Hawkius Maximus

I watched School Rumble first season in little over two days. I had free time. It's a funny show, but since I'm the type of person who likes character development and plot advancement, I was absolutely PISSED by the end. Hopefully that's not too much of a spoiler. Right now I don't know if I'll tackle the second season or not. Kinda iffy on the whole thing now.

Shingo Takagi and BxB Hulk from DRAGON GATE. They are without question the two greatest rookie workers I've ever seen in my life. Shingo has been a pro since 2004, and was immediately thrown into the spotlight as CIMA's protege in Crazy MAX. He's more then lived up to it, and in fact has surpassed all expectations on him. Hulk's been a pro even less, debuting just a little over a year ago, but has already exceled. As Magnum TOKYO's protege, he's grown by leaps and bounds beyond where he should be. Hulk, along with Shingo have had many great matches, but their best are between each other which seemingly cannot be any less then ***+. I seriously doubt there is anyone who can compete with these two in how far they've advanced, and achieved in just two years for one, and ONE year for the other.

I thought it was a highly interesting read. His ideas, some were whacked, some were good, and some point towards utopia, but the question is how much of the utopia does he actually believe, or was he merely including it to have points to drive home?

The lack of Hackney makes me sad. I was hoping he'd go ballistic in a fight and start nutpunching someone to doom.

.....Leben got owned. So hard.

I see no reason whatsoever to think Matt Hamil will not be a force for the LHW title in two years given how far he's gotten so quickly. FUck, the guy is an AMAZING wrestler, and if nothing else he can just take people down and pound the shit out of them for the win. In his fight with Nickels, he showed nothing but heart. He had no standup skill at all, but he kept coming with a fucked up arm and beat the fight out of him for two rounds. In his fight with Jesse, he MAULED him standing. That wasn't blind heart, he grabbed onto his head with his freakish strength and just beat the piss out of him. Then got him down and beat the piss out of him there. Jesse's an accomplished wrestler too, and should have been able to do something, ANYTHING, but he couldn't do anything to Matt. Saying he'll be a force for the title, or champion in two years at the rate he's going training with Team Punishment, and seemingly being Tito's protege is not a leap by any stretch of the imagination. Matt shows no fear of submissions, or striking. He's like a bear, he just keeps coming for you. Perhaps saying he'll be champ in two years was a bit much, but that he'll be in UFC's top five? I don't think so. Then again, it's MMA. Anything can happen I suppose.

After watching his utter decimation of Jesse, I think Matt is going to be LHW champ within two years under Tito. You can tell Tito's taken him on as his project, and Matt's improved by LEAPS since the show. I mean, dear GOD, Jesse didn't have a fucking chance, and it really didn't come down to Matt's wrestling skills either. Matt owned him in every aspect possible in that fight. Matt's dirty boxing was some of the most effective usage of it in the UFC since Couture, as he just locked on to him, and didn't let him get the hell away. Rogan pretty mcuh said it best, by the end, Jesse was just praying it would be stopped. I also think Kendall's going to be a force in the Middleweight division too. If he can learn how to effectively use his size standing to keep people at bay with front kicks, and punches, he could easily own just about everyone in that division, before taking them down and subbing him. I just don't see anyone in that division being able to easily beat Kendall with his size and ability. Kendall's size, and lanky build gives him weapons that most middle-weights do not have. Kendall doesn't even have to try to knee someone in the face, and he proved he can easily lock in moves like the triangle with his build, let alone chokes using his skinny ass forearms. It also helps that Kendall's trained with Tito since the show too. This season probably is going to end up being the most productive of all the seasons we've had thus far. Bisping, Kendall & Matt alone are just about ready for title shots, then you got Herman, who if he polished up his skills a bit more would be good, and you gotta admire the sheer balls it took for Josh not to friggin DIE.

Florian KILLLLLLLLED Stout.

God of War is fun until you hit a push or pull puzzle, or a ledge. Ledge's fucking suck in that game. It's probably because I R teh st00pid, but I've gotten stuck on damn near every push and pull puzzle, or moment in the damn game that I've come across, and if you don't figure it out (Hello me four hours later), you can't advance, and if the monsters respawn, you end up killing the same type of monster for ages. Apparently I don't read between the lines well, because I can never figure out what the bloody shit I'm supposed to do. The ledges are even worse to me. Their a BITCH. Hate them. Combat is fairly fun though.

In what is unquestionably the biggest news event of the year, Fuji TV has canceled their TV deal with PRIDE. The last Bushido with the Tournament will not air. This extends to every show PRIDE does, AND Hustle. I've heard rumors that pro-wrestling group Zero One MAX will be affected too due to being funded in part by DSE. http://www.fightopinion.com/2006/06/05/fuj...-pride-for-good This is HUGE. Even PRIDE's American PPV deal ran through Fuji. Fuji also funded a great deal of their shows. PRIDE's basicly dead in the water now. No TV company is going to give them a deal with all the Yakuza Scandal around them. The ramifications of this could be incredible. I figured it MIGHT be worth a thread itself.

