WWE Updates: Jericho, Ziggler, and Brodus Clay!

Happy New Year, from one pro wrestling fan to many others! It’s been a while since I have written a WWE article, and a lot has happened since that time, so I want to give some updates and reactions on recent events in the world of pro wrestling. From returns, resurgences, to up and coming superstars, we’ve had a lot happen over the last four months so let’s get to it!

Now, am I the only person who couldn’t care less about Chris Jericho? I care about Jericho like I care about Christian – I don’t. He has never been entertaining on a mic or in a ring, and not once in his meaningless career can I recall him being incorporated into a storyline that I thought was even remotely entertaining. So with that being said, my question is why three weeks in a row do we see this  over-rated , no talent ass clown come out to the ring, and not say a single word?

Here’s the deal, last year right around this time, every WWE fan was glued to their tv when the Undertaker made his silent return. He came to the ring, and was greeted by Triple H, and not a single word was said, just a foreshadowing stare from both men up at the Wrestle-mania 27 sign. The crazy thing about this whole scene was that it was entertaining because both men have, over the course of their careers, captured the attention of every fan. Chris Jericho has not done this, and after weeks of ridiculous promo videos for the return of a mysterious superstar, seeing Chris Jericho come out as the mystery man was, in my opinion one big fat disappointment. I just wanted to get that out of the way.

Now, let’s move onto more important topics. In less than three months Wrestlemania is going down in Miami Florida, and we will see John Cena vs. The Rock, which may possibly be the most hyped match in WWE history. I feel it necessary for a self-proclaimed pro-wrestling expert such as myself to put in my two cents on this match, so here it goes.


I like the idea, exactly ten years ago we saw another generation vs. generation match between The Rock and Hulk Hogan. This time the Rock is being looked at as the elder and John Cena representing the “new” or “current” generation. My one complaint (and I seem to be full of them so far in this article) is that I don’t think they have properly built John Cena’s character over the last year to make this match what fans want to see. Fans want a hero vs. hero match, arguably the two best superstars ever facing off at the biggest event of the year. What I expected them to do with Cena’s character over the past year is build him up as this unstoppable force who could tear through anybody anytime, kind of like they did five years ago with him. Instead they’ve almost shown him getting weaker, which leads me to my prediction for Wrestlemania.

There are two scenarios I can see happening, the first of which may be a bit redundant if you take into consideration the Rock/Hogan storyline from Wrestlemania 18. In scenario one, John Cena will lose at Wrestlemania, and after being booed heavily by the crowd (most of which too young to even remember the rock for anything more than his crappy Disney movies) Cena will turn heel. I have been annoyed for years at speculation of John Cena turning heel, but I think at this point, it may be the only logical conclusion. In scenario two, John Cena will win the match, and he and the Rock will let bygones be bygones and because the Rock approves of John Cena now, the crowd will return to the side of Cena. As I said, I hope that for the sake of redundancy, we don’t see John Cena turn heel, but I have no idea what the writers will try to do with this story line.

One wrestler I am continually impressed with is Dolph Ziggler. I have said since I began writing on this website that I really think that he has the ability to sell tickets to shows, and really be a main draw on the card. In two weeks, Dolph Ziggler is scheduled to face CM Punk at the Royal Rumble Pay-Per-View for the WWE title, and I think it’s about damn time we see him in a title match.

For too long, the WWE has been trying to push lame ass wrestlers like “the Miz” and “Alberto Del Rio,” while guys like Dolph Ziggler and Zack Ryder have sat the bench and wrestled in mid-card piss break matches. Even with Johnny Ace as the special guest referee, I don’t see Ziggler taking the title. CM Punk is drawing the viewers and at this point there is no reason to change the title to someone like Ziggler. Although I don’t see Ziggler taking the title, it wouldn’t shock me either. The WWE has got to start pushing some new headliners, and as I have harped on, I believe Ziggler has the in ring ability to be one of them. With a little bit of a character change I can see him being a wrestler that fans look forward to watching.

