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colonial

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Posts posted by colonial

  1. Today's CMLL Informa has been quite entertaining, even though I don't understand Spanish ...

    WILLOW NIGHTINGALE will appear on CMLL's "Honoring Two Legends" show on 3/29 ... she will team with Tessa Blanchard and Catalina (that Chilean woman who was paired with the second Sin Cara prior to the pandemic in WWE a few years back) to take on Stephanie Vaquer, Lluvia and Zeuxis.

    We also have the Blackpool Combat Club (all four of them -- Yuta was mentioned) taking on Mistico, Volador Jr., Ultimo Guerrero and BLUE PANTHER on 3/29. Danielson cut a promo (in English) challenging Blue Panther to meet him at Arena Mexico, saying BP was his favorite luchador growing up and wants to wrestle him. Panther accepted the challenge in a live interview with the Informa host. Given how Panther looked, I couldn't see him work a one-on-one match with anyone.

    • Like 1
  2. Seems odd that Wheeler Yuta is not involved in this CMLL feud. Is he hurt? Given we now have 6 CMLL guys and 7 AEW guys in this feud, curious if something equivalent to the CMLL Grand Prix could be booked in AEW.

    Love Renee, but could she at least try to say the first names of Japanese wrestlers? Very WWE-ish and shows little effort in knowing who these guys are?

  3. Watched the Rumble in its entirety and viewed AEW Collision on tape this morning. I mentioned while reviewing AEW Worlds End that there is a real difference between the WWE and AEW fan -- the latter gulps down everything newsworthy (hence AEW misreading the room on how the fans would react to Jericho) while the WWE fan and pretty much only knows the E. And it showed ...

    -- Zero reaction to Jordynne Grace entering the Rumble. She was one of the Top 3-4 performers in the match, but the casual WWE fan knows nothing about her.

    -- Fans pretty much sat on their hands for most of the men's and women's entries unless it's someone who gets lots of TV time and the like.

    Go to Collision, fans show immediate respect to Yuji Nagata, Serena Deeb, etc., and seem excited for everything. Yes, crowds are different, but I liked a show where fans gave a plop for just about everything.

     

    Women's Rumble was OK. Bayley winning was the right decision but, once Becky was eliminated, it was pretty obvious.

    As Coletti noted, Chelsea was the MVP. She reminded me of a side character in a Three Stooges short who's always getting punched and slapped and hit with pies yet is still trying to take charge. Think Emil Sitka in "Brideless Groom" (HOLD HANDS YOU LOVEBIRDS!). Heck, make Chelsea the pastor the next time the WWE wants to do an in-ring wedding.

    Jade held her own and the fans were impressed, but she looked limited in the ring and the ring post spot seemed odd. Also noticed Nia did about 90% of the work on the elimination.

    I'll give Nia credit -- she looks better both physically and in-ring and actually appeared confident in her ability. 

    The R-Truth bit was beyond stupid. Managed to bury Sarah Logan and, as my 12-year-old daughter watched this (she caught some of the show while texting friends), she openly asked me if R-Truth's gimmick is that "he's in special ed classes." 

    Kayden Carter looks like someone left Nyla Rose in the dryer too long.

     

    Got up this morning and pretty much forgot what happened during the Roman 4-way. It was that forgettable to me.

    Owens-Logan was decent, but I hated that ending. The trope of "wrestler is too stupid to hide the weapon" is tiring. Felt like a Dusty finish, but at least builds to something toward WM. And Logan is quite good for someone with so little experience.

     

     

    Men's Rumble seemed off. Some of the eliminations looked wonky (Omos, Bronson Reed. Jimmy Uso turning his back before taking the Bron clothesline for the elimination was weird).

    Bron looked like a star in the making, even with what appeared to be a limited moveset. Natural charisma and hurty looking moves. Surprised the announcers didn't say anything about his family lineage (yes, his father is a no-go given his behavior, but someone could have said things about "another Michigan champ" or "works like a gremlin.")

    Pat McAfee spot was pretty stupid. I would have slotted Montez Ford in that slot given he and Bianca have a reality show premiering soon.

    Referencing Big E's proposed meaty man tournament was cool.

     

    I had to mute the announcing several times during the show. Way too much "OMG" and 'CAN YOU BELIEVE IT" nonsense. And Michael Cole apparently getting aroused by Sarah Logan's antlers led to the rest of the women's Rumble being muted.

    Did like a focus on numbers during the Rumbles, as well as mentioning the length of title reigns and the like.

    I don't watch a lot of WWE, but the CGI animations before a wrestler came out, honestly, seemed dumb. And there's nothing unique about much fo the entrance music. There was a lot of sameness to the music and the "videos."

