Accident Prone

4 hours ago, The Dart said:

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What makes Meltzer's comments more comical is him saying she was written out of storylines so she can go get the cosmetic surgery....yet she appears on the show the next week.

 

4 hours ago, DavidB6937 said:

Your experience is absolutely the same as mine. It took a little time but yeah, once you get the hang of it and the upgrades etc it's not nearly as difficult as it first seems. Definitely one worth persevering with.

Good to know! Probably didn't help that I started the game late and thus only had a couple hours of game time, so it's one that I'll leave until the weekend for a proper sesh.

Got gifted £20 PS credit for my birthday so I grabbed Spiderman on PS4 (along with Yakuza 0). Had a play around for a couple hours last night and although it looks spectacular, the controls feel a little overly-complex (especially compared to the Arkham series). I even died a whole bunch of times very early on as my timing is way off and I just end up button-bashing. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it soon though, as I've heard very good things.

27 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

I've always got it done through the GP, they'll just get you an appointment with the nurse there.

See that's the thing. When I went to the GP with this issue the first time about 10 years ago, I was refereed to the Walk-in centre for syringing as it was the only place in Brum that offered such service under the NHS. I'd occasionally ask every now & again during check-ups and be given the same answer. So I'm hoping they book me in with the WIC straight away, instead of going through two weeks of the oil treatment again, doomed to repeat the circle.

22 minutes ago, Chili said:

@Accident Prone same as you but replace ear with mental health breakdown and then going in a massive circle to the first person you called to begin with.

Fucking hell, mate,. See this is why I hate calling up 111, because I always feel like someone needs that service more.

Solidarity to @johnnyboyand @SuperBacon! One of the best feelings is the sound of the world literally opening up as you leave the nurse's office with fresh ears. Every little car horn and unruly public nuisance is like music.

I was going to make this a "Moan about the health care system" thread but this is more catch-all.

So I "suffer" from small ear canals, which means wax builds ups heavily in my ears. Once or twice a year I'll go gradually completely deaf, which means dropping a load of olive oil down my lugs twice per day for a fortnight before getting them syringed (basically having warm water shot through your canal via a small, powerful hose) at my local NHS walk-in center.

So I got the usual gradual loss of hearing through March, took the two weeks to soak them in olive oil (they won't clean your ears out unless you go through that practice first) and when nothing had changed I was set for my annual ear-cleansing.

But we are in a pandemic, so the Walk-In Centre aren't taking in actual walk-ins. You have to call 111 to get an appointment. I hate annoying the customer service folk so I did the online form instead, which directed me to my local pharmacy to buy olive oil. Ah. Y'see, once you reach two weeks with no change you shouldn't apply any more as it can cause infection. So I can't just buy more oil, I need the cleaning work.

So I call 111 instead and go through the exact same questions as the online questionnaire, and the person on the other line isn't listening to a thing I'm saying in between. She directs me to my local pharmacy to buy more olive oil. I explain that I've already done that & I need to book an appointment at my walk-in centre. She insists that I call the pharmacy as they will "sort me out" and she even sends them a referral. So I call the pharmacy.

"All we can do is sell you ear wax removal oil".

Brilliant.

So now I'm stuck with a totally blocked left ear and a right ear that's about to start losing it's own hearing, and I'm up shits creek. I'm going to try booking an apportionment with my GP but I can see this going the same way.

So yeah. I'm officially an old man with old man health problems, doing things that old men do like moan about the health service and customer services.

9 hours ago, Chris B said:

Is it great heat though? If you piss people off to the point where they don't come back, that's not 'heat', that's just pissing people off. Especially when it's just ripping off Connor McGregor, word-for-word, except with much worse delivery.

As an unabashed fan of Ospreay's in-ring work, this is 100% true. If they'd gone ahead with this title reign but without the cringe heel bollocks and Attitude-era horseshit, it would've landed so much better. It's easy to separate the art from the artist when you aren't constantly bringing up how much of a twat the artist is. Remember this is pro wrestling, that bar is already incredibly low. 

Instead, we have to go all HEEEAAAATTTT with it, and lets be honest here, New Japan has been turning into a Memphis heat promotion for a while now. It started with Jay White and G.O.D, went to the next level with EVIL and his cronies, and now we're back to another heel champion who just so happens to be as big a prick in real life.

