Fatty Facesitter

28 minutes ago, jazzygeofferz said:

I should start watching again, especially now I have a laptop so I can WATCH wrestling again...

If you’re hinting at what I think you’re hinting at, that’s my main resource now for watching stuff. Live is a bit hit and miss and you sometimes need to keep keep switching tabs but other than that it’s usually pretty good. 

👍 Maclin/PCO business - Not who I was expecting in terms of Maclin’s first challenger but a great bit of business here. Maclin looked the part as champion and he was presented nicely with the personal security element and he came across well in terms of how he delivered his promo. PCO being revealed as the challenge was a surprise, but he’s been great to watch of late and that’s a match that definitely piques my interest. On a separate note, Aldis' promo was perfectly fine as well, so now we've got two intriguing challengers to Maclin's gold. 

👍 Moose vs Yuya Uemura - Power and speed respectively here blending really well together. After the fast-food serving of a fast-paced opener, this was more of a delightfully slow-cooked steak. The interference on the outside kept you guessing in terms of the outcome, but this was a good re-heater for Moose and it’ll be interesting to see what they do next with him from here. 

👍 Joe Hendry vs Sheldon Jean - Solid if unspectacular in terms of the action, but Hendry is always essential viewing every week. The audience participation factor with him - especially when it comes to my previous gripes about Impact crowds - is so welcome and he stands out so much from the rest of the roster. 

👍 Time Machine vs Gresham/Miguel/Speedball - Another Fatty Facesitter cheat code tag opener special with some really eye-catching transitions between the teams and some great individual performances from the likes of Mike Bailey in particular. However, this thumbs up is for the action only...

👎 …admittedly the booking of the match is a bit of a question mark for me - Kushida has just gone from headlining in a world title match to jerking the curtain in a tag match on the very next show, while the three combatants in another title match were all paired together, again on the very next show and with no prior build-up? This could have been with some sort of transitional segment either at the top of the show or mid-way through to set something up for next week, i.e Kushida wants to address the crowd following his loss only to get interrupted, then you can gradually bring the other players int the mix from there. Also, Sabin getting the pin seems like a strange move when you’ve got Kushida in there who’s just featured in one of the higher-profile PPV matches. Again, no complaints about the action because it was an absolute ripper from start to finish, and there’s several interesting match combinations you can build on from here. The dynamic of the triple-threat team having to co-exist was also interesting. It’s just important to take the audience on a bit of a journey with all of this first before you get to this point. 

👎 Aiisha Edwards/Tara Rysing - Too short to be anything of note, and Edwards going from a extremely concerned wife to all of a sudden being totally ready to compete in an impromptu match setup by Santino was too much of a jolt in terms of juxtaposition. 

👎 Kazarian vs Good Hands - Nothing particularly bad here from the match itself. But at 45, do we really need to be giving Kazarian a big showcase and single-handedly beating a tag team they’re trying to establish? 

👎 Crowd - I'd be remiss if I didn't mention them again - another poor showing despite a good product taking place before them. 

Overall - Some good, some bad, but absolutely nothing that was bowling shoe ugly. Third week or so now of being fully invested in Impact again and there's definitely still some potential with the company. I'm quite excited to see how things develop over the coming months. 

👍 Sikoa/Riddle - Action-packed with a good pace maintained from start to end and had a proper big-fight feel for the duration. Some effective use of the various items of plunder whereby Riddle had something of an equaliser against the bare-handed brutality of Sikoa. He almost fought off the Usos and Sikoa by himself towards the end, which I think was necessary to further re-establish him as a threat as the feud continues. Solo continues to be very reliable in these TV main event spots. Strange they wouldn’t give Riddle some sort of backup against the Usos even if Sami/KO weren’t booked, but that minor grip aside, great way to close proceedings and the tag title and six man tag matches coming up over the next couple of weeks will be electric. A ripper. 

👍 IC title - Bloody fantastic. Woods sold beautifully throughout and was forced to dig deep to fight off and even just to keep up with the dominant champion. Gunther, as ever, looked like an absolute killer. Perhaps a slightly anti-climatic finish if we’re being really picky, but only because I was incredibly invested in the match and could have watched them tussle for even longer. The result was perhaps fairly easy to telegraph, but it was still a strong, decisive and clean win without any interference or nefarious means from Gunther. Woods loses nothing after showing such bravery. Good shit. 

