Some Thoughts - January (The Favourite, Spyro The Dragon, WWE Royal Rumble, Daughters and more)

Hi! Thought I try something a little different this year, I'm going to be posting a blog at the end of each month with some thoughts on somethings I watched/listened/played that month. So here it is:

Music

Daughters - You Won't Get What You Want (4/5)

A really amazing atheistic choice for the music, I still maintain that the opener 'City Song' sounds like a Slipknot track, but the rest is some hardcore, dirty, scary and anxiety driven noise rock. I can totally see why this is a lot of peoples favourite record, and honestly this would definitely have place in my top 5 if I had listened to it before making my list.

Fave Tracks: City Song, Satan In The Wait, The Flammable Man, Less Sex, The Reason They Hate Me.

Nirvana - Nevermind (4/5)

Never properly listened to this album all the way through and I'm glad I finally did, it's a treat, I read somewhere that Kurt didn't like how clean the production on this album was, and honestly I agree with that statement. I feel I gravitate to some songs from the debut album, Bleach, more cause of the punky and dirty production. Nevermind clearly has much better writing though, genuinely a classic.

Fave Tracks: In Bloom, Come As You Are, Lithium, Polly, Territorial Pissings, On a Plain, Something In The Way

The 1975 - A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships (3/5)

A really enjoyable emo poppy album, and some track really do stick with you, but for me this isn't usually stuff I gravitate to, and it also suffers from a long run time and track list, it means it really meanders in the middle, even with the hot start.

Fave Tracks: Give Yourself A Try, Love It If We Made It, The Man Who Married A Robot/Love Theme, It's Not Living (If It's Not With You), I Couldn't Be More In Love.

Nirvana - In Utero (3.5/5)

I can totally see why people think this record is the best out of the three, but for me, and maybe this cause I listened to Nevermind directly before this album, I think In Utero might be my least favourite of the three LPs Nirvana released. It is clearly the blend between the first two albums, and in that respect it should be the best, but I feel like overall it just falls a little short overall. I still really love the album, it's a pretty close call, I guess I was hoping this one would be a 5/5. Heart-Shape Box might be my favourite Nirvana song now though.

Fave Tracks: Heart-Shaped Box, Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle, Milk It, Tourette's.

Ghost - Prequelle (3.5/5)

By far the best Ghost album they have released so far, I feel like Ghost has a large catalogue of great songs, but they all don't sit in one record where you can enjoy them all in a sitting, and this is the closest they've come to that. Let me be clear, the best Ghost songs aren't on here, but quite a few real good ones are.

Fave Tracks: Faith, See The Light, Miasma, Dance Macabre


Movies

Sorry To Bother You (3/5)

Fucking weird, but also has funny moments. I think this needs a rewatch but my overall feeling is that it was fine.

Teen Titans Go! To The Movies (3/5)

A fun movie that is overall quite funny and charming, but has cheesy/cringy moments. I remember when this came out people had this very positive voice for it, being unexpectedly very good, but for me, watching this for the first time in a post-Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse world, this is no where near up to the standard that it could be.

Aquaman (3/5)

Cool sequences, beautiful underwater shots, very good CGI, charming and funny performance by Jason Momoa, coupled with the DCEU trait of being, a bit all over the place, feeling weirdly paced, disjointed, strange editing decisions and being too fucking long.

The Favourite (4.5/5)

I need to see this movie again right now, every performance by the main three actresses, Olivia Colman, Emma Stone and Rachal Weisz, are all absolutely amazing. The story, all about love told in this really interesting way, with lots of beats, told in a period which is unusual with characters that are unusual, all boils down to nothing really actually changing in the long run and it's just so fucking COOL MAN. WIN ALL THE OSCARS.

Games

Spyro Reignited Trilogy: Spyro The Dragon (4/5)

Just completed the game with the full 120% you can get, it is a lot of fun and you can see the tight map and level design coupled with simple controls and abilities to create a really challenging platformer. I'm looking forward to play the next game and seeing the evolution of the design of these games, as I am a big fan of Jak & Daxter 1 which wasn't made by Insomniac but it was made by Naughty Dog who were working right next to Insomniac during the PS2 days. I see a lot overlap between Spyro and Jak 1. The remaster side of it is gorgeous, I really love the audio design too, but I have some gripes with the controls, I found myself slipping off the edge when doing jumps sometimes when I should be making them, but apart from that there doesn't seem to be any glitches or bugs, it feels really polished and fun to play.


