organizedkaos

Something to do with Poland having terrible draconian anti abortion laws?

TNT title = Prop for Christian's character

International title = Good matches on dynamite (currently featuring Orange Cassidy)

Continental title = Good matches on collision (currently featuring Eddie Kingston)

World title = I think people care about this one?

That about sums up the divisions.

Regarding tag title/trios title. I thought initially the plan (with Elite, Death Triangle etc) was the trios title would generally be fast paced flippy matches. Even people who don't like that style should be able to see it adds some value to shows if kept to one or two matches (it has it's fans, it's very palatable to casuals and can be deployed like caffeine to a live crowd). Having trios as a workhorse/fun style match sort of made sense with the tag belts supposedly being like the world title (more varid uses; prestigious, can be used in storylines or defended in big showoff matches).

Now the Acclaimed have it because Billy Gunn got suprisingly over.  The idea of which is fine but they should've lost them asap after the nice Wembley moment.  Now instead of 15 minutes of high octane, scrambly wrestling we have Billy Gunn doing a hot tag then the Acclaimed win.

It's not just the Acclaimed's fault. The House of Black seemed pretty set on having plodding TV matches with the trios belts too. If wrestlers don't think they can keep up the pace then maybe have Trios only defended once a month, or on PPVs to open or something.   There's a really obvious use here and it's definitely not house show grade "I saw the people from TV doing their signature moves!" matches

He's definitely a bit knackered but also had multiple matches this year that'll be in conversation for MOTY candidate so yeah...

Wrestling fans is a like sort of version of the yorkshireman sketch.

"Yeah Kenny definitely can't put on weekly bangers any more"
"Yeah Kenny is definitely in the tail end of his career"
"Yeah Kenny is completely broken down, can't go any more"
"Yeah Kenny is so overweight and has been broken down for half a decade now"
"Kenny was only good for 3 weeks in 2018"
"Kenny is literally the worst wrestler on AEW television"
"Kenny is dead, he's a corpse being puppeted by his opponent"

So traceable = can tell a message was sent from person X to person Y. That information can be got from whatsapp. However as Loki said, data in the messages is encrypted so you can't read them. However let's say you were trying to find evidence of someone dealing drugs, you'd potentially be able to show patterns of communication that would provide some degree of evidence they might be doing such a thing

Recoverable is potentially referring to recovering them from the phone they were made with? Seems plausible given your whatsapp messages are backed up by default. So firstly you've got the fact deleting in computers is a complicated term, fair chance recent messages are still in memory even if they're "deleted" (just means you can't see them). Also with the backups, I could absolutely see engineers being too lazy to implement a "go back through backups and delete these specifics messages" because I'm fairly sure that'd be a pain in the arse given how they'd mostly likely implement a backup (blob of data representing all messages in memory at one moment)

I think the authorities can get a warrant to access you phone? Which means they could get a warrant to access the encryptions keys on your phone (along with any data that might stored in memory, even if it's been deleted).  They could also use that phone to access decrypted backups

Is this likely just more ministers gearing up for a more extreme right conservative opposition when Starmer comes in?  You've got these visible faces who're playing the standard tunes and when inevitably quality of life doesn't immediately improve under Starmer they'll be able the bleat their favourite rhetoric "vote me in for change, we understand the true cause of this issue and it's absolutely people who don't look like you, make britain great again, yadayadayada".

They've now clearly disassociated themselves from this government, they won't be losers or associated with any of the shit that's befallen this country since conservative rule began, they're voices of the suppressed white working class. Ready with their innovative new ideas for change.

Be kind to your turkeys this Christmas.

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don't think there's ACTUALLY that many people that don't believe in basic human rights, but there are many who have differing opinions on how rights are manifested, how competing rights intersect, and how a balance is struck between rights and security.

Yep, there's certainly a fair amount of varying political view points within my friendship group. There are times it can be disheartening but often the varying view points are coming from friends I know very well, well enough to understand the person behind the views. That doesn't mean excusing them, simply understanding.

For example, I've a close friend who thinks Brexit is a great idea.  He's certainly not saying that because of any stance on immigration, it's mostly that Tony Benn anti Europe thing.. There are a million different reasons I think he's wrong but they come from differing ideas about how to make things better. Ideologically we both want our country to do better, we just see different paths to getting there. I do feel that he downplays the suffering Brexit has brought to people's lives and I'm pretty sure that comes from his background/economic status but at the same time it's not like he wants to starve all the poors. I  think he's being overly optimistic about the potential negative effects of leaving the EU (and I get to remind him of this, repeatedly)

I believe he can change his mind for the better, he believes he can change mine. In reality we mostly just develop a more nuanced understanding of both our views.

