Lurker > scarletspeed7

WickIebee posted...

Second video I feel sorry for Orton there, bleeding arm and still needs to be interfered with.

Jinder never really could beat Orton without interference. Orton is too big a star and it was too unbelievable.
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

Legends is legit the best of the DC CW show now.
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2018/03/19/legends-season-4-john-constantine-time/

I know we have no comics TV topic right now, but holy shit. The best character in the Arrowverse returning to TV full-time.

And yes, I ranked him above Slade Wilson. John Constantine baby!
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

And they're all my nominations. :P
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

paulg235 posted...

But if he doesn't get cleared, what ends up happening to the WWE title match with Nakamura?

Gosh, I have no idea at all. Like, maybe you yank the title from AJ in story and have Naka face some other opponent who has some credibility? Rusev to capitalize on the character's popularity or pull someone out of a multi-man match? I really have no idea. AJ is honestly a guy you can't have injured for this to work.
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

It would be better if it was Curt Hawkins. And they lost.
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

Jakyl25 posted...

Whoever said they werent?

Jack and of course Maffew are good

I'm team SUPPORT WRESTLETALK all the way now.

Can I just say that I'm excited for tonight, as an aside?
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

Stop switching between usernames.
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

Is there a reason Lucas and Snake couldn't be on the same world?
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

Icehawk posted...

Looks awesome.

The Suikoden style kingdom building has me mega hype.

Well that last line has ME hyped now.
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

wg64Z posted...

I've never heard of the Movies but I'll check it out.

It's a sim game where you run a movie studio from the early days of cinema to the present. You build up your studio and make films which are then graded on a star system. It's kind of a hybrid of the Sims and RollerCoaster Tycoon.
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

#139 - Heidenreich Nominated by: Gravy


Other than the ability to make a kid cry at a show while playing a heel, and despite having the great Paul Heyman as his manager and legendary tag team wrestler Road Warrior Animal by his side in one title run, Heidenreich seemed to be a wasted push.

Heidenreich was poor in the ring, and that all too often is a death knell for me. I have to clarify that I don't need a worker to be a cruiserweight workhorse to be enjoyable. As we climb this list, you'll see that it is ultimately believability that matters to me more than anything else. When a worker can do all sorts of little things, providing details that enhance the character beyond the cartoon, THAT'S when I get excited as a fan. But Heidenreich lacked the fundamentals to suck me in. And in an era where there is no kayfabe, I think there is a huge premium on making a fan suspend disbelief.

Aside from his poor in-ring performance, Heidenreich's character was one dimensional. He reminded me of a bad version of Sid. And if you know anything about Sid, that is quite an indictment. Sid is not exactly the most talented on the mic. Heidenreich lacked even the car crash-style of awful that made Sid kind of enjoyable. He felt written, and badly written at that. Whereas Sid was organically ridiculous, Heidenreich was the product of a room of writers thinking THIS was the best way to write a big man. Compare him to even an average big man like Lars Sullivan and he comes up wanting. Considering he was in WWE during a time when numerous other tall generic powerhouses were in the company, he didn't stand out on his own. Not even the Undertaker could carry him into a memorable match, and he only really got noticed when he stood beside Road Warrior Animal and said "I'm the other guy".

Aside from one infamous backstage segment, Heidenreich is ultimately a footnote in wrestling history. At least he's better than Nathan Jones.
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

Halo and Sims both sound pretty fun. Racing through games is not a bad idea at all, as long as you stay away from the extremely oversaturated speedrun games.

I don't know if I would have any ideas that would be any better than yours; they sound great! Maybe like a No Kill Fallout New Vegas race or something like that. Or Tony Hawk's Pro Skater races with some Bonus Tapes of your own creation. As an aside, I've always wanted to see someone race across the entire map in The Crew.

Actually, you should run The Movies competitively. That would actually be pretty entertaining.
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

LeonhartFour posted...

Eh, they've already done Rome, even if it wasn't ancient Rome, so ancient Greece is a good move.

