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The Spotlight On The Week Ahead For WWE 10/5-10/11

Tom Lynch Spotlight On Raw, Spotlight On The WWE Network, Wrestling , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hello every and happy Monday.  I hope all of you out there had a great weekend.  I enjoyed mine quite a bit whether it be all of the football yesterday, checking out DJ Chucky at LAVO NYC or finishing up moving into my new place, I really couldn’t complain.  With Monday morning comes a brand new week of goodness (one that will see my birthday take place tomorrow actually) and a pretty big week in the world of WWE.  Let’s get right into it.

The Week Ahead For WWE

Monday-  Raw emanates live from Boston, Massachusetts and it is the next step on Brock Lesnar’s Go To Hell Tour, a stop that was added last week, as Brock will likely start the build for the Hell In A Cell Match for The Undertaker and Brock Lesnar later this month.  I will say that the build for Hell In A Cell has been particularly strong this year, in my opinion.  The two cell matches, Lesnar-Taker and Reigns- Wyatt have been going on for a long period of time and it makes sense to have the culmination of each take place inside the confines of Hell In A Cell. Almost, exactly one year ago to the day, I was live at Raw at the Barclays Center as my girlfriend was nice enough to get me tickets for my birthday.  This was the night where Dean Ambrose left Raw to head to Coney Island, only to return with a hot dog stand for Seth Rollins.  It was also the night where The Rock made a surprise appearance, out of nowhere, to interrupt Lana and Rusev.  That was one of my favorite live shows I’ve seen and it’ll be interesting to see if WWE brings forth a packed show like that tonight to the, sure to be, hot crowd in Boston tonight.

Wednesday- Ever since the first NXT: Takeover Special in last February, as most of you know by now, the NXT specials on the WWE Network have been some of my favorite parts of the Network.  This week will be no exception as NXT presents NXT Takeover: Respect this Wednesday night live from Full Sail University at 8:00PM EST in Orlando, Florida.  NXT has been one of my favorite weekly shows recently as I’ve found the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Tournament to be so unique and overall, a lot of fun.  It’s going to be pretty emotional to see whoever wins the tournament be presented with the trophy by Cody and Dustin Runnels, Dusty’s sons aka Goldust and Stardust,  But that’s not all their is to look forward to at the NXT special.  The main event this Wednesday is the first NXT Special that will be main evented by women as Bayley defends the NXT Women’s title against Sasha Banks in the first ever Women’s 30-minute Ironman match.  Also really glad to see that WWE has stretched the special out to 2 and a half hours this week as it will allow every match to get the time they deserve.  As always the NXT pre show, which take place outdoors on campus and really reminds me of ESPN’s College Gameday kicks off at 7:30PM EST.  This special is the highlight of the week for me as a WWE fan.

Network Original Programming- This is another big week filled with WWE Network original programming, other than the aforementioned Takeover special, that really caught my attention.  In descending order,  have a new episode of the very underrated Table For 3 that will debut just a few hours before NXT at 4:00PM Wednesday afternoon, featuring Kevin Owens, Dean Ambrose and Cesaro.  From there, on Tuesday afternoon at 3:00PM there will be an hour long preview for NXT Takeover: Respect and then at 5:00PM it’s the return of the docuseries- “Rivalries” featuring the rivalry between Lita and Trish Stratus.  For me though, the highlight is tonight following Monday Night Raw where the 24 series returns to the WWE Network, this time looking at the NXT: Takeover special that took place in Brooklyn a few months back, from a behind the scenes perspective.  The best news is that tonight’s 24 is set to be an hour long which is great news.  While the past 24 specials were great, I always felt that 30 minutes was a bit too short.

That’s going to do it for me but obviously a big week of action this week for WWE.  We’ll have coverage of all of it starting with Raw tomorrow morning.  Until then, what are you most looking forward to seeing in the week ahead for WWE.

The Spotlight On Tommy At The Garden- Pt. 1 The Fear of Papa Shango

Tom Lynch Wrestling , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hello everyone and welcome to my little preview for the WWE at Madison Square Garden tonight, live on the WWE Network at 8pm.  With this being the first WWE event from the Garden to be broadcast, I felt it would be fun to take a look back at some of my personal live experiences seeing WWE live at the Garden.  The Garden will always hold a spot in my heart because it’s the fist venue that I had ever been to a live WWF event.  I have countless memories of heading from Bayside to Penn Station on the Long Island RailRoad with my parents first and then with my friends.  When I was a kid there seemed to be a WWF show at the garden every month or so and I went all the time.  Without any further ado let’s get right into some of the highlights of my time at the Garden with an event back in September 1992.

On September 11th, 1992, my father got he and I two tickets for the WWF at Madison Square Garden.  I couldn’t believe it as this was going to be one of my first live events, I didn’t even know what to do or think.  We jumped on the Long Island Rail Road from Bayside to MSG and it was a feeling like none other.  Everywhere  looked there were wrestling fans, everyone was wearing a shirt and holding a sign.  It felt like i was a world of wrestling fans and it was great.  It would be the same feeling I would feel during every show I’d end up going to, but there was something that felt big time about MSG.

