Author: thestrongstylesmarks

WWE Elimination Chamber 2019: Every Match Ranked

Another good one! Which means WWE is already doing better than they do at the start of most years in terms of good shows.

I don’t know if I just wasn’t expecting very much, or it really was that good but coming away from this show I found myself really surprised at how good it was. Both of the gimmick matches delivered and most of the mid-card was really entertaining too. It’s the kind of thing you don’t really expect from a February PPV, but here we are.

It wasn’t all brilliant though, so let’s take a look as I rank every match from Elimination Chamber 2019.

7 – Baron Corbin def. Braun Strowman
(No Disqualification)

As much as I liked this show, it is kind of weird how it turned into Raw for 45 minutes before the main event.

I moaned in my predictions about how we’re already back to the same old crap despite being told by WWE that times are changing, and that was very clearly on display here.

I get that there’s some poetic justice to Braun having done to him what was done to Corbin at TLC, but this feud has been the most boring part of Raw since Crown Jewel and needlessly extending it like seems like a horrible choice; especially considering Braun will likely get his win back on Raw. I also don’t quite understand why Lashley cares about any of this. He’s just lost IC title and outside of a meaningless 6 man tag match on Raw, he hasn’t been aligned with Corbin since last November.

If this is going to lead to Drew vs Braun at Mania then I guess this will be worth it, but we’ve still got a whole other PPV to go before then, and I really can’t be bothered to watch this every single week for another month.

6 – Ronda Rousey(c) def. Ruby Riott
(Raw Women’s Championship)

Admittedly the real story here is everything that happened after the match, but the actual match is what gets ranked here, and it wasn’t long enough to go any higher.

I get that Ruby Riott was only intended as cannon fodder for Rousey and was never going to win, but couldn’t you have at least tried to make her look good? Rousey’s really good at getting the best out of her opponent and I really think these two could’ve put on a solid match if they’d been given the chance.

Instead, the armbar was on pretty much instantly and Ruby tapped just as quick, and before the camera even had the chance to cut away Ruby was walking to the back. Everything that happened after that point was pretty good, not quite as good as what had been going on between these ladies on Raw the past few weeks, but still pretty good. I just feel that if this was always your goal, then instead advertise a “face to face” between Rousey and Charlotte, then have Becky show up during that instead of having Ruby Riott look like a chump.

5 – Buddy Murphey(c) def. Akira Tozowa
(Cruiserweight Championship)

This match was good, but I don’t really have a lot to say about it.

That’s the problem with these matches being the pre-show really, you can only watch so many before you run out of things to say about them. Like I said this match was good with a lot of fun stuff in it, but there aren’t any headlines outside of “Buddy Murphey retains”.

Especially on this show, which ended about 15 minutes early, you could’ve quite easily put this on the main show, and some throwaway tag team match like Rusev & Nakamura vs The Club on the pre-show instead. I know that’s not the best solution, but at least it makes more sense than constantly putting these amazing wrestlers (and an entire division) on the pre-show despite often putting on some of the best matches of the night.

4 – Finn Balor def. Bobby Lashley(c) & Lio Rush
(2 on 1 Handicap)
(Intercontinental Championship)

Well, colour me surprised.

I know the way this went down seems fairly obvious in hindsight, but I was really certain Balor wouldn’t be picking up the title here, not that I’m complaining. The match itself was nothing special, but watching it actually felt quite exciting, which was probably helped by the crowd being red hot throughout the entire show last night.

As much as Lio Rush being called the weak link isn’t great considering his talent, it makes story sense that he’s the reason Lashley lost the IC title. I imagine we’ll get a one on one match where Balor retains clean at some point before Mania anyway, but this is certainly a good first step in the story.

I’m also kind of looking forward to seeing a Lashley vs Rush match since I imagine Rush’s unique style of offence will bounce well off of Bobby’s fairly generic hoss style. So actually, this move seemed to be quite a good one that will likely lead to lots of interesting stuff.

3 – The Usos def. Shane Mcmahon & The Miz(c)
(Smackdown Tag Team Championships)

Yet another surprising title change! I’m starting to understand why I feel so good about this show.

I’ve bitched and moaned about the Shane and Miz tag team since day one, but I have to admit both of their Tag Title matches have been really quite entertaining to watch. Shane’s shock value stuff doesn’t really flow all that well in a singles match, in a tag team match where it can be broken up by everything the other three guys in the match can do.

This match also was able to tell a pretty good story of chemistry in a tag team, with the Usos often being able to outmanoeuvre Shane and Miz just by knowing each other way better. This also came into the finish where The Miz lost the match for his team and seemingly took it upon himself that he lost. Surprisingly it seems like there’s a lot more mileage to get out of this story and – I can’t believe I’m saying this – but I’m really looking forward to seeing what these two do on Tuesday.

Also, the titles being back on The Usos is just generally a great thing for whoever they end up facing next.

2 – Sasha Banks & Bayley def. Absolution, Nia Jax & Tamania, The Riott Squad, The IIconics, Naomi & Carmella
(Elimination Chamber)
(Women’s Tag Team Championships)

As much as I liked both Chamber matches, they were very much in two halves.

This first match had a little bit of everything throughout it. Sasha & Bayley starting off against Absolution turned out to be a pretty good combination, as the teams bounced well off each other, despite having very little experience wrestling each other in the past. As the match moved on everyone got their licks in, the best of which was – as you’d expect – The IIconics doing everything they do best.

The action picked up properly once Naomi and Carmella made their entrance and it didn’t really slow down from that point, with lots of quick action and eliminations and actual intelligence from the wrestlers in the match and all teaming up on the massive threats in Nia and Tamina.

The last 5 minutes or so genuinely had me on the edge of my seat, Nia and Tamina getting eliminated before the final two was a huge shock, and the remaining women put on such an exciting contest for the rest of the match. The drama and tension build up perfectly as both teams went back and forth, to point where they were actually able to create a moment where I genuinely thought Absolution were about to win after Sonya laid Bayley out and Mandy planted Sasha.

