#2 stars cause it just bored me to death instead of ripping out any interest I had in the book

[blodeuweddschild]

Fuck of Adam Nevill fr get yourself an editor who can remove 200 pages from your books

[fae-fucker]

Zenith: Chapter 37-40

Chapter 37

So this chapter is very rapey and if you’re not comfy reading it I can safely say that it’s not crucial to the “plot” of the rest of the book at all and you can skip it if you wish. 

We’re back with Klaren, who’s being strangled by General Cortas because he’s mad that he’s constantly horny for her. She mind-controls him into letting her go and we find out that she’s been here for two years, where they forced her to send videos to the King of Xen Ptera to get him to surrender but she’s a rebel so she told him to keep fighting. 

During that time, she’s also been brainwashing General Cortas into “loving” her. And now that his mind has been completely fucked, it’s time for Klaren to also get fucked. 

No, really. This was apparently the “sacrifice” she was supposed to make. 

She was born to do this. Born to sacrifice herself. Her heart, to the king of Xen Ptera. Her daughter, unplanned, had been sacrificed, too.

Now, she would willingly give up her body to the cause.

[...]

They spent the rest of the night together, tangled in the sheets. 

Tangled in her lies.

Now, let me explain how this squicks me out, beyond the obvious. 

Are we supposed to feel ... bad? Feel sad that she’s doing this? Feel bad for her? Because so far, General Cortas/Cyprian has been painted and portrayed as a crusty antagonist who’s out to get out dear Andi and Dex, while every Klaren chapter has been all about how she’s sad and she has to sacrifice herself and how it’s her destiny and how she regrets she can’t stay with her family and all that jazz. We even get an emphasis on how she’s in love with her king and loves her daughter as well.

Like, I know in the end Cyprian dies (spoilers, but I talked about this in my review so) and Klaren only exists in flashbacks, so it’s not like we’re getting redemption arcs for either of them. 

But like, if this is supposed to make me uncomfortable and to be very muddled then I’m honestly impressed. But I doubt it? And I’m very unsettled by the fact that we spend so many chapters moping around with Klaren to sympathize with her and her plight, and I don’t understand why they chose to spend so much time on the backstories of two characters that are either dead or will die in the main timeline in the first place. 

Nexus better answer these questions or else it will just prove Shinsay wrote this because ... No, I don’t think Nexus can justify this, actually. I don’t get why this subplot exists.

SHINSAY WHY DID YOU WRITE THIS

Chapter 38

We’re back with Andi post-argument and she’s in the med bay with Gilly and Lira, and we get an actually pretty nice, quiet moment where the girls try to both care for Andi and give her space. If y’all had focused on this instead of the mind-rape and the mind-control (oh boy I bet these two will have shit to do with each other huh) and the reality TV drama and space wars you defo can’t write it would’ve been a much better and more fun book. 

Anyway, the other girls leave to eat and Andi chooses to remain with Valen and watch over him. Lira drops this on us:

“There’s a fissure in you. I can sense it even from here.” Lira loosed a gentle sigh before explaining her words. But when she did, they sunk like a rock into Andi’s gut. “Sooner or later, you’re going to have to choose between forgiveness or hate. And you and I both know which one is harder to live with.”

I know this is in reference to Dex, considering how Andi’s been all quiet and weird after their argument, but honestly? Andi’s looking at Valen’s fucked body and my headcanon is that Lira is actually referring to Andi herself. Think about it. Lira knows what happened. Lira knows Andi still feels like it’s her fault Kalee died. 

And instead of it being another tired “forgiving is better for ur soul than hatred uwu” sentiment, when applied to Andi’s self-hatred, this would be a hard-hitting and genuinely insightful statement from Lira. 

Because self-hatred is harder to live with than self-forgiveness.

But this is Shinsay and I’d be surprised if they thought that far.

Anyway, Andi has yet another flashback to the crash and Kalee’s death and it’s all blood and metal and bla bla bla, we’ve seen this a billion times already. Then it turns out that Valen’s tests come back positive for “abnormalities,” and then he wakes up and is all like “kill meeeeeeeeee” and the chapter ends. 

Riveting. 

Chapter 39

We skip to some time later, I guess? Dex is shirtless and getting his nails painted by Gilly, which is fun. They discuss whether Valen is or isn’t a mutant, and we get this:

“Valen is no different than us,” Andi said to Dex, “and he’s not a mutant. And put on a damned shirt. This is a spaceship, not a pleasure palace.” 

