Linus

The struckthrough KENTA is a call back to how he was introduced. And also because his new name is rubbish.

 

I accept the point about spoilers, though, and I'll drop that.

 

 

A thought struck me watching the show - is NXT the first promotion to have a big time TV show which isn't being used to sell live tickets, PPVs or DVDs?

TNA are doing a good job.

I wish I could favourite this ^

It's championship week on NXT! Two out of the three titles are up for grabs, pretty much like every week. But it's Championship! Week!

Women's matches on Raw fill me with dread. Women's matches here are a delight. Bayley and Charlotte have another great little match, and I can't help but have dirty thoughts about Ric Flair's Boy at some points in this. I am a monster. Bayley's leg got bent a lot. I could only think of my own poor useless knee and wince. Charlotte won and showed hustle and respect by hugging it out with Bayley at the end. This felt like a goodbye to Bayley - where does her story go from here?

KENTAHideo Itami is still fighting against two men every week. I get that build is everything, but it makes him look like a geek. Maybe that's because I don't buy the Ascension as tough? Surely, for the love of God, though, there's some babyfaces that could have tried to save him? As it is, REDACTED will destroy the Ascension. That's not a bad thing.

Enzo & Cass bring the funny. Last week I thought Carmella was Enzo's sister. I hope with the way he sniffed her hair and felt her up this week that it isn't the case.

Troy McClain doesn't get entrance music. Troy McClain looks like he's wearing dress pants. Troy McClain gets squashed by Baron Corbin.

It's the Vaudevillains! They rock. While this match was on I remembered how Jason Albert came into the WWE, kayfabe at least. He was Droz's piercer & tattooist. Who became a wrestler. Let that sink in. Sam Gotch used TWO airplane spins. Dillinger and Jordan know their place and the Vaudevillains win.

Titus is here to watch the main event. I am sure nothing untoward will occur.

Oh, Bayley isn't done. She has to fight Sasha Banks! Because they both want to be champion! That's your aspiration society right there. Cameron's Britain.

KENTAHideo Itami is told to keep his shoulder iced. Funaki appears and tells him he's got his back. WHERE WERE YOU TEN MINUTES AGO??? Oh, and Itami stopped icing his shoulder. You were told.

It's Tyson Kidd's last chance to win the NXT Championship because, I don't know, reasons. For all that I don't much like Kidd or Neville, they have a Good Match here. Titus interferes, which can only make NXT look second-rate (I know it is supposed to be, but still). But SAMI ZAYN~! kicks the spit out of Titus and urges to Neville to continue. You know what I like about Sami Zayn? Everything. But especially that he looks like Seth Rogen. Neville wins and that's Kidd done, I guess. Why would you stick around in a promotion where you are FORBIDDEN from winning the title. I dunno.

A thought struck me watching the show - is NXT the first promotion to have a big time TV show which isn't being used to sell live tickets, PPVs or DVDs?

Yeah, yeah, I know. More bad jokes and bewilderment.

John Cena said some stuff to Renee Young. I've always liked Cena, despite myself at times. I can see how he splits opinion but I think he's incredibly valuable. And he acted a bit scared of Ambrose, which is awesome.

Oh, Christ, who did I piss off in a past life to get another women's match? This is no better than the others. Why does AJ Lee skip? What's with that? Is she supposed to be crazy? Then why isn't she ruining men's lives, like all the other crazy women? Am I right, fellas? Paige has an odd accent. It's as off-putting as her pallor. I get that they're going for the goth thing but it just makes her look like... shit, who does she like? Wait, VAMPIRO! Paige looks like Vampiro! Fail. Oh, that Alicia woman won. And then got pointless beers. I don't understand anything.

Luke Harper is free! Where's he going? Is this care in the community? That-cherrrrrrr!!!

