WWE-ilmaaaaaaaaa!

I was looking at the WWE share price on my iPhone this past Wednesday and there was a press release available concerning WWE's upcoming venture.

And I do not blame you for thinking this is an April 1st blog post.

According to the press release - World Wrestling Entertainment and Warner Brothers are working on a Flintstones movie that will feature the stars of WWE.

Yes, you read that right.

I was aware that the company are currently producing a Scooby-Doo cartoon with WWE wrestlers in it so the latest title is another attempt to use synergy with another brand to attract a new audience.

Bret Hart Appreciation Night

If you watched WWE Raw on Monday night, you'll more than likely be aware that the company hosted a Bret Hart Appreciation Night once the cameras stopped rolling.

The small ceremony was available live to viewers via the much advertised WWE App.

I never watch Raw live so did not download the app and watch the 'exclusive' extra. However, I did manage to watch it via the WWE website the following day.

It was what you would expect from one of these things.

Bret was introduced by Jerry 'The King' Lawler. Then other names like Pat Patterson, Chris Jericho, Shawn Michaels and Vince McMahon came out to honour the former triple crown champion.

At the end, the rest of the WWE roster came out onto the stage to show their respect.

The show was live from Hart's home city of Calgary, Alberta, Canada hence the reason for the event. The city also named the day 'Bret Hart Day' to recognise what he has done for the area.

No Respect

Roberto Martinez walked out on Wigan Athletic yesterday after a season where he guided the team to the FA Cup.

Oh, and also relegation from the Premier League.

At the time of typing this, it's looking more than likely that he will be taking David Moyes' place at Everton

Quite a classless move, where I am sitting.

He should have stayed at Wigan for at least the remainder of his contract (one year left) and see if he could return the team to the top flight.

Apparently, he doesn't feel he is the man to do that.

If that's the case, I don't think he is the man to get Everton into Europe.

Who Copied Who? What Copied What?

I finished reading Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games over the weekend and was slightly surprised at the end of the book where the author revealed how she came up with the idea of the story.

You see, as I was reading the novel, I couldn't help but feel that there were elements taken from  Battle Royale..

Battle Royale is a Japanese story about a class of school children who are placed on an island to battle each other to the death. In The Hunger Games, two children from twelve different districts are placed in a futuristic reality show to fight each other until there is a sole survivor.

Like I noted, there were many more similarities if you compare the two stories so it was quite puzzling to read that Collins came up with the idea of the book after watching television and seeing the contrast between a reality series on one channel and actual coverage of war on another.

I had a look at the reaction to The Hunger Games on the Internet and there are a lot of websites and message boards reacting to the similarities.

For the record - when I first watched Battle Royale, my initial thought was 'this is like The Running Man'. Only a few years ago, I watched the WWE movie The Condemned and I felt 'this is like Battle Royale'.

Upon further reflection, I should have gone further back in history and decided that all these stories and films were reminiscent of the Roman Empire and how they found entertainment sending gladiators to compete in an arena.

Champions League Victory

My final bet of the current season was a winner.

Paddy Power had offered me a free £5 bet once I had staked five pounds on something this weekend. So, for those keeping record, it wasn't a free lunch as such. I bought one meal and got the second for free.

I placed both the real and the complimentary five pounds on there being over two-and-a-half goals in the Champions League final.

It wasn't looking good for all of the first half but things picked up in the second half. Arjen Robben made it 2-1 to Bayern Munich in the eighty-ninth minute. He won it for both myself and his team.

The bet returned £11.66.

 £6.66 profit. Is that evidence to prove that gambling really is the Devil's game?

2 Facts Of The Day

I was listening to the Clips of the Week from TalkSport radio station yesterday and there was an interesting fact on it.

There have been 838 managerial appointments across the 91 football league clubs since Arsene Wenger took over at Arsenal.

That is quite a lot, eh?

Imagine what kind of number they would have arrived at if they did the same claculations since the day Alex Ferguson took over at Manchester United.

And I'd also like to point out one final fact of the day:

There is no way I'm going to work out how many managerial appointments there have been during Alex Ferguson's reign at Old Trafford.

