forameus

I've not kept up with him, has Doolan showed any aptitude to be able to do this?

To be fair to them, if they're going to start doing these regularly, a closed off arena show absolutely full to the brim is going to be an incredible atmosphere that you might not get at a stadium, particularly in the UK with its unpredictable weather. I just hope they aren't going to try and make up for the lack of seats by upping the price.

MJF has moved on from hitting the same old beats in his promos to cutting genuinely problematic ones now. Absolutely well delivered, but have to wonder whether a promo about a car crash is a brilliant idea on a show where you're hyping up the surviving Briscoe speaking on Rampage, just a couple of weeks after the other brother died tragically. And quite the reaction on commentary directly afterwards, only for Taz to quite happily play up to the heel commentator role when MJF was next to him. Can't say there's a huge amount of heat in the main event now. I don't think it's been booked brilliantly. Sensibly? Yeah, probably. MJF probably gains more in avoiding fights, but he is incredibly good in the ring as he showed last night. Danielson will almost certainly lose and put him over, and a 1 hour Iron Man match is going to very tough to get absolutely right with the way the characters are booked. Interesting, but already looks like it won't be the most interesting thing on a show with literally nothing else booked on it yet.

I'll give it a glance when they go on sale, but I suspect it'll be far too rich for my blood. I did have the slight disappointment in the run up to Clash at the Castle that I hadn't bothered, but the thought of doing the trip home again (I'd already done Rammstein in Cardiff a few months before, f**k that) and the eye-watering price it would've cost made it a good decision. Given it's a smaller venue, I dread to think what they'll price it at.

It might not be the right decision, but fucking hell, Paul Heyman is doing his absolutely level best to make Cody vs Reigns have the heat. Incredible promo last night

Absolutely woeful stuff from pretty much all involved. Like with so many sides visiting Firhill, Cove weren't brilliant but they didn't need to be. We're so incredibly easy to beat if you can take a chance you get. Can't really remember too many clear-cut ones Cove had, but they took their first, and then you just knew we had absolutely no chance of getting even an equaliser, let alone turn it around. Pretty much every decision made was wrong. A huge number of poor choices of pass, making us so easy to defend against. And we seem absolutely incapable of doing any kind of effective pressing. It's no wonder we look so awkward when a team presses us, it's like they're told it's not allowed or something. Refereeing performance wasn't the reason we lost, but that's probably the most awkwardly terrible one I've seen in a while. Usually fairly even in how it fucks both teams, but this one certainly seemed to penalise us more. I assume Graham said something particularly stupid for a straight red, so benefit of the doubt there, but a complete lack of consistency in how fouls and cards were treated, a desire to let most time-wasting go, then a splurge of cards for less egregious examples. Topped off by Fox (probably MotM) almost certainly turning the ball around the post, changing it's direction and bounce, and giving a goal kick. What fucking hope do you have? Hard to argue that McCall should probably go. Is it worth punting him in the short-term to give someone new a bit of a free-hit, or is this season effectively pointless now? Can we even afford to punt him if we want to (which I suspect the board probably don't)? Through Archibald and now McCall, it's been the same insipid and largely pointless play, while other, perhaps less talented sides come and easily beat us. Can we not at least try and set up to be a bit more stodgy and build from there instead of the lumbering, unimaginative shite we get now?

Used to say that about Ospreay, but he at least realised he was heading for a very short career and managed to pivot to something a little less dangerous. But will Darby do anything like that? Doesn't seem like the kind that could get by on just being the plucky underdog without putting himself on the line like he does. Is he that good at selling, or is he just in genuine pain every time he does anything?

They could just re-run the Daniel Bryan story, it would absolutely work, but it would also completely throw Rhodes under several buses. The reason that story worked so well was because of just how badly they had booked the original main event, and Batista not getting the face reactions they had hoped. A triple threat would have Reigns as the heel, Sami as the overwhelming face, and then Rhodes just...there. Unless you're going to have some kind of turn from Rhodes, which I wouldn't be against, but probably comes too early.