Up until December I was asking myself the same question that every other wrestling fan was asking themself; what can Smackdown do to make its show even more uninteresting?? However, at the TLC pay-per-view we got our answer, make Daniel Bryan the heavyweight champion! I mean the champion is supposed to be the main draw on your show, and who worse to attempt to draw viewers than somebody whose character and fan base are both completely non-existent! I really think at this point they need to completely merge the two brands and have only one champion. Have all wrestlers fighting for one championship, instead of one brand having the real title, and the other the boring one.

 One wrestler who has gotten me relatively excited over the past couple of months is Kane! With the resurgence of the “masked-monster from Hell,” Kane, the WWE has shown a shred of signs of itself from the attitude era. Even with TVPG restrictions, I have been impressed with what they have so far done with Kane’s character. My only hope is that they continue to evolve his character and push the envelope with what he does as an entertainer, and not just run the same ideas into the ground with him. I have faith that his character will provide another dimension to Raw, and another storyline that fans look forward to seeing the progression of week to week.

The last topic I want to touch on is Brodus Clay! Actually I don’t want to talk about Brodus, I don’t believe talking is necessary, just take a look at Mr. Funkasauris himself….

I want to thank the WWE writers personally for not having Brodus Clay debut as just another big wrestler who beats up other men in tights, and giving this hunk of love some character!

That is my rant, I will be back in a few months, post Wrestlemania to do more updates, and shove more of my opinions into all of your faces. Happy New Year again!

A Breakdown of SOPA and PIPA: What It Means For All Of Us…with Videos

It’s safe to assume that by now you’ve heard about SOPA, PIPA, or the Wikipedia-led internet blackout that took place today. However, it may be unclear exactly what SOPA and PIPA are designed to do, and how their passing might affect the internet community. In the interest of remedying that, we’ve pulled together some of the best, most informative explanations of what SOPA means to us.

[I want to be clear: Grizzly Bomb is an opinion-based site. While we report often on entertainment news, this is a platform for our staff to share our thoughts and reactions to the content we are passionate about. We are opposed to SOPA, and while we encourage neutral publications to remain unbiased and respect their reasons for doing so, Grizzly Bomb does not intend to imply neutrality. This is our perspective, nothing more or less.]

What is SOPA/PIPA?

From Wikipedia:

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), also known as House Bill 3261 or H.R. 3261, is a bill that was introduced in the United States House of Representatives on October 26, 2011, by House Judiciary Committee Chair Representative Lamar S. Smith (R-TX) and a bipartisan group of 12 initial co-sponsors. The bill, if made law, would expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement and copyright holders to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods. Presented to the House Judiciary Committee, it builds on the similar PRO-IP Act of 2008 and the corresponding Senate bill, the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA).

The originally proposed bill would allow the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as copyright holders, to seek court orders against websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement. Depending on who makes the request, the court order could include barring online advertising networks and payment facilitators from doing business with the allegedly infringing website, barring search engines from linking to such sites, and requiring Internet service providers to block access to such sites. The bill would make unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content a crime, with a maximum penalty of five years in prison for ten such infringements within six months. The bill also gives immunity to Internet services that voluntarily take action against websites dedicated to infringement, while making liable for damages any copyright holder who knowingly misrepresents that a website is dedicated to infringement.

In layman’s terms, SOPA and PIPA are the latest attempt by legislators to provide the U.S. Department of Justice and copyright holders with unprecedented freedom to pursue legal action against websites illegally sharing copyrighted intellectual property. It would considerably increase the repercussions of infringing on copyright, in- or outside the United States.

Some of SOPA’s supporters include (From Wikipedia):

  • The Motion Picture Association of America
  • The Recording Industry Association of America
  • Viacom
  • Nike
  • L’Oréal
  • The Entertainment Software Association

The Effects of a passed SOPA Bill

The bill’s main goal is to take down the rampant pirating and streaming of content like films, television and music, which honestly is a totally valid demand. As convenient and enjoyable as easy, free access to your favorite content may be, it is childish and ridiculous to ignore the fact that this is the property of companies like the MPAA or the RIAA. Whether piracy is, by definition, theft or not is besides the point.

