Hawkius Maximus

I have a dell. It's not bad.. The major issue, and I assume it's this way with all Dell PC's, is that they make it hard to upgrade. Like, my PC would be perfectly acceptable for gaming if I could get a newer video card. Problem is, the only slot type I have is PCI, which is beyond obsolete. They didn't include an AGP slot, or anything of the sort making upgrading my PC for better preformence impossible. Best I can get is a 256 PCI card, which I don't even know if it's worth the bother. It blows.

I finally re-got Enae Volare Mezzo, thanks to Paragon for tipping me off about the name in this thread ...I think this is the first theme song where I was spellbound when I heard it back when Fedor fought Mirko. My first reaction was: "This is the theme of a god", and...I think it still holds up. There are pro-wrestling and MMA theme songs, but then there is this. This song almost feels like it belongs to a religious experience.

Anyone know where I can download the Swap Magic discs? I bought a Fliptop for 15 bucks instead of the 30+ they want for the combo. I figured I could find the Swap Magic's easy enough. I've already downloaded a copy of Swap Magic, but it's for PAL PS2's, and I doubt it'll work on mine. So far, I haven't found a NTSC verison of the Swap Magic discs for download. Edit: Well, fuck. I did a little looking and it turns out you can't burn Swap Magic discs without it not working. Fuck.

There were some works at the start of PRIDE. Takada's fights are generally considered works, with the exceptions being the two Rickson fights. Some think they tried to screw Rickson over by telling him to take it easy on Takada, then Takada suddenly tried to win in the second fight. If they did...didn't work. The most glaring is Nobuhiko Takada v.s. Alexander Otsuka. Their both wrestlers, so they just start busting out verticle suplexes, running the ropes, shit like that. Said to be a good match surprisingly enough given the circumstances. If you listen to most people, the few fights Ogawa had back then were works too. He fought a time or two, I know of one off the top of my head with Gary Goodridge. But the vast, vast majority of PRIDE is 100% shoots, despite all the claims made everytime a favorite fighter loses.

Don't forget to add that Fujita got up and started smiling and LAUGHING right after, if I remember right. NJPW fans nearly fucking rioted. That was easily the worst moment in current NJPW, with the only close ones being Nakamura getting fucked up in a shoot fight, stalling his career out hardcore, and Nagata doing...what else...MMA, stalling HIS career out. Right now, NJPW has the title on a native, and just need to build strongly from within. They can do it still, it's just a question if they wanna or not.

I'd go with some PRIDE stuff from about #16, which was Championship Chaos I do believe. While I was into MMA before, when I saw Herring v.s. Nog semi-live (As live as PRIDE got then sadly), I was fucking HOOKED. Badass fight. Silva v.s. Saku isn't that bad either. Rest of the card has some really good stuff if I remember right. I am an admitted PRIDE fanboy though, so take that with a grain of salt.

I don't even know how you can argue it's not an offical loss when Fedor's site ITSELF lists it as a loss, and even so, he crushed Kosaka in a rematch making it a completely worthless argument. Speaking of Fedor, what's the name of his theme song, or atleast the band that does it? I used to have it...the band name is like...Era or something.

Exactly. No matter what logic you put to it, it's still an offical loss on his record. It was never changed to a No-Contest, so therefore Fedor has that loss. Which he avenged in PRIDE, so no matter what logic you apply to it, it's been resolved and is a non-issue.

How the cut happened doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. It's still a loss on his record, not a no-contest. Like I said, it doesn't matter. Fedor crushed Kosaka's face in during the rematch, so all is well.

Cut or no cut, Fedor does have one loss on his record to Tsuyoshi Kosaka in RINGS. He avenged that loss in PRIDE, so it pretty much is evened out.

That's some sound logic there, yo. I'd try asking a Japanese wrestler that. Most, if not all of them would answer either GHC, TC, or IWGP. WWE is a passing interest to 99.5% of all Japanese wrestlers. Muto is the exception, not the rule. So...by that logic, that makes them just as important as the WWE WORLD title, right?

