My Wrestling Wishlist for 2019

I haven't done one of these wishlists for professional wrestling for a few years now, so today on New Year's Eve, I've decided to take a shot at it with a few things I want to see in 2019.

General

I want to see wrestling Twitter/social media as a whole stop being so butt-hurt about everything. That's one of many reasons why I stopped covering everything under the sun for my own sanity. All of this hate from podcasters and writers who get mad at fans who say "stop watching" if the only thing they do is rant on how bad WWE is when their rebuttal is that "It's our jobs and we make a living off this" is just getting asinine hearing on a constant basis. There's a TON of wrestling to cover out there other than WWE. I stopped watching RAW and SD during the early part of this year and I'm forever grateful for that extra peace of mind and free time on Mondays and Tuesdays. I would like to see wrestling fans on social media come together in a positive manner instead of focusing on the negatives 24/7.

On the other half of that spectrum, I wish to see wrestling personalities use Twitter to their advantage rather to their detriment. I've lost count on how many times that I've seen great characters/gimmicks killed the second that said wrestler goes on Twitter and opens their mouth to tweet a reply to a fan and instantly shoot themselves in the foot. The smartest wrestler on Twitter in terms of using it to their advantage is Becky Lynch. She's destroying anyone and everyone who manages to even mention her by name. All I ask to use to enhance your on-screen characters instead of destroying them.

WWE

Ugh, where to begin?

How about making RAW and SmackDown! being must-see TV week-in, week-out. I don't mean this crap where they do one "above average" show then shit goes back into the toilet for weeks and months on end until WrestleMania season starts. The tag team divisions on the main roster are on life support. I don't know what the hell they are doing with the midcarders and the main event scene is hit or miss at best. It honestly makes me sick as a fan and outright disgusts me that WWE goes out of their way to sign so many remarkable men and women in this sport, only to have them to amount to cannon fodder and strip them of everything that made them great to begin with before stepping into one of their rings. You can't even say that it's the fault of the damn talent when Vince McMahon is so out of touch when it comes to wrestling in 2018 going into 2019.

NXT is currently packed to full to capacity at this point. While their events have been great, I feel that their weekly product has stagnated. It feels too much like Ring of Honor from a few years ago when I first jumped back into their product and it's coming off as too much deja vu in terms of "been-there, done that". I'm not necessarily saying that's a bad thing but there's a lot of cases, especially in their homegrown talent where I feel like NXT is setting them up for failure on the main roster. Case in point goes to the bulk of the call-ups over the past year and on the horizon.

I hope they don't rush this whole thing about pushing Shayna Baszler's friends in Jessamyn Duke and Marina Safir because they both seem like they aren't going to take to this wrestling thing like a fish to water like how Ronda Rousey has. There's no reason to rush them learning their craft slowly instead of fast-tracking them to the main roster to join up with Ronda. On the other side of that, I hope Io Shirai and Kairi Sane stay in NXT for a long time after seeing what the main roster has done to Asuka after calling her up.

I recently spent a few hours rewatching the HHH/CM Punk in-ring promos on YouTube and I want Becky Lynch to get to that point of her popularity. She's the biggest star they have right now and they would be MORONIC not to keep tossing fuel to this fire. I just fear that WWE will swoop in and clip her wings the very same way that they did CM Punk along with AJ Lee when they got to that point, but for some reason this is the same company that allows Brock Lesnar to do whatever pleases... Rumors are pointing to that the WrestleMania main event was "promised" to Charlotte Flair next year, but she can settle for second place for once. The world will NOT end without her being champion or not going for a title at WrestleMania. My dream scenario for WrestleMania would see Becky vs Ronda in the match that we didn't get due to her injury. Becky would get here after dumping both Charlotte and Nia out of the Women's Rumble. To be honest, I rather see Charlotte vs Asuka II anyway, with Asuka picking up the win in their rematch.


Speaking of Lesnar, my wish for the Universal Championship is anyone but Lesnar at this point, especially if he's going to hold both UFC and WWE by the balls.

I know I'm going to get heat for saying it, but if WWE wants to do another all-women's PPV, how about lay off on shoving so many "firsts" down our throats for the women? It's not our fault that they are the last ones to the party when realizing that women's wrestling is actually marketable and there's a demand for it currently... WWE were patting themselves so hard on the back about that this past year that I could've sworn that Stephanie McMahon burped during one of the press events for it.

Impact Wrestling

I hope their move to the Pursuit Channel is temporary and wind up on a network that puts more eyes on their product. PopTV definitely didn't do them any favors, much like their move to Destination America. In the words of Jim Cornette, they are better off playing slides on the side of a barn at this rate.

The roster on Impact Wrestling are busting their ass (as always) with the in-ring product and TBH the storylines aren't bad at all, definitely better than some of the crap they've done in the last 2-4 years. I've honestly enjoyed their product this year. They just need more eyeballs on their product. Their free Twitch streams are a step in the right direction, but not by highlighting every other garbage indie federation that would work with them.

In terms of storylines/gimmicks, I want them to drop the "Crazy" Eddie Edwards vs. Coming to America Moose feud. Moose's heel turn was one of the stupidest choices/decisions for Impact in 2018 in terms of storylines. It made absolutely NO sense. I can understand that they had cold feet in terms of having him dethrone Aries at the time and relying on him in the position to promote Bound for Glory around, but after the massive support behind him, only to turn him heel as part of Aries' faction made no sense at all. I still can't get how great that video package leading up to Moose's title shot against Aries was, yet they decided to turn him heel. (Shakes my head) Turn the guy back babyface and give him a shot at the gold unless they plan on getting Lashley back by this time next year because his WWE return ain't doing anyone any favors outside of Lio Rush...

In terms of the Knockouts, I've loved the whole storyline between Allie, Keira Hogan, Rosemary, and Su Yung. More of that, please. Same goes with the rise of Tessa Blanchard. Even though I'm positive that they are setting Taya Valkyrie to dethrone her at the next PPV, they should be building up a confrontation between Tessa and newcomer powerhouse Jordynne Grace by this time next year.

While I've enjoyed Scarlett Bordeaux's antics since her debut, I want her and Killer Kross to bring their pairing from the indies to Impact Wrestling. For 2019, they need to scrap the rocket to that dude's back as he just seems to scream money. Lucha Underground had the right idea in mind and who knows when they'll be back on air to capitalize on his growing popularity. Plus, it's only a matter of time before WWE gives him an offer he can't refuse...

I would love to see Impact Wrestling continue building around Johnny Impact/Mundo/Morrison (or whatever he's going to call himself...), Fenix, Pentagon, oVe (along with Jeremiah Crane/Sami Callihan), LAX (Impact better renew their contracts before WWE snatches them up...), and especially Brian Cage in the new year as those are definitely their biggest players.

New Japan Pro Wrestling

While I haven't kept up with NJPW's product as I should have over the past year or two, I hope they continue to set and raise the bar on the standard of quality in-ring wrestling with Wrestle Kingdom 13 at the start of the year.

Following that event, I hope they lock down their talents who are up in the air in terms of whether or not that they are renewing their deals with the promotion or not. At this point, it's obvious that The Elite (Kenny Omega, Cody Rhodes, the Young Bucks, etc.) are out of the door following that event, but don't allow the rest of their guys to walk out of the door without a fight. Hell, I hope Shinsuke Nakamura along with Gallows and Anderson return to the promotion when their WWE deals expire.

Lucha Underground

I hope they get renewed for a fifth season and fans don't have to wait as long as the gaps between the last few seasons. They have a lot of stories to wrap up, especially with the revelations at the end of Season 4 (boy do I need write about that at some point in the New Year...), while simultaneously bouncing back from a bulk of their talent being raided by WWE and other rival promotions, i.e. MLW and Impact Wrestling.

Ring of Honor

My main wish for them in the new year is the same as previous years - a sensible time slot for their weekly TV tapings. For the Sinclair Broadcasting networks in my area, it's like playing the lottery on figuring out when their show comes on the weekends. On Saturdays/Sunday mornings it's either anywhere from midnight to 3AM following news/sports coverage or reruns of Hell's Kitchen. Then there's a chance to catch it Sunday evenings occasionally 10:30PM, but I tend to forget that time slot with everything else going on Sunday evening in terms of getting ready for bed to start for the work week.

Outside of that, I hope they are able to snag some noteworthy talent for their Madison Square Garden show for WrestleMania weekend. If they were smart, they would just bite the bullet and just do a collaboration with Impact Wrestling and pool resources and talent to make it the biggest show possible. We already know that they won't have the Elite to peak interest there and they've pretty much ran the well dry in terms of relying on the NJPW partnership to garner interest on their product.

Independents

MLW (Major League Wrestling) was my personal favorite non-WWE product in terms of a new fresh take on wrestling. There's something for everyone here but at the same time, I wish they were on a more accessible network. Sure, I've stumbled onto their product from episodes being uploaded in full on YouTube but not everyone is going to go that far to check them out. I hope they get a better television deal to put more eyes onto their product. That being said, Court Bauer needs to make sure WWE doesn't swoop in and snatch up more of his talent because that was something that was plaguing his promotion (along with their recent widespread amount of injuries to marquee talent) this past year.

