The Gaffer

Apologies if this has been asked but no adult content is showing up anywhere On my Xbone app even after a complete reinstall and making sure both the system and the apps parental controls have been deactivated.

Any suggestions? My laptop has gone kaput so I only have the shitty app to work with .

Ta!

Yep, just like last year WrestleMania Today has me pumped about the show now, in this brilliantly marky way. Nothing is really properly analyzed, uncovered or up for proper critique which is oddly refreshing. You're basically just watching hours of fictional boxing hype vignettes. 

Vince's subtle careen into senile insanity first became really apparently to me when he nominated Maria Menounos in his ice bucket challenge with this mad glint in his eye as if it was the type of celebrity ingredient to really spark something.

X-Pac had an nWo tracksuit pants. I want an nWo tracksuit pants. 

The second half in the end works as a pretty decent downfall episode and it's set things up for the Russo era episode nicely. 

I'll throw this out there because I recall you mentioning how the nWo shows sucked awhile back but 2000 WCW is the only stuff I can watch back. I don't say that to sound against the grain or be busting out some mad ass everything-bad-is-good skillz. I genuinely love the pace of 2000 era WCW for retrospective viewing. Pre 1995 is all good and I know if I was consuming it at it's time of release I would have been enthralled by the nWo stuff but Nitro 96-98 fucking sucks and the PPVs from that era are complete burnout. 

It stands up far worse than the Attitude Era stuff. 

The newest Monday Night War is about halfway through in front of me - Mistakes On The Battlefield - purely because I was stuck for something to shove on quickly when having dinner and it's the most absolutely lunatic example of this generic obvious moments format I've seen yet since the network made it painfully obvious to all of us.

I was expecting it to be a sort of Death Of WCW style rib on all the stupid shit that's happened but so far I've been treated to Hogan Vs. Flair and the formation of the nWo. Seriously. It's baffling. 

I'm most probably picking up an Xbox One for the Master Chief Collection next week so I'm more than happy to shell out to replay GTA V again. I have not touched it since finishing the main story last year and it's about that time. The new overhauls will make it a blast all over and I'm definitely getting stuck into the online this time after being turned off by the amount of disaster stories last year.

On the subject of it's short term legacy I did get the sense that whilst people seemed happier overall with GTA V, the initial wow factor wore off and minor backlash came much faster than with IV which still more or less represented a full generational gap in the franchise.

A lot of the pond life that reneged on IV for being overtly darker in tone are the exact same people who thought GTA V was too off the wall by about Christmas last year. Not finding either game perfect is a pretty healthy attitude to have - when I saw it trash that UKFF countdown last time around I was thinking christ there is more to games to GTA - but fucking hell, at least be somewhat consistent about it.

People get really fickle about the series. Virtually every installment has been excellent in it's own slightly different way. I enjoyed the hell out of V and it still stands up, to me. Endless Trevor/Michael chatshow moments in the car rides aside.

It's probably already been mentioned but Brendon Burns has put up a wrestling comedy roast. It's about what you would expect if you like his comedy and put that into a wrestling context. He's a massive wrestling fan. He has other guests on it as well. I'm about halfway through and it's pretty decent so far. And it's 69p. So if you fancy smarky stand up comedy for a quid or so ...

https://gumroad.com/l/QCrMH

Some general reflections so bear with :

Instead of mucking about spending ages trying to pick an odd PPV only to watch half an hour of it, I've decided since I pretty much have the week off I'm going to cut through WCW 1998 for absolutely no reason. It's a year I chose at random from a promotion that when I think about it realistically I still know very little about. I could give you a general overview but knowing the angles and matches month to month like I do with WWE? Not a chance.

I'm watching Uncensored right now. Souled Out was awful but Superbrawl was a lot of fun. Just silly little things like not knowing Dusty Rhodes was going to turn and join the nWo because I've literally never seen or heard of it happening before got a pop from me.

I find the lack of backstage action and vignettes makes the shows a bit of a trudge at times and WCW's vision mixers sure do love the sweeping pan from the top of the building shots. Just lots of little homogenized production hang ups which leaves the shows feeling kind of dry and plastic to me [i notice and care about this stuff and it's daft, I know]. The analytical commentary is quite good. Schiavone has that J.R. quality of really trying to come in to your home and make you glad you're watching. Brain's getting on but he's quips are still surprisingly few and far between. Tenay is actually quite good in his little encyclopedia role. When WWE seemingly never acknowledges it's recent past at times it's quite cool to hear him clarify that this is not the first time Konan and Juventud [a surprisingly likeable babyface without the mask] met because they fought at Fall Brawl in 96.

