Even if he did bring Butterworth on he probably would have put him at right back or something equally stupid.

I'd be surprised, still seems too early for that. Not sure how Ipswich's new owners operate though. If Marcus Evans was still in charge I'd say no way, but who knows with the new owners. It's been a terrible start to the season for Ipswich, no matter how you look at it. Cook has been making excuses about the squad needing time to gel, and it's a fair point considering the upheaval over the summer, but you can't use that as an excuse for the kind of performance they put in today. It was also his choice to completely overhaul the squad and arguably boot out some players who could have helped maintain consistency, so the 'we need time to gel' rhetoric holds a limited amount of weight for me. They need to pick up wins urgently over the next few weeks, or they'll already be too far gone to even mount a playoff push. Personally if they fail to win in the next two matches I'd be seriously looking at removing Cook. His overall record there, I think, is p23 w4. That's incredibly poor irrespective of any excuses that can be made.

Judging by his performances so far we probably made the right call not playing him very often and sending him back in January. He barely looks League 1 standard now, so there's no way he was ready in 2017. He didn't get a great score in the local rag: Meanwhile, Harper...

Ipswich 2-5 Bolton. Good debut for our old friend Christian Walton.

Until we learn to defend we have no hope of getting anywhere. That will require a new manager as the current one has shown over the past few years he is incapable of doing so.

Honestly it's hard to understand what he's thinking at this point. It's almost like he does stuff like this on purpose to rile up NXT fans. The amount of talent (NXT and non-NXT) that he's wasted and buried in the past 2/3 years is astounding. Even with guys you'd expect him to be all in on (eg. Braun Strowman) he finds a way to wreck them. Even Daniel Bryan/Bryan Danielson had to jump through a ridiculous amount of hoops to be truly accepted by Vince as a top tier player, and this was someone insanely talented who was insanely over. The fact they were going to go with Randy Orton Vs Batista at WM as the main event when Danielson was on fire says it all really. Back then they still listened to fan backlash if it was loud enough, but nowadays I actually think they would have ignored the fans and gone with Orton/Batista anyway. The only hope we have is that Vince wakes up to the fact AEW is serious competition and sorts himself and WWE out. I'm not really sure he has it in him anymore, but AEW's momentum is undeniable at the moment and if I was a younger fan I know which promotion I'd be gravitating towards.

1.3m viewers for Dynamite this week, and they also beat Raw in the 18-49 demo. Obviously you have to take the PPV bump into account, and the debuts of Adam Cole and Bryan Danielson, but still very impressive. It'll be interesting to see if they can maintain those numbers.

To further emphasise the above on WWE, apparently their plan for Adam Cole on the main roster was to have him become a manager for a newly-turned heel Keith Lee - and they also wanted to change his name. Even by WWE standards that's hilariously stupid. No wonder Adam Cole said it was an easy decision to go to AEW.

I tend to agree - I can't imagine Tony Khan could have foreseen that this much talent would be available in such a short space of time. He had built AEW on the basis of having Jericho and Moxley as their main two 'stars' and may have hoped they could snatch another one or two decent names after that. They were probably hoping/expecting Punk would turn up sooner rather than later, but there's no way they could have known WWE was going to release so many big names in the past year and a half. Their business model is going to have to evolve very quickly to adjust to it. I don't think it's a bad thing, but it might bring forward a lot of plans they were saving for 2022/2023. As you say, it may necessitate some roster trimming too. They've got a lot of programs to highlight talent (Dynamite, Dark, Elevation & Rampage) and they've got good relationships with various other companies, so sending talent to those companies is an option I'm sure they'll exercise as well. With that said there's definitely still room to streamline the roster and I expect they will. Personally I think Jericho still has some value. Not as a main event level player at this point, but as their OG big star and with the history he's built in AEW there's still room for him to contribute effectively imo. Matt Hardy and his Hardy Family Office schtick has fallen pretty flat, but I think he can still be used to elevate people if done properly. Depends how much he's being paid though. I'm always a little wary when it comes to comparing AEW and WCW. There are some obvious similarities, but also a lot of significant differences. AEW has WCW's production values and similar network/financial backing, but in terms of the product I think it's closer to an amalgamation of ECW and early TNA. I've watched WCW extensively over the years and people forget how bad some of the wrestling was - even during the golden years. The cruiserweights were great and they had some solid mid-carders too, but they also had crap like Jim Duggan, the Nasty Boys, the Amazing French Canadians, the Dungeon of Doom, Squire Dave Taylor, Glacier, Jeff Jarrett, Mongo McMichael, etc - who were taking up a lot more time than is generally remembered. The main events also tended to be pretty poor, whereas AEW tend to deliver on their main events. For what it's worth, whilst AEW's fanbase is very loyal, it's because they are listened to. They feel connected with the product, the wrestlers and the people running the show. It isn't blind loyalty where they would just accept anything that's thrown at them. If that was the case then Brandi's faction wouldn't have been pulled, and the Dark Order wouldn't have been completely restructured. The fans let AEW know when they don't like something - the difference is that AEW listen to them and act on it. That's why this loyalty exists. I am sure if the show was flooded with WWE mid-carders and the storylines and matches went to shit the fans would let the company know. As for WWE... there has been a terminal decline going on there for over a decade. Ratings and attendance have been slowly eroding for a long time. Lack of serious competition made them lazy and arrogant, feeling like they could do whatever they wanted and thumb their nose at the fans. They are very fortunate TV rights for live sports are so lucrative right now, as without that they would be in trouble. They've become a company that succeeds even in failure. If they went out of business tomorrow it would be fully deserved as they have shit on their fans for years now, but I don't think WWE is going anywhere any time soon. They'll plateau at some point and it will be far below the level they were once at, but as long as they have TV deals, the Saudis, etc, they'll be alright. Personally though I find their entire business model to be deeply flawed and Raw in particular unwatchable. Smackdown is OK. NXT remains to be seen now that Triple H and Shawn Michaels are being usurped.

