Miller11

You can’t take the blanket statement that Cornette hates comedy as gospel. He has performed, booked and praised comedic elements frequently. He dislikes Omega for his match against a blow up doll. He dislikes Janela for having matches against the invisible man. He dislikes Joey Ryan for the dick flip. He dislikes Orange Cassidy for his entire routine. Dislike is not a strong enough word actually. He is furious about such things and holds a long lasting grudge. His explanation is that such things make a mockery of the wrestling business. I find all the above stupid and completely unentertaining, it doesn’t boil my piss like it does Cornettes, but then I haven’t worked 50 years in the business. There’s a world of difference between these sort of spots and the comedy aspects of the eras of the past though. He was asked specifically about some more comical aspects of the WWE when he was there (exactly what escapes me) and says he wasn’t crazy about them either. On the death match stuff, he has never liked hardcore wrestling, he calls people idiots who jump through light tubes or who injure themselves leaping off basket ball hoops (Marko Stunt), or use staple guns (Jimmy Havoc). It’s quite ironic that he brought New Jack to prominence in Smoky Mountain by telling him to “go out there and piss off white people” before he went to ECW. The Gangsters stuff was edgy as hell. His opinions on modern matches are much less vitriolic. His criticism is more constructive. People pick up on sound bites but he’s raved about PAC, Jericho, Cody, Hangman Page, Britt Baker, Nayla Rose, Awesome Kong, Dustin... he’s always been a fan of SCU, but hasn’t always thought their AEW matches were great. Sammy Guevara has clearly grown on him over the weeks. He describes Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus as stars, and says he’d love to work with Marq Quen and he would get him over as his champion. He said MJF was a better heel than even him, and there is something there with Darby Allen. There’s plenty of good stuff he says about all the above, but when he sees competitive matches between Mismatched opponents, matches going too long, people kicking out of ridiculously good moves only to be pinned by a lesser move later, rules and logic being defied, he calls it out because it’s not to his taste. The claims that he blindly hates are lazy.

I’m a big Cornette fan. I absolutely believe his joke was just outdated rather than with any racist intent. He is very scathing of those who he feels make a mockery of wrestling. Anyone who indulges in invisible hand grenades, dickflips and death matches has felt the sharp end of his tongue. He is critical of what he calls “cosplay video game wrestlers”, including, but not limited to The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega - he dislikes overly choreographed bouts with too much visible cooperation, too many false finishes and a lack of logic. He critiques these matches sometimes harshly, but consistently and thoughtfully. This has put him on a collision course with the very vocal (or at least twitter active) fans of these styles. He is of course massively outspoken and won’t back down from an argument. The narrative they like to peddle is that he is “toxic” and has no place in wrestling. Lagana addressed a twitter outrage a couple of weeks ago when he was accused of “mocking suicide victims” when someone unearthed a quote from a while back he has uses frequently before and since, namely that someone should be “took out into the parking lot and hung”, which is obviously just hyperbole. He was annoyed at the fact Lagana took it so seriously when he felt it was just a case of bandwagon jumping by his detractors. Apparently he told Lagana during a phone call after the Power commentary incident that “it wasn’t fun any more” and he basically didn’t want the hassle. I think there was also an element of annoyance that Lagana was scapegoating him having failed to pick up on it in post production. He certainly doesn’t need the money, and has for a long time said he will only take bookings that he will enjoy doing. He consulted with Tony Khan before AEW got going and told him “I’m the only person you can trust is telling you the truth because I’m not looking for a job”. It’s a shame for the fans who enjoyed his commentary, and anyone with a wrestling show really ought to try and pick his brains. NWAs first show with him gone was horrendous. His biggest crime was not understanding that he has pissed people off so much they would obviously claim to be outraged and offended.

Really enjoyed that. Thought we were better than Brentford, who are a very good side, on the night and thoroughly deserved the win. Graham needs to play. He does what he does so well and gives the three behind him so much freedom. I’m not a huge fan of Evans, but I thought he did great tonight. Rothwell was fantastic. Really ought to have scored but aside from that a near flawless performance. Nyambe going off injures was a bit of a gut punch, hope he’s back soon because there really ought not to be any question about who is our best right back. Downing proving to be a really shrewd signing. Armstrong still frustrates the hell out of me, but on the whole tonight was one of his better days. Would prefer a proper winger out there though. We also seemed to get the rub of the green today, the ball bounced kindly a few times and their shooting wasn’t quite there, but you make your own luck and I felt the performance definitely warranted a win. Sad seeing Raya playing for another team. Was never in favour of him being sold, and tonight just reaffirmed that. When Brereton makes these cameos it’s like watching soccer aid when Les Ferdinand goes off for Paddy McGuiness. Criminally bad signing.

