twiztor

i don't think my heart could take it.

had a bunch of people over to watch the fights (first time i've done that in a few years!) so didn't get a chance to share my thoughts. Here they are: Jalin Turner with an all time bad call, trying to score himself a walkoff KO. I like the guy, but that was a total bonehead move. Good on Moicano for capitalizing, making him pay, and cutting a fantastic promo after. Diego Lopes looked damn good. I wasn't really familiar with him past the hype, but i look forward to seeing more soon. Kayla Harrison is the real deal. She answered every question that i had about her, and did so with style. Great promo, and i can definitely see her among the top of the division. Total props. i remember enjoying the Sterling/Kattar fight, but more being disappointed in Kattar's performance than impressed by Sterling's. Jiri is THAT DUDE. every moment of every fight is can't miss. He's one of the last few guys to bring that old school Bushido mindset into the cage. I am glued to the screen whenever he's inside the octagon. His fight style is going to give me a heart attack some day. Bo Nickal looked good but not amazing. I'm not sure how he's attained all the hype that he has, but i hope his skills match the potential everyone sees in him eventually. Tsurukyan/Oliveira happened. i wasn't enthralled by this one, and was feeling a pretty good buzz at this point, so if there was a lot of nuance then i probably just overlooked it. MAX MF'ING HOLLOWAY!! this fight delivered to every possible expectation. simply amazing. Did not go how i foresaw it happening at all, but was no less entertaining for it. Holloway just broke down Gaethje from bell to bell. One of my buddies, with ~1 minute left in the fight, said "i don't want to jinx it". When pressed, he said "i've seen fights end with 1 second left", implying that Gaethje could have pulled off the comeback KO. When Holloway scored it instead, we all exploded. It was just fucking amazing. Zhang Weili HAD that choke in Rd1. Yan was OUT. And then Zhang dominated Rd2. At this point, it was only a matter of time. But then Rd3 happened and Yan looked like she was the best ever. WILD swing in this one. i must have pretty much tuned out 4 and 5 as i don't remember much. Alex Pereira. That dismissal of Herb Dean, leading directly to the KO was incredible. In one of the prefight interviews, Jamahal Hill (or someone from his camp, i don't remember specifically who) said "there's levels to this striking game". That struck me as odd, because Pereira was a 2 division champ in Glory. Jamahal Hill doesn't have those credentials. But Pereira certainly proved that exact point, just not in the way that Hill expected. 100% an all time great card.

Garbrandt looked good standing. fast speed and measured in selecting his shots. He even did a commendable job fighting that arm triangle. but Figgy just outclassed him on the ground. excellent work adapting and attacking those subs.

loved the throwback intro. HYPED!

EVENT #38 UFC 300: Pereira vs. Hill (04/13/2024) - Las Vegas, NV (T-Mobile Arena) Alex Pereira vs. Jamahal Hill - Pereira, TKO, R2 Weili Zhang vs. Xiaonan Yan - Zhang, SUB, R4 Justin Gaethje vs. Max Holloway - Gaethje, TKO, R2 Charles Oliveira vs. Arman Tsarukyan - Oliveira, DEC Bo Nickal vs Cody Brundage - Nickal, TKO, R1 Jiří Procházka vs. Aleksandar Rakić - Prochazka, TKO, R3 Calvin Kattar vs. Aljamain Sterling - Sterling, SUB, R2 Holly Holm vs. Kayla Harrison - Holm, DEC Sodiq Yusuff vs. Diego Lopes - Yusuff, DEC Jalil Turner vs. Renato Carneiro - Turner, TKO, R2 Jéssica Andrade vs. Marina Rodriguez - Rodriguez, DEC Bobby Green vs. Jim Miller - Miller, DEC Deiveson Alcântara vs. Cody Garbrandt - Alcantara, TKO, R3

this is, without a doubt, the best ever top-to-bottom card the UFC has ever put on. looking forward to Gaethje/Holloway the most for all the reasons @The Natural laid out. Also trepidatious for those same reasons. Figueiredo/Garbrandt should be a hell of a fun opener. i also expect Cody to be the recipient of a KO. his chin is starting to go, plus he tends to get lured into these brawls that lead to him abandoning his technique. He has all the skills necessary (or at least had them), but some of the worst Fight IQ ever when he deviates from his gameplan. I was surprised to see that Cody is not currently ranked. not that he necessarily deserves it, but the UFC seems hesitant to unrank former champs that remain active. Holm/Harrison is probably the most intriguing for me. I haven't watched any PFL, so i haven't seen Kayla fight before. Interesting that she draws Holm as her debut, after what Holly did to the last high level judoka on the roster. But can Holly's experience score the victory over her age? And how will Kayla's first weight cut to 135 effect her? Lots of questions to be answered. Pereira/Hill is not the main event that a vocal percentage of the fanbase wanted, but i'm here for it. the mess with the LHW title is beginning to clear itself. I'm hoping that whoever wins, Magomed Ankalaev gets the next shot. He's the last one with a (albeit tenuous) claim on the title. Pereira is very hittable, and Hill will be looking to put that to the test. But Pereira definitely hits HARD, and i'm looking forward to watching Hill test out his own chin as well. Speaking of hittable, you know i'm rooting for Jiri, easily one of my favorite current fighters. don't see this as being anything other than a barnburner. Good on Jim Miller getting the spot to fight on 300. Pulling for him because of that, although if this was any other card i'd be on the Bobby Green train. Kattar/Sterling keeps getting overlooked but i'm excited for that fight too. and Turner/Moicano. and Oliveira/Tsurukyan. this card really is phenomenal.

thirded. a whole ass gut punch of an episode. but great.

wasn't trying to clear Paul. whether Paul was working or earnestly believes what he said, i couldn't care less. i just liked your wording and turned it into an irreverent standalone statement on DFW. those never fail to amuse me.