“It used to be both.” He waggled his eyebrows at her, then winced as Andi ripped off one of his boots and launched it at his face.

Y’all really gonna talk about how much sex you used to have when there’s a literal 13-year-old right there in the room with you who’s listening and is a part of this conversation? 

Interesting choice there, Shinsay. Not even a little uncomfortable at all. Just these two adults talking about how they used to fuck while one of them is shirtless.

Andi thinks about how the Marauder used to be a man cave, and yes, that’s what the text says, and how it’s actually beautiful and modern and well-furnished now because they have genuine Adhiran cowhide couches. Then there’s more descriptions of the interior of the ship and I’m extremely bored and wondering why we needed to know the layout of the kitchen or what Alfie was wearing while in said kitchen (it’s a Kiss the Cook apron, btw). 

There’s a little argument about whether Valen is or isn’t a mutant due to his weird blood. It’s completely pointless. 

“Ah-hah!” Alfie’ s head emerged from the cooling unit, frost covering the tip of his oval chin. “I have discovered the source of the smell.” He held up a dripping hunk of green meat, then proceeded to march over to the small ejection site and blast it out into space.

... Right. 

So why do you people have a dedicated trash compartment again? 

All this waffling about brings nothing, as Alfie just cryptically says that Valen’s DNA seems to have changed and that they’ll have to do further tests once Valen’s back home.

Andi thinks about how Gilly does have a soul after all, because Gilly seems excited about having a mutant on board. This book has too many characters considering whether they or someone else they know has a soul or not. I think it’s Shinsay’s way of trying to be deep. 

Andi thinks about how cool her team is and how they got out of Lunamere without issue and how it’s gonna be nice to take a break. Then the ship starts crashing, I guess? 

We gotta throw more forced plot into the narrative because clearly these characters don’t actually have any goals of their own. 

Chapter 40

We’re back with Nor, who’s moping about her backstory and Zahn and Darai again. We find out through math that she’s 26? 

Anyway, remember the prison guard they were gonna test Zenith on? Yeah, she’s dead. Which does indeed confirm that they hadn’t tested it before then. Alrighty. I also don’t get why they test it on their own loyal citizens instead of, you know, the prisoners they have in Lunamere. It just makes so much sense to try to brainwash someone who already loves you into loving you more and risk them dying from this foreign chemical instead of trying to brainwash someone who hates your guts and who wouldn’t be a loss if they died anyway. 

IT JUST MAKES SO MUCH SENSE YOU GUYS. 

This time, they are testing it on prisoners, so maybe their “head scientist” (more like two-head scientist amirite fellas) learned their fiking lesson. Ok but then Aclisia says these prisoners are the “first participants in the study” which ... Yeah it doesn’t make sense and I’m pretty sure they’re not participants nor is this a study. 

Then Aclisia says this will be the “final batch.” So ... the Lunamere guard is not classified as a test subject nor a “participant,” and these guys are “participants” but will hopefully be the “first” but also “final” test subjects? 

You’d think having two heads would make for a better scientist.

You’d think having two heads would make for a better writer ...

One of the prisoners calls Nor a “scnav,” which does sound nastier than all the other dumbass curse words they scrapped, and Nor says that they’ll begin testing on that one. 

Aclisia says that “the weapon” is effective on any body part, as long as it comes in contact with the skin and can enter the blood stream. So ... Which one of those? Cuz having both makes no sense. The former sort of makes the other irrelevant. Also, what if an alien creature doesn’t have skin or blood? I guess it’s just universal. Even though they’ve only tested it on one alien species before ... and she died from it.

Flawless worldbuilding, lads. 

We find out that Zenith has the ability to “to enthrall a person or terrify them, depending on how strong their will was” which is ... dumb as hell even before combined with the fact that 1) they haven’t tested it on live subjects until now and 2) it apparently transcends species. And now you’re telling me it will also work differently on different individuals based on their “will?” How is that even quantifiable? And if it is, how did they define it? How did they define something so nebulous so closely, without ANY test subjects, to the point of making this silver goop able to tell apart who has a strong will and who doesn’t?

Whatever. Zenith seems to work and the prisoner now obeys Nor’s every whim.

He lowered his head in an attempt to bow, even with his hands tied.

You don’t need your hands to bow but go off.

The other prisoners get Zenith’d as well.

[Nor] turned to Darai and Zahn with a grin as solid as steel. “My soldiers, it’s time to darken the stars.”

