forameus

I was more going for the royal-based songs. I would absolutely have an issue with the Harry Kane song just to be clear.

He's international champion now, so he'll likely be on every week on Dynamite if they treat him like OC. Get ready for "It's Wednesday, you know what that means...BLOOD!" He does need to tone it down though. He's the perfect example of how blood should not be treated. WWE need to embrace it slightly more, but I think their attitude of using it when it matters works far more than just doing it every match. You can guarantee that if you see blood in a WWE match, it's either because they believe it will genuinely elevate the moment, or because something has gone wrong. And that's always exciting. Remember when Brock was instructed to go Fruit Ninja on Orton's head? If that's on AEW you probably shrug and move on, but that's a properly visceral moment because blood isn't ever-present. I get it if there's a stipulation match and something that would cut you open gets you. But it's every single match in the most innocuous of circumstances.

I don't go to many away games, so my opinion probably doesn't hold much weight, but I've always seen our fans as largely harmless, with the worst of them just being embarrassing rather than actually harmful. I couldn't see there being many stories of us going to a town square in France and having a patio-furniture based war with the police, put it that way. At home games, usually it's just people being drunk. Guys falling asleep, acting like c***s, picking fights, but that's not necessarily a Scotland thing, more a football thing. But ultimately, every fan base is going to have elements in it that are arseholes. And even then, the stuff that one person finds pretty abhorrent will be fine to others. The songs mentioned I probably wouldn't sing, but I don't think I'd go anywhere near as far as being angry at those that are.

Yeah, realise that now, wikipedia was pretty awkwardly written and I wasn't sure what the initial tie-breaker was. It gives us at least an extra edge. If we can stifle Spain, a 1-0 defeat would be an incredible result. But if it goes to 2 difference, I expect we're fucked with the goal difference. We'd have to absolutely pump both Norway and Georgia and assume that Spain won't just do the same. Whilst I would have liked to see us go out in the second half against Cyprus and really look like we were trying to add to our GD, like Craig says, I don't think we could have scored enough for it to matter when Spain just added 12 to theirs in two games.

I think if Spain were continuing to have their wobbles, we would have seen it in the games since they returned from the Nations League. They've scored 13 in 2 games. I expect the cavalier performance we had in Hampden will be nowhere to be seen, and 9 times out of 10 they're winning comfortably. Could perhaps see a backs-to-the-wall draw or win, but it's going to be incredibly difficult. What I worry about is this run of 3 fixtures - England, Spain, France. More often than not, we lose all three, and depending on other results we go from riding high and confident to looking over our shoulders.

Being blown way out of proportion to give the media something to talk about. Maybe he said he'd represent us, England got in his ear and he's changed his mind. Maybe he's got a knock. Maybe he's just generally changed his mind. Maybe he couldn't be arsed. Maybe his agent is a bellend and advised him to invent a knock for this window. Maybe his club did (wouldn't be the first time) Who really cares ultimately? The only thing that should matter is ultimately whether he wants to represent us. Next time he's fit and available, either call him up or don't. If he rejects it, we move on, if he doesn't, he maybe goes on to be a key player for us. There just isn't enough to go on to say either way at this stage.

Presuming we don't have a massive dive in form that sees him being sacked, do you see Clarke deciding to leave of his own accord? Is there another step he'd take in management beyond us? Unless there's some kind of career goal he's not met yet, I wouldn't have thought there would be much interest in leaving what is surely a fairly comfortable and well-paid job whilst we're doing well. Genuine questions, I've no idea what his thoughts are and whether he's come out and said anything to the contrary.

Not so long ago we were the ones on the outside looking in while the limited but well-organised home nations elsewhere were qualifying for tournaments. Now instead of just getting to their level, we've sucked all the life out of them like some kind of football vampire. Couldn't be happier.

I don't think it's a guaranteed defeat, but I think 7 or 8 times out of 10, they're going to win. We absolutely deserved our win at Hampden, and we properly rattled them. We're in great form. But when Spain want to turn it on they absolutely can and come the next window Norway could well still be breathing down their necks. They play us and then go to Oslo, so a really pivotal window. We obviously stand a chance, we've already beaten them, but I don't think a defeat is the end of the world. Our par this campaign was qualification through any means. A bonus would've been qualifying from the group and not needing a playoff. As it is, I could see us only losing to Spain, finishing level on points but 2nd (not extending our 3-0 lead when Spain won 7-1 could bite us), and that would be an incredible achievement.

