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The Shadow Of TNA Threatens McWrestling

From InsidePulse.Com:

WWE still has up to 5 members of the roster that they want to cut, but the word is that they are holding off, so they don’t feed the talent to TNA. This week being huge for TNA, with Victory Road and the TNA matches on Best Damn Sports Show Period WWE doesn’t want to give them any more momentum.

With morale being so low, especially in the SmackDown! locker room, it may come to the point where talent starts asking for their release to go to TNA, as it’s starting to be looked at as an alternative.

From what I hear so far, Victory Road was a pretty good show. It’s too damn bad that I chose to skip the first real TNA PPV and set myself up for another disappointment from the WWE. I’ll admit to have enjoyed Taboo Tuesday, but it wasn’t necessarily a good show either.

In any case, the added exposure they’re getting right now is exactly what they need to become a serious alternative to WWE, who is starting to notice this small-time wrestling company and holding off the firing of five other talents from their roster, just to keep them from jumping ship.

Kudos to TNA for their recent exposure and let’s hope I’m around for the Turning Point of their Victory Road.

Later.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS – Kirby: Nightmare In Dream Land (GBA)

For a cool twenty bucks, I picked up a used copy of Kirby: Nightmare In Dream Land, the GBA remake of the only Kirby NES game. I’ve had the NES game and was fairly good at, but nothing more than that. So I knew that Kirby would give me a respectable week until I feel obliged to pick more NES classic ports.

Imagine to my utter surprise when I beat the regular game in the same day I bought it. From beginning to end, discovering all the secrets and stuff. The first thought was that this game was easy, but another thought quickly came to mind: this never happened to me before.

So the next day, I try out the game’s extra mode, which basically cuts your life meter in half. Surely this would give me a challenge, because I took cheap hits constantly. But by the end of the night, I beat the game and discovered all the secrets again. Again, this has never happened to me before.

So now I’m stuck with a game that I have no reason to play with anymore. The Meta-Knightmare feature, which lets you play as a sword-wielding winged Kirby-like character, is a nifty mode, but you can’t save in it. A Boss Endurance mode isn’t necessarily the best thing going for me. And the subgames are fun little diversions at first, but even they got to the point where I can get through rather easily even at the highest skill setting.

But you know what? That’s okay, because Kirby still kicks ass and I can concentrate on playing through random levels and stealing powers like no tomorrow.

WWE Taboo Tuesday 2004 – Live Blog

2018 Introduction
2004 saw me touch on two PPVs; Wrestlemania 20 and Taboo Tuesday. Since I’ve already reposted Mania 20 as part of the Ramblemania feature, I decided to jump ahead with Taboo Tuesday.

Once upon a time, WWE experimented with an interactive PPV format that fans would get to vote on various things. It started off as a Tuesday PPV before it became a Sunday PPV dubbed Cyber Sunday. This kind of PPV hasn’t been attempted again in quite a while, but they tried to do it again on RAW… it didn’t quite workout.

The following was a quick running blog of the PPV in progress. I’m not going to insert any modern thoughts because quite frankly the show is a complete blank and I don’t have a copy on hand to revisit the show. So here it is, as is with non-flattering comments and incoherent ramblings. Enjoy.

One last note: this post was written in 2004 and as such, contains some rather “poor choice of words” if I could find a proper euphemism. I’ve chosen to leave the post as is, so that means those “poor choice of words” stay in unedited. Suffice it to say, reader discretion is strongly advised. Thank you.

Continue reading “WWE Taboo Tuesday 2004 – Live Blog”

A Response to Village Roadshow KP Ltd: A Failure?

I rarely do this sort of thing: take a long message board post and insert my own comments. But after reading this post written by a guy named Doram on Rangerboard.Com, I couldn’t help but do it. Chances are that, as of this reposting, the source post is either long gone or archived in some section of the forum, but regardless, the original text is displayed here – bold comments in brackets are my own comments inserted. This entry, other than the inserted comments, is presented as is, with most punctuation, grammatical, and other mind-numbing errors.

