COLLECTOR'S CORNER -- TRIAL & ERROR VOLUME TWO: Cheap Knock-offs and Counterfeits

"Black Man"? C'mon how can you even read this
packaging label without thinking it's racist LMFAO...

Cheap Knock-offs -- I touched upon this subject briefly in the last article on my personal journey of collecting pop culture collectibles but good Lord, we have to talk about this a bit more in detail. There's a LOT of people trying to sell cheap knock offs as legitimate toys while there's even MORE knock offs disguised as heavily sought after popularized toys and collectibles. To be honest, if you're a collector who is merely concerned with having all of your favorite characters instead of looking to sell your collection at some point, you could buy a few cheap knock offs to fill the gaps in your collection, customize the toys to your liking, and no one else but you would know any different.

I happen to be in a roughly three pop culture toy collector groups on Facebook (2 following and detailing pro wrestling collectibles and memoriblia, and another covering anything and everything else nerdy collectors like myself should have their eyes out looking for), where we discuss, trade, and sell our figures for profit. While I have only bought from a few trusted sellers on there, I do happen to see a lot of hilarious posts with photos of cheap knock offs that they have seen in the wild in various retailers.

Here in the Carolinas, the biggest outlet that has all of these cheap knock offs seems to be the Rose's/Maxway store chain.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce you to a WHITE Kofi Kingston...

You're not seeing things that's a REPAINTED Kofi Kingston that one member shared on the group. At least the packaging is top notch, but everything else is left to be desired. I know a lot of guys who do their own custom figures for wrestlers and characters that WWE and other various promotions have been too lazy to make themselves. I'm still finding it hilarious that WWE raced out of their way to make a Kevin Steen/Owens figure after Ring of Honor announced that he was one of their premiere figures in their upcoming debut action figure line. Talk about petty much?

They aren't the only ones who have been seeing these cheap knock offs. I managed to visit some of my local outlets here in the Carolinas and EASILY found a few offenders. Let's take a look shall we?

(Laughs) I don't even think Ultimate Warrior would approve of these figures...

(Busts out laughing) So let me get this straight, this is supposed to be a hardcore match pack of wrestling figures? Sweet idea, but very, very BAD on the figures. From left to right, the only thing they have done here was took two Sabu ECW/WWE figures and head swap them with Jimmy Wang Yang and Brutus the Barber Beefcake's heads. Rambo/Rocky or whatever Stallone figure they used was head swapped with a Vince McMahon repainted body while the last figure on the right is CLEARLY a repainted D-X 2006 era Triple H figure. Once again, if you're hardcore into creating custom figures then this might be up your alley to drop $10 for these figures. I know I personally wouldn't bother. I was cracking up laughing so hard.

"Superior Robot Fighter"... Hmm, why do I suddenly have the old
Mega Man cartoon theme song in my head now?

A "Superior Robot Fighter" that is clearly in Gundam packaging. On the back of the box is a clear picture of New Mobile Report Gundam W's Gundam Epyon, but this looks more similar to one of the Universal Century timeline mobile suits from the Principality of Zeon or possibly of the ZAFT organization from Gundam SEED. (Shrugs) No idea as I've been out of the loop on newer Gundam series for a LONG time now. For $3, that's not a bad deal if I'm perfectly honest. If I was sure of which Gundam it was, I would totally snatch up one and repaint it (Walmart sells the paint that is usually used on Gundam model kits and figures on their model plane/cars aisle in the toy section).

After Gundam licensing has gone through quite the mess nowadays in terms of distributing anything Gundam-related "officially" outside of Japan without a ridiculously high price, I'm not surprised to see Gundam knock-offs. I'm pretty sure you are going to continue seeing this pop up until Gundam gets a reasonable distribution deal stateside again.




Yep, FROZEN knock offs...

C'mon you can't be too surprised. Pretty much the most popular children's cartoon for little girls right now and you know someone had to make some knock offs. Hell, that packaging is enough to fool most kids for Christmas. If you want to go that cheapskate route, more power to ya' because I know I won't judge you - those damn dolls are expensive as hell.

Yep, that's a non-Transmetal T-Rex Megatron from Beast Wars.

Ever since the revival of the Transformers franchise with the VERY popular Beast Wars: Transformers cartoon in the early 2000s, which led to Hollywood seeking to make a live-action blockbuster franchise based on this 80's cartoon and toy craze, there have been MANY knock off toys from the Beast Wars toyline. Japanese originals and other standard figures in mint condition from this toyline will net you between a couple hundred to thousands of dollars trying to get them all, but a crafty collector will simply buy a few of these knock offs, repaint them to their liking and call it a day. It just depends on how badly you want these Transformers in your collection.

REVIEW -- Rise of the Tomb Raider

Rise of the Tomb Raider is the 2015 sequel to the 2013 reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise from developer Crystal Dynamics and publisher Square Enix. This will be the eleventh Tomb Raider game. The game released on November 10th 2015.

Microsoft Announced At E3 2015 that Rise of the Tomb Raider will be a timed exclusive release for both the Xbox 360 and Xbox One on November 2015.

Square Enix later revealed the PC, version would arrive Early 2016 via Steam and PS4 would arrive Holiday 2016. There has been no word on a PlayStation 3 version.

Story: 

Set one year after Tomb Raider, Lara Croft's experience of the supernatural on Yamatai has been covered up by an organization known as Trinity, a sinister private enterprise pursuing the supernatural. In order to prove she is not insane, Lara becomes obsessed with finding the truth behind myths around the world. As her obsession threatens to consume her, she discovers herself in the same predicament as her father, discredited by the scientific community after an encounter with Trinity of his own, and she inadvertently leads them to Siberia and the ancient city Kitezh—built by Georgy II, the Grand Prince of Vladimir in the 13th century—which Lara believes holds some truth behind immortality. In a race against time, Lara must survive against humans, animals, and the environment in order to find the truth behind the myths and become who she is destined to be.

The Verdict:

Game Informer had a feature showcasing all of Lara's improved equipment for this new game.

I want to note that I was happy to find a copy of the Xbox 360 port of the game to rent, but I have no idea if the game is the same across the board on both 360 and Xbox One, so bare with me as this review is from entirely from my personal experiences playing the 360 version.

First things first, this is a gorgeous game to behold. From stunning cutscenes, beautiful environments, and heavily detailed character models, you can tell that Square Enix wasted no expense in terms of visuals for this game. It’s definitely up there for one of the most visually stunning titles for last-generation consoles, along with Remember Me and the first two Assassin’s Creed titles. Then there's the small things that Square Enix pay attention to in terms of detail, such as Lara's weapons showing any and all visual upgrades while she's wearing them on her body or while using them in combat or Lara taking the moment to shiver after walking around in the snow for some time and even taking the opportunity to rub her arms to attempt to warm herself up. It's small things like this that really help immerse me into game's world. Square Enix really did some top notch work here.

Lara has plenty of new toys to help her out this time around.

Gameplay is the same is what we’ve come to know from the original game, but Lara can actually melee enemies by default this time around. I thought that was an excellent decision this time around as it annoyed me to no end in the original game where Lara wasn’t as effective close range as she was in mid and long-range combat until you maxed out the skill upgrades. This ability along with an upgraded hatchet can even knock off the armor from heavily armored foes and leave them ripe for execution finishing moves.

I think that someone may have complained about the gruesome death sequences and graphic ordeals that Lara got herself into in her original adventure on the island because those sequences are far and few this time around. There were a few cringe-worthy death sequences and fatalities due to player error, but definitely nowhere as many as there were in the original game. Lara doesn’t sport as many near-fatal injuries either, but I found myself bursting out laughing as she merely rubbed some herbs and leaves onto her possibly broken and bleeding arm to make it good as new. That’s video games for ya, huh?

No matter how you approach combat, Lara ALWAYS comes off like a bad ass.

In terms of equipment, you start off with just a pistol and Lara’s climbing hatchet/axe for melee attacks, but soon enough you’ll be armed with your good friend from the original game - the bow. Square Enix did a great job of making sure this weapon stays just as exciting - if not more so, in this game. I wish that more games would adopt the “sequel approach” that Rocksteady did with Batman: Arkham City - start players off with EVERYTHING they had from the original game and build upon that arsenal. I can understand taking out the more overpowered weapons and items but we shouldn’t have Lara run into “Metroid syndrome” where she trips up and drops all of her items down some pit and has to start from nothing at the beginning of every game. I know, I know. It’s a VERY minor complaint and I’m willing to forgive them for that this time. Even Assassin’s Creed did that when they went from II to Brotherhood. You started the next game off with literally almost everything you had in the previous title.

And boom goes the dynamite...

Over the course of the game, Lara acquires flame arrows, explosive-tipped arrows, poison arrows, armor-piercing arrows, and even arrows bundled with knockout gas (I personally didn’t find this one myself but that’s welcome addition as well). Lara is also able to acquire multiple weapons of the same type but she can only carry one weapon from each weapon type at any given time (bow, pistol/handgun, shotgun, and rifle/machine gun). This gives players freedom to tackle the game’s objectives as they see fit as there’s a multitude of ways to take out the adversaries standing in Lara’s way. There were several occasions throughout the game where I would manually reload a checkpoint just because I wanted to try out different way to tackle a particular obstacle or take out enemies in a different way after exploring the environment.

