Sami Does It

The conclusion of last night's WWE Night of Champions event was very newsworthy.

In the main event, Sami Zayn defeated Cody Rhodes (and Gunther) in a triple threat match to become Undisputed WWE Champion.

It's such a brill underdog story both in fiction and reality. I am very happy for him.

With that said, I feel the moment would have been a tad better had it happened a few years ago when the Sami Zayn iron was hot. 

Still, this win was in front of a Saudi audience that has taken to Zayn due to his Arab roots.

12-0

If I had a fever last night, which I didn't, I would have had a reasonable excuse to explain away one of the silliest things I am about to write.

I switched the Uruguay versus Spain game on before I fell asleep. I had the sound muted so wouldn't have heard anything (obviously!). In the middle of the night, I woke up in one of my heat exhausted states, in need of water, so I picked myself up and grabbed my bottle. As I took a few gulps, I looked over at the TV. I saw the score as Uruguay 0 Spain 12.

'Wow,' I thought. I then laid my head back down on the pillow.

It wasn't until this morning, whilst looking through the other overnight scores, realisation struck. Spain could have only been 1-0 up when I glimpsed at the TV.

1-0 Spain was the final score.

I blame the heat.

Or not having my glasses on.

Either way - it was silly for me to even accept such a scoreline.

Red Heat

The red heat warning has continued. 

Even though we had a bit of rain (and thunder) last night, the humidity was still off the charts. In fact, I felt  last night was worse than Wednesday and that's actually not factually true because Wednesday's weather was the hottest on record for Cardiff.

Think of the timing for this - I woke up and needed some fresh air, so I went out my back. As soon as I was outside, the rain came down and thunder began to rumble. Perfect timing, or what?

I hope things cool down soon.

Christmas Countdown

The reminder has just gone off on my phone.

'Six months until Christmas'.

Wow. 

You can also read that another way - it has been six months since last Christmas.

We're still in this darn heatwave. Christmas seems such a long way away. And when I write that, I mean 2025 and 2026!

Heatwave

It's another hot one today.

See?

It's so bad that around one thousand schools have been closed. That's somewhat crazy to consider. That would have never happened back in my day. Snow? Yes. Heat? Absolutely not.

We live in a peculiar age for sure.

Shift One

1996 had a couple of big moments which shifted the direction of professional wrestling towards where we are now. 

Hulk Hogan's heel turn, and formation of the New World Order, at WCW Bash at the Beach 1996 will have its thirtieth in a fortnight from now.

First, we must celebrate the moment 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin ascended to his throne as the biggest star in wrestling history.

Kinda.

Thirty years ago tonight,  Austin won the 1996 WWE King of the Ring tournament by beating Jake 'the Snake' Roberts in the finals. Earlier in the evening, he had done away with 'Wildman' Marc Mero.

The bouts were eclipsed by Austin's excellent coronation speech. After mentioning the born-again Roberts' turn to religion, the new King of the Ring uttered words that ended up making him millions.

Talk about your psalms, talk about John 3:16... Austin 3:16 says I just whipped your ass

The promo, as I stated already, was excellent. However, revisionist history would lead you to believe that WWE jumped on the Austin bandwagon immediately afterwards. That's far from the truth.

The company was still being built around Shawn Michaels, who was - at that time - feuding with the British Bulldog. Vader and Sid were queued up after Davey Boy.

King of the Ring winners were prominently giving spotlights on the SummerSlam cards following their wins. 

In 1993, Bret 'Hitman' Hart wrestled Jerry 'The King' Lawler in a grudge match. A year after that, Bret's brother - Owen - winner of the '94 tournament, challenged Bret for the WWF Championship inside a steel cage. SummerSlam 1995 had King Mabel up against the WWF Champ - Diesel.

Who did Austin wrestle at SummerSlam 1996? Yokozuna in a dark match. He wasn't even booked on the main card.

What saved Austin from floundering in WWF's booking was Bret Hart's autumn '96 return. Hart picked Austin as his first opponent following his post-WrestleMania XII hiatus.

That, added to the King of the Ring promo, is what led to Austin's star rising. 

Sure, you can pinpoint thirty years today as being when the business began its shift. However, don't kid yourself into believing it happened overnight.

I shudder to think what could have happened had Bret Hart chose somebody else.

Starmer Resigns

It happened.

Keir Starmer has resigned as British Prime Minister.

I try not to write much about politics, but - browsing through social media this morning - I couldn't help but notice a lot of people sharing the sentiment that Stamer was 'the worst PM'. 

He wasn't. In my opinion, of course.

One of the things I'll remember about Starmer's premiership concerns how he led his country in a time of worldwide unrest. From my limited view, I believe he fared well in that facet of his job.