Dai

Insanely dissapointing news, but I think we all have our expectations firmly limited when it comes to a Bones Jones fight.

I love the replacment fight, should be a cracker. Sergei is an absolute beast, so will be real interesting to see how Aspinall's footwork fares against the killer thats coming toward him.

Can't even think of ever seeing Almeida before, so was shocked to see he's a 2/9 favourite. Must be thought very highly of. 

Number 18 on this. Misawa's Spinning Lariat. I dont think Ive ever seen someone use it, which considering how big Misawa was and that he used it every match, Im suprisied by. Even when he was completley washed up, it was a thing of beauty.

Saw this new can of Coke yesterday, and was annoyed by the use of 'AI' on the cans description. The spiel on the official website is somehow a hundred times more pompous and shit than what I saw on the can

https://www.coca-colacompany.com/media-center/coca-cola-creations-imagines-year-3000-futuristic-flavor-ai-powered-experience

Theres plenty of cringe worthy bollocks being wrote on that page, but it doesnt get much worse than this nonsense:

"Coca‑Cola® Y3000 Zero Sugar was co-created with human and artificial intelligence by understanding how fans envision the future through emotions, aspirations, colors, flavors and more. Fans’ perspectives from around the world, combined with insights gathered from artificial intelligence, helped inspire Coca‑Cola to create the unique taste of Y3000.  

“We hope that Coca‑Cola will still be as relevant and refreshing in the year 3000 as it is today, so we challenged ourselves to explore the concept of what a Coke from the future might taste like—and what kind of experiences would a Coke from the future unlock?”"

Just had something pop up on my news feed that The Undertaker is starting a Patreon, and it looks pretty much like there will be podcasts as part of it. I know hes done plenty of interviews these last few years, but theres surely a tonne of gold in going on some deep dives of certain matches/events/wrestlers from his past. The stuff from the 90s would be particularly of interest Id say.

Surely just a troll? That Bisping rematch was 2016, and it seemed like his neck was frozen stiff. Imagine the state it must be in 7 years later.

The main event was what is was. Any fighter can get caught like that. Nothing really to say about it, and the short notice doesnt really come in to it.

I think the only talking point coming out of this for me is how unimpressive Chimaev looked. He looked amazing in R1, but then did absolutley nothing in R2 and R3. Even though he beat a top class fighter in Usman, this performance doesnt get the juices flowing for his title match.

Edit: Just seen the scorecards for this one. Was it really that clear a 10-8 in R1? I may have to go back and rewatch, but was Usman in serious danger? From what I recall it was some decent ground and pound, and some submissions which were never really close.

One judge scored it a draw, with Usman winning R2 and R3. One judge had it a 10-8 and Chimaev winning R3, and the other judge had Chimaev winning R2 and Usman R3. Again, based on what I remember, theres no way you could score R2 for Chimaev. Had the judge scored that an Usman round then it would of been a draw, which I think most people were expecting.

Fantastic signing, I think. MVP is one of those unique fighters where he could have 2 or 3 stinkers in a row, but his next fight woukd still be 'must see'. The potential is always there for something amazing. Apart from the elite fighters, theres not many that will create the buzz that an MVP will. Looking foward to it.

Chimaev makes weight, as do all the other main eventers. Volk said he cut 25.5lbs in 11 days, which seems insane. Surely it will have an effect on his performance, as that's a super intense cut 

On 10/6/2023 at 11:04 AM, John Matrix said:

Whilst the franchise has never been great for it, the CGI in this is fucking ATROCIOUS.  In one of the earlier scenes, Stallone pays a visit to Christmas at home - who's suddenly married to someone other than Charisma Carpenter that we've never met, and just happens to be a fellow high ranking expendable (but don't worry about that, because they don't).  As they stand in the doorway, there's a green screen background of the street behind them which is less convincing than when the put up a roller banner of some bushes outside the front door of people's houses in Neighbours.  I'm no snob when it comes to stuff like this, having watched and enjoyed the shittest of the shit in my time, but when it becomes a distraction, you've got it all wrong.

Just giving this a watch, and the car chase CGI at the beginning is some of the worst Ive ever seen. I cant believe they had the nerve to put this out in the cinema. A very strange choice to have the stars do all the action in front of a green screen, and then clearly have stunt doubles doing the live action part. Its straight to DVD from 20 years ago quality. This is without mentioning the plane CGI, which is PS2 cut scene quality. Hopefully theres a youtube comp out there with all the bad stuff, and if so, I highly recommend watching it.

John Makdessi, who posted his payslip a few weeks back and showed he only made 28k from his last fight, has unsuprisingly been let go. Bet Dana was not too pleased with him doing that. Plenty of others have been let go too.

Jennifer Maia, despite co maining a show just days ago, has not had her contract renewed and is out too.

In news which must put the shits into alot of these lower level, experienced fighters, the news article says that 45 (!) Contender Series fighters were signed on $10k deals from this last season. Both Maia and Makdessi were on 60k show money, which now seems like the UFC is thinking is far too much for the return they get, so it seems like they will cull a load of these fighters and replace them with no names who are on 10k to show. As much as it sucks for the fighters, from a business point of view I see the logic. No one was watching the last UFC show just because Maia was on there, so may as well just fill the card with much cheaper talent.

