Sphinx

It's partly the standard that AEW have set but the show was a bit flat for me.

MJF vs. Darby Allin was a great opener and probably my favourite of the night. JR's commentary was a bit ropey but it picked up a bit more through the show.

FTR vs. Lucha Brothers didn't work for me. The commentators said about how you could tell which of FTR was under the mask by the hair yet the referee couldn't figure it out. The match felt like it went on ages and, as has been said, the styles didn't mesh for me.

Kingston vs. Punk was decent too. I'm loving Kingston and look forward to seeing where things go with him.

Danielson vs. Miro was a let down for me. Obviously it wasn't bad considering the wrestlers in it, but it didn't feel like it built that much to the end. The finish itself seemed botched and it doesn't feel like a particularly memorable match. As has been said, I'm sure they could pull off a better match and I hope to see it down the line.

The Inner Circle vs. American Top Team thing was naff as expected. I don't understand why they've got the MMA guys doing traditional wrestling moves like vertical suplexes when they could be focussing on the things that they won titles with in MMA. I don't follow MMA, but if you were an MMA fighter you'd play to your strengths. And when they do throw their naff strikes, and I assume at least one of them is a good striker in MMA, they're going toe-to-toe with the wrestlers rather than trumping them on that.

I was a bit burnt out by the main event. Admittedly, I've not followed the story from the start and watched the YouTube compilations posted in here to get up to speed, but it was never in doubt to me that Page was winning so the drama was taken out of it for me a bit. The match itself was alright but it's the moment at the end that people are after and they gave it to the fans.

2 hours ago, BomberPat said:

It's all pretty meaningless in the grand scheme of things - we know who the companies responsible for the most carbon emissions are, and any meaningful climate action/protest needs to be directed at them, at the banks, and at the government. But I'd rather be doing something than nothing, particularly when that something isn't even really inconveniencing me in any substantial way.

Something I've seen more recently is changing your pension provider to one that divests from fossil fuels. That led me to look into bank accounts too. There's one called Triodos that finance green companies that popped up. It seems to have mostly good reviews and I've no loyalty to my bank other than being with them since 15. I'll have a proper look into it though as it still feels a little daunting switching everything over for whatever reason. 

I'm likely going to end my Game Pass because I only play a game at a time and even then it's very infrequent. It'd be cheaper for me to buy the games outright.

If I end my Game Pass membership, is there a way of keeping the game saves? I have a Yakuza 0 save I want to transfer to a bought version of the game.

Cheers!

COP26 has got me observing my lifestyle choices more, reading up on the climate crisis, and making some changes. Do you have any environmentally friendly practices you tend to keep? Has COP26 given you more impetus to make changes? 

Not exactly groundbreaking stuff but I feel that, whilst we should all try to do our bit individually, the system we live in needs an overhaul for us to be able to really minimise our impact on the planet. Whilst we live in a consumerist capitalist society we're accelerating down the wrong path. When our goal is a growth economy we're exacerbating the issue.

I feel one of the bigger changes I could personally be making is to get involved in something that puts government and corporations to task. I'm not particularly extroverted so struggle to see myself as the voice of activism but I believe there's ways for anyone to help. If anyone has any experience with this it'd be great to hear your stories.

Ready to crack on after the defeat to Watford.

12 hours ago, gmoney said:

Why should anyone earning big money on the top of a promotion at his age give a shit about their "legacy"?

Why wouldn't you? You want to leave behind a good body of work. Why should money change that? 

1 hour ago, BomberPat said:

Suzuki has been - I don't want to say coasting, but certainly heavily relying upon - his reputation for a little while now. Without knowing that reputation and history, I can see why his AEW appearances wouldn't really sell him to a first-time viewer.

I probably missed it on commentary but I only know now after looking on Wikipedia that he was a big part of MMA. I didn't realise he did MMA. I just thought his gimmick was he's got a screw loose and is pretty hard. Because he's older I've had to go along with it a bit trying to suspend my disbelief. Knowing that bit of his story helps add some legitimacy though. 

I know nothing of his matches in Japan so I imagine I'm missing out on quite a lot. He's better than the Japanese guy Mox faced at All Out who I thought was awful - he was going through the motions and pretty clumsy. I'm not that fussed about Suzuki from what I've seen though. 

22 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

EDIT: Something AEW have been doing well is getting coverage in mainstream publications that treats them like an exciting up-and-coming brand, rather than hokey old wrasslin' and all the usual editorial clichés. Mostly that's been built around Tony Khan, Cody and Brandi so far, but it's really somewhere that Bryan could excel, just as a public face of the company giving interviews to the likes of Forbes, Time Magazine, whatever.

That's a very good point and I guess not what I had in mind, simple as it is. I was thinking in terms of the usual media coverage they do.

I love him but I don't see it. He's a great guy but I don't see that he's gonna hit much more popularity than he already has by going onto more daytime shows or anything.

On the other hand, I think Big E has more you could get out of him on that front. Like Bryan, he's a decent guy and a funny guy, but he also looks like what people would expect a wrestler to look like. That might seem an outdated notion but I think to someone flicking through they'll instantly identify with him being a wrestler. 

Not that I'm saying Big E will be more successful, just that there's more potential extra you could get from him than has already been achieved (that WWE won't reach for a number of reasons). 

