Jonny Vegas

2 minutes ago, gmoney said:

Hmm, well I can tell you with a straight face than out of those four names, only one of them would draw 15 thousand to Goodison Park. 

I don't dispute that in the slightest but the direct quote was "No one in AEW has the name value Tony Bellew had at that time" and that in my opinion is nonsense.

Bellew had a very niche market and they all had a fun wee day with him (which he very nearly cocked up).

1 hour ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

Everything is a niche product compared to football. Example.  Everton's average attendance is around 38 thousand for every home game. When dyed in the wool Blue Tony Bellew fought Ilunga Makabu at Goodison he drew around 15 thousand and that was with a massive promotional push and he had been in Creed the year before as well. No one in AEW has the name value Bellew had at that time. 

 

Big difference is I really enjoy boxing and have since I was a kid but there's not a fight or fighter I'd travel any sort of distance to watch for several reasons.

Boxing cards are usually made up predominantly of lower level fighters that often even real purists struggle to enjoy. 

On top of that crowds are fucking awful and full of the absolute worst pissed up stella drinking coke head brexiteers that think they're hard as nails and are wanting to start trouble with anyone they can.

Also watching boxing live in person in my experience in vastly way less enjoyable than at home whereas wrestling is the exact opposite.

I've travelled all across the UK and further for wrestling but I'd never do that for boxing.

Comparing Bellew's drawing power and AEW's is silly.

Firstly if you drew a Venn diagram of everyone who attends Everton games, everyone who likes boxing, everyone who's free on that date, everyone who wants to go, everyone who can afford to go, 15,000 is pretty good. With respect  the idea anyone would go because he was in Creed the year prior really amuses me too.

As Keith said people will go to this because its AEW, then you have casual fans as well wanting to be part of a big show or take their kids to wrestling, then you have people who couldnt get tickets for MITB so go or take their kids to this. 

Also I'm sorry but nobody can tell me with a straight face that Tony fucking Bellew was ever a bigger household name or draw than Sting, Chris Jericho or potentially CM Punk and Jeff Hardy.

4 hours ago, Arch Stanton said:

Is it known that Bray has full creative control over his character and storylines now then?

I cannot imagine any scenario where if he had full creative control over the gimmick and storylines, he would think for one second that the god awful sponsored by MTN DEW PITCH BLACK match was a good idea.

Let alone against a lower mid carder, as his first match back.

QT owed Powerhouse a favour after Powerhouse helped him take out Ricky Starks last year. So technically it can at least make sense that way.

I'm 100% behind Powerhouse as champion and hope he gets a good run with it.

I do however think the best thing he could do now is destroy QT next week and make it clear that he only used him to call in an owed favour and doesn't need him.

He may well be a wrong un but fair is fair, Gargano is absolutely shite.

Inspired by the Fesshole twitter page it got me thinking about things people had confessed to me over the years.

I thought it might be a fun thread for people to confess some of their own unconvential, unusual or otherwise different habits, behaviours or otherwise.

It doesn't have to be one of your own, it can also be something others have confessed to you.

Both of my initial examples are actually other people's told to me by ex work colleague's;

1. A male work colleague told me that in his entire adult life, he had at no time taken a shit outside of his own house with the exception of hotels he was staying in whilst on holiday or otherwise.

His reason for this was that his arse was covever by so much thick black hair that he needed to wash it in the shower after every shite and he once sent me a photo of his arse hair trimmings on the floor in his bathroom as proof of the amount.

His bathroom looked like a barber shop floor.

2. I once walked into the lunch room at work to see a colleague hunched over the bin picking at chips in a polystyrene container still within said bin.

It was very awkward but they immediately made a point of explaining that the chips were in a sealed container so what they were eating wasn't actually touching the contents of the bin.

I was worried incase there were any financial reasons behind it (despite being aware he had a big house, very nice car and he certainly didn't appear obviously struggling I didn't know what might be going on) so tried to as delicately as possible ask did they want me to bring some extra in as I always made too much food and ended up with mountains of extra portions bagged in the freezer until I threw it away.

He happily explained he didn't need to eat out of the bin but did so regularly so long as the containers were sealed or they were in the bin inside another carrier bag for example.

I still follow him on Instagram and he's in Florida with his wife and kids every summer and Dubai with them every Christmas so it still doesn't appear to have been due to an inability to afford his own food.

After a full week of Beale, Sakala, Raskin and several in the media talking up how much better Rangers are than Celtic, it makes it even more delicious to see them absolutely shite it today.

