NOT GAMES
Danielle Riendeau Jul 11, 2022. 54 minute read
We Came Down with Beanie Mania This Week
This week on You Love to See It (YLTSI, our lovely movie rewatch podcast), we dived into Beanie Mania, a 2021 documentary about the late 90s craze and bubble. It’s all part of this month’s theme: Nice Try July! This month, we are twisting the habitually positive narrative around human…
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TV/FILM
Brett Davis Jul 9, 2022. 2 minute read
Tony Sirico’s Stacker2 Ads Married WWE to the Mob
Tony Sirico passed away on Friday. Even if you didn’t know him as Paulie Walnuts on The Sopranos, you likely knew his face from commercials and cameos. In real life, Tony Sirico had a history in organized crime, and after 28 arrests, he turned it around to create quite the…
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WRESTLING
mer Jul 9, 2022. 2 minute read
Maximum Male Models: A Review
Last Friday night, I went out to support a neighborhood small business by allowing myself a few alcoholic beverages and singing Celine Dion louder than anyone asked. I then came home (10 pm, because I’m in my late 20s) and fell asleep for about three hours, before I…
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WRESTLING
FOLLOW US
Jordan Mallory Jul 8, 2022. 46 minute read
Would a Blood Infusion From Carlos Santana Make You Really Good at Guitar, or Just High?
On this week’s installment of Friends Reunion (A Podcast for Discerning Listeners), John is aboard the International Space Station to atone for the many, many sins that he committed during his birthday, which was last week. This week though it’s LB Hunktears’ birthday, and since they have never once sinned,…
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PODCASTS
Fūnk-é Joseph Jul 8, 2022. 1 minute read
Oh Shit, Chainsaw Man Returns to Shonen Jump With More Gore and Devils Next Week
Chainsaw Man Part 2, Tatsuki Fujimoto’s carnage-filled dark fantasy is finally coming to Shonen Jump this Tuesday. This afternoon manga publisher Shonen Jump tweeted the news of Chainsaw Man Part 2 comeback, also stating that the latest chapter would be available free on its website. As of writing, the gore-y manga hit…
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TV/FILM
Colette Arrand Jul 8, 2022. 8 minute read
We Need to Change the Way We Talk About Chris Benoit
Chris Benoit is one of the best wrestlers of all time. Chris Benoit also murdered his wife, Nancy, and his son, Daniel, before hanging himself over a three day period in June 2007. Leaving aside the issue of individual taste, the former statement is widely held to be true and…
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WRESTLING
Natalie Weiner Jul 8, 2022. 4 minute read
What Makes A WNBA Star?
Every week in her Good Form column, Natalie Weiner explores the ways in which the sports world’s structural inequalities and injustices illuminate those outside it — and the ways in which they’re inextricably connected. You can read previous columns here. When it comes to the question of individual starpower, the…
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SPORTS
Dylan Roth Jul 8, 2022. 9 minute read
‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ is a Fun but Predictable Ragnarok Followup
Thor: Love and Thunder is the fourth installment of the Norse Space Viking’s solo film series, and his eighth feature film appearance in eleven years. And yet, thanks to director Taika Waititi’s retooling of the character in 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok, this particular corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe doesn’t feel…
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TV/FILM
mer Jul 7, 2022. 5 minute read
Morgan in the Bank: SmackDown Welcomes New Champion Liv Morgan
WWE has long relied on Money in the Bank to solve their booking woes — if the title scene is stale, if a champ can’t get over no matter how many times they change his music, or if they need to protect multiple top guys with an opportunistic cash in.…
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WRESTLING
Dylan Roth Jul 7, 2022. 9 minute read
Strange New Worlds Stumbles at the Finish Line With “A Quality of Mercy”
When Star Trek: Strange New Worlds was first announced, my biggest fear was that it would feel like fan fiction. Fan fiction, of course, comes in myriad stripes and at all levels of craft, but by definition fan fiction is created by and for a pre-sold audience who is looking…
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TV/FILM
Vrai Kaiser Jul 4, 2022. 7 minute read
LGBTQ Anime to Watch for (Almost) Every Mood
I personally believe that queer anime is something to be enjoyed 365 days a year, but Pride is a great opportunity to let people know about titles that might’ve escaped their notice. While LGBTQ+ media still makes up a tiny sliver of the 30-plus anime that are made every season (especially…
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FEATURES
Colette Arrand Jul 2, 2022. 8 minute read
If There Is an Ethical Way to Watch WWE, It Is Via Piracy
Money in the Bank, WWE’s failed attempt at turning a lukewarm narrative conceit into another stadium show, airs this Sunday on Peacock/WWE Network. Please do not pay for the pleasure of either means of watching WWE’s product. Actually, let me walk that back: I love The ‘Cock. It features great…
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WRESTLING
Fūnk-é Joseph Jul 1, 2022. 3 minute read
Why Does the Minions: Rise of Gru Soundtrack Go So Hard?
