Batson's Blog

I want to spend a moment this week talking about the insane amount of championships in pro wrestling right now (no, I'm not just talking about the ones that belong to Mercedes Mone).  There are dozens of championship belts floating around between the big 3 (4 if you count ROH?) companies alone, and I believe it's bad for business. It's taking away from the importance of feuds, of winning a championship, and of the actual excitement when a wrestler finally achieves that career-defining moment. In addition to the active championships, there were numerous other championships being defended in the past five years, too.  Thankfully, the WWE 24/7 title, FTW title, and the NXT Women's Tag Team Titles were retired. They weren't being defended regularly so what's the point? I'm going to cover WWE (and NXT ... and Evolve), AEW, and TNA this week. We'll start with the undisputed leader of pro wrestling: WWE.  First, let's take a look at the amount of titles WWE...

Some singers collaborate and they are like peanut butter and jelly.  Their voices complement each other, their attitudes are similar or they are so different that it just works. Pink and Nicki Minaj Cardi B is the 'it' girl these days but I kind of prefer Nicki Minaj.  Her pop songs are catchy.  Pink and Nicki seem like a good combo. Pink has collaborated with Kenny Chesney, Eminem and, of course, the other singers on 'Lady Marmalade.'  Nicki did one of the best collaborations since 'Lady Marmalade' when she teamed up with Ariana Grande and Jessie J for 'Bang Bang.'  This just seems like it would be a fun collaboration in music video form and in song form. Chris Daughtry and Eric Church These two North Carolina boys who both love rock music could put together an incredible song.  While Daughtry is more rock and Church is more country, they both have some overlapping themes and sounds in their music. Both have delivered very good albums not too ...

Boy, who could have ever predicted what 2020 would bring, huh?  It was supposed to be the year of the female superhero, with Harley Quinn, Black Widow and Wonder Woman dominating the screen.  That didn't quite happen, but the Harley Quinn movie did end up being one of the top grossing movies of the year.  That probably wouldn't have happened without COVID-19. Despite the pandemic, there were some good movies released in 2020.  A lot of the movies you'd expect to see in theaters were released on HBO Max, Disney+ or one of the other dozen streaming services that exist these days.  I saw one of the movies pre-pandemic and most of them after the pandemic while in the movie theater, in the past 2 months.  So let's take a look at this years relatively small list (be warned, SPOILERS are below ...)     The Kid Detective I saw this trailer and thought, 'Huh, I'd watch that.' It's not one I probably would've ever gone to see in the theater typically, bu...

The new year means a few things: new year's resolutions.  Award shows.  The Super Bowl. For wrestling fans it also means a few things: the Royal Rumble, the road to Wrestlemania and ... Hall of Fame inductions. One of the best nights of the year has become the night of the Hall of Fame ceremony.  Colorful speeches, fun road stories and seeing wrestlers of yesteryear are all part of the night that kicks off Wrestlemania weekend. Here are a few of my ideal Hall of Fame classes The years aren't exact, but a rough timeline of what I think would work out well 2020 (in Tampa): The Rock (headlining, obviously) Christian (he's from Tampa) Jushin Thunder Liger (he's retiring this month) Vader Taz Molly Holly 2021: The Undertaker Rob Van Dam The British Bulldog Jim Cornette Victoria 2022: The Big Show The Steiner Brothers Cyndi Lauper (Celebrity Wing) Eric Bischoff Goldust Luna Vachon 2023: Batista Rob Van Dam Paul Heyman (I assume he'll...

I'll give Dumbo credit. While Aladdin made unnecessary changes from the 90s version and The Lion King was pretty much an awkward, lesser CGI'd version from that 90s version, Dumbo told an original story. The problem is: that it just wasn't very good. To me, there's still no better live action movie than Maleficent . It reminded me of 'The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs.' It told the story from the opposite perspective. Dumbo added several characters that weren't in Disney's classic animated version, but most of them weren't that exciting. The movie had some predictable greedy characters and some dull heroes. Michael Keaton , Danny Devito , Colin Farrell and Eva Green weren't bad casting choices, but their characters weren't that exciting. The children meant nothing to me. I had zero cares for them. They had way too much screen time. The writers actually gave one of the kids a line in the movie where she said, ...

