Jesse

The evidence is damning

I want to like AEW so badly, but they just love setting rakes down and stepping on them. Every time I open myself up to it they do something that completely puts me off again - Hangman wins the title, but Jay Lethal debuts; Sting has an amazing final run, and they bring Ric Flair in to put a cloud over it; the Continental Classic feels like a return to the pre-Punk drama days but it turns out they can't move past it and now they're airing shit security footage on their primetime show. AEW's history for me has been one of a continuous erosion of trust to the point that now even when it seems like something's hitting for them I'm hesitant to start getting back into it because I don't trust they won't make me feel like a prick for being a fan.

I can't stand the type that go on for ages, with doctors coming out etc. It absolutely kills the match dead for me, with a minute or two effectively waiting, you move from the immediate emotional reaction/shock and into a kind of standby that I find it really hard to be drawn back out of. So the reaction it gets isn't "Oh what a dastardly prick that fooled me" so much as an "Oh, it was an act and now the match is happening again" I'd far prefer a much faster version of it, begging off with an injury to get the ref to intervene and then within 20-30s using that to get in a cheap shot or just break the momentum. It fits more with the fair narrative of a match too, you're telling me that the ref has called the doctors out for what they believe is a real injury but they haven't called off the match? Can't recall one like this that has hit for me, even beyond the idea of it being in bad taste.

I can't get over how slow that 3 minutes felt. Like rather than have a three-minute sprint they tried to condense a longer match format down into that time. No sense of urgency and pace from either of them.

I think there's something to be said for harsher action early in the career like this. I don't doubt what you said about the UFC letting someone off if they're a bigger name making them money pack of hyenas that they are. But it would be a different situation between young fighter on his debut doing something like this, showing themselves to be a massive liability, to be told to hop on their bike and maybe re-considered in the future if they've got their head straight. Versus someone with more history in the company, with a lot of sensible fights behind them, where maybe it is more fair to give them the benefit of the doubt that it was a break in conscious action. Again, you've probably got the right of it and it would come down to how much money you're currently making them. I don't think they've made a harsh decision by cutting him but I am a massive softie and he seems genuinely contrite since so I'd love to see him redeem himself somewhere and build a career back up.

Thanks, she's here on a spouse visa from America so no UC/JCP, but looking at the eligibility criteria this doesn't fall under 'no recourse to public funds' and she's past the 3 years mark so I can't see anything disqualifying there. Have passed it on to her to have a look and see if anything strikes her fancy.

Thanks for the heads up, my wife has been out of work since Christmas. Will take a look and see if there's anything there that might suit her for a career pivot away from shopfloor retail.

So anyway, that vodka picture eh....