tiger_rick

That really only explains the change to Bret v Shawn though. The rest could have gone on as planned. Flair v Savage was really cold after Mania and not drawing well. That's probably the main reason for moving to Warrior. I'm not sure why they didn't do Flair v Warrior though, which would have been something really new. As much as Savage vs. Jake is a fucking incredible feud in late 1991, that drew pretty poorly too. Savage really was a bit done as a draw after his "retirement". It's a common viewpoint to shit on Vince for sidelining him because he'd go on to have a good run in WCW but, all the evidence did really support that. The problem being that they had absolutely fuck all to replace someone like Randy. As for the rest, I just presume they thought the feuds were out of steam after months on the houses. LOD vs. Beverleys particularly seemed to have been going on for 14 years.

I have no problem whatsoever with the amount of AEW titles. It's absolutely fine for the amount of TV and the amount of people on the roster. I do agree somewhat with Bomber's points about the deliniation of some of the people and which titles they go for but the amount of belts, the emphasis put on them and the fact that the champions are treated as potential World Champions has been really good for the last couple of years. My problem with belts is purely the external ones being shown on their TV. ROH belts can stay in their lane. CMLL can get to fuck. Anything from Japan that isn't the IWGP World Title can equally piss off. It's unnecessary and clunky. An exception is when they make a story of it. Like Mercedes or Kenny Omega collecting titles from other promotions. I'd also be OK with someone coming in with a title that's made a big deal of as an introductory tool. Like the NJPW Tag Champs but, I want to see them consider the value of the mention. At the moment, they just acknowledge the wider wrestling world, which is OK to a point but crosses a line often. I feel similar about them mentioning that everyone has had 17 matches before. I don't want them to pretend every match is a first ever, like WCW would do often but, equally, I'm not excited by them all have met in PWG or ROH or All-Star wrestling 17 years ago. I just want AEW to be the be all and end all of the wrestling world on AEW's shows and I think they have the balance off a bit.

Is Penta the champ?

God bless, Tito but, what the fuck is he supposed to do with Boris?

We'll know the answer if Will Ospreay is a 4-time AEW World Champion by the time we get to Full Gear.

Post of the year.

Tactically, it's probably the most in depth it's ever been with in and out of posession tactics and effectiveness and player suitability and buy-in being important now. That bleeds over into training, although I've never done training and still don't. The Touch and Mobile versions are good if you want a simpler experience. I get where you're coming from, I'm normally super-excited about the games and then after a couple of weeks, never find the time or inclanation to play!

Football Manager 2027 is free to download and play on steam until Sunday if anyone fancies it. If anyone is out of the FM loop, they pretty much re-wrote it, had to cancel FM 2025 because it wasn't ready and then released FM 2026 in a pretty poor state. So far, FM 2027 feels like a much more polished version and has been worth playing, for the short amount of time I've put into it.

It's the best IP they could inherit and a brilliant opportunity to get creative. I would have thought doing the show in Vegas, even if not at the MGM Grand, would have been right up their street years ago. It's wasted in NXT and even more so with how shitarse it is these days.

I think the difference is Kane was an established guy who had had some credibility with fans and could always eat a loss. The AEW equivalent at this point would be someone like Samoa Joe, although Kane lost a million more matches than he ever has. Fletcher is clearly a guy on the ascent whose failed title challenges are bruises his character carries that will pay off when he finally wins the big one. In short, I think Fletcher is losing because he's on the way up the hill. Kane was well over it.

I've had one. Wasn't quite a pie, was the Greggs mince pie roll thing. Was slightly warm and very nice!

That might genuinely be the worst thing I've ever seen them produce. Between the quality of the images, the positioning, shoe-horning in Cody and the fact both teams look like they could be working Reading Town Hall for Brian on Friday night, that is a shocker.

That's a bit unfair. I'm not a huge Fletcher fan, still but, I think it's clear that he's an AEW World Champion in waiting (as long as he doesn't go to the Dark Side). He makes sense as a challenger for Ospreay and although he won't win, I definitely think his time comes in the next year or so. Enjoyable Dynamite. Seemed very likely that Queen would go over and the main event slot absolutely nailed it on but, it was still a great moment. Loved the babyface locker room all coming out, they do this stuff so well. Anarchy In The Arena following close behind B&G will probably annoy people after the last day or so's chat but I think it's the right way around. The random collection of faces taking on the generally nuisance heel faction in a TV special fits, while the most popular act in the company taking on the new heel act with loads of heavy heat angles to build it to PPV makes sense too. Dunno how planned Jack Perry hugging Taz was but it was a funny moment. I love when they play with stuff like this. Ciampa and Dragunov were great. What a prospect that is. Full Gear card to date looks ace. Two thumbs up to any "Bring back Dark" chat. Highly unlikely while ROH exists but I'd chuck it over to someone like Skiavone to produce with some of the sharper members of the locker room chipping in and block tape at Daily's Place. Fuck it, have Jericho on commentary and we're ticking all the nostalgia boxes. Could have an AEW Dark Title, Tony. You love a belt and this could be a black one. First champion John Silver.

😢

Can't compare them with real footballers, let's be serious. A separate award is definitely justified. Why there is a best striker award and not the other positions is ridiculous though. Unai Simon won the Yashin award. Justified? Not sure I could argue against him on this year alone. Had a look down the BD rankings. Rodri 4th and Kvaratskhelia 7th is ludicrous. Messi being well above Olise and Haaland is a joke, right? And perhaps most ridiculous, Julian Quinones and Sadio Mane cracked the top 30. Guess we at least know who the Mexican and Senegalese journos voted for.

