d-d-d-dAz

I could have lived without seeing 'Handsome Steve' doing his best to become 'Forgetful... Steve?'. Mate, the only way you'd look a billion dollars is if you got uglier. You've got the whole world at your feet. Absolutely no need for you to be doing silly bollocks. Someone get prime Orton to give him a ring, and have him point out that the beauty of looking like God's attempt at drawing a wrestler is you can do the absolute bare minimum and still be a star. Bumps are for normal mortals.

It's exceptional that all the 'journalists' and pundits reporting this, with an often completely un-subtle anti-Matchroom position, are the usual bought-and-paid-for suspects. Coppinger is never a phone call away from Turki (and formerly Bob), Glaser never more than a whatsapp away from Queensberry. It's a little bit harder to defend Eddie now the fight has been moved, but fuck it. A contract is a contract, and a Dana is a dickhead. War Hearn (never thought i'd say that).

Eddie and Matchroom look to have won. It's being reported that Joshua v Fury will take place at the Principality in Cardiff on Friday December 4, with a 1am-2am ring walk time for US broadcast. Not Wembley, but Cardiff has a roof which will come in handy in December. Friday fights aren't for me though..

The issue i'm having with this season is, it's got a bit of every element that can make Taskmaster occasionally difficult to watch. It's got people I don't particularly like (Lucas for being awful, Nina Conti for being rubbish, Ayoade for being a letdown); it's got too many convoluted tasks with little payoff and, the thing that can save it isn't there; there doesn't seem to be much warmth between the contestants as a group. Actually, i'd go a step further and say too many of them aren't naturally funny in an off the cuff setting. Only Chloe is a panel show regular stand up, and I think it shows. They're great, and I think it's a shame they're not on with a better group. If I was trying to be objective, i'd say Ayoade is maybe the funniest so far, as an individual, but a) meh and b) his act might have laughs, but it sort of fucks this format when you need the awkward hermit Moss character to be part of a group. Like I say i'd love to see Chloe on with other stand-ups they could bounce off.

I suspect you'd just brandish a crumpled, faded copy of Seth Rollins' headshot and you'd just have time to yell 'BEWARE THE ARCHITECT...' before fading back into your own timeline.

🎶 CITY 'TIL I CHOOSE! I'M CITY 'TIL I CHOOSE! I THINK I AM, I'M FAIRLY CONFIDENT I AM... I'M CITY 'TIL I CHOOSE! 🎶

Considering the largesse of the millionaire and billionaire class, it feels mad to begrudge ordinary people a couple of hundred quid on singing along to their favourite britpop anthems. There are a lot of reasons to hate the Oasis reunion, but i'm not sure one is it being an emblem of a bourgeois upper class moving ever further from the starving lower classes. They're just shit.

He's about the right age, to be fair.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdXuWEzsMvC/?stkn=MWkxbXQ1eWNzbmo0Yg== The year is 2026, and I'd be quite happy with a World Title main event scene that featured Penta and Ludwig Kaiser. Wonders never cease.

Rey Fenix must wretch into his cheerios every morning. He must have thought he and his brother had signed for the same company, but Penta has signed for the company that makes you a star and gives you a horse and sets you up for life... Rey Fenix has signed for the bigger bit of the company that makes you look a tit, crushes your soul and fucks you off. Heart wrenching for the lad.

Went into Camden tonight as there was a tech death metal double header on. I vaguely knew Allegaeon, but had never heard of Gorod. Allegaeon were excellent, but Gorod were a full 10/10. Absolutely superb. I've seen a lot of bands this year as I try and go to as many gigs as possible before turning 40 (including supports and festivals i've seen 113 bands - yes, i'm keeping a spreadsheet), but i've only got a handful of 10/10s; Dragged Into Sunlight, Earthless, Goose, Blood Incantation, Death to All and now Gorod. As always when I get a 10, I buy a t-shirt from the merch stand... and then on the journey home, as the post gig clarity sets in, I realise band shirts are always horrible and the only place i'll ever wear it will be at home or other gigs. Worth it.

My barber advised me how to arrange my hair to 'obscure' the 'thinning areas' around my crown. No. I was not aware I had thinning areas to obscure.

For all my ups and downs with CM Punk, I have never empathised with anyone more than I have watching CM Punk gasping for air in the altitude of Mexico City. The man looks half dead wrestling at sea level, for Christ's sake.