At this rate though, having them vs the Usos doesn't really make much sense anymore. Jey lining up against Owens and Zayn doesn't really work, so I wonder if it'll be something like Jey/Owens/Zayn vs Jimmy/Solo/Reigns. Have the Elimination Chamber be for the IC title or something, continue to give Gunther the shine. The show is also being held in Montreal, so Zayn (and Owens) are likely to figure big in whatever happens.

I had no idea why they'd started running them in pretty much every show, but that makes perfect sense. They're still weird though. They're always well-produced, as WWE videos like that often are, but they don't seem to vary them up very much. Seeing how Bobby Lashley came to be where he is today was interesting. I didn't know he was in the Army (and how they brought him in to wrestle for them, which is another level of weird) and it was quite interesting. The first time. Not the subsequent hundred other times they've run the same clip. If they had a whole library of these, it wouldn't be so bad, and I'm sure some they haven't covered have some stories to tell. f**k it, do a package of them on their brightest talents in NXT, then maybe once they come up they'll feel bigger. Can't help but feel they've left themselves with too much of a story to tell. The Zayn story has seemed pretty organic in the way it has built, with the direction slightly pivoting as the reception grew and grew and grew. That's always going to mess with their long term plans, but at some point in the next month or so they're going to need to make a decision, and I'm not sure they've left themselves a "good" option. The best I've heard - even though it's still not one I'd be fully supportive of - would be having Reigns spend the time up to Mania basically dismantling. Rhodes main events night 1 against him and takes the last piece he has in both titles. He then goes into night 2 solely concerned with making sure Sami Zayn can't feel things afterward. So it doesn't end up being about the titles, it just ends up being about whether Zayn can get past this previously unstoppable and now completely unhinged monster. Now I don't fully get on board with that, as I think it lessens Zayn's story to have him be the second man to beat Reigns, but unless they're going to mug one of them off, then someone's likely going to have to come off slightly worse. I'd have given Rhodes more time off to be honest and had him come back after Wrestlemania.

You can see why the likes of Gargano and Ciampa never really wanted to leave NXT. With the smaller roster and focused stories, Gargano had the time to go out and put on great matches and (often) be the babyface in peril. He could absolutely do that on the main roster, but it's probably going to be a hard sell to carve out a spot for him to do that. They could, they should, but they won't. Ricochet I'm not as sold on. He's undoubtedly impressive, but I'm not sure he's as well-rounded as other options WWE have, or at least not enough to, again, carve out that spot. He came to the mainstream attention with those matches with Will Ospreay, but one of them has disappeared into the distance with what he's been capable of. Balor might be on a Nakamura style run where he's just getting to feature enough to keep him interested but isn't too bothered about pushing himself too far. He's clearly having fun with the Judgement Day stuff, and seems like his time with Edge isn't over.