Okay, here's the thing about Sheamus. He's a decent enough hand, and he has a perfectly acceptable wrestling match with Mizdow here, which he wins. He's got a good size, and some good offence, even if he's clearly not wearing brogues and therefore shouldn't be allowed to call his finiher that. The thing is... he's so pale. He so pale that I can't think of anything else when I see him. I know Irish people. They're not pale. Even the Scotch (that one's for you, Kenny) people I know aren't that pale. He just looks ill. Does he have to cover up wherever he goes? Does he ever see sunlight? Tan up, man!

The orange goblin comes out in pink to big up the breast cancer thing. It would be stupid of me to make fun of it so I won't. Good work, fellas.

Kane looks like such a geek fighting in suit trousers. This is a DEMON. A man who fucked a dead girl. The one who burned his family to death. And now he's a businessman, in his suit and tie, and his fat head makes me laugh. How the mighty* (*may not have been mighty) have fallen.

It's ironic that they call Ambrose the lunatic fringe because the way he's losing his hair he soon won't have one.

They have a match here, with the heat on Cena, and some very audible calling from Kane. Remember I said last time about Ambrose having that charisma, that star appeal? I've always thought Orton has it, too, despite shitting in people's bags, yewtreeing, and what have you. That he's still around after all the shit he's pulled tells you how valuable he is, or how low the moral standards of this company are. Both, probably. Anyway, in with Ambrose & Cena & Orton, Kane looks even worse.

And then Rollins - with his perfectly sculpted, sexually-satisfying arms (okay, fella?) - comes out and he's only marginally above Kane. Orton's mere presence next to him in the beatdown at the end - and it's Orton's RKOs that finally down the heels, look - reduces Rollins's heat. Weird booking.

It's rumoured they're going with Cena & Ambrose at Hell In A Cell, which makes sense because they've got nothing else, but needs to be a schmozz to save it for the down the line. A whole PPV based around the ultimate feud blow-off is utterly stupid, anyway. Unless it's a shark cage match. That would rule.
 

I bow to superior knowledge on Cesaro. Shame he can't be sent to another territory for a year or so. Shame on you, the march of time!

 

In other news, you'll be pleased to hear that the principal owners of the UKFF have decreed that you don't have to read my ramblings if you don't want to! And also that I'm off to watch the rest of Raw!

 

And that's as far as I could get in one sitting. More tomorrow~! Maybe~!

]

I fucking hope not, memoirs from a idiot vol. 1 was enough.

Well, if I wasn't going to carry on before there's no way I can't now!

Reported for this:

like he needs more arms in those ropey arms

 

 

Bloke has seriously pumped bi's and tri's. What show are you watching?

Eh, I don't know. He just seems ropey. Maybe it's his outfits? *shrug*

I just found out Lady Sue, Gangster's mum, died last year. She was a top lady, and always kept kayfabe by calling me Mark. Or maybe she thought that was my name. Either way. Sad I missed the tribute show. Sad, period.

Hey! I watched Raw! Well, half of it, so far, because it's a long ass show these days. Seriously, weekly TV that lasts as long as a PPV? It's like Russo won.

So, yeah, decent start with some good tawky tawky. Stephanie is quite the professional now. I remember when I could barely stand to hear her talk, now she's good at it. Good Punk put down, too.

Colt Cabana's giant head!

Heyman plays scared better than almost anyone. Non-wrestling talent should ALWAYS be scared of wrestlers.

Rollins needs more bass in his voice like he needs more arms in those ropey arms.

Boo, Cena, boooooo! You ruined it.

Haha, it's Jamie Noble and... wait, is that Joey Mercury? Jeez, time has not been kind. I thought it was Mike Modest! They are total geeks.

Dolph without R-Ziggler is half the man he could be. Miz with Mizdow is double the fun, and brilliantly done. Excuse me, because I've been away, but how did Cesaro NOT become part of the main events in New York? He's big, can work, can talk, has a good look... *shrug* ... Anyway, Ziggler wins because reasons.

