Sheffield Wednesday v Fulham Preview: 1 Year of Kit

Hello! I really need to think of more stuff to say in these opening gambits. We're off to Hillsborough now for what will undoubtedly be a really tricky game for us, but one that's definitely winnable provided we can take the First-Half of the Blackburn game and project it over a much longer time period.

It's also exactly one year ago that Kit Symons came in as Caretaker Manager, so I think it's fair to take a look at said year. In Kit's year in charge we've;
Played: 53
Won: 19
Drew: 14
Lost: 20
Win Percentage: 35.85%

Tomorrows game is yet another test of Kit. I think until we see a complete performance the doubts over Kit and his future will still be there- so a full year into a reign that's not exactly a good sign. As I said in my Review last Sunday, there's definite positives that there simply weren't around a Month ago- I'm not disputing that. However, we're still SUCH a naive team which is almost definitely a reflection on the Manager and it's because of that he's nowhere near secure in the role despite the recent winning streak we're on. That said, we are on a winning streak at present and one year on from Magath we're in an infinitely better position. I won't go as far as saying we're in a good position to push for Promotion which is of course the goal, but we've definitely got the squad now the only question now is if Kit is the one to put all of the pieces together.

We are on a bit of a run at the minute, and one of the players who's been key to that run is Andy Lonergan. He's just been all around quality in pretty much every game he's played for us since coming in- and having Lonergan in goal consistently with the same Centre-Backs in front of him can only help him and the team as a whole.

Those Centre-Backs will of course be Ream and Stearman. I'm still not really sold on Tim Ream as a Centre-Back, especially when there's the potential of him coming up against Atdhe Nuhiu tomorrow it might become particularly apparent. That's not to say Ream doesn't have his plus points and I still without a doubt want Ream and Stearman as our main Centre-Back pairing and with a full week together hopefully they'll be a lot better as a pair than they were against Blackburn. The Full-Backs are pretty much picking themselves at present. We're coming into the last week of James Husband's loan and given how he's performed it is a shame- there is somewhat of a positive with Karanka saying Husband's loan may be extended, but with Garbutt waiting in the wings I'm not really sure on that front. I definitely won't be complaining if he does stay longer than the week he's got left on his current deal.

The Midfield is going to be a really interesting battle tomorrow. With Forestieri playing as a sort of #10 for Wednesday I do have a bit of a worry when it comes to the Second Half against Blackburn and the way the Defence was exposed as a result of asking Jamie O'Hara to play a role he isn't really comfortable playing. The O'Hara/Tunnicliffe pairing is great when we're on the front foot, but I wouldn't call either guy a proper Holding Midfielder, so I'm hoping Forestieri can't find the pockets of space in between the Defence and Midfield. I'm not suggesting we drop either guy, because primarily we don't have anyone who I'd trust to come in and play that role anyway at present- but it's a big area of concern for me.

This is where I'd see Scott Parker coming in when he's fit, I'm not saying he's great in the role- but Parker can without a doubt sit in front of the back four and give it some protection. Sunday's game was crying out for a Sub for a large period of the Second Half just to calm everything down and give the Defence a lot more protection. That's how Scott Parker should be used this season, or heading into these sort of Away Games that's when he should be starting.

Had Ryan Fredericks not have gotten injured Ben Pringle's position in the team would have been quite precarious for me, it's just not really clicking for him- and I'm not saying it won't ever. It's just really annoying, the same can really be said for Kacaniklic- but in his case it's a weird situation where he really needs confidence to be a good player for the team and at the same time we can't afford to play him while he's low on confidence. Of course Cairney will continue at Right-Mid and coming up against a Left-Side likely to contain Daniel Pudil at Left-Back I'm hoping that between him and Richards (who aren't the quickest, shame about Fredericks) we can give Pudil a lot to think about, because while being a good player he isn't that fast and it's an area that can be exploited.

One of, if not the main talking point this week has been Moussa Dembele. In Kit's video interview, which isn't really worth a watch to be honest a lot of the talk was about Dembele and his seeming rise so far this season. The one thing they didn't talk about was the rumoured contract we've offered him, without knowing I think Dembele's going to hold off on signing a new contract (providing it isn't a money issue, which given the rumoured wage rise it shouldn't be) until Matt Smith's back and will see if Smith comes straight back into the team and above him in the "pecking order".

It's as I've said so many times now, Smith is a valuable player to us- but he's best used in our team as a 30 Minute "shock tactic" coming off the bench and changing the Striker dynamic if needed. If we bring Smith back in as a starter above Dembele, especially with how Dembele's performed since we've been starting him I think I'll scream. I'm not saying Dembele is the finished article, I'm hoping that he can now add regular goals to his game now that he's gotten off the mark in the Championship and make him pretty much a complete Striker. Obviously McCormack will carry on next to him, and I'm just hoping they can carry on and further develop the partnership between the two of them.

Team for Sheffield Wednesday

Out of the 6 Games we've played this season we've played 1st, 4th, 6th, 20th, 23rd and 24th. So the fact we're pretty much as Mid-Table as it gets isn't really a surprise to me. While Sheffield Wednesday are below us and only have one win they still without a doubt have players who can punish us- and if we see a repeat of the Rotherham and Blackburn Second Half performances we might not get the luck we did last Sunday. That said, we are on a bit of a winning streak- and Wednesday are seemingly having a lot of teething problems under their new regime with a boat load of new players. I don't know whether being "confident" is the right word, we simply can't afford to let the Second-Half performances against Rotherham and Blackburn happen again- but the First-Half performances are definite positives and especially with Wednesday having a Midweek game when we didn't if we can start as well as we have done recently I'd say we've got a pretty good shot at winning. 

Thanks for reading as always, it was pointed out in one of the Interviews Kit did on the Fulham Website- should we win tomorrow it'll be the first time we won 4 in a Row since the Europa League Final season which is just amazing and oddly impressive to me. So hopefully we can put that to bed tomorrow, and the Review for the game will also be up tomorrow as usual so hopefully you'll stay tuned for that. We're getting back into the Weekend-Midweek game pattern between now and the International Break starting with the Stoke game next Tuesday which should be a fun one. Thanks again for reading, if you haven't already I'd recommend looking through the Matt Smith/Twitter Takeover thing he did on the Fulham account because some of the Tweets/Responses were hilarious. Let's just hope that our good run can continue and the Review tomorrow will be another positive one.

Destination Impact Review: 16th September

Hello! That's right, I'm back for more and after last night and the announcement that TNA are running through until next February I may well be on the verge of another boycott in the near future. But, last nights episode wasn't actually that bad in places- and when it was bad or something stupid happened it was almost always fucking hilarious.

If you missed it yesterday, there was this big TNA feature in Sports Illustrated and during it they finally acknowledged that they were getting cancelled on Destination America and were running through until February 2016. So, they're basically in exactly the same situation that they were in with Spike where they're still on the Network pretty much out of a favour from the Network to help them while they try and find a new one. It's both hilarious and depressing that TNA have found themselves in this situation twice within the space of basically a year. The problem TNA now has, what Network is going to want to touch a Wrestling show that's been booted off two Networks in the space of a year. The ratings in Wrestling have already been notable with their drops, combine that with the fact not many Networks want Wrestling on as it is and the outlook for TNA is pretty bleak.

Right then, enough about the future of TNA- let's get on with last night and the new most important show in TNA's history. I think they've had about 70 of them at this point (conservative estimate).

