Listen, I don’t feel like throwing up a banner on short notice, so you’re getting a picture of this here dog. Good enough for me, dammit.
So a buddy of mine forwarded this Grand Slam Collision show my way via DVD-R recording… along with a couple other things that he thought I might like. This was the Grand Slam show from Australia that took place on Valentine’s Day. Out of courtesy, I gave it a watch and…
In case you missed the news – either because you don’t follow combat sports news or you just had better things to do; both are valid – Netflix is going to air the return of two female legends in the MMA circle this coming may. Yes, Cold Ronda returns to something resembling an octagon but not really because it’s not a UFC thing to fight other legendary MMA person Gina Carano, who no doubt is looking forward to punching things after her truffles with the Disney Corporation.
It goes without saying that I care very little about the happenings of MMA. I care even less so about the happenings of Cold Ronda unless she’s eating some semblance of humble pie. But to say that something like this isn’t a big deal is ludicrous. Whatever your thoughts on the individuals involved, these are two pioneering women that brought the female portion of the combat sports equation up to a higher level and this is the first time both are stepping into the arena to face each other in what looks to be familiar MMA trappings.
Hey, good for Ronda giving Gina another payday since apparently, this whole deal was her idea. Is it something I’d be interested in watching? Not really, but for you MMA fans out there, I’m sure that’s something to look forward to down the road… and if not, there’s always that UFC show from the White House… which I also will not be watching.
What do you want? I was never an MMA fan. Not about to start now. But any excuse I can use to pull out Ronda’s KO’ed mug and plaster it on a post… I will take it… so you know who I’m rooting for, if nothing else.
Apparently, Wrestlemania VEGAS: The Revenge isn’t doing so hot in ticket sales as of late and WWE is struggling to figure out why. There have been suggestions that the booking might not be as hot and ol’ McSon-In-Law might be feeling some heat. Others have (more accurately, I feel) pointed towards the high ticket prices that have priced out most common folks who would consider taking a trip to VEGAS to witness the 42nd edition of the long running Showcase Of The Immortals. However, there might be one other factor that people may or may not be overlooking here.
Anyone remember the first All In event from Wembley that AEW put out back in 2023? Kind of a big deal, recording setting attendance for a non-WWE show. Lots of hype and hooplah over it… and so they announce that they’re holding the show at Wembley again next year. The numbers, naturally, aren’t quite as record breaking. Some could argue the card wasn’t as strong – I wholeheartedly disagree on that count – but I think it’s more to do with the fact that you already attended the first show last year, which was a big deal. Second year in a row? Been there, done that. The shine simply isn’t there anymore.
Let’s go back a bit further and this might be stretching things a bit here, but Wrestlemania IV and V were hosted back to back at the old Atlantic City Convention Hall (a.k.a. Trump Plaza) and while attendance hadn’t seen a drastic drop, there was still a bit of a drop. Again, one could argue the product wasn’t as hot as the year before – to which I call bullshit considering IV played host to that horrendous WWF title tournament and V… wasn’t that much better, to be honest – but it could also be a matter of “been there, done that.” The first time felt like something of a big deal, the second time is the sequel that’s nowhere near as good.
So while you can blame it on prices being high for the common folk – and that is a BIG factor to consider in these trying economic times – I would also argue that maybe – just maybe – holding Wrestlemania in the same venue as last year’s Mania is going to result in diminishing returns. We’ve already seen this show once. Why would we want to see it again?
I realize that I’m posting these thoughts a day after I posted my Bite commentary on my present day disenchantment with modern wrestling and chances are there’s more to this picture that I’m missing… but it’s just a fact of life that if you keep doing the same thing over and over again, it starts to feel the same and you’re going to lose people who will invariably want to see something different.
Who knows? Maybe they might find the solution to their ticket selling woes and pull another rabbit out of the DX cannon. Maybe they don’t sell as much tickets. Part of me is curious to see how this pans out, but I would suggest that if I want Wrestlemania to continue breaking records in a positive sense, they should consider hosting the event at different venues… and preferably in venues that the general populace don’t have an adverse reaction to.