I was not looking forward to seeing this movie. I thought about skipping it until it was released for renting, but I caved in and saw it in the theater. I'm glad I did! Rise of Skywalker was a good movie. J.J. Abrams fixed a lot of what Rian Johnson messed up in The Last Jedi . I mentioned my disappointment on The Last Jedi in my review two years ago . Now, I wouldn't have disliked that movie so much had it not taken such an odd turn from The Force Awakens . Also, I would've had a different reaction if there was some indication that some of the unanswered questions I and a lot of other fans had were going to actually be answered. That wasn't the case. There was no hint that there's more to come. I remember walking out of the theater when the movie was over and everyone was just silent. No applause. Nobody talking about how good it was or discussing their favorite part. The excitement was drained out of all 100+ people in that theater. I gave ...

I'm torn on the Disney live action movies. There are a couple ( Maleficent , The Jungle Book ) that have been surprisingly good. Some ( Cinderella , Beauty & The Beast ) that have been just OK. Then there are some ( Aladdin , Maleficent 2 ) that haven't been that impressive at all. The Lion King falls into the 'OK' category. While those in charge of this movie didn't make the same mistakes that Aladdin did in deviating much from the original script, they had mistakes of their own. If you're not telling a new story (like in Maleficent or Dumbo ), then why exactly are you making the movie? If I want to watch The Lion King , then wouldn't I just watch the 90's version? What's the point? So that I can see overdone CGI instead of colorful animation? Sure, I guess it has the 3-D aspect going for it, but I couldn't care less about that. Disney is really in a no win situation. They can make a live action version of the same 90s cl...

Where to start with this one, huh? When I heard that Will Smith was cast as Genie , I was actually pretty happy about it. He is close enough to Robin Williams in the ability to deliver an over-the-top performance but he's not a complete replica. He's got his own style. Then I saw the horrible Entertainment Weekly cover with no blue makeup and I, like many others, was not irritated that they weren't making him blue. Then I saw the horrible makeup job with the blue paint and I thought, 'Maybe he shouldn't be blue.' Besides Genie and his lack of blue / poorly done blue makeup, the costumes looked like cheaply made (but still overpriced) Halloween costumes you'd find at The Disney Store. Lastly, the casting is way off here. Mena Massoud looks like Aladdin , but he doesn't have half the style or swagger that the animated version does. Marwan Kenzari neither looks like Jafar or has his demeanor. Oh --- and the animated version of Abu  >...

Everyone is talking about the Disney (Marvel) / Sony feud right now. It's a complicated situation, especially since we don't really know what the tone of all the discussions is like. There are some conflicting reports. Based on what I've seen, Sony and Disney made a deal. Spider-Man was successful in the MCU, so Disney wanted to renegotiate so that they had better terms in the deal. I don't blame Sony for saying 'Hold up' because legally they've been doing everything right. But the MCU is where all the action is, so of course fans want Spider-Man there. That being said, I think now may be the best time for Spidey to go solo with Sony. Both of Spider-Man's movies so far benefitted from having Nick Fury, Happy Hogan and Iron Man (or at least references to him in the second movie). Spider-Man got a huge rub from Fury and Iron Man. It's time to take that and move on and do his own thing. The crowded, crossover-filled MCU: It's ...

I like to stay pretty out of the loop these days when it comes to superhero movies. I don't want to know who is playing what characters will be in the movie or who is expected to live and die or who makes a cameo. The superhero movies have improved so much that I have enough faith it will be good without having to go to the spoilers. I went into Dark Phoenix the same way. I knew it wasn't going to be a gigantic blockbuster, based on the preview I'd seen, but I was hoping for the best. Let me say right out: this movie was awful! It's the only movie I can remember seeing in the theater where I sat there and thought 'Is this movie over yet??' It was that bad. I'm not even sure where to start. I was excited about seeing the Dark Phoenix saga told well -- even if it was crammed into one movie. Instead, we got a strange half-reboot of X3 (because that worked so well the first time) and poor man's Captain Marvel . I've read some reports ...