Whodathunkit

This made me laugh:

Rusev was certainly ticking all the boxes for what makes a WWE babyface tonight. -- Stalking ex? Check. -- Violating restraining order? Check. --Violently resisting lawful "arrest"? Check? -- Attempting to seriously injure/murder someone who may not (in kayfabe) been able to protect himself? Check. Hopefully, we get a December skit where Lashley dresses as Santa for the kids at a children's hospital, and Rusev runs in at beats him up in view of the kids. I shouldn't joke about that. They'll probably do it. Rusev's making the best out of shit material, but I have no idea why I should cheer him or sympathize tonight.

So I guess the official explanation for Britt Baker being on camera at Takeover is that the they wanted a reaction shot and just happened to settle on Baker, with no one involved realizing who she was until Mauro identified her. I kinda feel like this is one of those times when the WWE is insulting my intelligence. I'd wish they'd just insult me the old-fashioned way-with their booking.

Cornette's the same dude that booked the Gangstas in Smoky Mountain to rile up small-town rednecks And that was after he nearly touched off a race riot before a Smoky Mountain show in... '93, I think. Basically, before a show, a black security guard was getting over with the crowd by standing up to the heels, particularly the Heavenly Bodies. Cornette wanted the guy removed for.... not observing kayfabe, I guess, and called the guy the n-word. Things got really tense after that, and a riot nearly ensued. Cornette talked about the incident the following year on a shoot interview recorded at SMV Fan Fest. Of course, he didn't apologize or anything. Seemed kinda smug, irrc. His usual attitude. I think Cornette knows exactly what he's saying and kinda plays it off like he might be in character or just not realizing what he's saying to give himself wriggle room if anyone calls him on his nonsense.

I'm not that guy. I'm aware of his mental illness. I somehow doubt WWE's the right environment for those sorts of issues. Lol, Vince thinks getting a cold is a sign of weakness. I kinda doubt Vince's attitudes towards mental illness are all that forward-thinking. Also, the way the incident was covered by Meltzer yesterday made it sound more like Corey posted a kinda mean tweet and Mauro got pissy about it. Maybe there's more to it than that, but I didn't think Grave's tweet was all that vicious (I'm assuming there was only the one tweet).

I was just coming to ask about that. Honestly, from the little bit I got from Meltzer's site, I couldn't tell if he got angry and walked out, or it touched off some sort of depressive episode. Probably the former as Triple H claimed earlier in the day that Mauro was still expected to work the PPV. Supposedly, Mauro deleted his Twitter account over the weekend. Honestly, he seems a little too thin-skinned to work around Vince and co.

Does anyone else still watch Star Trek: Discovery? Kinda wondering what other people think of it. Finished S2 this morning, and... really disliked it. I mildly enjoyed season one, but thought the show took a step back in the back half once they went to the mirror universe. Put off watching S2 until last week, then marathoned it. Got really interested in the front half with some of the character building and Anson Mount as Christopher Pike. Then.... they hit the midway point and the show fell off a cliff for me. As a big bad, Control was really uninteresting (and derivative). They spent so much time building up a kinda nonsensical plot that all the character stuff they were setting up in the first half went out the window except maybe for Michael/Spock. The finale was a decent spectacle, but it seemed to come at the expense of a logical story and I had mostly stopped caring a few eps earlier. I still like the characters, but I feel like both s1 and s2 have been kinda disappointing and season 2 tossed aside much of what worked for me about the show (the Klingon politics, Michael's relationship with her family, Michelle Yeoh being evil, etc.). I feel like they dumbed the show down for s2 to... fight Skynet, I guess. Thoughts? I'm not a Trek fan and the presumed new direction (into the future) doesn't really interest me.

That's harsh. What did fucking disasters ever do to you to make you compare them to 2K20. 2K20 wishes it was a fucking disaster. The game seems to be actively trying to book itself into "crime against humanity" conversations. At least it has goals.

Meltzer had a accurate, fairly concise take on the Cornette situation a couple days ago. Basically, he said times have changed and Jim Cornette hasn't. I'd like to give Cornette the benefit of the doubt simply because I liked the Midnight Express gimmick a long time ago, but.... I've listened to his podcast, so no. Cornette is one of those guys who has turned saying unpleasant, controversial things into a cottage industry while secretly hoping people think it's just him playing a character and cut him slack for it. Whatever goodwill, second chances or benefits of the doubt he had coming were used up a long time and a lot of controversies ago.

WWE? Tone deaf? Never!

I have no idea what that's from, but I'm in.

WWE 2K20 is such a glitchy game.

Shrimping ain't easy. ...... I'll show myself out.

Seth is that desperate to turn heel again?

Is that Shane Helms with Konnan and Psychosis?

