The Unknown Poster

Wow and they said W was dumb

Good news. Two thumbs up to Morrow for how hard he's played. But people suggesting he's better than Toby, nope. Morrissey-Trouba Toby-Buff Chiarot-Myers Thats as good a D as we've had most of the year, especially with how Chiarot has played.

I liked it a lot. I thought the youth and humor was more touching and Tom Holland is the best Spider Man. My only complaint was the upgraded suit. Just a creative difference but what I like about Spider Man is that he's a normal kid with abnormal powers trying to figure out his place in the world but also brilliant enough to make some of the things he needs. Having a high tech suit took some of that away for me.

@JCon The interacting with the androids isnt just a creative way to avoid boring coding scenes either. Everything we see has a purpose and often, we're not seeing what we think we are. EDIT: Im SO excited for you to get to the end lol

I was banging my head against the wall trying to figure out whats going on. I actually read a refresher online before binging season 1 again, just to remind myself. And it helped and then watching it the second time so quickly, it really is like mind-blowing. Even some things that still are a little ambiguous, the "it could be this..." was cool. Once Jcon finishes, we can ditch the spoilers (its two years old lol) and really delve into season 1!

When I watched it originally, I sort of struggled to make myself watch it. And when it was done, I felt exhausted but knew it was good. Only the second time around have I truly realized how great it is. Its really confusing as far as whats happening (for me anyway) so when it was revealed, while it was great it didnt change the fact I watched most of it with a "WTF is happening" mentality. Watching it again i noticed more and loved more. The first half (or even 2/3) absolutely sets up the remaining third of episodes. Probably episode 7 or 8, things are paid off. Please come back and tell me what you think after you finish it.

Anyone watching Westworld Season 2? I havent seen the premiere yet. We just finished binging Season 1. I highly recommend watching Season 1 again, and ofcourse its way better when you binge it. That show is BRILLIANT. Like...crazy! There is one twist, where when it happens, its not that it's sudden, it starts to happen and you're like "wait...did he...no...what!" Its incredible. And very much a smart show with its concepts about the bicameral mind and the nature of consciousness.

Wrestling as an attraction is definitely the draw. Like even at bars, for the most part, its not a "party" crowd. Not always though. When I broke in, it was because I worked at the LID (called the palladium at the time) and TRCW began running shows. It was a new thing to have local wrestling at a cool bar, especially in the south end. So for a few months it *was* the cool thing to do on Thursday nights. As soon as that cool crowd got bored with it, it was done. And then we started and basically scooped TRCW (took most of their talent, their ring and their venue) and we had a core group that was sort of that cool University party crowd but it was very up and down. When my partner quit, it was partially because we were doing lousy business (not directly, but it caused strife in our partnership). And we really built things back up on the basis of presenting wrestling to wrestling fans, not trying to present a "cooler" version to people who arent wrestling fans. What I mean by cooler version, for example, when Mike started AWE and tried to get Coyotes, CWF was running there with guys like Kerry Brown, Brian Jewel, Rob Stardom, TJ Bratt. None of those guys look like people you want to spend time with on a Saturday night at a cool bar. And since CWF wasn't very good quality-wise either, you werent appealing to anyone. Mike had his guys down there all the time talking to employees saying "no one wants to go the bar and see guys who arent in shape, dont have tans, dont have expensive gear, dont have cool hair etc". So when they finally got Coyotes, the idea was good looking guys with good physiques, nice hair, deep tans etc. Because it's "cool". But the wrestling fans wont just take cool without quality. And the fans that want cool who dont care about quality wont stick around long because there is always something cooler. There are shows at family venues that draw. I prefer doing adult shows but not just because of booze sales. And while they did have some good workers (all the credit in the world to WFX for bringing in Ultimo Dragon who was a friggen legend), Chris Daniels might be the biggest draw of those guys (Kidman too). Daivari's not a name. Jacobs wasnt a name. Noble was good but not a name. Joey Merc, same thing. In fact I was going to book Joey Merc based off of WFX because I knew he'd do well for us but our measure of success was way different. I didnt need Merc to draw 1000 people to break even. And once you have Steiner, Gunn, Kishi, Luger, your budget is so out of whack. The fans that would be turned on by Daniels and Jacobs arent going to be fans of your product anyway because they get a 12 minute Kidman match against someone that maybe can't really hang with him and it's an after-thought because the real stars are the WCW guys that no one cared about anyway. Whats crazy is, the way the business is now, with the production values of WFX (which were tremendous) but a different thought process as far as talent, there is enough guys to draw big. I could draw 1000 people tomorrow with Omega and the Bucks. Maybe just Omega to be honest. The other issue with WFX was, they only used guys that they could market TV around. So anyone with a TV deal already had restrictions, including TNA guys I believe (or some of them). And in a similar vein, some guys cant use their established name and music. Locally, you'd be advertising Billy Gunn, but at the show he's The G-Man with generic music. They actually got sent a cease & desist for using names and even the word "Superstars".

