Loki

1 hour ago, air_raid said:

then Kurt shortly after getting different surgery, not needing his vertebrae fused and being back in the ring within a couple of months, to then carry on wrestling fairly regularly for more than ten years.

Here’s the thing though, he almost certainly shouldn’t have and he got through it by popping insane amounts of painkillers.

I remember about a year before he left WWE reading an “article” about how modern Kurt’s fitness regime was, how he’d learnt all this stuff in the Olympics about ice baths and warm downs and was teaching it to the WWE locker room.

 Except it was all bullshit, someone had a good hookup and they were all mainlining HGH and percocets.  That whole Guerrero/Benoit/Angle Smackdown locker room might have been the most fucked up of all time drugs-wise and that’s saying something. Everyone was dropping dead either on the road or just after leaving it (Hennig for e.g).  The Plane Ride from Hell was in the middle of all that too.

Angle is lucky to be alive.  There’s a reason WWE never really wanted him back in a ring, because for a while there he was on death watch.

1 hour ago, LaGoosh said:

I think actually you're spot on with that and it's a perfect summary of the man.I always find it baffling how in one interview he'll complain about others being unprofessional or going off script or doing stupid stuff for the niche "internet audience" while seemingly having complete blinders on to his own behaviour which is exactly the same or usually significantly worse. Like how he often talks about and clearly wants to be perceived and treated as a locker room leader but in reality he overreacts to every backstage issue and escalates them. He's a fascinating contraction of a person. Just perfectly mental enough to be successful in wrestling I suppose.

He strikes me as something of a classic narcissist.  His entire world view is predicated on the assumption that he is the good guy, always does the right thing, and is always the aggrieved party in whatever happens.

As long as you feed that narcissism he’ll be your best mate, he’ll buy you a house or talk about what a great boss you are.  Look at the Orton interview where they’re suddenly best mates.  Orton is feeding Punk’s ego and he loves it.  You go up to him backstage as a young wrestler and ask his advice, he’ll be generous and sing your praises.

 The minute you go against that narrative, he’s done with you.  You’re banned from Collision.  Wait until Orton wants to go over in their feud, see if Punk hugs it out then.

 Listening to Punk is like listening to Trump sometimes.  “People say I could have killed him, and I could of course.  I’m a very good fighter, very dangerous, everyone says that.”

He’s as big a bullshitter as Hogan but without the decades of Wrestlemania main  events.  They both believe their own bullshit absolutely.

 Punk is fascinating, mercurial, occasionally brilliant and absolutely not a guy to ever build your business around.  Better to have someone like Samoa Joe, who probably is genuinely dangerous but has never claimed to know karate, and just works incredibly hard and professionally at all times.

I haven’t seen it but apparently there’s a suggestion that the Uncle Howdy character (and therefore Bo Dallas) is coming back.

I always thought Dallas was the better wrestler, and has just never had a gimmick that would allow him into the main event level.  Although I’m not really interested in any more spoopy bollocks I really hope they give him something good to work with.  He deserves it.

Andrade in the André.  Better than Rampage I guess.

 Andrade might be low key the shittest wrestler of the 2020s.  Three runs in the big 2 companies, absolutely no memorable moments at all.  He’ll be best remembered as Mr Charlotte.

It turns out that a decade plus of sitting on (and acting on) movie sets, watching directors, cinematographers, lighting specialists, acting a wide variety of scripts, working with top notch actors, might have rubbed off on Rocky.

Whether he can still do anything in the ring remains to be seen, but he’s absolutely firing on all cylinders now.

12 minutes ago, FLips said:

Mario Kart Double Dash

@RedRooster How are we planning to deal with games like Mario Kart?  I suspect a lot of people will cast a vote for various different iterations of what is, fundamentally, one long-running game?  Very hard to pick a "best" Mario Kart.

I'm trying to think of other examples - FIFA or Championship Manager or SmackdownvRaw?

12 minutes ago, FLips said:

Left 4 Dead 2 - 2

I thought the first one of these was brilliant but the sequel was a massive let-down wasn't it?  I remember the single player being a shell of its former self.

35 minutes ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

There's another pic going round of Cody lying on the ground with The Rock stood over him, in the rain but I've not idea how to embed it on here. 

Anyway, as has been said. Pure art. 

Err...

On 3/27/2024 at 10:49 AM, Loki said:

I do find it sad there’s no place for teams like this nowadays

I guess The Viking Raiders are the closest but they are expected to do flips and all that.  I like huge guys the faces just bounce off.

Al tale of Blood and SweatyCocks?

4 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

 

At some point I really need to see him vs Logan Paul.

Ospreay is great.  He and Joe bookended the show nicely as the two biggest AEW stars right now. So much charisma in very different ways, keep them apart for a bit and that should be an amazing match.  Takeshita continues to look like the future as well.  How long have they been calling him "the Alpha" as opposed to "the Ace"?  A reference to Kenny Omega I guess, it reminds me that he's missing from all this at the moment.

Clearly, he'd do brilliantly in WWE but it's interesting that so many free agents have landed in AEW - the overall package is too good.  It will be VERY interesting to see what happens when Becky Lynch is out of contract after Wrestlemania.  At the very least she can get a lot more money post-Moné but I wonder if a lighter schedule and more regular trips home might tempt her too.

The Dynamite Merch Stand last night.  That was the full product line.  Whoever is in charge of their merch division needs to be fired!

Jesus Fucking Christ.

4 hours ago, air_raid said:

It won't, if he meant what he said on Talk Is Jericho about his WWE exit.

