Sun
* 2-Oct-2019(#1)Other thread was closed...so here we are.
Anyone else excited for AEW Dynamite tonight?
theJaw
* 22-Jun-2023(#201)gosh darn, after last night, the Forbidden Door card looks like it'll be the best money I'll have spent on pro wrestling in quite some time ($20, thanks VPN).
1. IWGP US Title: Kenny Omega (c) vs. Will Ospreay
2. Bryan Danielson vs. Kazuchika Okada
3. AEW World Title: MJF (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
4. IWGP World Heavyweight Title: Sanada (c) vs. Jungle Boy Jack Perry
5. Men's Owen Hart Cup First Round: CM Punk vs. Satoshi Kojima
6. Blackpool Combat Club (Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, Wheeler Yuta), Konosuke Takecrapa & Shota Umino vs. The Elite (Hangman Page, Nick Jackson, Matt Jackson), Eddie Kingston & Tomohiro Ishii
7. AEW International Title Four-Way: Orange Cassidy (c) vs. Zack Sabre Jr vs. Daniel Garcia vs. Katsuyori Shibata
8. AEW Women's World Title: Toni Storm (c) vs. Willow Nightingale
9. Sting, Darby Allin & ??? vs. Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara & Minoru Suzuki
10. Women's Owen Hart Cup First Round (pre-show): Athena vs. Billie Starkz
That's an all-timer card right there. I could have maybe gone for splitting up some of the guys in the International title match... ZSJ is the NJPW TV champ and Shibata is the ROH Pure champ, so seeing those titles defended on the PPV would have been nice, but that match will absolutely be a banger regardless. Lack of Samoa Joe & Jay White/Bullet Club Gold is a little disappointing, but we still have Collision on Saturday so maybe they'll be added in somewhere. I'd love to see Tetsuya Naito thrown on the card somewhere too but I doubt that'll happen, and I expect Shingo Takagi to be Sting & Darby's partner. Though, Naito COULD fit in there too, being a rival of Jericho and all.
Otherwise, they're doing a great job building to this show despite the fact that both companies have their own busy schedules on entirely different sides of the planet. It's also nice that the majority of the matches have either little stories, or full blown stories, which wasn't the case due to injuries last year. Pumped for this one.
akfa
22-Jun-2023(#202)Very excited for Forbidden Door. They found ways to get womens matches on there, which is dope. I'll have to watch it the next day though, I'm taking my daughter to a kpop concert Sunday night LOL. Bummer to miss the card (esp Omega/Ospreay 2) but the concert with kiddo will be absolutely worth it
BucketofJustice
22-Jun-2023(#203)If I watch it, it’ll be after it’s over. I’ll find a stream of it somewhere.
Dynamite was decent. I thought there was way too much happening all the time and nothing got much time to resonate. The wrestling wasn’t and never has been the problem, outside I think they do too much and they need to save the big stuff for PPV. I liked the opener, that was good. Surprised to see the Ass Boys win, but it was decent. I liked the concession stand brawl, but everyone that we thought would get involved did, and they wore disguises even though everything is legal? In AEW where just about everything is legal anyway? Not having the Elite on the show was a great move since they were in Chicago and I’m done with the Bucks anyway. They can disappear and I’d be cool with that. I still hate the whole enemies as partners thing WWE used to love to do, and it’s not any better here. Adam Cole and MJF haven’t done a damn thing to build each other or themselves up, so when one wins it doesn’t matter. Either a steroid guy beat up a skinny goof who gets hurt all the time, or the skinny goof beat a roided up meathead that he outsmarted along the way. Way to build it up. Liked Taya and Kris, but not sure how Kris is a baby face since she stole the TNT title from Jade in a Wrestlemania 9 carbon copy. The end segment rolled along nicely, though Wheeler Yuta is basically an interest killer. I have no desire to see him. I’m also a little surprised Moxley didn’t bleed somewhere in there. The Jericho and Sting story was nice, and I liked that six man tag match too.
Decent show, need to tighten up storylines.
theJaw
* 22-Jun-2023(#204)I disagree with so, so much of that lol, but such is life.
I DO agree the episode was just alright though.
theJaw
24-Jun-2023(#209)Lol that rules, is that you with the gorgeous shirt?
Also NAITO is Sting and Darby’s partner at Forbidden Door. Hype level just got even higher than I thought possible.
theJaw
* 25-Jun-2023(#211)Probably way off, but here are my predictions for tonight.
image theJaw
25-Jun-2023(#213)Lol the Simmons effect
But yah I dunno, I’m pumped up for Forbidden Door personally. After last year, this is one of the shows I’ve been looking forward to all year. Sorta stinks that it’s on a Sunday night though, would’ve been nice to have a few pals over to watch.
theJaw
25-Jun-2023(#216)Yah that’s a shame, I especially feel for Lawlor who’s real good, but it’ll probably help the overall quality. Still 13 matches. Also hope Cole is ok, dude catches the worst luck when it comes to Forbidden Door.
theJaw
25-Jun-2023(#217)Danielson enters to “The Final Countdown” for the first time since like 2008/09. Let’s fuucking go.
theJaw
* 26-Jun-2023(#218)Forbidden Door:
MJF/Tanahashi: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️.25
Punk/Kojima: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ .75
OC/Shibata/Garcia/ZSJ: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Sanada/Perry: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️.5
Team BCC/Team Elite: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️.5
Willow/Storm: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Ospreay/Omega: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
JAS/Allin&Sting&Naito: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Danielson/Okada: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️.25
Overall: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️.5
theJaw
26-Jun-2023(#220)@PizzaTheHutt I saw a review on YouTube... but it was clearly an AI-generated voice reading the script so I have a feeling the person who posted it probably isn't any top tier gaming outlet or anything.