Outside of that, I hope the indies continue to thrive on their own with more great talent coming to surface, along with more events to highlight that fact. We saw ALL IN last year, spearheaded by the Elite, but the chances of that happening again is unlikely as they are rumored to be a part of the rumored All Elite Wrestling promotion set to debut in 2019 and I wish them nothing but the best for starting that from the ground up.

REVIEW -- Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is an action-adventure video game developed by Eidos Montréal in conjunction with Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix. It continues the narrative from the 2015 game Rise of the Tomb Raider and is the twelfth mainline entry in the Tomb Raider series. The game was released worldwide on 14 September 2018 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, with a further release on macOS and Linux set for 2019.

Set shortly after the events of Rise of the Tomb Raider, its story follows Lara Croft as she ventures through Mesoamerica and South America to the legendary city Paititi, battling the paramilitary organization Trinity and racing to stop a Mayan apocalypse she has unleashed. Lara must traverse the environment and combat enemies with firearms and stealth as she explores semi-open hubs. In these hubs she can raid challenge tombs to unlock new rewards, complete side missions, and scavenge for resources which can be used to craft useful materials.

Development began in 2015 following the completion of Rise of the Tomb Raider, lasting until July 2018. Shadow of the Tomb Raider was designed to conclude Lara's journey begun in the 2013 reboot, with a key theme being descent both through the jungle environment and into her personality. The setting and narrative was based on Mayan and Aztec mythologies, consulting historians to design the architecture and people of Paititi. The gameplay was adjusted based on both fan feedback and the wishes of Eidos Montréal, incorporating swimming and grappling while increasing difficulty tailoring. Camilla Luddington returned to provide voice and motion-capture work for Lara.

Gameplay:

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is an action-adventure game played from a third-person perspective; players take the role of main protagonist Lara Croft as she explores environments across the continent of South America. The game's hub is set to be the largest in the franchise which also reveals the hidden city of Paititi. Players can participate in side quests and missions and learn about Paititi which provides a richer experience. A new barter system allows players to trade resources, salvage parts and weapons in Paititi. There are numerous adjustments made to gameplay, which is otherwise identical to Rise. The controls for swimming have been completely revised, as Lara is now able to hold her breath underwater for a longer period of time due to the introduction of air pockets. She also gains the ability to rappel down a cliff using a rope. Stealth becomes an important part of the game, with Lara being able to disengage from combat when she escapes from enemies' line of sight by covering herself in mud, hiding in bushes or against walls.

Like its predecessors, the game allows players to hunt wild animals, craft materials using the resources collected, solve puzzles and explore optional tombs. The game also features more tombs than the previous installments in the reboot series. Players will now have the option to tailor their gameplay experience as exploration, puzzles and combat have their own difficulty settings. A new Immersion Mode enables players to hear the background conversations of the locals in their native languages, when turned off the conversations are made in the players' chosen voice over language. - Wikipedia

Plot:

In the two months since Rise of the Tomb Raider, Lara Croft (Camilla Luddington) and her friend Jonah Maiava (Earl Baylon) have dedicated themselves to stopping the activities of paramilitary organization Trinity. The two track a cell to Cozumel in Mexico that is led by Pedro Dominguez (Carlos Leal), the head of Trinity's High Council. Slipping inside nearby tombs being excavated by Trinity, Lara discovers a temple containing the Dagger of Ix Chel and references to a hidden city. Murals adorning the walls allude to the Silver Box of Chak Chel and warn of "the Cleansing", a Mayan apocalypse culminating in a permanent solar eclipse. Lara ignores the warnings and takes the Dagger to prevent Trinity from acquiring it. Dominguez catches her and reveals that by taking the Dagger, Lara has triggered the Cleansing. He takes the Dagger, intending to unite it with the Box to stop the Cleansing and use the power it grants him to remake the world in his image. Lara and Jonah escape a tsunami that destroys Cozumel and foreshadows the coming apocalypse.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider doesn't skip a beat when it comes to the action-packed set pieces that this reboot trilogy is known for.

Despite growing tensions between them over her actions, Lara and Jonah pursue Dominguez into the Amazon. Their plane crashes in the Peruvian jungle during the second cataclysm—a massive storm—and the two find their way to Paititi, the hidden city shown in the murals. Exploring local tombs reveals that piercing the Box with the Dagger will grant the user the power of the god Kukulkan, which must be used to halt the Cleansing. Lara witnesses Trinity soldiers being slaughtered by strange humanoid monsters. When Lara saves a boy named Etzli (Kamran Lucas), she and Jonah are brought into Paititi by his mother Unuratu (Patricia Velásquez), queen of the city. Lara sees Dominguez is the leader of a cult dedicated to Kukulkan and Unuratu reveals he is her brother-in-law Amaru, who was taken by Trinity as a child and raised to complete the ritual and reshape the world in their image. Unuratu directs Lara to the Box, but Lara finds it is missing. Believing the cult already has the Box, Lara and Unuratu attempt to steal it, but Unuratu is captured. Lara also encounters the creatures again and learns they are the Yaaxil, guardians of the Box.

Lara infiltrates the cult's temple and overhears Amaru telling Unuratu that the Box was hidden by Andres Lopez, a missionary sent to Paititi by Trinity during the Spanish conquest of South America. Lara rescues Urunatu and realises that Amaru does not fully understand the ritual: the power of Kukulkan is not enough to prevent the apocalpyse; rather, the ritual sacrifices Kukulkan to prevent it. Unuratu is shot by Commander Rourke, Amaru's second in command. Before she dies, Unuratu implores Lara to complete the ritual, but warns her to not let the Box influence her. Lara and Jonah are attacked by Rourke and separated as they leave Paititi to decipher the next clue. Believing Jonah to be dead, Lara goes on a rampage that destroys an oil refinery and slaughters everyone there except Rourke, who escapes. She momentarily breaks down when she finds Jonah alive, but he manages to calm her down and they decipher the Box's location. Driven mad by the Box's influence, Lopez established a mission near Paititi where he trained acolytes to complete the ritual. Lara and Jonah find a secret catacomb beneath a church that leads to Lopez's tomb and the Box. Amaru finds them and forces Lara to surrender the Box. He admits that he ordered her father's death to prevent him from finding Paititi and revealing it to the world. Lara tries to persuade Amaru to use the Cleansing ritual to benefit the world. He refuses, as the Cleansing will only affect Paititi. Amaru has used his position in Trinity to manipulate them into preventing it. He leaves Lara and Jonah to escape the third cataclysm, a massive earthquake that causes a landslide and destroys the mission.

Back in Paititi, Lara and Jonah help the newly-crowned Etzli lead an assault on an underground temple complex at Paititi's center. They plan to disrupt Amaru's ceremony while avoiding the fourth and final cataclysm, a volcanic eruption that will destroy the city. Lara is forced to go on alone when Trinity cuts off Etzli's forces. She encounters the Yaaxil and their leader Crimson Fire and convinces them to help her stop Amaru. Lara takes on the symbolic role of Ix Chel while Crimson Fire is Chak Chel. While the Yaaxil kill Rourke and the Trinity High Council, Lara makes it to the temple summit. She fails to stop Amaru from piercing the Box and absorbing Kukulkan's power as the sun is blocked by an eclipse. Lara overpowers Amaru after a lengthy battle; accepting defeat, he transfers Kukulkan's power to Lara as he dies. True to Unuratu's warning, she is tempted to use the Box to revive her parents, but instead lets "Chak Chel" symbolically stab her as "Ix Chel". This sacrifices Kukulkan's spirit and stops the Cleansing. In the aftermath, Unuratu is laid to rest and Jonah decides to take a vacation. Lara stays in Paititi to help Etzli restore the city to its former glory. A post-credits scene shows Lara planning her next adventure at Croft Manor, acknowledging that her role is not to solve the world's mysteries, but to protect them.

The Verdict:

I honestly had to go back and re-read my reviews on the last two outings in Square Enix's reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise. I picked this up as a weekend Redbox rental and completed the main campaign and majority of the side quests/optional tombs done with about 78% completion within the span of a weekend. This review will be strictly focused on the single player campaign.

Right off the bat, I have to say that this game is a major setback in terms of gameplay compared to Rise of the Tomb Raider. In that review, I mentioned how I loved that Lara started off with everything from the initial quest in this reboot trilogy and they didn't pull a Metroid/Castlevania where you trip up or something of that matter where it causes you to lose all of your abilities/weapons. In the introduction section of the game, you have all of Lara's equipment and weapons from Rise but you find yourself once arriving to the main South American focused part of the game that Lara is stripped of all of her equipment due to an abrupt plane crash landing and you have to acquire everything all over again. I felt that this was completely unnecessary and felt like poor design in terms of depowering Lara like this all over again. They could have made the excuse of that she didn't bring all of her combat equipment from her last adventure, but to even script her down of her traversal options (climbing gear until much later in the game along with the fully upgraded bow, that was your meat and bones in the previous two games in terms of survival equipment, and the climbing axe to name a few) and bring her back down to basics for this last hurrah felt like a major step backwards in comparison from coming from Rise to this one. My only explanation for that from what I can assume is that they wanted to throttle back on how "powerful" Lara came across in her last adventure. Gameplay had her as a walking weapon of mass-destruction in Rise and I guess they wanted to scale that back a bit, despite the developers crediting that they were influenced by the Rambo films when approaching this title.

