Shaman's Wrestlemania 31 Preview & Predictions

Chances are I'm probably going to reuse the majority of these pictures for my WM review

Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back again with a new wrestling topic. We are just one day away from Wrestlemania: The grandest stage of them all, the biggest show in all of wrestling...or at least it's supposed to be. I say that because the build to this year's Wrestlemania has been one stinking steamy pile of HORSE SH--

But I'm getting ahead of myself folks. What I'm here to do today, is basically explain the biggest matches on this year's WM card and break down the build to some of these matches and give my thoughts and predictions on the victor. Note: The matches I discuss won't be in the same order as they will be in the Pay-Per-View.

First up, I suppose I should discuss the Kick-Off Show match for the Second Annual Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal

This is an over the top rope battle royal that features multiple superstars and winner gets a big trophy. Here are the problems I have for this match. All throughout the Raws building up to Wrestlemania, this battle royal has been talked about as such this prestigious, important match and how it can help make a star out of the winner. Both of those facts are pure lies: first of all, let's bring up last year's Battle Royal winner Cesaro

This was such a great moment last year...then it all went to sh*t...

Now Cesaro won the Battle Royal last year, he displayed an incredible amount of strength when he effortlessly picked up the Big Show and tossed him outside of the ring and the crowd loved it and were behind him. The night following that Cesaro teamed up with Paul Heyman and it seemed that Cesaro was only going up from there, but what truly happened was that he was stuck in something fans call: "Midcard Hell" where he was just thrown in pointless matches that did little to nothing for him in his career or his character and it was impossible for him to get over. Sure, now he's in a tag team champion with Tyson Kidd but that doesn't replace everything that happened before. Another big issue I have is that this match is on the Kickoff show! It won't be on the actual event but is essentially just a warm-up. Very Prestigious this battle royal match is.

My third problem is that fact that the WWE threw away solo stories that were being built up and could've been single matches on the card in favor of just shoehorning the stars in this battle royal. Feuds such as Goldust vs Stardust and Miz vs Mizdow, feuds that could have been matches on their own were cast to the side in favor of having them in this match. That's not a smart move WWE.

Two days ago NXT, WWE's developmental branch, held a tournament that would have the winner in the Battle Royal. That winner was Hideo Itami. As for who I think will win this match, I predict that either Hideo Itami will win or that there'll be a surprise return by Sheamus and he'll win the battle Royal. My hopes for this match is that the winner of it won't go on to do nothing for the next year. If the WWE wants this match to be taken seriously as a career booster then they need to do something with the winner.

The Next Match I will be discussing is:

AJ Lee and Paige vs The Bella Twins

This match in particular is a very important match for a reason some might not be aware of. You see, last month, after a thirty second match, there was a movement that started in concerns to the WWE's women's wrestlers, that movement is known as: Give Divas a chance. Fans were tired of the women's matches seen as a bathroom break or something you could fix something to eat to while it plays in the background. The WWE has seemingly been listening to this as this match does have some decent build going towards it with longer matches that help tell a story for this feud, some of the best the WWE has had for their women's division in recent years. The story is very simple: The Bellas are essentially the Queen B's of the divas division and have been tormenting the other divas for some time and AJ and Paige want to stop that. Very small and simple but if the WWE wants to change the divas division, it's a nice place to start. The matches building towards WM 31 have also given Nikki Bella a chance to showcase her abilities in the ring and as much as it makes me want to regurgitate my lunch saying it, she has proven that she is a decent talent in the ring. Although I will never like her or her sister (Look up the videos 'Growing up Bella' and their interview with Jerry Springer on YouTube if you wonder why). That little tangent aside, I hope this match isn't the end of the give divas a chance movement. My prediction is that AJ and Paige come out of this the winners

Next up: Randy Orton vs Seth Rollins

This is match that has been built up for quite some time. Four months ago, Seth Rollins curbstomped Randy Orton's head into steel steps, putting Orton out of Action. It was last month during Fastlane when Orton returned. They way they built this feud when Randy returned was a little...questionable. When Randy returned, he rejoined the authority as a way to get Seth alone and pick him apart. The way the WWE wrote this was that this is essentially build up to Randy getting his hands on Seth, my problem is that the build up to that moment already happened four months ago and Randy's return was supposed to be the fallout of that moment when he came back. But this might be more nitpicking on my part.