  4. Watched the PPV last night ... overall, it was fine.

    PRESHOW:

    -- Felt bad for Willow and Kris for their struggles trying to get the finisher done right. Mistakes happen and you learn from them. But once it was clear Willow was struggling with the finisher, someone in the back should have called an audible and have Willow use a secondary finisher, or even a roll-up, to end the match.

    -- Battle royal was OK. I got a laugh out of the other wrestlers buying Archer and Killswitch with tables and chairs before the match to try and win. At least it's original.

    -- Hook/Yuta was fine. Loved the German suplex war, didn't like the occasional unprotected weapons headshot.

     

    MAIN SHOW:

    -- First eight-man I'll treat as an exhibition -- simply a showcase for the remaining CC wrestlers to do their things and entertain the crowd. Garcia attempting the backdrop suplex on King again was a delight, and there's the potential of doing something with Garcia/2.0 vs. HOB down the line.

    -- Miro vs. Andrade was a bit of a drag given that the word was already out there that Andrade was returning to Connecticut. You knew going in how the match was going to end. Would have cut five minutes from the match.

    -- Storm/Riho didn't really seem to gel. I don't know how much Toni Storm weighs (and frankly don't care), but having Riho play Spike Dudley to Toni's Big John Studd seemed ludicrous to me. The bit with Luther catching Riho, then tossing her to Toni was funny, as well as Mariah May discovering her inner Rip Taylor.

    -- Swerve/Dustin should have ended with the concrete block spot. 

    -- Somewhat surprised that AEW failed to read the room ahead of the second eight-man when the allegations/rumors first came out online. If this match happened in WWE, I doubt the fans would care much. But it's AEW, where the core fans gobble up the news and newz sites, social media, etc. Felt bad for Sting, who looked slow and disinterested as the match wore on, though I did like the interaction with Vladimir at the end -- that was a pleasant surprise.

        It also appeared a seed or two was planted regarding Starks and Hobbs, but was quickly forgotten given the issues with another wrestler. At this point, I'd rather see Hobbs/Takeshita challenge Starks/Bill for the tag belts.

    -- Hart/Abadon tried, and I thought it was Abby's best performance against a U.S. wrestler in a regular match (their work on Dark against Mizunami and Sakura are probably their best "regular" singles matches since their debut). But fans wanted the bells and whistles you usually find in TV matches featuring Abadon and Hart. No mist, no weapons, etc. And Hart's moonsault finish was a groaner. Not sure what you do with Abby moving forward -- the program with Hart was likely a thank you for their patience and hard work -- perhaps they finally get that Japan tour?

    -- Loved Copeland/Cage -- hard to believe two guys who are both 50 are still delivering the goods. Didn't mind the surprise at the end, but the whole storyline with Cage and Killswitch has been moving at a snail's pace. Now is the time to move forward on it.

    -- What a 2023 for Eddie Kingston. Probably the MVP for the promotion this year along with Cage and Danielson. 

    -- Curious to see where Samoa Joe goes next with the belt. The Devil reveal was probably the lesser of 20 evils to end the storyline -- rather it be Cole than, say, Ziggler.

    • Like 4
  5. Watched "The Iron Claw" last night ... overall, it was great.

    Spoiler

    That being said, I did find it odd that Kerry was presented as the shortest of the bunch. He looked about 5'7" in group shots. From my fuzzy memories, Kerry and Kevin were about the same height.

    The whole VE story feels like it would work well as a multi-part series for a streamer. I enjoyed the movie a great deal, but it also felt like the Cliffs Notes version of the story.

    I didn't have an issue with Fritz being presented as a Great Santini/King Lear type, but I was waiting to see how the movie would show off his questionable business tactics, from the fake heart attacks to the whole Lance Von Erich saga, and that didn't happen. (MJF was fine in his cameo, but it also made little sense. You can present that scene as how far Kevin has fallen in his father's eyes, being booked to be ignored by his own tag partner, but we also have no clue who this tag partner is and why he's an important cog in the story. I noticed in the end credits that MJF was credited simply as "Lance" -- if you have no clue who MJF is, you'd think the character was an employee at Kevin and Pam's wedding reception).

    Agree with the peanut gallery that "Ric Flair" wasn't good. Did like the looks of some of the other wrestlers, including the ones playing Race and Brody. I did laugh at the scene of Buddy Roberts wearing the boxing headgear. I recall watching the angle on ESPN's "Legends of World Class" show that led to this (think Kurt Angle vs. Edge) so it was cool that the director added this odd piece of trivia to the film. (Also recognized "Thrillbilly" Silas Mason as Terry Gordy).