Don't get me wrong. I did have fun playing this game, even though there were a lot of moments where it felt more tedious than what the previous outings felt like. There were far too many fetch quests this time around for meager to "okay" rewards, but I felt inclined to do most of the optional tombs and hidden crypts because they always had an otherwise impossible to acquire new ability on the skill tree or part of survival outfit that I would want to better utilize Lara's skills that I was using. While I enjoyed the increased number of optional tombs and the addition of hidden crypts in this sequel, I never felt like they were as well thought out nor as captivating as the ones in the previous two games in this reboot trilogy. It felt like during the first two-thirds of the game, you were fighting nothing more than the wilderness and own survival instincts while sneaking around tombs and catacombs. The last third of the game throws stealth section after stealth section at you with a few action set pieces that even Rambo and Michael Bay would blush at from the sheer amount of explosions going off in the environment and tactic prowess required by Lara to survive these ordeals.

I felt the underwater sections were a little hit or miss. A lot of them felt forced on the gameplay in a few moments while others fit with the natural exploration of the environment. The constant threat of maintaining Lara's limited air supply while evading underwater predators (namely piranhas and electric eels) kept these moments tense, but they never felt cheap in my honest opinion from the few times I did occur a death or two in these sequences. I thought it was rather silly that you have next to no means of combating these underwater threats. Even in the original series back on the original PlayStation, Lara could at least arm herself with a bow gun to deal with those threats. I guess Square Enix said you had enough weapons to juggle in this game, no need to muddle up the weapon wheel with one more.

Speaking of the weapon wheel, I have a minor complaint. You can craft items on the fly for use in combat/stealth, but here's my major problem with it. Lara crafts these items very, very slowly. After playing games like Horizon Zero Dawn and Monster Hunter World, where this process is almost instant and second nature, it just comes across as cumbersome and poorly executed in this game. To say this game encourages you to craft so much stuff, they sure give you a lot of junk in terms of materials to use as resources, but at the same time, you generally have more than you need unless you're hoarding out on resources for your weapon upgrades. Upgraded item pouches for more storage space for these precious resources tend to be the first obvious choice to purchase from the in-game vendors, but those tend to get full pretty fast as well. 

The story comes across as a muddled mess, even though they had some pretty good intentions even though the execution was poor. The core emotional dilemma that Lara Croft has to deal with in this game is the consequences of disturbing all of these ancient artifacts and the impact and potential destruction of the cultures that hidden them away in the first place. For the first portion of the game, it seems like Lara Croft has learned her lesson after seeing what her tomb raiding has done in the opening act of the game, but her desire for stopping Trinity once and for all and avenging her father's death drives her to seemingly put those concerns on the backseat for the greater good.

There's an excellent flashback section of the game, where players are tasked with exploring the Croft mansion while playing as Lara when she was young child. You start off in the courtyard and playground before making your way through the hedge maze, solving puzzles along the way. You get a sample of where Lara's knack for climbing and traversing all types of surfaces comes from before landing into a hidden room of the Croft mansion where all of the artifacts and treasures that Lara's father has discovered are stored for save keeping. If you didn't pay attention to the clues that Lara comes across on the way getting here that mention her mother and her internal dialogue(s), then this puzzle isn't going to be fun at all, but if you did, then this is a rather pleasant distraction from roaming around the jungles and tombs of South America.

The middle section of the narrative has Lara be accepted as a refugee within the hidden city of Patiti, where the leader of Trinity (Amaru) has been masquerading as their false leader. She befriends Unuratu after saving her son on the outskirts of the city from Trinity soldiers attempting to find the ruins to bring forth some mythical apocalypse. From information given to her from Unuratu, she finds the artifact that Trinity was looking for and ends up giving up to Trinity to save her friend Jonah's life. Obviously, it comes down to Lara messing up another culture by potentially unleashing another apocalyptic catastrophe onto the world. In the game's finale, Lara finds herself dealing with another supernatural threat to end this trilogy and to stop Trinity once and for all. Yeah... by the end of the game, it feels like the writers were retreading familiar territory and just completely lost sight of Lara's whole mental dilemma of disturbing/destroying hidden cultures and civilizations by uncovering ancient artifacts. I get it though. They wanted to close the book on the loose ends that they left on the table concerning her father being killed by Trinity and grant Lara some sort of closure by allowing her to avenge his death. The story ends with the leader of Trinity falling at Lara's hand and another global crisis has been adverted, but at the same time, it seems that Square Enix left the door open if they wanted to do more with Lara Croft in this reboot series. I personally wouldn't mind another game in this reboot series, only if they took the time to carefully plan it out and not go for a cash grab, hot off the tails of that live-action film that tanked earlier this year. On top of that, I wouldn't want them to repeat the same formula narrative-wise for the fourth game in a row either.

(Laughs) You can't tell me something isn't going on between Lara and Unuratu when Lara's leaning in looking at her like this!

Off-topic, but... I hate to ask but is Lara Croft supposed to be understood as bisexual in this reboot? I mentioned it back in the original title that I thought there was more than a friendship going on between Lara and Sam. Most of Rise was focused on Jonah and Lara globe-trotting together, but they are clearly more friends than anything more - this sequel sets that fact into stone during the opening moments of this game rather quickly, especially once they land into the first major town in South America where Jonah meets his not-so-subtle love interest. That's where their relationship draws the line it seems between Lara and Jonah as he's there to keep her grounded. Maybe I was reading a bit too into it, but it seemed like the more Unuratu bonded in their quest to stop Trinity and stop Amaru, Lara's body language seemed more "fond" of her in terms of companionship. I could have easily misread that as mutual respect between them, but if it was meant to be the former then I think that would have been an interesting take on Lara Croft's sexuality in this reboot. Since the initial outing in 2013, I haven seen this iteration of Lara Croft as a woman forced to rise to the challenge of the circumstances and challenges/obstacles around here. That is what has molded her into the woman, or rather the heroine, she is today at the end of this trilogy. It wouldn't be far-fetched to see her having a sense of fondness or rather admiration (or could be read as mutual respect as I mentioned earlier) in another woman that she sees as her equal, forced to rise to challenges in her own life and society - in this case being Unuratu. Enough of me trying to play the psychological analytic on this review...

Following the Game Awards last week, Square Enix is hosting a special promotion that is allowing players on PlayStation 4 to try out the game as free trial/demo for a limited time. I honestly say take advantage of this free trial and use it as your means to see if the game is worth your hard earned cash or not. I believe the trial allows you to play through the first major/introductory tomb, so you'll definitely get your feet wet in terms of gameplay in more ways than one.

One thing I didn't get to dabble before taking my Redbox rental back was the three new playstyles that are unlocked once you complete the game for the first time. According to the in-game text, you can restart the game on New Game+ with all of your skills, resources, and weapons carrying over, but you will have your skills tailored for the one specific playstyle that you choose at the start of the game.

Play It or Don't Bother?

Like I mentioned earlier in this review, this isn't a bad game; it just feels like one you've played twice already. If this was supposed to be Lara Croft's curtain call in terms of her outings in this reboot trilogy, then I'm sad to say that she went out on a rather mediocre note. Players that have stuck with Lara Croft's adventures thus far will feel right at home, but there's nothing revolutionary nor gamebreaking about this title. It just completes the journey that we started with Lara Croft back in 2013 and answers the remaining questions that were left unanswered since the beginning, while leaving a few new ones at the same time. Much like the last two outings in this reboot trilogy, this game warrants a bit of your gaming time, but I wouldn't go out of my way to play it, especially with so many AAA titles and blockbuster releases out at the moment. From what I've heard and read online, Square Enix already shaved the price down on this title multiple times since launch, especially on Steam, which didn't sit too well with early adopters right off the bat. Just like the previous outings in this reboot trilogy, I plan on picking it up down the road once all of the DLC is available off the season pass as the New Game+ content peaked my interest on how the multiple alternate playstyles would change things up gameplay-wise in subsequent playthroughs. 

PREVIEW -- Jump Force - Ruroni Kenshin Trailer

I can't speak for anyone else but I marked the hell out for this trailer. Most of my childhood friends know that I was huge fan of Makoto Shishio in the Kenshin anime, so seeing all of his special techniques represented in this trailer had me applauding, especially seeing Ni no Hiken: Guren Kaina and the Mugenjin Senkū (despite the fact that Kenshin hits him with the Amakakeru Ryū no Hirameki before he could even complete the technique in the anime) in action here.

All in all, another standout addition to what is looking and shaping up to be a great roster for Jump Force.

REVIEW -- Daredevil: Season Three - Episodes 1-13 (Netflix Exclusive)

The third season of the American web television series Daredevil, which is based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, follows Matt Murdock / Daredevil, a blind lawyer-by-day who fights crime at night. When Wilson Fisk is released from prison, Murdock must decide between hiding from the world or embracing his life as a hero vigilante. The season is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), sharing continuity with the films and other television series of the franchise. It is produced by Marvel Television in association with ABC Studios, with Erik Oleson serving as showrunner, and series creator Drew Goddard acting as consultant.

Charlie Cox stars as Murdock and Vincent D'Onofrio portrays Fisk, with Deborah Ann Woll, Elden Henson and Stephen Rider also returning from previous seasons; Wilson Bethel and Jay Ali join them. Former series regular Ayelet Zurer also returns in a guest capacity. The season was ordered in July 2016, with Oleson announced as new showrunner for the season in October 2017. Filming began the following month and ended by June 2018, with the season adapting elements from the "Born Again" comic storyline.

