elnino14

So I've been watching Spectacular Spider-man season 2 recently (over the past couple of weeks). I really enjoyed the first season, which was handled expertly, juggling the origin stories of villains, constant relationship dilemmas, financial dilemmas, and excellent fight sequences. Outside of the terrible mangling of Venom in episode 13 (the last episode of the first season, I really thought this show is on its way to become one of the best animated shows ever and if it continued it would become the Batman the Animated Series of the new decade. So I began watching the second season (recently finishing episode 8) and I wondered with very few origin stories left to tell, how it would continue. Frankly my worries subsided immediately. They've done just as an excellent a job continuing this show as they've done in the first season, even making a large effort to fix the terrible blunders they made with Eddie Brock/Venom (who is just incredibly menacing in the new season). Although I wasn't a fan of the reveal of the Master Planner, I really enjoyed the updating of the Sinister Six, how they dealt with Kraven, with Norman, and how Peter deals with his relationship problems from episode to episode. It all flows very naturally. They also deal with something that's so prominent in the comics, Petey's identity and why he needs to protect his secret so badly. I really love this show, and if you haven't been watching it you should be. I also watched some Batman Beyond (the first three episodes) for the very first time. While I think the origin of the Terry McGuniess was done very well and I love seeing old Bruce. I just really can't get into the Corporate Crime plot. These corporate vendettas all come across as rather boring. I understand that Bruce's parents were killed by street crime, which is why Bruce did most of his work on eradicating that level, and Terry's father was killed due to corporate crime, which is why Terry does his work on that level. I understand all that. Doesn't mean I have to like it. What the show does well, is that they create a while new universe, but everything still feels like Gotham. They create new villains (while none have rivaled the Joker or Mr. Freeze of the old series) that follow the line of "freaks" that permeated during Batman's clock. I'll stick with it in hopes that the show gets better, but I don't know.

I actually haven't sold them on e-bay yet. I'm going to try and rummage through some other things to sell before I sell these. If anything changes come back and let me know. I'd rather sell them to someone on here rather than somebody on e-bay.

the new art looks much better, much more stylized. With 18 episodes per volume, the total amount of volumes should be around 5 volumes. I'm still waiting for the box set for all the episodes at once, my bootlegs will suffice until then I think.

Netflix decided to send me the Royal Rumble even though it said there was a really long wait, AWESOME!

Overall I agree with you, even though there were worse matches that year involving Mark Henry (vs. Dreamer, vs. Hardy at Summerslam where it ended in a BS Dq after 1 minute) not to mention the Diva matches, that Survivor Series Match triple threat was the worst Main Event of the Year, because it was built, booked, as a match with and ABOUT Jeff Hardy, and it ultimately was WWE fucking with and fucking over the fans. I finished Armageddon 08 and it's much better than I thought it would be. Armageddon 08: Again, it’s weird how the posters/covers throw me for a loop. I totally thought the poster was JBL at first glance, now looking at it, it’s Chris Jericho. Maybe it’s the suit and tie. So I wasn’t a big fan of the video package this month, it didn’t really do anything to psyche me up. Actually it reiterated something, the black and white good vs. evil theme, which is fine, but many storylines in the WWE have gray in them (the best one of the year [shawn Michaels vs. Jericho] had a lot of gray in it). Matt Hardy vs. Mirko CroCop: I didn’t expect anything after the abysmal disaster Koslov participated in the month before. This actually exceeded my expectations, it was still bad, it was 10 minutes that felt like 30, it had very little entertainment value in it, and Koslov’s greenness really shone through, but, you know, Hardy worked his damndest to infuse this match with some sort of goodness and it helped a ton. From Hardy producing some semblance of psychology, to making well timed comebacks, also a hot crowd really helped them out. It’s frightening to think that Hardy pulled out a better match than HHH did, but you know what it’s true. * ¾ CM Punk vs. Rey Mysterio: This was a good match and was exactly what I expected. It was a strictly, babyface, competitive match-up…they played up a “whatever you can do, I can do better theme,” with both men trying to outshine the other. It started off a little slow with the chain wrestling but it fit into the competitive story they were trying to tell. The match gained momentum step by step and ended at the climax with the crowd in a fever pitch, just like a good match is supposed to. The problem is that they didn’t take enough creative risks, they stayed within a small moveset, and told the most entertaining match-up they could. They were also limited by the background of the match in that it was a strict match of competition. But it was a fun little match-up that I entertained me throughout. *** ½ Shawn Michaels begins work for JBL: I’m sorry I don’t understand, if JBL wanted Shawn to work for him all along, why did he kick him in the face at Cyber Sunday. Why were they feuding for 2 months before this? Just because! So Shawn’s broke, that’s really hard to swallow since he’s a huge main-eventer in the WWE. Also didn’t Shawn just buy a pair of Rolexes in March? I don’t like this idea. Shawn really tries to sell the storyline on the mic but I’m not sure if it’s working. The WWE are trying to have Shawn be an everyman, but Shawn’s never been an everyman. His whole character and especially in the past year they’ve been building Shawn to be a massive untouchable ICON. Pretty good idea, just the wrong person, I think. Belfast Brawl Fit Finlay vs. Mark Henry: This was a garbage match, and on that level and that level alone it succeeded. I can’t say much about it, there was some pretty brutal garbage can shots and that drop-toe hold into steel steps looked really dangerous. The final shelleiligh shot or whatever it’s called looked good. I’m glad we don’t have to deal any more between the two though. ** ½ Bullshit Filler: Random Christmas segment featuring Santino, the Glamazon, Charlie Hass, Goldust, the Boogeyman, Festus, some Divas, a referee, IRS, sound random enough. Yeah. Ken Kennedy shows up to tell us not to drink and do drugs, you know I’ve been watching the PPVs all year, and not once have I gone and said, I miss that Ken Kennedy, actually I’m quite glad he hasn’t been around sticking up my PPVs. I still don’t understand how anybody can have a bad match with Shawn Michaels on PPV, but you know what Kennedy proved me that it’s possible. Also he’s shilling his fucking movie, which I swear on my life, I’ve been seeing commercials for this fucking thing since I rented Backlash which is what, April, and the movie still hasn’t fucking come out yet. Kennedy isn’t back yet and I already hate his ass. Randy Orton vs. Batista: I really had high hopes for this, with more build and a better-worked match, this could have main-evented one of the big four PPVs. Batista is really getting the shaft these days with the WWE throwing away Batista’s big “dream” matches. This just really fell below what could have been. It could have recalled many things, just off the top of my head, it could have recalled the Orton on Batista’s shoulders backdrop after Orton won the title, the thumbs up thumbs down, how about some Flair moves, some Hunter moves, it just could have used all the history that this had (and it had a lot more history tied to it than the fucking Cena/Batista match). Instead, this was a one-off exhibition match. Enough on what this could have been: this was pretty typical Orton match, it was slow and methodical until the awesome ending. Not really much else to say there, except I think Orton should have gone over. It gets ** ½ from me, mainly because it was so underwhelming. 8 women tag match: This was fine for a cool down match, the girls looked good in there for once and most of the work was done by girls who actually can wrestle. My question is where did Maryse come from and how did she become one of the best divas. The work was competent, the outfits looked good, I didn’t have to spend time watching 10 different entrances like Survivor Series (THANK GOD!), and it was short. Also how the hell is Khali a face? The Khali kiss-cam bothered me. Also, Mae Young makes an appearance, WWE has been kicking this horse for so long, there’s just bones left. * ½ The Slammys 08: Is this the first Slammys since 97? I actually watched the ’97 Slammys, that was a fun show. Ha! Owen memory: Two-time Slammy Award Winner, I loved that gimmick. Actually, the picks are pretty competent, the MOTY is spot on, the OMG moment of the year is pretty spot on, the tag team of the year is spot on, and performer of the year is hard to argue with. I’ll cover some of the same shit next review on my ULTIMATE 2008 FINALE. John Cena vs. Chris Jericho: I hoped that they could do better than their Survivor Series match and they did just that. They cut out all of the bullshit in their last match and went for a high-octane and reversal heavy encounter. It was rather short match, but it was certainly never boring, which is more than I can say about the last match. This match was more heated than the last one, it had a much better pace, with Jericho only testing the neck in the early going rather than most of the match. The biggest problem here is that the result was never really in doubt, which kind of tarnishes the great story they told. I really liked how they told a story of Jericho taking this match more seriously, it looked like he was more prepared (story-wise) as he had a multiple reversals to the F-U, he tested the neck in the early going and found that Cena’s neck was just fine, Jericho thought he had Cena covered but got too emotional, too big-headed and got caught. I enjoyed this, a ton. Jericho did an excellent job leading here and Cena held his own in the selling and face-comeback department. I really enjoyed this match, kudos to both men. *** ½ Edge vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Triple H: AWESOME! JEFF HARDY AS WORLD CHAMPION! As cool as that is, I think that maybe they should have waited a tiny bit longer and done it at Mania. Also another problem I had with the match is that the video package told me that the story was Jeff Hardy and Triple H were going to tear each other apart while Edge takes opportunities, this didn’t happen once during the match. Sure Triple H and Hardy shared some reversals on the tables, but ultimately Edge was the one who destroyed Hardy with that spear, and then HHH took advantage. One other problem I had was that a lot of the match was two man in, one man out, which is ok when used to build drama (e.g. HHH and Edge fighting, Hardy coming out of nowhere to gain advantage, e.g. 2. Mania 20, Shawn and Triple H fighting, Benoit coming out of nowhere with the headbutt)…but I thought it was a bit overdone here. Finally, I felt the interference was goofy and not needed. As much shit talk as I did, I really liked this match, they took some risks, they really teased a Hardy win throughout the match, which made it all the more sweet when he finally did hit that swanton. The story of the match was all Hardy, Hardy so desiring the gold, taking on both men at the same time, not willing to be denied even though he’s thwarted many times. It’s all Hardy. It’s a great match for his win. *** ¾ Final Thoughts: When this show is on, it’s ON. When this show is off, it’s really OFF. That’s about what I can say, there are three enjoyable matches here which add up to about an hour of the show, but the rest of it sucked. So it’s hard to say really, but I liked the show. Cyber Sunday while not many great matches was more solid throughout I think, but this show had some really fun stuff, but it also had some really bad stuff on it too. 7.0 Next up is probably a Ultimate 2008 Final Recap. Netflix says Royal Rumble is on VERY LONG WAIT, so I don't expect to get that for a while. Here's the list... Top WWE PPV Matches of 08: 1. Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels (Wrestlemania 24) - **** ½ 2. Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels (Unforgiven 08) - **** 3. Edge vs. Undertaker (Wrestlemania 24) - **** 4. Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels (Judgment Day 08) - **** 5. Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels (No Mercy 08) - **** 6. Raw Elimination Chamber (No Way Out 08) - **** 7. Triple H vs Jeff Hardy (No Mercy 08) - **** 8. Triple H vs. John Cena (Night of Champions 08) - *** ¾ 9. Triple H vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Edge (Armageddon 08) - *** ¾ 10. Shawn Michaels vs. Batista (One Night Stand 08) - *** ¾ 11. Undertaker vs. Edge (Summerslam 08) - *** ¾ 12. Undertaker vs. Edge (Backlash 08) - *** ¾ 13. Triple H vs. Jeff Hardy (Cyber Sunday 08) - *** ½ 14. Randy Orton vs. John Cena vs. HHH vs. JBL (Backlash 08) - *** ½ 15. Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels (Great American Bash 08) - *** ½ 16. MITB (Wrestlemania 24) - *** ½ 17. Shawn Michaels vs. Batista (Backlash 08) - *** ½ 18. Matt Hardy vs. Evan Bourne (Cyber Sunday 08) - *** ½ 19. Rey Mysterio vs. CM Punk (Armageddon 08) - *** ½ 20. John Cena vs. Chris Jericho (Armageddon 08) - *** ½ Honorable Mentions: 21. Randy Orton vs. Jeff Hardy (Royal Rumble 08) - *** ½ 22. Edge vs Undertaker (Judgment Day 08) - *** ½ 23. Batista vs. John Cena (Summerslam 08) – *** ¼ 24. Randy Orton vs. John Cena (No Way Out 08) - *** ¼ 25. Cm Punk vs. Batista (Great American Bash 08) - *** ¼ Dropped from the list: 26. Big Show vs. Undertaker (Cyber Sunday) - *** ¼ 27. Edge vs. Batista (Night of Champions 08) - *** ¼ 28. Randy Orton vs. John Cena vs. Triple H (Wrestlemania 24) - *** ¼

