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danwhobrowses · 3 years

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WWE - Best and Worst Booking from Wrestlemania 36 to 37

Wrestlemania 37 is in the books and so a new saga of WWE booking begins anew.

But the year has had its ups and downs, in the outside world and the booking, so - for doing something new - I'm gonna run down some of the best and worst booking decisions made by WWE from the Raw after Wrestlemania 36 to Wrestlemania 37 Night 2.

I will note, these are my opinions - some of which acts upon hindsight rather than 'in the moment' - and if you're gonna call me an anti-WWE mark rest assured I plan to do this for AEW too after Double or Nothing in May

Also, there is the off chance of spoilers...somehow? But it's worth covering that base

April 2020 Best WORST - Samoa Joe on Commentary On April 27th, Samoa Joe was called upon to replace Jerry Lawler (we'll get to that) on Commentary. Joe provided a great presence to commentary and it kept him on TV, we do still await his return but seeing more of Joe is a huge plus. EDIT: This was best until just now I learn that Samoa Joe has been released, the fuck WWE?

Worst - 'Ramen Noodle Moonsault' Part of what caused Lawler's replacement was the scrutiny caused by an April 13th call by Lawler during a match between Austin Theory and Akira Tozawa. He called a Step Senton a 'Ramen Noodle Moonsault', Lawler is rarely funny nowadays with his dated comedy but this was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Best - Giving Sonya and Mandy the Floor It could've been a huge down not to see Sonya vs Mandy at Wrestlemania after she was outed in manipulating Mandy away from Otis, but their feud managed to carry on strong all the way to Summerslam thanks to Sonya stepping up her game to come off as a fantastically asshole heel - which in turn made Mandy a sympathetic character. Their post-mania build allowed for an anticipated match, it was only unfortunate that an attempted irl kidnapping in August would sour the momentum and cause Sonya to take some justified time off.

Worst - Charlotte Flair on all 3 Shows Charlotte's NXT Title win did not go down as well as WWE had hoped, somehow giving the woman that had won next to everything another title reign at the expense of Rhea Ripley's Wrestlemania debut backfired on them. And unfortunately, exposing Charlotte on all 3 shows did not help matters at all, furthering the criticisms WWE have often faced when they overbook Charlotte on the upper card.

Worst - COVID-19 and Black Wednesday While not necessarily a booking thing, it was very bad of WWE to do what they did at the time. Another outbreak raised some backstage concerns over the conduct WWE, who had tried to not acknowledge the pandemic in the same vein then-president and somehow HOFer Donald Trump had done, were acting towards the pandemic. The worst of it all though was Black Wednesday, a mass exodus of talent in the height of the pandemic was never gonna be great PR, but a lot of the talent let go were very popular - Drake Maverick's video also cast a negative light on WWE even when they rehired him and used it as a storyline. While some found greener pastures to flourish, not everyone landed well on their feet, equally baffling was that WWE would then boast a quarterly profit before rehiring some of the staff they let go.

May 2020 Best - Giving the title to Asuka While we were all surprised to see Becky Lynch survive Shayna Baszler at Wrestlemania, nobody could dispute the post MITB segment on Raw when Asuka was rightfully awarded the title for winning the MITB. Being a shining light in the Empty Arena Era, Asuka was certainly a fan favourite choice to succeed Becky as she embarked on her journey towards Motherhood. A truly wonderful segment which showed that segments can pay off just as much as wrestling.

Worst - Not Pushing Otis While Asuka's MITB victory was done right, the same could not be said for the Men's Winner. Otis had the fan's backing and while his victory was surprising especially given the competition it had potential. Which WWE then squandered and buried as hard as they could. Otis never got to develop beyond a joke act, his love interest and partner taken from him, before he would months later lose it to the Miz.

Best - MVP joins up with Lashley Lashley was in a rough spot here. His main story was cucking Rusev by having an affair with Lana, and then marrying her. The pair was not built to last and mercifully we upgraded to the MVP/Lashley partnership. Together both men began their career resurgence as they now stand at the top of the pile, this was the beginning of the Hurt Business.

Worst - The Brand-To-Brand Invitational Much like how the Wild Card Rule was stupid, the Brand-To-Brand Invitational was also stupid. Often used as a tool for Survivor Series or to bring Charlotte or Corbin over with their bad heat, overall it served nothing for the fans or the booking, regardless of whatever they named it.

Best - The Fight Pit Timothy Thatcher can still do a lot more in NXT, but he still leaves a great legacy in introducing the Fight Pit. When there's not enough people for War Games but a Steel Cage won't do, the Fight Pit sold stiff aggression with its debut affair between Thatcher and Riddle, a brutal match only since done once more. It may have been done twice, but if someone calls for a Fight Pit you know shit's gonna go down.

Worst - Stripping Sami Zayn of the IC title, for staying safe Sami Zayn had finally won a championship on the Main Roster in March, then COVID happened. While WWE did make an outward statement that anyone who didn't wish to risk their health could exclude themselves, when Sami did it he lost the championship. This was rather hypocritical given that Jordan Devlin was still the Cruiserweight Champion and an Interim Champion was being crowned, rather than an official one like Smackdown did. While Sami would return to reclaim his title, his time away is still not acknowledged.

June 2020 Best - NXT start using old show names Partially due to AEW using Bash at the Beach, WWE decided to hold onto some of theirs and WCW's old PPV names. While this was slightly petty, the way they used them proved fortuitous in exuding nostalgia in a big way. To start, we had In Your House but this would also lead to the resurfacing of Halloween Havoc and Vengeance.

Worst - Not Firing Jaxson Ryker During this time the BLM protests were in full swing, so Jaxson Ryker decided this'd be the right time to praise Donald Trump on twitter. The backlash was high and his stablemates suffered for it as well, depushing and taking all the Forgotton Sons off TV. Jaxson Ryker still somehow has a job and tv time in WWE, and that continues to baffle.

Best - Maverick vs Fantasma in the Finals While exposing Maverick's firing was in poor taste, the story of the former GM chasing the title was one we can get behind. Paired with El Hijo del Fantasma finally getting the platform to debut after being hired in August 2019. The finals match would also beget to a strong title reign by Fantasma where he showed his charisma as a heel and birthing his faction Legando del Fantasma, as for Drake it led to a mismatch team with Killian Dain, it could be better but it could be worse.

Worst - Jeff Hardy vs Sheamus' narrative You'd think putting Jeff and Sheamus together would be fine, and the wrestling was indeed good. The storyline however was wrong, very wrong. Rehashing the Jericho/Punk angle, WWE decided a urine test angle would make for good TV - which was a particular low for both men.

Best - Io Shirai at the Top (which she could jump off of) When Charlotte won the NXT Championship from Rhea I vocally worried that this'd mean curtains for Io Shirai, the Stardom Ace had found her footing as the 'Mad Queen' heel character and won a ladder match to contend for the title, but she was going up against Charlotte Flair - WWE's 'Queen' who had already cut the legs from Asuka, Rhea and Bianca Belair - so the worry was high. Fortunately In Your House decided to give Io the much-deserved title win, granted she should've beaten Charlotte and Rhea was there to take the pin but this would begin Io's long reign as the female Ace of NXT, as well as jumping off of anything and everything on each TakeOver.

Worst - Street Profits vs Viking Raiders doesn't happen for Backlash During their time as Raw Tag Champs, the Street Profits engaged in an 'Anything you can do, I can do better' series with the Viking Raiders. The segments itself were mostly silly but some parts were admittedly humorous like the leg of meat popping up everywhere. But the payoff match on Backlash never came to be, instead we continued a cinematic brawl which would've been fine...but it had no conclusion. It ended in a bin, much like the feud was trashed, with the malice of the Viking Raiders mostly thrown away.

Worst - Nia vs Asuka ends in a Double Count Out Backlash 2020 already had the questionable booking of Profits vs Vikings, Braun vs Miz and Morrison and promoting Edge vs Orton as the 'Greatest Wrestling Match Ever'. But another that could not be let go was the women's title match. This was Asuka's first major defense, the storyline should have been her proving that she deserves the title and the best we got was Nia Jax. Like Profits/Vikings it could've been salvagable had there been a legitimate finish, but the match ended in a double count out, only to follow up with a Raw rematch - sadly this would not be the end of Asuka being poorly booked as champion.

