Vamp

2 hours ago, Tommy! said:

Please, I enjoy all the meats of our culture stew.

Watching the bear in the little car, eh.

It's basically wrestling with a better audience. 

This will sound pretentious but over the past few years I've managed to tick off seeing an opera (ended up seeing 2) and a ballet (ended up seeing 3.5) live. 

I don't think opera is for me, although it's also possible that La Traviata and The Rhinegold aren't the best starting points, but I'm glad I tried it. 

I did enjoy watching ballet and its something I'd now go watch if I'm looking to watch a show. Apart from one experimental ballet/dance project in Lille (thought I should spend at least one evening not sitting in the square drinking), I've only seen Matthew Bourne productions which are designed to have a pretty broad appeal. 

15 hours ago, The King Of Swing said:

She's a cunt. 

Cunts are inviting, pleasurable and purposeful. 

She's definitely not a cunt. 

That's one way of making sure you don't fail you're pledges I guess. Personally I'm stopping "flying purple people eater" from replacing our national anthem. 

Yes, when I think Punk I think "grown up."

Not really a gimmick match so much as a gimmick show, but I've always thought having a heel authority figure announcing that the babyface champion's title is on the line, falls count anywhere style, for the rest of the night would make for a good episode. 

I know people would get snotty about using the 24/7 gimmick on a world title but fuck it. 

1 hour ago, Loki said:

I saw the clip, he said “thicc” which is something different.  Basically he likes her in the shape she is and doesn’t want her to try and lose weight to wrestle.  Which seems fair enough.

Edit:

 

Ah, apologies. I'm not sure where "chunky" came from. I could have sworn I'd heard him say that.

I'm fairly sure Punk was asked about her coming to AEW with him and him saying he wouldn't want that because he liked her "chunky." Which was probably innocuous. 

I imagine Punk is the type to bring his work, or at least his frustrations about it, home. It's probably bad enough hearing him go on about it, let alone then talking about it with other people. 

The bigger problem with that statement is that if either of the big American companies wanted to learn how to book stars, they'd be better off looking at 80s Joshi. So would the modern Joshi scene. 

There's also a notable distinction between that classic Joshi scene and the modern day one. The classic one captured a female audience, the modern day one relies on a mostly male audience. 

In Japan that may be somewhat because (as much as some NJPW fans don't like to admit this), both Dragon Gate and NJPW both sought female audiences. 

There's no disputing that AEW are god awful when it comes to booking women's wrestling. I largely think that's because Tony Khan doesn't give a sniff about it. They had something with Rosa/Baker and it still amazes me how badly they dropped the ball on that. 

I think WWE have done a pretty good job. They've equally missed opportunities but there's also been a definite effort. 

I disagree that audiences aren't ready though. I don't think anyone has really put all their eggs in their basket and tested that yet. And I don't think Evolution, a PPV that was only created to appease people upset about them not booking women at Saudi Arabia, is evidence of anything really. 

On 9/4/2023 at 5:19 PM, WyattSheepMask said:

It must’ve absolutely pained him to not give Osprey 5 stars

Wasn't the Tokyo Dome.

I get what you're saying BomberPat but unless Dynamite opens with an ageing dwarf impersonating CM Punk...

I can't imagine anyone thinking he should be in WWE except the most ardent Punk fans. And if you remotely give a toss about Punk at this point you probably want him as far from wrestling as possible.

Wrestling isn't good for Punk. Punk isn't good for wrestling. 

And anyone who's ridiculing Tony Khan for saying he feared for his life can get to fuck. There's plenty to ridicule him for, plenty to critique him for too, but stop playing the hard man and realise that watching someone choking someone else and then coming at you is probably something that makes most sane people fear for their lives. I'm sure you're rock 'ard sailor but it's effecting the density of your head. 

It's bitterly amusing that Punk's last match in AEW was him beating one of his greatest rivals for a "world" title in front of 81,000 fans. Punk has never seemed like the kind of guy who's been able to truly appreciate the opportunities he's been given and now he's overshadowed his own achievement by being a knob and getting fired for it. 

Hopefully this is a bit of a relief for everyone working there. And maybe for Punk. Hopefully he finds a passion (maybe a solitary one) that's a bit less anguished for him. 

