Tonight, as part of the continuing Extra Life Charity Series, ThatRuled.com is streaming Super Castlevania 4 and Castlevania 3, on the Super Nintendo and Nintendo Entertainment System, respectively.
We figured that would be great to take a Halloween-themed approach to one of the last days of the drive. So, bring your whip, and your candles, and play along with us as we follow the Belmonts on their epic quest!
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Yup…it got that sequel.
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Skeletroy, Grant, and Jimmy discuss the future of downloadable games vs disc based ones, and get into an interesting discussion about video game manuals… no, really, it’s interesting.
Watch Zach, Jimmy, Troy, and the ThatRuled.com team take on Mega Man X as quickly as possible.
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Mega Man X speed run for charity is live! http://t.co/51BW5V0yGe #PowerUp
— Jimmy TR (@jimmythatruled) October 30, 2013
(Fan poster created by deviantART user sebaz316)
Hello everyone, and welcome to another PPV review by yours truly. This time around, Hell In A Cell. I honestly can’t even feign enthusiasm and I only really just woke up (slept through the PPV) so let’s just get started.
Pre-show match: Kofi Kingston vs. Damien Sandow – Yes, that’s right, Curtis Axel/Big E Langston isn’t the pre-show match. Never fear though, if you cared about that match it did happen on the actual PPV from what they say on commentary, so I’ll get to that later. Pretty meh match in retrospect, though Kofi doing a Hilo off the steps was pretty cool. Sandow wins with a Full Nelson Slam. Ok. I can live with that.
Match Rating: Solid C+ (Figured I’d get a new rating system) – Already forgotten most of what happened and there was only 2 memorable parts of the match anyway, but it was by no means a terrible match.
Writer’s Note: Oh, seems I misheard. Big E’s facing Dean Ambrose for the US Title on the actual PPV, not Axel for the IC Title. My bad.
Cody Rhodes & Goldust (c) vs. The Usos vs. The Shield (Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins) in a Triple Threat Tag Team match for the WWE Tag Team Championships – Wow. Just…wow. This match was AMAZING! AND IT’S ONLY THE SHOW OPENER! Good lord, if this is a sign of things to come, then this PPV may actually be worth it. With this we also get our first “Holy shit!” moment of the night when Cody superplexed Seth to the outside and onto the other men in the match. I honestly didn’t think the spot would happen (as it never seems to for obvious reasons), but damn when it did I legit marked out. I noticed this match actually got a good amount of time to work with; felt like it went for at least 15 minutes. WWE also managed to trick me into thinking The Usos could win, so I tip my hat to them for actually doing that. Cody & Goldust retain after Cody hits Seth with a jumping Cross Rhodes (after almost everyone else had been taken out), and hopefully they get a decent run in before the Usos FINALLY get a run with the belts.
Match Rating: Solid A+++ – THAT is how you open a PPV.
After that match The Miz came out and challenged Bray to a fight, only to get what basically amounted to a “no” from Bray and Luke & Eric show up instead. Kane of all people returns and makes the save, only to Chokeslam Miz anyway. Just goes to show, everybody hates The Miz. Normally I don’t bring up this kind of stuff when talking about PPVs, but this wasn’t an entirely pointless moment so yeah, decided to bother mentioning it.
Writer’s Note: After that we got Fandango & Summer Rae vs. Khali & Natalya. I could NOT be bothered to watch it, so I skipped to the end and noticed that Summer Rae won with a clean roll up. So there you go.
Dean Ambrose (c) vs. Big E. Langston for the United States Championship – This match was alright but nothing overly special. Well, except Big E getting busted open.
(rare to see black WWE wrestlers bleed)
Plus Dean Ambrose getting a bit of that blood on him and not giving a fuck, and Big E hitting Dean with a spear through the ropes. Aside from that it was standard stuff. Big E wins via count out and therefore Dean retains, with Big E. laying out Dean anyway afterwards.
Match Rating: Solid B+ – Mainly for the things I mentioned before.
CM Punk vs. Ryback & Paul Heyman in a 2-on-1 Handicap Hell In A Cell match – Not a terrible match, but since Heyman didn’t even get involved the handicap aspect was completely pointless. I will however say that this match was fairly boring despite being mercifully short. Punk wins off a GTS and then sticks a kendo stick through his tights.
Then climbs up on top of the cell (Where Heyman had been the entire match) and beats Heyman up with it. So Punk wins the feud and hopefully both sides can move on to other things.
Match Rating: Solid C- – Still want the “Heyman Guys” thing to go the way of the stable of clients Heyman had back in late 02/early 03 though.
Los Matadores vs. The Real Americans – Well. Cesaro did that Giant Swing. And Los Matadores won with a tag move. I guess that’s cool. Seriously though, not a bad match, but not a memorable one either.
