NoFistsJustFlips

I don't want to pile on, but how in the world could this have fooled anyone? That's clearly not Paul Bettany as Vision, it's just a generic CGI face.

Just got through a re watch of BvS and Justice League over the last couple nights. Wanted to have the story fresh in mind for when the Snyder Cut drops. Batman is my favorite comic book character, so even if it's a bad movie I'm gonna watch it if Batman's in it. BvS Ultimate Cut is pretty rough to get through. There's parts of it I really like. But they just cram too many characters and stories into the same movie. It's like you make a chili but fuck man I like bacon so let's throw some bacon in there. Ranch is good, who cares if it belongs in chili. Yo put some chocolate in there, there's a heat and sweet thing I wanna try. But let's be healthy and put some turkey in too. It's too chaotic to have a unified flow. All the Senate hearings / fallout from being setup in the desert are just a chore to get through. They almost should have used that for the basis of Man Of Steel 2 and had that lead into BvS. Would have really helped the narrative. But man going straight from BvS to Justice League is jarring. It goes from rough to fluff on a dime. When I originally saw Justice League it wasn't fresh off a BvS watch. This time, it's just too stark of a contrast. You go from the dark gritty color palate to bright and almost candy sweet. None of the characters or story beats match what just happened in the last movie. Agro Bruce Wayne who wanted to kill the hostile alien just a few weeks before this goes down, all of a sudden is cracking jokes and acts like Superman was his life long BFF. The Snyder Cut, at the very least, will at least connect better to BvS's narrative. I'm looking forward to the Snyder Cut just to see how different his original story was. I have a feeling out of 4 hours there's gonna be less than an hour of overlap from what we've seen. And I do think it will feel more authentic than the Whedon schizophrenic cut. But I'm not sure, even with a home run, that the DCEU is worth trying to salvage. I just have this sneaking suspicion that Flash Point is gonna try and retcon everything so they can move forward with a newish DCEU, but it's just gonna make things worse. You botched it. Trying to use superglue and paperclips to fix it is just gonna backfire. Accept defeat and try a new strategy. Let The Batman be the beginning of a new DCU universe, and do it right.

Fair point. But there's a difference between special entrances for a big event & using an in character entrance jacket vs wrestling in jeans and the futuristic moon boots like Marty McFly. Those are new to his presentation since joining WWE, he used to wear actual wrestling gear. Maybe it's just one of those things that annoys me, but not the majority of wrestling fans. Street clothes as gear should be rare exceptions when they fit a specific type of character, or story. Not the norm. We're so far in the bubble sometimes we forget this is supposed to resemble a worked real sport. When has the NBA or NFL let dudes play in jeans? Any UFC fights or Tyson fights where guys wore jeans? /end of old man rant

Because this is WWE and they don't do anything subtle. It's not enough that he names his moves based off of Back To The Future, he's gotta dress like Marty McFly now pal. We're making movies. Even when we rip off other movies.

I love the visual of a logo on the canvas too. But screen printed logos like that get really slippery to work on. It's usually fine to start, but the smallest amount of sweat or blood and your footing ends up being like dancing on vinyl with baby oil on your feet lol. I bet that's why they dropped it. I'm sure there's a way to texture the logo, make it feel like sandpaper, but who the F wants to bump on it then, ha.

Yeah I can get with that. Nothing wrong with refreshing plot points, or painting the picture for new viewers every so often. My point was they have detailed his character many times already. So to say we don't know who he is or why he does what he does, isn't really fair.

Apparently I don't understand what a false equivalency is. You said "Darby constantly looks like a fucking dweeb going 50/50 with nobodies like Janela and getting beaten up by Cobra Kai, while needing Sting to fight his battles for him" and I replied with why I don't agree with that statement because he needs to be booked like an underdog, not someone dominant. He needs to get the shit kicked out of him at least 50% of the time for his character to work. I'm gonna count this a s a point for me. Then you said "In hindsight, you could swap the booking of Jungle Boy and Darby in recent weeks and it would work perfectly" to which I did wrongly conflate what you had typed and did the whole Jungleboy isn't a bigger star. So there's a point for you. A lot of the early hammering of his character was on the first PPVs as well as Dynamite. Did you see any of the PPVs? They definitely ran multiple quick sit down promos of him in the early days of Dynamite describing his character, as well as JR & Excalabur constantly refreshing it every time he was on Dynamite for the first six months or so. I'd never seen him work before AEW either, so it's not like I picked up pieces of his story before AEW. I'm gonna chalk this up to you just not paying close attention while you watch I guess. To your original point that I missed, "In hindsight, you could swap the booking of Jungle Boy and Darby in recent weeks and it would work perfectly" I still disagree. Darby being a plucky white meat babyface, as Jungleboy is, finally getting his first real solid win by tapping out a tag guy doesn't play to his strengths as a worker or a character. Jungleboy going 50/50 with Janela while using plunder and getting beat down by Team Taz after doesn't really play to his wholesome white meat strengths either. In my opinion.

