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forameus

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Everything posted by forameus

  1. Christian following his grand tradition of only feuding with people who he can berate for their Da being dead. Extra touch to it this time though - the address he gave during his promo? A graveyard. Ooft.
  2. They're shaping up to have a fair blockbuster of a WM at this rate. Probably confirmed Rock/Reigns vs Rollins/Rhodes (Night 1) Reigns vs Rhodes (Night 2) Rollins vs ? (Night 2) Bayley vs Iyo Sky Potential Lynch v Ripley Gunther vs ? (seemed to be Jey Uso, but they're chucking that on RAW next week apparently) Jey Uso vs Jimmy Uso (heavily rumoured previously) LA Knight vs Styles Logan Paul vs ? (probably KO I'd imagine to blow off the feud) Something tag title related Belair vs Cargill (can't see Belair not doing something) Just going by all of those, you're pushing about the number of matches we had last year (8 on night , 7 on night 2, although 1 on each night was Miz getting a booting for a couple of minutes). HHH seems to like the smaller cards to give the matches room to breathe, so can't imagine they'd go too many more than this (probably chuck some onto Wrestlemania Smackdown or whatever they call it). Chuck in a few stipulations to matches, and this is shaping up to be rather good.
  3. Someone mentioned it on a podcast, but say they manage to nail the main event, Rock's proper heeling it up and it looks like, once again, Reigns is about to retain with help...then the glass breaks. Can you fucking imagine? Was thinking earlier, 2024 wrestling is just fucking wild, isn't it? Ten years ago there was the infamous Royal Rumble where everything seemed to be going off the rails. Just prior to WM30, so Batista won the Rumble to a chorus of boos, and Punk immediately abandoned ship. Some of the parallels from that show and what's happened since are mental. On the pre-show, of the RR, Cody lost the tag titles to the New Age Outlaws. Ten years later, Cody left WWE, helped start up a whole new fucking company which has formed genuine competition, left again, and has come back to be probably the biggest deal in wrestling. Goldust is STILL going in that company, as is Billy Gunn. Punk spent a while away, had a spell in the company too, fought with pretty much everyone, threatened his boss, and ended up back in WWE 10 years later. Out of the 30 in that Rumble match, just about half as many as are still in the WWE are now in AEW, almost as many as are retired. and in that ten years, we've seen the likes of Edge and Christian return for great runs, Stone Cold having a final match, Daniel Bryan Danielson was fine, completely fucked, retired, left, and is now riding out his career across the world, Vince McMahon has essentially torched a legacy. A company other than WWE has played Wembley Fucking Stadium and near enough filled it. Mad shit.
  4. I finally got a chance to go back and watch some of the press conference, and fucking hell the Rock is a revelation returning to that kind of role. I know why he doesn't want to play the bad guy in any of his movies, but....I just don't get why he doesn't want to play the bad guy in any of his movies. He pisses charisma, and with his absolutely-totally-not-juiced physique, he's genuinely frightening. I've never got the impression of him being particularly intimidating in his previous roles. He's too attitude-era-japes with his promos, and no amount of him talking in the 3rd person and threatening a booting to someone really sold it. But when he slowly walked over to Cody and spoke slowly, quietly and calmly, I could absolutely see it. It's a fool's game doing it given it'll probably be different on Monday again, but at this stage I could see Rock basically being the Bloodline enforcer in the lead up, and maybe into WM. Then they either keep him on that side, or just have him face turn back and clear the decks for Cody to win clean. But at this stage, who the f**k knows what they've got in mind. I don't think even they do.
  5. I tried to find out what happened via Bleacher Report like I usually do with Raw/Smackdown, but they seem to be as confused as anyone. I gather it's now probably Rhodes vs Reigns, but Rock slapped Rhodes for mentioning family? EDIT: Found a better rundown of it, and now looks like I'll need to seek out the video. The b*****ds seem like they've done it and pulled it off, so far at least. Well, unless you're Seth Rollins. Starting to feel really sorry for him basically getting shat on by everyone around. Half expecting HHH to kneel behind him so someone can push him over.
  6. I assumed they'd fucked up with that Boston announcement (fucked it up is obviously pretty strong, I'm sure it was absolutely intentional, even if I will always disagree about teasing surprises) by showing the Boss part in the background and basically telegraphing that fka Sasha Banks was going to debut, but would the boss stuff not be one of those WWE only things? Either that or Bruce Springsteen is finally making his long awaited debut in the ring If ever you want to see how best to use blood for the image it'll bring, watch the ending there. The blood on the white suits is such an effective image compared to how it's previously been used in AEW.
