Jesse

50 minutes ago, 69MeDon said:

Figure I'll ask for some advice here:

I have been offered two jobs. One of which kind of went on hold because one of the people involved in recruiting for it went on paternity leave. In the meantime, I have been offered a position somewhere else. The one I was offered yesterday is a higher "title", but slightly less money than the one I got offered today. The one I was offered today is wfh most of the time, while the one I was offered yesterday is in office full time. I hate working in office, I want more money. So this should be an easy decision, right?

Except the one I was offered yesterday was through a recruiter and I had two interviews and they've sent me the contract to sign and everything. And I feel like a dick telling them, actually, some other job that I didn't even mention has made an offer and you can't match it unless you're willing to go against what you were looking for in terms of wfh vs in office. Has anyone had to navigate this sort of thing before? I'm screwing the recruiter out of commission here, I'm sure.

You don't owe a recruiter anything - this is about deciding what's best for you and your future. For the recruiter it's a one-off annoyance but either way they'd basically forget about you once you've got a job. For you, it's potentially years of your life and finances. Take the better job.

I'm hesitant to say yes because it felt like we've already had that discussion once before and they turned it around on us. I definitely want to see Omega/Danielson again but I just know as soon as that handsome cowboy turns up on my screen my fickle heart will be ready to get back on that train.

There's almost a chance he comes back feeling like a bigger deal through being away during the debuts rather than being overshadowed by them and people missing him but it's genuinely hard to predict.

Only saw him a few times pre-NXT but it was always just a gimmick that made for a cool visual at a live show. It was more like Mysterio coming out as Daredevil at Mania, usually a cool pop culture thing to make us nerds like him. All the Demon King shite is, as far as I'm aware, a WWE invention

Might sound a bit wanky but writing out the pros & cons for each decision might help to sway you one way or the other, or help identify some cons from your current position that could be traded as away to keep you to stay

I've done that at my current job, but less as a "pay me this or I'm off" and more of a "we're underpaying for these roles, and the proof is here where I've just been offered significantly more to do the same job elsewhere" that ultimately resulted in them changing their pay banding entirely. Nice for me because I like my job and don't want to leave it, but also a good thing that makes it easier for us to get new hires

Feel like the Punk stuff is falling a bit victim to their booking cycle generally being peaks and troughs for each character, but they don't want people to pay for a show and not see Punk, so a lot of what he's doing is wheelspinning in the moments where he'd probably not be on TV or just in a backstage segment or on commentary for a match

54 minutes ago, waters44 said:

I watched Akira yesterday and I kind of feel like I was transported to another dimension - I can’t describe it, I just got lost in it.
I couldn’t really tell you much about the plot as I was just in awe of every frame. You could pause it at any point and spend an age admiring all the detail.  There was one very short sequence, a few seconds, where a helicopter was landing on a helipad. Any other animation would just have a helicopter landing on a helipad and move to the next scene. But this film shows the helicopter landing, with something going on in the background, and a chap with bright lights in his hands directing the helicopter during its landing. So much detail for a few second shot that’s not important to the plot or anything.

So yeah I’m a bit in shock to be honest and I need to watch it again ASAP. It’s my first foray into anime, is there anything else I should try? I see the same Director made something called Memories is that any good?

In terms of classic anime that hold up visually and plot-wise for me, check out the original Ghost in the Shell and Paprika. Both visually stunning and end up being the inspiration for a lot of western cinema afterwards.

42 minutes ago, Egg Shen said:

good question, does the forum take on many new members these days? the forum is abit of a relic, do people? especially younger folk actively seek out forums these days? its all about social media and reddit isnt it?

Discords and subreddits have largely replaced forums now, which I think is a shame as it's a much more synchronous form of communication. If you miss the conversation in Discord then it's gone, and if you're not in a post at the start on reddit then your comment is going to get lost way down at the bottom.

I much prefer forums and the way conversations can flow over several days, there's just a slower expected pace as part of the form.

I must have been 19 or so when I joined the forum, looking to see if Ben (UK Hat Guy back then) had said my announcing was any good at the FutureShock shows. Even when I fell out of wrestling I still stopped by just to read people's thoughts on WWE, and now I've got a bit of fandom back thanks to AEW I'm trying to be a little more active (also on a new account as my old one was victim of a namechange that ultimately made me feel uncomfortable as an incredibly minor public figure now).

That's a good 13 or so years now of UKFF being the first thing I open while I eat my toast in the mornings.

Found out about this from a Dan Ryckert thread on Twitter. I was late to becoming a fan of Norm, not having watched any SNL or much in the way of American comedy. The first time I remember seeing him was on this YouTube event pre-show and he had me in tears from the start:
 

Do we know how much truth there was to the stuff about Romero's eye going around in the past (if I'm remembering it correctly)?

3 hours ago, Your Fight Site said:

The good ol’, “Every wrestling fan’s a sweaty, non-functioning, virgin nerd. Apart from me of course” pejorative.

To be fair that accurately described me for the majority of my hardcore wrestling fandom.

