Dai

Hitting the doubles when your opponent is on a double digit finish is alot tougher compared to when theyre on 200+, which was the case most of the time in this one. Would have been nice to see how hed perform when the pressure was on more than it was.

Dolan was awful though, completely shit the bed with that performance. A great performance by Littler no doubt, but there was no pressure at all during this one.

So it will be Chandler at 185. Plenty of time for something to go wrong, but it will definitely be an interesting fight that we will all be in to come fight time. 

Wonder what the logic is of 185 though? Despite all the talk of him being juiced up, Connor is still nowhere near 205, which is where youd think his cut to 185 would start. Maybe he just doesn't want to go through a severe weight cut, and doesn't want Chandler to do one either and have the weight advantage on fight night. 

Thanks for recommending the Caroline Ahern doc, as it was great. I seem to remember at the time that all of the news articles talked about how she died on her own in her house, and that was in the back of my mind when watching the end too, as it made it extra sad.

Finished off Succession. Was I the only one to find the last series a bit disappointing? It seems to always be topping the lists for best show of 2023, but I felt that I was ready for it to end when it did, and am not really that sad that there won't be any more. Barry (thanks again to everyone who recommended it here) was definitely the better of the two for me this year. 

Motherland is a really lovely little watch. Not as good as Ghosts, but similar in tone as a nice 'comfort' watch. Have finished it off and can thoroughly recommend. Seasons 2 and 3 spread the attention to multiple characters. 

Rewatching Spartacus too, and it's aged very well. Still a phenomenal show, with Hannah stealing the show. 

Yeah, the Maven videos are always a good watch. Probably the last truly interesting era of WWE for the backstage stuff and people. He keeps the videos brief and to the point too. 

In a somewhat ironic twist considering how their paths crossed at one point, Maven has twice as many YT subscribers as the Undertaker, and his vids seemingly always do more views too. Considering the careers both have had, thats quite a shocker. 

10 hours ago, FUM said:

I get it’s wrestling and we’re trained to expect the worst of people but I think it’s harsh that every guy who comes back jacked is accused of flaunting the wellness policy.

If you’re an athlete out injured then you naturally rehab at the gym. Not being on the road they will be able to get more sessions in and if your job is essentially as an actor on TV, you want to return looking your absolute best.

I just checked, and AJ is 45 years old and Randy is 43. They are 100% taking something, and there's no doubt at all. Look at AJs arms in that picture Supremo posted, there's no way a 45 year old can do that naturally. 

That said, they're still dedicating insane amounts of time and effort into their diet and workouts, so in no way does taking stuff to diminish the effects of mother nature make it a bad thing. 

Joe Rogan is a big advocate of guys in their 40s being allowed to take stuff to compensate for the aging process, and that's MMA, so there should really be no negative conetations for older guys getting a little helping hand. 

Excellent card, and excellent posts all round in this thread! Wands last post just made me remember Gabrandt is on the show. What a hell of a comedown for him. Literally no mention or buzz about him at all these days. A complete after thought. Must be very hard on the ego to be king of the hill at some point and then a complete has been not long after. 

Two more Christmas films watched on the weekend:

The Holdovers was really, really good. Paul Giamatti was outstanding, and Im sure there will be plenty of award nominations for him after this, and well deserved. The only other two main people in it more than hold their own too. Great story, and visually great too. Definately worth a watch, as its not really a proper Christmas film.

Genie was much more your standard Christmas movie. Melissa McCarthy and Paapa Essiedu are completley fine in it. Pretty good concept for a Christmas film, apart from the fact that it didnt even have a full on Christmas Day scene, which seemed odd. You think that would have been the first scene written when doing a film like this, and then everything else is written around it. Not as good as Candy Cane Lane, so watch that if you dont have time for both.

The main event was the absolute pits. Possibly the worst UFC main event of 2023, Id say. Just everything thats wrong with the Apex cards; two no-names from one of the lighter divisions, having a boring as shit fight with no intensity, played out to complete crickets. By the middle of R2 I was at 12x speed and it was still crap.

The rest of the main card I enjoyed though, so swings and roundabouts I guess!

Over the last few weeks have watched the following documentaries; Escaping Twin Flames, The Enfield Poltergiest, The Greatest Show Never Made, the Robbie Williams one. All of them have one thing in common, and thats that they are just too bloody long. Ive read it from someone in here before, maybe BomberPat, about Netflix spreading a good 2 hour documentary into 4, hour long episodes. All of these have that problem. The Robbie one was decent, but the second episode, which pretty much just literally showed really boring holiday footage of when he went away with Geri, is a classic example of them clearly padding the show out. Twin Flames was the exact same, just repeating the same story over and over again with different people. The Greatest Show Never Made spent the first 20 minutes doing an in depth introduction of these nobodies, which wasnt needed at all.

I have also finished Friday Night Dinner, which still holds up really well. Great performances all round, especially from Paul Ritter. Have also really enjoyed Motherland too. Diane Morgan completley steals the show in the first season. Shes fantastic.

The amazing Kim Justice has done a deep dive into the Misawa/Kawada fued. The first video is the history of both of them, and the back story of the Kings Road style. His whole channel is a gold mine of fantastic videos. 

Great video, and plenty of great nuggets of info about their early years (Kawada in the US, and having a Rockers-esque tag team, etc). I never realised Misawa was Tiger Mask for so long. I always thought it was only a couple of years before he unmasked, not six. He was already nearing ten years of experience before he did the Jumbo match as the fresh faced youngster. 

