Carbomb

I like the guy a lot, he seems really nice, and he's one of the best workers and promos in the business ever. But yeah - the character and the way he's booked is one of the reasons I switched off. I'd probably enjoy hanging out with the guy, then stay in the pub while he goes off to work on RAW (or whichever programme he's on now).

Absolutely. As I say, there is a problem with anti-Semitism on the Left (actually, given the option, I hate using the term "anti-Semitic", as I think the very act of differentiating one kind of racism from another is racist in itself - racism is racism is racism), and it needs to be addressed. When I mentioned the Tories and the Right, it isn't to excuse what's going on on the Left - you're 100% right that we need to set the benchmark much higher than ourselves. But my point was that, if for some reason I forget my own principles and history, and need to be taught what it is to fight against anti-Jewish racism, I don't think there are any real lessons to be had from people who had "Want A Nigger For A Neighbour? Vote Labour" or Article 28 or the Right Club.

I don't think that's what Gar was doing, though. He was saying that the right-wing habitually uses accusations of anti-Semitism as a smoke-screen to shut down otherwise completely unconnected and legitimate criticisms of the Israeli government, especially those from the left, and that is demonstrably true. I know there are at least four distinct circles in the Venn diagram: Jew, Israeli, Zionist, and Israeli government, and they are not the same thing, but the right-wing frequently attempts to claim that they are, to demonise the left when it criticises the Israeli government's actions. There are plenty of left-wing Jews and ordinary Israelis who criticise the state of Israel, and a lot of Zionists are American fundamentalist Christians who fund it and its projects, or simply US government pragmatists cynically looking to keep a white outpost amongst all those brown people in the Middle East, and keeping them de-stabilised into the bargain. That isn't to say that Labour doesn't have a problem with anti-Semitism - of course it does. Corbyn has shown he's too slow to deal with it, and it's hurt him. It's a big problem with the modern left in that they've for too long bought into the bullshit logic of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend", and it's seen people who should know better turning into morons, cosying up to some of the worst individuals on the planet just because they oppose the US. That needs dealing with, both internally and externally. It's just a bit difficult to take the word of a load of people who've historically shown they're in the habit of smearing any Labour leader that's turned out to be even a little bit left of Blair. The only reason why they didn't chuck the "anti-Semite" epithet at Milliband was because he's actually Jewish, and they knew they'd sound stupid. So they just bullied him about his bacon sarnie-eating, and called his father a traitor who hated Britain instead. I'm not an actual Labour supporter, as even under Corbyn I don't think they go far enough to really address the actual needs of people in this country. But I'll be voting for them because they're the closest a mainstream potential government party has come in my lifetime to my politics. I don't believe Corbyn is an actual anti-Semite; if I did, I wouldn't vote for him. I do believe that the Tories are historically a racist party who need even more scrutiny than Labour do, though. Maybe Corbyn is, in complete contradiction to his words and public actions over the years, an anti-Semite who's planning to put into action horrible mechanisms via law and logistics to do horrible things to Jews in this country. But I'll be damned if I'm taking a lesson in anti-Semitism from the fucking right - anti-Semitism is ingrained and organised in their fucking history, with the Right Club, the League of Empire Loyalists, the Nazis, the BUF, the fascists, all of them, and the left fought them throughout its history. I know which side's the good one.

Did a bit more reading up on Kron. Seems that, in grappling, his bogeyman is Sergio Moraes, against whom he's 0-3.

It is, and it isn't, in a way. They'll mostly be trained well in the fundamentals of how to tell stories in the ring, psychology, selling, character, etc. - you'd be surprised just how many indy darlings don't seem to display that kind of understanding. It could be problematic in terms of differentiating the style, but the overall promotion doesn't have to be about just the wrestling style - it's the presentation, TV format, big event format, booking, and so on. That WWE haven't been the same way all throughout its history shows that they can vary things up and not have it necessarily be about "pure sports" and such (although I really do like the idea of punditry and a newsroom). There are so many different modalities to play with, they don't have to be WWE-lite. One potential bonus is that, through the working relationships, they might get to experience different wrestling styles from all over the world, be that Japan, Mexico, the UK, continental Europe, etc. Might help them gain a breadth of knowledge they might not otherwise get working in WWE. But for the moment, I'd say the NXT overspill would serve to bolster their midcard; I reckon they'll have to build their main event roster from current big stars (however much money that requires throwing at free agents), and then once Double Or Nothing's out of the way, they can start working towards making homegrown main-eventers.

They can certainly fill their midcard from NXT releases. Whilst they may not necessarily be top-level, WWE's Performance Centre training is such that even the people that don't make it to the main roster can probably get over massively elsewhere, and as WWE can't get everyone onto their roster, AEW can probably benefit from the overspill. Also, not every decision WWE makes to cut will necessarily be the right one; on occasion, they might release someone they shouldn't who then goes on to get over in another promotion as a main-eventer.

I always thought he looked like Miguel Ferrer when he was younger.

Is that where you pay a monthly fee and get unlimited downloads? I got Comixology because I didn't want two separate apps for DC and Marvel, plus you get loads of stuff from other comics publishers. However, recently, I tried to get Comixology Unlimited, as they're always advertising it on the app, and it seems they don't allow it in the UK. Given how long they've had it for (it's been a few years already), it's a bit shit they haven't rolled it out here yet (or ever), especially when they still have adverts pushing it.

I've posted this in the Chippy thread before, but a question once came up on Eggheads where the answer was that, in Ireland (specifically Dublin), fish and chips was traditionally referred to as a "one and one". Did a bit of reading, and it turned out that was because the first time fish and chips were ever sold in Ireland was by an Italian couple who sold it from a cart in the street. There was such a queue that the woman took orders from the customers as they lined up, saying "uno di questa, uno di quella?" meaning "one of this, one of that?" Obviously, a portion of each. Love that bit of trivia.

I knew Heyman was behind him keeping it, but I didn't know that that was what happened. Cheers!

Another good one: Chavo Guerrero Sr./Chavo Classic. Won several NWA Americas titles in 1975, won the WWE cruiserweight title in 2004. 29 years.

...Factoter is correct. It's an OK action film with fun sequences and big screen special effects, but it's not great, and doesn't hold up on re-watches, and certainly not on a small screen.

I don't know, man. Look at CM Punk. The value he had before joining WWE was largely confined to the indies; he was pretty niche. I don't think anyone would argue that the overwhelmingly larger part of his name value is because of WWE. But he came up with it before joining them, and as such he's now able to use it wherever he likes. Same could be argued to a certain degree for Rob Van Dam (although ECW's reach was much greater than the later indies). Sure, it's not quite the same thing, as Austin was in the WWF at the time of the nick-name's creation, but I think Punk's example demonstrates that giving a wrestler's name value doesn't give WWE a claim to it.

Sorry, corrected it earlier. He debuted as "Runnels" in OVW in 2006. He only changed to "Rhodes" when he got called up to WWE in 2007. EDIT: To @chokeout

It's political correctness gone mad, I tell you.