"What's in the box, Kane?": Monday Night RAW (9/28/15)

**sighs**

This is the second week of Monday Night RAW where it felt like they were taking a few steps forward and then went back again. This is puzzling considering that just last week, RAW scored significantly low in its TV ratings, which reportedly sent Vince McMahon into panic mode. With that, I was hoping to see some developments with RAW moving forward. It's so uneven; there's some story development but no story progression. The problem is that they're trying to build storylines for both the Madison Square Garden house show this weekend AND for Hell In A Cell. Instead of focusing on the whole 3 hour show, which featured 9 matches, I'll just focus on the highlights.

I'd just like to point out that the "12 Rounds 3: Lockdown" poster was shown again. The movie is still available via VOD!

U.S. Open Challenge: John Cena vs Xavier Woods - Winner: LOLCENAWINS

First off, I was seriously disappointed that Heath Slater didn't answer the Open Challenge, despite it being mentioned on WWE's Facebook page. It was #SlaterAppreciationDay! Still, this was a better way to kick off RAW than with a 20-minute promo from Rollins or The Authority. The New Day was great, as usual, and it was exciting to see Xavier Woods wrestle since he's always relegated to being the hype man outside the ring. Kofi Kingston and Big E were banned from ringside, allowing the match to be truly one-on-one. Of course, it couldn't stay that way for long as Kingston and Big E interfered at the end, making Cena win by DQ. And right on cue, the Dudley Boyz came out, making it into a 6-man tag team match, playa!

The New Day vs The Dudley Boyz and John Cena: Winners - The New Day

I'm still amazed with The Dudley Boyz. I've never seen their matches up until their recent return and I can't believe how energetic and exciting their matches are every single time. It's great that they can keep up with The New Day. It's also somewhat sad that they are the only good teams for the main roster's tag team division. Despite some great spots, The New Day won against The Dudley Boyz and John Cena.

There were a couple of matches and segments that happened that I won't bother going into detail. Nikki defeated Charlotte, who's only been a champ for over a week! And a majority of it were squash matches. Big Show squashed Mark Henry, Randy Orton squashed Bo Dallas, Kevin Owens and Rusev teamed up to beat up Ryback before Ziggler came in, and Braun Strowman and Luke Harper squashed Prime Time Players. Barrett returned to knock out Neville and Stardust in their match.

There were 2 big stories being told here. The first involved Rollins dealing with Kane. The other being the main even with Roman Reigns against Bray Wyatt, which I will discuss at length.

Kane was subjected to an HR Evaluation by Ashley, after someone anonymously filed a complaint against him. Ashley spent time with Kane as well as with Rollins since it's obvious who sent the anonymous email. In one wonderfully creepy segment, Kane presented Rollins a gift, which was a nice tribute to "Se7en"'. The gift turned out to be the severed head from Rollins' statue, which Sting destroyed a few weeks ago in Baltimore. Look at Kane's fucking smile. This is Team Hell No levels of glee here.

In their last segment, Ashley and Kane were out in the ring, where she was ready to provide her final evaluation. Rollins came out and started rambling like a mad man, how he talked to the Pope recently and he said he's going to Heaven. After Kane and Rollins showed their respective video packages against each other (Kane being shown as a demon and Rollins being showed as out of control), Ashley determined that Kane was of sound mind, much to Rollins' dismay. Ashley continued that Rollins was actually worse; he was mean, delusional, and paranoid. After Ashley left, Rollins angrily confronted Kane and re-injured his ankle. Kane was then escorted in a stretcher and was put into an ambulance to be taken to the hospital. And then this happened:

Corporate Kane turned into Demon Kane - in the same ambulance - complete with stomping on his leg to magically undo his injury. As Rollins escaped the ring, he left his Heavyweight Championship title in the ring, which Kane happily took up and raised triumphantly. Demon Kane is definitely gunning for the title shot now.

Bray Wyatt vs Roman Reigns: Winner - No Decision

The main event was Roman Reigns against Bray Wyatt in what seems like be the blow-off to their 4-month-ish feud. Now that I had time to think about it, the story building for this feud was actually consistent for the most part (they dropped Reigns' daughter getting involved). This was a feud that started after Wyatt took away Reigns' chance to win Money In The Bank and a shot at World Heavyweight Championship title. Luke Harper and Dean Ambrose got involved because let's face it, there was nothing happening for either of them. Harper went back to Wyatt after Rowan got injured and Ambrose became Reigns' buddy to return the favor, after Reigns was his buddy for a couple of PPVs earlier during the "Summer of Ambrose."

In one backstage segment, Ambrose, making his only scruffy appearance, tries to talk Reigns out of going on-on-one with Wyatt because Strowman and Harper could jump in at any time. Ambrose is more than happy to take on the "giant swamp apes" to keep him off his back. Reigns said that Randy Orton will be there to help him out, which he sarcastically replied, "I'm sure he would LOVE TO!" After what happened with Chris Jericho, Ambrose (with total disregard on using his indoor voice) said he didn't want any "OUTSIDERS coming here to SAVE THE DAY!" This made Orton understandably upset, considering that they asked for his help first. Reigns said that they can't finish this thing by themselves. "Oh, and you can?" asks Orton. "Believe that," replies a confident Reigns. If there's one thing to take away from this, it's that this probably marks the end of the whole "third man" arc, and hopefully frees up Ambrose and Orton. I think Reigns got enough of Ambrose's rub to carry himself now.

This match was basically the conclusion from the brawl last week. No help from their friends. No Shield vs Wyatt. No "Family vs Family" feud. This is the final test to see how Reigns and Wyatt stack up against each other as singles competitor. The match took a while to build. It only got exciting in the end, when both Reigns and Wyatt were in a double count out. Then it turned into a full-out brawl. Wyatt threw a guy unto Reigns. And Reigns freaking speared Wyatt unto the announcer's table.

