WWE Fastlane 2015 Review

We're on the Fastlane to Wrestlemania. God how they wore that phrase out...

Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back again with another wrestling review. Tonight we're here to talk about WWE FastLane. Tonight's Event was...let's just dive in.

First up we have:

Oh for God's sake

Okay, it's time to vent here. Why in the blue hell are Big Show and Kane still on T.V.? Why are they still on roster? And most importantly, WHY IS THE CREATIVE TEAM PUTTING THEM OVER THEIR YOUNGER TALENT?!? Is the current roster so lacking in depth that you feel the need to keep putting these guys in matches. Every time I see The Big Show and Kane on T.V. nowadays, I lose total interest in whatever is going on screen and tonight was no different. On top of that, the match itself was pretty boring itself. After the match, we saw the return of...

I wish I could say I was excited for Randy Orton's return, but the wait for him to come back was so long and there were so many months where I thought: "Tonight's the night he comes back" that I just stopped caring and lost all enthusiasm for it...Long story short, after Wrestlemania, we need to get rid of Show and Kane.

Next match: Goldust vs. Stardust

This match felt like it should have been something more, but alas it was just build up to the obvious rematch at Wrestlemania. The match actually started good but then it slowed to a screeching halt and just became uninteresting...

Next: The Usos vs Cesaro and Tyson Kidd

This was honestly the first solid match of the night. I never noticed it until this match, but Cesaro and Tyson Kidd actually make a really great team. They had a lot of great combination moves throughout the match like that Boston Crab/Leg Drop move. The match started off a little slow but it picked up and turned into a B- match.

Next Up: The Triple H/Sting Confrontation

This was the one thing on the card tonight that I actually was excited for. It was Sting on a WWE Pay-Per-View and he was gonna be face to face with Triple H. So of course when he shows up he doesn't say a single word...at all...but he didn't need to actually cause Triple H did his thing on the mic and Sting's silent presence actually made the segment very entertaining. It ended with a brawl between the game and the Icon and Sting bringing out his trademark bat as he lays down the challenge for Wrestlemania and proceeds to lay Triple H out. Now the match is set: Triple H vs. Sting. THIS won't be the last time I talk about this match in this review.

I'm gonna skip over Ambrose vs Barrett (Match that meant nothing and it's obvious that they're gonna have a rematch at Wrestlemania) and talk about this next segment.

In the weeks before Fastlane, Bray Wyatt had been making cryptic (not really) and subtle (as subtle as a train wreck) promos challenging a certain person, tonight showed that that person he was challenging was indeed The Undertaker. All I have to say is: Why is this match a thing? First of all, what is there to gain from a Bray Wyatt/Taker match? Brock Lesnar broke the streak last year, you know, the reason we all watch Taker at Wrestlemania? On top of that, I've seen recent pictures of Undertaker and I can definitely say that the guy doesn't have another match in him. Even when he faced Lesnar last year, he didn't look like he was one hundred percent. I personally don't want the Undertaker in Wrestlemania 31, the guy has paid his dues, it's time to let him retire. But if you're going this extra mile, then I have a question, it's one that I've asked on Twitter: Why are both Sting and The Undertaker on the Wrestlemania 31 card, and they're NOT FACING EACH OTHER? That was one of the reasons I was willing to accept Sting vs Triple H, because that told me that Undertaker was done in the ring. But since he's going to be on the card you might as well give the fans the match. The commentators were going on about how Sting vs Triple H was a dream match everyone wanted to see but they thought it would never happen. No: it's not.

THIS is the Dream Match.

I'm going to wrap this up by saying that if it were last year, then Bray Wyatt's goal to become the new "face of fear" would probably mean a lot more, but as it is now, it seems pretty worthless.

John Cena vs Rusev

I won't go into detail about this match for the same reason I didn't go into the Ambrose/Barrett and the Dust Brothers matches, it was a sub par match that's obviously just building up to their rematch at Wrestlemania. Although, I will give props to the WWE, I was expecting the match to end in a No contest or a DQ just so Cena wouldn't look bad, but the fact that Rusev actually won against Cena is astounding, and the way is did is probably as close to a clean win on Cena as we were gonna get.

Now for the Main Event: Daniel Bryan vs Roman Reigns

I know some people are pissed at the ending to this match...

