WWE Summerslam 2015 Preview Breakdown

Summerslam 2015 is rapidly approaching and I thought it would be fun to have a quick breakdown of the matches on this year’s card.  A PPV event that feels like a Teddy Long has come back to manage the show. Holla Holla!!! Playa!!!

1.       Kevin Owen’s Vs Cesaro

Wow, anyone remember when Kevin Owens was wrestling John Cena for the US belt, or when he was on NXT as the NXT Champion? Well not anymore, now he is on the lower end of the card wrestling against Cesaro, now don’t get me wrong I love both these guys and really want both of them to rise to the top of the main card. I just can’t see WWE back office letting either of them get to where both of these guys deserve to be, which is a real shame.  Hopefully will get to see some great spots from Cesaro during this match just to wow everyone with his sheer power!

However if you’re asking me for the winner here, it has to be Owens as with the exception of his 1 win over Cena his debut has been a little lacklustre in my opinion.  But should be booking bill good we will see a Kevin Owens win here after what should be in theory a great match.

2.       Fatal 4 Way Tag Team Title Match

Prime Time Players (c) vs. The New Day vs. Los Matadores vs. The Lucha Dragons

This should be an interesting tag team match; I’m imagining some high flying antics in this match which again should make for some fun wrestling. Also good to see more tag teams getting some PPV time, may lead to an actual fun / interesting tag team division.  I’ve always enjoyed tag team wrestling so will be cool to see if this match leads to more prominent roles on future WWE shows for the tag team division.

However I’m going to say the Prime Time Players will pick up the win here, good to see a tag team I quite enjoyed when they first formed finally getting some decent exposure. 

3.       Triple Threat Intercontinental Championship Match

Ryback (c) vs. The Miz vs. The Big Show

The IC title division has become a little stale, it’s a shame Daniel Bryan got injured and needed to vacate the title really. Not a big fan of Ryback or the Miz in all honestly. The Big Show I do like, but if I was booking him I would try to have him as an inbetweener, just knocking out everyone, very similar to Randy Orton’s style.  I imagine this match will be what it is and little else, probably will not be the star of the show in all honestly.

Ryback will no doubt pick up the win here, the IC division needs some stability, so a long term fighting champion may just help get the division back upto to the status it used to be, back when the IC champ was the one putting on the show stealing matches or even the best laid out matches.  That would be living the dream., we will see if Ryback can pull that off.

4.       Stardust & King Barrett vs. Neville & Stephen Amell

I really, really, really hope Amell brings the Arrow gear to the show and wears it during the match that would be EPIC!! This match is going to be junk I would imagine, I’ll predict Neville tagging in Amell just to get the pin fall here. Hopefully though will get to see more and see if Amell has done some wrestling training leading into the match, surely the Arrow can take on the evil plans of Stardust and King Barrett.

Fingers crossed the good guy team here will pick up the win, this match screams “comic book” and as we know the good guys always win in comics...  “You have failed this city!”

5.       What’s left of “THE SHIELD” vs. What’s left of “THE WYATT FAMILY”

Ok, this match feels very 2014 but missing 2 players from the board. Well I’m thinking the team of Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns will be able to overcome the new face of fear Bray Wyatt and his former protégé Luke Harper this time around. Also with Reigns still poised to rocket to the top of the WWE at some stage soon.  I’m hoping 3 / 4 men in this match will become staples of WWEs main event in the future... I hate Roman Reigns (JOKE).

I’d imagine that Reigns will be the one to pick up the win here, I’m also hoping it will be over Harper too and not Wyatt, he has become a bit of a jobber as of late, feels like he needs to actually win a couple of matches to try and get him back over as a legitimate threat and not just a crazy nut case who talks the talk but doesn’t walk the walk.

6.       Winner takes all WWE Champion vs. United States Champion

John Cena (c) vs. Seth Rollins (c)

Anyone ever seen Alien Vs Predator???  Remember the tag line???

“WHOEVER WINS... WE LOSE”

Well this is exactly what this match is, If Rollins wins we get our SHIT WWE champion holding both major singles titles in the WWE, since he has been badly booked with 1 belt, how badly would the booking be with 2 of the fuckers.  Also John Cena’s US open challenge has probably been one of the best booking moves in WWE recent history for the stalwart of the WWE roster, all ended in a flash by bad booking.

Then we have John Cena getting yet another WWE title run, that he doesn’t need, that would make the US title be an afterthought again, with Cena obviously focusing on the main title rather than his US open challenge. Plus do we really need another WWE title run with Cena as the champ? NO! NO! NO!

