Lord Darth Hunter

All I know is in 1984 Kyle Reese told Sara Connor that the T-800's were surrounded by living tissue complete with sweat, bad breath, everything that made it impossible to differentiate from humans. Sara said they don't make things like that yet. Kyle said not for another 40 years. So here we are. 

I thought using a battle royal to crown a new women's champion meant they were planning on going with something new. Instead we get Becky again. 

Have you seen the Star Wars ones? 

3 hours ago, The Choc said:

Also him losing because he just can't let go of Seth turning on the Shield all those years ago is amazing.JUst before hitting him with the chair he says to Seth. "You took something from me I can never get back" and "You are why Im like this". He jsut can't get over that betrayal from Seth. Really cool, long running storytelling. 

That was amazing. The beauty of a story that comes full circle 10 years later.

It also worked not just because of what you said that they came in to stop The Bloodline from cheating, but also because they weren’t just random baby faces coming to the rescue. They had their own pasts with The Bloodline. Jey and Jimmy had just gone at it. Solo Sikoa had hung his hat on having beaten Cena. And Undertaker had his own major feuds with Yokozuna and Rikishi and Haku years ago. (Had Austin come out, well we all remember that Rikishi ran him over with the car way back when.)

Holy crap I seriously thought Dean Ambrose was coming out when the Shield music hit. And I get the feeling Austin wasn’t able to make it/get a deal done so Taker was plan B.

How about Samantha Irvin barely able to get out the Cody win announcement through her own tears? The emotions ran high and authentic for Cody. Great way to end the night. 

No one turned on anybody, no surprise interference from returning stars or new signees (the Kelce one doesn’t count as he’s not on the roster, just the yearly NFL player gets involved skit, we’ve had Gronk, last year it was George Kittle and now this.) Every match was just straight up as advertised. Kinda weird actually.

Also, someone in creative REALLY got into Rocky III because of the show being in Philly I guess. Last week Sami gave the “I’m afraid!” speech that Rocky gave to Adrian on the beach. Then last night before the match Chad Gable told Sami after it’s over he’ll owe him a huge favor, like Apollo did to Rocky after training him for his rematch with Clubber Lang. And finally during the match, Corey Graves  commented that Sami fights great but Gunther is a great fighter, another line said by Apollo at the end of Rocky III.

Match of the night is a tie between Ripley-Lynch and Gunther-Zayn. I thought the Six Women tag match was the worst because it was very clunky and didn’t live up to the potential of the participants. So it was a big letdown. 

double post

On 12/22/2023 at 11:58 AM, Tank said:

and we've done a thread on this, but I will turn off any show or movie if somebody finds the keys to a car that isn't theirs in the visor, OR, if there's a order scene and the detective shows up and says to the beat cop on the scene "What've we got?"

You turned off Terminator 2 and Heat??? 

I guess it stands to reason. You can hear Star Wars in E.T. You can hear Edward Scissorhands in Beetlejuice. And definitely hear H3 in Christine.

When you think about it, Carpenter is the man. He created some major classics as a writer, director AND composer. Not saying he’s better than John Williams or anything, but I doubt Williams or Danny Elfman could write or direct iconic films. 

On 3/19/2024 at 11:59 AM, Tank said:

My top 5 SCORES:

1. Halloween 3 (Movie is a mess, but if you're into John Carpenter music it's low-key his best and you can hear hints of so many of his other great themes being worked out. It's only missing the classic Halloween theme. To that--

Wow, beat me to it. I love Halloween III even with all its nonsense plot holes and such. I always piss off Halloween fans when I tell them it’s better than any in the series except for the 1978 original and its 1981 sequel. Carpenter is arguably at his best with this score because that’s all he was focusing on. Other people were doing the dirty work of creating the film. He could just lay back in his studio and make the music. I legit always listen to this, especially in the Fall. You can hear similarities to this and the Christine music too. Plus I’ve read articles that mention this heavily influenced Brad Fiedel when making The Terminator score, though he’d never admit it.  

