Update!

Hey! ... I gotta update this more frequently. So random stuff happened since my last post.

• I dyed my hair dark blue for our friend's Halloween party. Vince dressed as Bojack Horseman and I dressed as Diane Nguyen. Since a part of my hair was already lightened, that part of my hair came out bright blue. I kinda like it! Last time I had blue hair was when Vince and I went to the the Comic Con at Mandalay Bay.
  
  
• Later on that week, I hanged out with my coworkers for a late Halloween party. It's been a really long time since I hanged out with them outside of work. Got to see some familiar faces (i.e. the people who don't work at Pololu anymore), drink, played games, and have fun. I brought One Night Ultimate Werewolf and it was just absolutely fun to see everyone open up and debate about who to believe and stuff. I mean, I worked with them for 4 years now, I gotta hang out with them some time.
  
  
• I joined a gym! Fitness 19 is pretty close by to our house so I decided to join there and pay a little extra for 1 guest in case Vince wants to join me. It's pretty weird for me because I feel so intimidated by everyone and I have a bad habit of staring. On a plus side, it's comforting to find a few people that are just casually working out so I'm not alone. The reason I joined was because I was getting annoyed by Vince asking why am I not doing any exercises at home. He has free access to a gym at his work and I don't want to use the gym we have here at my work. Even though one of our rooms has temporarily converted into a gym, I'm not doing any exercises there because I just don't feel like doing it when I get home from work. Vince wouldn't be the shape he is now if he just worked out at home with just 2 sets of dumbbells and an olympic bar and weight set. It really helps to be in a different environment with right equipment to stay motivated.
  
  
• On the pro-wrestling front, I'm fully on Team Smack Down. I may watch some portions of RAW either on TV or with their youtube clips but like I said before, I can't invest 3 hours with the show. Smack Down is just easier to get through. Speaking of which, Ambrose and Styles are going to be headlining TLC (A Smack Down PPV) next month again and it might be the final blow-off to their feud. There's no major title defense match this month. Everything's sort of on hold for now because both brands are gearing up for Survivor Series next Sunday. It's also going to be The Shield's 4 year anniversary since their debut!

Birthday Weekend Recap (9/22/16 - 9/25/16)

Thursday (9/22):

• For my actual birthday, we treated it like a regular day. Go to work and then go home.
• Earlier in the week, Vince bought 2 new dresses at EVER and a necklace at Old Navy at Town Square for me to wear for my birthday weekend.

Friday (9/23):

• Met with my Auntie Auring, Auntie Francine, Uncle Bobbit, my mom and my dad at Buffet@Asia for dinner.
• WE ARE NEVER EATING THERE AGAIN. That was suppose to be the nicest location with the better food quality over the other Buffet@Asia locations and it was just horrible. The food was blah. The food stations were poorly maintained, and they even had plastic plates and bowls out.
• My auntie Auring got the staff to surprise/embarrass me with a plate full of crappy coconut cake squares with a lit candle as the 2 waitresses sang to me. I got an envelope from my auntie with cash in it.
• After that, the clan all left for The Cannery to find a club to dance in. Vince and I went to Lowe's.

Saturday (9/24):

• We went to Vince's parent's place to drop off the truck early in the morning and it turned into home improvement day.
• Their washer was leaking so Vince had to help his dad. Then we went to Ferguson to buy shower faucet stuff, then to Floor & Deco to return stuff, then to Home Depot, and to Lowe's again. By the time we got home, it was 2:30. We had a short break to get ready before the 4 pm dinner at Gen.
• Aside from Josh, everyone was freaking late. Christine and Michael had trouble finding the place. Joel and Pam ran late (as usual), and Andrew and Joanne couldn't leave until their house viewing was done. We didn't eat til after 4:30 pm. Still, we all had fun and ate heartily for 2 hours. It's a good thing I brought cash because I covered Josh, Joel and Pam who forgot to bring cash.
• After dinner, Tanisha and her daughter Nix met up with us at our house and we had an official housewarming after dinner. We all just gathered around to talk and stuff.

Sunday (9/25):

• Went to Smith's to do some grocery shopping before heading to the Lion Habitat Ranch. I paid extra for the hand feeding for any lion.
• Awesome little side note: I was wearing my Dirty Deeds shirt and one of the staff members recognized it. He came up to us and talked to us and said that Dean Ambrose was here last year. He wasn't sure if it was him but the Tapout logo on his shorts gave it away and he took a picture with him. He said he just showed up out of the blue and no one else recognized Dean besides him. He also said he was there with his girlfriend who does Talking Smack (Renee!), and they wanted to see the cubs. He also mentioned Ryback and other local celebrities like David Copperfield and Britney Spears stopping by too. But he kept going on and on about how weird it was to see him show up out of nowhere, so it sounds like he made this guy's day :D
• I had to wait a bit for the trainer to get the food ready for the hand feeding. One of the staff members suggested picking Jesse, who's one of the male lions who makes a lot of growling sounds when he's hungry (that sounds nice). While we were waiting, one of the other lions in the cage turned around and pissed right at the crowd. One couple who actually got peed on practically shoved Vince out of the way.
• Vince has a video of me feeding raw meat balls to Jesse through through a plexiglass barrier. It was pretty scary to be that close to a full-grown lion O_O
• Went home to make some Spicy Coconut Chicken curry and watched Clash of Champions. To be honest, I thought the overall PPV was decent. The matches were great but I didn't agree on most of the matches' endings and shenanigans. New Day retained using Fracesca. Sheamus vs Cesaro's final best of 7 match ended in a ref stoppage after a pretty long and grueling match (both guys came out great btw), Reigns defeats Rusev to become the US Champion. And Owens retains thanks to Jericho and Stephanie sending out a second ref at the last minute to distract Rollins. Owens freaking won but the focus was on Rollins vs Stephanie. It honestly felt like RAW on Sunday. One major positive was seeing TJ Perkins' official PPV debut with an awesome new theme song.
  