I’m hoping for a no contest here or a DQ of some kind as I would really hate to see these championships unified unless they plan to get rid of the US belt, but highly doubtful.  But as I said, if anyone wins this match, the real losers are us the fans.

7.       Brock Lesnar with Paul Heyman vs. The Undertaker

Now this match feels a little desperate to me, we don’t really need this match now do we?

How many times over the last year or so has the Undertaker had a chance to get some level of payback against Lesnar and now he decides to come out of hiding to do it, no sorry I don’t buy it. Yeah Lesnar has been bragging about it but has never really said anything disrespectful about Undertaker.  But this is a big deal with Undertaker not just featuring in a Wrestlemania match this year and getting to feature on this PPV. Then of course Lesnar is on show that is a pretty big deal in itself.  However lets face the facts they needed to keep Lesnar away from the WWE title picture somehow didn’t they!?

Ok, well this match will end simply with Lesnar picking up the big win, Undertaker isn’t going to get revenge and the conqueror will conquer again. Sorry.  This match as cool as it is, does feel a little desperate and forced upon us, it will be a good match I would imagine, hopefully better than their first encounter back at Wrestlemania 30.

As always I’ll be hanging with my main man 12VE-Pac over the Summerslam weekend, so please follow us @bigboss010 and @siteofshite on twitter with the hashtag #DSCSlam.  So I’ll see you then.

I’m Big Boss, I’m out..... Peace.

Warhammer 40,000 Conquest "The Beginning of the Journey"

I wanted to write a piece about something I’m passionate about, however with any original piece comes the questions of topic. Just being passionate about something isn’t always a reason to write about it, what in particular should I write about in the focus of a particular topic? I decided to focus on card games as a broad topic, something I’ve done for many years now and will continue to do for the foreseeable future I would hope. However with so many games that I have played or currently play it’s hard to select just 1 to really focus on, I mean I’ve played Yu-Gi-Oh, Raw Deal, Vs System, Game Of Thrones LCG, Duel Masters and currently Warhammer 40,000 Conquest LCG.

 

 

I’ve decided to go with Conquest, mainly because it’s the most frequently played card game that I currently get involved in. When it was first announced I was rather cautious because despite the fact I am occasionally interested in 40K it doesn’t mean I want to invest in yet another card game. Yet when I asked my “play group” about it there was some real interest in the game, so I came up with a plan to make the game a little cheaper, by dividing up the core set and war packs we could really cut the price of the game. The game has 7 (soon to be 9) factions so could easily be divided up between us and that means the cost of playing would be greatly reduced, something that enticed even the most cautious of us into getting involved. The factions currently are Chaos, Orks, Astra Militarium, Tau, Eldar, Dark Eldar and Space Marines, these factions can also be teamed up based on the alliance wheel, allowing certain armies to team with each other.

The mechanic of the game is very unique, as I mentioned I’ve played a few card games and none have been like conquest and this made for an interesting learning experience. The main idea of the game is to win via 1 of 2 methods, the primary method is to gain control of 3 planets with the same icon, there are 3 different icons and you get 7 planets in the game (randomly selected out of 10 planets) to conquer. The other method is the beat your opponent’s warlord, a character card who is kept separate from the main deck and is charged with “leading” your forces, each faction has a unique warlord in the core set and each faction is getting more with each warlord pack having 1 new warlord in it for a various faction. Each warlord has effectively 2 lives, you need to beat their full power version first (version that has an ability) and then their “bloodied” version after (found by turning the full power warlord over), this version of the warlord loses power and abilities so is generally a little easier to overcome. Beating the warlord is my personal favourite way of winning a game, sometimes you just can’t get the planets so having a character you can bully for the win is quite funny.

One issue I have with the mechanic of the game is that it’s difficult to practice for games outside of playing the game itself because of the random planet allocation each game and the rewards each planet offers for winning the command struggle there or the battle ability triggered for actually wining a battle there. These things make it difficult to know how each game will play out but do add a good layer to the game, it allows for the tide to turn in a game given the right deployment and this just adds to the enjoyment while playing. Also playing against all the factions is a great idea when practicing as you can then adapt your deck for the different play styles your likely to encounter, however you should also still play to the strengths of the deck you’re playing. Each game begins by deciding initiative (who goes first), the deciding initiative changes at the beginning of each game turn giving a back and forth feel between both players,  this can influence your choices for deployment during the game.

