NXT Aug 28th 2019 Thoughts

Despite months of promising to cover more WWE Network programming such NXT here, I really haven't. My schedule didn't enable such aspirations very well. For a brief period, I should be able to blog more about wrestling more than I have this year.

What better way than today's (8/28/19) edition of WWE NXT? You know before it moves from the WWE Network to the USA Network...

Disclaimer: NXT should still be available on Hulu AND WWE does offer episodes of RAW and Smackdown on the WWE Network. Likely NXT will offered as such. It just won't likely be on the WWE Network's schedule.

Regardless, I envision this as canary in the coal mine transcribing NXT as it was, cherished as it was, before becoming a televised show. Just hope Vince realizes the best competition for AEW on TNT isn't another show in the vein of RAW and Smackdown...

The Matches

Io Shirai vs  Cami Fields

Squash match. Point of the match was to demonstrate Io Shirai's viciousness as she delayed the pin and ref need to break the hold. Her feud with Candice LeRae continues as the latter made a post match save.

Rating: 2 out of 5. Match was mercifully short.

Keith Lee vs Dominik Dijakovic

I HATE Big Men matches. However, this was a fantastic match performed by two athletic big men. The 600 lb Spanish Fly Moonsault  executed by Keith Lee was quite the sight. For a guy returning from knee surgery, Dijakovic practically flew over the top rope during one match. Since this was a return match, Dijakovic's made sense.

Rating 3 out of 5 stars. This is the type of match they need to head off AEW on TNT.

Street Profits (c) vs Unidsputed ERA for NXT Tag Team Championship

Excellent tag team championship match! Kyle O'Reilly and Bobby Fish of the Undisputed ERA win the belts in a match that had it all.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars.  Solid main event. Wish tag team matches were this good on the main roster.

The Promos 

The Johnny Gargano Retrospective was fairly well done. Don't know if Gargano is being called up to the main roster (or 205 Live - I like it but WWE has done it no favors) or they're setting him up for a feud with the wrestler who interrupted the announcers proclaiming why he isn't being talked about. Man has a point. I have no clue who he is

The first (former?) Women's Champ for NXT UK calling out NXT Women's Champ Shayna Baszler was very well done. Wish I was more familiar with her as that would've heightened the moment. The announcers did a good job selling this.


  The Verdict

The great thing about pro wrestling is the never-ending (except when the promotion ends...) male soap opera. After a hiatus, that can lead to feelings of In Media Res. Sure, I got the gist of things. However, it didn't feel the same as it would as if I had been watching NXT since the last time I blogged about it. Not a bad thing. Overall, I would say the August 28th, 2019 edition was a very basic one hour wrestling program. Yet, it felt consequential and the passage of time mattered unlike some episodes of the main roster shows.

Ergo, a solid one hour of wrestling. 3 out of 5 stars. Watch the tag match and the Dijakovic return match if you're pressed for time.

Next time.

Two Movie Studios Worked For James Bond, Why Not Spider-Man?

Uh, why is the picture of Todd McFarlane's rendition of Spider-Man when you're discussing the fate of Spider-man within the motion picture industry, Matt?

Simple really. Todd McFarlane's interpretation of web crawler was both alien and recognizable to what my young mind identified as Spider-Man at the time. Before I could read, I was weened on John Romita Sr-based design of a friendly neighborhood super-hero. McFarlane's design was different. More angular. Heck, the webs were different!

Plus, it's an iconic image of the web-slinger too.

In the world of movies, a change awaits Spider-Man. Sony and Marvel (okay, let us be honest: Disney) negotiations over the use of Spider-Man within the MCU has broken down.

Right now, there will be no Spider-Man appearing in any movies set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe e.g. Disney movies.

Sony Pictures and their nascent Spider-Man Universe will be the only place where Spider-Man can be found. Instead of Peter Parker rubbing shoulders with the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy as Tony Stark's protege, he'll be running around with Venom and other characters... who owe their existence to the Spider-Man intellectual property... Characters comprised of his rogue's gallery, supporting cast, and closest allies (and their respective cast of characters.)

If Sony were to forge ahead with that direction in mind, I wouldn't have a problem. Team-ups within the MCU are cool; but as a long-time reader (on and off) of Spider-Man, the Spider-Man Cinematic Universe appeals to me as a fan. As long as Sony doesn't treat a movie as an advertisement for upcoming movies (Amazing Spider-Man 2's biggest flaw was substantial portion of the film was designed to sell the never made Sinister Six and Amazing Spider-Man 3 to the audience that it neglected to sell itself to the audience) while maintaining Spider-man's humor (the two Amazing movies were too grim and gritty), then Sony's Spider-Man movies could do well.

Except... and this is where I arrive at the gist of my post...

I want both.

I want the Disney/MCU Peter Parker whose Tony Stark's protege doing his best to elevate the rest of heroes of the MCU to be the best heroes they can be. Honestly, Peter Parker is closest to how a traditional super-hero is envisioned in the MCU. Most of the others veer more towards being anti-heroes than the traditional super-hero.

I want the Sony Spider-Man too. Iron Spider is cool and all; but I do want to see Spider-Man reflected as he has been for most of his existence upon the Big Screen. We'd doubtfully see the likes of Morbius in the MCU. In the Sony Spider-verse Cinematic Universe, we can AND will.