To be fair to Matt Ritchie - who I'd agree didn't have the greatest attitude - that goal he got against Poland looked like it meant a hell of a lot to him. If I'm remembering it right. It's going to be an incredibly difficult thing to gauge "attitude" for a player. McBurnie getting video'd being all Garfield about representing Scotland probably didn't mean he didn't care, it was just a window into how he's a thick fucking bellend. Given the attitude of a modern footballer, I'd imagine if you really didn't care about representing a country that "wasn't yours" you just...wouldn't. These players are all likely earning fortunes and can f**k off to Dubai in the international break with their families rather than head off for training camps. I'm not really sure what people want from these players. Pledges of allegiance? If they express an interest in playing for us, it becomes a question of whether they're good enough. If they are, we'd be absolutely fucking mental to deny them because they were born "doon there". Mental and deeply embarrassing.

My mate was in Milton Keynes, now in Flitwick, so Luton is absolutely ideal. Always thought it was a shit airport, but it's not too bad, and connections are no worse than any of the other London Airports bar City. And as long as you get them in decent time, you can often get flights for something like a tenner.

Will take advantage of my mate again and stay with him unless either of us are dead. WIll get on flights as soon as they're available and make sure I get Luton this time. Although hopefully my journey home on Monday isn't caught up in Bank Holiday Air Traffic shite next time.

I'll always find American's approach to swearing hilarious. MJF will swear up a storm off mic, even sometimes in promos, yet adding a BIIIITCH to a promo gets a huge "ohnoyoudi'nt" pop. I find it hard to take any wrestling "journalist" seriously. Meltzer probably sits above all, given he has an actual background in journalism, and his knowledge of the history of the business is probably unparalleled. But he should stick to that stuff, and away from the dirtsheet style of reporting, because I've yet to see someone that isn't woefully out of their depth when it gets to anything more serious than "they want to push this guy". And people actually pay them to spout the pish they do. What a job - get something wildly wrong and you can just shrug and say "plans changed".

Aye, not quite the role model you want in that regard. Something darkly comic about Darby taking the guy under his wing when his dad died. "I'll take care of him," shouts Darby, as he gets into his battered car to roll it down a hill. I'm always impressed by Darby's dives to the outside because he seems to be moving about a million times faster than anyone I've seen do it before. But it's gone beyond the Big E fear that you got from him doing them, as at that pace, you're surely going to run out of luck eventually. Almost did last night, didn't look like the aftermath was planned, so hopefully nothing too serious or long-term.

I think of all the developers left at that kind of tier, one of the safest you can probably bank on for delivering a good product is Rockstar. I expect GTA6 will be very, very good and have a relatively high level of polish (admittedly by the really low bar most people other than Nintendo seem to manage). I'm not sure I buy the expectation that it taking so long means it'll be a disappointment. Games this big should take this long. If it comes out and is polished and near faultless, then the cycle has done its job. If it comes out and its Bethesda levels of buggy nonsense, then yeah, there'll be disappointment. Can't see that happening though. What I can see them doing is allying it with a big money-printing machine like GTAO and completely undoing all the praise they get. It always amazes me how the likes of EA get absolutely hammered for their predatory tactics, yet Rockstar continue to get an easier ride comparitively. Some of their decisions with the online have been absolutely dreadful.

Think we're probably bound to see it being absolute open-season on shite like this coming out. You'll get 10 stories, probably a couple having any basis, the rest being either Chinese whispers of something pretty innocuous or flat-out lies that no-one will call out. I doubt anyone on the AEW side is ever going to come out and give the warts-and-all truth, so the only person you've got a chance of is if Punk goes on record. And even then, you'll be getting Punk's truth, which is part of the problem in the first place. Is amusing to imagine him stepping to Regal though. Calling him a real toerag whilst he rearranges most of his organs through his skin.

