Ironic Indie Lad

I am always fascinated by people refusing to accept that Rock and Hogan had a great match. Who cares?

Was it athletic? No! Of course it wasn't. It was a Hulk Hogan match in 2002. Like I said before, they worked the exact type of match they should have worked for a first time dream match on an enormous show in a Dome. Everything they did worked a treat and they had as good a match as they possibly could have given the style and limitations of both.

Imagine if they went "Brother, lets go out there and show the smarks we know how to work" and did a slow burn technical match that built into a frenzy of head drops and falsies. It would have sucked.  

10 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

Nah, I'll give credit where it's due. Hogan and Rock is incredible for what it is but the work isn't the reason.

Huge, huge disagreement.

I think they worked that match exactly right. Hugely over the top match perfect for a stadium or dome show. Projected all the way to the back row.

This is my last week in my current job after 3 and a half years. Been a strange few months as the company I work for decided stop lending, sell the books to another company but continue to service the existing accounts during the transition.

Strange times as its basically a slow march towards redundancy for everyone here. The morale has obviously been horrendous so coming to work has not been pleasant. I work in a regulatory compliance function (financial services) so you can probably imagine that there has been very little for me to do.

Luckily have secured a similar role elsewhere for better money, better benefits, flexi time etc. which I start on Monday.

5 minutes ago, WyattSheepMask said:

I’ve given it 5 listens, and I’m getting along with it now, I wasn’t with it on the first go round though. The streaming version has the extra interludes that the CD version, or the “what sort of idiot is paying £75 for a CD in 2019” version, doesn’t have. One of them is called Chocolate Chip Trip, and whoever said that was OK to leave the studio needs fucking shooting.

It gets better on repeat listens as you notice little bits that might have missed the previous time, but ‘Pneuma’ could have been shorter and not lost much, while ‘Invincible’ and ‘Descending’ (the two new tracks they been playing live this year) are very good and ‘7empest’ finishes the album well

I thought it was good on my first listen but felt it would improve on repeated listens. It's had the absolute opposite impact though. With each listen its gotten more tedious.

I say this as an absolutely enormous fan of Rush fwiw.

Lamb od God have been really crap for over 10 years in my opinion BUT Power Trip and Kreator is an absolutely irresistible pair to me.

Totally and utterly unrelated note - any chat on the Tool album?

1 hour ago, Accident Prone said:

I'll have to rewatch Okada vs Suzuki but I'm going to give KENTA vs Ishii a miss. It was extremely uncomfortable to watch live; KENTA really fucked himself up on a german suplex and he was clearly out of it, and then proceeded to slowly and sloppily wrestle for eight more minutes or so. He couldn't even climb the turnbuckles properly afterwards. Mind blowing that the match wasn't stopped. I can't imagine how dreadful it is to watch with close-up cameras and a hardcam.

Worrying that spot where they both sat down and slapped each other about was after KENTA got messed up. He took a pretty rough looking vertical drop brainbuster as well.

Tone it down lads ffs.

1 minute ago, Accident Prone said:

It's fine on the indies, it just depends on the reaction from the audience. If they buy into it, then it's worked. I've seen plenty where they guy has kicked out, making all the silly faces and furiously banging the mat, and the crowd barley makes an audible sound but I've also seen plenty when the crowd have gone ballistic.

Like I said, when its done well it works for me.

I personally don't get satisfaction from something just because the crowd enjoyed it. I also have to enjoy it.

It works when the person doing it has great facials and fire.

It's embarrassing in indy wank fests.

On ‎8‎/‎31‎/‎2019 at 9:24 PM, Maikeru said:

I worked ring boy jobs here and there for a few promotions when I lived in Japan from '07 to '08. At a NOAH show in Kyoto we were setting up the ring a few hours before bell time and Kenta Kobashi walked in and started lifting weights right there in the venue hall. 

That is amazing.

I would love to lift weights with the great Kenta Kobashi.

29 minutes ago, Your Fight Site said:

No. If that was a prerequisite to being able to herald it as one of the best matches ever then that would go some way to explaining why I personally didn’t.

I don't think I said that or even implied it. I haven't even seen the match, I was just explaining the psychology of those one count spots, buddy.

