Craig H

And also that Miro has moved back to Bulgaria. And it was amicable. This is all per CJ. So who knows if it's a permanent move or what, but I expected this after their weird as hell angle.

HHH learned from watching Succession. Deny everything, attain power, sell out your spouse, take all the power.

Any of my fellow Helldivers get to serve up a hot cup of libertea in the mechs yet?

BTW, Seth’s gimmick would work way better if and Becky actually got invited to the Met Gala Ball. His outfit last night looked like Lil Dicky’s from the gala episode.

We’re totally getting Rock eating a Stone Cold Stunner and then overselling it at WM. The one thing that gives me pause is someone floated that Seth is secretly working against Cody and he’s in Roman’s pocket. I dismissed that at first, but man, it’s sure starting to feel that way. Only thing is that it would make Seth vs Drew heel vs heel unless Drew gets more people cheering for him and he re-signs. As much as I dislike Seth and this gimmick, him turning on Cody would be fucking lame. It’s better just to keep this as simple as possible.

Yoooo…uhh, wtf is up with just letting Roman say shit like, “you gonna let this cross dresser make decisions for you?!” Segment was fine beyond that. That was just kinda surprising to hear.

I love Rebirth so much. Right now I’m in Junon. I 100%’d the Grasslands and when the next area was end tunnels, which reminded me of some of the parts of Remake that were a drag, I got pretty bummed thinking Grasslands was going to be the only open world, find all of this stuff, do things in whatever order you want place in the game. And then I got to Junon and was pretty happy that the open world stuff returned there. Raziel’s words about combat should help because I was getting a little overwhelmed at all of the combat options and not really understanding them or finding a groove like I did in Remake. The other part that I feel is lacking is, well, the lack of Queen’s Blood opponents. I was probably hoping for too much that Queen’s Blood would be as big and as important here as Gwent was in the Witcher 3, even though I didn’t play any Gwent. I just remember there being a ton of Gwent opponents and high level quests revolving around that game. The one thing I need to do is break myself away from Tifa and Aerith. They and Cloud were my go to companions in Remake and other than when I was forced to not use any of them, I have only used them. I guess the good thing is that I have yet to cast Prayer once whereas I cast it often in Remake. Aerith also isn’t even a glass cannon. She’s just a glass, uh, nerf gun. I’ve seen others successful dominate fights with her by teleporting all over the place, but I don’t know how that works and her ranged attacks not only hit so softly, but she pulls aggro way more than Cloud or Tifa. I switch over to Aerith to get in a couple shots just to pump up her ATB meter so I can cast a spell. I fire off one shot with her and immediately all enemies stop what they’re doing and swarm on her. But if I don’t do that, then she just sits there basically does fuck all except for casting Cure once every few fights and that’s with having Auto Cast materia on her. One last random thing, I’m almost surprised that no one has knocked the game for not changing practically anything with summons especially after they were a high point with 16. At the same time, I appreciate them not really changing things that much because it keeps a sort of gameplay continuity with Remake. It gives me hope that since they basically have a winning formula that we won’t need to wait nearly as long for part 3 as we did for part 2. I still have no clue how big this game is or where it’s going to end, if that end will mirror a part of the original which I think it will, if it will go in a totally new direction, or really where things are headed. I do feel based on cutscenes I’ve experienced and conversations that the characters have had with each other that there really is some kind of Crisis on Infinite FF7s going on here. I hope this isn’t spoiling much, but outside of the start of the game, for saying that fate and destiny are basically thrown out the window after the end of Remake, this game so far has been almost one for one with the original. More than Remake was. With a lot of games I have a decent idea for where things are going. With this, I really don’t know where it’s going and I like that. For now…

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I’m fucking dying.

He has a match against Jay White at the Big Business show in a couple weeks and then, yeah, Darby may be off for awhile. I should probably look up just how long the wait is to climb Everest since I know there’s a queue for it, but I’m not sure how that queue works.

But TK should serve everyone and have the tournament be for who will be Darby’s new partner. That is such a wrestlecrap idea that I honestly don’t think has ever been done.

TK announced during the scrum that the titles are being vacated and there’s going to be a tournament.

