DE.

A lot of rumours swirling that Wrestlemania won't be on the WWE Network this year, instead potentially being on ESPN or traditional PPV. I certainly won't be paying for it!

Yeah it wouldn't surprise me at all if Lambert is still there next season. At the moment he's throwing out his usual "the lads need help" line which is Lambert code for "the owner isn't giving me enough money". He's taken veiled shots at Evans before though and Evans either hasn't noticed or just doesn't care. I don't see the Warnock links coming to fruition in all honesty. He's exactly the type of manager they need to sort the club out though.

They've always had a good academy bringing through some top youngsters, similar to us. This year they've got some really good players like Woolfenden and Flynn Downes who will almost certainly be moving on to bigger and better things at the end of the season. Their problem is not having enough good senior players to balance out their younger talent. The likes of Chambers, Skuse, Judge, etc just haven't been up to it this season. We had the likes of Mulgrew, Graham, Smallwood, Evans, etc who are on a different level entirely. Ipswich fans don't seem to want Warnock, but it's tough to get any other names out of them. They tried the young, up and coming candidate with Hurst and it bombed spectacularly. They tried the experienced route with Lambert and it's going just as bad if not worse. I don't think they really know who to bring in at this point - they mainly just want Marcus Evans to leave, but there's very little interest in the club so Evans doesn't seem keen to sell unless he can find somebody silly enough to help him recoup his substantial losses. It's a real mess to be honest. I have to admit I'm shocked that they are doing this badly, I thought they'd have enough to at the very least get into the top six. Lambert appears to be a busted flush and as aforementioned the senior pros haven't stepped up in the way they needed to. The rebuidling job there is massive and will take a lot more than just one season imo.

No doubt, although I believe Ipswich were still 4th when Lambert signed his new deal. I can't imagine he or Evans thought their season would collapse to this extent when the contract was signed. They've gone from challenging for automatic promotion (and being top only a few weeks ago) to being rank outsiders to even get 6th. Lambert has been using injuries as an excuse but the fact is their form has been dire since before Christmas. I imagine Evans will wait until the clause kicks in before removing Lambert, but as for where they go next I have no idea. I get the feeling they may be stuck in League 1 for some time.

See my response to MP!

I believe there is a break clause which is activated when Ipswich can mathematically no longer get in the playoffs.

Ipswich lose again, at home to Coventry this time. 4 wins in 25, 7 losses out of 9... the writing is surely on the wall for Lambert.

Hull are dead certs for relegation as it stands. Heads have totally gone.

WWE are really bad for this as well, actually. Super Showdown was a good example - how many people has Taker put down recently with a single chokeslam? I can't think of any. Then AJ gets pinned with one after barely doing anything in the gauntlet match. It made him look incredibly weak. Lesnar's F5 used to be well protected but then you had the likes of Goldberg and Reigns kicking out of multiple F5's, so when Kofi or Ricochet get put down with just one it makes them look really bad. The devaluing of finishers is a real pet peeve of mine.

Agree with all of that, false finishes are also getting ridiculous now. Finishers are now basically just normal moves as it takes about a million of them to pin somebody. NJPW is the worst for this. Okada has to hit about ten rainmakers in an average main event to win.

I'm surprised but pleased to hear Cornette appreciated it. I think in his mind a 'classic' would be more old school wrestling, whereas there is a case for it to be called a 'modern classic' at the very least. The lack of selling thing is an issue that's been going on for a while now, especially prevailant in NJPW, which AEW obviously draws significant inspiration from. I'm not so bothered about loose application of the rules as it's wrestling, and it's been a long time since rules have been applied stringently. There have been times when AEW refs have been made to look like idiots by refusing to DQ people though - but that's an edict from Tony Khan where he doesn't want any matches ending in DQ. Personally I think he's misguided to a degree here (fine for PPV matches, but TV matches can definitely end in DQ). I think it's from the FITE TV feed which doesn't include commercial breaks, whereas the TNT feed does. So the four minutes of crowd noise is basically where TNT is on a commercial break.

That would only be a true statement if we were in the playoff positions right now. It's Fulham, Forest, Brentford and Preston's to lose - and we need to be in a position to potentially gain from their slip ups.

https://www.ipswichstar.co.uk/sport/ipswich-town/ipswich-town-manager-paul-lambert-on-neil-warnock-rumours-1-6548626 I don't know if it's just because it's in text form but Lambert doesn't half come across as arrogant here. Fair play to the reporter for asking some very direct questions though, would like to see a bit more of that from the LT.