And we got Zenith’d too, my lads.

[knightofbalance-13]

Sexism, Racism and Phobias over Sexual Identities For All!

http://z-raid.tumblr.com/post/164720277610/one-of-the-many-problems-with-rwby-is-that-ruby

One of the many problems with RWBY is that Ruby doesn’t have any arcs dedicated to her at all. You can kinda say that the episodes where team RWBY was formed in vol. 1 was sort of an arc for her, but that’s being really generous considering that was more team-centric than Ruby-centric.

Except you ignore how the ENTIRE SHOW is her arc: She has developed slowly THROUGHOUT her show. She has gone from being childish and naïve to the world like she was in Volume one to accepting that the world is more complex than her fairy tales and understanding how the world works. She still has problems to work through but she has another five or six Volumes left. So she isn't done yet.

If I were to reboot RWBY, one of the easiest way to fix this particular problem is to literally rip the arcs dedicated to Jaune from his generic white male protagonist hands and retool them for Ruby

By that logic we should then rip them from Ruby generic white female protagonists hands and give them to Sun then tear it away from his generic male hands and give it to Illa. When you start making RACE and GENDER an aspect of quality, you are essentially treating these people like objects and incindently end up acting racist and sexist. Not to mention Jaune isn’t even a protagonist, he’s a deturtagonist meaning he is a secondary protagonist thus if he finishes developing before the show is over, it’s nowhere near as big a flaw if RUBY does. And this ignores the fact that Jaune HASN’T gotten any development since Volume 2. Volume 3 gave him nothing and Volume 4 used him as tool for Ruby. But of course, RWDE is so obsessed with white males they will never acknowledge anything that isn’t a white male.

And this WITHOUT the implication that rebooting RWBY means essentially SCRUBBING MONTY OUT OF HIS OWN SHOW.  

In vol. 1, Ruby is let into Beacon two years early. While competent at fighting, Ruby is still wet behind the ears in terms of being a hunter and a team leader and all of this stresses her out. Pyrrha, an internationally famous fighter, finds Ruby’s enthusiasm and naivety refreshing, possibly finding Ruby’s innocence similar to her own when she was younger. She decides to help Ruby out as much as she can in terms of mastering Ruby’s semblance and becoming a competent leader.

And now I’m bored.  Why? because the humor that came from Jaune and Ruby’s interactions and Pyrrha and Jaune’s interactions are gone and replaced with every generic mentor relationship ever. there is no variation or humor, their personalities are not compatible in terms of interesting character development and in fact Ruby and Pyrrha become lesser characters because of it since Jaune added a foil characteristic to both sides. And since Ruby would know who Pyrrha is, that aspect of Pyrrha will never come up and since Jaune is gone Ruby will never have that fellow dorky classmate to make it charming. Congrats, one paragraph in and you’ve fucked up writing. Especially since you are burning up Ruby’s development too fats and thus we get stufk with a  fully developed character halfway through the series anxd now she has nowhere to go but back or be boring.

This would require fight scenes where people aren’t just super mega awesome but at the same time not bad fight scenes for the sake of terrible comedy either (e.g. all the group tournament fights in vol 3). Think Maka and Black Star levels of newb during the first few episodes/chapters of Soul Eater. They’re still competent in fighting, but obviously inexperienced in many other things. So, you know, actual growth and progress can be seen instead of just anime characters doing cool shit all the time. This also requires Pyrrha to be the leader of her team and not Jaune. Pyrrha being Ruby’s mentor will also give more leeway to Pyrrha having more connections to team RWBY. Yang is slightly suspicious of Pyrrha possibly having ulterior motives for wanting to mentor her little sis, Weiss is jealous that the famous Pyrrha wants to spend with Ruby and not her, Blake continues to just be there, etc. It allows Pyrrha to exist as her own person, gives her stronger plot relevance and connection to the main cast outside of being a member of Jaune’s team and the totally-made-up-on-the-spot seasonal maiden, and lets her be more than just a satellite love interest character for Jaune

So you want RWBY to take more from SoulEater, which then means it’s basically ripping it off and losing it’s identity? Good to see the RWDE tag cares so much about originality except when they suggest stuff.

