BomberPat

17 minutes ago, Statto said:

The major problem I can see with that storyline is I find it hard to believe they'd be able to resist boiling it down to Triple H (NXT, new direction) vs Stephanie/Vince (main roster, old direction) and I really don't want to see another rehash of a McMahon family feud.

That's the danger, and I was thinking that as I wrote it. You'd have to hope that the crux of the writing was down to the NXT booking team, not the main roster, but as soon as McMahons start getting involved, it's not going to work out that way.

To put my fantasy booking hat on, I'd keep the McMahons out of it, and have Triple H as the heel. Distance him from the babyface "creator" of NXT, and let William Regal be the sole figure of authority for that brand.

I'd have started on the RAW after Wrestlemania, I would have had Finn Balor turn heel on Seth Rollins on his return, the first time they tagged together, and have him explain that it was Rollins who put him on the shelf and took his title, and he was torn between revenge on Seth and coming back focused and driven to just get his championship back - until Triple H offered him some huge incentive to eliminate Seth Rollins, and made the decision so much easier.

Then you'd have a nice little heel stable of Finn Balor, Kevin Owens and Samoa Joe with Triple H pulling the strings, and what do they all have in common? Former NXT Champions. And so was Seth Rollins, Triple H's boy before them. You could explain that the whole time Triple H was bragging about signing these guys, working so closely with them in NXT, he was effectively weaponising the development system, and using it to produce not just the stars of the future, but his stars of the future, the way he's been doing ever since Evolution, and shaping the company in his image, allowing him to keep a tight grip on the reins of power.

Then you either have Triple H go down to NXT, or Regal pop up on RAW, and the two face off with Regal furious about Triple H using NXT like that. You can play into their real life history, and the real life history of NXT, and have a bit of a power-play of WWE Corporate backed by Triple H against NXT stars backed by Regal about the future of the brand. It could play well into Bobby Roode's gimmick to have him as Triple H's stand-in on the NXT shows themselves. Then you can do one or two cross-brand matches at Takeover, while on the main roster the story mostly remains Triple H & His Boys against Seth Rollins, with the NXT aspect not really playing into it much if at all. It could create a built-in storyline for NXT call-ups, especially Nakamura as a defiant former NXT Champion refusing to play Triple H's games.

There's probably a thousand reasons it wouldn't work, but that's the idea I've had basically since Samoa Joe debuted on RAW.

Yep, lead fella was in Hollyoaks. It's got Gillian Anderson and Crispin bloody Glover in it, too!

3 minutes ago, Ambulance Chaser said:

I think Bray should be seen looming in the distance/background at NXT events for a reasonable time, and actually recruit Killian Dain, do what cult leaders do.....turn his head and bring him to Raw, in the Wyatt family version 2. Let him recruit a new army. Then have EY either go singles as a gatekeeper type or put him in a comedy, feel good style tag team, he is great at being a goof.

Totally agree on both points. Dain's a much better fit for the Wyatt Family than Sanity - though would probably end up with the same booking problems I explained earlier - and Eric Young seems a bizarre choice to me as an anarchist group leader, who could be better served in a more comedic role. I think part of the problem with Sanity is that for all extents and purposes they're Wyatt Family 2.0, and is there really a gap for that on the main roster? It hurts all of them by making them look like a second go-round at an idea that hasn't even had chance to die yet.

I like the idea of Wyatt lurking around NXT to recruit people - I know the point of NXT is that it's a separate entity, but I think it would be nice to have a little crossover with the main roster more often, like back in it's early days when Cesaro would pop down for a match now and then. It only makes sense that someone like Wyatt would be looking to recruit from the stars of the future. The only time they've come close to that, that I can remember is Seth Rollins showing up to call out Triple H, apparently being the first person in the whole company to realise that babyface boss Triple H who shows up to open every big NXT show is the same bloke who plays the baddy on Monday nights.

A while back, they did a great little self-contained story on one episode of NXT where Eva Marie got a title shot against Bayley. William Regal was away, so Michael Cole was down there representing "WWE Corporate" in charge that week, they had Charles Robinson as referee for the Women's Title match, and it seemed that "WWE Corporate" wanted Eva as champion and were taking the opportunity of Regal's absence to stack the odds against Bayley. I loved that, and kind of hoped it would lead to something a little more long-term, playing up the disconnect between main roster WWE and the more "underground"/indie feel that NXT goes for. Would have been a good excuse to send some main roster heels down to NXT for the odd big match and get some experience for the NXT guys coming up, and maybe get some of the NXT lot on RAW or Smackdown - I'm picturing it as something akin to the ECW invasion in '97.

