RMC420

I haven't posted on here in a long time, but I just wanted to say that in the days of RIM and when I visited the UKFF a lot, I loved reading what $tew had to say. I never met him, yet I'm still really saddened by this news. It's a great shame. It's nice to see so many people I remember from days gone by saying such nice things about him.

Stewart Lee is wonderful, but the best for me is Daniel Kitson, who is an amazing storyteller. Both are masters of understanding comedy and how it works.

Yarennoka - Pride is alive!

I think there are 3 contenders from the UFC.Anderson Silva - stopped Lutter, Marquardt and Franklin.Rampage Jackson - beat Eastman, Liddell and Henderson.Randy Couture - memorable wins against Sylvia and Gonzaga.From outside the UFC, Gesias Calvancanti deserves a mention for first round winds over Nam Phan, Shaolin and Andre Amade to win the HEROs Lightweight GP.

It's on Setanta - along with all these fights:06/10/07 Marco Antonio Barrera v Manny Pacquiao WBC Super Featherweight Championship13/10/07 Derry Matthews v Matthew Marsh WBU Featherweight14/10/07 Juan Diaz v Julio Diaz Lightweight03/11/07 Joe Calzaghe v Mikkel Kessler Super middleweight10/11/07 Miguel Cotto v Shane Mosley Welterweight23/11/07 Fernando Vargas v Ricardo Mayorga Super Welterwieght Championship

is Judah/Cotto free on Setanta?i watched the build-up show, its gonna be awesome.

If you subscribe to Setanta, you'll be able to watch it at no added cost.I may have misread the Hatton blurb about Setanta folks having to pay more to see the fight.Here's the guff:Ricky's camp, led by Dennis Hobson and Fight Academy, has selected Setanta Sports to cover this crucial fight against Mexico's Jose Luis 'El Terrible' Castillo at the Thomas & Mack Centre in Las Vegas.Setanta Sports Director of Sport, Trevor East, commented: "Setanta is delighted to have secured Ricky's next title fight and we're thrilled to be working with the UK's most popular and talented boxer. This is further proof that Setanta Sports is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to showcasing the best UK sporting events."Ricky Hatton said: "I'm really looking forward to working with Setanta Sports for this world title fight. This fight should be a cracker as Castillo is one of the best pound for pound fighters in the world with over 47 KOs in his career, so all I can do is encourage people to pick up the phone and subscribe to Setanta if you want to see another world title fight return to England."Freeview viewers who want to see the fight will pay a fee of

Setanta brings the boxing on Saturday night/Sunday morning~!1:00am Explosive: Cotto v JudahPreview of the WBA Welterweight Title Fight between Miguel Cotto and Zab Judah.1:30am LiveWBA Welterweight Title Fight - Cotto vs JudahLive from Madison Square Garden in New York - Miguel Cotto the undefeated champion who posseses one of the hardest punches in boxing, will defend his title against two times world champion Zab 'Super' Judah in what is sure to be a knock-out match!And they've got Hatton in a couple of weeks as well. Although you have to pay extra for it...

Masa Fuchi and Gen'ichiro Tenryu.

Seeing Chyna's pork sword. Who could forget that?Benoit winning the title.

Chyna's clitoris turning into a penis.The murder of Paul Bearer.Whatever 'angle' was used instead of Puder's kimura on Angle being the starting point of a feud.

Zebra KidRF

Ric Flair. Musical Chairs. Raw.Or, any time he goes ape-shit.

Bob Sapp

Dave Batista

Toshiaki Kawada

But discussing what can/should be done to solve the problem of the exclusive 5 year deal being bad for British wrestling does warrant further discussion.Where should the "other" promotions go from here?

The exclusivity of FWA on the TWC means less UK promotions on the channel and thus more time available for decent wrestling - bonus!(I'm on Telewest and won't even be getting TWC so I can afford to be facetious, or am I?)

