Villanun

I read an interesting thread on reddit earlier about the way Jinder is being portrayed to the Indian audience: https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/6p626u/spoilers_i_watched_the_battleground_main_event/?ref=search_posts

Well, two-headed actors are a little thin on the ground.

Because it's Doctor Who. It's got an established fanbase, some of whom will watch regardless of anything they do to the main character, so trying something a bit different is still far less of a risk than gambling on a brand new character with zero brand recognition. As a sci-fi fan in general and a Doctor Who fan in particular, I couldn't care less if the Doctor's a woman now. The ability of timelords to regenerate as a different sex is firmly established in the show's lore, so as long as she's a decent actress I don't see what the big deal is. All she needs is some decent scripts, and frankly that's more of a worry than anything else.

Nintendo owned 49% of the Rare stock. When it became kind've obvious that Rare were looking for someone to buy the company wholesale, Microsoft jumped in and bought up the rest, leaving Nintendo with no real option but to sell their share. Even Rare's founders aren't sure why Nintendo didn't buy them, given how well they'd worked together the past. I've always had a soft spot for Rare, what with them being a local company. Seeing them reduced to making crappy Kinect games makes me sad.

Joe's always been great on the mic. A few months ago, when he was beating up Sammy Zane on a regular basis, there was that awesome moment when he paused in the middle of a savage beat down to tell Sammy "This is your world now!", like Joe could destroy him any time he wanted and all Sammy had to look forward to was a lifetime of pain. It was a world-class bit of bullying heelwork and it honestly gave me goosebumps. As for Roman, the booking here seems to be "You tried to injure a fellow wrestler in a deliberate road accident, so as punishment you'd better have a title shot." God knows what they'd do if he killed someone. The Angle angle fills me with dread. The storytelling on Raw has been pretty good recently; are we really going back to this kind of soap-opera melodrama bullhorn?

Joe's always been great on the mic. A few months ago, when he was beating up Sammy Zane on a regular basis, there was that awesome moment when he paused in the middle of a savage beat down to tell Sammy "This is your world now!", like Joe could destroy him any time he wanted and all Sammy had to look forward to was a lifetime of pain. It was a world-class bit of bullying heelwork and it honestly gave me goosebumps. As for Roman, the booking here seems to be "You tried to injure a fellow wrestler in a deliberate road accident, so as punishment you'd better have a title shot." God knows what they'd do if he killed someone. The Angle angle fills me with dread. The storytelling on Raw has been pretty good recently; are we really going back to this kind of soap-opera melodrama bullhorn?

Exactly. They had the same problem with the X Division over on Impact, eventually leading to Abyss in the X Division and Aries challenging Bully Ray for the heavyweight title. The difference, I suppose, is that the X Division was based more on a difference in wrestling styles rather than weight; by tying themselves so clearly to a cut off point in weight, WWE have created a problem for themselves that it's difficult to see a way out of.

I thought it was surprisingly good given how shit the name was. Wyatt-Rollins was fun, and I always like watching Wyatt's monster clothes lines. Cass vs Amore was predictably a squash; the best bit was Graves talking the piss out of Amore, as usual. Seamus/Cesaro-Hardys was great, lots of action and told an effective story. Bliss-Banks started well, but the ending was disappointing. Probably sets up a no disqualifications rematch. Miz-Ambrose was my least favorite match of the night; too slow and very predictable. Strowman-Reigns was great, brutal stuff although the ambulance stuff was a bit overwrought. Slater-Hawkins barely counts. Lesnar-Joe was a bit of a let down, largely because Lesnar can't go for long, but it made both men look strong - in fact, hearing the old school "Joe's gonna kill you" chants from the crowd was my favorite moment of the night. An enjoyable couple of hours overall.

Aries is one of my favorites, so that's a shame. I get the feeling that WWE were relying on him and Neville to carry the 205 brand, and Aries will rightly feel he deserves to be on the main roster. I'm not quite sure what they have to do to make 205 a success; despite Neville doing career-best work and Aries being the greatest man who ever lived it just doesn't seem to be taking off.

