All Activity

St. Ives - There are movies I go out of my way to see simply because the cast is intriguing. If the lead happens to be Charles Bronsson, then it is a movie I simply MUST watch it! The strength of any Charles Bronson movie is really based on how engaged Bronson is in it. Need example: Bronson was engaged onthe original Death Wish but less so in the sequels, especially as the series limped along after DW2. He's really engaged in Assassination, one of his last films, mostly because he and his actual wife, Jill Ireland, get to act opposite each other and they just crackle with electricity together despite the overall movie being just above "Ok". This is one of those Bronson movies where he seems really engag3d. He's working opposite Jacqueline Bissett, Maximilian Schell and a rather spry John Housemam. My lord, Houseman looks middle-aged here, which is odd because this is 5 years AFTER the movie adaptation of The Paper Chase and the same year as the TV series. Bronson is Charles St. Ives, retired cop turned crime reporter/novelist is hired by Abner Procane to retrieve journals that had been stolen from the latter's home safe. St. Ives gets the job done but pages are kissing, pages that outline the plans for a heist. Well now St. Ives is interested and things go from there! Did I mention the cast? It goes beyond the principles as a gaggle of "Hey! That guy!" Actors show up, not the of which are Jeff Goldblum and Robert Engl7nd as 2 hoods! But that's where the intrigue stops because the movie never takes off part the initial set-up. It's not a bad movie, just uninteresting one past it's set-up. It really is disappointing because our man Charles seems to legit interested and trying in this movie. It's like someone watched a good heist movie and thought "I can write a heist movie too!" and then wrote the dullest heist movie ever! It really is a shame, because with this lead and this cast, I shouldn't be wanting this thing to get on with it already, yet here I am writing this review. Not even an interested Charles Bronson can make this movie worth, save for a die hard Charles Bronson completist. James

They tried to hit a similar mark back then but got censored to hell and back. Its definitely more adult now with the shackles being massively loosened if not completely gone. The show picks up more or less a few months after the end of the original's series finale

Love Jensen Ackles, but he really doesn't strike me as Bruce in the slightest. He is more a Jason Todd type or maybe a younger Dick or Terry. And is he too old for all of them outside of voice acting.

I'm a live and let live type of person, and I'm definitely not someone who judges people on their bedroom habits, but the details in that case made me want to reconsider my whole stance on not judging people. I don't even want to know how some of that shit even crosses your mind, let alone spending the time, money, and influence to make these things happen. I haven't even been following the case that closely, but occasionally I'd come across a tweet or an instagram reel of someone breaking down the day in court and it was always insane. I'm not a prude in any sense and I'm all for casual sex, but I can't even imagine the complete lack of care he seemed to have for the victims in this case. Another thing that really grabbed me in this case is how little self-worth a lot of famous/well-known people have. I can't imagine anyone being able to talk me into any of this shit, but I'm also not chasing a lifestyle that is based on some sort of capitalist fantasy.

I dunno, it looks Statlander might outweigh him thesedays. But yeah I made the initial error; I don't think that's a mistake anyone would have made 2 years ago. Tbf that's probably partly a reflection of the actual TBS belt being one of many in Mone's collection. Tbf it's also a reflection of the TNT belt becoming largely a Collision belt since Garcia won it.

Small little matter but the NBA and Spurs agreed to adjust Pops coaching record since he ended up never coming back to the team Mitch Johnson will now get credit for all 77 games he coached last season Pops coaching record will now officially be 1,390-824

Lou Thesz vs. Ray Gunkel 2/3 falls for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. MAY. 30, 1951. - YouTube

wCw 2000 Bash at the Beach Goldberg vs. Kevin Nash https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hXRzq9Z8v8E&pp=0gcJCcEJAYcqIYzv

**a finger on the monkey's paw curls**

Some people say Dusty stole his act from Siki but they likely would have never been in the same place at the same time. (He more likely "borrowed from Thunderbolt Patterson)

