Hey there! I've never believed in karma before today, and I still don't entirely- but after the way the game panned out today you have to start believing in it if you're a Fulham fan. I think I should start with an obvious statement, Darren Bent is a complete twat. Actually, who knew Darren Bent could run?! Its the fact he was completely useless for us last season, and then the fact he celebrated in front of us like a cocky prick which has enraged Fulham fans to the extent it did in my opinion. I also don't see the need to run the full length of the pitch, fair enough if it was in the first half- and we have to thank Bettinelli that that wasn't the case. But its just overreaching, and it came back to bite him- as this blog will probably do when we face Brighton in roughly a month at the Cottage.
I had to laugh that LVC and Hugo scored today, when I took delivery of their Huddersfield "Poppy" shirts yesterday- but hey, you lot can thank me later. The first goal was a quality finish from Hugo, and with the consistency with which Hugo is scoring he could make a run at being Top Scorer in the division- and is at this stage the only real contender we have for our own Top Goalscorer. The finish left Stockdale completely helpless, as did the second. We've been due a Deflected Winner for a while, I still haven't gotten over the deflected winner in Hamburg to be honest. We perhaps didn't deserve the winner on balance, however as I said... karma.
Bettinelli had a very good game in my opinion, there really wasn't much he could have done for the goal once the ball took the deflection off of Bodurov. However in the first half especially Bettinelli made a number of good saves, and the one where he saved Bents point blank header with his leg was sublime. As Stockdale was on the other side I'm briefly going to touch on his performance as well- I don't really remember us testing Stockdale to a point, however we still managed to put two goals past him. I wish Stockdale (and Hughes) the best, and the way Brighton are playing they could (as we still could) be in another relegation fight, I just hope Bents loan isn't extended so I can wish the best for Brighton after we play them again in December.
I thought our defence performed remarkably well all things considered, we were without arguably our best Centre-Back- and we had a debutant Right-Back and they never looked out of their depth- something which did happen on occasion against Brentford. I thought Grimmer performed well all things considered, his Yellow Card was a bit stupid- but that will come with experience- and considering the threat Brighton can pose down the Left-Wing I thought he dealt well with the threat. Perhaps most encouragingly, Hutchinson had a game where one of the talking points following the game wasn't about Hutchinson. He performed alright against Brentford, but every other game he's started in he's been pretty shocking, Ipswich he was at fault for both goals in my opinion, Forest he was pretty woeful, Blackburn he nearly killed someone and in the Cup against Derby he was ripped to shreds. However I thought he had an unremarkable game today, which all things considered was a good thing on his part- although that was probably helped by the fact Bent was about three stone overweight and couldn't really get the better of him because of that. I was impressed with Bodurov today, once again his game was pretty unremarkable- but because of the stream I was watching having a really wide perspective I noticed him quite a lot, and I was really impressed with his off the ball movement- as well as when he was called into action. Stafylidis had a good game as well, I think he's trying to nail down his place before Amorebieta gets fit- however one thing Amorebieta does so well is crossing, and thats an area he definitely needs to improve on.
LVC was sublime today, I've said it before and I'll say it again- under "him" we were playing players like Ryan Williams and Stafylidis at Central Midfield when we had this gem being wasted. His goal was fortunate yes, but everything he did today was great- and out of anyone on our team he deserved a goal the most. His defensive work was also outstanding, and all things considered I'd make him the Man of the Match from todays game. Parker had an unremarkable game, but in the last 15 minutes after we scored the second his experience shone through- you just have to look at how Colunga got his second yellow to see how calm Parker was, and how he stayed on the ball rather than hoofing the ball out. I thought Hyndman was good when we was on, our midfield is an interesting dynamic with the addition of Fofana we effectively have 6 Midfielders who can all stake a claim for a place in the starting eleven. Fofana looked good when he came on, I'm not entirely sold on him- yet. I thought he gave the ball away a bit too easily on occasion, but on balance he was full of energy- and had a certain aura about him that has be excited about what he can do in a Fulham shirt.
This is the Bryan Ruiz Appreciation Society part of the blog. He was great today, he's never going to be a workhorse type midfielder- nor do we need him to fulfill that role. After Brentford when he was played out wide I was hoping he'd be played centrally today, he did and he played great. The way he linked the play up was great, and he should have had a goal in the first half when he decided to dribble rather than shoot- but thats the type of player Bryan is so we just have to accept that and move on. I hope his injury isn't too severe, especially now we're getting into December and theres a countdown clock on his career in a Fulham shirt.
I've already spoken about the goals, but Hugo was great all round today. As I said in a previous blog I didn't follow Wigan avidly, but I don't remember Hugo ever being on this type of form for them- although it is a step down the Championship is also a different proposition in terms of how you have to play so its not always the case that a Premier League striker will score buckets in the Championship. Its hard to believe how far Hugo has come in the eyes of the fans since Sheffield United when he was crying after he was booed off to now. McCormack was a bit hit and miss today, today was a rare occasion where McCormack didn't either score or assist- but he also wasn't completely absent and he linked the play well when required and did pose a threat to the Brighton defence- one criticism I have to have with McCormack today was he was pretty wasteful. Directly after the scored, perhaps out of frustration he wasted possession by taking shots that seldom go in- but at the end of the day we won, so I can write it off.
We were by no means "perfect" today, I wouldn't even describe our 90 minute performance as "good". Watching on my stream I was getting ridiculously frustrated by our lack of ambition most of the time. We completed so many short passes on the edge of the box without trying to properly penetrate their defence it was ridiculous, and is definitely something we need to work on.
Thanks for reading, in a shocking turn of events we're not playing midweek... again *gasp* so my next Fulham blog will be in the build to the Watford game barring something major happening. Thanks again for reading as always any feedback is appreciated- and lets make sure every Fulham fan gives Bent hell.
Saturday 29 November 2014
Friday 28 November 2014
Brighton v Fulham Preview; Bouncing Back
Hey! Its weird having this amount of a gap between Fulham blogs- but we've actually gone a whole week without a Fulham game when its not Internationals, and after last Fridays "performance" perhaps it was for the best that Kit had a week with the players to fully prepare for tomorrows game. One thing I didn't realise was Kit is still involved in the Wales setup so its hard to say what the Preparation will have been like for the Brentford game- but judging on the performance you have to assume it was quite disrupted.
Before I get into my usual stuff about team selection and positions; the loan window closed yesterday and we had few outgoings, and one incoming- with another player being recalled earlier in the week. Seko Fofana is someone I'll admit I know very little about, I'm wary of making assumptions on a player based solely on YouTube clips so I'm not going to praise him before I see him play- however purely judging from his physical stats he could be the proper DM I've been calling for, for a while. Jack Grimmer coming back is something I was anticipating after it had become increasingly clear Hooglands injury was going to rule him out for months rather than weeks, and with respect to Zverotic- he's awful so as I'll discuss later Grimmer is very much in contention to start. Matt Smith will have played for 3 Clubs in Under 6 Months when he presumably starts for Bristol City, I didn't understand this move- as its become increasingly clear we are trying to employ a long-ball tactic with relative frequency you'd have thought we'd have kept the player almost perfectly suited to being at the Top of a Long-Ball game, but I haven't been impressed with what I have seen of Smith so its perhaps understandable. Passley is a good talent from what I've seen of him, and I hope he develops at Shrewsbury- and hopefully when he comes back the Shrewsbury fans will be singing his praises as they have done for Grimmer.
If there was one positive to take from Last Friday is was Bettinelli, his performance arguably kept the Brentford score competitive and highlighted his growing importance to any success this team will have. We're of course going up against a certain Number 13 on Saturday, Stockdale is someone (in the Summer) I'd have held on to for dear life, however with the progression of Bettinelli it does raise the debate over who we would like in our goal on Saturday. I would personally side with Bettinelli, and I'm sure most Fulham fans would on the basis of current form- albeit from my limited amount of checking twitter to see how Stockdales been doing, the Brighton fans haven't been entirely satisfied with him- and with his injury the brought Christian Walton who they were in favour of staying in goal despite Stockdales recovery, however judging on the fact Stockdale started last week against Norwich those wishes have fallen on deaf ears and we'll have Stockdale in the opposite goal to Bettinelli tomorrow.
The defence is an interesting proposition for this match, I can't see why we'd have recalled Grimmer from his successful loan spell at Shrewsbury just to bench him, so I reckon we'll see Grimmer getting his chance tomorrow- and I hope he grabs the opportunity like LVC, Bettinelli and some of our other youngsters have done. With Dan Burns suspension, and no Centre-Back loan signing we're left looking pretty bare at the back- in terms of quality. The obvious replacement is Hutchinson, however his height or lack thereof could be an issue for us, especially against a team where a Centre-Back is their top scorer- so we should also be looking at Cameron Burgess who would provide a lot more of an aerial threat. Its picking the best of a bad bunch, its crazy to think we could afford to loan out a Striker who scored 10+ in the Championship last season and then we literally have two Centre-Backs who are good enough for this level. On balance I'd probably pick Hutchinson, but on the proviso he doesn't two-foot someone. The other two defence spots are less debatable, Bodurov and Stafylidis have their players close to locked in until we see people returning from injury in the case of Stafylidis, who MUST put in a better performance than he did against Brentford- because Brighton are another team whow wingers who can cause significant damage.
With the arrival of Fofana, you have to wonder how (if at all) he'll factor into the midfield on Saturday. I don't see why we'd have loaned someone to bench them, then again we did loan Giles Barnes (remember him). As I said before, he could be the DM we've been needing (in my opinion) for a while, as such he could be inserted into the first team. That will of course spark the debate over who we should take out. In my opinion if we're going to take out one of our midfield three it should be Williams, I like Williams, however if we're going to revert back to our Narrow Diamond (which I'm praying we are) he's the obvious candidate to drop because out of Williams, Parker and LVC he's the most expendable in terms of how we play in my opinion. However if we're going to stick with the Flat 4-4-2, and I'm praying to god we're not; we'll need Williams on the wing, so this is purely based on what formation Kit decides to go with. I'm hoping Fofana can fulfill the role of the midfield enforced I thought Hoogland did so well against Cardiff, and we've seen done well in previous years. As said with regard to formation, if we're going to play a Flat 4-4-2 Ruiz shouldn't be anywhere near the starting XI if we're going to employ this tactic- he showed against Brentford he simply isn't suited to playing on the Right-Hand side of Midfield, however if we're going to revert back to the Diamond Ruiz as the Top of the 4 is a lot better, and he'll be able to influence the game a lot more.
*sigh* Bents going to score tomorrow isn't he? Considering the "You're not fit to wear the shirt" chant that dogged him at Stoke, and his general mediocrity in a Fulham shirt last season ts an almost guarantee he's going to score on tomorrow- that combined with his record of scoring on his debut for every club he's played for says it all really, and will only add to my hatred of him. Another positive to take out of the Brentford game was McCormacks performance, and the continuously developing partnership between McCormack and Rodallega- and if these two can both be on their games fully on Saturday they should be able to outscore Bent.
Team for Brighton;
Bettinelli
Grimmer, Bodurov, Hutchinson, Stafylidis
Parker, Fofana, LVC
Ruiz
McCormack Rodallega
Thanks for reading, after last Friday I hope we see a much improved performance- and we'll need to if we are to take either 1 or 3 Points from the Amex. Brighton have only won 1 Game in 10, however they've only lost 2 out of their last 10 as well- and with our defence, especially now its weakened in mind we'll need to be at our best. Thanks again, as always any feedback is appreciated.
Before I get into my usual stuff about team selection and positions; the loan window closed yesterday and we had few outgoings, and one incoming- with another player being recalled earlier in the week. Seko Fofana is someone I'll admit I know very little about, I'm wary of making assumptions on a player based solely on YouTube clips so I'm not going to praise him before I see him play- however purely judging from his physical stats he could be the proper DM I've been calling for, for a while. Jack Grimmer coming back is something I was anticipating after it had become increasingly clear Hooglands injury was going to rule him out for months rather than weeks, and with respect to Zverotic- he's awful so as I'll discuss later Grimmer is very much in contention to start. Matt Smith will have played for 3 Clubs in Under 6 Months when he presumably starts for Bristol City, I didn't understand this move- as its become increasingly clear we are trying to employ a long-ball tactic with relative frequency you'd have thought we'd have kept the player almost perfectly suited to being at the Top of a Long-Ball game, but I haven't been impressed with what I have seen of Smith so its perhaps understandable. Passley is a good talent from what I've seen of him, and I hope he develops at Shrewsbury- and hopefully when he comes back the Shrewsbury fans will be singing his praises as they have done for Grimmer.
If there was one positive to take from Last Friday is was Bettinelli, his performance arguably kept the Brentford score competitive and highlighted his growing importance to any success this team will have. We're of course going up against a certain Number 13 on Saturday, Stockdale is someone (in the Summer) I'd have held on to for dear life, however with the progression of Bettinelli it does raise the debate over who we would like in our goal on Saturday. I would personally side with Bettinelli, and I'm sure most Fulham fans would on the basis of current form- albeit from my limited amount of checking twitter to see how Stockdales been doing, the Brighton fans haven't been entirely satisfied with him- and with his injury the brought Christian Walton who they were in favour of staying in goal despite Stockdales recovery, however judging on the fact Stockdale started last week against Norwich those wishes have fallen on deaf ears and we'll have Stockdale in the opposite goal to Bettinelli tomorrow.
The defence is an interesting proposition for this match, I can't see why we'd have recalled Grimmer from his successful loan spell at Shrewsbury just to bench him, so I reckon we'll see Grimmer getting his chance tomorrow- and I hope he grabs the opportunity like LVC, Bettinelli and some of our other youngsters have done. With Dan Burns suspension, and no Centre-Back loan signing we're left looking pretty bare at the back- in terms of quality. The obvious replacement is Hutchinson, however his height or lack thereof could be an issue for us, especially against a team where a Centre-Back is their top scorer- so we should also be looking at Cameron Burgess who would provide a lot more of an aerial threat. Its picking the best of a bad bunch, its crazy to think we could afford to loan out a Striker who scored 10+ in the Championship last season and then we literally have two Centre-Backs who are good enough for this level. On balance I'd probably pick Hutchinson, but on the proviso he doesn't two-foot someone. The other two defence spots are less debatable, Bodurov and Stafylidis have their players close to locked in until we see people returning from injury in the case of Stafylidis, who MUST put in a better performance than he did against Brentford- because Brighton are another team whow wingers who can cause significant damage.
With the arrival of Fofana, you have to wonder how (if at all) he'll factor into the midfield on Saturday. I don't see why we'd have loaned someone to bench them, then again we did loan Giles Barnes (remember him). As I said before, he could be the DM we've been needing (in my opinion) for a while, as such he could be inserted into the first team. That will of course spark the debate over who we should take out. In my opinion if we're going to take out one of our midfield three it should be Williams, I like Williams, however if we're going to revert back to our Narrow Diamond (which I'm praying we are) he's the obvious candidate to drop because out of Williams, Parker and LVC he's the most expendable in terms of how we play in my opinion. However if we're going to stick with the Flat 4-4-2, and I'm praying to god we're not; we'll need Williams on the wing, so this is purely based on what formation Kit decides to go with. I'm hoping Fofana can fulfill the role of the midfield enforced I thought Hoogland did so well against Cardiff, and we've seen done well in previous years. As said with regard to formation, if we're going to play a Flat 4-4-2 Ruiz shouldn't be anywhere near the starting XI if we're going to employ this tactic- he showed against Brentford he simply isn't suited to playing on the Right-Hand side of Midfield, however if we're going to revert back to the Diamond Ruiz as the Top of the 4 is a lot better, and he'll be able to influence the game a lot more.
*sigh* Bents going to score tomorrow isn't he? Considering the "You're not fit to wear the shirt" chant that dogged him at Stoke, and his general mediocrity in a Fulham shirt last season ts an almost guarantee he's going to score on tomorrow- that combined with his record of scoring on his debut for every club he's played for says it all really, and will only add to my hatred of him. Another positive to take out of the Brentford game was McCormacks performance, and the continuously developing partnership between McCormack and Rodallega- and if these two can both be on their games fully on Saturday they should be able to outscore Bent.
Team for Brighton;
Bettinelli
Grimmer, Bodurov, Hutchinson, Stafylidis
Parker, Fofana, LVC
Ruiz
McCormack Rodallega
Thanks for reading, after last Friday I hope we see a much improved performance- and we'll need to if we are to take either 1 or 3 Points from the Amex. Brighton have only won 1 Game in 10, however they've only lost 2 out of their last 10 as well- and with our defence, especially now its weakened in mind we'll need to be at our best. Thanks again, as always any feedback is appreciated.
Thursday 27 November 2014
Reaction to: The CM Punk AOW Podcast
Hello! I wasn't planning on doing a blog on this topic, I listened to the Podcast at roughly 1-3pm UK Time, and I've started writing this at exactly 4:38pm- but in that hour and a half I couldn't stop thinking about it, so here we are. I'm probably in the unique (ish) situation where I understand where Punks coming from, I had to drop out of school because of health issues which I'll go into another time- and although I wasn't getting paid to go to school I understand that sometimes enough is enough, and when you're getting dicked around by the people in charge on top of your own health issues sometimes its best to get off the train. This podcast was interesting, and it'll be especially interesting when Austin has Vince on his Podcast next week and if they touch on this (which I highly doubt) and when they do the for want of a better term Q&A with Punk next week (I think they said Next Week). I've linked the full podcast below so feel free to listen to it as you read through this or just listen to it on your own time. I'm only going to touch on what I perceive to be the main points from this interview, at the end of the day I'm a British Based Mark I can't speak for how hard "the grind" is, or Punks psyche- but what I can do is talk about some of the points Punks raised in this Podcast and how that fits in the jigsaw puzzle the Internet has assembled since the day after the Rumble.