Dixie Carter, Jeff Jarrett Contract Signing
It's not that this segment was "bad", I just couldn't give a fuck. I just can't bring myself to have any emotional connection with Dixie fucking Carter. It's actually quite funny, when I was going back and watching a load of old Impacts to sort of prepare for a TNA eulogy of sorts that I was planning to do at the end of the month. I got to the EV 2.0 Era where they did the ECW Invasion- and again, the centrepiece of that angle? Dixie fucking Carter. At least this one makes more sense, but still I can't see through the fact that everything with Dixie is just because she's a money-mark and simply wants to be featured on TV. The Borash punch was hilarious, if for nothing else than with the Lethal Lockdown I briefly managed to convince myself that the 5th guy for Team TNA would in fact be JB.

Mahabali Shera v Abyss
I hated this match. 2015 Abyss is clunky at best, which isn't necessarily his fault- actually it is because of all the stupid bumps he's taken. Then we get Shera who has the weirdest character in Wrestling at the minute, he's someone taking on a serious Heel and is a complete monster- but he also wants to get everyone to do the Bollywood Bop. The match was just really mismatched and did nothing for me and the finish infuriated me.

I don't know how familiar TNA are with the mechanics of a Cow Bell, when it moves and gets shaken around IT MAKES A NOISE. So to have Storm run-in and attempt to hit Shera with the Cow Bell with the Ref's back turned is STUPID. ARE THE REF'S DEAF?!

I may well be being harsh on this match because of something that happened just before. THE BIGFOOT STUFF MADE IT TO AIR. It took all of my restraint and desire to see EC3 to not simply turn off right then.

Jeff Jarrett/Drew Galloway Backstage Promo
This made me laugh. Jeff came up to Team TNA and told them that Eric Young was on their team and it was a 5-Man and Team TNA were outraged. Did the Babyfaces not know Lethal Lockdown's are 5v5? Or did they just want to get one over on the Heels with a 1 Man advantage? Either way, what great Babyfaces.

EC3, Spud & Jeff Hardy Promo
It's not worth splitting up all of these segments, so I'll just do them all here. I said it last week and I'll say it again, Jeff disobeying EC3 makes him come off as a bit of a dick to me. Then EC3 said something along the lines of "you need this job to pay your bills"- because either TNA barely pay Jeff enough to get by or Jeff is horrible with money. As I said last week- can EC3 fire Jeff?! He isn't on good terms with Dixie so he can't fire him that way and as established on this show Dixie has the power. Unless they're going to do that god awful and never explained stuff they used to do with the Title with saying "he who has the Title has the power". The question if EC3 can indeed fire Jeff should he disobey, why not just tell Jeff to kill Matt or he's fired? It's a win/win for him. Unless EC3 is publicly acknowledging that firing stipulations mean fuck all, which they do- but still.

Gail Kim v Brooke v Lei'd Tapa v Kong- Knockouts Title
I actually really liked this match. It might just be because I've been starved of good Womens matches since Takeover- but I did really like it. It wasn't perfect and there were a few weird/botched spots but on the whole it was good. I'm just happy we got a clear and decisive finish with Gail Kim pinning Brooke as well rather than the usual 4-Way shenanigans where if they're doing a Title switch the Champion going in is always protected, for most recent example see Summerslam where Kofi pinned one of the Matadors. I'm not sure if they're going to turn Brooke, that would be the obvious way to go- but it did give them options. Hooray for a decisive finish on Impact!

Also, Royal Red was out there. How he didn't get inducted into the TNA HOF over Earl fucking Hebner is beyond me.

Team TNA v Team GFW- Lethal Lockdown
This was the perfect way to end TNA's run on Destination America, in a way I wish last night would have been the end. It was just so TNA. They didn't do anything monumentally stupid before the last guy got in, which is a big plus. This match is in essence War Games, it is seriously the simplest match on the planet to book. TNA in the past has actually managed to fuck it up, whether that was giving the Babyfaces the advantage heading into the match- or having the Heels make 1 v 2 comebacks on the Babyfaces and Heels coming in to even the odds. They didn't do anything like that, which wasn't a guarantee- and the booking of the match last night made me doubt somewhat that Vince Russo is in fact back.

Then it just got SO fucking hilarious/bad/TNA. I had genuinely forgotten who the 5th Guy for Team TNA was. As already said I'd briefly managed to convince myself it was JB, before that I thought it was going to be Jeff Hardy/Willow before I remembered he was hurt and just as I was trying to work out who it would be Bram's music hit. I DIED LAUGHING. I realise TNA had already taped all of this stuff, but it's still SO funny and such a LOLTNA moment. The thing with the Bram stuff is, it's not "hindsight being 20/20". Bram has a history of violence, that's how he got fired from WWE- so TNA brought him in and pushed him knowing he has the capability to do what he did. Therefore it's foresight being 20/20. As I said I was watching a load of old Impacts/PPVs and I can't remember which one, actually there were a few where Waltman, Hall and Nash either got convenient injuries when they were presumably doing the job or simply no-showed. On one such occasion they simply explained it as "Syxx Pac being Syxx Pac". I can't feel sorry for TNA when they make the same mistakes over and over again.

I actually had a massive issue with the finish as well and not just for the fact GFW lost making it one of, if not the worst Invasion angle in history. The finish was such a big anti-climax. Towards the end they did a spot where Jarrett tried to escape through the Camera Hole things they have in the Cage and they did a Tug of War spot where KAREN JARRETT HELD ONTO JEFF FOR AT LEAST 20 SECONDS WHEN ALL FIVE TEAM TNA MEMBERS WERE TRYING TO PULL HIM BACK IN. I'd actually forgotten that until I was writing that sentence, fuck that was stupid. Anyway, they pull Jarrett kicking and screaming back in and I thought everyone would hit their finish on him and Jarrett would take the pin. Nope. After the big tug of war spot they just carried on wrestling for about 5 more minutes. The Wolves hit the Coast-to-Coast spot on Jarrett, and again I thought they'd get Jarrett up and pin him. Nope. The finish was Galloway hitting the Futureshock DDT on BRIAN MYERS. Not only that you couldn't even see Jarrett's reaction to his big dream/idea coming crashing down BECAUSE HE HAD A BIN ON HIS HEAD.

We then went off the air with Dixie fucking Carter coming in and celebrating with Team TNA and it was all about Dixie as they went off air- and it made me want to be sick. Worst. Invasion Angle. Ever.

Just if you're interested the final stats on the Invasion Angle and the GFW Guys (and Girl);
Wins: 3 (PJ Black winning KOTM, The Feast or Fired Cash-In that made Myers & Lee look like shit and then drop the Belts back a week later & the Mordetzky/Galloway match where Galloway had the match won and was being stupid and only lost it because of an EY turn)

Draws: 1 (Lei'd Tapa/Awesome Kong)

Losses: 9 (Wolves/Lee & Myers, Tigre Uno v Sonjay Dutt, EC3 v PJ Black, Tigre Uno v DJ Z v Sonjay Dutt, Lashley v Chris Mordetzky, Bobby Roode v PJ Black, Wolves v Lee & Myers, Gail Kim v Brooke v Kong v Lei'd Tapa, Lethal Lockdown)

Now that's how to book an Invasion.

Now that TNA are running through until next February I'm not going to be so lenient when it comes to whether I go on another two week boycott. Last Night's episode wasn't so monumentally bad as some of the one's we've had in recent weeks, so on that front last night wasn't boycott worthy. Basically as long as things can get worse I'll keep watching. I can only assume with no Tapings booked and them only being taped through until the end of September that the House Shows they're running before Bound for Glory will make up some of their TV and similar to Spike we'll be getting "best of's" in the latter parts of the year and early next year.