A great attention to detail in-game sports Lara with her pistol clearly ANY and
ALL visual upgrades to your firearms in her holsters to show
silencers and extended magazines stocked.

Speaking of environments, this is a game that rewards players for exploration and taking the time to explore the locale. Your controller vibrates when Lara’s near hidden resources and supplies that are buried underground. You can dig these resources up and use them for crafting upgrades to your weapons and inventory items. Lara can even craft items on the fly now that adds even more depth to combat. There wasn’t a single time where I felt the combat in the game was unfair as there’s always something laying around that you can pick up, craft something on the fly and help you out in the heat of battle. Players just have to pay attention to their surroundings. Resources for crafting can be found in boxes and crates littered around the environment, by looting enemy corpses, and even by hunting animals as well. At least they didn’t make hunting in this game as annoying and tedious as it is in Assassin’s Creed III and IV…

I will admit seeing bears, wolves, and mountain lions made me think that I was playing those games for a moment though or even Red Dead Redemption with that bear gunning for you like a madman. I’m sure that’s going to give some players nightmares after bumping into that fool the first time.

The tactical knife allows Lara to cut down ropes and ziplines, but also can be used
for stealth kills along with the axe. 

In terms of the narrative, it’s a bit of deja vu with a bit of “been there, done that” by the game’s finale as I honestly felt like Square Enix literally rehashed the ending from the original game in terms of the build-up to the finale - the introduction of some supernatural army of doom, the fool who wants to abuse this power for their own personal gain, and the last Rambo-esque hurrah through what seems like impossible odds versus enemy soldiers and the supernatural. The plot twist near the end is a bit TOO predictable as I saw that coming the second that character was introduced, but I will give Square Enix kudos for the tease at the end of the ending credits. I’m very glad to see that Lara’s adventures in this revival will continue.

One thing that may throw players for a loop this time around is that this game is a bit of an open world. You don’t have to stick to the main story consistently. Instead, you can venture off and explore the 9 optional tombs or partake in various side missions. Each of the optional tombs are a test of wits and applying various uses to Lara’s equipment. If you don’t have the items to necessarily solve that tomb, the game will let you know right off the bat before even entering, so that’s an added plus that the creators of this game thought of a prompt to let players know of that for they won’t feel stupid wasting hours for nothing. The various side missions can be found from the various NPCs you encounter throughout the game. Each of them have a simple task that usually details finding some items, hunting animals, or disposing of enemy forces. Nine times out of ten, the missions take place where you have gone to previously at that point of the story, so if you’re doing the side missions as you’re progressing throughout the story, it’s not that hard to accept these missions between breaks in the narrative. Most of the time, they reward you with upgrades for your weapons, so it’s beneficial to help these people out when you can as most of the time you’re killing two birds with one stone - you’re acquiring resources and parts for upgrading your weapons and inventory as well as getting rewards for helping these NPCs out. The “last” side mission can be done in post-game as one of the NPCs want you to visit and complete EVERY optional tomb in the game. She rewards you with a TON of coins for your trouble, which can be used to buy items at the Supply Shack.

From what reports are saying online, it's beneficial to complete the side missions before you complete the main story as you're unable to finish most of them in post-game after continuing the game after the ending credits.

Like the previous title, Lara gains experience for every action in combat and exploration. These points can be used to purchase Skills to enhance Lara's abilities and expertise in hand-to-hand combat, hunting and salvaging resources, and with her weapon prowess. My personal favorites came from the combat skills that hone her abilities with the bow, unlocking double and triple kills while zoomed in on adversaries. This ability transforms the game into Splinter Cell: Conviction with a bow, or rather Hitman for Square Enix fans. These abilities enhance Lara's abilities and weapons that she acquires throughout the game's narrative as well, such as upgrading flame arrows to napalm arrows, grenade/explosive arrows to cluster bomb arrows, or poison arrows to poison gas cloud arrows. Shotguns could even be upgraded to fire rounds that ignite it's targets into flames, combat mastery with particular firearms can be upgraded to unlock finishing moves with those weapons as well in close quarters combat. Experimenting and toying with the upgrades for each players particular playstyle is worth multiple playthroughs on its own just for joy of toying with all of these combinations. This is yet another thumbs up for Square Enix allowing players to tackle the game as how they see fit.

Unlockable costume for completing
all of the optional tombs. 

I thought the outfit that was unlocked after you complete all of the optional tombs was a pretty sweet bonus. Lara finally looks like she fits in with the rest of her Remnant allies.

Bugs and Glitches

On Xbox 360, I ran into a lot of situations where the framerate would drop to a crawl for a few seconds when there’s a lot going onscreen (explosions, tons going on in the environment, etc.). It’s not bad enough where it ruins the game, but after installing the game to my HDD, this problem happened a lot less than I would expected it would otherwise.

One of the underwater optional tombs is glitched. There’s a segment where you have to attach a rope arrow to a crane that’s underwater after draining the water out of the pool. The puzzle is unsolvable if the rope glitches into the wall and doesn’t attach to the switch. I was only able to solve the puzzle after reloading the checkpoint and returning back to this area. I had a similar situation happen when creating a zipline throughout the course of the story.

Before you acquire the Iron Grip skill/ability from one of the optional tombs, I found it rather glitchy to perform rock/ice climbing with the grappling axe. I would have Lara scale/climb walls only for her to randomly slide off the wall and fall to her death. I don’t know what was the cause of this, but I think it has something to do with some poor collision detection. I’ve had this happen a LOT over the course of the game. Once again, it’s not enough to break the game, but enough to annoy gamers and potentially turn them away from the game.

While wearing particular alternate costumes/outfits, Lara’s items and weapons glitch completely through her body to some hilarious results. For example, the Compound Bow looks like it's sawing her in half at times or coming out of her shoulders and waist. I was using the Commando and Infiltrator outfits for the last portion of the game, so I guess that’s why it was looking so weird…

After acquiring that wire tool that you can use to throw Lara’s grappling axe to help with long jumps, it tends to glitch out and make Lara fall to her death much like with the normal climbing axes. Once again, this doesn’t happen a LOT but it’s just plain annoying.

Rent It, Buy It, or Don’t Bother?

Even though I rented it, I suggest buying it. I’m definitely going to pick up a copy at some point as I would love to replay the game at a higher difficulty with the added challenge of the boost cards and skills, along with the disadvantage handicap cards.

After renting the game for 5 days, I managed to finish the game with 77% completion (100% story completion, ALL optional tombs and side missions completed). The only stuff I didn’t get around to was exploring all of the crypts and acquiring all of the collectibles and various weapons.

If you enjoyed Lara Croft’s debut adventure in this rebooted franchise, then you owe yourself to join Lara once again on this new entry in the series. You can tell that Square Enix has made this game into a labor of love with obvious influences from the Uncharted series as well as the Hitman franchise to make this game even more a joy to play as the original.

With Lara Croft & The Guardian of Light and its sequel, Lara Croft & The Temple of Osiris, Square Enix are well underway restoring the legacy of the Tomb Raider franchise with this new titles in Lara Croft’s traditional tomb raiding form. There’s enough here to keep long time fans happy while enough new paint to intrigue and amaze gamers to draw in new fans to this franchise. With various improvements over the original title and tons of replayability and extra content, Rise of the Tomb Raider is welcome addition new entry in this revival of the Tomb Raider franchise.

I know that there’s plenty of fans mad that it’s currently a Xbox exclusive, but don’t fret - PlayStation 4 and PC owners will get a crack at this game in 2016. I’m sure by then all of the DLC detailed in the Season Pass will be available all at once.

Late Night Ramblings (Nov. 12, 2015)

I guess this one should be referred to as "Early Morning" Ramblings as I happen to be up before 7AM typing this up...

I haven’t taken the time to chronicle the entire story of the recent Ultra Street Fighter IV tournament that I attended on Halloween at my local Gamestop, so I want to remedy that situation now.

To be quite honest, I didn’t make up my mind to enter the tournament until about 4-5 days before the actual date of the tournament. I just happened to be in the middle tutoring my friend Randy in the game and I was growing impatient with his progress. That’s a pet peeve of mine when it comes to teaching people fighting games. If I take time out of my schedule - especially when I’m supposed to be on a hiatus from this genre - and offer to help you out, I expect you to at least be grinding on your own practicing what we’ve done or in training room/replay channel to review and understand WHY you lost. With him I was going easier than I was with my close friends. We’d run a few sets and I’ll tell him between rounds/sets what he’s doing wrong, how to approach that match-up better, or simply something to work on out of words of encouragement. He was showing a lot of promise - I got him to stop mindlessly jumping in and mashing out Shoryukens and he was starting to understand the ground game better. Something happened and he started to revert to “online tactics” - tons of reckless and mindless approaches and mashing out moves. I guessing he panicked or something, but he was dealing with me kicking things up a notch more than some of my regular casual sparring buddies would. So it was just downright frustrating that he threw all of that progress out of the window.

As a result, it took me back to why I wanted my hiatus from this genre in the first place. I looked at the Gamestop tournament as my last “hurrah” to the game and the genre for the time being. I thought it was ironic that the second that I put my mind towards entering the tournament everything in my life that week went to shit and was hellbent on me not getting a single bit of time to practice until the morning of the tournament itself.