I have built 3 decks and the one I use the most is my Dark Eldar deck, lead by the warlord “Packmaster Kith” who has a great ability to call upon token units when she deploys to a planet, this combined with her signature squad who can all call tokens as well, means you can flood the field with token units to help bolster your numbers. The main weakness of this strategy is “area effect” units that can hit every unit on your opponents side of the planet play area, with such weak defence on most DE units, including tokens, with one attack your opponent could clear out most if not all your units at one planet. I’ve had a lot of really good games with the DE, I do however team them with some of their Eldar cousins as allowed by the alliance matrix. This gives me access to the card “DOOM” which is every opponent’s least favourite card and also gives you a minor psychological advantage in games as it allows you to kill off every non unique character in all players HQ area, obviously a big blow hitter for any player. I do use other cards but “DOOM” is definitely the most critical.

Up to this point my tournament experience has been limited having only playing in 1 local store championship at Guys-That-Game in Fenton, when I won 4 and lost 2, of which I am rather proud and played some really tough decks, luckily the 2 guys who beat me were the 2 finalists, one of which wrote a review online and said I was one of his toughest opponents throughout the day, rather happy with that. With the 1^st cycle of warlord packs nearly at an end I’m happy to say I do like where the game is heading, they have given every faction a new warlord and some really cool new cards hinting at what is to come for the factions moving into the next cycle. If you do fancy getting into a new card game, I would highly recommend Conquest, its layered mechanic teamed with a fun play style; Warhammer 40,000 Conquest is a well worth investing in.

You can follow me on twitter @bigboss010 or on instagram @bigbosstp010. You can also follow my good friends over @siteofshite and also subscribe to their YOUTUBE channel – SOSGames. Also check out their Amazon affiliate shop, plus their own SPREADSHIRT shop for Site of Shite themed items plus some new Big Boss items that I will be adding in for me.

 

You can also check out Guys-That-Game on Instagram @guysthatgameuk or on their website www.guysthatgame.co.uk and even on Facebook, www.facebook.com/gtggames

Thanks for reading.

I’ve been Big Boss and I’m out.... Peace.

Brock Lesnar & Roman Reigns Top 5 Important Matches

With Wrestlemania approaching rapidly I figured I would do a piece to lead up to the event, I usually have from favourite matches to favourite Wrestlemanias. This time I wanted to focus on the main event, the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match with the Royal Rumble winner Roman Reigns challenging the current reigning and defending WWE World Heavyweight Champion The Conqueror, the Beast Incarnate, Brock Lesnar.  ;-)

My focus is going to be mainly on Lesnar as he is the champ after all, I figured I would do a top 5 matches for Lesnar, this obviously includes his original 2002 – 2004 run and his current run too, however to start with there will be a little focus on the challenger and his rise towards the top of the WWE with a top 5 for him too, these matches will be in no particular order and will mainly be Shield matches to be honest.

Big Boss’s - Roman Reigns Top 5

5. Elimination Chamber 2014

The Shield vs. The Wyatt Family
This match had been built for felt like a decade, we knew these guys had to go to war and they did, oh boy they did. The crowd was more than ready for these guys to face off and with both teams being really over with the crowd and when it all kicked off the crowd were electric. Despite the fact that the Shield lost it did go a long way to making Reigns look good, he did withstand the 3 on 1 onslaught for a bit before being brought down by Bray Wyatt.

4. Summerslam 2014

Roman Reigns vs. Randy Orton
This of course was Reigns first major singles match at a PPV in WWE and also since the split of the Shield. Orton is such a great performer and could make a broom look good and he continued that with Reigns by doing the job for him in this match, giving Reigns real credibility as he defeated a former WWE champion.

 3. Payback 2014

NO HOLDS BARRED Match Elimination– Evolution vs. The Shield
This was the final match of The Shield, many people saw this as a major win for The Shield as Evolution is one of the biggest factions of all time and to go over 3 MAJOR superstars in such a great match didn’t just push Reigns but Rollins and Ambrose too. This showcased that all 3 members of the Shield were ready for the main even scene in WWE, all getting chance to showcase themselves against 3 of the best of all time.

