Clayton Jones

My favorite is that despite being a huge Deer Hunter and Janet Jackson fan, he can't name a single actor, actress or song from them.

So was this written by someone who read the books, or is it conjecture from someone who watches the show? Cause this would piss me off more so than any of the discussion in the last few pages in terms of giving away a major plot point. And I know the article warns about spoilers, but the way it's phrased still makes it sound like it's the theory of someone who was just paying close attention to the episode.

Cool thanks for clarifying. Very helpful post. And for the record that was one hell of an end to a season premiere. I almost wanted to clap like I was in a full movie theater. Okay so I did clap for a second or two.

Am I interpreting this correctly that this wasn't the case in the books? If so that is an odd detail to change. Or are you just saying that up until this point in time the Thenns had not been cannibals previously in the books?

I would have to give a ton of credit to Taker/HHH from WM28. That was a match I had no interest in, and didn't think there was anything they could do to hook me. But the visceral way it was shot combined with the work totally roped me in. If there's ever been a match that WWE can point to that borders on a horror movie in terms of directing and production values, I think that's the one.

My computer is in top shape and my internet connection is never a problem for any other streaming, downloading, etc that I do. I'm trying to watch NXT now and I couldn't get 10 minutes in before the stream cut out and forced me to reload, and now it's dropped down to abysmal video quality. I know the majority of people can't be experiencing problems this consistently though, or else there'd be a lot more internet outrage. edit: now I'm getting an error at the top of the player "WWE Network video content is currently not available for viewing at this location." Outstanding.

Just watching on my computer a bit more recently, I'm having constant problems with anything that I'm selecting to watch on demand dropping out and forcing me to reload. And the most frustrating part is it doesn't resume from where the video cut off and I have to find the spot I was at again. Also the video quality drops have been an issue too, but I'm more tolerant of that as long as the videos actually play. Is anyone else experiencing this consistently?

While the majority of their matches were pretty poor, Stairway to Hell was lightning in a bottle for the two of them and will always be one of my favorite matches.

That made me laugh way too hard for way too long.

I thought the first trailer was good and that one was flat out great. Sign me up.

I'd have Batman Begins and The Dark Knight over all Marvel Studios films. Batman is the best superhero of all time but after the Bat-family and his rogues gallery, I prefer more Marvel superheroes. I don't give a shit about sides. I like comic book films from DC and Marvel to do well providing they deserve to. I'd agree with that. Barman and Superman over all, then Marvels guys, then the rest of DC. Rogues make the superhero, and by that definition, Superman fucking sucks. Would be like if Goku's arch-nemesis was Dr. Briefs. This is a common misconception and if anything is one of the many myths that people who just write Superman off because "he's invincible!" always spout. First of all, Lex Luthor is one of the greatest villains of all-time, no matter what the medium. An alien comes to earth and is the perfect example of everything humanity should be. A genius level human finds this to be the greatest affront to humankind imaginable and does everything he can to bring an end to this mockery of what a normal person can accomplish. He battles the strongest creature on earth with his mind. It's perfect. Bizarro. Once again with Superman you have to get creative and subversive with his rogues. It can't just be Batman "they're cool and creepy!" character designs. Bizarro is one of the most interesting villains in any comic. He can go from funny to terrifying in two pages. He is essentially the Willial Regal of comic villains. Mr Mxyzpltk is another great example of how you have to think creatively to make a great Superman villain. They can't just be "oh man, can Superman beat this guy up??" That is the archetype of so many comics over the course of history, but the most iconic comic ever avoids this cliche much of the time. Except with Doomsday, the one badass who is a straight forward world killer, and you know what? He fucking KILLS SUPERMAN. Oh yeah, and then there's Darkseid, Toyman, Zod, Parasite.. but yeah Superman's villains suck. He can't compete with the Mad Hatter, a small weird man who drugs children with tea, or Zsasz, a serial killer because... well yeah he can be. I fucking love Batman but the sad truth is without the Animated Series, his rogues gallery is the most overrated ever. The re-imagined origin stories for those characters is why our generation blindly follows that mindset that the very phrase "rogues gallery" = Batman. Just in terms of comics, I'm not even sure if he'd rank in my top 5. Everything in this post is wrong. Bizarro, Zod, and Doomsday all share essentially the same powers, those of Supes, regardless of their origin. Of course if you compare Bats B-class villains with Supes Class A it makes for a better argument, but quite frankly, there's no comparison with Joker, Two Face, Ra's, Bane, etc. Shit, even Vegeta's M.O. is more compelling than Luthor having to join the hair club for men. A character's powerset =/= how good of a villain they are. Zod and especially Bizarro have so much more to offer than just how they fight Superman. And Doomsday doesn't have Superman's powers at all. I would also argue that Vegeta is one of the all-time great villains so I'm not sure what your point is there. Two-Face is a perfect example of a character who was made what he was because of B:TAS, and the way Bane's character has completely changed since his original incarnation says as much as you need to about his staying power.