👍 Priest/Balor vs Mysterio/Escobar - Highly energetic opener and once again Smackdown has employed the Fatty Facesitter cheat code of a red-hot tag opener. Crowd were all over it and all four performers had their moments. You could argue that Santos and the LWO taking another loss doesn’t do the reformed stable many favours, but I think they’ll get their moment in the sun alongside Bad Bunny at Backlash. Rey still has such a zest for performing at the moment and it’s a joy to watch. 

👍 Shinsuke/Kross vignette - For Shin’s part, they should have rolled that out before his actual return because it made him look like such a star. Kross’ part was well produced too - it might be a bit of a stretch to some people that they covered up many of Kross' losses by having him take away things like ‘temperament’ from opponents instead of actual wins, but I didn’t mind this as a way to re-establish his aura. 

👍 Strowman/Ricochet vs Viking Raiders - There was a pretty bad botch/miscommunication just before the break with Strowman throwing Ricochet into the ring and totally missing the opponents, but aside from that there were some really good moments in this from all four performers and they turned the match round following that little hiccup. Ricochet’s output is of a really good standard at the moment and this partnership with Strowman is making for a really good showcase for both of them. The Raiders did their part too - bumping around for Braun, but they were also to keep up with Ricochet’s pace. 

👎 Women’s tag titles - I'll start with some positives here before I get to the negative element. I do like Deville/Green’s work as a shithousing heel duo, and all four put in a ton of effort here and although the execution at times wasn’t picture perfect, this was far better than I expected. However, while the match itself perhaps overdelivered - it had a very questionable finish with the babyfaces cheating. This does contradict something I mentioned last week when talking about Xavier Woods cheating against LA Knight, but to me it made sense when Woods - an established yet slightly cheeky babyface figure - pulled a fast one on LA Knight last week. In this context with two babyface champions that you're trying to build up, it doesn't really work. Also Liv Morgan continues to be WWE's most annoying personality by a huge distance. Again, the match wasn't crap, but the finish should have been presented differently. 

Overall - A scintillating Smackers this week and the build towards next week’s show and Backlash is bubbling along very nicely. Some great matches to go with a great atmosphere this week. Lovely stuff. 

Our new Deputy PM. Look at that appalling Tory cue action. Desecrating the baize. 

40 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

 

Dua Lipa’s great. One of the few modern mainstream pop acts I enjoy listening to. Physical is a cracker as well. 

@Frankie Crisp will back me up on this - 

Brilliant match and an incredible win against the man of the season. I thought when Smurph was battling back and they lifted the divider that Si would crumble under the pressure. He almost threw it away with a rogue pink attempt at the end, but Murphy got himself in a right bother to hand it right back to him. 

There goes my bet as well - and now we’ll have to suffer Shaun in the commentary box for the rest of the tournament too!

Arguably one for the Twitter thread. Still, top payoff at the end. 

Selbatron with the mother of all flukes. Look at Matt Selt’s face! 

Strange to see Judd go so off the boil this season even with his Masters win - such an immense talent. Sounds as though he's been predominantly practising alone rather than against other top pros - he could do far worse than linking up with Lisowski again as they'd surely bring out the best in each other. 

Another superb win in a great season for the Milkman, who has one of the best entrance themes on the tour. What a comeback and I'm pleased WST reversed a decision this morning to let them play to conclusion rather than forcing them to return in an evening session. 

Second round kicks off today with Williams vs Brecel - hard to believe we're a few days in now already. 

👎 Opening promo - It probably makes sense to talk about this first and to keep things in linear order - this was absolutely terrible. Darby Allin came off badly here, both in terms of his own verbiage and how Jungle Boy essentially made him out to be a total penis - true or not, it doesn't exactly make you want to see Darby prosper. Then, when MJF reveals the bye, Darby does an odd celebration, which immediately makes him look like a schmuck who is getting an easier ride to the title. Again, why would you back him? The whole thing ran for far too long and none of the three challengers really came out of it well. 

👍 Britt/Hayter vs Outcasts - Fine and dandy as an opener. At the risk of constantly repeating myself when I do these little reviews, tags are great openers as they're like a cheat code to get the live audience and viewers pumped up and you can ride that energy all evening. This was actually the perfect spot to put them in - any later in the show and they might have struggled to maintain interest, even with the hometown hero in tow. Nothing wrong with any of the execution from any of the lasses involved here. 