The show opens with Hulk Hogan beating on Arn Anderson for a bit before run-ins galore, ref is distracted and sees Savage in the ring, and ends up DQ’ing Hogan, which gives Arn another win over Hogan. Wow, would you look at that?
Belfast Bruiser… took me a while to figure out that this was Fit Finlay because I almost didn’t recognize him with the messy long hair and ‘stache… anyway, he beats up on perennial journeyman Brad Armstrong and it’s perfectly acceptable fodder. Unfortunately, we’ve got another Loch Ness match, with Alex Wright being the sad recipient of a large dent. The show ends with Ric Flair retaining his WCW title over Macho Man thanks to another shoe because… sure, why not? That’s our only fucking finish these days.
This show was a bit of a slog and then it dawned on me. We’re on our way to Uncensored and the DOOMSDAY CAGE match. People are going to have to try and convince me that this show is still good while we’re building towards THAT pile of shit. Good luck.
The original Namco space bug shooter hits Atari home computers and 5200 consoles with something that is playable… but boy, ain’t that cover art a beaut?
So the Royal Rumble happened last month, emanating from the benevolent and progressive kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It is the first time that WWE has held the Royal Rumble event outside of North America, where citizens of the benevolent and progressive kingdom of Saudi Arabia bore witness to the usual extravagant event that had already been paid for by the prince.
Normally, around this time, I would post some thoughts on the Rumble event under the Royal Ramble banner of this blog… but this year I’m going to do something a little bit different. See, a funny thing happened this year that I didn’t think would ever occur in all my years of watching wrestling. The Royal Rumble came and went… and I completely forgot about it.
Perhaps this had been due to the fact that last year’s event was held in February rather than its usual end of January slate, but the fact remained that I was rather busy that weekend and when I got on my computer late Sunday, I noticed that there were news bits on the Rumble and that’s when I went “Oh wait. That was today.” It’s not even a matter of forgetting it was taking place early (other side of the world, after all). It was a matter of forgetting that it was even a thing.
It was at this point that I realized… wow, I missed the Rumble. And I didn’t care.
What happened?
Continue reading “THE BITE COMMENTARIES #14 – The Malaise Of Modern Wrestling”
Uberduck is an AI-based text-to-speech online resource that used to have a bunch of IP-infringing voices to read your written word before they were taken down in 2023. You can then save recorded clips into WAV files and do with them whatever you see fit… which resulted in this short audio clip where Anakin has the high ground and Obi-Wan… doesn’t.
This clip has never been published until now.
The only thing AI-generated are the voices, which sounded close but still broken. The audio clips were edited together in VEGAS and the one image used good ol’ Adobe Photoshop to flip our Jedi around from their usual spots. Had this been created today, the process might have been easier and the quality a little better… which should be concern to anyone.
No harm is intended with this clip. Posted purely for entertainment purposes… but perhaps also a warning of sorts.
Diving into Namco Legendary DLC pack goodness, we’re playing Pac-Man on Atari 8-Bit computers! And also the 5200 version gets some love because we can play that with proper controllers. That helps.
Valentine’s Day is a bit of a bitter pill to swallow these days. Normally, you’d associate that with loved ones and celebrating the enduring love shared among family, friends, and close ones.
For me, Valentine’s Day was the day that Sacha left us.
I had a scheduled post that day, announcing the No Mercy deal coming in a week. It never occurred to me to post something about Sacha until the day before. But when it came time to sit down and actually think of something to put together… I just froze. What was there to say other than I miss my girl?
As I was rummaging through some hard disks clearing away some stuff, I came across some old videos of Sacha that I haven’t come across in years. Nothing special, just her doing here thing. Stuff that I might have show here before, but it’s a reminder of happier times. A time when she was still young and healthy. And that’s when I started to feel a bit queasy. Even two years later, it still hurts.
I miss you, kid.
On the left, you have resident Fightful journalist Sean Ross Sapp.
On the right, you have Youtube sensation (I guess?) MrBeast.
Sometimes you gotta ask yourself… is it LIVE or is it AI?
dtm666 