I saw several on social media through the week claiming that Kemar Roofe was better than Kyogo hahahaha

Someone is going to have to do something pretty remarkable over the next 3 months to prevent Kyogo from being Scottish football POTY.

Aaron Mooy is an absolute Rolls Royce.

A big problem they're going to have if they don't allow people to sell Smackdown tickets bought on the combo is that I anticipate a lot of non locals may have bought combo tickets and have no intention of going to Smackdown at all.

If I'd have been going I'd have rather "wasted" the Smackdown ticket than spent an extra day in London and had the added expense of an extra night in a hotel there. So I can see Smackdown ending up being half empty.

I don't know whether the booking is the main problem and its definitely not the only problem.

The main issue for me is that internet/smart/indy wrestling fans is actually a relatively small amount of the audience compared to casual fans/kids.

For casual fans/kids WWE is wrestling and everything else seems second rate no matter how good it is.

To the "smart" fan  AEW has a great roster and is a welcome alternative to WWE however the biggest names to have been in the company are still ex WWE and I'd argue they haven't been able to make a single one of the non ex WWE guys a "top" star yet with MJF having came closest, even though I've always thought of him as overrated and feel he's went stale since getting the title.

No amount of ex WWE star power is going to sway things either you look at the names TNA had and even in their heyday they never really laid a glove on WWE.

If you switched the WWE and AEW rosters in their entireity and advertised each as the other company I still dont think it would make a drastic change as the smart fans would still watch both and the casual fans would just wonder where their favourites went and keep watching the new WWE.

The sad reality is the attitude era was probably the first and last time wrestling was ever that close to being mainstream cool and popular and it never will be again.

The heights AEW have reached is a glass ceiling any company not called WWE will ever reach.

That's Hard to Beat.

I'll get me coat.

I thought it looked perfectly fine and personally for me I'm not as concerned or interested in amazing graphics as I am enjoyable gameplay.

For me the WWE 2K games just aren't enjoyable to play.

If this is and has a few different match types and a roster offering a lot of alternatives to WWE then I'll be very happy.

I was against the idea of Zayn winning right up until the match but during it I got more and more into the idea of him winning.

For me wrestling is all about moments and always has been and in my opinion last night was a chance for a moment that would have been remembered for a long, long time and capped off one of the most entertaining storylines in WWE for a long time.

If Zayn had have won I feel like it would have given a tonne of content to carry us the 6 weeks or so until Mania.

Cody initially being the blue eyed babyface shaking hands and welcoming their upcoming match then intertwining with 6 men matches and others against members of the Bloodline  until eventually becoming bitter at Zayn "stealing" his moment, his spotlight  his redemption story and turning heel on him would have in my opinion felt so organic and intertwined both stories really well.

Now I just feel like Cody beating Reigns is a near certainty and I've already lost a lot of interest in it.

Also where does Zayn go from here without cooling off one of if not the hottest talent in the company.

With Cody the big fear they must surely have also is whether the chase is the main appeal with him and the crowds interest in him dieing on its arse post mania...if not before.

Someone else mentioned Cody wasn't your usual establishment favourite being rammed down people's throats but he absolutely is.

Part of my main appeal for him in ROH/AEW was that in company's filled with indy darlings he absolutely screamed WWE and it was something very different.

I like Cody but I feel like a tonne of his appeal is we got a little taste of him between re-debut and injury then he came back how winning the rumble.

He's someone I've always felt I and other's wanted to see less and less of the more we saw of him. 

The issue with Adam Cole wasn't ever just heigh from what I was aware. He just doesn't look very athletic/menacing/threatening.

Guys like Finn Balor and Montez Ford are probably both around the same height but both look a million times more impressive physically.

Last weekend I was driving past a relatively local hotel when I saw a protest by people presenting as local residents against a number of asylum seekers who were being placed in said hotel with another 200 or so to come.

I know someone who works there so asked them about it later that day and they said around the corner closer to the hotel was a counter protest of a few different groups clubbed together to show their support for the asylum seekers and show them they were welcome.

The thing that puzzled me however, was that they didn't for example bring some toiletries, food, local snacks, clothes, comfort items to show their support and welcome to the asylum seekers. They apparently just turned up, shouted at the racists, then left 5 minutes after the racists did.

Now I'm not for one second complaining about the shouting abuse at racists, however it seemed more about the two groups arguing with each other rather than any direct actions to help or welcome the new guests. 

My friend said a couple of the asylum seekers watched from the reception and didn't have a clue what was going on.

I think those in charge of Partick were expecting them to get beat 4 or 5 at Ibrox and then justify an already planned sacking.

