Scooby Doo and the WWE

So last night I ran to Twitter and laid out the plot to a sequel to Scooby Doo Wrestlemania Mystery movie.  Someone had mentioned the movie early that morning and then I couldn't get my idea for a sequel out of my head.  So during a night of everyone being political I carpet bombed Twitter with my 12 part story.  It's hard to get a lot of information out there when you're worried about character limits.  So instead of letting all that brain power go to waste, I'm reposting it here where it is easier to read.  Of course this is all made up in my head, there is no chance in hell of this story becoming real.

The film opens to a shot of Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins wrestling in WWE city. Fog rolls in, there is a ghostly flash, and the sounds of a fight. When the fog clears the ring is empty. Other wrestlers look around shocked.  Then there is a quick cut to the theme song.  After the theme we cut to the Scooby gang showing up to WWE City.  After all their help the last time, John Cena called them to help look into the missing wrestlers.  When the gang walk into the training center they see Miz practicing with Kalisto.  Suddenly a ghostly Roddy Piper appears.  He taunts the wrestlers before smoke fills arena. When the smoke clears the Miz is gone.  

In the confusion the lights go out and the Wyatt family arrives by lantern light.   Bray cuts a promo how he is the true evil and how his family will be taking over the WWE.  Luke Harper makes faces at Shaggy and Scooby, scaring them while Bray talks.  Meanwhile Eric Rowan wordlessly stares at Velma.  When the Wyatts leave Cena, Kalisto, and Paige offer to help the gang investigate the ghosts and the missing wrestlers.  Everyone was creeped out by Wyatt's and Shaggy and Scooby are sure that they are behind the missing wrestlers.

As the team look for clues the pattern repeats itself.  Ghosts of past wrestlers show up, taunt the living, and then disappear with current wrestlers.  Then the Wyatt family show up saying how they are going to take over WWE City.  Everyone is getting worried and the big WWE Championship match is coming up, because someone will have to face Bray.  When Paige is kidnapped the Hex Girls quickly arrive to help.  Because of course the Hex Girls are friends with Paige.

The night of the big match arrives.  It will be John Cena versus Bray Wyatt and the winner will get the championship belt.  But before the match Cena is attacked by the ghost of Andre the Giant!  Before the gang can save him he disappears.  The WWE is terrified the Wyatts are going to capture the belt and only midcard wrestlers are left to challenge him.  Before any of the other wrestlers can step up, the Hex Girls volunteer a plan.  Using their magically infused rock and roll they summon the Undertaker.

The Undertaker begins to fight Bray Wyatt when the ghost of the Ultimate Warrior arrives.  But the Scooby gang have an elaborate trap to catch the ghost this time.  Except Luke Harper scares Scooby and the trap is disrupted letting the ghost go free.  The rest of the Wyatt Family tries to interfere in the match but the Hex Girls fend them off.  Scooby and the ghost end up crashing down onto Bray Wyatt letting the Undertaker pin him one, two, and three. 

The ghost is quickly unmasked to find Damien Sandow!  Banished to the midcard, Sandow thought he could get a title shot by kidnapping all of the higher ranked Superstars.  He used his acting ability to impersonate all of the past wrestlers.  He would have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for those meddling kids!  All of the kidnapped wrestlers were stashed under the ring, because that’s the kind of silliness that would fly in a movie like this.  The newly crowned champion Undertaker scares Scooby as everyone else watches and laughs.  After staring at Velma all movie Eric Rowan shows up and gives her a flower, obviously geniuses can recognize each other.  Cut to credits and the theme song.

Joey Ryan Is Awesome

Joey Ryan is a professional wrestler best known to the general public as "the penis wrestler" due to a recent recording that went viral.  Whether wrestling as one half of the World's Cutest Tag Team or going out and stealing the show him, he is always entertaining.  He can seamlessly transition from serious to comedy wrestling.  The clip below is from a recent match against Joey's girlfriend Laura James at Finest City Wrestling in San Diego.  Even if you're not a wrestling fan you should watch it.