Yeah I know you've raised this issue before, all I can say is it definitely isn't us in this instance! I can see all posts that are hidden and there aren't any of yours there, and we don't delete posts for legal reasons.

Yes that botch was a bit unfortunate, although it's not uncommon for the Bucks! Fortunately it wasn't the finish (not even close as it turned out) so at least it didn't matter that much in the grand scheme of things. It was probably Awesome Vs Masato Tanaka, and yeah they had some incredible fights, including at ECW One Night Stand in 2005! I still remember the ridiculous table spot at the end.

Possibly, although to be honest "best ever" is a silly label anyway as all entertainment including wrestling is entirely subjective. If you're like Cornette and only like Mid-South 1980s stuff then you probably won't have even thought the match was good let alone great. If you prefer modern style NJPW wrestling then it probably is up there with the very best. It's all just opinions at the end of the day! Personally I loved watching it, I felt like it rewarded me as a viewer for being invested in a storyline and that's all I ask for out of wrestling. The worst thing is being invested in a storyline then watching it get flushed down the toilet by idiotic booking decisions (©WWE).

I dunno, other than there being too many nearfalls at the end I feel like they got Omega/Hangman Vs The Bucks spot on. It was the perfect blend of everybody getting their stuff in but also telling an amazing in-ring story building on months of angles. I'm really not sure what else they could have done to make it better.

Thunder Rosa would be a great addition to the AEW women's division too. I could easily see her as a member of the Inner Circle and coming out with Santana & Ortiz as an LAX-style group.

Not by the mods. In fact you're one of very few posters who hasn't had any posts hidden in the last two pages or so.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-51682017 - nice AEW story on the BBC

Colt Cabana joining AEW was a nice touch. There are quite a few from Powerrr who I think could do a solid job for AEW. Drake is an obvious one, but also guys like Ricky Starks and Aron Rex (aka Damien Sandow) could really shine on a bigger stage with more creative freedom. The storyline I'm looking forward to the most is the impending civil war between the Elite. It's a matter of time before it explodes between Hangman and the Bucks, at which point Omega and Cody will also have to take sides - with people like Dustin, Arn Anderson, QT Marshall, etc having to choose where their allegiances lie. I think they are priming for a Cody heel turn at some point - although he's so over as a babyface at the moment that it seems too early to turn him already.

We had that under Bowyer (in fact we had x2 of the 20+ a season strikers) and still failed!

AEW 906k 0.35 demo (5th overall), NXT 718k 0.23 demo (20th overall). Nice post-PPV bump for AEW.

Raw being 3 hours is definitely an issue. With that said though, Smackdown is 2 hours and they still manage to make that drag.

I don't think any major change will happen unless TNT demands higher viewership or demos begin slipping. They're in a good place at the moment, but should be wary of complacency. In fairness I've seen no sign of the company being complacent, but it's an easy trap to fall into once you feel like you've snared your core audience. I still watch Raw, NXT and the WWE PPV's, but it's mostly out of habit these days. Raw is just on in the background Tuesday evenings whilst I do other things, and it's pretty much the same for the PPV's. I don't pay them the same amount of attention as when I'm watching Dynamite, Powerrr or an AEW/NWA PPV. WWE has become incredibly bland and stale to me, with the odd exception. Randy Orton for example is doing some awesome work at the moment. Obviously the biggest positive from the current AEW product is they listen to their fans. The Nightmare Collective was being roundly panned, so rather than 'do a WWE' and continue on regardless, they just canned it and moved on. People were getting annoyed with the Dark Order having such a prominent place on the show - now they've been massively scaled back and amended. People were becoming frustrated with the Elite not being properly involved in the show - now they're all an integral part of some fantastic storylines. After having to endure WWE for so long it's really great to have a company that genuinely listens to its fans, rather than just pretending they do. Also the lack of rampant commercialism that infests WWE is a welcome change. No stupid buzzwords, no characters randomly losing first/last names, no idiotic swerves, no part-timers going over full-time wrestlers, no Michael Cole, no robot commentators shilling hashtags and fake laughing at things that aren't funny, no fan favourites getting squashed for no obvious reason, no odious shows in disgusting locations... I could go on, but there's a lot of reasons I appreciate AEW existing right now.