kieranjennings

1 hour ago, Devon Malcolm said:

Do you, in all honesty and sincerity, really think that The Rock is going to eat a pin from Cody Rhodes?

Smackdown's made us all lose our minds. Next someone will say that Nick Aldis is going to book himself in a fourway with the three of them.

No idea - Rhodes could get the pin on Reigns in that scenario and claim later it's only because did x,y or z and still giving him some protection. There's just a long way to go to get to the event so it's a case of see what happens next.

I can see it becoming a triple threat as you certainly get more eyes on Cody globally that way. If he's seen as the choice going forward then you are putting him in a more public position than just headlining against Reigns. 

As there's 8 weeks to go - couldn't this just be chapter 1 in a story that sees it becoming Rhodes/Rock/Roman in a Triple Threat? I imagine with Rock then doing the honours so Rhodes becomes champ but Reigns can later come back to say he was never actually beaten. 

There's just such a long time to go and I reckon a lot of it could be to build further groundswell support for Cody. 

I've just gone through both series of The Bear in the last week and it's a brilliant show. Richie is great and after the episode Forks you can't not love him. 

I've been watching Cheers from the start on Paramount+ because I'd only ever seen bits of it every now and again. Just at the end of season 5 and I agree that it's excellent.

My only gripe is the quality of the beer pouring! Some of the heads on the drinks they had over, and that customers accept, drive me nuts!!!

Something else that I enjoyed from the two nights though was the sheer diversity of the roster now. A good mix or older hands & new faces, a lot of different looks all presented uniquely, a good mix of high fliers & brawlers & the some good monsters. A proper eclectic mix which was more about ‘attraction’ than in previous years. 

31 minutes ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

That’s it in a nutshell. Everyone was hyped at his promos leading up, tugging on Dusty’s legacy, and was going on to achieve what he didn’t. Jay ain’t becoming world champion, they aren’t going to dethrone the most dominant wrestler since the 80’s with his cousin whose been a tag team wrestler almost his entire career, but when Cody wins its impact will be lesser then it is now.

What impact will be less though? On business? Probably not. Making a new star? Maybe, but he’s fairly hot anyway & has enough to keep himself on top despite the loss. Big emotional moment? Maybe, but I don’t think this is the end of the story so that big moment can still come.

The next step now is most important as he could have won but gone down the McIntyre or Bryan routes where you get the big win but there’s no substance behind it or following it.  He’s shown that he can have Reigns where he wanted him, he has allies & he was cheated. Tick that over for a while & when it happens it will still have an impact & mean just as much

2 minutes ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

Nah, absolutely not, you crown someone when the most eyeballs are on the product and you make a stand, saying ‘see this guy, the blonde one with the silly tattoo and weird speech pattern? He’s our guy, he’s the guy’.

Rolling him into a parade of rematches just enters him into the merry-go-round of other challengers. If the point is earmarking someone as ‘special’, then they had everything in their hands at Mania and decided against it.

I’m just coming around to the opinion there might be, by design, no plan other than to keep Roman on top as long as they can because they rate him that highly.

Or conversely you engage people into the next chapter whilst there's the most amount of eyeballs on them. I've not been following that closely but me and my son watched the main event and are now bigger on Cody Rhodes than we were before the match. Son feels he's been cheated and all that nonsense that we don't worry about so in that way it's worked.

You are probably right about the last point though that it's more a mark of how highly they rate Reigns and not wanting to kill the goose that's laying the golden eggs. 

4 minutes ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

Inarguably the night with the most people watching, though. Which is important if the point is crowning someone

I’m coming round to the idea (not that I like, just starting to think it makes sense) that they’re not arsed about crowning someone; this is just about the greatness of Roman and them wanting him in spot. I wonder if they just don’t know or care how it ends, they’ll just wait until they feel they have to move before making a decision.

 

What does crowning someone do though if there is no pathway to establish them after. Creating a better chase for Cody Rhodes probably makes it more meaningful if and when he does topple Reigns. Rhodes probably has to earn it a little himself as well because a) he's missed a lot of time to injury and b) that was probably his break out main even match last night. The fans believed in him so that can be re-heated easily enough.

Once you beat the unbeatable monster then it's harder to get that momentum again for the heel so they are probably waiting until they are absolutely sure the next step is right. 

17 minutes ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

In between all this you can have further cracks appear in the Bloodline, maybe even have everyone abandon Roman so he HAS to fight alone, I don't know.
I'm hoping its leading to an interesting few months though.

