LaGoosh

I love Freddy Got Fingered. It's the most intentionally audience hostile film I can think of.

1 minute ago, Devon Malcolm said:

Wait, really? Garcia's great, I might actually watch that.

Indeed he is. He's getting a good push at the moment and has been smashing it since December. Here's the story for the match tonight:

2 hours ago, air_raid said:

Don’t root around too much exhuming long dead threads, some of the comments in The Many Sins Of Cody Rhodes that (cough) some of us made about “Cody Adequate Rhodes” really haven’t aged well.

They were all accurate at the time. I feel like it's going to be one of those things that gets re-written or misremembered over the years but Cody really was absolutely fucking terrible for a significant portion of his AEW run.

1 hour ago, Dr. Alan Grant said:

I just had a horrible vision of a Seth and Becky Vs Cody and Brandi feud. Now I hate myself.

It'll be worth it if Brandi cuts a promo on Becky like that absolutely fucking insane one she cut on Jade Cargill that one time.

"Who told you it was open mic night, bitch?"

One of the worst/funniest promos I've ever seen.

True Romance is great and also the only Tarantino script (except maybe Dusk Till Dawn) to have a proper studio edit. I've read the original script and it's quite different (and worse), with much longer scenes, jumping back and forth in time and a different ending. It's intriguing to think what his other scripts might have looked like if they were taken out of his hands like True Romance was.

"Oh, you have kids?"

*long pause*

Da Maniac: No...not anymore.

Perfect line delivery. 

29 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

 

Well yeah obviously. Doesn't everyone think that?

10 hours ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

The Lost World Jurassic Park (First Watch) is one of the worst Spielberg films I’ve seen. Watching the first 2 back to back obviously makes this look bad, less impressive effects, dull story, far too long and less fun overall. Shame.

Lost World is a weird one because some of the set pieces are absolutely tremendous and it has some top tier Spielberg bits in it but overall it's a pretty bad movie with basically zero story or characters you want to root for. Why they completed changed Ian Malcolm's character to be the most boring generic man on Earth has always confused me. But Pete Postelwaite is loads of fun and the bits with the trailer hanging off the cliff, the dinosaur stampede/capture, Peter Stormare's death and the sick as hell long grass raptor scene are all classic Spielberg goodness.

I'm still playing Alan Wake Remastered. Is every level wandering around in the woods in the dark or is there a bit more variety further in?

I love FTR. Great gimmick and they always have good matches.

Decent show this week. AEW isn't on fire this year but they are definitely very consistent so far which should be commended. Booking consistent shows is hard to do. I like all the storylines going on at the moment, just rock solid simple stuff that makes sense. BCC get overconfident, well now the best tag team in the world want to knock them down a peg. Bryan Danielson refuses to respect Eddie Kingston well let's let them have a fight about it. Mark Briscoe tried helping out his mates and got involved in the House of Black's business so now they are going to fuck him up. Just simple and refreshing proper wrestling storytelling.

Very much enjoying Adam Copeland in AEW. I was never a fan of Edge as a singles main event act but feel like we're seeing a refreshing new side to him here. He's playing the respectful veteran but one who isn't all smiles and handshakes, if you get in his way or step out of line he won't hesitate to kick your arse and put you back down the ladder. His segment with Garcia was great and I'm excited for their match on Wednesday.

Mark Briscoe/Brody King was my favourite match of the show. Both men are fantastic and went to war here. Cool ending angle, I wonder if they'll go for some kind of mixed tag team angle so Mark can get his revenge on Julia Hart. Someone like SHIDA would be a good choice for that. 

Jericho is definitely showing his age these days. He needs to transition his ring style to "old Mexican brawler" rather than try and keep up with the young guys. Especially when it's Takeshita who is an absolute physical marvel and total beast. Jericho can still do an entertaining brawl though and needs to lean into that. Powerhouse Hobbs no selling the chairshot to the back was my favourite part of the match, wish he killed that waste of space Sammy Guevara though.

I like the CMLL stuff. It'll only be a short term thing and it's fun to have a bit of variety every now and then. Don't agree with the criticisms that they were just thrown out there - they had an announcement, a video package and an angle to start them off.  They haven't all been clearly defined but it's fun to learn as you go rather than the WWE style of overexplanation that so many fans can't seem able to function without. I enjoyed the 6 man but it would have worked better on Rampage so they could have edited out the gaps and fuck ups.

Excalibur is really great at calling matches but shite at calling angles. I wish JR would have been there to sell that brilliant show ending angle - it would have been the icing on the cake. Excalibur just rambled a load of bollocks. 

Big Bill is the best. Him vs Darby is my new dream match. I thought he killed Sting with that clothesline on the floor. I'm really going to miss Sting. His whole final run and weird Hulk Hogan meets New Jack matches have been brilliant. 

Samoa Joe being the first wrestler I can think of to actually properly sell that he can lose his title without being pinned. Him being so pissed off really highlighted the danger he is in. Great stuff!

