Dai

Yeah, this season is the worst ever by a mile. Do yourself a favour and watch the new NZ one, as it has actual chemistry between contestants, and good solid range of people, and even the shit one (Dave) is charming/funny when being crap. Everything that this UK season doesn't. The NZ has also made me wonder, as that has loads of post production editing for some episodes. There was a Dream task where all five contestants had the post production affects. This UK season has had very little in the way of special affects or editing. It's either the contestants are shite and not creative, or the post editing team has been scaled back loads.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/mixed-martial-arts/articles/cmx2dv23e5y8o Looks like Strickland has been doing some accounting during his down time and got the bad news hes not set for life, despite being a 2 time champ who has headlined multiple PPVs. Let's discount the fact its Strickland, but surely its not right and not actually good long term business that someone with his resume isnt set for life. How can you attract the great athletes if you have stories like this? Does it mean the gameplan for up and comers should always be start in the UFC, and then make enough of a name to cash in the boxing money? Seems like if you want to retire in your 30s then thats the only path to do so.

Classic Traitors troupe already, and happens all the time. There was a decent amount of 'heat' on Leigh Ann at the first round table with the 'doing the make up before you left' theory. Next episode, its never brought up in the edit of the show, and its seemingly didnt get enough traction in the round table discussions to make the edit either. You'd think Hannah is in deep shit at some point very soon, but with the way people seemingly latch on to anything, she could still be there in a few weeks time.

Yeah that Qatar card is a super strong top 5. Four really interesting bouts, and then a good named fight with Hooker/ Ortega . In terms of Pereira, it is very much a 'means to an end' fight, namely the end being a heavyweight title shot. If that carrot wasnt being dangled, then a non blockbuster heavyweight fight, with a super dangerous and legit 265er, seems crazy, and he would have been better heading back down to 205. A win here though and its a guaranteed title fight again.

We had the discussion weeks ago about The Bear, and how it started great but most people quit watching. Speaking just for myself and the people I know who starting watching it, I think all of us have stopped watching it. Cant remember if it was season 4 or 5, but it definitely was forgettable and just felt like it should finish, and ive never gone back. Dont know anyone now who has kept up with it, or look forward to new seasons. Edit - whilst im here, I assume it was @SuperBacon who said that they rewatched Stath Let's Flats recently. Thanks for saying, as we started watching it after that, and have really enjoyed it. Really gets into its grove in season 2. Most days we now say "Ive spilled my energy drink!". So many great performances, with Katy Wix being outstanding again.

Great write up. Cant believe its 2026 and they still have the same theme song and they still do it from DJ Hydes parents house. Must be the longest tradition in all of wrestling. Judging from your pictures, it doesn't look a huge crowd, but it seems decent enough. Speaking of DJ, hes been on the Mad Man Pondo diet by the looks of it. Nit picking, but isnt it Shlak not Shlack, unless hes changed it since I watched regularly? Do you keep up to date with the GCW death match shows? There was a time a few years back when it seemed super hot, and the death match tourney shows (the TOS and NGI ones) were great. Dont see any hype for them these days though. As for Necro, if its not him being scammed somehow, then I have no idea what they would want from his likeness. I assume the root cause would be CM Punk, but for what reason I cant think. WWE Vault guy seems to read this forum, so maybe he got inspired by your post and wants to start uploading classic TODs to the channel.

I'll be honest, I gave Silva/Cong about three minutes of R1 before I started to drift and fast forward. The fast forwarding got progressively faster during the fight too. Cant say for certain, but from the bits i did stop and watch, it was shite. Seems like nothing of note happened. A fight that really should have been an Apex headliner at best. Sums it up when the stand behind the camera was half empty by the time the decision was being made. Speaking of the decision, did you notice how the director focused on Silva way too early when Buffer was making his announcement? Amateur stuff. Plenty of good finishes too on the main, with the highlights being Soldic with his great combinations (not seen that three punch combo with the 2nd punch being in the chest before) and Talbot, who made surprisingly quick work of Figgy. No idea to see if Figgy is past it, he just got caught early and couldn't recover, which happens to the best of them. 16.5k fans and a 2.7 million gate, with a main event of this. The UFC must be pissing themselves laughing.

Yeah, that theory makes no sense at all, as if he thought that, then surely he would have thought the producers would have told him beforehand he was going to be selected as a Traitor. Thinking it was a work would actually mean telling people things like that were going to happen. Hes screwed anyway, and if the other traitors are smart they will vote him out too. Tactically it makes no sense to defend a Traitor to a huge extent, as it doesnt benefit them in any way. They can just replace them with a new/better one.

No clue or no care about who wins the main. I'm going with Figgy to win though, as i think he still has enough in the locker and smarts to get a decision win in this one.

It feels like they've done every iteration of this angle already on the vault. Not sure how much more they can squeeze from it. That said, a clip from 4 days ago which is essentially a new vid of Bret saying Goldberg stinks has got something crazy like 350k views, so maybe just rehashing an Nwo vs Wcw every year still gets the views.

A shame that alot of the elite 'Euro Tour/Pro Tour' guys got smashed last night by the big boys. You'd have expected at least one of Smith, Woodhouse and Nijman to get through. Nijman seems to have timed his average spell at completely the wrong time. He looked completely flat against Clayton, and certainly someone who isnt troubling the later stages of any tourney the rest of the year if he keeps up this form. A shame that it seems alot of these fringe players just dont have that extra character/bottle when it comes to the majors.

I dont begrudge him it at this point either. I assume his pay was easily one of the biggest in BK history, and he comes out of it looking completely fine. Super hard to do that in a BK fight. Impressive stuff in its own way.