So...Ruby working together with Weiss at the end of Volume 3 where they unite to go save Pyrrha contrasting Volume 1 where Ruby and Weiss were fighting each other doesn’t count as development? What about her learning the trials of leadership in the same episode which allows her to mesh more with Weiss? What about Ruby reconciling her motivation of being a Huntress with tebcruelity of the world showing a level of personal strength and adaptability very few people have? Is that not development? 

See, you focus so much on Jaune’s development you become blind to Ruby’s development. And Weiss’ development And Blake’s development. And Yang’s development. Ironically making YOU sexist.

And then we have your excuses for “improvements”: Pyrrha is too passive to be a proper leader and thus wouldn’t be able to rend in her teammates nor does she show any capability to be a leader (being a leader and being a good fighter are two different things), It makes Yang look stupid for suspecting Pyrrha, Weiss look more like a bitch than she really is. Pyrrha’s own person loses most of it’s meaning because Ruby really doesn’t NEED Pyrrha’s mentoring in combat because, surprise, Ruby si a prodigy in fighting and thus someone like Pyrrha doesn’t have enough experience to impart anything pf value onto Ruby (Espeically considering she has QROW as a mentor, someone who has a compatible fighting style and far more power and experience than Pyrrha) whereas Jaune would need Pyrrha’s mentoring, Ruby and Pyrrha fail in many of the same social ways and for similar reasons whereas Jaune does not and gives a companion to Ruby to sympathize with and someone to make Pyrrha’s flaws come to light. And then she loses the romance angle for her in which is a lot of the series heartwarming moments because there is no one else she is compatible with. And then her similarities to a certain inspiring, brave mentor disappear which is a spit in the face to Pyrrha. And that’s all without considering how this would screw up Ruby’s development since her learning to be a leader is shown in Jaune’s own arc but without it, it becomes more flimsy. 

In essence: Everything gets fucked.

Anyway, in vol. 2, the prom can still happen but just trash all the dumb hetero romance bullshit. It’s pointless, a waste of time, and also badly written. Anyway, Ruby is attending the prom and sees that Pyrrha is all alone with no date. They talk, and Ruby learns how lonely Pyrrha is from being so famous and being put on a pedestal or whatever. Ruby feels bad for Pyrrha and also feels guilty of doing the same things others have done that made Pyrrha feel so lonely in the first place. This moment deepens their relationship and they form a genuine friendship.Â

Oh so Heterosexuality is boring? Okay then, guess that makes homosexuality nothing more than a marketing ploy to draw people in and should be treated with no respect and dropped once the novelty wears out in which we will just find new ways to make heterosexuality good again. See how fucking offensive it is when you say this bullcrap. Also, by this logic, Toradora’s romance is shit because it’s hetero and a poorly written, poorly made, rushed, unaware Yaoi fanfic is good. Becuase that’s how heterophob-I mean, logic works.

Alos, giant plothole: WHy would Pyrrha say this to Ruby? She said it to jaune because he treated her differently but Ruby can’t due to having a knowledge f the Huntsman world. And even if there were some way to shoehorn this in: it lsoes most of the impact because it was said that Jaune had helped her out she fell in love but Jaune was too dense to see it. Now it just looks like angst. Great, this person wants to turn RWBY into the next Evangelion.

So, when Pyrrha gets killed off in vol 3., her death will actually have emotional meaning to Ruby and to the audience. She’s not just a love interest for generic white male protagonist that a good chunk of the fandom (me included) hates because he’s such a blackhole whenever it comes to screentime/character focus. Let’s face it, Pyrrha and Ruby are basically strangers to each other in canon and they’re only friends cause the two teams talk to each other semi-frequently. I don’t think they’ve actually even talked directly to each other even once (and if they did, you really can’t blame me for not remembering). Now, Pyrrha is a mentor and friend to Ruby, so witnessing her death will be legitimately more traumatic to her.

Except: No, it wouldn’t. Any emotions around Pyrrha would feel forced because without Jaune, she doesn’t look as good, her despair is cheapened, her love interest and seemingly promising future is gine, she doesn’t look all that impressive because the audience won’t see how a civilian like Jaune fights, her conflict around being the Maiden and dying will feel forced without the discussion with Jaune and it does not work with Ruby due to Ruby having more pressing matters and if she was inserted in, she would be overexposed in her own series, Ruby DOES become an ACTUAL Blakc Hole Sue, the quality of the show tanks and it dies. Congrats you killed RWBY.

