King Pitcos

10 hours ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

Maybe they’ve just taped a move for move recreation of Savage vs. Steamboat or something.

That’d never work as a scripted, rehearsed match.

58 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

Yeah I was wondering the same thing. Maybe they've done something on Dark or BTE, but if that's the case I wish they'd at least reference it.

Start watching the expanded universe, you fucking casual!

On 6/9/2020 at 9:28 PM, The Cutting Edge said:

Semi related but I've found it crazy that Vince doesn't like groups despite the boom period/attitude era for the whole industry was heavily based on factions, not all were great but from 96-01 you have, nwo, dx, harts, doa, nation, horseman, boriquas, corporation, ministry, radicalz, revolution.....probably a few more too.

Not in the time frame but Evolution and Undisputed Era are great too, wish they'd bring back factions now and again if they fit, heel ones vs a top face would really help them 

If Vince doesn’t like groups, whoever is controlling the shows at the moment does. Raw has got two heel factions that are always heavily featured - they seemed to be starting a third with MVP too, but may have sacked that off because it’s overkill. SmackDown has got the Forgotten Sons, and had Sami Zayn’s group before lockdown. Between the UK and US, NXT has got at least three or four gangs. 

Over the last couple of years as well, various combinations of Corbin, Orton, Ziggler, McIntyre, Lashley, Shane McMahon etc have formed groups to oppose one of the top babyfaces. 

Wasn’t Austin vs Bulldog the plan at one point?

2 hours ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

it's another Jurassic Park film come on don't not like it it's good really isn't it isn't it isn't it Jurassic Park Jurassic Park Jurassic Park.

Is your brain related to Cannibal Man?

The answer is Highlander. The first one, with Michael Hayes. Although the fourth one has Edge in it, and the TV series has Roddy Piper in a swordfight on a rollercoaster track.

On the one hand, I like to fantasise about how great if they'd run with it all the way to Barrett winning the belt and losing it to Cena at the next WrestleMania. Realistically, though, it was never going to happen. When the Shield came in a couple of years later and clattered people, at least you could see the three of them being players for years to come. Most of Nexus were cannon fodder or, at best, good hands. At the time, Bryan was the only one that was any good, and he was gone after the first night. Barrett was a year or two away from becoming really good - but maybe the momentum of the push would've made up for that anyway. But at the time, and now with hindsight, I couldn't say that Big Wade was a better choice than The Miz for the title.

I still listen to the song from when Cena was the ref in the title match.

Well DT appointed Vince McMahon to his special shite-talk Covid-19 committee, and he tweeted about Triple H a few weeks ago, so he’s not shy about associating with them.

24 minutes ago, The Maestro said:

Whilst I applaud the protests, does anyone else feel uneasy about the timing of it due to Covid-19? Should making a political statement take precedence over public safety in the midst of a pandemic? 

Everyone’s lost interest in Covid-19 and been looking for reasons to get out the house and into a crowd for weeks. 

Flair for me as well. I get why I didn’t like Bret Hart - he was boring in the matches, did shitty footballer-esque promos, and was just a proper letdown after the Hogan and Warrior era. But Ric Flair had the charisma and the bells and whistles, so I should enjoy his work. But I’ve only ever enjoyed him as a pathetic old parody who cries all the time and elbow drops his jacket when he gets excited.

Mentioned earlier in the thread, but anyone who types "Hornswaggle" and "Rhonda" immediately outs themselves as a massive idiot to me. In theory, easy mistakes to make, but when you're posting about how someone in wrestling is incompetent, you look an utter fucking div if you're simultaneously getting the wrestler's name wrong. And along the same lines...

Wrestlers, fans, promoters and "journalists" being such cretins that they've managed to widely fuck up the spelling of "indie" is one I've moaned about before. I assume that it only survives because indie wrestling coverage mostly stays at the illiterate-with-blog levels, whereas indie film and indie music have a broader appeal and are talked about in the mainstream by people who know how to read and write. A lot of proper trash culture doesn't have an independent scene in the same way, I suppose. Adam Woodyatt doesn't quit EastEnders and do a tour of the YouTube soaps as Pete Beale Jr, where he comes in for one episode to take over the pub, shag the main woman and do a speech to camera about how he hated the politics in the Walford territory.