There's certainly some terrible people out there but suggesting that people who vote against you are basically scum who have no moral compass about human rights is a great way of narrowing your world view as much as possible.

Fair play if you think you have to cut these sort of people out of your life. But that's kinda my point. You've a bunch of people who feel there are views that cannot go unchallenged. You might think you can challenge those views within a social relationship or you may think the existence of the relationship tacitly endorses those views. Either way, you're all people trying to improve things.

Little Bagel Co in Bristol, alas it's an independent shop (well, independent shops are great but alas it being independent means it's not as easy for anyone not in Bristol to go there!)

17 hours ago, Devon Malcolm said:

The range of party foods in M&S this year is almost overwhelming. There's so much of it I'm considering fasting from now until Christmas Day because I know my parents are going to buy absolutely all of it. Delighted to see they've retained the beef burger spring rolls, especially.

They sell those year round at my local one.

Although annoyingly the local one only sells about 5 options for party foods. It's sorely dissapointing as the big M&S done closed a little while back. I love party snacks, I pretty much throw a christmas party every year so I can try all the party snacks

Also had a vegetarian christmas sandwich today that used cauliflower cheese as the turkey alternative (w/ potato rosti, cranbery sauce, pickled cabbage, chestnut mayo, sage and onion). Much better than some sort of tasteless faux-key

4 hours ago, air_raid said:

It's a really weird type of misogyny that I never understand. If the male wrestlers are given more leniency because the weirdos love their work in the wrestling, I'd have assumed female personalities would be forgiven even quicker when they qualify for (a) love their work in the wrestling AND (b) love them "the other way" as much as Sunny was adored in her prime. But it's not the case.

I think it comes down to hot women are seen as disposable and replacable, their worth not relating to a talent (and also relating to something that fades with age). They're objects, if they act like shitty people then you can just chuck out the object and find a new one. Also any actual talent (like Sunny had) is seen as being completely secondary as their role as a hot person. Wrestlers are seen as real people who have a specific skill which could be "wasted" by being barred from the industry/jailed.

Gross.

Admitedly "suprise cage match" would be kinda amusing

Or actually any escalating gimmickery/plot/sense that wrestlers think about things. Try and give it a feel beyond "no dq"/"no countouts"/"no dq and no countouts"/"house of black barred from ringside despite not being allowed to get physically involved due to television regulations"

My only thought with the house rules is maybe it's an opportunity to boost Hart's experience?  Lots of open challenges with different match types?

But yeah it's more likely so they don't have to say.. book a feud or any sort of cohesive plot around the belt. Just have her hammer through all the midcarders until Willow Nightingale has lost enough momentum for it to be her turn

Don't get me wrong half of AEW booking/rules is nonsense.

However to their credit they did (finally) pretty clearly explain the rules last night, some of this feels a bit like when people label everything in a film they didn't notice as "plot hole"

Clearly from the internet the way to go is encourage a more old school mentality,  spots the fans think are dangerous but actually can be done incredibly safely. Like drinking human blood

14 hours ago, Doog said:

Was convinced Cole would be revealed as the Devil by the end of it, on the pre show he held MJF whilst he could see the Gunns getting ready to attack him and he basically let White have the ROH belt anf the Diamond Ring to whack MJF with so I'm still convinced he'll eventually be revealed as it with Strong and company in toe. Surprised there was no involvement of jt tonight, but as has been said the angle was talked about throughout.

The announcers took great pains to point out Cole's advice and presence was making MJF do things that weren't helping him ("do a dive" "don't take the countount, roll him in the ring").

The devil on your shoulder giving you bad advice.

Can't help but assume that's on him somewhat? We don't know what the EVPs do exactly but Page disappearing for big chunks of time (rather than say getting stuck in middling feuds) seems like it might be somewhat his own choice?  Given he's got a little child it's entirely possible he's happy to be a bit part time at the mo?

Don't get me wrong, Tony Khan and the other bookers are responsible for a lot of issues in AEW but the fact the Elite seem a bit here and there has got to be in part their own choice (be it to avoid overexposure, losing their smile due to a certain punk or whatever)

He clearly plays up the hatred of modern wrestling because his fans lap it up and he makes money (workers gonna work).  I'm sure he misses the olden days but I think he does realise that sort of wrestling doesn't draw well, he's clearly very smart about the buisness. When he's not doing a bit his analysis is often very insightful and his historical knowledge and stories facinating.

Problem is his rants veers into mysoginistic and racist language/ideas just enough that I can't be bothered with giving him any money/clicks/whatever.  Especially when you know his comments embolden a whole bunch of other people to make the same comments from a place of hate rather than greed.  It's all very well if you're a work but you are still presenting these gross statements as valid and pushing out more hate just so you can make some money.