Showing Attitude

I was on YouTube this past Thursday evening and the suggested video feature had the latest WWE DVD - The Attitude Era.

The user had uploaded the documentary portion of the DVD. It lasted a little under one hour and was a fun watch.

As the title indicates, the film is about the World Wrestling Federation from around late 1997 all the way to 2001 where the Attitude Era is argued to have ended.

The Attitude Era was such a great time to be a professional wrestling fan. I really enjoying seeing some of those memorable moments all over again with the added talking heads who are featured in it.

The most noteworthy part of this production of this DVD is that the scratch WWF logo airs as it did back then. Footage bearing the logo had to be blurred in videos produced after the World Wrestling Federation lost a high court ruling to the World Wildlife Fund for Nature in 2002. This loss resulted in the WWF changing its business name to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).

If you have a spare hour - and if you can find it - it's worth looking out for on YouTube.

Sickening

The murder of Lee Rigby in Woolwich two days ago was one of the most sickest things I have ever read about.

It was such an appalling and tragic act.

I often wonder what goes through people's heads when they do heinous things like this in the name of religion.

Thoughts On Mick McManus

I wasn't alive during the height of Mick McManus' wrestling career. That's not to say I hadn't heard about it, though.

He was television's most famous wrestler at a time when satellite and cable TV were things of the future. Hell, even Channel 4 was still a long way off.

I grew up during the days of Big Daddy and Giant Haystacks. I believed that these two behemoths were household names.

And they were.

It's just that McManus was there first.

Arrow Gets A Thumbs Up

I thought the series Arrow was brilliant.

The programme, based on the DC Comics character - Green Arrow, aired on Sky One since last year and the final episode of the current season ended this past Monday night.

Thankfully, a second season has been given the green light and will be on TV over here later this year.

The Extreme Rules Fix Was In

As I didn't watch WWE's Extreme Rules pay-per-view on Sunday night, the first thing I did yesterday morning was check out the results.

One of the things that grabbed my attention in the report I read involved gambling on WWE.

Apparently, there had been a lot of money wagered on the bout between Alberto Del Rio and Jack Swagger since Saturday night.

The line moved to favour Del Rio winning after the original finish of Jack Swagger was reversed.

The storyline finish saw Swagger win through cheating, the referee watched a replay and restarted the match. Del Rio was victorious.

A number of years ago, I felt cheated out of a betting win where the original outcome of a match was reversed. Since then, the US betting site that takes WWE wagers changed its rules to take into account the possibility of a reversed decision.

It looks like this has backfired on them.

It's obvious that somebody in the know was behind the big bets on the finish.

On My List

One of the things I'll be doing today is getting my hands on the new Daft Punk album.

I've been a fan of the French house music duo since their 1997 Homework album. The 2001 follow-up, Discovery, was absolutely amazing.

I was very disappointed in their most recent album - Human After All - so the album that is coming out today can either make things better or a hell of a lot worse.

I know we shouldn't judge a book by its cover but the album title itself is clever.

Random Access Memories.

With a unique title like that - it has to be good, right?

3 Mins

Three minutes. If that.

That's all it took for me to get tired of Britain's Got Talent last night.

I haven't watched the programme for a few years and had no intention of following it this year, either. I just happened to see it on when I was in the living room so sat down on the sofa to see what was going on.

The problem I have complained about in the past was even more prominent in the few minutes I watched.

It is about the judges more than the talent.

The act I happened to catch was a magician in a pink suit and he was about to make a lady levitate. In the short time this man was on the stage, the camera must have jumped to the judges and back to the act at least four times.

I didn't even see him start. I picked myself up and left the room.

It's that easy. If I don't like something, I leave.

I'm sure I'll be back in 2014 with another Britain's Got Talent gripe.

My Take On How The Austin Aries Controversy Was Handled

I never watch TNA Wrestling. I read about what is going on in the promotion but hardly ever find the strength to go out of my way to watch an episode or pay-per-view event.

I ended up having to watch something from TNA this week, though.

There was a lot of talk about what Austin Aries did to Christy Hemme. I wanted to see it for myself and gauge my own opinion.

