Lawn/Grass Mowing log

(previously logged days of mowing from GLC Forum)

May 30 2006, Mowed the back lawn as it was dry, strimmed the edges and got twatted in the left knee by something (I've got a nice red spot there, it looks like a sting but it's hard to tell. I'll just whack some savlon and a plaster on it)

Aug 7 2006, Today I mowed the front & back lawns. blimey that was good exercise. Got the shears out & gave the hedges & trees a good chopping back too. That'll be the last bit of gardening for the year I reckon. It wasn't hot outside but I was soaking wet with sweat when I'd finished both lawns. Our green waste bin is full for tomorrow anyway.
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Apr 13 2007, Today I mowed our front lawn in 35 mins (only that quick cuz I cheated & left off the grass box).

Oct 8 2007, I mowed our front lawn. I meant to do it Friday but I really could not be bothered. It wasn't very long, just scruffy looking.
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May 6 2008 mowed back lawn

Jul 4 2008, Finishing mowing the lawn. I started mowing it last week but had to stop as the motor on the mower burned out & almost caught fire! I went & bought a dirt cheap strimmer from Argos & finished the job. And now I've got carpel tunnel syndrome in my wrists.

Sep 5 2008, Mowed the back garden the day before it rained for the rest of the week - ace timing!
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Mar 21 2009, Mowed the front lawn with new mower, very quick & easy once I worked out how to set the blade height.

Apr 29 2009, Mowed the front lawn in 35 mins whilst listening to some XTC on the mp3 player (makes the time go quicker and mowing much more fun).

May 6 2009, Started mowing the back garden under a rather grey sky after having left it 2 days to dry out. managed about 1/3 of it before it clogged the mower, emptied grass box & cleaned under mower then sky started going VERY dark threatening rain. Managed to mow half before deciding it was tempting fate too much & it was deffo going to cane it down so I packed everything away and got indoors pronto.

07 May 2009 finished mowing back lawn

30th May 09 Mowed the front lawn today in just over 35 mins, trimmed hedge by path and shredded stuff from the back hedge. Kept me busy and active for a few hours ;-)

20th Jul  2009 Strimmed front grass today just to make it look tidy as a few ppl had knocked the door offering to cut it, frankly it was still far too bloody wet to even strim but I did anyway. Knackered my wrists and I had wickedly shaky hands for hours afterwards.

6th Sep  2009 Mowed front lawn today, it was pretty thick and fairly damp which made things very heavy going. had to stop and clear blades and empty grass box 6 times in total but managed to get both sides done with bad weather looming above. had been meaning to do it for 3 weeks but it was either too wet or too bright.
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Wed 5th May 2010 Mowed front lawn today for the 1st time this year, it was dry apart from the roots but it really needed doing as it was thick & getting messy. Next door had mowed his on the previous weekend when it was sopping wet. I also strimmed the edges & trimmed the pine tree on the front & the bushes by the entry right down.

Mon 17th May 2010 Mowed back lawn today as I'd been considering it for a few days & it'd had stayed dry so I figured I'd get it done before it rains again. Couldn't be arsed to strim quite frankly.

Tue 12th Oct 2010 Mowed front lawn as it had been dry(ish), fairly heavy going as it was thick, a tad damp still & the ground was VERY bumpy. Despite doing a thorough FOD plod I still hit 4 pieces of wood left over from the removal of our old wooden fence. I had to stop mowing about 1.5 feet away from the fence due to stones, debris & cement. I ended up having to strim those bits, took me about 40 mins in total to do everything from start to finish. Almost mowed over a tiny frog too. This will probably be the last mowing of this year.
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Wed 27th Apr 2011 Mowed front lawn (as promised). It took 25 mins and didn't have to empty grass box once.

Mon 27th Jun 2011 Mowed front lawn in 33 mins mainly due to severe heat/humidity and crazy anthills. had mower all set to do back garden when the weather decided to grow a sense of humour and started with intermittant showers. never run so fast to carry in mower and (still plugged & switched on) extension cord. Since last mowing SOMETHING in the shed had urinated in the grass box, assuming mice. also noted someone had tried to set fire to front lawn in various places. these were not sun dried areas of grass.

Thurs 30th Jun 2011 strimmed small area of back garden adjacent to path at mums request to allow her to use the washing line and not get covered in grass seeds. Took about 10-15 mins (wasn't wearing watch) not including the time it took to re-thread the strimmer (twice).

Tue 26th Jul 2011 mowed main areas of back lawn completely in about 20 mins. it wasn't that thick, it barely even filled the grass box considering how long it looked. this was the 1st time its been mowed since may of last year. hopefully with the weather i won't have to mow the back again this year.

Thurs 29th Sept 2011 mowed all of front lawn and pulled a few things up in the verge in 42 mins. Emptied grass box once after mowing main area, this will be the fronts last cut this year hopefully.
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Tues 22nd May 2012 mowed front lawn for the first time this year in 33 mins due to anthills which caused many stoppages to mower also had to empty grass box about 6 times due to same (lots of earth jamming mower) and semi-wet grass.  Also mowed back lawn in 20 mins.  Next door is now mowing his (for at least the 3rd time this year already!)

Tues 10th July 2012 mowed largest half of front lawn in 15 mins (even with 3 stops to clear mud from blades due to ant hills).  Decided against mowing the smaller section as the sky was going VERY dark and it had already been spitting earlier.  I'll try to strim the rest the next time I get a couple of dry days.  Emptied grass twice, it wasn't thick, just long and messy.

Thur 26th Jul 2012 strimmed other smaller half of lawn in 2 mins, also strimmed most of the edgs of the big lawn and used the shears on the big stingers to cut them down that was done in 12 mins. garden now looks a LOT better.
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Sun 26th May 2013 front grass was cut today (not by me). Really it was way too wet. Back was mowed also.

Mon Jul 1st 2013 cut front grass (mostly with strimmer until it broke after almost 5yrs of service to the day!) and the rest with the mower, took about an hour. Also helped in the back where we (me and Mick) spent an hour cutting crap down.

(Roughly Wed 17th Jul 2013, didn't note exact date at the time) - Mick cut front and back grass with his mower. Helped by cutting more crap down in back garden.

Mon 30th Sept 2013 Cut front grass both sides. Took an hour (45 mins to mow due to dampish grass & anthills clogging blades literally every five or so minutes) including some time to cut down bushes and nettles. Definite last mow of this year, won't bother doing the back, it's not that long.
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Mon 5th May 2014 Mowed most of the front lawn. Did all the big bit and about a third of the little bit before it started spitting so I unplugged and got the hell out of there. Had to stop every 2 mins or so to clear the blades (as it was still so damp!) so it took 42 mins in total. Emptied grass box at least 4 or 5 times. (New next door neighbour mowed his yesterday, that was the 2nd time he'd mowed it in a week. He mowed his back lawn yesterday too.)

EDIT:- Went back out in the  same afternoon and finished the rest of the front. Part of the actual mower cable appears to be fraying.

Mon 19th May 2014 Back lawn mostly mowed, big bit done. Other bit 80%. 1hr 22 mins. Mowed to the point of heat exhaustion. And that included the 1 break for a pint of water in about 4 seconds.

Thur Jun 12th 2014  mowed all of front lawn in 31 mins. No need to empty grass box, engineered a fix so as to not need it at all without overheating mower. Propped grass door open with a stick! Will do same on back lawn possibly tomorrow if it's dry rest of today & overnight. managed to slice a bit of my palm open while trying to dig up the anthills. OUCH.

Wed 25th June 2014  Mowed back lawn in about 10 or so mins (forgot to put watch on!) spent another 20 mins cutting brambles. Highly doubt back lawn will get touched again this yr.