We're gonna have a month of "already more people have registered for the presale than last year!" (because everyone who registered last year has been automatically registered). But yeah, will be interesting to see what happens in the actual presale

Regarding "this could only happen in wrestling" - it's pretty prevalent in music too.  Electronic music had a similar timed speaking out as wrestling (likely due to covid giving space for these sort of stories to come through).  A couple of accusations stuck - Eric Morrillo had too many stories to be ignored yet you still had tasteless support from people with big social media followins (I di realise the whiplash of stories coming out and then his suicide must have been difficult for friends who allegedly didn't know about anything but still... indicative of the societal view on all this)
However you've still got loads of people seeming getting plenty bookings despite overwhelming stories about their misdeads (Derick May being one big example)

Heck there's quite a lot of similar analogies with music as a whole; Shawn Michaels is pretty similar to your deified "definitely did wrong stuff but nothing stuck and people still tell stories as if it's all a bit of fun" musicians like Bowie and Jagger.  Yes you've got a few examples of people having to step away due to very clear allegations but plenty of people in all tiers of the buisness carrying on despite mutliple allegations (and then you've got the unquestioning defence by fans)

It's really not just a wrestling thing. It's a terrible people thing, terrible people in industries where they're  emboldened by buisnesses and fans that allow them to parlay their fame and/or power into unchecked abuse

Also I think this sort of sudden hot shotting is maybe acceptable around the world championship as there's a built in story - everyone should want the title.

(Obviously they had a specific timing thing here too although I appreciate they could've started booking/teasing this match earlier if they watned to)

I'm genuinely enjoying the stuff around the world title and the "anyone who's got enough cache might try and challenge" thing is holding it together well.  The way that's potentially connnecting people helping MJF for title shots adds particularly interesting developments and allows fun combinations of people in matches.

However, I think that's great for a storyline around the world title (which has, often, fallen into extremely repetitive payoffs). I'm not at all going to justify say booking half a PPV the week before it happens....

Drink like an alchoholic. Prank like a dickhead who pranks to ignore his own fear of growing up. Love like a lady who stayed in a marriage for years where she didn't love her partner. Work like a workaholic.

Boss like a person who's such a bad boss it's literally the premise of a sitcom

That house is fucked up.

Oh and apparently the Toni Storm bit was reflecting what was happening in the adverts playing (picture in picture)

Which is a really neat idea but also made for a confusing demented viewing for those watching not the advert version.  Confusing and demented isn't off brand for the character but yeah that might have been a bit too much...

23 hours ago, Dai said:

 

I dip in and out of AEW, and was shocked to see the state of Wardlow. What the hell happened?

He turned out to not be very good.

I mean he's definitely got potential under a good booker and with the right opponent. MJF dripping heel heat and generally being somewhat competent at putting together a storyline worked.

But Wardlow didn't have to do much there; look pissed off, powerbomb MJF's job squad, get whipped, powerbomb MJF 10 times.

After that him and Tony Khan's booking got exposed. Wardlow was a crap promo, has some good moves but matches of his never seem to have much spark when he's not powerbombing people or doing a cruiserweight spot. Couple that with some terrible storylines and weird choices with a title (likely done because he's not very good) and yeah it all seemed kinda shonky.

They keep trying cos at one point he looked like he'd be a big homegrown star and there's a chance of finding something that works ala Mark Henry (and as Supremo said, the fact he's likely going to be interacting with MJF means this run might be somewhat entertaining) but yeah you could probably just chalk all this up to "MJF is good at wrestling and can get a broom over"

It drives social media engagement. People are discussing it quite a lot on the different wrestling discussion platforms i frequent (although the sentiment being "what a twat")  I think it's genuinely seen as beneficial in an "any publicity" sort of way.

5 hours ago, air_raid said:

I disagree that the video that played before “You think you know me” took anything away from it, all it did was let you know someone was turning up but giving everyone chance to pause and think (without going full Michael Cole about it) Could it be…? I don’t think anything was lost in the surprise, given that not much is 100% surprising any more. Chicago was chanting for CM Punks name all night and right before he came out, they still lost their minds and it was still a timeless moment. Same here.

Yeah you can't really argue with the actual crowd reaction. There was a mega pop for the lights going out because a lot of people had a fair assumption about what that meant. The video seemed to sustain the reaction in, as you say, some sort of "will they won't they" state and then the reaction to "you think you know me" was bugnuts.

Obviously we can't compare to reactions if they hadn't done that but it really didn't sound like the video took the wind out of the crowd's sails and given the size of the second pop compared to the first it's hard to argue it didn't build some anticipation