Congrats to Joey and Laura.

Kickstarter: World Wide Wrestling RPG Season 2

Kickstarter has had a lot of incredible campaigns in the past.  I don't have shelves filled Kickstarted goods, but I have backed my share of products.  One of my favorites was Nathan D. Paoletta's World Wide Wrestling RPG.  The game which involved both in ring action and backstage maneuvering was perfect for the person like me who writes sprawling backstories for created wrestlers in video games.  The game is easy to play, true to the source material, and obviously written with a lot of love.  Because of this I was thrilled to see that a second book is recently been added to Kickstarter.

World Wide Wrestling RPG: International Incident is adding more testicular fortitude to the main game.  As the name implies many of the new gimmicks will have an international flavor to them.  Lucha Libre wrestlers can now show those High Flyers how it's really done.  Japanese style Puroresu will teach those American audiences what "Strong Style" really means.  Besides the new gimmicks the game also introduces rules for growing your promotion, audience moves, mythic moments, off camera stroke, long term play, and additional tips on match flow.

I backed the project the moment I heard about it.  If you haven't picked up the original yet, there is even a pledge tier that includes both games.  Check out the Kickstarter by clicking HERE and check out Nathan's website by visiting ndpdesign.com.

WWE 2K16: The New Day

Last year's WWE 2K15 left a lot of long time fans pretty unhappy with the game.  It seems any time a yearly series makes the jump to a new platform they seem to leave out half of the regular features.  In WWE 2K15 you couldn't even make female wrestlers.  We are about a month away from the new WWE 2K16 and it looks like most of the things that were cut are coming back.  Created female wrestlers are back, there are 100 save slots for created wrestlers, and their My Career mode looks drastically improved.  You might even say this a New Day.

Xavier Woods even manages to mention his wonderful Up, Up, Down, Down youtube channel.  I skipped last year's game but I think I'm back aboard the hype train.  WWE 2K16 will release on October 27th.  Pre-ordering will net you a Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator character.  No other DLC has been announced at this time, but there will most likely be a Season Pass.

Amell Vs. Stardust

In one of the more strange/wonderful things I can think of Steven Amell is going to be wrestling at Summer Slam this Sunday.  Amell is a long time wrestling fan that had been tweeting out how much he wanted to be involved with WWE.  When his dream finally came true he began a feud with Stardust.  Stardust is the character played by Cody Rhodes.  Rhodes is known for being a fan video games and comic books.  He has come to the ring dressed as Mr. Sinister from the X-Men and even before he became Stardust he would wear a Tri-Force symbol on his boots.

The impressive thing about this is Amell’s passion and the fact that he’s been training to get into the ring.  Usually when a celebrity gets in the ring with a wrestler you can expect some badly thrown punches and maybe a slam of some sort.  Considering how active Amell is doing stunt work on his own show it looks like this is going to be an incredibly entertaining match.

To celebrate his match Amell is selling a limited time shirt.  Featuring Stardust and the Arrow the shirt is pretty cool looking.  Even cooler is that a portion of proceeds benefit Emily’s House, a hospice for children.  You can order the shirt by clicking HERE.  

WWE 2K16 -Terminator Pre-Order Reward

WWE 2K16 just announced a new pre-order reward today and the commercial for it is amazing.  I can't remember the last time a non-wrestler was included in a WWE video game.  With the create a wrestler feature the game's servers are full of unofficial characters based on comic books, television shows, and movies.  Adding the Terminator is pretty cool.  Arnold is a part of the WWE Hall of Fame and the last Terminator was featured pretty prominently at the last Wrestlemania.  It looked absolutely ridiculous, but it was featured.

That video isn't enough to make me pre-order though.  WWE 2K15 cut a lot of create a wrestler features and there hasn't been any indication that those cut items are returning this year.  I have to wait and see before they get any of my money again which is disappointing because I'd really like to have a good wrestling game on my X-Box One.