So great. I don't want to watch Ospreay's matches because I'm constantly reminded of his real life transgressions, he's got a heel stable backing him so we'll be back to constant interference again, it's during a pandemic so the fans can't even boo or show their displeasure (which is the whole point of doing these fucking angles in the first place) and they've totally fucked off Ibushi's title reign.

I've been clamouring for an Ibushi title reign for years, and it's almost like his hard work netted him a consolation prize instead of the proper run he deserved. A few title defences in front of heatless crowds (including a defence against fucking SANADA and a long-winded snorefest with Jay White), being the first champion of that awful new belt and lineage, and dropping it first thing to Will fucking Ospreay, who was the wrestling equivalent of marmite even before he crowd funded a replacement for his mom's car.

So yeah, I' m pretty much done with New Japan. They had a fantastic , near-perfect run from 2012 to 2019, but the game is up. Pro wrestling is all about punching the ticket, taking the ride and knowing when to get off. Well I'm off New Japan Pro Wrestling until they get their shit together.

I've got an eternal soft spot for Korn, if only because the goffs/sk8ers at school were all referred to as 'KornBods' by the townies and normal folk. I always make sure to see them whenever they happen to be part of a festival that I'm attending, despite being unfamiliar and unimpressed with their post-2005 material.

Uh-oh; Sony is pulling all PSP, PS3 and VITA content from their stores over the summer.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-03-22-sonys-ps3-psp-and-vita-digital-stores-reportedly-closing-for-good-this-summer

This is real shit news and is the main negative side-effect to digital gaming; it can just disappear. I'd wager a lot of games on the store have physical releases but you'll be paying out of the arse for them, especially now their value will skyrocket even more. 

For the VITA, it's less shit. I wont say why so as to not break any forum rules, but it's quite easy to sail the high seas with the VITA, if you catch my drift.

15 minutes ago, Perry said:

I remember Meltzer saying that Marc Mero was supposed to have a big feud with Austin in '98, but that was before they made him look like a chump when they would have Sable powerbomb him, Austin told them where to stick their idea after that. Ironically Mero was gone by the end of '98.

Similarly, Doctor Death was brought in to trample through the Brawl 4 All tournament and go on to challenge Austin for the strap. Of course those plans hit the bin lid when the good doctor got KO'ed by Bart Gunn in the second round.

1 hour ago, Supremo said:

Still the right move having Goldberg beat The Fiend for the Title, mind. The twelve months that followed that should have silenced even the biggest Bray Wyatt fans.

If anything, that Goldberg loss only strengthened their resolve as they will not shut the fuck up about it. I mean, the Kevin Owens fans quickly let it go, and I have to imagine that both fanbases have a pretty large cross-section. It's so odd.

I've previously wrote about my love of 2016/2017. The brand split, and more importantly Smackdown, offered a chance to really make a go at a format that I believe is actually extremely beneficial when done correctly. It just so happens that like all things that WWE touches, they can't help but ruin it in 18 months. Ah well, WWE does what WWE does (which is turn chicken salad into chicken shit).

Anyway, here's what I would put into a Best Of 2016 - 2020* set, in no particular order. You'll notice that 2019 and 2018 don't get the same shine as 2016/2017, as that's when WWE went completely off the rails and lost me as a regular viewer, probably for good,

*of course there's jack shit from 202).

What's also great about this period of time, is that there's so much excellent stuff from NXT, the Cruiserweight Classic, the Mae Young Classic and even 205 Live (remember those blistering Ali vs Murphy matches?) as well, but I've kept within the parameters of just the main roster.

- KofiMania

-Rousey/Angle vs HHH/Steph

- Owens vs Jericho storyline (leave the blow-off match in the bin)

- The Undertaker/Brock mini-feud

- Cesaro continuing his PPV tag match after getting his teeth knocked out on the ring post.