Other soundtracks:

Conan the Barbarian — my favorite part being the Battle of the Mounds when he says his prayer as Thulsa Doom’s army approaches all the way until the end of the battle when Doom is the only one left and retreats. 

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Friday the 13th Part 3D — I'm a sucker for the disco theme.

Psycho

I definitely say if you have the chance to attend a PLE, go for it. Especially when it’s one of the big ones. You won’t regret it. Being in attendance is a whole different level of enjoyment. I attended Sumerslam 2021 in Vegas and had a blast. My brother and I said had we watched it on TV it would’ve been just another show (because the card was meh - stuff like Alexa Bliss vs Eva Marie ). But because we were there, it was memorable. I was at WM in LA last year and will never forget it. There’s nothing they could’ve done to make this year’s Mania better from my perspective because watching it on TV won’t be the same no matter how awesome an event they put on. 

There’s also a hell according to Han. 

I still think it’s stupid as all hell that Cody needs to win the tag match on night 1 so that there won’t be interference in his one-on-one match on night 2. As if interference is usually approved of and okay.

2 hours ago, The Choc said:

I just dont get the whole knife thing. I mean people still have to like cut food and stuff like that, right? I don't think average people are using mini lightsabers to cut up their Life Day dinner. As for boats, we basically see a boat in TPM. It's essentially a submarine but close enough. 

Anakin and Padme used a gondola on Naboo in AOTC. So I get it. It seems petty to be nitpicking over these details. Maybe it’s because the way they are used. On Naboo it felt like a recreational activity on a planet where aesthetics were important. So a gondola ride there didn’t look as weird as a pirate ship in the Mandalorian. I guess Tank said it best. It’s absurd, but it also makes sense. 

Seeing a knife fight in SW throws me off. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it. It’s similar to when they were on boats in The Mandalorian. When someone pulls a knife it takes me right out of the story. 

I found it odd that it was the Rock who put the stipulations into the match. If you beat us you get Roman one-on-one for the title; the Bloodline will be barred from ringside. That’s usually a face move. Heels would never put themselves in such predicaments. It should’ve been Cody and Seth who add the stipulations so that in wrestling 101 terms, the heels are the ones who have to think about accepting or risk looking like cowards. This is ass backwards. The only way it makes sense is if Rock is setting Roman up, as many believe is what’s happening. 

Agreed with Krawlie and Metropolis. The Roman vs Rock match was the plan. But WWE botched the execution. They thought the fans would be fine with Rock just taking Cody’s WM spot because hey, it’s the Rock! They misjudged how much we’re invested in Cody, which is a damn shame because they should know better. Shows you what they really think of their fans if they feel it’s that easy to take a character like Cody whom they’ve built up for years and just toss him to the side. The optics were made all the worse because around that same time the Rock was all over the news as the new member of the TKO board. Thank our lucky stars Vince is no longer in charge because if so, they would’ve doubled down on Rock vs Roman and done things to make Cody look stupid just to screw with everybody. Credit to WWE creative and the Rock himself for recognizing what was happening and pivoting. The last thing they wanted was for Philadelphia to crap on their main event. Rock knows all about that since the last time WWE tried to push Reigns on the fans, he and the Rock were booed out of the building at the 2015 Royal Rumble in Philly.

Roman has been great for WWE as its heel champion and you can’t deny that title has been made super important because of how long he’s held it (same as Gunther with the IC title). The Bloodline storyline was red hot two years ago with Sami Zayn joining the group and then all that went down with that. Had Reigns lost to Cody at last year’s WM, it would’ve been the perfect culmination to the whole Bloodline angle. But it lost its steam after Roman beat Cody and then disappeared for most of the year. IMO it was made worse by, every time he did wrestle, as infrequent as it was, all the matches were the same. I get that he’s a heel, but seriously? Many great heels in the past have had their share of clean wins. Just last month when Roman was in a 4-way match against Orton, Styles and LA Knight, that would’ve been the perfect opportunity to have a clean win. It’s a 4-way!!! Just have Orton hit the RKO on Styles or something like that where Roman could then sneak up behind Randy, toss him out of the ring and then he gets the pin on Styles. But no, even in a match involving so many wrestlers, they still had the same ending where the Bloodline interfered so Roman gets another cheap win.