Triple H
This is the thing I took from this interview predominantly, in my opinion it was clear HHH never liked Punk- the fact he didn't put Punk over when he was white hot was Exhibit A and at the time it didn't make sense, and it still doesn't to this day. It was interesting he raised the Movie Pitch story, On the Internet in the last year there has been numerous people saying how Vince should retire and HHH should take over, firstly I wasn't in agreement with that in the first place because writing 1 Hour Episodes of NXT for a huge block of tapings once every three months is completely different to having final say on a 3 Hour RAW, 2 Hour Smackdown, 1 Hour Main Event and a 3 Hour PPV once a month- and after this interview I wonder if the reason HHH hasn't taken on yet more responsibility is Vince wants HHH to be Vince, or at least Vince-lite. I've had a similar scenario where I've been told I've been doing something and then not gotten it because of a variety of circumstances, however its not even close to the scale of getting offered a Film Role and getting time off (to an extent) which would've enabled him to heal up (to an extent), and that just isn't how you should do business in my opinion- but as I said I'm not a fly on the wall this is purely from my opinion. Thats the story that sticks in my head, but there are so many others he spoke about, and I'll let you either read it on the Dirtsheets or Listen to the Podcast to find those out.
Ryback
This was one of the more interesting stories in my opinion, firstly I'm a Ryback fan- and I still am, and I'm not going to turn on him just because of whats been said. Firstly, Ryback was a very sloppy worker when he got his huge babyface push around Hell in a Cell- it doesn't surprise me that Punk got injured working with him, but I don't wholly blame Ryback for that, he wasn't ready. The "I'll owe you one" line was brought up numerous times during this interview and this was one of the times it was, however this feud didn't do either guys any favours- in fact the only people who did benefit from the Ryback v CM Punk 2012 Feud was The Shield (more later). So in doing this feud they not only pissed off Punk because he was in the ring with someone quite green, but it also halted Rybacks momentum to a point I'm not sure he'll ever get to the level he was at in the Autumn of 2012 again- and now he's a better worker, and can actually cut a half-decent promo he's more tooled up to actually grab the ball and run with it were the same scenario to come around now. Its not my place to say whether Ryback is juicing or not, and I'm not going to touch too much on this- all I'll say is after that story a few weeks ago about ways to get around the WWE Drug Testing policy there isn't smoke without fire.
Vince McMahon
This is going to branch off into a number of different smaller topics, and it may be a bit disjointed- but there isn't a science to my blogging; I've got no plan on what I'm going to type I just kinda do. Firstly the Sponsors on the Fight Shorts; WWE is almost famous for its hypocrisy, however I think with this topic I do kind of understand it. Punk is a "wrestler" he's a "vanilla midget" he's "too small" so its understandable they'd have wanted him to stay in traditional trunks, and then when Lesnar came in he was a "UFC Guy" so I understand them wanting him to come in with Fight Shorts and Sponsors on his shorts to put over the "UFC" "Shoot Fighter" persona they wanted with Brock, and the way his match with Cena wasn't a "match" as much of a shoot with selling. Again with the Mayweather-HHH, Punk-Chael thing I do understand to an extent. HHH was off of TV (albeit with a "broken arm") whereas Punk was on TV and the Champion so they wouldn't have wanted him to be highly visible on a UFC Show. Also the UFC is the UFC and is the mecca for MMA, whereas there isn't a really an accepted Boxing "company" as much as different promoters so the associations will be looked at differently. The "someone will die in there" line was unintentionally hilarious in my opinion, and I think Vince honestly does think UFC is some kind of fight to death, and once they've thrown the Chicken Foot down they have to fight to death in Sona (Prison Break reference for you guys!). The HHH-Mayweather thing annoyed me more when Serena was fired for breaking kayfabe around the same time, but once again thats a story for another day. The Vince-Punk dynamic has been intriguing to me for a long time now, dating back to his "Pipebomb" Promo, which I've tried to avoid because I hate it when people throw that word about as often as they do/did. The fact Vince hugged him and was in tears when he announced he was leaving can be interpreted in a number of ways, I'd like to think it was genuine- however with the stories you've heard about Vince over the years you never know. This is an issue he brought up numerous times, and its interesting he made a point of not talking to people like Jericho who he thought had a hidden agenda- but as I've said I don't know Jericho I don't know what his personality is like, and its not my place to comment on it, I just thought it was an interesting point raised. The "fired on my wedding day" story is the reason I have doubts over whether Vince was genuinely upset or whether they were Crocodile Tears, because it showed how harsh Vince is, because that was a calculated, cold-hearted move in an attempt to get in his head and destroy what should have been a happy day.
WWE Doctor/Health Issues
This was another interesting point raised, I'm not sure which Doctor he was referring to- but from what I can gather it was Doctor Amann who Jericho had on his Podcast a few weeks ago, Full circle eh? I'm not sure how to approach this, as with people like Dolph clearly being good friends with him and the injury issues he's had I'm not sure everything Punk said he did was necessarily his own medical opinion shall we say. I'd like to think WWE wouldn't jeopardise their workers, but we all know they would- as Punk said the only reason they've done what they have concussion prevention wise is because they don't want a Lawsuit in at least 9 Figures from Former/Current employees like the NFL have had to deal with. As I've said I've had health issues, and been misdiagnosed so you know what sometimes it happens, thankfully I've never had a Staph Infection- but again I understand how sometimes you can get incredibly frustrated when you know whats wrong with you, and you know you've been misdiagnosed. I don't believe any Doctor with any form of integrity would deliberately put anybody in potential mortal danger. The concussion or not during the Rumble was weird, and it showed they're still not entirely in favour of the concussion awareness with regard to accepting how a Wrestler is feeling as opposed to what a test says (again something I know quite a bit about), and "borderline" concussions can go untreated and I'm praying a load of borderline ones don't go unnoticed and we get another Benoit situation.
The Shield
This was particularly interesting to me, because in the space of 24 Hours we had a Podcast with Rollins on Jericho's Podcast and then Punk on Cabanas, and they told different (to an extent) stories over the formation of The Shield- however because Rollins is under contract its hard to say whether he was treading the company line. If you were to believe Rollins, it was just sort of put together and they were brought in to be Punks Security Force one thing lead to another they were their own entity- which was probably better because if they were associated with Punk they'd have been fed to Punk around Wrestlemania 29 season most likely. If you take Punks version of events, the original idea was to have Rollins, Big Show & Bryan and then turned into Rollins, Ambrose and Ohno, and then that turned into Rollins, Ambrose and Reigns. The thing he said with regard to looking ahead and working with The Shield once he was done with Ryback/The Rock I'm not in agreement with just because- it'd have meant Punk going over on them because they needed him to look good enough for Undertaker (more after this section) so The Shield will have ended up losing a lot sooner than they did, and its hard to say how they'd have dealt with losing that early on in their career, and 3 Main Eventers may have gotten lost along the way.
"Main Eventing" Wrestlemania
This is where I'm in Full agreement with Punk. Hindsight being 20/20 Miz shouldn't have been in the Main Event of Wrestlemania ever, but as Punk said they can never take that away from him. If my memory hasn't been completely done over by all these late nights and sleep deprivation the year Miz Main Evented was when Punk was the hottest heel in the company during the Straightedge Society run- and he could have arguably main evented it that year against Cena, then he went and became arguably the most relevant (mainstream) full-time wrestler since the Attitude Era, and he had his match with Jericho- which wasn't close to one of the main shows on the card despite the fact it was for the WWE Title. The next year was probably when Punk realised it simply wasn't meant to be. Rock v Cena 1 was pretty bad, despite the build to it, what is was simply wasn't enough to make up for what it wasn't. I'd have been in favour of a Triple Threat with Punk, just because he could have been the workhorse of the match with Cena and Rock could have had his flourishes and the match wouldn't have gone flat, something Rollins discusses on the Jericho Podcast about 6-Man tags. He also confirmed he'd have been wrestling Triple H, and that by association means the rumour about Bryan wrestling Sheamus was 99% going to happen. "You can't make a change sitting on your couch in Chicago" was somewhat of a creed for Punk since he re-signed in 2011, that was the quote his DVD opened with- however what Punk did in January was do just that.
This made me quite sad if I'm honest. Punk is a guy who DID love Pro Wrestling. He's always spoken about his love for the business, and in the numerous Q&A Panels he's done its clear in those he WAS a fan. However the fact his life in WWE has soured him this much to the sport of Pro Wrestling which pretty much everybody who reads this blog does, and we understand what its like to love Pro Wrestling its hard to imagine the level of disenchantment Punk underwent for him to completely hate Wrestling, and I just think its an incredibly sad story, and Punk will go down in history as the "what if" guy because of his exit from business, and he won't be remembered for his 400+ day Title reign as much as how he left and that just isn't right in my opinion.
I also think this Podcast means the end of A.J. in the WWE- at least for the foreseeable future. Punk basically spent close to 2 Hours saying how petty and hypocritical the WWE is, so he wouldn't have done this Podcast knowing his wife is still with the company and of course wanting her to succeed he wouldn't have done this (or at least I wouldn't if I were Punk) knowing this would have gotten his wife completely buried, and I think seeing A.J. in a WWE Ring at the very latest past Wrestlemania 31 is incredibly unlikely.
Thanks for reading, as I said at the start I wasn't even planning on doing this- but as you can see by its length there was more than enough to talk about. As always any feedback is appreciated, this is more of an opinion based blog- and interpretations of whats been said so I'm more than open to have my opinion changed and I'm happy to hear others peoples opinions on either what Punks said, or what I've said. Thanks again for reading.
Tuesday 25 November 2014
RAW Review- 24th November
Hey! After Survivor Series I had a lot of goodwill toward this edition of RAW- and with a promised "fresh start" you had to wonder how this new Authority free WWE would shape up.
The Authority Promo
Yup, The first Authority free edition of RAW in over a year... Started with The Authority. It was an alright promo from both- but the threats they posed just seemed empty, which detracted immensely from the promo. HHH digging at Sting was unintentionally hilarious to me- as when Sting was arguably in his prime HHH was "Terra Ryzing".
Daniel Bryan Iron-Man Promo
Don't get me wrong I like Bryan- I mean pretty much everybody who isn't a contraryan for the the sake of being a contraryan does. However his mic work has never been stellar- which even he admits, so why they have him a roughly 15 minute promo segment where he had to carry it is beyond me. The ultimatums he posed were pretty empty, and with everything The Authority did to him I think he should have been much harsher with the ultimatums he posed.
Ryback v Mark Henry
The cowardly heel Ryback blindside Mark Henry, only for the brave babyface Mark Henry to start the match anyway like a man and take the loss- Wait What? This was alright for what it was, but I was surprised we didn't see a Shellshocked as that would have firmly gotten Ryback back on Track after his quick elimination the previous night- I think Ryback might be carrying a little injury, not enough for him to take time off- but enough that he can't risk shellshocking someone of the size of Mark Henry.
Vince, Stephanie, HHH Backstage Promo
Once again this was alright for what it was, but I don't even think they know how Vince is going to slot into this storyline at this stage.
Dean Ambrose v Luke Harper
This was a quality match, Harper keeps going from strength to strength in his new found singles career, and I only hope this continues and he doesn't go the way so many athletic big men have gone in the WWE. I expected a bit more of a story to this match with regard to Bray- and maybe Dolph however what we got instead was another DQ Finish, I'm honestly not sure if Harper or Ambrose was DQ'd. As such we got Bray burying Ambrose in retaliation to the previous night. I wouldn't have gone down the vengeance path for Bray after Survivor Series, I'd have had him cut a promo saying Survivor Series proved Ambrose is another him- but then again what do I know?
Santino & Rey Mysterio Promo
#FreeRey. WWE are force-feeding him!
The Dusts v The Miz's
I'd have had Miz pick up the Pinfall, aside from that this match was perfectly fine- and I'm happy they're using the Kid Replica Belts for Mizdow as opposed to him simply carrying one of the two as it adds another dimension to the Miz-Mizdow dynamic. I think The Dusts are best served either going babyface or one of them turning on the other at this point- the heat they had from their initial heel turn has dissipated quite quickly and now they don't have the belts there should be a slow burning feud until Mania with these two.
Concessions Kane (Part 1)
This wasn't even funny to me, it was just quite sad. Also who would let their 5 Year Old approach Kane on their own?!
Rusev & Lana- Pledge of Allegiance w/ Sgt. Slaughter
This was the definition of a damp squib. Not only did we not get Rusev doing the pledge of allegiance the repercussion for not doing it vanished off the face of the earth faster than a Walking Dead enthusiast. I don't see why we've gotten Swagger going after Rusev again, ya know considering Rusev's killed Swagger on numerous occasions.
Concessions Kane (Part 2)
This was even worse than the first one, surely Kane should face some kind of punishment for abusing customers?
Fandango v Justin Gabriel
This was pretty much a carbon copy of the match on the Pre-Show, I think this was just to make sure Gabriel is still showing up to TV Tapings.
Big Show Promo
It seems the only member of Team Cena who took issue with Big Show's betrayal to the point of a physical confrontation was someone who had already been eliminated when he did said betrayal- logic. The promo was alright, but considering the number of times Shows turned its hard to really get into it.
Seth Rollins, J&J, Dolph Backstage Promo
This was hilarious in my book, the subtle nudges and smiles on the part of J&J when Dolph said he had faith in them was great- and showed they know how to play their characters, and I hope they don't get written off in the near future.
Brie Bella v A.J. Lee
This match has confirmed A.J. is going in my opinion, not only did she lose to Nikki but now she's gone and lost to Brie as well... The promo after was great, and I'm expecting a loser leaves stipulation to be added in the next two weeks.
Adam Rose and The Bunny v Tyson Kidd and Natalya
JUST SKIN THE BUNNY ALREADY.
Concessions Kane (Part 3)
This was a carbon copy of the vignettes Ryback was doing for his bully character, and yet somehow he's the babyface. It was funny in a weird way, and it looks as though Rybacks going to feud with Kane- which is a step back in my opinion.
Dolph, Cena Backstage Promo
I like the dynamic with these two, if its gotten to the point where others are getting a push ahead of these two I wouldn't be against giving these two a run at the Tag Belts- it would enhance the Tag Titles and give both of them something to do. We'd also get a built in good feud when Dolph would inevitably turn on Cena.
Dolph Ziggler and John Cena v Seth Rollins, Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury
This was perhaps the most anticlimactic Main Event ever. Nothing of note happened. Mercury and Noble got pinned- as expected, and then nothing. No run-in, no Heel Turns, Nothing. The Anonymous GM coming back presumably means they think everyones forgotten they revealed it as Hornswoggle. So theres that.
This RAW really annoyed me, After Survivor Series I was ready to get caught in the wave going into TLC & Mania Season, but what we got from RAW was the equivalent of a dripping tap.
Thanks as always for reading, Feedback is as always appreciated. My Awards Blog is coming soon So I'd appreciate your help for my Match of the Year category getting this list from 15-10, either by commenting on this blog or tweeting it to me; https://twitter.com/wheelerdeeler/status/537064923990622208
The Authority Promo
Yup, The first Authority free edition of RAW in over a year... Started with The Authority. It was an alright promo from both- but the threats they posed just seemed empty, which detracted immensely from the promo. HHH digging at Sting was unintentionally hilarious to me- as when Sting was arguably in his prime HHH was "Terra Ryzing".
Daniel Bryan Iron-Man Promo
Don't get me wrong I like Bryan- I mean pretty much everybody who isn't a contraryan for the the sake of being a contraryan does. However his mic work has never been stellar- which even he admits, so why they have him a roughly 15 minute promo segment where he had to carry it is beyond me. The ultimatums he posed were pretty empty, and with everything The Authority did to him I think he should have been much harsher with the ultimatums he posed.
Ryback v Mark Henry
The cowardly heel Ryback blindside Mark Henry, only for the brave babyface Mark Henry to start the match anyway like a man and take the loss- Wait What? This was alright for what it was, but I was surprised we didn't see a Shellshocked as that would have firmly gotten Ryback back on Track after his quick elimination the previous night- I think Ryback might be carrying a little injury, not enough for him to take time off- but enough that he can't risk shellshocking someone of the size of Mark Henry.
Vince, Stephanie, HHH Backstage Promo
Once again this was alright for what it was, but I don't even think they know how Vince is going to slot into this storyline at this stage.
Dean Ambrose v Luke Harper
This was a quality match, Harper keeps going from strength to strength in his new found singles career, and I only hope this continues and he doesn't go the way so many athletic big men have gone in the WWE. I expected a bit more of a story to this match with regard to Bray- and maybe Dolph however what we got instead was another DQ Finish, I'm honestly not sure if Harper or Ambrose was DQ'd. As such we got Bray burying Ambrose in retaliation to the previous night. I wouldn't have gone down the vengeance path for Bray after Survivor Series, I'd have had him cut a promo saying Survivor Series proved Ambrose is another him- but then again what do I know?
Santino & Rey Mysterio Promo
#FreeRey. WWE are force-feeding him!
The Dusts v The Miz's
I'd have had Miz pick up the Pinfall, aside from that this match was perfectly fine- and I'm happy they're using the Kid Replica Belts for Mizdow as opposed to him simply carrying one of the two as it adds another dimension to the Miz-Mizdow dynamic. I think The Dusts are best served either going babyface or one of them turning on the other at this point- the heat they had from their initial heel turn has dissipated quite quickly and now they don't have the belts there should be a slow burning feud until Mania with these two.
Concessions Kane (Part 1)
This wasn't even funny to me, it was just quite sad. Also who would let their 5 Year Old approach Kane on their own?!
Rusev & Lana- Pledge of Allegiance w/ Sgt. Slaughter
This was the definition of a damp squib. Not only did we not get Rusev doing the pledge of allegiance the repercussion for not doing it vanished off the face of the earth faster than a Walking Dead enthusiast. I don't see why we've gotten Swagger going after Rusev again, ya know considering Rusev's killed Swagger on numerous occasions.
Concessions Kane (Part 2)
This was even worse than the first one, surely Kane should face some kind of punishment for abusing customers?
Fandango v Justin Gabriel
This was pretty much a carbon copy of the match on the Pre-Show, I think this was just to make sure Gabriel is still showing up to TV Tapings.
Big Show Promo
It seems the only member of Team Cena who took issue with Big Show's betrayal to the point of a physical confrontation was someone who had already been eliminated when he did said betrayal- logic. The promo was alright, but considering the number of times Shows turned its hard to really get into it.
Seth Rollins, J&J, Dolph Backstage Promo
This was hilarious in my book, the subtle nudges and smiles on the part of J&J when Dolph said he had faith in them was great- and showed they know how to play their characters, and I hope they don't get written off in the near future.
Brie Bella v A.J. Lee
This match has confirmed A.J. is going in my opinion, not only did she lose to Nikki but now she's gone and lost to Brie as well... The promo after was great, and I'm expecting a loser leaves stipulation to be added in the next two weeks.