Match Rating: Solid D- – El Torito surprisingly still doesn’t bother me though
Alberto Del Rio (c) vs. John Cena for the World Heavyweight Championship – This was honestly a pretty good match; not great but good. Cena pulling off a decent Tornado DDT and diving crossbody were some highlights of his stuff, as well as rolling through on the Cross Armbreaker into a an STS (What Cena does is rarely an STF). They keep panning back to Sandow watching, but that doesn’t amount to anything; shame really. Cena wins with the only successful AA of the match and I don’t know whether I care or not. Kind of indifferent on him winning to a degree. I wanted Del Rio to retain, but at the same time the WHC may stop being treated like the IC Title for a while with Cena in its title scene. Cena leaves with Sandow not even so much as coming out to tease a cash in….booooooo.
Match Rating: Solid A+ – Mainly because Cena did pretty well in this match, especially coming off an injury. Props to him for breaking out some new moves.
Writer’s Note: AJ vs. Brie up next….ugh, do I have to watch this? I do? God damn it.
AJ Lee (c) w/ Tamina vs. Brie Bella w/ Nikki Bella for the Diva’s Championship – Wow. That wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be. Brie definitely seems to be making the effort to improve at least going by how this match started. The crowd was kinda dead for them in parts though; I felt both sorry for and laughed at Nikki for having to try for two or so minutes just to get a decent slow clap from the audience. Just goes to show how little of a shit the fans give about the Bella Twins. AJ wins via submission and keeps the belt. Thank God.
Match Rating: Solid C+ – Brie wasn’t terrible and AJ was AJ. Might’ve gone up to a B- had Brie used a Flying Mare.
Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton in a Hell In A Cell match for the vacant WWE Championship – Well, we finally got what we wanted at least; a WWE Champion was crowned. The match was pretty good, nothing really mind blowing but it wasn’t terrible. Despite accidentally spoiling it for myself (really should’ve avoided Facebook completely) I was content with the finish. Triple H is Shawn’s best friend, they’ve been hammering that in for weeks to remind us. Of course when Bryan attacks Triple H Shawn would retaliate, that’s what friends do. Plus if that was blatantly supposed to be a heel turn, nobody told Shawn, since he basically sold it like he was thinking “Shit! What have I done?” and my guess is that’s how they’ll play it.
As far as I’m concerned though, this should be the end of Bryan’s WWE Title matches for a few months. He should drop down a rung and feud with Triple H now. But that’s just me, I seriously want to see a Team YES vs. Team “Best For Business” match at Survivor Series. Really though I just want them to not bother putting the belt on Bryan again until they want to give him the belt for a few months. Hell, have him win the Rumble and then win the belt at Mania; that could work if done right.
But as far as this match goes, it wasn’t bad. Could’ve been better in spots but I don’t regret watching it or anything.
Match rating: Solid B+ – And no, I didn’t just give this match that rating because Bryan was in the match.
Overall PPV Rating: Solid B- – Well, the PPV wasn’t complete shit, but I didn’t have any expectations for it to meet. Go figure.
Match Of The Night: WWE Tag Team Championship match – I don’t really need to say much else, just go and watch the match for yourself, even if it’s the only match you watch from the PPV.
Closing Thoughts – Filler In A Cell more like it to be honest. I mean, good on WWE for making Los Matadores/Real Americans a PPV match to help give the tag division more exposure, but it felt more like a SmackDown match than a PPV match. Fandango/Rae vs. Khali/Natalya came outta nowhere and I didn’t bother watching it to spare my sanity. Also I have to say, it’s kind of sad when the match of the night is the opener. It gets your hopes up, only for the rest of the show to crush those hopes.
Good points? Well, ummm, Cena did a Tornado DDT, that was cool. We finally have a WWE Champion again, which was the only hope I had going into this PPV. The fans showed why the Bella Twins shouldn’t be pushed so hard, plus AJ retained. The Usos had a strong PPV showing despite not winning, and the titles didn’t change hands after only recently doing so. Yeah I’d say the outcomes were all pretty satisfying aside from Cena winning the World Heavyweight Championship. I mean, I don’t hate Cena, but if this doesn’t help to make the title relevant again then it’s an entirely pointless run in my eyes.
All in all, this PPV could’ve been a lot worse, but it also could’ve been a lot better too. Was it better than Battleground? Yes, I can safely say that it was, though I didn’t think that PPV was entirely irredeemable either. That’s what low standards will get you folks. Expect nothing and you may get some satisfaction. And with that, I bid you adieu until my next article. I leave you with a sign from the PPV that actually got a laugh out of me.
The Top 5 of Ink’s list are all here!
The countdown of Ink’s favorite superheroes continues.