The issue of removing and penalizing sites engaged in piracy and streaming is not the one that most of us against the bill take issue with. The problem with SOPA is that the language it uses to describe protected intellectual property is so vague that it threatens to censor perfectly legal use of copyrighted material as well. On top of that, many are quick to remember that similar copyright laws are already in place, and haven’t managed to stifle infringements in the past. The fear is that SOPA may not only prosecute perfectly legal content-sharers, but end up failing at its intended goal to take down the actual offenders. Youtube user Total Halibut explains it clearly below:

About halfway into Total Halibut’s video, he delves into the more sinister ways big businesses could exploit SOPA for their own gains. On the same topic, Jeepers Media made this video that suggests an even more sickening manipulation by SOPA supporters. Try to cope with the guy’s grating voice, because it’s important to hear what he has to say:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJIuYgIvKsc

Here’s a concise summary of how PIPA could unfairly control and oppress the internet and its users, via Vimeo user Fight for the Future:

And probably the most comprehensive of them all, here’s a TED Talk from Clay Shirky:

For gamers – Any of you who follow the video game industry know that E3 is the biggest event for games. As well as serving as one of the biggest conventions out there, it features most of the industry’s biggest reveals, announcements and early demos every year. As you can imagine, for many publishers, developers, journalists and fans, E3 is the most important part of the year. However E3 is run by the ESA, which you may recognize as one of the supporters of SOPA, mentioned above. Many people from various ends of the games industry feel betrayed by their support of the bill, as indie games, journalists and others rely on a free internet in order to operate. If you have a stake in the video game industry in any way, as a consumer or otherwise, it’s important you see this video from Screw Attack:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp8S8eJkMW8

While a majority of the entertainment industry is invested in seeing SOPA pass, it’s important to know that almost every internet business on record has opposed it. These are the people who understand the internet, who actually know how it functions and rely on it operating legally in order to make a profit; not as an additional stream of revenue. These are some of the companies who vocally oppose the bills (Also from Wikipedia):

  • Google
  • Yahoo!
  • YouTube
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Mozilla Corporation
  • Reddit
  • the Wikimedia Foundation

Not to mention, the Obama administration stated its disapproval of SOPA and PIPA, asking “all sides to work together to pass sound legislation this year that provides prosecutors and rights holders new legal tools to combat online piracy originating beyond U.S. borders while staying true to the principles outlined above in this response.”

What To Do About It

Discussion of SOPA is on pause for the time being, but is slated to resume debate in February. Meanwhile, PIPA is scheduled to go to a vote on January 24th.

If you disagree with the implications of SOPA and PIPA being passed, please check out these petitions and make yourself heard:

SOPAStrike.com

FightfortheFuture.org

Change.org

https://grizzlybomb.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/billtext-protectipact.pdf

Lollipop Chainsaw’s Emo Villain and Sexy Cartoon Upskirts!

We have already told you a little bit about Lollipop Chainsaw… the sexy, zombie-filled video game being released this year by Suda 51. In Lollipop Chainsaw, you play Juliet- a cheerleader full of school spirit! But when zombies take over the school, she (with her disembodied head of a boyfriend by her side) decides to grab a chainsaw and get to killing!

The villain’s name is Swan. Check him out!

Every time I find out more about this game, I get even more excited! Lollipop Chainsaw releases this year. I am thinking that this looks like a sweet Halloween costume! Check out this chick in Juliet Cosplay:

Here are some cartoon upskirts for the pervert in you:

Grizzly Review: The Devil Inside

Demonic possession films have become quite a popular trend in modern horror over the past few years. A barrage of unnecessary Exorcist sequels, as well as a couple of hit and miss exorcism movies that have been released in the past few years. Among those, was The Last Exorcism, a surprisingly critical success, but one that failed quite epically with audiences, holding a 32% approval rating as opposed to a 73% from critics. I’m in the minority of viewers who actually loved the movie, taking its time to set up realistic characters that are actually interesting. The film itself built up nicely and ended with a twist I would have never really expected.

