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juminly · 4 years

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Chasing The Sun

Summary: The story of how you fell in love with the Devil King’s right hand, Hideyoshi Toyotomi. Tags: Canon-Divergent, Fluff. *Matchup written for the lovely @kamesama , I hope you enjoy your love story with your suitor.

How on Earth were you able to just sit like that in front of the Devil King? What in the name of the seven heavens and eight hells were you thinking, sitting with your arms crossed and a nonchalant look on your face before the man who was on the quest of ruling all of Japan?

Not only did you suddenly appear in Azuchi, creating a ruckus in the gardens of Lord Nobunaga’s castle, looking for what you called “a cellphone” and “a police station” but you were also giving these grown men a piece of your mind while they looked at you incredulously.

You obviously thought that you were in some sort of play or the universe was pulling some prank on you. Was there something even called time travel?

After taking in your surroundings, everyone was speaking in Japanese and you were somehow able to understand them and speak the language too. Not perfectly, but enough to get by and find yourself before the man that all of Japan feared the most.

Was this a curse or blessing? You looked around you to find the most heartachingly handsome men that were apparently warlords and they were sitting around you in what they called the Council Room. They were:

Bewildered by what you had to say. So… after much explanation from your end and getting some clarity from the panicked Hideyoshi who had been rambling to his Lord (and dropping lots of hints that helped you get to the conclusion of where and when you were), you claim to be from the future?

Either utterly amused or baffled by your behaviour and demeanour before their Lord.

Nobu’s crimson eyes were locked on you with a faint smirk drawn on his lips, Hideyoshi was obviously mortified and had been silenced by a simple “enough” from his Lord, Mitsuhide was snickering joined by Masamune who was trying to muffle his chuckles and Ieyasu rolling his eyes at them for acting like young boys. Mitsunari though? The angel was looking at you like a cat with big wide curious eyes that just wanted to know (play) with you.

The most impressive thing about the whole situation: you were so composed when facing someone with a commanding presence, not even flinching under his studious and heavy gaze. Nobu couldn’t help but be impressed and thought that you would be entertaining to keep by his side.Same shit, different day when it comes to the Devil King. If something entertained him, he would keep it around until he deemed it of no use to him (or that’s what you would think).

Seeing how unfazed you are and how you met him with a passive gaze that challenged something within him. Nobunaga decided to make a bet with you: become a Sengoku woman within less than a month and he will help you find a way home and back to your time. If you didn’t, then you would have to stay in the Sengoku Era and wed him.

First thought: What the actual….

Second thought: This man did have the power to do something like that. Thinking over your non-existing options, you would just have to agree.

Who would even want to marry a man like him? Nothing about him but his appearance was alluring to you in that moment, even though something inside did tell you that he would be more than able to show you a good time but you just pushed that thought to the back of your mind.

The golden-haired annoying beauty, Hideyoshi dared to open his mouth to protest… and being the mischievous Devil King that he was, Nobu put Hide in charge of you and you were officially under his patronage, tutelage or whatever you wanted to call it but from what you’ve seen, you definitely thought that the Sengoku Era was not for you… and most probably, a big nightmare that you were just waiting to wake up from.

While Hideyoshi and even you wanted to protest (yet again), the man called an end to the meeting and winked at you, wishing you good luck.

You weren’t going to be able to become a Sengoku woman, nor were you interested in becoming one, to be completely honest, but you needed a guide. But... Why… Why did it have to be him?

Living in a mansion with a man as fussy as him was going to be a huge headache. By the way he acted, he seemed to possibly be a clean-freak and the super organized micromanager type about everything in his life. But when you arrived at his mansion, you were surprised to be greeted by a swarm of smiles and simply… so much feel-good vibes.

It was hard to pinpoint it but there was this aura that surrounded the warlord, or more like, the ambience would change when he was around. You noticed it even when you followed him through the streets of Azuchi while on the way to his mansion. However, it was still your first day in Azuchi, you would have more time to figure things out later after you’ve had some much needed sleep.

He had the maids prepare the second largest room in his castle, with a hot bath and almost a dozen of kimonos, yukatas of all colours for you to choose from. You didn’t need all of this, anything would do but someone was going over and above… For someone who was so reluctant to have you stay with him and was awfully disgruntled about the prospect of you marrying his Lord, you did not expect to have such a warm welcome into what would become your new home.

In order to get things on track and yeet you out of the Sengoku Era as soon as possible, you woke up to the soft knock on your door and the sound of a man clearing his throat. Not only were you greeted by the sight of the gorgeous man entering your room with the rays of sunlight shining through your window making his hair look like actual tresses of gold and his bright smile, making you feel a weird fuzzy feeling in your chest as he set your breakfast tray before you. What did you deserve to be spoiled like this? It honestly felt like you had woken up in a reverse-harem maid cafe that was actually a bed and breakfast hotel?

Your thoughts completely mislead you. Hideyoshi was taking you through a schedule that he had prepared for you in order to get you accustomed to the current times and its needs. It was a rotation where you spent a day with one warlord every day, acquiring whatever knowledge you could from all of them. Medicine with Ieyasu, History with Mitsunari, Culinary Arts with Masamune, Japanese Language and Art of Dance with Mitsuhide, Horse-back riding with Nobunaga. Etiquette with Hideyoshi.

Cue: your first fight. You butted heads and made his life a living hell. As peaceful and respectful as he tried to be during your discussion with him, you argued with him until he lost his breath and his face turned a bright shade of red (that was surprisingly adorable but you didn’t really care for that in that moment) because you wouldn’t let him dictate things for you. It was YOUR way or no way at all. Nobody else had the right to manage your time for you. That was up to you and you alone and you wouldn’t let some beautiful man change that. He had to concede… not for you, but for his own sanity and for Nobu’s sake. That’s what he told himself at least, but you had the first win. The first to many more to come.

After sorting that out, Hideyoshi took it upon himself to take you on a tour around Azuchi, showing you all the best places to get whatever you needed, even introducing you to every single merchant and townsperson wherever you want. How did he even remember the name of all of these people?

He was… the town’s busybody? No. You could not even find the best word to describe how he was because there were way too many words that you could use, but not one of them would be enough. Anyway, let’s get your thoughts back on track. Not only do all the women, young and old, fawn over him but he was so well-loved because of his good deeds.

His objective was only to show you around before conducting your first lesson with him for the day but you were saved by an old lady that owned a cute little teashop who happened to ask him for help. That was weird. How could someone ask something so menial of a warlord?

Upon pulling both you and him by the hand inside her shop, she went on and on about how she loved his company as he reminded her of her son that she had lost in a war. There was this look in the warlord’s eye that didn’t go unnoticed but you just put a mental note on it. It seemed like Hideyoshi felt indebted to her somehow? And you! Well, you were so warm and nice to the teahouse owner that she took a liking to you and began spoiling you with every type of dango and sweet that her teahouse and Azuchi had to offer.

Four words: Sugar overload + sugar rush.

While you were chatting with the teahouse owner, Hideyoshi had been gently giving you instructions on how to sit, how to eat, how to hold different utensils and what gestures to use when people say certain things. He included all these comments so smoothly in the discussion that by the time you were done eating, your lesson had ended. As Hideyoshi announced that, telling you that “you did very well, all the treats you ate were well-deserved”, he gave you a bright smile and winked at you, which totally, totally did nothing to your heart.

He suggested to the teahouse owner if you could fill in, in his place, since you got along pretty well together and the old lady was almost ecstatic, taking you in her arms out of impulse and thanking you for agreeing to help her. Looks like you had no choice.

For a brief moment, Hideyoshi just stared at you before bursting into jolly laughter. You looked like a child so high on sugar, you were basically radiating energy and there was a spring in your step that you didn’t even have before. He took you by the hand and began running, looking back at you and shouting “Faster!! Time is of the essence. We’re going to chase the sun!” What he was saying made absolutely no sense but you found yourself giggling under your breath, running beside him until you reached the stables, he jumped on his steed and pulled you behind him. “Hold me as tight as you can. Don’t worry, I’m not fragile.” he joked as he clicked his tongue and you flew with the wind, beyond the bounds of Azuchi.

You smiled and looked up at the sky, letting the breeze tickle your skin and your hair flying around you. As you inhaled deeply, you couldn’t help but rejoice in the smell of fresh air and sandalwood… Hideyoshi. So rich and sweet, it made you dreamily sigh without even realizing. When you suddenly came to a stop, Hideyoshi’s warm voice reached your ears and pulled you out of your daydream. He was showing you the sunset as it fell behind Azuchi castle, the colours of dusk blending with the fading flames of the sun that shines over the town that would become your home.

As you were slowly coming down from your high and before you fell asleep on the warlord’s shoulder, you made him promise you to show you the sunrise and he gladly agreed to do so.

The next few days were quite busy for you. Following the schedule that you had set for yourself, you visited the teahouse of the old lady before your classes with “the warlord of the day”, as you called it. you went to help around the old lady, as Hideyoshi had promised on your behalf and began to understand him more, know even more about him without even having to ask any questions. You were also able to reach your own conclusions, after heaps of townspeople swarmed the old lady’s humble teahouse, talking about their different encounters with the Devil King’s right-hand man.

The old lady loved him so much, saw so much in him and was so willing to gush about him as if he were her own son. He was charming…. Incredibly and unbelievably so. Just a simple glance at him and people were beaming at him. He came from the lower class, but you had no idea. He had this humility in his smile even though the way he held himself was graceful and his tone, the words that so eloquently spilled out of those lips of his would never indicate that he grew up as anything other than a nobleman (which made you like him even more).

By the end of the week, the teahouse owner no longer was in need of your services since her daughter, who had been sick, was feeling all better and ready to help around. (Hideyoshi didn’t even tell you but your experience in the teahouse was part of your on-ground training and he didn’t even need to give you more lessons, yet he chose to so he could spend more time with you)

After your first round of so-called lessons with all the warlords, Nobunaga held a banquet in your honour, his own questionable way of formalizing the bet and challenge between you. You weren’t entirely sure whether he was mocking you, testing you or just playing mind games with you but that didn’t stop you from having your own fun. As everyone drank themselves into oblivion and upon discovering that you did not indulge in any type of liquid courage, Masamune had dedicated his night to stuffing your mouth with all the delicacies imaginable, sweet, sour, savoury and even bittersweet. The man was a masterchef genius (that Gordon Ramsay would definitely envy and admire but that’s a discussion for another time/day) and didn’t even mind.

In the corner of the room, your eyes reluctantly yet instinctively crawled to cast a quick look on Hideyoshi. A quick glance wouldn’t be enough to appreciate the sight before your eyes. The Adonis of Azuchi was seated languidly like a beautiful courtesan, intoxicated as she nursed her sake while prattling to others in a banquet. His emerald kimono slid down one shoulder, along with his white haori, slowly and teasingly exposing more of his bare skin, his chest was almost fully on display, his lips glistening with remnants of sake as the inebriant seeped and coursed in his veins. This was an image that you would have trouble getting out of your head, not that you wanted to. He was utterly breathtaking, the way his lashes fluttered over his cheeks, his eyes slowly falling shut then opening lazily as he fought to stay awake.

Whenever one of his retainers came to take him back to his castle, he moaned and refused to let anyone touch him except for you. All the warlords began chuckling as Hideyoshi gladly let you embrace him in your arms, holding him up with the help of his retainers as he mumbled about sweet nothings that made your heart flutter. “Your hair looks so silky and beautiful, Kame… Would you ever let me touch it or maybe even brush it for you? You smell exquisite, not even the cherry blossoms of Kyoto could rival how sweet your scent is…” His face was dusted in pink from the sake but yours turned red for different reasons. You couldn’t wait to plop him down in his room and get away from him. You could no longer feel your face with him being around you.

As the days went by, you found yourself growing more accustomed to your routine and starting to actually like your life in Azuchi. Yeah, there probably wasn’t any technology around but you still managed to occupy yourself most of the time. Thanks to the fussy warlord who spouted so much nonsense when he was drunk.

One night, he was out drinking with the other warlords after a Council Meeting. You had absolutely no idea what it was about but it seemed like things were stirring up in a nearby area and action would have to be taken soon. That was none of your business so you spent the writing while staring up at the moon, the silver light invading your room as you wallowed in the dark pits of your mind.

As he came back from his night out, he tried to sneak, not too sneakily into your room. As he stood before your sliding door, he could hear your muffled sniffles and cries. Acting completely on impulse, Hideyoshi slid the door open, rushing to you, the fear of anything bad befalling you crushing his heart. As he kneeled before you, your cheeks were tinted in a deep shade of red, your eyes puffy as you sobbed helpless. In his drunken state, his eyes darted everywhere to check if you could possibly be injured, but there was no sign of anything.

Even as you protested meekly, Hideyoshi pulled you into his arms, holding your waist tightly and one of his arms around your shoulder, keeping you safe and secure in his embrace, letting your tears dampen his kimono while he caressed your hair softly with one hand, and the other rubbing soothing circles on the small of your back.

“It’s okay if you do not want to tell me what is on your mind. But do you mind if I say a few things myself? Yes? Okay, good. Well… I wanted to let you know that I’m happy that it was you that came from the future and not another young man or woman. I am pleased that a bright woman such as yourself made her way back through time to be with me… I mean with us, in Azuchi. You’re talented and you learn things quickly… only when you put your mind to it, obviously.” That earns a small laugh from both of you. “But I want you to promise me something. Please. If you ever feel like this again, and you wouldn’t mind me being around you… Call for me. Light a candle and place it in front of your door and I’ll be here with you in a heartbeat.”

Whenever you did light a candle, he came through with his promise. He only spoke if you wanted him to, he listened to your rambling, wiping the tears trickling down your cheeks and kissing your temples whenever he felt the need to say something but held himself back. He didn’t like to see you say such self-depreciative things but he wanted to let you know, through his actions, that he was prepared to shoulder all your burdens with you and wash away all those insecurities, if you would let him, showering with words of comfort that were only based on true facts and hints of how he truly felt about you.

After that night, he never lets himself drink and be around you when he does. Especially after sneaking into your room, he wasn’t sure what he was capable of or what he would do in an intoxicated state. He made it a rule and let all the warlords know that if he’s drinking, he’s staying with one of them.

He would scold you for staying up so late at night but he secretly liked to see you actually enjoying yourself. He would sometimes invite himself in your room and ask you about the things that you drew and what you enjoyed writing, his eyes narrowing with avid interest and curiosity to learn more about your time. He knew the right questions to ask you in order to unlock the “rambling” button in you and the warlord would be so pleased to be able to get you to speak to him so openly, looking so animated with excitement brimming from your voice. At that point, he no longer exuded this air of distrust, especially after seeing that you truly knew nothing about the Sengoku Era.

He often ended up falling asleep while hanging with you. It was easy to find yourself admiring his masculine beauty. His expression was so soft and vulnerable, without the usual crease between his brows caused by his constant micromanaging. His schedule was crazy busy but he still managed to find the time to hangout with you, pick you up and drop you off from each lesson of the day. It only made sense that he would be so exhausted. If he didn’t take good care of himself, you would at least try to do so, repay him for his kindness but also, try to make his life easier. Somehow.

During one of your late-night chats, you both got pretty hungry and decided to treat yourself to something. What exactly? Well… messing around the kitchen with Hideyoshi was so much fun but neither of you were good enough cooks to make anything that could be more than just… edible. Masamune would have a heart-attack if he saw what you were doing but thanking the heavens, he wasn’t around. Hideyoshi got intimately acquainted with your peculiar taste in food on that fateful night, blinking through tears as he tried to eat the odd creation that you had both made. At first, he thought he would be appalled but after a few bites taken out of courtesy to you, he actually started to like it. Thus, the beginning of “Kame and Yoshi” late-night cook-offs to come.

The more you got used to each other, the more you teased one another. You weren’t entirely sure if you should call him “Hide” or “Yoshi” but you noticed how he would get boyishly flustered when you called him “Yoshi”, it just stuck and became your thing. It wasn’t necessarily a nickname given out of affection (or that was what you told yourself) but more of an expression of a blooming friendship. On another hand, he absolutely loved trying to find ways to make you blush, your cheeks reminding him of apples and, truth be told: he wanted to playfully bite them so much.

One day, you completely lost your shit on Hideyoshi for asking the maids to arrange your room since it was a complete mess. Little did you know, Hideyoshi had informed them maids to clean the entire castle spotless, but admittedly forgot to tell them to stay away from yours, fully knowing how you did not like anyone touching your things. He didn’t say anything to defend himself, standing completely silent and absorbing the frustration that radiated from you with the grace that he was known for. You refused to talk to him after that or even look at him. It was an invasion of your privacy and Hideyoshi believed that you had all the right to feel the way you did.

Wanting to be as far away from his castle as possible, you hiked your way up a hill to find some peace in the loneliness that nature had to offer. You spent a few hours just drawing/writing, letting off some of the pent up steam. It was much needed since you were able to clear your thoughts while breathing some fresh air. Looking at the broad horizons before you, you couldn’t help but think of the light brunet who made you feel so frustrated yet did everything possible to make you happy. Something in the back of your mind told you that it was all because he wanted you out of Azuchi and this era. But you were gravely mistaken.

