HarmonicGenerator

49 minutes ago, air_raid said:

and for SmackDown JBL wins a fucking match, beating El Gran Luchadore which happens to be London in a mask. On 27th he continues his “main event” form pinning Funaki on Velocity. Bullshit. Re-reading and writing about this stuff now makes me realize that how awful I describe the JBL elevation in retrospect isn’t hyperbole - they did fuck all to make you think he was a threat by Kurt just gifting him title contention or any of the follow up. I know “he doesn’t deserve it” is an acceptable story to garner heel heat, but this wasn’t Million Dollar Man trying to buy the title (even though it borrowed heavily from that) - DiBiase still won matches even if he was cheating to do so. JBL beat fucking nobody. He was an Acolyte in a different outfit, whose previous forays into singles resulted in spotty win/loss records and you simply couldn’t take seriously as someone the company might put the top title on.

...

Finally despite retaining a decent push for years Rikishi stops getting booked on the road or used on TV the moment he loses the tag titles, ahead of his eventual release in July. It’s said your company kept asking him to lose weight and he didn’t. Odd situation when his whole gimmick was about being fat. Win some, lose some. He’d long outstayed his welcome and was never truly adored again like he was before that bonkers heel turn.

It's nearly twenty years on and I still can't take that JBL main event run seriously either.

Always wondered what happened with Rikishi leaving. He always seemed to be well liked, always got a spot in the Rumble, etc. I know they HOFed him, but am very surprised they haven't brought him in for a cameo with all the Bloodline stories going on.

I’ve had a fun time at Star Wars Celebration over the weekend. Tons of queueing for pretty much everything, but got to watch the opening showcase with all the previews of upcoming stuff (and a properly goosebump-inducing opening video package). Got a photo with Andy Serkis and he is lovely. Indulged the Andor itch with a couple of behind the scenes panels. Possibly bought my weight in merch. And got a preview of this week’s Mandalorian episode (it’s better than last week’s). A good time was had.

35 minutes ago, air_raid said:

Seeing Eddy at the top must have been great, I always consider myself lucky going to Passport To Pain when he was on the cusp.

It was - he rightly felt like the star of the show. He and Big Show worked well together, and it felt like a main event. In terms of reactions, nobody matched him on the night either (Cena might have come close if Bradshaw hadn’t killed off the crowd interest). He was great.

I was at that Newcastle show! I remember the Kidman-Rhyno opener, Holly & Gunn teaming, Cena vs Bradshaw and the main event of Eddie vs Big Show. I had a great time - it was my first WWE show.

If I’ve read the AEW In London thread correctly, I expect Tony Bellew has been signed to WWE just to prevent Wembley selling out.

1 hour ago, BomberPat said:

I've talked about this before, but we also had our couple of constant liars who definitely had all the insider gossip. One of them was smarter than most - he figured out before the rest of us that you could go on WWF.com on Tuesday morning and read the results from RAW, and "predict" what was going to happen when it aired on Friday for us. But he would still, at least once a month, say that Ken Shamrock was definitely coming back this week. You just couldn't avoid people bullshitting about Ken Shamrock.

Absolutely. It was always Shamrock who was about to come back. Very end of 2001, feuding with Austin, that's what I was told. Maybe they were just getting confused with Boss Man, but after that, Ken was definitely going to be in the 2002 Royal Rumble.

That sounds amazing @Frankie Crisp - what a thing to experience live and in person.

1 hour ago, Supremo said:

Triple Threat Intercontinental Title match was the absolute tits. Phenomenal stuff. Best WWE match of the weekend and a genuine match of the year contender. The ultimate big meaty men slapping meat. Somewhere, Big E’s head was exploding. Also; Titus O’Neil calling matches like someone’s nan, who’s never seen professional wrestling before, losing his fucking mind, is a thing of beauty. Early contender for commentator of the year. By the time this match ended, I was convinced we were looking at a future World Champion in Gunther. The main event finish suggested otherwise though. Can I interest you in another six Roman vs. Brock matches in Saudi?!

...

