WWE Greatest Royal Rumble Review

(Originally Posted Apr 2018)

What an evening! This was quite the mixed bag of a show, and there’s a whole lot to unpack, so let’s not waste any time! Here is my match-by-match review of the Greatest Royal Rumble:

John Cena vs Triple H

This was a great match to open the show with if you ask me, as it really set the tone going forward; That tone being, a show more focused on having fun, than on progressing stories, and I think, for the most part, it was much better for it. If you imagine in your head what a modern Cena vs Triple H match would be, that’s exactly what this match was, nicely paced spots to get the crowd going followed by a whole bunch of finishers and kickouts, for John Cena to eventually get the win with two consecutive AA’s. Nice, simple, fun match to get things going.

Cedric Alexander vs Kalisto

This match followed pretty much the same formula as the previous one, only with a very different style of wrestling. My main problem with the cruiserweights, is on Pay-Per-Views, they don’t let them so cruiserweight matches, they just let them do cruiserweight spots. You watch any singles match on 205 Live in the past couple months and compare it to the PPV matches and you’ll see a whole world of difference between the style of matches. There was no reason for Cedric to spend 5 minutes working a hold to ground Kalisto, when Cedric is very much a high-flyer himself.

That said, there was also a lot to enjoy about this match, the cruiserweight spots they did are always fun, and when Kalisto has a good opponent to work he shines, the Spanish Fly from the top rope was especially fun, even if Kalisto did decide to do an extra flip once he landed. The finish was also great fun as Cedric Alexander countered the Salida-Del-Sol into the Lumbar Check to retain his title.

Matt Hardy & Bray Wyatt vs The Bar

This match is a weird one for me, because I remember watching it, and enjoying it while it was going on, but thinking back to it now, I can’t remember a single thing that happened during it. Since rewatching it however, I’ve seen it was more of what we’ve come to expect from both these teams. The Bar are fantastically talented, and they’re going to thrive in the tag scene on Smackdown, but I’m mostly interested to see how this Matt & Bray thing reaches its final form, so to speak.

While I’ve been having fun watching it, there still feels like there’s a lack of cohesion between the two, Bray feels like he needs to adopt more of Matt’s tendencies in order to fit this gimmick; This is inherently a silly storyline and Bray still feels like he’s trying to be too serious. That said, now these two have the titles, they’re going to likely be getting a lot more development over the coming months and I look forward to seeing where this goes next.

Jeff Hardy vs Jinder Mahal

I mentioned in my predictions that, when Jinder is forced to work a faster pace, he can put on a decent match, and I think we saw that here. Jeff Hardy could easily wrestle circles around Jinder, but he did a very good job of keeping up to make a very enjoyable, if inconsequential, match.

It wasn’t all good however, the weirdest botch of the night in my opinion happened in this match when:

– Jeff goes to the top rope for Whisper in the Wind

– Jinder, with no sense of urgency, gets up and walks off

– Jeff pauses, looks back, sees that Jinder isn’t there anymore

– Does the flip onto nothing anyway

– At which point Jinder walks up to Jeff AND JUST FALLS OVER

I honestly can’t even work out what they were trying to achieve, but I can safely say that, unless it was an attempt to confuse me, they very much failed at it. Luckily the match picked up again after that, for Jeff Hardy to win the match with a Swanton Bomb.

The Bludgeon Brothers vs The Usos

I think we all went into this not expecting much. As much as the build has been fantastic, the match at Wrestlemania was certainly nothing to shout about, and I was certainly expecting another glorified squash here. But to my surprise, these two teams put on a competitive and fast-paced match that was thoroughly enjoyable. The Usos were able to keep that feel that they were fighting against two horror movie villains, just desperately trying everything they could to keep them down, throwing out Superkicks and Splashes like they were nothing. It was all to no avail however, as The Bludgeon Brothers continue their dominance, and retain their titles.

Seth Rollins vs Finn Balor vs The Miz vs Samoa Joe

This match proved something quite crucial I feel, which is that ladder matches don’t just have to be about ladder spots. I mean don’t get me wrong there were plenty of ladder spots in this match, but it was all laced together with a healthy dose of pure wrestling and good story-telling aswell. The main story of this match being that Finn Balor just cannot catch a break.

There were so many points in the match were he had his fingertips on the title only for someone to knock him down, and make him start all over again. This was typified by the finish, in which Seth Rollins performed his second best heist of the century, leaping out of nowhere onto the ladder, yanking the title pretty much straight out of Balor’s hands and dropping to the floor, winning the match.

AJ Styles vs Shinsuke Nakamura

So I, along with many others, was rather disappointed by the match these two put on earlier in the month at Wrestlemania, but after watching the past month of Smackdown and this match, I’m starting to understand the thought process behind it. This feud is one that is going to slowly build to its cresiendo over the course of several months, they’re going to have many matches, and each one is going to build on the last; and that is exactly what we saw the start of here.

Like I mentioned in my predictions, the change in dynamic really helped out this match, because this match felt a lot more like a fight than a wrestling contest. You can tell that AJ is – rightfully so – tired of Nakamura hitting him in the balls every week, and his anger was let out during this match, there were a lot of stiff shots and hard-hitting offense. While a double count-out finish is never the most exciting outcome, in this scenario it helped build this story, you saw it in AJ’s face, he doesn’t care about winning this match properly anymore, he just wants retribution for what Nakamura did to him. This thing is just going to keep building over the coming months, and when it finally blows off with that 6 star match we all know they can put on, every single step of this will all seem worth it.

The Undertaker vs Rusev

Well, this was certainly more of a match than I was expecting it to be. There was never any question as to the winner of this match, especially when you realise that the casket was actually too short to fit The Undertaker in it, but that’s beside the point. What was a surprise was just how much offence Rusev was able to get in on Taker, to actually make it seem like more of a balanced match. It did eventually end in the quick-fire greatest hits, and Aiden English fully bouncing on his head off of a Tombstone Piledriver, but at the end of the day, that’s exactly what everyone wants from an Undertaker match.