Managed to get through that 2hr45m PPV just there. It was...alright. Nowhere near the worst they've done, but sits around the middle. A lot of missed opportunities there. The men's rumble was fine for what it was. Think it ended up being booked quite well, but there wasn't really too much intrigue to it or any real surprises to speak of. Those that were there though, they did pretty well. Managed to get the big guys in there like Brock without taking away from the overall story they were trying to tell. Gunther got to look great (some journey for him, going from someone who couldn't be arsed moving to America and doing the full WWE deal to being the iron man in the Rumble and positioned to have a big match at WM, well deserved), a number of little stories advanced. I think it was at a risk of falling off a cliff at the end though. As the numbers ticked down and there was no bloodline involvement, every entrance just cemented what they were trying to do. Had they gone with one of the first spots Gunther and Cody did alone and had him eliminate him, it would've really derailed the whole match, but luckily they had a pretty decent longer sequence that made up for a lot of the problems. I'd have preferred them to tie the Zayn story up with something in the Rumble, but given the end of the main, I could see why they maybe didn't go with that. Still, it leaves the awkwardness of Reigns having two stories to tell going into WM, and we might be getting double duty over the two nights, which I think is shit. The Bray Wyatt glow party was fine. It didn't really advance much, but it at least got him into a ring to have a match. I'd have liked them to do a bit more rather than the Jeff Howdy-ing at the end, but there were a few cool visuals. Didn't really see much of the women's match, but seems like it was basically the counterpoint to the Wyatt match. Short one, put the favourite over, and move the story on another few inches. It's hard to say whether it's good or bad at this stage as it could go either way, but something needs to happen soon. Women's Rumble was...fine, I guess. It's always going to be at a disadvantage in some ways as they simply have less big names to call on to make it seem like a huge deal. But on the other hand, it does mean you're pretty much guaranteed to get a few in there you weren't expecting. Rhea Ripley winning is the right decision, and assuming she goes up against Belair (I'd have her win, f**k it). Nice closing sequence, something a bit different. Would like to see Asuka doing something more though, will never not enjoy watching her. A fucking musical act. Jesus Fucking Christ. Get that shite in the bin. If I'd stayed up for this I'd have been fucking furious. Then the main event. The match almost seems like a bit of an afterthought in all of it. Owens is never going to win, but he'll always put on a show. And he did make Reigns look like an absolute killer, in a way that not a lot of people have during his reign. He's never seemed particularly brutal, even when dominating, he just...wins. In this one Owens put all of his efforts into dying in the ring, especially with those stair bumps. The first one in particular looked utterly horrendous. Then after the match...I don't think I've been as invested in a segment in WWE since WM30 with Bryan. Everyone playing everything absolutely to perfection, even Owens playing the bag of sand. And that pop when Zayn hits him is thunderous. Magnificent. I'd also give them credit for going against the grain a little and not having Zayn then just go ham and take out all four men in the ring. That's wrestling 101 really, but again there's more layers with Zayn pretty much submitting to a beating that got pretty uncomfortable at times. And the wrinkle with Jey abandoning adds another layer on top of the thousands they've already gotten. Absolutely brilliant. But what now? How do they fit all these pieces together going into WrestleMania. Rhodes is presumably a lock to face Reigns in some form, which I think is a mistake at this stage, but they're unlikely to go back on it. Anything less than Zayn getting a shot too would be setting fire to money at this stage, so seems like we might get the title split. Do we maybe get a 6-man tag match at Elimination Chamber with Bloodline vs Jey, Zayn and Owens? Or do they all go into the Chamber for...something? EDIT: Realised I missed a couple of questions from the men's rumble - what the f**k was Kofi trying to do, and how did they ever believe it would work? Is he still alive? And is Santos Escobar still able to walk after Brock threw his spine from a great height into the ring apron? That looked horrible.

Wonder how reliable that is - not that I'm trying to pick holes in it! That's the Network schedule, and I assume it's basically up to them what happens. But then 2hr45m is an extremely specific time to pick. I see only 5 matches booked, I assume one of those goes to the pre-show, so 4 matches is probably doable in that with a slight run-on towards 3 hours. Belair/Bliss on the pre-show, one of the RUmbles to kick off the show, Mountain Dew expo, second Rumble, main event. Doable. Still, seems so weird that probably their second biggest show of the year is going to last less than your average episode of RAW.

The absolute teasing power of a spoiler tag...you b*****d

2hr 45 for the Royal Rumble? Nah, can't see it. The men's rumble alone usually pushes an hour, women's won't be far away, and can't see them fitting in everything else in 45 minutes, particularly when Reigns' entrance will likely be at least half an hour alone. And don't give me that hope, as I'm very keen on staying up for this, but know it'd be a fucking terrible idea. 1am start is absolutely brutal, miss the days of midnight starts and being young enough not to be a fucking wreck for days afterwards.

I thought it was a weird match, but purely down to the circumstances rather than anything they did. Must be so incredibly difficult to go out there and put on a show in those kind of circumstances, and weirdly it was Briscoe that seemed to be holding it together better. I know what you mean though, with all the ROH stuff mostly tied to some tertiary story, there hasn't been many occasions where two guys can just go out and put on a decent match. Pity it had to be under these circumstances is all. Next week looking like another very strong show. Mox/Hangman 3, Danielson/Thatcher, Darby/Joe 2. You'd think the formula of just putting out constant solid undercard PPV shows (at the very least, often better) on free tv would fall apart at some point, but they're just not.

