Author: Padraig Fahy

  • WWE King & Queen of the Ring 2024 Predictions

    WWE King & Queen of the Ring 2024 Predictions

    Welcome to Saudi Blood Money XI from the Jeddah Superdome in Saudi Arabia. It is WWE’s first of 2 trips to the kingdom in 2024 and today is the finals of the King of the Ring Tournament and Queen of the Ring Tournament.

    How did we get to the finals?

    It was a 16-man and 16-woman tournament that began on May 6th and May 10th’s RAW and SmackDown respectively.

    On the Men’s side:

    • 1st Round on RAW:
      • Gunther defeated Sheamus
      • Kofi Kingston defeated Rey Mysterio
      • Ilja Dragunov defeated Ricochet
      • Jey Uso defeated Finn Bálor
    • 1st Round on SmackDown:
      • Randy Orton defeated AJ Styles
      • Carmelo Hayes defeated Baron Corbin
      • LA Knight defeated Santos Escobar
      • Tama Tonga defeated Angelo Dawkins
    • Quarter-finals on RAW
      • Gunther defated Kofi Kingston
      • Jey Uso defeated Ilja Dragunov
    • Quarter-finals on SmackDown
      • Randy Orton defeated Carmelo Hayes
      • Tama Tonga defeated LA Knight
    • Semi-finals on RAW
      • Gunther defeated Jey Uso
    • Semi-finals on SmackDown
      • Randy Orton defeated Tama Tonga

    Which now means that Gunther (RAW) will take on Randy Orton (SmackDown) to become King of the Ring.

    On the Women’s side:

    • 1st Round on RAW
      • Shayna Baszler defeated Maxxine Dupri
      • Iyo Sky defeated Natalya
      • Lyra Valkyria defeated Dakota Kai
      • Zoey Stark defeated Ivy Nile
    • 1st Round on SmackDown
      • Nia Jax defeated Naomi
      • Jade Cargill defeated Piper Niven
      • Tiffany Stratton defeated Michin
      • Bianca Belair defeated Candice LeRae
    • Quarter-finals on RAW
      • Iyo Sky defeated Shayna Baszler
      • Lyra Valkyria defeated Zoey Stark
    • Quarter-finals on SmackDown
      • Nia Jax defeated Jade Cargill via DQ
      • Bianca Belair defeated Tiffany Stratton.
    • Semi-finals on RAW
      • Lyra Valkyria defeated Iyo Sky
    • Semi-finals on SmackDown
      • Nia Jax defeated Bianca Belair

    Which now means that Lyra Valkyria (RAW) will take on Nia Jax (SmackDown) to become Queen of the Ring!

    Let’s have a look and predict the rest of this card:

    Title Matches

    • Gunther (RAW) vs Randy Orton (SmackDown) in a singles match in the finals of the King of the Ring Tournament. Winner will receive a world title match on their respecitive brand at SummerSlam.
      • PREDICTION: I can see this being a match of the night and potentially having “King Gunther” at the of the night is going to be a welcome sight to see. Gunther to win and become King of the Ring.
    • Lyra Valkyria (RAW) vs Nia Jax (SmackDown) in a singles match in the finals of the Queen of the Ring Tournament. Winner will receive a women’s world title match on their respecitive brand at SummerSlam.
      • PREDICTION: Never bet against the Irish. Lyra is going to take it home to Ireland. Queen Lyra to win and become Queen of the Ring.
    • Becky Lynch (C) vs Liv Morgan in a singles match for the Women’s World Championship
      • PRECICTION: Becky is Irish. See my last point about Lyra. Becky to win and retain the Women’s World Championship
    • Sami Zayn (C) vs Chad Gable vs Bronson Reed in a Triple Threat match for the Intercontinental Championship
      • PREDICTION: This may pip Gunther/Orton as these guys can work. Expect some hard hitting wrestling, but I don’t think Sami is going to drop the title any time soon. Sami to win and retain the Intercontinental Championship
    • Bianca Belair & Jade Cargill (C) vs Candice LeRae vs Indi Hartwell in a tag team match for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship
      • PREDICTION: Nothing much to say here but Bianca and Jade will retain the WWE Women’s World Championship here.
    • Cody Rhodes (C) vs Logan Paul in a singles match for the Undisputed WWE Championship
      • PREDICTION: Cody ain’t losing the title any time soon. Cody to retain the Undisputed WWE Championship.

