AEW Double or Nothing Rally at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas
“A new foe appears….challenge accepted.” Yes, folks! Kenny Omega has finally officially joined All Elite Wrestling, but that’s not all that happened at the rally/press conference Thursday night. I will say that I was shocked when Omega did come out and under his name was the title “Executive Vice President.” I pretty much knew he was going to AEW after he didn’t sign with the WWE, but I didn’t realize just how big of a role he was going to play within the promotion. Good on ya, Kenny! Also, when Jericho came out to interrupt Omega, for half a second, I thought maybe he was coming out to welcome Kenny. When I saw his face though, I figured Jericho was coming out to give Kenny a good love tap, and he didn’t disappoint. I can’t wait to see their rematch at Double or Nothing. I most definitely will be buying the PPV, when it becomes available.
Fans were also made privy to the news that AEW has partnered with AAA, one of the biggest wrestling promotions out of Mexico. This is big news for AEW, as the fledgling promotion is shaping up to have some big potential for future endeavors. The AAA Cruiserweight Championship, Sammy Guevara then walked out to the stage to announce that basically that he’s all in on AEW, and that was cool.
To kick off the new roster announcements, Sonny Kiss, who wrestled in Lucha Underground as XO Lishus came out to announce that he is going Double or Nothing. I haven’t seen him wrestle before, but I know he definitely made an impression when he came out on stage, and I can’t wait to see what he can do in the ring. Coming from Lucha, I feel that he is more than up to the task, and I can’t wait to see what he shows us inexperienced fans.
The Young Bucks came out next to announce that the Best Friends, Chuck Taylor, and Trent Beretta are joining All Elite. This shocked me because they’d just finished wrestling for New Japan over the weekend in their Road to New Beginnings events. I knew that their commitments ended with those performances over the weekend, but I didn’t expect them to decide where they were going so quickly. Having said that, I’ve seen them wrestle, and I know that they will be a great addition to the AEW Tag division. Also, while The Bucks were out there, members of OWE, Oriental Wrestling Entertainment came out on stage to announce that they will be a part of Double or Nothing. I really hope the Shaolin performs. I’ve seen some of his in-ring work, and he rocks. I’m just hoping that they are able to have their visas prepared ASAP because with the government shut down, that type of documentation is hard to come by.
Brandi Rhodes, Chief Branding Officer, and Head of AEW’s Women’s Division came out to announce that both Kylie Rae and Nyla Rose has joined the ranks of AEW in a way that sets up a potential match for Double or Nothing between the two. Also, Brandi announced that Aja Kong and Yuka Sakazaki would both be appearing at Double or Nothing as well. This is big news because Aja Kong is a legend of Women’s Wrestling. She has wrestled the likes of Alundra Blayze, WWE Trainer Sara Amato, Mio Shirai, Mercedes Martinez, and the Dudley Boys. Also, after leaving All Japan Women’s Wrestling, she started her own promotion Arsion, so she has experience and expertise that she could bring to the new promotion.
All in all, the rally was fun and entertaining. I do wonder though. There are now four EVPs within the promotion. I wonder how that’s going to work. How will responsibilities be divvied up? How are decisions going to be made within the company? I still have so many questions. I just hope this promotion attains its goals and makes it to the stars because competition brings out the best in everyone.
The Gaming AAA publisher woes continue
Man! The hits just keep on coming. EA, Activision Blizzard, and even Take-Two Interactive have taken some major hits in the stock market recently, and honestly, I, as a consumer wouldn’t expect differently. Blizzard, the makers of WoW and Overwatch, among others has allowed Activision to slowly and insidiously sink their claws in, and now that has born the fruit that so many other developers under the Activision umbrella have sown. Their games are now being released before they are ready. The mantra of “Pay a little to get a lot” has seemed to permeate the Blizzard offices, and it shows in their products. The World of Warcraft is boring, bland and non-innovative. Overwatch is fun, but there’s no real innovation there, and they have pretty much given up on Heroes of the Storm, which is a fun game to play. I fear for Hearthstone because the sales of the card packs have fallen lately. I fear that Activision are well on their way to driving Blizzard into the ground, much like they have done so many of their other properties. Call of Duty can’t sustain a whole company, and the stock market and shareholders are finally seeing this.