And no, Jaune isn’t a Black Hole Sue nor is that the reason why you hate him: You hate him because he’s white, he’s male and he’s heterosexual because you’re racist, sexist and heterophobic. And as you people in RWDE are so keen on saying: Why should RT pander to bigots? See I know this because criticism’s effect actually dials to one way or another on issues: Since this is a radical change that demands something to be removed entirely, I know that thinsg are fine because the thing isn’t being overdone. Also, I know this because her only criticism of Jaune is hes white and male and she keeps acting like heterosexuality is a bad thing.

And ironically, this actually makes them sexist as hell because they cannot see past Pyrrha’s vagina and see her for the person who she is. She is only worth something if she is completely separate from a man, thus forcing her down one path and one path alone. This also shows that they will refuse to see her strength as a character (her actions for doing good despite the damage it will cause her, her conflict about it, her conflict about her feelings with jaune, her sadness, her strength as an actual fighter) I if it has anything to do with a man, thus never seeing past her gender.  Espeiclaly ironic considering the person Pyrrha is most like in anime is Kamina from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, AKA the manliest guy in anime so her gender barely has anything to do with who she is.

And finally: I love how this person completely disregards Penny dying, Roman dying, Ruby being to a pulp by Roman, Ruby seeing her sister maimed and seeing her school, destroyed as if cumulative stress is not a thing. I wouldn’t let this person within ten miles of a depressed person.

Which leads us to vol 4., where Ruby is all kinds of fucked up from all the shit that happened to her. Her sister lost an arm, her team is scattered across the world, she witnessed 3 people die right in front of her (2 of them being her friends), and her dream school and the kingdom of Vale are fucked. All of this shit can lead to a number of possible developments for Ruby that can happen over the rest of the course of the show, including 1.) she becomes bitter and cynical, losing all sense of hope and optimism she had, 2.) despite all this, she still retains her hope and optimism, or 3.) a mixture of both, where Ruby realizes that the world and being a hunter isn’t as idealistic like being a hero in her stories, but she still wants to do what is good.

And this si exactly what happened in Volume 4. Literally, word for word. Pyrrha’s death made literally no impact here now because really nothing really changed. Except wait, nobody cares about pyrrha, Ruby ahs no way of processing her feelings about Pyrrha, their relationship would feel cheap and poorly written, Pyrrha will have either made no progress with RWBY or contrived progress. 

And let’s take a lok at thes ethree options. Number one is out because it’s basically a spit in the face to Monty and his message of keep moving forward and would make just a copy of Volume 4 Jaune. 2. is the same as three which is exactly what happened. Congrats, you have two options, one of which was already done and the other literally disgraces a dead man’s work. Not like RWBY would survive to this point with all the imbalances of removing Jaune does.

This amps up the character focus on Ruby while drastically reducing Jaune’s. Like the boy or not, you have to admit the amount of time and priority spent focusing on Jaune’s emotional and personal conflicts and growth is really fucking bad writing when he is supposed to be a secondary character. The show is called RWBY and Ruby is supposed to be the actual main protagonist. If anyone’s going to get an absurd amount of focus about their growth, it should be her.

A.) he’s a secondary PROTAGONIST AKA DETUROTAGONIST. In fact, he would be teh closest to BEING a protagonist as the main character’s Foil. Yeah, you kind of forgot that aspect of Jaune’s character, like everything else that wasn’t the color of his skin or the contents of his pants. SO no, that doesn’t work.

B.) That’s already done before: With characters like Goku who sucked up all the development from characters like Yamcha and Tien and Chtaotsu and Master Roshi and Bulma and then ended up with nowhere to go in Z and it brought the whole show down because the characters that could be explored had to be left behind. This is a flaw so prevelant all but the most hardcore DBZ fans will admit it. You’d just be the idiot who never got the memo.

C.) Again, you are ignoring Ruby’s own development to harp on about Jaune, once more making you the sexist one here.

Disclaimer: What is described still falls into the many clichéd pitfalls like the mentor dying and the other generic shit that is in RWBY’s writing, but that wasn’t the point of this rant. The point of the above text is to fix the lack of character focus on Ruby with the material given from the show, even if said material have been done to death already. It’s a bandaid for one wound, but the body that is RWBY is still riddled with critical injuries of bad writing.

Because cliches are always bad, right My Hero Academia, the highest rated recent Shounen, One Punch man and Mob Psycho 100, web comics who defied all the odds like RWBy, and Gurren Lagann, Montys favorite anime and one of the main inspirations for RWBY?