BTW, harder than anything else tonight was seeing KOR. Holy shit. He looked…bad. He’s not a ginger, his hair is all long and scraggly, he has bags under his eyes that would make CM Punk say “damn dude,” and he had the insulin pump on his arm which I don’t ever recall him sporting in public before. If you told me he’s retiring and that’s why he was teary eyed then I’d believe you. I’m legit worried about his personal health and hope his diabetes isn’t so bad that he has to call it quits.

AEW rules the fucking world. PRO. WRESTLING. MOTHERFUCKERS. I didn’t think, as a wrestling match, anything would top Danielson vs Eddie. And then Ospreay and Take Soup fucking milled themselves. I was crying as the main event finished. Sting is completely one of a kind. I can’t think of anyone else who had this long of a career that no one has anything bad to say about and he still gave his all every time he went out at this point in his life and he got to end his career on his own terms. He didn’t need to come back in TNA or WWE or AEW because he was broke, he came back because the fans loved him and he had unfinished business. He didn’t let anything from 97 to the end of WCW eat him alive. He didn’t trash people in shoot interviews (I think). He’s a rare breed for his generation that generally put his family first. His body wasn’t a fucking train wreck. His brain wasn’t mush from headshots or drugs. And he got to end things like he wanted. This is someone who I almost instantly became a huge fan of in the late 80s and was the reason I watched WCW even when WWF was the cooler product with Hogan and Warrior and Macho. It was always weird to be asked when I was 9 or 10 who my favorite wrestler was, Hogan or Warrior or Macho or whatever and respond with Sting. And yeah, it sucks he never got the Undertaker match, but he got a run in AEW that showed the perfect way to book a legend and was probably the best ever booking for a legend. Sting was always my guy as a kid and teenager and adult. I think the only thing that compares to the sadness and numbness I feel now is when Jordan retired. The second time. I’m going to miss him. Again, truly one of a kind and a model person in this business.

Rebirth is fucking incredible. I made it to the grasslands and I’ve spent so much time just exploring, finding mats, and practicing combat against whatever mobs are around. The other thing I’m addicted to is Queens Blood. I could never get into Gwent and so I always skipped it in the Witcher 3 even though that’s the gold standard for in game card games. Queen’s Blood just feels similar, but more accessible and easier to understand. If Squeenix decided to put out a standalone Queen’s Blood game in the style of Slay the Spire, I’d buy it in a heartbeat. But yeah, Rebirth is just everything and is really scratching about every gameplay itch I have. I think my one complaint is that with all the systems in the game, like party structure, folios, materia loadouts, and transmuters and crafting, there’s no quick and easy way to access them. I know it’s a dumb first world problem to have, but it’s a pile annoying to always have to go into the start menu find the thing I want to tinker with, go to another menu, and then another. It would be nice to get to that stuff with fewer clicks, but I’m guessing that won’t happen until a pc release.

My group has made it to level 8. It’s doable, but we’ve dropped in on some areas that weren’t listed as dangerous and were immediately mobbed by chargers and bile titans. A couple of us having the orbital laser and orbital railcannon let us survive. Of course, extraction missions on suicide and above are still impossible, especially against Automatons, are still bugged for where there’s and impossible amount of tanks and hulks and about 4 drop ships at one time.

So I watched that 20 minute Rock promo. I thought it was a little long and it did bury the fuck out of Seth, again, but my biggest complaint is the inclusion of what’s his name from Busted Radio. I fucking hate his voice. And after all these years, I don’t even know if it’s a shtick that he does where he’s such a dork. I think he really is just a huge dork.

I think the Rock just setup Austin saving the day and clearing house so Cody can finish the story. There was way, way, WAY too much setup with the Rock saying that there's no one in the back that could stop him from doing whatever he wants to do to Cody, how he's the boss, etc., etc. I predicted that weeks ago, but with each week that goes by, it feels like it will happen. Add to that Austin uploading the Disturbed version of his theme to his Instagram a week ago with no comment or explanation for it and, yeah... Look, I can't possibly get more pants free than the thought of WM night 2 ending with the Rock and the Bloodline thinking they can do whatever they want, Seth gets taken out, Sami gets taken out, there's no one left, and the motherfucking glass shatters and Austin comes out calling everyone a motherfucker, talking trash, the Rock's eyes bug out, Austin beats the shit out of the Rock, the playing field has been leveled, Cody hits one Crossroads, hits another, and then beats Roman 1-2-3. Confetti falls down, Cody completes the story, and Austin toasts Cody with some Broken Skull IPAs. That crowd would be fucking molten.