Relying on your non-Sengoku era street-smart ability was not the wisest move. You had no idea where you were even though your surroundings were very familiar. After going in circles for what seemed like hours (40 minutes), you did manage to find your way back to Azuchi just in the nick of time! Being true to yourself, you know you had a lesson with the Devil King for some horse-back riding, still wondering why he even bothered spending time with you.

Who was the one waiting for you at the stables? None other than the handsome man that you were avoiding. His head was lowered in apology and he begged you to let him make it up to you. And he did, big time! You rode to a nearby village that was around 45 minutes away and they were holding a festival! There were fireworks, food stands and game booths and you ate almost everything that caught your eye, competitively played against Yoshi in most games before you saw the light of dawn appear. Have you been out for so long? Your pleasant outing ended yet again, with another chase of the sun.

You didn’t necessarily apologize for your behaviour the next day but he heard the maids whispering about you spending all night trying to make food, stuff that they didn’t even understand and his heart did melt at the thought. You were fussy about it and not having the same materials of the future, making the process much harder for you. Your go-to place to relax was on the top of that same hill where you had been sulking. He obviously tried to look for you and found you there, just watching the sunset. He smiled softly at you and you raised a brow at him with an unspoken “what’s up with you? what do you want?” But he said nothing, just sitting by your side, enjoying just being near. And you did the same.

The more time, you go out to the city where he is supposed to be spending time with you, you get a bit flustered as to how every single person in town is trying to steal his attention from you. Various scenarios would occur but you would mainly stop even following him and go your separate way. Why did you even do that when the voice in your head told you that you wanted to be near him? (smh) Being the gentleman that he is, he’ll come find you and hold your hand, frowning at you. “What do you think you’re doing? If you’re planning on running away from me, then I guess I’ll have to find a way to keep you by my side.” He squeezed your hand, the top of his cheekbones blushing slightly as he pulled you closer to him, whisking your way through the alleys to wherever the sun would take you.

Being so close to him... felt natural.

One night before Hideyoshi had to travel, under Nobu’s orders, you and the warlord rode your steeds to a nearby river where you had a small picnic and spent the night stargazing. As you rambled on and on about what you knew of the stars and constellations, he gently pressed a finger to your lips. “I’m going to Kyoto at dawn. Things might get bad but I’m going to make sure that everything will be under control. I don’t want you to worry. Just wait for me and… as long as you are, I’ll be okay. Now.. Please... no word of this. Tell me more…”

His voice sounded as empty and lonely as you felt when he was away. Only 2 days had passed and you felt like something was missing. You went on with your day as if nothing was different yet the stinging feeling in your heart told you otherwise. Who were you lying to?

6 days later: He was finally coming home!!

You didn’t even realize that you laughed as a few tears fell the moment you saw Hideyoshi when he came back from whatever skirmish he was dealing with. Cuts, bruises and bandages everywhere. He even needed a few soldiers to carry him since he could barely move on his own! The words escaped your mouth without even knowing before you turned your back on him and rushed to the castle to prepare his room for him.

You said something along the lines of (it was all so blurry so you weren’t even sure anymore): “Are you dense? I literally just had to hear about what you’ve done and that’s absolutely not acceptable. You’re always keeping your eyes on me and you don’t think you owe me just a small heads-up about your own buffoonery?”

You glared at Nobunaga and basically hissed at him. “This is all your fault. I was going to lose him because of you!”(little did you know, your small outburst made Nobunaga happy, especially after seeing the look on his right hand’s face.)

When he finally settled in and was laying on his futon, you kneeled beside him and brushed his hair away from his face, locking your eyes with his golden ones, a serious and intense look painted over your features.

You: You look like shit, Yoshi. I knew you were going to do some reckless shit. I was hoping you’d prove me wrong but here you are.

Hideyoshi: Watch that mouth, young lady.

You: You think you’re in a position to chastise me, Yoshi? You stopped giving me lessons days ago.

Hideyoshi: That doesn’t mean that you’ve learned your lesson, Kame.

You: Those are big words for a man that can barely lift himself off his futon. So much for promising to go chase the sun when you got back.

Hideyoshi: Hngh… I feel bad enough about that. I’ll make it up to you but please, do not tease me.

You: Mhm… what are you going to do if I don’t, Yoshi?

Hideyoshi: I did have something in mind… Come here.

Gently cradling the side of your face with one hand, his thumb softly rubbed over your rosy cheek as he groaned while lifting himself from the futon, a soft smile gracing his lips as you met him halfway in a tender kiss, filled with so much love and reverence. As you broke the kiss and tried to look away, he snaked his hand to your nape, threading his fingers through your hair and pulling you back to him as his back hit the floor, joyful sighs filling the silence of his room as you both finally allowed the love between you to flow freely.

Hideyoshi can get so uptight about things, nobody even bothers to question him because he’s a stubborn mother hen and once he puts his mind to something there is no changing his mind. Except when it came to you, so the other warlords would often try to get their way with things by attempting to use you against your lover. Unfortunately for them, you were a mischievous minx and instead of helping them, you made things worse by making it known to Hideyoshi, in one way or another what their true intentions were. Masamune loved you for your playful nature and Mitsuhide thought that your skills could be put to better use (don’t tell Hideyoshi or he’ll literally lose his mind).

He will say “I love you” as many times as he needs to for you to believe him. He’s the type of man that would say it in the morning and before going to sleep, even if you were having an argument, he always wanted you to remember that he did. Considering that he could die in the battlefield any day, he wanted to make sure that he had absolutely no regrets when it came to you. He would express his love to you in his gestures, with his actions and wait patiently for you to say the same to him, only when you want. He feels it in the way you tease him, the way you touch him.

His kisses are usually tender and soft like a light summer breeze eliciting the faintest shivers in your body. He usually would cradle your face and trace your cheeks or the column of your neck, a pleasant tingling sensation tickling your skin as he poured all his devotion for you in the soft whispers of his lips against yours. When things tend to get a bit more heated between you, he lets his hands roam to hold the small of your back and press your against him, his tongue licking between your lips, coaxing you to open up for him (always the gentleman, he needs to get some sort of permission from you before doing anything, out of fear of overstepping or upsetting you).

He would often pray to the heavens that you’re tall enough so that he doesn’t have to lean too much to meet your lips. His other hand would either be at your nape or the back of your head, fingers through your hair, the heat of passion taking over him and the taste of you is so irresistible, he doesn’t want to give you the chance to break the kiss.

He didn’t even blink an eye when you both sat before the Devil King to tell him that your challenge was off. Whether you won or lost, it didn’t really matter. Hideyoshi was the only man you could ever be with and the prospect of even possibly marrying another was not acceptable. Not for you or for Hideyoshi. Nobunaga simply stared at the both of you, seeing how Yoshi sat there, unwavering before his Lord, unaffected by the possible severity of the situation if things were to go south.

He respects your time and your own space, fully trusting you now that you were knowledgeable enough to know the do and don'ts of the Sengoku Era. He just urges you,.. no, begs you not to stay out late at night unless he, the warlords or any of his retainers are with you. Azuchi was a safe city but there were still ruffians lurking in the night. He didn’t want to take a chance when it came to you.

He gets way too flustered at any public display of affection but he’s a man that gets easily jealous so he likes to make sure that everyone knows that you’re taken. He would usually just walk around while holding your hand, linking your fingers together or with an arm around your shoulders, kissing your temple or your crown.

He loves sporting the love bites you’ve marked on his skin and doesn’t even try to hide them, even if you both get teased about them, your lover just beaming with happiness and pride. Whenever he feels like your hands are too cold, he would pull you into a bear hug and let you wrap your arm around his waist, under his kimono, so that his body heat and the fabric could help you warm up a bit better.

If you ever thought of pressing a kiss to his neck (which you’ve obviously done before), your lover would chew on his lip out of embarrassment while his cheeks turned into cherry tomatoes. He would obviously try to mask his shyness with a mock angry tone as he calls your name in admonishment. Looking into your eyes, he saw that glint of mirth in you and that beautiful smirk that he would very gladly wipe off once you returned to the castle.

Little gestures he does to express his affection for you and things he loves: he loves brushing your hair and smelling it, he loves biting your cheek playfully whenever you blush. Whenever you’re chilling with him and he starts teasing you, you bite him and he chuckles. He actually loves it when you do.

He absolutely loves sleeping next to you. Period. But especially having you koala-cuddle him because he’s your human heater. Knowing how cold you are by nature, he asked you to light a candle to place it in front of your door (just like when you are feeling down), so that you can both cuddle and sleep together. He doesn’t like to be intrusive and invite himself into your bed, although he does, on occasion because a relationship goes both ways and it would be wrong just to rely on you to initiate things. The most important thing was consent. As long as he had that, nothing else mattered.

Oh boy, if he wakes up with morning wood, Yoshi gets flustered as hell, especially if you’re awake. He’d excuse himself with the most boyish and embarrassed chuckle and rush out of your room or to his bathroom (depending on where you were both sleeping). If you were lucky enough to be in his room, you would hear a symphony of unadulterated moans and muffled grunts that only made you wonder what the future held for you when you became even more intimate with one another.

Sometimes, when you’re lying beneath him, and let him shower you with kisses and love bites, he worships you as he is completely devoted to you, whispers against your skin, over and over again.

“I want to make you mine, I want you to be mine, I want to claim you and let everyone know that you have chosen me to be your lover, to be your partner, to be the one you share everything with. As much as I would’ve hated to admit it before, I don’t feel an ounce of remorse for what I have discovered in you. I love you… You are my everything and nobody could ever change that. Whether you decide to stay in Azuchi or return to your time… I’ll always be with you. Take me with you.”

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imaginetonyandbucky · 3 years

Text

(Give Me A) Reason To Live

Chapter 3

by @dracusfyre

“Are you sure about this?” James asked. He was methodically checking his weapons as he distributed them around his body, putting knives in sheaths and guns in holsters. With his cleanly shaved face and newly cut hair – the better for Steve to recognize him – in that stolen SHIELD tactical gear, he was so goddamn sexy that Tony could barely look at him.

“I’ll be a lot safer than you will,” Tony pointed out. “All I have to do is fly around and blow up stuff until you give me the word.”

“Unless they scramble jets or attack helicopters on you,” James pointed out, but Tony waved off his words.

“They’re not going to fire on me in the middle of the city, and once I’m out of the city they won’t be able to keep up,” Tony said confidently, 99% sure of the first part and about 80% sure of the second part. For obvious reasons he’d never tested the suit in a one-to-one matchup with a fighter jet, but he knew their specs and felt good about his chances. “Are you ready?”

“As I’ll ever be,” James said.

A funny note in his voice made Tony glance over, only to see that James was looking at him intently, with a look in his eyes that Tony couldn’t interpret. But it made his heart trip and his mouth dry and before his brain could intervene, he said, “Kiss for good luck?” The look in James’ eyes turned to surprise, and when he took a step forward and opened his mouth Tony panicked. “I’m kidding, obviously,” he babbled, backing away. “Probably should get started, don’t want Steve to wake up without us.”

James narrowed his eyes in a way that promised that he wasn’t going to forget about this, but only said, “We’ll do a comms check on my way to the SHIELD facility.”

“Yep,” Tony said brightly, starting to shove his hands in his pocket before realizing that his flight suit didn’t have pockets, then crossing his arms over his chest instead. “Meet you guys back at the cabin, right?”

“Yeah. We’ll be there as soon as we can.” As James turned to leave, Tony started to give him a stupid little wave goodbye; he turned it into just a gesture of running his hand through his hair before James could see it. It felt weird and wrong to split up, knowing that he wasn’t going to see James again for at least a week, maybe longer if they had to shake any pursuit. It would be the longest they’d been apart since he’d rescued him from Hydra, and Tony just now realized how much he was going to miss him.

“Bye,” he said softly as the door closed behind James. “Be safe.”

~~~~

James paused inside the garage, turning to stare at the door he had just closed as he wondered if he’d heard what he thought he’d heard. He wanted to go back inside and say goodbye properly, maybe take Tony up on that kiss he’d offered and then taken back, but Tony had been right – the timing on this mission was unforgiving, and if he went back inside he knew he wouldn’t be able to leave again for a while. So instead he just said, “You, too,” to the door and got in the car, anonymous black SUV bought at a police auction with stolen government tags. He took a deep breath as he cranked it up and opened the garage door, trying to set aside his worry for Tony. As good as his suit was – and it was fucking good, James was impressed and proud of how Tony always seemed to find a new way to make it even better – it didn’t make him invincible. James could think of at least three ways off the top of his head to take down the suit and prayed that the element of surprise would keep them from occurring to anyone else.

“Man in a Can, are you there?” James said when he was almost there. The SHIELD facility was near Times Square, for some reason; maybe they’d thought that since Steve had grown up in New York, it would be a good place to start his reintegration, as if the city hadn’t become unrecognizable in the last sixty years. It would be more unsettling than if Steve had woken up in the middle of nowhere, or even still in fucking Greenland.

“Hearing you loud and clear, Terminator.” James rolled his eyes but let himself smile at the call sign. He found a parking spot on the block behind the SHIELD facility, near an alley that would eventually dump into the building’s loading docks.

“I’m in position,” he said.

“Alright. It’s go time,” Tony said, voice barely betraying a hint of nerves. It suddenly occurred to James that he hadn’t really asked what Tony was planning for his distraction, and he had just enough time to feel like maybe that was a mistake before he heard the distinctive whistle and pop of fireworks. Craning his head to see the sky out of his window, he saw streamers of brightly colored smoke appear and heard Tony say something through the speakers in his suit, the echoes of the city making it hard to understand from where he was sitting. But people were starting to hurry away from the building, and the unmistakable sound of flash-bangs going off were his cue. He pulled on his helmet and got out of the car, rifle in hand.

“Building is under attack!” He shouted at the security guards as he approached. “We need to get this place evacuated!” Between the stolen uniform and the air of command – and probably also due to the sound of explosions – they believed him and ran inside to start getting people outside.

James strode through the chaos inside, directing people towards the exists as he made his way to where Steve was being held. He had to go through metal detectors and jump over turnstiles, but everyone was too busy to challenge him as he wove his way deeper into the labyrinthine building. SHIELD had gone with a ridiculous farce to try to ease Steve into the 21st century, setting up a stage inside a warehouse sized room like Steve hadn’t spent enough time on movie stages to recognize one when he saw it. Guards were posted outside, and word of Tony’s distraction must have reached them because when James approached they were talking to each other in low tones, probably deciding whether they needed to get Steve out of there or stay at their posts.

“Change in plans, guys,” James said as he approached, trying to sound breathless and worried. “The director wants us to move him, building is under attack from an unknown assailant and he’s worried for his safety.”

“Move him? But-” James punched him in the face with his metal arm and elbowed the other in the solar plexus before hitting him in the temple with the butt of his rifle, glad that these poor assholes hadn’t been issued helmets.

Then he opened the door to Steve’s room, and despite the fact he’d known what SHIELD had done, the sensation of stepping into the past made him stumble. The sound of the radio, tuned to a Yankees game, was disorienting, as were the images of an older New York being projected outside the windows.

And then there was Steve, laid out on the bed like a man on a stretcher. James pulled off his helmet and approached slowly; seeing him was the most jarring of all, because he looked exactly the same. James felt suddenly felt old, seeing Steve’s face relaxed in sleep; he felt every single one of the sixty years he’d been with Hydra, even if he’d been frozen through most of them. Christ. Waking him up would eventually mean facing those years, in a way he’d been able to avoid with Tony; Tony had known everything already, so James hadn’t had to talk about it at all, just shove it away and forget about it. No awkward conversations about nightmares and insomnia, since Tony had those too. It wouldn’t be like that with Steve, though. Steve would want to know, wouldn’t take no for an answer, would want to know about the arm and the scars and the nightmares. The blood on his hands. He wouldn’t judge, not Steve, but he wouldn’t get it, either, not like Tony did.

Tony had been right. This was going to change everything.

Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, James sat down on the edge of the bed. The simple motion was already pulling Steve out of sleep; James saw his breathing change, heard his heart speed up and eyes start moving behind his eyelids.

“Steve,” James said softly. “Time to get up, you lazy fuck.” He hadn’t known what he was going to say until it came out of his mouth, but when it did, James found a new memory; calling Steve a lazy fuck was an inside joke from the war, since Steve had always been up at dawn and bursting with energy.

That made Steve’s eyes fly open. “Bucky?”

James stood as Steve sat up suddenly, eyes glued to his face. “Yeah, it’s me, Steve.”

“What- you-“ he started, before settling on, “How?”

“Long story.” Hell of an understatement. “I’ll tell you when we’re safe.”

“Safe? What do you-” Steve’s eyes flew around the room, and he picked up on all the false elements, the wrong notes and mistakes in the room that James had noticed when he’d walked in. “Where are we?”

“Not a place where we want to stay,” James said. He pulled off the small backpack that had been strapped to his back and pulled out a janitor’s uniform for Steve. “Put this on.”

Even though Steve was still confused, he obeyed, clearly still trusting James. And why wouldn’t he, James thought. He didn’t know what James had been doing the past sixty years. “I’m ready,” Steve said as he zipped it up the front. Standing there, shoulders squared and jaw tight, he didn’t look like a janitor, he looked like goddamned Captain America wearing a janitor’s uniform, but this was they best they were going to get right now. James chucked his helmet and the body armor with the giant SHIELD patch on it and stripped down to a plain burgundy shirt with dark pants to blend in with a crowd.

“Let’s go.” As James led the way out, he turned the mic on to Tony and said, “I got him. We’re heading out now.”

Thankfully, Steve was stubborn but not stupid; as soon as they got out to where there were still streams of people trying to leave the building, he understood immediately what the plan was and his shoulders slumped, making him look shorter and smaller. Explosions outside the large glass windows meant that no one was paying attention to anything but evacuating, so they managed to mingle with an unsuspecting crowd of SHIELD employees to a safe point a few blocks away. They slowly made their way to the edge of the crowd, then just walked away, heading towards an empty NYC cab that James had acquired for their escape. James was just thinking that he was surprised that the mission had gone off without a hitch, when something flashed over his head with a load roar.

“What the hell is that?” Steve said. James looked up in time to see the bright red and gold of Tony’s latest suit disappear down the street, then another loud roar came up from behind them - a quinjet, hot on Tony’s heels. Fast as a jet and as maneuverable as a helicopter, the quinjet was SHIELD’s latest baby, and James cursed because he hadn’t known they were ready to be deployed yet.

“You okay?” James said to Tony on the comms as he herded Steve into the back of the taxi. Not that there was much James could do about it if he wasn’t, since he still had to get Steve out of the city. The thought of Hydra getting their hands on Steve, of getting him into the chair, had been the cause of more than one sleepless night.

“I’m good,” Tony said back. “Still got a few tricks up my sleeve.”

James nodded, though Tony obviously couldn’t see him, and got in the driver’s seat of the cab. “One of those guys is with you?” Steve asked from the back, having clearly overheard his conversation.

“Yeah, the one that looked like a robot,” James said as he pulled into traffic. “His name is Tony. You’ll be meeting him back at our safe house.” Thankfully, New York was used to cabs driving aggressively and honking, so he didn’t draw any undue attention as he made his way out of the city. Whenever he looked in the rearview mirror, he could see Steve staring out the window, looking dismayed and baffled by what he was seeing, but he knew better than to distract James by asking questions while they were trying to escape. Soon enough they were out of traffic and into the relative safety of Newark, where James drove the taxi to the airport then hustled Steve into yet another car, this one a beige sedan.

“Are we clear?” Steve asked as James pulled out of the long-term parking lot, pulling the ballcap James had provided him farther down over his face for the parking lot security.

“Clear enough for now,” James said, shoulders finally starting to relax as they got onto the highway heading west. He hadn’t heard from Tony, but that had been part of the plan; the less communication, the better, because SHIELD and the military and Hydra would all be scanning the airwaves trying to get a lock on them. In fact, that reminded him; he pulled the comm device from his ear and crushed it before tossing it out the window. He knew in his head that Tony could take care of himself, but he also knew that he was going to get back to the cabin as fast as possible so he could make sure he was ok.

“Good,” Steve said. “Now are you going to tell me what the hell is going on?”