ROH is legitimate in the World Title department. WWE cannot get anyone in Japan to help them with their shows, and attendance has steadily declined since their first few shows. ROH on the other hand has slowly, over time been made into a major force within Japanese wrestling from Dragon Gate. CIMA, who is a hyoge American Indy/ROH mark has made their name comparable to just about any American fed that's stepped foot there in many years. Granted, by all accounts they've inflated ROH's power in America, but the point still stands. ROH workers have been brought in, and put over strong including all of their champions. ROH's also getting press from all over Japan. Essentionally, when WWE or TNA can get a working agreement of that magnitude with a promotion the size of Dragon Gate who most consider to be the #4 to #3 promotion in all of Japan, which continues to be one of the fastest rising promotions in the world, maybe you can dismiss ROH's claim to being a world promotion with World titles. Until then you can't dismiss ROH's claim.

The concenus at Sherdog out of the event seems to be Lyoto is boring. From what I've read, White came in and nearly got knocked out so for the rest of the fight he stayed pretty inactive, and Lyoto never engaged either. He may have skills, but there was no way he would live up to the mythic hype that had generated around him inless he killed White in about two seconds. Even then somepeople would be calling him a letdown. Bas beating that guy by LEGKICKS is so awesome. It's almost like he just decided he wasn't even going to try anything, just lowkick him into submission, and it worked.

If you want to give Fedor a style, you could say he's primarily a G&P and Submission guy...but that'd be false. Fedor's considered by most people to be the greatest fighter alive for a reason, he has no weaknesses, and no holes in his game. He can fight anywhere. His striking doesn't look pretty, but he drops people like they were smacked with concrete. The only person he's faught that he hasn't knocked loopy (not KO'd, just knocked completely silly for a few seconds) was Kazayuki Fujita, who cannot be KO'd by any mortal force. He also seemingly cannot be KO'd. He has moments of seeming weakness, but people joek that those moments are simply his CPU rebooting, because he comes RIGHT back. In the Fujita fight, he gets rocked, holds him for a few seconds and proceeds to beat the shit out of Fujita. In the Randleman fight, he's given a Backdrop Driver that SHOULD have easily won that fight, but Fedor just takes it, rolls through, and gets the keylock within about thirty seconds. Fedor gets the takedown after he's pounded you a bit standing, then he unleashes what I call "Bear" style Ground & Pound. No matter what you do to him from the bottom, he just comes right over the top, or right back and unleashes BRUTAL blows. One of my favorite clips is from one of the Nogueria fights. Nog is doing everything he can to push him off, Fedor gets pushed back some but then just comes right over the top of Nog's blocks with HUUUUGE blows that look legitimately like the swipes from a bear. It's scaryshit. I dunno what Russian experiment they applied to Fedor, but we should all be scared as shit that Russia's genenically engineering an army of Fedors. There would be no safety from them. Edit: On Sylvia...I dunno. I suppose he has better Takedown defense, but that won't save him against Fedor. If Fedor can't take you down, he BEATS you down. I cannot see Sylvia surviving past a hook or two before he stumbles, Fedor gets the takedown and he's killed fuckin dead.

I think out of the three, Sylvia would give Fedor the least issues. Fedor's already beaten a better verison of Sylvia in Semmy Schilt. Schilt's taller, and a far more effective striker, the man is K-1 GP champion for gods sake. He might not beat Sylvia in the most spectacular fashion, but he'd win easily enough after Sylvia lets him smash his face in, then gets into the guard where he'd proceed to re-arrange his facial structure. Edit: Heres an interesting question...How would you market Fedor? Would you call him an international star, or arguably the greatest fighter to ever fight? I'd do with the second option. You hear that being claimed, and your interest would be high immediately. This man may be the greatest fighter EVER, well shit, I better check him out. Throw in some Mike Tyson level squashes, and bammo, you've got a Las Vegas attraction worth millions I say!