Worst - Kairi's Injury Speaking of Nia, in a May taping that released in June Nia faced Kairi Sane in the build to her feud with Asuka. But Kairi came out of the match with a nasty head cut after being thrown into the steps. Unfortunately, this was not the first time Kairi had been injured by Nia so it was not a good look on Nia to repeat herself.

Worst - *Unmasks* 'Old Man Santos Escobar!?' When El Hijo del Fantasma revealed himself as the leader of the masked men, it began the stable Legando del Fantasma. But of course, 'El Hijo del Fantasma' isn't really a heel name that rolls off the tongue, the name change was justified but the choice was not. Using the surname of a drug lord exposed WWE's continued hypocrisy of things - who were adamant in removing Apollo Crews' surname when a killer was also named 'Crews', among their usual obsession with cutting names - but it was worsened by the choice of Santos, which means Saint. It also made it odd that his faction carried his old name but not him, what was wrong with Santos del Fantasma?

July 2020 Best - A New US Championship Design Aside from the 24/7 title, the US Championship design was one of WWE's weakest, fans had been calling for a change for quite some time. During Apollo's feud with the Hurt Business though we got a new US title unveiled by MVP; a slightly better design, it was definitely a good move in terms of booking and merchandising.

Worst - Asuka loses to Shenanigans, and then to Count Out Alas, Asuka's reign hit a bump in the road when the Bayley/Sasha connection set their sights on claiming all the gold. While this would do well for Bayley and Sasha's story, it was once again a story that came in Asuka's expense. She lost stupidly in Extreme Rules and when that was revoked she lost by count-out in a match where nothing was meant to influence the wrestlers on the outside. This was an added blow because Asuka was counted out to save Kairi from being attacked backstage - which effectively wrote her out of WWE, which meant that the attempted save was worthless.

Best - Big E goes his own way, but doesn't split from the New Day Before the WWE Draft split Xavier and Kofi from Big E brand-wise, injuries to Xavier and Kofi left Big E unable to compete for tag titles. However, fans had been hoping for another singles run from Big E and this was the platform for it. What made it good though was that Big E didn't leave the New Day to pursue a singles career, keeping the beloved faction still alive.

Worst - Bye, Kairi Kairi Sane carried a similar star aura that Io and Asuka before her did as the Mae Young Classic winner, former NXT Women's champion and basically being an all-round adorable human. When it was learned that she would be taking an ambassador role in Japan - where she would get married and spend time with her husband also - fans were upset to see her go. But WWE never gave her a proper sendoff, the last we see of Kairi is just her KO'd backstage with Asuka having given up her title to fail in saving her, and that left a bad taste.

Best - Keith Lee: Double Champion Keith Lee had captured NXT hearts with his physicality, athleticism and theme song, he was NA Champion and WWE had decided that double champions are all the rage now, so they pit Lee and Adam Cole against one another. It was a brief run, but the moment Lee held two belts became a big moment signifying a new chapter for NXT.

Worst - 'The Horror Show' Extreme Rules was kind of a low point for WWE. Rather than just continue with the no DQ gimmick they threw all their chips into the Braun vs Bray swamp fight, which tanked horribly. Also Rey vs Seth suffered from it with the daft Eye for an Eye stipulation - which AEW had previously done effectively - it was a great wrestling match marred by its goofy stipulation and thus its ending, all of which was made simply because Rey hadn't extended his contract at this time. Needless to say, overbooking and stupidity left 'The Horror Show' Extreme Rules a dud.

August 2020 Best - Introducing the Thunderdome There was some hesitations about the introduction of the Thunderdome, the fact that it's just screens some of it reused to pair with piped cheers and boos doesn't sound too good on paper. And granted, it has its flaws still, but at the same time the Thunderdome has been more positive on WWE's atmosphere than a purely empty arena has. The NXT cages are probably better paired with AEW's using their backstage staff as the crowd but you get what you give sometimes.

Worst - Retribution Retribution is a lost cause, even to this day. It tried the Nexus-esque debut with big names but shitty masks, as well as their purpose contradicting their actions. It all began here, and shouldn't have happened in the first place, Mercedes learned that one quickly. At least T-Bar has Twitter game.

Worst - Changing Keith Lee's attire, theme, and making him a side character to Drew vs Orton Within a month of winning both belts, Lee would be moved up to Raw where immediately he was pitted against Randy Orton - who was feuding against Drew McIntyre. With a new outfit and new music, Lee was a stepping stone to simply further Orton's feud with Drew rather than influence it, in a single moment WWE had made fans lose confidence that they could book Lee as well as he was in NXT, a worry that continues to this day even with another theme change.

Best - Damian Priest gets a shot A star who needed a chance to shine, Lee's vacating of the NA title left a slot open for someone to get a solid push and the winner was Damian Priest. Having proven himself there and in a prior feud with Finn Balor, Priest was a worthy candidate to hold the title and he still is able to hold that momentum in his main roster pursuits.

Worst - Raw Underground Doing something different is nothing to be afraid of, but sometimes you have to read the room. And Shane McMahon introducing a boiler room fight club was not it. Granted, Raw Underground didn't get the fairest crack of the whip, but it had also not distinguished itself on the card nor did it have as many decent stars to carry it. The repackaging of Babatunde to 'Dabba Kato' didn't sell any seriousness to it either.

Best - Pat McAfee Shines The Adam Cole/Pat McAfee feud did somewhat stumble at the start with WWE's insistence that this was a shoot, but the end result paid dividends. Pat McAfee raised a very low bar on celebrity contributions in wrestling matches, showing what celebrities who are actual fans could do to pull off an athletic and entertaining affair.

Worst - Mauro and Renee leave Mauro Ranallo may've been divisive for some fans in his enthusiastic commentary, but I loved the guy. He actually sold the energy of the matches and he knew the moves. Renee Young was also someone who proved to be a fantastic sports journalist, her commentary times on Raw marred by micromanaging she was a great host for Talking Smack and her podcast showed how relatable and fun Mrs. Moxley truly is. The departure of both had left a void WWE have struggled to fill again.

Best - Dominik Mysterio steps up In Summerslam 2005, the PPV was main evented by Shawn Michaels overselling Hulk Hogan for 20 minutes. The event saw not just titles go on the line but Kurt Angle's Olympic Medal...and the custody of a child. That child was mini-Slim Shady Dominik Mysterio, who in storyline had recently discovered that Eddie Guerrero is his biological father, adopted by Rey Mysterio and his wife. Fifteen years later, Dominik would step back into a Summerslam ring, this time to make his wrestling debut. While he would lose, Dominik gained a lot of positives especially given how he was up against Seth Rollins, Dominik's progression continues to impress as his father ensures that he gets the best training he can provide, the prince of the Mysterio household has a bright future ahead of him.

Worst - Murphy takes the fall in the Mysterio/Rollins Feud Alas, the Mysterio Family vs Monday Night Messiah would only have sporadic good moments and part of that is because Seth would escape mostly squeaky clean. The few times the Mysterio family would win was when it was a tag match with Murphy to take the fall. This wasn't just unfair on the Mysterios since they were being robbed again of 'winning' a feud which involved Seth ripping Rey's eye out but it also was a disservice to Murphy's talents as a former Ace of 205.

Best - Reigns FINALLY turns Heel, and is a Heyman Guy Roman Reigns was consistently booed for about 5 years, earning a reprieve when kayfabe was thrown away to support him in his bout with Leukemia. Given his dialysis, COVID left him as a risk for most of the year, but he made a huge return in the Universal title match between Braun and the Fiend. Debuting a heel persona which would align with Paul Heyman, WWE had finally done what the fans wanted - turn Roman heel. And Roman has been on top ever since, the Tribal Chief Reigns.

Worst - Splitting the IIconics In a bout of trying to raise stakes, WWE decided that the best way to service their women's tag division was for 2 popular teams to fight for contendership - but the losers would have to split up. Between the Riott Squad and the IIconics, the former would win the match - but continue to be underbooked to the point where their reunion after feuding with each other has become fruitless - which meant that one of the few established tag teams in the women's division were splitting...not too long since the Kabuki Warriors had split too. Despite half a year later Peyton delivering a killer promo and Billie showing some comedic flair, neither bounced back from the split - their only solace now is to reunite now that they too just now have been released...

