Ate at Pin Kaow with Andrew, Joanna, Anthony, and Christine
Made a wild U-Turn when Vince discovered Gelatology, a new gelato place from the owners that closed down the other wonderful gelato place, Art of Flavors, near The Stratosphere. We all felt guilty afterwards.
Went to Andrew's parent's place to hang out with the kitties
Diablo III had a major update which made the game even more addicting to play
Went into fangirl mode once I saw that Lionsgate and WWE Studios released new promotional stills for "12 Rounds 3: Lockdown." I'll be seeing Dean Ambrose again at the Gamestop Game Expo this Wednesday (I requested the day off), and some games I guess.
Saturday (8/29):
We stayed home all day
And we played Diablo III for a bit
We watched the finale of "Hannibal" and that ending is going to remain on my mind for a few days. It was a wonderful show that took artistic liberties with the original books and it also miraculously got by with the graphic violence and gore on network television. Fuck you NBC.
Sunday (8/30):
We are at Egg Works for breakfast
Went to Costco to do some minor grocery shopping and went to Petsmart to get some food
Yesterday, I asked a few questions that I was hoping last night's RAW would address. This episode was both nostalgic and unpredictable, which makes me both eager and uneasy on what story lines Creative is trying to set up here.
Before the show kicked off, HHH was walking Rollins around and telling him that he was no longer the future, he was "The Man," and he was going to get what he asked for and get that statue. The statue will be unveiled later on at the closing of RAW.
Q: Will we get another promo from an angry Paul Heyman about the "Brooklyn Screwjob?"
Sure did. He was the pissed off advocate for the ripped off beast incarnate. Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman kicked off RAW addressing the controversy from last night's match. They even threw the timekeeper under the bus for ringing the bell. Lesnar was ready to take on the Undertaker (of course, he's not booked) when Bo Dallas suddenly appeared. Dallas has had this weird trend of being killed by legends. First it was Sting on his last appearance on RAW after Wrestlemania, then it was The Rock at a house show, then HBK at Australia, and now Lesnar. Lesnar did 4 suplexes on Dallas. As they were going up the ramp, Heyman asked Brock to do 1 more to make it 5, which he did. They went up the ramp again and Heyman asked Lesnar to do an F5 for him, which he obliged. It made the crowd happy. Poor Bo Dallas. This guy was an NXT Champion!
The New Day vs Lucha Dragons - Winners: The New Day
The New Day showed off their singing ability at Summerslam, with tuning harmonicas to boot, as they sang a parody of "Empire State of Mind" acapella style. And just when we thought they couldn't top that, Xavier Woods comes out with a freaking trombone. Even the Prime Time Players who sat miserably at commentary couldn't contain their laughter. When it was evident that the Lucha Dragons was going to lose, Woods started playing "Taps" on the trombone. The New Day is unbelievably over right now and it looks like there are currently no tag teams that can rival them. Until... The Dudley Boys appeared.
This is a very, VERY big deal. Bubba Ray Dudley was a surprise entrant in the Royal Rumble earlier this year and it was widely believed that he would be signed unto WWE as another part-timer. Sadly, nothing really happened after that and he went back to TNA to become a GM. He then left TNA after they made major changes to their contracts (where they're only paid by appearances). Not only did he return, he brought his brother Devon back with him! This was the first big surprise of the night - not even the dirt sheets saw this coming.
Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns vs Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper - Winners: Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns (via DQ)
Next up was a Summerslam rematch with 2/3 Shield vs 2/2 Wyatt Family. Ambrose and Reigns won clean last night and the reception towards the end of the match was very mixed. First, Ambrose was getting beaten up by Wyatt and Harper for a good few minutes while Reigns was out. He was out long enough for the audience to start chanting "ROMAN'S SLEEPING!" When Reigns got the hot tag, the audience booed at him. Ambrose did Dirty Deeds to Wyatt to end the match but he didn't pin him. Instead, he tagged in Reigns to pin Wyatt and the audience booed at him again. That's what was happening here again in front of the same Brooklyn crowd, the audience was cheering for Ambrose and booing at Reigns. It looked like Reigns was getting ready to spear Wyatt until the lights went out, and a giant hulking man with black sheep mask appeared.
Q: Am I going to see Shirtless Ambrose 2 nights in a row?!
