Corey_Lazarus

The angle had a ton of potential. Yes, even the MIA. What really hurt everything was a combination of politics, Russo not knowing how to deal with said politics, and just incompetent booking. An audience, especially a pro wrestling audience, can be trained to accept anything so long as it's well-presented. Kidman/Hogan had the possibility to do something never done before: Hogan, the ultimate icon in the industry, putting over a lowly cruiserweight (who, despite having very solid matches the two years prior, would ultimately prove why he was midcard at best, but that's besides the point). It could've worked, even with Kidman losing in incredible fashion during the blowoff. All Hogan needed to do was SELL for him, let Kidman even get a cheap pin/submission (hit him with a chair behind the ref's back, roll him up with feet on the ropes/handful of tights, etc.) on PPV after little-to-no interference and a few moments of back-and-forth action (no, Mike Awesome demolishing Hogan in a no-DQ match after Hogan threw Kidman around the ring for 10 minutes doesn't count), and suddenly you have somebody who now has the rub to be a star. But alas...everything that could be said about the Kidman/Hogan aspect of the angle has already been said, so it's not worth getting further into. Honestly? I feel the best handled aspects of the angle were the MIA and what would become the Natural Born Thrillers. Hear me out. The MIA started as younger, underpushed members of the roster, guys who worked hard to get where they were and were still shunted down the card in favor of more established names. But they wanted something different: they wanted to earn what they got, not just take it in a huge mess of a coup lead by two of the biggest on-air scumbags in WCW history. They weren't New Blood, but they most certainly weren't Millionaires Club. It worked...as a concept. But when Russo tried to turn MIA into DX Ultra Lite? It failed miserably. Chavo Guerrero Jr. was well-respected as a solid wrestler, a man who could own the Cruiserweight division. Lash LeRoux was an up-and-coming star that fans were taking to like few other WCW-originals. Hugh Morrus was a man fans knew of, but not as a serious character, but rather a pseudo-demented brawl who could hit a damn decent moonsault. The Wall was a green powerhouse, but he was willing to work to improve (and eventually did so in TNA as Malice before the heroin overdose that took his life), and could be the monster that WCW had lacked for over a year at that point when Paul Wight left for the WWF. And Van Hammer was...well, he was useless as anything other than the muscle in Raven's Flock back in '97/'98. But the point of the stable was, initially, a good one, as they rejected the New Blood's way, and were then at war with them. But a dumb stable name (seriously, even something like "the Third Party" or "Zero Brigade" would have been better than a dumb acronym), focusing more on humor than being serious (Russo's biggest fault), and bad feuds (save for the Team Canada feud, which I feel was handled about as well as it could have been) killed whatever semblance of a solid stable there could have been. Bringing in "Pappy," or whatever the old man was, was a bad move. Double ditto Tylene Buck, whose butterface and lack of a personality hampered the stable more than it helped it. I think the turning point, besides initially being affiliated with Booker's awful "GI Bro" persona (again, it doesn't matter if that's how he started his career, because there's a reason he dropped it), was the promo in which Hugh Morrus decided to drop the act and go under his "real name" of General Hugh G. Rection. What was wrong with staying as Hugh Morrus? What was wrong with simply saying you're refusing the moniker given to you by those from a lost wrestling era (again, an angle could be made where the MIA were against both the New Blood and the Millionaires Club) and saying you're name was Bill DeMott, and it was time to be serious (and not Sir Ius, the humorless knight)? Abso-fucking-lutely nothing. Russo wanted another Degeneration X, but he failed to realize what made DX so great: that it was workers with a damn decent sense of humor trying to make themselves laugh, and in the process give the fans somebody to love/hate. It also doesn't help that everybody in DX (save for Gunn) had three times the personality of EVERYBODY in MIA, but I digress. Mishandled angle/stable that was starting to get decent treatment later on during its existence, but it really just hampered about everybody's career that it touched. And the NBT, with Kevin Nash as their coach? It was beautiful in its simplicity. 6 rookie upstarts who believed they had the talent and superstar looks to be at the top without much experience, and were willing to do anything to get what they wanted...just like Nash had earlier in his career. It made sense for Nash to coach them, as he was less of an in-ring character at the time (for whatever reasons) and more of a mouthpiece, so for Nash to "give the rub" to 6 undeveloped guys was both helpful and entertaining. And it was even more perfect when they double-crossed Nash, much as he had done most of his former alliances, and then Nash joined the Millionaires Club to get to them. It was perfect in how simple it could be executed, but then Nash pulled his stroke, and the NBT were split up into different groups (Stasiak/Jindrak vs. Palumbo/O'Haire, the more talented members of either team tagging against the other; Reno went on his own as a Hardcore champion, to decent success; and Sanders, who was all-around awesome on the stick, and I honestly forget what he was doing after NBT fell apart, but I think it had to do with Jeff Jarrett). Of course, I could have my timeline confused, considering how hectic 2000 was for WCW, but I think I've got it at least somewhat accurate. I just remember the NBT starting off as a solid, new stable, and then deteriorating into shit without much of a good reason.

