Poll of the Day > All Geek's Eve

(+) Yeah! (+)

The Wave Master posted...

We were all right about ole Brock Lesnar keeping the belt. Braun Strowman should be the champ, but WWE has decided to run this whole Lesnar "World Beater" angle into the ground.

Meh.

The Wave Master posted...

I'm just not a Lesnar fan. He's a big muscle bound jock that can't really wrestle any longer or cut a promo. He's a glorified MMA fighter that is coasting on his name.

My test of a good wrestler is if you can name at least 3 matches that the performer had that were just great or you can remember off the top of your head. And yes, I put Roman Reigns on that list too. His Royal Rumble performance 5 years ago is the only match I watched of his that I truly enjoyed.

He has a limited moveset, very little interest in the business, zero prom skills, etc, but he has a great physique, looks great doing his few moves, and has a naturally douchey face that reminds me of Joffrey. I'd probably be okay with him if he actually appeared more often but, as it is, he's one of the reasons I stopped watching again years ago since he just holds the belt while doing nothing with it half the time.

The Wave Master posted...

I guess we have to talk about Cena now. He's off to shoot that terrible Bumblebee prequel movie so of course he was going to lose to Roman last night. Still the elephant in the room is that damn bald spot he has going on. Who told him that was a good look?

It's less about the movie than it is about Roman being built up as Cena 2.0. If it'd been a best of 3, Roman would have won all 3.
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Hey, Kanagaroo, the Ivalice raids begin in 4.1, which should be next week. *wink*
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We finally watched Star Trek Discovery, and it is very expensive. (To quote Mr. Dink from Doug.) Thats not a bad thing at all, but it brings up or distracts from a huge problem.

Lack of character development.

Aside from Michelle Yeoh's character and Sonequa Green-Martin's character no one else had any character development at all. I know it's the first episode, but what makes Star Trek so great is the variety of the supporting cast. There is no Worf, Jorde, or Data in this group, and the show suffers from that. It looks gorgeous, it's well acted, and the plot is serviceable, but the characters are lacking, and because of that I'm not paying 6 dollars a month to continue to watch.

The Orville on the other hand isn't as bad as the promos look. I'm shocked to be typing that too. The third episode in particular was deep and nuanced, even though it has those Seth MacFarlane tropes.
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Zeus posted...

It's less about the movie than it is about Roman being built up as Cena 2.0. If it'd been a best of 3, Roman would have won all 3.

I was listening to Meltzer talk about how it should have been a best of 3 series, and how having the blow off to the feud after the first match felt wrong, and I was like "Wait, does he not know that Cena is leaving for months to film, so the WWE had absolutely no option to plan anything different in terms of timing?"

Because the way he was talking he sounded like he had no idea, while from my perspective it seems like literally every fan who is even slightly in the loop was aware that Cena was leaving after the entire time, because the studio being unwilling to have him continue wrestling while filming was a pretty public story.

I don't think I'd ever think "Well, the WWE should have done this" when I already knew that external factors made it pretty much impossible for the WWE to do anything other than what they actually did.

I mean, about the only real difference they could have done was to book Cena to beat Roman, but that wasn't even remotely going to happen in any conceivable universe, unless Roman got caught murdering people or diddling kids the day before the PPV. And even then, there's still a good chance the WWE would have pushed him anyway.

In a similar sense, there was zero chance the Braun/Brock match was going to end in any other way, because no matter how stupid it may be, the WWE is locked into building Brock right up until they feed him to Roman, so neither of them are likely to lose a major feud between now and WrestleMania (and the scuttlebutt is that Roman's next feud is going to involve beating Miz for the US Title so Roman can become a grand slam champ in advance of winning the Universal title from Brock, while they're probably going to feed Balor to Brock for his next feud once he comes back again).

About the only real decision made during the PPV that I felt was still up in the air (and where the WWE made the absolutely worst possible choice for the finish) was the Cruiserweight title, but that's mostly because I fucking loathe Enzo.


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Entity13 posted...

Hey, Kanagaroo, the Ivalice raids begin in 4.1, which should be next week. *wink*

Matsuno's talent is being put to waste.

To be honest, I'd like to play it, but is it worth redownloading the game, buying Stormblood, paying for a one month sub, then playing through the entire campaign just to be able to play this one raid? Hell no. I'll just replay Tactics Ogre and get my Matsuno fix. Or I could watch a video of the raid on youtube.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

I was listening to Meltzer talk about how it should have been a best of 3 series, and how having the blow off to the feud after the first match felt wrong, and I was like "Wait, does he not know that Cena is leaving for months to film, so the WWE had absolutely no option to plan anything different in terms of timing?"

Because the way he was talking he sounded like he had no idea, while from my perspective it seems like literally every fan who is even slightly in the loop was aware that Cena was leaving after the entire time, because the studio being unwilling to have him continue wrestling while filming was a pretty public story.

I don't think I'd ever think "Well, the WWE should have done this" when I already knew that external factors made it pretty much impossible for the WWE to do anything other than what they actually did.

Here's the thing, though -- and probably what Meltzer was getting at -- WWE *knew* beforehand how long they'd have Cena. There was no specific reason to just start a random feud now. They COULD have had a best of 3 had they scheduled things for a different time.

It's not a matter of external factors making it impossible, but internal stupidity giving us weird booking. However, given that everybody is just going to be fed to Roman anyway, it doesn't much matter.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

About the only real decision made during the PPV that I felt was still up in the air (and where the WWE made the absolutely worst possible choice for the finish) was the Cruiserweight title, but that's mostly because I fucking loathe Enzo.

