During a recent thread at Fightsport.com, SpaddelSub suggested a list of the ten most memorable moments in the history of NHB forums. It's hard to single out just ten out of hundreds of great moments over the past several years, but here were the ten that stood out as I tried to make a list. I did this without any input from the rest of the Beston's NHB staff, so I hope others share their favorite moments with us as well.

Here they are, in no particular order:

1. Tape Lord's debut at the Underground
How could anyone forget this? Tape Lord blew through the Underground forum like a hurricane and became well known almost immediately by humiliating sabrutat, scaring Nick "Machine" May into seclusion and setting up a now classic street fight with Friggin' Joe. Despite his banning from the forum years ago, to this day Tape Lord's name still instills fear in the hearts of Underground forum members. He was inducted into the Trolls Hall of Fame with the highest number of votes ever just a year after his first appearance and today he is the leader of a thriving troll force at Fightsport.com, his home of the past few years.

2. Todd Atkins joins the trolls
Was there anyone out there who wasn't shocked by this? Atkins, who for years had been a frequent target of imps as the subject of countless "Lieutenant Todd Atkins" stories, was a loyal paying member of MMA.tv and a notorious troll hater. With little warning, he engaged in a tireless campaign to get himself banned from the site in protest of the unfair treatment he'd received from the site's moderators.

3. Fightsport goes online
There was no advertising, no big announcement and nothing extraordinary happened at first, but we can't ignore the importance of the moment when Fightsport.com went live. No one really knows exactly when the site became public, but after months of careful beta testing, Fightsport.com opened its doors to new members as an alternative to the repressive atmosphere of the Underground, promising free speech at no cost to its members. Without even the presence of an owner or any moderators, they delivered just that in a uniquely designed, custom coded forum. The rest is history.

4. Trolls invade the Eddie Goldman show on eYada.com
When SEG, then owners of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, went online with their internet talk radio venture eYada.com, one of their first programs was the MMA talk show "No Holds Barred," hosted by Full Contact Fighter writer Eddie Goldman. The uncensored, internet based format was tailor made for the trolls, who quickly made a second home of the program. On one particularly memorable broadcast, THEDONBREAKYOURARMI called and asked Wallid Ismael if he'd ever heard of Shaun Thingvold, while another troll asked Wallid if he would ever fight a woman. Goldman, powerless to stop the trolls, could only complain that they were "clowns spoiling the show for the real fans."

5. THEDONBREAKYOURARMI appears at Mousel's
Though his devastation of the Shodokan karate forum, which drew the ire of UFC champion Dan Severn, was possibly his best remembered troll job, it was at Mousel's BJJ forum that The Don was best able to showcase his considerable talents. The timing was perfect, as Mousel's still enjoyed the reputation as the net's premier message board for NHB fans, giving The Don hundreds of hapless victims to troll. As he had once told the Shodokan forum members, "I've never seen anything like this forum, and you've never seen anyone like me."

6. Fightsport and the Underground laugh at the Cross Eyed Candyman's slapfight
It's rare that something draws the kind of attention that Yesufu Dhira's slapfight did two years after the event, but at the time of the fight, Dhira, then posting as KENWINGJITSU, was an obscure poster who merited little attention. Two years later, though, he had become abusive Underground moderator KWJ-K-Dhira, better known as the Cross Eyed Candyman (or CECM), so when someone dragged the infamous slapfight out of his past, members of Fightsport and even the Underground erupted in laughter at hilarious photos and descriptions of the fight in which Dhira, resembling an obese woman, traded slaps with an equally out of shape opponent. The pictures provided weeks of laughter for thousands of people on the internet and are still frequently posted on message board threads to great reaction.

7. Jose Tardio vs The Beast from NE at Fightlink
Though Fightlink never became more than a footnote in NHB forum history, it did enjoy, during its brief heyday, one of the most colorful online feuds ever. Philadelphia's old school troll The Beast from NE and Fightlink newcomer Jose Tardio clashed from the beginning in a feud that eventually spilled into the streets of New Jersey as Tardio and The Beast fought an internet challenge that ended in a knockout for The Beast. The two briefly resumed their feud on the dying forum shortly after the fight, but it failed to hold the attention of forum members and Fightlink was taken offline just weeks later.

8. NHB trolls go to war with Torture.net at Steven Steele's XX forum
Possibly the best message board war ever began when XX forum owner Steven Steele invited members of the Hitler forum and Torture.net to his XX forum. What ensued was a battle royal between goths and nazis against NHB trolls. The year long feud provided many memorable moments, introduced us to characters like Jackol, The Steaming Pile and Crimson and at its height, the XX forum had up to two full pages of new threads every day.

9. Royce Gracie is imped at the Underground
One of the best and most hotly debated troll jobs of all time. Someone (believed by many to be Paul Viele) emailed Royce Gracie pretending to be Kirik Jenness. After the unsuspecting Royce emailed his forum password, the troll proceeded to post on the forum, answer fan questions and in general make asses of everyone on the Underground. Was Paul Viele the imp? We may never know.

10. striker18 gets banned from the Underground for insulting Kevin Randleman
Although he had already established himself as a member with strong opinions and a lot to say, it wasn't until Kevin Randleman decided to spend a night posting on the Underground (shortly after losing a controversial decision to Bas Rutten for the UFC heavyweight title) that striker's trolling abilities were put on display. Randleman was posting both in a long thread about the fight and in the forum's chatroom and striker followed him everywhere asking questions like "Do you shoot up [steroids] in your leg or in your ass?" and boasting that in a few years he'd be able to beat Randleman in a fight. Citing the forum's rule of "protecting" fighters, Kirik Jenness quickly banned striker, who spent a brief period in exile at the UnderWorld forum until Jenness reinstated him a few months later. After his return, striker's posts lost none of their controversial edge, but instead he learned to use sarcasm and cynical humor to his advantage to say what he really wanted without posting anything for which an administrator could justifiably ban him.


Lists are made to be debated and of course these are just my choices, so feel free to email your own choices for the best moments in NHB forum history or your comments on the ones already mentioned and we'll post them on the site.