Thurs Jul 10th 2014 Finally got to mow all of front lawn now scaffolding has come down at long last, took 31 mins to do both sides fully.

Fri Aug 8th 2014 Mowed front lawn after several days of on and off rain, it was very dry so easy to mow. 22 mins to do both sides of the front garden with my "stick" mod on the mower so I didn't have to empty it.
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Wed 22nd April 2015 mowed all of front lawn in 20 mins. It looked dry, the wheels and underside of the mower say otherwise. My 1st pair of Nike Air Huarache trainers also finally gave up the ghost, losing the right sole.

Sat 17th May 2015 mowed back lawn, late evening. 21 mins.

Wed 10th June 2015 mowed front lawn in 42 mins and did clearing up for another 18 mins.

Thurs 10th Sept 2015 mowed front garden and cut bushes. 1hr & 3 mins. Broke front right wheel on mower towards the end.
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Fri 27th May 2016 Front lawn mown, both sides in an hour. Well, considering the grass was still wet at the roots, I had a mower with 3 wheels and the grass was waist high in places I think I did it quickly.

14th Jun 2016 Gareth hired 2 ladies to clean the back garden. It was strimmed to ground level, they also strimmed the front garden.

Sat 23rd Jul 2016 Front lawn mowed, 24 mins for both sides. Considering that includes the time where I had to keep stopping to put the front wheel back on, I think I made good time. Hopefully (fingers crossed) that'll be it's last mow for this year.
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Fri 5th May 2017 Front lawn mowed in 10 mins, half of back lawn mowed in 37 mins. It was really damp and made for very heavy going. If it stays dry until Moday, I might try to most the rest of the back. We officially live in the new house now, I've mowed the grass here.

Wed 24th May 2017 Mowed 80% of back lawn, the bit I mowed last time plus a bit extra to the end of next doors fence. Took 1 hour 7 mins. The roots are still damp, mower has had wheel glued back on, hopefully it'll stay there now.

Thurs 1st Jun 2017 Mowed front lawn in 8mins. Fairly easy, it was just a bit straggly. Mowed the last 19% of the back lawn in 50 mins, roots were wet (it's been raining on and off the last few days) and it was thick. All bar the bit where the cut down tree branch has now been cut at least once. Should be LOTS easier next time. And the wheel stayed on!

Tues 13th Jun 2017 Mowed all of the back lawn, took 1 hour exactly. Had a nice chap strim our side of the hedge, he did it for nothing too. Whole back looks pretty decent now. I think I was fighting the weather for most of the time but I hope it stays dry so it dies out a bit.

Thurs 22nd Jun 2017 Mowed front lawn on lowest setting in 5 minutes and 10 seconds. Mowed the back on the second lowest setting (also moved bench so now whole lawn has been cut) in 41 minutes.

Tues 18th Jul 2017 Mowed front lawn in 4 mins, 2nd lowest setting. Mowed back 2nd lowest setting in 48 minutes. FYI, wheel is still on mower after repair way back in May.

Sat 26th Aug 2017 Mowed front lawn in 4 minutes.  Mowed back lawn in 1hr 20 mins. Mostly due to it being still a bit damp.

Wed 20th Sept 2017 Mowed front lawn in 6 mins (would have been quicker, forget to put mower on lowest setting). Mowed back lawn in 37 mins. Still very damp, first proper chance to mow it as it's been super wet over the last month or so.

Fri 6th Oct 2017. Mowed 3/4's of back lawn at lowest setting in 40 mins. Very damp due to overnight dew, heavy going. That's probably it's last cut for the year.
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Tues 17th Apr 2018 Mowed front lawn (lowest setting) in 5 mins. Mowed 3/4's of back lawn in 20 mins, didn't do it all as it was very overcast.

Fri 20th Apr 2018 Mowed remaining bit of back lawn in 20 mins, only took so long as it was thick & fucking  soaking wet. Most of the time was unblocking the mower blades.

Tues 8th May 2018 Mowed Front lawn middle setting in 4 mins. Mowed entire back lawn highest setting in 50 mins. Wheel came off. It's been stuck back on again but I think we might need a new mower at last.

Thurs 17th May 2018 Mowed front lawn in 4 mins. Mowed back lawn in 42 mins. Wheel fix seems to have worked, I think we'll live with this mower until it's unusable.

Mon 4th Jun 2018 Mowed back lawn on highest setting in 37 mins. It looked straggly as heck & next door had mowed theirs twice since I last did ours. At least it looks respectable now. Hopefully it won't rain for a few more days, but it's unlikely. 17 days since lawn was last done.

Tue 12th Jun 2018  Mowed front lawn on lowest setting, in 4 mins. Mowed back lawn on lower middle in 29 mins, including the time it took to clear 1 blockage and put the right wheel back on 5 times.  I only did it today because the front looked so scruffy & the weather is threatening to be VERY wet for the next few days so I got both done while it was still totally dry. 8 days since lawn last done.

Thur 12th Jul 2018 Mowed back lawn on lowest setting in 37 mins. Lot of time spent before hand policing cat shit off the grass.  Lost front right wheel several times. We've glued it back on again but I think after 6yrs service, it's time for another mower (where the cord isn't about to split). 30 days since lawn last done.

Thur 30th Aug 2018 Mowed front lawn on medium lowest setting, it was still quite damp after all the recent hard rain. Took 8 mins.  49 days since lawn last done. I blame the rain.

Sun 16th Sept 2018 Mowed 3/4 of back lawn on highest setting. Was fighting the loose wheel the entire time. Only gave up about halfway into the far back when the wheel came off again. I hadn't eaten or drunk anything & the sky looked like it was about to piss down. 66 days since last cut. It looks straggly as fuck but I think that's both lawns done for this year.

Thur 27th Sept 2018 Mowed front lawn, lowest setting in 6 mins. It had been as straggly as hell, so it needed it. Was looking at back lawn too to finish it all off, but it's too damp due to overnight fog. I might try to do it tomorrow. Front done for this year. 28 days since it was last cut.

Wed 10th Oct 2018 Mowed whole back lawn, highest setting in 40 mins. It would have been quicker, but the wheel and entire front axle were close to parting company with the mower. That'll be its last cut for the year.
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Fri 12th Apr 2019 Mowed front lawn with new Flymo vac mower (Gareth bought it Wed 3rd Apr 2019) in about 5 mins. It's quite heavy to push as I assume it came at the absolute lowest setting possible. I would have mowed the back too but dark clouds threatened & it was still quite damp in places.

Mon 22nd Apr 2019 Mowed rest of back lawn, having mowed about 1/3 of it a week ago. Took off grass box & managed to finish in 42 mins. Hopefully now it's shorter, it'll be easier next time.

Tues 23rd Apr 2019 I gave the back lawn another full going over, mostly to remove the loose grass. Took 51 mins. Barring rain, I'll be mowing once every other 2-3 weeks from now on, I think.

Mon 6th May 2019 Mowed front lawn in 5 mins, super easy and light. Mowed half of back lawn in about 10 mins, I forgot my start time. Also pretty easy, the mower is only hard to push when its full of grass or the grass is long. I only did half as the clouds were threatening.

Tue 7th May 2019 Mowed the remaining half of the back garden in 16 minutes. It had drizzled very lightly earlier, but it wasn't wet out at all really. Heavy rain is expected later so I got it done just in time.

Sat 25th May 2019 Mowed back lawn. Can't give an official time as I'd done 2/3's then the chap who lives behind us asked if we wanted help doing the fence panels. I'd been going four about 45 mins at that point. We managed to get 1 panel in then I damaged my right knee & can't twist or put any weight on it now. I mowed the rest of the back with said knee damage. Call it an hour. I need to do the front but that'll be tough with a bad knee.