TV

Sex Education - Series 1

Hilarious and Heart-warming, the correct way inclusion should be done, and a coming-of-age tale that still has a lot to go. Also great casting full of actors I haven't seen before bar one. Just a really great British comedy show, go watch. Also, this show has a really weird but cool aesthetic, of the whole show looking like a USA coming-of-age, romantic comedy, teen movie, think The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller type deal, but it's set in the modern day. I noticed this almost immediately when I realised, 1, England is not that sunny, 2, the school doesn't have a school uniform.

Friends - Season 2

Not much to say here, slowly going through the series, Friends, although aged in places, still feels incredibly relevent and also sometimes ahead of the times. It's a strange mix, the show is awesome. Rachel and Ross being an actual couple rules, Monica and Richard was also a great storyline.


Wrestling

NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 13

As always a stellar show by New Japan, I didn't love everything but Ospreay/Ibushi, White/Okada and Omega/Tanahashi are really standouts and the ones I'll keep in my mind for my End Of The Year Match candidates.

NJPW New Years Dash

Really shocking and lack luster to see no Elite members that night, it kinda put into perspective the kind of wierd situation New Japan is in now that AEW is around. I'm still holding out hope New Japan will make a deal with AEW and we can get some cross promotional shows between them.

NXT UK Takeover: Blackpool

As a British wrestling fan and someone who considers themselves to be in touch with that wrestling scene, I was dissapointed at the waste of potential here in the first ever NXT UK Takeover. I thought the opening Tag Match was really good, but considering the two teams involved and their history in a place like PROGRESS, felt that it could've been better. Rhea Ripley and Toni Storm had my favourite match of the night, which felt genuine and was just a joy to watch from start to finish. But the whole show ended with a main event which I frankly believe is abysmal. Slow and boring from the outset, multiple botches especially at the end with the top rope spot firmly points it at being really quite awful.

NXT Takeover: Phoenix

For me, I thought this show didn't hit the high points you expected Takeovers to have now. I thought the opening tag to be really good, Gargano/Ricochet to be a bit too dense in their spots and pace, but still a good match, Belair and Shayna to have an alright bout where Belair really shone and The main event to be really quite lack luster considering the match up, the main problem being the finish of the match where Aleister Black hits a Black Mass and then 2 minutes later tries to do it again but hurts his leg and gets pinned. Really quite dumb.

WWE Royal Rumble

Well isn't this a really nice surprise! WWE had a really great PPV for the first time in a while and has firmly brought me back on board from just about under a year away from watching PPVs. The standouts here were the Women's titles matches for me, Asuka/Becky really quite great, Ronda/Sasha a really close second to that. I also really love the cool chemistry between Bryan and AJ, I know it isn't this big fast paced indy-tastic feud that people would expect from those two names, but I think they have a really good flow and it grabs you really quite well. Finn/Brock was a spectacular match, Brock has really gone all out on these past two matches here with Bryan and Finn. Women's Rumble was quite shaky for a long time and only really picked up right at the end. Men's Rumble was much better overall, nothing too shocking or crazy but a really enjoyable rumble all round.

Yeah so that was my January, I hope I convinced you to try out something, brought something to your attention, or made you avoid something you were gonna try, I had fun doing this, dipping into this blog over the month and just adding a few lines of my thoughts. See you all next month I guess!

2018's Best Of The Year - Wrestling (The Fluffies)

Welcome to the now OFFICIALLY annual Fluffy awards. DISCLAIMER: I am no Meltzer, so I won't have watched everything, couple that with the fact that this year, since WrestleMania 34, I've basically sat out WWE entirely. WHOOPS, anyway here are my awards.

