Here’s Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s fantastic promo from last night’s episode of Monday Night Raw. It’s just brilliant stuff on multiple levels. He’s simply amazing on the mic, but it’s cool to see that he’s genuinely having fun and truly touched by the amazing crowd response. (When was the last time you heard a crowd pop like that, btw?)
Now for the downer — some of the best parts of the promo have been edited out. That’s like abridging Shakespeare. Why?!?
On last night’s episode of Monday Night Raw, the WWE announced that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will be the special host of WrestleMania XXVII. The Rock cut a brilliant promo — one of the best face promos in years — calling out WWE Superstars The Miz and John Cena. Several people have come to the conclusion that The Miz will successfully defend his title and John Cena will win the right to face him on Sunday’s Elimination Chamber pay-per-view event. This would lead to a WWE Championship match between the two at WrestleMania XXVII.
The Miz facing off with The Rock is a natural. Love him or hate him — and I still think it’s hilarious that some of you think he’s “unworthy” — there’s no denying that The Miz has been one of the best heels on the microphone over the last few years. His future exchanges with The Rock will be memorable.
Cena and The Rock is, perhaps, more interesting. Cena has been critical of The Rock for “abandoning” the WWE for Hollywood. Mixing in some reality into “sports entertainment” has always led to some of the best angles in the WWE. I’m terribly interested to see how far they go with it. Last night The Rock ripped into Cena’s merchandise and silly catchphrase. One easy and obvious comeback would be The Tooth Fairy.
Although The Rock will only be a WWE regular for a short period of time, his presence has already invigorated the WWE. It’s been years since I’ve seen a face totally capture a crowd the way he did last night. It was an excellent reminder of how extraordinary he was — and still is! — on the microphone. If you didn’t mark out then you don’t really like pro-wrestling.
One of the most fascinating destinations for Conan O’Brien was the Xbox 360. How crazy would it have been if Conan skipped cable television for a direct-to-console show on Xbox Live? Conan executive producer Jeff Ross recently shared some details of the Microsoft negotiations with Gamasutra:
The Xbox thing — a lot of the conversations were ‘well, it’s a show, but it’s not a show and there are no breaks, but maybe there are breaks and it’s not 60 minutes, it’s this’ and nobody really knew what it was.
So it was really going to be a leap of faith to jump in with these guys and figure something out which we didn’t know. Plus there were 100 people who were out of jobs and that didn’t bode well for that.
It was interesting to sit and look at it and say, ‘it would be great to be involved in this,’ but at the end of the day, we had some eventual television offers and we basically shied away from the other.
Although it would have been nice if Microsoft launched an original show with O’Brien, I’m still hoping that the company’s rumored plans for television pan out. It still seems odd that Microsoft could be the one that ends up freeing America from the shackles of cable television and bring a la carte TV to the country. In my head Conan O’Brien would have been the perfect symbol of entertainment liberation…especially since Comcast-NBC is one of the primary oppressors. Ha!
Now that Super Bowl XLV has come and gone, I wanted to discuss the most important aspects of the event: the halftime show and commercials! Most of my friends panned The Black Eyes Peas’ performance, making lots of…
Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, the food at Hooter’s, the hot waitress at Hooter’s that looked like Amy Smart, or your favorite Hooter’s sauce, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.
Now that Super Bowl XLV has come and gone, I wanted to discuss the most important aspects of the event: the halftime show and commercials! Most of my friends panned The Black Eyes Peas’ performance, making lots of Tron jokes, but I enjoyed it. Of course I’m biased because I want my fellow Filipino-American apl.de.ap to do well, but I genuinely liked the set. It was a nice mix of old and new hits. It was awesome that Slash emerged from hell to play “Sweet Child ‘O Mine” and that Usher descended from heaven to perform “Oh My Gosh”. I was disappointed that Justin Timberlake didn’t come out (from purgatory?) to sing the chorus to “Where is the Love?”, but overall I thought it was a fun halftime show that was visually unique.
As for the commercials, they were okay. For me, there were more misses than hits in 2011. Here are my three favorite spots. Coming in at #3 is this adorable VW Passat ad featuring an adorable baby Darth Vader.
At #2 is the Captain America commercial. I thought it was a great spot and was annoyed that my pal Cliffy B disagreed.
My favorite commercial was this House ad that parodied the classic Coca-Cola commercial starring Mean Joe Greene. I’ve included the original for reference.
Now it’s your turn! Please let me know what you thought of Super Bowl (not Superb Owl) XLV’s halftime show and share your favorite commercials.
Since 2010, it has been rumored that Amazon will offer free unlimited video streaming to its Amazon Prime
Netflix is, by far, the most popular video streaming service in America. Amazon could challenge Netflix in the streaming space with this rumored deal. It would be cheaper than a yearly Netflix subscription and users would get additional value from the shipping services. While Amazon would arguably lose money on the streaming service, the idea is that it would more than make up for it when customers purchase physical goods.
I’ve been an Amazon Prime customer since the program’s inception and I absolutely love it. That said, it also makes me spend more money than I probably should since I know that my items will arrive quickly and I want to maximize the value of my subscription. Since money is a bit tight, I’ve considered dropping Prime in 2011, but the prospect of free video streaming will probably make me hang onto the service.
For gamers, the choice is especially interesting. Amazon has several great deals on games and often ships new titles to Prime customers so that they arrive on launch day. However, Netflix is available on all three current-gen consoles. Amazon Video on Demand is available on TiVo, PC, certain Sony Bravia televisions, and select Panasonic Viera models. Though I suppose using an Xbox 360 as a Windows Media Extender would allow for console playback. The point being that Netflix has direct ways to watch content on consoles, while Amazon does not (yet).
