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simonworden

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Posts posted by simonworden

  1. I enjoyed my experience of a house show in Bournemouth in 2014 because of the longer matches, audience interaction and the fact the tickets were cheaper and with the nature of the venue you were pretty much guaranteed a decent view. That said I felt like I wouldn't enjoy seeing the same thing in a bigger arena like the O2 or even Wembley arena if I didn't have close up floor seats and I'd feel too detracted from the show. It's much easier in those venues for me to feel into it if its a TV taping/PPV with things going on between matches, big screens, Pyro (sometimes) etc. But then I'm a bit weird with things like that. They had the big pyro opener at Raw/SD in London in 06 then didn't in 07 at it kind of ruined the show for me. 

  2. 4 hours ago, garynysmon said:

    Bit of a rarity in terms of most Impact tapings!

    Impact/TNA is for the discerning wrestling fan now didn't you know. Those who don't want to argue about empty hard cam sides, ratings or if Punk will show up in Chicago. That comes with an audience in the US who sit there, drink wine, eat cheese and write notes in their pocket book. Clearly the UK is ruining it all again. 

    On 10/27/2023 at 8:26 AM, Hannibal Scorch said:

    Oh 100%, if not other enhancers as well. It’s jarring.

    Didn't quote Garynysmon to avoid the video coming back but I also preferred chunky Jordynne from a personal point of view. She's been doing quite a few bodybuilder comps and there's more and more "supplements" available now that aren't as dangerous. I know they are more legal in the US and some competitions don't test so she's probably been taking some of them. As long as it's safe and she's happy then good for her even if a few weird wrestling fans are less attracted to her.  

  3. When I was last in Germany the food was brilliant. Had an amazing sausage in a bun with a nice ice cold German beer sat atop a castle. Then we went to this weird 3 star hotel near our B&B for dinner and the food was massive (I had 2 giant schnitzels and the wife pork chops) and amazing with masses of potatoes, sauerkraut . I'd be shocked if any UKFFer could pass it up. 

  4. 3 hours ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

    There was a period where they were between TV deals (maybe after Fox Sports Net but before Spike TV) where Impact was a one hour show they put up on their website, and it was genuinely great every week. You’d get some decent backstage skits, some X Division madness, an unexpected return and some main event shenanigans and it never disappointed.

    That was probably my favorite time in TNA too where you could see they were really trying to put the pieces together for a decent roster and product. From where they binned off/lost Hall, Nash, Waltman, DDP and stopped trying out some of the old WCW mid card to BFG 06 was a wonderful variety show, 60 mins of fast action, nothing dragged too long (excluding Jarrett's title reigns). They had some great PPV main event tag team brawls. I still think they missed a step by not switching the belt to Joe a month before BFG and running Angle/ Joe then as well as non-title Sting/ Jarrett, especially with how quick they flipped the belt onto Abyss. I lost a bit of interest in the months following BFG from the massive, fast reshuffle in the card with a lot of people turning heel (AJ, Daniels, Team 3D, Sabin) and the unusual matches thrown out by Russo. 

     

    08-09 - Was my other top TNA time where booking seemed to settle down a bit more, they started using arenas for more PPVs and having a bigger feel around the product. 

  5. 2 hours ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

    I'm making an assumption here but the garden centre in the guise that we all know them is strictly a British thing? Is there a Vietnamese equivalent @simonworden 

    Yeah pretty much, there are plant centers here and I've seen 1 in my whole time with a cafe. In some tourist towns in the mountains they have something more akin to pleasure gardens which do sell some of their plants, have shops with random tat and usually a cafe or two but not quite the same experience 

  6. Stewarts is the local one to where I'm from in the Christchurch and Dorset area. Cafe did a lovely fry up if memory serves me right. Had a good balance between actual plants and garden related items to the other random stuff thrown about. At Christmas they go absolutely insane with huge sections full of animatronic Santa's and lights that should really be on a runway. Their Santa's grotto has got a bit out of control now with you needing to buy tickets by September if you want to take your kids anytime close to Christmas. The one in Broomhill Dorset where they have their nursery used to have a lovely woodland walk but I think the lands being redeveloped now. 