That said, it was clear that this person really did have the game and apparently really enjoys it, so that's cool. I guess the "Road to the Elite" mode is a standout, with branching stories depending on your wins and losses.
theJaw
* 26-Jun-2023(#224)@PizzaTheHutt That sounds pretty badass tbh. I know folks saw the option on a menu while Evil Uno was streaming the game, but I just figured it was a match type in the stadium. The party game aspect of it sounds really cool.
theJaw
26-Jun-2023(#225)BucketofJustice wrote:> Apparently Vince is all over Raw, but not in attendance. Guess who just freed up
> 3 hours.
Lol ugh. I’ll still throw it on for background noise but Smackdown got Vinced and it was preeeetty rough.
theJaw
28-Jun-2023(#228)BucketofJustice wrote:> I wonder if that’s just half an hour of Undertaker saying he thought Mick was dead,
> and Mick saying he can’t remember the match. Man that match was brutal.
Watched it yesterday and, yep, it's pretty much that haha
theJaw
28-Jun-2023(#229)I'm on the fence about cancelling my Fight Forever Amazon pre-order and just buying it digitally. I do enjoy having physical cases for my games, but at the same time I enjoy having games loaded directly onto my Switch if I'm going to be playing them consistently for a long time. Fight Forever seems like it'll definitely be a "pick up and play whenever bored" type game, especially with that Stadium Stampede mode, so I may just want it downloaded to my Switch for convenience.
That and the Amazon pre-order hasn't shipped yet despite the release date being tomorrow, and says it won't be here until Friday.
theJaw
28-Jun-2023(#230)Also, I've read a few reviews for the game, namely Game Informer and IGN. The reception has been lukewarm. Across the board, the gameplay is apparently very fun and nails the arcade style that the game goes for. So that's cool, and really the most important factor for me, but there are apparently some major issues with other modes.
I guess Road to the Elite consists mainly of goofy angles with no real meat to them, and only lasts 4 months (which is admittedly alright for a mode that stresses replayability). I also read that if you play the mode as a female wrestler, the women-centric angles only last a month and then it just switches to male opponents as if Yuke's got bored of writing a unique story for the women's division. That's fairly lame.
The creation suite is also apparently as barebones as has been reported. While there are a ton of moves and animations for existing wrestlers, there's no face-sculpting, so that alone will severely limit who can be made in the game regardless of the moves/animations. I guess you also can't create custom designs for the limited gear selection either.
That said, I'm still fairly excited for the game. If the gameplay is fun enough, I imagine I'll get my money's worth what with all the match types and whatnot. And apparently the mini-games are a welcome addition. Plus, if they really do intend to patch this game consistently instead of focus on annual releases, I imagine at least some of these issues will be mended in future updates.
theJaw
* 28-Jun-2023(#233)To be fair, lots of YouTubers who got review copies are loving it, claiming the actual wrestling gameplay is about as good as it gets when it comes to that arcade style.
There are no planned sequels, they said a bunch of times that they’d just be updating this game for a while yet. Which is way better imo, assuming they iron out the kinks and add more content to the CAW/new modes/more match types. All easily doable via updates.
Nothing I’ve seen/read has me feeling like I’ll be disappointed overall, so I’ll still be buying it tonight on Switch. Last time I trusted IGN with a review was like a decade ago, and Game Informer even longer than that lol
theJaw
28-Jun-2023(#234)For example, this YouTuber (who devotes a ton of time to wrestling game retrospectives and whatnot) seems to really love it. He also mentions how the Road to the Elite mode straight up incorporates the fact that you’re playing as a woman/participating in intergender matches into the narrative, which makes IGNs review come off fairly hyperbolic.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VKJmfoK54jgThat channel has a bunch of great videos I recommend giving a go.
PizzaTheHutt
* 28-Jun-2023(#238)OSW review is live now. This is my favorite wrestling related YouTube channel.
Right now they're just poking fun at some of the character models. Jericho lost a lot of weight but his in-game model is still the chubby version from 2021. Like the Giant Bomb group, they also crap on Jim Ross' voice over work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g_XTxMLJMw theJaw
29-Jun-2023(#240)BucketofJustice wrote:> Is this blind eliminator thing basically Battle Bowl from WCW spread out over time
> instead of done in one night? I always thought that was an underrated concept.
Yah pretty much, just without the actual "bowl" of it all. Randomly selected tag team pairings wrestle in a tournament with the winners getting a shot at FTR and the tag titles.
On one hand, I sorta wish they were just putting an emphasis on their already-stacked tag team division, but on the other hand, this is at least an interesting concept where little micro stories can be told within (Cole/MJF and Swerve/Lee for example).
theJaw
29-Jun-2023(#241)Just played my first match on Fight Forever. Hangman vs. Andrade. gosh darn was that a fun time, the gameplay feels very tight (in the good way). It's nice to have an arcadey game like the old 90s games but with much more fluid gameplay, everything flows really well.
I'll note that there are very mild "hiccups" from time to time on the Switch version. Just little drops that don't really hinder the experience at all and that could easily be patched out, but they're definitely there.
Haven't gotten to play around with any of the other modes or anything yet but I can definitely see myself putting some serious time into the game, just playing exhibition matches and whatnot. If they implement some major changes in the updates (a better CAW mode, multi-man options for some of the match types, cage/blood and guts matches ,etc), I could easily see this placing in my top tier for wrestling games.