Adam Rose and The Bunny v Tyson Kidd and Natalya
JUST SKIN THE BUNNY ALREADY.
Concessions Kane (Part 3)
This was a carbon copy of the vignettes Ryback was doing for his bully character, and yet somehow he's the babyface. It was funny in a weird way, and it looks as though Rybacks going to feud with Kane- which is a step back in my opinion.
Dolph, Cena Backstage Promo
I like the dynamic with these two, if its gotten to the point where others are getting a push ahead of these two I wouldn't be against giving these two a run at the Tag Belts- it would enhance the Tag Titles and give both of them something to do. We'd also get a built in good feud when Dolph would inevitably turn on Cena.
Dolph Ziggler and John Cena v Seth Rollins, Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury
This was perhaps the most anticlimactic Main Event ever. Nothing of note happened. Mercury and Noble got pinned- as expected, and then nothing. No run-in, no Heel Turns, Nothing. The Anonymous GM coming back presumably means they think everyones forgotten they revealed it as Hornswoggle. So theres that.
This RAW really annoyed me, After Survivor Series I was ready to get caught in the wave going into TLC & Mania Season, but what we got from RAW was the equivalent of a dripping tap.
Thanks as always for reading, Feedback is as always appreciated. My Awards Blog is coming soon So I'd appreciate your help for my Match of the Year category getting this list from 15-10, either by commenting on this blog or tweeting it to me; https://twitter.com/wheelerdeeler/status/537064923990622208
Monday 24 November 2014
Survivor Series Review- STING!!!
HEY! I've had some sleep, I didn't get much because I was so pumped after that Main Event- I was considering just doing my review last night but then I'd have probably said everything was great, as such I'm doing it now; so lets get down to business.
Pre-Show: Fandango v Justin Gabriel
I'm happy this match happened for one reason- It means they're not having Rosa wrestle for the foreseeable future. Thank God. The match itself was alright for what it was- a vehicle to get Fandango over, however if they were to have his "rebirth" include a new theme, something I disagree with as he can still be quite over with the crowd "Fandangoing" he'd have used a new finisher, preferably something a bit stiffer to go with his new darker persona.
Pre-Show: Jack Swagger v Cesaro
This match was the definition of filler, which really annoys me because both of these men have shown in recent months they're capable, and should have so much more than a filler spot on the card. The match itself was good, but was it really a good idea to have Swagger be "injured" to the point he had to pull out of Team Cena then have him wrestle and win a match on the PPV?
The Authority Promo
Hey, its the standard RAW opening on a PPV! The promos weren't even that good in my opinion, and was basically a rehash of what we've seen on recent RAWs, except it was on a PPV. In the words of a certain Randall... STUPID.
The Miz's v The Dusts v Los Matadores v The Usos
This was a really fun match to watch, its not a Match of the Year candidate by any stretch of the imagination- but what we got was 8 very capable workers who all brought something to the table which meant a very good match to watch. The spot where everyone jumps into everyone else made me laugh for some reason, perhaps because we've seen it so many times before. I'm happy they had Miz & Mizdow win; despite my prediction to the contrary I had hoped Miz & Mizdow would win. As such the finish we got was perfect, with Mizdow tagging in to Miz's unawares and winning the straps. It also makes me laugh how not only Miz, but also everyone in the 4-Way can play off Mizdow's new found popularity to get heat on them.
Team Fox v Team Paige
Don't get me started on this match. I could do a whole blog on what was wrong with this match, however I'll try and condense it the best I can. Basically, Why? Why did they have Paige and Paige's team lose so convincingly? I'd have thought they'd have at the very least had Paige eliminate Emma, who she's destroyed on RAW on more than one occasion- in fact she's beaten all 4 Divas on the other side more than once.
Elimination Order:
Cameron (Naomi): No Complaints from me, the less Cameron I see on my Screen the better as far as I'm concerned, I would never wish ill on anyone- but out of all the Divas on the Roster she's the one I wish they'd just release already.
Layla (Alicia Fox): I'd forgotten she was even still active, I don't see her still being a Diva in 2015, and from a WWE standpoint she's probably the most expendable Diva on the Roster.
Summer Rae (Emma): I don't know if they're planning some sort of Paige-Summer feud, but Paige constantly screaming at Summer telling her how stupid she was, was weirdly funny. I'm also happy to see Emma get an elimination because she deserves better.
Paige (Naomi): I thought she'd go on and eliminate all 4 and Paige would be a made Diva, and could go on and feud for the Title again, as such she got eliminated within 2 Minutes of being on her own. Although the Leg Scissor DDT Naomi did looked brutal, its a bit contrived, and if its going to be her new finisher she needs to work out a way to set it up better- but it has the advantage of looking like a real finisher as opposed to the "Rear View".
Bray Wyatt v Dean Ambrose
I'm torn on this match. On the one hand, I'd have preferred Bray to win with some shenanigans to keep the heat on Bray going into the TLC match- however what they did instead was essentially what Bray was trying to get Cena to do at Wrestlemania, with regard to the temptation of selling their souls to destroy Bray. I liked the absolute brutality with which Ambrose delivered the beat down on Bray, however the commentators referring to Bray as a "human being" really annoyed me. The actual match was shaping up really well before the abrupt ending, and I have high hopes (as I did for this one) that the match they'll deliver at TLC will be great.
Slater Gator v Adam Rose & The Bunny
Are we sure this isn't Superstars?
Nikki Bella v A.J. Lee
I went to get a bottle of water when this match was live, I think Brie didn't take orders from Nikki before she kissed her so I'm counting my theory as true- I'm just hoping they take the belt off of Nikki before I lose any residual interest I have in the Divas Division from the A.J.-Paige feud, which although they didn't really deliver had people talking about the Division again.
Team Cena v Team Authority
WOW. In my preview blog I highlighted a way to have Dolph shine on the PPV, but Never in a million years did I expect Dolph to effectively win the match for Team Cena- and he is now a made man in my opinion, As long as WWE don't completely screw it up Dolph has a new lease on life, and could go on to feud with Lesnar if he needs a filler feud in between big PPVs.
I honestly didn't believe the Sting rumours until half way through the Main Event when it was clear the Authority weren't going to let it be a fair fight. The sound quality on my stream wasn't the best, but I don't think we got the full Starrcade 97 Speech Entrance before he came out, which is what I'd have done- however thats really nitpicking at this near perfect moment. A Moment some people never thought would happen, happened and everyone who was watching it last night can say they were watching live when STING, The WCW Legends finally stepped foot in a WWE Ring. I don't accept people bitching about Sting coming in and it would appear feuding with HHH, anyone who wasn't happy with the Sting debut last night isn't a proper Wrestling Fan.
Elimination Order:
Mark Henry (Big Show): I'd have had Kane in this position, just because Henry has looked threatening in recent weeks, destroying Show on more than once occasion- and the only thing of note I can think of Kane in the build to this match was him tripping over Orton a few weeks back. However it fulfilled the same role as The Authority were put on the back foot after losing one of their "heavies" straight out of the gate.
Ryback (Rusev): So they spent two consecutive RAWs in the build to the PPV building Ryback as the scale tipper for this match- so he's the first one to eliminated on Team Cena... Logic. Its not a secret I'm a fan of Ryback, so you could perhaps say I'm looking at this from the wrong angle- but for Ryback to be the first one to go on a team with Rowan, Big Show and Dolph makes little sense to me.
Rusev (Spanish Announce Table): This is what they should've done with Ryback, it was a good way to protect Rusev from being pinned whilst still eliminating him from the match. The fact he wasn't just KO'd, but actually made some attempt at getting back in the ring also added to the toughness surrounding his character. It was about time someone put the Spanish Announce Table Over.
Erick Rowan (Luke Harper): The clothesline on the part of Harper for this pin looked particularly brutal. Its probably because they were presumably riding with each other for quite a while and know what the other can take, but every time these two touched in the ring last night it looked really stiff, which is a good thing in my book. I don't know if Rowan will go back to chasing Renee or feud with Harper for the IC Title- I hope its the latter because he proved in this match he's very capable of being a credibly singles star who can get the crowd behind him.
John Cena (No Really) (Seth Rollins): I don't think anybody expected Cena to be eliminated third on Team Cena. With the repercussions from the finish I'm praying the TLC Main Event isn't locked in. This also was a great storytelling device with regard to the complete shock value of the whole thing.
Big Show (Ironclad Contract): Big Show walking out was a bit stupid, but if I think with my logic cap on, why didn't he tag Dolph in forcefully and then KO him to- and then walk out? Goddamn Logic.
Kane (Dolph Ziggler): This was almost outta nowhere, and added to the drama even more that there was still some fight left in Dolph- and taking out a guy like Kane for Dolph made it a big deal and got the crowd reinvested in the match in the "Santino Elimination Chamber" way of you just started to question if he was actually going to do it. But surely not?
Luke Harper (Dolph Ziggler): This elimination coming so soon after the previous one really heated up the crowd- who weren't the best last night and it added to the drama of the match massively, and it was at this stage with The Authority freaking out you knew A Man Called Sting was going to enter...
Seth Rollins (Dolph Ziggler): Firstly, credit to HHH. I don't even think Vince could've done a better job playing the cowardly heel who wouldn't accept defeat at any cost. The fact he himself took out the two referees and then took out Dolph was played to perfection- and made what would follow mean even more. The absolute desperation with which HHH fought to keep Dolph from winning was absolutely sublime.
Sting coming out, having the prolonged stareoff with HHH had be convinced it was going to be an "nWo" moment of Sting dropping the proverbial leg on Dolph- but I'm so happy it wasn't. The rest as they say is history- and for the first time in a long time this was a PPV I'd have happily paid for. Dolph as the Sole Survivor on a Team with Cena and Ryback is a smarks wet dream- and Sting sends them over the edge.
Thanks for reading, as always any feedback is appreciated.For the first time in a long time I'd like to take this opportunity to say thank you to the WWE- you gave us a truly great moment, and for the first time in a long time I'm genuinely excited for RAW- don't let me down.
Pre-Show: Fandango v Justin Gabriel
I'm happy this match happened for one reason- It means they're not having Rosa wrestle for the foreseeable future. Thank God. The match itself was alright for what it was- a vehicle to get Fandango over, however if they were to have his "rebirth" include a new theme, something I disagree with as he can still be quite over with the crowd "Fandangoing" he'd have used a new finisher, preferably something a bit stiffer to go with his new darker persona.
Pre-Show: Jack Swagger v Cesaro
This match was the definition of filler, which really annoys me because both of these men have shown in recent months they're capable, and should have so much more than a filler spot on the card. The match itself was good, but was it really a good idea to have Swagger be "injured" to the point he had to pull out of Team Cena then have him wrestle and win a match on the PPV?
The Authority Promo
Hey, its the standard RAW opening on a PPV! The promos weren't even that good in my opinion, and was basically a rehash of what we've seen on recent RAWs, except it was on a PPV. In the words of a certain Randall... STUPID.
The Miz's v The Dusts v Los Matadores v The Usos
This was a really fun match to watch, its not a Match of the Year candidate by any stretch of the imagination- but what we got was 8 very capable workers who all brought something to the table which meant a very good match to watch. The spot where everyone jumps into everyone else made me laugh for some reason, perhaps because we've seen it so many times before. I'm happy they had Miz & Mizdow win; despite my prediction to the contrary I had hoped Miz & Mizdow would win. As such the finish we got was perfect, with Mizdow tagging in to Miz's unawares and winning the straps. It also makes me laugh how not only Miz, but also everyone in the 4-Way can play off Mizdow's new found popularity to get heat on them.
Team Fox v Team Paige
Don't get me started on this match. I could do a whole blog on what was wrong with this match, however I'll try and condense it the best I can. Basically, Why? Why did they have Paige and Paige's team lose so convincingly? I'd have thought they'd have at the very least had Paige eliminate Emma, who she's destroyed on RAW on more than one occasion- in fact she's beaten all 4 Divas on the other side more than once.
Elimination Order:
Cameron (Naomi): No Complaints from me, the less Cameron I see on my Screen the better as far as I'm concerned, I would never wish ill on anyone- but out of all the Divas on the Roster she's the one I wish they'd just release already.
Layla (Alicia Fox): I'd forgotten she was even still active, I don't see her still being a Diva in 2015, and from a WWE standpoint she's probably the most expendable Diva on the Roster.
Summer Rae (Emma): I don't know if they're planning some sort of Paige-Summer feud, but Paige constantly screaming at Summer telling her how stupid she was, was weirdly funny. I'm also happy to see Emma get an elimination because she deserves better.
Paige (Naomi): I thought she'd go on and eliminate all 4 and Paige would be a made Diva, and could go on and feud for the Title again, as such she got eliminated within 2 Minutes of being on her own. Although the Leg Scissor DDT Naomi did looked brutal, its a bit contrived, and if its going to be her new finisher she needs to work out a way to set it up better- but it has the advantage of looking like a real finisher as opposed to the "Rear View".
Bray Wyatt v Dean Ambrose
I'm torn on this match. On the one hand, I'd have preferred Bray to win with some shenanigans to keep the heat on Bray going into the TLC match- however what they did instead was essentially what Bray was trying to get Cena to do at Wrestlemania, with regard to the temptation of selling their souls to destroy Bray. I liked the absolute brutality with which Ambrose delivered the beat down on Bray, however the commentators referring to Bray as a "human being" really annoyed me. The actual match was shaping up really well before the abrupt ending, and I have high hopes (as I did for this one) that the match they'll deliver at TLC will be great.
Slater Gator v Adam Rose & The Bunny
Are we sure this isn't Superstars?
Nikki Bella v A.J. Lee
I went to get a bottle of water when this match was live, I think Brie didn't take orders from Nikki before she kissed her so I'm counting my theory as true- I'm just hoping they take the belt off of Nikki before I lose any residual interest I have in the Divas Division from the A.J.-Paige feud, which although they didn't really deliver had people talking about the Division again.
Team Cena v Team Authority
WOW. In my preview blog I highlighted a way to have Dolph shine on the PPV, but Never in a million years did I expect Dolph to effectively win the match for Team Cena- and he is now a made man in my opinion, As long as WWE don't completely screw it up Dolph has a new lease on life, and could go on to feud with Lesnar if he needs a filler feud in between big PPVs.
I honestly didn't believe the Sting rumours until half way through the Main Event when it was clear the Authority weren't going to let it be a fair fight. The sound quality on my stream wasn't the best, but I don't think we got the full Starrcade 97 Speech Entrance before he came out, which is what I'd have done- however thats really nitpicking at this near perfect moment. A Moment some people never thought would happen, happened and everyone who was watching it last night can say they were watching live when STING, The WCW Legends finally stepped foot in a WWE Ring. I don't accept people bitching about Sting coming in and it would appear feuding with HHH, anyone who wasn't happy with the Sting debut last night isn't a proper Wrestling Fan.
Elimination Order:
Mark Henry (Big Show): I'd have had Kane in this position, just because Henry has looked threatening in recent weeks, destroying Show on more than once occasion- and the only thing of note I can think of Kane in the build to this match was him tripping over Orton a few weeks back. However it fulfilled the same role as The Authority were put on the back foot after losing one of their "heavies" straight out of the gate.
Ryback (Rusev): So they spent two consecutive RAWs in the build to the PPV building Ryback as the scale tipper for this match- so he's the first one to eliminated on Team Cena... Logic. Its not a secret I'm a fan of Ryback, so you could perhaps say I'm looking at this from the wrong angle- but for Ryback to be the first one to go on a team with Rowan, Big Show and Dolph makes little sense to me.
Rusev (Spanish Announce Table): This is what they should've done with Ryback, it was a good way to protect Rusev from being pinned whilst still eliminating him from the match. The fact he wasn't just KO'd, but actually made some attempt at getting back in the ring also added to the toughness surrounding his character. It was about time someone put the Spanish Announce Table Over.
Erick Rowan (Luke Harper): The clothesline on the part of Harper for this pin looked particularly brutal. Its probably because they were presumably riding with each other for quite a while and know what the other can take, but every time these two touched in the ring last night it looked really stiff, which is a good thing in my book. I don't know if Rowan will go back to chasing Renee or feud with Harper for the IC Title- I hope its the latter because he proved in this match he's very capable of being a credibly singles star who can get the crowd behind him.
John Cena (No Really) (Seth Rollins): I don't think anybody expected Cena to be eliminated third on Team Cena. With the repercussions from the finish I'm praying the TLC Main Event isn't locked in. This also was a great storytelling device with regard to the complete shock value of the whole thing.
Big Show (Ironclad Contract): Big Show walking out was a bit stupid, but if I think with my logic cap on, why didn't he tag Dolph in forcefully and then KO him to- and then walk out? Goddamn Logic.
Kane (Dolph Ziggler): This was almost outta nowhere, and added to the drama even more that there was still some fight left in Dolph- and taking out a guy like Kane for Dolph made it a big deal and got the crowd reinvested in the match in the "Santino Elimination Chamber" way of you just started to question if he was actually going to do it. But surely not?
Luke Harper (Dolph Ziggler): This elimination coming so soon after the previous one really heated up the crowd- who weren't the best last night and it added to the drama of the match massively, and it was at this stage with The Authority freaking out you knew A Man Called Sting was going to enter...
Seth Rollins (Dolph Ziggler): Firstly, credit to HHH. I don't even think Vince could've done a better job playing the cowardly heel who wouldn't accept defeat at any cost. The fact he himself took out the two referees and then took out Dolph was played to perfection- and made what would follow mean even more. The absolute desperation with which HHH fought to keep Dolph from winning was absolutely sublime.
Sting coming out, having the prolonged stareoff with HHH had be convinced it was going to be an "nWo" moment of Sting dropping the proverbial leg on Dolph- but I'm so happy it wasn't. The rest as they say is history- and for the first time in a long time this was a PPV I'd have happily paid for. Dolph as the Sole Survivor on a Team with Cena and Ryback is a smarks wet dream- and Sting sends them over the edge.
Thanks for reading, as always any feedback is appreciated.For the first time in a long time I'd like to take this opportunity to say thank you to the WWE- you gave us a truly great moment, and for the first time in a long time I'm genuinely excited for RAW- don't let me down.
Sunday 23 November 2014
Survivor Series- Predictions
In what'll be more of a gut punch than a last minute deflected winner for Brentford, we're here for Survivor Series and one of the least exciting cards in memory- or at least from my perspective. In order to add some more jeopardy to these predictions I'm going to try and predict the Elimination Order as well as the match outcomes; So lets get going.