True. I do think the political climate of ancient Rome would make for better storytelling, but the setting can be a lot of fun in Greece.
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2018/03/19/report-claims-next-assassins-creed-game-is-going-to-ancient-greece/

I know I personally would like a game set exclusively in Rome, but Ancient Greece could be a lot of fun. My biggest takeaway however is that Ubisoft doesn't expect a next-gen console in the next two years, which is nice.
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

I enjoyed this episode a lot. Throwing in some hidden star information was really cool.

Anyways, do you have a choice for the next game in this series?
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

I don't think you'd know him unless you watched ROH. Not sure he's ever been elsewhere.
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

#140 - Jinder Mahal Nominated by: charon


I have to say here and now, unequivocally, that oftentimes I think that Board 8 has a contingent users who enjoy memetic comedy in wrestling so much that they will actually go out of their way to antagonize others who wish wrestling had more heft and weight to it. A good case in point is the run of Jinder Mahal over the last year, the story of a man who was clearly a jobber and didn't have the talent to sustain a longterm push.

When I look at Jinder's title run, I see quite clearly how much of a failure he was by its ending. AJ Styles faced Jinder after his surprising title victory at Clash of Champions during a rematch, and while many thought that Jinder would be on his way to a second title reign, Aj Styles stunned Jinder by tapping him out to the Calf Crusher. Why this is so notable is simple: Men dont tap out in WWE, at least not often, and when they do, its nearly always a marker of a shift in storyline. Someone backstage, likely but not necessarily Vince McMahon, sees giving up to a submission move as emasculating. This is why women tap all the timeNatalya tapped to Charlottes Figure Eight earlier in the eveningwith no more import attached to it than to any other finishing move.

Rusev, on Ride Along, recently said that the Accolade doesn't "work on top guys." It was kind of a shocking statement to make public, but clearly true - if you tap out, you are clearly hitting your head on a ceiling beneath the real stars. And Jinder just never came across as a real star.

There are a lot of reasons to put a title on someone: it brings prestige to the belt, prestige to the holder, or is a necessity to a storyline (ie: a transitional champion). With Jinder, none of these things were true. Randy Orton, who was coming off of one of the worst title feuds in recent memory with Bray Wyatt, certainly needed a marquee opponent to put some luster back on the title. Instead, he was surprisingly placed with Jinder Mahal. Many thought this was just an opportunity to give Jinder a brief showcase in preparation for a marketing push in India by WWE, but instead, Orton was stunned in a victory that was truly undeserved. The title had by no fault of its own gone from a promising new champion in Bray Wyatt to an oversaturated worker with in Randy Orton by way of a terrible feud and now had passed to a glorified jobber who had a massive losing streak going into his title reign. The title had been dragged through the mud and now it had lost prestige.

Jinder had been positioned with not one but TWO heel managers in order to mask some of his terrible workrate. I personally thought that the Singh Brothers were a very solid unit, capable of doing great mic work. They were J&J Security mixed with Maria Kanellis in TNA; they fulfilled their role admirably. But too often, Jinder's mediocrity just overpowered them. Gimmicked matches and poor chemistry with all opponents just layered the problems more and more; this came to a head when WWE resurrected the often lambasted Punjabi Prison match, a match in which the competitors are trapped inside of two cages, so layered in cage that the viewers can essentially see none of the match. And somehow, that match ended in interference:

Jinder was clearly a ploy for a market that had no interest in Jinder. His Orton feud was long and tiresome, and when it ended, the two continued to have match after match. Last week, they sparred yet AGAIN in a US Title showcase. But the crowd, aside from the sort of nihilistic fans of wrestling that like to smirk and feel superior because they back a contrary choice, are clearly bored with Jinder. His promo work as a foreign heel lacks the panache or menace of the old school heels of the 80s, and he feels forced and fake on the mic. His body is acne-ridden and disgusting, and on the mat he is unremarkable.
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

#141 - Matt Taven Nominated by: JONA


Matt Taven is the Andy Dick of pro wrestling. Utterly without talent and a black hole of charisma, Taven almost single-handedly turned me against watching Ring of Honor. His presence alone was enough to frighten me away from the show. If you ever have the displeasure of listening to Taven on commentary, you will understand exactly what I mean. Something about his every line digs into my eardrums and burrows like a an insect into my brain, wracking me with intense pain. His dialogue seems to come straight out of the worst Brian Bendis comics, and I think he's never had a single original insight. He would be a perfect commentary partner for Percy Watson.

