Kropotkin's Beard

I know everyone has already laid into you for having an opinion, but could you clarify just what it is you're talking about? These aren't real criticisms, like "the way he speaks takes me out of the moment, not what he is saying." What would you have him do differently, aside from lose weight, shave and laser off his tattoos? TL;DR version: I don't care for this gimmick. I don't see any flexibility or longevity. I just see three guys with beards with clothing way too clean lookin' to be some backwoods jerk offs. And that prevents you from enjoying the matches happening? I mean does every gimmick need longevity? Can't we just have fun today? Also, they may live in the backwoods but I think they still spend time in the WWE locker room. Maybe there's a washing machine/tumble dryer combo there. And I don't think Bray should have manky clothes, the other two perhaps but Bray is this charismatic preacher of the end times, I think he should wear clean shirts.

So what you're saying is you desperately miss CM Punk?

Really, that's what you see? So if you don't like the Wyatts I guess I want to know what you do like in wrestling because I'm confused.

I was going to say exactly the same thing. Decided after Starcade '83 to watch the first RAW and I have no idea who that dude but his shtick is intolerable. Actually some of his terrible jokes remind of Lawler from Raw last night. "I suppose there is no Japanese word for leftover Vince" is one particularly rotten line. And he kept saying Vince which was oddly annoying, you just don't say a guys name that often when you talk to them.

That was the error I was getting before I started using a proxy. No idea what you can do there. I'm a bit sad there's no Eddie Gilbert, King of Philadelphia era ECW TV up yet, nor any of the pre-PPV supercards, but it does seem a bit churlish to complain when you're still left with a difficult choice of what to watch next. On the other hand, Tod Gordon has just appeared on screen and is an utterly abysmal actor so that is fun.

Use a VPN service. I'm deciding which one to go with for the next six months. Anyway, for those outside of the United States, here's a guide: www.thewrestlingmania.com/articles/columns/access-wwe-network-outside-usa/ I believe with most of those services, you can change your game machine's DNS settings and use it on that too. Yup, you can do that on the PS3. I was sitting watching Barely Legal until Raw started. I'm like a giddy child right now. Which VPN do you use? I'm using http://www.unblock-us.com/ mainly because they have a weeks free trial. Which kind of lines up perfectly!

Use a VPN service. I'm deciding which one to go with for the next six months. Anyway, for those outside of the United States, here's a guide: www.thewrestlingmania.com/articles/columns/access-wwe-network-outside-usa/ I believe with most of those services, you can change your game machine's DNS settings and use it on that too. Yup, you can do that on the PS3. I was sitting watching Barely Legal until Raw started. I'm like a giddy child right now.

The first live match on the UFC Fight pass was Russell Doane vs Leandro Issa. I'm not even sure what the WWE equivalent of that would be.

Nevermind. It works now. Ended up, rather than dawdling over what to watch, settled for Barely Legal 97. I never got to see very much ECW at the time, and I realise it was kind of a spotty mess, but I'm sort of just going "holy shit" a lot at some of the stuff Kronus and Saturn do. This is going to be fun. So much fun. Music and books can take a long walk off a short pier.

Zooey Deschanel? Just make sure it's raining. You might need to check your phone and order some soup. It's Scotland, it is almost certainly going to rain tomorrow.

Yes, there is something about that which is rather darkly funny. I think it is the appearance of the word "accidentally".

Yeah, I guess they've finally gotten around to blocking foreign IPs from connecting. It plays the "this may not be suitable" message, then the "TV-PG" or whatever notice and then just throws up one of a couple of errors. Not unexpected, but still rather disappointing. I mean the internet is an international thing, the WWE is a global company, and our money is as good as any other buggers. Oh well, guess my day off tomorrow will have to be back to the original plan of sitting around, listening to vinyl and reading. Not quite as much fun.

This wouldn't surprise me. It would frustrate me slightly, but at least there was the free trial. Otherwise I'd be stuck with 6 months of paying for a service I can't use.

Since someone said that you can just lie about where you live and still get signed up I decided to give it ago. Can get logged in but regardless of what browser I use I just get a "Media Error: Video Not Available" message. Can't even watch Vince welcoming me to the Network. Will give it a try on Xbox 360 & PS3 later on though, as I think I've seen others having problems from PC.

I want to point out that I've never said Bryan is being buried. Never. I am somewhat...worried is too strong a word, but part of me still expects us to end up with Kane vs Bryan at Wrestlemania, which will mean the whole plot going back to Orton's cashing in of Money In The Back after Bryan won the title will have been a waste. If it ends with Bryan having his Wrestlemania moment then I'm going to agree with it being an excellent story, but to be frank, I'm not judging the quality of the entire story until it has played out. The ending still has the potential to have made the chase pointless. And that would be annoying. And yes, the WWE is great right now from an in-ring perspective. I'm happy watching the show regardless of how the stories go, so don't confuse frustration/cynicism with the story as not enjoying things.

