Category Archives: MonsterBlog Wednesday
MonsterBlog Wednesday
MonsterBlog Wednesdays are the day for Ryan and Matt to calibrate on a fun, usually silly, blog post. These posts can vary from “what super hero power we would choose” to “who would be in our hypothetical all-star band.” They are quick and fun and we encourage you to share your picks by jumping in the comments section.
Monster Blog: Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Floats
One of the staples of Thanksgiving (besides the three F’s: football, family & food) is the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Since 1924, the parade has taken over Manhattan every Thanksgiving day with floats, balloons, marching bands and celebrities. While it’s always cool to see Mount Rushmore or Sesame Street characters marching down Central Park West, we felt that there wasn’t enough variety in the float department. What floats would we add to the parade? We thought you’d never ask.
James Gandolfini Dressed As The Pope During Mardi Gras
Photo; Huff Post
This is one of my favorite pictures of all time, and if you turn this into a float, the sky is the limit. First of all, you have James Gandolfini smoking a cigar dressed as the pope. That’s one of your all time great foundations for a parade float. I think the ideal choice would be to give it some type of Mardi Gras theme. Beads, booze, cigars, etc. Maybe have a few extras dressed as priests and nuns passing out shots to the crowd. If it’s an especially cold Thanksgiving you can mix it up and pass out Hot Toddies. I think the combo of paying respect to one of the greatest actors of all time and passing out a crap ton of booze will be a big hit for everyone involved.
– Ryan
Bill Paxton
Photo: Comic Con
Earlier this year we lost a talented actor, role model, and friend, Bill Paxton. There’s no doubt in my mind that if we could talk to good ole’ Bill from beyond the grave, he would agree that the best way to honor his memory is to forever enshrine him in the Thanksgiving Day Parade. I couldn’t think of a better float to be thankful for. Maybe it’s him from Twister, or Titanic, or maybe it’s him from Aliens. Hell, it could even be a giant tribute to his entire body of work. Doesn’t matter, it’s still Bill.
– Matt
Monster Blog: The Best WWE Survivor Series Matches Of All Time
Photo: Daily Wrestling News
Survivor Series is the second longest running WWE pay per view behind WrestleMania, and the 31st annual show will take place this Sunday in Houston. Survivor Series brings together a lot of different pro wrestling elements, from the 5 on 5 traditional Survivor Series matches to dream matches like last year’s Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar bout.
With a history spanning 30+ years, there are bound to be at least a few memorable matches, and that’s where the Average Nobodies come in. We each named our favorite Survivor Series match of all time below, along with a little blurb about why we loved it so much. Enjoy!
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Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Bret Hart
When it comes to rivalries within WWE/F, especially in the mid 90s, there are few better than Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Bret Hart. The crown jewel of that feud is inarguably their submission match at WrestleMania 13, but if you’re looking for an almost perfect wrestling match with a great story that also motivates both guys moving forward, their match at Survivor Series ’96 should be your jam. Austin and Hart had a pretty chaotic feud, as this was the beginning of Austin’s “Texas Rattlesnake” character, but oddly enough, this was the first televised singles match between the two.
This match really kick started their feud, and launched one of the best angles of the 90s, especially when you factor in their match at WM13. The Survivor Series match was a technical masterpiece and featured a tremendous ending, with Hart outsmarting Austin by using the turnbuckle as leverage and pinning Austin while still in a submission hold. The ending visual of Austin giving Bret the death stare while disappearing up the ramp is as good as wrestling storytelling gets.
-Ryan
The Shield’s Debut
My favorite Survivor Series match isn’t a match at all, it’s a moment and the ripple effect that moment would would have on the WWE from then on. The debut of The Shield during the triple threat between CM Punk, John Cena and Ryback at the 2012 Survivor Series PPV is arguably the greatest debut in the history of the WWE. Three guys who would later become, and stay, THE marquee guys in the company. Even with The Shield stealing the show (although it might not have seen like it at the time) this match isn’t something to sweep under the rug. Cena and Punk were magic in the ring and Ryback got put out of commission by the fabled triple power bomb!
What more could you ask for?
