CoreyVandal

Another video of a 'time traveller' debunked before I even had time to get excited about it

http://www.9news.com.au/world/2016/05/19/11/36/time-traveller-theory-at-1995-mike-tyson-fight-debunked-by-retro-gadget-nerds

I just get home from watching Richard Herring's new show and find a new series of Comedy Vehicle on. Tonight's been a good night!

I dont know about anyone else, but I thought that episode was one of his finest pieces. I particularly enjoyed his acknowledgment and ridicule of the typical 'Stewart Lee Fan' and the great bit about falling back on 'hack jokes'.

Just back from Deadpool. Loved it.

They did do a thing last year or the year before where Kane and Page visited the Doctor Who experience in Cardiff... I believe Kane even wore the scarf

I just had to look this up, and the pictures more glorious than I ever could have imagined!

The bottom line is this – how long are we willing, as wrestlers, to let Adam Bowler run wrestling shows and diminish ourselves as performers?

 

You can't moan about diminishing yourselves as performers if you are willingly taking booking from people you consider to be ruining the business. They are as much an enabler as his parents.

^THIS^

I remember getting a bit of flak last time I blamed the boys for this, but once again this show wouldn't be able to happen without the wrestlers. Seriously, how little self respect, and respect for the business do you really have if you're 'working' for someone like Bowler and helping shows like this exist? I'm sure some just saw it as a laugh and a quick buck, but every time a show like this happens it makes the entire industry look pathetic. THIS is why British wrestling doesn't get taken seriously. It's high time that the boys started being more discerning with what bookings they take rather than being so desperate to fill up every weekend with every booking they can possibly find. There's been a million warning signs that Adam's obviously mentally impaired and he shouldn't be putting on this shows, I hope all the guy's the got money out of him are proud of themselves. He's not going to ever 'learn his lesson', as evidenced by every since exchange with him in this thread, so you're not helping him in any way by taking the booking, you're just scamming a simpleton. Well done you. 

I know it doesn't mean much since I promote in a completely different area of the country, but I for one will not be booking anyone who's contributed to these show, and I'd imagine there's plenty of other ticked off promoters thinking the same thing today.

So a random formation someone drew in the 60's turned up in the near infinite catalog of random formations that is the observed universe?
I hate it when boring old coincidence seems to be the most likely explanation to something fun, but considering just how much of the universe we've mapped in the past 20 years something resembling that relatively basic shape was bound to turn up. 

Someone's edited together several fancams of Finn Balor vs Chris Jericho from the recent Japan tour. Surprisingly watchable.

At first I thought this was satire, but then realised it wasn't and my brain tried to shut down....

Am I the only one who doesn't get the love for Blue Pants? Sure, she has one of the greatest entrance themes ever composed, but as a performer she's just really not that good. Watching her in the ring compared to the other Diva's it's painfully obvious she hasn't been trained at the Performance Centre. Even Dana Brookes offence looks crisper than hers.

Wasn't it explained in the Steph/Seth promo at the end that it was just to get in Seth's head and it was "the oldest trick in the book"? Sting knows that to really stand a chance at getting that WWE championship reign he's never gotten that he needs to dismantle the Authority, who are the ones making sure Rollins walks out of each PPV still champ. At the moment you can still easily view this as part of Sting's revenge for that Sledgehammer shot at mania. Look at how everything from how he debuted as Crow Sting in WCW to long it took him to finally take that spot with WWE, we know he likes to play 'the long game', who's to say that 'badly booked' handshake at the end of his mania match wasn't part of a bigger play to really hit HHH where it hurts; his legacy.

I'm probably expecting way too much there.

I've been having a lot of back problems recently so I've managed to catch up on quite a few films while I've been laid up.
 