A huge factor is surely Chimaev is going to be cutting a huge chunk of weight for this one, and will be at least 205 come fight time. If he's smart, he knows that Usman didn't take this fight on short notice to not fight if Chimaev misses weight big time as well. Chimaev knows Dana has a huge boner for him, so missing weight won't sour him if he does it. Maybe Chimaev will say fuck it with regards to losing those last few pounds, as he has nothing to lose. I think there's a real possibility that Chimaev will be miles heavier than Usman in this one. 

Ill definately make an effort to watch that. Not that it matters, but Perry getting top billing over Eddie seems a bit odd. Surely Eddie is their biggest star.

Life expectancy in China just 200 years ago was 32. 

The main event was really good. Not sure how Edson survived that onslaught. Easily one of the top comebacks of the year. Good stuff.

Love a good leg kick, so the Martinez fight was a good un too.

Cruz instead of Felder knocks it down a mark, but still a few solid momets on this one.

How are we seeing Usman/Chimaev? Will Usman get rag dolled? Will Chimaev catch him with something early? Will he break down Usman gradually over the rounds? All of my options are an Usman loss, I can't really see him doing so well on such short notice. 

Every injured active fighter must stay in the testing pool. McGregor was able to leave the testing pool. No other active fighter has done that before. For someone to fight in the UFC they need to be in the pool for 6 months beforehand. The UFC dont want that with Conor.

Above is my knowledge of the situation. I cant be bothered to listen to an hours worth of those guys talking. If anyone does then maybe they can summerise where they believe Usada have been dicks in the whole situation?

This channel popped into my recommendations the other day. The Gaora Sports Japanese TV channel seemed to have bumped up their Puro uploads for the last few months. Plenty of great stuff on there.

They have Goldberg's two AJPW matches on there. AJPW was in the shitter already by this point, but I think this really put an end to them as a big company in Japan. I remember reading about it in Powerslam that they paid Bill an insane amount of cash to come in for these two matches. They paid a shit tonne of money for an outsider to squash two of your companies big stars in under five minutes. Surely up there with the stupidest booking decision of all time. Kojima is jobbed out in 3 minutes to a neck breaker, and not even the bloody Jackhammer. Kea is then pinned in 3 minutes after a slam, and Bill is never seen of again. Why AJPW did this is beyond me:

On an unrelated note, a nice HD version has just been uploaded of the greatest German Suplex in the history of wrestling. 6 mins in:

From a business point of view, was it ever disclosed how much cash the UFC gave Usada in an average year? I assume its plenty of millions. Considering the only upside the UFC get from the deal is being viewed as more legit, I assume theyre at a point in status now where they dont need this validation, and they arent getting any return (business wise) from this enhanced testing. Sticking with the regular state testing wont impact them at all I dont think. Unless they are going to use a similar company, I wonder if it will create a new generation of 'enhanced' fighters, who can use all this new gear that can cant be traced for when they are going to be tested. Will be very interesting.

Speaking of Ghosts, the final season was outstanding. Every character is tremendous. Just a super warm and charming show. I can imagine it's the perfect show to watch with your kids. 

1 hour ago, Carbomb said:

Did anyone actually watch this event? Probably the longest an event has gone on here without someone discussing the results.

I did. Not much to say on it really. The Apex really does bring these shows down. Dober looked pretty good, as did Buckley. For a 30 second R1 KO, youd expect it to be really memorable, but it was just sort of an OK straight left that floored Dawson. Not much of a wow factor to it, despite it being very impressive. The other two main card fights, Ive already forgotten them. I think Razak had a rotten display, but like I said I cant even really remember it

Unfortunately I watched the main card, It was the shits.

2 hours ago, Supremo said:

 

I dip in and out of AEW, and was shocked to see the state of Wardlow. What the hell happened? The last time I saw him was the MJF fued, and then at Grand Slam last year. That guy in the picture above seems like a different person. The bad hair, the bad gear (white boots), losing the cool 'Wardlow' chant pre music, the monster aura, it even looks like hes off the juice now compared to how jacked he was last year. Seems like he should have been set as a main eventer after that MJF fued. Seriously, watch the first minute of this youtube clip and see the difference.

Amazing write up Wand! The main event is fascinating. Stipe of 2023 is a complete unknown. Due to Jones' last fight, he is still a complete mystery too. I think theres no real basis to predict this fight, which makes it really interesting. The only factor that I know for sure is that this will be Jones' second training camp of the year, and it will be Stipe's first for a couple of years. Not much, but it may sway me in the favour of Jones.

Should be an amazing fight, which I cant see lasting long. Imagine if we never get that moment of Jones being sparked out cold? Its something people have wanted for over a decade. Just feels wrong if he gets out of the game without that happening.

For an MSG show they havent exactly stacked it like they have done previously. If Jones manages to fuck things up in the next month, this is a weak as piss MSG show.

Wonder what the deal is with the Wolfpac face paint? Was it a nice money making gimmick where him and Big Sexy (and maybe others) would charge a shit tonne for a 'rare' group pixture with the Wolfpac guys?