It's funny they've gone from clearly airbrushing Punk's images to make him look younger, to seemingly editing them to make him look older. Looks like an actual pensioner.

I haven't watched, but the Bleacher Report 'grades' article said that a) Baron Corbin was the show MVP, b) he's been consistently brilliant since he returned, c) he's been historically undervalued by the audience but is proving the office right and c) now WWE will presumably be now looking to move him into the world title picture where he belongs. I can't have my finger THAT far off the pulse, can I? It's Baron Corbin, for christ sake.

To be fair, it was only me not relaxed and being a cunt about it. I think, if i'm being honest, I just wanted to be put out of my misery as it looked increasingly likely to be true and my brain decided the only doubt left was that AEW hadn't confirmed and it created a weird anxiety in me. Apologies for being a twat to everyone, i've just been a bit blindsided by how much this has hit me and how much I didn't want it to be true. ETID were a foundational band for me and my friebds, then to find out one of their cool members was also into this weird thing I liked (and was very good at it) gave me a sense of attachment to Butcher and this just feels so awfully cruel. Sorry again, I don't often feel a nobhead for causing fuss on here but I do today.

Genuinely is worth it, I had no idea. Thank you.

I'm not saying it's a race. I'm saying I would assume AEW have, unfortunately for them, the responsibility to lead the conversation from a comms perspective and provide some clarity. In the same way football teams do if a player passes. I mean, they've deleted the Andrade post as that was clearly a fuck up and the comments of people losing their mind was unnecessary uncertainty. My point is more, people generally require clarity. Wrestling doesn't really have an authority in the same way as other sports, but in that vaccuum - I would assume AEW would be the ones to step up. That's separate to any tribute or heartfelt message. I just mean the process of someone who people really trust saying 'yes, this has happened'. But, equally, I appreciate i'm derailing the thread and I shouldn't be as I love the Butcher and i'm gutted. I would just say the music side of social has handled this in a far less messy way, with fans able to share their grief together. Wrestling fans are still arguing about whether its true. I just hope someone fills that gap quickly, so people can properly commemorate a quality wrestler and, seemingly, a very good bloke.

Believability is such a good word for him. Despite coming to the game late, he seemed to have really good instincts and, as others have said, a really elite look.

I don't agree. One of their wrestlers has died, apparently. The music community has rallied around pretty much immediately, whereas AEW is posting highlights of Andrade despite Butcher's death being confirmed by TMZ 2 hours ago. When I, or my teams, have managed social channels for sports teams/leagues, there is a crisis comms contingency that kicks in when something like this happens. Number one is, cancel the scheduled posts and address the situation as soon as you can. I'd consider unrelated highlights going up in the middle of a breaking death story to be right up there in terms of comms disasters to be honest.

For anyone keeping score, AEW just posted some Andrade highlights on social. I get it's all scheduled in advance so your team can have a weekend off, but you have to have contingency for situations like this. Such an aeful, heartless look. Whole community desperate for information and not only are you not sharing information on the horrible situation, you've also got no one thinking quickly enough to cancel the scheduled posts. Just a real shame.

This looks to be confirmed now, but I think AEW need to be the ones to grasp the nettle and confirm it officially if so. There's a lot of tribute posts online being utterly ruined by nobheads arguing about misinformation in the comments. If he's confirmed to be gone, someone with authority needs to say that and let everyone catch their breath. Currently a moment that should be uniting people is being weirfly divisive.

I think this Wednesday's Dynamite, already slated to be the Rebel Heart tribute show, might be the most unwatchably sad episode of television ever made. This has really taken the wind out of me. He seemed like such an honest, good guy just doing things he loved. 48 is no age. I hope he got every ounce of joy he could out of living 2 dreams, even if not for long enough.

Yeah, few places reporting it now. Gutted. Being an ETID fan as well as a wrestling fan, obviously, I was super invested in his story and thought he could have thrived in a bigger spot. Such a shame. Gutted.

Sorry not to look past Katie Taylor, as she's been an incredible ambassador for Irish sport generally, regardless of whether she was a female athlete. But, AJ/Fury... it makes my head hurt and my stomach turn to say this; but, I think I agree with Eddie completely. Urgh. Unless there's a big bombshell neither side is disclosing which makes Eddie/AJ look like mugs, I think i've agreed with everything he's said, and the other side's stories don't really stack up. Hope it doesn't happen.