This was a great spot. It even got the dead Buffalo crowd on their feet and doing the "YES!" chants. It solidified Reigns as a power house and it made Wyatt looked like a monster heel without the family. They both came out looking like solid performers, which was also a problem. No one won and no one lost; it was 50/50 booking. This doesn't look like the end of their feud, and they certainly didn't want either of them to look weak.

Overall, it was an all right Raw and like I said earlier, there was story development but no story progression. It was so weird that kept emphasizing Lesnar and Big Show's match for the Madison Square Garden event when there are other matches lined up, like Chris Jericho vs Kevin Owens for the freaking Intercontinental Championship. Hopefully we'll start seeing stories moving forward after that event.

By the way... Ambrose defeated Rollins last week at Smack Down in a non-title match. By their stupid rules, since he won against a champion, that should make Ambrose the #1 contender again. Of course, it's not going to happen or be acknowledged because it's Smack Down!

Weekend Recap (9/25/15-9/27/15)

Friday (9/25):

• Had to leave work early so I can meet with Vince's parents and his bro at Bachi Burger
• We went around Downtown Summerlin to windowshop and eat Gelato. I had a lot of Gelato.
• Played Diablo III for the Double Horadric Cache weekend

Saturday (9/26):

• Went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to look for some BBQ tools
• Vince was about to mail in his passport renewal form until he found out how much it was. It'll have to be postponed because he has a lot of car stuff to do and pay for before our cabin trip this coming weekend.
• Pretty much stayed in the rest of the day

Sunday (9/27):

• Had an early lunch at Vince's parent's place. His bro was heading back to Reno.
• Went around Town Square and Fry's. I bought a leather jacket. Now my Dean Ambrose inspired outfit is complete :D 
• Went to Yogurtland to take home some dessert and just pretty much had a lazy evening. Ended with me falling asleep as Vince played MGSV.
• Somewhat worried that there will be no wifi at the cabin this weekend, so we can't reddit O_O

31st Birthday

This is how I celebrated turning 31 years old on September 22, 2015:

How I celebrated the first hour of turning 31: Watching "Gravity Falls" and getting a wonderful birthday card and gift from Vincie.

A photo posted by sheila antonio (@sajcfan) on Sep 22, 2015 at 12:49am PDT

Vince gave me a gift, even though I said the only thing I really want for my birthday is a nice dinner together. I had a weird feeling it would be a figure and I was right when I opened it. What I didn't expect was that it would be a Dean Ambrose figure! Yay! Thankfully, it was the Elite edition, not the first figure I got from my co-worker. Even after he called me a pathetic "Tumblr girl" for buying a ticket to the Gamestop Expo just to see Dean again last month, he still got the figure for me as a gift. That's love. Or enabling an obsession. I'll go with the former. He had a nice card with a lovely message written in it.

I didn't take the day off from work, I just left an hour earlier. We went to the gym for about an hour, just to build up an appetite, and then we got ready for Trattoria Nakamura-Ya. We had some fancy pasta that was a bit pricey. We avoided getting desserts because we felt it might be like the presentation of the appetizer, where it was pricey for a small portion. Instead, we went to the Gelato Bar at China Town and played Battleship.

Gelato and Battleship!

A video posted by sheila antonio (@sajcfan) on Sep 22, 2015 at 9:31pm PDT

And that was that. No big celebration, no partying at a club and getting Brie Mode. Just a simple, enjoyable night with Vince as I celebrate another year of getting older. All while wearing my Hello Kitty Cafe shirt, shorts, and mint-green and pink Converse :D

"Did you get the email?": Monday Night RAW (9/22/15)

After Sunday's Night of Champions PPV, I mentioned how I was excited for Monday Night RAW. The more I think about the episode, the more meh I felt about it. It's like they took a few steps forward and then went back again. Instead of talking about every match that happened, I'll just talk about the major highlights.

Hey look! They're passively promoting "12 Rounds 3: Lockdown" again! It's not in theaters anymore and it's still VOD.

Brawl: Wyatt Family vs Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns, and Randy Orton

I was half expecting to get a lengthy promo from Rollins bragging about his back-to-back matches to open up the show. Instead, the Wyatt Family showed up and talked down Reigns and Ambrose. Reigns came out and said he just wanted to have a one-on-one brawl with Wyatt; they don't need a ref to make a match. Of course, it couldn't stay one-on-one with Luke Harper and Braun Strowman outside the ring so they interfered, which prompted Dean Ambrose ("ROMAN REIGNS' BUDDY!" yelled Micheal Cole) to join in on the fight, and he was being wildly tenacious with Strowman. The duo appeared to be getting overwhelmed again, which made me believe that Chris Jericho would come out (and judging by the crowd chanting "Y2J", so did they). Their third man turned out to be Randy Orton, taking his revenge after being jumped by them a few weeks ago. And they managed to "win" against the Wyatt Family. Great.

I was pretty sad to find out afterwards that Jericho was a one night only thing, which meant the potential feud between Jericho and Ambrose that was heavily implied with the shoulder bump really went nowhere. And no offense to Randy Orton but I didn't want to see him lumped with Ambrose and Reigns again. I guess this is better for him than dealing with Sheamus. And worst of all, The Wyatt Family "lost." It's like they're really hitting it home that Ambrose and Reigns would only succeed against the family with a better third man, unlike with Jimmy Uso and Jericho. It's looking like they'll be continuing this family war to Hell In A Cell next month, which I'm not looking forward to. I'm still damn bitter that Jericho vs Ambrose is not happening.