Brock Lesnar vs Roman Reigns

Honestly, who gives a fuck at this point?

This match, was exactly what you were expecting it to be, and that’s it. There was no wrestling at all, both men just spammed their signature moves until it ended, and none of it had any drama or made any sense. We know that neither man is getting pinned 5 minutes into this match, no matter how many F-5’s or Spears they’ve taken. And then there was the finish…Jesus Christ, I’ll admit, the visual of Roman spearing Brock through the cage wall looked cool, but it made no sense.

They always make such a point of saying BOTH FEET have to hit the floor to win, but despite the fact, that no part of Brock’s body hit the floor, and Reigns rolled straight onto it Brock Lesnar was declared the winner. I understand them not wanting Roman to win the title in such an underwhelming fashion, but surely they could’ve come up with a way to do it that actually made some modicum of sense within this non-sensical universe of pro-wrestling. I guess we gotta wait till Summerslam now…

50 Man Royal Rumble

So this match was a hell of a lot of fun, but it was also very long, so I’m not discussing it beat by beat like I did in January, I’m just going to talk about some of my personal highlights.

First up is Daniel Bryan, I had a hunch he might start the match off and he did, alongside Dolph Ziggler, and Jeez did he work his ass off, I did get scared ona couple occasions, like when he didn’t quite flip out of Kurt Angle’s suplex properly and nearly landed on his head; and also when he was anywhere near The Great Khali. However he also had a whole bunch of great spots, his chop battle with Roderick Strong was great, and left his chest looking like a tiger cub had just had a go at him, and near the end where he almost single handed eliminated Braun Strowman, only to unfortunately thrown out by Cass, but man, 1:16:05 is a hell of a long time to do anything, it’s amazing to think two months ago we all thought he would never wrestle again.

One thing that disappointed me, is that there weren’t as many big surprises as I would’ve liked, they unfortunately spoiled some of their big surprises, like Mysterio, Khali & Jericho by announcing them ahead of time; but there were still some good ones in there. I hate Hornswoggle, but it’s nice to see him I guess, and it looks like he’s somehow gotten even shorter than the last time we saw him, but other than that there was nothing really big, with the exception of Strong, the NXT entrants were quite underwhelming, it sorta needed someone like Velveteen Dream or even Aleister Black to make a big impact.

Back to the highlights….Titus O’Niel, I am so sorry, but you’ve just secured your legacy for all the wrong reasons. For anyone who somehow didn’t see it, first of all, watch it, as Titus runs down to the ring, he trips, falls and slides almost entirely underneath the ring. The commentary team lose it and just can’t stop laughing, and neither could I, and from how many times they played it, I think Vince loved it too, who else would show 4 replays from 2 different angles in slow motion? This is the man who says pushing someone into a pool is the funniest thing in the world to him after all.

Finally is of course Braun Strowman, this was the big win he’s deserved for over a year now. I don’t really know what they’re going to do with him after this – my guess would be a feud with Lashley – but this gave back all the momentum he’d lost since Elimination Chamber. Not only that, but he did it in spectacular fashion, eliminating a record 13 men on path to his victory.

Overall, this was a show that, I don’t think will be remembered for much in the long run, but I certainly had a lot of fun while I was watching it, and thinking back to it now, I have pretty positive feelings, so overall that’s a win for WWE.

That’s all for now! Backlash is painfully, only 8 days away now, and I will probably be doing predictions and a review for that too, so keep an eye on this space! Or follow me on Twitter for updates, @10ryawoo. Thank you very much for reading, and I’ll see you again soon.

 

WWE Greatest Royal Rumble Predictions

(Originally Posted Apr 2018)

Well, here we are again, another WWE Pay-Per-View has come around and we must arbitrarily predict who will win, and who won’t. I make it sound like a bore, but I actually have a lot of fun with these, and this is kind of a strange one; On the one hand it feels like an over-glorified house show, but on the other it feels like it could be an even more important PPV than Wrestlemania. So here are my predictions for the Greatest Royal Rumble:

Cedric Alexander(c) vs Kalisto               (Cruiserweight Championship)

This one is very much the least important match on the card, as much as I hate to say it. While I think story-wise it would’ve been more interesting for them to have Cedric vs Drew Gulak, I can understand why for this show, they’d much rather just have a showcase match with their top talents. So overall I think this match will be a very fun one to watch, but I don’t see any other outcome other than Cedric Alexander retaining his championship.

The Bludgeon Brothers(c) vs The Usos (Smackdown Tag Team Championships)

The build for this one has been excellent, the Bludgeon Brothers have been treated like horror movie monsters over the past month and watching the Usos play off them has been fantastic. Ultimately I hope this feud just builds and builds, I want the New Day and The Bar to get involved as the dynamic between all of them could make for extremely entertaining television. As for this match though, I think there’s no question The Bludgeon Brothers retain, they’ve done such a fantastic job building them up, there’s no way they’re going to tear that down now.

The Bar vs Matt Hardy & Bray Wyatt                            (Raw Tag Team Championships)

Well this one feels very much like a formality doesn’t it? While I thought the whole Braun & Nicholas thing was super fun, it did kind of throw everything out of whack a bit. So now we’ve got another match were the outcome is pretty obvious, since I don’t see The Bar going back to Raw with the titles. However, I am very interested to see what Matt Hardy & Bray Wyatt will do with the titles, so far there’s not been a whole lot other than Bray adopting Matt’s catchphrases, but I remain hopeful that once they have the titles, this could blossom and grow in all kinds of interesting directions.