Haha, Noble & Mercury are geeks.

Bray Wyatt is weird and I like him.

NXT has been my way back into this stuff and the most noticeable thing is how much better the women are on NXT than on the main roster. Seriously, Layla & Rosa - and Brie and the other two schmucks later - all absolutely fucking SUCK. Like worst than my first match, or even the match I did with the guy who'd had half a day's training. They're AWFUL. I don't blame Tyson Kidd for not watching. He could also do with a less nagging wife. Who's the babyface here - Tyson or Natty? Oh, Layla wins, like anyone - including Layla & Rosa - cares.
 
It's Dean Ambrose! It's really tough to do Pillman 2k14 on a PG show but he's pulling it off. I just want to like him. That's charisma. Few have it. He does. And he's retreated upo into the bleachers, like that time Vampiro and Mike Awesome fought up there in WCW and Vampiro hit Awesome with a microphone they were using to amplify the dead crowd...

I don't like Rollins. I do like seeing him covered in goo. Such a mark. However, even I thought the vibrator gag was beneath him.

I can't believe Mark Henry is still employed, and that they still haven't found anything good to do with him.

Bo Dallas is an odd one. He's got a weird look, and his voice is a bit shaky. But knowing he's a Rotunda makes me want the best for him, and Bo-Lievers are like a cult, right? Surely they can do something with him that's a bit darker? Like his brother? Anyway, Mark Henry killed him. Then lost to him. Then killed him backstage, even though Dallas had done nothing but fought & pinned him CLEAN. Modern life~!

Jesus, more women. This is the first Brie Bella match I've ever seen. I assumed, because she's married to Bryan Danielson, that she might be half good. Assume makes an ass out of u and me. Charlotte & Bayley would KILL these women. Please let them. Yes yes blah blah yes blah.

Heh heh, it's a little alligator man. I'd pay to watch him every week. I wouldn't pay to watch Titus & Slater, though. They're shit. And boring. And Titus is a heel but he just told us how sad he was when his grandma died. Heels don't care. Oh, and what's the Reverend Jesse Jackson doing high-fiving a heel? Does he have no psychology at all?

I'd like Adam Rose more if he wasn't South African but I like him plenty enough anyway. I bet the boys in the back all draw lots to see who gets to have fun in the bunny suit - best job ever. Except being the Gator. He ruled. Los Matadores are Spanish, right? What's that? Puerto Rican? Why, that's just RACIST. I can't even remember who won. I do know that the Reverened Jesse Jackson, the splitter, celebrated with the bunny afterwards. I ask again: Where's the psychology, Jesse, where's the psychology?

Oh, God, Bo Dallas and Mark Henry must fight again on Main Event, whatever that is.

You know that big guy Rusev? Yeah, the one who's been destroying people? Turns out he's a geek and the Gaint is better than him at everything. There's money in a powerful, cheating, undefeatable heel. There's no money in geeks.

And that's as far as I could get in one sitting. More tomorrow~! Maybe~!

A review~!

 

Mojo Rawley versus Bull Dempsey - WHY ARE THEY STILL FIGHTING? Oh, now Mojo got beaten up by a small fop. Sucks to be him.

 

Tyer Breeze versus Justin Gabriel. Breeze's gimmick goes beyond the HBK Sexy Boy stuff and into weird. He should be on the register. I believe Justin Gabriel has been on the main shows while I've been away. Standards have obviously fallen. None more indy. Breeze's boots are sweet. What is Gabriel's gimmick? Is he Nise Dirt Bike Kid? I don't know. Maybe it's that he hits MOVES~! without success?

 

Bailey versus Alexa Bliss. Alexa Bliss needs to have a dark secret. Like she's into scat or something. Bayley's new outfit is very Macho Man. That's a good thing. Wacky wavey people~! The thing I like about the women in NXT is that they try to do wrestling. Slow impact it may be, but it's wrestling. I'd like to go belly to Bayley. Hey, it's Ric Flair's boy!