Before I start, I'd just like to say I'm not sold on these Sting rumours. I wish it were true with all of my heart; but as I've said with a card lacking as much as this one it wouldn't surprise me if WWE planted the rumour to generate some buzz around the event.
Pre-Show
I think Fandango is facing someone on the Pre-Show but when I've searched for who the opponent is I've drawn a blank, as such its impossible to say whether they'd have Fandango win- or it'll be a squash match for someone returning.
Winner: N/A
Team Paige v Team Fox
I'm wondering if the people involved in this match actually know if this match is on the card; because I didn't before I read it yesterday, and there has been absolutely no build to it- to the point the team Captains weren't even on the RAW prior to the PPV, baring in mind this is a 5-Match Main Card and RAW is three hours you can see how they value this match.
Elimination Order; Does anyone really care?
Winner: Team Paige
Goldust & Stardust v Miz & Mizdow v The Usos v Los Matadores- Tag Team Championship
I'm not sure if this is an Elimination Match, but as far as I can tell it isn't. There is only two teams that have a hope of getting the Win in this match; The Matadores are... Well the Matadores, and The Usos have lost a lot of momentum since they lost the belts- and given they're the most recent Champions I can't see it happening. As such we're left with the Dusts & The Miz's. You could make the argument that Miz and Mizdow, specifically Mizdow are over to the point that they deserve a run with the titles, given these are both heel teams its hard to say which way they're going to go- however given the Dusts are still relatively fresh Champions I can't see them dropping the Titles just yet.
Winner: Goldust & Stardust
Bray Wyatt v Dean Ambrose
The outcome of this match is almost entirely dependent on how much faith the WWE office has in these two men, they're both relatively new to the Main Roster- in that they debuted less than two years ago- however in terms of characters these two are two of the most compelling, some would argue most compelling on the roster. However the outcome of this match is entirely on the basis of how long they're going to keep this feud going- I have high hopes for this feud, and the match- because as I've previously said with a 5-Match Main Card all of these matches will get time, and as the only Male Singles Match on the Main Card I think this'll get 25-30 Minutes easily. I also believe that "they" believe in these two to put on a good feud so I think Bray will draw first blood in this feud.
Winner: Bray Wyatt
Nikki Bella v A.J. Lee- Divas Championship
Its hard to call this match, just because of the spanners the dirtsheets have been throwing into the works recently- there was the rumour that A.J. was all but done with the company going into the PPV. Of course if that were the case Nikki would be winning the belt *shudders*, however on this card I can't see another Heel winning- and with this being Bries last day as Nikkis assistant you could use this argument. However I've got an interesting, if albeit unlikely theory.
Do you remember when Bad Influence started in TNA and Kazarian appeared to be on the fence? I think WWE would be smart to do something similar with this storyline and have Brie cost A.J. the match and then we get fully fledged Bella Heels- because lets face it they annoy us enough as it is on Total Divas, we might as well make it official.
Winner: Nikki Bella
Team Cena v Team Authority
This is what this entire PPV has been sold on, which isn't saying much for the match that they're giving it away for free. Theres so many elements in this match this could become one of the best MODERN Survivor Series matches; this match will also be given at least 45 minutes in my opinion which means it will take a massive job to turn this match into a cluster that in previous years these matches have become- you only have to look at the Team A.J.-Team Total Divas match where Kicks were treated as finishers to prove this point. As such every single man involved in this match has enough backing behind them that there won't be any "making up the numbers" jobber roles in this match, and I don't see anyone not being given enough of a spotlight to shine.
If you follow me on Twitter- which I'm guessing everyone who reads this blog does, or at least follows TNACreative you'll know my thoughts with regard to this match and the permutations for Dolph. To put it as simply as possible; Dolph lost the IC Title on Monday, if Team Cena loses tonight he's lost his job- he'll have lost everything all because he sides with Cena, who hasn't even helped him when he's been on the receiving ends of beatdowns- and this can lead to the Main Event at TLC.
Elimination Order:
1st Elimination: Kane. This'll be by either Ryback or Cena and will have the commentators going crazy over "The Big Red Monster" going so quickly and what will happen now The Authority has lost such a valuable asset.
2nd Elimination: Dolph Ziggler. This'll come at the hands of Luke Harper, and it won't be pretty. However I can see Kane, or another of the Authority incapacitating Dolph either prior or after the elimination to leave Dolph at ringside for what will happen later.
3rd Elimination: Luke Harper. This'll be by Erick Rowan; however Harper won't leave it there and...
4th Elimination: Erick Rowan. This'll happen straight after the Harper elimination and it'll be taken by basically anybody who crawls in and covers him. This'll also level it up at 3-3 with the main players taking the forefront.
5th Elimination: Big Show. This will come at the hands of Rusev, and will be a convincing elimination to have him look strong before what'll follow.
6th Elimination: Mark Henry. This'll be a convincing elimination on the part of Ryback for the same reasons as Rusev, and will make him look strong by Shell-Shocking a man such as Mark Henry and will enable him to keep his momentum.
7th/8th Elimination: Rusev & Ryback: I don't know if this'll be via a Double DQ or Countout but this is the only way I can see these two getting eliminated because of the way they've been booked. With Rusev from his debut and Ryback since he came back roughly a month ago. This'll build to the crescendo.
9th Elimination: John Cena: This is mainly because I don't see a way that they end the Authority angle for free, unless they want to use the end of the angle as an incentive to have people subscribe. How I see this happening is; Cena does his usual kicking out of everything, and he'll be on the ropes (figuratively) when Dolph sees his chance to secure his job with Cena on the verge (seemingly) of losing and a Zig-Zag and Curb Stomp later...
As I've said, this could of course go the other way- and this could be the way they introduce Sting were he to debut tonight. With Cena taking the microphone after the match giving his usual Never Give Up stuff and then saying theres been a lot of speculation about who will run the show now the Authority is gone- and then we get Sting. However as I've said I don't see this happening on a free PPV so...
Winner: Team Authority
I stand by these predictions, however the Team Cena/Authority and Divas Championship matches could easily go the other way because there isn't a babyface winner on the card if my predictions were to come true.
Thanks for reading as per usual, feel free to either comment on this- or tweet me your predictions and lets hope a smaller card means better matches, because otherwise I'll be staying up for nothing.
Before I start, I'd just like to say I'm not sold on these Sting rumours. I wish it were true with all of my heart; but as I've said with a card lacking as much as this one it wouldn't surprise me if WWE planted the rumour to generate some buzz around the event.
Pre-Show
I think Fandango is facing someone on the Pre-Show but when I've searched for who the opponent is I've drawn a blank, as such its impossible to say whether they'd have Fandango win- or it'll be a squash match for someone returning.
Winner: N/A
Team Paige v Team Fox
I'm wondering if the people involved in this match actually know if this match is on the card; because I didn't before I read it yesterday, and there has been absolutely no build to it- to the point the team Captains weren't even on the RAW prior to the PPV, baring in mind this is a 5-Match Main Card and RAW is three hours you can see how they value this match.
Elimination Order; Does anyone really care?
Winner: Team Paige
Goldust & Stardust v Miz & Mizdow v The Usos v Los Matadores- Tag Team Championship
I'm not sure if this is an Elimination Match, but as far as I can tell it isn't. There is only two teams that have a hope of getting the Win in this match; The Matadores are... Well the Matadores, and The Usos have lost a lot of momentum since they lost the belts- and given they're the most recent Champions I can't see it happening. As such we're left with the Dusts & The Miz's. You could make the argument that Miz and Mizdow, specifically Mizdow are over to the point that they deserve a run with the titles, given these are both heel teams its hard to say which way they're going to go- however given the Dusts are still relatively fresh Champions I can't see them dropping the Titles just yet.
Winner: Goldust & Stardust
Bray Wyatt v Dean Ambrose
The outcome of this match is almost entirely dependent on how much faith the WWE office has in these two men, they're both relatively new to the Main Roster- in that they debuted less than two years ago- however in terms of characters these two are two of the most compelling, some would argue most compelling on the roster. However the outcome of this match is entirely on the basis of how long they're going to keep this feud going- I have high hopes for this feud, and the match- because as I've previously said with a 5-Match Main Card all of these matches will get time, and as the only Male Singles Match on the Main Card I think this'll get 25-30 Minutes easily. I also believe that "they" believe in these two to put on a good feud so I think Bray will draw first blood in this feud.
Winner: Bray Wyatt
Nikki Bella v A.J. Lee- Divas Championship
Its hard to call this match, just because of the spanners the dirtsheets have been throwing into the works recently- there was the rumour that A.J. was all but done with the company going into the PPV. Of course if that were the case Nikki would be winning the belt *shudders*, however on this card I can't see another Heel winning- and with this being Bries last day as Nikkis assistant you could use this argument. However I've got an interesting, if albeit unlikely theory.
Do you remember when Bad Influence started in TNA and Kazarian appeared to be on the fence? I think WWE would be smart to do something similar with this storyline and have Brie cost A.J. the match and then we get fully fledged Bella Heels- because lets face it they annoy us enough as it is on Total Divas, we might as well make it official.
Winner: Nikki Bella
Team Cena v Team Authority
This is what this entire PPV has been sold on, which isn't saying much for the match that they're giving it away for free. Theres so many elements in this match this could become one of the best MODERN Survivor Series matches; this match will also be given at least 45 minutes in my opinion which means it will take a massive job to turn this match into a cluster that in previous years these matches have become- you only have to look at the Team A.J.-Team Total Divas match where Kicks were treated as finishers to prove this point. As such every single man involved in this match has enough backing behind them that there won't be any "making up the numbers" jobber roles in this match, and I don't see anyone not being given enough of a spotlight to shine.
If you follow me on Twitter- which I'm guessing everyone who reads this blog does, or at least follows TNACreative you'll know my thoughts with regard to this match and the permutations for Dolph. To put it as simply as possible; Dolph lost the IC Title on Monday, if Team Cena loses tonight he's lost his job- he'll have lost everything all because he sides with Cena, who hasn't even helped him when he's been on the receiving ends of beatdowns- and this can lead to the Main Event at TLC.
Elimination Order:
1st Elimination: Kane. This'll be by either Ryback or Cena and will have the commentators going crazy over "The Big Red Monster" going so quickly and what will happen now The Authority has lost such a valuable asset.
2nd Elimination: Dolph Ziggler. This'll come at the hands of Luke Harper, and it won't be pretty. However I can see Kane, or another of the Authority incapacitating Dolph either prior or after the elimination to leave Dolph at ringside for what will happen later.
3rd Elimination: Luke Harper. This'll be by Erick Rowan; however Harper won't leave it there and...
4th Elimination: Erick Rowan. This'll happen straight after the Harper elimination and it'll be taken by basically anybody who crawls in and covers him. This'll also level it up at 3-3 with the main players taking the forefront.
5th Elimination: Big Show. This will come at the hands of Rusev, and will be a convincing elimination to have him look strong before what'll follow.
6th Elimination: Mark Henry. This'll be a convincing elimination on the part of Ryback for the same reasons as Rusev, and will make him look strong by Shell-Shocking a man such as Mark Henry and will enable him to keep his momentum.
7th/8th Elimination: Rusev & Ryback: I don't know if this'll be via a Double DQ or Countout but this is the only way I can see these two getting eliminated because of the way they've been booked. With Rusev from his debut and Ryback since he came back roughly a month ago. This'll build to the crescendo.
9th Elimination: John Cena: This is mainly because I don't see a way that they end the Authority angle for free, unless they want to use the end of the angle as an incentive to have people subscribe. How I see this happening is; Cena does his usual kicking out of everything, and he'll be on the ropes (figuratively) when Dolph sees his chance to secure his job with Cena on the verge (seemingly) of losing and a Zig-Zag and Curb Stomp later...
As I've said, this could of course go the other way- and this could be the way they introduce Sting were he to debut tonight. With Cena taking the microphone after the match giving his usual Never Give Up stuff and then saying theres been a lot of speculation about who will run the show now the Authority is gone- and then we get Sting. However as I've said I don't see this happening on a free PPV so...
Winner: Team Authority
I stand by these predictions, however the Team Cena/Authority and Divas Championship matches could easily go the other way because there isn't a babyface winner on the card if my predictions were to come true.
Thanks for reading as per usual, feel free to either comment on this- or tweet me your predictions and lets hope a smaller card means better matches, because otherwise I'll be staying up for nothing.
Friday 21 November 2014
Brentford v Fulham Review: When you ignore the Warning Signs...
I'm going to try not to rant in this, but writing this review directly after the match I'm not sure that'll be possible. I'd also like to start off by saying well done to Brentford and on balance they probably deserved to win by more.
Did anyone apart from Bettinelli show up in that first half? I'm not sure whether it was the fact Brentford were really good- or we made them look good. Either way it wasn't good enough on our part. They should have put us to bed in that first half, and the fact we went into the dressing room at 0-0 was a miracle in and of itself. We just didn't seem up for it, and considering the comments made by Kit before the game you can only presume they thought Brentford would be a walkover because of what happened earlier in the season. Every game we went through with our unbeaten record intact the bubble we were in under Kit grew bigger, and we've perhaps not deserved to win/draw in quite a few of them- namely Huddersfield, Norwich and in terms of execution of a game-plan Blackpool.
Kit has to acknowledge he got his tactics wrong today on numerous levels. If we were going into the game planning to play a Flat 4-4-2 Ruiz shouldn't have been considered for a Wide Role under any circumstances. Ruiz as I said in my Preview Blog is good in a role where he can dictate the tempo of a game, and in turn slow it down to his pace- sometimes that works sometimes it doesn't. What he isn't suited to is a wide role, especially against a team that does exploit the flanks like Brentford. The formation simply didn't work, and left us vulnerable right from the start, and I hope against Brighton we revert back to our narrow diamond that has at the very least suited our style of play and created space for our danger men. We should also have made more than one substitution, Eisfeld wasn't the substitution I'd have immediately thought of when we were looking to secure our one goal lead, and with Ruiz coming off- perhaps because of his impact on the game, and also the fact he was coming back from Costa Rica (or another place in the CONCACAF). I'd have looked at bringing on Hyndman who can pass the ball a lot better, and from what I've seen of both men is also a lot calmer in comparison to Eisfeld- this'd of course meant reverting back to the Narrow Diamond, but as long as we used it to keep compact I think we'd have at the very least gotten one point out of the game. I'd have also looked at bringing on Woodrow as in terms of hold-up play Woodrow will have helped slow the game down, something which we struggled with all game.
If you are to look at some of the positives you don't need to look much further than Bettinelli's performance. He's probably the only one of our Back Five who can take any positives from tonights game. He kept us in the game in the first half, and it makes you wonder what the scoreline would have been had he not been fit enough to start the game and we were forced into having Kiraly in goal- despite conceding two goals Bettinelli was our best player by a mile today, and its not like he could have done much for either goal.
I'm praying between now and next Saturday we find the miracle cure for Hoogland and/or Amorebieta because Stafylidis looked completely out of his depth today- and was shown up completely by Odubajo and then Jota. Zverotic was better, but was still nowhere near good enough- however I don't think this was entirely his fault; Bodurov was drawn way too central for large parts of the game and left Zverotic vulnerable on the right-hand side. Dan Burn was the architect of his own downfall tonight; he picked up a silly yellow card, and that of course meant he had to temper how he played the whole of the second half as a result. We saw after the Wigan game when he (allegedly) had a bit of a falling out with Ruiz that he has a bit of a mouth on him, and he was skating on thin ice for the majority of this game. Bodurov, who I've praised very highly in previous games was very bad today- with the pressing game they played against us he was shown up on more than one occasion.
Onto where we lost the game in my opinion; the midfield. I thought Christensen played well (ish), and should have probably had a Penalty; but the midfield never really got into the game, which was a by-product of our Long-Ball game plan which we implemented. I put this largely down to the formation we played, as we've seen in previous games all three of our midfielders are capable of much better; however they were completely overwhelmed by Brentford's midfield in this game and need to play much better against Brighton. Parker was completely anonymous in this game, and (I think) let the ball run through to Dean for their first goal.
McCormack had a very mixed bag tonight, his play for the goal was very good; but he spent too long on the ball on more than one occasion and in his attempts to seek out a goal he (in my opinion) blew goalscoring opportunities for others. The same can be said for Rodallega; his header in the first half was placed in the one area where it wouldn't have gone in, and he was quite anonymous for large parts of the game; but again thats a by-product of the long-ball game we tried playing, because as I've said on numerous occasions in this blog he simply isn't a capable Target-Man; and we should have played either Woodrow or Smith if we were going to employ that tactic, however he took his goal well, and whether Woodrow/Smith would have finished that its too hard to say.
This simply put wasn't good enough, it wasn't in previous weeks but we've managed to get points from those game and without that deflection we would have probably gotten a point from this game; however we've rode our luck in recent weeks against teams like Norwich and Huddersfield so I suppose it all balances out in the end.
Thanks for reading, I hope I've not rambled too much; and as always appreciate any feedback on these blogs- now I'm going to go into a corner and curl up into a ball until Survivor Series on Sunday.
Did anyone apart from Bettinelli show up in that first half? I'm not sure whether it was the fact Brentford were really good- or we made them look good. Either way it wasn't good enough on our part. They should have put us to bed in that first half, and the fact we went into the dressing room at 0-0 was a miracle in and of itself. We just didn't seem up for it, and considering the comments made by Kit before the game you can only presume they thought Brentford would be a walkover because of what happened earlier in the season. Every game we went through with our unbeaten record intact the bubble we were in under Kit grew bigger, and we've perhaps not deserved to win/draw in quite a few of them- namely Huddersfield, Norwich and in terms of execution of a game-plan Blackpool.
Kit has to acknowledge he got his tactics wrong today on numerous levels. If we were going into the game planning to play a Flat 4-4-2 Ruiz shouldn't have been considered for a Wide Role under any circumstances. Ruiz as I said in my Preview Blog is good in a role where he can dictate the tempo of a game, and in turn slow it down to his pace- sometimes that works sometimes it doesn't. What he isn't suited to is a wide role, especially against a team that does exploit the flanks like Brentford. The formation simply didn't work, and left us vulnerable right from the start, and I hope against Brighton we revert back to our narrow diamond that has at the very least suited our style of play and created space for our danger men. We should also have made more than one substitution, Eisfeld wasn't the substitution I'd have immediately thought of when we were looking to secure our one goal lead, and with Ruiz coming off- perhaps because of his impact on the game, and also the fact he was coming back from Costa Rica (or another place in the CONCACAF). I'd have looked at bringing on Hyndman who can pass the ball a lot better, and from what I've seen of both men is also a lot calmer in comparison to Eisfeld- this'd of course meant reverting back to the Narrow Diamond, but as long as we used it to keep compact I think we'd have at the very least gotten one point out of the game. I'd have also looked at bringing on Woodrow as in terms of hold-up play Woodrow will have helped slow the game down, something which we struggled with all game.
