Author: dtm666

I ramble about things.

AEW Dynamite (March 18th, 2020): The Empty Arena

So earlier this week, I saw WWE attempt to produce a three-hour RAW from their Performance Center with no crowd; the end result being a rather awkward and uncomfortably boring that had a replay of this year’s Rumble, a quick match, and a bunch of promos. And while I gave credit for their trying, I kinda wish they just did replays and I dread how they’re going to pull off an empty arena Wrestlemania… for two nights no less!

And then there’s All Elite Wrestling; a few months into the television business, lacking the backlog or the experience to deal with a crisis of this sort… and also emanating from an empty arena; in this case, the site where two of their prior events took place. And I will admit that a part of me was dreading this… because these guys and gals were taking a huge risk given the current atmosphere. And, if I would be completely honest, I’d much rather they just took some time off, focused on keeping safe, and pick things up when we’re at a point where things can be picked up. I didn’t want to have that awkward feeling that I got watching RAW.

That having been said, the lack of a crowd and having to work around the current coronavirus world that we presently live in did not deter All Elite Wrestling from putting on another outstanding episode of Dynamite. Opening with a heartfelt promo from Cody about standing together while standing apart, about not living in fear, and parlaying that into a promo for next episode’s Blood & Guts match between the Elite and the Inner Circle.

Even though there are no fans, there is an “audience” of sort comprising all the heels on one side of the ring (MJF, Shawn Spears, and a couple others who gamble on the matches and even invites ol’ Tony Schiavone for a cut) and some faces on the other side (Colt Cobana and others). This gives us some background noise to give the illusion of a crowd cheering or jeering the action in the ring. What also helps is the “hard cam” set up in front of the main entrance set, so that we can hide the fact that the arena is empty. It works pretty damn well for the most part as a set-up and does a fair enough job of making an empty arena show more lively than usual.

By the way, this company has done television since October last year… and they were able to make an empty arena set up look good. Meanwhile, the company that’s been around for over five decades can’t be bothered to make their empty gym look better than usual.

So… quickly running down the undercard, the Lucha Bros beat the Best Friends in a pretty good tag-team match, which caused the Friends to challenge the Bros to a literal street fight in a parking lot. Then we have a women’s four way featuring Hikaru Shida, Kris Statlander, Penelope Ford, and RIHO… a pretty decent little match won by Shida. And then the Jurassic Express beat the Butcher And The Blade (with The Bunny) in a fun little match that seems less so with no girls crying for Jumping Jungle Jack Hammer Perry Boy.

Main event featured a six-man tag match between the Inner Circle (Santana, Ortiz, and the Spanish God Sammy Guevara) and the Elite (Cody, Hangman Page, and Matt Jackson) with the man advantage for next Dynamite’s Blood & Guts match (it’s Wargames with the serial number filed off) on the line. Pretty fun match with Jericho on commentary, which makes it all the more fun… certainly better than Asuka screaming and raving on RAW (sorry, Kanachan). Match ends with Santana rolling up Matt for the win and the advantage.

Jericho then cuts a promo, banning all fans from future events, and taunting the Elite for their lack of teamwork and being down a man. Then the flying drone of Broken Matt Hardy shows up and we get the big debut of Broken Matt Hardy in AEW, which would’ve been a nice spectacle had there been a crowd… still, the lack of a crowd didn’t mitigate the moment and I can’t wait to see how Matt fares in AEW,

Speaking of debuts, the Dark Order’s Exalted One was revealed to be Brodie Lee – the former Luke Harper – who proceeds to beat up on Christopher Daniels, who refused to believe in an exalted one. Also, this Brodie fellow is a pretty good talker for the role he’s given. Wonder why he’s not allowed to talk in his former place of employ.

There’s also a quick interview with AEW champ Jon Moxley as well as a filmed vignette of Jake The Snake’s new charge, Lance Archer, beating up a bunch of nobodies in a backyard wrestling ring. Kudos to the short for featuring a Cheatum-like ring announcer… nobody is going to get that, are they?

So if this ends up being the last episode of Dynamite for a good while, this was a strong showing to end it on until the foreseeable future. And for what it’s worth, the board has been set for next time with the debuts of Brodie Lee as the Exalted One and Matt Hardy as part of the Elite team, the announcement of matches for the next episode of Dynamite – which they have been particular of saying “the next Dynamite” and not “next week’s Dynamite.” It also amazes me that AEW was able to put on a more entertaining empty arena show than WWE did that I was almost able to forget the current coronavirus world we live in.

Almost.

Like I said, I’d have no problem with a suspension of live wrestling for the foreseeable future if it meant the folks could stay safe. But if they’re able to pull this off for as long as they can while staying safe, then I can only wish them all the best.

