Hannibal Scorch

Monkey Man felt like a combination of Oldboy, Drive and John Wick. Certainly felt like a decent take on the revenge action genre.

Yep these have been launched in the UK before. I first remember them in the late 90’s. But in more recent times 3D Doritos and I think Wotsits may have tried a version (or maybe that was just wafflers not tube shaped)

Don’t Worry Darling feels like a Black Mirror episode with a huge budget. It’s not awful, but yeah. Completely agree on Astroid City, my biggest disappointment of last year.

Godzilla x Kong contains 

And that’s the only positives I have. Woeful.

So I open this thread and what do I see?

”Wankfest”

Anyway, Dude (Self)Love

2 hours ago, air_raid said:

Wait....

 

 

So I’m not allowed to write words in an Italian accent no more? Racist.

Trying to save money, I recently bought a big old bag of Asda own brand crisps (Meat selection, although one of those selections is ready salted, go figure). I have to say they were more enjoyable then Walkers to me in the like for like stakes, and at £3.60 for 36 bags, value for money.   

Just now, BomberPat said:

I think PWT (which, as I understand it, is still basically the back-end of the AEW official merch store) is part of the reason why their merch at events is so awful. PWT is all print-on-demand, so you can rattle off as many shitty designs as you like without losing your arse on them when they don't sell. But the flipside of that is that it's not a business model that supports having a solid back catalogue of different shirts in a range of sizes, having decent stock management, and so on. It's leaving money on the table, and it makes the live experience worse, but it's the way it is.

You're not wrong. But those guys know what sells and what doesn't. So you print up a load of the top selling merch, throw in whoever is booked on that episode, and boom, you're mustard. It shouldn't be difficult, and they seemed to do an OK job at Wembley in comparison to their usual, but this is what happens when you work with companies like PWT and Jazwares over Fanatics and Mattel, you get second rate returns. If I was in charge I would allow PWT to run the online operations but get an events company to run live events merchandise.

1 hour ago, IANdrewDiceClay said:

I liked the 2016 version of Ghostbusters better than the current sequels. The jokes took precedent over the sci fi spooky shit. Which is what the first one was. A comedy first. The cast was great, too.

I didn’t prefer it to the cannon sequels, but I’m a defender of GhostBusters (2016) / GhostBusters Answer the Call as well. It’s got a better joke landing ratio than most modern comedies and Chris Hemsworth had a great turn in it. Unfairly criticised.

That said, how it cost double what GhostBusters: Afterlife did I’ll never know.

48 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

That could have also been said at one point for guys like AJ, Sami and Owens etc. If anything be has a whole host of guys he could mesh well with in WWE's current style plus he's already shown in his move to the heavyweights in New Japan that he can change things up perfectly when needed. People still sleep on his versatility.

I agree with the rest though, he's not after that lifestyle.

Which one of those wrestlers is at the top of the card, and which one is the company being built around? Ricochet is another good example, historically with Ospreay, who is in the mid card shuffle. I think Ospreay is a better all round asset, and those other wrestlers are great examples, but I think my point stands.

@SuperBaconthats kind of my point. It’s not he wouldn’t fit in, it’s just he’s a big fish in a smaller pond (the pond is also full of a load of guppies but I digress) in AEW. He also gets to headline Wembley Stadium! But he also has always spoken of his love of TNA and NJPW, he never had his eyes set on WWE, and whilst those thoughts may change as you get older, he’s stuck to his gun

1 hour ago, RedRooster said:

AEW was incredibly lucky to land Ospreay - he feels like a megastar, to the point that if WWE had signed him, I suspect he'd be viewed as a potential successor to Roman Reigns as far as 'face of the company' potential goes. AEW should build around him. 

No luck in my eyes. Ospreay had no interest in the WWE lifestyle. Knock him for his faults, but one thing TK does well, especially with non US talent, is allows them flexibility. Becky Lynch was only moaning the other day about wanting to see her brother in Ireland and not being able to, and I read it was one of the reasons PAC left WWE (and we know from his AEW run he spends plenty of time back in the Toon). Ospreay is able to live the life he wants and get paid handsomely to do so.
 

