twiztor

audio books don't agree with me. i tend to drift in and out, meaning i miss huge chunks of the story. and i actually want to experience these stories, so i'll stick with slowly chugging along the old fashioned way.

by final count, i ended up reading 782 comics in 2023, blowing past my goal of 500. a huge chunk came in the very beginning of the year, when i was laid up with my leg injury, but even without that, the 500 would've been easily met. I'm up to about 1982 in my Avengers/etc. read, so i feel like i'm moving at a good clip. Hit a LOT of the classic storylines, like Iron Man's "Demon in a Bottle", Cap's "Nomad" period, and the infamous Avengers #200. Am more or less caught up with current X-Men (just a couple minis left that lead directly into Fall of X. See spoiler tag for a fairly comprehensive list of what i read. Goosebumps: last book i read was #37, "The Headless Ghost". it was OK. definitely not on pace for one a month, but that's not surprising. reading these too quickly leads to burn out and boredom, because so much of it can be cliche. And the "twist" at the end just feels dumb if i read too many in a row. one every two months feels about right honestly. Sherlock Holmes stories: currently at 63% read according to my Kindle. definitely not moving through this as quickly as i would like to.

call it schadenfreude, if you will (and you probably should), but i would be just as morbidly curious as the outright worst segments. just the downright, irredeemable, most absolute dogshit moments. not because i'd watch them, mind you, but they're the ones that i tried hardest to put out of my mind. speaking of which, i have zero recollection of a Savage-Page Cell match even happening. and i enjoyed their feud! and gimmick matches! this is 100% something that if it had ANY sort of positive ANYTHING, i would view AT THE VERY LEAST as a guilty pleasure. And despite the fact that i would have watched it live, AND revisited it 5-6 years ago, don't even remember that it happened. i often point to GAB '98 as the end of my WCW fandom. I had already been on the WWF Attitude train for 8-9 months but kept up on WCW. After that show, i realized that WCW just wasn't offering anything that i cared about. Maybe it had something to do with Savage's injury and eating two losses in one night. Maybe it was the megapush of Goldberg. Maybe it was the incessant talking segments by both Hogan and Bischoff. But it really was the end. I DO remember tuning in to this Nitro to see if DDP would join the Wolfpac, and i have memories of how that angle played out. i even kind of remember the closing segment with nWo Hollywood closing the cage around the ring and beating up DDP. But the Cell Match itself, and even Savage's involvement here is just a blank space. TBF, i had probably written him out of my mind due to it being obvious he would lose due to injury. I guess props to him for putting over guys on his way to surgery.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MzWlvixpUc NWA POWERRR! Episode 139: Christmas Hangover 12/26/23 @ Nashville, TN "Christmas Wish" 12 Man Battle Royal (winner of this match gets a tag team title shot) we take too long to eliminate all of the people i've never heard of and finally end up with the final 6 (Outrunners, SlimeBallz, Blake Troop & Chris Silvio). This was a battle royal. not really a ton to say. Blake Troop spent a lot of time hanging back while other guys beat each other up. the winners call out the Immortals, so i guess they're choosing a title shot for the US Tag belts? Missa Kate vs. Sal the Pal the announcers talk this up as if Sal was badmouthing Missa Kate, but i have zero memory of them interacting whatsoever. They're doing a badly executed 'multiple personalities' deal with Sal, where he switches between Sal the Pal and an evil Sal (since he's back in the Miserably Faithful with Sinister Minister). But it just doesn't work for me. Too much time in this match is spent on Sal's persona changing. They never quite click, but that could because there's so much downtime. side note, i saw Sal Rinauro debut on an episode of 2004 TNA Xplosion that i watched a few weeks ago. so that was kinda funny. Daisy Kill & Talos vs. Carson Drake & Lord Crewe Drake & Crewe are from Exodus Pro Midwest, the first of the new NWA affiliates. They don't look like a tag team- Drake is clean shaven, long blonde hair, and bright blue gear. Crewe wears all black, is covered in tattoos, and has a big bushy beard. Of course, after i type that out, Joe Galli lets us know that they're not a real tag team, that they put themselves together to represent Exodus Pro. This match was fine but again runs into the overarching issue that there's so many new wrestlers that i just have a hard time getting invested. they show Kamille vs. Kenzie Paige from NWA75. next week looks pretty uninteresting: BFT/Fixers, a Tribute to Austin Idol, Joe Alonzo vs. the debuting Alex Misery, and Jake Dumas in action.