Thoughts about Monday Night Raw. 

Did anyone catch Pat McAfee attempt to do Mr. Perfect’s pencil trick?

The women’s division is in shambles. The top stars Becky Lynch and Bianca Belair are stale. When Becky was talking the crowd was relatively silent and unresponsive. You could just tell everyone wanted her to get to the point. This is the woman who not too long ago was being billed as the female Steve Austin. The returning stars Liv Morgan and Naomi have already gotten boring and get zero reaction. And new people like Tiffany Stratton have had no time to build the character on the main roster so when she comes out she looks out of place and no one knows what to do with it.

“Finish the story” is supposed to be Cody Rhodes’ journey. But now it’s being appropriated by everybody. During the Gunther vs Jey Uso main event, McAfee was cheering Jey on to finish his story when Jey got the upper hand and looked like he was about to win. It reminds of the time Daniel Bryan started the “yes movement.” It was his character being pushed on by the fans to fight the Authority (HHH and Stephanie.) But then you had guys like the Big Show using it to confront the Authority wanting a title match or else “he’d bring his lawyers in.” Show used the Yes chants and hand gestures for himself through that whole idiotic “lawyers” storyline. 

I think it would work if it was going to be the speculated tag match. Roman-Rock vs Cody-Austin. Especially since during the Kickoff show they brought into the storyline that Rock getting on the TKO board is what led to this. Big E made it a point to say Rock is now the boss. So what better way to counter than with the ultimate anti-boss asskicker? It was also established on that first Smackdown two weeks ago that Cody had sought counsel with a number of people before he brought out the Rock. That would be his play now. Hey Rock, remember I said numerous people? You weren’t the only one I talked to. Austin’s music hits and the crowd blows the roof off the arena. If TKO really wanted a main event for the ages, that would be it.

Of course all this is for nought since HHH already said last night Cody vs Roman 1-on-1 for the title will happen at WM. 

Stone Cold Steve Austin? 

5 hours ago, Metropolis said:

I've seen all the talk about distracting from Vince. I'm not buying it. Vince hasn't been a regular on television for a while now. If you throw out the WM stuff with Theory and Rollins he's had no real presence for the last couple of years. WWE fans don't care because they know who Vince is. Hell most of this stuff is jist the Attitude Era come to life. 

I believe when the Rock said he'd do Mania TKO said let's do it and sell tickets. That's why the setup didn't make sense. When the fans said we don't want the Rock, TKO said "oh crap". Last night was the right move and makes for potentially a long term story with Rock/Roman. You have the Rock talking about sitting at the head of the table and him and Roman are hugging it out kast night? That has to be resolved in some way at some point. Summerslam? Next WrestleMania? 

Cole and McAfee were in on this. Big E and Punk obviously weren't until it happened. Then i think the producers told them where to go. And that made for some gold comments from Punk. Big E reminding everyone that Rock was niw Cody's boss and Punk saying "So that makes it workplace violence" had me dying.

Heel Rock was always the better Rock IMO.

When we talk about changing the narrative from the Vince lawsuit, it’s not WWE fans we’re referring to. Sure to WWE fans who tune in to every TV show and PLE regularly, the Vince “character” hasn’t been a part of any “storylines” in a long time. But to the mainstream media, the sponsors, the corporate suits and the people who only tune in once in a while, particularly only during Wrestlemania season, Vince was still WWE.

I saw tons of media coverage and backlash from people discussing how “it’s about time this “wrasslin’” company was brought to its knees. You could tell from the way it was being covered and stuff being said that these were not regular viewers. But to TKO and all the suits, that kind of noise makes them nervous. It makes companies like Slim Jim consider their sponsorships. There are people inside who have said it was lucky the Netflix deal went through before the lawsuit came to light or else it would’ve jeopardized that as well.