Thanks for reading as always, we're getting ready for Night of Champions now so hopefully you'll be coming back here for the Predictions/Review on Sunday and Monday. Then we get to do it all again with the RAW Review and Impact Reviews next week. I suppose there was one big positive from this show, they found Bigfoot. Destination America's pretty much going out of business now with all of their programming becoming moot.

RAW Review: 14th September

Hello! Just to confirm, the world is in fact still spinning- from some of the reactions last night I wasn't really sure. That's right, in case you weren't aware Nikki Bella got the record last night- and I can't give a fuck. I'll get into it a lot more during the actual segment, but for now let's just say congratulating someone for how long their reigns lasted in Pro Wrestling is the equivalent of congratulating Bryan Cranston for his prowess as a Meth Cook. It was also of course the Go-Home Show for Night of Champions, so let's just get into it all.

The Authority Promo
I said it last week as well, and it may just be because my standards are lowering week-to-week. I honestly didn't mind this. They put over everything that needed to be put over for the show- and one of the key reasons I didn't mind this was that it all went less than 10 Minutes, YAY!

I saw some people bitching about Stephanie & Triple H dancing with New Day, and I'm sorry if you were one of them- but that's just stupid. Firstly, it had absolutely no long-term impact on the show- it was just a fun little thing that went about 30 seconds. Secondly, despite New Day being the best part on RAW- they are in-fact still Heels. Surely the Heels Stephanie & Triple H would also like the Heels in New Day.

New Day v Primetime Players- Tag Team Titles
The sigh of relief I had when New Day won was so big. Looking back I didn't have any real reason for concern, but I was petrified that they would want to open up the "Season Premiere" with a bang and do a Title switch leading to a Triple Threat at Night of Champions where The Dudleys would get the Belts by winning them from the Primetime Players.

The actual match, in the Wrestling sense was fine- Titus' Hot-Tag gimmick is starting to get quite funny to me now. It's not that Titus is bad, but next time he makes a Hot-Tag watch his feet. Every time I listen to people discussing Wrestling and running the ropes etc. they always say it should be three steps across the ring and Titus takes about 70. But as always in a New Day match the Wrestling is the side-show. Everything from the Pre-Match Snow Angels from Big E to Xavier doing the fucking Pink Panther thing while Big E "creeped up" on Darren, this was all just amazing. This may in fact be a surprise to some people, New Day do indeed rock and once again they were the best fucking thing on the show.

Charlotte & Ric Flair Promo
This actually annoyed me. We all knew Nikki was getting the record, so all I could think was that they had brought Ric Flair in for a shit pay-off.

Sasha Banks v Paige
It's not that these matches are bad, in fact from a pure Wrestling standpoint they're pretty good. The problem for these matches, and the "revolution" as a whole is that we've now had this match on the last three shows. I may have missed the point, and with the Divas that's actually highly likely- but surely the point of having 9 Women involved in this "revolution" is to have different matches week-to-week to showcase different talents and different dynamics. Paige v Sasha Banks is one of the matches that one day COULD Main Event a RAW, but not in it's current incarnation where there is literally zero fucks to give.

MizTV w/ The Wyatts, Reigns & Ambrose
Poor Miz. He's going to get so much shit from the fans and most likely backstage with his Hell in a Cell botch. That was one of the (very few) times I wish I had a Commentator's headset on just to hear Vince going apoplectic. This whole segment was just really weird, them saving the 3rd Man reveal until Sunday has guaranteed it won't be a "big" name because they aren't building the match at all on the 3rd Man and his name value. That's one to watch on Sunday, and it's annoying because I can't really be sure what the match outcome will be until we know the last competitor in the match.

John Cena v Sheamus
Again, this match got so much in my opinion just stupid and unnecessary criticism. I don't think these two have had a Singles Match against each other for at least two years, I might be wrong- but I'm pretty sure. As far as matches go in 2015 WWE with so much TV time that's a pretty fresh match. This was a pretty good TV match, the finishing sequence was good and it put Cena over strongly for the PPV. All of this was fine, there's so much more shit to bitch about on this show that Cena & Sheamus having a pretty good match.

Ryback & Kevin Owens Promo
Speaking of shit on this show to bitch about. STOP SCRIPTING RYBACK'S PROMOS. NOW. Some of Ryback's Promo was good, the back and forth with Owens set the match up well- but as a counterbalance RYBACK DID A SHIT FUCKING ELVIS IMPRESSION. Ryback and Roman Reigns are the perfect examples of someone having an entertaining personality but then being fucked over by how their Promos are scripted.

I recently went back over a few of the good RAWs from this year, because I'm already thinking ahead to The 2nd Sammy Awards in a couple of months- and the first RAW I watched was the one they did in Montreal at the beginning of May. That was such a fucking great RAW, I genuinely was able to watch the whole thing through again and be entertained by all of it apart from the R-Truth/Stardust Plastic Spiders angle. On that show, Ryback went off script and the crowd LOVED him. Owens burying The Secret and self-help stuff in general was great- and also bang on for the most part. At least for me because I hate all of those books. I seriously think the Ryback/Owens match will be great on Sunday, I'm not saying Match of the Night with Rollins having two- but for me it's got a pretty good chance of being 3rd.

Cosmic Wasteland & Team Flippy Shit Brawl
This felt like a segment that happened the way it did because they timed the show out wrong and they suddenly realised they were going too long and had to cut time off of a segment. That's not to say the angle was bad, and I'm just happy we didn't get Stardust/Neville as billed for the billionth time in the last three months.

Charlotte v Nikki Bella- Divas Title
Oh here we go. I've already said it, but I'll repeat myself- I don't give a fuck that Nikki Bella got the record. I don't understand why people are getting hung up on this record, being the longest reigning champion in PRO WRESTLING means absolutely fuck all. I looked it up last night, out of the five (because three ain't enough) Titles that are currently active in WWE none of the longest runs were in any way the best.

Tag Titles- London & Kendrick
US Title- Dean Ambrose (or Luger, but it's the WWE Version of the US Title)
IC Title- Honky Tonk Man
WWE- Sammartino/Punk ("Modern Era")
and now Nikki Bella with the Divas.

Good Title runs in PRO WRESTLING aren't remembered for how long they go for, they're remembered for- well being memorable. Whether that's the actual run with the person being great, a particular match that "made" the Title run or just the way the run was booked either being great- or in a way that made the run fun (see Crash Holly). None of those can be said for Nikki's run, now Nikki's got the record her Title run isn't long for this world now. I'm not sure if they're going to have Charlotte win on Sunday, I think they might have Paige turning still- but still it's not going for much longer. The record is only relevant while Nikki is, and without knowing I think it's a pretty good guess that Nikki will gradually be phased out over the next year/year and a half.

Now a couple of things, the booking last night. I believe I said two weeks ago that I've given up on this "revolution" and will now view the way they book the Women as a parody of how to book Womens Wrestling. Sometimes I'm so right it scares me. Last Night was a complete parody of the booking of the Divas. It was a pretty average match, and it had a not just a shit finish- but a shit finish that's still fresh in the memory. They didn't even do some meaningful false finishes before the Brie shenanigans to try and get the crowd invested, I think that actually annoyed me more than the Brie shenanigans. They don't want us to care about the Divas, if last night didn't make that abundantly clear then I don't know what will- we still don't have a meaningful angle as I was expecting with Paige's turn and the Charlotte stuff on Sunday should she win won't mean as much now that Nikki's got the record which was her character's clear goal.