  

What to expect for Monday Night RAW & Smack Down Live!:

Going to be honest here, I've actually stopped watching RAW a few weeks ago. I'll watch a few matches based on the east coast results but I'm not investing myself to watch from 8pm - 11 pm anymore. Conversely, I've been watching all of Smack Down and watching the wrap-up show, Talking Smack. So considering that I just described Clash of Champions as another episode of RAW, I can't bring myself to watch it live tonight. I'm bias but I'm more eager for Smack Down and their next PPV, No Mercy, since it has a better build.

Update!

Hey! So, I have a bit of time to do a quick update. I haven't blogged as much because we moved! To a house! And it was fucking exhausting! And financially draining!

We had to do everything in a week. I'm actually grateful that my work was able to grant me 2 days off on such short notice. We basically had a 5-day Labor Day weekend to move. Highlights include:

• Moving some stuff we had loaded into our car on Wednesday night and driving straight to the house after work
• Being greeted by a neighborhood cat named "Kitty"
• Getting a rental truck and moving all the heavy stuff on Day 1 (Thursday)
• Moving the smaller stuff with NO ELECTRICITY on Day 2 (Friday)
• Finding out that we almost left on bad terms with the San Moritz management due to miscommunication from their weekend staff members. Jennifer apologized for saying that we don't have to pay the second $895 (October rent) until someone moves in. Her manager Judy wanted to make sure we were properly moved out since we were long-time residents.
• Our 3 cats, Hibiko, Ayumi, and Tsukiko, becoming enemies for a few days because Tsuki segregated herself, and smelled different to them
• All of the neighbors coming to us to introduce themselves. We look like the youngest couple in the neighborhood.
  

So we're all settled in. We have a bunch of house projects to do for the next few months. It's nice to have an actual home :)

Also...

AJ Styles is the new WWE World Champion

I'm a little sad that Ambrose dropped the title at Backlash (which was a pretty great Smack Down PPV) but honestly, Styles really deserved it. It's an amazing accomplishment for someone that was in TNA, ROH, and NJPW, and now part of WWE in under a year. Ambrose didn't have a terrible champ run but he was starting to slip after Summerslam (thanks Ziggler). He is back on the chase again and he is absolutely pissed. Aloof champion Ambrose was fine. Angry and relentless Ambrose is the guy I became a fangirl of.

Dean Ambrose vs AJ Styles

I'm seeing a lot of excited chatter about Dean Ambrose vs AJ Styles for Smack Down's first PPV Backlash and the excitement is entirely focused on Styles beating Ambrose to be the new World Champion. Coming off a major win over John Cena from Summerslam, people are now clamoring for Styles to take the belt off of Ambrose, who conversely had one of the most underwhelming matches at Summerslam. Ambrose has been labeled as boring or lazy shortly after being called out by Stone Cold Steve Austin for resting on his laurels and that he needed to step up and show some passion. It's actually gotten bad over on Wreddit where people are wondering why Ambrose is the current champ and why does he deserve the title. They're forgetting why he got the championship in the first place.

Dean Ambrose has been working hard, nearly nonstop, since last year. When Seth Rollins was injured, he was pulled from the B-Show tour to headline the A-Show tour. When Roman Reigns needed time off for surgery, he stepped in to feud with HHH. He had a brutal but forgettable loss against Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 32 and had silly but victorious wins over Jericho. When it came down to decide who to give the championship to amidst Reigns' suspension at Money In The Bank, they gave it to Ambrose over Rollins. He defended the title in a triple threat at Battleground and successfully defended it against Ziggler at Summerslam. Ambrose got the title because he deserved it for all the hard work he put in, for miraculously staying injury-free, and it was also a reward for the fans for sticking by him and never turning on him like they did with Reigns. WWE needed a genuine top babyface to be their next champion. And that trust carried over when he was separated from Rollins and Reigns at the draft and when he brought the title home to Smack Down.

Styles, just 7 months after debuting at the Royal Rumble, is now in the position where he's deservedly earned the title shot. There's no mistake that WWE wants to capitalize on Styles' momentum and make him the new face and champion of Smack Down. As for Ambrose, the reason he hasn't stepped up is because he has gotten comfortable and confident as champion. He didn't take Ziggler seriously and dominated him. There's a slow build they've been doing for both men that most people are overlooking. Ambrose overcame Rollins and Reigns to get to his spot. Styles overcame Cena to get there too.

I do see WWE pulling the trigger and having Styles win at Backlash. He's another guy that deserves it. To date, Ambrose has held the World Championship title a little longer than when he had the IC title (64 days). And he's currently on track to be the longest reigning champ this year (it'll be 83 days at Backlash). I'm happy with whoever wins honestly. Just a little saddened to see how Ambrose's first title reign is not well received 2 months later. Not that I'm going to let Wreddit change my opinion but damn man. Wrestling fans are never happy.

Weekend Recap (8/5/16 - 8/7/16)

Friday (8/5):

• Ate at Monta Chaya for dinner with Joel, Pam and their daughters and Va! We walked to get Boba tea but it was closed and then walked over to Lee's Sandwiches to see it was closed too. Hanged out at Big 5 Sporting Goods before going home.

Saturday (8/6):

• So we got a house now! We got this this lovely home. Now we have to wait for it to close. We did a morning inspection on the house with a couple of inspectors and I made a lot of notes.
• Ate at this Poke bar called To See Roll for lunch. Really good stuff.
• Went to IKEA to drop off the paperwork and talk with Vince's parent's. We stopped by at Trader Joe's to grab some ingredients to make some BBQ meatballs. I was in a super hangry mood.