Swerve/Hangman was obviously tremendous. Could have done without the table spot that they didn't sell for a single second, felt like they realised they were running out of time and quickly moved on. Brilliant spot in this where Swerve ducked Hangmans jumping apron clothesline so Hangman just blasted him in the back of the head with an even more brutal clothesline. I'm not ready to boo Hangman and cheer Swerve yet though - this is top notch shades of grey stuff.

A great show, feels like things are back on track. In December I would have said that I couldn't imagine AEW without MJF...now I reckon I'd be ok with it. The shows haven't missed his schtick just yet.

Most of All of Us Strangers was filmed where I grew up. I'm not hugely interested by the film itself but the idea of seeing tiny, insignificant Sanderstead on a cinema screen blows my mind.

8 minutes ago, FLips said:

Seth Rollins looks like a worthless secondary champ

When hasn't this been the case?

2 hours ago, TheScarlettChad said:

Shawn Micheals 2002-2010 run was boring melodramatic shite 

I would agree hugely with this. I never liked this run. Him coming out with his shit gear to Sexy Boy while praising God on the stage was an instant channel changer for me. Possibly the most overrated wrestler ever. I hated the vast majority of his matches.

I love mid-90s HBK though. An incredible in-ring performer with seemingly endless energy and one of the best bumpers of all time. The Hell In A Cell against Undertaker is one of the great wrestling performances in my book.

I could get behind a Hangman heel turn.  Opens up a whole range of fresh new opponents for him and he's worked pretty much every heel in the company. Hangman vs Darby Allin is a match I never considered until this moment and now desperately want.

30 minutes ago, Supremo said:

Time limit draw tonight, with Hangman and Swerve, resulting in the three-way? Or do they subvert all expectations and just have one guy win and further prove that we’re back in the era of wins and losses actually mattering? Could they really do Heel vs. Heel with Swerve and Joe?

Personally, I want Hangman to win. Not only because Hangman vs Joe will be an absolute banger and that singles matches are always better than three ways but because I want the double whammy of Swerve losing to Hangman and losing his title shot to send him off the deep end and do some diabolical heel shit in reaction to it. They can then come back to Swerve vs Joe a little later down the line.

Nigel is fantastic. A great moment this week was Danielson going for the surfboard stretch and Nigel saying "this old move, same old same old from Bryan, boring!" and then when Hicheciro reversed it into his own surfboard stretch Nigel immediately exclaimed "incredible! What an amazing move! I've never seen anything like this!". He's the best.

Garcia for TNT Champ!

Best hunter gimmick was Frankie Kazarian as the "Elite Hunter" and he then lost literally every match he had against The Elite before being released from his contract. Gold.

2 hours ago, RedRooster said:

It reminds me a bit of the Fuego Del Sol signing - it's a nice moment, but ultimately, it's hard to see what he has to offer. I will say this much though, I thought his selling was very good. I suppose there's role for a plucky underdog jobber, who gets the occasional win. I'm not sure that jobber should be a 'bounty hunter', but we'll see, I guess.  

I liked Fuego Del Sol and thought he was a great sympathetic punching bag for the big stars. Keith though, his gimmick as a badass bounty hunter...it just doesn't work when you're absolutely tiny. If you had a bounty on you and he was hunting you down you probably wouldn't be that worried about it. In ring wise he wrestles that big chops and stiff forearms style which is fine, except you already have a bunch of wrestlers in AEW who do that and they do it way better. I just don't see the point. Especially as he's just going to be forgotten about and end up in ROH purgatory in a few weeks anyway.

I've started Alan Wake Remastered. It's kind of fun in a cheesy way. The title character is such a massive prick it's actually hilarious to watch. Just a moany, miserable bastard to literally everyone. I have no idea if him being such an arsehole was intentional by the developers or not but I'm enjoying it for sure.

Another incredibly easy, relaxed and fun episode of Collision with a hot crowd. They seem to have found a formula for these shows that just works.

Though not a fan of the signing of Bryan Keith, the worlds shortest man. I don't think he has any unique value that AEW can benefit from. The exact type of signing they shouldn't be making.

Seth Rollins. Always Seth Rollins. The absolute dirt worst.

My favourite Cena/Orton moment was when they did the big staredown in one of the Rumbles and literally no one reacted to it. Absolute crickets. They then did it like 3 more times to complete silence each time. Hilarious. 

Cena/Orton is one of those feuds WWE tell the audience was legendary, but I remember everyone being pretty bored by it at the time.

21 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

I think 'focus' is a very strong thing that AEW do well when they do it, and when they lose it it all goes a bit to shit really.

And that's to be expected with the size of their roster and the number of shows etc. But with that many wrestlers at their disposal, it should be possible to book three shows consistently and solidly. Yet it rarely feels like that.

Don't get me wrong - I'm sure it's difficult but they need to find ways of doing it. The talent is there from those in the ring to everyone backstage. It's an incredible company all things considered, and probably why it can be so damn frustrating when things aren't as good as we expect.

This is it in a nutshell really. AEW is great, but also has some significant ongoing issues it needs to sort out. A brand split wouldn't resolve those issues, it would probably make them worse. And outside of a small handful of highlights brand splits have not historically been successful at improving the quality of wrestling television.