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forkboy

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forkboy

1663

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I just hope that the staff are in a good place. That's what matters ultimately. Hope they don't have to worry about being axed, hope that the new owners recognise the value of Giant Bomb (& Gamespot for that matter, & the other assorted ex-CBSi employees still hanging in there), & on a purely selfish level I hope they don't cover the site in auto-playing videos. Or if they do at least start with the video muted for the love of god.

I really haven't kept up with the Red Ventures gossip aside from Jeff G leaving. But the content I've seen since the "soft reboot" for a lack of a better term has been enjoyable & I hope that the team are able to keep doing that or whatever else they want to

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forkboy

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#2  Edited By forkboy

I already have too many podcasts in my feed. The Beastcast is missed but its absence does mean I can listen to Radio War Nerd more regularly in its place. And I've built up a backlog of TrueAnon episodes, my favourite paranoid conspiracy/politics/comedy podcast

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forkboy

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The NOAH show from this morning, Chronicle Volume 3 was mostly fine, it was broadcast free on Abema TV (& it stays up for free for a week) but the main event is the best wrestling match I've seen since January & quite likely the best match of the year.

It was Go Shiozaki, the GHC Heavyweight Champion, vs Kenoh, the GHC National Champion, both belts on the line. Really there's not much you need to know going in, Kenoh won his title last week from Katsuhiko Nakajima (by knockout), the tag partner of Go Shiozaki. The next night Shiozaki defended his title against Naomichi Marufuji, who is basically the talisman of the company, as he goes back to the All Japan split & post-match Kenoh came out to challenge him which is how we get here. Shiozaki was a disciple of the legendary Kenta Kobashi, NOAH trueborn, he's catchphrase is literally "I AM NOAH". Kenoh came from northern indie Michinoku Pro & has a huge chip on his shoulder, he's always going on about not being appreciated & being overlooked for NOAH homegrown guys like Shiozaki & Kaito Kiyomiya. So it's insecure but smug guy against the face of the company & they just laid it all out on the mat. It was fucking brutal, they absolutely murdered each other with strikes (Shiozaki's chops & palm strikes & Kenoh's kicks). Just so much drama & I bit hard on every false finish & it's been nearly 12 hours since I finished watching it & I'm still thinking about, just can't get it out of my head.

https://abema.tv/video/title/517-1

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forkboy

1663

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I'm grateful for Ben loading up DA: O because it made me play through DA:I against after realising I remembered nothing that happened. 60 hours later I have had a better time than I did on my first time through.

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forkboy

1663

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I had a Delaque gang & instead of the snazzy brown dusters I painted them with some green wash, I dunno, to make them uniquely mine or something. I was 12 or 13, bad taste is requisite.

I have a lot of fond memories of the campaign nature of Necromunda, never really had RPGs in my friend group but we had Necromunda & it was cool. Even if I was extremely bad at it & hated my friend whose Van Saar gang had a Heavy with a Lascannon that just made my poor Juvies into mincemeat.

So yeah, this could be really cool. Though I don't think I'd run a Delaque gang now as the new models are less "cool dudes in dusters" & goggles & more like vaguely undead looking extremely pale dudes (which at least makes sense living in the Underhive)

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forkboy

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Great clip featuring Dan

Also rumors swirling about WWE absorbing AJPW.

WWE absorbing All Japan will make me so sad. Since the Champion Carnival last year I've gotten really into modern All Japan and am just a really big fan of what they do. To the point where I watch everything they upload to AJPW TV, upto & including house shows in front of 300 people with 1 camera & no commentary. There's obvious problems as far as building up new talent goes but in Kento Miyahara they have one of the best wrestlers in the world, a guy whose every singles match is a must watch. And Shuji Ishikawa took over as booker at the start of the year & the new direction has been really interesting to see unfold with Purple Haze as the new heel stable and instantly having a bit of an early Bullet Club vibe (in the sense that there's a surprising amount of interference for AJPW, even in a big Tag Title matchup) for better or worse. And it was all building up to Champion Carnival in April, their big hot prospect Naoya Nomura winning it all & then going on to dethrone Kento after Kento beats Kawada's record for most Triple Crown title defences until Nomura got hurt, now he's out of the Carnival & the question of what's next for Kento is really up in the air.