A closer than expected game yesterday has made it look a bit out of nowhere but with 8 league losses out of their last 13 after a decent start to the season, a change to push into the promotion play-offs is probably the right move.

3 hours ago, PunkStep said:

I don't think you can compare the culture between American and 'British' sports. The way they are followed, organised and played are vastly different.

One thing that got me thinking recently was that I believe football is marketed, particularly to kids differently now than it was when I was a kid.

In US sports particularly NFL and NBA its much more common for people to be fans of players rather than just teams and that's something I feel is increasing here.

My son is only 5 but he's obsessed with Ronaldo, Messi, Neymar, Mbappe, Salah, Son, Kane, Haaland etc. 

Nobody in our family supports any of the teams they play for or did play for and we actively discourage his obsession but he's set on it even going so far as asking could he get a Spurs kit. 😮‍💨

At his age I had no concept that the majority of Southampton or Celtic's players were shit or that there were much better players at other teams.

All I wanted to do was run up and down my back garden pretending to be Jackie Dziekanowski or Tommy Widdrington, I had no interest in the stars of the game.

I think as football transforms ever more into tourist friendly "experiences", particularly at the top levels and away from the atmosphere's of old it is becoming more and more americanised.

I think there's less and less emphasis of an affinity with a team or the connections most of us had and still have.

Roy Keane warned us about those fucking prawn sandwiches.

In honesty it's my first time hearing the term neurodivergent so I had a brief read into the term and it's meaning and found this summary;

"You absolutely are neurodivergent if you have been diagnosed with a developmental or learning disorder, such as autism, ADHD, dyslexia, or Tourette's syndrome. You may decide to consider yourself neurodivergent if you have no diagnosis but think, behave, or interact in ways that are outside the norm."

Now I'm absolutely no expert on any of those diagnosed conditions so please excuse my ignorance in advance but from memory she initially made a post acknowledging it was out there for people to see and said she would later post a response if I'm not mistaken?

From my limited knowledge and understanding of the aforementioned conditions, would stepping back and taking time to prepare a response not be more likely to alleviate the impact they would have? 

Also considering the last part is that anyone can "consider themself neurodivergent if they think, behave or interact in ways that are outside the norm" that seems like a pretty broad range of people.

I used to work with an asian woman years back who lost the plot at a fellow asian work colleague infront of everyone for making a spurious allegation of racism against a manager because she had gotten into trouble for data protection breaches from them. 

The woman who went off at her said that using that as an excuse to attempt to avoid rightful punishment or criticism was a slap in the face to every time her or others had been legitimate victims of racism and whilst I'll never understand how angry she felt having not lived her experiences, I agreed with what she was saying.

I can't help but feel supertanskiii's most recent explanation of her behaviour has most likely done more to further tarnish her character and nature than to resolve it.

I'd say I've definitely met more people who told me they were jewish in Glasgow than I did in Coventry but neither were places I was aware of having a significant jewish community.

I hate to be a cynic as to how much Baddiel actually *really* cares about the subject but is there any documented evidence of him speaking out loudly and publicly against anti-semitism prior to him being criticised for not only the blackface incident but for failing to apologise to Jason Lee for well over a decade?

Baddiel was in his late 20's when they were doing the skits and couldn't even use the daft kid excuse, he knew full well what he was doing but so long as it got him a laugh and furthered his career, he couldn't care less.

It wasn't just the blackface element the entire thing was horrifically racist and hugely negatively impacted his career and livelihood. 

I don't remember much about Fantasy Football Club but I'd imagine with that platform raising the issue of anti semitism on a show he co-created, wrote, hosted and performed on would be well within his capabilities...unless of course as per my cynical nature it only became an issue he wanted to talk about publicly following his own misgivings?

As per Keith, at the risk of having myself labelled anti semitic, there were huge electronic billboard on the expressway in Glasgow last month saying Jewish people were 500 times more likely to be victims of racial abuse than any other race.

I'm not sure what specifically the criteria is but I've spent the majority of my life in Coventry and Glasgow and sadly seen a lot of racism in both places but I certainly wouldn't have thought that until I saw the billboards.

Obviously I don't want to see it happening whatsoever but 500 times more than anyone else seemed steep.

Agree entirely with Bacon, I was talking with friends at work last week about times from secondary school through to probably 25 years old at least where I'd done and said things we were totally ashamed and embarressed of now, they were the same but that rightly or wrongly is part of life and growing up/as a person.

To just double down with silly excuses and then try to make out it'a all because the people you don't like want to drag you down is ridiculous.

Part of her defence in her initial tweet about it was "I've defended David Baddiel" which is on a par with "how can I be racist? *insert details of friend or relation who isn't the same race as you here*".

