Miami Meltdown - Raw Recall

Miami Meltdown – Raw Recall

So Monday rolled around, Wrestlemania had finished, and some may think that my WWE experience was over. Oh no, my friends. Arguably the best was yet to come as Raw was being held at the American Airlines Arena that Monday evening.

I’m not just saying this due to the events that followed, but I was probably just as excited for Raw as I was for Wrestlemania. The first Raw after the big one is normally a great show where almost anything can happen. Well that’s the hope. Did this Raw equal the hype? Put it this way, it was PAINfully good.

Before the show, I had a feeling that the crowd would be hot. But, I had no idea how hot. I’m going to go on a limb here and say that the Miami crowd was one of the smartest ever. Right off the bat there were screams of Yes, echoing out of the American Airlines Arena.

Raw starts with a ‘can you smellll, what the rock is cooking?’ and one of many huge pops ensues. The Rocks promo is interrupted by chant after chant that I’m sure that it’s the reason that Raw ran over. Nevertheless, it’s still an amazing promo from The Great One. The highlight surely being when The People’s champ promised his people that he will be WWE Champion at least one more time.

Now, I’m sure there are some people who will not like this. Because if The Rock does become WWE Champion, he will obviously not appear regularly. I imagine die hard wrestling fans will be against the fact. I am not one of these. The Rock is clearly one of the biggest draws in the industry, still. And if the WWE championship is being defended every few months, it could bring back prestige to the belt.

After the rock left, we had an action packed Raw. I would like to go into a lot more detail about it. But, once again time isn’t on my side. If you want to know what happened either watch it or check out the results.

With five minutes left in the show John Cena comes out. He cuts a promo on how he now respects The Rock. However, nobody listened. They were shouting one thing ‘We want Lesner’. Earlier in the weekend, it had been rumoured that Lesner had signed. So hopes were high.

However, for every second that passed in John Cena’s promo, my high hopes dwindled. That is until John Cena called out The Rock. A wish that was unfulfilled. Here comes the pain and Brock Lesner walks out, to what was one of the biggest pops I have ever heard. He makes his way down to the ring and gets face to face.

THEN THEY SHAKE HANDS! I feel sick. However, that sick quickly disappears when Lesner picks up Cena and delivers a thunderous FU. To maybe an even louder pop. Then we go off air. Wow, what a show. The atmosphere was electric. A great wrestling send-off to a great weekend.

Until next time, enjoy the show.

Daniel Morris.

Miami Meltdown - Wrestlemania, YEStlemania

Miami Meltdown: Wrestlemania, YEStlemania

Apologies for how late this post is. Because I’m a good few days behind, you have probably already read a couple of recaps, but do me the solid and read this as well. You never know, I may give you a cookie. 

So on Sunday, a few of you may know that I went to watch Wrestlemania. And surprise, surprise, it was outstanding. I keep using these grand adjectives to describe this holiday and I feel their value depleting. 

However, you have to believe me, if you get the chance; you need to go to Wrestlemania. It is arguably the greatest four hours of my life. 

We arrived at the stadium rather early, due to the fact that we still had to go to the will call desk and collect the tickets. That being said, everywhere was already packed with fans, hanging out, drinking, chatting and just having a generally good time. 

At this moment in time, I want to give a special shout out to wrestling fans in general. Throughout the whole week, I have been majorly impressed with the spirit shown by wrestling fans of all ages. There was a festival atmosphere felt throughout the trip and whether you were at an event, in the hotel lobby or walking down the beach, if you seen another Wrestling fan, you knew you could strike up a conversation. Truly a great feeling. 

So around five O clock, we made our way into the stadium. We got to our seats and we’re amazed how close they were. Huge props to Mama and Papa Morris for our seats as they were the Row behind the Premium seats and incredibly close to the action. Can somebody say, Greatest Christmas present ever? 

We went and chatted to our friends for a bit then headed back to our seats to wait for the show to start. When the show started, a wave of atmosphere had taken over the whole crowd and we were immersed then.  I’m not going to run down the whole show, due to time constraints and the fact that you know the results anyway. Or I imagine you do. 

 The World heavy weight championship match has gotten a lot of stick of a lot of people. But, I didn’t hate it. If you wanted an immediate ‘WTF??’ reaction from the fans, then it certainly did the business. 78,000 fans jumped up at that moment screaming and shouting. To me, that’s a great start to the show. 

