Van Dammer

31 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

Not really.

What other viable options are there? Cancel it altogether I suppose? That would probably lead to an even bigger financial hit than they're already suffering though.

1 hour ago, Vamp said:

I don't think its necessarily Vince struggling under pressure as much as his philosophy has always been "the show goes on." Performer dies live on PPV, performer kills his wife and child and himself, 9/11, performer has a heart attack on live tv, you keep going. 

I'm just sad we won't get to see how far they were going to go with the pirate theme. I was imagining a giant pirate ship for the entrance, animatronic parrots, cannons on the stage sputing fireworks. Gutted we won't get to see that. 

I don't think its as much of 'the show must go on' as 'get this show over with'. The only other option was to postpone til it can be held properly, but that's likely to be at least 6 months o so away if ever, due to having to rebook a stadium once you know you can GUARANTEE it'll go ahead, sell tickets etc. I think its much better to just get the 'event' done in any way possible and forget about it and move on once things get back to normal.

10 hours ago, Loki said:

Another humiliating day for the Prime Minister, another stinging Commons defeat, and to cap it all he stood up in Parliament and said he wouldn't negotiate an extension with the EU, and then promptly did, as he was required to do by law.

It's genuinely embarrassing to have a PM who thinks it's somehow winning a moral victory to send a photocopy and not sign it. He probably rubbed bogies on it as well, the child.

Well, he said he wouldn't negotiate an extension, not that he wouldn't request one as he is legally required to.

Wow, they just don't get it do they. People are totally turned off to their programming style and then they try and pull out an authentic dramatic angle whilst sticking to their same polished formula. The walk towards the interview, dumb camera angles, the over acting and even just the phony way everything falls. Hellacious.

Sounds like they are actual Director roles, but I could see them crossing over to on screen personalities too. Amazing that Bischoffs slick talk can still get him a major TV director role in 2019, even in Wrestling that's mad.

People seem to be really latching onto this win/loss thing. It probably will be a thing, but could just be as simple as not having a guy lose at the last PPV and then into a title shot a month later. 

The best aspect of this show taking aspects from other sports were the open interviews after the show with the talent. Thats how you give your guys personality.

12 hours ago, Loki said:

I hope "less soapy" means more in terms of presentation.  NXT is the best example of this - if it's not something happening in the ring, it's a tape of something that happened earlier in the day, or an official interview, or something off social media.  The really soapy aspect of normal WWE is all the backstage stuff, so just getting rid of all that would be a huge improvement.

Makes you realise how dated the WWE presentation style is - they've basically been doing the same thing for 20 years now.  TNA tried something different for a bit during the Bischoff era but it's time for a really fresh approach.  Having the matches on the show announced in advance, like a proper sports program - that doesn't stop you having storylines etc but it give a bit more internal structure to the whole thing.  UFC/Bellator have lots of nice stuff you could rip off without going full Match of the Day.

I think the less soapy thing could just be something like losing the 'invisible camera' aspect of WWE and simply acknowledge the environment they are in. 

On 4/24/2019 at 8:34 PM, scratchdj said:

Midway Mayhem released some brilliant aerial photos of the new stuff happening at Islands of Adventure. Particularly cool to see are the ones of new Harry Potter ride:

 

Yep, very cool. Give @bioreconstruct a follow on twitter too. He regularly posts aerial photos of the various projects in the parks.

Yeah doesnt Forbidden Journey hold some kind of record for longest non stop period without going down for a full day of maintenance? I know they did upgrade to 4k on the screens since my last trip but think it was an overnight change. Im sure once the Hagrid ride gets going they'll take it down for a short period.

The Simpsons ride is the worst for me as far as simulators, I seem to get away with it on FJ though. I have semi regular bouts of vertigo though so rollercoasters are far worse for me, Rip Ride Rocket nearly caused me to blackout many years ago and I wont ever get on that again now.

Some of the comments about appearance on here are crazy. Charlotte looks pretty fresh faced and has probably just been working in the ring with no camera make up on.

Bret on the other hand looks like your average 60 year old yet lived on the road for 25 years, suffered a stroke, the premature death of his younger brother, cancer, Bruce Hart and post concussion syndrome. 

Were in Orlando for a stopover day in early December and staying at the Royal Pacific. Im hoping the express pass for staying onsite will allow us to do virtually everything in the day were there, including the Hagrid ride, although im not sure whether that will be included in Express by that point or not.

4 hours ago, johnnyboy said:

Flights of Passage does not have a particularly high hourly ride capacity which exacerbates the issue.  Smugglers Run is set to have about 20% more riders per hour than FoP and it's a pure queue, at least initially.  No Fast Pass/Max Pass/Fast Pass+ so the standby queue won't be building while Fast Pass riders shoot through.  But yeah, the queues will be huge for this for years to come.

If both rides are up by the time we're in Disneyland (2 months after initial opening) we're prepared to dedicate a day to each one due to abject fanaticism.