Definitely the weakest PPV they've put on in a long time, even though it was still pretty good. It should show why having All in and All Out so close to each other is a bad idea, but suspect they won't.. Granted they were dealt a shitty card with the whole Punk situation, but all that really affected card-wise was subbing in Danielson against Starks, which was probably an upgrade. A lot of the stuff on there didn't feel like it really mattered in a way it usually does, like your standard WWE B-show. Interesting to see them putting on another show in 4 weeks - wonder if they'll move further towards a WWE calendar with more and more shows. Would be a bit of a shame if it dilutes the quality. Feels a shame to finally take the title off OC. He was someone I just never really got when he was in the full throes of his gimmick, but he's definitely on the top tier of important personnel for the company. In a week where Punk has attempted to completely set fire to the whole thing, looking at people like OC should show that they'll be just fine.

If we are playing the fantasy game, I'd bring him in for a very short term deal, leading up to a WM. Even if he's lost a step in the ring, he can still tell a story and sell a program. Get him to do a short Survivor Series to WM story, give him main event of night 1, and have that story just end. Don't give him long enough to properly piss anyone off and a set end date, get him paid, then let him go. Of course problem with that is there isn't really a nice ready-made story there. It would be absolutely chef's kiss if HHH was still healthy. I could absolutely see them telling that story, maybe even leading up to a double retirement or something at WM, and that would immediately be a really, really hot angle. Unfortunately, never going to happen. Maybe Cena in some kind of double retirement? Outside of that, it's hard to pick a ready-made story, unless you go down the lines of Owens being pals with the Young Bucks from the old days. Ultimately it's all pointless, as I expect we'll hear nothing from him, then some shoot interviews where he comes across badly, then that'll be it.

Invite him back in and tell him he gets to main event WM. Reigns has just about run out of people to f**k about with. In all seriousness though, if you're playing fantasy booking, where does current-era Punk really sit in current-era WWE? Obviously if you have him, you find a space, and they would, but his hair-trigger temper, crotchety old-man act just doesn't seem to fit with the largely safe personalities they currently have. I guess into the World Heavyweight side of things? Him and Rollins would probably do something good. But couldn't see him getting chucked into the Bloodline stuff without completely derailing it and throwing a chair at Reigns or something. Would be a good laugh watching Gunther murder him though.

Fucking hell... Honestly, I didn't think it would ever happen. I really want to know what really happened in gorilla at Wembley now, because surely it has to be something pretty serious for this to happen so quickly. Only other thing I can think is that Tony knows he's coming across as a bit of a wet-wipe, and he had to do something, anything to show some authority. I can't imagine the way he treated Punk last year did much for morale, and it would be hard to argue (and to prove to be fair) that it didn't lead people like Jack Perry to believe that they could get away with being wee dicks. This is at least strike number 2 for Punk, and you could probably argue the rest of the niggly wee things he's done make it up to close to a 3. He hasn't been worth the hassle in a long time, and has been injured near enough half the time he's been signed. To protect the brand, sometimes you need that wee bit of hurt to the drawing (emphasis on wee, in my personal opinion) to protect it long term. As for Punk himself, surely that's him well and truly done now. And, to be fair to him, that's no real issue. He's got other avenues to go into, can probably get fairly decent acting gigs to tide him over. He was writing and drawing comics. He's married to AJ Mendez. He's got ties to MMA commentary. He could probably do years of the shoot interview circuit. I don't think Phil Brooks is really going to have trouble getting work, and he's probably already pretty wealthy. If he wanted to still wrestle, he could probably do sporadic stuff on the indies I suppose, he'd still be a draw there. I think there's a tiny chance WWE would take a shot, but it's incredibly small, and would involve him eating a whole lot of shit and basically grovelling, and even then, why would WWE want him? They wouldn't push the boat out for Jay White, and in a few months have a (again, fucking tiny) chance of Will Ospreay. MJF doing his whole bidding war shtick, and probably countless other big names starting to think that AEW to WWE is a valid path. I don't really ever see them being interested in bringing back an ageing Punk who has essentially just been fired for being more trouble than he's worth. Some boy...pisses off the only wrestling name in town, finds out there's now a second big name and pisses them off too. Top work. As for AEW itself...well, at least they're not going to be in Chicago for a while.

I heard your dad went into a restaurant, and ate everything in the restaurant, and they had to close the restaurant

I'm not sure that's entirely true, but hey, I've no real idea so you might be right. To me it doesn't seem like they're actively trying to force him out, but they aren't exactly trying to keep him in either. But would definitely agree that pretty much everyone comes across really badly in all this. Omega maybe comes out a little better I suppose. Hangman seems to just want to forget it all and stay quiet.