~~~~

Tony barrel rolled through the canyons made by New York’s skyscrapers, feeling almost giddy as he fled from the quinjet. The fact that this SHIELD facility had a quinjet was a surprise that he should feel embarrassed about, but to be honest, he was actually having fun. He never really got the chance to push the suit to its limits since they’d mostly been doing stealth operations against Hydra; he’d even been too afraid of being seen to give it a good test run unless they were close to the open ocean.

“JARVIS, turn me on some tunes,” Tony said, and saw his playlist pop up on his HUD before he heard AC/DC blast out of his speakers. The quinjet was able to keep up with him, but obviously they couldn’t fire on him, so for now it was just a fun game of can’t catch me while people gawked from the streets and sidewalk. As big as the quinjet was, that pilot had amazing reflexes and nerves of steel to navigate through the city without damaging any of the buildings. “What’s the word with the Air National Guard?”

“ETA twenty minutes.”

Tony pulled up to hover, and the quinjet, unable to stop so quickly, shot past him. He got a glimpse of the pilots as they flew by and was surprised to see a flash of red hair. He watched as they pulled into a vertical loop to turn around and come back for another pass. “Do you know James’ position?”

“His communicator is going over the George Washington Bridge now.”

“Great. Do we have any more of that smoke?”

“Yes, sir.”

Tony made sure that the quinjet was facing him as he flew east, dodging and weaving through the city, the red smoke streaming behind him laying an unmistakable trail. He blasted over Brooklyn, no doubt tangling air traffic over the city as he went past LaGuardia then turned south. He did a loop around the Statue of Liberty, just for fun, before heading east again. When he saw the Atlantic through the maze of buildings, he put on more speed and released the last of the smoke so that for a solid thirty seconds the quinjet didn’t have visibility on him, then dove into the water.

“Did it work, JARVIS?” Tony asked as he let himself sink into the murky water, making his way slowly out towards the open ocean.

“It appears so, sir. They are attempting to find you on radar now.”

Tony turned on the helmet lights for him to navigate the river, wrinkling his nose at the trash and watching the fish dart around him. The pilot of the quinjet must have suspected that he went into the water because they circled for a long time looking for him, making sweeping passes as they tried to pick him up on their sensors. But Tony had prepared for this; the rebreather in his suit was good for twelve hours before it needed to be replaced so he stayed under the water as he headed north until JARVIS couldn’t sense any signals for miles, radar, radio, or otherwise. GPS said he was somewhere off the coast of Maine, so he climbed to a good cruising altitude – high enough to not be seen by a casual observer, but low enough that he wouldn’t ping off of any air traffic control towers – and headed back west by way of the US-Canadian border.

It was a long, tiring flight, especially as he went through an adrenaline crash somewhere over South Dakota, but a few hours later he was landing in front of the safe house. He’d know that he’d be back well before James and Steve, but it was still jarring and lonely to walk into the dark cabin all by himself.

He stepped out of the suit and packed it up as he unlocked the door, then he flipped on the lights and froze when saw Stane. “Hello, Tony,” Stane said. “Welcome home.”

#winteriron #tony x bucky #tony stark #Bucky Barnes

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cousinmarcustalkswrestling · 3 years

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Best WWE Matches of 2020 - My Top 5

Men’s Rumble Match - Royal Rumble

The tale of two distinctly cool matches. The first half was Brock Lesnar’s complete domination eliminating 13 straight wrestlers. A few of these hurt to see eliminated so soon like Cesaro, Kofi, & Big E, but none of it was a stretch in believability because its Brock. Keith Lee’s brief involvement was awesome because of Brock’s reaction and the way he was eliminated. The match shifts into a whole another gear when Ricochet lowblows Brock and Drew McIntyre Claymore kicks Brock and eliminates Brock. Brock sold the Claymore like a deathblow and it instantly made Drew the star that they wanted him to be. With Brock gone, the rumble became more traditional and star-studded with AJ, Roman, Orton, Kevin Owens, Samoa Joe, & Seth Rollins. The most memorable moment was definitely the return of Edge who retired 9 years earlier because of neck injuries. We saw a Rated RKO reunion, an AJ vs Edge dream match interaction, and a great Seth, Buddy, & AOP vs The World brawl. In the end, Drew McIntyre eliminated Roman Reigns to punch his ticket to Wrestlemania. Its been kind of rare when the Rumble match is one of the best matches of the year, but its been one of those years.

Roman Reigns vs Drew McIntyre - Survivor Series

Vince and company did a super effective job of terrifying me into thinking they’d put their top star in the company against their most overrated star in an uninspired matchup. Instead, Drew beat Orton to reclaim the WWE title and we got a guaranteed money match that lived up to the hype. These two behemoths are physical as hell from the start, while working simple headlocks and shoulderblocks. Roman’s heat is nasty and scrappy and at the same time, he never stops jawing and reminding Drew that he’s the head of the table and the face of the company. Seeing Roman’s facial expressions repurposed for this megalomaniacal character has been awesome to watch. Drew makes a high impact comeback and this turns into a fast-paced hossfest that they should’ve been having in 2019. Drew counters a spear to a Kimura in a great Brock Lesnar reference and Roman tries to kill Drew with multiple Samoan Drops on the announce table and a spear through the barricade. Drew is too resilient and it takes some logical interference from Jey Uso and a low blow to take Drew down. Great intense physical work where both titans come out looking great, regardless of the result. Drew’s best match of the year and one of Roman’s as well.

Roman Reigns vs Jey Uso - Hell in a Cell I Quit Match - Universal Title - Hell in a Cell

This feud has been incredible and they had a brilliant match at Clash of Champions. Roman has upped the stakes in this one so if Jey loses, he has to acknowledge Roman as the Tribal Chief or he’s kicked out of the family. From the start, Roman’s talking and characterization is the driving force of this match. He immediately tells Jey to quit or he’ll be wishing he did. Jey gets a lot more offense in this match through no other means than just being really tough. When the ref asks Roman if he wants to quit, he responds with “The Head of the Table Never Quits.” Jey turns it into a strap match, beats the hell out of Roman, and chokes him out with it, but Roman kills him with a Superman punch out of nowhere.

Jey’s refusal to quit makes Roman have to gradually get more violent. He chokes him out with the Guillotine, then Drive By Kicks the steel steps into Jey’s head. There is a great reference to the original Hell in a Cell match where the ref has seen enough and wants to call it, so Roman just tosses him into the cell. That brings out a bunch of refs and officials to stop Roman, who is so offended by them that he closes the cell door so nobody can leave. The sight of all the refs scurrying away from Roman is just amazing and further puts over how much of a dangerous presence he’s become. Jimmy comes out and urges Roman to stop and he legitimately brings Roman to tears with his pleas, but then Roman locks Jimmy in the Guillotine and Jey quits to save his brother from the pain. This was a brutally awesome match with great characterization, storytelling, and acting from Roman, Jey, & Jimmy.

Sasha Banks vs Bayley - Hell in a Cell Match - Smackdown Women’s Title - Hell in a Cell

It’s finally here and it was worth the wait. Bayley finally turned on Sasha after they lost a tag team title rematch, claiming that Sasha was riding her coattails and that Sasha would eventually turn on her. It was booked a little weirdly because they kept interacting after this and even had a match on Smackdown. Sasha forced Bayley to sign the contract for this match and its own. From the start, there’s strong storytelling with Bayley bringing out the chair she attacked Sasha with and Sasha knocking it out of the cell before the cell completely dropped. Their goals are quickly established as Bayley is deadset on using weapons and Sasha disposes of them or uses them against her. Their use of weapons is creative in the brutality as well as referencing their shared history. A chair was used to signal Bayley’s true heel turn when Sasha gave it to her to beat down Becky and Bayley tried to cripple Sasha with a chair. They introduce a ladder in a slight reference to Money in the Bank when Bayley reignited her career by winning the match and cashing in on Charlotte.

Bayley regains the same chair she used to assault Sasha and takes over the match with it. Sasha avoids a chair drop on the ladder and hits a sick Bayley to Belly on the ladder. Bayley rebounds with a hard knee and her own Bayley to Belly, but it only gets two. Bayley starts wailing on Sasha with a chair, but out of nowhere, Sasha locks her in the chair assisted Bank Statement and in a beautiful reference to Takeover Brooklyn, she stomps on the chair wrapped around Bayley’s neck and Bayley has to tap out. For as much time as they were given, I think they needed a little more time to let some of the bigger spots breathe, but other than that, this was an awesome brawl with brutality, creativity, and some great callbacks to their shared history. Definitely worth the wait and a top 5 Hell in a Cell match. Plus, Sasha winning a big match is grounds worth several stars in itself.

Roman Reigns vs Jey Uso - Universal Title - Clash of Champions

Bruce Prichard has told a story of Vince McMahon having a conversation with an exec from a major network and Vince told him “We make movies, pal.” Everytime I think of that quote, the match I think of is the first Hell in a Cell match. It just epitomizes what I feel like “cinematic” is in the wrestling world. I’m not saying Roman vs Jey is on that level, but it comes super close. The build was absolute brilliant with Jey Uso embracing his first attempt at a singles title after being a career tag wrestler and the new Roman Reigns being unrelenting in his belief that him being Universal Champion and the Tribal Chief of his family is the only way the family will survive.

You hear the annoying old curmudgeons say “Its not about the movez, its about the story.” With this match, thats a perfect statement because there’s nothing crazy here from a wrestling standpoint outside of a pretty lag lariat by Roman. Its all about the storytelling. Roman’s characterizations are masterful here. He looks absolutely disgusted when Jey ducks a clothesline and dabs. As the match goes along, he gets more and more furious at Jey’s refusal to acknowledge him as Tribal Chief and foregoes pinning him to beat Jey until he submits to him. He tells the referee he’ll beat his ass if he stops it because this is family business. It may sound like a man unhinged, but its actually the opposite. He’s solely focused on Jey’s acknowledgment.

Jimmy wants to throw in the towel for Jey, but Jey doesn’t let him. When Jey tells Jimmy “forget this fool” I legit started tearing up. Jey would rather let Roman decimate him than give in to his narcissism. Jimmy loves his brother too much and throws the towel in for him. Jey took a beating, but never acknowledged Roman. Not the best workrate of Roman’s career, but hands down his best match ever and the Main roster match of the year. No other match had the emotional, transformative impact this had. By the end of it, Jey looked like a Rey Mysterio/Ricky Steamboat level babyface and Roman has clearly become the baddest mothafucka on the planet.

#wrestling #2020 #drew mcintyre #brock lesnar #roman reigns #sasha banks #bayley #jey uso

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zevlors-tail · 4 years

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Hi hii!! May I get a matchup for one of Class 1A? I don't mind what gender because I think that both girls and boys are sexc *cough* anyways,, I have black- kinda wavy hair that goes right below my shoulders and I'm a person who's always laughing at terrible jokes I make because I'm a funny person haha- I also LOVE to draw and I would love for someone who showers me with affection because I'm very touched-starved like that 🥺🥺 thank you very much!!

Hi hi hi! I was so excited when I saw you sent a request in for a matchup because I love making friends and doing and writing stuff for them alsdjflsdj so uh yeah I had so much fun with this! <3 Also, I knew exactly who I shipped you with the second I finished reading this lol.

I ship you with: Mina Ashido!

-Okay firstly, she would absolutely shower you in attention, cuddles, snuggles, rub her face against yours, she’s just so touchy with you. She’s like that in general, but especially with her close friends, and even more so with you. She’ll just come up behind you with a “Whatcha doin, Y/N???” and drape her arms around your neck and down your torso. And even before you got together romantically, she would just casually cuddle you in the common area or in your rooms, and she didn’t really care if others saw or not.

-Will totally laugh at your jokes with you. She loves your sense of humor! Mina is another person who would definitely have inside jokes with everyone, and you two are always coming up with new ones. Contrary to you thinking that your jokes are terrible, she lives for them. She’ll sit there and hype you up and come up with terrible jokes with you. Sometimes both of you crack yourselves up so much that you can’t even get the joke out before you’re wheezing and wiping away tears from the corners of your eyes.

-The best part about the jokes? They start randomly. Both of you do it; you could just be sitting there studying or talking about something else entirely when it suddenly goes dead quiet for a moment, and then... “Hey, Y/N.” “Yeah?” “What did the socks say to the pants?” “I don’t know, Mina, what did they say?” “Sup, britches?” Cue the wild laughter and hollering. You’ve probably woken some others up in the middle of the night before during one of your sleepovers because of how much you make each other laugh.

-Mina loves your drawings. She’s so supportive of your work and will help you with it in any way she can! If you make her your muse, she’ll be head over heels for you in an instant. Not that she wasn’t already before, but she would really enjoy knowing she’s a source for your inspiration and passion. Also, Mina is hardly a serious person, but if you’re ever feeling down on yourself for how little you’ve drawn or like your your art isn’t good enough, she will 100% get serious with you and tell you how amazing your drawings are and how much hard work she sees you putting into them. She’ll make it her mission to build your self confidence back up.

-If she ever hears you say that you’re touch starved, you are NEVER getting rid of her. Like, ever. She will constantly be all over you 24/7 (as long as you’re okay with it) and holding you, cuddling you, and sneaking into your dorm to snuggle up to you at night. You’re not sure how many times the teachers have scolded her for that, but it’s way too many to count. You don’t mind though...she’s warm and soft and very very cuddly. :) She is a precious pink gremlin who loves you with her whole heart!

Fall Drabble: Hayrides

I didn’t see a fall themed word in your ask so I just went ahead with this one, I hope that’s okay! Also I apologize for any spelling or grammar errors, the second half of this was written while I was v tired and it was not proof read at all.

“Alright, here we are. Please make sure to behave yourselves accordingly.”

Aizawa stood up and hopped out of the doors to the giant bus you’d been on for over an hour now, which prompted the other students to stand and stretch or grab their things before exiting the vehicle. You and Mina had been at the very back, so you relaxed a bit as everyone else filed out into the field filled with pumpkins.