I was glad when Dragongate & NOAH both avoided WWE's offers, and while I know All Japan isn't what it was 25 years ago, really it's just an indy promotion at this point that barely draws outside of Kento's Triple Crown defences and they've kinda been operating on life support for 4 or 5 years it'd still be a huge loss symbolically. I don't blame Jun Akiyama if he does take the money, we've got Wrestle-1 just straight up closing up shop in April but it won't stop me being sad.

The silver lining is that most AJPW talent aren't under contract & are closer to freelancers, but Kento will be. The Best of the Best being stuck in NXT Japan would be heart breaking, talking about a guy who has already had one of my favourite matches of 2020 with his January 3rd defences against Jake Lee, and another (vs Yuma Aoyagi) which isn't up at that level but is still very good. Every defence in this 10 match reign has been baselevel very good. He just deserves better than that. Personally I'd say the ideal end result if All Japan dies is he ends up somewhere like NOAH which has room for an elite singles star in a way New Japan doesn't. Because I don't want to see Miyahara stuck in a Hirooki Goto type role when New Japan already has its own ace in Okada.

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forkboy

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I present exhibit A: Brock Lesnar.

No Caption Provided

I have seen the penis sword far too often now and don't even blink an eye out how utterly daft it is.

I think Cody's tattoo is worse because I absolutely have a thing about neck tattoos. The only thing worse than a neck tattoo is a facial tattoo. At least Jack can wear a shirt.

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forkboy

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I really don't watch AEW with all that regularity so fully expect these predictions to be trash.

SCU (Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky) w/ Christopher Daniels vs. The Dark Order (Evil Uno & Stu Grayson)

(1 pt) Which person gets the pin? Scorpio Sky

(1 pt) Who gets pinned? Stu Grayson

(3 pt) Will we find out who the Exalted One is, if so who is it? No, we do not find out who the Exalted One is yet.

PAC vs. Orange Cassidy

(1 pt) Who wins? PAC

(1 pt) How many different pairs of sunglasses will Orange Cassidy wear in the match? 3

AEW Women's Championship Match: Nyla Rose(c) vs. Kris Statlander

(1 pt) Who wins? Nyla Rose

(1 pt) Will Nyla get booped at any point in the match? Yes

Darby Allin vs. Sammy Guevara

(1 pt) Who wins? Darby Allin

(1 pt) Will a skateboard be used as a weapon in the match? Yes

Jake Hagar vs. Dustin Rhodes

(1 pt) Who wins? Dustin Rhodes

(1 pt) Who gets hit in the genital triangle first? Dustin Rhodes

AEW World Tag Team Championship Match: Kenny Omega & Adam Page (c) vs. Young Bucks

(1 pt) Which person gets the pin? Adam Page

(1 pt) Who gets pinned? Matt Jackson

(3 pt) Who turns heel (Pick One: Nobody, Omega, Page, Young Bucks)? Nobody

MFJ vs. Cody

(5 pt) Who wins? Cody

AEW World Championship Match: Chris Jericho (c) vs. Jon Moxley

(5 pt) Who wins? Jon Moxley

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forkboy

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#9  Edited By forkboy

This is hard. Bryan Danielson is my all-time favourite wrestler. I love the dude, he was a pivotal part of my reconnecting with wrestling in the mid-00s after several years only really following it through reading webforums. But I can't say his my favourite right now because he's stuck in a company I don't watch.

