NXT - The story so far.

Author - MrCraiggy

SPOILERS!! - Some people reading this may not have seen NXT and will not know some of the events I am referencing, and so I post this spoiler warning.

Okay, so, for those of you who know me, you'll know that I am a HUGE wrestling fan. But, to the extent that I actually want to wrestle, and have trained to do so in the past, and do hope to do so again in the future (Watch this space) and so I understand a lot about the business and how it works. This being said, I've always found shows such as WWE's NXT program, and it's previous incarnation "Tough Enough" as a little confusing. I've never understood how much is legitimate reality tv, and how much is already decided beforehand like in other shows such as Raw and Smackdown.

So, the premise for NXT is 8 "Rookies" compete against each other over several weeks, the winner getting themselves a WWE contract (Or with the first season, everyone getting a contract, aside from poor Daniel Bryan). They are accompanied on their journey through this exhibitioning process by a WWE superstar assigned to them as a "Pro" mentor. Now, this is a fun idea, as it allows for bonus interactions between rookie and pro, which can make for some good TV. I refer again to last season with The Miz and Daniel Bryan.

So, this season's rookies are as follows:

Alex Riley - Riley is your classic 'Jock' character. A brilliant college athlete who thinks he's better than everyone else and plays up the bully aspect of his character. Now, Riley is very entertaining in my opinion. He's good both in the ring and on the mic. His character comes over very well and it just plain works... However, that being said, at the moment it just feels like it's a little bit too familiar... Can somebody say "Jack Swagger clone"? I knew you could... I've noticed recently, he's played up the prementioned 'bully' aspect of his character, which draws away from the Swagger similarities, so I'm hopeful for Riley, but I'm not sure he'll make it all the way. Riley's pro is The Miz, the only returning Pro to season 2, and they work very nicely together.

Eli Cottonwood - Well, what can we say about Eli? He's BIG standing at seven feet tall, he is a giant in the ring. So why doesn't this work for him? Well, as far as giant characters go (Like Andre, Big Show, Khali) Eli's tiny! Not in height, oh no, but he's pretty thin for a big guy, and so just doesn't carry that same intimidation factor that other big guys seem to possess... Plus, I dunno, he just moves awkwardly in the ring. Also, his Pro is John Morrison, who I adore as a Superstar! But, again, Eli's going for a sort of sick, twisted, destroy everything in his way gimmick, which just doesn't gel with Morrison's flamboyance and entertainment factor. Not a good pairing, despite Morrison's awesomeness. I expect Eli to be voted off soon.

Husky Harris - This guy is one of my picks to win! I love him right now. I've loved him since the end of season 1 when they showed promo videos of the season 2 rookies. As soon as I saw his promo, I knew I'd like this guy. Husky Harris is what is referred to as a 'Legacy' wrestler, meaning that someone in his family, usually dad or grandad, was a professional wrestler. In Husky's case, both! This makes him a third-generation wrestler, but recently he's taken this down the heel (bad guy) route by trying to, and I quote, "make an impact" by proving he's not his daddy/grandaddy, he's his own man, and he's better. This works excellently with his Pro, Cody Rhodes, who has a very similar angle, also being a Legacy wrestler. Husky's a big guy, weighing 295lbs (That's 21 stone people) he's no lightweight, but DAMN can this guy move! I have a huge amount of respect for him, not being the smallest guy myself. Husky's fast, agile, and jumps like a cruiserweight should, much like myself, so VERY high hopes for him!

Kaval - Kaval is this season's top indie worker (The indie circuits in wrestling basically being the smaller companies that don't get TV time often but have big cult followings) who the WWE are trying to make look rubbish. Last season's being Daniel Bryan (Or Bryan Danielson as he was on the indies). Kaval (Or Low-Ki as you may know him) is a martial arts, striking master in the ring and is, quite frankly, tiny. His motto rings true though: "It's not the size of the fighter, but the size of the fight he will bring." Secretly, I want Kaval to do well, and so does everyone else who has any knowledge of wrestling outside of the WWE, but deep down I feel he's just going to get brushed aside. His pros are the diva team of Laycool. Now, Divas are the title given to the WWE's womens wrestlers. That's right, he's being mentored, by women... The ridicule begins... Don't get me wrong, Laycool entertain me, but no, just no...

Lucky Cannon - Lucky, a very fitting name. He was saved from elimination this past week by winning the rookie challenge and thus gaining immunity from the poll. Now, Lucky's another guy I like. He's the epitomy of the babyface, or 'face' (good guy). Handsome, clean shaven, athletic... He's not had much luck (ironically) in the ring so far though, but has shown some decent in-ring ability. His Pro, Mark Henry, I think is just happy of the extra screen time... Nothing to say here. This Pro/Rookie team doesn't do anything good or bad for me, he's just there...