2. Fastlane 2015

#1 Contenders Match – Daniel Bryan vs Roman Reigns
Now this wasn’t a match I was looking forward to because I knew Bryan wouldn’t win, now anyone who knows me knows I’m not a big D-Bry fan, but even I wanted him in the main event of Wrestlemania over Reigns. However Bryan did manage to carry Reigns to a solid main event match to get him set for the main event of the big show itself. This match in theory gave Reigns the needed credibility to move onto the Wrestlemania main event after being turned on by the majority of the WWE universe during the Royal Rumble match the month before.

1.       Monday Night Raw April 22^nd 2013
 6-Man Tag Team Match – The Shield vs. Team Hell No & The Undertaker

Now this was a hard choice for me, Team Hell No & Undertaker or Brothers of Destruction & Daniel Bryan, went with the first option, as you can tell and let me tell you it wasn’t easy. Anyway this match gets in the top 5 because this match got the Undertaker in a match that wasn’t at Wrestlemania and also showed how much WWE were commited to making these guys in the Shield seem legitimately tough and dominant by having them go over 3 of the biggest stars in the company one of which is a legend in WWE. Daniel Bryan takes the pin here but still, counts as a victory over the Undertaker at the end of the day.

Ok, now that shows my personal choice for important / top Roman Reigns matches, now in the words of the Blazin Squad, lets “Flip Reverse” it.

WWE Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar has been a dominant force in everything he has done, from NCAA Heavyweight Wrestling champion to WWE champion all the way to UFC Heavyweight champion.  His initial run as “The Next Big Thing” back in 2002 saw him dominate the top names in the business at that time, Hulk Hogan, The Rock and The Undertaker to name a few. This gave him huge credibility and his awesome displays of power and speed gave him such a unique look with a huge level of mystique as Paul Heyman took the role of voice box for Lesnar to begin with.

So again in no real order my top 5 Brock Lesnar matches.

5. Summerslam 2002

WWE Championship match – The Rock vs Brock Lesnar
Now this match is probably one of my favourite of all time anyway, so obvious it was going to be in this list. Such a great build up and such a great show from both guys to, to the conclusion of Brock Lesnar winning his first WWE title within months of his WWE debut. I would summarise this match for you in two words, “Brock Bottom”.

4. No Mercy 2002

WWE Championship match – Hell In a Cell – Brock Lesnar vs. The Undertaker
If any match solidified Lesnar as the baddest man on the planet, this was the match, both men looked like death after this match and it got extreme to say the least. Of course Lesnar managed to fight off the challenge from the Undertaker to retain the WWE title, ending the show standing on top of the Cell holding up the WWE title, such an amazing visual and showed Lesnar’s rise to the top of the mountain.

3 . Smackdown 2002 (DATE??)

#1 Contenders match- Hulk Hogan vs. Brock Lesnar

This match was just a beatdown by the end of it, this is the first time a Hogan match had been stopped by the ref as Hogan was unable to continue. This then incurred the monsters wrath as he levelled Hogan and then proceeded to wipe Hogan’s blood across his chest, what a visual, nearly as impactful as the end of No Mercy against the Undertaker. He had destroyed Hulkamania, no one in the crowd could believe it and he beat him convincingly too. This was Lesnar’s last stop before Summerslam where he would beat the Rock for the WWE title.

 
2.       Summerslam 2014
WWE World Heavyweight Championship match – John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar
Now this match was a beautiful thing to behold, he dominated Cena like no one has ever before and then he won. Cena got two moves in I think and neither could put the monster away. He was fresh from the greatest upset in WWE history and continued the streak with this showcase of just how strong Lesnar is, counting 16 German suplexes throughout the match. It was so dominant a performance from Lesnar that it actually “Broke” our stream of the show!!! Thats power people!!
 
1. Wrestlemania 30
Brock Lesnar vs. The Undertaker

This is the match that has been the signature match of Lesnar’s since his return, he faced Punk, HHH and Cena but this is the match that has blasted him into space. He actually beat the Undertaker, the crowd were so shocked it was actually unreal and by god whoever bet money on Lesnar to win (Vince Mac ;-D) was laughing all the way to collect his winnings. This match showed Lesnar as an actual monster who could beat even the best in their home turf so this match is without a doubt the #1 most important match of Lesnar’s career

Now over to my tag team partner from SOS, 12ve-PAC for his take on the Brock Lesnar / Roman Reigns star matches. I’m out.... Peace.

BROCK LESNAR!!!!!!

