Matt D

If Marvel is going to have a massive crossover the size of War of Realms, at least it's something that's been built towards for years, where a lot of the crossovers seem to make sense given the scope of things, where they seem like they'll be able to stand alone well enough, and where they're using a slew of fun characters. Thor was excellent this week.

I don't think Annihilus can carry a multi-movie arc. I liked Annihilation as much as the next guy (way more really) but I think it'd feel like Thor: the Dark World or what not, where the villain was just there to lead an army of creatures. There just isn't enough of an emotional hook. Now, if they did Ultron spreading throughout the galaxy with the Phalanx like in Annihilation 2, I think that might work.

This is true, but my understanding is that he's been much more involved.

Gaiman is not the world's quickest anything and he's fairly well locked down with American Gods right now. I'd be surprised. I barely remember his series except for the fact that no one really wanted to see Romita Jr art on the project in 2006. I think they're going to try to mesh the big scale with very down to Earth identity stuff as the hook. It's just such an underdefined property that they can do basically anything with it though.

I don't think what we see on the screen will be representative of that notion. From the few comments that have been made so far, I'm expecting something more like Sense8 or Midnight Nation, basically "Inhumans done right" with a very strong emphasis towards diversity and identity as driving themes (especially if they lean heavily on the deviants as well, which I'm not sure they'll do). I could be completely wrong, mind you. I could also see it veering towards Wicked + Divine and everything filtered through the lens of celebrity instead.

I still don't think Bryan actually needs the title with his gimmick. You can easily have Kofi win and carry it for a couple of months before putting over a heel they want to elevate like a post-draft Drew or ... so, not a deep bench.

We could argue for three pages about whether or not X-Pac heat exists and whether he has it. (Just to get to the end of that early: it exists and he has it).

The age old question: is way, way too much booking better than absolutely no booking at all.

Haven't seen much more than entrances yet, but Negro Casas sure seemed glad to be back.

The most amazing thing about the internet is how you can learn literally anything you want to know within a span of minutes. https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2016/06/27/Marketing-and-Sponsorship/The-Lefton-Report.aspx Like how the hell did The General ever end up with Shaq as a spokesman.

Decided to jump in on the Kiyomiya match. Good, clean, clear storytelling. I like how hard Kiyomiya had to work at everything (both his first offensive hits with the dive and the work he put into his reverse DDT combo come to mind). Nakajima's nonchalance is a thing of beauty, from the real estate they got out of that early delayed rope break to him keeping his head to Kiyomiya's to slow down a comeback, to how flippant he was in his beating of him. I like that it was only when Kiyomiya actually fought hard enough to make Nakajima lose his cool that he was able to actually take over. A few too many kicks to the gut cut-offs by Nakajima. I love when he just halts the snap-mare early on though. The big cut off, that low dropkick to set up all the kicks was perfect, though. At around the ~23:00 minute mark, I got real worried that there was 11 minutes left in the video. Thankfully, they rolled into the finishing stretch instead, leaning back into Nakajima turning the attitude on and ultimately paying for it. The first time Kiyomiya hit a German felt like a big moment in the confines of the match considering how he had gone for it multiple times before, and it set up the ultimate finish nicely. Good stuff.

I wouldn't mind that at some point but for now, I think the "Agents of Wakanda" thing is a fun story device and I'd rather they keep leaning into that.

I don't think I'd want to revisit Kavalier and Clay now. It feels like pop culture has so supplanted it in the twenty years that followed that I'd worry it'd come off as pandering or overly precious now, even though at the time, it was right there out at the forefront.

There's so much to parse through here: https://www.youtube.com/user/britishpathe/search?query=wrestling

FYI, the Battle of Atlantic City is back online: