WWE Survivor Series 2012

Trying something new here, gonna try to review whatever pop culture events I become aware of when I see them, and since my work schedule is crazy and I don't have time for tv, it is pretty much limited to video games I play, movies I watch, and WWE Pay Per Views.  I've already explored the concept with my Pokemon updates (dubbed Pokeymans as a joke), and further with my brief review of Skyfall.  While I'm trying to nail down format, I know I can do wrestling pretty good due to my note taking.  I'm not doing a move by move breakdown of every match, but I'll hit the important points, and opine as to what my feelings were towards the match.  I will also freely admit that while I like certain guys whether they are heel or face, I find heels more interesting, since they have more nuance and depth.  A good heel is a beautiful thing to watch, the way they can bait the crowd and push buttons to generate massive heat is a wonderful thing to behold.  CM Punk, for example, is a great heel, his Straight Edge Society was incredible, and his current title run is great, the way he and Paul Heyman work off each other.  Another prime example of a great heel is Daniel Bryan, sure he is treated like a face now, but I remember a Smackdown in late January that was held in Omaha, which I managed to attend.  During that show, Bryan was World Champion, and was feuding with Big Show (still face at the time), and cut a promo in the ring that told everyone to be more like him and to be vegan... in Omaha, Nebraska... known for its world class beef.  The crowd reaction was great, although nowhere near the reaction he gets now following his screwing at Wrestlemania, and the subsequent Yes! and No! chants that are almost deafening with a great crowd.  Well, I guess I better get to my review of Survivor Series.

First match was a Survivor Series elimination match featuring the Prime Time Players (Titus O'neill and Darren Young) Primo & Epico, and Tensai Vs. Brodus Clay, Justin Gabriel, Tyson Kidd, Rey Mysterio, and Sin Cara.  Brodus Clay was eliminated first by Tensai, then the face team went on a five elimination streak to win the match 4-0. Tensai was eliminated by Justin Gabriel, Titus O'neill and Epico were eliminated by Tyson Kidd, and Primo and Darren Young were eliminated by Rey Mysterio.  Overall a good start to the show, a bit sloppy at times, but decent action, and a good pace to set for the rest of the show.

Next match was Divas title and it was Kaitlyn vs. Eve (c)
Pretty good for a Divas match, Kaitlyn is a lot more physical than the typical Diva, and that physicality kept things interesting.  Eve retains, and if they want to match these two up again at the next show, I'd be cool with it.

US title match Antonio Cesaro (c) vs. R-Truth
Loving Cesaro's run with the US title, great at getting foreigner heat, and his gimmick of being a former rugby player kicked out for violence really works.  Pretty good match, decent pacing and action, Cesaro retains vowing an American won't beat him for the title.

Painfully bad segment between AJ and Vickie Guerrero, I really couldn't care less about the "scandal" storyline.  Only good thing was Tamina Snuka making her return, looking forward to an actual feud between AJ and Tamina, they are both young and talented and should be fun to watch.

After that was the World Heavyweight Championship match between Big Show (c) and Shaemus. Good match, but the ref-bump DQ finish I thought was kinda stupid, oh well given Shaemus' reaction after the match, its gonna be a chairs match at TLC.

Next is the Survivor Series match between Team Ziggler (Alberto Del Rio, Damien Sandow (my guy, probably the future of the WWE) David Otunga (had a great promo for TLC) Wade Barrett, and Dolph Ziggler) and Team Foley (Kane and Daniel Bryan (my guy as well) Kofi Kingston, the Miz, and Randy Orton)  Damien Sandow is first out after trying to leave the match early, eliminated by Kane who upon arguing with Daniel Bryan is elimnated by Dolph Ziggler.  David Otunga taps out to Daniel Bryan's No! Lock, Kofi Kingston gets knocked out by Wade Barrett, Daniel Bryan taps out to a Cross Arm Breaker by Alberto Del Rio.  Wade Barrett is eliminated by the Miz who is in turn eliminated by Alberto Del Rio, who gets eliminated by Randy Orton, who in a thrilling finish is eliminated by Dolph Ziggler.  Exciting match, loved seeing Ziggler pick up a clean win in a big match, would love to see the storylines coming out of this match.

Main Event Triple Threat match for the WWE Championship  John Cena vs. CM Punk (c) vs. Ryback
Great match with superb timing and action, all three played their parts well, Ryback-unstoppable monster, CM Punk-cowardly yet cunning heel, and Cena-Superman.  High points, CM Punk hitting the Macho Man elbow drop on Cena and Ryback while Cena had an STF locked in on Ryback, Punk and Cena teaming up to put Ryback through an announce table, and a chase sequence around the ring that would have been better with Benny Hill music.  The finish of the match had Ryback destroying Cena and Punk and before he could go for a pin, three security guys run into the ring and jump Ryback putting him through the Spanish Announce Table, giving Punk a chance to cover Cena for a three count and the win, Punk retains, and is now the WWE champion for one full year.  Turns out the three security guards were in actuality three rising stars from          NXT including Seth Rollins (current NXT champion), Dean Ambrose (internet darling) and Roman Reigns (former NFL player related to the Rock somehow) early speculation would be for a stable under CM Punk to help keep the title on him until the Royal Rumble where presumably the Rock wins it off him.

I thought this PPV was fantastic, with good matches and a great finish, can't wait for Raw to see what the aftermath will be.

pokeymans 5

Just caught a shiny Golbat (green skin instead of blue) its lvl 54, and along with my slugma and raticate is my third shiny pokemon in Generation 4 games.

This Sunday is Survivor Series, so expect a review of that soon.

Really the only reason for this post was my shiny Golbat.

