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Chris B

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Everything posted by Chris B

  1. I loved him yelling 'D'yunnerstan me?' to Okada, and everything about Okada's facial expression clearly conveying that he did not.
  2. Taskmaster is brilliant - and I was expecting to hate it. But it's so good.
  3. I think Santana needs some time away to figure out who he is as a singles performer. In the feud with Ortiz, sure, it may have been relegated to Rampage, but it's not like he was generating responses that deserved much more than that. Ortiz came out looking more interesting too, because he changed some stuff up properly. Santana was left looking like a generic angry babyface, and they have a crowded roster. He might have it, because he's shown potential. But he doesn't have it down, and he might not have it. Some time away to figure out what and who he is could do him the world of good. Also, he's just hit a year sober, so fair play to him. I hope it works out and that the door is open.
  4. Generally totally agree with your post - but he's definitely been more of a prick recently. His whole thing about bringing in RVD to take out Swerve, then snapping at him before last week's match "If you'd done your damn job and taken him out, we wouldn't be here", while telling them the plan is to injure their opponent. It's just that he's been such a good guy, his friends are confused rather than going 'this prick here'. And that, to be fair, ties entirely into your overall point about how gradual it's been. I absolutely adored him telling the crowd "I am always honest with you", in the same segment where he was about to reveal faking an injury. Brilliant stuff. If Joe isn't hanging around, then I think it's got to be Hangman taking the title, to be honest. Swerve as a babyface has massive potential, and while *he's* ready, I don't think the company is just yet. And we've just had an underwhelming heel-to-babyface-turn by a champion kind of expose their lack of main event heels. The biggest problem with Swerve as a babyface right now is that he doesn't have Swerve as a heel to feud with. And also, the babyface story of him getting the title is over before it starts. Hangman, on the other hand, can mix it up with anyone as a heel and it's all fresh. And you can continue to build stuff around Swerve so everything can catch up to him by the time he wins the title.
  5. I just love that there are people on social media saying, with their whole chest, that they find wrestling shows too complicated to understand. They also often seem to be particularly confused by Japanese or Mexican wrestlers for some reason.
  6. Entirely circumstantial, yeah. Page was out of line and Punk overreacted. My point was more that there's plenty going back to suggest AEW fans weren't generally passionately Pro-Punk right up until he joined WWE, is all. The bloom had been off that rose for a while - even on here, wasn't he in the running for biggest disappointment while he was still there?
  7. Honestly, I think it floated over most people's heads at the time. Everyone seemed surprised Punk was still annoyed about it ages later - bear in mind, Hangman's promo wasn't that different from Eddie Kingston's. And, also, some (myself included) assumed Punk had lobbied to win the title, while Hangman realistically still needed something like the Mox feud before dropping it. On top of that, some felt Page had a point - the Cabana stuff may not have come from Punk, but it was clear it was done because of Punk. It was probably Khan quietly moving him out of the way, but Punk mainly complained he'd been blamed for it.
  8. The whole 'apology should be louder than the offence' thing, when he came back after his first injury, having clearly been stewing about the promo battle. Also, before that, that the Hangman reign had clearly been curtailed early to put onto Punk - from around then, it seemed like people were beginning to see doubts and get pissed off, and then everything started kicking off repeatedly. Edit: When I say 'from', I mean it started there for some and built over time, not that there was a mass switch to being pissed off.
  9. The idea that AEW fans were passionately pro-Punk up until he left just doesn't hold up. A lot were pissed off with him from the stuff with Hangman on. Don't forget how much he was booed on his entrance at Wembley, and it's not like he was meant to be a heel there.
  10. And that his wife worked for.
  11. Okada's entrance at Wrestle Kingdom 14 is pure theatre. And it's one of the greatest things ever. Two links, hoping one will embed... https://archive.org/details/20230711_20230711_0743 https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/s/F3mxhA5vIB
  12. So, having chatted to a few people, I think it's probably fair to say there was at least some overreaction on my side. I'll also clarify that I genuinely don't think anyone was attempting to divide people by talking about anything in the first place. This place has turned out to mean a lot to me. I'm genuine about having seen what the bullshit of the past has meant to some people. The idea that, for some people, this was still secretly going on and they were enjoying winding people up, especially after so long - that got to me. A lot more than I expected. I don't think I was the only one taken aback to find out about it. And I think reactions to that being new info are also valid. I let it get to me for a couple of reasons, and because any discussions about it were actually pretty vague, it maybe gave space for misinterpretations and getting the wrong end of the stick. For me, it festered a bit, I got increasingly pissed off and I thought posting about it was the right thing to do. Spoken to a few people since, and - as with most things - it's rather more nuanced and less cut-and-dried than I'd interpreted it as. At the very least, it's probably fair to say this is all significantly more 'old friends chatting' than primarily about winding up and trolling. I'm up for assuming good faith, and hope everyone gets that I was operating as such as well. I thought Loki's post earlier was good as well, and he made some fair points. Also, clearly, I take this place a bit too seriously. Finally, if you want to know what's going on in the paid forums, donate and help keep this place going. There's a barrier, but it's not an incredibly secret club either. I also promise it's mostly pretty boring because, again, we're all wrestling fans in our 30s and 40s.
  13. It says so much about this place that you didn't include wrestling.
  14. Fuck it. So, turns out a few of our more tedious posters have a secret forum called 'UKFF Wankers' where they coordinate trolling to try and wind people on here up. And it's been going for over 15 years, since the TWCF days. If you've ever felt like you're in a circular conversation on here, with someone who seems to be deliberately trying to wind you up, while someone else jumps in to tell you you're being unreasonable? That's probably intentional. There's clearly been a bit of a badge of honour in winning failed comedian or white noise of the year as a result. So yeah, those repeated jokes, those interminable responding-by-breaking-posts-into-multiple-quotes, those ridiculous high grounds and bullshit opinions? None of them are in good faith. They just know it winds up or upsets people on here. So, hat tip to Loki, David and Houchen for doing what is either a frankly incredible piece of long-term performance art or is just a sad weird club out of habit. Because people on here have shared so much personal stuff and genuine beliefs, it strikes me as worth reminding everyone that there are also people on here that aren't operating in good faith and just enjoy winding you up, making you feel bad about enjoying things, or making you feel stupid while you're engaging in good faith. Yes, there's a certain irony in this info coming to light in Paid. But fuck it. Everyone knows how to join that. And everyone knows it exists. And it's clear some people felt nervous about talking about this in case that group found out, and frankly, I feel nervous about posting this. And that's stupid because it's a fucking wrestling forum, and we're all in our fucking 30s and 40s, and I cannot be arsed with trolls and bullies. To give this an actual reason for a thread, feel free to talk about excellent or terrible trolls you've experienced or heard about. Update: If you're reading this for the first time, this is an update and further context - and one that hopefully evens some of this out a bit.
  15. I was part of a film-maker's meetup over the weekend, and we were talking about early works/budgets - Lynch was brought up partly because Eraserhead was shot as and when they could. So there's a point where he walks through a door, and didn't finish walking through the door for another year. I find stuff like that fascinating, because the amount of confidence both to keep the project going and to be able to keep the tone and feel is kind of exactly why I think he's so good at that kind of artistic vision.
  16. He found one of Peter Sutcliffe's victims, and it sounds like he's had a rough time at times. Hopefully, he's doing well. https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/feb/09/bruce-jones-coronation-street-wrestling-yorkshire-ripper-interview
  17. I work a couple of days a week in Shoreditch, and there's a load of fun street art on Brick Lane and surrounding areas. This piece, just up from Spitalfields Market, was one of the first in ages that made me stop in my tracks as I walked past it. Just very much an aesthetic I love, and a really effective piece.
  18. As happens a lot with Hey EW, she came across as super-likeable. I'd love to see more of the toned-down, backstage version of some of these people, especially when their bigger performances don't always hit. Not everything needs to be to the back row.
  19. Chris B