Watched the first two episodes of American Gods last night. I don't watch a lot of "proper" telly, and outside of Doctor Who it's been years since I really committed to watching a series of anything week-by-week, so it feels frustrating not being able to just binge watch this!

It was astonishingly well shot and directed, though perhaps overdid the extreme close-ups, and Ian McShane is a delight throughout. I can only imagine it's horrendously confusing to anyone watching without having read the book, though - it was bad enough that it was me and a friend watching, both of us love the book but haven't read it in years, and were constantly turning to each other saying something like, "hang on, what's this bit?". Maybe a little too gratuitous for both of us - a little too much dicks and fannies for my tastes, and a little too much decapitation for her's - but mostly brilliant, looking forward to seeing how it shapes up.

Sanity have the problem any big lad stable does in WWE.

Killian Dane should be protected as an unstoppable beast - and in singles matches often is - but as soon as Eric Young's in the mix, he's just a big expendable mook. The big lads are never able to get over, because they have to spend half their time being knocked about by people trying to get at Eric Young.

Nikki's the best part of the whole act, but was more interesting when she was beating up on No Way Jose than she ever has been in the women's division. I did like her "Ruby, come out and play" promo the other week, just because it was more in character and more interesting than doing a standard "stand in the ring and call out your rival" bit, so there's at least some effort to make her gimmick work.

What I don't like with Nikki is how they're presenting the whole feud with Ruby Riot. I'll add the caveat that I'm a big fan of Ruby, I've worked with her in the past and really want to see her succeed in WWE, but the way they're handling her in NXT just doesn't work for me. The announcers keep banging on about how might be just as crazy as Nikki...but then Ruby's doing perfectly calm promos, making a logical case for why she has a problem with Sanity. There just seems to be a massive disconnect between the story the wrestlers are telling and the story the announcers are telling.

Ha, I remember seeing the VHS of Slant-Eyed Slaughter on eBay years back. Madness.

On ‎08‎/‎05‎/‎2017 at 7:41 PM, tiger_rick said:

 Worst thing about this show though was Monsoon. I've always liked Gorilla. Loved even. What an arrogant cunt he is throughout this though. He makes a pretending to be hungover Heenan sympathetic.

I've noticed this watching some older stuff on the Network lately too - he can come across as a right prick at times, and I don't remember that at all!

I love that they gave Dean Malenko a ladies' man gimmick, and his response was to still act and wrestle exactly the same as he always did. The announcers trying to get him over as a charming lothario all the while.

True - the better part of 20 years ago people were saying Jeff would be in a wheelchair by X age, and he's still sodding doing it.

Exactly. But it's a peculiar right wing trait to be more concerned with "winning" an argument (even if nobody else was actually having said argument) and accusing the left wing or "progressives" of being hypocrites than with having any real ideology of their own.

Particularly the alt-right types, they're utterly defined by what they oppose, they don't stand for anything.

I think the reason people are saying it was a work is that Evans was seen back and walking around fine after the show - it's possible that he was just checked over and told that he'd be alright if he just took it easy, or whatever. Unless Meltz has something else on it, I don't think that's enough to write it off as a work. It also doesn't strike me as something Konnan would book - Konnan's booking The Crash, right?

And my first question almost any time someone claims a seemingly shoot incident is a work - where's the payoff? Not only that, but if Jack Evans can sell well enough to convince people he's seriously hurt and having a legit seizure, why hasn't he been doing that for the past fifteen years?

10 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

 Some people think you can only complain about one issue at a time. 

That might be my pet hate when it comes to internet discourse. "Why are you complaining about X when Y is happening?" - because, miraculously, I'm capable of holding multiple opinions at one time.

11 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

How do they know I'm doing nothing about Saudi Arabia?  As a member of Amnesty, I find most campaigns are centred on Saudi Arabia, but I'm just a do gooder.

This one's always amusing too. When people were protesting/marching after Trump was elected, or for his proposed state visit, I saw a lot of, "nobody marched when we gave state visits to China/the Saudis/insert despotic regime here" comments, to which I amused myself by pointing out that, actually, they did.

9 minutes ago, Chest Rockwell said:

Disagree with your statement that 'if they gave a shit they wouldn't eat meat at all' though, Keith.

