Almost think at times it's better to just look at players as tools rather than people and even refer to them by their shirt numbers. I guess that just causes more disconnection though. It's no wonder he might feel a bit inflated though when even Rovers fans drone on about selling him and "record transfer", etc. Yeah there's this thing called inflation. I don't particularly like selling players (especially when it feels like the club has been used as a stepping stone) but people going on about tags of 20 million, etc? Is he really worth that much? I wouldn't personally hesitate to take 20 million if it's put back into the squad and the FUP scum won't be able to do anything about it. What's likely to be the pinnacle of Dack's career here unless there's some major takeover? Winning promotion? People wanted Shearer to stay and win the league, European Cup, etc it's not a similar blow to the club's ambitions even in the context of what they are now. We still don't even know for sure what Dack's peak is yet.

Better hope he wears protection for more than one reason.

Rovers fans used to go on about the whole "nice family club" thing though and then they condone somebody like Todd as "old school". While I've made no secret of a colder, more cynical edge perhaps not being an altogether bad thing (though I don't think Rovers fans are capable of keeping their guard up) you don't essentially want thugs attacking their own teammates, etc. There's "no nonsense" and then there's "non physical no nonsense" attitudes to take. Maybe he ought to have challenged Brown to a fight (as if that would have been authorised but Todd could have gloated about Brown backing off) or goad him into the first punch. I think Brown was insulting his Father but Todd's assaulted people elsewhere hasn't he? Others said Dugarry deserved that kick for his attitude, etc (it wasn't exactly extreme brutality either) but I think some of it was just anti-French sentiment. Really sums up how stupid and short sighted the club's marketing department is when the one player to greet Condi Rice in the eyes of the world's media was Todd. He was the one in the pictures, etc anyway. Who cares if he was the captain get somebody more notable on camera. I think Hughes and Friedel were pictured as well though...

Insurance thing as well perhaps. What if he tries to return, gets injured again and sues the club with some false malpractice claim? Paranoia? Maybe? Without cause given the last few years? Absolutely not. Or what if Samuel injures one of the first teamers in training? Not saying deliberately but there's no point keeping anybody around if their future is inevitably away from the club. Look at how the BBC for instance with older actors in some cases they can only spend so many days on set for insurance purposes. Different of course but the club's inner circle should be a closed door to anyone but those who need to be there. Then again what fans feel on here isn't essentially what the managers feels though we can obviously disagree. Providing he recovers (not an inevitability with this sort of injury however hard you work) Saw someone mentioning Michael Owen on previous page. Isn't it one of the worst kept secrets in football that Owen is a complete jackass? Still the biggest way he's stolen a living is as a commentator.

Yeah so the club can be sued for an unsafe working environment if he assaults someone.

The club already offered their support by stating his past wasn't an issue. Well his present and future is. Since he's probably going to be sold why should the club go out of it's way to offer anything? Honestly if someone pays 20 million (which to me seems over the top but it's what some seem to feel is a worthy projection) is anyone that bothered anyway? It's hard to care about players these days as it is (hence my rather cold response on the Samuel thread) and the club never admonished Evans for his attitude either. Of course if Leicester did display an interest (and he's kinda "given back" with his performances last season unlike some people who leak release clauses) it's a club that won the title 2 years ago. Some wrong steps since but the problem is that I could see someone like Dack going on strike to get their way. Nobody would do that if I was in charge because the first person to see out their contract rotting in the reserves would be the last. Any future owner needs to be cold and "no nonsense" the opposite is how you get burned to begin with. Look how that thicko Barkley treated Everton after they gave him so much support.

Could argue it's the ideal time to release him though it's a somewhat mean spirited thought. Guess there would be some kind of payoff anyway.

...while it's nonsense (this isn't the 39th game thing which the EPL have considered but taking away Girona's home fixture v Barcelona) the reaction compared to FUP has annoyed me. The latter is far worse and there ought to be an outpouring of nothing but sympathy for the clubs who have suffered from that. Including Rovers I might add who for another obvious reason (certainly the fans since we can't exactly guarantee the club's co-operation) should be at the forefront of opposing FUP.

