Chris B

On 12/31/2022 at 1:56 PM, chokeout said:

Go to joooooy.com you can pay via PayPal and the sets usually get here in less than 2 weeks.

Seconding joooooy.com. My 7-year-old nephew has been getting really into football and is obsessed with Old Trafford, so I took a gamble and ordered the set from there. Worked out really well - everything was clearly labelled, the manual was easy to follow, and all 3,800 pieces were there.

The level of detail is great. And he showed absolutely zero interest in helping, which was probably for the best - and now he has a display piece. Although he's already asked what I'd do if he smashed it.

17 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

Are Proud & Powerful still officially a team? They've got Diadora trainers coming out in two days but haven't been together in ages.

Santana got badly injured during the Blood and Guts match - although he seemed genuinely unhappy with where he was at the time, and it seemed like they were quietly shelving the team. Might be that this is no longer the case. 

He said "He's great. But he may be queer. Poly, maybe?" -  For those reading without context, Nakamura stole the poison mist out of Muta's mouth via a kiss, so it's difficult to know how much it was meant as a light comment or an insult.

I've been quite pleased with my new Christmas jumper. I suspect my mum will dislike it, not through her thoughts on the tories, but purely the swearing.

This felt like the most focused episode of Dynamite in a long time, and just plenty of good stuff with the Jericho/Andretti thing coming as a nice surprise. I don't think the crowd jump was a Punk dig - really, not everything is about Punk or making digs.

Jungle Boy and HOOK? They know *exactly* what they're doing with that, and fair play to them. Also, while I don't like Brian Cage, he's been steadily improving recently - a handful of decent matches against good opponents. One of those people who isn't annoying me as much as he used to.

Enjoying the Best of 7 series a lot - and changing the last few to gimmick matches makes a lot of sense, and it feels like there's more of a story than just a series of matches. Which was definitely necessary. Also, I find it odd how Kenny's now using his 'Good night and good bye' catchphrase, which he's mostly avoided in AEW. 

I find it interesting how AEW book and why it sometimes doesn't work - they very much book around PPVs and then work their way back. So, when it's at its worst, it's because some of those plans changed, and they've shoehorned a new plan in - and because it wasn't what they wanted to do, there's a palpable sense of just going along with it until it's done. But it's interesting that you can see the feuds being booked and people being moved around to put them into the right place for that feud - whereas, in WWE, it felt like people got booked to fill spots, rather than around particular feuds, with a rough plan for a number of heels and faces at various levels. Struggling to explain it, but it feels different, and with its own positives and negatives.

Vice just put out a Vince McMahon Dark Side of the Ring special (basically a clip show of the previous episodes about him, by the looks of things), along with replaying the McMahon-centred episodes in the run-up to it. So I suspect the timing of him making this announcement is just to try and counter that, and get people talking about Vince more on Vince's terms.

21 hours ago, Gay as FOOK said:

I can't help but look to the Ruthless Aggression era in particular and see plenty of acts that couldn't illicit even the faintest of reactions on those shows but would probably have massive smart arse crowd following in the arenas now, where the internet fans have 'won' and everything is potential meme material. 

Simon Dean on his scooter, Rene Dupree doing the French Ticker dance, Snitsky & Heidenreich being weird pulpy comedy killers. It's interesting how a crowd's mentality can bury or elevate these kind of acts.

Is it a bit too much to suggest they'd get over with, say, the AEW arena audiences each week? For me it's almost a foregone conclusion. I bet there'd be all manner of creative signs and t-shirts for some of those acts. Acts that were 'shit' then because crowds were in a weird deflated holding pattern of expecting the Attitude Era to come back any month, but that would be perceived as the good kind of silly now because something something post irony and all that bollocks. 

I don't think it's anything to do with post irony or smart-arse fans or anything like that. Comedy was appreciated throughout the Attitude era and went down a storm at times. The problem isn't that people weren't up for comedy - it's that the comedy was shit for the most part. Part of that is that, in hindsight, Vince McMahon really doesn't get humour in the way most people do - that's why so much comedy was braindead, lowest-common-denominator stuff with dislikeable babyfaces bullying and humiliating heels.