Sunday (8/7):

• Went to Costco and 168 market to make pork rib Sinigang
• Watched a few episode of "Stranger Things" on Netflix
• Decided to get started on packing a few things

What to expect for Monday Night RAW & Smack Down Live!:

Not sure what to expect honestly. RAW's 2nd week did a few new things, such as an intergender tag team match and a last minute US title match. Other than that, it sort of settled back into familiar territory while still setting up storylines and matches for Smack Down. RAW announced that GM Mick Foley invited GM Daniel Bryan to come down to the show, probably for the Orton/Lesnar incident last week, where Orton RKO'd Lesnar on RAW and the next night, Lesnar returned the favor and F5'd Orton on Smack Down.

Speaking of Smack Down, last week's episode was a big improvement. The started showing the talents' stats on screen before they get into the ring, Renee has her own freaking desk now of trying to flag people down for a backstage interview, and best of all JBL toned it down for commentary, letting Mauro call the shots and Otunga doing well, something. Their 3rd week will be tough because a chunk of their talent (Cena, Styles, Crews, and... Rowan??) are on the the Australia/New Zealand tour this week, so there will be a split roster tour this week.

There was a strong topic on r/SC last week when Meltzer mentioned how Ambrose "felt more like a champ than Seth and Roman ever did." He helped the audience cared for Ziggler by putting him down, which was somewhat heelish but didn't betray Ambrose's babyface character. Now it's making it seem like people want Ziggler to win over Ambrose, which was almost never considered when he became a contender 2 weeks ago.

43 Days

It's been 43 days since Dean Ambrose became the WWE World Champion. Even saying that aloud sounds unbelievable but for a good reason. No one believed that Ambrose would ever get to be in the top guy spot where his fellow brethren, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins, stayed at. He was viewed as a great utility guy; to help build interest and hype for a match and to take the loss in the end to put his opponent over. WWE held The Shield in high regards and was proud of its 3 Superstars, and yet the treatment they gave to Rollins and Reigns was never extended to Ambrose. WWE has a saying in the Performance Center that perfectly summed up what happened with Ambrose in the last year: "You're not here to fill a spot. You're here to take a spot." And that's exactly what he did.

Ever since MITB, Ambrose was viewed as a transitional champion. Skeptics couldn't buy him as a long-term champion like Rollins and Reigns, let alone a main eventer. In the final week leading up to Battlground, he had 3 successful title defenses and proved to be the best of The Shield. That is arguably a way more satisfying payoff for him and for his fans compared to his cash-in, and it built him up as a legitimate main eventer. And on Smack Down, where he was Commissioner Shane McMahon and General Manager Daniel Bryan's #1 pick, he was treated as a big deal alongside John Cena, AJ Styles, and Randy Orton. Even a transitional champ doesn't get this kind of treatment.

In less than 3 weeks from now, he and Dolph Ziggler are one of the headlining matches for Summerslam, which includes Seth Rollins vs Finn Balor for the WWE Universal Championship, and the brand-vs-brand match with Randy Orton vs Brock Lesnar. It's remarkable considering that just last year, Ambrose and Reigns were in a filler feud with Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper. Now he's finally earned WWE's trust in making him both the face of the company and a true babyface champ who doesn't get booed by the fans.

I actually don't mind whether Ambrose drops the title at Summerslam or at the Smack Down exclusive PPV, Backlash. As a fan, it was truly a wonderful payoff to see Ambrose become a champion and end his story with The Shield. I can't wait to see where else he goes from here.

Weekend Recap (7/29/16 - 7/31/16)

Friday (7/29):

• Ate at Sen of Japan for dinner. Their sushi selections were much smaller and more expensive from the last time we ate here.
• Went to Desert Breeze Dog Park for a Corgi meetup. I have never seen so many Corgis in person. Even though there was about 20+, it's still a lot. Vince talked to a couple of owners to get some info on where they adopted their Corgi or who there breeder was.

Saturday (7/30):

• Checked out 2 new houses today with Lorraine and Vince's parents again. We liked the first house we saw and Vince's parents put an offer on it. I hope we get it.
• Went to Tropical Smoothie for lunch
• Went to Costco and Trader Joe's to do some grocery shopping. Cooked an odd dish of chicken and pork belly tomato coconut curry.

Sunday (7/31):

• Web stayed home the whole day
• Only went out to U-Swirl to get some fro-yo
• Watched the end of "Preacher," which was revealed to be a prequel so that the second season will start following the comics.

What to expect for Monday Night RAW & Smack Down Live!:

Last week, RAW won in the ratings war. Coming off from Battleground, it had a better presentation, better use of their roster, a new WWE Universal Championship title introduced, and it saw a surprise title change with Sasha Banks defeating Charlotte. Smack Down, unfortunately, paled in comparison with their smaller roster and lack of titles for their NXT-infused Tag Team and Women's division to compete for. The best way I can sum it up is that RAW came off new and exciting whereas Smack Down came off like a shorter RAW. It also didn't help that JBL jumped ship to Smack Down's commentary table and horrible clashed with the wonderful Mauro Ranallo and the very blank David Otunga.

Both shows added 2 new matches for Summerslam with a surprise: Raw has Seth Rollins vs #1 contender Finn Balor for the new WWE Universal Championship title. People assumed Reigns would be going after Rollins for the title again. It was made very clear that WWE is still upset with Reigns and are going to cool off on pushing him again. Meanwhile, Smack Down has Dean Ambrose vs #1 contender Dolph Ziggler for the WWE World Championship. Yes, Dolph Ziggler has earned a legit title shot for the title. I'm excited for Ziggler, I still have a soft spot for him for what he did in Survivor Series 2014. The big problem is trying to build up Ziggler, who's had a number of losses and lackluster feuds for the last 2 years. Not to mention that he has lost in his previous matches against Ambrose for the IC contendership and for MITB.

One thing is for sure, WWE's PPV quality has been consistent post WrestleMania. And going by the leaked PPV schedule, there is going to be even more brand exclusive PPVs coming up along with more call ups from NXT to pad out the rosters. WWE is having one hell of a transition period into the New Era.