Sat 22nd June 2019 Mowed front lawn in 5 mins. Mowed back lawn in 56 mins including 2 water breaks, 1 toilet break, 1 rest & a few stops to empty the grass box. Last 20 mins was mowed without grass box on at all just to get the thickest bits finished. Feel totally knackered now. Knee didn't hurt at all.

Tue 3rd July 2019 Mowed back lawn in 30 mins, just to get it all cut. It was annoyingly straggly in places, now it's not.

Fri 26th July 2019 Mowed front lawn in about 5 mins. I didn't get an actual time as I was distracted after having to clean the underside of the mower. Decided against doing the back, sky wasn't looking good. It's been either too hot or too wet to mow since last time.

Mon 5th Aug 2019 Mowed back lawn in 42 mins. The roots were slightly damp but it wasn't too hard to do, as I mowed it without the grassbox so no stopping to empty the damn thing.

Tues 13th Aug 2019 Mowed back lawn in 22 mins. It was straggly as hell, we've had rain off and on the last week or so and are expecting more over the next few days so I gave it an all over blitz today while it held off. Emptied grass box twice.

Fri 23rd Aug Mowed Front lawn in 5 mins. Mowed most of back lawn in 29 mins, pretty darn warm out there, I had to take a break, to cool off. Hopefully front & back will get done once more in October then that's them done for this year.

WWE Superstars 28th May 09 reviewed

Tag Match, Shelton Benjamin & Charlie Haas vs Primo & Carlito Colon - Colon? Honestly? They can announce that name and not burst out laughing? (It seems its spelt one way but pronounced another, still funny as f**k when its written down though) For Haas & Benjamin this must have felt like deja vu, I've never seen Primo work before. I'm assuming Charlie was off looking after his kids with wife Jackie as I haven't seen him on tv since forever. I must say this match was VERY slow, far too long and extremely boring to the point that someone (who assumed there was going to be a really s**t finish) sent out Kryme Tyme to distract Benjamin (actually causing the really s**t finish he was trying to prevent), Carlito won off the Back Stabber on Haas. P**s poor excuse for a match.

Finlay vs Jack Swagger - Is it me or has Swagger had Botox because the guy has 1 facial expression only, that stupid s**t eating grin. Swagger came from nowhere & is getting a push of HHH status, you have to wonder how much sex a man can give Pat Patterson to be getting over with Vince like this? Even on fast forward this match was painfully slow with neither guy doing very much at all, Swagger won off a farely nice gutwrench powerbomb that unsurprisingly WWE haven't coined a name for so I'll christen it The Swagger Smash (and expect to be paid if you use that on TV WWE).

Obscenely long segment about the basketball issue. WWE milking it for every last red cent I see. Have they actually bothered suing over it or not? If not they need to be shutting the f**k up and getting the f**k over it.

John Cena vs Ted Dibiase Jr - At least I bill him correctly which is more than you can say for WWE. According to colour he's his own father as they didn't refer to the Million Dollar Man as Senior either. This was corner to corner at the start but on the whole pretty dull to be honest as far as actual action went, Cena took the win after hitting a nice legdrop and hooking the SPF.

My Weekly TNA Catch-up, Impact 28th May 09 reviewed

As with last week I am only talking about matches but I will be mentioning the various debuts during the show.

X Division Championship - Amazing Red vs Suicide. I'm not exactly sure how Red got a title shot here as he only came back into the company a few weeks ago, its not as though he was even a contender. Red had a good match but not a great match, Suicide was average at best and took the win retaining the title with The Suicide Solution.

Open Challenge Ladder Match - Doug Williams (with Brutus Magnus & Rob Terry) vs Cody Deaner (with ODB). Basically this is a match to win a shot at the X Division title in the Feast Or Fired briefcase, not that there is any point as it belongs to Homicide and was not won off him it was stolen. Was that line from West & Tenay about Homicide not being there due to a death in his family a work or not? Highlights of this were Deaner taking a slam onto the ladder, Williams splashing the ladder onto Deaner, Willams making a suicide dive into the ladder over the ropes and Deaner taking a bump off the top of the ladder to the floor. Williams took the eventual win for the briefcase and the title shot.

Dr Stevie calls out Abyss & is about to whale on Lauren (the backstage announce girl) when Raven hops the barrier to stop it but ends up nailing Abyss with the kendo stick.

Womens Knockout Championship - Sojourner Bolt vs Angelina Love (with Cute Kip, Velvet Sky & Madison Tayne). Because they were interviewing Raven backstage before this match Bolt never even got an on air introduction but just before the belt she got a title graphic billing her as Sojo Bolt so they are now using the nickname that West & Tenay coined. Highlights here were Bolt hitting a great backdrop on Love as well as a nice front faceslam but Love took the win off the Lights Out. Cute Kip gets fired, Angelina Love issues an open challenge and former WWE Diva & twice Womens Champion Victoria comes out giving Sky & Rayne an absolute pasting (looking great doing it too) before duking it out with Love and giving her a great looking reverse neckbreaker.

King Of The Mountain Qualifying Match - Eric Young vs Jeff Jarrett. I don't care how good a wrestler Young is, you always knew Jarrett was going to win this before he'd even laced his boots. An average match at best with Jarrett taking the win off a roll-through.

Team 3D finally present the $100k cheque and trophies to Beer Money.

King Of The Mountain Qualifying Match - AJ Styles (who comes to the ring with 2 rappers doing his theme music) vs Daniels. Right here you have got not only the 2 best wrestlers in TNA but possibly the 2 most talented wrestlers in the business at the moment. I had to question why TNA had only given these guys just over 6 minutes to have a match in but they didn't really do a great deal, this was well below par for both of them. AJ made a nice Pele but Styles took the win off a Hurricanrana. As Daniels was left in the ring to contemplate his loss Shane Douglas jumped the barrier and got into the ring nailing Daniels from behind with a chain around his hand.

So this week hailed the returns of Raven and Shane Douglas and saw the debut of Victoria, apparently we will also see "Navy Officer" Jesse Neal have his in ring debut next week. According to news I read online TNA have also released Shane Sewell but Jaqueline is still working for TNA on a rotational contract with them using and paying her as and when she appears for them.

Weird MP3 Tags? Looks Japanese? Heres how to fix it!

If your player is showing weird system characters or katakana then you need to tell your mp3 tagger software to NOT write in Unicode (UTF 16 or UTF 8) support as your mp3 player doesn't support it hence you getting the gibberish.

Just change it from Unicode to ID3 (either version) then get it to rewrite all your song tags.
Then they all display in English!

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In answer to the comment of where to change this heres a more in depth explanation. I used MP3Tag to do the job which is freely available to download.

Right click your MP3 and chose the "Open With" option for MP3Tag which will then load.
Select the tracks you wish to alter (the ones that are showing up as katakana or weird system characters on your MP3 players display) then select the TOOLs menu.
Select the OPTIONS menu.
In the TAG option select MPEG & tick ALL the boxes, place the dot in the spot marked ID3v2.3 ISO-8859-1 & click OK.
Now simply tag your file and when you next fire up your MP3 player it should display correctly in English.

My TNA Catch-up, Sacrifice PPV May 09

6 Man Tag Match, The Motor City Machine Guns & Sheik Abdul Bashir vs Eric Young & Lethal Consequences - Quite a slow long and overly drawn out match, considering the calibre of talent involved things didn't really pick up until we were 16 minutes into the show with the suicide dive and flip dive from Young & Creed. Young made a nice double Death Valley Driver and Lethal took the win off a roll-up on Bashir with a bit of illegal help from Ref Earl Hebner.

