thirdworldrockout

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Hour Twenty After Midnight

You kiddin? He meant what he said

The pull apart plot twist is old

Don't put hands up when you're spinning on gin tonics

Music wasn't good. 90's rave scene in 2002 died hard and there's no coming back once something is dead

Pulled up, hard boned and nothing to take home

You're caffeinated, ready to go, start that engine, make bread, spread cheese and lick that thing

Getting lucky never been better never say never

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Lamb of Balenciaga

The closest thing to the biggest metal band after Pantera called it quits was Lamb of God. Man it's been years, I'm not into the hipster stuff. It's too niche for me. The cool thing about metal is no longer distinguishable, just like most new, shiny and bright things you can pick off a shelf at a chain store. That's capitalism for you. Obey.

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Is the Pacers - Thunder NBA finals going to be the most boring in years?

SGA and Tyrese Haliburton are rising stars and one of them is winning their first championship after the conclusion of this year's Finals. This odd Finals pairing is something that should be more common is sports leagues.

With this year's teams making the Finals, the bigger picture says the NBA has been more team oriented the last five years, the last team to win back to back championships was Golden State in 2017 and 2018. 6 different teams have won a championship every single year since 2019. This also means 6 unique individuals have won Finals MVP since 2019, Leonard, Lebron, Gianni's, Curry, Jokic, Brown. There will be a new one this year.

It's no joke that Thunder are heavy faves to win. Pacers winning would be a huge upset. Thunder has the goods, they have 1 or 2 more star players than Pacers. Thunder in 5.

Here's some trivia on both teams. The last time Pacers reach the Finals was 2000, led by Reggie Miller who retried in 2005. 2012 was the last time Thunder reached the Finals, Kevin Durant was in that team and now plays for Phoenix, his third team after leaving Thunder.

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Music Review Dump

5 albums

Serj Tankian/Elect the Dead (2007)

Two decades ago damn time flies!! Good album, sounds like softer SOAD. It's a good mid-week album when you want something left field. Weakness is it's not that memorable. 3.75 out of 5.

2. Down/Diary of a Mad Band (2010)

Two things I remember about this release, first, the mini movie documentary where the band oozed of coolness of traveling musicians playing heavy trippy music and number two the set list rocked hard. This disc set is often overlooked which adds cool points to it. 4 stars.

3. 24 Hour Party People Soundtrack (2002)

This retro movie and OST came out in 2002. I had both movie and CD so I got the full experience out of it. Movie was very trippy in a British kind of way. If you're getting into music like I was back then and starting with classic bands then this isn't a bad place to start. I have to say it was a bit off for me. I'm not big into Jou Division and they dominate this soundtrack. 3/5

4. Ramones/We're Outta Here (1997)

This was an impulse buy for me. Never got into Live albums. This is kind of their greatest hits performed live on their last show. Listened to this a few times and it was something I wouldn't spin on the regular. 2.75 out of 5.

5. Pantera/Official Live 101 Proof (1997)

Very polished live album from the heavy 90's groove band Pantera. Great sounding, well edited and put together. The setlist was perfection, you can almost see the band if you close your eyes and pretend you're watching one of their home vids. The two bonus new studio recordings was what made this release for me. 4.5 out of 5.

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Sabu

I don't have many memories of Sabu. I had a number of ECW videos with his matches but I don't remember anything that particularly stands out.

His barbed wire match with Terry Funk is considered one of his best matches, I've seen it in one of ECW's Best of DVD's but don't remember much of it.

What I do remember is his WWE run in 2006 was not that good. He was somewhat repackaged to fit in the WWE system and still stood out like a sore thumb.

What I remember most about Sabu was him and RVD facing each other and pairing up to form a tag team. One of them is a tag match where they faced Hayabusa and his partner. Another thing I remember is him versus RVD early in their ECW careers and you can tell they were hungry to prove themselves then a couple of years later they were a tag team and they were teasing descension between them. RVD was TV champ and Sabu looked to be wanting to challenge him for the title.

Sabu is no doubt in the Mt Rushmore of ECW. I think he's top 3 all-time in ECW. He was the purveyor of the extreme style when ECW was still grappling with the idea of what it is to become.

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No Sugar, No Cream

Society, we living well Got the orange man up there with stories to tell Red cap, no cap Dis this, dis that, all star hater Going nowhere, green is only thing that matter We living in a society of wannabes Non black rappers sounding gangsta You know they no where near broke Just shopped at the Costco Chompin' on that cookie, that chicken bake Oh please don't wait Nothing's gonna change in this modern society

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You're here because you're here and yeah

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Liberace

Death valley vodka

Riders of the storm above my head

Like Bugs running from Yosemite

Fever dream like a 1991 rap video

I was home alone watching part 2 and it wasn't good as the first but that's life

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Make WWE Great Again

What WWE looks like to me for the rest of the year

The story book endings WWE's been doing forever tells me Cena loses the title on his last day and it would be against old rival Punk. Things come full circle. They need a pipe bomb part 2 from Punk.

Punk is adding layers to his character. I think his promos are more thought through and more methodical than his past runs. He's more mature now, like a Clint Eastwood type, no longer running a hundred miles per hour and naturally this makes him less edgy. It would be a pleasant surprise if he beats Cena to "save" the title.

No idea where Heyman's new group's direction is going but I don't think it will last. 3 months tops.

Cody is coming back to win the title maybe in next year's Mania. I wouldn't be surprised if it's him and Punk in the main event.

Jey Uso won't be champion for long. They need a heel champ and Logan is it.