I've seen a lot of people giving Cena shit after last night, which I just found hilarious. I realise Cena isn't everyone's favourite- and a lot of people look for every excuse to bash him, but COME ON. SERIOUSLY? I'm not saying Cena hasn't "put a word in" to help keep the Belt on Nikki, I'm not. At the same time, Nikki wasn't losing the Belt until after tonight- I SAID THAT LAST DECEMBER. I don't give a fuck what Meltzer said about them having plans to put the Belt on Charlotte, they weren't taking the Title off of Nikki Bella until after last night. That's just a fact. The only two times I thought Nikki had a chance of losing the Belt was very briefly when Paige said she was doing it "for Dusty" at Money in the Bank and when they seemingly got behind Naomi and it looked as though they wanted to do something with her. But even that was very brief after Naomi and the move-set she had to do on that RAW turned her into a one-woman Botchamania.

What's really bugging me about this Cena stuff, let's say Cena did politic to keep the Belt on Nikki- okay if you're going to hold that against him and give him shit for that you'd better fucking give it to Taker as well. I don't mind people giving shit to someone for perceived politicking, but be consistent with it- if you've got double-standards with regard to this sort of stuff you're the worst kind of fan and a living, breathing example of the stereotypical "smark". Taker was doing this exact same thing in the late 2000s with Michelle McCool and using his influence backstage to help McCool out- what's the difference? Politicking is not unique to Cena, I can almost guarantee one of your favourite wrestlers of all-time was a Backstage Politician it just seems as though some fans have selective memories when it comes to that fact.

The one thing I did have to laugh at was Stephanie coming out to "protect the integrity of the Divas Division", that was funny. The "Divas" Division is exactly where it needs to be, it's an outdated concept and term that infuriates me- with a Title that looks like it should be in Toys R Us as a fucking Little Girls Toy. I also think that was a shot at AJ- more specifically a way they wanted to "get at" Punk with regard to the integrity stuff. You can get on about how they should have restarted the match and what happened at Money in the Bank, but I just can't give a fuck about it- they wanted to get the record off of AJ. Good for them, now we can move on with our lives.

So in short, yes- Nikki Bella is the longest reigning Divas Champion of all time. Good for Nikki, do I give a fuck? Absolutely not.

Cesaro v Rusev
This is something I will get pissed about, what the fuck are they doing with everyone in this segment?! The one hope I have for Night of Champions is that they make what's been portrayed on TV official with a double-turn on Sunday. They surely can't be clueless enough to think that Dolph hasn't come off as a complete dick for this whole feud. I hope the thing with Summer and Dolph's gift is actually a tease unlike the stuff with Ambrose and Reigns because a swerve for the sake of a swerve would just kill everyone- both the Wrestlers and the Crowd.

Sting v Big Show
For what they wanted to do tonight, and that's get Sting's WWE Win/Loss Record up so when he loses on Sunday his record doesn't look atrocious- this was a pretty good way to do it. I did find it quite hilarious that they gave us the one Sting match that we actually saw in WCW, but thankfully they kept it short(ish) and set-up the proper Main Event angle.

Sting & John Cena v Seth Rollins & Big Show
The finish for this annoyed me a bit. I understand having Sting getting Rollins to tap- a variation of that sort of thing happens on literally every Go-Home Show ever. It still annoyed me though. I thought the point of having Big Show in the match would be for him to take the pin and then Rollins would get killed by Cena and Rollins after the match and end it with Rollins tapping to Sting having him in the Deathlock and Cena pretty much having a Crossface on him while calling it the STF. All this finish said to me was that there's no chance Sting's winning because he got highlighted and chances are Cena's getting the US Title back. Which I really don't mind, the unification stuff was cool- but it really isn't a good idea for Rollins to be working twice on every show and with the work Cena did with the US Title prior to the Rollins feud I'm all for him getting it back.

Overall I didn't think this RAW was that bad, as far as go-home shows go we've had infinitely worse one's this year. Even the angle with Charlotte & Nikki in a vacuum wasn't a bad way to set-up the Rematch at Night of Champions, it's just the significance of the angle with the record stuff they were hyping and the repetitive nature of it just made it shockingly bad TV. I came up with an analogy of sorts heading into RAW last night that I may as well repeat here. Nikki Bella is the female Honky Tonk Man. I'll just leave it at that.

Thanks for reading as always, obviously we're now headed into Night of Champions so I hope you stay tuned for the Predictions and Review for it. Before all of that we're stopping off at the Impact Zone for one of the last Impacts on Destination America so hopefully you'll stop by for that Review. In the mean time I hope you have a good week, and stop taking a record in Pro fucking Wrestling so seriously. Sit back, Relax and Clap all of your anger away.

Fulham v Blackburn Review: A Work In Progress

It's Fulham, It was never going to be an easy game. In many ways this was pretty much the same game as Rotherham just before the International Break, but as with Rotherham we've gotten the 3 Points and at the end of the day that's all that really matters.

The win was nice, but the main talking point from the game is without a doubt Goal-Line Technology and the lack of it doing Blackburn in today. In principle, yes Goal-Line Technology should come in across the board without a shadow of a doubt- however it really isn't that simple. It's not a case of being a Championship only decision, it would have to come in for all 72 Clubs because they're all governed by the same body and that's where the problems lie. After a quick Google the cost of installing the Goal-Line Technology is £250,000 (£15,000 coming from the Club) and for some of the teams in League 2 (and League 1) that most likely won't be a viable option. Quick aside, I found it hilarious in a way that we had the big Goal-Line Technology incident happen during a TV game where there could be proper replays.

Right then, enough about "should have been" goals- and onto the ones that did actually count. McCormack's goal today was just quality all around, it was a great ball from Tunnicliffe to put Dembele through and again to really put it on a plate for McCormack who couldn't really miss. The second goal was one of the one's where you really have to feel sorry for the Keeper. He pretty much did everything in his power to keep the ball out, and at the end of the day it just wasn't quite enough and Dembele got it in. That was Dembele's first Championship goal, so hopefully he can really kick on and add goals to his overall game which in general is top quality. One of the benefits of having both an early and a TV game is that I can actually see replays before I write this, it was a clear penalty in my book. The annoying thing was that it really wasn't necessary either, and it was a decent penalty from Rhodes.

Through a combination of bad finishing, wasted opportunities and the performance of Andy Lonergan we somehow hung on today. Lonergan was just top draw today, he pulled off at this stage the save of the season for us towards the end of the First-Half and he kept us in the game for the Second Half. He was by far and a way the MOTM today- with the only one who can really even be considered close being Dembele.

The Defence was pretty weird today. I'm still not sold on Tim Ream as a Centre-Back, again he got completely bullied in the air and he at one point resorted to simply shoving Koita out of the way. The Stearman/Ream partnership is still having some teething problems, let's put it that way. I thought Stearman on the whole was fine today, without being anything special. It was GREAT to see Stearman and how he put himself about though, and that was one of the most encouraging signs from today. But on the whole he wasn't necessarily a stand out, which for a Centre-Back isn't necessarily a bad thing. Put it this way, I'd rather our Defenders have a game without incident than what happened with James Husband today. Husband was in the wars today, as already said the Penalty incident was a Penalty and just unnecessary- but he also did a lot of positive things. I'm not sure, but in the Second Half I'm pretty sure he cleared the ball off the line when Rhodes was nearly put in and in general he did pretty well. Jazz Richards was one of the players today who might not get any of the headlines, but I thought he was really good today for most of the game. Everyone did well First-Half, but in the Second-Half when the Defence came under some serious pressure without being outstanding I do think Richards did well.