He's not even a bad wrestler. I won't go so far as to say he's great or anything, but Taven certainly can be serviceable in the ring. But having to listen to Matt Taven cut a promo makes his in-ring work a slightly enjoyable byproduct of the modern form of torture. I wish I could have found one of the myriad of examples in which Taven sucks as hard as he does, but unfortunately there aren't a lot of non-Bullet Club clips from recent years of ROH on Youtube. There's a difference between getting good heel heat and just being frustratingly awful. Taven easily falls into the latter category. Every week during his most recent injury, Ring of Honor would trick me by starting with the standard commentary team before pulling the rug out from under me and sending Taven down to the table. Almost as if to say, "Oh, we got you again, Scarlet!"

Ring of Honor is a company of shoot heels, and Taven is the method by which they pursue their evil deeds.
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

Jakyl25 posted...

Lashley and Eddie Edwards got to brawl on the side of an erupting volcano

Technically that match is still ongoing!
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

AJ Styles may have suffered an injury over the weekend.
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

Is Ready Player One also going to adhere to a formula that does not allow antagonists to develop and progress past a single film and therefore erase any attempts to raise stakes in subsequent films?
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

Still no Bam Bam? Weird. He was on that list that included everyone else here aside from Jim.
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

NFUN posted...

which ones?

Those in spoiler tags
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

Well you named my two favorites.
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

To be fair, I think they were actually on a really good path before the injury occurred. Part of me thinks that they were jobbed in the first round because Triple H likes to knock out stars early who he thinks have big potential so they aren't remembered as the people "who lost in the finals of the tournament".
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

Damn, it certainly wasn't intentional to knock out your noms specifically on my part.
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

Drakengard
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

Hey I accept all participants! Except one, but he wasn't going to participate.
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

WickIebee posted...

I'll get to more later, sorry that I'm behind.

Fair reactions so far.
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

Matt Hardy is calling in all of the old characters:


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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

The concept of "not aging well" is why I take the point of always trying to rate a game "in its time" rather than at the point in which I'm playing said game. I feel like it's so much more rewarding to appreciate what a game is doing when it's doing it rather than in hindsight.
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

#142 - Jackie Gayda Nominated by: Preston


Known around the net for years as That Jackie Gayda Match, the link above should highlight all of the reasons in which Gayda was one of the worst wrestlers in WWE. It's funny, really, when you think about how Moolah has received so much criticism over the last week thanks to WWE's recent push of her legacy. Wrestlers like Gayda are exactly the results of Moolah's decades-long stranglehold on women's wrestling. The quality suffered in every way imaginable; when a woman would reach a level of talent that would rival Moolah's popularity, that person was quashed under her boot thanks to her disturbing machinations. And the only other woman who broke the mold suffered being the victim of an unwanted WWF downsizing and made an extremely poor choice in order to get a job at a rival promotion.

Sure, you had new talents at the end of the Attitude Era coming into their own, but the business was trying to revitalize the women's division with attractiveness rather than talent, and so Jackie Gayda became a wrestler on national television. I feel just as bad for her as I do others on this list, but that doesn't help in the ranking process. What does help, however, is a decent track record as a valet. And when I say, "decent," I mean "barely acceptable but it didn't particularly offend, so it lands her slightly above other stuff which is worse."

I could go on but... actually, I couldn't go on. There's nothing to say, really. This is a dull nomination. 4/10 mediocre at best.
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

Yelena is a legit Top 40 Marvel character for me and wildly cooler than her redheaded counterpart. Get Natalie Dormer to play her!
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

JackMan posted...

