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I was there today in the morning, but it was hard to come away with much info. Everybody looked roughly the same at the start. I had read Tait's preview article before going so I must admit that I focused more on some of those guys. Out of the new QBs, I thought Philip Nelson was the best. In the 7 on 7s he started with a ball in the turf on a short out to an RB, but then was on fire after that. Had a huge completion down the middle to a WR that had everyone excited. Nelson himself was fist-pumping after that one. Had some nice deep ball throws too. Lankford had a nice deep catch and beat some of the new CBs pretty handily with his speed. Washington reeled in a few short tosses. The surprise of the day for me was watching Wolitarsky more. His routes were excellent, leading to a bunch of crisp catches. I couldn't pick out much from the new DBs. Plenty still learning the game and rules, so there were a lot of receiver wins in the one-on-ones.

Makes sense. Mustard belongs on a hot dog.

I remember being disappointed we got Goosen instead of Lavertu. Thing worked out well for the bombers there.

pretty please?

Episode 7

Any reports from the first day of practice for us out of province individuals?

Is Rod off the wagon again?

Give me a team that wins more than it loses in the regular season every time and eventually the playoffs will take care of themselves. Seriously people don't we remember what happened the last times we fired coaches because making the playoffs just wasn't good enough?

Yeah, I should have said it looked meh. I was trying to be hopeful, but I doubt it will be any good. Sony is just trying too hard with their movies. Amy Pascal is just a terrible producer.

...with an epic case of the yips.

Wow and they said W was dumb

https://www.bleedinggreennation.com/2016/5/24/11759282/eagles-rookie-profile-quentin-gause-rutgers-linebacker-profile-scouting-report-philadelphia They said in the radio just now that Quentin Gause is the early favourite to win the job at middle linebacker. He’s a physical phreak, shows good speed and is a good character and a academic. He is a bit short for the nfl at 6 foot tall but shows a good vertical. He spent he last two years on NFL practice rosters.

http://3downnation.com/2018/04/24/justin-dunks-cfl-mock-draft-2-0/

Trouba Morrissey Buff Enstrom Myers and Poolman rotating with Morrow and Chiarot. Toby gonna play.

@JCon The interacting with the androids isnt just a creative way to avoid boring coding scenes either. Everything we see has a purpose and often, we're not seeing what we think we are. EDIT: Im SO excited for you to get to the end lol

I was banging my head against the wall trying to figure out whats going on. I actually read a refresher online before binging season 1 again, just to remind myself. And it helped and then watching it the second time so quickly, it really is like mind-blowing. Even some things that still are a little ambiguous, the "it could be this..." was cool. Once Jcon finishes, we can ditch the spoilers (its two years old lol) and really delve into season 1!

What your looking for is coming. It's a pivotal scene. I find Westworld really hard to follow, but it's quality TV, even if you don't understand what is really going on. First episode of season two continues with the ambiguity.

When I watched it originally, I sort of struggled to make myself watch it. And when it was done, I felt exhausted but knew it was good. Only the second time around have I truly realized how great it is. Its really confusing as far as whats happening (for me anyway) so when it was revealed, while it was great it didnt change the fact I watched most of it with a "WTF is happening" mentality. Watching it again i noticed more and loved more. The first half (or even 2/3) absolutely sets up the remaining third of episodes. Probably episode 7 or 8, things are paid off. Please come back and tell me what you think after you finish it.

Yeah that 0-line is going to be god awful...and no depth whatsoever...If they are pinning hopes on Bladek and St John as being full-time starters they are delusional. One injury on that O-line and they are screwed. I don't see the defense being dominant either as some like to think..Linebacking crew looks very iffy...and their D-backs are mid tier at best...The d-line is decent...but zero depth behind any of them, and i bet they get wore down in games...not to mention back half of the season....yup...just don't see the idea of them contending for 1st in the west

I disagree. I think if you look at the moves the Bombers have made, they're effectively squeezing Hall out, while letting him keep his title. i perceive that Hall is important to the players, so if they can keep them happy and make key strategic and personnel changes.

Collaros need to practice how to fall on the turf safely.