Be safe.

The Intellivision Amico Pre-Order Gameplay Trailer

So Intellivision just put out a new pre-order trailer, featuring gameplay footage from some of the games for the system. A lot of these games look to be remakes of older Intellivision and Atari games from the 1980s and others seem like the kind of games you’d find on Steam or your mobile phone. It’s not the type of thing that appeals to me – I’ve got more than enough legacy titles on a variety of legacy systems to keep me occupied and the one Intellivision Lives compilation seems to satisfy the INTV itch just fine.

WWF In Your House #7: Good Friends, Better Enemies (April 1996 PPV)

Yeah, we’re doing another one of these In Your House shows… I want to cover the 1996 batch for the next few weeks before we move on to something else, expect a few more of these until May…

In any event, this is a notable event because it’s the last major appearance of two big names who will be soon hold a curtain call and be outsiders in a rival promotion… but that is then. This is now. Let’s get on with it.

Continue reading “WWF In Your House #7: Good Friends, Better Enemies (April 1996 PPV)”

RAW (March 16th, 2020) – If You Thought This Was Awkward, Wait Until Mania

So I broke my WWE moratorium by watching this three-hour RAW from an empty Performance Center… which will end up being the new site of Wrestlemania 36.

You know… I’m not surprised in the slightest that this is what they would do. Really, they could either try and run an empty stadium, they could postpone the show to the summer, or they could outright cancel. Now, honestly, if I were in that position, I would have held the show off, but certainly, one has to consider the logistics of such a move. As such, I don’t know whether I should applaud WWE for this decision or condemn them… but I will say this much; all of a sudden, Wrestlemania had piqued my curiosity. Not for anything on the card, but for the annual tradition that has taken place in packed stadiums with tens of thousands of fans cheering loudly to emanate from an empty Performance Center with no fans. It’ll certainly be unique, if nothing else.

And that brings me to RAW… a show that featured mostly talking segments as well as a replay of this year’s men’s Rumble match, which was greatly appreciated because I needed to see the whole match. (And I might get around to watching it when I get some downtime in a couple days.) From what they showed (due to commercial breaks), looks to be a pretty fun 1st half with Brock tossing dudes before Drew comes along and knocks him out of the match.

Aside from that, there’s only one match on the show, which saw Rey Mysterio beat Andrade in a short match while Asuka rambled on commentary. The rest of the show is a bunch of talking bits. Edge cuts a promo on Randy Orton and challenges him to a Last Man Standing match, Becky Lynch cuts a promo on Shayna Baszler to further that feud, AJ Styles and Undertaker (with doorag) has a contract signing that ends badly, and Steve Austin cutting an empty arena promo for the first time since his Sportatorium days.

This is a very weird show. Mostly promos, one short match, and the rest of the show was bloated with a replay of a Rumble match that took up the majority of the show… I missed out on Smackdown, but I heard that was a fun show with HHH and Cole doing commentary and making a mockery of the whole thing. I regret missing Smackdown, because then I wouldn’t have had to watch RAW, which was largely boring.

Yes, they did the best they could given the circumstances, but RAW hasn’t been a good show before the world went to shit and if this is what we have to look forward to for the foreseeable future, then maybe I should stick with Smackdown… or AEW, which is also doing empty arena shows… because, sure, why not?

Desensitized By Twitter

So we’re in the middle of a very serious, very unsettling period in our world.

We have a rapidly spreading pandemic that has claimed the lives of thousands and have infected a hundred thousand more. Our way of life have been disrupted as a result with the closures of major public institutions, the cancellations of live events, and in sweeping lockdowns. And with news of panic buying and concerns over the slightest of symptoms… things are pretty grim.
Over on the Twitter world, there’s a thing going on urging people to stay at home. It’s a thing that’s trending at the moment. Most notably, people are amazed that this serious thing that’s been claiming lives isn’t being taken more seriously by the general public.

I’m not surprised that people aren’t taking something being pushed as urgent on Twitter seriously… partly because it’s Twitter and more often than not, it’s populated by idiots… but also, something else comes to mind… maybe we’re just desensitized by Twitter and the social media bubble.

Think about it… something relatively minor turns up; whether it’d be a critical viewpoint of something beloved or a naughty thing that someone said years ago suddenly popping up – it usually results in a Twitter uproar. Things of sociological and political natures – no matter how minor – result in protests and online petitions and stuff that in the grand scheme of things, don’t matter or are approached in a way that a lot of noise is made over nothing.

It seems like every other day, there is a big controversial nature that starts trending on Twitter and everyone jumps on the bandwagon in agreement, all for the sake of more likes. So when something like this comes along and it’s something that you need to take really seriously, but you ultimately don’t because every blow-up that came before was over something so trivial and pointless that this ends up being something that’s trivial and pointless.

