forameus

I was listening to a podcast on WM35 today, which was probably the worst example of WWEs preposterously long shows. This could well end up being in that region. Far, far too much in there. At least WWE made sure there was some shite in there to turn the heat down. I imagine tonight will just be good match after good match, with only really good to change the pace up.

This match is fucking incredible. Ricochet might not have anything in the character stakes, but how can you not find something for this guy to do?

Don't buy the turning on Drew excuse either. You can easily give him the moment and then reset everything at Extreme Rules. Might even help Reigns character a bit if he could move on from his current God mode shtick.

Someone kicking him to death in the ring would've been better for sending the crowd home happy certainly.

They even had Kross there as a heel ready to go with Drew. Or Theory. Reigns deserves time away too. But instead it's now presumably heel vs heel with Kross vs Reigns with Theory gimping around in the background.

I assumed their plan was to have him deck Roman to "send the crowd home happy", but he just shakes his hand. Then assumed Drew would do that instead. Guess they saw Furys last fight and thought "Brits fucking love singing"

If we're giving them the benefit of the doubt, maybe they know they're getting the Rock in for WM, and think that the title pushes it onto another level. Because there literally isn't anything else for your two top titles now. Nothing. I suppose you're probably looking at Cody, but he's surely not due back just yet, and surely there's a way you can still do Cody at WM AND Drew here. It's just a really fucking terrible decision.

I stand by what I said yesterday, that result has almost single handedly turned the promising ship WWE around. A really, really well booked match until the end, and then Sikoa turns up and everything goes awful. Drew happily belting out shite tunes like he's outside the Buff Club at 3am after he's just lost the biggest match of his career sums it up.

This is close to the worst thing they've ever done.

Bland, plain shite really. It's not bad, but it's not even the best example of a clean design there's been. It's mental that the price of these keep on rising whilst manufacturers do their best to just do one or two templates and change the colours. The shorts on the away also have the whiff of Primark swimwear about them, and I'm not sure fit in at all That's fucking criminal. It's bad enough that they bring out a barely updated one every two years, with little in the way of reductions until each shirt is literally obsolete, but to do that in 6 months - presumably as a way of trying to ride the Women's Euros wave (despite us not getting there) - is dreadful.

Ends in a disqualification, Reigns retains, but a gang of faces hoist Drew onto their shoulders while he flies the Saltire*?

I really hope they're filming everything for one of those WWE 24 things. First show Trips has had a chance to properly run with a good build, potentially Drew's win, and any other mad shit they plan.

Is there much in Fish on his own though? Or would KOR join him? He seems to have gotten more shine in those last days of NXT than he's been offered in AEW as far as I can remember. Looks like a good show in store on Sunday, capping off what should be a great weekend of it. Think the show is going to feel extremely long with all they've crammed in but admittedly they haven't suffered from the same bloat latter-era Wrestlemanias have had. Not sure they've told the Punk story that well so soon before the show though. Comes out to give a maudlin salmon jacket retirement speech then no-sells it with the mad eyes after a slap from his pal. Will be interesting to see how the match goes though. Could argue for either winning, and even if the intention is to turn Punk heel, it doesn't really matter whether he wins or loses.

I'd go as far as saying that if they don't have Drew go over, it'll undo pretty much all of the good feeling around the WWE recently, and even sink it deeper. I personally think they could have done more with Reigns finally dropping, but there really isn't a whole lot more you can do with him now. Who do you have him go up against? He's just convincingly beaten WWE's final boss in Lesnar, and there just isn't an available face that you have built up well enough to face him. Cody was probably the option - and might well have been there already if it wasn't for the injury, but this is too big an opportunity to pass up. Give Drew the moment he's never really had thanks to Covid, let him hold for a little while, and let Reigns have a bit of a rest. If the plan is to go with the Rock for WM, the title should not be involved, so let him rest until Royal Rumble to start that build.

This is why I hate the Riddle character generally. This goofy pothead w****r playing comedic foil to Randy Orton. He could be a fucking killer if they gave him a shot. Hopefully the end result of him and Orton is a turn because that 45s was better than most of what he's done so far.

Some of the wee Lumis bits from last night were brilliant. Could well f**k up the landing but interesting to see where it goes.

For those better placed, was the disallowed goal onside? Looked it from where I was, players back on the line

Apparently CNBC have come out and said it isn't happening, but unlikely to be smoke without fire. Probably done to give Amazon a bit of a foothold into the industry, and probably can't hurt they're taking on products with massive potential for making huge fucking stacks of filthy money.

I like the idea of Cardiff. Once you're there at least. Nice wee town centre, and absolutely everything you could possibly want pre-gig is pretty much right there. For a big event at the stadium, it feels like everyone there is all there for the one thing. But everything leading up to that is fucking horrible. We did Glasgow to Luton to meet a pal in Milton Keynes, then there to Cardiff by car to an airbnb. Flying had stupid times and prices, train was even worse.

I'm a bit gutted I'm not going to be honest. When it was announced, obviously it was Vince era, and the tickets were fucking extortionate. I did Rammstein in Cardiff a couple of months ago, and it was a fucking ballache to get to (and sounds like accommodation is even worse this time). But now it's close, I'm a bit annoyed I didn't take the plunge. Still, good to have a Saturday event at. a friendly time, and once it's home time I won't be too envious.

I think it's quite clear that Wee Phil is desperate to go back and join up with his old pal Trips.

I managed to get the Shapeshifter Ronaldo card too, but after a few games last night, it's a tough ask to get too excited about it. Having a 99 rated card doesn't really help as much at the stage of the game where every single player is ludicrously boosted beyond the capabilities of the game. Will probably piss away the rest of the fodder and coins I have to see what comes out then leave the game alone for a while and see whether I can be arsed starting this all over again for 23.

If there was a time for him to come back, it seems like it'd be then, especially as Punk seemed to be getting positioned that way before he decided to f**k his foot up. Hard to see where else they go if it isn't him on such short notice

Fair play, they don't mess about with having things happen if they feel they need to happen. WWE are now so conditioned into the 4-weeks-of-tv-then-a-ppv cycle that even now RAW and Smackdown are doing better, there's still no real reason to tune in each week given they'll do a great job of recapping once we get to the show. AEW are doing it completely differently and making the fair enough point that if it makes sense to do it now, we do it now. It doesn't always work, for me, as I think the Jungle Boy stuff is moving a bit too quick, but this one makes complete sense, and it's shaping up to be yet another must-see episode of Dynamite. Thought the "pull-apart" looked a bit shit, but the promos leading up to it showed just how good Punk is in these kinds of situations. Can only imagine that they've got something else big planned for All Out that may be set in motion next week, doesn't seem their style to go to a draw or anything like that just to kick things along the line.

The new step in manufacturers reusing strip designs is simply to reuse strips. Class. Ours is...alright, I guess. Not sure I like the blue in the stripes, but I do like how simple it is. National shirts are always better given they get away with no sponsors, gives a nice opportunity to give a proper clean design. I would've just taken the one the women have currently though, much prefer the yellow/green to the blue here.