A General Announcement Post

 

(Forza 3 picture if anyone was wondering)

I figured I’d try something new with the blog, and that’s pretty much make here-and-there announcements concerning future blog posts and other topics that may be covered.

First off, let me state that there are two “sections” I have awfully neglected in the last four months or so. Those two are the Weird Al Album Review Archive and The 30 Days of WWE Challenge Page. Ever since I became gainfully employed again back in July, I haven’t had the time to focus on those pages, and instead focused on what got me the most views on this here blog: wrestling lists/reviews.

As for Weird Al, I do plan on going ahead with Poodle Hat and hopefully get a post up Friday some time. As one of his lesser albums in my mind, it should be interesting to see if the opinion on it changes. I still believe “Genius in France” is by far the most overwrought song Al has ever done.

As for the ‘30 Days’, that one will be a little tougher. I am contemplating putting multiple days together and do that once a week until it is completed. I still have the original MS Notepad file with the days/selections, so it’s not like it’ll be off the top of my head.

Speaking off the top of my head, I plan on doing a special Thanksgiving post slated for one week from this coming Friday. It won’t revolve around wrestling, or NASCAR (even though the 10-year anniversary of ‘that’ New Hampshire race is coming), or even cartoons.

Instead, it will involve a special originally aired on Food Network in 1999 and has sought regular holiday rotation on cooking channels since. It’s far from the traditional “throw things in a pan and cook” style that most shows envelop, and actually holds up quite well despite the fact it is over 10 years old. Although the show it’s based off of is now officially retired (BOO!), the influence the program brought to my family will never go away.

Before wrapping this up, allow me to shill some DVD’s up for pre-order that look quite tempting. Apparently from places I go to, I can really do a sell job, so let’s see what I can do here. Remember that any product purchased through the links helps this blog, so anything done is greatly appreciated.

For the wrestling fan, there is the new Stone Cold DVD set, which has multiple discs of matches in addition to a BRAND NEW DOCUMENTARY that chronicles the life of the Rattlesnake. Not only is there a new documentary, but there are rarely-seen promos finally seeing the light of day! Lastly, Austin and Jim Ross do alternate commentary for the historic battles at Wrestlemania 13, XIV, and X-Seven!! That alone could be worth the price of admission. Hitting the street just after Thanksgiving (November 29th), this disc set looks to be HOT for the holidays! Here’s the link for the pre-order.

Just before that, a major Blu-ray release for the lover in classic animation. There is a new Looney Tunes release coming entitled the Platinum Collection. Three discs in total, it features well-known cartoons getting high-definition transfers (off of STUNNING restorations used mostly for the Golden Collections of yore), and has a whole disc of special features. While it may look like a bunch of repeats to most (save for a few new cartoons), the high-definition transfers and the “collector’s edition” (which includes certificate of authenticity, drinking glass, replica cels, etc.) looks worth it to me. This disc set, which comes in a digi-book format, hits the market on November 15th. Here’s the link for that bad-boy.

One more consideration, this time for an actual theatrical movie that’s RECENT. The smash sequel to a very much smash original, The Hangover Part II presents the theory of, “what’s not broke doesn’t need fixing.” In a nutshell, put in the crazy plot of the original, replace Doug’s wedding for Stu’s wedding, and put in exotic Thailand instead of gambling Las Vegas. While critics complained the movie felt a little too familiar, there was certainly nothing wrong with kicking back and laughing at stuff you feel bad laughing at. In a sense, I thought that while it wasn’t perfect per se, it was still an enjoyable romp that brings on the laughs and horrible Billy Joel parodies. If you’re interested in checking this out, click here. Or hell, if you don’t own the original that’s nearly a modern-day classic, do yourself a favor and get a copy here.

And that’s enough of that! See ya’ll back here on Friday for a new entry!

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BBB Rants About the Current State of WWE

 

So I read this week that WWE is really trying to improve it’s product. They are attempting this by having focus group meetings in New York City.

A focus group you say?