Maybe it’s a bad idea to work on a game for seven years and not have much to show for it? I mean, the development cost for PD had to be exorbitant and Xbox just deciding to cancel it most likely means it had a long way (and a lot of cash) to go. i’m actually curious about what the Initiative was actually doing. They don’t seem to have had any other projects greenlit and a lot of PD’s development was supposedly being farmed out to Crystal Dynamics, so… Xbox seems aimless right now. Third-party publishing seems like a short-term solution, but they need more than that if they’re going to try to stick as a hardware maker. I’m scratching my head over the “add Steam to our next gen consoles and handhelds” stuff. Sounds cool, but if I can can get Steam on my Xbox, what is my incentive to buy games from Xbox? For that matter, what is the incentive of third-party publishers to publish games for Xox consoles. Why not just train Xbox customers to download the PC version via Steam? LOL, if you take that idea far enough, what is Xbox’s incentive going to be to keep publishing games for their next console when they could just sell people the PC version? Play Anywhere seems like a good idea, but unless people can play all/most of their libraries anywhere, it probably won’t be a draw. We seem a long way away from being able to play all of our Xbox libraries anywhere.

I really don't follow hip hop so all the deviant stuff was kinda news to me. I mean I can imagine that a rap star would have sex and drugs at parties but I would have assumed you normal rap/rock star stuff

A friend's fiance had a contract job working on Perfect Dark (after getting laid off from Raven in a previous round of cuts) and was just telling us a couple of weeks ago that he was pretty sure he'd get a permanent gig out of it. Man, fuck Microsoft.

Indianapolis's only real strength is location. It's the perfect city for everybody in the Midwest to congregate. Which is why it's a convention town more than anything else.

yeah this was the Flair/Morton match in the first Phil "Way of the Blade"

Here's some Roy Lucier finds that Segunda did reviews of Karloff Lagarde Jr/Mr Cóndor/Perro Silva vs Brillante/Diamante/Zafiro (AAA May 21st, 1995) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBz7UUdDfNE&ab_channel=RoyLucierAAALuchaLibre Opens with a textbook, totally one-sided rudo beatdown with the techs getting jumped before the ring entrances. Mr. Condor is wearing the ugliest top and is strangling people from the jump. There are some really reckless powerbombs and the rudos win the fall with a nasty spot where they cross Brilliante (I guess?)'s arms across his neck in opposite directions, and just pull while he's there on his knees, it's simple and brutal. It looks like the rudos are gonna continue to dominate but we get a turnaround despite some mask ripping and Mr. Condor gets posted, he walks off openly blading, and works the rest of the match with those yellow straps and the rest of him soaked in blood. "Muchos sangre por Meester Condor!" as one of the commentators yells -- then the poor dude eats an open kick right in the nuts. Ouch. So much for a tercera! No wonder Condor double-legs the guy who fouled him after he recovers a bit. Antifaz del Norte/Pantera del Ring/Volador/Winners vs Arandú/Jerry Estrada/Misterioso/Psicosis (AAA 5/21/95) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7Qzs9qnsXA&ab_channel=RoyLucierAAALuchaLibre This is just wonderful; it's everything you want from the new AAA gang, and I guess the faces are all Monterrey. It starts out pretty chippy between the rudos and tecnicos, the latter actually seem stand-offish and a little arrogant. Antifaz and Jerry clearly have some beef where on the floor they keep teasing someone stepping to the other, with this hilarious Estrada "move away, buddy" flap of the hand that alllllmost has Antifaz come at him. It's all this neat little tension building until they start with the bumping, Arandu taking some biggies and we get some neat avoidances and hanging-from-the-ropes bumps. But THEN, Jerry pulls out a fork and starts mutilating Antifaz. We don't see a lot of blood at all, but this is a BLOOD SUCKING FREAKS MATCH because Jerry wipes blood all over his face and LICKS AND PUTS THE FORK IN HIS MOUTH. YES. And after everyone brawls and we get a bunch of hyper speedy work (and the rudos almost beating each other up) we end with one of the biggest dive trains ever. Jerry further proves that he is A#1 and The Best by taking a flying bump head-over-heels all the way into the rows of chairs. Great finish too, one of the clearest unmaskings ever. So, not a lot of blood, but shows the importance of doing it right. Oh, and this is 1995 Psicosis. You know what it is.

the Public Enemy promo from 1995 on the WWF Slam Jam set ( https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gHJJ6hMfGLQ?si=XuEvM0iqGjgVmdyt ) making me realize that Rocco Rock and Marc Mero really never overlapped in the same spot aside from the last months of Johnny B Badd in WCW

Have seen knockoff Bullet Club/Pink Pony Club mashup t-shirts, and it's the closest I've come to buying a wrestling adjacent t-shirt.

