Daaaaaad!

On 1/25/2024 at 7:41 PM, Accident Prone said:

I can't believe this could potentially be the end of the Dads. A truly dark day in this forum's history.

My old username was 'Dingbat'. This literally isn't any worse than that. I say Daaaaaad! remains.

I’m quite enjoying the daft campiness of the “bad guy” gladiators. It’s pure pro wrestling, albeit more Heath Slater than Triple H.

Viper vs. Clattenburg is already a better feud than most authority storylines have been.

10 hours ago, Mr_Danger said:

*quietly slides out of all the gay dads’ dm’s*

Why yes, I do like Rachel Stevens. 

1 hour ago, Devon Malcolm said:

A match of that size needs a long build-up anyway. What have we had so far? A throwaway remark from The Rock and cry laughing emoji from Reigns. 

This is the idea I'm slowly coming around to now. For Rock vs. Cena 1, they had a year of buildup. Rock would need to get 'ring ready' and Roman would need to actually promote the match. The only thing that makes me think this wouldn't be the case is that this one is 40 and surely that's significant somehow, but even then, his last two matches were at 28 and 29, not exactly stand outs in terms of anniversaries etc. Plus have they even confirmed where 41 is taking place? 

4 hours ago, Supremo said:

Triple H and Stephanie got divorced

Wait, what?!

On 1/18/2024 at 12:38 PM, Chris B said:

Miles seeing Diane was one of my favourite things in forever.

I have looked at this picture about seven times since Wednesday night and it never fails to make me fully crack up.

If Rollins’s injury is that bad, wouldn’t it make sense for Priest to cash in MITB on him? Like, you have an actual injured champion here. Start RAW with Seth giving it the big Batista surrender speech, then have Judgment Day get him on his back for the three. You could even segue into a Priest vs. R-Truth match at the Rumble somehow. Finally get the real big stars on top.

This theme tune gets stuck in my head every time I hear it. I was pleased to notice them using it on the adverts for the latest revival of the show, which aired its first episode tonight and, sure enough, it's the classic song from 1992 being used again.

Gladiators is a format that seems to have significant value compared to many other 90s Saturday night formats. It's been broadcast across ITV, Sky and now the BBC, probably owing to the simple yet effective nature of the show. For me, what gives it its global appeal is that it's about as 'pro wrestling' as a game show can get - a sentiment only aided by the likes of Mason Ryan, Nick Aldis and even Hulk Hogan across the pond being involved in its various different versions. The contenders are the plucky faces, fighting from below to try and get on top, drawing you in as they get smashed to the floor with giant cotton buds, resulting in you willing them to throw coloured balls into hoops and run up escalators to reach their goal. That's before you even mention the likes of John 'FERST HWISTLE' Anderson and classic heel Wolf, a character so charismatic that the Americans stole his gimmick for their revival in 2008.

As a kid, I loved watching with my sister on the TV in the spare room, so it was a nostalgic experience sitting down to watch it with my own children this evening. Sure enough, from a brief glimpse of the general reaction, it seems this latest version has found an audience too and hopefully this can lead to more series down the line. 

Oh, and since this is the UKFF I assume I am probably obliged to mention Jet at some point. There was a significant lack of cartwheels on the updated version.

Thoughts on Gladiators? We can go brand new or classic, just don't mention John Fashanu.

1 minute ago, TheScarlettChad said:

Has he lost his mind? What the fuck?

Probably got a new bag through today.

3 hours ago, Edgehead said:

You skipped the long-awaited favour to Saraya and the brother.

Which means the correct decision was made. 

1, 3, 14, 22, 29.

4 minutes ago, Infinity Land said:

WWE isn't necessarily needed as a content farm to fill those hours.

This is a great point, actually. It was surely what saved them on Sky for all those years. Easy programming with minimal effort from the broadcaster. I distinctly remember before the end of Sky's deal that some British 'journalist' (read: wrestling blogger) was on the Observer saying how Sky should ditch WWE and sign RevPro up because they can provide wrestling content at a cheaper price. My response at the time was 'well no, if Sky don't want WWE, they just won't have wrestling any more' and whaddaya know?

It's precisely the reason they appealed to Peacock in the first place - could that appeal to Discovery+ perhaps?

Again, complete amateur observation with no real insight here but I imagine TNT most likely won't renew if they still have AEW on their US networks by the time the contract is up. The current WWE deal seems to be a remnant from BT Sport and, being as WBD are part owners of the channel, you'd think it would align better with their overall business if they aren't seen to be in bed with the competition should they renew AEW's US deals this year. Whether ITV's AEW deal throws any sort of spanner into the works remains to be seen, I expect.

I didn't start my console journey until the age of 11 with FIFA 2000 on the PlayStation, but around that time my aunt's new husband (still my uncle as of today) told me he had 'one of those Seeega Mega Drive things from aboot 1995' and that he'd bring it to my Grandma's house next time we were up in Scotland. Sure enough, he brought it and I was introduced to a variety of different games - mostly sidescrolling action/beat 'em ups.