It's not the be-all and end-all to him. If he's happy, TK won't have to match anything.

Yeah, if Moxley was to go back to WWE it would be because they have an angle or plan that he really likes.  And I suspect that would be some version of The Shield that is really cool.  He obviously still has friends there, including Rollins and Reigns, it would be wrestling opportunities that would entice him.

It probably won't happen soon but like @tiger_rick says, everyone goes back eventually, even if it's a retirement or Hall Of Fame thing.

43 minutes ago, andrew "the ref" coyne said:

Seriously... how is that not the start of heel champ Roman1?!?!

Three things watching that video:

- Finn Balor's hairline has mysteriously improved in the last few years hasn't it?

- what happened to Strowman?  I thought he re-signed with WWE?

- the Shield reunion is probably the biggest money-making angle that the WWE has left post-Rock return.  Fantasy booking, but... Reigns loses at WM, The Rock steals the Bloodline away from him.  Rock becomes champ, 6 months later Roman re-appears with those two, all dressed in the mercenary gear.  Blimey.

The CM Punk stuff is so hard to judge.  On the one hand, I think we all still get a little thrill from that feeling that it's going "off script".  And that's a big part of his character that they're leaning into.

On the other hand, as so often with Punk all his promos really do is knock down his opponent and make them look stupid so that he looks clever.   They're self-aggrandising rather than match-promoting.  Particularly as right now, there's no match to promote even, so all the segment succeeded in doing was undermining the WM semi-main event.

8 minutes ago, Supremo said:

What did Drew ever do in this world to have an empty-headed dumb fuck like CM Punk to go out on national television and fucking go into business for himself.

As you rightly point out, this was a booking decision, to have Punk there at all - and you know, as a promoter you HAVE to know (if you don't actually encourage it) that Punk is going to say whatever internet-forum clever-clogs thing comes into his head.

It would be something else if Punk doesn't even get to a singles match this run before burning all his bridges.   Surely he's smart enough to know this is his final, final shot at a big time wrestling run?

Norman Smiley v Robbie Brookside.  Short but fun!

Just now, SuperBacon said:

Wouldn't you agree? 

 

Absolutely!  

11 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

say things for entertainment values,

I can't believe we're actually having this discussion over what was just one of a number of jokes about Biggie, but isn't that the excuse that's always trotted out over Me Too issues?  It was just a joke, I was just playing a part etc?  

To be clear I'm neither excusing Diddy or accusing Biggie of being a rapist, but hip hop over the years has painted women in a very poor light and there are a lot of artists who probably wouldn't write such stuff now, at the very least. Hip hop scene probably not the place to look for sensitivity to consent and women's liberation generally.   And that was all I was saying.  In the context of one of the most successful hip hop moguls being outed as a possible sex trafficker, this surely isn't contentious?

Just now, deathrey said:

And all about the consent

That song is all about getting women so drunk they will put out!  

 

Quote

Left the club tipsy, say no mo'
Except how I'm gettin home, tomorrow

They wouldn't refuse you see, because of the implication.

Also these fine lyrics

Quote

Mad women wantin to bone Sean combs
Sippin on Patron

Well.... possibly not always Biggy.

10 minutes ago, deathrey said:

Women consensually grabbing themselves is a very different kettle of fish @Loki

Very true, I was just making a light joke about rap music and misogyny in general.  There are worse lyrics just in that song to be honest!  Not actually read up on what Diddy is accused of, as like most of you I'd assumed he was a wrongun for years.

As renowned feminist Notorious B.I.G once said, all the ladies if you hear me, grab your titties for B.I.G.

And Peter Gabriel is from Surrey!

I don't think the WWE were deliberately jerking Reigns around, and I agree with @Shane O' Mac Version 2 that he was front and centre of the company through those years.

But this was the WWE in the depths of the final Vince McMahon years when his understanding of what wrestling crowds wanted had completely evaporated.  The company was incapable of changing direction or responding to crowds and ploughed on with Vince's "vision" regardless.  So they'd shine Reigns up for Taker but then within months have dulled him off again, and still not made a course correction.

They didn't Luger him because when they fucked Luger's push they let him go and tried something else.  Vince never lost faith in Reigns and things always were designed to revolve back to him.  It was a dark, boring time and I'm not surprised we've all tried to memory hole it.

They've built us all to fever pitch for Rock v Cody, haven't they, which is a pity as that's not actually on the WM card!  I reiterate what I said about Smackdown, Reigns is undoubtedly diminished by the star power of The Rock.  It only really fuels speculation that Reigns is going off for an extended break and so this is very much about the next 6 months of programming.

I'm glad we're all on the same page now about Night 2 - it has to be the full gamut of run-ins.  I've been saying for ages that Stone Cold is going to be there, and if you add Cena to that mix you have possibly the biggest match of all time.  

I want Rollins, having lost his belt, to turn on Cody, leading to Reigns and Rollins reuniting.  Can we borrow John Moxley for the night?  Imagine The Shield and The Rock lining up opposite Cody, Cena, Stone Cold and Jey.  Goodness me.  Throw everything at it, like you did with Sting v HHH.

I didn't actually watch a single minute of any actual wrestling on this show, but then this is WWE High Drama wrestling where the actual moves in the ring are completely irrelevant.  That outside brawl was WWE at its best.  Bring on Wrestlemania!

Edit : @Lorne Malvo yeah the huge swathe of time devoted to Punk was awful and pointless, and only served to remind us all how petty and narcissistic he is.