90s AJPW is probably my favourate era ever, so these vids are a treat. Will have to bust out those fantastic 6 man tags from the early 90s I think! 

27 minutes ago, The King of Old School said:

Must be watching different things, a loud CM Punk chant started after that line. People often see what they want to see.

Reigns/Punk at Mania 😍

Huh? I've listened to it a few times now and don't hear a CM Punk chant at all, let alone a loud one? Regardless, after a line like that, Punk was clearly expecting a big, AEW crowdlike 'Ohhhhh' or a big laugh, but it's clearly a compete non reaction. 

A shame it ended that way, as it was turning into a lovely and violent fight. I wonder if it's come out what was wrong with Eddie. I assume it was a broken orbital bone. 

Looking at the fight card, I forgot Big Ben and Duffee were on it too, what happened with that one? Would have been class. 

Watched the rest of this and most of it was shit, but when you have certain people like Alvarez and Perry fighting, it's a great spectacle.

On 12/4/2023 at 5:32 PM, TheBurningRed said:

At one point the sister saw a guy and asked if they had met before and gave an odd look to him. We thought this might lead to something. But no, it was just a pointless throwaway line. Nothing interesting came from it at all.

Both the brother and the sister were in the show Party of Five, which was on during most of the 90s. That guy she gave an odd look too was also in that show, so it was just a little easter egg to that show. The name of the pub was also an easter egg to the show too. I never heard of the show, but this is what my partner told me.

Speaking of Christmas movies on Prime, Candy Cane Lane gets a solid two thumbs up from me. Even though its nearly 2 hours, which is long for a Christmas film, it's very entertaining throughout, and Eddie Murphy is very great in it too. Love the special effects of the little toy people too. Definately one to watch this Chrsitmas.

Christmas In Scotland, on the other hand, is your standard TV Christmas movie. You could play Scotland cliche bingo and have a full house. Kilts? Bagpipes? Scotch? Check. The two main characters are a brother and sister, who are estranged, and go to Scotland to see their mother. Theres a very odd, incestuous vibe throughout, as all of the classic Christmas movie cliche scenes (ie, plenty of heart to hearts in various locations), are between a brother and sister, and not a couple who have lost the spark in their relationship/have taken each other for granted. The guy spends no time with his wife, and he just does everything with his sister, all the while talking about how they need to rekindle their relationship. Odd!

4 hours ago, David said:

Chad Mendes isn't Mike Perry. He's basically the perfect athlete for this kind of thing. 

A juiced up Money Mendes gets pretty close to Mike Perry in my book. 

6 hours ago, David said:

So this is basically going to come down to Perry's toughness versus Alvarez technical ability. Ordinarily, I'd give the edge to the more skilled fighter, but in this environment, I think some of these fighters get so far along and take a few shots then think "nah, fuck this."

Which is where Perry excels. Because he's a hard-headed fucking idiot.

Eddie went five rounds with Chad Mendes, who is still an animal, in his only other BKFC fight, and there were bombs being landed by Mendes and Eddie carried on. Dont think theres much chance of him throwing in the towel,

Yes, this is a great card. Gastelum has been about for donkeys years too, so am invested in him winning too (I always want the 'old school' fighters to keep winning for as long as possible). 

Smooth Bobby is a 13/8 outsider for this one, which considering the weigh in attitude issues for Turner seems a bit crazy. 

Some kind person here posted a deal to get the US version of Peacock, which I did. The biggest upside of it so far is to have on the Hallmark Christmas channel in the background for when we are not really watching the TV. A constant stream of rubbish Christmas films all day, amazing. American adverts is the cherry on top too. 

Yes Figgy looks very good there. Very excited to see him fight. Crazy to think that he's third from top on a Fight Night card. Would love to see him get the win

A proper solid card, this. The top 4 fights all look very interesting. Suprised to see that Tate isnt on the main card, considering shes a pretty big name. I think Arman will win this one, but most looking foward to seeing how Figgy looks. That picture on the bike, where he has a belly, doesnt bode well for him if its a recent pic though. Will be very interesting to watch.

If you were to list the worst Apex Headliners, in terms of name value, of 2023, surely Chris Gutierrez is very close to the top spot. A shoe in for Top 5. Will have to browse at some point to see if I can draw up a Top 5.

1 hour ago, wandshogun09 said:

Gotta say, unless some of the names I’m not familiar with are killers I’m yet to discover, it looks bang average to me. Titles all over the shop doesn’t really cut it for me when the fights themselves are OK at best. 

Between this post and the one for Bellator, which he said was amazing when it wasn't, kfog has been taking some positivity pills by the looks of it. 

I still can't get my head around the fact that there's six million dollars being given away on no names that nobody cares about, on a PPV which no one will buy. It makes Afflictions business model look reasonable. The Saudi cash must be flowing in like a tidal wave. 

A seven fight PPV, with five 5 round fights sounds awful too. Everything just seems to be done wrong with the PFL

I watched this, and cant see how anyone could say it was a good main card. The Pitbull fight was unbelievably boring, the McKee fight wasnt much cop, and the Pettis/Mix fight was very disappointly one sided. The main and the Stots fight were good though.

Usman Nurmagomedov has failed a test and has been suspended for six months. His Grand Prix match with Primus has been declared a no centest, which seems to throw the whole thing into chaos. Should Primus just go to the final now? Should they replay the fight once the suspension has finished? Should be be kicked out of the tourney for being a cheat? Will be interesting what they do, and if Usman is booted out, then the cheating would have cost him a $1 million dollar fight with Pitbull, which is a big own goal from him.