"Extreme Payback": Monday Night RAW (5/16/16)

The go-home show for Monday Night RAW was split evenly between actual wrestling matches and promos and segments, which was effective but somehow underselling Extreme Rules this Sunday. The results can be found here.

The major highlights were:

• The Miz and Cesaro vs Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens. This was a seriously fun match that played up both of the respective heels and faces either refusing to cooperate or trying to one-up each other. This is also the first time in a long while since "Steenerico" teamed up years ago. The match ended with Zayn pinning Miz and winning the match, only to end with Owens superkicking Zayn in the face. Owens vowed to take back his title.
  
  
• Dana Brooke vs Becky Lynch. Due to Emma's badly-timed injury, Dana stepped up to carry on the feud with Becky. While I can commend Dana for taking over, it really puts a damper on Emma and Becky's feud, which was building up quite nicely from last month. And Dana, who I thought improved the most on NXT before getting injured, didn't look too confident in the ring either.
  
  
• The New Day had a time machine segment (actually it's just a giant refrigerator box with stuff glued on) to make fun of The Vaudevillains' bygone era. They briefly stopped in 2009, where Kofi emerged to his old theme song and spoke with his Jamaican accent. Kofi cried out "2009 was my best year!" before they dragged him back in and emerged in the past, where everything was black and white, where Booty-Os are named Derriere Squares, and there were no video games. The Vaudevillains ruined the fun segment and stood tall over The New Day.
  
  
• Ambrose (sporting a shiner) called out Jericho and challenged him to having a rematch at Extreme Rules, which Jericho accepted. While Jericho was doing his "Gift of Jericho" pose ("Drink it in, Deeeeeeeeean."), Ambrose said he had a gift for him as well and gazed up as a black steel cage was lowered to the ring, complete with cheesy horror music and strobe lights. Ambrose suddenly went into menacing Moxley-ish mode and introduced the first ever Asylum Match, where there will be no escape and Jericho will never be the same again.
  
  
• The Usos defeated Gallows and Anderson, because of course they would. The Usos have started dressing in darker clothes and darker face paint, which complements Reigns' current tweener persona. The most surprising part was seeing Styles finally giving into temptation and using the steel chair to attack Reigns. AND THEN PERFORMING THE STYLES CLASH ON ROMAN ON SAID CHAIR. It was a amazing spot. Which makes it all the more frustrating knowing that Styles will not be a new champ this Sunday.
  
  
• Kalisto vs Del Rio was looking like one of their usual matches until Sin Cara and Rusev got involved in a backstage segment that spilled into the ring. Del Rio won the match and quickly left as Rusev went into the ring and dominated over Kalisto. Rusev looked like a monster heel again and it was fantastic.
  
  
• The main event ended with Charlotte and Natalya doing a contract signing with Shane and Stephanie in the ring. Charlotte was not happy seeing that the contract officially included banning her father from ringside, so Ric had to sign as well. A furious Ric Flair threatened Shane, who said he respected him too much to try to fight back, but it didn't stop Stephanie from slapping him. Charlotte was ready to lunge at Stephanie but Nattie caught her and did a sharpshooter. Ric and Charlotte slithered away and Raw ended with Nattie holding up the Women's belt up high.
  
  

So that's that. There's still Smack Down and two house shows left before Extreme Rules. Here is the complete card:

• Pre-Show: Dolph Ziggler vs. Baron Corbin in a No DQ match
• WWE World Title match: Roman Reigns vs. A.J. Styles in an Extreme Rules match
• Asylum Cage match: Dean Ambrose vs. Chris Jericho
• Women’s Title match: Charlotte vs. Natalya in a submission match
• U.S. Title match: Kalisto vs. Rusev
• IC Title match: The Miz vs. Cesaro vs. Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn
• Tag Title match: New Day vs. The Vaudevillians

Note: I'm actually more worried for Ambrose's match than I thought. To me, it seems nearly parallel to his feud against Lesnar in WrestleMania, where it had a great buildup and a lackluster match and ending. If they're going through the effort to have Ambrose be the poster boy for Extreme Rules with a match tailored for him, he better win this match. Then again, Ambrose has been known to lose in most gimmick matches...

Weekend Recap (5/13/16 - 5/15/16)

Friday (5/13):

• Went to to try O-My Sushi for dinner. The sushi was really good and it was all prepared by one sushi chef. 
• Went to Sport Chalet and bought a freakin Olympic barbell set at 30% off. We don't even have a house yet and we already bought gym equipment!
• Walked around Downtown Summerlin while eating gelato before heading home.
  