Perfect Dark cancelled, the Initiative studio closed down, new ZeniMax MMO that’s been in development since 2018 is cancelled, layoffs at Raven, nearly 50% of the staff at Turn 10 fired… bad day at Xbox. I’m gutted about Perfect Dark.

Somewhat random trios/tag matches have become AEW’s ‘secret sauce’ in 2025. Providing nothing but excellent quarter hours. This one will no doubt be as pleasing as the best of them. KOR/Roddy have been great since joining forces despite their push/win-loss record. Takeshita feels poised for a big title run sooner than later. The Bucks have been nothing but consistently awesome despite their detractors best efforts to suggest otherwise. And Bandido has wonderful momentum. Stoked for this and the Takeshita-Bandido roh main event.

I had no idea either, but I have a hatred for anyone who treats people badly. Making kids walk for miles to get him some cheesecake on Making of the Band was enough to me to realize that I could never be a fan. If everyone who works for you ends up dead, in jail, or joining a ministry, odds are you are a piece of shit. Also, he has a much bigger role in the Biggie and Tupac beef than he's ever gotten credit for. Tupac didn't believe that Biggie set him up, he believed that Puffy and/or associates of Puffy set him up to be robbed and Biggie didn't warn him. The Death Row/Bad Boy beef started when Puffy's bodyguard killed Suge Knight's best friend at Jermaine Dupri's birthday party. So, Biggie and Tupac end up dead because they are the public faces of a beef that is some behind the scenes street shit that has much more to do with Puffy and Suge than Biggie and Tupac.