Michael McGillicutty - A long name, granted, but MMG is our second Legacy rookie this season, and is showing the other side of the legacy coin by dedicating his wrestling and doing it for his dad, the late "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig. I like MMG. Like his dad, he's an excellent in-ringer and can work a mic too... His Pro, Kofi. Well, I like Kofi, but sadly, this is just another throwaway pairing I think. Kofi's huge right now, the fans love him, so I think WWE just put him as a Pro to pull in more viewers. Michael McGillicutty is my second pick to win!

Percy Watson - Oh dear... Remember Erkel? Right, now imagine Erkel but bald, athletically built, and with a slightly less annoying voice. That's Percy Watson. Honestly, I don't know how he's doing so well... Sure, he works well, he's very athletic and pulls off some very nice looking moves, but he prances around like a Night Fever reject and insists on wearing the stupidest glasses and always bearing his teeth in a goofy grin... Seriously, he annoys me, and I hope he's voted of very very soon. His Pro is MVP and, sure, they work well together, but I just can't get excited about this teaming as Percy annoys me so much!!

Finally, there's Titus O'Neil, but I'm not going to say anything about him, because he was the first to be eliminated, and rightly so. He's a former NFL player who thinks he can get by in the wrestling business because he's muscular... No! Stop it! Bad WWE! Tie this in with his stupid pose of sticking his arms up to look like the goals of an american football field and then braying like a horny wilderbeast, this just didn't work... So I'm glad he's off. His pro was Zack Ryder, who again, does nothing for me. He's entertaining-ish, in the sense that he's a good heel (bad guy) who the crowd enjoy watching lose, and can work, plus has some very interesting ring attire, but it just felt like the WWE ran out of mid-carders (a term used for wrestlers who's matches are in the middle of the show, or 'card', often good, but not great, or not great yet) to use as Pros so just slotted him in.

So, that's my first rundown of the current season of WWE's NXT. Finally! A reality show that excites me! But again, is it reality, or is it just a work?

To conclude, Husky Harris or Michael McGillicutty to win!

I hope you've enjoyed this. It's a break from the norm I guess, and I know you're not all wrestling fans out there, but this is something I'm very passionate about and again, for those who know me, you know how I love sharing my passions.



That's Mr Craiggy, signing out for now!

NXT is the property of the WWE and all character gimmicks and everything else, just to be on the safe side, is copyrighted to them. Please don't kill me Vince...

Tannhauser Review!

Author - MrCraiggy

Okay, so, we have a video review, hot off the press. Hopefully this works, as I'm trying out a few new things, like a new host for starters.

Also, for the record, the spinning finger gesture is a 'secret sign' if you will between a few of my friends that essentially means "That's what she said" or is just generally used to point out innuendos. So now you know, and knowing is half the battle... So here we go, again, hoping this works, enjoy myself and my good buddy Jon.



Also, if you can't get the video to work, here's the actual link to the host site: http://www.blip.tv/file/3833360

Also, apparently I, the English student of all people, have spelt 'potential' wrong... Remind me again why I'm taking this degree?!

And you have to watch til after the credits!

Also, apparently if you're using Firefox, the sidebar covers the video, so Jon's been censored out. So, we're gonna break the online trend of pretentiousness of people saying "Use Firefox" by saying use Internet Explorer instead.

Tannhauser is the property of Fantasy Flight Games and all copyrights belong to them.

Siddd

ok i am apparently an online reviewer....with dyslexia so forgive spelling and gramma mistakes please.

in all honesty i have no clue what is going on so i shall randomly be posting vids when craig gets back to the woo and we can met with Dave to start this shiz.

games, manga, anime, places and films...esspecially films :D

(MrCraiggy would like to point out he neither endorses the use of the nickname Siddd with the triple d - as he much prefers Sidders - nor does he endorse the use of "The Woo" when referring to Worcester...)

('The Dave' would also like to point out the irony that it takes someone from outside Worcester to mention, to not use obscure slang about our great city....brilliant thanks MrCraiggy youve done us justice :D )

Three Guys Video Test

Author - MrCraiggy

Okay! So, we have video!!

Admittedly, it's Youtube, which was not my first choice sadly. Not gonna lie, Youtube are good at what they do, but I wanted to play around with shiny new software... There were however audio issues, so for now, it's Youtube. In the future, hopefully we'll be able to provide better quality videos independantly hosted elsewhere, but for now, thank you Youtube!

And yes, I said follow up, as Punisher: War Zone is not a sequel...

Zombie. Zombie. Zombie. Zombie Nation....

Author - MrCraiggy

No, no, not the song... The game! (Sorry to all people who follow this global trend)

Zombies!!! (Yes, the exclamation marks are a part of the title) is a board game by a company called Twilight Creations.



And this is quite possibly the most fun someone can have with up to six people... I mean, what else could six people in a room, all alone possibly think of to occupy themselves other than a board game? (Clean your minds!)

