for real

Yo


This'll be a short message, devoid of cynism/sarcasm/random analogies. Hence the "short". 
I'm just writing this very little piece of blog-unworthy muck to reassure myself and that 1 reader that I'll be writing more often. Call it a promise that I'll desperately try to keep. Even if it's just for my own peace of mind.


Anyways, I've decided to rummage through online resources every week, to find a nationally televised pro wrestling show (bar TNA, I'm just not ready for that yet) and watch it. Mainly SmackDown! though. I'll watch RAW again when Michael Cole leaves the announcing booth, vintagely.


Besides that, I'll also abuse this little forum I've created for myself to praise music that I'm listening to a lot in the timeframe of the then blog in question. 


The previous blog was more or less a testament to what I'm trying to convey. Speaking of Testament ... hmm, nah. Next time, maybe.


arigatou~!


~D.

Entertainment, or so I've been told

Hail

I've promptly decided to write a blog, while I really should be doing coursework (Yes! I have started college again!)

This blog will be short, to the punch and completely at random.

First off, roughly 2 months ago, I found out Amorphis was releasing a live CD/DVD package called "Forging the Land of Thousand Lakes". I thoroughly enjoyed live versions with Tomi Joutsen providing vocals to "Sign from the North Side", "Black Winter Day" etc.. but at the same time I kept wondering how those songs would sound if they were actual studio quality, as in: studio record. 

I figured that would be a slim chance. It would never happen.

Fortunately, I couldn't be more wrong. 

On september 17th, Amorphis released "Magic & Mayhem - Tales from the Early Years" featuring re-recordings of fantastic songs from the first three albums with Tomi Joutsen doing vocals this time while former lead vocalist (and still rhythm guitarist) Tomi Koivusaari doing back up vocals on some songs. 

I came. Ahem. Of course, being the objective critic that I am, I checked out the album song for song and concluded that it was awesome, and thus I came.

Many would consider this record to be 'redundant', but at the same time, a true must-have for everyone who enjoys Joutsen's vocals. 

To give you an idea of Tomi's fantastic vocals:

At the very end, Tomi shows his fantastic grunting skills. As people have stated: "This man hides a monster"

Enough with the blatant plugging of one of my favorite bands. 

Whoever actually reads this (leave a comment while you're at it :D) will be pleased to hear that I finally bothered to catch up with TNA Hardcore Justice.

I can't help but be intrigued at the fact that people actually liked it. Of course, now having seen the PPV, I know just exactly why:

It's nothing more than a road trip to Ville de Nostalgie. It was pretty sad, really. While the various matches on the card showcased everyone's signature maneuvers (Kid Kash's flip dive, Dreamer DDT, ...) it was still not even half as good as what WWE did with ONS 2005. I specifically single out 2005, since 2006 and beyond were pretty much superstar infested crap doodles. The fact that they were limited due to copyright issues was laughable. Calling Balls Mahoney "cojones" and Justin Credible "PJ Polaco" made it seem that much more of a amateur gathering.

Seeing New Jack and Mustafa though was fantastic. While they brought virtually nothing to this show, besides showing up, it was a welcome appearance for me. 

It was good to see all these former ECW stars rejoicing in what they once did, and having fun at the same time. Though, TNA, don't get your hopes up too much. The buys for this PPV were probably above average, but that's all you're gonna get from it.

On a sidenote, Tommy Dreamer should book every show from now on. C'mon, it was pretty much the most consistent TNA show I've seen since forever.

Alright, time to get that coursework done and then just do jack all for the rest of the evening.

It's been a pleasure, bai

~D.

Semi-interested

Hail

Can you remember the days where you actually looked forward to the weekly wrestling shows? 

You know, the moment getting up and regretting it's wednesday because there wasn't any pro wrestling on tv, anywhere. I long for those days to return.

Sadly, we now live in a time where corporate sponsoring is much more important than fan's desire. As a result, we are left with two options. Either power through, gritting your teeth in the process or leaving it behind altogether.

It's a well known thing that pro wrestling up north is targeted at early teens and women now. The reason why is even more obvious. Kids and women take everything that's thrown at 'em for the simple reason that they don't know any better or don't care, as long as it's loud, somewhat entertaining. Today's pro wrestling programming in a nutshell.

There's light in the darkness, no doubt. Bryan Danielson returned to CFG* and Low Ki won NXT season 2. Sounds about right. We got Kane as the World Champ (yay!) and even longer than a day this time around.

