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Week 37 fixtures FA Challenge Cup semi-finals (at Wembley Stadium) Chelsea 0 v 1 Manchester City (17:15) Coventry City 1 v 0 Manchester United (Sunday 15:30) Premier League Luton Town 0 v 1 Brentford Sheffield United 1 v 2 Burnley Wolverhampton Wanderers 1 v 2 Arsenal (19:30) Everton 0 v 2 Nottingham Forest (Sunday 13:30) Fulham 1 v 1 Liverpool (Sunday 16:30) Scottish Cup semi-final Heart of Midlothian 1 v 0 Rangers (Sunday, at Hampden Park) La Liga Valencia 2 v 0 Real Betis (17:30) Real Madrid 2 v 1 Barcelona (Sunday 20:00)

"Please generate me an AI image of Rishi Sunak showing a foreign dignitary some of our ants, while Hagrid's brother looks on". Out school newspaper had more convincing posed photos.

This is exactly the boat I’m in. I re-subscribed in March for AJ vs Ngannou and went for the year at £9.99 a month. So I’m good with that until next March but I’ve already cancelled so my sub will end in March. Just can’t be doing with it. Bollocks to the liberty taking greedy bastards.

I wouldn’t be against Page winning the title on the Dynamite after Dynasty, in a way that sets him up as the top heel in AEW, and gives Swerve a mountain to climb before a longer title run. I think AEW needs to do something shocking and unexpected to spark interest, and this might do the trick. Page winning the title, then beating the shit out of Swerve rather than celebrate, continuing to obsess over Swerve and other opponents rather than relish the fact he’s champion could be a lot of fun. It would also allow for a Page/Omega rematch for the belt, with the roles reversed. As far as sparking interest in the product again, I feel like a heel Page as champion could be a strong option - you could do Page/Omega, Page/MJF, Page/Moxley, Page/Ospreay and the eventual Swerve rematch - all of which would produce compelling television.

Oh they fucked it for sure. I do think DAZN has the right intentions to begin with, I think they probably found out pretty quickly that the model wasn't going to pay off. The initial trial price has always haunted them because a lot of people still throw the "it used to be £1.99" line at the even though it was always stated as a temporary trial price. Im currently locked into a £9.99 a month price until next March. They are gonna need to drastically improve the content to make me lock in again though.

Sounds plausible, although he still strikes me as an obvious to end Logan Paul’s US title run. Maybe Logan and Sami switching brands is the way to do that, setting up a fresh range of opponents for Paul including, if he stays put, CM Punk.

On a more positive note - he’s now going out with Bridget Christie. So there’s always light at the end of the tunnel.

Started playing Lightyear Frontier on Gampass this week. Became slightly addicted. I’ve never played Stardew Valley but imagine it’s a bit like that but with a farming robot. Reminds me a bit of the building part of Death Stranding, with similar visuals to Breath of the Wild. Pretty slow paced relaxing game.

Apparently based on the male lead - Richard Gadd's experience of being stalked in real life.

I think that may be a common thing as I've also been raised with the belief that Robins are lost loved ones. My Granddad used to love birds (and nature in general) so after he died my Mum's way of greiving was to start feeding the birds in the garden, something she never did while I was growing up. Her garden is awash with some stunning birds including a constant swarm of goldfinches and the occasional woodpecker. My wife and I moved in to a house a few streets over from where my Nana and Granddad used to live. Same sized and layout house and garden, which now 17 years after they both passed has somewhat filled a hole in my own grief as I always wanted to keep their house after they passed, but at 17 I was too young so sadly we lost it. During covid when we first started sorting the garden out, a robin would come and sit on the fence next to us and like yourself it was comforting. Like him and my Mum, I also make sure to keep the bird feeder full so our garden is always full of birds. Nothing too spectacular yet other than a family of crows which are lovely, sparrows and a family of blackbirds that live in our loft. We get some gorgeous doves come and go every year and big fat wood pigeons. We also get Magpies which are stunning birds visually but they're shitheads and our dog hates them (and only them) so any time they land in the garden he's on them like flies on shit.

Thought I’d bring this in here from the Fight Announcement thread. This was in response to Elle Brooke vs Paige VanZant being announced but it’s more about the general pisstaking from DAZN bumping their subscription price up by 50% a month but then putting all their best fights on PPV and charging extra on top of that. Fucking joke and goes completely against the line that was being spun when DAZN was launched. The whole thing was that “PPV was dead” and this was gonna provide Boxing fans with quality fights all in one place at a reasonable price. And ALL fights would be included in your monthly subs. No PPV whatsoever. Now we’ve got 3 PPVs in the next month or so. Remember this? The app/channel was something like £2.99 when it started. Obviously that was never gonna last. Think it went to £7.99 after that, then £9.99 or whatever. And I’d have been fine with paying that if they’d stuck to their word and had everything included in the monthly subscription. They’d have probably had me as a customer for life. Now it’s been hiked up to £14.99 a month but the vast majority of the fights I’m gonna be interested in, they’ll wanna charge another £20 or whatever on top of that! And not even at a discounted price for subscribers.