Do you need them to play a promo every time he wrestles that explains his character that they've already done a bunch? Drunk driving uncle died in a car crash while he was a passenger, a part of him died that day. That's why he wears the paint and takes the risks. Pretty simple. I don't think you need that reiterated every time his music hits. I prefer AEW letting shit breathe vs Michael Cole screaming VINTAGE ORTON. THE VIPER. THE APEX PREDATOR. THE LEGEND KILLER every 30 second during WWE commentary. Hard disagree. In what ways is he presented as just another guy? His record is better than most. He has a title. He's partnered with a megastar. The commentary consistently puts him over as one of AEW's top stars. Even his theme is unique and gets a reaction immediately (when they have crowds). I see lots in Jungleboy too, but there's no way you can get me to agree that he's presented as a bigger deal than Darby. He's gotten a few shining moments, but his booking is far more "just another guy" than Darby. In year 1 he went to the 10 minute draw with Jericho. Last week he got a solid defining win by tapout over a tag guy. And there's a whole lot of just a guy in between. And there's nothing wrong with heating guys up and cooling them off and rotating them in. But to suggest one of the top 3 most pushed guys (outside of The Elite) is treated like just another guy is a no from me dawg. Maybe you just prefer the WWE style of over doing the emphasis? If so that's okay, everyone has their preferences. But if we polled the people posting in this thread, don't think there's gonna be a lot of agreement that Jungleboy is presented as a bigger star than Darby.

You don't book everyone like Super Cena. Darby is supposed to be an underdog. Most of his offense is hot comebacks full of fire. If you want to book an underdog as an underdog they have to lose sometimes. Or at least get their ass kicked and go 50/50. Look I hate 50/50 booking as much as everyone else. But that's not the same as keeping an underdog an underdog. If he goes out there and straight murders Janela and starts squashing people and gets booked like Cena, no one gets with the heat portions of his match. There's no emotion in his comebacks. Wrestling fans all want "their guy" to be dominant. And wrestling DOES need dominant guys. But not everyone is suited to be booked that way. And if you book everyone as dominant than no one is dominant because it's not special. The way they are booking Darby is just right, in my opinion. Takes an ass whopping, fires up some hot comebacks, and usually finds a way to win. But sometimes he doesn't. So you never know. I do agree the Sting stuff is getting old. They want him as a weekly presence, but that's a mistake in my opinion. He can't wrestle weekly so bringing him out every week to do the same thing is just making him lose his aura. The week they did a pretape promo in that dirty warehouse... that's how you get Sting on the show if you want him. Good visuals, added to the aura. But him just coming out to watch a Taz promo on the tron every week is getting pretty lame.

Shit. You're right. But I hope they ignore that. In VPW2 my favorite thing to do was wait on the ramp during the rumble mode at the Tokyo Dome and attack dudes during their entrance. Then toss those fuckers off the ramp to eliminate them lol. It was a small detail but it added another layer of fun to that arena. They used the long ramp at Revolution that was in Chicago, so maybe that would be better than doing it at Daily's Place.

Hard disagree. They want their guys to be robots that script every spot out for the cameras. Every pose and entrance is timed exactly the same. They want people good at reciting scripted promos that random writers write for them. What about any of those skills screams Ric Flair? He could teach them to be great pro wrestlers in the mold of what he did. But what he did is the opposite of what they want. So it's not insane to me. To nate's point, I always called it the Michael Jordan principle. Jordan was the unquestionable gaot in his time. But a lot of what make him a great athlete is just inherent to his DNA. It's not something you can teach. And it's not something great athletes are able to even verbalize to try and pass it on. That's why the best coaches are usually middle of the road guys. They had to work their ass off and study to get to the next level, instead of just being born great. That's why someone like Lance Storm is a far better trainer than Ric Flair probably could be.

Double post. So I will use this opportunity to put out into the world that I hope in The AEW game, in battle royal mode you can get knocked over the top onto the stage at Daily's Place and not be eliminated like The Tokyo Dome ramp in VP2. Make it happen Tony Kahn. Yes I know you'll definitely 100% see this.

