Author: Jay Hunter

Super OSW 64 Level 8!

Yo yo, Jay’s music radio show is back with another 2 hours of videogame goodness! Featuring the Mortal Kombat movie, Brutal Legend, Woodkid, League of Legends, To The Moon, Tekken Tag Tournament and more!

iTunes: iTunes.OSWreview.com
Android: RSS.OSWreview.com
mp3 file: Download mp3 (right click to save, left click to stream)

Super OSW 64 Level 8 Playlist:
1. Mortal Kombat OST: The Immortals – Techno-Syndrome 7” Mix
2. OSW Review Cinematic Theme
3. Loki – Super Mario Bros 2 Overworld Theme
4. FIFA 13 Imagine Dragons – On Top Of The World
5. FIFA 12 Naked and Famous – Punching In a Dream
6. Mortal Kombat OST (by George S. Clinton): A Taste of Things To Come
7. Mortal Kombat OST: Banquet
8. Mortal Kombat OST: Johnny Cage
9. Mortal Kombat OST: Demon Warriors/Final Combat
10. Mortal Kombat OST: Goro vs Art (Feat Buckethead)
11. Mortal Kombat OST: Fear Factory – Zero Signal
12. Clockwork Knight – Betsy’s Room and Goal (Stage 1-1)
13. Dying Light – Woodkid – Run Boy Run
14. Assassin’s Creed Revelations – Woodkid – Iron
15. The King of Fighters 2001 – Zero (Arranged)
16. Tekken Tag Tournament – True Ogre’s theme
17. Brutal Legend: Intro + Menu Theme – Racer X – Y.R.O.
18. Brutal Legend: The Chosen Roadie
19. Brutal Legend: 11 O’clock Is a Direction
20. Brutal Legend: Killmaster (Lemmy Kilmeister) clip + Motorhead – Into the Black
21. Brutal Legend: The game finale + The Pleasure Tower
22. Brutal Legend: Kabbage Boy – Girlfriend
23. Diddy Kong Racing – Boss Challenge II
24. New Retro Wave: Accelerated – Miami Nights 1984
25. New Retro Wave: Volkor X – Tony Chew is Dead
26. New Retro Wave: Volkor X – Masked Death
27. Deus Ex Main Theme – Synthetic Orchestra
28. League of Legends: Challengers
29. League of Legends: Day Light’s End
30. League of Legends: Djerv – Get Jinxed
31. Goof Troop – To the South (SNES)
32. To The Moon – Laura Shigihara – Everything’s Alright
33. Final Fantasy VIII – Liberi Fatali
34. Final Fantasy X HD Remaster – Otherworld
35. Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Battle 22 – Hikari no Will Power
36. Assassin’s Creed Syndicate: Austin Wintory – The Assassin Two-Step
37. Assassin’s Creed Syndicate: Tripod – Jokes Jokes Jokes
38. FantomenK – Neo Geo (Instrumental)
39. Super Smash Bros Fire Emblem Win Chime

Hope you enjoyed the show! When I have a date secured for Level 9 I’ll let everyone know! Until then you can still request tracks for it in the comments section below!

WWE PAYBACK & RAW Review: OSWreview.com/wwe-payback-2016/
Table For 3 – Four Horsemen Review: OSWreview.com/table-for-3-four-horsemen/
Death in Videogames II (Jay on the radio!) OSWreview.com/death-in-videogames-2/

May 5, 2016
WWE Payback 2016

Yo! Here are my thoughts on WWE’s latest and RAW the next night afterwards. Pre-amble is in italics, and credit WrestlingDailyNews for the gifs!

PRE-SHOW: Dolph Ziggler vs Baron Corbin
Mauro is calling it with Byron – it’s not news but it’s so great to hear him call moves and his general high quality commentary. Ziggles is the most overexposed wrestler on the roster, in that he’s wrestling long matches every week on TV and PPV for years now and his career has stagnated, making it difficult to get invested in his matches. Quiet back and forth with Ziggler countering an end of days into a roll up – so Baron loses while saving face. It’s the same booking as Corbin/Aries at Takeover Dallas. Despite having the Andre Trophy, much like Cesaro when he won it, the statue hasn’t improved his standing.

US TITLE MATCH: Kalisto (c) vs Ryback
Crazy to see the disparity between the midcard titles – the US makes the pre-show, same as last month, but the IC was in a Mania ladder match (best on the card) and a featured bout with two of RAW’s best wrestlers and hot feud. With the lack of focus, Kalisto’s moved much farther down the card (despite being an entertaining and unique act in WWE) and Ryback’s doing a jerk bully gimmick (going ooo!) I like it. As i do his weight-lifter’s belt (“the preshow stopper”) and his kicking of a downed opponent, like an animal seeing if it’s prey is dead. Loud Goldberg, and you can’t wrestle chants. They move quickly from spot to spot of kalisto countering ryback’s strongman offense. Lots of choreographed sequences which I really appreciate. In the end Ryback hits a military press from the middle rope (great!) Misses a frog splash and gets hit with a Salida del Sol, Kalisto retains. These guys worked great together (and the big man vs lucha is always an interesting pairing) it deserves more focus and should’ve been on the main PPV.
On RAW: Rusev wins a #1 contenders battle royale for the US title (they didn’t bother doing a League of Nations bit on the show, even though they’re disbanding). Ryback asked to be pulled off TV and wasn’t on RAW, due to negotiating a new contract. He wrote a tumblr post (yes, tumblr) about how he’s creatively stifled and bemoaned losers/jobbers getting paid less than the winners…. WWE is an entertainment company, they push those who they think will make them the most money, like The New Day being crazy over (with tons of hot merch) and holding the WWE tag belts for over 250 days. WWE obviously don’t think much of him (with his won-loss record) but his claims aren’t black and white because they tried to push him as a main eventer but he’s known for not being safe – he injures his opponents.

