Very True

Here's a good one, found on today's page of my American football calendar.

It's a true or false statement: 

Two brothers won consecutive Super Bowl MVP awards.

Very true. Peyton and Eli Manning did it in 2007 and 2008 respectively. Or, if you want to go by the seasons they did it, 2006 and 2007 respectively.

I don't look to see the answer until the following morning. I know I won't have to tomorrow!

Back To Word Wipe

For the past fortnight, or so, I've found myself playing Word Wipe again.

It had been quite a while since I played this addictive game that I came across on YouTube.

I first wrote about it in March of last year. It got to the point where, if I was scrolling through the website - and came across Word Wipe - I'd think to myself 'okay, I'll play one round'.

But then I'd continue playing until the game ended!

I'm doing the same thing now. Over one year later. Such a fun game. 

I have a strategy in which I use the bomb if I have a few words left on the board in certain levels. You get double points for taking every tile away, so I always make sure to use the bomb in rounds where I sense I've done well with expensive words (points wise). 

Anyway, that approach has been less frequent during this current era of playing the game. I find that it's gotten harder to get to the point where I have the amount of tiles to drop the bomb.

I'm planning to go cold turkey soon. It won't be today because I've already played a few rounds before I started my day properly.

I still recommend giving it a go.

I Try Hot Kick Ketchup And Yellow Mustard McCoy's

On Thursday. I published a post noting I had become aware of a couple of new NFL-inspired flavours of KP's The Real McCoy's ridged crips.

I stated that I was going to keep an eye out for them. Well, the wait ended a couple of days ago. They were at Home Bargains.

I've tried the two flavours - Hot Kick Ketchup and Yellow Mustard.

Going in, I thought I'd prefer the mustard flavour better than the ketchup one. That wasn't how it played out, however.

Yellow Mustard was quite bland, if I'm to be straight up. It wasn't until I was three-quarters into the bag when I finally caught a hint of mustard.

I might have to give the flavour another go sometime in the future.

As for Hot Kick Ketchup - it had a strong tomatoey taste. It was reminiscent of a Polish tomato ketchup I bought from Asda recently. 

I'd go go so far as to state that it gives Walker's Tomato Ketchup flavour crisps a good run for its money. That's high praise - trust me.

This Could Be The Week...

This could very well be the week when I put the final touches to Taylor's Pro Football Gambling Annual 2026.

Most of the main part is done. I will now get to editing it (I know!) and then sort out the dimensions of the cover to create that.

The cover design was decided over a year ago. This annual was always going to be at least a two-book thing, so I made sure to have something ready for this year's version.

I wrote 'at least a two-book thing'... I've already have my mind set on what the cover of 2027 could look like!

Anyway, I have to go now. I have a book to finish.

The Hat-Trick

On Thursday afternoon, I was looking through Amazon's 99p deals on Kindle eBooks and came across one titled 'Mania'. Seeing that word made me stop to check whether it was a book about wrestling. I clicked on the cover to get a better look.

Nope. It's an autobiography written by Stuart 'Woody' Wood from the Bay City Rollers. 

I browsed on.

Later that night, I was in a name that tune trivia chatroom I play in and one of the people playing music happened to play a Bay City Rollers song for us to guess. I found it quite funny for one of the band's songs to come on a few hours after seeing that book.

Fast forward to yesterday morning

I received another free horse racing bet from Paddy Power. I could use the £1 to wager on any horse running at Epsom Downs on the Saturday card.

I did what I usually do with the free bets: I pick the first horse with a name which stands out to me. I have nothing to lose by doing that.

I looked through one race. Nada. I then clicked on the 2:40pm and one name caught my eye.

Bay City Roller!

After the coincidence of Thursday, it was a shoe-in. Four horseshoes-in at that.

I placed the bet and then went about my day. 

Oh, and I also told everybody at home about what I had done because I have been very fluky with these free bets lately.

By the afternoon, I had forgotten all about the bet. I came downstairs and my dad told me 'you're a lucky bugger'. 

Bay City Roller had won.

As always, I placed the bet each-way so I had a £6.88 return. 

I know hindsight is 20/20, but - after seeing the name of the horse which won the Epsom Derby - 'Christmas Day', I am quite sure I would have backed that name had I ventured further into the card.

But Bay City Roller it was. 

That was the third consecutive 'win' I've received from a Paddy Power free bet. All via the fluke of running with the first names which stood out.

Last month, I had been watching a video about Tommy Lister, who starred as Zeus in the Hulk Hogan movie - No Holds Barred. An hour or so later, when looking what to spend the £1 free bet on, I came across a horse named Zeus Olympios. 

It had a triple meaning to me. First, I had watched the Tommy 'Tiny' Lister clip on TAFKA Twitter earlier that day. Second - Zeus was one of my favourite Cardiff nightclubs during my misspent youth and third - I went to school with a couple of brothers with that surname.

The horse placed, so I won.. 35p! That's thirty-five pence from zilch.

The good run began with the craziest win, however. I wrote about it on April 12th, but I'll repeat it.

During Aintree, I was given a free £1 to wager on any of the races on the Friday meeting. Two names stood out, so I placed them in a 50p each-way double.

The horses were 'Jet to Vegas' and 'Indiana Jones'. The former stood out because it was a week before WrestleMania 42 from Las Vegas. You'll probably think I chose Indiana Jones because of the Harrison Ford character, but that's partially why. It's the nickname of the Indianapolis Colts' quarterback - Daniel Jones.

Jet to Vegas was 25/1 and Indiana Jones was 150/1. I genuinely didn't think they'd get anywhere, but....

....both placed returning me £185.

I'm now three for three in these free bets.

And very fluky.

A Match Made In Heaven II

Earlier today, I read that Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs' tight end - Travis Kelce -  are planning to get married at Madison Square Garden.

Interesting choice. That was my first thought. 

My second:

I've actually seen a wedding from MSG!

Yep - us wrestling fans witnessed the nuptials of 'Macho Man' Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth in the main event of SummerSlam 1991.

The ceremony was part of a double bill to end the World Wrestling Federation's summer extravaganza. 

Shortly before the wedding, Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior had beaten The Triangle of Terror (Sgt. Slaughter, General Adnan and Colonel Mustafa) in a handicap match refereed by Sid Justice. The bout was billed 'A Match Made in Hell'. Its counter - the wedding - was classed as 'A Match Made in Heaven'.

Everything went off without a hitch. Savage and Elizabeth were kayfabed married (they were a real-life husband and wife before the event). However, in the days which followed, WWF TV aired footage from the wedding reception. It was gate-crashed by Jake 'The Snake' Roberts and The Undertaker with the former having hidden a snake inside one of the presents Elizabeth opened.

Hopefully, if this MSG marriage does go ahead (and isn't tabloid gossip!), the couple will take care when opening their gifts.

Six Days

It's hard to believe that, this time next week, the 2026 World Cup would have started.

Over the past few days, I've thought about the last one. From late 2022. It genuinely seems like only a couple of years ago.

As I've written previous to today, I am unsure if I'm going to end up being all-in on the tournament this time. Some of the kick off times don't appeal to me at all. I feel like if I have to be invested, I need to watch everything I can. Those late games are simply not good for my body clock! 

(And yes, that last sentence was written by somebody who stays up late to watch WWE and NFL).

The good sign - I am writing about the World Cup with six days to kick off. I'm invested. Slightly.