Grand Theft Ambrose

Youtube user Raven Cyarm mixed a little Grand Theft Auto V with last night's episode of WWE Monday Night Raw to come up with this fantastic video.  It is seriously well done and was put together pretty quickly.  Even if you aren't a wrestling fan, I think it is still worth a watch.

Royal Rumble Fallout

I don’t talk wrestling much on the website.  For whatever reason I usually don’t have much to say about it.  I’ve thought a lot about the product over the past two nights and I wanted to get some of those thoughts out to the general public.  Before the comments come, yes I know wrestling is scripted.  I look at it as part scripted show and part stunt show.  I’ve seen enough matches close up I’m usually able to tell when a punch or kick really connects. 

Wrestling is unique in that its audience gives immediate feedback.  Sure, sports teams get cheered or booed but that isn’t scripted.  The players are out there trying to win the game; they weren’t told when they leave the locker room which team is going to win.  When wrestling fans don’t like something about the product, it’s heard.  Sunday night was the perfect example of that.

The character of Daniel Bryan is that of the underdog facing the evil corporation.  He doesn’t have the look that the WWE normally pushes.  But his charisma makes you like him.  His athleticism surprises you.  As far as storylines go, having when where you’re being kept down by the boss is a classic.  The people watching should rally behind you.  Daniel Bryan’s story of being kept down by “The Authority” has been going on for 5 or 6 months now. 

During the WWE’s latest PPV Bryan again put on an amazing match, but the focus of the PPV was the Royal Rumble.  The winner of the 30 person rumble goes on to headline WWE’s biggest PPV event, Wrestlemania.  Bryan’s match was the first one after the pre-show match.  Throughout the night the crowd booed title matches and chanted for Daniel Bryan either by chanting his name or his “Yes” catchphrase.  When it was revealed that he wasn’t in the Rumble the crowd was nasty. 

Last night’s Raw had “the Authority” mocking fans for not getting what they wanted.  I’m not an industry insider; I can’t tell you if this was the plan all along.  It’s entirely possible the WWE saw what was happening and had to make changes.  I honestly hope so.  The crowd reaction Bryan gets is amazing; the audience has already made him a champion.  If he keeps getting screwed over and neglected the fans are going to grow bitter (and there are plenty of bitter fans about this already).  At some point it becomes not the storyline holding your hero back, but the actually behind the scenes company. 

The winner of the Royal Rumble Sunday night was Batista, a wrestler who left four years ago to become an actor.  He has a part in the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy movie; so he’ll like win the belt at some point so when he’s doing interviews about the movie he can be referred to as WWE Champion.  If that sounds ridiculous that is exactly what the Rock did last year around this time.  That too is part of the backlash.  It’s as if the company is saying forget about the men and women who travel four or five days a week and bust their asses for the audience.  Instead put all the attention on an actor who will be around for a couple of months and then take off again. 

The WWE network is launching at the end of February.  They are hoping people sign up for 6 months of service at 9.99 a month.  This is a huge risk for the company since it pretty much dismantles their old Pay Per View structure.  I would think when going towards kind of venture that they’d be more likely to give their audience what it is demanding, but what do I know?  It’s entirely possible I’ve been played by their writers; after all I just devoted today’s update to their product.

WWE Stackdown

Over the years building blocks like Lego and Mega Bloks have come out with all sorts of licensed sets.  Movies, cartoons,  games, comics, and sports have shown up in one brick from or another.  While there have been a few surprises down the line, I feel I have a pretty good grasp on what is happening in those toy lines.  I was completely surprised to learn about the WWE Stackdown sets and even more surprised to find out they were already showing up on the shelves of toy stores.

Obviously when you think wrestling you think about building blocks; it’s a natural combination.  Well that’s not true on any planet I’ve been to.  That doesn’t mean that the sets can’t be a lot of fun though.  The flagship of the series launch is the Train and Rumble set.  The two story set has plenty of workout gear for your wrestlers to train with.  Have your wrestlers throw each other into a locker, weight bench, or off a scaffolding.  It also comes with Rey Mysterio and Sheamus figures. 