I'm not at all convinced I will end up liking Death Stranding, but the reviews have me wanting to sink some hours into it and make up my own mind. I want to own it even if I end up not liking it much because I generally like important games, experimental games, games as art, etc. If nothing else, it's a fascinating experiment. Sony gave Kojima way more creative freedom than anyone normally gets in this genre. I'm not sure that's a good thing. There are a lot of geniuses in music, tv, movie, games, etc. who need some sort of studio oversight to ensure that what they come up with will sell as well as be artistic. Death Stranding looks like it treads a little too close to the "muddled mess that is probably a work of genius but no one wants to buy it" line. There have been a lot of hyped triple AAA games that I've had absolutely no interest in. It happens

So I didn’t expect to see this today: Not gonna lie. Now I want to ask Helen Mirren what she thinks of Policenauts.

I wonder what Trump Jr thinks of MeUndies?

It's mind-boggling that babyfaces in WWE hardly ever watch each other's back. I'm not sure if we're supposed to believe that Vince has forgotten how a babyface is supposed to think/behave, or if the kayfabe explanation is that WWE wrestlers don't pay attention to the shows either and don't notice when their fellow babyfaces are getting beat down. Admittedly, it'd be amusing if all of Seth's fellow babyfaces were in catering or walking out of the arena and pointedly not watching the monitors to see what was going on in the ring.

I wonder if it's just a case over-saturation. How many casual fans want to watch 4-8 (or more) hours a week. I'm fairly interested in AEW, but even attempting to keep up with the eight hours of national tv that's on a week is exhausting. I watch Raw and Smackdown some but I'm not a diehard. I generally watch very little RAW during football season and am not home most of the time on Fridays. I gave up trying to keep up with the indy and Japan a long time ago. So,when AEW started, I figured I'd try to watch Dynamite and NXT - on tape delay with fast-forwarding. That's only about 3 hours a week (ff through the commercials, at least) and I can answer email or whatever while the show is on. That lasted three weeks. Week four, I watched about an hour of AEW and tapped out, NXT was the same result after just a few minutes. I haven't watched anything from last week. Don't have the time and it seems like a hassle to even try, I like what I've seen of AEW. The production values have been good and the presentation works. I've having a harder time with the wrestling. Already seems like an awful lot of 20 min matches that don't need to be 20 min long. I like long matches, but I don't need to see so many long midcard matches. For all that I dislike about WWE shows, SDL feels like it does more in 2 hrs. than AEW (granted, a lot of what they do, I could do without). It's also jarring to see so many INDY acts on national tv. Say what you want about WWE, but their presentation usually smoothes out rough edges. And when it can't, those acts don't get on tv much. I want to like Private Party, for example, but nothing about them feels like they're ready for this spotlight. I like spot machines just fine when those machines are polished (I'm fine with the Young Bucks, for example), but PP just annoys me. A lot of their spots look overly choreographed, they guys have good looks that suit the gimmick, their ring attire is so indy it's painful, etc. Nothing really wrong with them that a few years of seasoning won't fix, but I feel like they're in no way ready for the spot they are in. Have the same issue with Riho. She's not awful or anything, but she doesn't project "athletic" well at all. I'm generally fine with joshi so tiny Japanese women aren't a problem, but Riho doesn't put herself over as a serious athlete who should be beating other serious female wrestlers. I can buy Asuka/Kana, Io Shirai, Kairi Hojo/Kairi Sane, etc. as athletes. Riho.... looks like Io should break her in half. Like I said. It's barely been a month and I already feel burnt out. That's my main issue.

Lol, I had to google "Jordan Myles" to figure out who he was. Somehow, I wasn't aware the WWE signed ACH. Read about the shirt controversy and Myles using social media to blast the company. Not at all sympathetic to the WWE here (lol, someone really thought that shit was a good idea?), but Myles behavior since is definitely a cause for release. How is he still under contract? AEW, I guess?

That's Test between Big Show and Shamrock, right?

Thanks. I'm going to pick up the four main games and the Cross-Tag Battle special edition that's dropping later this month. Lol, no idea if I'll actually play them all, but.... Wiki says Central Fiction's story mode is 40-hrs. long. That's crazy. I can't imagine putting 100+ hours into a fighting game franchise.

Question for anyone familiar with the BlazBlue series: Is there any reason to pick up all 4 of the main games (the C-line)? It looks like they have different story modes? So does one game pick up where the previous one left off? I'm going to pick up at least one game in the series. I'm fine with getting all four. Just not sure there's any reason to. I'm a little confused if they are four similar but different games, or if they're basically just expansions of the first game in the series (Calamity Trigger, iirc) similar to the various versions of Street Fighter IV. Anyone want to clear this up? Thanks..