Up Chuck

^appropriate username.

I got 12. My musical-loving sister got 14. Shame on me.

Speaking of big muscular black guys what the hell happened to Ezekiel Jackson?

Wiki says he suffered an "upper body injury" in "mid-2012" that kept him out for ages, but apparently he worked a match at Wrestlemania Axxess and they just haven't used him since. He's definitely still employed.

If Triple X Wrestling don't now book Grado vs Gillberg I'll be heartbroken.

Wow. So it just goes to shit without Cena, then. Poor fucker's never gonna be able to retire.

I guess it might not have helped that they had the unconventional lead babyface set out his stall in direct opposition to everything Cena stands for. That feud really should've been based on mutual respect and competition, but maybe they thought they couldn't sell Summerslam without a bit of grit there. But whatever went wrong, this looks like it might be failing now. Did the NFL game (Dolphins @ Saints) have a lot of buzz around it? Was there anything else going on?

Shit, guys. I really hate that an angle I've enjoyed so much isn't drawing.

Interesting thing to look at, that. It's not dissimilar with Triple H, who's dropped world titles to Vince, Big Show, Rock, Hogan, Michaels, Goldberg, some cunt who killed his family, Batista and Orton (twice), plus the Dustied match with Jericho. Out of that lot, Jericho, Batista and Srangles McGee were definitely a few notches below him in terms of star power when he put them over, and you could argue that Big Show was still being built up in WWF too. Batista was red hot, but that win still made him.

Fair enough. I'm talking about people who genuinely made my life utterly miserable for ages. I was a prime target due to Asperger's imparting my social skills and giving me a posh voice, so I got it pretty bad for ages. I don't hold any grudges or anything, but I just have absolutely no interest in how those people are doing.

I ignore all friend requests I don't want until whenever I remember to refuse them en masse. And as for bullies from school, not a chance. Adult life is for getting shot of those idiots.

Heard that through the grapevine a while ago. Great news for the guy. More stylistic breadth in WWE developmental is a very exciting prospect.

Fairly sure it was JeriShow vs DX, rather than ShowMiz.

What's most frustrating about JBL is that he's perfectly capable of doing his very necessary role as the management's shill on commentary. He could be great at this. But he's laying it on so thick that you just stop listening. The commentary could be putting this otherwise great storyline over the top, but it's in danger of compromising it.

In that respect, it's similar to this week's main event, which was a ridiculous idea no matter how much the awesome Usos and Bryan managed to get the crowd into it. How do you root for 11 against 3 unless the 11 are going in properly, severely beaten up? Why couldn't Big Show be sent out to knock each of them out after their other matches? RVD and Kofi selling a body part isn't anything like enough of a handicap there - it's still 43 healthy limbs and ten healthy torsos against three guys. The match in and of itself was really fun, as you'd expect from the main babyfaces who are all red hot right now, but the purpose it served was very questionable. It started to feel like January 2012, with Punk berating Laurinaitis week in, week out, with increasing ferocity and increasing tenuousness. Just babyface revenge overkill. Didn't work.

Same thing with the Rhodes invasion, too. Great angle, great pop, wrong context. Although I'll forgive it all if we get street thug Goldust as a permanent gimmick.

What I'm looking forward to most out of all that is that inevitable first time Orton lines up a punt. When he stepped back into the corner in the segment with Miz last week, I got chills, even though the chair on Miz's head meant it was obviously going to be something else. The reaction when he lines up the punt on Bryan will be great. They've done really well to hold back with that up until now.

He's done the punt (or tried to) this year, hasn't he? I'm sure I remember him going for it in a match with Big Show.

You might be right, I'm not entirely sure. But still, the moment he goes for it on Bryan will be a good one. Everyone'll know the shit's going down then.

What are we getting tonight in Chicago, then? The five-point preview doesn't announce any matches, but sets up plenty of stuff: Punk's homecoming (so chasing off Ryback to a big pop while only I sit there wondering why he's being such a selfish cock and not helping out his old mate D-Bry), hints at a big rebellion, more AJ vs the Divas stuff (so probably another oh-god-where's-the-mute-button guest commentary segment), Orton's promise to go all dark again and RVD looking for revenge for the backstage beatdown on Smackdown.

What I'm looking forward to most out of all that is that inevitable first time Orton lines up a punt. When he stepped back into the corner in the segment with Miz last week, I got chills, even though the chair on Miz's head meant it was obviously going to be something else. The reaction when he lines up the punt on Bryan will be great. They've done really well to hold back with that up until now.

I'm getting really bored of the Punk/Heyman stuff, but bringing RyBully into it has at least made it slightly fresh, so I guess I'm kind of interested to see where that goes.