Ex Machina: Ok, this is going to sound incredibly douchy, but I can't think of a better way to put this; The film fails to pass it's own Turing test for being a good movie. The entire time I felt like I was being beaten over the head with the directors artistic choices, like the forced juxtaposition of nature and technology, or textures in the set mirroring textures in Eve's design. It was all just way too 'knowing', like a paint-by-numbers kit for making a navel-gazing sci-fi award winner. The film seemed more interested in reminding me I was watching a very well put together film than letting me just be drawn in. Considering the story that almost seems like it could be a conscious decision by the filmmakers, but if it was it was a failed experiment. It was way too long and nowhere near as smart or innovative as it seemed to think it was. Other than a few shoehorned, thinly veiled references to Google and Apple, and some halfway realistic but ultimately meaningless technobabble, it could have been written in the 60's. If a ruthless editor could find a way to chop it in half it'd probably make a really good Black Mirror episode, but it didn't need to be any more than that. That's about the best thing I can say about it. Oh, and there's a big story beat in there that seems like it was meant to play out like a big twist, but it was so obvious from the moment it was hinted that. I really wanted to like this, but it just really fell short.

Whiplash: Wow. Definitely my film of the year so far. It just drew me in right from the first scene. Smart screenplay, some stunning performances all round, and an absolutely captivating soundtrack that's so masterfully interwoven into the story. I'd even go as far as to say this is the best film I've ever watched about music. JK Simmons always knocks it out of the park, but I think his performance in this is a career high. Although most people are describing it as 'Full Metal Jacket with drums' it personally reminded me a lot more of Gaea Girls. With drums. I particularly loved the way the film leads the viewer to constantly question whether Simmons extreme teaching methods are warranted, or whether he is just an abusive asshole. As soon as you think you've fallen on one side of the fence the film serves up evidence to the contrary, right to the very last second. 

Trainwreck: Why do I torture myself with these Apatow films? Its always exactly the same story (both in terms of narrative, and my disappointment as a viewer). Once again, SO formulaic, with a ridiculously bloated running time for such an inconsequential bit of fluff. There's a lot of jokes in there which just fall completely flat, yet it seems to be running on this weird assumption that stretching out bad jokes somehow makes them funnier. It's run at a decent pace if it was trimmed to 90 minutes, just like most of Apatows films, but instead just feels like a crawl that lasts about 3 days thanks to self-indulgent improv, and the director never knowing when to get the hell out of a scene. Why the hell does this guy get to keep making so many failures? I actually think his style would be so much better suited to TV, but for some bizarre reason he's STILL Hollywood's golden boy when it comes to comedies. I knew all of this going in, but still I watched it. Why? There's obviously something I enjoy about these films, yet I can't quite put my finger on it. John Cena was actually the best thing in this movie by far. Even though his character was a bit of a tired cliche he put in a really good performance (ha!) and had some of the better gags.

Edit: remembered a couple more I'd seen recently.

Jurassic World: I thought it was actually pretty decent for what it was. Not saying it doesnt deserve a lot of the negative reviews, but at the very least it's the best of the Jurassic Park sequels. I can't really think of much to say about it, which speaks volumes, but yeah, it did it's job.

Interstellar: For some reason I'd put this one off for a while, but I remember the reviews being pretty 'meh'. It's hard not to draw comparisons to Gravity, because like that film this would be nothing without the best of the best Hollywood effects, although I did think Interstellar had a lot more going for it in the story department. It's main problem was how hard it was trying to be 2001, especially once that ending kicks off, but now that we live in a world where we've got people like Neil Degrass Tyson and Brian Cox talking about black holes and relativity on kid's shows those ideas just don't seem as mindbending as they once were. Visually it was stunning, exactly the sort of sights and wonders that only cinema can deliver, but other than that it felt quite lacking. Although at least it didn't have George Clooney coming back as a ghost.

Another really good episode imo. I'm not sure what it is but I've enjoyed the past 6 months of WWE tv more than any other timeframe from the past decade or so. It's not necessarily the best its been in that time, but overall it's the most consistent its been in a long time with only the occasional god-awful segment and very few 'waste-of-space's on the roster.
I'm also just about on board with the 3-hour format as well now. It was a real drag at first, but recently since the tag team & diva's divisions have had some focus that slump in the 2nd half seems to have eased, and there's always at least one cracking match per show. It's still all very formulaic, but I think they've finally perfected that formula.

Great to see them finally pulling the trigger on Cesaro. I can't see him going much further than this, but he doesn't need to. I just can't really buy into him being the top guy, or even feuding with top guy, but he's brilliant in that near-main event spot having great matches with all the other top guys while they're feuding with someone else. Owen's is a great foil for him, there's something very reminiscent of Benoit/Jericho when they work together.