I think Zayn's contract is up in October, so he may end up in AEW before Owens. With that said how many performers can AEW absorb? They've already got a ridiculously stacked roster.

Kevin Owens is the next major name rumoured to be jumping ship. Apparently his contract expires a lot sooner than was widely assumed.

All Out 2021 was, in my view, one of the best PPVs of the last decade. It felt to me like they knocked it out of the park from beginning to end, and those final 10 minutes were something else. Miro Vs Kingston was a really solid brawl. I absolutely love Miro's character and he's proving week after week how badly WWE wasted him. After a slow start in AEW with the 'best man' gimmick (which I still think he ended up doing well with) Miro has really grown into an awesome presence. Kingston meanwhile is a solid hand who can take losses and still retain his credibility. I thought this was a really entertaining opening contest that didn't outstay its welcome. Moxley Vs Kojima was good, although I think to really appreciate the match and the surprise appearance of Minoru Suzuki you have to at least have some knowledge of New Japan. It was a cool moment for me as someone vaguely familiar with the NJPW product, but for casuals it would probably have left them a little cold. The crowd at All Out loved it though. It's going to be incredible when Tanahashi and/or Naito and/or Okada show up in AEW. Okada technically worked the first All In, but hasn't been a part of AEW since it became a legitimate promotion. Baker Vs Statlander was a strong match. I'm glad they are leaning away from the more ridiculous aspects of Statlander's alien gimmick and presenting her more seriously as a genuine contender for the women's title. I don't think Statlander lost anything in defeat, she looked good and at around 11 minutes it was just about the right amount of time. The Bucks Vs the Lucha Bros was sensational. They had me hooked from the first to the last minute. These teams always have incredible matches and this one was no different. I was relieved nobody attempted a suicidal bump, as these teams tend to do that and it always scares the hell out of me. Very cool to see the Lucha Bros win the straps. They are crazy charismatic and excellent performers, so it's well deserved. Battle Royal matches can go either way, but I thought whoever structured this one did a good job. Nice to see Ruby Riott/Ruby Soho get such a great reaction. You could see it meant a lot to her. It looks like they are going to push her hard straight out the gate AEW's women's division was once easily its weakest point, but it's slowly getting there with established crowd favourites like Britt Baker, Shida, Thunder Rosa, Ruby Soho and Riho backed up by a lot of really promising up and coming talent. Jericho Vs MJF was good, but I was so-so on the false finish. I'm not sure it was really necessary. Regardless, these two have told a good story throughout their feud and I thought the 'countdown clock' at the beginning was a clever throwback. I think it's time for both of these guys to move on now. Jericho has naturally dropped down into the upper mid-card and I don't think he'll be near the title scene any time soon, so it'll be interesting to see what direction he goes in next. Early on he (and eventually Jox Moxley) was the only proper "star" AEW had, but things have changed a lot and I'm curious to see where Jericho positions himself in the new landscape. I really, really like Punk Vs Darby Allin. I was prepared to be underwhelmed, as the hype had been so intense, but they worked very very well together. For a Darby Allin match it was quite slow-paced and lacking crazy moves, but in this instance I think that was perfect. Punk didn't seem to have missed a step. Punk had to go over here, but Darby showed he could hang with Punk and in my opinion gained plenty in defeat. I'm curious to see where Punk goes from here. I wonder if a match with Sting is on the cards? Both have expressed interest and as far as Sting is concerned time is a factor. If they want to do it, get it done soon. Finally, Omega and Cage had a good match, although it was never in doubt that Omega would win. Obviously the headlines are all about the post-match. Adam Cole and Bryan Danielson are huge gets for AEW and gives them a huge boost in credibility. WWE were desperate to keep Danielson, so they will be especially gutted that this has happened. For Danielson the sky is the limit in AEW, but I hope they take care of him. Left to his own devices he has a tendency to take things too far at times, so some degree of control will be required. An incredible acquisition regardless, and what a way to end the show. Part of me feels a little sad that the original era of AEW is effectively over with now, as the big stars begin to come in and make their mark. Bray Wyatt will likely be next, at which point you'll have Punk, Danielson, Cole, Wyatt, Malikai Black, Miro, Lana (most likely), Christian, Big Show, Mark Henry, Ruby Soho and a few others all in the company. It's obviously great for AEW and will surely push them to new heights, but it's feeling a little bit like a 2010s WWE takeover. The big difference is that whilst many of these wrestlers were treated badly by WWE and booked into oblivion, AEW will play to their strengths and that will elevate everybody. Still, I'm raising one to the OG AEW wrestlers who got this thing off the ground and made me genuinely excited to watch wrestling again. I hope that at least some of them continue to shine and benefit from the work they put in getting AEW to where it is now.