Fuck yes to the Doi video. That man owns.

First off, two totally different things. The article you posted didn't say PRIDE was dying seeing how it was made several years ago. Furthermore, my thread title does NOT say PRIDE is dying. It says the end MAY be here, May being a suggestive word with two possibilities. May not, May be. I never said PRIDE was dead. Nor dying. I said the end may be here. Significant difference. Yes, there is a huge difference between DEEP and PRIDE. However, you are completely missing what we have been saying. PRIDE is/was funded by TV Companies, atleast towards their Production which is not a small thing. Between the maintainence of their sets, to their fireworks, to their setup, to their friggin CGI lightning. It all costs huge amounts of money. The money they'd get from TV deals, and their PPV broadcasts are gone. Completely. Theres no more funding there. Also figure in that DSE is refusing to let HUSTLE die, and instead are going ahead with their Saitama Super Arena show, which will probably fail to sell out. HUSTLE only stayed alive as long as it has due to TV. Without it, it's a HUUUUGE drain on DSE's resources. Even IF you cut out Hustle, DSE still has a gigantic roster easily the biggest contracted set of fighters in the history of MMA. It drains them from every show they run, regardless of size or amount of people inside the building. DSE's going to notice that they may have made 50% pure profit before, they'll make MAYBE 15% due to the increased costs on everything within their structure as a company. If that. No one has said PRIDE is dead. Or dying. We've been saying that there are significant things pointing them towards destruction. We can't read the future, so we've never made that leap.

I fail to see where that article says PRIDE is dead. More or less, it says PRIDE's going to continue on shaky ground, which they have been. Zach was pretty much spot on, things have been really shaky for PRIDE the last few years. He never outright says PRIDE is dying, but instead says that weird things are going on. PRIDE hasn't been able to counter K-1 effectively, they've lost stars, they've added divisions, new stars. All that since then. It hasn't been straight forward, or headstrong at all. When you think about how much of all this, since PRIDE's inception could be Yakuza influenced, it's staggering. The scary thing is, it COULD be that way.

That brings up another point. Why did he commit suicide? It hasn't been that long ago, and then this came about. My friend made a good point. PRIDE began with more resources then any promotion in history. They ran the first show in the Tokyo Dome with it's huuuuge costs. They brought in Rickson Gracie to fight Nobuhiko Takada, one of the biggest names in Japanese Pro-Wrestling. They brought in every fighter they could. All with no shows before, no proven credibility. Has the Yakuza been in PRIDE THAT long? Which brings us back to the Morishita suicide. Maybe he had a debt he couldn't pay back.

Basicly, over the last few months it's been revealed that PRIDE is heavily into the Yakuza. To the extent that possibly high ranking people within PRIDE are in the Yakuza. Not good. It's been building for months, and this is the culmination. Sakuraba left PRIDE over this. They've also lost other TV deals including Tokai, and SkyPerfect. They have nothing. For anyone who thinks this is like when UFC got kicked off PPV: it's not. PRIDE cannot exist in it's current form without the money paid by the Japanese TV companies. That's the big difference, in that Japanese TV works in that they'll pay you to be on their station aslong as you get the ratings. Thats why no Japanese promotion has ever worked in the States significantly, because the TV/PPV situations are so vastly different. PRIDE/DSE has nothing now. Their stubbornly saying their going to keep going ahead, but inless they get a TV deal immediately which is highly unlikely given how big this is (And this IS big. I dunno why more MMA sites aren't talking about it. This is one of the biggest, if not the biggest stories in Japan). Cuts are going to be made immediately I'd assume to keep them alive. Gonna be VERY interesting to see where the bigger names end up.

Problem is, PRIDE was funded by Fuji, like all Pro-wrestling/MMA groups are in Japan. PRIDE has to find someone that's willing to pay the costs that Fuji was covering. Right now, there are alllll kinds of insane rumors going on about what's going to happen in DSE including Sakikbara being arrested and other rumors. This is MAAAAAAAAASSSSSSIVE.

I wanna know why Smackdown is SO BETTER booked then Raw. The final angle with Booker, Regal & Finlay gangbeating Lashley was amazingly well done. Lashley kept fighting back despite the beating. Then you got how well their booking Henry, Khali. Other then the Rey fiasco, Smackdown is awesomely booked. So...Why the hell can't Raw and Smackdown be thsi good at the same time?