I dunno, I think we're talking about a wrestler who I will go out of my way to watch every single match of there's several names worth mentioning. Masaaki Mochizuki is an old dude who has been around since Wrestle & Romance in the mid-90s, and he's been around the Toryumon/Dragon Gate system since the beginning in 1999. He's probably the best wrestler in the world over 50 now, he's just a grumpy old kick man and I do love grumpy old guys who just kick the ever-loving-shit out of young punks. Had so many amazing matches over the years, and still having them today (see his Open The Dream Gate title challenge last October against Ben-K). He's also been working a bit more outside of DG the past year with them being a little less isolationist. In 2018 he was in the All Japan Jr Tag tournament with rising young star Shun Skywalker & in 2019 he was in the N1, Pro Wrestling NOAH's big G1 style tournament. He's currently one half of NOAH's Tag Team Champions along with Naomichi Marufuji & that's been great, really recommend the title match where they won the belt from AXIZ (Go Shiozaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima).

Sticking Dragon Gate guys, Susumu Yokosuka is a Toryumon original as part of M2K (Mochizuki, Mochizuki & Kanda because Susumu was originally Susumu Mochizuki. He later lost the rights to the last name in a match with Masaaki Mochizuki. Wrestling is good because it is silly), who were a heel stable who would intentionally get double count-outs to deprive the fans of clean finishes. I know it sounds odd but it worked. He's been a consistent workhorse through the years of Toryumon & Dragon Gate & had a low-key amazing 2019 where he won their secondary singles belt the Open The Brave Gate title & every match he had elevated his opponent (especially the matches with U-T & Jason Lee) before finally dropping the belt to Kaito Ishida in another great match. This year he turned up in All Japan in their Jr Heavyweight Title tournament & he won that against Hikaru Sato & then a defence against the very young but promising Akira Francesco. For the first time in years the AJPW Jr division actually feels like it matters & is exciting & a lot of that is down to Susumu being such a great hand at helping build up the people he wrestles.

Kento Miyahara is the ace of All Japan and he is head & shoulders above everyone else on their roster. He's arrogant as hell but he backs it up. The major knock is that AJPW aren't really overflowing with contenders & in his current run he's beaten every Heavyweight they have. He's currently one win away from beating Toshiaki Kawada's record run as Triple Crown champ. But all that aside, Kento is amazing. Without him I really don't know if All Japan would even exist any more, he's such a huge draw for them.

But I guess my favourite guy, the guy I look forward to the most is Tomohiro Ishii. He's short & beefy & he's never going to hold a top title belt but every time he goes out & runs into his opponent & just has a war & it rules. He's consistently been one of the best wrestlers in the world since his break through in New Japan in 2013. (It kills me that he had been wrestling since 1996 & yet did almost nothing of note until his NEVER Openweight title match against Masato Tanaka in February 2013 & then suddenly he's having multiple MOTY calibre matches a year). There's not much fancy about the Stone Pitbull. He just fights.

Honourable mentions go to Hiromu Takahashi, I would write about him being the best but y'know, this is already too long & self indulgent. Also Shingo Takagi & Zack Sabre Jr are big personal favourites in New Japan.

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forkboy

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@mems1224@thatpinguino care to elaborate on why it's such a terrible take? Should people not have the ability to make choices to live their lives however they want? Should the collective will be imposed on everyone, even if someone doesn't like what that will is pushing for?

I want the people who make games to be the best people making the best games because I play games. An industry dominated by the idea of unhealthy (physically & mentally) long work hours is not going to appeal to everyone, which means some of the people who could be making great games aren't and that's bad to me. Of course, as a socialist it's also bad to me that people can be coerced to work excessive hours for no compensation because "that's the culture of the company" and "that's the culture of the industry". Sorry, that's a bad industry that needs fixed.

People fought and died, quietly literally, for shorter work days. The 12 hour day used to be the norm. Whaddya know, it's since been proven that people are less productive when they aren't able to have any fucking down time. Yes, I'm sure it works for some people like Dan Houser but shrug. I don't want to be expected to work when I'm off the clock because my boss's boss who gets a cut of royalties decides he wants to work 100 hour weeks.

Also in a perfect world, sure, it's easy to find another job. In the real world we have family and homes and living expenses and debts that stop that being actually practical.