Personal Post

So... the personal post I made last month regarding Vince's job situation has changed but not in a good way. He was interviewed by 2 different studios in his work and did a phone interview for another company in Reno, which made us hopeful that he had a good chance of getting a job pretty quickly. Unfortunately, the only one that guaranteed him having a job was at Reno, and the 2 local studios here simply showed no interest in him, despite being the first to be interviewed and be recommended.

And that sucks. It fucking sucks. I did my best to stay positive for Vince during the last few weeks and hearing the news just made me fucking livid. We're both frustrated.

He applied for other casino game studios here so we're really hoping he gets something here. Reno is the last resort for him. I found it sadly funny that around the time Vince graduated from AI and when he was laid off from the game studio, he told me that there will be a chance that we might move out of state for his job. He never got any job opportunities outside of Nevada and he reluctantly accepted that we're going to settle here. I hate the fact that Vince has not stayed in a job for too long because he either finds a better job opportunity or he gets laid off. He leaves a job that just pays the bills for a job that fits his passion but then gets laid off from passion job. This is a stupid pattern and a stroke of horrible luck and he doesn't deserve this.

Godammit.

r/SquaredCircle

Ever since Vince introduced me to r/SquaredCircle, it's become my number one subreddit to check out on a daily basis, even more than the front page itself. The subreddit is suppose to be about pro-wrestling in general and there are other subreddits that caters specifically to each brand, like r/WWE, r/LuchaUnderground, r/ROH, r/TNA, r/NJPW, and funny enough, r/prowrestling. Still, r/SC came to be the #1 pro-wrestling forum on Reddit and its users became knows as "wredditors."

r/SC made news in December 2014 when one wredditor jokingly suggested to send HHH a fruit basket from Edible Arrangement as a thank you from the community for the awesome and successful PPV, NXT TakeOver: R Evolution. The running joke in Reddit is whether OP will deliver and sure enough, he did. The fruit basket not only made it to WWE headquarters but it was acknowledged by HHH himself:

Thanks for the fruit basket @reddit but I'm at @WWENXT working with the future. #WWEArchivistAteIt @WWE pic.twitter.com/fs8ogk2rGa

— Triple H (@TripleH) December 12, 2014

As cheesy as the gesture may look, this gift was to acknowledge that the fans watch, enjoy, and respect pro-wrestling sports entertainment when it's at it's finest in WWE. The community appreciates all the hard work the wrestlers put themselves through and the stories they tell. They'll get their share of frustrated long time fans that will complain about the product and booking of wrestlers from time to time. As "Wrestling isn't Wrestling" director Max Landis said in his brilliant short film, "A lot of wrestling sucks but when it's good, it's fucking great."

A few weeks ago, Tyson Kidd suffered a serious neck injury during a dark match with Samoa Joe. It was a freak accident and from what was reported, Joe was not in trouble or responsible for it since his finisher, the Muscle Buster, is a relatively safe move that just looks brutal. Sadly, this meant that Kidd had to undergo surgery and be on hiatus for the rest of the year, possibly even longer. His injury was said to be similar to Christopher Reeves' injury and he was actually very close to becoming a paraplegic. In other words, Kidd was a damn miracle. He was actually in a similar situation a few years ago, where he also suffered a serious injury and was on a long hiatus. When he returned to wrestling, he went to NXT and basically rebuilt his character. He would later transition back to the main roster and become tag team partners with Cesaro.

At first, this pairing made no sense, especially when Cesaro had just left The Real Americans with Jack Swagger and Zeb Colter to be and fail as another Paul Heyman guy. This accidental pairing turned them into #BTE (Best Team Ever) and Natalya, who was seen as the awkward third wheel and whom Kidd treated poorly, also became a confident valet on their side. They also called themselves the Brass Ring Club (a rib on Vince McMahon for famously saying that Cesaro doesn't connect with his fans). When the Usos got sidelined due to an injury, the main roster tag team division immediately stepped up with Kidd and Cesaro, along with the Lucha Dragons, Prime Time Players, and The New Day. Cesaro and Kidd would eventually break up to go on their singles run and Kidd's injury pretty much fast tracked Cesaro's push into the main event. Cesaro incorporated Kidd's Sharpshooter into his moveset and he wears a "KIDD" armband on his right arm, showing the world that he's still going to be #BTE.

That same wredditor, who organized the delivery of the fruit basket, decided to make a mosaic in tribute to Kidd as he makes his long road to recovery. The project took a week to organize. First, he needed a lot of still images from his career to compose into a mosaic. Next, he asked wredditors to leave "get well" messages that would be printed out separately and taped on the back of mosaic. Finally, after the community decided which versions of the mosaic should be the final choice, he had to print the hi-res image, and get it custom framed. He paid with his own money to make sure the frame gets delivered safely to their address.

And man, r/SC was so happy to see Natalya share this on Twitter and Instagram:

TJ is holding up this incredible mosaic titled "Triumphant." It was created in collaboration with over 400 people across the world within #RedditsSquaredCircle 80,000 member community. This mosaic is made up of tiny pictures of TJ's 20 year career in wrestling. On the back of the mural are over 350 get well messages to TJ. Couldn't help but smile when I saw how happy this made TJ. THANKYOU... Nothing but LOVE 🙌🏻

A photo posted by natbynature (@natbynature) on Jul 29, 2015 at 10:42pm PDT

TJ looks genuinely happy and he's holding up one of his cats! Regardless if people knew or contributed to the project, this was still another great way for r/SC to show their acknowledgement and respect to WWE and their Superstars.

"A Night of Firsts!": Monday Night RAW (7/28/15)

This was an unusual Raw, mostly because the phrase "First time ever!" was blatantly overused throughout the show. It certainly was the theme of the night.