If you are to look at some of the positives you don't need to look much further than Bettinelli's performance. He's probably the only one of our Back Five who can take any positives from tonights game. He kept us in the game in the first half, and it makes you wonder what the scoreline would have been had he not been fit enough to start the game and we were forced into having Kiraly in goal- despite conceding two goals Bettinelli was our best player by a mile today, and its not like he could have done much for either goal.
I'm praying between now and next Saturday we find the miracle cure for Hoogland and/or Amorebieta because Stafylidis looked completely out of his depth today- and was shown up completely by Odubajo and then Jota. Zverotic was better, but was still nowhere near good enough- however I don't think this was entirely his fault; Bodurov was drawn way too central for large parts of the game and left Zverotic vulnerable on the right-hand side. Dan Burn was the architect of his own downfall tonight; he picked up a silly yellow card, and that of course meant he had to temper how he played the whole of the second half as a result. We saw after the Wigan game when he (allegedly) had a bit of a falling out with Ruiz that he has a bit of a mouth on him, and he was skating on thin ice for the majority of this game. Bodurov, who I've praised very highly in previous games was very bad today- with the pressing game they played against us he was shown up on more than one occasion.
Onto where we lost the game in my opinion; the midfield. I thought Christensen played well (ish), and should have probably had a Penalty; but the midfield never really got into the game, which was a by-product of our Long-Ball game plan which we implemented. I put this largely down to the formation we played, as we've seen in previous games all three of our midfielders are capable of much better; however they were completely overwhelmed by Brentford's midfield in this game and need to play much better against Brighton. Parker was completely anonymous in this game, and (I think) let the ball run through to Dean for their first goal.
McCormack had a very mixed bag tonight, his play for the goal was very good; but he spent too long on the ball on more than one occasion and in his attempts to seek out a goal he (in my opinion) blew goalscoring opportunities for others. The same can be said for Rodallega; his header in the first half was placed in the one area where it wouldn't have gone in, and he was quite anonymous for large parts of the game; but again thats a by-product of the long-ball game we tried playing, because as I've said on numerous occasions in this blog he simply isn't a capable Target-Man; and we should have played either Woodrow or Smith if we were going to employ that tactic, however he took his goal well, and whether Woodrow/Smith would have finished that its too hard to say.
This simply put wasn't good enough, it wasn't in previous weeks but we've managed to get points from those game and without that deflection we would have probably gotten a point from this game; however we've rode our luck in recent weeks against teams like Norwich and Huddersfield so I suppose it all balances out in the end.
Thanks for reading, I hope I've not rambled too much; and as always appreciate any feedback on these blogs- now I'm going to go into a corner and curl up into a ball until Survivor Series on Sunday.
Thursday 20 November 2014
Brentford v Fulham Preview- Keeping the Momentum
Hello! Second Blog of the day, and this one is a preview blog for tomorrows game. I'm not sure what to expect from tomorrows game if I'm totally honest, Although we haven't lost since Middlesborough we've been far from convincing in recent games such as Blackpool and Huddersfield- however we've still gotten points from those games and managed to keep our points tally rising.
Firstly, From Kits Press Conference earlier today we've been told that Bettinelli is fit *and breath*. Not to say Kiraly is completely useless, however against any Top 6 team- especially against a team on the from Brentford are we need our first choice everything available to us. With Amorebieta, Kavanagh and Hoogland still injured we won't have a "complete" team but we will have enough of a team to at the very least be extremely competitive tomorrow night.
As referred to earlier, Bettinelli is arguably one of our key players. Not just because of his undoubted ability as a Keeper- but also the partnership he's formed with Bodurov and Burn. I spoke on numerous occasions earlier in the year about the need for a "Back 3" partnership, and what we've gotten in Bettinelli, Bodurov and Burn is a very solid foundation. Any disruption to this partnership will adversely affect the team, and the balance of the team in my opinion. The Back 3 partnership has also worked so well because these three trust each other, and know each others games well enough that this foundation of the team is capable (in my opinion) of propelling us up the table at a relatively quick pace.
The Full-Back situation is fairly straight forward for the foreseeable future. With Amorebieta, Kavanagh and Hoogland still out injured we're only really left with Stafylidis and Zverotic, although Voser is an option he isn't a very viable one- and with Zverotic not being completely useless against Huddersfield I'd persist with him. Stafylidis has come into his own in recent weeks, I thought in terms of defensive performance Huddersfield was Stafylidis' best game in a Fulham shirt- and against very good wingers in Jota and Odubajo both of these two need to be on top of their game.
Once again our midfield situation is pretty straightforward for tomorrows game. Parker and LVC both are (in my opinion) firmly embedded in the spine of the team now, and shouldn't be dropped unless absolutely necessary- and with us having "just" 3 games in 3 weeks it most definitely isn't necessary on this front. The third midfield option is a bit more of a debate to be had, George Williams has been on form in recent weeks undeniably- however against a midfield such as Brentfords I think we should consider a more defensive minded midfielder as opposed to essentially a winger. As such I think this should be the time Hyndman gets a game under Kit- as from my memory the only time he's played under Kit previously was Birmingham and Rotherham roughly a month ago. Hyndman showed he was more than capable of being a part of our midfield being one of our bright spots when we were awful. With Brentford, I've seen a renewed debate over Chris David after his performance in the Carling Cup earlier on in the season. However I think people are underestimating Bryans influence in the team. He (perhaps frustratingly so) remains calm, and that does rub off on other players- and was something we were lacking earlier in the season when we had no real influences in the team. Ruiz has also started contributing from a defensive standpoint, he's cleared multiple corners a game, and has even started tracking back (to an extent)- as such I think he should remain in the team until he inevitably leaves in January.
The striker situation is as easy as it ever can be in my opinion. Granted I haven't followed Wigan attentively over the years, however I can't remember off the top of my head a year where Hugo has played better. Not just because of his undoubted goal tally, but his work ethic is also top notch- and you only have to look at his link up play with both McCormack and LVC respectively for the first two goals against Huddersfield to attest to that. McCormack is without a doubt the first name on the team sheet at this point in his very early Fulham career, you only have to look at how we struggled to break down Blackpool when we were sans McCormack- and then look at the extra "something" we had against Huddersfield.
Team for Brentford;
Bettinelli
Zverotic Bodurov Burn Stafylidis
LVC Parker Hyndman
Ruiz
McCormack Rodallega
Tomorrows game will be a true test of how far we've come under Kit. We're not only going up against a Top 6 team, but an in form Top 6 team as opposed to when we've played Norwich and Charlton as they've been in slight dips when we've played them. I spoke in my "How we Compare to the Top 6" blog about how crucial these games are when it comes to any hope of getting into the Top 6 come May- and if we repeat the result we got in August we'll have taken a massive step into getting into the Top 6.
Thanks for reading, I'm not sure if I'll post the Review for this game late Friday- or some time on Saturday, so stay tuned for that one. As always any feedback is appreciated, and lets hope we have the bragging rights come Saturday.
Firstly, From Kits Press Conference earlier today we've been told that Bettinelli is fit *and breath*. Not to say Kiraly is completely useless, however against any Top 6 team- especially against a team on the from Brentford are we need our first choice everything available to us. With Amorebieta, Kavanagh and Hoogland still injured we won't have a "complete" team but we will have enough of a team to at the very least be extremely competitive tomorrow night.
As referred to earlier, Bettinelli is arguably one of our key players. Not just because of his undoubted ability as a Keeper- but also the partnership he's formed with Bodurov and Burn. I spoke on numerous occasions earlier in the year about the need for a "Back 3" partnership, and what we've gotten in Bettinelli, Bodurov and Burn is a very solid foundation. Any disruption to this partnership will adversely affect the team, and the balance of the team in my opinion. The Back 3 partnership has also worked so well because these three trust each other, and know each others games well enough that this foundation of the team is capable (in my opinion) of propelling us up the table at a relatively quick pace.
The Full-Back situation is fairly straight forward for the foreseeable future. With Amorebieta, Kavanagh and Hoogland still out injured we're only really left with Stafylidis and Zverotic, although Voser is an option he isn't a very viable one- and with Zverotic not being completely useless against Huddersfield I'd persist with him. Stafylidis has come into his own in recent weeks, I thought in terms of defensive performance Huddersfield was Stafylidis' best game in a Fulham shirt- and against very good wingers in Jota and Odubajo both of these two need to be on top of their game.
Once again our midfield situation is pretty straightforward for tomorrows game. Parker and LVC both are (in my opinion) firmly embedded in the spine of the team now, and shouldn't be dropped unless absolutely necessary- and with us having "just" 3 games in 3 weeks it most definitely isn't necessary on this front. The third midfield option is a bit more of a debate to be had, George Williams has been on form in recent weeks undeniably- however against a midfield such as Brentfords I think we should consider a more defensive minded midfielder as opposed to essentially a winger. As such I think this should be the time Hyndman gets a game under Kit- as from my memory the only time he's played under Kit previously was Birmingham and Rotherham roughly a month ago. Hyndman showed he was more than capable of being a part of our midfield being one of our bright spots when we were awful. With Brentford, I've seen a renewed debate over Chris David after his performance in the Carling Cup earlier on in the season. However I think people are underestimating Bryans influence in the team. He (perhaps frustratingly so) remains calm, and that does rub off on other players- and was something we were lacking earlier in the season when we had no real influences in the team. Ruiz has also started contributing from a defensive standpoint, he's cleared multiple corners a game, and has even started tracking back (to an extent)- as such I think he should remain in the team until he inevitably leaves in January.
The striker situation is as easy as it ever can be in my opinion. Granted I haven't followed Wigan attentively over the years, however I can't remember off the top of my head a year where Hugo has played better. Not just because of his undoubted goal tally, but his work ethic is also top notch- and you only have to look at his link up play with both McCormack and LVC respectively for the first two goals against Huddersfield to attest to that. McCormack is without a doubt the first name on the team sheet at this point in his very early Fulham career, you only have to look at how we struggled to break down Blackpool when we were sans McCormack- and then look at the extra "something" we had against Huddersfield.
Team for Brentford;
Bettinelli
Zverotic Bodurov Burn Stafylidis
LVC Parker Hyndman
Ruiz
McCormack Rodallega
Tomorrows game will be a true test of how far we've come under Kit. We're not only going up against a Top 6 team, but an in form Top 6 team as opposed to when we've played Norwich and Charlton as they've been in slight dips when we've played them. I spoke in my "How we Compare to the Top 6" blog about how crucial these games are when it comes to any hope of getting into the Top 6 come May- and if we repeat the result we got in August we'll have taken a massive step into getting into the Top 6.
Thanks for reading, I'm not sure if I'll post the Review for this game late Friday- or some time on Saturday, so stay tuned for that one. As always any feedback is appreciated, and lets hope we have the bragging rights come Saturday.
TNA Impact Review 19th November- Going Out in Style?
Hello! We finally had confirmation of TNAs new home, and as such it would appear they've secured their future at least for the time being. With this being the last non-clip show episode of Impact on Spike being this one the question is did TNA bow out on a high?
This'll also be the last Impact review until January because; a) I'm not interested in Clip Shows b) Theres no point reviewing stuff thats happened on the show. Now lets get down to business.
Bobby Roode Promo/Brawl
The promo was alright for what it was, but it was never meant to be an amazing promo- and was purely to set-up what was going to happen after. I like the way Roode met Lashley on the ramp, as it reinforces the "fighting champion" mentality that they're trying to get Roode over as. The fact they had security break the fight up was probably the best way they could have gone with it at this stage in Roodes title reign in order to keep both men looking strong.
Gail Kim v Taryn Terrell v Havok- Knockouts Title
Wow. NXT excluded this match trumps any Divas match this year, although to be honest thats not saying much. What we got here was three women who "get it"and as such know how to put together a match which is great. Taryn winning the belt is an interesting development, Havok was protected to an extent because she wasn't pinned despite the fact she was practically beaten after taking Gails finisher- however I'm not convinced Taryn is the best option at this stage. I respect the hell out of her for how far she's come since being "Tiffany" however she still has a long way to go and in "just" a match Taryn can be exposed to an extent.
Chris Melendez v Kenny King
I don't know how to judge Melendez's matches. Its hard to be overcritical because of his disability, but on the same notion I don't want to give too much leeway to him because at the end of the day he's on the same show as others so he should be judged as such. So with that in mind this match was pretty average, the tempo was quite slow- as said perhaps understandably. The finish was alright as it helped Melendez to keep chugging along whilst not outright beating King. I'm still not sold on the Anderson-Melendez dynamic, however hopefully that changes in the near future.
EC3, Tyrus, Spud Segment
EC3 slapped Borash so hard his whole family died- Probably Line of the Year. The Spud beatdown was a good way to keep this storyline going, so when we finally get the payoff it'll be worth the build. I'm not sure why the haircut was a thing but it was probably a physical way to humiliate him as much as anything else.
The MVP attack on Angle was a really good angle, the fact King looked genuinely shocked by the attack helps to further the dissolution between them- and set up a match down the road.
Tommy Dreamer v Bram
Bram is fast becoming one of the best parts of either WWE or TNA. Perhaps its simply because its his hardcore style whilst WWE is PG and TNA doesn't always use its TV-14 Rating, however when Bram delivers matches like this one its hard to ignore. Between Bram and EC3 they've gotten two wrestlers who "failed" in WWE Developmental and turned them into top stars for the future- which is what TNA should have been doing for years rather than bringing in "past it" WWE stars. You only have to look at the releases in WWEs past to think where TNA could have been, For instance, you wonder what would have happened if they'd gotten "Bryan Danielson" when he got released for choking Justin Roberts.
DJ Z v Tigre Uno v Manik v Low Ki
I would have personally put the title on Manik, with Storms "revolution" winning the Tag Titles last week in my opinion the revolution should have gone from strength to strength with regard to winning titles. Thats not to disregard Low Ki as a champion, as he is more than credible, however in terms of Long-Term thinking I think Manik would have been the better option. The match itself was good, although did we honestly expect anything different when these four are in the ring at the same time?
Mass Brawl Segment
For the final segment of TNA until January this was a bit "meh" in my opinion. It was a bit of a cluster in my opinion, with too many cooks in the kitchen to make the segment seem good enough to really "pop". We're presumably getting an MVP-Angle angle once we get to the new year as this segment basically highlighted all the main feuds in Impact Wrestling with the exception of the EC3 one.
Overall this Impact wasn't the best, but was by no means the worst we've had in recent memory- and crucially left enough open ends to maintain interest going into January. Thanks for reading, as I said before this'll be the last Impact Review for a while. So if you just read these Impact Reviews, Happy Christmas!
This'll also be the last Impact review until January because; a) I'm not interested in Clip Shows b) Theres no point reviewing stuff thats happened on the show. Now lets get down to business.
Bobby Roode Promo/Brawl
The promo was alright for what it was, but it was never meant to be an amazing promo- and was purely to set-up what was going to happen after. I like the way Roode met Lashley on the ramp, as it reinforces the "fighting champion" mentality that they're trying to get Roode over as. The fact they had security break the fight up was probably the best way they could have gone with it at this stage in Roodes title reign in order to keep both men looking strong.
Gail Kim v Taryn Terrell v Havok- Knockouts Title
Wow. NXT excluded this match trumps any Divas match this year, although to be honest thats not saying much. What we got here was three women who "get it"and as such know how to put together a match which is great. Taryn winning the belt is an interesting development, Havok was protected to an extent because she wasn't pinned despite the fact she was practically beaten after taking Gails finisher- however I'm not convinced Taryn is the best option at this stage. I respect the hell out of her for how far she's come since being "Tiffany" however she still has a long way to go and in "just" a match Taryn can be exposed to an extent.
Chris Melendez v Kenny King
I don't know how to judge Melendez's matches. Its hard to be overcritical because of his disability, but on the same notion I don't want to give too much leeway to him because at the end of the day he's on the same show as others so he should be judged as such. So with that in mind this match was pretty average, the tempo was quite slow- as said perhaps understandably. The finish was alright as it helped Melendez to keep chugging along whilst not outright beating King. I'm still not sold on the Anderson-Melendez dynamic, however hopefully that changes in the near future.
EC3, Tyrus, Spud Segment
EC3 slapped Borash so hard his whole family died- Probably Line of the Year. The Spud beatdown was a good way to keep this storyline going, so when we finally get the payoff it'll be worth the build. I'm not sure why the haircut was a thing but it was probably a physical way to humiliate him as much as anything else.
The MVP attack on Angle was a really good angle, the fact King looked genuinely shocked by the attack helps to further the dissolution between them- and set up a match down the road.
Tommy Dreamer v Bram
Bram is fast becoming one of the best parts of either WWE or TNA. Perhaps its simply because its his hardcore style whilst WWE is PG and TNA doesn't always use its TV-14 Rating, however when Bram delivers matches like this one its hard to ignore. Between Bram and EC3 they've gotten two wrestlers who "failed" in WWE Developmental and turned them into top stars for the future- which is what TNA should have been doing for years rather than bringing in "past it" WWE stars. You only have to look at the releases in WWEs past to think where TNA could have been, For instance, you wonder what would have happened if they'd gotten "Bryan Danielson" when he got released for choking Justin Roberts.
DJ Z v Tigre Uno v Manik v Low Ki
I would have personally put the title on Manik, with Storms "revolution" winning the Tag Titles last week in my opinion the revolution should have gone from strength to strength with regard to winning titles. Thats not to disregard Low Ki as a champion, as he is more than credible, however in terms of Long-Term thinking I think Manik would have been the better option. The match itself was good, although did we honestly expect anything different when these four are in the ring at the same time?
Mass Brawl Segment
For the final segment of TNA until January this was a bit "meh" in my opinion. It was a bit of a cluster in my opinion, with too many cooks in the kitchen to make the segment seem good enough to really "pop". We're presumably getting an MVP-Angle angle once we get to the new year as this segment basically highlighted all the main feuds in Impact Wrestling with the exception of the EC3 one.
