Author Archives: ryanfoges
Red Sox ALDS Game 1 Recap: Everything Is On Fire
If you want to know how the Red Sox fared against the Houston Astros in game 1 of the ALDS yesterday afternoon, here’s the second batter of the game, Eduardo Nunez:
https://twitter.com/tlott33/status/916034353012072449
Things somehow got worse from there, as Chris Sale continued his mediocre/bad second half by giving up 7 runs in 5 innings including three home runs. Heading into this series it was clear Sale was going to be the game 1 starter, but he continues to look worn down. Former big league pitcher Jim Kaat was the analyst for yesterday’s game alongside the human asshole Bob Costas, and as much I hate to hear analysts say bad things about teams I love, his analysis was spot on. Sale looked like he had a dead arm, and almost every slider he threw had no snap to it, so he was forced to try and drag it across the plate. Sale can still throw 95-98 mph with his fastball, but he’s not going to beat a lineup as good as Houston’s without an effective slider. If this series goes 5 I have to imagine Sale pitches again, but after all the innings he’s already thrown this year, he’s no longer someone to rely on.
The Red Sox offense, which was eaten up by the Indians pitching staff last year, had another ineffective postseason game. Their base running woes, which have plagued them all season, came back to haunt them in the 2nd inning. With the Sox down 2-0 in the top of the 2nd, Sandy Leon singled to shallow right center field. Mitch Moreland was scoring easily from second, but Dustin Pedroia inexplicably tried to go 1st-3rd and was thrown out by 20 feet. Luckily Moreland was hustling and scored before Pedroia was out at 3rd, but it was a beyond stupid base running play that ended the inning. Verlander, who has always owned the Red Sox, cruised through the rest of the game and helped the Astros take a 1-0 series lead.
That’s the bad news. The good news? Game 2 is only a few hours away, and while Dallas Keuchel is no walk in the park, I’ll take him 7 days a week over Verlander. Plus, Drew Pomeranz is on the hill for the Sox, and he just threw 6 innings of 3 hit, 1 run ball against the Astros last Saturday. The Red Sox need to get going early, and give Pomeranz a lead to work with. As good as the Sox have played at Fenway this year, there’s no way they can head into Sunday down 0-2.
-Ryan
Trailer Alert: Spielberg
HBO’s documentary wing consistently pushes out the year’s best documentaries, and judging by the trailer for Spielberg, which premieres Saturday night, their latest effort will be no different. Spielberg started directing in the late 60s and has turned into one of the most notable and influential filmmakers of all time. There isn’t much I can say about him that isn’t already known, so my advice would be to plop down on your couch Saturday and watch this doc.
-Ryan
WWE RAW Review (10/2/17): S.H.I.E.L.D.
Welcome back to Ryan’s Raw Review, the only Raw write up on the internet that embraces alliteration. This week’s show was live from Denver, Colorado and opened up with a moment of silence for all the victims of the Las Vegas terror attack. Sunday’s horrific incident marked the 273rd instance of a mass shooting in the USA just this year, and it’s hard to remember a time when there was more division in this country. Wrestling is obviously not the answer to all our nation’s problems, but I’m especially glad it exists on day’s like yesterday, when you could take a break from the chaos and enjoy the ridiculousness that is the WWE. And hey, it was a great show!
Average Nobodies note: make sure to follow us on Twitter – @averagenobodies and like us on Facebook – Facebook.com/AverageNobodies. We love talking pro wrestling, so you can comment on this post or reach out to us on social media if you want to join the discussion. You can also find all of our wrestling content by clicking the ‘wrestling’ tab under the banner on our home page.
And now, the Raw Review for October 2, 2017.
Booking Like It’s 1997
From a storyline perspective, this might’ve been one of the best Raw’s of the year. Over at With Spandex, Brandon Stroud is doing the lord’s work with his vintage best and worst of Raw reviews, and he’s currently reviewing late September Raw’s from 1997. This is the era of WWE (then WWF) where Stone Cold turned into a cult hero, The Rock finally turned heel, Shawn Michaels and HHH formed DX and Bret Hart was a Canadian folk hero. It was an amazing time for pro wrestling, and one of the best parts of those shows were that storylines intersected and things that happened earlier in the show tied into what was happening later. Fast forward 20 years and a few weeks and you have last night’s show, which beautifully tied together three segments and brought back one of the best factions of all time.
