tbarrie

You're completely right about their motivations, of course, but I don't think that makes comments about how they don't know wrestling is fake off-topic or anything, because they illustrate how stupid these people are willing to be to pursue their agenda. I mean, their press release explicitly stated that Nyla Rose competed against a cis woman, when of course nothing of the sort occurred. What happened was that Nyla Rose put on a performance in co-operation with a cis woman. I'm pretty sure these asshats haven't found an excuse to make that illegal, even in Oklahoma. And yes, the actual arguments they use are irrelevant to them. But they're not irrelevant to the large number of people out there who are neither motivated by a desire to see trans people wiped out nor fully onboard with trans rights. Which is why I think it's reasonable to point out that the argument they're using implies they're either stupid enough to think wrestling is real or duplicitous enough to pretend it is.

Because they're decent people. Excalibur even explained that on commentary. Honestly, given that it's Orange Cassidy, the real question is why the entire babyface locker room didn't empty to save him. Who wouldn't like that guy?

I'm trying to figure what you mean about Punk leaving, and I'm hindered by the fact that I can't for the life of me remember who the second men's Owen winner was. Was it Jungle Boy? I don't think it was Jungle Boy.

It's almost like, when you get right down to it, it's all just bullshit.

To add a dissenting voice, my biggest beef with Fallout 4 and Starfield's carrying limit is that it's so damn high and, in Starfield, the penalty for exceeding it is essentially non-existent. Being able to carry 500+ kg of gear without difficulty breaks immersion for me. I'm used to imposing my own realism on games, of course, but for a game to force me to track my own inventory weight and decide when it's too high is a bit much. (Although thinking it about it more, maybe that means Starfield did it right. Players who hate carrying limits are free to completely ignore them, while players like me can just interpret the "you're carrying too much" message as time to unload some things and not worry about the fact that the game won't actually punish you if you don't.) And I'm not a big fan of games where you play out your character's every action not requiring you to eat or sleep, either. (Obviously, Street Fighter 2 would not be improved by requiring the fighters to snack or nap in the middle of a fight.) That's another beef I have with Starfield - there are all sorts of interesting foods you can find, and you can devote skill points to learning how to cook yourself - and it's almost completely pointless, because you don't need to eat. Now this I whole-heartedly agree with. Having some game mechanically distinct options to choose from is great, but having to find higher-level versions of the same weapons is bullshit. (Especially when it's done in a way that makes no sense in-universe. Like, I could see a fantasy game where you eventually gain access to the djinns' bazaar or faerie marketplace and can now buy wonders that most people don't even know exist. But the exact same merchants gradually stocking higher and higher level items as the PC levels up? Get out of here with that crap.)

But the flip side of that is that Tony Khan being a thin-skinned buffoon wasn't exactly a secret either. Granted, to date he's only responded to criticism by being childish on Twitter rather than wasting broadcast time. But still, just like the video didn't change anyone's opinion of Punk, I doubt showing it actually lowered anybody's opinion of Khan or by extension AEW. It was just a stupid waste of time.

He's 26. So closer to 23 than 30, anyway. And how is almost 30 not a kid? What board does Casey think he's on?

Google suggests it's actually "Megabyte", which is disappointing, as "Megabite" is clearly the better wrestling name.

He shouldn't do this.

Eh. I'd say it only makes Tony Khan look like kind of a buffoon. But that's not exactly new. Nobody who objects to watching a wrestling company run by an oversensitive buffoon was watching AEW anyway.

Anybody with any thoughts on Rampage? I'm curious how London Lightning came across on TV. The live crowd was certainly into him. (Did the bit before the match with Roddy interviewing him even make the broadcast? I tend to be at least half asleep by the time Rampage came on and can't remember.)

It shouldn't have come as a surprise, though. Billy Gun has been the least giving old guy in AEW since day one. And I'm worried this next comment will get me put on Jenalysis's "kick him in the balls" list, but... Jay White, a main event-level talent? I don't see it.