- Miz vs Ziggler in a Title vs. Career match (one of the only times that we've ever given a shit about Dolph)

- Brock vs Goldberg feud

- The Cena vs Styles feud

- The 2019 Men's MITB match (terrible finish aside)

- The big lads world title match at Summerslam 2017

- The Survivor Series 2016 RAW vs Smackdown match

- Bit of a cheat here, but Smackdown in general being a really neat little show for 18 months, ushering in the 'Smackers'-era

- The Daniel Bryan/Miz segment on Talking Smack

- The Rumble debut of AJ Styles

- The Rumble return of Edge

- Becky vs Charlotte, Last Woman Standing

- The Styles vs Reigns matches

- DBRY VS LSNR

-  Zayn vs Owens being given their big PPV match before they drilled it into the ground

- Styles taking on Balor and Lesnar in back-to-back PPV bangers

- Seth Rollins going over an hour in a RAW gauntlet match

- Extreme Rules getting into a habit of putting on tasty multi-man matches like Miz vs Cesaro vs Owens vs Zayn and Joe vs Bálor vs Reigns vs Rollins vs Wyatt

It's not a lot really when compared to other periods of time, and would look a hell of a lot more beefier with the additional highlights from the other brands, but it was a swell time while it lasted...mostly.

13 hours ago, robinbobs said:

 

10 hours ago, oliloveslynn said:

 

3 hours ago, BomberPat said:

Double or Nothing is a bank holiday weekend, though, iirc

Weirdly enough, I've never had bank holiday Monday off unless I've actually booked it as holiday so it's never jumped out to me.

I'd still prefer a Saturday night PPV either way but I feel that I'm in the minority with that one. It doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, just means going through the work day spoiler free and then trying to carve time on a Monday evening to watch a four hour PPV.

49 minutes ago, pol_pot_rick said:

They've already announced Double or Nothing as a Sunday show. 

FFS. They really had something cool going on there to keep us across the pod more engaged. Ah well.

1 hour ago, ThommoLincs said:

Can someone please sell me on Oblivion /Elder Scrolls/Morrowind. 

I tried to play oblivion years ago and gave up after an hour. 

I had the same experience with Fallout 3. Played it for an hour when it was first released, didn't play it again until a few years later when I had a second attempt and it hooked me to the point where my wedding had a massive NUKA WORLD banner hanging from the balcony. What I'm trying to say is that most Bethesda open-world games take a couple tries to get into...except Fallout 76, don't touch that with a barge pole.

1 hour ago, DavidB6937 said:

It was a shame to see the ratings down this week, especially off the back of a mostly solid PPV. I'm hoping some of the clips from Dynamite this week do the rounds and get them back up to where they should be.

I phased out my weekly AEW Thursday Morning Dynamite watch as the pandemic hit. No matter how many wrestlers you cram into the ringside area, or how many bubbles of fans you stick in the venue, it's still not the same as a full-on crowd. However, I would always watch the Dynamite after one of their PPV's because the shows were usually consistent enough to hook me to try watching the next Dynamite.

This may sound shit, but the ending of Revolution put me right off watching the next Dynamite and I'd wager a lot of people thought the same. The show was solid and I really enjoyed the opener and Mox/Omega, but when Eddie and Mox were selling the effects of that fart in church like it was death, I was so embarrassed that I couldn't bear to give them the 90 minutes this week to worm their way around it.

That's how fickle fans are, and I'm very aware of it. End of the day though, if the big moment that you've been hyping up fails to deliver, then I'm going to be less than inclined to check out the follow-up.

Earlier this week on their flagship podcast, Voices Of Wrestling double-downed on their theory of Pat McAfee being AEW-bound. Well, whether he's trolling the fans, joining in on the fun or being legit, he just posted this vid;

1 hour ago, RancidPunx said:

Can this be purchased on the fite app ?

 

Get $10 off the PPV with my code (k6qk6ym) if you're signing up to FITE for the first time 😉

Absolutely gutted that this isn't on tonight. I had plans to wake up extra early tomorrow morning with a large cup of coffee and a bevvy of breakfast snacks, nestled comfortably in the living room whilst the rest of the house slept.

Now I'll have to skip through it on Monday morning before work. They had a real good thing going with those Saturday night PPVs, just like NXT did. Now they've both fucked it.

44 minutes ago, digitalversicolor said:

I was thinking Raven as well for some mad reason. I initially thought Nick Gage, but he may be the sixth guy in the ladder match, either way I'm convinced he'll show up in AEW at some point.

Hoping that Nick shows up during Moxley/Omega to cost someone the match (most likely Moxley as I assume he'll be taking time off for paternity leave in the maddest way possible).