Mick Foley, and no. Though apparently my nephew did when my folks took him and my oldest niece to NH for a weekend, a camping trip I was meant to go on but didn't due to my schedule at my then-places of employment (a pizza shop I worked Friday and Saturday nights, and the local Bob's Store). Sucks, because I would've been all "GUFFAW" and would have at least thanked him for proving that even goofy bastards like us could actually make something of themselves doing something they loved.

B&N has a wrestling section? Yeah, at the very end of Sports. It kinda sucks, though, at least the four closest ones to me (N. Attleboro, Bellingham, Framingham/Natick, and Walpole), because Weightlifting always gets mixed in since it's right next to it. And a good portion of the books are actually about real wrestling, which makes me think they should file it under "Pro" Wrestling. I think they added it after the abundance of autobiographies that actually, you know, SOLD following Have A Nice Day.

Don't look for a contact high, man. Just introduce your kid to pot now. He'll thank you later. You know, when he's high and stuff.

Slipknot is extreme metal lite. It's a way for little kids to get into heavier music, and Joey Jordison (the drummer) is pretty fucking solid. Mick's a really solid guitarist, and Corey Taylor is decent enough on vocals (even if Stone Sour is the drizzling shits). But there's something missing, and that something is discernible songs that don't sound poppy. That's what makes them lame once their fanbase moves on to heavier shit: they're really just a pop/rock group pretending to be big-time death metal/hardcore icons. ...and it doesn't help that Corey Taylor is a douche who not only helped ruin Apocalyptica (they did most of it on their own, though) but also used to be so full of himself that he'd rant on KoRn and even Gwar (I wish I could find the Brockie rebuttal, because it was spot-on in how Slipknot are really a pop group). That all said, IOWA has a few really tight songs ("Heretic Song," "People = Shit," and "My Plague," primarily), the first 5 actual songs on the s/t are good ("[sic]," "Eyeless," "Wait and Bleed," "Surfacing," and "Spit It Out"), but Volume 3 was awful, and I don't care what anybody says. The only thing that really separates it from generic radio-rock is Corey's screams and double-kick.

My dad hates music. Found out last night that Green Jelly still tours. They're in Boston on 7/8, which is a Tuesday, and they might be joined on their tour by DBX, which would prove amazing. No SotU this year due to the economy and, apparently, the sour taste left in people's mouths after the Necro fiasco for the first half of last year's tour. Well, that's what you get when you hire a rap artist with no backing band to play a metal and hardcore show.

Orgazmo - Trey Parker/Matt Stone, 1997 The best comedic team of this generation, easily, and their funniest live action film. I could've gone with Cannibal! The Musical, BASEketball, South Park: BLU, or Team America, but this is what I feel is their funniest movie. Ron Jeremy, Lloyd Kaufman cameo, and not to mention the greatest superhero sidekick to date: CHODA BOY.

I think this is what we should've done before emo got out of control and eventually died down. It's been a long time since there's been any musical faction brawls. I think the last one may have actually been the FSU/Neo-Nazi brawls in Boston in the late 90's.

I've heard Douchenforce is good live, and I've seen Mastodon, and they're not bad. Of course, when I saw them they were hindered by a Slayer crowd (if it's a REAL heavy metal concert, and Slayer is headlining, then practically none of the openers, despite their quality/popularity, will get a reaction...unless they're Unearth, surprisingly), but they were pretty fucking tight. Seeing Municipal Waste/Darkest Hour/At The Gates on July 11th, and I think Toxic Holocaust is opening for the three, which is fucking schweet because they play a good black/thrash blend. Most of the concerts this summer are just my band gigging, including, I think, one gig opening for a one-night-only Burn In Silence reunion (Massachusetts metalcore band who broke up shortly after getting signed to Metal Blade). Maybe I'll see some other shows, but I doubt it. Gas prices are gay, and I'm already doing a little over a tank a week thanks to regular errands and band practice three times a week (which is about 25-30 miles away).

I used to hate all non-wrestling Mexicans, and even some that did (mostly Abismo Negro), but this fills me with hope. "Emosexual" may just be the coolest anti-emo phrase ever. Emo kids fuck off indeed!