Their concept really made it hard for them. Today, Impact gets criticised when it does six days of tapings. AWE/WFX was doing six days of tapings in one night. Its a really negative experience for fans. They really needed to script the shows a lot better for the live crowd rather then simply taping the episodes more or less in order. There also just isnt a market to draw 1000+ on a regular basis. My former partner and I always differed on this. He was much more of an 80's & 90's wrestling fan then me and thought that the market would react to seeing old names the same way he would. We had a major argument in summer 2002 when we still worked together. We were planning our event at Shaw Park (which was one disaster after another). So we have this 7500 seat building to fill. And Im always the negative voice in the room. "How are we going to fill that?" "It will look empty". "There will be no crowd heat." "What if it rains." We went through several plans for headline talent. Originally was wanted Sid Vicious and had the Goldeyes interested in letting him throw out the first pitch the night before etc. Sid loved the idea but I think the Goldeyes were on the road. And Sid's agent said "well, if he isnt playing softball, he'll be there." So no Sid. LOD were booked and then de-booked (Animal was furious). We spoke to Randy Savage's agent who quoted $30,000 ("Randy doesnt want to take indy bookings but if someone will pay that price, he'll do it"). Finally, it was Bret Hart and Roddy Piper. And the plan was the give Piper the key to the city and make it a really big deal. Of course, me being the bearer of bad (but logical) news says "neither guy wrestles. We're going to have this big crowd to see two guys and a show full of locals." So we added Jim Neidhart. Then Piper backed out due to some engagement with his son. And Bret had his stroke. But Bret's people kept his condition very secretive for weeks and kept telling us he would make his commitments (and we had a contract so we couldnt cancel, plus if we cancelled a guy due to a stroke we'd look like assholes). Finally Bret does cancel and we're scrambling. So the big debate is, a headline talent. Of available guys, my partner is pushing King Kong Bundy, Jim Duggan or Bam Bam Bigelow. Im pushing Jeff Jarrett. So finally, Mike (my partner) ushers me and our business consultant (glorified babysitter assigned by the money guy) into a board room. Oh yeah, funny story, so Mike was also suggesting we circle back to Sid, which I would have been on board with but you could tell Sid just didnt care. So Mike says "Sid Vicious, we have to get Sid Vicious." And our business consultant Hank, who's about 60, says "Ummmm, MIke, I hate to break it to you but I believe Sid Vicious is dead." Mike and I just stare at each other before Mike finally says "No Hank, not THAT Sid Vicious." So finally we agree to get the opinion of a third party. We call down for Will Damon (one of our top guys at the time) to come up. He walks in and we simply say, who's the best guy to bring in, Bundy, Jarrett, Duggan? No delay, he says Jarrett. Mike is irate. But that settles it. We leave the board room and by the next day, Bagwell was booked. And I was told never to mention Jarrett again lol. (We did end up adding LOD back to the show). The record for indy wrestling here is 1750-ish. That was us, with Eddie Guerrero, HTM & Beefcake. Almost 1000 of those tickets was sold by our roster. And we had CRAZY advertising. Because it was our first event, we had "deals" with HOT 103 to be the presenter, POWER 97, WPG Sun, etc. Probably $7500 cost but $15,000 value in advertising. We were literally all over HOT 103. So that 700+ people that bought tickets based on our marketing. For the LOD/Bagwell event in July, we did about 1200 (and it looked terrible in Shaw Park). The big difference? The roster sold less tickets. You simply cant get all your friends, family, co-workers etc to come every show. Because its like a social, you're getting people that WANT to go, people that will go, couple times a year, people who are going for novelty, people who go just to support you and have no other interest etc. So thats what happened with AWE/WFX. You can't keep going to the well. Especially when there was unfriendly competition in the city and you have a roster that is basically split in half between AWE and PCW (the PCW guys, obviously, not selling AWE tickets or marketing their show). Then when you go to a show and its super long with the same matches and locals over and over again. And they are taping TV quality matches (shorter matches where guys are holding back because they have to work 6 times that night). So, this isnt meant to crap on them. They had a big concept but even in a perfect world, its a really difficult execution. And they weren't executing perfectly at the best of times. At the Church, they started bringing in Reality TV stars which helped get sponsors and after parties but turned off the wrestling fans who didnt care about Big Brother or Survivor. And I really think they sort of mis-judged the direction wrestling was going as far as seeing hot athletic stars vs the older WCW guys. This last time, last fall, when they tried to bring WFX back, it was the same older stars and they literally sold, like 40 tickets or something before cancelling. Two weeks beforehand they came to me and said they'd do anything if I could get Omega to do the show. Wasn't happening. Wrestling is booming in so many ways, but being a national promotion isnt one of them.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat???? Austen Matthews Patrik Laine and Werenski are light years better then the rookies this season.