I think this bit is key. If they lost all the belts then the Bloodline is a bit flat. At least now there are different dynamics - Roman standing tall as Champion but maybe disappointed with the Uso's for losing. However, they will know he only won because of Solo's interference so he is position is rocked a little as well. There's many chapters left in that story and just going for the feelgood moment on Night 2 may not be the best story 

Night one was fantastic with every match hitting it's straps bar the women's 6 man which was a bit sloppy and slow at times. Far too many false finishes that feel rushed in some of the matches (big move, immediate cover, kick out - rather than delaying a few moments to allow more suspense and realism for the kick out) but that may just be something that bugs me.

Night Two was less special but probably had less of an emotional build as both the Mysterios and Zayn/KO matches were on night one.  Again though, apart from the multi women's match everyone had their working boots on. Cody losing was a shock but going in I did wonder going in if they could risk taking all the title off the Bloodline and Zayn/KO HAD to win their match. There is still a story there for Cody Rhodes and longer term that might be better for him rather than giving him the belt now with no real challengers set to establish him. Building Solo so here is there to carry on the story when Reigns eventually loses could be the next chapter.

The dynamic between Rhodes and Reigns changes now because Cody took him to the limit. Rhodes for me also established himself in that performance as a Main Event talent which I'm not sure he had done before (despite the big arrival and Rumble win) so he doesn't come out of the loss looking like a chump which was key. He was robbed so now he has a bigger drive for revenge and he had Reigns beaten. 

Sami winning the Rumble doesn't feel like the right next step though to me. He's trying to get in with the Bloodline so why would he try and win the Rumble to get a shot at the title - unless he's trying to win it so no one else can fight Roman (but even that's flawed). He needs an action to happen to make him stand up to Roman Reigns and have the big turn and just winning the Rumble, as big as a moment would be for him as an individual, just doesn't fit that story for me.

Rhodes winning the rumble and building to a title showdown makes more sense for trying to make an better selling challenger to Reigns. 

Sami is the great story and he should come out of it in a much better position in the top of the card but he either ends up with a shock win somewhere, which Roman, gets a win back on or comes up close and doesn't quite do it before transitioning off into something else 

8 hours ago, Jonny Vegas said:

 

For stand alone TV specials then one called The Greatest Store In The World. Fond memories of my brother and I randomly watching it Christmas Eve in the late 90s. The plot centers around a Mum and her two kids being made homeless around Christmas and moving into a department store. Reccomended. 

Was that the one with Sean Hughes and Dervla Kirwan? If so, then it was excellent and I've not seen it repeated for years 

Only You was a Christmas Number one though for the Flying Pickets, so it is a Christmas hit to be fair 

On 11/26/2022 at 6:10 AM, LaGoosh said:

Anyone got any experience of a baby refusing to sleep in their crib?

My lad is 5 months now. During the days he's a pretty easy and predictable baby. At night though he absolutely refuses to sleep on his own. He'll usually go down for 30 minutes on his own (almost exactly, you could set a watch to it) before kicking off. He will then refuse to settle again for the rest of the night so we have to take shifts for the rest of the night with him on our chests. He sleeps like a dream on our chests so it's not a sleep problem, more of a being on his own or sleeping on his back problem. 

Any ideas? Feel like we've tried everything and it's getting a bit worrying as he doesn't seem to be progressing past that 30 minute initial sleep at all. 

As horrid as it sounds, just leave them to cry for a bit. We had the same and did the controlled crying where you come back in the room and shush them with your hand on their tummy with longer gaps each time and it works. It's a cry for attention so if you pick them up each time, or know that's what is coming then you will never get out of the cycle. 

The positive news is that it will only take about 3 nights and then they will have cracked it as babies pick up routines really quickly. The longer you leave it then the harder it will get as they will get more and more active 

25 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

Yvette Cooper thought the bill was so flawed that she abstained instead of voting against it, she can fuck off, the pro war shitehawk. 

There was no vote in parliament for it was there? It's a government deal/scheme that didn't actually go to the commons isn't it?

38 minutes ago, gmoney said:

He won the title after Punk joined. Weird point. 

But he wasn't the focus of the show anymore once he got there. He'd had all the build to get there and once he did then rather than establish him he became a secondary figure - that's how it came across to me anyway. 

43 minutes ago, Factotum said:

Nope to the first part, people criticising Khan for bringing in legit top level names is just stupid (and who have added to the product by the way) And that last comparison is ridiculous.

 

He's right to bring them in certainly but it feels like he's getting to be the big time promoter now by having them rather than having a focused plan for what he's going to do with them all. Look how quickly Page dropped out of focus as soon as Punk arrived for example

1 hour ago, DavidB6937 said:

For me it was always going to have a good grace period of a few years where the excitement levels and new people coming in etc was paramount in giving the fans something enjoyable. The tougher period for Tony and co was always going to be after that. What is it exactly that he wants to do? Does he want to be friends with everyone and give them a job and fulfill his boyhood dreams as a wrestling fan? Does he want to snatch everyone away from WWE? Does he want to put on a consistent and coherent product? He's all over the place at the moment.

