The Aftermath...

So yet again it has been ages since I wrote anything here. Sorry, should any of you care...
So, the show was last night, and it went really well! Got a decent crowd, and they laughed at everything, so that is always good! Some last minute additions to the sketches (me and Caroline) didn't slow it down, people laughed, everyone's stand up seemed to go down well. Thinking we can maybe make this a regular thing. Howard wants to make it a showcase for new comedy, headlined by our brand. I'm okay with that...world domination here we come. I realise none of the relevant people are going to read this but I'd like to express my thanks to everyone involved, as well as everyone who came down.
In other news...well, I'm getting itchy feet. Thinking I need me an investor for my T-shirt business. If anyone has £10k lying around and wants to invest it in a solid business then let me know!

A few random thoughts...

Seems like ages since I last wrote anything on this blog.  Sorry!

It’s been an interesting week, for me at least.  Had a strange odd day off situation but I’m over it, although I was gutted on Monday when I came home to find Wrestlemania had not finished downloading, and after I bought supplies and everything.  I don’t want this to be another wrestling filled blog but I can’t let it go by without comment.  I won’t go match by match but there some odd decisions made, Swagger is a very odd choice for me.  He is nowhere near ready to be main event but 95% of the time Vince calls it right, so we will see.  I thought the Bret-Vince match was dull beyond belief, and you don’t know how much it hurts to say that.  The only plus point was seeing the Hart Dynasty get involved for the first time.

Jericho-Edge was always going to be the best match on the show for me, and it was.  I have to reserve a special mention for the ‘Taker-Michaels match.  I’m not particularly a fan of either man but I thought it was a very well told story, with a genuinely emotional ending.

In all it was a very average show enlightened by odd moments of greatness.

In other news, we are closing in on a sponsor for the podcast, hopefully I won’t have to shell out on a Mac of my own.  We recorded our longest show ever this week, 1 hour and 4 seconds.  I also think it is our best show yet, felt really natural and had a lot of energy.  We seem to be finding our groove, I know I feel more comfortable recording.  We confirmed a friend of Howards to play the live show, Rich Massara.  Seems we have a line up! Sold a few tickets this week so that is always nice, looking like we might have a nice crowd.

I’m rapidly losing TV shows too.  Many of the American shows I watch have finished their seasons and some of the others are taking extended Easter breaks, sucks for me.  I do have a new favourite though, Justified, which is based on an Elmore Leonard short story (always a good start!).  Timothy Olyphant plays a Deputy Marshall sent back to his backwater home in small town Kentucky after shooting 1 too many people.  I really dig the slow paced, deep storytelling, I only hope America agrees.  It did stellar ratings for its first 2 episodes so it looks good so far, highly recommended!

A few things I like this week...

 

CM Punk

Justified

Kick Ass soundtrack

Episode 7 of our show!

Planning our New York trip in June

Aurally Fixated- Live

After my mass rant about wrestling earlier, I thought I would say something a little more positive.  It’s official, we are taking this shit live! Although not literally because I’m not sure 100 normal people would pay to watch me and Howard poo.  Anyway, we have booked the Basement Bar at the City Screen Cinema in York, a venue both Howard and I used to work in, it’s where we met fact fans.  We have had meetings about the show, have settled on a rough line up, although changes will always happen, and made posters.  The current plan is for the podcast recording to be the headline act and that Howard and I will go for about an hour in front of a crowd for the first time.  Howard will also dust off some of his stand up, and Helen and possibly me will do a couple of sketches we have started writing.  There will be another couple of things to be added to the line up as we go along but thats sort of it, the shape of things to come!

The show will be at 7.30pm on Monday 26^th April, at the aforementioned City Screen Basement Bar.  Tell your friends, buy tickets, buy them tickets!

In other news, I am planning world domination,  the podcast is just the start.  Decided I’m going to be the Jerry Bruckheimer of the UK, producing here, managing there.  Watch out...

Monday Night Wars...