22 minutes ago, Your Fight Site said:

Sorry. I see I’m in the minority here, but just really didn’t enjoy the match. Just felt like it plodded along. Near-falls for the sake of, it’s a main event match and we’ve come to expect a billion near-falls, rather than believing it could be the match-winning fall. Bate kicking out of a power bomb at one as though he was about to start Hulking up, to then straight after take the fall after a clothesline. Like, what on earth?

Have you watched any high end Japanese wrestling ever?

Very common spot with a totally different psychology to 'Hulking up'. The idea is that you've absorbed the big move and make a brief desperate adrenaline fuelled comeback...usually just to return to being absolutely fucked again due to the damage you've taken.

When that spot is timed right, it gets over huge.

2 minutes ago, Silky Kisser said:

Yeah it really feels like JR doesnt give two fucks at all anymore. He's not shy of putting the boots into WWE on his podcast and he appears pretty unconcerned about pissing off the AEW brass too. He must be making some tidy bank off the podcast and is just enjoying himself.

 

I think that's why I quite enjoy JR's podcast now. He seems to just tell it like it is/was which is in stark contrast to the total bollocks spouted by Prichard and Bischoff. I didn't think I would enjoy it much as I had him filed under 'tedious out of touch bell end weirdo' in my mind for quite some time.

The other day he had no problem saying HHH literally argued that CM Punks arse was too big and too soft to be the World Champ. Good to know for any aspiring workers out there that you better have small but very firm buttocks if you want to make it in NXT.

Are You Being Swerved?

Very camp sitcom where Vince Russo manages a department store in London in the mid 70s. Every single episode has an absolutely ludicrous plot twist that makes no sense within the context of the show.

The Four Horsemen Behaving Badly

Flair and Arn live together in the UK at the absolute height of British lads mad culture. Supporting roles from Tully Blanchard and Barry Windham. Somehow even more sexist than the actual show.

Big Boot in the Grave

A remake of One Foot in the Grave except starring Hulk Hogan. The catchphrase is "I don't believe it, brother" which the Hulkster often uses in response to Black people achieving any level of success.

-Everybody Hates Chris (Benoit)

A hilarious sitcom looking at the difficult early life of Chris Benoit (which ultimately led to him killing his wife, child and self.)

On ‎8‎/‎31‎/‎2019 at 1:35 PM, TildeGuy~! said:

Have some of that.

How much did you make on that shit? Great bet.

Skipped this show but caught the main event. What a brutal mauling. Just a total berserker rage beatdown.

I loved this show. Comfortably one of the best times I've had at a live event since I first started going in 2001.

Venue was perfect. I was sitting directly opposite the ring in the lower tier and had an amazing view. I did wander about a bit before it started and definitely felt like there were no bad seats. Even the ones behind the entrance way were good.

Crowd was great. Everyone right down to Umino, Sho etc. were over big and the likes of Ibushi, Naito, Okada, Suzuki and Tanahashi were like gods.

The undercard was good in the typical NJPW show way. Everyone looked good and got to do their stuff without it descending into a wankfest. I know some were probably disappointed with the Ospreay and Ibushi matches but they were never going all out to steal the show with their placement on the card. That just isn't how New Japan shows are structured. (They build to a crescendo. Mental, I know.)

Main bouts:

KENTA/Ishii was a weird one. Probably 80% of this match was extremely high end work and exactly what you would want out of these two. Could have been a minor classic had KENTA not been knocked silly. The spot where KENTA KO'd Ishii with an overhand right had me losing the plot.

Loved Tana and ZSJ. Probably not a combination for everyone but I am a big fan of the style they work together. Their G1 bout was one of my favourites of the whole tournament. Couldn't have been happier to see one of the absolute genuine undisputed all time greats win a title in a great match.

Okada/Suzuki.

What can you say about this? Fucking *mental* match. An instant classic. The best I've ever seen live having been to multiple WrestleMania's, ROH, Dragon Gate, Rev Pro etc.

Genius level work from start to finish here. A classic match with no silly highspots, no sprint of finishing moves, no near falls. A match that had the crowd exploding for the tease of a piledriver, a dropkick, sleeper holds and forearm strikes.

