The Pete Holmes Show returns with new episodes on February 24th and he is taking on a different set of opponents this season. Last year he played Professor X and took all of the X-Men to task about how horrible they really were. Now it looks like the world of video games is in his crosshairs.
First up is Ryu from Street Fighter, played by Zack Morris himself, Mark-Paul Gosselaar. We all know of Ryu’s famous saying when he uses his special attacks…save one; that damn hurricane kick. Pete tries to get to the bottom of that.
And with that, Cesaro swung his way into the lives of millions.
OK, truth be told, he has been using the swing for months and it is not even his most impressive one (see: Great Khali), but last night’s match with Cena was one of those star-making moments that you hope the WWE will take notice of.
But we know they won’t.
Sure, Cesaro beat Orton on Smackdown last week and gave Cena what was his best Raw match in over a year but we all know where this is heading. After the Chamber PPV he will be on Raw simply to show off the big swing and have some useless feud with Jack Swagger down the road. Hell, I would be surprised if he was even on the WrestleMania card. That is how the company works. Superstars with natural talents are told not to use them because it doesn’t fit their character or what any one of the higher ups think should be in a match. If my memory serves, that was one of Punk’s original grievances when he was on his way out the door in 2011.
SHORYUKEN!!
Still, nobody can take anything away from Cesaro, or even Cena, who held his own in that damn fine match. That was the kind of power vs. power display that made you get up on Saturday mornings as a kid, sit down with your bowl of Peanut Butter Captain Crunch and watch wrestling…at least until He-Man came on. I would actually say to go and find it online and give it a watch if you missed it and be amazed at Cesaro’s strength. Seriously, its like he drinks a Red Balls before he goes out there.
Daniel Bryan was given an out for losing at the PPV with his beatdown by Kane after he wrestled Christian, who is a heel now? I know the announcers were selling it as Christian being more aggressive because…wrestling, but he was in full-on 2011 “pissed at the world because he should be champ” mode. So there is that.
Word is that Christian is the latest superstar that is leaving once their contract is up so maybe he can have some fun as a heel before retiring. He is not happy about how he is being used and at the age of 40 he looks to just be going out to pasture when he leaves because God knows he would rather clamp his nuts in a hair iron than go back to TNA.
Roman Reigns took on Mark Henry and while I was not surprised he won, I was surprised that it was so quick. I am of the mind that I don’t want The Shield to go their separate ways (at least now) but I am having fun watching Ambrose slowly delve into madness over Reigns’ ascent. This is a rare situation where all three guys could be huge stars on their own.
BTW- how over is Reigns’ Superman punch and spear?
I won’t be watching the Elimination Chamber PPV this Sunday (at least to my knowledge) because it really is a weak card with the exception of The Shield vs. The Wyatts six-man tag. That, I would pay money to see, but not 50 bucks. I wish WWE would have thrown us a bone and had the PPV be free on WWE Network. But alas, they want one more big PPV payday before telling DirecTV and all the others to go f*** themselves.
I am still a little confused by the booking heading into Sunday with The Wyatts not absolutely squashing Team Mexico. For a team that captivates the audience and will, most likely, win on Sunday, the artists formerly known as Epico & Primo and Hunico Cara got way too much offense.
Raw was working with reverse momentum last night. The show started hot with all six chamber members then stayed up for Daniel Bryan through the Cena/Cesaro match then it was like someone let out a fart in an elevator. Maybe it was the after-effects of an actual great match on Raw and we didn’t know how to react?
It ended with Randy Orton vs. Sheamus and these two do not have the best luck with Raw matches since fans like to chant for Daniel Bryan during their previous two encounters. They didn’t have to worry about that here. They had CM Punk chants. Can’t make this stuff up. Luckily the show ended in a brawl and got the crowd on their feet.
Who can tell me whose brilliant idea it was to take the tag titles off of The Rhodes Brothers and make them sit at a kids table and sell WWE LEGO’s?? For Christ’s sake. Did I laugh? Yeah, because Goldust lends himself well to that kind of skit, but Jesus H., this was the team that beat The Shield for the belts and held them for months and were continually the best thing about Raw tag matches. I understand that The Usos are next in line to hold the user created belts with Spartan heads on them from WWE 12, but it would not have been a bad thing to have a face vs. face match. I would have loved to see The Rhodes and The Usos. Now, we get to see the VKM do their best to keep up with the superkick brothers.