I had once been a huge fan of the Power Rangers. (Good to know – I hate reading PR commentaries from those who aren’t or weren’t ever fans.) I was eight years old when I saw the very first episode of the highly anticipated Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series, which aired in August 1993. (I was twelve – a year removed from the show’s target audience – but who cares?) The show seemed incredible back then. I was astonished at the mysterious aura the show seemed to possess; it had this strange way of getting you really tuned into the show, to the point where you couldn’t stop watching. (That’s true: I remember when I first heard about the show and waved it off as crap, but then as I saw more and more of the shows, I got more and more into it. This explains the rather sizable number of fanfiction and imagery that I produced as a result.) Whenever the show was over after every thirty minutes, I would have this “aww man” feeling. (Not me, I’d have this “okay, let’s find something else to do” feeling.)

The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers had a certain unmistakable quality that was rectified by intense sales and high ratings to the Fox Kids network. (Sure, because it was a hit with the kiddies. But to be fair, Fox Kids had a number of quality shows back in the day; notably the Batman, Spider-Man, and X-Men animated series) I am now nineteen years old. (I’m twenty-three as of this writing, a tad older than you are – go figure) I recently began watching Power Rangers Dino Thunder again, and I will be the first to admit that what truly drew me to the show was the beauty of Kira Ford, the yellow ranger (I liked Emma, she was nice to look at… from a non-perverted point of view, of course). Anyway, after watching a few episodes of the show, I have concluded that (Actually, you didn’t conclude anything except for what’s blatantly obvious on screen, but let’s not be too harsh and jump ahead) :

There are now three main rangers as opposed to the original five, and two “reserved” rangers as opposed to the original one.
(The original sentai Dino Thunder was based on, “Abaranger”, started off with a three-person Ranger team before adding two more. The Super Sentai series usually determines what the Power Rangers show in the subsequent season has to work with; it’s always been the case. This has nothing to do with Village Roadshow – they have to make due with what they have. While Lightspeed Rescue did produce its own unique Sixth Ranger, he was only featured in a relatively small portion of the series and was really nothing more than a peripheral player and plot point.)
The new megazord is a joke. It looks so ridiculous with a tail for an arm.
(This is an opinion, not a fact. Some people might actually like the Zord Designs in the various series. I personally don’t care for CGI-based zords, but then again, that’s my opinion. It’s not right nor wrong. It’s all subjective.)
The stunt doubles are no longer real martial artists. Then again, I could be wrong. I would not want to meet one of them in an alley to find out.
(I’m pretty sure that Alpha Stunts do know some semblance of martial arts in addition to the usual stuntwork, considering this is a franchise with a large focus on martial arts. I’m surprised that you didn’t complain about all the stunt doubles being male… or perhaps you didn’t know. In which case, I apologize for shattering your fantasy.)
The pink color has been eliminated from the ranger lineup.
(So what? There wasn’t a Pink Ranger on the team since Dino Thunder. Power Rangers SPD did bring back the Pink Ranger since that’s what Dekaranger had… why is this a problem again?)
The cast seems to have gotten a lot smaller, compared to the old days.
(So there are fewer characters in the cast. I think this is an excellent idea, but the less numbers allow expanded characterizations of those who are available. And don’t give me that “it’s a kids show mentality”, because I know better.)
The rangers are now under the guidance of a human mentor, rather than an interdimensional being or a sophisticated, yet outgoing robot.
(There were seasons when the Rangers had absolutely NO mentor. Clearly, this guy is upset because the show isn’t MMPR anymore despite having Tommy and dinosaurs.)

Anyway, these are just some of my observations. I do not want to bore anyone, so I will stop with those. (To quote Tommy – “AW MAN, ZORDON!”) I believe that the direction “Village Roadshow KP Productions Limited”, Disney, or whoever is officially in charge of the series now (I have not researched enough to confirm) is going to lead to the show’s eventual destruction. (What direction is that, man? I didn’t realize there was a direction other than “Look kids! Colors! Robots! And Things That Go BOOM! BOOM! BOOOOMMMM!!!!!) Above that, the show now airs early in the morning or later in the evening, times when children (the predominant audience) are less likely to watch the shows. (So that’s why they have cartoons on Saturday mornings, so nobody’ll watch them… Besides, I’m sure the kids’ll beg the parents to buy the DVDs, which are pretty cheap even in Canada)