I checked out a Tarot song, Blood Runs Cold...Wasnt' too thrilled. I'll try and track down some more. I'm not a "Hair Metal" fan at all, I actually despise most of it. Just comes off as really cheesey as a genre. The thing about Nightwish for me, and what put them over most every other band I've heard (...behind BG), is how well arranged their music was for the most part. Tarja's voice, combined with the Male vocalist make a damn good combination. The male vocalist never stepped out of his position, the front was Tarja's. She dominated it. The use of orchestrial elements, and stories made it all the better. Stuff like Planet Hell, Kinslayer, Elevenpath, Tenth Man Down, that shit is badass. Some of Nightwish's stuff, was eh, but when they hit the right note, they PWNED it. The entire last CD "Once" is just awesome from beginning to end...Other then Creek Mary's Blood. Fucking hate that song. Nothing they can do if Tarja was acting like a bitch though. It'll be hard as hell to replace her when she basicly *WAS* the band to alot of people, but maybe they can pull something off. I've only ever liked a couple Lacuna Coil songs. I think the main reason, is as others have stated, the male vocalist never seems to know when it's time to back off and let the chick sing. She has a great voice (Not Tarja level, but better then Lee I'd say), but in alot of the songs she's either in the background, or a strong portion of the song is ate up by him. Plus, the one CD I downloaded (Forget which. Had Heaven's A lie. Great song.) eventually all just ran together into one lump. None of the songs beyond one or two felt distinct at all. On a whole, I love female fronted bands. Not sure why exactly. I've been trying to check out some of the suggestions already in this thread, but haven't had a whole lot of luck.

If by some miracle of god Yoshida wins the GP, I'm soooo coming back to this thread to point out that yes, I believed in him~! Yes, I know how unlikely that is.

I dunno if this has been posted... Apparently, in World of Warcraft, a guild leader passed away from cancer. His/her guild decided to have a funeral in game for the person, and asked on the message boards that everyone stay away while it was taking place. WoW is Player v.s. Player...so... http://youtube.com/watch?v=rTfAfcXYIbY&sea...craft%20Funeral I'm actually rather bothered by this. Sure, thinking it wouldn't happen was a bit silly, but still. Apparently, the fallout from this is that the guild who did this crime, is probably the most hated and hunted guild in all of the game.

The thing about CSI, is the character storylines aren't really pronounced. You have to have watched for awhile to get it. Like, the cliffhanger for this season was Grissom ending up in bed with Sara. For anyone who hasn't watched alot, it probably wouldn't mean anything, but for people who've watched for years now it's massive. Throw in Nick's issues after having been kidnapped, aswell as he still has the issues for storylines. To me, CSI's the ultimate background show. You can throw on the show, and even if you don't follow the show too closely, it still provides entertainment. Plus, it's a really slick program, with great useage of visuals and music. Just really good overall.

See, I'm of the opinion that Silva was afraid against Yoshida. Much like how he was when he fought Arona the first time. He was worried that if he closed the distance, Yoshida would grab him and take him down, and control him. Which...Pretty much was what happened the first few times. It was only after Silva nearly got that Triangle did he seem to gain back his confidence. Second round, he pretty much decimated Yoshida, other then a few moments. Their second fight, I haven't watched in awhile, but I remember feeling Yoshida won. He was good standing, he controlled the ground fighting, and just generally seemed to control the pace of the fight. I'm not going to say Yoshida was robbed or anything, but I haven't seen that in forever. Silva just knows that he has one flaw in his game and that's his ground work. He's not that great there, and often stalls to get a standup. He'll take the yellow card if it means he can get the fight back to the feet. Against someone the caliber of Yoshida & Arona, where he can't easily out power them (Like against Saku, a similarly good grappler), he wouldn't be able to do that well. Arona in their first fight took advantage of that, and easily beat Silva, and possibly would have won the second fight had he not fought so amazingly weird in the last round (Such as pulling guard with thirty seconds left). I fully admit I'm biased towards Yoshida though. Gutsy little bastard.

I thankfully mastered floating when I was five. If I was in a life or death situation, I could easily just kinda...float, if need arose. I don't even have to try to do it anymore. I naturally just start floating. I can't even dive, I just float right back up. Bikes...Fuck Bikes. I took a nasty fall, and gashed my knee pretty badly when I was a kid, to the point where I probably needed stitches. My irrational fear of hospitals kept me from going. Never learned how after that and never want to.

I have come to a realization. Never watch a Record of Lodoss War disc, then read a Love Hina manga volume. You get some......interesting dreams.

Bah. Yoshida's not that bad. He's got more guts and heart then actual skill, but he's still okay. Plus, Yoshida's atleast trying to improve his game. He could have just worked on his throws, and submissions. He been working on all the aspects of the game though. Plus, he tries to be exciting. He's got the Saku thing going on, where he wants to try to give a good show even if he's going to get his ass stomped. See him throwing shots against Nakajima. He didn't HAVE to, because he took him down so easily it was sad. He just wanted to give a bit of a show. I just wanna see him win it all, is that so much to ask?