What was my tournament training regime you ask? Mostly I run into Training Room and go through ALL of the moves on both 1P and 2P sides of the screen. I dunno what it is with 2D fighters but my brain “skips” for a second to think of how to input commands on opposing side of the screen at times. I’ve NEVER had this problem in 3D fighters but it always plagues me in 2D fighters time and time again. After that, I run through basic “bread and butter” combos on both sides of the screen before jumping onto Ranked Match for a few random matches. I set the search for ANY in terms of Skill Level and focus on just reacting and studying how my opponent plays. If I run into a tactic that I can’t deal with or completely blows me up, I try to simulate it in training and figure out a counter or defense to that tactic.

Perfect example, that entire morning I was having issues with Dudley’s Jumping Diving Elbow Drop, a move I used to low-profile with cr. MP or cr. MK in previous versions of Street Fighter IV. In this version it was oddly trading, so I had to adjust my timing or just straight out knock him out of the air with st. MK. I think I practiced this anti-air training for about 2 hours straight until I felt comfortable against it.

After I felt good enough to get the nervous jitters out of my system and feel properly warmed up, I ate some breakfast/lunch since I tend to have social anxiety attacks pop up randomly in events if I do have an empty stomach and headed to the mall where the event was held.

I get there, there’s like next to no one there. I felt like a complete nerd - even more so than usual, carrying my bookbag full of controllers and my adapters where it looked like the thing wasn’t happening at all. FYI I play mainly off a PS2 to Xbox 360 adapter and I have one that allows me to use the PS2 controller on a PS3 as well. The clerk at the counter said they were still having the event and just that people were strangling along to get there. This really took me back though. Back in high school, they held a Soul Calibur tournament in this same mall but it was in the center of the Food Court. About the same size of entrants too, I think it was about 9-12 people total - few seasoned players like myself and others ranging from folks my age to kids who didn’t know what the hell they were doing - they were just there for the free candy that Gamestop were giving out.

Here’s the kicker about the tournament before it even started. The clerk hosting the tournament wanted to do 1-round, Single Elimination and the vets along with myself vetoed that idea out. At least give people a fighting chance. So, it was changed to Best of 2 sets (2 out of 3 rounds to win), Single Elimination. Character lock too. The tournament was on Xbox 360 on a no lag monitor but everyone was forced to use those wireless standard Xbox 360 pads.

Right then and there I busted out laughing because I wish I actually practiced on one of those. The clerk hosting the tournament allowed entrants to practice/warm up and I’ll say without a doubt they literally opened up some used 360 pads to use. D-pad and analog sticks were loose and buttons were mashed in from prelonged use. Seriously, how do people ruin their controllers like that so easily? I have PS2 AND NES controllers that STILL play like new.

I’m not going to label this as an excuse to why I didn’t win as everyone else had to deal with this handicap too. I threw a lot of people off during “warm-ups” as I was playing Hugo - a character I’ve been just randomly messing around with. I knew I wasn’t going to use him in this tournament so playing him now was pretty harmless, but it put a lot of people on edge since I could hear a lot of the seasoned players notice that I knew what I was doing. I was laughing to myself, I guess the jig is up now…

After a SHORT bout of warm-ups, they started the tournament up and I went first. I KNEW it was going to happen because fate likes to play with my emotions like that in these things. If I’m not one of the first matches, it really fucks up with my nerves. I rather play first and get it out of the way to see how everyone else - i.e. my competition fares.

My first match is where my competition came into play as the first of the trio who came to the tournament together as a group of buddies (reminiscent of my old gaming buddies from high school when we entered that Soul Calibur tournament together) who were pretty damn good in warm sets. One of them played a pretty scary looking Juri, the other alternated between Dudley and Seth, while the one who I was set to face first, was another solid Dudley player.

Oh the irony. Pretty much from the second I picked Chun-Li on the character select screen people were confused or shocked. “We got this, baby.” I told myself as the round started. Without a shadow of a doubt, I pretty much bullied the guy the entire match. The guy had decent footsies, but after I pretty much discouraged him from jumping (thanks to the training I went through earlier) he was afraid to do anything. Strange that this match-up is SOOO much easier offline than online. I won that one 2-0 to advance to the next round.

The second Dudley player had an easy first round bout as he fought one of those kids who didn’t know what they were doing, so he just pretty much turned those two rounds into training mode with Seth. You know the deal - one hit confirm into a combo for full stun, one mix-up into the reset, and repeat. Even his friends were disgusted that he played like that against the poor kid. I would’ve at least played Dan just to troll (laughs) and give the kid a honest effort.

The Juri player had another easy first round bout as he fought some random guy I beat prior in warm-ups who was using Ryu. I would end up facing the Juri player in my next round bout. In the Dudley match-up I went with Ultra 2 but with Juri because I think this match is completely revamped in Ultra now after Juri’s buffs, I went with Ultra Combo Double. Reduced damage but I like the added mindgame that he can’t zone me out with fireballs.

Surprisingly enough, this turned into a match of PURE footsies. Footsies = proper spacing and zoning where you’re in a tug of war fight to control onscreen space. I have two friends who main Juri and I haven’t seen one this good like EVER. I had him beat in one round and I dropped the Ultra Combo ender and lost the round because of it. It happens to the best of it. I’m not even mad at that goof up. Regardless, it came down to tied to win, last match, last little scrap of health. I went for a Focus Attack fake-out but he didn’t fall for it and got the jump-in for the win. GGs dude. The clerk and everyone there said we had the best match of the tournament afterwards, with my opponent saying that I was his only “true” competition. Even his buddies were impressed with my play, jokingly asking if we were trying to play like it was the finals of Evo. I can’t even be mad when in past tournaments, players were so intent to get me eliminated that they had to get the tournament organizer to play and beat me himself so this was a change of pace.

I stuck around to watch the remainder of the tournament with the two buddies finishing it out, as the Juri player completely wiped the floor with his Dudley. That was just ugly to watch. Hell, our match could have been the finals as far as I’m concerned. After those two were crowned the winners of first and second place, I had to play a final match against the other person who lost in the semi-finals. I could've won that match blindfolded to be honest. The only thing I did was play Gouken and parried everything he tried to do and after he got frustrated to death I spammed charged Gohadokens high and low. 

First place won a $25 gift card to the store, second place won a $15 one, and third got $5 that could be used towards any reserve. Better than nothing as the only thing I could remember getting from that Soul Calibur II tournament back in the day was a few preorder decals/stickers from Ace Combat 4 (I think?) that they were trying to get rid of.

All in all, I felt this was a good last hurrah to end on. Like Ivy before her in Soul Calibur II, Chun-Li gave me a good ride to the end of my tournament life in this game. With my mind at rest, I feel like I can finally move onto something else and not invest all of my free time on this game any longer. We'll have to see what's the next fighter that's going to hook me in to want to play competitively in the future. For now, I'm taking it easy and continuing to catch up on games I've missed out on the last few years after allowing Street Fighter IV to take over my gaming console for the last 7+ years.

The Flash - Season 2: 1st Appearance of Zoom

To be honest, I wouldn’t have stuck this long with this show if it wasn’t for Tom Cavanagh AKA Harrison Wells’ actor. The guy has an amazing presence in every single scene he’s in and it’s a completely different side of the coin that he’s playing with his character - who’s not the Reverse Flash/Thawne in this timeline. I’m starting to like Patty’s character more and more each episode, but I’m glad that they are scaling back on Iris’ character this season. She’s NOWHERE as annoying and sickening to watch this season as compared to the first season. I was to the point where I absolutely hated her character in the first season. That being said, Barry’s love-interests are disposable and interchangeable as his underwear, so Patty might want to look out before Barry moves onto the next big thing.

As much as I HATE the fangirls from Arrow, I’m going piss them off and say that I’m still keen of the idea of Barry hooking up with Felicity Smoak. Her on that “double date” with Barry and Iris was just too great. Fuck your “Olicity” fanfiction pairing that the creators of that show was forced to make a reality to not upset you clowns.

Moving on…

As for Barry’s first encounter with Zoom, I have to say that I was a little underwhelmed. It’s roughly the same as the first skirmish with the Reverse Flash. I said this on social media last night too. I don’t see myself watching this show for several seasons on end if EVERY season is another skirmish versus another “evil” speedster. Barry gets the shit beat out of him and becomes a martyr for other heroes and heroines to step forward to help him. Isn’t that same shit that they did on Smallville, Arrow, and even The Flash last season? C’mon, I want to see Barry beat this one on his own, especially after seeing Eddie Thawne take Barry’s man card from him in defeating Reverse Flash in the season one finale.

Supergirl - Superman saves Kara's ass from Reactron

Don’t ask why but for some reason I’m STILL watching Supergirl. Call me crazy or call me stupid, but I’m waiting to see if this gets any better. The CG effects look better than they did in the pilot now, but everything else is meh at best.

I’m just getting REALLY sick of this preset template to almost all of these Arrow/Smallville-style DC Comics-based TV shows. You got the support team setup in a Command Center that’s just as corny and comical as an episode of Power Rangers, the hero/heroine going through teen angst-style puberty with learning/mastering their powers in the vein of Spider-Man, and the “Gotta Catch ‘Em All!!” Pokemon/13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo mash-up subplot. It’s getting VERY redundant.