5) Brock Lesnar vs The Undertaker – Hell in a Cell Match – WWE Championship No Mercy 2002

This match remains to be one of my favourite Hell in a Cell matches ever. The match was a brutal, bloody and physical battle between the old guard and the new breed. Up to this point Brock Lesnar had been tearing through the competition in WWE. Beating the Rock in the same year for the championship. Defeating the undertaker in this match cemented his character into the history of the company. It is one of the most important matches in the history of Brock Lesnar.

4) Brock Lesnar vs Kurt Angle – WWE Championship WrestleMania XIX 2003

Simply one of the best technical matches that you will ever see in WWE. The build up to this match was fantastic, with momentum swinging back and forth between in the two superstars right up until the main event of WrestleMania 19. By this point, Lesnar had built his reputation as one of the best pure athletes in the company. However he had not come up against someone with a similar background.  

It took one of the most amazing moves in wrestling to put Kurt Angle away. In This match represented passing the torch with both competitors coming from amateur backgrounds. Although Lesnar won the championship the shooting star press, which ear done many times before, had almost knocking out after we landed on his head. He managed to finish the match and continue is domination at the WWE.

3) Brock Lesnar vs John Cena – WWE World Heavyweight Championship SummerSlam 2014

Everyone knew this match was going to be on my list. I mean come on, how can you not be? This match proved but the beast was not just some overnight comeback. There is never been a more dominant display over defending champion, that I can remember, in history of the company. I had the pleasure of watching this match Live on pay-per-view with the DSC.

I can’t remember John Cena even getting a look in during this match. Also Lesnar’s amazing feet of 16 German suplexes in one match was visually, one of the most awesome, things I have ever seen. But it was not only the dominance of the challenger over the champion that made this match good enough to be one of the most important matches in lessons WWE career it was also the start of a new era. This Match was the first major match for the WWE network since WrestleMania and perhaps outshone Daniel Bryan’s win at WrestleMania 30. The beast was back.

2) Brock Lesnar vs The Undertaker – WrestleMania XXX Beast vs Streak

If we are talking about career defining moments then this match has to be right up there in the list. The only reason it doesn’t make number one is because I believe that my number one choice made Brock Lesnar’s is career.

The streak had become, up to this point, as much of a main event at wrestlemania as the actual main event. In previous years there are even being tournaments to see you would face the Phenom at the event. It was going to need someone or something very powerful to break the streak. Brock Lesnar stepped up to take the challenge and succeeded where 21 times other people had failed.

After an epic match, Brock was the only superstar to beat The Undertaker at WrestleMania and became the one in 21 – 1. This ultimately lead to the match that number three in the list when he regained the WWE World heavyweight Championship and has become one of the most dominant forces in history of the company.

1) Brock Lesnar vs The Rock – SummerSlam 2002 – Undisputed WWE Championship

This simply has to be the match that made the career of Brock Lesnar. having won the King of the Ring (still think this needs to return as a PPV) Lesnar was guaranteed a title shot against the Undisputed Champion and that happened to be the Rock. It was no secret that the rock was leaving the squared circle for awhile and that he was going to Hollywood (which would later turn out to be one of the best characters in recent memory) and so it was time for “The Next Big Thing” to arrive.

With Lesnar booked as the dominant heel and the Rock as the peoples champion this was always going to be, to quote J.R. “a good, old fashioned, barn burner”. It played out exactly as it should have done with Brock Lesnar looking strong and the Rock leading the way. Throughout the match the people turned on the “Peoples Champ” and this took the Rock off his game and allowed Lesnar to hit the F5 for his first ever championship.

Not only was it his first championship Lesnar became the youngest ever WWE champion in the history of the company at the time and he remained dominant until Survivor series that same year as Paul Heyman turned on Brock to cost him the championship with a loss to Big Show.

ROMAN REIGNS:

5) The Shield vs Team Hell No & The Undertaker - 6 Man Tag RAW 22/04/13

A solid match and the first time in a couple of years that The Undertaker had been in action on Raw after his storied and historic Streak match at Wrestlemania. The match was good and all had some high spots, but it was the ending that will stick in my mind. The shield triple powerbombed the Undertake through the announce table. this was the point that I really started to get behind the shield. I mean come one, when was the last time we saw 3 rookies decimate the Undertaker like this.

4) Roman Reigns wins the Rumble - Royal Rumble 2015

After an immense showing at the 2014 Royal Rumble with the crowd behind him and the shield at the time, only to lose out to a returning Batista. He also broke Kane’s 13 year record of most eliminations in one Royal Rumble that year too. Fast forward 1 year and the landscape looks a lot different, the shield are no more and the crowd are firmly behind a new peoples champion in Daniel Bryan.

