WeeAl

The show definitely delivered on the night. If they would do 1 Fight Night a month on the road, plus the PPV, that would do me lovely. I've given up on the Apex shoes entirely unless there's something on one of them clearly screaming that it needs to be seen. 

Tsarukyan flattened Dariush with that Not a Knee shot. It was so well disguised behind that knee that Beneil must not have had a baldy what hit him. 

I'd be trying to get Poirier to take the Tsarukyan fight now. Gaethje, having just beat Dustin is higher up the food chain and would already be booked to fight Islam, had the Chuck Olives fight went ahead as planned. 

The stoppage in the Green/Turner fight was one of the worst I have seen in years and years. Probably the worse stoppage in this period where everyone is supposed to know better. You could have stopped the fight as Green hit the ground, I think he may have already been out and then got that wake up of hitting the mat. An absolute disaster by Kerry Hatley. Green may end up having to pay the bill for his mistake too. 

I got the Figgy Smalls and Rob Font fight so badly wrong. Figueiredo had little to no trouble with Font at all. A great sign for his move to 135. Well up for Wand's wet dream of Figgy Vs Yan next. 

Oddly, I thought Guida won his fight. I'd have to watch it again. I'm not going to, obviously. Guida didn't seem to up in arms about it though so I'm probably wrong on that scoring. 

Poor Kelvin Gastelum's soul died in the fifth round of his fight with Izzy, all them years ago. What we see today is just his previously inhabited body, floating about planet earth. A good comeback win for Brady, a step back on the ladder to get back into the swing of things. 

Christian's 10 minutes of promo time on Wednesday's Dynamite was better than every Britt Baker promo put together. There's levels to this shit. Fucking whining twitter babies. 

I absolutely thought they were going for a draw with Swerve Vs Jay White. I was convinced of it, so the finish totally took me by suprise. Lovely stuff. 

If MJF is going to have to take time away, then take the belt off him when you get him in the ring against Joe. Don't fuck around with your longest title reign, create another interim champ, and a whole pile of mess. Should he take time off (I'm not convinced he will do that by the way, I think he might work on - one match a month - until whatever point they are building towards with his title transition). Then vacating or an interim belt is a terrible idea at this point in my book.

There's been enough disruption with unfortunate title derailments in this promotion - If MJF is going away, Joe is as good as any man to beat him. Even if it's only a transitional reign. Joe gets the rub and a healthy MJF has a reason to go after him when he comes back, even if Joe doesn't have the belt at that point, MJF should have to beat him in order to go after it again himself. 

Or we could get another tournament. I know which option I'd rather have. 

Cunts. Noticed that during the Newcastle/Man United game last night. They're promoting the main event, Pimblett/Ferguson and Garry/Luque as the top three fights. 

I've went with Tsarukyan, Green and Font in the poll.

Oliveira just walked through Dariush in a way that I never foresaw. Just made him look like an amateur. I think these two are meeting at the perfect time for the younger man. 

With Green, it's the stuff coming from Turner during the week. Which didn't sound fucking good. If it was all intentional as a ploy then fair fuck's to Turner and his camp - if not? It was all the wrong signals. Plus, Green is coming off that great win over Grant Dawson - despite his age he's showing he'll beat these younger division climbers if they aren't the Real Deal Holyfield.

I think Font beats Figgy 8 times out of 10 - especially in a three rounder. I don't see Figgy as active enough to win this by decision - and until he shows otherwise, I'll say he can't automatically lean on the game changing power like he did at 125, which could allow him to give away rounds. He's not exactly Chito Vera levels of doing this, but he's selective enough in his output that I'll say Font's jab takes it home. 

That's a class fight in it's own right, then you have it being slated as co-main leaving the potential for another cracker up top. Well on for the double with this and the rumoured main event. 

I couldn't find the Tattoo thread, but after seeing this I thought it couldn't pass without comment on here. What in Jaysus' name was Hooker thinking here?