  7. As someone who won't be travelling so not needing to hope for good away trips, Croatia, Hungary and Poland I guess. Although to be honest, there's not too many combinations where we'd be expected to do much. Avoiding relegation would be a massive achievement. Shame we can't go Friends Across the Euros and draw Germany, Hungary and Switzerland again. I'd settle for Hungary and Switzerland though, so we can pump them again. It'll be in the Autumn, September, October, November windows I'd imagine, with the World Cup Qualifiers beginning in the Spring through to the next Autumn.
  8. At the risk of answering my own post...aye, it kind of will. People are fucking raging. However, given how this has blown up, and how WWE seem to be sticking their fingers in their ears so much, I wonder if this is all just a big work, or at least that they're already moving on the path to the "Bryan Protocol". We're going into a WM that ends in 0, and it seems like their default setting for one of those appears to be "have a triple threat". They kind of lucked into the WM30 story, as I don't believe for a second that they intended it to play out that way until the last few weeks before the event, but it just worked out so incredibly well for them that I wonder if they're testing the waters to do it again. Granted, I think it's an arse backwards way of going about it, and the resulting match would be a much worse version of what they could have had, but I could see them making it a triple threat, and sending Rock out there knowing that Cody will be the overwhelming face and Reigns the overwhelming heel. And unlike Batista at 30, Rock wouldn't go in a massive huff to be the baddy (maybe, he has built the sacharine, sanitised brand in cinema, but wonder whether wrestling would be the one place he'd be happy to turn up the charisma and be an arsehole again).
  9. Given the dirtsheets seem to be pinning all of this on Punk getting injured, saw a good wee rundown on Reddit of how this is all Christian's fault. He turned on Jungle Boy, and that feud ended up leading towards the latter getting tired of being the face everyone cheered for, turning him into Jack Perry. This eventually led towards the confrontation with Punk over "real glass", which ultimately led to Punk getting his marching orders. Punk ends up back in the WWE, to get injured in the Royal Rumble, which leads to plans changing, and Rhodes losing his spot. f**k sake Christian, all because his dad's deid... I suppose you can also argue he did it to himself. If Rhodes hadn't made that little bet with Dave Meltzer, AEW isn't a thing, and Christian likely doesn't come back to WWE in the same capacity, and certainly doesn't turn into the uber-b*****d he is now. Rhodes screwed Rhodes.
  10. Yeah, it's quite an odd control scheme, at least compared to something like FIFA, but quite intuitive once you get the hang of what you're doing. I've accidentally done some decent body checks, and imagine it'll get extremely satisfying when you can start timing them right.
  11. Will it though? Rock vs Roman is going to be an absolutely over match, built for all those tedious "stop-and-slowly-pan-to-the-crowd" looks and probably with about 5 minutes of actual action if we're lucky, but it is going to be massively over unless they completely f**k the booking. I don't get the feeling like this will go the way that Batista vs Orton did before Bryan got put in, for example. I don't think there even would be a modern equivalent of that now, as Reigns is far more over than Orton was back then. Maybe Orton now going in? a fine match on paper, but nowhere near as good as Rhodes vs Reigns would be. Think that might be where they're going. The "taking everything from you" line seems to point towards that, and it does track with how you imagined the Bloodline stuff would happen with Reigns finally losing his title, then losing everything else after. BUT, I assumed that would happen post-WM with the big title moment happening there. Maybe they genuinely think that because they've picked a big stadium in a new market, that Elimination Chamber can be made into a much bigger deal. And I guess if Rhodes does finally dethrone Reigns there, that is going to be a huge moment for that show, and it gives Reigns 6 weeks to go proper mental in the build-up to a final match against Rock. It gives Rhodes not the chance to take the title at WM, but walk in with it and get a big retention. They can also still say he earned his main event slot at WM from the Royal Rumble, as that's presumably where he'll be (because they'll probably just say there's 8 main events per night or something stupid), but... ...but it's just...a bit w**k, really, isn't it? It was all right there. And in less than a week, they've lost a big component of their WM plans in Punk (not their fault), and then in one tight 20 minute segment, they managed to burn down a story that's been, what, 16 or so months in the making? With a byproduct of making two of their top guys - and a title one of them holds - look like complete gimps. Impressive.