Supertanskiii who got a mention in this thread pre Christmas has been caught out after photos have surfaced of her doing nazi salutes, decorating herself with a little Hitler moustache and standing next to a man wearing a t-shirt with I ♡ Hitler written onto it in mud at a festival.

Her main defence's are that it definitely wasn't a hitler reference and that the photos are from her personal facebook and she didn't give permission for them to be shared, which is a baffling stance to take in my eyes.

10 hours ago, SuperBacon said:

BRING BACK DOWNVOTES. 

He probably would to be honest. If you read his book, he loved Southampton and didnt really want to leave.

@Jonny Vegas When I was at the Blackpool game, Jones was so animated for 90 minutes that I thought he was going to punch someone.

So aggressive even when someone did something well. Aribo at one point played a lovely pass after getting out of a jam and Jones went absolutely mental. For a good bit of play?

Big weirdo energy from him.

Apart from Redknapp he has to be the most disliked Saints manager of my lifetime.

He came in as a hugely underwhelming appointment, with a gigantic chip on his shoulder and has done zero to endear himself to the fans whatsoever since.

As you say he seems like a horrible, overly aggressive little chav of a man.

A handful of fans pointed to wins against Man City in the cup and Everton in the league as potential defence of him.

Against City, PG came out before the game and said they had to prioritise competitions with so many games still to play and that the LC was 4th priority. That says all you need to know about his and the players mentality going into that game.

Against Everton in all honesty we were lucky. We certainly weren't the better side and Everton were playing infront of a raucous crowd whose owners hadn't attended the game due to seemingly legitimate death threats.

I'm astonished that he's still here, tomorrow is the annual fans forum with the club's owners. The manager usually attends which I doubt Jones will but if he did the chances of him offering a fan outside are huge. The club have also scrapped the live stream of it in favour of what I assume will be an edited recording to be released in future.

If he makes it to Saturday and Wolves, which is looking increasingly likely, then it could be a horrid atmosphere at St Mary's before a balls even kicked.

Southampton manager Nathan Jones looks likely to be gone by tomorrow.

A run of 7 Premier League games which has produced 6 losses and 1 victory against what was an absolutely horrific Everton performance has seen mounting pressure.

A series of conflicting interviews and press conferences where Jones has sought praise for any hint of success and indemnity for any failings has not exactly endeared him to fans.

After our cup exit to Newcastle mid week and criticism for his insistence to play 5 at the back he defended it saying systems dont matter its the players fault if they're not good enough to work it out.

Minutes later Che Adams gave a post match interview saying the team struggle with the 5 at the back system.

On Friday he had our two Croatian internationals play for the B team a day before a massive PL game.

After our convincing 3-0 loss to Brentford (which could have been 6-0 easily) yesterday, he responded by labelling himself "one of the best in europe", blamed his failings on having listened to what others (alluding to that being fans and players) wanted him to do and done it rather than doing this his own way, (please remember this the man who said systems/tactics dont matter).

He then criticised fans who were singing 19 year old Romeo Lavia's name, publicly criticising his performance, saying fans must have been watching a different game to him if they thought he was good, throwing him under the bus and continued to then essentially say Southampton have been shite for a year its nothing new.

Several pundits with no tie's to Southampton have publicly criticised Jones for his comments yesterday, including Ian Wright during Match Of The Day and local BBC sports writer Adam Blackmore tweeted a 7 or 8 part rather scathing analysis of Jones this afternoon.

There's strong rumours doing the rounds that he was involved in a training ground bust up today (shock) and there's a board meeting tomorrow morning.

He wont be missed.

With 6 weeks between EC and Wrestlemania it just seems like a lot of TV to fill with Reigns/Cody and Uso's/Sami&KO being broken into seperate feuds potentially.

I suppose there could be a little more mileage in it if Zayn comes closes to beating Reigns at EC but due to interference from Jimmy is stopped. Jey comes down and teased helping Sami to which Owens comes out followed by Solo and a 4 on 2 ensues.

Cody then comes down and clears house then there's loads of conotations and combinations to cover 6 weeks of TV.

I love Sami and hes been brilliant throughout but should he be WWE champion? No.

People getting a turn with the title because they've been entertaining or popular in the role they're doing away from being champion is in my opinion a big problem they've had recently.

Managed to get my son his first ever "chase" variant yesterday.

Popped into the local Smyths after picking him up from school to see if they had the elite 99 Lesnar that he wanted and they were just putting them onto the shelf as we did.

He was absolutely buzzing to get it.