I’ve only ever had tiny gardens so never really noticed birds before let alone thought about them for any length. When Dad died my step Mum told me the thing about robins - “when a robin appears a lost loved one is near”. Every time I see her she tells me about the robin (my Dad) following her around the garden etc. I’ve always thought it was her way of dealing with things and found it quite endearing I moved house yesterday to a place with a conservatory and big garden. After the removals men left I sat down looking out to the garden. Two minutes later a robin lands on the tree a few metres in front of me, right in my eye line. I’ve honestly never felt so comforted in my life and I could easily cry my eyes out as I type this. I completely understand it now. So I am now the newest member of the lovely birds club

Knight to Raw is a no brainer. He’s popular, they have a new heel champion, and you’d buy him as being able to beat Priest.

This made me laugh out loud. Another fun Smackdown. AJ and LA Knight work really well together. I’m intrigued as to where they’ll go with Knight after the draft. He’s still very over, and now that there are two World titles, the idea of a secondary World title reign should this remain the case doesn’t seem out of the question. Solo is doing a great job in his hostile takeover of The Bloodline. I can absolutely see this culminating in Roman eventually returning, telling Solo that he’d done a fantastic job in rebuilding The Bloodline and thanking him, only for Solo to tell him he didn’t do it for him, he ‘did it for The Rock’ (as brilliantly suggested by @Mr_Danger) and if that does happen, I’ll honestly have goosebumps. I’m all in for Rock/Roman at Wrestlemania next year, if that’s the plan. I still love everything Bloodline related, it’s so enjoyable. There was a point where I never thought I would feel positive about WWE’s booking again, let alone enthusiastic - but I’m finding myself feeling really excited about what’s to come after each show right now. (Aside from with NXT, with is still terrible.)

Fond memories! September 1993 WWF Magazine, the very first I got my parents to buy me at the newsagent instead of getting second hand from friends. Which was the “September” issue, which we bought in August, and reviewed King of the Ring which had happened in June - couldn’t get my head round that. It was a far cry from the Beano, I tell thee. Always thought it was funny that the Hulk still got his face onto the cover even though they’d just buried him on the PPV. Regardless… I could probably tell you everything that was in that magazine. Definitely the “Undertake ‘Em All” Hasbro ad on the inside cover, still trying to flog you figures of Sid and Anvil even if you just saw them on Worldwide on ITV that afternoon, and Nailz, 8 months removed from him getting slung for trying to kill/knob Vince, depending who you believe.. and making you desperately scour Toys R Us for a Shawn that didn’t exist. ….. this fucker. Of course, inside was a SummerSlam preview which, par for the course, made you look forward to matches that would be cancelled like Marty Jannetty vs The Model and Tatanka & Sherri vs Bam Bam & Luna. The King of the Ring review made it sound like Bret Hart was the toughest wrestler who ever lived. The coverage of The Steiners winning the tag belts twice at house shows in “The Night The Belt Changed Hands” was accompanied by photos of matches clearly taken (judging by lighting and setup) at TV tapings - in particular a couple of photos where the wrestlers seem drenched in sweat are dead giveaways it wasn’t from the road. Of course as a kid, looking at these official looking photos I assumed I might see the title switches on Coliseum one day - whoops. The Crush interview was so kayfabed every second word was “brah” or “bruddah” and apart from he was clearly threatening to do something terrible to Doink, it was unreadable. Most famously, the company printed Now It’s Our Turn, the “first of a series” of hitting back, a hatchet job of Superstar Graham, replete with mentions of TitanSports Inc, Dr Zahorian and numerous other things that would fly over the heads of the children reading. Vince McMahon… a good guy. Worst of all it promised future “exposes” on perceived chancers and liars, including Rita Chatterton. Thankfully these never materialised, one imagines subscriptions slumped when parents saw their kids were going to learn about (and I quote) “sex scandals” over their Coco Pops in the months to come. As for Shawn and Ronda, the article and accompanying photos were a fake date, I’m not sure to what end. There’s one in the restaurant where Shawn has lipstick kisses on his face, she’s got fingers playing with his shirt buttons, and it’s reminiscent of one you see when two photos later there will be a cock in Michelle Thorne’s mouth. I didn’t know who Ronda was then, or when she appeared at Mania X, though I later loved the consistency of her mugging HBK off then him getting the same treatment from Pamela Anderson (who I DEFINITELY knew of) the year after. Either way, even this weird pseudo soft porn wasn’t the most embarrassing thing about the magazine, having had to endure this cover to even get out of the shop without being targeted as a gayman by bullies ; ….. looking back I wasn’t sure why THIS was the turning point for me actually buying wrestling magazines, but it’s probably the peak of Youth Club rumours, and I was dying to see if the issue would cover “Lex Luger came out of the sky in a helicopter, powerslammed Yokozuna, pinned him and now he’s WWF Champion.” Still waiting.