Except that you just bring up more clichés that don’t get the variations that RWBY has given the ones it has now just to be sexist, racist and hetero and somehow homophobic. COngrats, you fail writing.

[unclewoodstock]

The Suplex Summary: 17/4/17

This week, we had the ring implode, a bizarre no.1 contender choice, and the sad passing of a superhero.

Raw

No time was wasted with Braun Strowman coming out too gloat about the savage beating he gave to Roman Reigns last week. GM Kurt Angle tried getting him to leave the building but Strowman was defiant in staying. As the night went on, Strowman showed his terrifying rage by battering jobbers backstage. He finally got the competition he wanted when eventually, Big Show stepped in stop Strowman’s rampage, making the main event set for the night.

Samoa Joe vs Chris Jericho

To get some retribution for being attacked by Joe backstage a few weeks ago, Jericho would go one on one with the Samoan Submission Machine. Seth Rollins was special guest commentator for the match, building for his match with Joe come Payback. Good match from these two, with Joe especially looking like a vicious killer. Joe powered out of the Walls Of Jericho and put on the Cobra Clutch for the tapout win. My only issue was I wish Jericho didn't tap but it's a nitpick for a fun match. With Joe looking good here and cutting a visceral sounding promo on Rollins, their match come Payback is one to look forward to.

Enzo & Cass vs Gallows & Anderson

The Club were meant to be fighting the Golden Truth, but an attack by Strowman put an end to that, not that I was too sad about it. Instead, Enzo & Cass came out to take on Gallows & Anderson. Standard tag match, with Anderson slamming Enzo into the turnbuckle ropes for the ring. Enzo & Cass still remain crazy over, but it would great to have them get some wins for once.

Miz TV with Dean Ambrose

Before Miz was barely able to speak, Ambrose came out to the ring. The Miz proceeds to berate Ambrose about not being a worthy looking superstar. It ended with Ambrose attacking the Miz as he gets away before the Dirty Deeds. Miz seems to be repeating this same plot, complaining about how he is overlook compared to other superstars. For me, it’s kinda getting a little old. It doesn’t help that we have already seen this feud back on Smackdown, I would rather be seeing these two doing other things.

Jack Gallagher vs TJ Perkins

Both Neville and Austin Aries were at ringside for this match. Pretty good match, with Perkins getting the win with the Detonation Kick. Perkins’ heel turn last week may have been a positive step for his character, but he got no response from the crowd which doesn't help. Pairing him with Neville may work in the long one, but right now Perkins just looks like a high school bully’s comedy sidekick.

No. 1 Contender Match for the Women’s Title: Nia Jax vs Alexa Bliss vs Mickie James vs Sasha Banks

The women’s division on Raw got a much needed shot in the arm last week, as the title seems very hotly contended once again. This was just an OK match, the four didn’t seem to gel well together. As imposing as she is, Nia Jax is still a little green. It will take a few more matches before she can pull of a convincing title run. Alexa Bliss got the win as she stole the pin from Jax as she lays out Banks with a Samoan Drop. Bliss winning was a little unexpected, but she will make a great villainous foe for Bayley. Especially as there is only a week to go before Payback.

Finn Balor vs Curt Hawkins/Wyatt’s Sermon of the Snakes

Both segments were back to back and are related so it makes sense to talk about them together. Balor won quickly over Hawkins, an easy match most likely to help him recover from his concussion last week. As for Wyatt, it dawned on me why his “scary” promos don’t do much for me anymore. They are way too overproduced. When Wyatt first debut, his first promo was so simple. It was him in a dark room with a chair in it. He delivered his lines like a pro and it was so effective. Now however, the camera flickers, there is spooky music, creepy imagery, it’s all just too much. Less is more WWE. Regardless, a Balor/Wyatt feud could be interesting clash of characters and gimmicks.

Cesaro vs Jeff Hardy

This match, both before and during the match, was being billed as a rare first as neither men had faced each other. The hype paid off to a degree as this was a pretty good match. Both men were very evenly matched throughout. Hardy would eventually get the upper hand, finishing off Cesaro with the Swanton Bomb. Both men and their ringside tag partners had a tense stand off before shaking hands after the match. With this subtle post match moment, added with constant fan speculation, we could be seeing the Broken Hardys hopefully very soon.