RYBACK posts on why he's off TV indefinitely (creative + losers getting paid less) https://t.co/sYqusAHAe7 pic.twitter.com/hyi2I6HHu4

— OSW review (@OSWreview) May 3, 2016

WWE PAYBACK
The New Day promo. They recap that the winners of the tag match will face them next month for the tag titles. They are pretty much the only guys who live outside the WWE bubble, referencing Beyonce’s marital troubles and his Twitter DMs are open. Intro video – interestingly marketed as the first PPV of a new era which is about the fans…before The main event Cole says it started with Roman winning the belt… It also surrounded the main event with McMahons fighting, which is the opposite of a new era!

TAG #1 CONTENDERS: Enzo & Cass vs Vaudevillains
Always a fan of tournaments to determine new contenders, much more sporting reason than “I ran to the ring and insulted the champions first”. Two NXT tag teams with opposite RAW debuts – enzo with one of the best promos of his career vs quiet debut on SD and no build to such a comedy indy gimmick. New Day not on commentary surprisingly – probably because Owens would be on commentary later.
Scarily Enzo is thrown to the outside but whips his neck off the middle rope on the way out and his head off the mat – immediately you know something is wrong, Enzo’s not moving. The match is halted and then called off as EMTs bring a stretcher down. The camera focuses on the commentators, only glancing at Enzo, who gets his name chanted. I watched this on Tuesday so I knew that Enzo was alright but it must’ve been very different for the live audience. He suffered a concussion but he’s clear otherwise, he’ll be out until he passes impact testing. On RAW they slotted Big Cass in as a third man (using Xavier to even the teams) and the Vaudevillains are the new #1 contenders. It feels likely that the Dudleys would’ve cost Enzo & Cass the match so they could feud.

Kevin Owens vs Sami Zayn
They replay the excellent lifelong friendship-turned-feud promo from Raw. Owens cites his heel turn as Sami reached his goals before Zayn, but Sami stays face despite Owens taking Zayn’s spot on the main roster due to Sami’s injury. This match is way too low on the card – it’s the second most important match, should be semi main! JBL mentions Chicago is home to one of the best trash talkers of all time, not CM Punk but Michael Jordan!
Both are excellent wrestlers with tremendous chemistry. I can’t really expound how amazing these guys are together, absolutely killing it. The match is hot, both guys working big moves at a fast pace, making each other look great. Crowd are invested in the match, popping for small things like a big clothesline. Awesome hotly contested back and forth, KO wins it CLEAN by catching Sami with a superkick and then the pop up powerbomb. KO bullies Byron Saxton in a post match interview and invites himself to commentate on the upcoming match…

IC TITLE: The Miz (c) vs Cesaro
Huge fan of Miz’s delusional Hollywood starlet gimmick, his least stupid haircut, his shiny Mortal Kombat Scorpion coat, and his incredibly hot wife Maryse. I also love his new two-take Jay gimmick where he redoes (repeats) part of his promo so he can get a better take. It’s all great stuff. He won the IC belt after Mania, dismally cutting Ryder’s 24-hour title reign. I read a rumour saying Neville was supposed to do the 24-hour reign but when he got injured, the rest of the ladder match participants lobbied for Ryder to get his WM moment. If true that’s wonderful.
Cesaro’s got his James Bond entrance and stripper clothes. Just wish he used his previous theme, which sounds like the Goldfinger song. Tons of Cesaro section paper littering the crowd, awesome. Watching Cesaro work, it reminds me how awesome it is that we (the hardcore wrestling fans) are proven right to back the talented indie guys. Owens is a delight on commentary, very quick-witted insulting Cole and Byron. He was the MVP of this show, and it’s great how much time he got.
It’s the Cesaro showcase, with multiple feats of strength. He just went into signature spot after spot and is a joy to watch. Fans can’t count the Cesaro swing correctly (they just count, which is about double the speed of the swing) and when Sami appears to brawl with Owens, the distraction allows Miz to retain with a rollup. Post match they all brawl (pointing at a 4 way at Extreme Rules) with Owens standing tall in the end. On RAW they further hint towards the 4 Way with Sami ending up on top, holding the belt. Very enjoyable bout with a “see you next time” finish. I think the Miz is at the level of the IC belt, however Cesaro, Sami and KO are already above it, so they’re definitely improving the standard of the title. Interesting to see KO go back for the IC belt rather than put in a claim for the WWE title.

CLICK HERE FOR PART 2!