I also enjoyed both the IC match and the Kane vs. Orton match. Now I think both could be done better and they may have wanted Big Show to beat Cody in record time instead, but both were decent and didn’t feel out of place on the card. 

However, they were both completely overshadowed with what was to come. The End of an Era Hell in a Cell between HHH and The Undertaker. Now, don’t get me wrong, I was looking forward to watching my first ever cell match. I really was. However, nothing could have prepared me for how good it was. It felt like the whole crowd had turned twelve again, cheering and booing every single action. The match was so great; you can tell it took a lot out of the crowd. Asking for something big to follow it. 

Sadly, that was too much to ask for the Team Teddy, Team Johnny match. I thought the Team Teddy, Team Johnny match could have been done better, with Mr Ziggler getting more time, but to be honest, he could have gotten fifteen minutes and I would have still wanted more. 

We were still a bit dead for Punk vs. Jericho, which, started of slow. However, the match picked up pace and when it got going, it really got going. By the end the crowd was back to its best to watch CM Punk reclaim the WWE title. 

After a funny Funkosaurus skit, we had arguably the most high profile match of all time. The Rock vs. John Cena. Now, I was looking forward to the match yes. But, I was certain Cena was going to win. This was something that prevented me from really investing in the match. That is, until the end when I had my first proper mark out moment since Edge won his very first WWE title. 

 

The Rock winning was unbelievable. But, in reflection, the whole event and trip has been unbelievable. As you will see when I talk about Raw. 

Until next time, enjoy the show.

Daniel Morris.

Miami Meltdown - part 2

Miami Meltdown – Part 2

Howdy team. I was hoping to get at least five parts of Miami Meltdown done before I come back home. But that’s not going to happen. Finding the time to write this in the morning is getting a bit redonkulous. However, Josh is snoozing so I’ll try and get this part done as quickly as I can. 

Today’s Miami Meltdown will cover both the Friday and Saturday of our trip. Okay so Friday was an easy day for us. We chilled out and caught the train to downtown, which was pretty cool. However, in the night we decided to head to Kevin Nash’s Miami Party situated at Ocean 10 on South Beach. 

Yes, you heard me right Kevin Nash’s Miami Party. At first I wasn’t a huge fan of the party as it just seemed like a glorified photo op with superstars. However, when the night grew, said superstars got up and mingled, which is when the party turned pretty awesome. There is just something amazing in seeing wrestlers outside of the ring. I had to double take a lot of the time and realize ‘Holy Crap DDP is just chilling over there’. 

Anyway, the Saturday rolled around and we headed to Deauville Resort for the Wrestlereunion convention. For those of you who don’t know. Wrestlereunion is like an independent Wrestling Legends convention that is held throughout the year. However, they do this one smartly in the same place as Mania. And it was the best value for money I have ever seen. 

You pay 20 dollars to attend. However, that money goes towards one of the signings or photos. So I paid 30 dollars to get my picture taken and get an autograph with The New Age Outlaws. The rebellious teen in me was truly happy. Then we mingled, yes mingled with various Wrestling Alumni, chatting to Colt Cabana and thejohnreport.net’s own, John Canton. 

That wasn’t all folks, in the afternoon; we were treated to a wrestling show with past stars. We seen The Outlaws get bitten on the ass by Rick Steiner, Vader stiff work the heck out of two jobbers and the Honky Tonk Man, show us that he can still move with the best of them against Tito Santana. 

However, the final match was an 8 man tag featuring such legends as The Outlaw Ron Bass, Gorgeous Garry, B. Brian Blair and Leaping Lanny Poffo. To say it was an instant classic was a bit of an overstatement, with the highlight being Gorgeous Garry’s wedgie. 

Overall though, the show was great. 

This leads me to the highlight of yesterday, the Hall of Fame.  I was already astronomically excited, due to the fact that it would be Edge who’s being inducted into the Hall of Fame. The whole night was terrific. If there is one thing I love about the WWE, they definitely know how to put on a show. They take something plane like a Hall of Fame Ceremony and spruce it up to the max, with video packages, music and special guests. 

JBL definitely had potential to steal the night away from the inductees, with a cracking induction speech for Ron Simmons. I know JBL sucked in the ring, but man he can talk. Then we had Mil Mascaras, who struggled a bit with the language barrier. 