Braun Strowman vs Big Show

The first time these two had a singles match, they surpassed any expectations cynical fans would have had. Back then, they had a very good match, and this time was no different. Both men showed fair amounts of agility for men their size, Strowman even pulling off a nip-up which was amazing to see. The two traded blows and near-falls, before both men went to the turnbuckle. They had teased it throughout the match, but it finally happened. Strowman had Big Show on the turnbuckle, and with shakey legs, imploded the ring with a superplex! Regardless of the previous times it has happened, it is still an amazing spot to see, especially with the poor ref being hurled out of the ring in the process. The match was a No Contest but we ended the show with Strowman standing tall. This night, very deservedly, belonged to him. Smackdown

Smackdown, in comparison to Raw, was a much more underwhelming show. This included a moment that initially caused me to rage quit watching for half an hour.

The show began with Charlotte coming out, demanding a title shot as the best athlete in the women's division. Champion Naomi obliged, as the two exchanged blows. Shane McMahon announced that if Charlotte could beat Naomi, she would get her title match next week.

Six Pack Challenge. No.1 Contender Match for the WWE World Title: Sami Zayn vs Dolph Ziggler vs Luke Harper vs Erick Rowan vs Mojo Rawley vs Jinder Mahal

This was the rage quit moment for me so strap yourself in. To get the good out of the way, this was a very fun match. Lots of action and close near-falls kept the crowd and myself hooked. The quality of the match outshone the fact that this match was lacking in big names. Zayn and Harper to me, seemed like the only worthy contenders from the start. Rawley and Ziegler at a stretch. But the big moment came at the finale of the match. Zayn had the match won, when he was held back from delivering the Helluva Kick by the debuting Bollywood Boys. In the distraction, Mahal was able to slam Zayn and become the new No.1 contender.

The reasons for Mahal getting the push is due to WWE’s gaining market in India. A big Indian star would help garner more fans in the country. If that was the plan though, would it have killed WWE to not make Mahal such a jobber beforehand? I'm not much of a fan of Jinder Mahal anyway, but I'd be more accepting of him if he hadn't been losing 2-3 matches. To make it even more annoying, he cut an anti-American after the match. It's 2017, the “evil” foreign heel is teeth-grindingly outdated. As much as WWE likes to advertise itself as a global franchise, they still insist on this. Mahal now has a month to look like a rap contender for Randy Orton. NXT’s Bollywood Boys will help, but I doubt it will make the Payback main event an utter bore.

Charlotte vs Naomi

This match helped me get over the last match’s previous outcome, both looking solid in the process. Charlotte winning clean may be annoying for some, but it wasn't too bad for me. As Naomi tried for the Rearview, Charlotte countered with a dropkick, before getting the win. It makes for a better narrative for Naomi to be outmatched the first time, only for her game to be upped come the next encounter.

American Alpha vs The Colons

Plus side to this, the Shining Stars are gone. Now we have Primo and Epico announced simply as the Colons. With a remix theme and no more time shares, the Colons have become a legitimate team again. The problem is with American Alpha, the team has lost a lot of momentum. As the only face team on Smackdown, their loss here leaves the tag team division rather underwhelming until the New Day debuts.

Kevin Owens vs Local Jobber

We got the first of hopefully many “Face Of America” open challenges. Owens won in moments, and made the decision to commentate for the main event.

AJ Styles vs Baron Corbin

It feels like the belts are a little mixed up. The earlier 6 Pack Challenge match would make a bit more sense if it was contended for the US title instead. Instead, Smackdown’s main eventers are fighting over a secondary belt. While it elevates the US title, it leaves less big names for the main one. Regardless, both had a good match. AJ made Corbin look especially good, selling his hard hitting offense brilliantly. Corbin would get counted out, but it was due to a heavy blow by AJ over the barricade. A combination of Owens, AJ and Corbin is money for me.

This past week, Raw won for me. Strowman was made to look like a megastar, while Mahal felt like he could have been picked by throwing a dart at a board. Next week could easily swap around though.

RIP Matthew “Rosey” Anoa’i

This past week, we got the sad news of the death of Matthew Anoa’i, best known in WWE as Rosey. He was 47. Anoa’i is the real life brother of Roman Reigns, but got his start much earlier in 2002. He started as a tag team with his cousin Eddie Fatu, as the tag team 3 Minute Warning. Anoa’i would best be known for his gimmick as the comedic sidekick to superhero wrestler, the Hurricane. Him and Rosey would have success with the team, even winning the tag team titles before his release in 2006. My deepest condolences to all of his family and friends.

Be good to your loved one everyone.

Till next time

Nay