Donald J Trump

Shame, I was hoping that I'd somehow missed out on what would have been an interesting development. When you've got Barbara Dickson as your prized export, you'll take anything.

Genuine question as a Fifer, why do you refer to him as Dunfermlines finest?

I've just posted on another thread about the "Streisand effect" and I've just realised that her name is Barbara Streisand. I've been calling her Barbara Streisland forever. I've genuinely never noticed until now.

The Striesand effect also contributing to someone being brought down a peg or two is always the icing on the cake.

Whenever I say anything remotely warm about someone (not on here) there's a never ending stream of bad news almost immediately but most of the stuff I've seen about Mr Beast is stuff like him being "exposed" for only spending 3 days inside an active volcano instead of 5. I'm sure there's some creative license there and he's a showman, but he appears to do more good than harm.

I'm not a left leaning Labour voter, but yes that is only my opinion on where most current Labour voters who are left leaning will be with this guy. There will of course be plenty of people who either don't fit that description, or who completely disagree.

It would really suck for Paul Mason if he finally manages to secure a Labour candidacy in a seat Labour have won at every election since the 1930s only to lose. Would be an ideal pick for Labour though. The race in Islington North will be one of the most high profile, heavily scrutinised in the country. You don't want to put a green candidate in there that can't walk and talk at the same time, but it's an outside bet so not every prospective capable candidate will fancy being parachute dropped into North London. He's also somebody left leaning Labour voters wouldnt need to hold their nose to support either.

That's absolutely beautiful. I'd be buzzing for that today, in 1983 I think my head would explode. Anyone got any ideas as to where I'd be able to find any of these matches in their entirety?

I feel like the Snakeskin trousers should have been on this figure -

Now we're talking. Ive always been under the impression that Ham Hock and Ham Hough were the same thing, but I'm definitely not going to die on that hill. I think it's always said "Hough" at the butchers. It's either a Scottish thing, or I've been buying something else entirely. This isn't my picture, but I did have some Potted Hough yesterday.

I agree with much of that but I didn't suggest it wasn't common, or indeed that it doesn't work. As air_raid said that is what happened with Undertaker and it's happened many times before and since. My interest lies in the long stretch between being brought in as convincing foil for Hogan and going on to have the career that he's had. If you're looking at it as being just one in a long line of monsters appearing there's little remarkable about it, or the character. When you look at the entire career of the individual, spanning from the "size of that ham hough" through to being the icing on a very satisfactory cake at Wrestlemania 40, that's where I think it's a bit more than business as usual.

Supergran actress Gudrun Ure aged 98. She had a good run.

The Undertaker will tell you that his run as the American Bad Ass allowed him to work differently than he had been able to up to that point. You could see why going from being ostensibly dead to a brawling, arse kicking biker would bring about a change of style, but he'd already lost some of the zombie like rigidity by that point. I think the Undertaker as a character is more of a risky proposition creatively than some people allow. Obviously his positioning helped but I don't think immediately catapulting a big guy to the top of the promotion and presenting him as impervious to most attacks is necessarily a guaranteed home run. Audiences were more easily manipulated back then, but you can't brainwash people, they'll either like it or they don't. When you look at how much effort the guy put into "protecting his gimmick" over the years, it speaks to a guy who's a little bit more than just lucky, and I've never had any reason to doubt his professionalism. There's also an element of that intangible, indescribable magic that brought the act to life and gave it legs over the years. Juxtapose how seriously the guy approached his work, then look at Paul Bearers face during some of the promos. This was some out-there hokey shit at times and I don't think you can easily manufacture something like that. I even find meaning in how it ended, in that father time caught up with the Undertaker before audiences got fed up with him. Sure, there were voices to the contrary, but for me it was more a case of "I wonder if Undertakers got one more Wrestlemania in him" than "give it up, Mark". When he first took that call from Vince he was in a better position than most are at that stage of their career, but there were no guarantees.

I've no idea why, but I've always had a preference for straightforward acronyms that make the promotion seem like a psuedo governing body for an actual sport. WCW, NJPW, WWF, NWA - this is what I want to see.

Do you mean lack of financial knowledge on your end or among users of the forum?

Eurovision hasn't been a completely safe bet for puritanical family friendly fun for years. Thats not to say that I think they've ever crossed a line, but anyone watching in 2024 must be aware that there might be a touch of gaudy, titillating eurotrash, whether it be Dita Von Teese doing burlesque or enthusiastic Polish milkmaids. It's always existed in a bit of a vacuum, in that aside from the occasional song troubling the charts it is for the most part culturally irrelevant. Once the nights over, it's pretty much all forgotten about. The Israel situation is likely a combination of two things. They are extremely effective at getting their message out. If the county you lived in suddenly became independent and adopted a made up language, any Israeli spokesperson appearing on local TV would almost certainly be speaking that made up language, and they may even have a local accent. The other factor is that it's easy to underestimate how much support there actually is for Israel. It's not a silent majority, but it's big enough to not be insignificant. Edit - Adding the most underrated entry in the history of the competition. For reference.

