Brian Kendrick, former WWE wrestler, has finally be granted his release from the company and instantly got signed to AEW AND has a match tonight against Jon Moxley!
I love the signing because Kendrick was probably one of the most undervalued and underrated WWE wrestlers in his time there. He held the Tag Titles with Paul London, but wasn’t as talked about as they should’ve been. The Tag division at that time was very limited. Even when Kendrick had singles run, it was still lack lustered and devoid of any impact. I would’ve to see Kendrick as that Dark Horse wrestler that would be just at the cusp of stardom for years before finally squeezing into the title picture to win it all. Kendrick on AEW adds a whole bunch of dream matches and factions he can be apart of. He still looks in great shape and still carries the same charisma, so no reason why he can’t create some big moments in AEW.
I hate the signing of Kendrick in AEW. Yeah, he has a match against Jon Moxley to start his AEW career, but do we really expect him to win this match? And more importantly, spring board Kendrick into the top tier? Jay Lethal showed up, had a great match against Sammy Guevara and is now buried on Dark. Kendrick and Lethal deserve a lot more respect than that. Both men can still put on a great match, both men are in great shape.
What do you think of Brian Kendrick signing with AEW and how far is his ceiling?
Bullseye’s Killshot move might be the only reason to keep him around. You can’t beat 420% damage on 1 target. Obviously, Bullseye has amazing Accuracy, which does come in handy with enemies that have Blinding attacks. But overall, he’s not impressing me. His attacks don’t have enough perks to them and his bonuses aren’t enough to invest a lot in to.
I would’ve kept Cain Velasquez with the Mysterios for the beginning of his WWE career. They brought him in to lose to Brock Lesnar with very little effort, which after I saw that I imagined this would be leading towards a WrestleMania rematch with Lesnar and potentially winning the WWE Championship.
After the initial loss, I thought he story going forward was to learn from Rey, be taken under his wing, develop his wrestling ability and start moving up the ladder. Maybe winning the Royal Rumble or Money in the Bank. Either way would’ve been a good way to push Velasquez to a big title match.
The WWE doesn’t have many fighters like Velasquez on the roster, Lesnar is the closest thing to that. So having a wrestler on the roster with those abilities would be an asset. Maybe even have both of them on separate brands and the two can meet up at Survivor Series, both as champions.
But what do you think of Velasquez’s time in wrestling and how would you have booked him?
This review is kind of difficult for me. The Breaking Bad tv show ended almost 6 years before this movie came out and I don’t know who it’s made for. It doesn’t have the Breaking Bad feel to it and even though it has the same writing staff, they seem to forget the character they’re writing about.
Aaron Paul is a tremendous actor, but his best roles are as a costar rather than the clear lead, which isn’t a disrespect to his acting ability. Take Oscar winning actor Christopher Walken. Won an Oscar for best Supporting role in The Deer Hunter and earned a best Supporting Nomination for Catch Me If You Can. In fact, most of Walken’s iconic roles were as a supporting actor.
And Jesse Pinkman, played by Paul, is the kind of character who can take command of a scene or two but not a whole feature film. And the writers kept switching Jesse’s character when the plot fit it. Some scenes he has a deep Batman voice, being level headed and one step ahead in some scenes and in others he’s just kinda clueless. There was never an established voice for Jesse and the whole movie might’ve just been better as inserted scenes into the actual show to give it some more depth.
But lets just into the plot so you can see for yourself.
The movie starts off with Jesse and Mike Ehrmantraut….try saying that 3 times fast…it’s a nice quiet connecting scene where the two men discuss the idea of leaving the meth business and starting over. Mike explains that Alaska is nice. The scene then quickly transitions to Jesse minutes after the Breaking Bad series finale. Fresh out of a shootout and fleeing the police. He eventually finds safety at the house of his friends Stinky Pete and Cougar. Now I know that’s not their names, but when you wait 6 years between show and movie, I don’t have time to relearn everyone’s backstory. And that might be the biggest problem with the movie. So much time has passed that now I have to either rewatch the entire series or try to remember where everyone was at the finale. Also, characters look a lot different and I don’t remember if all these minor characters where in the actual show.
So Jesse hides the El Camino in the backyard and passes out for the night. He awakens in a panic, imagining that he is still captured by The Brotherhood, a name I had to look up again. Jesse takes a shower and shaves off his beard and hair, much to the dismay of Pete because when you’re being hunted by the police and others, its best to look like the only picture they have of you on file. This is Jesse being Jesse. Jesse trades cars with his friends and goes off to Todd’s apartment. Where he spends the entire night looking for Todd’s hidden stash of cash.
We are then shown a long and rather amazing flashback of Jesse helping out Todd, played by Jesse Plemons, get rid of a body. Since Todd looks a lot different since the TV show, I actually forgot all of their previous interactions and thought this was a new character entirely.