But another issue I have with this feud is the way Seth Rollins has been written. For this feud, Seth has been written as, well Red Forman could put it better than I could...

Thanks Red

The whole time Randy was back in the Authority, Seth never thought for a mere second that Randy might have something up his sleeve, that he might just wait until Rollins was all alone before the totally predictable beat down? Hell, Randy even said the night the beat down happened that when Seth was by himself and had no one to protect him he was going to, and this is Randy's own words here, "Make Seth his Bitch" and then go around and say that he was joking. 

Did it not occur once in Seth's mind that maybe Randy shouldn't be trusted, especially considering he tried shortening Orton's career? This is an especially glaring problem when you consider the fact that Seth Rollins is has been written in the past as a very smart heel. This is a guy who was built up as the glue that held the shield together. A guy who had the foresight to have Triple H put Dean Ambrose, a guy who had been coming out of nowhere and attacking him, in the Money in the Bank Ladder match just so Dean wouldn't show up during the match and do anything to screw him over. The fact that he didn't see this coming kind of hurts Rollins as a character.

Anyways, long winded speech aside, this is a very promising match between two incredbily talented wrestlers, my prediction is that Randy Orton comes out the victor of this match.

Next Up: The Intercontinental Title Ladder Match

Oh, I've got WORDS for this match...

Here's how this match was created (I'm not 100% sure HOW it even got to where it is) So it picked up where Dean Ambrose and Wade Barrett left off at Fastlane with Dean stealing Barrett's title, one Raw Barrett takes his title back, then one Smackdown R-Truth steals it...because R-Truth has been so relevant in the last three years. Then Luke Harper shows up for some reason and steals the IC title, then Stardust shows up and steals it because...the WWE said F**K Goldust vs Stardust for Wrestlemania. Then Dolph Ziggler steals the title because...reasons. And then a ladder match is announced because the WWE needed a reason to get the Wrestlers people really like ON the card. Then Daniel Bryan wants in on the match because he's not good enough to have his own single's match in the minds of the WWE. 

If my explanation of the build to this match sounds moronic and nonsensical, that's because THE ENTIRE BUILD TO THIS MATCH IS MORONIC AND NONSENSICAL!! The weeks building up to this ladder match, the Intercontinental title picture turned into a game of hot potato. The whole 'everyone is walking off with the IC title' angle is treated as this comedic thing but it's not. It makes your champion look like a joke (It's also not helping that he loses matches every week), it makes everyone involved in this a joke, and it makes the title look as if it's nothing more than a silly prop. The worst part about this match is that it's gonna be great, probably even match of the night. But the storytelling has been so awful, you could have just thrown a bunch of guys together and have them fight over a rock and it would feel just as important as this ladder match.

It's funny because the WWE continuously SAY how important the IC title is in the WWE and how it can make stars, hell they even went as far as having legends like Shawn Michaels and Edge go on in interviews about it, and then posting it on their website. But this whole story, this build, for the match only confirms what fans have been saying FOR YEARS: The Intercontinental Championship, this title that was once a stepping stone for wrestlers to get into the main event scene, is nothing more than just a toxic in the WWE now. It kills the momentum and the stunts the career of whoever holds it. My Prediction is that Daniel Bryan will win, proving once and for all that no matter how much fans love him and chant yes, Daniel Bryan is only an afterthought in the mind of Vince Mcmahon.

NEXT: Triple H vs Sting

Now this is one of the matches I'm looking the most forward to simply because this is Sting's first match EVER in the WWE, and no matter how old he is, this is something to be extremely giddy about. This seeds for this match were planted all the way back in Survivor Series of last year when Sting showed up in the main event and helped Dolph Ziggler get the pin, putting Triple H and Stephanie Mcmahon out of power in the WWE and forcing them to leave (which proved to be pointless since they came back three weeks later...).  The build to this match has been weird but interesting. Weird in the sense that throughout the majority of this feud, Triple H has been the one who's been talking and cutting promos. Up throughout the duration of the feud, Sting's only spoken twice (And one of those times was off air).