Knockout Monsters Ball, Daffney (With Dr Stevie & Abyss) vs Taylor Wilde - The rules are simple, no DQ, anything goes and weapons are legal. I did wonder how hardcore Wilde was going to get or allow to be taken to and after she was nailed in the head with a sign then slammed onto a garbage can lid I guess my question was answered. Frankly I wasn't surprised that Daffney was on the receiving end of most of the more hardcore moves as with her current image they are really expecting her to fill the space left by Roxxi who has now sadly parted company with TNA. Wilde totally flubbed the backdrop on Daffney when she tried to drop her onto the garbage can (it was far too close to the ropes) but it allowed Wilde to make a relatively easy pin, the post match stuff was pretty pointless and does nothing to further Daffneys character but I guess it did allow Steven Richards to have an excuse to start wrestling after taking a chokeslam from Abyss into the thumbtacks.

X Division Championship, Daniels vs Suicide. We still have no zipline entry from Kaz as Suicide & its ironic that the title already belongs to Daniels as it was him who won it in the Suicide outfit. This was never going to be overly high flying or fast paced as Kaz is still really rehabbing from his injury. Even the springboard back elbow by Suicide was very low with no bump at all and Daniels was over selling everything that Suicide did to make it look bigger and harder. Suicide was selling the bumps off Daniels also over playing them so it didn't look like either guy was over selling. Chris Sabin distracted the ref & Daniels allowing Alex Shelley to nail Suicide, Daniels took the win off the rollthrough. You can't say Daniels is the new X Division Champion (even though the record books will) because he never lost the title as Suicide, he merely gave the belt to Kaz. Daniels called for the mic & asked for another 5 minutes to restart the match. There were a few near falls but the time limit expired and Suicide remains X Division Champion.

Womens Knockout Championship, Awesome Kong (with Raisha Saeed) vs Angelina Love. From the bell it seemed like this would be how many bumps Love could bear before Kong finished her off as it stayed outside the ring a long time, Kong missed a spinning back fist which gave Love her opening pushing Kong into the ring post several times before rolling back in to try and get Kong counted out. Kong got a second wind and put Saeed out of the match with a predictable bump which distracted the ref long enough for Love to spray Kong in the eyes and take the win off a School Boy Roll-up and a hand full of Kongs costume.

Kevin Nash vs Samoa Joe - Very weak match where most of the action was by the ring, Joe took the win off the Rear Naked Choke Hold after Nash tapped out.

3D Tag Team Invitational Finals, The British Invasion vs Beer Money - Just in case anyone had forgot, the winners get a trophy, $100,000 & a shot at Tag Team titles. Very poor match (not that either team is all that great to be honest but it was poor even by their fairly awful standards), Beer Money took the win after Roode nailed Williams with one of the "Feast Or Fired" cases.

Legends Championship I Quit Match, Booker T vs AJ Styles - This was always going to be long and boring, as talented as Styles is you just can't carry a guy like Booker to a decent match no matter how hard you try. Styles won after Jenna Morasca threw in the towel on behalf of the MEM.

TNA World Heavywight Championship, Jeff Jarrett vs Sting vs Kurt Angle vs Mick Foley. Everyone is sacrificing something tonight if they lose, for Foley its his title, for Angle its his Godfather role in the MEM, for Jarrett its his voting shares in TNA and for Sting its his career. Personally I already call this match with Sting or Jarrett winning and Angle getting pinned.

Not much in the way of exciting action really, Foley sat most of the match out at the colour desk with West & Tenay but Angle put a stop to that by somersaulting over the desk to backsplash onto Foley then Angle Slammed him onto the concrete. Sting had this won after hitting Angle with the Scorpion Death Drop but the ref had been bumped and told to stay down. Jarrett nailed Sting with the guitar and also failed to get the pin due to the ref bump which left Foley to bean Jarrett with the steel chair. Foley took a suplex off Sting onto the concrete again and Jarrett hit Angle with The Stroke off the top turnbuckle into a chair & as predicted Sting won by pinning Angle (pretty much exactly as I called it) so Sting is now new MEM Godfather but Foley retains the title as no-one pinned him.

I think this just about saves Dixie Carters career as long as they make the best of all the results that happened here tonight, I am still wondering exactly when Tazz is going to arrive and I have read that Raven is coming back and TNA have also hired former WWE Diva Victoria so we will see how those events pan out.

ROH Wrestling 23rd May 09 reviewed

3 Way Match, Kenny King vs Kenny Omega vs Jay Briscoe - Omega was no more than a jobber at the start in this one as King & Briscoe constantly kept throwing him back out of the ring but his double Hurricanrana was impressive, I think Briscoes cut eye was an accident ( I watched several times and still can't see where or how it happened, some time after the double cross bodyblock) so they finished this one up early with Omega taking the win off King with a Sunset Flip into a Bridging Suplex.

Tag Match, Irish Airborne (Jake & David Crist) vs Dark City Fight Club - Oh my god how I hate DFC with a passion, they have f**k all talent, are overly stiff yet ROH push them like their s**t don't smell. I expect I'll be watching yet another boring squash match & was pleased at the fans chant of "F**k you Fight Club" so I'm not the only one who hates them. As predicted Irish Airborne got to display almost no offence at all and DFC took the boring predictable win & its about time ROH either put them in a title match or fired them as their boring as hell and will never be over.

Chris Hero (with Sara Del Rey) vs Eddie Kingston - Kingston just dived right in working Hero until Del Rey gave him an opening off a distraction & Hero was on top doing just enough to get by until Kingston got his 2nd wind and started whaling on Hero in the corner failing to respond to a 5 count to break (and pushing the ref away), the ref generously gave Kingston a 2nd 5 count to break from Hero then called for the bell and tried to get Kingston to break again and got piefaced under the bottom rope for his troubles so the win went to Hero off a DQ.

Tag Match, Jimmy Jacobs & Brody Lee vs Delirious & Necro Butcher - This one started on the floor and stayed there a fair while too with Delirious eventually dragging Jacobs into the ring getting the match officially started whilst Necro threw some of the worst looking punches at Lee I've ever seen any wrestler do. Lee & Necro had a run in the ring (more awful looking punches, both Necro & Lee could seriously use some training on how to punch & sell one too). Delirious went for a top turnbuckle Suicide Flip on Lee, Jacobs & Necro & totally flubbed the landing overshooting all 3 guys taking a VERY hard landing on the concrete floor missing the mats completely but amazingly Delirious got up and carried on fighting with Lee.

Necro took a nice double suplex off Lee & Jacobs out of the ring (onto the handy pile of mats Jacobs had positioned earlier) but it was a hard enough bump that the ref went and checked on him leaving Delirious to work Jacobs & Lee alone. It actually evolved into a proper match all be it a handicap match as far as Delirious was concerned with Necro Butcher laid flat on his back outside the ring having pretty much not moved at all after his bump.

Lee had a nearfall and Necro actually made it back into the ring after about 10 minutes (I wouldn't be surprised if he was concussed though), Jacobs slowed him down by throwing thumbtacks onto the canvas as Delirious covered his back by clotheslining Jacobs out of the ring which allowed Necro to get a handfull of the thumbtacks and threw them into Lee's face. Necro hit a bodyslam and Delirious took the win off Shadows Over Hell (a frogsplash onto the back).

This was possibly THE best match ROH have had since starting on tv but it took a guy getting virtually injured out of the match to produce it.

The mystery of the bad burns

I have been using Ashampoo Burning Studio 7 since it went up from version 6 and recently its been creating a lot of coasters with bad or incomplete burns. I tried slower speeds, different media and even upgrading the firmware on my Samsung TS-552U all to no avail. Even burns at 8x were crapping out on media cleared to 16x so I figured the burner was on its last legs as its about 5 or 6 years old now. Then I tried different software which seemed to work ok and set alarm bells ringing so I upgraded Ashampoo to version 8 and tried that.

Burnt at 8x, no problems all ok. It seems the longer you stick with an older version the more likely it'll crap out on you.