I love Enzo the entertainer, but the guy has *never* had even passable in-ring and it's stupid to book him in a division that's pushing high-flying, nonsensical high-precision in-ring work.

Granted, Enzo has always been popular for his mic work and personality so... idk, maybe it can help the division somehow?
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Zeus posted...

Here's the thing, though -- and probably what Meltzer was getting at -- WWE *knew* beforehand how long they'd have Cena. There was no specific reason to just start a random feud now. They COULD have had a best of 3 had they scheduled things for a different time.

I'll grant that, though I think the problem there is that they're desperate to pop ratings and Cena seems to be the only one capable of actually doing that (which is why he's a "free agent" now, so they can use him on either show when they need to).

(It's the similar reason why Vince showed up on SmackDown - because there's a perception (which is mostly accurate, honestly) that McMahons pop ratings. And they are absolutely DESPERATE to boost ratings, because ticket sales are abysmal and renegotiation time for the TV deal is coming up again soon.)

And that was one of the problems with the lead-up to the Cena/Roman feud. Every time they had a back-and-forth, nearly everything Cena said was absolutely true, while almost everything Roman said was wrong. Ratings ARE down. PPV/Network buys are down. Live show attendance is down. Merch is down. The WWE does need Cena to keep coming back, even if only part-time (because he always pops ratings), while Roman is in no way capable of carrying the show on his own without better draws to help him.

As for why they pushed the Cena/Roman feud a bit prematurely, it seems like the common assumption in WWE creative is that Cena isn't going to be an active wrestler all that much longer (see also, the trajectory of The Rock), since he IS actually succeeding in Hollywood to some degree. So they have to get as many "Old guy jobs to put the new guy over" matches out of the way as they can before he leaves for good. And since they're not sure how many more feuds they can get out of him (or even potentially how long they're going to have him for even after he comes back from the Bumblebee movie), they felt it was better to get the Roman feud out of the way now rather than put it off (and potentially lose it entirely, or have to put it off until after Roman/Brock).

WWE logic actually makes perfect sense, IF you look at the world they way they see it (ie, that Roman is absolutely going to be "the guy", and that the audience will eventually accept him if they just keep pushing him hard enough and give him enough "moments". It also makes it easy to predict every booking decision they make (for instance, I ABSOLUTELY KNEW going in the Cena match was going to end with the "put the guy over handshake of respect" spot - and I also knew it was going to fail spectacularly because I understand the audience better than WWE does).

I'm not saying they're RIGHT (they absolutely aren't), but I do understand how they see the world, and it explains so many of their terrible decisions (like putting Jinder over to pander to India, even if that absolutely failed as well).


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Zeus posted...

I love Enzo the entertainer, but the guy has *never* had even passable in-ring and it's stupid to book him in a division that's pushing high-flying, nonsensical high-precision in-ring work.

That's the real problem I have with him, honestly - Enzo "the entertainer" is the ONLY part of him that's over at all, and I absolutely loathe Enzo "the entertainer". I find very little of what he says entertaining in any way, nor does it help that it usually seems to take him 5 minutes to say what anyone else could get across in about 30 seconds. Almost all of his crowd appeal comes from the "sing along" part of his act, and even that is waning (fans aren't as hot on him as they used to be). I find him awkward at best and stupid and annoying at worst.

I deliberately get up and leave the room when he's talking at this point, because his monologues are pretty much nails-on-chalkboard for me, and even in "dueling" promos he still tends to come across like an idiot.

I could probably overlook the fact that he's a repugnant little shit if he was at least a strong ring worker (though workrate has never gotten over with me as much as it does a lot of the smarks), but in the ring his only real strength is ridiculously overselling when he's getting a beatdown, which really isn't a recipe for being an over face wrestler.

I get that he's still strongly over with at least some of the audience (though again, that's waning, especially since the WWE keeps punishing him for being a dick backstage, and constantly getting shit on tends to be a heat killer). But I hate him so, so much.



Zeus posted...

Granted, Enzo has always been popular for his mic work and personality so... idk, maybe it can help the division somehow?

That's the general presumption behind the booking, in most people's eyes - the division isn't over, so put the belt on someone who IS over, and it will help the division get over.

The problem is, the division isn't over because of how they book it, and how they treat it like a completely unimportant afterthought in the context of the main product (because Vince doesn't give a shit about it), and that has absolutely nothing to do with who's wearing the title. Worse, because Enzo basically went from being an absolute 110% jobber in the main show to becoming the champ in 205 Live almost instantly, it just makes the entire Cruiserweight product come across as being even more meaningless and subpar than it already was.

Rather than elevate the division, putting Enzo on top just sort of buries it even more.

Again, it's a case of being able to UNDERSTAND why the WWE makes the decisions it does, but also being able to see just how wrong those decisions are because I apparently understand the audience way more than the WWE itself does anymore (which might be because things are still being run by a delusional old man who refuses to let fresher minds steer the ship).


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ParanoidObsessive posted...

because there's a perception (which is mostly accurate, honestly) that McMahons pop ratings.

Not sure Steph does any more =p

ParanoidObsessive posted...

The WWE does need Cena to keep coming back, even if only part-time (because he always pops ratings), while Roman is in no way capable of carrying the show on his own without better draws to help him.