TMZ says he's responding to treatment I don't if the person that did this nice drawing will do another one when HW goes

Fear the WhiteOut! Accept the MustardStain?

His name is Charles Chulada... His name is Charles Chulada... His name is Charles Chulada... His name is Charles Chulada... His name is Charles Chulada... His name is Charles Chulada... He plays a mean Sax too...

Laine was a Calder finalist last year and the jets weren't in the playoffs

A little local history: AWE's first show was November 19th 2003 at Coyotes Nightclub featuring Buff Bagwell & Shane Madison vs Adam Knight & Chi Chi Cruz in the main event. They also had an "MMA Exhibition" between Dan Severn and Donny Dicaprio. What's funny is, a rival promoter, Ernie Todd of the Canadian Wrestling Federation (which was a local affiliate of the NWA), apparently reported the Severn/Dicaprio match to the Boxing Commission and wanted people arrested illegally promoting a prize fight. That show was promoted by my former partner Mike and while Jeff Dyck might have been involved I do not believe he was involved financially. I think his initial relationship with Mike was providing promotion through his magazine "Heat". Coyotes sort of became a battle ground in 2003. A long-time promoter named Bobby Jay (he appeared on WWE TV a few times in the "jobber" role when they ran locally), had closed down his promotion, TRCW. This was basically the end of the war of '02 between TRCW and our promotion. My partner Mike used to be booker for TRCW and thats how we met. Mike got fired and he and I joined forces to start our own thing. When TRCW closed down, Bobby came and worked for us. In 2003 he came to use and said Coyotes was interested in running a big show with imports and Bobby wanted to do it, but would do it friendly using our talent. It was delicate because our main venue was the LID which was a competitor of Coyotes. So we agreed. But as it turns out, Bobby was actually talking to Coyotes about running weekly shows and wanting to "get back" at us. He went to our roster members to gauge interest in screwing us. One of them tipped us off. So Bobby decided it wasnt worth the hassle. But since Coyotes was interested and everyone knew it, everyone wanted to get in there. the aforementioned CWF, owned by Ernie Todd, actually got in there on a weekly deal paying a very strong fee per show. But the CWF sucked at the time. That was October 2003, I believe. In August, my partner Mike had quit our promotion in somewhat of a powerplay (basically we were not going to continue as partners and one of us had to go - Mike quit, assuming most of the roster would quit with him, and thus, I'd be forced out, which didnt happen). Mike then pursued the Coyotes deal but since they had a contract with CWF, there was nothing they could do other then go down to the bar every week and point out all the flaws in the CWF. So after about three weeks, Coyotes kicks CWF out (there was a threat of a lawsuit) and AWE was born. But Coyotes was burned on the idea of paying for wrestling. AWE ran their November debut off the gate (ie. they financed it themselves and sold tickets to recoup costs). Coyotes provided advertising. That first show was fairly busy but lost money. Money was borrowed to meet payroll. Coyotes was happy with their end though and offered AWE to run weekly, but off the gate. AWE didn't want any part of losing money and declined. By January, Mike and the AWE crew were all back in my promotion (Mike and I had been co-defendants in a wrestling-related lawsuit and thats what got us friendly again). We worked together for all of 2004. Mike had been vocal to me about his desire to run more AWE shows and now Dyck was involved as a partner. Mike explained their plan as running quarterly big shows with big import talent and he'd want to use some of my talent roster and that it would all be friendly and win-win. They planned their second show for Nov 2004 featuring Sid Vicious among others. But it didnt come together in time. This plan was to tape the show and air it as a Pay Per View (on delay). In January 2005, Mike called me asking if I'd consider investing. He said Dyck did not have his half of the seed money. I declined. The plan presented was that the show would cost X amount (like $20,000-$30,000) but only about $5000 up front (airfare, deposits etc). So they only needed $5000 and would hope the show was so successful, it covered the expenses on the back end. I wanted no part of that (we ran a show in 2002 in a similar way and it was idiotic and a disaster). According to Mike, he had his half of the $5000 (I believe he said his gf lent it to him) but Dyck didnt have his, but was considering borrowing it from "bikers". However he got it, Dyck ended up with his half and they planned the big event for March (no Sid this time). Throughout the process, Mike had included me on group emails to talent. But in December, he sent a group email to his key people but *not* me. Unfortunately for him, he accidentally added the wrong person (same first name and similar last night) and that person anonymously sent it to me. It detailed the plan for AWE to pretend we were all working together but to screw us with talent jumping ship and them securing a weekly show deal with Canad Inns (which never happened). When I confronted Mike, he denied it. I then read him the email...and he was silent. So AWE did go forward in March 2005 at the IGAC (and we were competitors until spring 2006 when AWE went on hiatus). Their March event had Jamie Noble, Rikishi, Billy Gunn & Jim Duggan. As I recall, they drew really well, like probably in the 1200 range (Unless Im confusing that with a WFX show). But they were back there in October and I see a result online listing 298 fans. And that was at IGAC so it would have looked horrendous. That had Bagwell, Rikishi, Gunn, Brian Christopher, Dan Severn (vs Omega in a "shoot fight") & Lex Luger. They ran again in December at IGAC with the Steiner Bros etc. They ran several shows in small towns but they werent big and didnt draw well. If I recall correctly, Dyck's business at the time was a bottled water company (I think they sued him over their money being misappropriated to fund wrestling). I recall another show at IGAC that I was backstage at but cant find any results. It featured Beefcake, Sunny among others and I remember it didnt draw well and Sunny was unhappy because they didnt have the right music. AWE then folded (the word was, they owed a lot of money so went bankrupt). And in 2007, WFX began. Their first show was at the Convention Centre and drew flies. I was backstage (Mike and I were friendly again). Show featured Ultimo Dragon, Joey Mercury, Brian Christopher, Buff Bagwell, Angel Williams, Orlando Jordan, Jon Heidenreich, and Rikishi. Oh and Kishi's cousin....I cant remember which Samoan, Tonga Kid maybe? Doing a Umaga impersonation. The height of WFX success was their next show, at Marlborough Hotel with Jerry Lawler, Billy Gunn, Ultimo Dragon vs Kenny Omega, Chris Masters, Virgil etc. It was super packed. I was backstage producing segments and running Gorilla for the Rumble main event. Funny stories from that show: The ring announcer almost walked off half way through the show because Mike yelled at him too much. And since the ball room is on an upper floor, you need to get the ring up there. It was too large for the service elevator so these poor kids carried the ring up the stairs. Only one problem, Marlborough is so old, the stair case actually gets narrower as you rise. Half way up, the ring posts became wedged between the floor and the ceiling. Mike looks at the situation and orders the crew to smash a hole in the ceiling! (I believe there was a lawsuit over that). In the end, I think the posts had to be cut and then welded back together. By the following month, Dyck had bought the Church and thats where they taped the rest of their shows. I dont remember when their last show was, but it was a weird ECW thing with Shane Douglas. I remember because we had a show the same night at Dylan's and we out drew them. One of the many problems with the vision was them taping TV at these events, so they'd have 6 half hour episodes to tape which means fans saw the same guys over and over and over again. And they were TV matches (not balls to the walls, short time limits). I recall a story where the boys perceived the show as not being very good so in the main event Johnny Devine decided to have a really good match. Can't recall his opponent, might have been local by Shawn Houston. Anyway, he disregards the 10 minute time limit and goes like 30 minutes, feeling they can edit it down later but he wants to give the local fans in attendance a good match. Mike is radio'ing the ref to tell them to end it and they disregard. Devine walks backstage and Mike is ready to kill him. They stepped into a private office and "settled" it (with contrasting outcomes depending who tells the story). Dyck ended up leaving town and going to Vegas. He and Mike had a falling out. And that's the story of AWE/WFX.

Wow the season is really creeping up on us here

man this playoff meter is giving me memories of the Jets return meter all those times refreshing that darn thing hoping it would move closer and closer to the other side of that logo

Based on what?

Yes. Last years rookie group wasn't as strong tho.

There is an element of luck to winning a single game, but talent and hard work determine overall success. But having a "good" or "happy" team doesn't guarantee anything. The Don didn't get too many Xmas cards from his players but his teams won consistently. On the other hand Reinbold and Mike Kelly had players gushing over them, and we know that went. In hockey, Barry Trotz guided winning teams in the regular season, but choked in the playoffs, so he got canned. The Bombers and fans have had enough promises. Time for the current regime to cook or get off the stove.