The objective of Zombies!!! is to escape a city that is infested with the walking dead. To do this, the player must be the first to reach the centre of the helipad play tile. Now, to put this in to a little perspective for you, the board starts out with just one tile, the town square. All players start in the centre square of this tile and each turn, the player draws a tile from the deck and places it as they see fit, also placing a number of zombies and tokens on the tile too. Some tiles are just simple bits of the city, but some are specialist locations such as the police station or shopping mall and as such have more zombies to contend with. The player then rolls for their own movement, moves and then at the end of their turn, they roll a dice to see how many zombies they get to move and effectively send after the other players, insert evil laughter here...

Now, here's where the play gets fun; each player has three special 'event' cards which they can play one per cycle of turns. These can range from anything such as "Hey look, a shotgun" which adds to their combat rolls against zombies, to the very annoying "Bad sense of direction" card which returns a target player right back to the starting square...

As you can guess, this game can get very, and I mean very competitive, with arguements and backstabbings aplenty, so be sure of your security in your friendships before playing with this game, or just play with people who annoy the hell out of you in the first place, just so you can get some revenge.

Twilight Creations have also produced expansions to Zombies, providing different locations. Some of which include a circus, a high school, a military base and a prison. Each of these expansions provide new event cards and new map tiles to add to your game, some of them even provide new zombie models, like the circus expansion having clown zombies. They have also released a sister game called Humans!!! where players take on the role of the zombies and chase after the humans. The fun thing here is that both games are designed to work together, some players playing humans, some playing zombies and chaos following along not far behind. There is another game also by Twilight Creations which involves martians, but I have only seen the box and have never really paid much attention to it as I imagine it'll be more of the same.

All in all, the Zombies!!! franchise, including Humans!!! is an excellent concept and provides hours of fun and often frustration, but if you're willing and able to put the time in to this game, I promise you shall not be disappointed!

MrCraiggy out.

Twilight Creations can be found at: http://www.twilightcreationsinc.com

Uploading 'The Dave'

Hi guys, basically due to various constraints we cant yet release the reviews in store. Instead im here to tell you that despite this I will keep you updated with some information. So still keep tuned, for now however I have something to get your jaws into, which thankfully involves no 'jaws' films what-so-ever.

Firstly let me talk about some things I wish to share with you, im one of these who has recently been transported into the wild wastes known as manga and anime. A crazy world of crazy haircuts and ambiguously aged girls in revealing clothing, there are those that I personally feel have artistic flair, unique quality or abit of both. And if theres one I will advise for those who enjoy a laugh on multiple levels it would be The Legend Of Koizumi. So what is this all about and why do I need to look out for it? theres no real easy way to describe this other than its a fast paced, fun poking manga/anime machine which parodies Japanese culture, various politics and polaticians and just as funny seems to light-heartedly parody the very genre that it stands in.

In short it makes fun of both itself and politics, Koizumi is the main protagonist and throughout he's depicted as an over the top paragon/hero to his people, Junichiro Koizumi was in fact the 89th prime minister of Japan and was an extremely respected and loved politician and his wavy grey hair has become an icon of his.... (im being deadly serious) hell! he even picked up the nickname 'lion heart' due to his hair and fierce spirit, along with 'Maverick' due to him shaking things up. So it is no surprise that this anime/manga has taken a satrical heroic approach to his under-lineing character, free with matching mane. (Expect a brand of Koizumi, pump action actionman dolls)

I mean who needs G.I Joe when you can have a man this great! In the manga series it developes a little bit more than the anime which dives straight into the action. The thing about this anime/manga is that everything is sorted via the game Mahjong in the manga the main protagonist saves the clumsy Taizo twice, so you can imagine how often these strange and weird battles take place. If you have noticed I have said battles as opposed to Mahjong games you would have noticed right, because these games feel like battles and are played out in an epically over the top scale. I maybe reading into it too much but it has an atmosphere that makes me think that its putting its middle finger up at anime shows like 'Yu Gi Oh' by making comical statements about how ridiculously over the top these shows based on card games etc... are, I would even go so far to say that it is laughing at the very manga/anime genre... the over the top caricatures of the politicians the relentless fast pace and surreal situations, its allmost jarring if it wasn't for its style, comedy and flair.

In the manga Koizumi often makes jokes about how Japan deal with politics via anyway possible (cheating or not) and makes a few statements. This series isn't however for everyone, its not to be taken seriously and it is making light-hearted jokes on a political level, however it is a unique and obscure series which is one of few which strives to be different.

So heres a link to the first episode...so enjoy and thanks again for reading and hopefully in a month or so time you will have fully fledged videos to watch.

Thanks from, 'The Dave'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIO4Uw36-JE

Affiliate Ahoy!!

Author - MrCraiggy

Okay, so a friend of mine from university also has a site that you should all go and check out!!

It's at http://jameseagle.wordpress.com/ so head on over and say hi on behalf of us all here at Three Guys.

Also, this link has been put on the Three Guys profile so you can always find it at a later date.

In the immortal words of Vash the Stampede: "Love and peace!"

-MrCraiggy.