“I can’t believe they’re really letting us take a field trip to a pumpkin patch this year. Isn’t this so awesome!?” Your girlfriend squealed beside you as she waved her arms around and jumped up in excitement. Her eyes shone bright with joy, and you found it adorable how she could be so full of sunshine over the smallest things. You were so glad she was a part of your life. “Do you think they have apple cider here? Awe, man I hope they do! I haven’t had any in ages.”

“I’m sure they do,” you replied as you finally stepped off the bus.

The field in front of you was filled with pumpkins for as far as the eye could see, and off to the left there was a small gravel road that led to a dusty old barn with chipping red paint and a few boarded up windows. In front of the barn was a peculiar booth setup, and as you read the sign above it, you nudged Mina in the side and pointed over in the general direction of the building.

“I think I found your apple cider. Wanna go get some?” you asked with a grin.

“Oh, hell yes!”

The two of you made your way over and quickly got in line where you waited for what felt like forever before you were finally served. You reached your hand into your pocket to fish your wallet out and cover the cost, but Mina smacked your hand away and payed with her money instead before thanking the server.

“Why’d you do that? I’ve been saving up for this all week!” You pouted and whined, but she just brushed you off and smiled at you.

“Don’t worry about it. You know I love spoiling you!” Your pink counterpart giggled and bounced along next to you as you walked around the field looking at pumpkins after that. It didn’t take long to finish your drinks, and you were debating going back for another when a loud sound coming from the right caught the attention of both of you. “What do you think that is?” Mina asked you curiously.

“It kind of sounds like...a tractor?”

Sure enough, the giant machine was weaving it’s way through a beaten path in the middle of the pumpkin patch with a huge open trailer attached at the back. You watched as other students seemed to gather around it in anticipation for something. The tractor finally came to a stop a minute later by the entrance to the field, and some of your classmates hopped up onto the trailer bed where there were bales of straw for seats, and leaves scattered all over the floor amongst the loose strands of straw.

“It is a tractor, and they’re giving hayrides Can we go can we co can we go? Y/N please!” Mina begged. She clasped your hands in hers and shook them around as if that would help to convince you. Not that you needed any convincing, anyways. Of course you would go with her; all she had to do was ask.

“Let’s do it!” You tried to match her enthusiasm, but you weren’t sure anyone could outshine Mina, yourself included.

“Yassss! Come on then!”

The two of you scrambled your way over to the huge green tractor and hoisted yourselves up and into the trailer bed, greeting the other students as you did so. You spotted Ochaco and Midoriya on your right towards the end with Asui, Shouto and Iida were on your left, Tokoyami, Sero, Kaminari and Jirou were in front of you sitting in a neat line, and to your amazement, even Aoyama had tagged along. Mr. Aizawa sat at the very front of the trailer to oversee everyone and communicate with the driver, a stack of blankets in his hands in case anyone got cold.

As the tractor took off with a bumpy start, you accidentally lurched sideways into your girlfriend. She wrapped an arm around you to help keep you steady as you were all pulled along slowly, the holes in the ground making you bounce up and down every time the tractor drove over them. But you had to admit, this was fun. You couldn’t remember the last time you’d been out to do something like this. Maybe when you were a kid?

“Aizawa sensei, can we have a blanket?” Mina asked, and suddenly there was something soft being thrown at you. Mina unfolded it carefully and tossed it around you both to keep you warm. You leaned further into her, glad to be with her on a perfect Fall day like this one.

What more could you ask for?

#chickynn #bnha matchup #matchup #300 follower event #300 follower special #sweater answers #answered

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jwgammuto · 5 years

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Raw Recap 2/11/19

Forgive me, lil Golden Fleece diapered Baby Jesus, for what I say. The go home Raw for Elimination Chamber is over and I have some things to say. Here’s The Good, The Bad, and the WTF: #FTR Edition.

The Good: It happened. It actually happened. Dash and Dawson are the Raw tag team champions and there’s a small chance the division might not be embarrassing for a few months. What an amazing match between these guys and Power and Glorious. Credit to Roode and Gable. I never liked the gimmick but they really gelled as a team while they had the titles. This was a match worthy of a PPV and almost made me forget about what i had watched from 8-1015. #TopGuys are back and this fan couldn’t be happier.

Rollins and Heyman square off on the mic. Paul always makes for a good segment but Seth really shines here as well. This was significantly better than if Lesnar had actually been there. The weird moment with Ambrose being a babyface again was unnecessary but who knows what the hell he’s doing since he’s leaving the company shortly. I will say this, I don’t want a cluster of run ins helping Rollins win. Let Seth win clean at Mania. Please.

Kevin Owens blasting the product and telling us he’ll be back in a month. Then throwing a gutter ball. A welcome addition to either show but Raw needs him. Too many heels on Smackdown.

Ruby Riott vs Nikki Cross. It wasn’t anything special but they did book this right. Ruby looked like a viable and vicious contender who can win without the Riott Squad. I hope she is allowed to have a great match with ArmbarCity Sunday.

The Bad: The crowd. Hot crowds make for better shows. It’s irrefutable. It’s why it’s so damn important to kick off the show well so the ticket holders are engaged from the jump. Grand Rapids, Michigan, you failed us. Granted they watched a lot of trash that we’re about to get into, but they could have done something. It felt like everyone was tweeting about the badness rather than watching it.

Dean Ambrose vs EC3. It took exactly two weeks for them to make EC3 irrelevant. Now he’s 1-1 against the same dude, who coincidentally also has no creative direction, and he STILL hasn’t said a word. Can it be salvaged? Sure. Turn him heel. Will they? Of course not.

Triple threat ladies tag match to determine EC order. Hey look. Another potential tease for a Bayley/Banks split. I think I’ll wet my pants. Two straight weeks, Banks has left Bayley on an island to defend herself alone due to “injury”. While Bayley has made the best of this and looked pretty damn good and capable in the ring, it has this feel as though it’s going to be another long dragged out “will they/won’t they fight” program that never pays off. Ugh. Also, I want Nia and Tamina to lose at EC as much as I wanted the Revival to win the titles. I guess that means they’re doing their job. Logan and Morgan don’t get enough credit for their ring work because they’re always losing but watch them. Not bad stuff by any means.

The WTF: Balor Club, Beardy Ryback, and Our Aging Olympic Hero vs Black Chris Masters, 1/3 of 3MB, and the current champion of cheap heat, Baron Corbin. Remember when Vince, Steph, and Trips told us we were in charge and we’d be getting fresh matchups and better programming? Pepperidge Farm remembers. The roster is crowded. I get it. But all 6 of these guys have nothing to do of interest so they’re stuck in a cycle of fighting each other and it’s just awful now. And worse, the IC title is starting to have that US title stench of uselessness. Has Lashley defended it yet? He will Sunday....finally. McIntyre is rapidly losing momentum and assuming Rollins wins the title in April, they better have Drew first in line or he may have to actually reform 3MB. This match was a cluster and had to be restarted. Everything about it was sub par. Nobody looked great. Even Balor eventually winning was meh. Although he did jump halfway across the ring for The Coup de Gras. That’s always fun.

Elias vs Guadalajara with party llama in tow. A disturbing recent trend is the company forcing turns and reactions rather than allowing them to happen organically. Elias can be a great heel just by cutting promos. He’s done it before. The interruptions are part of his Schtick and that’s fine, to a degree. It’s starting to get overdone and it’s hurting his character. Everything feels forced. Side note: Kalisto can actually play guitar and that was fun.

Vincent. Kennedy. McMahon. Clearly I’m not the only one watching Raw Replays from the Attitude Era in the evenings. The beauty of Becky Lynch’s rise in popularity was the fact that it was pretty organic. Similar to how Steve Austin did it. That’s where the parallels should have stopped though. It sure feels like they are doing much more to mold old Stone Cold roles into Lynch and I’m not loving it. The entire apology segment was weird but felt predictable right? She would opt for defiance and the HHH and Steph would make her life miserable until her peak triumph against insurmountable odds at Mania. Instead, they had Lynch apologize, albeit reluctantly. *Scratching head*. “That’s it?” Becky exclaims. Enter Vince, who still believes he’s the Mr McMahon of 1999. He suspends Lynch (which we all know won’t keep her off TV) and inserts his shiny new corporate puppet, Charlotte Flair, into the match. There’s a million reasons to hate this and none of them are because Charlotte doesn’t belong. Flair is perfectly capable of being a top heel without being a corporate stooge. Save that shit for Rollins/Orton/Corbin. A lot of people don’t like the idea of a triple threat at Mania for the Raw women’s title. I really don’t mind it, but this is a lazy and garbage way to set it up. For starters, it’s been done. Flair is the Heel Rock and Lynch is Austin. Oh yeah, and there’s the actual champion, who is becoming an after thought in this mess. Another concern is the Smackdown Women’s title. Who the hell is going to face Asuka at Mania? Mandy f**king Rose? She’s the only female heel with even close to enough heat on the show. This is a complete cluster and I have to believe there are differences in opinion at Titan Tower on how this should have been booked. Save us, HHH. Please.

This show was a general disaster and following a trend of piss poor go home Raw show for big events. I have tix for the go home Raw for Wrestlemania and based on this trend, I might be really drunk by 915. They really sucked me back in with the Revival’s win and then pooped in my cereal with that last segment. 2 Belt Whips because #TopGuys.

#WWE #WWE WWEraw ProWrestling Wrestling Raw #pro wrestling #wwe raw #raw #monday night raw

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andrewuttaro · 5 years

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New Look Sabres: GM 51 - CHI - Cruel Comedy

What the fuck! I hope you saw the explicit tag before you clicked on this one because this is not going to be safe for all readers. My Sabres fandom starts somewhere around 2011 so I am intimately acquainted with shitty hockey. There is a time and place for shitty hockey. When you’re tanking for example: that is the time for shitty hockey. If you’re in subtle protest of Dan Blysma: that’s the time for shitty hockey. If you’re on a mad winning streak and tearing up the league I guess you’re kind of entitled to lay an egg of shitty hockey in one game. None of those scenarios I just described are currently occurring with this team unless there is a locker room plot I missed against Phil Housley. Hell, there is an open rebellion amongst fans against Phil and at this point is that not justified? The point is this shit is completely uncalled for! Did Drake Caggiula insult everyone’s wives and girlfriends? The only answers the Sabres had at the end of the 1st period and for most of the 2nd period was fight. Not the symbolic sense of the word where their play improves as they try to fight back into the game; no the old time hockey garbage where they make a statement with their fists! Andrew Peters would be proud you fucking disappointment wagon! You know what: every stat, advanced and otherwise, would point you to the Sabres being ready to fuck this Hawks team sideways. Hawks goals allowed, Hawks goal for, second and third period goals, defensive play, shots, and scoring chances: every fucking category! I don’t even know where to start with this shit!

For real this time: Fire Phil Housley. Several games back against Tampa Bay I said this club has probably given us the outline, the criteria if you will, to Fire Housley. I waited so long to jump on this ugly self-hating bandwagon but here I am on this bad fucking bandwagon. If he gets fired that will be five Sabres coaches in six years. I’m sure that doesn’t matter to Jason Botterill but holy hell it should matter to us at some point. Fuck it: he’s insane. I don’t need to even talk about Lawrence Pilut: he got into this game even if it’s with City punching bag Marco Scandella. It’s all the shit Housley doesn’t do: like make big changes when the Sabres need consistency or making no changes when the Sabres need them. Its ten minutes into the second and the Sabres are down 3-0 on the back of three fucking snipes from the two old dudes and Caggiula’s first. What does Housley do? Not a damn thing. Starting Hutton in the first place probably wasn’t wise but fuck, dude: when you’re getting your shit pushed in by the Chicago Blackhawks, not the 2013 Chicago Blackhawks, the 2019 CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS, then you’re doing something wrong. Not only am I not sure Housley put his best roster forward for this game, I’m not sure he had any motivational or tactical moves in mind to fire up the comeback machine once the sky started falling. It’s the beginning of a seven game home stand, your club needs points in the standings and Patrick Kane is back in town and you’re allowing this shit!? This game made me stare into the fucking abyss with this team!

You want a play by play? Huh, shit. The first period sounded like the Sabres we’re playing their game against what is objectively a weak Blackhawks team. They got more shots all period and even got two opportunities on the powerplay. Then Drake Caggiula scored. I’ve already mentioned this poor kid’s name three times this blog but his first career goal is a turning point. It was so massive it put fucking laxatives in all the Sabres water bottles because they came out in the second to SHIT ALL OVER THE ICE! Here’s the thing: the Sabres somehow outshoot the Hawks this second period as well but they could not be worse at advancing the puck. All their passes were intercepted and all their turnovers turned into D-zone time. They must have been turned on from when the Stars pushed them around in Dallas because they got pushed around by the fourth worst team in the league last night! Kane, Keith and later Saad to make sure we’re sad! Remember when Brendan Saad’s name was a stupid meme in 2014? That meme rose from the dead to end the second. All the Blackhawks jerseys in the crowd only made it worse. Who are Buffalo Blackhawks fans? The answer is Patrick Kane’s family and his teenage drinking buddies. I have a feeling all those Hawks jerseys couldn’t have been one of those two groups all though Buffalonians do tell me he was always a prolific drinker. Jack Eichel did score a Rasmus Ristolainen shot deflection to provide a little ray of hope but that was promptly expunged. Oh, I don’t even want to put up with you punks wanting a trade for Kane. The whole second period was just a list of grievances about this team!

The Sabres won in Columbus and they were in it for 85% of the game in Dallas. They have been bad for weeks and months now but they were looking better out of the bye-week. That false flag just shit in all our mouths! I was celebrating an anniversary with my wife so the two of us watched a comedy during this third period. I’ll tell you if I wasn’t so emotionally involved I would say this third period is quite funny! Jason Pominville maneuvers right in front of that demon goalie Cam Ward 3:30 into the third and puts one over him. This goal demonstrated how fucking soft the Hawks defense was this game letting Pommer in there to score one-on-one with Ward. Oh boy is the comeback machine firing up again!? Next it’s Kyle Okposo who gets credit for a puck passing Ward in a net crashing play where everyone was just pounding their sticks like they were begging the God of Irony to not let this game end in a stinker. Kyle Okposo who was punished with the fourth line but what’s that Coach Housley: You’re going to put a veteran first and try and change the game by putting Okposo on the second line? Well look at that, you got the Sabres within one. You put Linus Ullmark in net? Wow maybe you don’t need the Veterans but I’m not giving you credit for that one because you started Hutton to begin with. You ready: it’s time to stare into the abyss with me. Connor Murphy wrist shot equals goal. Patrick Kane with an empty netter to surpass 900 NHL points and become one of the fucking top seven Americans in points! And then Brendan Saad with an empty netter because irony lives in a mansion down on Delaware avenue and he loves going to Buffalo Sports events! Game over: YOU STINK!

To Housley’s credit apparently he tore into them afterward. Remi Elie going on waivers today could be Jason Botterill beginning to make some moves to fix this mess. In the meantime I’ve mentioned this abyss we stared into with this game a couple times. Let’s shine a light into this abyss to see what it holds: for one the Sabres being one of the worst teams in the league in terms of points gathered and record since the win streak steers us into this abyss. It holds the misery of at one point being first in the NHL and then missing the playoffs in March. It’s another offseason starting in April where we get engrossed in the Draft and wonder what offseason moves happen and how they affect the team next season. It’s another fucking season with no playoffs. I was in High School last time they made it and I wasn’t even really into sports then! Oh my God, it’s talking about an 84 point finish as an improvement when we finished LAST a season ago! THIS SHIT IS CYCLICAL! IT’S LIKE WE’RE NOT ALLOWED ANY FUN! Is it because the Bills went to the Superbowl four straight times and lost? I’d sell that fucking team to Nazem Kadri himself if it gets the SABRES ONE FUCKING PLAYOFF BERTH! Here we are losing to the Blackhawks! We all knew 1st place in November was a fluke but this: THIS IS JUST CRUEL! Holy shit I need to relax! I have to prepare to host a Superbowl party and watch the most hated man in Football win another Superbowl this weekend. There is just no rest! I cannot believe this whole fucking mess!

Drop a like. Each like goes toward maintaining my sanity like all those thumbs up on Facebook go toward bringing clean water to sub-Saharan Africa. Comment if you’re wondering what my solution to this mess is. I was going to include some replacements for Housley and some tactical ideas but I didn’t have the patience with this team if they can’t even win games that are laid out on a silver platter for them to win. Share this blog: I was party inspired to do this based on Steve Dangle’s Leafs Fan reaction. The early years of that were enjoyable for me as a Sabres fan because the Leafs sucked ass. It was pretty masochist in retrospect but if you’re the Leafs fan in the opposite position reading my shit in a masochistic way I really want to learn your story. Hell, just share this blog if you think we can commiserate together. Enjoy your Superbowl weekend and get ready for either further depression on Tuesday or more hope that the worst may not be happening. At this point either outcome would be an uproarious comedy.

Thanks for reading.