Sin Cara comes with a figure catapult, a giant ring to jump through, and some torches that are probably meant to represent pyro.  So you pretty much are given props to create a Sin Cara entrance.  I can’t imagine that adding a lot to the value but the figure is the real star of this pack anyway.  Considering the original Sin Cara's track record they really should have packaged him with some medical supplies.  Maybe a wheelchair or a stretcher. 

Kofi Kingston actually comes with some things that can be used.  His set includes scaffolding, a ladder, and he comes with a title belt.  Want to put on ladder matches with your figures?  You’re going to have to get the Kofi set.  What to have a title belt?  You’re going to have to get the Kofi set.  Out of all the sets, this is the one that seems the most wrestling related.  In fact the other sets just start to get weird.

Damien Sandow, the intellectual savior of the masses, comes with an office.  Seriously he comes with a chair, a table, and a presentation board that has one of his shirt designs on it.  He also comes with a microphone, a must have if you want your figures to cut promos on each other.  The table is not meant to be used during your matches because it doesn’t even split in half. 

Then we have Santino.  I get that Santino is used as a comedy gimmick.  The man’s sense of humor and timing are great.  His set comes with a giant cage that he and a cobra can fit into.  Yes his finisher is called the cobra but he isn’t carting a real cobra out.  And why would he go in the cage with a cobra?  I’m very confused by the whole thing.

Finally is the Undertaker set.  He’s the biggest name attached to any of these sets so it isn’t surprising that it looks cool.  It is an odd mix of Undertaker images though.  The set has cemetery gates and a funeral urn that has been used in many of the Undertaker’s stories.  If you package these items with a demonic looking Undertaker it makes sense.  Instead you get “American Badass” Undertaker riding a motorcycle.  The figure and bike on their own do represent a version of the Undertaker; they just don’t go with the other accessories at all. 

That’s it for the first wave of Stackdown.  There were some seriously strange decisions made when designing these sets.  I hope they take off enough that we see at least another wave, because I can’t wait to see the oddities they come up with for wave 2.

WWE 2K14 Custom Belt Glitch

We’re back.  Special thanks to anyone who sent concerns either through email or comments.  While I was pretty busy last week I did manage to spend some more time with WWE 2K14.  I talked about picking the game up last month but I just finally got a chance to really start playing it the way I wanted to.  The game lets you create your own Universe by creating shows, PPVs, belts, arenas, and wrestlers.  While in years past I would play shows mostly dominated by my own creations they were still made up of about 50% real wrestlers.  This year I wanted to really tell my own story.

So I created an army of fake wrestlers.  When I realized that just the characters I normally create weren’t going to be enough I started throwing together quick characters to fill the gaps.  I created brand new arenas and belts for my champions to hold. I spent hours modifying move sets or tweaking character entrances.  Finally I was to a point where I’d be able to actually play the game.  I still had some changes to make, but I could start my Universe.  As my shows neared the end of the month we were headed to the first PPV and the first big title matches.  And then my game froze.

My first PPV had three championship matches on the card.  I tried all three of them and would end up locked up or in an infinite loading loop.  Hours and hours had already been put into this and now I might have to redo a huge portion of it to add normal belts.  I wasn’t happy.  I ran to the internet for help.  I disabled entrances and replays.  I installed the game to my harddrive.  Anytime I tried to play the title match in Universe for a custom belt the game would freeze.  While experimenting with the Universe mode I found my own workaround. 

When viewing the card in Universe mode go to the title match you want to play.  When you press edit to change the match you will be given two different options.  One is to change the match completely and the other is to just change the participants in the match.  For this you want to pick “change the participants”.  You’ll get another warning message that says if you change the people involved in the match it will no longer be a championship match.  At the character select screen the two wrestlers who were scheduled to wrestle should already be selected.  Click accept and you should be able to play the match.  It’s entirely possible that this won’t work for you, the game is pretty damn buggy, but I’ve been able to play 3 different title matches because of this trick.

