Memorial Day Weekend Recap (5/27/16 - 5/30/16)

Friday (5/27):

• Went to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner
• Walked around Target for bit
• Played L4D2 with Dan and Corinne
  
  

Saturday (5/28):

• Went to IKEA, it wasn't terribly crowded. We bought a new door mat, a container for plastic bags, and a splatter guard.
• Ate at Suzuya, this small Japanese dessert cafe
• Went to 169 Market to buy ingredients to make Bicol Express. It was a minor success.
• Bought Overwatch and played for a bit

Sunday (5/29):

• Watched "The Nice Guy" starring Russel Crowe and Ryan Gosling. We opted for this move over "X-Men: Apocalypse" (we never wanted to watch the movie anyways). This was a great buddy film.
• I wanted to eat at this Guam restaurant, Red Ricem, for lunch. Vince couldn't find his wallet so we had to go back to the theaters to get it. When we got back, I saw that they were closing early. We went to Hot N Juicy Crawfish for lunch and ran into Joel, Pam, John, and Jonathan, who also just got out from Hot N Juicy crawfish earlier.
• We walked around Town Square and Fry's for a while before heading home

Monday (5/30):

• We stayed home the whole day
• We gave Yumi and Tsuki a bath
• I got restless and decided to go to the gym early, which was nice
• Got home to watch Monday Night RAW on Taima, which was pretty much a throwaway episode, save for a few segments and the main event match. Nope, I'm not making a Monday Night RAW post.

What to expect for Tuesday Night Smack Down!:

Ha, I had to make this because we had a 3 day weekend. Seeing how Monday Night RAW was incredibly disappointing, I'm hoping Smack Down will step up this week, especially now that they addressed Smack Down going live and each brand having a unique roster. Money In The Bank is shaping up to be an even bigger PPV with those feuds carrying into the draft.

The biggest and newest angle to happen, which looking back now was wasted on a holiday episode, was having AJ Styles and John Cena in a program. What was thought to be a friendly face vs face rivalry turned into The Club vs Cena. Yup, Styles officially aligned with his good brothers to be, well, The Club, but for reals this time. Funny how this feud is the New Era vs The Old Guard when Cena and Styles are both in their late 30s. I was excited for the heel turn but Vince wasn't because they just killed off the hottest babyface opposite Reigns, who they still refuse to make him into a full-blown heel.

Despite what was advertised last week, they didn't feature a 7th MITB qualifying match. Instead, they had a 6 man tag team match with Ambrose, Zayn and Cesaro vs Jericho, Owens, and Del Rio. Team Indy Darlings won, with Ambrose pinning Owens after Dirty Deeds for the win. Speaking of which, it was mentioned on commentary that Ambrose was the odds-on favorite to win MITB. And as much as everyone wants to see the Shield Triple Threat happen, I personally think it's too soon for it. Rollins and Reigns need to build up their feud and Ambrose needs to get more wins again to get out the mid-card. Then again, they can't afford to hold it off and another freak injury happens by then. So I see another heel like Owens or Jericho winning it, or Zayn or Cesaro winning it. 

I don't have faith in WWE to push Ambrose again :/

"DAE think Ambrose is dull?"

So. It's finally happened. Fans are turning against Ambrose. Frankly, I'm surprised it's taken this long. And it's quite sad to not only see it happening but knowing the exact point when it started going downhill.

His match against Lesnar at WrestleMania was the make-or-break match for Ambrose, coming off from losing his IC title on RAW, losing at Fastlane, and losing at Roadblock. Realistically, Ambrose physically couldn't defeat Lesnar so everyone expected the two to go all out with their match, use the weapons that Ambrose picked up a few nights earlier, and maybe at the end, earn some form of respect from Lesnar and Heyman for being tenacious. This match had high expectations and it sadly became one of the most disappointing and forgettable matches coming out of WrestleMania 32. Lesnar dominated Ambrose easily and the only weapons used were chairs, a kendo stick, and a fire extinguisher. Neither Foley's Barbie or Funk's chainsaw were used by Ambrose and there was no blood, even for a match involving Lesnar.

Immediately following the aftermath, with no acknowledgement from Ambrose on his match against Lesnar, he entered a feud with Jericho. He resumed a program that was once hinted last year, when Jericho was Ambrose and Roman Reigns' third man against The Wyatt Family at Night of Champions. Jericho emerged from WrestleMania as the top heel after defeating AJ Styles in the rubber match (which seriously confused and pissed off everyone). Their feud was rebooted over Jericho's talk show getting cancelled by Shane and replaced with the Ambrose Asylum. After the death of Mitch the Plant and Jericho's $15k jacket, the two would go on to have matches for Payback and the first (and probably last) Asylum Match at Extreme Rules. Although Ambrose has won over Jericho twice now, the victories no longer mattered.