Jericho's really fun to watch honing his millennium man smart arse act in uterus. Booker's a real workhorse and looks at his best with the short hair and flaming trunks, to me. And every time I see Sting I just want to be Sting.

Is there a screenshot of Kane in the tracksuit? I was only watching the weekend shows for most of '98 (until Survivor Series got me back in full-time), so I missed a lot of these little moments. I would never have thought they'd put Kane in a tracksuit then.

It's mental looking back the amount of odd bits of 'reality' shoehorned into the Raw scripts. He still looks far better than most of the other arrival vignettes at the time. Remember this was still the 90's. They all kitted about in pastel vests with giant pants, ponytails under a gym cap and pill bags around their waists.

Had a watch of Raw from October 1998 this morning. It's a filler October like practically every fall in wrestling is but nostalgia's always preserved it well for me. It was the period when Austin was duped out of the title after Breakdown and it's really where most of the highlight reel shit in the McMahon/Austin feud comes from. The Zamboni, the cement truck et all.

I also totally forgot Hawk's painkiller addiction that was trashed out on Raw every week. Thankfully it's not the episode where he jumps off the titan tron but during an LOD 2000 Vs. Outlaws match he comes in from a brief line of questioning from J.R. which is very uncomfortable because he obviously doesn't want to talk about it. And he's wearing jeans and face paint.

The show also comes complete with a shot of Kane arriving at the arena with mask and full body tracksuit which amused me to no end. It's fine and good when 'Taker shows up dressed as a sound engineer for Bad News because he was just a not-dead-just-likes-that-shit character at that point but the Kane shot was odd to say the least.

Going to have a crack at Canadian Stampede tonight, I reckon. I'm having a quiet weekend here and I want something reliable.

I think this is the sexiest photo I've ever seen.

Friend of mine just Facebook'd me the link. I'm sure plenty of these have been posted but there is some really great stuff in it. Including 'Taker modelling a weird red look circa mid 90's.

http://imgur.com/a/ghP0X

Echoing the love for the Daniel Bryan documentary. One of the very few headline starts to have seemingly no gimmick hang ups clouding the ego in civilian life. Just an incredibly decent, humble bloke.

And more of this, please! WWE's documentaries are the best around when they are not the usual superstar biopics doing the whole story everybody knows already anyway, basically doing a Wikipedia page in 90 minutes with Miz talking headery.

I'd love to see a Mania Of WrestleMania style show following each and every PPV. It might seem like a big ask but they have the cameras and they have the talent. You wouldn't have to do much else. I'd eat up semi kayfabed 'tales' of each show. It would add massively to their importance. At least do it for the big ones. The original Mania Of WrestleMania is a fine, fine documentary and I always thought they would continue it on. Seeing daft shit like what the gorilla position for WrestleMania XIX was like and the atmosphere backstage gave the event a much wider berth in my mind.

We got a taste of that in the Daniel Bryan special but to also echo what JNLister said awhile back fuck me I need to see some sort of dressing room/chill out area footage of all the talent and agents reacting to the 'Taker match.

What a surreal few days. Can only add my condolences to this thread. I didn't grow up with him at all like some of you did but as usual the brilliant posts in here illuminate his career for me. I'm looking forward to watching and appreciating his new DVD now. It's absolutely heartbreaking for his family but those snaps of him over the weekend are what's really getting to me. Vince's age is finally starting to really break him down into a very humble looking old man enjoying the empire he has built and Warrior's smile is absolutely lens shattering in all of those pictures. You can't fake that. Nobody smiles like that for money or mere preservation of a legacy.

Cena is on early and loses and not seen again

For all the complaining people do it's never ceased to amaze me for years now how little Cena is featured on Raw. He's either slotted in to a match or he has a promo segment that comes out of fucking nowhere. Rock got out of a limo, gave props to stage hands, and threatened autograph poachers with a smackdown. Austin gazed at linoleum, watched whatever else was happening on a monitor the size of a packet of Malboros and beat on half the roster.

 

Defending Cena's a bit rote around here but just thinking of how little he tends to get advertised on Raw is actually quite surprising given he is still the man. He pops up on a graphic, does his bit and leaves. There's a score of weeks where they don't even bother mentioning he is in the building until he comes out for his bit.

In general, there's a lot less "gets out of limo" these days. They did a shot a few months back of Cena walking into the arena and it looked really weird now, but in Rock and Austin's day we were forever seeing them arrive or lurk around the car park.

Yeah you're right and I still don't really understand it. Limos rock. And with the whole always plugged in, social media bolstered blanket coverage that Raw gives itself nowadays you would think Renee Young would be chasing the things down to see who is in them on your smart phone.