Overall this Impact wasn't the best, but was by no means the worst we've had in recent memory- and crucially left enough open ends to maintain interest going into January. Thanks for reading, as I said before this'll be the last Impact Review for a while. So if you just read these Impact Reviews, Happy Christmas!
Tuesday 18 November 2014
RAW Review- 17th November
Hello! I'm writing this when I'm still quite sleepy from RAW last night so please forgive any typos that may occur during this blog. We had a cat hosting RAW today- so as you can guess my expectations weren't high, so did I get a pleasant surprise? Also find out why Erick Rowan is now my most hated wrestler if you didn't see last night on Twitter.
The Authority, Ryback Segment
Triple H taking a shot at WCW was probably the best moment of this segment, because it was factually incorrect. WCW didn't kill WCW AOL/Time Warner killed WCW, and anyone who says otherwise is wrong. I liked the threats the Authority laid out here because it made you anticipate what was going to happen throughout the show, and as such kept you at least mildly engaged in the show. Nobody can honestly have thought Ryback wasn't going to be on Team Cena with the exception of roughly 30 seconds in the last segment. Them using their Authoritative powers to handicap Team Cena was something I thought they should've done a lot more in the build to this match at Survivor Series so it was good to finally have the heels being proper heels. Ryback isn't an amazing promo, but he delivered his message effectively and to a good enough level that it didn't get you to disengage.
Luke Harper v Dolph Ziggler- Intercontinental Championship Match
Firstly, Dolph is not being buried. Buried is one of those terms I've grown to despise when it comes to wrestling- if someone could explain how being blindsided before a match and getting killed, an subsequently lasting 10+ minutes in a competitive (ish) match against a guy like Luke Harper is being buried I'm all ears. Secondly, I'm greatly in favour of this title change- Luke Harper is awesome, as he's shown on numerous occasions and I'm hoping as I said last week he is seen as more than someone making up the numbers of Sunday. Also this loss for Dolph could also lead to one of the better storylines in recent memory (if I was booking). Team Cena loses on Sunday, through some shenanigans- but a loss nonetheless. Dolph has now lost everything he's fought for, and he then proceeds to blame Cena for this Zig-Zag, Passionate Promo TLC Semi-Main Event. It would be oddly full circle considering two years ago we had Dolph v Cena in the MITB Match at TLC where Dolph had everything to lose and Cena had everything to gain. The match itself was good for what it was, I was surprised Dolph had the amount of offence he did get- but that only added to the match quality.
The Miz, Grumpy Cat Segment (Part 1)
I watched this segment. It was awful.
Adam Rose v Tyson Kidd
Okay, Does anyone not wanna see my idea to have Rose skin the bunny now? I mean cmon #KRUGAH. At least we know the Bunny is Darren Young now.
Bray Wyatt, Dean Ambrose Promos
I've always thought that they should have done what they did with Ambrose with Bray. Have Bray cutting a promo on the tron and while whomever is in the ring is looking up at the tron blindside them while Bray is still talking on the tron. This'd have added another dimension to his mysterious persona, and is of course something they could do down the road. When Bray speaks everybody listens. He simply has that natural charisma that so few wrestlers do, and it makes every word that comes out his mouth believable to the audience. The Ambrose Promo was fine for what it was, although was phone records in 1080p?
Ryback v Cesaro
When we came back from the Ad Break I thought this'd be a glorified squash- what we got instead was in my opinion the best match Rybacks had on the Main Roster that hasn't included a stipulation. The false finishes were genuine false finishes, and as I'll discuss when I do my Awards (probably) some time next week the suspension of disbelief in some matches is what really grips you. Nobody honestly expected Ryback to lose, but with the way the match went down you started to question that.
Rusev v Heath Slater
"Ding Ding You Son of a Bitch" Heath Slater July 15th 1983- November 17th 2014.
The Miz, Grumpy Cat Segment (Part 2)
Rowan stole a toy cat...
Big Show v Sheamus
I Remember when it was Orton v Sheamus the Night after Wrestlemania 29 the crowd were chanting "Thank You Big Show" once he interfered so I'd like to personally thank Mark Henry and Rusev for ending this abomination.
Nikki Bella v A.J. Brie
See what I did there? Good right? I think we can agree my cheese joke was the highlight of this match #WensleydaleMode.
The Usos & Los Matadores v The Dusts & Whatever the plural of Miz is.
The less said about this match the better. I honestly don't get why people want to see Mizdow "wrestle". I respect his ability don't misinterpret me, but in his current role he's best when he's randomly sentonning himself.
Team Authority v Team Cena Contract Signing
Before I get into the actual segment, Nobody actually signed a contract- so does that mean the Main Event is off?
I liked the Triple H promo as his slight doubts over whether or not the Authority could win could turn into a storyline down the road. The Cena Promo made me want to vomit rainbows, although I'm sure there are laws about kids working past a certain hour- and presumably this match will be the Main Event so surely Cena should be arrested. It was his usual sunshine and rainbows promo that made anyone with a developed brain want to switch channels, however I kept with it. Everybody expected Ryback to come into the fold for this match, however I don't think many expected Rowan. I was expecting/hoping it would be Hogan so now Rowan is the #1 Heel in the business in my book.
Thanks for reading, as always feedback is appreciated- I'm not sure if I'll be putting my awards blog up this week or next so keep your eyes out for that one. Thanks again.
The Authority, Ryback Segment
Triple H taking a shot at WCW was probably the best moment of this segment, because it was factually incorrect. WCW didn't kill WCW AOL/Time Warner killed WCW, and anyone who says otherwise is wrong. I liked the threats the Authority laid out here because it made you anticipate what was going to happen throughout the show, and as such kept you at least mildly engaged in the show. Nobody can honestly have thought Ryback wasn't going to be on Team Cena with the exception of roughly 30 seconds in the last segment. Them using their Authoritative powers to handicap Team Cena was something I thought they should've done a lot more in the build to this match at Survivor Series so it was good to finally have the heels being proper heels. Ryback isn't an amazing promo, but he delivered his message effectively and to a good enough level that it didn't get you to disengage.
Luke Harper v Dolph Ziggler- Intercontinental Championship Match
Firstly, Dolph is not being buried. Buried is one of those terms I've grown to despise when it comes to wrestling- if someone could explain how being blindsided before a match and getting killed, an subsequently lasting 10+ minutes in a competitive (ish) match against a guy like Luke Harper is being buried I'm all ears. Secondly, I'm greatly in favour of this title change- Luke Harper is awesome, as he's shown on numerous occasions and I'm hoping as I said last week he is seen as more than someone making up the numbers of Sunday. Also this loss for Dolph could also lead to one of the better storylines in recent memory (if I was booking). Team Cena loses on Sunday, through some shenanigans- but a loss nonetheless. Dolph has now lost everything he's fought for, and he then proceeds to blame Cena for this Zig-Zag, Passionate Promo TLC Semi-Main Event. It would be oddly full circle considering two years ago we had Dolph v Cena in the MITB Match at TLC where Dolph had everything to lose and Cena had everything to gain. The match itself was good for what it was, I was surprised Dolph had the amount of offence he did get- but that only added to the match quality.
The Miz, Grumpy Cat Segment (Part 1)
I watched this segment. It was awful.
Adam Rose v Tyson Kidd
Okay, Does anyone not wanna see my idea to have Rose skin the bunny now? I mean cmon #KRUGAH. At least we know the Bunny is Darren Young now.
Bray Wyatt, Dean Ambrose Promos
I've always thought that they should have done what they did with Ambrose with Bray. Have Bray cutting a promo on the tron and while whomever is in the ring is looking up at the tron blindside them while Bray is still talking on the tron. This'd have added another dimension to his mysterious persona, and is of course something they could do down the road. When Bray speaks everybody listens. He simply has that natural charisma that so few wrestlers do, and it makes every word that comes out his mouth believable to the audience. The Ambrose Promo was fine for what it was, although was phone records in 1080p?
Ryback v Cesaro
When we came back from the Ad Break I thought this'd be a glorified squash- what we got instead was in my opinion the best match Rybacks had on the Main Roster that hasn't included a stipulation. The false finishes were genuine false finishes, and as I'll discuss when I do my Awards (probably) some time next week the suspension of disbelief in some matches is what really grips you. Nobody honestly expected Ryback to lose, but with the way the match went down you started to question that.
Rusev v Heath Slater
"Ding Ding You Son of a Bitch" Heath Slater July 15th 1983- November 17th 2014.
The Miz, Grumpy Cat Segment (Part 2)
Rowan stole a toy cat...
Big Show v Sheamus
I Remember when it was Orton v Sheamus the Night after Wrestlemania 29 the crowd were chanting "Thank You Big Show" once he interfered so I'd like to personally thank Mark Henry and Rusev for ending this abomination.
Nikki Bella v A.J. Brie
See what I did there? Good right? I think we can agree my cheese joke was the highlight of this match #WensleydaleMode.
The Usos & Los Matadores v The Dusts & Whatever the plural of Miz is.
The less said about this match the better. I honestly don't get why people want to see Mizdow "wrestle". I respect his ability don't misinterpret me, but in his current role he's best when he's randomly sentonning himself.
Team Authority v Team Cena Contract Signing
Before I get into the actual segment, Nobody actually signed a contract- so does that mean the Main Event is off?
I liked the Triple H promo as his slight doubts over whether or not the Authority could win could turn into a storyline down the road. The Cena Promo made me want to vomit rainbows, although I'm sure there are laws about kids working past a certain hour- and presumably this match will be the Main Event so surely Cena should be arrested. It was his usual sunshine and rainbows promo that made anyone with a developed brain want to switch channels, however I kept with it. Everybody expected Ryback to come into the fold for this match, however I don't think many expected Rowan. I was expecting/hoping it would be Hogan so now Rowan is the #1 Heel in the business in my book.
Thanks for reading, as always feedback is appreciated- I'm not sure if I'll be putting my awards blog up this week or next so keep your eyes out for that one. Thanks again.
Friday 14 November 2014
Fulham- How do we Stack Up against the Top 6?
Before I start, I'd like to give you guys an update with regard to my blog. 2 Days ago I found out I was eligible to apply for Adsense on this blog, which may lead some of you to start getting pissed with me because when I plug any new blogs I'm doing it for the money right? Wrong, When I started this blog in Mid-August I had no intention on doing it for the money- and I still don't. With regard to Adsense its not about the money to me, nor will it ever be. Its about validation. IF the Adsense application goes through it helps validate me as a legitimate blogger- which I had no intention of doing in August; but as my reading audience has expanded & some bigger Twitter accounts have helped me out such as Russ & Cottage Talk, TNA Creative & WhiteNoise1879 Its become a part of my life- and I've somehow become a blogger who gets an average of 40 Reads per blog, which may not sound like much- but for me it is, and some of my blogs getting in excess of 90-100 reads and in the case of my Rotherham blog getting close to 200. That being said money was never my intention going in and it never will be; now on with the blog.
Hello, with the international break I need material so I thought it would be good idea to compare us to the Top 6, which is (from what I can tell) the general consensus of what we should be aiming for come May. This isn't necessarily what I think the Top 6 will be come the end of the season, but now we're roughly a third of the way its a good time to evaluate the situation we're currently in.
6th- Brentford (9 Points Behind)
Results This Season
(COC) W- 1-0
21st November (Away)
3rd April (Home)
Key Statistics (Most of these Stats come from WhoScored)
Average Possession: 51% (Fulham 52%)
Shots per Game: 13.3 (Fulham 14)
Shots on Target per game: 4.8 (Fulham 4.8)
Goal per Game Ratio: 1.41 (Fulham 1.58)
This is something I never thought I'd have to say- Brentford are doing well at the moment, and on balance deserve the position they're currently in, in my opinion. I don't think they will be in the Top 6 come May- but I think any realistic Brentford fan would acknowledge that. With the upcoming game against Brentford we can close the gap between us to 6 Points, but we could also end up 12 Points behind them which is very much possible with Brentford currently on a 3 Game winning streak including a win against Derby. As much as it may pain us to admit it as Fulham fans, we need to be wary of the threat Brentford pose, and acknowledge they're where they are on merit, and will fight tooth and nail to stay there. However out of the current Top 6 Brentford will be the easiest to overtake, which isn't be stating the obvious with regard to there position in the Playoff places- and isn't intended to disrespect Brentford, and is more about crediting the other teams in the Playoff places.
5th- Watford (10 Points Behind)
Results this Season
5th December (Away)
3rd March (Home)
Key Statistics
Average Possession: 49% (Fulham 52%)
Shots per Game: 14.4 (Fulham 14)
Shots on Target per Game: 4.9 (Fulham 4.8)
Goals per Game ratio: 1.76 (Fulham 1.58)
The in house Manager of the Month contests at Watford appear to have resolved themselves and under Slavisa Jokanovic they've experienced a slight dip in their last two games, however before the losses to Ipswich and Birmingham their last loss was in Early September and as such shouldn't be written off just yet. Once again we've got an upcoming game against Watford which can either close the gap between us significantly or give Watford clean air between us, and with every position up for grabs in the Top 6 we can't afford to give them that breathing room. With players like Vydra, Deeney and Tozser at their disposal they will always pose a significant threat to the Top 6. Vydra will of course bring back bad memories for us after the West Brom game last season in which we lost two vital points in our failed attempt at survival and with Tozser being one of the most potent midfielders in the League with the combination of a good foundation with players like Craig Cathcart and Gomes (who I'm looking forward to seeing again after he done so much to help us when he was at Spurs) they will be in and around the Top 6 come May, and we need to make sure we stay in touch- or above them come that time.
4th- Ipswich (11 Points Behind)
Results this Season
L 1-0
14th February (Home)
Key Statistics
Average Possession: 50% (Fulham 52%)
Shots per Game: 14.1 (Fulham 14)
Shots on Targer per Game: 4.5 (Fulham 4.8)
Goals per Game ratio: 1.47 (Fulham 1.58)
Our opponents on the first game back in the Championship have currently only lost 3 Times this season (The Joint Second best in the League) which is very characteristic of a Mick McCarthy team in that they're extremely hard to beat, and will probably piss a lot of people off in doing so because of the style of play they employ in order to achieve this. When we came into the Championship and with Ipswich being our first game the focus was centered on whether McGoldrick would be fit enough, however for the large part Daryl Murphy has outshone him this season, with double his goal tally so far this season- thats not to discredit McGoldrick, as he is still a very good player, and it also highlights the different options Ipswich can employ which makes them very credible candidates for the Top 6. When we played Ipswich in August I wasn't overly impressed with them, we looked very naive in comparison to Ipswich (a reflection on the manager) and we still gave Ipswich a run for their money for large parts of the game, as such I'm slightly surprised Ipswich are where they are at this point of the season. However you have to credit McCarthy for the way he's built the team in order to grind out results. Perhaps most characteristic of this Ipswich team Christophe Berra is the third top scorer for the team, and according to WhoScored he has the highest number of MOTMs in the team. The thing you have to consider is come January Tyrone Mings is likely to leave if the Paper Talk is to be believed and that could greatly handicap Ipswich's promotion bid, however with the resolute nature of Mick McCarthy teams you can't bank on that.
3rd- Middlesborough (12 Points Behind)
Results this Season
L 2-0
25th April (Home)
Key Statistics
Average Possession: 50% (Fulham 52%)
Shots per Game: 15.6 (Fulham 14)
Shots on Target per Game: 4.4 (Fulham 4.8)
Goal per Game Ratio: 1.52 (Fulham 1.58)
Middlesborough are the team to hand us our last League defeat and that should speak to the way Aitor Karanka has gotten his team to play. When we played them I knew it'd be a very tough game, and thought we'd do very well to get something from the game- as such we didn't, but the 2 Goal winning margin did flatter to deceive and on a different day, with the Goal Machine Tim Hoogland getting his header an inch lower who knows what could have been. However in recent blogs- specifically Huddersfield and Norwich I've highlighted the need for a degree of luck, and I'm not using this to discredit their promotion credentials as I've said when I've talked about all of the previous teams in this blog. A Regular frequenter of my August blogs Albert Adomah hasn't been the stand out performer in this Boro teams, but he has been of them- and with attacking threats like Kike Boro will always be a very dangerous team, and as said previously will be in and around the Top 6 come May. They also have the best defence in the League, and by a clear margin. Dani Ayala and George Friend have particularly impressed me when it comes to their defensive situation, and as I've said in previous blogs about Fulham a strong defensive foundation will be the key to any promotion bid we, and by association any other team puts together.
2nd- Bournemouth (12 Points Behind)
Results this Season
26th December (Away)
7th March (Home)
Key Statistics
Average Possession: 54% (Fulham 52%)
Shots per Game: 15.2 (Fulham 14)
Shots on Target per Game: 5.5 (Fulham 4.8)
Goal per Game Ratio: 1.94 (Fulham 1.58)
I think it was Football Manager 2009 when I saw Bournemouth with a 17 Point Deduction in League 2 and used them as a challenge to myself, and of course because its a game I was able to get Bournemouth to the Premier League within 7 Seasons so if you see Hyde in the Premier League by 2022 you're welcome. The thing is, you never expect the rag-to-riches Game stories to actually become a reality as has happened with Bouremouth. Eddie Howe is a manager who I've always respected, but I thought when he was relatively mediocre- in comparison to what he had been doing at Bournemouth before. I started underestimating him, last season Bournemouth should have gotten to the Playoffs but they stumbled on the one of the last hurdles and didn't make it last time around. This time around I thought they'd be in and around the Playoffs with the proviso that they kept Matt Ritchie in a Bournemouth shirt, and he stayed healthy, and with his assist tally being the only one thats bettering Ross McCormacks this season I was right to an extent. With the emergence of Callum Wilson as a potent Championship goalscorer in the Championship they've gotten close to a perfect storm which has led them to where they are. At the end of August when it became apparent Fraser Forster was Koemans first choice, and before Bettinelli properly established himself as our Number One (or Forty) I thought we should have looked at getting in Boruc on loan, as such he went to Bournemouth and has immediately established himself as one of the best Keepers in the Division. Will this run last for Bournemouth? Who knows, one thing you can say for certain is that Bournemouth fans deserve everything success they get- and out of the teams in the division they're the team I would have wished finish 2nd behind us this season.
