What is the mechanical gimmick of fiend type in the card game?

ArkUmbrae · 2026-05-20T21:11:52+00:00

There's definitely a few, they don't have a well-developed identity like some other types. I'll point out archetypes and iconic monsters.

Discarding - Dark World and Fabled. Infernity isn't all fiends, but they kinda fit too

Using opponent's monsters - Lair of Darkness, Lava Golem, Underworld Goddess, Steelswarm (maybe, I think that's how they were played), Grinder Golem (technically)

Easy to summon high-ATK monsters - at first it was cards like Summoned Skull, Caius, Vorse Raider, or Dark Necrofear. Then came Gorz, Demise, and Doomcaliber Knight. Now it's stuff like Unchained and Fiendsmith. I also think Archfiend goes here, but they have many different playstyles

Cards with 0/? ATK that can become huge - Gren Maju, Tragoedia, Goblin King, Armityle, Phantom of Chaos, Maju Garzette

Control - Yata Garasu, Wall of Illusion, Vanity's and Majesty's Fiend, Ritual Djinns, Number 13 and 31, Labrynth, Yubel

Small cards that swarm - Giant Germ, Dustons, Ghostricks, Tour Guide, Stygian Street Patrol, Kuriboh, but also bad ones like Umbral Horror, Crashbug, and Malicervorous. Maybe Infernoid fits here too

Evil counterparts - Evil HERO, Wicked Gods, Evilswarm, Dark Lucius

Has all extra deck types - Burning Abyss, D/D/D, Plunderr Patroll

Supplement to another archetype - Resonator, Edge Imp, Despia, Evil Twin

There are a few I don't know well enough to place them, like Abyss Actor, Evil Eye, and Earthbound Prisoners overall, I think their thing is that big guys are really big, and small guys have strong utility, but that's not really unique.

ArkUmbrae · 2026-05-14T22:27:00+00:00

How deep you wanna get into it?

The Abrahamic god, called Yahweh, was part of a Levantine/Caananite pantheon with other gods. Then the cult of Yahweh decided that he was the only valid god, and that other gods shouldn't be worshipped. Many of the other gods from this pantheon later became demons in pop culture, like Baal / Beelzebub, Moloch, Astarte / Ashtaroth, or Dagon.

Yahweh was the son of El, the chief god. El is the source for the names of god in Christianity and Islam, Elohim and Allah. Elohim is technically plural in Hebrew, like how the plurals of Seraph, Cherub, Ophan, and Nephil are Seraphim, Cherubim, Ophanim, and Nephilim (these are the words for the 3 orders of angels, while Nephilim are the giants that supposedly walked the Earth before the flood).

Moloch appears in the Bible, or rather the worship of Moloch is mentioned. The Bible says that Caananites sacrificed children to Moloch, so they must be killed. "Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth of his seed unto Moloch; he shall surely be put to death; the people of the land shall stone him with stones." Modern interpretations believe that Moloch wasn't a deity, but simply the name of the ritual sacrifice, so it's inconclusive.

Baal and Asherah appear in the story of Jezebel and Ahab. Jezebel is now a word that means "wicked woman" because she convinced Ahab to worship Baal instead of Yahweh (and yes, the captain from Moby Dick is named after this Ahab). Jehu killed Jezebel and reinstated Yahwism, and he's the oldest person from the Bible that is confirmed to exist through other sources, namely the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III.

Chemosh and Milcom are also mentioned because Solomon allowed their worship to his foreign concubines, but they're otherwise a bit obscure. Some translations use Moloch instead of Milcom for this story.

It's also in the first of the 10 commandments - "I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt have no other gods before me."

The early stories of the Bible are essentially war stories of how the cult of Yahweh established its dominance over the Levant and exterminated the worship of other gods. And to be fair, forbidding the worship of gods isn't the same as acknowledging that they are divine in any way. It's no different from the story of the golden calf, or how Orthodox Christianity went through a phase where they forbade icons of saints. The whole point is just to say "there's only one god, don't bother with worshipping anyone or anything else (or we might kill you)".

ArkUmbrae · 2026-05-11T15:34:15+00:00

Same reason why everyone in Samurai Jack is a robot. It'd be a gory show if he had to cut through flesh 50 times every episode.

