Dai

Luckily Spike and Bellator have recognized this and produced a show with a new dynamic and plenty of potentially beneficial features.

Didnt feel this way at all when I finished watching it, to be honest. The fighters picking their team was a nice twist, but everything else was essentially TUF.

Firstly, the fights are shown in bite sized chunks, which in this case helps the show flow better. Full fight unless short were on-existent and that is a good thing with the oversaturated nature of MMA in 2013

This is the exact same as TUF when they are showing the qualifying matches.

Secondly, it seems like despite Spike being the forefather of in-house antics and crash TV, it seems this show will be more like The Contender rather than TUF. It is not only welcome on a freshness level but also on a professional level, as I feel the crash TV element of MMA has soundly run its course.

Not sure how you made this assumption based on the first episode, as absolutley nothing was previewed about what the 'normal', non-qualifying episodes will be like. Also, TUF has (to its detriment, in a lot of peoples opinion) moved far away from the in-house antics. I wont be sticking with this show if its going to be focused on training and just the fights, ie, exactly what TUF is like now. Id rather not burn out before the new TUF season.

Thirdly, the new dynamic gives the show added freshness, with the fighters choosing their camp offering a new scenario never done before on TUF. Watching the coaches sell their camp or try and lead a fighter away from it makes for cracking viewing.

This was a decent twist, especially when a trainer doesnt want a fighter, and tries to manipilate their decision. That said, seeing the trainers blow hot air for the next few weeks when theyve been asked "Where are my weaknesses?"/"What can your camp do for me?" for the tenth time may not be so interesting.It was still a decent watch, but is almost identical to TUF, and will be even more similar once they get to the normal episodes. Hopefully there will be a good dynamic with the four coaches, which will hopefully lead to something unique about this show.

Just watched the Jeff Hardy/Triple H Armageddon 07 match, where Hardy runs into the crowd at the end. He ends up right by a couple and their son, who've appeared at shit loads of WWE events, and funnily enough, were there at Payback in pretty much the same seats. They always seem to nab the front row seats facing the hard cam. Its the oldish couple, with the man always wearing a hat, and their son. Any idea on what their story is? Cant be cheap going to all these events around the US, and most of the time the parents look bored. I assume it cant be easy to keep constantly nabbing pretty much the exact same front row seats all the time, so how do they manage to do it?

Wrestling promotions never have been able to pull off a decent Leatherface. The masks always look shit, and they never have a fat bloke under the apron. He's either skinny with a shite mask or short with a half decent mask. I've seen some Leatherfaces who wear their t-shirts they are planning to flog at the gimmick table later on in the night. And that just isn't staying true to the gimmick.

 

Im making my way through some Best of IWA Japan DVDs, which feature quite a bit of Leatherface from around 94. I believe this was Corporal Kirchner, and fits your fat and mask quota pretty good. He was the shits in the ring, but the entrances were outstanding. Watching shit loads of fans run for their life from him was a brilliant visual:

 

- Watch at 1:13 when all those fans collectively shit themselves and stand up, realising the chainsaw is coming from behind them.

 

Leatherface x2 vs Ono and Nakamaki - An infamous match anyway, but check 1:36 for the chaos from the entrance, with added woman screaming noise effects.

 

Leatherface vs Perez - 2:00 into the vid for the entrance.

 

Leatherface vs Bill Demott - 1:20 for more crowd running away scared.

Ive watched 20 odd episodes of The Mindy Project. Its nowhere near being great (or even very good, for that matter), but it hasnt been so shit that Ive given up on it. Its not something I will watch as soon as I download it, but its a harmless show if youve got 20 minutes of time to kill. Its a show clearly focused for the females, so your girlfriends will certainly like it more than you.

DDP Youshoot is fairly average. Considering his career, and the fact this was his first shoot, Id call it disappointing. I finished it yesterday, and thinking back to it now, theres a shocking lack of late 90's WCW talk involved in it. Being a star in late 90's/early 00s WCW surely means a treasure chest full of crazy stories, yet that whole period is pretty much glossed over. The fact that DDP is genuinely nice/being smart/politician-like throughout means that even the super juicy bits like getting buried during the Invasion angle isnt much fun to listen to.

Cant see a specific thread for it, but have just finished watching Barbed Wire City, and thought it was fantastic. Highly recommended. Considering the lack of material they had, I thought it was very well put together, and had a great set of talking heads.