As for more international stars...Dave Meltzer a week or so ago on WOL, was asked what the chances for Fedor being brought into UFC. The caller assumed the chances were low, but Dave said that Fedor is a STRONG possibility, as PRIDE is in such horrendous shape right now, and Dana White has huge interest in bringing him in. If they did, you could say goodbye to the UFC Heavyweight division. Fedor would massacre every single one of them in two minutes. Arlovski, Vera, and Sylvia would be a fight, and I cannot see any of them making it out of two rounds.

...People like them scare the shit out of me. Much more the nany serial killer thats ever existed. If their actually happy and joyful at whats going on, then what the fuck kind of religion would REWARD them?

I don't buy that without the WWE style Lesnar's skills weren't as good. Or that the WWE style stunted his ability as a wrestler. The more obvious example against that is Jamal. He went to AJPW and became their top gaijin, and one of their most popular workers. It wasn't just his push, he showed charisma he never had shown before, and his ring work (And them allowing him to be as stiff as he wanted) was significantly better. Tomko's gotten decent/good reviews in NJPW too. TAJIRI is excelling in HUSTLE. I don't buy that Brock's ring-work suffered due to WWE style...it suffered because he didn't give a fuck. Bernard should have beaten Brock for the title. It was perfectly set up. Bernard crushes Brock, and becomes the top gaijin in Japan. It would make sense, because Bernard's shown loyalty to NJPW that some of the natives haven't given them. They have given him the status that they wanted Brock to have, in that he's a full NJPW worker. He's not an outsider anymore, he's a NJPW loyalist. They dropped the ball BAAAAAD with Brock beating Bernard, and now their paying for it. As is usual with NJPW's mistakes. This is only the what....Fifth time this has happened in the last few years? Edit: I just thought about it for a second...and I can think of a few examples without looking it up. Fujita vacates title Nakamura vacates title Sapp vacates title Fujita pulls a fucked up ending with Sasaki which basicly amounts to a vacate, if not worse Brock vacates title ...Just off the top of my head. Then throw in Tenzan's mutliple one defense combined reigns, Nagata's long reign, Takayama's reign, Yasuda's disaster reign, Sasaki getting two lameduck reigns, the Kojima run unifying the TC and IWGP titles. The last time a NJPW worker, looking at SSS records that had a SIGNIFICANT reign with the title with no outsider ties? Nagata. He won the title FOUR YEARS AGO.

Lesnar seems obsessed with doing MMA right now. If he does, he'll likely get his ass beat if he doesn't take time to train. If he goes into it thinking he'll smash people based on his wrestling and strength, he'll be in for a ruuuude awakening real fast. If that fails, Ican see Vince taking Lesnar back, and then gloating his way to the bank.

...this show is THIS weekend? Holy hell. PPV's are coming and going waaaaaaaaaay too fast right nowfor me to keep up with.

Funny, and yet sad at the same time. I was all for Brock in NJPW, but it's become painfully obvious over time that it was NOT working. When Brock first came in, the idea was that he'd win the title, and then tour with the promotion becoming their true ace, regardless if he's a Gaijin or not...then they put the title on him, and he refused to tour. He refused to do anything beyond a couple shows per month, if THAT. Brock would never work a tournament, he would never work a tour, simply put, he didn't give a fuck about his stay in NJPW. He was there for money, and he needed someone at the time to fight WWE for him, and NJPW was that gullible sucker. Now Brock can do whatever he wants, and he doesn't want to do NJPW anymore. Hell, he might not want to do wrestling anymore period, which makes sense since he never put any effort into any of his NJPW matches. At some point, ring rust stops being a valid excuse for having subpar preformences. Brock's name was big, but he never capitalized on his name value and gave the fans a reason to want to see him. He came in, looked slightly out of shape, and proceeded to not do half, or even a quarter of the neat shit he did in WWE. He simply didn't try. On top of that, Brock never drew as champion. It's one thing if you come in and suck, but draw, but Brock didn't do that. His match with Akebono, who regardless of his over-exposure still has enough name value to sell out decent arenas failed to. It should have been an automatic. Brock the wrestling machine v.s. Akebono, the legenedary sumo. it didn't work. None of Brock's matches did anything for NJPW, and now their left with egg on their faces once again. It's both NJPW and Brock's fault for this. NJPW continues to rely on other promotions, and outside workers to do anything significant in the promotion. Nakamura and Tanahashi aren't fully ready, but now's the time. There's no one left who can credibly carry NJPW. Nagata's been jobbed too much, Tenzan's IWGP title reigns were complete failures and are laughed at. Chono's too old, Makabe's just now getting a push, Choshu's too old, Bernard missed his big chance against Lesnar, Tomko's not over and not good enough, Shiro's an outsider, Akebono is an outsider, Manabu's never been able to reach the next level, Omori's an outsider...they've got no one BUT Nakamura and Tanahashi to build around. Tanahashi should win the title immediately in dominate fashion, then win the G1, and hold onto the title a MINIMUM of six months before a big clash with Nakamura. Make everyone else secondary, and start building new stars and carefully keeping credibility on Tenzan and Nagata. This is NJPW though...Tomko will win the title, then quit. Watch.