For those that do not know, Hemmer was doing the ring introductions. She made a mistake by calling Aries, and his tag team partner, Bobby Roode by their opponents name. Aries picked up his pace and walked into the ring and cornered Hemme. He got her to say their names correctly then - with Hemme stuck between Aries and the turnbuckles - the wrestler climbed to the second rope raising his arms in the air and with his crotch in Hemme's face.

Hemme made a nervous laugh and continued doing what she was doing. Later that night, someone had tweeted her asking about the situation. Her response was simple.

Unacceptable.

The tweet was deleted not so long afterwards.

If this were any other profession, you would expect some kind of punishment levied to Aries for such an act.

It took a lot of criticism until TNA addressed the situation. Dixie Carter went to Twitter to inform her followers that the company takes actions like that seriously and that they dealt with the matter immediately.

Problem is - this Tweet was sent five days after the incident. Not fast enough, in my opinion.

And to those who will say I am in the wrong, you only need to read what Aries had written in the hours, and days, following the incident. He was defending himself and claiming he was the victim.

That's not the actions of somebody who had immediately had his knuckles wrapped and forced to apologise.

It's moments like this that reinforces why I cannot follow TNA. I would call it a Mickey Mouse organisation but that would be insulting to Disney.

Bye Bye Beckham

This is the post where I am supposed to tip my hat to David Beckham, I suppose.

In my opinion, he was a very good player who is a better brand name.

That's a compliment, right?

'No Championship Or Survival Sunday.. What Are We Gonna Do?'

With the third - and final - Premier League relegation position being sewn up by Wigan Athletic and the Manchester United title crowning taking place on the penultimate game week of the season, the Premier League chiefs appear to be in a spot where they have to think of a good storyline for this coming weekend's finale.

And they found it in the unlikely event of Arsenal and Chelsea both finishing the weekend on the same goal difference and points.

According to The Sun yesterday, the Premier League are hoping that Arsenal don't win 2-1 against Newcastle and Chelsea's game against Everton ends a 0-0 draw because it will mean both The Gunners and The Blues will have to face-off in a third and fourth place decider.

This is quite the non-story, in my opinion. Just something to sell interest in the final set of games.

And if it weren't - shouldn't other things be taken into account? You know, like goals against or, better yet, which team out of the two has the better head-to-head results.

If we used my logic (also known as 'common sense'), Chelsea would win as they have beaten Arsenal both home and away this year.

Walkers Tiger Nuts

I've noticed a lot of online and radio advertising for Walker's new Tiger Nuts so decided to buy a packet (or two) just to see what they were like.

I bought the Smoky Bacon and Salt & Vinegar flavours and - at the time of this getting published - I've only tried the former.

They weren't too bad.

I'll probably try the other two flavours (Chilli and Curry) if I get a chance.

The reason why I am mentioning them in today's post is because it took me a while to figure out how great the logo is.

I knew they were called 'Tiger Nuts' and had seen the logo on the advertising. I had even noticed it on the packets but it took me a while to figure out the clever work that has gone in to making the tiger face out of the wording.

A Lesson For Mancini

Roberto Mancini's sacking from his job at Manchester City was - in my opinion - disrespectful yet unsurprising.

According to reports, the Italian felt he was 'stabbed in the back' by the City hierarchy after Malaga boss - Manuel Pellegrini - was courted as his replacement without his knowledge.

It seems to be a case of  'what goes around comes around'.

Mancini was in Pellegrini's position a number of years ago when he was negotiating a deal to come in and replace Mark Hughes.

I was appalled at the way Hughes was treated back then (I am sure I wrote about it on here). After winning the Premier League title last year,  as well as winning the FA Cup a year before that, Mancini has now been dropped in the same fashion. Only this time it is worse as he had brought some success to the club.

Football. It's a funny old game.

And so is the behind the scenes business.

Ziggler's Concussion And What The Future Must Hold

I wasn't that surprised when I heard that current world champion, Dolph Ziggler, was injured during the Smackdown taping this past Tuesday night.

Ziggler has been quite the bumper and there have been times when I have seen him take some ridiculous tumbles.

Ironically, the concussion was apparently caused by a kick from Jack Swagger and had nothing to do with the bump-taking.

So, why am I concerning myself with the bumping?

Easy.