After a few small orders it looks like I have a big order this month: Alias vol. 1 TPB Sleeper Season 1 X-factor vol. 6 Along with my usual single issues of Buffy and Angel.

I watched the movie last night and I rather enjoyed it for what it was. I didn't have a problem with the graphic violence, I already knew that Zack Snyder was capable of directing great action sequences. All the ones here were great. What I was more worried about was whether Zack Snyder could handle the depth of the book. I thought he did a commendable job, but I can't help but think if a more experienced director could have done a better job. After the movie, I totally felt that there was something missing in the translation. I'm still not quite sure what it is, but I think it's the heart of the film, instead of making an adaptation, Snyder decided to put the book on screen. I went with one person who never read the book, not yet anyway, and he said as a film the pacing doesn't quite work, while a comic can spend lots of length going off into flashbacks, because comics tend to build slowly, but as a person who never read the book, he felt that movie was just wandering around before being snapped back to the main plot. Of course Rorschach was perfect, the Comedian and Dr. Manhattan were rather good. Nite Owl II was good at times, sloppy during others. Ozy, Silk Spectre, and Sally Jupiter were all terrible. I really think that the opening was

I finished the Planetary Crossing Worlds TPB and it was very very disappointing especially considering how good the actual series is. There are three Planetary crossover specials. The first one and the worst one involves the Authority and it involves the two teams taking on a common threat but never actually crossing paths. While the crossover captured the spirit of the Authority, I a) didn't like the Authority in the first place and b) it didn't really capture the spirit of the Planetary series. It was a loud confusing mess like most of The Authority was, but lots of pretty explosions were involved so it's not completely irredeemable. The second one is an elseworlds crossover with JLA (mainly Batman/Supes/and Wonder Woman), it's an interesting and risky take on what happens if Planetary organization got power hungry and how they could be taken down but again most of the focus is on JLA and it doesn't capture the spirit of the Planetary series. It's quite fun to see the Trinity face off against the Planetary 3. The best story of the bunch is the crossover with Batman, it's set in the Planetary-verse and it's a rather intriguing take with a revolving universe of Batmans. It's captured both the spirit of Planetary books and the Batman books at the same time without sacrificing the other. It's a really fun adventure and probably the only one worth looking at. Overall the book as a whole is disappointing, but the JLA and Batman crossovers are worth a look if you've already got all of the regular Planetary series. 7/10 Next up: Planetary Issues 19-26. Total: Comic books: 0 Trade paperbacks: 11 Daredevil by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson Volumes 1 and 2, The Authority by Ellis/Hitch/Millar/Quietly Volumes 1 (Relentless) and 2 (Under New Management) and 3 (Transfer of Power), Batman: Year One, Batman: The Long Halloween, Planetary vol 1 (All Over the World and Other Stories) vol. 2 (The Fourth Man) and vol. 3 (Leaving the 20th Century), Planetary Crossing Worlds (The Crossover specials)

Survivor Series 2008 Firstly, I really liked the opening video package especially when you consider the abysmal one that was at Cyber Sunday. This one did a good job setting up the event as a whole and then focusing in on the main event. Also I always look forward to Survivor Series because they really begin to lay-out the Road to Wrestlemania here. It’s always a big change of pace at this show. Elimination Tag: Team HBK (Shawn Michaels, Cryme Tyme, Rey Mysterio and The Great Khali vs. Team JBL (JBL, The Miz, John Morrison, MVP and Kane): Wait, when did Khali become a face? Second how the hell were they able to pull it off so well that he gets a full-blown chant? That’s ricockulous! This match was really disappointing. First problem of the night, everybody getting their own introduction. It’s long and boring, and it really takes away from the team aspect. Sure it was fine as a match and it was a half-way decent opener, but it should have been so much more considering a lot of talent in there. They worked this as a regular tag match with lots more people, they were unable to make it feel special in any way, and a lot of the eliminations were not memorable at all. The best part of the match is John Morrison, he really stands out here, especially in his interactions with HBK, which were fantastic. But overall they treated the match as just another opener, so I’ll grade it as such. ** ¾ Looks like they’re going to be pushing the Jeff Hardy story all night. He got beat up in his hotel room (not really). I like PPVs that have a theme and an ongoing story, they’re usually not the best PPVs but they end up being fun. Divas Elimination Tag: Team Smackdown (Maria, Maryse, Victoria, Michelle McCool and Natalya) vs. Team Raw (Mickie James, Candice Michelle, Jillian, Kelly Kelly and Beth Phoenix): God, I can’t believe I sat through all of this debacle. You can really tell the difference between the women who can actually wrestle and the women who can’t. Victoria, one of the best in the whole match, looked great and all she did was yell “Watch me, watch how it’s done” and then got rolled up. The women who could bring it, tried to bring it, but there was just way too much dead weight out there. ½ * Casket Match: Undertaker vs. Big Show: I can’t believe these two went from having a few fairly entertaining encounters to this snoozefest. They tried to play up the story that Big Show wasn’t scared of Undertaker at all, but slowly and slowly got more afraid as more goofy paranormal shit occurred…but it didn’t pan out well at all. I loved that Big Show destroyed the casket only for the druids to bring out another one. I would have loved that to continue a couple more times, it would have been a great gag. I mean the match was already a disaster with the paranormal shit, and the two just punching and kicking each other around the ring. Doesn’t hold a candle to the last two matches they had. * Man at this rate, something better deliver because this PPV is turning into the worst of the year. It’s just been downright boring. Oh here’s a segment with twin divas and a bunch of jobbers because that’s exactly what I want to see. Elimination Tag: Team Batista (Batista, Kofi Kingston, CM Punk, Matt Hardy and R-Truth) vs. Team Orton (Randy Orton, Shelton Benjamin, Cody Rhodes, William Regal and Mark Henry): What the fuck happened to Ted DiBiase Jr.? Oh he got kicked in the face. Anyways, this overall was a more exciting match, and did more to play to the strengths of the traditional survivor series match. Unlike the opener, everybody got their chance to shine in this match (except for William Regal) and it took it’s time with the eliminations. Although they didn’t build any new superstars in these traditional survivor series matches, they really put over the Batista and Orton rivalry quite well. I thought this match was going to be about Cody Rhodes and Orton, especially considering the interview segment before this, but it looks like they’re going to move slower on that front. This was better than the opener but not the big splash I hoped it would be. *** ¼ Triple H vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Ivan Drago: So Jeff Hardy can’t compete and it makes this a one on one match that nobody wanted to see and screwing over the fans big time. So basically what occurs is we get HHH and Koslov trading wristlocks and hammerlocks for 12 minutes before the Shocking ending. So overall the match sucked, but at least it was surprising. To be honest, I was absolutely flabbergasted by Edge’s return and especially him being in league with Vickie again. Jeff Hardy makes the obvious appearance to beat up on Edge for stealing his spot. I really liked the hectic last 2 minutes, but that certainly doesn’t make up what came before, and even worse I can’t shake the feeling that HHH’s entire title reign, building him up as a champion was wasted on a shock switch. ¾ * Chris Jericho vs. John Cena: John Cena make his big return in his hometown. The match wasn’t all that great either, considering the matches these two had in 2005. Jericho worked some good vicious psychology by working the surgically repaired neck. The whole match was about Cena overcoming the injury, overcoming ring rust, and regaining his confidence in order to beat Jericho. It was fine but was a little slow and ultimately not that fun to watch. The title switch popped the crowd, but not me, I really liked Jericho as champion and he would have gone over as such a dick if he had won here. ** ¾ Final Thoughts: This is the worst PPV of the year, hands down. Title switches just for the sake of it, underwhelming matches galore, and frankly a complete bait and switch in terms of Jeff Hardy competing. It’s just an overall disappointment, plus the result of the main event was given away just by the dvd cover in the picture on netflix. Terrible show. 3/10 One more show until the end of 08. The list bellows looks pretty final in terms of PPV match of the year. Top WWE PPV Matches of 08: 1. Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels (Wrestlemania 24) - **** ½ 2. Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels (Unforgiven 08) - **** 3. Edge vs. Undertaker (Wrestlemania 24) - **** 4. Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels (Judgment Day 08) - **** 5. Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels (No Mercy 08) - **** 6. Raw Elimination Chamber (No Way Out 08) - **** 7. Triple H vs. John Cena (Night of Champions 08) - *** ¾ 8. Triple H vs Jeff Hardy (No Mercy 08) - *** ¾ 9. Shawn Michaels vs. Batista (One Night Stand 08) - *** ¾ 10. Undertaker vs. Edge (Backlash 08) - *** ¾ 11. Undertaker vs. Edge (Summerslam 08) - *** ¾ 12. Triple H vs. Jeff Hardy (Cyber Sunday 08) - *** ½ 13. Randy Orton vs. John Cena vs. HHH vs. JBL (Backlash 08) - *** ½ 14. Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels (Great American Bash 08) - *** ½ 15. MITB (Wrestlemania 24) - *** ½ 16. Shawn Michaels vs. Batista (Backlash 08) - *** ½ 17. Randy Orton vs. Jeff Hardy (Royal Rumble 08) - *** ½ 18. Matt Hardy vs. Evan Bourne (Cyber Sunday 08) - *** ½ 19. Edge vs Undertaker (Judgment Day 08) - *** ½ 20. Batista vs. John Cena (Summerslam 08) – *** ¼ Honorable Mentions: 21. Randy Orton vs. John Cena (No Way Out 08) - *** ¼ 22. Cm Punk vs. Batista (Great American Bash 08) - *** ¼ 23. Big Show vs. Undertaker (Cyber Sunday) - *** ¼ 24. Edge vs. Batista (Night of Champions 08) - *** ¼ 25. Randy Orton vs. John Cena vs. Triple H (Wrestlemania 24) - *** ¼

