Sunday, May 27, 2012
Finally.....
-As I promised last blog, I would kick off this entry with my live, in person Wrestlemania XXVIII recap! It was a hell of a weekend! I had a pleasant flight down, and thankfully had no flight delays this whole trip. The lifelong wrestling fan in me got a little star struck when I saw wrestlers Michael McGuillicuty and Rowdy Roddy Piper on the same plane as me from MSP to MIA. I met up with my Wrestlemania weekend roommate, Alex on Thursday evening in Miami. Props to him for setting up a majority of the weekend by booking the hotel and being on the ball for getting Wrestlemania tickets as soon as they went on sale. He was also on top of the bus routes and schedules, and if it was not for him I would have ended up spending a ton on taxis.
It was pretty late on Thursday after we met up and grabbed a bite to eat. All we had time to do was catch a flick that night, and we reluctantly went to see 21 Jumpstreet, which actually turned out to be all kinds of badass. I am not terribly huge fans of either Hill or Tatum, but they nailed their roles here, and it was a heck of a lot better than I anticipated. Friday was a bit more relaxed. We had the first part of the day free, so we checked out a pier which had a ton of stores to check out, and we went on a little boat cruise that gave a tour that circled around various islands which were populated by celebrity owned mansions! Got a lot of sun, and it wound being a fun afternoon. We met up with a couple other friends of Alex who we rode with to the Dragon Gate USA show. Like the past several Wrestlemanias, a few other indy shows have been hosting live events in smaller venues in the area, so we definitely capitalized on that. We had third row from ringside seats, and the show had a ton of awesome action from beginning to end. I got to make sure to look for this event on DVD.
On Saturday, it got to start to be a lot of nonstop wrestling. We met up with Alex's friends and drove down to Ft. Lauderdale for a Ring of Honor show. Unfortunately it ended up being a debacle of a show, which was luckily saved by an amazing main event. The show was also being broadcasted live as an Internet PPV, but about halfway through the show the Internet stream went out. We knew this live because about midways through the third or fourth match an official from the back ran out and in the most non-discreet way possible motioned to the ref to stop the match and proceeded to instruct the official to have the wrestlers stall for time. So the two wrestlers were relayed the message and instantly stopped wrestling and started cutting promos on each other for several minutes before finally resuming their match. It was easily the most embarrassing thing I have witnessed of the near 20 wrestling events I have attended , and that includes a giant plastic Surge bottle being used as a weapon in a hardcore match on Nitro. The show proceeded to drag on after that, with most of the matches having cheap finishes, including an out of nowhere rollup finish in a Briscoes/World's Greatest Tag Team match I was anticipating. Almost all was lost until the main event, where Elgin Taylor and Davey Richards delivered one of the greatest matches I have ever seen. Easily would rank in my top 10 ever. I already bought the DVD of this event, and cannot wait to watch that match again.
After the RoH show, there was a dinner meetup with Alex, his two buddies and a few other members who post on a wrestling forum they belong to. It was a great chow down session, and learned a lot on the latest in the indy wrestling scene from these guys. After the grub, it was time for the Hall of Fame ceremony. I loved being at this live, I usually end up watching it months after it is out on video because the version they air on tv is a clipped one hour version of the event that is not worth the time of day. JBL, Ron Simmons, Christian and Edge all gave tremendous speeches and stood out the most. Actually, Mike Tyson was kind of rambling and said a lot of funny, controversial stuff before he abruptly stopped himself and ran offstage. Finally, Wrestlemania Sunday arrived, and we kicked it off by attending Fan Axxess, the annual official WWE fan expo that preceded Mania every year. We got tickets to a four hour session, and there was a lot of stuff to do from checking out museum exhibits, various superstar autographs to get in line for, and there was a ring set up which always had something going on be it trivia or contests for the fans watching, or a live wrestler QnA session, or even matches with wrestlers from FCW and WWE. I got to see indy sensation Tyler Black, who is now wrestling as Seth Rollins in action. Probably the two highlights of Fan Axxess for me was failing to reach the top of the John Cena Wall of Hate rock climb and auditioning for a bit role in WWE Films' upcoming picture, The Marine 3.