Oh yes, you did read that correctly. I honestly don’t think The Joker should be in Batman: Arkham Origins. Don’t get me wrong, I love The Joker, but I’m not blindly going to get something because The Joker is in it. Also I’m not saying they should take him out last minute or anything, or generally saying they should undo all of their hard work; though I will concede that this is basically “he never should’ve been in it in the first place”. I also will make a follow up article after I have played the game stating whether I hold true to this opinion, or if the game has made me change my mind. Remember, this is written having not played the game yet, so my opinion could easily change once it’s released.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand exactly why The Joker seems to be in everything and is everywhere; he’s an iconic villain and the character has earned that spot. However Joker has been the main focus of both previous Arkham games. Sure, he was the main villain in Arkham Asylum, so that gets a pass, however he also hogs the spotlight in Arkham City; a game where the main villain is SUPPOSED to be Hugo Strange (or Ra’s Al Ghul, or both). Don’t believe me? His story ends AFTER the main plot does. I will admit it worked due to how they handled the conclusion of that story, but the fact remains that a sub-plot concluded after the main story.
Now, we come to Arkham Origins, where the main villain is supposed to be Black Mask, which automatically drew me to the game out of curiosity as to how that would play out, with Deathstroke’s inclusion being what sealed the deal for me. But what will most people like me (comic adaptation fans) most likely care about? The Joker is in there! Come on guys! Even Batman Begins didn’t have Joker! Why should this? I get it, I get it…”Joker sells”, fine, but come on guys, if you’re going to include him, make him a flat out side villain with guys like Anarky, or flat out diminish him to a cameo appearance like Mad Hatter got in Arkham City.
Hell, think about it. If they’re trying to “fall back in mainstream known villains”, and that’s their logic for using Joker in every game, guess what? THEY DID A POOR JOB OF THAT IN ASYLUM!
They didn’t seem too preoccupied with trying to throw in a bucket load of well-known (mainstream wise) Batman villains. Hell, even the biographies in Arkham Asylum are filled with a bunch of villains I had no idea existed at the time (Great White Shark, Tweedledum & Tweedledee, Killer Moth, etc.). Honestly I wish that trend had continued with the Arkham City biographies, but oh well, a man can dream.
Actually, that’s a whole other thing I’d like to bring up. Fine, Joker’s in it. But guess what? I actually find myself being drawn towards EVERY OTHER VILLAIN more than Joker, purely because I don’t know as much about the other villains. Does that mean I’ll necessarily like all of the other villains? No. But to me the unknown is a lot more fascinating in this sort of case. Mad Hatter was a case for this in Arkham City, and he turned out to be one of my favourite villains despite only making a cameo appearance, so I’m excited to learn he’s having a (probably only somewhat) larger role in Arkham Origins. As far as Joker goes though, I honestly do not care about Joker’s storyline at all as of writing this. He wants to blow up a bunch of buildings on Christmas Eve? Seems more like a Calendar Man scheme to me. Seriously, switch out Joker for Calendar Man in that scenario and see if it changes anything. Makes more sense with Calendar Man doesn’t it?
Going along with that, Joker’s sub-plot seems entirely tacked on and pointless to me. Here we’ve got a game where the main plot is that, for some reason, Black Mask has hired eight assassins to try and kill Batman; so Batman has to survive their attacks and find Black Mask, also trying to figure out why this is even happening in the first place. Sounds like a basic, yet strong, story to base a game around to me. If Joker is a major player then it just throws everything out of balance, considering we have NINE main villains already. There are enough characters to focus on without needing Joker as a major player, or even a minor player. Once again, Batman Begins didn’t need The Joker, so why does Arkham Origins? As of now it’s a completely unnecessary addition to an already appealing game in my eyes; whether it’s handled well or not
That aside, I realise I could actually end up being wrong about how large a role Joker even plays in this game. For all I know, he could actually just be stuck in the same boat as Anarky and be a side-mission villain (ala Riddler, Zsasz & Bane in Arkham City), rather than a major sub-plot villain. If that’s the case? Then fine, I won’t mind as much, and I’ll admit that in a follow up article. But as of right now, I firmly believe this game does NOT need The Joker. And I honestly doubt that his story being well done will change that. Whether it does or not, I do intend to do a follow up article.
Does anyone actually agree with me? Do you disagree? Either way leave your opinions below (Negative wise only if you actually have something constructive to say) and I’ll see you all again next time.
Ink begins the countdown of his favorite superheroes, beginning with 15-11.
Sometime in the last decade (I think specifically when I was still in high school) I bought my mother the entire first season of the original Law & Order for Christmas. I mainly did so because she was and still is a huge fan of the spin-offs, and I figured “well, hey, Law & Order is Law & Order”, so I bought the first season of the original show. It turns out she didn’t really appreciate that as much as I thought she would, so I basically took to watching it myself instead after a while. After watching the season the entire way through, I actually found myself becoming a bigger fan of Law & Order than I already was, giving the original show more of a chance than I (like my mother) previously had.