Again, with the caveat that I'm a filthy veggie, I do see that point, though. If someone objects in principle to Halal slaughterhouses on animal cruelty grounds, it implies a knowledge of how non-Halal slaughterhouses operate and implies that the individual is perfectly happy with how they operate. I suspect this isn't true of many people complaining about Halal.

5 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

Again anecdotal, maybe I need new friends, but I notice those ban the burqa types say so on the grounds of female oppression, then also post those "A gentleman looks after his lady" type gubbins.

Indeed. There are, of course, problems with the treatment of women in some areas of Islamic culture, but you can tell there's a lot of people who use it a stick to simultaneously beat Islam and Western feminism with; they can accuse Muslims of hating women while also accusing feminists and "leftists", of those going on Women's Marches and the likes, of being hypocrites or whatever for not specifically fighting against sexism in Islamic culture. It's a lazy argument, but one that makes just enough sense to make them sound like they have a point.

Someone on a local politics Facebook group made that argument against me once - the whole "if you're marching for women's rights, why aren't you protesting the treatment of women in Saudi Arabia", the usual shit - to which I asked, childishly, "well what are you doing about women's rights in Saudia Arabia?".

20 minutes ago, westlondonmist said:

What happened to that Kota Ibushi institute thing? I'm guessing it was a dream child that he put no thought into.

People say NJPW waste him in his role, but he was the one who didn't want to sign a contract so I don't blame them for not wanting to push him. If he signed I think he would have won the IC title by now. If he were to take up the Tiger Mask full time I would say why not. Tiger Mask IV is far past his best but I would worry about what he would do if he lost the gimmick.

I doubt anything happened with the Kota Ibushi Wrestling Research Institute or whatever it was - like you said, probably put no thought into it. It was never particularly clear what it even was anyway. It seemed to just be a booking agency of which he was the only client, combined with a platform for him to suggest stuff like the three-sided ring. He made it clear it was never intended to be a promotion - though I would be extraordinarily curious to find out what a promotion booked by Kota Ibushi would look like!

I agree, that if anyone's to blame for Kota not getting a bigger push it's Kota. If he'd signed an exclusive contract with NJPW, he'd be a major star by now, and probably deep into a programme with Kenny Omega. I hadn't heard the story of him requesting to be Tiger Mask, but it wouldn't surprise me.

And given that it's a proper tie-in with the anime and not "just" being handed down the gimmick from Tiger Mask IV, I suspect he's making a fair amount of cash from it, but it's probably a short-term deal. If the cartoon's not on telly, that version of the gimmick doesn't have the legs that the conventional version does.

11 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

The Muscle Buster was a move made famous by some japanese cartoon "Kinnikuman", I don't think it was used in real life until after that.

Kinnikuman was Ultimate Muscle in English, right?

Likewise, I knew the movie from the video games and assumed Joe's version was modifying it so that it didn't utterly ruin the guy taking it.

Hopefully Jack's fine and it was just a scary shock - he's a top bloke, and has become one of my favourites through his heel work on Lucha Underground and the Fight Club Pro weekender. The amount of insane shit that lad's done, though, I'm constantly amazed he's still going.

Gallagher is such a rare thing in WWE in that he's a gimmick guy, a comedy act, but you believe he can handle himself once he's in the ring. He's rarely booked as a joke, and even if the matches start out with the comedy spots, they escalate realistically to him throwing out headbutts and big fucking kicks. Can't think of anyone since Regal who got that sense of timing right. His matches with Neville are always class, towards the end they go almost Shibata-esque in just throwing big moves at each other and popping right back up into the next one in short sprints, really feeling like they'll try anything to win.

205 Live mostly bores me, but Gallagher has been a delight since being the surprise highlight of the CWC for me.

Echoed that TJP makes for a great heel and an unlikeable face, so I'm hoping he's not setting up for an inevitable Virgil turn on Neville.

I think all the Koopa Kids were unlockable on the Wii U, as well as the naff ones like Metal Mario. Maybe Toadette or something like that too?

Ah, fair enough. I'm far too crap at Mario Kart to manage that.

It's just that I played the Wii U version with the ex, and unlocking characters gave it a bit more purpose than unlocking new wheels. Starting a game with everything already available always feels a bit rubbish to me - like, what am I actually aiming for now?

Yeah, I thought Rosa was the one rumoured to be sleeping with Hayes too. Didn't the daft old sod jokingly offer to buy her a drink once she got out of rehab, too? The charmer.

I wouldn't be surprised if Alicia Fox is just generally well-liked, and prepared to do just about any old shit asked of her. Sometimes that's all it takes.

