Batson's Blog

So, what did everyone think of this year's Rumble? I was curious to see a few things: how the pay-per-view would feel with two Royal Rumble matches on the same night, if Ronda Rousey would show up, who the women's Rumble surprise entrants would be, if they would put the Universal Title on Strowman and if they'd give Roman Reigns another Royal Rumble victory. Pre-show match: Bobby Roode vs. Mojo Rawley I came in halfway on this match, so I didn't see much of it.  Seemed like a throw away match to get Roode on the card (surprised he wasn't in the Rumble, itself).  Mojo is as good an initial opponent as any I guess. Handicap match for the WWE Heavyweight Title: A.J. Styles (champion) vs. Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens What can you say?  It was a good match.  Styles always delivers.  Sami and Kevin are both good workers themselves.  Great match.  Great athletic showing -- if not a bit of a spot fest.  Good match though. 2 out of 3 falls match...

The Rumble is tonight!  Who will return?  Who should return?  Who is unlikely to return?  Here are some options. Should be involved: Wade Barrett It's been a while since we've seen Wade in a WWE ring. And with good reason.  WWE wouldn't push the man, despite making Bad News Barrett work. He should've been WWE's first English-born WWE Champion, but they seemingly had no interest in that. With WWE appreciating more wrestling-orienteShoudd wrestlers these days, I'm thinking they'd give Barrett a fair shake at actually becoming the WWE Champion. I know he'd get a big pop if he entered. He probably wouldn't win, but a good, strong showing would position him nicely on upper mid-card level going forward and eventually a spot in the title picture. Shouldn't be involved: Chris Jericho I like Chris Jericho as much as the next guy, but his returns aren't surprising anymore, especially since he's made a couple of them at the Rum...

There are always some surprise entrants in the Royal Rumble, but there are sure to be surprise entrants in the first ever women's Royal Rumble. If you look at the rosters, you've got 21 women on the roster. Raw: Alexa Bliss (champion), Alicia Fox, Asuka, Bayley, Dana Brooke, Mandy, Mickie James, Nia Jax, Paige, Sasha Banks, and Sonya DeVille Smackdown: Charlotte Flair (champion), Becky Lynch, Carmella, Lana, Liv Morgan, Naomi, Natalya, Ruby Riot, Sarah Logan, and Tamina Inactive (pregnant): Maria, Maryse Take away 2 of those women (the champions) and you've got 19 women on the active roster. That leaves 11 open spots to fill in the first ever 30 woman Royal Rumble. So who does WWE use? Outside names not signed to the company? Former wrestlers? NXT standouts? Yes, yes and yes. Here are some of the women I'd like to see show up, some of the women who are likely to be in the match and some of the women who WWE should not utilize in this match. Li...

Most of these movies, of course, are super hero movies. But as each year passes and more and more super hero movies are released, the genre keeps re-inventing itself. They have to in order to stay relevant and successful. I don't know if all of these innovations will work, but we'll find out. The New Mutants Kicking off this list is March's latest X-Men movie: The New Mutants. Unlike other X-Men movies, this one is basically a horror movie. The initial preview I saw didn't impress me too much. It seemed a little bit normal in terms of horror movies. But it's the first horror movie of the super hero genre. We'll see how it goes, but I'm thinking it won't be the biggest box office hit, straying too far from the formula that makes super hero movies work. Will I still go see it? Yeah, probably. Tomb Raider I was surprised that they were remaking Tomb Raider, but I guess it has been 14 years since the last Tomb Raider, featur...

With 2017 all wrapped up, let's take a look back at the best movies of the year. 14. The Mummy The worst new movie I saw in 2017 was Tom Cruise's unneeded remake of The Mummy . Sure, The Mummy franchise had probably run it's course, but nobody asked for a remake -- especially one that wasn't as good as the first set of films. The movie was predictable in a lot of spots and sloppy in other spots. Russell Crowe played his part well. Tom Cruise's bank-ability as an actor just isn't there in 2017. He's not a leading man, so quit trying to cast him as one. This version of The Mummy wasn't worth the watch and certainly can't begin to compare to Brendan Fraser's The Mummy and The Mummy Returns . 13. Power Rangers What hurt this movie was the fact that the writers seemed to actively avoid doing a remake of the 1990's storyline. They had a backstory with Zordon and Rita Repulsa formerly being Rangers themselves. The whole...