Musings – Page 214

Mortar Attack in Iraq injures people… fortunately, none were WWE employees!

The following is a post from WWE.com:

WWE personnel were setting up a makeshift arena in a parking lot at Camp Victory, Baghdad, when three mortars were fired into a crowded street less than a block away. A number of people were injured in the attack; luckily none were members of WWE.

Well, we’re certainly thankful that while a number of people were injured and in need of critical aid, it’s nice to hear that no WWE employees were injured.

Oh well, I guess I should vent on who was stupid enough to publish the article as it was presented, but you know what? I’m not. It’s nice to hear that while some people were injured, none of them were killed or mutilated… nor were they members of the WWE family.

I guess I can rest easy knowing that now.

Big Show “Retires”

It’s been confirmed by WWE.com what was speculated by the IWC: Paul Wight, known as the Big Show, is “taking time off” to heal injuries. He might be retiring, which if he is, I thank him for many great moments, such as getting stuck in the crapper.

But some believe he may be “healthy enough” to face “healthy” Hulk Hogan in a Wrestlemania 23 match to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the historic Hogan/Andre confrontation at ‘Mania 3.

Yeah, that’s right. They’re going to celebrate the biggest wrestling match in history with a match that has been witnessed by many who were watching WCW years ago. And they weren’t even good matches back then, and with Show’s injuries and Hogan’s old age, what makes them think that this’ll do any good?

Whatever man.

(2024 Update: He’d be back two years later to earn a Wrestlemania payday with Floyd Mayweather. And then he’d stick around for another decade-plus before jumping ship to Tony Khan’s All Elite Wrestling promotion.)

Extremely Crummy Timing

In case anyone is aware, there’s an ECW pay-per-view coming up this weekend.

No, I didn’t forget any words because nobody even knows ECW had a PPV coming up because WWE never bothered to promote it.

Then again, can you blame them? This PPV is coming a WEEK after the Survivor Series PPV.

Even worse, there’s only two matches on the PPV and it’ll be a miracle if people who bought the wretched Survivor Series PPV will buy another poorly-conceived PPV a week later.

But it’s also brilliant planning; as it is designed to fail, the higher ups will eventually place the blame on ECW not being pushed hard as a WWE brand… DESPITE THE FACT THAT IT IS NO DIFFERENT THAN OTHER WWE SHOWS SUCH AS WWE HEAT AND WWE VELOCITY.

This is brilliant planning. Vince books the promotion to oblivion and re-invents it.

BRILLIANT. THAT’S WHY HE’S A GENIUS.

The Announcement And Cancellation Of Vinny Mac's @$$ Cartoon… Yes,This Was Actually A Thing.

Don’t look now, kids, but earlier this week, WWE.com announced that they were going to be debuting a new webtoon about… Vince McMahon’s ass. I’ve checked the preview for this thing and all I gotta say is that there are flash cartoons on Newgrounds that are better animated than this. This looks like it could very well be the 2007 version of the Tim White Suicide skits they did earlier this year.

Or not, earlier today, WWE.com posted the following statement:

Mr. McMahon’s “Kiss My Ass” cartoon, which was to have debuted today, has been delayed due to the stubbornness of one of its stars. The cartoon’s director claims that although Mr. McMahon was great to work with, his ass often refused to leave his trailer, demanded daily massages, and would “butt” heads with everyone around him. The ass was not available for comment, but sources close to the prominent posterior say his mood of late has been crappy. Stay tuned to WWE.com for the premier of Mr. McMahon’s “Kiss My Ass” cartoon.

So, is anyone else really looking forward to this? Because I’m not. And really, it’s nothing special. They probably delayed it to improve upon it. Hopefully, it’ll be indefinitely delayed.

(2019 Update: Who knows? This might be perfect for the WWE Network.)

Later.

Mystic Force Is Over. So what?

(2023 Update: The original post was dated November 5th, 2006, but was originally ripped from a Bite commentary that was posted on November 13th, a week later. Nov. 13th was also the date that the Mystic Force finale aired on ABC, but UK viewers got to see it a week earlier. Recently, I came across an updated version of this post that expands on the original Bite comments and so I present that here.)

In 2004, I stated in a blog post that Power Rangers Dino Thunder’s finale was an okay ending to a good run.

