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Been There Done That

You know, I’ve seen a lot of Marvel movie trailers over the decades (yes, we’re getting there) and this… looks like another one of those. Same kind of editing, same kind of “ominous” music, same twist on a popular-ish song, and a couple jokes tossed in for good measure. And… yay? I guess… I suppose…

This will likely appease the Marvelites who consume this content like crack cocaine, but as for me… eh, I’d wait for home video if they still made those and video stores were still a thing that I can rent these things from, but since they don’t exist and honestly, I haven’t had much interest in anything MCU-ish since Endgame, I don’t think I’ll be missing much.

People up in arms against AI for robbing creative people of work… but given the recent string of Hollywood content, it would’ve been nice if those creative people were actually involved in the making of these things instead of the same hacks who regurgitate the same drivel over and over again, but with slightly different skins to make it seem different and palettable enough to different groups of people – take your pick, that could apply to anybody these day.

Give me something engaging on a regular basis and I’ll champion the fight against AI. But at the moment, from what I’ve seen on the horizon, AI would be an improvement at this point.

Armed Anderson’s Glock Is Three Years Old

Three years ago, on this very day, Arn Anderson cut one of his most memeworthy promos on AEW television. Wrestling fans of an older generation know him as the Enforcer of the Four Horseman, constant associate of “Nature Boy” Ric Flair, and a hell of a wrestler in his own right. But to a new generation of fans, he’s the guy who threatened to pull out a gun and spill Cody’s brains all over the concrete in an effort to motivate the bastard.

Hey, it took about three years, but he finally got through.

Now, he’s ready for the Rock at Mania… or maybe Jacob Fatu… probably even Zilla…

Just don’t give us another Solo match. The math simply doesn’t work.

Playstation 5 Pro: I Don’t Need One Nor Do I Want One

I’m going across Engadget’s gaming section and I notice the above headline, which I’d imagine is a hype article for Sony’s upcoming marginal upgrade to the Playstation 5 that constitutes a “Pro” label and a price hike. The article itself does specify that those who are content with their current PS5 console don’t need a Pro, but for those who want more… well, your mileage may vary on that count, but I haven’t been sold on a PS5 Pro just yet.

Point being that I don’t need a PS5 Pro. I don’t even have a PS4. There’s nothing on there that has me going “this is a must have right now” rather than “let’s wait ten more years before I can buy one at a swap meet for fifty bucks.” Hell, I’ve got TWO PS3s on hand – the slim model that I bought a few years back and the OG model with PS1 and PS2 backwards compatibility – and neither has seen much in terms of playtime.

I’m not saying no one should buy this thing. If the PS5 Pro’s offerings interests you and you have money to spare, then by all means, go for it. But at that money, you can buy a decent PC and do much more with it. Not saying that as a PC Master Race thing – I just more value for my money, especially if it’s a lot of money being spent on one thing.

Anyway, tomorrow’s a Gimmick Table out of nowhere. Wish me luck.

TNA Impact (Sept. 26th, 2024) – Kaz Is Good, But Not As Good As Joe Hendry

Yes, we’re posting some quick Impact thoughts the night after… because I’ve got nothing else at the moment. Also, yes, this was quickly written at five in the morning because reasons…

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AEW Dynamite Grand Slam (Sept. 25th, 2024): Featuring Desmond Wolfe Vs. Lloyd Boner

Well… after a long time coming, we’re finally getting the long-teased Desmond Wolfe vs. Lloyd Boner match.

Yes, Grand Slam from a much emptier Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York featured Bryan Danielson defending his World title against Nigel McGuiness, who made a surprise appearance at the All In Gauntlet match and is now a World Title contender despite not having wrestled in over a decade or so. Also, Darby Allin puts his World title shot on the line in a match against Jon Moxley for… some reason, and finally, Tony Khan gets a new neckbrace.

That last one is a lie, but we’re using the old meme banner for Dynamite, even though I actually thought that this was a great Dynamite show.