Incredible selling, psychology and call-backs to their previous bouts. This reminded me of a classic AJPW main in that it was fucking great in a bubble but watching it in context took it to another level entirely.

I cannot say enough about this match.

2 hours ago, Kfogg1991 said:

Germany's laws are mental. I think it's something like you can use anything up to 30 seconds without having to pay for it 

If only this was also the case for sex workers in Germany!

I think it would be beneficial to provide succinct explanations of all the main NXT guys for the benefit of new fans in advance of the debut on real TV. For example:

Johnny Gargano - Very small man who dresses up as superheroes and has the ability to kick out of every move you can possibly imagine.

Adam Cole - An even smaller man who screams his own name.

Matt Riddle - The word 'bro' - that is literally it. No further character development required.

Killian Dain - You know how NXT UK has various fat hairy guys from Europe? Well he's a fat hairy guy from Europe but in America!

The Undisputed Era - not sure what this means. These lads are a distinct period of time and you cannot dispute it. Presumably that time is the present. Air guitar.

Keith Lee - A dad from a 90s Peter Engel productions teen sitcom.

Post the full Beardsley in Greggs encounter please. Leave out absolutely no detail.

Yeah it was bad enough that obtaining vital medication could become problematic.... But now you're telling me that bands are going to have charge EVEN MORE for t-shirts??????????????

Silva has 10 (ten!!!!!!) KO's on his MMA record alone. 4 of which were in his last 5 fights. This doesn't even include the brutal KO against Verhoeven in Glory a couple of years ago. So that's just pro fights. God knows how much damage he took in the gym not to mention the 5 rounder against Mark Hunt.

What I am saying is, surely Bigfoot is literally the first name on every fight fans mind when you think about CTE.

I cant get behind this Bare Knuckle stuff. It would be brutal enough if it was guys in their prime who haven't taken a lot of damage but there's an added level of bleak grimness when its aging fighters who cant cut it in actual pro boxing, kickboxing or MMA anymore.

It's a shame that there's evidently not a lot of money in grappling tournaments or superfights. Both of these guys are skilled grapplers and they could easily do a submission wrestling match with way, way less risk of someone taking permanent damage.

Pathetic, embarrassing, bleak...the BJ Penn story.

Genuine prediction - BJ Penn dead via suicide within the next couple of years.

For some reason, I opted to listen to the entire McGregor/Helwani interview while cooking the other night.

You knew it was going to be complete bollocks as soon as Conor tried to claim this was the first time Helwani had contacted his team for an interview since the aftermath of the Khabib fight. Such a blatant lie which set the tone for the rest of it.

It was good of him to confirm that he was, in fact, IN THE WRONG when he (a professional fighter in his athletic prime) sucker punched a middle aged man in a pub though. It would be nice to say that everyone already knew that but we've all seen the deranged McGregor sycophants on twitter.

Genuinely amazing the way he tries to summarise the Khabib fight. We all saw it Conor m8. You got dominated, dropped and submitted. How many excuses do you need? Your camp was too geared towards defense, you took it too seriously in the gym, you weren't living right outside the gym, Khabib ran away, your foot was a balloon etc. It reminded me of inspirational fitness instagram maniacs who post a clip of them doing a lift and the caption is like "Not bad considering I haven't done this movement in six months. Plus I am coming off an injury and I am on low carbs at the moment and I was feeling quite tired at the time and had recently suffered a massive bereavement..."

In the past, I had referred to McGregor as "the master of the press conference". There was quite a few of his fights where I didn't feel particularly hyped until the press conference where he would turn it on and all of a sudden it was a cant miss fight that would be gigantic on PPV. Now whenever he shows up I just think "oh fuck off and stop talking bollocks you sad little prick"

31 minutes ago, Richard said:

That's not how a democracy works. Stop crying. 

Is your surname Head?

1 hour ago, Egg Shen said:

i used to be the same but MMA news just gathers together on social media these days so i very rarely hit the websites anymore.

Totally true. If you use twitter regularly you would be as well just following Helwani, Okamoto etc. That's pretty much how I find out about every fight of note being made.

I've found myself really enjoying Luke Thomas on Youtube recently.