You mixed up "bare" and "bear".:) But seriously, many thanks for this and your subsequent posts. Your explanations on subjects like this are always engaging and informative.

Interesting. I thought works owned by individuals rather than corporate entities entered public domain a certain number of years after the author's death rather than a fixed number of years after creation, so all of the Holmes canon would have entered at once. And the number of Holmes films, TV shows, and other adaptations that come out backed up that belief. Do they all make deals with the Doyle estate? Or are they limited in which stories they can reference? Or some of each? I'll have to look into the Holmes precedents. Thanks for the pointer, Blitz and Brtian.

I don't know, other companies and (especially) independent artists being able to legally fork the Superman mythos seems like a pretty big deal to me. And aren't we all kind of just guessing what will and won't be allowed when? I don't think there's a lot of precedent established regarding characters who've been under copyright, published, and slowly evolving for almost a century before becoming public domain. The inevitable Mickey Mouse lawsuits will probably establish some things by the time Supes goes public, but until judges start making rulings it's all (possibly educated) guesswork and speculation. To engage in some of that speculation - I'm unconvinced you wouldn't be able to have Superman fly for the first few years. I mean, if I wrote a Sherlock Holmes story where Sherlock could fly for some reason, would I be able to claim copyright infringement on anybody else who wrote about a flying Sherlock? I doubt it. Adding a simple power - one that humans have fantasized about for millennia at least - to a public domain character doesn't strike me as creative enough to count. I would think you'd need to copy other elements of my story before I'd have a case. Similarly, if you were to give Supes the full suite of powers DC eventually gave him in your story, you're almost certainly over the line, but just flying? That seems iffy to me.

My understanding is that the Continental Championship will be put on the line in each year's Continental Classic, yes. Note that the Continental "Crown" has already been split up. Okada won the Continental Championship, leaving Eddie with just the RoH title and the Strong Openweight championship.

Important update! I turned to Google to listen to said music again, and learned that the DOS version's sound was COMPLETELY ASS. The C-64 ruled, though.

Yeah, and think how much better modern indy wrestling would be if that were still true.

That game didn't even come out until 1989! SIR, I DISPUTE YOUR RIGHT TO THE TITLE "Old". Bop N' Wrestle was awesome. I can still hear the music.

But wrestling is different from an office job, in that wrestling is physically dangerous and the performers need to be able to trust each other to ensure one another's safety. ...wait, which side was I on?

I don't agree. Pro wrestling is at its absolute worst when they try to work real-life shit into the storylines. I'll concede enough people are inexplicably interested in the backstage crap that it might have been the most lucrative thing they could have put on screen. But best? Nah.

Getting to see the title change hands in person was nice and all. But I think Copeland costing Christian the title by preventing The Patriarchy from cheating at the last PPV might have been the right call. They could still have had the same blowoff match and Garcia would benefit more from the title than Copeland.

On a whim I looked at the rankings that went up Wednesday and the most interesting thing to me was Mariah May at number 2 in the women's rankings. A sign that they're planning to pull the trigger on Toni vs Mariah sooner rather than later? The funniest thing was Claudio and Mox at number 3 in tag teams, higher than most of the teams in the tournament. Yet still, to my knowledge, no in-story explanation for why they didn't get a spot in the tournament. Edit: forgot to include a link: https://www.allelitewrestling.com/post/aew-rankings-for-march-27-2024

It absolutely does. Depending on whether MJF comes back cooled off or his absence makes the audience's hearts grow fonder, they can modify how much TV time it gets and how long it takes. But just dropping it completely would be terrible writing. I don't know if this would effect a double turn, though. I mean, Swerve did shit like that to Hangman and came out of that feud a bigger face than Hanger. So I'm not convinced it would suffice to turn MJF back heel.

I think the brackets ruled that out, because no way were they running Kingdom vs Bucks in the semifinals. Bucks vs Private Party worked because of their history, and because while PP are heels they're not really all that hated, so they could easily play faces in this match. Bucks vs Kingdom wouldn't work at all, in my opinion