WWE Superstars 21st May 09 reviewed

ECW Championship Match - Christian vs Tommy Dreamer. Average at best is the nicest thing I can say about this match, it seems Christian doesn't bump anywhere near as hard now as he did for TNA. It was mostly mat work and I don't think anyone expected the title to change hands here, sending Swagger out on a run-in shows how little Creativity WWE have these days. The match was ruled a no contest but technically Dreamer should have got the win off DQ by outside interference as Christian was responsible for Swagger entering the ring so that ref has a poor grasp on the rules in my opinion.

Kofi Kingston vs William Regal - Regal was above average for him but it sounds like he has killer heel heat at the moment, Kingston is always a good worker though. Kofi Kingston took the win off Trouble In Paradise.

Chris Jericho vs CM Punk - So it seems Jericho is still sticking with the image of Eddie Izzards fatter older brother then? Overly long match with little action, Punk took the win off an Inside Cradle.

This weeks Superstars was poor but no-where near as bad this weeks TNA Impact. At least you didn't have to watch someone fight a cardboard cut-out.

My Weekly TNA Catch-up, Impact 21st May 09 reviewed

Again like last week only matches will be mentioned so expect a fairly short catch-up.

Non-title 3 Tag Team Match - Lethal Consequences vs The Motor City Machine Guns vs Daniels & Suicide. Again no zipline entry for Suicide so Kaz is still rehabbing it seems. A below average match for this bunch, Suicide took the win off Shelley.

Sting vs Eric Young - Nothing special, Sting took the win off the Scorpion Leg Lock.

Matt Morgan vs Kurt Angle - Again nothing special, Angle took the win off a Small Package.

Samoa Joe vs Jeff Jarrett - Storyline c**p not worth watching, this went into the crowd & Joe was DQ'd by the side of the ring after mixing it up with a couple of the referees. Jarrett won by DQ.

Mick Foley vs Rocky Balboa - Foley takes on a cardboard cut-out of Stallone, oh dear TNA has it really come to this? I hope Dixie Carter owns a really powerful handgun as she's going to need it to either fend off attempts on her life or she may as well use it on herself after this farce. Foley took the obvious win so I can only assume after tonights Impact the new owner of TNA is Vince McMahon and this was Impacts final show as they can't possibly expect ANY wrestling fans to tune in next week after having watched this utter joke of a show.

Sacrifice better be a kick-ass PPV or TNA is dead as a brand. They only have themselves to blame.

ROH Wrestling 16th May 09 reviewed

For the second week in a row the 2 colour guys have opened the show in front of a green screen with the ring behind them pretending they are in the arena presenting live, surely they know they aren't fooling anyone in this media savvy world.

Claudio Castagnoli vs Brent Albright - You have to wonder exactly why we are seeing these 2 guys go at it again if their last match on tv was only a month ago. Why not give some of the other ROH guys some tv time? A pretty boring match that was FAR too long by at least 5 minutes, it was pretty even until Prince Nana & Ernie Osiris distracted the ref by throwing a shoe at Albright which allowed Castagnoli to kick Albright with a deliberate low blow taking the win off the roll-up. P**s poor finish in a very s**tty match.

Dark City Fight Club vs Alex Payne & Grizzly Redwood - Redwood has already jobbed to DCFC on tv (back on 16th May), Payne had jobbed to Nigel McGuinness in a singles match on the same show so both these guys are seriously demoted to jobber status. I don't like Fight Club as they are overly stiff & extremely boring to watch, they need decent evenly matched opponants which neither of these 2 guys are. Fight Club took the win off a double teamed slam on Payne and although it was short it couldn't have been short enough for my liking. Quite frankly Fight Club are s**t unless they meet someone decent.

Buzz words video insert from Necro Butcher & Delirious. Possibly the funniest thing ROH have ever aired on tv, it wasn't supposed to be funny but it was hilarious! Necro Butcher "What he said!".

Ric Flair comes out to talk about who should get the title shot against Jerry Lynn (who comes out to learn who he will face), Tyler Black comes out as does Bryan Danielson as does Austin Aries for some unexplained reason as he wasn't even in the title shot match last week. I was pretty close (I guessed it'd be a 3 way dance) as Flair announces Lynn will face all 3 of the other guys in a 4 way match (I have zero clue how the f**k Aries got into a title match that he wasn't even contesting in).

Sami Callahan vs Jay Briscoe - It's bizarre having 2 guys like this work each other as Callahan isn't even in the same league of talent or ability as Briscoe. Callahan had an ok match but Briscoe was substandard for him, Briscoe took the win off an inverted Piledriver.

Kenny King & Rhett Titus vs El Generico & Kevin Steen - Yep, yet again its one of ROH's "however long we have on tv" matches that are always s**t and only have any action in the last few minutes so I don't expect this to be any different. As expected this was 10 minutes of f**k all with the action coming in the last 2 minutes, Steen took the pin off King after Generico hit the Brainbuster.

The post match beatdown by The American Wolves only demonstrated exactly how low ROH has sunk as it is now copying its rivals with s**t run-ins and s**ttier storyline lead matches. Despite them pushing the support from Flair (who it appears is still working for WWE anyway) and the title to be defended on tv (well its about f**king time too!) I still predict ROH is going to die on its arse if it doesn't improve its matches.

My Weekly TNA Catch-up, Impact 14th May 09 reviewed

The only stuff mentioned this week will be actual matches so expect a short catch-up.

Chris Sabin vs Daniels - Both guys are way more capable than this match would have you believe, Daniels took the win off the BME.

Eric Young vs Samoa Joe - Yet another match with talented guys showing f**k all ability due to shit storylines. Joe took the win off the rear naked chokehold.

Stretcher Match, Cute Kip (with Angelina Love) vs Awesome Kong (with Raisha Saeed). Same rules as last week, whoever puts their opponant on the stretcher for a 10 count takes the win. Kip had Kong goozled when Saeed came in and hit a lowblow as the ref was trying to get Love off the apron, Kong nailed Kip with a chair twice and splashed the chair onto Kips head twice as well. Kong took the win, yet again.

3D Tag Team Invitational Semifinal - The British Invasion (Brutus Magnus & Doug Williams with Rob Terry) vs Amazing Red & Suicide. Yet again no zipline entrance so this is definately Kaz in the costume. As the smallest guy involved Red took a beatdown from both Magnus & Williams before finally tagging Suicide in, as things started to break down Red made a nice missile dropkick and an amazing flip dive out of the ring to take out Magnus. Suicide was doubleteamed by The Motor City Machine Guns which allowed Doug Williams to drop a flying knee to take the win and The British Invasion will meet Beer Money to contest for the shot against Team 3D and the $100k prize money. Everyone was about to unmask Suicide when Daniels comes down and makes the save (proving Kaz is back in the costume).

2 on 1 Handicap Match, No Limit vs Kevin Nash - As good as No Limit are its difficult to make Kevin Nash look good ever. A pretty weak match with Nash taking the win with the Jack Knife Powerbomb on Naito.

Special "I Quit" Match, Jethro Holliday vs Booker T - Overly long sub par match, Holliday had the best of it but Sharmell distracted the ref long enough for Booker to hit Holliday with a chair, Booker nailed the axe kick and Holliday gave up so the win went to Booker T.

And that was ALL the wrestling we got in 2 hours. Sad isn't it?

WWE Superstars 14th May 09 reviewed

Rey Mysterio vs Shelton Benjamin - Fairly average match, no f**king clue why they had a break to run a video package about Jeff Hardy vs Edge 8 minutes into the match. It didnt get a great deal better with Mysterio taking the win off a springboard splash. Post match fracas between Benjamin & John Morrison who'd been at the colour desk, almost certainly to further some storyline no-one will care about.

