Shane O' Mac Version 2

51 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

Obviously on this occasion this was incorrect, but given how accurate bookmakers odds tend to be, I don’t think they belong in a thread like this without spoiler tags. Even if you watch a show thinking it’s been spoiled and that turns out to be wrong it can ruin your enjoyment somewhat.

As far as the actual winner goes, I’ve always been fond of Edge, but as the match progressed I found myself really hoping this was Bryan or Big E’s year. The fact Orton was taken out telegraphed very early on that it likely was not going to be.

I feel slightly deflated by the result, which I wouldn’t have expected if you’d told me Edge was going to win ahead of time. 

I feel the same, and I love Edge. His return last year was my favourite Rumble moment ever, I was excited when he announced he was competing this year.

Been thinking about it for the last few hours. I think it's because he didn't need it. He's a legendary Hall of Famer. On the same show that Goldberg got a title match... umm, because he showed up and said so, it feels weird that Edge had to go coast to coast in the Rumble just to get the same opportunity.

That, and Edge vs. McIntyre or Edge vs. Reigns do nothing for me. I've been wanting Edge vs. AJ Styles and Edge vs. Seth Rollins since last year's Rumble.

30 minutes ago, The Cutting Edge said:

I think fans have set they're expectations way to high and unrealistic, if Cena, Punk, Ronda, Lynch, Rock don't return it's gonna be shit and typical Vince not giving fans what they want.... tomorrow should be good reading then 

This is actually the first year my expectations for the Rumble surprises are pretty low. Because of COVID, travel restrictions, protocols... I'm assuming WWE have figured it's more trouble than it's worth and will fill the remaining spots with the heroes of Main Event and NXT.

I feel like there's a few matches over the years that never got done, which could have been big box office if done right. Not necessarily just talking "dream matches"- although that's obviously a big part of it- but just matches that would have carried a big intrigue factor due to various elements. One of the major ones is Sting vs. Undertaker. Taker's talked about it not living up to expectations and not being that arsed about it anyway, but there was so much demand for it that actually booking the match surely would have brought over a few lapsed WCW fans to see the fantasy match come to life, particularly as far as the characters and history of both men goes. Triple H- as much as they've tried to push the narrative otherwise- just doesn't have that kind of gravitas as a star.

Funnily enough, a match that might have done big business involving The Game- the teased Rock/Ronda vs. HHH/Steph match. Obviously, movie commitments got in the way and what we still got with Kurt Angle was good, but having mega superstar Rock with MMA crossover Rousey would have been next level.

I suppose it's a different model now with PPV buys being a thing of the past, but making the hotter matches could have led to increased Network subs and renewed fan interest to have that ongoing financial effect.

23 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

. Dana’s already been trying to excuse Conor losing and mentioning the trilogy. Seems like the bollocks narrative they’re going to go with this time will be a combination of Conor’s ‘I was rusty/wasn’t active enough going in’ and Dana’s already started with the ‘this was like Rocky 3’ bit, as if to say Conor lost because he’s living the high life and losing his eye of the tiger or some shite.

It’s all a load of cack and it’s predictable as fuck. The truth is he looked as dangerous as ever early in the fight and he absolutely blasted Dustin with some hard shots.

Yeah, I don't buy the ring rust excuse for a second. Might have been something to lean on if he had an all-round bad performance, but McGregor won R1 and looked damn good in doing so. Plus he was able to get up after Poirier grounded him and prevent much further grappling success, so he had more going for him than the punching power.

In the last 6 years, I think Dustin's improved more by being more active. Also, Poirier has gone through some wars and come out strong on the other side. I saw mentioned on Twitter that all Conor's losses have come from people that didn't bow to his attack and were able to fire back. McGregor seems to lack that ability to come back from adversity once the tide gets turned on him. Poirier adjusted beautifully in the second round and Conor had no answer.

Looking forward to this. Thing is, beyond his absolute dickish behaviour, McGregor is still an excellent fighter. He's also carrying the confidence of starching Poirier in less than 2 minutes last time, and beating Cerrone without a scratch in 40 seconds a year ago. Poirier seems far calmer this time around, and obviously has improved by leaps and bounds as a fighter, but what happens when the cage door closes? I think if we get to Round 2 though, this fight becomes very intriguing.