finished watching all of 1993 WCW (*there's a handful of C-shows i'm still tracking down, but for the purpose of this post we'll just say i'm completely done) and wanted to post up my thoughts. I doubt there's too many fresh takes here, but here we are, 30 years later. These are in no particular order Paul Roma in the 4 Horsemen. the 4H were basically a non-entity for the entire year. Roma wasn't a good fit, but he also didn't DO anything. a mediocre tag team with Arn Anderson that lasted 9 months. Then again, if you're tagged with Arn for that length of time and it never gets past mediocre, then maybe that's on you. the NWA World Title -> big gold belt -> World Title as recognized by WCW International. i thought this was handled reasonably well, and i don't really understand the disdain this gets. I think Barry Windham's run could've been given more merit, but the Flair run is fine, and the Rude reign really elevates it. the video skits. "Lost in Cleveland". "White Castle of Fear". the sting/bulldog vs vader/sid beach one. i thought these were fun. weird. cheesy. different. they were a bit jarring, but they had a lot of charm to them. some more than others, of course. would have liked to see more. They're certainly better than any of the 'Dungeon of Doom' skits. British Bulldog. why was he even here? he showed up, had a main event-adjacent run, and then disappeared. a complete waste of a stint, and honestly left me much more sour on Davey than i had been previously. Hollywood Blondes. definitely a breath of fresh air in the bland and unremarkable tag scene. the deal with Steamboat/Douglas and the masked title switch was just pretty bizarre, but i guess what can you do? the team itself didn't get nearly long enough together. we're talking less than a year! Ron Simmons. we start the year off directly after he lost the world title back to Vader. and from there, he just..... exists? i believe there was an injury involved, but he just doesn't do ANYTHING all year. kind of floats between face and heel, then there's a shitty mentor/mentee angle with Ice Train that sucks (i blame this on Ice Train, who sucks). Disney tapings. look, all of the c-shows are jobber shows. this move didn't effect my viewing whatsoever. Vinnie Vegas. i liked the character and thought it had more legs than what was given. It was also cool to see Big Sky, who i previously only knew as Sabretooth from the first X-Men movie in 2000. Yoshi Kwan. Charlie Norris. i actually liked the look of Kwan. look, i know it's "yellow peril" racism, but it was certainly a look that set Chris Champion apart. everything else about the gimmick was pretty trash, but i think something that's not done with racist intent but keeping some of the same physical characteristics could work in the right environment. please don't hate me. Charlie Norris is a name i had read LONG before i ever saw him. i always assumed it was somebody doing a LEGALLY DISTINCT Chuck Norris character. how wrong i was. Charlie was a lame Native American character. He wasn't particularly good or memorable. It sounds like WCW wanted their own Tatanka, but Norris didn't want to play into stereotypes. Kudos to him, but once they got past the NA theme, he really had little else to offer. Steve Austin vs. Dustin Rhodes. these guys gelled together fantastically. i know they previously feuded over the TV Title, but this definitely felt like a life feud that would see them rise through the ranks and eventually both be multiple WCW World champions, trading the belt back and forth. it seems unfeasible that within 18 months, both men are released from the company. And man, Dustin got done dirty by WWF. seeing "the Natural" probably wouldn't have worked in the Attitude Era, but he (the worker) had a much higher ceiling than Goldust (the character) did. Why was Starrcade on a Monday? that can't have been good for PPV buys.

when TPE was in WCW, i remember there was some issue with putting them on a themes cd due to the Chuck D/Flavor Flav group. and the "The" was the compromise made. don't know if any of that was true, but i retroactively apply that to their ECW run as well.

how is the GODS book? i keep meaning to check it out, but haven't gotten around to it. should have expected an X-Men '97 book but didn't even think about it. potentially excited, dependent on creative team and/or previews