OMG I DID BUT AT WHAT COST?! This man was Sister Abigail's gift from the Wyatt Family: Braun Stowman. The audience may not know who he is but NXT followers do. He signed on over a year ago and has only performed in house shows. Basically, he skipped NXT and went straight to the main roster. Anyways, he hugged the hell out of Reigns and Ambrose - who ripped his shirt himself outside the ring - tried to avenge him but clearly it did nothing to this 6'8" behemoth. Ambrose was hugged to death and laid out in the middle of the ring as the Wyatt Family leered over him with their new member. At least it will finally put those stupid "Reigns or Ambrose joins the Wyatt Family" rumors to rest now. Now we're left to wonder who will come to Shield Boys' aid if they continue their war with the Wyatt Boys. I'm a bit sad that Erick Rowan will probably not return to the Wyatt Family after he recovers, or worse, he gets repackaged and gets a new gimmick.
Team Bella vs PCB - Winners: Team Bella (ugh)
MizTV had a segment with PCB before Team Bella arrived and wrecked things before starting off the Divas match. This was so, so disappointing to watch. The audience was treated yet to another match between all 6 Divas (Team B.A.D. took the night off) and they were not having it. The crowd was so bored that they did the dreaded "CM PUNK!" chant, the "WE ARE AWESOME!" chant, and the wave. Was this disrespectful? Totally, but you have to understand why the smarky Brooklyn crowd was unhappy.
On Saturday, they saw Bayley defeat Sasha Banks in a long but well paced match with emotion and storytelling. Charlotte, Bayley, Sasha, and Becky - the 4 Horsewomen of NXT - did their curtain call and stood together as a symbol of change for women's wrestling in WWE. On Monday, 2 of the Horsewomen are seen randomly fighting Team Bella with no clear direction or goal. We don't blame the women here, we blame Creative; Divas Revolution is not about giving them more air time. Paige looked furious and Charlotte looked absolutely devastated but it was obviously not because they lost to Team Bella, it was because the crowd was chanting "BORING!"
Stardust and King Barrett vs Neville - No Contest I was so upset with this match. King Barrett came out first, followed by Stardust. As Barrett was putting his crown away, Stardust attacks him from behind and does the Queen's Crossbow on him before Neville comes out. All of this happened in about a minute. Fine. I get that Stardust is upset that they lost to Neville and Stephen Amell at Summerslam but it upsets me more that Barrett is just quickly tossed aside, just as he was quickly tossed in for their feud. They had a cheesy fun promo last week and Barrett was given a cool new title; now that's all gone. Is Barrett a face now? It's back to Stardust vs Neville again?
Q: Will Jon Stewart explain why he suddenly sided with Seth Rollins?
The big headline from Summerslam was seeing Jon Stewart hit John Cena with a steel chair and allowing Rollins to win both titles. Stewart clarified that he was not siding with Rollins or The Authority. Turns out that he was trying to protect Ric Flair's 16-time title streak, which Cena was about to tie with had he won against Rollins. Ric Flair comes out and thanks Stewart for holding him in such high regard but, as he put it, "You ruined everything!" Cena comes out and he is seething mad. He's not mad about the lost; he's mad at the fact that Stewart didn't think this through and now the US title, which he said he used to issue Open Challenges to elevate challengers (Ambrose, Neville, Kevin Owens, Cesaro, Sami Zayn, etc.), is now in the hands of The Authority. Stewart meant well but his interference just gave The Authority another win.
John Cena did what he felt was right and did the AA on Stewart, who took the bump pretty well. Cena said he wanted to talk to Rollins afterwards but Stephanie and HHH didn't want him to ruin the Seth Rollins' event tonight, and they had him escorted out of the building. Cena came off incredibly heelish here.
Dolph Ziggler, Ryback, Cesaro and Randy Orton vs Sheamus, Big Show, Kevin Owens, and Rusev - Winners: Dolph Ziggler, Ryback, Cesaro and Randy Orton This was the main event, another staggering 8-man tag team match. It was basically everyone that had a match at Summerslam. There was a lot of spots, a lot of hot tags, and a lot of "CESARO SECTION" signs. Of course, Lana and Summer Rae had to get one cat fight in to distract Rusev. All the while, Big Show yells out, "I'M A GIANT!" Anyways, the faces won but the ending segment felt weird. Rusev and Owens, who previously had disagreements the last time they paired up, actually teamed up as Rusev gave Owens momentum to do a corner senton on Big Show and walked off. The faces came back into the ring and ganged up on Big Show as Ziggler did a standing drop kick, and Ryback and Cesaro picked up Big Show to set up Orton to do a big RKO on him.