Last chance to submit your nominations this weekend, or to edit your votes. I’ve extended the deadline very slightly, from 5pm today until 7am Monday. Realistically, I won’t have time to start tallying therm until then, so I’m as well as to give people a little longer to cast their vote. Thanks for the enthusiasm, everyone - I’ll do my best to turn this into an enjoyable read once it’s done.

Was going to post exactly the same thing. Beyond perfection really compared to what we have had and the rumored designs. I liked the World Tag Titles but they look crap compared to these new WWE ones. Luckily this year they've only got two weeks to fill to build it up. A quick promo from each of them and a face to face should do nicely. Few winks and nods to Bullet Club a mention or two of Dusty and TNA and you're good to go. Great thing about AJ at this point is he can take the loss and the match will probably be pretty good so it's not quite the same as a Kane based affair from long ago. To be fair to Cody still being at the O2 it can be a right bugger getting the tube after a big show so he was probably hanging around until things quieten down.

I thought that was a legit Roman collesium

Can't blame you wand. they are starting to put all their bigger fights on PPV now and they still cranked the price up. It wouldn't have been so bad if they'd announced the increase with an announcement that they were adding some top tier football or something, but nothing. Really poor, and judging by the reaction, it's backfired, a lot of people are leaving the platform.

Odd market indeed. Never forget, we’re talking about the state where they did Mania in a car park.

“One of those rental cars belongs to Kevin Owens, and the other, your boy Tama Tonga’s!” CM Punk is going to hit the fucking roof! Good show. He’s in the difficult Kane role as the first Title Challenger after someone wins at Wrestlemania, meaning there’s less than zero drama or doubt of the result, but fair play to AJ Styles. I swear these last two weeks is the most he’s actually tried in years. Seems getting the main event at Backlash has injected some much needed motivation. Alongside a shit load of steroids, obviously. I was going to be a dickhead and point out that with the time difference Cody’s promo made no sense. For him to acknowledge AJ’s win it would mean he was still at the o2 arena, still in his gear, at something mad like half one in the morning. Except it’s Cody, so it wouldn’t be surprising at all for him to stay at a show hours after it finishes to give every single person a photo and autograph. The man is the best. New tag belts are absolutely gorgeous. Impressive showing from the Street Profits. Glad to see them being showcased again. That mad dive from Montez to the outside is glorious! Like he’s flying through your TV! Really good angle with The Bloodline. Solo dressed in his Sunday best was funny. Like a football hooligan appearing in court. He’s doing a spectacular job staging this coup though. Really delivering on the mic. Tama Tonga came across great as a complete nutter, too. Heyman’s acting is a bit much, but what can you do. There isn’t a bigger fan of Bloodline melodrama than Paul Heyman himself. Man is high as fuck on the smell of his own farts. Shout out to Triple H. Talking bollocks on Logan Paul’s podcast the week of Mania about how blood and swearing needs to be used, “in moderation,” and only when, “it really matters.” Took him a fortnight before he used blood again, with Kevin Owens covered in it here. You’re fooling no-one, Hunter. You’re as big a geek for this stuff as the rest of us. Blood is cool. Triple H when asked about blood in a public setting, requiring a professional answer. Triple H actually booking his shows.

New tag titles, 6 stars! Best new belt since the UK Title.

You haven't seen anything yet - Respected comrade Premier Kim il Sunak, who is also member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Britain and vice-president of the State Affairs Commission of the UK, inspected potholes in the Northern Province.