Since then I have decided the original show is definitely worth watching, and honestly is somewhat underrated compared to its spin-offs Special Victims Unit & Criminal Intent. With that said, here are five reasons why I think you should give, at the very least, the first season of Law & Order a watch. Just a note though, this is mainly directed at fans of these kinds of shows, but even if you aren’t, this still applies to you.
Reason 1: The Acting
The acting in this show is brilliant. From the leads, to recurring and/or supporting cast, to people in small parts you only ever see once or twice. I do not think I have ever thought someone who showed up in this season was a terrible actor. The reason being is every single character comes off as a legitimate person that could actually exist, instead of an actor playing a role. Sure, some of the dialogue occasionally seems like flat out Hollywood-ish dialogue, but it at least makes sense within the conversation, and that’s only very rarely. Majority of the time the dialogue feels genuine, which the actors run with and read in a way that makes it seem even more genuine.
What’s also interesting is that Law & Order, even in this first season, seemed to like reusing actors who’d previously played significant or minor roles in episodes as completely different characters. I would recognise them by appearance, but they were definitely playing a different character. The best example of this is Marcia Jean Kurtz, an actress who appears twice in the first season. In her first appearance (a role in the episode Everybody’s Favorite Bagman) she has a minor role as the grieving, oblivious widow to the titular “bagman” in question. Her second appearance comes in the form of Carla Lowenstein; a psychotic, drug addicted and battered wife of a psychotherapist. Quite the transition right?
Reusing actors aside the entire show comes off more like a documentary because of how the acting is handled, which leads me to my next point.
Reason 2: The Style/Presentation
As I just said, this show feels more like a documentary sometimes than an actual scripted TV show. From what I’ve seen that was Dick Wolf’s intent from the get go, with him even going so far as to film the show’s pilot episode, Everybody’s Favorite Bagman, in 16mm film instead of the standard 35mm it used from then on. Basically you could say the show has a very “docu-drama” feel, which makes sense considering most (if not all) episodes are “ripped form the headlines. The fact that even after the pilot the footage still seems very non-pristine helps this, and I honestly wouldn’t change it. Even the lack of establishing shots actually seems to help the show rather than hinder it.
I mean, you could make the joke that the “location cards” are a bit of a 60s Batman transition way of doing things, but I honestly don’t mind it. In fact, the location cards also help address the fact that there are sometimes significant time skips in the episodes. Sometimes only a few hours are lost, but other times entire days, weeks or months go by between scenes, and the location cards help to point that out in a way they’d otherwise possibly have to ignore, or force into the dialogue.
Aside from that the last thing I would like to bring up in this is simply way the show is presented. In case you weren’t aware, half of the show is dedicated to the police side of things, the other half to the court side of things. The concept isn’t entirely original from what I’ve read (a similar show with only one season existed before this), but Law & Order seems to be the first to follow the DA side of the court proceedings instead of the defence attorneys. Generally I grew to find this an interesting premise; one that would be a lot more glanced over in the spin-offs, which seem to always focus more on the police side than the trials. In any case I think it’s a concept that works, with a style that greatly complements it.
Reason 3: Michael Moriarty as Ben Stone
Ok, ok, I know, I already covered the acting side of things, but mentioning Michael Moriarty on his own can be justified. Hell, if I had to pick a favourite actor from Law & Order season one, Michael Moriarty would have to be it (With George Dzundza as a very close second). The man gives arguably the best performances in majority of the episodes, and his ability to seemingly bring legitimate anger into his character Ben Stone’s prosecutions when necessary is amazing. Apparently I’m not the only one to like him this much, as Dick Wolf has even flat out called Michael Moriarty the heart and soul of the early years of Law & Order, which I’d say is pretty high praise, and something I may actually agree with solely going by this season alone.
The irony of all this praise is that, aside from the 80s horror movie The Stuff (thanks to Cine-Masochist’s review of it), Law & Order is the only thing I’ve ever seen Michael Moriarty in. And I saw him in Law & Order before The Stuff. So basically all this praise is coming from his work on the show alone, and not me being a fan of his acting generally (which I can’t really be due to what I stated). For examples of my favourite Michael Moriarty performances in the first season, check out the episodes “Indifference”, “Life Choice” and “By Hooker, By Crook”.
Reason 4: The Ensemble Cast
Now, technically every incarnation of Law & Order has an ensemble cast. The fact of the matter is however that the original Law & Order actually sticks to that aspect. Special Victims Unit seems to usually focus more on Mariska Hargitay’s character Olivia Benson (with her character also getting the most character-driven storylines), and Criminal Intent mainly seeming to focus on Vincent D’Onofrio’s character Robert Goren before he left the show. The original Law & Order, even from the very beginning, was truly an ensemble cast, with everyone pretty much getting equal screen time unless the episode called for it to be otherwise.