Season 1, Show 7: “The Top of the Ladder,” or Death Stranding: In the Rafters Are you hyped for more lucha? I sure am! Recap: Sexy Star and Chavo Jr. are continuing their beefing; Pentagon Jr. is jobbing way the hell too much for some reason; Dario Cueto is putting Big Ryck’s cash bonus up for grabs by hanging it from the ceiling tonight. I just saw Razor/HBK Ladder Match I on the WWF New Generation live channel, and that match still holds up and is better than like 95% of other ladder matches ever put on film. Actually, I prefer Bret/Shawn, Razor/Shawn I, and Razor/Shawn II to like every other ladder match out there by a wide distance. All this is to say that I should warn you in advance that I might be lower on this ladder match than most folks, though if they found a way to drag Scott Hall out here to conduct spots, it could surprise me! But before all that, we have a whole bunch of show to watch (as does Danny Trejo, who is chilling in the front row). King Cuerno opens the show tonight against the debuting Super Fly. No, it’s not a black dude doing a Youngblood gimmick. No, it’s (thankfully) not Jimmy Snuka either. It’s just a dude with an animal-themed name for Cuerno to hunt. Instead of using Raid and a swatter, Cuerno uses dropkicks and eventually a Thrill of the Hunt for the victory. Drago watches these proceedings while perched somewhere in the building, just spoiling for a rubber match against Cuerno. The match around those aforementioned spots is okay, and Super Fly hits a dope somersault plancha to Cuerno on the floor very cleanly. Gorgeous dive. Cuerno takes over after that with a series of running knees and kicks, leading to the aforementioned Thrill of the Hunt. Cuerno locks eyes with Drago while hitting that move and scoring the pinfall. Yeah, I’m absolutely into a blowoff match between these two, and they got me there through good work and smart progression from match to match. Hype video: Pentagon Jr. is zero-for-three so far, but let’s hype this man anyway! Mexico and Japan have a great synergy in sending wrestlers back and forth to vary their styles, and Penta apparently went to Japan to learn how to be a great hand-to-hand fighter, though weirdly, he doesn’t show any of this prowess in his matches except for maybe that arm breaker that this video gets over at the very end. Chavo Guerrero Jr. (w/Pentagon Jr.) faces Rey Fenix (w/Sexy Star). I’m going to be real, these feuds between Star/Chavo and Penta/Fenix seem to be running in place, and I’m not sure we needed another configuration of these wrestlers on yet another show. The slow burn isn’t working for me; we need to widen the cast of characters sooner rather than later. As for this match, it’s pretty good with Chavo’s heel control work being a solid way to make Fenix’s explosions of offense stand out and feel earned rather than just feeling like random spates of Cirque du Soleil-style flippy routines. Actually, there’s a rad spot here where Fenix tries his double-knees spot that pinned Penta last week, but Chavo holds onto a leg, rolls through with the momentum, and locks on a deep single-leg crab. That was so smooth that I almost wish it was the finish even though it’s obvious that Chavo’s not going over Fenix cleanly. Chavo continues working Fenix’s knee; Fenix fights up, but Chavo lays out Fenix with a nice lariat. It’s a pleasure to watch Chavo work, even if he has to stand right next to Penta and stare up at Fenix balancing himself on the top rope for a half-minute rather than moving out of the way of this obvious dive. Chavo does kill another Fenix springboard move with a counter-dropkick before wrapping Fenix’s knee around the rope, but Fenix just does stuff without selling knee damage anyway, so does any of Chavo’s work really matter? Fenix is out here springboarding around the top rope and landing top-rope superkicks because they look cool. Thankfully, Penta trips Fenix as Fenix effortlessly hops up to the top rope, and Chavo follows up with a quick Frog Splash for three. Man, as good as Chavo still is, Fenix fucking SUCKS. What an awful fucking wrestler. Chavo’s knee work looked so hurty, and Fenix didn’t even think about selling it for longer than it actually happened just so that he could do his overelaborate FAKE-looking offense. Yes, I used the “F” word, but Fenix insists on breaking my immersion with every movement he makes, so there! Sexy Star gets in the ring after the match and lets Chavo Jr. know that Blue Demon Jr. let her know that Demon’s coming back to see Chavo about that chair attack that Chavo perpetrated on Demon back in episode number two. Debut vignette: This Wolverine looking motherfucker Brian Cage kinda stinks, and in fact will be kinda stinking up my screen and joining LU soon. Well, I asked for a wider cast of characters, so I really can’t complain, can I? Wow, this ladder match is going to get a ton of time. Melissa Santos uses her idiosyncratic style of ring announcing to introduce first Big Ryck, then Johnny Mundo, and finally Prince Puma (w/Konnan). Let me give Matt Striker his props here: He notes that Stampede Wrestling innovated the ladder match and that Shawn Michaels, Razor Ramon, and Bret Hart successfully brought it into the mainstream (without, of course, mentioning WWF/E as the place in which they did this). I do appreciate the historical context for this match. Honestly, when Striker can restrain himself and pick his spots to appropriately set such context, I can find enjoyment in his work. Vampiro and Striker also talk about the former’s experience in ladder matches against X-Pac, and excuse me? This happened? I want to see it. Hold on, apparently they had a variety of matches in Mexico and in LU progenitor Wrestling Society X. Also, Reddit informs me that this happened: https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/hus480/vampiro_tombstones_xpac_to_an_exploding_casket/ Well, that is amazing. I clearly don’t watch enough wrestling. That’s what I learned from this search into the history between Vampiro and Sean Waltman. Meanwhile, Vampiro is talking about wrestlers from