Professional Wrestling (WWE, TNA, ROH, etc)

[tacitus kilgore]

I still play Here Comes the Pain on PS2 every now and then, fuck do I miss good wrestling games. I was a little too young to experience WWF No Mercy, but having Day Of Reckoning to switch things up a bit was so cool. The show was in decline by the mid 2000s, still felt more important than it does now.

[Andrew]

That's a good point about Vince.

[Lean]

https://youtu.be/-wrCHwg-KVg?t=2936

phpBB [video]

That's awesome!

[[Q]]

I still play Here Comes the Pain on PS2 every now and then, fuck do I miss good wrestling games. I was a little too young to experience WWF No Mercy, but having Day Of Reckoning to switch things up a bit was so cool. The show was in decline by the mid 2000s, still felt more important than it does now.

I remember playing all of the wwf games growing up, but when they released SmackDown for PS1, I was pissed my mom wouldn't get it for me. All I wanted to do was play hardcore matches. I do remember I wound up getting warzone and then attitude but it was kind of annoying I had to create a lot of the new additions like Jericho.

I eventually got to smackdown on PS2 with shut your mouth and here comes the pain, which Xavier woods plays on his YouTube channel. Man that brings me back...

[Andrew]

I have a lot of nostalgia for War Zone and Attitude, but once THQ got the WWF license, they were left in the dust. Attitude was actually one of the first games I remember really feeling let down by (outside of ones that I'd just rented for a weekend, anyway), because there were a bunch of cool features talked about in early previews that didn't make the final cut. Between War Zone and Attitude, I'd also picked up WCW/nWo Revenge by THQ/AKI, and its gameplay was much better than what Acclaim was doing with the WWF games. That all changed when they partnered with WWF instead and made Wrestlemania 2000 and No Mercy, though.

[shadowgrin]

I'm still amazed that WWF No Mercy is still being modded to this day, like NFL 2K5.

[Andrew]

Some games age well in the right areas, and the areas where they age poorly can be overlooked by those who greatly enjoy the parts that do hold up. We've seen that in our community with mods for older releases over the years. No Mercy does have its flaws, but the experience is still fun and obviously familiar if you grew up with it. They'd pretty much reached the pinnacle of what could be done with that tech, so it stands out as a crowning achievement and an experience that has been polished over the course of four or five games.

[[Q]]

I remember being amazed by the live commentary in Warzone. They definitely improved on the game overall in Attitude. Create a player had a little depth, you could create your own ring/arena which I used to create a smackdown ring with blue ropes. Unfortunately they removed the commentary and the roster was huge but it got outdated quickly.

[Andrew]

Attitude had Shane McMahon and Jerry Lawler on commentary. Not quite as good as Vince McMahon and Jim Ross in War Zone, and not as good as JR and King would've been in Attitude. No idea why they went with Shane, especially as he'd stopped commentating by that point.

[[Q]]

Oh yeah that's right. I had forgotten that. It's been a while, but yeah now I remember being disappointed that JR was not in the game calling the stone cold stunner

[tacitus kilgore]

Anyone remember that God awful TNA game? Looked pretty for the time, but it wasn't fun to play.

[Andrew]

I never ended up checking it out. From memory, that's where the Suicide gimmick originated.

[Andrew]

[[Q]]

SMH they are definitely making it a triple threat to keep people from booing the hell out of Ronda

[Lean]

I think they're just going for the Daniel Bryan Mania 30 booking on Becky here. We still got two PPV's left and this is probably a buffer for the Becky vs Ronda match at WrestleMania. I've read reports that another Becky vs Charlotte match is scheduled, just forgot which PPV it's scheduled. It'll probably be for the #1 contendership for Ronda's title.

Or I could be wrong and they're really making this a triple threat.

[Andrew]

I reckon they're making it a triple threat. Also, having Becky apologise, only for it to blow up in her face, takes the wind out of her sails as a badass face. Stuff like this makes you wonder how the WWF/WWE ever reached the heights that it did.

[[Q]]

I guess there's a possibility tonight that they set a one on one at Elimination chamber to see who gets to go to Mania. But then there could be a screwy finish and then they both make it anyways

[Andrew]

It just seems they're making it more contrived than it needs to be.

[shadowgrin]

The more contrived it is the harder it is for marks to know what will happen next!

[Andrew]

We're all getting worked!

[shadowgrin]

phpBB [video]

[Andrew]

Exquisite.

[[Q]]

kind of an odd turn of events on NXT. Velveteen Dream wins the Worlds Collide tournament and gets to choose a title to fight for and chooses... the north American title? A bit anti-climactic and I don't know if they plan on taking it off Johnny right after he won it or if they'll just squander this opportunity with the Dream

[Lean]

kind of an odd turn of events on NXT. Velveteen Dream wins the Worlds Collide tournament and gets to choose a title to fight for and chooses... the north American title? A bit anti-climactic and I don't know if they plan on taking it off Johnny right after he won it or if they'll just squander this opportunity with the Dream

Spoiler from the tapings: Dream wins the title from Johnny but after the match, Johnny gets back and put Dream in the Garga-No Escape, took the title with him and posed on the stage with Ciampa.

Meanwhile, Corey Graves' wife posted a picture of their family on Instagram and calling out Graves on having an affair with their daughter's "role model", Carmella.

With this issue looming on, plus Jimmy Uso's recent arrest, tomorrow's show is interesting.

Also, part of me wants Kofi to win the Chamber match.

[Andrew]

Meanwhile, Corey Graves' wife posted a picture of their family on Instagram and calling out Graves on having an affair with their daughter's "role model", Carmella.

Wait, not Mandy Rose? That's not on-brand!

Seriously though, what a situation. I've never thought much of Graves as a commentator - I'm surprised that he's so popular with a lot of smarks because his commentary has a lot of the same problems as JBL's did - but if this is true, he's a garbage person as well. Not really cool on Carmella's part, either. Remains to be seen what happens with them, as I'm sure WWE isn't keen on the bad PR.