Territorial

Brutal honesty in this day and age? That's pretty surprising to me. Same here. I don't really follow the news sites much, but I don't recall a company or editor saying flat-out "the book he was writing wasn't the one we wanted.", Usually, editor/writer clashes seem to be made public through vague tweets or Rich Johnson rumor columns. Honestly, does it matter? Joe Mad is drawing the book. I eagerly await the conclusion of the first six-part story line in early 2016. In the time it takes Madureira to draw a year of the book, Soule will have time to become a judge (he's a practicing attorney). For the record, I quite liked Ramos' art on Crimson. Didn't read Impulse. Have hated everything he's drawn since.

Ridiculous. Fraction throws better punches.

Let's all take a moment to remember that we are sort of in the middle of the one-year anniversary of the clumsiest, blandest, and most half-hearted face turn in history. What, you wouldn't try to get a guy's babyface turn over by booking him to run over Santa at Christmas?

So.... I guess the game has a Super Cena booking mode? I know the match was designed to show off spots, but Tanahashi winning the briefcase after taking a multitude of ridiculous bumps made me laugh.

I just got into Final Fantasy about 18 months ago. Played through VII, VIII, X, X-2, and 12. Actually, FF is the only reason I might break down and buy a PS3 (that's not a typo. I'm not much of a gamer. I own a couple old systems and a PS2). Honestly, VII is my least favorite so far. X was a blast. I'm planning to start FFIX this weekend or next week. Off from work for a couple weeks due to the holidays. Looking forward to IX a yet.

Yo. Living in Washington, doing shows for ECCW in British Columbia and DOA down in Portland. (Incidentally, DOA has a show in Portland on December 29th. Come and say hi.) I worked pretty closely with Davey and Tony Kozina back when they worked Pinnacle Wrestling in Washington in 2006-2007. They seem to be cut from the same cloth - Davey can be a prick but at least he's honest about being a prick, which is more than I can say for 90% of the guys out there. Yeah, I was around Davey a decent bit when he worked PWG regularly. Wasn't my favorite person to deal with, but I found him to be mostly straightforward. I got along fine with him, but also knew there were times he was probably going to be an ass. After you were around him a bit, you knew what to expect from him. That's not always the case with people. I found him to be a little uptight, but not as tightly wound as his reputation suggests. Seems like he started taking himself and the "fighting spirit" more seriously after he started working the east coast. I also wonder about some of the stuff he's pulled, like lying about car crashes and injuries to get out of tours in Japan. Back in '05, I was under the impression one of his goals was to get into NJPW. He burnt that bridge fairly quickly

I cleaned out the DVR last night. Both the recorded shows I have no interest in watching and the list of programs set to record. Gah, there was a lot of average stuff I don't care if I ever see again. Think I deleted about 3/4 of the shows on the list. Good bye Mentalist, Person of Interest, Shield, CSI, almost every Fox and CBS comedy currently on the air, Major Crimes, etc. How most of you made it onto the DVR, I'll never know.

Same here. DeMatteis' run is hamstrung a bit by awful editorial-mandated decisions: too many crossovers, the awful Clone Wars storyline, but it's quite strong. JMS is the glaring omission from my list. I love almost the entire thing - while admitting some of the editorial decisions/plot twists were terrible (ie, Gwen's kids). I like the Jenkins run a lot, but I'd like it more if the lasting legacy from his tenure wasn't Humberto Ramos, whose art I loathe.

On an anime kick right now, so I've got several shows on the pile to watch over the winter. Nothing too recent. Sold old favorites (both versions of FMA, the Ghost in the Shell TV) and some recent-ish stuff I've never quite gotten to. Watching Soul Eater right now and liking it a whole lot more than I thought I would. Only about 24 episodes in. The kishin just got released. Wow, the last six or so eps took the show in a darker direction. I do love that they gave a decent explanation for Death having a cartoonish mask and manner. and talking in a ridiculous, high-pitched voice. And that he uses a different voice in battle, then goes back to the other. Probably watch Steiin's Gate after I finish Soul Eater. Is Attack on Titan worth the time? It's piqued my interest. Thinking of watching it soon.

Honestly, "Homeschooled" written and directed as if it was a season of 24 would probably interest me more than what they've been doing. In some ways, I not only think the show jumped the shark way too quickly, it circled back around to the other side of the tank so it could jump all over again.

Yeah, this season isn't working for me at all. It's obvious by now that nothing significant will take place until the wedding episodes (May sweeps, I'm guessing). At least Marshall's road trip is over (I think. Haven't actually watched last nights ep yet). The laser tag bachelor party nearly did me in. Though I liked the ending quite a bit.

No, but we can rule out talent. And the ability to draw money. From that reasoning, almost everyone in the AWA during the later years should have had a bag. And going back to the original question, no, I don't think they ever clarified what was in the bag.

I had heard a rumor that was going to happen last night, which is why I watched the episode, basically. The real surprise would have been if the episode was actually funny.

Somewhere in Japan, there are small children converting to Judaism after seeing Hama Claus.