The 13-episode season was released on October 19, 2018.

Cast:

Main

Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock / Daredevil
Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page
Elden Henson as Franklin "Foggy" Nelson
Joanne Whalley as Sister Maggie Grace
Jay Ali as Rahul "Ray" Nadeem
Wilson Bethel as Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter / Bullseye
Stephen Rider as Blake Tower
Vincent D'Onofrio as Wilson Fisk / Kingpin

Recurring

Peter McRobbie as Father Paul Lantom
Royce Johnson as Brett Mahoney
Amy Rutberg as Marci Stahl
Danny Johnson as Benjamin Donovan
Geoffrey Cantor as Mitchell Ellison
Kate Udall as Tammy Hattley
Sunita Deshpande as Seema Nadeem
Noah Huq as Sami Nadeem
Peter Halpin as Theo Nelson
Holly Cinnamon as Julie Barnes

Guests

Annabella Sciorra as Rosalie Carbone
Matt Gerald as Melvin Potter
Ayelet Zurer as Vanessa Marianna-Fisk

Episode Summaries: 

27 1 "Resurrection"

After being seriously injured when a building collapses on him while fighting as the vigilante "Daredevil",[N 1] Matt Murdock washes out of the New York City sewer system. A taxi driver finds Matt and gets him to Father Paul Lantom who entrusts Matt to the care of Sister Maggie at the Saint Agnes Orphanage, where Matt was raised. As he slowly recovers, Matt has a crisis of faith and decides that he would rather put his life in danger and continue fighting as Daredevil than return to his civilian life. He begins training to fight again, and one night he tries to stop a kidnapping; he is beaten and almost caught by the police. Matt's friends, Karen Page and Foggy Nelson, start to lose hope that he may still be alive. In prison, criminal Wilson Fisk decides to make a deal with the FBI to protect his love Vanessa Mariana, who can be charged as an accessory to his crimes. The case is assigned to Agent Ray Nadeem, who is struggling with being unable to receive a promotion due to financial troubles after he paid for his sister-in-law's cancer treatment.

28 2 "Please"

Fisk's intel leads to the arrest of the elusive Albanian syndicate's leaders, and Nadeem convinces his superiors to let him continue to work with Fisk despite his financial troubles making him a target for bribery. News of Fisk's cooperation with the FBI spreads fast, and in retaliation he is attacked in prison by a fellow inmate. Nadeem agrees to move Fisk out of prison and into home detention, but their convoy is attacked by the Albanians on the way, and most of the FBI agents are killed. Fisk is saved by Agent "Dex" Poindexter, who has incredibly accurate shooting skills. Matt tracks down the attempted kidnappers and beats them, leaving them to be arrested. Karen is assigned to report on the attempted kidnapping, which involved the well-known Neda Kazemi; after hearing about the death of Karen's brother Kevin, Neda opens up to Karen about the attack and leads Karen to believe that Matt is still alive. Foggy, who is considering leaving his well-paying lawyer job to help his brother Theo run the family business, disagrees that Matt could be alive.

29 3 "No Good Deed"

Fisk is taken to a hotel that the FBI have seized, and is kept in the penthouse. News of his release from prison becomes public, prompting protests outside of the hotel and interest from reporters, including Karen who learns that the hotel had belonged to Neda's father Rostom, and that he sold it to a company that is represented by Fisk's lawyer Benjamin Donovan. Foggy goes to district attorney Blake Tower to offer his help in returning Fisk to prison, but Tower is reluctant to go against the wishes of the FBI especially because he is running for re-election. Matt investigates the hotel, and begins to hallucinate Fisk as a "devil on his shoulder". Matt interrogates Donovan and learns of the situation with Vanessa. He vows to stop Fisk and return him to prison, revealing to Foggy that he is alive but only to warn him and Karen to stay away from Fisk. During a routine psychological evaluation to determine his fitness for duty, Dex talks about the emotional support that he receives from his girlfriend Julie. However, she later appears to be someone that he is stalking.

30 4 "Blindsided"

Dex is investigated by his superiors after he claimed to kill two Albanians in self-defense during the transit attack while evidence indicates that he may have killed them in cold blood. Fisk saw him do the latter, but lies about this to the FBI and later explains to Dex that he is thankful for the agent's actions and has sympathy for the situation. Foggy, unhappy with Matt's demands, tells Karen that Matt is alive and then is convinced by his girlfriend Marci Stahl to run for district attorney against Tower to focus on Fisk and try defeat him that way. Foggy gains the support of the NYPD, who view Fisk as a "cop killer". Karen continues her investigation, and finds the name of a man involved in the company that bought the hotel: Felix Manning. Matt impersonates Foggy to enter the prison, and learns that Fisk had paid the inmate, Jasper Evans, to attack him so he could convince the FBI to move him. With the Albanians' help, Matt fights off inmates and guards working for Fisk and escapes the prison, but is driven off a dock by an unknown taxi driver.

31 5 "The Perfect Game"

When Fisk learns that Matt escaped from the taxi, he tells the FBI that he has a criminal fixer named Matt Murdock. Karen confronts Fisk's actual fixer, Manning, but he threatens her with his knowledge of her family, including her brother's death. Nadeem questions both Karen and Foggy about Matt, and both try to direct him towards Fisk and his crimes. Fisk reviews a file from Manning on Dex, and learns that he used his skillful aim to kill his baseball coach as a child. He was taught to be more empathetic through therapy as he grew up, but appeared to use it as a cover for his psychopathic tendencies such as the time he worked for a suicide prevention hotline and encouraged a caller to murder someone else rather than themselves. It was there that he started working with Julie and fell for her, and now he finds her working at the hotel but accidentally reveals that he has been stalking her. Fisk sees the potential for Dex to become a villain that the public can focus on rather than himself. Karen reveals to Foggy that she killed James Wesley.

32 6 "The Devil You Know"

Foggy assures Karen that she is still a good person after killing Wesley in self-defense. Dex confronts Fisk, who confirms that he was behind Julie's hiring at the hotel, and that he had intended to show Dex that life with Julie was not going to work; she wouldn't understand Dex, but Fisk does after killing his father while he was a boy. Matt visits Karen and asks for her help in finding Evans and using his testimony to stop Fisk. Foggy organizes with Nadeem, who has now been promoted due to his work on the Fisk case outweighing his financial troubles, to meet them at the New York Bulletin where Karen works and is planning to interview Evans about Fisk's plans. In exchange for Nadeem considering Evans' testimony, Matt agrees to hand himself over in the hopes of clearing his name. Distraught over Julie, Dex considers committing suicide, but is interrupted by Fisk who proposes an alternative; Dex instead goes to the Bulletin dressed as Daredevil, fights off Matt, and kills Evans before he can talk. Nadeem arrives in time to see Daredevil escaping.

33 7 "Aftermath"

Daredevil is attacked by the public and media, and Karen is unable to convince Nadeem that this was not the true Daredevil or that Fisk was behind the attack. When she tries to do the same with her boss Mitchell Ellison, he tells her to reveal who Daredevil is or quit. Karen later asks her father Paxton if she could go spend some time at home with him, but he says no. Foggy believes that he has worked out what Fisk is planning. Matt, angry that he put his friends in harm's way and worried about the skill of the pretend Daredevil, visits Melvin Potter, the man who created the Daredevil suit. Potter confirms that Fisk forced him to create a copy of the suit, and reveals that the pretender was an FBI agent. Potter then tries to frame Matt as the Daredevil who attacked the Bulletin, but Matt manages to escape the arriving FBI agents. After investigating Evans, Nadeem begins to believe that Fisk is manipulating them, but has no proof of this. At home, he is confronted by Matt who explains that the Daredevil attacker was a pretender and an FBI agent.

34 8 "Upstairs/Downstairs"

Nadeem realizes that Dex is the attacker. Dex attempts to reconcile with Julie, believing that he needs her to replace his therapist who died when he was younger. She reluctantly agrees to start talking with him, but Fisk later has her killed. Believing that Julie has abandoned him, Dex continues to mentally deteriorate. Matt and Nadeem break into Dex's apartment but cannot find proof that he was the attacker, only some recordings of his therapy sessions which reveal his psycopathic tendencies. Dex arrives home and catches them, injuring Nadeem but not being able to stop the two from escaping. Foggy thinks that he can prove Fisk is still working as a criminal, and that this will get him sent back to prison; he decides to raise these points in a debate with Tower and let Karen write about it, but instead she goes to confront Fisk. She reveals that she knows he killed his father, and that she had killed Wesley, while accidentally confirming that Matt is Daredevil. Matt later overhears Sister Maggie praying about the fact that she is his mother.

35 9 "Revelations"

Struggling with the fact that both Maggie and Lantom had been hiding the truth from him, Matt goes to an abandoned boxing club where his father used to fight. Manning threatens Foggy's family unless he publicly apologizes for speaking out against Fisk at the debate. Karen decides to run from Fisk, and Maggie offers to help hide her. Nadeem tells his superiors about Dex and Fisk, but one, Tammy Hattley, kills the other and blackmails Nadeem into working for Fisk. She explains that Fisk had been manipulating Nadeem for the last year, and was behind the need for Nadeem to help pay for his sister-in-law's treatment. Fisk has Nadeem and Dex quietly arrest several gang leaders across New York and bring them to a restaurant where Fisk offers to protect them from FBI charges in exchange for payment. Fisk has Nadeem tell Matt about this meeting, but Matt knows that this will be a trap and instead goes to the hotel to wait for Fisk. While there, he overhears FBI agents loyal to Fisk who have discovered that Karen is hiding at the church.