Overly long video package about Batista.

Mark Henry vs Christian - I see they are STILL using "Worlds Strongest Man" to bill Henry, not only is it inaccurate its false advertising as Henry has NEVER taken part in a WSM contest let alone win it. This match was so dull I didn't even notice the finish, Christian made a reverse cross body block to take the win.

Overly long "RAW Rebound" segment. Look WWE, its f**king SIMPLE! If I want to know about RAW I'll watch F**KING RAW! It's s**t like that that proves week in and week out that WWE just DON'T have the talent to even fill a 1 hour show. Advert for Judgement Day PPV. Overly long video package about Big Show and John Cena. Yet more proof if you needed it that WWE can't fill a 1 hour show with actual wrestling.

Exhibition Match, The Big Show vs Hornswoggle - No you aren't dreaming, thats a real pairing in competition. It's f**kwitted bulls**t gimmick matches like this that keep showing how little clue the employees of the WWE "Creative" department have. Unless their playing this as a storyline for Cena to get revenge then this will be a VERY short squash match.

Nothing worth talking about in this match, Goldust came down to save Hornswoggle and I assume the bell was the ref calling for a DQ by outside interference on Hornswoggle with the win going to The Big Show. A truly POINTLESS waste of tv time and money.

Every week I wonder if this show can get any worse and it always manages to do exactly that. STOP THE ROT WWE!

ROH Wrestling 9th May 09 reviewed

Nigel McGuinness gobs off for over 5 minutes about not being champion. Interview with Tyler Black & Bryan Danielson on what they thought about his comments. Great, ROH has become WWE as well now? It only took them 6 weeks to decide they also want to be a WWE clone? F**king distaster!

Mixed Tag Match - Jimmy Jacobs & MsChif vs Daizee Haze & Delirious. The women were probably the best thing about this match but it wasn't very good at all. Not much in the way of actual action either, Haze took the win for her team. It looked like they weren't very sure how to work this one at all, personally I'd have rather seen Haze & MsChif go 1 on 1 it would have been a much better match.

Talking heads segment advertising Claudio Castagnoli vs Brent Albright coming up next week. So why the f**k are they wasting airtime this week?

Orange Cassidy & Leslie Butterscotch vs The American Wolves (Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards). Cassidy & Butterscotch were already in the ring and hadn't been announced and the announcer hadn't even finished introducing the Wolves when they jumped their opponants before the bell had rung. Cassidy is clearly out of favour in ROH as this is his 2nd match and he wasn't introduced in either one, he also took a beatdown before the match legally got started.

Cassidy sold a VERY long and very boring beatdown from Edwards & Richards before Butterscotch finally got tagged in and was well out of his depth from the second he entered the ring, Richards took the win with a bridging suplex off Butterscotch. Kind of a pointless squash match really as it didn't get The American Wolves over 1 iota and it didnt help either Cassidy or Butterscotch establish themselves either. The American Wolves are very talented but need decent opposition to get them over.

Kyle Durden interviews Ric Flair backstage, Flair keeps saying "2nd week" as if anyone is going to be fooled that he's at the same tv taping because anyone who knows anything about ROH knows they tape at least 2 weeks worth of shows in 1 go. Video of Colt Cabana yakking (so WWE finally fired him?) before being interupted by Prince Nana & Dirty Ernie Osiris (it really is about time someone told Homeless Jimmy this guy is trying to cash in on his gimmick).

#1 Contenders Match, Tyler Black vs Bryan Danielson. Ok this is another main event where they are trying to fill 20+ minutes with entertaining wrestling. Since week one of ROH on HDNET, wrestlers have tried and failed to make a match filled with decent wrestling so I expect no different tonight even with a title shot on the line.

The first 15 minutes or so was very dull, all mat based technical wrestling with lots of holds, reverses and locks. All at a really slow pace and not very exciting at all, neither guy appeared to have his heart involved in this (you'd think there'd be a bit of emotion shown at a title shot) but quite frankly they both looked bored as hell and were going through the motions.

Clearly the ref gave some kind of signal and things picked up with less than 3 mins of tv time remaining, Black went up for what looked an attempt at a reverse Moonsault & Danielson pushed him off the top turnbuckle into the first row and then springboarded himself off the top rope onto Black (check the guys in the Wrestlemania & Santino shirts marking out like motherf**kers), neither guy beat the count (they count to 20 in ROH, how weird is that?) so the ref called it a double count out (pretty pointless as someone has to get the title shot) and I'm not exactly sure what match the fans were watching with their "that was awesome" chant as it was possibly the dullest 20 minute match ever with a REALLY s**t non-finish.

Either there will be a rubber match to this or Jerry Lynn will say he'll fight them both in a 3 way dance. Its also pretty weird that after 7 weeks HDNET are yet to offer a PPV from ROH either, whats the score there then?

WWE Superstars 7th May 09 reviewed

Show opens with Edge coming out to waffle with Jeff Hardy, Edge gets an ass-kicking for his troubles.

Diva Tag Match - Santina & Kelly Kelly vs Rosa Mendes & Beth Phoenix. Do WWE really value their women so lowly that they have to throw a man in drag into this bringing it down to gimmick match status? Thankfully Santina was out quickly and Kelly made a nicely sold snap Hurricanrana into a near fall on Phoenix, the headscissors was WAY oversold and clearly Kelly isn't that well versed in WWE history by doing her springboard backsplash (she doesn't remember how badly injured Chyna got doing that very same move).

To be honest this match was mainly Kelly (she's a noisy little f**ker isn't she, more pornstar moans than convincingly sounding in pain) but the match was slowed down at the wrong time with the weardown move by Mendes on Kelly. Kelly made the pin on Mendes (was Mendes even legal?) in a fairly average match. Kelly Kelly is a good worker as she showed here, maybe if she wound her vocal reactions down a few notches she'd be a bit more bearable.

Finlay vs Zack Ryder. It seems Ryder fell into the WWE dressing up box and came out wearing Grand Master Sexays outfit? Not a great match (And I'm being overly generous saying that), I couldn't really tell who was supposed to be getting over here. Ryder didn't show much in the way of skill & Finlay hasn't never been overly talented (can anyone believe he used to be a trainer at WCW's Powerplant?) even at his best which was in his WCW hardcore days. Finlay took the eventual win in this very dull match, shouldn't Finlay really be considering retirement at his age?

Chris Jericho vs John Morrison. So Jericho is sticking with the "Eddie Izzards fatter brother" image? It's still not working for him. Truly s**t match with f**k all action, Jericho took the win off The Codebreaker after Morrison was distracted by Shelton Benjamin on the Titantron.

This was 3 average at best matches, the women worked well but having Santino in there just dragged the match down to ridiculous status. Phoenix & Kelly worked well together, I didn't really see enough of Mendes to form a fair opinion. Santino is s**t and always has been, his gimmick is c**p and the female gimmick is even worse. This show hasn't been able to impress yet and its keeping up the bad work. Way to go WWE.

My Weekly TNA Catch-up, Impact 7th May 09 reviewed

This week I have tried to catalogue everything that happens during the show just to show how much of it isn't wrestling.

Show opens with the MEM coming out to spout whatever views on the mic. Kurt Angle calls Mick Foley out, Foley comes out with Daniels and addresses their issues. Jeff Jarrett comes out with AJ Styles to say more stuff. Video package following up on if Chris Daniels is Suicide or not (he was, he isn't now).

Consequences Creed (with Jay Lethal) vs Suicide. In this non-title X Division match this was almost certainly Kaz in the costume as there was no zipline entry this week so Kaz is still nervous about his old injury. Fairly average match, both guys sold each well and Suicide managed to avoid any hard bumps or aerials but Suicide took the eventual win off a Jawbreaker.