The Return of Interrupting Kane Demon Kane Corporate Kane 

Sunday was the surprise return of Demon Kane. Rollins was understandably wary tonight and wanted to talk to HHH and Stephanie to do something about it. Instead, he got another surprise appearance from an unusually chipper Corporate Kane. Apparently, he doesn't recall being at Night of Champions last night because he was still recovering from his leg injury. Kane has happily resumed his role as Director of Operations, and the first thing he did on his first day back was set up a rematch for him against John Cena for the US Title, much to Rollins' confusion. Not since Team Hell No have I ever enjoyed Kane acting this silly. Weirdly enough, this seems like the right direction for Kane since his appearance drew more of a "WTF" reaction. What's even more weirder is that Rollins is once again being moved into another feud for another PPV so quickly. After Ambrose, he's been up against Lesnar, Cena, Sting, and now Kane. What are they doing to Rollins?

The True Beginning of The Divas Revolution

Charlotte had an in-ring celebration with Team PCB and Ric Flair, who introduced her and said that her little girl winning the Divas Championship was his greatest accomplishment. This was great and all until Paige took the mic and she fucking unleashed her true feelings on the whole Divas Revolution, that was reminiscent of AJ Lee's pipe bomb. She said that started the Divas Revolution when she came to WWE, this whole thing with Charlotte was patronizing, and the best part, that Charlotte is just a placeholder. Her reign will come to an end soon because Nikki can still invoke her rematch clause and the Divas Revolution will go back to where it was. She called Becky Lynch irrelevant, which infuriated Charlotte. Paige also called out Lana and Summer for basically being sluts and also called out Natalya for not being a part of this. Paige walked away from the group, prompting Team Bella to talk down Charlotte and starting a match with her against Brie Bella (thankfully Charlotte won).

Natalya vs Naomi: Winner - Naomi

Natalya would later show up for the second Divas segment against Naomi. She confronted Paige earlier about ruining Charlotte's moment to make her point. Anyways, Natty was absolutely amazing in the ring. It's baffling that she didn't get to wrestle this much since she had be a valet to Tyson Kidd months earlier when he was on NXT and RAW/Smack Down! She lost to Naomi's stupid Rear View finisher. Hopefully, they'll feature Natalya frequently because she's one of the few main roster Divas that can still wrestle.

Cesaro vs Big Show: Winner - Big Show

I'm not happy with this match. I get that Big Show has to look strong against Lesnar since they have a match at Madison Square Garden next week. But of all opponents, why Cesaro? After doing a seemingly impossible suplex spot on Big Show, Cesaro is easily knocked out by Big Show's weak punch. Big Show cut a promo on how he has history with Lesnar and that he'll defeat him or whatever. This match with Cesaro didn't need to happen at all. Don't do this to Cesaro, who's one of the best and strongest workers on the main roster.

The Dudley Boyz and Dolph Ziggler vs The New Day and Rusev: Winners - The New Day and Rusev

This was unusual to make it a 6 man tag team match while Xavier was left out. Nonetheless, it was an entertaining match. Xavier was no longer sporting his Rufio hairstyle from Sunday but he was noticeably limping towards the ring. He held up a little Quest Diagnostics bag with a big chunk of the table, stating that doctors had to pull that out from his buttocks. This crowd was awful and didn't react as properly to their segment. It seems like anyone interacting with the New Day would end up having fun. Xavier performed Rusev's theme on his trombone! And Summer Rae came off incredibly likable here, plus she saved Xavier's trombone when he was knocked out from the ropes. The New Day and Rusev winning made the heels look strong and added more character to Rusev, who enjoyed being in their company.

Seth Rollins gets DRAGGED TO HELL

Seth Rollins lost to John Cena, who retained his US Champion title, because LOLCENAWINS. Seth FREAKING Rollins has lost twice in a row. Seriously, what are they doing to him? At least, this finally concludes their feud so that Cena can possibly do more US Open Challenges. Rollins, on the other hand, has to deal with Kane and possibly Sheamus, who keeps teasing that he'll cash in on him on any chance that he gets. After losing to Cena, Kane talks to Rollins from the titantron, being all chipper until he gets all serious. From there, we finally see what Kane is up to; he's just messing with Seth Rollins. While Rollins was distracted by Kane's entrance theme, he failed to notice Kane popping up from the ring canvas. Rollins made this cheesy segment enjoyable with his over-the-top selling but what was the point of the segment?

We're back to that cycle where Rollins is coming off a PPV win, the Authority are either building him up or putting him down, and Rollins would flounder or barely win in his RAW and Smack Down! matches for 3 weeks until the PPV. Rollins is not booked as a chicken shit heel anymore, who would do anything to win. He's actually coming off as being resilient and almost sympathetic. This might be the slow burn that they're working with Rollins; that the Authority is just going to push and push Rollins to see if he'll break.

WWE Night of Champions 2015 PPV

I watched this PPV with low expectations and avoiding the dirtsheets. The results? I enjoyed it! I think this was just a little better than Summerslam and the story developments that follow will be good. Well, at least I hope it would be good, depending on creative. Oh that wonderful ending.

Kevin Owens vs Ryback - Winner: Kevin Owens

This was the best way to kick off the PPV. It was so satisfying to see Kevin Owens win a title! Sure, it ain't the WWE World Heavyweight Championship or US Championship but Owens winning the title adds something new and different. No offense to Ryback but he didn't make the title feel as important. Then again, his opponents didn't make his reign that interesting either. Owens is going to treat this title like he did with his NXT Championship titile; a sought after prize for a prized fighter. Don't get injured, Owens! Break that curse! YES OWENS YES!

