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 -_-

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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.