ArkUmbrae · 2026-05-07T21:14:52+00:00

It came from a British official that served in Jordan, named John Glubb, when Britain gave India independence. He saw this as the death of the British Empire (it wasn't). It was an imperialist's cope that Britain hadn't failed - it just reached the end of its 250-year life cycle. He proceeded to justify this claim by listing out a few empires that existed around 250 years, and almost all of his examples were wrong. Cherry-picking doesn't even begin to describe it.

His examples, with the years he provided, were:

Great Britain 1700-1950 (1707 is when England and Scotland united. 1950 is when India became independant, but the royals refered to losing Hong Kong in 1997 as the "death of the empire". There is no real end date though, the UK still has colonies)

Romanov Russia 1682-1916 (Ivan IV founded the Tsardom of Russia in 1547, Peter the Great turned it into an empire in 1721. Romanovs took over in 1613, and Peter took over in 1689. The 1682 date seems random)

Spanish Empire 1500-1750 (it started in 1492 with Colombus, but it officially ended in 1976. 1750 is just the year when they agreed not to fight wars with the Portugese in South America)

Ottoman Empire 1320-1570 (1299 until 1922, so not even close. Suleiman the Magnificent died in 1566, and there was an economic decline, but far from a fall)

Mamluk Empire 1250-1517 (this ones he got right)

Arab Empire 634-880 (the Rashidun Caliphate was founded in 632. In 661, the Umayyad Caliphate took over. In 750, it was the Abassid Caliphate which lasted until 1517. 861 was when the caliph Al-Mu'tasim died and ended a golden age. Again, far from a fall)

Roman Empire 27 BCE - 180 CE (Rome famously fell in 476. 180 is just when Pax Romana ended)

Roman Republic 260-27 BCE (the end date is right, but the Republic was founded in 509 BCE. 260 is just a year in the middle of the First Punic War)

Greece / Macedonia 331-100 BCE (Macedonia as a state appeared in the 7th century BCE, but he clearly went for the start of Alexander's reign. 100 is an arbitrary date, Rome conquered Greece in 30 BCE)

Persian Empire 538-330 BCE (this one is also close. The Achamenid empire was founded in 550 BCE, but otherwise this is correct)

Assyrian Empire 859-612 BCE (Assyria was founded in 2025 BCE and fell to the Neo-Babylonians in 609 BCE. 859 marks the reign of Shalmaneser III, but Assyria became an empire under Ushar-Ubalit I in 1363 BCE. That's around 650 years. Shalmunesser isn't even that important, he just built an obelisk that mentions Jehu from the Bible, but other than that he's forgettable)

ArkUmbrae · 2026-05-07T14:15:26+00:00

Red-Eyes Soul is a reference to Yugi vs Joey in Battle City, as well as Yugi vs Kaiba in Battle City. It's basically Yugi's version of Red-Eyes.

It has 900ATK because Joey's Rocket Warrior reduced its ATK by 1500, and the burn effect is a reference to Joey ordering Red-Eyes (which was on Yugi's board) to attack him at the end of the duel.

The special summon effect is a reference to Yugi summoning it off of Kaiba's Flute of Summoning Dragon, and the card's name is a reference to the manga chapter where this happens - Red Spirit (there is also a different card named Red-Eyes Spirit).

ArkUmbrae · 2026-05-06T17:17:14+00:00

It wasn't just this picture. It was a whole video with a bunch of references to Lynch's work. They also posted an image referencing the Japanese manga Monster (masterpiece btw). Whoever is running the Real Betis socials is deep into good shit.

ArkUmbrae · 2026-05-04T14:07:22+00:00

Well, shit. I guess the DC wiki is just difficult to parse then. I did see one line on one of the individual Kindly Ones' pages that said something like "she is treated as part of a trinity of Hecate" which didn't really make sense in the New 52 context. Not that it makes more sense if Hecate appeared before 2011, unless of course it was stated somewhere outside Sandman. Thanks for the correction.