👍 Elite/BCC business - A fun brawl to add intrigue to this ongoing saga. Good to see Takeshita inserted into the mix - anything that gives him a big company spotlight is fine with me. I'm on board for the eventual clash. 

👍 TNT title - A smashing battle of the big men, this. It was great to see the link up between Wardlow and Arn Anderson as well. A much needed boost for Wardlow’s aura and hopefully the start of some better spotlight for the TNT title too - I know some people will be thinking 'Christ, they've changed the title again?!' but in this case I think it was absolutely the right call to make.  

👍 Jay White/Komander - A good display from both and I enjoyed the shenanigans with Shawn Spears at ringside as well with his scorecards. Komander gets some stick but I find his offence so unique and his balance is absolutely crazy. It still seems odd to me that White has essentially been brought in as a midcard act for now considering his reputation, but there was nothing wrong with this match in isolation. 

👍 Jericho/Cole business - I'm bang on board for this. I enjoyed the exchange before the big brawl, then the shenanigans with Britt and the Outcasts afterwards was a great bit of business. It helps not only make the rivalry between Jericho and Cole more personal, but also the Outcasts and Britt too. By incorporating multiple characters like this, you're elevating more than just two people, and that to me made this a rousing success. 

👍 Acclaimed/JAS - Daft, silly fun. 

👍 Jungle Boy/Sammy G - Fair play, they left it all out there and worked their bollocks off for our entertainment. A great showcase for both. The finish was perhaps quite anti-climatic, but obviously there will be more to come from this angle. Sammy/Max rolling around the ring together in an embrace was funny. After my gripes with the opening promo, this was a great way to reinforce the point that actually there's still some mileage in this pillars angle after all. 

Overall - Smashing Dynamite this week with plenty of interesting angle advancement, a great crowd, a title change and plenty of talking points to sink our teeth into. I had low expectations after the opening promo exchange, but everything else after that was worth watching. 

(Power - 18/4)
Overall - There’s so much potential with this intellectual property but I feel like it’s not being properly utilised. The standard of both the in-ring product and the set are far removed from the original incarnations of Power. Someone can probably enlighten me as to whether this is because they are touring more regularly now, either way the set really needs additional dressing and branding. I love the retro graphics and the vignettes they do - even the backstage interviews weren’t terrible. But the main portion of the show - you know, the wrestling - looks really poor, both when it comes to quality and general aesthetic. There’s potential with the NWA brand but it’s not being displayed at the moment. 

👍 Morton vs Alonso - Not a world-beating standard but the only match on the show that I thought looked professional enough to not look out of place in another promotion. Kerry Morton in particular is an interesting character - he’s showing great babyface qualities, little looks and gestures to the fans rallying for support, but he’s got a touch of the Anakin Skywalker about him in that he’s go that dark side streak lurking within him (case in point, his cocky promo and the finish to the match). I’ll watch his career with great interest...

👍 The backstage promos were one of the only other redeeming qualities of the show. Kerry Morton in particular cuts a nice promo and I like the partnership with his old man trying to keep him on the straight and narrow despite how braggadocious he is. In terms of the set and the presentation, it’s not quite the old Power studio with the desk, but it looks a lot better than the arena (more on this shortly!). No world-beating promos by any stretch, but there are at least some charismatic players around the NWA. 

👎 Opening promo - Not helped by microphone issues, but even if the audio were to be crystal clear, not something that got me excited for the show coming up, or the Crockett Cup. Tyrus doesn’t seem to be putting any zest into his promos. YouTube as a platform really needs its videos to start with a bang to keep the viewer engaged and to boost retention rates - this was not the way to do it. Also, did he fuck up by saying the World title was 12 pounds of gold? Is it 10 or is it 12? 

👎 The set - It looks rubbish. A backstage door looked to be flung open at the back on the main camera shot for most of the show. I know they’re on the road at the moment but the old Power studio they used looked excellent and like a quintessential NWA throwback. Is there really no more branding they can throw around the venue? 