For some reason though, It's become much more of a nuisance to read results of weekly shows. 

Let's analyse:

Monday night RAW™ features most of the same performers every week and for the rare occasion a mid- to lowcarder appears, you know they're gonna lose quickly/badly/obviously.

These days, if you want to watch decent wrestlers work a match, you gotta watch "WWE Superstars"™

I could go on endlessly about this, but keeping in mind the amount of previous entries, I more than likely have done that too much. It's a problem that remains, though. Something like religious fundamentalism.

On to something differently similar. TNA Hard Justice became Hardcore Justice for one time only. News broke out and people bashed TNA like a motherfucker. Rightfully so, I might add.

Then it became apparent that none other than Tommy Dreamer was booking this Night of Nostalgia. The noise died down so to speak. 

We're now several weeks further and I'll give my honest opinion on the matter. I won't give an opinion on the show itself though. After all, it's still a bunch of guys who couldn't work a good wrestling match so they decided to beat eachother with chairs and kendo sticks. With some exceptions

For some people, this was an excellent opportunity to showcase what they had left. Many others however, chose not to participate because they felt it would taint the memory of what the garbage fed once was. Ah well...

We saw Raven win, New Jack/Mustafa etc, etc. but throughout the entire experience, it still felt like a cheap, second hand show. Or as Michael Cole would put it: "vintage".

ECW actually fared well with a show like One Night Stand in 2005. A lot of ECW stars fighting in matches with little to no buildup, old rivalries supposedly rekindled. In fact, there's a certain beauty in thinking of two guys just going into that ring and beat the shit out of eachother, for the sheer enjoyment in doing that and for shit else. 

TNA of course built an nWo-like storyline around it (again) and called them EV2.0 . Why not downright say it, guys? Just call it "The Bum Rush". That's what it is...

This whole deal was just the so manieth "been there, seen that" deal that I've been having since I started actually watching TNA. I can hardly believe it hasn't been so long that there were half decent storylines going around in TNA. Now, we just get a half-assed attempt at what WWE and WCW did 12 years ago. 

I won't rant on Hogan and Bischoff anymore. It's hard to come up with funny analogies and the topic has been beaten to death. So I'll summarize:

"They're the text book example of a bad business move". 

How can you pardon someone for bringing "Bubba the Love Sponge" on national tv? Even Jeff "I have a trailer full of drugs. Wanna see, officer?" Hardy shakes his head in disbelief at how much of a joke that guy is. Seeing Barry Darsow fishing for shoes is more entertaining ... to give you an analogy.

Where the fuck is the wrestling?

~Del

*CFG = Connecticut's Finest Garbage

Trend Trend Trend

Hail

For the past months, I've been overly critical of the Twilight Saga and the franchise surrounding it. Against better judgement, I decided to follow the opinion of others like a mindless sheep.

However, I dislike not having an opinion of my own. Especially when it pertains to a trend. Out of sheer principle, I will always dislike trends with increased popularity.

The Twilight Saga turned out to be different on certain aspects. I took it upon myself (self-sacrifice?) to actually try and dabble into the series to get a non-conflicted point of view. It's easy to argue that it sucks, when you haven't even bothered. Ahem.

I read the first few pages of the first book a while back. I didn't read on, because I was severely disappointed with the way it was written. Stephenie Meyer may be a bestselling writer, fact remains that she can't write for shit. Along with the fact that the story is thinner than air, it doesn't make that a good story whatsoever.

Compare it to Jo Rowling's famous book series. She too has written a Septology of a story based on the age-old cliché of Good vs Evil. The difference here in lies that Rowling has gone out of her way to create a story around it, introduce interesting characters and unpredictable plot twists.

You may not be a fan of the Harry Potter series, but this is fact. Trufax, yo.

Now, Twilight, with a story that revolves completely around a love triangle. There's nothing in this series that just screams "interesting". Let's be honest, we've seen it all before.

Now, the movies is a different ordeal. Of course suffering from the same lack of interestingly fleshed out stories, it's still not too bad.

One can argue that based on her performances, Kristen Stewart's prior acting experiences involved a mirror and silly outfits. I think that's wrong. She didn't do too bad. Kudos to her for actually trying to translate a subpar story onto the screen convincingly.

Tech-wise, movies aren't bad. Principal photography is nicely executed, locations are great, acting in general is decent. Can't complain about that, story aside.

I'm not gonna say that watching one movie intrigues me enough to watch another one, but all in all, it was bearable. After all, who could complain about close up shots of Kristen Stewart every so often? Not me, anyways.