In Supergirl, she doesn’t have not one Command Center but at least 2-3 of them - her apartment, the DEO HQ, and now Catco where she works underneath her secret identity. C’mon, how the hell people aren’t figuring this shit out while she’s at fucking work?? Between The Flash, Arrow, and now Supergirl, you’d think DC Comics’ superheroes don’t know the meaning of secret identities. I’m sure there’s going to be that one nerd who’s going to argue that Marvel Comics does the same thing but in their defense, they haven’t had a reason to “conceal” their identities when they have been dealing with an alien invasion and other various terrorist and planetary threats. They aren’t stopping the small street level criminals like DC’s heros until Daredevil came around into the picture on Netflix.

I remember win this show was first announced, people were saying that it was going to be the start of a “movement” of female empowerment for the superhero genre. Nah, this show is doing nothing but enforcing the idea to frowning upon that idea. The second it was looking bad against Reactron, Superman showed up and saved Kara and took her home without a second thought before leaving to take care of more “important” business like he was metaphorically saying that what Supergirl was dealing with was beneath him.

Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD - Melinda May’s dilemma

***HUGE Spoiler if you haven’t been keeping up to date with the current season… ***

May’s ex-husband turned out to be Lash after tampering with Daisy’s mother’s Inhuman junk that SHIELD acquired after last season’s finale. Somehow it was rigged with Terragen Crystals that released the mist that “unlocked” his powers, turning him into that monster. So pretty much, May is reduced to being his Betty Ross for his Incredible Hulk rampages. A rare touching moment between her and her former husband, but I was ready for Ward to kill the guy off see her become an even more hardened warrior. Sad to see her and Mockingbird’s manhunt or rather womanhunt? for Ward end prematurely. Speaking of Mockingbird I didn’t know Palicki was so much taller than Ming-Na. Good grief. She’s a fucking amazon. I feel like that was a bit of an oversight in terms of Marvel’s casting for that character as Mockingbird is usually depicted as shorter than most heroes and heroines as she uses her petite size to her advantage. Her Amazon stature doesn’t diminish her character here, but that’s just me being a little nit-picky as usual.

What REALLY bothered me about this episode though? The end teaser where Ward’s new HYDRA buddies confirmed that Rosalind was one of their own. I have to remind myself that every time they add one of these one-off characters that haven’t been in the comics prior nine times out of ten they are HYDRA operative. I hope it’s not true, but to see Coulson falling heads over heels for her is a bit much. It seems like they have thrown the tension between himself and May out of the window completely that they have been hinting at for the last few seasons.

Star Wars Rebels

I did a marathon of the first season and the second season thus far over the weekend and I have to say that I’m pleasantly surprised. I enjoyed Clone Wars for the most part until it’s last few seasons as I felt that it overstayed it’s welcome, but this is a nice change of pace. It took majority of the first season to make me give a damn, but they got me hooked after tying the series completely to the original Star Wars trilogy AND the Clone Wars cartoon after introducing Ahsoka Tano and Darth Vader into this cartoon. I know that I’m dying to see Ahsoka’s confrontation with her former master more than anything else now since we were shafted out of Ahsoka’s character being “killed off” during the end of the Clone Wars cartoon after mixed reactions from fans and parents who were fans of the show, despite knowing what happened during Order 666 in Episode III. I seriously doubt that they are going to kill her character off now that she has such a strong following after Clone Wars, but her past with Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader is going have to be addressed sooner or later. 

And seriously, where do all of these Inquisitors keep showing up from? Don't get me wrong. They all look totally bad-ass but do the Empire have an endless supply of them?

Revisiting New Mobile Report Gundam Wing

Watching uncut, unedited, and in gorgeous HD from the Remastered DVD/Blu-Ray boxset that someone was awesome enough to upload on YouTube. I’m up to episode 37 after grinding away at the series over the past week. Definitely not as “amazing” as it was when I first watched it back on Toonami when I was in high school but still a great Gundam series nonetheless.

I know I completely forgot about Lady Une’s schizophrenia/multiple personalities and the cause for it isn’t explained very well. It’s like her and Trieze have ONE minor disagreement between the end of the first major story arc and then the next episode she’s acting like a completely different person. I’m sure her voice actress had some fun with that one.

Speaking of voice acting talent, Gundam W sports a ton of great voices that are still floating around English anime dubs today. Quatre’s VA voices Light Yagami in Death Note as well a lot of other noteworthy roles. Trowa’s VA (Kirby Murrow) voiced Miroku in Inuyasha as well as Vaan in Vision of Escaflowne. Duo Maxwell’s VA voiced Protoman and Dr. Wily in the Mega Man cartoon and went on to voice tons of other anime characters following the success of Gundam W in the US, including Hohenheim Elric in Fullmetal Alchemist. Brian Drummond (Millardo Peacecraft/Zechs Marquise) is one of the most popular voice actors from one of the original English dubs of Dragonball Z’s Vegeta. Majority of the cast came back together to work on Gundam 00, that sports a similar tone as Gundam Wing did.

As for the fact of understanding why this series isn’t part of reruns on Toonami, there’s a LOT of religious content to edit out along with some suicidal tendencies of the pilots that parents would not be okay with nowadays. On top of that, this anime (much like most of the Gundam franchise) speaks about war in a way that most people don’t want their children exposed to. It’s a mature show for mature minds and doesn’t have a lot of happy endings - the pilots find this out the hard way on multiple occasions throughout the series.

As overpowered the Zero System was during the series’ final act, it’s no more overpowered as the essential “Newtypes” that have become the series staples in this genre To be honest, it’s literally the same idea without the genetics involved.

Looking back, the animation is still top notch - especially for this time period in the mid-90s but now that I’m older I can notice the same corners that were cut as other anime series during this time period, like Dragonball Z. For example, when Heero and Trowa fought Zechs in space with the Mercurius and Vayeate versus the Tallgeese, the same scenes from mobile dolls being destroyed are recycled into almost EVERY episodes’ space battles following this encounter. The same thing is done with the Wing Zero’s space battles. After reading up more onto the series, I found out that the mecha designs were simplified on this series due to budget limitations in terms of animation. That explains why the designs for the Gundams are DRASTICALLY different between the original anime and the Endless Waltz OVA movie as the series creator had the chance to redesign and detail the 5 Gundams as he originally envisioned them.

I’ll admit that Gundam W is a VERY slow build to the good stuff, but there’s not the comedy to fall back on to ease the grind like G Gundam had. (Laughs) Gundam W started the “pretty boy” anime craze in terms of getting girls exposed to anime in the US in the 90s, along with Sailor Moon and Inuyusha. If you were lucky to wake up for Vision of Escaflowne being HEAVILY edited on Fox Kids that my girlfriend at the time watching with her when I was in high school, you can add that to the list too. Kids WB tried to match that dynamic with Cardcapturers/Cardcapturor Sakura, but I don’t remember that anime airing completely on that channel before being elbowed off the network in favor of more seasons of Yu-Gi-OH! and Pokemon.

One more thing to laugh about concerning Gundam W to end on…

Dorothy’s fucking eyebrows.

Looking for Wrestling Alternatives: Part I -- #RAWlternative

As promised, I wanted to do an article devoted to wrestling alternatives. This isn't going to be an one and done affair as I plan to stretch this out across multiple genres, time periods, and sources on where and how to go about finding alternatives that will quench your thirst as a wrestling fan who is getting sick of the "Monday Night Blahs" in mainstream professional wrestling.

I say it ALL the time on social media. Instead of whining and complaining about WWE and Impact Wrestling, how about you take that same effort and take the initiative to find something else in wrestling you might actually more than this. The common response I get is that finding wrestling alternatives are too hard or it doesn't look as good as WWE production-wise. I hate to say it but that's going to be a bitter pill that you're going to have to shallow. If you're so superficial that you won't watch anything that's not top of the line in terms of cinematography and presentation then you're just a spoiled brat in my eyes.

These same wrestlers that many of you say aren't any good are the same sensations that you will be cheering for or already doing so for on NXT and the main roster. Superstars, such as reigning WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins (Tyler Black), former champion Daniel Bryan (Bryan Danielson), current Intercontinental Champion Kevin Owens (Kevin Steen), current NXT Champion Finn Balor, former Impact Wrestling alumni Samoa Joe, and even the beloved CM Punk, got their start on the indies working for various promotions before becoming blimps on World Wrestling Entertainment's radar.

If they weren't so great, then why WWE is hiring these guys, hmmm?

If we're going to talk about alternatives in professional wrestling, the best place to start is Beyond Wrestling's #RAWlternative event from earlier this year. The first RAWlternative served as a sampler platter of some of the best matches from the independent scene from the year of 2014.