Pokeymans 4

In a brief run in training my Wurmple from 25-30, my Golbat achieved lvl 57 (training run was brief since my area I train in is Mt. Stark, and Wurmples suck ass).

In other news I heard a rumor of the possibility of Christopher Nolan directing one of the new Star Wars movies, and it is now my number one desire for upcoming movies.  That and hoping Warner Bros. doesn't fuck up the Justice League like they did Green Lantern and Jonah Hex.

skyfall

Mild spoilers for Skyfall, if you want to know if I liked it?  I did, should you see it? Yes.  I try to avoid major spoilers if possible, but minor ones may be discussed and might  ruin plot twists, depending on your perception.  You have been warned.

I went to Skyfall the other day, and I gotta say, it lived up to the hype.  The opening chase scene was great, loved the little nods to previous Bond movies with special attention payed to the 60's movies in general, and being a thematic follow-up to Casino Royal, I thought it worked quite well on that level.  I know Quantum of Solace came after Casino Royal and before this, but Quantum is largely ignored as the sequel bait in that movie is not referenced, and Skyfall feels more like a follow-up to Casino Royal than anything else.  Thematically there is a definite narrative of old vs. new, and given the ending, I would say it is also everything old is new again.

Acting wise, two people really carry this movie, M played by Dame Judy Dench in probably her biggest role in a Bond film, and Silver played by Javier Bardem who is both unsettling and intimidating in ways that aren't traditional in a Bond film.  Can't remember the character name, but Ralph Fiennes does a great job as M's heir apparent.  The actress who played Eve did quite well too, though I don't think I've seen her in anything before, and the new Q was pretty entertaining, and I hope he stays with the franchise long term.

Non-plot spoilers for various references and Easter eggs I noticed.  the Aston Martin DB 5 was a can't miss nod to Goldfinger, the bottle of 1962 scotch is a reference to Bond himself, being from Scotland and debuting in 1962, not sure if it is a direct reference or just a thematic one, but Q giving Bond a gun and a radio, and only a gun and a radio just felt like a 60's spy thing.  The line about exploding pens is a reference to Goldeneye.  The last scene of the movie might as well be the beginning of Dr. No.   The title sequence the Adele's Skyfall feels like an opening to a 60's Bond film, and I loved every moment of the opening.

some of the negatives I noticed were that the third act was maybe a little too slow, though there were some good character moments, and I liked the "lethal Home Alone" sequence.  Would have liked to see a watch laser or a pen gun or something, but I guess they wanted to keep Bond low tech to contrast with Silver who could hack anything, anytime, anywhere.

Really? Just go see it, its great.

in Pokeymans news, my Giratina is lvl 72 having gained a lvl while helping train Ludicolo from 25 to 39.  That is all, see you next time I got something important to say.

pokeymans 3

Giratina got to lvl 71 as I was training a Huntail from 25-33.   In other news I left work early due to some stomach bug or something, hopefully I'll be better by Monday.  in other news, getting comics tomorrow and seeing Skyfall, reviews to follow.

pokeymans 2

A recent training run saw my burmy go from lvl 25 to lvl 40, as well as seeing my Heatran go up a lvl to 71.  In other news, Golbat sucks ass (has hardly any defense and gets one-shot with ease) if not for being my Flier (more for mobility than anything else) I would probably switch him out for someone more useful.

pokeymans

hello my non-existent readers, I have returned from a four year absence.  I've been pretty busy with the whole job thing, working 50+ hours a week and all.  In the last four years I have gotten a new car (Pontiac G6, was my mom's, has some suspension issues but otherwise is a good car) a new job (I work at a factory that makes gas meters that go on your house so the utilities company knows how much gas you use) a new apartment (actually moved twice since my last post and my best friend is my roomate now) and the reason I came back here again, I have been playing a shit-ton of Pokemon lately.

So I have been playing Pokemon Diamond for some time now, and I had managed to acquire all 493 pokemon (in that generation at any rate, I haven't played much of Black and White, and even if I had, I can't transfer any of them backwards, so 493 is the limit) everything that was possible to get legitimately, I got the correct way, certain impossible legendaries had to be gotten by cheating (Jirachi, Celebi, next to impossible to find any legit) everything else is 100% legit.  Anyway, I have one of every possible pokemon, including all 28 unown, and I have been power leveling them all so I can get them all to lvl 100.  As of this post, I have all of my Pokemon over lvl 25.

Today I managed to get my first lvl 100, my Lucario is the first one to get there.  Then shortly thereafter my Garchomp hit 100, then my Luxray, then my Starapter, and finally my Bibarel.  All told, I got 5 pokemon to lvl 100 today while training my Pachirisu (which went from 25 to 33).  Since my leveling team all hit 100, I now need a new team, so my next highest level pokemon are my lvl 97 Infernape (my starter from Diamond, and the pokemon I've had the longest in this game), lvl 70 Heatran, lvl 70 Regigigas, lvl 70 Giratina, and lvl 56 Golbat.  Of those five, only Flamer (my Infernape) has been a part of my main team.

so in conclusion, my list of 100s now includes
Pokemon                                                          party
Lucario                                                             (Pachirisu, Lucario, Garchomp, Luxray, Starapter, Bibarel)
Garchomp                                                         (Pachirisu, Lucario, Garchomp, Luxray, Starapter, Bibarel)
Luxray                                                               (Pachirisu, Lucario, Garchomp, Luxray, Starapter, Bibarel)
Starapter                                                            (Pachirisu, Lucario, Garchomp, Luxray, Starapter, Bibarel)
Bibarel                                                               (Pachirisu, Lucario, Garchomp, Luxray, Starapter, Bibarel)

I'll be back next time I have an accomplishment to share.