And then what can even be said about that main event finish. Fucking hell. Even for a company who always drops a bollock, this was the biggest drop of the biggest bollock of all time. This was it. They’d done it. They’d found their man. They just need to stick the landing. And then they bottled it. Unbelievable. Until those last three seconds this was some of the best bit of business in forever. I was fully invested. That earth shattering “WHOOOOOOAAAAOOH!” for Cody entrance. The jacket. The pyro. Cody hugging his daughter and giving Brodie Junior his belt? I was filling up already. And then they had a fantastic match, the crowd were going apeshit…and then suddenly we all Quantum Leaped back into reality after six months of thinking they knew what they were doing. WWE was WWE again and you were left with that similar sense of crushing disappointment and bewilderment as to why you ever invest in these idiots.

Gunther vs Sheamus vs Drew was my favourite match in ages. I loved it and it'll definitely be on my MOTY list. My favourite WWE match since the glory days of NXT.

And Supremo has summed up my thought re the main event. I too was filling up when Brodie Junior was given the belt, and just felt deflated at the end. Watching this WrestleMania I was starting to wonder whether WWE might be for me again, but after that final result ... yeah, no, I'm good. Maybe next year.

Other thoughts:

John Cena. Megastar. What a guy.

Battle of the Mysterios probably my favourite match of night 1 but loved the ending of the tag title match too.

Loved all the big big entrances across both nights.

If they hadn't fucked the ending of night 2 this could have been an all-time great Mania contender.

I don’t like Juice Robinson at all, but not in the way I’m supposed to not like him. I just zone out completely until he’s off screen.

Didn't know Mike Knox was around as early as '03.

Those SmackDown cards definitely look more appealing than Raw...

If this, plus Darby Allin’s comments on Dynamite, were part of building FTR vs Darby & Sting, I’d be fine with it. At the moment though FTR give me the “oh here we go” eye rolling feeling whenever they appear.

I’ve never heard of Vikingo but the way they talked about him on Rampage was more than enough for me to understand 

1) He’s a big deal

2) Him having a match with Kenny is a big deal

3) That match shouldn’t be anything less than spectacular.

I don’t think I need any more and I quite like the sense of not knowing too much. Thinking back, I’d never seen Rey Mysterio before he debuted in WWE so his first night on SmackDown completely amazed me. It’d have been totally different if I’d watched him for years in WCW.

Very sad news. First saw him in Lost, then Oz, then Fringe, then The Wire … all of them were made that bit better by his presence. What a voice too. RIP.

9 hours ago, WyattSheepMask said:

I’ve never seen Nicole Matthews before. I know Pat mentioned her a few posts ago and apparently she’s just returned or something, but according to some people “she deserves better”.

Does she? Or is this just another case of “my favourites arn’t being used right”

I’ve never seen her before either, but I thought she did a fantastic job of making Jade Cargill look like a superhuman. Which is what she was there to do, and she did it better than a lot of Jade’s previous opponents.

The opening segment made me really want to see a Fatal Four Way with those guys. I’m sure it’ll happen and I’m excited for when it does.

The rest of the show was fine, until those magical closing moments. Hangman! They were going to help you! Hangman! Oh!

Have Jade and Shida met yet? Feel like they’d work well together.

On a similar minor annoyance, our work email filters now add ‘[EXTERNAL]’ to the subject line sent from anyone outside the company. If you’re exchanging a series of emails you will end up with ‘[EXTERNAL] Re [EXTERNAL] [EXTERNAL] Re [EXTERNAL] [EXTERNAL] [EXTERNAL] actual subject’.

I don’t know how to share stories on Instagram.

14 minutes ago, Bellenda Carlisle said:

Watched ant man 3 and creed 3 Jonathan Majors double bill, he was the heel in both and was so different in both and was also the best thing in both, he's really good! 

Cocaine bear 

massive spoiler, don't read casually

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Really fun and automatic 10/10 for letting the bear live at the end. 

Puss in boots was great, puss himself is really cool and has loads of character. That "favourite fearless hero" song has been in my head all day 

He didn’t have the best week this week. Did he call Excalibur “Neil” at one point?

He did come to life a bit during the main event. Dustin being there helped but JR seems to be keen on Keith Lee as well.

2 minutes ago, Your Fight Site said:

Don’t know if jazzy was trying to say the one with Fred Durst was also the one where bumps sound like a lorry crashing. Admittedly I did read it back a few times too.