Male Wrestler Of The Year - Kenny Omega

Yes, last years runner-up is this years absolute best. I think Kenny is gonna be at the top of this category for years and years to come, but the reason he's here this year is not only has he put on the best match I've ever seen, but he is on my list of potential MOTY contenders more than anyone else. He also finally captured the converted IWGP Heavyweight Championship this year in said match. It feels like relatively slower year for him compared to last years series with Okada, but looking at all the great matches he had this year completely foils that.


Honourable Mentions:

Tomohiro Ishii

His G1 was incredible, his UK matches were incredible and his New Japan matches were incredible. Ishii had a run with RevPro's British Heavyweight Championship this year while feuding in both RevPro and New Japan with Minoru Suzuki, (who could've easily have made this list too) and I was lucky enough to see most of these matches LIVE, so completely bias there. But again Ishii's G1 was stunning, with matches with Goto and Omega were standouts. I really want him to be IWGP Heavyweight Champion now.

Johnny Gargano

What a fucking ride Gargano's year has been. Stellar match after Stellar match on NXT Takeover's, as well as an absolutely enthralling feud with former DIY partner Tommaso Ciampa, a great babyface performance into a great heel performance. I hope Gargano keeps the ball rolling.


Female Wrestler Of The Year - Becky Lynch

To be quite frank, I haven't been watching much WWE, but Becky Lynch is my favourite horsewomen, and everyone went shit crazy about her heel stuff, I did watch her Raw invasion segment where she had the iconic image of her standing in the crowd with blood streaming down her face. Then her tweets afterwards completely destroying Ronda were really great. Basically I think she is one of the best characters in wrestling and I wanna see what she's doing at WrestleMania.


Honourable Mentions:

Toni Storm

Last Years Breakout Woman, this years runner up to the BEST. Toni Storm feels like she continually grows as a wrestler every time we see her and it is great, this year she won the Mae Young Classic beating Io Shirai and has been a prominent feature on NXT UK.

Kairi Sane

Kairi had another great year in wrestling, Mae Young Classic as well as winning (and then losing) the NXT Women's Championship with some pretty good matches with Shayna Baszler.


Tag Team Of The Year - The Young Bucks

Yes, again for a second year running The Young Bucks make it here. We all know they are the pinnacle of Tag Team wrestling but again, same as last year, Being The Elite has done some absolutely INSANE things this year, All In, and the announcement of AEW, which I guess technically happened on 2019. Regardless they are truly CHANGING THE WORLD.


Honourable Mentions:

The Undisputed Era (Kyle O'Reilly & Roderick Strong)

Well at the tail end of 2017 they were really great and making themselves known. This year however, they added Roderick Strong and decided to pair up KOR with him due to O'Reilly's former reDRagon member Bobby Fish being out injured. and this team is absolutely incredible. They won the NXT Tag Team Championship late 2017 but carried them pretty much all through this year, with one hiccup against Moustache Mountain in a great match.

Los Ingobernables de Japon (EVIL & SANADA)

Just a great team, I love this duo a whole lot and I think they are consistently New Japan's best Heavyweight Tag Team around.


Male Breakout Year - Hangman Page

Between Hangman and Number two on the list it was pretty fucking hard call to make. And although in kayfabe the runner-up definitely had a better year, I think Hangman Page is just a slightly better wrestler. Hangman has really impressed me this year, his G1 was great (even though he lost a lot) and he had two really great matches with Joey Janela and Jay White. AEW looks like it will give Hangman a chance to shine brighter.


Honourable Mentions:

Jay White

Speaking of. Yes, Jay White was the very very close second here, but man oh man has he had a great year, I didn't think much of his New Japan debut match with Tanahashi at Wrestle Kingdom 12, but since that point he has had some great matches and moments, his formerly mentioned match with Hangman, his match with Okada in the G1, and his whole G1 to be quite honest, and then he took leadership over Bullet Club. He is sure to have his biggest year yet in 2019.

Juice Robinson

I fucking love Juice Robinson, I feel like he is so close to being talked about everywhere and being the most hot commodity. His G1 with his cast and hand injury, his feud with Jay White and then Cody. Just some great stuff can't wait for more.


