garynysmon

I wouldn't like to imagine what size the WWE's roster is nowadays. Just read that they've signed Shane Strickland and Garza Jr to contracts, the latest in what seems to be a weekly signing. I know we all go on about WCW's famously massive roster in the late 90's, but surely that's been eclipsed by now? There are probably many comparisons with Chelsea's transfer policy of stockpiling players. We all know they will almost certainly never make the first team but all these young players have been bigged up for years and probably believe they will be the one to smash that glass ceiling.

Pwinsider are reporting that Impact actually made the decision to let her go. Pretty surprised at that tbh, so used to wrestlers walking out on Impact over the years that its quite shocking to find out that the shoe’s on the other foot. I thought she was a solid roster member.

For me, its unique in wrestling that time seems to stand still. I can't really explain it well but I can reminisce or watch a clip of the WWF from 1997, for example, and it doesn't feel that far back at all. But if you showed me a clip of Christian Gross at Spurs or a TV show from the same time period, it feels ancient.

Particularly controversial if you're from Wales, but Rugby Union is a crock of shit. (Butch is going to kill me now) In fairness, if I’d grown up in a foreign country I don’t think that rugby would bother me at all. I actually quite enjoyed playing it in the rare occasions we did at secondary school. What I can’t stand is Welsh Rugby specifically and what it does to us as a country. Its been dominating the newspapers and tv for 6 weeks now, 70% of the regional news last night was taken up talking about it. Yet we throw so much effort and attention into something that honestly does nothing to elevate us really. Go anywhere outside the former British Empire and try and bring up Gareth Edwards or George North. You will get blank looks. During the Six Nations there are always mad celebrations that we have defeated ‘the English’ or ‘the Scots’. But honestly, what percentage of their populations genuinely give a toss? It will hardly make the back pages of their newspapers the following day, let alone the front. Rugby Union is a minority sport. Wales’ success at the 2016 Euros brought us more prestige worldwide than 50 grand slams ever could.

I'm the same tbh. If they wheeled out whoever's still active from the 80's and 90's and put together another Legends of Wrestling PPV with all matches being -5* and stinking out the joint I would still enjoy it more than any single show I've seen over the past decade. Its all that piques my interest these days.

I've never really considered myself fully 'lapsed' in the sense that I still read news online and podcasts etc, but haven't watched a WWE match in a year or two apart from the Crown Jewel shitshow (yet brilliantly nostalgic) match involving the Undertaker and HBK. But it was only when I came across something on Facebook now did it hit home how madly lapsed I am. He made his main roster debut in 2015, four fucking years ago! It was obviously meant to be a humorous post pointing some kind of mistake on the action figure, but I've genuinely never seen any of his matches and couldn't even tell you how Tyler Breeze even looks like. In honestly, the same goes for a good chunk of the mid and under card in the WWE these days who haven't been through TNA at some point or another. I don't think I've ever been so out of touch with WWE wrestling since I started watching regularly in 1992, even when I was at Uni and didn't have access to Sky I still kept up with clips etc while nowadays I genuinely don't give a shit even though its so much more accessible. So how lapsed are you? Or have you had years out only to be dragged back in?

Do you have a bad personality trait that you're aware of but just can't help? Mine are almost all due to my chronic lack of patience. It doesn't matter if I have all day and am in no rush, I'll still go bananas behind the wheel of a car if anyone has the audacity to drive a little slower than I'd like. I'm awful for tailgating and just driving my blood pressure up unnecessarily. I'll even drive past a petrol station if it looks like there'll be a queue. It struck me what a twat I am when I arrived at the gym earlier and there was a middle aged woman in front of me at the sign in counter who had obviously never been there before and was a bit doddery. Yet, despite not exactly being in a rush, I couldn't help standing there with a face like a smacked arse and making it obvious how put out I was at having to wait a mere 10 seconds. Afterwards I know I'm being a knob, but at the time I just can't help it.

Wrestlemania 9. I watched it so often as a child that I can still recite a good chunk of the commentary and I get incredibly defensive when people come out slating it as the worst ever Wrestlemania. I love everything about it, the pagentry, the effort that went into the set, the outdoor setting and how different it looks to every other PPV. Hulk also went over at the end which was the perfect ending for this 8 year old. Fuck workrate! Looking back, its the dying embers of the golden era really isn't it? So many of those familiar faces had gone by the time WMX rolled around.

Punching your opponent in the head 10 times while stood on the middle ropes as the crowd counts along. (Ditto ramming their head into the top turnbuckle) Atomic Drops. Do they even have tag ropes any more?

In all seriousness, Leilani Kai was one of the few in-ring performers to compete at WM1 and WM10 (the only one I can think of, unless you count Howard Finkel). More of a reason than most I'd imagine.

It smacks of a need to induct a woman but given the way women were (not) given any prominence in days gone by, the pool is pretty shallow. I wonder who'll be next year, one of the Federettes?

It was only recently that I watched his KC shoot interview looking back at WM2. I was always impressed by how he played down everything and wasn't a mark for anything he did. His initial run was before my time, although I've seen his PPV outings, but I remember him in the Million Dollar Corparation during the New Generation era. Its mad that he was only in his mid 30's when he was being pushed as this relic from the 1980's. RIP Bundy.

This is a pretty decent youtube channel if you want to pack in an entire episode of Impact into 7 mins.

This. Even when I first got into wrestling as a child during the early 90's, I was much more interested in the promos, characters and wrestler entrances than anything that happened between the ropes. If watching a VHS tape, I'd often fast forward through matches until it was time for the finishers etc. Because of that, the short style matches of the period and then the Attitude era suited me perfectly. I realise that now is ideal for your wrestling purists where the WWE style has almost become 'super indy', but I really have to be in the mood to appreciate a 'super workrate' match and can't imagine sitting through a 3 hour Raw with loads of long-ish matches. But as I've said before, wrestling is all about nostalgia for me these days. The last WWE match I watched was HBK and HHH v Kane and the Undertaker as it contained characters that mean something to me. I loved 2010-ish TNA when it had all the 90's wrestlers still knocking about and still watch it every now and then out of nothing more than loyalty really. The only event that has piqued my interest over Wrestlemania weekend is Sabu and RVD teaming up for Impact, I couldn't give a shit about WM itself. While I still read up on all the news, every week I read about a 'returning' wrestler coming back to WWE when I didn't even realise he or she had ever been off TV, or the latest on wrestlers in the mid to upper card that I genuinely couldn't even put a face to. I'm lapsed as hell.

That's my big fear tbh, that huge gap over Arsenal and Chelsea is quickly dwindling Ali needs to come back and quick.