The story that has been told with this feud is that Sting comes to the WWE after fourteen years of never signing and wants to stop Triple H. What makes it so interesting is the use of WCW. Sting saw WCW go under because of people like Triple H, people with power who abused it and ruined a company and what made it special, and Sting doesn't want to watch the same thing to happen to another company...which is why he left TNA 

Sorry, I had to do it...

While I'm not one hundred percent sure this match will be top quality, I know both of these guys will give it everything they have to have the best match possible; and considering the years of experience between the two of them, the ring psychology will definitely be there. My money is on the Stinger for this match.

Next on the list: Bray Wyatt vs the Undertaker

This feud is much like HHH and Sting in the sense that it's only been one guy talking while the other has been mute except in the case of this feud The Undertaker hasn't been seen.at all. The most we got was a recording of him saying "You will Rest In Peace." The story has been interesting though as it plays off of what happened last year when Taker lost to Brock Lesnar, ending his undefeated Wrestlemania streak. Bray Wyatt at a time worshiped the Undertaker and wants to bring the Deadman back to his former glory just so he can end him himself. The story is definitely an intriguing one with Bray Wyatt cutting some of the best promos he's ever done but unfortunately, it just doesn't do anything for me. I think it might just be me unable to allow myself to be sold on this story because of what happened last year. The match will probably be alright, I highly doubt that it'll be as bad a match as last year considering that Bray Wyatt actually knows how to carry someone in a match and not throw them around forgetting how old they are and almost kill them. My money is on Taker. I'm getting the distinct feeling that next year, the WWE wants to do Sting vs Undertaker (And by that point no one will care about that match happening...) and they want them both to have a win going into the match.

Next we have: John Cena vs Rusev For the United States Title.

The 'Murican John Cena takes on the big bad Foreign monster Rusev, that's the build to this match in a nutshell. If it seems like I don't care about this match, it's because I don't. The foreign, America hating character is so old and overdone at this point in the WWE. Plus if they're match at Fastlane is any indication, this match will be a total snooze fest. Not to mention is the same thing that happens with every big heel: He has so much momentum in the world only to get fed to John Cena and then have his career plummet down into a giant pile of nothing. It happened to Bray Wyatt last year, it happened to R-Truth when he turned heel, it happened to Ryback when he turned Heel. If you are a heel and you face John Cena, you're career will be stunted for two to three years or you'll be lucky like Bray Wyatt and only do F**K all for a year. My prediction: Super Cena shows up and with his attitude adjusting heat vision will win and kill any sort of potential for Rusev (which wasn't much to begin with considering his sh*t character). As a matter of fact, I have so little faith that Rusev will win that if he does, I will watch the first season of Total Divas.

Last But Not Least, The Main Event

Brock Lesnar vs Roman Reigns for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship

Boy oh boy, this match. THIS MATCH. This is the worst build to a WWE world title match I have ever seen. I never thought I would see a build worse than John Cena and the Rock for Wrestlemania 29, but by some holy miracle. The WWE managed to top that. 

How did this match come to be? It's real simple, Roman Reigns won the Royal Rumble, but because the fans both in live crowds and on the internet were like:

The WWE put Roman up against Daniel Bryan at Fastlane, the winner facing Brock Lesnar. A match which Roman won.

My problem with the build to this "feud" is the build itself which has just been Paul Heyman delivering promos. Don't get me wrong, these are PHENOMENAL promos, some of, if not, the best I've ever heard in my entire time watching wrestling and I want Brock Lesnar to win this match JUST to keep Paul Heyman on T.V. but the problem in that lies in the fact that it's just that: One guy cutting promos, and when one guy has to carry an entire feud, a feud for your main title, on your biggest show no less, something is seriously wrong. The Champion and Challenger have only been face to face with each other twice other the duration of the feud and the second time they did, they ended up having a tug of war over the title belt. No seriously, they had a tug of war, it's practically become a meme at this point

