Hannibal Scorch

6 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

He wasn’t, no. He was a wrongun in his collegiate days but of course WWE signed him regardless. 

Yes and got off because of the wording of the law in that state which, post trial was changed so it would never go unpunished again.

Hooray! Good riddance.

Just now, Snitsky's back acne said:

'the Savio Vegan spot'.

23 minutes ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

There is going to be no need to worry about what is on the show if last nights Smacky-D is anything to go by. The crowd was insane. Bad Bunny in Puerto Rico levels of insane. You could send out Dijak v Odyssey Jones and the crowd would react like it was Rock v Austin. 

Well, not quite (I mentioned this in the SD thread) 

33 minutes ago, Supremo said:

Unbelievable crowd. Made me a thousand times more excited for tomorrow's show. North American pro-wrestling fans should be fucking ashamed of themselves.

Saw two clips on twitter. One of Naomi clapping during her match and the crowd were as loud as a John Cena pop. Really loud. Than I saw one of Karion Kross and crew (Krew?) coming out to absolute silence. God bless the French.

2 hours ago, Matthew said:

  Reveal hidden contents

John Cena is over apparently.

 

2 hours ago, Mr_Danger said:

I know it’s likely that Hangman comes back to save the day and team with Kenny but I think it would be a massive shame to waste all that great work they did on turning him in to a believable heel. I also don’t like to see the Bucks as the main big bad and a moustachioed shit bag Hangman repositioning himself with the EVP’s could lead to a great Stone Cold Swerve Strickland vs evil overlords angle. 

I actually think Hangman comes back to aslign himself with The Elite. Remember that Kenny was fired, Hangman was suspended and his at home watching the man who invaded his home now the companies babyface, Also, they could lean into (hopefully without harping on too much) that like Jack Perry, he was also a victim of Phil Brookes. Blood and guts is often 5 v 5. 

40 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

It's an interesting one. I saw some summary of what he was saying about Roman Reigns and how it's like he'd want to be presented. Almost as if it wasn't exactly his choice to be dicking about, which is never the impression I got. I always assumed he was quite happy just chilling and doing various things.

I found that conversation really weird. Because I felt his presentation in 2020/21 as the belt collector was similar in some ways to how Roman was presented. Minimal matches, taken as a serious threat, presented as a huge deal.

1 hour ago, Daddymagic said:

Lack of ticket sales - high cost imports on some shows and venues in London cannot be cheap.

 

They also lost WWE funding last year. 

They always sell well in Camden. I stopped going in 2022, but I know the shows are still pretty packed. That said, the Ballroom probably gets about 600 people in there. With the wrestlers they fly in even with sell outs they are probably running at a loss each show. The new owners are dodgy grifters who ran the wrestling travel company that took you to wrestlemania and went bust under debts and then they started a new version with the same travel packages for this years Mania.  

I can’t believe after Jericho continually being the worst thing on AEW, constantly stinking up the joint, how much I enjoyed the FTW match. Just fun.

Joe vs Cassidy was also great, a squash of the best kind, even though it went about 5 minutes. 

Buddy Matthew’s continues to be a great wrestler I just don’t care for. That match with Cope was like a never ending story. Deeb is someone else I don’t get. I get she’s technically great but I just don’t care for her.

The opening segment with the Bucks was great. Proper cheese with the new Elite intro. Also did a good job explaining how they can’t get fired for attacking TK (is that all right Kevin Nash?). THEN booking the match I didn’t know I needed, Christian Cage coming out to confront Swerve. Why is he challenging Swerve when he’s not number 1 contender, because the EVP’s said so! And great setting up the reasons why Cage hates Swerve. 
 

I feel they are really trying to put Storylines into the forefront of TV (OC and Don? Keep him away), and I don’t think that’s a bad thing, but they seem to be struggling balancing the timing of the shows, especially when you are having the shows shunted together due to the NBA. There was no reason 10 minutes of Rampage was taken up with the end of Dynamite. 
 

Some great stuff, some poor stuff but the good outweighed the bad. 

51 minutes ago, Tim Healys Chutney Spoon said:

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/newslondon/line-of-duty-and-rob-roy-star-brian-mccardie-dies-aged-59/ar-AA1nVrzi?ocid=msedgntp&pc=ACTS&cvid=4acafa9d6ec04790b23b5e228d7d19b7&ei=5

 

Tommy Hunter from Line of Duty 

That link didn’t work for me so here’s another. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4n1vzgqrl3o.amp
 

Great actor, he was completely menacing in Line of Duty. 

26 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

That doesn't happen until 2025, though - and up until then (or close to then), things remain as they are. It'll be interesting to see how WWE prioritises each show, and what being on Netflix means for the length of Raw; and, I suppose, what being on USA does for the length of Smackdown. Would they be looking to switch one three hour show for another? I really hope not, but...

I don’t think the deal mentioned an extra hour so I think it will be just the 2 hour show they get now.  But the reason I mentioned it was because, and I’m possibly mistaken, but the draft only happens once a year. If that’s right, this will be the roster for the upcoming change. Also, Raw’s TV deal expires sooner than the Netflix deal starts. I believe it’s a 3 month gap and there’s been no announcements as to where Raw will be in the interim.