I have an inkling (literally, I have a wacom inkling!) that this may be as a repercussion of last years event where a part timer, Batista, won the rumble and “People Power” didn’t win the officials over. It also led to CM Punk leaving the company too. So with officials shoving Roman Reigns down our throats every week, the people once again turned on a once fan favourite.

This is one of Reins most important matches. He not only won the Royal Rumble, but he handled the pressure of a fan turn like a pro. He also had the power for WWE fans to call for a boycott of the network because he won the match. Makes me laugh how ridiculous some WWE fans are :) I have been watching a lot of oldskool WWE on the network #9.99, and it never ceases to amuse me when American fans chant USA to get Bret Hart (Canadian) going after a beating! LOL! Get over it and get on with your lives… I like Roman, he’s a tough competitor and with a little mic work he could be the Next, Next Big Thing :)

3) Roman Reigns vs Daniel Bryan - Fast Lane 2015  #1 Contender match

After the backlash of the Royal Rumble, WWE was wise to cement their decision with a match that would showcase Reigns as a contender for the top spot in the company. Cue a showdown with many peoples pick to win the Rumble in 2015, Daniel Bryan. Looking down the list of matches, almost all of Reigns’ important moments have involved the “yes! Man”.

With Bryan in this match the WWE and Reigns couldn't fail. the match itself was pretty epic and made a great conclusion to the very first Fast Lane PPV. The whole point of the match was to justify Reigns winning the Royal Rumble, as well as suggesting the possibility that he's ready to face Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania. Bryan demonstrated that he could dominate and control a match just by using technical skill and submissions, while Reigns demonstrated that he was tough enough to withstand Bryan's submission holds and use force more so than simply countering a move to break out of them (something he might use in his match against Lesnar). The match itself was predictable, and it's clear who McMahon is pushing to be his next top babyface. Bryan carried Reigns into a very good match and it was the best 1 on the whole show.

2) The Shield vs Team Hell No - Extreme Rules 2013 Tag Team Championship

A candidate for match of the night was later outshined by a longer, more hyped match, but the energy of the tag team title match was stirring. The fun that is the chaos of The Shield continued here, with just Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins fighting this time. Both teams showed off great cohesion and chemistry.

While Daniel Bryan held Rollins in the surfboard hold, Kane came in and kicked him. The Shield showed similar moments of great teamwork. Bryan captured Reigns in the No! Lock, a move that caused the big man to be unable to lift his arm or to capitalize on a spear to Kane. Reigns fought through the pain to pick Bryan up in a torture rack hold while Rollins came crashing down with a knee. Like The Shield's WrestleMania 29 match, had this gone on a little longer, it would have even better and earned instant-classic status.

Finally losing the titles gives Kane and Daniel Bryan the opportunity to go their separate ways. Will they part ways amicably or will Kane blame Bryan for being the weak link? Either way, Extreme Rules was the coronation of The Shield, marking their first title wins and giving them something tangible to quantify their dominance.           

1) The Shield vs Team Hell No & Ryback - TLC Match at Tables, Ladders & Chairs 2012

WWE TLC 2012 could be best described as the night when the WWE debut match stole the show. As good as the main event was, this was the match that everyone remembered. Just 1 month prior to this, Roman Reigns arrived on the scene with former ROH Heavyweight champion Seth Rollins, former CZW champion Dean Ambrose. thier first (Un)official action cost both John Cena and Ryback the WWE title in a triple threat match against then champion CM Punk. Roman Reigns and the Shield, had arrived with a bang.

This match blew all expectations out of the water and proved that both individually and as a team, the Shield could hang with the stars. Some of the most memorable bumps include Ambrose being chokeslammed onto an open chair, Roman Reigns spearing Kane through the barricade, and Seth Rollins' fall from the ladder through a bunch of tables, which included a whiplash effect, as the table his head landed on didn't break. At no point was this match boring. It had rhythm and different pacing, but not boring. Awesome match, and awesome debut for Reigns and the Shield.

Well that finishes my long overdue contribution to our annual WrestleMania article in association with The Big Boss @bigboss010 also check out Mike Air and myself on Twitter @siteofshite and on our YouTube channel of the same name for PPV prediction videos as we go past 100 subscribers. Thank for taking the time to read my ramblings and keep you shite tight! Follow us on twitter during the show #DSCMania.

Is WWE becoming WCW?