I don't think they were ever going to be able to maintain such a high quality forever. That's just asking too much. But I think it's reasonable to expect something slightly better than what they've been doing recently overall.

The issue appears to be now that he has access to talent that he really wanted to feel part of the business (Punk, Regal, Danielson & the recent NXT guys etc.) so he's stepping away from what gave them a point of difference in the first place that was bringing through talent that wasn't getting an opportunity elsewhere. 

Every time I watch it always seems a bit of a hotch potch. That's grand when it's dynamic and flying but when there's more misses than hits then it all looks a bit Russo era Nitro. 

4 hours ago, air_raid said:

Probably got something to do with how the better you do, the higher up the card you’re positioned, means the more you get paid and the more T-shirts you sell which in turn means AGAIN how much you get paid, how much attention you get for sponsorships and acting gigs etc which are other ways to get paid etc. Its not a perfect parallel to EastEnders as some seem to think.

Isn't that the same for all entertainment though. The more exposure you have then the more doors will be opened for advertising contracts, other TV gigs or movies.  I can see why wrestlers were more protective of their image in the 70s/80s when you'd make a living going from territory to territory and your drawing power could be hit if you were made to look a fool/wimp on the way out of your last place.

It doesn't work like that though now does it. They are basically TV performers and sure, you may discuss the direction of your character, but you still have to deliver what you are contracted for surely else it's the wild west. 

What does an actor in a soap opera do if they don't like their storyline? If they are under contract they just have to go and do it don't they. Why is this any different? 

On 4/22/2022 at 6:04 PM, The King Of Swing said:

The Jungle Boy/O'Reily match was really fucking bland with the most half hearted "this is awesome" chant ever. 

Sounded like they were trying to convince themselves it was awesome. 

It also had a really distracting referee performance which kept on taking my eye away from the match. Just really strange movements and reactions to things which was very odd. Nothing organic looking - just came across trying to have a character 

30 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

I think you didn't get the story of the match - two insanely tough guys renowned as being legendary hard hitters and strikers essentially trying to prove which of them is the toughest. That's the point of why they were taking turns chopping and hitting each other endlessly without moving, neither one of them wanted to back down or show even a hint of weakness. Can't say I agree with them looking like they can't hit each other - every hit sounded brutal and both men's chests were horrendous shades of red and purple within minutes. This type of match isn't for everyone and I can understand you finding it boring but that was the story of the match they were telling.

Oh I got what they were going for but it's just daft after a certain period. When I was in my early 20s and getting New and All Japan tapes I'm sure I would have loved it but some 20 years later it just got old very quick. I appreciate it's trying to show how tough they are but basically slapping each other's chests ad nauseum us dull.  It didn't really build to a bump where someone gave - they just stopped and then went back to it. Logically if you are not getting anything out of it then why carry on for so long? 

So I understood it - I just thought it was massively overdone. 

Okay. Why is Danhausen trying to curse him? Why does no one on the announce team seem to care when it cuts back to them when the segment is finished? 

I've not watched Rampage so had no idea what was going on there other than there was a skinny fella with face paint on acting daft. Is he successfully cursing other people or is it just Hook he is trying it on? 

I only caught bits and pieces of this weeks show (mostly the end) but the overall feeling I came away with was an WWF Attitude vibe but with too much WCW delivery. 

Hook has a segment on a weights bench, only for the interviewer to walk away and the two guys who stopped the interview also walking away pretty quick smart. All ending then with Danhausen being there which made no sense to me at all nor did it get any reaction from Hook or the announcers as to what it was about. 

A decentish Adam Cole promo but it feels wasted when you look at him as it takes you completely out of the suspension of belief. 

Keith Lee tag match was good but just made me think of the number of people who moved to AEW with great fanfare but who are pretty much stuck where they were in WWE before they left. Will Hobbs though looks the business and is someone they should be strapping a rocket too at some point. 

The Joe match bored the life out of me at the start. Again suspension of disbelief killing with the amount of chops and no one taking a step back. It doesn't look tough, it just looks like they can't hit each other properly and completely pointless doing it over and over if they can't even move the other person they are striking. I'm probably in the minority there but it just looked ridiculous at times.  The lights out at the end, as has been said numerous times, was a massive flop. 

Wrestling used to be real life superheroes and villains battling but now it's become more of a computer game come to life where it's all about moves/impact etc and the psychology that links them together (or determines what happens next) doesn't really matter. It's a shame as the best matches now are still the ones that have a clear story.