Dolph Ziggler vs Rusev - Winner: Dolph Ziggler

I didn't really care for this match but it had a few entertaining spots. First, Ziggler wore pants with Lana's face on his crotch. Trying to be all Ravish Rick Rude-ish aren't we? There was a spot where Rusev thought he defeated Ziggler at the 3 count and he even celebrated by having the ref hold up his hand, only to get frustrated when they said that Ziggler kicked out at 2. AT one point, Hot Summer got involved and accidentally got into the ring. The ref kicked her out and Hot Summer started protesting by throwing her shoes. She threw one behind her on the ramp and threw the second one at the ref, which missed and hit Rusev instead. Ziggler took advantage and pinned Rusev. Hot Summer sat on the ramp, stunned at what happened, while Rusev marched back. Ziggler gave her a quick kiss on the hand before walking up the ramp.

The Dudley Boyz vs The New Day - Winners: The Dudley Boyz (via DQ)

As always, the Dudley Boyz and The New Day put on an awesome match. Xavier Woods came out looking like Rufi-fucking-o from "Hook" and he brought his trombone. They opened the segment talking about how they managed to gets thousands of signatures to save the tables, including from President Obama (which drew boos from the crowd. Awkward!) The Dudleys were close to winning until Xavier interfered, making them winners by disqualification. Then Kofi and Big E called for Xavier to "GET THE TABLES" and became the table poachers themselves. It didn't work out as the Dudleyz took out Kofi and Big E and put Xavier through the table instead. This is great; they need to keep this feud going for the two teams. Unfortunately, it also means this feud is overshadowing the other tag teams on the roster. The Ascension and Stardust were in a match against the Lucha Dragons and Neville in the kickoff match (which we missed).

Charlotte vs Nikki Bella - Winner: Charlotte 

THANK FUCKING GOD. The Bellabration is over. This was a match everyone was excited to see because it marked the end of Nikki Bella's awful reign and the hopeful beginning of new developments for the Dvias revolution. Charlotte fooled everyone into thinking she sustained a leg injury early on in the match, which Nikki took advantage of and worked on for a majority of the match. The match was really one-sided with Nikki doing most of the work until Charlotte countered with a spear and managed a Figure 8 with her injured leg, forcing Nikki to tap out. It was a clean win! Becky Lynch, Paige and Ric Flair went into the ring and celebrated with Charlotte. One thing to note was Paige looking less enthusiastic for Charlotte on winning the title, which seems to be teasing a heel turn that we might see on Monday Night RAW. Another thing to note, WWE didn't even acknowledge AJ Lee in their video package of previous Divas champs. That's so damn petty.

Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose and Jericho vs The Wyatt Family: Winners: The Wyatt Family

I was really, really happy with who the third man turn out to be. It wasn't anyone new from NXT and it wasn't Erick Rowan or Savio Vega (dammit). The most plausible choice was Daniel Bryan because of his history with the Wyatt Family. Jericho was an even better choice. First, he's a part-timer that has kept himself quite busy with only doing house shows, so his appearance here was a big surprised for the crowd. And second, he helped put Bray Wyatt over as a monstrous heel in his feud with him last year. And then Cena undid all of that work when Wyatt lost to him. Vince said that historically, most mystery partners that come to the aid of a wrestler always win a match, so he wasn't too excited about it. I didn't want Ambrose and Reigns to win because they already won last month. Plus, that match wasn't really as good since it's just 2/3 of each team anyways.

The match was pretty solid and Jericho got a "You still got it!" chants from the crowd. Strowman is also starting to get more comfortable in the ring. I was freaking out when he held up Jericho and tossed him out of the ring. Luckily, Reigns and Ambrose (mostly Ambrose) caught him. Reigns was just there to do the hot tags. Towards the end of the match, Reigns was ready to spear Strowman until Jericho tagged himself in, which turned out to be a bad decision. Strowman overwhelmed Jericho and hugged him to death. The crowd went absolutely dead when they realized that the Wyatt Family won. The camera lingered on Ambrose, Reigns, and Jericho in the ring, all looking disappointed. The duo tried to talk to Jericho. He did a hard shoulder bump into Ambrose as he walked away from them. Will Ambrose and Reigns look for another man against their continuing war with the Wyatt Family? Or was this Jericho turning heel? He seemed more upset with Ambrose than costing their match.

Seth Rollins vs John Cena: Winner - John Cena

I didn't anticipate Rollins' matches to be back to back! He was the main event for the final hour. Even better, he wore his awesome white and gold gear from Summerslam. Their match was great and Rollins was sort of borrowing Kevin Owens' tactic by imitating Cena's moves. The crowd was doing the dreaded wave, which they usaully do if they find the match boring or if they're all being obnoxious and putting themselves over. In the end, Cena got his US Championship title back. Rollins grabbed his World Heavyweight title and tried to walk back up the ramp but Cena blocked him and said he had one more match. Rollins objected to Cena, who did an AA on Rollins on the ramp, making him more injured for his match against Sting.

Seth Rollins vs Sting: Winner - Seth Rollins

Oof. This match was not fun to watch. Sting was gaining the upperhand until Rollins threw Sting into the Spanish announcer's table. It looked like he hit his head on the corner of one of the monitors. Also, Rollins carried Sting and threw him hard into the turnbuckle. At one point, the ref and ring doctor had to come in and check on Sting before resuming the match. He looked quite groggy afterwards and it was reminiscent of how Taker was groggy after sustaining a concussion against Lesnar. Rollins ended up winning cleanly against Sting, which gave Sheamus an opportunity to cash in on the exhausted Rollins. We were all freaking out and dreading the worst until... Masked Kane appeared! He did a tombstone piledriver on Rollins! Sheamus asked Kane to do it one more time so that he can officially cash it in but Kane chokeslammed Sheamus instead. Interrupting Kane ended Night of Champions, standing tall. I'm not sure what to make of this, does this make him a face now? At least Rollins kept his title, which probably means more US Open Challenges from Cena again.