May 4, 2016
WWE Payback 2016 Part 2

Continued from Part 1

Funaki, part of the Japanese announce team, botches his one line and the camera moves away. It was so hilarious, even funnier than if he got his “#1 announcer!” line correctly.

JERICHO vs DEAN AMBROSE
Jericho’s such an entertaining heel troll. He’s quite funny on Twitter. Love his douchey aging rockstar heel-garnering look of a long scarf and dinner jacket with no shirt. Also loving his 70s generic heel insult, shouting “you stupid idiot!”. Jericho, despite winning at Mania against AJ, took the loss in the four-way the night afterwards, and found a new person to feud with in Ambrose. Dean, fresh off his depressing feud with Brock, is in a similar position. (Ambrose got beaten up each week before Mania by Brock, and then lost decisively clean at Mania — the feud was low on the card and didn’t elevate him at all, the guy who still has to stick around every week). They use Shane O Mac renaming the Highlight Reel as the Ambrose Asylum as a trivial reason to pick a fight with each other. The feud hasn’t really started yet.
Both are accomplished, smooth wrestlers and the match really got cooking at points, but since it’s gotten little reason to care beyond both are great personalities and wrestlers, it felt flat to me. The crowd were up for it, and Dean got a much-needed win.
On RAW, Steph cancelled the Ambrose Asylum talk segment and reinstated Jericho’s Highlight Reel, and Y2J broke Dean’s potted plant, “Mitch”. WWE have this thing about testing excellent personalities with awful wackiness, I don’t know how much longer Dean can work his magic before people start dismissing him.

Nobody cares about you jackass. https://t.co/kMUKpYiNUg

— Chris Jericho (@IAmJericho) May 3, 2016

WOMEN’S TITLE: Charlotte (c) vs Nattie
The Divas title is no more, as a new championship was awarded to Charlotte – the WWE women’s championship, a red version of the WWE title. Thank God, a million times better than the Divas title, feels like a legitimate title, and not a flowery girly accessory. Nattie’s wormed her way into the #1 contender’s spot and made Charlotte tap in a tag match. To counteract Ric’s interference, Uncle Bret will be in Mattie’s corner. I know he’s a bigger star but it’s odd that Jim Neidhart, her dad, isn’t in her corner. He’s alive and was seen in Total Divas.
Nattie has always been an excellent women’s wrestler but never truly successful (always down the pecking order for Divas) perhaps it’s because she feels awkward. Like the girl in class who seems nice but you’ve absolutely nothing to say to her. Great to see her at the top of the queue. She showed much more personality & confidence/swagger esp. in the opening exchanges. A very enjoyable bout, but then it happens. A Fucking Montreal Screwjob. Jesus Christ. WWE will just not let it die — I thought when Bret returned that’d finally be it’s end. Little Naitch even does the McMahon look to Charlotte (who doesn’t seem to cop it). Ring the bell, Charlotte retains, and Bret & Nattie get their heat back by doing stereo sharpshooters. Bret says he came up with that final spot (not the screwjob).
On RAW the heels denied any shenanigans (Little Naitch saying he heard Nattie verbally submit) and we’re getting a submission match next month.

McMahons segment – Vince chooses Steph or Shane to run RAW.
“CM Punk” chants and Vince goads them to continue, which they don’t, lol. Steph tries to make her case and goddamn, the crowd are SO LOUD booing her. It’s so amazing. Man, wrestling fans are still super-passionate. I wonder what casual fans think when they see/hear segments like this. She gives a pretty great corporate pitch about why she should be picked. Shane (beloved to fans everywhere) goes for the internet approach by picking headlines from various news outlets (no dirtsheets obviously!). Honestly, Steph had a much better argument and Shane didn’t pick up on Vince mentioning RAW reinventing itself (so a new person should be in charge). In the end we get the ultimate cop out of a Austin/Bischoff 50/50, both of you run RAW. We’re gonna get so many McMahon squabbling backstage segments, just give it a few weeks. BTW, Vince has the amazing line of “I don’t listen to anyone…except me!” line that should be splicied in out of context 😀 This segment feels like it should be on RAW (as it affects RAW) but it’s great to hear the crowd absolutely rabid at Steph.

MAIN EVENT WWE TITLE: Roman Reigns (c) vs AJ Styles
Roman was crowned a 3-time WWE champion (Jesus!) last month at WrestleMania in an absolute stinker against Triple H. Styles won the 4-way on RAW the night afterwards and is the new #1 contender. Adding sizzle to the steak, former Bullet Club members, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, are hinting at being paired with Styles by interfering on his behalf. AJ is playing a babyface that is friends with heels. Since WWE are building the company around Reigns, and delayed his big wrestlemania win by a year (due to overwhelming negative reaction), there’s no way Roman was going to lose this match. But it’s up to the performers to make me doubt that.
It’s interesting to see Reigns play the big strongman vs the smaller AJ, he did some big shoulder-tackles and repeat deadlift-powerbombs to show off his strength. Reminds me of Shawn Michaels remarking how people would love to wrestle the Rockers because they would bump all around for them and would take all these power moves. They put on a much, much better match than Reigns had last month, and go full on X7 with the amount of false finishes and kicking out of each other’s signature moves. AJ did a phenomenal forearm to Reigns breaking the announce table, looked fantastic. They actually did it so much it got me to believe maybe AJ could possibly win it! (so well done!). They do a ton of screwy finishes (countout, DQ) so Shane and Steph can restart the bout, Doc and Karl run-in, Usos run-in (it set up a match on RAW the next night) but Reigns secures the win with a spear. Very entertaining match (even if seeing McMahons stick themselves in it is a bit disheartening) — this arguably Roman’s best singles bout ever. Great job guys.