Their concept really made it hard for them. Today, Impact gets criticised when it does six days of tapings. AWE/WFX was doing six days of tapings in one night. Its a really negative experience for fans. They really needed to script the shows a lot better for the live crowd rather then simply taping the episodes more or less in order. There also just isnt a market to draw 1000+ on a regular basis. My former partner and I always differed on this. He was much more of an 80's & 90's wrestling fan then me and thought that the market would react to seeing old names the same way he would. We had a major argument in summer 2002 when we still worked together. We were planning our event at Shaw Park (which was one disaster after another). So we have this 7500 seat building to fill. And Im always the negative voice in the room. "How are we going to fill that?" "It will look empty". "There will be no crowd heat." "What if it rains." We went through several plans for headline talent. Originally was wanted Sid Vicious and had the Goldeyes interested in letting him throw out the first pitch the night before etc. Sid loved the idea but I think the Goldeyes were on the road. And Sid's agent said "well, if he isnt playing softball, he'll be there." So no Sid. LOD were booked and then de-booked (Animal was furious). We spoke to Randy Savage's agent who quoted $30,000 ("Randy doesnt want to take indy bookings but if someone will pay that price, he'll do it"). Finally, it was Bret Hart and Roddy Piper. And the plan was the give Piper the key to the city and make it a really big deal. Of course, me being the bearer of bad (but logical) news says "neither guy wrestles. We're going to have this big crowd to see two guys and a show full of locals." So we added Jim Neidhart. Then Piper backed out due to some engagement with his son. And Bret had his stroke. But Bret's people kept his condition very secretive for weeks and kept telling us he would make his commitments (and we had a contract so we couldnt cancel, plus if we cancelled a guy due to a stroke we'd look like assholes). Finally Bret does cancel and we're scrambling. So the big debate is, a headline talent. Of available guys, my partner is pushing King Kong Bundy, Jim Duggan or Bam Bam Bigelow. Im pushing Jeff Jarrett. So finally, Mike (my partner) ushers me and our business consultant (glorified babysitter assigned by the money guy) into a board room. Oh yeah, funny story, so Mike was also suggesting we circle back to Sid, which I would have been on board with but you could tell Sid just didnt care. So Mike says "Sid Vicious, we have to get Sid Vicious." And our business consultant Hank, who's about 60, says "Ummmm, MIke, I hate to break it to you but I believe Sid Vicious is dead." Mike and I just stare at each other before Mike finally says "No Hank, not THAT Sid Vicious." So finally we agree to get the opinion of a third party. We call down for Will Damon (one of our top guys at the time) to come up. He walks in and we simply say, who's the best guy to bring in, Bundy, Jarrett, Duggan? No delay, he says Jarrett. Mike is irate. But that settles it. We leave the board room and by the next day, Bagwell was booked. And I was told never to mention Jarrett again lol. (We did end up adding LOD back to the show). The record for indy wrestling here is 1750-ish. That was us, with Eddie Guerrero, HTM & Beefcake. Almost 1000 of those tickets was sold by our roster. And we had CRAZY advertising. Because it was our first event, we had "deals" with HOT 103 to be the presenter, POWER 97, WPG Sun, etc. Probably $7500 cost but $15,000 value in advertising. We were literally all over HOT 103. So that 700+ people that bought tickets based on our marketing. For the LOD/Bagwell event in July, we did about 1200 (and it looked terrible in Shaw Park). The big difference? The roster sold less tickets. You simply cant get all your friends, family, co-workers etc to come every show. Because its like a social, you're getting people that WANT to go, people that will go, couple times a year, people who are going for novelty, people who go just to support you and have no other interest etc. So thats what happened with AWE/WFX. You can't keep going to the well. Especially when there was unfriendly competition in the city and you have a roster that is basically split in half between AWE and PCW (the PCW guys, obviously, not selling AWE tickets or marketing their show). Then when you go to a show and its super long with the same matches and locals over and over again. And they are taping TV quality matches (shorter matches where guys are holding back because they have to work 6 times that night). So, this isnt meant to crap on them. They had a big concept but even in a perfect world, its a really difficult execution. And they weren't executing perfectly at the best of times. At the Church, they started bringing in Reality TV stars which helped get sponsors and after parties but turned off the wrestling fans who didnt care about Big Brother or Survivor. And I really think they sort of mis-judged the direction wrestling was going as far as seeing hot athletic stars vs the older WCW guys. This last time, last fall, when they tried to bring WFX back, it was the same older stars and they literally sold, like 40 tickets or something before cancelling. Two weeks beforehand they came to me and said they'd do anything if I could get Omega to do the show. Wasn't happening. Wrestling is booming in so many ways, but being a national promotion isnt one of them.

It goes to the jury today

I hate the Leafs but since the Blue Jackets choked, a Toronto victory would be better for my pool.

W airs The Good Fight. Its really good. Its on late though (Midnight, I think), Sunday night/Monday morning. More adult now, they speak like real people (F bombs, occasional nudity).

We (PCW) brought in Eddie yes. March 2002. That name doesn’t sound familiar though off the top of my head. I was new back then though so I may have known his stage name and that’s it.

Watching him shake so many hands at the funeral, not a good idea when you’re already sick.

Arvid Holm. 19 years old. 6'4". 214lbs. Big project.

Yeah, I dont recall the source but around that time I was reading up on him and it was said many thought he was the best "goalie of the future" for the Jets. Between Helle, Comrie and now Berdin, we look to be well stocked in that department anyway.

Toronto

You never know wirh goalies but I’ve read some remarks that this kid is the best prospect in the organization (and that was before Helle broke out too).

This is a rough situation. Beat his wife. Does that mean his career should be over? Is there room for forgiveness and a second chance?