I haven't subscribed for a while. The Torch does lack some Japanese wrestling coverage but it's not like I've ever followed it closely. I think Keller was a bit annoyed because (might have been Meltzer) made the distinction of New York Times (Observer) and New York Post (Torch). The NY Times of course being seen as more prestigious but I don't mind redtop/tabloid journalism in some ways. It's got it's upsides and it's downsides. I'm not really interested in comparing Meltzer and Keller (though obviously the former was first and Keller like many subscribed to the Observer before he started his own newsletter) but Alvarez really is a prat. He was attacking the WWE's 1998 shows as "no good" he's got a vendetta against Russo, etc. OK so does Cornette (understatement) and while that bothers me I actually like him and would prefer listening to him over Alvarez on most things. I don't dislike Paul Heyman but you never hear a word from him on how Heyman was lousy on the business end of things at times. It didn't help ECW it hindered it though obviously he's the one who pretty much elevated it in first place so... Meltzer of course prefers more wrestling (hence what's seen as his Japanese bias) but at least he's a bit fairer even if he didn't like the lack of emphasis on lengthier matches during that period. Nobody would say Raw had an abundance of great technical wrestling during that time though at that point it was alsp the only real presentation I knew. I don't mind longer matches (not like I hated Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, etc even if I actually only caught the end of Bret's WWE run and didn't watch WCW besides that Channel 5 farce) but they shouldn't be on Raw. I prefer Russo's shows and if you watch the recaps of the old Raw shows he wrote I agree with practically all of it. His analysis makes so much sense and people say the guy knows nothing? Rubbish. His 98/99 stuff had the right balance between regular matches and gimmick matches. That period for me gets nothing but the utmost praise only Breaking Bad comes close albeit different type of show. Maybe later on he went a bit more overboard at times but WCW 2000 is a better watch than much of what is put out now. Still haven't watched all of it or really watched any older shows for several weeks. Maybe I ought to get back to it. How anyone can think today's product is better is beyond me. I want to watch and like it. Not moan about it. Obviously my philosophies are not "workrate" and salivating over overrated "stars" like Owens but I can't watch 3 hours of this stuff. Don't think I watched one episode of Raw all year. Obviously I'm not a child now but missing an episode in 98/99 was devastating. It's unfortunate to lose so much interest in a show. Guess it reflects my football viewership in a way not that my disgust and frustration with wrestling comes close to those levels. Though I would say in the 90's (by that I mean 1997 to 99 because 97 is when I started watching it becoming subscribed to Sky Sports helped) wrestling was the highlight above anything else. Even football and I certainly didn't lack enthusiasm then. Of course I was aware that wrestling existed before that but my exposure was basically one video game. Which was a bit dated by 1997 so certainly didn't expect the swearing, violence, etc when I started watching actual real life shows. Obviously didn't put me off though! Lol. The Undertaker's wrestling next month isn't he? Might watch that. Really should have watched the Cena/Rusev stuff never know when his last might be.

I've been a member on the website before but never subscribed to print. Back issues mostly but there's only so many of those isn't there? Meltzer is fine in some aspects (as is Keller) but Alvarez is an obnoxious prat.

Pointless (and not very fun) fact: Vince Russo's references to "Meltzer Magoo" was my inspiration for "Mowbray Magoo". I haven't called him that for months though to be fair when the promotion challenge really started picking up steam...

Yes I know there's a considerable Hispanic population in Los Angeles ?. Apparently if you mention the name El Santo in Mexico his level of name recognition makes Dwayne Johnson look minor in comparison. Maybe there's some genius marketing NJPW certainly seen nothing marketing wise from ROH that explains that kind of crowd. I didn't think Jim Ross doing commentary on their US shows would have had this level of impact! ? Or Dave Meltzer breaking his star barrier for every Omega vs (who was it?) match. I watched one of them (first one I think) and didn't see why it merited 6 stars compared to some of those rated 5. Of course I haven't seen every single one besides those in WWE. I think the last one he rated 5 (in WWE) was Cena v Punk and didn't think it any better than that. Of course I've seen some of Ric Flair's stuff in the 80's. Pace is a bit too slow for my liking (in some cases it's too fast like a lot of this flippy independent stuff but fast paced brawling is usually good) but obviously things have changed since then. Not saying I have no interest in the matches but don't think any match on Raw should be longer than 12 minutes. That would only be the main event too if a match closed the show and even then it wouldn't always be 12 minutes. Admittedly if I was writing the show it would be 3 hours of 98/99 style (and to an extent 2000/01) mayhem and carnage that stuff never really got old for me. Better than watering stuff down that's for sure.

