Tag: observations

Thoughts on 90 Day Fiancé season 6

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I knew 2019 was off to a great start when we discovered that the TLC Go app had opened their doors to our cable provider, thus allowing us to access to watch TLC programming, completely on demand.  That being said, I don’t often have to worry about not having something to watch at any given point with the vast majority of TLC’s library now available to me with the push of a few buttons.

Obviously, shows like My 600 Lb. Life are among the marquee shows that I favor the most, and classics like Extreme Cheapskates and Extreme Couponing inexplicably didn’t get renewed for anything beyond two seasons.  But if I had to pick one show that stood out above all others as my go-to for TLC programming, it is and has always been, 90 Day Fiancé.

I’m not ashamed to say it, but I’ve literally watched every season of 9DF.  The irony is that I’ve really liked a lot of shows in my time, but eventually everything falls to the wayside for whatever reason(s).  Archer, The Walking Dead, and American Horror Story come to mind as shows that I’ve at times gotten lukewarm with and allowed them to slide over to the back burner.  But not 9DF.  Nah dog, I’ve literally seen every single episode (of at least the core series), and I’m fairly certain I can name every single person who’s been on the show if shown a picture.

So I just recently finished season 6, and I was thinking that I was playing some major catchup; little did I realize that I basically caught up to season’s actual air dates, and probably wrapped up the main episodes right as the season was winding down with its typical tell-all episodes at the end.

Needless to say, there have been some real trainwrecks throughout the series, but I think season 6 really outdid themselves at finding some truly tv-worthy couples this time around.  I mean, every previous season always had one kind of anchor couple, or layup couple, as in the one couple that anyone could tell was the stable one, vanilla one, bland one, or rather the couple that everyone knew was going to be fine, even after the cameras stopped rolling.  Usually, they were the one where one or both of the couple were religious, and it was pulling teeth trying to get any sort of drama or entertainment value out of them.

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Even across the pond, WWE can’t stop being WWE

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Since the second annual WWE UK Championship tournament and the creation of the NXT UK brand, I’ve actually grown to enjoy the exploration of the UK wrestling scene.  I think they did it fairly smart, building it mostly around UK Champion Pete Dunne, but bolstering it with a few recognizable names and faces like Tyler Bate and Toni Storm for recognition to the American fans, but then intermixing them with all the talent more native to the UK scene.

At first, it was almost like becoming a wrestling fan all over again, watching programming of a bunch of guys I’d never really seen or heard of before because I’m too filthy casual and American to pay attention to the UK scene, like Ligero, Travis Banks, Jinny, Isla Dawn, Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster.  But at the same time, it was kind of refreshing and there was something almost grass-roots charming about seeing something new to me that kept me watching the product, and I’ve grown to really enjoy the NXT UK brand; and seeing as I don’t have cable and watch RAW or Smackdown, two episodes of NXT UK a week helps fill the gaps for whenever I feel like watching wrestling, as opposed to a single episode of NXT each week.

I’ve enjoyed watching the cream of the UK pool rise and stand out like Jordan Devlin, and in true smark fashion, I’m appreciative of the sheer heat and reaction-evoking Zack Gibson, and really wonder just what he’s done in his career to be just such a rabid heat magnet to UK crowds.  The women’s division still has a pretty large talent disparity, but is still young enough to be solely anchored by Toni Storm and Rhea Ripley, with the occasional cameo from Dakota Kai.

Needless to say, I was pleased and excited when they announced their first TakeOver event, with NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool, and if they handled it like regular NXT handles their American TakeOver events, there was plenty of reason to be optimistic about it.

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Ben Affleck hair

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

It’s no secret that I make a lot of observations at the gym; it’s one of the great settings for the observation of mankind to occur, as it’s at the gym and the ensuing locker room in which the male species has a tendency to strip away societal norms to their truest selves, whether it’s extreme narcissism, misogyny, douchebaggery, or all of the above.