1. PGOAT has the best post in this thread, fuck y'all. 2. Regarding booty and trying to get it in high school, my senior year I was in a computer applications class for an easy A. Just typing and basic HTML coding, so I flew through it, biding my time until my video editing class started. But there was this one kid who was a sophomore, and I guess he was one of the popular skater douchebags, because he was just making jokes left and right all the time. Kid's about half my size, and I think still is, but I digress. Anyways, he asks this freshman if he got laid over the weekend, and the kid says no, and the soph just starts a short tirade about how you're a loser "if you don't lose your virginity by the age of 15." I was 17 at the time, and I just lost it a month earlier, so I turned to him and just told him I recently lost it and I'm 17. He shuts up, and then begins making fun of another kid for being an idiot. Heh. 3. Nobody but the honor roll/band geek kids in my HS had any school spirit. Not even the jocks. The only jocks who had any sort of school spirit were those on the wrestling team, because our wrestling team actually had a decent record (unlike our football team, which STILL sucks, I hear), ditto the hockey team, so pep rallies were usually full of band geeks trying to get extra credit by volunteering and the football team just goofing around. Sophomore year, my friend Chris (who I still regularly hang out with, despite him being a dumb bastard) tries to climb the side of the bleachers, which are/were the fold-out kind that can be put away to make extra room. So he's trying to get up to the back to sit with a couple of his other friends, and there are no railings on the side of most of the bleachers at my HS, so he falls off...and breaks his fucking hip. He's 15, he weighs about 200-something pounds, and he falls from near the top of the bleachers and breaks his hip. It was hilarious. And a few months later he somehow broke his ankle, so I was the one who helped him get his shit out of the classroom early and escort him to the next one. We're on the second floor of one of the halls, and he asks me to help him down the stairs, but the bell rings, so people start pouring down. Another one of his friends take his crutches, and I just fireman's carry the fat fuck down the flight of stairs to the bottom floor. This kid still has a ton of bad luck, since he tore his ACL just a few months ago when he got hit by a car while walking home from work, AND his ex-girlfriend is engaged (or so he says), AND his father is a creepy douchebag.

I must be the odd man out, because I just don't really give two shits for it.

Bastard! Looks like we're tit for twat now.

I've tried about 3 times to get through Gates of Hell/City of the Living Dead, and I fucking can't. It's just...bland. The first 20 minutes is good, but once the violence actually starts happening I just can't get into it.

Well, that was moronic of the security guards. Don't they know that trash-throwing is usually a great sign that an angle designed to generate heel heat and crowd hatred has worked? One word: "Destiny." TNA. Look it up.

Ghostbusters (1984) - Dir: Ivan Reitman Comedy. Action. Drama. And fucking lasers! This is the kind of movie that people of all ages can enjoy. When you're little, you see this movie, and you go "sweet, they've got lasers and they're hunting ghosts, awesome!" Then you turn 14, and now have a much dirtier sense of humor. Then you watch it again. And you walk away going "Bill Murray is a dirty, dirty man." That's why this movie has remained so timeless and so classic: it's an action/adventure movie for little kids, and a raunchy comedy for older audiences. When talking about the careers of Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd, and Ernie Hudson, this film is ultimately their highlight, the best work they've ever done. When talking about Bill Murray it gets a little harder to pinpoint just one great movie, considering how many he's been so great in, but Ghostbusters holds much more weight than, say, The Man Who Knew Too Little or Garfield. If I'm on a desert island, you can be your ass I'd love to laugh and just sit back and enjoy the greatest movie of my youth.

...I hate the lot of you...

DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978) - George A. Romero Do I need to say why? This is the most classic zombie flick ever made. Great gore, incredible depth to the plot, and a cold slap in the face of corporate America. Not to mention the action, the adventure, the comedy, and how Romero flat-out says that greed and pride are the worst of humanity's sins.

What? No Liquid Tension Experiment fans here? Or people who dig Zombi, or the bonus disc (dubbed "the soundtrack") of Send More Paramedics's final album The Awakening?

Eh...maybe not. There's a growing group of rap fans on the boards. It seems the indie rock fanatics have stopped coming, and most of the metalheads don't really talk unless there's something big that needs to be said (like helping Taiga get into more bands, or discussing how awesome Municipal Waste is).

Why? You don't like THE RAT?! But what about Rush Hour, Rush Hour 2, Rush Hour 3, and X-Men 3: The Last Stand?! THESE ARE CINEMATIC MASTERPIECES, YOU STUPID BASTARD!!!

I still don't see the allure of dressing up as if you were a character from whatever movie you're going to see. ...that is, unless Ghostbusters 3 somehow DOES get made...then you best believe the homemade proton pack I did for Halloween (that I still have saved at my folks' house) is coming out with me. My girlfriend and/or friends will never look at me the same way again. Kinda like when I painted a bad skull onto my face to see the Misfits one time...

Nothing, but I've got Gwar's "The Road Behind" stuck in my head.

Not a fan of the Transplants? ...I don't blame you...

Mmmmm...can't wait for the GB game...