forameus

I thought that was quite a good RAW After WrestleMania considering some of the shite we've been served up with in recent years. They've got a few weeks to have people move between brands and pivot towards new feuds ahead of the draft, and I think they covered a lot of bases to continue the new generation stuff. IC title feud presumably set up with Gable potentially turning heel, Priest's first challenger set, Punk and McIntyre ratcheted up a bit, and a good load of new blood introduced. Bit of an odd decision to have that new blood be both NXT Champions who presumably aren't ready to come up just yet, but the first match of the "new season" being Dragunov and Nakamura kicking shit out of each other was a welcome change. I would have liked Cody's next few months to be set out a bit clearer, and that segment didn't really do that. We're getting Cody/Rock at some point, but if you're not going to say when, I'd probably have preferred they just held off on the whole segment to be honest. Let someone else come out as a true first opponent, do that feud, then if Rock's ready for Summerslam, or Royal Rumble, or even WM41, start it out then. All we got was a chance for Rock to appear again and make the segment about half an hour longer than it should have been (seriously, those fucking pauses were getting ridiculous). Having said that though, the delivery from Rock did raise some interest. He was truly fucking creepy at times.

Another thing that will likely be glossed over because the product is extremely hot is just how egregious their commercial approach is now. I'd be interested to know over the 11 hours or so of programming between NXT and the two nights of WM just how much actual wrestling there was. Even if you included entrances, I imagine the amount of time they spent on adverts and actively shilling products was just sent into overdrive. That's something you'll likely get away with if you're running a show people are enjoying, but no-one is going to able to have the kind of hit rate HHH is having forever. Now that the Rhodes stuff is pretty much done, and we're likely into at least the epilogue of the Bloodline, they're going to need to keep telling these great stories, or all those little unpalatable things that WWE are doing are going to start to matter a lot more.

Probably a more reasoned post tomorrow once I'm less fucking exhausted and find out what day it really is, but what I'll say now is that it's absolutely amazing the difference that a good ending makes to a WM. I think from memory WM was pretty good last year, but they absolutely fucked it by having Reigns go over. At the time at least, because having him hold another year and slowly build this story led to just how amazing that final moment was. You go back a decade, and you've just watched probably one of the greatest endings in WM history with Bryan winning, at the end of a candidate for the best show ever. If someone suddenly appeared from the future and told you everything that would happen in the next ten years, and how it would culminate with Stardust not only winning the big one, but having done so by the entire fanbase rejecting the Rock of all people, you'd almost certainly imagine they were on something. Michael Cole summed it up at the end. Genuinely tearful, unscripted, "I love Professional Wrestling". Me too, Cole. Me too.

Caught up with night 1 earlier after tapping out when Latinomania was running wild. Thought the show fell pretty flat until Gunther/zayn. Women's match was good, but felt like it was holding back. Same with ladder match. Mysterio match was...fine. 6 woman match similar tone, good but not great. Usos match was almost certainly worst. IC match was terrific though, proper WM match, and the right winner. Main event probably similarly fitting for WM. If they follow on the stories and tie it up nicely, tonight could be great. Hopefully a bit more life about the matches though.

Hard to tell the scale of it, but that seems quite...understated for a WrestleMania. Not in a bad way, mind. Gives it a bit of an old school feel

Probably one of the poorer episodes of weekly AEW television in a long time, and personally it seems like they've been on a bit of a downward trend for a while. There's definitely pockets in there of great stories, but they've gone from being able to put together 5 or 6 feuds culminating at a PPV to getting 1 or 2, then maybe one other "Tony Khan's Wonderful Dream Match" candidate - that is, a match that ultimately doesn't really matter. Swerve and Joe is building well, and should be a great match, but outside of that, is there anything that really matters? They're heavily pushing Ospreay and Danielson, which will undoubtedly be great, but it doesn't really matter as a match, especially when Danielson is allergic to going over, and Ospreay was unlikely to lose anyway. I assume if injuries hadn't been a thing, we'd be knee-deep in MJF vs Cole, so maybe just another case of the company struggling to pivot when things go wrong. Copeland's promo was...odd. I'd heard Punk had done Punk things, but didn't really go into the content much, so the promo went way over my head. Made it sound like there had been some massive controversy, not just a mardy tit sounding off. And I'll always find any attempt from AEW to go along the lines of "we are the best company" to be so awkward and forced. You can't go out and start by telling fans not to boo a mention of WWE, then go along the same lines of WCW "where the big boys play" story beats. Ospreay continues to be utterly excellent, but I do wonder when he'll get something actually meaty story-wise to sink his teeth into. Seems like it's going to be Don Callis centred for the next couple of months before they presumably heat him up to go to Wembley, but they need to get there soon because he has the potential to be everything to them. Billy Gunn and Jay White...ooooooft. If you're White, and you can tear yourself away from looking at your chiseled physique for long enough, you must wonder whether you've made the right choice in going to AEW. I don't think WWE really push him to the very top either, and I imagine you get a lot more freedom with promos etc, but he got made to look like a complete tit. I assumed you would get a blade runner out of nowhere and that would be it, but no matter how in shape Gunn is, he still shouldn't be leading what's essentially a squash match with a star like that. Seems another example of them just refusing to let a feud go a the perfect moment. Another week of Mone being fucking terrible, emphasised by how over Willow is and how well she came across. And saddle up, because there's near enough two more months of this to come. Yass.