  

Saturday (5/14):

• Woke up early to do more house viewings. The first house we saw was a fixer-upper, which we absolutely didn't want. The second house already accepted an offer :/
• Went to Seafood City to buy ingredients to make Kare-Kare
• Pretty much stayed at home the whole time as Vince finished up Dark Soul 3

Sunday (5/15):

• Finally watched "Keanu." That movie is only enjoyable if one is familiar with Key & Peele. That said, this was an enjoyable movie and I hope to see them in more TV and movie roles.
• We grabbed some lunch at Tropical Smoothie
• Hanged out with Joel, Pam, and lil Sorscha. Forced everyone to watch TMNT III :D

What to expect for Monday Night RAW:

It's the go-home show before Extreme Rules this Sunday! I'm actually pretty excited for tonight due to the numerous and most importantly interesting storylines that are playing out. All the title matches have feuds that have been building up pretty well in the last few weeks. As for the midcard feuds, there's Becky and Emma's feud, possibly another rematch between Ziggler and Corbin, and finally there's Jericho and Ambrose, whose feud opened and closed the show last week (to very mixed reviews). Jericho put Ambrose in a straitjacket on Smack Down last week (which stupidly offended Tumblr fangirls for some reason), which is leading many to believe they might have a strap stipulation match.

Unfortunately, the injury bug has struck again. Styles didn't wrestle on Smack Down last week and was removed from the weekend house shows due to an injured ankle but he'll still be able to compete this Sunday. Emma suffered a back injury and has to undergo surgery for a ruptured disc. Sadly, this means her feud with Becky will be carried over to her recently called up partner, Dana Brooke. And Ambrose is sporting a shiner after Jericho did a Codebreaker on his face. I have a feeling that Ambrose is going to lose this feud to Jericho (thanks to 50/50) and probably get a win next month for MITB. Either he wins against Jericho OR... he enters himself in the MITB match with the other entrants.

"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.

Weekend Recap (5/6/16 - 5/8/16)

Friday (5/6):

• Went to Flame Broiler for dinner. Biko ran out of the door when Vince was getting his wallet. So he gave Biko to me while I was waiting inside the car. She stayed in the car even when we went to Sports Authority.
• Played some Overwatch

Saturday (5/7):

• Woke up early morning to watch "Captain America: Civil War." That movie easily exceeded "Avengers: Age of Ultron" and they made better use of their huge cast with primary and secondary characters.
• Walked over to Celestial Comics to grab a few free comics. It was Free Comic Book Day. We used to look forward to this event. Now, not so much.
• Went home to rest a bit before looking at another new house with Vince's parents and a with a new realtor. It was a unique house but we really didn't like it. We have to look again.
• Went to eat at Gen for an early Mother's Day dinner. Then we walked around Galleria at Sunset before heading home.
• I passed out and fell asleep for 3-4 hours before waking up around midnight. Then I went back to sleep.

Sunday (5/8):

• Went to buy some groceries at Costco and Trader Joe's and got new food for the kitties at PetSmart.
• Watched ROH Global Wars. Count on ROH to give you surprises and push people in the right direction.
• Somewhere around Sunday evening and Monday morning, SOME ASSHOLE SMASHED MY WINDOW TO BREAK INTO MY CAR. You know what's funny about that? Aside from stealing my prescription sunglasses, it's been nearly exactly 2 YEARS SINCE MY CAR WAS LAST BROKEN INTO. IN THE SAME SPOT!

What to expect for Monday Night RAW:

The major storyline centers around Reigns and his Usos Roman Empire vs Styles and his Not Bullet Club. So there will be more of that gray area between both teams. I've grown from not liking to Reigns to being indifferent to him, mostly because I'm just tired of being frustrated with him. WWE is clearly pushing their guy and even spinning it that it's fun to boo Reigns. His feud is only interesting because of Styles' involvement and whether Gallows and Anderson are going to be loyal to him or to Balor, should he get called up at some point.

The other storylines are getting some development as well, especially in light of last week's Black Friday. This explains why Fandango has been getting some screen time as of late and why Darren Young suddenly has Bob Backlund as his life coach. However, it doesn't explain why there has been a lot less screen time for the women's division. The main feuds are Charlotte vs Natalya and Becky vs Emma. Sasha hasn't had a TV match in nearly a month. Tamina and Naomi are apparently out due to an injury and Paige and Summer Rae are not being used.

It was recently confirmed that Kalisto will be defending his US title against #1 contender Rusev at Extreme Rules, meaning that the US title is most likely to change hands. I don't mind Rusev getting the title because his character has blossomed into this wonderfully talkative and charismatic heel instead of the generic foreign brute. 

As for Jericho and Ambrose, well, there's not much happening on that front. To be honest, while I was glad that Ambrose finally got a PPV win, I felt that the match wasn't their best. I'm not sure if there will be a Jericho vs Ambrose II and if there is one, I see it happening as a Pre-Show. Besides, there's nothing at stake here except for Jericho's ego. Add to the fact that this whole feud started when the Ambrose Asylum replaced The Highlight Reel. Oh and Mitch The Plant's death.

