Edwin MacPhisto

The best thing Joe Walsh ever did was "In the City," the theme song from Walter Hill's ungodly great n' cheesy movie about New York gangs, The Warriors. It might just be because I associate it with the mighty Baseball Furies gang, but I'll take that song over "Peaceful Easy Feeling" any time.

It didn't bother me that much because I could tell it was just the ME team finally getting to do that huge action finale they never really had the budget to do. Seasons 3 and 4 ended with some big fights, but they were both low on numbers and gloss. I was willing to concede a bit of internal logic for the chance to go out with a bang. Still, I would have liked it better had there been, say, a mix of bringers and Ubervamps. The bringers are basically human, so I'd have no problem with the girls roasting and toasting them, with the Ubervamps maybe taking a bit longer. I still don't know why they were so dumb as to go down into the Hellmouth before Willow did the empowerment spell, aside from "it'll be much cooler if there's danger in the face of logic!"

Yeah right, Frost. We all know you're a seditious bastard whose entire function here is to undermine our authority and steal our womenfolk. This "retiring" scheme is only a trick so we let down our guard, only to wake up in the morning not with a lady, but with an empty indent in the mattress, a letter that says "Frost-brand is my choice in man," and a bottomless pit of sorrow. I hope Chono kicks your teeth in, usurper.

Come on now. Just take it eeeeasy.

Oo, I get to mark Sacred vs. Judge again. It was fun first time, and I enjoyed the PPV match too. Let's see if they can work some magic third time around...

It's because no one cares, Thugg. As usual, the only people excited by an angle are those involved in it. Sigh. I actually didn't mention it because I thought everyone else would. Oh well. I think it's awesome, personally, but I think you knew that already. King stepping in as announcer for the main event was a great touch, and I especially liked how Strangler played him and Riley off each other. Strangler started commenting, so I will too. I agree with him that it would be awesome to just have some discussion of the matches here. Everyone benefits! The opener! A triple threat with two relative unknowns is a tough stip to debut with, and Duran did a fine job. Special bonus for the infamous “MISAWA KILLA!!”, aka the mighty elbow to the back. One common rookie mistake: a little too much homo-Riley. It’s classic, but no need to go overboard. Nice false finish on Dante’s moonsault – I almost bought it. You did well with characters who really haven’t been fleshed out yet. The match was a bit vanilla overall, but showed a good grasp of the storytelling n’ wrasslin’ mechanics. I haven’t followed the JL much lately, so I’ll be excited to see you go in a singles match against a more established character, and hope you’ll get that opportunity on the next show. I’ve already weighed in on Craven’s match, but I wanted to address something TBS said: See, I thought that was incredibly great. If he had eliminated Kibs then, I would have been really disappointed. Craven's whole match story was the tale between him and Kibs--I had more problems with the pins being broken up the first fall then this one. I thought it was absolutely essential--it would have been lame had he not explained it, but he did it crisply and concisely in the commentary. All I asked for. I would agree with you here...2 months ago. I'll be the first to rag on Craven when he screws around, but also one of the first to give him credit: he's taken this stuff and, for one of the first times in his career, kept it all constant and not just changed it immediately. And just like paring off Amy Craven, he's reduced how much the heel section is present, and he cut out the belt girls...it's gradual, but good. Onto Danny vs. TNT! TNT gets the win, but it looks like the writing style was mostly Danny’s. I very much liked the pace—the first few minutes go buy without a major strike or impact move, but are still very exciting. Particularly great is the surfboard and TNT’s subsequent escape. Very simple, but logical, dramatic, and not marred by any of the generic low blow or elbow to the ribs transitions that usually get slotted in here. It tells a great student/teacher tale, and the subtleties of Danny’s reaction to his pupil’s turnaround foreshadow TNT getting the victory very well. The dueling powerbomb attempts throughout help flesh out the student/teacher tale well, and Danny’s resourcefulness to just keep coming with the elbows ratchets up the intensity of the brawl. They start throwing bombs towards the end as it heats up—I really thought the Mushroom Cloud was going to end it, and then thought Danny’s powerbomb had it done. More good work with the duality there—these two are matched up move for move, and the powerbombs plus lariat/elbow comparison throughout match really paints them as two guys cut from the same cloth. The double-strike finish is somewhat inconclusive without being cheap, and I would really like to see this go to a big blow-off at Genesis. These two probably don’t even need a stip—maybe 2/3 falls would suit them well, but they could probably just go straight-up again and have it be huge. If Danny wins there, he will have finally become a world title contender. If TNT wins, he’ll be back on top of the world and stronger than ever, having proven that this win over his mentor was the real deal. Very good match. Unlike TBS, I love the play of elbows vs. lariats just because they were so pivotal to the match. Every one seemed to be important in a way. WC/Ejiro!What a great idea for a stip! WC/Ejiro put a lot on the line and was a great way to keep this feud going. Add in the awesome blue cage, and you have one hell of a setup. Have I mentioned that Ejiro makes a great US champ? Great opening with the belt shot, and then holy hell, what a powerbomb variation from WC! That’s how the match plays out: great cunning, spectacular spots. I love the recurring image of Wildchild scrambling up the cage; it’s not something you usually see in a cage match. Special points for the “orgasm of pain” after the blown frog splash. That all this brawling is so convincing when it’s two cruiserweights doing the pummeling is very impressive—the description of the moves and the way they use the cage to reinforce their impacts really puts a lot of weight behind the action. As for the Super Wild Ride II: SICK. That was a great reversal. I don’t think I liked the ref opening the door, though. What’s the point of having a functional door in a cage match, much less one that the ref opens himself? It defeats the purpose of the cage if people can get in and out that easily, especially if you’re going to have them go over the top for the finish anyway. And why does Ejiro start going up the cage if he’s been going for the door all along? This was the one aspect of the match that really lost me and it’s too bad that it came so close to the ending. After that unfortunate confusion, we do get a disgusting finish with the hotshot off the top of the cage, and an Ejiro win that sets up a really cool relationship. Should be good both for drama and comedy, I’m betting. To top it off, we get the return of a much more grizzled Johnny D—I love the “this is the kind of spy you’re not supposed to talk about” line. His heelish reasoning is a little over-the-top, but it’s cool to have him back to add yet another element to the WC/Ejiro saga. That's all I have now. More people join in! Discuss matches! Debate with me and TBS! There's no reason this thread shouldn't be active all the way up to the posting of the next show. It's a frickin' PPV, people--read it! Everything's good!