The co-main is also a huge fight. I follow little MMA outside of the UFC, but I've seen Chandler fight a few times, including the wars with Eddie Alvarez. Hoping Hooker gets it done, but Chandler could make an immediate splash beating a top 5 lightweight.

After that, eh. Not too fussed on the prelims- I'll still watch them, but nothing jumping out at me besides maybe Pena vs. McMann and Tavares vs. Shoeface. Amanda Ribas looks promising on the main card so there's that. At least it's not solely the McGregor Show this time around.

14 minutes ago, 300 said:

I’ve seen news that Vegas for Mania 40 might be the plan. Sounds good to me! Vegas and New Orleans are ridiculously fun towns. 

Does Vegas have a stadium? I thought their biggest venue was the T-Mobile Arena.

Melina

RVD

Carmella's Dad

Vince McMahon and (WWE Hall of Famer) Donald Trump. Think of the hush money!

I believe I scored pretty highly in one of the last couple of these... fingers crossed for similar luck this year!

2, 6, 16, 21, 24

I usually choose a number that correlates with the age I'm turning this year... this is the first year I can't. 😭

9 hours ago, tiger_rick said:

Can't watch it but WWE app has a link in it's Boxing Day section to a match between Evander Holyfield and Matt Hardy on SNME. Wtf was that all about?

Matt Hardy and MVP were feuding and having a series of competitions, like basketball, chess etc. MVP would often cheat his way to victory, and in the case of this boxing challenge, MVP's way of cheating was to draft Holyfield in as a substitute.

Best pro wrestler- Drew McIntyre, Kenny Omega, Jon Moxley

Best women's wrestler- Sasha Banks, Bayley, Io Shirai

Best British Wrestler- Drew McIntyre, Pac, Will Ospreay

Match of the Year- Men's Royal Rumble, Omega/Page vs. Young Bucks, Sami vs. AJ vs. Jeff Hardy

Best wrestling event- Royal Rumble, AEW Revolution, AEW Full Gear

Best wrestling show - AEW Dynamite

Best feud or angle- Roman vs. Jey Uso- the whole Tribal Chief thing

Moment of the Year- Edge Returning At Royal Rumble, Sting's AEW Debut, Omega beating Moxley

Best babyface- Jon Moxley, Drew McIntyre, Orange Cassidy

Best heel- MJF, Kenny Omega, Chris Jericho

Funniest moment of the year- Dinner Debonair

Best tag team- Young Bucks, FTR, Street Profits

Best wrestling podcast- Talk Is Jericho

Best use of social media- Wrestling With Wregret- awesome YouTube channel

Worst pro wrestler- Nia Jax. The fact that she's incorporated how dangerous and reckless she is into her gimmick doesn't make her any better. If any other wrestler- i.e. not related to the Samoan Dynasty- had fucked up and injured people as much as she had, she'd be out of a job.

Worst Match- Luther/Serpentico vs. Jericho/Hager. Jericho did his old mate a favour by using his own 30th anniversary show to give him a spotlight, and it resulted in one of the worst matches Jericho's ever been involved in. I hope Luther is a great help backstage at AEW, otherwise he definitely deserves his pink slip.

Biggest Letdown- Wrestlemania. I realise it was outside WWE's control, but it was still an awful show outside of the cinematic stuff. Pro wrestling just doesn't work in an empty room, at least for me. The only interaction the wrestlers were able to have was with Michael Cole, because they could hear him perfectly while wrestling to silence.

Stupidest Moment- MITB. Both the result and the action. I was curious to see how they handled a match at WWE HQ, we got "comedy" that was even bad grading on WWE's curve, and an absolutely ridiculous winner who was never going anywhere near a major title, as the Miz switch proved. Was it the first time they ever took the briefcase off someone when they were perfectly healthy? (Well, as healthy as Otis is, anyway)

Best MMA Fighter: Israel Adesanya, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Deiveson Figueiredo

Best MMA Event: UFC 249, UFC 251. UFC 256

Best MMA Fight: Joanna vs. Zhang, Figgy vs. Moreno, Ferguson vs. Gaethje

Rising Star: Kevin Holland, Khamzat Chimaev, Brandon Royval

In WWE, the definition of "legend" is just "someone that used to work here".

I'm happy to see Carlito is back in WWE's good graces, even though he's not really a "legend", and I could never be mad about seeing Melina or Torrie Wilson.