Another annoyance of mine is when wrestlers have a finishing move that's easier to hit than their other moves. Why wait? If it's your biggest hit and you can do it easier than ten things that are more effort/risk, just do the big one ten times. And then a similar one but also contradicting it is I don't like when a wrestler's finisher looks less impressive/impactful than their other moves. Logically, there's nothing wrong with it. In a real fight or Street Fighter II Turbo, you can do all sorts of flashy shite and it can be a little jab that finally knocks them out. But in a narrative sense, it's rubbish. You want your biggest fireworks to be at the finale.

6 hours ago, NorthSeaTiger said:

I detest the trippy “ alien stoned shooty” sequence in GTA V that you have to do with Michael. The constant having to turn around and focus, the shitty commentary by Michael, the fact it goes on for ages....the game is phenomenal apart from that. But that missing boils my piss. 

When that mission first started for me, I loved the surrealism of it. Then it just never seemed to end and I hated it. I really like that running joke with the spliff, though.

Is mission space the one where you sit really close to a screen and there are four of you doing different jobs? I liked that one.

I’m budgeting/planning for LA next year. I think I’ll get a one day pass for Universal (go in the morning and be out in time for the wrestling on the evening) and a three day park hopper for Disney. I’ve only been to Universal Hollywood once before, and I remember being a bit underwhelmed with it even though my ticket was free. I’d been to the Orlando parks about six weeks before, and the Hollywood one was mostly a lesser version of the same. I loved the studio tour, though. The Disney parks are worth it just for Mission Breakout for me.

If you’re interested in mostly watching rivalries, might be worth starting with a list of the rivalries you want to focus on. From there, just watch the TV shows from the month leading up to their first PPV match.

The biggest thing I’ve taken from the Drake Maverick matches the last few weeks (I’ve not watched last night’s yet) is how fucking tiny he is. It’s one thing to look small compared to the AOP and R-Truth and Big Show, but he’s like a child even in comparison to small cruiserweights. I think the plucky underdog thing absolutely suits him at the moment, I just can’t ever imagine him believably beating people on the main roster. I hope that they can convince me otherwise, but I reckon his best shot at fame is still as the smarmy little opportunist.

7 minutes ago, Yakashi said:

Doubling down on AllLivesMatter after he got backlash is another example of his tone deaf stubbornness or blatant baiting.

At first he might have thought it was good shit for his feud with Mike Tyson.

NXT was always on borrowed time, really. Look at how many posts praising it in 2014-18 have a “knowing Vince” type comment in there. Due to lack of big-visibility alternatives, it somehow became seen as the opposition to WWE. That was never going to last. When AEW came along, being actual opposition to WWE that still featured half-decent production values and was still aimed entirely at the niche audience, NXT was a bit fucked.

And that was only compounded by AEW’s launch occurring in the three thousandth year of the everlasting Gargano/Ciampa ft Adam Cole feud.

1 hour ago, Factotum said:

Just to add, I'm not sure Jericho is a 'Trump guy', I think he mentioned he's not really political he just had Trump Jr on as he found him interesting. He's not interesting.

I would assume Jericho just has rather stupid views on stuff. He's the type who thinks he's the first person to say 'All Lives Matter' like its deep and meaningful

Yeah, I think that’s the case with Jericho. Since his books and podcast and social media, it’s been more and more apparent that he’s a bit of a wanker and a bit of an idiot. He’s fascinating in terms of self-awareness, sometimes he seems to have none at all, and then other times he’ll turn his flaws and negative image into a positive. He’s currently the best thing in his promotion by playing a total comedy character, based on what a fat old deluded pisshead he comes across as in “real life.” I reckon he’s just fairly good at rolling with the punches, so when he can’t get out of a fuck-up, he just looks for the way to make it a positive going forward.

Is he still working the Christian gimmick IRL?

I’ve got loads but I’ll start with a few. I’m trying to avoid ones that have been mentioned, though there might be overlap:

John Cena vs AJ Styles. AJ was coming off a really good first few months with Jericho and Reigns, but the Cena storyline was where he really found himself as a character, and got his catchphrases and swagger. Considering all the new high level guys (Wyatt, Rusev, Owens etc) had beaten Cena in the couple of years prior, it’s impressive how AJ really made the most of it. Great matches, great promos, great angles. 