All in all, it could've been worse. Worse in like: the soundtrack for the next movie will be entirely composed by Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber. Of course, there's still ethics to think of.

On to something else.

I've been watching very little wrasslin' as of late, simply because it bores me to the point of tears (I've been watching a twilight film instead of wrestling, go figure).

That's nothing new per se, after all.

John Cena re-using his joke about SOS looking like a jar of mayonaise is getting plain annoying now. Screw these limitations. It's getting ridiculous.

I was intrigued about these NXT rookies attacking everyone at random to make a statement (and to get deals) . It could've been very interesting if WWE HAD NOT BROKEN KAYFABE TWO FUCKING DAYS LATER TO SACK BRYAN DANIELSON BECAUSE HE VIOLATED THOSE FUCKING PG RULES!

This, I just don't understand. Firing probably the most well-rounded talent you have on your roster because he spat in Cena's face. Fucking hell, it was a planned spot, Cena signed a petition to bring him back! Just another situation that shows that Vince cares fuck all about the fans. If he did, we'd be seeing exciting matches with everyone that's on the roster getting opportunities, we would see John Cena get slaughtered by someone with more skill instead of the other way around.

But let Vince console himself swimming in all that money, while more and more fans give him the finger and just give up. And no, TNA is not a safe haven to go to. TNA is quite frankly in more shit.

Ah well, you dig a hole ... history taught us not to have Vince Russo and Hulk Hogan in one company. If TNA won't listen, their loss.

If I could give just one good piece of advice: buy CHIKARA DVD's @ www.chikarapro.com or www.smartmarkvideo.com

(There, Mr. Quack, I've now given you a wee bit of publicity.)

There, done.

~Delirious

currently listening: Amorphis - Skyforger

hmmm

hai

I admit, I've been glancing over wrestling matches again as of late. There's nothing wrong with that, in essence, despite claiming first that I've given up.

Seems like Vince earned positivo points in the last 2 months. Since my last spew, we've been blessed with a program called WWE NXT.

I'll say it, NXT is the best programming WWE has put on in roughly 8 years. Why? Because it's like Tough Enough but not entirely. When the quirks have worked out, this is probably the best thing going for the WWE.

Bryan Danielson is being booked nicely, despite losing 8 weeks in a row. Michael Cole is finally showing some personality ... the focus lies wrongly with people like David Otunga, but it's been more than we could hope for anyway.

Michael Cole is ridiculous, the first sign of an on air personality and it stems from a legit issue he has with "internet sensations". I'm thinking Michael Cole has an issue with constantly being annihilated by net critics for his poor performance. Don't act like it's the internet's fault, Mr. Cole. It's you. You indeed suck.

But anyway. I'm seriously enjoying NXT. Literally every episode so far. That's pretty unusual. It seems like those young guys are genuinely trying to be bigger than life and as such attempt to put on good matches. Especially now, when the routine of WWE's schedule has set in somewhat, we see more than decent matches being put on every week. That being said, I should make a mental note to myself to send Dave Batista a notebook, a pencil and a reminder to watch NXT every week.

The competitions being put on (keg race for example) are rather lame, but I can live with it. In the whole jist of things, it only encompasses a small amount. The same goes for the pro's.

I admit I was a little worried when I read the concept. I feared too much focus would go to the strife of the pro's trying to mentor a young coach, but so far, they've been acting like props, aside from the usual few such as Chris Jericho. I was a little worried as well about the Miz being put forward as Bryan Danielson's pro (I will not switch around his name) but a few weeks in, it seemed like a logical decision. I can imagine the creative team brainstorming. Choosing the Miz as a mentor for Bryan Danielson was brilliant decision simply because half the IWC hates the guy for getting a lucky break. They're throwing the ball in and the fans simply whack it out of the ball park. Feather up the ass of the writing team.

That's not the only good thing going on though. I'm personally a fan of Drew Galloway. Or as he's known now: Drew McIntyre. WWE's intercontinental champ has been making a fair impression on the "universe" as of late. Of course, people hate him too. I took the liberty of visiting youtube videos of him in action. As youtube is commonly known as a cesspool of marks and perceived smart marks alike, you can usually find the most insane and inaccurate comments right there.

I knew people were gonna bash the fuck out of him. He's a heel, so that's a good thing. Surprisingly though, I also saw a "constructive" comment from someone who had a genuinely acceptable remark.

"Drew's boring. He's got a small moveset. It seems like he can't wrestle."