The first 40 minutes of Rampage was so boring and shite that I didn't make it past "The main event, for the ROH Pure Championship . . . "

The crowd wasn't hot for Dynamite on Wednesday, in Chicago. When this show started and I realised it was in Pittsburgh? Well, that was just a death sentence to my interest right there. 

Aye I only caught the video of it on Instagram, but Jesus Punk looked ten years younger. Didn't really see what Randy looked like, but good on him. His back was pretty fucked by all accounts, that he's back looking jacked suggests he's made a good recovery. 

The finest of Tae bags. 

24 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

Sandler's only in support in this one and Guzman only gets a small-ish role, but a very funny one.

This doesn't help at all, does it.

Not a bit D-Mal. So I stuck on 'The Burial' with Tommy Lee Jones and Jamie Foxx, that's playing on Prime. Haven't heard a thing about it, for better or worse, so we'll see how it goes. 

42 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

 

You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah (Netflix)

Nice and enjoyable coming-of-age comedy. I think Adam Sandler's in his golden period now, this Netflix deal has actually brought the best out of him, unexpectedly. Features UKFF fave Luis Guzman!

 

So Luis Guzman on one hand and Sandler on the other. What's a man to do? 

Swerve shouldn't win this. Gotta remember it's for a new title that they are trying to get off the ground. If he wins it, then he ain't going anywhere near MJF for months. This is a Danielson/Moxley type win. As well as that, it's someone that's going to be doing NJPW shows somewhat regularly. The best case scenario of the outcome of this tournament is that they fold the Pure, the ROH TV title and later down the line if they lose the TNT deal, fold that belt in too. 

Some absolute crackers in there it has to be said. How does it work at the end? Do the two winners meet in a straight final? Or do the top two finishers in their group meet again and then winners go to the final? I think the G1 usually has semi finals - Not sure how they usually get there - is it just the last round of the initial round robin is "semi final" night? 

2 hours ago, Thunderplex said:

I know I’m in the minority, but I cannot fucking stand Wes Anderson films.  

I read this and said I'll have a look at the filmography as there wasn't a whole pile jumping to my head right away. I know why now. I haven't seen a single one of his movies. Reading through the list - that's not going to change. None of them are anything I would watch of my own accord, going by the "read the back of the box" test. 

The Continental Classic has already turned into another booking crutch when it had the potential to be something a little different. Not treating it seriously enough to have mostly top guys announced and in it, the mess with the title situation surrounding it - it's already just another "Full Gear title eliminator"/"Owen Hart Memorial" etc. I fully expect it to be painfully obvious who will be in the final - once they finally announce everyone that's in the tournament - probably after the first set of matches has already happened. 

The injury situation should be extremely concerning. It's gotten ridiculous at this point. Up until now, it made total sense why someone like MJF should be champion going forward and not Danielson, Moxley, Punk, Omega etc. He is/was reliable to build the main event scene/company around. . .

. . .Unfortunately MJF has went and hurt himself by doing something that was completely avoidable. This wasn't him getting injured accidentally by twisting or slipping in an unintended way. This was him getting hurt by pretending to be Mick Foley. Well of course you fucking did. Hopefully he learns from this and reverts to doing scoop slams, clotheslines and dropkicks. 

Tony needs to reign these guys in. He won't though, so he needs to appoint someone that can and will. 

I expect Ospreay coming in has him nailed on to be getting the title at All In. Which unfortunately will have weird implications for everyone else, as after Saturday 's show, Swerve should be the next champion - and really soon - and Hangman could do with the revenge of beating him for the title after losing in "his" match when he goes after Swerve again. The timeline isn't going to add up for that though. 

Swerve Vs Hangman was a magnificent piece of business. It cemented Swerve, finally, at the top of the card. Two sick bastards they were here too. It's all in the follow up here again though, as I mentioned above, for losing that match, Hangman needs to be booked incredibly strong in the coming months. 

It seems AEW have decided to do PPV's every 4-6 weeks or so. Max has to defend against Joe first, if that's not at Winter is Coming then it'll be World's End. In that case I'd be getting the title on Swerve by the end of January at the latest, whatever that PPV ends up being. He doesn't need to be a transitional champ, so he needs at least a run before Tony decides to go with the hometown win in Wembley in August. 

