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

Friday (11/13):

• Some really bad shit happened in Paris on Friday the 13th.
• VINCIE CAME HOME! I was asleep when he arrived after midnight. When I woke up, he was holding a pillow over my head, like he was going to smother me. Welcome home, you asshole :D

Saturday (11/14):

• Ate at Archi's for lunch. Pineapple curry everything :D
• Went to the nearby comic books store to  buy a few issues. I stopped buying comic books around the time that Vince got laid off. Just found out that Marvel freaking rebooted everything so a few of the series I've been collecting have already ended.
• Went around Downtown Summerlin to walk around. Indulged in some treats from Cream.
• Played Diablo III with Dan and Corinne.

Sunday (11/15):

• Did some shopping at Costco
• Went around Best Buy for a bit
• I played Captain Toad on the Wii U while Vince prepared Adobo
• Watched The Walking Dead and Into The Badlands. I'm so in love with the show. I love the worldbuilding and fight choreography. It's a mix of Tarantino and Wachowski style of visuals and storytelling.
• Played Overwatch
• Enjoyed seeing the pictures from the end of WWE's European Tour. Ambrose and Cesaro looks like they had so much fun at Bologna, Leipzig, and Stuttgart. Now I'm panicking what's going to happen on RAW for the finals.

Survivor Series Foreshadowing?

http://vince-sheila.tumblr.com/post/133020347162/michael-cole-recently-conducted-a-sit-down

"Rebuild. Redesign. Reclaim.": Monday Night RAW (11/9/15)

Tonight's episode of Monday Night RAW is going to be very different, for both a bad and good reason. Bad because Seth Rollins' major leg injury forced him to immediately vacate the World Heavyweight Championship title. And good because the fans are going to see some major changes and something refreshingly different for the next few weeks leading to Wrestlemania. RAW is filming in the UK, so there are going to be major spoilers leaking before the show airs in its regular 8 PM PST slot on USA Network.

(Note: I'm totally spoiling myself and reading the live ongoing coverage from /r/SC, WrestlingInc, ProWrestlingNet, and PWInsider. I'm still going to watch it live, regardless of the results.)

Here are the match and First-Round Tournament results:

• Roman Reigns defeated Big Show. Roman Reigns advances! OF COURSE HE DOES.
• Kevin Owens defeated Titus O' Neil. Kevin Owens advances!
• Becky Lynch defeated Paige
• Dolph Ziggler defeated The Miz. Dolph Ziggler advances! With a minor knee injury? Shit.
• Natalya defeated Naomi
• Cesaro defeated Sheamus. Cesaro advances!
• Dean Ambrose defeated Tyler Breeze. Dean Ambrose advances! With a shoulder injury? SHIT.
• The New Day defeated The Usos and Neville

The Second-Round matches will begin next week at the go-home show of RAW:

• Roman Reigns vs Cesaro
• Kevin Owens vs Barrett or Neville (First-Round Tournament continuation on Smack Down!)
• Dolph Ziggler vs Dean Ambrose 
• Kalisto or Ryback vs Alberto Del Rio or Stardust (First-Round Tournament continuation on Smack Down!)

----------

RAW opened up with HHH presenting the World Heavyweight Championship title resting on a table as he praised Seth Rollins. While HHH went at length about how great Rollins was, Reigns shows up and enters the ring. From there, HHH's promo takes a different turn; he tells Reigns that as #1 contender, he can skip the tournament and have the title given to him if he joins The Authority. He even went as far to say that Reigns was strongly considered to be their pick before Rollins. Reigns, being the goody two-shoes he is, turns down the offer and HHH bellows, "Welcome to the back of the line!" This segment firmly established that being The Authority's champion will set you and your family for life. Either Reigns will have second thoughts and accept the offer later on or someone else (another heel) would take up on that offer.

The rest of RAW covered 5 of the 8 First-Round Tournament matches, with the last 3 continuing on Thursday Night Smack Down! As evident with the first match with Reigns and Big Show, the bracket had odd choices and pair-ups, such as Ryback vs Kalisto, Titus O' Neil vs Kevin Owens, and Tyler Breeze vs Dean Ambrose. While it was predictable who would win, it didn't take away from the quality of the matches. Well, at least for the important ones. Cesaro was victorious and incredible as usual against Sheamus (and there was a ton of "CESARO SECTION" signs :D). Owens executed a perfectly brutal looking Pop-up Powerbomb against O' Neil and got great heat from mocking England's blind worship with the Queen. And Breeze, making his in-ring Raw debut, took advantage of Ambrose's tweaked shoulder and worked on it until he was defeated by the small package. 