Now I do not mean to infer that WWE is taking washed up has beens and paying them a bucket load to do sweet FA but I am inferring that WWE is trying to make big with guys that the WWE universe isn’t overly interested in when push comes to shove. This will focus mainly on a management angle rather than a talent angle, but just to clarify I don’t need to see Big Show & Kane in main event matches anymore, or at least not as often as I am seeing them in main event matches currenlty.

Roman Reigns won the 2015 Royal Rumble and a massive backlash ensued from the general public because they didn’t feel like he should win the match to get a main event title match against, pardon me, the current reigning and defending WWE champion, the Beast Incarnate, the Conqueror BROCK LESNAR!  (So much cooler when spoken) In all honesty I don’t like Reigns, I never have even when he was in the Shield and I don’t personally like the idea of him ending Lesnar’s run as champion.

Now with Daniel Bryan returning from injury and seemingly on the way back up to the top, most people did believe that WWE should have him win the rumble match to go to Wrestlemania to challenge Lesnar for the WWE title, however with his “brief” stint in the rumble match itself the whole WWE universe at the event turned on the show which up to that point hadn’t been half bad in all fairness. The whole match was booked pretty badly in my opinion and gave the result away too quickly, but then again we all had an inkling that Reigns was going to win as we had been bombarded by internet stories that Reigns was going to go over Lesnar at mania 31, so really it’s our fault for not believing the stories.

Now onto my point, there has been a lot of talk that unless WWE want you to be a star that they will do whatever they can to kill your momentum as they do not want you to be too over with the crowds, a strange angle to take when you’re looking to make money!! Surely the more people you have over the more money they will make you, for example in merchandise sales and tickets / PPV buys or hell even WWE network sign ups. In the “Rise and Fall of WCW” documentary, Chris Jericho goes to mention that you were almost punished in WCW if you got over and your weren’t a main event talent and the likes of himself and Dean Malenko were there to just fill the card in between nWo segments.

This feels like it is now becoming a theme in WWE, the likes of Ziggler, Bryan, Ambrose and Cesaro were all over with the fans but WWE seems determined to not let any of them get over and do their upmost to bury them, which seems so stupid because these are guys who can entertain and make WWE money, which is again surely the whole point of being in business? Cesaro as an example was getting a lot of crowd support from being in the Real Americans and using his big swing, so what did WWE do, split the Real Americans and put Cesaro with Paul Heyman! Fine ok I get it, but all Heyman did was promote the fact Lesnar beat the Undertakers streak at Wrestlemania and then to make it worse they stopped him doing the move that put him over in the first place, the giant swing. WHY???

It seems like Seth Rollins is the only real exception to the rule currently with his heel turn in 2014 pushing him to the moon in becoming probably the biggest heel on the current roster, allowing him to showcase the huge amount of talent he has in the main events of a few PPVs with names like Cena and Lesnar. The future will hopefully be bright for the likes of Rollins and hopefully we won’t see WWE kill the push of another great talent.

The other major note is of course Raw becoming a 3 hour show, no one needed that really, it dilutes the show and instead of getting good matches we get maybe 1 or 2 good matches mixed in to long boring promo sequences and rubbish 2-3 minute matches. I know it brings in millions of dollars of advertising revenue for WWE but come on, quality over quantity my friend. WCW moved to a 3 hour show you know, desperation kicked in for them and look where they are now, filling a 3 hour show with a couple of gems and a load of garbage didn’t pay off for them. Just little bits like that are moves WCW made and were known for making.

With WWE chewing up and spitting out their PPV business with the WWE network, the need for increased revenue is surely at a paramount level of importance now, surely guys getting over will do wonders for your business? Ticket sales and merchandise will obviously become a big percentage of the money made moving forward and I fail to see how not promoting the talent who the fans like is a good business model! Very similar to when WCW didn’t allow the likes of Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko and various others to truly climb the ladder there and to become bigger stars than they were previously in the eyes of their audience.

To conclude, these aren’t massive comparisons but you have to admit they are there and they could become even more relevant to the legacy of WWE and even Vince McMahon himself in the future. Hope lies with Steph & HHH at this stage, with NxT taking off and gaining popularity and often being deemed the best TV show WWE puts on, this template could always be brought over to RAW or Smackdown to improve the content of the shows and that would hopefully lead to more eyes on the product and more money being spent on merchandise and tickets sales, which surely is the point?

You can follow me on twitter @bigboss010 or on Instagram on bigbosstp010,

 

I’ve been Big Boss and I’m out…… Peace.