    Another big one nearby is Haskins which dedicates about 10% of its inside area to gardens. Sadly the cafe is now awful with some of the worst food and service I've ever experienced.

    My home village has a little one called McPennys which is pure plants (still has a cafe) and a great sunken garden which we used to sneak into and play around in as kids. 

  7. The rebrand got me thinking about what a variation TNA have had in terms of production and look over their 21 years from looking like a mix of old school hassling venue and ECW in the Asylum to having all the glitz in the Impact zone onto using big arenas to weired empty shows in places like Manhatten Ballroom, budget impact zone and how they finally present. I can't think of another promotion with those kinds of ebs and flows

  8. 8 hours ago, Supremo said:

    Wardlow said he was coming for MJF. He didn’t say he was coming for the belt. I can’t think of a better Full Gear pay-off to Jay White’s claims that Max has no friends. The lads!

    IMG_6558.webp.ce702e3c89d204386fcdf036126073c9.webp

    I like that idea, would be a great way to push Adam Cole over the edge to join Bullet Club gold. Then they'll drag it out to Blood and Guts. 

  9. 4 hours ago, Shy Dad said:

    The schedule is there for guys like Dolph and Shelton Benjamin to come in and have an easier payday but remain on TV.

    Rick Boogz could have a fantastic holiday camp cheese feud with Johnny Swinger and Dirty Dango too before seeing if he has more promise.

    Hopefully with lots of foam hands, public warnings and a few "ask him refs" for good measure 

  10. Managed to finish this yesterday. Overall I thought it was an entertaining watch but probably wouldn't be too interesting or well received to a non fan. Here a few of my mixed rambling thoughts about the people and events.

    Al Snow - I like Al's old WWF character, in my opinion he was a decent bit player in 1998-2000, never going to be any further up the card due to the talent they had at the time but was able to get a pop and I imagine he was a solid hand for the house show circuit. In a time of faced paced storylines and short matches his work gave something. Another person could have filled that time yes but he did and he should be proud of that. Was he a draw in WWE? Not really, if you took away Rock, Austin, Foley, Taker, Kane, Triple H etc and stuck Al Snow in the main event it wouldn't have shifted any more tickets but he is a carny old wrestler so if he wants to call himself a draw then fair enough. I think he means well with OVW but definitely has some ridiculous ideas like doing a bloody live TV show, absolutely no reason to bother and the fact they aren't getting loads of their guys called up/ used on TV in WWE, AEW, Impact reflects what the top layer of the industry thinks of their training/ booking/ product sadly.

    Matt Jones - I thought through most of it he came across as a bit of an egotistical belled but towards the end I could see that he does actually mean well, seems to have no filter and is probably more what OVW needs business wise than Al. He's clearly got a good mind for local business and sees that OVW needs to be more about the local statewide area rather than faffing about with live TV pissing in the wind, trying to compete with what's out there already. 

    Haley J - I didn't get her as a performer, to me she was like a more trailer trash version of Honey Boo Boo who wrestles. Her and the boyfriend didn't seem to have any clear understanding of how they'll need to behave if they were to start travelling around working for other promotions. A lot of entitlement and chips on shoulders there. I'd have preferred if the woman they focused on was Leila Grey who got signed to AEW. She seemed more interesting, dedicated and I'm sure nobody would argue better to look at. 

    As people have said, no idea why Shera or Godderz are hanging around OVW, both seem like decent workers who could fill a place anywhere else. Did they burn their bridges with Impact?

    Overall it didn't enlighten me on anything new in Wrestling, it was nice to see how somewhere like OVW runs these days but I won't be suddenly watching their show. 

     

  11. I was lucky in the early stages as I was working on a per hour contract so when I wasn't teaching or in a meeting I could be home meaning I had loads of time to go to the gym or for myself around naps etc. 

