• Summerslam: Monday, 3 am GST | WWE Network is on OSN
WWE's biggest summer event moves from Los Angeles to Brooklyn this year, and the card looks very promising. I could gripe about how there are 11 matches and NO SAMI ZAYN (a National favourite), and even though I kind of did just that, let's be happy with what we have.
Programming note: Regular prognosticator Graham Caygill is not available, so if these picks are more wrong than usual it’s because I’m very, very dumb. It’s important to stress that.
Brock Lesnar v Randy Orton
The build to this long-time-coming match has been pretty stellar. Paul Heyman has been backing Lesnar at his selling-ketchup-to-white-gloves best while Randy Orton has come back from injury with as much energy and enthusiasm as I can remember him ever having.
But do we really think the match will be that good? While fun, Lesnar matches – events that happen only a handful of times a year – tend to hit the same beats over and over, and Orton matches are infamous for their lethargic build-ups leading to the inevitable surprise RKO. Even with the solid TV work leading up to the match, I’m dubious that these two predictable workers can give us something surprising.
That said, it is refreshing that the outcome is somewhat in doubt. Lesnar would have been a shoe-in before his PED allegations from UFC, and with Orton as popular as ever, it’s pertinent that WWE gives him the win to keep the one full-time player in the match fresh and important. I think Orton wins, though he’ll take a beating to get there.
Finn Bálor v Seth Rollins
WWE Universal Championship match
While we should be excited for Bálor being on the verge of superstardom, I can’t get past the incredibly stupid title name. Daniel Bryan – though bias as the new GM of Smackdown – said it best:
Man, I’m glad he’s back on TV.
Bálor and Rollins are two of the three or four best in-ring performers in the company, and this has Classic written all over it. Bálor should win, but I’m more interested in seeing if time is kind to the Universal title, and whether it supplants the tried-and-true WWE Championship as the top prize in the industry. The dumb name doesn’t give it a great start, but maybe a fresh face like Bálor will help.
Dean Ambrose (c) v Dolph Ziggler
WWE World Championship
A month ago if you told me – an unrepentant Ziggler stan – that The Showoff was getting a Summerslam WWE title shot against Dean Ambrose, I'd have thought Vince McMahon had finally gone senile and given the Internet complete control of booking. But the WWE Championship has been relegated to second-billing as the top title on Smackdown, so again it seems as though Ziggler is finally getting his shot just short of the spotlight.
He deserves the opportunity, and hopefully he’ll get another, because he’s not beating Ambrose here. It should be an entertaining bout.
John Cena v AJ Styles
Consider this the rubber match of what has been a pretty solid feud. Styles won at Money in the Bank and Cena – teamed with Enzo Amore and Big Cass over Styles and his Club cronies – won at Battleground. History says Cena always wins the rivalry, but this time feels different. Styles has been incredibly popular since joining WWE in January, and with Cena taking more time off and seeking more outside career opportunities, the time feels right to put someone else over. Styles wins and moves onto the WWE Championship picture.
Rusev (c) v Roman Reigns
WWE United States Championship
Rusev deserves so much better, but he’s been on the wrong end of yet another effort to get Reigns over to casual fans. The Bulgarian Brute has been the best character on the show and done yeoman’s work making a secondary title seem important. He’s made it seem so important, in fact, that Reigns losing here would be an utter shock. WWE will try to rehabilitate Reigns’s image the way they did Cena’s last year with a long US title reign. Hopefully that also means bigger and better things for Rusev.
Sasha Banks (c) v Charlotte
WWE Women’s Championship
Banks is on fire as the new champion and Charlotte is one of the best performers on the show. This is just the beginning of what should be a long-lasting feud. If the show gets the right type of live crowd to help sell it, this match could steal the show.
The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) (c) v Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson
WWE Tag Team Championship
If juvenile jokes are your thing, this rivalry has been your favourite program ever. I get the sense Big E is being held out with a storyline injury to take the belts off New Day and stir an eventual breakup. Gallows and Anderson have proven deserved contenders if they are to end a long New Day title run, so the timing feels right to do so.