Thanks, WWE. I'll definitely tune into RAW tomorrow night. 

Weekend Recap (9/18/15-9/20/15)

Friday (9/18):

• Ate at Sweet Tomatoes for dinner
• Watched a bit of ROH All-Star Extravaganza iPPV. Jay Lethal retained both of his titles, thanks to shenanigans! Now it'll be interesting to see how WWE will change their ending with Rollins' matches.

Saturday (9/19):

• Met with VInce's parents to eat at Krazy Buffet. This is our first and last time to eat there. Holy crap, the food was sub par compared to Buffet@Asia. "For the price, the food's not bad," said Vince's dad. Repeatedly. We had upset stomach afterwards.
• Walked around Downtown Summerlin for a bit before heading back home. Vince wasn't feeling well.
• Learned that Dan's faithful pet, Sputnik, passed away. She was 15 years old.
• It was Renee Young's birthday today! And the poor girl had to go on Instagram to rant about all the hateful comments she's been getting lately. Fucking rapid Ambrose fangirls.

Sunday (9/20):

• Had early brunch at Hash House A Go Go with: Josh, Tanisha, and their daughter, Phoenix, Andrew, Joanna and Ren. Did a lot of catching up, including possibly setting up a Dungeons & Dragons date. It'll happen soon!
• Went home afterwards because I had a really upset stomach. Dear lord, I used the bathroom too many times today...
• Watched the WWE Night of Champions PPV, which I will happily do a recap in the next post. I enjoyed the PPV and it made me more than excited to watch the fallout on RAW.

Part 3: One week after "Lockdown"

And here we are. I have now reached the end of my 3-week observation of Dean Ambrose's first movie, "12 Rounds 3: Lockdown." The first part covered the hype and promotion that WWE was suppose to do for the movie a week before its debut, which was only done in the form of showing the movie trailer during commercial breaks and letting social media handle the rest. The second part covered the continued promotion (with a cute shout out from Renee Young), Ambrose's Q&A from the Wizard World Comic Con at Pittsburgh, and critic consensus about the movie from IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes. This final part will cover my opinion about the movie, which I rented and watched on Sunday (9/13), see how the movie is doing in theaters (which is literally not worth tracking according to Box Office Mojo standards), and see how WWE is going to forget this movie ever happened since they're too busy focusing on working on the Night of Champion PPV next Sunday.

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As I mentioned in my second part, I gave in and decided to rent the movie for $7.99 through Google Play. I watched it (secretly) in the bedroom while Vince was busy editing photos. At first, I thought it was too pricey for a rental. Seeing how this was VOD, on the movie's opening day for some dumb reason, it was no different than buying a matinee ticket on a weekend. And man, was I glad to watch this movie at home. I shudder to think what kind of an audience who was in attendance in theaters, which consists of the same demographic I saw who went to Ambrose's Q&A panel at Wizard World. I'll be kind here and leave out describing the aforementioned group **coughs** Tumblr fangirls **coughs**

(Note: Before I get to my review, I should mention that Vince and I watched last year's "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" for the first time on Netflix recently, and I was beyond frustrated with the whole movie. I went from rolling my eyes to covering my face and groaning loudly. Seeing how salty and bitter I was with the movie afterwards, I tried my best to watch this movie with an open mind and not to be a giddy fangirl.)

The movie was... all right. It wasn't good but it wasn't bad either. I think Ambrose did a fine job for his first ever movie role, let alone in a leading role. If I had to nitpick on what I didn't like about the movie, it would be for the following things:

• As Detective Shaw, Ambrose was noticeably restrained with his dialogue and mannerisms. There are so many instances where he should've been more expressive, or that he missed a good opportunity to make a witty or cynical remark. Ambrose is a great talker when he goes off script, so it was slightly disappointing to see he didn't have much freedom or direction in improvising with his character. Dare I say it, I wish his character was slightly "unhinged" or a little more badass that the villains give him credit for.
• It is damn hard to suspend my disbelief that Shaw stubbornly refuses to 1) get more guns and ammo 2) grab more guns and ammo from the bad guys he took down 3) actually go into the armory (which he did!) and stock up on more guns, ammo, or grab a bulletproof vest (which he didn't!). Still, he found ways to be creative with his limited ammo use.
• There was an unnecessary sex scene with some topless blonde chick and Burke in bed. I think if this was removed, it would've made the movie PG-13, and probably would've made it easier to market. I'm not sure why they were going for an R rating. 

• I lost track of the number of times I heard the word "lockdown" and how many times Shaw had to say aloud how many bullets he had left. Again, if this movie wasn't bogged down by the god damn literal title, it would've been way more believable in seeing Shaw was really outnumbered and desperate.
• There was exposition dialogue that explains Shaw's background that somehow didn't convey his character. Shaw had to undergo psychiatric treatment and take time off for seven months after his rookie partner was killed. He is perceived as a bad guy from his peers, but he doesn't get defensive about it when he's accused of being a cop killer. We don't get a sense who his partner was, he's only mentioned in name, and how important he was to Shaw. It's like he just came back from vacation and the biggest problem he had to face was paperwork. 

• This is more of a humorous observation than nitpicking; I laughed when Shaw had to deal with any form of technology on screen. This includes him identifying a flash drive, typing on a keyboard, using his smart phone, angrily pulling out several cables to take out the CCTV, somehow manually overriding some type of firewall in the server room to email evidence to internal affairs, and using his phone to present shocking evidence to claim his innocence. Ambrose is known to be very VERY behind on technology - his trainer Cody Hawk said that Ambrose's phone is voice activated and he only uses it to find a gym, hotel, or places to eat via Yelp - so these scenes were unintentionally hilarious.

