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.

WWE Extreme Rules 2016 PPV

Last night was WWE's Extreme Rules, the 2nd PPV to quickly follow Payback in the month of May. This was a more satisfying PPV than Payback and best of all, no on-screen injuries occurred! The results can be found here.

Rusev won over Kalisto to become a 2-time US Champion. RuRu came out looking like a monster heel again with his newly modified and brutal looking Accolade. I didn't think resetting him (and Lana's) character would do him any good but it turns out did.

The best match of the night was hands down the IC Title Fatal 4 Way match. Zayn and Owens' hatred for each other was the backdrop for this match, which probably wouldn't have been interesting if it only involved Cesaro and Miz. There were so many great spots, so many nearfalls, and Miz didn't look out of place at all amidst these former indy stars. I was really rooting for Cesaro to win, so I was a bit bummed when he didn't. Miz retaining makes sense because this leaves it open for other guys to go after the title and it frees up Owens, Zayn, and Cesaro.

The Asylum Match was the longest match of the night, clocking in at 26 minutes. It turns out that a short segment was cut from the show and added to Ambrose and Jericho's feud, resulting in an unfortunately long and drawn out match. I'll be honest here; I was bored watching this drag on. I didn't like that every "weapon" they grabbed was literally used once. It wasn't until Ambrose spilled thumbtacks unto the ring that it started building up. Ambrose dropped Jericho unto the tacks AND did Dirty Deeds on him to get another win. I have serious respect for Jericho, who went above and beyond to help put Ambrose over when WWE or Lesnar couldn't for WM 32. This one spot saved it from being the worst match of the night.

No, that goes to the Women's Title match with Natalya and Charlotte. Their match was actually quite good but due to the Asylum match running longer than it was suppose to, their match was shortened to under 10 minutes. Natalya looked like she was winning until she was distracted by Flair's entrance theme playing with Dana Brooke (poorly disguised as Flair) entering the ring to distract Natalya. Charlotte does the Figure 8 and forces Natalya to tap. Charlotte, Ric, and Dana all celebrate in the ring. Another title defense for the new Women's title that ended with Flair interfering.

The main event with Styles and Reigns was fantastic. They brawled outside the ring, unto the kickoff show's glass table, destroyed tables and barricades. Gallows and Anderson and the Usos showed up towards the end of the match and everyone was doing everything to make sure they're guy would win. Styles even went berserk and hit The Bloodline in the back with a steel chair. Just as Styles was getting ready to hit the Phenomenal Forearm, Reigns tackles him in mid-air with a spear for a definitive win. It was expected that Reigns would retain and he was getting showered in boos.

AND THEN CROSSFIT JESUS RETURNED

Rollins came back way earlier than anticipated, probably as quick as Cena's return (which is next Monday). He's going to get such a huge pop on Monday Night RAW. We're all cheering for a returning heel and are actively booing the company's top babyface champ. If Reigns is being intentionally built to be this kayfabe powerful, then it would make his defeat even more satisfying. There's no other person than can take him down a notch than the former champ who never lost his title.

"The New Error": Monday Night RAW (5/9/16)

This was another somewhat enjoyable episode of Monday Night RAW. I say "somewhat enjoyable" because a majority of the matches, while entertaining, had finishes that didn't make sense. I get that they have 2 more weeks left before Extreme Rules. It just seems like 50/50 booking is at play again. The results can be found here.

So here are the weird finishes to the following matches:

• Ziggler lost to Corbin
• Charlotte (C) lost to Paige
• Miz (C) lost to Zayn
• Rusev (#1 Contender) lost to Sin Cara
• Ryder lost to Owens
• New Day (C) lost to Dudleyz
• The Club lost to The Family via DQ
  
  

All the champs - with the exception of Reigns of course - just randomly lost in their respective matches. Corbin winning shouldn't be a big deal if it weren't for Ziggler randomly winning at Payback. Rusev lost to Sin Cara - SIN CARA - thanks to Kalisto interference. Miz lost to Zayn, making the IC title match a fatal 4-way. Ryder lost to Owens, once again reinforcing Ryder's almost pointless WrestleMania moment as a 1-time IC Champ. The most baffling is the third hour, which saw The New Day losing to The Dudleyz and the last-minute main event with Chris Jericho and Big Cass, set by Stephanie McMahon at the beginning of the show, never happened due to Ambrose's surprise appearance. The only other surprise was Dana Brooke making her main roster debut backstage in a segment with Emma and Becky Lynch.