36 10 "Karen"

Before, Karen postponed going to college because she knew that her father and brother would not be able to run their family diner after her mother died from cancer. Despite this, Karen grew bored of her small-town life and started selling drugs to students with her boyfriend Todd. One day, Kevin revealed to Karen that he had re-enrolled her in college, something that Paxton wants to celebrate with a family dinner, but this leads to an argument and Karen runs off with Todd. After getting drunk and high together, they return to the travel trailer where Todd lives to find that Kevin is burning it down. Todd attacks Kevin, and Karen injures Todd with his own gun to stop him. She quickly drives Kevin away, but crashes. Kevin dies in the crash. The local police chief covers up Karen's involvement, and Paxton asks her to leave. Now, Karen is hiding in the church when Dex arrives, dressed as Daredevil, to kill her. Choosing between saving Karen and lying in wait for Fisk, Matt races to the church and helps Karen drive Dex off, but not before he kills Lantom.

37 11 "Reunion"

Dex has Nadeem take control of the church crime scene, and the FBI searches for Matt and Karen. They remain hidden with Maggie's help. The Justice Department drops all charges against Fisk, who announces his freedom to the public with a speech that proclaims Daredevil as the public's enemy. With Vanessa on her way back to New York City, Fisk goes to retrieve the painting she gave him when they first met; it is in the possession of Esther Falb, a Holocaust survivor whose family were the original owners of the painting. Fisk decides to let her keep it. Foggy considers reading a statement apologizing to Fisk, until he is called by Matt to help them escape the church: Foggy goes and surrenders Karen to the NYPD, which Nadeem allows, which distract the FBI long enough for Matt to escape as well. Matt, Foggy, and Karen plan their next moves against Fisk, and know they will need help. Later, Nadeem and his family are attacked by FBI agents loyal to Fisk. Matt helps Nadeem fight them off, and reveals his identity to him.

38 12 "One Last Shot"

Fisk is reunited with Vanessa, who convinces Fisk to let her into the criminal side of his life. Without asking Fisk, Dex retrieves the painting from Falb and Vanessa notices some of her blood on the frame. Matt agrees to carry out Foggy's plan—working together as lawyers as they once had, they take Nadeem on as a client and organize with Tower to have Nadeem testify against Fisk in front of a grand jury. Foggy also offers to withdraw from the race for district attorney, and they get Nadeem's family to safety. Meanwhile, Karen calls a press conference to announce what Nadeem is doing so the public is aware given that his testimony would be sealed. Matt and Foggy celebrate after the hearing, with Foggy hinting that he would like to continue working with Matt like this. However, Fisk controls the jury and so the hearing has no effect. Nadeem is convinced that Fisk cannot be stopped, and returns to his home. Fisk decides it would be better not to kill Nadeem now that he is a public figure, but Vanessa convinces him otherwise. They send Dex, who kills Nadeem.

39 13 "A New Napkin"

With Foggy's plan foiled, Matt returns to his and intends to kill Fisk. He kidnaps and interrogates Manning, learning that Vanessa ordered Nadeem's death, and Fisk ordered Julie's. Foggy meets with Nadeem's wife Seema, who he sent a video message that serves as his dying declaration in which he details all of Fisk's crimes. Matt tells Dex about Julie's death, which Dex investigates and finds her body. Fisk and Vanessa get married at the hotel, but their reception is interrupted when Karen distributes Nadeem's video on social media, followed by the arrival of Dex, who attacks Fisk and Vanessa. Matt soon joins the fight. Fisk defeats Dex, leaving him paralyzed, while Matt overpowers and beats Fisk but chooses to spare his life. Fisk agrees to return to prison and leave Karen and Foggy alone if Matt does not reveal Vanessa's involvement in Nadeem's death. With Fisk arrested, a funeral is held for Lantom. Foggy suggests to Matt and Karen that they all start working together again. Dex later goes through experimental surgery to fix his spine.

The Verdict:

I spent the better part of the past weekend watching this in its entirety on Saturday after the initial release on Friday (October 19, 2018). After the cancellations of both Luke Cage and Iron Fist by Netflix, I honestly went into this fearing the worst. As I have mentioned to close friends and on social media on numerous occasions, I never wasn't crazy about Daredevil Season 2 for reasons that I'm going to get into below. That along with my concerns with everything else post-The Defenders on the Marvel Netflix side of things I covered in my opinion piece with my gripes on those matters in-depth anyway.

Narrative

I never formally did a write-up/review on Daredevil Season 2, but there was a reason why and it's because I was downright disgusted with that season. Season 2 of Daredevil merely serves as a thirteen episode pilot for both The Punisher's Netflix series that got green-lit shortly after that season dropped and ultimately provides the backbone for the lackluster foundation for the plot of The Defenders that followed shortly after the events of this season and the first season of Iron Fist. Most people cheered for the borderline obsessive focus on The Punisher/Frank Castle while at the same time, having a mixed reaction to the new take on Elektra (known as Elektra Natchios) in this continuity - FAR away from what Fox did with that character, even though Frank Miller wasn't a fan of it despite not even bothering to watch neither season of the show... In that regard, I can feel where he's coming from to a sense as she's his creation and he's only going to see her interpreted in the means and manner that he created her as. 

This season starts off immediately following the events of The Defenders, where we last saw Matt Murdock/Daredevil sacrifice himself to save New York City by choosing to stay with Elektra as the building collapsed on top of them. Somehow he survives this catastrophe, only to be taken in and cared for by the same church that he grew up in, helmed by Sister Maggie. Of course, this was teased at the end of The Defenders, which led many fans like myself to speculate that this season was going to be a direct adaptation of the popular "Born Again" storyline from the Daredevil comics. I'm no Daredevil expert, but after reading up on the story over the last few months, I can tell you that this season is a loose interpretation at best. Hardcore Daredevil fans will be making comparisons from the source material with this Marvel Cinematic Universe adaptation until they are blue in the face, but I'm just merely going to weigh in my thoughts over the course of this thirteen episode season. 

Yes, unlike Iron Fist Season 2, Daredevil Season 3 is a return to form for Marvel's Netflix endeavors with a thirteen episode order for this season. Unlike everything that followed after Daredevil Season 1 and Jessica Jones Season 1, all thirteen episodes feel justified without that feeling of unnecessary baggage like the previous Marvel Netflix outings in recent memory - mainly those same series that I ranted about in my opinion piece about everything following The Defenders.

The main thing I loved about this season was that it went above and beyond to tear Matt Murdock down mentally and physically on his road to recovery from his injuries that he suffered during The Defenders season finale. The return of Wilson Fisk, aka The Kingpin as how his associates were referring to him as this season, only added even more tension and turmoil to all of the angst and emotional drama that Matt was dealing with. The religious influences would normally deter me from being invested as most marquee narratives tend to shove that specific religion's teachings down viewers' throats, but I never got that vibe here. Instead, Matt's devotion to his Catholic faith enhances his journey throughout Daredevil Season 3. There was a line towards the end of the season where Matt brings up to Maggie about the time he questioned why God would blind him, only to explain that now after all that he's been through by the end of the season was that he understands God's methods in an unique way - we as humans can only see the flawed singular threads that compose a tapestry while God can see the entire finished product. I thought this was a powerful message expressing the symbolism of how everyone's individual lives aren't going to be perfect or go as we wish at times.

One complaint I saw a lot of people mention on social media and on other various reviews online was that Matt just seems to completely ignore the "death" of Elektra. I didn't see it as much. He was content to leave everything that was Matt Murdock behind him, including his love for Elektra and his compassion for his friends - notably Karen Page and Foggy Nelson, for he could completely devote himself to being the Devil of Hell's Kitchen entirely. Plus, I think that after all that he's been through over the last two seasons of Daredevil along with the events in The Defenders, I think he wouldn't be surprised that either Elektra is actually dead for good this time around or she found the means to survive that ordeal like he did. Only time will tell with these character deaths/revivals in comic book lore, especially with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I personally hope it's the end of that character as I think they've done all that they could have done with that character in this continuity. She was the reason that Matt made a lot of stupid, irrational decisions over the course of Daredevil Season 2 and The Defenders, so bringing her back into the picture would regress all of his character growth that he made this season. Besides, why rehash what they just did in The Defenders with "surprising" him that she's escaped death again. It would be "been there, done that" at this point.

If I had any complaints about this season, it would be about how Fisk's plans were almost too good to an extent. I understand that he had nothing but free time while in prison and he already had most of the inmates and prison staff/personnel in his pocket, but how he took over the FBI with little to no resistance was borderline insane. I understand that it was done to amplify how powerless Matt Murdock felt it was to stop Fisk the same way that he put him behind bars the first time back in Season 1, but I swear these Marvel Netflix shows get off on these catch-22's. In that regard though, I have to applaud them for making one of the catch-22's backfire in it's own predictability. Almost all of these Marvel Netflix shows have a confidant or that one person of interest that could turn the primary antagonist's world upside down, only if they are able to confess on record or in a court hearing to put that said villain behind bars. How does it always go down in these Marvel Netflix shows? That said person is ALWAYS killed before the confession or testimony is made and the villain gets off scottfree. I just always thought that was hilarious that trope was used so many times in these Marvel Netflix narratives that someone finally thought ahead for once - in this case, Special Agent Nadeem - and had their own plan in action for beyond the grave.

