forameus

Which is why they'd be much better just accepting he's at least straddling heel and face or just let him be a heel. I think AEW went far too long having him as this super face, particularly with all the shit that was going on behind the scenes. Everyone knows what happened in AEW, and outside of Chicago he's likely to get mixed reactions. Have Rollins continue as a face, and have the two of them absolutely go off on each other in the run-up. Just so much material there. The Shield was Punk's idea, Mox has already dismantled him verbally, Rollins has called him a cancer, Jack Perry almost certainly going to be referred to. If HHH can sit behind the scenes and make absolutely sure he is kept on a leash, both sides are going to make a lot of money, and Punk can disappear off into retirement eventually having not completely self-destructed. Or it all goes to shit in weeks. It'll be fun seeing which.

Think it's been said that talent knew, and Rollins is in full on work mode in anticipation of having a feud with Punk

The crazy fuckers did it. I'll be honest, I got spoiled on Punk returning before I started watching, but that kind of made me appreciate just how masterfully they handled it. Leak they're talking to the guy, then leak that it's done. Throw in a few hints over the weeks but ultimately (seemingly) completely pivoting away in favour of Orton. Looked like they were trying to quash any expectation, which is something they've fallen foul of in the past. Knowing he was coming back, and the way they handled Orton during the show, I just assumed you'd get him coming out as the 5th guy when the timer hit 0, ra-ra babyface pop, and off we go. Then Ripley comes out, which is a nice wrinkle, then Orton to a massive pop. Would've been easy for the crowd to turn on it all at that point, but they played it so well that they hadn't given them Punk, but gave them something almost as good to them. Orton looks brilliant, gets his moment, match ends, and then the fucking copyright card. Incredible pop for the guy. He seems like a particularly objectionable human being at times, but you can't deny what he brings to a company. Now that he's here, maybe this is the best place for him. He's not going to get nearly as much of a long leash that he got in AEW, and any discontent is probably going to get squashed before it has a chance to fester. I just hope they don't have him as a face now they've left Chicago. Let him be a dick. Have to hand it to WWE. Felt like the show was a bit meh and safe after the lunacy of Full Gear last week. But they absolutely nailed the ending. EDIT: Anyone watch the press conference afterwards? Did Punk manage not to immediately burn everything down?

If I was anyone playing Georgia, I'd be doing my absolute level best to take it to the trenches and properly shithouse them. They almost had a fucking aneurism when it rained in Glasgow, and the home game they dragged it down themselves. Reducer on K-Rat the first minute, and spend the rest of the game acting like proper dicks.

I was still seeing an outside chance that they'd worked an injury into a more serious injury, but that's clearly not the case. I didn't think he'd be back imminently in any sort of wrestling capacity outside of fantasy booking. I don't know, something about the way they presented on Dynamite suggested that they were scrambling a little about the injury, but that's got no basis really. They've got a history of not really knowing how to pivot when it comes to injuries and just forging ahead regardless. One story that seems to hold a bit of weight that I read would be the devil stuff building up to World's End and the kayfabe of MJF's contract coming to an end. Cole reveals himself, causes MJF to lose his title in Long Island, thinking he'll be leaving the company anyway now he has nothing. MJF can get a well-earned break, heal up, sell that he's really gone, and once Cole has a clearer timeline for returning, MJF can come back vowing revenge. Then you can give Joe a nice little reign, maybe even all the way to All In when he can pass it to Ospreay (as surely there's no doubt he's going to win that title at Wembley)

Not a huge fan of the long-winded league format, but that's likely just me being a basic bitch. If they can pepper in bits of storyline, fair enough. Bit disappointing that it seems like the World's End match is just Joe vs MJF. Makes sense, but I thought we'd build to all these story threads and challengers having this big multi-man match. Maybe MJF does retain after all. Starting to look like maybe Cole's injury is more serious than they thought, and now they're desperately spinning their wheels until he can return. The quick shot of the devil certainly seems like they're trying to distract from it being Cole whilst not really moving things on at all. Christian is just having the best time, isn't he? I'd love to see what happens when he gets through to the back away from the cameras, and just how nice he is to the people he's just verbally cut down. MJF can make anything work promo-wise, but his heel stuff often jumped towards the usual "your city/sports team/idol is bad" stuff. If you want someone to cut - literally - a heel promo with proper heat, Christian's on another level.