Here is the card for the Elimination Chamber PPV on Sunday:
-Elimination Chamber for the WWE World Heavyweight Title (Cena/Orton/Bryan/Sheamus/Cesaro/Christian)
-The Wyatts vs. The Shield
-The Usos vs. New Age Outlaws for the Tag Team Titles
-Batista vs. Alberto Del Rio
-Big E. vs. Jack Swagger for the Intercontinental Title
-Darren Young vs. Titus O’Neil (yes this is on the PPV)
For those wondering The Rhodes Brothers are on the pre-show against Rybaxel. Yet, Titus O’Neil has a PPV match. Reminds me of the time I spent $45 for WCW Sin and had to watch…WCW Sin.
Next week is the big WWE Network kick-off Raw which will be free and should have a whole lot more going on than the PPV on Sunday. Lesnar will be back and the rumors are still strong that Taker and Hogan will be returning. With any luck we should start the full-on push to WrestleMania, and even if Raw sucks, we can all get on the WWE Network after and watch any old ECW PPV we want.
Good news for Star Wars fans (like me) who never got to watch Star Wars: The Clone Wars in its entirety. The series’ five seasons including the unaired sixth season with the final 13 episodes will be available to stream on Netflix beginning March 7th.
For me, this is great because I watched most of the first season but lost track and fell too far behind. Hooray for Netflix! Now I can marathon the show and feel like a Star Wars fan again.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars was not allowed to finish out its run on Cartoon Network due to Disney’s purchase of LucasFilm. A new animated show, Star Wars Rebels, will debut on Disney XD at a later date.
OK Gotham, we get it. You are great at casting. Now you are just showing off.
Donal Logue (Sons of Anarchy, Terriers) has been cast as Detective Harvey Bullock in Fox’s Gotham. This is another win for the show that hasn’t even started production yet. It has generated a lot of good buzz over the past week with Ben McKenzie playing Jim Gordon as well as the casting of Alfred and Oswald Cobblepot.
Just days after Ben McKenzie was cast as the lead in Fox’s Gotham, most of the major parts are being filled.
Sean Pertwee has been cast as Alfred Pennyworth.
Robin Lord Taylor will play Oswald Cobblepot
The rest of the cast includes Erin Richards as Gordon’s fiancée Barbara Kean and Zabryna Guevara as Gordon’s captain (and future mistress) Sarah Essen.
With the casting of Alfred it looks like Bruce Wayne may be more than just a recurring character and more of a series regular. I like they have brought the Essen character into the mix as well knowing her (future) history with Gordon.
HBO is giving Game of Thrones fans a bit of a taste test with this 15 minute preview for Season 4 that includes new footage and interviews with the show’s stars.
Ladies, come for the Tyrion, stay for the fact that Jaime Lannister is back to his well-groomed self. Guys, ummm swords, blood, sex and Tyrion.
Sorry, Tyrion makes both columns.
WARNING! There are spoilers for Season 3 if you have not caught up yet.
Ben McKenzie (The O.C., Southland) has won the role of James Gordon in Fox’s new series, Gotham.
The series will follow a young Gordon as he tries his best to be a good cop on the corrupt streets of Gotham. It has already been announced that Bruce Wayne will be a recurring character and that some of Batman’s rogues gallery will make appearances as well.
I am happy with the casting of McKenzie who shined in the short time Southland was on the air. The creators and writers should take special care and follow the Arrow blueprint for keeping comic shows interesting. Handled as a gritty cop drama, Gotham could be special, it could also become Smallville just as quickly.
There are many within WWE that feel that former WWE and World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio will be leaving the company when his contract expires sometime this year.
He is apparently not pleased with how he is being utilized including being used as a filler match for Batista before Wrestlemania. If this is true then this could conceivably be the second superstar that the returning Batista has (possibly) caused to leave with CM Punk walking out last month.
Some feel Del Rio could return to Mexico, where he is one of the most popular stars ever, and be much happier. Del Rio may not be as big a name as Punk but if he did leave it is another talented performer that has to be replaced. Just another worry for WWE heading into WrestleMania 30.