The "first-ever" matches were:

• Dean Ambrose vs Big Show
• Sasha Banks vs Paige
• Nikki Bella and Alicia Fox vs Charlotte and Becky Lynch
• Randy Orton vs Kevin Owens
• Seth Rollins vs John Cena (look at that; Champion vs Champion)

FIRST TIME EVER: SHIRTLESS AMBROSE ON RAW!

Ambrose vs Big Show was the first match of the night, which I was initially not happy about (UNTIL THAT HAPPENED). They fought on last week's Smackdown as Ambrose and Reigns vs Big Show and Sheamus, where they both took each other out after Ambrose turned Big Show's chokeslam into "the world's biggest DDT." Technically, it was their first time together in a singles match. The match turned out to be entertaining. Big Show, who usually just pulls off slow moving power moves and chokeslams, actually came off looking powerful and Ambrose came off as ridiculously persistent and did a great job selling. Big Show won via countout but Dean stood tall at the end when he narrowly avoided Big Show attempting to spear him into the barricade. His bro, Roman Reigns, is absent again so let's hope we get back to the whole 2/3 Shield vs 2/3 Wyatt Family either on Smackdown! or next week's Raw.

Sasha Banks vs Paige was the first Divas match and it was so good. It was well paced and technical and Banks even mocked Paige's "THIS IS MY HOUSE!" and her signature scream outside the ropes. The second Divas match was with Charlotte and Becky Lynch vs Nikki Bella and Alicia Fox and we got another quality match from them. Usually on Raw, Vince and I can tell when there's a commercial break coming up (it's usually a suicide dive out of the ropes on hard camera left) and it is annoying. Seeing a commercial break for the Divas match was not!

There was a squash match with Fandango vs Neville, which Neville won in 3 moves. Stardust via titantron congratulated Neville and gave a wonderful promo about heroes and villains. He's been noticeably working in quotes from his father's "Hard Times" promo and heavily hinting about a certain green-hooded vigilante. Admittedly, this is one of the most unusual story lines that has been developing for the last couple of months but if it's leading up to a comic book themed match (possibly at Summerslam?) with Stardust, Neville, and actor Stephen Amell, I'm all for it.

There was also a great segment with Rusev and Hot Summer Rae, where Rusev is slowly learning to be a good boyfriend to her. He got her a puppy and named him "Dog Ziggler." And he also gave her a box with a headless fish in it and called it - of course - Lana. She came out, got into a catty fight with Hot Summer by shoving her face into said fish, and angrily slapped Rusev in the face. This is still a shitty storyline for breaking up Rusev and Lana, but in a weird way, we're seeing their characters develop. Rusev is still the scary Bulgarian Brute, which makes it hilarious that he's learning to be affectionate towards another woman. And Lana looks WAY better without Ziggler around to make her look weak. We're really hoping this would become this generation's Macho Man and Miss Elizabeth story.

Randy Orton vs Kevin Owens was also a good match, although Orton won via DQ thanks to Sheamus interfering. Cesaro also ran in and jumped on Owens, establishing that they still have a grudge against each other. We're still upset that Owens is just another guy who was beaten by Cena but he's far from being "buried." He has a feud with Cesaro, another great wrestler who is getting into the main event, so this is great for both of them. It's Kevin Steen vs Claudio Castagnoli!

The main event of the third hour was Rollins vs Cena. We were not happy with this match because Cena has basically made himself #1 contender for Rollins' Heavyweight Champion. There WAS another #1 contender before Cena and that was Dean Fucking Ambrose! And of course, Cena is making it look like his US Title is way more prestigious than the World Heavyweight title.

Their match was good and pretty much what you would expect from Cena and Rollins until Rollins brutally broke Cena's nose. This was incredibly shocking to watch as Cena struggled to stay up as blood gushed from his nose and unto the mat. Rollins even pulled off an impressive 2-move finisher (a superplex from the turnbuckle into a sit down powerbomb) on Cena, who had to stop at least twice for a few minutes to have the ringside physician wipe off the blood from his nose. Rollins eventually tapped and Cena retained his title. Rollins tapped to Cena but I came away impressed that Cena didn't let a broken nose affect their performances for the main event. Cena kept going and Rollins didn't go easy on him either. Let's see how Cena holds up in the next few weeks leading up to a 4-HOUR Summerslam.

Also, fuck it, I just want to show shirtless Ambrose again.

Calm down, Tumblr! Part 2

I think it's safe to say that July was unofficially Dean Ambrose month.

Exactly 3 weeks ago on what I thought would be a ho-hum Monday, I awoke to the spectacle of seeing #dean ambrose blow up on Tumblr. Ambrose's WWE movie "Lockdown", now known as "12 Rounds 3: Lockdown", got a brand new movie poster and a release date. And 2 days later, WWE released their latest Body Series featuring Ambrose as their first Superstar (strangely enough, they went back to featuring Divas instead of showing more Superstars). Today, another trailer for W2K16 was released today and despite who the main focus was, Ambrose was the biggest takeaway from it.

2K acquired the WWE series after THQ folded 2 years ago. Since then, the visual quality of the games and the trailers to help promote it have seriously stepped up, though the game quality and playability itself still had some issues. The first W2K16 trailer featured their cover boy, Stone Cold Steve Austin, digging up his old belt somewhere in the desert and it ended with his iconic theme playing. I thought the next trailer would feature another superstar like, I don't know, WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins (who was said to be pulled from San Diego Comic Con and replaced by Kevin Owens because he had to film a commercial for 2K). What we got instead was Arnold Schwarzenegger recreating his "Terminator 2" scene with appearances from Daniel Bryan, Eva Marie (WHAT), Paige, Finn Balor, and Dean Ambrose.