Oh, man. Too easy. The jokes write themselves for this one. Honestly, Hero might be the only guy in ROH right now capable of generating much interest (and eyeballs). I kinda hate to see Cole cut off at the kness, but I also think they'd be smart to get the title on Hero asap and give him a long run a la Joe. Of course, this is ROH, so if he does get the title, it will only be after a feud that drags on wayyy too long, four losses in title matches, a sixty minute draw, a random heat-killing loss to Jimmy Jacobs, and general apathy from the fanbase,

I can see why the resolution let people down, but, personally, I didn't feel that way. For me, everything works except maybe the "batfamily overcomes the effects of the gas by thinking about family really hard". And even that may be intentional on Joker's part.. I though DotF was great. Reread it in one sitting last night and liked it even more. As I said originally. I think reactions to it probably vary depending on how much you buy the "Joker just wants to keep the game going as is" talking point. For me, it makes perfect sense that he'd want to ratchet up the death and horror, then step back at the last minute. My take on it is that Joker wanted to take the game to a darker place than they'd gone before, but still be able to stop short and go back to the "Batman puts the Joker in Arkham" status quo. 'Cause, if he really does killl the bat family, or slice off their faces, Batman might actually decide to kill him. As much as he claimed the sidekicks make Batman weaker. they're part of the game, so getting rid of them changes the rules. I didn't think the outcome of the dinner was really much different than the thing with Harley early on. Joker's aim was to see if he could get her to agree to let him slice off her face, not to actually do it. Actually doing it might change the dynamic of the relationship and Joker seems not to thrive on that. I can completely buy that, to his way of thinking, actually slicing off Harley's fave or killing Nightwing would ultimately be less fun than making people think he might do it and then going back to old dynamic. In the long run, removing Harley's face would be less amusing than continuing to screw with her head. Also really loved Joker (of all people) calling Bruce on his moral bullshit. The slipperly-slope-I-can't-sink-to-his-level argument doesn't hold up very well in the world of modern comics, where villians return time and time again to kill off large numbers of "extras" and suffer relatively mild consequences. I thought it was interesting that Joker is willing to kill large numbers of GC cops and citizens, but wasn't willing to risk killing off the Batfamily and changing the game. If Joker is correct and Bruce is as invested in keeping the game going as he is, the conclusion is is that Bruce is (unconsciously?) willing to tolerate mass casualties so long as they're not people he's actually close to. <Shrug> There's no right or wrong opinion. It's going to come down to how much the reader buys into Snyder's view of the Bats/Joker relationship. I thought DotF worked far better as a whole than the Court of Owls storyline. For me, Court of Owls was well scripted, but the whole ultimately didn't add up to the sum of the parts. And the Thomas Wayne thing was a big meh for me. I'm not against the notion of an (evil) secret brother, but it didn't seem to have a lot of impact o the story either. I'm hoping either Snyder either has a plan down the line for Lincoln March, or that it was just a red herring.

I've heard the rumor a number of times over the years, so you're remembering right. No idea how much truth there is to it. I've always assumed it was just bs.

Calling it now. When he retires, Davey Richards is going to follow DDP's lead and teach Fighting Spirit Yoga. The infomerical will be coming soon to a really cheap 3 AM time slot in your viewing area.

WWE got mentioned on ESPN2 today. Jonathan Coachman guest hosted Mike & Mike with Golic and was asked about the worst "smackdown" (bump) he took when he worked for the company. Apparently, he was once booked to be beaten up by Batista during a tv segment. Batista had just come back from injury and Coach convinced Batista they needed to practice the Batista Bomb in the locker room before doing it on tv. Batista hoisted Coach up - and Coach smacked his head on a low-hanging cement shelf, knocking himself out and having to be taken by ambulance to the hospital. Coachman put over how much the Batista Bomb hurt even if you do it properly, so why the hell you'd take a practice bump in the locker room, I have no idea.

I was a huge Raven mark back in those days. Honestly, his ECW and early WCW stuff still holds up for me today, even though virtually nothing else he did still works for me. Such a great character. It's kinda surprising, then, that I'm a bigger fan of Kaz these days. Kaz had a great run in All Japan and his match with Shuji Kondo in 2006 may be my favorite jr. match of the decade (definitely top 3).

According to Meltzer on the Monday WO podcast, WWE already made AJ an offer (apparently a low one), and Styles turned it down. It's not a completely moot point. Recently? Or 10+ years ago? Supposedly, the WWE offered AJ a contract sometime around his NWA Wildside/WCW/early ROH days (Wikipedia says it was 2002), and he turned it down because the money wasn't good. Just wondering if the Torch is referring to that or if the company has made him an offer recently. In any case, I don't really see him getting a run with the WWE at this point. Sucks for him if he signed the rights to the name "AJ Styles" over to TNA. Maybe he can grow a wooly beard and join ROH as AJ Briscoe, a long lost Briscoe cousin who is the black sheep of the family on account of his city ways (reading and writing, maybe?).

I'd guess Kaz shortened his career with that missed dive to the floor, but he's still active and has been wrestling for 20+ years.

I really want the rumor to be that the new Sin Cara is the Ultimate Warrior. Doesn't matter which Warrior either (I, II, or III)

Yeah, Cole spent so much time emphasizing that this week was the last time both belts will appear on RAW that I assume there will be shenanigans at the PPV and both belts (and champions) will be on next week's show.

"Triple H and Stephanie realized it was time for Vince to retire when he encouraged a cartoon character to get on the juice if he wanted to work the main event with Cena."