Worst - Velveteen Dream comes back June proved to be a shocking time for wrestling in general when brave people publicly called out their experiences with sexual, emotional and physical harassment and abuse. This rattled all companies and blacklisted a ton of once renowned wrestlers such as David Starr, Jimmy Havoc, Jack Gallagher, Marty Scurll, Travis Banks, El Ligero, Joey Ryan and shut down all of Chikara pro wrestling. Velveteen Dream was among the names listed, accused of having inappropriate communications and grooming minors, this was of course a huge blow to the once-popular rising star. Like they did with Matt Riddle, Joe Coffey, Wolfgang, Jordan Devlin and Sid Scala, WWE decided to investigate rather than immediately release Dream. During this time, WWE should have kept Dream off TV for an extended period of time, instead he appeared a month later on NXT to qualify for the NA Title ladder match Priest would win under heavy scrutiny of the fans. As much as WWE point out that they had found nothing, many still remain unconvinced and while Dream is currently off tv now, having him return so soon did not inspire confidence.

September 2020 Best - Sami gets the IC Title Back After being unfairly stripped of the title back in May, Sami returned to claim himself the true IC champion. Pitted against AJ Styles and Jeff Hardy, the trio would embark on a smart and highly acclaimed ladder match for the title, which Sami would win. Course correction coming into play for Sami to resume his reign, but I still wonder why he was the heel in all of that...

Worst - Changing Aleister Black's Attire and Entrance Aleister Black had the IT Factor, he was a superb striker with a great gimmick of a dark and brooding warrior, rising like a vampire in his entrance with a demonic jacket, he oozed the aura of a main event player. Until Vince changed the music and decided that Black should wear an eyepatch...this of course was done after a span of barely booking Aleister anyway - despite him delivering in his matches - before not booking him at all.

Best - The Prince is Promised Finn Balor's return to NXT had been on a slow burn at this point, but with Karrion Kross having to vacate due to a separated shoulder a new NXT champion had to be crowned. After a 4-way iron man tie, Balor came on top on Super Tuesday Part 2. Finn being champion again was indeed the right choice, while it delays his collision with WALTER indefinitely he has had a superb reign filling in for Karrion Kross, who would reclaim in a good match at Stand & Deliver.

Worst - Telenovela Bullshit The Mysterios/Messiah storyline tangented in a bad way in its ending stages before fizzling out. Aalyah Mysterio had been booked into a romance with Murphy, the acting was like a soap opera and not in the good way. 'But mother, I love him' literally being the weekly storyline of coaxing Murphy away from Seth, all of which became dropped to mean nothing for anyone.

Best - Kyle O'Reilly and Jey Uso enter the Main Event Primarily tag wrestlers for their WWE careers, Kyle O'Reilly and Jey Uso were given unexpected chances at the world champions Balor and Reigns on NXT and Smackdown, and boy did they take those chances. Both men impressed hugely in their matches, enough to get multiple rematches and a bigger role in the main event from it, Jey would join Roman as a heel and support to the Tribal Chief while O'Reilly would come to blows with Adam Cole in an unsanctioned match. Both men can be seen as world champions now.

October 2020 Best - NXT UK Acquisitions NXT UK hasn't really gained the desired momentum, which is a shame because there are a lot of great talent still there, and they sport one of the best looking active belts in Wrestling today. The problem is the limited audience and minimal roster depth, which is why it was refreshing when WWE signed more to the brand, the big name of Meiko Satomura being the headliner but also Rampage Brown and the steal of Ben Carter - now Nathan Frazer - from under AEW's nose. Later they would push A-Kid and sign the former Lucky Kid and Millie McKenzie to further bolster its brand.

Worst - Not Repackaging Retribution On October 5th, WWE decided to turn Mustafa Ali heel and put him as the leader of Retribution, but they would also pit them against the Hurt Business - a heel faction - and reveal himself the 'Smackdown Hacker' - who had unveiled some heels doing heelish deeds. Confusing at the best of times, Retribution never got past losing either, forcing Mia Yim to do tantrums in the ring on a mini-push that came to nothing and elevating nobody. Retribution had chances to save itself, but WWE didn't take those chances.

Best - Sasha wins big! At last, Sasha wins a big title match clean in a storyline payoff against Bayley. Both women at the top of their game, they earned the Hell in a Cell spot and began a title reign that would go longer than any of Sasha's other main title reigns. The Boss was finally standing on top as the main roster finally did Sasha vs Bayley right.

Worst - Orton wins big... Randy Orton had been feuding with Drew since beating Edge at Backlash, losing on consecutive title matches until Hell in a Cell, where he won despite the slow burn hints at a Fiend feud. While Randy was at the top of is heel game and Drew didn't have to hold the title all year, the multiple past attempts deflated this story as well as scrutinizing WWE constantly saying 'no rematch clauses' and 'you can't just walk in and demand a title match' but then doing the absolute same thing. Orton's title run wouldn't last either, which makes it all the more meh.

Worst - The Draft The Draft is meant to lead to surprising new dynamics and storyline changes, but 2020's Draft was a misfire. For one, there was no competition for it, Raw got 3 just because it ran longer and a percentage of the draft picks were wrestlers staying on the brand they were already on, making the shock factor limited. The Mysterios followed Rollins to Smackdown to continue their drab storyline, the tag champions swapped belts to remain colour coded and for some reason some tag teams were treated as individual and some not.

November 2020 Best - Undertaker's Retirement Ceremony After 2 previous 'retirements', the Undertaker finally hung up his boots for real this time, ending it where it began: Survivor Series. It was a very tasteful affair with nods to the card he debuted on such as the Gobbeldy Gooker and Brother Love, it was a good time and a good sendoff for one of WWE's greatest characters.

Worst - Survivor Series books it wrong While there was many good matches in Survivor Series, it did suffer from the usual booking mentality of 'Raw Superiority'. Lana became a sole survivor by default of count outs and DQs in a team including Shayna and Asuka, the Smackdown men were completely squashed despite having a strong team and Baron Corbin and finally, no NXT. There was the potential for adding Balor, Io, Priest and Imperium to these matches and that just could've elevated it, the last was more understandable though given COVID.

Worst - Not booking 3 Future Stars Andrade, Aleister and Murphy. All three had shone before reaching the main roster be it for NXT on the former two and 205 Live on the latter. But on the Main Roster their luck was a mixed bag; Murphy had recently beat Rollins clean, but after the Mysterios were about to come down with COVID themselves WWE didn't push anything with him, Andrade was a former US Champion in a faction that all fell apart within the year and Black was a shitkicker who WWE were methodically gutting. All three would soon see themselves not on tv at all, and for two they had an alarming connection.

Worst - Zelina gets fired Zelina Vega was the one who elevated Andrade to a face midcarder to a heel main eventer on NXT, she was also coming along well as a wrestler with some decent bouts with Asuka. But when WWE enacted a policy that their wrestlers couldn't profit from third party stuff like twitch, when Zelina resisted and found loopholes she found herself getting released soon after, Andrade and her irl husband Aleister Black now ominously missing from WWE, it was for the most part pettiness on WWE's behalf to forbid their talent from making money elsewhere by being themselves.

December 2020 Best - Big E wins the Big IC Without his New Day buddies, Big E could continue his singles run despite daft claims from Corey that as a decorated tag champion Big E couldn't do singles wrestling like he did when he was NXT Champion and IC Champion. But on the Christmas Smackdown taping, Big E would win the IC championship to a big babyface moment, which he would carry into Wrestlemania.

Worst - Gargano wins the NA Title (again) I have nothing against Johnny Gargano, but it is odd that he was the one to usurp Damian Priest and then Leon Ruff. To this day he still holds that title despite Dexter Lumis, Bronson Reed, LA Knight, KUSHIDA (who recently just won the Cruiserweight title) and Cameron Grimes all looking like worthy competitors to get a push. It's a strange place where Gargano builds a faction with gold but it doesn't elevate anyone around his waist.