    Pride

    The whole weirdness by the Daily Mail about The Beano recently meant that their talking about Pride meant quite a bit. Someone made the point about how Beano and Dandy front pages treated queerness in 1990. This may be a small thing, but it's made me think about how society has changed so much. There are obviously general questions about corporations supporting Pride because it's marketing for them. It does seem like society has done a lot of (overdue) change with regards to a lot of attitudes to LGBTQ+ people (while not ignoring the rising levels of bigotry towards trans people). Personally, I consider myself fairly heterosexual, but I do look back at my younger self and wonder how much societal attitudes played a role there - when I was being more experimental and sleeping around as a teenager/young man, it felt like doing anything sexual with a guy would be a thing. Like, it'd be important or be a change with regards to who I was. I'm not overstating this - if I'd found someone attractive or interesting enough, I'd probably have overcome that barrier, but I also didn't want to waste anyone's time. But now, it feels like that barrier isn't there as much, as there seem to be fewer expectations or pressures around sexuality (and gender). So I wonder, looking back, if society had been more like it is now, if feeling like it was less of a big deal would have made me more comfortable experimenting. I'm not seeing any of this as a huge regret or anything - I just find it fascinating, and positive, to see the change in attitudes, and I find it interesting to reflect back to when I was that age. So I'm interested in those societal changes, but also in the whole conversations around corporate sponsorship, the levels of inclusivity (and a recent alt-right attempt to create division by focusing on anyone wearing fetish gear at Pride, arguing it's inappropriate if kids are brought there), and how personal attitudes have changed.
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