We close the show backstage with Vince, Shane and Steph agreeing to an extreme rules rematch at Extreme Rules.

Overall: Kevin Owens stole the show, the matches were generally great (only one I wasn’t invested in was Ambrose/Jericho) but apart from the McMahons going on before, during and after the main event, it was a high quality wrestling PPV. So happy to have Cesaro back as well. Good job WWE! However, since extreme rules is 3 weeks later, a lot of the feuds are just continuing, making this show a bit inconsequential. Way better viewing experience than Mania, and tons of great wrestlers on the roster! Thumbs up!

Here’s KO tweeting Enzo’s alright 🙂
https://twitter.com/FightOwensFight/status/726983158730756096

Table for 3 review: http://oswreview.com/table-for-3-four-horsemen/

Super OSW 64 Level 8 videogame radio show will be on the podcast feed tomorrow!

May 4, 2016
Table for 3 – Four Horsemen

Table For 3 is an edited roundtable conversation between 3 wrestlers. It’s shot and lighted very well with a documentary-style three-camera setup. The shots are always slightly panning and they splicey only a few seconds of relevant footage, which is a little jarring. This edition with Arn Anderson, Ric Flair and Tully Blanchard was recorded WrestleMania weekend. Interestingly, it’s Arn and not Flair (or Tully) who does the lion’s share of the talking.

• Arn mentions JJ Dillon (who isn’t there, but he’s alive, this is table for 3!), Barry Windham isn’t (even though he was inducted into the HOF with the other Horsemen) and obviously Ole Anderson wasn’t (he isn’t well liked, and has personal grievances with Ric, WWE and many of it’s staff)

• We’ll get this devastating news out of the way – Arn did not address Triple H doing the Aloha Arn! 😛

• He drives home losing the oddly specific 20 buckets of blood during their War Games run (it used to be a house show attraction before it became an annual PPV match) so you know we’re in for a bit of kayfabe/exaggeration. War Games (which you’ll hear about in Fall Brawl 95!) was a gimmick match devised by Dusty to get the Horsemen into one big star-studded match together.

• Tully Blanchard mentions being out of wrestling for 25 years and talking to convicts. If you remember, right before Survivor Series 89, Blanchard failed a wellness test for cocaine (smellness!) and was fired, and WCW didn’t want a guy who failed a drugs test. He became a born-again Christian very quickly afterwards and despite wrestling sporadically since then, worked as a prison ministry (teaching the Gospel to inmates).

• Arn talks about giving 2nd Gen stars (Charlotte, Cody etc) a harder time because of the potential he sees in them and the BARRR set by their fathers. As a road agent, he does his duty by mentioning the WWE Network a bunch. He also likens WWE’s HOF to becoming a parent, not “getting” the full magnitude of being inducted until you’re on the other side of the podium looking out to appreciative fans and wrestlers in suits.

• The lads have a laugh at Arn’s lack of cardio, he retorts he doesn’t need to run as he’ll just hold a wrestler there.

• Interestingly, Arn cites the cause of a lot of injuries today due to not working enough. The 80s schedule of 336 days on (wrestling twice on saturday, twice on sunday) meant you got into “ring shape”, that your body built up calluses, but if you’re only working 4-5 days a week (like “kids these days”) you don’t get into ring shape. The other two agree, as Tully mentions how hard it was to get the rest of the horsemen a day off for his wedding to his second wife. The blasé statement of failed marriages and no time off (as if it’s a good thing) speaks volumes.

I can see what Arn means about injuries; with repetition/being constantly on you’re better conditioned to taking bumps – for example, you could argue Bray Wyatt has a lot of smaller incidental injuries (eg ankle) from wrestling more sporadically…but the opposite is true, workhorse Cena gets a serious injury every other year. (pec 07, neck 08, arm 12, achilles 13, shoulder 15). Arn’s peers -wrestlers from the 70s and 80s- are generally in poor health, or dead, so I’m absolutely against the notion that wrestlers should be working more. I know WWE would never do an off season for monetary reasons, so cycling wrestlers in and out (giving them 2 months off a year to heal) would be better for them in the long run, and give creative a starting and ending point. As an aside, I’ve heard that it’s not so much the matches, but travelling city to city that takes it’s toll. Big Show has the right idea of having a massive tour bus and a driver.

• The three thank each other for their time and we’re out.

Overall it’s nothing spectacular but it’s always great to hear old wrestlers talk about the good old days. Do you think Arn’s right about the cause of injuries?

Request a song for the upcoming Super OSW 64! : OSWreview.com/super-osw-64-level-8-requests

April 28, 2016
Requests for Level 8 of Super OSW 64!