1 hour ago, RedRooster said:

I'm guessing the Smackdown roster tells us something about their plans for various wrestlers - if you draft a hot heel to Smackdown - Gunther or Drew McIntyre perhaps; maybe even Dragunov they immediately become an obvious contender to face Cody. And if they wrestle him and lose, they cool off. Cody is going to wrestle The Rock at some point - and this plot thread is presumably what will be driving Smackdown forward. Whether Rock wins or loses, that presumably leads to Roman Reigns making his return - bolstering Smackdown. If Cody retains the belt, his Wrestlemania challenger could jump over via the Rumble - perhaps Gunther, or Punk. Or maybe they'll have Logan Paul go after the belt at Wrestlemania?

Alternatively, if Cody loses, presumably we get Rock/Reigns for the title at Wrestlemania. Maybe Cody goes after Logan Paul, if he's still the US champ?

Either way, there are a limited number of options for Cody - even if you consider potential additions as the year goes on (eg. Ricky Starks and the new Wyatt-inspired faction) 

Something that’s been lost in the draft conversation is the media rights deal. Remember that in a few months Raw is leaving linear TV to go to Netflix whilst Smackdown will be on USA Network. Sure, in a lot of countries Netflix will be the new home of WWE content, but in the US they will still be on cable and I think some of these choices made are specifically geared to appease the respective contract holders.

In other news, saw a clip of Braun returning. He looked blown up getting to the ring, he’s gotten even bigger but looks like he could pop at any minute.

Despite what I said about reviewers in on topic, I may have to start using TikTok to follow this amazing film reviewer. He watched Rebel Moon parts 1 & 2

26 minutes ago, air_raid said:

Truth. The value therein is only to decide if Dave has a similar taste to your own, then use his ratings as a rough guide to whether or not a match is likely to be to your tastes/worth your while to watch. Not to stat spaff yourself silly over.

Is it any different to any other reviewer be it film or movie or tv? I love reading reviews of things but they don’t define my own feelings. Sometimes they will reinforce my opinion, other times I think they have got it massively wrong, but it’s just someone’s opinion at the end of the day.

8 minutes ago, no user name said:

@LaGoosh @JLM Do you guys have aew plus? Is that how you see the shows before they are on uk tv?

I do. I find it decent value for money as you can watch live or on demand immediately after it's finished and you get no ads (and the picture in picture is just regular picture) as well as access to every Dynamite, Collision, Dark and Dark Elevation as well.

Steve Baker using the Tony Khan defence 

2 hours ago, Devon Malcolm said:

Jordan Peele rescued it, didn't he? Said it needs to go out in the cinemas. I can see this happening more and more going forward.

That he did. I’m sure it was finished in 2021 and Netflix was due to release it. Shamelessly copied and pasted, but fascinating 

9 minutes ago, cobra_gordo said:

Thoroughly enjoyed Monkey Man. Dev Patel is great and I had no idea that he'd written, directed and produced it. Some proper wince-inducing violence and me and my wife both popped for the run in towards the end. My only gripe was some of the cinematography was weirdly disorientating. Not sure if that was a deliberate style choice but most of the shots feel really zoomed in which was making me dizzy at times.

Not especially. They basically got funding pulled early in production and had to find loads of ways of getting stuff done. I’m sure that included filming on iPhones. I did read an article about it just after it came out, but I’ve slept since then and my memory is hazy. But it basically is a miracle that not only did the end product look so good, but it got rescued from being straight to Netflix as well.

Boy kills World is a love letter to films like Crank and Shoot ‘em up. A cross between a graphic novel and video game turned into a film. Hilarious over the top gory action but I thought the story lacked especially in the last third for me. A lot of fun for the most part and I still recommend it to people who enjoy those kind of films, I just wished it was 20 minutes shorter.

I thought it was a really strong episode of collision.

Swerves promo was fine. I feel he’s still finding his feet a bit with this new gimmick but it wasn’t awful. 
 

BBG vs Top Flight was decent, definitely more back and forth than I’d expected but really enjoyable 6 man.

Fenix vs The Beast Mortos (former Black Taurus) was superb. Opening few moments were a little patchy, but once they got going, they didn’t stop. One of my favourite TV matches this year.

Was not expecting Martin Stone to make his AEW debut but here we are, shame it was in a 1 sided squash to a returning Rush who reminded us how exciting he can be even in a squash. Glad he’s back.

Storm vs Anna Jay was another decent match, I’m a fan of both and thought they both did well. Nice little story bits with Mariah May here, sowing seeds. 
 

As great as it was to see Grizzled Young Vets, losing to The Acclaimed seemed a waste considering how not over they are. They were great, Bowens was great, Caster can sod off to NXT. I hope this wasn’t a one and done for GYV but I’m assuming them losing was probably for that reason.

The main event was never in doubt but Swerve/Claudio was as enjoyable as you’d expect with swerve making the most of the Daily’s Place set up. 
 

So Tony can’t travel and Omega returns next week, and the new Elite will also be there…. What’s gonna happen?

I honestly don’t get why he’s done this or why it’s a good look for Labour. And the guy isn’t even standing at the next election. He could have just quit and caused a by election, which I’d see as more embarrassing for Tories than defecting and quiting. Who does this benefit?

At least something good has come out of it 

17 minutes ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

I'm sure the NFL is thrilled with Tony comparing their business partners to Harvey Weinstein. 

I dunno. It’s not like they did a Slim Jim when the lawsuit came out, they said nothing as I recall.