All art and art criticism is subjective. Always. No one's trying to deny that. But if you've got a lot of knowledge and you know your shit, I think it's pretty fair to objectively state and back up the fact that Bonnie and Clyde is a better made film than Star Wars. People aren't stating their opinion as fact; they're making a statement with evidence that they believe corroborates it. That's argument and discussion in a nutshell. No harm in that, I think.

Yeah, but that approach to this thread unfortunately dissipated by about post 8 or 9. Alas: not even my worst enemy deserves Eagles 1971-1975.

I like him because he's not Carol Mosely Braun. WHAT AN IDIOT, JEEZUS. I also think he's gotten better at the public speaking. I'm watching the debate/forum/whatever and he's doing very well. Of course, it helps that he's being bookended by Braun, who is WHAT AN IDIOT, JEEZUS. I had initially shied away from even thinking about Dean because he'd been flubbing, but he's improving. Actually, with the exception of Braun, the dem candidates have all gotten a lot less skittish. Good on 'em.

I do like that album, first 6 tracks especially, but I wouldn't call it going back to their roots. That's what they called it, but it mostly just meant cutting out some of the more electronic/dance influences they played with on the 90's trilogy. ATYCLB doesn't really sound like Boy, October, or War, even if the songs are a bit more straight-forward. It is a bit closer to Joshua Tree and Unforgettable Fire in spirit, but I think the sound is still unique to their career path.

I went Metallica. Not their newer stuff, because I know that gets shat on: their older stuff. I have never seen the appeal. I'm largely not a metal fan to begin with, but their 80's stuff bores me more than most. I've probably not given it a fair shake, but they've never inspired me to do so. I could have also gone Radiohead, even though I love them dearly and have every album. They've had a couple missteps (Amnesiac and Hail to the Thief being just okay and very good respectively) and very few publications or fans will ever call them on it. Still an excellent band though, if a bit unnecessarily invulnerable at this point.

... Too much blip-bloop hatred! I'm not sure if I'd call it essential, but I think it might be my 2nd favorite album of theirs. Lyrically a lot of it's hogwash free-association, but musically it evokes wonderful mood and feeling. Every time I go back to it works. It's also structured really well, building tension up to "Idiotheque" and then sort of swimming about in the aftermath.