-Matt
Your Average Lent Picks 2017 – Monster Blog Wednesday
We here at the Average Nobodies are not what you would call “good catholic boys”. As adolescents, we spent most Sundays in Sunday school until we realized we could bet on football and play softball instead. Sure, we show face at Christmas and Easter, but the big man upstairs (Bill Paxton) can’t be happy about that. That’s why we are taking Lent so seriously this year. It’s time to get back in the good graces of the church by giving up something for 40 days and 40 nights.
The Office/Parks and Recreation on Netflix
Let me explain. I’m not crazy, I promise. I am consistently labeled as a not-so-tough critic. I like most TV shows and I hardly ever find faults in movies (I’m an optimistic guy, sue me! Not you, Danica Patrick, you’ve done enough). In order to rebuild my reputation as the media tastemaker of a generation (I gave that title to myself), I need to realize my faults. Which brings me to my Lent pick. I am a culprit of staying inside my safe zone. I fall into the trap of only consuming media I know I will like. So I need to stop going back to crutches like Parks and Recs and The Office and try stuff outside my comfort zone. These 40 days are going to be trying on my spirit, but I know I can get through it. Like the great Michael Scott once said: “The worst thing about prison are the dementors”.
-Matt
Beer & Alcohol
Full disclosure: I gave up beer for Lent last year and it went terribly. When I would go out to a bar or restaurant, instead of drinking beer, I would switch to hard alcohol, but I would still drink at the same pace as if I were drinking beer. I refer back to it as my dark place. But 2017 is a new year, and I’ m approaching Lent with a little more maturity. I also painstakingly mapped out the next 40 days to make sure I wasn’t missing out on any fun drinking holidays/events. The conclusion: I’m giving up beer AND alcohol for Lent this year. No Busch Light. No Jameson. No Sky Masteron’s. I’m going clean and pure for the next 40 days and 40 nights. Except wine. I wouldn’t want to upset Jesus by not drinking his delicious, oaky blood.
-Ryan
What are your Lent picks? Call, and leave a voicemail (401-285-8120) telling us what you’re giving up and we will play it LIVE on the Average Nobodies Podcast.
Emergency Monster Blog – The Rhode Island Slogan
Okay, here’s the deal. For those of you who don’t know, or don’t care, Rhode Island recently did an overhaul of their branding and image. The government, specifically the governor’s office, spent and obscene amount of money on a new logo, slogan and website update as a part of this new look for The Ocean State. The slogan: “Cooler & Warmer”, which doesn’t really have a ring to it at all, i’m actually not even sure what it means. Cooler like “hey man that’s cool”, or is it cooler like temperature? Regardless of whatever the meaning or double meaning might be that’s just way too much thing for a slogan. If it needs to be explained, then it probably isn’t going to work. If I was a family ready to pick a spot for a nice summer vacation and I happened to discover that Rhode Island’s state slogan, the thing that is trying to draw me in, is “Warmer & Cooler” I probably would avoid it at all costs. No way I’m exposing my family to a state that picked that kind of BS as their catchphrase. So what should be the new “new” slogan? Here’s our hot take and new slogans for Rhode Island.
Rhode Island: An Ocean of Possibilities
Not bad, right? That cost me $0 and took me literally 7 minutes to come up with. Before I get into my slogan, I want to take some time and bash the new official slogan. Cooler & Warmer. You know what’s ‘cooler and warmer’? Literally everywhere. Every place on this god damn Earth is at one time cool or warm. Those are really the only temperatures things can be. Technically yes places can be ‘cold or hot’ but it’s pretty much the same thing. Not only are we the smallest state, but apparently our Governor has the smallest brain. If you’re spending $5 million on something and that’s what you come up with, you’re an idiot. You could have bought a $5 million car with that kind of money.
Back to my slogan: I was going to go the funny route, but I kind of wanted to prove how easy it is to come up with a slogan for a place that used to be called The Ocean State. Do you know how many people living in the middle of the country are jealous of Rhode Islanders? We have beautiful beaches 45 minutes away, and that’s if you live on the other side of the state. That’s the main reason people come here and that’s the main reason summers here are so great. It’s not the perfect slogan, but there’s no such thing as perfect, so why not just go with the obvious and then put something about hope in there? People love hope. Now, no slogan is complete without a picture that sums up that slogan, and luckily I came prepared. Read it and weep.
