blitzkrieg

The upgrade probably will mostly mean that I'll spend a lot more time going through the back catalog. I have no problem casting to my tv but it can be a chore finding stuff on the website or going from event to event. As someone that has been only watching New Japan for about a year and a half, I rarely spend a lot of time in the back catalog just because of the tediousness of having to either use the clunky search feature or going page by page through every event from a year.

Been coming to terms with the fact that I've been more of a console buyer and video game magazine reader than an actually game player. So been working on working my way back through all the games that I never played. My most recent foray was Fear Effect for the PSX. Remembered magazines talking about it and seeing ads for it but pretty much had zero clue about the actual gameplay going into it in the present. Think it's safe to say that if I had played it when it first came out I would have been sitting there with a print out from Gamefaqs and still wouldn't have probably got half way through it. The controls are very much in the vein of early survival horror 3D action games, so it took me a while to get the hang of things. Even taking that into consideration the game really seems to expect you to die till you figure out what you're suppose to do, then probably die some more while you figure out how to do what you're suppose to be well enough. That said the majority of the deaths didn't actually feel cheap and mostly just motivated me to figure out how to get past parts where I would get stuck. The puzzles had solutions that weren't hard to find if you took a moment to look around in the game. Though there were two where I just ended up brute forcing them and another two where I was in the ballpark but still had to look up solutions just because I couldn't figure out what the game wanted from me. Honestly I was kinda surprised how much the game crawled up in my brain. First game in a while that I just constantly wanted to get back to.

Went into my local Barnes & Noble, for probably the first time in 20 years, and really could feel why the book market penetration for most mainstream graphic novels is so poor. The main western comic section is about a quarter the size of the manga section and it's just a jumble of stuff. Sure, there's a shelf of Batman stuff but, unless you know what you're looking for, nothing sticks out. The only things that really stuck out were the self-contained series like Invincible or Saga. This was in steep contrast to the much smaller young adult graphic novel section which was much more shoppable and browseable which was located at the end of the young adult book section.

NJPW World is getting a long overdue overhaul (https://www.njpw1972.com/159104). Native apps, search overhaul, and offline viewing seem to be the big bullet points. Changes come with a price increase: from ¥999 JPY to ¥1,298 JPY for Japanese subscribers/current international subscribers and $9.99 for new international subscribers. With the current state of the yen, it'll be slightly cheaper for current US subscribers than the $9.99 for new subscribers.

If you count NXT, Roxanne Perez beat Blair Davenport with her mom and sister being ringside.

WWE put up a video of superstars just sitting down and sharing thoughts on Bray.

Groups: A - Axiom, Butch, Bate, Dempsey B - Coffey, Duke Hudson, Frazer, and Tozawa. Round robin, 12 minute matches, 2 points for a win, 1 point for a draw. Finals on the 26th. First two matches tonight with Coffey/Frazer and Butch/Dempsey. So they'll have to do three to four matches a week unless they do some on Level Up or live events.

Balám did the art on Marieke Nijkamp's Hawkeye: Kate Bishop mini which was pretty enjoyable. Their character work probably isn't traditional super hero but it's very expressive and dynamic. They also seem to be becoming one of Marvel's go-to artist for younger characters as they did they Repitl mini and the recent New Mutants: Lethal Legion mini. Honestly combination of being high on Gwen after Spider-Verse and Balám on the art has me thinking of checking it out.

I'm fine with Rey taking the belt off Theory since it'll probably lead to Santos taking the belt off Rey in what will be a better match and a bigger deal. I actually like Theory but it's starting to feel like they need to stop trying to make him a thing, just feels like he doesn't connect with anything they've done on the main roster. The Jimmy explanation was unexpected and kinda did nothing for anyone except hurt Jimmy. I look forward to Jey entering his crow phase and showing up in the rafters of WWE arenas or his Loose Cannon phase and showing up at random indies threatening to piss on the crowd. Also, I think this week's MVPs have to be Los Lotharios and their telenovela segment from NXT. Hopefully from here on out all their promos are filmed in that manner, kinda like the Vaudevillians and their black and white silent movie segments.

Loved Vic dropping Dempsey having a "Blue Blood pedigree" and describing something about him as being "regal."