Worst - Charlotte returns just to add another title to her list WWE's obsession with mismatched teams is matched only by their obsession with pitting a champion and no.1 contender against tag champions, both of which are overdone. So when TLC came along with Asuka having a mystery partner to face Shayna and Nia, it didn't quite land that her partner was Charlotte and they went on to win the titles...only to drop it in about a month as they teased a title match between the two. It showed the low pecking order the tag titles had, the lowered stock of Shayna and how the title change was merely to say that Charlotte had won every title in WWE (at that time).

Worst - Miz fails his Cash-In, but gets the Briefcase back The Men's MITB was horribly booked all year and time was running out, WWE had to decide whether they would have to book a failed cash in - and put the Miz in the same list as Sandow and Corbin in those who lost their cash-in (Cena and Braun if we include those who didn't capture gold), making Miz champion or hot potatoing again. At the end of TLC it looked like they picked the latter, which would've tied things up in a bow. But the following Raw, the Miz got his briefcase back because Morrison had cashed it in for him, meaning the saga was forced to continue.

January 2021 Best - Xia Li finally gets a repackage Xia Li has been on the NXT Roster for a long time, like Vanessa Borne and Aaliyah long time, but the best NXT could give her for a long time was 'Chinese Undercarder'. 2021 however made a shift, by turning Li heel with a storyline of her and Boa answering to a mystic overlord, Li turned into a brutish kickass killer, squashes building to her dispatching her former friends. While she still sits low on the card, it's promising stuff that can easily be pushed towards the main title scene, and frankly Xia Li has done her time to earn such a push.

Worst - Goldberg challenges Drew 'for disrespecting legends' The whole Goldberg fiasco was once again a rush job that served nobody except old Bill. Still soured by the fact that he cleanly defeated the Fiend and also had a horror match with Taker, nobody was quite amped to see Drew vs Goldberg at Royal Rumble. His reasoning for feuding with Drew was also confusing since he was claiming that Drew had disrespected the legends on Legends Night when he had been fully supportive and respectful towards them. Mercifully, the feud did not go Goldberg's way.

Best - The Women's Dusty Classic is Announced The Dusty Rhodes classic has in NXT become a platform for tag teams and mismatch alliances to flourish and open into newer storylines, and also to sometimes set up War Games, and with the vast depth of the NXT Women's Locker Room it was the right call for WWE to make a women's variation. The tournament allowed Candice, Dakota, Raquel, Ember and Shotzi to get tv time outside of a world title shot and so their talents weren't entirely wasted.

Worst - Sonya Returns, but as a GM Assistant When Sonya Deville took some time off post-Summerslam, she had proven herself to be skilled on the mic and in the ring. But on Jan 1st's Smackdown Sonya would be spotted and later it was officially announced that Sonya was back on Smackdown, but as Adam Pearce's assistant. Aside from some backstage talks and Street Profits trying to bribe her for a title match, Sonya hasn't seen much TV time - which is a poor utilization of her skills. The position is fine to an extent, but Sonya should be using her position to further her in-ring prospects too, take a leaf from AJ Lee's book.

Best - Edge returns at the Rumble While I was never unhappy with Edge winning the rumble I wouldn't say it was the best booking choice out of the roster. If anything though, Edge returning from Injury at Number 1 was a definite crowd-pleaser, and pitting him against Orton to resume their hostilities set the tone for the Men's Royal Rumble.

Worst - Corbin beats the Mysterios Clean on Consecutive Weeks I don't know what the purpose of this was. After returning from COVID, the Mysterios were put against King Corbin in weekly matches, Rey lost to Corbin clean, Dom lost to Corbin clean, there weren't any interferences or weapons, and there wasn't really a plot to this. Only when Dom beat Corbin thanks to Rey's help did the feud 'end', but it didn't really do anything for them, in the end, Dom cheats to win and not in an Eddie Guerrero way. It was just weird.

Best - The Women's Royal Rumble The Women's Royal Rumble in 2021 was a masterpiece, nearly every woman in that match got some shine and a bit of story. There was depth, context and clarity in the bout and the exciting prospect of the final two being Bianca and Rhea - two NXT prospects who would both later grasp gold. The ending segment solidified a perfectly-booked bout that would set a standard the men couldn't outshine that night.

Worst - The Universal Title Last Man Standing botch Handcuffed on the scaffolding, Roman Reigns looked certain to lose his Last Man Standing match against Kevin Owens as Heyman frantically tried to uncuff him. Of course, this was a botch at the worst of times but instead of attempting to ad-lib something, the Ref just restarted his count after reaching 6. It was a daft choice that killed the sails of the match, they should've either attacked the ref or let Owens - who had lost to Reigns several times already - hold the title for a month or so before dropping back to Roman.

February 2021 Best - MSK win the Classic On Impact the Rascalz were a beloved faction, and when two thirds of them jumped ship to NXT as MSK, fans were eager to see if WWE would go all the way with them, or if they would let the UK uberheel team of Grizzled Young Veterans take the spot. Fortunately they went for the former, which was a big boost for the future tag champions - only slightly delayed by injuries to both MSK and the then-champions Burch and Lorcan.

Worst - Top Tier Bad Booking on all 3 Shows Despite Smackdown and NXT regularly dwarfing Raw in quality, each show had begun a less than stellar narrative to build some feuds among their favoured wrestlers. On NXT, Gargano's faction The Way were having a Dexter Lumis problem - and although Lumis had won a non-title match against the NA Champion he did not get a title shot - one which had its bright parts but was often found goofy especially with the Indi Hartwell romance stuff. Smackdown merely had to keep it simple with Bianca and Sasha, but instead, they decided to go through the 'can they work together' route with Shayna and Nia, again shoddy booking threatened to dampen a Women's Wrestlemania Main Event. But Raw of course had the worst of it, Charlotte would be a babyface feuding with Lacey Evans, who was fucking her father...fans were already aware that Lacey has a husband and child which WWE had acknowledged before, and the feud only ended because Lacey was legitimately pregnant - which they storyline'd to be Ric's too - sparing Asuka of the same fate. It just wasn't a good time.

Best - Cameron Grimes STONKS The Gamestop Reddit Stocks moment came out of nowhere and made people a lot of money, WWE decided that Cameron Grimes would be one of those people. Already exuding charismatic energy and a decent catchphrase, making Grimes rich somehow elevated his character further as a hilariously snobby whackjob. Here's hoping he gets a solid crack at it as he cites DiBiase, maybe like he did Grimes can pay his way to the top.

Worst - Sheamus sucks at history Sheamus turning on Drew was an inevitability, and their matches were strong and entertaining affairs. But WWE really didn't try too hard to think of a reason for Sheamus to turn on Drew, citing his reasoning to be that Sheamus had lived in Drew's shadow. I mean really? We're talking about the same Sheamus who has won every men's accolade in WWE bar the IC title while Drew was doing air guitar with Heath, Jinder and Hornswoggle in the undercard? You have to make things make sense for people to buy into it.

Worst - Miz gets to be King for a Week Following on from Miz's failed cash-in was Miz's successful cash-in after Elimination Chamber - an action he succeeded in thanks to Lashley assaulting Drew post-match. While Miz being world champion again was anticipated for a long time, the timing was not right at all and fans were more or less relieved to see that Lashley would be taking the title from him within the next week. It was mostly a bit of clean up after realising that they don't want to use the MITB in the build to Wrestlemania, afterwards Miz went from WWE Champion to feuding with a rapper - also spare a thought for Morrison who doesn't really get to do anything outside of being the Miz's buddy.

March 2021 Best - Lashley wins the WWE Championship Speaking of Miz's short-lived reign, the one saving grace from it was that Lashley would claim it soon after, looking like a monster in the process. An overdue run for the man who was slowly looking like he was about to fade out of the company the same way that several others had and later would got his position to be WWE Champion, long may he reign.

Worst - La Sombra de El Idolo Andrade remains one of the most talented wrestlers of his generation, he had several paths in WWE that could have moved him to the top of the card, several feuds that people were amped for. And none of it came to be, because Andrade was granted release on his second attempt. Where Andrade El Idolo will appear next remains up for discussion, the likely route being AEW or reconvening with his old Ingobernables, but wherever he lands it'll be on his feet.