After the two bury the body in the desert, Jesse grabs Todd’s gun out of the car and for a brief moment I thought this is where Jesse gets away. Because why would you give up the gun to a guy who is clearly going to put you back in the cage or kill you, especially when you have such a distance between you two. Again, Jesse being Jesse.
We cut back to Jesse finally able to locate the money, but a pair of police officers, Casey and Neil, walk in and a standoff ensures. Jesse surrenders to them and he quickly learns they aren’t real police and are just looking for the same money Todd has stashed. How they know about Todd’s money, don’t know.
Jesse reveals to them he knows where it is and Jesse bargains with Neil into letting him take some of the money. Neil agrees and they part ways. Not before Jesse sees the van Neil is driving and remembers that Neil built his cage.
Jesse then drives to Ed Gaibraith’s vacuum shop. Now, for those who have photographic memories, this the man who helps people disappear and apparently Jesse owes him 125 thousand for a job that never happened. So it’s going to cost Jesse an additional 125 thousand on top of the first one to help him disappear. This might be the best scene of the entire movie and the most accurate to Jesse’s character.
Jesse is only $1,800 short and has to find a way to get it. He first calls his parents and pretends to ask them to pick him up somewhere, leaving the house empty for Jesse to rob. He doesn’t find money, but instead finds an old 22 caliber pistol.
Jesse then goes to the only other person who has money, Neil and Casey, who are in the middle of having a cocaine and hookers party. Jesse tries to appeal to Neil’s humility and simply asks for the money. Neil has a better idea, which I imagine is the result of cocaine and hookers. He wants to duel Jesse for the money. With assassin like precision, Jesse kills Neil. Casey then grabs for the gun and the two exchange bullets, Casey missing every shot and Jesse eventually hits him. Jesse blows the place up and drives away with the money.
The next scene is a flashback of Jesse and Walter White, played by Brian Cranston, as the two sit at a diner talking about life. A very great scene and feels perfectly written for Jesse and Walter. Then we get to the finale, Jesse wakes up in the back of a moving van driven by Ed and emerge in Alaska. Ed quizzes Jesse on his new identity. Jesse hands Ed a letter to send to Brock, who again I had to look up who that was. Jesse then drives off, quick flashback of his ex-girlfriend Jane and that’s the movie.
Was it good movie? Not at all. Like I said this more felt like filler scenes in the series rather than a standalone film. I felt like the writing of Jesse went in so many directions that it didn’t feel like the original character. Aside from a few short scenes, Jesse is unrecognizable in this movie. Jesse was never the “stand and fight type”. Instead of dueling Neil, it might’ve made more sense character wise for Jesse to rob the pimp outside the complex.
Jesse was never a big planner in the show. Sure, sometimes he did impress Walter with a great idea, but was never the brains of the group. At times Jesse didn’t even possess the best street smarts. The sheer fact that Walter kept Jesse around as long was because Walter didn’t have anyone else around. And Walter seemed to connect with Jesse more, maybe because Jesse was the cool one, someone that Walter wanted around. He liked teaching Jesse and watching him grow. Maybe Jesse was the son Walter never had, in the sense where he can have the father son relationship with Jesse and not spill over into his actual family life.
I wonder of this movie would be better if I didn’t watch the series before watching this? What do you guys think?
Crossbones is one of the first characters you can unlock through the Events. All new users in this game start off with the Crossbones and Electra events. He’s not the best character you can get, but he still helps you a lot early on. He has just a simple attack, a Taunt with a 1-2 Counter you can upgrade, but his main use is his Detonate attack. Detonate gives him 2 Death Proof and hurts all enemies for 440% damage. It can’t miss, but it can be dodged. Either way this is the one reason I keep Crossbones around. There have been many matches where that Detonate saved my characters.
Would I recommend using him? Kinda. Like I said before, he’s mainly in my rotation because he’s easy to upgrade. His attack does have a chance of a bonus attack and does Defense Down, but it’s not like stacked on Bleeds or anything worse.
One of the biggest questions I had in Star Wars Rise of Skywalker, was why didn’t Palpatine groom his own child to be his successor? Rey Skywalker is the granddaughter of Palpatine and he spend so much effort trying to convert her to the dark side, so how did his own flesh and blood escape and more importantly why?
Besides the Death Star, there should be nothing in the galaxy as important as Palpatine’s only child. And I child like this I imagine would be groomed in Sith teachings for their entire life. And let’s say this child saw what the Empire really was and decided to escape, how powerful would this child be? Certainly, powerful enough to outrun the most powerful being in the galaxy for a long time and someone who shouldn’t be able to be stabbed to death so easily?
