LIVE Raw thoughts - October 28, 2013

11:06 - Personally, I could do without Orton vs. Big Show, but it could be worse, I suppose.  Hoping this doesn't mean that Daniel Bryan is completely out of the main event title picture.

10:59 - Good to see we're back to emasculating the entire roster.

10:54 - Oh, of course, there's Vince McMahon too.

10:47 - So, presumably, Randy will move onto a new challenger here.  And that person should crash the celebration here.  The obvious person -- and this saddens and disappoints me -- is Big Show.  I would just LOVE for them to throw somebody new in the mix, though.  It doesn't even have to be somebody catastrophic, like Ziggler.  Even throw in somebody like Mysterio here.  Something unexpected.

10:41 - Wait, Natalya can't even come out to her own theme music?  By the way, kinda crazy that they've built up the divisions enough that we have numerous Divas and tag team matches in a given night.

10:26 - Wow, really shocked to see the Real Americans win it.  Disappointed, actually.  They have enough tag teams right now that they didn't need to sacrifice the champions here.  Why not let the Real Americans get a series of convincing wins?  Goldust and Cody have been on such a roll that this was a waste of a loss.

10:25 - Some really odd and awkward camera angles for Goldust's hot tag segment.

10:15 - Wondering if it would have been smarter to hold off the Kane "heel" turn for after Survivor Series.  A Punk/Bryan/Kane triad against the Wyatts would have been a sensible match.  Plus, it would be a fun little throw back to their 3 way feud over AJ (and the WWE Championship) last year.  Who stands in, with Kane out of the picture?  I can't imagine the Miz does, considering his treatment earlier in the match.  Who else has been victimized by the Wyatts?  Kofi?  He hasn't been treated much better.

10:08 - Intrigued by this Wyatt story.  And the fact that it now brings CM Punk and Daniel Bryan into the same universe.

10:01 - I'm guessing Punk wins this and Ryback is written off of TV for a little bit.  By the way, gotta love these Internet rumors that Ryback is in the doghouse.  Just AFTER the rumors that they're planning to bring in Goldberg JUST to fight Ryback.  Or that Ryback is a possible Undertaker opponent.

9:51 - Still hate the sideburns.  Bring back the beard.

9:42 - Hmmmm, odd segment.  Not quite sure what to make of it.  Is this a ruse?  Was Kane removing the mask symbolic of his submission, or is he actually keeping it off?  Personally, I prefer the mask.  I guess we'll see.

9:37 - I am proud to say that I have said from the beginning that Miz should not be a face.  The guy just doesn't work in that role.  Turn him heel, pronto.

9:28 - AJ has so many great little touches to her character that 90% of the roster misses out on.

9:26 - Love that AJ is still Divas Champion.  Mildly shocked that she's being portrayed as the heel in a feud with the Bellas.  I mean, really?

9:14 - Are these teams REALLY fighting again?  Haven't these two teams fought every single week since Los Matadores debuted?

9:11 - I'm confused, why could Renee Young see the Wyatts but Daniel Bryan couldn't?  And why wouldn't she, ya' know, give him a heads up?

9:05 - The fact that the fans were willing to cheer for Daniel Bryan over Shawn Michaels speaks volumes.  Give this man the title!

9:03 - WWE is certainly not making it easy for Daniel Bryan.  Putting him up against traditionally popular and established personalities without having them act like explicit heels.

8:44 - Sometimes this Teddy Long cliche tag match thing annoys me.  Why not just do a six man tag from the get-go?  Does handling it this way add to or advance the stories in any way?

8:40 - Not sure I would end Ambrose's US title reign while the Intercontinental Championship is waiting in the wings.

8:32 - Personally, I'm glad Cena won.  Yes, WWE needs to create new stars -- and they should -- but the World Heavyweight Championship can get some real rehabilitation with Cena as champion for a couple of months.  And then when Sandow does win that title -- if he does -- it'll mean more than if he does right now.  Sandow gave a great performance and IF they continue to treat him well and push him strong after this loss, he'll be fine.  But like anything else, it's how you're treated after a loss that'll really determine how well you do.

8:17 - Odd choice to go to a commercial break here.  REALLY halts the momentum of the segment.  People want to see if Sandow will make short work of Cena.  To know he'll last four minutes (or will get a four minute break) hurts the drama.

8:14 - Still think Sandow fails here.

8:08 - Why is John Cena talking like this?

8:03 - Remember when a Hell in a Cell match was the climax of a violent feud and not the prelude to a Street Fight or some other stupid match?