Worst - Shane returns just in time for Wrestlemania Season Shane McMahon is the boss' son, with a masochistic urge to be thrown off of things. But he doesn't seem to realise that every time he's on the card someone more deserving is not, not even with a posse as he tries to renew his 3 Minute Warning days. This time around Shane beleaguered WWE's card with a feud against Braun Strowman circulating around Shane calling him stupid and pouring green goo on him...who asked for this?

Worst - Apollo changes his accent Speaking of 'who asked for this?', Apollo's heel turn in embracing his Nigerian heritage was fine, a new edge for the otherwise smiley naive face character. But then Apollo decided to put on an accent, even though he's spent years without it. It was just unnecessary, a stamp that was to say 'I am foreign, boo my foreignness' that certainly has no room in today's wrestling. What's the odds that within a year Apollo's Nigerian Royalty gimmick will be warped into a Nigerian Prince scammer gimmick?

Worst - Women's Tag Fuckery Upon winning the women's Dusty Classic, Raquel and Dakota got a Women's Tag Opportunity against boringly longstanding champions Shayna & Nia, however rather than just pull the trigger and give the titles to them, WWE opted for a cheat finish which had Adam Pearce turn heel for the day just to screw over NXT. This was all a convoluted plan to create NXT Women's Tag Championships, which were awarded to Raquel and Dakota...before immediately losing it to Ember and Shotzi. Just what you want when establishing a new title huh? Quickfire title changes! It was all just very roundabout, should've simply announced the titles for the Women's Dusty Classic prize or given the Women's Tag to a team that could actually use it.

April 2021 Best - Edge and Roman add a bit of YES Alone Edge vs Reigns was still a highly anticipated Universal title bout. But the addition of Daniel Bryan brought in several new layers and conflicts for all characters. Each of them (like Balor vs Kross would) were presented as warriors who were forced medically to vacate the top prize only to come back stronger, each of them main evented Wrestlemania, and each of them were some of the best wrestlers in the world. The triple threat also meant that No DQ stipulations could be opened up, allowing Edge to show more of his heelish and psychotic side, as well as Bryan and Roman's viciousness. All three sold that they wanted that title and it made it stand out.

Worst - That Hurts our Business The Hurt Business was looking to become another success story in modern WWE factions. Masterminded by a resurgent MVP and helmed by now WWE Champion Bobby Lashley, Business was indeed booming. Until the final few weeks of Wrestlemania decided to cast aside Shelton and Cedric - the latter they strived to convince in joining them within the past year - and effectively dissolve the group. The loss of the Hurt Business led to high criticism, especially since Cedric and Shelton fell hard into the undercard only to see King Corbin cross brands to do Lashley's dirty work, it just wasn't a good thing and the possibility of replacing those spots with Mace and T-Bar does not quite fill the void.

Best - Cesaro gets his Push Cesaro had often been haunted by the dangling of the 'brass ring' over his head. Despite a frequent tag champion and also a US champion, WWE shied away from his strong and dedicated fanbase that desired more for the Swiss Superman/Cyborg. In the build to Elimination Chamber, fans were intrigued by Cesaro's clean wins over such names as Daniel Bryan, but were not surprised when he didn't come out on top in the chamber itself. In the aftermath though, Cesaro began a feud with Seth Rollins, someone who could boast an impressive Wrestlemania W/L record, compared to Cesaro - whose only Wrestlemania singles match was last year's Pre-Show. The match was put on Night 1 and was a lovely affair with a clear story, most importantly though Cesaro came out on top with a huge rub and like that, the Cesaro section gets to believe again.

Worst - Fiend Falls to One RKO After spending the last year re-mystifying the Fiend by having him survive all manner of things including drowning and being set on fire, the return of the Fiend to open Night 2 of Wrestlemania left a sour taste in fans' mouths. After 8 minutes of no-selling Orton's offense, Alexa Bliss reappeared with black goo over her face to distract the Fiend, he was hit with an RKO and pinned for 3. The bafflement was high as fans wondered what exactly the intention was for having the Fiend lose on his return, and why it took only one RKO to finish it when so much worse things have struggled to keep him down.

Best - NXT Stands and Delivers before Mania In what was a long and entertaining week of wrestling, NXT said goodbye to Wednesday Nights in style with their Wrestlemania-esque 2-Day Takeover. The shows were good sporting some fun matches, including an entertaining CW unification ladder match and Io passing the torch to Raquel, though NXT weren't invited to Survivor Series or Mania this time, they still put on a great show before moving to Tuesdays.

Worst - Riotts, SD Tag Champions slighted The Riott Squad currently stand as one of WWE's last surviving genuine tag teams, everyone else being singles wrestlers thrown together to avoid Main Event or Superstars. However, they also stand as a team who after multiple attempts are still not tag champions. After carrying the bulk of their Night 1 Tag Team Turmoil, the Riott Squad were unfortunately left to be felled by Natalya and Tamina - who would lose on Night 2 rendering this pointless anyway - and I have to ask, is it ever going to happen? The Riott Squad are not the only tag team hard done by at Wrestlemania, as the Smackdown Tag Championship did not even make it on the card! A fatal 4-Way between the Dirty Dawgs, Street Profits, Alpha Academy and Mysterios could've brought some infectious energy into Night 2 given the amount of talent in those four teams, but instead it got put on a 'Wrestlemania special Smackdown' while Shane vs Braun ended up on the main card. Priorities were not straight there and WWE robbed Dominik Mysterio of a Wrestlemania debut, their only contribution being a video recap and a Dirty Dawgs interview on Night 1 to prelude the Raw Tag Championship match.

Best - Wrestlemania dished out the goods, and the fans In spite of some questionable booking in the early stages, we end the list on a high. Wrestlemania didn't have the best build or go-home show, but it certainly delivered on a blend of storytelling and wrestling, big title changes for Bianca and Rhea and solid matches for the majority of the card meant that WWE ended on a high. Most importantly too, it was in front of a crowd, the ambiance very much missed on the Grandest Stage of them All.

I would rant about April 15th 2021 but I said it's from Mania 36 to 37 so yeah, footnote fuck April 15th. In the end though WWE had its ups and downs, but hopefully they will learn from some of their mistakes and come back stronger

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kaysreviews · 4 years

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My Review of Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995)

For my first review I want to talk about Neon Genesis Evangelion, a show that everyone has already talked about millions of times. It is arguably one of the most well known and classic animes and has sparked a shit ton of games, merch and spin offs. This show was created in 1995 by Hideaki Anno and is a 26 episode show. It revolves around a middle-school aged kid, Shinji Ikari, who fights in a massive robot-not-robot-human-monster-thing called an Evangelion. He fights alongside two other middle school girls, Rei Ayanami and Asuka Langely Soryu, to defeat mysterious destructive creatures called Angels.

Of course the story goes a lot deeper than that, sometimes being borderline confusing. Theres Adam sleeping under NERV, but it’s not Adam it’s Lillith, and its not NERV running the show it’s SEELE, and SEELE wants human instrumentality and... what the hell is human instrumentality? What is Adam and the angels? what the fuck is happening? On my second watch through (after doing heavy research on what the hell that show was about) I was finally able to even comprehend what was going on with the show. And when I did, I fucking loved it. Granted, I barely paid attention the first time around which was my mistake. The show really requires your full attention to get all the information that it throws at you.

On the surface, this show looks like your regular 90′s mecha anime, but once you dig deeper you discover this show is about loneliness, escapism, and what it means to be human and how shitty it can be. This show is actually a deconstruction of the mecha genre, which is usually a genre filled with substance-less shows that are primarily meant to sell toys. (though evangelion had it’s fair share of merch and toys as well.) and I’m a big ol’ sucker for deconstruction shows.

Now let’s get into what I thought of it. I love it. The art is beautiful, the animation is great (as great as a low-budget anime from the 90′s can be) and the story and characters are original and thoughtful. On my first time watching, I hated our main man Shinji. I though he was a little bitch for lack of a better word. He wouldn’t stand up and be a man, he was awkward and pervy, and he was so distracted by his past trauma that he couldn’t live in the present. Then on my second watch I unfortunately realized something. I am a whole lot like Shinji. I’m socially awkward, I often live in my past traumas, I expect people to care about me without caring for them back, I expect pity and I live off of the praise of others. This shocked me when I realized how much I can relate to this little bitch. It actually made me want to start to work on myself and grow, unlike Shinji. In a way, Shinji represents the worst in all of us, that’s when I started to understand him and feel for him. I hated him because I saw so much of me in this character, and I decided to like him for the same reason. I like him because he is literally the worst. It’s an interesting take to have the main character of the show be someone no one roots for, but be such a reflection on the worst parts of all of us. I fuckin love it.