I've no idea (well, actually, I do have an idea, given it's almost certainly just down to name) why everyone seems so terrified of Italy. They're down in pot 4 for a reason, and although I'd still prefer, say, the Path C playoffs option than them, I wouldn't be averse to drawing them. They've been to as many tournaments as we have since 2018, and although the one they did go to they won, they've shat the bed getting to two World Cups. They're not to be overly feared in the way you'd fear France or similar. Anyway, using that handy wee app someone put forward, it's just mugged me right off by suggesting Italy are amongst the hardest draw (based on ELO). Think if we got that, we'd stand a decent chance of getting something from Denmark or Italy, but could also see us getting papped out with nothing. When you're hoping for a "better" nation to f**k up, not the best position to be in (especially when we're well capable of doing similar). The "hardest draw based on market value" replaces France with England (curiously with the same "value" as France). I'm not as afraid of England as some, but again it's basically a question of which England turns up. They're well capable of turning in an utterly turgid mess of a performance (their November has them up there with Belgium in the "talented but tedious" stakes), but they proved at Hampden that if they want to, they could hold us at arms length and win comfortably. Onto the draws we definitely won't get, and based on ELO, it's this one I would definitely take that. Germany are an awkward one, as they'll be at a home tournament, and surely can't be as bad as they have been, but...well they have been utter shite. Seems like the sort of perfect storm moment for them to have a real shitemare and start another reinvention that ends with them winning the 2030 World Cup. We should be able to beat Albania to secure 3rd, and Poland seem to be on the slide down while we go in the other direction. 2nd definitely not beyond us, and if all the stars align, that's probably a group we could actually win..

I see it more as them offering some kind of "dream team" made up of players that didn't make it. That seems like the sort of absolutely w**k solution that modern football would come up with. International football is already the red-headed step-child to the sort of people who have serious conversations about their fantasy team, so what better way to drum up interest than to completely piss all over everything? That and changing allegiance. Harder to get working, but wouldn't put it past them.

Ukraine in a semi-final you say? I think it'd be only fair to lay down like they should have last time. Like we did.,

"Just" offside... This is impressive and delicious levels of copium.

Petty or not, I'm not sure I dislike any international football side as much as I do Wales. This is delightful.

Bit of a mixed bag with Full Gear. I thought early on it seemed like it was missing something huge. Trios match to start off was fine, but felt more like a bit of a tribute/house show match. Are we really going to have "this is the last time Sting will wrestle in..." at every venue? Seems like it. The ladder match was fine chaos, but again didn't feel maybe quite as big as it could. Particularly disappointing was the Mox/OC match. Not sure what it was, but it felt like they were just trying to get through things, and never had the feeling like there was the bad blood in the story that had been told up to that point. Good to see them put the faith in OC, but that's about it. And as a final kick in the stones, the final line of commentary was along the lines of "it doesn't look like we've seen the end of the feud between the BCC and Best Friends." f**k off. Ospreay lifted things slightly, and I am really looking forward to seeing what they do with him at Wembley next year. Then Hangman/Swerve happened. f**k me. I'm not convinced it was particularly smart, but if you're putting together a Texas Deathmatch on one of your big shows, by f**k did they deliver. They threw absolutely everything at each other, and no-one comes out of it looking weaker. Swerve is an absolute star, and will be very interesting to see where that goes next. Bucks/Jerichomega was...fine. I still just can't take to the Bucks with the constant mugging to the camera, but it will be interesting to see where it goes from here. Then the main event...I really liked how they built a story through the show to pay off in the main event, although I would have peppered a bit more during. I can see the point of people saying the story's starting to fall apart a bit, but I think that was probably the best choice at the time. I was absolutely sure we were getting the payoff to the devil stuff and it being Cole, but they swerved that. I assumed at some point the boot comes off, and suddenly he's not injured, and he's the devil, and krrroooossh, and smaaash, and all that. But they're taking the Gargano/Ciampa route, and when he inevitably turns on MJF - presumably in his home town at New Year - it's going to be all the bigger. As for the match, MJF just keeps getting better. It takes a lot to make that length of match believable with a worked injury, and usually you get a few moments where they just forget to sell, or take you out of it, but every moment he's selling it, but never quite pushing it into bullshit territory. Massive credit to Jay White too. And fucking hell, I bit so hard on that belt-based false finish at the end my teeth fell out. Roman Reigns will always get the press as the undisputed top guy in (probably) the top company in the industry, but when you compare how the respective matches go, MJF (and the writers) are putting on something noticeably different most times, have gone through one face turn (and potentially a heel turn too), while Reigns has basically been having the same match for years now. No comparison.