Backstage s**te between Foley & Matt Morgan and that Smashing Pumpkins vid they show every f**king week, if TNA REALLY wanted to save money they'd stop showing this as they must be paying Billy Corgan & his mates a s**itload in royalties every time its aired. Plus it takes up time they could be having an actual match in. More backstage s**te with The Beautiful People. Sit down interview with the MEM. Yet more backstage s**te with Taylor Wilde then Jeff Jarrett.

2 on 1 Handicap Match - Sally Boy & Big Rocco vs Matt Morgan. Not really a handicap match as such, Rocco & Sal were acting as a tagteam against Morgan on his own. This was pretty dull (clearly no-one involved had a clue how to work this match) and Morgan took the pretty quick win off The Carbon Footprint. If they'd bothered working out some sort of program before hand this might have been a half decent match, as it was it didn't really get Morgan or the MEM Security guys over in any way at all.

More backstage s**te with Foley, Webography with Robert Roode. Backstage s**te with Eric Young & Jethro Holliday. Team 3D come down to the colour desk for the next match.

3D Tag Team Invitational Semifinal - Beer Money vs Eric Young & Jethro Holliday. Brother Ray managed to shoot on Hollidays partners "travel problems" (knowing full well Hollidays new partner Lance Cade hasn't worked out his 30 day no compete clause from WWE yet) then called Holliday by his real name (Murdoch) before very quickly correcting himself. Young & Roode worked well together starting this one off and it was pretty even until Roode hit a nice spinebuster (It was also interesting to hear Tenay mention a comment by WWE's Jim Ross and asking Team 3D's opinion on it. It's weird to hear Team 3D and the colour guys openly talking about JR and WWE like that, I bet WWE would fire any announcer making reference to any other wrestling franchise on a WWE owned show.) as Young was double teamed and sold it well.

Young had a comeback but his belly to belly suplex was very sloppy indeed (I think he'd blown up by that point unless Roode hadn't fancied selling it) and the ref checked on him after it (seems Young was the cause of the flub then?). Holliday came in and worked both of Beer Money on his own with Storm selling a nice Bulldog (whilst Team 3D had been putting The British Invasion over on the commentary), after a bit of miscommunication with Holliday Young was hit with a Super Kick then the DWI which allowed Storm to make the pin and Beer Money progress into the finals of this tournament.

Backstage s**te from Awesome Kong & Raisha Saeed. Webography with James Storm. Video flashback to last weeks Knockout Stretcher Match.

Knockout Stretcher Match - Velvet Sky (with Angelina Love) vs Awesome Kong (with Raisha Saeed). Same rules as last week, 1st person to put their opponant on the stretcher for a 10 count takes the win. Kong has finally altered the "cut" braids of hair integrating them into her other plaits, as yet theres no sign of the haircut that Hack-man posted a picture of. Ref Earl Hebner started by sending Saeed & Love back to the locker room to ensure a fair fight here.

Sky started out with a volley of punches that had no effect before Kong hit a clothesline followed by a second after Sky dodged the attempt on The Awesome Bomb. After a few stomps Kong hit The Implant Buster following up with another one, fans chanted "One more time" and Kong obliged with a 3rd Implant Buster before throwing Sky onto the stretcher only to drag her off after a 3 count. Kong hit a fourth Implant Buster following the stomps with a 5th putting her back on the stretcher dragging Sky off after a 5 count to hit The Awesome Bomb, Hebner made the fastest 10 count in history and Kong took the easy win.

Backstage s**te - Abyss with "Dr Stevie", Daffney makes an appearance. Lethal Consequences come out to get involved in the "Who is Suicide really" angle and call Daniels out. Some of Lethals comments very nearly make Creed laugh (you see him struggle to contain a laugh when Lethal says "Your Kabuki!"), I guess they are setting Daniels up as a heel then and the shoot on Lethals gimmick wasn't totally unfair. The Motor City Machine Guns come out to add their 2 cents worth but theres still no Daniels & Suicide in the same ring so I guess they are trying to kick the arse out this idea and are still holding that back. Backstage s**ite with Jarrett & Sting, backstage s**te with Angelina Love. MEM video package.

10 Man Tag Match - Kurt Angle, Scott Steiner, Booker T, Kevin Nash & Sting (with Sharmell & Jenna Morasca) vs Samoa Joe, Daniels, AJ Styles, Jeff Jarrett & Mick Foley. Jarrett had put his arms up for his pyro and Foley came out instead of the pyro going off so Jarrett stood there looking stupid and pissed off at Foley for stealing his thunder. By the time the bell had gone there was a maximum of 10 minutes of tv air time left for this match which was a complete waste of time booking all these 10 into a match only 10 minutes long. Very dull, all the MEM team got time in the ring and only Jarrett didn't enter the match (at least not legally) for his team and Sting took the win for the MEM off Foley after Jarrett had given Foley the Stroke into the barbed wire baseball bat. Sting says he'll be in the 4 way title match at the Sacrifice PPV and says it'll be a career ending match if someone pins him at Sacrifice

ROH Wrestling 2nd May 09 reviewed

Show opens with the new Ambassador for ROH, Ric Flair being introduced and coming to the ring to a standing ovation. By the looks of it Flair had a fairly long spiel on the stick which the director cut to ribbons to keep the show at tv length, Naitch did himself no favours by citing WWE names when he was bigging up the ROH roster (as was evident by the booing when he mentioned HHH but there were no boos when he mentioned Shawn Michaels).

Flair introduced current ROH Champ Jerry Lynn and did a job of putting him over (not that he needed it) but Lynn was very humble in his response. Austin Aries comes out to try and get himself over (to the usual chants of "Austin Asshole") and what was rather funny was when he rhetorically asked Flair & Lynn who had been "the man" in ROH before they turfed up some wag in the crowd shouted out "Danielson" referring to Bryan Danielson.

Chris Hero vs Kenny Omega. It seems this week they aren't doing the factfile introductions any more unless they are now reserving those just for new wrestlers appearing on tv for the 1st time. It seems Omega is doomed to remain a curtain jerker at the moment in ROH and no doubt will be jobbing to heel Hero tonight. This one started off with an armbar that both guys reversed numerous times (to be honest that was pretty boring after about 30 seconds so why they stuck with it for so long is beyond me), whats even more annoying is after breaking the hold they went to mat work but Omega finally broke the incredible monotony with some decent high flying stuff.

Omega took a near fall off a flying cross body block into a nice roll-up & was selling for Hero who made a c**ppy flying kick through the ropes, Omega made a very nice bridging suplex for another near fall. Sara Del Rey (who had also come to the ring with Hero) distracted the ref long enough for Hero to put on his loaded elbow pad & hit the spinning elbow to take the rather predictable win in a match where the much better worker was Omega and Hero did fuck all.

Brodie Lee (with Jimmy Jacobs) vs The Necro Butcher. Before this match they did do the talking heads intro that they normally do along with the fact file so I guess they are keeping some elements of that introduction for certain matches. Necro started this before the bell with a backsplash off the apron onto Lee before nailing him a few times with a chair, Lee hit a nice slam onto the entrance ramp before finally carrying Necro to the ring and the match officially got started.

The match was all Lee from the bell with the occasional double team from Jacobs when Lee distracted the ref, Lee is an extremely sloppy worker (I've never seen anyone execute a worse big boot & Lee managed to f**ck up that simple move twice in less than 10 seconds) but Necro was still selling even though Lee really didn't deserve it. Necro used Lee to bump Jacobs off the apron and took the win off a roll-up. A pretty s**t match made worse by Lee and his flubs and lack of basic talent.

