incompleteguide

[incompleteguide]

backlash winner predictions

bienvenue et bonsoir to backlash in lyon, france! airing at a time much appreciated by european fans, we are here to maintain our questionable record in predictions for the latest wwe premium live event.

undisputed wwe championship: “the american nightmare” cody rhodes (c) retains against “the phenomenal one” aj styles. aj will be retiring, so he’s doing the right thing and putting people over on his way out. cody is also the new john cena, so you gotta keep him hot

world heavyweight championship: “the archer of infamy” damian priest (c) retains against “main event” jey uso. jey’s time to shine will be against his bloodline relatives, and damian needs the time at the top to break away from the judgement day

wwe women’s championship: tiffany stratton wins in a triple threat against naomi and bayley (c). it’s tiffy time. we don’t know what else to tell you

rko v the bloodline: solo sikoa and the “mft” tama tonga win against “the viper” randy orton and kevin owens. solo and tama tonga need to remain a legit threat to be a future faction in the roman reigns breakdown

wwe women’s tag team championship: bianca belair and jade cargill win against kairi sane and asuka (c). their presentation at wrestlemania engendered a lot of positive response, and seeing jade lose (even with damage ctrl shenanigans) would undermine that. we wanna see bianca in singles competition soon though.

[incompleteguide]

stand and deliver 2024 winner predictions

it’s wrasslin’ season! following in the footsteps of our mildly successful aew revolution predictions, lets today take a look at stand and deliver (yes, we still watch nxt and also miss that simon has stopped doing ups and downs for this, but we get roi).

trick williams v carmelo hayes: carmelo hayes never knew how good he had it when trick williams was on his side - and now he will feel the pain of losing him. trick will whoop him

nxt championship: ilja dragunov (c) will prevail over tony d’angelo, the don of nxt, and his family, even if there are threats to not just him but ilja's family, as ilja is single-minded to the point of recklessness

nxt women’s championship: roxanne perez has tempted lyra valkyria (c) to the dark side, enabling lyra to retain the title, and creating a rift with tatum paxley - but that’s not much of a sacrifice

north american championship: a truly tough one to predict, as dijak is a ruthless operator, and oba femi is a beast. josh briggs just needs a good show, but ultimately he will be pinned by one of the other two, probably dijak, who can have a quick run before another hopefully more successful try at the wwe main roster

tag team championship: baron corbin and bron breakker are ready to return to the big leagues - axiom and nathan frazer get the win thanks to the disharmony between the wolf dogs, leaving breakker ready to break out in smackdown as a superstar

six-women tag: thea hail, kelani jordan, and fallon henley are outnumbered by jacy jayne, izzy dame, and kiana james, as those three still have jazmyn nyx on their side. shenanigans will ensue, to the detriment of our favourite chase u student - who will seek out a confrontation with jacy, with a no interference-type stipulation

joe gacy v shawn spears: the problem here is that while shawn may have the wrestling upper hand, joe just doesn’t know when to quit. both of these have long indie careers behind them, but i think that shawn’s career trajectory is now to put folks over, so i see joe gacy winning this one, to keep both of them as viable challengers to others

[incompleteguide]

nicest beaches we know

we did a review of dune: part two as our main article for the substack, so as a thematic spin-off we made a list of the nicest beaches we know (because we’ve been there):

1. stormalong bay at disney’s beach and yacht club resorts, walt disney world (united states)

a lot of people traditionally picture beaches as the sandy (or pebbly) spots where you spend time outside of the water. if you’ve clicked the link above, you’ve obviously seen that stormalong bay is categorised as a swimming pool. however, and it’s a big however, this swimming pool feels like a miniature water park - including a beach that transitions into the more lively elements, like a waterfall pool. still, the fact that you can feel the sand under your toes keeps you feeling beachy.

2. kamari’s “black” beach, santorini (greece)

kamari has much to offer - its historic dig site hosts what assassin’s creed: odyssey would like to tell us is home to atlantis, for instance. its black beach is better for folks who have less time. sure, the sand isn’t legitimately black (the only time we’ve ever seen that was in sri lanka, after the 2004 tsunami, so not a great memory). but it’s eye-catching, and this beach is a peaceful place in the off-season. visit between november and april for low crowds, but also few amenities.

3. preethipura beach, wattala (sri lanka)

colombo itself doesn’t have the best location for beaches - galle face and its adjacent “beach park” are far too urbanised and inauthentic to qualify for this list. drive out to wattala though, and you get more of a view. colombo’s skyscrapers grace the horizon, but the soft sand underneath feels more than just a couple of miles away. by now the genuinely black sands of the christmas day tsunami have washed away, leaving crystal clear water hugging the pristine beige shoreline.