Jeff Hardy(c) vs Jinder Mahal                                       (United States Championship)

Again, this is a match that just feels like another formality. Admittedly, I did consider for a while the possibility that Jinder could win back his belt, for either Joe or Miz to take the IC belt and the brands swap mid-card titles once again, but in the end I just decided that was artificially adding layers of complexity to something that doesn’t really need it. However, I still hold out hope that this will be a good match, Jinder can have entertaining matches when his opponent forces him to work a faster pace, and I think Jeff Hardy could get a lot of out Jinder, and ultimately retain his US Title.

Seth Rollins(c) vs Finn Balor vs The Miz vs Samoa Joe                                                                                           (Ladder Match, Intercontinental Championship)

Could no-one be bothered to badly Photoshop the belt onto Seth’s shoulders like they usually do? Seems kinda strange, but I digress. The problem with having Backlash be literally 9 days after this, is that they sometimes book themselves into a corner. So Seth vs Miz is already booked for Backlash so it really means that only one of them will win this match, and while it makes the most sense for Seth to hold onto the belt, they’re really trying to make Miz the greatest Intercontinental Champion of all time, and tieing the record for holding the belt with 9 would be a good way to achieve that. However, I’m going to go with the logic on this one and say Seth Rollins retains.

The Undertaker vs Rusev                                                   (Casket Match)

Undertaker.

Next.

John Cena vs Triple H

Oh hello 2006, I didn’t see you there.

I really have no idea what to make on this match, it exists purely to sell tickets and means nothing to anyone in the grand scheme of things and really…I think that’s a good thing. If this was bogged down by a story I think it would be really boring, but as it is, it’ll probably just be a really fun, house show style match. Ultimately I think John Cena will win, just because it’s the crowd pleasing option, and that is really what this show seems to be about.

AJ Styles(c) vs Shinsuke Nakamura                               (WWE Championship)

So, I was rather underwhelmed by their Wrestlemania match, it felt like a pretty bog standard WWE style world title match; but now, I have a lot more faith in them to put on the match we were all hoping for at Mania. Heel Nakamura has been an absolute gem to watch and his new entrance theme is boss as fuck, and I’m hoping this shift in dynamic is exactly what’s needed to make this match something worth talking about. As for the result, I’m finding that one a bit tricky to call, because part of me says that they’re going to pull the trigger on the title change, but another part of me says, there’s gonna be a wonky finish only for the title to actually change hands at Backlash. However, I think I’m going to go with my first instance and say Shinsuke Nakamura finally picks up, his first world championship in the WWE.

Brock Lesnar(c) vs Roman Reigns                                  (Steel Cage, Universal Championship)

In a move that no-one saw coming (and if you did see it coming, you’re a liar), Brock retained the Universal Championship at Wrestlemania, and at first it was very confusing. Then one night later, this match was announced and suddenly it all made sense, they were saving Roman’s coronation for this big event, at a crowd that’s much more likely to cheer him. So yes, I do think Roman Reigns, is going to pick up the title here. I’m not sure what kind of match we’ll get, as we’ve seen both great and horrible from them; and I don’t know if the steel cage will help or hinder the match, as it’s done both in the past. I also don’t know what’s gonna happen with Brock after this, some sources claim he’s out the door, other sources claim those reports are false, so it’s all up in the air. Which, who knows, might make for an interesting time….probably not though.

50 Man Royal Rumble

And now, for this entire show’s namesake, the “Greatest Royal Rumble” which in reality is just the longest Royal Rumble, where the winner gets….a trophy? I mean I can almost guarantee you that the winner will claim a world title shot anyway, but it’s really not been made clear what the point of it all is. Either way, I think there are two men who have a shot at winning this thing, and here they are:

First up is Braun Strowman, everyone (myself included) loves Braun, and they can’t keep him down from the world title forever, not only would this be a huge thing for him to hang his hat on, I also think rekindling his program with Reigns would be a great way to kick off Reigns’ title run. Other than that, I just think it would get a huge crowd reaction, but not as big as…

Daniel Bryan, this is the man my money’s on to win this thing. I’ll admit, from a story perspective, there’s not really a whole lot of reasoning to it, but if you’re looking for the biggest crowd reaction to the winner of this match, then Daniel Bryan is your man, the place would explode if he won it. Plus, look me in the eyes and tell me you would want to see a Bryan vs Nakamura feud.

So that’s it! That is all of the matches predicted! In a weird way, I’m really looking forward to this show, even though I don’t think it’ll be super memorable in the long run, but hey, who doesn’t love a Royal Rumble.

Be sure to share this around wherever you can, and follow me on Twitter @10ryawoo, where I’m likely to be live tweeting the show! I’ll see you later in the week for my recap of the show!

 

The Best Sonic the Hedgehog Zones

(Originally Posted Apr 2018)

So sometimes I get a craving to go back and play through games again. I tend to play through at least one of the old Assassin’s Creed games once a year, and Skyrim is a game I will always go back to. Anyway, the most recent of these cravings was Sonic the Hedgehog, so I went back and played through all of the original 3 followed by Mania, and it got me thinking, what do I consider to be the best zones in Sonic the Hedgehog? Here were the eight I came up with:

Studiopolis Zone (Sonic Mania)

So, Sonic Mania is perhaps my favourite Sonic game, all of the redesigns of the old levels were fantastically done, but I think the originally designed levels are where the game really shines and Studiopolis Zone is where this is most prominent. Everything about it just screams innovation, you will constantly be coming across new mechanics and gimmicks all the way through the level, and they really managed to capture the feel of what I imagine a Hollywood style studio would be like on Mobius.

From the music counting down to “action”, the giant popcorn and bingo machines, the whole zone feels like the set of some elaborate game show set up by Dr Robotnik. This stage really nailed the feeling of what a “modern-classic” Sonic level should be and if the team that made Sonic Mania went on to make their own fully original game, this is what I’d want to see more of.