A couple weeks ago 2K Battlegrounds was a Games with Gold Free Play Weekend game on Xbox. I was able to beat the whole story mode and clear out all 1000 achievement score in just a weekend. I verrrrry much prefer it to the regular 2K games. Give me fast and fun over authentic and boring. It wasn't quite as good as All-Stars. But I had a blast with it. I'm sure I will pick it up one day when it's marked down to like $5. I seriously can't wrap my head around how anyone finds this game less fun than the regular 2K20 style game. But I grew up on N64 wrestling and that's the style I prefer. The first couple Smackdown games were fun at the time, but after Shut Your Mouth it seemed like they devolved REAL quick.

RunningFromAmerica. Sorry, thought it was obvious with him running wild on the last two pages. Victim blaming & standing behind his use of a derogatory term for the mentally disabled are pretty shitty actions to begin with. More so when Dolfan told him to chill on the subject and he kept going. Sorry if I was too vague and you thought I might have been talking about you? I have been annoyed by some of your one line drive by posts before lol, but you post a lot of good information and always add a lot to the discussions.

The sooner this new gimmick poster gets cashed the sooner we can get back to paying our air bills... just saying...

Christian is one of the most under rated dudes of all time. The match I'm really hoping happens is Edge & Christian vs The Usos. Would love to see Christian vs Bryan, AJ, Ali, & Ricochet too. But E&C vs The Usos would tear the house down.

The way the Edge thing played out if I remember correctly, because he was kinda vague with his wording in his Network doc, was that he got independently cleared by like 3 or 4 different doctors. And for years WWE said that wasn't good enough, "no" means "no". So then he had a meeting or phone conversation with Tony Kahn where he received a hefty offer. But out of respect for all WWE has done for him he went to Vince and laid it out for him. I am cleared. I want back in WWE and my doctors say it's safe. But if you wont have me the competition will. And WWE immediately wrote a big ass check and "no" no longer meant "no". I'm going to assume Christian did the exact same thing. He did the Bryan hyperbolic chamber rehab and doctors cleared him. He has no more risk of a concussion than any other person. So he probably went to Vince and said I want back in WWE, but if "no" still means "no", I'm setting up a meeting with Tony Kahn.

Someone left Madden franchise mode loaded on a GM's computer. That's the only way this insane trade makes any sense. Two 1sts and a 3rd for a QB starting his 13th season that is only slightly better than average? Oh and they threw in a younger version of the exact same slightly better than average QB on top to sweeten the deal? McVay must really hate Goff. He's so disgusted by the sight of him he gave away the farm just so he didn't ever have to talk to him again. Watson's agent has been up all night pricing out small islands knowing his cut of that deal is gonna be like 3x this haul.

This is basically gonna be an old man yelling at clouds post, but man I wish they would make the big 4 two night events. So like, one Rumble main events Saturday one main event Sunday. You can fit all the titles on this way. But separate them from that gender's Rumble night. Like all women's title matches and the men's Rumble on Saturday, all the men's title matches and women's Rumble on Sunday. Could do the same with the Survivor Series gimmicks. Could make each world title main event a night at Mania, or one night be the big men's main and the other the big women's main. But even more importantly... the doubled up gimmicks would cease to be an issue if they, ya know, went back to booking gimmicks based on story telling vs 'hey it's October let's cue up two Hell in a Cell matches'. And this year it was fucking 3 of them wasn't it? They've been doing the shoe-horned gimmick PPVs for a decade now so they aren't going anywhere. But back in my day Cactus Jack vs Triple H in a Hell in a Cell was because the wanted to fucking kill each other, not just because the calendar said October ?

I know the cgi thing was a joke my dude. Obviously lol. But there's been 2 pages of posts wondering if staying in one place / doing thunderdome was viable.

What are you guys going on about lol.... WWE is not going to scrap touring / live audiences. They know how much harder their shows are to enjoy in an empty building. Wrestling needs a live crowd to feed off of. So zero percent chance they go all thunderdome all the time. Setting up shop in one location is also a no go. You remember how Impact Zone TNA guys used to get over by drinking with the same 300 people who came every week? Can you imagine Vince finding out the crowd is going ape shit for like Gulak every week because he drinks with the fans, and it starts hijacking the show? Not to mention if they stay in one place they are drawing from a pool of the same 5,000-6,000 people every week which will dwindle and not spend money on merch over time. When things open up they are going balls to the wall touring again. House shows will be gone. But Raw / SD / PPVs will be all over the country / world. There's money to be made from entertainment starved audiences. The optics of crowds being so hyped because it's been 3 years since they've been to a live event are a can't miss prospect. Everyone is right they are a content company now. But that doesn't mean they're going full studio / cgi / tape a year in advance. It's still a touring live event and it always will be.