I don't hate the changes, but I'm not convinced the Nations League really needed touching. For once they'd brought in something that was actually good for international football (despite what some fans of League A teams, or specific League B teams might say) but every year they've fucked about with it. It will add more meaning to every game, although I'm not convinced there's much of a need for that in a 4-team group playing just 6 games. Big question like others have said is what it really means in full for the main qualifiers. My question would be how seeding works for the draws given there's now at most 5 teams in groups, so presumably the 6 pot system is dead. With so many teams needing to be in a specific sized group, do we then have two seeding "paths". f**k knows.

The betting patterns have shown something interesting. Almost certainly driven by a dirtsheet report and people lumping money on, and almost certainly too early to mean anything about the actual booking, but...

Sounding from reports like that was down to the Bloodline segment overrunning. So they decided to pretty much sack off an advertised match that people would actually want to see, in favour of...anything else they put on.

That's the first RAW I've actually watched...well, ever. Usually just catch up on Bleacher Report and watch the odd bit on YouTube but since it was a big show, thought I'd give it a watch. Fucking hell, how do people do that regularly? How do you sit through that live? If you watched it on BT with their enhanced player, it seems like they stripped out all the adverts, but they also spoil a lot of what's coming up. Watched the second half on the standard one and it absolutely dragged, with Jurgen Fucking Klopp telling me to go learn sign language every 5 minutes. And you know it's worse in the US given that whoever carries these shows (FITE for AEW, or BT for WWE) can't even show the extent of adverts they get over there legally. It also doesn't help with having three hours, they like to let every segment "breathe". AEW is guilty of the complete opposite, but although the opening segment with the Bloodline was good, they're often guilty of things just dragging on in the knowledge that they've still got another two and a half hours to fill anyway. It's been done to death, but a 2 hour RAW is badly needed. As for the show itself though, it was a good amount of fun. They're often guilty of using these shows as just a big congratulatory wanking festival where they marvel at how great they are, but those spots were done a lot better this time around, and they remembered to make sure they advanced their stories too, sometimes mixing both pretty well. I feared the worst when Imperium came out in the DX segment, but them backing down was amusing and "realistic". All the legends used pretty well, not stinking up the joint (although continuing to chuck Hulk Hogan in is certainly a choice), good stuff. Bloodline stuff was well done, but it doesn't feel like it advanced things massively until the very end. But when it did, it's going to be really interesting to see where they go with it. You think the easiest thing in the world is to have them discard Zayn and him have the Daniel Bryan run to WM, but at this rate turning on them would see the Usos more on his side. Are they going to go for a complete break-up and have everyone (but sikoa seemingly) go against Roman? At least the canning of the original segment seems to point to Rock not being at WM for a match at least. With the Sami story it seems like it'd be almost a hindrance at this stage.

Good first half, quite tight, but when Dunfermline came out hoping to close it down in the second half, the game died. Terrible second half, completely pointless extra-time, only saving grace being that we weren't denied a penalty shootout. Very much in favour of a mercy rule at extra-time. It's soul-destroying to watch two sides so clearly happy to go to penalties have to go through the motions. If both sides want to sack off extra-time, let them and go straight to penalties.

I might be wrong but I was sure the guy fell outside the box. Might be just where I was sitting though. Dunfermline deserve the lead. Fairly even game, slightly better chances for them. Doubt we're getting back into this without significant improvement

Sad part is, you can already see some on reddit pointing to the fact that the one with the seatbelt also died, and even though they're not outright suggesting the lack of belt didn't matter, but certainly not actively discounting it.

Sounds like at least one of the kids is in a bad way, but hopefully the tragedy is done. But...no seatbelt, man. f**k sake. I will never understand what compels people to do that. Not trying to sound like I'm victim blaming, but it's very possible that with that on his kids don't lose their dad. It's really not worth it. Fucking tragic.

I'm in the camp of never actually having seen anything they've done, yet they were still so incredibly recognisable, and genuinely terrifying looking. Don't need to have watched them much to know they were very good at what they did, and obviously 38 is no age to go, no matter who you are. Awful stuff.