In 2005, I expressed my utter relief and happiness that the crapload known as Power Rangers SPD is finally over.

In 2006, I can’t comment on Mystic Force’s finale because I haven’t seen it. In fact, I can honestly tell you that I have yet to see one single episode of the recent Ranger offering. Outside of a brief glance at a fight scene signalling the end of an episode, I haven’t sat down and watched an episode of the series to really judge it. Of course, some would say that by not watching it, I’m already sending a strong message concerning the product.

Mystic Force didn’t get a viewer in me for two reasons.

First off, the previous Power Rangers offering, SPD, was such a huge pile of shit that it had essentially wiped out any interest in seeing what the current creative team has to offer in subsequent series. And while general talk about these particular series has been more favorable than before, it still isn’t enough to get me back into the fold… and the truly sad part was that there wasn’t one time when I wanted to go out of the way to catch an airing. Contrast this to Ninja Storm: while I didn’t care for that series because of the overall tone, it did have some interesting stories that drew me in, even if it didn’t keep me around for the long run. Mystic Force didn’t offer anything to reel me in at any point and thus I ignored it promptly.

The other reason why Mystic Force failed to interest me is because all the stories in that series was nothing more than rehashes of its Japanese counterpart, Magiranger. Yes, the same can be said for SPD being a near-carbon copy of Dekaranger, but I can honestly… wait a minute, I gave up on SPD for that very reason among other things. Because it’s a rehash of a previous show, it signifies that no actual effort is shown in making the show enjoyable or original. There’s no actual heart being put into the show; it seems more like a paint-by-numbers affair. I couldn’t stand that sort of treatment for one show; two shows in a row following that route is a nightmare.

I’m hoping that the next incarnation turns out to be better and, considering the 15th anniversary of the Power Rangers franchise is coming, I’m hoping something really special will be done.

In the meantime, I’ll ignore the previous crappy shows that have infected the airwaves and stick with old episodes on tape as well as the fanfics… the only entertaining aspects left in Power Rangers as far as I’m concerned.

Later.

2010 UPDATE: Well, Operation Overdrive sucked and its 2-part “Once A Ranger” anniversary episode was a waste of time. I’ve only caught a couple episodes of Jungle Fury before I figured my time would be better invested elsewhere… and the Disney era of Power Rangers ended with RPM, which was actually a pretty solid show despite the new blood.

Now, with Saban having bought back the franchise, I’m having somewhat elevated hopes for the upcoming Power Rangers Samurai series… too bad I don’t get Nickelodeon. Oh well… I guess it’s back to YouTube for me.

The So-Called "Connecticut Theory"

“You know you have a competitor up here who isn’t making your life easy.”

That quote above supposedly came from a Connecticut police officer to a TNA official when news broke that the TNA house show in Connecticut was canned. For those not in the know, Connecticut is conveniently where WWE Headquarters is situated. As it stands, WWE denies any involvement in the cancellation of the TNA show, but it would make sense if it did… after all, how would you feel if a competing wrestling company was holding a show on your home turf?

Whatever WWE says doesn’t matter… because they’ll be the primary suspect to the cancellation. A show was canned because of a small crack on the EXIT sign? That’s ridiculous… plain and simple. There has to be more to it than that.

Later on, in a vain attempt to try and fall asleep by thinking too hard about things that don’t require much thought, I came up with a couple theories on what might have been the case;

1) WWE has some involvement in the TNA shutdown and are denying it. This seems like the most obvious theory to those who don’t know any better… although it’s not beneath Vinnie Mac do pull something off, but why bother? If word got out that his company did have something to do with it, it’d be a black mark in the company’s already-faltering reputation.

2) WWE didn’t have anything to do with it and the State of Connecticut did deem the arena unsafe for the show to take place. And if that seems to be the case, then it can be made official that Connecticut’s officials are a bunch of pussies. I mean, come on guys. A broken EXIT sign with a small crack is a safety hazard? There’s no garbage bag in this trash bin? These are significant enough to shut down a wrestling show? Are you fucking kidding me? And even if WWE didn’t have anything to do with it, they’d still get fingers pointed at them simply because of the simple fact that the show would have been held in their own backyard.