The thing is, this Defence has had pretty much no time to settle yet. With Ream being away with the USA I doubt he and Stearman had much time- if any to get familiar with each other. I'm definitely willing to give the Defenders the benefit of the doubt today, but I'll definitely be looking for a marked improvement when it comes to how we defend as a unit against Sheffield Wednesday and in general going forward.

Tom Cairney today had far a from an ideal performance, he was a passenger for large parts of the game and was just generally quiet- however he's shown his quality already this season and I don't have any doubts that he'll be in the team for Sheffield Wednesday and hopefully he'll show his quality and make the impact on the game that we all know he can. The player who's not at all secure in his place in the team is Pringle after today. It's really annoying as much as anything else when it comes to Pringle, because we've seen glimpses of what Pringle's capable of- but he's not been able to maintain that and translate it into much and with Kacaniklic as a viable alternative and basing it off the changes Kit made Fredericks possibly coming in and Cairney going onto the Left Pringle's place in the team is far from certain.

Jamie O'Hara was a weird one today, I don't know if I'm starting to take all of the great balls O'Hara does throughout the course of a match for granted- but he was far from impressive today for me. Especially in the 2nd Half he got massively shown up and his non-defensive work left us really exposed at times. I'm not saying O'Hara had a bad game today, he was just being asked to play a role he can't really play in the 2nd Half. Tunnicliffe was quality again today, especially in the First-Half. I'll say it again, it's not a coincidence that Tunnicliffe's come back into the team and we've won all three games (however uncomfortable they got). His energy and just how he plays make the overall team better and more balanced, and especially with the team still having some gelling to do Tunnicliffe is a key player at the moment.

As I've already said, the only player who can come close to Lonergan when it comes to the MOTM stuff today is Dembele. Wow was he good today, First-Half he was just all around top draw as a Striker playing in a team who were on the front foot creating/getting on the end of chances and just all around being a great player. Second-Half he did well in a completely different role and with the very limited chances he had he did well and he held the ball up well when he got the opportunity. He's not the complete player yet, Dembele at the minute can almost perfectly be summed up by what happened late on when Dembele controlled it, nutmegged a Defender to get into the box and then he didn't look up and took a shot. Given the fact he's only 19 I'm willing to give him some leeway though- especially in a game where he was one of the stand-out performers and grabbed a goal. Dembele performing like he did today is going to make it even more painful when we lose him on a Free next summer.

I did have a bit of a smile with McCormack getting the Sky MOTM today, I'm not saying he was bad today- just there were definitely better performers out there today. Given it's now been 2 and a Half games since McCormack scored his first goal this season I think I can now safely say I've been vindicated when it comes to my thoughts on McCormack for pretty much all of August. Even in games where as previously said he wasn't the stand-out performer he's still been INFINITELY better than he was for the majority of August. I genuinely think they picked McCormack as MOTM over Lonergan/Dembele solely to ask him about Gordon Strachan being there.

The Subs were pretty good on the part of Kit. Pringle was already out of the game and he was fading even more when he was subbed- so that was definitely the right move to bring Fredericks on for his debut. Fredericks from the very little we saw of him looks like a quality player to have in the squad, the one MASSIVE positive we've got in Fredericks is that he has pace to spare- which is a real rarity in the team at present. The Dan Burn sub late on was necessary, with how Blackburn were playing and almost exclusively just pumping the ball up-field as the game progressed on we needed Burn in at the back for his physical stature.

Had we have blown it today this Review would have been very different. I don't know when Jordan Rhodes turned awful, but last seasons Rhodes would have had about 5 today- so we just have to be thankful today. It may well be because we won, but I've got a pretty positive outlook on Fulham after today's game. Today's game didn't flag up anything we didn't already know let's put it that way, as already said it was a near carbon-copy of the Rotherham game with how it played out. We're still quite a naive team, which is almost definitely a reflection on the Manager and questions should rightly be asked as to how we can't kill a game. However, there's definite positives on display that there simply weren't 3 or 4 games ago so on the whole I'm pretty happy at the minute. Whether Kit has a long-term future remains to be seen, but this Month with the fixtures we've got should be a pretty good indicator.

Thanks for reading as always, I don't know if I'm annoyed or happy that the Wolves game's been rearranged after today's game. On the one hand going into a Midweek game with one less day to prepare would have been far from ideal and simply I don't think my heart could take it after the game today. But on the other, we're on a winning streak at the minute however uncomfortable they've been and Wolves are struggling a bit so it would have been quite a nice time to play them. So when it comes to these Fulham posts they'll be back next Friday with the Sheffield Wednesday Preview, and then we're back to the alien concept of a Saturday 3pm game and the Review going up Saturday night. Thanks again for reading, I hope you stay tuned for those and all of the ones to come. One thing has to be said, winning on a Sunday puts you in a pretty good mood for the week to come.

Fulham v Blackburn Preview: Cautious Optimism

They're back already! That's right, the International Break has already been and gone- and we're headed back down to the Cottage for one of quite a few games there this month. If you missed my Deadline Day coverage then you'll know I'm reasonably optimistic about the squad we've got now- and if you did check in at various points during Deadline Day I'll be expanding on a few points I made during Deadline Day.

There definitely seems to be a renewed sense of optimism around the Club after the Rotherham and Sheffield United games and the signings we've made. The main thing for Kit and the Players to do now is to keep spirits high because while the Rotherham result in particular was nice given we actually got 3 Points, Kit is still in quite a precarious position and the fans will still be on edge and ready to turn until we get a string of positive results/performances against- with respect to Rotherham, good Championship teams.

Looking at our business during the Window as far as overall Transfer Windows go- this has been one of our best in recent memory- at least where I'm concerned. There seems to be this weird thing some people are hung up on about and wanting the club to go out and fork out massive fees on players. While a "marquee signing" is always nice and something to shout about, I'd much rather we spend money smartly as opposed to carelessly. Without knowing for definite, I think it's a pretty safe assumption that we've made a Profit this window. Making a profit is one thing, but we've made a profit while getting in quality in pretty much every area of the pitch- and we've hopefully/seemingly plugged all of the gaps from last season's abject failure of a season now. That's a great window in my book. I said it during Deadline Day as well, while signing Gary Hooper would have been nice it wasn't a make or break type signing for us as a team- and long-term giving Dembele more game-time now may even benefit us.

Looking at the selection for Sunday, and a few selections in particular will definitely be quite interesting due to injury and one in particular because of the Internationals. One selection that isn't that interesting is Andy Lonergan continuing in goal, it's a given at the minute that Lonergan will continue in goal. Unless Lonergan makes a mistake/goes on a bad run Joe Lewis won't even have a sniff of getting into the First-Team at least until January when the FA Cup starts given how we're approaching the League Cup this season and as I've repeatedly said I want us to completely go for it.