Weekend Recap (7/22/16 - 7/24/16)

Friday (7/22):

• Ate at Sweet Tomatoes for dinner. We went to Old Navy to buy some new clothes cuz we felt like it.

Saturday (7/23):

• Checked out 2 new houses today with Lorraine and Vince's parents again. One was an older home and one was a newer home with a lot of appliance upgrades. After much discussion, we decided on the one-storey older home. Vince's mom put in the offer. Now we just wait and see.
• Went to Vince's parent's place to have lunch. They also had their friend's dog, Lucy, staying over.
• Went home and then went to Yogurtlander afterwards to get more of the Nintendo spoons

Sunday (7/24):

• Went to Town Square a bit early. They had a Pokemon Go event and there was a A LOT of people holding their phones out. Some of them were even wearing their team shirts and cosplaying as trainers with their plushies. Vince was immensely annoyed at having to avoid them.
• We watched "Star Trek Beyond" and ended up in a luxury seating theater in a Dolby theater, which was a first for us. It had leather reclining seats and was more expensive than a regular showing. Honestly, this made the movie experience even better.
• Went home to watch the rest of Battleground
• Watched Preacher. I'm really loving this show despite not being familiar with the comics.

What to expect for Monday Night RAW & Smack Down Live!:

Something remarkable happened on Battleground. Ambrose, believed to be a transitional champ since his cash-in last month at MITB, retained. His victory was important several reasons:

• Ambrose is a fighting champion, having successfully defended the title 3 times in a single week
• He takes the title home to Smack Down, now elevating the show to be as equal to the flagship show, RAW
• Smack Down getting the main title gives the roster (which was looked down upon during the draft) a major confidence booster
• Ambrose garners a major personal victory and is established as the best member of The Shield
• Most importantly, WWE is backing off on Reigns and finally pushing Ambrose as a champion

Despite what others have said, Battleground was not a throwaway or skippable PPV. It saw the debut of Bayley, a major win for Sami Zayn in his feud with Owens (which was hands down the best and emotional match of the night), the return of a motivated babyface Randy Orton, and of course, the conclusion of The Shield's storyline and its members moving forward with their singles career. Onward to the New Era!

Smack Down Live! (7/19/16)

I want to get this out of the way. Monday Night RAW's main event match with Ambrose and Rollins ended in a double pin, which means the Champ retains. Rollins didn't win and Ambrose didn't lose. The TV ending showed Stephanie declaring Rollins as the winner, while the Network ending had Shane and Daniel debating the ending, asking the ref to view the finish, and declaring Ambrose as the winner. As a result of the finish, Ambrose and Rollins are having a title rematch for tonight on Smack Down.

I think I'm going to stop doing Monday Night RAW recaps. It's not because of the possibility of Ambrose going to Smack Down (fingers crossed!) but it's due to the fact there is way way WAY more WWE content to keep track of. Seriously, look at the schedule this week.

• Monday: RAW
• Tuesday: Smack Down Live!
• Wednesday: NXT and CWC
• Sunday: Battleground PPV

Yeah, that is a lot of WWE stuff. So, I'm not going to do recaps. I'll probably just do the PPV recaps instead. Probably, I don't know. I'm just a little worried on what's going to happen tonight again. It's looking obvious that Rollins is the #1 pick for RAW and Ambrose is the #2 Smack Down.

Will Ambrose actually lose the title this time before Battleground? Will Rollins and Ambrose be champs before Battleground? Will Reigns pin either one to become the new champ for the brand at Battleground?!

I take wrestling way too seriously, according to Vince -_-

----------

HE LOOKS GOOD IN BLUE!

Also, Ambrose won clean over Rollins for the Smack Down main event. Rollins was doing his Falcon Arrow combo which Ambrose got out of and quickly hit him with Dirty Deeds. Now I really hope he retains on Battleground this Sunday.

Weekend Recap (7/15/16 - 7/17/16)

Friday (7/15):

• Ate at Fuku Burger for dinner. They were showing Dekranger episodes and old DBZ movies. I gave "Rattata" as a nickname for our order :P
• Went to Fashion Show Mall. Ended up talking around The Strip. I had my Pokemon GO app on, and subsequently killing my phone's battery, the whole time.
• 
  

Saturday (7/16):

• Checked out 2 houses today with Lorraine and Vince's parents. Originally, we had 3 houses but 1 was sold the day we had an appintment
• After discussing the pros and cons of both houses - one that was an open house and the other being a slightly older house - we settled on the older house.
• Vince's parents put in an offer. Now we just wait and see.
• Went to Fry's and Vince bought a new router.
• Vince beat Mighty No. 9 and I have to say that after watching him play a few times, the game was pretty disappointing. This doesn't look like a game that took 2 years and had a huge Kickstarter backing. Oh, and Vince was listed in the credits as "A Generous Backer" instead of using his name.
• Vince also beat 2 old MGS games :O

Sunday (7/17):

• Went to Costco to do a bit of grocery shopping.
• Got the last Disney Infinity Marvel figure to complete the collection. They only released 28 figures in total before Disney decide to shut it down. Such a shame. Would've been nice to have some Doctor Strange or more Avengers figures.
• Went home to make Chicken Afritada with Pork Belly.
• Also stayed home to watch the EVO Championship Series finals. The best moments came from Smash Brothers Melee (Hungrybox's Jiggypuff won the whole thing) and Street Fighter V (Infiltration's Nash won the whole thing).

What to expect for Monday Night RAW:

So tonight is the night, this is to go-home show before Battleground. Not only that, Stephanie and Shane are going to announce their respective choices for General Managers as well as Dean Ambrose's first televised title defense against Seth Rollins, which is screaming for a title change to happen tonight create hype for Smack Down Live tomorrow.