It's obviously a small thing but still it would be nice to see more of it.

Cena is on early and loses and not seen again

For all the complaining people do it's never ceased to amaze me for years now how little Cena is featured on Raw. He's either slotted in to a match or he has a promo segment that comes out of fucking nowhere. Rock got out of a limo, gave props to stage hands, and threatened autograph poachers with a smackdown. Austin gazed at linoleum, watched whatever else was happening on a monitor the size of a packet of Malboros and beat on half the roster.

Defending Cena's a bit rote around here but just thinking of how little he tends to get advertised on Raw is actually quite surprising given he is still the man. He pops up on a graphic, does his bit and leaves. There's a score of weeks where they don't even bother mentioning he is in the building until he comes out for his bit.

Didn't watch Raw, and like a nobhead I've read all the spoilers because I couldn't wait. It sounds like a tremendous show, but I have a question... Now Cesaro is a Heyman Guy, did he turn heel? How did it work with Heyman managing both a heel and face on the same show (assuming Ces is still a face).

 

Ta.

I don't think it even matters anymore. Wasn't it doing the rounds on the news sites earlier on in the year that they were going to be taking cues from modern drama like Breaking Bad and just presenting human beings with complex moral dilemmas? [Well ... you know ... 'complex moral dilemma' for 'rasslin.]

All they can really do nowadays is present what they will and let the mentalist audience preside over how to react to it. I know in the grand sense it's still the wrestling business and they need good heel/face dynamics to push numbers for the large amount of the audience that still do invest in traditional storyline but when it comes to things like this in 2014 ... Heyman's a heel manager, Cesaro will probably still be cheered in most arenas he goes to and I don't honestly think there's anything strange about it whatsoever.

He doesn't push either button too hard does Cesaro anyway, does he? He's a cocky bloke most of the men love and a lot of the kids will find irksome.

Now anything that's not a wargames with The Shield/Two Dudes With Shit Tattoos and the rest of the cronies will be a comparative disappointment .

You know when you get head and you come but they keep sucking? Jesus. That never ending stream of theme music hits and crowd pops in the last segment brought a tear to my eye. That 'Dean 'Titty Master' Ambrose' sign had me laughing for five minutes by which point I would have lost it at someone opening a door in the house anyway.

Even the crowd were brilliant. All they did was add to it. Warrior's a loon. Cesaro's the new King Of Swing. Raw's become NXT. Main Event has Wyatts/Shield III tomorrow night. I can't escape this Network.

2014 continues to tear shit up. I'm actually excited about Summerslam already.

Wouldn't it still take the subscriptions in to account anyway? Which if anything also minimizes whatever potential impact the official launch of the Network internationally will have considering surely if you're that fucked about getting it you've done the whole Unblock-Us thing and are on it already anyway. I know not every kid in England has gone down that route and their parents might wait until after it's officially launched but realistically most of the people buying this thing are the ones who are really arsed about their wrestling.

There's a knob in me that is looking at a lot of people who haven't bought it thinking "tight cunts" .

 

Or that they just aren't Americans?

Maybe it's Americans I'm looking at. Either way that comment was intentionally a bit of a jape.

For some reason in my head I assumed they wanted 1 million subscribers the day after WrestleMania. For some reason I also assumed the fraction of the weekly fanbase who would immediately migrate to the Network would be much higher than that figure. If you're WWE how do you make this grow going forward? More archive content and more original content, yeah, but you would reckon most people make their minds up fairly early what to do with it. I can see them reaching a million and then having a bit of stagnancy with the growth of the platform as long as Raw will still be on the telly.

They've really got to make PPV a go to destination again, haven't they. After years of them being inconsequential. There's a knob in me that is looking at a lot of people who haven't bought it thinking "tight cunts" .

Perfect, perfect quality on my laptop all night once the tin sound ended during the pre show. Kudos to WWE. The Network has been the bomb diggity.

Here is an article on the guy behind the video packages, Adam Pennucci. Based solely on the three videos detailed in the article alone this guy needs to go into the Hall Of Fame. Probably one of the most important guys in that company.

That's a great read. I remember now Shawn Michaels outing him during his retirement speech. Definitely an MVP for the company.

Booker's having a ball with it, clearly.

This years big WrestleMania packages are all fantastic. The acoustic renditions of Orton and Batista's theme tunes for their respective vignettes are great. The Eminem one with Cena and Wyatt is out of this world. I love it.

Before things got serious I found it amusing how Foley mentioned he wrestled Andre in a tag match once. Which caused Flair to go quite for five minutes only to obviously eventually chip in after remembering that he wrestled Andre in 20 tag matches, once.