• There were a few scenes (notably the fighting sequences) that were too shaky, kept zooming in and out, were clearly recycled, or focused a bit too long on B-shots. The biggest no-no in film editing is jumping the line or violating the 180 degree rule. The scene above where Shaw fights Gideon (Daniel Cudmore) immediately breaks the rule as the camera cuts to Shaw doing his drop kick to Gideon's chest. The editing made it look like Gideon did the drop kick to Shaw instead. I mentioned earlier how Ambrose was restrained as Shaw in his mannerisms. Thankfully, he was in full on WWE mode with his facial expressions in the fighting sequences.

Regardless of how predictable and cheesy it was, I still continued to watch it because I wanted to see what else Ambrose would do. Sadly, that's exactly what it feels being a typical fan of a WWE Superstar nowadays. Ambrose certainly has screen presence; even the way he carries himself as he simply walks around has so much swagger. At least I can take comfort in knowing that he gained experience on a movie set. Just look how comfortable he was in the W2K16 Terminator pre-order trailer back in July. Now that's the Dean FUCKING Ambrose everyone wants to see. I really hope this opens up more opportunities for him to do fun TV or movie cameos in the future.

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Hey! The "12 Rounds 3: Lockdown" poster made its appearance again on Monday Night RAW (9/14)! I can't find a screenshot though. They didn't show the trailer during commercial break, which leads me to believe that they're already cooling off on promoting it any further.

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There is this blogger, Eire + Alba, that I accidentally stumbled upon a few months ago. He has the most passionate, intricate and detailed opinionated posts on wrestling. He did a series of blog posts that covered Sir William Regal's extensive career, which Regal himself has shared on his Twitter account. The author not only praised Regal, he identified the two wrestlers that should continue his legacy; Dean Ambrose and Cesaro. His posts are a great read because there is so much research poured into it and he is clearly passionate for his favorite wrestlers and their success. Sadly, he keeps taking breaks from watching WWE because of how creative is setting up their storylines and feuds and also with how they're mishandling Ambrose and Cesaro. Who can blame him?

Anyways, we had a lengthy discussion on his review on the movie, which he decided to do a review on it since one movie critic bashed the movie solely because John Cena was not in it. We both agreed that the movie felt like it was supposed to be a standalone movie, only to be rewritten to be a part of the "12 Rounds" franchise at the last minute. What was also unusual was WWE not going out of its way to actually promote the movie during RAW or Smack Down! Look at how Miz and Big Show promoted their movies and then compare to how Ambrose promoted his, which was only done extensively at the Wizard World Comic Con at Pittsburgh.

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I have a few hours left on the rental before it gets wiped from my phone, so I gave it another viewing while I was at work on Tuesday (9/15). I was in fangirl mode today instead of movie critic/watcher mode, and I found the movie more tolerable the second time around. It's a WWE movie, not a big budget Hollywood studio movie. Also, I can't not laugh at seeing Ambrose use computer or a smart phone again.

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Looks like Thursday (9/17) is the last day to watch the movie in the select 10 AMC theaters. I'm not sure if the same goes for VOD, though I wonder if they'll keep it up longer to see how it does. Here is the critic consensus for its 6-day limited release:

Movie Rating (via IMDB): 5.7/10

Critic Score vs Audience Score (via RottenTomatoes):  *__%  vs 70%
* - There are still not enough critic reviews to give it an average score. 

Box Office (via The Numbers): *Not available
* - This website might be more helpful since Box Office Mojo is not tracking it at all.

Oh boy. Well, maybe it'll get updated when it comes out on DVD/Blu-Ray in a couple of months.

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Ambrose's short stint as a movie actor has ended for now but hopefully it's not the last. This Sunday is shaping up to be quite interesting for Ambrose and Reigns, who will reveal their third partner against the Wyatt Family on Night of Champions. There's so much speculation on who it could be, and that's the problem. It could either be awesome or a disappointment. Whatever the outcome, I hope the week long hype for the reveal will be worth it. And hopefully, Ambrose and Reigns can go back to their singles run and stop being Shield 2.0.

Dean and Renee quickly looked at each other. SO FREAKING CUTE.

"#SeasonPremiere": Monday Night RAW (9/15/15)

After the horrible season finale from last week, which I didn't bother with making my usual post, Monday Night RAW returned with a SEASON PREMIERE, kicked off by The Authority in best-for-business mode. They made a historic announcement for tonight; for the first time ever, Sting was going to have a match against... Big Show! They started things off with a tag team title match with The New Day vs Prime Time Players. Seriously, what a way to kickstart the show with The New Day getting HHH and Stephanie to dance alongside with them... before going to a commercial break. Godammit.

The New Day vs Primetime Players - Winners: The New Day 

The New Day have been so ridiculously entertaining ever since their heel turn that the rest of the tag team division literally pales in comparison. The fans are now cheering for them as they use both "New Day Rocks" and "New Day Sucks" chants. The PTP put on a good match but it seemed obvious that New Day would retain their title just so they could have a match against the Dudley Boyz at Night of Champions.

Paige vs Sasha Banks - Winner: Sasha Banks

This was actually a very brutal match to watch between 2 former NXT Women's Champs. They weren't just wrestling for the sake of being in a match; it felt like they had a grudge with each other and it really showed. At one point, I thought Sasha might've gotten injured and thankfully she wasn't, she does a good job of selling it. The one thing that irks me is that Charlotte is being made as the face of the Divas Revolution when Sasha Banks was responsible for the best NXT Women's Championship matches with Charlotte, Becky Lynch, and Bayley in the specials. Yeah, Charlotte is the daughter of Ric Flair. Sasha has been a wrestler much longer than she has, and she didn't use Snoop Dogg to help get her name out there.

