It’s been a good couple months since my last Bite commentary, where I experimented with the wonderful world of audio/video format. It feels so refreshing to shoot my thoughts on audio and just ramble for 15-20 minutes on a variety of stuff. I’ll probably do another one in the near future, but for now, I’ve got a bunch of stuff to talk about… after the break.
So over the course of several months, I had commented on the NXT/Nexus angle on how it started off beautifully and soon dragged down to terribleness due to several nagging issues. Now I withheld doing a RAW Byte on the blog so that I can comment on the angle here (mostly so I can have something to talk about in this commentary which, in all honesty, is lacking in interesting topics… maybe I shouldn’t have said that.) So yeah, this Nexus thing? My enthusiasm has sort waned as this renegade group of rookies were suddenly hired after roughing up a crippled old guy and introducing the ridiculously-stupid anonymous general manage with its iPhone messaging emails that causes a power disruption for some stupid reason… and I don’t mean any of that in an endearing way either. Is anything going to happen here that’s going to match the ferocity and intensity of the opening salvo? Doubtful.
However, if there is any credit to be given in regards to the booking of Nexus, it’s that the group so far has been booked strongly. Despite being rookies, the Nexus comes off as intimidating foes that seem unbeatable and a powerful force that needs to be stopped from running roughshod all over Monday Night RAW… because let’s be honest; who gives a shit about Smackdown at this point? That 7-on-7 match that happened on RAW a couple weeks back, where they dominated the RAW team in a clean sweep? Yeah, you buried a couple guys there (including your Tag-Team champions, by the way), but in the long run, it showed audiences that Nexus is a dominating force.
The build-up of the upcoming 7-on-7 tag match for Summerslam is also well done. It was almost too good to be true for Cena’s band of bruthas to co-exist and fortunately, they aren’t being booked as one big happy family. Naturally, egos will clash and the end result is a team that is falling apart by the seems and some great TV thanks to some fine work by Chris Jericho and Edge in regards to the promos and mannerisms. In this regard, I can certainly find satisfaction that while it’s not the greatest storyline that I had hoped for, what we’re getting is still great work.
However, the question remains as to where they go at Summerslam. For all intents and purposes, Nexus needs to come out strong. You have a really good thing going here (despite my earlier misgivings) and you can’t just kill this off by making the group look weak against Cena’s crippled team and Bret Hart, who has NO BUSINESS WHATSOEVER BEING IN THAT MATCH, let alone the tag-team main event on this coming Monday Night RAW. Enough’s enough, Bret. You had your “closure” back in March and you even got a U.S. Title reign at the expense of someone who might have benefited from such a victory. Please go home and live your life… away from my TV. One Hart tragedy on PPV is enough. We don’t need to sit through another.
While we’re on the subject of wrestling tragedies, TNA’s upcoming attempt at an ECW One Night Stand is coming this Sunday and boy, am I NOT looking forward to this. I’ve already written my piece on a prior blog post, but I just want to stress it again. ECW – the real ECW, not the homogenized WWE version – had its time and place, but that time has gone and it’s not coming back. ECW One Night Stand 2005 was good enough closure for that particular legacy. And despite WWE’s bastardizing the name, they did it a favor by killing it off earlier this year. The world doesn’t need to witness another promotion pissing on the ECW corpse. You can try and pass it off as a preservation of a legacy, but to me, it’s just a bunch of horseshit covering up the fact that you’re going back to the theoretical well of EXTREME.
What does that tell you about TNA, who has gotten so desperate to pop a big rating or buyrate beyond their comfort zone that they have to resort to booking a bunch of has-beens (half of which aren’t even under their employ) and capitalize on a craze and a style that ceased being hip in 2001? What does that tell about Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff, who were brought in to hopefully right the ship that is TNA, only to discover that they’re being pushed aside for a bunch of bingo hall brawlers? I almost have to sympathize with Hulk, who has to be shaking his head in having to push this concept that he obviously doesn’t care for nor does he have any reason to…
Wait, I sympathize with Hulk? Wow, I think my meds are acting up again.
On the plus side, TNA Impact is three-hours long and will apparently play host to PPV-quality matches. So you’re essentially getting the proverbial TNA PPV offering on Spike TV. And you know what? I’m not entirely opposed to this. I mean, I’ve been reading that TNA wants to do TV specials on Spike and this could be a testing ground of sorts. If they pull off a good show, then people might notice. It’s worth a shot… more so than ECW being violated again and again and again…
Oh, and by the way, E.V.2.0.? Are you shitting me?
Okay, okay, enough with the Wrestling talk. Let’s move on to some other stuff.
Um, the Angry Video Game Nerd recently did an episode on Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. And my reaction when I first saw the title card on the Cinemassacre website was shocked to an extent. I know that Link is generally considered to be the black sheep of the series because it doesn’t play like a traditional Zelda title (conveniently forgetting the fact that at the time of the game’s release, there was only ONE Zelda title), but judged on its own merits, it’s a pretty solid side-scroller with some flaws that keep it from being a truly excellent game. It didn’t need to be bashed and I was ready to assume the worse.
AVGN episodes recently have been miss for me. His first monthly video was on Action 52 and it was okay, but not as good as past efforts… certainly not as entertaining as the review by Armake21, BoxedEntertainment, whatever he calls himself these days. His second video focused on the Cheetahmen games and it was a fairly meh video. The Game Glitches episode pretty much sucked and felt more like an episode of the Irate Gamer show. So heading into this video, I was skeptical about whether this would be any good.
Well, I’m glad to know that this is a far better episode than his previous offerings. For the most part, the complaints he brought up are valid and as a whole, the episode was pretty okay… a step-up over just okay. However, the jokes were lame and predictable (Pee Bag, that fucking Glitch Gremlin) and the anger was lacking. Seems like he forgot to be angry. Other than that, a fine episode indeed. Better than the last bunch of shows, I’d say.
I’ve been reading the latest Spider-Man epic, One Moment In Time. So far, this is certainly something I’m willing to OMIT from my memory banks for the foreseeable future. And let’s just leave it at that. This is just awful, awful shit. I apparently missed the memo where HD televisions and miniature cell phones existed back in the 1980s. Pure fucking drivel… and there’s still two more chapters of this tripe. Ugh.
Quick trip to the flea market resulted in a small, but inexpensive bounty of ancient video games, including the Star Wars fighting game for PSX, Star Trek: The Next Generation for NES, and Xexyz for NES. Haven’t tried the Star Wars game yet, but I thought the Xexyz game was pretty good so far. The TNG one… eh, not so much.
That’s all I’ve got tonight. I’m going to bed. Good night.
dtm666 