Sold out MSG correct? How many were comps? That said it's incredible that that many would attend even if all the tickets were free. Don't know how the hell they managed it will have to do some reading up on the whole thing. I think ECW's record (original obviously) might have been 6k or 7k. Was that non WWE 1993 show by any chance the Mexican promotion AAA? Sure I recall they drew a large crowd in Los Angeles around that time period.

I'm not sure how to explain a 36% rise and have no reason to try really. Still there's nothing that's put me on greater guard compared to this time last year or 2/3/4 years ago. Still there's obviously more basis in those stats than cherry picking two instances.

No there's people with barbed wire baseball bats round every corner and the hospital under siege with countless cases of GBH. All true and not based on a couple of sporadic outbreaks of violence which surely justifies the town being treated as some warzone. I'm a pretty cynical person but not without basis and the town really isn't some violent lawless desert. Seriously I don't think it's any less "safe" or "unsafe" for an adult (or any other age) than it's ever been in my lifetime. If you're scared to visit the area that's pretty pathetic. I wouldn't have any hesitation visiting London either (including last year) it's not like most people go there to strut around gang infested estates is it? If you want to talk about terrorism think about the odds of being caught up in an attack personally and show some common sense.

...and therefore something better left unsaid.

If ROVERS is in capitals (and therefore promotion emphasis) does that not lend some credence to my previous remarks on minimal acknowledgement of the opposition? ROVERS: League Cup R2 (subtitle date and location) would have been a better title. OK I'm a wannabe control freak/micro-manager (it's how I would insist on the club promoting games as far as FL/FA rules allow) which is quite understandable taking countless things into consideration but why promote such clubs in all due respect? Yeah it seems arrogant and it's not just L2 clubs but practically anyone barring a select few major clubs. Would say the same for the Championship fixtures so far this season. If Chris Sutton was still there out of special courtesy the situation would be different (to an extent) but he isn't. I could care less whether Lincoln has a cathedral to be honest what's that got to do with football or Rovers? I will add one fact though and that's "neither club is very popular in Shrewsbury in recent memory". ? Attendance: More than the the 2016 LC R2 game. NOTE-To be pedantic it's officially the "EFL Cup" now. Nothing against Carabao but it seems pretty stupid to say "Rovers won the Worthington Cup" in 2002 at this point.

The Attitude Era wasn't some staid, corporate, watered down environment. NXT to an extent could be seen as building more corporate puppets for control though not to the extent of what's being done with the women. There was no transition period and arguably no such era as "ruthless aggression" in my position which isn't to say it was bad. It was certainly far better than the current product which is just tiring to watch (and I usually don't) and stuff like the bloody "Hell in a Cell" logo is seen through by me in an instant. Wouldn't entirely rule it out (they can use fake blood not blading) and without wishing to seem like a vampire why do that sort of match without blood? I would rather scrap it than present something which is blatantly watered down (which they somehow achieved with an inferno match guess "first nosebleed" is the only thing still on the list) but I'll admit spectacle sometimes works out even without much substance. I don't mind cage matches but would rather they used the old "bar" cage than present watered down stuff and put all focus on winning by escape. There's no point doing regular mesh cage when the cell is around. Didn't Owens do a big fall from the top of a regular mesh cage recently as well? Benoit and Malenko drew sod all unless you count tons of negative publicity in the former's case. The Attitude Era also had certain intangibles which were so organic such as Vince turning heel on WWE television after 25+ years. Also there isn't as much stuff compared to them that hasn't been done though it's unfair to cast blame for that. Turn Cena heel? Not sure how they would explain it at this point and it's nothing like that. Hogan turning heel wasn't quite at Vince level (since they never really discussed turning Vince heel until shortly beforehand and mentioning his brief stint on Memphis Tv is a little pedantic albeit accurate) and what kind of background story do most wrestlers have now? It's not entirely their fault but it's less interesting than the background wrestlers had when WCW and before that territories etc were still around. While the WWE are certainly profitable it's not exactly seen as a "boom period" is it? I don't think wrestlers being so open on twitter, etc essentially hurts (though like Mick Foley I implore the Undertaker not to join twitter lol) but wrestling still has more emphasis on "in character" than most forms of entertainment. Are they still doing pink rope month? If it coincides with the cell show again can't they remove it for that one event lol? Nothing say hell like a pink rope! The only time a cage should have pink in is if somebody copies Bret Hart's ring gear.

