Realmscapes

Happy XV Anniversary, WWE "RAW"

Tonight marks the Fifteenth Anniversary of WWE's flagship primtime wrestling show, RAW. This show is directly responsible for getting me back into wrestling while channel surfing one night in late-January; I saw a guy wearing a black shirt with "Austin 3:16" written across it--I just had to know who that guy was and why he had a Bible-related saying representing him and from then on I was hooked.

I would like to honour this show by listing some of my favourite matches and moments that I was witness to from that post-Royal Rumble '98 show through to the present day.

State of the WWE

I haven't been following wrestling for nearly a year now. Part of that is because I've had no cable TV over that time. Another part is the whole Benoit/steroid thing, which I've had my fill of as a major baseball fan. Another part is no Angle or Jericho. But the fact that I'm not missing it much says something.

The current era of the WWE is seriouslly falling behind due to a lack of talent management and story, but mostly talent. The two best eras of the WWE were 1985-1990 and 1996-2001. Those eras were incredible and it was largely because of the deep talent pool. The WWE has always been most successful when it has 10+ top tier stars all intermingling and feuding, several solid mid-carders to keep things interesting, at least three solid tag teams, and all the while talented performers lurk in the offing (be it in the WWE or outside of it but interested) and two or three legends stick around to smooth the transition.

WWE Moving Back Towards Some Sanity

It is arguable as to whether it is "good business" to have three seperate brands. What is not is the WWE's decision (with the brand split) to have their "B-side" PPVs also be brand specific. Too often one brand, both, or all, have too few quality storylines to fill a pay-per-view. I haven't bought ONE brand-exclusive PPV and would not if it continued.

Well, it has been announced that the WWE is discontinuing their brand-exclusive PPVs and that now ALL PPVs will feature the top talent and storylines from all three brands. Finally a smart move by Vince and Co in Stamford. Fans may be mixed about the brand split, but many fans (including myself) would be happy to seriouslly consider buying future PPVs in this new format, if only for a glimpse at how the WWE used to be run for decades before the brand-split. Now the WWE has to figure out a way to get Mohammed Hassan back into the mix; a great character in this age of war on terrorism, maybe he could be a PPV-exclusive character...?

Cheering The Game

Triple H has always been one of those special WWE superstars. He's a guy you love to boo, but also that you want to cheer. Unfortunately, his status as Vince's son-in-law and his arrogance are often public reasons for many to loathe the man.

For awhile, I was among those who believed he was becoming very bad for the business. I bought into the negative rumour mill surrounding him: namely that he was holding guys back, either for selfish reasons or just because he could. But I've never truly believed that anyone can hold anyone back from their destinies. It is more often the case that we hold ourselves back and blame others for our weakness.

The thing is, I've also read the factual reports of the way Triple H makes himself available to the WWE fans. From staying extra hours at a autograph session to interacting with fans in a hotel lobby. And no WWE fan can deny the man's passion and in-ring presence. To get to where he is, the guy had to fight as hard as anyone. I know. I've been watching him since January 1998.

Lately it would seem that Trips is slowly being turned into a "good guy" again. It's been awhile since we've had a Triple H we could cheer. Judging from his fan reactions of late, it seems that the fans are becoming more appreciative of guys like Triple H (and Kurt Angle). If the shows are right, and the interviews are accurate, then it looks like The Game is gearing up for a very lengthy run as a fan favourite--something we haven't seen since his DX days. Works for me, but I think he also believes it will help get rid of at least some of his bad PR.

Although Triple H will never be one of my personal favourites, it's been too long since I've been glad to cheer at the sound of "Time to play the game!"

WrestleMania 22 - Big Time Indeed

Last night's WrestleMania was easily one of the best WrestleManias in the last decade. The World Heavyweight and WWE Title matches were outstanding, and produced quality finishes (even tho I think that the former should have definitely been at least five minutes longer)! I disn't expect much from the HBK/Vince match, but Shawn made this match almost as good as Vince/Shance at X-7. Mick Foley v. Edge just about stole the show. Top to bottom, I give this WrestleMania 4.5/5 stars, and it debuts on my Top 5 WrestleMania events at #3!

Top 5 WrestleManias:
1. WrestleMania X-7: Houston, We Have a Problem
2. WrestleMania XIX: Hogan vs. McMahon
3. WrestleMania 22: Big Time
4. WrestleMania VIII: A Double Main Event
5. WrestleMania V: Mega Powers Explode
(the bottom 5 - XX, IV, XIV, VII, III)

WrestleMania 22 Sunday!

WrestleMania is here and this year's edition of the Spring Extravaganza definitely looks to have the most promising card of the last half decade--at the very least its got more matches than any of the WrestleManias of the last five years (reminding us of how classic WrestleMania events averaged a dozen matches a night).

