Linus

As much as I like to see famous people fuck up, that still really isn't representative of the actual film it's taken from. There's plenty to hang them for, but doing a Saatchi isn't one of them.

Fucking hell, lads, at least post pictures! I had to go looking for these...

 

Anna Acton

 

Maddie Moate

 

Kathryn Ryan

 

Aisling Bea


Sara Pascoe


Jayne Connery, Big Brother


Abi Hardingham

 

 

If we're talking comedians, and I'm sure she's been posted before, Josie Long still looks ace...

As requested, here's a brief expansion of my point on "British" success:

 

Nationalities are artificial constructs. There is nothing that particularly links me to any other British person (excluding family, which I'll get to later), other than a vaguely shared socialisation. The shared values that we hold as "British" include as many negatives as positives, and are constantly changing/evolving. Thus, all I have in common with "great British heroes" like Nelson is that we were born on the same scrap of land.

 

Therefore, any kind of "pride" felt at purely being the same nationality as someone else is stupid, and used to divide. Any kind of "pride" at anything you didn't have a hand in is also stupid, so when I hear people say they were proud of their family because their grandfather yatta yatta yatta I roll my eyes. You weren't there, you didn't do shit.

 

What I am in favour of is localism, and you can definitely feel involved and connected to and influence those smaller communities (and I'd include the British wrestling "family" as one of those). Taking Paige as an example, those who went to shows that featured Brittani Knight and saw her early steps can feel some connection to her later success. It's still a bit stupid but it's as understandable as supporting your local football team or your national team in a World Cup. It's also a two-sided coin, in that someone like Finn Balor, who very much started on the UK & Ireland indies, had to put 2 years in at the performance centre before he was deemed ready for the WWE main roster. Is he still a UK & Ireland success story? It blurs at that point. Layla, as a professional wrestler, has nothing to do with British wrestling.

 

It's very much my own thing, and while I'd destroy jingoism & nationalism if I could, I accept that I'm just an old man and you can do what you like.

I apologise, this isn't the place for a discussion on patriotism.

British dad, German mum, born in Germany but lived in the UK from late 90s and started wrestling at Hammerlock.

Katie Burchill was British - she was Nikita, right? The lack of success for British women is a whole debate in its own, with its roots in various bans, women's wrestling on the continent being scarce, and the late start for joshi - Europe & Japan (to a much lesser extent) being where UK wrestlers traditionally worked outside the UK.

 

As for men, it's tough because they are such different eras. But Billy Robinson would also have a claim, main-eventing in several US territories & Japan, alongside Bulldog & Sheamus (listen to the Irish bristle at that).

It's a yawn of patriotism to try and claim Layla as a British success. She did no wrestling in the UK, moved to the U.S. as a dancer, and became a wrestler from there. Paige is undoubtedly the most successful female British wrestling product and that's coming from someone who doesn't even particularly like her stuff.

Yeah, ICW - and by smaller I purely meant their Manchester draw.

From a position of absolute ignorance, might it be the Ritz's willingness to book other, smaller-drawing promotions, thus risking diluting the main "product"?

I watched Slammiversary because, well, wrestlers speaks so highly of it. Here's my live tweeting...

 

I'm gonna watch Slammiversary and tidy the living room.

 

Classy opening, with a tribute to the Orlando fallen. Didn't TNA it.

 

SHUT UP POPE, SHUT UP POPE, SHUT UP POPE

 

I don't want any of these guys to win this X-Division match.

 

 

It's athletic but I don't watch TNA so I don't know why I should care about these people & they're not giving me a reason to.

 

X-Division title match. Won with an inside cradle. FFS. #TNAdIt

 

Hey, it's Al Snow & those guys who were in NXT! Snow stole Jackie Polo's gimmick. Who stole it from Bill Alfonso. Still shit.

 

YEAH!!! GRADO!!!

 

All Shera has done so far is get heat on him and he's even bad at that.

 

Grado's in! He's the first man - of 8! - tonight with any charisma. Luckily he has lots.

 

This is BAD professional wrestling.

 

Oh, well, I'm sure it'll improve now the "knockouts" are in...

 

Maria can't wrestle. As in she has an "injury" but I'm sure the other way is true, too.

 

Allie's "thing" is that she is shrill & annoying. Which would work if Al Snow just wasn't doing the same thing with a whistle.

 

Oh crap, it's Billy Corgan. I liked Rhinoceros but, man...

 

Corgan is awful. What is it about the rich cash cow that makes him attractive to TNA?

 

Hey, it's the Ghost of Earl Hebner!

 

Why is Sienna cosplaying as Havok? Does she tweet racist guff, too?

 

This is not even titilating. It's just bad. Knockouts? Fuckoffs, more like.

 

The heel was about to use a foreign object to win when another heel ran in & used a foreign object to help her win. No words.

 

Blaster Lashley makes a great silent monster. Unfortunately he's doing promos.

 

it's James Storm! He's still saying stuff about not making it! And now he's brought God into it. He's dead behind the eyes.

 

Storm is giving an opportunity to "Braxton Sutter". Sutter has a wooly hat instead of a personality.

 

Storm vs Sutter was functional and pointless. The epitome of this company.

 

It's Bram. A proven "anti-draw". And Eli Drake, who I failed to recognise in that EC3 parody video.

 

And this is for the King of the Mountain title. But not in a King of the Mountain match. #TNAdIt

 

Poor brawl, this. Just how many matches are on this show???