 

Hey, it's a wacky skit. Enzo has a sister! She wants to wrestle. Enzo says she's uggo. Haha, she's not! HOW YOU DOIN'? I fucking love these guys.

 

Enzo Amore versus Marcus Louis. Haha, I remember this angle when it was Kurt Angle. Louis with no eyebrows looks like a wrong 'un. SAWFT~! Enzo is awesome and I can't understand how Cass isn't already main-eventing Raw. They're just saying words. This is brilliant. These French guys are rubbish. I don't get how the French can ever be threatening heels. They just smell, am I right? Here all week.

 

Lucha Dragons versus The Ascension. The Ascension are the sum of so many tag teams from the past - the Acolytes, the Eliminators, etc - and yet so much less than all that. Lucha Dragons are perfect for fans of sloppy lucha. I miss Enzo already. This ref looks like a young Teddy Long - needs more moustache, though. I just read that this Sin Cara isn't the old Sin Cara, who was Mystico, but isn't Mystico now, he's Mysteziz. Still with me? Hey, look it's KENTA Hideo Itami, Distraction victory! They should be more professional. KENTA Itami needs a partner if he's going to take on the Ascension. I wonder if there's anyone out there...?

I watched some lucha~! It was the Atlantis/Ultimo Guerrero, mascara contra mascara match. I like Ultimo Guerrero because he's a tgop rudo and I once saw him wrestle at the Tate Modern with Satanico, Olimpico & Rey Bucanero, FOR FREE. I like Atlantis because he has fish on his mask, and you can't teach that.

 

It was from the CMLL 81 anniversary show. 81 fricking years. They've been doing this since 1933 and it's still increible, as they say.

Ultimo Guerrero entered the ring wearing the bossest headdress you've ever seen, real exotico stuff. And started the match off by kicking Atlantis wearing it. Bawss.

 

The ring is sponsorfed by Cementos Fortaleza. Their logo has a REAL WORKING MAN on it. Aces. The ring girl is beautiful. Lucha~!

Ultimo Guerrero takes the first fall after BRUTALISING  Atlantis for, like, four minutes. He was tearing at the mask, too. In a mascara contra mascara match. Like his style. Pin comes after a really sweet schoolboy reversed into armbar into roll-up into pin.

Atlantis took the second fall with el Pulpo, the octopus, a submission usually used by Guerrero, after another four minutes. Mostly Guerrero on offence until that point.

 

They traded a bit more in the third fall, with lots of *very* near pinfalls, made all the more dramatic for this viewer by the referee's odd habit of not counting the first fall when he dives down to the mat, making it look like it's a four-count every time. Weirdo.

 

MASSIVE top suicida from Atlantis. Last time I saw him do one like that he busted Villano III hardway. Admittedly, I haven't seen many Atlantis matches since then. But still~! Speaking of that match, this wasn't at the level of that, but was still pretty good. If you've never seen Atlantis vs Villano III, get thee to youtube!

 

Oh, sweet spot. Guerrero had Atlantis sitting in the turnbuckle and did this handstand on the top turnbuckle, swinging down into a bronco buster. He went to do it again and Atlantis got up and pushed the handstanding Guerrero off the turnbuckle to the floor. Top top.

 

Ooh, another - inverted superplex by Guerrero this time. Superstuff without looking spotty. And then out of nowhere, Atlantis catches Guerrero in a torture rack (fourth time he'd tried) and Guerrero taps out. Ahora, el es sin mascara~!

 

Ultimo Guerrero revealed he was Jose Gutierrez Hernandez, 42 years old, with a 24 year career, and cut a babyface promo while his family cried. He has an odd face.

I've been slowly getting back into this stuff. No going back now, just re-subscribed to WON... ulp!

Odd, self-centered request more than a question, but if anyone has DVD or digital copies of anything featuring Mark Priest or the FYC, can you please PM me? Ta.