Played it some more and got through the flashback portion to where Nibelheim is on fire. I gotta say, that scene from the original is burned into my brain, but seeing it, ahem, reborn in 4k was pretty fucking cool. So now I’m back in the present day…? I think? And I still have no clue at what point that stuff with Cloud and Zack at the very start is supposed to take place, but my gut feeling is that since Cloud, Sephiroth, and the rest of the gang said fuck whatever the timeline was supposed to be let’s just fuck around and find out at the end of Remake that maybe this Cloud and Zack stuff at the very start is in yet another universe or timeline and given that most folks that reviewed it commented on the ending being confusing, I’m almost wondering if there is something of a Crisis on Infinite Earths thing going on. But again, I’m just taking some shots in the dark and I’m probably 100% wrong but speculation is fun. The other thing is, man, I went from being really, really good at combat probably halfway through Remake to getting so good at it that I beat the end without dying, and now I just completely fucking suck at combat. But in the almost 4 years since Remake came out, my muscle memory has gotten used to a whole bunch of different games, which is one reason why I may not get the Elden Ring DLC. As good as I was at that game, there’s no way I could get back to the point where I could beat Malenia or the final two bosses again, much less whatever hard as fuck bosses there DLC will have.

I’m only at the very beginning where Cloud is telling everyone about his connection to Sephiroth, and I guess Tifa’s connection to him, but I’m very confused with the timeline. It starts with what looks like where remake ends, except it’s Zack and Cloud, and that’s not how Remake ends. Then it goes back to 5 years earlier, Cloud on the mission with Sephiroth and Tifa, and then back to present where Cloud is telling the story to the gang, but the beginning of the game makes it look like it’s the present talking about the tornadoes that ripped through, but that happens during the ending of Remake. I’m kinda spinning in circles here, but I’m hoping some of this gets cleared up.

All That You Can’t Leave Behind has a pretty decent argument for being one of the best albums of this century. Or does 2000 count as part of the previous century? Either way, that was probably their last great album and it’s shocking how my songs off of it were hits. Not my favorite U2 album, but it’s up there.

I’ve seen a lot of folks pointing to where they live and there being more unusual instances of cancer there than in other places. Just awful. All I can think of is their kids and hopefully their kids wind up getting regular screenings for cancer and other disorders yearly. Also, I guess the other part of Curt Schilling being a dumb fuck leaking Tim’s cancer news was that at the time Tim’s wife was going through a very rough time battling pancreatic cancer.

My friend is a design manager at Insomniac and was the design manager on Spider-Man 2 and is having a real hard time seeing a lot of very talented people that worked on his team that made that game now be gone. No, hey, your last day is 30 or 60 days from now or anything like that. Just, all of you, the door is to your right, leave your badge on your way out. I wanted to ask him what their path forward is at this point, but I figure I'll wait a little bit.

Weird random thought I just had after talking with a friend about the Leftovers. Justin Theroux is so awesome in it. And then I thought…he should be in the MCU. Then I thought, should he play Doom? So I guess the question is, should Doom be played by someone ridiculously handsome or should he be played by a CHUD like Adam Driver.

On second thought after rewatching the entrance and seeing the end of the match, I think you’re right. I saw some people mention that Max’s rap got cut last week by management and this seems to be a response to that. That and Max not celebrating with the rest of the group makes me think it’s setting up the inevitable split where they hopefully take the trios titles off the Acclaimed. And I’m still stunned by how quiet and small these crowds have been. I think once it’s figured out what nights Raw and SD are going to be on, they should shuffle Collision to a different night.

Welcome to the opening of every Botchamania, Max Caster. This show was embarrassingly quiet, to the point where you could hear the ref in the ring shout when they were back from break or how many seconds until break.