2025 in 2025: Day 85

Gravity - Our Lady Peace

The irony of a band firing their long-time guitarist because they claimed he was not good enough, and then replacing him with a guy that does less than nothing and move their sound further towards generic radio rock is not lost on me. Also hilarious that the absolute best songs on the album were all co-written by and/or still feature their original guitarist. Make of that what you will. Innocent is the anthem of the century.

Highlights: Somewhere Out There, Innocent, Sorry, A Story About a Girl

8/10

The Great Christmas Album - The Christmas Angels

A mix of Xmas carols and Xmas classics, sung by a group of singers that range from acceptable to laughable, backed by simple midi sounds straight out of Logic. Since when is Amazing Grace a christmas song??

Highlights: The hilarity of the Rod Stewart imitator singing Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

4/10

The Great Christmas Album - Various Artists

Wow, how original. This is a collection of Xmas songs - not just carols, thank Prime - and at least they are actually sung by proper singers, like Bing Crosby, Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra. Somewhat more of an acceptable listen at Xmas time... which is 6 months from now...

Highlights: Jingle Bells - Big Crosby & The Andrews Sisters, Santa Claus is Coming to Town - Frank Sinatra, The Christmas Song - Nat King Cole, Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! - Vaughan Monroe

6/10

The Great New Zealand Songbook (Souvenir Edition) - Various Artists

This is a massive collection of NZ songs. I will be honest; I have already whittled this down a bit, because it was originally almost six hours long and there was no way I could survive having to deal with that with all the terrible stuff that was included. And this listen will hopefully get rid of some more. While I will contend that the selection process for this must have been very flawed, because there are some genuinely great NZ songs that are missing (e.g. Escaping by Margaret Urlich immediately comes to mind), there are a number of very good songs in here. In fact, this was not nearly as torturous as I was expecting!

Highlights: Heavenly Pop Hit - The Chills, Dominion Road - The Mutton Birds, For Today - Netherworld Dancing Toys, Give it a Whirl - Split Enz, Be Mine Tonight - The' Dudes

7/10

The Great Twenty-Eight - Chuck Berry

I am not going to say all twenty-eight are "great", as some of them are just "okay", I guess. But the ones that are "great" are so great, we probably would not have rock'n roll without them!

Highlights: Maybellene, Thirty Days, You Can't Catch Me, Too Much Monkey Business, Johnny B. Goode, No Particular Place to Go

8/10

"Albums" listened to so far: 705

FREE PALESTINE

UWF Fury Hour: Episode 37

UWF Fury Hour Episode 37, 15th July 1991

Tonight is highlights of the illustrious career of 'Dr. Death' Steve Williams. Well... at least his UWF career. Wow. Can't wait...

First he started a feud with 'Mr.' Wonderful' Paul Orndorff, which involved many attacks from behind. He beat 'Mr. Wonderful' with a chair and "I don't go behind the back, that's why I tell everybody... watch your back". I laughed again.

Now it's time for highlights of their lumberjack match - including the entrances of the lumberjacks. Are we really that desperate for content? I find it hard to have an interest in reviewing this match again, because it was pure nonsense.

Now it's time for the steel cage match! Herb calls it the place "no man wants to go". Except Orndorff straight up asked for it, didn't he?

Steel Cage Match
'Mr. Wonderful' Paul Orndorff vs 'Dr. Death' Steve Williams
Fuck it, I'll bite. Orndorff tries to escape early - which makes no sense, since he asked for the steel cage because he wanted to get revenge. Even Bruno expresses how much nonsense that is. 

ZOMG THE UWF OATMEAL COOKIES. I very much want a pack now. I would eat them while listening to this Jeep Wrangler song.

I get the feeling escaping the cage was the ONLY way to win this match, which is incredibly poor booking. Orndorff goes to walk out the cage door and Terry Gordy slams it on his head.

Winner = double-disqualification nonsense

Gordy gets in the cage and helps Williams beat on Orndorff. Cactus Jack waits outside to stop anyone getting in to help, so Don Muraco comes out and beats him up. Muraco gets in the cage and the bad guys beat him up to.

This led to: Don Muraco vs Terry Gordy - which never happened - and Mr Wonderful vs... Colonel DeBeers? Again, awesome booking.

Also double-disqualification in a Steel Cage match is the most bullshit ever, right up there with double-countout in a fucking Street Fight.

Bam Bam Bigelow says nothing will stop him from destroying 'Dr. Death'.

'Dr. Death' says... something?

Now we are treated to Bigelow's Beach Brawl promo: he has been "studying hard!" He has "ability, do-bility and ho-bility..." "Mo' money, mo' happy!" and other various hilarities.

Craig says 'Dr. Death' had to "get through the toughest matches of the tournament". It was the ONLY match of the tournament.

'Dr. Death' talks about secrecy in his training camp, "but there'll be no surprises for Bam Bam!". I thought that was the point of secrecy? Brian asks him what his motivation for this match is - winning the title isn't enough for you, Brian?? Williams complains about people stabbing him in the back. MOTHERFUCKER you did that to Orndorff every week from day one. Then he threatens Bigelow with an arm-drag. Ooooh no! I'm surprised Bigelow didn't just forfeit right now.

The Making of a Champion

Frank Sinatra sings us My Way over the top of more highlights of 'Dr. Death' Steve Williams - including promos WITH NO SOUND. Again, 'Dr. Death's UWF highlights mainly involve him beating 'Mr. Wonderful' with chairs. What - no footage of him squashing Davey Meltzer the one time he was actually a good guy?

Oh, wait - that highlights package was our main event.

Thoughts:

• It may surprise you to know that 'Dr. Death' Steve Williams was actually related to Herb Abrams.
• I was going to bury this episode as a complete waste of time, but that end video package was hilarious; Sinatra crooning while a big hairy dude beats people with chairs? The whole shit was bizarrely surreal and had me laughing out loud.
• This week in WCW: Great American Bash 1991 - also a waste of time that featured some entertaining moments. But at least Ric Flair is gone for the next 18 months, so that's a bonus.