The Man Known as Dan

I’ll be quick, as I was debating doing a long winding post about it, but no reason to go crazy on a show I didn’t really love I guess? Which feels weird about such a loaded show, but it felt like the pacing on the show wasn’t good, like they tried to do one segment too many. Dustin-Black was really fun, even with the finishing kick not landing. Dustin can always sell a limb super well, and it was the right direction to take this match. The Hobbs match was really good until Hobbs got knocked loopy. The Ruby match felt disjointed and not smooth, and the botch of the “wrestler tries for a reverse rana and the taker powers her back up for a spot” was fucking rough man, that could have gone horrifically. Hayter seems like she has a lot of potential but isn’t there yet pretty clearly. Six Man was fun, though probably could have been moved to a side show to give everything else more time. Mox vs. Suzuki was a pretty damned big let down for me, honestly. Started too late, and featured my biggest flaw in Moxley in that he seems to want to work the “Modern New Japan” style all the time when I honestly don’t think he’s very good at it. The commercial break in the middle of what was only like a 12 minute TV main event and all of Suzuki’s cool arm work (which was then not really sold by Moxley once the full screen came back) being hard to see. It felt like Mox just wanted to do your New Japan sprint when I think what makes Suzuki really good is doing stuff other then that. As for the mic work segments, it was a mixed bag. I liked Punks promo and job as a hype man, though I’m pretty surprised they are moving him to Team Taz. Not against it, just wasn’t my first, or even fifth pick for them to go to immediately. The MJF stuff didn’t hit me other then coming off as kind of desperate, but I also don’t think he’s actually that great or interesting on the mic. I actually like him in ring more, which is probably not a popular opinion. Could have done without the cheap heat attempts. Lambert is a great talker but needs clients that are a better fit, as stated. The Elite segment was fine, but man did that TV debut from Bryan feel underwhelming to me? Just felt like the motivations for both guys were not super interesting. There was good stuff here but this was lined up to be a home run show, and I think it was more a single or a double.

Well, it’s got Nico Minoru and Illyana Rasputin. So I’m in.

It's amazing how much you can nail simply by going "Maybe we should give one of the best mic workers of all time a microphone in front of a crowd begging for him to be there" Perfect hour of television honestly. Just perfect. Punks my guy. He's been my guy since 2004. He's my guy in 2021. Let's go.

Huh, so I just heard about a recent glitch in the game that might make the Criminal Mastermind Manageable, and now I need to find a team to do it. Al revolving around the normal (non-armored) Kuruma apparently being bulletproof. Need to test tonight.

Main trailer for Legends. Pokémon Breath of the Wild is such a perfect direction to go. Hope it plays as good as it looks.

Oh, wait till you get a Shotgun that is actually good.

The Kelly romance is barely a romance at all. The Samantha romance on the other hand is pretty charming and sweet, if short lived

How this thread hasn’t just became the “Ohtani is Japanese Babe Ruth, how is this god damned happening” thread, I have no idea. In an era we’re baseball is largely forgettable he feels must see. He’s incredible.

I think they do decently on this in Mass Effect 3 at times. 2 though? Hahahahahha

There's something deeply saddening to me that in that game the 2 players who led each team in time on ice were Blues defensemen in our cup run, and now our defense mostly sucks.

I think Vanguard in 2 is fine but it doesn’t really “sing” to me until 3 with Nova and worthwhile Melee. Mass Effect 2 honestly always struck me as a game in which Soldier, Sentinel, and Infiltrator are the most practical skills. Biotic can are too weak in 2 to make the Singularity throwing element of Adepts worthwhile and while Engineers are fine, “fine” is basically the perfectly apt description.

Playing through ME2, I'm actually kind of frustrated with the remaster in the most mundane stupid ways possible. 1. How is it that this game still has the stupid glitch were the guns are glued to the Quarians Hands during your tutorial mission? One of them literally is putting a pistol through there own head at the start of the cutscene. I always thought it was just a personal little bug I got, but it's still there, and I just checked and it's apparently a regular thing. How? It's a stupid little visual glitch, but how does this make it to a remastered version? I'm confused. 2. Look, changing Kellys look to match her Mass Effect 3 design due to, I assume, problems carrying the characters hair over is forgivable, so while this is related, I just want to say it's not that specific problem. But why does hair in this remaster seem worse then it did in Mass Effect 2 to begin with? Like, Kelly is the obvious example, because boy is this a glowdown. But I'm noticing it all across the game already, even with just the woman arguing with the Turian at the start of Mordin's mission. And they smoothed out Dr. Chakwas face so much it looks like she de-aged 20 years, and I don't mean that in a good way. Like, it's not universal. Most of the aliens look better. But I honestly think a decent chunk of the humans in this game look worse then they did when Mass Effect 2 came out, and that was over a decade ago. How?

Good god Kelly, what did they do to you? Absolutely tragic.

Well that might have been the best ending to a playoff game ever.

Canadian Hockey Fans, I’m curious: the old “Canada’s team” idea has always been bullshit and I always laughed at it, but is there a sense were you guys are that Montreal is getting a lot of rooting interest this year? I’ve seen multiple Toronto fans kinda supporting them and I’m curious how universal it is.

Maybe I’m just a biased Blues fan who remembers our run so well, but man, I’m getting… a feel for this Canadiens team. Like somehow it’s just meant to be. The rookies stepping forward in big ways, the way the world has basically decided to make one of the most unlikable players in Hockey sympathetic at multiple times this playoffs… I dunno man. Just got a feel. which means they total lose to Vegas in 7.

That team against Ciampa & Thatcher forever please. Put Oney with Ciamp and Thatcher for six mans.

Detroit’s been overdue for a good break, and Cunningham should fit in well with the core they’ve been developing. Being a Bulls fan this was… less then ideal. Gonna have to get inventive to improve on the Lavine/Vuk/Williams core.

To this day, I wish Kirrahe could have been a squad member. God he rules.

I don't view that game as Gobert being exposed as much as the Jazz bet on the Clippers missing 3's and they bet wrong. Gobert is amazing at what he does, but the problem with him is he's just flat out not good enough offensively to be a threat down low, and never forces help. On the defensive front, the biggest problem was simply the Jazz Perimeter Defense wasn't good enough, which led to easy drives, and put Gobert in a terrible position: Either let them get an easy layup, move over to help, and have the driver have an easy pass out to an open shooter for 3. I still kind of think I'd prefer to have an Ayton playoff time due to sheer versatility on both sides of the ball. Add in the Suns are packed with good perimeter defenders, and they are just a significantly harder matchup.

Amusingly, maybe I'm just biased, but I actively thought the Suns were the most talented team in the West this year and were my favorites to win the West. The Lakers and Clippers had great 1-2's, but the Suns had a great 1-2-3, and there 4-5 are probably as good as you are gonna get: Bridges and Crowder are good damn players. Also remember the "Devin Booker is just an empty stat player" narrative has been absolutely demolished. 40-13-11 without Paul.

Shout out to the real MVP Harden for the real encouragement so KD could make that shot.

How many firsts on top of this years is Houston including?

I’ve decided I’m making this play through a bit of a challenge run: no Spectre grade weapons. Makes the game a tad more challenging, to make up for the fact I’m an Infiltrator also about to use a Shotgun and Assault Rifle. It’s actually fun playing with guns with some variety; honestly. I like the High Shots before overheat Sniper Rifles.

Just finished Noveria, am currently at Level 23. The Legendary Edition leveling has really shown how much of a joke the original leveling system is, there was no reason to make you go up to level 70.