Alternate Universe: What If WCW Had Survived?

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Written By: Mark Armstrong

In 2001, the wrestling business changed dramatically. Both ECW and WCW went under, the latter being purchased by the WWF. The short-term fall-out included the Invasion angle by what would become a WCW/ECW Alliance, followed by the Brand Extension split of the WWF/WWE which set the course of history on a new path. But what if WCW had remained in existence?

Although ECW had a loyal following, it simply would not and could not have grown into a mainstream powerhouse, unless it was acquired by a larger parent organisation; and if that had been the case, the vulgar style of the company may have been forced to change. However, WCW was a major mainstream wrestling promotion, even during its final months of life. Therefore, its demise had a much bigger impact. But it's interesting to consider how things might have transpired had the company managed to continue.

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WWE 2K18 - Roster Prediction

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Written By: Mark Armstrong

Doesn't a year fly by? It only feels like a few months since we were contemplating whether Goldberg's appearance in WWE 2K17 would lead to a proper return to the company (it did, and in grand fashion too), and it doesn't feel like it was that long ago when we were debating the decision to have Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator characters as the pre-order exclusives for WWE 2K16. Hell, even the meltdown regarding the purged WWE 2K15 roster is still fresh in mind.

Getting back to the point of this article: it is that time of year once again where the WWE/2K collaborative team are hard at work preparing this year's flagship game for its annual autumn release. The hype for WWE 2K18 began several weeks ago, and whilst we haven't seen any screenshots of the game yet, it's only a matter of time before we do. Around that time, we should start properly hearing about which wrestlers have made the grade for the nineteenth installment of this hugely-popular yet somewhat flawed series (I'll gripe about the shortcomings of recent WWE games another time).

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A Modern Plague

Image Source: Independent Liverpool

Written By: Scott Gunnion

Take a stroll up Lord Street in the city centre, and you'll be greeted with an all too familiar scene. Several homeless people scattered erratically on the landscape, inhabiting shop doorways, begging at the fringes.

Homelessness is a swelling epidemic that, in these economically challenging times, visibly plagues the streets of Liverpool, most notably the city centre where the number of people sleeping rough would appear to have multiplied substantially in recent times and, it would appear, continues to rise.

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A Wishlist For WWE 2K18

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Written By: Mark Armstrong

WrestleMania is well in the rear-view mirror now, the ratings have entered their usual spring slump, and Brock Lesnar is resting on a farm somewhere in Suplex City. All of which means that it must be time for the official announcement of the annual WWE videogame!

In all seriousness, late May/early June is usually the point where WWE and 2K begin to hype up their next videogame. Of course, it's hyped up to be the best game of all-time, even if its new features and innovations (and, more notably, its flaws) prevent it from meeting high expectations. Case in point: 2K17 was billed as a beast of a game, only for fans to discover that Showcase was removed, MyCareer remained a slog, the Promo Engine only reached part of its potential, much of the content was recycled from 2K16, and it was rife with glitches. So, whilst the most recent title delivered a lot of entertainment, it had too many limitations for it to be considered anything more than a really good game.

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Rotheram Rocks It

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Written By: Scott Gunnion

So, true to what surely must have been almost universally-held expectations, Steve Rotheram has been elected Mayor of the Liverpool City Region. It was a decisive victory for a campaign that was never ever really in doubt.

And splat goes Anderson, diminished and dethroned. Egg on face in place of his usual morning fry-up. And though he never could seem to fit into those pinstriped parachutes he wore as suits, it was the local Labour electorate that decided he was ultimately too big for his boots.

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Wham! Bam! Yam!

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Written By: Scott Gunnion

May, or Yam as I call her affectionately, must be confident.

Some polls have the Tories as much as 20% ahead, some on double the support of Labour.

She's braver than John Major or Gordon Brown were, both of whom - PMs without an electoral mandate - allowed the life of the Parliament to expire before they put themselves before the electorate. Both, for clarity, expected to lose, though only Brown did.

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Anderson's No Thai Bride - He's A Prize Pig

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Written By: Scott Gunnion

It came as no surprise with the news that outgoing Mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson, had set his sights on the ultra-safe Commons seat of Liverpool Walton, the very seat currently - but only temporarily - being kept warm by Anderson's prevailing rival for the Liverpool Region Mayoralty, Steve Rotheram.

You could call it an official trade - one job for another.

If you ask me, Joe Anderson gets a bad rap.