    Since he was born it's a rare treat for one of us to go out in the eve alone and even rarer as just a couple. The main thing was to make sure as much as possible that he can be happy with one of us and we are competent at all the jobs. We were also lucky that grandma has been nearby and took him all day on Thursdays so we could have some daytime to ourselves.

    It's not the same as before kids but I've gotten used to it. He's at kindergarten now which has given my wife more free time, she's just working out what she wants to do with it. 

  12. 12 hours ago, Loki said:

    WHAT a pop, that was an Attitude era pop.  Now I'm thinking LA Knight v Cena at Wrestlemania sounds pretty good, assuming Knight betrays Cena as people inevitably do.

    I hope not, Knight's on a great face run at the moment and he's still be second fiddle to the bloodline if he turned heel.  I'm all for a Knight/ Cena match at Mania but hopefully theirs another way to get there

  13. 16 hours ago, Merzbow said:

    Toadie mentioning both Big Boss Man and Bam Bam Bigelow in today's episode, how long before we get another wrestling cameo?

    Perhaps it's Amazon's way of seeing if wrestling would work on their platforms? Does Toadie get a pop?

  14. Personal I managed to do a short road trip through Vietnam on aanual motorbike. I've always been an automatic rider here and use a fairly chunky scooter thing as it's easier in the city but been tempted by a proper bike for years. Rented one and had a blast but decided not to buy a personal one as gear changes for a big bloke like me are highly frustrating on smaller motors. 

    Professional, in about to present at my first conference which I've been trying to get the courage to do for a long time. 

  15. I did it 9nce years ago in a rush to get to London at fleet services and vowed never again. I kept a can of that foam spray in every car I had since.

    These days I always make sure my motorbikes/scooters have ride flats so I can at least go slow until I find a place or random man on the roadside to do it for me. 

  16. 12 hours ago, Dr. Alan Grant said:

    After he lost at Mania, I did read a few opinions that it was the right move because Cody needs to overcome more adversity before winning the title. I’m sure dipshit Road Dogg was one of the ones parroting this.
     

    As if suffering through the Stardust years, making the decision to leave, become a fairly big deal on the indies, starting a successful company, having dog collar matches, setting himself on fire, introducing the world to the Codyverse, making the jump back to WWE, going through with a Hell In A Cell match with an arm the colour of an aubergine, having months off for the injury, winning the Rumble and having a mini match at said Rumble with Gunther wasn’t overcoming adversity enough, he then won a very physical feud over Brock. But that’s not enough adversity. Now he somehow (assuming the video above actually leads anywhere) has to drag shithouse Omos to a decent match. 
     

    There may have been a rubber chicken involved somewhere as well.
     

    Should have won at Mania. 

    Totally agree here now, I'd been on the fence for a while but when you look at Roman's bloodline storyline since Mania, none of it needed or really utilised the belt in any meaningful way. The Loan Paul match is possibly the only thing at an absolute stretch. Meanwhile the Cody/Brock feud could have used the belt well with Brock even winning it and losing back to Cody which would have been a big deal

  17. 9 hours ago, Carbomb said:

    IIRC that was the Builder's Cage match that WAW used to do back in the day. Don't know if they still do it though.

    Wow! That's a memory that's shot back, I think Ricky outlined it on here many years ago when he still liked us. I must have take it from his post originally.

     

    A couple more ideas I had were a tactical tag match where two managers assemble a team of 5 secretly but only 2 on each team are ever in the ring while the rest are in secret boxes. The manager can withwithdraw anyone at any time and replace to match up with the opposing sides choice unless eliminated. Basically a wrestler Pokémon battle. 

    The other is an elevator gauntlet match. Use a big tower block and one wrestler on each floor. One starts in the lift and it randomly goes up and down with two wrestlers fighting on each floor which is set out with different themes such as a dojo, construction site, restaurant, bathhouse or whatever. Winner of the fall gets back in the lift and once all other floors are eliminated they go to the roof and fight the champ for the belt.