Well, no. He should have won it months ago. When, exactly? And then who chases Bryan after that? And where does that get you in terms of building to WrestleMania? I misspoke. What I should have said is he probably should not have lost it to Orton seconds after he won it, and then get brushed aside. Or he should have won it at HIAC when Michaels turned on him. As for what Look, don't get me wrong, I enjoy Bryan chasing the title, but then I've not really gotten to see him be chased with it in the WWE so...I don't fantasy book, but who would I have chase him? Cesaro. I'm mean if I'm going to book things then lets just totally selfish. A several month long Bryan-Cesaro program would be awesome to me. Where does it get me for Wrestlemania? I don't know. I don't know where last nights finish has got us for Wrestlemania yet either. If it ends up Kane vs Bryan then sorry, that's unsatisfying. And I think it's not this totally unreasonable thing to have a little cynicism about the WWE's booking. My issue is more one of a lack of confidence in the WWE to actually pull the trigger and then give him a chance to run with the ball (ugh, shitty mixed metaphors) , rather than cutting him off at the knees. It's great you are optimistic and cheery about everything, and I don't criticise you for it, but at the same time you can surely understand why others who don't share your outlook would be a bit less keen to give the WWE the benefit of the doubt.

Well, no. He should have won it months ago.

I loved that spot, Goldust goes low, Cody goes high. And then it instantly went to a pointless "commercial" break. Which was very annoying

Holy shit that is wonderful. And DeeDee staring on in stoned amazement in your signature only adds to it.

If WWE were contractually obligated to give Batista a title win at Wrestlemania, do you still want Bryan in the match even if it means he eats the pin, or would you be okay with giving him an opportunity to have a show-stealing match (so maybe not against Kane or HHH) if he was going to be scheduled for a title feud against a heel-turned Batista? Batista vs Bryan could be entertaining. I mean the crowd would give a shit about a Batista match for a change, in fact the heat would be pretty good. Would I prefer a 30 minutes Bryan-Cesaro match? Yeah, but I don't really think that's a possibility at this point. I'm not massively fussed though in all honesty. Whatever he's involved with will end up being, at worst, good. Even if he loses. Again.

Although he did predict that Ambrose would eat the pinfall. Actually, Ambrose was really odd in that match. I mean other than vanish into the crowd I don't really remember him doing much other than being super angry and starting the brawl at the very beginning, and coming in a few times during the match and punching dudes before quick tagging out again. Is my memory playing tricks on me? (It's past 4am, I'm allowed to have a crummy memory)

That six man tag match. Yikes. I had high expectations going in and yeah, that really was fucking great fun, Met those expectations and then some. Wild brawl, some great moments (hard to pick out any one thing but I guess Harper's suicide dive was pretty nutty). Chamber, well, it was great as well. Wrestling fans inability to count full rotations continues to irk me (you don't count the number of seconds he's spinning!) but ignoring that very minor detail, I liked the Brogue Kick into the pod, I thought the spot where Cesaro was about to swing Christian only for Cena to come in with a cross body, catapulting Christian up onto the turnbuckle was super rad...fuck, I'm going to just end up listing about half the match. It was chock-full of really great moments. The ending was a bit less cool, but I will say that they totally got me when Bryan kicked out of the RKO the first time, I thought that he was on for the win. I'd say that I have no interest in Bryan vs Kane if it happens, and I'd prefer him to be in that main event title match obviously, but I can't think of many things involving Bryan that I wouldn't be into. And if instead of a Kane series it leads to his inclusion in the main event, well that's OK by me. But you do have to think that, hot as Bryan is, if they don't pull the trigger on him soon it'll be a wasted opportunity. Also, it'll probably get lost in the talk of the 6 man tag and the main event, but I've just remembered the awesome double dive to the outside from the Rhodes Brothers in the pre-show. Goldust is just really bloody good, somehow he refuses to bow to age. And yes, the fact they actually chanted "Bootista" was pretty funny. I like that Batista is so unpopular that he convinced the crowd to cheer for Del Rio like no crowd has ever cheered before.

Oh Scott Steiner. Any time TNA gave him a mic it was at the very least fun to hear. I still fondly remember the promo for a PPV match between him and Samoa Joe, which basically consists of Steiner calling Joe "a half-breed" and fat a lot. But somehow it manages to be really captivating and makes me want to see the match. Found it, it's for Slammiversary 2007

Unless you live outwith North America. Now I haven't looked at the exact numbers, but I think that's a lot of people.

Probably something from the WCW/NWA library, as I've seen very little from that era.