Well, they more need to develop actual talent who can sell tickets instead of sinking more time, money, and resources into a failed investment, but that's not going to happen.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

WWE logic actually makes perfect sense, IF you look at the world they way they see it (ie, that Roman is absolutely going to be "the guy", and that the audience will eventually accept him if they just keep pushing him hard enough and give him enough "moments". It also makes it easy to predict every booking decision they make (for instance, I ABSOLUTELY KNEW going in the Cena match was going to end with the "put the guy over handshake of respect" spot - and I also knew it was going to fail spectacularly because I understand the audience better than WWE does).

Understanding an insane logic doesn't mean it makes sense, it just means going a little crazy yourself =p However, in general, face-feuds *have* to end with a sign of respect. It's part of the gimmick

ParanoidObsessive posted...

I deliberately get up and leave the room when he's talking at this point, because his monologues are pretty much nails-on-chalkboard for me, and even in "dueling" promos he still tends to come across like an idiot.

Well, part of his gimmick is that he's an idiot... He's one of the few guys who can credibly sell whatever the writers put down on paper because their stupid and goofy won't hurt a deliberately stupid and goofy character.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Worse, because Enzo basically went from being an absolute 110% jobber in the main show to becoming the champ in 205 Live almost instantly, it just makes the entire Cruiserweight product come across as being even more meaningless and subpar than it already was.

I know, it makes me giggle. Plus supposedly his match against the Miz was among the worst in recent memory. I'm half-tempted to track that one down just to see if it's really as awful as commentators have claimed.
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Zeus posted...

ParanoidObsessive posted...

because there's a perception (which is mostly accurate, honestly) that McMahons pop ratings.

Not sure Steph does any more =p

To be fair, that's a two-fold problem.

First, the effectiveness is muted by appearing on TV constantly. Vince got his recent pop (and upsurge of ratings) because he hasn't been on TV for a while. And Shane popped the crowd when he came back because he'd been gone for years at that point. But Steph was on TV every single week for an extended period of time, so people started getting sick of her.

And second, the real problem with Steph is that about 90% of the storylines she's involved in are basically her shitting on or putting herself over the wrestlers with absolutely no payback or comeuppance whatsoever, ever. Pretty much every time you see her she's being a grade-A turbo c***, yet almost no one ever really wins against her or shits on her effectively in promos, and she never gets the piss smacked out of her or gets thrown through a table or anything (and the one time she DID take a bump recently, it only happened "by accident", and when her husband was involved, so it had zero impact).

She doesn't actually seem to understand that even when he was at the height of his douchebaggery Vince was still getting Stone Cold Stunnered every other week, or having the shit kicked out of him with him blading after getting thrown off a cell or whatever (and Shane tends to benefit from similar suicidal tendencies). She's the only McMahon who gets presented as the untouchable golden girl who can't really be defeated. And since she's in charge of creative and her husband is the main wrestling guy, the fans are fully aware that she's responsible for her own Mary Sue presentation, and react more negatively because of it (ie, she might take less flack for it if it was at least someone else writing the script for her, and she had little say in how she was being presented).

But even Steph will likely pop a reaction when she inevitably comes back after being gone for a while. It's the end result of the WWE basically spending the last 20 years booking storylines that repeatedly tell us the McMahons are more important than any individual wrestler.



Zeus posted...

Well, they more need to develop actual talent who can sell tickets instead of sinking more time, money, and resources into a failed investment, but that's not going to happen.

I agree, but you can't really spin stars out of nothing in the short-term, so they still have to rely on established stars to carry the product until they can put new talent over enough to be strong draws, even if they started doing everything right tomorrow.

But because they've done such a shit job of MAKING new stars, they're running out of people to turn to as the older guys leave. With Undertaker being mostly retired, Angle apparently unable to wrestle, and guys like Jericho and Cena becoming more of occasional part-time acts, they're basically being forced to rely on guys who haven't actually managed to become significant draws (even the Internet darlings, let alone people like Roman).


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Zeus posted...

However, in general, face-feuds *have* to end with a sign of respect. It's part of the gimmick

Not really. Plenty of face feuds ended with both faces either just sort of moving on, or one face sort of drifting off without really acknowledging the loss. Arguably, the WWE has booked multiple face vs face storylines lately, and almost none of them have ended with the "HANDSHAKE OF RESPECT" spot.

But when you're dealing with a feud which is entirely built on the premise of "You can't carry the company without me," and you absolutely know the company is pushing the guy as the future of the company, it would have ended the exact same way even if Cena was a heel, Roman was a heel, or they were both heels. The entire feud existed solely for that payoff, so the WWE can go "See? Cena likes Roman now! He respects him! WHY WON'T YOU LOVE ROMAN?!"



Zeus posted...

Well, part of his gimmick is that he's an idiot... He's one of the few guys who can credibly sell whatever the writers put down on paper because their stupid and goofy won't hurt a deliberately stupid and goofy character.

Yeah, but "It's okay, he's SUPPOSED to be an annoying idiot!" doesn't actually make him any less annoying. If anything, it makes him worse, because I know there are people who consciously CHOSE to make him that much of a shitheel rather than him just not knowing any better.

And honestly, Enzo can't really credibly sell anything, apart from song lyrics or catchphrases the crowd can chant along with. Oh, and poop jokes. When they have him try to tell a story that's even remotely complex he starts to stumble over it and the crowd tunes out anyway, because they're just waiting for him to finish and get to the point where they can spell out SAWFT.


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ParanoidObsessive posted...