  12. They've been so sure-footed on storytelling most of the time that you have to imagine there's something else to this. But, in terms of the old story of the good guy beating the bad guy, even if they do get there in the end, they've started it out with the good guy falling down a fucking well. I tried to put out some logical direction they were going based on just this promo, but there's just nothing. at this point it's just a massive, massive own goal, and one that not even company man Cody Rhodes could sell for the entire segment. Either his clear squirming discomfort is a subtle part of whatever story they think they're trying to tell, or he just couldn't hold it in any longer, because he looked like he wanted to be anywhere else towards the end. There's also the more unsavoury note to it that Rock is taking a massive risk with this. I thought that once the Vince stuff broke, big Dwayne would be massively distancing himself as much as he could from the company publicly. The dirtsheets seem to be pointing to them using this as a distraction, but I'm really surprised Dwayne Johnson The Brand would jump in at a point where there's a chance this story could grow and swallow more of WWE up. And all such a shame given that all the hype will overshadow that they've probably built a story with the potential to be one of the greatest ever told in their women's division with Bayley.
  13. The whole JD Sports deal has been shambolic. Not only is the price of any new top absolutely mental (not a JD problem, to be fair), whenever I have actually wanted to entertain buying one for the wee man, I don't think I've ever actually managed to get one in the right size. Again it's likely not a JD problem, but surely it points to an issue somewhere that someone wants to buy a top, despite the ridiculous prices, yet they can't be arsed actually stocking it reliably enough because there might be a new one in a few months?
  14. I gave it a go on the trial last night, and...have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm absolutely shite at the game, sitting it at the lowest possible difficulty with the screen looking a mess with all the assists, but it's really good fun. Plenty of stuff to do offline to stop me going online and getting all the enjoyment stomped out of me. I cannot get the hang of defending at all (probably just as much to do with mashing R2 from muscle memory given that was sprint in FIFA), but starting to work things out going forward.
  15. How are the NHL games? I've obviously done FIFA and have no interest in going back, done Madden in the past, and it was...fine. But getting really into ice hockey, as is my son, so wonder if it could scratch that itch of a pick-up-and-play sporting game without the obvious cynicism EAFC brings. I know they're both EA games, but is the approach any different? If their version of FUT is just as bad, is it worth getting to play the offline modes? Reading reviews, the main complaint seems to be that it isn't much of an upgrade, but given I've had no experience of the games previously, shouldn't be an issue. Think I get a 10 hour trial with EA Play so maybe give that a shot unless it's a complete mess.
  16. If he can come back from this one, he needs to be treated as a special attraction and have his appearances limited, and even then it seems like a big risk to both WWE as the paymasters, and Punk as a 45-year-old man who presumably wants to not have a completely fucked body when he finally decides to call it a day. Still, at least this time he managed not to turn an injury into an opportunity to set everything on fire at a press conference. Although maybe having him do that might not have been the worst thing given what actually happened.
  17. I didn't, but such was how boring the match was, it had completely slipped my mind. His matches are just background noise now. I actually wouldn't be surprised if Reigns retains at WM. Absolutely the wrong decision, but could still see it. Yeah, that does seem to be the case now. To be honest, one of the better decisions they've made. Lesnar - at least at the moment - is radioactive and unlikely to appear for a while, if at all, so if you don't want to rebook the entire match for someone else, having someone like Bron come in is probably as seamless as you could make it. And if that means Bron goes up against Dom in Australia, then maybe this could end up being a Kingston style situation when he was never meant to be there. Good for him.