And this is not me saying that treating others equally regardless of sex, race, or orientation is trivial – I’d love to live in a world where everyone is treated as humans and not branded with labels – but rather, this is a plea to the so-called social groups who cause outrage because of a single word in a piece of fiction that doesn’t matter to tone it down a little. This is a plea to the folks who live their lives on social media platforms to show a little restraint and thought into your posts that doesn’t come across as something that’s posted for the sake of a few likes.

What I’m trying to say is… don’t treat every minor piece of business like it’s a big colossal disaster. Because when a real big colossal disaster comes along, nobody is going to care.

Use social media to keep track of your loved ones, the news as it happens, to keep informed on this pandemic that’s going, and basically not to be an ass. There’ll be plenty of times down the road where being an ass will be fine for a lark, but this isn’t it.

And while you’re at it, try not be an ass in the real world, either. My faith in humanity chips away each time I see obese women fight over toilet paper that they shouldn’t be hording in the first place.

That’s all I got for today… I’ll see about getting another video up sooner or later.

Taking Its Toll On The World

So the NBA and NHL have suspended the remainder of their seasons until further notice. Major League Baseball has also postponed their season kick-off. E3 has been cancelled. A lot of little wrestling shows are postponing or outright cancelling their events until further notice. Some major corporations are having their employees work from home. Broadways are cancelled until further notice. Movies are being pushed back to later dates. Some sporting events are going ahead with empty arena shows. And the United States has instituted a 30-day travel ban to and from Europe and its denizens. Even some folks are calling in sick for the sake of self-isolating themselves from the rest of the world.

If this isn’t a sign that what we’re witnessing is to be taken seriously, then I don’t know what is.

Meanwhile, you have dumb shits panic buying supplies by the dozen, leaving nothing but empty space and shit, all the while defeating the purpose of closing down public centers and cancelling events that might bring in more than a couple hundred people.

Look, I don’t have the words to properly convey or comfort anyone facing this latest obstacle in life. Either you’re off the hook, you’re infected, or you know someone who may have contracted this virus.

All I can say is be careful out there, take good care of yourselves, wash your hands, avoid unnecessary prolonged contact or crowded spaces, and most of all, don’t give in to panic and mass hysteria. Stay informed, stay safe, and wash your hands.

Also, stay away from Twitter. Twitter is shit. Especially now.

Mega Man Maker Notes – v1.6 Thoughts And Future Video Update

Some time has passed since popular fangame Mega Man Maker finally made the jump to the new 1.6 update, which includes elements from Mega Man 10 and 11 (including new music tracks!) as well as a new community editor feature where multiple users can get together and build a community level of sorts… now that’s a rather ambitious addition and I’ll shed some thoughts on the matter in a little while.
First, a quick primer on some upcoming Mega Man Maker videos… which will be starting up again in a couple weeks. First video up in the running is a boss rush showcase with the new bosses and such. I’ve got a couple runs done on the matter, but I’m holding off until I can concoct a better performance… i.e. going through the whole menagerie of bosses without getting killed for one thing. Once that’s up and running, we’ll resume the usual weekly Wily Challenge videos… although I do have one level up that may see the light of day sooner or later… and there is a… I’ve said too much already.
Anyway, regarding my initial impressions of the new update… well, the addition of a new multi-user level creation system is nothing that I’m ever going to use, but could open up some possibilities for the more community-minded folks out there. Honestly, I’m more thrilled that I can assign Mega Man 10 and 11 tracks into my levels rather than replacing whatever they had originally with the custom tracks from abroad. I will admit that some of the new tracks are of decidedly lesser quality than what I’ve heard before, but still, props to the folks for making the effort as well as all the new toys to play with. I’ve already managed a couple levels where outrunning raging firestorms are great fun.
And then I fired up Doom Builder for the first time in years… and now I’m busy crafting little Doom maps that nobody will ever play, which is probably for the best because there are some amazing stuff out there and I’m nowhere near that level of competency.
I’ve had my share of Mega Man in any fashion as of late – especially after putting some footage together for an upcoming project of sorts. After a while, we’ll get the ball rolling once more, but for now… doom.

WWF In Your House #6 (February 1996 PPV)

Yeah, so I’ve been catching up on these In Your House shows as of late because I figured “why not?”

Beginning in 1995, the In Your House brand related to a series of monthly 2-hour PPVs that would occupy the months that didn’t already have a PPV scheduled. We’ve already looked at the 1995 shows ages ago and so we might as well continue the trend with the 1996 shows for the month.

Continue reading “WWF In Your House #6 (February 1996 PPV)”