Fan Art Monday – Lil Dragon
These latest images come from friend, BLACK HAT. You may remember his WAR OF THE ANGELS storyline that ran a year and a half over on the forums. A good afternoon read. 🙂
The Rival Angels Kickstarter for the second half of Season 2Â is FUNDED with 113% of goal! That is freaking amazing!! Thanks to everyone who has supported the new book.
Season 2, Book 2 will collect the last 9 Chapters of season 2, clocking in around 240 full color pages. I’m super thrilled with the progress and not only hope that we’ll hit goal, but some of those Stretch Goals. Whether you want to get the latest book for your collection, or this is your first plunge into Rival Angels merch, take a look! You just might find something for you. Last time we hit 200% of goal!
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Wrestlemania
I feel it was as good as Batman vs. Superman. The pre-show wasn’t bad at all. The rest of the show…I think I picked every single match wrong and outside of the first match, there wasn’t a whole lot to get excited about. Well, not true. The women’s triple threat match was Match of the Night. The IC Ladder match was outstanding. And….well, NXT Takeover was excellent. XD
WrestleMania was, I feel, the best they could do with the talent not injured.
The IC Ladder Match was incredible, and I was actually pleasantly shocked to see Zack Ryder get the win. The last minute replacement going on to win it. Who knows what the future holds for him? (Also, Cody/Stardust’s tribute to his dad was awesome).
Jericho vs Styles… it was the match we all expected from two performers of their caliber and I wasn’t disappointed.
Loved the New Day coming out of the box of Booty-Os as Saiyan Warriors. It made my inner nerd squee.
Lesnar vs Ambrose… I was kind of disappointed, but it was inevitable. Funny part is, I think the fact that Dean Ambrose is going to walk in on Raw and say “Still standing. Guess he wasn’t that bad.” And the crowd will love it (Me included)
I’m glad to see that they’re trying to do away with the whole “Diva” mentality, and replaced that belt that looked like an accessory for “WWE Barbie”. Each of those gals gave us everything out there, Ric Flair had to get involved somehow… but I think that’s because it was actually better for the story as opposed to Charlotte needing him for a crutch now.
Undertaker vs Shane…. I’m just going to have to channel my inner Joey Styles. “OH MY GOD!!!”
a BIG main roster debut for Baron Corbin. Here’s hoping he can run with it.
Don’t give a damn what anyone says, it was good to see John Cena looking as in shape as he was.
The Main Event… I could go on forever about how spoiled Smarks are a huge pain in my ass, but I won’t. I’m just gonna say that I am not going to hate a guy just because “They want us to like him, so I’m going to boo him just to go against the grain.” I mean, I won’t say Reigns is the greatest guy to step between the ropes, he’s got stuff he has to work on. But I’m not going to hate the guy just because he’s not the Smark choice.
I didn’t think it was a strong Wrestlemania. A lot of that was hurt talent, but it’s my opinion that they have the talent to step up, like Ryder and even Corbin. Cody’s tributes were very nice and for some reason, were also a tell that he wasn’t going to win.
The Rock burying the Wyatts hurt more than HBK, Mick and Stone Cold taking out the LoN and New Day. I marked out a little bit when the Wyatts showed up and then I came to my senses, following where that was going to lead. Wyatt’s don’t do well on PPV, but against Rock/Cena? 6 seconds was fast, even for them.
When I saw Cena, I was shocked at how small his neck looked. Definitely not criticizing. And I like Cena. The only time I didn’t was that one time he fought Jericho and was surrounded with an army of kids.
The 10-woman tag match had some bright spots. Depending on what Brie is going to do, I felt that might dictate the story of the match, considering that Lana has been harassing her of late. I love when Summer and Foxy face off…Legs vs Legs! Though, it was a head scratcher that they were so similarly attired. I mean, change it up a BIT. Which made Lana’s outfit that much more appealing, it looked like nothing else in there.
The Network was a big laggy and twice, matches stuttered and skipped to the end. This happened with the Dudley’s vs Uso’s and the Battle Royal. In both cases, I did not feel cheated. Shaq? meh.
Jericho beating AJ was a huge surprise for me. Not unhappy with it, just big surprise.