Eventually though, Sasha and Bayley would come out victorious and the emotion in that moment was quite heavy. The post-match interview felt genuine and heartwarming and hearing Beth Phoenix start to tear up on commentary hit me in just the right way. What a brilliant moment to kick the show off with and hopefully this will lead to something fantastic in the coming months.

1 – Daniel Bryan(c) def. Kofi Kingston, Randy Orton, AJ Styles, Jeff Hardy, Samoa Joe
(Elimination Chamber)
(WWE Championship)

Who would’ve thought that in 2019 Kofi Kingston would’ve been the most popular star on Smackdown?

This match is more obviously split into two halves than the women’s one. There was everything before the final two, and the final two of Bryan and Kofi facing off.

The first half was good, but nothing special. There were some fun highlights like AJ hitting a Phenomenal Forearm out of nowhere to eliminate Joe, followed up by a rather heavily telegraphed RKO to eliminate AJ. Not entirely sure what the point of Jeff Hardy being in there was, considering he was around for roughly 6 seconds before being eliminated by Daniel Bryan.

However, none of that really mattered by the end as Bryan and Kofi absolutely stole the show in this match. The constant back and forth that lasted for a whopping twelve minutes at the end of this match was absolutely fantastic with some brilliantly edge-of-your-seat moments. I’ve never heard a reaction quite like the one we got when Kofi kicked out of the first Running Knee, every single person in the arena was expecting the ref’s hand to hit three there and it got almost a collective gasp when Kofi kicked out.

Going into the match there was no doubt in my mind Bryan was walking out as champion, but during those final 12 minutes, I  genuinely had no idea who was going to win, and every finisher and kickout was perfectly timed. It’s these nail-biting moments that make you feel like a fan again, sure I could’ve thrown a hissy fit over there being a ropebreak in an Elimination Chamber match, but I didn’t want to, because what we were seeing was so good that why would I want to be miserable about it?

This is what Daniel Bryan being WWE Champion is amazing for, that man can elevate anyone he wrestles to a top tier competitor, of course, Kofi has to be given plenty of credit, but you’ve got to give some to Bryan too for making us all fall back in love with Kofi like we have. If we’re not going to get Bryan vs Kofi at Mania then I at least hope we get it at Fastlane, because giving these two a full 20-30 minutes could create one of the best matches of the year.

So there you have it! That’s my review of every match that took place at Elimination Chamber 2019. I really hope WWE can keep this good momentum going into the next couple months to create some really awesome moment on their shows in the first half of the year.

As always, thank you very much for taking the time out to read this, I’d appreciate it if you were to share this around on all your favourite social media sites, and of course, follow me on Twitter @10ryawoo for updates and the chance to be notified as soon as an article is posted!

WWE Elimination Chamber 2019 Predictions

I’ve never really liked having a PPV between the Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania. Sure, in the attitude era it would actually wrap up long-running storylines and set things up for Wrestlemania that actually felt important; but nowadays it just forces some half-assed storylines where everyone knows the outcome before they’ve even begun. So this year we’ve got two of them…Ok then.

That said, even when an Elimination Chamber is predictable it’s usually quite fun, so having two of them on the show (one of which for a brand new championship) gives at least some part of the show exciting stakes; not sure that can be said for the rest of the card, however.

Let’s take a look at it then shall we? I think we shall, here are my predictions for WWE Elimination Chamber 2019.

Braun Strowman vs Baron Corbin
(No Disqualification)

How quickly we revert to old habits.

When WWE came out and spouted out about it being a new era with new matches and new faces, I was one of the voices saying “give it time”. I felt they needed a month or so to end all the current storylines and tie up loose ends before moving on. Yet here we are in February, and Corbin, Drew & Lashley vs Braun “and friends” is still a thing we apparently need to deal with.

Quite frankly, this match shouldn’t be longer than a minute, as I don’t really think anyone wants to see it go much longer, matches like the Cruiserweight Championship shouldn’t be bumped to the pre-show in order to make room for this bollocks.

Oh yeah, Braun Strowman will win here, because he needs some sort of win after he got the wind taken out of his sails before the Royal Rumble before both mean likely end up in the battle royal at Wrestlemania.

Bobby Lashley(c) & Lio Rush vs Finn Balor
(2 on 1 Handicap)
(Intercontinental Championship)

How the mighty fall…

Remember as little as two months ago where the IC title was the most hotly contested title in the company? Fun times. As it stands now though, the prestigious title sits upon the shoulders of arguably the most boring wrestler in the entire company. That being said, Balor is talented enough to get at least a decent match out of Lashley, and with Lio Rush being in the mix as well, it’ll be a great opportunity for him to show off the awesome stuff he can do on a big stage.

As for whether the title will change hands, it’s a bit of a coin flip but I doubt it. Balor’s got to pick up that title, either before or at Wrestlemania, but we’ve already had some quick title changes and WWE don’t generally like letting babyfaces win the title on their first shot. So I’m going with what I feel is the safe option and pick Bobby Lashley & Lio Rush to win here.

Buddy Murphey(c) vs Akira Tozowa
(Cruiserweight Championship)

I’ll be honest, out of all the people in that Fatal 4 Way from the Rumble, Tozowa was not the one I was expecting to get a singles feud.the one hand, I want to say that they’re just spinning their wheels until Wrestlemania, but at the same time, I have absolutely no idea what the plans for Wrestlemania could possibly be. I don’t really see anyone on 205 Live that could be that a big a deal for a Wrestlemania match.

I’m sure this match will be pretty good, but I’m not expecting anything that special, especially since it will probably be bumped to the pre-show yet again. As for a winner, Buddy Murphey to retain seems like a pretty solid pick, Tozowa’s time has been and gone, it’d take a lot to build him up again in my eyes.

Shane Mcmahon & The Miz(c) vs The Usos
(Smackdown Tag Team Championships)

Ok, this has gone too far.