The main event was saved for Bray Wyatt eulogizing about taking away Taker and Kane's powers. AND THEN THEY SHOWED UP. TOGETHER. This was an unexpected surprise and a big fucking treat for the Manchester crowd. Sadly, the Wyatt family came off ridiculously weak and overwhelmed by the two. It also reminded people that practically nothing happens after you get abducted by the Wyatt Family. Another inconsistency is that The Brothers of Destruction also got their powers back, so either they got it back from Wyatt, or there are now 3 supernatural beings with the same powers.

Overall, it was another week with a great and enjoyable RAW and this week is decidedly more crucial with possible changes in the storylines leading to the go-home show and Survivor Series. Another interesting note about the above bracket is that Reigns and Ambrose are positioned directly opposite of each other. There have been heavy, HEAVY talks about turning one of them (specifically Reigns) heel to follow the storyline of Deadly Game, the PPV that centered around the vacated WWF Championship and saw The Rock turning heel against Mick Foley and aligning himself with Vince McMahon. WWE is being forced to get creative in the absence of Cena, Orton, and Rollins. This is a good direction, ratings be damned.

RAW showcased another reason not to turn Ambrose heel just yet. He's so ridiculously silly and charismatic.

Also...

DEAN LEAN AMBROSE

Weekend Recap (11/6/15-11/8/15)

Friday (11/6):

• Ate at Sweet Tomatoes for dinner
• Went home to play a bit of Blizzard's new game, Overwatch. It's like Team Fotress 2 with Pixar's art direction!
• Played Left4Dead2 with Dan and Corinne. We had some weird error with the game where Vince and Corrine had black screens on their end. Dan, Vince, and I ended up playing Diablo III instead.
• In WWE news, Rollins' removal affected the European tour this week. There was the Rollins Tour in England and the Reigns Tour in Scotland. Ambrose and Owens were pulled from the Reigns tour and flown practically overnight for the Rollins Tour.

Saturday (11/7):

• Went to Seafood City to do some grocery shopping. Vince made Ginisang Munggo.
• Ate at Jason's Deli and walked over to Office Depot (which was closing). We got nothing.
• Went to Fashion Show Mall. There wasn't anything for us to buy. Vince was more preoccupied with going to California again for a week for an evaluation.
• Got the most horrible news regarding my immediate family, specifically my auntie and uncle (from my mom's side). It sucks that it's gotten to that point, and everyone is guilty of being selfish. The bottom line is that their youngest daughter is going to have to deal with this and she feels she's the cause of it, and no kid should ever feel like that.

Sunday (11/8):

Wanted to try a different hairstyle and color. Something... undisputed future-ish. #lob #longbob #sethfreakingrollins

A photo posted by sheila antonio (@sajcfan) on Nov 9, 2015 at 12:27am PST



• Went to Ann's Salon to get a haircut. Originally, I wanted to get a blonde streak on my right side. In light of what happened with Rollins, I decided to just do the blonde streak on my left. Obviously, it's mirrored so it's not exactly like Rollins hairstyle.
• Went to Costco to do some more last minute shopping for Vince's trip. Vince got a call from is parents. Let's just say they went from being worried about him to degrading him in a span of a few minutes.
• Went to Yogurtland afterwards to get dessert for dinner :P
• Watched Walking Dead and ROH
• Looking forward to Monday Night RAW. WWE is hitting the reset button, which means they have to make new storylines and put more superstars in the spotlight due to Rollins' injury.
• Also... So. Much. Shirtless. AMBROSE. All from the European tour.

Seth Rollins injured; WHC title vacated

This is a sad, sad day for Seth Rollins fan, myself recently included. Rollins reportedly sustained a leg injury at a house show in Dublin Wednesday night. It looked like Rollins' knee buckled when he tried to do a sunset flip. He finished his match against Kane but he had to be helped up to walk the ramp. The severity of the leg injury was revealed today and made official by WWE:

WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins has torn his right ACL, MCL and medial meniscus, and will not be able to defend the title against Roman Reigns at Survivor Series. A tournament to determine a new champion will instead take place at the event. 

As first reported on Twitter by ESPN, Rollins suffered the injury last night at a WWE Live Event in Dublin, Ireland, and is expected to miss six to nine months of action.