AWWWW DON’T YOU DARE BE SOURRRRR! The next Super OSW 64 (Level 8) is gonna be a’happenin’ Bank Holiday MONDAY 2nd May at 7pm BST! It’ll be streamable at OhhRadio.OSWreview.com, and I’m taking requests for music! Please include a youtube link as it really helps me out and I’m far more likely to choose it. Comment below and make sure to give your name and city so I can give you a shoutout! If you tell me why you love the song I’ll include that too 🙂 Please get requests in by Saturday night as I’ll be finalising the track listing then. FYI I’m just taking requests from this page (not on FB or twitter) – I need everything in one place! Cheers!

All of our previous shows are on our audio feed!
iTunes: iTunes.OSWreview.com
Android: RSS.OSWreview.com

But if you wanna stream theme/download the mp3, left click to stream, right click & save as to download!
Level 1: Download
Level 2: Download
Level 3: Download
Level 4: Download
Level 5: Download
Level 6: Download
Level 7: Download

Newest audio: Jay’s back chatting how videogames handle suicide, marking out over games like The Darkness! Death in Videogames II!
(Starrcade audio will be up in a few days) 🙂

April 27, 2016
OSW Death in Videogames II !

Super Mario Bros 2 (Japan) from 1986 had one of the first instances of suicide:
Warp back to World 1, or kill yourself and start World 3 again!

Jay’s back on the radio discussing death in videogames, concentrating on gaming’s unique presentation of suicide. It gets a bit indie! Originally aired on Going Out In Style, hosted by Valerie Vetter of Aftering.com on 11 Jan 2016.

iTunes: iTunes.OSWreview.com
Android: RSS.OSWreview.com
mp3 file: Download mp3 (left or right click)

Games covered include That Dragon Cancer, Upsilon Circuit, Don’t Starve, Rain, The Darkness, and Minecraft with Hololens. I’ve made a playlist so you can see footage of the games we’re talking about!

Valerie runs a website which is a resource for everything to do with funerals, Aftering.com, twitter @After_WhatNow. Woot! If you’ve any feedback on the show I’d love to hear it, comment below or tweet me!

Jay

Latest OSW review – Starrcade 94 – Clicky!
OSW Death in Videogames Part 1!

April 24, 2016
OSW April update!

Ooh, sounds delish! Let me just toss some jeans on…

• Save 90 minutes this Saturday, 8pm GMT! We’re back with episode 56, WCW STARRCADE ’94 baby! It’s going to be bollocks! If you want a refresher on what episodes we’re covering in ourNew Story Arc: The trailer’s now out! Thanks for the amazing response 😀

• I was back for round 2 on the radio talking Death in Videogames! Basically telling everyone how amazing games are. Chatting morality, death as a setting/character/motivating factor, and gushing about how death can be used so effectively in videogames. It’ll be up on the audio feed during the week. You can listen to part 1 now! OSWreview.com/death-in-videogames

• After Starrcade is released I’ll get working on the next Super OSW 64 (my videogame music show!). I’ll put up a thread closer to the time for your music requests 🙂

• If you’re wondering I didn’t cover WrestleMania 32 because I could barely get through it the first time! I can’t watch it again to take notes and spend 25 hours editing it just to shit all over it. It torpedo’d after the great women’s match. So I’ve been working on Starrcade instead. I did a video review the excellent NXT Takeover Dallas!

• I’ve been getting window’d versions of older episodes up on YouTube, until WWE allow the proper versions, just to have something up on YT! Latest is the fullscreen version of episode 3, our Macho Man Randy Savage tribute vid.

• The black FIGHT card tee is back in stock in UK but we’re sold out of a few sizes in the US! Clicky for our US Store, UK Store!

Anywoo see you SATURDAY for the new OSW episode!

April 11, 2016
UR Fight iPPV

UR Fight (pronounced “your fight”)
The Celebrity Theatre, Phoenix AZ
20 March 2016

An iPPV designed to promote the web-TV channel “URshow.tv”. It’s pitch was a broad nostalgia hodge-podge of worked pro-wrestling and shoot MMA/boxing bouts with older and/or disgraced personalities. Ken Shamrock was originally scheduled to fight Dan Severn (the match I was most looking forward to, that we never properly got in WWF!) but Ken was replaced by WCW/Friends-alum Tank Abbott, who wasn’t licensed, so the match was scrapped entirely. Today it was found out that Shamrock tested positive for steroids (and methadone – used for pain or drug dependence) at Bellator 149 last month. So is it worth the asking price of $12? Let’s find out.

Opening video: Holy shit, in a bad way. Michael Rappaport (co-star of Inside Out with Triple H) Ken Shamrock, Chael Sonnen in front of a US flag, Gary Busey et al plugging URshow.tv and it’s “video AMAs, real time voting, and the most unbelievable contests and prizes”. Oh my God! Smacks of some money mark paying disinterested celebrities to hock their soulless web channel. Combined with the card subject to change and multiple types of sporting contests, it has the potential to be another heroes of wrestling.