4 hours ago, David said:

Yeah, you're not getting the comparison. I'm saying that just like those gossip mags seem to thrive and live on spreading rumours and bullshit about Harry and Meghan, you have to think that Meltzer and Alvarez (along with the plethora of Facebook wrestling groups) are loving the fact that any kind of report involving Punk is pulling in the clicks and interactions from both sides of the AEW Elite/Punk divide. That's why the guy can't take a shit without someone sending a full report to Meltzer, commenting on how the smell upset Wardlow or something.

As unlikable as Punk is, he can't seem to do anything right in the eyes of some. Christ, even when he supports worthwhile causes, donating all proceeds from the merchandise he's selling, which is quite considerable if the numbers from PWT is to be believed, there's people saying he's just jumping on the bandwagon, or that he doesn't mention the cause every week so he must be at it.

If he did turn around tomorrow and quit, disappearing from the industry to watch hockey and hang out with Larry, the likes of Meltzer and similar "reporters" would see a fairly sizeable dip in traffic I reckon.

Just like those gossip mags thrive on Harry and Meghan stories would suffer a fairly sizeable drop in traffic and sales if the couple actually did want privacy and dropped out of sight.

Ah apologies. Meghan and Harry felt like a very specific reference point so I didn't realise you were comparing them to every media outlet. 

You're right. It'd probably suck for Meltzer and Alvarez if all they had to talk about was the biggest paid wrestling show of all time because it wouldn't give them the same number of clicks. Bet AEW would prefer it though. 

Not really getting the comparison. The coverage on Meghan is often racist and misogynistic in tone. As far as I know, neither Meltzer nor Alvarez have said they hate Punk on a cellular level and suggested he used vivid bedroom promises to win Tony Khan over. 

As far as I can tell their reporting basically reveals him to be a bit of knob who is detrimental to AEW. Which we know is at least partially true because the original incident that really started this was Punk publicly revealing himself as a knob at a press conference. 

And yeah, their content does come from wrestlers with agendas spreading gossip but again, Punk openly spread backstage gossip at a press conference. 

Tell me when I'm telling lies.

1 hour ago, David said:

I assumed that believing what The Observer said on anything Punk-related was akin to believing what The National spouts about Scottish Independence. Basically, they have their agenda and have chosen their "side" and that's that.

I dare say Punk used to pretend to be friends with Meltzer too for positive coverage. 

It's not a knock on the show but the reception the Fulham and NFL adverts got was absolutely one of the highlights of All In. 

28 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

Collision will be just fine without him; and heck, maybe they could use the freed-up time to properly develop the women's division.

I know this is off topic but, it's not gonna happen. It should. It won't. 

I know I've said this before but it just seems like wrestling is a miserable experience for Punk. 

It feels like Collision was his best chance at being happy, a rich promoter who let's him book what he wants on his own show. Short of another one coming along and letting him run the whole promotion it just seems like he's never not going to reach a place where he can be fully content in wrestling.

Obviously nobody really knows what's going on, but in a weird way Punk's story feels like it's heading in the same direction as all those wrestlers who couldn't let go of something that brought them misery, only this time there's no substance abuse. 

I dunno, maybe that's just who he is and getting out of wrestling again wouldn't really make much difference. Maybe he's burning through those savings. Maybe he needs a creative outlet and there's nothing else that's worked for him. But, even though I've never particularly been a fan and think that he's vastly overrated as a wrestler, I do feel sorry for him. And I do wonder what it's doing to his mental health to constantly be in shit at work. 

Wonder if Punk is going to speak to Hook as well. 

I don't want to be deafened by fucking Fozzy 😞

Which one of you is working around with a shirt covered in loads of pictures of ice creams?

19 minutes ago, Healy52003 said:

Kind of wished it started a little later but that's life 

Don't tempt them. It's gonna be impossible for everyone to get home as it is!

Production wise, I'm looking forward to how awful the Jericho performance is going to sound. 

Nah, if anything a coffin match seems a fitting tribute. Bray certainly had an affinity for hokey spooky stuff. 

I feel sorry for the developers. Must be frustrating to be asked to make a half finished wrestling game and a half finished battle royale.