WWE's Black Friday 2016

"Black Friday" is a term that is usually associated with retail and consumerism. That feeling of dread leading up to Thanksgiving that reminds you that you have to buy your Christmas presents ASAP. This definition does not apply to WWE, although it does share that same feeling of dread. WWE's version of "Black Friday" marks the day that a lot of talent are "future endeavored," where they are released from the company.

They haven't done a spring cleaning like this in a while. It was believed that they would let the talents' contract expire if they choose not to renew it. However, no one expected WWE to sign on the likes of AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, Doc Gallows, and Karl Anderson from NJPW. Not to mention NXT signed on various talents to their performance center, from other indy promotions, and most recently veterans from TNA. With WWE declaring this year being the "New Era," with a slew of talents getting signed up or called up from NXT, along with their current talent being put into new storylines and challenges, it was inevitable that WWE had to take a look and see who to keep and who to let go. In this case, some talents already felt they were not being utilized creatively and chose to either leave amicably or not to renew their contract.

This is the list of the future endeavored so far. I've also included other notable names who were released prior to Black Friday.

Wrestlers Released

• Hornswoggle
• Alex Riley
• El Torito
• Cameron
• Santino Marella
• Wade Barrett
• Damien Sandow

Other Talent Released

• Zeb Colter
• Kyle Edwards (released last week)
• Rich Brennan (released last week)

There are other talents who are expected to be walking out the door at least this year. Titus O' Neil will not be renewing his contract, especially since he came back from a lengthy suspension for grabbing Vince McMahon's arm when Daniel Bryan announced his retirement. Ryback made it clear in his Tumblr post that he doesn't care if WWE releases him before his contract ends in September. And there are other talents that have been mysteriously absent recently, such as Heath Slater, Adam Rose (still under suspension for violating the wellness program), and Jack Swagger. Vince seems to be waiting for a major name to be released and he thinks it could be someone like Dolph Ziggler or Randy Orton.

It looks like that's it for now.

"The New Era": Monday Night RAW (5/2/16)

Now that Payback, the "first PPV of the New Era," has past, Monday Night RAW showed no signs of slowing down as they geared up for their 2nd PPV this month, Extreme Rules, which is a mere 2 weeks away. Unfortunately, the episode was a mix of rushing storylines and long segments. The results can be found here.

The major highlights were:

• Shane and Stephanie agreeing to work together to run RAW. She even presented Shane with a newly framed old photo of him and their dad that was crushed by Vince as a way to make amends.
  
  
• The siblings were interrupted by Kevin Owens who once again invokes his rematch clause for the IC title, only to get interrupted by Cesaro. Shane gives them a match (with Miz and Maryse on commentary). It resulted in a no contest once Miz interferred and Sami Zayn showed up. Zayn is now eyeing the IC title.
  
  
• Enzo's accident and concussion diagnosis was addressed by New Day. As a result, the Vaudevillains were awarded the match and will be facing against the New Day for the Tag Team Championship at Extreme Rules. The Vaudevillains got a heated reaction, proudly taking credit for Enzo's accident. The Dudleyz came out and said the tournament should just be restarted to find anther contender while Cass came out to declaring that he's going to avenge his family, resulting in an 8-man tag team match. Big Cass and The New Day defeated The Vaudevillains and the Dudleyz.
  
  
• Emma and Becky had a match! The two were originally suppose to have matches leading up to Payback but for some unexplained reason, their feud was put on hold (they feuded only through Twitter) and were never put on the card. Emma got a win over Becky with a freaking Michinoku Driver. WWE is clearly protecting Sasha, she hasn't had any televised matches on RAW or Smack Down in a while.
  
  
• A last-minute battle royal match was set up to determine who would be the #1 contender for Kalisto's US title. Notable faces included Apollo Crews, Baron Corbin, Curtis Axel, Bo Dallas, former League of Nations trio, Damian Sandow, and the return of Titus O'Neil. Notable absences were Heath Slater, Jack Swagger, and Ryback. Rusev and Ryder were the final 2 and, seeing how Kalisto's a face, Rusev emerged as the #1 contender. The reason why Ryback was not included  was due to ongoing contract disputes. It looks like Ryback will be joining Barrett on leaving WWE once their contract is up this summer.
  
  
• Stephanie was a guest on the Ambrose Asylum and said that he can ask her anything. Even though Ambrose saw through Stephanie's nice girl act, he agreed to have her on his show. Ambrose's "investigative journaling" eventually broke Stephanie and she decided to undo Shane's changes and cancel his show on the spot. Just as he taking his leave along with his beloved potted plant, Mitch, Stephanie announces that she was also bringing back The Highlight Reel, prompting Jericho to make a surprise entrance. Jericho one-upped Ambrose with The Codebreaker. And if that wasn't bad enough, Jericho took Mitch and slammed him unto the back of Ambrose's head. Twitter and r/SC were pretty upset.
  