The show kicked off with Braun Strowman vs. Seth Rollins, and it was a great match without giving too much away. Rollins/Strowman is a money matchup, so I’m glad they gave us just enough to keep us wanting more. I’m also glad Strowman went over clean, and if you ever doubted Strowman’s ability to recover from shitty booking, look at him last night versus after No Mercy. He’s such a unique guy that all it takes are a few good matches against guys who aren’t afraid to let him throw them around and he’s back to being the beautiful, unpredictable, violent monster that we all love.
The story they told was great too, as Rollins pulled out almost all the moves in his arsenal just to weaken Braun, but Strowman ended up being too strong and reversed Rollins’ dance move knee into a vicious clothesline. One power slam later and Braun was victorious, but because he’s a violent monster he went back for more and slammed Rollins again. That brought out Dean Ambrose to defend his fallen partner, and he got predictably squashed. Before Braun can even get to the back The Bar came out like a couple of vultures and hit a Neutralizer and Brogue Kick for good measure. All of this happened in 15 minutes. Braun Strowman is a monster again, the tag champs showed they actually care about each other and the #1 contenders for the tag belts showed why they’re big time jerks.
Later in the show Roman Reigns took on The Miz for the IC title and it was another really good match, because The Miz is the best and whether you love or hate Roman Reigns, the guy is consistently aces in the ring when he keeps it under 15 minutes. I was in love with this match before it even started, and it had to do with the little things great performers do that enhance the story. The crowd wants The Shield to reform so bad, so what did the Miz-Tourage do last week? They attacked Reigns with chairs and did The Shield fist bump over his unconscious body.
This week? They enter from the crowd a la The Shield. It’s GREAT. What is also great is Roman Reigns dropping the sarcasm and indifferent attitude and beating the crap out of Axel and Bo Dallas with Superman punches and a steel chair. Reigns is close to being the total package, and he’s at his apex when he drops the silliness and uses that focused aggression that made him so badass in The Shield. While I’m not the biggest fan of ending title matches with interference, it was the best call for everyone involved. The Miz is not beating Roman Reigns clean at this point and Reigns doesn’t need the IC title. Plus, if you’re going to have the match end in a DQ, why not bring back out The Bar to take out the only member of the former Shield that they haven’t murdered yet?
The Bar linking up with The Miz might seem random, but Cesaro and Sheamus hate Rollins and Ambrose, so why wouldn’t they also want to take out someone like Reigns who has a shared history with them? Miz, Cesaro and Sheamus have also been hearing the non stop chatter about The Shield reforming, so instead of sitting back and waiting for it to happen, they’re being proactive and taking them all out. It also ties in the opening segment, and leads to one of the best Raw moments of the year:
https://twitter.com/totaldivaseps/status/915050627176239104
SHIT IS ON. My only drawback to The Shield reforming last week was that them vs. Miz-Tourage would be like me and my two friends facing Lebron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant in a game of pickup basketball. But when you sub in Cesaro and Sheamus for Axel and Dallas, you have a legitimate, compelling matchup. Well done all around.
Wait, that wasn’t the whole show? Now that I’ve written almost 1,000 words about The Shield reuniting, let’s get to the rest of the show.
Mickie James, #1 Contender
I think the most unrealistic part of last night’s show was WWE trying to convince us that Mickie James has her own dressing room. The writers didn’t even know she was apart of the women’s division a few weeks ago, but now that Alexa needs some fresh meat before Asuka shows up, Mickie is given a title match. I would complain that Mickie got a title shot after hitting one move on Nia Jax and winning via DQ, but Bayley got inserted into the Fatal Five Way match at No Mercy by just showing up, so I guess it’s par for the course.
Later in the show Emma and Alicia Fox take on Sasha Banks and Bayley, and the only notable thing that happens is Emma betraying Alicia Fox and walking out on the match. It’s clear the women’s division is in a holding pattern until Asuka shows up at TLC, and while that’s not the most exciting thing in the world, Asuka is legitimately going to change the entire division, so I’m ok with it.
Elias vs. Denver
Elias continues to deliver, especially during his pre match promos dissing whatever town they’re in. Last night’s might’ve been my favorite of the bunch, as he told the crowd he’d rather drown himself a mile below the ocean than live in Denver. Elias would rather commit suicide than live there. That is cold blooded. The match with Titus is fine, but nothing special, and Elias continues to single handedly take down Titus Worldwide.
The Club Win! The Club Win!
Jeff Hardy tore up his rotator cuff so Matt Hardy and Jason Jordan have joined forces. They beat Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel last week but this week they go up against an actual tag team, and they lose. I know The Club aren’t exactly The Midnight Express, but from a logical standpoint, the tag team that dominated Japan and have been together for years should beat two singles guys who teamed up because of an injury. The match isn’t going to be on any best of year end lists, but it worked and had a clean finish. Plus, Hardy and Jordan are another tag team in a division that desperately needs tag teams. If The Revival can hurry up and get back and stop being injured we might have a real division on our hands.