I'd like to point out a few things:

• LOL on the Terminator being a pre-order bonus. I can't explain why it seems silly to see a fictional character tossed into a wrestling game. It's just like seeing Friday the 13th Jason being included in Mortal Kombat X.
• I was somewhat comforted to see that it was implied that Daniel Bryan drinks beer, even though he doesn't. I read his book dammit.
• Paige and Eva Marie clearly like the view down there.
• With the exception of Finn Balor being a recent champ, Eva Marie does not belong in this group of former champs. And what the hell was she doing to that jukebox??
• Apparently, Dean FUCKING Ambrose is slightly bigger than the Terminator (look at their eye lines). He had the most screen time out of the Superstars and Divas and he looks so bad-ass, even with the cigar smoking and his oh-so-subtle earring.

If I had to nitpick, it would be that Finn doesn't get that much screen time (being behind Schwarzenegger doesn't count for me). This trailer doesn't show anything from the game but it's doing a good job in making the rounds on game news websites like Kotaku and IGN. I'm getting more and more interested in the game and I'm now on the fence on buying it.

BUT WAIT. THERE'S MORE.

WWE also went and released the trailer for "12 Rounds 3: Lockdown" just a few hours later!

 I'd also like to point out a few things:

• It is jarring to see Ambrose use a computer. He has said in previous interviews that he grew up never wanting/owning a computer, which is why he doesn't do social media. 
• It is a very literal movie. The building is on lockdown and, for some reason, he only has 12 rounds to use on his hand gun.
• Ambrose is really tall (6'4"). He nearly towers over Schwarzenegger in the 2K16 trailer (by like 2 inches) and he looks to do the same here among regular people :D
• Curtis from "24" is the bad guy!
• This looks cliched and predictable but the fact that Ambrose is starring in it has definitely generated a lot of buzz

Now, with all of this happening, one would think WWE is going to start doing something with Ambrose. He's currently in a developing storyline where 2/3 of The Shield are going up against 2/3 of The Wyatt Family. There's that weird rumor that Sting will be Ambreigns' third guy and the Wyatt Family will also get a new member since Erick Rowan is still out. Ambrose was absent in Battleground and he's back on his losing streak again (he lost to Sheamus last week on Smackdown, where the only good match was with Cesaro vs Seth Rollins). I have a feeling that WWE has a lot more ammo to push Ambrose pretty soon; it's just a matter of pulling that trigger again like they did back in May.

Weekend Recap (7/24/15-7/26/15)

I'm going to start doing bullet point posts like these if nothing really major took place over the weekend.

Friday (7/24):

Got Daniel Bryan's "YES" book! #danielbryan #yesyesyes

A photo posted by sheila antonio (@sajcfan) on Jul 23, 2015 at 8:16pm PDT

• Ate at Sweet Tomatoes
• Bought new workout stuff
• Shopped for ingredients for Pininyahang Manok
• Worked out a weird thing with my mom where I agreed to have a large sum of money (made from selling their lot in the Philippines) transferred to my bank account
• Became ecstatic with the fact that I could pay off one of my student loans
• Started reading Daniel Bryan's "YES" book (signed edition)
• Wondered how WWE is going to proceed with distancing themselves from Hulk Hogan after a tape of his racist tirade emerged earlier in the week

Saturday (8/25):

Resumed playing Pokemon Omega Ruby so I can actually finish the game and then go back to playing Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. #pokemonomegaruby #pokemonchampion

A video posted by sheila antonio (@sajcfan) on Jul 26, 2015 at 12:04am PDT

• I was suppose to cook the Pininyahang Manok but Vince took over since I had to go the bank
• After a miscommunication on my mom's end, I transferred the large sum of money out of my account and back into her account... because my dad's hospital bills became a bigger priority over helping with my student loans
• Angrily purchased a shoe rack because I wanted to not think about how pointless the money transfer was. I think I did a good job with assembling it and I put it in our closet.
• Saw pics of the pool area on top of the Cosmopolitan hotel being on fire, thanks to fake trees.
• Visited Andrew and Joanna to meet their newly adopted kittens, Nugget and Tooty (Vince kept renaming them as "Shogun" and "Hime"
• Was blown away to learn Andrew's parents adopted the aforementioned siblings, bringing their household cat total to 6
• Went to eat at Claim Jumpers at Town Square
• Went back to Andrew's place because Christine and Anthony were visiting too
• Briefly talked about how the new 3DS XL is different from the current 3DS as we watched Andrew and Vince play Bloodborne
• Finally beat Pokemon: Omega Ruby, only to learn that there was a bonus Delta episode

Sunday (8/26):

• Went to have a gigantic lunch with Vince's parents
• Visited Joel, Pam, Sorscha, and Marcy
• Bought tickets online for "Dragonball Z: Resurrection F" movie in 2 weeks
• Grabbed some U-Swirl yogurt before heading home
• Realized we missed last night's "Hannibal" episode and started watching it
• Also realized "The Strain" was on and started watching that too

Personal Post

I'm gonna do some bragging here. I think I can safely say that after all this time, I came out fairly normal. Somewhat normal, I guess. What's prompting this little self-confidence boost?

Learning that my dad is being committed. Again. He'll be committed to a psychiatric ward care for a year.

It's so funny that the hell that my mom and I went through back on Guam is happening again but in another place. Maybe it's because I'm not living with my parents to get the full brunt of it. This kind of thing is asking for a mental breakdown. And yet, I'm the one trying to reassure my mom that everything will be ok.

------------------------------

Here's some context: My dad has been mentally ill for a long time. Back on Guam, when I was a freshman in high school, my dad attempted suicide by slitting his wrist. My mom was the one who found him and she tried desperately to clean up his blood while yelling at my grandma and I to stay upstairs, which was pointless because we already saw what had happened. She would later have him committed to a psychiatric ward for over a year. My mom tried to shoulder the burden of all of this and not let it affect me, which was also pointless because this isn't something you can ignore or pretend that didn't happen.