Thirty minutes of two men wrestling to complete silence?

Didn't Terry say he wouldn't go to a premiership club because he doesn't want to play Chelsea? So he's already decided we won't get promoted. Terry out.

I've seen highlights on YouTube and yeah, it's a corker. As far as I'm concerned Styles is the best in the world. Even wrestling WWE-style he and Nakamura would put on a masterclass. My money's on Cena beating Mahal at Summerslam and Corbin cashing in then.

Quite enjoyed the show overall, although the ending of women's match felt quite disrespectful. Some nice spots in the main event, Zayn's powerbomb on Ziggler in particular, but nothing that matched the high points of previous MITB matches. Corbin's win was so predictable that I did, in fact, predict it, but I think he's a good choice - there's plenty they can do from here to turn him into a monster heel, and I loved that the ladder he grabbed to take out Nakamura before the match was shorter than he was. Great to see Styles and Nakamura face to face, and the crowd was super into it which really helped sell the excitement of the moment. Really hope they put those two into a program. I know it's blasphemy to say it, but I don't mind Mahal. He's a solid worker, and he's clearly getting a reaction from the crowd. I share JBL's bemusement at Breezango. And having seen Maria and Mike Kannelis' shtick over on Impact, I'm not excited.

Cahill should be embarrassed for that first free kick. Commits an obvious foul and then goes down clutching his head even though nothing touches his head whatsoever. Cheating.

The right team won. Moses should be ashamed of himself. First goal was an obvious handball but Arsenal were better overall and should really have won by more.

At least it's shouldn't be a dull final now!

I guess I can understand it from a business standpoint, given the expansion in India, but from a storytelling perspective it's been handled really badly. You can't go from being a midcard jobber to wwe champion in a couple of weeks, and giving him a slower build wouldn't have hurt the business side of things if it had been handled right. But everyone knows how much Vince loves his roid-jobs... Nakamura-Owens could be a lot of fun. Owens will have to do the talking for the both of them, but I can't think of many people better suited for that.

I can see Corbyn winning it - it would suit the lone-wolf character. I can imagine Styles and Owens costing each other the suitcase, setting up a feud between them. But it might be good for Nakamura; having the suitcase would allow him to build presence without having to do any talking - all he'd have to do is stand on the ramp grinning impishly with the case in hand. You know what, whatever they do to set up Nakamura-Styles is fine by me.

I read that it was originally offered to Nakamura, but he turned it down. It's a perfect fit for Roode, he plays the arrogant heel brilliantly. He's great on the Mic too, and as someone who watched a fair bit of TNA I love seeing him do so well in the "big leagues", but his in-ring work remains solid but unspectacular and I think that will stand in the way of him ever getting a major push. I get what you mean about the "international"-ness of the music, and it's an attitude that exists at all levels of Creative and leads to misjudged crap like the Rusev-Reigns feud, but personally I love Nakamura's music. And it's good to see WWE finally acknowledge that other wrestling promotions exist. I'll be interested to see how Smackdown ruins Nakamura - having him beaten up by Dolph Ziggler seems like a solid start.

Not exceptional: having Bobby Roode's music stuck in your head for three solid days afterwards.

I hate this use of the word "lost". Where are they Theresa, down the back of the **** sofa?

Countess Road, apparently. While it's shocking that something like that can happen in your own back yard, I have say that with Nuneaton being targeted by the Bnp it always seemed like a matter of time. Hate breeds hate.

Just watched a press conference, military at major events and important locations as well as armed police.

This is a disgusting act, but to read of people posting fake tweets about missing family members on social media just to generate retweets and likes sickens me. What kind of **** asshole do you have to be to take advantage of an event like this for something as meaningless as social media standing when there are people out there who are genuinely searching for their children?

In the I's "Good Day For, Bad Day For" column, this news was reported as a bad day for Ashley Young. I lolled.