The producers of Power Rangers: Dino Thunder and Power Rangers: Ninja Storm have been doing an extremely pathetic job with the series. (I disagree wholeheartedly. While I am not the biggest fan of Ninja Storm out there, recent viewings of the series has soften my view on the series. It’s not particularly great, but it’s still fairly watchable and astonishingly tolerable. As far as Dino Thunder goes, I thought it was pretty decent; one of the few top-notch Ranger series to come out of the Disney era). They have changed the one setting, one legacy theme of old into this new assortment of power teams and settings that seem to be changing every season. (Dude – the Mighty Morphin era lasted three years before switching over to Zeo, which would begin the annual changeover of sets and villains. This was done to freshen things up and keep the franchise from getting stale. Sometimes, it works. Sometimes, it doesn’t.) What was so bad about the imaginary Angel Grove? (It gets boring when every single season takes place in the same city – it’s a bad image for Angel Grove, to need 50+ Rangers to defend one city. Besides, what’s so bad about expanding the Ranger-verse? Oh wait…) What was so bad about the legacy of Zordon of Eltar? (He’s dead, Jim… and so’s the voice actor whose portrayed him. Has been for years… I personally would rather not dwell on the past and keep looking forward.)

I do not have a problem with the current Power Rangers cast at all, though I do think Doctor Tommy Oliver (Jason David Frank) does not belong in the series as a ranger, if not in the series at all. (For once, I agree wholeheartedly – Tommy shouldn’t have been made into a Ranger and was best served as the mentor. Even so, it was still a nice treat to the longtime fans to bring him back nonetheless. And I actually enjoyed this evolved version of Tommy.) I think it was a good idea to make Power Rangers: Dino Thunder reminiscent of the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series, but what is being done is definitely not good enough. (Whatever similarities exist between Dino Thunder and the original MMPR run is purely coincidental. If there were intended similarities, nods, winks, and whatnots, they are few and between.) This whole three-ranger concept seriously needs to go. (Please elaborate on why.) Haim Saban had seen the success of the original five, and smartened up by always adding in a new ranger that always captivated the television audience. (No, he didn’t. He thought that these cool Japanese stuff would make him lots of cash and he was right. That’s probably the main reason why he bought it back because if Disney wasn’t going to milk this thing for all it’s worth, he would. For all we know, it could have been based off a show with ONLY three members and he’d still consider it a cash cow.)

At this point, he starts describing his own unique solution to “fix” Dino Thunder, which borders on glorified fanfiction tripe and delusions of grandeur. Let’s see what he has in mind. And keep in mind; this post was written during PRDT’s run and my comments are updated to reflect some several years of time.

What I believe needs to be one with Power Rangers: Dino Thunder is this…

Put together a saga of episodes (three episodes at the minimum) whence the Dino Thunder Rangers faces the return of Lord Zedd, Master Vile and Rita Repulsa.
(First off, Rita and Zedd have been turned good and Master Vile can be presumed to be dead after Countdown to Destruction. Since Dino Thunder, Rita has become Mystic Force’s Mystic Mother (and you can tell it’s Rita because it’s the same actress and she mentions something about a headache, despite not sounding at all like the Rita of old) and Zedd apparently returned to evil and is lost in time according to the Super Legends video game… where he had to fight a bunch of Rangers… or something.)
The saga should feature the return of Zordon.
(Why are you so obsessed with bringing back Zordon? He’s dead… has been for a long time. Get over it.)
The Dino Thunder Rangers, in all their inexperience, will lose to Lord Zedd and his minions in battle, thus Doctor Tommy Oliver is left with no choice but to seek the help of Zordon.
(Why would the DT Rangers have trouble beating Zedd’s forces? Zedd’s army largely comprise Putty Patrollers with a huge bullseye on their chest as well as a variety of test tube monsters. Inexperience should not factor into the Rangers’ defeat; possibly outnumbered or outmatched, but not lack of experience. And why would Tommy go whining to Zordon – if he were alive – for help, especially against an enemy he has defeated countless times and knows better than anybody? When Tommy needed help with a grave threat, he assembled all the Red Rangers he could muster and they fought together to take down a Serpenterra one-third the original size.)
Together, Tommy and Zordon resurrect the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, or at least close to the originals, considering Thuy Trang’s unfortunate death in 2001. For those of you unaware, Thuy Trang played Trini, the original yellow ranger.
(Yeah, right. Good luck with that.)
The original MMPR then morph into action and assist the five rangers of present day, showing them “how it should be done”.
(What? You mean they travelled to the future? How does that work?)
In the same event, Tommy’s black dino gem is destroyed somehow, and is haunted by the return of the dragon dagger.
(His powers have… oh wait, I’m jumping ahead here. But WHY?!)
The rangers of present day witness Doctor Oliver morph into the legendary Green Ranger, who calls upon the power of the mighty Dragonzord once more, destroying the minions of Lord Zedd.
(For all intents and purposes, the powers of the Green Ranger are extinguished forever and – short of bringing back the Tommy clone who last held the coin – will never make a comeback. Besides, if given the choice, Tommy would probably go White Ranger, whose powers far exceeded those of the Green Ranger… apparently. Regardless, this is a TERRIBLE idea.)