Blind Guardian can't even really pull off their most difficult and best album (Opera), or if they do, they have to dumb it down significantly. That either shows how technical and advanced the work is on the CD, or the fact that they just can't recapture what they can do in the studio live. I think it's a combination of both. That CD is pretty amazing when you just listen to all the little stuff, like the constant guitar solo-like things instead of just a constant rhythm during singing, little shit that has it be hard to do. The BG I've heard live is not good. But that doesn't really bother me, I don't go see Live music anyway. As for Ripper v.s. Barlow, I think Barlow may be the best metal vocalist I've ever heard. He just had amazing range beyond damn near any comprehension. It sucks that he quit singing. Ripper does nothing for me. He falls into "I WILLLLLLLLL SIIIIIIIIIING LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIKE THIIIIIIIS FUUUUUUUUCKING LOOOOOOOUD AND HIIIIIIIIIIGH AS MYYYYYYYYYYY ONLLLLLLLLY REAAAAAAAAAAAAAL NOOOOOOOOOOOTE". Plus, his screams are cringe worthy. I don't get why Schaffer didn't do the vocals instead of getting Ripper. HE'S better at it then Ripper IMO. One band I got turned onto, is Savage Circus. Apparently, Blind Guardian's old drummer founded them. So far, I like what I hear. It's kinda like old BG thrash style metal with their more Epic-y qualities mixed in.

Eh, I can see it lyrically, but I said vocally, like Hansi's range. He can hit alot of stuff that most of the vocalists in these Shrilly Power-Metal bands could never hope of doing. From a soft whisper, to the afformented shril scream to growls. He has great range as a singer.And as a band themselves, their quite a few steps above even Iced Earth in how they arrange and play their music. Not so much live, but on CD's their probably the best. We've talked about BG's lyrics before, it doesn't really bother me, but I can see why it would. Just about every other Power Metal band goes off on fantasy. Atleast BG comes up with storylines and ideas for theirs instead of just random "dragon. Kill. Maiden." type shit.

Seriously...who thought dressing up like that for an album cover was a good idea? I mean, how can you show that cover to anyone and not either get looked at like you're crazy, or be flat out laughed at?

I'm a power metal fan...Well Iced Earth & Blind Guardian fan, and have listened to DragonForce They basicly fall into the same area bands like Stratovarius do. They occasionally have a decent song, but for the most part they are just ANNOYING to listen to. The lead singers voice in DF is an absolute game killer for me. Alot of bands fall into that "We play fast, we sing about fantasy, and our lead singer screams shrilly all the time!" mode, and I hate it. Their one dimensional acts, while the best Power Metal bands, like the afformented IE and BG have range to do various things atleast vocally instead of the same damn thing every song. I can't stand Manowar or Hammerfall for the same shrilly male vocal thing, although they are better overall then Dragonforce...Maybe. I can't listen to most their songs regardless.