And second, the real problem with Steph is that about 90% of the storylines she's involved in are basically her shitting on or putting herself over the wrestlers with absolutely no payback or comeuppance whatsoever, ever. Pretty much every time you see her she's being a grade-A turbo c***, yet almost no one ever really wins against her or shits on her effectively in promos, and she never gets the piss smacked out of her or gets thrown through a table or anything (and the one time she DID take a bump recently, it only happened "by accident", and when her husband was involved, so it had zero impact).

She doesn't actually seem to understand that even when he was at the height of his douchebaggery Vince was still getting Stone Cold Stunnered every other week, or having the shit kicked out of him with him blading after getting thrown off a cell or whatever (and Shane tends to benefit from similar suicidal tendencies).

Which is also a gender issue, because the WWE -- like wrestling promos before it -- generally don't like depicting male wrestlers beating up female talent. The only recent times I can recall anybody getting her back was when Vickie shoved her in a vat of mud and when Brie slapped her.... although that didn't really end the feud and things continued to go quite a bit longer.

(Thus I present to you one of the *only* times Steph was paid back)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDbxKHhotus

Granted, I guess Steph has little excuse because Vickie -- also not a performer and in way worse shape -- jobbed to some of the female wrestlers and took some bumps before getting out of the business. Not that the female non-wrestlers ever take the bumps that male non-wrestlers take. I think Jon Stewart took a bigger bump than most of the female non-wrestlers.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Not really. Plenty of face feuds ended with both faces either just sort of moving on, or one face sort of drifting off without really acknowledging the loss. Arguably, the WWE has booked multiple face vs face storylines lately, and almost none of them have ended with the "HANDSHAKE OF RESPECT" spot.

Maybe I'm thinking more old school then, because faces acknowledging faces beating them -- either holding their arm up or shaking their hand -- is kinda the image impressed on my mind. Come to think of it, even D-Bry's match vs Reigns ended with a handshake.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

But when you're dealing with a feud which is entirely built on the premise of "You can't carry the company without me," and you absolutely know the company is pushing the guy as the future of the company, it would have ended the exact same way even if Cena was a heel, Roman was a heel, or they were both heels. The entire feud existed solely for that payoff, so the WWE can go "See? Cena likes Roman now! He respects him! WHY WON'T YOU LOVE ROMAN?!"

Yeah... I can kinda see the issue since it wasn't a matter of "who's the better man?" so much as it was "this company is dying with you in the main event spot" which can't be resolved with a win or loss.
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ParanoidObsessive posted...

Yeah, but "It's okay, he's SUPPOSED to be an annoying idiot!" doesn't actually make him any less annoying. If anything, it makes him worse, because I know there are people who consciously CHOSE to make him that much of a shitheel rather than him just not knowing any better.

He's a comic relief character. That's kinda just the territory.

Granted, it does bring to mind Miz's "Go Away" heat where his character was meant to be annoying but he was so legitimately annoying -- and generally bad -- that nobody actually wanted to see him fight despite drawing a huge crowd reaction. (His promo work has gotten better over the years, but his in-ring is still awful.)

ParanoidObsessive posted...

And honestly, Enzo can't really credibly sell anything, apart from song lyrics or catchphrases the crowd can chant along with. Oh, and poop jokes. When they have him try to tell a story that's even remotely complex he starts to stumble over it and the crowd tunes out anyway, because they're just waiting for him to finish and get to the point where they can spell out SAWFT.

You know, a lot of WWE stars would KILL for that kind of a crowd reaction, though. Roman Reigns, for one.
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Sony has said that they are not currently making or planning to make a successor to the PlayStation Vita, or any kind of hybrid console/handheld.

I think that's a smart business decision. Andrew House of Sony said that with the rise of cell phones as every day portable devices that a handheld outside of Asia really isn't needed.

Once again, I agree. Just focus on great games, and making a solid PS5 one day, and try not to compete with Nintendo in a market you're not fully invested in anyway.
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One of those rare cases where Sony is smarter than Nintendo.
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With a court ruling today in the Osaka District Court tattooing is now pretty much illegal in Japan. That is unless you have a medical license, and theu dpnt osdue tattoo licences. You have to be a doctor to be a tattooist. The Japanese claim that it's a medical procedure because needles pierce the skin and inject ink. This procedure can cause disease and side effects and they believe that only a licensed physician should perform the procedure.

The other reason for the banning is a cultural one in that tattoos bring dishonor to your parents, family, and yourself because it alters the purity of what your ancestors and parents have bestowed upon you. Plus after World War II the Yakuza used it as a symbol of their members, so there is that.

I don't have or even like tattoos. However tattoos are art and an expression of one's self. Still, seeing some truly terrible tattoos in America maybe only licensed and experienced artist should do the work. Not some random guy on the corner or some punk in jailwith some seeing needles.
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Do anyone other than Yakuza members even get tattoos in Japan? Maybe 10 people in the entire country.

But hey, I'm in favor of regulating the industry. There are very few rules about it here in the States, which leads to infections from time to time.

Zeus posted...

Which is also a gender issue, because the WWE -- like wrestling promos before it -- generally don't like depicting male wrestlers beating up female talent. The only recent times I can recall anybody getting her back was when Vickie shoved her in a vat of mud and when Brie slapped her.... although that didn't really end the feud and things continued to go quite a bit longer.

Oh, I agree.

But that's sort of the point. When you KNOW that you can't do inter-gender angles because you're terrified it will hurt your PG status, then you shouldn't be booking storylines like that in the first place.