was Whittaker-Costa previously booked for a different event, or am i thinking of another matchup?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zcrHXzdb84 NWA POWERRR! Episode 138: Return to Robarts, Part 2 12/19/23 @ Sarasota, FL TV Title: Dak Draper vs. Mims (c) i find Draper very bland, but they told a nice story of him trying to win the match/title without resorting to violence. simple holds and lots of pinfall attempts. Then Mims turns on the striking, which doesn't make much sense character-wise, but does up the pace of the match considerably. i guess this match was adequate, but was certainly nothing special. and i am befuddled on why Mims was in the heel role here. Interview with Aron Stevens and NWA Tag Champs Blunt Force Trauma. They will be challenged for the belts in two weeks by the Fixers. their last match was 2 months ago, in a losing effort to Knox & Murdoch. In fact, their last win was in July vs the Spectaculars. Street Fight: Bryan Idol & Natalia Markova vs. Thom Latimer & Kamille Idol & Markova are called "Looks That Kill" now i guess, and they are on their home turf here. this was, for all intents and purposes, just a "No Count Outs Tornado Tag" match. no street clothes, no weapons, no illegal tactics. quite possibly the tamest "street fight" i have ever watched. EC3 'social media' promo. he denies Matt Cardona's request for a Death Match at the next PPV. he counters with his own challenge, for the ULTIMATE! MATCH! OF DEATH! ok? in-ring promo with the Southern 6. Taylor goes with the cheap heat (insulting the fat fans) and makes a cocaine reference (that worked out so well last time!). Morton doubles down on the cheap heat (something about the girlfriend of an audience member). Mason with more of the cheap heat (although he does say "sweat hogs", so i'll give him credit for the Rick Rude reference). Counter promo from James Mitchell. He also insults the crowd, but goes harder on them. He ALSO makes an allusion to coke, but it's done tongue-in-cheek. The promo is better, but it's just as pointless. Anyway, this leads us to..... Southern 6 vs. Miserably Faithful (Judais, Gaagz the Gymp, & Sal-vation) match feels very very heatless. i guess that will happen when both teams are heels and shit on the audience immediately beforehand. Gaagz gets beat up. Sal has flashes of offense and does OK. match hits its zenith when Judais gets the tag and goes face-to-face with Silas Mason. unfortunately, that is not the end of the match, as it meanders along some more so that we can get more Gaagz 'hijinks' and up at the foregone conclusion. this was pretty much a waste of an episode.

i had completely forgotten that that event happened on PPV until it got brought to my attention a week or two back. amazing how many of those "legends" or "reunion" cards happened in like a 5 year span.

fuck it, have the Don Callis family beat down Jericho and steal the title shot. we need more Hobbs anyway.

so yeah, this looks like a good card. unfortunately won't be able to watch it live. hopefully will get a chance Sunday night, but may get pushed to later in the week. i hate doing that, since if there's a new champ, it always gets spoiled for me.

all that, plus the 'roids. can't be overstated how widespread and damaging their use was.

to piggyback off this, there's always cases that both prove and disprove the notion. the Ultimate Warrior died at 54. per cagematch, his 2nd to last match was vs. Hogan at Halloween Havoc '98 (aged 39). He was essentially coming off a 2 year layoff (WWF '96) and prior to that, a 2+ year layoff (WWF '92). at no point did Warrior work a hard hitting schedule. or a consistent bump schedule. or even an invasive mentally taxing schedule. he worked short, physical bouts and had promos that didn't require any real malice or the context of. Nothing that should have caused any sort of external pressure. Just "the next obstacle" type of opponent. is Warrior an outside example? obviously. but so is somebody like Danielson, who has worked hundreds of promotions over dozens of years, and criss-crossed the country/world more times than most normal people ever will. the truth, as usual, lies somewhere in the middle. and obviously varies by person.

i fucking hate "the holiday season"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1ARGmANfZE NWA POWERRR! Episode 137: Return to Robarts, Part 1 12/12/23 @ Sarasota, FL full time wrestler Tim Storm joins us on commentary again. He is a welcome addition. Heavenly Butterflies (Tony Donati & Faboo Andre) vs. Daisy Kill & Talos Talos really looks like a giant compared to these two. GREAT shot while Talos is on the apron about to enter the ring while the Butterflies are in their corner and he just looks MASSIVE. match as a whole was fine, nothing spectacular, but the closing run featuring Talos was pretty fun. This might be the most i've enjoyed him? next week: Magnum Muscle EXPLODES~! in a match for the TV Title. OK, so they're competing out of friendship, so 'explodes' might be a big much, but they're facing off at least. and to echo what @Peck said, Mims' promo was short but sweet. i liked it. Junior Heavyweight Championship: Joe Ocasio vs. Colby Corino (c) this left me feeling a little underwhelmed. I think the guys took a little too long to get their timing aligned, so it just felt off. Colby is good. Ocasio seems good as well, but this just didn't deliver like i expected. Taylor Rising vs Allie Recks vs Airica Demia Allie and Airica are both making their NWA debuts. Taylor is the vet, having been with the promotion since....NWA 75 in August. this wasn't good. Taylor wins with a pedigree, and i'm sure there's a Terra Ryzing connection in there, but i'm not going to make the effort to find it. Matt Cardona issues a challenge to EC3 for the next PPV. i guess that means that EC3 will be winning his defense vs. Jax Dane from this same set of tapings. US Tag Team Titles: the Immortals (c) vs. Brothers of Funstruction i'm surprised to see Violent J still with the clowns. i assumed he was only brought in for a short run from NWA75 to Samhain, but i guess not. i want to like Odinson. he's got a unique look. But he just doesn't have it in the ring. Unless you REALLY like European uppercuts, he just feels very one-note. slow match to start, with Yabo juggling early which leads to Kratos just manhandling him for a while. that's kind of the story of the match here. the Immortals dominate until the clowns use some "wacky" schtick to gain an advantage. "The Kids" run in, knock down Violent J, and interfere in the match, sending it to a DQ finish. Who are "the Kids" you ask? two of the new debuts (Jackson & Lev) from three weeks ago. that was a shit-ass heatless finish. At least it didn't break up any kind of interesting match.