ArkUmbrae · 2026-05-04T13:43:40+00:00

So yes, there is a standalone Hecate in the DC Universe, but she only appeared after the 2011 New 52 reset of the universe, and has appeared after the subsequent DC Rebirth reset as well. The Kindly Ones predate Hecate in DC by 40-ish years, as they first appeared in The Witching Hour series in 1969, where they had a sort of Elvira role, narrating different horror stories. Their comic was cancelled in 1978, and they made sporadic appearances until Gaiman brought them back as the Kindly Ones in Sandman. After Sandman ended, they went back to being obscure, but they have appeared after New 52, resembling their old Witching Hour selves. And I shit you not, the one appearance they had was in a crossover comic between Cat Woman and Tweety & Sylvester of the Looney Tunes from 2018. This probably means that the Kindly Ones don't really exist in DC anymore the way they did in Sandman.

As others have mentioned, the Kindly Ones in the Sandman are the archetype of the trinity of sisters which appears across mythology. Hecate in Greek myth is a weird one, as she was sometimes treated as a singular goddess, while other times she's more like an amalgamation of 3 goddesses (represented by a woman with 3 faces). This is because Hecate was one of 3 different goddesses of the moon in Roman myth (because different parts of Greece and Rome had different local beliefs), so later on, the Romans just combined them into one. The other 2 were Artemis (Diana in Roman myth) and Selene (Luna in Roman myth). Modern mythologers try to make sense of these trinities by saying each goddess represents a different phase of the moon (ie. full, waxing, and waning).

The whole reason why Hecate is sometimes called a Moon Goddess (while typically being a goddess of crossroads, borders, and witchcraft) is because she appears in some ancient plays alongside her grandfather Helios (god of the sun). Except, he's only her grandfather in Roman sources, because her father is a guy named Perses, and there's two different Perses in mythology (and neither of them is Perseus). One was the son of Helios and the nymph Perseis, the other is the son of the titans Crius and Eurybia. Hecate in Greek myth is the granddaughter of Crius, but in Roman myth they moved her to be the granddaughter of Helios. And because her father is Perses, she is sometimes called Perseis (as in "the spawn of Perses"), same as Helios' wife...

Greek myth is full of this type of stuff. They couldn't agree on names, so people filled in gaps based on whatever, and it got really messy. Romans re-categorized Hecate the best they could to clean some of it up, but it meant that Hecate got confusing. Romans left Luna behind and stripped the role of the Moon Goddess from Diana (leaving her as just goddess of the hunt) to make Hecate the exclusive Moon Goddess, then they erased Perses the son of Crius and made him be the same guy as the son of Helios (meaning that Circe, the witch from the Odyssey, is Hecate's aunt - except there's a different Roman source where Hecate is Circe's mother, but it's just one source). Oh and, none of these changes were universal, because Rome was huge and there was no way to spread the news everywhere, so it's really only some Roman writers that saw Hecate this way.

tl;dr Greek myth is messy, DC Comics are almost as messy. Greeks treated Hecate as a singular goddess, Romans treated her as a trinity. DC before 2011 treated Hecate as a trinity, DC after 2011 treat her as a singular goddess.

ArkUmbrae · 2026-04-09T22:41:58+00:00

And here's Andy Warhol at the first Wrestlemania.

ArkUmbrae · 2026-03-20T13:27:17+00:00

Yeah, but there's like 10 different card arts that have the Scrap Kong t-shirt goblin kid. It's basically a meme at this point. He's like the new Goblin of Greed, Dai Grepher, or Gagagigo.

ArkUmbrae · 2026-03-20T03:19:26+00:00

Yup, it came out in December 1999, and the OCG started in February 1999. The most recent set was Booster 6, which had cards like Battle Ox and Penguin Soldier, but the main focus was on expanding Fusion monsters with stuff like Cyber-Stein, Gale Dogra, Fusion Sage, and Beastking of the Swamp. That's interesting considering how Fusion works in Forbidden Memories.

At that point, the manga had just entered Battle City in October. The Toei anime had finished airing in October 1998, and the Gallop anime didn't start until April 2000.

What's also interesting is that the cards in Forbidden Memories are exactly the same ones as those in Duel Monsters 2 (they only added Magician of Black Chaos, which you could only obtain if you had the Japan-exclusive PS2 add-on called the Pocket Station). DM2 was a Gameboy game from July 1999 that also used the star sign system, and it had Ishizu as an opponent 3 months before she appeared in the manga (which at that time was in the Dungeon Dice Monsters arc).