I thought the first trailer was absolute shit. The new trailer eases my mind a little bit, but I'm still very skeptical, especially after the crap third one.

I don't watch anime anymore hardly ever...but my favorites include: Trigun - it's a western action comedy for the first half, and for the second half it's a philosphical action series. Really good show and I still like this better than Bebop. It's also got a great dub and is one of the only two series that I could watch in dub (the other being Bebop). Gungrave - most of the series is anime take on the mafia and since I love gangster movies, I really got into this. The first episode sucks, badly, but keep watching. Berserk - a medieval action fantasy. I don't remember it too well, but I do remember liking it a ton. Macross Plus - Probably the best Macross you can watch. It's the only anime I ever own, it's a great complete story in a movie and it's amazing visually. City Hunter - I never saw the series, but there's a few movies of this that I at one point owned, I remember City Hunter - The Motion Picture being the best, there's also a live-action movie starring Jackie Chan. I loved the dub, I thought it was hilarious. Not a great plot and won't make you think too much, but it's really fun, it's basically a goofy James Bond. I used to be huge on the action anime...and that's what most of mine lean toward. I haven't watched Full Metal Alchemist or anything else

I read Planetary vol 2 and 3 and it's awesome. It just got better and better as it feels like Ellis builds another world, a world that's really there but hidden from our own. There's not a single bad story in the series that I've read thus far (1-18). Sure, some are more intriguing, but that's what happens when you hit upon almost every single genre there is. This is just a pure fun comic book and while it was more proportioned to all three characters in volume 1, this one takes a hard look and focus on Elijah Snow and it's all the more enjoyable for it. This is the Indiana Jones of comics, just pure fun through and through. If you haven't read this, you should. 10/10 Up Next Planetary Cross-over specials. Total: Comic books: 0 Trade paperbacks: 10 Daredevil by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson Volumes 1 and 2, The Authority by Ellis/Hitch/Millar/Quietly Volumes 1 (Relentless) and 2 (Under New Management) and 3 (Transfer of Power), Batman: Year One, Batman: The Long Halloween, Planetary vol 1 (All Over the World and Other Stories) vol. 2 (The Fourth Man) and vol. 3 (Leaving the 20th Century)

As the title says, I've got an extra set of Neil Gaiman's Sandman TPBs, it's a full set from volume 1-10. Is anybody interested in buying this from me let me know so we can work out a possible price? They're various printings. They're all in pretty good condition. I figure I'd try and work out here before I resort to e-bay. If in a couple of days I don't get a response it'll be posted on e-bay.

Cyber Sunday 08 Shelton Benjamin vs. R-truth: This is a pre-PPV match as it was in the special features section, so I might as well watch it as it was meant, before the PPV. The match was about 5 minutes, but it was a competitive five-minute match. Both men showed off their athleticism and each man were able to get their unique maneuvers in. There wasn’t much of a match here and definitely not enough time to tell a story, but it was short and fun. ** Rey Mysterio vs. Kane: Meh. Michael Cole spouts off some stuff about why this match is happening, and it doesn’t make sense, and it actively hurts the match in my opinion. Also it was pretty tame in terms of No Holds barred matches go (the stipulation didn’t really add anything to the match) and was actually really kind of boring when Kane was on offense working the back. This was about on par with the last show’s match between the two, except this one featured an excellent ending sequence that was full of reversals, including an amazing reversal of the chokeslam by Rey. ** ½ Matt Hardy vs. Evan Bourne: I really enjoyed this match. I’ve watched most of Bourne’s career in Ring of Honor, and his style was completely left in tact in his transition to WWE. It really helped make the match seem different as it was incredibly fast-paced, with tons of innovative maneuvers, and some great reversals throughout. Even without a build, it was still an excellent match as Bourne seemed like he really wanted to win that ECW title, and Hardy seemed like he really wanted to keep it and was doing everything he can just to stop Bourne. This was rather awesome. *** ½ Cryme Tyme vs. MizMo: Every time MizMo competes it’s always a solid match-up and this time was no different. Cryme Tyme have also improved tremendously since returning and not only have some great charisma but have the best hot tags I’ve seen in a long while. MizMo also played their part well, being the heels and keeping the heat segment entertaining. It’s really weird to say but I now, sometimes, look forward to tag matches in the WWE. *** Santino Marella vs. Honky Tonk Man: They played this perfectly, by keeping the match short, and focusing more on the promos. Santino and Honky Tonk Man had plenty of time to play up the crowd before the match and the after-match shenanigans was exactly what this segment was supposed to be, a nostalgic tribute to a couple of legends (and Goldust). The match sucked but it was never really a match to begin with. I also like how Santino lost the match but kept the title, since its what Honky was pretty famous for (keeping the title by screwjob finishes). Big Show vs. Undertaker: These two had another match that was quite good. It was rather well built up from their previous match as they again really played up the striking factor. But at the same time they ran through many of the same sequences, and there was little to differentiate this match from the one before outside of the ending, some brawling on the outside, and a couple chair/table spots. Also there’s a huge blunder where Charles Robinson noticeably stretches a count for Taker to get up at 10, it was like 5 seconds between the count of 9 and 10. The ending was rather good, I really liked how Taker showed determination and did the sit-up spot, but at the same time didn’t devalue the Big Show’s punch to the face. This was quite fun and actually a little bit better than their previous match. *** ¼ Diva Shit: They’ve been pushing this Halloween Costume shit all night. And it amounted to filler and time wasting but at the same time I can’t fault it too much because the matches have been getting time. Still it’s stupid and not in the least entertaining. I thought the WWE was being more kid-friendly…and scantily clad women making bad sexually provocative puns is the opposite of that. Triple H vs. Jeff Hardy: I’m actually quite glad Ivan Drago isn’t in this match. Triple H had a rather fantastic match at No Mercy 08 and this match was rather good too. While the other match really was well built in making the audience believe that Hardy was going to win, this one didn’t do nearly as well in that respect as shown by the a decidedly lesser amount of crowd reaction. While the last match was Hardy getting closer and closer to the gold as he hit more and more offensive, this one was a bit different as Hardy was evenly matched from the beginning, hit a lot of offense from the beginning, and just made one too many mistakes. Of course, there was again abandoned body part work (Hardy’s arm), although at least this time it led into a tremendous nearfall from the crossface. There was also another fantastic near-fall with the reversal of the pedigree (the same reversal Hardy used to beat HHH in Dec. 07), but the finality of the end of this match made it ultimately feel SO anti-climactic. *** ½ Batista vs. Chris Jericho: While I quite liked this match, something was missing. Most of the match was a solid but unspectacular affair. Jericho obviously worked heel, came into conflict a couple of times with the ref, and worked Batista’s leg, which Batista sold quite well until the finish sequence with all the refs started. While I should be ecstatic, it all felt like they were working towards to the end of the match, which really kept it afloat. The end was the really fun, chaotic, and very Attitude-style finish that made this match more enjoyable. I was also really surprised with the result, maybe even more-so than Unforgiven’s main event. *** Final Thoughts: This card is rock solid entertainment from top to bottom. While missing that one excellent match to make this a truly amazing PPV, it is incredibly entertaining and WWE is on a solid roll with their PPVs. The main event is a bit of a let-down and there’s nothing truly memorable about this event, but it’s very enjoyable and entertaining. 8/10 Top WWE PPV Matches of 08: 1. Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels (Wrestlemania 24) - **** ½ 2. Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels (Unforgiven 08) - **** 3. Edge vs. Undertaker (Wrestlemania 24) - **** 4. Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels (Judgment Day 08) - **** 5. Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels (No Mercy 08) - **** 6. Raw Elimination Chamber (No Way Out 08) - **** 7. Triple H vs. John Cena (Night of Champions 08) - *** ¾ 8. Triple H vs Jeff Hardy (No Mercy 08) - *** ¾ 9. Shawn Michaels vs. Batista (One Night Stand 08) - *** ¾ 10. Undertaker vs. Edge (Backlash 08) - *** ¾ 11. Undertaker vs. Edge (Summerslam 08) - *** ¾ 12. Triple H vs. Jeff Hardy (Cyber Sunday 08) - *** ½ 13. Randy Orton vs. John Cena vs. HHH vs. JBL (Backlash 08) - *** ½ 14. Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels (Great American Bash 08) - *** ½ 15. MITB (Wrestlemania 24) - *** ½ 16. Shawn Michaels vs. Batista (Backlash 08) - *** ½ 17. Randy Orton vs. Jeff Hardy (Royal Rumble 08) - *** ½ 18. Matt Hardy vs. Evan Bourne (Cyber Sunday 08) - *** ½ 19. Edge vs Undertaker (Judgment Day 08) - *** ½ 20. Batista vs. John Cena (Summerslam 08) – *** ¼ Honorable Mentions: 21. Randy Orton vs. John Cena (No Way Out 08) - *** ¼ 22. Cm Punk vs. Batista (Great American Bash 08) - *** ¼ 23. Big Show vs. Undertaker (Cyber Sunday) - *** ¼ 24. Edge vs. Batista (Night of Champions 08) - *** ¼ 25. Randy Orton vs. John Cena vs. Triple H (Wrestlemania 24) - *** ¼ Dropped from List: Undertaker vs. Edge (One Night Stand 08) - *** ¼

