entered and ends when someone is pinned or submits. The teams consisted of Bianca Belair, Charlotte Flair, Shotzi, and Becky Lynch, going against the team of Damage CTRL consisting of Bayley, Asuka, Iyo Sky, and Kairi Sane. There was some discontent between team members Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch during the match, but they put aside their differences to win with a pinfall on Bayley.

            The second match was between Gunther, the intercontinental champion, and The Miz for the title. The Miz won a Fatal Four Way match on Monday Night Raw to earn himself the No. 1 contendership. The Miz put up a good fight but could not put away Gunther even after hitting him with his signature Skull Crushing Finale. Gunther preformed a splash from the top rope and then applied a Boston Crab maneuver for the submission retaining the title.          

            Next was a Lucha Libre style match between Santos Escobar, former member of the LWO (Latino World Order), and Dragon Lee, a fill in for LWO member Carltio. The match was fast paced and had high flying action from the both, but finished with Escobar hitting a Hurricanrana and his Phantom Driver for the pin.

            In the semi-main event match for the women’s championship, the champion Rhea Ripley representing The Judgment Day took on Zoey Stark. Zoey Stark is a new up-and-comer on the main roster who won a Battle Royale to get a one on one match for Rhea’s title. Zoey may have had the speed advantage but Rhea has more size and power. After hitting an illegal headbutt she hit her Riptide signature move for the pin.

            The main event of the night was the Men’s Wargames match between the teams of Cody Rhodes, Jey Uso, Sami Zayne, Seth Rollins, and Randy Orton going against the Judgment Day made of Damian Priest, Finn Balor, “Dirty” Dominick Mysterio, JD McDonagh and Drew Mclyntire who is not an official member of the Judgment Day but sided with them. When announcing that Randy Orton was the last member of Cody’s team, his teammates were worried because Orton has not been around since getting injured last year and feared that he would not show up. But at the last minute he appeared and back in his top condition. After a long brutal fight Cody was able to hit his Cross Rhodes on Damian Priest getting the win for his team.

Only moments after the grueling match ended however music played and out came CM Punk, a true wildcard that nobody expected. The crowd erupted into a roar of cheers for their hometown hero who hadn’t been in the WWE since 2014. Local TAMUT student Michael Wells said this about the event “My favorite match was the men’s war games match. Seeing Cody Rhodes standing tall as the winner like his father Dusty who invented the match decades ago was great to see… CM Punk was just icing on the cake.”

For any athlete transitioning from one sport to another can be a very difficult task. But for Francis Ngannou’s first professional boxing match-up against the world heavyweight Tyson Fury he certainly had an amazing first showing. The match was held in on October 28, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Before Francis Ngannou became a star in the world of Mixed Martial Arts he had originally wanted to be a boxer. You could see his boxing influence in his style because instead of his renowned punching power. And after 20 MMA matches and becoming the UFC Heavyweight Champion, he believed it was his time to return to what he originally loved. Due to Ngannou’s already established pay-per-view drawing power it wasn’t too difficult to have his first match be against the WBC heavyweight champion himself Tyson Fury. The match had much anticipation behind it similar to the Conor Mcgregor vs Floyd Mayweather bout of 2017 and stars from all over the world from Eminem to The Undertaker came out to show their support live for the event.

            The match began at 2:00 P.M EST and 10:00 PM in Saudi Arabia. Fury weighed in at 277 lb while Ngannou came in at 272 lb, a match truly worthy of the name heavyweight. It was a non-title match set to run 10 rounds. Round 1 began with both fighters setting the pace for the fight. Both take southpaw stances but Fury has the superior reach, yet Ngannou’s power is still a force to be reckoned with, and both get solid hits in. Round 2 and Fury starts going more towards the right side, he knows that Ngannou is naturally right-handed and that is where most of his power lies. But Ngannou shows that he can switch his stance to orthodox attesting to his fighting expertise. He manages to draw blood with a left to close out near the end of the round. Round 3, Ngannou scores a knockdown large left hook at the 43-second mark of the round. The crowd erupts in cheers as Fury takes the standing 8 count, the momentum shifts towards his favor. Round 4 Fury is able to reset the pace with his 6 foot 9 inch frame. As per usual in his matches Fury always has the height and reach advantage, he’s able to regain control. Round 5 Ngannou throws out a vicious combination that has the entire stadium OOO in unison, but Fury manages to dodge the almost certain knockout blows. Fury wears his opponent down with clinches and his long-range punches scoring solid one-two blows and jabs.