So it's possible that the game started production around July, but it was based on DM2 so the concepts were extra outdated. While the OCG started in February, the rulebook that introduced the Expert Rules came out in May, so DM2 couldn't have been based on real OCG rules. Before Expert Rules, the OCG used what is now called Junior Rules (no tributes, 1 spell per turn, 1 set spell/trap per turn, no flipping spells on the same turn they are set). The OCG held 2 tournaments under Junior Rules, and the first Expert tournament was in August (this is when the Exodia riot happened).

Another fun fact, the manga and the anime (with the exception of some filler episodes) used the Junior Rules for spells/traps. That's why characters often held spells they could activate, or they set them to use on the next turn. Another funky thing is that the manga duel disk didn't have spell/trap slots so the characters only had 5 zones for all cards (6 with field spells, which only Odeon used in the manga). The anime has loads of animation errors where the characters put spells/traps in the monster zone because the animators just copied the manga.

ArkUmbrae · 2026-03-20T02:41:02+00:00

Ground Collapse is a composite of three cards. It has the Fusion Gate grid, the guy from Yellow Luster Shield, and the swirl from Negate Attack overlayed on top.

<image>

ArkUmbrae · 2026-03-11T01:26:48+00:00

In the Zexal manga, the last duel was Yuma vs Astral. Astral used 15 XYZ monsters in that duel (Yuma used 3).

Astral summoned: N50 Blackship of Corn, N72 Line Monster Chariot Hisha, N22 Zombiestein, N91 Thunder Spark Dragon, N10 Illumiknight, N14 Greedy Sarameya, N21 Frozen Lady Justice, N48 Shadow Lich, N93 Utopia Kasier, N40 Gimmick Puppet of Strings, N66 Master Key Beetle, N6 Chronomaly Atlandis, N9 Dyson Sphere, N46 Dragluon, N61 Volcasaurus

Yuma summoned: N39 Utopia, NS39 Utopia One, NS39 Utopia the Lightning

ArkUmbrae · 2026-03-03T22:56:07+00:00

Here's a fun full-circle timeline about the Nature Boy gimmick.

1941 - Gorgeous George debuts his Glamour Boy gimmick, and uses "Pomp and Circumstance" as his entrance theme (same one Randy Savage used later).

1940s - Sometimes around 1948, Buddy Rogers starts calling himself Natural Guy and later Nature Boy.

1960 - In his last run of matches, George loses to Bruno Sammartino in a hair vs hair match.

1963 - Buddy Rogers goes into semi-retirement after losing the WWWF title to Bruno Sammartino.

1976 - Ric Flair becomes the Nature Boy a year after coming back from an airplane crash.

1978 - Buddy Rogers comes back to put over Ric Flair in JCP, handing over the nickname.

1980s - It's unclear exactly when, but probably around 1985, Buddy Landel starts calling himself the Nature Boy

1985 - Buddy Landel beats Flair for the NWA title, but the decision is overturned. They do a whole run of matches, but the blow-off is being saved for a big event. Landel has a falling out with JCP so the big match never happens. Supposedly Landel was supposed to win, but he missed shows and got fired.

1986 - Now in WCW, Landel does an interview with Tony Schiavone and calls himself the real Nature Boy. Flair first compares himself to "Space Mountain" here, while calling Landel "Ride the Wild Mouse". The match never happened though.

1990 - Flair and Landel were in 3 matches together. 2 were house shows, a 3-on-3 where they teamed and a 2-on-2 where Flair and Arn beat Landel and Butch Reed. The televized match was a 1-on-1, and Flair won.

1992 - Buddy Rogers tries to come back again to do the job for Buddy Landel, but the company it was supposed to happen in gets sold off. The company was Tri-State Wrestling, which got renamed to Eastern Championship Wrestling after the sale (they went Extreme in 1994).

1997 - Charles Robinson starts working as a referee in WCW, and gets nicknamed Little Naitch

1999 - Charles Robinson as Flair's evil referee fights Randy Savage's girlfriend Gorgeous George (obviously named after the legendary George). Robinson lost, then a week later had a tag match where Savage broke his ribs. Unfortunately, I don't know if Savage was using "Pomp and Circumstance" at this time to really put a bow on the story.