    And those are my predictions.

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  • Let me off this crazy AI train!

    Let me off this crazy AI train!

    Over the last year or two, we have inundated with AI tools and slowly over time, new tools have been developed.

    More specifically, in the last couple of weeks, we have seen leaps in this technology, including OpenAI’s GPT-4o that had a fairly impressive demo:

    While the tech is cool, I am just not happy as to how they (and may other LLM’s (Large Language Models)) have gathered their data.

    And it seems that on a daily basis, there is some company that they are adding a AI tool or are using AI to determine the user’s gender or looking at your work DM’s.

    https://eigenmagic.net/@NewtonMark/112455578857917485/embed

    On top of that, I have read stories over the last 6 – 12 months that LLMs are apparently crawling websites to gather information and data for their LLMs.

    We get to last week and Google I/O showed off a plethora of new AI tools for their existing services, including Google Search. So instead of showing links and content belonging to bloggers who spent hours or even days on writing blog posts, they are just being summarised on Google with no accreditation to the author of those posts.

    This can be fixed of course by adding udm=14 to the end of the Google Search URL… or just use another search engine. While writing this blog post, I was alerted to DuckDuckGo has started to implement some sort of AI tool and changes the results similarly to what Google is doing.

    So for search, I have switched to a SearXNG instance.

    Then Microsoft holds an event where they showcase new Surface devices that has a new NL processor, dubbed “CoPilot+” – One “feature” is titled ‘Recall’ which would allow you to go back to a previous point in time and pick up where you left off. An old version of a document, an Excel sheet that you deleted, all back!

    While Microsoft claims that none of the information leaves the computer, I wouldn’t be surprised if they did ‘phone home’ and contribute to Bing AI’s LLM in some capacity. Yes, it can be disabled, but you don’t know what it is doing on the back end.

    Maybe I am just too sceptical about the claims. Maybe I need a tin foil hat.

    What is clear though is that, until there is regulation on what AI can do, it’s a hellscape right now. The technology is growing quicker and quicker by the day, it seems, and there doesn’t appear to be an end.

    What about me? I dislike AI. I have disliked what Microsoft, Google, Discord, DuckDuckGo, Slack and countless other companies have been shoehorning AI into products that are probably not needed. Let’s see how far down the ‘AI Rabbit Hole’ that we can dig…

    I have been putting it off for the last couple of years, but I plan to use Linux going forward. I will eventually transition away from Windows. Games are the biggest hurdle in that of course, but with the leaps in progress they have been making via the Steam Deck and Proton. I will detail more about this transition in another post.

    • Follow me on the Fediverse: @padraig
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  • WWE Backlash 2024 Results

    WWE Backlash 2024 Results

    WWE Backlash from Lyon, France was a great show and the crowd were really behind everyone. I would not be surprised if they run future shows in France.

    Results

    • The Bloodline (Solo Sikoa & Tama Tonga) w/ Tanga Loa defeated Randy Orton & Kevin Owens in a Street Fight.
    • Bayley defeated Naomi & Tiffany Stratton in a triple threat to retain the WWE Women’s Championship
    • Damian Priest (C) defeated Jey Uso in a singles match to retain the World Heavyweight Championship
    • Bianca Belair & Jade Cargill defeated The Kabuki Warriors (Kairi Sane & Asuka) in a tag team match to become the NEW WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions
    • Cody Rhodes (C) defeated AJ Styles in a singles match to retain the Undisputed WWE Championship

    With Bianca’s victory, she becomes the 9th woman since 2019 to win WWE Women’s Triple Crown, winning the RAW Women’s Championship, SmackDown Women’s Championship and now the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship with Jade Cargill.

    • Follow me on the Fediverse: @padraig@mastodon.ie
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  • WWE Backlash 2024 Predictions

    WWE Backlash 2024 Predictions

    WWE heads to Lyon, France for WWE Backlash. Last year, the show was held in Puerto Rico and if it was anything like what it was last year, we’re in for a treat!