  Round 6 Fury’s jabs become more and more accurate and his clinches are more aggressive. He slows the pace exactly to where he wants it. He’s already been downed and that can get the opponent excited and act sloppy and leave them open. But with Ngannou’s fighting instincts he doesn’t let it get to him even after taking an elbow. Round 7 Fury slips but it doesn’t slow him down, the round goes by quickly. Round 8 Ngannou applies more heat, he lets loose several of his explosive blows leaving Fury weary. Both manage to draw blood from each other but still push on towards the last rounds. Round 9 Fury manages to out-box Ngannou, both men are tired but they can’t slow down yet. Final round Ngannou throws a Superman punch (a punch where you kick off the canvas towards the opponent) but misses the mark, the commentary even made a reference to Roman Reigns. He wanted to leave an impression just for fun but I believe the impression has already been made. He scores two more left jabs and the match comes to a close.

            The match came down to a judge’s decision. When it comes to scoring in boxing, each match is scored 10 points per round and since this went for 10 rounds it was out of 100.  Alan Krebs scored it 95-94 in favor of Fury. Juan Carlos Peylao scored 96-93 in favor of Fury as well. And Ed Garner however scored it 95-94 in favor of Ngannou, thus Tyson Fury was declared the winner. In the weeks following the match there has been a bit of controversy about who should have won. In Ali and Frazier there was only one down and that decided the match, so how did Fury who did get downed still win? It’s unknown but as an observer and fan, I would say if anything, it should have been a draw or at most Ngannou should have gotten the win. Both fighters did exceptionally well in perhaps one of the best matches of the year.  Francis Ngannou plans to continue boxing and is already excited to face more top contenders in the division. As for the heavyweight champion Tyson Fury his next match will be on February 17, 2024. This match was an excellent example of a fighter from MMA transitioning to boxing.  

                        September 22 marked the end of the Texas A&M Texarkana women’s tennis teams fall season.  The team is now in the building stage coming off this season and is already preparing for the coming spring season. This year marks the first time the team has had a full complement of six players.  The team consists of: Lakyn Austin, Andrea Barcenas, Andrea Costillo, Kenzie Feist, Lydia Oviedo, Tatum Sikes and Jaelee Young, with new recruits said to be on their way for the coming 2024.

            Coach Joe Parish is the head of the women’s tennis team and when asked what the best matches he saw from this year were he said “the one I was most pleased with was a few weeks back… LSU-Shreveport that was a really, really good match. These were players in the ranking system in the UTR [universal tennis ranking] and we were ranked pretty similar and we were pretty close, and we came out on top.” These matches were held September 22, the last games played, in Shreveport, Louisiana.

             For the tennis team there are two seasons: spring and fall. Spring season is where the team works to boost their individual rankings and fall season is more of a training season to prepare for spring. During this time they go far and wide sparing against teams. The team can travel as far as New Orleans or Kansas City. But while at home both women’s and men’s teams practice at Texarkana College. The home games are also held their as well, but a new tennis court is going to be built at TAMUT in the coming future.

 TAMUT is not a sports school but to play on a college level is still a very tough task. And those who are already at a professional level do not usually go to university. And after college many of the women won’t play anymore. So to make up for this the tennis team wants to be able to succeed in life without tennis. It is used as a way to teach how to live with honor and dignity and to compete and work hard. Coach Parish said “We want them to win every match they can but we understand that this is just part of their life. And the main thing of course is their academics.”

Tennis is a very individualistic sport, much like boxing or wrestling. And just like those it takes a lot of self-drive and dedication to be in it. The women might be a team and have coaches but during and after a match it is a one on one affair. In this break time before the next season the TAMUT women are honing themselves, still hungry and ready for more. Ready to take on anyone in this upcoming year and ready to make it the best one yet.