The main event made fuck all sense the whole night, but it finally started to draw me in when Cole had the spots with the towel, the belt and the ring. Clearly, he's the devil, but he is actually injured. We just aren't going to know at what point he's no longer injured until they do the Kaiser Soze reveal when both of Cole's legs are working and MJF gets a kick in the bollocks. 

Absolutely not on at all for this new tournament carry on. They have managed to make it less interesting than it already was. 

Mox and OC was class, as expected. I would have gone for 2-3 less Orange Punches though, I don't think it needed that. Well up for the rubber match whenever it may be. 

That was a wild sick bump that Misawa took off his bicycle the other night. 

Are we guessing that's the new signing for the PPV tonight then? Killed my interest in it if that's the case. 

4 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

Kingston hates Hero even more than Claudio. It'd be glorious. 

4 way tag is now a fucking ladder match which has decreased my interest and increased the chances of shitty boring spots that get people injured.

Ah for fucks sake. There was no need for that at all. 

On paper, this looks like one of the strongest cards AEW have ever put together. There's no chance that Swerve v Hangman and OC v Moxley don't knock it out of the park. We've seen both matches recently, and they don't even need to match those standards to have delivered a fantastic effort. 

Then you have MJF and White, whilst I haven't been a fan of the build to this, these two can flat out go. I expect them to be one and done with each other for now as well so they'll probably not be holding anything back for "next month" etc. The 4 way tag team match looks a blinder and with the way it has come about is one of the rare times I've been way more in favour of a 4 way than a 2 Vs 2. 

The Bucks Vs Omega/Jericho. If this were a Meat Loaf song, we know how it would go. Not convinced Jericho can hold up his end of the bargain in a match like this at this stage. It should still be good but I see Jericho pulling it down more than the rest of them pulling him up. 

The six man tag reads extremely weird on paper, but it's going to be good craic. Christian is incredible but he has an absolute bag of misfits with him as it stands right now. Nick Wayne could be good in the future, and he's better placed as a heel under Christian's wing, but he's not good now. And well, Luchasaurus is what he is. But with all the moving parts here there will be enough going on to keep this a fun spectacle.

Copeland could do with joining Christian as a heel and leading to Christian/Edge Vs Sting/Darby for Revolution. We're probably too far from Revolution for that to happen here, and possibly too far to continue Christian/Darby for that long. As well as that, I guess it depends if you're sending Sting out on a happy note for the fans with his arms raised, or on his back. If he's not going to lose between now and the end, Christian and Copeland won't exactly be hurt for losing to him and getting no heat back. If Sting is going to lose before he goes, but only once then I would be looking more towards someone that could benefit more from it - in that case pull the trigger on the Edge turn and get that feud over with by early January. Then Swerve and partner or Starks and Big Bill could retire Sting at the end. 

I don't expect we'll find out who the devil is on this show. My thinking is also that it's Adam Cole, but that he is just as injured as they said he was, meaning this is going to go on for a while yet. 

MY best guess is the big signing is Ospreay. At least that's who I immediately expected it to be when seeing the announcement. Unfortunately.

33 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

They just announced an Ankalaev vs Johnny Walker rematch is headlining a Fight Night in January. Hopefully Weird Johnny takes him out of the running. 

Yes. Spinning backfist to the knee. 

Well, I tell you what. There wasn't much of Sunday morning that needed set aside to watch that main card. The fighters must have been afraid of turning into gremlins if they had a post fight snack after midnight. Jesus, they weren't fucking about. 

Benoit Saint Denis continues to look a very exciting, dangerous man. It's Lightweight, so we know it could take him six more wins to get a sniff of a title shot, but he walloped Frevola here. There's a metric fuck tonne of fights you could give him now that I would be well on board for. 

Diego Lopes is a wild man. Once it gets to the nitty gritty of the division, I think he'll lose as many as he'll win, but he's going to drag his opponent through the furnace first if they want to put an L on his record. Another great showcase. 