Hopefully this means the return of "Shadows of a Setting Sun" for Nakamura's theme.

Jimmy thinks that Jey is always going be his screwup brother, so unable to accept that Jey actually might have changed, he cost him the match because he thinks that Jey will just screw up being the Tribal Chief. I think the foundation for that has already being laid out for that and think if the "We out" speech from Jey was any sign that it's a good angle to go with. Jey is over with the crowd and as a result The Usos were over with the crowd but it didn't take them any time to turn on Jimmy. It's a good chance to let Jimmy develop and I think Jey comes out stronger when he eventually wins the fued. Plus it keeps them away from the tag team division. If you want to put Jimmy back in The Bloodline, just make it as simple as that it was a decision by the Elders. If you don't want to put Jimmy back in The Bloodline then Jimmy still wants Roman gone but he doesn't believe that Jey should be the one to do it.

The G1 Press conference is up on YouTube with subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xyh_9bQO6mk Haven't watched the whole thing, mostly just watched the portions that looked interesting from the transcripts. Coughlin's part which starts out around the 88 minute mark is probably worth a watch and has me thankful that he's basically dropped all the "Android" stuff.

The first two nights of the G1 are going be free on NJPW World with the second night having an actually reasonable east coast start time of 1 AM.

Really appreciated the Independence Day shows if just as kinda a "Thank you" for a lot of the Strong guys that hadn't actually been to Japan yet. Kinda funny how much of that has become the foundation of the current era of Bullet Club.

You bring up Jimmy doubting Jey being named the right hand man, so you can then have Jimmy show his support for Jey being the one to be at Roman for the title.

Really fun show. None of the matches were spectacular but they were all entertaining and moved things along. Both of the MitB matches were sloppy at times but I also appreciate that they kept the nasty and/or crazy spots to a minimum. I did find myself going "Please don't die" with Io's moonsault off the ladder("Thank you Trish" for holding the other side of the ladder) and Paul/Ricochet's bump the floor wasn't exactly turning lemons to lemonade from what it looked like they were originally going for. Happy that they're seemingly pulling the trigger on Io, whom I think fans are just waiting to cheer, and I feel like Priest's push isn't surprising with the faith they put in him with Bad Bunny. Cody and Dom was a fun little match which really showcased both guys really well. I assume that we return to the Brock/Cody feud now. Cena is great at what he does and Grayson really held his own out there. Even if this doesn't lead to a Cena match, I do hope that we see Waller wrestle sooner than later. I liked the story that Finn and Seth were telling but feels like the build up to the match was wasted with all the stuff after Priest came out. The main event wasn't an incredible workrate fest but told a great story. Great payoff with Jimmy pinning Roman while also keeping the "What next?" aspect to the storyline.

Feel like Portland trading Dame to Miami would be the ultimate "Thank you for your service" gift because there are going be a lot better offers out there and Dame doesn't have any leverage in the situation.

Feels like every time free agency gets hyped up that it ends up being mostly chalk.

Also, I imagine most consumers don't care or at the very least don't care to not buy a book that he does the art on. Just from the amount of variant covers that he ends up doing I would say that there have to a decent amount of people that are fans of his work.

There is a part of me that probably just doesn't want Knight to become the new Damien Sandow. But really there's no one in this year's lineup where it wouldn't be a giant shift for them to have a successful cash-in. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing but at least we shouldn't get a repeat of Austin Theory's briefcase.

I don't think Knight needs the MITB because he already got himself over basically on his own without a major push. Plus not winning the MITB briefcase wouldn't hurt him nearly as much as an unsuccessful cash-in would. And while he MIGHT be over enough for them to think about giving him the briefcase, I don't think he's remotely in a position where they put it on him with any actual plans for a successful cash-in.

I'm kinda digging the idea that Balor takes the World Title off of Rollins and Priest wins the MitB leading to Balor being paranoid about Priest cashing it in on him.

To steal from someone else, there's only one timeline now, The Steph Curry Timeline. Blame Wiseman. I don't think it really changes anything with Draymond. Paul is actually owed more money than Poole this upcoming season. That said Klay is going be a free agent next year and the CBA changes make Paul's non-guaranteed contract next year a lot more appealing.

My avatar in no way endorses punching other basketball players in the nuts.