I do agree with you that the Rock’s involvement was a separate issue. It wasn’t inserted strictly because of the lawsuit. It would’ve happened regardless because I do believe, as you said, that the Rock walked in to the offices and said he wanted to have a match at WM and TKO salivated at the thought of how much more $$$ they could make with him on the card. I’m just saying that this provided an opportunity to take some heat off the company. The Rock is such a media darling, you see how Hollywood and the mainstream media fawn all over him. Him being the face of WWE right now definitely makes some of those angry folks put the Vince stuff on the back burner.

What TKO didn’t realize was WWE fans don’t fall for him the way Hollywood does. They never figured the fans would crap on his return. But it seems like they learned from the past that it’s better to pivot while there’s still time rather than force the issue.

I still remember years ago when WWE trotted Rock out there to raise Roman’s hand after he won the Royal Rumble and the look on Rock’s face when the fans booed both of them out of the building. I think that RR was in Philly too actually. 

I don’t think this was the plan either because the way it started makes no sense. Cody told Roman he will end up facing him for the title, and his exact words were “but not at Wrestlemania.” Then he called Rock out, they hugged it out before he left the ring so Rock and Roman could have their staredown.

I believe WWE (with a lot of pushing from the Rock himself) decided to insert the Rock into the main event of WM to take the attention away from the Vince lawsuit headlines. They really thought no one would care Cody was being screwed because hey, it’s the Rock. The crowd will eat it up and the Vince stuff will be forgotten. Cody can then have his moment at a later date (just like he himself said that first night). But once they saw how fast the fans turned on Rocky, they pivoted to this. 

On 2/6/2024 at 10:40 AM, Hobbes said:

I think this whole Cody/ Rock is fucking genius.  I think they are going to make the Rock into the next Mr. McMahon kinda like how Mr. McMahon was created at the Montreal Screw Job.

I can just see it--Cody wasn't ready...Cody screwed Cody!

It will be Seth v. Cody.  People will be cheering for The Rock over Roman--but that will suck for Roman with all the Cody chants. 

Not too sure about the Rock getting cheered. The Rocky sucks chants already started last night. And Wrestlemania is going to be in Philadelphia. If there’s one crowd that just might turn on that match, it’s them. Though I suspect it being WM may help the WWE, since the stadium will not just be Philly natives but also have a percentage of traveling fans who will be happy to be there and not care who is on the card. 

On 1/28/2024 at 11:40 AM, Metropolis said:

The Pat McAfee entrance was the Brock Lesnar replacement right?

I’ve read multiple sources that say Bron Breaker took over the Lesnar spot. He essentially did what Brock was going to end up doing. The McAfee spot was already in the plan before Brock was pulled. 
 

I understand from a business perspective why TKO/WWE is changing it to Rock vs Roman. But as a lifelong fan who doesn’t just show up for Wrestlemania, it sucks. Remember years ago when “The Authority” HHH-Stephanie McMahon storyline was running rampant holding fan favorites like Daniel Bryan back because it was “best for business?” Life imitating art now with Cody. 
 

I also wonder if this just TKO attempting to change the narrative from all the negative headlines garnered by the Vince lawsuit? The Rock is beloved by everyone in Hollywood and the mainstream media. He’s been making the rounds, like his appearance on ESPN where he gave Molly Qerim the ring off his finger right on camera. That got a lot of entertainment industry buzz. TKO knows the Rock headlining Wrestlemania will get a lot of positive mainstream media attention in a way Cody Rhodes can’t. CM Punk’s injury just opened the door wide open for TKO to use this for an image cleansing. 

It’s one thing for a character to come back as a ghost to spew a few words of wisdom or to see them in a recorded message. And seeing someone who’s dead as their younger self in an earlier part of the timeline doesn’t count as coming back from being dead. 

But it’s another to come back running around causing havoc like their normal selves as if nothing had ever happened to them. Maul and Palpatine being the most egregious of this nonsense.