forameus

Shane to be special guest referee it seems. Maybe long playing towards a match at the Rumble? What did Nakamura do to break Cena? Botch or just too overzealous? EDIT: Ooft, just watched the highlights, was on the move just before the kinshasa, wasn't it? Nasty.

Aye, just like Erskine.

I'd be kind of surprised if he wasn't at least on some kind of early shortlist, but I can't see him going there. If we're sticking rigidly to the 4-2-3-1, then would there be an argument in that central midfield triangle being Osman, Bannigan and Barton together, with the latter two switching around being the one further forward? I'd say 3, but the thought of Osman being a creative outlet is...troubling. Barton is calm on the ball, can pick a pass, and we've seen him able to carry it ponderously forward with a few tricks. He's weak in a central defensive 2, so why not try him somewhere else where he's probaably weak Obviously that means dropping Erskine, but if he's not fit then there's an opening. Feel free to tell me I'm talking absolute shite though.

Aye, one word. Handsome.

I saw the dembele clip on twitter. Very, very good touches there, boy has clearly got something great. Whether he ends up representing us later on, or perhaps whether he even reaches his lofty potential, remains to be seen. Encouraging stuff, but for the younger age groups the results should be secondary. Every ounce of their efforts should be going into stopping whatever it is that means successful youth group teams lead to senior players falling down the pyramid or out the game altogether.

The only positive today was clearly their number 7 slowly coming to the realisation, as big Abdul slowly rose to his feet, that he was closer to the swing of his no doubt sizeable "wee Abdul" than he was to nutting him. You could see the regret from the JHS. Other than that, that was fucking brutal in all counts.

Can't see it happening so soon. They should be drafting all over again once a year with decent planning, but I don't think they've exhausted all their options for feuds yet. Moving people down to NXT wouldn't be so bad though - apart from the "developmental" stigma, you'd probably get a better story there. Less money though.

Am I only one that's just a bit meh about Ember Moon? Everyone seems to rave about her, but I don't see a huge difference from what I've seen. Granted I'm limited to watching Takeover specials and the odd NXT so maybe I'm missing something. They could keep the belt on her until post Mae Young Classic, have the prize for that be a future title shot. Sounds like there's a few really legit performers in there, so maybe they'd be more believable beating her. I'd just have her go up undefeated though. It's hard to buy anyone beating her clean as a face anymore.

Hope he was ok...

Renee Young and Daniel Bryan appear to be doing their own mini Smacktalk show as a result of being cancelled. It's been a work, brother.

Just Cause 3 is a very good result for anyone that hasn't got it yet. It's not particularly deep, or particularly clever, but if you want something to f**k around in it's extremely entertaining

The Sasha/Charlotte one was getting a bit ridiculous, that's the one I can remember them being pretty negative about with good reason. They've seemed OK with this one, but I'm sure that would change if Owens wins it next week and Styles the week after etc. It's not about just changing the title, it's about how it's done. I don't really have any issue with them doing it at all, just got to make it believable from a storyline perspective.

If Drew did win, Roode will be around for a little while longer to get the customary rematch. It's also getting to the stage where I'd imagine a few people would far rather stay in NXT with how bereft a few recent call-ups have been. I know they'll be under contract and they'll probably not be in a position to pick and choose, but if they do have any say, then if it's picking between jobber feuds on the main roster or being in a (largely) well-built feud on NXT with whatever indie star they've recently found, I imagine it's not a tough choice.

And why bother? As others have said, they are making an absolute fortune on turning GTA Online into a mini version of every other game out there. From a purely business standpoint, why would they bother spending considerable resources building single player DLC when they can just throw in a new course or gamemode every so often to GTAO and rake in money from micro-transactions?

I'm seething, to be honest. Only 4 at half-time. EDIT: Is that diddums guy trying to make the name stick? It's like one of those weirdos you get at school who try to give themselves their own nickname and desperately try to make it stick. Embarrassing.

I don't think it's quite as bad as the Petrofac, but at this stage it doesn't really matter. I'd imagine he's got a balancing act - he isn't going to panic-sign just to win these games, like you say, but probably thinks that we've got a good enough squad to get through the group stage and into the games that actually matter. Or could be wrong, Scottish Cup aside last season, Archie seems to fucking despise cup football. I don't know where that puts me...knicker wetter or happy clapper...

This. It's the way with WWE. Can't remember the last time there was a really hyped up match or segment we knew about beforehand and it actually delivered. I think it was WhatCulture that suggested an outcome that the call was to his wife, and that the angle is that his doctor has told him that he can't wrestle again. He goes out to do the Daniel Bryan speech that should have been, a fake retirement which is interrupted by Hunter Dad Helmsley. Probably in his double denim. He taunts him about not wrestling again, leading to either a short story culminating at SummerSlam between them, or a much longer one for WM or the Rumble.

I hate the gradient thing they seem to love putting onto their tops. The current (or now last season I guess) home top was much better with the cleaner lines between the colours. It's not that bad, but it's not that good either.

I missed that one (only ever really read the recaps of RAW and the odd youtube upload) so fair enough. Switch it round then. Kurt and Trips are pumping each other and Steph's raging. Trips on a Pole match at WM between Steph and Angle.

I subscribed to this yesterday and gave a couple of episodes a listen, and liking it so far. The episode centered around Steve Bruce's attempts at writing a book especially.

I've yet to watch the Balor and Angle ones, but looking forward to it. As others have said, the 24 specials have been consistently brilliant. Weakest was probably the Women's one purely for them laying it on thiiiick about how they as a company are so amazing for doing it. Don't think I can watch the DBry one again...

It wouldn't necessarily have to be. I've just heard a lot of people say it'll be HHH to set up a match. Imagine it'd just be more of a power struggle. Steph doesn't want Angle in charge and would much rather have Dad Jeans next to her.

This, 100%. I imagine there are boardrooms in this country and others who will let some prejudice creep in, but is adding a forced quota really the answer to that? Surely if you have a case where that's happening, and they're forced to interview one, they'll just refuse to give him the job anyway. In that case, what have we really achieved other than tokenism? Does someone in a minority (outside of John Barnes) really want to get an interview under these circumstances? Would they feel a sense that they were good enough, or would it always eat away at them that they were literally only handed the chance because of their skin colour? It's a similar idea to policies I've seen at places of work I've had in the past with women - lots of extra help for them to really push on. Sexist against women to suggest they need that extra help, and sexist against guys who will surely just be fine cos they're lads, right guys? Hopefully one day we get to the point where the best person gets hired, regardless of what colour they are, what sex they are or who they want to pump.

I assumed it was going to be Steph/HHH, leading to Angle's return against the latter.

It's amazing what they can achieve with a character when they don't paint him as the babyface who sexually harasses the heels.