Villanun

Watching the highlights of that last Middlesbrough game, I was thinking "This Guzan performance feels very familiar..."

It would be nice to finish the season on a high, but I have no reason to believe that we'll do anything other than lump long balls intellectually up the field and concede either just before or just after the break. Bruce will make his first sub in the 79th minute and that'll be that.

12 minutes ago, pacbuddies said:

. We are languishing half way down the division and put out arguably our best team.

Not advocating for Bruce, but I have to ask: Gardner and Bacuna? That seems like a tough argument.

Turgid.

WDFAF,,, oh, what's the point?

 That's a worrying sight.

Grealish for Kodjia?

Everything we do seems so rushed and uncomfortable.

1 hour ago, briny_ear said:

It was a derby against the blosers. I've seen more dire matches in that series than I've had hot dinners. You don't normally get El Clasico.

We're a poor championship side, they're a worse championship side, we've both come off the back of poor results, so I didn't expect scintillating ball control and goals flying in from every angle, but I thought we'd see a bit more fire - from both teams, actually.

It's great that we won, and despite all that's gone on with him I'm genuinely happy that Gabby scored. But what happened with the rest of the match? Why did it take Gabby coming on to put some fire in their bellies?

Whee, this is fun.

Really enjoyed that. Spurs played really well, but as others have said Chelsea have such a good bench draw on. Thought the ref let Chelsea get away with a fair bit, though.

Harsh on Spurs, this.

Saddened by this. Ugo was my favorite player as a kid.

Farce.

They're ripping Lansbury apart on the radio.

Got this email this morning.

It's Easter. **** sake.

Good work Kodja!

16 hours ago, Dr_Pangloss said:

The product has really gone down the pan IMO. It has flirted with a bit of a revival with the signing of talent such as AJ Styles, Finn Balor, Samoa Joe etc and who knows, if they resign Matt and Jeff Hardy then that could give an interesting dimension (but then they probably won't know what to do with them), but ultimately the product sucks for the most part. You really do have the be desperate to give a 50 year old relic a title.

I wonder how sustainable the WWE is. It's share price seems to just bounce around with no real long term growth at all, it's TV ratings in the US are a fraction of what they were in it's prime (some of that undoubtedly down to shifting viewing habits but surely a lot of it down to declining interest, especially among 18-34 males), so I guess a lot of it depends on the success of the WWE Network (seems to be growing modestly) and whether it can grow it's popularity more outside of the US.  

Whenever I watch you seem to have a show which has been thrown together haphazardly, matches seldom tell a story and the entire thing just lacks energy - the atmosphere sucks, it's as though the crowd are rarely isn't even into, even the commentators sound labored and with forced enthusiasm. I reckon the WWE is on it's last legs. 

The Network's doing okay, so I doubt WWE is going anywhere soon. As for putting the belt on a 50 year old, it's all about nostalgia during the build to Wrestlemania. Like it or not, Goldberg is more likely to draw in people who gave up wrestling a while ago, and having a belt on the line supposedly adds to the drama. Unfortunately that means burying the young up-and-coming talent in favour of a couple of part-timers, one of whom has wrestled less than six minutes since return. But hey, at least it means that they can have Roman Reigns beat Lesnar for the belt at Summerslam - then we'll all finally realise we've loved Roman all along, right?

1 hour ago, Daweii said:

So RAW just put on one of the worst PPV's I've seen in a while.

I don't get how a PPV with 3-4 weeks of building can feel so thrown together.

The only good match was Reigns vs Strowman a match with incredible storytelling and selling from both men.

The main event wasn't even an event, it was a complete waste of time; SPOILER

  Reveal hidden contents

It lasted 21 seconds..

I don't understand how RAW books shows anymore. I really fear for the quality of WM33 solely because RAW is part of the event. 

I enjoyed the Cruiserweight match, especially given how beaten up Gallagher looked at the end, and the Reigns/Strowman match was surprisingly good, but the rest of it was shit. Dull, predictable and disappointing. When even a Samoa Joe match is a let down you know you're in for a bad night.

And how can a PPV have space for two bonus matches? Did they just leave a big gap in the middle of the schedule just case? It makes zero sense. Oh, and way to bury Rusev in favor of a young up-and-comer like Big Show. Show needed the push.

Still, the promise of Austin Aries returning to the ring fills me with joy, and Corey Graves on commentary is SO good.

Did poorly for the penalty, but he was desperate to score against his old club and I think the pressure got to him. Great that he didn't let it get him down, and great that he scored. Hopefully this is the beginning of better things from him.

Quote

We needed something to change.

I was having a bite to eat with my daughter last night and the waiter dropped a pint of blackcurrant and lemonade all over her.

She was head to toe in it and I thought ‘the luck is still not going our way’.

But I will pour a pint of blackcurrant and lemonade over her next time! 

I will tip it right over her head – whatever it takes, it’s changed the luck!

I'm thinking this could be a new pre-match ritual, right in the centre circle.

6 minutes ago, terrytini said:

I'm genuinely interested in this. Could you hear him and if so what was he saying that last half hour?

Ah. By the last half hour I was so panicky that I wasn't concentrating on Bruce. He was less vocal in general in the second half, and I think its fair to suppose that he was just as nervous by that point as the players. 

Edit: In fact, I don't think I've heard him be as vocal as he was today in any of the other matches I've seen. I don't know if that means anything, I just mention it in passing.

Just now, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

In fairness I could hear Bruces voice belting through he whole match.

Often telling the players to push up, too.

Looked to me like Hutton gave him a right telling off for not coming out and claiming the ball. I can understand the defence looking a bit shaky recently; they seem to have no confidence in the lad behind them.

3 minutes ago, sexbelowsound said:

Ah I get ya. Sorry. I thought you meant he physically pushed. Di Canio style.

No probs. Suffice to say he lost his head and overstepped the mark. The shame of it was that he's done genuinely pretty well up to that point.

3 minutes ago, rodders0223 said:

No he didn't headbutt him and he didn't just go head to head it was inbetween. His placed his head on the linesmens and then to a degree forced his head backwards.

It wasn't a headbutt but it was an utter disgrace.

I agree on that, and he deserves whatever punishment comes his way. Stupid footballer is stupid.