It's sad, but I imagine if by some miracle they were holding MJF back for this big WM debut, I don't think he'd get anywhere near the sort of pop that he'd deserve. Would from me though, as he's fucking brilliant. He must have this little black book full of tenuous links to other wrestlers, because it seems like everyone he feuds with he has some angle or story to make use of. It isn't going to happen, he's clearly working, but...can you imagine it? This. Any kind of run-in outside of your standard Sikoa/Usos/Rollins doesn't make much sense (maybe Zayn I suppose) but f**k it. They've told an impeccable story, and if this is going to be some big conclusion before, presumably, the big Bloodline epilogue, then throw absolutely everything at it. Have the glass break and watch everyone go mental.

Just like the olden days, thought I'd start up a specific thread for The Grandest Stage and Showcase of All Them Immortals. Only a few days to go to what could end up being the best show they've put on in a long time...or an absolute fucking disaster. You never quite know with WWE. As always with WWE, it's now become a whole thing with about 8 million shows pencilled in around another 8 million indie shows taking place in Philadelphia. It looks like they've done away with the idea of having "WrestleMania Smackdown" and putting the unlovable matches on that, but there will still be the usual weekly show. Friday Night - Smackdown and the Hall of Fame Ceremony Saturday Afternoon - NXT Stand and Deliver Saturday Night - WrestleMania Night 1 Sunday Night - WrestleMania Night 2 Monday Night - (The) RAW (After WrestleMania) WWE Hall of Fame Ceremony Not counting Smackdown, this is now the way you kick off WrestleMania weekend it seems, with this sandwiched in presumably after Smackdown. This year Paul Heyman (inducted by Roman Reigns) Bull Nakano (inducted by Alundra Blayze) Thunderbolt Patterson (inducted by Scott Spears) Lia Maivia (inducted by The Rock) The US Express (inducted by TBA) Muhammad Ali (inducted by Lonnie Ali) Not the strongest class they've ever had, but Paul Heyman is likely to go down famously in Philadelphia and should speak incredibly well if they give him the time. Interesting to see both of your biggest heels doing inductions ahead of participating in the biggest story WWE have had in years. Can't imagine they'll have Cody crash the speech and set about him. Other interesting note is whether Bray Wyatt will be brought up at all. Have to imagine he will be, with his father and uncle both going in. Guess they probably want to keep him aside to induct properly as a headliner, although I probably would have done it this year over others. NXT Stand and Deliver Bit of a shame now that this kind of show would probably be the one you looked forward to most on WrestleMania weekend as the best of the "indies" went out and put on a show that would easily best whatever Vince put together on the main roster. Still though, I think new era NXT has been underrated, and it's clear they're going to be pissing out stars over the next few years. This card though? Not as good as I thought it might be. I'm a slag for stipulation matches, so bit disappointing to not see the odd mad-shit match in there. I would've thought Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams would be some kind of no DQ, but it is their first match, so probably holding out. It'll be a decent show, but doesn't seem like there's anything in there that's must-see. Good little Saturday evening fare for us poor UK time zone people. WrestleMania Night 1 Apart from the obvious ones, I hadn't realised they'd set the days on which each match will happen, so the cards have taken shape Definitely looks like the stronger night. I assume things will kick off with the ladder match, and maybe never recover from that given the absolute lunacy that's likely to take place there. So much talent in there, and with 12 guys available, that may end up being a contender for match of the weekend. Also the extra wrinkle that each individual title needs to be retrieved, which seems to be pointing towards the titles being split again. Six-woman match and the Mysterio Madness Tag Team match seem to be the weakest of the lot, but all in all a very strong card. Gunther/Zayn should be a terrific example of how well Zayn can get battered, Ripley/Lynch should be good, The Usos probably can't help but mesh well together. Then the main event...could go either way. It might not be the greatest from an actual wrestling standpoint, but as spectacle it's going to be hard to beat. It also feeds massively into night 2 for all kinds of reasons, so... WrestleMania Night 2 Definitely seems a weaker card from a pure match standpoint, but the main event of night 1 is definitely going to feed in to two matches, and could become a running story through the night. I think the Bloodline win the main event of night 1, perhaps through a can-they-coexist situation that leads indirectly to McIntyre decimating a wrecked Rollins. Rhodes wins the main event. Surely. He has to, right? Right?! I feel a bit sorry for Bayley to be honest. That had the potential to be one of the best stories they'd tell, but it's been overshadowed not just by the Reigns/Rhodes stuff, but arguably by other stories too. Would be great to see her go back to being a face again and winning the title, and could see that opening. The rest of the matches I'm not really that jazzed on. They'll no doubt be good, and hopefully that street fight adds a bit of sizzle. Hopefully Logan Paul gets punted out of the stadium. Big question that remains...just how fucking shenanigans is that main event going to be?

