Au

I noticed they're showing Deepwater Horizon in the 4D screen at my local this week and I haven't had a chance to check it out yet. Wasn't sure if that was the film I'd go for to check it out (or even bother at all) but Scott's just made it sound well worth the trip!

Things that happened last night:

 

1) My street food business was at a student night. I couldn't work it but I popped in to check on how they were doing and felt very old indeed.

2) The reason I couldn't work the event was because I was giving a talk at a local tech meet-up and my team got invited to expand it into a keynote at a conference next year.

3) I got a new fiver out of a cashpoint and my girlfriend said the Queen was looking old now.

 

This lead to me waking up from a dream this morning where the following happened: I used to drink in a pub nearby that has a student night on Wednesdays with ridiculously cheap drinks deals. You don't need to be student to get the deals though so it was an excuse for the occasional midweek piss-up, there were always a few groups of other older people around and in my dream, one of the security guards from had been a regular there and I'd gotten to know him. Fast forward a couple of years and I've been invited to speak at another conference in London and, for some reason, Steve Austin was also speaking and said security guard was now working as a minder for the Queen, who was also in attendance. I went over to catch up with him after the event and ended up chatting to Liz who asked me what I was going to do with my evening. My subconscious had decided that the reason Stone Cold was in London was because he was going to do a live podcast recording at a Progress show and I said I'd be going to that. She said that the royals had been invited as well as she'd spoken to Steve earlier in the day and they'd gotten along well but she didn't think it would be her thing. I said that I thought she'd love it and said I'd heard that Charles and her mum were wrestling fans. She didn't seem convinced so we left it at that and I popped into Sainsbury's on the way back to my hotel. I was mentally deliberating what would be best food items to buy for my two night stay when my alarm went off.

I grew a moustache. Now everyone else likes it more than I do   

Holiday photo, excuse the chest rug.

 

There's a Kickstarter for a film based on the life of Frank Bruno. Currently at £1,899 of a £1,000,000 target though but I guess it's early days yet.

I saw a Revival shirt at 2000 Trees last month. Who even buys a Revival shirt?!

Worth noting that the Pokemon tracker's fucked at the moment. 

 

But this is pretty handy. Although it's not entirely accurate, it's definitely helped me find a few things.

He had a skateboard and baseball cap if that counts as "dressed as Bart Simpson".

 

Actually that hurracanrana spot on the ramp off of a skateboard is probably the most noteworthy thing he's done with TNA. And that's only because the video got shared around online.

You know how they say that time passes quicker the older you get... I wonder if there's teenagers out there who have been watching since they were kids who also think the product's stale and doesn't progress or if because this is all they've ever known, they're fine with it.

Moose sent out a Tweet a couple of days ago that made everyone think he was leaving ROH: https://twitter.com/MooseNation69/status/740572492029263872

 

He then added fuel to the fire by posting a photo of himself with Apollo Crews: https://twitter.com/MooseNation69/status/740614517009174528

 

But then he started tweeting about ROH again mentioned all the rumours you can start by visiting friends in Florida: https://twitter.com/MooseNation69/status/741145869538496513

 

Could be kayfabing everyone, could be on his way in. Meltzer reckons he's told ROH he's staying with them (Observer Radio, June 9th) for the time being though but even he gets fed shit so who knows.

Did Chikara cease operations for a while a couple of years ago? I imagine picking up when they started up again would be a good place although other than KOT, I've never actually watched much Chikara so I could well be talking out of my arse. They've got two UK tours this year though so worthwhile trying to get up to speed if you fancy going along to that.

A Mark Dallas post asking for suggestions for 1940s wrestler names popped up on my Facebook feed and I'm in bits reading through it so I thought I'd share some of my favorites:

 

My housemate has also suggested Herbie "Hanky Panky" Hunkbuckle. I would pay to see a card full of these chaps. 

 

If you didn't know about it already, you'd probably appreciate checking out these guys.

If anything was going to get Comic Sans back into vogue, it's the Doge meme. And, in fairness, it was quite successful at that.

 

Anyway, I had a random thought that limiting Finn Balor's use of body paint may be foreshadowing Jeff Hardy's return. However, if I'm right I think they're shooting themselves in the foot there because Balor's merch has been fantastic so far.

Five seats on the second row sorted for Wembley. Hyped!

 

Although, I then immediately tried to book another block for some mates and it was sold out already. Really hoping these presale allocations have been small and everyone can get tickets on general release tomorrow.

I think the closest we've had is Progress using the hashtag.

 

Someone mentioned Cardiff earlier and I've had an email from the Motorpoint Arena today saying you can buy tickets direct from the venue box office, by phone or in person, on Thursday which is a bonus if you don't have access to tomorrow's O2 presale.