I'd have Batman Begins and The Dark Knight over all Marvel Studios films. Batman is the best superhero of all time but after the Bat-family and his rogues gallery, I prefer more Marvel superheroes. I don't give a shit about sides. I like comic book films from DC and Marvel to do well providing they deserve to. I'd agree with that. Barman and Superman over all, then Marvels guys, then the rest of DC. Rogues make the superhero, and by that definition, Superman fucking sucks. Would be like if Goku's arch-nemesis was Dr. Briefs. This is a common misconception and if anything is one of the many myths that people who just write Superman off because "he's invincible!" always spout. First of all, Lex Luthor is one of the greatest villains of all-time, no matter what the medium. An alien comes to earth and is the perfect example of everything humanity should be. A genius level human finds this to be the greatest affront to humankind imaginable and does everything he can to bring an end to this mockery of what a normal person can accomplish. He battles the strongest creature on earth with his mind. It's perfect. Bizarro. Once again with Superman you have to get creative and subversive with his rogues. It can't just be Batman "they're cool and creepy!" character designs. Bizarro is one of the most interesting villains in any comic. He can go from funny to terrifying in two pages. He is essentially the Willial Regal of comic villains. Mr Mxyzpltk is another great example of how you have to think creatively to make a great Superman villain. They can't just be "oh man, can Superman beat this guy up??" That is the archetype of so many comics over the course of history, but the most iconic comic ever avoids this cliche much of the time. Except with Doomsday, the one badass who is a straight forward world killer, and you know what? He fucking KILLS SUPERMAN. Oh yeah, and then there's Darkseid, Toyman, Zod, Parasite.. but yeah Superman's villains suck. He can't compete with the Mad Hatter, a small weird man who drugs children with tea, or Zsasz, a serial killer because... well yeah he can be. I fucking love Batman but the sad truth is without the Animated Series, his rogues gallery is the most overrated ever. The re-imagined origin stories for those characters is why our generation blindly follows that mindset that the very phrase "rogues gallery" = Batman. Just in terms of comics, I'm not even sure if he'd rank in my top 5.

Yeah I was bummed that Malekith became so one dimensional, but I have absolute faith that an Executioner & Enchantress movie would be awesome in anything other than the most incompetent hands. Their relationship and the way it would bring Thor and Jane into the story are perfect for the big screen. If you could fit in Hela and Skurge's journey into Hel also then you could have something truly spectacular.

An X-Force movie would have so much black leather and goggles it would be glorious.

By the portion of my post I put in spoiler tags? I'm sorry?