Like I said before, I don't understand the value of draft picks. I couldn't care less if Ambrose is a #1 pick or a #11 pick. There are only 2 things I care about before Battleground. Ambrose retaining the title and Ambrose being drafted to Smack Down. I'll accept Ambrose losing (not really) if he goes to Smack Down.

WWE Draft?

Let me state upfront that I don't know how the drafts - or any sports drafts for that matter - works. I don't understand the value of having a first, second, or third round pick. From what understand so far, being a #1 draft pick is a big fucking deal, being in the top 5 picks is all right, and anything after #10 means you're not that important. Going by that limited comprehension, it would seem obvious for the WWE Draft that Dean Ambrose should be the first pick. He's the WWE Champion after all. Or will he still be a champion before the draft happens this Tuesday?

WWE used the above image on his Facebook page, not his current image where he's holding the WWE Championship title. And they have been teasing non-stop that there could be a title change on RAW to help hype up Smack Down when it goes live. I'm really not liking the idea of having Ambrose's title reign cut short for storyline sakes and ultimately affecting the Shield Triple Threat main event for Battleground. If it means that Ambrose can somehow win and be the first new champion of the highly rumored second WWE Championship belt being made for Smack Down, then fine, I'll be happy to see that.

It still sucks to see that all the hard work Ambrose has done since becoming a champ last month will be undervalued for his first title defense. At the very least, let him be a champ until Summerslam. I actually don't want Rollins to get the title back so quickly because he already had a long run with it, and that's not including the additional time he was out for his injury and recovery. And Reigns should be kept far away from the title scene. He's the top guy that got suspended for a wellness violation, he should not have a top spot like Ambrose and Rollins upon his return.

"MAKE DARREN YOUNG GREAT AGAIN!": Monday Night RAW (7/11/16)

Last week's Monday Night RAW was considered a throwaway episode. Even though it got one of its lowest TV ratings, it was still the most watched show on cable, even though there wasn't much progression with the storylines. This would be somewhat considered a go-home show for Smack Down (as far as tapings go) because next week it goes live. The results can be found here.

This was a surprisingly solid episode of RAW (except for the main event and final segment in the third hour). There was a lot of wrestling matches that actually featured a lot of the talent, a few in-promos and segments, and best of all, there was progress with the brand extension. Long story short, Stephanie will be the commissioner for RAW and Shane will be the commissioner for Smack Down (sadly relieving Shane from co-running RAW). Both have to choose their respective General Managers next week or else Vince will choose for them.

RAW kicked off with immediately with the Battle Royal, where strangely most of the contenders were made of tag teams like The Golden Truth, The Vaudevillains, The Usos, The Ascension, etc. The final 3 ended up being Darren Young, Apollo Crews and Baron Corbin. Crews clotheslined Corbin and both ended up going over the the top rope, leaving Young as the accidental winner of the Battle Royal. Young's win was such a wonderful surprise that he got a crowd chant, plus it was a treat to see Bob Backlund lift him up like he was nothing!

One interesting segment was The New Day's anticipated visit to the Wyatt Family compound. It was heavily inspired by Broken Matt and Brother Nero's "Final Deletion" match, drawing more on the idea of having an all out battle outside the ring and arena. It was a serious and thrilling displa, to see the New Day drop their positive act to take on Wyatt, Rowan, and Strowman, who legit looked threatening and monstrous without his tank top. Obviously, the Wyatt Family overwhelmed the New Day but that was beside the point. Bray Wyatt is finally believable as a cult leader and the "Wyatt Family" is not just Rowan, Strowman, and Harper (who was not included). They are truly a threat and it will be interesting to see how this visit affects the bond of The New Day.

The best match of the night goes to Cesaro and Kevin Owens, where Owens refused to even come into the ring unless Sami Zayn (who was on commentary) is kicked out. Stephanie listed to Owens' request and orders the referees to escort Zayn out. Their match was spectacular and there was also storytelling in the moves they were using. Owens was working on Cesaro's neck for nearly the whole match, so instead of using his signature Pop-Up Powerbomb to take Cesaro out, he uses a rarely used move to win the match. As Owens was angrily ranting in Byron Saxton's headphone about being the best, out comes Zayn from out of nowhere to jump him. He throws Owens into the ring and signals Cesaro to do his swing, which he happily obliges. Knowing that Owens and Zayn will be separated, they're really making the most of this feud.

The best segment of the night goes to Seth Rollins: Investigative Reporter, who debuted his new talk show, The Rollins Report, with an exclusive sit-down interview with Roman Reigns. I feared that Rollins was going to do the same bit where he interviews a picture of Reigns on the Titantron with Rollins mouth superimposed and speaking with his voice. Instead, it was Rollins in a suit asking questions with Reigns' answers taken out of context from his various sit-down interviews with Michael Cole. It was fantastic and funny. It was a new take on Rollins' campaign to remove Reigns and have a one-on-one match with Ambrose, which prompted the champ himself to show up and praise Rollins for having fun for once. He immediately calls Ambrose and his title reign a joke, and goes on to reiterate that he's the best member of The Shield. This is admittedly one of Rollins' best promos since his return and he's far away from being the chickenshit heel he once was last year. His rant sparked something in Ambrose, leading to what would be hands down the best promo of the night and the best promo of his career.

This was not goofy Ambrose. No, this was Dean "Fighting Champion" Ambrose and he gave 2 distinctly different promos. The first is addressing that he does like to have fun because he's the top man, and no matter who comes and leaves, who gets suspended, who "chases fantasies in some other sport," at the end of the day, he's the guy still standing there. If you want to see how easily Ambrose can command the audience, listen to how he got the arena to stop chanting as soon as he switched gears and focused on Rollins, leading to his second promo where he gets dark about how far he's come and how far he'll go to keep the title. Rollins is visibly shaken, even taking a few steps back as he went on. Ambrose basically accepted Rollins' challenge to have a one-on-one match and it will take place next week in the go-home show.