I wasn’t happy about Miz and Shane beating The Bar, but once it happened I could live with it, but if Miz and Shane beat The Usos, I may actually blow my lid.

I decided that once they won the title, I’d give the story a chance to breathe and show what it’s really all about, but over the past month, there hasn’t been a hint of anything interesting with the two of them. This was something I didn’t want to see in the first place, and I really don’t want to see any more of it.

Having said all of that though, I really don’t see them losing the titles here. The Usos have been in the Smackdown Tag Title scene for such an extended amount of time, with very small breaks and I really can’t see them going back to that well just yet. So, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Shane Mcmahon & The Miz retain their titles, via some form of dirty finish, just to give this story some form of intrigue.

Ronda Rousey(c) def. Ruby Riott
(Raw Women’s Championship)

Ronda Rousey, next question.

Seriously though, two years in a row now, Ruby Riott has got a title match in a situation where there is absolutely zero chance she wins. WWE is already going so hard building the Ronda, Becky, Charlotte storyline that there is absolutely no way that Ronda is losing that belt anytime before Wrestlemania.

The match will hopefully be pretty good, but I am fully confident in saying that Ronda Rousey will win.

Nia Jax & Tamina vs Naomi & Carmella vs Absolution vs The Riott Squad vs The IIconics vs Sasha Banks & Bayley
(Elimination Chamber)
(Women’s Tag Team Championships)

This is such a weird one to predict because honestly, you could make a good case for any of these teams to win. So let’s go through them all and analyse their chances, shall we?

Naomi & Carmella – This is pretty much the only team I can’t make a solid case for. It feels like a really thrown together team that exists for sole purpose of filling a spot in the chamber. I’m sure we’ll get a dance break or something fun like that, but I don’t imagine they’ll last very long and I certainly don’t expect them to win.

The IIconics – In my heart, this is the team I want to win, and while it’s possible, I seriously doubt it. These two will probably be the heels that dominate the early sections before getting eliminated in a big “shock”.

The Riott Squad – Part of me wants to say that these guys have a chance because of Ruby getting murdered by Ronda earlier on in the show (plus Sarah Logan is an awesome person), but I seriously doubt that’s the case. The whole Riott Squad have been getting the shaft since the moment they showed up on the main roster, which is tragic, but it’s the way it is so I don’t think they stand much of a chance.

Absolution – Weirdly, I do feel that these guys stand a small chance in this match. I don’t quite know why, but Mandy Rose has been such a central focus Smackdown this past month that I feel like it’s got be leading somewhere right? Then, I gave it a second thought and realised it’s probably just going to lead to Naomi pinning Mandy Rose and being the first ones eliminated.

Sasha Banks & Bayley – I refuse to call them “The Boss ‘N’ Hug Connection” because that’s an awful name. They’re one of the two that I keep going back and forth on to win this match, and I think their night will go one of two ways. Either they’ll fight through the whole match and pick up an unlikely but feel good win to pay off all the struggle both women have gone through over the past year, OR, they’ll fight all the way through to the final two only to have their dreams shattered at the last second and maybe one will turn on the other.

I’m leaning towards the latter, unfortunately, although I doubt we’ll see a heel turn from either woman just yet.

Nia Jax & Tamina – Yeah, these two winning just feels right doesn’t it? I’m not really a fan of either woman as a wrestler, but I’ve kind of liked what Nia Jax has been doing character wise recently. Generally, it seems like a decent idea for these two to win here, only to be conquered by some heroic babyfaces (probably Banks & Bayley) at Wrestlemania.

I’ve gone back and forth while writing this section a lot, but in the end, I think Nia Jax & Tamina is the right choice.

Daniel Bryan(c) vs AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe vs Kofi Kingston vs Jeff Hardy vs Randy Orton
(Elimination Chamber)
(WWE Championship)

I was quite surprised that we were getting a WWE title match at this show since traditionally the Elimination Chamber has been used to determine the Wrestlemania opponent for the opposite title to the Royal Rumble winner, but I guess they want to do that at Fastlane instead.

Either way, let’s go through and look at the chances of each competitor here.

Jeff Hardy – I think it says a lot about how badly things have gone for Jeff Hardy recently, that I completely forgot he was in this match and had to look it up, even though I’m writing this on Wednesday, about 4 hours after I watched the go-home Smackdown. I’m sure he’ll do a Swanton off the top of a pod, but I imagine he’ll be eliminated pretty soon after that moment.

Samoa Joe – It feels just a little too late for Joe, unfortunately. I’m sure Samoa Joe will win a world title eventually, but I don’t see it coming any time in the first half of the year. he was quite heavily damaged by the AJ Styles feud that went on far too long, and he needs a series of CLEAN wins over high calibre opponents to build him back up. Regardless, Sunday isn’t going to be his night.

Kofi Kingston – When I heard that Kogi would be replacing Ali in the match, I didn’t really care, but then I watched the Gauntlet match on Smackdown and holy crap I want Kofi to win so badly now. He’s been in a tag team for so damn long, that I think we all forgot that Kofi is an amazing singles wrestler too, and he I hope he gets more of a chance to show his stuff here. That said, he’s not going to win, as much as I’d love for the New Day to have a world title, now’s really not the time for it to happen.

Randy Orton – Every part of my brain is telling me he has zero chance, but it’s Randy Orton, and I live in constant fear that he’s going to win the WWE Championship again at any moment. That said, they made such a big deal of Orton being the last man to enter, and I can see them arguing about it for roughly 30 minutes on the pre-show panel, that there’s no way he can possibly win.

AJ Styles – This is the only man that I could potentially see winning the title here, and weirdly, it’s the only man I don’t really want to win the title here. I’ve said this before, but I’m pretty done with WWE Champion AJ Styles, it got really stale towards the end of the run and I really don’t think there’s anyone I’d like to see him face come Wrestlemania, so he’s to hoping it doesn’t happen.