Commentators: Jim Ross, Sean Wheelock (MMA commentator) and Rampage Jackson.
In 2008 he was charged with a felony hit and run with the police in tow and a female victim tried to claim it caused a stillbirth (which was dismissed). You might remember he was in TNA (!) with the Main Event Mafia and hung around Angle; even wrestling against the Aces & Eights. They have no chemistry. Sean Wheelock does a good job of presenting points of information, although he embarrassingly sucks up to JR using smark terms like “mark”, “legit heat” and “turning heel”. It’s great to hear JR, and God love him he’s trying, but even he can’t feign being interested/excited. He does have some fun quips throughout the night. “Hey JR, you should promote your own shows.” “I’d like to keep my money.”

Our innoggeral 😉 contest is Shannon Ritch vs Mavrick Harvey.
The first of 4 -count ‘em 4- bouts! And the PPV is 2 and a half hours. Rampage immediately notes the mat must be slippery, affecting how people fight. It rucks up easily and the ring looks cheap – they fucking skimped on the ring affecting the quality of the fights! Something straight of bumfights with how unprofessional this was, setting the tone: Harvey brawling in the ropes and a big wedgie! Harvey won with a rear naked choke in Round 1.

https://twitter.com/ZProphet_MMA/status/711723532263268354

Chael Sonnen vs Michael Bisping – Metamoris Rules (Submission-only grappling)
Chael’s a hell of a promo and it sucks he didn’t (or hasn’t) gotten into WWE. Given that he’s a notable friend of CM Punk and was released from UFC in mid-2014 due to his multiple failed drugs tests, he won’t be coming to WWE anytime soon. Bisping beat Anderson Silva at UFC Fight Night 84 a couple weeks ago so I’m unsure how he can fight for another organisation. Rampage did note that win but said he was lucky, the judges beat Silva. Sonnen weighed in at 231 (19 heavier than Bisping), JR quips he enjoyed the catering at ESPN (lol!). They sleep through their fight – an eternity before the first takedown attempt. They grapple like they’re both avoiding injuring themselves and their opponent, like they were paid to appear, not to compete. Commentators call it “conservative” and “showing mutual respect”. Boo! In the last minute there was a scissors takedown and angle lock attempt but time was up and it was a draw. Chael says he won’t fight again professionally. It’s like the ending of Dexter – if you wanted no-one to ask you to come back, perfect job! Crowd are absolutely dead. They’ve turned down the lights but you can see the scores of empty ringside seats! Deafening silence!

https://twitter.com/ZProphet_MMA/status/711732626080534530

Pre-recorded fight from earlier today: Kobe “The Stunna” Ortiz vs Brendan “Tiny Shorts” Tierney OH MY GOD! It looks like the fighters are in slow motion and they’re pulling their punches. It looked wrong. Sadly no stunner, but a TKO in Round 3, a stoppage due to strikes, the Stunna winning it.

Wow, mega heat with “intermission performer” Riff Raff singing a song with four disinterested models standing in the ring. The commentators admit it shit the bed, pondering if the cheer for angle was really for Riff Raff leaving. Ha!

Pro-Wrestling: Rey vs Angle (41 and 47 respectively) in a 2 out of 3 falls match.
What we all came to see! Idiot backstage reporter gets her facts wrong live and Rey has to correct her, admitting he’s not wearing the mask a fan made for him, but rather the fan is wearing it and will accompany him. WTF don’t bring up the mask at all then! That’s like a kid giving you a drawing and for safe-keeping you put it in the bin! Wear it you cunt! Or get a proper version of it made. The kid is also taller than Rey, and in the shirt, you could tell the fans didn’t know which one of the two was the star. No choreography as the fan is told to look at the screen and he looks at something else. The whole event feels unrehearsed/poor direction.
Hail to the chief! Kurt Angle comes out to Bob Backlund’s theme. YES. This match was reffed by TNA’s Brian Hebner and tonight’s announcer is former WWE guy Justin Roberts. Presentation is crucial in modern wrestling and it feels very bush league/unimportant. Roughly mid 2000s ROH. Bit rusty starting off, but it heats up and Angle gets the first fall with the Angle Slam. Rampage shakes his head at the small size of Mysterio, having to fight a man much heavier than him. Rey ties it up with a 619 and a shit splash, and straight into near falls (including the battered sausage!). Ref bump, low blow and when Angle grabs a chair, Rampage shouts Motherfucker! Jackson was enjoying himself here (he name-dropped Ultimate Warrior and JYD as his favs) but I wonder how most MMA fighters/broadcasters feel about calling (obviously scripted) pro-rasslin bouts. With Riff-Raff’s distraction (taking the chair away), Rey wins with the 619 and the world’s shittest frog splash. No themesong plays. Riff-Raff hotdogs with Mysterio to silence. It just feels out of sorts! HILARIOUS them trying to get Riff Raff over. A decent but inconsequential and unmemorable bout, it’s like someone was watching SummerSlam 2002 on the Network and wanted it on their show. When the two warmed up is was fun to see them wrestling each other again. JR notes “at least the crowd came alive for the pro wrestling match” — it woke the crowd up, which was great. JR keeps putting over how massive it was for Rey to win 2 straight falls (coming from behind) and nobody’s done it; gotta mention Benoit did it 2-0 at Insurrextion 2001!