It fucking sucks that this had to happen to Rollins. Despite how inconsistent his character has been since his heel turn, and how crappy they book him, he still puts on the best god damn matches every single time. His injury came at the worst time, with Reigns finally targeting Rollins for taking away his opportunity at Wrestlemania this year. The ending of this past RAW had the former SHIELD members as the survivors of both teams, which was heavily hinting at a possible SHIELD Triple Threat match for Wrestlemania 32 next year. Those plans are now scrapped and the title was immediately vacated as of today.

Rollins' injury also means that The Authority lost their corporate champ. Currently, there are no heels that are associated with The Authority to fill his spot. Kevin Owens is the current IC Champ and he's reportedly going to start feuding with Ambrose for the next few months. The New Day are the current Tag Team Champs and they are getting ready to feud against the returning Usos. Sheamus is the MITB holder and he's currently teamed up with King Barrett. The Wyatt Family have their own program going on with Taker and Kane. Basically, there is a big hole to fill in the overarching narrative between the midcard underdogs and the Authority.

What is WWE planning? They've already announced a tournament at Survivor Series to crown a new World Heavyweight Champion. Reigns is the #1 contender and it looks like they'll be working out on who the contenders will be and how they'll be decided. Wonder what they'll do though. Will someone turn heel to be a champ? Will that heel join The Authority? Will they bring in another part-timer to win the title, like Del Rio did for the US Title? Are we going to see another NXT call up to the main roster? Now more than ever, the road to Survivor Series and Wrestlemania is changing.

Get well soon, Seth!

"ROMAN. REIGNS.": Monday Night RAW (11/2/15)

For the second week in a row, RAW put out another mostly enjoyable episode. In the spirit of the 29th Anniversary of Survivor Series, the main event was a "traditional Survivor Series five-on-five elimination tag team match", headed by team captains Rollins and Reigns.

Here are the match results:

• Kevin Owens defeated Dolph Ziggler
• Cesaro defeated The Miz by submission
• The Lucha Dragons defeated Sheamus and King Barrett
• Alberto Del Rio (w/Zeb Colter) defeated R-Truth
• Paige defeated Becky Lynch, Brie Bella, and Sasha Banks
• Team Reigns (Roman Reigns, Jimmy Uso, Jey Uso, Ryback, and Dean Ambrose) defeated Team Rollins (Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods)

The Wyatt Family addressed the WWE Universe and basically said that they now have the souls of Undertaker and Demon Kane. Which meant Bray now had the power of Taker's cheesy purple lightning and Kane's turnbuckle pyros. While Vince cringed and face palmed at this segment, I was eating this shit up. I loved it, I seriously loved it. It's like a subtle passing of the torch to making the Wyatt Family a monstrous heel faction. I'm interested in seeing where they go with this.

It's almost as if WWE took note on how the #1 Contender's Matches did so well last week that they decided to repeat it for the Divas Championship. The best part is that the Divas segment featured all of them solo, with no respective team members being at ring side. Which meant we got to hear Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks' awesome entrance theme. It was a great match for all of the women, with Brie Bella being somewhat out of place. In the end, Paige came out victorious after she took out Becky. It was somewhat of a disappointment to see Becky and not Brie take the pin, and also for Sasha to be left out of the title picture again. This sets up the 2nd title match for Survivor Series.

The main event saw Team Rollins with his champion members, The New Day and Kevin Owens, eagerly waiting in the ring for Team Reigns' reveal. The big surprise was seeing the return of the Usos (both of them!) coming to Cousin Roman's aid. The third member was Ryback (which Owens was not happy to see). As if they have saved the best for last, the final member was revealed to be Dean Ambrose. It didn't matter how predictable the final choice was; Ambrose got a great big pop from the audience, with Reigns coming in second.

The match ran on for for more than half an hour and the eliminations happened in the following order:

• Xavier Woods was pinned by Jey Uso
• Kofi Kingston was pinned by Jimmy Uso
• Jey Uso was pinned by Big E
• Jimmy Uso was pinned by Kevin Owens
• Big E was pinned by Ryback
• Ryback was pinned by Seth Rollins
• Kevin Owens was pinned by Dean Ambrose
• Seth Rollins was disqualified
• Survivors: Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose

The main event event was great, especially when it came down to Reigns, Ambrose, Owens, and Rollins. Owens was noticeably mocking and badgering Ambrose and Rollins kept yelling, "WHY CAN'T YOU DIE DEAN?!" As usual, Ambrose takes the most punishment in the ring while Reigns rests outside for the hot tag. In the end, Reigns and Ambrose became the winners via DQ when Rollins used a chair to attack them. Yeah, that looked pretty familiar. Instead of making Rollins look strong in the end, Reigns no sells and pulls a Superman punch on Rollins, causing him to retreat out of the ring as he clutched his title.