The match was easily the best match of the show. The selling from both guys in this match was top notch. As if I have to say it, Daniel Bryan put on a good show and, although I'm sure no one will want to, I'm gonna give Reigns the credit he deserves for the match tonight as he brought his A-game, this including more moves into his arsenal. The winner of the match, which caused a hell of a lot of controversy...was Roman Reigns. To be perfectly honest...I'm okay with this decision.

Now I know some of you might bring up my Royal Rumble review where I said that Roman didn't deserve the win and he wasn't ready for the Wrestlemania main event, I still stand by that, but I do have to give props for the WWE for sticking to their decision. Last year, the reason why Daniel being inserted into the main event of Wrestlemania was great was because it fed to the story of Daniel vs the Authority. This year, that simply wasn't the case: he was in the Royal Rumble and he got eliminated. Was it a giant mistake? Absolutely, but the WWE made the decision to have Roman headline Wrestlemania and they had to stick to it. And for doing that, they've earned respect from me as they easily could've gone back on that decision. Plus if they caved in and had D-Bry in the WM main event again, what's to stop the fans from making it so it happens every year? Does this win mean Roman's ready for WM? No. But I'm not too worried over it because as a certain COO likes to say, there is always a plan B...

WWE Fastlane was a bad show. The commentary was bad, the crowd was awful, and a lot of the matches just felt like a waste...

Til next time folks, I'm the Shaman of Animation saying: Is there a match I missed?

Nah... Take care folks...

  

  

Ed Edd n Eddy Hanky Panky Hullabaloo Review

Forget Fifty Shades of Grey, THIS is what people SHOULD be watching this Valentine's Day.

Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back again with a new review. Valentine's Day is here once again and...wait, Valentine's day is here once again...

Maybe next year....

Anyways, we're not here to dwell on being single today, we're here to review a Valentine's Day special! The special I'm talking about today is: Ed Edd n Eddy Hanky Panky Hullabaloo! Because this is a twenty-three minute special rather than a movie or a series, we'll be taking a slightly deeper look into the plot of this special, since I don't want to give everything away. Without further ado, let's dive in!

It's Valentine's Day in Peach Creek High and the Eds plan on spending it the only way they can: Double D gives everyone science themed Valentine's cards, Eddy plans on both getting money and getting kisses with a kissing booth, and Ed tries to avoid any and all affection from the opposite sex on this day with onion breath, paper bags that hide his face, and spiders. All of which mean nothing as May Kanker arrives to give Ed her Valentine's Day Card. The big Lug in return gets away from the blonde by trampling over her (Seriously, he literally tramples over her).

Double D later spots the Kanker in the janitor's closet crying her eyes out. Being the good natured guy he is, Double D hands her one of his Valentine's Day cards (That was totally meant for someone else), surprising the blonde. It's there when the madness begins as May and Double D are soon struck by an arrow of love by...cupid Sarah and Jimmy. 

This is really where my only issue with this whole special comes from: Why are Jimmy and Sarah, long established characters in Ed Edd n Eddy suddenly cupids? It's a very small and probably inconsequential thing (And probably not even the strangest thing to happen in the show), but I can't help but wonder. No one is able to see the two throughout the whole special but one IS able to sense them. But we'll get to that later.    

Everyone is rightfully confused as to why Double D and May are suddenly so lovey dovey with each other, especially the Eds and the Kankers (One of which, Marie, likes Double D). Everything comes to a head in the climax of the show where Ed and Eddy start a food fight with Lee and Marie in order to keep their friend/sister away from one another. This of course, gets the entire cafeteria riled up and into the food fight when Sarah and Jimmy decide to end all of the chaos by shooting EVERYONE with love arrows, creating odd couplings such as Lee and Kevin, Nazz and Johnny, and Eddy and Plank.

The day is saved by everyone's favorite Son of a Shepherd, Rolf who throughout the special could sense that the cupids, or mountain sprites, as he liked to call them, were the reason behind all of this madness. Rolf squeezes lemon juice into his eyes to see the two cupids and then defeats them using a mop and mop water...I wish I could say I was making that up, but I'm not. Then he goes on to fix all the love struck kids by throwing mop water at them.

Ed Edd N Eddy Hanky Panky Hullabaloo has the kind of humor that you came to expect from the series with a V-Day twist. If you're looking for something that'll give you a good laugh this Valentine's Day, this might be it for you.

Till next time folks, I'm the Shaman of Animation: Take Care...

Why Miles Morales SHOULDN'T be the MCU's Spider-Man (yet)

Sorry kid, it's not your time yet...

Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back with some more Superhero talk! If you've been living under a rock for the last twelve or so hours, Late last night, big news dropped that took everyone by storm: Marvel and Sony Pictures have strum up a deal that allows Spider-man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe meaning to put it in layman's terms, Spider-Man can now be in the Avengers Movies.

No longer will joke pictures like these be made. The dream is now REALITY!!!!

In this deal, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige and his own team will co-produce the movie with Amy Pascal, former Chairperson of Sony Pictures, while Sony will still finance, distribute, own and have final creative control over Spidey's film rights.The movie is set for 2017 and from the look of things, is set to be a complete reboot, meaning the previous two movies, The Amazing Spider-Man 1 & 2, are null and void. This of course has the internet abuzz and wondering who should be Spider-Man in the MCU. Not just who should be Peter Parker, but who should be Spider-man in the Marvel Movies period.

For those unaware, over his illustrious (and sometimes not so illustrious) Fifty years, there have been multiple versions of Spider-Man. You have Miguel O'Hara, the Spider-man of the distant future 2099. You have the character Spider-man Noir, and in recent years Doctor Octopus, one of Spider-man's fiercest enemies, has actually donned the mask before (Seriously Google Superior Spider-Man, then scratch your head in confusion as you ask yourself how the hell does that work?)  

But there is one Spider-man in particular that fans have been asking and clamoring for a lot as of late in the MCU: That Spider-man is Miles Morales. To give a brief back story, Miles was created in 2011 as a sort of response to people campaigning for Donald Glover to be Spider-Man in the 2012 Amazing Spider-Man movie. He is the Spider-Man in the Marvel Ultimate Universe, an alternate Universe to the main Marvel comic continuity. In the Ultimate Universe, Peter Parker had died and Miles after some stuff went down, took up the Spidey mantle. In his three and a half year life span, Miles has garnered a fanbase that would LOVE to see him in the MCU and with this new Spidey movie reboot, they feel as though now's the time...but, to be realistic, that in itself, is a bad idea; and here's why it is such...

The biggest reason why Miles shouldn't be the MCU's first Spider-man is because it would just muck up continuity. Peter Parker HAS to exist before Miles becomes Spidey; a lot, if not, all of Miles's origins piggybacks off of Peter Parker. The Spider that bit Miles and gave him his powers was injected with a formula that was created with Peter's blood. The reason why Miles became Spider-Man in the first place was out of guilt that he could've helped Peter the night he died and prevented his death.

Before some fans come out and say it: No. You can't just have the MCU say Peter was always in the MCU and he died off screen because that would cause a lot of plot holes and retcons. The biggest being: Where was Spider-Man during the Chitauri invasion in the first Avengers movie? Where was he when Utron was raising hell in Age of Ultron (That movie's probably in Post Production, the best you can hope for with Spidey is an after credits scene where he's bitten by the Spider). It's just too much to try and iron out.

As stated earlier, Miles is still a relatively young character in the sense that he's only been around for not even four years yet. What this means is quite simply, there aren't that many stories you could tell with the character vs the FIFTY YEARS of story that haven't even been touched yet with Peter Parker (I.E. Kraven's last hunt, a proper Venom story, a proper Sinister Six Story, and if Marvel and Sony REALLY want to go out there, The Clone Saga done right). Mayday Parker has more stories to tell than Miles Morales at this point.

Here's some Homework for you non comic readers, Google Mayday Parker Spider-Girl.

The Final reason why Miles is a no go is because...there isn't a big draw to Miles Morales outside of comic books. Now I'm fully aware that Name Recognition alone doesn't mean anything in Superhero movies as long as the movie and the characters are great and fun (Guardians of The Galaxy and Iron Man are more than enough proof of that). But the thing about that is while Iron Man and The Guardians were more obscure characters to the mass media before their movies, EVERYONE knows who Spider-Man is, and not everyone who knows Spider-Man read Spider-Man comics. So if a movie were to come out with this new kid Miles, it might turn them away because it's not the Spider-Man they know and grew up with.

To end this whole long winded post, THERE HAS to be an established Peter Parker before there can be a Miles Morales in the MCU. If Marvel were to jump the gun and just throw Miles in there, they're shooting themselves in the foot. There's still a mountain of stories that have yet to be told with Peter, so let's get to those before we introduce a new Spidey. In a perfect world, you'd have three Spideys in the MCU's future: Peter, then Miles, then Mayday.

Till next time folks, I'm the Shaman of Animation saying: Follow Spidey's new Twitter!! Take Care...