Daniel Bryan – Yeah, there’s no way that titles changing hands. I just can’t see any scenario for Wrestlemania where Daniel Bryan isn’t WWE Champion going into it. He’s the best character on Smackdown live right now (if we count Becky Lynch as being above brand right now), and he’s just got a new lacky in the form of Rowan so I don’t see that title going anywhere for quite a while.

I’m sure this match will be great, as I usually quite enjoy Elimination Chamber matches, but the result is pretty inevitable and Daniel Bryan is walking out of there with that beautiful championship over his shoulder.

So there are my predictions! Thank you very much for taking the time out to read this and sharing it around on social media would be very much appreciated. Follow me on Twitter @10ryawoo for live tweets of the event, and make sure to come back early next week for my review!

 

My Favourite Stories in Video Games

Every form of media out there is trying to tell us some form of story. TV, Film, even advertising is there to craft some sort of narrative to sell to us in some way, but I think no medium achieves that better than video games. When I’m playing a game I’m not just watching the action unfold, I’m making it unfold. Actually being in control of what’s going on and how everything plays out gets me more invested in the world I’m in than any other form of storytelling.

So today, I want to celebrate that. I want to talk about my favourite stories that video games have ever told me, and break down just what it is that makes it brilliant and why they draw the emotions out of me that they do.

NOTE: This post will contain both minor and major SPOILERS for each of the games I’m talking about, so be warned.

Bully

Bully is somewhat unique in why its story is so effective. Normally in games, the story of the game serves to build the world, but in Bully I find that the world is what makes the story so much fun.

Setting the game in a school seems like such a simple change from Rockstar’s usual formula, but it completely transforms your attitude towards all of the characters you encounter. It does such a brilliant job of emulating your time in school and capturing that feeling of wandering around a school and recognising all the faces and going to all the classes.

That dynamic creates a weird relationship with the main villain in Gary, because he’s so evil and hatable, but unlike something like GTA, you can’t just go and fight him because you’ll get expelled from school. This causes the story to become more about using the intricate social construct of the school to undermine him and take his power away like that.

It’s exactly the kind of story that you would come up with when in the playground at school, and I think that makes it all the more brilliant.

The Stanley Parable

“Story” may not quite be the right word to describe what takes place in the Stanley Parable, more of an experiment.

That said, there is a very simple story there, all you have to do is listen to the narrator and you get told a simple story about a man named Stanley fighting against the system to gain his freedom. As I’m sure most of you know by now though, that’s not where the brilliance of this game lies.

The Stanley Parable was the first game to properly take the idea of a “meta-narrative” and run with it. There’s been a lot of games who’ve tried since, and many have done a rather good job of it, but I don’t think any have topped this one.

All of the jokes and narrative points are things that can only come from truly understanding exactly how a game works. Anyone can make some jokes about common gaming tropes, but it takes a deep understanding of how a game is constructed in order to totally obliterate it like The Stanely Parable does.

Subsurface Circular

I’ve spoken about Quantum Circular a fair bit in the past, but I’ve never had much of a chance to talk about its predecessor, Subsurface Circular.

This game gives you a very simple premise, and then sends you off to learn all about the world, using the framing of trying to solve a mystery. You then spend the whole game riding around on one train line and encountering lots of different people from all different areas of this society and while interrogating them, they tell you their stories. Why they’re on the train, how they’re feeling about their life, what their goals and hopes are, and the entire game serves as to build up to one of the hardest choices I’ve ever had to make in a game.

We’re going into full SPOILER territory now, so if you want to play the game yourself, then it’s time to scroll down to the next game.

During your investigation, you find about this figure, who is in charge of a rebellion, which is looking to overturn the current government and install a new one, and he gives you a very simple choice. Kill him and stop the revolution, or kill yourself and allow the revolution to take place. I went back and forth on this choice so many times, because I’d spent the past few hours learning all about the world, seeing good people who have had their lives destroyed by the government and good people who rely on this government for their livelihood.

On top of all that, the game doesn’t let you see the result of your choice, which is such an underused, yet brilliant technique. It means there is no “right” choice, the game leaves you to ponder it in your own head and an experience like that is something that stays with you for a long time.

Life is Strange

No points for guessing this one would be on the list.

Life is Strange takes a similar setting to Bully, but goes more down the path of realism, than nostalgia. The characters in Life is Strange are very grounded in reality, even if they do have some more “out there” traits.

It’s another game that spends so much time getting you invested in the world and all the characters in it, only to turn all that emotional investment around on you at key points in the story. I had some level of emotional connection to every character in Life is Strange, regardless of whether it was positive or negative, I cared about all of them in some way, and I could actually remember all of their names, which is a rarity for a game with as many characters as this one.

Then we come to the most memorable point of this game, the final choice. (Full SPOILER territory coming at y’all right now.)

I was in an odd position going into Life is Strange, because I went into it already knowing what the final choice was, and it seemed like an easy choice at first. Then I played through the game, and when I came to the final choice, I suddenly realised just how difficult it was. At face value, it’s a choice between your best friend or everyone else you know, but it’s so much more than that when you look through it all.

For one thing, it’s a problem that you caused which gives you such a huge sense of responsibility and you feel like you need to own up to your actions. On top of that though, you have the knowledge that, by saving the town, so much of the work you’d put towards getting to know people and helping them turn their lives around and become better people will all be undone.

This time, the game does show you a brief look at the consequences of your choice, but it doesn’t really frame either choice as “right”, once again leaving you to ponder your choices.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky

To those who have never played the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series, this might seem like a strange pick, since Pokemon isn’t exactly known for their high emotion, well-written stories, but hear me out.

PMD doesn’t try to subvert any narrative tropes or try to craft some unique story, however, it uses all of the tropes extremely effectively, and implements them in such a way that you don’t quite seem them coming. The story uses the idea of a world of Pokemon, without any human interaction to great effect and has plenty of mystery to keep you going the whole way through.