This right here would help the series greatly, as well as bring up the ratings a lot. (No, it won’t. It’s basically ideas for generic fanfiction crap that some two-bit writer could formulate better… *looks both ways before starting on Chapter 1*) But time is a major factor in a show’s success. (No argument there.) If any members of the Power Rangers production crew are within the text of this message, this is my message to you (If anyone involved with production actually read through the entirety of this diatribe, I’d be greatly impressed) Find a way to put the Power Rangers on a public television station, and schedule it to air sometime in the afternoon. Kids will be more in need of something to watch when school is out, and your ratings will skyrocket. Furthermore, bring back the original production line concept for the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and apply it to Power Rangers: Dino Thunder or any future projects you might have in mind. I do not seek to be a beneficiary of the idea I just presented to you. If you share my optimism in this idea, you have my full blessings in implementing it. If not, you have my thanks for hearing me out. (You’ll be ignored – besides, this is an absolutely horrendous idea! You want to dump the high-production Power Rangers for a cheaply-made model that is outdated in modern terms?).

The Power Rangers series has always had so much potential. Even many years after I last watched the show (I stopped watching at the beginning of Power Rangers Zeo) (I stopped watching after being fed up with Ninja Storm – but DinoThunder brought me back because of Emma – f**k Tommy!), I still believe the power rangers should represent a fictional world inspired by children’s fantasy. If the show’s path to success is so frequently discerned by what is more marketable or which actors are cheaper to hire, children lose interest. (Dude, it’s all about the toys!)

Well, that’s his first post. From there became a series of insults and tirades as the Rangerboard regulars blow a gasket trying to debunk Doram of his opinions, while Doram sticks to his guns… or something. Mind you, this is probably on Rangerboard’s overrated Dumbass section, but since I’m not a member of said board and have no intent on joining anytime soon (at least for a few more months, at best), I can’t say for certain. In any case, what the hell do I care anyway?

Later…

Christopher Reeve (September 25, 1952 – October 10, 2004)

From USA Today:

Christopher Reeve, the star of the Superman movies whose near-fatal riding accident nine years ago turned him into a worldwide advocate for spinal cord research, died Sunday of heart failure, his publicist said. He was 52.

Reeve fell into a coma Saturday after going into cardiac arrest while at his New York home, his publicist, Wesley Combs told The Associated Press by phone from Washington, D.C., on Sunday night. His family was at his side at the time of death.

I just found out a short while ago and all I can say is… WOW. The phrase “Death of Superman” has never been more truer than it is today. And just when he was on the verge of beating his paralysis… this is truly a sad day.

You’ll be sorely missed, Mr. Reeve. R.I.P.

Mega Man Anniversary Collection on GBA?

First it was August.
Then it was October.
Then it was November.
Then I bought a Game Boy Advanced SP.
Now it’s January.
Watch it get canned completely.

(2019 Update: That’s exactly what ended up happening.)

Is it really that hard to convert five ancient Game Boy games into a Game Boy Advance format? They’re just Game Boy games; you add color and that’s it. This is depressing me.

Oh yeah, I now have a Game Boy Advance SP. And I use it to play exciting Game Boy Advance games like Super Mario Bros, The Legend Of Zelda, and XEVIOUS!

Wait… what do you mean those aren’t GBA games?

Classic Bite Commentary #49 – September 16th, 2004

2014 Fun Fact: This would be the last Bite commentary I would write for quite some time until 2006 when I decided to revive the feature for a later iteration of the DTM Webstation. It is entirely possible that the Bite was quietly retired due to more frequent posting on the original DTM Blog.