Rooftop Run (Sonic Unleashed)

THIS is what a good 3D Sonic level should be. The entire level is a non-stop blitz across the rooftops of Spagonia and it is one of the most fun experiences I’ve had in a 3D Sonic level in a long time. It has just enough to think about so you don’t feel like you’re just holding the run button and waiting, but also doesn’t try to be so complex as to slow down the pace of the level, and it communicates all that to the player. With the narrow streets and the upbeat music, you know you’re in for a rollercoaster when you start this one up.

The rest of Sonic Unleashed may be a flaming pile of trash, but this shows the true potential of what a 3D Sonic Game can be.

Green Hill Zone (Sonic the Hedgehog)

What would a list of the best Sonic zones be without the original? This zone is one of the reasons Sonic became so popular, it captures exactly the essence of what the Sonic the Hedgehog gameplay is all about, momentum. All of the dips and loops at every point in the level are there to teach the player right from the outset how the core mechanics work and its able to do it all seamlessly to make a zone that’s still fast paced and great fun to run through; While it still keeps you on your toes with enemies and secrets hidden throughout.

This level is the basis for the design of every 2D level that came after it, and for that, it is truly one of the greats.

Sky Babylon Zone (Sonic Rush Adventure)

In my “Why am I a Gamer?” post, I talked very briefly about Sonic Rush Adventure on the Nintendo DS but I never talked much about why I liked it so much, and this level here I think is the best one to talk about why I like the game so much. When you think about it, a handheld console really seems like the perfect place for a 2D Sonic game, they have that kind of scale and innovation to them, and this level encapsulated exactly why they should’ve ran more with the DS in particular.

Unlike the other levels I’ve talked about so far, this one isn’t particularly fast paced, in fact it can be rather slow, but speed isn’t the point of this level, thinking is. If you rush in headstrong into Sky Babylon you’re going to get your arse handed to you and you’ll lose all your lives; you have to look before you leap. I’m usually not a big fan of Sonic games trying to buck the trend of the series (see Sonic ’06 and the night levels of Sonic Unleashed), but keeping it small-scale like this really helped it out, and with the release of the Nintendo Switch, I hope to see more levels like this in future Sonic games.

Ice Cap Zone (Sonic 3)

Ok so first thing’s first, listen to the soundtrack for this level, there are very credible rumours that Michael Jackson had a hand in creating Sonic 3’s soundtrack, and nowhere is that more obvious than here. Anyway, onto the actual level.

2D Sonic games tend to have two very different styles of levels. There are the fast paced sprinting levels (see Green Hill Zone) and then there are slower puzzley levels (see Labyrinth Zone), but this zone is able to blend both of those styles beautifully. It starts out with a fast snowboard ride down a snowy mountain before it throws you down into caves where careful platforming and interesting puzzle mechanics are the order of the day, before you escape into act 2 which is much faster paced and seemingly more free-flowing than the first.

The whole thing strings together beautifully to make one of the most overall well-formed zones in the history of the franchise.

City Escape (Sonic Adventure 2)

Sonic Adventure 2 is a game that hasn’t really aged very well if you ask me. I went back and played it recently, and it just felt so slow, and there are huge chunks of it which are just boring.

City Escape however, is none of those things. I can see why this was the opening level of the game as it leaves a great impression, with a deliciously early noughties soundtrack backing up this thrill ride through the streets of discount San Francisco.

Unlike most other levels it can be nicely split up into three distinct chunks, which are all enjoyable in their own way. First up is the skateboarding (sort of) down the streets of the city, this is a great way to open things up as it gets the pace going, it then reigns things in a bit with a more traditional platforming section before hitting you with That-Bit-With-The-Truck™ which is a great set-piece to end the opening level on that gets you amped up for the rest of the game.

Chemical Plant Zone (Sonic 2)

Whenever most people think of classic Sonic levels, this is one of the first ones that comes to mind, the level design throughout every section of this level is genius. It constantly changes up what kind of style you’re going to have to play, you could be running full speed down a slope one second before suddenly being thrown into a section of precise platforming and purple water of death.

This was the level that taught me to be cautious and not to trust the level I’m playing, this is very much a level where death is just one mistake away at all times, but I don’t feel like it’s unfair levels of difficulty, it’s just a bit contrarian. The entire franchise is built around going fast, but this level politely asks you to slow down for a change, then when you ignore it, it slams it’s fist down on the table and beats you down until you start to listen.

The redux of the level in Sonic Mania was even better and the use of the new mechanics was fantastic, it was able to recapture that feeling of always keeping me on my toes and fearing what’s just behind the loop as I barrel through it at the speed of sound. Also the music, good god that music is wonderful.

Flying Battery Zone (Sonic & Knuckles)

I adore this level so much. That feeling of being kept on your toes and not knowing what round the next corner (figuratively) really is at its peak here. The level feels like a maze, but you’re never lost or confused, you’re always able to keep moving forwards and make progress.

It’s such a deep level too, between Sonic & Knuckles and Sonic Mania I’ve played through this level many times, but as recently as my latest playthrough, I’ve found new sections in the level and new paths to take. It’s a level that I always have fun exploring, even when it’s parts of the level I’ve already been through.

The best Sonic levels for me are the ones that I’m always excited to play, and when the first note of this level’s soundtrack kicks off, I always get hyped up to play what is easily my favourite stage in all of Sonic the Hedgehog.

And that’s it! Thank you very much for reading, if you want more of my ramblings make sure to check out my other articles and follow me on Twitter @10ryawoo. Also don’t forget to share this around as I’d love to get as many eyes on it as possible.

I’ll be posting a few more articles as we gear up into Wrestlemania season, and I have a couple more gaming articles in mind for the coming weeks, so watch this space! See you soon!

 

My Pokemon Teams

(Originally Posted Feb 2018)

Now, something there’s going to be a lot of as this blog develops, it’s posts about Pokemon, because I’m a tad obssessed with the franchise, and I could talk for days about every aspect of the series. However today I’m going to stick with the basics, and talk about my two main Pokemon teams. I will point out these are NOT competitive teams, they are just the two main teams I use when I play the single player of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon respectively.