👎 TV title - Slow, plodding, boring. Over the last fortnight or so I’ve seen some cracking starts to TV shows. I repeat what I said about the opening promo just before this - YouTube as a platform needs its videos to keep the viewer engaged and to boost retention rates. Like the Tyrus promo exchange, this first match wasn’t a way to do that in any way shape or form. Instead, get a tag match on to kick things off with bang, throw in some great double-team moves and hot tags along with other creative spots and both live audience and the rest of the viewing public will be well on board for the evening's festivities. 

👎 Natalia Markova La Rosa Negra - No shortage of effort but some of the execution had me absolutely wincing. In terms of quality, nowhere near up to the standard of other promotions on the scene at the moment when it comes to women’s wrestling. 

I don't advocate live discussion as you all know, so I certainly wouldn't tell you to check out the BBC feed of table one from around the 11:40 mark on the timer (match is still in progress). I also certainly wouldn't tell you that the break is so mad towards the end because he keeps running out of position. I also wouldn't tell you that I got goosebumps when he got down for the yellow - with the white closer towards the bottom half of the table - and Dennis Taylor mentions that Cliff Thorburn had to attempt the very same shot when making his famous maximum all those years ago. 

Fucking brilliant. This sport is the bloody best. 

EDIT - Eurosport have already uploaded the full break. 

1 hour ago, Loki said:

Dempsey's an odd one - he looks like a heavy from Get Carter, has a completely different style to everyone else in NXT, and feels a bit awkward at times.  BUT he's a big tough looking boy and has obvious upside.  "WoS" as a gimmick worked for his dad in WCW, and it'll work for him in NXT but it's not strong enough for the main roster so eventually he'll need to find something.

Agree to an extent - I think it's definitely a huge contrast, but I quite like how unpolished an awkward his work sometimes is - it actually strikes me as being deliberately presented like that as opposed to him being green. He wrestles/fights like he's in an actual scrap, or like some sort of MMA duel, or essentially how would try and wrestle/fight someone in a dojo, the streets, etc. I also think that unlike his dad working in WCW, there's a bigger generational gap now between the WOS era and the modern era - so the scale of the contrast is almost much bigger, and that too isn't necessarily a bad thing because of how unique it is. With Gulak in tow with him on-screen and his dad back behind the scenes, I think this is a big year for him where they can really flesh out the character element and perhaps fine-tune some of those other elements. Watch this space. 

1 hour ago, Loki said:

The Nathan Frazer vignette was good (maybe the first time I've ever heard him speak, didn't even realise he was English).  But it doesn't say "wrestler" to me.  Let's see where it goes.

He had an absolute banger last week with Dragon Lee and he's always good for fireworks in his matches in NXT so far - the fact his vignette was so good that he perhaps came across as more of a host/announcer/presenter I think is actually a great thing long-term - once you start to build this character alongside the brilliant matches he can have, they're onto a real winner here. 

1 hour ago, Loki said:

Generally though, it's been a while since I've seen any NXT and it appears to have turned into NXT UK from 5 years ago.  Noam Dar of all people!  I'm really not a fan of Gallus, Gacy, Tyle Bate, Alba Fyre et al so there's a lot of skippable stuff on the show atm.

I think that does this week's show a bit of a disservice. Gallus aren't anything to crow about from a character perspective but they tore it up this week. Gacy, Tyler Bate and Alba Fyre weren't on the show this week. There will always be bits to skip but I thought they knocked it out of the park this week. I also think the UK 'callups' - if that's the right term - have seriously helped to elevate the winder in-ring product. In the early 2.0 days the standard was pretty low among the new recruits, but I think the UK call-ups have helped not just the quality of the in-ring product of the show overall, but it's been massively beneficial for some of those early 2.0 call ups to improve alongside them.  

Overall - Fantastic episode I thought. Kicked off with a frenetic pace and they kept up the energy throughout. Some matches that really tore it up and some great angle advancement ahead of Spring Breakin’. 

👍 Tag title triple threat - Absolutely fantastic way to start the show and a rip-roaring match from start to finish. Love the chaos of the brawl at the top of the show which meant they had to frantically cut from the show’s opening montage because of the madness happening at ringside - that built up a real sense of urgency and excitement and the pace never really slowed from there. The Creed Brothers looked incredible here, particularly Julius who kept nipping up after multiple suplexes including hitting a double suplex at one point - strong as an ox, this lad. None of the three acts are particularly great promos (Zack Gibson notwithstanding when he’s allowed to talk!) so they really played to everyone’s strengths here with the sheer physicality element. Really, really enjoyed this.