Harry Kane wins the Balloon Door for 2026! Couldn't be happier for him. An incredible professional and seems a hell of a guy to me but, I won't restart that argument! Plus another trophy for Spurs! I really like it as a decision, regardless of it being an English man because it is based on individual performance. Too often it's handed out based on a single achievement or team success. COYS

"This is football 'eritage"

I meant a midfielder instead of Sesko last summer and then I would have got the LB and RB instead of Tielemans and Santos this summer. I'm talking about priorities, not actually buying additional players. United could deifnitely shift all of the players you mentioned, except perhaps Shaw. It just means taking a huge loss, which I'd normally be against but United sell so poorly anyway, they might aswell just clear the decks. Edit: I wouldn't sell Shaw anyway. I think he's fine as a backup LB/third CB and as a leader in the group. The problem isn't that United don't have good players, they just don't have best in class players in any position and don't have players to suit any particular style of football. Like lining up in Hull with a midfield pairing of Santos and Tielemans who got out run, out fought and out thunk by two reasonable Championship lads in Crooks and Slater.

United situation is entirely predictable. I know some didn't agree but I did point out that they should never have appointed Carrick because he clearly wasn't what they want or need. It was so obviously OGS Mk 2. Both Ole and Carrick did a good interim job, and both are fantastic people but, they're so clearly not the answer. Carrick will take the fall now but, the problem remains the same. The club has no identity and no obvious plan. They have too many players who've let down too many managers, a squad built for a system they don't play, no financial headroom to fix all the problems, no patience to start again and fix them slowly and absolutely no idea who should be the person to head it all. There is a clear example of how to do it, in Arsenal. They turned over an entire squad under Arteta, let him and Edu and his predecessors set out a blueprint for the entire club, top to bottom, took the pain for a couple of years and slowly got closer and closer. Despite the wobbles, the near misses and the general glee whenever they missed out, because Man City were saving football, remember? If they go for Conte, that's A1 Spurs behaviour. Another short-term fix. Eddie Howe would be a more promising appointment but I'm not sure they have the bottle to back him when times are hard and he won't just be another Moyes/Solskjaer/Amorim/Carrick. I'd go Kieran McKenna but with a new Sporting Director with United DNA and a club-wide strategy, playing style and recruitment focus. Think it was Dev who pointed out the other day they they've planned to fix forwards, midfielders and then defence separately over three years. That's absolutely insane. They should have bought at least one midfielder last summer and then a striker, RB, LB and midfielder this year. But even if they had, does anyone trust them to buy the right ones? I know some others are bigger fans of Sesko than I am but him, Tielemans and Santos are just such poor signings that don't fit United at all. I like Cunha and Mbuemo, I think they've been pretty good. But they have such a poor track record over nearly a decade now, something has to change (again).

Yup, absolutely. One of my few nitpicks on Dynamite was Thekla being a heel when she's awesome and the crowd love her and it was just to set up this rubbish. I blame all of those fuckers who cry constantly about equality and TK for being a fanny and ceding to them. Have some backbone. You've booked six years of Dynamites with barely any having two women's matches. Don't start pretending you're Stephanie McMahon, the founder of women's professional wrestling. The women deserve a great spot on every show. They don't need a B&G match just because.

Was gonna write who I'd have in the C2 in the other thread but I thought this would be a fun standalone. Who would be your two blocks and who is making the semis and the final. For info, here are the previous results so you know who has/hasn't been in it. I think what's most relevant is that Claudio has been in every year so I'd imagine he will again. Plus Mox as defending champion unless they do something with that. My Block A would be Jon Moxley and Bandido, who would qualify for the semis, plus Kyle O'Reilly, Ricochet, Kevin Knight and Hook. And Block B would be Jay White and Ilja Dragunov, who qualify, and Claudio Castagnoli, Mark Davis, Tomasso Ciampa and John Silver. I know John Silver isn't making it but he would if I was booking. Semis for mine would be Dragunov over Bandido. I considered both of these to win it but on balance, I think I'd strike while Dragunov is hot. Moxley would beat White in the other semi, before putting over Dragunov in the final. I think that creates a really hot thing and an AEW title challenger for early 2027 in Dragunov. What's your C2 blocks, winners and aims?

I had a great time with this show too. I don't really want to break it all down because it didn't really need it. It just skipped from segment to match to promo with people I think are really fucking good, no-one doing anything stupid and someone who I think is a superstar in pretty much every shot. AEW often reminds me just how much I love wrestling and how long it had been since I actually enjoyed it rather than using it to search for little nuggets. I can still live without Don Callis and I don't think Nick Wayne worth watching. They're my only objections. Chris Jericho was really good. I didn't like Thekla being in the middle of that heel beatdown. I get they've probably moved on from her with Marina next up and Toni on her way back but I liked her as a face. There are 12 in the C2. Hard agree. Just finished listening to a pod earlier and they were busy speculating about who might be in it, Mox apart, and it's just so fun. Narrowing it down to 11 guys is ridiculously difficult and almost everyone they mentioned feels like someone who'll a) have banger matches and b) should win.

Got more chance of catching all the Pokemon than all the fucking podcasts these days.

It depends if it was ever supposed to be anything more. There have been tons of one night returns, like all the lads who beat up Heath Slater and the various "Old School" episodes of TV and open challenges. They were never designed to be more than fun cameos.

1990 went up a couple of weeks ago. 1995 definitely on there from before too. Is 1992 the worst looking PPV ever? From a big company anyway, not some indy like TNA. You wouldn't know the difference between it and any episode of Saturday Night if not for the very occasional glimpse of a Halloween Havoc banner hanging in the rafters. Utter shit.