I find it interesting how PMD doesn’t stray from the theme that the main series Pokemon games have, and yet the way the narrative is crafted is almost unrecognisable. Spending the whole game building up a friendship with your partner Pokemon is something that the main series try to achieve, but you’re fairly limited when you can’t actually communicate with them at all. So PMD thrusts this character upon you in such a way, that you end up having a fairly similar journey towards friendship with them as your character does in the game; starting off as some slightly annoying, random  character that you wish would just leave you alone, to your best friend that you’ve fought with side by side the whole journey.

You add in all the other mad and wonderful complexities that the Explorers of Sky narrative has to it – which there just isn’t time to go into now – and you’ve got yourself one hell of an emotional rollercoaster ride. Explorers of Sky has a slight leg up on it from its counterparts (Explorers of Time/Darkness) since it has a set of additional stories that gives some background to all of the characters.

That final gut-punch of a narrative point is such a wonderful moment, I well up at games a fair amount, but it takes a lot to make me actually cry at something on a screen, and that’s exactly what PMD: EoS achieved.

Spec Ops: The Line

Spec Ops is the exception to my key rule of the games I play and enjoy. Usually, my general attitude is that I play games to have fun, and that’s pretty much it, but Spec Ops: The Line isn’t a fun game, not at all, so why is it here?

What happens when you play Spec Ops, is you boot it up, get told the basic premise for the game and are sent to a ruined city to go and shoot some bad guys. Then as the game progresses, the character you play as will start to do some things that you as the player will disagree with slightly, I didn’t think much of it at the time because I often disagree with characters in things and carried on.

The game then continues to reel you in with its generic shooter gameplay and basic tactics and choice systems, as you begin to notice your mission is sliding down a slippery slope. As the other members of your squad start to argue and say you’ve lost your mind, you don’t quite understand what they’re talking about, then the game reveals it’s hand and knocks you the fuck out with what it’s actually been doing the whole time.

(BIG SPOILERS RIGHT NOW)

This whole time you’ve been playing the game and shooting all these people, in an attempt to hunt down the big bad guy. He never existed, the whole game you’ve been killing American troops and civilians, and the game lingers on that fact, it spends so much time showing you just how much of a monster you truly are.

It’s a game that makes you question everything you know about military shooters and also game narratives, it’s thanks to Spec Ops that I now over analyse and instantly distrust decisions that the characters make. It taught me to just not blindly go with whatever the game is telling me and actually think for myself on what the narrative is trying to do.

It’s an uncomfortable and unpleasant game to play through, but it completely changed how I view narratives in games and how I approach a whole genre, and that is a story that deserves all the praise in the world.

Octopath Traveller

I’ve already talked a lot about Octopath Traveller, so I’m going to try my best not to repeat myself when talking about its story.

The thing that’s unique about Octopath, is that it’s not just a single linear story, it’s 8 stories, all technically separate but the way in which you encounter them makes them feel like their interweaving. Each of the stories themselves aren’t anything outstanding or revolutionary, but every single one of Octopath’s characters is so carefully and brilliantly crafted that they vastly increase the quality and impact of the stories they’re in.

Every single character in Octopath feels like a real person, and I feel like I understand them on a fairly deep level. I know who they are, what they want, how they prefer to go about getting it. Then you add on the travel banter scenes where the characters interact with each other and you slowly learn all of the little nuances to them that really make you feel like you’re on a journey with them.

When these characters are then placed into their respective stories, you feel fully aligned with them and ready to charge head-on into achieving their goals. Never once in Octopath did I find myself at odds with one of the characters, I felt like I knew them and thus understood some of their more questionable actions.

That feeling of unity with the characters is something that I can’t honestly say I’ve felt in a game on this level before or since, and it’s something I wish more games could achieve.

Thomas Was Alone

It’s a red rectangle, it can move left, right and it can jump, and it is the most well rounded, well-written character to ever come from a video game.

Made by the infinitely talented Mike Bithell (who also made Subsurface Circular & Quantum Circular), every single part of the design in this game is focused around enhancing the story. Everything is beautifully told through the narration of Danny Wallace, who’s voice creates such a warm and wonderful feeling when you listen to it, to the point where I can honestly say this story wouldn’t be as good with someone else reading it.

Even the visual design of all of the characters contributes to their personalities – despite all just being slightly different rectangles – because that’s exactly what makes this story work so well, the personalities. The characters are all AI’s that were created by some unidentified programmers, so they all feel like they’re just learning about the world. When you first encounter Thomas he’s essentially trying to come to terms with his own sentience.

All of the AI’s have moments like this, as they begin to discover emotions you quite literally see their personalities grow from nothing and form into some adorably ridiculous characters. Such as Chris, who just wants to be left alone at all times, or Claire, who can do something no one else can do so jumps to the conclusion that she must be a superhero.

Then you put these personalities together and you see these characters grow and begin to understand the world around them the more they interact with each other. This naivety from the characters really makes you feel like you need to look after them and you end up caring for them quite deeply. The characters also begin to start looking after each other as things progress, as the puzzles are designed in such a way that none of them can complete a level without help from another.

Never have I ever cared for characters in a game more than I have in Thomas Was Alone, and the world and story the game crafts is just so warm and wonderful that I can’t help but fall back in love every time I play it.

And that’s it! Thank you very much for reading, make sure to share this around of social media if you enjoyed and follow me on Twitter @10ryawoo for more thoughts on both games and wrestling. I’ll see you next time!

NXT Takeover Phoenix: Every Match Ranked

Finally.

I’ve been wanting to do this for ages, but I’d never really found the time. However, NO MORE, as today is the day I get to talk all about my favourite thing in modern pro-wrestling.

Admittedly, I didn’t think this Takeover was quite as good as any of the ones that took place in 2018, but, there is no such thing as a bad Takeover and it was still an extremely high-quality show. So let’s break this down match by match and look at all the lovely wrestling details that lie inside.