Now that Ziggler has suffered a major concussion ('retrograde amnesia' doesn't sound minor does it?), he should take extra care in the way he works in future.

If there is anything we have learned from all the investigations into sporting concussions in recent years, it's that excessive bouts of concussions have lead to major health issues and death.

He isn't expected back until he passes tests. If - or rather when - he does come back, I hope he holds back just a little bit.

It'll be worth it in the long-run.

Wigan's Win

Wigan Athletic are the FA Cup winners of 2013.

Well done.

Well done not just to Wigan but also to the British press.

After all, the news at the beginning of the day was all about Manchester City manager - Roberto Mancini - possibly facing the sack with Malaga boss, Manuel Pellegrini, ready to take his job.

News like that must have played some role in Man City's performance.

I'm not taking anything away from Wigan's win. They deserved it. I just cannot shake off the 'what if?'

What if the story was held back for a day or two?

Wigan's Tough Task

It was quite the week for my 2013 predictions when Alex Ferguson retired on Wednesday. I have one more prophecy that could come true today.

'Could' being the operative word.

In January, I wrote that 'Manchester City will lose in the FA Cup final'. So - I should be cheering Wigan Athletic today, right?

I won't be.

Wigan have no chance against City.

And you can quote me on that one.

Moyes In Charge

So, it's official. David Moyes is the next Manchester United manager.

I am unsure what to make of the appointment. I don't have any feelings positive or negative towards him as a manager.

With that said, I'm not a United fan so it doesn't really matter to me whether I am happy or not with Alex Ferguson's successor.

It is going to be interesting to see how he does.

I am now looking forward to next season before the current one had concluded. Typical.

Hell Freezes Over II

I made two possible-yet-unlikely predictions at the start of 2013. One was that Bruno Sammartino would end his grievance with World Wrestling Entertainment and be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on the night before WrestleMania.

The other was that Alex Ferguson would retire.

I'm 2-0.

I am quite stunned that Fergie has decided to call it a day.

Don't get me wrong - I knew it was going to happen sooner or later (remember that time he was going to leave in 2001?), I just didn't think it was going to be now.

In January, when I made the prediction, Pep Guardiola was on his one-year hiatus from football. I had a feeling he would be Ferguson's successor so made the bold guess that this would be the year

Then, fifteen days later, it was announced that Guardiola was heading to Bayern Munich on a three-year contract. I then had it in my head that Alex Ferguson would call time on his legendary managerial career in 2016 to make way for Guardiola.

How wrong I was.

It doesn't matter who you support. You have to respect what Alex Ferguson has accomplished in his career.

I do.

He's going to leave that club a hell of a lot better off than the way he found it. Bearing in mind the way British football is, with sackings left right and centre, it's easy to say that there will never be a manager who will be afforded the longevity and success that Ferguson had in his time at United.

More On The Office Angle From Raw

I finally got through Monday's episode of WWE Raw and thought I would make an additional comment or two on the angle that featured Brock Lesnar smashing up Triple H's office to build to their cage match in a few weeks.

When I had originally heard of the angle on Monday afternoon and saw a picture on Twitter, I assumed it was from a makeshift office that they always have backstage at the television tapings. This was not the case as it was filmed at WWE headquarters in Connecticut.

It made for an interesting angle not just for what they did to the office.

There was a subtle hint towards the Brock Lesnar versus The Rock match that appears to still be up in the air right now. This was done when Lesnar was walking along the corridor of Titan Towers and stopped to look at the Royal Rumble 2013 poster - featuring Dwayne Johnson's face - that was hanging on the wall.

As for the actual intention of the angle - to build to Triple H versus Lesnar, I suppose it made good use of Lesnar without having him live at the arena.

Office Job

There is a angle on tonight's episode of WWE Monday Night Raw that starts in an hour.

The angle has been teased on Twitter since yesterday afternoon and it involves Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman destroying Triple H's office.

With just a few weeks before the cage match between Lesnar and Triple H, and with Lesnar being on a contract with limited dates, WWE needs to make the most of what they do with Lesnar. So, trashing an office and hyping it beforehand seems to be the route they are taking.