“The purpose of #RAWlternative isn’t to get fans to stop watching WWE. The purpose of #RAWlternative is to get the internet wrestling community to band together for one night to raise awareness for the mainstream alternatives. If you are unhappy with what you see on your TV every Monday night, please don’t stop supporting professional wrestling. Tune in to #RAWlternative on 1/19/15 and thrust yourself head first into the indie scene. We are teaming with a dozen of the most prominent independent wrestling promotions in North America to broadcast some of the best matches of 2014 to a worldwide audience.” – via Facebook

The first #RAWlternative lineup was as follows:

– Young Bucks vs. Super Smash Bros courtesy of SMASH Wrestling
– Ricochet (Lucha Underground's Prince Puma) vs. Josh Alexander courtesy of Alpha-1 Wrestling
– Chris Hero (former NXT wrestler known as Kassius Ohno) vs. Colin Delaney courtesy of 2CW: Squared Circle Wrestling
– Johnny Gargano vs. Ethan Page courtesy of Absolute Intense Wrestling
– Takaaki Watanabe vs. Andy Dalton courtesy of Inspire Pro Wrestling
– Ninjas With Altitude vs. Food Fighters courtesy of Inter Species Wrestling
– Eddie Kingston vs. Keith Walker courtesy of AAW Pro
– Kevin Steen vs. Mike Bailey courtesy of C*4
– Brian Kendrick vs. Dark Sheik courtesy of Hoodslam
– Rich Swann and AR Fox vs. Christian Rose and Matt Cage courtesy ofDREAMWAVE Wrestling
– Kyle O’Reilly vs. Gary Jay courtesy of Saint Louis Anarchy
– Athena vs. Mia Yim courtesy of Girls Night Out
– A Super Secret Mystery Match from Beyond Wrestling

#RAWlternative isn't about trying to weigh one wrestling company over another. It's about exposing wrestling fans to MORE alternatives to professional wrestling. Who knows, you might find something that you want to look into in-depth in your free time. There's no harm in checking out this stuff when it's presented completely FREE of charge.

Tonight, (11/9/15) wrestling fans have a unique opportunity. Beyond Wrestling is providing another #RAWlternative to serve as an alternative to those fans who might not be too keen onto watching tonight's taped Monday Night RAW broadcast from Manchester, England.

If you want to watch the show LIVE, look no further than clicking the link below:

OPINION -- The Clusterfuck Current Situation in WWE as of 11/5/15

This is another discussion between myself (ZX) and my co-author of this blog, Serena as we discuss the current situation in WWE. Monday Night RAW may be well underway by the time you've read this but I hope you all enjoy what we have to say.

Cena, Orton, Lesnar, and now Rollins are all out of the picture currently. What is WWE going to do in this situation?

ZX: First of all, get well soon, Rollins. Injuries happen - same thing happened to CM Punk during his lengthy title run and it even happened to Daniel Bryan and Edge in the past. It’s never easy but show must go on, whether we like it or not.

As much as I have my hopes up on them getting smart for once and creating MULTIPLE new stars, I just KNOW that it’s going to end up one of two ways.

1. Roman Reigns wins in the most predictable win since Royal Rumble this year when everyone turned on the guy because it was SOOO bloody obvious that the E machine wanted him as their new “Cena” top guy.
2. WWE hits the panic button and urges Cena to come back from his vacation earlier than planned like that last time they were put into a jam like this.

If I could have blind optimism for a moment, I would love for them to create or make bigger stars of the guys they have left on the roster right now, specifically, Dolph Ziggler, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt (doubtful as he’s in that program with Kane and The Undertaker that should help him somewhat), Ryback, Stardust, and especially Cesaro. C’mon, if there wasn’t a better time to take a chance on putting Cesaro in the top spot it’s NOW. This is almost divine intervention in a sense.

What else are they going to do? Clear Daniel Bryan’s medical record for he can get injured again in a few more matches?

Serena: If to be completely honest, I do doubt that WWE will call in John Cena to come back from his vacation earlier. As it was noted on a few wrestling news sites, WWE has yet to officially mention why Cena is not on televised programming. Nothing bad happened. He just lost the title to the returning Alberto Del Rio. He wasn’t beaten to a bloody pulp or injured, he was not banned and he even still has a rematch for the U.S. Title. Yet, not even the commentary has noted his absence from Raw or Smackdown!. I do think that we don’t know something about this vacation and what happened between Cena and WWE. Although, he is advertised for an earlier comeback to battle ADR for the championship. So, maybe the fallout wasn’t anything severe. For the time being I think it is safe to say that John is out of the World Heavyweight title picture.

The easiest route is to give the title to Roman. Sure, sounds very fangirl-y of me to say it, but I do think that Roman Reigns has improved since Wrestlemania and has developed somewhat of a style. Roman now shows a lot more emotions during matches and shows a lot more facial expressions. His wrestling moveset is quite limited, but at the same time he does execute it quite well. He now finally has the crowd behind him and becoming champion wouldn’t be the worst possible scenario.

The possibility of WWE hitting panic mode, blowing off dust and cobwebs of a Legend and making a surprise return and title win at Survivor Series is something I dread a lot more than Reigns getting a title run. Sure, for a week or so it might get the ratings up, but it all seems like spitting on fire, hoping that it would extinguish.

Of course, the upper-mid-carders getting a chance to finally shine and start creating their own legacy in WWE is something I would much rather see, but we saw time and time again that World Wrestling Entertainment cares very little about creating a new generation of Superstars or Divas and are more interested in a quick ratings boost.

ZX: To be fair, I don’t have anything against Roman Reigns winning the title. I just don’t want it to be so obvious that even Ray Charles could see it coming like Paige’s heel turn two weeks ago on RAW. He’s a little rough around the edges and like how Samoa Joe pointed out to Neville and Bo Dallas on Table For 3 last week on the WWE Network, you have to make the best of those situations where the company trusts that much into your personal brand to invest into your character to carry the product. You have to evolve and show that you can rise up to this new challenge, whether you were ready for it or not. Find a way to make it work.

I thought it was ironic for Joe to say that because he knows a thing or two about being put into situations to carry a company on his back - both for Ring of Honor and definitely during his own World Title run in TNA/Impact Wrestling.

Serena: I agree on that. Roman still has a lot of room for improvement and only very recently he started getting a better reaction from the crowd (even though he was mocked during his promo to hype “Hell in a Cell” and his match with Bray). And it was more than clear that WWE is ready to invest into Roman, eventually passing the torch of him becoming the company’s top babyface. So, everybody knew that until Wrestlemania 32 he will be champion at least once. Plus, how many times can you play the game of Roman being a warrior, clawing his way up and then losing at the last second? I think that him winning the title at Survivor Series might work out okay in the end.

ZX: Good point, it’ll be the same issue WWE ran into with Daniel Bryan at one point. He had so many roadblocks that they HAD to give him the title at WrestleMania and fans wouldn’t have it any other way. At the same time, I don’t have any sympathy in this situation for WWE’s style of booking. They ALWAYS back themselves up into a corner like this and people have been saying it for years that they wouldn’t have this problem every time their “top” guys get injured or sidelined if they actually put the effort to give EVERYONE a chance like they did during the Attitude Era - which only happened because WCW backed them into a corner.

Serena: You know what we did forget? Sheamus and the Money in the Bank briefcase (I think WWE forgot that too). There is a very slim chance of him successfully cashing in. Or, he will be one of the small handful that cashed in and failed, leaving The Celtic Warrior in a tag team with King Barrett losing to Lucha Dragons. (Although, I do like the two Europeans as a tag team).

ZX: Sheamus and Barrett in a tag team? I can dig that idea, especially if they aren’t going to get over alone as individuals. I rather them put a spin on the Money in the Bank briefcase and have it can be cashed in on ANY title (minus the Divas Championship of course). Have Sheamus and Barrett cash in on the New Day or the Usos after they win the gold.

WWE doesn’t forget about the MITB briefcase, they always do this. They book the holder in a manner where you forget that they matter in terms of where they stand on the totem pole. Remember Rollins lost his match against Orton at WrestleMania in a blaze of glory before cashing in later that night.

Serena: True. But for some reason, I don’t think that this time them booking Sheamus in a manner that makes you forget he’s even in the title picture worked out that well. We already had one sneaky heel, with the moniker “The Architect”, cash in the briefcase by surprise. Say what you want, but “The Heist of the Century” was quite fitting and made that cash in feel valid and important. WWE is trying to recreate the same sneaky thing angle with Hawk-Man. But you can’t really shoot that firework twice. Sure, all cash ins are similar if a heel does it. Yet, in my humble opinion there is no need for a sequel. Don’t freakin’ fix it, if it ain’t broken.

ZX: Sadly, that’s going to be same problem for any heel trying to cash in following Rollins. It’s going to be that same reaction as the guys who cashed in following Edge. After a heel cashes in, WWE should let a babyface win next to have a chance to not repeat or cheapen that emotion to heel tactics. I personally feel like they are setting Sheamus up for failure like Damien Sandow’s cash-in so I’m not going in expecting much to begin with. If he wins, bravo, but I see that as a transitional champion (something that I’m sure WWE is going to bank on in Rollins’ absence) that’s just going to fill the void until they groom the next big thing (Pick one: Reigns, Cesaro, or a returning Lesnar) to take the driver’s seat going into WrestleMania season. If Sheamus loses, then he continues on down the road of midcard Hell with 70% of the roster in WWE right now.

The Current Situation with the Divas Division

ZX: Where to begin on this? Well, let’s just limit this to the main roster as we’ll discuss NXT’s problems later.

Somehow or another but Paige has found herself into yet ANOTHER title match. Serena, take the floor as you got a LOT more to say about Paige than me. (Grabs bag of popcorn) This is going to be good...

