Tarheel Moneghetti

I snagged one of the 512 MB Decks, but the confirmation email estimates Q2 2022 as a delivery date. Apparently this isn't unusual. Lots of people seem to be getting emails estimating 2022 as delivery dates, with the higher-end models seemingly shipping after the $299 model. I'm not too deterred, but I am having flashbacks to the Steam Machine, which had the same lengthy gap between announcement/pre-order and delivery. Granted, Steam Machines had a lot of other issues, but it's still not encouraging.

Yes. There was some sort of presale on Thursday and tickets went on sale to the public yesterday.

Playing Disco Elysium completely wrong, and having a blast. Basically, I set all stats to the minimum, do not invest at all in any skills, and consistently try to make the worst possible decisions. I'm a jerk to everyone I meet, I've never met a bribe i didn't like, & I've ingested so many drugs my pee is probably neon green. The game is very hard this way. I generally get the worse possible outcome from the "dice rolls"/checks. It takes practically nothing to kill me. I've died several times from running and falling since I can't afford to lose any health whatsoever. Getting into an argument can become a life and death struggle for me. I appear to have been murdered once or twice by shopkeepers who yelled mean words at me (I deserved it). I'm very stupid. Skills are what drive the internal dialogues, so, without skill points, not much going on in my head. At times, I'm too stupid to do my job properly. Fortunately, I compensate by randomly punching people and things. Particularly kids. Without giving anything away, there's one npc that annoys me so much I could punch him all day long. I'm such a bad person in this. I've skipped out on every bill possible to the point i'm surprised there's not a bounty out for me. Don't get me wrong. I like money, but..... my main source of income at the moment is bribes and that barely keeps me in drugs and boom boxes. Besides, actually paying a bill would require a moral compass my character seems to lack. Despite all this, lol, I'm slowly progressing through the game. The game engine apparently can't accommodate my desire to die in a pool of my own vomit, so it keeps feeding me leads and guiding me along. And Kim Kitsuragi, god bless him, is either a true friend and cock-eyed optimist or too out of it himself to see what is going on. No matter how badly I screw up, he's there to be supportive and encouraging. I mean, i tried to quit being a cop at the beginning of the game and he no-sold it and gave me a "buck up champ" speech. At this point, he may be a worse person than I am since he consistently glosses over his disappointment so he can continue to enable me and point me in the right direction.... so I can go out and cause some more mayhem.

Hager/Swagger wasn’t really a miss. Vince put the world title on him and gave him several chances to succeed. Combination of attitude and inability to stay out of trouble did him in. Never been sure what to make of Brodie Lee. I don’t feel like he was a miss, but other people rate him a lot higher then I do. Don’t think he would have ever been signed in the first place if he had been shorter.

GHC Heavyweight Title:

Anyone know why Allegiant Stadium management won't rent the building to WWE on Sunday the 22nd? Meltzer says WWE wanted to run on Sunday, but were told no by the stadium. Dave thought it was probably something to do with the Raiders but they play a preseason game out of town on Saturday night so probably not.

Vince thinks he's Kona Crush and wants to keep him on the payroll in case the Saudis ask for a Crush-Yokozuna match?

I'm less interested in Kross, but neither option is great. Cole is more stale. Personally, I think Kross retains or drops the belt to Cole without being pinned to set up a singles match down the road. I'd prefer they put it one of the other three, though. O'Reilly? They seem to be intending to push him as a main-eventer. Works for me.

Metlzer and others occasionally bring up that Vince still thinks the ideal for talent is tall, big, and ripped. It wouldn't surprise me if he periodically convinces himself business would pick up if they filled the roster larger guys and moved back towards the sort of roster they had 30 years ago.

I'd probably prefer Randy Ortolan to R-K-Bro!, for what it's worth.

Quite possibly a legit stat. Nikla Roberts (Baby Doll) and a couple other people who knew Houston/Smith back then claim he got arrested about twice a year every year during the 80's and 90's. Stories about Houston's DUI's were making the rounds at least by the mid-2000's on the Wrestling Classics and Kayfabe Memories boards. It's worth noting that Houston didn't get sentenced to prison for DUI until 2005 (not sure how much time elapsed between his last arrest and the sentencing). I'm guessing he didn't miraculously stop drinking and driving between '94 and the mid-2000's. I can buy Cornette's claim that he was the best worker of the bunch, though I don't remember him showing more than a fraction of Jake's charisma or promo ability. I was really thrown by the siblings - particularly the brother who never got into wrestling - referring to each other by their gimmick names.

Yep, sorry. My bad.

Meltzer told a third version of the story years ago. Per Dave, Tully failed the drug test intentionally to get released and got an offer from WCW. Vince leaked the failed drug test to WCW and they pulled their offer and instead wanted to pay Tully $500 per appearance. He refused and Roma got his spot (ugh). As part of this story, Meltzer also claimed that Vince made sure that guys he wanted to pass tests knew when they would be tested (hence Tully supposedly intentionally getting coked up to flunk the test). Thinking about it now, Tully and Arn's contracts were up anyway, so why would he bother to get himself fired? Especially fired before a major PPV? Did talent not get PPV bonuses in those days? I completely forgot Heenan was in the match because of Tully's drug test. Honestly, Colossal Connection and Brainbusters in not a bad foursome. Though it would have been even more underwhelming when Andre got himself taken out of the match almost immediately. Watching late 80's WWF PPV's has given me a renewed appreciation for Honkey Tonk Man. God bless Wayne Ferris. He's not much of a worker at this point and he's turned not taking a bump into an art form, but he's still a great watch. Fun character, great on the mic. Shake Rattle and Roll (his neckbreaker finisher) looks even worse than I remember, but it's still really well-protected as a finisher.

I’d feel a lot better if I could see his hands.

Watched Survivor Series 89 last night and my wife asked me if the guy in the blue shorts was actually black or was doing a Soul Man gimmick (1980's movie about a white man who tans himself black to get into Harvard). The guy in the blue shorts was Rick Martel . This led to a debate about who had the darker skin - Rick Martel or Bad News Brown (who was on Martel's team). It's.... a lot closer than it should be. Now I can't unsee Rick Martel as a black man. It's disturbing. SS '89 is such a weird card. Teams seemingly thrown together at random. Weird finishes (Dusty Rhodes winning the match for his team with a running crossbody that in no way seems like it should be a pinfall until it is). DQs in an elimination match (Somebody - Hogan was certainly using his BACKSTAGE POWARZ that night. Three of the four heels in the Hogan match got eliminated by DQ. Andre too in another match. Zeus and Andre did less than five minutes work between them before being DQ'ed)/ The main event had all of the above at the same time. The teams were kinda random (Ultimate Warrior, Neidhart, Rockers vs. Heenan, Andre, Haku, Arn), Andre got himself dq'ed almost immediately, making Heenan's team look really weak, and the finish came down to Ultimate Warrior vs. Heenan. Terrible match. It's weird how they didn' t just put guys from the same tag teams/stables in the same match. Heenan Family had 6-10 guys at that point but none of the Heenan teams are that strong. Heenan's team in the main event is really weak (immobile Andre who goes out 3 min in. 1/2 the Brainbusters, Heenan himself). Where was Tully? I'm assuming injured or suspended.