Magnum Milano

On Topic Poster of the Year: 

BomberPat, DavidB, Chris B

Good Au Award:

Houchen, Matrix, Monkee

The above three stand out, at least to me, for being good au's at various time throughout the year.

I've seen one MMA fight all year (how things have changed!), but it was an incredible one.

Fight of the Year

Joanna Jedrzejczyk vs Zhang Weili (UFC 248)

55 minutes ago, DEF said:

Just got done watching the Josh Gad reunion and it was ace. Got me hyped all over again for season 3.

I've not watched all of it yet but have skimmed through.

The moment Barrowman showed up it got switched off.

New Order - Lonesome Tonight (1984)

The Cure - Pictures of You (1989)

58 minutes ago, WeeAl said:

Speaking of IRS, has he ever done anything that wasn't mind numbingly boring? I always treated him with absolute apathy whenever he appeared on my screen, and these days just fast forward him when watching old shows. 

If there's something he has done that was interesting, I'm open to suggestions. I'll make a bet that it wasn't as IRS or VK Wallstreet. 

There was a match with Sting from early '89 on the NWA World Championship Wrestling show (the precursor to Saturday Night) that I thought was the best match I'd ever seen him in when I first saw it.  People tend to default to the Varsity Club stuff for Rotundo, but that did nothing for me.

Pixies - Dig For Fire (1990)

1 minute ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

Is that not a good thing though? Sod all happens on most three hour episodes of Raw and that’s why nobody watches it. Give me stuff happening please.

Not if by the end of the episode you forget what happened an hour ago.

Depends on how you look at it though.

I can't recall if they actually used the phrase "crash TV", but their issue was that there was so much on the show for a two hour program.  They said as much when they were previewing Dynamite with everything that had been advertised, and then Meltzer in the review episode talked about how he took more notes for Dynamite than he did a three hour episode of Raw.  That was quantified though by how he thought the company were expecting to have so many eyes on the show after last week, but felt that the only things the average fan will remember are Omega & Callis and the Shaq angle.

I certainly can't remember him criticizing the booking and he's usually very positive on that front, in regards to everything done is done for a reason and is to lead somewhere.  Dave was also super-high on the Omega/Callis stuff, thinking it has the potential to be the best angle in wrestling in a long time and could be a real game-changer for AEW.

The only thing I had was that he was wearing the same T-shirt as Cro Cop so maybe he was Croatian too.

I didn't get it though.

Just now, Supremo said:

Mark Hunt was given his first UFC fight coming off a five-fight losing streak.

CM Punk was also given a UFC fight after going 4-1 in his last five televised matches. Losing the Royal Rumble and a number of matches against The Shield on RAW and Smackdown, his only victory being against Billy Gunn. 😉

That's completely misleading though because the UFC really didn't want to use Hunt, offering to pay his contract in full (which was bought when they purchased Pride if I remember correctly) rather than have him fight.  It was only when he turned down their offer did they use him.  Truth is if it was solely up to the UFC they would never have used Hunt (at least at that time).

Star of the 1982 World Cup, Paolo Rossi has passed away at the age of 64.

28 minutes ago, Dazzer said:

I had a sticker album in the late 80's/early 90's which covered all sports (possibly not football can't remember).  I remember my man buying me stickers for it and I bloody loved it.  Much like all sticker albums I have owned though never completed it 

This one?

My folks threw all my sticker albums from circa 86-89 out.  Gutted, especially the completed ones.

25 minutes ago, poetofthedeed said:

Apparently he doesn't watch it, that's why he was pushing Kenny is a tweener for weeks, and why the bucks literally stared into the camera at the end of the episode and said "Kenny turned heel". 

I'm waiting for his review of the hangman skit to be him making a ridiculous comment about Anna Jays weight or appearance.... 

That's why he, rather than Alvarez, is the one who reviews BTE on WOR and why he writes a detailed review of every BTE episode in each issue of the Observer...

If you actually listened or read what he said, rather than go off some half-baked posts on Twitter or a message board you would know that.  Which makes your second sentence even more baffling.  Not sure why you are waiting for something when you clearly don't listen or read him, unless you're waiting for one of those sad Meltzer obsessives on Twitter to cut and paste some audio to play "gotcha" with him?

Just now, Onyx2 said:

I'd rate this current Taskmaster over series 8 (Iain Stirling, Joe Thomas, Lou Sanders, Paul Sinha and Sian Gibson); that really lacked fun and pizazz.

Paul Sinha was probably the biggest disappointment, in terms of a contestant, the show's had for me.  Lou Sanders was the only saving grace for that series;  Iain Stirling was an annoying try-hard, Joe Thomas and Sian Gibson were both dull and then there was Paul.  I've not caught much of the current series, I do wish they'd ban the obligatory "comedy" outfit that some of the contestants feels that they have to wear.

Anyway, I've started to watch Desmonds on All4 and it is as funny as what I remember.  Some wonderfully written characters (Desmond, Porkpie, Shirley, Susu, Lee, Matthew, from the Gambia) and plenty of laugh out loud lines.  I didn't realize that it was Norman Beaton's passing that led to the series finishing (and being replaced by a spin-off, Porkpie).

I think Wrestlemania last year was the last time I watched a WWE show, although have seen occasional clips on YouTube since.