Team 1 – Ultra Moon

Vanguard the absol

So first up is the team captain, Absol is my all time favourite Pokemon (something I’ll talk more about at a later date), so naturally I had to have one on one of these teams. Vanguard comes all the way from my very first playthrough of Pokemon Y back in 2014, so he’s been through a lot with me. Naturally, this also means that he can Mega-Evolve and is the only one on Team 1 that can do so, I use him most when shiny hunting, thanks to his wide type coverage moveset and the ability to use False-Swipe. As for where the name “Vanguard” came from, I don’t really know, it just sorta fit at the time, and after having Vanguard for so long, it’s just how it is now; having an Absol not called Vanguard just wouldn’t feel right anymore.

Kumo the Arcanine

Kumo is one of the younger members of this team, coming from my original playthrough of Ultra Sun. We’re going to see all the other members of that team later on in this post, and Kumo was always the tank of that team. He was usually a couple levels below everyone else, but he was so powerful it didn’t matter. I also kept him as a Growlithe until level 49 so he could learn Flare Blitz, so when Kumo was finally able to evolve and become truely powerful it really felt like he’d earned it. The name “Kumo” comes from one of TotalBiscuit’s dogs, mostly because I think it’s a cool name, insidentally if Kumo had been female, I would’ve instead named them “Regan” after Nerdcubed’s dog, because I’m sad like that.

Charlotte the Lycanroc

Charlotte was the event Rockruff I recieved in my first playthrough of Ultra Sun, and she’s very much the “glass cannon” of the team. She’s quick and powerful, but can’t really take a hit very well; but it doesn’t matter, because if Charlotte lands a hit on something, it doesn’t usually survive to see another attack. Name-wise, “Charlotte” has always been my favourite girl’s name, so when I saw that Charlotte was a female Pokemon, it was a no-brainer.

Robin the DeciduEye

I wasn’t originally planning on picking Robin when I first started playing Ultra Sun, I was going to choose Litten, like I had in my original Sun playthrough, however in the build up to Ultra Sun & Moon’s release I began to fall for Decidueye over Incineroar a bit, I think it had more charm to it. Then, when my “fan edition” of Ultra Sun & Moon arrived, the random figure I got with it was a Rowlet, and I thought it had to be a sign, so I picked Rowlet at the start of my adventure. Due to me obtaining them so close together, Charlotte and Robin were usually the two highest level Pokemon on my team, and in my head they’ve formed a strong bond from our adventures together, so whenever a Double Battle arrises, I have the two of them fight side by side as a team. Robin’s name really just comes from me not being very creative, cos Decidueye is an Archer, like Robin Hood, and Robin is also a bird, like Decidueye (even though, Decidueye’s an owl) get it? It’s stupid I know, but it’s all I could come up with at the time.

Morganne the noivern

I’ve always loved Noivern, but for the longest time I’d never trained one, thanks to Noibat not being availible until nearly the end of X&Y. But in Ultra Sun, that all changed, when I battled Hau on Route 3 and saw he had a Noibat, I instantly had to find out where I could get one myself. Sure enough, I went into the Verdant Cavern and caught myself Morganne and I must admit, it was touch and go between the two of us for a while. Noibat is an extremely weak Pokemon, and it doesn’t evolve until level 48, which is very late, so there were a number of occasions where I nearly dropped Morganne from my team. But I stuck with her, and boy am I glad I did, because the moment she evolved she became the MVP of my team, laying out everything she came across, and seemingly always landing a critcial hit when I needed it most. Much like Chatlotte, I picked the name “Morganne” just because it was a name I really liked, nothing more to it.

AJ the Empoleon

Finally on Team 1, we have the oldest Pokemon out of all 12 on this list; AJ. AJ is from an old playthrough of Platinum, and has been with me through a number of tough battles over the years, including a hard fought victory at Pokemon X & Y’s Battle Chateau. He is yet to do much battling in the Alola Reigon as I didn’t transfer him up until the postgame of Ultra Sun, but at some point I plan to see how these teams fair in the Battle Tree, so let’s hope AJ can do me proud once again. The name AJ, comes from my playthrough of Platinum, where I decided to nickname all of my Pokemon after wrestlers, so “AJ” got that name from the wrestler AJ Styles.

Team 2 – Ultra Sun

Scarlet the talonflame

Talonflame is a very close second for my favourite Pokemon ever, and I’ve been using it for a long time. Scarlet comes from the same playthrough of X that Vanguard came from, with is why I consider them both the Captains of their respective teams. In that sense, Scarlet is very much the mother of the team, while she doesn’t always lead the team into battle, she’s always there in a double battle to support whoever else is out at the time. However, Scalet can more than hold her own in battle, there is nothing that out-speeds her, and very few things that can withstand a Brave Bird. I honestly don’t remember where I got the name “Scarlet” from, there’s a good chance I just came up with it on the spot and then rolled with it, either way I love the name.

Chaos The Garchomp

Chaos is another one of the oldest Pokemon on this list, also coming from an old playthrough of Pokemon Platinum, and he is the powerhouse. While he’s not the leader he is definately the most powerful member of the team, being one of two Pokemon who can Mega-Evolve on the team. Much like Vanguard, he is the main Pokemon I use for Shiny hunting, since he is the only one that can learn False Swipe, and provided he’s not at a type disadvantage, he can dispense of anything in a single hit. As for where his name came from, I was just searching online for good nicknames for a Garchomp, and “Chaos” is the one that I stuck with.