So the last couple of minutes was about The Authority rewarding Seth Rollins with a statue of himself. It was a ridiculous request made by Rollins last week that would happen if he won both titles. They actually showed the statue a bit earlier in the show (HHH and Stephanie saw it but Rollins was not present) and I remarked that the statue looked like a bronze painted body double holding the belts, like one of those living statue performers. We got a lengthy promo from HHH saying Rollins was all about Hustle, Loyalty, and Respect, which seemed to be teasing Cena coming back into the ring. Rollins had a lengthy speech about thanking the Authority and that he will be immortalized. He hyped up the crowd by doing HHH's "ARE... YOU... READAAAAAAAY?" I have to admit that I am finally warming up to Rollins now. I embraced Rollins being a cocky chicken shit heel the second he came out in Summerslam in white and gold instead of his usual black and gold outfit. So it made me even more giddy to see his reaction when the curtain lifted to reveal Sting. STING of all people! It would later be announced by HHH that Sting would get a title shot and that he will be in a match with Rollins for Night of Champions. I'm very worried with how they're booking Rollins. Rollins had a feud against Lesnar, which quickly moved unto Rollins having a feud with Cena, and now he has feud with Sting. Sting should be going after HHH. Why is he going after Rollins and for the Heavyweight Championship title? This was a 3 hour+ RAW, with only 4 matches, and it still came off more entertaining than the staggering 4 hour Summerslam PPV. It got the fans talking, that's what WWE was looking for. They have a month to build up Night of Champions. Maybe we'll finally see a new Divas champion. Maybe we'll see Sheamus cash in that night. If WWE can pull off surprises like last night, it would make the product really worth investing.
I was going to make a very lengthy post for NXT Takeover: Brooklyn from Saturday and WWE Summerslam from Sunday. Instead I will just post a gif that was the defining moment of both events.
NXT Takeover: Brooklyn may not have been the best NXT special but in terms of the new venue and the quality of the matches, it blows all the Full Sail specials out of the water. 16,000 strong at the Barclay's Center, the NXT presentation looked amazing. There were no filler or meh matches. We got definitive babyface wins for all the titles. Blue freakin Pants got the biggest pop of the night (which explains why she has a shirt on WWEShop). Everyone bawled their eyes out when Bayley finally and cleanly defeated Sasha Banks for the NXT Women's Championship. WWE may tout about the Divas Revolution on RAW and Smack Down! but we'll never forget that it started on NXT. The final main event saw Finn Balor retaining his title against Kevin Owens, who would later go on to win against Cesaro the following night. Owens and Banks are working 3-4 nights back-to-back this week!
And then there was WWE's Summerslam in the same venue the following night. Unlike NXT, which was a brisk 2 hour event, this was a 4 hour buttnumb-a-thon. There were 10 matches with very little story progressions, although there were a few great moments. Major title changes included The New Day winning back their Tag Team Championship. While everyone was clamoring for a Dean Ambrose or Roman Reigns heel turn (which never happened, Ambreigns is safe!), the biggest swerve was seeing Jon Stewart turning heel by hitting John Cena with a chair, allowing Rollins to pin Cena, and making him both a WWE Heavyweight Champion AND US Champion. This moment was eclipsed by the main event with Lesnar vs Taker, which ended in a screwy finish that was sure to piss off the fans off but set up another rematch, possibly for Wrestlemania next year.
We're going to see the fallout on Monday Night RAW, which is not only Vince McMahon's birthday but is also rumored to have a major angle setting up tonight. Will Jon Stewart explain why he suddenly sided with Seth Rollins? Will we get another promo from an angry Paul Heyman about the "Brooklyn Screwjob?" Am I going to see Shirtless Ambrose 2 nights in a row?! Definitely can't wait to see what happens tonight.
Ate at Omoide, a Ramen shop. I was very bummed that we didn't get to eat Black Sesame Ice Cream all because Vince was full (that's when he does the whole we-share-one-stomach mentality).
Went with him to IGT to help officially clean out his desk and take his stuff home. The reason why he took so long to do that was for a lot of things; he was assured this "lack of projects" was temporary, he was assured after his interviews and that after the paperwork was done that he'll get the position, he was encouraged not to take the job at Reno because they'll have projects for him soon. None of those panned out.
Played Left4Dead2 with Dan and Corinne. They both gave Vince some job listings out in Irvine that he applied to. This made me a bit scared to hear but at this point, I should really get over the fear of having to move out of state if Vince's job security is on the line.
Saturday (8/22):
We pretty much stayed home the whole day
We went to Albertson's and Costco to pick up some groceries
Stayed in to watch NXT Takeover: Brooklyn (this will be its own separate post)
Sunday (8/23):
Went to Vince's parent's place for lunch
I sold the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 tablet that my parents gave me to Vince's mom. I wasn't using it anymore and it was pretty much useless since it was connected to ATT.