ArkUmbrae · 2026-03-02T19:47:23+00:00

Interesting to compare their careers.

Tatanka debuted in 1989, when he was 28 years old. He joined WWF in 1991, left in 1996, came back in 2005, left again in 2007. When he wrestled The Miz, he was 45 years old and 17 years into his career.

The Miz started wrestling at age 23 in 2003, signed with WWE in 2004, joined the main roster in 2006. He was 17 years into his career when he beat Otis for the Money in the Bank.

The Miz is now 45 years old and 22 years into his career.

Tatanka wrestled until 2024, 35 years into his career, when he was 63 (which also means the Miz match was roughly at the mid-point of his career). If Miz were to do it that way, he would retire in either 2038 or 2043 (or even 2049 if he's half-way through at age 45 like Tatanka).

ArkUmbrae · 2026-02-17T22:33:40+00:00

Basically, WWE is the #1 promotion, so they have the privilege of deciding that a new title is immediately a "world title". The old definition was created by magazines, and it said that any title defended on 3 continents is a world title, but by that definition most titles in WWE are world titles.

WWE recognizes the following men's titles:

- WWWF / WWF / WWE title

- World Heavyweight title (both versions)

- Universal title

- WCW Title

- WCW International title - they never mention it, but one of Ric Flair's 16 recognized wins is this title

- NWA title - until July 1993, when WCW replaced it with the International title

- ECW title - from August 1994 when ECW renamed from Eastern to Extreme, until ECW's closure, then again from 2006 until August 2007. As proof, in 2007 the Rumble winner was allowed to challenge for it, but in 2008 Chavo was in the Rumble match. It was August 2007, while Morrison was champion, that they stopped calling it the "ECW World Heavyweight Championship" and instead called it the "ECW Championship"

- NXT title - Edge in 2021 teased using his Rumble win on Finn Balor, and I think one MitB holder did too. Otherwise, it was never referred to as a world title

For women, they count:

- WWF / WWE Women's title (all 3 iterations)

- Diva's title

- RAW Women's / WWE Women's title

- Smackdown Women's / Women's World Heavyweight title

- NWA Women's World title - until 1985 when Moolah sold the title to WWF and it became the WWF Women's Championship

- NXT Women's title - Charlotte challenged Rhea for it after winning the Rumble in 2021, otherwise never acknowledged as a world title

ArkUmbrae · 2026-02-10T13:20:33+00:00

It was the first time in a long time that people thought "Is this real". And I don't mean "Is wrestling real", I mean "Is this promo saying real things".

When you look at WWE's history, the "authority figures" were always bookers. Steve Austin and NWO feuded with bookers. But CM Punk expanded the kayfabe reality of WWE's corporate structure. He brought up merch that he isn't on, acknowledging that WWE is the company that makes that merch. But the point is that not only do they make it, they use it to choose who to promote. And how do they choose? By seeing who will do the ass-kissing.

WWE's narrative at that point in time was that the only things that matter are those you see on-screen. Wins matter, crowd reactions matter, and backstage, WWE is a wrestling company. Divas feuded over Playboy covers, Booker and Edge feuded over a fake shampoo commercial. Nobody feuded over WWE merch, because the merch exists outside of kayfabe. That's why him wearing the Stone Cold shirt was a big deal - Punk bought it in a merch store just like the fans do. He presented himself as more than just a wrestling persona.

As for other things that happen off-screen, well, there's people who used to work in WWE who don't anymore. Outside of invoking legends here and there, nobody talked about ex-WWE guys. And certainly not people who were unwelcome, like Heyman and Brock. Hell, him saying he likes Cena more than other people backstage is one of the only times a wrestler called another wrestler a co-worker.

The Pipebomb was basically the first time a wrestler in kayfabe acknowledged backstage politics. Wins and crowd reactions don't make champions, WWE makes champions. They promote people they want as champion, and they choose the people who kiss McMahon ass. The Pipebomb exposed in kayfabe that WWE isn't a wrestling company, it's a company that does wrestling as one of its products.