Speaking of Nadeem, I thought his character was hit or miss. He came across as about as likable as Dinah Madani from The Punisher who played a similar role in that series. Both of them are government agents who find themselves becoming pawns of their "dirty" superiors and colleagues. Madani at least lived through her affair by the end of the first season of The Punisher (barely), while Nadeem wasn't so lucky in that regard. There's moments early into the season where Nadeem and Madani each are very smart in their investigations, only to come off extremely stupid when the plot requires it. I swear, it reminds me of how Misty Knight is used across the board in these shows where she's only smart as long as it doesn't deal with the main plot, but when it comes to foiling the titular villain's plans, she's dumb as rocks. I know I'm not the only one who saw Nadeem's superior, Tammy Hattley, being in Fisk's pocket coming a MILE away.

It's no secret that I'm not a fan of Karen Page nor her actress Deborah Ann Woll in the least, but I appreciated the effort the writers made this season to flesh out her character. She lost her reporter job - something that I felt that she didn't deserve in the first place following Ben Ulrich's demise back in Daredevil Season 1. Plus, we got the payoff to her big secret of killing Wesley back in Season 1. Boy, I thought that revelation was going to be the fuel for the fire that drove Fisk to kill Karen this season, but she was spared that fate since I'm guessing that the writers didn't want to pull that trigger quite yet. They are clearly keeping Bullseye around for the long haul, so they didn't make him an one and done villain for this season when they can easily keep him around for a few seasons. Thank god that they didn't make the same mistake Jessica Jones Season 1 did with Kilgrave. As much as I don't care for Karen Page's character, I appreciated the time dedicated to flesh out her character in the episode "Karen" during this season's episode order. We got to see that she didn't really start "accidentally" killing guys when she wind up in Hell's Kitchen, but rather as due to a series of unlikely events back when she was going through that rebellious wild child phase as a teenager on the verge of escaping her small town life and going to college.

I cannot stress about how great Foggy Nelson is as Matt's emotional compass, even more so than Karen Page or Mother Maggy. We got to see a lot of Foggy's family here in this season and that was a pleasant surprise to see where he draws his own strength from - both from his girlfriend and even more his own parents and siblings. I see now where Foggy's genuine naive demeanor to see the good in people comes from his upbringing, but it was a relief to see that not everyone in Hell's Kitchen come from broken homes. I know that not everyone views that as a negative, but it's a trope/cliche that tends to irk me a lot in these superhero narratives. Everything in your life doesn't have to go to hell and a hand basket for you to decide to be a good person.

I love how they continued the Death Note comparisons that I pointed out back in Season 1 here as well. Vanessa seems to play the part of Kiyomi Takada in this season as the unknown/random figure in play on the chessboard - whereas Karen Page played that part in the first season. There's still some flip flopping in terms of dynamics in terms of who could be seen as Light and L from their actions over the course of the season, but you can't see anyone else other than Matt Murdock/Daredevil and Wilson Fisk/The Kingpin filling those roles here once again. Kingpin could be seen as Light for the bulk of the season as his scheming and plotting succeeds to the point to it's almost comical at the shortcomings of the FBI. Benjamin Poindexter reluctantly becomes Kingpin's Teru Mekami to his schemes if we were to associate Fisk as having comparisons to being akin Light Yagami in this season. Like Mekami, Poindexter is borderline obsessive to strict routines and schedules to the point where that one thing that deviates that routine drove him to lose his edge and act independently (oftentimes against the better judgment of how Fisk wanted his plans to play out) over the course of the season. If I were to add, Poindexter ends up being self-destructive like Higuchi during the Yotsuba Group arc in Death Note, that led Fisk to finish him off with his own bare hands during the season finale for crossing him. 

Off-topic, but seriously... what the FUCK was up with that strange CGI on Father Paul's face in that flashback when Matt was a kid? I get that Star Wars made that whole digital facial reconstruction thing acceptable with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story a few years ago, but damn it looked awkward there on how they were trying to make Peter McRobbie look younger in that scene when it just came off as creepy as some of the character models in the recent PlayStation 4 exclusive Spider-Man video game.

Action

There's a rather underwhelming attempt at a "hallway fight" in the first few episodes of this season, but I swear out of all of these cheap attempts to recreate the magic of that initial one from the first season, Marvel Netflix needs to realize that was a masterpiece that they are not going to down perfectly again. Every single one of these attempts just pale in comparison to the original. That being said though, I was a fan a lot of the action here. It was exactly what I was missing from the Marvel Netflix end of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's spectrum. It's not borderline gruesome like most of the action in The Punisher or just flat out boring like in majority of The Defenders, Luke Cage Season 1, and Iron Fist Season 1. And boy does Matt Murdock take and give a lot of punishment. I couldn't help but laugh when even Karen Page said "Jesus Christ..." at how many bruises and scars that Matt Murdock was hiding underneath his clothing from the fights he's been getting himself into.

The second "big" fight of this season is the church fight that was taken straight out of the pages of the Daredevil comic books whereas Benjamin Poindexter (wearing Murdock's costume) faces off against Daredevil (Murdock is rocking his non-armored look from season one) as he is the only thing preventing him from murdering Karen Page and the group of civilians with her. Father Paul was an unfortunate casualty in this sequence, but we got to see Poindexter's skills in full effect here as he was able to use a multitude of objects fatal instruments in his hands. We saw Daredevil get creative with his means to combat this foe as he wasn't going to merely stand around idly by and allow him to beat him like a drum either.

The last noteworthy fight sequence from this season came from the finale of the thirteenth episode where Wilson Fisk, Benjamin Poindexter, and Daredevil faced off in a triple threat match of sorts. Fisk was using his body as human shield or rather a human pincushion against Poindexter's projectiles until he ultimately got his hands on Poindexter when he attempted to direct his attacks towards Fisk's wife, Vanessa. Fisk would then perform a Front Fireman's Carry and drive Poindexter's spine into the corner of the nearby brick wall, effectively putting him out of commission. Daredevil would continue to assault Fisk until he gave up and agreed to a truce as long as Vanessa stayed safe. 

Where do we go from here? 

After the teaser at the end of the season in final moments of Episode 13, it's clear that Dr. Oyama was operating on Poindexter's damaged spine as the iconic "Bullseye" symbol shown up in Dex's eyes in the closing moments of that scene. As the article that I linked pointed out, Dr. O is infusing Dex's spine with adamantium, much like his comic book counterpart. It's safe to assume that if Daredevil is renewed for a fourth season, then we'll see Dex back as the primary antagonist in his more comic book-faithful appearance as Bullseye instead of the imposter Daredevil like he was in this season. I was kinda surprised that Karen Page got to live through this season as I was on Dex's side cheering him on during the church fight to get to the point where she would have died if this was the comic book iteration. Karen was even left holding Matt's body like how Matt held hers in the comics in a clever change of position here. I guess the writers didn't want to literally copy and paste another Daredevil love interest being killed off. Think about it, Elektra died in both Daredevil Season 2 AND in The Defenders, so I guess that they wanted to cut Matt Murdock a break in that regard. I mean c'mon, a person can only take so much emotional trauma before they literally lose it completely. Karen Page's demise would've driven Matt Murdock to the point of killing both Dex as well as The Kingpin and I doubt that's the direction that they were gunning for this season. Instead, Murdock's friends remained in the line of fire, but at the same time, they were spared that fate as this season was about restoring Murdock's emotional compass.

As we all know, both Luke Cage and Iron Fist were both cancelled by Netflix. I wouldn't be surprised if those get repackaged into a possible Heroes for Hire or Daughters of the Dragon spin-off(s). They sprinkled enough breadcrumbs in both of those series to warrant as such and it wouldn't be that hard to do really, given the state that both of those series' second seasons ended on. I regret that we didn't get to see Mary Walker/Typhoid Mary make an appearance in this series as that character is known more as a Daredevil villain than an Iron Fist one, but I understand that they wanted to carefully sell the viewers onto Benjamin Poindexter as the new antagonist of this season - preferably setting him up to stick around for the long haul, much like Iron Fist Season Two's Mary Walker/Typhoid Mary.

If a fourth season was to happen, I see Benjamin Poindexter completing his transformation into becoming Bullseye as most recognize him from the comics and previous appearances in media. He would undoubtedly be the primarily antagonist for that season, while maybe Vanessa Fisk manipulating him to some fashion to get her husband out of jail. If anything were to happen to Vanessa that terminates Murdock's truce with Wilson Fisk to protect the safety of Foggy Nelson and Karen Page, so that will be the thing that Vanessa holds over Daredevil/Matt Murdock's head to prevent him from getting in the way of her schemes. I think that would make for a captivating dilemma for that season in my honest opinion. Murdock can't beat the Fisks physically so you could play the paralegal card and go back and forth with Vanessa and Bullseye foiling his efforts at every turn. I know it's not much, but it's just a thought from what they've done in these last few seasons.