There's a template for what I would like: James Bond. Yes, there's the studio which produced pretty much all 20+ Bond films. However, one Bond film wasn't produced by them AND it screened during the same year as another James Bond film. The movie Never Say Never Again starred in aging Sean Connery (Bond's age was a dialogue source several times predating the most recent Spectre doing so) and the movie Octopussy starring his successor Roger Moore (George Lazenby was bookended by Connery) debuted in cinemas during the same year. As far as I am aware neither movie suffered too much competing against each other. Neither movie is regarded poorly. Just one of them is available within all the collections and airs with the other movies during Bond marathons...

Different actors though, Matt

Yeah...

The one flaw in my thinking is different actors were used.

However, Sony would never let Disney use Spider-Man within an MCU movie if they planned on featuring Spider-Man within Spiderverse Cinematic Universe movie during the same year. Unlike the Bond movies, two different interests don't hold the film rights to Spider-Man (or the story Thunderball of which Never Say Never Again was based). If Sony believes Tom Holland is their Peter Parker/Spider-man, Tom Holland won't be said character in the MCU.

That being said, I don't see Tom Holland's Peter Parker tonally fitting with Venom nor Morbius. Sony could very well use a different actor. Plus, Tom Holland may pull Daniel Radcliffe and decide a regular Peter Parker gig isn't for him. Maybe his Spider-Man will be like Ruffalo's Hulk. Always the entourage member but not the focus.

What about events and characters within the MCU? The Sony movies can't reference them!

The Spider-Man comics published by Marvel within the Marvel Universe do not reference every character and event in every issue. Stories may pass before an event outside of Peter's sphere is mentioned. Spider-Man (whether Tom Holland or not) can easily exist within both cinematic universes.

Since Spider-Man is one of the iconic super-heroes of all time, I think our friendly neighborhood super-hero can straddle two different cinematic universes produced by two different studios.

Next time.

Five Take-Aways from My First Tier 3 D&D 5E AL Session

Shucks! August is almost over and I hadn't blogged yet? Guess what I haven't blogged in for a much, much longer time? My five take-aways. Haven't wrote a five take-aways in MONTHS. Part of that is by design. I decided only to do so whenever I experienced a game session unusual from others.

Tonight during the FLGCS's Tuesday Night Game Day, I unexpectedly played in my first Tier 3 (levels 11 - 16) fifth edition Dungeons and Dragon Adventurers League module.  I'd say that's very unique occurrence, wouldn't you?

YMMV, my very first Tier 3 module was with my 11th level Bear Totem Warrior Half Orc Barbarian so my perception is colored some.

Eleventh level Barbarian isn't very much different from Tier Two Barbarian

Maybe it's cause I play time has been erratic (I hadn't played my barbarian since early July) so I hadn't fully mastered the character. Thus, all the improvements to the character isn't readily apparent. It could also be because as a half orc, the PC already has ability to shrug off one attack that would drop him. Granted, my barbarian didn't get dropped to zero multiple times so I didn't get a chance to appreciate the opportunity to avoid that with a handy save. On the other hand, I am more likely to remember the half orc's Relentless Endurance more often now...

Single-classed spellcasters (particularly wizards) make the difference in battles

Played two battles. During both battles, the single-classed Wizard cast a spell locking down the opponent(s) enough the battle was effectively over. Sure, Tier 2 had those moments too. However, you could Conan (no primary spellcasters) your way through Tier 2 module. It would be rough but doable. At Tier 3, based on both combats an all martial party would have a very, very rough time. The knockout punch of the single-classed spellcaster (namely the wizard in this instance) does make the challenge of slugging through extreme challenges of surviving Tier 1 worth it. This is the Tier when wizards truly begin to outpace the other classes.

On the other hand...

Anti-Magic fields suck and seem baked into the modules

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The Wizard begins emerging as king of the PC types; however anti-magic fields begin rearing their heads. We lucked out in the anti-magic field was more an environmental obstacle as opposed to a challenge to overcome. Furthermore, it wasn't just the wizard who was impaired but everyone had some magical goodie or trick suppressed. Want to watch a party of PCs lose their swagger. Suppress their magic. I swear it was like we became Tier 1 again! Since my PC had a stat-boosting item suppressed by the anti-magic field, I came to fully appreciate the impact of...

Ability Score Improvement (ASI) can be equal to choosing a feat

When I created my barbarian, my original plan was should the PC advance to the point when I'd choose to improve ability scores versus a feat that ASI's are the choice. Yeah about that... I went the feat route instead. My half-orc barbarian had acquired gauntlets of ogre power. Gauntlets of Ogre Power eliminated the need to improve Strength. Any easy decision, right? Not in hindsight when you're bumping around within an anti-magic field. Not a huge loss, mind you, but I really appreciated ASI much more once I was contemplating any potential combat.

Double Treasure Points is pretty sweet

This take-away is more Adventurers League-related than D&D 5E rules-related.Season 8 of Adventurers League handles both experience and treasure differently than the core rules. I had become used to treasure points equaling advancement checkpoints. Since I had no Tier 3 nor Tier 4 PCs, I really had no need to familiarize myself with those guidelines. So upon completing the module, it was a pleasant surprise to see twice the number of treasure points than I expected. Of all the take-aways from today, this is one may be for one night only. Adventurers League is changing how treasure and gold works in Season 9, which starts during September, so this may actually change.

Happy Gaming!

Next time.