BrodyGraham

54 minutes ago, Supremo said:

Fyter Fest seems to be free in the US, but will cost £15 in the UK. First time it feels like they’ve made a misstep in terms of positioning themselves as a fan-orientated babyface company.

Has this been confirmed by AEW? Can't find it on Fite and the only articles I've seen on it seem to be focused on Meltzer speculating that it might be PPV.

23 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

I don't get the feeling that he's working though. It's like Meltzer. I think he believes it. Unlike someone like Jericho who you can just ignore because he's always working.

I know what you mean, he always seems super sincere, but you'd hope, considering how much he's apparently seen, that he knows that's a daft thing to say earnestly. 

He's still a promoter though, at the end of the day. He's not gonna turn round and tell Austin that there were a few too many pile-driver spots. He's got to carny it up at least a little bit.

10 minutes ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

He has more talent under contract than he could possibly do anything with.
I can understand locking up top talent or wrestlers he perhaps sees some potential in but at this stage it absolutely must just be control and nothing more.
I mean, look at the Harper situation - the guy wants out, WWE is not using him and clearly sees nothing in him so why not let him go? In that situation what is the point of keeping someone under contract who does not want to be there and who you clearly don't want to use?

So noone else can.

You get the impression that the NJ Cup run was very much an experiment to see if G1 was plausible for him. That Lance Archer match will have been all the evidence they need.

Wouldn't surprise me in the least. That might be my favourite Ospreay match.

The David Starr match was really, really good and told a good story around Cassidy's motivation or lack thereof. Basically Starr shuts him down and batters him to the point where Cassidy has to try to win just to survive.

I think there are plenty of ways to with Cassidy, he's got a strong character and he can actually go.

To be honest, he wants to consider himself lucky this happened when and were it did? There's a similar story from a BritWres show in another thread that ends a lot less favourably for the mouthy fan. 

Also, isn't Bully mates with Fludder? He could've shown up round his house!

Chris Roberts. He's probably the most well known ref on the British scene and was a default heel in Progress. He quit Progress earlier in the year to work a lighter schedule. He's since shown up just about everywhere else including New Japan.

The Judas Effect and the accompanying Jericho training MMA to give him extra tools subplot was the worst part of the build for me. If you're gonna do something like that and film it you want to make sure your striking looks good. Jericho doing pad work like a middle class mum who only trains because she's trying to bang her PT makes everything else feel tainted. 

It's the only thing that stuck out like a sore thumb to me across the whole build and show.

As a bit of context to the above I used to train MMA so stuff like this really sticks in my throat when it's done badly.

I didn't have a problem with the concept of the match or trouble following it. The problems were all production based. The botching of the second set of entrants and missing or cutting away from spots detracted from it for me. Otherwise there was enough stuff to enjoy and I've seen way worse battle royale matches in the past. 

As other people have mentioned I think the fact that I was familiar with most of the entrants helped and I imagine Meltzer seeing it live and not being party to some of the flubs on a TV level helped his enjoyment. I don't see 3 stars as egregious in that context.

1 minute ago, Seratonin said:

You're right it makes no sense to have the big boys face guys new viewers have no idea of. Cody and Mox are big names.

I'm not going to skirt the issue here. You're an idiot.

How do you familiarise your audience with new talent if they don't have an in? How do you promote a show without legitimising the large part of your roster that your audience might not know? Do AEW have enough 'big boys' to promote ad infinitum without building guys? (Imminent Garthing)

They need to have these matches to legitimise their roster and keep giving the big guys fresh matches. They are going to fail if they use the logic that 70 percent of their talent should be treat like lepers because some of the audience don't pay attention to the Indies. 

One of the big reasons AEW exists is to put a spot light on these guys.

10 minutes ago, Seratonin said:

I mean, their next show will probably have less surprises because they spunked their load on this. Also why would you put Cody vs Allin, and have Moxley face Janela, a guy who those new to non-WWE companies know nowt about. I expect the buzz around them to tank and before long they will be relegated to Impact level standards with similar ratings.

Vince already has his popcorn ready.

To put eyes on those talents? To give mainstream fans an in on the matches featuring the more Indy guys?

Nah mate, makes no sense to me either.

I never expected this to be anything other than a well produced wrestling show. They've been open about wanting to show different styles of wrestling but anyone expecting these first shows to feel quantum leaps away from NXT Takeover from a production standpoint has been drawing their own conclusions.