Dag, yo. At least you got to unleash the TFDB in all its splendid glory. I left for very similar reasons last year, so I understand. I do hope Frost comes back from Japan, though. He needs to go after that title again one of these days.

I haven't read this, but I have read Fight Club and Survivor. You're dead-on noting that his books seem to be thematically similar. Having only read two I can't really judge the whole body of work...but that similarity is one of the reasons I haven't really delved any deeper into his catalogue. Of course, many authors deal in similar themes throughout their careers. Palanhiuk just seems to be more overt about it. I've at least read snippets from Invisible Monsters, and it sorta qualifies my assumption that all his narrators have very similar voices. I think he's decent, clever writer, but I'd like to see him try a few things different once in a while.

Well, it’s going to be a slow day at work, so Strangler, I will certainly take you up on the “talk about the whole show” proposition. Though I’ll wait till a few other of the active guys have weighed in with their thoughts to give my full rundown. But: there is one match where I’ve read all the possible outcomes, and I just want to say: congratulations, Michael Craven. If any of you want to see a great approach to writing a four-way elimination match, please read Craven’s big win on the PPV. His first fall is absolutely superb: he manages to keep all four men involved without getting too chaotic, and the first sequence where all four of them interact simultaneously after being initially paired off is really something special. His second fall gets away with broken pinfalls through the simple virtue of explanation and character motivations, and his final fall should solidify him as a strong contender for some time to come. All three guys turned in very good efforts (despite what “I have no ego” Sacred and “I have even less ego” Judge might tell you), but Craven just took the ball and ran with it. I know King’s pissed about no-shows, but I guess I got lucky with the match I was marking. I definitely want to commend these guys for giving me a very delightful 2 hours or so of good old-fashioned wrasslin’. Twas a pleasure, gentlemen.

Lying and hilarious it is! I approve wholeheartedly. ::dives back into the marking trenches::

Becoming, Part II

Arr mateys! There's but 11 hours to the deadline of our mondo PPV, arrrr! If you're going to have to no-show, let me know. Also, I'm not going to be able to give any of you extensions, so keep on truckin'! Let's see some opuses..es...es.

Holy nutsack. Cut out Outcast's promo-madness, and that's bigger than both Wargames matches. You are either lying and hilarious, or being truthful and wonderfully insane. I'm likin' it either way.

The problem with a rap icon is going to be in the performances. Someone like Dr. Dre or the Beasties in particular--most of their great stuff is based on their own personal deliveries, and in a lot of cases there's not live instrumentation to cover either. So what are you going to do? Have Nelly and 50-Cent come out and blah through with their lousy live delivery? Unless you got some legit inventive rappers and musicians--the likes of the Roots and Mos Def, for example--to come out there and do the stuff in their own style, it'd be kinda poor.

Arnold. Unless a bunch of democrats come out in support of Bustamente, he'll carry it. He'll probably only need 20% of the vote to win the whole thing judging by how many other only vaguely notable candidates there are.

The Pixies, "In Heaven (Lady in the Radiator Song)," the live version off the complete B-Sides album. Scream, Frank, scream!

KK's right: you hit on kinda the exact opposite of the truth. His folk-rock fans booed the hell out of him when he plugged in. In hindsight, of course everyone loves it, but at the time he got tore up. The Bootleg Series #4, "Live At Albert Hall" album captures this pretty well. You can hear them booing him when he goes from acoustic to electric, and he just does not give a shit. Bless that man.

Phaser, "Sweet Marie." Purrrty.

You'd be surprised, Frost. I did a short tenure in a fed of Outcast's that has since shut down, and I also occasionally read some of the "big" feds. The only reason the SWF wouldn't absolutely annihilate all competition would be because our characters aren't demons, don't murder people, and don't constantly talk about how darkness is our path. They also have a penchant for ripping off whatever indie gimmicks are getting big: now that CM Punk is a big name, you'll find straight-edge characters who basically carbon-copy his attitude, and there's always a zillion Christopher Daniels rip-offs with a bunch of Fallen Angel or "Heavenly Sinner" type crap. There's very little character subtlety, but it's also what a lot of RP people are used to judging. SWF promo guys, who are used to writing stories and longer pieces, can rip up, but only if the judges let them. If you call someone a name or say fuck a lot, you'll probably win.