Rhode Island: Not Long Island
I can’t tell you how many times i’ve introduced myself to someone, told them where i’m from and they respond “oh yes, New York”. No, actually there is a pretty sizable state separating us from New York. Am I taking crazy pills or is everybody outside the northeast just writing our tiny state off? I know we haven’t been known for the best things (maybe our slogan should be “Mobsters and Lobsters” [saw that somewhere, not my own]) and maybe those things have sent us into such a deep downward spiral that no matter how hard we try to change our image we are always going to fuck things up. Case and point, the awful slogan we just came up with. It’s hard to believe that we hired the same media company that did New York’s mega popular “I Heart New York” campaign. Things must have gone downhill since then, because this slogan is just crap. Not to mention we have one of the most prestigious art schools in the country, why not pull some ideas from there? I’m pretty sure RISD could have come up with a better logo than the shark fin/sail with Easter weekend pastel colors. It looks like a bad bank logo.
If nobody outside our own citizens were vacationing here before, they definitely won’t be now, so let’s at least change our slogan to something useful. Rhode Island: Not Long Island.
-Matt the Rat
Monster Blog Thursday – Our Most Anticpated Upcoming Movies
With the Oscars a little over a week away, it’s time to get a fresh back of movies into the theaters for next year’s telecast. While most of the movies that get released between now and next year’s show will not be Oscar material, that doesn’t mean that we won’t try and see them all. Here are out most anticipated movies of 2016.
Triple 9
2016 might eventually go down as the year of the comic book movie (Batman vs. Superman, Suicide Squad, Deadpool) but I’m venturing off the comic book path for my pick. I’ve already blogged the trailer and raved about the cast but Triple 9 looks amazing. I’d watch a bank heist movie with a cast of elderly men who lost their ability to speak, so it’s safe to say that I’m really going to enjoy this movie. Also, this could be one of the movies that brings Norman Reedus to Hollywood full time and seals the fate of Daryl Dixon. This movie is going to be so good it has Walking Dead implications! The best part about this movie? It comes out in 8 days, so you’ll only have to wait a little bit longer.
-Ryan
10 Cloverfield Lane
Does J.J. know how to do a trailer or does J.J. know how to do a fucking trailer! To be completely honest, i’m not sure what happened or what I was seeing in the first Cloverfield movie, and after watching this trailer i’m still not 100% percent sure they are even linked. Having said that, Macho Man in his prime couldn’t stop me from seeing this movie. It comes out in a few weeks and I’m super interested to see what mystery box J.J. has for us this time.
P.S. Is that the chick from Final Destination 3? INSTANT CLASSIC, best of the 6 movies for sure.
P.P.S. John Goodman gets better with age, like a fine wine…..or maybe more like an old sneaker that you just can’t throw out because of all the good times you’ve had together. You thought for sure that pair of sneakers were gone, but now that you’ve found them, you can’t help but wear them all the time.
-Matt
Monster Blog Wednesday – The New Pro Bowl
The Pro Bowl. What used to be a kind of cool tradition has turned into a popularity contest wrapped into 3 hours of “who gives a shit” television. Never fear! The Average Nobodies have a fix for this bore-fest. Here are our modifications to the Pro Bowl that will either end it abruptly or keep it going for years to come.
5v5 Flag Football
Each NFL team selects 5 players from either the starting lineup or their practice squad and heads to Hawaii for a little flag football tourney. Limiting injuries, while still making it fun is key to the Pro Bowl. “But Matt, the two teams that will be playing in the Super Bowl won’t participate.” That’s an easy fix. The two open slots will be filled by the two teams in the amateur tournament that happens the day before.
No run plays, only hail Mary pass plays, the flags are coated with pam cooking spray and touchdowns don’t count unless you do a 5 minute celebration dance. The refs are their to sign your touchdown points from a 1 to 10 scale depending on how good your celebration is.
-Matt
ANARCHY
You want to get the ratings up for the pro bowl? Make it like an athletic version of the purge. Make the tickets free for fans because if they go there’s a chance they’re gonna get murdered. 2 hours of pure mayhem, with each player getting to bring weapon to the dance. Most of these guys hate each other anyways, right? You’re telling me if Josh Norman brought a trident and Odell Beckham Jr. brought a grenade you wouldn’t tune into the Pro Bowl to see what happens? You may tell yourself you wouldn’t watch, but deep down you’re just as deranged as the rest of us. Also, ‘Guns’ Hochuli as the referee and when I say referee I mean hes just there to confirm the murders.