Aye, I think it's quite a smart choice really. Not every show needs to be in this massive stadium, particularly when our massive stadiums probably are significantly shitter than the sort they'll use in the US. Think they also probably bit off more than they bargained for in Cardiff by making the ticket prices mental and putting it somewhere that was an absolute fucking chore to get to. MITB at the O2 was a better choice, so will the Hydro. Probably gives WWE a lot less headaches in putting it on too. Only question is how much they'll charge. Not hopeful.

A PPV in Glasgow. What a time to be alive. Might be that they couldn't get Hampden or Murrayfield, but they might just be going a similar approach to MITB in London. No need to worry about the weather, no need to worry about it not selling out, no need to worry about any atmosphere disappearing into the sky. The Hydro will almost certainly be full, and the atmosphere will be far better. Having Smackdown the same night we're in the opening match of the Euros though...less of a good idea.

I'm trying to give the San Marino challenge a go. Took over the National Team immediately hoping I can scam some early success and came up against Kazakhstan 1-0 down with the usual absolute hiding on the cards, but managed to sneak an equaliser. 88th minute, we get a penalty, score it, and go into stoppage time set up to win our first match in 20 years, possibly the first competitive win ever. In the 95th minute, with 4 supposed to be added on, they stroke home an equaliser. In the 98th minute (again, with 4 supposed to be added on) they give away another penalty. The useless sack of shit goes onto miss his second penalty and choke the chance of a competitive win. f**k sake.

In the continuing adventures of the hottest signing in women's wrestling, Mone was absolutely awful on commentary, came across like she had absolutely zero charisma, and went down the route of simply making noises rather than providing any insight. They really need to have her wrestle soon.

Is gaming the system really as possible anymore? I think the old method for a lot of nations used to be to avoid friendlies at certain points and then play very targeted ones, which was always trumping those that played whenever they could. Now I think you're mandated to play friendlies if you don't have a competitive game. Given that, the pool of nations available to play gets smaller, as everyone needs to find an opponent, and the opportunities for gaming the system are fewer. So going by that, and the arbitrary list of ways we should apparently choose a friendly, A is probably out unless it just so happens that the perfect opponent is available, B is possible, but debatable as to how useful it is going to be*, C is similar to A. * I'm curious, say we put out a complete fringe side against Northern Ireland, and we got a similar result (because I doubt our second string would be any more successful at breaking them down than out first) would everyone be happy because we gave other people a chance? Because I'm almost certain they'd be getting the same criticisms. We don't have this enormously deep talent pool to pick from, that game was all about letting the first choice side get some confidence back. Fucked that up royally though.

So many occasions we received the ball, and immediately numerous opponents were swarming and snapping into tackles. They only really started to look under any sort of pressure in the final minutes, and short of a snap-shot from Shankland and the header from...I can't remember, it's hard to think of anything other than half chances. Some people have said it's a "friendlies" thing, but is that not worrying in itself? I can understand struggling to get up for a game when both teams are just going through the motions and can't be arsed, but if your opponents are treating it like it's a knockout tie of a tournament, surely a professional group of players - who have just done so well in the actual qualifying - can raise themselves beyond the tepid showing? "It'll be alright on the night" is a pretty bold strategy when we could well get pumped on said night.