Sister Abigail is Alive!
Speaking of 1997, here’s was my first thought when Bray Wyatt said Sister Abigail was alive:
Fast forward to the 5:30 mark if you don’t want to watch The Undertaker slap the shit out of poor Paul Bearer.
I don’t know why Finn and Bray are still feuding, but Bray needs a change more than any character on the roster. Bringing in Sister Abigail might be that change, but nothing will matter if he keeps losing all his important matches. Per usual, I will let this storyline string me along and then be very disappointed when Bray loses at TLC.
Cruiserweights
For the second week in a row Enzo & the cruiserweights (great band name) close out the show, and while it worked well last week, there was too much other stuff going on in this episode for this to be the final segment. Enzo roasting each cruiserweight was great, and Kalisto has belonged in the division since it’s inception, but making Kalisto the grand reveal at the end of a show that saw THE SHIELD reform isn’t fair to Kalisto. I don’t know how much Enzo affects ratings for 205 Live, but unless it’s astronomical they need to ship him away and let Kalisto, Neville and the rest of the division tear shit up.
-Ryan
My Favorite Sketch From Ryan Gosling’s #SNL: Papyrus
Ryan Gosling and his handsome, giggly self hosted SNL for the second time Saturday night. It was a great episode, and similar to his first stint, Gosling excelled at the pre taped sketches, including my favorite one from Saturday: Papyrus. The premise of the sketch is Ryan Gosling’s character can’t understand why the marketing machine behind the Avatar movie used Papyrus font for the movie title. That’s it. It’s so simple and random but Gosling is so damn good that he makes it all work. His delivery of the line ‘they’re making more?’ might have been my favorite part of the whole episode. Enjoy!
-Ryan
#MusicMonday: Jay-Z – 4:44
Season 43 of SNL premiered on Saturday night, and Jay-Z was the musical guest. His second performance was of 4:44, which is also the title of newest album that was released earlier in the summer. Have a great day on purpose everybody.
-Ryan
Trailer Alert: Gotti
I’m not sure if John Travolta knew he’d be playing John Gotti when he signed up to play Robert Shapiro in the O.J. Simpson True Crime story, but from an aesthetic standpoint Travolta’s portrayal of Shapiro and Gotti look one in the same. John Gotti was such a towering figure in New York during the 70s and 80s that it’d be surprising if you didn’t know who he was. Nicknamed the ‘Teflon Don’, Gotti ruled the mob scene in NYC and became the boss of the Gambino crime family. Whenever it looked like the authorities were closing in on an airtight case, Gotti somehow got out of it, but like all of the bosses before him, Gotti did eventually get locked up and died in prison in 2002. Gotti will explore the mafia kingpin’s meteoritic rise and catastrophic fall, and will be directed by Kevin Connolly (E from Entourage). Gotti premieres December 15th.
-Ryan
WWE RAW Review (9/25/17): King Neville’s Rebellion
Photo: WWE
Welcome back to the Raw Review, where I…review Raw. I’ll figure out a catchier tagline one day. Sunday night was Raw’s No Mercy pay per view, and if you watched it from 8-930 you probably loved it, but if you kept watching until the end you probably had a lot of questions. Good, bad or indifferent pay per view aside, the WWE machine keeps on rolling along and Raw was live from Ontario, California last night. Instead of doing a standard No Mercy review, I decided to add my thoughts on some of the matches before my recap of the Raw segments featuring the same wrestlers.
Average Nobodies note: make sure to follow us on Twitter – @averagenobodies and like us on Facebook – Facebook.com/AverageNobodies. We love talking pro wrestling, so you can comment on this post or reach out to us on social media if you want to join the discussion. You can also find all of our wrestling content by clicking the ‘wrestling’ tab under the banner on our home page.
And now, the Raw Review for September 25, 2017.
Big Dog
The IC title, tag titles and women’s title match were all excellent at No Mercy, but the main event matches between Reigns/Cena and Strowman/Lesnar were a big let down. Miz opened up Raw with Miz TV featuring Roman Reigns, and the worst thing you can say about the Reigns/Cena match is that nothing changed. Heading into the match John Cena and Roman Reigns were the two most overpowering wrestlers in WWE over the last 15 years. Cena’s been doing it for 15 years while Reigns is just getting started, so Reigns kicked out of every single variation of an Attitude Adjustment that Cena has put guys away with over the years and Reigns hit 1 Superman punch and 1 spear and won the match.