            Professor Kevin Ells is an associate professor here at Texas A&M University Texarkana.  He is one of two professors in the mass communications program and will reach his tenth year of being a teacher here as of early 2024. He has had an extensive career teaching not just here but around the world. Originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, Professor Ells earned his Ph.D. in Alexandria, Louisiana, at a branch of the Louisiana State University system, and taught there before coming to Texarkana. He decided to that he was going to stay in the United States after finding his love here. When he completed grad school a second time he had worked at various schools throughout the south and taught in the west Asian country of Azerbaijan. Upon asking why he traveled so much after he graduated school in Canada he said “At that time of the decade [1990’s] it was kinda trendy after university to do a tour Europe, backpack around and hitchhike. I had a sense that lots of people were doing it so I did too.” He still likes to travel but for now he’s enjoying Texarkana.

            While being a full time professor at the university he passionately continues in his research of semiotics and rhetoric. Professor Ells finds that there are terms in his field that are not very well explained even in textbooks so he has been trying to find better ways to explain these terms in a way anyone can understand. He says “…especially in popular books for business, I see something defined and it seems vague in a text book and I can’t explain that in a classroom. I’m explaining a technical term and it’s got to be useful.” He wants solid definitions for words that can be explained to anyone without any real prior knowledge. He has written books on this topic and wants to research it even further.

            When asked what he likes to do when not working or researching nowadays he seemed to find himself fairly boring. He enjoys riding his bike when the weather permits it, spending time with his wife, grandchildren, and elderly dog, and watching Brit Box. When told about his popularity around town he seemed amused. He said “my own sense of myself is that I’m just trying to be competent and giving people what they pay for. I’m always comparing myself to the sharpest scholars I read about… on a good day I think I held myself pretty well today.” Professor Ells seems to have a very humble opinion of himself which makes sense for a man like him.  
      

Texas A&M University Texarkana (TAMUT) is growing slowly but surely every year, and each year the school gets more and more international students. One student on campus who particularly stands out is Sneha GC a sophomore who is already leaving a big impact on the school’s relations overseas. Originally from Kathmandu, Nepal, Sneha came to Texarkana because of her dream to study in the United States. She said “… I went to a agent or something, like you know who gives advice on international studies you know?” She then heard from one of her friends that the school offered international scholarships then was rewarded. Now Sneha and 25 other students from Nepal go to TAMUT, the most from any singular country.

For now Sneha’s weeks are jam packed going for a degree in computer science and cyber security, also working at the technical support office and being a resident adviser at the dorms on top of being an international student. Sneha said “…it’s kinda overwhelming at times but then talking about the benefits from this plan like the housing and the meal plan, plus the six thousand dollars it’s pretty good.” Most of her days she spends working from eight in the morning to near ten at night, but on the weekends she likes to spend time with her friends that live in the city and go to her favorite restaurant Taste of India and getting her favorite food Momo’s.

       The cultural shift coming from Kathmandu to Texarkana has been interesting for her. She said “People who wear cowboy boots and hats are quite different from people back in my country.” She has family that lives in California and during Tihar, a Hindu holiday, she goes to see them. She’s amazed by how much bigger things are here and sometimes she gets homesick but knows that her hard work will pay off.

One of Sneha’s biggest achievements since being at our school was being the student ambassador and hosting an international recruitment event for Texas A&M when she went back home to Nepal. “Dr. Davis, Dr. Brown, and the head of advising (Venus Lillis), they joined me over a zoom call and made me the representative.” She met with many students who were interested in attending and most of the students who attended the event are at the school currently. It was the first international recruitment that was student led. Sneha has only been a part of TAMUT for only a few years but is on her way in solidifying in A&M history.

This recent Saturday on April, 22nd on Showtime pay-per-view, two of the best lightweight boxers in the world in the world went toe to toe to decide who truly was the best. Gervonta “Tank” Davis and “King” Ryan Garcia both had flawless records going into this anticipated fight and after blazing 7-Rounds, Davis was the one who came out on top with a wicked body blow. Garcia had the advantage in the first round and was looking good until the second where he suffered a hard knockdown with a left hook. He then eased up and tried to gain his momentum back but couldn’t. After the first round all judges scored in favor of Davis until the final blow was against Garcia until he could not make the count of 10. Despite being a nontitle pay-per-view had over 1.2 million buys one of the largest for this year.

Davis is now the second ranked Lightweight boxer in the world only following the Ukrainian former world champion Vasyl Lomachenko and has a record equal only to the current champion Devin Haney. Lomachenko and Haney will have a world title match on May 20th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. It’s expected that Davis will challenge the winner of this match which could take place this year.