Went to Galleria at Sunset to kill some time
Drove all the way to McFadden's at Town Square to watch Summerslam (this will also be its own separate post). This was my very first time to actually get invited by my coworkers who are wrestling fans and hang out with them outside of work. Vince was against the idea of being in a bar for 4 hours but we were able to get a table instead for all 7 of us (Zeeshan, Jon, Brandon, Jeremy, Ashley, Vince and I). Personally, I wanted to do this just so it would be a nice change for Vince to be among other wrestling fans instead of just me and the cats. It was fun but we're not going to do it for every PPV. We're total homebodies :D
Got some smoothies from Lollicup afterwards
Did my usual thing of falling asleep on the couch as Vince played Bloodborne
I was doing my usual tag lurking on Tumblr when I noticed a post from GameStop promoting their Expo 2015 that's happening 2 weeks from now at the Sands Expo. I actually got an email about this last week but I ignored it, just like what I was going to do with this post. That is, until I noticed a 2K16 pic of Dean Ambrose included in the post and the following text:
- Seven-time NBA champion Robert Horry and WWE superstar Dean Ambrose will be posing for photos and signing autographs in the 2K booth.
The press release for the guests came out today, so it was probably too early to mention it in the email. So, like a dork, I immediately bought a ticket for the event. I asked Vince if he wanted to go and he wasn't interested. Guess I'll be going by myself. Why buy a ticket for an event that I wasn't interested in?
Long answer: We passed on going to EVO at Bally's a while back, so this was the only other video game convention that's being held in Vegas. It's not really a major event like E3, especially since it's coming from a retailer famous for taking pre-orders and allowing customers to trade everything for store credit. However, it will be another new experience for me since the last video game convention I went to was the Sony Playstation Experience last year. This is probably the last convention I'll be attending this year until CES in January 2016.
Short answer: Dean Ambrose.
I didn't tell him the real reason why I wanted to go because I know once I tell him, I'll never hear the end of it. I'm pretty sure it annoys Vince when I get into fangirl mode. So I'll probably just casually mention it to him afterwards :D
Well, that didn't take long for me to spill the beans. As expected, Vince got annoyed and said it was pretty sad and pathetic that I was being a "Tumblr girl." All I can respond to that is just, "eh," and shrug. Whatever reason I come up with will just draw more derision from him. I'm just gonna make it a point not to mention or get overzealous about Ambrose around him.
It's the go home show as well as the homecoming of Minnesota's own Beast, Brock Lesnar. What should've been an exciting show was simply nothing more than a hype machine. Literally. All of the matches were just teases on what to expect this Sunday, so basically everyone that has a match this Sunday is fighting or confronting their respective opponents tonight. There are now 10 matches confirmed for the 4-hour Summerslam. Oh boy.
HHH and Steph opened up RAW! and they were in "Best for Business" mode, as they talked about Summerslam being so big that it had to be 4 hours. And you can get it all on the WWE Network for - wait for it - $9.99. What made it irritating was that they were blasting the official theme song for Summerslam, which was Demi Lovato's single "Cool For The Summer" as they were talking. Another big big news they wanted to talk about was that former Daily Show host, Jon Stewart, will be hosting Summerslam. The road to Summerslam kicked off with Randy Orton and Cesaro vs Kevin Owens and Sheamus.
The most exciting part of any matches involving Cesaro is seeing him smile at the "CESARO SECTION" signs (again, also organized on r/SC). This tag team match was... okay. All 4 of these guys have a singles match this Sunday so this team up didn't really add anything to it. There were also a few botches at the end. Cesaro almost fell over the ropes until Kevin grabbed his foot to save him, which they played off as Owens interrupting him. And then Orton was about to do his RKO on Owens but due to some miscommunication, Orton was actually following through with his RKO as Owens was pushing him off, resulting in Orton appearing to slip down. Cesaro tried to cover Owens by grabbing his leg and pulling him off the ring, leading Orton to do the RKO on Sheamus and take the pin.
Next up was Roman Reigns vs Luke Harper. Dean Ambrose showed up and went to do commentary alongside JBL, Michael Cole, and Byron Saxton. Bray Wyatt waited on ringside. It has been a LONG time since Ambrose was on commentary and he was doing a great job hyping up everyone, even Harper and Wyatt. He even grabbed Saxton's chair and gave it to Wyatt! To be honest, this match was like a fucking replay from Smackdown. Harper is so diverse and brutal with his moves while Reigns does the same power moves over and over. Everyone gripes on Ambrose's rebound clothesline but no one bitches on Reigns constantly using a clotheslines and Superman punches. Reigns won clean at the end with a weak spear on Harper. Meanwhile, everyone is talking about how they're looking forward to seeing Ambrose or Reigns turn heel on Sunday.
