BurningHammer

Awful news.  Met him 10-12 years ago at the RIMups, such a nice guy.  A quick look at Facebook and Twitter is enough to tell you of the high esteem he was held in by so many.

I know you have family ties but my guess would be for the Arkle. Glencove Marina won as easy as you like in that race on sunday and considering Perce Rock was supposed to be the good thing you could see from a long way out what was going to win.

I'm guessing Arkle too, he will probably run in Leopardstown on the 27th (holds an entry along with Scotsirish), so it will be interesting to see how it goes. Perce Rock has some very shaky jumping (Casey was so lucky the ground was as soft as it was), but it was clearly beat before that.

Glencove Marina for either the Arkle Chase or the Royal Sun Alliance Chase. Family ties here as my uncle is the owner, but it done the business Sunday, and when Willie Mullins and Ruby Walsh are talking it up they way they are, has to worth a few quid.

EdgeMVPRandy Orton

JBL describing Jillian's singing as "like Barbaro getting euthanized" had me rolled up. It's all about the delivery.

CM Punk vs The Miz (Cyber Sunday)

LAXMotor City Machine GunsIf WWE gave a shit about tag teams Cade and Murdoch would be nominated without hesitation.

Santino MarellaI'm of the impression a 'Best Repackaging' award might be necessary.

I really wish I paid more attention to this forum, that way freakout episodes like this would mean a lot more to me.

Not to mention the way Michaels and RVD were written out a few months back.

Sorry if this sounds like a stupid question, but does this mean that WWE for example may start showing clips or bringing his name up again, most possibly in the long run, since we've found he didn't do what he did because he was a bad person or evil or anything?.Obviously what he did is still horrible, but at least we know he didn't do it with a right mind.

Undiagnosed concussions reflects just as badly on WWE as everything else that has come out. Especially if some hack journo makes a connection with Randy Orton's running punt trademark of late.

And they just let a senior citizen take the soccer kick legit.

Yikes. I knew that kick looked far too snug in comparison to previous ones...

I find the "erasing" of Chris Benoit ridiculous and extremely short sighted. Eventually they'll have no choice but to mention Chris Benoit in some form or another and I'm pretty sure it won't fuck people off if the WWE have to say "Chris Benoit was champion in 2004".Also, people don't pretend that Garry Glitter is dead or that he didn't have any hits in the music charts...

I'd say it is a short-term measure, because they would just open themselves up for criticism if they marketed DVD's and the like with Benoit advertised as a prominent part of the show. Give it some time and he will be quietly put back on the match listings, though you can forget about WWE featuring him too largely in a historical context.

Sorry if this sounds like a stupid question, but does this mean that WWE for example may start showing clips or bringing his name up again, most possibly in the long run, since we've found he didn't do what he did because he was a bad person or evil or anything?.Obviously what he did is still horrible, but at least we know he didn't do it with a right mind.

Undiagnosed concussions reflects just as badly on WWE as everything else that has come out. Especially if some hack journo makes a connection with Randy Orton's running punt trademark of late.

My bugbear with Spencer is that he tries to ride every horse the same way, swooping late from the back. It's fine when it works but when it doesn't you really want to kill him.

A-fucking-men.

I like Winker Watson as well. Very tough little horse, but more workmanlike than either Raven's pass or New Approach. Henrythenavigator is the reason I feel that Fallon should not ride anywhere until his case comes to court. When a 4-5 favourite gets beat in a group race by a 25-1 shot with Fallon on board the jolly you can't help but wonder if Mr Fallon has taken a back hander on it even if it gets beat fair and square. Its bad for racing that they still let him ride.

If anything Fallon has been treated more harshly than other jockeys under investigation for being bent. Mernagh, Culhane, Winston and Fitzpatrick were allowed to ride in Britain until their suspensions were issued. Fallon's case only goes to court this month (what date?) and he has been barred in Britain for over a year without guilt being proven. They need to hope for a conviction, if only because Fallon could take the Jockey Club to the cleaners for loss of earnings and whatnot if they don't win the case.And if you accept Henrythenavigator won't go on soft ground, you accept why ran so badly in that race. That line of thinking would have me questioning a lot of jockeys (Kinane and Spencer are my two bugbears, and I have a mate who despises Royston Ffrench and Joe Fanning with a passion).

~ Tottenham to beat Fulham @ 5/4 - Spurs shakey away from home, but Fulham are a side in severe trouble.~ Reading to beat West Ham @ 11/10 - West Ham are overrated IMO amd I will always look to take them on when playing half decent sides, especially away from home.

Not a good day for you sunshine. Look at the way Raven's Pass won today and look at getting on it for the 2000 guineas next year. It was an absoloute machine, barely breaking sweat and winning by 7ish lengths.*EDIT* In a new track record time as well for a 2 year old over that distance*EDIT*

New Approach is utterly frightening. Unless it goes the way of Teofilo I can't see it losing the 2000 Guineas.

New Approach did look very good last week but it beat nothing either. Henrythenavigator clearly does not go on soft and didn't even place in that race. New Approach has run on soft and Raven's Pass has won on firm and good to firm. It may depend on how the ground comes up on the day. I am not saying that neither needs the ground it is just they have run on nothing else.

