Rambles about the wonderful world of wrestling.
The backlash against Pixar’s recent influx of sequels has been quite a strange one, particularly when you consider the studio’s third film – Toy Story 2 – was a sequel. Despite that, there is no denying that when Pixar have gone beyond original properties, the quality has dropped – unless we are talking about said toys. It doesn’t matter how much you complain, though, thirteen years after Finding Nemo we are back under the sea again and this time, we are Finding Dory.
When Star Trek boldly made its way back onto our screens in 2009, it was entering an uncrowded marketplace. Star Wars seemed dead, and sci-fi epics of the space-faring kind appeared to be on the backburner. JJ Abrams responded in style making a Star Trek that took elements of its War like cousin and rewrote the Trek rulebook. In 2016 the market looks very different. JJ has jumped ship, and Star Wars is suddenly the biggest thing in space again. So where does Star Trek go next?
I’ve been to countless arena shows over the years, and some of them have been truly spectacular. It doesn’t matter how many I do, though, not one has ever beaten the feeling of packing into a tiny little sweatbox and seeing a great band smash out a fantastic set. Which is why tours like the one The Wonder Years have just finished up round the UK are so special.
Continue reading “The Wonder Years w/ Laura Stevenson and Maycomb”
While 2016 is setting itself up to be an outstanding year for music, it is also refusing to allow us those dollops of joy without giving us a few swift kicks to the nads as well. From the death of David Bowie to the breaking up of brilliant bands like The Defiled music hasn’t been neglected by the curse of 2016. The latest high-profile casualty appears to be Nails.
They’d be locking me up in a cage to be looked at with all the squiggling, you know, hippo dumplings, crocodown dillies and giggirafs, and then there would be a gigantus looksy giant hunt for all of the boys.
I don’t care if you are nine years old or 102 if you aren’t enchanted by watching Mark Rylance work his way through sentences like the one above then you are dead inside. If there were nothing else to The BFG than Rylance’s take on The BFG’s unique way with words – many of which are taken wholesale from the book – then it would probably have been enough. Thankfully, there is more than that.
After Raw’s rather successful reboot on Monday night, SmackDown followed suit with their first proper live show on a Tuesday. While I obviously want Raw to be great, I really want SmackDown to succeed. My wrestling education was birthed in the technical excellence of Paul Heyman’s SmackDown, and it has genuinely pained me to see the Blue Brand fall away over the years.
It’s the New Era that is part of the New Era… if you know what I mean. Battleground is over, and we are heading into a whole new style of Raw. Before we get there, however, I am going to give a quick rundown of my thoughts on said show. Don’t worry if you’re a SmackDown person; I’ll be doing that tomorrow.
For the second time in its history, WWE has gone draft crazy with last night’s SmackDown Live signalling the start of a New Era – although how that fits into the last one, I don’t know. Like most of these events, the actual show itself was a bit of a disappointment, with the awkward podium sections not hiding that most of the matches were throwaway at best. Even the main event was hardly a classic. However, it’s got us where we need to be and after Battleground we will have an all new WWE. So how does each roster look going into that new world? Continue reading “WWE Draft”
There’s something special about a Ginger Wildheart tour and his most recent run around the country feels more special than most. Having had to cancel the Hey! Hello! tour twice, once because of Ginger going into the hospital due to his battles with depression and once because of Hollis leaving the band, it is a pleasure to see the great man on stage enjoying himself after a while away. Throw in the reunions that have happened with Danny McCormack at a couple of the shows and the whole thing has an even bigger party vibe than usual.
Continue reading “Ginger Wildheart w/ Ryan Hamilton and Massive Wagons in Glasgow and Aberdeen”
Last night WWE aired the first episode of the Cruiserweight Classic, their tournament involving thirty-two of the best cruiserweights in the world. It’s entirely new territory for the company, and you only need to glance down the list of names to get excited. In this piece, I’m going to have a look at the first episode reviewing it in three separate areas: presentation, commentary and in-ring action.
Ramblings About Wrestling 