Becky Lynch defeated Tamina, getting another singles win under her belt. I don't have anything more to say about this match except that it seemed pretty obvious that Tamina would take the pin. And we get another reminder that Nikki Bella's reign will go on for another month until she beats AJ Lee's reign. Jesus christ.
Next up is Rusev vs Patriotic Mark Henry again but this time, eh actually defeated him with The Accolade. Lana called back Hot Summer back into the ring and challenged her. She slapped Hot Summer and then challenged Rusev to come into the ring. As Rusev edged closer to Lana, Ziggler's theme song played. Lana did a superkick to Hot Summer and Ziggler did a DDT and superkick to Rusev. Ziggler's return made him and Rusev the (hopefully) final match added to Summerslam.
Seth Rollins and The Authority arranged to have a contract signing with him and John Cena, making their title vs title match official for Summerslam. Cocky Rollins even asked if they would make a statue of him (like the ones they made of Andre The Giant, Bruno Sammartino, and Ultimate Warrior) when he wins both titles this Sunday. HHH and Stephanie agreed that it would be done IF he wins. Rollins did a long opening monologue about Cena being the disease and that he was the cure. Cena came out and basically emasculated him, saying that even though the crowd was cheering "Let's go Cena! Cena sucks!" they were not chanting for Rollins. The real champ was here. And he even called out that Rollins was becoming HHH's legacy, as HHH calmly looks on. When Cena's fired up and not being silly, damn, he can be on point with his promos. The most surprising part? Cena signed the contract and walked away unscathed.
Ryback defeated Miz while Big Show was on commentary. Big Show was promoting his movie "Vendetta" that he filmed with Dean Cain and he had JBL holding the DVD. Makes me a little worried on how Ambrose will handle promoting his movie next month. Nothing really exciting here. I'll be fine if Miz wins or Ryback retains.
I want to point out how awesome this message from Stardust and King Barrett was. What you have to understand is how long this has been building up and how it's making all the players involved, notably King Barrett and Neville, look good. Cody Stardust has been pushing for this storyline for the last few months and it's becoming more than just a tribute to his father, Dusty Rhodes. We're seeing something new and exciting happening here, and with a celebrity element (Stephen Amell) that doesn't feel tacked on. Barrett and Neville, who've been floundering around with no direction, are back to feuding with each other, not as a heel and face, but as a villain and a hero! Amell is introducing his fans and "Arrow" fans to his love for wrestling. And the best part is how much FUN this storyline is shaping up to be. I honestly don't care if the heroes or villains wins, the payoff is finally seeing this match happen at Summerslam.
Then there was an 8 man tag team match with Prime Time Players and Lucha Dragons vs New Day and Los Matadores. The New Day was great, as usual, but otherwise it was another uninteresting match. A few months ago, that tag team division was starting to shape up after the Usos were out of the picture. There was Tyson Kidd and Cesaro, Luke Harper and Erick Rowan as "The Reapers" until Rowan got injured, The Ascension was getting some TV time, and Macho Mandow and Axelmania had... something. Ok, moving on.
The last match of the night was Sasha Banks vs Nikki Bella. One would think how awesome it was to see that the main even match was ending with Divas. Sasha was hard-hitting and taunting Nikki the whole time (even mocking her doing jumping jacks and push ups!) Unfortunately, the match went downhill when Nikki missed kicking Sasha as she jumped off the ropes (and Sasha still had to sell it), and the audience started chanting "WE WANT LESNAR!" While it was really infuriating to hear them chant that through their match, it was understandable why they would. Paul Heyman and Lesnar appeared in the last 15 minutes of a 3 hour show, whereas Undertaker appeared earlier in the first hour. This was another setback for the Divas Revolution.
Lesnar got a heroes welcome with confetti and streamers raining over him as the crowd chanted "SUPLEX CITY." Seriously, is Lesnar suppose to be the face or heel in this feud? Heyman was on fire once again as he hyped up Lesnar and mentioned his accomplishments, including from his hometown university. He even sang a glorious song, "GLORY, GLORY, BROCK LESNAR!" Undertaker's bell gong and blackout happened but Taker was nowhere to be seen, leading Heyman to do more of his promo, including pointing out that Taker doing a low blow is a desperate move (and for kayfabe reason, something only heels do, not faces). When it rang again, Taker appeared. And he did the low blow again. He tombstoned Lesnar and was greeted with a deafening boos from the fans. Anywhere else, Taker would've gotten cheers for doing this.