Wigan snatching ankles, and look, if I’m going to complain about the commentary when it sucks, I need to give the commentary love when I enjoy it. Even Striker growling out a Val Venis-like HELLO, LADIES when the camera catches a few young women sitting right next to the spot where a Mundo dive occurs isn’t going to make me take any of that praise back. Oh yeah, you’re probably wondering about this match! It is perfectly fine. What I think helps it is that Ryck has Cisco and Cortez enter the match, which makes it a one-on-one-on-three bout and which offers a further distraction for the babyfaces. At one point, Mundo is so focused on potentially putting one of the flunkies through a table that he forgets about Puma, an actual competitor in the match, and gets draped across the front rope. They do a dumb spot where Mundo tries to push the ladder onto Puma, but of course he’s standing in a spot where the ladder falls around him untouched, and the spot is really only dumb because of Puma’s strange reaction to it. I think he’s trying to indicate that he feels lucky about standing in the one spot that left him un-crushed by the ladder, but he didn’t nearly pull it off. Puma and Mundo do high spots off the ladder, but to me the most interesting thing is seeing if Big Ryck will somehow snake this match. Honestly, there isn’t enough Ryck launching the smaller guys around in this match. If you’re going to have a big dude matched with two flyers, there should be more of the big dude pressing the little guys onto and into ladders. The crowd starts a THIS IS AWESOME CHANT, which they do all the time for almost every even remotely interesting spot, so of course I’m so inured that I assume that the spot they’re chanting for isn’t really that awesome because they don’t seem to have very discerning taste! The spot that gets them going this time is a slingshot spot in which Mundo gets his face smashed into a ladder. It's a decent spot, but I’m not sure why it would spark that chant. I’m not a huge fan of that chant anyway. The best matches draw you in so much that you’re not thinking about offering meta-commentary on the well-worked nature of the match itself, at least in my opinion. This match goes on longer than I really care for it to. I am inured to multiple dives through tables and tumbles off ladders. I think the initial TLC tag matches between Edge and Christian, the Dudley Boyz, and the Hardy Boyz pretty much said all that needs be said about this sort of multiman car crash. And I suppose I should throw the Three Count/Jung Dragons match at New Blood Rising in there too because it happened around the same time and was also definitive even if practically no one saw it. But those bouts were about thirteen or fourteen years before this match happened and were much fresher and more interesting at the time. We slowly move toward the end of this match. Ryck seems to be taken out of the match after being hit with an End of the World and a 630 senton from Mundo and Puma respectively. Mundo and Puma fight it out, but how is Ryck back up so quickly? I feel like when you eat those two moves back to back, you should be out for way longer than Ryck was. Ryck tosses Puma right through a gimmicked ladder and then starts setting up multiple ladders; can a Rube Goldberg machine of ladders and maybe tables be far behind? Wait, this is interesting; a masked man comes out of the crowd and then attacks Mundo as Mundo tries to climb the ladder. He rips his mask off…and is a guy. I don’t know who the hell he is. Meanwhile, Ryck sets up a *sigh* Rube Goldberg machine made of ladders while Striker and Vampiro pull a Tenay-style I think we know who that is, maybe! without saying who that guy actually is. Mundo tosses the previously masked invader to the side, goes back in the ring, dispatches of all the heels, and grabs the briefcase. That finish was the encyclopedic definition of an anticlimax. Dario Cueto exits his office and congratulates Mundo, then asks for that key that Mundo took as collateral back now that Mundo has his money. Mundo says exactly these words: “So, give it to me Johnny, give it to me. Put that key around [my] neck where it belongs. Do it now!” You see where this is going, right? Mundo loads his fist with the key, knocks Cueto out, and then puts the key around Cueto’s neck. Wait, not even that much! He just dropped it on his chest. No, you’re supposed to a) knock him out and then put it around his neck or b) the better option of choking Dario out with the cord to the key, thus “putting it around” Cueto’s neck. BOOOOOOO, I feel robbed of what should have been babyface vengeance via doing the thing the heel demanded, but in a way that the heel didn’t want! This show basically ran in place and had a long ladder match that did nothing for me (as well as a Fenix performance that I once again actively hated). It wasn’t bad, but it was bland. I also want to know what’s up with the hitwoman ring, but they didn’t have the lead hitwoman show up on this ep, which was a bummer. I’m hoping that LU picks it up (hup hup) in the next couple of episodes from a storytelling standpoint. 2.75 LU-CHA chants out of 5.

I don't get that feeling about the interviews but YMMV

This finally showed up on FXX yesterday out of the clear blue! I was very happy, and very impressed. I never saw the original series through the Dark Phoenix saga so if this picked back up right from there it's pretty cool. It feels a little more... "adult"? Maybe that's just the passage of time with me because they were always "adult". Seeing Mojo was cool too and I was amazed that I saw him infecting a character with those lines in the face and I just immediately said "Mojo", as I only remember him from the trading cards.

It's not what I would have done, but personally I don't think it belongs on a "worst booking ever" list. Yeah, I've thought similarly. The complaint about the Death Riders angle have always reminded of the online complaints at the time about the NWO angle, but I suspect the latter would be fondly remembered if WCW hadn't completely botched the ending.