So who do i think will be tonights big winners and losers? Here are my thoughts and predictions. I'll be back later to see how I did.

Playboy Divas Pillowfight: Torrie Wilson v. Candice Michelle
No one really loses these matches, but I'll go with Torrie because she's always been my favorite.
My Pick: Torrie

Mixed Handicap Match: Booker T & Sharmell v. The Boogeyman
Just an odd ODD match. I think this match will go a long way towards deciding Booker's WWE future. Unfortunately for Booker, females in this position always cost their guys the match.
My Pick: The Boogeyman

WWE Women's Championship: Mickie James v. Trish Stratus (c)
Trish is always a blast to watch in the ring. One of the very few divas with looks AND in-ring skill. But have Mickie's mindgames been successful? I think so.
My Pick: Trish Stratus (via disqualification)

Hardcore Match: Edge v. Mick Foley
Mick has already stated that this match will determine his wrestling future. Edge needs a win over this legend to solidify himself as a "main eventer". Look for Lita to obviouslly be involved in the decision one way or another.
My Pick: Edge

Casket Match: The Undertaker v. Mark Henry
You know, I actually find this match-up more intriguing than any the Dead Man has been in the past WrestleManias. He doesn't have to be pinned to lose, which is a major advantage to his opponent. Jake "The Snake" Roberts, Diesel, Triple H, Kane, Randy Orton.. some of Taker's most worthy opponents of the last decade (or so) and they all had to pin The Phenom to beat him. Mark Henry only has to get The Undertaker into a casket. And the last big man the Dead Man faced in a Casket Match was Yokozuna (at Royal Rumbe '94). A match he lost. The streak finally will RIP.
My Pick: Mark Henry

No Holds Barred: Shawn Michaels v. Mr. McMahon
A battle between the two most arrogant egomaniacs in WWE history. All the pressure is on ol' HBK to not make this match a total flop. At best, the two will kick the crap out of each other. So either way, from this Hitman fan's position, it's a win-win.
My Pick: Draw (via double count-out)

Money-in-the-Bank Ladder Match: Shelton Benjamin v. Rob Van Dam v. Ric Flair v. Matt Hardy v. Fit Finlay v. Lashley
This match is shaping up to be a WrestleMania tradition, and I love it. Shelton almost won it last year and he's a heavy favorite this year. But being he currently holds a strap, he's not as hungry as the others. I think this match will come down to RVD and Matt.
My Pick: Rob Van Dam

World Tag Team Championship: Carlito & Chris Masters v. Big Show & Kane (c)
Whoever is going to beat these two giants is going to need chemistry. I don't think the challengers have enough of that yet.
My Pick: Big Show & Kane

United States Championship: JBL v. Chris Benoit (c)
Lots of emotion and lots of physicality will be unleashed in this one. This match can go either way, and the winner will more accurately be called the survivor. This match has the potential to steal the show (ala Macho Man and Steamboat at WM III).
My Pick: Chris Benoit (via submission)

World Heavyweight Championship - Triple Threat Match: Rey Mysterio v. Randy Orton v. Kurt Angle (c)
Angle has an awful history in Championship matches at WrestleMania--the first of which WAS a Triple Threat Natch: 0-3. The key to Angle losing this match is on Rey and Orton being able to concentrate on wearing Angle down. And therein lies the key to Angle's victory.
My Pick: Kurt Angle (pinning Rey)

WWE Championship: Triple H v. John Cena (c)
It's not a question of "if" but "how long will it take". Hopefully this match will not be the last match of the night.
My Pick: Triple H (with sledgehammer)

No Doubt, "The Best".

I finally had a chance to sit down and watch Bret's DVD. My fiance wanted to watch it with me, or I'd have watched it the day it was released. The two-hour documentary on his career is the most complete and thorough I've seen of any of the WWE Legends. So even the DVD lives up to Bret's "Excellence of Execution" moniker.

To get more insight into the DVD, check out Bret's web interview on WWE.com's Byte This!

I also recommend an excellent and very insightful interview that was conducted with The Hitman at IGN.com.

My favorite quote from the entire DVD was actually a part of the Dean Hart tribute featurette. In it, Bret says, "I think some of my most beautiful matches are the ones that I lost."

Incredible. It is statements like that one which make me proud to be a lifelong fan of the Pink & Black. Bret Hart is on that very short list of celebrities I must meet personally at some point in my own career.

Vintage "Eddie"

It's been a week since the passing of Eddie Guerrero. I wanted to have this week to reflect on Eddie's impact on my faith as a Christian as well as my love of wrestling.

As a Chrsitian, I was comforted to read Chris Jericho's poignant comments that were posted on WWE.com. I am glad that I will have the chance to see Eddie Guerrero in Heaven when God calls me home. Eddie's life is also a testament to God's perfect justice and mercy. At some point during Eddie's car accident in '97, I see God and Eddie coming to an understanding. God allowed Eddie to return to this Earth to make a difference.. to get his life back on track.