No Mercy 08 ECW Championship Match: Matt Hardy v Mark Henry (w/Tony Atlas): A pretty good start to the show. Mark Henry has been having career- performances in his ECW Championship matches. Hardy worked the leg, it played into the finish perfectly, and it told the story of Matt Hardy finally pinning Mark Henry and putting this feud to rest. This feud has done a ton for Matt Hardy in terms of legitimizing him as the top of the C-Brand, and if the ovation that Hardy received here is any notice, he’s really over. This was everything they needed in an opener. ** ¾ WWE Women's Championship Match: Beth Phoenix v Candice Michelle: Candice Michelle is making her PPV re-debut. She looked a little off to be honest and the match wasn’t all held together that well. But then again they didn’t have much time to work with. Even with the little time they had, they were able to touch upon Candice Michelle’s shoulder injury and the miscommunication Glameralla are currently experiencing. * If Rey Mysterio Loses, He Must Unmask: Rey Mysterio v Kane: Although I didn’t get the brunt of it, it sounds like Kane got stuck in another really stupid non-sensical story about Mysterio and his mask. Kane has new music and I like it. The match was a pretty typical big man, little man match and they really didn’t go above and beyond that dynamic. I really liked the finish to match, not because it’s wonky, but because it looks awesome and brutal. I guess Kane figured he couldn’t beat Mysterio, so he busted out a chair and hit a home run. ** ½ MVP gets interrupted: This was a really awesome segment. It flowed unbelievably well and dealt with multiple issues involving multiple people. From PPV to PPV perspective alone, it follows up on the storyline of Punk being kicked in the head and the Priceless/Manu/Orton situation. I liked it a lot and it harkened back to the days where things didn’t seem so scripted. Although it is kind of wonky near the end as Punk/Kofi look like heels in a way. #1 Contender Match: Batista v John “Bradshaw” Layfield: This was really well… short and utterly and completely forgettable. They went out there and went through the motions. Batista squashed JBL and is ready to move onto the next match. I’m completely fine with that, considering that nobody really cared about this match and everybody knew who was going to win. * ½ JBL cut a promo after the match, and to be honest I didn’t really care for it. Also Cryme Tyme got involved and stole JBL’s limo. Seeing Sarge was funny, but overall it didn’t really work for me. Undertaker v Big Show: This actually turned out to be a really good big man and it’s credited to the massive improvement that both men have made over the years. They’ve both gained tremendous experience in how to provide an entertaining match and that’s just what they did here, avoiding all possible typical slow and lumbering critiques of the big man match. They built up the match around the striking ability of Big Show, building up his devastating closed-fist punch, which came into play very well here. I had a problem in how they shifted gears into the wrestling, the striking in the early portion didn’t flow neatly into the wrestling as it could have. But nonetheless, they had an entertaining match-up involving both the wrestling, with some very exciting counters, and striking that it advertised. *** WWE Championship Match: Triple H v Jeff Hardy: So far these men have had exciting encounters every time they’ve hooked up and this was no different. These two have really good chemistry, each and every time they’re out there. This match played it really simple making the match’s story about competition and it really was a clash of styles more than any of the other Jeff Hardy matches, as anytime Hardy, the risk-taker, took a risk that it didn’t pay off, it led directly to HHH taking advantage but when Hardy’s risks did pay off, they really paid off. The biggest problem I had with the match is the backwork that was all ignored later, and Hardy’s headlocks didn’t make sense in the early going. It had an excellent final few minutes, but before that it was just lacking something, I think it was lacking a cohesiveness in the match’s theme or story. Beyond that though HHH really made Hardy look like a main event player here, even more so than their previous match at Armageddon of 07. *** ¾ Ladder Match for the World Heavyweight Championship: Chris Jericho v Shawn Michaels: Only Jericho and Shawn can have three equally good, but very different matches each time out this year. Edge and Taker certainly had good matches, but they had the same structure and sometimes the same counters and spots. Shawn and Jericho really centered this as a Ladder match, disregarding any other weapons available, and it was quite refreshing to see. They had some tremendous spots and they took some unbelievable risks (especially that fall by Jericho). Certainly it had the backstory to be brutal, but it just didn’t fit into the whole feud. Sure Jericho went after the eye, and they recalled Jericho’s elbow to the eye (this time done by Shawn), but it kind of felt like the feud finished last PPV and this was a post-feud match for the championship. Also Shawn worked the leg, and they seemed to make it a big deal, before it was forgotten and then came back near the end. The ending was phenomenal and they were able to build drama into the ending of a ladder match that I’ve never seen and I don’t think has been done before. This was again lacking the over-all theme of the match (last match Shawn got his revenge, and maybe almost lost his soul doing it, this match, Shawn wants to take the title away from Jericho, because he likes causing Jericho pain…uhmmm…I guess). Nonetheless, a fantastic encounter and probably the best ladder match since the TLC days. **** Final Thoughts: Although the early portions of this show was really average at times, it kept moving with some entertaining segments, and by keeping the things that nobody cared about short. Also by keeping the midcard/undercard matches short, the three title matches got the time they needed to keep the crowd involved. You’ve got two very excellent main events and the early ECW title match ended up being the highlight of the undercard. Probably the best show since Mania. 9/10 Three more PPVs to round out 08...YAY! Top WWE PPV Matches of 08: 1. Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels (Wrestlemania 24) - **** ½ 2. Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels (Unforgiven 08) - **** 3. Edge vs. Undertaker (Wrestlemania 24) - **** 4. Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels (Judgment Day 08) - **** 5. Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels (No Mercy 08) - **** 6. Raw Elimination Chamber (No Way Out 08) - **** 7. Triple H vs. John Cena (Night of Champions 08) - *** ¾ 8. Shawn Michaels vs. Batista (One Night Stand 08) - *** ¾ 9. Triple H vs Jeff Hardy (No Mercy 08) - *** ¾ 10. Undertaker vs. Edge (Backlash 08) - *** ¾ 11. Undertaker vs. Edge (Summerslam 08) - *** ¾ 12. Randy Orton vs. John Cena vs. HHH vs. JBL (Backlash 08) - *** ¾ 13. Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels (Great American Bash 08) - *** ½ 14. MITB (Wrestlemania 24) - *** ½ 15. Shawn Michaels vs. Batista (Backlash 08) - *** ½ 16. Randy Orton vs. Jeff Hardy (Royal Rumble 08) - *** ½ 17. Edge vs Undertaker (Judgment Day 08) - *** ½ 18. Batista vs. John Cena (Summerslam 08) – *** ¼ 19. Randy Orton vs. John Cena (No Way Out 08) - *** ¼ 20. Cm Punk vs. Batista (Great American Bash 08) - *** ¼ Honorable Mentions: 21. Edge vs. Batista (Night of Champions 08) - *** ¼ 22. Undertaker vs. Edge (One Night Stand 08) - *** ¼ 23. Randy Orton vs. John Cena vs. Triple H (Wrestlemania 24) - *** ¼

Planetary vol. 1: All over the world and other stories. Lately I've been feeling Warren Ellis hasn't lived up to the hype on some of his critically acclaimed projects that I read over the past year (Authority, Stormwatch) but this one really lived up to the hype. After finishing the first book, I thought this would also be underwhelming. But as I read more and more, I found myself having fun. Warren Ellis takes a more calm approach in this book deciding not to write the book like a kid on a sugar high (even though, I thought that Nextwave was hilarious). This book makes comics fun again. Each story is completely different from the one before, hitting up different genres each time. I particularly liked his ode to the Hong Kong cop action movie. It really feels like the team is uncovering a secret. Speaking of the team, it's not overflowing, he narrows it down to three members where each member is still unique. Sure I'm completely confused at times and the book goes over my head, I'm still completely unsure of what the larger arc of the book is, but I still had fun. 9/10 I'll be reading volumes 2 and 3 soon, I have a couple of weeks left before I have to return them to the library. Total: Comic books: 0 Trade paperbacks: 8 Daredevil by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson Volumes 1 and 2, The Authority by Ellis/Hitch/Millar/Quietly Volumes 1 (Relentless) and 2 (Under New Management) and 3 (Transfer of Power), Batman: Year One, Batman: The Long Halloween, Planetary vol 1 (All Over the World and Other Stories)

I watched that this morning and I have to agree, it's one of my favorites.