When it comes to EA, sigh, there is so much, but it all boils down to a few things. First and most importantly, the lootbox and live services issue. The current EA lootbox system started with FIFA and has since spread itself across almost all of their properties like the plague. Now, we are seeing the result of what happens when you push your consumer base too far. I mean we as gamers were always kind of pissed about the whole pre-order, season pass, lootbox thing. It’s been smoldering under the surface for years now. For some of us gamers, who are adults that live in the REAL WORLD, justifying buying lootboxes in order to even play the game with some type of confidence is garbage. I, as a gamer, don’t see why I basically need to purchase a lootbox so that I can gain a scope or attachment that makes a weapon more stable. Why can’t I just have the ability to unlock said attachment during the course of actually PLAYING THE GAME? I, as a female gamer, love the Battlefield series. It gives me more of an authentic, visceral feeling while playing it than say what’s been lost in the Call of Duty series. It’s bad enough that I have to pay $60 for the game, then $50 for the season pass. Why then are you EA, trying to get more money out of me in the form of lootboxes? Why are you forcing the lootbox system on games that normally wouldn’t call for it such as single player properties? Unless you are an extremely greedy company that cares nothing for longevity, it would seem that making good games, that people want to play for hours, weeks and months would be your priority; not just trying to get the most out of people in the short term. I mean look at games like the Witcher series or the Yakuza series. These games are still being bought by new players today, even though they originally released years ago. Look at the Kingdom Hearts, God of War, Final Fantasy and Tomb Raider series of games. These games and the amazing stories within them bring consumers back to their shores with each new release. Why do you, EA feel that you need to just throw all your games out there with microtransactions in order to make the most money for the short term with no thought of longevity because longevity is where it’s at in the business industry. I do really think that the straw began to break the consumer’s back with Battlefront II, with the final results of that breaking being felt this past year, even until today. Having played the demo for Anthem, though some say that many of the issues have been fixed, with that leaked microtransaction system, and with the story within the demo not being compelling enough, I don’t know how that game will fare. I really wish EA wouldn’t have forced Bioware to one make this game, and two forced microtransactions into this game. If they wanted to have some form of time gating, they should have just set up the system so that the in-game money that players receive for playing went towards unlocking the skins, fabrics and other items available on the leaked cash shop. I really feel bad for Bioware. They were forced to release Mass Effect way before it was ready, and now they are forced to develop this game before they can get back to their beloved Dragon Age franchise. I just really hope that EA doesn’t force them to put out a subpar Dragon Age game. If they did, it would almost kill this developer and that would be a shame. I mean EA has already killed Visceral and Maxis among others. I truly hope Bioware isn’t next.
To those developers like the Ubisofts of the world, please look at EA and ActiBlizzard as an example of how NOT to create longevity. I know that these companies have been out for a short while in terms of the business industry, but acquired developers that could have taken them into the next hundred years with creative and innovative storytelling. What they have done and are doing instead is only thinking of the short term in favor of creating bad blood among their customer base, and setting themselves up for a major fall, and they are now reaping the benefits of those preparations. Please don’t be like them Ubisofts of the world. You have a chance to be something greater than you are now.
Especially when it comes to Ubisoft, I am a major fan of the Assassin’s Creed and Splinter Cell series. I have absolutely loved the previous games in these series, and I very much await their next releases. Though you have added cash shops to the recent Assassin’s Creed entries, I’m hoping that you heed the examples of the aforementioned companies and decide on another path. I really want to see you make the next entries in these games and I, as a gamer want these entries to be just as good as the previous ones. I want Beyond Good and Evil II to be an amazing ride. Please take your time and bring out a finished product that amazes and gives us gamers hours, days and weeks of entertainment. Because to paraphrase an old saying from Field of Dreams, “If you build it, and you build it right, thinking of your consumer base, we will come.”