Next were the Horsemen. It was great to see Flair up on stage again. However, everybody was there for Double A. Who gave a terrific if not a tad long, induction speech. Next we had, DX come out to introduce Tyson, who was his expectedly chaotic yet comical self, calling Dusty Rhodes 70s black. 

The Usos and Rikishi were out next to except the award on behalf of Yokozuna. A fitting tribute to a man who is probably overlooked in the wrestling world. 

The main event was next; Christian came out to introduce Edge. His video played, highlighted by Foo Fighters’ Walk, and then the man himself came out, supporting a new do. He talked about his life, his career and everything, I want to write so much about this moment, but I just don’t have time today. When I get back home, I may do a full recap of Edge’s Hall of Fame speech. I definitely owe the man that much. 

Needless to say, when the man was being inducted, I shed a tear. It was an emotional tribute to a great night which has made me too excited for Wrestlemania today. 

Until next time, enjoy the show.
Daniel Morris.

Miami Meltdown - Part 1

Miami Meltdown – Part 1

Note: Apologies, for grammer and spelling mistakes, I have not had that much time to put this together. 

Howdy folks, so it’s my plan to give you a recap of what’s going down in Miami each day. However, some may be a bit delayed purely due to the fact that it’s so awesome down here, the only time I have for writing at the moment is while my brother is asleep. 

Today’s addition will cover a brief bit about arriving then talk about WWE AXXXES.

Before arriving here I had many the delusional fantasies about just seeing wrestlers everywhere, how sill was I? Well it turns out, not very, for as me and Josh sat down for dinner on Wednesday evening; somebody sat down next to us, that someone being the fortunate son, Ted DiBiase. 

However, with that brief rambling over, let’s move on to the main event (of Today) WWE AXXXES.

Actually, let’s not just yet. I just want to mention Miami South Beach. In short, it’s incredible.  The sun, the sand, the food, everything there just makes you want to stop and watch the world go by. And I hate beach Holiday’s. It’s so good that there is almost no way that I’m going to Holiday in Europe ever again.

OK, now moving on to WWE AXXXES. If you’re like me and you’re a wrestling fan, who has never really been in the place where you’re able to frequently watch wrestling live or meet wrestlers, then AXXXES will be a dream come true. To the WWE’s credit, it’s an event that they do so well. 

We arrived in the South Beach Convention Centre, tired, sore and hungry, however all those feelings immediately disappeared as soon as we stepped into the Axxess zone. We were transfixed by all the pretty colours and pictures of wrestlers. 

Forcing ourselves not to get distracted by the alley of shiny objects, we headed over to our first superstar signing, which so happened to be R Truth. After meeting the man himself (and little Jimmy of course) we then had a wander around the complex. 

And oh my, it’s outstanding. There are pictures of wrestling event ascending from the rafters, there’s a ring where you can climb a ladder and pretend to grab the money in the bank, there’s a podium where you can take a picture with the WWE Championship. You can head down the entrance ramp pretending to be your favourite wrestler. Which, sadly josh didn’t do to Eve’s music, due to time restraints.  

After exploring the vast areas and watching a great little match between Darren Ambrose and Seth Rollins, two of FCW’s biggest stars, we ventured to Undertaker’s Graveyard. Now, I’ve heard that this attraction is a bit samey year after year, but since we’d never seen it before, we loved it. What it essentially a cornered off dark area of the arena, where they have a gravestone for everybody The Undertaker has beat. Pretty cool stuff. 

But, not as cool as what was to come. Hopping in another Superstar line, we were amazed to find out, that the line belonged to none other than Captain Charisma himself, Christian. Unfortunately we had to wait over an hour to see it, but it was dead worth it. 

We finished off the evening by meeting Tony Atlas, who has rapidly became my favourite new person, after he told josh that he looked exactly like Sheamus and Howard Finkle, who was an absolute professional.

Axxess has really set up the days to come and I can’t wait for the rest of the week.

Until next time, enjoy the show.
Daniel Morris.

Channing Tatum; Comedy's hidden Gem?

Channing Tatum; Comedy’s hidden Gem?

 

When you expect a film to be good and it is good, you’re satisfied. However, when you expect a film to be average at best and the film turns out to be better than you ever expected, not only do you appreciate the quality of the film, but you enjoy it even more. 

This feeling occurred for me on Friday night when I watched the new Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum movie, 21 Jump Street. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I expected Jump Street to be terrible, I just didn’t expect it to be any good. 