Hey come on man, you had a turn with it already

Let's address another elephant in the room here and talk about the challenger Roman Reigns. I've had a big problem with the way they've booked Roman, they try to paint Roman as this sympathetic underdog, a guy who's constantly told by the critics he isn't ready to main event Wrestlemania, that he doesn't deserve it and constantly told that he can't beat Brock Lesnar. Now there's nothing wrong with that, except Roman's answer is him feebly saying: "You know, you're allowed to have your opinion but I can beat Brock Lesnar. I can and I will." I honestly hate what the WWE is doing with this guy. If by some odd coincidence some in the WWE is reading this blog: If you wanted to have an underdog story going into Wrestlemania, YOU SHOULD HAVE PICKED DANIEL BRYAN TO WIN THE ROYAL RUMBLE!

On top of that, Roman Reigns hasn't been given a lot of material that would make fans say: "Yeah, this guy can beat Brock Lesnar". Brock has been one of the most dominant heels in the WWE ever: He ended The Undertaker's streak, something that was said to be impossible, he suplexed John Cena on his head SIXTEEN times, he was an unstoppable monster in the Royal Rumble. What do you give Roman Reigns? Constant matches with the Big Show and Kane and matches where he gets beaten by a schoolboy roll up. Sure, Roman's had some good moments on the road to Wrestlemania, but none of which have convinced that this guy is ready to main event a Wrestlemania (Not to mention the way he's been booked). They're trying SO DESPERATELY hard to make him this generic cookie cutter good guy like John Cena was but look at the guy!

Does this look like some hand shaking, baby kissing guy to you? NO!!!

Roman Reigns is 6'3, he can look Brock Lesnar SQUARE in the eye! This feud should've been Goldberg vs Brock Lesnar done right: Two very physically imposing men who are at the top of their game clashing against one another. I know WWE is sick of this meme, and I'm convinced it played a part in how Roman was booked during WM, but if this was gonna be the main event for WM, you should've made Roman look strong. All this did was show that you didn't have one hundred percent faith in the guy. And if you don't have complete faith in him, why should the fans? 

For the longest time I assumed that it was a forgone conclusion that Roman Reigns was walking out of Wrestlemania with the WWE World Heavyweight championship with a possible Rollins cash in but this past week broke the news that Brock Lesnar wouldn't be returning to the UFC and has resigned with the WWE. This leaves brand new possibilities for the ending to the main event and makes it that much more interesting. Some people think that Brock Lesnar is now going to walk out the main event still champion, some think Paul Heyman will turn on Brock and will now team with Reigns and Reigns will win.

My prediction for the main event of Wrestlemania is that the news of Brock resigning with the WWE is just some cheap trick to get fans to doubt Reigns winning at Wrestlemania. I predict Reigns will win cleanly as a face and Seth Rollins will cash it in. 

Overall, Wrestlemania 31 has been one of the worst overall builds to a Wrestlemania I've seen a part of. The shows building up to it felt like the WWE has completely forgotten that this was Wrestlemania season. I seriously hope that the show turns out good, because they really need this year to be a knock out of the park.

Til next time folks, I'm the Shaman of Animation. Take care...  

Ai Tenchi Muyo Review

Twenty Years Later, Tenchi Masaki is STILL Pimpin'...

Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back with a brand new review. Today, we'll be taking a look at Ai Tenchi Muyo. Ai Tenchi Muyo is a series that celebrates the twentieth anniversary of the the Tenchi Muyo franchise and it is directed by Hiroshi Negishi, the director of Tenchi Universe. But does this series deliver and is a worthy title in the Tenchi Franchise? That's what we're here to find out.

Synopsis: When one of Washu's experiments goes haywire and threatens to destroy the world, Tenchi Masaki must go undercover as a teacher in an all girls school in order to solve this problem. What he didn't count on was all the mayhem that would ensue in this school, such as the beef between the student council and the science club. This series has sixty episodes (technically about fifty since nine of these episodes are just recapping the episodes that came before...) and are roughly four to five minutes per episode.

