HarmonicGenerator

For the longest time, Undertaker was one of my favourites. At the very start of my fandom, he was one of the characters that stood out in the Ultimate Warrior colouring book I had. He was one of the wrestlers whose name everybody at school knew, and not watching at the time, I equated that with him being one of the best. When I got back into wrestling in 2000, the combo of him being really cool to play as on the SmackDown 1 demo and the way Mick Foley wrote about him in Have A Nice Day cemented him as a favourite. From that point on I was probably determined to like him despite evidence to the contrary. Bikertaker is probably rubbish if I went back to it now, but then? With the motorbikes and the Limp Bizkit and the Brothers of Destruction squashes and chucking RVD off the stage to win the Hardcore Title? I was here for all of it. I even defended him burying Mike Awesome in a letter to FSM magazine and was torn to pieces by the reply to it. I would still argue Awesome was never going to be a main eventer in WWE, Taker or not, but FSM had a point. I concede now. I was hyped for the 2004 Deadman return. As were many. It didn’t take long for it to go downhill (I’d argue the shine was off about a third of the way through the WMXX match) and it was clear they had nothing for him past “bring back the Deadman” - Booker T, the Dudleys, Heidenreich by year’s end - but I made myself enjoy the Van Helsing look all the same. The last time I was properly in the zone of “yes, he’s a favourite” was the WM27 match with Triple H, which I - and others! - wrote about with gushing enthusiasm on here. I was all about that melodramatic overacting stuff! Now, I can look back and see it as the beginning of the end when it comes to WWE main event style, but when Triple H hit the Tombstone and Taker kicked out? Amazing! Once the Streak ended, I cared less and less. I’d always wanted to see Undertaker (or rather, his entrance) live but once we got into the ‘10s, I was fine to have not. Then in the modern day, it’s just as gmoney puts it: And I’d struggle to put him anywhere near my favourites. Should have stayed in character even in retirement, I was happier not knowing the guy behind the gimmick.

Used to be! For the longest time, he was one of my favourites. From childhood through to the Streak ending, at least. Once he retired, though, and the real him started to come into full focus, my opinion did a full 180. Don’t think I’ve gone back and watched a single match he was in since 2020, if not earlier (his last few years in-ring were pretty off-putting by themselves - from the Saudi Shitshow tag match onwards).

Glad to hear it’s fun! We’re going next weekend, looking forward to it.

Can’t lie, this exact thought also crossed my mind when watching. Moxley sells Yorkshire Terrier meat to Ji-Sung Park.

My main issue with it was that, for me, one of the joys of the book is the figuring out all the things that aren’t explained and eventually working out what they mean and what’s going on without it being fed to you. In the film, they just explain it all outright, straight away. Part of that’s maybe the necessities of a visual medium, but other Ishiguro adaptations (Never Let Me Go, Remains of the Day) manage it really well, so maybe it’s just handled badly.

The film is okay, and Jenna Ortega is great in it, but it’s not on the level of the book. Waititi has made films I’ve loved - What We Do In The Shadows, Hunt For The Wilderpeople - but he’s gone majorly off the boil since he went A List, and while ten years ago I’d have gone to a film because it was one of his, with Klara I went despite that and purely because I loved the book. Found him quite irritating on interviews I’ve heard as well, probably from Thor Ragnarok onwards - quite dismissive of various things in a way that felt abrasive and entitled rather than charming. Love And Thunder was rubbish, but remember he did a video mocking and laughing at its VFX? I’m glad he doesn’t appear to be getting a Star War anymore, I don’t think I’d have enjoyed that at all. Anyway, the Klara And The Sun film is okay, but you’re better off reading the book.

Talking about dishes, my wife does something similar when she does the dishes, in that she’ll put the plates, bowls, pans etc on the draining board, but all the right-way-up so they don’t drain at all. I don’t understand it. We got a dish rack and I hoped that might help but she just moves it out of the way. You go back in the kitchen and have to tip the little pools of water out of them before you can dry them. It is just one of her little quirks and of course is fine really, but I can’t say I can get my head round it!

Is that Swerve behind Lio Rush?

I’ll predict those five matches are Copeland vs. Okada, Ciampa vs. Dragunov, the final match in the FTR/MCMG series, something with Darby Allin and something with the TBS title. Nothing too bad, but a minimum of four out of those five could be on Dynamite. Trios match not officially Texas Death yet?

Two posts, one cage, three words: double post, sorry

I’m glad everyone’s enjoying AEW at the moment and it does seem to be on a bit of a roll. But honestly, for me, since PAC died I’ve just struggled to enjoy wrestling in the same way. It all just makes me a bit sad at the moment. I won’t stop watching but right now it’s out of habit more than genuine enjoyment. Saying that, I thought the Trios segment this week was masterfully done. Hangman already knowing Swerve had done something evil and pleading with Brody not to rise to it before he knew what it was, was excellent stuff.

Sandra was great. She lived at the end of our street for a number of years when I was growing up, and she’d teach Northumbrian folk songs to classes at our school. Wonderful musician, lovely lady. Such a shame to hear this.

Extremely sad to hear this. What a voice, what an actor. I think it was X-Men rather than Star Trek that introduced me to him, but he was perfect in those two iconic roles, whether playing chess with McKellen or insisting there were four lights. So lucky to have got to see him on stage a couple of times, including The Tempest where he played Prospero; even in the cheap seats at the back of the theatre he reached you with his performance. RIP to one of the very best.

This is a fantastic idea all the same. I suppose it could sub-divide into categories - 10 masks, 10 belts, etc. If it can’t be a book, it would make a cracking thread on here.

I suppose part of it is that there’s still a regular length match once everyone’s entered. If the build section was such that people are getting progressively more beaten up, so that once the second part starts, someone can be defeated really quickly because they’re so exhausted already, that would give the first part some stakes?