On commentary with Damien Sandow

Cory Ledesma, Aubrey Sitterson and WWE Superstar Damien Sandow

I get to do a lot of neat stuff on account of my job with WWE Games at 2K, but this ranks right up there with the neatest. At our annual Superstar Challenge (in which WWE Superstars compete in the year’s latest WWE Game), Creative Director Cory Ledesma and myself were joined by none other than the Intellectual Savior to the Masses, Mr. Damien Sandow.

I thought that Cory and I were doing a decent job with commentary, but when Sandow joined in, it kicked things up to another level and made our jobs way easier – all we really needed to do was try and keep up. Sandow is incredible on the microphone, both inside and outside the ring, and it was a pleasure to get a chance to work with him, even though he had some not so nice things to say about my hair, beard, clothes and overall aesthetic.

Watch it now.

WWE Friday Night SmackDown preview – April 27, 2012

And we’re back! After a fun, exciting and relaxing trip to Tokyo, your favorite babbler about professional wrestling is back in the saddle, ready to roll and mix metaphors until the sun comes up. Keep your eyes peeled up for a write-up the All-Japan Pro Wrestling show I took in at Korokuen Hall, which should be going up sometime next week, but in the meantime, why not hang around and check out my preview for this week’s SmackDown over at GuySpeed.com?

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WWE SmackDown Live recap – April 10, 2012

Wrestling and nostalgia

Nostalgia is a powerful thing in any entertainment business, but in wrestling it takes on a deeper meaning. As an industry, professional wrestling tends to look back at previous decades with the rosiest of lenses, and since WWE owns pretty much every major American wrestling tape library, the promotion even has the freedom to rewrite history to be even rosier than folks might remember. This is an extraordinary tool, and WWE rarely forgets that they have a dozen old Aces up their sleeve. But as powerful as nostalgia can be, I have to wonder about how WWE made use of its Legends and Hall of Famers this week on a special retro-themed SmackDown.

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WWE Friday Night SmackDown preview – April 6, 2012

NO! NO! NO!

While not quite as exciting as the return of both Brock Lesnar and A-Train on this week’s Monday Night Raw, WWE’s SmackDown features a couple comeback kids of its own this week: Skip Sheffield in his Ryback gimmick, and the former Idol Stevens as Damien Sandow, with what has been described as an “actor gimmick.” But what I’m really interested to see this week is what WWE does with Daniel Bryan.

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WWE Friday Night SmackDown Preview – March 23, 2012

Funk is on a roll!

So, folks hungry for a new “Straight Shoot” column are going to have to deal with their stomach rumblings for at least a little while longer, as I’m still working out the specifics of where that type of heavy wrestling criticism and analysis will land post-UGO (if you have a lead, feel free to get at me in the comments or on Twitter). But in the meantime, I’ve started up a BRAND-NEW weekly wrestling feature with the fine folks over at GuySpeed.com: A weekly SmackDown preview!

See,SmackDown, though it airs on Fridays, is pretty much always pretaped in front of a live audience on Tuesdays, so by Wednesday morning, the internet is full of reports from the event. Things always change a little, segments are sometimes edited out of the show and backstage pretapes aren’t always ready to roll by then, but in general, the show is pretty much done, and by looking at dirt sheet-based fan reports, you can get a pretty good idea of what’s going to happen on the program.

My weekly SmackDown previews are going to take a look at the top five reasons you should tune into the show each week, whether it’s a match you should see, a video package WWE will probably air or even a Funkasaurus sighting, as seen above. Obviously, SPOILER WARNINGS are in full-effect, but I don’t plan on revealing winners of matches unless it’s a major title change that you’ll want to tune in for. Similar to my Raw recap from earlier this week, this sucker is a work in progress, so please make sure to let me know if you’d like to see things done in a different manner. And of course, please, please, PLEASE leave comments over on GuySpeed.com and share the article through your social networks.

Enjoy this week’s SmackDown preview!

WWE Monday Night Raw recap – March 19, 2012

This week’s Raw recap is now live, but eagle-eyed readers will notice something very different about the piece: It’s firmly installed in its new home at GuySpeed.com. I’m going to be doing “Best of…”-style Raw recaps that go live every Tuesday morning, but as opposed to the larger, more expansive focus of the “Good, Bad & Ugly” series, I’ll instead be focusing on the six most important segments or moments from the show – the stuff you’ll want to be conversant in at the watercooler this week, assuming you work with a bunch of marks.

Also, starting this Thursday, we’ll also be running pieces for SmackDown. Since I started doing “Good, Bad & Ugly” for Raw, a lot of people have requested that I do the same for WWE’s Friday night show, but unfortunately, with the timing of it, with internet traffic dropping off over the weekend, and the newscycle having moved on by Monday, it just didn’t make sense. So, instead of a weekly review, we’ll be doing SmackDown previews, where I discuss the announced matches, dirt sheet reports and ongoing storylines, anticipating all the stuff you’ll see come Friday night.

All of this is a work in progress though, as GuySpeed’s audience is no doubt different from UGO’s, so please, let us know what you’d like to see from your internet wrestling writing. More detail and analysis? Less recap? Diva pictures to ogle? Whatever it is, tell us in the comments of this week’s recap. And of course, if you don’t already, please come follow me on Twitter – it’s the best place to keep up to date with my writing and projects across the web, and/or read snarky 140 character comments during your favorite wrestling shows.

WWE Monday Night Raw recap – March 19, 2012

Straight Shoot CM Punk vs. Chris Brown

Up until now, I hadn’t expressed any opinion publicly – or privately really – about the whole Chris Brown thing. It’s not because I don’t think that guy’s a mentally unhinged, violent, unrepentant, abusive bully, or because I didn’t watch the Grammys – OF COURSE I think that guy’s a mentally unhinged, violent, unrepentant, abusive bully and OF COURSE I didn’t watch the Grammys. No, I didn’t get involved because that kind of dogpile, bandwagon-driven hate-fest always feels a little disingenuous to me, more about being seen to be morally outraged than actually being morally outraged…especially when it all comes pouring out almost three years after the fact.

So, that’s the angle I took with my most recent Straight Shoot article for UGO. I wrote it quickly so we could get all the good traffic from the story (we’re as shameless as anyone, yes), but I’m still pretty pleased with how it turned out. Let me know if you agree.

Straight Shoot: CM Punk vs. Chris Brown

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