The other benefit of an ensemble cast is that, when the issue arises of one character not appealing to you, there’s plenty more where that came from. Personally I enjoy every main/recurring character from this season, but I can see why people wouldn’t like certain characters.
Reason 5: The Stories
Here’s a list of topics covered in the first season of Law & Order.
You get the idea right? Basically for the first season of a show, this covers a hell of a lot of ground. The only conclusion I can come to is that, with how difficult it seemed to be to get the show off the ground in the first place, Dick Wolf probably realised the show may only last one season, and decided to throw as much into it as physically possible just in case. Honestly that may even be why this first season is so great. They HAD to put this much effort in to it, or NBC probably wouldn’t have even considered picking the show up for a second season, let alone actually doing so. I must admit I was actually taken aback by how pretty intense the majority of the episodes are.
What do I think is the most intense episode? Indifference. Definitely Indifference. If you manage to watch the whole thing I applaud you. I mean, I have, several times, but it is hard to watch considering some of the stuff that happens in it, and generally the entire subject matter. Hell, if you aren’t used to this show and make it past the opening credits of the episode Mushrooms? Again, I’ll applaud you, because that episode has the darkest ending to a cold opening I’ve ever seen on any Law & Order episode.
Despite being a bit overwhelmed by this revelation though, I must admit it may be what turned me into such a huge Law & Order fan. Law & Order was a show that wouldn’t shy away from things, even when NBC probably wished they would (the episode Life Choice has apparently never been shown in repeats). They pushed the boundaries on purpose and it made for some great stuff, especially when characters would have very realistically angry reactions to things that were brought up. For that I have all the respect in the world for Dick Wolf and the other people behind the show.
So, that’s about it. As I said before the first season of Law & Order pretty much holds a special place in my heart at this point, and I really hope that fans of the later Law & Order run, fans of the spin-offs, and generally people who’ve never even watched Law & Order before give this a read and decide to at least give it a try. Honestly all I hope to achieve with this is to at least get people to consider it, but I’ll obviously be happy to hear if I’ve convinced anyone to actually outright give it a chance somehow. Not expecting anyone to watch it and like it mind you, but if you at least give it a shot, then you’re good in my book.
That’s all for now, I’ll see you guys next time with whatever article I decide to write next.
(Fan poster created by deviantART user JoKeRWord)
Hello everyone. Since I haven’t gotten around to doing the article I intended to do next yet, that will have to wait. For now? It’s time for another written review of a WWE PPV!
Ah WWE Battleground. The second PPV in a row that the vast majority couldn’t care less about going in, purely because of, say it with me now, poor build up. Hell, as of late I’ve noticed a lot of people saying the WWE has basically been on rinse-repeat mode since SummerSlam, so there seems to be nothing but bad signs going in. However, despite all that, I will be giving this PPV an objective look. There has been plenty of PPVs I’ve seen where I had no/low expectations going in, and ended up actually feeling like I hadn’t wasted my time when it was all over. Was that the case this time? Well, let’s see shall we?
Oh, one last thing. This review is “late” simply because I did not watch the PPV as it happened. Like hell I was going to pay for this PPV, and streams are very untrustworthy these days. So, since I was tired already due to being up all night, I decided to go to sleep and watch the PPV when I woke up. With that out of the way, let’s get star-…wait a minute…
What in the name of hell is that? No seriously, I am legitimately confused by this stage set up. Who the fuck thought this was a good idea? The PPV is called Battleground, where’s the tanks? Where’s the sand bags piled on top of each other to use as cover? Where’s the Army Jeeps? WHERE’S ANYTHING THAT WOULD FIT THE NAME OF THIS PPV? Don’t get me wrong, I know this is a stupid thing to complain about, but for some reason I just can’t help it. This is something you use for a generic PPV no one cares about or that doesn’t have an actual theme. Oh. Suddenly it all makes sense now. Actually wait, no it doesn’t. If WWE DON’T want us to think this is just a PPV we’ll most likely never see again and is just here to fill space it shouldn’t be occupying (considering we have another PPV in like, what, two weeks?), they could at least dress up the stage a bit better than four of those…things. We’re off to a pretty bad start now aren’t we?
Anyway, I should probably finally get started right? Right.
Street Fight for the World Heavyweight Championship: Alberto Del Rio (c) vs. RVD w/ Ricardo Rodriquez – First off I want to say two things.
1. I will never buy that Lillian Garcia will ever be annoyed by being asked to announce someone in Spanish. Any time someone with even a somewhat Spanish sounding name comes out, she’ll accentuate the hell out of that name. So please, WWE, if you’d be so kind, STOP IT.