Aside from that LOLREIGNSWIN ending, RAW wasted no time in setting up Survivor Series. They're doing a much better job with this than last month's Hell In A Cell. Of course, it probably might not translate well in ratings. I hope WWE can overlook that and focus on telling their stories and creating their stars for their established fanbase.

I think Owens just found his next opponent :D

Halloween Weekend Recap (10/30/15-11/1/15)

Hey! I brought the weekend recaps back! That means something good is happening :D

Friday (10/30):

Today, I am "Chell-a." The jumpsuit was so dang comfy! #portal2 #halloween2015 #welovefine #aperturelaboratories

A photo posted by sheila antonio (@sajcfan) on Oct 30, 2015 at 4:52pm PDT

Oh yes. I went there. And I'm done for the night!

A photo posted by sheila antonio (@sajcfan) on Oct 30, 2015 at 7:30pm PDT

• Pololu Halloween Contest! I never win at these things because I always talk myself down whenever I have to explain my costume. This year, I dressed up as Chell from Portal 2. Everything, from the Portal Gun, the orange jumpsuit, the Aperture Laboratories tank tops, and the longfall socks, were official Portal products. I was in costume for the whole day!
• I even went to Whole Foods dressed up as Chell. I avoided making eye contact with anyone. I was hungry.
• I played Diablo III with Dan and Vince, who should be driving back from California tomorrow morning. He had a great interview, so we're hoping we hear something soon by next week.
• I went and updated my resume since it seems highly likely that he'll get the job and we'll have to  move soon. Dammit, I already bought my Muse tickets for December 6 at Mandalay Bay :(
• Stupid side note: I'll no longer be in the same state as Dean Ambrose, even though it's damn near impossible to ever run into him on their day off. I already met Ambrose twice this year - at Wizard World  and Gamestop Expo - so I'm good. No not really.

Saturday (9/26):

Ridiculously last minute and low budget AJ Lee costume for Halloween. I couldn't find any black and white striped wristbands so I used black duct tape and sharpie markers O_O #ajlee #ajbrooks #halloween2015

A photo posted by sheila antonio (@sajcfan) on Nov 1, 2015 at 12:43am PDT

• I spent the morning trying to be somewhat productive. I went to the gym. I walked to KMart to buy a few things, including wristbands for a last minute costume as former WWE Divas Champion AJ Lee. I did the laundry.
• Vince came home :) He had to rest for a bit after a long drive from California. Vince was dressed as an Elite Yelper, which was in reference to this South Park episode (SO NSFW). Vince was doing this in response to Joanna becoming a recent Elite Yelper. 
• We ate a lot and played One Night Ultimate Werewolf and Cards Against Humanity. Since we had a large group, we briefly ended up using Christian's copy of Werewolf to accommodate it, which made it more confusing. Vince was not the King of CAH tonight; that honor went to Justin. Vince said he was just tired.
• I wasn't able to make it to my coworker's party, which was pretty obvious :/
• We went home, mostly because Vince was still pretty tired.

Sunday (9/27):

Impulsively bought the new Nerf Rival Apollo Blasters. Vince modified so that it shoots 2 foam balls at once. At 70 MPH. And it hurts. #nerf #nerfrival

A photo posted by sheila antonio (@sajcfan) on Nov 2, 2015 at 1:42am PST

• Lazy Sunday. We went to Town Square to walk around a bit. Vince and I spotted new Nerf blasters and immediately bought it. I loved the look of it, it was like something out or Borderlands. He modified it so that it shoots 2 balls instead of 1.
• Went to Bed Bath and Beyond to buy smaller stuff, including a Kitty Shack.
• Watched The Walking Dead and saw the newest South Park episode about Yaoi O_O
• Starting next month, I'm going to try this Flat Tummy Tea thing. I saw Sasha Banks promoting this on her Instagram so I thought I would give it a shot.
• Somewhat not looking forward to Raw since November will be "Make Roman Look Strong" month leading to Survivor Series for the next 2 weeks. This past Smack Down was surprisingly Ambrose-heavy, which means he'll probably have another backstage segment or another pointless match as he takes a backseat to Reigns tonight.