 

 

On another note, Im making my way through a SMW "Before They Were Famous" set, and have watched a great match featuring The Headbangers vs Chris Michaels and Flash Flanagan. If it were up on youtube, it was be a perfect for the "Great sub-10 minute matches" thread.

 

Ive seen a decent amount of The Headbangers WWF run, and dont think I can remember one good match the entire time, so I was very shocked at how good they were in this. Really solid in the ring, and absolutley nailed their "Powerbomb, top rope leg drop" combo finisher. Just about as perfect as you can do that move. Flash Flanagan was brilliant, too, bumping around like a Shawn Michaels, and nailing some impressive offense. Looked really solid. Judging from his Wiki page, he never did much in wrestling, which is somewhat suprising.

Im about 20 minutes into it, and its been OK so far. The problem is, unlike the Nash/Cornette ones, where they were major players at the time theyre talking about, Sandman doesnt really know much from 95, and answers a lot with "I was a nobody at this time", and has no insight on anything backstage. The same could be said about Ivory in 2001, but that shoot was very good. The difference being Sandman was probably fucked on all the nights hes talking about, so is blagging it for the most part.

 

 

The Dreamer/Raven Face Off was very good. Its 2+ hours of them talking about a fued that I havent really watched much off, but they were still entertaining enough for it to be enjoyable. Dreamer picking up RF on his constant, annoying "Huh" laughs was funny. Dreamer looks pretty much identical to how he looked back then, but its very scary how much Raven has aged.

Just watched a clip called "Bischoff joins nwo" that was on my computer, which was the first time I have seen it. How shit was his heel turn? It was an awful promo by Piper, followed by an nwo run in, at which point Hogan hugs Eazy E in the ring. Then Hogan does a promo. I've always assumed it would be one of the best heel turns, considering it was something different from a wrestler joining, but it was crap.

Who is the Iron Sheik talking to when he does his famous "Fack da tommorow, Facking Bullshit" line, and what are they talking about?

 

Also, did Raven bang Beulah? Am watching a Dreamer/Raven shoot, and Dreamer seems to casually allude to him shagging Beulah, which I thought was quite funny, as theyre now married and have kids.

The new Star Trek was very good. Not outstanding, and not as good as the first one, but still very enjoyable. Pegg steals every scene he's in, and both Benedict and Quinto are brilliant. From looking at IMDB just now, the Russian guy was the "Im a magician, youre not a magician" kid from an episode of Curb. Anyway, the rest of the cast are all OK, and the story is fine (if a little predictable and run of the mill).

 

Watched the Sabu and Maria Youshoots, which were both very good. At some points, Sabu is a stuttering mess, which he puts down to nerves, yet I suspect its the years of abuse which are taking its toll.

 

The Raven and HTM faceoff was also very good. Slightly too much "These kids today dont know shit" ramblings from Raven, which Ive heard him say in about 5 other shoots that hes done. That said, Raven is 10 times a better interviewer than RF, and this format (with Raven essentially being the interviewer) worked very well. Lots of back and forth banter and some interesting stories.

 

 

Somewhat related, Ive just downloaded a bunch of wrestlers on Howard Stern's show from over the years. Highlights so far:

 

- Christy Hemme losing a general knowledge test to an 11 year old, then bending over and getting spanked by Stern whilst wearing a schoolgirl outfit.

- Stern getting all the gossip from Hogan's new fiance about their sex lives

- Goldust, tourettes gimmick and all, being absolutley hilarious.

- Some vintage Sheik ranting.

I just got back from seeing Iron Man 3, Unfortunately I didn't think it was very good, I can't believe how hard everyone's coming over it, saying it's the best of the 3 and it's as good as Avengers and stuff, it's just not. I'm not some fanboy who picks things apart for no reason either, I really wanted to enjoy it but for the most part it left me cold, especially the end

 

Beware, there are massive movie killing spoilers within

 

SPOILER - Highlight the black box to read

The end was horrible, he doesn't even get to deal the killing blow to the bad guy, super Pepper does it while he lies there, then he retires and blows up all his suits to make her happy, I think this is so sexist, why paint the only female character to be so selfish she wants the hero to give everything up and be "normal" for her? It's offensive, why would that make her happy? He's a hero, he's saved the entire planet as Iron Man, giving it all up to be a husband isn't a happy ending, it's shit. Also he just killed a man who's more powerful than him and can regenerate himself, is that really good time to destroy all your arms?