I'd have Murray as top too. Growing up in the shadow of one of the countries biggest tragedies as a child, then getting undeserved hate from the sort of gammons that can't take a joke and imagine everyone loves England. Never quite taken to heart until he lost at Wimbledon in 2012 and broke down post-match. Then goes on to win the Olympics on "home" soil, break his major duck, then come back a year later to absolutely pump Djokovic in the next Wimbledon final. I think it would be hard to argue that any Scot in any sport has had the combination of story and success that he's had. I'd have had him at right-back over Patterson last night. Fucked hip and all.

Ah yes, totally weaker than a Georgia side benefitting from the weird lower Nations league playoff rules that we're unbeaten against in qualifying.

I think it's easy to point to what was a great qualifying campaign and say "well x was fine then", but I'm not sure it holds much weight. It's been 10 games since we had that famous win against Spain. In club football, that's no time at all, but here it's an entire year. 9 months since our last really good result in Norway, and that was a bit of a freak with how badly we played. I'm not saying we hit the panic button and everything is shite, but there's a worrying trend, and a great campaign doesn't really mean much now if we slide into the Euros and stink the place out. As for last night, have to give Northern Ireland immense credit. Not the most inspiring stuff for a friendly on a rainy Tuesday night, but they implemented their gameplan absolutely perfectly and we had no answer to it. 82% possession and I barely remember any actual chances we had. The only bright spot is that we're unlikely to face a side playing like that in the Euros. Germany are obviously better and will come at us, Switzerland and Hungary will probably feel the same too. But a lot of people in the squad need to very quickly find their feet. Still, at least Wales lost. Lol.

Yeah, I'd say that surely you have to go with Cody this year, but then I thought there was absolutely zero chance Reigns retained last year. It'd be a terrible decision to hold off again, but it would be oddly hilarious. Personally I can't see beyond the Bloodline winning the match on Night 1 to allow all this interference, then we'll get a hilariously cinematic clusterfuck of a main event on night 2 with absolutely everything - and everyone - thrown at it. If they can add that glass shatter and have Stone Cold take out Rock, the pop will be enormous, even if it makes absolutely no sense beyond "it's Rock and Stone Cold". I have a nagging feeling though that Rock will just turn on Reigns and go "face" in the main event, and Cody will win it that way. Really hope I'm wrong, and he genuinely has managed to get rid of this need to always be the wholesome hero with what he's been doing lately. You can have interference around the match, but Rhodes needs to win clean in the middle of the ring. EDIT: Just caught the full segment after only getting a recap previously. Safe to say Rock is absolutely killing it in this role. No jazzy PG one-liners, just a big lad giving an unhinged scheme booting. If they manage to stick the landing at WM and not ruin it, it'll go down as a crowning achievement considering how it started.

I think we gain far more from having our first-choice players (or as many of them as possible) get a decent win under their belts and arrest the slide, rather than give more fringe players a chance to beat a side they should be beating anyway.

The biggest problem now, it seems, is just plain old finishing. For most of the game we held them at bay, created chances, but didn't finish them. At the risk of sounding like I'm putting out the level of punditry you'd get on Super Scoreboard, goals change games. Put a couple of the really good chances we had away, it's far more likely that those defensive frailties we have don't get exposed. I'm pretty sure their opener was their only shot on target, and wouldn't be surprised if their second wasn't too far away either. We both had 13 attempts according to BBC, and they scored 4. In international football, against these kinds of sides, they 'll take those chances. We have to as well.

I don't think he deserves that much abuse for it even. Inches lower, cracking finish one-on-one, just fine margins. Obviously you'd hope a striker of his quality would finish that, but it's not like he blazed it miles over or wide.

With Adams it's much the same story as most strikers before him. He's not great, but he's amongst the best we've got. If we had markedly better players, he wouldn't be there. But we don't. Shankland is probably in the same boat.

What's got you so optimistic?

Telt yeez we should've done the FM thing and arranged friendlies with San Marino, some island in Oceania and a Sealand XI.

And I'm not going mental, right? Her music is Gunther's old music jazzed up? What an odd, odd choice. Well, obviously not Gunther's, as it's likely hundreds of years old as a piece of music.