Female Breakout Year - Ronda Rousey

I mean I don't think there is any question here, even me, the one who hasn't been watching much WWE this year knows that Ronda is a Kurt Angle or a Chad Gable, just understanding the sport and being a natural immediately. I fucking loved her debut match at WrestleMania, and I have it on good authority that she has kept up the good work too.


Honourable Mentions:

Jordynne Grace

This was my first exposure to Jordynne Grace this year, but she absolutely blew me away in the All In Battle Royal and then later in PROGRESS wrestling. She is truly a one of a kind women's wrestler and I want to see her more.

Rhea Ripley

WOWOW. What a good surprise Rhea Ripley has been, she is probably one of the most convincing wrestlers I've ever seen, what a great young talent and the first ever NXT UK Women's Champion!


Tag Team Breakout Year - Undisputed Era (Kyle O'Reilly & Roderick Strong)

Before you chant cheater, Let's be clear, this is the first time these two have been a consistent tag team. If this was reDRagon then you would've had a fair point. But it isn't. See tag team of the year honourable mentions for more info.


Honourable Mentions:

Bullet Club (Taiji Ishimori & Robbie Eagles)

No one else would put these two here, but I fucking loved these two as a team. Purely formed because Taiji needed a partner for the Juniors Tag Tournament, these two have a really incredible chemistry which I found being magnetised to watch. Maybe because this was the first time I had seen Robbie Eagles in action as well but I really loved this team and I hope we see more of it soon.

Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch

These guys are here because they had a great match at a Takeover after I had wanted them to tea for a long time, and then they kinda subsided again afterwards. I love these two and I want them to be used more consistently, I kinda hope they turn up on NXT UK TV.


Top 15 Matches Of The Year

Well, there was so many matches I wanted to praise, that I've turned this from Top 10 to Top 15, god knows if it'll be 15 again next year or not.

15. Jay White vs Hangman Page - NJPW Strong Style Evolved

14. Johnny Gargano vs Andrade Almas - NXT Takeover: Philadelphia

13. Kenny Omega vs Pentagon Jr - All In

12. Minoru Suzuki vs Tomohiro Ishii - RevPro Global Wars UK

11. Hangman Page vs Joey Janela - All In

10. Adam Cole vs EC3 vs Killian Dain vs Lars Sullivan vs Ricochet vs Velveteen Dream - NXT Takeover: New Orleans

9. Minoru Suzuki & Zack Sabre Jr vs Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii - NJPW Strong Style Evolved UK: Milton Keynes

8. Minoru Suzuki vs Hiroshi Tanahashi - NJPW The New Beginning in Sapparo 

7. Kurt Angle & Ronda Rousey vs Triple H & Stephanie McMahon - WWE WrestleMania 34

6. Minoru Suzuki vs Tomohiro Ishii - NJPW Power Struggle

5. Johnny Gargano vs Tommaso Ciampa - NXT Takeover: Chicago

4. Kazuchika Okada vs Hiroshi Tanahashi - NJPW G1 Climax 28: Night 17

3. Kenny Omega vs Tomohiro Ishii - NJPW G1 Climax 28: Night 14

2. Johnny Gargano vs Tommaso Ciampa - NXT Takeover: New Orleans

1. Kazuchika Okada vs Kenny Omega IV - NJPW Dominion

Honourable Mentions:
Hiromu Takahashi vs KUSHIDA vs Marty Scurll vs Will Ospreay - NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 12, Kenny Omega vs Chris Jericho - NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 12, Adam Cole vs Aleister Black - NXT Takeover: Philadelphia, Men's Royal Rumble - WWE Royal Rumble, Women's Royal Rumble - WWE Royal Rumble, SANADA vs Kazuchika Okada - NJPW The New Beginning in Osaka, Golden Lovers vs The Young Bucks - NJPW Strong Style Evolved, Buddy Murphy vs Kalisto - WWE 205 Live, Tetsuya Naito vs Chris Jericho - NJPW Dominion, The Young Bucks vs SANADA & EVIL - NJPW G1 Special in San Francisco, Jay White vs Juice Robinson - NJPW G1 Special in San Francisco, Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Minoru Suzuki - NJPW G1 Climax 28: Night 1, Zack Sabre Jr vs SANADA - NJPW G1 Climax 28: Night 6, Juice Robinson vs Tetsuya Naito - NJPW G1 Climax 28: Night 6, Kenny Omega vs Kota Ibushi - NJPW G1 Climax 28: Night 18, Kota Ibushi vs Hiroshi Tanahashi - NJPW G1 Climax 28 Final, Johnny Gargano vs Tommaso Ciampa - NXT Takeover: Brooklyn 4, Chris Jericho vs EVIL - NJPW Power Struggle.