Serena: Kind of you. Well… Okay, hard to even properly start without any curse words. I wanted to explain how I got to know Paige as a in ring performer and such, but hey, who cares about that? Let’s just cut straight to the chase. I, honest to God, can’t stand Paige. I don’t care who marks for her or thinks that she cuts killer promos (Which she does not, since all of her promos are pretty much rehashes of AJ Lee’s repertoire). I think she is one of the most overrated Divas throughout the years and she would be NOWHERE if not for her famous family. Why all this animosity about her and the fact that she is once again getting a title shot at Survivor Series against Charlotte?

First of all, her attitude towards everything in general. And no, this is not the fact that she is playing a heel. As it was made evident on “Total Divas”, “Tough Enough”, interviews and podcasts, Casper the Unfriendly Ghost is obnoxiously rude and arrogant, thinking insanely highly about every aspect of her personal career, with the annoying need to lecture and scold others about the wrestling business. She even gushed about being the mastermind behind that failure of a “pipebomb” promo that she cut during Charlotte’s title win celebration. (Rip off of AJ Lee, who ripped off her hubby CM Punk, who ripped off Scott Steiner, who probably ripped off someone else). To add insult to injury as someone who mocks Eva Marie for not being a true wrestler or taking down The Bella’s for getting ahead in the company because of their significant others, Paige’s wrestling abilities seem very mediocre. Most of the time she seems quite slow and clunky in the ring, constantly shouting spots, having poor chemistry with her opponents and barely selling any defense or offense. Usually, in matches where Paige is involved I forget to look at her performance and get distracted by her awful hair extensions that not only seem to get stuck in her fake eyelashes, but also look like they are oddly placed, since most of the times it looks like Paige has huge bald spots.

Please, ZX, the all knowing of the wrestling worlds, explain me…. Why is this monstrosity over with the fans? And why does she get the #1 contender spot constantly over people like Becky or Sasha or even Nattie? Paige has absolutely nothing of her own, being a poor mashup of Lita, AJ Lee and Victoria.

ZX: I won’t accept that title of “all knowing of the wrestling worlds” as there’s a lot I don’t know but I’m not afraid to admit that.

As for Paige, she’s over for the same reason as Reigns for the most part. I was criticized and called a sexist for agreeing with Jim Cornette about this observation and openly stated that I feel like a lot of female fans want to sleep with Reigns since they find the guy attractive. Let’s be serious here, sex sells. Always have and always will. Why else is the porn industry still around?

Serena: Wait, Paige is a sexually desire object? Well, fuck me twice on Sundays...

ZX: Whoa, there, Serena. We don’t want our readers thinking we’re screwing each others’ brains out on this blog.

Serena: Note taken. But still… I get why Reigns is over. I get why Randy or Cena is over. Hell, I know there is even a market for Ambrose as a sexy dude, because he seems mental. But Paige, or AJ Lee, or hell, even Victoria never struck me as ladies to be desired.

ZX: WWE has that niche audience that wanted a “zombie hot/gothic” chick on their roster. Paige fits the bill even though they could’ve gotten Daffney years ago during the WCW buyout but didn’t do anything with her before releasing her from developmental.

Paige and AJ Lee fit that oddball sect of wrestling fans (they came out of the woodwork after they debuted as there’s a LOT of them buying their merchandise and such) who like their women NOT looking like the typical supermodels and blonde bimbos that WWE is notorious for hiring. When those two came around it was like Christmas came early. In AJ’s case, I couldn’t see myself looking at a girl like her who is built like a preteen fantasy from a pedophile.

Serena: We are losing our track here. Okay, sure, maybe she appeals to an audience that I didn’t notice. But if ignoring her style, that adds to her being so over, for someone who is praised as being very technical and experienced at the ripe age of 23 (just to be clear, I am exactly the same age as her, so I kinda understand her real-life arrogance and “know-it-all” attitude) she is becoming more “meh” with every match. And her deteriorating skills in the ring are most evident when she faced Sasha Banks during the Divas Revolution.

ZX: That’s only half of Paige’s problem. She’s had an identity crisis since she came up from NXT and never found what works for her. She’s been stuck as AJ Lee 2.0 since Day 1 and hasn’t really strayed from that archetype, even more so after AJ’s departure. You can blame most of it on bad booking and writing by WWE Creative, she has control of her character in interviews, promos, and in the ring.

I honestly don’t see what benefit comes for either Paige or Charlotte after Survivor Series. Sure, Charlotte could potentially get another win against a former Divas Champion but what are they building towards with Charlotte’s title reign? It’s still the same ol’ shit as Nikki’s reign, throwing bodies at the champion to extend the reign and not creating any real threats to the title. Alternatively, Paige could win and put all of that hype into calling up the NXT Divas to nothing - even though they already killed that momentum for the most part.

Serena: I don’t see any point in that matchup. Even though Paige was praised for her performance and win of the Fatal 4 Way, I think that she was one of the weakest during that fight. And I can’t even call it a “solid win”, since she was mostly taking a nap outside of the ring and only jumping back for a steal win. Put that lackluster against a champion, who had two title matches and lost in terms of performance both times to a “Reality star” and you have another nail in the already heavily nailed coffin of the #DivasRevolution.

ZX: I suggest crowds stop chanting for Sasha too as WWE aren’t going to give us that match until WrestleMania season - if they are smart. That way they can build it up properly and get as many eyes as they want onto it like it was a Takeover match. Plus, call in a few favors from Sasha’s cousin, Snoop Dogg, to have mass-media appeal with celebrities interested in the bout and WWE has a gold mine banked on this match. No way in hell WWE is going to give us that match on one of the non-Big Four PPVs.

As for Team BAD as a whole, I suggest that WWE do something to make sure those girls don’t get lost in the shuffle. I understand that they want to maintain the “team” dynamic to make sure all of the girls have TV time, but it would benefit more if the teams were 2 members each and that’s it.

Perfect example, Team Bella should be the Bella Twins and that’s it, Team BAD could be Sasha and Naomi and call it a day. Team PCB didn’t work at all since Day 1 as all of them could easily get over on their own individually. Tamina Snuka could be a monster heel all on her own without being left with that silent bodyguard stigma that she was left in after her run with AJ Lee. I still don’t see what was the point of putting Alicia Fox on Team Bella as that made little to no sense at all to me, but I guess they wanted another solid worker on that team so there you go.

Serena: From the beginning I wasn’t really a fan of the team concept used here. I know that they mostly did teams because they wanted to throw Lynch, Paige and Charlotte into one pot as the “All-Star Dream Team”. But, it totally backfired on them. Those three have zero chemistry as a team. Maybe Becky and Charlotte could work, but Paige is just not a team wrestler and WWE should steer away from using her in that field. Team BAD doesn’t really make sense either as Sasha Banks is so over, someone like Naomi and Tamina are just not able to stand toe to toe with her, character and performance wise. Though, in Naomi and Tamina’s defense, they are not the ones to blame. Both hard workers and both having strong backgrounds, they are simply not build up enough by the company to stand as equals with “The Boss”.

The only team that actually seems like a team is Team Bella. Even though Foxy’s role is very minimal, she was made to look like someone who just wants to hangout with the “Cool cheerleaders” and doesn’t care for anything else besides being hip and cool. If it was my choice, I would break up all of the teams, except for the Bella’s and do individual feuds like Nattie vs Paige, Charlotte vs Sasha or even Charlotte vs Becky, the Bella’s vs Dana Brooke and Emma (or Summer Rae) for who is the Head Bitch in Charge around the locker rooms. But WWE has to face the music and admit that the Divas Revolution ended up being an epic fail.

ZX: They could even reform the BFFs (Beautiful Fierce Females) from NXT again with Summer Rae, Sasha Banks, and Charlotte even though when they tried it back on NXT it flopped hard as all of the egos got in the way and they weren’t willing to follow Summer again. As much as Team BAD doesn’t work, Naomi needs the heel “rub” from Sasha to learn from and Sasha benefits from working with veterans like Tamina and Naomi on the main roster.

(Laughs) At least with Nikki Bella gone for a while, we don’t have to hear everyone complaining that it’s her fault that the Divas Revolution sucks for a while, eh? As far as I’m concerned, the Divas division was going downhill since Eve Torres’ generation of Divas had left and AJ Lee just helped drag it down further by encouraging fans to shit on everyone else that wasn’t her.

That’s my BIGGEST pet peeve when it comes to Divas and these “worked” shoot promos. I didn’t like it when Lita did it, didn’t like it when Gail Kim did it in Impact Wrestling, and DEFINITELY didn’t like it when AJ Lee and Paige did it. Being heel is one thing, but pretty much encouraging the fans of your product to shit everyone who is trying to work hard and improve too is downright unacceptable.

Serena: Oh, agreed without a doubt. For as much as Paige and AJ Lee were promoting being your own person, freaks and geeks and whomever else, they were, and still are, pushing the entire division under the bus, because they are not them. Well, as we can see from the latest two titles matches, Nikki Bella, the one who got constantly ridiculed for being a part of “Total Divas”, Cena’s girlfriend and a slacker of a champion, showed that she made such an improvement both physical and emotional performance wise. Paige hasn’t had a bout that would match up to Bella’s performance at “Night of Champions” or “Hell in a Cell” at least since Wrestlemania if not even longer.

