Statto

9 minutes ago, Fatty Facesitter said:

👍an early rise the following morning for a spoiler-free watch is the perfect tonic. 

That was my plan. Woke up just after 7, needed something to read on the bog (vintage UKFF) and was savvy enough to remember to stay away from any social media and this place. Had got a notification from the CBS Sports app about something Alabama football adjacent, which I thought would do the trick with no risk. 

Skimmed the article, idly hit the back button. And there it was in the headlines:

"WWE Royal Rumble: Rhodes, Bayley win" 

The risks are everywhere, folks. 

I'ma Brown Bear devotee too. Have the Sweet Brazil & Breakfast Blend beans on subscription. 

Lovely coffee and money given to Save the Bears, which is brill cos bears are by far the best wild animal. 

4 minutes ago, Scratch said:

Actually, the standard amongst the new Gladiators is rather poor.

Yeah, they've got nothing on the 90s lot. I reckon the 90s Glads were throwing their remotes at the telly watching the feeble attempts at defence in Gauntlet tonight. 

Sabre is indeed lovely, though. As is Diamond. Both contenders tonight were very pleasant too. 

@Your Fight Site, some further taping inside info if you please (and thank you for the last lot - I'd always wondered if they taped games in blocks or set up/tore down endlessly).

The Gladiator entrances where they come out and do their pose on the stage - do they actually do those each time? My suspicion is they've been taped once and edited into episodes as required. 

20 minutes ago, JLM said:

I was surprised they changed Kacy Catanzaro’s name when she’d been using her real name for ages. Wonder if that’s because she spent so long in developmental that her Ninja Warrior  mainstream name value isn’t there any more, or if Catanzaro is not snappy enough for their liking, or someone thought Katana Chance sounds cooler. Who’s to say. 

IIRC that came as a result of Vince having a paddy about Jeff Hardy showing up in AEW under his WWE name (obviously his real name!) and with his WWE music (stock music) and passing down an edict that absolutely everybody had to have a name that WWE 100% owned, unless they were very long established (e.g. Randy Orton, AJ Styles)

It was mostly NXT people affected but there were a bunch of changes within the space of a week.

It's basic now, but I'm sure they'll add LOADS to it via DLC (that they'll charge through the nose for if it does ever arrive). 

The Fight Forever model. 

That special version of Hangman's theme (which I believe is a Mikey Rukus 'cover version') is definitely my favourite entrance theme ever. 

Hit #2 on my Spotify Wrapped that year. 

That's fucking incredible. If it'd made me laugh any harder than it just did they'd have been planning my own funeral.

Edit: this was re: Gladiators 

Being replaced by Lee Fitting, the guy who used to run College Gameday for ESPN.

Let's hope he's at least as successful as WWE's last hire from ESPN's college football ranks, Adnan Virk.

36 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

This has been a problem I've had with a lot of wrestling since NXT went full Super-Indie, and ironically enough Adam Cole felt like the straw that broke the camel's back for me there, that he never took the opportunity to reinvent himself or really change up the act at all from ROH Adam Cole, who was never any different from PWG Adam Cole, or whatever, and then spent his entire time in NXT doing the same schtick again; even Johnny Gargano changed things up there more than he did.

I muse on things like this sometimes, and I think one of the reasons I was oddly fond of the Mace & T-Bar tag team (once they lost the silly masks) was the fact it was a bit of a throwback to the days when someone would move from one place to another and turn up at their new job as someone completely different.

Too much now is "remember that guy from over there? He's in this environment now, exactly the same!"

(There is obviously a time and a place for that too, though. Punk turning up in AEW with the same music and a near carbon copy of his most iconic logos from WWE for example)

2 hours ago, SuperBacon said:

Walsall fans were in great voice, apart from "You're just a bus stop in Portsmouth" which just doesn't work. Different city lads.

Always used to be amused when visiting fans would try to taunt the Norwich faithful with "You're just a small town in Ipswich". That's a whole other county.

13 minutes ago, Shy Dad said:

The ceiling is high on Oba Femi, absolute unit.

#BuiltByBama

Will be interesting to see where they go with a replacement. I'm sure I saw rumours a few years ago that Triple H had earmarked Michael Cole for the job as & when he ascended to the top spot, but things might be different in the Endeavor world.

That'd make sense.

I'd watch the hell out of the 375lb average Rumble though.