I'm adding this here under the "whatever else" banner. I'm a fairly recent convert to AEW. For various reasons, I just didn't have the time or energy to get on board with it when it started but having checked it out it's much better than some of the analysis and sentiment from some quarters would suggest. I still don't have heaps of time, but I want to keep up with the current product and catch up on some of the stuff I've missed as I gather there have been some real highlights, especially on PPV. I'd greatly appreciate answers to a couple of questions - What TV is must see in terms of making sure I don't miss any exceptional matches? Are there any shows i can afford to skip? What should be the priority? Is there much value in watching TV from the past? Is there a run of shows that made for exceptional television, or any great matches that weren't on PPV. There's a lot I'm not going to see of course, but if there's anything that stands out, that would be great. Finally, are there any PPVs that stand out? Any world class matches on an otherwise unassuming card? Are there any turkeys that are so bad there's no value in watching them? Watching them all isn't out of the question, and just now I'm leaning towards watching them in chronological order, but if a case can be made for an alternative I'd happy to hear it. One more thing actually, is the streaming service worth paying for? I think I'm right in saying that Dynamite is on ITV, with current Collision and Rampage shown on Triller. I think as well that you get older PPVS on the service? I don't mind paying for Wrestling even if there's an alternative, especially when a promotion could use any revenue it gets. Are there any alternatives to Triller? Apologies for the "hatched out an egg yesterday, who's your favourite Wrestler" stuff but any steer on where to start and where to focus would be very much appreciated.

I'm definely making sure I keep track of this from now on. That video was tremendous. It managed to capture the vibe and spirit of what the show was actually like in a way that others just dont. I could vividly imagine being there. Brilliant work Benny. I like that someone papered over the window on the red door. It helped add to the anticipation of who was about to walk through it.

I think I'd buy that as well. I've seen a version of a similar story told by and involving Freddie Blassie, it may well be the incident in question actually. I would imagine that given the territory and the era, Wrestling fans of Italian descent would have been quite well represented at shows. Bruno was indeed loved and there's a reason he had the run that he did. He's also said to have taken the whole kayfabe thing pretty seriously, and I could imagine old Freddie getting people quite worked up.

Despicable conduct aside, what's a pork cheese?

You've likely checked it out already, but if you enjoyed this album I'd recommend Tigermilk. I wouldn't normally use this word to describe an album but it's just bliss. I also really like the description of "gentle" and I'd say it applies to both albums. Late Developers reminded me of Dear Catastrophe Waitress, just in terms of the boldness of some of the songs compared to their more mellow stuff. Really pleased that nearly 3 decades on theyre still releasing music regularly, and their gigs are just the nicest gathering of people, aside from me obviously.

I'll admit that I'd never heard of Champion Wrestler, and I'm into old Wrestling games. I'm surprised as I watched a couple of videos and it looks decent, good pace and fluidity, and the presentation looks great. Do we know if it got a console release at the time? Back then, the Acclaim games are the ones I remember most but not for the right reasons. As Flips touched on, they had some truly lamentable efforts. Long before the likes of In Your House and Warzone, they were stinking up consoles with games like "Wrestlemania" and "Steel Cage Challenge". There were some real turkeys. Just look at the state of this - I'd have happily swapped this shit for Champion Wrestler. I know it's the NES, but it's amazing they're both 1989 games.

I think he's upset that Will Ospreay is his boy now. In Meltzerville the 20s belong to Ospreay, and poor Kennys not having it.

That's a good observation actually. I never realised this before but the developer of wCw vrs The World was "The Man Breeze". In 1997 they began developing under the AKI banner, so it is the same firm. I'm really tempted to get a slice of that cartridge action. I've got NES in the loft with a boatload of games, but there were a few I didn't get that I wouldn't mind playing on the original console. You'd struggle to tell the difference unless you were looking, even the texture of the plastic looks spot on.

wCw vrs The World has for me, the best introduction reel of any Wrestling game I've played and at the time it was something else. "The world" consists of stars from AJPW, NJPW, UWF, FMW and Michinoku, among others. I think I'm right in saying they all had their proper names in the Japanese version but when it was released in the west, they were changed due to licensing. Working out who's who is was entertaining but some of them are pretty impossible. There is a list on the games wiki page with all the details though. Obviously it looks pretty ropey now, but in the mid 90s this was a bit of lesser known gem. Any game that features Sabu, Bruiser Brody and Taka Michinoku has to be worth a look at least.