The Reigns and Styles storyline is getting better and better each week. It's actually getting harder to tell if Styles would remain the steadfast babyface when everyone is using every opportunity to destroy each other. I mean both teams were nearly booed last night, though Reigns and The Usos got a much louder reaction. Speaking of which, it's important to note that the Bullet Club is now present across several promotions. The original leader, Finn Balor, is in NXT, "The Club" with Styles, Gallows, and Anderson is in WWE, and the remaining Bullet Club faction is strong in both NJPW and ROH, along with new additions Adam Cole and Adam Page.

I want to point out something quite odd here. The show started off with Jericho bragging about destroying Ambrose AND Mitch The Plant, whose death saddened the Twitter/Tumblr fans last week. WWE is not one to ignore something like this so they had Jericho display a quick montage of all the screenshots of everyone crying over Mitch, all while emphasizing numerous times that he severely injured Ambrose. When Ambrose returned, he destroyed Jericho's light up jacket which apparently costs $15k. Ambrose is exacting revenge on Jericho... over a potted plant. This was humorous to watch - and props to Jericho and Ambrose for doing their best to make this silly feud serious -  but it robbed the audience of a totally new main event match with another NXT newcomer against a legend. Did WWE intentionally move Reigns and Styles to the 2nd hour so that The New Day, The Dudleyz, Ambrose and Jericho will close out the third hour, where their ratings normally tank? AV Club thought their silly feud was the "shining star" of the show and F4W thought it was building up their feud well enough, while others have understandably thought this was getting sillier and stupider.

To be honest, I don't fucking care. I'm just happy see Ambrose every single time, regardless if he wrestles or not. It's easy to lose faith in the guy with how he's being booked and all but I can't not be entertained by him. Let's see how the go-home show next week will reverse all the 50/50 booking leading up to Extreme Rules. Also, I'm getting that damn poster... unless Ambrose is featured in Money In The Bank, I'm getting that too.

"RESET: Into Darkness": Monday Night RAW (4/25/16)

All good things must come to and end. After having 3 back-to-back shows of Authority-free content, Stephanie McMahon returned to Monday Night RAW (sans HHH) to interrupt Shane. She announced that this was Shane's last night to run RAW because this Sunday at Payback, Vince McMahon will decide if Stephanie or Shane will take control of RAW. Once again, it's another weird stipulation that teases the end of The Authority storyline but at least it has a better and concise buildup, and this doesn't require Shane to do another death-defying stunt.

That opening segment with Stephanie really sucked the air out of the room, as Shane phrased it, and that disinterest affected the rest of show. Sad to say that the show really felt like a chore again, with more segments and promos than actual wrestling matches. The results can be found here.

The major highlights were:

• Chyna, who passed away last week, was acknowledged on RAW via a graphic and a touching video package. Despite their publicly estranged relationship and the personal problems she's had, WWE went out of their way to pay their respects to her. They focused on what she accomplished when she was with WWE and showed clips of her with DX and as Eddie Guerrero's beloved Mamacita.
  
• League of Nations have quietly disbanded and was put into single matches: AJ Styles vs Sheamus, Sami Zayn vs Rusev, and Roman Reigns vs Alberto Del Rio. And they all lost.
  
• The much-awaited in-ring debut of Karl Anderson and Doc Luke Gallows. They got wrestling gear and outfits that matches pretty closely to their NJPW attire. Even their entrance theme sounded similar to the Bullet Club theme. After a lengthy match, they defeated the Usos and started to beat them down until Reigns came out to make the save. Reigns is so tainted that the normally cheered Usos got boos and "USOS SUCKS" chants.
  
• The New Day, The Vaudevillains, and Enzo and Big Cass all came out to do their respective promos. It should be noted that the Tag Team Championship title will not be defended at Payback.
  
• There was a video package that talked about the 14-year history between Owens and Zayn's blood feud featuring commentary from the two. Not only did it explain the feud to casual fans but it also showcased a unique feud that has carried over from several wrestling promotions to WWE. It was a great opener to Sami and Rusev, who had a great match. Sami won, which infuriated Lana enough to throw her shoes at him, and got blindsided by Kevin Owens.
  
• For some freaking reason, there was only one Women's wrestling match again and it was just Natalya defeating Emma. Charlotte was on commentary. Becky, Sasha, and the other women were nowhere to be seen.
  
• Dean Ambrose abandoned his Ambrose Asylum talk show (and potted plant) to call out Jericho for attacking him from behind last week. Although their feud stemmed from Ambrose Asylum taking over The Highlight Reel, the real issue is that Jericho had become an egomaniacal top heel who brags about being untouchable. Ambrose is back in PPV mode and taking on Jericho because that's what he does. Their segment ended with Ambrose trapped in the Walls of Jericho on the announcer's table. Jericho has one-upped Ambrose a few times, so hopefully this means Ambrose gets a win at Payback.
  