I’d love to hear what you think of this rumor. Would you subscribe to Amazon Prime if it included unlimited video streaming? Also, thanks to RPadholic tokz_21 for reminding to write about this rumor.
The NY Daily News has reported a rumor that Sting (Steve Borden) has signed a one-year contract with the WWE. The rumor coincides with WWE promos showing a mystery man that will make his debut on February 21, 2011. The dirt sheets have speculated that 2/21/11 will be the return of The Undertaker or Triple H, but Sting would be an interesting choice that makes a certain amount of sense.
Sting is one of the few NWA/WCW stars that has never wrestled for the WWE. This year’s WrestleMania takes place in Atlanta, GA — a huge WCW town. The WWE also owns the rights to Sting’s best matches. The speculation is that Sting will return for a brief program with The Undertaker, promote a best of Sting DVD, and be inducted into the WWE hall of fame.
I used to be a huge Sting mark back in the day. I loved the neon-wearing, rat-tail version of Sting. His matches with Ric Flair were outstanding. (Though to be fair, anyone could have an outstanding match with Flair in those days.) I never warmed up to the “Crow” version of Sting and the TNA version was a shell of his former self. While he’s definitely limited and not what he used to be, I believe that The Undertaker could help him pull off one more excellent match.
Although this rumor makes sense on paper, I’m going to wait for more information before I start buying into it. Part of it is that I would love for Sting to have one last run and would love for the WWE to roll out the red carpet for him. If I started believing the rumor and it didn’t pan out, I’d be disappointed. Part of it is that a lot of Sting’s recent work in TNA seemed sloppy — the result of a worker that’s unmotivated and disinterested. Perhaps a final run on the big stage combined with money from DVD sales will motivate Steve Borden to turn back the clock and become the Stinger of old.
What do you think of this rumor? Does the prospect of Sting in the WWE excite you? Have any of you seen his pre-Crow matches?
WWE’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view event had some nice surprises. To briefly recap the PPV, World Heavyweight Champion Edge and WWE Champion The Miz retained their respective titles. Booker T and Diesel (Kevin Nash) surprised the crowd and received huge pops for their participation in the Royal Rumble match. When the dust cleared, Alberto Del Rio emerged as the winner of the Rumble.
It was nice to see Booker and Nash work for their old company, though I hope they’re done. Neither of them are what they used to be. I do think it’s hilarious that Nash dyed his hair to play the Diesel character again; Nash has repeatedly said that he wants to work as a “silver fox” character but Vince McMahon hates his gray hair. I love that WWE went with Del Rio as the winner. He’s relatively new, he does great work in the ring, he’s above average on the mic, and his personal ring announcer Ricardo Rodriguez makes me laugh.
Anyway, let me know what you made of Del Rio’s win and the Royal Rumble PPV (please).
Did you guys and gals catch Jesse Eisenberg’s monologue from Saturday Night Live? Well here it is! The Social Network star is interrupted by SNL’s Andy Samberg playing Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg. Meanwhile, the real Mark Zuckerberg is backstage and eventually makes his way on stage to join the two men that portray him. It’s cute and geeky. Check it out!
Confession: I like Ashton Kutcher. On paper, I should loathe him. Punk’d is retarded. A lot of his movies suck. And there was that stretch in the early 2000’s when he annoyingly went to every videogame party in Los Angeles…
Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Timmy Bradley’s disappointing victory, Ozzy Osbourne’s sudden illness, or last-minute international jobs, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.
Confession: I like Ashton Kutcher. On paper, I should loathe him. Punk’d is retarded. A lot of his movies suck. And there was that stretch in the early 2000’s when he annoyingly went to every videogame party in Los Angeles. (To be fair, it wasn’t just him. Every party had at least on person from That ’70s Show and American Pie.)
The truth is…I find him funny and charming in some of his movies. I’ve enjoyed listening to him talk about his politics (fiscally conservative, socially liberal). I like that he’s perceived as this idiot pretty boy, but is much smarter than he looks. I love that he was one of the first celebrities to use Twitter in a hardcore way. Although his restaurants — Dolce and Geisha House — draw a hipster crowd, they’re actually very good. The Demi Moore thing is pretty cool too.
Ah, I feel better now that I’ve come clean about all of that. Do you have any celebrities you like but, on paper, should hate? Whether they’re from movies, music, or TV, please share your celebrity confessions today!
The approved merger of Comcast and NBC Universal has all sorts of implications for the entertainment business. For those of you that use Netflix on your consoles, this could mean bye bye to all NBC Universal content. Senator Al Franken believes that’s the case. Check out this bit from Ars Technica:
When it comes to the Comcast merger, Franken was even more vocal. “As you probably know, I hate this merger,” he told the group. Not only will it raise prices on TV subscriptions, it will give the combined entity incredible power to stifle competition from online sources like Netflix.
“I’m hearing that Comcast is already preparing to pull NBC Universal’s programming from Netflix when it’s next up for review,” Franken said. The cable industry is worried about the threat from cheaper options like Netflix; “they aren’t stupid and they want to shut it down.”
Allowing mega-powers to merge is rarely a good thing for consumers. This looks like another case of lobbying money trumping what’s good for the consumer. In the immortal words of Han Solo, I have a bad feeling about this.
What do you think of the Comcast/NBC merger? Do you think it will impact your entertainment experiences? Is it Comcastic?
