Archive for June, 2009

The SmarK DVD Rant for 12 Rounds

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

The SmarK DVD Rant for 12 Rounds

I suppose that for people who watch him wrestle, it's not hard to buy John Cena as a superhuman walking action movie cliché. After all, the guy went nearly an hour with Shawn Michaels and barely broke a sweat. However, in the first 15 minutes of this movie alone, he single-handedly chases down a car without even needing to stop for a drink of water. So obviously this movie is a throwback to the good old days of the 80s, when men were men and movie villains had lots of downtime to plot elaborate revenge schemes.

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Shakin’ things up! Again!

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

http://www.f4wonline.com/content/view/9794/

Didn’t we just have a draft that was supposed to shake up the rosters and fix all the problems they’ve been having?  But hey, they’ve only been trying to make something out of Mark Henry for what, 14 years now?  I’m sure this time will be the charm. 

No Bash tonight for me

Sunday, June 28th, 2009

I don’t know if this means anything more than “There’s 8 million showings of Transformers at the theater”, but my local theater is not showing The Bash tonight as they normally would, so there will be no rant on the show tonight.  I’ll probably download it tomorrow and review it at that point.  Not coincidentally, I’ll be going to see Transformers tonight instead of getting the PPV.

The SmarK DVD Rant for Family Guy: Volume 7

Sunday, June 28th, 2009

The SmarK DVD Rant for Family Guy: Volume Seven

So once again FOX's bizarre marketing department can't just do a normal season that would allow people to keep track of which episodes go where. Instead it's "Volume 7", which contains 13 episodes covering some of season 6 and some of season 7. Thankfully FOX seems to be going with the new-fangled single-disc packaging for all their TV sets now, which I like much better than the thick box sets or the super-crappy cardboard packaging that the last season of The Simpsons came with.

At any rate, as much of a fan of this show as I am, the demands on Seth MacFarlane must be stretching him really thin because this volume really starts to showcase how far this show has fallen lately.

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The SmarK Legacy Rant for Monday Night RAW – May 17 1993

Saturday, June 27th, 2009

The SmarK Legacy Rant for Monday Night RAW - May 17 1993

- Live from New York

- Your hosts are Vince, Macho and Brain.

- This is of course an episode that you may have heard about before.

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Alternate takes

Friday, June 26th, 2009

Not sure if you ever saw this before Scott, but I was reviewing some Orndorff/Hogan feud clips from youtube and I found something very interesting. Kind of like an alternate take of Hogan and Orndorff on the Flower Shop right before the big heel turn. Not sure if you've seen this before, or even if its blog worthy. However, I found it very interesting - I wonder if any of these "alternate takes" still exist in the vaults.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjKhSEFaU4Q (From the 0:25 mark until the 0:50 mark)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfhezkscMvk (From the 2:17 mark until the 2:33 mark)

    I don't know if that is one of those "lets overdub crowd noise because Sid got a babyface pop" moments, but do notice that in the first take - the one that aired before the heel turn, and was on the Hulkamania 2 video (and I guess on Superstars or whatever it was called back then) - that Orndorff delivery is much different than the one they used in the hype video (again I'm guessing Superstars) when they had Hogan recap the heel turn in his private gym. Where they have Orndorff sound a little more heelish. Also in the second one Hogan goes "they're ready" for Studd and Bundy, where in the first one Hogan just answers "Yeah" to Adonis' "Do you accept the challenge."

    It's interesting, and I wonder if they did that a lot with the Flower Shops, Piper's Pits, and Snake Pits.

 

I think it’s just the magic of editing, personally.  I can’t speak for the 80s, but I sat through a few tapings in the 90s and never saw them do extra takes for the Funeral Parlor.  I did notice some minor editing differences, though, so the same thing certainly could have happened there. 

Holy shit.

Thursday, June 25th, 2009

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/06/25/michael.jackson/index.html

For all the weirdness and such as of late, Michael Jackson was still one of the biggest stars in history and a major part of my childhood. 

RIP, Michael.  Hope you find peace in the next life. 

The SmarK Legacy Rant for Monday Night RAW – May 10 1993

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

The SmarK Legacy Rant for Monday Night RAW - May 10 1993

- Oh so close now.

- Live from New York. This show has one of the most erratic taping schedules I've seen.

- Earlier tonight in the parking lot: In a moment that made the recent RAW DVD, Shawn Michael is cutting a promo and Mr. Perfect attacks him and beats him up on hood of Howard Finkel's car. Poor Fink, even his car gets no respect.

- Your hosts are Vince, Macho & Brain.

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Nerdgasm alert

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

http://www.egotastic.com/entertainment/celebrities/olivia-munn/olivia-munn-topless-playboy-pictures-004730

Olivia Munn of G4TV looking almost naked in Playboy.  Makes me wish I still subscribed to the channel.  OK, not really, but good on her for cashing in while she’s a hot property. 

Ebay plug

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

Hey Scott, I'm a huge fan and have been a long time reader of your work. I hate to have my first message to you be a plug request but I've run up on a bit of a financial hard time and am selling my wrestling DVD collection in 3 listings. Can you help me out?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250450191450
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=250450142770
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=250450138664

 

Man, when the recession even hits the geek sector, you know things are bad.  Good luck.