Ospreay doesn’t fit the in ring style, they also wouldn’t have given him the mic time AEW have afforded him. WWE would have been lucky to have him, but I don’t think he’d be getting anywhere near the reactions he’s had in AEW. Besides, WWE have talent to build their company round, let Cody have his time.

1 hour ago, DavidB6937 said:

And yet you got people moaning about him turning up and doing a half arsed tribute act. So he can't win really.

Well no one wanted to see a half arsed tribute act. They also didn’t want to see the man who just won the Royal Rumble give his match, the reason he HAD to win the Rumble to Hollywood Dwayne Johnson, just because he had enough clear time in his diary to wrestle for a few months. And we were right. 
 

All I’m saying is while this is clearly the role The Rock should have had, it’s at the expense of your world champ. The man who has broken records. The face of the company for over 2 years. And now he’s demoted to guest role in the story. I wish this feud could have started post Mania, because there’s clearly more interest there, than with Cody/Roman now2.

Whoever said that the person who could come out of WrestleMania the weakest would be Roman could be on to something. Who wants to see Cody/Roman now over Cody/Rock?

That said, and as great as that segment was, it does feel that The Rock has decided he needs to be the top guy in WWE and that’s pushed people out the way and I’ll be honest, not keen on that aspect of it. Makes for great TV I know, but I just don’t like collateral left in his wake. 

1 hour ago, BomberPat said:

Apologies for this being an utterly tedious pedantic fact, but Roy Orbison's version was recorded first, even though it wasn't released until a couple of years after Cyndi's.

Not at all, I assume his version wasn’t publicly released until the 90’s, but it’s one of those interesting music facts. Regardless as much as I do actually enjoy both versions, they are really creepy. Let’s not bring up Céline Dions version (forgetting her whole creepy marriage).

Back on topic, I’ve seen a lot of people defending SBC as that’s just how it is. And I don’t accept that because he plays dubious characters gives him a free pass to behave that way. I’m pretty disappointed because I thought he was a pretty sound person with strong morals, other than his Zionist views. 

25 minutes ago, King Coconut said:

Roy Orbison drove all night, crept in her room, woke her from her sleep to make love to her. Is that alright? He drove all night!

Cyndi Lauper did the same, first, and we still love her

11 hours ago, SuperBacon said:

😬

If you haven't seen what Rhea has been doing on house shows, you can see on Twitter. Just make sure you're sitting down is my advice.

I don’t want to see Punk give either Cody or Drew a stink face

9 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

Interesting choices - particularly the first two. I wonder if they would stand out as much as they did back then in the modern era, given how many spectacular wrestlers are active right now, or if there's a case to be made that they might have ended up being less of a big deal? 

Shane Helms had a bit of a bland look and his promo ability was middling; and while he was good in ring, the competition is fierce in that respect. I need to rewatch his matches I think, but it would be a challenge for him to stand out over the competition in both AEW and WWE. 

Outside of (the admittedly amazing) walking the cage moment, I can't think of many stand out matches for Elix Skipper in TNA, at a time when they really were letting the X Division go balls-to-the-wall. Again, I think I'd have to go back and watch his stuff. He'd face the same problem as Helms though in that the wrestling talent around him is so good, he'd find it harder to stand out. 

To be clear, I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you - they're choices that got me thinking. 

I think both were held back by where they were. Shane Helms was really developing after the break up of 3 count. I wouldn't say he was bland looking, especially not at the time, Everyone remembers the cage with Elix, but he was someone who looked like he could have been more if he had the right people helping him develop, something WCW nor TNA were offering at the time.

Shane "Hurricane" Helms - A cross between Kanyon and AJ Styles, innovative, dynamic and a hell of a finishing move. I thought he had it. Certainly more than just being a (successful) comedy act.

Primetime Elix Skipper - Another one who seemed to me ahead of the curve, never really got a big push

Mark Jindrak - One of wrestlings greatest What If's with him and Evolution, but he had a look which would probably put him in the upper mid card in my opinion.

This is a by proxy, but I was involved.

I was about 7, my brother about 3, and we were walking down a street near to our house. Me and my brother were just messing about in the street, pushing each other, nothing major. But my mum asks as a few times to stop it. We didn't and then she bellowed out, "Stop Bloody Fighting" and who should stick his head out of a parked car but Nigel Benn, whose family lived in the street we were on. My Mum was apologizing profusely, but he was just laughing at her explanation.