The Good: This series feels very much like a reintroduction to the world of Tenchi Muyo in which none of the material that has come before this series isn't mentioned, which is a smart thing to do as you don't want to scare newcomers to the Tenchi verse with over twenty years of continuity (And Non-Continuity). The Art designer for this series is Suzuhito Yasuda, the man behind the art for Durarara. For the series, Yasuda redesigned the original cast of Tenchi characters and gave them more "modern" looks; looks that I both like and hate. I like the looks in the sense that they're different, but they aren't so radically different that I can't tell that the characters don't look like themselves...if that makes any sense.   

Although I do personally miss Ryoko's Sonic hair...

The original cast of characters, Tenchi, Ryoko, Ayeka, and others are all back and they all (except for Ayeka) have their respective voice actors back to reprise their roles. Seeing these characters togethe interacting with each other provides a great treat for long time fans of the franchise. The series is easily at its best when these characters are interacting with each other.  

The Bad: It was halfway through the story where I realized the biggest problem of Ai Tenchi Muyo. You see, this series has a pattern where you get three episodes of complete "Crazy anime high school hijinks" which is completely boring, then there'll be one episode where something actually interesting is happening, then it goes back to completely boring.

To further elaborate on this, the first ten episodes are set up establishing the plot: The majority of these episodes are essentially Tenchi as a teacher and him getting into a mess of shenanigans. Then there's one episode where Tenchi goes back in time and meets a younger version of one of his students and the rest...pretty much look like his students. Of all these ten episodes, the one with Tenchi back in time was the most interesting one. But instead of putting more focus on that, we get more focus with the high school stuff and it's supposed to be zany and over-the-top but by anime standards, it doesn't really stick out to me.

Hey everyone, it's the cast! On the furthest to the left you have...uh...

That isn't a joke people. Okay it is, but it's also the truth. This series introduces us to eight characters; and they aren't memorable. Throughout all sixty episodes, I only remembered the names of three  out of the eight characters: Momo and Beni (The Pink haired girl and the tan skinned girl next to Tenchi in the picture above) and Rui, the blue haired girl with a silly moon bang in her hair.Anyways back to Momo and Beni, the reason I remembered them the most out of all the girls because of how predominantly they were shown in both the art promoting the series and in the show itself. The show paints them as central and important characters, but I felt that they just weren't fleshed to where I cared about them when the events of the story played out.

Remember when I said earlier in the review that I liked and hated the new designs for the characters?

Looks like two of them are wearing nothing at all... nothing at all...nothing at all...

These designs (Well two of them anyway) play a part into a larger problem i have with this series, the fanservice. Now Tenchi Muyo is no stranger at all when it comes to fanservice (Especially Tenchi Muyo GXP but that's a whole different beast all together), but compared to a lot of the Tenchi series in the 90s, the fanservice is cranked up to eleven, and in all honesty, it feels a little unnecessary. 

Conclusion: When I first found out that a new T.V. series for Tenchi Muyo was being made, I was looking forward to seeing these characters that I loved come together again for brand new stories and adventures... For a Twenty year anniversary series, Ai Tenchi Muyo is disappointing, not bad, but could have been so much more as a modern day harem series, which is very disappointing because I find Tenchi Muyo to be the pioneer of harem series. Almost none of the new characters introduced are all that entertaining to watch and the moments where the characters fans really wanted to see come together feel short and are spare compared to all the new characters we don't care about. Whenever it seemed like the story was picking up, all interest in it was sapped away with the next episode or two.

Now in the series's defense, the last ten or so episodes were the strongest of the show and it did end the series on a good note, but that alone wasn't enough to save this whole series. If you aren't a fan of Tenchi Muyo then you can safely skip this series, and if you are, then proceed with very low expectations. The one hope I have is that this series will be the spark that kick starts something new with the Tenchi Muyo Franchise    

Til next time peeps, I'm the Shaman of Animation saying: Ryo-ohki was only in  two seconds of Ai Tenchi Muyo

Da F**K show, Da F**K....

Take Care...

DragonBall Z: Resurrection 'F' Trailer 3 Breakdown/Thoughts

Still a little cautious about this movie, but this trailer definitely piqued my interest.

Greetings Ladies and Gents, it is I, the Shaman of Animation back again. The newest trailer for Dragonball Z: Resurrection 'F' dropped. It's been a couple of months since the first trailer dropped and I did my thoughts on it, and we've gotten some more info since then. I'm here to do a brief breakdown and give my thoughts on the latest trailer.