  18. One match I made for an old TEW game I ran was an "I Quit" cage match where the loser was the first one to voluntarily leave the cage as a twist on the more traditional non cage version. Basically a feud ender where two wrestlers batter each other senseless in a cage until one has had enough.

    Another cage idea was the Perspex box match where the cage is replaced by thickened Perspex meaning nobody can get in/ out but you can see in nicely.

    I liked the idea of a traffic light tag team match too where you have two (red/green) or three (red/amber/green) people in a team and the light changes color randomly meaning another person on that team must tag in/ can be pinned for that time period. 

     

     

  19. 3 hours ago, Statto said:

    I was fine with the fact it got no reaction, it just made it a nice little Easter egg nod to the past. If everyone had acknowledged it and guffawed and done the Captain America "I understood that reference" bit it would have made it super cheesy IMO.

    I have a bit of a soft spot for Kip as he's a Norfolk boy, but I thought he did very well on the pre-show panel, and interacted well with Wight. Suffolk scumbag Anthony Ogogo not so much, but he was passable I guess.

    My highlight of the pre-show panel was Wight telling Renee not to push Ogogo to make a match pick because "he's new in the company". Pretty much a day 1 signee, IIRC. Guess he's been gone long enough to be completely forgotten even by his co-workers.

    The first time he said it I was onboard with the little Easter egg but it became cringeworthy following his second attempt. Anyway fair play to Sabian and Ogogo for doing it as it's not a role theve been in before I think. Especially Anthony on his first night in. 

  20. Missed quite a few pages on the thread and still watching through the event. Did anyone else watch Kip Sabian try to use the famous Summerslam 92 quote about the bulldog twice during Zero Hour to absolutely no reaction from his cohosts? 

  21. Always interesting to read your notes and realize how things get mixed up in our heads. I could have sword Punk didn't wrestle until the Rumble as he was out injured late 2010 but he was back in the mix mostly off TV from the start of the year.  This really was the heart of the 50/50 era too wasn't it

  22. I was always partial to "Virtual Bart" on the SNES (not sure about other consoles). I think I played it before actually watching a single episode of The Simpsons. Great pick up and play game with around 6-8 different games embedded.

    The waterslide, pig Bart and tomato/egg throwing ones were my favorite while I couldn't stand the difficulty of dino Bart, Mad Max Bart and baby Bart. The opening/ ending scenes on each one were fantastic for the time especially the waterslide/pig level.

  23. 38 minutes ago, Nick James said:

    Edge has always been, quite possibly, my favourite of all time. Not saying he's the best of all time, but definitely my favourite of all time. If that's it, then I'll be gutted to be honest as his return run has been a bit lacklustre to say the least, BUT, at least he got a return run and his final match wasn't Alberto Del Rio. 

    All this talk of Edge to AEW is bollocks as well, surely? Imagine taking Christian away from the tremendous heel stuff he's been doing to have a 10 minute nostalgia run where they can't even be called Edge and Christian. Plus no doubt within a month, a TLC would be booked with Jeff and Matt that would likely kill Jeff off for good. 

    That's exactly why I hope he doesn't go anywhere near AEW. They don't need him and he doesn't need to become an edge parody feuding with the very broken Hardy's. 

    Only thing wrestling wise I'd like to see is some form of q and a show with him, Christian and some form of Dudley's/Hardy's perhaps. 

  24. On 8/16/2023 at 8:15 PM, deathrey said:

    Hmm it basically seems both of you are saying that everything I'm worried about is likely to happen. Maybe it's a little ambitious and Vancouver should wait a couple of years. I think maybe start small with a European trip next year.

     

    Thank you @simonwordenand @Chest Rockwellyou've given me lots to think about but I think I'm swaying towards not going.

    No worries, I strangely comfort myself by some of things we don't do by thinking about money saved if that helps

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