I know I should wait until I see how it is presented on television before I comment. However, I feel it is quite a silly story to build more animosity between the rivals.

Birthday Comp Bet

I was given a complimentary £5 bet the other day so decided to use it on the weekend football and boxing.

I did a double on Arsenal to beat Queens Park Rangers and needed over two-and-a-half goals in the game between Norwich and Aston Villa.

Arsenal won 1-0 and the other game was settled as a winner with the scoreline being 2-1 to Villa.

So, with a little over ten pounds in profit, I decided to put it all on Floyd Mayweather in his fight against Robert Guerrero.

Mayweather was a strong 1/8 favourite. He was victorious so I walked away with one pound and change more on top of what I had won earlier.

Not bad, eh?

Batman's Birthday

I wasn't the only person celebrating a birthday this past week. According to my local newspaper - Batman turns seventy-four this May.*

The feature lists ten Batman facts and there was one bit of trivia I thought I would comment on today.

It noted the many actors that had been rumoured to have played the Caped Crusader over the years and some stood out as plain stupid. I'm going to write them down now in the order they appeared in the newspaper and offer my thoughts on them.

Tom Cruise
Thank God he wasn't picked.

Daniel Day-Lewis
I can see him in the role.

Harrison Ford
Hmmm... Nah.

Charlie Sheen
The Sheen from the 80s and 90s may have pulled it off, I suppose.

Mel Gibson
No way!

Tom Hanks
I can see Tom Hanks as a good Bruce Wayne.

Bruce Willis
NO!

I purposely left one name out and that is Michael J Fox. I cannot imagine him cast as Bruce Wayne / Batman because of his youthful looks. However, I believe he would have been perfect for the role of Robin.

*The newspaper claimed he was sixty-four and I would have accepted that as fact were it not for the numbers not making any sense. They noted he has been battling Gotham City villains since the 1930s so I had to do my own bit of research for clarification.

May 4th Be With Us

It's Star Wars Day so I thought I would dedicate a few words to anticipating the new movies that Disney will start bringing out from 2015.

I noted that Episodes VII, VIII and IX were announced at the same time George Lucas sold the Star Wars rights to Disney. However, in the weeks since I wrote about that, new rumours have surfaced.

Apparently, there is going to be a movie sandwiched in between each episode so, in 2016 and 2018, there will be a spin-off film in the franchise.

I suppose a Yoda film will be one of them.

I have to admit - I did not like the prequels apart for Episode III so, despite curiously looking forward to what is going to happen with the series, I am reminding myself of the disappointment I experienced with The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones.

Oh, and let's not forget the lameness of the spin-off Ewok Adventure films in the 1980s.

We could be in for a long five years.

Mania = Money

World Wrestling Entertainment sent out a press release on Wednesday breaking the news that WrestleMania XXIX drew $72 million in revenue.

The number accounts for the live attendance, merchandise sales and pay-per-view purchases of the event which took place a month ago.

It has been reported that the event was bought by over one million buyers .This number was not revealed in the press release but has been published in Variety.

This is big news because it means the event was the highest grossing wrestling event in history. You may recall, I wrote something similar about last year's show.

WWE has a bit of a job to try and do better with WrestleMania XXX in New Orleans next spring.

Where Is Jose Going?

I have a feeling Jose Mourinho will not return to Chelsea, despite all signs indicating that he is.

Well, all I'm going on is the things he has said to the press.

I should point out that it's the British press. He could be saying similar things to other foreign outlets for all we know.

I'll believe he is back at Chelsea when he is back at Chelsea. Not before.

Wacky Flava In Ya Ear

I saw a display of new Dairy Milk chocolate at the shop yesterday morning and was intrigued with the flavour.

The bar was called 'Marvellous Creations' and - looking at the wrapper of the first bar I picked up - it seemed to have bits of jelly bean in the chocolate.

I decided to buy it.

Upon taking a few bites, I realised that there was more to the chocolate bar than a few jelly beans.

The thing also had popping candy inside.

The last time I had popping candy was back in the 1980s and I'll tell you this - it was a fun, short trip down Memory Lane with that popping going off inside my head. I had forgotten all about it until yesterday.

I'm going to try the other flavours the next time I see them.