If anything, the best scenario there would be to book Steph as more of a face (see also, Shane), and have her actively praise and put over wrestlers, so there's no NEED for anyone to get payback against her. If you feel like you still need a foil for them to play off (though as Cornette has pointed out, the evil management figure is neither necessary nor necessarily the best idea creatively anyway), you could always have the dynamic where Triple H is the heel who can be actively fought, while Steph is always the more understanding face side of the couple. Or you could just do the thing they're doing now, where each show has an active GM and a more distant Commissioner role, and have Steph be the face Commissioner who occasionally appears while also having a more blatant chickenshit slimy heel in the GM role, who can screw people over (and get the crap beat out of them), but who has to become servile and put on the more respectable face when Steph shows up.

Conversely, you could be a bit more nuanced and just have Steph as a face who puts over and has open respect for faces and who is a bit more annoyed with heels, but with the heels still being able to "win" by exploiting loopholes or breaking rules, so they aren't constantly entirely emasculated by her with no recourse. ie, basically playing the management role that nearly every company (even the WWF - see also Jack Tunney and Gorilla Monsoon) had before Vince became a supervillain.

But none of this happens because Steph is the one in charge of creative, and she doesn't actually care about putting her talent over, as much as she likes going on the occasional power-trip and showing off a bit.


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Enzo has gone from quickly entertaining to a loud mouth piece of trash. I think he needs Big Cass to make him palatable. Plus Big Cass was good on the mic and decent in the ring too. Big Cass didn't need Enzo, but Enzo needed big Cass.

With Enzo turning heel on Raw Monday it seemed more of a locker room decision than a logical creative one. He's sadly over as a face and sells merchandise, and flipping him to a heel means losing some of the merch sales. However, it's going to make the locker room happy, and a happy work environment might be better than a few more t-shirt sales.

We all know by now that Enzo is an ass, and is hated in the locker room, and has been kicked off the tour bus. Moving down to 205 Live was a good move creatively and social wise because it got rid of him in the main locker room, and got him to a division that needs a mouth piece.
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MotherFUCKER.

I'm pretty sure GameFAQs just changed their coding again, fucking up my ability to properly format posts YET AGAIN.

At this point, I'm starting to feel like we could put a chimpanzee in front of a computer and it code code better than whatever minimum wage assholes this site hires.
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Maybe they just don't like you.

I'm not seeing the problem here.
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Entity13 posted...

I'm not seeing the problem here.

<P></P>
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That's the problem. They've ruined line spacing for like the fifth time.
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ParanoidObsessive posted...

Entity13 posted...

I'm not seeing the problem here.

<P></P>
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That's the problem. They've ruined line spacing for like the fifth time.
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What sort of janky-ass formatting are you using? See, this is why we stopped putting two spaces after punctuation back in '70s <_<

The Wave Master posted...

Sony has said that they are not currently making or planning to make a successor to the PlayStation Vita, or any kind of hybrid console/handheld.

I think that's a smart business decision. Andrew House of Sony said that with the rise of cell phones as every day portable devices that a handheld outside of Asia really isn't needed.

Once again, I agree. Just focus on great games, and making a solid PS5 one day, and try not to compete with Nintendo in a market you're not fully invested in anyway.

Keep in mind Sony also called the analog stick a gimmick. Relying on them for having their finger on the button of the industry isn't a great idea. Not to mention that they're trying to save face and blame the lackluster performance of their handhelds on market conditions.

The Wave Master posted...

With a court ruling today in the Osaka District Court tattooing is now pretty much illegal in Japan. That is unless you have a medical license, and theu dpnt osdue tattoo licences. You have to be a doctor to be a tattooist. The Japanese claim that it's a medical procedure because needles pierce the skin and inject ink. This procedure can cause disease and side effects and they believe that only a licensed physician should perform the procedure.

The other reason for the banning is a cultural one in that tattoos bring dishonor to your parents, family, and yourself because it alters the purity of what your ancestors and parents have bestowed upon you. Plus after World War II the Yakuza used it as a symbol of their members, so there is that.

I don't have or even like tattoos. However tattoos are art and an expression of one's self. Still, seeing some truly terrible tattoos in America maybe only licensed and experienced artist should do the work. Not some random guy on the corner or some punk in jailwith some seeing needles.

Yeah, that's a whole major taboo over there where people have been fired over having tattoos, even ones that are covered by clothing at times.

While I kinda like the look of some tattoos, I'd never get ink because I'm never sure what I'll still like down the road, if my body type changes it'll look like crap, and also because I don't like identifying marks on my body *just* in case I someday need to go into hiding and/or adopt a new identity.

Raganork posted...

Do anyone other than Yakuza members even get tattoos in Japan? Maybe 10 people in the entire country.

Mostly young people. If not for the restriction, it might someday become a major trend.
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ParanoidObsessive posted...

If anything, the best scenario there would be to book Steph as more of a face (see also, Shane), and have her actively praise and put over wrestlers, so there's no NEED for anyone to get payback against her.

In general, promoters *should* be booked more as faces. Rarely does anything good come out of fans hating the company. While VKM's heel run may seem like an exception, that was more an example of transitioning legit hatred into kayfabe hate and pretty much the only time when that really makes sense.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

(though as Cornette has pointed out, the evil management figure is neither necessary nor necessarily the best idea creatively anyway)

Yeah, he also blames it for one of the reasons why fans hate Reigns because we've been unconsciously trained to hate and resent the WWE's management and he's their handpicked guy. (Or maybe that was a Jericho and Lance Storm interview I'm thinking of?) Honestly, I can kinda see it.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

Conversely, you could be a bit more nuanced and just have Steph as a face who puts over and has open respect for faces and who is a bit more annoyed with heels, but with the heels still being able to "win" by exploiting loopholes or breaking rules, so they aren't constantly entirely emasculated by her with no recourse. ie, basically playing the management role that nearly every company (even the WWF - see also Jack Tunney and Gorilla Monsoon) had before Vince became a supervillain.