👍 Nathan Frazer - D’you know something, I think they’re onto something here with Nathan Frazer. He’s really, really good at talking (and wrestling!) and this sort of gimmick/platform could be the making of him. Thought he knocked this out of the park if I’m honest - not sure how they evolve it from here but I’m interested to see where it goes. If they can manifest an interesting character here to go alongside his in-ring ability, he’s very going to quickly cement himself as one to watch (you could argue he is already). He’s got a future in announcing if nothing else. Also, very interesting to see them do this sort of gimmick with a babyface - usually a heel does this sort of mock TV studio stuff (QTV I suppose is the most recent example from AEW) so that’s another interesting new direction to take. Lovely stuff. 

👍 Noam Dar/Myles Bourne - Decent showcase without showing off too many bells and whistles, which I actually don’t mind as we know we’ll see that down the line. Dar's a great wind-up merchant and I hope they keep emphasising this because he could really get under the skin of opponents and crowds in the long term. I also like how this wasn’t a direct squash - it wouldn’t make sense for him to be a squash guy like a big man and I didn’t mind this being reasonably competitive. 

👍 Bron/Duke promo - This was fun. Bron spearing Odyssey Jones and shooting in from off-camera looked mint. The promo trade-off with Duke Hudson was fun - I was actually a bit gutted that Duke pulled the swerve at the end and said it would be André Chase taking on Bron instead, but it does make sense given his character. It’s quite rare that I enjoy a tweener role in wrestling but Big Duke Energy is nailing it. I’m hoping he comes to his senses and avenges André down the line after Breakker dismantles him. Some good business here. 

👍 Roxanne/Stark - A nice steady build and really well executed throughout. NXT’s modern women’s division has some really interesting players and these two, in their role as babyface and heel respectively, are smashing their roles. Good bit of business at the end to set up the triple threat as well for next week. 

👍 Apollo/Dijak - Not a classic but still relatively enjoyable. Picked up nicely towards the end. I find Dijak to be pretty cringeworthy whenever he speaks, but he’s decent to watch between the ropes, so I’m looking forward to the showdown with Dragonov. Crews at this point might be getting close to being future endeavoured as it seems like they don’t really have a plan for him. 

👍 Lee/Dempsey - I love how Dempsey wrestles so much like he's on World of Sport to the point where it looks sort of unpolished, but in the best possible way - it's just completely rugged and like he's in an actual fight or a real wrestling match - as odd as that compliment probably sounds in isolation. I liked how Lee abandoned a lot of his traditional offense, realising he needed to get a lot more physical and had to take the fight to Regal Junior. Bit of a quirky match compared to others on the night, but nicely done. Also all Gulak sightings automatically get a thumbs up. 

👍 Mello/Waller showdown - More good business here with some good back and forth in the promo exchange. Moire intrigue added for next week. 

👎 Jade/Dolan - Too short to be anything of note and more of an angle used as a device to set up Dolan vs Jayne and Jade vs ??. Did its job but nothing particularly exciting and an easy skip. 

👎 Mixed tag shenanigans - Bit hard to get sucked into the drama of the split when it’s covered by multiple camera angles and these ‘acting’ stints. Skippey do da.

Overall - Ripper of a Raw, absolutely breezed by (especially when you can skip the ads) and only a few grumbles. 

👍 STABLE WARZ - Fantastic bit of business from top to bottom with all involved - a tremendous use of a huge amount of different characters throughout the proceedings. The Bloodline are now at the point where their presence and interactions don't just benefit each other from within, but it benefits a plethora of people rubbing shoulders with them including the Judgement Day, and by proxy Rey and the LWO for their involvement in proceedings too. Solid matches and decent promos weaving together a really nice narrative for the evening, with lots still to look forward to in terms of the tag title match, the six-man at Backlash, the teases of dissension between KO and Sami, possible future interactions with JD and the Bloodline, JD vs the LWO, etc etc. Endless possibilities! As previously stated - Solo is the dog's unmentionables. 