Unforgiven 2008 I was pretty let down by Summerslam, so hopefully this PPV will turn things around a bit. First off even before I get to the show. The disc (or the promotional poster) totally looks like John Cena at first glance. No I mean, it really does. For the longest time, I’ve always thought it was Cena. Now that I have the disc and have looked at it a bit closer, I realize it’s Batista. I don’t know why I’m mentioning it. But it was weird. Also I’m tired of skipping the fucking commercial for Behind Enemy Lines 2, enough already. I hate that you can’t skip the Warning, it’s a pain in the ass especially when it’s on a dvd that I own. The opening video highlights the scramble match, not the matches specifically, just kind of the gimmick. It then has an excellent package to hype the grudge match between Michaels and Jericho which I’m absolutely ecstatic about going into the show. Championship Scramble for the ECW Championship: Mark Henry vs. Matt Hardy vs. The Miz vs. Chavo Guerrero vs. Finlay: Interesting choice for an opener. I enjoyed the match, and it’s hilarious that absolutely everybody got a chance to be the champion except for the Miz. Mark Henry was booked strongly, which is nice to see. Finlay had a really hot entry and made an impression especially considering that he was only there for five minutes. Ever since Henry got in, I kind of got confused, I was wondering why everybody was attacking Henry as a unit, really one of the Heels (Chavo probably) should have been trying to steal pins after one of the other opponents got his ass kicked by Henry. I also didn’t like the ending where everybody kind of dogpiled on each other, it just looked terrible. It makes sense, that everybody would be desperate for a pin, and Hardy is desperate to make sure there are no pins made, but it lasted for three minutes and I kind of felt like it took away from Hardy’s title win. I really liked the few minutes after Finlay entered up to the point that Hardy got a pin, and I think that probably should have been the ending of the match. Hardy looked good though and the crowd was pretty into him getting pins as well as Finlay for that matter. It sucks because I’m already starting to see flaws with this stipulation and this is the first of three matches with this stipulation. It was a fun match, I just don’t agree with some of the booking decisions. *** Tag Team Match for the World Tag Team Championship: Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase vs. Cryme Tyme: It’s been a couple of PPVs since I’ve seen Priceless, and the last time I saw Cryme Tyme was in a build-up video for the JBL vs. Cena match. I actually wasn’t expecting a whole lot here but I was pleasantly surprised. They worked the tag formula quite well and they kept it entertaining. All four men have improved and both teams seems to have improved tremendously. Cryme Tyme in particular seems to have been watching some tapes from the Edge/Mysterio tag team. The biggest problem is that Rhodes worked the arm but none of that really went anywhere. Nonetheless, the champs used classic heel tactics to build the hot tag, the crowd was into the match, Cryme Tyme did their part with teasing the hot tags, and everybody worked well together. A good match with some minor off spots (like the arm work and the hilarious selling by Rhodes after a missed moonsault). The aftermath didn’t work at all, mainly because Umaga 2.0 was terrible in what little offense he had, and he also has the goofiest look of them all. Not sure what this is all about yet but the announcers mentioned Orton hyping up Priceless, so I’m guessing he has something to do with it. *** Unsanctioned Match: Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels: This is the good shit. These two men went out there and tore it up. They played off of everything they’ve been building for months. Jericho’s lack of remorse, which leads to not only his attacks on eye, and the injured arm, but his desire to take out Shawn Michaels. Shawn putting his morals an psyche at risk in order to exorcise the demon that is the vengeance and hatred for Jericho’s actions. They wrestled a completely different match than any of the other matches this year, it took them a while to get going, but once they got there, they really GOT there. This was the opposite style of their match at Judgment Day but just as good. They didn’t try and rely on innovative and crazy spots (Edge/Taker), they knew that they had a large expansive story with multiple sub-plots and they just worked that story in an excellent brawl. They get bonus points for Jericho not releasing the Walls of Jericho when HBK got to the ropes. HBK had some excellent facial expressions and mouthing of words that just added to this match. This match was fight from beginning to end. Sure this match wasn’t nearly as fast-paced, competitive, and was quite limited in terms of moveset, but it was never meant to be a wrestling match. It was meant to be a fight, an emotional thunderstorm from beginning to end, and that’s what it was. **** What makes this one different from Great American Bash, is that, it was a concluding chapter, the match’s pace didn’t all of a sudden slow down, it was kind of two halves. The Great American Bash match, felt like a middle chapter and had awkwardness in terms of pacing that this match didn’t have. Randy Orton confronts Priceless: It’s official, I don’t like Manu. I don’t know what’s going on here, I didn’t realize Orton was back from injury, and I thought Orton was grooming Priceless, but I guess Orton is degrading them instead. Did I mention I love that promo that HHH and HBK gave to the New Age Outlaws after they threw Cactus Jack and Funk over the ramp in a dumpster way back in 1998? No, well that’s what I thought Orton was doing for Priceless. Championship Scramble for the WWE Championship: Triple H vs. The Brian Kendrick vs. Montel Vontavious Porter vs. Shelton Benjamin vs. Jeff Hardy: There’s no-video package for this one, which is strange to me. It made the match kind of seem inconsequential from the get-go. This was a Smackdown mid-card showcase for about 15 minutes, with SPANKY making a pretty good showing. The match did a really good job of building Spanky as a threat, and then HHH cam out and tore him down…completely. Good news is that they also made Jeff Hardy a threat to the championship. And really the last five minutes were really good with Jeff Hardy and HHH competing with each other for the championship. Before that, the match was fine, but under-whelming because they booked it in a way so that the watcher is just waiting for HHH to come out. The end-game though it was fun, the midcard got to shine, and Spanky became an interim champion for a few minutes. It’s a bit inconsequential until the last five minutes, but those last five minutes are crazy. *** WTF RANDY! So CM Punk is here to cut a promo, Randy Orton interrupts, Priceless (with Mono) interrupts, Kofi fails at a save, Randy kicks Punk in the face, and yells at Priceless some more. Punk is actually excellent on the mic here, really taunting Orton Randy is such a dick and I really love that he’s being put right back into the main event scene but at the same time, if Punk doesn’t come out and try and defend, the WWE have officially failed their experiment and fucked him over at any chance of being credible. I’m not saying CM Punk has been doing an excellent job as a wrestler in the WWE because I think he’s been off. But he certainly has shown potential to wrestle excellent matches (at KOTR 2008 and against Batista) and that potential will be squandered if they continue to book him like shit. Big Show Poll: They’re running a poll about whether or not Vickie made the right decision about Big Show being banned from the Smackdown Scramble. To be honest, I completely forgot Big Show was in the WWE until they brought this up, considering that he hasn’t done anything for a while (Night of Champions) and hasn’t done anything memorable since Mania. Also conspicuous by their absence is Undertaker and I guess, Edge. Although Edge probably hasn’t climbed out of Hell yet. Divas Championship Match: Michelle McCool vs. Maryse: Uhmm…nobody gives a shit, everybody is more concerned about WHAT JUST HAPPENED. But to be honest, they actually looked decent. I mean the match wasn’t that great and didn’t really tell a story of any kind…but for the basic shit they pulled off was pulled off well, especially the opening sequence. * ½ Mike Adamle: Please say Punk is okay…Please say Punk is okay…. Ok he didn’t tell us anything. Useless git. Big Show tells you to Smackdown your Vote: I totally thought this was going to be a public service announcement by the Big Show. Then it took a turn for the better with Vickie coming out. Oh lookee here, just when I was asking about him, the Undertaker appears. I liked this segment, it went on for a bit too long, but it worked for me. Vickie knew she was in trouble, so she had to get some new muscle since she broke up with Edge. Also Big Show has been on a tear trying to prove that he is the best big athlete in the WWE (taking on Khali, inserting himself into ECW to take on Kane, and Mark Henry), beating Undertaker is another notch into proving that. Or at least that’s how it makes sense to me. It’s hilarious that Big Show turned heel again, considering I don’t ever remember him turning face. For a while, he was beyond that association and was just straight tweener. Both men have improved tremendously since I last remember them locking up and I think they could pull of a good match. Championship Scramble for the World Heavyweight Championship: CM Punk vs. Batista vs. Kane vs. JBL vs. Rey Mysterio: Ha, hilarious. This match is just as good as all the other scrambles. The match focused on power wrestlers at first before moving into a faster tempo with the introduction of Rey-rey. They really played up the relationship between Rey and Batista, more than anything. The other big story is the “Can Punk make it story?” and the answer is, “No, but Jericho CAN!” It’s really interesting booking. Punk screwed Edge out of the title, and now Punk is getting screwed out of the title in similar fashion. Jericho has the worst night and best night of his life in the same night. It’s really risky booking but it pays off in terms of surprise. I liked the match about as much as I liked the other ones. *** Final Thoughts: Really the Championship Scramble excelled at giving us a great final five minutes, each and every time out (I would say the Smackdown one was the best overall). This is a segment-heavy show, but it really does build drama and excitement throughout the show. It’s got a great story and theme. And while the Scramble concept is quite overdone on this show, it’s a fresh and interesting. Also you get an excellent chapter in the Jericho/HBK feud and a good tag title match. This show is extremely fun and watchable, especially if you’re emotionally invested in the angles. 8.5 Top WWE PPV Matches of 08: 1. Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels (Wrestlemania 24) - **** ¾ 2. Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels (Unforgiven 08) - **** 3. Edge vs. Undertaker (Wrestlemania 24) - **** 4. Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels (Judgment Day 08) - **** 5. Raw Elimination Chamber (No Way Out 08) - **** 6. Triple H vs. John Cena (Night of Champions 08) - *** ¾ 7. Shawn Michaels vs. Batista (One Night Stand 08) - *** ¾ 8. Undertaker vs. Edge (Backlash 08) - *** ¾ 9. Undertaker vs. Edge (Summerslam 08) - *** ¾ 10. Randy Orton vs. John Cena vs. HHH vs. JBL (Backlash 08) - *** ¾ 11. Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels (Great American Bash 08) - *** ½ 12. MITB (Wrestlemania 24) - *** ½ 13. Shawn Michaels vs. Batista (Backlash 08) - *** ½ 14. Randy Orton vs. Jeff Hardy (Royal Rumble 08) - *** ½ 15. Edge vs Undertaker (Judgment Day 08) - *** ½ 16. Batista vs. John Cena (Summerslam 08) – *** ¼ 17. Randy Orton vs. John Cena (No Way Out 08) - *** ¼ 18. Cm Punk vs. Batista (Great American Bash 08) - *** ¼ 19. Edge vs. Batista (Night of Champions 08) - *** ¼ 20. Undertaker vs. Edge (One Night Stand 08) - *** ¼ Honorable Mentions: 21. Randy Orton vs. John Cena vs. Triple H (Wrestlemania 24) - *** ¼