Judging 2-y-o's on going seems a bit of crapshoot considering the way 'summer' has turned out this year. It is going to be between New Approach and Raven's Pass ante-post, but I still would not discount Henrythenavigator unless the ground resembles jump season like it has in Ireland at times this season. A lot will stay away from New Approach after getting stung by Teofilo as well.

~ Tottenham to beat Fulham @ 5/4 - Spurs shakey away from home, but Fulham are a side in severe trouble.~ Reading to beat West Ham @ 11/10 - West Ham are overrated IMO amd I will always look to take them on when playing half decent sides, especially away from home.

Not a good day for you sunshine. Look at the way Raven's Pass won today and look at getting on it for the 2000 guineas next year. It was an absoloute machine, barely breaking sweat and winning by 7ish lengths.*EDIT* In a new track record time as well for a 2 year old over that distance*EDIT*

New Approach is utterly frightening. Unless it goes the way of Teofilo I can't see it losing the 2000 Guineas.

One question has been resolved in my mind.Vince McMahon is a Libertarian as opposed to the Republican I thought he was.This sentence gets me:

The tragic deaths of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) star Chris Benoitand his family have raised questions about reports of widespread use of steroids and otherperformance-enhancing drugs by professional wrestlers

Steroids and performance enhancing drugs have been used in wrestling for at least a fucking generation. Over a decade is being a bit generous I expected the press to only give a fuck after a woman and child were murdered. Now the politicians are acting the same way. And you can be pretty sure that if the bete-noir for steroids in sports, Barry Bonds, wasn't approaching the baseball home run record, none of this would come up.

Might be hard to answer but did JR ever wear the hat (on air anyway) before Vince forced it on him?

Nope, that was a big sticking point at the time. I might be wrong, but I think I remember him refusing to do it just before the first time he was fired. There was talk of Vince wanting him to portray "a good old boy character with a cowboy hat," but Jim Ross didn't want to be forced to play a JR role. After he came back, he was all hatted and cliched up to the eyeballs, and in true fucked up wrestling fashion, became that gimmick in the real world too. I bet he hasn't referred to himself as Jim in over a decade.

Jim Ross and Sid Waddell (darts foghorn) are the two commentators who most need to be parodied via sketches of them using their cliches in every day life.

One morbid thought hit me when watching a replay of the press conference on FOX just now. Was Chris attempting to poison his son with a high dose of Xanax (doctor just claimed the level found in Daniel's body was a dangerous level even for an adult)?It may just explain the time lapse between Nancy and Daniel if you theorize that Chris gave his son a high dose of Xanax Friday night with the intention to put him asleep and not wake up. When Daniel is still breathing Saturday morning, Chris chokes him while Daniel is still drugged.

Dave Meltzer as a wrestling writer has re-emerged in the fall out from this. Great stuff.

I'm thinking more along the lines of Regal, HHH (gotta protect the missus' inheritance after all) and a few others.

That (Kennedy's web commentary) reads like an unedited WWE press release. I hardly think Mero and Poffo were on the top of the lists when the producers of the news shows needed guests to talk about the matter. The reason they got on was due to WWE deciding not to allow any current employees on these shows, even though I would imagine some of them could have done a decent job of representing themselves and the company.

Also, BH - that's about the saddest thing I've read all week. Is that what they call compassion fatigue? Eddy and Hash made you care, but you just can't bring yourself to get bothered about three more people dying? Surely three deaths (especially of guys you were a fan of) that probably wouldn't have happened if not for wrestling should make you care MORE than just two?

Let me clarify, I was referring to Chris hanging himself when I made the comment, and to the "how can anyone watch RAW now?" question a few posts above. Hash and Eddy's deaths floored me (though really, the latter should not have been a surprise in hindsight), Chris', and the way he took other people with him, causes me to ask for more pressing questions than "will I watch RAW this week, or switch off in protest?"Nancy and Daniel's deaths were without question, tragic. Would they have been prevented had Chris not been in wrestling? That depends on whether the darkness Chris seems to have had in him would have manifested itself in other ways. I think it was Bryan Alvarez who said that he now believed Chris Benoit just had it in him somewhere to commit such an act, and that it may have there all the time. With that in mind, had Benoit not been in the business, it is not out of the question he could commit such an atrocity, with something like alcohol or stress being the trigger.

I tuned out of WWE after the Guerrero exploitation, but once we got Sky+ in the house I started recording the shows around the turn of this year. After Eddie died (and Shinya Hashimoto a few months before that) I could not watch any form of professional wrestling for about a week afterwards. No such reluctance this time on my part. Maybe it is the different circumstances surrounding the deaths, but maybe I have just reached an acceptance regarding wrestling, at least in the US.I have accepted that a significant percentage of my favourite wrestling moments have involved people hopped up to the max on steroids, painkillers, cocaine, alcohol and God knows what else.I have accepted that wrestlers are taking years off their life expectancy by pursuing their career.I would absolutely fucking love something to change, but accept it will not happen. Vince McMahon is conditioned to believe in big muscles equalling big money, and has now conditioned the majority of his companies fanbase to believe the same. A few guys will shrink, so will their push. If the Wellness Policy is extended to include mental health and concussion screening, then someone finally may be getting somewhere.I cannot get on my high-horse knowing the last thing on my mind when Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero were producing fantastic matches and television was whether they were compromising their health doing so. All I can hope is that if any change is announced, it is followed through completely, not just a few token suspensions and firings to make it look like the policy is being enforced before its all back to normal a few months later.