UFC 183 – “The Spider” Anderson Silva vs Nick Diaz (Middleweight fight)

Ok, I’m back, this time with another UFC main event fight review. Before we get started you can follow me on twitter @bigboss010 and on instagram as bigbosstp010.

This fight has intrigued me as I have never seen Silva fight, only heard how good he is via reputation, however he is currently 39 years old so will be interesting to see how he gets on against a younger opponent who has been more active. Nick Diaz I have seen fight before and he is really good and gets into a character which adds to his entertainment value in a sport that has very few sellable characters.  I am really looking forward to this I must admit and thank god I managed to get my BT sport sorted before this event, just from the announcements the crowd are ready for this fight, they are electric.

Round # 1

Off we go, Diaz starts baiting Silva early with some trash talk but Silva doesn’t go for it and connects but Diaz keeps up the talking and even drops to the floor and lies down taunting Silva, who doesn’t look impressed, Diaz follows that up with a lean against the cage wall too. Diaz knows how to get the crowd reacting! Soon the ref gets on Diaz to actually fight and they start throwing punches and kicks. Eventually Silva turns it around and starts doing some taunting himself. Both guys get some great kicks and punches with Silva getting a great high knee in. That ends round 1 in great style with some great kick attempts from Diaz. Both guys do a bit of talking at the end.

My personal opinion on that round would be very close but I think I’d give it to Silva for some great punch and kicks, plus that massive knee towards the later half the round.

Round # 2

Not as much trash talk this time as the round kicks off, think Diaz may have done a little too much in round 1 and knows he needs to be careful. Diaz really going for them leg kicks on Silva, a fair few getting some good connection and Silva not doing a good job blocking them. Diaz goes for a takedown but misses. Some great exchanges with punches and kicks from both guys, Diaz being a little smarter this round but Silva has hit some big combinations and with the end of the round they both do some more trash talking. The crowd are really into this fight, chants in abundance.

I don’t know with this round who I would give that too, I feel like it has to be Silva again just due to some of those combinations he landed and he just felt more of the aggressor in that round too where Diaz despite ditching a lot of the trash talking and taunting didn’t pull it back.

Round  # 3

Anderson comes out swinging this time with some kicks. Diaz starts trash talking and taunting again but this time Silva backs off to draw Diaz back into the centre of the octagon instead of taking any bait from Diaz.  The talking’s over as they starts getting some serious exchanges with Silva again hitting some great combinations on Diaz that bust him open above the eye. Diaz lands some great punches on Silva at the end of the round but Silva appears unpahsed, Diaz isn’t looking as good as he has in previous rounds there.

I have give this round to Silva, he just didn’t take the Diaz trash talking and just landed so many strikes and had great octagon control and aggression. Easy to award that to Silva.

Round  # 4

Diaz is looking beaten up, his side is bruised to go with his busted up eye but is already being quite aggressive this round as he goes back to the leg kicks. But again Silva has some great control in the octagon trying to keep Diaz against the cage. At the end of that round I still think Silva has the fight in the bag really.

I’d give it to Silva still based on control and aggression; he just takes hits but lands some better ones.

Round # 5

I didn’t think this would go the distance but may still surprise me. Diaz goes right back to the taunting and trash talking, Silva again doesn’t react just keeps his pace. Crowd are going mad for Silva. Diaz showing so much more aggression this round, following Silva around to get those shots in on Silva. As the round comes to a close both guys really have been very aggressive in the final round, both wanting the finish I think but sadly the fight goes the distance.

I’d actually give the final round to Diaz simply for sympathy mainly but he did get some great shots in and was so much more aggressive I think in that round however I think it was a little too late.

The Decision

The judges award the fight to Anderson Silva, good call from the judges there and the crowd are very happy about it too. Silva breaks down and starts crying, Diaz comes and picks him up and congratulates him and tells him not to cry! What a fight though!! I was surprised this fight didn’t go to the ground to be honest, as both guys are ju jitsu black belts so I expected more than 1 takedown attempt but still was a great fight and really entertained.

Well thats the UFC 183 main event fight. Thanks for reading and joining me. I do plan on watching the Feb 28^th UFC 184 as Ronda Rousey defends her Bantamweight title against Cat Zinagno, which I am super stoked for and cannot wait to see that fight. Hopefully will write up another review.

Again you can follow me on twitter @bigboss010, I’ve been Big Boss and I’m out..... Peace.