Anyway, much like before, current-day thoughts and reflections are in brackets and bold.

Oh Good GOD! It has been way too long since I wrote one of these babies. But yes, your eyes are not deceiving you. Your computer isn’t playing tricks. This is NOT a typo. This is FRESH. This is NEW. This is… me, ranting on a single page rather than on the Blog! It’s been some time since I wrote the Bite (and I’m suffering from sinuses already – fucking Quebec environment), but let’s see if we can keep up.

Continue reading “Classic Bite Commentary #49 – September 16th, 2004”

COMIC REVIEW – Avengers #501 (Disassembled – Part 2)

In our last issue of Avengers… the mansion blew up, Iron Man was in a supposed drunken state, and a whole bunch of Avengers died. In this issue… we try to make sense of what’s been going on, but it’s just the calm before the next big storm to hit next issue, which promises another Avenger death. Oh goodie.

Once we get past the initial She-Hulk battle, things start to pick up as the team begin to question whether all of this stuff happening is just a coincidence or part of a larger part to strike at their lowest point. The team discussing what’s going on while licking their wounds is the thing that keeps me interested in this whole thing. And once you get to the final spread of all the reserve Avengers to provide assistance, it’s just setting the stage for the show’s grand finale.

Once again, David Finch provides some truly superb art and the final spread is a wonderful piece of business. After the first part’s endless barrage of offing Avengers, Part 2 is a nice piece of calm. Sadly, it’s probably not going to last, is it?

COMIC REVIEW – Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #5

Well, this has been an interesting ride.

Since the start of Spider-Man’s Marvel Knights run, we’ve seen Ben Parker’s tombstone defiled, Aunt May kidnapped, Spidey get beat up, Spidey get beat up some more, and a guy who knows that Spidey is really Peter Parker, which makes one of a select few who has managed to acquire this information through some unknown means… or maybe he saw Spider-Man 2 too. Oh yeah, ol’ webhead was lying in a hospital bed without his mask and some jabronie manages to take a quick picture of our unconscious hero and sell it to good ol’ Jonah Jameson, the Daily Bugle editor.

Riveting stuff, isn’t it?

So now, we open up Issue 5 (the first chapter of the series’ second story-arc) with good ol’ Parker waking up and finding out that his face is plastered on the front page of the Daily Bugle, with good ol’ Jonah issuing a reward to anyone who can identify the battered face despite it being half covered in the mask. Of course, no one bothered to explain why said picture wasn’t taken when he didn’t have the mask on, but that’s another story in itself.

(Now, see, if Jonah were to have issued that bounty in the Spider-Man 2 movie, chances are a train full of people would have been rich by now, but that’s besides the point.)

So, for the first part of this arc featuring Venom as the main bad guy (not again), it’s seemingly a rehash of a classic plot device, but so was the kidnapping of Aunt May… and stories with no basis other than Spider-Man getting a big time @$$-kicking from the villain of the month is also nothing new. But I’m not complaining, because I’m actually enjoying this run. It seems a little darker than the other Spider-man titles, although not by much. The accompanying art is amazing; great detail, great choice of colors and tones, and panel layout is alright too. It doesn’t look as cartoony as the other Spider books and that’s probably a good thing considering the feel of this book, which is grimmer than the others. On the other hand, it is somewhat humorless, which is something that has been a key factor of Spider-Man. Maybe Spidey’s wit got transplanted into Superman for Action Comics.

In any case, Spider-Man’s venture into the Marvel Knights brand is a good contrast to the Amazing (which reveals Gwen Stacy was pregnant – sorry if I spoiled it for you) and the Spectacular (which has Spidey turning into a mutant spider – and also features a Klingon wedding). This issue is no exception. While it’s too early to tell if the second arc is any good, if it’s as good as the first, then it’s worth sticking around for the rest of the ride.

Divas Dodgeball?! WTF?!

So let me get this straight: instead of a decent wrestling match, we’re getting a bunch of talentless models playing dodgeball with RAW’s women wrestlers at Summerslam?! Who was the genius that thought up that stupid idea?

No wonder women’s wrestling in WWE is shit these days. You try and promote the division as something that can be equally appealing as the regular male division, and then you throw in something stupid like this into the mix. And the RAW Diva bullshit was bad enough on its own…

Come on, dodgeball?!

First Bradshaw as World Champion and now this…