1st- Derby (13 Points Behind)
Results this Season
L 5-1
(COC) L 5-2
28th February (Home)
Key Statistics
Average Possession: 56% (Fulham 52%)
Shots per Game: 14.2 (Fulham 14)
Shots on Target per Game: 5 (Fulham 4.8)
Goal per Game Ratio: 1.94 (Fulham 1.58)- Derby conveniently had the same number of goals as Bournemouth which made this calculation so much easier.
I honestly don't know what to say with regard to Derby this season. If it weren't for a certain Zamora we wouldn't even looking at Derby this season as a competitor, but as such we are and they're top. But on the same notion they haven't been remarkable in the majority of games this season in my opinion. In fact they only time in their first eight games they won by more than a one goal margin was "that" game against us. They've recently lost to an Uwe Rosler Wigan side at Home, and a good Brentford team, and also been run close in terms of outcome against the likes of Huddersfield, the problem is just when you thought it was safe to go back in the Water- they go and pull out a result such as a 5-0 against a very good Wolves team. I didn't see all of the game because I had to leave to go to the Huddersfield game, but they made a good Wolves team look like a Sunday League Team by comparison. Derby have always been somewhat of a bogey team for us- or at least from my perspective. When we were in the Great Escape season Derby were a guaranteed 3 Points for everyone, except us. 2 Draws in the Great Escape season, and if I looked far enough back I'm sure there would be more instances to support the argument of Derby being a bogey team for us. With the way they were screwed last season against the other lot down the road in the Playoff Final I certainly won't begrudge Derby going up- however I'm honestly not sold on them being Top Promotion Candidates despite them being Top.
Thanks for reading, I hope you liked this different type of blog- obviously with the International Break spanning this weekend I needed to approach the blog from a different angle. As always I appreciate any feedback on these blogs and thanks again for reading. Remember this is by no means who I think the Top 6 will be come the end of the season, this is purely from a current standing perspective.
Hello, with the international break I need material so I thought it would be good idea to compare us to the Top 6, which is (from what I can tell) the general consensus of what we should be aiming for come May. This isn't necessarily what I think the Top 6 will be come the end of the season, but now we're roughly a third of the way its a good time to evaluate the situation we're currently in.
6th- Brentford (9 Points Behind)
Results This Season
(COC) W- 1-0
21st November (Away)
3rd April (Home)
Key Statistics (Most of these Stats come from WhoScored)
Average Possession: 51% (Fulham 52%)
Shots per Game: 13.3 (Fulham 14)
Shots on Target per game: 4.8 (Fulham 4.8)
Goal per Game Ratio: 1.41 (Fulham 1.58)
This is something I never thought I'd have to say- Brentford are doing well at the moment, and on balance deserve the position they're currently in, in my opinion. I don't think they will be in the Top 6 come May- but I think any realistic Brentford fan would acknowledge that. With the upcoming game against Brentford we can close the gap between us to 6 Points, but we could also end up 12 Points behind them which is very much possible with Brentford currently on a 3 Game winning streak including a win against Derby. As much as it may pain us to admit it as Fulham fans, we need to be wary of the threat Brentford pose, and acknowledge they're where they are on merit, and will fight tooth and nail to stay there. However out of the current Top 6 Brentford will be the easiest to overtake, which isn't be stating the obvious with regard to there position in the Playoff places- and isn't intended to disrespect Brentford, and is more about crediting the other teams in the Playoff places.
5th- Watford (10 Points Behind)
Results this Season
5th December (Away)
3rd March (Home)
Key Statistics
Average Possession: 49% (Fulham 52%)
Shots per Game: 14.4 (Fulham 14)
Shots on Target per Game: 4.9 (Fulham 4.8)
Goals per Game ratio: 1.76 (Fulham 1.58)
The in house Manager of the Month contests at Watford appear to have resolved themselves and under Slavisa Jokanovic they've experienced a slight dip in their last two games, however before the losses to Ipswich and Birmingham their last loss was in Early September and as such shouldn't be written off just yet. Once again we've got an upcoming game against Watford which can either close the gap between us significantly or give Watford clean air between us, and with every position up for grabs in the Top 6 we can't afford to give them that breathing room. With players like Vydra, Deeney and Tozser at their disposal they will always pose a significant threat to the Top 6. Vydra will of course bring back bad memories for us after the West Brom game last season in which we lost two vital points in our failed attempt at survival and with Tozser being one of the most potent midfielders in the League with the combination of a good foundation with players like Craig Cathcart and Gomes (who I'm looking forward to seeing again after he done so much to help us when he was at Spurs) they will be in and around the Top 6 come May, and we need to make sure we stay in touch- or above them come that time.
4th- Ipswich (11 Points Behind)
Results this Season
L 1-0
14th February (Home)
Key Statistics
Average Possession: 50% (Fulham 52%)
Shots per Game: 14.1 (Fulham 14)
Shots on Targer per Game: 4.5 (Fulham 4.8)
Goals per Game ratio: 1.47 (Fulham 1.58)
Our opponents on the first game back in the Championship have currently only lost 3 Times this season (The Joint Second best in the League) which is very characteristic of a Mick McCarthy team in that they're extremely hard to beat, and will probably piss a lot of people off in doing so because of the style of play they employ in order to achieve this. When we came into the Championship and with Ipswich being our first game the focus was centered on whether McGoldrick would be fit enough, however for the large part Daryl Murphy has outshone him this season, with double his goal tally so far this season- thats not to discredit McGoldrick, as he is still a very good player, and it also highlights the different options Ipswich can employ which makes them very credible candidates for the Top 6. When we played Ipswich in August I wasn't overly impressed with them, we looked very naive in comparison to Ipswich (a reflection on the manager) and we still gave Ipswich a run for their money for large parts of the game, as such I'm slightly surprised Ipswich are where they are at this point of the season. However you have to credit McCarthy for the way he's built the team in order to grind out results. Perhaps most characteristic of this Ipswich team Christophe Berra is the third top scorer for the team, and according to WhoScored he has the highest number of MOTMs in the team. The thing you have to consider is come January Tyrone Mings is likely to leave if the Paper Talk is to be believed and that could greatly handicap Ipswich's promotion bid, however with the resolute nature of Mick McCarthy teams you can't bank on that.
3rd- Middlesborough (12 Points Behind)
Results this Season
L 2-0
25th April (Home)
Key Statistics
Average Possession: 50% (Fulham 52%)
Shots per Game: 15.6 (Fulham 14)
Shots on Target per Game: 4.4 (Fulham 4.8)
Goal per Game Ratio: 1.52 (Fulham 1.58)
Middlesborough are the team to hand us our last League defeat and that should speak to the way Aitor Karanka has gotten his team to play. When we played them I knew it'd be a very tough game, and thought we'd do very well to get something from the game- as such we didn't, but the 2 Goal winning margin did flatter to deceive and on a different day, with the Goal Machine Tim Hoogland getting his header an inch lower who knows what could have been. However in recent blogs- specifically Huddersfield and Norwich I've highlighted the need for a degree of luck, and I'm not using this to discredit their promotion credentials as I've said when I've talked about all of the previous teams in this blog. A Regular frequenter of my August blogs Albert Adomah hasn't been the stand out performer in this Boro teams, but he has been of them- and with attacking threats like Kike Boro will always be a very dangerous team, and as said previously will be in and around the Top 6 come May. They also have the best defence in the League, and by a clear margin. Dani Ayala and George Friend have particularly impressed me when it comes to their defensive situation, and as I've said in previous blogs about Fulham a strong defensive foundation will be the key to any promotion bid we, and by association any other team puts together.
2nd- Bournemouth (12 Points Behind)
Results this Season
26th December (Away)
7th March (Home)
Key Statistics
Average Possession: 54% (Fulham 52%)
Shots per Game: 15.2 (Fulham 14)
Shots on Target per Game: 5.5 (Fulham 4.8)
Goal per Game Ratio: 1.94 (Fulham 1.58)
I think it was Football Manager 2009 when I saw Bournemouth with a 17 Point Deduction in League 2 and used them as a challenge to myself, and of course because its a game I was able to get Bournemouth to the Premier League within 7 Seasons so if you see Hyde in the Premier League by 2022 you're welcome. The thing is, you never expect the rag-to-riches Game stories to actually become a reality as has happened with Bouremouth. Eddie Howe is a manager who I've always respected, but I thought when he was relatively mediocre- in comparison to what he had been doing at Bournemouth before. I started underestimating him, last season Bournemouth should have gotten to the Playoffs but they stumbled on the one of the last hurdles and didn't make it last time around. This time around I thought they'd be in and around the Playoffs with the proviso that they kept Matt Ritchie in a Bournemouth shirt, and he stayed healthy, and with his assist tally being the only one thats bettering Ross McCormacks this season I was right to an extent. With the emergence of Callum Wilson as a potent Championship goalscorer in the Championship they've gotten close to a perfect storm which has led them to where they are. At the end of August when it became apparent Fraser Forster was Koemans first choice, and before Bettinelli properly established himself as our Number One (or Forty) I thought we should have looked at getting in Boruc on loan, as such he went to Bournemouth and has immediately established himself as one of the best Keepers in the Division. Will this run last for Bournemouth? Who knows, one thing you can say for certain is that Bournemouth fans deserve everything success they get- and out of the teams in the division they're the team I would have wished finish 2nd behind us this season.
1st- Derby (13 Points Behind)
Results this Season
L 5-1
(COC) L 5-2
28th February (Home)
Key Statistics
Average Possession: 56% (Fulham 52%)
Shots per Game: 14.2 (Fulham 14)
Shots on Target per Game: 5 (Fulham 4.8)
Goal per Game Ratio: 1.94 (Fulham 1.58)- Derby conveniently had the same number of goals as Bournemouth which made this calculation so much easier.
I honestly don't know what to say with regard to Derby this season. If it weren't for a certain Zamora we wouldn't even looking at Derby this season as a competitor, but as such we are and they're top. But on the same notion they haven't been remarkable in the majority of games this season in my opinion. In fact they only time in their first eight games they won by more than a one goal margin was "that" game against us. They've recently lost to an Uwe Rosler Wigan side at Home, and a good Brentford team, and also been run close in terms of outcome against the likes of Huddersfield, the problem is just when you thought it was safe to go back in the Water- they go and pull out a result such as a 5-0 against a very good Wolves team. I didn't see all of the game because I had to leave to go to the Huddersfield game, but they made a good Wolves team look like a Sunday League Team by comparison. Derby have always been somewhat of a bogey team for us- or at least from my perspective. When we were in the Great Escape season Derby were a guaranteed 3 Points for everyone, except us. 2 Draws in the Great Escape season, and if I looked far enough back I'm sure there would be more instances to support the argument of Derby being a bogey team for us. With the way they were screwed last season against the other lot down the road in the Playoff Final I certainly won't begrudge Derby going up- however I'm honestly not sold on them being Top Promotion Candidates despite them being Top.
Thanks for reading, I hope you liked this different type of blog- obviously with the International Break spanning this weekend I needed to approach the blog from a different angle. As always I appreciate any feedback on these blogs and thanks again for reading. Remember this is by no means who I think the Top 6 will be come the end of the season, this is purely from a current standing perspective.
Thursday 13 November 2014
TNA Impact Review- 12th November
I'm back with the Impact reviews after a few weeks off, although I haven't reviewed the shows- I've kept up to date with whats gone on during the shows despite my not watching the shows.
James Storm and his disciples, Wolves segment
Storms character is one of the more interesting in wrestling at the moment, there are of course some similarities to the Bray Wyatt character but at the end of the day theres nothing completely original in Wrestling in 2014. As I said I've kept up to date with whats going on in the Impacts I've missed, and Storms attempts to recruit Davey Richards has been one of the more intriguing storylines with regard to execution. Initially I thought it was a bad idea to have the Tag Champions involved in a non-title storyline, however after the Triple Threat Tag Team series this was a way to presumably have the Wolves stay busy after coming out looking so strong after the TLC Match. I'd completely forgotten Feast or Fired was a thing, and off the top of my head Storm got the briefcase at the back end of 2013- I only remember that because I think Chavo and Sting were still with the company.
James Storm & ? v The Wolves
Abyss coming in to join Storm was quite stupid in my opinion. Abyss is a character who I've always liked, despite comparisons to other characters such as Kane- but I've always thought Abyss worked better as a psychopath monster who wants to destroy everything and everyone, and thats why I've always hated it when they've put him in a faction such as Immortal previously and now he's joined Storms revolution. The Wolves losing the Tag Titles should have been a bigger deal in my opinion, as after the Tag Title series they looked like the strongest of all of the TNA Champions- and them losing the straps should have been built until an actual PPV.
Taryn Terrell v Madison Rayne
Taz's "rigo mortis" comment was the highlight of this match. I'm not necessarily saying Taryn needs Gail in order to have a good match- but I do think she needs to have some kind of stipulation as it can hide her lack of wrestling ability. That being said this was still better than the average Divas match, and that is helped by the fact theres a proper story attached to it.
Kenny King, Chris Melendez, Mr. Anderson Segment
I've said this since Melendez's debut, he needs to be a heel. I don't like Andersons involvement with Melendez unless it leads to a heel turn from Melendez, although judging from this segment theres still some work to do for Melendez with regard to promo skills. I'm hoping thats what they're building to as Anderson seems to want to speak for Melendez, and if they're invested in Melendez they'll do this soon enough. King as a dastardly heel is quite funny in my opinion, he knows his role and he plays it to perfection- and now the MVP faction is starting to dissolve hopefully King steps out and makes a proper impact (if you'll pardon the pun).
The Menagerie v Bromans and The Beautiful People
Rebel limited to "Gymnastic" moves is for the best, and hopefully with the taping situation when/if TNA airs newly taped episodes she'll have sufficiently worked on her ring skills, she won't become a master technician overnight- but she could definitely improve to the point she can put on a competent match- because at this point it appears she doesn't even know how to sell certain moves. The Bromans and the BPs have absolutely no chemistry and it affects the matches they're in- and as far as I can work out its purely a way to feature the Bromans so they can talk about the Amazing Race thing that Brooke and Robbie E are involved with.
Eric Young w/ Spud v Tyrus w/ EC3
As I've said I've kept up to date with whats gone on with regard to match outcomes in the episodes I've missed- and this was the second time Tyrus has been pinned in less than a month. Tyrus needed to be booked strong in order for it to actually have an impact when he does lose- but instead he's been relegated to the 300 Pound whipping boy similar to the way Curtis Axel and Ryback ended up involved in the CM Punk feud last year. I would have minded it if it were for the fact EY did the firing up, comeback schtick and it actually ended cleanly.
Lashley coming out to destroy EY and Spud was well worked, and made Lashley look strong after a rough few weeks for Lashley putting over Roode. I'm not opposed to an Aries-Lashley feud if this is the direction they're going, however at this stage I'd have preferred a full on Lashley-MVP feud.
Joe vacating the X-Division Title is a shame, although long-term this could be a good thing as there will be a built in feud when Joe returns- and with the nature of Joe he hasn't looked weak at all before dropping the belt.
Gunner v Samuel Shaw
This match surprised me I have to admit. Because of the nature of Shaws character we haven't always seen his wrestling ability- and it hasn't helped he's been put into the "filler match" segment on more than one occasion. The Powerbomb to the outside of the ring looked brutal, and the overall story of the match was very good. The Shaw-Brittany dynamic is a good one- and gives Brittany something to do, and off the top of my head means every Knockout is actively involved in the product at the moment. Gunner winning with all of the shenanigans should mean the end of this feud and both men moving on, however I can't see any obvious feuds for either man so they might continue with this feud for a bit longer- perhaps with Gunner trying to turn Shaw.
Austin Aries v Lashley
This finish sucked. I understand that Lashley couldn't lose again after losing to Roode in the last few weeks, but Aries hasn't put together much of a run as of late so I'm not sure why they were adverse to him taking a loss. A Double Count Out is always a cop-out finish for a match, and is basically the bookers acknowledging they've booked themselves into a corner. It does seem as though there will be at least a series of matches with Aries and Lashley with the aftermath of the match.
Thanks for reading, I noticed Roode was conveniently not on the show the week I started watching again- so thanks for that guys. I appreciate any feedback on these blogs as per usual and I hope you still enjoy these Impact blogs. With the International Break covering the weekend depending on how much time I have there'll be a different type of Wrestling blog this weekend- and a different type of Fulham blog early next week, probably on Monday.
James Storm and his disciples, Wolves segment
Storms character is one of the more interesting in wrestling at the moment, there are of course some similarities to the Bray Wyatt character but at the end of the day theres nothing completely original in Wrestling in 2014. As I said I've kept up to date with whats going on in the Impacts I've missed, and Storms attempts to recruit Davey Richards has been one of the more intriguing storylines with regard to execution. Initially I thought it was a bad idea to have the Tag Champions involved in a non-title storyline, however after the Triple Threat Tag Team series this was a way to presumably have the Wolves stay busy after coming out looking so strong after the TLC Match. I'd completely forgotten Feast or Fired was a thing, and off the top of my head Storm got the briefcase at the back end of 2013- I only remember that because I think Chavo and Sting were still with the company.
James Storm & ? v The Wolves
Abyss coming in to join Storm was quite stupid in my opinion. Abyss is a character who I've always liked, despite comparisons to other characters such as Kane- but I've always thought Abyss worked better as a psychopath monster who wants to destroy everything and everyone, and thats why I've always hated it when they've put him in a faction such as Immortal previously and now he's joined Storms revolution. The Wolves losing the Tag Titles should have been a bigger deal in my opinion, as after the Tag Title series they looked like the strongest of all of the TNA Champions- and them losing the straps should have been built until an actual PPV.
Taryn Terrell v Madison Rayne
Taz's "rigo mortis" comment was the highlight of this match. I'm not necessarily saying Taryn needs Gail in order to have a good match- but I do think she needs to have some kind of stipulation as it can hide her lack of wrestling ability. That being said this was still better than the average Divas match, and that is helped by the fact theres a proper story attached to it.
Kenny King, Chris Melendez, Mr. Anderson Segment
I've said this since Melendez's debut, he needs to be a heel. I don't like Andersons involvement with Melendez unless it leads to a heel turn from Melendez, although judging from this segment theres still some work to do for Melendez with regard to promo skills. I'm hoping thats what they're building to as Anderson seems to want to speak for Melendez, and if they're invested in Melendez they'll do this soon enough. King as a dastardly heel is quite funny in my opinion, he knows his role and he plays it to perfection- and now the MVP faction is starting to dissolve hopefully King steps out and makes a proper impact (if you'll pardon the pun).