The Terminator - at that age I found this game to be ridiculously hard, even more so considering my total inexperience. If you've never played it, the first level throws you into the 'future' setting with nothing but grenades and immediately plonks a giant tank robot that looks like Sir Killalot in front of you. After you get past it, you get bombed by a plane and have to try and make your way underground, where Arnie clones potter about seeking to splatter you. The music, sound effects and visuals have stuck with me for years afterward, but I was completely unable to make my way past LA 2029 and so will never in fact save Sarah Connor.

Batman - now this is more like it! SunSoft's game of the movie had loads of different levels that put you in control of several different Bat-gimmicks, including Ace Chemicals with the grappling hook, piloting the Batmobile and Batwing amongst other levels. I got much further on this one and so enjoyed it a lot more. Sadly though I don't think it had the Elfman theme.

Gunship - this strange helicopter game had three different components; the first part had you plan your route, which always took me ages because I didn't understand what to do; the second was first-person piloting where you shot things out of the air, then a final side-view bit. The visuals made it seem epic in its scale, even comparing to the PS1 which I spent far more time on. I was amused to discover later that this game was made by a company called U.S. Gold, who were founded in Birmingham.

Sonic the Hedgehog - what else really? I figured out at one point that I've owned a version of this game on  different systems: Mega Drive, GameCube (Mega Collection), Xbox 360/Xbox One (twice if you consider that it was included in Sonic Generations), GBA, DS, 3DS, Saturn (Sonic Jam), iPhone and Nintendo Switch. I even downloaded it for the iPod Classic! You had to control Sonic with the clickwheel and use the central button to jump. It was not good. Anyway, this was of course a classic and the 50Hz version will always stick with me as the original and best. Sadly at the time I was unable to get past sodding Marble Zone with its shitty spiky caterpillars, lava pits and Andy Williams knockoff music. My cousin once joined us and got all the way to Labyrinth Zone but it wasn't until picking up a Saturn from my local Gamestation with a copy of Sonic Jam that I was able to actually finish the game. Which is probably cheating really as you could save in that one.

Speaking of Gamestation, as they had a fairly robust retro collection I did later pick up FIFA '97 and Micro Machines 2. I also have a weird feeling I've forgotten a fifth game from the list above but if I have it can't have been that good now can it?

All In 2024 is main evented by Will Ospreay vs. Bryan Danielson, with an undercard featuring PAC, Drew Galloway and one of Paige’s godforsaken brothers. Grado is still denied his Madonna entrance. 

CM Punk wrestles less than twenty matches in WWE across the year. There are no reports of backstage conflict. AJ Lee appears on TV at least once before 2025. 

Dominik Mysterio ends 2024 as a major babyface on SmackDown.

The Usos reunite by Survivor Series.

The TV offerings usually change as of the turn of the year, so while I’ve no reputable information on this, I would imagine this has occurred with the WWE Channel 5 shows. I know NXT has been removed from TNT Sports and moved to the Network, so perhaps a similar thing has happened to the recap shows?

I imagine Cody probably quite enjoyed about 19mins of that twenty minute Rock segment. 

Takes out all the evil and deadness. 

Liked Ncuti. Too early to tell with Ruby. Didn’t enjoy the episode overall really, can’t really put my finger on exactly why but it felt poorly paced and underdeveloped. I’m generally an RTD mark so I was quite disappointed. I’ll still be giving the new series a whirl of course.

On 11/30/2023 at 10:09 PM, Daaaaaad! said:

Naturally I bought a box to try myself, so will report back.

But soft, what light from yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Festive Bake is the sun.

Exactly what I wanted tbh. No pale imitation here, just exactly the pastry you want at the exact temperature you want, provided you've got an oven and 30mins to spare. Delicious.

That might just be the best bit of sports broadcasting ITV have done since the turn of the century.

3 hours ago, johnnyboy said:

Just had the Greggs Festive Bake and I'm feeling positively Christmassy now.

I've been reasonably informed that the Iceland frozen variety is possibly even better, mainly because you know you're getting it hot and with the pastry at the right consistency. A festive bake from the bakery itself always risks being the tepid 'left out' one.

Naturally I bought a box to try myself, so will report back.

I discovered last week that there is a jukebox musical called '& Juliet' which has a play-within-a-play of a follow-up to the ending of Romeo & Juliet. The music is 'songs by Max Martin' so they range from Since U Bn Gone by Kelly Clarkson to Perfect by Pink, as well as SIX Backstreet Boys songs.

The whole concept sounds so irredeemably terrible I genuinely wonder if it's popular because it's bad.

CM Punk more like Cookiecutter Mundane Promo eh lads?!?!

The prices this year are, as mentioned before, vastly different. For us to get the exact same seats as before, albeit no longer behind the stage due to it moving, would cost £50+ more this time.

There are a lot of seats up for £30 or so that seem pretty decent - anyone know if they're listed as 'restricted view'? I've only got one code for the presale and I don't want to waste it - the email seems very keen to stress it is a single use.