RAW (May 27th, 2019) – A Great Alternative Followed By Business As Usual

The Double Or Nothing write-up is due tomorrow… but it won’t be up at the stroke of midnight. But, rather, it’ll be the “main event” upload in a trifecta of uploads that will also include a belated game review as well as a something else.

The reasoning for this is two-fold; the first being that I’ve got quite a bit to say and I want to give the thing a couple final looks before posting. The second reason being that I was curious to see how your usual Monday night brand of “shit happening” would respond to a PPV offering from a new upstart rival promotion that, for all intents and purposes, has gotten rave reviews and praise.
I’ll go ahead and spoil things for you… they responded by teasing a fatal-four way match for their Red Belt championship and ultimately had the thing won by Baron Corbin, who was a replacement for AJ Styles who was forced out due to injury. And by the way, this took place in the dreaded “third hour” of RAW… the RAW that one Michael Foley said was going to be more gritty. If “more gritty” is code for “more Baron Corbin,” then it’s a good thing I skipped on this one.

Actually, you want to know how much of a non-issue this is to WWE? They opened the show with Kofi Kingston – your current WORLD CHAMPION, by the way – coming out with a plate of pancakes… this after a rival promotion held a PPV that featured a bloody brother vs. brother affair as well as the debut of a wrestler that was once one of their most prominent stars.

So there you have… business as usual, more Baron Corbin, and potentially another Bork Lazer title reign in the future because THIS TIME FOR SURE. But hey, if there’s one positive I could add, it’s that Bork Lazer with a Boom Box briefcase is comedy gold.
Whatever, man.

So I Guess I Should Talk About The Picard Teaser

It’s the only decent Picard stock photo I can find… and it sort of lines up with my feelings.

It shows us a vineyard, it has a lady narrating about some rescue armada from fifteen years ago before the unimaginable, and then Walter Blunt appears on screen, followed by the title card, followed by the tagline, “The End Is Only The Beginning.”

It tells us little, it tells us something, and it leaves everything to the imagination unless you’ve seen that leaked clip with the geek officer asking for Captain Poo-Card’s name.

I want to say that I’m excited for this thing… but I’m just cautiously optimistic.

That’s all I got, really.
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An Empty House

So, I’ve done my back-up of all the old DTM Blog Classic posts (or rather, most of them that were worth keeping around) and slowly deleted them from the page. A day or so later, the blog was completely deleted from the Tripod space, along with everything else contained within. In fact, the only thing that’s still active on the space is the index.html page asking people to come to this website instead.

For what it’s worth, I’m not getting rid of the Tripod account. While it’s not in use at the moment, the possibility exists that I could use it for something else. After all, I did install a really old copy of Microsoft Frontpage to throw together some quick little webpages, along with some other material of worth.

As the post stated above, it’s been a fun ride. But it’s time to move on. Lots of great memories, lots of great moments, some of which might once again see the light of day in some form or fashion, but other than that, the ol’ DTM Blog is but a distant memory; never to return.

Goodbye, old friend. And godspeed.

The WWE 24/7 Convenience Store Championship

For some strange reason, I felt the need to expand on the quick thoughts I threw up a couple days ago regarding WWE’s latest gimmick to try and turn their sagging ratings around: the 24/7 championship.

Introduced by WWE legend Mick Foley at the start of the third hour of RAW, the 24/7 title is essentially the modern-day take on the old Hardcore championship of yesteryear. More specifically, it is focused on the 24/7 rule of the Crash Holly days where the title can change hands anywhere at any time, so long as there is a WWE official on hand to administer the decision.

So this thing has been mocked by some and praised by others. A couple days ago, I’ve suggested that the theory behind the title was something that appealed to me… but questioned the execution. I suppose I could expand on that mentality a bit by addressing a few points of criticism.

Continue reading “The WWE 24/7 Convenience Store Championship”

WWE Money In The Bank 2019

Good news, everybody! I watched last weekend’s Money In The Bank pay-per-view… and it was better than last year’s absolutely atrocious Backlash PPV! Glory be to… never mind. This was a 3 1/2 hour PPV and yet for the most part, went by so quickly that I was able to watch the show in one sitting, which is amazing. Don’t get too excited, because the show isn’t something I would call “one for the history books.”

Unless, of course, you work for WWE… or are just a fan of WWE who watches nothing but WWE… in which case… well, never mind.

Continue reading “WWE Money In The Bank 2019”

TNA Hardcore Justice 2010

So we started May with a lookback at One Night Stand from 2005, the ECW reunion show that WWE held. Then we did the following year’s iteration that kickstarted the much-maligned WWECW brand. And then we looked at Bret Hart vs. Tom Magee… but we all knew that it was only a matter of time before I got around to writing a musing on TNA’s own reunion dubbed Hardcore Justice. And so here we are… again.

Back in the day, I did write about the event and only managed to see bits and pieces of the show… but beyond that, I’ve never seen the full show in question. Everyone thought it was a bad idea – well, the TNA fans who will cheer anything thought it was a great idea because they’re sheep – and when the show came and went, it was either the greatest thing ever made or it was the worst. Even without seeing the whole show – it’s possible I might’ve, but just forgot about it – I thought it was a bad idea and the few clips I’ve seen (along with a video montage featuring running commentary from a Bryan & Vinny audio show) convinced me that my missing this shoe was a fantastic idea.

And so, here we are in 2019. I’m about to watch this Hardcore Justice show in its entirety and after having seen the previous two shows from WWE, we’ll see if this show gave the ECW brand the final chapter that it deserved.

Spoiler alert: it didn’t.

Continue reading “TNA Hardcore Justice 2010”

About the 24/7 Title Thing…

So on last night’s RAW, WWE Hall Of Famer, Hardcore Legend, and legalized pervert Mick Foley unveiled a new championship: the 24/7 Championship. The idea is reminiscent of the old Hardcore championship from the Attitude days, where the title can change hands at any time or any place so long as there was a designated WWE official to administer the three-count.

Now, first off, the belt itself looks cheap. It’s another one of those “penny belts” like the main tag titles with a very basic, very simple center plate and almost no details on the side-plates. The only positive is that it’s not a broken-down, beat-up belt, so the prize is a little more worthwhile.

As for the revival of the 24/7 concept… I like the theory behind it. The Hardcore segments with Crash Holly trying to elude getting pinned in all sorts of wacky places were short, but provided a nice break from the “arena” bits. They were brief, they were harmless, they provided some genuinely fun moments, and gave the guys on the lower rungs of the card something to do.

If done well, I could see these being a fun thing to fill the three hours and maybe even provide some bits for the website if they’re so inclined. However, these things are best in short bursts – maybe one or two times a show – and like anything really, runs the risk of getting run into the ground before people start getting sick of it. Not only that, but these are only short burst things – they’re not going to fix the problems that have plagued WWE programming for years – namely the long runtimes and atrocious storytelling.

Yes, these’ll be fun bits for the folks watching it and might even bring in some strays for the short term, but it’s just a pothole to a road full of craters that need a reconstruction. Something new is needed…