Elias, ellie and Evan

Next up, we have the trio which formed, completely accidentally accross 3 different games. First up is Elias the Jolteon, he was a member of my original Sun playtrhough back in 2016, however he sadly never got to see the Hall of Fame as I replaced him with Solgaleo just before the Elite 4, so I decided to make it up to him, by having be a part of this team. Next up is Ellie the Vaporeon, I caught Ellie in my first Ultra Sun playthrough and I evolved her in a Vaporeon due to the fact I had no solid way to deal with fire type Pokemon at the time. Finally there’s Evan the Flareon, which is the most interesting case in my opinion, because I’m not actually Evan’s original trainer, I recieved Evan as a freshly hatched Eevee through a wonder trade at the start of my Pokemon Moon playthrough, and he ended up carrying the team all the way through to the Hall of Fame. I would then bring all of these guys together as a force to be reckoned with in Team 2.

violet the gardevoir

Finally we have Violet, who I caught as a random shiny Ralts I found out in the wild during my Alpha Sapphire playthrough. She can of course Mega-Evolve, and is a very good Pokemon for coverage since she has a whole bunch of differently typed moves to take down almost any opponent. She was a huge help in getting me through the Hoenn Pokemon league, and has also been a big help while I’ve been shiny hunting in the Alola reigion. Her name, like Chaos’ comes from when I was searching for nicknames online, and this was the one that I liked the most.

 

WWE Royal Rumble 2018 Review

(Originally Posted Jan 2018)

So the Royal Rumble has been and gone, and we’re officially on The Road To Wrestlemania, and….well it was a bit of a mixed bag I guess, the highs were high and oh boy, the lows were very low; let’s get started.

Kickoff Show Notes:

There’s not a whole lot worth talking about on this show. There was the 6-Man Cruiserweight Tag Match and while it was a fun match, it doesn’t mean anything in the grand scheme of things.

The Revival vs The Club was up next and the Revival got their win back from Raw, again a solid match, but nothing to write home about.

And finally, Bobby Roode’s US Open Challenge in which Mojo Rawley came and got him some; and I honestly can’t remember a single thing about this match other than Roode won, so on with the show…

AJ Styles vs Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn

Good to know WWE had about as much faith in this match as I did, putting it on first. This match was about as good as it could’ve been with all the crap surrounding it, Styles can get a 4 star match of anyone, and Owens & Zayn did a good job of working a Revival style match. But ultimately it didn’t feel like anything special, it just felt like your standard tag team match, except one guy never tagged out. I said in my predictions that I just wanted this whole story to be over and done with, but it doesn’t look like that’ll be the case, since AJ Styles would roll Owens up off a Pop-up Powerbomb, only for Owens to claim he wasn’t the legal man. Honestly I can’t really tell if he was or not, a case could really be made either way, because yeah, it looked like Zayn and Owen’s fingers touched, but does that really count as a tag? Will this story ever end? Do I even have the capacity to care anymore?

The Usos vs Shelton Benjamin & Chad Gable

Now we go from the perfectly fine to the downright disappointing. By all rights, this should’ve been match of the night, The Usos are fantastic wrestlers and both Gable & Benjamin shine when they have the right opponents, but boy was this a waste. I had a feeling that if any match was gonna get cut short for time, it would be this one, and sadly I was right. They put on a good back and forth for a good ten minutes before The Usos scored the first fall, which I thought was a little odd, but fair enough; and then about five minutes later, one of the Usos rolled up Shelton for the second fall and the win…..oh, ok then. Ultimately it was what it was, and while it lasted it was a fun match, it just should’ve been given way more time and been way better.

30 Man Royal Rumble

Finally, I get to talk about something I enjoyed. This match was goddamn excellent, personally I think it’s one of the Top 3 Rumbles of all time, let’s break this thing down beat by beat.

So at Number 1 was Rusev, fantastic placement if you ask me, the whole Rusev Day thing is super over, and he does great work with it, there’s a reason the crowd spent a good 70% of this match chanting “Rusev Day”. He was then followed out by Number 2, Finn Balor, and honestly when he came out at number 2, I believed he was going all the way, again a great placement. So they fight for a little bit before Rhyno comes out at 3, and then Baron Corbin comes out at 4. He eliminates Rhyno pretty quick before Balor dumps Corbin out of the match aswell, at this point Corbin gets all mad and lays out everyone in and out of the ring, again a great booked move, Corbin’s out of the match early but still retains all his heat by laying out 4 dudes at once. And yes I said 4 dudes, because number 5 was Heath Slater, resident punching bag of this match. Corbin lays Slater out before he can even get to the ring, and we get 60-90 seconds of staring at dudes laid out on the floor, but it all makes sense when number 6 hits the ring, Elias.

Elias is absolute gold with his role on the roster, and he really seems like he’s enjoying it as well, so he gets to sing us a little song in the ring while everyone else is taking a nap until Number 7, which may honestly be my favourite surprise of the night: Andrade “Cien” Almas. Since I didn’t do a review of NXT Takeover I’ll talk about it quickly here, Almas vs Gargano is so far my match of the year, and I’m including Wrestle Kingdom 12 in that statement, I was blown away by that performance and I am now all in on Almas, so seeing him here was a fantastic surprise. At this point the entrances seem to be picking up the pace a bit, and we get Bray Wyatt and Big E and numbers 8 and 9 respectively; Big E trying to feed Heath Slater some pancakes was a nice funny little spot. Then we get Number 10 who is of course Tye Dillinger, except it’s not as we cut backstage to see Tye being laid out by Owens and Zayn, for Sami Zayn so then take his spot in the Rumble. I get that this probably just existed so Shane has something to be mad about on Tuesday, but Zayn was only in the match for about 5 minutes and didn’t do anything of note in that time, so what really was the point?