I think it's perfectly fine to not have enjoyed that PPV, but if you couldn't find joy in it then you shouldn't bother watching more AEW. Not in the sense that you're wrong for 'not getting it' but that was probably AEW at its peak of what it offers and if it didn't bring you joy to watch then you're very unlikely to get anything from watered down versions of it on Dynamite & Rampage

2 hours ago, Michael_3165 said:

I've found those "insider" term users in queues to be the worst. Trying to make themselves sound knowledgeable to the casuals. Followed by that fucker who poses w replica belts for other fans. And then we've all seen THAT fan, black trench coat, a bit skinny, bad hygiene and non-ironic long hair. 

I saw a bloke literally in undertaker garb in town recently w no wrestling show in sight. Complete w black vest and gloves. 

I'm normally one of a handful of people dressed in normal, non-band/black/wrestling clothes when I go to shows. And I never cease to feel embarrassment when standing I'm queues w some of these people. 

That said most fans I've come across are rather nice people outside of an actual wrestling scenario. 

I'm really curious as to why so many people say they find fans to be knobs in the thread so far. What do they do ? 

I think it's a combination of bad interactions being more memorable than, say, a nice casual chat - and the people in the fandom most likely to start an interaction with a stranger are the ones who aren't solid on social cues/norms (as seen in a few of the examples above).

It's not limited to wrestling, having worked YouTuber/gaming/cosplay/TV events for quite a few years this type of fan is common in all fan spaces and for all the good experiences I had it's the bad ones that stick in my brain and make me internally cringe whenever an unprompted conversation starts up.

3 hours ago, Louch said:

I don’t get penta and fenix. Hear a lot online and podcasts about how aew haven’t done enough with them, but bar the super spotty multi mans I don’t see much in either of them to add more to the company 

It largely comes from how good both were in singles back in Lucha Underground. Don't know if it's the different environment or working exclusively tags but it's brought out the worst habits in each other.

It's quite possible PAC has tested positive for covid, which is why he can't fly. My missus needed a PCR test within 72 hours to be allowed to fly to the US for a funeral, so it wouldn't shock me if he's picked it up and has to stay at home for a week now.

Apparently Tony Khan introduced him before the show and he came out on the entrance ramp so I think it was a bit more than the usual 'celebrity in the crowd' thing. I think with a less annoying commentary team it wouldn't have been as grating but it ended up as just another frustration with that 4-man commentary booth.

I don't mind Excalibur's opening 100mph bit - they're on following Smackdown and it's clear they're trying to hook viewers in past the first ad break with the promise of everything happening but it would be a lot better if him and Taz could pass that back and forth the way Excalibur/Tony/JR do on Dynamite.

I actually liked Moxley ripping on Christian & Hangman - Moxley's an ex-champion and a badass and just because he's a face doesn't mean he's besties with the other faces.

He lost the tag title shot with Eddie, he lost the NJPW US championship, he's been in and out with the new baby, the whole promo landed with me as a guy frustrated with things generally and looking to get back on track as the former face of the company.

I think it's easy to forget but for a while NXT was the closest thing we had to what AEW is doing now. It was a tight show with its moments driven by actual character motivations, space for people to breathe without endless rematches and everyone appearing on every show, and the ability for different wrestlers & stories to be the focal point on any given night. I totally understand why people bought in to the idea that this could be the future of how the WWE put shows together and believed that the crew in charge, including HHH, could be the spearhead for that.

That mystique was gone as soon as it went to two hours & got put on national TV and it turns out that all the same problems in their approach to Raw & Smackdown were hiding down there in NXT too, to the point you'd be forgiven for wondering why we ever believed it would be different. But for a while there it was possibly the best wrestling TV show on the planet.

I think that's one of the real victories of their ranking system. An Essa Rios type (who I became a fan of as a kid by only being able to watch Metal) that's a staple of these shows that has some fan support could easily go on a brief run of wins and get themselves onto Dynamite for a short program, rewarding the fans who watch and got behind someone who excited them on the show. I love anything that provides a sense of progression and a way to reward fans for getting invested even in your lesser shows so they feel impactful without feeling necessary.

Yeah, I thought Crawl was decent fun. The alligators look suitably menacing and some of the gore effects had me a bit queasy, especially early on.
Watched it with my wife, who's from Florida, and it turns out she has a deathly fear of alligators so it's the scariest film I've ever shown her.

When I was announcing GPW up in Wigan the promoter made me walk out to this
 

18 minutes ago, hallicks said:

Pardon my ignorance, I haven’t seen much talk around contracting it a 2nd time. Is it just assumed you can catch it again or what? 

From what I can find the basic answer is we don't really know, especially with the new variants going around.

https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/heart-matters-magazine/news/coronavirus-and-your-health/covid-news

7 minutes ago, PunkStep said:

My understanding is that your wife's boss is right on the first point (the app notification is advisory)- however if Test & Trace contact you then you must isolate by law. Your wife's boss is putting your wife in a very dangerous predicament by insisting she continues to work.

Yeah, she argued it back and forth and was finally allowed to self-isolate without punishment after I shared a thing that said the business could be fined £10k. All of this over a single four hour shift, it's just madness. This is the same boss who's told her she can't catch covid because she's already had it, mind.

My wife works at Caffe Nero and when she got pinged she was informed by her manager that the app was 'advisory' so she should ignore it - then she got a call from Test & Trace and her manager told her to call them back and tell them that she has PPE at work so should be allowed to leave the flat to do her job. Now she's back at work she's been told she should delete the app, so I have a lot of faith that retail is going to go well over the next few weeks.