5 – Matt Riddle def. Kassius Ohno

This should show how good this show was because even though I’ve ranked this match as the worst, I still thought it was great.

I was pretty interested to see what kind of stuff Riddle would pull out in his first big Takeover match like this. He didn’t necessarily blow me away in this match, but it’s clear he’s a brilliant talent and hasn’t shown all he has in his arsenal just yet.

There were some pretty gnarly spots as well, with Ohno and Riddle hitting each other surprisingly hard at some points in the match. Ohno also tried to eat Riddle’s toe, which is…..fine I guess? It’s what you get for wrestling barefoot I suppose. The finish was pretty fun too, with it referencing their NXT TV match in a couple points before Riddle would pick up a decisive victory.

Ultimately this wasn’t going to be anything amazing given that these guys have already been fighting a whole bunch since Riddle debuted, but it was a good introductory feud for him, I look forward to seeing where he’s going to go next.

4 – Shayna Baszler(c) def. Bianca Belair
(NXT Women’s Championship)

Belair’s stock just got shot into the stratosphere.

This match was nowhere near the level of Baszler vs Sane, but it didn’t matter, because it did exactly what it needed to do, make Belair look like a star.

I don’t think I was alone in that I wasn’t too crazy about Belair going into this match. Granted, I liked her more than Sam Roberts seemed to, but that’s beside the point. This match completely turned my opinion around on Belair though, as it seemed like the perfect showcase for her talents. Baszler naturally came in underestimating her, and it was exactly that which allowed Belair to get in some of her better shots and almost get the win on a couple of occasions.

The finish was also great, with Belair breaking Baszler’s clutch the first time, and then almost breaking it on the second attempt before finally succumbing. She now feels like a much bigger deal than she did going into the match, and it means we don’t have to worry about what might happen to her now her UN-DEA-FEA-TED streak is over.

3 – War Raiders def. The Undisputed Era(c)
(NXT Tag Team Championships)

The team to finally take down the Undisputed Era was going to be a tricky one to work out. We thought it would be Moustache Mountain, but thanks to NXT UK starting up, UE got their titles back pretty quickly and moved on.

However, since last summer things have changed in NXT, ever since War Games, it’s felt to me like Undisputed Era are starting to wind down in NXT before bowing out later this year. Luckily, the perfect candidates to carry the titles next had just arrived in the form of War Raiders.

The thing with UE, is that, even though their small guys, you can’t just have some big dudes run them through. They proved that with Heavy Machinery, sure UE were outmuscled at every opportunity, but the whole point of UE is that their smart, they can duck and move and know exactly when to strike to ensure victory.

War Raiders aren’t just big dudes though. They’ve got the muscle sure, but these guys have the agility and speed to go with it, and they show a level of ring intelligence that UE hasn’t faced very often during their reign as champions. That’s the story I think they’re going to try and tell in the rematch, that UE were caught off guard by something new, and they lost before they could adapt.

UE has always shown such a high level of subtle, yet deep psychology that I’m seriously looking forward to this pair’s second match.

2 – Tommaso Ciampa(c) def. Aleister Black
(NXT Championship)

Kinda funny how Aleister Black’s entrance music claims “No man is ever truly evil” and yet here he’s facing the personification of evil in wrestling.

In terms of hype, this was certainly the match I was most looking forward to. Black is hands down my favourite wrestler in the world right now and Ciampa is arguably the best heel in the whole of WWE. Their styles also tend to be very hard hitting and often featuring lots of quick strikes.

I’m happy to say that’s pretty much what we got. The action here wasn’t exactly at a lightning pace, but it was deliberate and hard-hitting which helped the match feel like an absolute war. I’ll get into some of the similarities between Gargano & Ciampa’s matches later, but the callbacks to Gargano vs Black in this match were brilliant and seeing just how Ciampa was having NONE of the crap Gargano fell for.

I thought the finish was brilliant and made both men look really good, with Black kicking out of a second Fairy-Tale Ending, then being able to counter a third and only failing to hit with Black Mass because Ciampa had spent the whole match wearing down Black’s leg, before finally succumbing to a fourth Fairy-Tale Ending.

I don’t think Black is quite done with NXT just yet, and if I were to hazard a guess, I’d say a triple threat between Black, Gargano and Ciampa is on the horizon, and the way this match ended gives Black just enough to believably claim another title shot.

1 – Johnny Gargano def. Ricochet(c)
(NXT North American Championship)

Gargano strikes again, with another match of the year contender.

I don’t think anyone was ever doubting that this match was going to be brilliant, and yet I still managed to come out of this one blown away at how good it was. The extended sequences of the two going back and forth with all of the flippy stuff is just a joy to watch, and even if it’s not for you, you’ve got to admit there is an inherent sense of fun to it.

This match also gave us the continuation of the Gargano/Ciampa storyline, despite neither of them having any interactions with each other until the very end of the night. The idea that Gargano is trying to be Ciampa in order to echo his level of success is something that has never been more clear than right here, when Gargano would rip up the padding on the floor, as Ciampa would later in the night, and screaming “I win” in Ricochet’s face at the end of the match, just like Ciampa would at the end of his match.

The two of them standing side by side to end the show is just a great shot, and once again I find myself so interested for where this story’s going to go because I think it’s going to be great.

So that was my first ever NXT Takeover review! If you enjoyed it then please share it around on social media, so we can get more eyes on this, and come tell me what you thought of the show on Twitter @10ryawoo. I’ll see you soon!

WWE Royal Rumble 2019: Every Match Ranked

It’s now been 12 hours since the Royal Rumble finished, I’ve slept for about 10 of them, and I’m still not entirely sure I’ve recovered from everything that happened on Sunday night. I know that sounds like a bad thing, but it’s actually the opposite because I’m buzzing so much over everything that could happen going forward now.

This year’s Rumble was a really enjoyable show, with most of the non-Rumble matches delivering on a much higher level than they normally do. Still, the arbitrary rankings are calling so we must take every match on the show and order them from the very worst, to the very best.