• As I mentioned earlier, Reigns is tainted. The problem is that even though Reigns has taken on this tweener-ish persona, WWE isn't helping his image by showcasing a video package where he's meeting with Make-A-Wish kids. Those same kids were there at ringside and Reigns was smiling and interacting with them. When he went into the ring, the crowd resumed booing at him. Gallows and Anderson jump Reigns after he defeated Del Rio. Styles makes the save and tries to keep his brothers out of the ring and ends up getting Superman punched by Reigns. Just when it looked like Reigns was standing tall after taking out Gallows and Anderson, Styles comes back with the Phenomenal Forearm and lays out Reigns.
  
  

By the way, the crowd for this go-home show was pretty bad. AV Club pointed out that they only chanted a few times because the casual fans were supposed to. It's a lukewarm response for a go-home show which sort of takes you out of the matches. Nonetheless, the last 3 weeks for Payback has been handled quite well and the card this Sunday is full of new talent, save for WWE veterans like Jericho, Natalya, The Miz, and Ziggler. The only sad news about Payback is that the promotional materials still features The Wyatt Family and neither Bray or the rest have been seen since his injury.

RIP AMBROSE ASYLUM & POTTED PLANT

2016 - 2016

"RESET": Monday Night RAW (4/4/16)

WrestleMania 32, for the most part, had great moments and wrestling matches with some undesirable results. As I mentioned yesterday, a lot of favorites - such as AJ Styles, The New Day, Dean Ambrose, Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks, Shane McMahon, and yes, even Triple H - lost. Post-WrestleMania RAW was anticipated to be the most important show and it certainly proved it last night. The results can be found here.

There were some major highlights:

• Shane McMahon took over RAW just for tonight, just so Vince can prove that Shane running RAW would be a disaster, which made his whole match and that HIAC spot pointless. It was, however, refreshing to have a neutral General Manager greeting the talent backstage and setting up matches.
• The League of Nations kicked out Wade Barrett for being their weakest link. All of a sudden, the Wyatt Family (sans Luke Harper) appeared and took them out. Is this a new direction for them, to slowly become babyfaces?
• Zack Ryder, who surprised the WrestleMania crowd and won the IC Ladder match, lost his IC title 24 hours later to The Miz (with former Diva and real life wife, Maryse). It was the most shocking and infuriating moment of the night, which made me recall how angry I felt when Christian lost the title to Randy Orton 2 days later.
• Roman Reigns was acting quite heel-ish and I liked it. He was not affected by the crowd booing at him and he smugly issued a challenge to anyone who wants his title. Out came Chris Jericho, AJ Styles, Kevin Owens, and Sami Zayn, who can't enter a ring without punching each other. Shane would later set the main event to be a fatal 4-way to determine a #1 contender.
• The newly created Women's Championship title had a presentation with all of the Divas Women out in the ring as Charlotte gave an unusually babyface promo about how far they've come to make this happen before taking all the credit. Natalya challenged Charlotte for the title, which means these 2 will be feuding for a bit while Becky and Sasha take on the rest of the Women's division.
• As Wredditor insider FalconArrow pointed out, a lot of NXT call-ups happened. The first was Baron Corbin, who actually won the ATGMBR at WrestleMania. He wrestled and won his first match against Dolph Ziggler (eesh, poor guy). Apollo Crews won against Tyler Breeze (ugh), and tag team favorites Enzo and Cass made their debut to take on The Dudleyz. To cap it off, NXT Tag Team Champions The VaudeVillains will also be making their main roster debut on Smack Down.
• Kevin Owens took out Sami Zayn prior to the main event. Per Shane McMahon, a new 4th contender was added, and it was none other than Cesaro. This match was exciting. Cesaro looked incredible and was fantastic in the ring. There were so many nearfalls that it made it look like anybody - excluding Jericho - could win. In the end, Styles emerged victorious. This means that Reigns will definitely be a heel by WWE's next PPV, Payback, on May 1st.

There's another thing to note here. HHH and Stephanie were absent. US Champ Kalisto and rival Ryback were absent as well. And although they were both scheduled for RAW, neither Brock Lesnar or Dean Ambrose appeared. Looking at how "full" RAW was, I guess it makes sense that they didn't have room for them.

Ambrose's absence may be explained as him trying to "recover" from his disappointingly tame match with Lesnar, but it still drew a lot of concern. WWE has once again dropped the ball on Ambrose for the 3rd straight year in a row and his WrestleMania match effectively killed his momentum. I was worried that he lost his chance to be made into a top star with credibility and he was going back to the midcard again. My coworkers offered their take: Ambrose is taking a much deserved break for carrying his feud - and for a brief moment, Roman's feud with HHH - up until WrestleMania.