During my time as a mod here I've never seen anything to suggest alternative views are censored or in any way discouraged by the people in charge of the site or by the moderators. I also can't recall many posters suggesting BRFCS has "a monopoly on attitude". I think it's generally accepted that the forum represents a minority view when compared to the wider fanbase. In fact a lot of the frustration expressed on here stems directly from that fact being largely acknowledged. From what I've seen on FB/Twitter there is quite strong pushback on opinions that are critical of the club in any form. I think it's important that a place exists which allows for more critical views to be aired in a reasonable fashion, which also offers some anonymity for people uncomfortable with their real names/identities being disclosed as is generally the case on the likes of Facebook. I wouldn't want anybody on here to feel discouraged about posting a reasonable alternative view or opinion about the way the club is run, and if a poster feels like they are being hounded or being made to feel uncomfortable about posting their views (assuming those views are well expressed and not deliberately antagonistic) then personally I'm always willing to talk about it via PM. As far as I'm concerned any view on the club, expressed in a civil manner, is welcome on here.

Can't say I'm disappointed as even if we did make decent signings I wouldn't trust Mowbray to utilise those signings to improve the team. Until he's out the door it doesn't really matter, and arguably you could say the same for the owners.

The PS4 is a great console with a huge, incredible library of games. Still very much worth it I'd say. It won't be obsolete for years, especially with the PS5 being so hard to get at the moment.

AEW is a pretty huge success by every metric (TNT were expecting about 500,000 regular viewers, Dynamite has regularly gotten above 800,000 and is currently hitting over 1m) so I don't think it can really be said they are being managed poorly. Perhaps not to your taste, but I think part of the reason they are steadily growing is because they are catering the product to their demographic (non-casual 18-34 year old males, primarily) rather than trying to cast a wide net and catch everybody. The other thing I love about AEW is that, unlike a certain other big company, they don't fight against their own fans. If the audience tells them they don't like something, AEW changes or drops it. They don't try to force bad/poorly received gimmicks down their fans' throats. I think it's gone and will continue to go a long way to building genuine brand loyalty. Also by all accounts Tony Khan is great to work with, genuinely passionate about the business and wrestlers absolutely love working for him and AEW. So, I can't agree that there is poor management going on at present.

Cook has pretty much demolished the previous Ipswich squad and rebuilt it almost entirely. After multiple seasons of failure people here were happy for a fresh start with what seemed like a solid managerial choice and owners who were willing to spend money to improve the squad. Unfortunately things haven't gone to plan yet. Cook's record overall (including his results from last season) is quite poor and Ipswich have failed to register a win in their first five matches having not faced any of the big teams yet. Already some boos and Cook Out posts from a small section of fans. Considering the overhaul they've had in terms of staff and squad it'll take a while for them to find their feet. They need to scrape a few wins soon though or they'll end up giving themselves too much to do.

Yes, but he's looked pretty terrible so far. Walton has been a target for them all summer, so I think their ideal is Walton as first choice with Hladky as second choice. I don't think Walton would be going there to play second fiddle, anyway.

Christian Walton reported to be having a medical at Ipswich for a season-long loan.