7:45 - My LIVE Raw thoughts are back!  The show begins in about 15 minutes....do you think it will be strong enough to win over those who were turned off by the booking of last night's PPV?  Essentially, they're back with the established "old guard" of Orton and Cena on top, with Daniel Bryan failing to bring home the championship.

Somebody on Twitter (I believe) brought up the good point that if the money is in the chase, people who have been waiting to see Daniel Bryan as the WWE Champion will now have spent upwards of $160 (PPV is now $40, correct?  And that's SummerSlam, Night of Champions, Payback, and Hell in a Cell).  Assuming he gets one "last" shot (for storyline purposes) at Survivor Series, that's now $200.  If you said to the average fan -- no matter how avid he might be -- "Would you pay $200 to see Daniel Bryan as the WWE Champion," they'd probably say "no."  To say "the money is in the chase" is overly simplistic.  More accurately, the money is in the PAYOFF of the chase.  Without that payoff, your paying audience just feel duped and annoyed.

Honestly, I think Daniel Bryan has been handled a bit better than most people have claimed.  He's come out on top more often than not the past few weeks.  And he's always put over strong in matches and in commentary.  But the end HAS to be with Bryan as WWE Champion.  Otherwise this thing is a bust.

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It's (sorta) Halloween Weekend!!

It's always awkward when Halloween falls in the middle of the week.  Do you celebrate the weekend before, or the weekend after?  On a Friday, or on a Saturday?  Well, my local pub has decided that tonight is the night.  So I'm about to get ready, and while I won't explicitly state what I'm going to be (just check out the altered banner), I will encourage you to check out my photos from prior years.  Still love Cap'n Crunch and Colonel Sanders...

http://s653.photobucket.com/albums/uu256/acaseoftheblog/Halloween%20costumes/

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The Case of This Blog

As you might have noticed, my blog activity has been rather lackluster lately.  And that's a bad thing, since this is typically my "active" season.  Do not fret, I'm not shutting down the blog -- I love this thing!  And I'm quite pleased with the amount of visitors that come check out my posts.  But I am going to take a little break from my television reviews.  That means that I won't formally be doing my Vampire Diaries recaps this season, although I may occasionally write about the show when I feel motivated.

And that's really the reason why I'm taking the break from the recaps.  They started to feel like an obligation instead of an outlet.  And since I was just doing those reviews for fun, it seemed a bit backwards to continue doing them under those conditions.  And so I'll continue updating the blog -- because that continues to be fun.

So what can you expect?  My frequent LIVE Raw thoughts.  And a Breaking Bad piece I've been imagining since the finale.  So keep checking, some great stuff is coming!

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Welcome to the world!

I know my blog activity has been sorta sparse lately (but I do have a lot planned), however I do have some exciting news.  As you may have noticed on my banner, there's a new birthstone graphic -- which means....there's a new addition to my family!  That's right, at about 3:00 in the morning, my sister gave birth to a girl (her third child, second daughter, and my third niece).  So please welcome to the world little Avery.

It's kinda funny, actually.  We all thought it would be a boy, and I was so convinced that I was actually a little shocked when I received the text from my mom in the middle of the night.  But hey, my other two nieces are beautiful so no complaints here.  And just like my first niece (Avery's cousin), she's got LOTS of hair!

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Your money, please....

If you recall, last year I took a page out of WWE's (and the NFL's) book by wearing pink every single day for the month of October.  This year, I'm going to try to do something a little more substantial.  As such, I will be participating in the Making Strides Against Cancer 5K walk on Sunday, October 20th.  I'd certainly like to raise as much money as possible -- as I'm sure ALL of us have been impacted in some way by this terrible disease.  If you are able to, please consider making a donation to my page.  Thank you in advance:

http://main.acsevents.org/goto/mattbasilo

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LIVE Raw thoughts - October 7, 2013

11:02 - You know, I would complain that Big Show -- and not Daniel Bryan -- got the big physical attack on Triple H.....but honestly, I'm just thrilled we didn't see the SAME EXACT STORY with Big Show turning heel to save his job after being fired that we saw last year.  My one qualm, though:  Should Bryan be at least a little upset with the Big Show for costing him the title last night?

10:56 - Which person gets the hot tag is another indicator of who the powers that be see as the big star.

10:45 - To the skeptics who think that this storyline has made Cody Rhodes and not Daniel Bryan, please consider the order in which the competitors came out tonight.  The person who comes out last is still very significant (as is the person who comes first, in multi-person matches).  Bryan is still the leader of this pack.