After Fan Axxess, we met up with Alex's friends again and rode down to the Sun Life Stadium for Wrestlemania XXVIII! This is only the third time a Wrestlemania has been outdoors, and we lucked out on the weather too, where it was around the low 80s all weekend for highs. I picked up a little headset that was broadcasting commentary for the event, which actually went a long way for adding to the overall experience for me. Undertaker and Triple H stole the show. That match was special from beginning to end, and adding Shawn Michaels to the equation as ref and drawing from his history with both guys made it go a long ways. I had goosebumps throughout the match, and for the last 15 minutesof it the whole arena was on their feet. One guy in particular behind me was especially losing it, at one point he yelled "I can't feel my neck, I can't my feet!" The Rock and John Cena delivered an awesome main event just barely worth the year of hype that went into it, and thank goodness it did not directly follow Taker/HHH, because that would have been impossible.
I was glad I made it down for Wrestlemania. I definitely made the most out of it by catching those two indy shows, as well as the Hall of Fame ceremony and Fan Axxess. I felt I made my pilgrimage as a lifelong wrestling fan. An unfortunate side effect is I missed out on my yearly trip to the Midwest Gaming Classic because of it happening within a week of Wrestlemania, but it was worth it in the long run, and it was nice to have a year off from MGC for one year, because now I can go to it recharged for the following year. If you want to hear even more about my Wrestlemania experience than make sure to download episode 59 of The Cheap Pop where Alex and I have a day by day recap of our weekend!
-Two days after I got back in town from Wrestlemania, it was my 29th birthday. I don't know if it was from all the travelling or what, but I started to come down with what would become a sinus infection this day. I just remember feeling extremely wiped out and not all together this day. I somehow made it through the day, but just remember feeling terrible because my parents and family were going out of their way to make the day special for me by making a cake and Special K bars which I do love, and I just kind of smiled and went along with it. It does feel good though knowing you have a family to be there to make the most out of your day. I never regret taking my birthday off work each year.
-In the latest in television series I am still only keeping up with the latest on The Office and Psych. The Office was pretty good until Katherine Tate's character seems to have become a recurring character on the show. Not a fan of her character on there in the slightest. At least Psych is still on top of their game, we got to see the return of Quarter Black! I am also catching up on the backlog of episodes of Mad Men through Netflix streaming. Only 10 episodes in, but am already loving it. In movies, on the night of my birthday Matt gifted me and we watched the latest straight to DVD WWE film, Bending the Rules, starring Edge and Jamie Kennedy. I expected abysmal, and received....barely tolerable? So I guess that is a win, especially with it being a WWE film. Somehow, someway I had no idea about the existence of American Reunion until a few days before it hit theaters. Absolutely loved it. I grew up with the American Pie flicks (I have not seen the straight to DVD flicks though), so naturally I was nostalgic for this film, and it delivered on all the right notes. I also caught a Jason Seagal, Susan Surandon and Ed Helms indy flick, Jeff Who Lives at Home. Very unorthodox material from Seagal and Helms, but glad I caught it. The last film I caught was The Avengers. For the four or five years they have been hyping this with all the bonus credits scenes from all the Marvel movies, it sure as hell delivered! Every character on the team had their own fair amount of backstory and character development, and action was paced smartly throughout the film , while leading up to the ultimate action sequences in the end. Loved it, loved it loved it from beginning to end. Go see this now!