👍 Cody goes ballistic - RollerCodester going on a rampage was great. All of his frustration and anger from Wrestlemania and the Brock backstabbing came pouring out and he refused to go down like a sucka again knowing Brock was in the building - he chose to fight fire with fire. He's still over like rover - my only hope is that they don't give Brock the W at Backlash in in instance where Cody's rage gets the better of him, as that would be a really shit cop out. 

👍 Miz/Rollins - Decent! Give Miz his flowers because this wasn't just the Seth Rollins show. I liked Miz going for the surprise attack on Rollins - nice little symmetry there after Miz twice fell victim to surprises at Wrestlemania - a good way for the heel to get on the front foot, even if it backfired eventually.  

👍 Theory/Bobby - Another solid bout and Bronson attacking at the end was a simple way to get us to the rematch with Lashley - the big splash off the top never fails to impress either. 

👍 Evil Trish - I can see why this one divides opinion, and while some of the context doesn't add up - Trish gets a pass from me because I felt like she put a ton of effort into the promo and I really liked the second half in particular. In terms of issues I had with it, first, the attack on Lita - Lita wasn't even knocked out when attacked, so it seems hard to believe Trish wouldn't have been seen committing the crime so to speak. Second, she mentioned wanting to make Becky Linch pay and disrupt her title reign...why, in that case, would Trish wrestle a competitive match and actively try to take out their opponents, rather than go straight for a beatdown, or deliberately avoid tags, etc? But the second half of the promo was much better - loved the stuff of her talking about not being a sidekick or a childhood fantasy. If they can channel more of this I think it could work really well. After all this was her first big promo in WWE for quite a long time, at least in this context, solo and with that much mic time, especially as a heel. Don't listen to the haters Evil Trish, bless you. 

👎 Brock - Sorry, but that to me seemed like a waste of a Brock appearance. Fair enough, nice coat, but imagine flying him in just to stand at the top of the ramp and effectively do nothing? It's a bit of an odd juxtaposition to have Brock go from constantly battering security guards and wrestlers for over ten years into this second run of his to all of a sudden backing down from Cody. 

👎 Bianca vs Dakota Kai - Thumbs down might be a bit harsh and there will still some good parts, but things got a bit clunky and in truth I think both ladies are capable of a much higher standard. I've seen some excellent women's matches across different promotions over the past fortnight and these two are absolutely up to standard individually. Run this back down the line and hopefully they can put on a banger. 

👎 Women's tag - Heatless and with zero venom or intensity throughout. Chelsea Green has potential but other than that, zero to crow about here. The backstage interview follow up with the champs was utter cringe. 

In all the commotion and during my time spent in a cell after my protest this afternoon - I’ve neglected to give Big Hoss my congratulations. 

Here’s the thing - I love the jabs he’s giving Ronnie. It’s box office, and there’s no doubt our Handsome Hoss can play. But to go at Ronnie like that without having played him at the Crucible is a bold move - and I just hope it doesn’t come back to bite him where it hurts. 

Interestingly they’ve only played three times against each other - first, Ronnie beats him twice 4-1 in a couple of routine best of 7s. The last time they played though - the 2022 German Masters, Vafaei walloped him 5-0 and made at least a 50+ break in each frame. 

He’s played in some big matches but he will never have played in an atmosphere like he’ll get playing Ronnie in Sheffield. It brings with it a totally different kind of pressure, especially if you’ve been giving it the big’un pre-match - he might be at the table early on and think “Blimey, I hope I don’t miss here otherwise he’s going to absolutely muller me”. If Ronnie builds up a head of steam, as good as Vafaei is, that will be such a tough mountain to climb. If he does lose, the press will absolutely hound him for it as well and I’d hate to see that happen to such a charismatic and good-natured sort.

Think I’ve told this story before but I was at the tournament where he had his first deep run - reaching the semi’s of the 2019 Welsh Open. His post-match presser from his quarter final win is the only time in all my years of covering events that I’ve ever come close to pissing myself. This is very immature -

He was talking about finding it difficult because he had nobody in Iran to practice with to get better etc. He repeatedly, and totally innocently, kept talking about playing with himself. I kept playing with myself. I was playing with myself a lot. It’s been very hard playing with myself, etc. I think he might have said something about his tip and not having anyone to help him with his tip in Iran. I was absolutely dying and desperately trying to keep it together and I’m not even sure I totally got away with it.