WWE 2K14

I wasn’t planning on getting WWE 2K14 when it came out.  When I play a wrestling game I’m spending most of my time on created characters and don’t really need a yearly roster update.  I was very impressed by the new features that were being previewed.  I had begrudgingly changed my want level from “I don’t need it” to “I’ll pick it up when the price drops.”  And then I was pretty much gifted the game.  It’s been out for a week so I’ve been able to try everything out.  We don’t really do review scores, but I did want to talk about the game in depth.  There are some improvements over WW13 and there are missteps. 

Last year the main game play mode to unlock all the extras was the Attitude Era.  You played through the famous matches of DX, Stone Cold, and the Rock.  This year it is all about Wrestlemania, so the roster is a lot more varied.  It covers matches from each Wrestlemania so you get wrestlers from the past 30 years.  That include people like Andre the Giant, Hulk Hogan, Macho Man, Ultimate Warrior, Brett Hart, Yokozona, ect.  The presentation on the matches is fantastic although the announcing is a little strange.  Those older matches should have people like Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura calling them, but we get JR and King providing commentary for all the matches.

The most surprising thing is how much the game play has changed.  Basic strikes like punches and kicks have been sped up.  Actually they swung that pendulum a little too far.  Strikes went for super slow in 13 to super fast in 2K14.  Somewhere in the middle would have been much better, but I still prefer 2K14’s.  Reversals have been completely overhauled.  The biggest change is you can no longer go into long chains of reversals.  The window for actually reversing a move has been shortened too; they aren’t impossible to do, but they are more challenging. 

The create a wrestler is mostly unchanged.  I can copy down the options I chose in WWE13 and make exactly the same character in 2K14.  For some reason they decided to take away a major part of create an entrance.  In WWE13 I could create my own Titantron video for my wrestlers.  So when they walked down to the ring the video in the background actually had them in it.  I loved this feature and I have no idea why it was cut.  The create an arena also has some problems.  This deals with the ability to stretch logos across the ring mat and the announce table.  In 13 it worked perfectly, but in 14 the objects are limited to a much smaller area.  There are also a number of glitches that carried over from WWE13 that I really though would have been corrected in this version. 

So the short version is that I think 2K14 plays better than WWE13 but I’m still very disappointed with the lack of custom videos. 

Grammar Slam

Inspired by his visit on the Nerdist podcast wrestler CM Punk has released a series of videos on YouTube called Grammar Slam.  There are four videos right now, hopefully there will be some more in the future.  Each video has Punk going over the common grammatical errors that fill the email and tweets he receives. 

The Nerdist must have been sitting on these videos for a little while, the matches that are mentioned in the video all happened back at Wrestlemania and the Punk in these videos isn’t rocking the Wolverine look.  Check out the video above and then track down the other three.  Besides being entertaining they might actually help you out the next time you’re writing something.

Broken Out in Love/Live in Fear

This song below is written by Mark Crozer and used by the Wyatt family as entrance music in the WWE.  Originally it was called “Broken Out in Love” but it has recently changed its name to “Live in Fear”.

I’ve been seeing the Wyatt family for the past few months at NXT’s tapings and I’m thrilled for them to get called up to the main roster.  Their entrance this week on Raw may have been one of the best things I’ve seen in a long time.

Wyatt Family

While I watch a lot of wrestling, I don’t usually talk about it here.  Wrestling is like a dirty secret.  Millions of people watch it in the comfort of their own home, but a lot of people don’t like to admit it.  I’m very lucky that I live near the WWE’s development program.  It’s where they train people not only to physically compete but how to cut interview promos and things like that.  The show is called NXT and airs on Hulu in the United States.  It’s perfect.  At the max you have five minutes of talking before the matches.  There are no drawn out 30 minutes speeches or any of that nonsense.  It’s far better than any other show the WWE produces.