33 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

If Rock had won the Rumble, I’m not sure ‘We want Cody’ would have happened. I don’t agree with most of your takes on this feud (such as Cody ‘not being a face’…I’m not sure how you’d back that statement up, but I think you’d struggle to make the case for it) - but I think you’re probably correct as far as that is concerned. 

Cheers. As to Cody not being a face, what I meant was he’s not a traditional face. Cody does things in his own way (it’s why the Codyverse became such a millstone). The guy even called out the Homelander comparison of himself for Christs sake. For every few face traits there are underlying heel ones. Now, I’m not saying you need to be straight face or straight heel, gray has been a popular wrestling colour for years. But if you want to be the white meat baby face, you can’t do the heel bits.

We Want Cody only happened because The Rock swooped in and made Cody back out of the Roman fight. Cody could have won the Rumble, had an in ring with Roman and Seth about making a decision, and made the decision that he didn’t feel Roman deserved the same spotlight as Cody, so I’ve decided I’m fighting Seth, and than said but I spoke to someone willing to and the Rocks music hit. I mean the most telling thing about when they did that segment was how Cody looked, and his body language, with the Rock all smiles. Because they assumed that match was what the fans really wanted. As much as they have tried damage control with the situation, it’s still left a sour taste for a lot of people. Because you have people in both Cody and Rock v Roman camps.

2 hours ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

Yeah, I mean this is exactly the problem.

He's a huge star. I don't personally love his act, but accept I'm in the minority, and he's come in at the last moment and made everything feel small and insignificant in comparison.

Then, in a few weeks, he'll go again and it'll all just be a bit flatter than it could have been.

He'd be a great tool to use in down years or to heat up acts or add starpower to something that needs that; as it is he's been plonked in the middle of the one year where they had something that felt like a huge main event without relying on nostalgia or celebrity.

But yeah, I'm just howling at the moon and my bedspread now. It is what it is. We should never be surprised when this company chooses to entrench nostalgia and the supremacy of the late 90's. They choose that as readily as I choose crisps over salads. It is what it is.

I think we’re singing from the same bed sheet. Because I can see why for some it’s the biggest match they could put on, but it’s not what I wanted to see. But as I still don’t see Cody finishing the story at Mania, Rock v Roman would have been fine, had they not ballsed it up in the set up.

3 hours ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

That's an odd way to look at it. How about you say that every other babyface since the dawn of time has been a gullible idiot because they believed what the heel said and that Cody knew Roman was untrustworthy so brought the backup that he knew he'd need. Cody looks smart, Roman looks out maneuvered and we roll on to Mania. It's showing Roman that someone might finally be on his level. To just think "Well they are both liars" is an odd take to me. 

Faces are gullible, that’s kind of the gimmick. But Cody isn’t a face is he, he’s is own thing, I guess. But my biggest issue wasn’t with them both lying, it was what they did. The heels would normally blindside the poor face in the ring. But they didn’t even get in the ring. They just stood outside grinning. To do what? And then when Cody revealed he had back up, we just had Seth laughing as he always does, and Sami just there.
 

Maybe I expected the usual and I should be grateful that we had something fresh, rather than thinking everyone looked like a chump and we didn’t get any kind of fight. Instead the crowd were flat (other than gobbo next to Roman) and the momentum is dipping. I’m certain by the go home show they would have fixed it, but for now there seems this problem of not being able to keep the momentum going 1) On a weekly basis 2) without The Rock. maybe they should  have stuck with Roman/Rock after all.
 

The worst thing about Roman/Cody’s trap, isn’t they both lied to each other, it’s that they came through the crowd and rather than get into the ring, they just walked around it so they could look silly standing with Roman to stare at Cody. I didn’t get that at all.

Maybe because the reviews were awful, but I had a lot of fun with Frozen Empire. They are trying to make Ghostbusters for a new generation, whilst keeping enough of the old guard in it to keep fans of the originals happy. I heard one bloke grumble that the film would have been better if the film didn’t have an agenda, “why does every film have an agenda?” he said to his poor suffering partner. which made me laugh louder than I should have done.

Acaster and Nanjiani were welcome additions to the cast. I’d be happy to see a 3rd if they turn down the family melodrama a smidge.