Are there chase variants for their CEO to grab and sell on eBay before average consumers get a chance to buy them the normal way?

1 hour ago, AxB said:

Why would you start building to Mercedes vs Willow, when Thekla is the Champion and Willow hasn't had her shot yet?

The time to build to All In is when All In is the next show. They've got Redemption before that... making Kevin Knight look like a deadbeat challenger on the way to Omega vs Ospreay is one thing. Making Thekla look like a deadbeat Champion is quite another.

Redemption would have been a great show and a necessary stop on the way to All In, but it got fucked by whatever happened with MJF.  Now it's like Danielson defending against Jack Perry at All Out 2024, except at least that PPV had a real main event of Swerve/Hangman lights out. 

AEW is at it's absolute worst when things go wrong and TK has to change his plans.  That's why they had the low period post-Punk, and that's why 2024 was so rough.  I firmly believe Danielson, who was doing fuck all the whole year and lost every PPV match leading up to the Owen, told TK he needed to retire, and then Tony rebooked everything around hurrying the belt onto, and then off of, Danielson.  Everything post-Owen 2024 felt like a rushed mess.   

17 minutes ago, NikoBaltimore said:

Not sure why I would deny Tay's request for release.  She wants to go where her husband goes and there's nothing inherently wrong with that.  She's also not being used much if at all whether it's due to their value in her as a wrestler or something else.  So unless they have something super awesome in mind I'd have just granted it.

Because if you grant her release, the next person who asks for one might be someone you don't want to release, and they'll say "well why did you grant Tay's?"  You can't just make exceptions, because that becomes precedent.  Please note, I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV.  Just making common sense assumptions.

Now adding time for injuries is some bullshit, but that's a separate issue.

So having spent the PS 3 & 4 eras being strictly a Microsoft guy (I was a PS guy for PS1 & 2, but then got a 360 for free from my job and stuck with MS after that), I switched to PS5 a few years ago.  I'm still catching up on old, acclaimed games and right now I'm working through the Uncharted series.  I played 4 first sometime last year because it was free on PS+, but then I bought the 1-3 collection when it was like $5-10 a few weeks ago.

I just finished the first game and am about 1/4-way through the second.  The difference between them is insane.  1 was okay but not great.  The environments, even outdoors, are all small and closed in.  Even the jungle is really just not so cleverly disguised rooms.  You really don't get the feeling of the outdoor environments that 2 has (so far), where it feels like you can play around in the space more, and there are these grandiose outdoor locations that lead to one another.  And 1's gameplay loop is exhausting.  There's a tiny bit of fun environmental maneuvering, some lame puzzles, and then a whole fuckload of combat.  There's a new shooting gallery every few minutes and it just gets exhausting.  I said it before here, but god damn, if the bad guy is so rich he can afford thousands of mercenaries, why does he care about treasure?  Even in this remastered version, the combat controls are ass, with really poor auto-targeting.  And then some genius decided to map the "get behind cover" button to the same button as "do a diving roll," so you think you're going to get behind cover and then Drake dives headlong at it instead, and then just stands up to get shot.  And oh lord, the less mentioned about the game suddenly shifting to survival horror, complete with fucking zombies, in the last few chapters, the better.  So yeah, play it if you're a completionist.  Skip to 2 if not.  2 is addicting.  I played the first quarter of it yesterday,

17 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

The Trooper beer has been around for-ev-er. Been so long I don't even remember what it tastes like. It wasn't bad? 

 

Ah, I didn't know that.  I thought it was a recent collaboration.  Yeah, it's decent.  Lighter-tasting than what I look for in an IPA, but very good nonetheless.

1 hour ago, Jenalysis said:

Willow/Mone is a blowoff that's been 2-3 years in the making now.  

Does anyone really see it that way, with that level of hype?  Mercedes has been away, just came back, and is ice cold, while Willow has been doing her own thing.  There's been little to no mention of these two still having an issue.  I don't even know what their issue is.  And if this whole thing has been built as Willow finally winning the world title, they shouldn't have watered it down by having her win two other titles in the space of a month (tag and TNT in December).  

Tony had to pivot due to the Toni Storm deal, and again with the numerous injuries in the Owen, so this build has been an unfocused mess that he pretty much had to pull out of his ass.

54 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

Tony might want to just hide Hechicero (and Bandido I guess) in a private apartment when he's not on the road

And that's how we'll get to read The Diary of Hechicero in a few years.

15 hours ago, SirSmUgly said:

First Light and Second Son are also perfect podcast games where the traversal is so enjoyable that it carries the game and makes the collectathon part enjoyable. Saints Row IV scratches that itch as well. 

I treated the Spider Man games like that.  Any time a new collectible sidequest came up (backpacks, Spider Bots, whatever), I'd just put on a pod and grab all of 'em.  I do that with GTA Online today.  If I don't feel like playing anything else, I'll listen to F4W, We Watch Wrestling, or something while doing the daily grind (shipwreck, tags, dealers, bike and auto shop mods, G's cache, stash house, nightclub).  It's a relaxing hour-ish.

12 hours ago, Peck said:

 

Hale also had a long-running deal where he would bash R-Truth on X, so when his WM credentials were denied, Truth called him out publicly for it. 

I won’t say the word he used, but he called out Truth for playing a dumb buffoon for money at the pleasure of a bunch of rich, probably racist in some cases, white guys. Insert Bobby Fish meme here.

He wasn’t wrong, but you’re also not going to win in that situation and using those terms.  You have to learn more coded language like white sports hot take grifters use.

14 hours ago, SovietShooter said:

Wait a sec, are y'all really saying Volador Jr isn't an attractive fellow?