But none of this happens because Steph is the one in charge of creative, and she doesn't actually care about putting her talent over, as much as she likes going on the occasional power-trip and showing off a bit.

I'm not sure that it's only a matter of ego, I think it's also a matter of her just not that smart to the business. (Granted, I guess you could argue that her ego gets in the way of her learning how things were done and why they were done, instead of just relying on what she learned from her daddy who, while he has a better understanding of how things worked, settled too much into a niche and had always favored the goofier style of pro wrestling.)

The Wave Master posted...

Enzo has gone from quickly entertaining to a loud mouth piece of trash. I think he needs Big Cass to make him palatable. Plus Big Cass was good on the mic and decent in the ring too. Big Cass didn't need Enzo, but Enzo needed big Cass.

If I had a dime for every time somebody called Enzo a loud mouth piece of trash, I'd have ONE dimes!

I never liked Cass's mic work or in-ring but yes, Enzo works better when he has somebody out there to bounce things off of and to hide how awful his in-ring is. I still remember Melter railing on how Enzo's botch in a match with Cesaro (something about lifting and tossing Enzo over the top rope) made Cesaro look weak.

The Wave Master posted...

With Enzo turning heel on Raw Monday it seemed more of a locker room decision than a logical creative one. He's sadly over as a face and sells merchandise, and flipping him to a heel means losing some of the merch sales. However, it's going to make the locker room happy, and a happy work environment might be better than a few more t-shirt sales.

Good luck selling him as a heel, though.

The Wave Master posted...

We all know by now that Enzo is an ass, and is hated in the locker room, and has been kicked off the tour bus. Moving down to 205 Live was a good move creatively and social wise because it got rid of him in the main locker room, and got him to a division that needs a mouth piece.

I've actually been pleasantly amused by the stories that, as obnoxious as he is in the ring, he's worse on the road.
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Raganork posted...

What sort of janky-ass formatting are you using?

The awkward compromise format I've been forced into using because GameFAQs keeps constantly breaking line spacing.

Originally the site allowed for easy spacing between the body of text and your sig line, but that was ruined once they separated signatures out of the text field and make them an automatic attachment. Then I switched to using <br> to make the space, until they fucked that up as well. For a while a simple <P> worked, then I eventually had to start using <P></P><P></P> to do it.

Now I'm apparently going to be switching to using italics with a space (so basically {I} {/I}{I} {/I}, except with brackets), because that still seems to work (though I'm sure they'll fuck that up eventually as well). Except now I also have to add it between separate sections as well, because it seems like the board is now incapable of seeing anything resembling a double line break without deleting the excess.

(so on a site where character limits are a thing, now every post I make is likely going to have at least 16-32 worthless extra characters forced into it)

Though on the plus side, I suppose all of these code updates have led to wonderful site-wide advances, like all of the shitty features I don't actually use, and style formatting that I've been deliberately blocking for years now. Oh, and I suppose it apparently makes the site look better on mobile, except I wouldn't know because it will be a cold day in hell before I ever actually come to this site on anything resembling a smart phone.



Raganork posted...

See, this is why we stopped putting two spaces after punctuation back in '70s <_<

I still do it. You just never notice because the site automatically deletes out the second space.


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https://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/6-gamefaqs-announcements/75819799

Yep, there is it.

Learn to code, fuckers.


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Got an email yesterday about some Nintendo world championships thing:
https://nwc.nintendo.com/

Naturally, the first thing I thought of was The Wiz. However, the landing page doesn't give details as to what will played or the rules. *Maybe* those were included in the video which I couldn't load.
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Hugh Hefner will be missed.

He made porn classy, cool, sexy, and mainstream. Playboy isn't seen as porn at all. It's more of a tasteful, artful, nude photo spread.

I know with the advent of the internet magazines are all but gone, but he made the world a better place because he believe and supported the fact that women like sex too. How crazy is that; especially for the 1950's.

Hopefully he's enjoying that big grotto in the sky.
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Forbes OP-ED criticizing Metwtwo/elite raids in PoGo
https://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2017/09/28/its-unclear-what-pokemon-gos-exclusive-mewtwo-raids-are-actually-adding-to-the-game

In general, not sure why sources like Forbes, etc, have been covering this sort of stuff but I guess everybody needs to branch out these days for readership. More importantly, I still haven't got an elite pass myself.
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I was able to score a SNES Classic Edition this morning. I waited in line two hours, but I was able to get a couple. I heard that there were still a lot of them in the wild so maybe Nintendo produced more than 2 million in Total this time.

Just a Public Service announcement: Inhumans comes on television tonight. It's going to be two hours of dog ****. However, if you don't have anything better to do, or you didn't score a SNES mini you could watch this and rethink your life decisions.

Or it's Friday night and you can literally do anything else. Anything would be better than watching this mess. So excuse me as I fire up Super Metroid and Final Fantasy VI like I did Friday night's in middle school.

I just wish Family Matters came on too. TGIF.
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The Wave Master posted...

I was able to score a SNES Classic Edition this morning. I waited in line two hours, but I was able to get a couple. I heard that there were still a lot of them in the wild so maybe Nintendo produced more than 2 million in Total this time.