Not going to go particularly deep into Summerslam as, to be blunt, it wasn't that interesting. However... I liked the arena design. It felt big - not WM big, but 'special event' big - and was different from the usual set designs WWE tends to go with. The Alexa Bliss doll stuff is horrible. I honestly don't know what they are thinking with this. Becky Lynch returning and then proceeding to squash Bianca Belair is just WWE all over. They somehow take a moment which should be impossible to fuck up and proceed to do so anyway through inane booking decisions. According to WWE Saudi Arabia is "a place that brings out the best for all the world to see" - which sounds like propaganda, but when you consider how WWE operates Vince probably genuinely does think that. I don't know what the point of Drew Vs Jinder was. A feud nobody wanted to see, with awful build up that ended in what was essentially a squash. Pointless. Can't say I have any strong feelings about Charlotte winning the title again. The Nikki ASH character is legit terrible, though. Edge's Brood entrance was very cool and a nice throwback. The Brood theme/entrance is a classic, although I never thought Edge would go back to that part of his career. Kind of a shame WWE didn't bring Gangrel in to make a cameo appearance (obviously Christian couldn't participate). The match was really good too. Lashley/Goldberg was what it was. You can definitely apply the law of diminshing returns to Goldberg, as people are less excited and more prone to booing him every time he comes back. Reigns and Cena had a really solid match to end the show, and Brock's return made things interesting. Quite the look he has compared to when we last saw him! Also Michael Cole sounded obscenely excited - which I'm sure was Vince telling him to try and convince viewers this was even bigger than CM Punk returning, even though we all know it absolutely isn't.

Meltzer suggesting on WOR that Bray Wyatt to AEW is more or less a done deal, just waiting for the no compete to expire. What an incredible year it's been for AEW in terms of talent acquisition. In 2021 alone they've signed: - Andrade - Christian - Mark Henry - Big Show - Sting (end of 2020, but still) - CM Punk - Malakai Black/Alistair Black - Thunder Rosa And are also soon likely to be signing: - Daniel Bryan - Bray Wyatt It's crazy to me how WWE are letting AEW sign all of these wrestlers up, having released most of them. If Vince thinks he's going to sink them by letting them sign big wrestlers on big contracts he doesn't realise how rich Shahid Khan is.

I wasn't really watching WWE when Punk became a big thing there. From 2007 - 2013 or so I pretty much only watched TNA. I'd catch WWE highlights on YouTube, like Bret Hart returning and Punk's pipebomb promo, but that was pretty much it. So, Punk returning in of itself probably isn't as big for me as it is for others who were watching him during that period or have memories of his time in ROH. The story itself, the build up and the execution was all absolutely immense though, no matter whether you have memories of Punk or not. It will go down as one of the biggest wrestling moments of all time. For me the birth of AEW was the 'moment' for me. That first Dynamite and the build up to it was like rediscovering my passion for the genre all over again. Honestly before AEW I was pretty much done with mainstream wrestling. TNA/Impact had become a shell of its former self, NJPW was great but difficult to follow, ROH's production values were terrible and WWE is WWE. Raw has been a joke for years now. It's so good to finally have a big wrestling company that listens to its fans, genuinely wants to please the audience, and just lets the wrestlers and their employees have fun and enjoy the nonsense that is pro wrestling. WWE is at this point, by most accounts, a toxic, political hellhole which saps the life and ambition from almost everybody that works there. AEW existing as a genuine, viable alternative is something we as an audience have needed ever since WCW folded. TNA tried, but when you compare AEW to anything TNA ever produced it is night and day. Not TNA's fault by any means - they did the best they could with the budget and resources available to them - but AEW is another league entirely.

It was the way it sustained that got me. This wasn't just one big pop, it was a continuous roar that picked up whenever Punk did pretty much anything. Hug a fan? Nuclear pop. Dive into the crowd? Nuclear pop. Sit down? Nuclear pop. Honestly I don't think I've ever seen wrestling crowd like that. The other big thing for Punk (and his AEW debut in general) was his ability to keep his name, his most well known theme song and the general logos/graphics that people associate with him. He literally got into WWE just before they started trademarking everything, so on advice of Paul Heyman in 2006 (or 2007, can't remember) he trademarked CM Punk and is probably very glad now that he did. Obviously 'Cult of Personality' is licensed from Living Color who are friends with him, so no issues there. Meanwhile his general logo is a variation on the Chicago flag, so only minor changes there. I also have to say, when you're watching Punk's debut and seeing people in the audience literally crying and delirious with joy, there is no theme song that fits Punk better than Cult of Personality. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big metal fan and This Fire Burns is great, but Cult of Personality is the one for him.

Much like when we played Millwall, first half was truly awful. Second half somewhat better, but it's the same old story with this manager of the team only being able to play well for 45 minutes. The first eleven have enough about them to stay up, but I really fear for us once injuries inevitably kick in.

And yet some people are saying we had a decent half! Are expectations THAT low?