DCW

1 hour ago, Supremo said:

100% this. I can’t handle it. Like a weird uncanny valley of audio. It’s torturous.

They’ve finally defeated me with this sound mixing. I could put up with the strobing camera cuts. I could put up with the replicant dialogue. I could put up with everyone standing around backstage in 2D like Paper Mario. I could put up with the commentators sounding like prisoners of war. I could put up with the endless rematches. I could put up with the one-note characters doing the same thing forever. I could put up with Charlotte. But this audio mixing is too much. It’s psychically impossible to sit through.

You’d hope this is one of those kicks that doesn’t last, like the purple ropes for cruiserwight matches or the no-wrestling-during-ad-breaks thing, but if it becomes permanent? They’ve finally overproduced their shows to the point of no return.

I've not watched Raw in years, but is this the same bad obviously piped in crowd noise that would be used on the recorded Smackdown episodes of years ago? madness they're doing it during live episodes now, especially when crowds are actually enthusiastic to be able to attend in person again.

Only WWE could ruin having actual fans regularly back in the arena for the first time in a year. I bet mad Vince & Kevin Dunn preferred the Thunderdome!

Modern day version of the Sean O Haire 'I'm not telling you anything you didn't already know' gimmick. Fantastic concept and the vignettes before he debuted were great, but they found it hard to make interesting or follow it up in wrestling matches and storylines.

Maybe a company other than WWE might have made it work, but they drove any interest in the character into the ground with the lazy repetitive feuds and hokey supernatural shite. He ended up dragging down anyone who he was paired up with the last few years as well.

He had a good run though for a lad without the usual WWE look or the ability to put on 5 star matches etc.

I don't think Bryan would go down the bashing/anti WWE route in promos anyway, even if AEW let him do/say whatever he wants. He's not a bitter person and he surpassed all expectations in WWE anyway. 2 Mania main events, multiple time world champion and he met his missus there. 

I don't think Punk could resist the urge to have a pop, and in fairness as much as I found him bland as feck in ring, he is a cracking promo. Heel, money grabbing bastard character Punk would be fantastic.  I'm happy if we get either, but again like many here I'd lean slightly towards Bryan if I had to choose just for the line up of matches possible. 

Great times to be a wrestling fan anyway, cheers Tony!

2 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

While yes WWE routinely fuck up NXT call ups, there's not any I can think of that had genuine main event potential in WWE. At least not any on the mens side. Whoever was hiring and training them up in the OVW and FCW days seemed to have a better clue than Trips.

Balor had potential when he debuted and was treated like a massive deal, but he was fucked when he got injured by poxy Rollins in his first universal title defence. All the momentum was lost from that and he was just another lad occasionally playing dress up (no explanation really given why he does that) and prancing about in with an long, overly choreographed entrance when he returned.

Finn coming out to interrupt Sami but still doing his perfectly choreographed entrance looked a bit ridiculous. Why wouldn't Sami (who was losing his rag with the crowd before the interruption) just cut him off? 

I dunno, was good seeing fans back but the whole show seems so sterile and played out. I'll stick to dipping in & out of AEW I think.

Bit the bullet & booked flights and accommodation for August to visit my pals in Edinburgh & London who I haven't seen for 2 years. I'm fully pfizer'd and we're opening up non essential travel from next week so hopefully I'll be able to make it over before the inevitable lockdowns again. Even the minor change of scenery will be a big boost at this stage!

I love the 2000 Raw era set with the two slim trons either side of the giant tron screen, and before they had the electronic spinning WWF logo behind where the wrestlers walk out. Reminds me of us getting Sky in and finally being able to watch the whole show and not rely on Superstars & Metal of a Sunday morning, well the months the bill got paid anyway!

I always thought the contract signing segment with Punk & Vince (Cena only really shows up at the end) the week later was better than the pipe bomb promo. Watched it the other week when it popped up on Youtube and the chemistry between Punk and (a still human looking/acting) Vince is fantastic. But yeah, WWE managed to balls up any intrigue the whole 'Punk leaves with the title' had by having him show up so soon after walking out. Then dropping it to Del fucking Rio of all people and the  subsequent HHH/Nash shite.

MITB is so meaningless & watered down now that I couldn't tell you who won any of recent years ones. The last MITB I can properly remember is Punk winning it during the Ric Flair retirement Mania in Florida, which must be 12/13 years ago at this stage.

Assume if you're not a Lego VIP you'll have no chance of getting one?

Bigger question is what was Vince doing at a Chapelle gig? assume he thought Shelton had become a comedian or something.