I’m not a Cena hater by any means, but his run on Raw has been awful, and he’s clearly checked out, so hopefully his extended goodbye after the match means we won’t see him for awhile. The guy has done a lot for the WWE, but if he’s going to hang around just to be a face and put on shitty matches, he should probably just walk away for good. The Miz TV segment was alright (minus Reigns saying beating Cena was his biggest victory. Beating Taker at Mania is a little bit bigger than beating a sleep walking John Cena at No Mercy), which is going to be a running theme of tonight’s show, but it does set up Matt Hardy & Jason Jordan vs. Axel and Dallas and Miz vs. Roman Reigns (guess how that turns out).
Team Extreme 2.0
Jeff Hardy is out of action for awhile with a torn rotator cuff, so Matt Hardy teamed up with Jason Jordan to take on Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas. The match is fine, but if Miz is moving into a Roman Reigns feud and Matt isn’t going to give us any Broken Brilliance, they might as well team up Matt and Jordan and see what happens. The Raw tag division is as thin as a piece of a paper, so adding in a veteran tag champion with a young up and comer is not the worst idea in the world. What is the worst thing in the world is Booker T on commentary. Somehow he was more awful than normal last night, as he forgot Matt Hardy and Jason Jordan have tagged before, then tried to explain it by saying that a six man tag isn’t an actual tag team match. Do less, Book.
A Feud I Want To See
Part 2 of Booker T’s terrible night of commentary came during the Elias and Apollo Crews match. Cole and Graves are talking about how Titus O’Neil can help Crews like he’s helped Akira Tozawa, but Booker T doesn’t get it and asks what Titus ever did for Tozawa. Uhh, he helped him win the Cruiserweight title? It’s one thing to be bad at commentary, but it’s another to forget literally everything that’s ever happened on Raw. Kind of an important part of adding good analysis. This was another match that started to get good but then immediately ended when Elias kicked Titus in the shin, which distracted Apollo and allowed Elias to pick up the win. You can tell the crowd wants to care about Apollo, but WWE has to give them more than a 3 minute distraction finish loss. Hopefully these two continue to feud by somehow not always fighting each other, and are given 10-12 minutes at TLC to have an actual match.
Braun Strowman, Fan of History Machines
The Curt Hawkins losing streak angle is a pile of hot garbage, but the good news for him is that he didn’t technically lose a match last night. The bad news for him (but amazing news for everyone else) is that he didn’t lose because Braun Strowman chased him from the ring to the backstage area, choke slammed him through a table and then carried to the entrance ramp to power slam him through the screen on the ramp. Heading into Lesnar/Strowman, I didn’t expect for Braun to show up Monday needing to regain momentum, but the booking of Universal title match was perplexing. It’s obvious that WWE is still planning Lesnar/Reigns, which is fine, but why have Braun lose to exactly one F-5? Lesnar kicked out of all of Braun’s power moves when it should’ve been the other way around. There were reports that Braun was booed after No Mercy went off the air, which is remarkably stupid, but goes to show you what fans thought of the way the match was presented.
After Braun’s disposal of Hawkins, he challenged anyone in the locker room to a fight, which got accepted by Dean Ambrose. I really liked Ambrose answering the call, because it plays into his Lunatic Fringe character without making him seem like an idiot. He’s banged up from the tag title match, but he doesn’t know any better except to accept a challenge. It didn’t matter if it was Braun Strowman or Curt Hawkins, although he probably would’ve had more success if he accepted Hawkins’ challenge. The match between Ambrose and Strowman was actually really good too. Dean’s offense is all over the place and involved a lot of him aimlessly running and jumping through the air, which meshes perfectly with Strowman’s other worldly strength. Nice bounce back for Strowman.
Old Lady Strength
The Fatal Five Way women’s title match at No Mercy was great, and all four challengers looked like actual threats to Alexa’s title. That’s going to be a key talking point moving forward, because Asuka’s debut is less than a month away. While the four challengers took part in a tag match later in the show, Mickie James emerged from the depths of hell to cut a very good promo on Bliss. James’ main talking point is always going to be that she’s been doing this longer than anyone else in the division, but she’s a good talker so she gets her points across while Bliss continues to be arrogant to everyone in the division except for Nia Jax. The division is going to be in a holding pattern until TLC when Asuka shows up, but at the very least we’ll get a fresh matchup with Alexa and Mickie.
The tag match between Bayley/Sasha & Nia/Emma was another good not great match, with nothing really happening at all. HURRY UP AND GET HERE ASUKA.