Yesterday, I saw Minions: Rise of Gru (somehow a day before the worldwide launch), and it was a surprisingly exceptional experience that threw me through a range of unexpected emotions. The character designs are remarkable — specifically the Vicious Six, a far-out and evil motley crew with a fierce collective…
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TV/FILM
David Bixenspan Jul 1, 2022. 4 minute read
Claudio Castagnoli’s Long Road to the Top of Professional Wrestling
Over 15 years ago, I remember sitting in the Grand Ballroom at the Manhattan Center in New York City as I took in ROH Final Battle 2006, the show built around Homicide finally winning the ROH Championship from Bryan Danielson. Yet on a show with such a huge main event…
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WRESTLING
Joseph Anthony Montecillo Jul 1, 2022. 5 minute read
WrestleWar 1992 Is Still the Bar for WarGames Matches
WarGames is a simple match. When you get past the stumbling block of explaining the rules to everyone, it’s really one of the easiest stipulations in the world to get right. The template and structure for every successful WarGames match was set from day one. It all boils down to…
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WRESTLING
Natalie Weiner Jul 1, 2022. 3 minute read
The Sports World Needs To Acknowledge Climate Change
UCLA and USC are planning on joining the Big Ten, according to a timeline-busting report yesterday. That news obviously has a huge ripple effect — namely, the disintegration of one of college sports’ oldest and most powerful conferences and a complete reshaping of the college sports landscape. As The Athletic’s…
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SPORTS
Jordan Mallory Jul 1, 2022. 48 minute read
Because You’re So Smooth
After what we can all agree was an exceptionally rough year, our Smooth Week 2022 episode of Friends Reunion (A Podcast for Discerning Listeners™) has finally arrived to buff out those sharp edges. Unfortunately, resident Fanbyte Smoothness Expert™ LB Hunktears® (they have a PhD in Uniform Surfaces from the Hunktears…
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PODCASTS
Dylan Roth Jun 30, 2022. 7 minute read
“All Those Who Wander” is Strange New Worlds at its Most Cinematic
In contrast to the two previous live-action Star Trek series, Discovery and Picard, Strange New Worlds has distinguished itself by maintaining an episodic format and restraining the scale and scope of its stories accordingly. It is deliberately not blockbuster, “anything can happen” television, and it’s all the better for it.…
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TV/FILM
Danielle Riendeau Jun 29, 2022. 2 minute read
What’s in the New Star Wars Bar’s Five Thousand Dollar Drink?
Disney announced its drink list for the Hyperspace Lounge today — a bar on the new Disney Wish cruise ship. Under the “hyperfuel” section is a selection of non-alcoholic drinks, and then, in its own section (you might say, a galaxy far away), sits the Kaiburr Crystal Cocktail. Unlike every…
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FEATURES
Colette Arrand Jun 29, 2022. 6 minute read
Wheeler YUTA Is the Lex Luger of the Blackpool Combat Club
Please, before you boo me off of Fanfyte, let me explain. Wrestling stables are pretty interesting. They’re meant to be, obviously, a gathering of formerly disparate talents in the name of a common cause. A stable can come in three configurations before becoming a faction: there’s the three person stable,…
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WRESTLING