100%. i have this in my top three wrestling events of all time (Mania 17 and All In being the other two). is this the end of your ECW book or will more supplementary shows be included? ECW ONS2? TNA Hardcore Justice (2010): The Last Stand? Hardcore Homecoming? Extreme Reunion/Rising?

DCW was a promotion on local access tv here. Definitely a backyard hardcore fed that had such luminaries as "the Undertoker". the old timers around here referred to all pro wrestling as "All Star Wrestling" and i've never been able to pin down exactly which promotion they would have been exposed to with that name because there were numerous that may have aired here at different times. (i believe it to be AWA but will never be 100%)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2gkx6p9-cc NWA POWERRR! Episode 136: Blood Is Thicker Than Gold 12/5/23 @ Nashville, TN Slime Ballz vs Country Gentlemen The Cazana boys enter with their father Joe. I guess they're celebrating their new partnership, with Joe Cazana's promotion being the second affiliate league. i enjoyed this WAY more than i expected. the Cazana brothers make for a more interesting team than the previous Country Gentlemen IMO. KC uses a handful of high flying moves that look good for his size, and they complement AJ's size and power very well. The Slime Ballz seem pretty good in the ring as well, which i am happy to say after being down on their promos the last couple weeks. Samantha Starr will now only be referred to as "Miss Starr". She introduces her new assistant, the woman Starr assaulted in the ring 2 weeks ago. Chelsea seems extremely apprehensive about this new role. Starr is fairly wooden in her delivery, but she's trying, so it's not terrible. Women's TV Title: Max the Impaler (c) vs Chelsea yes, the same Chelsea from the last segment. Miss Starr granted her this title opportunity. If Chelsea looked apprehensive in that promo segment, she looks downright frightened here to start. The first minute is just Chelsea literally running scared from Max. This wouldn't rate on Dave's star scale, but i found it compelling, like watching the teenagers about to be murdered in '80s slasher flicks. Just a palpable atmosphere you don't get (or want to) see every week, but it was perfect here. A+ Outrunners vs New Spectaculars 2.0 (Rush Freeman & Slade) Match was fine. Double Interview with Colby Corino and Pretty Empowered. Colby looks befuddled by Pretty Empowered's antics. They talk some smack. He cuts a promo that is rather forgettable. He gets asked about PE's dominance, gives a pretty "let's move along" answer, and PE get riled up. Joe Alonzo vs Rey Fury vs "Certified" Luke Kurtis Crowd chants "certified loser" at Kurtis. Rey Fury lands a nice looking Froggy 'Bow, which i didn't know anybody except Mark Briscoe. Rey Fury kinda of steals the match here, but the story they tell early is Alonzo and Kurtis working together. Until it breaks down, of course. above average match. National Title: Devan Dixon vs Silas Mason (c) the announcers make fun of Dixon's hair, which looks very much like Brian Knobbs'. They tell a decent story that mostly works. Mason brought in Dixon since they were running buddies, but Mason just takes it to him and lays down a beating. Certainly a way of showing that former friends are former for a reason, and that it's all about the Southern 6 now. Post-match S6 beatdown on Dixon is interrupted by EC3 and Jax Dane, who are all buddy-buddy now. In the last 30 seconds we get Dane and EC3 facing off, but then they shake hands and leave amicably. This is the worst build to a title match i have literally ever seen. There's no animosity, no disrespect, no misunderstandings, and really even no 'mutual admiration'. The interaction has been practically nonexistent. i don't get what they're going for here at all.

green = sarcasm sorry, that was from a different, long dead forum. But i feel like it just works, you know? so it sometimes will still pop up in my posts.