Quick Note: Bobby Roode & Chad Gable vs Rezar & Scott Dawson is dead last, I just have absolutely nothing to say about it, so I’m not even going to bother officially ranking it.

9 – Daniel Bryan(c) def. AJ Styles
(WWE Championship)

Erick Rowan?!

Imagine going back two years and telling yourself that Daniel Bryan vs AJ Styles would be the worst match on a big 4 Pay-Per-View featuring a Brock Lesnar match, no-one would believe you, and yet here we are.

For one thing, this match really did get the worst spot of the night in terms of the order of matches. Having two Rumbles on one show can be a bit of a curse since you either have to put them back to back and risk exhausting your audience, or separate them and have one of your big matches get completely ignored by a tired crowd.

Bryan and Styles tried so hard to get the crowd back into this one, but after Becky Lynch winning the women’s Rumble in the fashion she did, it was never going to happen. That said, what happened in the match didn’t really help matters.

Right out of the gate the match was quite a standard WWE style main event. I don’t know if they were told to reign it in, or just didn’t bother but I really felt like this match needed to kick off at a fever pitch to really get the crowd to pay attention following the women’s Rumble. Secondly…Erick Rowan.

I don’t even know what to say to this. Rowan going from, an emotionless big dude that hits people with a hammer, to, Chequered shirt wearing vegan who cares about the environment might be one of the biggest and most sudden character changes I’ve seen in quite a long time.

8 – Shinsuke Nakamura def. Rusev(c)
(United States Championship)

Weirdly, this was the most surprising result of the night.

I wasn’t expecting a great deal from this match, and while it didn’t blow me away, it was certainly a fun match that was a lot better than what we usually get on the pre-show.

I’m not entirely sure why Shinsuke Nakamura won since, from a creative standpoint, I don’t really see what more Nakamura can do with the title (which is weird considering he did literally nothing with it). Realistically, I don’t see Nakamura holding on to this title for much longer, probably dropping it to someone like Rey or Andrade very soon, and I’m really worried that another short reign like this will destroy what little prestige that US title has left.

7 – Shane Mcmahon & The Miz def. The Bar(c)
(Smackdown Tag Team Championships)

Wrong.

In the past 10 months, Cesaro & Sheamus have lost their tag team titles to both a 10-year-old kid and have been pinned by Shane Mcmahon and his ugly ass shooting star press, a move I love but somehow Shane made it look crap.

That said, this match was fairly enjoyable, Shane did all his usual crap and it had minimal bearing on the match, Miz was working his ass off here to make this thing look competitive. The Bar was great as usual, although they weren’t really allowed to kick into that higher gear which is so fun to watch.

All I can hope for right now is that this title reign is short because if it’s still going by Wrestlemania I might lose my mind.

6 – Brock Lesnar(c) def. Finn Balor
(Universal Championship)

Well, I can’t say I was expecting any different.

It’s hard to get a lot of real excitement behind a match were the ending feel inevitable the whole time, but these “Brock Lesnar vs small guy” matches seem to keep delivering.

I didn’t enjoy this as much as I did Lesnar vs Bryan, but I think this told a different story, even if it did hit the same beats in places. Having Finn blast Brock right out of the gate was a good move to make sure the crowd were into this one, especially following the fairly vapid WWE Championship match that preceded it.

Ultimately having Finn tap to the Kimura is never going to make him look weak, this is the same move that made The Undertaker tap out after all. The attack after the bell should be good for giving Seth more motivation to take down Brock following his Rumble win, I just hope Balor keeps the momentum he’s built up over the past couple of weeks.

5 – Buddy Murphy(c) def. Hideo Itami & Kalisto & Akira Tozowa
(Cruiserweight Championship)

Just put these guys on the main show, come on.

I really feel that the cruiserweight division needs more matches like this. One on one contests on 205 Live are often excellent, but if you want to get a crowd going on a pre-show (or even early on in the main show), you want a good fast paced multi-man match.

There was great action from start to finish here, and it allowed some of the more forgotten talents on 205 Live, such as Tozowa show that they can still go just as good as anyone else on that roster and deserve these featured spots.

I hope we get a really good one on one feud coming out of this match, as I think Murphey and any of these guys would be a brilliant match to watch.

4 – Ronda Rousey(c) def. Sasha Banks
(Raw Women’s Championship)

The structure of the show last night was quite weird. Having both women’s title matches go on early and then immediately followed by the women’s Rumble seemed like an odd choice, but it seemed to serve the overall narrative of the night quite nicely.

This match wasn’t as flashy or as fast as you’d expect the match to be, but that didn’t detract from the quality of the match whatsoever because the storytelling here was fantastic. It really feels like, with every new opponent she faces, Ronda has to learn something new about how to wrestle. Sasha was in control for a large portion of the match and Ronda seems to really excel· in matches like this at looking like an efficient and smart wrestler, waiting for her spot and taking control at crucial moments.

It was a wrestling match that just focused on wrestling, and sometimes that’s all you really need.

3 – Asuka(c) def. Becky Lynch
(Smackdown Women’s Championship)

WWE proving here that sometimes they can have their cake and eat it too.

I’d like to point out how hard I found it to choose which women’s title match was better, they were both brilliant in different ways, and believably the order could be reversed and I’d still be happy with it. In the end, I settled on putting this one higher because it felt just a tad faster paced and had a tiny bit sweeter of a finish.

As for the details of the match, I find myself saying pretty much the same things I said for Ronda vs Sasha, it was just 15 minutes of solid and fun to watch wrestling. As I mentioned, I liked the finishing sequence a little more, with Asuka and Becky constantly reversing their submission holds until Asuka catches Becky out with something she wasn’t expecting.

While I was a little apprehensive of Becky tapping out at the time, but given what happened later in the night I don’t think it matters. It ended up as being a pretty great way to give Asuka a strong win heading into Wrestlemania seasons without it costing Becky anything.