Aye, but...Punk is an arsehole though. I don't think you need to be a Bucks fan (which I'm definitely not) to realise that. Crazy that the weekend after probably one of the most important for all of wrestling, the two main companies in the industry are going to put out two properly B level PPVs. WWE have history of it, but they can kind of afford it with having monthly events, and if you're a paying customer of the Network, the shows aren't really that bad value for the most part. AEW are charging full whack for a card that looks more than a bit w**k. Don't doubt it'll be good, but I doubt it'll rise above that level, and that should be worrying for a company that almost exclusively puts on brilliant shows. Very interesting about Big Phil too. They definitely need the star power for a show like this, but if he is brought back early just for that, it isn't exactly going to quell the idea that Tony's just a big mark for him. Give him and Jungle Boy ten minutes to leather f**k out of each other, then fire the two of them when they get back through the curtain.

Agreed. Vince, and by extension HHH (although he's now in an era where there isn't much appetite from wrestlers to be absolute nightmare men), seemed to excel at knowing just how much leash to give each wrestler. Enough so that they probably will make mistakes, but never so much that they'll actively harm the company. If anything was brewing, it would get shut down pretty quickly, or just never happen in the first place because they knew what the reaction would be. And if it wasn't from Vince, it would be from the people Vince had put in place specifically to deal with talent. With Khan, the leash analogy is pretty pointless, because he's long since let them all off the lead, and they've fucked off. The time to put his foot down and set a marker was after All Out last year. Punk probably should've been punted then, but if not, at least given some actual punishment. Instead, he gets welcomed back once he's healthy and given his own show. Where's the incentive for anyone on the roster to behave now? And couple that with, like you say, everyone has the sheets now to air grievances. Likely back in the day they'd just have a fight, it'd get broken up, and on we go. Now it's just bitching and stories and counter-stories and fans eating it all up. I think at this point, you have to just let Punk go. By all means pay up his contract or whatever legal stuff you have to, but he shouldn't appear again. Probably even Jungle Boy too for being a tit. Actually show that there's consequences and get some authority. Won't hold my breath though. I wouldn't be surprised if Punk appears at All Out in a few days once they realise they've really fucked themselves.

It's rapidly approaching the point where Punk doesn't even need to be directly involved in any trouble, trouble seems to just arrive at his doorstep anyway. The Jungle Boy stuff seems so incredibly petty. He rightly told him not to do a certain spot - along with a lot of the roster and Schiavone apparently - but because it's Punk, suddenly it's this huge deal and there's almost a fight. You can't say that people who are a bit tetchy were looking at the complete lack of punishment Punk got and thinking "I can get away with this too". It's like a high school full of hormonal fannies in there, with a small minority causing trouble and the rest just wishing they'd all be quiet and let them get on with it. And Tony's at the head of it, the head teacher who is totally cool and totally on the kids' side, absolutely terrified of pissing them off so letting them do whatever they want (whilst absolutely off his tits on coke, but that's where the analogy possibly falls down). Seems quite on brand for Big Phil though. I get the feeling if he came to a bridge over a river, he'd just wade in instead so he could complain about it later. I doubt getting his ego rubbed by all the attention really hurt him either. Can only assume it's along those lines, because otherwise, yeah, really fucking odd. The way the London airports are set out, getting to whatever rail/tube links they have is often the hardest rather than taxi ranks, or pick up/drop off etc. If I was as powerful as Punk seems to be in AEW and simultaneously as grumpy as him, I'd be finding the plushest taxi I could and getting it to drive me on to the pitch at Wembley. There was quite a bit made in one of the reports (ironically the one that seems to basically be parroting whatever Punk says) that he stayed behind a lot later than the other talent because he wanted to spend more time with his wife and dog (hilariously, they named the dog, not his wife). So I expect there was logistical stuff in place for larger groups of them to arrive, but if you're arriving independently, I'm not sure they can always be expected to be on hand to hold their hands. It's not Pyongyang they're heading into, it's London. Punk's not daft. My wife's fucking dreadful with directions, but I think she'd still manage to navigate airports and the tube if she absolutely had to.