Also rumours of Goldberg. Which would be...a decision. And Ziggler. Which seems like the sort of signing to expect from Tony "Major Announcement" Khan.

Initial interest in the game has waned for me, but I still don't really see anything serious bug-wise in my save. Not to say they're not there, but I'm yet to see something that really puts me off playing. It's fine at the moment, nothing revolutionary, has bugs as it always does, but otherwise OK. Although most of my time is going in working in the editor to be honest, so it's ages since I've properly played the game. Don't think I've had a serious play of it since the last update. Does seem like the reaction to this title is slightly more hysterical than usual.

Anyone new coming in would have to be an absolute superstar that could automatically improve us no questions asked in order to make it into the Euros squad. If they're still interested come the Nations League in the autumn, by all means we should be exploring every option in order to make us better. But it would be a massive slap in the face to everyone who has got us to this point to bring in someone completely new if they're just going to be a slight improvement. Och, I'm sure it's not that... *checks* Fucking hell.

Absolutely mental spot to even try too. Hobbs did well to get him up, but clearly struggling, and Wight coming down didn't look controlled or particularly comfortable. Like a roll of carpet coming down some stairs. And for what? Him being there didn't really make much sense other than to satisfy a "Hobbs big, he bigger" kind of angle. Just needless. Plus it comes inside the sort of match that AEW just steadfastly refuse to get better at covering. They need to really stop these chaotic multi-man matches until they can be confident about actually being able to show everything.

But of course, after 5 minutes Rockstar will offer a new pack that offers a flying mobility scooter with multiple missiles that everyone will buy. I'm always amazed at how Rockstar are received given how absolutely shameless they are with microtransactions and the online content.

Italy are probably the best example of names not meaning quality necessarily. We've been at as many tournaments in the past three than they have. Granted they won that one, but they're perfectly capable of being absolutely shite. If you go back further, they've been disappointing (based on the name at least) since they won the World Cup in 2006. Group Stage in 2010 and 2014, not even there in 2018 and 2022. Fared better in the Euros, but outside of 2020 (which they followed up by failing to get to 2022) they've had a couple of quarter finals and getting absolutely horsed off Spain in the final in 2012 (were they not pretty shit at that tournament too from memory?) Ultimately, the seedings largely represent where a nation should be now they've gotten away from it being easily manipulated. Any team we'll draw is going to pose a problem to us, but on the other hand, outside of a few obvious examples, there aren't any sides we should be actively fearing. This format really just needs a win to be in with a chance of the knockouts, and that's definitely not beyond us.

Indeed, pot 3 looks like a better bet as things stand. Obviously things can shift though. Not that I'm suggesting we throw games (deliberately at least, we're well capable of just being shite) but what's a likely string of results that would definitely push us to pot 3? Or is pot 4 out of the question now, so it's basically drop any points in these two games?

Very interesting news, but remains to be seen what kind of announcement it is. If it's a proper trailer and says we'll get it in the first half of 2024, fucking brilliant. Rockstar are absolute shitehawks when it comes to microtransactions and using GTAO as a money-printing machine, but it's near certain that they will release a highly polished game, which is rare these days.

Am I just looking at it with hate goggles, but on that spot does it not look like Rey would have rotated through and landed fine had Paul not been there? Guess it depends what the spot was supposed to be, and whether he was supposed to complete the moonsault, or whether Paul was genuinely supposed to catch him.

Seems from the general reaction that you can't possibly point out that Logan Paul is a complete c**t because he's quite good at wrestling. He has absolutely taken to this probably better than most. He's a tremendous athlete, and he brings a whole load of positives to WWE. But you can also, quite rightly, point out what a complete c**t the guy is. I just can't take to him. At all. WWE at least deserve some credit for realising he should be a heel because he's genuinely detestable, but we've got loads of absolutely top class heels I'd rather see in a position across both major companies. And I know I'm sounding like old man yells at cloud, but then I am old. And I fucking hate clouds.

WWE shows are approaching the point where there's just little point in watching. They haven't been *bad* in a long while, but if you want good solid wrestling, there are loads of other options nowadays. None of the stuff they're putting out really feels like it matters. Knight deserves a shot, but he was never going to win, and the match follows the same tired pattern they have for months now. So many feuds just seem to be them having a plan for WM, and being fine with just putting on stuff that doesn't matter until then.

Yeah, he's said that. I was more meaning trying to balance the cards better so that it didn't feel like both cards ended up being not quite as good as they could have been. Difficult thing, granted, but I felt like All Out particularly suffered (All In felt like it was going to, but attending in person really helped).