Oh, I didn't know she had a solo film. Maybe, presumed dead then? I just wanna see Hulk go full rager boner on Thanos and that seems like the thing that'll set him off hardest.

Yeah, I could see some form of an MIA or fake-out death.
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

#143 - Rosa Mendes Nominated by: Preston


Now, this is a list based on honesty. I can't present to you a ranking that isn't grounded in my own wrestling experience, and thus I must confess to you a truly heinous secret - I watch Total Divas.

I do. I know. I'll let it sink in for a moment.

The reason for this harsh and uncomfortable revelation should be apparent to anyone who has seen Rosa Mendes on TD - she is atrocious. She's easily a bottom 5 character on that show, and that show is comprised of so many bottom 5-quality characters that it makes the cast of Glee look like the cast of Westworld. And yet Rosa Mendes stands out as the character with the most X-Pac heat on the show. While Paige's love life was always an enjoyable trainwreck on the show, and aside from Alicia Fox dating an elderly man at one point (and let's not start on Eva Marie's supposed husband), Rosa's relationship took the very worst of all of the others and wrapped it into a nice, little Christmas fruitcake package. All of the worst with none of the things you love! Rosa lacked any charisma and simply waddled around crying about her pregnancy and impending nuptials, as if she had earned any goodwill to bore us with her domesticity.

This is wrestling. You have to 16 championships before we care about whether your significant other will marry you. In the meantime, the dull drone of the monotonous pregnancy lurched forward with all of the plot momentum of Mad Men and none of the quality storytelling.

Oh, and she "wrestled" too. But if you can name one memorable moment in her years-long career in WWE, I will be impressed.
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

JackMan posted...

My prediction is Black Widow dies and Hulk goes WWH on Thanos. Strongest of all, after all.

I mean, it could be a flashback film, but the announcement of a Widow solo film makes me think this is unlikely. Plus, they're going to be scrambling to keep as many name stars as possible like ScarJo.
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

Anagram posted...

RyoCaliente posted...

Too much stuff from the movies had had a direct impact on the show to now just go "oh they're not connected though". I think the Registration Act also had an influence on Daisy in S4, but I don't recall it perfectly.

What in the shows directly affects the movies? I've never watched any non-movie stuff.

Nothing, actually. However, that's not really a totally fair assessment to make since the show took over SHIELD and the movies pretty much moved away from the concept of SHIELD entirely. And the movies can't find an easy way to introduce Inhumans into corners of Marvel that don't need them.
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

Lopen posted...

I ended up nominating a few "mainstream" nominations that I wouldn't normally have nominated going off my normal silly nominations just because I felt there were a lot of snubs on the list. Given another 10 I could've cleaned up this city.

You are doing god's work.
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

#144 - Dave Crist Nominated by: JONA


Fuck Dave Crist. In a tag team of Jannettys, Dave Crist somehow proves himself so much worse than any Jannetty you can conjure in your mind. He's the Crush of Demolition. He's the Droz of LoD. He's the Dave Crist of the Crist Brothers.

It doesn't help that the Crists were paired with LAX, a team that is always entertaining and utterly ridiculous. Konnan is the definition of "so bad he's good." Consistently repeating the same 20-year-old catchphrases ad nauseum, he somehow creates captivating television with his supposedly criminal organization that features four to five people playing dominoes constantly. Occasionally they will say things like, "Diamante, get control of the hoes!" or "BRRRRAAAPPP!" These statements somehow only reinforce the majesty of this excellent and yet also terrible gimmick.

LAX is all about the pomp and circumstance surrounding street level gangs somehow deciding that wrestling will be a moneymaker. The Crist Brothers have come along (accompanied by the ever irritaing Sami Callihan) pretending to be what is essentially the biggest gang in Ohio. Ohio, you know, the capitol of gang violence. Except, Dave Crist has this weak, high-pitched Matt Sydal voice and accompanies this with a Corey Graves foppish pompadour. His entrance pose, replete with a mask taken off of the face of the gargoyles in Hunchback of Notre Dame, consists primarily of Crist pretending to fall asleep. This is extremely appropriate as his flabby gut slows his workrate to a crawl and makes anyone within viewing distance immeasurably sleepy thanks to the boredom that oozes from Crist's skin like molasses.