The Authority by Millar volume 3 (Transfer of Power): The arc that wasn't written by Millar was quite strange the arc that was written by Millar was a fitting end to what was an enjoyable superhero action blockbuster. I can see where the Authority was considered groundbreaking by taking the superheo archetypes and turning them on their head, the inclusion of the political aspects, and ushering in the widescreen action approach to the art. But just because it's the first (or one of the first) doesn't mean its the best. I still think that it was quite lacking in characterization and memorable characters (with the exception of the Midnighter being awesome). The characters never really moved forward from point A to point B, frankly because the big action plots are so overwhelming that envelopes everything around. Still pretty enjoyable. I tried to get Batman Dark Victory from the library but I think it's missing, it's listed as there, but I didn't see it. Oh well. I picked up three Planetary Trades instead. Total: Comic books: 0 Trade paperbacks: 7 Daredevil by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson Volumes 1 and 2, The Authority by Ellis/Hitch/Millar/Quietly Volumes 1 (Relentless) and 2 (Under New Management) and 3 (Transfer of Power), Batman: Year One, Batman: The Long Halloween

Summerslam 08 Usually I love Summerslam (97-02) but for a long while WWE did a lackluster job making it a big show and instead it has faded into mediocrity for a while. Hopefully they don’t let that happen here but just by the look of the card alone, it looks like I’m wrong. The video package was pretty middling. They’re trying to do some metaphor or comparison to film but it’s not working quite well and feels really lame especially after Mania 21. There’s some good stuff, like Rey Mysterio as Spider-man is absolutely hilarious, and they bring us up to speed on the Edge/Vickie saga, but overall I wasn’t feeling it. Jeff Hardy v MVP: These two wrestled a couple of PPV’s ago in one of the worst matches I’ve ever seen from either one of those guys. They remedy that here by having a pretty good match. They built a lot of the match around MVP’s kick and this match, along with the opening package, really helped build the legitimacy and the brutality of that kick. I liked that idea. Jeff Hardy spent a lot of the time dodging that kick and using those opportunities to attack MVP. Also MVP looked to have Jeff Hardy scouted a lot of the time getting some interesting reversals on him. MVP still needs to iron out the kinks in the middle portion of his matches as his submissions don’t really work for the story that he’s trying to tell sometimes but he’s still improving. Jeff Hardy was pretty on tonight, some of the time he looked like he was moving at half speed, but his big babyface comeback was hot and worked well. The ending worked for me, Jeff Hardy had that kick scouted earlier on so obviously after being worn down, distracted by intereference, and missing his top-rope finish, he’d be much more susceptible to it. I liked this match, it was a good opener. *** Santino still owns, although I’d have liked some background on how he and Beth got together. Winner Takes All Match: Kofi Kingston & Mickie James v Santino Marella & Beth Phoenix: This was a decent comedy match and it’s exactly how it should have played considering the two best wrestlers are the females. The women did a good job with the actual wrestling, as short as it was. Santino is an average at best wrestler and he was kept on offense to a minimum, Kofi is green as hell and was in there to get his short bursts of offense to get the crowd fired up. It worked for what it was. ** Shawn Michaels' Announcement: A 20 minute segment. They played the announcement straight and serious. It looks like it worked really well as it looks like people bought into the story. This story has me not just invested as a fan but with this, it’s also got emotionally invested. I’m interested in seeing this continue. Also Shawn’s wife took that shot like a champ, a little too much so, it looked stiff. I don’t what to say, it was slightly boring and longwinded in the beginning only because I knew that this was a storyline, and that Jericho was coming out. But once he did, and once they started going back and forth, it really got intense and I loved it. ECW Championship Match: Mark Henry w/ Tony Atlas v Matt Hardy: A 1 minute match. This is just absolutely offensive booking. I understand they wanted to do a little mini-Hardy Boys reunion, but this was just really terrible. It makes Mark Henry look like shit when he’s supposed to look like a BEAST. Also it made little sense, Matt was excited he had his brother out there, but shouldn’t he be really UPSET about the whole situation. Goodness…and what happened with the Ref barring accomplices from ringside before making the DQ call. Ridiculous. DUD World Heavyweight Championship Match: CM Punk v JBL: CM Punk had a hell of a match last month against Batista but his match against JBL fell short by quite a bit. It wasn’t actively bad by any means, it was botchless and clean, the problem is that it wasn’t an actively good match either. They never tried to tell a story, they just kind of went out there and wrestled. CM Punk didn’t look like an underdog at all. JBL tried to work the midsection, but nothing came of it. They just went out there and did some moves. I’m glad in terms of the outcome though, it’s made Punk look stronger by beating somebody clean. ** ½ WWE Championship Match: Triple H v The Great Khali: This had Match of the Year written all over it. You know as much as I blast Khali, he’s been able to surprise me time and time again. Here, Triple H actually drug out a match that was quite decent. They focused the match of course on the obvious size difference and much like the MVP vs. Jeff Hardy match earlier, they built up the Pedigree throughout the match with multiple attempts before the actual hitting of the finisher. The match certainly wasn’t fast paced by any means, but it was logical. Triple H knew that the Pedigree would put Khali down, couldn’t connect, made it more even by working on Khali’s vertical base, allowing him to hit the Pedigree. Logical, yet not thrilling. ** ½ John Cena v Batista: Wow, the build for this looks really shitty. They took a match that could have main-evented a WrestleMania, and made it just another match. The match was fine, probably the best part of the match were the great teases of each man’s finishers and a couple of reversals near the end that are jumping out of your seat worthy. It’s also got a whatever you can do, I can do better theme as each man tries to top the other (ex: Batista with the figure four, Cena with the STFU). It’s a decent back and forth match and they really tried, but it couldn’t overcome the terrible taste from a shitty build. Overall it lacked the heat it needed, it lacked the emotion that it needed, and it lacked the build that it needed to become a truly great match. *** ¼ Hell in a Cell: Undertaker v Edge: Before the match I was whispering to myself the mantra: this better be good, this better be good, this better be good. And to be honest, it was pretty good. Not the classic that I expected but a damn good spotfest and it worked as a culmination to the feud. Edge has practically perfected the deranged, broken man persona throwing everything at the Undertaker. Undertaker remained stoic and attained his vengeance, the ending was a nice throwback to every encounter they’ve ever had with Undertaker, dismantling Edge for the year-long torment. The problem was that there wasn’t enough holding the match in-between the spots, it wasn’t much more than a spotfest. It certainly was more innovative (which is the make or breaker in Spotfests) but it just wasn’t EPIC in terms of match and story-teling abilities. It’s a lot of fun though watching Undertaker get his revenge. Final Thoughts: Not the excellent PPV that I hoped but certainly above average, with enough good stuff here to keep it afloat. Only one of the matches is offensively bad (ECW) and a couple are middling (Two Title matches) but there’s some fun stuff to watch along with an excellent segment helping progress the feud of the year. Top WWE PPV Matches of 08: 1. Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels (Wrestlemania 24) - **** ¾ 2. Edge vs. Undertaker (Wrestlemania 24) - **** 3. Raw Elimination Chamber (No Way Out 08) - **** 4. Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels (Judgment Day 08) - **** 5. Triple H vs. John Cena (Night of Champions 08) - *** ¾ 6. Shawn Michaels vs. Batista (One Night Stand 08) - *** ¾ 7. Undertaker vs. Edge (Backlash 08) - *** ¾ 8. Undertaker vs. Edge (Summerslam 08) - *** ¾ 9. Randy Orton vs. John Cena vs. HHH vs. JBL (Backlash 08) - *** ¾ 10. Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels (Great American Bash 08) - *** ½ 11. MITB (Wrestlemania 24) - *** ½ 12. Shawn Michaels vs. Batista (Backlash 08) - *** ½ 13. Randy Orton vs. Jeff Hardy (Royal Rumble 08) - *** ½ 14. Edge vs Undertaker (Judgment Day 08) - *** ½ 15. Batista vs. John Cena (Summerslam 08) – *** ¼ 16. Randy Orton vs. John Cena (No Way Out 08) - *** ¼ 17. Cm Punk vs. Batista (Great American Bash 08) - *** ¼ 18. Edge vs. Batista (Night of Champions 08) - *** ¼ 19. Undertaker vs. Edge (One Night Stand 08) - *** ¼ 20. Randy Orton vs. John Cena vs. Triple H (Wrestlemania 24) - *** ¼

Read Batman The Long Halloween, it was pretty awesome. At times I felt like I was reading the Godfather meets Batman, and that's two bad-ass series I can get into. Sometimes though, I felt that Loeb was throwing in as many super-freak villains that he could (kind of like how I feel about some of Millar's runs) in order to boost the book. It felt like he didn't feel like the book couldn't stand on the crime story alone. Still a very fun book with some very good art. Not quite as good as Year One overall, but it's a nice continuation. I'm going to see if I can get Dark Victory next. Total: Comic books: 0 Trade paperbacks: 6 Daredevil by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson Volumes 1 and 2, The Authority Volumes 1 (Relentless) and 2 (Under New Management), Batman: Year One, Batman: The Long Halloween