Enough about films I’d rather be watching, though, let’s get on to the piece of crap that disappointed me last night. The name of the film is The Devil Inside, one of the many demon flicks to come out in the past few years, and definitely not the last. It’s written and directed by William Brent Bell and Matthew Peterman, the two men behind Stay Alive, which I can fully admit is a guilty pleasure of mine. The film follows a young woman, Isabella Rossi, who decides to make a film regarding her mother, Maria. She killed three people during her own exorcism in 1989, and has been locked up in a mental institution in Rome ever since.

With her cameraman, Michael, in tow, she heads to Italy to figure out what the hell is going on. She meets two young exorcists, Ben (Simon Quarterman) and David (Evan Helmuth), who agree to help her as much as they can to solve the mystery of her mother’s condition. Going against every law that the church requires them to abide by, they perform an “introductory exorcism” on a girl who’s been possessed and never treated properly. Surprisingly, they successful remove the demon from her, which gives them both the confidence and the assurance to go ahead and try to help Maria. Maria’s exorcism, though, is much more difficult. Possessed by four demons, Maria isn’t just possessed in the way we know, she’s been taken over completely by these entities.


The Devil Inside
 is honestly the worst of all of the bad exorcism films in recent memory, but it’s also had the most marketing. With frightening TV spots popping up on every channel, and billboards as far as the eye can see, it’s amazing that such a low-budget, and not to mention amateur, production could get such acclaim. Starring no name actors who really cannot act for the life of them, Bell and Peterman decide to throw in horribly written dialogue, as well as some inspired but ultimately failed shaky-cam work.

The film’s opening scene is an equally pleasing and refreshingly violent sequence, displaying the bloody remains of the three bodies that Maria brutally massacred during her exorcism. If anything, it’s a promise that The Devil Inside is not your ordinary demonic possession film. Well, they lied shamelessly. The remaining hour and 10 minutes of the film is a brutally slow, scare-less, and rather illogical attempt to make exorcism scientific, religious, and scary all at the same time. Then, when things finally start to get exciting, The Devil Inside decides it’s worn out its welcome, and ends with one of the worst and most abrupt endings I’ve ever seen.

I can say that I got quite a few great laughs from this movie, and if you’re looking for a comedy, then The Devil Inside is honestly as funny as movies like Bridesmaids and Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil. But, if you’re looking for a scary demon movie that won’t let you sleep at night, this is most definitely not where you want to be. I mean, for a film that claims to be real, including a cast list during the credits probably isn’t a good idea.

0.5/5 Grizzly’s

Some Stills & Speculation on The Hobbit and Prometheus

Film Drunk dropped this still from Prometheus featuring Noomi Rapace gazing awestruck at something out of frame, which is interesting considering the most intriguing part of the photo is the pair of space jockeys behind her:

Here’s the photo again, lightened considerably to show the jockeys more clearly:

While the mysterious aliens and the tunnel surrounding them recapture H.R. Giger’s iconic style from the original Alien series, Rapace’s spacesuit looks wildly out of place in the gloomy environment. It could just be my obsessive love for Mass Effect talking, but I think the outfit’s looking very much like something Cerberus might design.

Update: Cinema Blend now reports that actress Kate Dickie supposedly spilled some mildly spoilerish plot details in a UK Tabloid, but as they mention, those types of magazines aren’t exactly the picture of accuracy. Keep that in mind while you read on, but remember there are potential spoilers:

Continue reading Some Stills & Speculation on The Hobbit and Prometheus

Grizzly Review: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

When remakes are done correctly, they’re a beautiful, glorious thing, like a beautiful piece of art or the birth of a beautiful baby. When remakes are done correctly, it makes me shed a manly tear of joy, because seeing something done better the second time around makes me happy, just like a great sequel.