Still waffling on it. I have a SNES and at least some of the games it offers, but I kinda like the look of the unit. Meh.
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I'm just gonna walk into some stores tomorrow during some casual shopping, and if I find a SNES Classic, great. If not, no biggie. I'm sure I'll find one in the wild eventually. Turns out Nintendo wasn't full of shit this time when they said they'd produce a sufficient quantity. Can we ease up just a tad on the Nintendo hate now? Yeah fucking right

No, I will not ease up on the Nintendo hate.

They still don't have a solid online portal for The Switch.

There is no Virtual co nsole for The Switch.

They made a console that is barely more powerful than the PS3. (Its a lot more powerful but not as strong as s ps4 or Xbone.)

They took our jobs!

Reggie is a damn sorry liar.

They almost killed Metroid.

They shut down any fan made projects. Even the free ones.

Their steaming policy is archaic.

They took our jobs!
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The Wave Master posted...

They took our jobs!

To be fair, Mario is the hardest working plumber I have ever seen.
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According to Nintendo Mario isn't a Plummer any longer. He's just a free lance adwvnturer.

Granted he's had several jobs; too many to name. .so instead of "They took our jons!" It's "Mario took our jobs." He took our jobs!
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Finally someone has pointed out that Brock Leaner can't freaking wrestle anymore.

https://deadspin.com/brock-lesnars-matches-keep-getting-harder-to-watch-1819002421

I didn't even know he was 40. I knew he was getting up there in age, but the big 4 ..0... wow.

Anyway, he is clearly getting blown up in very short matches. Someone of his stature shouldn't get tired after 8 minutes of light work. He's getting all beet red, blue, purple and winded in no time at all. He's a few colors away from being a bowl of fruit loops during these matches.

I do not like Leaner anyway so maybe it's time to put him out to pasture. He's a waste of space, a crappy wrestler, and a boribg attraction. I think we all agree that it's time to move on.
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The Wave Master posted...

No, I will not ease up on the Nintendo hate.

They still don't have a solid online portal for The Switch.

There is no Virtual co nsole for The Switch.

They made a console that is barely more powerful than the PS3. (Its a lot more powerful but not as strong as s ps4 or Xbone.)

They took our jobs!

Reggie is a damn sorry liar.

They almost killed Metroid.

They shut down any fan made projects. Even the free ones.

Their steaming policy is archaic.

They took our jobs!

I'm sure they're going to add VC for the Switch eventually, so the rage now seems silly.

The system power complaint is nonsense and, if you care more about the hardware than the software, you need to re-evaluate their priorities.

Why should you be mad about them shutting down fan projects which infringe on their trademarks, copyrights, etc? For starters, if a company doesn't police its intellectual properties, they can fall into the public domain. Second, it's a form of piracy.

And there are countless companies which have actually killed cooler franchises than Metroid. Just look at everything Capcom has done to Mega Man (or hasn't done with it) and how Tecmo ditched Monster Rancher. Instead of bemoaning everything that isn't done with a franchise, you should enjoy what you have (although I wish that they localized those MR smartphone games)
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The Wave Master posted...

According to Nintendo Mario isn't a Plummer any longer. He's just a free lance adwvnturer.

Granted he's had several jobs; too many to name. .so instead of "They took our jons!" It's "Mario took our jobs." He took our jobs!

He paid his union dues for 30 years, took his early retirement in the mushroom kingdom and now he's a retired plumber.

But he's still a plumber dammit. He may not be actively plumbing now, but he earned the title by trade.

A doctor doesn't stop being a doctor just because he isn't actively practicing medicine after all...
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The Wave Master posted...

According to Nintendo Mario isn't a Plummer any longer. He's just a free lance adwvnturer.

Granted he's had several jobs; too many to name. .so instead of "They took our jons!" It's "Mario took our jobs." He took our jobs!

That was a big thing weeks ago. Also what's up with all the typos? =p

The Wave Master posted...

Finally someone has pointed out that Brock Leaner can't freaking wrestle anymore.

https://deadspin.com/brock-lesnars-matches-keep-getting-harder-to-watch-1819002421

I didn't even know he was 40. I knew he was getting up there in age, but the big 4 ..0... wow.

Anyway, he is clearly getting blown up in very short matches. Someone of his stature shouldn't get tired after 8 minutes of light work. He's getting all beet red, blue, purple and winded in no time at all. He's a few colors away from being a bowl of fruit loops during these matches.

I do not like Leaner anyway so maybe it's time to put him out to pasture. He's a waste of space, a crappy wrestler, and a boribg attraction. I think we all agree that it's time to move on.

A lot of people have criticized Lesnar as not being able to really go all that hard any more, although others -- like Meltzer -- insist he can still have a good match when he wants. And, honestly, turning 40 is no real excuse considering that other stars were active wrestlers well past that. HBK was still going pretty strong at 45. Ric Flair was an active performer in his 50s and part of his 60s, iirc. Not to mention that Lesnar hasn't even taken nearly as much damage as a lot of other wrestlers.
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Zeus posted...

That was a big thing weeks ago. Also what's up with all the typos? =p

Wave's phone has been infected by a rogue AI that's been actively trying to sabotage his posts for the past year.

I hate my phone. It lives and feeds on typos.
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Bank Robber, who is a much bigger Star Trek fan than I ever will be, agreed with me that The Orville is a better Star Trek show than Star Trek Discovery. My lovely wife agrees with him as well. (She too is a huge Star Trek fan versus my love for Star Wars.)