Now, Crist is a member of the aforementioned Crist Brothers. Jake and Dave, the Brothers Crist. Whether these brothers are Uso style brothers or Edge and Christian style brothers, I have no idea. But I find it hard to believe that Jake Crist, a fiery and well-dressed example of a decent lowcard guy, shares the same DNA as a lumpy dopey reject like Dave Crist. Dave is the wrestling equivalent of Gabe on The Office. So unremarkable and yet at the same time unrelentingly awful that in no way can you stand to see him on television. He's a blight to the wrestling world with his mediocre awfulness.
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

#145 - Rhaka Khan Nominated by: Preston


This is one of those write-ups that is utterly worthless to read because I have no real insight on this character. Rhaka Khan was essentially an ancillary midcard character. Unfortunately, Khan enhanced nothing. A below average wrestler even by early 21st century women's standards, Khan was utterly forgettable in most aspects and disappeared relatively quickly from TV.

There are tons of undercarders who do absolutely nothing in wrestling and disappear within a year or two. Khan is one of them. Hell, most of WWE's women's division in the 2000s would qualify under that descriptor. But this one was nominated for reasons passing human understanding, so here we are. A pointless nomination that does nothing to further this list. Did you know that the Rock was not nominated for this list? Owen Hart could have been nominated here instead of Rhaka Khan. Austin Aries could have taken this spot. I could have ranked Fit Finlay instead of Rhaka Khan. We all would have been better served reading a Bruiser Brody write-up. Scott Hall was still available when Rhaka Khan was nominated.

My point is, don't make bad nominations. We all are the poorer for it.
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

Jukkie posted...

The next big bad has to be Galactius. After the other FF4 movie ruined him, he needs a real set up, as the monster he is.

That way you can fade out Iron Man and Cap, and bring in FF4 and Silver Surfer.

Silver Surfer is getting a solo movie and it's not from Marvel so no.
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

No need to apologize. I definitely have something to say at least!
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

Ah, makes sense. I feel like he would be best served with Panther actually.
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

Jakyl25 posted...

Anagram posted...

Are there any Marvel characters the MCU still doesn't have access to?

Namors rights are still murky I think

As far as I can tell, Namor is in the same position as Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver were.
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

The Inhumans would be perfectly utilized in the first film with Magneto if they just have a Brotherhood of Evil Mutants show up and murder all of them, claiming "WE are the new Homo Superior."
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

WazzupGenius00 posted...

Wasn't the first reveal of Thanos in this series accompanied by a wordplay on "courting Death"? So that'd be weird to remove as a motivation

From most reports, that wasn't meant to be the literal implication as we all know it from the comics. Death isn't a character as far as we know.
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

Anagram posted...

On an unrelated note, I'm wondering who will be the final boss after Thanos is defeated. Now that Disney has Fox, it feels like Doctor Doom and Galactus are the obvious choices.

If I was booking this franchise, Black Panther 2 would be a political film featuring Doom and Panther facing off with their countries hanging in the balance. Great opportunity to utilize leadership.

I could see X-Men vs. Avengers being the actual direction Disney goes now, however.

Also, Mephisto and Dormammu could make decent large-scale antagonists.
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

Anagram posted...

scarletspeed7 posted...

I mean, Darkseid has a similar motivation. They aren't different at all.

Sure, they're both purple space warlords who own their own planet, train children who inevitably turn good and fight them, and want to find a macguffin that will let them conquer the universe/kill half of the universe's population, but Thanos' slightly more interesting reason for it is what distinguished them.

I mean, Darkseid having daddy issues that make him want to see the face of God is more interesting to me personally since he is, at heart, pitiful.
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer

SmartMuffin posted...

I don't really want the Guardians in the regular universe but I guess I'm probably alone on that one...

I think you missed the boat on that one the moment the first movie introduced Ronan.
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"Reading would be your friend." ~Dave Meltzer