On ‎06‎/‎05‎/‎2017 at 7:32 PM, Otto Dem Wanz said:

Bet he didn't have it reported either

Absolutely didn't.

On the halal thing, I'm a filthy veggie, but it always annoys me when people try and make animal rights' arguments against Halal slaughter. Presumably they think a regular slaughterhouse is a lovely relaxing day out for the pigs. Just admit that you don't like them Muslims instead of trying to dress it up with loftier concerns, you're not fooling anyone anyway.

Picked up the freebies from PS+, along with a discounted Star Wars Battlefront this week, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on Switch.

Type Rider is well up my street - simple, relaxing gameplay where you collect nerdy information about the history of different typefaces. Yes! The music is lovely, too.

Other free bits leaving a lot to be desired, though. Alienation is pap. Tales From The Borderlands seems okay - raised a couple of chuckles so far - but I have no knowledge whatsoever of the series, so while the premise is pretty obvious, I'm probably missing something, and there's not much there compelling me to return to it.

Star Wars Battlefront is a bit pap, and I'm not very good at it.

Mario Kart 8 is great fun. I don't like that the game just starts with all the characters unlocked, though, it gives me less incentive to dick around on it for hours.

I watched AWA SuperClash 3 last night.

I understand that it was a commercial and critical flop, and sure, most of the matches are pretty dismal, but I enjoyed it. It was interesting seeing a show from that time period really aim for the "Super Card" tag by working with multiple promotions in a way that seems more akin to something like WrestleCon today that anything else being done in the late '80s. You have Tatsumi Fujinami showing up, acknowledged as IWGP Champion, to stand around during a Manny Fernandez/Wahoo McDaniel strap match, two World Champions going at it, and on the same show a Beverley Hills Lingerie Street Fight Battle Royal with the girls from POWW. Bonkers show. That Battle Royal gets more hype through the show than anything else, including the title unification match, they seem to interview practically everyone in it. One of the girls is just called The Terrorist, which makes for some mad lines on commentary.

The finish to the main event is preposterous, and they clearly know it is, as every promo after it (because they have a double DQ non-finish tag match go on after the main, obviously) is about it being a shitty finish, and the AWA President and Verne Gagne struggling to justify it. That said, it's foreshadowed earlier in the show in a way I really liked, so it's not all terrible, it's just that the execution made very little sense.

Overall, I really enjoyed it, though. Maybe it's because it's a time period I really like anyway, but even though plenty of the matches were naff, they almost all seemed to mean something, and all offered something different. In that sense, it felt like exactly what a "supercard" should be.

On ‎05‎/‎05‎/‎2017 at 5:33 PM, Psygnosis said:

Its like companies aren't allowed to build storylines anymore that or there is no patience for a wrestling fan these days.

That's the exact opposite of what's happening, though. Impact aren't building storylines, they just had a bunch of lads with new belts show up and expect us to care. A championship isn't important because it's a shiny belt, it's important because of how it's booked, and the prestige that lends it - a title belt for a promotion that doesn't even exist and which we've been given no reason to care about beyond Jeff Jarrett saying, "this is important" is not long-term storytelling.

On ‎06‎/‎05‎/‎2017 at 11:09 PM, KingofSports said:

Random thought. Ibushi's a complete waste of space as Tiger Mask W. His stock is falling in my eyes. Then again, I don't get to see whatever he's doing elsewhere or even know what that might be. Apparently, Sayama's training a new Tiger Mask, which could be a good thing. Kanemoto was the last one worthy of the name.

Ibushi's a mad bastard, basically. No sense in trying to figure out his motivations, he's still probably talking about wanting to wrestle in a three-sided ring, and coming up with new ideas for stuff to Moonsault off.

Sayama's been "training a new Tiger Mask" for years, hasn't he? I know a few years back he had a never-ending inexplicable feud with Atsushi Onita across their respective promotions and a few indies, and he was usually seconded by the new Tiger Mask he was training - someone with an MMA background, if I remember correctly. I don't know if Sayama's RJPW still exists, but the last show of theirs I watched seemed to have a 50% Tiger Mask roster between his new lad, Tiger Shark, Super Tiger II and old Fat Tiger Mask himself, probably others I'm forgetting.

There was a point while Wyatt was tagging with Reigns, Wyatt had one of League of Nations pinned, and he just lifted his hand & pointed to the other guy as Reigns speared him. It was the most effortlessly cool he's ever looked. Why they can't channel that instead of having him sucking air in a manky kitchen against Randy Orton is beyond me.