Eddie's success in the WWE put his faith and his heroism in a place for many thousands of fans to see and learn from. When Eddie had accomplished this to God's deemed fulfillment, God brought Eddie home to heaven. Those of us left here must continue to remain faithful so that we can join Eddie in that same paradise.

As a wrestling fan, Eddie Guerrero arrived in the WWE when I was still focused on rediscovering my love of professional wrestling. While I was busy following the past of Bret Hart, the present of Stone Cold, and the future of Kurt Angle, I do remeber marveling at some of Eddie's matches. I didn't like his inital character much. It wasn't until Eddie seperated from the Chyna and The Radicalz that I think he truly built up his own niche. Over the last two years or so, I appreciated more and more Eddie's gifts as a performer (even against Kurt), and I truly enjoyed watching him wrestle. Eddie was one of the wrestlers who brought my fiance into wrestling. His feud with JBL was one of our favorites of this decade, and it will certainly be remembered for years to come.

All in all, Eddie's performances in the ring can be likened to wine. When you're young, you have no pallette, and one wine is as good as the next. But drink wine for five years, and you begin to discern each wines uniqueness and value in the whole spectrum. So it was with my appreciation for Eddie's wrestling talent and skill. I just wish I had had more time to savor his performances. Who doesn't. At the very least, I will be able to go back and watch previous matches with a more mature wrestling pallette.

Eddie is a monument to personal responsibility as well as second chances. Whether in Faith in the ring, Eddie Guerrero will remain one of our biggest and most heroic inspirations.

Day of Reckoning 2 (with CAW link)

I've finally obtained the sequel to last year's WWE Day of Reckoning (hereby referred to as "DOR2"). And so far, it is looking very VERY good. Right off the bat I will say this: there is barely a difference between a wrestler and his pixelated counterpart. The graphics--ALL the graphics are that good and accurate! The 3D crowd almost makes playing the game dizzying at times.

Venues: The first thing I checked out was the variety of arenas that you can wrestle at. Weighing in at eighteen different venues-including Heat and Velocity!-even the N64's No Mercy comes in second place here (which had "only" a dozen). Heat hasn't been on a Nintendo wrestling game since WWF Attitude, the N64's first WWF game (back in '99), and no Nintendo platform game has ever had the Saturday morning show's venue.

I am stoked at the amount of shows and arenas in the game! The best way to set the atmosphere for a WWF wrestling experience is to be able to wrestle at all the available venues. And of all of them, The Great American Bash venue is my favorite (not surprising). It's stunning with all the American flags and patriotic dressing.

And speaking of '99's Attitude, it's still the only game that had a create-a-PPV feature that let you even design the color of the ring ropes, ring banners, and other stage items. Being able to put wrestlers in a ring that resembled a SummerSlam ring (complete with red white and blue ring ropes) from the mid-90's is ultimate coolness that I still want to have back--enough to take the "+" off of the grade.
Grade: A

Create-a-wrestler: The next immediate stop was right to the create-a-wrestler to make the wrestling incarnation of my "secret life": Josh England. Josh is the sleighted protege of the great Bret "Hitman" Hart. He wrestles to avenge his mentor and to bring honour, passion, and viciousness to an otherwise lacking World Wrestling Federation.

DOR2's CAW feature is happily not nearly as daunting as the feature was in DOR1 and WrestleMania XIX. CAW is a great feature, but the previous two feature were so focused on the miniscule that it was definately too much. The coolest thing about the CAW in the DOR series is that you can customize your entrance right from the point of camera angles to the timing of pyro and lighting. This is one of my favorite parts of CAW since a wrestler's entrance is half the fun of watching wrestling. Freak, without great entrances, Hulk Hogan is just another Bob Backlund.

Anyway, they still haven't carried over my character's long-tights from No Mercy, so the grade gets dicked for that.
Grade: A

Available Roster: Wow! For the first time in awhile there is not one single person that shouldn't have been on this game's roster. It's even got rookies Chris Masters and Muhammed Hassan (who I am very happy they kept in the game). That's a first since No Mercy too! There's always people that are absent that you think should be there, but no obvious ones (like JBL!, Rene Dupree, and Heidenreich that weren't on DOR).

When I first saw the roster a few months back, not seeing the Dudleys and Charlie Haas made me scratch my head--but it makes sense now. S'okay, the Dudleys weren't doing much leading up to their release so.. The only "hm" ommissions that I can see is La Resistance (even tho they're split up now) and Rosie.
Grade: A+

Unlockable Characters: Absolutely nothing to complain about here. They've got Austin, Rock, Mankind, Hogan and...The Hitman.. and complete with his music this time! (A huge disappointment from DOR1). There can't possibly be a better line-up of unlockacble characters, and these gave me reason to (finally) trade in WMXIX. BTW, this game uses the original version of the Hulkster, not current the "Hollywood" incarnation.