P.S. The Florida Panthers are totally going for Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky. Perhaps next season we’ll have the matchups we expected to have with them this season.

#buffalo sabres #hockey #nhl #blog #chicago blackhawks

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voppzy · 4 years

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Games of Westeros IX 40k battle report!

Back at it again! Back in Västerås for another tournament, this time with 110 registered players. We arrive on friday and I play a game against my friends Imperial Fists in the hotel lobby that I end up winning, It’s a good start!

ITC missions 1-5 (the new ones), 2000 points, standard stuff!

Again I am bringing delicious Imperial soup, but a bit of a different list this time. List is as follows:

++ Battalion Detachment (Adeptus Mechanicus - Stygies VIII) ++

Tech-Priest Dominus [7 PL, 82pts]: Eradication Ray, Phosphor Serpenta Tech-Priest Manipulus [5 PL, 65pts]: Transonic cannon

4x Skitarii Rangers, 1x Transuranic Arquebus [7 PL, 54pts] 4x Skitarii Rangers, 1x Transuranic Arquebus [7 PL, 54pts] 5x Skitarii Vanguards [4 PL, 45pts]: Enhanced Data-Tether

10x Secutarii Hoplites [4 PL, 95pts]: Enhanced Data-Tether

Skorpius Disintegrator [6 PL, 111pts]: Belleros Energy Cannon, 3x Cognis Heavy Stubber Skorpius Disintegrator [6 PL, 111pts]: Belleros Energy Cannon, 3x Cognis Heavy Stubber Skorpius Disintegrator [6 PL, 111pts]: Belleros Energy Cannon, 3x Cognis Heavy Stubber

++ Super-Heavy Detachment (Imperial Knights - Taranis) ++

Armiger Moiraxes [8 PL, 155pts]: 2x Lightning Lock Armiger Moiraxes [8 PL, 155pts]: 2x Lightning Lock Knight Crusader [25 PL, 468pts]: Warlord, Ironstorm, Thermal Cannon, Avenger Gatling Cannon

++ Super-Heavy Aux Detachment (Imperial Knights - Krast) ++

Knight Crusader [25 PL, 494pts]: Ironstorm, Avenger Gatling Cannon, Rapid-Fire Battle Cannon

++ Total: [118 PL, 2.000pts] ++

Mobile gunline! I have playtested it a bunch and really enjoy it, the hoplites are unnecessary but they are really cool so i wanted to run them. Double tech-priests sit in the middle of the disintegrators for all the buffs. It struggles with movement secondaries but as long as I can pick two kill secondaries it should be fine. And with the ITC missions changes the only kill secondary that is useful against me is Big Game Hunter, which makes it interesting!

My goal is to get 3 wins, or at least place better than I did last time (39th out of 80). Let’s see how it goes!

Round 1

Opponent: Daniel - Aeldari List: 3x Voidraven, 3x Crimson Hunter, 3x Talos, 9x Grotesques, Wracks Secondaries: Big Game Hunter, Gangbusters, Ground Control

A nice first game as I already knew Daniel and we had played before, he was pretty new to his army too so we could just take it chill!

Going into the game I didn’t really have a plan, I picked Ground Control for my movement secondary hoping to have enough stuff left in the end. Daniel went first and zoomed all his planes into my deployment, killed the Hoplites with bombs and blew up a Skorpius, in return I shot down a plane and left one on a single wound. In the coming rounds I would keep shooting down planes while leaving his ground forces unchecked, which meant he got them into my lines and did a bunch of damage but most importantly kept tagging things in combat. My firepower proved to be too much for him so at the end of the game he only had some troops holding his backline objectives left, I had enough time left to run out and max my Ground Control. However he had gotten too many points in the early rounds

Loss 29-34

I could have maybe shot his ground troops instead to allow me to start moving up the board, however that would have left the planes alive so I am not sure, really fun and close game and with a 29 point loss I’m the highest scoring loser!

Round 2

Opponent: Stefan - Alpha Legion List: Discolord, Decimator, Terminators, Helbrute, 2x Venomcrawler, Hell Blade, Obliterators, Chaos Marines, Cultists Secondaries: Big Game Hunter, Reaper, Recon

I was a bit worried going into this as I really had no idea what to expect, and I had heard the talk about the Discolord and how scary it is but I have yet to face one. I pick recon for my movement secondary as we got a really wide deployment and I am mobile enough. I went first and blew up the Helbrute, 1 Venomcrawler (that ends up exploding in his lines), and almost killed the 2nd Venomcrawler too. His counterpunch doesn’t do much and on my 2nd turn I blow up the 2nd venom and kill hordes of cultists between my stubbers and Moiraxes. He charges into my Taranis knight with the Discolord, my knight comes back and next turn the Krast knight gets into close range of the Discolord and blows him up without a problem. He drops his oblits down but fails to kill the Krast knight. I still have alot left and table him on round 5.

Win 33-15

Not much to say on this game, the amount of firepower I have is pretty insane, it was a fun match and we are in the same escalation league so Stefan has a chance for a revenge match!

Round 3

Opponent: Robin - Imperial Fists List: 5x Centurion, 2x Stormhawk, Relic Leviathan Dread, 2x Eliminators, Thunderfire, Intercessors Secondaries: Marked For Death, Old School, Recon

Third game of the day and while I’m 1-1 I have a really good score, which unfortunately means I have to face other people with high scores!

I knew this game was gonna be rough going into it, I ended up not getting the first turn which makes it even worse, however the small positive is I managed to deploy really far back so that his centurions had no targets on his first turn. As expected he goes in hard and blows up my Taranis knights as I had managed to hide the Krast knight. The Taranis knight doesn’t revive, even with a CP reroll, truly unfortunate. He kills an Armiger as well. In return I do manage to shoot down both planes but at this point I don’t really see a way back into the game. The game continues and I blow up most of his scary things but struggle alot dealing with the centurions. However at the end of the game I still have all my Skorpius alive and the tech-priests, I end up scoring 0 points on my movement secondary.

Loss 22-32

As expected this was rough, I think I can win if I went first as I could have shot down both planes at least, and the Taranis knight not reviving was really unfortunate. I am really happy though with managing to score 22 points in that game. Also I must say this was my most enjoyable game of the tournament despite the matchup, Robin was an amazing opponent and we promised to get a rematch in some day!

1-2 going into the second day is not where I was hoping to be but it has been a blast so far and more Warhammer is never bad!

Round 4

Opponent: Jonathan - Iron Hands List: 4x Centurion, Mortis Dread, Chaplain Venerable Dread, Devastators, Eliminators, Apothecary, Feirros, far too many intercessors. Secondaries: Reaper, Old School, Ground Control

With only 1 win I was hoping for maybe an easier matchup, however my still very high score continues to haunt me and I end up facing Jonathan and his Iron Hands…

Well this was gonna be rough, there is not much to talk about in this game really, He goes first and we end up shooting back and forth for a while, his centurions prove to be hard to kill, I nearly got them when I ran my Taranis Knight into the middle of his army and made it explode on a 4+, however the explosion only went 4”, it did hit his single remaining Centurion with the big 6 mortal wounds, but then he made half his 5+++ so it lived. Throughout the game his Lascannons roll really high on damage so they end up killing most my things, I also made some deployment mistakes though and had a few turns where I couldn’t shoot with some units. In the end my single surviving model is my Manipulus.

Loss 21-30

Iron Hands are still incredibly frustrating to play, however the turns I get to shoot them I still shred intercessors with all my firepower. The games against Iron Hands just aren’t very interesting to me though, I am really happy with managing to squeeze out another high scoring loss though.

Round 5

Opponent: Anton - Word Bearers List: Discolord, Possessed, Daemon Prince, Obliterators, 2x Venomcrawler, Chaos Marines, Cultists Secondaries: Big Game Hunter, Reaper, Ground Control

Last game of the tournament!

I end up going first on Dawn of War deployment, kill 14(!) possessed, 2 cultists squad and a Venomcrawler, I also move up my Taranis Knight and the Hoplites to hold the middle, which in hindsight wasn’t ideal. He kills my Taranis knight with the Discolord but of course it gets back up. I then interrupt with my Hoplites and do 6 wounds to his demon prince, who then dies to the returned mortal wounds when he tries to punch the Hoplites, they did something! The Taranis knight ends up dying and his Obliterators nearly kill the Krast knight, but it survives on 5 wounds and lives the rest of the game. On my turn 4 I table him.

Win 33-18

I could have played this better but it was the last game of the tournament so I was understandably a bit tired, I didn’t need to go and hold the middle on my turn 1, if I had stayed back one more round it could have been even more decisive. This was another great opponent though, and with an awesome looking army, and since we finished so quickly we had time to chat a bunch after the match, and I could also walk around and check up on how my friends and previous opponents were doing.

Closing Thoughts

So 2-3 wasn’t where I was hoping to finish, however I had scored so many points that I finished 55th out of 106, if you go by battle points I would have been 27th! 2nd highest score of the 2-win players, with an army that I thought would struggle with the movement secondaries. I’m definitely still learning and I noticed I keep making positioning mistakes so that I get stuff tagged in combat all the time, so I really have to work on that.

As far as my list goes I am actually really really happy with it, it’s a gunline but it’s so mobile that it is really fun to play. Ground control is a great secondary for me but when I lose a game I score almost nothing for that. I’m gonna be changing some small things but I think I’ll stick to the same core for a while, maybe drop one of the knights in the future but the double Questoris knight is really fun. The Skorpius just do so much every game and the Moiraxes are consistently my MVPs, and if I can stop getting them tagged in combat they will be even better!

Next planned tournament is at the end of April, but I guess with the current situation we shall see if that happens or not!

As always thanks to the TOs at Västerås Wargaming who made it an awesome event, and thanks to all my opponents and everyone else I ended up talking to!

#warhammer #warhammer 40k

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truesportsfan · 4 years

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WrestleMania 36: What to follow in WWE with one month to go

WWE Elimination Chamber is behind us and WrestleMania 36 is less than a month away. Here are 36 observations as we get ready for the big show on April 5 in Tampa, Fla.:

1. Edge versus Randy Orton feels like the main event at WrestleMania — but it won’t be. This is a superb, clear and emotional story, and Edge reminded us on “Monday Night Raw” that he can go to that dark place, just like Orton. We are in for some theater from these masters.

2. I know WWE likes to announce things in advance in hopes of popping a rating, but did we really need to know Edge was going to be back on “Raw” on Monday? How about making his return a surprise, get a big pop and make people feel they need to watch the show to not miss moments like that.

3. The women’s Elimination Chamber match was not a great match and under-delivered in many aspects, but it was the best booking of Shayna Baszler we’ve seen on the WWE main roster: The quick tapouts and her brutalizing of Liv Morgan gave us a glimpse of the killer we loved to hate in NXT. You can make the case they didn’t go far enough with how she ran through her opponents. Break and bend some limbs. Maybe leave one opponent bloodied.

4. Baszler is starting to build the heat she needs going into WrestleMania. She will need it for her persona to better translate to the Raw audience, which will want nothing more than for their hero Becky Lynch to send Baszler back to NXT. If not, a Baszler-Asuka feud could be waiting.

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5. Does anyone else feel as if Lynch is Rocky Balboa in “Rocky III” before he got destroyed by Clubber Lang? The Man has been positioned as overconfident, strutting her GOAT status. Her promo to open “Raw” did set a great tone going forward and finally brought Ronda Rousey into the storyline.

6. Why should the audience care about the implosion of the Riott Squad when WWE continues to treat them like jobbers and fails to let their story truly play out in the Elimination Chamber? Ruby Riott, not Liv Morgan (so much for her push), can be the breakout star of the group. Just give her time.

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7. Say what you want about Brock Lesnar, but the last two years, he helped leave his WrestleMania opponents (Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins) in better standing than he found them. The cheers for Drew McIntyre keep growing, and Lesnar told McIntyre to grab the title while selling a beatdown from last week’s “Raw.”

8. I’m all here for Roman Reigns vs. Goldberg and The Fiend vs. John Cena at WrestleMania. I just wish the former was simply Spear vs. Spear, New vs. Old (without the belt) and the other was Cena going for The Fiend’s WWE’s title, which would be his record 17th world championship.

9. Charlotte Flair vs. Rhea Ripley is one of WrestleMania’s most intriguing matches. Flair, who has run through pretty much all of the main roster, would benefit taking the title: She would get fresh matchups in NXT, could help ratings and be used to put over Bianca Belair. Otherwise Ripley gets a big rub from beating WWE’s Golden Girl at WrestleMania. Either outcome has big implications.

10. Undertaker’s surprise appearance at Elimination Chamber was exactly how you should use him and added to the anticipation for his WrestleMania match with AJ Styles.

11. I do have a challenge for WWE: Get me an Undertaker WrestleMania feud that isn’t just about the next guy calling him out for a match. That may be asking a lot from a company that long-term booked Erick Rowan’s cage holding a giant fake tarantula, which McIntyre quickly destroyed.

12. What if this whole Undertaker-Styles feud is about getting Aleister Black a star-making rub? Black also went over Rollins on Monday’s “Raw.”

13. Black Mass is one of the best finishers in WWE. Tell me otherwise.

14. Rollins feels very natural in his Monday Night Messiah role, but how many multi-man tag matches can one wrestler be booked in?

15. Happy Sami Zayn finally earned a singles title on the main roster. It’s about time. But did it have to come at the expense of Braun Strowman so quickly? Strowman has been waiting for a championship run, too. WWE didn’t pull the trigger on him as a world champion a few years ago. Not sure he can afford another start and stop.

16. WWE playing hot potato with the Intercontinental Championship, even in a 3-on-1 handicap match, continues to devalue the once-proud title. It easily could flip back to Strowman at WrestleMania.

17. The feud among Andrade, Humberto Carrillo, Angel Garza and Rey Mysterio has been compelling and fun in the ring, even with being built around Andrade’s Wellness Policy suspension. But it is time to get to the next phase of this story. Any one of them is a worthy U.S. champion. Andrade and Carrillo are the front-runners. Would WWE think about doing Andrade vs. Zelina Vega’s real-life husband Aleister Black if Andrade retains?

18. As good as Andrade and Carrillo are in the ring, you can make the case the charismatic Garza comes across the best on screen. WWE could turn him babyface and make Vega choose between him and Andrade in a post-WrestleMania feud.

19. What Daniel Bryan is doing with Drew Gulak is fantastic. They told an excellent story during their match at Elimination Chamber in Gulak’s hometown of Philadelphia. Bryan also got Heath Slater and Curtis Axel some TV time. Hope the plug isn’t pulled too quickly on this, but WWE could want a more marquee match for Bryan in Tampa.

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20. “Who sent Otis the text to spoil his Valentine’s Day date with Mandy Rose?” is a storyline WWE needs to make more prominent, despite Rose telling Otis she’s moved on. Otis vs. Ziggler needs to end with either Otis getting the girl or Sonya Deville being the one who sent the text. If not, what was the point?

21. At the least, WWE has an increasingly over, non-New Day babyface tag team in Heavy Machinery. Will they capitalize on it? Heavy Machinery was the second team out of the Elimination Chamber after getting a huge rub from the gauntlet match on last week’s “SmackDown.”

22. The SmackDown tag team match was the best on the pay-per-view as the division continues stealing the show. Please continue to give them the time and respect they deserve and keep them off kickoff shows.

23. John Morrison and his acrobatic move set has been a fun addition to the WWE roster. How soon until he turns on Miz and starts a singles run?

24. Thank you WWE for giving us more of Robert Roode’s glorious entrance. It used to be one of the coolest in wrestling, and is still up there.

25. Props to Lince Dorado for that shooting star press from hanging from the roof of the Elimination Chamber. Crazy.

26. Ricochet has been relegated to matches on Main Event. He deserves better than the burying he’s getting right now.

27. Does WWE actually have a women’s tag team division? The 24/7 title has gotten more or equal TV time in recent months. At least the Kabuki Warriors were revived on Monday.

28. The Raw tag team match at Elimination Chamber featured two singles stars in Rollins and Murphy against the Street Profits in a match that was more about advancing Rollins’ feud with Kevin Owens.

29. When does Kevin Owens get to work his magic at the top of the card or is he destined to be an upper-midcard storytelling star?

30. The Street Profits are fun, they bring energy and they have a great connection with a live crowd. They are stars. WWE needs to start booking them that way.

31. King Corbin feuding with Elias sounds about right.

32. The Revival’s contracts in WWE should be up in June. If and how they are booked for WrestleMania 36 could be a telling sign about their future.

33. Jeff Hardy is returning to SmackDown this Friday after a long hiatus. It was wonderful to see Hardy look refreshed and healthy on “WWE Backstage” last week.

34. Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder almost made it to the pay-per-view Sunday, but lost on the kickoff show instead.

35. WWE said last week WrestleMania 36 is going on as planned in Tampa, Fla., though they are monitoring the outbreak of the coronavirus. If other major sports, such as the NBA, NCAA or NHL start forbidding fans from attending games, at some point you have to take a long, hard look in the mirror and reevaluate.