No. How someone can seriously justify having 3PW and TNA Explosion ahead of British wrestling on a British wrestling channel is beyond me.Imagine this situation (a few stereotypes thrown in). A football channel is set up to show football across the UK. It's free if you have Sky, so it's not like you have to go out of your way to see it. However, Scottish football is crap. The actual match is crap and the "production values" eg the stadiums the matches are played in are crap. The football channel signs a deal with the English Premiership where by only the Premiership can be shown as it is the only British league up to standard. Leagues of similar standards are then signed up from around the world, La Liga, Serie A, The Bundesliga. However, until they reach this standard the SPL, League of Wales and League of Ireland aren't allowed to be on TV.Imagine the uproar in the press of the celtic nations if this were the case. A perfect opportunity to showcase British football and expose and get people interested in the other leagues, flushed down the bog. Subsiquently the other leagues are left without a TV deal and continue to struggle along. Being a scotsman, I for one would be livid.The magazine show sounds like a fantastic idea. Showcase a couple of promotions a week and then give a rundown of shows happening in each area of the country. I'd be all for production standards being introduced here, but only at a level to which smaller promotions could reach. If one week TWC was struggling to get quality matches to show on TV, then they could interview a wrestler who tours the UK who could let the fans know what is happening in each fed they are wrestling in. I guess they could do this anyway.It's simple business practice that to try and make TWC work you have to get fans interested in the British scene. FWA aren't a British company, they are a Southern English company therefore only showing them is unfair to British wrestling and a bad business decision. Even if they were a British company, only showing them is unfair. Do the TWC really think that they are going to increase interest in wrestling in Britain by taking the focus away from British wrestling? Like Fadda said, 99% of wrestling fans in the UK are only WWE fans and even then they probably struggle to watch both Raw and Smackdown. Getting people interested in a product that they can actually go and see is the only way forward, because just now the WWE is the only game in town.Talking about production standards being a turn off. Nearly all of TWC's programmes will be a turn off to casual wrestling fans anyway. People won't watch foreign promotions because of the weird commentary, they won't watch small indies because they look crap, they won't watch TNA because it is a WWE rip-off.TWC shouldn't be designed to cater to internet smarks, although we are an audience who need to be reached. It should be designed to find all those wrestling fans in the UK who stopped watching wrestling after World of Sport died. It should be designed to find all those people that go to local shows and either only watch the WWE or don't watch any other wrestling at all. It should be designed to get people to go and watch British wrestling because it will only be benefitial to TWC in the long run.Only showing the FWA won't do that. Infact, I think it could have the opposite affect. In short, this shouldn't be looked on as an attack on the FWA. I think we all want the FWA to grow and prosper, but they shouldn't be the only ones to do so.

If FWA is the only promotion on TWC then that is truly sad for British wrestling. The whole point of having TV is that you have the chance to expose your product, get people interested in it and get them to give you money. By only having the FWA on TWC that suggests that FWA is the only game in town and if you don't like it there is nothing else out there. Hell even if you do like it, it suggests that there is nothing else out there.The British wrestling scene is still very regional. The FWA is a company working out of southern England. How can the British wrestling scene grow when a southern company is the only one shown? (Yes I've heard about FWA's expansion plans, but we are a long way that coming off). The TWC is a chance for British wrestling promotions to showcase their product to wrestling fans in Britain. I would say that it is the TWC's duty to ensure that the channel is set up to maximise the potential for growth in the British wrestling scene. Not doing so defeats the principle of having the channel. I understand the production values point. However the FWA are a long way from being the standard bearer. Infact, they themselves need to improve every aspect of their production before they start to worry about how bad other companies are. It's like saying that no US indie should be on TV unless they have the production standards of RoH (FWA's equivilant in production standards). But that's ridiculous as RoH has loads they need to improve.Anyway, I'm wasting words. My point is that TWC should be a mutually beneficial opportunity to expand the British wrestling scene. By only having one (average) British promotion on the channel, it kills that ideal.

I guess we won't be seeing any angles involving Colby Corino then...Sick jokes aside (and I had to get 1 in), the situation seems pretty simple to me. Everyone thought RF was an asshole before, now they think he's an asshole who wants to have sex with little boys. No karma about it.As for RoH, as long as the wrestlers still want to work for Gabe, then the promotion will endure. All the fans are "internet smarks" and will all know about the story by now. As long as RF has nothing more to do with the promotion then they'll continue to go to the shows. Mind you they still need to sort out who will now produce and distribute their videos - GS Video anyone?

All i can think is Chono decided to give Tenzan the big push then Inoki's come along and said he wants Nakamura as champion before his upcoming shoot fight(thats my opinion anyway). This leaves Tenzan with nothing but could have made Nakamura looking like a superstar if everything worked out, either way i doubt Inoki cares

Yeah, that's one way to look at it, but it still doesn't explain why Tenzan had to job in the tag.

I think the reason for that could be that the person who was going to job came down to two people, Chono and Tenzan. Chono knew that Tenzan getting the win wouldn't matter as there is no way Inoki will let him be the IWGP champ anytime soon, so Tenzan losing isn't really a big deal. Obviously it isn't right - but if Inoki doesn't want Tenzan at the top, what's the point of keeping him strong?

This was a good thread before the boring bullshit

Agreed. I fail to see how what tapes Pick watches matters in the context of this thread.Anyway, it seems obvious to me that Tenzan has been treated like shit again. The thing I want to know, is why? There must either be something wrong with him that we don't know about (aside from the usual bitching about his wrestling ability), or there are 2 camps in NJPW: One that thinks he is great and one that thinks he sucks and the booking levels these thoughts out.I just can't work out why you would build him up so well, give him the belt, get him over and then undo all that work so quickly. Why do New Japan act in such an un-Japanese like way when it comes to business? In a country where companies have anything up to 15 year business plans, why do New Japan change their opinions as often as the wind?However, what it does do, is spice things up in an otherwise dull puro scene just now.

I'd like to go for HBK, but Kobashi deserves to be in the running so I'll go for Kenta Kobashi.

Chris Sabin started wrestling in 2000, so surely he is out.

The only guy I can think of is Johnny Jeter - but I am not sure if he counts, I think he may have been around for more than a year

Dinsmore vs Basham - 2/3 Falls, OVW