So, all in all, aside from a few good parts, this whole RAW was just a tease for Sunday. There's still Smack Down! this Tuesday Thursday with this ridiculously huge main event happening. Maybe there's a bit more breathing room for one last Stardust or Cosmic King vs Neville match, or Ziggler vs Rusev? Not to mention there's also NXT Takeover Brooklyn happening the night before Summerslam, so this week is all WWE. This is gonna be an exhausting weekend for wrestling fans.
Went to the Orleans Arena for the Hello Kitty Supercute Friendship Festival
Met up with Pam too! We got the VIP tickets so we got a free lanyard, tote bag, and early access to the merchandise store. I only got a shirt and a Bad Badtz Maru plush.
Speaking of which, even though we were VIP, we had to wait outside of the arena in the freakin heat. General admission got to wait inside.
Also met up with her friend, Miala, so it was us 3 girls going around the whole festival
It was reported that a lot of tour dates for the HF festival was cancelled, so Vegas is one of the last few shows to host it
Went home afterwards and just had a lazy Saturday evening
Sunday (8/16):
Stayed home all day
Grabbed some yogurt and Yogurtland
Binge watched "Broadchurch" on Netflix while exercising. Fox's "Gracepoint" (their US adaptation of "Broadchurch" that also had David Tennant in the same role) was a few episodes longer. Their ending was not only different from the original BBC ending but it didn't seem as startling.
There was a thread on r/SC a few week ago that addressed a silly dirtsheet rumor that the Wyatt Family will get a third family member since Sting will be teaming up with Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose for Summerslam. The point of the rumor is that the fans are not gonna like whoever the third member is. Speculations ranged from having jobbers, wrestlers with no direction, or wrestlers not appearing on RAW or Smack Down! being brainwashed to join the Wyatts. The rumors came to a halt when it was revealed that Sting was not even going to be a part of Summerslam and they were going ahead with having 2/3 of The Shield vs 2/3 of the Wyatt family in a match.
Then this thread popped up speculating that the third member will be a babyface favorite: Dean Ambrose. Firstly, a good majority are in favor of Ambrose turning heel, mostly because he's directionless (again) since Rollins has his hands full with Cena (again). Secondly, Reigns would benefit more as a heel, mostly because it will further develop his character and make him follow a similar path as The Rock during his time as a heel. Rollins has been on a roll since turning heel last year and has been consistently featured in the main event and PPVs since then. A heel turn would benefit either one of them but it will cost their bromance.
Their interview with Michael Cole reaffirms why they have such a unique relationship; Roman sees Ambrose as a loyal person despite him being "off" and Ambrose sees Roman as a true person who doesn't suck. The bottom line is that Reigns and Ambrose are currently the most notable example of "bromance" and camaraderie that has remained strong after their group has disbanded. Which is why those talks of who is going to turn heel on who has come back up again. Personally, I don't want to see their bromance end so soon because they're at their best together, but if it does happen, it better make sense. Rollins turned on The Shield made sense. Reigns or Ambrose turning on each other won't.
It's 2 weeks til the Summerslam and a bunch of matches were added to the card, now justifying WWE extending the PPV to 4 hours. Last night's RAW was thoroughly enjoyable, and it also marked the return of Daniel Bryan in his home state of Washington.
Seth Rollins opened up RAW with a really silly segment where he was talking to a picture of John Cena with his broken nose via titantron with Rollins' mouth and terrible accent. Cena has still not officially accepted Rollins' challenge. Cesaro (who was so happy to see more Cesaro Section signs), Kevin Owens (who called out "the idiot on the internet" for printing said signs for the sheeps), and Randy Orton (who sheeply asked if Owens gained weight) came out, much to Rollins' dismay as he confirmed that he was not going to do the weekly open challenge. HHH came out and created a triple threat match amongst the 3 challengers and the winner will fight Rollins for the title as tonight's main event.
Team Bella defeated Team B.A.D. while Submission Sorority PCB was on commentary. While all 3 Diva groups went into the ring and started wailing on each other, this moment stood out at the end; look at the stare down between the 2 former champs! Sadly, the Divas Revolution will remain on its holding pattern for another month. They were added to Summerslam as a Three Team Elimination match.
The New Day fought (and defeated) Los Matadores. These guys have been on FIRE these last few weeks. Their matches have been so entertaining to watch, and regardless of whether they win or lose, they still win the crowd over every single time. They were added to Summerslam as a Fatal 4-Way Match against Los Matadores (ugh), Lucha Dragons (yay), and Tag Team Champions Prime Time Players. When The New Day first won, it was a complete surprise. Now I want them to be the 2-Time Tag Team Champions.