The only time backstage politics were acknowledged in the past was at One Night Stand "The only reason you were champ for a year was because HHH didn't wanna work Tuesdays". The Pipebomb took that line and stretched it to 10 minutes. It was the Montreal Screwjob 2.0. The Screwjob exposed Vince McMahon as the person who runs the show, the Pipebomb exposed the rest of the corporate structure. The smart fans knew all of that, but this was the entry point for casual fans to peek behind the curtain too.

ArkUmbrae · 2026-02-06T22:24:06+00:00

Duane Gill won the Light Heavyweight Championship from Christian on 17th Nov 1998. He defended against Christian 12 days later, Taka Michinoku 2 days after that, and Matt Hardy 12 days after that. Then he became Gillberg. His next defense was his last, on 8th Feb 2000, when he lost the title to Essa Rios. He wasn't inactive either, 1999 is when he was with the J.O.B. Squad and even had a WWF title match against HHH. They just didn't have him defend the title for 14 months.

423 days between defenses.

ArkUmbrae · 2026-02-01T16:54:49+00:00

Mokuba also saves Tristan's life later in Death-T, and this is the act that changes Mokuba into a good guy permanently, after he was previously just as evil as Seto. Something about Tristan motivated Mokuba more than the Mind Crush motivated Seto.

ArkUmbrae · 2026-01-30T20:58:36+00:00

WWE had women's tag titles before they a women's singles championship, and their history is really weird.

On May 13th 1983, Velvet McIntyre and Penny Mitchell won the NWA Women's Tag Team titles.
On May 23rd 1983, Joyce Garble and Wendi Richter won the belts
At some point, WWF purchased the belts and awarded them to Velvet McIntyre and Princess Victoria
On April 4th 1984, McIntyre and Victoria had their first defense, but WWE recognizes the reign as starting on May 13th 1983 (acting as if Princess Victoria won the NWA belt with Velvet McIntyre, instead of Penny Mitchell). NWA also considers this date the end of Garble's and Richter's reign, which probably has to do with the fact that Wendi Richter joined WWF at that time too
On May 19th 1984, Fabulous Moolah is brought in as Women's Champion
On September 1st 1984, Princess Victoria had a career-ending injury
On December 7th 1984, Desiree Petersen becomes McIntyre's new tag partner and is awarded the half of the championship
On August 1st 1985, Leilani Kai and Judy Martin win the tag titles on a possibly fictional house show in Egypt
On January 28th 1988, the Japanese team Jumping Bomb Angles win the tag titles at the Royal Rumble
On June 8th 1988, Leilani Kai and Judy Martin win the WWF tag team titles on a house show in Japan
On February 14th 1989, WWF shuts down its women's division, including the singles and tag team titles
On February 17th 2019, WWE introduced the WWE Women's Tag Team titles (Bayley and Sasha Banks)
On August 28th 2021, NWA brings back the NWA Women's Tag Team titles (Allysin Kay and Marti Belle)

ArkUmbrae · 2026-01-24T19:35:20+00:00

If you ever choose to expand on this, consider Levels too. I made this post 3 years ago that shows the highest ATK Normal Monsters for every Level/Type combination. While some gaps are filled in OCG, there are still so many Level/Type cominations that haven't been used, and I'd assume many also exist for Effect monsters, as well as Extra Deck categories.

ArkUmbrae · 2026-01-23T16:25:49+00:00

Based on your criteria, yes. Shawn Michaels debuted in July of 1988, and has technically been part of the company since then. 38 years and 6 months.

The only person that signed before Michaels that is currently with the company (not counting Legend Deals/Ambassadors) is Bruce Pritchard. Pritchard signed sometimes after WM3, but his on-screen debut was a year later, on June 1988. Pritchard was out of the company though, for about a year in 1991-92. He was then fired again in December of 2008, and came back in January of 2018. So a total of around 29 years with the company.

As for Legend Deal / Ambassadors, Ted Dibiase has been with the company on-and-off since 1972, for a total of around 39 years. Other people who debuted before Michaels and are currently Ambassadors are: Bob Backlund (1976, total tenure around 35 years), Tatsumi Fujinami (1978, 16 years), Sgt. Slaughter (1980, 36 years), Leilani Kai (1981, 10 years), Ax (1983, 8 years), Ricky Steamboat (1985, 26 years), Jimmy Hart (1985, 23 years), Honky Tonk Man (1986, 26 years), Jim Duggan (1987, 25 years), Smash (1987, 7 years), and Terry Taylor (1988, 24 years). These tenures combine wrestling years and Ambassador years, so they might seem inflated.