I can't help but feel bad; I've been rooting for this guy to be successful and finally capture the WWE WHC for 2 years. Rollins had a lengthy title run up until his injury and Reigns is now a 3-time champ, which is ridiculous. It would be a shame to see him booked the same way as Bray Wyatt, or worse, as Ziggler. He'll be the guy to put the star over but never be a star himself. Hopefully he's on Smack Down tonight.

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On a more positive note, I went and bought tickets for WWE's Money In The Bank. I accidentally found out the pre-sale was happening today and, thanks to some nice people on r/SC, I was able to get a promo code to buy the tickets. I did tell Vince that I didn't care how expensive it was, I was going to get us floor seats. It wasn't ringside tickets but it would be the closest we've ever been to the ring for a WWE event. I'm just excited at the fact that we'll get to see Owens, Zayn, Styles, and other favorites live. Oh, and Ambrose since he freaking lives here.

"This makes no sense": Monday Night RAW (1/26/16)

I STILL CAN'T PROCESS THIS.

It's been 24 hours since the Royal Rumble, the PPV that had entertaining title defense matches and where the main event didn't end up with poster boy Roman Reigns retaining his title. It got everybody pumped for the fallout on RAW.

RAW opened up with a typical Authority promo but this time it came from "The Game" HHH wearing his suit and the title. He cut a long promo where he praised Reigns but also talked him down, saying he doesn't deserve the title because of his lack of respect. Stephanie then announced that tonight, they'll be evaluating all the superstar matches and announce the main event for Fastlane on 2/21. The winner for that main event will face against HHH at Wrestlemania. Sounds like this will be a great follow-up show right? Sadly, it wasn't. The results can be found here.

The few highlights for me were:

• Kevin Owens, still selling his injuries from his Last Man Standing match, defeated Ziggler. This match is no different from their previous matches but it was still great to see Owens get a win. As for Ziggler, I really don't know what they're doing with him. Even with updated his look, he's still pretty much directionless.
• AJ Styles defeated Jericho! This was a good match, mostly because Styles is learning to adapt to the WWE style on the fly with fellow veteran Jericho helping him along. Interesting enough, Styles keeps teasing the Styles Clash but has not actually pulled it off yet. And Jericho didn't seem happy with losing to him either.
• Sasha and Becky had a short match due to Charlotte interrupting. I'm incredibly happy that the Divas storyline is focusing on the the NXT Horsewomen, while the Total Divas Brie, Alicia, Paige, and Natalya, have their own pointless match.
• The special guest for tonight was The Rock, who went on a super long and hyped up promo about coming home, making fun of Miz, Big Show, Lana and Rusev, and calling The New Day's unicorn horns "Llama penises." He got the Usos to come out and take out New Day. I didn't like this segment with The Rock but god damn can he get your attention.

The main event match was Reigns and Ambrose vs Sheamus and Rusev. As usual, Ambrose takes the brunt of the offenses from League of Nations while Reigns only gets in for the hot tag. Reigns wins with a spear to Sheamus. After the match ended, Ambrose started angrily clearing the announcer's table while Reigns throws Rusev to the stairs. The "Brothers-in-Arms" got Rusev up to set up for a powerbomb through the table. This was retaliation for what happened with Reigns at the Royal Rumble. Stephanie suddenly comes out and announces that after much evaluation the main event for Fastlane will be Dean Ambrose vs Roman Reigns vs Brock Lesnar.

And this is where RAW leading up to this announcement made the last 3 hours frustrating to process. Why did they announce that they were evaluating ALL the superstars when it came down to the last 2 faces from the Royal Rumble and a guy who didn't even appear on the show? Why did the Authority give Reigns another title shot after making a big deal about taking the title away from him? And why are they throwing IC Champ Ambrose into the title picture? It makes no sense at all.

The 3 possible outcomes don't scream Wrestlemania main event either. Lesnar vs HHH would be a repeat, considering that HHH defeated Lesnar a few years ago. Reigns vs HHH won't be as exciting because Reigns will obviously get his title back and become a 3-time WWE Champ. And Ambrose vs HHH wouldn't work at all because of the current booking, where Ambrose always comes close but never wins the big title. A part of me is holding out hope that, judging from the audience reaction to Ambrose being in the final two against HHH, he might just win Fastlane, which is taking place in his home state of Ohio. Then again, he didn't even win in his hometown on an episode of Smackdown last year. Realistically, he's probably there to take the pin to advance the storyline of Reigns vs The Authority, even though the real story of an organic fan movement like Daniel Bryan is happening with Ambrose.