Amen about MITB and the wasted opportunity of telling the story of Big E winning it. Granted, I don't watch WWE these days, but that would have brought me back in as I've felt for ages that he could be the face of the company. This feels cold (to me who doesn't watch but clearly there's those who do watch in this thread who'll feel differently). 

I was gonna say it feels like it'd be hard to take MITB away without fans feeling like it's something being taken away from them but I guess they did it with King of the Ring after 2002 which was fine.

Gasolina was voted the 50th best song of all time. I'm out.

I did that this past weekend at New Order 😬 the guy is about 6'4, 18 stone and I'm 6'3. In fairness, it wasn't my idea and I felt I didn't deserve to be up there as I barely know any New Order songs so came down after a couple of minutes.

In general I don't mind people on shoulders as it adds to the atmosphere for me.

7 hours ago, RancidPunx said:

People in gyms who are stuck to their phones and move around the gym at a snails pace dragging their heels.

 

Fella yesterday, comes in all guns blazing . Within 10 mins he was sat on a weights bench texting on his phone . Just sat there doing fuck all. 

Seen a woman come in, phone stuck to her hand as she went about 1 mph on the treadmill, barely walking speed now. The phone never left her hand and her eyes never left her phone .

 

Does this not drive gym instructors mad .

I'm conscious I give that vibe off but only use my phone to put my reps in on an app straight after doing them. I have a PT so it's to log it for them too. I don't generally take more than a minute or two doing it but still don't wanna be seen as 'one of them'. 

I wouldn't say they're run like paupers. They spent £45m on Haller a few seasons back. In the past they've spent a fair whack on wages for players that haven't produced too. I think Andy Carroll was on about £100k a week. Kieron Dyer was on close to that going back, and obviously that was a higher rate back then.

They've made some smart signings for less money recently which is bringing them more success.

I don't think they've had strikers that were in high demand from other clubs, have they? Tevez obviously. Demba Ba, Bellamy. Mostly though, they've had a striker that'll get them about 10 in the league supplemented by some back ups that are dross, injured, or haven't clicked. They've not had ones approaching 20 goals a season for a long time anyway.

I think that's a gag that works better spoken...

I'm a Social fan which makes sense. I follow Norwich but I'm not a devout fan who goes to games regularly or am part of the fan community in any way. I followed Newcastle as a kid too (glory hunter) so I don't feel that devotion to clubs that most do. I'm interested in the game in general, trivia, and the business side of it. I'd like to learn more about the tactics but sometimes I'm put off. I loved Michael Cox's book on tactics in the Premier League but  Inverting The Pyramid was a slog. Having said that, I gave up some point in the 50s when I imagine I'd enjoy the latter half of the 20th Century more as it's more relatable. 

I was thinking recently how I've watched football since the age of 4 (I wonder how many months those 90 minutes would be accumulatively) and am still shit at knowing an offside in real time. I'm massively impressed by the work of referees and officials. 

I find I can still struggle to notice one player's contribution in a game too though usually in a team I'm less familiar with. Like a Man of the Match may pop up and I've not been that aware of their contribution. It was easier with England as I felt I knew the formation and line up and what they were going for as a system. 

I'm going to see New Order in a few weeks with Hot Chip and Working Men's Club as support. Also going to Manchester Psych Fest the weekend before with headliners Stereolab. I'll be at a Warehouse Project day and night festival the weekend after New Order.

I went to see techno artist Amelie Lens as my first indoor gig for my friend's birthday a few weeks back. I've never really given techno a go so it was a bit of a thrust into the deep end of first gig back. They said they'd be checking for negative lateral flow/PCR test results or proof you'd had Covid in the last 6 months upon entry but they didn't check with us at all which was pretty concerning.

It's interesting for me to think now how ancient Goldust, Godfather and, to a lesser extent, Big Boss Man seemed being in Rumble 02. I hadn't realised that Boss Man had returned the month before until recently but they seemed like they were from a different era to me. Being 10 years old I guess my concept of time was different but I still think that things went by at such a speed back then.

No Way Out 2001 really got me into wrestling. I'd played the games and watched Survivor Series 99 but that event was the start of my consistent watching. I loved the Three Stages of Hell match at the time as a 10 year old. I watched it back again a few years back and it was a right slog. 

I didn't understand why Stone Cold was facing The Rock at Wrestlemania when I'd just seen Triple H beat him.

Also remember being well excited by Just Bring It and being let down as most of the Invasion roster wasn't there. Couldn't believe the graphics on the Shut Your Mouth trailer the following year. 

Can anyone be worse than Derek Rae? 

12 hours ago, PowerButchi said:

Thing is, Ballet is art. Wrestling isn't. I'd suffer to be an artist, but I'd never take a bump when I was MCing. 

You can't compare MCing to wrestling. Who's 'suffering for their art' MCing?

2 hours ago, Chest Rockwell said:

Bluetooth is more secure due to the requirement for physical proximity. However, what you should really be doing is setting up a separate Guest network up on your router for all your smart devices to run off that Wi-Fi, and then keep all your personal devices on your main network. 

Interesting, will look into that too. Cheers

I'm looking at getting a smart light bulb (which I never thought I'd buy) but am aware that WiFi isn't particularly safe as people can use it to then hack into other devices. I've seen some now that can connect by Bluetooth. Would there be security issues connecting this way?