A lot of matches were set for Battleground and it's already looking quite promising. The one thing I'm worried about is what they're doing with Ambrose again. They're giving him his first title defense on RAW against Rollins, and they're already hinting that he may or may not be champion heading into Battleground. Here's the thing; if Ambrose retains, then he's most likely staying on RAW. They can't draft him to Smack Down if he's carrying what's basically RAW's title. So if he's going to Smack Down, Ambrose has to drop the title. I'm a little sad by this possible scenario, because of the fact that he cut an incredible promo and then he's going to lose, which has been a consistent pattern with Ambrose (MITB being the exception). The positive note is that Ambrose got to be a champ and fittingly, he's the last sole WWE champion before they introduce a second title belt. The last few champion have been a heel and most recently, in the sad case for Reigns, a tweener, as a reaction to the fans not accepting him as a champion, even though he's been putting on decent matches. The fact that they plan to cut short the first true babyface's championship reign is troubling.

"Happy Birthday America!": Monday Night RAW (7/4/16)

When they said this was a throwaway episode of RAW - as most episodes that fall on a holiday tend to be - they weren't kidding. The cold opening featured most of the locker room having a 4th of July dinner before a food fight broke out. Admittedly, this was a silly but fun segment. On a regular episode, any given match would've been the main event - WWE Champion vs IC Champion (with Dean Ambrose and The Miz hailing from Ohio), Seth Rollins vs Dolph Ziggler (also from Ohio), or John Cena and AJ Styles quickly turning into Cena, Enzo and Cass vs Styles and The Club. No, this is America's birthday dammit, and they're going to make the main event a 16-man elimination match featuring Team USA (consisting of Big Show, Kane, Bubba Ray, D-Von, Zack Ryder, Jack Swagger, and Apollo Crews) vs Team Multinational Alliance (consisting of Chris Jericho, Sami Zayn, Kevin owens, Cesaro, Alberto Del Rio, The Lucha Dragons, and Sheamus). The results can be found here.

I was about to say that there were no major storyline progressions but there actually was, it just has to be be done in promos as usual. For starters, AJ Styles and The Club made #BeatUpJohnCena a thing, where they planned out what they were going to do on each upcoming holiday for the rest of the year. As they beat up Cena, Enzo and Cass run in for the rescue, hastily setting them up in a 6-man tag team match for Battleground. This is good because it'll keep Styles and Cena II fresh, probably for Summerslam. Meanwhile, Charlotte and Sasha had a long, shouty promo about the women's title. And Becky got a quick win over Summer Rae, somehow setting her and Natalya for a match at Battleground as well.

In terms of interesting promos, that would go to The New Day vs The Wyatt Family feud, where Woods is doing the amazing character work. For once, someone is taking the Wyatt Family seriously and not even the Power of Positivity can stop Woods from worrying about Big E and Kofi and trying to keep them to stay away from them. Bray extended an invitation for the New Day to come over to their compound and this got Woods notably upset, even though Kofi and Big E were making making incest jokes about the Wyatt family earlier. The audience even got pretty vocal when Woods quietly walked away from them and left the ring, as if it was signaling the beginning of the end for the tag team champions.

Also interesting was Rollins cutting a long angry tirade of a promo on the announcer's table after his match with Ziggler, where he proceeded to talk more shit about Reigns (and get cheers because he's a heel??). Ambrose still remained neutral on the issue of removing Reigns from the main event but that doesn't stop him from messing around with Rollins. Even after his win over Miz, Ambrose psyched Rollins out by running back into the ring and walking past him to sit on the Spanish announcer's table to do commentary and promptly shutting up JBL. Ambrose also shuts up Rollins with Dirty Deeds on the Spanish announcer's table, to get back at him for last week. Sadly, Ambrose as a champ still isn't convincing a lot of critics (Vince McMahon fed a line to JBL on questioning Ambrose's stringy wet hair and he coolly reflected as him being naturally beautiful), which is making it more than likely that he's dropping the title at Battleground.

And finally, the main event, where it was expected that Team Multinational alliance would somehow turn on each other (thanks to Owens and Zayn), leaving Team USA to be the winner. I predicted that Ryder would be the last man standing for Team USA and I was half-right; Big Show tagged Ryder in to get the pin over Sheamus.

Battleground is being regarded as a low-level PPV, which is a dumb way of thinking considering that WWE has been trying to make every PPV matter following WrestleMania 32. The Shield Triple Threat is happening now because there's a good chance that all 3 would be separated (it doesn't really matter where Reigns ends up after the draft). Plus, it seems like a test run to see how good this feud can really get, now that Ambrose is the current WWE Champion.

A fighting champion. Literally.

New WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose is going to have another busy weekend. As of this writing, he's either currently on his way or is already in Hawaii, getting ready to defend his title against Chris Jericho, Seth Rollins, and AJ Styles later in the evening. Ambrose had to fly out of Florida immediately after wrestling 2 matches and closing Smack Down. Half of the roster were already in Hawaii, some even a day earlier.

He's now behind Kevin Owens in wrestling the most matches for WWE in 2016 so far. Currently, Owens is at 101 and Ambrose quickly shot up to 98 for pulling double-duty again on this past RAW and Smack Down.