After some talk with my dad's sisters in Las Vegas, they decided it would be best if he left Guam to stay with them. He got "better", as in he was happy to be in a different place and out of the ward. We thought our life would get back to normal until my mom was laid off from her job and she suffered a severe mental breakdown. She let someone else take over the payments for our condo because she was too depressed to look for another job (despite having 20+ years of experience in Accounting), I had to withdraw from University of Guam, and we ended up moving to Las Vegas, NV, to join my dad and his sisters in October 2012.

I later learned (and which my mom refused to accept) that my dad never got better. He went back into his routine of sitting around doing nothing, watching TV, staying on the computer, and getting stupid ideas of making money without going out to get a job. He was only "better" because he was around my aunties who were used to going out and gambling at the casinos with their money. And having him around, as opposed to him being in the psychiatric ward and doing a few visits, turned out to be very unbearable. He was so paranoid and controlling. He was always right and he demanded you respect him. He was the reason I had to move out of my parent's place because he refused to accept the fact that I wanted my own life, that I was was an adult, and that I was in a relationship with a great person. He still saw me as a teenager with some guy who was going to ruin my life, get me pregnant, and burden them with grand kids. And he stubbornly held unto that belief despite me proving him wrong as I graduated college and got a job without asking for any help from them.

------------------------------

I called my mom right after my uncle called me to tell me what happened. She sounded very sad on the phone; she was alone in the apartment. I told her that I may sound heartless in saying this but take this time to reflect and have some time for yourself. You've spent all your time worrying about dad and caring for him, this is your first time to have a break. Besides, he'll be in good hands and will be taken care of by professionals since it's obviously beyond her control now.

My mom has been extremely stressful when my dad suffered a minor stroke a few weeks ago. He's had this weird blood thinning condition and has been taking medication for it. After his stroke, my mom noted that my dad started talking weirdly, assuming he has a lot of money and that he can buy things. He was in a manic state and saying weird things on Facebook. She's been working with a caseworker to help them and after weeks of trying different hospitals, it looks like they're going to commit him. Truthfully, I was glad that he was going to be under someone else's care 24/7 without bothering the relatives. I wanted my mom to focus on herself now.

This was the first time in a long time that we actually talked in depth about my dad's suicide attempt back on Guam. We were speaking as equals about it, not like as a daughter trying to get pry out more info from her mom until she broke down. She said she wanted to protect me from it because she didn't want it to affect me in school. And I joked that it's funny that she was so worried about that affecting me in school when I got arrested for shoplifting in my Senior year in high school. And we just laughed about it. It was strangely cathartic. This was a such a dark moment to bring up - my mom, grandma, and my uncle were disappointed with me, and my friend's parents were understandably upset - and I think this was the first time we could actually laugh about it. She said that despite that happening, she is still thankful that I turned out be a good daughter.

------------------------------

More context: Oh? That shoplifting thing? Yeah, that was something that happened back on Guam too. Basically, my cousin, JM, and I were shoplifting. He told me about how he would get away with it and I decided to join in. I'll admit, I enjoyed it for a bit. It was a way for me to get away from what was happening with my dad and there was such a high with getting away stuff. My mom eventually found out that I was stealing stuff and told me to stop. The very next day, I got 3 of my friends into it, and we all got arrested. We all decided to blame my cousin for it. We didn't go to jail since it happened on a Friday, so we were released to our parents. We got banned from DFS for life and had to do community service. Our high school banned us from going to prom but they allowed us to be in the high school graduation ceremony. In fact, we had to wait until my community service wrapped up before we officially left Guam.

------------------------------

Anyways, this segued into what I was talking about with my mom; how that shoplifting event didn't negatively impact my life, as well as my other 3 friends. We were able to find jobs and have, to a degree, a fairly successful life. It's not something that will forever haunt us. However, I didn't know how JM fared after that incident. My mom mentioned that JM was still stealing stuff and he even got arrested for stealing jewelry from his grandma (from his dad's side) last year. I thought he was trying to get better, until Erika forwarded the video to me from KUAM's Facebook page:

As posted in a reward flier, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service looked to the community for help identifying the suspects who were caught on camera stealing mail. Today, the duo appeared in federal court where they were charged with mail theft.
Posted by KUAM News on Wednesday, July 22, 2015

I was more shocked about the fact that it made the local news AND he was featured prominently on TV, let alone him getting arrested. He had 2 other people with him when they got arrested but they were released. And to make it worse, they addressed that he had a previous arrest from 2011. After we got arrested, I was scared straight. I can't imagine being in that scenario again, where you will have a police record that anyone can look up and that your peers and family will know all about it. That scared the hell out of me in high school. Why on earth would you want to go through that again?

So there you have it. 2 major life events that should've made me a messed up individual but didn't. I guess I do a better job at hiding it than my mom did?

"DON'T TOUCH ME!": Monday Night RAW (7/20/15)

Last night's RAW was actually fun! There was no boring opening promo from The Authority or from a bragadocious Seth Rollins. No, Undertaker opened RAW and talked about how his streaks are meant to be broken but that he couldn't stand Lesnar (mostly Heyman) bragging about being the 1 in the 21 and 1 and breaking the streak. His revenge actually makes sense, which leads to the first announced match for next month's Summerslam with Undertaker vs. Lesnar. This resulted in HHH calling Heyman to NOT let Brock attend, although Heyman did show up just to make a scathing response to Undertaker. Which also lead to this glorious segment in the first hour:


It looks like Brock is back to being a monster heel again but at this point, I didn't care. It was pure fun to see the roster, ordered by HHH and Stephanie, to hold these 2 giants back (suspiciously missing from the roster was Ambrose, Rollins, Reigns, Wyatt, Harper, Cena, and Orton). Although we're getting another repeat of Undertaker vs Lesnar for a main event, this renewed determination in Undertaker definitely makes it look like this won't be repeat of their Wrestlemania 30 match.