Paraphrased for convenience. Alllllllllright, time to whip out Pro Wrestling 101.

I took the time to bother with this comment, because the explanation as to why is perfectly clear ... or at least to me.

Drew McIntyre *can* wrestle. Quite well even. People just can't seem to distinguish the various types of heels in the biz. There's three types of primary heels:

1) The dominant ass kicking machine: Takes no shit, is an asshole to anyone and anything but utterly destroys the poor face guy. (i.e. Mark Henry, Ezekiel Jackson, Vladimir Kozlov)

2) The cocky arrogant technical guy: One who raves about his technical superiority, which is usually but not always paired with a narcissistic perception. (i.e. William Regal, Montel Vontavious Porter in 2006 etc)

3) The chickenshit heel: Guys who rave about their ability but usually find a way to weasel out of precarious situations. They usually get themselves counted out during difficult matches, they use cunning ways of deceiving the ref into their advantage etc.

Drew McIntyre is a textbook example of #3. To that end, he does not need a big moveset, simply because he is forced to work matches in the manner described by #3. Weaseling and being cunningness is a far bigger part of his matches than actually doing moves. It doesn't take away that his finisher is one of the most beautiful DDT's I've seen in a long time.

for TNA, I'll be very short. They fired the Nasty Boys! YAY! They put Scott Hall and X-Pac in that place! NAY! You will never learn TNA. Enjoy your downfall.

In an entirely unrelated note: Volbeat is more than awesome, why haven't you checked them out yet? GO DO THAT NOW!

Kk, that's all from me.

bai

Delrihuzz.

I accidentally clicked the link and saw my last blog was dated back to November.

Ohai

Shit son, as the title says: I forgot all about this and really don't have anything to say.

I've left college, saw Hogan inject Hulkamania into TNA, which by all accounts is no more destructive than Vince Russo and a typewriter. In short, it means TNA is dying, they just don't know it yet.

If you've been following Total Nonstop Asshole for the last month and a half, you'll realise you've seen a LOT of people who had disappeared from TV screens a long time ago. Unsurprisingly, there was a reason for that. Hulk brought his buddies to TNA and as much as TNA employees and higher ups say it isn't so, Hulk Hogan's buddies are a bad business decision. The "Nasty Boys" in particular. All the same, I wondered how The Nasty Boys ever got their name. After giving it some thought ... I came to the conclusion that it must've been some random guy in the audience screaming something after their debut match.

"Shiiiit, son, that was NASTY, uhuh". Sounds about right.

I'm not putting all the shit in the TNA filing cabinet though. Over the past few months, I've been looking at the national wrestling business and more than once have I cared to raise my eyebrow in disbelief. Vince has now dropped a classic from the PPV lineup after a run of 23 years. He now ditched Survivor Series in favor of yet another pointless, themed PPV.

Strangely enough, Vinnie Mac claimed buy rates of the past years have declined resulting in him claiming that the show just no longer cut it. Sadly, none of the smart employees dare to stand up to Vince and say what the real reason is the buy rates have been declining steadily over the past few years. It's crystal clear for everybody, except that guy. I can imagine a guy standing up and saying the truth:

"Sir, I may have a viable theory as to why the buy rates are declining"

"Go ahead and tell me then"

"It's because of the shit you green light to put on PPV"

There's other factors of course. Off the top of my head, I'd say:

1 - repetition in matches. Having Randy Orton vs John Cena headline almost every ppv for 3 years straight does not get you fans. As much as I like Randy Orton ... you can't keep something like that fresh and enjoyable; Not in the least because the guy you're doing the program with is an uncoordinated piece of human garbage.

2 - taking away the edge. Seriously, Vince favors kids as the target demographic, under the guise of wanting to sell more merch. Bluntly stated, but not less true. Old, loyal fans are just giving up left and right. They were actually the ones that bought merch. Merch of stars they supported, merch of stars with a clear-cut personality that wasn't part of the mindless sheep we have today. Now we've got a PG rating shoved down our throats each and every week.

3 - Focus on the wrong people. Don't get me wrong, everyone deserves their attention. The problem is that talented workers are being jobbed out, to make room for pointless segments featuring Hornswoggle and Mae Young. Last monday (2/15/2010), Jerry Springer hosted RAW, which of course calls for a soap opera-esque bullshit segment. We had Kelly (the girl so nice they named her twice) announcing that she's a preggo. Out comes the wide array of possible fathers, luckily including Santino Marella. Of course, Great Khali and Hornswoggle come to collect a pay check as well. They announce some more bull, then tell Jerry Springer it's all a lie and assuring the people in a subtle way that they've just wasted 10 minutes of their lives. Out comes Mae Young, ready to perform for her ninth decade. She drapes herself around Springer, trying to dry hump his hips. This is getting seriously old, people. No pun intended.

