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The only two names I've ever seen that were to be Vince's choice in 83/84 if he didn't go with/get Hogan were Kerry Von Erich and going with Snuka. Both wouldn't have worked. It doesn't matter who was available in '85, they would have likely been coming in on the back of a failed national expansion rather than riding the coat-tails of a successful one. What's likely to be the least disastrous out of these, and would it have lasted past any possible initial success; - JCP/Mid South with the best product but not the financial discipline. - AWA keeping Hogan as a plus but Gagne as the negative. - WWF with Vince's expansion plans but the wrong guy at the front of the spear. I imagine JCP would have been the top dog in that scenario, however still needing a bail out, just a few years later than when it actually happened.

And yet, when it comes to takedowns . . .I feel myself about to go all "That's a mat return Joe" here. They love using the entire abacus to collect up as many That's Not a Takedown, Takedown's together.

Oppenheimer Bit shite wasn't it? Took me three days to watch it. (Friday, Monday & Tuesday). Could hardly ever hear the dialogue with the amount of silly background music in all the conversation scenes. So many scene cuts back and forward in time. I'm not sure there was a single great scene in it, considering all the plaudits it got. The best may have been when they were discussing which cities to target in Japan. Chilling if you imagine stuffed suits selecting life and death in that manner in reality. Not one for a re-watch, sorry Cillian.

Shocked at that. I don't see that as a slip at all. I was pleased I was quite wrong about the Kayla Harrison fighting. Not so pleased whenever I heard her post fight interview reveal to me she is another "Jesus Christ is my Lord and Saviour" type of prizefighter. I guess that's 95% of them, but even so. Thought Moicano sounded like an absolute moron in his post fight speech too. I liked his staff talking shit about the apex previously, but this nonsense about first amendment rights? Wouldn't mind seeing Jose Aldo give him one to the liver again. Sterling looked fabulous against Kattar. Really glad he hit the ground running at 145. If that extra energy he probably has allows him to continue to be as relentless as this going forward, then this could end up being a very good move for him.

Both those fall on weekends that I'll be working, meaning spoilers will have to be attempted to be avoided until at least Sunday night or Monday morning. That'll be pretty hard to do for the McGregor fight. Did they make the Dustin Poirier fight before UFC 300, during the show or after?

Alex showed his class in that main event. He's a different level on the feet. If you choose not to wrestle him then unless you earn his respect with something quickly, it's going to turn ugly for you. The Zhang fight was weird. I'm very pleased she won in the end because I felt it should have been stopped at the end of the first. The way the 2nd and 3rd went, I thought she was going to be on the wrong end of an unfortunate set of circumstances. Glad she righted it with winning the last two rounds. Crazy toughness by both ladies, Yan for gritting through as long as she did in that sub and Zhang for being knackered, getting dropped and still finding a way to win. And boy. Boy oh boy. Max Holloway and Justin Gaethje did Holloway and Gaethje things in that pearler. Two warriors. Holloway looked great in this fight. As good as he's ever been here, against an in form Justin Gaethje. The eye pokes didn't help, I'll say that. But as Max had done the damage to the nose before that, I think that was the main difference. With that nose being fried Justin was always a step behind. But he's Justin Gaethje and he always carries that threat to just change your world in an instant. He showed that by being the first man to drop Holloway, in his career. For Max, in a fight that he was winning every round in, to at the end just give Justin the opportunity to go double or quits for ten seconds? Incredible scenes. I hope Max fights and beats Topuria, lets Volk and Ilia rematch non title while he then goes up to LW and challenges the champ there. I wish the world for this crazy Hawaiian. It's going to be a much worse place when he's retired. Enjoy this lunatic while he's doing shit like this.

Like hell I am. I'll go to the grave knowing she's the most annoying, grating announcer I've ever heard. Dreadful. Her and Pat McAfee. An assault on the inside of my brain. Main event was bonkers fun. Nailed it. The production is a billion times better than when I last watched anything from the company, yet there are still a few things I don't like about it - which tells you how bad it had gotten before. Improve the ring announcer, colour commentator, less of the CGI entrance graphics and figure out a way to blend the sponsors in better. But Jesus, on the whole there have been vast improvements in the watch ability of this stuff. Drew losing the title because he was too busy taunting Punk was good stuff. Drew and Rollins had a good match, got right to the point. They could have achieved the same thing without burying Drew's finish, but hey ho. Still a good time had there. The crowd woke up for night 2 which made a difference. It saved the weekend as I thought night 1 was a bit of a stinker outside of the decent Ripley/Becky match. The main event of night 1 would have done Horlicks out of business. Snoop Dogg as a semi regular third man behind the desk - ask him! The worst he could say is no, but man, that would be a bit of craic.

😅 And still using a picture from about 20 years ago for his avatar.

The fighters, en masse, need to turn down fights that get offered to them for Apex cards. That's just not going to happen though. Just let that call go to voicemail first - find out what they're looking. "A Vegas date? Sorry fella, barred from Vegas by the PD. You know I would if I could. That date in Cali two weeks later though? Sign me up".

Great post Wand. Not far away now at all. Kayla Harrison fighting at 135 worries me. I don't know how she makes that with any kind of steam to last a whole fight. I think she'll need to stop Holm in R1. I hate to do it, but I'm predicting Holm to win this. Hope to god Pereira chins Hill. Hill seems like a fella even his mum would struggle to put up with over dinner. I think he'll do it too - I expect this to play out on the feet and Alex to show his class there. Can't pick against Zhang. Sure her age is getting on now, but her performances sure aren't showing it. I don't think it'll be here that it's going to start being seen. Max and Justin has the potential to be an all timer. You'd be hard pushed to write a fight down on paper that could be better than that, which also you would give an extremely high chance to it being able to reach that potential. I think Gaethje wins it, but Holloway is every bit the live dog. Gonna be a doozy. Fucking Bo Nickal on the main card ahead of every fight positioned below it. Mental. I can understand the TV prelims being a prime spot for the other fighters that didn't make that fifth slot, but the Fight Pass prelims aren't. That's where that fight belongs. Figgy Smalls jerking the curtain is mad. Shows the depth of this one obviously, but the order is pretty wrong. A winnable fight for Jim Miller on UFC 300 is about as good as you can hope for. I'm 50/50 on who I think will get the W, hoping Jim finds a sub from somewhere though.

That's a pretty tasty looking card right there. Volkov/Pavlovich is a good pairing for Heavyweight, and that main event has the makings of a great fight. Really like that booking there.

Big Will Hobbs is in the wrong place and time. Smackdown in the mid 2000's and he would have definitely gotten the chance to try and stand out among a pack of useless big fella's like Luther, Koslov, Heidenreich and that terrible Japanese fella who's name escapes me at the minute. Edit: Only just realised the thread is to bring people into the future not place others in the past 😔

And a lot of them were all pretty over at around the same time as well. No Ministry of Darkness Taker, or Ringmaster Steve Austin at this point. Good times.

Nate the Train is back baby. Fantastic to see it's in front of a live crowd. It's always a spectacle when he shows up. That fight with Onana was something to behold.

The Apex is dead to me. Like @Bruce85, first time it dawned on me about this card was this morning, when having breakfast I noticed Dana White saying somebody was getting the boot for biting their opponent on the show.