At my current gym, it’s unmistakable that the vast majority of the members are about as white as Paul Ryan’s interns, so naturally this doesn’t just open the door, it kicks it open for ridicule and judgment at how insufferably white it is.  And I’ve already pointed out whether in writing or not, many of the so-white behaviors of the locker room, whether it’s bitching about European vacations, tariffs affecting their businesses, or my recent favorite, the fact that there are quite a number of them who show up to the gym, don’t work out, but still take a shower; and then lie about what they did at the gym today to any colleagues that happen to be present.

However, I have noticed another thing recently that’s caught my fascination, and that’s the immense precision that Ben Afflecks put forth towards styling their hair.  The way my gym locker room is set up, the toilets, urinals, sinks and the accompanying mirrors are like in this separate alcove away from the rest of the lockers and showers.  So when I’m done dressing out, and I want to go fix my own hair in the mirror, there’s always a good chance that I’ll turn the corner into the sink/toilet alcove and then every sink will have Ben Affleck standing in front them, with them very precisely working on their hair.

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Thoughts on WWE Evolution

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Warning: there will probably be spoilers; not that it really matters because who knows how many eons past Evolution it will take before this ever sees the light of day on the internet.

When it was announced that WWE was going to do an all-women’s pay-per-view show, I had a couple of knee jerk reactions.  One was that it had the capability to be the best show of the year, due to the kid gloves that the WWE would undoubtedly have to treat a show of such a nature, and two, that it was a show that could not absolutely afford to fail.  Failure would wreck a tremendous amount of work and equity that the women superstars have put forth to building their brand, and would send things back in time at least a decade.

Fortunately, with the level of talent and the volume of it now present in the WWE, it didn’t seem like failure seemed very likely, especially since the WWE is known to be capable of putting a good show together when they actually give a shit about it.

To no real surprise, Evolution was an outstanding show that I feel lived up to the hype, and truly delivered on what the primary goal of the show was supposed to be: this is women’s professional wrestling.  Sure, there were some booking choices that I probably wouldn’t have made as an armchair booker, but when the show had ended, I can confidently say that the good of the show far outweighed the negatives.

Even some of the matches on the undercard that I didn’t really expect to be that great were better than expected, as if viewers could feel the sheer will and empowerment of the superstars, or the WWE actually let a lot of these women unleash a little bit more from their arsenals than they normally would be allowed to on television.

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The Mae Young Classic, or just Toni Storm?

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

After the semi-final match between Toni Storm and Meiko Satomura, I thought to myself: man, I can’t remember the last time I ever felt so vested in a match before.  Usually, whenever I have a that thought, my mind races back way in time in order to exaggerate how long it’s been, which took me back to like Wrestlemania XX, when Chris Benoit (pre-psychotic murderous suicidal breakdown) had Triple H in the Crippler Crossface, and I’m on my feet at my friend’s house screaming at the television TAP TAP TAAAAP.  Then I realized that I was pretty vested and captivated by the Andrade Cien Almas vs. Johnny Gargano match that happened just earlier this year, but the point is, matches that manage to capture the suspense and excitement of a jaded smark like me are still few and far between.

Toni Storm vs. Meiko Satomura managed to do just that, have a match where I had an idea of who I thought was going to win, and I like think I have a good read on professional wrestling direction, but still managed to execute a match that was able to make me unsure of my choice, scoot me towards the edge of my seat, and make my eyes widen with what-ifs.  Several close calls, repeated kicking out of signature maneuvers and just plain great work from two very competent wrestlers made for an extremely good match that might not get five stars from Dave Meltzer, but damn was I pleased with it.

And for the second year in a row, I have this thought that this is why the Mae Young Classic is so great, is because they put on center stage, a bunch of female wrestlers whom the casual WWE audience probably isn’t aware of, so the idea of predicting things is kind of negated and it creates this completely fresh wrestling environment for fans to indulge in.  However, when I think of the matches that stood out the most from last year’s Mae Young Classic and this one, I also realize that there’s a correlation between those too: Toni Storm.