True, although the capacity on these rides have had conflicting reports. ROTR has been remoured to be 20+ minutes in length too when factoring in the nature of the 'pre-show' and actual ride so I really think there could be the longest queues ever seen.

16 hours ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

How long do the aficionados among you recommend waiting before going to Galaxy’s Edge? It is the one and only thing that will convince my other half to set foot in a theme park and for my part, after reading the EW report on it, I’d happily spend my entire life there. Obviously the first few months will be crazy busy but how long is that initial hype likely to last?

Honestly, I dont see this dying down for 2-3 years at least. Pandora still sees mega long queues, regularly hitting 3 hours and thats been open nearly 2 years. I think even in 5 years these rides will be the longest waits in Orlando.

If you just mean the initial buzz dying down and just having elbow room in the land, id probably hold off until after next summer if you can wait that long.

I tried it and didn't really get into it. I struggled with the fact that the DVDs demos are really stop, start. I get that they need to explain the positions and workouts slowly at first for you to pick up and know what you're doing, but for someone like me who has a memory like a sieve, I was hoping for the same workouts where you just go through at normal pace being reminded of what exercise to do and brief reminders. It felt like it was a beginners guide and then you're on your own.

4 minutes ago, air_raid said:

AJ had matches with Paige that stood out to me at the time as a marked improvement on approx 7/8 years of what had come before. I just watched their match from SummerSlam 2014 for the SummerSlam review thread and even though they only got given 10 minutes including entrances to play with, it reminded me how much their matches made me think "that was pretty good" when virtually everything since Trish retired had been rubbish.

Yeah, she stood out to me for being competent in a period where not many were. I think she'd have got on fine with the current crop too tbh.

That promo they released for the nWo reunion tour was painful to watch. Hogan is woddling around saying something about Starrcade 97, was almost as desperate as the DX comedy stuff 10 years ago.

On 9/18/2018 at 9:24 PM, WeeAl said:

but I just wish he had been the one guy to follow through with the retirement. 

Why? I never understand this opinion, you'd rather somebody be retired? Sure, he might come back and be shit, but it might also be a bit fun and enjoyable. And if it is shit, you don't have to watch it again.

Its similar with movie revivals or reboots. I hated Indiana Jones 4, but im not mad they made it and ill be going to watch Indiana Jones 5 if Ford doesn't die before its made, because its a form of entertainment and theres a chance ill like it. If not, who cares, it doesn't really make a difference.

11 hours ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

Don’t get too excited. It’s likely to be a copy of the Arthur ride. I’m sure it will be fun, but not as thrilling as those attractions. At least it’s not all screens again.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_–_The_Ride

I think that was the original rumour but theres a guy on twitter called Bioreconstruct who does fly overs of the parks and posts aerial shots so we now know its going to be more of a launched mine cart style ride with several show scenes and animatronics, a drop track etc. There also building a massive new extension of the Hogwarts facade that you'll 'crash' through. It won't be a thrill coasting like Duelling Dragaons, but it looks like a really good mix of mild thrills and show scenes etc.

THIS is also a great video by a park insider who usually gets things spot on.

I don't think I'll be going back for the next 3-4 years as both our kids are still very young but I actually think its a good thing looking at all the work going on at the moment. Galaxies Edge, whilst incredible, is going to be the most jam packed opening ever and I think it'll last for at least a year or two. It wouldn't surprise me to see them running special events over night to keep it open as much as possible just so everyone that wants to get in can do so. Pandora had people queueing hours just to enter the land, I can see people camping overnight for this one. 

Has anyone seen the progress of this new Harry Potter coaster replacing Dueling Dragons? Its looking like an incredible mix of Expedition Everest and something like Big Thunder Mountain over at Disney.

Im still holding some that I got at around £7k late last year before the really mental period so im sitting pretty flat at the moment. Although luckily I was buying on the spreads throughout that period too so had a pretty fun time.

On 9/8/2018 at 10:17 AM, scratchdj said:

What’s this about Universal and I-Drive hotels?

Universal are opening two hotels on the old Wet n Wild site on I-Drive. I think I heard something about rooms starting at $75 a night to put serious pressure on the I-Drive hotels near their resort. I believe they're due to start opening next summer. 

Plus there's the new resort they're planning to open around 2022 that will be down by the Convention Centre/South end of I-Drive.

This makes zero sense. This email was sent over 2 years ago, im sure I remember during the trial they were reported to be laughing and joking together and fairly cordial? Also, if true, Punk is claiming Cabana owes him money, it should be him doing the suing? Do you really sue somebody when they say you owe them money?

Flight of Passage? Yep, a brilliant ride and still the most sought after fastpass.

So, The Times are reporting that there are around 50+ Tory MPs now prepared to trigger a vote of no confidence in May, at that point May would need, and will probably have, 160 Tory MPs to support her and keep her as leader of the party. The whole thing is pretty mad, absolute civil war and there is no chance of it all ending with anybody getting what they want.