This has been Ambrose's schedule since last weekend (with links):

• 6/26 Sunday: Against Owens and Zayn in Jacksonville, FL and against Rollins in Orlando, FL
• 6/27 Monday: 15 minute match against Styles on RAW, then team with Big Show, Enzo & Cass against Rollins & The Club in a dark match 
• 6/28 Tuesday: A match against The Miz on Smackdown taping, then team with Zayn & Cesaro against The Wyatts in a dark match 
• 6/29 Wednesday: Fly to Honolulu, HI to have a match against Jericho, Rollins, and Styles 
• 6/30 Thursday: Fly from Honolulu, HI to Tokyo, JP
• 7/1 Friday: Against Rollins & Owens in Tokyo, JP
• 7/2 Saturday: Against Rollins & Jericho in Tokyo, JP
• 7/3 Sunday: Fly from Tokyo, JP to Columbus, OH
• 7/4 Monday: RAW
• 7/5 Tuesday: Smack Down

By the time he gets back to the states, Ambrose would have wrestled 9 matches in less than a week. His next day off is not until Wednesday. This has been an extraordinary few days for Ambrose, who's now the current WWE Champion until the brand extension. WWE has already dropped "World Heavyweight" for the title, implying they really are moving forward with having 2 titles for both brands. He's working twice as hard because, let's face it, WWE never built another top, full-time babyface after Ambrose. AJ Styles, Owens, and Rollins are up there as their current top level heels. Even though he's not wrestling the same schedule like he used to, Cena remains as their de facto #1 guy.

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Ambrose all smiles after defending his title at Honolulu, HI. Next stop, Tokyo, JP!

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Double Chinlock master at work!

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"Dean Ambrose is a fighting champion!": Monday Night RAW (6/27/16)

Welp, they actually did it. They acknowledged Roman Reigns' absence for the next month. This was actually acknowledged by Seth Rollins who kicked off Monday Night RAW, who said he wanted to talk about it even though he was advised not to and yet a prepared screenshot of Reigns' apology tweet was put up on the Titantron. Ambrose interrupted Rollins and, being a babyface and a bro, said Reigns made a mistake and he owned up to it, but was still looking forward to the triple threat. This prompted AJ Styles and John Cena (who's celebrating his 14th WWE Birthday, prompting that wonderful Ambrose reaction gif) to come out, saying they should be added for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Stephanie came out and added to Rollins' complaint, saying that what Reigns did was an embarrassment but the bigger embarrassment was having Ambrose as their champion. She went into full Authority mode and set up Cena vs Rollins and Styles vs Ambrose as the main event, where Cena and Styles will be added to the Battleground main event if they win. The results can be found here.

This was another enjoyable RAW, although it was still a struggle to stick with 3 hours. There was less wrestling again and more promo time. It was nice to see 2 Women's matches again now that Sasha Banks has returned. The 2nd match with Summer Rae and Becky Lynch never happened because Becky just went over to beat the crap out of Natalya on commentary. Corporate Kane returned to plead to Stephanie for the general manager spot again and was interrupted by Miz and Maryse, fresh from filming "Marine 5." Kane decides to invoke the 30-day rule, where a champ must defend the title if they haven't done so. Seeing how RAW was taking place in Tampa, FL, there was a lot of speculation that someone from NXT - notably Finn Balor - might show up. The Demon did show up to challenge Miz for the IC title, only it was Demon Kane. The New Day and The Wyatt Family continue to build more intrigue as Kofi and Big E were up to their usual shenanigans of making fun of their opponent while their most vocal member, Xavier, appeared to be scared and wary of Bray.

Jericho hosted the highlight reel with Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens. Zayn did his most passionate promo yet, being upset at Owens and himself for holding each other back in their careers. Owens came back with a vicious truth of his own, saying Zayn was never happy for his success all because he did it as his expense. They both agreed to have one final match together at Battleground because they know for sure they'll be drafted to different roster. Oh, and they both superkicked Jericho in the end.

Cena vs Rollins was a fantastic match, bringing memories of their feud from last year at Summerslam. I was rooting for Rollins to win, just so Cena doesn't get added to Battleground. Rollins wrestles like a babyface so you can't help but root for him. The match unfortunately had a stupid ending where Cena was distracted by The Club (decked out in noticeably new gear with Japanese kanji for their upcoming Japan tour this weekend) and Rollins taking advantage by using the pedigree on Cena for the win.

Styles vs Ambrose was the main event. This was probably one of Ambrose's best match in a while, where he was being technical against Styles and keeping up with him. Also, keep in mind that Ambrose had just wrestled 2 matches in 2 other cities the night before, so I was completely surprised to see him wrestling again. Gallows and Anderson showed up, making it look like Styles might win until Cena came to the rescue and Ambrose smoothly rolled up a distracted Styles to hit Dirty Deeds for the win. Rollins, who was on commentary, came up and Pedigree'd Ambrose while The Club beat up Cena to end the show.

Even though the thought of adding Cena and Styles sounded exciting for Battleground, I'm relieved that it's still going to stay as a Triple Threat. I'm also glad that WWE is not hiding Reigns' suspension and even integrating into a storyline. I did find it stupid - too stupid to even suspend belief - that Ambrose being a champion and current face of the company is the worst thing to ever happen than the company's #1 guy being suspended for a wellness violation. Also, said embarrassment is going to Hawaii and Japan this weekend to defend the title and still fly back to do RAW and Smack Down next week. Even if Ambrose is just a champ for this month until Battleground, he's setting a ridiculously high bar as their champion workhorse. I would have no problem if Rollins wins the title back but if Reigns gets it back, he better be a monster heel. Until then, it's up to Ambrose and Rollins to carry the feud again.

Weekend Recap (6/24/16 - 6/26/16)

Friday (6/24):

• Ate at Sweet Tomatoes for dinner
• Bought shoes at DSW earlier so that I have something fancy to wear for Sunday
• Played Overwatch with Andrew

Saturday (6/25):

• Watched "The Shallows" in theaters. This was a surprisingly great movie. Not a typical or dumb thriller. I didn't really care for Blake Lively but she blew me away with her performance.
• Went to Walmart to do some grocery shopping
• Also went to La Bonita to buy a bunch of Beef Ribs to make Nilaga
• Vince played some Mighty No 9, a game from the creator of Mega-Man and a game that Vince backed via Kickstarter over 2 years ago. Sadly, this game got a lot of fair-to-negative reviews. It's a fun game but Vince said it didn't feel polished.