The Defensive selection is a lot more interesting. The Jazz Richards (maybe) injury is a bit annoying coming off the International's where Jazz played really well and he'll have come back into training full of confidence. That said, if Richards is injured it just so happens that we signed a decent back-up in Ryan Fredericks, I love this whole "depth" thing. Some people seem to think we've brought Fredericks in to play as a Right-Mid seemingly solely because we gave him the #7, while I'm not saying it's impossible that Kit will try (again) to convert a Full-Back into a Winger I think it's more of a case of #7 being the lowest available number.

The Centre-Back selection is quite interesting for Sunday, I think Ream & Stearman have quite a good balance as a pairing- and in a vacuum that's our first-choice pairing despite my reservations over Ream at Centre-Back when he comes up against "powerful" Strikers. But with the Internationals in mind and the amount of travelling Ream's had to do Kit might not take the risk on playing Ream so soon after coming back. But I doubt he will, and he'll want to establish the Ream/Stearman pairing early. With Centre-Back we do have depth with Hutchinson and Burn, I'm not going to get drawn into a Dan Burn debate anymore- it's simply not worth the energy when chances are he won't be playing anyway and should it come down to a Burn/Hutchinson debate again it'll come down to what side the Centre-Back is required on. The Left-Back selection is a lot more straightforward with Husband continuing, I said it heading into Rotherham as well- the only thing that's annoyed me about this Husband deal is that we only got him for a Month heading into an International Break.

The other half of the Jazz Richards (maybe) injury is Ben Pringle, after the Rotherham game I'm a lot more enthused when it comes to Pringle- so if he is out for Sunday it's unfortunate. However, going back to the depth point while Kacaniklic is completely shot for confidence at present he still has the potential to make a difference- so I don't have any issue with him coming in should Pringle not be fit. Then of course Cairney will continue on the Right, and going by our current track record of players scoring against their former-club this season he's one to look out for- and if you bet on Fulham games as I don't an Anytime Goalscorer Bet on Cairney is what I'd go for.

The Centre-Mid selection SHOULD be straightforward, O'Hara is a given and Tunnicliffe's two performances before the Internationals have made him secure in his place at present. The big news that came out over the Internationals when it comes to Centre-Mids is of course Scott Parker (the newly upgraded on FIFA Scott Parker) is nearly back in contention for a First-Team place now. Scott Parker is still a valuable asset to us, that isn't in doubt to me- the problem Parker had last season was his legs simply couldn't handle the number of games he had to play last season because of our complete lack of depth and the need for experienced heads in the team. That's a non-issue now both in-terms of experienced heads and depth so I'm actually quite happy Parker's near the team again. I'm not suggesting he should come straight back into the team, but as a rotation option- Scott Parker isn't a bad one to have. The challenge this season for Kit when it comes to Parker is to keep him fresh and fit so we get more performances like we got when we played Derby at Home.

The Striker selection is quite straightforward as well. Obviously McCormack will continue, and then despite Dembele not scoring and Woodrow doing so against Rotherham- Dembele's overall play against Rotherham makes him more than worthy of keeping his place in the team for me. It's simple, Dembele is a Striker who causes Defences problems- and especially heading into a game against Blackburn who while being a really tricky team definitely have weaknesses starting Dembele will help us to exploit them.

Team for Blackburn

Sunday's game is not going to be an easy one despite Blackburn's winless start to the season. With players like Marshall and Rhodes they're always going to be dangerous. While we did finally get a win against Rotherham we still showed signs of being quite a naive team in the Second Half, which we simply can't afford to do coming up against that level of player.

Sunday's game is a weird full-circle type thing for Kit, his first game coming in was of course against Blackburn at Home- and roughly around this time of the year as well. While the jury is still MASSIVELY out on Kit and his managerial ability, you can't deny in the year he's been here we've gotten into a better overall position. Especially heading into Sunday where we've got good depth in pretty much every area of the pitch, that overall improvement as a team has become particularly apparent.

You just have to look at the Squad, we've got a player who can slot in for pretty much every position on the pitch and there not be a massive gap in quality and because of this fact we're infinitely better equipped to handle the Championship than we were last season. Obviously we still have "musts" in the team like McCormack, O'Hara, Lonergan for now and hopefully Stearman will cement himself as one of those players- and we're still a bit thin at Centre-Back but on the whole I'm over the moon with our business and the way we've built the squad.

I'm honestly not sure how much time Kit's got now, September's a tricky month for us- but with 4 of the 5 fixtures we've got being at Home if things don't go our way this month the pressure will be massively back on. There might be a scenario where it's a fine line between giving time for the team to gel and giving Kit time he doesn't deserve, but hopefully we don't get to that situation and we take the Rotherham win however uncomfortable it got towards the end, use it and start a run now. Kit's got the squad he wants now, this was the window everyone was saying he should have (including me)- so there's no excuses now for Kit and these next few games in particular will be an interesting test of Kit and the team.

Thanks for reading as always, out of the 5 fixtures this Month Sunday is the "easiest"- but as already said it's not going to be an easy game for us, and we'll have to be at our best to win and hopefully set the tone for the rest of the month/season. We are of course in front of the Sky Cameras where we didn't have much luck last season, so hopefully those fortunes change this season as well (especially given we've got two more in the next month). Thanks again for reading, the Review will be up on Sunday as usual- so hopefully you stay tuned for that. Then we're back on Monday for the Wolv- Oh Yeah, thanks Chelsea.

Destination Impact Review: 9th September

Yup, There's another one. We're well and truly winding down when it comes to TNA, the TNA Reviews and TNA on Destination America now. I don't think there's been an official announcement yet, but I'm still working on the basis that TNA are done on Destination America pretty soon. Without spoiling anything, next weeks show with the Lethal Lockdown and outcome it seems like a natural finishing point. But that's for next week- let's jump into last nights show.

EC3 & Jeff Hardy Segment
This was quite a fun opening segment, the thing with these "forced" assistant/servant angles is while it's meant to build someone up as a Babyface and develop sympathy for said Babyface it doesn't for me. Especially in these sort of cases where Jeff didn't have to sign up for it, Matt lost so now Jeff has face the consequences knowing who EC3 is. Anyway, as said this was a fun segment and they introduced the big EC3 head prop which has a lot of potential in my eyes.

EC3 & Tyrus v Rockstar Spud & Matt Hardy
This was quite fun for what it was, which wasn't much- but at this stage I'll take what I can get. But of course with it being TNA there were a few things that just had to piss me off. First thing, Spud is dead now when not so long ago he was one of the hottest acts in the company. I got into an argument with someone with my point being Spud being the aggressor in the Bobby Roode stuff, throwing the first punch and getting killed was stupid booking. Not only was it stupid booking, THAT WAS THE BLOW-OFF FOR THE ANGLE!  Second point, also Spud related. The Jeff/Human Shield spot was fine with Matt getting kicked in the dick. The Jeff/Chair Spot with Spud was stupid, because not only did Jeff NOT do what he was told- which as I've already explained is stupid to me. Spud STILL got killed after it.

Various Backstage Segments
The Wolves/Galloway Promo was fine. It set-up one of the things later on the show and that was all good.

The Taryn stuff with The Dollhouse was fun. Taryn was back in the Impact Zone after the vicious attack from the two dastardly Heels Gail Kim and Velvet Sky and it was all fun.

Angelina Love is pregnant, If you don't know that yet well- yeah. As far as ways to write Angelina off TV this was a fine one. The thing is, while they obviously couldn't plan for Angelina's pregnancy it's still hilarious to me that they couldn't even get a match out of the Beautiful People this time. Unless Lacey comes back that is.