Luke Harper (yay!) and Roman Reigns had a match, this time with Bray Wyatt and Dean Ambrose, respectively at ringside. This was a good match, with Reigns doing a good job of selling his injured arm and Luke Harper being viciously technical and doing his signature "YEAHYEAHYEAHYEAH." Reigns won via DQ when Wyatt interfered, so of course, Ambrose interfered as well. Ambrose may have great chemistry with Rollins but his bromance with Reigns is just so god damn adorable.

Another big highlight was the fact that there was TWO DIVA MATCHES. Charlotte defeated Brie Bella and later on, Sasha Banks and Naomi defeated Becky Lynch and Paige. No bitchy or catty behavior. Team Bella was at ringside doing commentary and they didn't interfere. And neither segments were short or rushed; it was straight up women's wrestling. How awesome was that?

The main event was Randy Orton, John Cena, and Cesaro vs. Rusev, Kevin Owens, and Sheamus. Normally, these 6-Man tag team matches would be one of the most boring segments on past RAW episodes but it turned into another fun match. The most jarring thing was seeing Orton and Cena being buddies, which is understandable since Orton is currently a babyface. What made the match great was seeing a cocky Sheamus abandoning his team because he doesn't need this, leaving Owens alone in the ring. He couldn't get to Rusev because he was being tended to by Summer Rae, who transformed herself into a Lana lookalike (which is admittedly creepy because she said Rusev likes it). When Rusev got back in the ring, Owens kicked him in the face (which Cena approved) and also left the ring. Poor Rusev got to witness Lana suddenly walking down the ramp and attacking Summer Rae, leaving him open to an incredible sequence with Cena doing the AA on him, Cesaro grabbing him to do the big swing, and then catapulting him to Orton to do an RKO.

A bunch of new rumors have been swirling since last week that will lead to some new storyline developments going into Summerslam, such as the return of Sting, Stephen Amell in a feud with Stardust, another Shield reunion, and HHH going against Seth Rollins. I'm not sure how any of this will pay off. They better continue to make RAW and Smack Down! later episodes as fun as last night.

WWE Battleground 2015 PPV

I swear, I think I'm going to use this image for every PPV.

There was so much hype for Battleground, notably with Brock Lesnar vs Seth Rollins, who proclaimed that he will burn Suplex City to the ground, and with Kevin Owens vs John Cena in the "rubber" match for the US Champion title.

Rollins vs Lesnar was THE match that everyone was hyped for, all because everyone was pretty much fed up with with chicken-shit heel Rollins being all bragadocious about how he'll beat Lesnar, who's now the babyface, and that it will be a true one-on-one match without any interference from the Authority. This was the main event! And what did we get? A surprise appearance from The Undertaker. This got a big reaction - and rightfully so because it's rare to see Undertaker outside of Wrestlemania, let alone other PPVs - but storyline wise, it was confusing. Is Undertaker a heel now? Is he seeking revenge against Lesnar, even though he lost fair and square 2 years ago? He did 2 tombstones on a shocked Lesnar and ended the PPV. But what about Rollins? Rollins not only endured 13 suplexes from Lesnar earlier but he was nowhere to be found after Undertaker left the ring. He didn't even try to go in and pin Lesnar, which would've been PERFECT for him and give him a reason to boast about it. Rollins, the Heavyweight Champion, literally became an afterthought.

As for Owens vs Cena, it was great match with a disappointing ending. Vince knew that Cena would win this but we didn't expect Owens to tap. That was disheartening to watch because Owens has now lost twice to Cena. They have such a good rivalry going on and it would be horrible to see Owens lose all that forward momentum. Who else can he feud with at the same level as Cena? Cesaro? Rusev? It just wouldn't be the same.

The rest of the Battleground was, for the most part, decent. Bray Wyatt (with a returning Luke Harper) won over Roman Reigns, Team Paige won the Divas Triple Threat match against Team Bella and Team BAD, Randy Orton won over Sheamus, and Prime Time Players retained their title against New Day.

Oh, and Dean Ambrose, who headlined Payback, Elimination Chamber, and Money In The Bank, was nowhere to be seen. In a way, I'm glad they didn't book him in a small pointless feud to just be another match in Battleground. He was supposed to feud with Kane but thankfully, that was scrapped when Kane got injured by Lesnar last week. Seeing how Wyatt and Harper teamed up last night, I wouldn't be surprised if Reigns and Ambrose teamed up for the next few weeks going into Summerslam.

ROH: Aftershock Tour

Oh crap, I'm doing this out of order!

Vince and I went to Sam's Town for the ROH: Aftershock Tour on Friday. We got there pretty early to eat at TGIFriday's before heading inside. It had a very stacked card, including the return of Austin Aries, who left TNA just a few months earlier. Here was the event:

VEGAS WILD CARD MAIN EVENT
Jay Lethal, Austin Aries, and Moose vs. Jay Briscoe, Dalton Castle, and Kyle O'Reilly

ROPPONGI VICE (Rocky Romero & Berretta) vs. YOUNG BUCKS (Nick Jackson & Matt Jackson)

ROH TELEVISION CHAMPIONSHIP #1 CONTENDER TOURNAMENT
WINNERS FACE OFF IN 3-WAY ELIMINATION TO DETERMINE #1 CONTENDER FOR TV CHAMPIONSHIP

Christopher Daniels vs. Mark Briscoe

Matt Taven vs. Bobby Fish

Frankie Kazarian vs. ACH

Women of Honor Match
ODB vs NANAE TAKAHASHI

Maria Kanellis will have a special announcement!