Sal Renaro vs Erick Stevens - Stevens merited a banner introduction & Renaro who was already in the ring was only worthy of a vocal intro so I had to Google him so excuse me if I spelled his name wrong. Stevens got in a cheap shot before the bell which earnt Renaro a powerslam into the canvas followed by a nice overhead suplex, Stevens was suitably p**sed off and hit a splash into the corner following up with a viciously stiff looking clothesline that Renaro sold like crazy which Stevens followed with a nice Powerbomb to take the win. I would have liked a slightly longer match with more chance to see how Renaro could respond, nice work by Stevens though.

Austin Aries vs Roderick Strong. Yet again its another 20 minute main event & yet again I am left to wonder if the 2 men involved can fill the whole match without slowing off too much. No-one has been able to do this since ROH started on tv so we will see if this week can be the 1st time. Currently it is really hard to understand the mindset of the ROH bookers as far as Aries is concerned as he has gone from Main Eventer to Curtain Jerker & back to Main Eventer just as fast. Pretty much f**k all happened in this match, Aries won off the Brainbuster. Exceptionally dull match with zero action, not worthy of main event status or even worth giving away for free.

Yet again ROH had 2 talented guys in the main event & squandered the chance to make something worth watching, I must ask how ROH managed to persuade Ric Flair to come on board as surely TNA or WWE could have offered him much more money (are the rumours of Flair asking 100K US $ per appearance true?) but I guess he didn't want to return to WWE as he has done pretty much everything he possibly could there.

WWE Superstars 30th Apr 09 reviewed

Divas Tag Match - Gail Kim & Maria vs Alicia Fox & Michelle McCool. Actually a very decent match by all involved, Kim & Maria probably had the better match but McCool took the win for her team in a match that could have done with a slightly better finish but still a good curtain jerker.

Paul Burchill (with Katie Lea) vs Evan Bourne. It seems that the colour guys are now using "Air Bourne" as a nickname for Evan, rather gratifying considering I'm the one who created the name originally for his finisher and WWE took me up on my offer to steal and use it. Its rather sad to see someone as talented as Evan jobbing to Burchill in order to put over a heel with a pretty crap gimmick and even worse heat, Burchill was all power & weardown moves with Bourne providing all the real entertainment off the high flying aerial stuff. Bourne was selling a bad knee which Burchill targeted and stuck with but Bourne got a near fall from a nice flying forearm but took the eventual win off Air Bourne. Average match that was a little too long, Burchill needs to learn a few more moves if I am honest as he's a 1 trick pony getting by on his Triple H type looks.

Ted DiBiase Jr (with Cody Rhodes) vs Carlito. So the tag titles have been unified across RAW & Smackdown now then? This was pretty much a squash match for Dibiase Jr with Carlito selling like crazy to get Ted Jr over in the heel role, not much in the way of substance or entertainment come to that but both guys got an ample bite of the cherry and the match was fairly even with Dibiase Jr taking the win off a modified chokeslam. Not a good match at all, Carlito was the better worker but thats not saying much as he did practically f**k all and Dibiase Jr did even less.

To be frank the best match on the card was a chuck up between the Divas tagmatch and Evan Bournes match, the divas had a very good match and were allowed to work a decent program. The only way Bourne could have had a better match would have been if he'd had an opponant with an ounce of talent, stick him up against someone like Shelton Benjamin or Kofi Kingston which would make for a miles better match. WWE still aren't capitalizing on this show yet but it was better this week than it has been but it could be MUCH better still.

My Weekly TNA Catch-up, Impact 30th Apr 09 reviewed

MEM come out to the ring, almost certainly for some storyline c**p that no-one cares about (proved by the "You suck" chant by the fans at Angle), various backstage s**te occurs too.

3D Tag Team Invitational Quarterfinals - The Motor City Machine Guns vs Amazing Red & Suicide. Red has been in TNA before, the last time I saw him it was whilst working for ROH though. No clue who is in the Suicide costume tonight, is Kaz back from the injury or is Chris Daniels still subbing for him? Red & Shelley started things off with a great series of exchanges and Red is as good now as I've ever seen him if not better with age and experience, Red sold well for both the Guns and was responsible for pretty much ALL the good moves in the match. Suicide took the win off the Suicide Solution on Shelley and I have a feeling that was Kaz in the costume due to the lack of in-ring time on his part.

3D Tag Team Invitational Quarterfinals - LAX vs The British Invasion (Brutus Magnus & Doug Williams with Rob Terry). It seems the Brits jumped LAX backstage just before they were due to come to the ring taking out Hernandez so Homicide came out to contest the match on his own. Magnus hasn't been in a match since the Destination X PPV & for Williams its been even longer as his last appearance was at last years Turning Point PPV, research on Terry says he was in developmental for WWE working in FCW before coming to TNA.

Homicide took out Terry on the ramp using his Feast Or Fired case before landing a suicide dive onto Magnus & Williams before the match finally got started. Magnus has had a change of image, the whole Russell Crowe Gladiator thing is gone as both he & Williams are now wearing British Bulldog style Union Jack tights. Clearly West & Tenay don't have very good memories saying Magnus had brought Williams back from England as he was already under contract to TNA he was merely on the inactive list. Homicide had a great match here working both the Brits but Williams made the eventual win off a European Uppercut taking Homicide off Magnus' shoulders.

Knockout Stretcher Match - Madison Rayne (with The Beautiful People) vs Awesome Kong (with Raisha Saeed). To win this you have to keep your opponant on the stretcher for a 10 count and both Saeed and The Beautiful People were sent back to the locker room to make this a fair match. Kong started off with a chokeslam and a clothesline, an Implant Buster then the Awesome Bomb twice before the ref finally made the 10 count with the easy win going to Awesome Kong.

The Motor City Machine Guns come out to try and reveal who Suicide really is by calling out Chris Daniels (nice shoot but clearly Kaz was in the costume tonight as he did practically sod all in the ring), this is really more about furthering the Guns as heels than outing Daniels as Suicide or doing the swerve and having Kaz come out in the costume (which would have been an excellent twist but they didn't do it so they are clearly saving that for another show. I predicted it here first!). It is quite cool that TNA are doing an angle that demonstrates the fans knowledge about the wrestlers, WWE would never do an angle that was so close to breaking kayfabe like this is.

Cody Deaner (with ODB) vs Abyss - the stipulation here is Deaner can use weapons but Abyss can't. Deaner used a couple of the weapons before Abyss decked him allowing ODB to give him a mouthfull of the liquid from the flask that he spat into Abyss' eyes. Deaner beaned Abyss with the garbage can twice before using the Singapore cane several times, Deaner used the chair sending Abyss to the canvas and took far too long taking out the wrench which allowed Abyss to hit the Black Hole Slam for the win.

Tag Team Grudge Match - Kevin Nash (with Jenna Morasca) & Booker T (with Sharmell) vs AJ Styles & Samoa Joe. Despite how they were announced entering as above Booker came out before Nash and we have heard Tazz is coming to TNA so we are now getting lots of little teasers from Joe about Tazz. Yet again Joe didn't come out on his introduction leaving Styles high and dry from the opening bell which Booker took advantage of. Styles more than held his own also doing a fairly decent job when Nash came in to work him, even managing to fend off a doubleteam too before hitting a great springboard flying forearm on Nash. Styles took out both Nash & Booker with a slingshot over the top rope to the floor and as they showed Bobby Lashley in the backstage area Samoa Joe finally came down to the ring.

Coming back from the break during which Styles and Joe had fought each other at the bottom of the ramp and that allowed Nash & Booker to jump them and take the advantage but Joe came in illegally to work over both the MEM guys before Jenna Morasca distracted the ref which let Sharmell slide Booker the legends title which he used to hit Styles and take the win as Joe had been fighting with Nash on the floor across the other side of the ring. Not a great match as they are working too many storylines here which is what ruined this.

More backstage storyline c**p, does anyone really care what this kind of stuff is setting up any more?