Were some of those guys capable of being funny? Sure, probably. But it generally landed terribly with Michael Cole fake-laughing his way through it. 

To be fair, even then, you got some shining lights who could do comedy well - Kurt Angle when he was so inclined, Eddie Guerrero and even Santino (at times). But they generally weren't great at being silly, or at being deadpan. It tipped over into wacky or forced too often.

Whereas, with AEW, one thing they do pretty well is the humour - it's not to everyone's taste, but it's rarely outright cringey and forced or one-note. At the very least, they're willing to go surreal or at least be patient or organic - the running gag of the Best Friends wanting to bring lethal weapons to no-DQ matches, or the Dark Order becoming the bunch of weirdoes they became. 

Simon Dean or Renee Dupree could have become organically funny, but it would have taken a type of approach I really don't think WWE were capable of at the time. To be fair, WWE has done better at other times, before and since. But that was a particularly unfunny period.

4 hours ago, Lorne Malvo said:

I'll always have a soft spot for daft finishes that still make sense. I don't think anything will ever top Big Show losing a tables match because he stepped onto a table and it fell through.

There was a tremendous finish at Wrestle Kingdom 16 (night 1). They ran a royal rumble match where the last four would go to a match the following night. The final entrant is Toru Yano and he takes his time coming to the ring - just long enough for the last couple to be thrown out, so there are only three left in the ring. He becomes one of the winners despite never getting to the ring.

4 minutes ago, Louch said:

I think in general the future will look back badly to how long everyone spends on their phone. It’s a massive addiction that doesn’t get the attention it probably should from the mental effects sustained use causes 

While I think there's some validity around reduced attention spans, I also think that 'spending time on their phones' means different things to different people, and it's not a homogenous thing. A lot of it is still social, with people talking to friends or following people's feeds that they're interested in. And, on top of that, a lot is about information and reading. They've taken the place of magazines and newspaper, and that's before you get onto gaming and watching stuff.

I see it more as a case of older people wanting something to blame for younger people not wanting to be like them or around them as much.

24 minutes ago, Lorne Malvo said:

Why they didn't just have Regal never show up again after the Moxley 'run' promo will never make sense to me. 

I reckon it's because they knew he was leaving but didn't know when other than *soon*.

The plan was likely for him to work with MJF for a bit then leave - but they skipped straight to the end. At which point, I could see concern that it threw Mox and the BCC under the bus a bit.

So, I think this was a genuine attempt at a little bit of damage control - and making clear that Regal saw the BCC as the main event, and focused attention on them rather than him. But it was all trying to do too much in too short time, so it got hopelessly muddled.

But, overall, I'm also taking this as meaning things with Regal in real life were somewhat on good terms, and that's no bad thing 

This genuinely tickles me. Thanks, @chokeout

I've got a fondness for a few Christmas movies but, outside of horror, there aren't many good ones that are specifically Christmas movies - most are just versions of A Christmas Carol. 

One brand new one that's deeply okay is Violent Night, in cinemas now. Great concept (Bad Santa meets Die Hard) and David Harbour knows exactly what he's doing in the lead (and a few people seem to have enjoyed him saying 'Naughty' before killing someone with a sledgehammer), but everything else in the film is crap. The main family in it could have worked if they were funny, but it's paint-by-numbers. It's also unsure if it wants to be more Die Hard or a horror version of Home Alone. Some of the gore is a bit over-the-top for the film that it is - it's just missing the tone it's aiming for.

That said... I enjoyed it. Harbour is having a blast and that's pretty infectious. But it's going to be treated as a cult classic that it doesn't deserve to be. I reckon there'll be a much better sequel along in a year or two, with a bigger budget.

1 hour ago, air_raid said:

I'd love a hat on MiSu again. It would go well with his big Hello Kitty, that you can't see because of the crop.

I've just learned that isn't Craig Charles.

Please put a santa hat on the letter in my profile picture, since I haven't bothered to re-upload one.

I could also see it being taken the wrong way by some - it isn't a performance centre or developmental, and it sounds like some coming in from WWE have treated main-eventers like that. And, in some cases, main-eventers who succeeded because they didn't do what was expected of them elsewhere.