As for the Main Event, there were some fundamental problems. Stephanie coming out looking like Tina Turner in Thunderdome isn’t a problem. She’s quite over as a heel. Triple H forever needs to be the ‘cool’ heel, at least in the ring. Cowering, running, etc., helps sells this but he won’t. Then you have Roman, which I did understand the fans rejection of him next to Daniel Bryan. Vince was so blatantly anti-Bryan, and so pro-Roman despite the fans choosing Bryan a long time ago was just obnoxious. Today though, I think Roman is fine. He’s doing all the right Face things, when he’s not saying stupid things in interviews like he wrestles for the kids and families in the crowd, not the 30 years olds, or that he doesn’t listen to criticism from people who don’t know how to do a collar and elbow, and if they did, would they know what to do next. I digress. I’m not sure what the smarks problem with Reigns is, at least why they think he’s a worse choice then Triple H being the champ. I like Triple H in small doses because invariably, he can’t help thinking that the world revolves around him.
The Ladder Match was pretty epic and I’m pleased with Ryder, probably the best bright spot, for me, of the night. Bump cards were punched that match. The Ladies Triple Threat to me, was Match of the Night. Not how I would’ve booked it but meh.
Yeah, I don’t think the WWE knows what to do with the Wyatts, especially now with Harper falling victim to the injury curse and rumors of them going light on ring work or Bray because he’s been having back issues. Was cool to see Rowan’s new horned sheep mask, and brilliant nod to Texas Chainsaw Massacre, though honestly, I think it would have fit more with Finn Balor on Friday. That way the reference would have been a bit more clear, and he wouldn’t have just looked like a crazy demon swinging a chainsaw around.
But I digress, I saw a big thing about how earlier this week, the Wyatts were on Wall Street, ringing the opening bell. On one hand, I get it. They’re not really these backwoods cult people, those are just characters. But on the other, have they really killed kayfabe to this level? The most “Down with the system” gimmick in the WWE today is ringing the opening bell on Wall Street?
Stop dragon my heart around!
Heh, nice.
Very nice…
Very cool 😀
End of the weekend it is clear…
NXT Takeover > Wrestlemania
not a BAD mania… but not a great one either… first half way better than second half.
While Reigns and Triple H was not bad and everyone knew the ending… they took so much time on unnecessary filler that by the time we got there i was falling asleep and not interested…
They could have cut like 2 hours of useless filler, seriously…
And nothing better than keep making a Heel group scary by having them lose in 6 seconds…
It was a horrible Mania. I want my Sunday back.
Good things:
Women’s (bloody right) Title Match. MotN, even if the heel winning was odd. Some clever wag pointed out how the new women’s title was won with the aid of a man.
The ladder match: It was a decent spotfest as spotfests go. Owens’ heeling was great, his segments with Zayn were highlights, and Ryder winning was surprising, but not in a bad way. Ziggler was annoying.
Kalisto vs Ryback. I was largely uninterested in this match going in, but it was surprisingly fun. Ryback works well as a bully heel, and Kalisto hit all his spots clean.
New Day’s entrance. Hilarious.
The Bad:
Total Divas (can that word die now?) match. There were elements that were passable, (Emma/Paige segments, Naomi was bumping her arse off, and that transition Brie did to win the match was the best bit of wrestling she’s ever done,) but mostly this was a bit of a mess.
Usos vs Dudleys: So the whole rationale for the Dudz’ heel turn was “screw the fans, we aren’t your trained monkeys” in response to we want tables chants, but they go and get tables, then get put through them, even though the crowd wanted it the other way around.
Jericho vs Styles: Jericho was working this at three-quarter speed, and taking too much of the match. Him going over was baffling.
LON going over New Day made no sense…until the old blokes came out. HBK in his gear while Foley and Austin were dressing casually was hilarious. Otherwise this was terrible.
Brock vs Ambrose: What was the point of this match? It did nothing to get Dean over in losing, and Brock still looks unbeatable. I suppose Brock/Reigns II is in the cards.
Shane vs Taker: So, if the setup for this match was correct, Shane now forfeits the “lockbox” and everything is over and done with. Which will not be the case because of course it won’t. God I hate this company sometimes.
HHH vs Reigns: 5 hours into the show, Stephanie comes out dressed like the Queen of Bartertown and cuts a promo on…us. The audience. Who paid for this shite. (Well, I paid for NXT, this just came with it, but I can’t help feel implicated nonetheless,) and it was mostly pointless. I say mostly because the one thing Roman did that got a positive reaction was to spear Stephanie. The rest of it was more of a match featuring Kevin Dunn against the audience’s chanting. The rematch on Raw tonight will undoubtedly be a sight.
I agree that the Women’s title was the best match. It was really good.
New Day’s entrance was good, I felt the match was a bit lackluster.
Reigns/HHH was by the numbers but competent imho.
I thought Jericho/Styles was pretty decent but doesn’t seem to lead anywhere now that it’s over.
‘Total Divas’; I ‘Totally don’t Care’ when Emma and Paige weren’t in the ring. Who won?