Pushing today’s scheduled review a day later so that I can share this little gem. Billy Corgan’s NWA (remember them) are doing a Samhain 2 show… no one knows if it’s going to be a PPV or a special edition of their weekly Powerrrrrrrr show that’s on the CW app that nobody uses.
For those who don’t recall, the first Samhain PPV was the show with Sinister Minister James Mitchell’s cocaine line being aired live on PPV. Apparently, this is what prompted CW to go from “Let’s have NWA on our Network” to “Let’s have NXT on our network and… I guess we’ll give Billy a slot on our CW apps. I’m sure he’ll be fine with that.”
I actually did a musings on that show. I remember it being largely terrible… but it did end the terrible NWA World title reign of Brodus “Tyrus” Clay, so that’s one good… thing… I guess?
Here’s the musings for anyone who cares. NWA Samhain
From the November 6th, 2019 episode of AEW Dynamite, Cody (not yet Rhodes again) cuts a promo for his upcoming Full Gear 2019 match with then-AEW Champion Chris Jericho stipulating that if he doesn’t win the title, then he will never challenge for said title again. For those who don’t know, Cody would lose said match against Jericho and would never get another shot at the AEW World title ever again.
It’d be a stretch to say that this promo “changed things.” At the time, Cody was simply trying to avoid the pitfalls of management putting themselves in hot angles. Jeff Jarrett as NWA Champion in TNA when he owned the company comes to mind. HHH as multiple time WWE Champion and getting favorable treatment after marrying into the family. Just about any mom-and-pop promotion who opts to book family as the top stars because you know they’re never leaving… allegedly. So this is Cody eliminating himself from that discussion and he’d go on to have a decent TNT title run before things fell off the wayside for a variety of reasons.
Cut to a few years later and Cody Rhodes left AEW for WWE. And despite a couple hiccups here or there, Cody’s WWE run FAR eclipsed anything he was doing in AEW. He even got to win the WWE title and finish that story.
Would any of this have been possible had Cody not cut this promo? Perhaps… perhaps things would’ve turned out the same and Cody still would’ve left for WWE to bring about a new era to that promotion (among other factors, of course.) But considering that the Young Bucks have had multiple tag-team runs and even Kenny Omega got a decent AEW World title run to his credit… maybe Cody jumped the gun in this case.
Rewatching this promo after everything that has happened… one of the comments said it best; this does hit differently now with hindsight in mind.
Three years ago, on this very day, Arn Anderson cut one of his most memeworthy promos on AEW television. Wrestling fans of an older generation know him as the Enforcer of the Four Horseman, constant associate of “Nature Boy” Ric Flair, and a hell of a wrestler in his own right. But to a new generation of fans, he’s the guy who threatened to pull out a gun and spill Cody’s brains all over the concrete in an effort to motivate the bastard.
Hey, it took about three years, but he finally got through.
Now, he’s ready for the Rock at Mania… or maybe Jacob Fatu… probably even Zilla…
Just don’t give us another Solo match. The math simply doesn’t work.
Yeah, so a year after Atari launched the 2600+ – a modern retro thing that lets you play most 2600 and some 7800 games – they’ve announced the Atari 7800+, which presumably does the same thing, except now it comes with a wireless gamepad and a free game – Bentley Bear’s Crystal Quest… which I’m sure was a homebrew release once upon a time, but now has the official Atari seal of approval… for whatever that’s worth.
So yeah, Atari is putting out another one of these things and I’m slightly miffed since I had bought the Atari 2600+ last year and there has been no word of firmware updates to let the thing play more than the usual stock. Hell, they already have a firmware update for the 400 Mini.
Listen, if this thing plays Xevious, I’m sold… but otherwise, no thanks. I’ll stick with the games.
Retro-themed Halloween and Evil Dead games are coming in October… and then I saw the trailer. I want to be positive about this. I missed out on the other Evil Dead game that came out a while back and I’m wanting to go for another one… but this trailer doesn’t instill much confidence.
Not that I don’t think the games will be bad or anything; they’re being developed by WayForward and they typically put out good stuff. But the whole thing comes across as fairly interchangeable and generic. There’s supposed to be a crossover element if you buy both games, which sort of harkens to Pokemon and its linkage, but all this does is remind me of that whole Ninjabread Man/Anubis II/Rock N’ Roll Adventures scenario on Wii where it’s basically the same game under the hood, but they just swapped out the graphics. I hate to think that’s actually the case here, but it looks to be very likely.
I’m honestly not so sure about these. Maybe as more is revealed, I’ll change my tune a bit, but right now, I’m not exactly sold on these things. If anything, it’s just making me want to go back and play that other Evil Dead game I’ve got on Xbox that isn’t Regeneration. As a matter of fact… I may be long overdue.
A preview clip of the upcoming season of Strange New Worlds… and it’s awful. I mean, is this supposed to be funny? Because I’m not laughing. It almost makes me wonder if maybe… just maybe… this series isn’t as good as I thought it was.
Dare I go back and re-watch the first two seasons?
So let me just say that I am fairly vocal in my dislike for the Bray Wyatt stuff. Creative guy, sure, but the execution was largely bad. And so when it comes to the Bray Wyatt Tribute Band, my hopes aren’t particularly high in this regard.
That having been said, should this start to fall apart, the only good thing I can take out of this is at the 2:28 mark, where Michael Cole, who’s hip with the youngsters, explain to said kids what a “V.H.S. tape” is. Next week, he should explain stuff like Betamax and 8-Tracks.
Digital Eclipse is putting out a new MMPR beat-em-up, which sees Robo-Rita team up with not-robo Rita to defeat the MMPR because… sure, why not?
On the one hand, it’s a beat-em-up. It looks pretty slick. And the five-player (maybe six?) multiplayer should make things lots of fun. On the other hand, the on-rail shooter and driving segments are red flags that have me concerned. Certainly not sold on first-person Megazord.
Other than that, I’d say that I’m… cautiously optimistic. Though whether it’ll be a fun little game or the second coming of that Mega Battles game from years ago is something we’ll find out later this year.
The latest trailer for Sega’s upcoming butchering remastering of a classic 3d Sonic title, Sonic X Shadow Generations. It’s allegedly the same Sonic Generations game you’ve played in the past, but now with a Shadow The Hedgehog sidegame that introduces new powers and such.
We call this the year of Shadow and yet we’re purposely veering away from the one game to bare Shadow’s name… You know, the ones with the guns. That’s the one everyone wants to see remade, but I guess that would be too much work. Either in rights fees or redubbing the whole game with the current cast. Probably why they’re not doing anything with the Sonic Adventure games, which is the stuff that people actually want to play.*
I joke about this being a “No Guns, No Buys” deal for me, but honestly, it’s less to do with that and more to with having a perfectly functional Sonic Generations game on Steam (and also PS3) to play at home. I bought the Sonic Colors Deluxe or whatever it was that came out a few years ago and all it did was make me want to revisit the original Wii version, instead.
Anyway, we’ll see about this one. Sonic X Shadow Generations is supposed to be out later this year. I’m sure the video has a solid release date, but I couldn’t be bothered to remember.