Dern losing, and being handled by Andrade was always a decent possibility, however not what the division needed at all. We've seen the best of Andrade, and I'm not sure she could put together a 3 fight streak anymore so I don't see her becoming a contender again - but Dern losing like this means we definitely lost a future contender. Andrade will always have a night like this in her locker though against the right opponent. You get her in a dog fight, and 9 times out of 10 she's going to come out on top. 

Made up for big Tom. He had to eat a really heavy shot or two when Pavlovich wobbled him early, but eat it he did. Aspinall has got it. This felt like a real signal of the times here. Look at all the age of these two pups for Heavyweights. We could be seeing the start of a best of 7 series between these fuckers. Interested to see Aspinall against all of Gane, Almeida, Pavlovich in a re-match and Blaydes. They are all similar ages too if I'm not mistaken.

I'd book Aspinall Vs Almeida. The streak has to count for something despite how dire that fight with Lewis was. There's no point potentially knocking him out of contention with a loss to another guy at this point. Book Aspinall and Almeida on a show with Gane v Pavlovich underneath as a #1 contender/backup fight. Blaydes can try and get his win back off Derrick Lewis or a re-match with Volkov. 

Alex Pereira with those leg kicks early was really laying groundwork. They were so effective. As long as he didn't lose the fight in the first two rounds, it was going to be his from then on with how well those kicks were working. Jiri was well on his way to being totally compromised. Stoppage was obviously fine, and correct, considering Jiri's comments afterwards. Pereira is a fucking dangerous man with his back against the cage and an opponent's chin in the vicinity of his left hook. LHW is shallow at the top end excitement wise other than these two lunatics so here's hoping we get a trilogy with them. Alex needs to face Jamaal Hill to tidy the whole situation up, but Hill seems unlikely to be ready in time. I hope Ankalaev doesn't stink his way into a title win before then. Not sure what to do next here in this division. 

A hell of an enjoyable PPV that was, here all day for a breezy, fun watch like that on a Sunday morning. 

For me, the HW Title fight comes down to whether Sergei gets it done in the first round or not. If he doesn't, I have no doubt Tom Aspinall is the more well rounded fighter and would take over on a longer fight, should that materialise. Weathering a storm against Sergei though will take some doing. There's also the case that Sergei was in a camp for this night, even if he didn't have a specific opponent. Aspinall on the other hand is coming in on pretty short notice. 

The main event could be chaos. It has all the makings of a wild stand up fight. I think Jiri might just do it, possibly by having that little extra option of taking things the grappling route should he want to mix it up - something Pereira really doesn't have in his locker. Still not sure he'll do that, but I also never expected Francis Ngannou to wrestle Cyril Gane so who the hell knows. 

A really top heavy card this though. Name value wise, it's a significant step down on the previous MSG shows, and on next month's PPV. Main card should be good fun though. 

44 minutes ago, Egg Shen said:

😅 The shit boxing thread is calling for this to be added in there. 

RUSH is the absolute business, as we've all been banging on about for ages. I don't rate his goon squad at all highly though. Might need an addition. He's the man though. 

Loved the unique show opening. Definitely a nice twist on the formula. 

I still have to laugh when I see some of these records when guys come out. Keith Lee was 10-2 and Dustin Rhodes 6-1 for the year. THE YEAR! They have three TV shows and these guys barely have a match once a month! When that's the case, with so, so many people, the roster is way too big. 

I liked that Garcia, Archer, Briscoe and Lee were all remembered about this week and given wins ahead of jobbing to main eventers. It's a bit too quick of a turnaround, ideally they would win 3 or 4 first, but it's something. Plus, all the matches are not obvious "it'd be a crime if this match was missed out on" type deals, but once they were announced I was thinking "hell yes I'd like to see that". Job done. 

House of Black can still do one. 

1 hour ago, wandshogun09 said:

Whoa whoa. Try to contain your excitement lads. We’re finally getting a new Bantamweight queen!

 

Huh. How 'bout that. No ta.