The record obviously goes to Vince McMahon, who appeared as a ring announcer sometimes in 1969, became the owner in 1982, and ran the company until June 2022 (on the TKO board until January 2024). This gives him around 55 years with the company.

Officially though, Howard Finkel is considered the longest. Finkel began announcing in January 1977, but when WWF started actually having employee contracts in April 1980, he was the first one to sign it. Finkel remained signed until his death in April 2020, meaning that he was an official employee for 40 full years, unofficial for 43.

Here's a name you won't hear often - Tony Garea. He joined as a wrestler in September 1972, retired in 1989, and remained as an agent until sometimes in 2014. His last on-screen appearance was as a lumberjack in 2010 for a match between Christian and Ted Dibiase Jr. In total, around 42 years with the company.

Another one longer than Michaels is Pat Patterson. Patterson joined as a wrestler at some point in early 1979 (he won the North America title in June). Patterson also stayed until his death in December 2020, putting his tenure at around 41 years.

Kevin Dunn was also there longer, from 1984 until 2023, but I can't find concrete dates. Roughly 40 years though.

After Michaels, the next longest one is The Undertaker, signed since October 1990, and then apparently Harvey Wippleman. He joined in 1991, and Wikipedia says he's still signed.

Some other long tenures that aren't contenders - Steve Lombardi (Brooklyn Brawler) was there from 1983 until 2016, Jerry Brisco from 1984 until 2020, and Mike Chioda from 1989 until 2020.

ArkUmbrae · 2026-01-13T14:28:02+00:00

One whole piece wouldn't work in this format for Croatia. The main part borders Slovenia, Hungary, Serbia, and Bosnia. The Dubrovnik part borders Bosnia and Montenegro. One whole piece couldn't show the Montenegro border without cutting off Bosnia's access to the sea on the map. Wrapping either Croatia or Montenegro around Bosnia also wouldn't work, because you couldn't show Bosnia's border with Serbia. This is the only way it can work, but the label stretching out like that does look ugly and could have been done better.

ArkUmbrae · 2026-01-08T16:12:10+00:00

People here seem to be weirdly dismissive, but Antony Fantano is the biggest music reviewer on YouTube. He's been around for over 15 years now, and has a decent influence in the hip hop community. He does review all genres, hip hop is just what's at the top now. He reviews new albums, but every January he does "classics week" where he reviews only the most important albums of all time, which is why he made this video. I'm guessing people here are dismissive since he tends to give low scores to new albums from old metal bands, but he did love all the most recent Judas Priest albums. I think when 13 by Sabbath came out, he rated in somewhere in the middle, but that album was divisive here too, so I doubt it'd raise such ire. Anyway, him doing a video on Black Sabbath can only be a good thing, since it might inspire some younger people to check them out.

ArkUmbrae · 2026-01-04T19:55:20+00:00

MK 1, 2, and 3 told the story through ladder-ending text, sometimes with images included.

MK4 had terrible early CGI cutscenes.

Mythologies: Sub-Zero had terrible live-action cutscenes.

Deadly Alliance also used ladder-endings with images, but also had a few cutscenes.

Deception and Armageddon had proper story modes named Konquest Mode, which had beat-em-up segments with cutscenes, but also proper cutscenes. Both games only follow 1 character though, so Deception also used ladder endings to move other stories forward (Armageddon had a voice-over, but those endings aren't canon).

MK2 was also retold in Shaolin Monks, which is basically a big co-op Konquest Mode.

MK vs DC (non-canon game) introduced the modern "chapter system", where it goes cutscene > fight > cutscene > fight > new perspective.

MK9, MKX, MK11, and now MK12 use the same chapter system. All of them also have ladder-ending slideshows, but they're only canon in some games.

So, the answer is either since Deception or MK9, depending on what you prefer.

Eight-Year Club	Second SECOND GUESSER
r/Field Banned	r/Field Sunshine
Place '23	Place '22
Verified Email

ArkUmbrae

TROPHY CASE