Something else I liked was that Austin, Mankind, and Bret were all unlockable simply by wrestling X amount of Exhibition matches. So over the half of the legends are pretty much playable right out of the gate. Personally, I think that Rock should have been unlockable in Exhibition and Bret in story mode.. but whatever.
Grade: A+

My only gripe (still.. and thus pretty much killing the game's chance of getting anything higher than an "A") is that a wrestler's attire or entrance music is not alterable. This was possible in both WrestleMania 2000 and No Mercy, and I can't figure out why they don't allow this. Perhaps with the fact there are no factions, and a weak tag team division, the lack of this won't seem as bad. But I hate seeing a wrestler in the same ring attire time after time. Granted, you can make a new version of the wrestler in CAW, but I'd much rather save those slots for Diesel, Razor, Andre, Macho Man, Jake the Snake, Cactus Jack etc.

I have just started Story Mode, so nothing to report there yet. It does sound pretty cool.. or at least better than DOR1 (which I didn't think was that bad). It also looks like there is no brand-splits in the game and I love that.

LOVE the new Submission mechanic btw. It adds a whole new dimension and accurately reflects what technical wrestling is all about.

NOTE: If you are looking for CAW templates, try this site out. They have a good collection of external links.

Undercard

No one has ever quite abused talent like the World Wrestling Federation (or Entertainment, whatever you prefer). For as long as I've been a WWF fan, I have marveled at how the WWF can have top notch stars doing absolutely nothing. It's like they have tunnel vision they set their eyes on a prized few. Maybe they truly don't know what to do with some of these guys, I don't know. Happily, the WWF does seem to eventually get it, so to hopefully speed up this process for four currently unlucky guys...

Chris Jericho: Y2J has gotta be one of the most underutlized talents ever in wrestling PERIOD. The guy has mic skills in the caliber of The Rock and Hogan combined with an HBK wrestling style. Yet ever time I turn around he's losing to young guys or veterans looking to make their comeback.

Recently, Jericho has become quite vocal about his situation, even going so far as to not commit to a new contract. The WWF's reaction? They won't promote a wrestler who is questionable to re-sign. That is the most jack*** thing I've ever heard! Jericho made his "call for help" and the WWF treated it like they are the ones being offended! If he doesn't re-sign, it'll be a major loss (and perhaps coup by TNA if they were to get him) and it'll be proof that no current competition for the WWF is very bad. The WWF has no accountability and they think that they can pretty much treat some of these guys like they want--either because they believe the performers will "come to their senses" or because they really believe they can succeed without some of there niche perfomers. Losing Jericho would make me very sad, but if it were to serve as a wake-up call to the WWF, then his desicion to leave would serve the greater good.

But I really don't want to think negative because I really like Jericho and the WWF does need him. I definately like that he is turning back to heel. I really think that he performs at his best when he's antagonzing. His current character, which I also love because it is a very real reflection of him, clashes beautifully with Shelton and Benoit. I wouldn't mind him going back to feuding with HBK again. Even a Randy Orton "Battle of the Egos" would do pretty well.

Kane: This guy would work an amazing feud with Edge. I'm not too fond of the "wrestling imitates real life" storyline that edge is in right now, but it would do wonders for getting Kane back into main-eventing. Edge has his money in the bank, so losing to Kane shouldn't hurt him at all. In fact, I'd love to see Kane take Edge's title shot away, and then go on to start something with Batista. Batista vs. Kane for the World Title is right up the WWF's alley. But first, Kane needs to go back to wearing his mask.

Rey Mysterio: How this guy didn't become U.S. Champ after John Cena and before Orlando Jordan is completely beyond me. I have never been the biggest Rey fan. I've learned a lot about him because my fiance loves him. But evenso, Rey is easily US/Intercontinental Championship material. He would bring a lot of prestige to either of those belts, and I know that he would help sell PPV and Smackdown tickets as a champ. If the WWF wants to show fans that they have respect for wrestling's tradition, there is no way they cannot give Mysterio a belt, and even WWF Championship matches.

Booker T: Here is another one. It's nice to see him (finally) hanging with maineventers like Angle. The WWF has a habit of forcing wrestlers who were superstars on a rival program to ptove themselves first. Booker-man did that after the first year in my opinion. With rumours of his impending retirement due to cumulative injuries, it's a shame that he may not get a chance to get nice feuds with Triple H, Christian, Edge... I mean, this guy has been here since 2001, and his only major opponents he's had as a singles competitor have been Taker and The Rock. The rest of the time he was tag teaming with RVD and Goldust, the latter of which was arguably the the only time the WWF called a tag team "the odd couple" and it was the truth...AND unarguably Booker and Goldust was the most entertaining tag team save The Rock 'n' Sock.