2. I refused to call this match by its actual name because its actual name is stupid. That and it doesn’t even appear to be a proper (even by WWE standards) ”hardcore match”, and as such I have called it a Street Fight, since that’s basically what it seems to be anyway
With that out of the way, onto the match itself. And wow, the fans seemed to be far too easily amused during this one. Don’t get me wrong, it was a good match, but I don’t think it deserved the “This is awesome” chants that happened a few times. The spots were alright, but for a match they kept referring to as a “hardcore match”, falls didn’t count outside of the ring and the only weapons we got were a chair, a ladder and a trash can. Doesn’t seem like much compared to some of the No DQ matches WWE has had this year. Ricardo getting involved to help RVD was a nice surprise I must say, you rarely see face managers do that for some reason. Can’t think of any times I’ve seen that anyway off the top of my head. The chair-aided Cross Armbreaker was a nice touch, but when that happened I honestly started questioning how long the match had been going. I know it was the show opener, but it really didn’t feel like it went long enough and felt pretty rushed in hindsight. In any case, Del Rio retains and it seems RVD is out of the title picture and possibly out of the WWE now from what I hear. That would explain the decisive win I guess.
Match rating: 6/10 – Not as good as their Night Of Champions match honestly, but not a terrible match. As I said, it felt rushed and wasn’t much of a “hardcore” match, which is odd considering the men involved. Probably not the best match to open with considering how it turned out. Axel/Kofi got the crowd more warmed up than this match did. Yes, I just said that.
The Great Khali & Santino w/ Hornswoggle vs. The Real Americans (Jack Swagger & Antonio Cesaro) w/ Zeb Colter – A Khali match? Ugh, do I HAVE to watch this? Fine, fine, I’ll give it a chance.
*20 minutes of loading time later*
Ok yeah that was a waste of time. Some decent wrestling from everyone but Khali, but even then this match was extremely short and pretty boring. The only highlight was Cesaro using a Giant Swing on Khali. Guess that makes it the first ever literal Giant Swing. Huh. Anyway, Cesaro & Swagger win because somehow a Giant Swing is enough to beat Khali these days. What. Just. What. I like Cesaro, but that makes this match even worse. He won using a Giant Swing? HE WON! USING A GIANT! SWING!
“That could be the greatest finish in WWE” NO JBL! NO! BAD JBL! BAD! HE WON WITH A GIANT SWING!
Match rating: 3/10 – A FUCKING GIANT SWING!
Curtis Axel (c) vs. R-Truth for the Intercontinental Championship – Not much to say about this match; it was pretty boring honestly. The crowd even started random chants they were so bored (including a JBL chant). The finish was abysmal in the sense it was so anti-climactic. I actually thought Truth was going to kick out to get the crowd going again. Axel retains, no one cares, and the commentators almost immediately shift their attention to talking about the pre-show (which I haven’t watched by the way). All in all an extremely mediocre match from two guys I’d expect more from when paired up.
Match Rating: 4/10 – Not even close to being as good as Kofi/Axel from Night Of Champions.
AJ Lee (c) w/ Tamina Snuka vs. Brie Bella w/ Nikki Bella for the Divas Championship – Ummmmm….the finish was sort of interesting? Tamina actually doing something was interesting? Yeah that’s all I got.
Match rating: 3/10 – Brie took that steel post like a champ though. Oh, and AJ retained by the way.
Goldust & Cody Rhodes w/ Dusty Rhodes vs. The Shield (Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns) w/ Dean Ambrose – Ok. Wow. This match actually lived up to the hype and fan interest surrounding it. Despite knowing from the get go Goldust & Cody would win, this match still entertained the hell outta me; and I was legitimately invested in it the entire time. The crowd definitely helped, especially when they exploded for both Dusty hitting Ambrose with his belt buckle, and Cody winning the match. Not much else to say really. Oh wait, one more thing, Goldust with Darth Maul style face paint was amazing.
Match rating: 9/10 – A great match with great emotion, and a great crowd response
Bray Wyatt w/ Eric Rowan & Luke Harper vs. Kofi Kingston – First things first. WWE, please stop using that stock “We’re here” clip before The Wyatt Family come out. It’s getting old, and we KNOW it’s the same damn thing. Stop it. That aside this was a pretty good little match for something that was basically thrown together at the last minute. Never thought I’d ever see a Crucifix Driver in WWE, and that exorcist thing Bray Wyatt did was creepy as fuck.
Bray gets the win, of course, but thankfully Kofi gets a pretty damn good showing, instead of just getting steamrolled like I thought he might. Thank heavens for small miracles. Also, holy shit, that snap Sister Abigail came outta nowhere.