The Mandarin thing was weird, in a way I thought it was a clever twist, I certainly didn't see it coming but it seemed to happen too fast that the payoff wasn't there, the weirdness of it was saved by Ben Kingsley though, who was absolutely brilliant as "both" roles.

 

 

Iron Man 3 was very good. It nails everything you want to see from an Iron Man film. Downey is excellent, some very funny moments, and moves along at a great pace. Thought the final scene was slightly disappointing, and Cheadle isn't very good, but apart from that, very good.

 

Do not stay for the bonus part after the credits, though. If you do, you'll definitely have a "we waited all that time just for that?" reaction. To save you time, all that happens:

Finished off Last Resort yesterday. A US nuclear sub gets an order to fire on Pakistan. The Captain is suspicious about the order, and doesnt do it, at which point the US try to destory the sub. The sub makes it to a small island, which they claim as their own and are now at war with the US. Throw in some government conspiracy, the unhappy local Mayor/drug dealer who wants them gone, lots of unhappy crew who just want to go home, and some other stuff, and you have some interesting themes for the show.

 

A fairly decent show, that got cancelled after 13 epiosdes. That actually turned out to be a good thing, as I dont think it had the legs to carry on for a full season, and more seasons afterwards. Everything was tied up by the finale, and 13 episodes seemed like the perfect length. The Captain (Andre Braugher) was easily the star of the show. Brilliant performance. Worth a watch if you want something short to pass some time.

After watching Larry Zbyszko's shoot, it got me wondering, how is his post-Bruno/WWWF career considered in terms of business? From his Wikipedia page, he won the AWA Title afterwards, but was he successful as the main guy? Did he ride the success of the Bruno fued for long, or did he quickly fizzle out as a top heel?

He married one of Verne Gagne's daughters (according to Hogan Verne was always trying to get his top guys to marry his daughters so they'd stick around and not jump ship) and with the old guard of the AWA the likes of Bockwinkel and the Vachons gone he was the logical choice for Champion although the company was pretty much on it's arse at this stage and that was really the only time in his career he was the main guy with the company shutting down soon after.

 

Cheers for the reply. Was it more a case of (despite what Larry himself probably thinks) Bruno being 95% responsible for the success of that fued, and Larry being taken along for the ride, at which point afterwards he dropped back down to his normal level?

After watching Larry Zbyszko's shoot, it got me wondering, how is his post-Bruno/WWWF career considered in terms of business? From his Wikipedia page, he won the AWA Title afterwards, but was he successful as the main guy? Did he ride the success of the Bruno fued for long, or did he quickly fizzle out as a top heel?

Have a look on stagevu.com

 

Last time I looked they had a shitload of wrestling on there. Just play around with the search button and see if it's on there [What your looking for].

 

Thanks for that site, never heard of it before, but its got some Youshoots that I havent seen yet. JDownloader can download the avi version of the files, too, which is a bonus.

 

 

Watched KC's Top Five Managers 'shoot', which was crap. 45 minutes of people like Sandman and Bill fucking Apter saying "They were good, they got lots of heat for their wrestlers" in as many different ways as possible. Ive watched three of these sort of shoots now, and theyve all been crap. The talking heads format doesnt work, especially when 75% of the people talking usually have no clue what theyre talking about. Funniest part of this shoot was Vince Russo praising Cornette, and the "WTF?" reactions that most of them had to James Mitchell making the list.

 

 

Also watched the Sheik/New Jack/HTM shoot, which was OK. The constant shouting and promo cutting got a bit tiresome toward the end, mind. I have a bunch of those Worlds Collide shoots downloaded, which ones are worth checking out? Im about to start the Raven/HTM one, is it worth watching?

Downloaded The WWF Timeline 1980 w/ Larry Zybsko last night so that should be good to watch. I hope its the right time frame for the Shea Stadium matches.

 

It is. It covers the fued from the start, too. Im coming to the end of this Timeline now, and am suprised at the lack of mentions it gets in this topic. The last time I remember seeing Zbyszko was a photo from some convention where he looked like death, so my expectations were not high. However, despite clearly having some issues with his false teeth, hes still very sharp, and the whole timeline is very solid and entertaining. Worth mentioning that I havent seen his other shoots, and this one does spend a lot of time talking about the Bruno fued, so it wont be as good to someone who has already seem him talk about these events already.