The first Raw after CM Punk’s departure went about as well as the WWE could have expected. Sure there were plenty of Punk chants throughout the night and reports that Punk posters were being confiscated like at the NXT taping last week, but the show wasn’t a huge barreling train that headed off the rails and took a plane back to Chicago.
Piece of advice to live fans- if you want to keep up appearances that Daniel Bryan is your guy, you may not want to chant for Punk during his main event match with the WWE All-World Marine All-Star Champion. It just proves to the WWE that you are chanting to chant and actually don’t care about what you say you care about…like Fandango.
Unlike last week there were some really good matches including The Shield doing their Shield-y thing in a six-man tag against Dominic’s real father, the West African Jamaican and man boobs. I am glad the crowd made the fact that Roman Reigns and Big E. were in the ring together a big deal. Few things matter in the ring anymore so it is nice when two big hulking men go against each other and the crowd oohs and ahhs. Kind of like the daydreams that Vince rubs one out to.
Back to Punk, because I am like a dog with too many chew toys.
Word is that Vince and HHH are split on what to do with the tattooed one. Vince wants him back in a big way and HHH feels the opposite because Punk didn’t feel like their match at WrestleMania 30 was high profile enough for him so mutton chops is butthurt.
News Flash: It isn’t as high a profile match as HHH wants to believe it is. There is a hierarchy to Mania matches.
1. WWE Title matches
2. Undertaker vs. whoever.
3. Whatever else is on the show
4. 1&2 are swappable
Punk has always wanted to main event Mania and he felt he was wasting another showing with a match against HHH. Maybe he shouldn’t have left so soon, maybe he just couldn’t take anymore, who knows? I do know that I would love to see Punk on TV again but only if he wants to. No use watching someone half-ass their way through something. That would be like watching Total Divas.
With Punk hanging out with Chris Hardwick or something it seems like WWE has taken the easiest possible way out. By easiest way out I literally mean they took the script for Mania and went HHH vs. Punk Bryan. Kane interfered in the main event last night because…because. So now it looks like D.B. will be taking on Korporate Kane at Elimination Chamber before getting Punk’s Mania leftovers.
Yay?
You know who should be pissed about all of this going down is Sheamus. He was rumored to be turning heel against Bryan and have a Mania match with him but now that has changed and it looks like he will be calling 1-800-FELLA on Ryback.
Welcome back! Don’t get pink eye.
People backstage need to remind Cody Rhodes that if he is going to try and pull a Kurt Angle in the ring at least save it for a PPV. Paralysis should not be given away for free. At least get my $10 on the WWE Network before doing that again.
But I do thank him for the effort. The Rhodes Brothers basically played the role of every John Cena opponent for the last decade. They worked their asses off in the cage match and carried the Outlaws then had to take the loss. Looks more and more likely of a brother vs. brother match at Mania.
Photo courtesy wwe.com
Brock Lesnar was not at Raw last night so that meant that Batista had to have some mic work with Alberto Del Rio. Sad part about this? Del Rio actually outdid skinny jeans even with all of his Spanglish. It was a tougher sounding Del Rio and his sucker punch on Bootista was a surprise that made him look like an actual threat and not a chickenshit. Where was this Del Rio during his last title reign?
Did anyone else know that Titus O’Neil broke up with Darren Young? That’s what I get for not watching Smackdown…or caring about Titus O’Neil. I did like The Miz coming out during the match and asking why he was not in a match but the “guy who barks like a dog” and the “guy who made his own belt for the internet” did. People give Miz a lot of shit but I am still a fan. Hard to believe its been three years since this:
Photo courtesy ign.com
Let’s see what the possible, reworked if Punk is not coming back, I am just guessing so don’t hold me to it WrestleMania 30 card looks like.
Randy Orton vs. Batista
HHH vs. Daniel Bryan
Bray Wyatt vs. John Cena
Cody Rhodes vs. Goldust
Sheamus vs. Ryback
Triple-threat match with all three Shield members
Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar
On paper it looks good. Then again, so did WrestleMania 26 and that went down the crapper quickly.
I don’t believe we have ever been this close to WrestleMania where so much was up in the air. Now with Punk (maybe) gone for good I am sure the writers’ pants are quite full with the proverbial dookie.
Side note- Green Day’s “Dookie” is 20 years old now. Go fu** yourself time.