Seth Rollins vs. Sheamus
The tag title match was No Mercy was also great, and included a brutal post spot where Cesaro knocked out all his front teeth. He continued to wrestle because he’s the best, and the constant presence of blood added a great sense of urgency to the action. This was another decent but too quick match, and although I’m not a fan of guys wrestling each other over and over, Rollins/Ambrose & The Bar need to settle this feud with a TLC tag match at TLC.
Keep Your Friends Close…
Goldust, Finn Balor & Bray Wyatt have been involved in a weird man/demon/face paint war over the past few weeks. Bray Wyatt beat Finn Balor the MAN but lost to Finn Balor the DEMON, so he decided to seek out the only other guy who wears face paint, Goldust. Wyatt beat Goldust with and without face paint, but proceeded to lose to Finn Balor the MAN at No Mercy. Balor cut a promo earlier on Raw saying he beat Bray Wyatt to help guys like Goldust who had been beaten up by Wyatt, but Goldust decided he did not like that and attacked Balor backstage. Goldust went back to quoting movies like he was doing during his endless backstage promos during the R-Truth feud, so I guess we’re just supposed to forget the past few weeks when Goldust/Dustin Rhodes has been the good guy against Bray? The angle is all over the place, and Goldust lost clean to Finn last night. Just when you thought the Finn/Bray angle was over, EDM children began singing Bray’s ‘Whole World In His Hands’ and everyone live and watching at home should have the same response:
https://twitter.com/totaldivaseps/status/912504032421400581
If this leads to Goldust joining up with Wyatt as a new follower or Rowan and Harper returning to take on Balor & The Club then I’ll be happy. If this leads to anything else I’ll light myself on fire.
Sierra Hotel India Echo Lima Delta Really?
I’d be a cold hearted piece of trash if I said I wouldn’t want The Shield to reunite, but I really don’t want them to reunite against the Miz-Tourage. Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel lost to Jason Jordan and Matt Hardy earlier in the night. Are we really going to believe they have a shot against the greatest faction over the past 10 years? Plus, if the main feud within that is going to be Roman Reigns vs. Miz, we got a preview of how that would end when Roman Reigns handily beat Miz. Reigns beat Cena with a Superman punch and a spear, so it was pretty obvious what was going to happen when he fought Miz. The best part of the segment was post match, as the Miz-Tourage beat Roman down with chairs and mimicked The Shield fist bump over his lifeless body. I love a good beat down, but again, if The Shield reunites, it’s not a good sign for the Miz-Tourage that they were only able to take down Reigns 3 on 1 with steel chairs.
King Neville’s Rebellion
Hand’s down the most disappointing outcome from No Mercy was Enzo defeating Neville for the cruiserweight title via a low blow. Neville is SO GOOD & Enzo is SO BAD that it was almost unfathomable to see it happen, but it did lead to the closing segment last night, so it might’ve been worth it. Enzo was following around Kurt Angle all night asking for an in ring title celebration with a no contact clause from the other cruiserweights, which Angle reluctantly gave him. Enzo finally embraced his annoying heel side and cut a great promo about how he deserves to be where he’s at and how he’s standing in the ring as a champion while Big Cass sits at home nursing an injury, so it looks like Cass is the one who was holding him back. Enzo has always been great on the microphone, but he just needed to shift his tone from ‘sing my catchphrases’ to ‘you guys should all hate me’. He did that here, and it was wonderful. That brought out the entire Cruiserweight division, which Enzo ripped to shreds. He called Cedric Alexander the man that charisma forgot and made fun of Gran Metalik for having a gut, and the more he talked the more you wanted to see him get his head kicked in.
Thankfully Neville finally show up looking like he hasn’t slept in a month and took Enzo to the woodshed. This segment was great, and it simultaneously explained the finish to last night (Enzo went dark) and turned Neville into a conquering hero for both the division and the fans, capped off with the crowd pleasing Red Arrow. The only thing left to do is to have Neville murder Enzo in the rematch and reclaim the title.
Also, please enjoy this video of Braun Strowman the entire cruiserweight division beating Enzo forever.
-Ryan
Asuka Will Make Her Main Roster Debut At #WWE TLC on October 22nd
Asuka hasn’t wrestled since successfully defending her NXT Women’s title at TakeOver Brooklyn III on August 19th, but now we know when she will finally make her long awaited main roster debut. During last night’s No Mercy pay per view, WWE aired another hype video for the undefeated Empress of Tomorrow, but unlike the other hype videos we’ve seen, this one ended with a warning: Asuka is coming to WWE TLC on October 22nd. There’s no word on whether or not she’ll have a match at the show, but anytime Asuka shows up, beautiful chaos follows.
-Ryan