Sunday (6/26):

• Went to Costco to do a bit of grocery shopping.
• Ate at the Mastro's Ocean Club at Crystals for Christine's birthday. This is also the first time that I've ever seen a food bill in the high 3 digits. We all brought cash to pay for one bill... except Micheal.
• Looks like we're planning to have game night with them next Sunday since we have a 4th of July 3-Day weekend

What to expect for Monday Night RAW:

Honestly, not sure what to expect considering that Roman Reigns was suspended for 30 days last week. He'll miss the Raw/Smack Down draft on July 19 but will make it in time for Battleground on July 24. This is a big blow for WWE for their top guy that they've been investing and pushing over other's expenses to get suspended. It's expected that he comes back as a full-fledged heel because the fans are gonna absolutely destroy him. I no longer hate Reigns but I do feel sorry for the guy. He didn't deserve those "You can't wrestle" chants from MITB or last week's RAW. If he comes back as a heel, I will be all for it. What's probably going to happen is Ambrose and Rollins carrying the feud until Battleground.

Negative stuff aside, the big news this weekend was newly crowned champ Dean Ambrose pulling double-duty in Florida. For the last few months, Reigns was the A-Show and Ambrose was the B-Show. Naturally, that would flip now with Ambrose as the champ. Due to Reigns' suspension, however, the B-Show is now short of another top full-time babyface to headline it. So WWE scheduled Ambrose to open the Jackson, FL show in a triple threat against Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, then immediately hauled ass to end the Orlando, FL show against Seth Rollins. In under 24 hours, Ambrose successfully defended the title 3 times in 3 different cities (Boston, MA, Jacksonville, FL and Orlando, FL). Ambrose is also heading to Hawaii and Japan next weekend. Poor guy won't have a day off til next Wednesday.

"You deserve it!": Monday Night RAW (6/20/16)

For the first time in a long while, a babyface champ - a genuine underdog with organic and consistent fan support - graced Monday Night RAW. WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose (that sounds really good to say) was greeted with "You deserve it" chants before addressing the WWE Universe. He talked about hard work pays off. Ambrose wondered aloud that if Seth Rollins is "The Man," Roman Reigns is "The Guy," does that make him "The Dude?" The crowd agreed and Dean liked it and said call me whatever you like but call me "Champion." Reigns comes out amidst boos to congratulate Ambrose and reminded him of his rematch clause. Then Rollins comes out amidst cheers screaming that he beat Reigns so he gets a rematch clause. Interrupting Shane O Mac sets up Reigns and Rollins as the main event, where the winner will face Ambrose at Battleground next month. The results can be found here.

This was an enjoyable Monday Night RAW, although more time was spent on promos again and there was less time for the wrestling matches. They also addressed the upcoming Raw/Smack Down Draft, which will take place when Smack Down goes live on 7/19. To further emphasized how important this draft was, the first match of the night with Zayn and Owens showcased why these bitter rivals needed to be separated. Zayn got a win but Owens continued to beat him down after the match ended and even when they came back from commercial break. There was also the addition of the RAW and Smack Down podiums on top of the ramp, meaning WWE will be welcoming back a number of former general managers vying for the position for each brand. Hell, even John "People Power" Laurinitis returned before Shane told him that he would be running Smack Down.

The one segment I was not happy with was the women's division, where for some reason, Charlotte is defending the title against Paige. It wasn't a 3-minute squash match but it felt poorly paced and was full of botches, notably from Dana Brooke. Paige loses to Charlotte and all of a sudden Sasha Banks shows up, coming to her aid to chase off Charlotte and Dana. Look, I like Sasha but I hate that they kept her away from TV for a long time and now she's gunning for the title again. Meanwhile, poor Becky Lynch is getting beaten up by newly turned heel Natalya.

Speaking of returns, Bray Wyatt returned with Erick Rowan and Braun Strowman. Luke Harper is still out with a serious injury. Wyatt was interrupted by The New Day, which prompted him to come up with a chant on his own: New Day... Falls. This is a very weird yet interesting match-up so if they really are going ahead with this feud, they need to find the right balance for both teams to make this convincing.

Reigns and Rollins' main event match had Ambrose sitting on commentary and man, he was on fire. He put his former brothers over and showed how fiercely protective he is of his title. "Karma's a bitch and I'm WWE World Heavyweight Champion." As for the match, it was actually better than their match from MITB, save for a failed spot where the table didn't break when Reigns tackled Rollins. The two were unable to get back into the ring before the 10-count, resulting in a draw. The crowd wasn't happy with that so Shane came out and said we still need a contender. Ambrose gets into the ring and tells Shane he'll take them both on right now. Shane admires Dean as a fighting champion and decides to set up all former Shield members in a Triple Threat as the main event at Battleground. Ambrose happily accepts and goes up to both of his exhausted brothers and starts trash-talking them. Reigns gets up and tries to talk to Ambrose, who quickly turns around hits him with Dirty Deeds, which actually scares Rollins. Rollins tries to Pedigree a weakened Reigns after Ambrose left the ring, only to be hit from behind as Ambrose hits him with Dirty Deeds too.

So on top of them finally building excitement for the draft, the big takeaway is that the "WrestleMania-worthy" Shield Triple Threat is actually happening. There's a lot of complaints that the event is being wasted on what's considered a B-PPV event. However, the brand extension is heavily hinting that Reigns, Ambrose, and Rollins might get separated, so Battleground might very well be their last time to be on the same roster together. This is going to be an interesting month for Ambrose, who's now going to shoulder the pressure and responsibilities as a WWE Champ and as the face of the company. He is going to get even more attention now. On top of that, his wonderful cheerleader of a girlfriend Renee is comfortably and proudly posting more pics of Ambrose. I'm not too worried about Ambrose if he ends up dropping the title at Battleground, I just want to see him have a good run as an official champ.

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HEY, SO BREAKING NEWS. 

ROMAN REIGNS WAS SUSPENDED.

HE'LL STILL BE AT BATTLEGROUND.