Enzo Amore and Big Cass v Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens
Kudos to WWE for putting four of the most entertaining guys on the show in the same program and pairing them together. I don’t care who wins, I just want Jeri-KO to last forever and ever.
And ever and ever.
The Miz (c) v Apollo Crews
WWE Intercontinental Championship
RIP Intercontinental relevance. The same thing happened the last time WWE split up Raw and Smackdown and added tons of other titles to the fold. Miz is doing the best work of his career when he’s not hosting innocuous Smackdown segments with opponents unrelated to his story, but the chance is now to put the belt on an up-and-comer. Crews has all the tools minus personality, so we’ll see what he can do with an IC title run.
Cesaro v Sheamus
First match in Best of Seven Series
What do you do when you have two world-class workers with nothing else to do? Put them in a best-of-seven series! It’s like WWE Test cricket, and I’m all for it. Cesaro has gotten better of the Irishman lately, so I think Sheamus wins here.
Six-woman tag match: Carmella, Becky Lynch and Naomi v Natalya, Eva Marie and Alexa Bliss
EVA MARIE!
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How do Sim card scams work?
Sim swap frauds are a form of identity theft.
They involve criminals conning mobile phone operators into issuing them with replacement Sim cards by claiming to be the victim, often pretending their phone has been lost or stolen in order to secure a new Sim.
They use the victim's personal details - obtained through criminal methods - to convince such companies of their identity.
The criminal can then access any online service that requires security codes to be sent to a user's mobile phone, such as banking services.
Five hymns the crowds can join in
Papal Mass will begin at 10.30am at the Zayed Sports City Stadium on Tuesday
Some 17 hymns will be sung by a 120-strong UAE choir
Five hymns will be rehearsed with crowds on Tuesday morning before the Pope arrives at stadium
‘Christ be our Light’ as the entrance song
‘All that I am’ for the offertory or during the symbolic offering of gifts at the altar
‘Make me a Channel of your Peace’ and ‘Soul of my Saviour’ for the communion
‘Tell out my Soul’ as the final hymn after the blessings from the Pope
The choir will also sing the hymn ‘Legions of Heaven’ in Arabic as ‘Assakiroo Sama’
There are 15 Arabic speakers from Syria, Lebanon and Jordan in the choir that comprises residents from the Philippines, India, France, Italy, America, Netherlands, Armenia and Indonesia
The choir will be accompanied by a brass ensemble and an organ
They will practice for the first time at the stadium on the eve of the public mass on Monday evening
Keane on …
Liverpool’s Uefa Champions League bid: “They’re great. With the attacking force they have, for me, they’re certainly one of the favourites. You look at the teams left in it - they’re capable of scoring against anybody at any given time. Defensively they’ve been good, so I don’t see any reason why they couldn’t go on and win it.”
Mohamed Salah’s debut campaign at Anfield: “Unbelievable. He’s been phenomenal. You can name the front three, but for him on a personal level, he’s been unreal. He’s been great to watch and hopefully he can continue now until the end of the season - which I’m sure he will, because he’s been in fine form. He’s been incredible this season.”
Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s instant impact at former club LA Galaxy: “Brilliant. It’s been a great start for him and for the club. They were crying out for another big name there. They were lacking that, for the prestige of LA Galaxy. And now they have one of the finest stars. I hope they can go win something this year.”
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
If you go
The flights
There are various ways of getting to the southern Serengeti in Tanzania from the UAE. The exact route and airstrip depends on your overall trip itinerary and which camp you’re staying at.
Flydubai flies direct from Dubai to Kilimanjaro International Airport from Dh1,350 return, including taxes; this can be followed by a short flight from Kilimanjaro to the Serengeti with Coastal Aviation from about US$700 (Dh2,500) return, including taxes. Kenya Airways, Emirates and Etihad offer flights via Nairobi or Dar es Salaam.
First Person
Richard Flanagan
Chatto & Windus