 

No way, man.  I’m just saying he should start considering embracing baldness, because he’ll be reaching Hogan levels of skullet soon.  His hairline is further back in that promo pic than in this one.

Two weeks, two limited edition beers!

Lagunitas The Trooper - some kind of collaboration with Iron Maiden.  More bitter and grapefruity, less full-bodied than I usually like in an IPA, really on the lighter side flavor wise, but still tasty and drinkable.

Sierrs Nevada West Ghost - super tasty west coast IPA.  Exactly the way I like it, not as bitter and definitely hoppy.  Deeeeelish!

3 hours ago, Pete said:

Let's just say there's more than one reason L.A. Park has yet to unmask...

Because he’s a zombie!

1 hour ago, SirSmUgly said:

It's too bad that the third one doesn't give you that freedom, but I'm going to play it anyway.

It’s definitely worth it.  As you said, it’s totally a podcast game where you can spend so much time just chasing orbs.  The city it takes place in blows the first game’s location away, too.

I’d never played any of the Infamous games but Infamous: First Light is on PS+.  Its combat is meh, the are no interiors to fight in in the main game (which makes sense because your character can fly and can run the speed of light… how do you do that indoors?), and the missions are repetitive and/or unimaginative.  And yet it really scratched that Crackdown itch, with power-ups hidden all over the (admittedly small) city.

Vince McMahon return to TV/everyone swears off WWE* countdown begins now.
 

 

*for probably a week or two 

I think the idea is that only the hardest of hardcores would be totally cool with AEW airing what was essentially an episode of Collision on a Wednesday two weeks before a PPV.  If you love straight up wrestling action, don’t care that matches are meaningless and the results were obvious going in, and don’t mind that the world title booking is a mess, you’re a sicko.  The hardcores/sickos are cool with Kevin Knight going from midcarder to main eventing their least compelling PPV main in a while because at least it’ll be a good match.
 

It’s not worth arguing with others over what’s essentially a matter of taste, though.  But Alvarez’s deal is he shares his opinion and, in some cases, acts like a jackoff toward people whose opinion differs.  It’s just a gimmick and people shouldn’t get all bothered by it.

@SirSmUgly hell yeah Crackdown!  I think part 2 was made by a different team, and I didn’t like it as much.  Crackdown 3 is excellent, though.  The only drawback of 3, comparing it to 1, is that it’s slightly less “open” when it comes to fighting bosses.  Like in 1, the boss just existed in the open game world, you could find a boss’ location, approach in a different way, and kill them without a fight.  In 3, the boss sections are built in such a way that the boss is, for example, on the top floor of a building you have only one way to fight through to get to them.

But aside from that lack of creativity/variety, 3 is great.

Volador Jr really needs to go visit r/bald for support.

 

3 hours ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

Why should AEW be "beating" WWE?   Is Smashburger beating McDonalds?  AEW has been around for 7 years.  WWE has been around since the 1950s.  They were a multi billion dollar corporation before AEW even existed.  

The fact that AEW is selling 12-13k tickets for PPVs and will probably sell 40k for their big event in a month is an amazing feat for a secondary promotion.  WCW at their peak wasn't fucking do that.  

AEW is getting 700k on TBS and more on HBO Max each week.  They are probably doing better than SD! currently is if we're being serious about it.  That's awesome for them.  Alvarez is just as bad as Dave. Just in a different way. 

Alvarez explained that he’d like to see AEW be more competitive or even beat WWE because that’s the only way WWE will ever try to get better creatively.

24 minutes ago, HarryArchieGus said:

I also have a great distrust for Big Zel outside of his work with Spike Lee.

Denzel and Tony Scott collaborated a bunch of times.  You haven't seen Man on Fire or Crimson Tide?

On 7/19/2026 at 1:05 PM, Sex Machine Gun said:

https://www.ewrestlingnews.com/news/wwe/liv-morgan-accused-of-being-maga-after-ties-with-homophobic-company-church

So Liv's linked to a church that does conversion therapy. Fun. The push is making more and more sense.

Big Damo needs a way to monetize that quote/meme.  The man would never work a day again in his life.

Edit: I read the article because "linked to" or "has connections to" are such modern journalism weasel words that can be used to easily make something out of nothing.  Like if I have old folk relatives who voted for Trump, you could write "Technico Support has been linked to organized pedophilia."  So Morgan works with her boyfriend's mother's charity, and that charity works closely with a church that preaches conversion therapy.  So I guess she has plausible deniability ("I just help with the charity, I'm not working on the 'pray the gay away' side!") but it definitely doesn't look good.

37 minutes ago, SturmCRF said:

all three deserve to be on the card

Pretty sure Thekla's getting some sort of Stardom grudge match at Wembley

15 hours ago, Craig H said:

Seasonly reminder that if you’re not watching Silo then what the fuck are you doing?!

Waiting for it to end so we can watch it all in one week!  😉

26 minutes ago, HarryArchieGus said:

Honestly, other than True Romance I can't imagine what would be in the running for a Favourite Tony S. film.

Unstoppable is pretty great.

2 hours ago, The Natural said:

I still haven't seen Fantastic Four: First Steps and Thunderbolts*.

They’re not amazing, but both are above average.  Definitely not a waste of time or anything.  I guess I’d say they’re in the upper 1/3 of this phase, but that’s damning with faint praise.

9 hours ago, zendragon said:

I thought he had a girlfriend a ways back? Of course who has time for girls when you have such a collection of real-life action figures!

 

 

9 hours ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

Yeah, pretty sure Tony was supposedly dating a woman from America's Next Top Model. They've been seen together a lot over the last few years.

You wouldn’t know her; she goes to a different school