  
• The now infamous (ok, not really) Chicago Screwjob was addressed. Not only that, referee Charles Robinson was addressed onscreen as "Lil Naitch," a nickname that was only used by online wrestling fans. Natalya was upset about screwed over and ended up doing a sharpshooter on Ric Flair. After the segment, Stephanie talked to Charlotte and Ric about setting up a rematch, this time making it a submission match to decide if the Figure Four or the Sharpshooter was superior. Also, Stephanie has banned Ric from being at ringside for the match.
  
  
• The main event saw Roman Reigns and The Usos vs As Styles, Gallows, and Anderson. The alignment of faces and heels are blurred, thus making their motivations completely understandable. In the 6-man tag team match, Not-Bullet-Club emerged victorious over Roman Empire. Gallows and Anderson gives a chair to Styles to take out an exhausted Reigns but he refuses to. The Usos takes the chair instead to attack Styles, resulting in Gallows and Anderson attacking them. Styles finally uses the chair to take out the Usos, which is the only thing Reigns sees when he recovers. He angrily Superman punches Styles, sets up the announcer's table and powerbombs Styles through it.

After breaking it down like this, there really was a lot of progress made, it was just a chore to get through 3 hours. I have to admit it that I'm liking this new storyline that Reigns is caught up in. It doesn't involve the Authority and the conflict is internal, or in this case, a faction that was made famous at NJPW who is now on the main roster. Extreme Rules appears to be having some Payback rematches and new matches being set up. Prepare for more stipulations! 

Speaking of which, looks like Ambrose is the poster boy for Extreme Rules! It doesn't mean he's main eventing a match or is the primary focus though. The Wyatt Family was the main focus for Payback but due to Wyatt's injury, they were unable to change the promotional materials, which is why the art direction is all about spooky woods instead of the shattered glass motif from the video packages. I found that odd considering they were able to quickly change the Toronto network special "March to WrestleMania" to "Roadblock" featuring Ambrose and HHH. With the Ambrose Asylum cancelled and Mitch killed off, hopefully Ambrose's feud with Jericho will be taken a lot more seriously.

Weekend Recap (4/29/16 - 5/1/16)

Friday (4/29):

• Went to Wahoo's for dinner
• Went to Sports Chalet to buy some stuff from their closeout sale. Vince got a new yoga mat and I got a new blender bottle.
• Went to Vivido for some gelato

Saturday (4/30):

• Our plans today were thrown out the window. We had an appointment to view the house that Vince and I loved with his parents. His dad called about 4 hours before the appointment and said we need to cancel because it's raining outside. IT'S DANGEROUS APPARENTLY.
• We went to Seafood City to buy ingredients for Pork Belly Menudo
• When we got home, Vince's parents called back and JUST NOTICED that it wasn't raining 3 hours later and asked if we can un-cancel the appointment! Vince had them call the real estate agent, which was rescheduled for Sunday.
• Went to Sports Authority and found out they were closing this Friday. We can't buy their tiny tents yet!

Sunday (5/1):

• Did a donut run
• We checked out the house today. We saw the open house right next to it but we didn't like it. We're pretty set on this house and unfortunately, so are other people.
• We wanted to watch "Keanu" but we couldn't find the time to do it before or after the house viewing. Maybe next weekend.
• We talked about it and asked Vince's parents to put in a an offer for the house. If we get the house, I'll panic about expenses.
• Watched WWE Payback, which I'm not going to make a separate post for. I'll talk about it here.
• Watched Vince played Dark Souls 3 til I fell asleep

What to expect for Monday Night RAW:

Last night's Payback was mostly enjoyable. I say mostly because the first match of the night damn near killed the audience and the event itself when Enzo Amore suffered a concussion following a freak accident that knocked him out and basically cancelled the contendership match. Zayn and Owens unfortunately had to follow that match and they did a great job on bringing the audience back. Owens was the MVP of the night because he cut a promo after defeating Zayn, did commentary for the next match which was for the IC title (Owens appears to be gunning it for the third time), and he and Zayn's fight hilariously spilled over to Cesaro and Miz's feud. 

Other highlights include Ryback doing CM Punk's "entrance" in the preshow and basically saving Kalisto's life, Ambrose winning (finally!) over Jericho, Charlotte and Natalya's match thrown out the window to make a Chicago screw job, and Stephanie and Shane restarting Styles and Reigns main event match until Reigns officially retained. Shane and Stephanie's drama is carrying over to Monday Night RAW (with HHH out of sight for some reason), so we'll get to see how that plays out.