To date, Ambrose has had 3 back-to-back disappointing matches. It's hard to admit that, and it's getting harder and harder to defend why he should be worth investing when there are better, edgier babyfaces like AJ Styles and Sami Zayn on the main roster, new NXT talent getting called up, and a number of talent like Seth Rollins and John Cena coming back from injury. It looks like WWE is trying to build up Ambrose again, as he's 1 of the 7 qualified competitors for the MITB ladder match. He and Kevin Owens are big favorites to walk away with the briefcase, although most want to see Ambrose win so that they can build towards the much anticipated Shield Triple Threat match that was suppose to happen at WrestleMania before Rollins' injury. Even Dave Meltzer from Wrestling Observer admitted that "Ambrose's star has fallen after the Lesnar program."

This past week, WWE revealed that they are reintroducing the brand split. A draft will take place on July 11 before Smack Down goes live on July 19. My first thought was that Ambrose should absolutely go to Smack Down. Since WWE will never see him as a top guy for RAW, he and other talent will have a better chance at Smack Down. Besides, Ambrose seems to be given a lot more to do on WWE's B-Show, which seems fitting seeing how he has been headlining the B-Show team for the weekend live events for the last few months.

It's selfish but I want to see Ambrose win MITB. I would love to see either Owens or Zayn walk out as Mr. MITB but Ambrose needs this badly for his character and credibility. I can't see him feuding with Jericho again or anybody else. It'll be even better if he and Rollins are both chasing Reigns' for the title. It's just so weird that The Shield is heralded as the beginning of the New Era and yet Ambrose has to work his way to the top and fall back down whereas Rollins and Reigns are given those opportunities to stay at the top.

r/SquaredCircle Exchange!

Ever since Vince introduced me to Reddit and the /r/SquaredCircle, I grew to be a somewhat active "wredditor" in the subreddit. I really enjoy reading the random conversations and observations, although my comment history shows that I fervently defend Ambrose most of the time. They announced that they were going to do their 2nd annual gift exchange. This is where wredditors are randomly matched to gift and be gifted. I signed up because I was eager to participate in such a community event. I was matched with a giftee who liked women wrestlers and... Wrestlepalooza? I messaged him to see if he was open to getting indie stuff like ROH or PWG and he said he was interested in PWG. So I set out to get 3 gifts for him, based on his gift preferences.

I got him a "Queen of Hug Style" XXL shirt from Red Bubble and a PWG "Eleven" DVD (which features Candice LeRae's most talked about match). I wanted to get him an official 8x10 print of Becky Lynch or Bayley, however, I saw that those kind of prints are more valuable if they were autographed by them. I decided to send him artwork instead.

I made a simple looking "NXT 4 Horsewoman" artwork done in Illustrator. Looking back on it now, I'm actually not happy that I don't have Charlotte and Bayley doing their signature pose with their arms and hands. I had Sasha and Becky pose with their hands because they looked quite plain without it. I think I might go back and revise it at some point :/

I'll update the post when my giftee posts the pics after receiving the package (which I stupidly forgot to do on my end before mailing it out) and when I get my gift from my Santa, who alerted me via Twitter that he sent it out last week. It's almost a week and I'm getting impatient. I mean my Santa lives in California, it shouldn't take a week to mail something right??

-----

Cool! Derek got my gift today via USPS!

And I just got my gift from Santa, Joey!

Personally, I was a little sad that I didn't get Kevin Owens figure or a Becky shirt but I was incredibly glad I got The Shield blu-ray :D The other stuff was an Undertaker comic, a DVD about British Pro Wrestling, and an autobiography book written by The Dynamite Kid. He took a while to ship the stuff to me but I'm glad I got it before the deadline.

"A Title I Never Lost": Monday Night RAW (5/23/16)

Seth Freaking Rollins kicked off the special 1200th episode of Monday Night RAW because of course he would. Rollins went at length about how he's back to take back the title he never lost and that even though he got a lot of loving fan support, he doesn't need anybody to win (plus he threw all the fan letters in the trash and set it on fire!) His former brother, Roman Reigns would show up with the title, prompting Shane McMahon to come out and quickly setting both Reigns and Rollins as the main event for the upcoming Money In The Bank PPV. The rest of the show focused on 5 MITB qualifying matches. The results can be found here.