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HIV - RIP?

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Written By: Scott Gunnion

It must have been a slow news day when the front page of the Echo was reserved, albeit on a Sunday, to cover the matter of rising levels of HIV in Liverpool.

There can be no doubt that the rise in HIV infections across Merseyside, as alleged in the article, is acutely linked to the increased and ever-increasing popularity of online dating apps. This matter was covered and tackled in Sunday's Echo on the front page and on page 5.

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The imminent ascent of Rotheram

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Written By: Scott Gunnion

To be frank, I am both surprised and slightly taken aback by the mock furore surrounding Steve Rotheram's latest campaign leaflet that takes aim at the Tories, as striking and glossy as it may be.

I've been left largely confused.

What did it say that hadn't already been said hundreds of times of before, and that is a conservative estimate?

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The Corbyn Conundrum

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Written By: Scott Gunnion

The uber-left wing of the Labour Party is enjoying its moment in the sun. And it has much to celebrate. Jeremy Corbyn has been elected leader, not once but twice - and on the second occasion, with an increased share of the vote. He is the clear choice of party members and of a pious minority of Labour MPs.

Party members have twice had the opportunity to select the safe and reliable Andy Burnham, the more obvious and conventional candidate, and twice they have turned their noses up and said 'no thank you'. Even in 2010, they opted for Ed Miliband, the candidate deemed to be closest to the left of the party, against the favoured candidate David Miliband.

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Ranking Every WrestleMania From Worst To Best

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Written By: Mark Armstrong

It's WrestleMania Season again! With WrestleMania 33 almost upon us, it's worth considering which WrestleMania events, to date, have been the worst or indeed the worst, which is why I have provided my own personal rankings of every WrestleMania so far. I'm taking a few factors into account when ranking these from worst to best: historical significance, entertainment, the quality of the wrestling, and anything else which added or detracted from any of the 32 Manias so far. As ever, this is only my opinion, so alternative viewpoints are welcome. Nevertheless, here goes!

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The Top 50 Most Memorable Royal Rumble Moments

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Written By: Mark Armstrong

We are days away from the 2017 Royal Rumble event. It's officially the 30th Royal Rumble match (an appropriate milestone, incidentally), although there have been some non-televised Rumble-style encounters, and even some scaled-down Rumbles on Raw and SmackDown over the years, not to mention the many "homages" to the Rumble in wrestling promotions around the world since its inception. However, the annual January 30-man battle is the true original, and its legacy has only increased over the years. Besides the WrestleMania main events, it's the one match that still continuously provokes mass interest, even amongst those who haven't regularly watched the product for years.

This year's Rumble could be one of the very best, due to a star-studded cast that includes Goldberg, Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker making special appearances, all of whom could potentially win the thing, along with other big names such as Chris Jericho, Seth Rollins, Randy Orton, Braun Strowman, Bray Wyatt, Dean Ambrose and The Miz. Even Sami Zayn could be a potential dark horse, since a Universal Championship match with Kevin Owens at WrestleMania 33 is not an unthinkable prospect. That doesn't include the other surprises that could be thrown in, along with the Alamodome setting ensuring that the atmosphere could be the loudest ever for a Rumble match.

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This Isn't Awesome: Is This The End For TNA?

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Written By: Mark Armstrong

If you're a wrestling fan, you're probably aware that TNA Wrestling is currently in a state of flux. With the money having basically run out, a sale of the company must go through by tomorrow, or its Bound For Glory PPV event and its subsequent Impact tapings will not be held. Such a move would not only be embarrassing and calamitious (BFG was once TNA's version of WrestleMania, remember), but it would give PPV providers and television stations (like Pop in the US) a (completely understandable) reason to no longer broadcast TNA PPV events or the Impact television show. Hence, the company essentially ends if these events do not take place.

So, why doesn't TNA just sell up, then? Well, Billy Corgan - who was named TNA's new President not so long ago, but is not the majority owner; that remains Dixie Carter - is in negotiations to outright buy the company, and he is confident that a deal can and will be reached before tomorrow's deadline. But a combination of inflating the company's value, the debt amounted by the organisation and the willingness to listen to other offers has meant that a Corgan purchase of TNA is yet to go through. If Corgan buys the company and provides the money (said to be in the region of $600,000) required for its upcoming shows to take place, then the brand will live on, likely with Billy giving the organisation a complete overhaul (including the TNA name).