The 'Diva's Revolution' seems to be cooling somewhat, although it's hard to place my finger on how it could be done any better. I think they've probably just brought in way too many new divas at the same time, and they seem to be giving them multiple long matches 'to show what they can do' rather than trying to establish their personalities, which instead is just leaving everyone way too overexposed and underdeveloped. 

This Lana/Rusev/Summer Rae angle looks like absolute dogshit on paper, but their segments are quickly becoming the highlight of the show for me. Rusev is just absolutely brilliant, AND he can go in the ring, which hasn't been the case for a lot of WWE's previous 'big-rookie-guy-experiments'.

Big E might be the single most entertaining guy in the whole company personality-wise. I'm really enjoying all of The New Day at the moment, but Big E really is something special.

The story about Cena breaking his nose and carrying on the match seems to have gone fairly viral, which seems to suggest that the Hogan debacle hasn't done that much damage WWE's current public image or the media's likelyhood of reporting on them. A more cynical man might suggest that suggest that the timing of all this is all very coincidental, but I don't believe for a second that anyone in WWE is creative enough to put that together and carry it off

Im really starting to hate Dean Ambrose, the guy's absolutely incapable of selling and firing up at the same time.
Just look at his facial expressions during his comebacks after being absolute decimated, the way he moves, it's exactly the same way he treats the beginning of a match, its like he's erased the past 10 minutes of being beaten down. He does sell, but only when he's not doing anything else, its so stop-start. The ladder match a couple of months back was amongst the most infuriating as he he sold it like he could barely stand.....right up until the moment where he needs to run the ropes, then he's like a fresh man.
He was doing it all the way through his match with Big Show this week, and the story of the match, while perfectly tailored for his character just served to highlight his flaws as a worker. It's infuriating as he's such a watchable and interesting character, and he can put on some great top level matches when they're structured in certain ways, but at the same time he's missing such a fundamental skill for the type of wrestler he is. There's so many moments where he's throwing away bucketloads of sympathy heat and a deeper connection with the crowd when all he needs to do is sell, make it look like he's struggling to fight back, rather than just going straight from playing dead to 'seeing an opening and suddenly being completely fit and lucid'.
I'd really love to see him do a short run with Brock where he takes the 'Homer Simpson' approach of being the only man capable of taking a beating to the point that Brock eventually tires and starts to make Ambrose look like somewhat of a threat to him, but after seeing him play around with that a little with Big Show if I were WWE I'd be keeping him as far away from Brock as possible until he's got this issue ironed out, because while it's only wasting potential heat for Ambrose it really does shit on his opponents.

The standards on here have dropped no end. 10 years ago everyone was training to be a lawyer, now we've only got 1. I blame all the Media students. Time wasters.

Slightly off topic and I realise it was a joke, but I thought it was worth pointing out that theres way more law graduates these days than there's jobs for them and most end up in other areas they didn't intend on, where as media graduates are near the top of the tables when it comes to getting employment in their field within 12 months of graduating....

In terms of the topic....carry on...

As my wife keeps saying about Samoa Joe; "I still don't know who he is or what he wants", and she watches every week. They seem to have assumed all NXT viewers will already be familiar with him, so they've done fuck all to really 'introduce' him or tell the audience why they should care. The couple of promos he's cut were so vague and generic, and with Owens not around as much he doesn't seem to have much to do, but as Majik said, he really should have been able to get over regardless. When you watch his matches he doesnt wrestle with anywhere near as much intensity as Balor/Owens/Zayn/even Rhino, he just lumbers around, sells way too much and for so long that he starts to look like he's getting winded in 6 minute matches, and only shows flashes of the type of wrestler he needs to be. Early 2000's ROH Joe would be a great fit in NXT, but its at least a decade too late, and Joe doesnt seem to have that 'extra gear' any more, and seems to be missing that 'veteran canny' that'd make up for that. 

It's worth remembering that Vince is a bit of a completist when it comes to tape libraries, if you look into what they've purchased over the years there's things way more 'low-level' than TNA. He likes to think he owns all of wrestling, so it wouldn't surprise me if he wants to get his hands on it, regardless of what he personally thinks of the product or the promotion.