I went through this love-hate with several of the other characters too, particularly Asuka and Gendo (though there isn’t really any kind of redemption for Gendo I just love that he’s somehow worse than Shinji) But overall the characters are very well-rounded and we get to see the best and worst of them all, and why they act they way they do. This show about mechs and aliens is extremely human and discusses the worst parts of us.

Ok now we’re done talking about the subtext, lets talk about how fucking badass this show is. I love when shows get biblical. Now this show isn’t actually referencing anything that actually happened in the bible, it only uses vague ideas, names, and a whoooole lot of crosses. But doesn’t it make everything a bit cooler? I thought the lore in this show was very interesting, the second impact and human instrumentality especially. I thought it was a good blend of the science fiction and post apocalyptic genres (my two favorite genres) while also being a creative concept. I loved the fight scenes between the Evas and the angels, I thought they were well choreographed and made use of dynamic editing to give the scenes more weight and power.

The only gripe I have with this show is the last two episodes, just like everyone else. I didn’t like them and I thought the show needed a grander ending. I understand, though, why they happened the way they did. The show was not doing well production-wise and they didn’t have the budget left. This paired with Anno’s deep depression at the time produced episode 25 and 26. the episodes were very slide-show like as we delved into the psyche of the NERV gang as human instrumentality took place. The show even regressed into paper and pen illustrations near the end of episode 26. At the end of the show Shinji eventuallly accepts human instrumentality and everyone congratulates him. The end. And that was the happy ending? people were not happy about that at the time so two years later in 1997 came End of Evangelion which gave us a more grim, but way more badass ending. (it honestly needs its own post so I won’t talk about it here) In my canon EoE was the true ending, but that does not mean the last two episodes should be negated. As abstract as they are, they still give a lot of insight on the characters and are still worth the watch.

I could probably go on and on about this show but I decided to keep this review to my main thoughts. As far as a review its a 9/10 and I’d recommend this to anyone honestly. There’s a reason why this show has lived on for 25 years and why it should live on forever. What do you think about Neon Genesis Evangelion? do you love it? do you think its pretentious garbage? Let me know!

Thank you for reading.

#anime #neon genesis evangelion #anime review #anime recommendation

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gear-project · 4 years

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Annon-Guy: 1. So, would the GG Begin segments be like flashback sequences in Movie 1, Movie 3 and Movie 4? 2. Which Drama CD's would play in Movie 3? Like the short story during Dizzy's vacation from the Jellyfish Pirates and being introduced as one or the Alternate Timeline during the Bad Future? 3. So Ramlethal's part in Movie 3 would be a recap section before the Main Xrd Part, how would it work? 4. Wouldn't some scenes get cut to fill in the 2 Hour and 30 minute runtime?

Well, I’m not a professional film director or script writer, so I can only really tell anyone what I personally think in terms of how the story has been presented to us thus far.

To be honest, you’re asking way too much out of me for this kind of question.

You might as well be asking for the whole script here, which I can’t really provide.

Obviously Film 1 would establish everything, and if you saw anything from GGBegin, it would only be a brief snippet if anything.

GGBegin itself probably wouldn’t be fully covered until Film 4 anyway. Even if Sol brought up Aria when he encounters Valentine, Elphelt, Ramlethal, or even Jack-O’.

The short stories that don’t involve the main story would be “cut” for obvious reasons... the only real stories that are directly connected to Sol’s would be Lightning the Argent (Ky meeting Solaria and later on Dizzy), Golden Disc (Testament meeting Dizzy), Side Black (I-No’s origin).

If you asked me how things would transition though:

Beginning of Film 1: GG The Missing Link (2181) End of Film 1: The beginning of Accent Core (2181)

Beginning of Film 2: Accent Core Plus (2181, Dizzy and Ky’s Route mostly) End of Film 2: The prologue of Butterfly and Her Gale / Pre-GG2 years (2183)

Beginning of Film 3: GG2 Overture (2186, Valentine’s Birth in the Backyard) End of Film 3: Post-VastEdge, we witness Elphelt being born (end of 2186)

Beginning of Film 4: Weeks Prior to Xrd Sign (2187) End of Film 4: ??? (depends on how GGStrive is handled in relation to Xrd Sign and Revelator).

Also, certain aspects of the story would get “merged together” most likely in order for events to fit.

For example, when Bedman traps Sol temporarily in the Nightmare Theater, he also did the same to Potemkin and Axl Low, so he probably attacked all three of them at once.

Sol would fight Bedman, but they’d be dead even, but I-No would appear out of nowhere and rescue everyone, under “That Man’s” orders or something of the like. She’d reveal Babylon 5 years in the future to Sol, and later talk to Axl about the message he had from “The Original” to pass on to Asuka.

That’s just an example of multiple paths merging... another example is when May confronts Ramlethal for the first time... she’s not there to capture Ramlethal, she just goes there to talk with her and question why she declared War against Humanity.

Ramlethal probably wouldn’t explain herself, only hint at May’s Japanese heritage, which would cause May to run away, with Chipp Zanuff chasing after her.... well that’s the jist of what I mean by “merged routes”.

Lastly, I don’t believe they’d fit in a 2:30 time slot... they’d probably be OVAs with their own time limit at best. They’d be broken in chapters though, just like the games are, so you can at least play those separately.

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finiarels · 7 years

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SAYONARA NO IMI - CHAPTER III

Summary: The story of Hashimoto Nanami as Shi-jin(thorn human) representative in a sacred ritual between her kind and the humans

Notes: This story is adapted from Sayonara No Imi Music Video, however in order to make more sensible plot there are several things that will be changed. Also, I really have no idea how Shitoushiki works so what I write in this story is purely based on my imagination mixed with a little bit of information that I gained from the MV.