MizTV segment with The Wyatt Family

Miz kicked off the season premiere for his show as he called out the Wyatt Family to be his guests. Wyatt was somewhat kind enough to warn Miz about doing this segment with them. Miz assured him that he was not Ambrose and Reigns' mysterious partner for this Sunday's Hell in A Cell. That's right, he said Hell In A Cell. The segment was cut short when the Ambrose and Reigns appeared and entered through the crowd (SHIELD FEELS). Ambrose immediately took out Miz (I loved how Ambrose randomly did this instead of simply scaring Miz off) while Reigns talked down Wyatt. Reigns confirms that they have found a third partner but they won't reveal it til Sunday.

This is probably the most talked about aspect of this feud since Strowman's debut. Who did Ambrose and Reigns choose and how did they convince him to join them in their war? Last week, the Wyatt Family targeted Orton for simply being seen talking to them, and on Smack Down, they went after Jimmy Uso (who was delightful in a backstage segment). I'm glad they're holding off on revealing it this week, although Ambrose might've accidentally spilled the beans to Jojo and said Savio Vega.

I skipped the Cena vs Sheamus match. Guess who won? LOLCENAWINS

Kevin Owens and Ryback Promo

Oh Ryback. He's one of the wrestlers that I can like or dislike, depending on how he presents himself. Last week, in a backstage segment with Renee Young, he did a bad promo where he was clearly reading off of cue cards. This week, he did a bad Elvis impersonation (ironic considering he's from Vegas). Kevin Owens came out holding the book that Ryback has constantly attributed to his newfound positive attitude and said he was pathetic for relying on the book. I'm not really happy with the buildup for this feud, especially since they separated Owens and Cesaro, and I'm not convinced that Ryback and Owens have beef with each other. Still, seeing Owens going for another title looks and being a condescending jerk about it is the only good thing coming out of their match for Sunday.

Stardust and The Cosmic Wasteland briefly brawled with Neville and the Lucha Dragons. Then it was revealed that they were going to be the kickoff match before Night of Champions. Godammit.

Charlotte vs Nikki Bella - Winner: Charlotte (via DQ) 

Charlotte put on an amazing match against Nikki until Alicia Fox interfered. Charlotte went and pinned Nikki and was declared a Divas champion. Even her father came down the ramp to congratulate her, until the camera cut away to what was happening outside the ring. Charlotte pinned Brie, not Nikki. GODAMMIT NOT THIS TWIN MAGIC SHIT AGAIN. And then Stephanie had the fucking balls to come out and said that she had to uphold the integrity of the Divas division and confirm that Charlotte only won via disqualification and the title can't change hands due to that. Charlotte has a rematch for Night of Champions and Stephanie affirmed that if Nikki loses in any way, even via disqualification, Charlotte will be the Divas champ. So Nikki got to beat AJ Lee's record and retained her title. The crowd was very pissed with this outcome but it was clearly an incentive to watch this Sunday.

Rusev vs Cesaro - Winner: Cesaro

This felt like a throwaway, at least storyline wise, but these two put on an impressive match. It was nice to see CESARO SECTION signs though, and Cesaro was happy to see it too. The match ended quickly when Dolph Ziggler showed up and tried to give Summer Rae a small gift box, which she kept refusing. This distracted Rusev long enough for Cesaro to pin him and win... then Ziggler comes in and superkicks Rusev in the head. Seriously, who's the heel or face in this feud? Also, worth noting was Summer Rae secretly holding the gift box behind her as she walked Rusev back up the ramp. I don't know where they're going with this storyline and I want this to end already.

Big Show and Seth Rollins vs Sting and John Cena - Winners: LOLCENASTINGWINS

The main event match was Sting vs Big Show, which turned into tag team match when Seth Rollins interfered and ganged up on Sting, and then John Cena ran out to help Sting. I skipped watching the match because I knew how this was going to play out. At almost every go home show, Rollins is made to look stupid, bad, or weak before his PPV match. And that is exactly what happened as John Cena and Sting won the match. Of course, they need the crowd to go home happy.

Overall, despite a few great matches for the go-home show, I'm still not really excited for Night of Champions. I'm not even excited for either of Rollins' matches; I wouldn't care if he won or lost because it'll never be a clean for him. There will be shenanigans, someone interfering, or worse, fucking Sheamus cashing in.

Actually, I take that back; Rollins matches are actually depending on the outcome of ROH's Jay Lethal matches with Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reily, respectively, at the All Star Extravaganza VII PPV this Friday. Yes, he is also doing both matches with both titles on the line, a mere 2 days before Night of Champions. It's an unfortunate coincidence and WWE is rumored to have different plans for the finish to make sure they don't appear to be copying their ending.

Weekend Recap (9/11/15-9/13/15)

Friday (9/11):

• NEVER FORGET
• Dean Ambrose's movie, "12 Rounds 3: Lockdown" was released
• Vince and I skipped our usual Friday night dinners and opted for the El Pollo leftovers I had as my work lunch last week
  

Saturday (9/12):

• Did a little bit of grocery shopping at Costco again
• Watched the Micheal Bay version of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" on Netflix for the first AND last time. That movie made me so damn frustrated.
• Did a yogurt run at Yogurtland to cool down from aforementioned movie
• Bought weights Sports Chalet
• Secretly rented "12 Rounds 3: Lockdown" on my phone and contemplated on when would be a good time for me to watch it. God, you'd think I was renting some porno.
• Fell asleep as Vince played Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. He bionic punched a brown bear!