3) And not a lot of people have touched on this, but let’s suppose for a second that TNA never intended on holding a houseshow. Let’s suppose that the shutdown of the TNA house show was part of a bigger angle concocted by TNA themselves to place some of the heat on WWE.

Those would’ve been fine theories and honestly, I wouldn’t have been surprised if one or two or all three were true… but as it turned out, the whole issue with the TNA house show shutdown did not stem from conspiracies or backstage shenanigans, but rather unsigned permits and procedures that TNA didn’t follow when they switched arenas. This is from a police conference. When asked about Vince McMahon’s involvement, all they had to say was “Even my superiors had to ask who is Vince McMahon?”

So there you go, kids. There’s what really happened. Things happened not because of a Connecticut Conspiracy, but because of pure trademark TNA incompetence.

We can all rest easy now.

Dead.

That about sums up last night. No trick or treaters around our block – no candy bearers. Now my block has few kids and they’re a rare bunch. But just this morning, my mom told me that my aunt hadn’t given any candy last night either and that area is usually full of kids.

Last night proved that Halloween around my neck of the woods is pretty much dead. I mean, sure it rained, but so what? By six or seven, it died out and it’s all good. But other than my cousin’s kid, nobody showed up. What happened? There used to be this one Halloween years ago when it SNOWED and we still went out collecting candy and egging peoples’ houses.

What the fuck happened to Halloween around here?

This is ridiculous, man. We need to reclaim Halloween.

For Montreal users of public transportation only

Note: This concerns local interests so most parties outside of Montreal may not take notice.

Apparently due to some settlement between the Societe de Transportation de Montreal and some union group, the monthly passes are cheaper for the month of November. Now you can purchase your monthly passes for $61 instead of the usual $63. That’s right; you save a whole two bucks off. Goes to show how “generous” the STM just happens to be.

Of course, the part about all this is that in a couple months, the fares will raise again, ensuring that the STM will eventually get those two dollars you’ve saved this month.

Public transportation… sucks.

Happy Halloween, everyone.

Later.

Don’t Play This Game! It’s Controversial! (Or Not.)

I just read a report somewhere that attonery Jack Thompson, a longtime critic of video games, might face jail time for contempt in court due to his ramblings over the video game called Bully.

First thing that comes to mind is who’s Jack Thompson. No, seriously. I don’t know who this guy is. Usually when I hear someone complain about a video game’s content, it’s usually incompetent parent organizations who would rather push censorship rather than regulate what their own kids play. If a guy’s name comes up and I don’t know him, goes to show how much of an impact he truly has.

Second thing that comes to mind is… this game Bully has controversial content? I better buy it then. I mean seriously. I absolutely love it when these people push a game into the limelight, telling consumers not to spend their money due to some hot coffee incident, and suddenly sales would spike because of it.

In a sense it’s similar to the MPAA giving free promotion to the pirate sites so that people, rather than avoiding them, will go ahead and download stuff off that site.

Of course, I don’t get why you’d want to download movies off the Internet. Sure, ticket prices are high these days, but would you rather pay twelve bucks for a clear picture and sound quality or download a video of some shoddy picture and camera work that a 3-year-old could probably outperform. It’s absolutely nuts.

But I digress.

It’d be interesting to see what comes out of this. But what really wacks me is that this Jack Thompson guy is apparently going after Midway because he is apparently creatable in the new Mortal Kombat game. Okay, so we can make a lawyer. Please, get over yourself. This is just an attempt to get more money off of people who’ve earned it. This guy, ironically enough, seems like a bully to me.

Then again, most religious groups tend to be.

I won’t go farther than that.

Later.

Kurt Angle Signs With TNA – Why Do You Look Surprised?

Anyone who has been to a wrestling website or has seen the recent TNA PPV knows what I’m talking about: former Olympian and former WWE champion Kurt Angle has signed with TNA wrestling. When people last saw Angle, he was fired by WWE so that he can heal. Roughly a few weeks later, he signs with the distant competition.

It’s not a big surprise. From the instant Kurt got canned, almost everyone was calling it. Some people saw through the transparent desires of doing MMA bouts and said he would show up on TNA.

So yeah, I can say I saw it coming… but not this soon.

I wonder what Vince is thinking now…