A tweet from Ian (about Alan Green's commentary of England/Scotland at Euro 96) got a mention on the Second Captains podcast yesterday, from about 9:40 or so below.

https://soundcloud.com/secondcaptains/ep-2064-concern-for-christian-eriksen-dominates-the-euros-three-points-for-three-lions-14621

I've not checked the episode order so I just play the latest episode on watch wrestling each week hoping for the plane ride from hell. Once I saw the warning screen this week of 'contains accounts of abuse and incest' I noped the feck out of that.

2 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

Always find the cuts confusing. Like why sack all these guys but keep Baron Corbin, Ziggler and all the other dead weight?

I'm also of the opinion that WWE are preparing for a sale or at least a massive offload of stock. Everything they are doing recently seems to be leading towards a big change. Vince knows his time is coming up and maybe Steph or Hunter are happy to cash out and move on? Whatever they are planning they seem to have no actual interest in the wrestling side of things anymore. Complete autopilot. 

Likes of Ziggler.Corbin probably are not on huge money, do what they're told, aren't annoying twats backstage/heatseekers in public eye and are happy enough to plod along in full knowledge they'll never amount to much in the company.

Got my first Pfizer jab this morning and happy to report no side effects as of yet, besides wolfing  down 4 Tesco ring donuts and a pot of tae when I got back home. Date for 2nd jab next  month too. Delighted. Nurse also laughed at my crap 'no sign of Bill Gates knocking about outside' quip that I'm sure she's heard 1000 times before at this stage too,

I had a lockdown date just before Christmas with this lovely girl I'd been chatting to on tinder. Pubs were only allowed sell takeaway drink so agreed to meet her for a hot whiskey, cos it was a lovely crisp, cold evening. 

Met her outside the pub (Palace on Fleet Street in Dublin, great pub) and was amazed she'd agreed to meet me  at all seeing as how well out of my league she was.  We got on well, good craic and so we agreed we'd have another hot whiskey and then one more. 

She was cycling home so agreed no more after that, and I chanced my arm and went for a kiss as we said our goodbyes. Again went great and minimum awkwardness after. As she was about to jump on her bike she realised she was bursting to use the toilet, of which there were none. 

After a bit of thinking she said she'd have to go down one of the horrible laneways that are behind the street, and I said I'd check the lane first and then stand guard (and whistle to muffle any wee noises) as she used the facilities.

Unfortunately as I was standing there like a weirdo in the dark, whistling, down a dank laneway, the cops cycled by and asked what the fuck I was doing. I eventually explained and they shouted for her to come out. But, unbeknownst to me she'd heard the cops arrival and knowing she had a tiny bit of weed on her, had slunk away down the other end of the lane.

So I looked like a complete an utter nutter to the two police lads and never saw yer one again as she was too embarrassed to meet me after that. I deleted tinder soon after.

1 hour ago, The King Of Swing said:

Sons of Sam started well enough imo but completely lost me in episode 3 and I gave up early in episode 4.

A longer version of the first episode would have been better than the shite it turned into after that.

Anything interesting/important usually turns up here. 

Pre internet it was Power Slam and whichever WWF magazines cover looked least like a gay porn magazine that month.

GP texted me out of the blue with the offer of a Pfizer hit next Friday. The health service here are only on the 50's age bracket on the national jab rollout so I assume it's some sort of mistake on my GP's part seeing as I'm 33 and have no underlying conditions. But will turn up and hope for the best I suppose. 

Vince faking his death was never really executed beyond the limo explosion. Wonder where that would have ended up going if the Benoit craic hadn't occurred.

Anyone different is surely a good thing. They have plenty of proper women's wrestlers have been there years and have zero character/personality whatsoever.

At least Eva if used correctly (I know) might garner a bit of heat, and not go away/change the channel heat like Natalya, Nia, Tamina etc.

I've never watched the one show, but thats some astoundingly random collection of guests. Like they just kidnapped guests at a film premiere or something!

Sad enough stuff as expected, particularly what happened to the kids before Pillman's sister took them in. Yer one Melanie is a horrible excuse for a human being altogether. 

Strongest overall episode of This Time so far, a good bit above the Martin Brennan/Come on Eileen show which was my favourite up til now.

Besides the excellent prison segment, poor Simon & his porridge, Jenny turning the screw and the John Thompson cameo- Alan nervously flirting with the makeup girl was great too. 'Please don't report me, I'll be suspended!'

Yeah I watched it there. Rock interrupts Punk/Bryan segment to tell us he's getting a WWE title match at  Rumble, 7 odd months away. He wishes Punk luck in his title defence vs Cena later on that night, calls Bryan an oompa loompa and gives him a rock bottom and is away off. Definitely didn't bode well for any potential feud!

Wasn't there a slight chance we might have gotten Bryan Vs Rock for the WWE title? Remember Punk on the Cabana pod saying that if he didn't want to turn heel and drop the title to Rock, they would have (heel at the time) Bryan beat Punk and do it instead. Would have been amazing to see!