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WWE 2K17 Roster Breakdown

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Written By: Mark Armstrong

The full roster for WWE 2K17 has now been revealed, along with the available downloadable characters. As I will mention later, a number of alternate characters (think, a retro Kane for example) are still to be confirmed, but those aside, we now have the final line-up for 2K17.

This year, the roster is the largest yet; over 175 characters make up the crew. There are plenty of new faces who have debuted on Raw/SmackDown and NXT in the last 12 months who are here, as well as the return of some familiar faces who made a WWE comeback in 2015/6. In addition, the DLC treats us to some first-time legends and further series debutants who arrived in WWE earlier this year. So, it's a stacked line-up; but is it the best roster to date in a WWE game?

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Weekly Wrestling Thoughts (September 16 2016)

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Written By: Mark Armstrong

Here are this week's Wrestling Thoughts: off-screen, not too much has happened, but a fair amount has gone down on-screen, so let's get to it!

• Backlash exceeded expectations greatly last Sunday. It wasn't the best PPV by any means, but considering the house show-esque line-up for SmackDown's first PPV in the modern era, further weakened by Randy Orton not being cleared to compete against Bray Wyatt, the show was pretty good. It was a simple, logical, well-paced show which highlighted everybody to a suitable standard. Of note, The Miz vs. Dolph Ziggler was their best match to date, there were feel-good title wins for Becky Lynch and the team of Heath Slater and Rhyno, and AJ Styles vs. Dean Ambrose was a great main event with Styles becoming WWE Champion in a turn of events that seemed unfathomable a year ago. And with the main event for No Mercy, the next SD PPV, already set (AJ vs. Ambrose vs. John Cena), the blue brand has the chance to top this show on October 9.

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Weekly Wrestling Thoughts (September 9 2016)

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Written By: Mark Armstrong

This week's Wrestling Thoughts will be a little shorter than usual, as this has been a less eventful week after a whirlwind of events in and out of the ring since SummerSlam weekend. Nevertheless, here are my opinions on the week in wrestling, as well as predictions for Backlash this Sunday.

• Although Raw opened with a fiery debate that officially began Seth Rollins' babyface turn, and both Rollins vs. Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn were very enjoyable matches, the rest of the show felt like a drag; there were four consecutive segments that achieved almost nothing or were painfully average, and the sound-on-paper pastiche of The New Day by "retirement home" geniuses Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson (with three fake pensioners playing "The Old Day") turned out to be awful. The talent is there and the main event scene has plenty of potential directions, but Raw is still struggling to find its groove since the Draft; right now it's largely a mixture of the very good and the poor or, in some cases, very poor. With the NFL season having resumed in the States, the ratings have already begun their annual autumn slide. I hope that WWE can inject some excitement and find a way for the "new" Raw to succeed after a promising start the night after Battleground. If not, then the next few months could be a struggle on the red side. Perhaps Clash Of Champions on September 25 will establish what we can expect moving forward from the Raw team, hopefully for positive reasons. (Incidentally, I felt that many overreacted to the teased retirement by Sasha Banks; sure, some performers have retired due to injury, but how many people truly expected 24-year-old Sasha to call it quits from injuries that we were told would only keep her out of action for a limited time?)

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Weekly Wrestling Thoughts (September 2 2016)

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Written By: Mark Armstrong

I noted last week, during an extremely eventful SummerSlam weekend along with its wealth of fall-out, that this current week wouldn't be anywhere near as exciting. While that proved to be the case, there has still been plenty going on in wrestling, including a major angle and an unsurprising departure from the WWE roster, so let's get to my thoughts on another week in the wacky world of wrestling.

Before I begin, it was sad to hear that Mr. Fuji had passed away at the age of 82. Although Fuji was an accomplished wrestler and a multi-time Tag Team Champion in the WWWF, I knew him more as a devious, evil yet entertaining and almost lovable rogue manager from the boom period of the late 1980s for the WWF. He managed the likes of Demolition and Yokozuna to championship gold, playing a vital role in Yoko's first WWF Title win at WrestleMania IX, and cutting a humorous promo on Hulk Hogan to set up Hogan's impromptu title win ("Come on, ya yellow-belly, come on!"). He was also well-known for practical jokes, some of which went a bit extreme (Roddy Piper recounted one such tale on a Q&A tour in 2014, which involved Fuji, another Japanese wrestler and a dog, which is probably best not repeated here). But Fuji was unquestionably a legendary name, and fittingly entered the WWE Hall Of Fame in 2007. RIP Mr. Fuji.