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Nope.

A certain documentary regarding a certain disgraced former wrestling promoter recently premiered on Netflix this past week. No doubt it was the talk of the town among all the wrestling circles hoping to get more out of the most enigmatic yet successful wrestling promoter of all time, as well as the mainstream media pundits who decided to put up with the wrestling nonsense so they can cover another sex scandal involving a rich old white dude.

The most I watched was the trailer and that’s it. By the time the series premiere, my Netflix subscription that I chose to not renew had expired and I was left out in the cold. Not that I was clamoring to watch this thing in the first place, but I figured that the documentary would touch on most of the bases (the rise, the controversies, the scandals, and some of the allegations), but honestly, I figured that while this wouldn’t be the usual WWE puff piece that the old McMahon DVD was, it wasn’t going to offer anything that anyone who has followed wrestling for decades didn’t already know already.

Apparently, that’s the general consensus of what I’ve heard. Wrestling fans won’t get much out of it unless they haven’t been in the news loop and those hoping for more juice on the current situation involving McMahon will not find any satisfaction there. I’d imagine that Vince’s attempt to distance himself from the documentary due to the skewed picture it paints probably did more to attract attention and viewers to the project, but the audience of Netflix is not the audience of WWE. The audience of Netflix is not putting Vince on a pedestal like much of the WWE fanbase would.

Documentaries are never entirely truthful. Some are more truthful than others, but almost all of them are usually built on a narrative and naturally, everything is skewered to fit that particular narrative. Do I expect this thing to be completely truthful? Not really considering the subject matter, but at the same time, this isn’t a WWE production… it’s most certainly not a Vince McMahon production, which means it’ll be more honest than most. It’s all sensationalism at the end of the day and the fact that it’s coming out at all despite the current situation (that’s my euphemism for that whole deal) is something to be… applauded, I guess?

So… yeah, my Netflix expired and I’m in no hurry to give this thing a watch any time soon. Not when I have so much other stuff to do in the interim… like watch that Grand Slam show from AEW featuring Desmond Wolfe vs. Lloyd Boner.

TNA Bound For Glory 2010

Quick note before we begin today’s scheduled musings… so, for the month of October, we are foregoing the weekly PPV Musings and when we return in November, it’ll be covering this year’s Bound For Glory PPV. Bound For Glory is TNA’s flagship PPV event, similar to a Wrestlemania or Starrcade… okay, that might be stretching it nowadays, but you get the general idea. Anyway, this’ll be the first Bound For Glory show that I’ve watched live since… ages. And given how good the TNA product has been this year, I’m sure they’ll be delivering a fine enough show for the ages… which is more than what I can say for today’s subject matter.

As a matter of fact, I had gone ahead and watched the TNA Victory Road show from a couple weeks ago and that was a great show, probably one of the better TNA outputs I’ve seen in this new era. The smart side of my brain suggests that I talk about this show before taking the break from musings to focus on the October marathon of reviews… but sadly, I’m not listening to the smart side of the brain today because soon afterwards, I jumped into the TNA archives to watch the Bound For Glory show from October 10, 2010.

Yes, the 10-10-10 edition of Bound For Glory. Otherwise known as Vincent “Big Vinny V” Verhei’s birthday… yeah, not quite a happy birthday for him, I’m sure.

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TNA Impact (September 19th, 2024) – I Swear, They’re Doing This As A Gag

With TNA’s Victory Road event in the back-burner, we begin the road to Bound For Glory, which should be an interesting show if nothing else. All I know is that you better believe that I will be watching… though I respect that you don’t believe my genuine anticipation for an upcoming TNA PPV from 2024.

Anyway, on with the show.

Continue reading “TNA Impact (September 19th, 2024) – I Swear, They’re Doing This As A Gag”

CGR In Regression

Remember earlier this year when Classic Game Room made its return with another season of CGR 2085? That went on for about five episodes before Mark decided that the whole thing wasn’t worth it and pivoted towards a CGR podcast… and then that fell off the wayside? Did you catch the new CGR shows? If not, would you like to watch them again?