Top 5 Feuds Of The Year

5. Kenny Omega vs Cody

This was the biggest story in wrestling for a brief period this year, and it is all down to BTE's mastery story telling at work.

4. The Elite vs Bullet Club

But I preferred this second civil war that happened immediately after the first. Watching The Elite bond as a band of brothers while the Guerillas Of Destiny with Haku lay them to waste and then watching as Bullet Club OGs garned some of the best talent in the world while The Elite got broken down was a great watch.

3. Kenny Omega vs Hiroshi Tanahashi

Unfortunately we didn't get the pay off this year, but it has happened as of writing and I can say this whole lead up about whos wrestling styles are better, who's the ace etc etc, have been a really cool way of building a match between two of the absolute best wrestlers.

2. Minoru Suzuki vs Tomohiro Ishii

These are two of my favourite wrestlers right now just because of this series alone, I just love watching two big brutal old guys forearming each other. It fucking rules.

1. Johnny Gargano vs Tommaso Ciampa

I mean, it couldn't be anything else, just the most interesting storyline to happen in wrestling all year. coupled with an amazing trilogy. This is a culmination of teasing from even before they won the tag team championships, during the CWC and from there. Just a great story.


Event Of The Year - All In

The most refreshing feeling variety show of great fucking wrestling throughout, it completely changed the way us fans look at wrestling, this felt completely different and exciting. I cannot wait to see where AEW goes all because of this one show.


Promotion Of The Year: New Japan Pro Wrestling

Second year running but not particularly surprising, New Japan are just a wonderful company that continue to put on the best that wrestling has to offer.

That was it! Hope you enjoyed the awards, check out some of those matches and see you all next year!

2018's Best Of The Year - Games

HEY, this is all opinions maaan, I don't listen, watch, play, experience, everything that happens in a year. SO CUT ME SOME SLACK.

I spent ALL of 2018 preparing for this series of lists. I printed out a bunch of blank lists for each medium I was experiencing, stuck it on the back of the door, noting it down and rating it all. Needless to say, I LOVE LISTS.

VIDJA GAMES ARE COOL AND I LOVE THEM. So many games, so little time. This year I'd say I was the most engaged with playing current and newly released video games as I have ever been, at least as much as my wallet would allow. I also started trying to pick my way through my games collection that I haven't even touched as well. It has been pretty eventful. I think this year has been slightly weaker than 2017 and I think 2019 will be weaker still as we are fast approaching the launch of the next console generation. But I still have 5 games here I really enjoy and wanna talk a little about.

What's that? This isn't a new game? This is a remaster? Pffft. It's on PS4 isn't it!? I have also never ever played the original Spyro games on the PS1 and this is my exposure to those games, and man, these are really fun. Also playing this remaster is showing me where the origins of one of my favourite games came from, Jak and Daxter, Insomniac made the original Spyro games and you can see the level design thinking almost paralleling the original Jak game. Needless to say, I am really enjoying this game, plus the graphics look absolutely incredible and they really did a great job at remastering this. I also am really hoping for Activision to start making new Crash and Spyro games in the vain of the originals. There is an open market for it and every remaster they've done so far has been stellar.