2 – Seth Rollins wins the Men’s Royal Rumble Match

It was SO close between these Rumble matches, I had to watch both of them a second time before I could make a decision I was happy with. I’ll talk about why I picked one over the other in the number 1 spot, so for now, let’s go through all the highlights in this match.

We kicked things off, as we always should, with Elias. He did his stuff before eventually being interrupted by none other than Double J, Jeff Jarrett. This was something I’d always wanted to see, but I never thought it would actually happen. They tease a duet before Elias takes a cheap shot on Jarrett, followed by a smash with the guitar and a swift elimination.

The NXT entrants were also great this year. After giving us Almas and Adam Cole last year, WWE decided to check the other three boxes on my, favourite wrestlers in the world right now list, by giving us Johnny-freaking-Wrestling, Pete-goddamn-Dunne and ALEISTER FUCKING BLACK. While there is a part of me that is still absolutely furious that Baron Corbin eliminated Black, all three guys got a great showcase in the match and I love every single one of them. Now in 2020, we need Velveteen Dream to come out to have a stare down with Nakamura and I’ll have got everything I’ve ever wanted from Rumble cameos.

The comedy spots in this match were also pretty spot on, Curt Hawkins hiding under the ring, followed by Titus O’Neil’s reaction to the whole thing was very funny, and resulted in Hawkins actually getting an elimination, which was cool.

Nia Jax trying to do what Becky Lynch did was also very fun to watch as well. It’s a little unclear what the rules are on women entering the men’s Rumble now there is actually a women’s Rumble, but I’ll go with it for now. I never really thought about Nia Jax getting RKO’ed until Sunday night, but once the scenario was placed in front of me, I realised I’d never wanted to see anything more in my life. I know some people are up in arms over this, but I think Nia’s got the build to pull it off, and there’s been so much heat behind Nia since the incident with Becky that the crowd were over the moon to see her get beat up for a second time that night.

The final four onwards was also excellent, not quite as good as last year’s final four but I still thought it was great. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Seth getting laid out for a little while, but it wasn’t actually for very long so I didn’t mind it too much in the end. Watching Ziggler, Almas & Rollins teaming up to try and take down Strowman was fun, and I especially liked when Rollins did the smart thing and got the fuck out of the way when Strowman started to rally.

The final sequence was nail-biting stuff too. Once again I found my logical wrestling brain arguing with my emotional brain over what was going to happen moment to moment. Of course, WWE aren’t going to do Strowman vs Lesnar at Mania, but during that whole final segment, I was so scared that’s exactly what would happen.

Overall this Rumble match had lots of great action from start to finish and now we get to sit back and enjoy the ride to Mania where Seth will (hopefully) take down Lesnar (please, God).

 1 – Becky Lynch wins the Women’s Royal Rumble Match

So this is what happens when the man comes around…

Unlike the men’s Rumble, this match wasn’t great the whole way through, in fact, I’d argue the first half of the match didn’t have a great deal to enjoy at all. However about halfway through the action really picked up and all the raw emotion surrounding the finish were unrivalled.

Going into more detail, the match started off a bit sloppily, with Lacey Evans not being quite as crisp as she could’ve been on some spots early on, and until Charlotte hit the ring, there just felt like there was a general lack of action.

Billie Kay refusing to enter the ring until Peyton Royce showed up was pretty entertaining in the way only the IIconics can pull off, and Nikki Cross getting one of the loudest reactions of the night was pretty cool too. We also got to see the world’s most adorable badass in Kairi Sane, running down to the ring while looking through her telescope, how is that helping in any way? I just love her so much.

We got a whole bunch of innovative spots from Naomi and NXT’s Kacy Catanzaro (a name with far too many syllables for me to remember), which kept the pace going at a point in the match where things could’ve quite easily sunk back down into a slump. In addition to this, we got some comedy in this match as well, and I know most people hated this, but I couldn’t help but giggle when Hornswoggle popped out from under the ring where Zelina Vega was hiding, although I would’ve loved to see Almas kicking the piss out of the little guy once they got backstage.

Eventually, we get to the closing stages of the match, specifically where Lana comes out at number 28. She makes it to the top of the stairs and then begins to limp very slowly down the ramp. Now, at this point is when the eyes of everyone watching lit up with hope, we didn’t want to get our hopes up just yet, but we could believe what might happen. Following an attack from Nia for good measure and Carmella entering the ring and being instantly forgotten about, IT happened.

The thing we were all praying for, but refused to believe in actually happened, as Becky Lynch wandered up to Fit Finlay who was tending to Lana and made her case right there on the spot and – after a quick debate – Finally gave the green light, the crowd (and I) when crazy as Becky officially entered the Women’s Royal Rumble match.

Everything from this point on in the match was fantastic, a whole bunch of quick and impressive looking eliminations with Bliss, Carmella, Bayley all falling one by one. Lynch would pull Nia off of the ring apron to eliminate her before Nia responded by beating Becky up. At this point Charlotte really came into her own for this performance, as Becky was being tended to by officials on the outside, Charlotte watched on in glee, goading Becky and revelling in the fact that she was about to be declared the winner without having to do anything.

It wasn’t to be though and as the referee was about to raise Charlotte’s arm, Becky burst back into the match, screaming at Charlotte with a tear in her eye “You’ve taken enough from me, you’re not taking this” – just thinking about it brings a tear to my eye. After a quick scuffle, Charlotte was dumped to the floor and Becky finally won the Royal Rumble.

The emotions here were so powerful and is a testament to how amazingly well all of the women involved have been booked since the summer. It was these emotions that made me realised that I had to pick this match over the men’s since it gave us what may be my favourite Royal Rumble moment ever.

Thank you very much for reading this review, if you enjoyed it then please share it around on social media, and if you disagreed with me on any of these points, then come shout at me about it on Twitter @10ryawoo. Finally, make sure you stick around because later in the week I will be posting my review of NXT Takeover: Phoenix. I’ll see you there!