I was almost at the stage where I was ready for a complete break from Wrestling. AEW annoys me far too frequently and I have this awful feeling it’s going to be a great big missed opportunity. The vitriol any valid criticism is met with, as well as the likes of Meltzer and Zane showing ludicrous bias is tiresome. My favourite brand of late, NWA power, has killed itself completely, tonight’s show being absolute evidence. But Survivor series really pulled out all the stops. Genuinely exciting and progressive. I hope it’s a sign of things to come and not a short lived reaction.

. Leutweiler Nyambe Adarabioyo Lenihan Bell Rothwell Travis Holtby Downing Dack Graham Hilton, Bennett, Rankin-Costello, Johnson, Samuel, Brereton, Buckley

I’m really happy today. My scorecast came in at £150/1. I thought we would surely win at home against a massively struggling team, but was positive we’d make heavy weather of it. If We lost Dack for any length of time I think we are bang in trouble.

Nyambe being “under the weather” and “not in particularly good nick” is code for “obviously Bennett would be at right back even if we had a fully fit Cafu in his prime”

The Brentford one is worth a look.

Fucking hell, with Mowbray’s obsession with putting people where they shouldn’t go he will want the away fans in the Riverside one week, then move them to the Jack Walker for the first 20 minutes of the next game before finishing up on the Blackburn end roof.

At the last consultation meeting the issue of maintenance came up. Waggott basically said it cost too much to do it too often, and mentioned a multi year plan.

The personal abuse in some of these posts is bang out of order. Simon has come on here and put his side across - fair play to him. The attacks are unfair and don’t do the image of this forum any good, and at a point in time where there is a fair amount of criticism directed the way of it anyway. I used to enjoy Simon’s column, I accept his opinion currently differs from mine, but some of the stuff on here is too far. I really enjoy everything he writes in 4,000 holes, where by the sounds of things his hands are far less tied.

I caught the train at about 10:15 as I couldn’t be bothered waiting around for another hour. I’d had enough by then. Interesting you were bored. I have come to the conclusion that, by and large, WWE is boring, and AEW is frustrating.

“How important is one player missing for six weeks? Pretty important I’d say when he’s your main defender. We’re trying to get by. Nyambe is a young boy who is doing his very best.” Piss off Mowbray. Nyambe is nearly 22, a full international and has nearly a hundred appearances for the club. He’s been treated pretty shabbily for the last year and this isn’t the first time Mowbray has appeared to blame him. Can’t comment on the Leeds game, but I thought Nyambe did great against Wednesday. Against Huddersfield he was great, in his actual position. As has been mentioned already, Lenihan is injury prone, and him being out for 6 weeks should shock no one. He’s also nowhere near as good as Mowbray is making out.

From people in the club. Don’t ask who, because I’m not enough of a dick head to tell you. Cant you? I’m not surprised. I can’t see that our entire defence and all our goalkeepers combined cost as much as Dominic Samuel.

I’ve been very vocal about the fact I believe this sort of policy to be the case for a long time. Before Mowbray came along. The last couple of years have just made me believe it even more. I’ve gone into detail before about the fees involved in signing defenders. Scott Dann is rightly pointed out as the one major fee that has gone on defensive reinforcements. He was a last minute buy in silly season following N’Zonzi starting the season at centre half, and they lost a fortune on him. Perhaps the approach was a little different when Kean and his agent were around. Since then we haven’t paid more than £250k for a defender. We have picked up several freebies, converted several midfielders, borrowed, and relied heavily on the academy, and since Samba, Nelsen, Salgado, Jones and Givet were jettisoned for varying fees and in various farcical circumstances, we’ve had a defence lacking in both depth and quality. Add to this the early claptrap the lunatics came out with about “exciting attacking young players”. It also ties in to things I hear from people who work at the club. If anyone believes that Venkys or their “trusted advisors” haven’t had input in signings, you’re deluded. If you believe this isn’t still happening you are, in my opinion, naive. I’m not suggesting there is a written rule that states “DEFENDERS SHALL NOT BE PURCHASED”, but there is plenty to suggest that funds are not made available for players who don’t fit a certain profile. I’ve asked Mowbray, Waggott and Cheston about this pretty directly. Of course they denied it. Probably the thing that convinced me there’s something to this more than anything is having heard Mowbray at the last consultation meeting. He ridiculed his defenders and spoke so passionately in the now infamous “defenders are coming” speech. I honestly can’t see how anyone who witnessed that (nevermind the additional conversations at the end of the meeting) can believe for a minute he just changed his mind. There are plenty of reasons to despise Venkys without the need for a fictitious stick. I’d call this a theory with a fair bit of evidence to suggest it’s true. Oh, and from what I hear, it extends to goalkeepers too.