Nice! It's school holidays here in Australia, so a run of Fight Island events will help fill some of that time nicely. Really keen to see if the Khamzat hype train rolls on.

It's so weird watching the build-up to Conor vs. Dustin. In a lot of ways, I feel like I'm watching two completely different fighters when they play the old clips. Poirier was a young guy who let McGregor's antics get under his skin, since then he seems to have greatly matured as both a person and a fighter. McGregor, on the other hand... in 2014, Conor was my guy. Sure, he was a bit of a dickhead, but he was my dickhead. Wait... you know what I mean. As obnoxious as he could be at times, he still seemed like a good dude underneath and he looked like he just mastered the art of fight promotion.

Then... McGregor got insanely rich and it was all over from there. After the Mayweather fight, it just seemed like he thought he was untouchable and could do anything without repercussions. We all know his history, popping up in the news for doing dumb shit, each news article painting a worse picture than the last. It just really sucks to see Conor go from a charismatic guy I could get behind, to a complete ass that it would feel wrong to support. So, I guess I'm Team Poirier? I don't particularly connect with Dustin on a personality level (don't know a ton about him outside the cage tbh), but I enjoy his fights. McGregor could probably use the humbling, particularly after his 40 second job on Cerrone last time.

14 hours ago, wandshogun09 said:

Deiveson Figueiredo vs Brandon Moreno - All due respect to Demetrious Johnson but this is probably the most exciting Flyweight title fight in MMA history for me. I know that doesn’t cover a ton of ground but this really has all the makings of a crazy fight.

Say, Wand, you wouldn't happen to have the lottery numbers handy, would you?

That was incredible. Gotta make a comparison to Joanna-Zhang, not just in terms of how great the fight is but how it could potentially elevate the division as a whole. Granted, neither Weili or Joanna have fought since their war in March, but you have to believe the interest in either of their next fights will be huge whenever it's announced. Same deal here with Figueiredo and Moreno. This fight was a giant middle finger to people that call the flyweight division boring. Going to have to watch it back as I thought Moreno won the middle 3 rounds along with the point deduction, but I may have just been caught up in seeing someone take the fight to Figgy like that.

Oliveira vs. Ferguson was oddly fascinating. I picked Oliveira to win, as I've said in the past about him, I've been on his wagon since he beat Efrain Escudero in 2010. But I never expected such domination! Do Bronx made T-Ferg look human. Except, of course, for...

This entire card delivered. From Holland KOing Jacare basically from his back, to Cereal Gun announcing his presence by running through JDS... hell, even the Dern fight was fun and she looked halfway competent in the striking. Great show.

5 hours ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

Things I just learned AEW edition. Rebel is 42!

This made me look up her Wiki, and assuming no one's made a silly edit, she debuted at age 36. Which basically makes her the female DDP.

7 minutes ago, andrew "the ref" coyne said:

I think one thing that is also making NXT suffering is the fact that the conveyor belt has stuttered.

NXT really benefited with the higher turnover of talent. It's difficult to sick of Nakamura, Bobby Roode or Alistair Black when they are only there for 12 months maximum before being replaced by a fresher new talent.

Now lots of guys are opting to stay there it seems. Which I suppose is fine, but it also kind of robs a spot for another talent waiting to come in. I mean, is there really much else Johnny Gargano can do?

I always think back to mid 90s WWE. Imagine how crap it could of been if WCW didn't take away Diesel, Nash, Hogan, Macho Man etc?

100%. I've fallen off NXT a little over the past year or so (AEW's a big part of that), but a lot of it is down to seeing the same guys in those spots. The addition of Balor was welcome, but I'm over Cole, Gargano and Ciampa in this environment with no real fresh rivalries.

The most exciting thing in recent NXT was the ascension of Bronson Reed- looked every bit a massive star in that ladder match- then he started messing around with Austin Theory in a lower-card thing, and the bloom is off the rose a little. I mean, I don't doubt that Bronson will EVENTUALLY find his way up, but for now it seemed like the time to strike with a fresh face, but they couldn't seem to find the space for him.

7 hours ago, Supremo said:

The Sting debut pissed all over his WWE debut for one reason only. Tony Schiavone.