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Weekly Wrestling Thoughts (August 26 2016)

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Written By: Mark Armstrong

So much has happened in the world of wrestling - or, more specifically, WWE - over the last seven days that it is almost impossible to keep on top of it all. Nevertheless, here are my thoughts on the many events of the last week, although this week's Thoughts will not refer to the Cruiserweight Classic or non-WWE promotions, just because of the sheer volume of activity in WWE in recent days.

• Working in chronological order, NXT Takeover: Back To Brooklyn was another fantastic showcase of the NXT brand. Of the six matches, three were very good or excellent, and even the other three were of a strong standard. We had Austin Aries provide No Way Jose with his best match to date, a good debut for Ember Moon against Billie Kay, a GLORIOUS! (Google it if you're unaware why this makes sense) first NXT match for Bobby Roode against Andrade 'Cien' Almas, an outstanding NXT Tag Team Title defence for The Revival against Johnny Gargano and Tomasso Ciappa, an exciting NXT Women's Title clash between Asuka and Bayley that was an improvement on their previous Dallas collision, and Shinsuke Nakamura unseat Samoa Joe as NXT Champion in a worthy main event (during which Joe suffered a broken jaw; Aries was also injured with a ruptured eardrum after a post-match GTS by Hideo Itami). All of that in one brilliant wrestling show meant that Takeover: Back To Brooklyn was another knockout evening for the brand. Concerns may be raised for the future with this marking Bayley's exit from NXT, and with speculation that Samoa Joe could also soon move up to Raw or SmackDown; however, NXT's strength has been its knack for finding perfect replacement when performers move on, and the wrestling product is as good as ever. Expect the NXT buzz to continue; this was incredible.

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Weekly Wrestling Thoughts (August 19 2016)

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Written By: Mark Armstrong

SummerSlam weekend is upon us, so my thoughts this week will heavily consist of predictions for the big supershow on Sunday, as well as the second annual NXT Takeover: Brooklyn the night before. In the meantime, though, there have been other wrestling developments which have caught my eye ...

• In one of the more unusual suspension-related stories, both Alberto Del Rio and Paige were suspended for violating the Wellness Policy on the same day. Why is this unusual? Because ADR and Paige are a real-life item, and because it just happened to be Paige's birthday when the news came through. We know that both Del Rio and Paige were Drafted to separate brands, and that injuries have kept Paige out of the ring. It is also rumoured that ADR is unhappy with his current status in WWE (can't blame him) and may leave the company as soon as next month. In other words, when you add it all up, there's more than meets the eye regarding this dual suspension. Did Alberto and Paige deliberately violate the system to get a month together away from wrestling? Could the two have gone a bit over the top in celebrating Paige's birthday? Have the two gone out of their way to receive a suspension because of unhappiness with their roles in WWE? Or is this one giant coincidence? I don't know; however, at this stage I would be very surprised if we saw ADR in a WWE ring again, and depending on the severity of Paige's injuries, it could be a long time until she resurfaces too - if at all. This should be interesting to follow, although I can't envision a happy ending for any of the parties involved.

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WWE 2K17 - First Thoughts

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Written By: Mark Armstrong

While WWE usually enters something of a lull during its autumn months, there is one bright spot as the dark nights come earlier and the air turns colder - and that is the release of the annual WWE videogame, as part of the flagship series which began over 16 years ago. And after only sprinklings of information for so long, the last couple of weeks have finally seen some proper details about the upcoming edition, WWE 2K17. With almost two months remaining until its (unusually early) release date of October 11, there will be plenty of time for even more news to come out about the game, but there is a decent amount available at present to be able to form an opinion of what we can expect in this year's outing.

The WWE videogame series has seen some highs and lows over the years. Many - most, actually - say that the series peaked in the mid-2000s on PlayStation 2, and that all of the subsequent efforts on PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and, in recent times, PS4 and Xbox One, have not lived up to the standard set by such games as SmackDown! Here Comes The Pain or SmackDown! vs. Raw 2006. I feel the same way, although WWE '13 and WWE 2K14 were very good efforts, the best since the glory days of the mid-Noughties. WWE 2K15 took a major step back in its premature debut on current-gen consoles, and whilst WWE 2K16 was a big improvement, it still had plenty of areas where it was lacking or underdeveloped.

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