The Triple Threat match with Orton, Owens, and Cesaro was incredible. It's so damn impressive to see Owens keep up with Cesaro and Owens. Orton and Cesaro teamed up to do a double suplex on Owens off the turnbuckle. And Orton did a double rope DDT on Owens and Cesaro. I was not happy to see Cesaro getting the pin from Orton, which meant it was another match for the 13-time former champ against Rollins again. Come on, Cesaro or Owens would've been great.
There was a Miz TV segment with Daniel Bryan, who was there to plug his book. Miz once again complained that he should be the IC champ and Big Show came out. And then... The Ryback came out! He looks well! He didn't do his signature Shell Shock but he did a good spear on Miz and on Big Show. Bryan has been really supportive of The Ryback, so it was nice to see his continued endorsement.
Next up was Ambrose vs Harper with Roman Reigns and Bray Wyatt, respectively on their side outside the ring. Harper and Ambrose put on a decent match (though Vince pointed out that they were on auto-pilot) but in the end, Ambrose lost (UGH AS USUAL) to Harper. This whole "Family vs Family" feud, especially for Ambreigns, is once again bringing up rumors that one of them will turn heel, or worse, join the Wyatt Family. Their bromance over the last few months has been consistently endearing, and it's going to suck when it happens. Wonder how that will affect Ambrose's merchandise on the WWEShop.
There was a match with Rusev defeated Mark Henry while Lana was on commentary. The match was a no decision when Lana intervened. Something remarkable happened here; Rusev ordered Summer to "CRUSH" Lana and she performed Rusev's Accolade on her! And then the Bulgarian flag came down with Rusev's face on it and it was fucking glorious. I actually liking this love triangle better without Ziggler's involvement.
Neville defeated King Barrett but was jumped but was jumped by Stardust in the ring. Stardust notices "Arrow" actor Stephen Amell in the front row and smacks him before getting back in the ring. Amell jumps over the barricade and SPEARS Stardust in the middle of the ring! The crowd pop here was great! Backstage, he demanded HHH to put him and Neville in a match against Stardust and King Barrett for Summerslam. This is the match I'm looking forward to the most. It was an unusual concept to begin with but I'm glad WWE allowed this story line to develop. I read that Stardust is doing this match in tribute to his father, Dusty Rhodes, so that he can finish what he started.
The main event match with Rollins and Orton was also decent but it was looking like it was falling apart towards the end. To be honest, I wasn't really watching the match because it would seem obvious that Rollins would retain. Sheamus interfered and tried to cash in his MITB briefcase after throwing Orton over the barricade. And then this happened:
Sheamus and John Cone (Office Rep! Dammit, I miss the JBL & Renee show) were clearly stalling for a few seconds before Orton came back into the ring and RKO'd Sheamus. This was predictably disappointing. Majot title changes only seem to happen in PPV events. I get that they want to make the title prestigious and the title change significant but a little unpredictability goes a long way. This is clearly hinting that Sheamus is going to cash in again at Summerslam but for which title? The World Heavyweight Championship or the US Championship?
Next week is the Go Home show with Lesnar and Undertaker returning to Raw for one last time before Summerslam.
Had dinner at Cafe Zupas. We were reminded why we haven't eaten here in over a year (bland sandwiches, salad drenched in dressing, and tiny chocolate-dipped strawberries).
Sporadically decided to check out King Putt. We thought it would be busy on a Friday but it actually wasn't. It turned out to be a fun mini date night! So much Mulligan!
Oh yeah, for the first time in a long while, I didn't watch Smack Down! on Thursday. Most of the main roster was in Australia for the weekend, so Smack Down! relied on Roman Reigns, Bray Wyatt, Team B.A.D., PCB, and The New Day. I think it must've been messed up for the attendees to not have been informed that a good chunk of the main roster (Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, Cesaro, Kevin Owens, Randy Orton, Luke Harper, Bella Twins) was suddenly moved to the Australia tour.
Saturday (8/8):
Watched "Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F" in theaters. We thought that going to the first morning showing would mean less people; wrong. It was packed and it smelled. Also, there was this was tall asshole sitting directly in front of me, so I was basically staring at the back of someone's head that took up nearly half of the frame!