Sunday (9/13):

• Ate at Vince's parent's place for lunch
• Went to Outdoor world and finally found a tabletop grill to bring for the cabin trip in 3 weeks.
• Vince was editing photos so I was able to watch "12 Rounds 3: Lockdown" via Chromecast while doing some light exercises. I've already completed my review and I'll publish the post on Friday (9/18) as part of my 3-week observation on how the movie has done since it's release date. (Hint: Not that well, as expected from WWE movies).
• Played Diablo III and got to the Greed level again. Yay.
• I am totally dreading what will happen on this week's go home shows for RAW and Smack Down!

Part 2: Opening weekend for "Lockdown"

It's happening tomorrow!!! Twelve Rounds 3 Lockdown. You can get it tomorrow on iTunes!! So amazing to see this come together. Couldn't be happier or more proud of this guy. Really nails the whole Bruce Willis deal 🔫🔫🔫🔫🔫🔫🔫🔫🔫🔫🔫🔫 🙌🙌😎 #awwwwyeaahhhhh #deanambrose #thespian

A photo posted by Renee Young (@reneeyoungwwe) on Sep 10, 2015 at 9:43am PDT

Last week, due to boredom and for my amusement, I decided to make a 3-part observation post on Dean Ambrose's upcoming WWE Studios movie, "12 Rounds 3: Lockdown." The first part briefly covers the promotion that's being done for the movie, which has been somewhat quiet, save for airing the trailer during commercials of RAW and on the WWE Network. Commentary doesn't even mention the movie at all, and they have vehemently plugged Big Show and The Miz's previous movies. Are they relying on word of mouth and Ambrose's fanbase to do the work? Even the adorable Renee Young went out of her way to promote his movie on her Twitter and Instagram account. Anyways, the second part will cover the review consensus and box office earnings (again, if any) after the weekend.

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When they said "limited" release, they weren't kidding. The movie is only showing in 10 theaters nationwide and it doesn't look like they'll be adding more screens outside the US. This is addition to being released as VOD the same day. This is a big step down from the 2009 "12 Rounds" with John Cena. Then again, that movie had a bigger budget, had 20th Century Fox as their distributor, and it showed on over 2000+ screens. It made about $5 million in its opening weekend and, after opening in other countries, made a total of $17 million. "12 Rounds 2: Reloaded" with Randy Orton skipped a theatrical release and went straight to DVD and Blu-Ray in 2013.

The overall consensus for the first two films were negative, citing it as Die Hard ripoffs. "Lockdown" will be no different. I found a gif of a recent clip (possibly the ending or a scene near the ending) where one of the baddies exploded and I laughed at the cheesy special effect. I think a grenade going off on the person would have a bigger explosive radius, no? Bah, whatever. On with the coverage!

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I'm also seeing a lot of online articles of Ambrose's interviews, such as USA Today and ComingSoon.net, being released today. I honestly don't recall seeing this much coverage for any of WWE Studios movies with their Superstar being in the lead. It's fun to see the small media coverage being made for the movie and with Ambrose. It contrasts how frustrating it is to see what they're doing with him on Raw and Smack Down! and a week before Night of Champions next Sunday.

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It looks like the movie came out on VOD a little early on Thursday night, though you can only rent it for now. Unfortunately, it also made it easy to pirate/illegally download the movie before its opening day. It's only $7, people!

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Ambrose is currently at Pittsburgh for Wizard World Comic Con. They livestreamed the Q&A on his Facebook page, which is managed by WWE because Ambrose doesn't bother with social media. The session ran for a little over 20 minutes and there was very little questions asked because Ambrose just went on and on. He did admit that one of the henchmen he kills in the movie is actor Daniel Cudmore, who portrays Colossus from the "X-Men" franchise. "I killed Colossus."

Live from Wizard World... #12Rounds3Lockdown
Posted by Dean Ambrose on Friday, September 11, 2015

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As of 5:47 PM Sunday, here is the critic consensus for the movie:

Movie Rating (via IMDB): 5.9/10

Critic Score vs Audience Score (via RottenTomatoes):  *__%  vs 72%
* There are currently not enough critic reviews to give it an average score.

Box Office Opening Weekend (via Box Office Mojo): Not applicable; they're not even tracking it!

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Well, I'm not surprised that it wouldn't do well with critics (there are 3 negative reviews so far). I think the big problem was the fact that "Lockdown" was forced to become a part of the "12 Rounds" franchise. By taking the title "12 Rounds" literally instead of what it was intended for from the original film, it made no sense for the film's premise and it skewers its relation to the franchise. I think the film would've been more exciting if it didn't have to follow in Cena and Orton's footsteps.

I have a feeling WWE was not confident with Ambrose or the film production, so they probably made some script changes to associate it with what they believe was one of their most successful movies from WWE Studios. Not only that, they gave it a limited release of only running it in 10 freaking screens and made it VOD on the same day. As one website puts it, "An action film starring a WWE wrestler [...] this is the wrong genre for a limited release." And I agree with that statement. I initially thought it was great that WWE decided to give the film a theatrical run and was expecting to see it play on at least over 500+ screens. This wasn't them playing it safe; this was WWE backtracking. WWE has actually sabotaged Ambrose's rise inside AND outside the ring.

Nonetheless, I went and showed my support by giving in and renting the movie on Google Play for $7.99. This was new to me; I have a 30 day window to watch the movie after renting it. When I start watching it, I have 48 hours to finish viewing it before it gets wiped. I have to find a time to watch it on TV... and without Vince walking in on me. I'll post the third part of my observation on Friday, where I have a feeling the film will be pulled from theaters by then and WWE will just stop promoting the film altogether before Night of Champions.