In David Fincher’s adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, he takes what was a melodramatic and overall poorly made 2009 adaptation, and adds a new level of ferocity and stylishness to it that was otherwise lost on the original. I think this is due mostly to his familiarity with the source material, a novel of the same name by the late Stieg Larsson, and his unfamiliarity with the original Swedish film (he’s been quoted as saying that he’s never seen it).

By now the plot should be familiar to most, but I’ll run through it to give everyone a fighting chance. The story follows a journalist named Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) who’s been exiled by almost every news outlet and has been stripped of his credibility due to a story that he published that was “proven” false. On the other side of things, professional computer hacker Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) has gathered information on Blomkvist for a large Swedish family that is interested in hiring him for a job.


The job is to investigate the murder of Harriet Vanger (Moa Garpendal), the 16-year old niece of Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), who is the head of a large corporation known as the Vanger Co. For the past forty years, Vanger has been investigating Harriet’s death with no luck at all. In his desperation, he hires Blomkvist, in the hopes that he might be able to crack the case. Blomkvist reluctantly agrees, but the only way that he can do it is to hire the same person who was hired to investigate him, Lisbeth. The two team up to solve the murder of what might have been the heir to the entire Vanger legacy.

David Fincher’s interpretation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is much better than the 2009 original, but in some respects it isn’t good enough. As a huge fan of the source material, the only way that this film could possibly live up to my expectations is by being four hours long, because that’s how long it would take to include everything that a film of this magnitude requires. But, from a strictly cinematic standpoint, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is an extremely fascinating murder mystery.

At 158 minutes, the film is a lot to take in, but it’s unfortunate because the first 80 minutes require Lisbeth and Mikael to be apart until they finally meet to work together on the case, which is far too long in my opinion. I say that because they only spend about 45 minutes solving the mystery together, with the last 35 minutes being dedicated to the aftermath of the ordeal as well as Salander proving Blomkvist innocent.

Though the build-up seems unnecessarily long, once the two finally get working, the film ignites. Their chemistry is sheer beauty. Who knew that mixing such an “alternative” personality as that of Lisbeth Salander with straight man Mikael Blomkvist would create pure magic? It doesn’t hurt that the performances by both Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara, especially the latter, are undeniably committed and mesmerizing. Similar to that of Justin Timberlake in The Social Network, I almost forgot that I was staring at two actors and not viewing the private exploits of such fascinating personalities. Lisbeth Salander is portrayed as much more personable and approachable to Blomkvist, turning their relationship from strictly physical and professional, to borderline romantic, an addition to her character that I’m actually glad they made.

David Fincher’s direction is undoubtedly stylish, but in comparison to The Social Network, which was steadily chaotic, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is chaotically steady. By this I mean that regardless of the amount of pulsating action that happens on the screen, the camera refuses to take the shaky cam route and is one of the few things in this movie that remains calm, which I’m thankful for. In keeping with the almost classy and dark style that the film seems to go for, remaining steady really helps set a tone rather than flopping all over the place, blurring everything out of view.

Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails and Atticus Ross, who also did the music for The Social Network, again compose the soundtrack. Whereas the music in The Social Network seemed to be a crucial part of the look of the film, the music in this film serves more as background filler rather than a key aspect, sans a dazzling credit sequence set to a cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song”.

Overall, as a remake, and even as an adaption, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo succeeds, but its sometimes obvious representation of the killer, as well as the dangerously slow first half drags the film down from great to good, which I’m perfectly fine with. I didn’t expect another Social Network, and I definitely didn’t get one. I’ve never been a huge fan of the adaptations of the books, because there’s just too much to adapt into one film, regardless of its length, but Fincher makes it much more watchable than the 2009 Swedish version, and that in itself is quite the achievement.

3.5/5 Grizzly’s