The last two episodes of The Orville have covered whether a child is born a gender or grows into a gender, and whether the child would be better off being a boy versus a girl in a male dominated society. Much like the one we exist in today.

The second episode asked whether ignorance is bliss, and if a backwards society should be forced into progressiveness or fail to evole and possibly become extinct.

The first three episodes of Star Trek Discovery have covered a human raised by Vulcans doing stupid and illogical things over and over again. Bit the specialeffects are gorgeous.

I'm not saying that Seth MacFarlane is the greatest writer of all time, but he's created a Star Trek show that pays homage to Trek more than an official Star Trek show. It's kind of amazing.
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Scarlett and I finally watched the terrible female led Ghostbusters reboot/sequel/alternative universe movie.

I don't want to come off sexist in this situation, because that has nothing to do with my opinion of the movie, but man was the movie just hot garbage.

Spoilers..... For a terrible movie.

All the men in the movie are either jerks, idiots, or the bad guy. That's not a spoiler, but clearly it was done on purpose to spite all the male internet trolls that said it wasn't going to work because it was all females instead of men.

That aside, the main bad guy built a ghost magnet machine, for reasons I'm still not sure about, based on a book that the main characters wrote. Granted this man has no physics degree, blueprints, or scientific background in general. He just builds the machine for no reason, with no technical experience, unknown and undetected in the basement of a giant fully staffed hotel over the course of a few years.In fact this guy works as a janitor in said hotel; He's not a damn criminal mastermind. Then he kills himself and becomes a ghost. How in the hell does he know he would become a ghost if he killed himself with the machine?

All that can't be ignored, but the biggest problem is that two of the four female Ghostbusters seem like they were in a different and sadly worse movie. Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones were great and having fun and fit in the wacky tone of the movie. However, Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wigg seemed to hate each other in real life, and were acting separately and not off each other. There was just no chemistry between them, and that just dragged the movie down.

Overall it was a train wreck, hell even a dumpster fire. My wife and I felt worse after watching this. If you haven't seen it do yourself a favor and don't.
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The Wave Master posted...

Bank Robber, who is a much bigger Star Trek fan than I ever will be,

Is he a former poster or something? I don't know that name.

The Wave Master posted...

The last two episodes of The Orville have covered whether a child is born a gender or grows into a gender, and whether the child would be better off being a boy versus a girl in a male dominated society. Much like the one we exist in today.

The second episode asked whether ignorance is bliss, and if a backwards society should be forced into progressiveness or fail to evole and possibly become extinct.

Not really selling me on it.

The Wave Master posted...

Scarlett and I finally watched the terrible female led Ghostbusters reboot/sequel/alternative universe movie.

After learning that Rowan's ghost is the big villain, I've kinda been intrigued to watch it. Started to watch a tiny bit of a clip near the end which piqued my interest, but didn't want to see the whole thing because I'd rather see the whole film.... although many of the other clips looked stupid, like the mannequin shit.
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The Wave Master posted...

Scarlett and I finally watched the terrible female led Ghostbusters reboot/sequel/alternative universe movie.

My gf and I watched Ghosts of Mars.
I'm not sure who came out on top between us.

shadowsword87 posted...

The Wave Master posted...

Scarlett and I finally watched the terrible female led Ghostbusters reboot/sequel/alternative universe movie.

My gf and I watched Ghosts of Mars.
I'm not sure who came out on top between us.

Kek. I think I caught half of that on Syfy one lazy afternoon years ago.
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Bank Robber is my best friend in real life. He's not a poster on these message boards. In fact he doesn't have any social media of any kind. No Facebook, Twitter, etc and I met him in elementary school and we have been friends ever since. He gets his name because he says if he ever got super powers he would rob a bank, for example:

"If you ever got telekinesis what would you do?"

"Rob a bank."

And so on and so forth....

He did have the best answer ever for this.

"Bank Robber, what comic book character is the hottest, and you would nail?"

"Mystique, as she can become any woman. The relationship would never get stale in the bedroom."

He is a very wise man.
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The Wave Master posted...

Bank Robber, who is a much bigger Star Trek fan than I ever will be, agreed with me that The Orville is a better Star Trek show than Star Trek Discovery. My lovely wife agrees with him as well. (She too is a huge Star Trek fan versus my love for Star Wars.)

The RedLetterMedia guys (two of whom are huge Star Trek nerds) said something I found interesting - namely, that Orville is basically capturing the spirit of old Star Trek far more faithfully, but sort of fails because it's a comedy written by Seth MacFarlane, so it feels more like self-insert Star Trek fanfic. But Discovery is very much in the vein of the JJ Abrams movies, which were barely Star Trek at all, as much as they were just mostly mindless action movies with the names of Star Trek characters in it.

I also saw another review where someone said that Discovery was a worthy successor to Gene Roddenberry's vision and he'd be proud of it if he were still alive (or something like that), and I was like, "Umm, no, Roddenberry's vision of the future was one where everything was mostly peaceful and the Federation were generally boring explorers, whereas this show has a captain who starts an intergalactic war mostly by being stupid and overly emotional - he'd absolutely loathe this show."

Fortunately, I've never really given much of a shit about Star Trek (it was never really my bag, because I was never into harder sci-fi, and I have a much more cynical view of human nature and what the future holds than Roddenberry ever did), so I have absolutely no horse in the current race. But even if I did, Discovery can go fuck itself because it will be a cold day in hell before I pay for a CBS streaming service just to watch it.


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