Equally, I could see some AEW originals being a bit overly precious and believing in their own hype too much - and not listening to someone who clearly knows what he's doing.

Well, it's looking like this is confirmed and it's an interesting story. There are stories going round that Regal wasn't happy in AEW (primarily around younger wrestlers not wanting to hear advice, which sounds like a culture clash).

Apparently, he's going to a backstage role in WWE, which isn't really a surprise. Obviously, going to be interesting to find out how he got out of his contract (my guess - it's a backstage role, not a performer role, so he simply gave notice).

The change of guard with HHH was clearly a major factor, but if it's backstage, it's also more likely he's an employee , so gets healthcare and doesn't have to travel. Plus his son is training there.

I'm gutted to see him go, as he's been brilliant in AEW. Presumably, it wasn't long planned, as the recent double-turn smacks of a change in plans. 

But hopefully, this was relatively amicable. If he's gone to a totally different role and won't just walk out as GM or manager next week, it's a different situation to some others. It's a rare case where I could see it being a handshake agreement, like when Flair left WWF in 92.

4 minutes ago, Supremo said:

I’d love to know what the plans were for the Blackpool Combat Club if Moxley hadn’t been tasked with carrying the torch all year long when everything involving Punk kept going tits up. The few tags they had together were great. I still reckon Mox/Danielson/Claudio vs. The Elite has TV main event of the year written all over it.

By the sounds of what Dax Harwood was talking about, they were about to launch into The Firm vs CM Punk/FTR/Wardlow, so presumably BCC would have been in the thick of all of that.

Also, yes. BCC vs The Elite could and should have happened.

24 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

Who is the lumberjack just beside Orange Cassidy? 

Shotty Lee/Lee Johnson.

If Regal actually is leaving, I wonder if there's something around him leaving a performer role to go into an employment role.

If that's the case (with resultant medical coverage), it may be that he's just handed in his notice. If he avoids a performer role, and is just doing backstage, that may not be subject to the same kind of contractual consequences.

Either way, it says a lot about how he's regarded that it's being mostly treated as a shame, not overly negatively. These things don't have to be acrimonious. 

19 minutes ago, Infinity Land said:

Rumour mill has gone from 1 year - 3 years - 9 months in terms of Regal's contract.

Conspiracy theories ranging from a deal was done to it was always that way. With the proper crackpot theory it was always that way because he knew he would be back to WWE with Trips due to takeover. Trips being the one that grassed up Vince to get his job back.

Safe to say nobody really knows anything right now.

Also seen a few people pointing out that Regal tends to take holiday around Christmas to go back to the UK, so this may just be covering that.

44 minutes ago, seph said:

Going to be weird this year- my dad passed away this weekend (I was only told this morning) so my sister was planning to bring the family down a few days afterward, but she's coming down sooner than later to help sort stuff out. I wasn't as close to him as she was, but I'll help how I can.

Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. What a sad thing in the middle of all of it.

6 minutes ago, Lorne Malvo said:

I do think this about a lot of 80s comedies though. Coming To America is shite too.

Trading Places, on the other hand, is great.

Until the last 20 minutes, when you get Dan Akroyd in blackface and lots of other weird stuff and it all goes off the rails a bit.

44 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

Though I imagine that the problem with the high street, as with so many things, comes down to landlords more than anything.

And council rates. A few of us set up an independent co-op bookshop in the area, and we wanted to go onto the high street if possible. The rent was achievable, but the council rates were twice the cost of going literally round the corner.

It helped explain why the high street was only brands, betting shops, cafes and charity shops (the last two categories get a discount). And it's a complete mis-management, because the shops on the side streets are significantly more interesting and would probably bring people in - but so many don't even know they're there.

Regal's also pointed out that he won't do the 'War Games!' stuff on cameo etc, as he feels it's WWE's thing (a bit like how Danielson won't do the 'Yes' stuff). I hope HHH has reached out to say he's fine with Regal doing it.

Just now, Moo said:

Do you mean on ukff.com or more generally? Caching issues are quite common, but I don't think we've ever had this issue on ukff.com before, ever. 

I mean more generally. Just curious how you figured out what happened and how it got solved - I'm guessing, if similar effects have happened on other forums, that made it easier to solve.