ALSO IN ACTION...
Adam Cole
Michael Bennett
Silas Young
WAR MACHINE (HANSON & ROWE)

It was a fun show! I got ridiculously excited to see Dalton Castle and his boys at the Meet & Greet table before the show started. I bought a Young Bucks tshirt and was a bit mad that they didn't sell any streamers (some fans bought their own!). I took a lot of instagram videos from that night except for ODB vs Nanae Takahashi (holy crap, she was awesome to watch) and Will Ferrera (who was the camera man that Dean Ambrose accidentally knocked out back in May) vs The Romantic Touch as the pre-show match.

DALTON CASTLE AND HIS BOYS #ROH

A video posted by sheila antonio (@sajcfan) on Jul 17, 2015 at 6:07pm PDT

And now we wait! #ROH

A video posted by sheila antonio (@sajcfan) on Jul 17, 2015 at 6:20pm PDT

Matt Taven vs Bobby Fish #ROH

A video posted by sheila antonio (@sajcfan) on Jul 17, 2015 at 8:04pm PDT

Christopher Daniels vs Mark Briscoe #ROH

A video posted by sheila antonio (@sajcfan) on Jul 17, 2015 at 8:27pm PDT

Frankie Kazarian vs ACH #ROH

A video posted by sheila antonio (@sajcfan) on Jul 17, 2015 at 8:39pm PDT

Rappongi Vice vs Young Bucks #ROH

A video posted by sheila antonio (@sajcfan) on Jul 17, 2015 at 9:03pm PDT

Willie Mack vs Silas Young #ROH

A video posted by sheila antonio (@sajcfan) on Jul 17, 2015 at 9:27pm PDT

The Kingdom vs War Machine. Omg, Maria Kanellis is so beautiful in person. ADAM COLE BABY! #ROH

A video posted by sheila antonio (@sajcfan) on Jul 17, 2015 at 9:40pm PDT

Contendership match: ACH vs Bobby Fish vs Christopher Daniels #ROH

A video posted by sheila antonio (@sajcfan) on Jul 17, 2015 at 9:54pm PDT

Dalton Castle, Kyle O 'Reily, and Jay Briscoe vs Moose, Austin Aries, and Jay Lethal #ROH

A video posted by sheila antonio (@sajcfan) on Jul 17, 2015 at 10:32pm PDT

"Ant-Man"

Vince and I watched "Ant-Man" on Saturday. I didn't have any high expectations for it like I did with "Guardians of The Galaxy" and it turned out to be a surprisingly funny movie, though understandably cliched. The best part is that despite original director Edgar Wright not overseeing this movie til the end, he still got top credits for it. This was his pet project way before the Marvel Cinematic Universe came into play and it was nice to see that his influence was still there.

Paul Rudd is the latest in a line of actors cast in a Marvel movie that seemed like an odd choice at first (right up there with Batista as Drax). At the end, I don't think I can picture anyone else as Scott Lang. Micheal Douglas as Hank Pym was great. Evangeline Lilly as Hope was a bit hard to get past in the first half of the movie because she was either really pissy or really sad. And Corey Stall as Darren Cross/Jellow Jacket was decent but like other Marvel villains, he's just there to be an antagonist. The one who really stole the show was Micheal Pena as Luis. I thought he was overdoing it with the whole Mexican stereotype. He was HILARIOUS when he tried to tell a a story.

The special effects looked really, REALLY good. Hands down, the best scene was seeing a young Micheal Douglas in the prologue. Vince and I were shocked because they did a great job making him look 20+ year younger, and it was a big improvement from how Young Flynn looked in "TRON: Legacy". This movie was really made for 3D but it doesn't hinder the experience if you opted out of it.

The end credits provided 2 very important scenes; Hope will don her mother's suit to become The Wasp. The other scene showed Falcon, Steve Rogers, and Bucky, who appeared to be restrained. Falcon and Rogers talked about how Stark shouldn't know about Bucky and Falcon said he knows a guy, meaning Ant-Man will return in the upcoming "Captain America: Civil War" movie next year.

"#GiveDivasAChance": Monday Night RAW (7/14/15)

This is it. This is the the go home show for Raw and Smack Down! before Battleground this Sunday. This was a slightly better Raw from last week with only 3 major highlights:

The women of NXT - Becky Lynch, Charlotte, and Sasha Banks - officially made their main roster debut (Charlotte's match with Natalya apparently doesn't count). Becky and Charlotte joined Paige while Sasha joined Naomi and Tamina and created new 3-women stables among the Divas to take on Team Bella. Their debut was suppose to happen after Summerslam and shortly after Nikki beat AJ's title reign, but the sudden change of plans proved to be a great payoff to Paige's storyline on wanting Divas to stand up against Team Bella. This segment would've been better if Stephanie McMahon didn't shoehorn herself in :/

Rusev vs Kevin Owens vc Cesaro was so entertaining! Cesaro continues to be freaking impressive. Owens continues to be an awful heel. And Rusev is back in form and getting much better on the mic. Rusev won the match after pinning Cesaro (Owens angrily walked out towards the end of the match) and he immediately went into John Cena's US Open Challenge. Of course, Owens came back to take out Rusev and Cena and declaring that he'll take his title at Battleground.

And... well... Rollins being a chicken-shit heel. The contract signing went awry (because of course it did) when Heyman and Lesnar discovered a concealed ax handle underneath the table, which was Kane's plan?? Anyways, Lesnar took out Kane by slamming one of the steel stairs unto Kane's ankle. After Heyman and Lesnar left, Rollins cut an angry and vicious promo and vowed to burn Suplex City to the ground. He even turned against Kane and curbstomped stepped on his already injured leg. Heyman said it best that everyone wants to see Rollins gets his ass kicked this Sunday.

The rest of Raw was... ok. There were 2 matches that bothered me.