 

Duggan'd it. Onto BENNETT vs EC3. Maria just pronounced the T in wrestling. That's weird.

 

EC3 (and Galloway, for that matter) HAVE to be hoping this EVOLVE thing turns into a WWE gig, right?

 

I don't know what the fans are chanting but it sounds like "go Hidoh!" so I'll pretend it's that.

 

I can't necessarily fault the work but ehhhhhhhhh.

 

I guess EC3 has *something*, I'm just not sure what it is.

 

YEAH! BROKEN MATT!!! This shit is hilarious.

 

I always wanted to see Liberace crossed with Eddie Munster, wrestling his brother who is a colourblind The Crow.

 

This is terrible. As bad as any trainee "hardcore" match in any leisure centre in the country.

 

The Ghost Of Earl Hebner is having wicked trouble getting up off his knees.

 

What that was AWFUL. Imagine being invested in this.

 

It's the main event next. Galloway vs Lashley, tap out or knock out. I fear.

 

Oh, crap, there's ANOTHER match

Butch, have you seen American Balloon?

They were talking about Andrade Cien Almas and Lita made a point that Cien means 100 and "that's ten times ten" - at which point Graves turned to the camera and made a face. It loses everything in describing it.

Just the panel. But worth it for one glorious moment between Lita & Graves...

 

 

Ellering is a 63yr old man who hasn't been a regular on TV for 25 years. Most of that crowd weren't alive when the Road Warriors were in their prime.

Doesn't matter. Nick Bockwinkel wrestled before my prime and was pretty much done when I started watching wrestling. I'd have still recognised him if he came out today and wasn't dead. They ain't as bright as they like to think in Full Sail.

Yeah, but you - and I, for that matter - ain't normal, Butch. We ain't normal.

Ellering is a 63yr old man who hasn't been a regular on TV for 25 years. Most of that crowd weren't alive when the Road Warriors were in their prime.

Well, that was a bit good.

Apparently Owens worked a match on Superstars or Main Event as a heel recently. I didn't see it and I don't even remember who it was against, but the bloke who wrote the review said it was very well done. I think it might have been when they were over here, or one week either side of that.

Main Event against Ziggler about a month ago. All he did was headlocks. For about 80% of a 15 minute match.

It depends how you view time, and in a fantasy story it's tempting to view time as not all that linear once you introduce the ability to travel through it   But, yeah, it's a classic paradox but the ground is more wobbly here than usual.

Am I right in saying WWE Euroshop don't sell any kids T-shirts for 5/6 year olds? Was looking for one of those Bootios boxed shirts for my niece but the "youth" sizes don't have any sort of reference to age and the measurements they give seem to be way too big for her.

The small youth are a bit big on my 6yr old but not so much that she can't wear them.

It's not really a paradox, it's just a reveal of how things have always been. Wylis became Hodor. He always became Hodor. He always became Hodor because of Bran. We're just now seeing why.

Can Jon Snow actually die now? I wouldn't be surprised if someone tries to kill him and it doesn't work.

Also, why does no one seem to care about the massive white walker army any more?

Assuming it was the Red Lady's magic that brought him back, yes - Beric Dondarion could die and Dennis Pennis had to bring him back again.

 

And Ed mentioned them this week so no-one's forgotten.

Wasn't a bad show and parts of it were great. Cass was great in his bits, and Enzo must be sitting at home going "fuck!" The bit with Ambrose at the end went a bit long (although not as long as the ROH angle on Sunday) but was fun, and Zayn vs Miz was a really good match. Nice to see Dana Brooke, too.

 

I couldn't care less about the US title, which is sad because I like Rusev, and the Charlotte thing was dumb. Plus, Stephanie killed the SAWFT but by doing it and thus stripping it of all cool.

 

Oh, and does anyone else get the vibe that Shane & Stephanie are acting like a divorced couple forced to work together who will eventually re-marry?

There are 3 things separating Nakamura vs Zayn from the usual Nakamura match in Japan (and I've seen - and loved - plenty in the last 18 months):

 

1) A hot (if occasionally annoying) crowd

2) Sami Zayn

3) The slow realisation that he was going to be able to keep his shit in WWE

 

Because of those 3 things you absolutely cannot compare it to Nakamura vs Tanahashi or Nakamura vs Okada, and it has to be judged on its own merits. And it had lots and lots and lots of merits. Occasionally people talk up matches and you can't see why they're so highly rated - sometimes that's absolutely because the hype machine has gotten out of control - but with this match, if you didn't like it, you just have to accept it was a great match but it just wasn't for you. That happens all the time to me.

card for me for angle/sabre is crazy stacked. some of my favourite wrestlers, some guys i've never seen and some guys i've wanted to see for years. 

 

they don't seem to be slowing down with the matches either. 

 

whats the deal with rev pro? is the owner a little rich kid or something ?

cards they've been putting on don't seem sustainable. 

 

EDIT: i wonder if dar/scurrl will actually happen. dar seems to have plenty of reasons for not being allowed in matches since his global cruiserweights spot got announced

 

They sell 1200 seats where the cheapest are £20 and front row alone brings in £2000.

There's a Wiki dedicated to the show (and the books) that has an episode guide each week. The cool thing is that they give background to things by saying what's been explained in the books and referencing past episodes, without spoiling anything that hasn't been shown on TV, if that makes sense.