Jeff Jarrett & Bobby Roode Promos
This was a fine segment, it was nothing special though. But there was one thing that just INFURIATED me. So Jarrett comes out and says something along the lines of him wanting the King of the Mountain Title back. What? Didn't Jeff give up the King of the Mountain Title? They didn't even try and make a valid point of contention between Bobby and Jeff. So that pissed me off, but on the whole the segment was fine. I've been really tired this week so it may be because of that, but I just don't have the energy to get pissed with TNA this week. The show wasn't offensively bad, but at the same time it wasn't good so it's not worth getting worked up by it.

Weird Brawl Backstage Segment
So, Kenny King turned Babyface last week and got killed. He shows up this week best mates with Jessie Godderz and Eli Drake and he's a Heel again. Well, I suppose his Babyface turn didn't do anything to change his fortunes. This segment was just stupid to me, not just for the Kenny King stuff- when it ended up being a brawl whoever was filming this all managed to miss pretty much everything that happened.

I do wonder if they actually had Jeff selling merch to the crowd, that would have been quite funny- and also profitable. They could have gimmicked it with EC3 saying Jeff loves the fans and giving back to them, but EC3 likes money so the crowd have to buy EC3 merch to take a picture/get something signed from Jeff. Guarantee they'll have made a fuck load of money from that.

Robbie E, Tigre Uno & Micah v Jessie Godderz Kenny King & Eli Drake
Weekly "the person who wrote the Impact recap on WrestlingINC is an idiot" part of this Review. She's billed this match was Robbie E, Tigre Uno and Micah v "Drake, Drake and Godderz". I think that's what Joseph Park's law firm's called now. So, Sharon Glencross once again YOU'RE NOT EVEN A REAL JOURNALISM.

This match was fine, I suppose. It existed solely to get these guys on TV so it succeeded on that front. KENNY KING GOT ON TV AGAIN! ONE MAN CLAN BAYBAY!

Gail Kim v Brooke
The actual match part of this wasn't much. It was fun while it lasted, but it wasn't the "focal point" of this segment and was a means to an end when it comes to next week. The Tapa run-in, and Kong stuff was all fine and as said with regard to the actual match it was a means to an end when it comes to the 4-Way next week. This segment as a whole was a bit all over the place, but as always in any segment Royal Red's in the segment is elevated to segment of the year status.

EC3, Galloway, Jeff Hardy Backstage
This was all fun, the one thing I've just thought of though. What happens to Jeff if he disobeys an order that EC3 gives? It's not like the Cena/Nexus stuff (first one off the top of my head) where it was decreed that if Cena disobeyed an order given to him he'd be fired unless I missed something- which is possible.

The Wolves v Myers & Lee- TNA Tag Titles
As said, I'm too tired to get pissed it seems today. This was just hilarious to me. This whole GFW Invasion is coming to a head at Lethal Lockdown. Team GFW is going to feature among others Sonjay Dutt, Bryan Myers and Trevor Lee. I went off on one last week about how incompetent Myers & Lee looked in their Tag Title win- so I won't get into that again. Myers & Lee lost further establishing they are completely incompetent. Not only that, Sonjay Dutt got killed by EARL HEBNER. Again, how are we meant to take this Invasion seriously?

Chris Melendez & Eric Young Segment
I'm just beyond caring with this feud, this feud hasn't jumped the shark- the shark bit the feuds leg off. It wasn't as stupidly bad as some of the other segments we've had with these two recently. At least the TNA Twitter Account wasn't making fun of Melendez this week.

Mahabali Shera Interview
At least Josh didn't do the fucking dance. I'm sure James Storm is terrified by the Bollywood Bop. There was one hilarious visual in this where Shera was talking about being lost when he came to America, and it was illustrated by Shera staring baffled at a Burger. There's so much wrong with this that it's almost funny- but I'll stick with what I said last night WHY WOULD A FUCKING INDIAN GET A FUCKING BURGER?!

Chris Mordetzky v Drew Galloway- Lumberjack Match
This was so ridiculously stupid. A swerve when used right is effective and can generate interest. The Eric Young joining Team GFW stuff fooled absolutely nobody. NOBODY got over in this match last night. Galloway was made to look like a fucking idiot by not going for a Pin on Mordetzky, Mordetzky didn't get over because Galloway had him beaten, and the Eric Young swerve was so obvious once EY got in the ring that he didn't get over from it. This was a PERFECT example as to why I think Vince Russo is back in TNA. There's one thing I'm still not sure about though, WHAT THE FUCK WAS GALLOWAY GOING FOR AFTER THE FUTURE-SHOCK?!  He just walked into the corner where the GFW guys were and started stomping his feet, I'll repeat WHAT A FUCKING IDIOT!

At least they didn't give the Babyfaces the advantage for Lethal Lockdown and manage to fuck up what is in essence War Games as they actually did a few times.

Last Nights episode wasn't "good", there was too much stupid shit and far too many Backstage Segments- but grading on the Impact Curve it wasn't a bad show either. As I said at the start, next week is a big week for Impact in what may well be the last Impact on Destination America so hopefully you'll stay tuned for that- it's a pretty big week all around with Impact, the Go-Home RAW and then the Night of Champions stuff.

Thanks for reading as always, as said with all of the posts coming out next week I hope you stay tuned for all of them. I just didn't have the energy today to get pissed today- but maybe I will next week who knows? That's why you've gotta keep coming back, brother. Thanks again for reading, and let's all just remember that we are in fact meant to see this Invasion Angle as a threat when Earl Hebner is knocking out one of the Team GFW members.

RAW Review: September 7th

Hello! That's right, I'm back for more. After last weeks show that was just really weird we're onto this week and I wasn't expecting much better. The thing people seem to have forgotten is these few months between Summerslam and the Rumble build are always pretty dodgy on the whole. Anyway, on the road to Night of Champions we had some good stuff- and some bad stuff so let's just get into it.

Rollins, Sting & Sheamus Promo
Look, I'm as bored as anyone by these opening Promo segments. BUT, as far as 15 Minute Opening Promo segments this was far from the worst one we've seen this year. It might just be because we had Sting and Sheamus in it and it felt relatively fresh- but still, it was fine. This was also the segment where we- or at least I realised we were going to get Crazy "Joker" Sting tonight which I personally was fine with, because I actually liked his Joker Sting run (to a point).

Triple H, Rollins, Stephanie Promo
I may well be wrong about this, but this is at least my theory on last week with the Triple H stuff. Triple H was obviously meant to be at RAW, but then the shooting stuff happened at the Performance Centre and they had to completely rewrite the segments he was going to be in which would have been teasing tension with Triple H and Rollins. So basically my theory about the Triple H overkill last week was they basically just panicked at the last minute writing it all. So in short, what happened this week with Triple H booking Rollins in "bad" matches for him was exactly what Triple H's role was going to be last week and it just fell to Steph to do it. But on the whole this segment was fine, just a week late.

Sasha Banks v Paige
I think some people are going WAY overboard with their praise of this match. The match was fine- but it really wasn't anything special, the one thing that does have to be said for this match was they had the crowd for the majority of it. The one exception being the limpest and just least-passionate "this is awesome" chant probably ever. So that was quite hilarious, but as said the match was fine and the finish was good. I won't hear anyone bitch about the finish, for what they're trying to do (however flawed that may be) it was a perfectly acceptable finish.