4. hengistbury head, dorset (united kingdom)

about two miles east of bournemouth, is christchurch, a beautiful little town, which has marshes and a river mouth that connects to hengistbury head, a far superior beach to what bournemouth can offer. it takes nearly an hour to traverse its mile of undisturbed smooth sands and dunes. Its most easterly point offers ferry access to mudeford harbour. it’s the most quintessentially english spot, but shockingly desirable, with some of the beach huts, which have no amenities, available for weekly rent of up to £600 a week. if you’re going to visit, you’ll find it you can do it as a day visit or stay a few towns in land much cheaper (my childhood association with the area was down to us having a caravan). worth the view of its cliff sides full of nature reserves though!

5. seven mile beach, grand cayman

there isn’t a whole lot of culture to dig into on grand cayman, the largest of the cayman islands. its beaches though? they are spectacular. the caribbean has truly earned its reputation for white, fine sand and turquoise, yet transparent water. seven mile beach is walkable, providing several hours worth of beachcombing entertainment, and you can easily swim, or depart on a snorkelling adventure from there. avoid hurricane season, and ensure you have some kind of shade alongside sunscreen for protection.

[incompleteguide]

oscars 2024

so we pulled together the clear winners, the upsets and the snubs in our latest substack: https://incompleteguide.substack.com/p/the-2024-oscars-fair-or-flawed skip to the bottom if you want an embed of the i’m just ken performance ofc. we also covered possible future film trends, and how the golden globes suck (and not just in comparison)

[incompleteguide]

aew revolution 2024 winner predictions

given that we’ve shared some wrestling opinions on the incomplete guide (sorry for not updating much recently), here’s our quick run-down of winner predictions for the card (with one-sentence commentary, we can’t resist)

pre-show 12-man tag: jeff jarrett’s stable with willie mack and private party. they have more people outside of the ring, and the bang bang scissor gang have been undermining each other, so cannot co-exist

pre-show women’s tag: julia hart and skye blue. stokely hathaway will be the undoing of my fave, willow nightingale, and her tag partner, kris statlander (also, pre-show? lest there be too many women on the actual card)

all-star scramble: wardlow. before the meat madness was reformed, it was his to lose, so why change anything by getting reedier guys, like chris jericho, booked?

stables tag: bcc. jon moxley and claudio castagnioli cannot be outbled, even by the very committed ftr

tnt championship: christian cage. his out-of-ring support massively outflanks daniel garcia, and there’s no way the patriarch wins this fair and square

international championship: roderick strong. not only will the undisputed kingdom get more underhanded than the best friends, but we think that trent barreta will crack and undermine orange cassidy

npjw showcase: will ospreay. there’s no way there’s a new kid on the block without him winning this match against konosuke takeshita, but it will definitely be a match that shows off the best of both’s abilities

continental crown championship: bryan danielson. despite the american dragon not being interested in gold, the lynchpin of the story is that eddie kingston wants his hand shaken, so what’s better than putting up such an amazing fight even while losing to earn danielson’s respect enough to get the handshake?

women’s world championship: toni storm. deonna purazzo has made a great impression, but the all about eve storyline needs mariah may to take it all away from toni instead

world championship: samoa joe. hangman adam page is willing to let joe retain the belt, so long as he can prevent swerve strickland from getting it - so hangman will sacrifice himself

tag team championship: the young bucks. for sting’s last match, he won’t want to be remembered as a champion, but as the one that passed over the torch to the new guard.

[incompleteguide]

issue 3 of the incomplete guide

looks like tumblr wasn’t a fan of our previous issue - no likes, no comments or anything. but onwards we go anyway!

- the traitors has swept the uk (we hear it’s super popular in the states as well, and obviously it was a hit in its original country, the netherlands). but what about it strikes a chord with us?

- frozen on the west end will close in september, so we’re glad we caught this (again) earlier this month. there’s lots of familiar stuff to it, but don’t expect it to be a cookie-cutter copy of the films - it’s worth a visit!

- the royal rumble’s dust has now settled (poor cm punk, for so many reasons), and a lot of the commentariat has said the entrance songs don’t pop very well since cfo$ left. there’s still plenty of good stock left though - check out our top 5 modern men’s entrance wrestling songs (and don’t worry, the women and a tag-team specific list will join soon - but also, we acknowledge that the acclaimed snuck in here on the merits of max caster)

as ever, we’d actually really like for folks to engage with this, so please feel free to reshare, or let us know in comments what you liked/disliked about this

[incompleteguide]

issue 2 of the incomplete guide

so, no feedback yet, but that also means no criticism. let’s plow right ahead with our next substack issue:

- could dr no happen today? probably not all of it, but why? - what do the bbc’s vigil and ace attorney have in common? - which k-drama would you recommend to a new watcher?

as ever, we’d actually like for people to engage with this, so feel free to reshare, or let us know in comments what you liked/disliked about this

[incompleteguide]

so we did a thing, and published our first issue of the incomplete guide. we cover: - hayao miyazaki’s latest film, the boy and the heron, and how it stacks up to the previous studio ghibli output - whether the gaming industry needs to replace e3, rethink the format, or do something entirely different - 2023 films that didn’t have the box office returns they deserved that we wanna highlight

feedback super welcome