It was so many pages back I can't remember for certain, but I honestly don't think it was you FSW. It's really no big deal either way, there's a good chance I'll never see that movie. Anyway I know Thor 2 isn't exactly a hot topic of conversation anymore, but a few thoughts after watching- I didn't think much of it. There was some good, some bad, it certainly set up future Marvel movies for some cool shit, and Hemsworth and Hiddleston continue to be the best possible casting choices for both parts. More than anything it felt like a movie that needed to be made, rather than a movie that was made because there was a good idea behind it. Plot points were mapped out with a specific place things needed to end up, and the characters acted accordingly. If I really wanted to get into nerd rage, as a huge Simonson era Thor fan this interpretation of Malekith and the Dark Elves was a complete waste, but in the long run it doesn't really matter. Malekith is a trickster magician, and with Loki right there you can't very well do that all over again, so I get why they'd take things in a different direction than the source material. I just wish the Dark Elves were better fleshed out and less evil for the sake of evil. Comparing it to the first, I know objectively speaking this movie looked better and had a better crafted Asgard visually, but I much preferred the distinct fantasy aesthetic the first movie had to this sci fi/viking hybrid. I liked the relationship of the Warriors 3 and Thor better in the first movie, felt like much of the Odin/Thor stuff here was a rehash of the first, and just generally thought the first movie had more of a voice and a heart. If I had to use one word to describe Thor 2 it would be toothless. It was just another installment in the unstoppable Marvel machine. Which is unfortunate because Thor is one of my favorite series of all-time and I know there are only so many performances we'll be able to get out of Hiddleston and especially Hemsworth. That said, I much preferred it to Iron Man 3 and didn't hate it by any means. To end on a more positive note, here are my 5 favorite scenes/moments from the movie. I know spoilers aren't necessary anymore, but this post is getting long anyway.

I avoided this post for months until I saw Thor 2 to avoid spoilers (which was worth it if only for the Collector), finally get all caught up on it tonight, only to have the end of Man of Steel spoiled for me in a Marvel Studios thread. Awesome. The comedy in that GOTG trailer fell flat for me but visually it looks pretty cool, and those little individual character vignettes are giving me hope. The Drax one looks spot-on.

Regardless if if they stay together or not, I agree with the comment that the longer we can put off Reigns being pushed as the new super face, the better. The thing I think that's worked so well in Reigns' favor is the way he's been slowly but surely built into this badass that everyone knows you want to avoid at all costs, but is still kinda under the radar. I keep thinking that he is the WWE equivalent to Luke Cage in the Marvel comics: he's one of the strongest and most resilient dudes around, but he's not the Incredible Hulk or Thor or what have you. He's a street level brawler who just happens to be a world beater, and he doesn't care who knows it.

Does T-Rex even lift?

I don't think any list of PSH's greatest rolls is complete without Synechdoche, NY. I don't want to get into hyperbole because he was so great in so many films, but I feel pretty strongly that that is one of the most important performances of his career.

Hey look, a gimmick that could actually get Orton over.

What Gary Hart looked like has very little to do with the fact he was the greatest pro wrestling manager of all-time and he'd cut any you mooks to ribbons with a straight razor no matter how sinister you think he may or may not appear.

The winner was picked by New Japan, not RoH. That show also marked the end of New Japan and RoH's working agreement or whatever it was they had, which then directly led to RoH aligning with NOAH and Kobashi vs. Joe, so you know, kinda worked out. Weirdest part was that New Japan didn't even live up to there side. It was like the entire thing was just New Japan telling RoH to screw off or something. The talk at the time online was that someone from ROH was booked to win the tournament, and then on very short notice NJPW decided they wanted to give Kashin a push with this Dragon Soldier B gimmick and that he had to win the tourney instead. I remember bitching about the show on the ROH boards the next day and Gabe replying and basically saying "yeah, I'm never giving another promotion creative control of my show again" which was very unusual for him to admit any faults to the fans on there. I remember the tag title decision match being really good though and the show was pretty good aside from the goofy booking. It was a surreal experience though, driving out to Asbury Park through that awful storm, the surprising way the tournament played out, and the weird venue the show was at that was probably too nice for ROH at the time.

This was my review of the Black Panther mini-series in a drunken group e-mail thread that myself and a bunch of my comic nerd friends have had going for a few years. I could edit this to sound less asinine but eh who cares.

I think you hit the nail on the head there. The beginning of his TNA career he clearly still had that fire and was excited to take his skill set to a new platform. But after he lost motivation he seriously did not evolve once between then and now to stay relevant and keep his heat. I just watched the video of the match he had with Willie Mack at a convention the other month, and it is literally almost the same match he had when he popped back into ROH to wrestle Tyler Black however many years ago. Which isn't a bad match by any means, but I've seen it far too many times by now. And this is coming from someone who would have probably had Joe as his #1 around '04-05 at least.