Now we move into the Mid-card quick-fire round of the Rumble, it can’t just be me who thought the entrants were coming in way less than 90 seconds during the teens right? Anyway, Sheamus is next out at number 11, and he finally ends Heath Slater’s misery and rolls him into the ring…only for Slater to turn around and throw Sheamus out in 2 seconds, brilliant move here, giving Slater a moment like that will always get a pop and it’s a fun little thing to see, however it was short lived as Slater was himself thrown out straight after. Next up we had Xavier Woods at 12, and Apollo Crews at 13, again nothing of real consequence happened and then we got Shinsuke Nakamura arrived at number 14, and I’m gonna be honest with you I got very worried when Nakamura came out that early, I was really starting to doubt my prediction for him to win. Nakamura did his big spots and we continued with our quick-fire mid-card round, as 15, 16 and 17 were Cesaro, Kofi Kingston and Jinder Mahal.

Things started to pick up after this, as Seth Rollins arrived at number 18 wearing the most 80’s attire I’ve ever seen, and WOKEN Matt Hardy at 19. We got some nice interactions between Bray & Matt, with them working together to eliminate Rusev (who lasted a whopping 30 minutes) before fighting a whole bunch and eliminating each other. Then, we move into the penultimate phase of the Rumble as number 20 arrives….John Cena. We get a nice little sequence where everyone left in the ring gangs up and tries to beat down Cena, before he fights back and lays everyone out, before eliminating Elias, who got a really good showing in this match. But never mind that, because we’ve got number 21, The Hurricane! This was a totally unexpected surprise, albeit a short one, since in a callback to THAT moment in the 2002 Rumble, Hurricane tries to throw Cena out, but fails miserably and gets himself eliminated by Cena. Number 22 then hits the ring, and the Rusev Day chants start-up once more, as it’s Aiden English. But he doesn’t really do much, but then we get number 23, Adam Cole Bay Bay! This was another great surprise, that I didn’t see coming at all, he didn’t really do much in the match itself, but it was cool to see him.

The ring then fills up a little bit with no eliminations as Randy Orton, Titus O’Niel and The Miz enter the match at numbers, 24, 25 and 26 respectively. I don’t quite understand how or why Titus lasted as long as he does in this match, I know six minutes doesn’t seem very long, but given that he basically just sat in the corner for five of them, seemed kinda pointless. Anyway that doesn’t matter as we get our final surprise of the match at number 27, Rey Mysterio! Dude looks chiselled as all hell nowadays, looking way better than he did when he left WWE in 2014. He swiftly eliminates Adam Cole, which kinda sucks, but it’s Rey Mysterio, so I’m not gonna complain. But then we have to bring the mood back down again for number 28, as it’s everyone’s favourite, Roman Reigns. He gets a couple quick eliminations throwing out Titus O’Niel and then The Miz with help from Seth Rollins. But then Roman continues to be the worst person on the planet, as he throws out Rollins while his back is turned, I kinda wish Rollins had a more annoyed reaction to Roman doing this rather than just the “Oh shucks! You got me!” look he had on his face; Just because your a face, doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to get upset dude.

Then we get our last two entrants, which are both kinda weird…number 29 is Goldust. Now don’t get me wrong, I love Goldust, but 29 seemed like a really weird place for him to enter, if he’d entered in the mid teens he could’ve got some good spots off and kick that nostalgia gland a little, but instead he didn’t really do anything before being eliminated by number 30, Dolph Ziggler. The thing is, this wasn’t really the surprise WWE thought it was, because everyone had been predicting it in the build up, hell some people even predicted Ziggler to win the damn thing. So he entered here to no fanfare and then got dumped out after two minutes….ok I guess?

But that’s the end of my complaining, because from this point out, it was all fantastic action. We move into the final 6, Mysterio, Cena, Orton, Nakamura, Balor and Reigns; we get a quick “old vs new” stare down and the fighting commences. Amongst the brawling Orton is eliminated by Reigns, and Mysterio is then eliminated by Balor and we have our final four. And I’m gonna be honest with you, my heart was in my throat here; all 4 of the guys I picked out in my predictions made it to the final four and I had absolutely no idea which way it was gonna go. They were able to harness that dread that all of the fans had of Cena or Reigns winning and turn it into some of the best tension I’ve ever felt while watching a match. There is a lot of back forth between all 4 guys and everyone gets their time to shine, but eventually time gets the better of Balor, and after spending 57 goddamn minutes in the match, he’s eliminated by Cena.

Then we see some fantastic booking, as Cena and Reigns team up to beat down Shinsuke, and I’ll tell you something, people have been complaining all year about people misusing Shinsuke Nakamura, and I agree with them, it’s been awful, but all of that bad booking was completely undone in the last 10 minutes of this match, as Nakamura looked like a million bucks. After a lot of back and forth, Nakamura blasts Cena in the face, sending him crashing to floor and eliminating him and we’re down to two. Nakamura vs Reigns, if Nakamura wins, the crowd will explode with joy, if Reigns wins, they’ll explode with anger. And oh boy was this tense, they slowed the pace right down, and hit big move after big move, no idea which way it was going to go. But eventually we could all celebrate as Nakamura launched Reigns over the top rope and down to the floor, making Shinsuke Nakamura the winner of the 2018 men’s Royal Rumble. After the match he declares he wants AJ Styles at Wrestlemania, and I couldn’t be more excited.

Seth Rollins & Jason Jordan vs The Bar

Looking back on this show, it makes me feel like the men’s Rumble match probably should’ve gone on last. Don’t get me wrong, I understand why the women went on last, and I’m glad they got that opportunity, but the crowd were so tired out after the rollercoaster that was the men’s Rumble, none of the other matches really got the reception they deserved. Case in point, this match right here; this was a grear worked match, that told a really interesting story, but no-one was paying attention because of what had just happened in the Rumble.