Neville vs Stardust should've generated more excitement (Seriously, look at that graphic!) but it didn't. This was Stardust's long-awaited return since Dusty Rhodes' passing. The crowd was so dead quiet for this match. It's not because the match was boring, it's just the fact that the crowd has been conditioned to only get excited for Neville matches when he does the Red Arrow as his finisher. And it's such a shame because Neville is so athletic and entertaining but the crowd just can't get into him unless he does flippy shit. Not only that, they accidentally played Neville's theme when Stardust won. If there's one good thing coming out of this, it's the return of Stardust going after "Arrow" actor Stephen Amell again.

The most baffling "match" was Ambrose vs Wyatt, which didn't happen at all because Reigns showed up after Wyatt's entrance ended and beat the hell out of him. Ambrose literally just sat out of this match! Wyatt hit Reigns back with his lantern and then the screen abruptly cut to black. That was it! I know I said I shouldn't get upset with how Ambrose is being booked again since there's a bunch of new storylines going on and being developed but there was no point to include him. Why didn't they make the match betweeb Reigns and Wyatt since they have a match in Battleground? Ambrose and Wyatt's entrances were longer than the "match" itself!

RIP Satoru Iwata

"On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. In my heart I am a gamer."

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata passed away on July 11th. This news goes beyond the company, it has greatly affected the game industry and its longtime and new fans. There has never been a company president that was so public and involved in their product like Iwata. He and chief game designer, Shigeru Miyamoto, are such an integral part to Nintendo's success. Whoever will be named his successor has an impossibly big gap to fill.

Nintendo has been both a big and small part of my life. The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and Game Boy were my first video game console and handheld, respectively. I lost interest in the NES system but I stuck with the Game Boy. Anyone who has ever met or know me knows that I've always had a Nintendo handheld game device on my bag or in my purse. When Erika visited Vegas last month, she asked if I still played Pokemon. I said I did and I brought out my 3DS from my extremely heavy purse to show her, and she laughed that she will always remember me for always having [a handheld game device] with me.

This is the line of game devices after my my uncle gave me the Game Boy as a Christmas present all those years ago:

• (2) Game Boy
• Game Boy Color (Pokemon Gold/Silver edition which I foolishly traded off at Game Stop)
• (2) Game Boy Advance (I stole a second one from KMart but I felt immensely guilty afterwards that I threw it in the dumpster)
• Game Boy SP
• (2) Nintendo DS
• Nintendo 3DS
  

It's not total brand loyalty (I never got the Game Boy Micro), but it shows how much I needed to have one. I may be back to being a casual gamer but I can't go a long period of time without carrying or playing the 3DS. In fact, Vince and I stayed up pretty late this morning to complete a quest in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate.

You will be missed, Iwata-san.

WARNING: FANGIRL MODE ON

** checks WWE.com and Tumblr **

** DIES **

------------------------------

Ok, all kidding aside...  I thought this Body Series would continue to show the rest of the guys. Imagine my surprise when they mention in the end that the Ravishing Russian Lana would be the next Diva to be featured in next month's series. That's pretty interesting considering that they could've started it off with Seth "Crossfit Jesus" Rollins, Cesaro, John Cena, or any other Superstar with a more cut and defined physique. Starting off with Ambrose over their World Heavyweight Champion Rollins? That says a lot.

Godammit WWE. Tumblr exploded over the "12 Rounds 3: Lockdown" movie news AND Ambrose being featured in the Body Series this week. And what's Ambrose doing? Feuding with Bo Dallas again for Smack Down! tonight. 

"CE-SA-RO! CE-SA-RO!": Monday Night RAW (7/6/15)

Despite Brock Lesnar wrecking a car (along with Jamie Noble and Jamie Mercury), witnessing another incredible U.S. Open Challenge match with Cena vs Cesaro, and all of this taking place in Chicago, IL, the smarkiest city in the world, this was another very disappointing episode of Raw. Vince and I were playing Monster Hunter 4: Ultimate on our 3DS while we had Raw on in the background. We glanced up once in a while to see what was going on and we grew largely uninterested and frustrated each time. 

• Big Show vs Ryback with interference from Miz? Great. I still don't understand why Miz is involved.
• Rusev, who looks like he's recovered from his broken ankle, severely injures Dolph Ziggler, and he had to be taken out on a stretcher as a worried Lana accompanies him.
• Seth Rollins being a chicken-shit heel and abandoning J&J Security again? Yawn. When is Kane coming back from vacation?
• Sheamus vs Roman Reigns with interference from a fake Bray Wyatt, plus a returning Randy Orton to feud with Sheamus afterwards? Woo.
• Paige vs Brie with Nikki and Alicia Fox on ringside? That's new.
• And Dean "OMG He got a haircut" Ambrose vs Bo Dallas? That was a random squash match and it did nothing for both of them. I still BO-LIEVE!

The best part of Raw was the last hour, where John Cena's U.S. Open Challenge was thankfully saved for last. A bitter Kevin Owens (who lost his NXT title to Finn Balor at the Tokyo, JP house show) is now determined to take the title from Cena. That is, until Cesaro showed up. This was probably the best story line that was developing last night because Cesaro has a grudge with Owens for interrupting their match last week. He kicked Owens out of the ring to take another shot at the title. This was such an incredible match that showcased each other's display of strength and varying move sets. We all know Cena won't lose the title on TV but this match convinced everyone that Cesaro was THE GUY to beat him. Cesaro lost clean to Cena but he won the Chicago crowd over.

I thought that Creative would have more time to build good stories that would to lead to an exciting Battleground PPV or post-PPV Raw. Sadly, we're not getting that. This is one of the lows that Vince and I would go through with WWE; where you get frustrated with the booking or writing and decide to take a break from it or not watch it, though I still go out of my way to watch Raw and Smack Down! myself.