ZX: She’s had a few standout matches on NXT (especially versus Nattie) and those solo non-PPV bouts against Naomi were good last year, but anything recent? Yeah, I’m with you there. I’m anxious to see how Charlotte versus Paige is going to work out as they won’t have a ring general in there to direct the action. I guess Paige will be shouting out spots while Charlotte plays follow the leader until her comeback phase.

Serena: Either way, I won’t be satisfied until Paige is finally out of the title picture and has enough time to reinvent her stale character into something actually edgy and cutthroat, rather than this “Miley Cyrus turned color blind” schtick. Although, I do think that for Paige this change will only come with time as she grows and matures as a person. That might not happen for years… Or, might not even happen at all. As for Charlotte, I don’t think this title run will be her strongest, but there is still a chance to turn it around and give her a proper feud and let her develop not only a style, but also a personality and character. So far, she is bland as cardboard.

ZX: I know you think that I “hate” Charlotte but I’m just disappointed in her thus far to be honest. She doesn’t live up to her hype and I never thought she was that good on NXT. She has a lot of potential - that’s not because she’s Flair’s daughter - she just needs to polish the few things she does well and work on hiding her flaws. Selling the abuse she endures in a match is the number one thing I have against her right now though. A lot of the girls no sell too, but good grief it pisses me off to no end to see Charlotte take a hell of beating for about 98% of the match only to hit that Spear and lock in the Figure Eight with no problems. At least ACT like you’re in pain to lock it in, geez.

Serena: At least we can both agree that she does have potential, yet doesn’t have the guidance to put it to good use. I think that is a problem a lot of the Divas have around WWE. And the Superstars as well. Great people, lousy booking.

ZX: Absolutely. As many great wrestlers they have hired, more people need to consider stepping down and doing like Sara Amato (Sara Del Rey) and consider being trainers and/or road agents to help out the future of WWE. The Legends aren’t going to be around forever to pull WWE out of hot water every time the ratings drop into negative numbers. If there wasn’t an absolute time to give the midcard and under-utilitized talents a chance to shine now it is that time with pretty much almost every top guy in WWE on the bench or sidelined for months. If I were in WWE right now, I would take the ball and run with it at this opportunity. It’s now or never for a LOT of these guys, same for the Divas as well. Some of them didn’t take the chance to get noticed when AJ Lee left, now Nikki Bella is on the bench and they have another opportunity. Make the most of this people and give the fans a reason to care.

The Situation where there’s not really a Tag Team Division

Serena: This time, Z is probably the one who has more to say and elaborate on the topic, since I am not too fond of the tag team wrestling culture in WWE and a lot of the times choose to skip those matches. Mostly because they follow the same pattern over and over again. So, sunshine, please, take center stage.

ZX: Gladly. The only thing I really want to point out that despite the fact that there’s the Lucha Dragons, the Ascension, the Primetime Players, Los Matadores (Epico and Primo are reportedly going to unmask and come back repackaged again), and that weird off/on team-up of Sheamus and King Barrett, there’s not really a tag team division other than the New Day, the Dudley Boys, and the returning Usos.

I’m glad that the Ascension are set to return to NXT for a brief bout with the up and coming team of Jason Jordan and Chad Gable, but WWE has dragged the Ascension through the mud so much that I seriously doubt that they will ever regain their momentum and dominance from NXT. To be honest, I never liked those guys to begin with, but I think they could be cool bodyguards for someone (seems to work well with Stardust right now) or even new Acolytes for The Undertaker since he needs to even the odds against the Wyatt Family. That idea won’t work as that’s definitely Attitude Era booking there…

I would personally love to see the Dudley Boys win the strap from the New Day, who really need to figure out if they are heels or faces at this point. Most people LOVE them, but I find their gimmick downright annoying and retarded. Love Big E, Kofi, and Woods as talent but they are better than this shit in my eyes. C’mon, can black wrestlers have at least ONE respectful gimmick in Vince McMahon’s company where they don’t have to make an ass of themselves to get over? That old racist bastard…

Sorry off-topic. But yeah… The Dudley Boys were able to help TNA/Impact Wrestling’s tag team division mean something again and I hope they are given the platform to do so here in WWE. Otherwise, I don’t see the point of bringing them back to the E if it was only to have them be steamrolled over by the New Day time and time again. Sure, I cracked a smile everytime Woods went through a table, but all that’s for nothing if the Dudleys don’t ever win in the end.

I guess the Dudleys are going to be shoved out of the way for the Usos to win the gold now from the New Day. As much as the Usos have won the gold, I kinda wouldn’t mind another win for them, but I wouldn’t mind the Lucha Dragons get tossed into the mix as well. The Lucha Dragons are criminally under-utilized in this division and we should at least get a huge TLC match out of these teams, Tag Team Turmoil, or something.

Serena: New Day. I know I said it before, but I don’t really think it will be a crime for me to repeat myself. Not a big fan. Love the guys. Big E, Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston have great chemistry, they work wonders with pop culture references, you can feel how fluid and easily improvised their promos are. Plus, Big E and Kofi are pretty skilled in the ring. The problem for me is that their gimmick only needs one wrong step to go from hilarious to irritating. For the last month or so whenever I would hear “Ahhhh, (insert name of a city in the United States), don’t you dare be sour…”, I would immediately think “Shit, they will bring that freakin’ trombone out again”. Too much is too much and New Day very easily lose any sense of moderation.

Here came in the Dudleyz, who I thought will dominate the Tag Team division with ease. But, if to be honest, I think WWE didn’t expect how over New Day will be with the fans, so that is why they don’t know what to do with Devon and Bubba, Prime Tyme Players and even the Usos. You can’t pull the plug on New Day and take the titles away, but at the same time you can’t have them hog the scene, because it is clear that this gimmick definitely has its expiration date.

ZX: I respect the Dudley Boys for coming in and putting over the New Day as that couldn’t have been an easy pill to swallow given their prestigious history, but there comes a point where you ask yourself do the New Day really need the titles to get over with the audience. At this point, no, not really. Plus, where’s the fun if the heels win ALL the time? You have to give the fans that feel good moment where the good guys win sometime.

Then you don’t want to have everyone winning the titles in a cheap hot potato tactic.

Serena: True. Well, as of now, The New Day are at the glorious position of not having any challengers. Dudley Boys and PTP lost to them on more than one occasion, Lucha Dragons and the Ascension are not even in the running, Los Matadores fell off the face of the earth. We are now left with the Usos, who might become a threat (they did get a very good reaction from the crowd when they returned on Raw), but I think WWE doesn’t know how to book themselves out of this, because they want to keep both the sheep alive and the wolf full.

ZX: PTP lost the titles the second the New Day got over and were thrown underneath the bus in the process. They haven’t bounced back from that loss since. It’s a damn shame really. Much like the entire landscape of WWE, they have SOO much potential yet most of it is booked poorly or under-utilized.

Serena: And that is how easily we came to the conclusion that when you look closely, WWE doesn’t have a tag team division. Just one insanely over team and lots of other people who are there to lose to them.

ZX: (Busts out laughing) Couldn’t you say that about the ENTIRE structure of WWE as a whole though nowadays? From the World title to the Divas division, it’s laid out that exact same way - sad but true.

Serena: I think we might have just cracked the code.

The Current Situation on NXT

1. NXT isn’t really creating “new” stars

ZX: I’ve said this before - a LOT actually - but WWE isn’t really creating new stars with NXT. The only thing they are doing are hiring the hottest indie talent and bringing them in to steamroll over the few developmental names they have baking in the oven. I can count on one hand how many people who were called up from NXT to the main roster who haven’t really been anywhere else other than WWE to make a “big” impact.

Serena: I pondered on that for a little while and understood that around 90% of the biggest talent on NXT were guys and girls already with a lot of wrestling experience, a huge following from the indies. The ones that are more misses than hits are all WWE creations. Let’s choose Z’s favorite example, Baron Corbin (you are welcome). The guy has the right look for a heel wrestler and the right body built for a WWE wrestler in general. Where is the problem? He is BORING…. So incredibly boring. Only in his recent few matches did he manage to inject some energy into his bouts. But most of the time he is just insanely predictable in his ring work and very stiff on the mic. Another creation by WWE is Dana Brooke. Looks good, you can see that she is strong physically and can work as a powerhouse Diva (Maybe like Nattie or Beth Phoenix?). Yet, she is thrown into the opposite side of the spectrum. Dana overacts in her promos and most of her ring work to the point that she doesn’t even seem like a human being, but more of cartoon character. When she would tap someone on the head, I couldn’t help but wait to hear her say “Meep meep!” and run out of the frame.

ZX: Dana needs a lot of work but she’s a good prospect if she hones her craft. She’s already showing some promise - she took that beating from Asuka like a pro. Baron Corbin… ugh I dunno what they have to do with that guy to make him click. I don’t know who’s more boring to watch, him or Colin Cassidy/Big Cass? Maybe he could have been the ringleader behind the Ascension or something? Then I would’ve cared more about his character instead of another generic big guy with the Goldberg push. Like you said, everything else that’s “hit or miss” on NXT are entirely and obviously WWE’s own creations.

Serena: Dana does have potential, I am in no way doubting that. Her match against Asuka at Takeover: Respect was truly surprising as she managed to stand confident in front of a very seasoned veteran. I think with some polish on her ring work and pulling back a bit on her character we would have a “Beautiful People”/Glamazon type heel on our hands. With Corbin… This one is a bit more tricky. You can’t really sell him as a babyface, just because of the way he looks. Yet, he isn’t really a proper heel, since he does lack charisma and star quality. The best way to use him would be either in a bodyguard role or as a silent threat, somebody who doesn’t talk much, just stares you down and then goes for the kill during the match.