No comment.

He wrestled under some other names as well before coming up with the Big Daddy idea. Really anything could be considered an update as far as in ring performance goes. Of course not all the wrestlers were like BD but obviously it's not gonna look like matches from the 60's and 70's. I imagine it's a form of "family safe" viewing probably with a lot of flippy floppy stuff and the usual brightly lit sets, etc. Obviously it's not gonna be barbed wire death matches on ITV but it's hardly "low rent" compared to "reality" shows with the main premise being who might sleep with each other. I did hear they used the "rounds system" that British Wrestling once used but not sure if that's been continued on the latest shows.

People still report on wrestling in this country at times as if younger people think about WOS. Most people would think about WWE now. WOS wrestling (they used to show repeats on wrestling channel) was boring and as for Big Daddy think it says more about the British public that he was ever popular. People moaned about Hogan in the 80's but bloody hell it was nothing on Big Daddy's scale for awful athleticism. He was also related to one of the promoter's and Giant Haystacks never was allowed to beat him. Obviously he had some ability to engage with the crowd but once again what does that say about the British public? Thing about the 70's and 80's is a lot of the Tv (albeit not speaking from perspective at the actual time) was overrated and there was a lot of rubbish. More boring perhaps than lowest common denominator rubbish but boring = rubbish. Granted some subjects are just very serious (hence why they are boring) but it's not good Tv. I didn't watch Summerslam but mostly read about the main event. 6 minutes is a bit too short for a PPV main event but of course many people didn't particularly want to see Reigns v Lesnar. Though the match itself (partly due to Stowman's involvement) sounds like they made it watchable. Lesnar's always watchable and Reigns isn't anywhere near as awful as some people think. If they want to talk about shoving corporate stuff down people's throats the women's stuff is worse.

...and as I pointed out in the PM Rovers fans apparently chanted about the death of a young Burnley player several years ago.What Oldjam says is absolutely right. I don't like those chants but look how many people participated in that racist Coyle chant which strangely continued after he walked out on the club for Bolton. Some of the people involved in those chants are thick sheep whereas others have a brain but still get caught up that kind of in behaviour. Is it truly evil and malicious? I'm not so sure. What I'm tired of is cheap point scoring and for several people that's what this is. I do note that you have criticised the Walker Family before and should have acknowledged that. A lot of people however don't preferring to see it as boring and pointless but are quick to like posts that point out Burnley fans being disrespectful. Let me ask which would Jack have been more bothered about? Would bet my life it wouldn't be those chants. Rovers fans probably won't chant about Mcilroy. Did Burnley fans chant about Ronnie Clayton? I doubt it. Jack was an influential presence (understatement alert) in living memory for a far greater number of people. If Dyche dies suddenly bet some Rovers fans would chant about it. Of course then it would be "oh they chant about Jack that's the only reason we are doing this". Tedious. Now I can't say for sure but wouldn't a playoff final, promotion securing games be bigger than the early rounds of the Europa League? I don't really think Trelleborgs was one of the biggest games in past 50 years (even at the time) though obviously this club has been in more title battles and late stages of cup competitions in same period. Not to mention in the 90's most games had a sense of magnitude that came with the ambition of the period driven by an owner with high expectations. Burnley losing to Watford (2 clubs likely to be midtable at best with FUP lessening impact of any possible takeover) not really high profile is it?

POINT SCORING TIME!!!! Time to use Jack as a point scoring card where Burnley are involved but never mention his family.

Well I doubt Anderson (or most agents) ever saw Blackpool as a cash cow. Asked if there was any truth in Coyle links several days back. Told there isn't. So much for him being the only candidate. Somehow think he would have been appointed by now if he was.

...as United's propaganda machine shoves down the throat as if a British footballer of any repute could be allowed to play anywhere else. Why should I put it any other way? Actually what I should have said is washed up, selfish drunk who wasted a transplant and practically gets a state funeral for it.