Hashimoto Asuka thinks that fate is joking with her. Spinning her life around in the most twisted way possible. From the beginning, she was never one to sympathize with the need to do a Shitoushiki, from the time when the priest told her everything about it and why it is necessary, she always thinks that it is foolish, she even had bluntly voiced out her opinion on this matter. In her opinion, there never was a peace between the humans and shijin. It’s not really a peace when the human has a higher standing than her kind, allowing them to do as their wish, treating them like nothing but a poisonous being. They have to hide while being scared for life hoping not to make a single mistake that would pretty much rob them out of the tiny bit of freedom they have left. To tell the truth, she’s sick of it- of being a shijin and also for having to live among humans. Sometimes she feels like they should maybe team up and start a rebellion, sure there will be a lot of casualties but they say true freedom comes with a cost and she thinks it will be worth everything even people’s life. However, of course, she can't-do so, not if she pretty much owes everything to her sister who has done every single thing that she deemed necessary to have her live as normal as possible. This is also why she was 100 percent approve her sister plan to leave the village and go back to the city, she had even promised her that she would take care of herself here in the village, do her best to make everything goes smoothly and after she finally come of an age without any single spot in her records she would be able to legally leave this place and meet her sister once more. A week ago, everything was going smoothly until the day when they have to decide the Shitoushiki representative came. She wasn’t there when they had announced it as the one that is eligible participate is those who are at least 18 years old and only candidates and the priest should attend the little ceremony, hence she was doing her normal routines as if nothing big is happening in the shrine. However, this year she’s finally of age to witness the ceremony for the first time and just like her most of the girls in the class has also turn 16, which is why the other girls were talking about the ceremony excitedly, wondering about who will be the Shijin representative since her classmate’s older sister is going to be the one representing the human. Even one of them had dared to ask her about whether she knows who will represent her kind or not. Which she coldly answered with a no. “Wow, they don’t even let one of their people know about it? That’s really strict,” Kitano Hinako the girl who is always cheerful had somehow failed to notice how she tried to push her away with the short and strict answer, instead the girl- who sits right in front of her is actually scooting her chair closer to her table which makes her feels a bit uncomfortable. “Then who do you think will get chosen?” She couldn’t take it anymore, she hates how they are acting as if this is some sort of entertainment that would be enjoyable to watch. She slammed both of her hands onto the table, which surprised pretty much everyone who hasn’t left the class and said in a low tone. “I don’t care.” She noticed how the girl had leaned back, most likely afraid that she would do something foolish that would hurt her. She scoffed and roughly shoved all the books on her table into her bag, not saying anything else before leaving the class with everyone’s eyes on her. She feels lucky that the class has ended as she doesn’t think she would be able to face her classmate again for the day. So, she started to walked back home as she hoped her poor table is somehow free of any damage because of what she just did totally involved the thorns. Once she’s home she went straight to the room that she shared with her sister and two other girls, placing her bag on the floor and pranced around the room before realizing that it is awfully quiet today. Raising her eyebrows because of the rare occurrence she decided to look for the others, taking note that they had finished announcing representative this morning, usually after that, the girls gathered in their backyard. However, when she passed one of the room that is used for accepting a guest the door suddenly slide open, revealing the priest, the girl that she has never seen before and her own sister who was the one who opened the door and by seconds has passed through her in a half run towards the other side of the building. “Nee-chan?” Her sister didn’t answer her gaze stick to the floor as her hands clenched on her sides, she could clearly see her thorns protruding from her skin. She stood fazed, her brain couldn’t comprehend the situation, why would her sister have to meet with someone on the watch of the priest even. She had actually figure out the answer ever since she saw the older girl walked out from the room. However, she couldn’t accept it. At that moment, she realized that she doesn’t want her sister to get hurt that’s the reason for her to try staying as calm as possible besides how she found herself on the verge of lashing out a lot of times. So, Hashimoto Asuka tried to find where her sister went, which lead her to the study room. From outside she could hear the small voices of two people talking, so she stopped herself from pulling the door open and opt to stand still and wait for the two people inside to finish their conversation before entering the room. She was glad that Shiraishi actually decided to give both of them privacy as it is what she needs to have her sister run away from the window while buying more time until someone notices her disappearance. Nevertheless, the older Hashimoto said no. She couldn’t stand it, how a ritual that she hates so much and has to witness for the first time in her life will have her sister putting her own wellbeing on the pedestal. Just like she couldn’t stand her classmate who keeps talking about how her sister is really honored to stand in that position. Every time someone mentions it, she wanted to scream, to say that it’s not actually fun and games for them. But she has promised that she wouldn’t ruin it, so she keeps her silence, albeit sometimes she still lashed out and shut them out with a harmless but rude gesture. If only she could she would prefer to act like the ceremony is not happening, just like how she did it in many years before. If she could just like how she did it in many years of her life she would like to just skip it, not even going to breach that topic whenever she is around the other shijins. Sadly, that’s not an option for her this year. In two years her name will be among the pools of the other mature shijins, having the same chance as the others in the pool to be called for being a representative of a shitoushiki. For the shijins ever since they turned 16 they are not just allowed to observe the practice and the ceremony but it is compulsory for them too. However, she is still trying to avoid the practice as much as she can, with a reason that she has school, well at the several first practices where the shijin rehearse independently from the humans she was somehow able to do so. Too bad that the practice where both parties will do a mock ceremony is taking place after school time ends. So, with a heavy heart, she drags her foot towards the area where they practice, trying to keep her ear shut from the chattering of her classmate who walks a few meters ahead of her, irritated by herself for forgetting her earphone at home. A lot of times she caught Nishino Miona looking back at her, with eyes looking troubled as she tried to tone down the topic about the practice that is taking place. The girl also knows the truth about the ceremony and what went wrong with it a year ago. For someone coming from the founding family, she must have heard about that, especially because it deals with her own older brother. “Say Miona-chan, do you think one day you will stand in your sister place?” Hoshino Minami innocently asked. “Isn’t that how it works? I mean it used to be your brother being the representative, now it’s your sister, so someday it’s going to be yours, isn’t it?” Asuka bets the short-haired face would be pale by now, she unconsciously paid her attention to the girl, silently waiting for her answer. “It’s more complicated than that,” she softly answered. “Well, maybe when it comes for you to take the turn you will have Asuka-san to be the shijin representative. It would be really cool.” Kitano Hinako butted in with her ever cheerful expression on her face, “right, Asuka-san?” To tell the truth, that time there’s nothing she wished more than to slap the girl out of her lack of knowledge. But she is aware that might be more of society fault than the person, so she just pretended she was too busy with her phone to even notice. Good thing that Kitano wasn’t able to repeat the question as her friend tried to distract her with some stuff about assignments. That’s when Asuka decided to take another direction on their next turn, choosing to walk the long as it means she doesn’t need to listen to them more. It is also good that she will be able to cut several few minutes of the practice where they would have told her to introduce herself to the humans. She has no idea whether the way that she had chosen is truly much longer or is she the one who was walking as slow as possible, but once she finally reached the grass field with a small wooden stage where people gather to either practicing or watch the practice, the quarter of the mock-ceremony is already done. She could see the disapproval looks of the priest for her lack of punctuality but she decided to ignore that. That’s when she noticed that Nishino Miona is not just spectating the practice. The short-haired has a video camera in hand, looking focused as she records every second of the action. At that moment, there is one thing that she could think of. What if she uploads that to the internet? It is already bad enough that people will definitely say something mean about their kind, mocking her sister who will be the face of the shijin, but what’s even worse is that possibility of more people will know about the older Hashimoto. In this case, if she ever ran away, there’s a possibility that someone might recognize her and report her especially if they notice that the older girl is close to a human. That video could destroy Hashimoto Nanami future just as much as the blade that is currently going to slain the tiny space between the thorns of her hands could. The future that the girl long so much yet prohibited by the law. The one that she has always hope her sister will have. Thus’ Hashimoto Asuka took a step closer to the short-haired and tried to snatch the video recording device out of the girl’s hand, “don’t record it. You shouldn’t. It’s not right” “I already got a permission,” the girl said, holding the device even tighter so that she wouldn’t be able to take it away. “Oh yeah of course, because you humans are always so special, aren’t you? Is this not enough for you guys that you have to show the entire world that you are taking charge? That you could just easily do everything and have right to judge every-single-thing that we do while we basically have no rights at all?” The girl looks flabbergasted and half-shouted “what are you talking about?” “Just STOP THE RECOR-” She could feel someone is holding her left wrist, pulling it away from her classmate’s video recorder. She tried to get away from the person tight grip, but it was too late. She heard a cry of pain as the person took a step away from them, covering her palm with her other hand, face twitching in pain as blood started to drip down from the palm, glided smoothly across her skin till it reached her elbows before finally fallen to the grass beneath them. The person is the human representative, the person that irked her so much despite not even had interacted with her before. A part of her thinks that she should have felt happy about this, yet somehow, Asuka feels nothing but excessive guilt. Asuka clenched her fist, feeling more terrible that she has ever been, her eyes albeit afraid moved to her sister who stood up to approach them but in response was shoved away by one of the human escorts who is dressed in blue. “Don’t! You will only make it even worse,” the human escort said as she approached the representative in a protective manner, she looked up to the priest and ask “can we please end the practice for the day? Let me take care of Nanase.” The priest looks troubled but nodded as soon as the long-haired girl finishes the sentence. The person gave a brief nod as an acknowledgment before pulling the hurting girl gently by the shoulder, keeping a protective arm across her back as she guides the girl away, carefully instructing the girl to keep a pressure to the cut as they walked. “I am sorry,” Asuka apology came out weak and let as the person concerned is already in the distance where they wouldn’t be able to hear her soft whispers, her thorns protruding to reminds her of the misdeed. This was the first time she had truly gotten someone hurt physically. Not before this day she had ever experience a stronger feel of guilt and fear. For the first time over the last few years, Hashimoto Asuka shed a tear.