  18. It definitely did look like McAfee had no idea he was going in. I'm not sure he's that good an actor. I did wonder whether Brock was supposed to go in there given how late it was (usually all the spots like that are done and dusted by the time you get to the latter stages), but it makes sense if Bron was brought up to basically be Brock lite and destroy everyone. Even that final spot post-elimination seemed very Lesnar
  19. Yeah, that was a disappointing show all round. Women's Rumble probably edges it for the best, but even that wasn't exactly mind-blowing. One thing I will give them credit for now though, that's the first women's Rumble they've had where they haven't had to delve down into the depths to try and make up 30 entrants. Comfortably filled out the field with decent talent and had a fair few left over. Definitely needed that one more big surprise towards the tail-end to really elevate, but they all did a good job, and Bailey winning is absolutely the right decision. Four-way match was...there, I guess. Everyone gets their shit in and Reigns comes out on top. Shock. The complete lack of any further intrigue beyond that just continues to highlight how his run is being so badly handled. That was one of the cleaner wins in memory (although to be honest, maybe there was interference and I've forgotten about it already because it was all so tedious) but for all their talk of how dominant he is, every single match is the same. They really need to write themselves an ending very soon. US Title match...again, it's fine. I can't fucking stand Logan Paul. He's clearly very, very good at this, but that's not going to change the fact that he's an odious little c**t. At least they're presenting him as such. Quite liked the booking of the ending so credit to them for that. Assume it's now a repeat at WM (or probably EC) with some kind of stipulation. Men's Rumble was probably the most disappointing. Not bad by any means, but that's almost worse for them. 2015 is probably one of the worst of all time, but it's watchable because of it. This one is just background noise, and I'm struggling to really remember anything really good coming out of it. Apart from R Truth, who, as someone else said, was the best part of two Rumble matches and the pre-show, and deserves at least an hour set aside for him on every show. Was quite surprised Rhodes won, although I think it is the right decision, and an exciting closing sequence. But it doesn't make up for the rest of it being so boring.
  20. I will never not see Meltzer as a complete gimp. By all accounts, his wrestling knowledge is extremely strong, and seems like he writes a good article when it calls for it, but he can't seem to contribute beyond that without making himself look like a complete dildo.
  21. Having Hogan open your show after the week they've had is certainly a choice.
  22. While I wouldn't usually trust much of what big Dave says when he gets going, this is going to be the big question. Part of what made the Network so brilliant was the wealth of content that it brought, and that you could pretty much drop into any era in WWE (or owned companies) history and watch pretty much anything from it. We saw when Peacock took over that different companies start to have different ideas into what's appropriate, and stuff was censored, but I guess Netflix probably doesn't have too many issues with this given they host stuff worse without much issue. But the question will be whether they're interested in having the whole back catalogue, or whether they're even capable. In pure terms, how big is WWE's catalogue compared to Netflix? I wouldn't imagine they are a whole lot different, but say it's even half the size, would Netflix be able to or want to increase their content immediately by 150%? Obviously more content is better for Netflix selling their product, but it's a lot to add that will likely appeal to a tiny slice of their membership. To be fair, if they announce that the Network is dead, Netflix is taking over, and Raw, Smackdown, NXT and all PPVs will be live with catch-up and no delay, I'll be delighted. I don't think I've used the Network for anything other than watching the most recent PPV on catch-up for a long time, so to be able to drop that and keep Netflix would definitely suit. If they add even part of the archive, even better. EDIT: And, like FifeArab said, get right in amongst documentaries. They do far too few of them for how good they are. Get one of those WWE24 ones for every big 4 show, and pepper in a few more if there's a story worth telling.
  23. Worth noting that it seems like Gibraltar have a manager who is absolutely at it, and only in the job due to friends in the FA. I think that France result was blamed not only on them being absolutely pish, but because a lot of the players really, really don't want to play for the manager. So hopefully he's still in place in June and McGinn can get 14 so he can break the record. Then we can start sharing the goals around.
  24. That would be absolutely terrific banter from WWE. I know he's probably not as known to your average WWE fan as others might be, and there might be a language barrier, but he's carried NJPW for near enough a decade, and it's not like this is the NXT of Nakamura's era.
  25. That Netflix news is interesting. If it means that we essentially get the same service that the Network is giving us, plus RAW, Smackdown and NXT, then that will be great. Means I can drop the Network and keep Netflix, happy days. I wonder if there's going to be a delay on things though, then the Network still around for live? Remains to be seen. No-brainer for WWE though to be able to completely offload the requirement to handle the Network and still have control over their output. Good deal for Netflix too to have constant new content that people will happily subscribe for alone. Yeah...he just about survived the last one, which you can maybe argue for if he makes it clear it was a different time etc and show some contrition. He seemingly didn't do that at all, even facing down a number of black wrestlers. But they still bring him back, because a lot of wrestling fans are happy to separate the art from the artist. Fair enough for them, I can see their point. But this adds a few more cases of racism on top of some pretty horrible stuff. I'm sure they were pretty dismissive of the guy who is now in a coma with serious brain damage because of that accident, and instead wanted to talk about starting up a reality show for the son. He's a massive part of their history, and fine if you want to retain that without celebrating him, but if I was HHH I'd be getting someone to put a quick note towards Terry and tell him that he's never appearing on anything even tangentially related to WWE ever again. Let AEW pick him up once they're bored of Flair.
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