Roman Reigns & Dean Ambrose v The Ascension
This is the first time I got annoyed last night. I actually watched Smackdown in it's entirety for the first time in about 2 Years last week. Mainly because it was New Day heavy, but it at least appeared as though they finally had something for Ascension with them aligning with Stardust. Nope, Stardust (and Neville) were nowhere to be seen last night and The Ascension got killed. I've said it seemingly every time the Ascension come up as a talking point now, I don't rate them as a top-tier team who I want to win the Tag Titles. With that said, it amazes me how badly they've been fucked since they got called-up.

Developmental is (this may be shocking to you) about developing. Both in-terms of developing Wrestling skills and characters. So the fact they completely changed Ascension on arrival basically made their whole developmental run moot and they were dead on arrival. I suppose Stardust and Neville not being on tonight means they might still be involved on that front, but it wasn't a good start.

Wyatt Family Promo
This was fine, this may be a weird comment- but Strowman's voice is really good for his role. I don't know if it's naturally like that, or it's just naturally that low- but either way it's good.

Ryback Backstage Promo
This was the best promo in history. I need to write out what happened to properly comprehend it, Ryback said he had a plan for Rollins and I suppose acted out hitting Rollins with the Meathook and getting him up for the Shellshocked. It was at this point that the Wrestling business peaked. The Owens stuff was funny, I wanted him to spit the apple at him SO much- so the fact Owens didn't made him #1 Heel on earth in my book.

It actually amazes me just how bad Ryback is in a Backstage Promo setting, the guy has charisma and when he gets out in front of the crowd to cut a Promo it's really good. But when he's Backstage fucking hell is he bad.

Ryback v Seth Rollins
This match just astonished me. I'm not surprised this match was a really good one because BOTH of these guys can really go. The problem for Ryback has been that he's been in the ring with people who he hasn't been able to "up his game" with- Rollins on the other hand is one of the best on the planet right now. The good match/Ryback performance didn't surprise me, what surprised me was THEY ACTUALLY PROTECTED THE INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPION!  Ryback, the IC Champion now has a win over the WWE Champion however it came and that in turn elevates the Ryback/Owens stuff for Night of Champions. This is just amazing to me, I realise I've got very low standards now.

THE BEST SEGMENT IN THE HISTORY OF ANYTHING
So it was fine. If you haven't seen this already GO AND FUCKING WATCH IT. I am of course talking about the Rollins, New Day, Edge & Christian, Dudleys segment. The only thing I wish they'd have done different was gimmick the Kazoo so Big E could actually eat it. It would either have been a really cool thing to do as a singular thing, or they could run with it for a few weeks and have Big E "Kazoo Coughing" in segments. I just loved this segment, I love Rollins to death- but as soon as Edge & Christian showed up I wanted him gone ASAP because of what we were going to get. This was just great, and once again New Day saved the show.

Summer Rae, Dolph, Rusev Segment
I hate this feud. I never want to see it again. BUT, I did actually get a few laughs out of this segment- so it wasn't a complete waste as it was last week. Rusev is still amazing, his whole Promo basically being "It's not Summer and Lana's fault, They're only Women" was hilarious to me and his Broken English stuff hasn't overstayed it's welcome yet. But the bit that I just loved about this segment and probably stopped me going off on one, Summer calling Rusev "Ru Ru". That made me laugh so much, and any segment that makes me laugh that much isn't a complete dud. Oh Yeah, Dolph is still a dick in this feud. If Lana hadn't gotten hurt I would still have been banking on a double-turn. As is I'm not sure of Summer's turning on Rusev which is still where I'd go- but without the Lana component they might not go there.

Randy Orton v Sheamus
I might as well Copy & Paste every single Review for their matches yesterday. In a very weird way I'm actually enjoying these seemingly endless matches between the two just because of how fucking stupid it is. The thing is, both of these guys are great workers- Orton especially but there's just nothing to get excited about during these matches. It's just another match between two guys who DESPERATELY need to move on.

The Wyatt stuff after was good for a few reasons, it helped build the "3rd Man" reveal for the Night of Champions match and it also helped write Orton off TV until they actually have something for him hopefully.

I did see the Baron Corbin stuff, I still somewhat doubt it's him- but as I said last week anyone who is the same height (or around it) as Strowman is fair game. The thing with Corbin is (if it is Corbin) the crowd will HATE him, but as I said a bit last night- that might actually be the plan. Corbin coming in may well be just to take the heat off of Roman because I can see them trying to build Roman back up again ready for Mania season starting from around now. Hopefully if Roman doesn't get hurt this time he'll have more time as well.

The Dudley Boyz v Los Matadores
This match wasn't much, I don't know if they're getting ready for another Jobbercide with people like Los Matadores and The Ascension- but them turning on Torito surely means the act isn't long for this world now. Unless they finally realised having a Bull tag along and be friends with two Bull-Fighters was a stupid idea.

The only thing I wish they'd have done was before they put the Matador through a Table New Day ran out and either saved the Matador, saved the Table or Torito took out Xavier and the Matador went through the Table. Torito/Xavier is of course Main Eventing next years Mania after all. Gotta build it.

Cesaro v Miz
This was just hilarious to me. It might just be because I'm really tired today, but I don't have the energy to get pissed with stuff today. The actual match section was quite fun, Cesaro's still great and him killing Miz for 99% of the match was the right way to go. The Big Show stuff made me laugh, because as I've said a few times now- Big Show's gimmick now is that he turns every week as he did last night.

Team Bella & Team PCB Promo
Firstly, some people seem to think the Divas will be Main Eventing next week. While it's not 100% not going to happen, there's about a 99.99999999999999999999999999999999999999999% chance it won't. Nikki Bella v Charlotte Main Eventing a Go-Home show for a PPV regardless of what PPV it is over Sting, John Cena and Seth Rollins. Somehow I doubt it'll happen. The segment was fine I suppose, I zone out every time Nikki Bella is talking- the bits I was "zoned in" for were weird and Nikki seemed to be wanting to get cheered. Not in a Heel "cheer me" way, but genuinely wanting cheers so that was stupid.

John Cena & Primetime Players v New Day & Seth Rollins
This match was so much fun. It was weird- or at least it was to me that Cena was the one taking all of the heat during the match when they had Darren in the corner. That said, Big E throwing around Cena and generally killing him in between hip gyrations was great. Whoever had the idea to give Xavier a Trombone should be instantly promoted to Head of Creative, and this match on the whole was great. It was a complete House Show match- but as I've said quite a few times, these type of matches are almost always really fun.

The Sting/Statue shenanigans were good, it's not as good as the idea that I heard/saw somewhere that the Rollins statue was Chocolate and Sting ate it. The thing is, I know they probably have a "statue guy" but that Rollins statue can't have been Free so hopefully this isn't the last we see of the statue. Kind of like Sandow's Money in the Bank after Cody put in the ocean before he got the leather one.

This RAW on the whole was pretty bad, but any show that had a segment that just filled me with so much joy as the New Day/Rollins/Dudleys/Edge & Christian segment did and had a few really fun/good matches can't be considered a complete failure.

Thanks for reading as always, I actually had some sleep before I did this RAW Review unlike last week- so hopefully it wasn't a complete mess. We've only got one more RAW before Night of Champions so stay tuned for that Review and of course the Predictions/Review for the show and more. Next up on here is the Impact Review where we're counting down the days on TNA's Destination America run so hopefully you'll come back for that. Thanks again for reading, let's just hope it's a quieter week than last week.

Quick PS, If there's a Jobbercide this week as I suspect there may be I'll do a thing looking at all of the Releases- which may turn into a Booking Blog of sorts.