Fans already started a campaign to urge Netflix to renew the series for a fourth season, but I'm sure we won't see that on their streaming service. Don't forget that Disney is looking to launch a streaming service of their own in the near future, so it wouldn't make much sense to have any content floating around out there for their competition. After that Fox/Disney merger/buyout gets finalized, I don't see Disney giving any of their content to Netflix at all if I'm perfectly honest. **UPDATE** I haven't published this article yet, but as of me working (more like me procrastinating on this write-up...) on this on 11/29/18, Netflix announced that they were not renewing the series for a fourth season. I honestly wouldn't be saddened by that news as Disney hasn't made it a secret that they are pushing forward with their own streaming service to compete with Netflix, so I could see this act as Netflix merely chopping the legs off that project before it even gets started. It's going to piss fans off by "killing off" the Netflix side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe temporarily, but I see it adding more fuel to the fire for people to invest in Disney's service as the new home for that content. While I don't necessarily agree with this method, I can't be too upset as it's simply how television works nowadays, especially for streaming networks. Network television would (and still do) doom a series with a god-awful time slot, only to accused the shows cancellation upon "poor ratings". Oh you think, Sherlock? Cartoon Network are notorious for this method over the recent years, dooming popular and beloved animated series, such as Ben 10: Omniverse, Justice League Unlimited, Sonic Boom!, Beware the Batman, and other noteworthy series at ungodly hours. For example, Beware the Batman was forced to play out it's remaining episode order as a single-night marathon on a late night Toonami time slot while Ben 10: Omniverse, Sonic Boom!, and a few other series were given the dreaded 6 to 7AM time slot to die a slow death. I recall ABC dealing Agent Carter a similar fate back when that show was at the last leg of it's second season. They just did the remaining episodes in a marathon like fashion for a few weeks until it was over. This is just mere speculation at this point, but it's just my take on the matter. I think what's going on is that Netflix has a precise episode/season order with each of the individual Defenders-based Netflix shows and once they fulfill that order, they cancel it outright. With Disney's streaming service in the works, I'm positive that Netflix wants to wash their hands of having to pay Disney/Marvel Studios any additional revenue to keep their content on their streaming service. It seems like I'm not the only one who thinks this way as Forbes as a write-up of their own on this turn of events.

Watch It or Don't Bother?

This season is a bit of a slow burn. Things take a few episodes to pick up the pace as the writers really wanted to hit home on how far Matt Murdock has fallen in regard of his personal life - his connections and ties to his friends and family, his own religious faith, and even his own physical well-being as he struggles to decide whether or not he should maintain everything that makes him "human" or abandon all of that to fully embrace being the "devil" that Hell's Kitchen needs. I highly suggest watching it and enjoying it while it's still up on Netflix's platform before it disappears. It's definitely a return to the greatness that started the wealth of Marvel-based content that followed after it. After it's unexpected cancellation by Netflix, I'm anxious to see where we see Daredevil show up next. Marvel Studios would be insane to leave this character and it's characters on the shelf, sitting idly by doing nothing when there's many more Daredevil stories left to tell. 

PREVIEW -- Marvel Studios' Captain Marvel - Trailer 2

I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm VERY pleased with what I have seen within these trailers so far. They are sprinkling Easter Eggs here and there like breadcrumbs to see who notices them, such as "Photon" written on the side of Maria Rambeau's fighter plane - mother of the heroine who becomes Captain Marvel II/Spectrum/Photon in the comics continuity, Monica Rambeau. 

Sidebar note: To say that Black Twitter loves to praise and be all "holier than thou" when it comes to praising representation in these superhero films, I haven't seen not a single soul mention this in the passing weeks. As a black comic book nerd, that kinda irks me a bit, especially when we went through that whole period about a year ago leading up to the release of Black Panther's cinematic debut about everyone coming out of the woodworks about little to no representation for African-American/black superhero characters and we get a major one here in Captain Marvel's cinematic debut and not many of any people are talking about it. Monica Rambeau may not been a "major" character to many modern comic book fans, but she's been a staple figure in Marvel Comics' history for quite some time. I'm happy to see her get the exposure and recognition that she deserves with this cinematic debut. 

Other things I've noticed in this trailer - Carol's iconic pet, a cat - that I won't spoil the details about. And there seems to be some nods to her solo comics', given the tone and nature of how they are shedding light on portions of her past on Earth and being experimented on by the Kree alien race. Of course, there's going to be coverage on her time as part of the Starforce - military force designated by the Kree Supreme Intelligence. We get our first look at the cinematic debut of the Skrulls here too. I'm not too crazy about how they look at first glance as I can't get the image of Piccolo from Dragon Ball: Evolution out of my head in comparison so I'm going to reserve judgment until the actual movie debuts in March.  

NXT TakeOver: War Games II -- Results & Afterthoughts

NXT TakeOver: WarGames (2018) was a professional wrestling show and WWE Network event that took place on November 17, 2018 in the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The event was produced by WWE for the NXT brand that is streamed live on the WWE Network.

Five matches were contested at the event. In the main event, Pete Dunne, Ricochet, and War Raiders defeated The Undisputed Era in a WarGames match. In the penultimate match, Tommaso Ciampa defeated Velveteen Dream to retain the NXT Championship and Aleister Black defeated Johnny Gargano.

Note: Much like my Survivor Series 2018 write-up, I'm not covering this show in order that the matches played out.

WarGames Match
NXT Champion Ricochet, WWE U.K. Champion Pete Dunne & The War Raiders def. The Undisputed ERA

I don't remember much of the old WCW WarGames matches and I kick myself every year for not revisiting them with adult eyes, but I never was too crazy about this match type when TNA/Impact Wrestling did their own spin on it with their Lethal Lockdown annual matches in this format. Boy, did NXT make me a fan of this match type over the past two years though. Honorable mention goes to MLW doing a stellar WarGames match earlier this year too by the way.

Amazing - that's the best way to describe this match during it's final quarter. I hate the first part of these matches like this because you know nothing good is going to happen until all 4 members of each opposing team are in the match and the cliched gimmick to this match is that the heels always have the advantage until that point - not to mention that Pete Dunne was dealing with a real life injury but you couldn't tell that from too much as he was protected for the bulk of this affair. Despite all of that going on, everyone involved managed to keep things interesting.

This was the coming out party for the War Raiders. This was giving me flashbacks to their feuds with Fish and O'Reilly as reDRagon during their War Machine days in Ring of Honor. For a big guy, I find myself always surprised at how mobile and agile that Hanson is. If he wasn't above 205 lbs., I'm sure WWE would have found a way to push a guy like him with the cruiserweight title.

NXT Championship Match
Tommaso Ciampa (c) def. Velveteen Dream to retain the title

I felt sorry that these two had to follow Black and Gargano on this card, but to my surprise, this match delivered big time as well. They had me fooled, just like everyone else, with the near fall after the Macho Man Elbow Drop. I thought they were going to have Ciampa drop the title to Dream there for sure. Then they did the "injury" finish and that moment of excitement went completely out of the window. I guess they really are keeping the NXT title on Ciampa until WrestleMania weekend. I honestly don't see anyone dethroning NXT's top heel anytime soon, especially while Gargano is doing this "crazy" gimmick for a while. He should look at what Eddie Edwards did in Impact over the past year and take notes of the mistakes of running that angle too long - people are going to stop caring and start tuning out. I'm anxious to see where they go with Velveteen Dream from here because it's not like a loss here is going to hurt his stock value. The fans still dig him and I'm sure Triple H and the rest of his NXT staff are fully behind the guy. I'm hoping a North American Championship run/title shot in the cards soon. His first encounter with Ricochet may have been in a loss but it wouldn't hurt to have his rematch result in a win. If I were to suggest a match, how about a triple threat between him, Adam Cole, and Ricochet with the gold on the line if you don't want to keep Dream in the NXT title conversation.

Aleister Black def. Johnny Gargano

Black and Gargano put on a masterclass showcase here as they showed off how to make your strikes look as vicious and stiff as possible without legit injuring your opponent. I hope Nia Jax took notes. Great storytelling here from start to finish and I thought the right man won here. Black was robbed of his opportunity to regain the title that he lost mistakenly to Tommaso Ciampa, thanks to Gargano's obsession, and he got his payback here.

As it currently stands on NXT programming, they are set to have a rematch at the next TakeOver special during Royal Rumble weekend, but I honestly don't see a point. Black beat the piss out of Gargano here. Doing a rematch in a steel cage isn't going to make me to expect any other different result. I'll give Gargano credit where it's due though - every match that he's had at TakeOver events for 2018 have been nothing short of amazing from bell to bell. The only downside is that as great as those matches are, he never wins when it matters. He keeps this up and people really are going to be calling him Johnny Failure. The one I think back to fondly is the one against Ciampa where he came out decked out in the Captain America Avengers: Infinity War gear and flat out lost. I just found that to be comical given to the events of that film.

NXT Women’s Championship 2-out-of-3 Falls Match
Shayna Baszler (c) def. Kairi Sane to retain the title

While I enjoyed this match, my biggest issue with it was the feeling like they were rushing for time. The first two falls went by extremely too fast for my taste, but they made up for it on the third. I marked the hell out watching this live when Io Shirai showed up to make the save and honestly rolled my eyes into the back of my head at Dakota Kai coming out to even the odds against Marina Safir and Jessamyn Duke helping out Shayna. I get why they put Kai in there as payback for all of her months of getting bullied and jobbed out to get Shayna over as a heel, but I felt that they could've added Mia Yim for that last bang that this faction needed.Then again, Dakota Kai needs something to sink her teeth into too and it wouldn't hurt to have her into a high profile program like this to erase the stigma of her being merely enhancement talent and finally ascend to a prominent role on the NXT brand instead of just being filler air time on both the NXT TV tapings and even the recent NXT UK episodes that aired to boot.