The mid card is strong with McIntyre, Priest and Gunther. A roster with many high caliber mid carders means they won't struggle putting on decent weekly shows.

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Some Kinda Hate

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NBA Playoffs

2nd round predictions

East

Cavs over Pacers. I don't see an upset here. Cavs are down one superstar due to injury, I have them winning in 6 games.

Celtics over Knicks. Celtics are the heavy faves to win another chip this year. Knicks have a great team dynamic, fun to watch but won't get them far in the playoffs.

West

Thunder over Nuggets. Thunder is my pick in the West to reach Finals.

Wolves over Warriors. Wolves have fresher legs than the Warriors team.

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Late 90zzz

My world rained everyday The crow man in a tall building watching us all Dollar and cents Walking robots everywhere Watching horror movies between having babies It was just another day No complaints here

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WrestleMania Recap

WrestleMania has this predictable thing where you know it's going to be a spectacle of sorts with one or a few things happen that's suppose to have a lasting impact on the WWE business and pro wrestling industry as a whole.

Title changes. Check. Heel/Face turn. Check. Crazy bumps. Check. Returning stars. Check. Celebrities. Check. Massive fireworks. Check. All of the above. Check.

This is what WrestleMania is.

This year Jey Uso gets his first world title beating Gunther in night one's opening match. Tiffany Stratton retains her women's title against Charlotte Flair. Paul Heyman betrays both CM Punk and Roman Reigns and aligns with Seth Rollins. Rollins won night one's main event triple threat match.

Night two opened with a hot match, Iyo Sky retained her title against Bianca Belair and Rhea Ripley. In the main event John Cena beat Cody Rhodes to win the title. The main event was unique, not particularly bad or good but plain and a throwback to old Vince McMahon booking of ref bump, run in and surprise finish of course all done for peak shock value.

WrestleMania stuck with the classic formula of big moments in big venues with larger than life characters challenging each other for the top spot on the mountain. It's been this way since the 23rd edition (2007).

RAW after Mania, opened with Cena getting RKO'd. Becky Lynch turned heel. Gunther attacks Michael Cole and puts Pat McAfee to sleep with a sleeper chokehold. In the final segment, Bron Breakker aligns with Seth Rollins and Paul Heyman. They stood tall after beating down CM Punk and Roman Reigns.

It was a newsworthy three nights. The WWE universe for the most part seemed satisfied with this year's WrestleMania weekend. The shows had top notch production and all 3 shows were good. The stories they told in and out of the ring were all good to really good, nothing was awful, even the not so good parts of the event was watchable. Highly entertaining but could have been better.

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WM41 Review

Rating 7.5/10

It was a spectacle but it's always been this way even the ones that sucked.

Punk, Rollins and Reigns was best match.

Cena vs Cody was not for me but I get it and the execution of the whole thing was good. In the end it's about getting results. Not everything has to be a 4 star spot fest match. It was the exact opposite and it worked.

All matches were good on average, some better than others. Nothing really sucked.

I think the talking side of the presentation could have been better. It was sloppy in parts, I know it's a long show and the presenters and announcing team have to keep talking but so much of it was just noise. The type of talking that is excessive with small opinions nobody really wants to hear. It makes it sound not professional. At times it was unbearable over hyping of something that didn't need to be explained.

On the pre-show and post-show press conference, some of the presenters and talents just yapped to fill air time, it comes off amateurish. Stick to what's going on in the show. Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler were very good at this. They didn't over share and kept things within context.

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WrestleMania 41 Night 2

Results

Iyo Sky retains. Good opener. Big show spot fest 3 way title match as expected. Not sure why Rhea didn't win, guessing she's taking a hiatus.

Drew McIntyre beat Damien Priest. Decent big man hardcore match.

Dominik wins IC title in 4 way match.

Orton beat Hendry. TNA champ jobbed hard at Mania. This is not a good look for TNA. Could have done without this. It was a way to get Orton out there to do his entrance.

Logan Paul beat AJ Styles. It was a bit off, I don't think they had the chemistry to pull off the match of the night.

New women's tag champs. Lynch was Lyra's surprise tag partner.

Cena wins title. The matchup was the selling point not the match itself. "Who will win?" is what kept it interesting. When the ref bump happened, you know a run in was coming and that's when Travis Scott comes out for his grand entrance. He came out to full entrance with music and it's distracting. He gets involved, pulls the ref out when Cody looks like he was getting the pin. Cody gives him Crossroads. Cody hesitates to hit Cena with title belt. Cena hits him low and soon after gets the pin and is new champ. Cena was cheered when he raised the belt up. Cody and Cena made this 3 star match bigger than it was.

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Mania Vegas Night One

Punk. Reigns. Rollins. Heyman.

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WrestleMania 41 Night 1

Main Event

5 stars... and a half!

Very good for a thirty plus minute triple threat match. Punk and Reigns looking despondent post-match drove it home.

The whole show was the most Super Bowl like presentation they've ever done. It's everything they do done one hundred times over.

Punk coming out last was a moment, it's surreal to think how his journey to his first Mania main event unfolded, it took 2 decades and somewhere between was several years retired.

The match sequence was perfect. The "Shield spot" for the powerbomb on the table was great drama, Reigns turned on Rollins then powerbombed them both. There were great false finishes where it look like it was over but it wasn't and it worked!

The end was a homage to WrestleMania 17 when Vince aligned with Austin. Heyman turned on both Reigns and Punk. I didn't see it was going that direction until he betrayed Punk then I knew Reigns was next.

Hands down best match of Night 1.