Ah, that follows. That one did have weird sound effects if I remember correctly. Sorry if I misread @jazzygeofferz!

41 minutes ago, jazzygeofferz said:

It's the one with Fred Durst in it. 

That’s ‘Just Bring It’.

HCTP was the first one that had Goldberg in it. Last one in the series that was properly good. Not counting the amazing All Stars of course.

8 minutes ago, Frankie Crisp said:

The opening to Ticket to Ride.

I love The Beatles, obviously, and as a song this isn’t even in their top 30. But it was the song (and the album it’s on) which got me into them when I was a kid and it was thanks to my Nan.

I may have told this on here before - sorry if so - but when I was young, me and my Mum would always go to my Nan’s of a Saturday morning. Nan was riddled with Arthritis which would flare up on and off every day. If we’d get to hers and she’d feel okay, we’d lift her into the car, put the wheelchair in the boot and take her to either Greatie or Tuebrook Market. But when she wasn’t feeling too clever, my Mum would pop to the market and I’d stay and keep Nan company.

One day when the latter was the case, we were sat in her front room and I think Football Focus was on or the Chart Show, but it wasn’t entertaining me/us so I must have looked bored. I was cripplingly shy as a kid and struggled with conversation, and I hardly had much in common with a then 70ish year old widow.

I remember her trying to get something out of me with no joy, so she asked what music I liked. I mumbled something about Guns N Roses or Iron Maiden or something to look cool to woman who wouldn’t have had a clue who they were, but she then asked if I liked The Beatles. Aware of them? Of course I was. Knew a few of their hits? Yeah. But ‘like’ them? Not really.

She pointed to her massive cabinet and told me to pull out her copy of Help!, and to turn on the player which was the size of Belgium. I played it. Whilst it wasn’t the first song that came out of the dusty, crackly speakers, I’ll honestly never forget hearing those first few seconds. So clear, so crisp and so gorgeous despite the sound quality. I was hooked. That was it. That was the one for me.

I completely immersed myself in The Beatles after that, borrowing cassettes and getting hand-me-downs from the family to build up my collection. I still to this day struggle to decide my favourite album or song, but Ticket to Ride always makes me think of my Nan. She was just a beautiful human being, in constant agony but never complained and did everything she could to look after others.

She passed away over 20 years ago and I was privileged enough to be one of the family members to carry her coffin, so when that song comes on unexpectedly my lip quivers at the very least, but usually I fill up and have to excuse myself if I’m in company.

And wouldn’t you know it, here’s the well-worn and cherished family copy of the LP that’ll never go anywhere for as long as I’m kicking around. I’m going to get a glass of wine and put this on. My Nan was ace. 

 

Frankie’s ode to Ticket To Ride. Wonderful.

That’s a beautiful story, Frankie.

5 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

I watched a bit of it. Really enjoyed Mark Briscoe/Slim J. I don't know who Slim J is but I've been keeping an eye on him on Dark and he's actually really bloody good. Shame he has zero personality or gimmick because his in-ring is strong - he throws great punches and sells really well which is basically all I want from most wrestlers but he will also throw in some unique highspots that actually feel like they fit in to the match. Overall though from what I've seen it felt like an episode of Dark, they could really do with filming these episodes somewhere else and with less AEW jobbers. If they aren't able to differentiate it from AEW then it's never going to feel like it's own thing that matters.

Is he the same Slim J who was part of the Special K group in ROH back in the day?

It's interesting to wonder where they're planning to take the show. The first two seasons (though we didn't know when it started) had an overarching story of "protect Baby Yoda, get him to somewhere safe". They've done that now. Is it going to be "get Mando back into his fundamentalist cult"? Because that's what the character wants, but I'm pretty sure we as viewers recognise they're a bunch of extremist crazies and he's better off out of it.

The whole get-a-droid-part-to-fix-a-droid-to-test-the-surface-to-find-the-living-waters-to-bathe-in-them-presumably-with-helmet-still-on-to-get-back-in is a very videogamey bunch of linked quests which I didn't especially like.

But, as mentioned, Baby Yoda had a hug with a Babu Frik. 10/10