Match rating: 8/10 – Fairly short, but it didn’t feel rushed and was quite an enjoyable watch.
Ryback w/ Paul Heyman vs. CM Punk – You know, this match was surprisingly good. Not a fan of the finish, but still. I’m actually a fan of Ryback, and this may be the better of his encounters with CM Punk as far as matches go. Seems Punk decided to get revenge for that botched table spot from RAW two weeks ago though by busting Ryback’s jaw open with some shoot elbow strikes. Punk wins because of a low blow, taking advantage of an unintentional distraction Heyman causes. Now, my problem with the finish isn’t the fact that Punk (a face) won with dirty tactics. I mean, come on, it’s CM Punk, it makes sense. My issue is it makes Ryback look weaker than usual and he gains absolutely nothing with this loss.
I stand by my opinion that Ryback should’ve won this match, as it would’ve Punk more to work with leading into Hell In A Cell. There’ll most likely be a rematch anyway, but still, I doubt Ryback will win that rematch.
Match rating: 7/10 – Good effort from both guys, and even though I don’t really like the finish, at least it fits Punk’s character.
Randy Orton vs. Daniel Bryan for the vacant WWE Championship – Great showing from both guys, and guess what? I actually liked the finish. Well, if you can actually call it a finish. The match was never thrown out on-screen so I’m guessing it was still technically going when RAW started. Either way I actually enjoyed the entire match, and even having spoiled for myself the fact the show ended with a still vacant title, I honestly don’t care. Hell, I’m actually HAPPY it ended that way. Now we don’t have to worry about another Bryan reign being cut way too short again for the moment. Plus, this actually furthers two stories at once. All-in-all I honestly think it worked out for the best, and I would NOT change how that PPV ended.
Well, ok, that’s a lie. If I had to change one thing, I’d have them actually announce that the match has been ruled a no contest, rather than just ending like an episode of RAW or SmackDown as if that had been done already. Aside from that I’m quite content with the ending and the overall match.
Match Rating: 8/10 – Good performances, great crowd reaction, and an ending that left me (and probably ONLY me) satisfied.
Overall PPV Rating: 6/10 – Not the best PPV ever, but it’s worth at least one watch.
Match Of The Night: Goldust & Cody Rhodes vs. Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns – ‘Nuff said.
Final Thoughts: Overall this PPV evened out and turned out to be quite watchable. It started off fairly mediocre, but once it hit my MOTN, it managed to stay above the mediocre line for the rest of the show. You could almost say that match actually inspired the guys yet to compete and that’s why. That’s my story anyway and I’m sticking to it. The low points however, good lord. Just, good lord. “A GIANT SWING” could become my version of “Bat Credit Card” if I don’t let it go right now, so I will. I’ll try to anyway. In any case, the good luckily outweighed the bad and this show turned out to be quite entertaining. Here’s hoping that trend continues with Hell In A Cell; despite the fact WWE only has two weeks to build up anything for it. I’ll see you guys next time. By the way, those things on/near the stage are still stupid.
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Skeletroy, Grant, and JimmyTR talk about the recently finished Kickstarter campaign for Mighty No. 9, as well as discussing Capcom and Comcept, the Beta for Battlefield 4, and The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. These are exciting times!
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Jimmy reveals the true purpose of ThatRuled, in a typically diplomatic fashion.
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Skeletroy sits down with NNTV Chris to discuss the current state of the DC Universe.
A few times in my life I have had a conversation that basically went like this (granted said example is an exaggeration).
Someone: Oh hey this reminds me of *insert movie here*
Me: Oh…I haven’t seen that movie.
Someone: WHAT? REALLY?
Me: ……yeah
Someone: WHY?
Me: I don’t know, just haven’t bothered to yet.
In some cases it can be explained away by age difference, but there have been plenty of times where people my age have seen PLENTY of movies I know exist, but have never actually seen. As such, I figured I would make a list of some of the movies and/or franchises I have yet to see as of writing this article. I may do more lists like this in the future, but I figure ten is enough for now. I would also like to point out that this is mainly going by movies/franchises that the vast majority have seen, so lesser-known/cult-status movies probably won’t show up here.
Mission: Impossible Franchise
The first of three action franchises I’m going to bring up, and I must say I have absolutely no idea what this film series is about. All I honestly know about these movies is Tom Cruise is in them, and one of the movies had a thing where two guys jump at each other on motorbikes, and the motorbikes explode or something like that…that is honestly all I’ve got. I’m not kidding. I honestly know nothing else about this franchise and I refuse to look it up to give a synopsis, because that’s the beauty of the thing. Considering I do know this franchise exists, yet know next to nothing about it, is actually quite amazing. That reminds me, I’ve also only seen three movies that actually have Tom Cruise in them, and that’s without even trying. Weird.
