Quite a bit of stuff to digest in this little nugget, so let’s get right into it:
Let’s start this with something fun. Apparently, last month, TNA reportedly turned away 300-400 fans hoping to get in to see that month’s Final Resolution PPV event, which featured the long-awaited return of the Man Called Sting, who hadn’t been seen on the national wrestling stage since the final episode of WCW Monday Nitro back in 2001.
Of course, Sting wasn’t completely gone, as he participated in a couple PPV shows for the short-lived World Wrestling All-Stars promotion, but since not many people watched those shows – hence why said promotion is no longer around – this was the first time Sting had emerged on television since that fateful closure in 2001.
Now, it’s easy to mock TNA for turning away people, but a couple things to bare in mind:
First off, it’s the Impact Zone in Orlando, where people come in for free. So TNA isn’t losing money by turning people away. Second off, 300-400 fans being turned away turned out to not be a big deal, as this ended up being one of the most purchased PPVs in recent TNA history, so for whatever it’s worth, this PPV did its numbers, made its money, and from what I’ve heard, the folks who were able to watch the show actually enjoyed it. So, hey, we can’t complain too much.
Moving right along…
A piece of advice for those who buy video games or really anything for that matter; never go with a pity purchase… ever. It really never gets you anywhere.
Last week, I bought Tao Feng for ten bucks… Canadian. This isn’t generally a bad thing, right. It’s a game that was cheap enough to buy, but has had some bad rap for being a mediocre fighting game. (Actually, the game has had very mixed reviews.) What got me to buy it though was the fact that it was a cheap game that had constantly had its price lowered to the point where someone could almost feel sorry for it. Seriously, you wouldn’t the thickness of the price ticket; it seemed like there was layer upon layer of stickers on that same top-right corner. And it’s been like that for months… went from $29.99 to $9.99 in a few months time. I don’t even remember Capcom Fighting Evolution going down that fast.
So I picked it up out of pity more than anything else. A few hours later, I almost wish I saved that ten bucks for a cheapo Playstation-1 game.
Visually, it looks fairly good for early-gen X-Box, but anyone who knows my gaming tastes knows that visual eye-candy does absolute shit for me if the game plays as such. The biggest letdown was the fighting engine; it was so complicated to get used to that without an instruction manual, it took longer than normal for me to get used to it. Limb Damage does nothing for me, because I’ve never had that happen at all (and yes, the option was on). Maybe I’ll give it a few more hours before I get bored with it and go back to Star Wars Battlefront II.
So last night, I rented a couple of DVDs; a low-budget action flick called Extreme Heist and the ’70s Dracula movie featuring Frank Langella. I also rented a WWF Vengeance DVD (the PPV that saw Chris Jericho win his undisputed title thingie).
Some quick thoughts on each:
EXTREME HEIST
Featuring two former Power Ranger actors and directed by that show’s stunt choreographer, this movie’s about a couple thieves who stole a bank book and have a bunch of other crooks running after them. Thin plot aside, Heist is essentially a B-movie which shows off lots of martial arts moves and stunts. They’re not amazing or anything, but they are still pretty good and almost PR-worthy. Now whether that’s the intent or not… I’m not going to dispute. The acting could have used some work and the video quality really passes as something third-rate. Still, if you’re into these kinds of movies, Heist should be enjoyable.
DRACULA 79
Ever since the Bela Legosi version was released in the 1930s (and even since the release of the two “unauthorized” Drac flicks before then, that have since become popular), it seems that everyone and their pet fish are making a Dracula/vampire movie. Then this comes along. Unlike other Drac incarnations, where they try to pass him off as a monster pretending to be a gentleman, Frank Langella’s Dracula is a gentleman pretending to be a monster – and it actually works, given it’s a different take on what was originally intended of the character when he was created originally; Drac is ugly, Frankie isn’t. There are some liberties taken from the original book (certain names change, certain characters die when they’re not supposed, and a different kind of ending which opened up sequel possibilities that nobody took on), but even after having seen ten billion incarnations of the same story, this comes off as fairly entertaining. I was actually quite surprised by how dark the movie was, a level of grimness that hadn’t been achieved before and only since then had been achieved by Dracula 92 (which is mostly based on the book). Interested in a different take? Give this one a shot. The DVD even has a look-back at the making of the movie.
WWF VENGEANCE 2001
By the way, now I know why I prefer VHS to DVD when it comes to PPVs. The DVD is absolutely barebones with no extras or anything. The PPV wasn’t all that bad, but the disc quality was so bad that I had to skip a few matches just to watch anything. From what I saw, not bad for a show that followed the wretched Invasion storyline… and let’s not get started there PLEASE! There are a few perfectly good books out there that can depict the events of this stupid event better than I can.
So, apparently, WWE wants to turn their RAW and SMACKDOWN magazines into something more akin to general men’s lifestyle magazines and less about the product of WWE. Don’t believe me? Check out this copy-and-pasted blurb from insidepulse.com:
Former Sync editor-in-chief Tony Romando is the new VP of publishing, bringing creative director Brant Louck, deputy editor Rob Bernstein, and senior editor Matt Rodbard with him from Sync. They, along with Maxim’s Matt Christensen who is expected to join the ranks in a few weeks according to MediaBistro.com, will help to relaunch the RAW and Smackdown magazines. This relaunch will include more of a general men’s lifestyle feel, entertainment coverage, DVD and video game reviews, etc.
Well, if there were ANY chances of me picking up another WWE magazine, they were pretty much eliminated. Quite frankly, I don’t give a shit about what a wrestling company thinks about the entertainment world… it looks to be another example of Vince “spreading his wings” and getting his ass handed to him in a few months when the project fails eventually.
And on a side note, I’ve seen the trailer for Kane’s new movie. Oh my god, this thing has F-movie written all over it. I’ll wait until it eventually hits DVD as a Best of Kane extra. Or maybe it’ll be stored in a vault and never heard from again. But at least it’ll make its money, right?
Byte This!, WWE’s long-running Internet show was canned this week after a recent edition featuring former wrestlers being explicit… or maybe it was because there was nobody that could remove the suck factor that Todd Grisham or whatever his name is instilled into the show during his tenure.
Bring back Kevin Kelly and Tom Pritchard, guys. They did the show better than anybody.
And for those wondering about RAW for whatever reason, Shawn doesn’t retire, despite it being mandatory. John Cena retains his title, despite Edge being an infinitely better champion than Cena ever was. And a bunch of other shit that don’t really matter.
Yeah it’s pretty bad. Like I said yesterday, not really worth your time.
That’s it for this block of text. By the way, I wanted to give folks a heads up that Wrestlecrap did an interview with Vince Russo, the former WWF/WCW TV writer who thought David Arquette as champ was a good idea. Just go to wrestlecrap.com and click the link to Wrestlecrap Radio (or go to RD’s Ramblings) It’s the Feb. 16 (where VinnyRu discusses his beginnings and WWF tenure) and Feb. 22 (where the WCW fun stuff begins) editions of the show. Certainly an interesting interview.
And no, Vince. That 70s Guy was still a bad idea.
dtm666 