yeah, Minus One is really fucking good. they did an excellent job with emotional character beats. of the ~12 Godzilla movies i've seen, this was by far the best. and it's not even close. sadly, the original is not one of those 12.

i find it fun to look at records when Smelly calls them out (particularly for TV title shots), so let's take a deep dive for the last few weeks: Hoo boy, where to start? Since returning to WCW after the Montreal Screwjob, Neidhart has a 7-5-4 record. In singles, he is 4-3. at least it's a winning record i guess. thankfully, i have no memory of a Hennig/Neidhart feud. Worldwide 5/9 vs Buddy Lee Parker (W) Saturday Night 5/2 vs Curt Hennig (L) Saturday Night 4/11 vs Curt Hennig (DQ W) Nitro 4/6 Neidhart & Bulldog vs Hennig & Crush (L) Nitro 3/30 vs Curt Hennig (DQ W) Thunder 3/26 Neidhart & Bulldog vs Hennig & Crush (Double DQ) Nitro 3/16 Neidhart & Bulldog vs Destruction Crew (W) Saturday Night 3/14 Neidhart & Bulldog vs Hennig & Crush (L) Thunder 3/5 vs Curt Hennig (L) Saturday Night 2/28 Neidhart & Bulldog vs Public Enemy (W) Nitro 2/19 Neidhart & Bulldog vs Hennig & Crush (Double Count Out) Saturday Night 2/14 Neidhart & Bulldog vs Dave Taylor & Doc Dean (W) Thunder 2/12 vs Mongo McMichael (Double Count Out) Nitro 2/2 vs Scott Hall (L) Nitro 1/26 vs Wayne Bloom (W) Nitro 1/12 vs Ric Flair (No Contest) oh, Mike Enos. thought this would be uglier than it was. Record of 5-6 overall, 1-1 in singles. definitely TV Title worthy. Worldwide 5/23 Destruction Crew vs Public Enemy (L) Worldwide 4/25 Destruction Crew vs High Voltage (L) Thunder 4/22 vs Goldberg (L) Nitro 3/30 Destruction Crew vs High Voltage (W) Nitro 3/16 Destruction Crew vs Neidhart & Bulldog (L) Saturday Night 3/14 Destruction Crew vs Raven & Saturn (L) Worldwide 3/7 Destruction Crew vs Inner Aggression (Bill Payne & Butch Long) (W) Saturday Night 2/21 Destruction Crew vs Benoit & Malenko (L) Thunder 2/19 Destruction Crew vs Outsiders (DQ W) Nitro 2/16 vs Barry Horowitz (W) Saturday Night 1/31 Destruction Crew vs Disorderly Conduct (W) King of the Ring '98? nah man, i'd skip that one. i don't think anything memorable is going to happen there. the only thing i ever remember about Scott Putski is him blowing his knee out vs. Brian Christopher, so Eddy's dropkick to the knee seals the deal for me. well, Smiley has a 2 match winning streak on Pro anyway. You know, his record in WCW is actually pretty poor up until this point. 5-6. spoiler alert, he won't get his first win on Nitro or Thunder until September. but maybe that will kick off a streak? Pro 6/7 vs Mike Tolbert (W) Pro 5/24 vs Robbie Brookside (W) Worldwide 5/23 vs British Bulldog (L) Nitro 4/6 vs Konnan (L) Nitro 2/9 vs Konnan (L) Worldwide 1/17 vs Manny Fernandez [not that one] (W) Saturday Night 1/3 vs Konnan (L) Pro 12/28/97 vs Johnny Swinger (result unknown. i've seen this written on match lists, but is not on the episode of the show i have seen) Saturday Night 11/29 Smiley & Chris Adams vs. Regal & Dave Taylor (W) Worldwide 11/22 vs Dean Malenko (L) Saturday Night 11/22 vs Dave Taylor (L) Saturday Night 11/15 vs Lenny Lane (W) well hot damn. you have a much more positive view of 1998 WCW than i did on my rewatch, so seeing a score this low makes me understand how truly bad this had to be.

whatever the last film, Star Wars or Marvel, was that came out. they are pretty much the only current films that i make any effort to watch. i've never had an issue going to movies solo, but i have been moving further and further into my antisocial habits as the years go by. my social circle continues to dwindle- whether that is a cause or effect (or coincidence) is anyone's guess. but i would much rather just watch from my couch.

World War II was an early stoppage compared to that fight

HOLY SHIT! did not see that coming! edit: this has been an all timer of a card.