Want to know the best part of Rollins' return? They significantly downplayed Reigns. Yes, Reigns came out with the title and trash talked (off mic) with Rollins but other than that, he didn't say a word. He didn't even cut his usual "THE GUY" promo. All the talking was done by Rollins and Shane, who had to give a rundown for the audience on what Rollins has accomplished prior to his injury. Rollins reappeared in a backstage segment with Renee but got distracted when he saw Stephanie. He went in for a hug but Stephanie stopped him, saying that a lot has changed and so has their business relationship. Rollins did state he didn't need anybody, so it was telling how sad he looked when he didn't get a warm welcome from his "mother."

Unlike last year's MITB, which drew criticism for hastily putting in Dolph Ziggler, Sheamus, Kofi Kingston, Neville, Roman Reigns, Randy Orton and Kane, this year, they made the effort to have those entrants earn those spots in qualifying matches. 5 spots were filled tonight with 2 heels and 3 faces. No word if the remaining 2 spots will happen on Smack Down or next week's RAW.

• Zayn defeated Sheamus (who randomly started to feud with Apollo Crews)
• Cesaro defeated The Miz
• Jericho defeated Apollo Crews (who no sold the beatdown he got from Sheamus backstage)
• Ambrose defeated Ziggler (in a technical match)
• Owens defeated AJ Styles (CLEAN!)
  

This lineup is already interesting for several reasons: Cesaro is going to put on a spectacular show as usual. Owens and Zayn are involved so there's a damn good chance they're just going to find any opportunity to beat each other again. Ambrose and Jericho are squaring off again, meaning there's a scary chance Jericho could screw Ambrose over and win the match he created 11 years ago.

• RAW also marked the much-welcome return of Big Cass' tag team partner, Enzo, which meant they were resuming their feud against "Bub and Devon Dud." Enzo addressed the concussion and said it was a hard sneeze. I'm now extra worried for Enzo.
  
  
• Not sure if this is will be an actual feud, or it might be WWE's way of trying to quickly move on from Adam Rose being released, but the Social Outcasts attacked New Day as they were celebrating Raw's 1200th episode. Oddly enough, there were signs of The Vaudevillains.
  
  
• Charlotte, Dana, and Ric came out for an in-ring segment about the state of the Women's Title. It got off to a very shaky start, mostly because Charlotte got annoyed with the crowd chants, but Charlotte finally split from Ric Flair. She addressed the issues of how everyone thought she couldn't win without Ric and she wanted to prove them all wrong. This prompted Ric to cry of course and tearfully leave. Looks like Charlotte is making her own version of the BFFs with Dana on her side.
  
  
• Styles and Owens was the main event qualifying match. Before it started, Styles came out to praise Reigns for being a worthy opponent (the audience booed of course) but he also talked down about Gallows, Anderson, and The Usos for interfering and costing him the match. Gallows and Anderson came out to confront Styles and ended with him breaking up with The Club. Gallows and Anderon didn't take this split amicably.

This was a great episode of RAW that's quickly establishing the next PPV with matches and storylines that will organically build towards it. Now the biggest question is who will win the briefcase. Prior to Rollins' return, the popular choice for getting the briefcase was Owens just so he can screw with Zayn and Reigns. But when JBL mentioned on commentary about the possibility of all 3 Shield members being in the title picture, now it's shifting to Ambrose to be the favorite to win.

Speaking of which, Ambrose seems to have a slight attitude change following Extreme Rules. His match against Ziggler was technical, just like their previous match for the Survivor Series WHC tournament, and he looked quite serious. His fallout interview however showed Ambrose coming off quite indifferent. Seems to foreshadow something here.

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.

Weekend Recap (5/20/16 - 5/22/16)

Friday (5/20):

• Went to at Grape Vine Cafe for dinner
• We went to Sport Chalet and bought some stuffs. They're slowly closing the store.
  
  

Saturday (5/21):

• We looked at some houses with a new realtor, recommended by Josh and Tanisha. Unfortunately, 2 of the 4 houses we were suppose to look at were taken off the market. Also, until Vince's parents comes back from Philippines, we can't look at any houses without them.
• We spent the rest of the day just grocery shopping at Wal-Mart and Costco

Sunday (5/22):

• Vince left early to check up on his parents place while I stayed at home. We pretty much stayed home the whole day.
• Vince beat Uncharted 4: A Thief's End. This was a damn wonderful game.
• Watched WWE Extreme Rules, which I will make a separate post

What to expect for Monday Night RAW:

SETH FREAKING ROLLINS!

CROSSFIT JESUS HAS RISEN!

"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...