Went to Seafood City to get ingredients to make Pinakbet but without the bitter melon
Cooked said recipe at home
Was stupidly giddy to see another Dean Ambrose merch quietly added to WWEShop.com. It's a picture frame! And they removed the Money In The Bank 2015 poster that featured him :(
This was a nice way to honor Roddy Piper, although the silent 10-bell salute was ruined by some asshole in the audience who yelled out "Roddy!" towards the end, prompting the rest of the crowd to join in on the cheering before it ended. Considering the weird events Roddy was involved in the last few weeks (him getting fired from Podcast One, him uploading his podcasts to Soundcloud, and getting dropped from his WWE Legends contract), this was still nice of WWE to put this together. It was too damn soon to lose another wrestling legend.
Bad news: Rollins has issued a title vs title match with Cena for Summerslam, taking a page from ROH's recent PPV event with Jay Lethal and Jay Briscoe. Rollins also issued a WWE World Heavyweight Championship Open Challenge for tonight with 2 caveats: that the challenger was under 6 feet tall and under 200 lbs. The first to accept the challenge was was El Torito Neville. So awesome to see 2 former NXT champs go at it and Neville got to showcase more of his moves from NXT. The most damning part was that Rollins got a clean win and there was no interference from Stardust.
Paul Heyman was there just to showcase and hype up Brock Lesnar. Brock didn't do his signature ring jump. He just grabbed one of the metal steps from the corner and threw it in the middle of the ring, just so he can stand on it. And Heyman cut a promo so damn good that it even got Lesnar to smile.
This beautiful moment was organized on r/SC a week ago. It was the work of one wredittor passing out 7000 copies of card stock with "CESARO SECTION" before the event and during the breaks. Cesaro was clearly moved by it (this was posted on his instagram) as he made his way to respond to Kevin Owens for Miz TV.
Miz thanked Piper and Piper's Pit as the originator for his segment. Miz said he should be Intercontinental Champion since Ryback was out (he's still recovering from his staph infection on his knee). When Ryback won the belt at the Elimination Chamber, I wasn't happy, not because he won but it's the fact that the last few champions who held the title were injured to an extent that they had to vacate the title (like Daniel Bryan recently). Anyways, Miz was the moderator for Owens and Cesaro. Owens now recognizes Cesaro as a legit threat after Cena and Cesaro is still getting his push, so this is good for them. The C-Section is working!
Paige, Becky Lynch, and Charlotte have an official stable name: Submission Sorority. This is a horribly confusing name, and it would be a nightmare to search for in Google. Team Paige would've been fine! And I hate to admit it but I'm starting to get Divas Revolution fatigue, since it features the same 3 groups (Submission Sorority, Team B.A.D., and Team Bella) in weekly matches. We know what they can do now, I just want to see them in a story line, especially after Nikki Bella's reign ends.
Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper are cutting a promo as they warn Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose, when all of a sudden Sheamus walks into the frame. This was unintentionally funny.
Reigns and Ambrose also responds (with Ambrose repeating Roddy's iconic quote on how they're here to kick ass and chew bubble gum, and they're all out of bubble gum.) Orton walks in saying that they can do whatever they want, just leave Sheamus to him. Dean's delayed reaction upon realizing Reigns called him "crazy" was also funny.
The main event was a 6-man tag team match with Randy Orton, a returning Roman Reigns, and Dean "Crazy" Ambrose vs Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper, and Erick Rowan Sheamus. For a good minute or so, Reigns looked crazy strong as he took out the Wyatts and Sheamus. Pairing him up with Ambrose really takes off the heat he got last year, but it's still obvious that WWE is going to push Reigns again. The match felt a bit rushed because of the Stone Cold's Podcast with Paige. It looked like a house show event and it made the smarky San Jose crowd go home happy.
I didn't do a Thursday Smack Down! recap but the main event was like an indie booking fantasy: Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins (ROH) vs Cesaro and Dean Ambrose (CZW)!
Saturday (8/1):
Watched "Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation." It's a tent pole Summer movie that's damn smary and enjoyable.
We pretty much stayed in the rest of the day as Vince did his second play through with Bloodborne. I beat Pokemon Omega Ruby! AND I caught Rayquaza!
I think we're the only people in the world that has time to watch "Hannibal" on a Saturday night. Damn you NBC for cancelling this wonderful show and putting it in this shitty time slot.
learned that Ronda Roussey won her PPV UFC match in 34 seconds. Seriously, all of her wins are gif-able. She dedicated her win to Roddy Piper, which was so damn awesome of her.
Sunday (8/2):
Went to get my hair cut and dyed at Ann's Salon. Couldn't redo my Ombre because the bleach damaged my hair, so we went with having it lightened.
Stayed home nearly all day. I got bored and wanted to get out.
Went to Gelato Bar near China Town. It was ok. Vivido is way better.
We walked around the park that's near our apartment for a bit of exercise.