The trailer kicks off with a mini flashback of the iconic scene of Future Trunks slicing Frieza up and completely obliterating him. It then cuts to Frieza in his ship flying over a city (My guess, probably West City) and he has his army with him and they're ready to raise hell and the Z-Fighters are prepared to fight.

Now as you see the line up of the Z-fighters, you'll also see a small purple man next to Gohan. That person is Jaco The Galactic Patrolman. He was the title character of an eleven chapter manga of the same name that's tied in to the DragonBall franchise. In that series, Jaco was sent to Earth to stop a saiyan (I think it's pretty obvious who it is). This character actually has some ties to Bulma's family, so it'll be interesting to see what the movie does with him.

What follows next is awesomeness as we see the Z-Fighters: Piccolo, Master Roshi, Krillin, Tien, and Gohan duking it out with multiple members of Frieza's army and a small snipet of Frieza vs Goku...and this is all happening as Maximum the Hormone's Insert Song for Frieza 'F' is playing in the background. If you've never heard this song before, find it on YouTube and listen to it, it's the most metal song ever...and the fact that it's going to be in this movie at some point gets me very excited. Near the halfway point in the trailer, we get to see Frieza's brand new form:

It's like his old form...except with more purple and gold...

Now the form is...a little strange at first glance, but it is something I can picture Toriyama doing for a more god-like form for Frieza. Dragonball Z has a running theme of powerful characters with nonthreatening looks (I.E, Majin Buu's original and kid form, Frieza's Final form, and most recently, Beerus and Super Saiyan God Goku). It will take some time to get used to seeing, but personally, I think it'll be quicker to get used to than SSG Goku. The prequel manga, Rebirth of Frieza has revealed that when Frieza first fought Goku, he hadn't trained at all, he was naturally as powerful as he was. Now that he's been brought back with the Dragon Balls (Which I'm still calling BS on), he decides now to train and unlock his latent potential. That's...a bit of a stretch, but considering I've read a lot of fan manga that pull Vegeta going Super Saiyan 3 JUST through training, I'm willing to buy it.

We get some more of Goku vs Frieza and there are some notable scenes of CG which look a bit jarring...I have yet to see CGI and 2D animation mesh well together in a series/movie and from the looks of things, this won't be the exception. The scenes that follow are pretty bleak, the Z-Fighters are getting taken out (once again Gohan is a jobber) and Frieza is actually kicking the crap out of Goku.

But of course, I'm sure everyone wants to see me address the big scenes featuring Vegeta such as:

Possibly God Form for Vegeta?

As I'm sure everyone knows, Toriyama has gone on record in interviews saying that he would like Vegeta to be the big hero in the next movie (I'm pretty meh on that issue considering in recent years I'm finding Vegeta to be more and more overrated, but I do see why fans are getting stoked). The last time I talked about this movie, I was unsure of how Frieza being brought back would be any sort of challenge to the Z-Fighters, but if this movie is more focused on Vegeta, I can see it as more of a personal story for him considering the long history he and Frieza have and it could provide for some nice character development for Vegeta. A nice little touch I enjoyed in the trailer was Vegeta standing over a beaten Goku. It definitely hearkened back to The Namek Saga where the roles were reversed and Vegeta begged Goku to avenge the Saiyan race.

The last thing to note here is Beerus and Whis, the two villains from Battle of Gods seemingly watching something. My guess is that it plays into the final shot of the trailer where a planet (probably Earth) is getting blown up and the two are theorizing that if Frieza isn't stopped, the planet will be destroyed, hence why there's a planet blowing up.  Battle of Gods took some time to establish the fact that Beerus and Frieza know each other. So I am interested in seeing what role they play in this movie. The popular fan theory is that Beerus and Whiss are training Goku and Vegeta, which is why they're in new gear and are seen with Whiss in the first trailer.

Overall, This new trailer for Resurrection 'F' is a step in the right direction as what it showed did get me a little more excited for the movie. Hopefully the movie can deliver. Til next time folks, I'm the Shaman of Animation. Take care...

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...