 

 

Looking on the KC youtube site, and theyve got a Sullivan 96 WCW Timeline and a Luger 93 WWF Timeline, which should be fun.

Agreed. It's still been very enjoyable but not quite up to the standards of past seasons. I do have the final two episodes to watch though so I suppose I should refrain until I've seen its conclusion.

 

Not to put a downer on it before youve watched it, but I thought the penultimate episode was probably the weakest episode of the season. It was after watching that episode that made me think about how it would compare to the other seasons. I posted my thoughts on Season 1 HERE, where I talked about how epic the penultimate episode was, where it brought together about 8 different stories in a single episode. In terms of depth of characters and mini-stories, S3 is way inferior to the previous seasons. I feel they have relied too much on the epic battles (which look about 10 times better than what they used to), but sacrificed on the story.

Will be watching the finale tonight, but Ive thought Season 3 has easily been a few notches down on S1 and 2. Thats pretty understandable, due to the fact S1-2 are so good, but going into the finale, S3 hasnt reached the heights that the other two seasons did.

Just finished this event. Another really solid card. This was the first season I watched constantly, and have been very impressed. Great production, good commentators, and (most importantly) good fighters. The tournement format is also good. For example, I hadnt heard of Doug Marshall before watching this, but now, because of the frequent fights and video promos, hes recognizable to me.

 

Speaking of Marshall, he has some serious power. Hes one of those fighters where any minute hes throwing, he has a legit chance of KO'ing the other guy. Hes constantly throwing bombs. Great to watch. He looks small for a 185er, and the gameplan to beat him is obvious. That said, he was taken down in this fight, didnt take any punishment, and got up toward the end of the round.

 

 

That McGeary KO where he rocked the other guy who had side mount was something I dont think Ive seen before. Crazy.

 

 

The Frodo/Richman match was outstanding. The stand up (especially in the first round) by both guys was top notch. Frodo's constant bomb throwing reminds me of Leonard Garcia.

Finished it just now as well. Was pleasantly surprised how good it was. Was shocked when he said his payday for the Zeus SS main event was only around 10k, and that was the biggest payday he ever got. Seems like not much. How much would a Savage have got for such a match? Beefcake holding Hogans cheque for 1.2 mill was a nice titbit. I assume it wasn't for one match, as Brutus claims. How did they get paid back then? A cheque per PPV plus a weekly cheque?

Beefcake's 89 Timeline is floating about now. Anyone seen? Have never watched a shoot with Beefcake, is he usually a decent interview?

 

Beefcake: Whose the singer for Poison?

SO: Bret Michaels.

Beefcake: I know Bret.

SO: You dont know his name!

The main two fights were pretty forgettable I thought. The Awad stop was strange. On one hand, he was laying there with both his arms on the ground, and it looked like he was out. On the other, the ref didn't even seem to verbally check with the fighter (a simple "are you done?" is what I think a Herb would have done there). Had he just sat up he would have been OK, so I blame the fighter.

 

It's been a few days since I watched it, but I seem to remember Mann beings pretty shit, and getting outclassed right from the start.

More from Falls Count Anywhere:

 

- Kane vs Big Show: From Raw at the end of 99. Far better than what you would expect from a Show/Kane match from 99. They bring out some impressive stuff in this one, and keep up a shockingly fast pace throughout. Some pretty silly bumps on the floor, considering it was a TV match in front of an apathetic crowd.

 

- Vince vs Shane. I remember this match from the time, and everyone thought it was shit back then. Extremely quiet crowd, coupled with run of the mill hardcore stuff. Considering this was mid-Invasion, it should have been a much bigger deal than what it was.

 

- Flair vs Vince: Haven't watched this match in years, and always thought of it being in the "Far better than it should be" catagory. Unfortunately, it was pretty poor, and far worse than I remember/the reaction is got at the time.

 

- HBK vs HHH - Still great, but still get annoyed with HBKs superman routine, after 10+ minutes of back torture and JR's (great) commentary telling us how Shawn will never be the same again. There's a guy in the middle of the front row, right on camera, not paying attention to the match for ages, which got on my tits as soon as a I spotted him.

 

 

 

On an unrelated note, Leatherface's IWA Japan entrance surely goes down as one of the greatest entrances of all time. I've just watched one where entire blocks of the Korakuen crowd are running for their lives when the chainsaw comes nears. People running, blocks of chairs scattered, the chainsaw, it had it all.