I'm of the impression that the difference will be more apparent production wise, when they land on TNT. They were saying on POST Wrestling that that's where Marvez will start to make sense. He's apparently supposed to be the guy who'll provide the stats and analytical stuff. Hopefully he won't feel quite so much of a third wheel. I personally didn't find him half as bad as some people are making on, especially considering it was his first live call. He's certainly nowhere near as bad as Otunga or the first year and change of Percy Watson's commentary career.

So, I showed my daughter the two women's matches today. She's 5 and used to watch NXT with me 'til I cancelled Network. When she's been naughty she'll ask if I want to watch New Japan, to get me back on side. She's a typical girly girl in a lot of ways but has her own opinions on wrestling. She loves Japanese stuff on account of our neighbours being Japanese. For that she absolutely ate up the Joshi 6 Woman Tag.

Her favourites were Hikaru Shida, who she thought was super beautiful and Riho who she liked because she was cute and brave. Strangely she immediately went off Yuka Sakazaki for being annoying and didn't like Aja Kong because she was too big and too mean.

She bought into all the action and got heat up at the time keeper error, so that provided a bit more drama for her. 

In the 4 way she liked Kylie Rae which I thought was wierd because we'd watched the Joshi match first and she'd not been into Sakazaki who I thought would be exactly her thing. She was beside herself when Awesome Kong came out and cheered when Nyla Rose took her out. 

She caught some of the earlier mid card stuff as well and has asked if she can watch AEW again. Obviously I'll keep her away from the more gritty stuff but if there's a concern that AEW would only appeal to smarks well I'd suggest that if they can hook a five year old girl they're ok.

I've been thoroughly entertained by a few cartoons on Netflix.

The Voltron reboot was very good. Really nice mix of action and good humour over it's few seasons. 

I've quite liked the two seasons of The Dragon Prince. It's a fantasy story from some of the people behind Avatar/ Legend of Korra and follows a similar structure. The art and animation style might turn people off, it being cel shaded 3D but the story is nice YA fantasy fare.

Finally, if you've got infant/primary school age kids, especially girls, Hilda is fantastic. It's a gentle fantasy cartoon about a little girl who lives in an anonymous Scandinavian wilderness. It might be a bit too much of a cartoon for the almond milk latte set, but it's relentlessly charming and beautifully designed.

There's apparently since been a report that Pattinson is one of 2 actors shortlisted, the other being Nicholas Hoult. I'm definitely pro Pattinson on this. Hoult doesn't have a strong enough chin.

She was one of the names on the concussion law suit, wasn't she? She also later alleged that she'd been sexually assaulted in WWE. Seems like she had a particularly rough ride.

Pretty sad story. 39. Fuck.

Apparently the first issue of Frank Miller and Jon Romita Jr's 'Superman Year 1' comes out next month.

It's on DC's Black Label imprint which appears to be a rehash of the All Star line from the early 2000's.

With that in mind expect issue 2 some time around 2024.

2 hours ago, Chest Rockwell said:

I watched the mockumentary Tour de Pharmacy the other night. An HBO thing taking the piss out of doping in cycling. It's silly but very funny. Some of the jokes don't land but the cast is all-star and really elevates it. John Cena, Jeff Goldblum, Andy Samberg, dolph lundgren and more..

It's only 40min long. Well worth a watch.

They did a tennis one called 7 Days in Hell which is similarly silly. Worth a look if you liked Tour.

Sho's winning this next year isn't he?

3 nights in and Sho seems to be the guy whose stock looks to be going up most. He's not winning but they're doing their damnedest to make sure he looks good coming out the other end. Poor Yoh, do you think he looks at Yujiro and thinks, ”That's me in 5 years."?

That looks a hell of a field this year. Be VERY interested in the block announcements for that.

There's a lot to love in that trailer but I can't shake the feeling that a lot of decisions have been made to placate the 'Not My Star Warz!!', crowd.

Of course I'll see it day of release and I'll probably love it, but I just hope that it's not too compromised.

I was at exactly the right age and disposition to absolutely love the first 3 years of ROH. I still consider those 3 years to be the height of my fandom and I still love the workrate based style.

The ROH half of the G1 special was an absolute fucking embarrassment. They've got a handful of really good guys but Jesus Christ about half the roster are absolutely worthless on that evidence. It's saying something that the gaggle of teenagers, rookies and journeymen running out of a South Philly leisure centre looked more big time than that lot they sent into The Garden.

I think the Khan rumours surfaced shortly after the MSG sell out. The Omega/Meltzer interview would seem to suggest that The Elite's presence was assumed.