Guess what? I'm kinda cheating again. I have technically, not even touched Hitman 2 content, the reason being is also the same reason this is one of the best games of the year. Hitman 2 included all of the original game in this one within the new engine and the new mechanics being implemented. Disclaimer, you only get that if you buy the pack for the game, which is the same price of the original game, you also get that pack if you own a digital or physical version of the game. Look it all up, it is a bit weird. Anyway, I had vouchers for CEX and I goyt the original Hitman game on physical with my vouchers just so I could get the maps for Hitman 2. This game is fucking great, the level design is essential o the game being successful or not and they have done an impeccable job. It feels less of a stealth game than it does a puzzle game, working around all the working parts, and adding all the extra challenges around each level, as well as restrictions, and the ability for players to just making their own contracts in each map, gives this game the biggest replay value and just masses and masses of content to delve into, you can really get lost in there. A lot of fun, watch some videos, see if you'll be into it cause the game lends itself to amazing video content too.

I'm literal trash and fighting games, it is a curse, I love watching fighting games and everything about fighting games is super cool to me, but I am BAD at fighting games. Super Smash Bros however, seems to be a different story. I have never owned a Smash game before and this fucking game had the audacity to make me feel competent at a fighting game and care about characters that are from games I've never played. I've just had a blast with this game, I feel like it is one of the most fun purely gameplay experiences I've ever had. Also Joker from Persona 5 is coming real soon, that makes it amazing by default.

WOWOWOW! Tight, great feeling combat? Open world design connecting more linear based areas? Simple but in-depth mechanics and skill trees? All coupled with a high difficulty curve if you want it and a extremely compelling story with interesting characters? You get all of that from this one incredible game. God Of War is one of the games that will be talked about as a MUST HAVE for this entire console generation, It feels so unique in art design as well, the game is truly incredible in every sense. I will say for all of you who may have been deterred from playing this, you do not have to play all those older original God Of War's, this may be connected but you will get by just fine not knowing anything, that was the position I was in and I was fully engaged. Also this is a complete reinvention in gameplay and direction, so if you hated the gameplay of those original games, do not worry! If you can give this game a try, it'll be known as one of the best.

I think, as a unique or creative game coming from 2018, God Of War beats Spider-Man. But If you're asking me what my favourite game of the year is, 1000 times, it will be Spider-Man. Spider-Man definitely feels like it is the 'Greatest Hits' of Batman Arkham games, but in a world full of shit, all I really want is an escape from the world, a feel good time, a great feeling game and a engaging story, and Spider-Man gives me all of that while being about one of the best superheroes of all time. I have complete rose tinted glasses for this game already, but I feel so thankful for Insomniac for creating a game that makes me feel like the most relate-able superhero to ever be created. Peter Parker is the epitome of a wholesome character and being able to be him is a joy. I keep hearing the DLC isn't great, but you know what, if it is an excuse to go back into Manhattan and feel like Spider-Man I will take it.

Honourable Mentions: Red Dead Redemption 2 (as of writing I have not finished the game, I am in Chapter 4 I believe? I HAVE A LOT OF OPINIONS. enough that I will definitely want to at least write something about this game when I finish it), Bayonetta for Switch (I really enjoyed my time with Bayonetta, but that game is fucking hard and I am no good with memerising combos, so it isn't a game that is made for me but I enjoyed my time nontheless), Overcooked 2 (me and a rotating cast of friends and family has made me fall in love with this game, feels like the best chaotic fun that I need to just kill time and hang out with the people I love), A Way Out (A really fun co-op experience with some really cool ideas, the story has a lot to be desired but the gameplay around it is pretty good!), Detroit: Become Human (with a game that looks so visually stunning and that seems so well put together, why are we still getting stories from David Cage. Detroit has a laughable plot and maybe if that's why you wanna try it go ahead, but I think this is now probably one to many games that has been squandered by David Cage's stupid writing. In a world with Until Dawn and Life Is Strange, why are Quantum Dream's talent being squandered by one idioit?), Life Is Strange 2 (I haven't had a chance to even by the game yet, but I want to at least mention it here because I love this series and I played Captain Spirit when it came out and loved that to pieces too.), Astro Bot Rescue Mission (Holy Shit, this is the best PSVR experience I've had so far, granted I don't own a PSVR and I only got to play an hour of a the best levels from a friend who owns the game, but this is a HUGE step forward to selling people on VR, I want to play this whole damn thing, it's just so creative and it feels so fresh, and it looks beautiful)