Okay, so, having had time to reflect on the first 2 weeks of TNA Impact going head to head with WWE Raw, I believe the ‘New Monday Night Wars’ are over already.  TNA went live with an average show, starting with the ‘return’ to the ring of Hogan and Flair.  Neither of these people are men I want to see wrestle, at least in his heyday Hogan had charisma.  Flair has been an old man for at least 15 years now and should have retired when WCW went out of business.  If the TNA main event had been AJ vs Abyss I would have watched that, AJ is awesome and Abyss has had a reinvigoration by his alliance with Hogan.  But Hogan and Flair never needed to physically be involved.  Hogan can barely walk after having hip replacement and seeing him stumble around the ring was just embarrassing.  This, don’t forget, is the man TNA is putting it’s faith in to grow a new, hip audience to compete with Vince’s PG friendly product.  That we had to see that match twice was just plain bad.  Even worse, they had debuts scheduled for Rob Van Dam, Jeff Hardy and Shannon Moore, and screwed all of them up.  Granted, very few people care about Shannon Moore, although I always enjoyed his work, but RVD and Hardy are the 2 top free agents in the business.  Hogan, Bischoff and Russo have killed that dead. Dixie what have you done?  RVD scored a fluke win over Sting, fair enough, both are former World Champions, Sting in the twilight of a great career and RVD hovering around his prime.  But to me, if you are having that match, you tell people about it.  You have a dream never been seen match and it takes 20 seconds with no build up.  TNA thought the best move for RVD was not telling anyone he was on the show.  That’s retarded.  The man has a big fan base, do you not want him to bring that with him?  Then having him fluke the win and spend an eternity being beaten down by Sting with a bat, yes again, well that really built him as a man who can help the company grow.

Jeff Hardy, made a last second run in to help Hogan and Abyss.  That’s it.  That’s the big return for the man who was WWE champion little over 6 months ago.  Good lord.

All this is before I even make it to Raw...which was okay.  Nothing special, couple of good solid matches, a so-so guest host, and a slow solid build to Mania.  Raw scored average ratings while TNA on their ‘Live Debut’ featuring the returns of all those things scored a 1.2.  Wow, that’s the same rating ECW was getting on minority channel SyFy.  Way to go boys.  Dixie claims to be delighted with the show they put on, well Dixie, you are not nearly as smart as I thought you were.

The 2^nd week of head to heads was even more embarrassing.  The first hour of TNA was awful, truly awful.  It only picked up with an excellent X-Division triple threat.  This is the last show before Destination X, the big pre Wrestlemania PPV.  Nothing on the show built towards the PPV except a terrible promo by Flair and some excellent X Division stuff.  TNA put on a taped show, up against Stone Cold Steve Austin’s return as Guest Host, 3 Wrestlemania rematches (including Triple H v Orton and Michaels v Jericho).  Fair enough, the taped show is a fixture and probably will always be a fixture, but to go up against that line up with The Nasty Boys & Jimmy Hart (!) vs The Dudleys & Jesse Neal.  Did Vince pay you to come in and destroy TNA?  Granted, it featured the return of Spike Dudley (Brother Runt) which is always nice, but it’s hardly The Outsiders sitting ringside on Nitro or DX taking a tank to WCW.  Sheer embarrassment for me as a viewer, and this week the ratings were even lower.  I know where I would start, and it wouldn’t be having Samoa Joe kidnapped by ninja’s a month ago and then never mentioned again, seriously!

And all this is without Austin taking charge of a contract signing between VKM and Bret Hart, how do you compete with that?

For me, until TNA thinks outside the 1996 WCW box it seems to be living in then there is no competition.  The WWE is not even in a classic hot period like the Attitude Era or the Hogan years.  They have some good talent but they are mostly not being utilised while TNA is pushing Orlando Jordan (really?) and Hall/Waltman, oh, and of course Hogan and Flair.

The only plus sides that TNA have at the moment is the X Division, Angle, Beer Money, Morgan/Hernandez, Samoa Joe, AJ and a few other talented stars, who could be big stars, if TNA knew how to make stars.  Hell Jeff Hardy is the biggest fuck up in wrestling and VKM made him world champion, and a legitimate world champion at that.

Anyway, enough ranting.  Until Hall/Waltman become permanent fixtures...