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Does the show always have to go on?

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

One of the first thoughts that went through my head when I heard the news that Roman Reigns had leukemia and was going to relinquish the Universal title and take a leave of absence from the WWE was: this is what the WWE was going to start the show with?

Sure, I’m as surprised as the most casual of wrestling fans are, because I don’t use Twitter nor do I have any sort of sources be on top of every little tidbit of wrestling news, and it’s certainly surprising and sad to hear of one of the top guys in the industry to be derailed like this due to a terminal illness.  Obviously as both a wrestling fan and a human being, I would like to see Roman Reigns beat leukemia back into remission again and return to the ring, and I hope treatment is both manageable and successful.

But my skepticism and disappointment, as cliché as it may seem, remains with the WWE itself, whom as all die-hard wrestling fans know about the business, is that the show must go on.  No one man or woman is bigger than the industry, and the show does not stop for anybody.  The Royal We get it; however that’s more applicable to the unpredictable and unexpected, the things that cannot be controlled or anticipated, like injury, emergency and death.  The fact that the WWE continued on with Over the Edge in 1999, even after Owen Hart fell to his death in the middle of the show is proof to this staunch and concrete mentality.

Roman Reigns’ leukemia announcement though, that’s different.  Despite the fact that the biggest tryhard internet smarks probably all knew what was up before the cameras started rolling, as much as the WWE might not want to believe it, there are more casual fans out there that do not live and die with the minutiae of the internet and might not have been aware of the news.  The choice of when to air the Roman Reigns segment was entirely controllable, and I have to question the WWE’s choice to emotionally powerbomb the audience in the first 25 minutes of the show, and then expect business to go on as usually for the remainder of a three hour program.

I see both sides of the coin, because it’s no secret that the third hour is kind of a drag, and the WWE often times phones it in, in hour three.  It’s later, fewer eyes might be on the tv by then, and if the goal is to get as many eyes on the segment as possible, then hour three is not the logical placement, even if the idea of “the main event” is supposed to be saved for last.  An announcement of this importance should be done when peoples’ attentions are at their peak.

However, this is the kind of announcement that absolutely derails everything.  Reality doesn’t often permeate into the world of professional wrestling, and when it does, it’s very much a big deal.  And as much as professional wrestling is full of trolly smark fans who love to troll live shows and act contrarian to fuck with the business, they’re still going to these shows and buying merchandise because at the end of the day, they’re still fans; and still human beings, who will most likely be impacted by the very real news of a cancer diagnosis of a very prominent figure in their preferred entertainment.

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DDR the Movie: How bad can it really be?

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

For some reason, Konami has given the green light for a Dance Dance Revolution film to be created… with a general plot of how the “world is on the brink of destruction where the only hope is to unite through the universal language of dance.”  Or whatever the hell that is supposed to mean.  But yeah!  Film about DDR, a video game where people mash buttons in step to music, with their feet, in an attempt to emulate, dancing.

It goes without saying that this sounds like a colossal flop waiting to happen, but then again Konami, much less the entire video game industry hasn’t been known for success when it comes to translating gaming franchises into somewhat passable films, with few exceptions.

Really though, I’m extremely curious to know what kind of plot a DDR film could possibly have.  If anything at all, I’d imagine the world needing to all start dancing at the same time in order to save the world would have more of a detrimental effect on a planet, what with 6 billion people stomping their feet on the surface simultaneously, creating loads of seismic destruction across the globe, but whatever.  I really hope that there’s some shade thrown to DDR players that hold the rail, because I feel like they’re the ones that have effectively ruined the franchise by making it not so much about the dancing aspect, but the obsessive requirement to get high scores and succeed at clearing stages, even if it makes them look like kids learning to roller/ice skate for the first time in their lives by the way they lean and hold onto the rails for dear life.

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