Phil 😂

Missed all this commotion as it took place while I was driving home. Bloke almost twists his ankle when he gets on the table. Also, made contact with the red with a bodypart so that’s an immediate four points to Perry as it was about to be his turn. 

Not to turn this into a thing about which sports have a moral high ground because you could argue none of them can really claim it. But snooker? Really? 

Incredulous heretics that should be castrated. Unless of course it was a protest about the change of colour of the Crucible carpet, in which case I support the cause, though red paint should have been used for extra emphasis. 

👍 Ultimate X tag titles - Really fun opener that didn’t outstay its welcome. I’m a sucker for the Ultimate X concept and Impact should promote more of its unique intellectual property like this to further standout from the rest of the pack. I’m ambivalent in terms of the title change, both teams are fun to watch so there was no ‘wrong’ result here for me. 

👍 The Design vs Hendry/Dango/Marrella - A mixture of daft fun and some ‘t’riffic little moments of action chucked in. Joe Hendry has a fantastic aura about him - hopefully he can keep this momentum going because he’s got a bright future ahead all going well. Strong as an ox, technically sound and great on the mic. Santino looked great - busting out all the greatest hits and looked like he was having the time of his life. Callihan turning on the Design and probably entering into a programme with them is not something that particularly tickles my testes, but the audience enjoyed it at least. 

👍 PCO/Edwards - Thumbs up purely for PCO being a mad old bastard and putting his body through the ringer for my entertainment. Dislocating his shoulder mid-match was sickening - then using the ring post as a battering ram to knock it back into place? Jesus Christ. Fun! 

👍 X-Division title - First half of the match was perfectly solid without being spectacular, but I really enjoyed the second half between Speedball and Trey once Gresham got binned off. Some really nice creativity in the sequences and some gnarly spots to enjoy. There have been better X-Division title matches over the years but this helped to keep up the momentum of what had been an energetic card up to this point. 

👍 Men’s World title - Not spectacular, but it did have a good story and it had the air of a big fight feel with a good, slow build which increased in intensity towards the conclusion. I don’t think he’s everyone’s cup of tea, but I did enjoy Norfolk’s own Nick Aldis on comms for this one - some great contributions which added to the overall story. Gutted not to see Kushida get a crack at the strap, mind. I don’t mind Aldis personally, though I’ll admit there is a geographical bias attached with that! 

👍 Knockouts title - Absolutely great effort, this. I wasn’t sure it would work as the main event but they busted a gut and made the most of the opportunity they were given. Like the men's world title match, again this had a steady start which built to a great crescendo, and by the end I was even more hooked that I probably was for the previous match. Extremely physical and with great execution throughout and very difficult to call a winner as it progressed. 

👎 Hardcore War - Terrible. I love a good plunder brawl but this was far too contrived, devoid of heat and didn’t hit the desired effect in terms portraying something meant to be incredibly intense - it either looked terrible, clumsy or even hilarious at times, which either way is a bad combination. Bully, Dreamer, fuck off back to the wireless, please. 

👎 Crowd - I know the venue isn't massive but fucking hell, give it some wellie Toronto, would you? Usually you'd blame the product on the lack of an atmosphere, but there can be no complaints about that this evening - the performers were full of beans and bang up for putting on a show. I do think Impact misses having a particularly rabid audience. I’d actually advocate piping in more crowd noise - if these fuckers can't be bothered to crow about your product you might as well pretend other people do for the sake of the viewing public. The set looked great I thought - better to focus on that rather the 'ultras' in the audience.

Overall - If you're looking to get back into Impact, as I have via @garynysmon's recommendation a couple of weeks ago, this is as good a place as any to start. It's not like the TNA of old but in some ways I don't think that's a bad thing. There's a core group of strong talent here and despite the odd gaff, their production team pump out some really good vignettes to bring you up to speed on the wider goings on. If you've got a couple of spare hours there's a lot of good stuff on this show once you skip in-between the fat. I'm impressed and firmly back on board. 

1 hour ago, Gus Mears said:

Handsome Hossein's barnet when he can't be arsed to shave it is an unmitigated disaster. Someone buy that lad a pack of Gilette.

Definitely a transplant! You can see the outline. Only 28 and before this he looked about 50. Now he looks...well, about 45. But once it's all gone through he'll look about 30...by which time he probably will be. 