Yep. WWE is legitimately trying to reach out to fans of the past and present to get popular opinion on how they should steer their current product.

Well, I couldn’t attend any of these mainly because I assume they were scheduled in secret. However, I think I can provide somewhat of a voice via this blog, so here goes nothing!

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July 22nd will mark the ninth anniversary of the episode of RAW that “marked” me.

Yes, that sentence was really bad.

As you could see from a prior blog entry from my 30 (well, a helluva lot more than that) day challenge, this episode of RAW had a very memorable angle of Triple H turning on his best friend Shawn Michaels. That led to a kick-ass match at SummerSlam the month after.

Also let’s keep in mind that RAW back in those days was TV-14, and one of the main culprits why people are turned off the product today. More on that later.

For right now, I want to accentuate the positives of that episode of RAW.

In addition to the DX reunion/breakup angle, we had a wonderful segment with Eddie Guerrero and The Rock.

Rock, who had just won the WWE Championship the night before at the Vengeance PPV*, was challenged by Latino Heat to a match in the main event of the show. Not before Rock went Viva Eddie on his ass!

I didn’t know if you were Cheech, or Chong!

Also, let’s keep in check that Eddie was nothing more than a mid-carder who had a couple of runs with the Intercontinental Championship at this point in his WWE tenure.

This started the catapult of Eddie to the echelon of WWE talent.

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There is one of the biggest reasons why WWE programming is in the craphole, so to speak.

For the last several years, two men have held the top spots affirmatively. Those two men are John Cena and Randy Orton, both whom are beloved face “Superman” World Champions. 

Now I don’t have a problem with having very strong and established champions as they can bring any promotion at least some credibility.

Let’s face it though: those two men aren’t getting any younger. Cena has been banged up for a while and Orton, while not in as big a danger as Cena, still can have that one big injury that can put him on the shelf for a while.

Taking the Wasteland bad from Barrett almost made this career-ending. Fortunately, it wasn’t that much of an issue and returned to action just a couple of weeks later.

So what do you have underneath?

Well, you have guys (heels mind you) of Miz, R-Truth, Alberto Del Rio, Christian, and a boatload of others that can carry the ship. Let’s also give some shout-outs to faces on the card like Kofi Kingston, Big Show (for an attraction short-term champ), hell even Alex Riley who has started to come into his own as of late.

If anything, NOW is the time to start. WWE has no direct competition in the sports-entertainment field, and thus can take risks that won’t end the company like the potential thereof in 1997.

Speaking of risks, let’s get back to this in my mind bullshit “ratings” thing. I’ll go on both meanings here.

The first meaning is the Nielsen (not Leslie) ones. People think that because RAW and/or SMACKDOWN aren’t pulling ratings like they did ten years ago will die sooner than later, is absolute horse manure. Couple merch sale with booming “Live” (aka house show) audiences, and investing in fields not invested in back then, WWE is going to keep on going for YEARS to come.

Now let’s get to the other one, the “TV-‘x’” variety.

For the longest time, WWE programming was originally TV-PG. That’s right, from your Hogan era all the way to late 1997, all the shows were either PG or their equivalent.

At the penultimate weeks of 1997, Vince McMahon pulled the trigger on letting the second half of Monday’s show get a little more ‘raw’. In an almost unprecedented move, “RAW is WAR” was now TV-14, and let more risqué segments air.

An F-U to USA that the network ironically loved!

While it helped WWE become #1 in the wrestling wars, it also made for some unnecessarily tasteless television. For example:

Remember this? Neither do I!

Yes. Meat. As in he wrestles with a boner. Accompanied by a women’s faction called PMS, aka Pretty Mean Sisters.

From about 2000-early 2008, after Vince Russo left/”Crash-TV” ended/became a public entity, WWE went through a wholesale of changes in its identity. Top guys were leaving, competition was nowhere to be had, and people were turned off the product for one reason or another.

A lot of people blamed the recent (as in 2008) change to PG programming as a crutch.

While originally the product became more toned down as a change of what they can and can’t do, the last couple of years have signaled that WWE is now knowing what to do, and the reigns are a bit looser.