Don't they run most of them for WWE house shows anyway? I imagine it'll be the same set up.

Some guy's done a rotoscope video of highlights of the Wrestlemania 18 match between Hogan and the Rock.

 

I realise it's not the best time to be posting Hogan stuff but this is great and the way it keeps flashing from Hollywood Hogan to classic Hulkamania is a great touch.

 

This was played on yesterday's Observer Live but it's just fantastic so for those who didn't hear it... Finn Balor/Fresh Prince mash-up!

I'd be interested in knowing how many people who subscribe to Sky Sports just for Raw actually watch it live? Because if you're just Sky+ing it, why not just get a perfect quality torrent the next day?

 

Presumably the same reason people have Sky in the first place - morals, ease and lack of technical knowhow.

 

For similar - albeit opposite - reasons, I haven't had live TV in my house since 2012.

Finally got my issues with the network sorted out. I've started watching the first PPV I ever watched. Royal Rumble 2000. Eery as during the rumble match 4 consecutive entrants are no longer with us

 

Yeah, I watched that with my housemate who's somewhat of a lapsed fan and it became a running joke telling her who had died.

 

I think there was a point where there were six guys in the ring and only one of them was still alive. Bad odds given it's only been 15 years.

I've just started rewatching Quantum Leap from the beginning.

 

I watched a film called Paris, Texas a few weeks ago with Dean Stockwell in and he had lot of the 'Al' characteristics, loud shirts, cigar, etc. Made me want to go back and revisit a show I probably haven't watched since I was a kid.

 

I've just finished the first season, which was only 9 episodes but it's 9 episodes of greatness. They really put together something fantastic and, given this was 1989, the effects used to make Al a hologram were pretty impressive and haven't aged all that badly.

 

In other news, I'm warming up to the new season of Parks and Rec. I really didn't like it at the start but the episode with Ron and Leslie getting trapped in the office got me back on board. I'm still not overly happy with the direction they've taken it in but I figure they must have an end game in mind that necessitated it.

The Legend Of The Seagullmen, a nautical themed supergroup featuring members of Tool and Mastodon. What?!

Well, I don't think Just Me even lurks here anymore but just in case there's anymore Toejam and Earl fans around here...

 

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=416705428487776&id=352129104945409

 

Right now, I'm back on board though. All the anal bleeding caused by the Rumble has me invested. Fast Lane has a couple of fresh matches at the top, and there's (some) direction now. Don't know how long that will continue past WrestleMania, and it doesn't feel like the Rumble-to-Mania corridor yet, to be honest. I'm happy enough with it now though.

 

 

Isn't that a pretty strange attitude that it's taken a few thousand people being pissed off at the state of the product to get you more invested in it?

 

I pretty much didn't watch wrestling from about 2005 to 2011. I still got together with some mates to watch Mania and, occasionally, the Rumble and Summerslam. I've been an Observer subscriber for years and I occasionally dipped into on-topic on here whilst I was far more active in off-topic. I made some effort to get back into it around the time Jeff Hardy was getting pushed but that didn't last long.

 

I doubt this will help my argument here but it was Punk's pipebomb promo that got me watching again. Not just me though, suddenly my days at work were spent in an email chain between 5 or 6 friends, that's now grown into a group message on Facebook between several more again. Over the last few years, all the lapsed fans I know have really started getting together and hanging out more to watch events. 

 

I even went to the states for Punk vs Rock at the Rumble a couple of years ago. That's not something that would have happened had it not been for that promo.

 

However, whilst I've probably watched every PPV since mid-2011, every time I've even attempted to watch Raw, I've not been able to sit through it. It's awful. So I'm now at about a full decade of not watching WWE TV and I'm guessing from what everyone says on here, I'm not alone in that. Even the guys I know who do watch it, either fast forward or skip through most of it. That's not a sign of a TV show worth watching. Although, I have no idea how you make a 3 hour show compelling from beginning to end though but it would probably need to change format completely.

 

I'd say this is probably why I like the guys I like and dislike the guys I dislike. I'm not over exposed to them, I see their PPV matches with the highlight packages along with them and base my judgements on that, along with what I read on here and hear on podcasts. I'm okay with this, I find it much easier to enjoy the product that way.

 

I've been a fan since the late 80's when I 6 or 7 years old. I'm probably in it for life now. But that doesn't stop me from wanting a more satisfying product, even if I'm not really watching it.

Dont pander to the clowns who still call Bryan Daniel 'AmDrag'. 

 

Here's a question, is there actually a belief that Bryan's only so over because he's an "indy darling"? Because I never watched any of his stuff on the indies and I think he's great, purely on the basis of what he's done in WWE. I assume I can't be the only one but it possibly is indicative that I like an underdog story.

That Survivor Series shirt is amazing!