Which brings us to the video above.   The video is of the Wyatt Family, a stable of wrestlers from NXT and it ran last night during Raw.  It can only mean that all three men are going to be called up to the big leagues soon.  I’m extremely happy for all of them.  They are amazing in the ring and on the microphone.  I’m selfish though, so I’m a little sad this probably means their days at the NXT tapings are limited.  

WWE App

When the WWE 13 game came out I picked it up because I love wrestling video games and it was full of “Attitude Era” nostalgia.  I quickly started filling the save slots with my own created characters and used less and less of the real life wrestlers in the game.  What I didn’t expect was that it would get me watching and enjoying wrestling again.  It’s been a few months now and Wrestlemania is upon us.  This is the biggest show of the year for the WWE and I want to watch it.

Now I have cable, but to save money we went to the most basic version.  So the digital channels, DVR boxes, and other things all went back to the cable company.  When Wrestlemania was announced I said, if it isn’t too much hassle to order it I’ll get it and invite some friends over.  Well, getting it through the cable company pretty much meant bring the DVR and digital stuff back into my house.  By getting rid of all that I was saving 30 bucks a month, I wasn’t diving back into it.

Thankfully X-Box came to the rescue.  Yesterday they released the WWE PPV App.  Now I can pay for the PPV on their website, enter the code into my X-Box, and watch Wrestlemania.  I didn’t see anything about it on the X-Box’s dashboard so I wanted to talk about it here.  Hopefully it saves someone else from ordering a cable box just for the PPVs.

Coyotes Title Belt

Take it from the guy with an octopus tattooed on leg; hockey is a sport full of strange traditions.  A common one is to have some item that is awarded to the player of the game.  It could be something as simple as a hat or an object they have to hold onto.  The point is the other players on the team are saying the winner played fantastic.  It’s fun for the other players too, many times this item is meant to be worn during post game interviews and appearances.  The Coyotes have upped their game to impressive levels.

The Coyotes goalie Jason LaBarbera is a wrestling fan.  Last year he got with another team mate and wrestling fan, Keith Yandle and they decided that the Coyotes needed a championship belt.  They purchased one of those horrible looking John Cena era spinner belts and began awarding it to the player of the game. It is one of the worst looking professional belts they could have picked.

This year they had their own belt made.  That’s right, the Phoenix Coyotes have their own championship belt and it is absolutely stunning.  I’m not going to lie, if they started selling replicas I’d be pretty tempted to get one.  I’ve never been a Coyote fan, but this thing is just impressive looking.  And as you can see from the picture above, the winners are wearing them to after game interviews.  

CWE Live

I have had an on again off again love affair with wrestling ever since I can remember. When I was little I loved Hogan, The Ultimate Warrior, and more than anyone else, the Rockers. I got older, wrestling became uncool. I rediscovered wrestling during the WWF’s Attitude era. I was hooked again. This was also when Acclaim created the WWF War Zone video game. The game had a huge create-a-wrestler selection for its time, I was really hooked. That game was create in 1998, there I characters that I created in that game that I’m still remaking every time I buy a new wrestling game. They’ve almost become real people to me and I could easily tell you all of their back stories.

I’m obviously not the only one who does this, because a new series debuted on Youtube this month called CWE LIVE. The CWE show is created with WWE’s latest video game, WWE 13. The producers of the show have made an entire stable of created wrestlers, their own commentators, and their own arena. Each week they are putting out an hour plus wrestling show. The game’s story maker lets the producers fill the spaces in between matches with backstage interviews and all the other sorts of strangeness that you’d normally see on wrestling.

What you’re watching is all created with the WWE 13 game, but all the commentating and the wrestler’s voice work is done by the CWE producers. I won’t lie, the show is a little rough at times but it is incredibly entertaining. It has to be a huge amount of work to put together and they seriously impressed me. Watching someone else play video games can be incredibly boring, but I look forward to each week’s CWE show. Check out their channel at www.youtube.com/user/CWELIVE and see it for yourself.