Ramblings of an Englishman

Pokémon day has come and gone with the announcement for legends Z-A coming in late 2025 (likely October/November you’d have to imagine). I imagine we will get more reveals in that time but I wanted to take some time over my initial thoughts. I’ve left this a few days to wipe out immediate reaction which was one of disappointment. This was mainly due to me expecting more from the announcement but I understand that is my issue so didn’t want it to determine the course of the thoughts. However, as someone who only uses new Pokémon or new regional forms for their teams on each generation I hope we get some reveal geared towards some of those in the near future. Let’s start with the starter line up. For me having 2 for Johto meaning all three Johto starters (and 2 Unova) starters in 2 legends games I odd. I would’ve loved to see more variety to the generations chosen from and one from each I thought would be the way they would go. I do find the starters of generation 2 & 5 the weakest a...

2024 was yet another year of fun live wrestling events I attended. It was a year of real quality throughout the 4 shows I was able to go to in which the top 5 matches I've seen live was turned on its head and given a new running order. In order to determine the best matches I saw live this year I took a step back from immediate thoughts and rewatched them all recently in order to give a full breakdown on what was the best match. For this list the events I attended (in order) were as follows. RevPro: High Stakes - 18.02.2024 - Crystal Palace National Sports Centre RevPro: 12th Anniversary Show -  24.08.2024 - Copper Box Arena AEW: All In 2024 - 25.08.2024 - Wembley Stadium NJPW: Royal Quest 4 -  20.10.2024 - Crystal Palace National Sports Centre To start with though I wanted to cover a few honourable mentions. If this was a top 10 these matches would've made it: 10th: IWGP World Heavyweight Championship Match: Zack Sabre Jr (c) vs. SANADA 9th: Cut Throat...

As mentioned in my previous post I think the next Pokémon legends game will be one that celebrates 30+ years of the franchise and as such it is my belief it will take place in Kanto. With there already being multiple remakes of the original Red & Blue/Green I don’t see a full remake being done. If there was a let’s go Johto then it’s possible to see Kanto but that remains to be seen. I think a legends game in the region gives us a fresh look at a place we have been to multiple times. I wanted to just describe some of the ideas I’d have personally going into that game to make it a fun visit back to this region and also what they could do to have some fun and celebrate 30+ years of Pokémon. My main points come around the Pokédex. While we are still a month away from Legends Z-A news I don’t expect the Kalos starters to be your choices at the start of the game (I’m thinking Snivy, Torchic & Sobble) I think this trend should be bucked for a Kanto game with the original three. After...

We are roughly a month away from Pokémon day 2025 and with that the next news on Pokémon Legends Z-A and with that games release this year we will close the book on generation 9. What that means is that generation 10 in 2026 which coincides with the 30th anniversary of the release of Pokémon Red & Green in Japan. I expect this to lead to a big celebration year with the release of games and possible special show but I wanted to focus on the games that will come. I think it will be interesting to see what route is taken with the core game following Scarlet and Violet. Previously I thought they would go back to a Japanese region but now I’m not so sure. Looking at what Generation 5 did with the Pokédex having a lot of Pokémon that served the same purposes as Generation 1 Pokémon. I think we may see similar with those who didn’t get a Gen 5 counterpart. The likes of Gyarados springs to mind as one that didn’t get a counterpart and it’d be nice to see another sea leviathan to g...

As we are days away from 2024 ending we have the final AEW PPV of the year in World's End. As someone who's real interest differs between in ring or promos being what I am more interested the Continental Classic came around at a good time for good in ring action. It's really the only time AEW likes booking star vs. star on TV and has thrown great matches like Will Ospreay vs. Darby Allin and Kyle Fletcher vs. Mark Briscoe. That's not to take away from other matches on the card but my main interest going into this was the tournament conclusion. As someone who's enjoying The Death Riders I do also like the evolution to the story actually featuring the bigger stars and not just Mox squashing the lower card. I do expect this to move into Mox vs. Omega again but we will see. Again, I won't be going over the preshow matches as they are just thrown together last minute and don't add much so I will just go over stuff in and around them I want to talk about. It is od...

I seem to have stumbled into constantly fantasy booking and speculating on New Japan and its future recently. It’s no real surprise given the rebuilding that New Japan needs in terms of its talent and roster given retirements and talents leaving over the past few years it allows wide open debate about how is the next top guy or top guys. One of the things that likely also needs looking at is who is that top foreign star post Zack Sabre Jr (ZSJ). Arguably since the signing of AJ Styles 2014 New Japan has always looked to position at least one non Japanese wrestler from a western country at the top or around the top of its card normally with them in big featured matches and winning titles and at least the world title at some point. Starting with AJ Styles and then followed with the likes of Kenny Omega, Will Ospreay and then Zack Sabre Jr New Japan always wants one guy near the top of the card but isn’t afraid to also add depth with other talents from America and other countries. If it w...