I read some of Millar's Authority (now up to issue #20 or so), and I have to admit I did like it a bit better than the earlier stuff by Ellis. Although the Ellis/Hitch run, and this Millar run just feels like a sort of precursor to things they would excel at later. Millar expands a bit from the baseline that Ellis set, it's still widescreen but less so without Hitch doing the arc, and it's also got a lot of the themes that Millar would blow out of the water on his run on the Ultimates. I don't LOVE the Authority, none of it really stands out, but it's still an interesting read. 7/10 Batman: Year One... This was my first time through this book and as one of the best Batman books ever, it lived up to the hype. I enjoyed it a lot. I liked that it worked in the context of the mythos but expanded. I also really enjoyed that this was just as much a Gordon: Year One book as it was a Batman book. I certainly felt that Catwoman's character could have been done without, it was really weak. But the story is pretty top notch, it gets wrapped up a bit too rushed in the fourth chapter, but any longer it would have felt overlong. So its a bit of dilemma. I still think I like Dark Knight Returns more in terms of story. But this one absolutely blows away in terms of art. My goodness. It's amazing at some points, and there is many full page spreads that are just beautiful. Very dark, and I love how Batman uses the dark in this book. It just bursts to life. 10/10 Total: Comic books: 0 Trade paperbacks: 5 Daredevil by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson Volumes 1 and 2, The Authority Volumes 1 (Relentless) and 2 (Under New Management), Batman: Year One

Great American Bash 08 The video package to open the show wasn’t as good as the previous ones, it highlights the top 3 matches but really it just didn’t work for me to get excited. Fatal Four Way Match for the WWE Tag Team Championship: John Morrison & The Miz vs. Finlay & Hornswoggle vs. Curt Hawkins & Zack Ryder vs. Jesse & Festus: Fine for an opener but really outside of the opening and ending (both highlighting Festus) it didn’t do much. MizMo and Finlay/Leprechaun were treated as afterthoughts in the whole situation it seemed like. The Edge Guys pretty much emulated their mentor by trying to steal the win, only getting in the match when it’s to their benefit, which is a smart piece of booking. The match though was rather boring and uneventful. I also think the wrong team went over…big time. * ¾ United States Championship Match: Matt Hardy vs. Shelton Benjamin: They tried to work the match as a fast paced balls to the wall action. And for the most part it worked, from bell to bell there were some awesome reversals of signature maneuvers (including a powerbomb into a turnbuckle) and roll-ups, counter roll-ups. The part that they got hung up on is the fact that they didn’t really tell a story and the middle portion where Shelton was in the advantage doing submissions that really didn’t make sense in the match-up. The story was that this was a competitive match-up but considering the build to Matt Hardy’s title-win, this could have been so much more. The announcers tried to play up Shelton Benjamins athleticism & mean streak combination but it didn’t come out well enough. Overall, it was a fast paced, fun, competitive match-up with a few kinks and a huge lack of substance and significance. ** ¾ There is a taped promo from CM Punk and it’s pretty damn good. I wish they would put more faith in CM Punk and allow him to build his persona through promos along with matches. A good angle can work wonders and has worked wonders for many wrestlers. ECW Championship Match: Mark Henry vs. Tommy Dreamer: God this was terrible. It’s not like I expected much. The whole Colin Delaney as Dreamer’s protégé angle was never seen on PPV before now and I assume this is the last time we’ll see it on PPV. Hopefully they build Mark Henry as a monster heel, so that when somebody actually defeats him it will actually mean something. ½ * Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho: Finally some good shit. Every PPV I look forward to the next chapter in the HBK saga, and here we get the rematch to their excellent match at Judgement day. In terms of match quality, it’s hard not to be disappointed because its impossible not to compare this one to their one a few PPVs back. This match takes a decidedly slower pace, seems to be much less competitive, and overall less jump out of your seat excitement than their earlier match. It’s also quite strange, Shawn randomly works on Jericho’s leg in the early going and nothing comes of it, it's unsure what actually injured Shawn's ribs, whether they were injured during the match or whether it's sustained injury from Judgement Day and One Night Stand or whether it's from being thrown into the Jeritron. Regardless, what this match does excel in is storytelling. It lives and dies on the strength of the build, characters, and emotion that this feud emanates and as long as you are invested in this, in that respect, the match succeeds. The storytelling is really good, from what I understand early on, Shawn sells the ribs and it's a lingering injury but it also keeps Jericho away from the eye. Once the eye does get re-opened by a wild Jericho elbow, Jericho notices, and works the eye until the ref is forced to stop the match. The busted eye is a symbol of Jericho purging Shawn’s lies, the role-model being defeated. Shawn does a great job by never giving up, by showing that he's still the man, pleading to the ref to let him continue. The second half is hard to watch in terms of the blood quotient but the blood is used to convey an important part of the story in the injured eye. The match is a little slower and different from what I expected, but the strength of the storytelling and the characters really helps this match. *** ½ WWE Divas Championship Match: Natalya vs. Michelle McCool: This was bad. The championship looks bad. The chemistry was bad. The wrestling was bad. I don’t even know what I was watching at some points. Probably the best part was that they tried to emphasize the submissions of the two but even the application of the moves weren’t that great. This was firmly filler after the emotionality of the last match. ½ * World Heavyweight Championship Match: CM Punk vs. Batista: Although much slower than the MVP vs Hardy match earlier in the evening, the match had substance. They tried to tell an important story about Punk being an underdog champion that was expertly set up by the video package and the taped promo by Punk that was shown earlier in the evening. This match was basically about Punk trying to prove, against all odds, that he is not a fluke champion. Batista played into this very well especially earlier on, establishing his dominance, trying to show that Punk could easily be taken due to Batista’s sheer strength. The match also showed the mix of styles well, with Batista being a power wrestler and Punk being a quick striker. They slowed it down and both men worked a competent match that meant something. Unfortunately it all came apart with the booking of the end and the booking of the aftermath. The Double DQ ending, Kane interference, and Batista bomb on Punk after the decision, tore down any progress made through the match that established Punk as an actual champion and not just some fluke. The match was 11 minutes and felt much longer, the arm work at the end of the match should have appeared much earlier as it could have established Punk as picking apart Batista, and the dead response to the Anaconda Vice showing how little that move meant and how nobody bought it as a possible ending because it’s never been built up. I still liked the match a lot in that it tried to tell a story. *** ¼ New York City Parking Lot Brawl: John Cena vs. JBL: The matches between these two got worse and worse. The gimmicks in this match made it goofy, the fire gimmick, the crate lift, and the opening car crash. Add to the fact that there was no commentary and no fan noise, probably in order to enhance the sound of the smacks against the car, but it just came out as weird. It’s like watching Jaws without the John Williams score. It was a mix of incredibly goofy and incredibly realistic. The finish looks really bad-ass, John Cena getting irish whipped into the car door looks awesome, but it’s just tainted by the goofy stuff and the goofy acting. They tried to play the goofy stuff totally serious and it just didn’t work. Also I hate how JBL won, I expected it, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it. Overall it’s not quite as bad as some of the other things earlier in the evening because it’s entertaining on some weird level. * ½ WWE Championship Match: Triple H vs. Edge: This match was technically fine and the announce team sold the story of the match very well. It’s just that the story isn’t that interesting. Edge is emotional over the whole Vickie situation that wouldn’t have happened if HHH hadn’t stuck his big nose in. Once Edge sees an opening, he gets his head back into the match and is able to take advantage by working HHH’s midsection. Until Edge’s extra-curricular activities rears its ugly head causing to get unfocused and allowing HHH to win. The problem is that the whole story is on Edge, there’s no real balance between the two competitors. It’s like the HHH/Jericho match at WM 18, where the whole match was more about HHH/Stephanie than HHH/Jericho. So when HHH and Edge are playing it straight, while it’s all technically competent, it’s also rather dull because it’s not what the match was built on. I do like Edge’s story and I like the idea that Edge may have come out on top if he hadn’t been distracted by all these things (that HHH caused in a way). **3/4 Final Thoughts: The show is another in what was a long string of average shows. This show is often very middling. It’s not a long show but it’s also not a fast show either. I particularly liked the Jericho/Shawn match and the Punk/Batista match, but a lot of it is skippable beyond that. 5.5/10 Next up is Summerslam, which is what used to be one of my favorite shows in years past (97-02), but really hasn't done anything for me in recent times (03-present) can it break the curse? Top WWE PPV Matches of 08: 1. Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels (Wrestlemania 24) - **** ¾ 2. Edge vs. Undertaker (Wrestlemania 24) - **** 3. Raw Elimination Chamber (No Way Out 08) - **** 4. Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels (Judgment Day 08) - **** 5. Triple H vs. John Cena (Night of Champions 08) - *** ¾ 6. Shawn Michaels vs. Batista (One Night Stand 08) - *** ¾ 7. Undertaker vs. Edge (Backlash 08) - *** ¾ 8. Randy Orton vs. John Cena vs. HHH vs. JBL (Backlash 08) - *** ¾ 9. Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels (Great American Bash 08) - *** ½ 10. MITB (Wrestlemania 24) - *** ½ 11. Shawn Michaels vs. Batista (Backlash 08) - *** ½ 12. Randy Orton vs. Jeff Hardy (Royal Rumble 08) - *** ½ 13. Edge vs Undertaker (Judgment Day 08) - *** ½ 14. Randy Orton vs. John Cena (No Way Out 08) - *** ¼ 15. Edge vs. Batista (Night of Champions 08) - *** ¼ 16. Cm Punk vs. Batista (Great American Bash 08) - *** ¼ 17. Undertaker vs. Edge (One Night Stand 08) - *** ¼ 18. Randy Orton vs. John Cena vs. Triple H (Wrestlemania 24) - *** ¼