    Last Years Predictions: WWE Backlash 2023 Predictions

    There are 5 matches on this card (unless more gets added between when this is published and the event itself) with only 1 match not involving a title.

    Non-Title Match

    • Randy Orton & Kevin Owens vs The Bloodline (Solo Sikoa & Tama Tonga) in a tag team match.
      • PREDICTION: Tama Tonga appearing within WWE has already made this difficult to call. 2 evenly matched teams make it difficult to pick. Knowing how things have gone in the past, I wouldn’t be surprised if The Bloodline cheats their way to a victory. Bloodline to win!

    Title Matches

    • The Kabuki Warriors (Kairi Sane & Asuka) vs Bianca Belair & Jade Cargill in a tag team match for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship.
      • PREDICTIONS: With Jade Cargill on the team, you know that she ain’t losing this match. Easy prediction. Bianca & Jade to win and become new WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions.
    • Bayley (C) vs Naomi vs Tiffany Stratton in a Triple Threat for the WWE Women’s Championship.
      • PREDICTION: While Bayley got her WrestleMania victory defeating Iyo Sky, I don’t see her holding that title for much longer, unless they start putting her in a meaningful storyline. Given that you are going to have Bianca & Jade winning the Women’s Tag Team Championships, I would predict that their partner, Naomi, is to win and become champion. Rocket strap the three girls. Keep Bayley strong though by pinning Tiffany. It’s just not Tiffy Time yet.
    • Damian Priest (C) vs Jey Uso in a singles match for the World Heavyweight Championship.
      • PREDICTION: Jey Uso won a tournament to determine who would be next in line for the title. I don’t think Jey is going to win it, but is going to put on a classic match with Damian. Expect Judgement Day shenanigans. Damian Priest to win and retain!
    • Cody Rhodes (C) vs AJ Styles in a singles match for the Undisputed WWE Championship.
      • PREDICTION: Are you seriously going to bet against Cody? Cody is going to be holding this title until Roman is back, so unfortunately, AJ Styles is going to be the fall guy. (But given how juiced AJ is these days, it is quite unpredictable) Cody to win and retain.

    And those are my predictions.

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  • [The JukeBox] #95 – Junko Yagami – 黄昏のBAY CITY

    [The JukeBox] #95 – Junko Yagami – 黄昏のBAY CITY

    Back to Japan and back to 1983 for another Jukebox from Junko Yagami and was a prominent artist in the 70s and 80s. To date, they have released over 25 albums in 4 decades.

    Today, Yagami resides in Los Angeles but flies to Japan to perform live.

    黄昏のBAY CITY (“Bay City” here within) was released on the A Side of the 1983 Album ‘Full Moon’ and is considered another ‘staple’ with the City pop genre.

    Lyrics:

    [Intro]
    Uh, uh, uh (Bay City)
    Uh, uh, uh (Bay City)

    [Chorus]
    Ah, ah anata wo otte
    Tasogare no bay city
    Ah, ah meguri aetara
    Damatte dakitomete

    [Verse 1]
    Tabako no kaori, hiekitta kiss
    Nageta dake de anata wa kieta
    Sunao ni nareba tsudzuiteta ai
    Shizun ofu no umi wa warai
    Kaze ga kooru wa

    [Chorus]
    Kogoekitta kamome mitai yo
    Tasogare no bay city
    Ah, ah anata no suki na
    Minato ga kurete yuku

    [Verse 2]
    Wakasa wa tabun mienai naifu
    Motsure atte kokoro ga kireta
    Baka ne ima goro ai ga itai no
    Anata dake ga kono kizuguchi
    Fusageru hito yo

    Uh, uh, uh
    (Bay City)
    Uh, uh, uh
    (Bay City)

    [Bridge]
    Sora ga umi wo idaku mitai ni
    Aishi aeta kiseki wo
    Mou ichido dake mou ichido dake
    Maboroshi de ii

    [Chorus]
    Ah, ah anata wo otte
    Tasogare no bay city
    Ah, ah meguri aetara
    Damatte dakitomete

    [Chorus]
    Ah, ah anata wo otte
    Tasogare no bay city
    Ah, ah meguri aetara
    Damatte dakitomete