36. Stone Cold Steve Austin returns to Raw for 3/16 Day. Oh, hell yeah!

source https://truesportsfan.com/sport-today/wrestlemania-36-what-to-follow-in-wwe-with-one-month-to-go/

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sharktalkswrestling · 4 years

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Looking at NWA-TNA PPV #4 (10 July 2002)

Who cares about the embarrassment of riches which is the current wrestling landscape when we could be talking about early TNA? I just watched NWA-TNA PPV #4 from 10 July 2002 and I’m gonna spew some words about it here. We have some title matches and a lot of new faces so let’s get into it.

Links to previous reviews here: #1, #2, #3.

Quality: 2/5. The opening tag title match was good and the main event X-Division six-way was great. K-Krush insulting Nascar some more and having a match with driver Hermie Sadler was a bit of fun. Everything else was either bad or just...there. In case you’re curious, Ed Ferrara continues to make the show worse at every conceivable moment.

Significance: 3/5. This was probably the least important show so far, which makes sense. There were two title matches but they weren’t well built up and didn’t have any chance of a change. There were a number of debuts but the only one to make a real impression was Christopher Daniels. Styles’ next challenger was determined. Still more significant than a lot of episodes of weekly wrestling TV, though.

My thoughts [Spoilers]:

AJ Styles and Jerry Lynn are just so entertaining. Obviously. They carry two of James Mitchell’s New Church nerds to a fun tag title match. Lynn was upset at the end, as AJ tagged himself in to get the win. Lynn is the champion pulling double duty tonight, as he’s in the main event six-way to determine a number one contender for his partner’s X-Division Championship. It doesn’t make much sense for the Disciples to get the first title shot, honestly. Maybe the Flying Elvises, since they beat the now champions and Low Ki back in the very first TNA match. But, hey, it was fun.

Brian Christopher cut a promo about how his father Jerry Lawler wasn’t the reason he got into the business. He did it on his own. Then, it turns into an attack about how Jerry wasn’t there for him as a kid and tells him to go to hell. But then he says he isn’t Brian Christopher anymore but Brian Lawler. It was an okay promo, but it just feels like an attempt to further connect Brian to his more famous dad, especially now that they’re basing themselves in Nashville, TN. It was followed by a match with Norman Smiley that wasn’t much.

K-Krush (R-Truth) riles up the Nashville crowd, saying that Trashville can’t recognize good talent, and says that once he’s done with Sadler, he’ll kick the asses of all the Nascar fans in attendance. He had them eating out of the palm of his hand. The match was kind of ridiculous but I liked it. Hermie Sadler was not bad for his first match, and the crowd was really invested. They did a kind of dumb angle at the end, where Krush pinned Sadler with the ropes for leverage and after the match the referee reversed the decision in favor of Sadler. Funny enough, Cagematch lists it as a win for Krush still.

It blows my mind to see the Briscoe brothers as scrawny young guys with sane levels of facial hair wrestling in singlets. Hell, they might’ve had all their teeth. The Hot Shots were also there. It could’ve been a decent match, but a minute or two in, Mitchell’s Disciples stormed the ring for a DQ and Malice destroyed everyone. They did a real goofy explosion sound effect when he chokeslammed one of the Briscoes. Mitchell gets on the mic demanding Shamrock’s blood, which is pretty rich considering Malice has lost clean to Ken twice in a row. Then Shamrock and his challenger Takao Omori both run out to clean house of the Disciple geeks.

They do a sleazy angle where a woman named Jasmin St. Clair comes out and asks the crowd if they want some “real TNA”. She calls Jeremy Borash her “little sex toy” and sits him down in a chair in the ring before doing something vaguely resembling a lap dance. She goes so far as to take off her undergarments from under her dress before an NWA authority type guy storms the ring to cover her up and drag her away. It was not entertaining. West and Ferrara are frothing at the bit the whole time, obviously. The only redeeming part of the whole segment was West saying “for the first time in my life I want to be Jeremy Borash”.

I haven’t mentioned the Dupps team yet, because they suck and I hate them. They lost in a nothing match to the Flying Elvises. This match was so insignificant that Mortimer Plumtree came to commentary to discuss the whodunnit of the America’s Most Wanted attack.

Jerry Lynn and AJ Styles have a backstage brawl, ending in Lynn hitting his Cradle Pildriver on his fellow champion, calling him a glory hound.

Next up is Ken Shamrock defending the NWA World’s Heavyweight Championship - for the second time in as many weeks - against future Triple Crown Champion Takao Omori. Mike Tenay says that he cannot emphasize enough how big this match is in Japan. While the belt means something in Japan (it was even held by Shinya Hashimoto about eight months before this event), I don’t think a lot of Japanese people are paying the 9.99 to get this show. And I hope they didn’t, because it ends after only a few minutes with Jarrett killing everyone with a chair in a temper tantrum. 59-year-old Harley Race even took a chairshot to the noggin.

James Mitchell cuts a cute little promo in the back asking Goldilock to tell Jarrett he wants to speak to him. The gimmick is goofy, but the guy has charisma. Then Goldilock finds the vice president of the NWA hogtied just like Jim Miller last week, with “F U” written on his stomach. I guess this is a thing.

Our main event is a six-way elimination match to determine the #1 contender for the X-Division Championship. We see the TNA debuts for Elix Skipper, Kid Romeo, Tony Mamaluke, and Christopher Daniels (sporting quite the goatee). Also in the match are Low Ki and Jerry Lynn in his second match. This match is great, especially when it comes down to Christopher Daniels and Low Ki. The latter picked up the #1 contender distinction with a fisherman buster, just before the Elvises stormed the ring and beat down the tired final two, apparently upset that they’ve been looked over in the division. Jerry Lynn was actually counted out first and is therefore the #6 contender. I do wonder how that’s gonna play out with Lynn having attacked Styles while they’re both tag champs.

There was one more brawl to end the show. Jarrett came out to demand a title shot again, before insulting some Tennessee Titans who were in the front row. They jumped the barrier to fight him and at the same time, the Disciples came out to do the same. It cut to black as Jarrett attempted to fend them off with a chair.

Well, that surely was an episode! A whole lot of brawls and even a couple good matches. I recommend watching the opening and main event, at least. Now that we’re past the first few shows, we’ll probably get a better picture of what an average show is. Hopefully, the new X-Division guys and the Flying Elvises making their statement means that we’re gonna see a lot of good matchups in the division. We’ll see in future posts! See ya!

#nwa #tna #impact wrestling #wrestling #aj styles

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flauntpage · 6 years

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Meet the New NBA Finals, Same as the Old NBA Finals

For the first time since 2017, the Golden State Warriors will meet the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals.

Should be a barn burner, as LeBron James does his Atlas routine, putting the entire team on his shoulders as he again heads into the series as a major underdog minus home court advantage. This will be the most consecutive finals matchups in the history of the “four major North American sports.”

Unfortunately, this is the least interesting of the four matchups. I certainly don’t think this Warriors team is better than last year’s squad, but if they’re worse, it’s not by much. Cleveland is a rag tag group of role players being pulled along by the greatest of all time, depending on who you ask.

For starters, the Warriors are putting up these marks through the postseason (17 games):

110 offensive rating

99.7 defensive rating

10.3 net rating

And here’s what the Cavs have done through 16 playoff games:

107.1 offensive rating

105.9 defensive rating

1.2 net rating

That’s a huge gulf in quality. Cleveland was one of the worst defensive teams in the NBA this season, especially in transition, where the Sixers just demolished them back in the spring. If Philly can roll up and down the floor with ease, who knows what Golden State will do. I’m stunned that Boston only scored 79 points in game seven, but I guess that’s the case when you shoot 29-85.

Take your pick of statistics beyond that snap shot. LeBron is playing 41.3 minutes per game in the playoffs. The Cavs are playing with the second lowest pace (93.85) while the Warriors have the 6th highest (99.66), so that will probably skew towards GSW and LeBron will be exhausted by game three. Personnel-wise, you’ve got Kevin Love coming back from concussion protocol, the only other Cav to average double-figures in the playoffs. Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant, and Steph Curry are all shooting better than 46% and averaging at least 20 points per game.

It’s incredibly lopsided, and the bookmakers see it.

The Warriors opened as -850 favorites and ballooned to -1200 before falling back:

After climbing as high as -1200 in the odds to win the #NBAFinals, the Warriors have settled at -900 with the Cavaliers coming back at +550 (@BovadaLV).

— OddsShark (@OddsShark) May 29, 2018

LeBron hasn’t been this big of an underdog since the 2007 finals, when the Cavs were +360 against the Spurs. His starting teammates that season were Drew Gooden, Larry Hughes, Sasha Pavlovic, and Zydrunas Ilgauskas. They were swept by Tim Duncan and company.

James has only been a favorite in two of nine finals appearances, the 2011 series against Dallas and the 2013 series against San Antonio. He won as an underdog against OKC back in 2012, a series he won.

Consider the last two series between these teams. The Cavs (with Kyrie) had to come back from 3-1 down in 2016 to win in seven. They lost 4-1 last year and needed a historic performance just to win a single game. Among the NBA records set in game four were 49 first quarter points, 86 first half points, 13 three pointers in the first half, and 24 threes overall. They needed all of that to win a game. Golden State came back and put up 129 at Oracle in game five to end the series.

Think about how one-sided that series was and consider the fact that GSW was only a -300 favorite last year. If you thought that was ugly, what happens this time around?

That’s why I think there’s a lot of fan fatigue heading into this series. People just aren’t excited. Warriors/Rockets was the NBA finals and the only thing we’re gonna get from this series is more useless arguing over whether LeBron or Jordan is the best ever.

Maybe more interesting is the idea that Houston winning probably would have helped the LeBron-to-Philly sweepstakes. If Chris Paul doesn’t injure his hamstring, the Rockets likely get it done in 6 or 7 and go on to win the title. Instead, they’re looking for that extra oomph to get over the hump, and maybe that comes in the form of LeBron James. Would he head west to try to dethrone Golden State? Who knows.

And I can’t help but laugh when I hear Sixers fans argue about Brett Brown, because how much coaching did Ty Lue, Mike D’Antoni, or Steve Kerr do in these conference finals? Not much. When you’ve got superstars on your squad, the best thing you can do is get the hell out of the way. I know anti-Brett Brown types would be flipping out if the Sixers missed 25-straight threes, but the Rockets have played that way all season long. They were going to live or die by the three and ended up with the latter. And for all of the praise heaped upon Brad Stevens, what do you want him to do when Terry Rozier goes 2-14 in game seven? Put in the backup backup point guard?

I can’t remember the quote verbatim, but it goes something like this: players win games, coaches lose games, and refs ruin games. That’s applicable to any sport and that’s generally how fans and media make their judgments.

Whether you’re tired of it or not, pinnacle GSW is what the Sixers are trying to replicate. They run, they pass, they chuck three pointers, and when they’re hitting (every third quarter this spring), it’s beautiful to watch. When they’re off, they’re really off. They had 16 turnovers last night and gave up a ton of offensive rebounds and still won by 9 on the road despite shooting 10 fewer shots than the Rockets. More than any in-game coaching, it’s about having four All-Stars on the floor who can make buckets. That’s the modern day NBA.

Like I said this season, if you want to criticize Brett Brown for trying to build a Warriors-styled team with a similar system, that’s fine. You see many similarities in the way the teams play. GSW doesn’t have a monstrous interior presence like Joel Embiid, but they value passing and assists and generally suffer the same deficiencies. Adding a max free agent gets the Sixers closer to being Warriors 2.0, which may or may not be folly.

I think we all knew that Golden State or Houston would inevitably be here, going all the way back to preseason predictions. It doesn’t diminish anything that the Warriors have accomplished over the years, but it is getting a bit stale.

Meet the New NBA Finals, Same as the Old NBA Finals published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

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zeroviraluniverse-blog · 6 years

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Gentle giant? Spoiler? Nope, Indian Wells champ Juan Martin del Potro is a beast

Visit Now - http://zeroviral.com/gentle-giant-spoiler-nope-indian-wells-champ-juan-martin-del-potro-is-a-beast/

Gentle giant? Spoiler? Nope, Indian Wells champ Juan Martin del Potro is a beast

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Last September, after Juan Martin del Potro took out Roger Federer in the quarterfinals of the US Open, robbing Fed fans of yet another opportunity to watch him potentially play Rafael Nadal in a final at Flushing Meadows, I wrote the 6-foot-6 Argentinian was a “gentle giant-killer.” The headline of that story pronounced del Potro as a “lovable spoiler.”

But in retrospect that might have been an understatement.

With his 7-5, 6-7 (8), 7-6 (2) win over Federer on Sunday afternoon in the final of the BNP Paribas Open, del Potro showed a much different side. This was smash-mouth, in-your-face tennis.

Juan Martin del Potro rallied from three match points down in the third set and beat top-ranked Roger Federer 6-4, 6-7 (8), 7-6 (2) to win the BNP Paribas Open, handing the Swiss superstar his first loss of the year.

Naomi Osaka needed just 70 minutes to dispatch Daria Kasatkina 6-3, 6-2 on Sunday to win the BNP Paribas Open in a matchup of 20-year-old rising stars.

In celebration of ESPN The Magazine’s 20th anniversary, Peter Keating’s crunched the numbers to find the most dominant athletes of our time.

2 Related

A day earlier, Federer, when asked to describe what it’s like to play del Potro, said their tussles feel like an “arm wrestle.” Heavyweight title bout might seem more accurate. For 2½ hours, they played as if they had nothing — and everything — to lose.

“It was an unbelievable match in all ways,” del Potro said after ending Federer’s 17-match winning streak to start 2018. “I mean, we played a great level of tennis. I’m really enjoying playing tennis again. I had very bad moments a few years ago and I don’t want to think about that anymore. I’m surprising myself every day, and I want to keep surprising the tennis tour.”

Del Potro is hardly a feel-good story anymore, the underdog scrapping his way back from three wrist surgeries between 2014 and 2015 that caused him to contemplate retirement. Or a one-time next-great-thing who never made good on that tag after winning his only Grand Slam at the 2009 US Open. He’s no longer the guy with a great resume absent a Masters 1000 title.

“[After my surgeries], I couldn’t imagine this moment,” del Potro said. “After that, I made a big effort to come back and play tennis with the slice. Then my backhand, it wasn’t good enough to play at this level. But then during the [Rio] Olympics, after the [Novak] Djokovic match, my tennis life changed again.

Juan Martin del Potro won his biggest tournament since capturing the 2009 US Open. Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

“Then I won the Davis Cup and I said, ‘OK, I don’t have any more pressure to play tennis because I won everything I wanted except a Masters 1000.’ But today I did that. Now I have everything I want, and I want to keep improving my game to see what more I can do. But I cannot believe I won this tournament, beating Roger in a great final.”

Yes, del Potro’s still lovable. But he is a spoiler no more.

The next time he faces Federer, it’s hard to imagine the world No. 8 not being touted as the favorite. In the past year, they have played each other five times, with Federer winning three of those matches. But del Potro has outmuscled the 20-time Grand Slam champ when it mattered, beating him at the US Open and again Sunday to win his maiden Masters title. Could this be a preview of 2018 finals at Wimbledon and the US Open?

With Djokovic struggling and Andy Murray, Nadal, Stan Wawrinka, Kei Nishikori and Nick Kyrgios all out with injuries, let’s hope so. This is the rivalry tennis needs right now.

play

1:33

Juan Martin del Potro reacts to defeating Roger Federer in the BNP Paribas Open and explains if he is ready to win grand slams again.

“I’m not sure why the final record [with del Potro] is the way it is,” Federer said. “A lot of them have been extremely tight. Most of them have gone the distance, so it’s been tough against him. I feel frustrated that I let an opportunity like this go by. Standing at the trophy ceremony, I thought, ‘I would like to play that tiebreaker again, because I don’t know what the hell happened.'”

Had Federer played that tiebreaker the way he’d competed the rest of the third set, had he made good on any of his three match points and gutted out a win in the way he did against Borna Coric on Saturday afternoon, it’d be hard to label Federer-Delpo the next great rivalry. But he didn’t. Had del Potro not saved three match points and played confidently and composed in the final-set tiebreaker, it’d be tough to champion him as Federer’s new foe. But he did.

This was the 19th time in Federer’s career he had match points and failed to win and only the second time in a final. The first came in the 2006 finale when he squandered two against Nadal in a match that defined the rivalry between them. But with Nadal absent from the tour for the time being, del Potro seems poised to become a nice replacement. Like Nadal, he even comes complete with his own rowdy fan base screaming in Spanish.

Next week in Miami, they’ll be Ruidoso as ever for a giant who might be gentle off the court, but on it … well, just ask Roger Federer.

#Tennis

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wrestlingisfake · 7 years

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Payback preview

Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman - The night after Wrestlemania, Paul Heyman suggested that Reigns is the logical top contender for Brock Lesnar’s universal championship, but Strowman declared that Lesnar would have to wait until Braun is finished with Roman first. So even though nothing is officially at stake, this match has the aura of determining which man is going to become the #1 contender.