What a wasted opportunity. Their lack of NXT Tag Titles or Tag Titles on the main roster showed that they were never a realistic team in the eyes of the creative team? Now Otis finally achieved gold teaming with Chad Gable and Tucker has been long released.
Tucker was poised for a great run by betraying Otis and seemingly joining the Miz and John Morrison. Which I think didn’t last longer than that brief moment of betrayal. The idea of Tucker being the muscle for a team that is primarily not a threat to the landscape of the WWE was actually a good idea, but as usual a lot of creative ideas in the past few years.
And so many things could’ve been done with Tucker moving forward. Even if you didn’t see him as world champion, he still could’ve been something. Shelton Benjamin might be the biggest world champion snub in WWE history, but he’s had a massively impressive career. Big spots in Money in the Bank matches and always a filler in the Royal Rumble and can easily be the second or third in a faction. Tucker had a lot of potential when he turned on Otis. Otis had a lot of potential after that betrayal as well. But the WWE saw Otis as a singles star and concocted a ridiculous storyline where he ends up in a relationship with Mandy Rose. Which was another storyline that was pushed on us for weeks and weeks and after WrestleMania the idea was scrapped.
Tucker and Otis were the products of horrible writing. Honestly, I wouldn’t have moved them up to the main roster when they did. No team should be moved to the main roster without a title run. I don’t think I really even believed in the tag team as a massive threat. I felt like Otis now is a better wrestler than he was a few years ago. But the duo was still a better choice for tag champions than Miz and Morrison, or the Usos and The New Day for the hundredth time.
So how do you feel about Tucker and Otis and what different things would you have done with them?
I was a big fan of the Blade movies. Well, the second one I really liked, mainly because it had the greatest actor in Hollywood Luke Goss who has graced our screens in projects like Hellboy 2, Interview with a Hitman, Tekken, and about 60 other things. But I digress.
The reason I’m nervous that the upcoming Blade movie is that Blade’s entire story is about killing vampires and the MCU doesn’t have any vampires in it. The MCU is a We and not a Me direction now where all the movies and shows coincide with each other to create one massive storyline.
Blade can’t JUST fight vampires in his MCU appearances because they can’t introduce vampires as the only thing Blade fights. Because we haven’t seen vampires before and the original Blade movies depict vampires as being around for hundreds of years and not a threat that just popped up one day.
I had the same issue with The Eternals, where somehow the Earth being a uterus for a celestial wasn’t noticed by anyone on Earth, including the Sorcerer Supreme, Agatha, Hydra, Shield or anyone else in the MCU. So, you can’t introduce vampires into the MCU and then try to explain away that they were always around and we just didn’t notice.
I have been a massive fan of Jeff Hardy for the entirety of this WWE career. I saw him in the WWF, go to TNA and back to the WWE and I can really say with certainty that Jeff isn’t worth the trouble anymore. I’m sorry, but the guy has had a massive drug problem for years and its caused him to be released before. He did one of the worst things in wrestling, showing up high to a main event pay per view championship match against Sting. It was one of the worst nights for wrestling ever as a fan.
Yeah, people can get the help they need, people can get better, but people can also relapse back into bad habits and from a purely business standpoint Jeff isn’t worth the risk. Jon Moxley went to rehab for a few months and is now back with a sense of purpose, but he didn’t cost the company money. Moxley wasn’t in any major storyline, he didn’t get arrested, he didn’t do anything that made AEW look bad.
Jeff signing with AEW sounds good on paper, but honestly not the signing they need. It will jump up their ratings, we might get a dream match or two, but in the end, we really don’t need either of them in AEW. The Hardys aren’t the same wrestlers as they were 10 years ago. Both men are slower and can’t move like they used to. And a lot of the AEW big name signings are hot for a week or two and then pushed down to the bottom of the roster. Matt Hardy showed up, had a match against the Inner Circle and now is leading a faction that makes no sense.
Jeff singing will do what? They’ll have some matches against the Young Bucks, FTR, Butcher and Blade, maybe the Inner Circle, but in the end they will have their moment and that’s it. If this is about “one last ride” like Dustin Rhodes, I understand it, but if people think the Hardys will be the longest reigning tag team champions in AEW history they are going to be horribly disappointed.
The Hardy Boyz were one of the most unique and impressive tag teams in wrestling history. They created some amazing moments and brought in millions of fans, but their time is over now. Matt was never the guy to lead a company and I wouldn’t be able to trust Jeff at this point. And seeing them in one or two matches and pushed to the bottom of the roster isn’t a proper way to end their time in wrestling.
Remember in Guardians of the Galaxy 2, where Yondu was ousted from the Ravagers by breaking the sacred code? I find it weird that a coalition of murderous, thieving space pirates operate under a strict code of not kidnapping children.
World War Joe 