Night of Champions The video package was pretty sweet and actually has got me fired up for match between HHH vs. Cena. The video not only outlined the recent history but it made the upcoming match seem historic and it played into the psychology of both men’s characters. And then the show starts and I hear Shinedown’s “Devour.” Bonus points. Already this show is awesome. WWE Tag Team Championship Match – John Morrison & The Miz v Finlay & Hornswoggle: This was a lot of fun and actually the best choice for an opening match. They worked a tag formula pretty well and with the HOT Tags actually being HOT for once, it is a sign that the wrestlers are doing a good job. MizMo were pretty awesome and kept the match together, and they incorporated the midget into the match very well both offensively and defensively. He played his role fine and it was a much better match than expected (I loved the heels getting on their knees to fight Hornswoggle). There were some awkward portions with many of the transitions from segment to segment, and the ending was blah but it still served its purpose. ** ¾ United States Championship Match – Matt Hardy v Chavo Guerrero: Okay, Chavo officially gets X-Pac heat, when he walks out nobody cares. They’ve completely ruined him and he does things in the ring just to do them. Chavo worked the leg, WHY? I don’t know, just because…ummm…cool? Take a guy who has pretty lackluster matches and put him with a guy who has pretty solid matches and you get an average match. That’s what this was, average. Nothing great, not really bad, just average. Hardy sold the leg really well and it would have put some great heat on Chavo’s boston crabs, if he ever finished anybody with that! Rolling single leg boston crab…ODE to Lance Storm…awesome. And this match ended out of nowhere, like nowhere. No finishing sequence, just Chavo doing random shit, bust out three amigos, and then Matt Hardy says “Fuck it!” and hits the Twist of Fate after the second Three Amigos which I guess would make it technically Dos Amigos. Uhmmm…Fuck it. * ½ How many times can Vince cheat death, this has to be a running gag? This time the set falls apart while he’s giving away money. It’s just too hilarious. Triple Threat Match for the ECW Championship – Kane v Big Show v Mark Henry: I wholly expected this to suck and it did. Adamle compares it to Jurassic Park and the thought of Spielberg directing/booking this match makes me laugh. It’s pretty below average WWE style triple threat. Kane gets injured early on, which certainly doesn’t help the flow of things. They do a lot of stuff, they do some power stand-off stuff with Big Show and Henry, they do the teaming up to take out the third person before turning on each other stuff, and then a shock win at least to me. Although the match, was slow and lumbering, disjointed, and pretty blah, they did catch me with one nearfall (I jumped at Big Show’s chokeslam on Kane also the superplex that Big Show took was neat), especially since I expected Show to win. But to my surprise, Henry won. * Segment with Cena welcoming Batista to Raw was pretty intriguing especially since this is the first time the two will be interacting with each other. They’ve been on separate shows since 05 I think and it’s kind of cool considering they came up at the same time and won the championships the same night (WM21, which I was at live, mind you). CM Punk as much as I like him, doesn’t fit in the scene and looks like a complete tool, when was the last time he had a match at a PPV, I can’t even remember. World Tag Team Championship Match – Cody Rhodes & Hardcore Holly v Ted Dibiase & ?: Not much of a match, more of a segment than anything else really. It probably would have been a great segment if I actually watched the build to this segment and if the WWE treated the Tag Team Championships as something important mind you. But they don’t and I don’t care. Neither Cody or Ted have really proven themselves as wrestlers either. I doubt I’ll see the new champions on PPV again, but regardless, I like the idea of a bunch of a second generation superstars stable. DUD WWE Intercontinental Championship Match – Chris Jericho v Kofi Kingston: So apparently Jericho has turned heel before this match, the announcers and Jericho himself talk about it, and it sounds like a freaking awesome segment and heel turn. I’m going to have to look it up later. Anyways, Jericho is now out to save himself and he’s started with purging Shawn Michaels dastardliness. This match really has nothing to do with that, except to show off Jericho’s new heel persona. Nonetheless, the match is quite good. Remember those early Cena matches against Jericho, this is what that reminded me of. Kofi is a very exciting wrestler, he has a lot of intriguing moves, very athletic, and he’s got great facial expression. But he still has a lot of work to do, for example, Jericho attacked the back for quite a bit during the match yet Kofi barely sold it. Kofi right now is just a flash in the pan, style over substance, and that’s ok…but he needs to get better, otherwise he’s going to end up in the same place with the same reputation as Shelton. Also Jericho brought back the Lion tamer, the real Walls of Jericho, instead of the shitty Boston Crab version, and it looked fucking brutal. The ending was predictable but unexpected if that makes any sense. It only makes sense that Shawn would show up, but Jericho totally sold me that Shawn wasn’t going to be there. So the ending and aftermath totally sold me on this angle, I love it. I can’t wait to see what they do next. *** WWE Women's Championship Match – Mickie James v Katie Lee Burchill: I totally thought this would be a throw-away match but to my amazement Katie Lee can actually wrestle (it’s either that or they edited an extreme amount). Katie Lee really surprised me. They put together a decent little match, Katie worked the arm and busted out a crowbar before Mickie made a comeback. Everybody knew Mickie was going to win and it’s a women’s match, so really nobody cared. But I’m still surprised at how well Katie looked out there. * ¾ World Heavyweight Championship Match – Edge v Batista: I was really down on this match, and it really was ho-hum match. But then they busted out the ending sequence for about 8-10 minutes and it just got hotter and hotter and hotter. Edge really has grown in terms of having good matches in and out. Also a very commendable job done by Foley (who’s done an excellent job for 3-4 PPVs now) and Ross on the announce table, as they really help bring the story of the match forefront. Batista is at his strongest when he’s upright, so Edge tries to keep him down on the mat, when that stops working, Edge goes for the major counters. Then those stop working, Batista gains momentum, and Edge got desperate using all the tricks he could to win the match and beat Batista. It’s a fine match, La Familia, Edge, and especially Vickie are turning into a great heat getters and they really have the crowd in the palm of their hand. It’s missing the uniqueness as really it could have been any face in there with Edge and the match still would have worked, also Edge needs to work out the kinks before the homestretch. But still, this is a surprisingly good match. *** 1/2 WWE Championship Match – Triple H v John Cena: What a match! Although, I wasn’t expecting the best match ever, it certainly had the big match feel that they had hoped for. The crowd also helped bring alive that big match feel by buzzing and exploding throughout it. Triple H and John Cena played into the background of the match perfectly, they’re pretty even in terms of strength, size, and wrestling style (although HHH is much more adaptable), but completely different in terms of experience. Sure there are a few things I had a problem with, the awareness of Cena’s limited moveset rears its ugly head again, along with Cena’s not-so-great selling, also after Cena’s FU, to me it didn’t make sense that Cena couldn’t go for the cover right away. It made sense that Hunter couldn’t go for the cover after his pedigree because his busted knee, but what did Cena injure during the FU or was it that he was tired? I don’t know. The story was great though. They both play mind games early on, playing nice wrestling wise, but attacking the psyche. They both are able to pick apart a body and take advantage of opportunities. They both try and establish dominance throughout the match. They both are smart, and able to avoid the others signature moves. And they are both tough SOBs as they are able to kick out of the other’s signature moves. The play off of the ending of Mania 22 was great with HHH avoiding the STFU at all costs and also able to avoid the 5 Knuckle Shuffle many times. The ending of this match was absolutely phenomenal and breathtaking. Do I think this match is going to go down in the ages like Hogan/Andre, HBK, and Austin’s title win? No, definitely not. But it certainly was a very fun match. *** ¾ Final Thoughts: Another not so great show but the big difference between this show and One Night Stand is that every match here is pretty fresh. While the match quality may be a bit lower, it’s showcasing younger and a lot of new stars. It just felt shorter and not as slow and monotonous, the bad matches were shorter and the better matches got more time. The double main-event is really holding this show afloat and are better than the two best matches at One Night Stand. Still it's not a great show and the WWE seemed to be still going through the transition of the draft and maybe that could be the reason why this was a not so solid PPV. 6.0 Top WWE PPV Matches of 08: 1. Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels (Wrestlemania 24) - **** ¾ 2. Edge vs. Undertaker (Wrestlemania 24) - **** 3. Raw Elimination Chamber (No Way Out 08) - **** 4. Chris Jericho vs. Shawn Michaels (Judgment Day 08) - **** 5. Triple H vs. John Cena (Night of Champions 08) - *** ¾ 6. Shawn Michaels vs. Batista (One Night Stand 08) - *** ¾ 7. Undertaker vs. Edge (Backlash 08) - *** ¾ 8. Randy Orton vs. John Cena vs. HHH vs. JBL (Backlash 08) - *** ¾ 9. MITB (Wrestlemania 24) - *** ½ 10. Shawn Michaels vs. Batista (Backlash 08) - *** ½ 11. Randy Orton vs. Jeff Hardy (Royal Rumble 08) - *** ½ 12. Edge vs. Batista (Night of Champions 08) - *** ½ 13. Edge vs Undertaker (Judgment Day 08) - *** ½ 14. Randy Orton vs. John Cena (No Way Out 08) - *** ¼ 15. Undertaker vs. Edge (One Night Stand 08) - *** ¼ 16. Randy Orton vs. John Cena vs. Triple H (Wrestlemania 24) - *** ¼

So I read Warren Ellis' run on Stormwatch last fall and I figure I check out his run on The Authority. I just finished Warren Ellis' and Bryan Hitch's run on the The Authority which is the first 12 issues or the first volume and half the second volume of the trades. It's really interesting to see early days of the widescreen comic book and Hitch's work before the Ultimates. The art is pretty with lots of details and explosions galore. The writing is the equivalent to a big movie summer blockbuster, heavy on action and light on creative plots and character development. To me, it just feels a too dumb, even when Ellis is trying to be smart by naming one of the villains (which is essentially an alien invasion) God, it just feels blah. The characters don't seem to move, yes the threats get bigger and bigger each arc and they come closer and closer to saving Earth as a whole, but overall the characters stay the same throughout it but honestly, it all moves way too fast and there's no quiet moments that it's so easy. As long as people's brains are being punched, you're all good. It's fun, but I've had funner times reading Ellis' work on Thunderbolts to be honest. 7/10 I'll try and read, Millar and Quietly's run but Millar is hit and miss and last time I read a book with Quietly, on New X-men, I thought his art was borderline hideous. Total: Comic books: 0 Trade paperbacks: 3 1/2 Daredevil by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson Volumes 1 and 2, The Authority Volumes 1 (Relentless) and 2 (Under New Management),