I don’t know how anyone can watch that segment and not vote Big Tone as the commentator of the year. He’s either the best actor ever or he’s genuinely the happiest, most enthusiastic man in the business. I think it’s the latter but the beauty is that it doesn’t matter either way. He’s a joy to listen to, constantly elevating these big moments and making me feel like a kid again watching them. I fucking love him. When they announced he was interviewing Sting next week I nearly punched the air.

The two extreme ends of the commentary spectrum are Tony Schiavone shouting, “IT’S STING!” and Michael Cole shouting, “IT’S BOSS TIME!”

Tony Schiavone is the best. I understand that JR is the better known name of the two, but Big Tone was by far the best investment out of the Monday Night War commentators.

I think I can beat the lower point of the commentary spectrum though... I was thinking back to other calls of debuts/returns after Schiavone's call, and I remembered, "...It's Christian" from Todd Grisham on ECW in 2009. Said with all the enthusiasm of seeing that old mate from high school that wasn't really your mate while you're out shopping.

I've said previously about boxing that I've had unfortunate exposure to the sport. Tuned in for big fights- usually a Floyd Mayweather fight, or here in Australia, an Anthony Mundine fight- and it's honestly been boring, especially compared to the excitement of MMA. This card though... by far the most entertaining boxing card I've ever watched.

Tuned in halfway through Ortiz vs. Segawa, and that seemed to be the most technical and competitive battle of the night. Still plenty of aggression, but good defensive work before Ortiz got that late finish. Badou Jack vs. Blake McKernan was an outright slaughter, and the commentators didn't bother pretending it was anything but, but it was still compelling to see McKernan hanging in there still giving it a shot.

Jake Paul, YouTube douchiness aside, seems to be a competent boxer. Hard to gauge given how hopeless Nate Robinson was though. I actually thought they'd be far more closely matched. On one hand, a YouTuber who has had one boxing match. On the other, a pro NBA player making his debut. Given that Robinson was a "real" athlete, I expected a bit more, but he looked like he had never trained a day in his life. Great KO though.

And of course, the reason we all tuned in. Tyson looked as sharp as a 54 year old possibly could. The power in those body shots was terrifying. Roy Jones Jr looked exhausted 4 mins in, and basically all he seemed to do was clinch. That's the kind of tactics that put me off boxing in previous attempts... I understand how clinching may come into play in the sport, but damn, it resembled a wrestling match at times. Scoring it as a draw was asinine, but with all the pre-fight restrictions, only to turn around late and say that there would be "unofficial scoring"... maybe they weren't allowed to announce a winner.

Commentary was gold. Mauro was actually the weak link despite his combat sports broadcasting experience. Izzy was really good and insightful, and Snoop was a riot.

It's weird, for someone so obsessed with fitness, you'd think Vince would embrace the health benefits of a good night's sleep. Unfortunately, the mad fucker still seems to think it's a sign of weakness or whatever.

They could play it up until his 2002 return- I don't know if a timeline has actually been confirmed- but that way the stakes could revolve around being the WWF's top star, leaving to go to WCW, and then returning "home" to wrap the movie up.

3 hours ago, WyattSheepMask said:

if it’s on the second day, then winter isn’t coming is it, it’s already arrived

I'm interpreting it as phrasing in the build up, on the way there. Like if in the promos for Wrestlemania, they said, "Wrestlemania is coming". Same idea.

9 hours ago, DEF said:

I thought it was a middling episode myself. It did enough right to get us to next week where hopefully we'll have a killer go home show for 'Winter is Coming' (yeah I don't get why that works as a title either but it's certainly a reference casual modern fans will get)

It's on December 2. The 2nd day of winter. Winter is coming.

I didn't watch the post-fight interview- Khabib retired?! 😮 Not actually that surprising considering how close he was with his dad and how closely his dad was tied to his fighting career. I've never seen Khabib fight with that kind of urgency, he made Justin look second-rate, just plowed right through him on the feet and ended things basically immediately on the ground. A great, unblemished career. He may have retired a little too soon for GOAT status, but when you mow through top contenders without a scratch on you, what are you going to do?

This card was on at a weird time. I chose not to feel the pain you fellas go through- went to bed as normal, woke up and found a link for the fights. Watched the handful I was most interested in- Whittaker, Tuivasa and Khabib- and I'll go through the rest later. Quick look at the results seems to indicate a damn fine card though.