HarmonicGenerator

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?

This kind of already happens with the Continental Title, which is my minor annoyance with it. Go through the gruelling tournament to become Continental Champion… or just hang on til February because you might get a title match out of nowhere and win it that way.

If the women’s B&G gives us more Statlander vs Lena Kross, I’m all for it. Those two battering each other with the force of Storm This-Week’s-One against our roof was the highlight of Collision this week.

Wildwood is incredible. The final act is one of the most spectacular things I’ve ever seen in a cinema. Unbelievable artistry. A nailed on 5 stars. See it, see it on a huge screen, just see it.

I resubscribed to @WrestleMe! over the summer and I’m catching up although nearly a year behind. Their WrestleMeMas on Ready To Rumble was fantastic, had me laughing out loud for an hour on the train home from work and I looked a right maniac.

I see we’re already in storm season. 60mph winds and heavy rain. It’s like the heavens have a personal vendetta against our roof and gutters.

As a start… as with everything in AEW at the moment, I can’t help but think “this would be better with PAC.” Thought it with Clockwork Carnage, thought it with the Death Riders angle on this week’s Dynamite, and I think it with the CC. He’s so missed. Some great suggestions in this thread though. If I had to make a line-up… Jon Moxley obviously has to be in it, and for the “been in all of them” factor I’d want Claudio Castagnoli there too. Maybe have them face each other in the semis and have Claudio win. Bandido and Ilja Dragunov have both been mentioned and they might be my other semi-final. Whoever wins that one, I think I’d have as my overall winner. Really like @Kamran’s suggestion of Lee Moriarty. I think I’d avoid either of New Level as I’d want them doing tag team stuff, but thinking of tag team guys … can you imagine how good Alex Shelley might be in the CC? Yes please. And both he and Moriarty do the Border City Stretch so that’s a built in interest. Mark Davis was the person who inspired this thread and a good CC showing could make him. He might be my only DCF pick, as anyone else I’d want there would probably have to get to the semis or further - and I’ve picked those guys already. You probably need someone from the Dogs or Bang Bang Gang included, I’d say Jay White but I don’t know if he could get through a CC unscathed. Maybe David Finlay. Likewise, United Empire probably need someone, and if Andrade’s likely getting his World Title shot around this time, Speedball Mike Bailey is maybe best bet. Nick Wayne has also been mentioned and would be a good ‘not quite there yet’ in the line of Garcia or Briscoe previously. If Tommaso Ciampa keeps up his ‘I want titles’ stuff then it feels like he’s got to enter. That leaves me with one more spot, and I’m going with a wildcard here - Toa Liona. A bit out of nowhere but he’s always great value, and would bring something a bit different to the tournament. Toa vs Davis? Toa vs Dragunov? Toa vs Claudio? Would watch, would watch, would watch. Splitting them into leagues: Blue Moxley, Dragunov, Davis, Toa, Wayne, Finlay Gold Claudio, Bandido, Ciampa, Shelley, Moriarty, Speedball Then as mentioned, the semis are Moxley vs Claudio and Dragunov vs Bandido. Winner of the latter beats Claudio in the final, I’d be happy with either. Would be better with PAC though.

I knew the Alley Cats stuff was coming - there’s no way they weren’t going to gush over Gervais because he’s mates with Boyd - but I did think it was interesting they covered it on a week where the one person who might have called him out as being problematic wasn’t on the show. Ricky is not great. He never was if you ask me! I still enjoy Empire, and have kept up to date with them. If I’ve got a parasocial relationship with any podcast it’s them so I don’t think I could ever give them up! I already subscribed to the spoiler specials so the Empire+ move was no hardship for me either. I do wish they weren’t so completely London centric though, I get it’s the centre of the known world but not every event has to be there please. (I also like that, for the most part, they’ve split the interviews into their own separate show, having realised that most listeners must skip past them. I definitely do.)

I’m trying to, but keep falling further and further behind and it feels like a bit of an obligation now. Their move to video didn’t feel like it affected things too much, but that’s around the point where I really started struggling to keep up, so perhaps it did. I like Steph, but you’re totally right on the flip-flopping - it feels like that’s stepped up a lot recently, as have a lot of the other traits that annoy me. Boyd’s media-luvvie tendencies reached a peak when he was the only person in the world to call Alley Cats a work of genius, and the amount of stuff James won’t watch because it’s comedy / animated / episodic / unscripted is almost at the point of parody. My top annoyance at the moment is how many times every episode something is described as “absolutely brilliant”. Every fucking thing is “absolutely brilliant” and I think even they’re aware of how often they say it because they usually try and speed through the phrase so all you hear is “abseybriant abseybriant abseybriant”. I should probably stop listening shouldn’t I. I’ll certainly never ever ever watch it.

On podcasts, I know it’s because YouTube is the biggest platform blah blah but I hate how every podcast feels they have to do video now. I don’t want to watch it! I want stuff in my ears while I’m on the train or driving or doing the hoovering or the food shop! I’m never going to want to watch it! You’re Dead To Me used to be one of my favourites, but it’s dropped off a cliff quality wise since they started doing it as a video, it feels so much less free and conversational now they all know they’re being filmed. I tried watching a few minutes of one and it’s just painfully awkward watching them sitting wondering when they can next say something or reading their notes off an iPad.

Likewise AEW have done a load of one-night appearances that I don’t think were ever meant to go further - Juventud Guerrera, Rob Van Dam etc.

I really like the Maya and James pairing, I kind of want the overarching story of the series to be them running through one third-Traitor after another, while they both survive every time.