So you can imagine my utter joy, when I sat there laughing my metaphorical ass off throughout the whole movie. Jump Street is a genuinely funny movie with plenty of laughs throughout. What’s more, the story is pretty heartfelt as well, with Hill and Tatum’s characters able to play with the heartstrings almost at their will. 

Now this wasn’t the only surprise I encountered whilst watching the film. Watching a comedy you expect the natural comedian to be the star of the show. This philosophy almost never fails. However, it does for Jump Street. Tatum’s loveable but dim Jenko outshines Hill’s nerdy and bright Schmidt in pretty much every scene together. 

Hill still has his laughs, but there not good as frequent or as good as Tatum’s, who really hits Jump Street out of the park, comically. Tatum plays Jenko relatively straight, which adds to the character’s charm. What’s more, his comic timing in this movie is exceptional and surpasses that of comedians almost ten years his senior. 

Tatum’s performance in Jump Street really got me thinking. Because, this isn’t the first comedy I have seen where Tatum outshines experienced comedians. Tatum is probably the only good thing about the Vince Vaughn and Kevin James Rom-Com The Dilemma. Vince and Kev in that film phone in unenthused comic performances, which are surpassed by Tatum’s psycho lover Zip. 

With these two performances in mind, it got me thinking that Tatum may be a comedian after all. OK, so he doesn’t look like your natural comedian. Built like a brick Sh1t house and incredibly good looking (nohomo). Tatum’s build definitely suggests one of either an action hero or a Romantic lead, which are the roles that he has plaid. 

However, Tatum hasn’t really knocked a performance like that out of the park. OK, he’s been tolerable in some of these roles, but nothing special. Making, Jump Street easily Tatum’s most enjoyable performance to date. This makes me believe that there may be a new Comic in town, and not one you’d expect. 

Until next time, enjoy the show. 

Don’t hesitate to leave feedback below.

Email me at cinemascreenandspandex@gmail.com

Follow me on Twitter @glamgrunge.

Daniel Morris.

Going 3 Doors Down to see Seether

Going 3 Doors Down to see Seether. 

Now I am a fan of 3 Doors Down, they were one of my favourite bands when I was a Tween and for various reasons Here Without You, brings a tear to my eye. However, over the years my interest in music has varied and 3 Doors Down are one of them bands that has fallen by the waist side. 

That being said, I had never seen them live, so for Christmas, I brought my brother a ticket to see them in Manchester, with purchasing a ticket myself.  The main reason for my excitement however, was not to see 3 Doors Down, but to see Seether.

Seether are one of my favourite hard rock bands of all time, having seen them twice already, I will always take the opportunity to see them again as they always put on a stellar performance. And this time was none different. 

Don’t get me wrong, Seether isn’t one of them bands that put on a show. Hell, front man Sean Morgan barely speaks between songs. Normally, I wouldn’t enjoy this type of performance as I’m all about the fan reaction, but with Seether for some reason it doesn’t bother me. Maybe, it’s because there music is so good, but whatever it is, I just love watching them perform. 

Seether got about 45 minutes, which is longer than a usual support act. They played nine songs, which played out more as a selection of their hits, rather than playing a lot of their new material. However, they did play Country Song, which arguably is their best constructed song ever. If you have never heard it, give it a listen and I promise you won’t be disappointed. 

Seether left and after a hefty change around 3 Doors Down graces us with their presence. As I said previously, I was excited to see them as a chunk of nostalgia, but expected nothing special. How wrong I was.

Musically, 3 Doors Down may arguably be up there with the best I’ve seen. Their set was as well crafted as any I have seen and the performance of each song was almost pitch perfect. Front man Brad Arnold’s dad had been taken into hospital earlier in the day and you could truly see the emotion etched across his face. 

This is a front man who has had a bad day, but performs because he loves music and that was more than evident. The only blip on an otherwise flawless performance was their omission of arguably their most popular song Kryptonite, due to time constraints and The Manchester Academy having an eleven O Clock curfew. 

However, these things can’t be helped and it wasn’t necessarily the bands fault. 

Having felt crappy earlier in the day, Seether and 3DD made me feel exponentially better. Another case for the soothing power of music. 

Until next time, enjoy the show.

Daniel Morris

Twitter: @glamgrunge

Email: cinemascreenandspandex@gmail.com