My actual interest in wrestling has never been lower though and I can't see a point to where it will ever return to anything close to what it once was.  And that's if it ever returns at all.

While I've not cared for the current product for years, there was always a ton of old stuff that I enjoyed; be it watching old territory footage for the first time (such as Smoky Mountain or JCP), revisiting the Yearbooks, getting involved in PWO2K (a watching project on another board).  Now there is nothing that gets me even remotely excited and it's like, "Have I really spent so much of my life, devoted so much time to wrestling?"  My memory is shot and I do wonder if that is because it's filled with so much pointless wrestling knowledge?  My actual interest in watching has definitely slowly subsided year on year, but 2020, despite trying to throw myself into the 2001 project (see PWO2K), has been the straw that broke the camel's back.

Even if I was going through a fallow period of not really watching, I would still take in numerous podcasts, read as much as possible about wrestling, spend far too much time on newspapers.com researching things, check the various message boards I frequent several times a day etc.  The podcast listening has dropped to virtually nothing (not including WOR in that), the last thing I checked out being Zellner & Naylor's Cover to Cover on the first PWI 500 and Kris' stuff (with the exception of Between the Sheets which I have long had no interest in listening to due to Bixenspan) were the only wrestling podcasts I'd really keep an eye on.

I unfollowed all wrestling related Twitter accounts quite a while ago and immediately felt better for doing so.  There are still a few people who if it wasn't for wrestling I wouldn't be following, but all news accounts, all wrestlers, gone, and I don't miss all that negativity on my timeline one bit.  This whole sorry "sport" just feels way too negative now.  I still read the Observer every week, but can't help feel that is out of habit, even though I do really enjoy Dave's historical pieces.  I've sold off most of my original wrestling DVDs, have started to sell off my books and then it will be the arduous task of trying to move several thousand DVD-Rs that remain.

On 9/16/2020 at 11:12 AM, Devon Malcolm said:

Honestly, it's way better than "Cornish fishing village drama" makes it sound. A great companion piece to Make Up, if you can catch it at a nearby art cinéma.

I watched this last night.  I really liked the way it was filmed but it wasn't for me.  Plus, there is slow moving and then there is the first 35 minutes of this.

16 hours ago, gmoney said:

I'm sure someone posted about an interview with Bob Mould talking about WCW recently, but I can't find it. Anyone know what thread it was in? 

He did a really good one on the old Observer Live show on Eyada back in 2001.

I did a bit of digging and managed to find it.  Although this is through the archive.org, everything (well the couple of things I tried) still work and I'm pretty sure you can download too.  

https://archive.org/details/WOLArchive/2001-06-12+BOB+MOULD.mp3

^^ I was just going to post that.

I challenge anyone to watch it and not have a tear in their eye as they do.

*EDIT* The WWE tribute video that is.  My post doesn't quite work when it starts a new page!

Mainly lots of old John Peel shows courtesy of http://theperfumedgarden.blogspot.com/ and the awesome https://peel.fandom.com/wiki/John_Peel_Wiki resource.

Because what you've been waiting for is a breakdown of the Revenge of the Nerds films.  Watched these over the past week, the latter two were made for TV (and you realize why once you've seen them).

Revenge of the Nerds (1984)

The title pretty much gives away the story here as a bunch of College Freshmen fight back against the jock Alpha-Betas who make their lives a misery.  Definitely of it’s time and one that wouldn’t get made today (a rape treated as comedy), funny and highly enjoyable though.  Good soundtrack too.

Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise (1987)

A similar plot to the first movie, just set in Fort Lauderdale as opposed to on campus, as the Tri-Lambas once again do battle with the Alpha-Betas.  In contrast to the first movie though, I never laughed once during this.  The theme song is cool but overall this is dire.

Revenge of the Nerds III: The Next Generation (1992)

It was cool to see some from the original film reunited (even if Anthony Edwards was clearly too busy), but this was another dismal sequel with the same regurgitated story.  There’s some shocking acting on display from the ‘Next Generation’ class most notably fat Trevor and Bobo.

Revenge of the Nerds IV: Nerds in Love (1994)

A bunch of the nerds, including a now ridiculous full on nerd Stan Gable (Ted McGinley), get together to celebrate Booger’s wedding.  Of course his in-laws to be don’t happen to be fans of nerds.  The worst film of the four although the last three are all desperate.

Watch the first film if you're interested, give the remaining three a wide berth.  For posterity's sake 1, 3, 2 and 4.

The Mystery of D.B. Cooper (2020, HBO)

For anyone unaware, D.B. Cooper was the name of a man who hijacked a commercial Boeing 727 flight back in 1971, demanded a $200,000 ransom and then parachuted from the plane never to be seen again.  It remains the only unsolved hijacking in U.S. history.  The documentary details the events of the hijacking interspersed with interviews from family members and friends of people who believe they know who Cooper was (concentrating on four specific suspects).  There are no ground breaking developments here, we don't get a definitive answer of who Cooper was but it's a decent watch of a fascinating story, one that has gripped folk in the US for nigh on fifty years.  FWIW, Richard McCoy is my prime suspect.

I don't know if he ever sourced a physical copy, but @SaitoRyo was looking for a copy of the Hansen book earlier in the year.

Talking Heads - Burning Down the House (1983)