As for Shayna's title reign, I don't see anyone beating her for that title before WrestleMania weekend, unless they really plan on fast tracking a suitable challenger for the title by then. I read the spoilers and I'm already aware that Bianca Belair is going to challenger her next at the next TakeOver special, so that should be interesting there. Much like the Velveteen Dream, Belair is really talented, but I personally feel like she's missing something before moving up as NXT's face of that division. I just can't put my finger on what it is.

Matt Riddle def. Kassius Ohno

This was an impromptu match to kick off the show following a promo from Riddle calling out Ohno. As soon as the bell rung, Ohno did the job here, getting KO'd literally for Riddle to pick up the win. To say that Ohno's current gimmick is him being upset that he's welcoming mat for the newest NXT signees, he sure didn't do anything here to argue that point. Great way to introduce Riddle, but did absolutely nothing for Ohno here. So much for his moniker as a "Knockout Artist" when he's the one who got knocked out (laughs).

WWE Survivor Series 2018 -- Results & Afterthoughts

Survivor Series (2018) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event and WWE Network event produced by WWE for their Raw and SmackDown brands. It took place on November 18, 2018 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. It was the thirty-second event promoted under the Survivor Series chronology. The theme of the event was brand supremacy, where all but one match involved wrestlers of the Raw brand facing wrestlers of the SmackDown brand.

Eight matches were contested at the event, including one on the pre-show. The card was highlighted by two traditional Survivor Series elimination matches: Raw's men's and women's teams were victorious over SmackDown's. In the main event, Raw's Universal Champion Brock Lesnar defeated SmackDown's WWE Champion Daniel Bryan. Also on the card, Raw Women's Champion Ronda Rousey defeated SmackDown's Charlotte Flair via disqualification and Buddy Murphy retained the WWE Cruiserweight Championship against Mustafa Ali in the only title defense on the card, as well as the only non-interpromotional match. Raw won brand supremacy clean sweeping SmackDown in all six interpromotional matches on the main card. Team SmackDown's lone win occurred on the kickoff show, victorious over Team Raw in the 10-on-10 tag team elimination match.

Since I'm a few weeks out on doing a write-up on this show, I'm not going to cover everything in order. As far as I'm concerned this was a two-three match show as most of this easily forgettable. Not to mention that WWE hasn't even worked most of this into their storylines following this event, so what was the point anyway?

Brock Lesnar def. Daniel Bryan

God, I was dreading this match. I joked about it the entire week prior that it might have been Bryan's last match in his career, but as I watched this, I feared the worst, especially after the first German Suplex. Then Brock kept going on and on and on with the punishment on Daniel Bryan that felt like an eternity to watch. At one point I was saying "Just end this already..." to my television as I had seen enough and I didn't want to see Bryan risk his health (especially since he was already on a shaky foundation back with WWE period in terms of them clearing him to compete) any further. About two-thirds of the way into this match, Bryan got like a second wind and started getting some offense on Brock. I wasn't buying this for a second - this match was nowhere as the back and forth contest that Brock had with AJ Styles last year. They were just killing time for Brock to hit the F-5 and win as usual. I'm sure they had a lot of people going that Brock was going to tap to the Yes Lock but do you honestly think that Vince McMahon is going to allow Bryan's ass to beat his golden boy Brock Lesnar? Nope, especially not when Brock Lesnar is set to return to UFC for a few fights while remaining as WWE Champion. They are going to want to make Brock look as invincible as ever until he has that next UFC fight.

Ronda Rousey def. Charlotte Flair via DQ

Boy did this match have a main event spectacle feel to it. I know WWE were pissed that they were saving this for WrestleMania next year and were forced to blow their load early in terms of booking, but there clearly wasn't any other alternative following Becky Lynch's injury.

I haven't talked about it much on Twitter and Facebook about my opinions on it, but I thought Nia Jax should have been fined or suspended for that act. There's NO excuses to be made for her in that situation. You can go back and watch the footage that's out there. Even WWE's own HD footage that was replayed on SmackDown! Live shows that Nia Jax stopped, looked Becky dead in the face, and struck her down. That was complete malice there - you have to be bat-shit insane to call that an "accident". She keeps that up and she'll be blacklisted in wrestling faster than Sexy Star or whatever name she's going by nowadays. The only reason WWE hasn't done anything to her is because who she's related to *cough* The Rock *cough*, but I will say it's a stroke of genius to just run with the heel heat. That girl is tanking on more heat than Roman Reigns and they would be nuts not to make a few bucks off the heat from pissed off fans disappointed that Nia robbed the fans along with Becky Lynch from this match.

As for this match itself, I thought it was a solid performance from both women. I've been critical of Charlotte in the past and I truly think that this year is where she's really coming into her own as a performer. She doesn't have her father's genuine knack for being able to carry anyone or anything in a wrestling ring, but she's definitely deserves to be at the top of WWE's women's divisions without a shadow of a doubt. For someone who has been training in purely MMA most of her career, Ronda Rousey has taken to this wrestling thing like a fish to water over the past year. I don't know who to blame on that turnbuckle bump towards the beginning of the match, but goddamn did that look nasty. Rousey got my respect just from continuing to tank on through the match regardless there. While I wasn't expecting a decisive victory for neither Charlotte nor Ronda here, I was taken back by the post-match attack that followed. There are no other words to describe it here - Charlotte beat the holy piss out of Ronda Rousey with those chair shots and kendo stick strikes. By the time it was all said and done, Rousey was covered with welts all over her body and even bleeding from ear from the damage that Charlotte inflicted. Heel Charlotte is ALWAYS going to be better than Babyface Charlotte any day of the week, so this was a good move in my eyes, especially when you have Becky Lynch running with the anti-hero tweener vibe.

All in all, I suggest that if you don't watch anything else on this show, go out of your way to watch this match and the post-match attack that follows after it. At least for the latter, I have the highlights of that below:

Seth Rollins def. Shinsuke Nakamura

Solid match, but that's to be expected with the talent involved here. I just wish that they had an actual program building up to this match rather than throwing shit against the wall and hoping that it sticks. On the bright side though, if they were to do another Superstar Shake-up between now and before/after WrestleMania, I would love to see Nakamura and Rollins on the same brand to get a full blown feud between them. I wonder if Nakamura's going to renew his contract with WWE in 2019 though or head back to New Japan...

AoP def. The Bar

For some reason, someone on WWE Creative thought it would be a great idea to have Drake Maverick piss himself after being cornered by The Big Show, which led to The Bar taking a loss here during this stupidity since they were "distracted". Ugh... just ugh is all I have to say about this match.

Raw men def. SmackDown men (Strowman, McIntyre, Lashley survivors)

I honestly don't understand why does Shane McMahon put himself through this every year. When it came down to him and The Miz, I knew Team SmackDown! wasn't winning shit. Shane might have won the "Best in the World" tournament in India, but that doesn't mean shit against the wealth of RAW talent that he was across the ring from. I don't watch RAW nor SmackDown! regularly, but from what I gathered from this mess between Braun Strowman and Baron Corbin is going to lead to another match between them and you can count me out on that one. I have as much interest watching that as I do wanting to watch paint dry. This match was ultimately a huge waste of talent for all men involved if I'm perfectly honest.

I can't speak for anyone else but I mentally checked out the moment Samoa Joe went out like it was nothing off ONE Claymore Kick and the crowd erupted into chants of "THIS IS BULLSHIT" for majority of what followed afterwards.

Raw women def. SmackDown women (Nia Jax sole survivor)

Mandy Rose ended up taking the vacant spot on Team SmackDown since Charlotte Flair got bumped up to fill in for Becky against Ronda, but it made little to no difference here. Most of Team SD fell like dominos back to back, but it ultimately came down to Asuka as the last woman standing to attempt to pull out a win for Team SD against the final members of Team RAW, Sasha Banks and Nia Jax. Like I mentioned earlier, it was a very wise move of WWE to take advantage of Nia's massive amount of heel heat that she has garnered as a result of what she did to Becky Lynch, but I don't necessarily agree to "rewarding" her with a win here. The only way I can agree to that is if Becky costs her the win at the Royal Rumble and that somehow sets Becky on the warpath to face Ronda at WrestleMania.

Outside of a few spots in this match, this was easily forgettable.

Kick-Off: SmackDown tag teams def. Raw tag teams (Usos sole survivors)

I didn't see this match personally, but I only bring it up as it was the only match that SmackDown! Live actually won, but commentary made a point to sweep it underneath the rug during the main part of the show like SmackDown didn't the scoreboards at all during this PPV. Xavier Woods tweeted it out too, but it went on deaf ears for the bulk of the PPV and the shows that followed on the week afterwards.

Buddy Murphy def. Mustafa Ali to retain the Cruiserweight championship

As hard as these two guys worked their asses off to make people care about this division following Triple H's revamp over the past year, especially with their high quality of matches here and on the brand as a whole lately, I think most people are finding it hard to remotely care about this division. It's sad too because I hear from people left and right that they tend to have great matches on 205 Live since changing things around, but I'm usually burnt out on WWE programming by that point of the week to even care.