This shows that the focus lies totally wrong. I've been looking at WWE from the sidelines (not even bothering with TNA any more) and I'm feeling the only thing worthwhile going on in the WWE is CM Punk's Straight Edge Society storyline. No, not even the Shawn Michaels vs Taker teasing is gonna draw me in. I've seen it before, and before was better.

I'm calling it as it is, I've given up on wrestling. Unless I catch wind of things getting better, I'll just randomly check out results and judge whether it's worth it. I've had my intelligence insulted long enough.

Oh, and if anyone plans to set the WWE headquarters on fire in protest, I fully give you my support. The dickwads won't even let me go onto their website anymore. Dicks now redirect me to another site. Of course, the retards redirect me to either the french or german equivalent of wwe.com. Of course, I can speak both French and German, but it's not my native tongue. Suffices to say that I was far from amused.

A hearty fuck off, WWE. More so than ever would I love for the E to go out of business and Hulk Hogan to get off the face of the earth. wrestling has cancer, and it doesn't look like it's gonna be healing any time soon. I'm sure that in a few years time, when Vince has kicked the bucket and the fruit of his loins have to save what's left of the empire he made so big on excellent decisions and brilliant marketing strategy. Yeah, good luck with that Steph.

~Deli

PS: Don't expect this blog to be updated more regularly. I could say I would, but I'd disappoint you either way.

who gives a shit about booking? and other assorted junk.

Hai thar

I've been hearing comments on how people refuse to watch TNA because their booking is confusing. Quite frankly, I agree. Nevertheless, that shouldn't be a reason not to watch TNA. Sure, booking is a cornerstone when it comes to pro wrestling, but I'd rather look past corny and uninteresting storylines and enjoy the work the guys and gals put on in the ring.

Vince Russo is known to own a melting pot full of bad ideas, and he's showcasing pretty much all of them. The comparison with the last years of WCW is never far away, with the exception of us not having to deal with Tony Schiavone and his definite lack of knowledge.

The sad thing is, all those people that have tried to cope with the storylines in TNA are all turning back to WWE, and frankly, it's not better there. Randy Orton and John Cena just had their 5 millionth match and (miracles don't happen) Cena won the strap for the millionth time. Now, Cena will be defending the defaced gold against . .. Triple H and Shawn Michaels.

There's a surprise. On SmackDown, Undertaker will battle Big Show and Chris Jericho. Who said RAW was the flagship show? Consistently, SmackDown has been receiving better grades when it comes to actual wrestling. RAW has been overlooking just that more and more. ECW has been heckled by the community for the defacation of the legendary status ECW had back in the day. And that since 2006. Undeservingly, since ECW has been putting on quality shows as of late, with a good talent pool. Christian, Burchill, Regal, Helms etc. are all there and making it shine.

The true talented ones on RAW are getting jobbed out (i.e. Matt "Evan Bourne" Sydal). RAW is shit and it has been for nearly 10 years. Still, people will rather watch an overblown soap opera than good wrestling with hints of an overblown soap opera. The only good change they have made so far is turning Batista heel. It's been a long time coming. Now give Kane a belt and fire Rey Mysterio and we're off.

Neither are likely to happen, but hey, there's always UFC for the disgruntled wrestling fans hopping on board of the bandwagon to Dana White's brainchild. Hey WWE, if even your VP of Global Media makes the jump, while he's a full blood family member, that means you gotta steer your ship away from the cliffs. Vince really is surrounded by morons and his megalomania won't help either.

All I could say is: "Get HDNet and watch ROH". Or visit www.smartmarkvideo.com and buy a few DVD's from indie promotions such as CHIKARA or PWG. You'll enjoy the programming where wrestling isn't the red-headed stepchild of sports entertainment. Or else ...

On another note, I'm pissed that there's still no PS3 DLC for GTA IV. looking at the X360 stuff makes my mouth watery. Nevertheless, I'm happy with my humongous black box that does NOT get RROD's every few months. Fuck you very much, Microsoft.

Ranetki is working on a new album. That makes me happy. Personal life ... does not. We can't have it all.

on that note, I'm out to endure more nagging and whining from the usual suspects.

bai

~Delrihuzz