https://twitter.com/ZProphet_MMA/status/711747413103525888

MAIN EVENT: Boxing: Roy Jones Jr vs Vyron Phillips
Old boxer (Jones) vs younger MMA fighter in a boxing match. Contributing to the carny atmosphere, fighters sent in tapes to UR Fight, and facebook voted for the final four nominees (which Vyron won), so the 34-year old gets to box his hero, the 47-year old Roy Jones Jr. If he won he’d get $100,000. Voting only STARTED about 3 weeks ago (FIX! FIIIIIX!) so it was a slam dunk. Jones outboxed him easily, and smashed him with a right in the jaw in the second round, and despite Vyron getting up, the ref called waved it off as a TKO.

https://twitter.com/KOKINGS4/status/711942002011668480

Overall: Pretty much a low-rent freak-carny show! Very short fights, it delivered on what you’d expect, which is for it to be not very good! Save your money, look for gifs online. Shame on Sonnen/Bisping. But hey, we got a wedgie, a solid punch, and Angle vs Mysterio.

So you didn’t miss much! But if you saw it, lemme know what you thought. Our 3RD ANNUAL GOLDEN NOGGERS video dropped last night (watch it here!) and our New storyline arc trailer earlier in the week (watch it here!)

March 21, 2016
WWE Roadblock Review

WWE Roadblock
March 12th, 2016
Ricoh Coliseum, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Isn’t it great to have a WWE live event on a Saturday? WWE decided to televise the Toronto house show, as they’re looking to increase their live content on the Network (and more reasons to subscribe) as they continue to move away from traditional PPV. It also serves as a stop-gap in storylines between No Way Out (sorry, Faaaaaaaastlane!) and WrestleMania; as it was built on what looks like alternative booking plans for WrestleMania – Triple H vs Dean Ambrose, and Bray Wyatt vs Brock Lesnar. Notable by his absence is Roman Reigns – who’s been gone since t-shirt-and-jeans babyface Triple H gave him a decisive beating, kayfabe putting him on the shelf for a few weeks so Reigns could actually get nose surgery for a deviated septum. Time’s ticking as Mania’s in 3 weeks and he isn’t being missed, and right now, the ‘real’ main event is Shane McMahon vs The Undertaker. The show ran just short of 2.5 hours, and with the small entrance way and no pyro, it definitely felt like a house show. That’s a good thing though – it didn’t look like RAW or Smackdown, and was more wrestling-centred, making it an easy watch. Sadly it was the RAW commentary team of Michael Cole, JBL and Byron Saxton; so no Mauro Ranallo, who is doing a great job on smackdown, who brings much-needed credibility to the announce team.

Dark Matches: Mark Henry def. Local wrestler Randy Sharp (aka Randy Reign) and Goldust went over Viktor.

The New Day vs Sheamus & Wade Barrett

New Day pushed their Booty-Os cereal box, which is a legit box you can buy that contains their new t-shirt. Amazing — that’s some really clever, inventive WWE creativity in merch that we rarely see. Also, shout-out to their WWE-championship kids sneakers! They pushed it hard and went a bit overboard with the trombone New Day Rocks chants (3 in ~5 minutes)
It’s sad to see 4-time WWE/World Champion Sheamus, and equally-talented Wade Barrett being presented as comedy jobbers in the failed League of Nations faction. Originally the heels were built around WWE World Champion Sheamus, which fell apart within weeks as Reigns won the title. As they’re much less entertaining and cemented as a faction than New Day, they’re actually lower on the totem pole. And it showed here – they were outsmarted by 3-Man New day, as Big E delivered the Big Ending to Barrett, getting the win in 9:49. Most notable moment was Kofi doing a flying nothing off the top rope and awkwardly bowling over Sheamus!

Chris Jericho vs Jack Swagger

Yep, Jack Swagger! CAPTAIN…Jack Swagger. He’s still employed. Jericho cut a real house-show heel promo (“Canada smells, Toronto is the anus, I moved away from Canada”) cheap heat but hey, it got the desired crowd reaction. He worked in that Swagger beat him for the World title (remember that?) and Swagger’s name got booed, the opposite of his intention. After slagging the “We The People” catchphrase, Swagger comes out. It must be a house show, ha! So the Pro-American who sucks is babyface vs the heel Canadian in Canada. WHAAAT?! I think Kalisto, Neville, Zayn, even Ziggler would’ve been a better choice (they’re saving AJ for WrestleMania). Swagger’s main negative is that he’s known for injuring people, which means WWE won’t want to risk their bigger stars working programs with him (which is why he’s on Superstars/Main Event, amongst being a poor promo!). It annoys me that his world title reign precludes him from being a boy. Swagger comes out with a black t-shirt and training shorts over his attire, he looks like such a jobber! And job he does. Jericho has some nice heel touches like pulling the ref’s leg to get to the ropes. He applies a Boston Crab to Swagger (there’s absolutely no elevation to call it a Walls of Jericho) and gets the tap out win in 7:54.