    English

    A~h, I follow you to
    The Bay city in twilight
    A~h, and if I see you there
    Just shut up and hold me

    The smell of your cigarettes, and the cold kiss
    You blew to me, and then you disappeared
    If we had been honest, we’d still be in love
    This winter sea is laughing at me
    And the wind is freezing

    I’m like one of the gulls, frozen to the spot
    The Bay city in twilight
    A~h, and your beloved
    Harbor is growing dark

    Youth is like, a hidden knife
    We got tangled up, and my heart was cut open
    And I feel so silly now, with this painful love
    And you are the only man, who can heal this wound
    The only man

    Like the sky, embracing the sea
    It was a miracle that we met
    Just one more time, just one more time
    Even just a vision of you

    A~h, I follow you to
    The Bay city in twilight
    A~h, and if I see you there
    Just shut up and hold me

    A~h, I follow you to
    The Bay city in twilight
    A~h, and if I see you there
    Just shut up and hold me

    • Follow me on the Fediverse: @padraig@mastodon.ie
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  • WrestleMania 40 Predictions

    WrestleMania 40 Predictions

    Since 1985, WrestleMania has been the Super Bowl of WWE. Where one year ends, and the next begins.

    This is the 40th edition of WrestleMania from Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

    NXT Stand & Deliver 2024 Predictions

    WrestleMania Saturday

    Non-Title Matches

    • Jey Uso vs Jimmy Uso in a singles match
      • PREDICTION: Jey Uso
    • Latino World Order (Rey Mysterio & Dragon Lee) vs Santos Escobar vs Dominik Mysterio in a tag team match.
      • PREDICTION: Latino World Order
    • The Bloodline (The Rock & Roman Reigns) vs Cody Rhodes & Seth Rollins in a tag team match
      • If Rhodes/Rollins wins, the Bloodline is banned from ringside on WrestleMania Sunday during the title match. If Rock/Reigns win, the title match becomes Bloodline Rules (Anything goes)
      • PREDICTION: The Rock & Roman Reigns

    Title Matches

    • The Judgement Day (Finn Bálor & Damien Priest)(C) vs (Johnny Gargano & Tomasso Ciampa) vs The Awesome Truth (The Miz & R-Truth) vs The New Day (Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods) vs A-Town Down Under (Grayson Waller & Austin Theory) vs New Catch Republic (Tyler Bate & Pete Dunne) in a 6-pack Tag team ladder match for the RAW Tag Team Championship and the SmackDown Tag Team Championship.
      • The belts will be hung separately. The match ends when both sets of titles are retrieved.
      • PREDICTION: The Judgement Day to retain the RAW Tag Team Championship and New Catch Republic to win the SmackDown Tag Team Championship
    • Gunther (C) vs Sami Zayn in a singles match for the Intercontinental Championship
      • PREDICTION: Sami Zayn to win and become NEW Intercontinental Championship
    • Rhea Ripley (C) vs Becky Lynch in a singles match for the Women’s World Championship
      • PREDICTION: As much as I like Becky… Rhea is going to retain the Women’s World Championship

    WrestleMania Sunday

    Non-Title Matches

    • LA Knight vs AJ Styles in a singles match.
      • PREDICTION: LA Knight
    • The Pride (Bobby Lashley, Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford) vs The Final Testament (Karrion Kross, Akam, Rezar) in a 6-man tag team Philadelphia Street Fight
      • PREDICTION: The Pride

    Title Matches

    • Logan Paul (C) vs Randy Orton vs Kevin Owens in a triple threat match for the United States Championship
      • PREDICTION: Randy Orton to win and become NEW United States Champion
    • Iyo Sky (C) vs Bayley in a singles match for the WWE Women’s Championship
      • PREDICTION: Iyo Sky to retain the WWE Women’s Championship
    • Seth Rollins (C) vs Drew McIntyre in a singles match for the World Heavyweight Championship
      • PREDICTION: Drew MacIntyre to win and become NEW World Heavyweight Champion
    • Roman Reigns (C) vs Cody Rhodes in a ??? [Bloodline (As predicted)] match for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship
      • PREDICTION: Cody Rhodes to win and become the new Undisputed WWE Universal Champion
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