Sami Zayn vs Kevin Owens. After all of Sami’s struggle to the NXT title, he finally gets there and immediately the moment is ruined by what a vicious, jealous fucker his best mate was. Their NXT matches didn’t have a payoff, which made it all the more exciting when Sami turned up in the Rumble after KO had become a fixture on the main roster. They did a really good job of explaining the backstory to new viewers as well when they resumed feuding. They were the focus of the WrestleMania ladder match in 2016, and had at least one or two genuine classics on the following PPVs. Laid the groundwork for them being a great pair of pricks a year or so later, too.

New Day vs Usos. For me, maybe the best tag team feud ever - certainly since the TLC boys. Long-time readers know I’ve long been a Kofi supporter, and New Day are one of my favourite acts ever in wrestling. I’d consider their entire rise in 2014-2016 as one of my most enjoyed character journeys of all time, but I want to focus just on this feud for now. Heel Usos were a revelation, and Ya Boyz were the perfect adversaries for them. Every meeting between them, verbal or physical, was on point. And then it built to that absolute war in Hell in a Cell, which resulted in a show of respect and the Usos turning babyface. A feud so good that they can still get mileage out of references to it, like in the KofiMania gauntlet, or when they end up in three-way feuds for the tag titles.

Tyler Bate vs Pete Dunne in the first half of 2017. I’d never heard of either of them before that first tournament, and those two nights made me a fan of both. One of the first times I can recall fervently googling and YouTubing to see previous stuff new wrestlers had done. Then the rematch at TakeOver was great, showing it wasn’t just the tournament setting. And as a non-WWE side note, I loved seeing their impersonation match at ATTACK! around the same time.

Drew McIntyre vs Brock Lesnar. The conclusion was dampened by the apocalypse scaling down the venue, but overall, hell of a job at making a new number one. Brock’s tear through the Rumble, Drew kicking him the fuck out the ring and winning, and then flipping the usual script for the rest of the build by not having Lesnar dominate. That Raw bit where Drew hit Brock with the claymore and then did it again on the stage was wonderful.

1 minute ago, LaGoosh said:

So in that spirit, which storylines of the past 10 years have you found to have both an enjoyable build and satisfying conclusion?

Start the thread, man!

17 minutes ago, Supremo said:

There's probably a discussion to be had for when WWE have delivered their most logical or satisfying conclusions to storylines. Unfortunately, the first one that came to my mind was Daniel Bryan at Wrestlemania 30, and every report suggests that was a complete accident that went against everything they originally had planned!

That’s absolutely a discussion worthy of its own thread: What have they done right? Not in terms of business, but for each of us as a viewer. In the last twenty years (so from about the Kurt Angle/Stephanie McMahon romance), how many big storylines or feuds have we not been upset by? It must be loads, right, otherwise we’ve either wasted the four or five thousands hours we’ve spent watching it in that time, or what we’re watching for is something other than enjoyment.

44 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

I love how everyone's giving it a chance.

It wasn’t 100% accurate to how I’d have done it, therefore my review is the same as my review for every storyline they’ve done since about 2001 (or about three months after I discovered the wrestling internet): FUCK YOU, VINCE, I’M GOING TO MY ROOM! 

1 hour ago, Liam O'Rourke said:

And dare I say, Meltzer isn't the only person capable of reporting something.

He is! Well, when it’s a massive international hostage situation he’s fabricated he is.

I left political tribalism behind in sixth form and I don’t like echo chambers, so it makes no odds to me which politician a wrestler votes for/supports. It does put me off watching a wrestler if it turns out they’ve done a rape or murder etc, but it’s rare that that stuff comes out in the middle of their career and I don’t often rewatch old matches anyway.

Similar to what tiger_rick said, if a wrestler has a podcast where they’re always banging on about stuff I’ve no interest in, I’ll probably not listen to it. But then I don’t listen to many podcasts anyway.

So ultimately - for the most part, it has no impact on my regular viewing or enjoyment.

A ladder Royal Rumble is one of the stupidest, most Russo/TNA concepts ever. Is there any other match in wrestling with timed entrances where the match could be over before most of the competitors have come to the ring? It’s about on par with TNA’s ladder match for a shot at being fired.