The next 17 days will be the World Championship. One of my favourite times of the year. I watched a bit of the qualifiers which had a few surprises. Stuart Bingham came very close to losing but just got over the line, Jack Lisowski looked pretty good in wining his matches and Dominic Dale has reached the main stages for the first time in ten years. The biggest surprise though is that for the first time in 20 years Neil Robertson won’t be in the tournament. He lost 10-9 to Jamie Jones. Here’s my predictions for the first round: First-round: Luca Brecel vs David Gilbert This is a tough one. Brecel hasn’t shown anything this season that makes me believe he can win again this year. But he didn’t show any form to make me believe he’d win last year and he ended up playing ridiculously good and beating Mark Selby in the final. Gilbert seems to save his best snooker for the world championship. He’s such a solid player but often falls short of killing matches off. Overall I have to go with Brecel. I think coming out as world champion will light a fire inside him and he’ll get over the line. Gilbert will push him but run put of steam. I don’t think Brecel will get past the last eight though. Winner: Luca Brecel Robert Milkins v Pang Junxu Pang plays some very good snooker and I expect to see him at many more world championships. Milkins has the experience and standard of play that will see him thourgh though Ali Carter v Stephen Maguire Ali Carter has been one of the top players of the season. Maguire hasn’t really done anything of note. It has to be a Carter win. I think he’ll go quite far into the tournament. Shaun Murphy v Lyu Haotian Murphy won the Championship League at the start of the season and got to the Semi-finals of The Masters. Other than that’s he been quiet. Lyu is a decent player but hasn’t been in many later stages of tournaments and I can’t see him doing so this time. Winner: Shaun Murphy Mark Selby v Joe O’Connor Joe O’Connor can be a tricky player to play against but I don’t think he’ll be enough to beat one of the Crucible Kings. Selby hasn’t always been at his best this season but he’s been in good form recently. Kyren Wilson v Dominic Dale I’m looking forward to seeing the weirdness of Dominic Dale back at the Crucible. He will likely sing a song and do that cue balancing thing that he does. He’s had a decent season for someone who is in the later years of their career. I’m glad to see Dale make it to the main stage and although Wilson has had a poor season, I don’t see Dale winning. Winner: Kyren Wilson John Higgins v Jamie Jones Jamie Jones will be feeling confident after beating Neil Robertson to get to the main stages. Higgins still shows moments of greatness but just not enough to win tournaments these days. I wouldn’t be surprised if I end up being wrong but I’m actually going to say Jones wins this match. Winner: Jamie Jones Mark Allen v Robbie Williams Robbie Williams is a decent player but Mark Allen will be too much for him. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Allen get to the later stages again this year. Winner: Mark Allen Judd Trump v Hossein Vafaei Trump is my second choice to win this year but he’s been given a tough opening match. Vafaei has had quite a quiet season but has looked good in his qualifier matches. I don’t think many players can stop Trump at the moment so I think he will win but I doubt Vafaei will make it easy for him. This should be a very good match. Winner: Judd Trump Tom Ford v Ricky Walden This is quite a hard match to predict. Ricky Walden came very close to defeating Luca Brecel in the first round last year which would have massively changed things, the obvious being that we would have had a different world champion. Tom Ford is a great break builder and I think he’s quite underrated. I think Fords break building will see him win this one. Winner: Tom Ford Zhang Anda v Jak Jones Zhang Anda has been in the form of his career this season. O’Sullivan and Trump have been players of the season but I’d put Zhang up there with Carter and Gary Wilson for being in-form players this season. Jones had a fantastic run in the world championship last year and looked really good. This is tough but I’ve got to go with Zhang because of the form he’s been in this season. Winner: Zhang Anda Mark Williams v Si Jiahui Si had an incredible run last year at the world championship reaching the semi-finals. He should have been in the final having led Brecel 14-5 only to then lose 17-15. At the start of this season he got to the final of the German Masters but lost to Judd Trump 10-5. I thought this was the start of Si having a good season but he’s not done much since then. Mark Williams has had a decent season with winning the British Open and then a few weeks ago coming from 5-3 down to beat Ronnie O’Sullivan 10-5 at the Tour Championship. That has to be one of his best tournament wins ever so he should be feeling confident. Winner: Mark Williams Ding Junhui v Jack Lisowski Jack Lisowski will play some incredible snooker before losing interest. Ding will keep things tight with his great break building which will win him the match. Winner: Ding Junhui Gary Wilson v Stuart Bingham Bingham has had a terrible couple of seasons and looks like his best days are behind him, but he loves to come through the qualifiers and go on to make it deep into the tournament. Wilson has been one of the best players this season and is starting to look like he belongs in the later stages of tournaments. You can never count Bingham out but I’m going for a Gary Wilson win on how good he’s been this season. Winner: Gary Wilson Barry Hawkins v Ryan Day Ryan Day hasn’t done much this season. He had a very good 2022/2023 season but has dipped out of form this time around. Barry Hawkins won the European Masters at the start of the season and has made a couple of semi-finals. Not his best ever season but it does include a tournament win and I think he’ll be fine getting to the second round. Winner: Barry Hawkins Ronnie O’Sullivan v Jackson Page Jackson Page had a decent showing last year by beating Barry Hawkins in the first round before being destroyed in the second round by his father figure Mark Williams. Ronnie O’Sullivan is on another level. When he’s been at his best this season only a few players such as Trump and Selby could stand a chance of stopping him. This has to be an O’Sullivan win. I don’t see Page getting close to the win here. Winner: Ronnie O’Sullivan Tournament Winner: Ronnie O’Sullivan He’s had the best season of his career and could end up winning the triple crown series in the same season for the first time in his career. Not forgetting that he’d also overtake Hendrys record by winning his 8th World Title. Judd Trump would be my second prediction. He’s had a fantastic season and won 22 matches without defeat earlier in the season.