I'm old school in that an Intercontinental/US title is sufficient for the smaller guys, with the real standouts moving up to the World title. Where you have to be smart is to keep the true heavyweights out of that secondary division.

 

With NXT, as with ECW, there is less of a need to separate the bigger lads from the smaller, because the whole show is about that fast-paced style.

Just got caught up with NXT. Enjoying watching wrestling again and trying not to second guess or criticise the booking. Impossible job, but hey ho!

 

Hideo Itami (because you can't not take 100% of merchandise revenue, can you?) had a mixed start: brilliant on Takeover, but giving away too much in his first outing, and then getting jobbed out to the awful Ascension. Hopefully his run with them will be short-lived because he obviously has something.

 

Emma has the worst gimmick ever. Charlotte still looks like a man. Are we sure Reid died?

 

Baron Corbin's bit was smart enough but he's a bit thin and committed a cardinal sin for a big man by not stepping over the top rope. Unusually for a mmodern wrestler, I like his tattoos.

 

I just don't get Adrian Neville. Can't talk, looks awful, worst kind of spot machine. But he's still better than Tyson Kidd, who has all the bad things about the Harts and none of the good. Sami Zayn is a god, and I liked his Palestine t-shirt. Good lad.

 

NXT is a very watchable show, which I find Raw and Smackdown aren't. Weird.

Just watched the last few NXTs. 3 things that struck me:

 

1. You can certainly tell Charlotte is Ric Flair's boy.

2. Adrian Neville really shouldn't talk. Ever.

3. Sami Zayn is fucking brilliant.

I am slowly being pulled back into wrestling. I have caught odd bits of WWE over the past few weeks and I really like Dean Ambrose. He's the third best Dean in wrestling ever. I also watched the whole of last week's NXT. Enzo Amore and Sami Zayn have IT.

By the way, can anyone remind me of the title of the arc where a villain is taking out all the Justice League, and it turns out it's a guy who's gotten his hands on Batman's contingency file?

It's JLA vol3 16-17, collected in the Strength In Numbers TPB.

Silsbee High School, his alma mater

How did TAKA work for ECW in 99?

Vince always had an enthusiasm for letting his talent work ECW, an attitude further cemented by the accounts of Heyman's firm when they closed, showing that he owed Vince lots of money in loans. Basically, ECW was the competitio that was never a serious threat, and thus to be encouraged because they were a great place to farm for talent.

I had a dream a couple of weeks ago that I was Lee McDonald, Zammo from Grange Hill, and I'd been chosen to play the new Doctor. We were filming the regeneration scene and it occurred to me that it was a bit rubbish, a bit half-arsed, so I spoke to a friendly member of the crew and he admitted that I wasn't the new Doctor, I was only a diversion for the press. The new Doctor was already filming a battle scene down the road! So I ran out of the studio, through town, and to this field where, yes, there was a huge battle scene being filmed, and right in the middle was the new Doctor Who...

 

Will Mellor.

Booker T & Hugh Morrus weren't there.

 

As well as Lance Storm, Stacy Kiebler, Chavo Guerrero, Jr., Shawn Stasiak & Mark Jindrak, there was also Mike Awesome, Sean O'Haire & Chuck Palumbo.

Without saying too much, there is a reason there's been a delay - and also a reason that number 1 may never be posted, and none of you would blame Kenny if it wasn't. However, if he does go ahead, it'll be awesome.......

A bit of a quickie.Why hasn't Sting (the singer) not sued Sting (the wrestler)?Thank you brahs.

Because the terms are trademarked, rather than copyrighted. They're protected within their particular spheres of the entertainment business, but if Steve Borden ever released an album, he'd have to change his name. Likewise if Gordon Sumner ever wrestled.

Since he comes from The Punjab, is The Great Khali a Sikh?

As his real name is Dalip Singh, I'd almost certainly say yes.