There's rumours (i.e. people talking out of their arse on twitter) that Bischoff might be going for the tape library due to the timing of him suddenly suing for unpaid wages from forever ago, although if theres any truth to that it's hard to see what his gameplan would be with it. Maybe he just wants to act as a middleman and make a few quid off selling it to Vince? seems like Erics style.

Thought i'd bother you with another Triple X Wrestling video. It's another homage/parody/rip-off of a famous WWE video package, so even if you're one of those miserable bastards who hates British wrestling you should still get a kick out of it.

I've just been introduced to the It Happened to Me! section on the Fortean Times website. I can't stop reading!

 Damn you, me neither! There's some terrifying stories in there, although there seems to be a fair few loonies. One person in the 'TV Broadcasts from the Future' thread is describing something that i'm 110% sure was a Red Dwarf trailer...

Here's the latest couple of Triple X music vids for you, please take a minute to check them out. They're pretty good, I promise!

Benton Destruction - TXW Desire video

Brookes vs Bate: The Grudge Match (28.12.14)

FULL MATCH: 'The Anarchist' Doug Williams vs 'Dynamite' Pete Dunne w/ Triple X champ Eddie Dennis on commentary - 17.08.14

Got a bit of a weird one here and thought this would be the best place to post about it.

A guy who I thought was dead just turned up on facebook.

He was someone I was friends with back in school but lost touch with as you do, then a few years back a girl from my old class told me he'd died. This was in a conversation where she'd informed me of another couple of deaths from our school that I was actually aware of, so I just took her information at face value. It's not as if his death hit me hard or anything, but I did sort of mourn him in that weird way that you do with people you haven't seen since your childhood.

Then last month he sent me a friend request.

At first I thought maybe it was a fake account, or a sick joke by the sort of dickheads I went to school with. There were posts about "thought I'd finally give facebook a try, what do I do now lol" which always seems weird to me, because who hasn't been all over facebook for years? But he uploaded a bunch of recent photos, and had conversations on there with mutual friends about recent nights out ect. so it really did seem to be him.

So I sent him a message asking how he'd been. THIS is where it gets a little....off. He told me he'd been in a coma for the past 8 years after a drug overdose, and he was now trying to reconnect with everyone from the old days. It was really hard to understand him since his spelling and grammar were all over the place, and he seemed very angry, and needlessly racist, but I tried my best to gave him the benefit of the doubt incase he was a little brain damaged after going though something like that. Despite what he'd said about the overdose he was still bragging about 'mental nights out', and seemed very much into his chemicals. It was all very weird, but said he was going out for a drink so we said our goodbyes and that was that.

Later that night he started posting drunken rants as statuses every few minutes, which I had to check out, because who doesn't love a good online trainwreck. It was a real struggle to get the gist of it, but he seemed to be really angry about black people being allowed in the police force. He claimed this was because they were engaging in a conspiracy to control peoples thoughts though mobile phones and replace all the white people with black people. He then started posting about how they'd put him in prison for several years when he tried to let the world know the truth, where they tried to wipe his brain via "a needle in the eye".

Just a seemingly endless stream of ramble, incoherent, absolute batshit insane nonsense that makes me wonder where he's actually been for the past few years. In prison? An institution? Or was he actually in a coma and now he's just a bit special? He certainly didn't seem like this at school, but maybe thinking he was dead for the past few years meant I painted a slightly different picture of him in my mind? Like I say, it's a bit of a weird one. These rants ended with something that sounded like he was going to chuck his mobile so they couldn't track him any more, and another a few hours later about having to destroy his phone so they couldn't find him again. All very bizarre.

​Is it wrong to say I preferred him when he was dead?

Just wanted to add my love for Agents of Shield too. Same with others, it started off very slowly but once it really got into it's stride it really became fantastic TV. I also agree that it got even better once it tied into the events from Cap 2.

Totally agree with this. It seems like they took the mid-season dip in ratings very seriously and completely retooled the show in accordance with fans concerns. Either that or no-one told the writers about the major changes caused by Cap 2 and they had to throw everything out at that point and restart from scratch. Either way, it worked and the series went from a 3rd rate Burn Notice/24/Smallville mash up into something that actually feels tied to the world we've seen in the movies, which it should have been all along.