    I was probably the one guy in the theater who stayed for the end credits to recognize names of wrestlers. Saw that Ross and Marshall VE were involved in some of the in-ring scenes and Luke Hawx was one of the stunt coordinators.

    I should not have asked the cinema staff to allow me to cut onions during the scene where Kerry reunited with his brothers and met Jack Jr. for the first time. 

     

    • Like 2
  6. Coming home after watching "The Iron Claw," I needed a laugh and, believe it or not, the goofy signs on the hard cam got a chuckle from me. Sometimes, you just have to laugh.

    Loved all three of the CC matches. AEW should put a timer on the screen and in the arena to let people know how long a match has gone in CC matches, particularly if you are playing off the "20 minutes means a draw" gimmick.

    Good to see Rosa back, though she looked rusty and the finisher seemed botchy at first glance. Having Rosa start her comeback in her adopted hometown helped. The match also really didn't do much to promote or push Hart/Abadon, though Abby does face in peril well.

    The Acclaimed six-man was a mess at the end with the announcers ignoring the possible tights pull to Dasha's mic going out mid-announcement -- half-expected the ref to re-start the match. Billy no-selling or poorly selling everything was a groan -- maybe AEW can launch its version of the Champions Tour for him and his fellow seniors. Still love Max and Anthony, but it's time for the latter to get a singles run and the former to ... hmmm ... develop a "Max Raps the Headlines" bit for CNN's morning show or something.

    With Kevin and Nigel constantly screaming "DON'T DO THAT" and the like to wrestlers during matches, I eagerly await a post-match promo where a wrestler mentions that he thought about going to the top rope but, when he heard Kevin yelling "DON'T DO THAT," he realized that Kevin was right and changed his gameplan for the better.

    • Like 1
  7. The Season 13 campaign was on Kickstarter.

    Honestly, it's the law of diminishing returns. MST3K is great but there doesn't seem to be a business plan from Joel outside of "donate money and we may give you stuff." At least with Rifftrax, they seem to have a solid business plan with weekly releases and other bonuses -- they only depend on fundraisers to do a Rifftrax Live for Fathom Events. To the viewer, Rifftrax thinks outside the box while MST3K is stuck in a box. Almost have to wonder if Joel regrets not considering Rifftrax's online model first.

    As for the Season 14 fundraiser, the SAG strike didn't help matters since no one outside of Joel could actively campaign online (having Felicity and/or Patton might have helped). I also thought Joel's pitches sounded like he didn't care whether the campaign succeeded or failed.

    Curious if Joel would consider doing live shows again to riff movies. 

  8. With my 12-year-old visiting her mom's family in Alabama this week, this was another opportunity to check out a grown-up movie. And the local theater has new ownership (Epic Theaters), so the days of those oddball movies that got a screening here for tax purposes and whatnot (The latest Steven Seagal film, etc.) appear to be over.

    Checked out NAPOLEON. It's a two-and-a-half-hour movie, but it didn't feel like that. I enjoyed it, but it could be a bit schizophrenic at times -- best way to describe it is a historical epic that wants to be a big-budget actioner and Oscar bait at the same time, as well as the Cliff's Notes version of Napoleon's life and times.

    Spoiler

    Joaquin Phoenix apparently using his natural voice to play Napoleon was ... a choice. Every few minutes, you had to ask yourself why the Emperor of France sounds like an insurance adjustor from Iowa. For the most part, the other actors at least tried with accents.

    There were a few high schoolers in the theater, and ...

    Spoiler

    ... they got a kick out of British soldiers using the f-word in the late 1790s. They also asked who would win in a fight between Napoleon and Naruto.

     

    • Haha 2
  9. 5 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

    So Full Moon is finally old enough to be MST3K'd? Have they not done anything by them before? 

    They did Laserblast, which was a pre-Full Moon pic from Charles Band, on the original series. Another pre-Full Moon from Band, The Day Time Ended, was part of the second Netflix season.

    • Like 1
  10. British character actor Joss Ackland died earlier today at age 95. Probably best known as the evil South African diplomat in Lethal Weapon 2 ...

    (1) Lethal Weapon 2 "Sometimes I Just Go Nuts" Scene - YouTube

     

    ... The Soviet ambassador in Hunt for Red October ...

    (1) The Hunt for Red October Andrei you have lost another submarine - YouTube

     

    ... and the old taxi passenger in a Pet Shop Boys film and music video ...

    (1) Pet Shop Boys - Always On My Mind (Demo "Movie Edit" Version) [HD, extended clip, remastered audio] - YouTube

    • Like 3
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