-In the latest games I have been playing, I have been consuming a lot of Portal 1&2 lately. I told a coworker, Rick how I struggled and gave up about an hour into the game, and he shortly thereafter swung by and helped me out for about an hour of play. He did not outright tell me where to go, but kind of nudged me in the right direction and helped me "get" the finer intricacies of how Portal works. Within a few weeks and play sessions later I finally managed to vanquish that evil puzzler of a game. However when Rick stopped by he also dropped off his copy of Portal 2. I did not ask him this, but he insisted I play it upon finishing the first game. So now I would say I am about six hours in, but at least two hours was spent stuck in one test chamber. I can say I have not consulted a guide yet for Portal 2, (though I did twice in the first game), and am loving my experience with it so far. I am especially digging the greater emphasis on the narrative and presentation, while still retaining its trademark tough puzzles.
On a sad note, my PS3 died. I guess it had a good run, I had it for just over four years before it died, which is far better considering I went through three 360s in the same amount of time. I saved up plasma money for several weeks to get a new one though, and have since been playing a fair amount of Modern Warfare 3 on there with coworker Paul. I suck at the online, but he is pretty awesome at it so I will do my best to ride his coattails just like I did with a bunch of other coworkers in online Black Ops. I also have been playing a bit of Sniper Elite V2 on PS3 in online coop with Scott. Scott and I played through the entire first game in split screen coop when it came out on the Xbox in 2005, and revisited it several more times over the years. It was easily one of our favorite games and we were extremely looking forward to the new one. Only played a few hours of it, but it still retains the same feel as the last game, and I know Scott has had time to play a bunch more than I have and has absolutely been loving it. Finally, I busted out the Vita a few days back and played a ton of Lumines Electronic Symphony and Asphault Injection on it. Asphault is an ok at best arcade racer, but is a nice little time waster on the Vita, and Lumines is Lumines, but looks amazing and plays great on the Vita. Also played a bit of Pinball Arcade on there, which is a direct port of the PSN version, and it works flawlessly on the Vita.
-This is my first blog entry I am typing from my new apartment. I do not turn the keys over to my old place for another few days and wanted to get this blog out before then. I was in my old apartment for eight years and promised myself last year when I renewed the lease this would be my last year in that place. I loved the neighborhood, and had some awesome neighbors over the years, but enough little things started building up with the apartment itself and just the fact that I have been there for eight years and needed a change of scenery definitely helped. My friend Angie pointed out there was a new apartment available in her complex for rent, and they are pretty decent size places for about 25% less of what I was paying per month at my old place so I could not pass that up. I moved in yesterday, and have been busy unpacking all day today, and am about halfway through unpacking. Props to Jim, Paul and Rick who helped me out for most of the move as well as my sister Ann who helped out for a bit and Sean who helped me squeeze, and I mean barely squeezed my couch in through the door. We barely pulled it off!
I started this blog around the same time I moved into my old apartment and have been maintaining it almost regularly for nearly a decade. Much like the Undertaker/Triple H match at Wrestlemania, I think this blog entry is the "End of an Era." So yeah, this will mark my final entry in this blog. Timing just feels right, especially considering this last year or two I have been struggling to manage to update it at least once a month and I prefer the more quick and easy format of Twitter more.
This also coincides with what I have been telling myself to be the "Year of Change." I told myself I want to go big with resolutions this year at the beginning and not have one, but 12 resolutions for 2012 and accomplish them throughout the year in efforts for the ultimate goal to stop being complacent and change myself for the better. I have already taken steps for some of these and accomplished some of them. For example, right at the beginning of the year I got a membership to the gym and have been going at least two to three days a week. I am by no means close to where I want to be, but I already lost 20 pounds and already feel a lot better than I did at the beginning of the year. Another goal I did was to end the gaming podcast. I had a great run on it with Chris, Lyzz, Scott, Matt and plenty other guests since 2006, but much like this blog for the past year or two I just wanted to be done with it and move on. So this blog ending and me moving now marks the latest changes. I can see myself starting an all new blog, website, whatever sometime down the line, but it will most likely be in a different format and venue. Right now, I just want to go out and live and try my best to be a better person. For everyone that has been keeping up with me here over the years, thank you so much for your time and patience of my insanely long, rambling entries! I will no longer blog, but I will still tweet, so feel free to keep up with me on twitter at twitter.com/gruel Audios!