Eddie Kingston was the feel-good AEW story of 2020, and 2021 should belong to H8 CLUB. EASTERN BLOCK. GANG AFFILIATED. M-D-K AAAALLL FUCKING DAY. THE MAN. THE KING. THE FUCKING GOD OF THIS SHIT. NICK. FUCKING. GAGE.

Just because they used the term "Hall Of Fame worthy" doesn't mean that they aren't already in a HoF, it just means they're worthy of the title "Hall Of Famer". I mean Drew Carey, Johnny Rodz and William “The Refrigerator” Perry are all in WWE's HoF, but they're hardly essential to pro wrestling's history.

AEW are just saying that the person coming in has real good credentials and decent name value.

Had just under four quid in my PS account so I managed to scrape together the following games for £3.91; Hue, Manuel Samuel, Human Fall Flat, Little Acre, Downwell, Oxenfree, Dear Esther and The Flame In The Flood. Hue and Downwell are both highly-rated and are Vita crossplay titles too so it's already a real good deal.

Played and completed Manuel Samuel last night in around four hours; it's an entertaining and endearing romp but by fucking God is the gameplay frustrating. You control Samuel's limbs and eyes and breathing and other miscellaneous actions through button presses (R2 and L2 control your right and left legs when walking, for example), and I get that it's meant to show how difficult a simple task can be when you're controlling each bodily function individuality, but in the later stages the controls become piss poor.

There's a boss fight where you have to use swords, and parrying becomes difficult because you can only execute it once Samuel has stopped dead in his tracks. So if you're walking or in the middle of some other action, you can only execute a parry once Samuel is back in his neutral position, which is often way too late. To me, that's a design flaw disguised as a game mechanic. It really left a sour taste in my mouth once it was all over, but hey, it's cost about 50p and the first half was still very enjoyable.

The FMW tribute match was the talk of the town in the days following the announcement, then the Big Show rocked up and the HoF tease took over for the final week of hype. I'm not even watching week-to-week and I think that's a great build as it keeps a constant spin on what's going on.

And here's my HoF prediction; Shane McMahon.

With ZSJ, it's more a feeling of massive disappointment and frustration rather than one of anger. He was prepared to be as outspoken as possible when it came to politics, animal cruelty and social issues but he hasn't touched his social media accounts ever since Speaking Out brought up a boatload of allegations against his mates and peers. Not a fucking peep from the man whose entrance music on the indie scene was 'Mother' by IDLES, which includes lyrics like;

"Sexual violence doesn't start and end with rape
It starts in our books and behind our school gates
Men are scared women will laugh in their face
Whereas women are scared it's their lives men will take".

As I said, it's very disappointing and disheartening but looking back with hindsight I can't say I'm surprised anymore. 

I'm going to do my best to lay out the Ospreay situation here. I had doubts about whether I should post this or not considering the sensitive nature of it all, and I'll most likely regret posting this. I hope I don't, as it should help people make an informed decision.

The accusation was initially; Will blackballed a rape victim by continuously booking the accused (who was a friend of his) and using his power in the industry to make sure that the victim was either not booked, or had their booking cancelled, in promotions where he had some sway.

In June of last year, during Speaking Out, one of the promotions confirmed that Will forced them to unbook the victim (as Unfitfinlay and King Of Swing have shown examples of), then later in the year they walked it back by tweeting out that Will never actually forced them to do anything and it was all down to the venue.

Will has proven himself to be a bit of a twat previously (calling out a wrestler for heading home early from a Japan tour because she had a death in the family, milking his fanbase for cash in order to buy his mum a new car, making snide comments towards the victim when the initial allegations first surfaced), so even when removing the venue/promotion confusion, you can still form an opinion on if he's on your shit list.

Maybe Will contacted the venue and got them to play the middle man in removing the victim's bookings? Maybe he contacted the promotion and made them walk their initial statement back? Or maybe he didn't do any of those things, and the venue and/or promotion made a decision independently.

No matter what, the hard truth of the entire matter is that there is a victim of a horrendous assault at the centre of all this. That should trump everything. That's why it felt absolutely ghastly to type all that out, because ultimately the actions and consequences in this are all very, very real.