Strowman savagely attacked Reigns a couple of weeks ago, ramming equipment into him, tossing him (and his stretcher) off a ledge, and then upending the ambulance set to carry him to the hospital. Roman hasn’t been seen on TV since. You can bet he’ll show up for the match angry as hell, but he may be bandaged up and selling like he’s not fully recovered. More and more, this feels like a match to prolong the feud, not end it.

There are no stipulations, which feels off for such a big grudge match. Expect this one to be declared a no-contest, or to end with a fuck finish where there is no clear winner. That sucks for this show’s audience, but it’ll be good for the people going to Extreme Rules, who will most likely get a last man standing match or a street fight or something.

Randy Orton vs. Bray Wyatt - Orton defeated Wyatt at Wrestlemania to win the world championship, but this match is non-title. I assume that’s because Bray was reassigned from Smackdown to Raw, but I could see that decision changing three times on the day of the show. This is billed as a House of Horrors match, but WWE has yet to clarify what that means. The angle appears to be that Bray made it up and isn’t telling anyone what the deal is.

In lieu of any concrete information about the match, I’d just like to propose that WWE use props from other ridiculous matches from the past, like the Punjabi Prison and the electric chair from that one Halloween Havoc.

All we know for sure about this match is that it needs to lead into Jinder Mahal challenging for Orton’s title at Backlash on 5/20. Logically Orton should win here, but since it’s non-title they could afford to put Wyatt over, perhaps even with interference from Mahal. I suppose there’s an outside chance the title is put on the line here and Wyatt wins it to drop it to Jinder, but it’s gotta be one in a million. It’s worth noting that none of these scenarios really do Bray any good, and as usual WWE does not give a shit.

Matt Hardy & Jeff Hardy vs. Cesaro & Sheamus - The Raw tag team championship is at stake. The Hardys got super-hot last year in TNA, so WWE snapped them up and had them win the title in their first match back. Unfortunately, most of the emotion surrounding this return has been focused on the legal/creative obstacles to the Hardys performing the gimmick that got them so hot last year. As fans start to realize they’re just going to be the regular ordinary Hardys, I suspect the honeymoon will be cut short.

The story here is that both Sheamus and Cesaro are trying to be respectful but each of them has had to play peacemaker when the other loses his cool. I’m not sure if that’s leading to a heel turn or a split, but it should be something soon. The Hardys aren’t losing the championship this early, so whatever happens with the challengers will have to build off a loss here.

Kevin Owens vs. Chris Jericho - Owens won the United States championship from Jericho at Wrestlemania, and this is the rematch. Since Owens switched brands a few weeks ago, the added stipulation is that if Jericho wins the title, Owens goes back to Raw and Jericho takes his place on Smackdown.

Jericho is reportedly finishing up his WWE commitments to tour with his band and is not expected to stick around much longer. Things like that haven’t always been a guarantee for predicting matches, but I’m not sensing the upside to swerving everyone with a Jericho title win. Chances are Chris will go out here, courtesy of a colossal beatdown from Owens.

Bayley vs. Alexa Bliss - Bliss challenges for the Raw women’s title, just a few weeks after losing the Smackdown women’s title and being switched to Raw. It’s a relatively fresh matchup, although they did square off less than a year ago on an episode of NXT.

Since the show is in Bayley’s hometown of San Jose, it must be acknowledged that WWE likes to fuck with people who want to see a wrestler get a nice hometown moment. Whether this is lazy cheap heat or Vince’s personal brand of sadism is unclear, but it has to drastically reduce Bayley’s chances of winning/retaining. Then again, I think those odds would be really high to start off with.

I like both of these women but I’ve never been able to look at them the same way since I was watching WWE at my mom’s house one time and she decided dirty old men are dressing all the women up like 12-year-olds. So yeah, I guess the big 12-year-old beats the little 12-year-old, and then my mom kinkshames you all.

Seth Rollins vs. Samoa Joe - Shit, this seems like it should be up higher, but this card is kinda stacked if you think about it. Anyway, Joe was supposed to be an obstacle on Seth’s path to Triple H at Wrestlemania, and they were going to wrestle in February but Seth legit hurt his knee in Joe’s Raw debut. Now Rollins isn’t even selling the knee anymore, and Triple H is nowhere to be found, so it’s time to tie up that loose end.

I’d call this a pick-em except that I really don’t know what Seth will have to do on Raw if he just beats Joe and moves on. Joe probably needs to win just to keep the feud going and establish him as a top-level threat.

Neville vs. Austin Aries - Neville successfully defended the cruiserweight title against Aries at Wrestlemania, but Aries won a match to become #1 contender again. The added wrinkle is that TJ Perkins has turned heel to be Neville’s crony, so I guess he’ll stick his nose into this match at some point.

If Aries loses, it’ll be tricky to book him going forward, because there really isn’t much he can do except turn heel and decide he likes Neville, and they’re sort of already doing that with Perkins. I guess he can get mad at Perkins and fight him? All right then. Neville retains off of interference from Perkins.

Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson vs. Enzo Amore & Big Cass - This is set for the pre-show. These two teams were in the ladder match at Wrestlemania with the Hardys and Sheamus/Cesaro, and now they’re just kinda left over since Sheamus and Cesaro are going after the tag title. I’d book Gallows and Anderson to win to set up an extended feud with the Hardys, at least until the Revival is back in action.

#wwe #payback #roman reigns #braun strowman #randy orton #bray wyatt #it's not backlash #that's next month #even though i keep wanting to type backlash #and then when i want to joke about it #i almost say this isn't payback that's next month ha ha

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junker-town · 7 years

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The oral history of Tom Brady and the Montreal Expos

Now that Tom Brady has announced his retirement from baseball, it’s time to look back at what his baseball career has meant to so many people.

Here’s what it means for an athlete to be inextricably linked with a city: The seasons bleed into each other, year after year, just like every other year bleeds into the next, but these years are also defined by what this athlete does.

Ah, yes, 199x was the year Sports Championship was won and my child started the first grade.

These descriptions come organically.

Ah, yes, 200x was a year of heartbreak, too much heartbreak for sports to explain, and it was also the year I moved out of state.

The player becomes the team, the team becomes a signpost along your path. The team and this player are all there, eternally present. They’re both the background music of your life and the sweaty, sold-out concert you’ve been attending for 150,000 consecutive hours.

If we agree on this, if we acknowledge that sports are more than a series of silly games to pass the time, we have to acknowledge that no baseball player has ever defined his city quite like Tom Brady has defined Montreal. For 19 seasons, from fresh-faced catcher to steel-jawed first baseman, the city has been defined through sport, the sport defined through a single player.

In honor of Brady’s final season with the Expos, we’ve put together an oral history of what will be a Hall of Fame career. It is, of course, an incomplete oral history, just because it has to be.

But we have to try. Tom Brady is the story of Montreal baseball. This is a piece of that story.

The beginning

Gary Hughes, Expos scout

He caught four consecutive shutouts in his senior year, and I think I saw the second or third of those. It’s always tricky to project high school catchers, but he was so damned smooth. It was like watching Pudge (Rodriguez) as a teenager.

Pete Jensen, Junipero Serra High School head coach

We won the title in Tommy’s junior year. I think he had a key sacrifice in the championship game, which was just perfect. He caught nine innings of shutout ball and sacrificed when we asked him to. That’s his entire Serra career in a sentence.

Pat Burrell, Bellarmine High School

We were both on the All-CCS team, so I knew him a little bit. I mean, I was the CCS Player of the Year, so he probably knew me a little more than I knew him, but we all knew he was a solid player

Gary Hughes

I was pushing for Brady in the first three rounds, but they made the right decision (to wait). That doesn’t mean I wasn’t sweating it for 18 damned rounds.

Pat Burrell

He was the only catcher I ever played against who told me to put my shirt on. I hated it at the time, but I respect it now.

Kevin Malone, Expos GM (1994-1995)

He wanted to play football, and it’s not like we were going to pay him to give that up. We didn’t have the money. It’s a miracle that he changed his mind at the last second. Baseball was his true love, I guess.

Grant Brisbee, SB Nation senior baseball writer

I probably played against Tom Brady in little league at some point. I don’t remember if I did for sure, but there was probably a tournament that we both played in, and I just want to make sure that everyone knows I used to play baseball.

A quick ascent

Brian Schneider, teammate, Gulf Coast Expos (1995)

I was a fifth-rounder, so I figured I was going to get most of the starts. Then this skinny kid comes in and starts raking. I hit, like, .220 that year, and he was probably busting 100, 150 points over me. I was praying that he’d get bumped up a level before the next season.

Milton Bradley, teammate, Gulf Coast Expos (1996)

He knew just what to say to fire you up. Knew just what to say to calm you down. Like, he was just a teenager, right? But he talked like a damned mountaintop guru when he needed to. He was freaky like that.

Doug Sisson, manager, Delmarva Shorebirds (1996)

We had a catching prospect, Michael Barrett, who was pretty good. But Brady showed up and the entire pitching staff followed him around like a mama duck after a week. I brought (Barrett) in for a chat because I didn’t want him to get discouraged, and he said, “Don’t worry about it. He’s just passing through.” And he was right. (Brady) was called up to Double-A about six weeks later.

Vladimir Guerrero, teammate, Harrisburg Senators (1996)

He came up to me in the batting cage the first day he was on the team and told me a story about a mongoose and a cobra. It was a parable or something. I don’t remember it exactly, but the message had to do with patience.

Pedro Martinez, teammate, Montreal Expos (1997)

I threw to him in spring training, 1997, and we were all looking at each other, like, “Who is this kid?” I don’t want to get too weird, but he wasn’t just a catcher, he was like a dancer. A ballerina. (laughs) I’m serious! And you knew it right away, too.

Vladimir Guerrero

I had my first four-walk game the next night. Not a coincidence.

Pedro Martinez

The only problem was that he wasn’t even 20 yet, so I didn’t think I’d get to pitch to him. I knew that (the Expos) wanted to trade me. But he came up in September, so we had a month, at least.

Felipe Alou, Expos manager (1992-2008)

When he came up in ‘97, the clubhouse changed. When we broke camp in ‘98, it carried over. We traded Pedro, traded Mike (Lansing), and were supposed to lose 100 games. We won 87. That’s all Brady.

Pedro Martinez

He’s the biggest reason why I came back, definitely. That and the chance to pitch with Carl (Pavano) and Dustin (Hermanson).

Rise of the Expos

Dustin Hermanson, teammate (1998-2004)

When he was a rookie, he pulled me aside in May after I gave up eight earned runs, and he said, “Dustin, you’re a hell of a pitcher, but I’m not worried about the bad outing. I’m worried that your facial hair makes you look like a magician planning a heist at the casino that fired you.”

I shaved before I left the clubhouse that night. And I swear to God, it shaved a run off my ERA, too.

Carl Pavano, teammate (1998-2011)

We all have stories like that. I was a rookie. He was a rookie. We’re supposed to be on the same level, but says, “Hey, let’s go to Kelseys. I’m buying.” And I’m thinking, sure, whatever. Then he talks for two hours about how I needed to set the Maddux comparisons on fire and get them out of my head. The way he explained it ... it was like there was a Lisa Frank folder exploding in my head.

Dustin Hermanson

We didn’t make the postseason that year, but we knew we had something.

Vladimir Guerrero

I hit 40 home runs, but Tom kept messing with me because I didn’t crack 100 walks. So that was the goal next year. Once he says it, you start believing it.

Felipe Alou

And he smelled like lemon meringue. Damnedest thing.

The Golden Summit

Pedro Martinez

It meant something to me to come back and finish what I started. The Red Sox wanted me to sign an extension, but I was a little homesick. Luckily, the new owners were willing to spend a little more than the old owners.

Jeffrey Loria, art dealer

I was eaten by wasps, so I never owned the Montreal Expos.

Jean Coutu, Expos owner (1998 - present)

I didn’t even care about baseball. Didn’t grow up with it. Didn’t understand it. But I was watching television one day, and Tom Brady was on, and I said, “Marcelle, who is that man? I must invest in that man.” She knew. She knew right away.

Jeffrey Loria

I have no idea what Brady had to do with the wasps. Or what I’m doing in this oral history about baseball. Or how I’m speaking from a limitless void right now, beyond existence. None of this makes sense.

Jean Coutu

I didn’t know anything. I just told them to get the best players and keep Tom happy.

Pat Gillick, Expos GM (1998-2008)

People credit me for building a championship team, but I inherited Tom Brady and my owner told me that I could give Pedro Martinez a bunch of money. Any usher on the payroll could have done that.

Vladimir Guerrero

There was a competition between Milton and me that whole season, seeing who would get to 40 homers first. And here comes Tommy, hitting 16 homers in August to make us pay attention to him. He was competitive like that. Think he liked messing with us more than hitting home runs (laughs).

Felipe Alou

When we clinched the division (in 1999), Tom went out there and shook Pedro’s hand. No big bear hug. Just a handshake. It was his way of saying, “This isn’t finished.”

Dustin Hermanson

I remember reading that the Championship Series was the greatest pitching matchup in 40 years. Johnson and Schilling vs. Pedro, Carl, Javier (Vasquez) and me. I don’t know about all that, but we knew it was special.

Brad Fullmer, teammate (1997-2002)

Brady owned Randy (Johnson). It was hilarious, because no one hit that guy at all, but there Tommy was, lining everything right back up the middle. I swear he lined them back up the middle on purpose.

Randy Johnson

If I ever see him again, I will bite him.

The Play at the Plate

Felipe Alou

All anyone wants to talk about is the play at the plate. No one wants to talk about his 12 hits.

Buck Showalter, manager, Arizona Diamondbacks (1998-2000)

One of the worst calls I’ve ever seen, and I’m not going to let it go.

Felipe Alou

(Erubiel) Durazo came in, Tommy tagged him, and after the play was over, he dropped the ball.

Buck Showalter

It was a drop. Durazo leveled him, and the ball popped out. Simple. Now I’m pissed off all over again.

Felipe Alou

He showed the ball to the umpire, and the ball came out when he was bringing the glove down after showing him. He was bringing it back in. The play was over.

Buck Showalter

I’d like to read the alternate, you know, oral history of that play being called correctly. I’ll bet it all changes for them.

Brian Gorman, umpire

He was probably out. I don’t know. Also, that guy always smelled like lemon meringue. Damnedest thing.

Pat Gillick

After the Diamondbacks, we went through the Braves. After the Braves, we went through the Yankees. Tommy caught every single game, and he called six shutouts out of the 11 postseason wins. No one is ever touching that record.

Felipe Alou

Montreal had a championship. Finally, a trophy they could share with the fans. They deserved it. That was Tommy’s first MVP award that year, too. You could tell that, finally, the city started to care about sports. Deeply, passionately, they cared about this stuff. It was a sports town now.

Guy Lafleur

Hey, what the hell.

The new stadium

Felipe Alou

They broke ground on Coutu Field the same day we got (Curt) Schilling, which was probably a sign.

Pat Gillick

Nothing embarrassed him more than when he called it “The House That Brady Built.” He didn’t buy that, even if we were dead serious about it. It didn’t happen without him.

Carl Pavano

It wasn’t going to open until 2002, so we just kept our heads down and played in the dome. But we knew it was going to be amazing.

Pat Gillick

With the injury to Dustin (in 2000), we needed another reliable arm, and we could have probably made do with anyone because Pedro and Carl were pitching so well, but we figured we might as well get a co- co- co-ace.

Curt Schilling, teammate (2000-2005)

We hit it off right away, playing Mario Kart for hours on the road, and just talking about whatever. He was so funny and unaffected by the kind of brain trauma he might have otherwise experienced in another sport, and he really got me thinking about social responsibility.

Vladimir Guerrero

When we got Curt, and Pedro was at his best, and Tommy was catching them both, man, it felt like we were going to win 100 games without breaking a sweat. Winning only 108 ticked me off, really.

Curt Schilling

I’m a little introverted, but here’s this guy, the biggest sports star on the planet, getting me fired up about the heteronormative hegemony at 3 a.m., then yelling about Rainbow Road a second later. I couldn’t keep up, and I loved it. It sure is a good thing he didn’t suffer several undiagnosed concussions that would have screwed with the part of his brain that affected critical thinking.

Felipe Alou

By the time Coutu Field opened up, Tommy had two championships, a Rookie of the Year, and two MVPs. He wasn’t even 26. Pedro, Curt, Pavano, and Vlad were all taking less money to keep the core together for the new park, and Tommy was going to be the centerpiece.

Pat Gillick

You’ve seen the place. It’s the best ballpark in baseball. And of course it was Tom who hit the first homer into the water. I would have played seven relievers in the field for a month to make sure of that, but he just did it on his own. Like he does.

More championships (yawn)

Nick Johnson, teammate (2004-present)

I remember missing some time with a wrist injury, and Brady grabbed the wrist as we went into the tunnel. At first I thought he was trying to comfort me or something, but then he brought the wrist close to his nostrils and exhaled like he was a danged dragon. It was really weird. But the wrist felt better right away.

Vladimir Guerrero

People asked me if I got tired of being the second-best hitter on the team. Like it ever bothered McCovey. Heck, no. It was an honor.