To branch out the point, ratings have nothing to do with the quality of the television as the script writers and entertainers do. Look at this segment from 1997:

This proves my point.

It shows the potential heel turn of Bret Hart, the potential face turn of “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, and the WWE Championship feud with Sid and Undertaker mixed in for good measure. THAT is great television.

What rating is it? PG!

Besides the language, I think WWE’s writers are more than capable of making something like this again, with multiple high-dollar feuds conjoining and making for some high-rolling television.

If anything, the writing is what makes the product so stale now.

There are episodes of RAW that I can predict what will happen, and eight out of ten times I’m correct. Oh gee, Cena wins AGAIN! Oh gee, Miz is ‘really’ bad on the mic AGAIN! Even worse, the main event guys are so “out there”, the mid-card can never stand a chance. Getting a couple of mid-carders to have some meddle with the world champs could really make someone sound like a legitimate threat, something much needed in this current landscape.

While I’m not a person in the WWE office or anything like that, I have to believe that there is a stranglehold going on where the writers are pretty much grounded into doing what the higher-ups want, and not much else.

The last few weeks has featured CM Punk in the height of his career, cutting controversial promos on the Chairman Vince McMahon himself, the “idiot and doofus”, and more so, pretty much breaking down the fourth wall of inner-working in the WWE. This should be an exciting time with a wave of change seemingly to follow.

I’m not holding my breath. When Punk leaves or perhaps stays, it’ll just be a flash in the pan and that everything will go back the way it was before. Unlike Austin or Rock who took charge of their characters, the current talent is not as free to do that now, and have every little aspect micro-managed down to a science.

Before I start rambling into that and probably start saying things I have no clue about, I’m going to wrap this rant up like Dave Chappelle’s “Wrap It Box”.

BAH GAWD KANG!

Now here’s your moment of Zen:

I get on top!

30 Days of WWE Challenge, Day 01 - Favorite Wrestler While Growing Up

Shawn Michaels

Before I start the introductory selection of this challenge, I would like you to read this.

Now that you’re back, and see who I selected on top, let me tell you that this decision was actually kind of easy.

My wrestling fandom started pretty late compared to some of you. While I’ve seen random clips of Monday Night Nitro, or SMACKDOWN in the past in passing, I was never truly allowed to watch RAW until 2002.

That being said, I was allowed to watch RAW from bell to bell on July 22nd, 2002. This event happened the night after the Vengeance PPV where The Rock won the Undisputed WWE Championship in a Triple Threat encounter.

The opening segment of the show revolved around “evil” Eric Bischoff, then-General Manager of the RAW brand, proclaiming to the world how newly-drafted Triple H will make his show the premier brand in all of WWE. Keep in mind, Triple H is a face (or to some of you new readers, a good guy) at this point in the show.

After some blabbering, Triple H introduces a man named Shawn Michaels. Shawn, the prior night at Vengeance, persuaded Hunter that RAW would be more fun than SMACKDOWN, and therefore that’s why Hunter signed. Bischoff then made the command for Shawn to be Hunter’s manager, something both men didn’t need/want.

Later in the show, Hunter went into Shawn’s dressing room, and gave him a bag of gear.

Turns out that gear was D-Generation X gear. Out to pyro and ballyhoo, it seems like we had a reunion on our hands…

…until Triple H turned heel on Shawn, Pedigree’d his ass down into the canvas, and the build-up for that year’s Summerslam was only beginning.

My first memories of RAW: July 22nd, 2002, when HBK more or less officially returned.

With that introduction in mind, those two men combined were among the primary reasons why I became a WWE fan on this particular night.

It also happened that Shawn would soon make his return to the ring after a four-plus year absence due to injuries. That return to the ring would be probably the most inspirational circumstance to hit the WWE in the last decade.

Just a little reminder, think of this as a part one. Day 3, which is favorite male wrestler, will continue my reasoning for Shawn’s placement, and why he is as epic as anyone who has ever stepped into the squared circle.