Big Show said on a recent podcast with Chris Jericho that he felt sad on how much the industry has changed. The stories they were trying to tell all have to happen on a weekly basis on TV. It's not something that can be written and building up for months anymore. Battleground is now a week away, so I hope they pull some damn surprises in the go home shows.

Oh, and also...

PUSH CESARO

Calm down, Tumblr!

I originally created a Tumblr for http://vince-sheila.tumblr.com/ as another fun way to microblog on what Vince and I do, while Blogger remained as my primary personal blog for my lengthy and not-so-coherent posts. After getting a few notes for some posts relating to WWE, I made a note on Tumblr that this is not a wrestling reaction blog and that I will try really hard to refrain from mentioning such things. Of course, I broke that when I noted that the last WWE Live show in Vegas this year updated their talent appearances to include Dean Ambrose (dammit!) and when I noted that WWEShop.com suddenly got new Dean Ambrose shirt designs. I didn't even add any tags to it but it still showed up.

For the most part, I didn't understand how anyone would get addicted to Tumblr, until I discovered what "tag lurking" was. It was the quickest way to browse anything in Tumblr related to your search. In my case, looking up "#deanambrose" and "#dean ambrose" yielded VERY weird results for me, ranging from Ambrose/Reigns and Ambrose/Bella shippers (yikes), to NSFW imagine blogs (YIKES), and this one blog that absolutely resents the beautiful Renee Young for not being open about dating Dean Ambrose (Well, she's not; Renee Paquette is dating Jonathan Good). Tumblr was pretty much a condensed search result engine and I found myself checking it on a daily basis, like Reddit.

Today, I got to truly see what makes Tumblr (and Twitter) enjoyable; the collective live reaction when something is revealed, and how quickly it gets picked up.

I laughed at the "OMG HOLY SHIT FINALLY!!1!1!" reactions from different Tumblr accounts because I felt the same way. Last August, Ambrose took time off for about a month to film the movie after being curbstomped by Seth Rollins (this was the Vegas show Vince and I went to) and there has been virtually little to no updates on it since then. When Ambrose stole the police paddy wagon back in May, it seemed to have reignited the discussion reminded the fangirls that there was still no "Lockdown" news and the fans were even bugging the actors and director on Twitter for updates. This was such a big surprise.

I haven't seen such a huge reaction to a WWE movie headlined by one of its own Superstars since John Cena starred in the first "12 Rounds" and "The Marine." Randy Orton was in the "12 Rounds" sequel and I didn't hear anything about it either. I've only seen excerpts of "The Marine" when it aired on FX years ago and even back then, Vince and I were just shitting on how predictable the movie was. WWE movies seem to border on either being passable or cheesy bad, and that's if it's being viewed with really low expectations, so I'll have to wait and see what the consensus is on this before watching it myself.

In the meantime, I'm just going to smile like a dork for a whole week since WWE is also featuring Ambrose as their first Superstar for their Body Series this Thursday. This monthly series consists of studio quality pics and a short video of a featured WWE Diva/Superstar working out. Natalya, Paige, and Eva Marie were the first Divas to be featured. So... There will be pics and video of Ambrose... Working out.

**fangirl mode activated**

Independence Day Weekend

Friday: We did a bit of grocery shopping and I did a comic book run. We ran into Andrew and Joanna at the Maximum Comics. Later, we met up at Buffalo Wild Wings for Christine’s Birthday celebration. We had wings, shots, and the deliciously sinful Dessert Nachos.

Saturday: We worked out at the gym for a bit in the morning. Then, we brought our squirt guns and bought some last minute supplies at Trader Joe’s and went to Christine and Anthony’s place for a BBQ Pool party. Had some Vegan burgers and hotdogs and smores! We ended the night by going to the park to see some fireworks. Went home and played some Heroes of the Storm before going to bed.

Sunday: Vince played Batman: Arkham Knight for nearly 12 hours! I watched the NJPW Dominion PPV.

These 3-day weekends always feel so short.

S.A._JCFan // SA_JCFan // sa_jcfan

These are variations of a user name I created when I got my first computer and internet access way back in 1997. Among the first websites I discovered was www.jimcarreyonline.com, a fan website that helped me managed my obsession with Jim Carrey. I contributed so much news to the website that I eventually became a News Correspondent for the first few years. I was even being trained by one of the site's founders to help manage the growing website and the forums. That fandom was such a big part in choosing my now silly-sounding user name. When the forum and the news team got bigger, I quietly stepped away from the "job" and became a lurker.

So why did I like Jim Carrey? He immediately became my favorite actor after I watched Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and The Mask and I watched his appearances on episodes of In Living Color on FX. I followed his work and watched almost all of his movies. I found him to be silly, charming, and handsome. His political views and beliefs never really affected me until he started dating Jenny McCarthy, and when he started being very vocal about it, I was becoming less and less of a fan. I didn't watch any of his movies after he distanced himself from "Kick Ass 2." And he was noticeably getting less movies roles, save for a few TV appearances.

And then, I saw this shit yesterday on Gawker:

What. The. FUCKING. HELL?

Is he still on this anti-vax crusade, even after breaking up with Jenny McCarthy? The comedic actor who I used to have a silly crush on when I was a kid was now this... unfunny and delusional man. I mean, fine, I may not agree with his views and I'll give him credit for standing up for what he believes in. His heart's in the right place and he clearly wants to do more philanthropy work. He just comes off as both knowledgeable and misguided. It disgusted me so much that I admitted aloud, "That's it. I'm done with Jim Carrey," much to Vince's delight. He joked that I should change my username to "SA_DAFan" since I'm a fan of Dean Ambrose. Funny enough, Erika also joked that I should change my name to "SA_WWEFan" since she was surprised that I got intro wrestling and lost interest in Jim Carrey.

I'll still keep the user name though because it's a silly and personal story to share. And my current favorite is now Chris Pratt :D