The Menagerie v Bromans and The Beautiful People
Rebel limited to "Gymnastic" moves is for the best, and hopefully with the taping situation when/if TNA airs newly taped episodes she'll have sufficiently worked on her ring skills, she won't become a master technician overnight- but she could definitely improve to the point she can put on a competent match- because at this point it appears she doesn't even know how to sell certain moves. The Bromans and the BPs have absolutely no chemistry and it affects the matches they're in- and as far as I can work out its purely a way to feature the Bromans so they can talk about the Amazing Race thing that Brooke and Robbie E are involved with.
Eric Young w/ Spud v Tyrus w/ EC3
As I've said I've kept up to date with whats gone on with regard to match outcomes in the episodes I've missed- and this was the second time Tyrus has been pinned in less than a month. Tyrus needed to be booked strong in order for it to actually have an impact when he does lose- but instead he's been relegated to the 300 Pound whipping boy similar to the way Curtis Axel and Ryback ended up involved in the CM Punk feud last year. I would have minded it if it were for the fact EY did the firing up, comeback schtick and it actually ended cleanly.
Lashley coming out to destroy EY and Spud was well worked, and made Lashley look strong after a rough few weeks for Lashley putting over Roode. I'm not opposed to an Aries-Lashley feud if this is the direction they're going, however at this stage I'd have preferred a full on Lashley-MVP feud.
Joe vacating the X-Division Title is a shame, although long-term this could be a good thing as there will be a built in feud when Joe returns- and with the nature of Joe he hasn't looked weak at all before dropping the belt.
Gunner v Samuel Shaw
This match surprised me I have to admit. Because of the nature of Shaws character we haven't always seen his wrestling ability- and it hasn't helped he's been put into the "filler match" segment on more than one occasion. The Powerbomb to the outside of the ring looked brutal, and the overall story of the match was very good. The Shaw-Brittany dynamic is a good one- and gives Brittany something to do, and off the top of my head means every Knockout is actively involved in the product at the moment. Gunner winning with all of the shenanigans should mean the end of this feud and both men moving on, however I can't see any obvious feuds for either man so they might continue with this feud for a bit longer- perhaps with Gunner trying to turn Shaw.
Austin Aries v Lashley
This finish sucked. I understand that Lashley couldn't lose again after losing to Roode in the last few weeks, but Aries hasn't put together much of a run as of late so I'm not sure why they were adverse to him taking a loss. A Double Count Out is always a cop-out finish for a match, and is basically the bookers acknowledging they've booked themselves into a corner. It does seem as though there will be at least a series of matches with Aries and Lashley with the aftermath of the match.
Thanks for reading, I noticed Roode was conveniently not on the show the week I started watching again- so thanks for that guys. I appreciate any feedback on these blogs as per usual and I hope you still enjoy these Impact blogs. With the International Break covering the weekend depending on how much time I have there'll be a different type of Wrestling blog this weekend- and a different type of Fulham blog early next week, probably on Monday.
Wednesday 12 November 2014
Fulham- The Loan Market
I was going to do this later on in the week, but in light of the Chris Baird rumours today I figured I may as well do it today- because I need all of the material I can get. In this blog I intend to identify potential (and realistic) loan signings who would benefit the team, and all going well get us up the table as quickly as possible. The key areas we need to strengthen in my opinion are in defensive areas as in my opinion we're ridiculously top heavy.
Chris Baird (West Brom)- Cutting right to the chase, Baird coming back is a rumour that could very realistically come to fruition and I would be greatly in favour of it. Its no secret that Zverotic isn't exactly "good", and when Hoogland is injured we need to keep a level of consistency in terms of quality in our back four which will in turn lead to more clean sheets and us climbing the table. Baird as well all know can also play as a Holding Midfielder- which we've lacked in the purist sense for the last few seasons. We're currently using a combination of LVC, Parker and G. Williams as our 3 Main Midfielders- with the potential for Kavanagh and Stafylidis coming in if we're to go by previous team selections. Baird would provide a good option to add to this midfield, and would provide Parker a necessary rest in some games in the runs such as the one we've just come off of of 7 Games in 21 Days. Baird could also provide a good option from corners- which I think a few people have forgotten, and with Blackpool being the prime example we need to do better from corners, and you only have to look at games such as Aston Villa when Baird lost his man and ran to the near post and won us the game.
Robert Huth (Stoke)- Aside from Burn and Bodurov we're severely lacking in good options at Centre Back. Amorebieta is best at Left Back in my opinion because of the mistakes he is prone to making, and also his crossing ability. This leaves us with Hutchinson, who will probably Two-Foot someone the minute he gets on the pitch. Cameron Burgess who showed he wasn't ready earlier on in the season, and then to an extent Casasola and Liam Donnelly. None of these options would be good enough for the Championship in my opinion, and Burn and Bodurov need competition for their places- and we also need to be wary of any injuries one or the other could sustain. Huth would be a really good option for us because of his height, experience and general ability. Although the stumbling block on this deal would be Huth would presumably want guaranteed football- and I wouldn't necessarily want to upset the Burn, Bodurov, Bettinelli back three thats served us so well so far.
Harry Maguire (Hull)- He would be useful for similar reasons to Huth, although he would be the second choice option to Huth as he has more experience. Maguire is someone we were reportedly after in the Summer, and I was very much in favour of it- as I'd seen him semi-frequently whilst he was at Sheffield Utd the year before. Although a Loan probably wouldn't be the best option for us as he still needs some developing he'd still provide a good enough option to challenge Burn and/or Bodurov so he should be at least considered as an option.
Jon Flanagan (Liverpool)- I've seen conflicting reports over whether Flanagan has a Knee injury or not, however with Manquillo, Moreno, Jose Enrique and Glen Johnson I can't see him getting near the first team unless some circumstances change. As such I think he would be a very viable option for a Loan offer- and would be a very good signing as well. I was really impressed with Flanagan from what I saw of him last season, and he provides the added bonus of being able to play both Left and Right Back to a sufficient standard- both of which are areas we seem to constantly struggle with- although I have been impressed with Stafylidis in the last few matches. He would be a similar signing to Baird in order to rectify the Full-Back situation, however as said he would provide an option for us at both positions so would be a very useful player were we to Loan him.
Wilson Palacios (Stoke)- I've never been the biggest fan of Palacios, but if we were looking for a Holding Midfielder who wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty Palacios would be a very good option- similar reasons to Baird from the Holding Midfield aspect he would provide us with a different option as we are quite thin once you get past LVC and Parker for proper Box-to-Box midfielders. I considered putting Sidwell on this list, but I think he's valuable enough to Stoke that they wouldn't consider a Loan Offer were we to put one in- and in any case I'm not sure the combination of Parker and Sidwell would be the best option for us.
Scott Sinclair- Although we do need to focus primarily on our Defensive frailties, I still think we should look at options such as Sinclair to add to our attacking capabilities. Sinclair has been somewhat lost since he moved from Swansea, and by all accounts he wasn't very good at West Brom last season. However I think he would provide a good alternative to George Williams if we are to stick with the current combination of Midfielders in terms of styles of play. Although Wages would presumably be a stumbling block, we would probably be able to get City to pay the majority of his wages as they've done previously with players like Bellamy and Adebayor- which would mean we would get a good value for money deal.
As well as potential Loan Signings we also have a number of players out on Loan, some of which I've seen a number of fans saying we should recall
Alex Kacaniklic- He would be a good option, similar to the Scott Sinclair loan in terms of what they offer in the short-term, I wasn't in favour of us loaning out Kaca in the first place, however in my opinion we should leave him in Denmark this season as I've previously said we're already quite top heavy, but I would still at least consider bringing him back as he would be a good option to have as I'm not convince Williams can play every game, and the current alternatives we have are either bad (Chihi) or not ready to start (Roberts).
Kostas Mitroglou- Once again I wasn't in favour of us loaning him, and I thought we should either sell him or start him. The question would of course be whether he would be as good in a Fulham shirt as he is in an Olympiakos shirt. That question is by-the-by in my opinion, and once again I'd leave him where he is this seasons. However you can't deny Mitroglou is a natural finisher, and had we have had him in games such as Blackpool- and undoubtedly in the future we will have equally frustrating games so he would be a good option to have were to pull the trigger.
Ryan Tunnicliffe- I've spoken about our lack of depth for his type of Midfielder, and out of the three I've discussed so far- he would be the most likely to recall in my opinion. I was one of the people who wanted Tunnicliffe to play under "him" earlier in the season. However I'm not convinced Tunnicliffe would get the playing time he needs at this stage of his career in the current Fulham team, so I personally would leave him to develop at Blackburn- although he could obviously come back and make an impact at Fulham, I don't think he would currently be best served in a White (and Grey Stripes with random Orange Bits) shirt.
Maarten Stekelenburg- People seem to have forgotten about Stekelenburg- perhaps for the greater good. With Bettinelli currently playing the way he is I don't see a place for Stekelenburg, and thats the end of that.
The question surrounding most of these players are whether or not Kit could turn around their fortunes at the club, and get them to play for the shirt, however thats impossible to say without actually pulling the trigger and recalling them- and at this stage I don't think we should risk upsetting the balance of the squad.
I also think we should Loan out a Number of Players to help out with player development, and also to shrink the squad down a bit which would in turn allow us to sign players in January.
Moussa Dembele- He's shown what he's capable of in recent matches, specifically Derby in that he's a very good goalscorer. I would loan him to a Top 6 League 1 (not MK Dons though, they can go fuck themselves) team as he would provide a very good acquisition for them, and would aid in the development of Dembele.
Cameron Burgess- I see the situation surrounding him similar to Dan Burn, and not just because of the similar heights. Arthurworrey has recently gone to Yeovil (which Burn did previously) and I would look at Loaning him to another League 1 team which would once again aid in his development.
Chris David- This may not be a popular opinion, but I'm not a huge fan of David in his current form. I still think he needs some work, and I would loan him to the Eredivisie and hope he uses the less physical league in order to develop his game, and if he doesn't we can sell him. The argument to keep him is of course centered around Ruiz's uncertain future at the club, however with McCormack playing the role he is anyway it wouldn't be the end of the world for McCormack to drop a bit further back and bring in one of our numerous striking options.
There are numerous other players I would loan out, however these 3 have gotten near the first team so I decided to focus on them. This is purely who I think we should Loan out, and if it were up to me on the 1st January Fazlic, Fotheringham and Chihi would be gone permanently. I also think Pat Roberts should be sent to the U21s for the moment because he needs to develop his game a bit more before he's ready for first team football as he hasn't really made much of an impact so far.
Thanks for reading, and if you've made it to the end credit where credit is due because this is one of my longer blogs. As always I appreciate any feedback on these blogs- and of course with this type of blog I'd also like to hear your thoughts on who we should sign, and your thoughts on the players I've suggested. Thanks again.
Chris Baird (West Brom)- Cutting right to the chase, Baird coming back is a rumour that could very realistically come to fruition and I would be greatly in favour of it. Its no secret that Zverotic isn't exactly "good", and when Hoogland is injured we need to keep a level of consistency in terms of quality in our back four which will in turn lead to more clean sheets and us climbing the table. Baird as well all know can also play as a Holding Midfielder- which we've lacked in the purist sense for the last few seasons. We're currently using a combination of LVC, Parker and G. Williams as our 3 Main Midfielders- with the potential for Kavanagh and Stafylidis coming in if we're to go by previous team selections. Baird would provide a good option to add to this midfield, and would provide Parker a necessary rest in some games in the runs such as the one we've just come off of of 7 Games in 21 Days. Baird could also provide a good option from corners- which I think a few people have forgotten, and with Blackpool being the prime example we need to do better from corners, and you only have to look at games such as Aston Villa when Baird lost his man and ran to the near post and won us the game.
Robert Huth (Stoke)- Aside from Burn and Bodurov we're severely lacking in good options at Centre Back. Amorebieta is best at Left Back in my opinion because of the mistakes he is prone to making, and also his crossing ability. This leaves us with Hutchinson, who will probably Two-Foot someone the minute he gets on the pitch. Cameron Burgess who showed he wasn't ready earlier on in the season, and then to an extent Casasola and Liam Donnelly. None of these options would be good enough for the Championship in my opinion, and Burn and Bodurov need competition for their places- and we also need to be wary of any injuries one or the other could sustain. Huth would be a really good option for us because of his height, experience and general ability. Although the stumbling block on this deal would be Huth would presumably want guaranteed football- and I wouldn't necessarily want to upset the Burn, Bodurov, Bettinelli back three thats served us so well so far.
Harry Maguire (Hull)- He would be useful for similar reasons to Huth, although he would be the second choice option to Huth as he has more experience. Maguire is someone we were reportedly after in the Summer, and I was very much in favour of it- as I'd seen him semi-frequently whilst he was at Sheffield Utd the year before. Although a Loan probably wouldn't be the best option for us as he still needs some developing he'd still provide a good enough option to challenge Burn and/or Bodurov so he should be at least considered as an option.
Jon Flanagan (Liverpool)- I've seen conflicting reports over whether Flanagan has a Knee injury or not, however with Manquillo, Moreno, Jose Enrique and Glen Johnson I can't see him getting near the first team unless some circumstances change. As such I think he would be a very viable option for a Loan offer- and would be a very good signing as well. I was really impressed with Flanagan from what I saw of him last season, and he provides the added bonus of being able to play both Left and Right Back to a sufficient standard- both of which are areas we seem to constantly struggle with- although I have been impressed with Stafylidis in the last few matches. He would be a similar signing to Baird in order to rectify the Full-Back situation, however as said he would provide an option for us at both positions so would be a very useful player were we to Loan him.
Wilson Palacios (Stoke)- I've never been the biggest fan of Palacios, but if we were looking for a Holding Midfielder who wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty Palacios would be a very good option- similar reasons to Baird from the Holding Midfield aspect he would provide us with a different option as we are quite thin once you get past LVC and Parker for proper Box-to-Box midfielders. I considered putting Sidwell on this list, but I think he's valuable enough to Stoke that they wouldn't consider a Loan Offer were we to put one in- and in any case I'm not sure the combination of Parker and Sidwell would be the best option for us.
Scott Sinclair- Although we do need to focus primarily on our Defensive frailties, I still think we should look at options such as Sinclair to add to our attacking capabilities. Sinclair has been somewhat lost since he moved from Swansea, and by all accounts he wasn't very good at West Brom last season. However I think he would provide a good alternative to George Williams if we are to stick with the current combination of Midfielders in terms of styles of play. Although Wages would presumably be a stumbling block, we would probably be able to get City to pay the majority of his wages as they've done previously with players like Bellamy and Adebayor- which would mean we would get a good value for money deal.
As well as potential Loan Signings we also have a number of players out on Loan, some of which I've seen a number of fans saying we should recall
Alex Kacaniklic- He would be a good option, similar to the Scott Sinclair loan in terms of what they offer in the short-term, I wasn't in favour of us loaning out Kaca in the first place, however in my opinion we should leave him in Denmark this season as I've previously said we're already quite top heavy, but I would still at least consider bringing him back as he would be a good option to have as I'm not convince Williams can play every game, and the current alternatives we have are either bad (Chihi) or not ready to start (Roberts).
Kostas Mitroglou- Once again I wasn't in favour of us loaning him, and I thought we should either sell him or start him. The question would of course be whether he would be as good in a Fulham shirt as he is in an Olympiakos shirt. That question is by-the-by in my opinion, and once again I'd leave him where he is this seasons. However you can't deny Mitroglou is a natural finisher, and had we have had him in games such as Blackpool- and undoubtedly in the future we will have equally frustrating games so he would be a good option to have were to pull the trigger.
Ryan Tunnicliffe- I've spoken about our lack of depth for his type of Midfielder, and out of the three I've discussed so far- he would be the most likely to recall in my opinion. I was one of the people who wanted Tunnicliffe to play under "him" earlier in the season. However I'm not convinced Tunnicliffe would get the playing time he needs at this stage of his career in the current Fulham team, so I personally would leave him to develop at Blackburn- although he could obviously come back and make an impact at Fulham, I don't think he would currently be best served in a White (and Grey Stripes with random Orange Bits) shirt.
Maarten Stekelenburg- People seem to have forgotten about Stekelenburg- perhaps for the greater good. With Bettinelli currently playing the way he is I don't see a place for Stekelenburg, and thats the end of that.
The question surrounding most of these players are whether or not Kit could turn around their fortunes at the club, and get them to play for the shirt, however thats impossible to say without actually pulling the trigger and recalling them- and at this stage I don't think we should risk upsetting the balance of the squad.
I also think we should Loan out a Number of Players to help out with player development, and also to shrink the squad down a bit which would in turn allow us to sign players in January.
Moussa Dembele- He's shown what he's capable of in recent matches, specifically Derby in that he's a very good goalscorer. I would loan him to a Top 6 League 1 (not MK Dons though, they can go fuck themselves) team as he would provide a very good acquisition for them, and would aid in the development of Dembele.
Cameron Burgess- I see the situation surrounding him similar to Dan Burn, and not just because of the similar heights. Arthurworrey has recently gone to Yeovil (which Burn did previously) and I would look at Loaning him to another League 1 team which would once again aid in his development.
Chris David- This may not be a popular opinion, but I'm not a huge fan of David in his current form. I still think he needs some work, and I would loan him to the Eredivisie and hope he uses the less physical league in order to develop his game, and if he doesn't we can sell him. The argument to keep him is of course centered around Ruiz's uncertain future at the club, however with McCormack playing the role he is anyway it wouldn't be the end of the world for McCormack to drop a bit further back and bring in one of our numerous striking options.
There are numerous other players I would loan out, however these 3 have gotten near the first team so I decided to focus on them. This is purely who I think we should Loan out, and if it were up to me on the 1st January Fazlic, Fotheringham and Chihi would be gone permanently. I also think Pat Roberts should be sent to the U21s for the moment because he needs to develop his game a bit more before he's ready for first team football as he hasn't really made much of an impact so far.
Thanks for reading, and if you've made it to the end credit where credit is due because this is one of my longer blogs. As always I appreciate any feedback on these blogs- and of course with this type of blog I'd also like to hear your thoughts on who we should sign, and your thoughts on the players I've suggested. Thanks again.
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