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Chris B

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Posts posted by Chris B

  1. 8 hours ago, Jazzy G said:

    I saw this month's comics bundle is an ass load of Spawn and other image comics for £15.77. There are 43 books there? It's pretty spanking good value. 

    It includes the Sam and Twitch stuff by Bendis, which is really fun.

  2. 10 hours ago, BrodyGraham said:

    As someone who left the North East 25 years ago and hasn't lost the accent, Pac's commitment to being absolutely as Geordie as possible in promo's is one of the main reasons that he remains my favourite character in wrestling.

    I loved him yelling 'D'yunnerstan me?' to Okada, and everything about Okada's facial expression clearly conveying that he did not.

  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. 10 hours ago, Chili said:

    He doesn't act the prick to anyone else, but he's being a surly arsehole.

    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. 7 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

    What was Colt Cabana doing before Punk turned up in AEW though? It wasn't like he was being pushed or anything. There's no evidence at all that Punk pushed for Cabana to be booted down to ROH, all the evidence is circumstantial m'lud.

    As for Kingston, there was at least a legitimate history and truth (from what we can gather) to what he was saying. Page was sticking up for a bloke who didn't need sticking up for. He certainly shouldn't have been airing that shit on TV - twice!

    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. 1 minute ago, Devon Malcolm said:

    But it was Page who started it all though? Were there many AEW fans annoyed at him for this 'workers rights' shit?

    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. 16 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

    From what point? I'm terrible with timelines and that.

    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. 7 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

    I don't think people are criticising Punk because he fell out with AEW, they're criticising him because he has made a career of selling himself as someone who would say the unsayable, stand up for the underdog, and, in recent years, specifically make a public stand when it came to women's rights, and he's seemingly had nothing to say about a major sex trafficking and sexual abuse scandal in the company he works for after years of being extremely critical of said company. 

    A lot of that is buying into the gimmick as being the real person, but I don't think it's unreasonable for people to be disappointed in him. 

    And that his wife worked for.

  11. 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.

  12. 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.

     

  13. 1 hour ago, LaGoosh said:

    That alleyway scene though.

    I don't think any artists in any medium has ever really captured what it feels like to be inside a dream except for David Lynch. He's a genius.

    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.

  14. 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.

    53408028449_5f04e2158a_c.jpg.c0121736edf380ec4129d7bad4c8cd8d.jpg

  15. 8 hours ago, Chest Rockwell said:

    Sounds interesting. Can you recommend a book or article where i could read more about this?

    It was fascinating at the time - started with them dropping merchandising for anything Fox-related, and then cancelling the Fantastic 4 series. They also tried, repeatedly, to separate the X-Men from the main universe and silo it off - to be replaced by The Inhumans.

    They were also constantly hedging their bets, and leaving outs to bring characters back later.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/davegonzales/2015/05/31/marvel-is-killing-x-men-and-fantastic-four-merchandising/

    Right in the middle of it all, though, Disney bought Fox and it all changed again.

     

  16. 7 minutes ago, Chest Rockwell said:

    Could you give me the specifics of the good run. Where to start, are there tpbs etc?

    The recent one is Ryan North's run, from 2023. Starts with the trade 'Whatever Happened To The Fantastic Four'. It's just good, fun and smart writing - the kind that's looks deceptively easy. 

    The run before that by Dan Slott was really good as well.

    Hickman's run is decent but - like everything Hickman does - over-complicated and picky, yet has some great moments. Doom becoming God Emperor of the universe in Secret Wars and how his feelings about Richards still pick away at him is incredible.

    Some of Mark Waid's run in the 2000s was a lot of fun too.

  17. 8 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

    That's cool, and I'm sure they mean a lot to a lot of people, but as someone that to be honest only read the comics when they were younger, I just always found them a really boring lot with boring back stories, and much preferred the other factions on offer.

    I don't know how to explain that comics you haven't read might be good.

  18. On 2/14/2024 at 4:38 PM, SuperBacon said:

    Isn't this like the 50th time they've tried with this lot?

    They need to accept they're shocking characters (maybe Thing aside) and get over it.

    Also loving hearing that Madame Web is utter dogshit.

    They're difficult to get right, but that's partly because a family dynamic with superheroes is difficult to get right. Plenty of writers have struggled with it, but when the Fantastic Four work, they really work. The recent comic book relaunch has been an absolute belter and one of the best superhero comics of the last decade.

    In the same way that Doom can and should be their big bad over however many movies, but they've struggled there as well.

    It's part of why casting Pedro Pascal could actually really work - Reed should be mostly likeable and down to earth (just endlessly sidetracked). After all, Ben Grimm isn't just his best friend - he's also Ben Grimm's best friend.

    A positive, likeable film could really work well.

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