Well, tough shit… you can’t. Because CGR has made those videos private… on Youtube, at least.

For those not in the know, Classic Game Room turns 25 this year. CGR 2085’s second season was supposed to be a celebration of that milestone, but sadly, the numbers weren’t there and creator Mark Bussler didn’t think it was worth continuing. Fine, I get it. He wanted numbers to justify the cost and he didn’t get them. But to basically pull the new stuff offline (or make them private) to prevent further views? Isn’t that a bit extreme?

Well, only if you watch stuff on Youtube…

There’s always going to be those salty few who complain about someone not producing enough content. Those people don’t matter unless they’re paying for a product you’re selling. From all indications, nobody is buying anything that Mark is selling; they’re watching freebies on Youtube and complaining about not having enough freebies. Hey, dumbass. You’ve got more than enough vintage CGR videos to fall back if you really need your fix. They come in a variety of flavors and who knows? You might enjoy the older stuff more than the more recent stuff, which has been somewhat polarizing.

But that newer stuff… you can only find that on ClassicGameRoom.com.

Seems as though things have not been so swimming on Youtube for ol’ Mark, who decided to move all his stuff back to his own website and host all the videos from there (via what I presume is Vimeo). So while there’s no more new CGR stuff on your popular streaming platform of choice, you can go to the creator’s own website and watch some of this new stuff along with some of the older stuff. Now before anyone asks… YES, they tried this sort of thing before and it flamed out. But that was a much larger operation. This feels a bit more contained and is at least supported by other ventures that are doing a much better job of earning Mark a steady income.

Yes, it would be nice if this stuff were still being posted on Youtube, but at least, you can still watch the stuff elsewhere. I’ll take what I can get and be done with it, thanks.

Terminator’s Future – Toss It All Out And Keep It Out

Source: https://bleedingcool.com/movies/terminator-james-cameron-has-a-plan-for-franchise/

James Cameron wants to make another Terminator movie… but this time, it’s going to be a reboot that’s not reliant on what came before. So, basically, tell the same story again, but with different characters and stuff. Isn’t that what they’ve done with all these other Terminator movies?

I suppose I should give Cameron credit for not making it another Terminator sequel. Honestly, it’s probably what they should have done with that Dark Fate movie that skipped over “some” of the movies, but not all of them. But even so… who the fuck is asking for a new Terminator movie these days? Every time they do another one, it’s a matter of dimishing returns. Each one not only sucked more than the last movie that came out, but it even made less money. You’ve got nothing left to say with these movies. They’re a product of their time and place. If you want to invent some new concept based on old ideas… THEN JUST MAKE THE NEW CONCEPT AND NOT USE AN OLD NAME.

Ah, but that’s the catch, isn’t it? Create something new and there’s no guarantee that it’ll be a success. Regardless of quality, there exists the possibility that it could be overlooked. But tying it to a legacy franchise? Calling it a new entry that continues the story or offers a new take? Now you’ve got some guaranteed money to work with. Now you’ve got the attention of those fans who should know better, but so desperately want their chosen love to be number one that they’ll stoop to any low to support this thing… and then it’ll come out and they’ll turn on it because it doesn’t respect the old material or whatever the case may be.

There are some franchises that can evolve and change with the times while still keeping the course tenants true. And then there are some franchises that, no matter how hard you try, are a relic of a bygone age. Terminator is one of the latter. We tried the reboot thing (twice) and it didn’t work. Nobody bit.

James Cameron had the right idea in jettisoning what came before. Maybe after doing that, he can move on to something else.

I mean, if Ridley Scott can’t make a decent Alien movie these days…

By the way, this isn’t the first time I’ve touched on Terminator outliving its usefulness as a movie franchise. I’ve touched on this ages ago and you can read that here.