Bingham through now after vanquishing the Angry Farmer - Bing Bong can beat anybody on his day so always one to keep an eye on as he's always capable of reaching the latter stages. Poor season by recent standards for Gilbert. 

One other nugget I forgot to mention for the show - I’ve no idea how Excalibur is able to so easily rattle through all the different matches/cards coming up for the next Dynamite/Rampage and other things they have coming up with such ease. He does it every week, but on this episode in particular there were some real tongue twisters to spit out, like when he talked about the Triple A title matches, the stables, etc.

It’s not just the fact he rattles through them with ease, but he’s given such a short timeframe to actually get through them, especially on Rampage where everyone is pushed for time as it is. He’s absolutely fantastic at what he does even if there’s no way I can remember each match coming up off the top of my dome. 

1 hour ago, Shane O' Mac Version 2 said:

I miss the original brand split, from 2002-2007. They really tried hard to keep the brands separate. The first time they started to get wishy-washy with it was when Jeff Hardy came back and they just let them team even though Jeff was on Raw and Matt was on Smackdown. They even had matches in ECW, 'cause reasons. I excused it because it was the return of the Hardyz, but the boundaries really fell down from there. Absolute guarantee that wrestlers cross brands quickly this time around.

Great point - the initial draft definitely had the feel of an actual split, and when the rosters did converge together at the Big Four PPVs it felt like a really big deal and made for a number of fun ‘cross-promotional’ bouts too. 

This wasn’t without its issues in its own right - sometimes one roster would be absolutely smashing it (Smackers in 2002/2003) while another would be really struggling (Raw with HHH leading the charge with 20-minute opening monologues every week). The split PPVs were a mixed bag because sometimes the individual rosters weren’t deep enough to carry interesting enough cards. That said, it definitely felt like both rosters were unique and it did mean that when somebody did crossover, either for something interpromotional, an invasion/attack or something of that ilk, it definitely hit different. 

That Hardys example from 2007 was spot on as the pinpoint for where it started to crumble. It’s also the same sort of time they stopped doing the split PPVs and each PPV became a full roster deal again. This I think coincided with the first brand split’s eventual downfall. 

How many entertainment TV shows in your particular favourite genre air in a particular week? How many matches/competitions/meets are there for a given sport you enjoy each week? 

In both cases the answer is likely to be a high amount. It’s virtually impossible for anyone to watch every hour of everything, but these TV people aren’t daft - they know this. And that’s why they all make a concerted effort to make their particular show, or channel, or match etc to promote it, produce it well and to catch your eye to draw you away from the competition. 

Wrestling is exactly the same in that regard - WWE wants you to watch its own shows and not watch the competition. AEW wants to you watch all of its output and ideally not WWE’s shows. 4/5 hours of fresh content a week for each individual promotion is a lot, but then again the demand is clearly there, and this is still less than the output of many sports channels when covering a particular league/competition etc. 

Both companies are fully aware that people might choose one show over the other on a given week. This drives competition, this drives further marketing and promotion, and in the long term it creates a demand for more content and this is how the rights fees increase and how they become valuable commodities. 

15 hours or whatever it will be in total is a lot, but the notion that as a consumer you absolutely have to watch every hour of every promotion in every company is silly. Nobody is forcing you to do so - this might come as a shock but you are allowed to pick and choose what you want to watch. Mad I know. 

So, who has the time to sit and watch all of that in a week? Probably very few people. But networks are currently thirsting for wrestling content and this means that as consumers we’ll make our own choices. 

Also, imagine posting on a wrestling forum, something we’re all presumably passionate about to some degree, and complaining about there being too much wrestling on TV. 

Business is boomin’ folks. Learn to love it. But not all of it. Pick and choose it, yeah? If you’re really that worried about missing everything, I’ll watch it for you, then can look at my posts about them and skip the shit bits. I might even start a fucking Patreon at this rate. My reviewing talents are wasted here. 

Fair play to Pang Junxu - hung in there and showed he's one for the future. Ronaldo far from his brilliant best - but even when he's half asleep he's still better than virtually everyone else. Mad to think he won that without even getting a century. He'll need to raise his levels against Ding or Hossein though otherwise it could be an early-ish exit for the main man.