4/5’s Of The Die Hard Franchise
Ok. This one has Bruce Willis in it and he’s all “Yippee ki-yay mother fucker!” and stuff. And his character’s name is John McClane. Yeah, again that’s about all I know, but in this case I have seen ONE of the five movies. In a way I’m probably cheating, but the one I have seen is Live Free Or Die Hard/Die Hard 4.0, so I think this still counts in that I haven’t seen the three everyone actually seem to like (and “A Good Day To Die Hard”). Hell, I only ever saw the fourth one because it came on TV once and my dad was watching it, so I decided to give it a shot. The thing that strikes me as odd is, as well known as these movies are, I have never once had someone tell me I NEED to watch them. Ok actually maybe ONCE that happened, but still. Regardless I’ve honestly never felt compelled to watch the first three movies, or the fifth, so I’m not sure if I ever will watch them.
Lethal Weapon Franchise
Stars Mel Gibson & Danny Glover. Action movies. Yeah wow, I have no idea what the hell these movies are about. Hell, I had to look it up to remember Danny Glover was in the movies. Accidentally found out it’s a cop duo series, but I didn’t bother to read the plot synopsis for any of the movies. I’d honestly rather go in blind at this point if I ever watch these movies. How did I first find out about Lethal Weapon I hear you ask? Well that’s easy, there is/was a Lethal Weapon mini-rollercoaster at an Australian Theme Park called Warner Bros. Movie World. Yep. Had no knowledge of the movies as a kid, so that one ride being named after Lethal Weapon is where I first heard about it. Never got to ride it though, not that I’d have wanted to.
Star Trek Film Franchise
Funny thing about this? I’ve only ever watched one episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, so you could basically say I’ve pretty much never watched Star Trek period, let alone the movies. Being a Star Wars fan has nothing to do with it by the way, I’ve just never been compelled to watch Star Trek for some reason, and therefore have yet to pay attention to the films. Also, that does include the new “everyone’s younger” movies too, not just the movies William Shatner & Patrick Stewart’s respective eras had.
2001: A Space Odyssey
“I’m afraid I can’t let you do that Dave” “Daisy, daisy, give me your answer do”. That’s pretty much all I have off the top of my head. I know the basic plot somewhat, and I DID almost watch this the other week, but I missed it due to doing something else, so I am still yet to see it. That’s honestly it. Aside from HAL-9000, I have no idea of the full names for characters or anything else like that. Hell, I don’t even know what actors are in it! And that’s worse than anything I’ve brought up so far!
Citizen Kane
I know absolutely nothing about this movie aside from the quote “Rosebud” and the fact it’s in black and white. That is seriously all I know. I have no idea what the plot is, I can’t remember if I know any of the actors in it, and have no idea what decade this was even made in! Honestly I think that’s about all I need to say.
Indiana Jones Franchise
Now, I count the entire series instead of “all of them except Raiders” because I barely remember anything from Raiders, as I think I’ve only seen bits and pieces of the movie, and not the whole thing from start to finish. As far as I’m concerned that means I’m not cheating, so there you have it. I have seen Spice World, Master Of Disguise and at least one of the Care Bears movies…but I’ve never seen any of the Indiana Jones movies the entire way through or at all. Granted, depending on who you ask, not having seen Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull is probably a good thing.
Donnie Darko
Just what the hell is this movie about anyway? I can’t remember any of the actors that are in it and the only quote I know is “Go suck a fuck” and the titular Donnie’s response asking how one does so. I actually know how to suck a fuck, but I’d rather not explain it to keep this article “Safe For Work”. Let’s just say if you watch enough porn, you’ll figure out how.
The Evil Dead
I didn’t add “franchise” because I have seen Army Of Darkness, and Evil Dead 1 & 2 are basically the same movie from what I’ve been told. I’ve wanted to watch at least the first Evil Dead for quite a while, but for some reason I’ve just never gotten around to watching it. Not much of an excuse I know, but hey, it’s the only excuse I’ve got it seems.
Ghostbusters Franchise
Well, if none of the previous ones made you hate me, this just might. Sure there’s only two movies so far, but I have yet to see the second one at all, and I’m fairly sure I’ve never seen the first one the entire way through, only seeing bits and pieces when I was little. I honestly have no excuse for not having watched these movies other than “I just haven’t watched them yet”. Considering the hype behind them I’m almost as shocked as you are that I haven’t seen them, but the fact remains that I simply haven’t yet.
And that’s all for now. Is there any well-known movies/film franchises you’ve never seen that surprises people? If so, is it a case of not finding them appealing, or just not getting around to seeing them yet?
I’ll be back soon-ish with another article. But for that one, it’ll be a case of me trying to get you to watch something I’m fairly sure you haven’t seen, instead of talking about things I haven’t seen. See you all next time.