January. Very clever. ”Tony, I thought you said defenders were coming?” ”Oh, We nearly got Bauer, but never mind, just you wait til the end of this month. There’s money to spend. The owners are very supportive” Plenty of people will absolutely lap this up. Anything other than blind acceptance of this will be spun to be negative, impatient and unrealistic. When we line up against Middlesbrough on the first of February with a back four containing Bennett, Lenihan, Williams and either Adarabioyo, Nyambe or Bell, and fluke a 0-0, all we will hear is how anyone who thought we needed new defenders rather than the 3 midfielders we will inevitably bring in is an idiot. Two games (and about 5 goals conceded) further down the line the argument will be along the lines of “Well, who could we have got? We tried our best to get Bauer in the Summer!”. This will continue until Downing is firmly entrenched at left back, where his continued inclusion will be justified come May when he provides the assist as Ben Brereton opens his account for the season against Luton... “I love his versatility, that’s what Stewart Downing brings at full back”.

Yep. You won’t find a bigger fan of Mark ATKINS than me. Definitely a great player, instrumental in our title win, and under appreciated. So much so I’d always make sure I bother to spell his name correctly. I didn’t hear him claim that a German international wasn’t a Championship level central midfielder on commentary today. What I did hear ATKINS say is that him and Tim Sherwood managed to play in a two in midfield and that it wasn’t rocket science - If one went the other stayed, hinting at the fact he thought the system was needlessly complicated. On Evans, I see a limited defensive midfielder. Not useless, but not great. I’ve seen Nyambe play the entire right hand side of the pitch, several false 9s at a time, a back 4 with wing backs “2 and a half strikers”, no strikers, 1 midfielder, a target man on the wing, and all sorts of other over complicated nonsense. You are talking about a man who has named an unchanged lineup once all season. Burnley play it. Leicester won the league with it. Liverpool don’t, but Adam Armstrong isn’t Mo Salah. I can name literally hundreds of players I think we should’ve signed.

That’s your opinion. In mine Raya is 10 times the keeper Walton is. Raya’s continued mistakes don’t seem to be doing Brentford much harm - I presume he is still making the same top drawer saves he used to as well. If Holtby isn’t a Championship central midfielder then Bennett and Evans are not North West Counties central midfielders. Personally I think he’d be absolutely fine and more than capable there in a proper 442 instead of this stupid nearly formation Mowbray plays. Swap Byram and Jansson for any number of players and you’ve got a top 6 back 4, not sure what your point is apart from saying you think they are better than Bennett and Lenihan, which isn’t hard.

. Raya Nyambe Bauer Adarabioyo Cunningham Rothwell Travis Holtby Downing Dack Graham That’s a top 6 team for me. Bauer Surprising me by looking a real signing for North End. The loss of Cunningham is unfortunate, the lack of a better centre back and replacing Raya with Walton is negligent. Constantly picking underperformers over good players is infuriating. Playing players out of position is stupid.

Heard the argument again that Gallagher is still a young lad learning the game. He is the same age Shearer was when we win the league.

I fully expect the narrative of the next couple of weeks to be making out that Lenihan and Brereton returning from injury will be an end to all our problems. Of course it won’t be anything of the sort. We will stumble on until January picking up the odd result along the way, and be told there is money to spend. We’ll all be disappointed when it isn’t. We will do well not to be drawn into a relegation battle with a weaker back line than the one which went on that abysmal run last year and a bunch of misfiring forwards.

Armstrong would have to lose a leg to not play every minute of every game. Mowbray is utterly obsessed with him. A liability on the pitch for me, and a complete tosser off it from what I hear.

Just on my way back from Manchester. Sacrificed seeing the fiend to save waiting an hour for the next train. Enjoyable, but 4 hours is a long slog. I think from what I saw in person both Raw and Smackdown should be solid if unspectacular. Highlights for me: seeing Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster on the big stage, Randy Orton and Charlotte Flair - both just megastars, Fury was fun, and Walter. Rovers shirt representing on the front row, along with Elliott Bennett’s best pal.

Not heard of that Joe, but I think I’ll give it a whirl. Who hosts it? I listen pretty religiously to Cornette and Prichard’s and fairly often to Bischoff’s. A couple of BritWres ones too. Like a good podcast!

Hearing very good things about Cody’s promo on AEW this week, looking forward to seeing that. A mate of mine has managed to get me a comp ticket to the WWE tapings in Manchester tomorrow, so I’m going to have to do some catching up before then.