But anyway, the story of the match was, Jason Jordan is literally the worst Tag Team partner in the world, which is weird when you consider he used to be a Tag Team specialist. Early on in the match, The Bar throw Jordan into the ring post, and he spends the rest of the match acting like he’s got a concussion of some sort, so Seth has to work the entire match on his own. And he did a bloody good job of it when you consider he’d just spent 20 minutes in the Rumble match aswell. So eventually, Jordan gets back up on the apron and tags in, only to suddenly remember his head hurts and tag straight back out; then he goes and as a nice little sit down on the ring steps while Seth gets his ass kicked. So unsurprisingly this leads to The Bar regaining their tag team championships, and I imagine Rollins will be very cross about it….you know, when he regains consciousness.

Brock Lesnar vs Braun Strowman vs Kane

I don’t know whether it was just because I was tired, or there was just nothing interesting about it, but I actually had to rewatch this match before I review it, because I could not for the life of me remember a single thing that happened during it. I mean, it’s pretty much what you’d expect the match to be, well, except for that one moment where Brock legit tried to knock Braun out. But yeah, lots of weapons, lot’s of chaos, but nothing super special. A fun watch, but nothing to write home about, as expected, the match ended when Lesnar dropped Kane with an F-5 and retain his championship.

30 Woman Royal Rumble

Alright, let’s do this then. This match was a weird one, the match itself was fine, but it wasn’t quite what I thought/hoped it would be/should’ve been. I’m not going to beat for beat on this one, because honestly there’s a lot less worth talking about, so I’m just going to mention the main points.

So at Number 1, Sasha Banks, who really was the MVP of this match, and she she started the match off against number 2, Becky Lynch. Half an hour is a very good showing, but I though maybe she should’ve lasted a little longer, there’s a lot of women rolling to the outside of the ring for no real reason in this match, and I think it would’ve been cool if every few minutes, Lynch & Banks would end up being the only women left standing over and over again and they just keep fighting.

Anyway, this Rumble is full of surprise entrants, the first of which is Lita at number 5, which is nice to see, people weren’t sure if she was on good terms with the company thanks to her not being at Raw 25 and her subsequent tweet about it, but here she is, and she got a damn good showing, and could still wrestle at a decent pace. Immediately following that though at Number 6 was Kairi Sane, I really feel like there should of been less “legends” in this match and more NXT competitors, Nikki Cross and the Iconic Duo especially should’ve got spots in this match, we didn’t need EVERY woman of note in this match WWE… However as disappointingly short as her appearance was, it was fun seeing Kairi and her wonderful elbow.

Throughout the match we saw appearances from legends like Molly Holly, who honestly hasn’t aged a day since we last saw her and Michelle McCool, who got a whopping 5 eliminations for some reason, no Lay-cool reunion sadly though. My favourite of the whole thing had to be Vickie Guerrero, and well done to everyone else in the ring for responding to her perfectly, completely ignoring her for a little while before all ganging up and getting rid of her; however the highlight had to be when she laid out Carmella with her own briefcase before storming off, I laughed so hard at that moment. Also Kelly Kelly was there, I don’t really have anything to say about her, but she was there.

Things started to pick up towards the end of the match, we got a fun save spot from Naomi, where she copied Kofi Kingston from 2013, only she did it better, because she just rolled the chair instead of trying to use it as a pogo stick. Nia Jax also got a really good showing, she got to do the big Andre the Giant spot, throwing everyone off of her. But if anything this encapsulates my main issue with this match, there was nothing new or unique, they were just re-hashing old spots that the men have been doing for years; if you truly want me to believe that the women really deserve this main event spot, then you’ve gotta be showing me things I haven’t seen before, I want to be blown away by these wrestlers, but I couldn’t help but feel underwhelmed for a majority of this match.

That said, there was still plenty to enjoy, the confrontation between Ember Moon and Asuka was really fun, unfortunately Ember’s injured arm betrayed her, as Asuka sent her flying out of the ring like she was Wile E. Kyote falling off a cliff. Speaking of Asuka, she didn’t really look as dominant as I would’ve liked, I get the whole idea of having her struggle before winning, but I think it might’ve been better to just have her destroy every fool in her way, before having a tough final battle with someone like Sasha Banks.

Speaking of the finish, of course, The Bella Twins are so heavily involved, admittedly it was kinda nice to see them, and Nikki turned on Brie for what must be the 6th or 7th time by now. But eventually, Asuka overcame it all and became the first ever, women’s Royal Rumble winner.

While I did enjoy most of what I saw in this match, I just feel like it could’ve been so much more, and there was a whole lot of wasted potential in there, and as much as WWE like talking about making history, but they seemed to rely on it too much in this match. I get it’s nice to see people from the past, but maybe we could’ve got rid of people like Kelly Kelly and Torrie Wilson, to make way for the women of the future, since that’s what you seem to be patting yourself on the back so hard for at the moment.

And that’s it! I hope yo- What?

Oh right…

So after the match had ended, Asuka gets in the ring with the two women’s champions and is going to pick who she’ll fight at Wrestlmania, when suddenly, Joan Jett’s “Bad Reputation” plays and in some of the worst cinematography I’ve ever seen on WWE, the camera very slowly pans round to reveal that Ronda Rousey is here! And she does…..something? I don’t know, she eyed everyone up, pointed at the Wrestlemania sign in a moment that I’m sure looked cooler in her head and then the show ended.

There’s a lot of different opinions going around about this, but personally I think this was a trash way to end the show, it’s WWE trying to have their cake and eat it too. Ronda should’ve either been in the Rumble, or not there at all. It completely stole Asuka’s spotlight and also entirely undermines the entire point of having this “historic” match in the first place. Why did Asuka have to beat 29 other women to get this opportunity, when Ronda, who’s never been in the WWE, can just show up, point at a sign and get handed whatever she wants? Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited to see what Ronda does going forward, but I just think this could’ve been done so much better.

And that’s (really) it! I hope you’ve enjoyed all of these words, I had a lot more to say about this show than I thought I did, let me know what you think in the comments or on Twitter @10ryawoo.

I’ll see you on Thursday for my first Pokemon-centric post!