-Ryan
Monster Blog Wednesday: Our Favorite Billionaires
Forbes recently released their newest Billionaires list, and besides it making us incredibly sad, it also showcased some names that we’ve been fans of for years. Sports team owners, movie legends, CEOs; the Billionaires list is a who’s who of people that are way better at their jobs than you and I will ever be. In the spirit of monster blogging, we decided to each pick our favorite Billionaire on the list along with a little explanation of why we feel they’re the best Billionaire in the world.
Mark Cuban
He may be #603 on the Forbes list of Billionaires, but he’s number one in my heart. Not only does he own my favorite basketball team (Dallas Mavericks). He cashed in on his tech business ventures with Yahoo in 1999 to become a Billionaire, but he didn’t stop there. He invested his money in the aforementioned Dallas Mavericks, and has been helping entrepreneurs ever since, most recently with his TV show Shark Tank. Cuban, who used to be a nose bleed season ticket holder for the Mavericks, now sits courtside at every game he can, and due to win at all costs mentality, brought the Mavericks their first NBA Championship in franchise history in 2011. While I didn’t research this thoroughly, I’m pretty sure Mark Cuban was the only Billionaire on the list to be put through a table by WWE superstar Sheamus.
– Ryan
Elon Musk
PayPal, Tesla Motors, FUCKING ROCKETSHIPS?! Is there anything that this guy can’t do? No seriously, i’m pretty sure he is just going take over Mars once his program gets the green light. Let’s look over his accomplishments: First, funds and develops the most widely used payment service in the world, PayPal. He isn’t done there, not by a long shot. In 2002, when everyone else was taking money away from space programs he decided to start the company called SpaceX. No big deal, he pretty much privatised rocketships. And when rockets weren’t enough he took on his most ambitious effort yet, Tesla Motor Company. Named after the father of modern-day electricity, Tesla Motors has taken the electric car market and zoomed it into the future. No longer are electric cars synonymous with weakness. If you ask me who my favorite billionaire is i’m going to say Elon Mush 100% of the time. He is a visionary who is single handedly advancing humankind. Elon FTW.
-Matt
Monster Blog Wednesday: Our Ideal Dancing With The Stars Partners
The “stars” for Dancing With The Stars season 20 were just announced, and they’re something. Suzanne Somers, Rumer Willis, Patti LaBelle, Michael Sam; I could literally go on and on, but I think you get the point. DWTS is fun enough, but The Average Nobodies aren’t the kind of people who see an idea and stop there; we see an idea and think ‘how can this idea be better’? In that spirit, we decided to tweak the DWTS concept and instead of a professional dancer paired up with a “celebrity”, we would insert ourselves into the dance routine and bring in some real star power. Ryan with George Clooney? Matt with Elon Musk? The choices are literally endless. Here are our ideal DWTS partners:
Christopher Walken
He may have lost a step, but Christopher Walken has been busting a move longer than I’ve been alive. Simply put, he’s a dancing machine, and if there’s two things you need to succeed on DWTS it’s the ability to do a bunch of different dances and fearlessness. Nobody is more fearless (or insane) than Christopher Walken. I’m a little skeptical of his ability to move around after watching the live Peter Pan special, but luckily for C-Walk, I have some dance moves of my own. Maybe we do the salsa, maybe we do the Charleston, maybe we sit in a chair and stare at the audience; when you’re with Christopher Walken, you can get away with anything. If I’m being honest, unless Alfonso Ribeiro is on the show, the title is up for grabs, so I’m very confident that we’ll be in the finals when that day comes around. Fogarty/Walken ’16!
– Ryan
WWF Superstar Chyna
Our dancing partnership is based solely on two things: power and agility. While I may not have either one of those traits former WWF vixen, Chyna, has them in spades. Here is how I see our routines going: I come out and bust a few of my signature moves, maybe a few pop and locks sprinkled over a rhythmic pounding of the dance floor by my size 13 shoe. **Enter Chyna** We meet center stage and begin to waltz (her leading of course). From there we treat the rest of the routine like a Cirque Du Soleil show with Chyna tossing me all over the place. We finish with the move from Dirty dancing, but this time I take over and lift her (I have experience).
-Matt