Nick Johnson

There were times on the road where I’d catch him standing over my bed at night, muttering stuff in a weird language. But he’s had my back 140, 150 games every year for over a decade now, and it almost feels like I’m getting younger with each passing year, so I don’t talk about that much. Don’t print this, actually.

Grady Sizemore, teammate (2004-2013)

Wait, he did that to Nick, too? The heck is that about?

Wilton Guerrero, teammate (2002-2009)

I turned to him after the end of the 2008 World Series and asked him if this ever got old. He just laughed and laughed. It never, ever got old for him, all the winning. It was infections.

Kevin Durant, forward, Montreal Voyageurs

You knew it was his town. When he showed up at a game, everyone knew it. “Oh, shit, Tom Brady’s courtside.” I wouldn’t say that we played harder or anything, but it wasn’t just the same old night.

Felipe Alou

There wasn’t a single one of the championships that wasn’t directly related to his contributions. Even though we had a whole mess of All-Stars and Hall of Famers come through here — Pedro, Schilling, Grady, Vlad, Pavano — every World Series win had a direct line to about 39 things that Tommy did. It’s not like you had to dig for them, either.

Derek Jeter, Yankees shortstop

We almost beat him in the 2008 World Series, and I’ll remember that for a long time. Which is sad.

Felipe Alou

I retired after ‘08, but I knew Tommy had a few more good years left in him. Even after he turned 30, he was untouchable.

Winding down

Billy Beane, GM (2009 - 2015)

With Felipe and Pat gone, we took the franchise in a different direction. Some of it worked. Some of it didn’t. Tom, to his credit, didn’t say much. He just hit and led the team. Every damned year.

Davey Lopes, manager (2009 - present)

We stopped winning championships every year. Wasn’t his fault. Baseball just doesn’t work like that.

Bryce Harper, Padres outfielder

When we met them in the (2012) NLCS, we knew they hadn’t been there for a few years. But that doesn’t mean they weren’t intimidating as all hell. That’s Tom Brady, right? And Grady Sizemore. And Nick Johnson. You didn’t want to make too much of a big deal about it, but those guys are all legends.

Milton Bradley, manager, Padres (and former Brady teammate)

It was a weird feeling going up against him. I honestly don’t know if I’d be managing in the majors right now without him. But we were the underdogs, so I focused on that. They were the big-market bullies. Screw ‘em.

That doesn’t mean that I didn’t choke up every time I looked in that other dugout. Love that man, love that city.

Billy Beane

That 2012 season was a blast. I had a lot of Expos fans tell me that was the best title yet. It was the first year Brady was at first, so it’s not like we can credit him with everything Max (Scherzer) or Pedro (fuck it, Martinez, he’s back, he never retired, this is my story) did, but you know he was helping them in some capacity, even if he wasn’t behind the plate.

Davey Lopes

That was the first October that Tommy struggled at the plate. He’s had a couple good years since, so it’s not like age caught up with him. Just one of those things. He still got to jump on the top of the dogpile, though.

Billy Beane

In the last couple years, he’s had to deal with some nonsense. The corked-bat suspension. The stupid hat (an Hugô St-Onge campaign hat reading “Rendre Montréal défoncé à nouveau”) in his locker. But he’s still been nothing but class, regardless of what

Jean Coutu

He was going to be the best since Pudge. Then the best since Gary Carter. Then the best since Bench. Now he’ll go down in history as the player that other catchers will be chasing. Every young catcher star for the next 50 years will be chasing the ghost of Tom Brady, who won three MVPs ...

Felipe Alou

... five championships ...

Pat Gillick

... saved a franchise from moving to, I don’t know, Charlotte, or something ...

Jean Coutu

... and made 17 All-Star teams. He’s the definition of catching. He’s the definition of Montreal baseball. He’s the definition of baseball. What a gift, what an honest-to-goodness gift he’s given this sport. And we’ll miss him so very much.

Thank you, Tom. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Montreal thanks you. We all thank you.

Tom Brady (radio interview, 2014)

I’ll be honest with you, I was never really that into baseball, but I was good at it, and I didn’t want to sit on the bench at Michigan, so whatever.

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jwgammuto · 5 years

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WWE Raw Review for 12/17/18

Not too many more Good, Bad, and WTF segments left in its rookie year but we’re gonna go ahead and channel our inner Obama/Vincent Kennedy McMahon and talk about change this week. Did Vinny Mac shake things up or piss in the fans’ collective faces with hollow fan service? Let’s find out nowish!

The Good: I’m sure you all figured I’d start with the state of the tag division and The Revival and you were right. This is a start. What concerns me is Vince is very reactionary when it comes to crowd pops. The right team won this #1 contender fatal four way but the crowd didn’t go nuts when they won and they did seem to love the Lucha spots in the match. Don’t listen to them, Vinny. They’re idiots. I like crazy high flying spots from insane athletes too and maybe The Revival’s serious heel schtick won’t work as well on Raw as it did in NXT but you should find out for sure. These guys can go, they have an awesome finisher, and they can cut a better promo than any other team in the company except maybe Adam Cole and the Undisputed Era. Whether this is a few week program or they take the belts off Power and Glorious right away is a matter of opinion. But Shatter Machines for e’erybody.

Bane Ambrose’s promo and subsequent open challenge met by Tyler Breeze. This was a necessary follow up to an underwhelming match at TLC that wasn’t met well by internet snobs like me. Dean’s in ring work isn’t the best right now but he’s making up for it by really embracing this heel character. Breeze is a talent with a stupid gimmick but he looked good despite the obvious loss coming his way. Rollins using the old “disguised as security” trick to get the drop on Ambrose is unoriginal but effective. I dig it.

Finn Balor vs Ziggler. This was the match I was looking forward to but sadly was cut short and we were robbed of a clean ending thanks to the only member of 3MB who hasn’t held a main roster title. This makes sense but I really wanted a better end for a good match.

The Bad: The hour long Women’s Gauntlet for a shot at Rousey’s Title. I have deeply mixed feelings about all of this. It wasn’t awful. Some of it was really entertaining and some not so much. But when the McMahons come out and say “change is coming and we want our fans to be excited” and serve them up an entire slogged hour of a gauntlet match where 3/4 the participants aren’t over, it creates skepticism. The crowd was dead throughout the vast majority of this. Bayley shines here selling a knee injury and still gutting out a couple wins, and Moon continues to improve. Also, has their ever been one of these women’s gauntlet type matches where Banks wasn’t last in? Is she being protected? Is the Legit Boss sleeping with The Boss? Natty was an obvious choice given her relationship with Ronda, but they had a golden opportunity to turn her instead of the lame hug/respect angle to close the show. Yes we’ve seen lots of Big Showesque heel turns lately but this one made sense and would have ended the show on a really high note and amped me for next week. Or even have Ronda turn and really shock me. Show me change!

The opening segment. It’s ironic how much live crowds love Vince despite knowing he’s the direct reason the show sucks when it does. I’ll start by saying this whole act went on far too long. Everybody got an entrance. That’s about 8 minutes alone. Then the hollow promises of change. Now I understand Rome wasn’t built in a day but don’t tell us we’re getting fresh matchups and what we want and then immediately serve us a damn near exact repeat of last night’s TLC match with Corbin and Braun with Angle instead. Rollins and Ambrose. Still going. Lashley and Elias. Still going. McIntyre/Balor/Ziggler. Still. Effing. Going. It’s not that the ship can’t be righted, it’s that it feels deeply unlikely that it will be. The truth is, it will probably be better because the ratings are actually in the shitter and they do have to do something. But radical change is not something a global company like this does well. We’re still gonna get stupid convoluted Saudi Super shows that derail storylines because money and they’re still going to push who they want when they want and bury who they want when they want. We, as fans, have an impact, but not a say. Don’t insult us.

The WTF: Money Scented Chris Masters and Elias. What a monumentally bad feud this is when Elias isn’t allowed to do the talking. Sadly, I don’t think it’s over. So much more of Lashley’s Ass being narrated by Flavor Flav to come. This is not change.

Promos for returning and called up stars. Love Owens and Zayn and glad they’ll be back. Not together please. It’s time for Owens to take back his rightful place on the card and ditch the bestie act. Zayn is a hell of a performer. He can find a niche without relying on KO. As for the NXT call ups, I’m conflicted. Evans should go to Raw. They desperately need a good female heel to fill the void left by Alexa Bliss and they appear to refuse to push Ruby Riott. EC3 has the look and the gimmick but his success will heavily depend on who they book him against to start. Feels like a Raw guy as well. Heavy Machinery is fun both on the mic and in the ring, maybe I’m biased but I would have preferred the Street Profits. They can job and still be fun. No need for them to be in the title picture. I’m not sure Heavy Machinery has that ability. Nevertheless, please go to Smackdown so we can see someone else feud with rotating three team Axis of Doom. Nikki Cross will only fit in with Sanity but that only works if they’re a faction and they’re actually on TV, which they aren’t. So Smackdown I guess but it probably won’t matter. Sad. And finally, of course, the next guy to get rammed down our throats, The Dude with “Lars” on his ass. I was sure he would debut to destroy Corbin last night. I was wrong. I guess it makes more sense for him to go to SD Live but who do you book him against? Is he a heel? Guess we’ll find out in the coming weeks.

Preview for next week. Lashley and Elias in a Miracle on 34th Street Fight. No. Corbin and Rollins. Saw it last week. Natty and Ronda. Stop hugging and fight. Ziggler/McIntyre/Balor. This is change?

They say they recognize that change is needed and Corbin isn’t calling the shots. That’s a start. Scapegoating Baron is a shitty move but if he remains on the roster, he certainly has heat. So that’s a win, no? No Bliss on this show was an odd choice. The Christmas Eve show is already looking suspect. Change takes time, but I’m not seeing an overwhelming commitment yet. They get one Hogan Belt Whip for The Revival and half a Hogan Belt Whip for not letting Banks win the gauntlet. See you guys next week for Krampusnaucht!

#WWE WWEraw ProWrestling Wrestling Raw

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andrewuttaro · 5 years

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New Look Sabres: GM 61 - WSH - Reino and the Hot Zombie

This team is confounding. 0 points in the standings in three straight against non-playoff teams NYR, NJD and FLA followed by 3 points in the standings in two games against TBL and WSH. John Vogl, who makes the subscription to the Athletic worth it on his own, summed it up really well: “This is the first time they’ve been [a good team and a really bad one] both in the same year.” That really is the kicker here. We want playoffs now because they were so good in November that not making the playoffs is more statistically shocking than making it. But really, we knew what they were, right? Talented but inconsistent and likely bound to be a bubble team this year. There’s a lot of feels bound up in that but yesterday afternoon saw the defeated Sabres limp back in to town before putting up a November Sabres performance. This time they even got the W! There’s a lot to get to so let’s get Playoff trash talk out of the way: Washington, considering how close the Columbus Blue Jackets were to eliminating you in the first round last postseason I think Sabres fans have reason for optimism if they ended up trapped in a series with you Caps for 4-7 games. Just like the Sabres the Caps are an on or off kind of team only you guys have guys who have direct access to the switch and turn it on command. That said, a first round playoff series would be so much fun watching Ovechkin and Ristolainen pester each other non-stop. Man-to-man stuff like that and the Caps propensity to choke on lesser teams moves the needle for Buffalo: Sabres in 6! The Sabres played like they were in a playoff race yesterday afternoon and there was a lot going on here that might make you forget they’re six points out of a playoff spot with 21 games left to play. I don’t even know where to get started with this game, but I guess the first period makes sense.

After gaining the initial push, the Caps were pushed back in the first period. The Sabres outshot the Caps in this period and the one big stark difference between this game and one like Florida is that they completed passes awfully well this game. It was two of said awfully good passes that led to Jason Pominville scoring a goal right in front of Braden Holtby at 3:40 into the first. Backpass-backpass-tap in. Pominville can be like an old friend from High School: you enjoy hanging out with him most of the time but if he isn’t put in the right situation for him, he’s kind of an embarrassing drag. Well as Dan Dunleavy pointed out, Pominville really clicks when he, Eichel and Skinner are on their game. The Sabres played chippy and aggressive this game and managed to peel pucks off the Caps pretty successfully in the neutral zone. That’s essentially what happened at 12:51 of the first when the puck got skyed to Evan Rodriguez who made a tight pass through traffic to Sam Reinhart who was at that point, basically on a breakaway. Samson shot it top shelf over Holtby’s shoulder, and it was 2-0 early in this game. I was not even in Buffalo but all the folks who went to this game live must have been happy this wasn’t another rout. The crazy thing is it never really looked like it had potential to be one. The second period was certainly the Caps strongest period and it only got them one Ovi goal, and one that wasn’t even one of his better ones at that. Rasmus Dahlin’s eighth goal (on the powerplay) was a more traditional Ovechkin goal, it came from the far end of the right circle and he just fired a bullet. That goal was in the final minute of the middle frame but what came between the two goals this period was a sustained Caps push that miraculously did not yield the tying goal. I was real proud of Carter Hutton’s quick reflexes and a generally sounder defensive scheme functioning properly again. The most notable thing in this period wasn’t one of the goals though or even that the Sabres got one on the powerplay: no Jeff Skinner made the high drama in this period.

Our boy Jeff didn’t score a goal, but he did stop all our hearts like a horrified hockey mom when he fell to the ice in agony. It was more or less a routine battle for positioning with new Capital Carl Hagelin when Skinner got tied up and went up onto the tip of his skate. What followed was something you tag NSFW or warn someone before you show it. Skinner’s ankle turns the entirely wrong way and it looks like all his body weight just pushes his ankle in the opposite direction as his foot. It gives you the shivers watching it. The emotion was immediately in the home crowd who were rather quiet as Skinner tried to crawl to the bench before getting helped there. He disappeared into the tunnel and if this team’s playoff odds weren’t already just about fucked you probably felt that way seeing that injury. Here’s the wackiest part of the story though: it was not an injury. In postgame Jeff talked about it like he had just been gently bumped on the head. “Oh yeah, at first you just hurt and you’re trying to figure out why.” That’s not a direct quote, I kind of gave him a funny voice as I typed that. The Sabres were up 3-1 to start the third and who shows up on the ice other than a fully mobile Jeff Skinner. He made plays, got some shots and took faceoffs as if he didn’t just die. The crowd went wild for it! I’m not a big wrestling fan but I imagine its like when John Cena surprises the audience and runs into the ring. Back from the dead like a fucking cute ass zombie, Jeff Skinner helped facilitate the final period and a Sabres regulation win. Andre Burakovsky fired a rocket through traffic to get the visitors within 1 and you begin to feel like you’ve seen this show before: this must be the collapse we’ve come to expect.

No sir, hardly a minute later Sam Reinhart redirect a Matt Hunwick shot into the Caps net. I was listening on the radio at this point and Dunleavy sort of made it sound like Hunwick got the goal which would be the weirdest turn of events going into this Leafs game Monday night. It was Reino and you could tell Jack Eichel’s best friend was on a warpath this game. Jack Eichel himself nearly made it five goals when he sailed right in front of the Caps net a few minutes later. You would think the Caps would still have some fight here, especially considering how the two prior matchups in our Nation’s Capital went back in December, but these final minutes saw more Sabres chances. Apart from one scary melee in front of Hutton there was hardly a moment it really looked like the visitors would climb back into this one… the Stanley Cup Champion visitors mind you. It was after the champs’ net was empty when Sam Reinhart, all the way down on Hutton’s red line, fired one down ice that couldn’t be stopped by John Carlson. An empty net goal to make it 5-2 and Sam Reinhart’s third career hat trick sealed the deal for Buffalo. Reino scoring a hatty and Jeff Skinner rising from the dead like Easter made this game a notably enjoyable game in this stretch of Sabres games. It broke the three-game losing streak and hopefully provides a pretty decent confidence boost for a lagging team considering once again that these are the defending Stanley Cup champions they beat. As much as a win against the Leafs Monday night would be absolutely delightful it will take four more of these wins pretty much in a row before I allow myself to talk playoffs again; but that’s okay because this game was well-played and fun enough on its own. Hell, the Beauts won too, later in the afternoon, against their league’s defending champs as well!

I’ve mentioned it twice already but once again it’s a trip to Toronto Monday night followed by a trip to Gritty’s house in Philadelphia Tuesday night. Sure, we didn’t get Duchene but hell, if there is any new player in the blue and gold for this game against the Leafs and it’s the win you kind of expect in Toronto then maybe this disappointed hockey town called Buffalo will have some spring in its step again. Even if there’s no move, which is probably more likely at this point, doesn’t a win against Toronto just make you that much more excited for Sabres hockey? Either way: comment, like and share this blog with your friends. Yes, February Amerks Angle will be up very soon and yes, I got something else coming out on the blog too that could be fun. Keep your eyes open and remain emotionally available, friends. The fun part of the dance may likely be over at this point, but you don’t want to be the first one to call your ride either, right? Let’s Go Buffalo!

Thanks for reading.

P.S. If you don’t think those Flyers and Penguins jerseys for the stadium series game were the ugliest monsters on the ice than you’re either a graphic designer or have an eye for chaos. Those uniforms were ugly top to bottom.

#buffalo sabres #hockey #blog #nhl

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