Enzo & Big Cass vs The Revival (c) for the NXT tag championships

Very jarring to see an NXT match on a WWE house show, a televised first of it’s kind. Enzo & Big Cass are jersey-shore guidos that have a New Age Outlaws-esque intro that the crowd can sing-along to, and they aren’t great wrestlers (esp. Big Cass). They’ve been tagging for almost 3 years now and have never gotten the tag titles. The Revival (previously called ‘The Mechanics’) are said to be a throwback to the olden days, like Tully & Arn, which is a massive (and inaccurate!) complement, they’re grand in the ring but have “lack of flash” i.e. they’re charisma vacuuums – which make them a perfect contrast to Enzo & Cass. They do have some nice old-school tactics (eg pulling a guy out of the ring/distraction) which I do like. Big Cass used Wade Barrett’s bossman slam from earlier, dammit D’lo! Oddly Cass spent a lot of time in the ring, hoofing Enzo out into their opponents. I really like The Revival’s super-codebreaker called the Shatter machine (retaining in 10:17). Like most of the matches on the card, it was decent but unmemorable. There’s an NXT special Mania weekend, I imagine The American Alphas will get a shot in the biggest NXT show of the year.

Click here for part 2!

March 13, 2016
WWE Roadblock Part 2

Click here for Part 1!

Natalya vs Charlotte (c) for the Diva’s Championship
A rematch of Charlotte’s first main roster bout! I expected Nattie (whom I love) to complement Charlotte well but it was a pretty nothing match. Loved Nattie’s New Gen Bret & Owen shirt. Annoyed with Nattie absolutely no-selling a figure four, robotically shouting “no” at Charlotte. John Cena/Cinder block levels of no-selling! Something I did love was Charlotte keeping the F4 on whilst going out of the ring, which is reminiscent of what Bret used to do in the corner on the outside. Nattie hit a nice powerbomb for a 2 and applied a perfect surfboard. Nattie looked like a real idiot from the finish – releasing the Sharpshooter of her own accord to jaw-jack with Naitch, and got rolled-up for her troubles in 13:37. Fine but disappointing.

Brock Lesnar vs Bray Wyatt
A huge fuck you to the audience, Bray got Luke Harper added to the match, and then did not wrestle himself (so it was like a substitution). He fobbed it off as “making a deal with the devil”, and Lesnar allowed it, battering Harper with little resistance (winning in 4:03) and walking after Bray, who went to the back. Fuuuuuuuuuuck you Ontario! I’ve no idea why they’re saving Brock/Wyatt (especially after advertising it) as Brock is facing Ambrose at Mania. Odd. Shit.
Worth noting that Harper is actually a very underrated wrestler – he was in ROH and Dragon Gate before WWE. He hit a nice whirlwind clotheline and suicide dive to Brock.
Earlier in the night Heyman cut a babyface promo about Suplex City. It’s so weird that characters don’t change their personas and change between heel and face (as with Lesnar here). You could say they’re 3 dimensional complex characters, or more accurately, it’s just a bit of a mess and WWE can coast because he’s a star.

Sami Zayn vs Stardust
Happy to see Sami Zayn, wrestling in front of his countrymen. I haven’t mentioned it but I love Stardust’s theme. It’s one of the best wrestling themes WWE have produced in years. It’s definitely Goldust’s brother, but his own character. Anyway, the crowd died for some reason (probably seeing Stardust!) and we got CM Punk chants. The disinterested crowd really does hurt things (but it is up to WWE to get you to care!). Zayn hit the Helluva kick and got the 3 in 12:33.

Main Event: Triple H (c ) vs Dean Ambrose
Shocked to see Aitch come out first, I assumed it was to cut a promo but no, he let Ambrose come out last (as H is the champ, he should always come out last). I find it odd that Triple H has reduced his on-air time since becoming champion – he’d cut 20-minute opening RAW promos beforehand, but now he’s both staying away from the Vince/Shane storyline, and is appearing much less on TV (it’s the opposite of how it usually works being champion!). Perhaps he has an ego that had to be filled with TV time, but now doesn’t need it as he’s got the belt. It’s good to see him actually defend his belt once before dropping it to Reigns, solidify his 14th championship reign.
The crowd was somewhat split between the two (Aitch will be roundly cheered at WrestleMania against Reigns) but got behind Ambrose. It was refreshing to see an in-ring contest between H and Ambrose (as opposed to brawling on the outside, using weapons etc) and Ambrose got a lot of offense. Hilariously JBL and Cole made a point about Ambrose having a gameplan (to attack Triple H’s knee) but Saxton hadn’t a clue and was talking about Ambrose having weeks-long gameplan to get himself this match. Aitch applied the Cripper Crossface (even trapping the free arm) but no Benoit chants, but we got more CM Punk chants.
As a televised house show you expect no titles to change hands (well, not the world title under a month out from Mania anyway); there was a holy shit false finish, where Ambrose hit the Dirty Deeds DDT and got the three count. The ref immediately waved it off as Ambrose’s foot was under the rope (which isn’t true, dick ref!). It took everyone by surprise and after Ambrose missed an elbow drop to Aitch through the table, he got pedigreed upon re-entry to the ring and Aitch retained in 24:43 in a very good match.

Overall, an easy watch, but inconsequential to WrestleMania. Biggest fuck you was not getting Bray vs Lesnar, and it’s great to see Ambrose be the main event babyface, in a refreshingly straight-forward title match with a huge talking point.

Update on the next OSW! Clicky here: OSWreview.com/update-2016-march

March 13, 2016