'nuff said.

ACTION DEAN RULES THE MOTHERFUCKING WORLD~!!!

TODAY'S THE DAY!! i'm pretty pumped for the show tonight. Won't be attending live, but excited nonetheless. Thanks to ACTION Wrestling and @Phil and @Jacey and anyone else involved in putting this together. see y'all in @NikoBaltimore's discord chat at show time!!

a scene like that DOES happen, but that explanation certainly overplays it.

my town (~60k) has had the same comic shop the entire time i've lived here (>20 years). It has moved locations and changed ownership a couple of times, but still going strong. When i was a younger lad, this is where i bought "the Death of Superman" and, a couple years later, got a checklist/trading card for "Age of Apocalypse" that blew my mind. I have collected damn near every issue of Nightwing from this very shop (i moved out of town for a couple years, but that time period aligned with when Dick was acting as Batman). The current owner is a super good dude. the previous owner was a friend-of-a-friend and also dated one of my friends back around High School days. There's a longstanding employee who has stuck with the shop through the ownership changes, and he's just the best. He's been collecting since the '60s and has damn near every Marvel comic every published.

the short answer is "yes". all of those things have happened, at some point or another, with the Holmes situation. Also complicating matters is that Doyle was British, and copyright terms/concepts are different on the two sides of the pond. Every Doyle Sherlock Holmes story has now entered the public domain, as of January 1 2023. But man oh man, did the ACD estate fight tooth and nail to hold on to every possible concept they could make money off. They even sued/C&D'd multiple situations that had already been established as PD. crazy stuff. Here's a page that covers the difference in US vs. UK copyright: https://publicdomainimagelibrary.com/copyright-rules/#:~:text=US works published 1928-1963,years since the author died. i agree that it is a big deal for Superman, et. all, to enter PD. but there's a lot of precedent established as for what is usable and what isn't. What we don't know is how litigious Time Warner Discovery will be in enforcing the copyrights that haven't entered the PD. I imagine the answer is "very".

Manel Kape pulled out of his fight with Matheus Nicolau (4/27). i really like watching dude fight, i wish he could stay healthy and show up more than once a year.

the only thing i don't look forward to is seeing all the murderous Batmans that will pop up once he enters PD. I can already see people defending it "BaTmAn KiLlEd In HiS eArLy ApPeArAnCeS" but all that really tells me is that these people never read those stories. While bad guys do die, it is more due to Batman being callous about their fate, rather than him gunning them down or something. Past that, i very much look forward to all these early characters being open to the public. Rarely mentioned is the heroes from Marvel Comics #1: Human Torch (the android Jim Hammond, not Johnny Storm), Namor the Sub-Mariner, the Angel (not the X-Man), and Ka-Zar (Ka-Zar predates Marvel #1, so he will be fair game a couple years prior).

i missed this post yesterday but caught the comic one! another great list. Batman '66, Batman Forever, and Batman: TAS (+ Mask of the Phantasm) make up my top 3. Brave & the Bold would probably sneak in at #4, that is such a fun show. the Dark Knight i guess rounds the list out at 5. never saw The Batman (the movie) and not a fan of The Batman (the cartoon series) or any version of Batman Beyond. can we all agree that Batman & Robin (the movie) is dead last?

this is a really cool video.

i just posted my thoughts in the Godzilla thread. i HAVE seen all of the other Monsterverse movies, and most of my takeaways are the same as yours.

just got back from Godzilla X Kong: the New Empire. it was.....fine i guess? Of the Legendary movies, King of the Monsters is the only one that i thought was good. I'd say this one is my least favorite of them. Complaints/more thoughts inside:

i hope someone here links that spoilered match when it pops up online.

great list. i'm not familiar with the Batman Adventures, but i love the rest of them. some more Batman stories that i quite enjoy: Batman #608-619 (Hush) - works exceptionally well as a 'greatest hits' type story Bat-Manga - such a fun, bizarre take. Batman '66 - the digital first series by Jeff Parker was amazing. highly recommended. Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? - by Neil Gaiman. 'Nuff said!

he truly is the Dave Meltzer of comics.

we're all better off pretending s5 doesn't exist. the change in animation + voices (especially Gambit) makes it impossible for me to watch. that said, i do remember liking the Wolverine/Captain America episode. they're essentially the same. Morph never had a real run in the mainline comics, so their powers haven't really been explored. I expect that it will be a lot of vagueness in this series as well. Morph is a character that i loved in the initial series and was bummed that the comic version, Changeling, was basically a one-shot character from the first few issues back in the '60s and never appeared again. I'm just glad to see them again. agreed on all points. to paraphrase DEAN, X-Men '97 rules the motherfucking world.

i remember recording the ps1 WCW Nitro character select screen on VHS. i loved that every wrestler cut a short promo. a few of them (DDP, Eddie, and Alex Wright off the top of my head) had two different versions. and i have Savage's committed to memory: "watch the flying elbow drop off the top rope. Not only beats people 1-2-3, but i hurt 'em real bad!" spent plenty of time with that game, WWF Warzone, and WWF Attitude. but once those AKI games came out? never looked back.