The main story still remains as strong as ever thanks to some great stuff on Smackdown, and I'd imagine the focus of tonight's show will be more punishment for everyone who got involved at the end of last week, with the main narrative being Triple H slowly slipping from wanting to avoid inciting a full-scale mutiny into letting his ego get the best of him and having the Shield kick the shit out of anyone who hasn't shaved for a couple of days.

I've just had a thought, actually - what odds do we reckon on Road Dogg showing up soon? Old mate of Triple H whose brother just got fired in a storyline where they're super into the shooty family stuff.

the epitome of a heat killer and up there with X Factor for me.

Wash your filthy fucking mouth out.

Heh, fair enough. Cos yeah, he's my MEP and notorious for being an awful human being.

Despite their relatively large number of idiots, I'm really enjoying the rise of UKIP and their change into a proper, professional political party.

 

I'm going to assume you've not seen the news over the last week then. Even Roger Helmer was being dragged over the coals for his rape apologism (real word?)

Out of interest, because I must've missed something, why "even" Roger Helmer? As far as I was aware, he's been an idiotic bigot since forever.

According to Rickman, the tongue-in-cheek ads featuring weird robotic voices, static noises and jokes about Miley Cyrus, were inspired by Orson Welles' 1938 broadcast of the H.G. Wells classic The War of the Worlds

Orson Welles was known for his love of mocking Miley Cyrus.

I do love a good subterranean story though - I'm becoming a bit obsessed with subterranean London. There's just so much shit down there!

I once started writing a novel set in subterranean London. It fell apart before I got the chance to do any worthwhile research, but it is fascinating. It's not surprising that a place with so much going on above would have so much going on underneath, but from what little I know, it does seem like there's some weird stuff down there. I've got a book on it, I forget what it's called, but I'll have a look for it when I'm home.

Some great stuff in there. The Spongebob one is genius! I'd love to read more about these planned fake terrorist attacks to justify a war against Cuba, too.

Uri Geller taking any opportunity to scream for attention.

Nah, it's WWE in 2013, you need more peaks and valleys than that. Slow burning this thing too much will kill off its momentum. Bryan needs to come within an inch of tapping or pinning Orton clean as a sheet before getting screwed to really hammer home that he's the absolute best. They're absolutely right to ride the momentum in the wake of Summerslam, especially as after Sunday we've got two more B-PPVs before Survivor Series. Battleground will have a multi-man tag or Bryan in a non-title match, Hell in a Cell will spawn from that and probably not be Orton/Bryan again. They need to keep rolling with the main story for this month, then take it off the boil for a while to either build it back up over the next 2 PPVs for Survivor Series or play the long game for Wrestlemania.

Has he? God, I must not be paying attention to Ziggler segments.

Some other stuff's gotta be added yet, there's only 4 matches announced. You'd think it'd be Show and Menry vs the Shield for the tag belts, but they've had to cut it fine with Menry's injury so that'll feel a lot more hotshotted than it otherwise might. But I doubt that'll be the extent of Show's involvement.

Need a US title match for Ambrose, too. Is there anyone at that level who's been on Bryan's side? Miz would be the obvious one I guess.

Jeez, I didn't even realise tonight was the go-home. Yeah, gotta be Bryan standing tall with the "YES"es blowing the roof off, hasn't it? Then another big screwjob on Sunday. I think they'll save Big Show snapping for Sunday, too, if he gets fired tonight it'll kill off a lot of anticipation.

That's an interesting point, actually. Even if the ratings do drop off with no Cena and more football and whatever else, we all know full well that everyone who's tuning in is getting a pretty quality product right now. The REALLY interesting stat will be the buyrate Night of Champions compared with the ratings leading up to it, then compared with that same ratio from other PPVs, especially other B-PPVs with no Cena.

All I could find was 2.85 for last week, which was apparently down from the previous week but had competition from college gootball and people being out and about for Labor Day. Apparently Smackdown ratings are up since Summerslam, which makes sense seeing as they've been loading it with stuff that matters for a change.

EDIT: Looked harder. Summerslam go-home did a 3.0, the night after Summerslam did a 3.24, and the week after that did a 3.07. So they've been dropping off since Summerslam, but before Labor Day and the start of the football season (which might remain an issue with NFL games on tonight) they were higher than the go-home for Summerslam, which itself was up on the week before.

I'll put all that in an easier-to-read format:

2 weeks before Summerslam: 2.96

Summerslam go-home: 3.0

Night after Summerslam: 3.24

26th August (first show without Cena): 3.07

Last week with Labor Day and college football: 2.85

From cagesideseats.com, if anyone was wondering.