Just glancing through the write up again, and just spotted Marvin Vettori. What a fall from grace, and couldn't believe it when you said he was just 33. Post covid, he had a crack at Izzys title, and has fought the likes of Costa and Whittaker since. Now hes curtain jerking on this one, and has had the career trajectory of someone 10 years older.

Great write up Wand. When they have had the promo graphic up for this main event on the cards just gone, it blew my mind every time. Must be the worst numbered main event of all time. Think I checked when you posted it in the fight announcement thread where this was being held. I'm sure it was 18,000 capacity. For this! Seeing 18k people watching a Fight Night prelim headliner as the top bout will be surreal. RDA was considered the P4P best at one point, I think (unless Jones was still about). He must be one of very few people on the entire roster who can say they have been the P4P best, or even still 2nd best P4P.

But selling something at fair price to yourself is still surely bad, and not too dissimilar to what City have done? I know what Chelsea did was within the rules but cant get my head around it, as it seems just as crafty. Can't see how its in the same category as spreading out a transfer fee over 5 years, as amortisation happens in all businesses. Had City not did it way above market value then it seems identical to me.

Ive only watched the first day and it was a cracker. Great little format. Gelt bad for Menzies and Doets though. Doets is starting to get the vibe from me that he may not have the major stage bottle. In the last set I had no confidence that he was going to win. Great to see the tournement open up too. Littler cant blame the crowd on this one. Good shout on him looking burnt out. MVG still should be fine for the Premier League shouldn't he, even if hes outside the top 16? He's still a massive name that people want to see. If Bunting still got in last year, then MVG should be in next year's too. Not much competition for him really is there. Its a vietually guaranteed top 5 and then chuck in Ross Smith. Throw in Beau and MVG and you aren't leaving someone major out, unless Nijman gets to the World Final or something

No idea how you could be unhappy with it. That's like a promoter booking MVP now and then being not happy when its a stinker. You book Romero in 2026 and you get what you deserve I'd say!

As only a casual fan, can someone explain how Chelsea selling their women's team and hotels to themselves to 'make' money is fine, but how Man City selling sponsorship to themselves is bad? Was it just the scale that Man City were doing it/keeping it secret?

The main event was comfortably cruising to a Fight of the Year contender, until that horrific end. Has something like that ever happened before? Was very scary and I thought it looked like a heart attack or something similar. Barcelos literally gave everything in this one. Glad to see that hes doing ok now. The Dumont fight was a stinker. Was strange that both Cruz and Felder were shitting on it hard from 2 minutes in, which they dont usually do. Was crap though, and neither looked good. Tina Black looked good though, and one to keep an eye on. Looks like she has some great power, so definitely worth keeping tabs on. The Hernandez/Dumas one was funny too. Hernandez in the cowboy hat had strong vibes of Don Frye/a real man's man. Good show!

The very last match with RVD is crazy to watch, to see how within a few years he went from the 98/99 monster, to an absolute shell of a performer. Its like when you had a create a wrestler in a video game, and removed the move lists when editing them, as Steiner is 95% kicks and punches in the RVD match. I agree though, this should have just been a 98/99 comp.

Well, to the suprise of nobody, it was absolute dogshit. 5 years back Romero was dogshit, but there would be a handful of aggressive moments, so there was always an element of danger in his fights. Tactically, he has now removed these blitz, so all you have is nothing. Its such a Romero thing though, that he threw practically nothing, didn't really look like he connected on the one time in the entire fight he tried, but still busted open Till pretty bad from just that tiny exchange and glancing punch. Amazingly frustrating, but dont blame him at all really.

That genuine pissed off look Chloe gave during the group task is the angriest anyone has ever been on Taskmaster, id say. A genuine look of "Ive wanted to do this show for years, realise what a great opportunity it is to raise my profile, and they've put me with these arseholes". Chloe must be gutted that they're on with this lot. Like daz said, absolutely no chemistry or banter between the group, and nothing for them to work with. Some really bad tasks/attempts so far this season too. The bed frame one, the before/after picture, amongst others. Even the episide just gone, the table one was shit (at the end you expect there to be a clever twist that someone should of spotted, but there was nothing), the armpit art attempts were shit, and the ear piece one was abysmal and didn't work at all. Apologies for being so negative! Looking at the next lineup, I wonder if Horne had realised he dropped a massive bollock by picking so many later middle aged people in this one, and made sure he didn't made the same mistake again.

Ive just done a once over of the output over the last couple of months. 'Vault guy' has definitely had his hours shrunk for Vault related activities, hasnt he? Its free material so cant complain, but the difference in the obscure stuff from the last few months compared to the start of the year is night and day.

I think standards are so low, and will only plummet further with time, that a main and co main which has four 'names', some decent names on the undercard, and then some recognisable people on the prelims is definitely considered a great card. Its definitely a weak as piss MSG card, but shouldn't even be compared to the others now I don't think, as this isnt a PPV, and the MSG novelty seems to have worn off the last few years too (it feels like the cards have been getting weaker and weaker, year on year). Personal hate aside, the main event is a heavyweight fight with two guys who have alot of traction now, and the co main is class too. That's all I expect from a UFC show these days to be fair.

In 2026, on the non PPV model and 'UFC is the draw' model, this is as good a main and prelim card as you'll ever get. That said, there is someone called Belgaroui that is third from top on an MSG show, and he was on the contender series 3 fights ago, and his last two wins were against fighters who dont have a Wikipedia page, so not exactly star power.