10:32 - I somewhat suspect that we see a Miz heel turn tonight.  Or at least the beginning of one.

10:29 - (a) I am already tired of Santino's routine, (b) why are they not doing more with Cesaro?

10:17 - Ha, got a kick out of the Hulk Hogan/Wrecking Ball reference.

10:04 - I can't say I expected that.  And I can't say that most people will be happy about it.  Personally, I'm pleased with anything that will bring some attention and prestige to the World Heavyweight Championship, which has been a massive afterthought for over two years now.  And hey, Cena in the World Heavyweight Championship scene means he's NOT in the WWE Championship scene.  And that's a plus for Daniel Bryan.

10:01 - A little birdie told me that the next challenger for Alberto Del Rio's World Heavyweight Championship will be VERY surprising.  Who are you expecting?

9:51 - Yeah, so I think we know who's going to win this vote...

9:41 - Speaking of Kofi, I'm trying to figure out the inspiration to his tights.  Does anybody know?

9:39 - Really, REALLY wish they would do something with Kofi Kingston too.

9:28 - Well that made me LOL.  We're about to see Orton vs. Kofi, and they just cut to a clip of Orton, standing in the ring, calling another wrestler's actions "stupid."

9:24 - Bob Backlund?  Well that's a waste of a vote.  I think the third option may be Flair, if he's on good terms with WWE right now.

9:03 - Lots of "bitch," "balls," and "ass" references tonight.

9:01 - I really just want Punk to grow the full beard in.  Why does he insist upon keeping the part of his facial hair that comes in patchy?

8:57 - So what are the other two possibilities for the ref matches?  Dusty Rhodes?  Ricky Steamboat?  Edge?  Bret Hart?  Jerry Lawler?

8:43 - How is Booker T a "great choice"?  The guy urged Big Show to do what Triple H told him -- no matter how immoral it may be -- in order to secure his job.

8:40 - Wait, did JoJo not even get in the ring?

8:37 - I could see myself having a crush on JoJo.  I'd actually like to see her and AJ up against each other.

8:29 - Speaking of guys that I may have been wrong about -- Dolph Ziggler.  This guy absolutely deserves to be in the World Title picture.  Personally speaking, Alberto Del Rio bores me to tears, and Dolph was an exciting new character in the main event scene.  Get him back in there!

And what, is Stephanie going to emasculate somebody in every segment?

8:10 - Fine enough opener, if only because it advances the Big Show story beyond the point that he's a whimpering baby.  And it solidifies the story that the McMahons ARE actively out to get Daniel Bryan.

Speaking of Daniel Bryan, I think we're all in agreement that he MUST win the WWE Championship at Hell in a Cell.  And he needs to hold onto it.  WWE has dropped the ball on several pushes in recent years, and sometimes I'm right about things ultimately being okay for the individual (like with CM Punk) and sometimes I'm wrong about things ultimately being okay for the individual (like with Zack Ryder).  I had always assumed/imagined that this storyline was to make Daniel Bryan a star. Now people are talking and acting like the end result is Randy Orton with the WWE Championship and moving onto CM Punk.  Yes, Bryan would still be a star....but he wouldn't be THE star.  And they have the chance to make Bryan THE star.  I really hope that when this story ends, Bryan is the one with the gold.  That's how it NEEDS to end.  Otherwise, I've been pretty okay with how he's been handled.

8:02 - At the rate that she's selling WWE stock, how much longer will Stephanie McMahon be a principle owner of WWE?

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Summer of Excitement: Inter-Office Softball Tournament - [a case of the summer]

Yeah, yeah, I know.  Summer has been officially over for a couple of weeks (and symbolically over for even longer), but I'm FINALLY getting around to editing and posting this final Summer of Excitement video!  The unhappy ending (SPOILER ALERT!) made it a bit more difficult to get motivated.  So, enjoy!



Oh, but the REAL fun happened after the softball tournament.  I went to Rutgers to meet up with some friends who had gone to the blackout game.  We had a great time hanging out at our old stomping bar ground (the group of friends that made it are now spread out across three states, so it's nice to finally get together).  We crashed at a hotel and then the following morning we went to the campus we had spent our first couple of years at.  Our campus had always been the red headed step child of the the Rutgers family, and now it's BEAUTIFUL!  They have a Starbucks!  A movie theater!  A Qdoba!  A beautiful dining hall!  With an ice cream bar!!!  Where the hell was this place when we were in college?!?!?

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