Interesting that the 3 heaviest Rumbles are 3 of the last 4 years, during a period when I'd have guessed the average size of a WWE superstar was at its smallest.

My standard "non-standard" answers to this are a couple of Zappa sidemen, Robert Martin:

and Ray White:

And then there's my man Leroy Virgil, who unquestionably has the best voice I've ever heard in the upstairs room of an ex-servicemen's club in east London:

1 hour ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

The Supreme Court should rule on something sensible, like how did Alabama get into the final 4 ahead of Florida State. That's some corruption that needs some investigating. 

Strength of schedule.

4 hours ago, David said:

But yes, he is too old. They need to get away from having people in their 70's and 80's running the country. 

This is the thing I never get about US politics. I get things like respecting your elders and valuing experience, but it makes no sense to me to have two blokes who would have been forced out of executive positions for being too old battling for the most important role in the country. Probably the world.

Beyond that, I'm not really bothered by US politics as long as college football doesn't get interrupted. Wrestling carrying on would be a bonus.

5 hours ago, unfitfinlay said:

As daft as it sounds my ideal scenario would be Britt Baker. She watched Cole come back from a devastating injury (caused by Switchblade, who was targeted first) and come very close to achieving his dream, only to have it snatched away by MJF. 

The main thing is that it’s a logical way to split up Adam Cole and MJF without undoing the excellent character work they’ve done. Cole turning reluctantly to protect his girlfriend from MJF is far better than if he was pretending all along. 

This has seemed the most likely reveal to me for a while. Britt on behalf of Adam Cole, whether with his knowledge/consent or not.

2 hours ago, simonworden said:

Mentioning Chris Harris, I think you could add James Storm as a brief odd one. Showed up in NXT and could have been part of the early group to come through in the WWE does Indy days but after two appearances went back for some brief Impact stints and faffing around in the indys since which has really made his stock fall in my opinion. I know his wife was pregnant and he went for what would work for him but always seemed like he missed his last opportunity to be on a bigger stage. 

Billy Gunn getting called sacked (for testing positive for roids at a bodybuilding contest) was what did for the Cowboy in NXT/WWE, apparently.

Lots of people were skeptical (or at least m'eh) about Storm coming in, but Billy was the one pushing for him. Once Billy was gone, so was Storm's advocate in the camp and that was that.

At the risk of adding yet more info that people likely already know, there were definitely plans for Storm to come in as the entrance theme that is now famously AJ Styles' was made for Storm. Although I thought the stock theme Storm used on his 2 NXT appearances was a banger anyway:

This might be 30+ years of WWEification talking, but - why on earth would you have your champion on the red carpet of a Hollywood movie and NOT flaunting his belt??

Particularly when it's a movie about wrestling.

Ok, the ending stretch to the Iron Survivor match is absolutely cracking, and perfectly executed: 

1 hour ago, Big'Olympic_Hero'Pete said:

This might seem a basic one, but keeping the match in the ring. No using the barriers, announce table, throwing into the crowd, steps are out, ring post is out. Just a simple two wrestlers in the ring and it's purely down to who will win inside the ring.

Souled Out 2000, WCW did Kidman vs Dean Malenko in a "catch as catch can" match where you'd get DQd for leaving the ring.

2mins into the match Dean "forgot" the rules (or knew he was on the way out very shortly thereafter) and rolled to the outside to cut off Kidman's momentum, and that was that.

That match itself was thrown together at the last minute as the PPV was supposed to feature Benoit vs Jarrett in a "triple threat theatre" of 3 different gimmick matches (none of which was this one) but Jarrett was hurt & Benoit moved into the main event to replace an injured Bret Hart so the triple threat theatre became Kidman vs 3 different guys.

I attended Extreme & Living Colour at o2 Kentish Town on Monday night.

Living Colour were a cracking support, the highlight probably being a 50th anniversary of hip hop medley in the middle of the set (their bass player Doug Wimbish was a session musician on a bunch of the Sugarhill/Grandmaster Flash etc recordings). They predictably closed with Cult of Personality, which being a die hard Hangman fan I booed mercilessly (not really, obviously).

Extreme were great too, but if I were to nitpick it very much felt like I was at a Nuno Bettencourt Band gig. He's obviously a great guitar player but there's more to the band than that for me, whereas here it felt like he was unquestionably the main focus.