If you mean in the in-between time, from say Mania until fall-ish when things are *supposed* to open back up for real, sure. I could see that. But ain't no fucking way if things are completely opened up they stick with a virtual crowd. They've done an admirable job trying to roll with the punches. But the art form of wrestling just doesn't work the same without the live audience. I couldn't tell which one you meant from your post. Honestly until things are fully opened back up, Mania and Summerslam are the only events I expect them to try and use a live audience for.

Setting yourself up for failure my dude. When has WWE made anyone quarantine to work there?? I've seen zero buzz or insinuation of Punk being involved outside of your post. Think you're connecting dots that just aren't there. Would love to see it happen, but it just doesn't make any sense. Where would he even fit in? Why would WWE shell out for him in the empty arena era? If they ever make up, you'd think they'd want a huge crowd there for the reaction. Think you're also setting yourself up for failure on the men's 30 / women's 1 & 2 being on Backstage. That show was drawing dismal ratings. Like less that 40,000 people were watching, hence why it was cancelled. I think them announcing that you'll find out a couple Rumble spots on there is a their way to drive eyeballs to the show. Why would they give away a big name on a show no one watches? If it was meant to be important it would stay a surprise, or they'd announce it on TV and beat us over the head with it like everything else they push. My random predictions for winners based on absolutely nothing: Women's Rhea Ripley. Flair & Asuka lose the tag titles in February. Flair beats Auska in March. Rhea vs Flair for the Raw title at Mania. Men's Cena. Mind you I'm picturing some kind of smoke and mirrors video editing where Cena doesn't have to leave his tv show set up in Canada. Somehow they send a ring up there and film something wacky that everyone hates. Goldberg beats McIntyre. Cena vs Goldberg for The Raw title. Yuck.

Yeah carny math indeed lol. JR's first territory he drove around the promoter everywhere because he was blind. Forget the promoter's name. Leo McGirk maybe? But even carny math is better than no math... If you're THE GUY like Stone Cold or Hogan, let's say you get 5k a night as your bonus. (The amounts varied on the draw, who else was booked ect). But for the sake of easy math: 5k x 4 night a week (leaving one night as a tv night where I don't think they did bonuses) = 20k a week x 52... you're pulling in a bonus of $1,040,000. A million dollars on top of your salary for the major top stars. Even if you're the lowest guy on the card you're getting at least 200 a night as your bonus. 200 x 4 = 800 a week x 52... even the lowest of the low card dudes where pulling in a bonus of $41,000 a year on top of their salary. So depending on where you were on the card, how often you worked, how much the office like you... you're getting between $40,000 - $1,000,000 extra a year on top of your salary. And that's how they operated for almost 40 years. Now, it's just gone. You get your downside and no house show bonus. No ppv bonus. No third party money. You get salary, merch sales cut, and a bonus if you make one of the video games. But in recent year's they've cut the video game bonus significantly as well. The whole pay structure of the talent keeps getting cut. It's pretty ridiculous when you think about it. They've singed multiple billion dollar deals in the last 18 months. I'd love to see what the revenue share is in WWE vs NFL or UFC or NBA. Them signing 500 people and trying to open up territories all over the world surely add to the total talent budget, but the overall slice any one person gets has got to be tiny compared to the company's profits. And that's before we even start on how every single person on any single episode of any single television show that's shown on Peacock gets royalties, EXCEPT for professional wrestlers appearing in all that WWE content they just purchased now. It sucks that Andrew Yang was apparently just blowing smoke a few months ago. Because wrestlers need a union / collective bargaining so very badly.

Except for the fact the performer contracts are still heavily skewed towards the majority of your income is based off of house show bonuses. WWE did away with PPV bonuses when the network started. They took away third party platforms last year. They are now scrapping house shows completely. Merch bonuses is legitimately the only source of income now for the performers, outside of the downside guarantee. Which kind of makes downside guarantees obsolete and carny as fuck. Hey pal take a lower salary here but you'll make it up in bonuses if you do well. (But we're gonna take away 75% of the bonus opportunities so actually you'll pretty much just make your downside. Haha. Capitalism pal, gotta love it.). Multiple billion dollar deals in the last 18 months for the company. But the earning power of the performer has never been lower than it is now.