#sni #nogizaka46 fanfiction #nogizaka46 #yeay for ashu cap :)

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recentanimenews · 6 years

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Get Up Close (and a Little Too Personal) in Senran Kagura Reflexions

Senran Kagura has never been shy about its more titillating aspects--in fact, one might argue they’re the only reason for its existence. While individual entries in the series range from side-scrolling beat-em-ups to third-person shooters and rhythm cooking games, they all revolve around a group of generously-proportioned girls who go to ninja school and get their clothes torn up a lot. If the Senran Kagura franchise had to be boiled down to its most common motif, it would be a static image of a reluctant schoolgirl having some kind of elongated object shoved between her breasts. It lives and dies by its euphemisms, making every situation as sexual as possible while toeing the line of what can and can’t be shown in a marketable product. I doubt anyone expected that to ever change, but nevertheless I have unfortunate news for those who might've.

Senran Kagura Reflexions is the latest entry in the aforementioned Senran Kagura series courtesy of Marvelous Entertainment and Honey ∞ Parade Games. In Reflexions, players are summoned to a dimly lit classroom by series heroine Asuka to help her sort through some inexplicable feelings. To do so, she requires a gentle massage from the player. Of course, by “gentle massage” I mean groping, poking, fondling, and spraying down every single inch of her body as she either moans or bemoans your complete invasion of personal space.

Upon turning on the game and entering the main menu, players will be met with a handful of modes: Reflexology, Dress-Up, Mini-Reflexology, and Diorama. Reflexology is the game’s story mode. An animated 3D model of Asuka greets the player and asks for their help sorting through her feelings. She offers her hands and the player enters Standard Reflexology mode wherein they massage her hands. Depending on where you choose to rub (there are 6 different areas on each hand), Asuka and the player will enter into one of seven different dreams. These dreams depict alternate universe relationships between the player and Asuka, such as student/tutor, producer/idol, and big brother/little sister. Upon entering the dream, Asuka will find some half-baked reason to implore you for a massage, and you will always oblige.

Again you will enter into Standard Reflexology mode, only this time you’re able to massage anywhere on her body from the knee up. With the Joy-Cons you can squeeze, touch, caress, or shoot her with a water gun. One of five different colors will flash on screen depending on how and where you touch her, and once a hidden satisfaction meter fills for one of the colors, players can choose to enter Glorious Reflexology mode, wherein they must give Asuka an even more intimate massage than before. In the beginning, this means playing bongos with the Joy-Cons on her thighs with enough rhythm to fill a pleasure meter within a 60-second time limit. Progressing in the game unlocks other techniques for Glorious Reflexology, such as brushing her arm and actually using a certain brand of vibrating wand for its intended purpose. After that, a gem will appear on the screen and partially fill itself in with the color of the area you massaged the most. From there you and Asuka are booted back into the classroom to repeat the process. Once the gem is completely filled, you will get one of five endings determined by the color you filled most of the gem with.

All that explanation makes it sound like there’s a lot to this mode, but that sadly isn’t the case. Massaging Asuka’s hands was as dull as blindly moving the stick around and holding down a button to trigger a dream. After the first playthrough, a feature unlocks in this mode that shows what dream will trigger once you start massaging an area, which is incredibly handy for unlocking the other dreams, but it also makes the whole process pretty arbitrary. I didn’t enjoy massaging her hands at all, and found myself just wishing I could select the dream I wanted to go through next instead of checking every area on her hand for its specific trigger. Reflexions attempts to provide feedback for these massages by simulating the feeling of her heartbeat via rumble, but it doesn’t quite deliver. She also repeats a handful of canned lines in this (and every) mode that get old extremely quickly.

This lack of feedback extends even further to the full-body massage mode. The only parts of her body that react at all to your touch are (predictably) her chest and her thighs. While her thighs jiggle ever so slightly, her breasts can be groped, slapped, and pulled every which way. I soon developed a habit of pulling them as far apart as possible each time I entered a dream. It was less a ritual of enjoyment and more an act of self-flaggellation to remind myself of what I’d chosen to do with my time. Massages in this mode ultimately became a repetitive process of poking and grabbing different parts of the body until I was met with the color I was seeking an ending for, and spamming that action over and over until the game decided it was time to let me slap her thighs around some more. Motion control in this mode is limited to swinging the Joy-Cons to slap and poke at Asuka while tilting them squeezes her body. This mode could’ve felt more interactive by controlling the hands on screen with motion control instead of relegating them to analog stick movement only, but the motion control that already exists is so finicky that it’s best to simply stick to button inputs.

Maybe you don’t care about the gameplay, though. Maybe you’ve sought this game out solely on the merit of its story and place in the vast Senran Kagura canon. In that case, well, this game is still a letdown. The “story” in Reflexions can be summed up in one sentence: Asuka asks you for a massage and realizes she likes you. That’s it. This game has five different endings, but they’re only different in the sense that she finds five different ways to word the phrase “I love you.” Each dream has a couple different reasons why that version of Asuka would ask you to massage her that it cycles through, and each color has its own handful of sentences where Asuka reacts to your massage. She also has her own set of quips she cycles through during the massages in every dream. That’s about as varied as the dialogue and narrative ever get.

Advancing through the Reflexology mode will unlock various items in the other game modes, such as music for the main menu, backgrounds for the Diorama mode, and cosmetics for Dress-Up mode. In Dress-Up mode, players can customize Asuka’s hair, outfit, and accessories for the rest of the game. The only items that will carry over into Reflexology are equipped accessories, but all of the changes made in Dress-Up will show in Mini-Reflexology, which is an endless body massage mode in the classroom. While I did appreciate being able to dress up Asuka in my game, I felt like my choices were pretty limited. Clothing customization was limited to preset outfits with not much variety beyond the few she already wears elsewhere in the game. There were a fair few accessories, but I didn’t find any of them appealing beyond a simple pair of red-rimmed glasses. I liked the hairstyle selection, but the color options for hair and clothes were lacking in both quantity and quality. In the end, the only customizable feature that actually had a good spread of options was Asuka’s lingerie, which sports a grand total of 45 different patterns to choose from. Don’t get me wrong here, I know that having cute underwear is important, but come on. Why'd they have to make THAT the priority?

Before I sat down to write this review I made a list of the things I liked and disliked about this game. In the end it turned most of the things I really liked about this game were because they made it easier to get through the things I didn't. I liked that I could set the main menu music because it meant I could only hear the one song I liked from the game’s serviceable at best soundtrack (“Love Therapist”). I liked being able to see which endings for dreams and routes I hadn’t unlocked yet because it made seeing everything the game had to offer for reviewing purposes easier. I liked that I unlocked the ability to just skip Glorious Reflexology altogether (for obvious reasons). Beyond that, there’s so much left that I just didn’t like at all. Camera control in the Diorama mode is mostly relegated to sliders controlling angle and position, so it feels awkward and confusing to control. Playing Reflexions in handheld mode causes a fair bit of slowdown where there isn’t any in docked mode. Asuka’s character model clips through itself constantly to accompany the ridiculous boob physics. It’s also clearly not meant to be viewed as closely as it is in the massages, because there are some pretty low-poly textures on her clothes. Not only does it lack depth both narratively and gameplay-wise - it lacks polish as well.

Most importantly, this game is creepy. It’s just straight-up creepy. I’ve been tiptoeing around that for most of this review so far, but it bears mention more than anything else I’ve thought to address: I felt uncomfortable every step of the way with Senran Kagura Reflexions. Yes, the routes lacked variety. Yes, massaging Asuka was repetitive. Yes, there weren’t enough customization options. Technically, it’s not a good game. However, even if all of those things had been fixed, it would not change the fact that this is a creepy game with a creepy premise meant to enact out creepy fantasies that creeped me out. This game can't be saved, and it certainly can't be ignored. No amount of ironic detachment, desensitization, or additional DLC content will ever be able to change that.

REVIEW ROUNDUP

+/- Customizable menu music, but the soundtrack is forgettable

+/- Some cute customization items for Asuka, but options are limited

- Clunky camera control in Diorama Mode

- No variation in endings

- Useless motion control

- Framerate issues in handheld mode

- Massaging Asuka is repetitive and lacks satisfying feedback

- Everything about it is extremely creepy

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Danni Wilmoth is a Features and Social Videos writer for Crunchyroll and also co-hosts the video game podcast Indiecent. You can find more words from her on Twitter @NanamisEgg.

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