In my humble opinion, the only successful WWE creation in Tyler Breeze, who took the ball and ran with it. Not only is he exciting in the ring, but his charisma worked wonders with the “Prince Pretty” gimmick. He manages to keep the perfect balance between heel, cheesy and annoying.

ZX: I like Tyler breeze too but he’s just picking up with that gimmick where John Morrison (or rather Johnny Mundo) left off. Breeze is talented though so I can’t fault him for that as he’s made the gimmick his own with his own degree of douchebaggery.

2. NXT Divas Division is at a loss without the rest of the “Four Horsewomen” while Bayley stands alone at the top of the division

ZX: I keep on saying this but WWE made a HUGE mistake when they called up Charlotte, Becky Lynch, and Sasha Banks all at once. I could have seen about Sasha and Charlotte at the same time, cool, but they could have kept Becky down there to feud with Bayley. Instead, Bayley is stuck in limbo without another credible challenger built up to face her. I don’t want to sell Alexa Bliss short but she’s been pretty much eye candy for the Dubstep Twins. Eva Marie’s NOWHERE near ready for that spot, but I see them tossing her in there anyway. Asuka is hella talented, but they would be crazy to just feed her to Bayley at this point. Athena (or whatever they are calling her for her WWE name), Dana Brooke, Nia Jax, Carmella, Gionna Daddio, Peyton Royce, and Billie Kay aren’t getting that spot yet either. So it’s like a huge “let’s just throw shit against the wall and see what sticks” right now in terms of the next challenger for the title. I could see them tossing Emma at Bayley for a future Takeover match that would be worth the build-up but outside of her I dunno who else they could have face Bayley right now to live up to the expectations following her feud with Sasha Banks.

Serena: WWE blew their leg off with this one. They shipped three of the strongest players all at once, are slowly killing the division and to add insult to injury - are not even using two of the three they called up. I absolutely agree, Bayley, as stellar as she is, can’t carry the division on her own. Sure, the matches between her and Sasha are absolutely wonderful, but in terms of creating something for the Women’s divisions both on NXT and the Main Roster, they did nothing. Those Takeover matches punches holes in their belts and adds something to their resumes. The rest of the girls are left high and dry, with the stakes now going through the roof and all of them having to live up to that. Any potential that the new crop might have possibly had was actually killed off by the bouts between Bayley and Sasha Banks.

ZX: WWE wanted a “Divas Revolution” and ironically they’ve pushed it so far where they can’t top themselves. I don’t know about anyone else but I’m to the point where I could care less what the WWE Divas do now. The Iron Man match was cool but it wasn’t better than their original match at Takeover: Brooklyn. Sasha and Bayley have set the bar so high that they have ironically doomed the Divas division to future failure if the Divas don’t rise up and compete at that level. Whether audiences want to accept the reality or not, but not all of the Divas can compete at that level. Hell, it’s asking too much to want Bayley and Sasha to perform at that level EVERY.SINGLE.NIGHT. That’s like asking Big Show to perform a moonsault or wanting Ric Flair to fight like Rey Mysterio. The way I see it, they aren’t going to have long careers at all from the rate they are going.

I guess that can be blamed on the “spot-fest” craze that seems to be dominating wrestling nowadays. No one wants to see a slower-methodical match anymore, but want the guys (and girls) to half-kill themselves for it to be “entertaining”.

Serena: I definitely agree with that. Not every wrestler can perform at that level and if to be honest, I don’t think that every wrestler should. Too much of one thing gets tiring and seeing Sasha each night taking a bump that seems like the last one she will take ever is not thrilling or edgy. It makes me think that one more bump like that and she is out trying to get cleared by a 4th doctor like Daniel Bryan. I enjoy seeing different styles just as much as I enjoy seeing all kinds of people.

Now, WWE has the problem of having a skillful champion and no one to challenge her. It would seem the most logical to get Bayley into a feud with Asuka. At least they seem compatible physically. Or, well, maybe Emma. I do wonder, what was WWE thinking when they decided to call up Charlotte, Sasha and Becky? Did it not occur to them that “All Red Everything”, Barbie Dana and Cheerleader Bliss are still at the “Kelly Kelly - Early Candice Michelle and Bella Twins” phase, where their looks should probably compensate for their mediocre performances, yet actually kinda don’t. This especially goes for Eva Marie, who should have been released from her contract months and months ago.

ZX: The only answer to that question I could give is that they were doing like they always do - a quick-fix bandage over their problems that only prove to be a short-term remedy before those very same problems came back ten-fold. They called up the NXT Divas in a desperate act to “fix” the Divas division just because they are there and the fans would shut up about the whole #GiveDivasAChance movement. They didn’t really fix anything. The Divas still get horrible storylines and even worse booking. It doesn’t matter who’s in the division when WWE doesn’t take their women’s divisions as seriously as NXT does. What’s the point of calling the NXT Divas up to the main roster when their value is going to be devalued on arrival.

Serena: Sure, great thinking. Because Giving Divas a Chance is bringing in more Divas and instead one 5 minute match, we get two 5 minute tag team matches. I think WWE hit the nail on the head… And busted an artery or something.

3. NXT needs to stop trying to “erase” the fact that they are a DEVELOPMENTAL brand

ZX: Ever since WWE started doing the NXT live specials on the Network, here’s how they’ve shot themselves in the foot. NXT has developed this “cult-like” indie following where people go in expecting everyone on this brand to be amazing, so when they do have people actually “developing” their craft (like Eva Marie, Nia Jax, and Dana Brooke for starters) and finding what works for them, the crowds are quick to shit on it.

Serena: For the longest time I didn’t even bother myself to watch NXT, since I, honest to all that is sacred, thought that it was a developmental brand and there is nothing too intriguing to see. The first time I watched something of NXT was TakeOver: Unstoppable and I started to wonder if WWE is creating a third brand. And that would be completely fine with me. A more edgy and indie style brand, with top notch stars that do not fit the mold. Samoa Joe, Finn Balor, Sami Zayn, Hideo Itami, Asuka, Bayley, Apollo Crews, Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa. All of them could create amazing matchups and captivating feuds. Send back Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch, Neville, Cesaro, heck, maybe even Dean Ambrose and you have a killer roster.

All of the rest should work at the Performance Center and train in a truly developmental brand. A place where they could take the path of trial and error, work on their style and gimmick, polish their in-ring skills and mic work. Tye Dillinger is one of the few that actually seems like he’s in a developmental program. He had a gimmick, it didn’t work, he tried another one, seems to fit him better. Dana, Emma and even Eva Marie. Guys like Dash and Dawson, The Vaudevillains, Corbin. The people that came in with less experience are put to the same standard as someone like Finn, who sold out the Tokyo Dome, and get thrown away like an old toy, if they aren’t stellar from the first match.

ZX: I like that WWE brought back guys like Rhyno and Brian Kendrick as enhancement talent to work with the folks who need to work with seasoned veterans to become even better. WWE has created this sensation with NXT and it’s a double-edged sword. Their intentions were pure at first, wanting to use this platform to “create” stars, when the only thing that NXT is doing is becoming a platform to showcase indie stars that most mainstream wrestling fans haven’t been exposed to otherwise. If those token indie greats don’t stick around with WWE for the long-haul they could go back into the independent scene bigger stars than before, thanks to exposure on WWE’s product.

Let’s face it. There’s not as many “big” places to work in the wrestling industry nowadays. It’s either you work for WWE or New Japan if you want big money. Then if you want to be respected there’s Ring of Honor, various Japanese, European, and Mexican promotions if you just want to showcase your in-ring talent. Blue Pants AKA Leva Bates, used this system to her advantage. Prior to her short stint in NXT, she was just an average indie women’s wrestler known for her cosplaying antics. After being exposed to a bigger audience thanks to the E machine, more people recognize and know who she is.

Serena: I do have a hunch that we are not the only ones to think that up and some of the people have this idea as a Plan B of sorts. If WWE gives them the boot - off to the indies with a new injection of star power and free publicity. Look at Drew Galloway. The guy is on fire right now both on TNA and on the independent circuit. Using what he learned about the business in WWE and finally getting some creative liberties he is now truly something great. I even heard rumors about WWE wanting to hire both him and Ethan Carter III for NXT, who found themselves and developed their own approach to wrestling after being fired by WWE. Now, Alberto Del Rio went that route. He became a megastar after that scuffle with WWE, his sudden departure and his tremendous run both at AAA and Lucha Underground.

ZX: That’s sadly how the E machine works. They discard you like trash when they think they can’t make money off of you from their stupid politics and booking but are the first ones to come knocking on your door when you become a big name elsewhere. Look at Brock Lesnar, Gail Kim, Christian, R-Truth, Booker T, the Dudley Boys, Mickie James, and so on. They dropped those people like bad habits yet took them back in a heartbeat when they got over as bigger stars without being in Vince’s kingdom.

The way I see it, eventually WWE will trim the fat from these “developmental” talents that aren’t getting over in the wake of the established indie stars to properly establish this as WWE’s third flagship brand.