A we arrived to MSG, following an embarrassing moment where I took a leak in a potted plant at penn station, my dad told me he had a huge surprise for me.  Before he revealed that, however, my dad bought me a program which always showed the match card.  I opened it up and screamed off every big match on the card.  Ric Flair vs. The Undertaker!  Randy Savage vs. Razor Ramon!  Then my face sank…I nervously proclaimed to my dad ” Dad, Pap Shango is wrestling tonight, he’s wrestling Bret Hart”.  This only got worse when my dad revealed his surprise, which were front row seats!

I immediately began to scream as this was unbelievable and intimidating at the same time. I told my dad as great as this was we had to give the seats away.  I couldn’t sit there petrified of Shango.  I’m sure my father wanted to kill me but, being a good father, agreed to make someone’s day, by asking some fans to switch seats with us.   We enjoyed the show from the sixth row until the Hart-Shango match.  At this point, I had to use the bathroom and the only way this was possible would be to walk against the barricade and passed the first row.  We tried to do this while Hart had Shango in a headlock and we were in the middle of tiptoeing past the front row when Shango disposed of Hart and ran at the ropes as quick as possible taunting the crowd.  Well, that was it!  I was off to the races as I ran quickly into the lobby.  I had never seen my father run faster in his life as he screamed for me to stop.  I eventually did but we hung out by the souvenirs until Hart won.

To make matters worse, I then pleaded with my dad to run up to the barricade to see the Undertaker up close.  That’s right, the deadman was fine but Papa Shango was the problem!  As for what happened to ole Papa Shango?  Well, he had to retire as he soon realized that “Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy!”

Keep tuning in for the rest of the day here at thedailyspotlight.com

The Spotlight On WWE Summerslam returning to New York City

Tom Lynch Wrestling , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

“We are thrilled to build on the success of the 2015 SummerSlam and welcome WWE back to Brooklyn in 2016 and 2017,”- New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio

It’s been just a little over one month since all of the festivities that were associated with WWE Summerslam wrapped up here in the New York City area but late last night the New York Daily News broke this on their official twitter:

That’s right for the next two years WWE Summerslam will be returning to the Barclay’s Center here in Brooklyn, New York.  This shouldn’ come as any real surprise to long time fans of the WWE product as WWE ran The Staples Center for six years from 2009-2014.  Furthermore, WWE had tremendous success at the Barclay’s Center last month, selling out the venue for three straight nights with NXT Takeover, Summerslam (raising $1.3 million from the gate on this event alone) and Monday Night Raw respectively.  It was announced that those same three events will all be returning to the Barclays Center in both 2016 and 2017 to create the mega three day weekend for WWE fans around the world.  It is obvious that WWE is continuing to build Summerslam up as the second biggest show of the year, behind only Wrestlemania.  While it hasn’t officially been announced, one would be right to assume that Summerslam will continue to be a four hour mega event, that is was this year, moving forward.  Other than the three big shows at the Barclay’s Center this past year, WWE became a real fixture throughout the New York City Area with autograph signings, television talk show appearances, panel discussions and charity events featuring WWE Superstars and Divas seemingly at every turn (many of which we covered here live and in depth at thedailyspotlight.com).  To me, it was the most main stream acceptance that WWE has received since the Attitude Era with even ESPN Sportscenter broadcasting live from the Barclays Center on Summerslam Sunday.  This is really exciting for me as a New Yorker, though it does mean that I’m going to be quite busy with now Summerslam in my hometown and Wrestlemania becoming an annual vacation for the girlfriend and I.

Moving forward, I really do wonder if WWE’s long term goal is to build up the other two big four events (Survivor Series and Royal Rumble) similar to the way that they have with Summerslam.  Back in 2004, I remember hearing that Vince McMahon wanted to run Wrestlemania at New York, Los Angeles & Chicago (The three biggest markets) for Wrestlemanias 20-22 before switching over exclusively to running Wrestlemania events out of stadiums.  That said, why couldn’t WWE run the Royal Rumble exclusively out of Chicago, Summerslam exclusively out of New York and The Survivor Series primarily out of Los Angeles?  This would give fans a big WWE three day weekend annually in the West Coast, the midwest and in the Northeast, while still allowing Wrestlemania to be the big vacation attraction in a city each year, while also being the only show to be featured in a staidum.  We are likely getting a little ahead of ourselves, and I have no knowledge and any discussions like this going on, but I think they would be a fun way to make each one of the events special and give each one the big time feel that they deserve.  One thing is for sure, they are well on their way to accomplishing that feat with Summerslam!

Yogi Berra, Survivor: Second Chance , Yom Kippur & More- The Daily Spotlight for 9/23/2015

Tom Lynch Uncategorized , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hello everyone, it’s been far too long since I’ve given you guys one of these less formal blogs and so I figured I would update today.  My plan is to update these blogs a bit more frequent as the days go by. The idea behind these blogs is so that I can give you all my quick opinions on all of the happenings in my life as well as some of the headlines in the world of sports, entertainment and everything in between.  I welcome all feedback as always either in the comment section of this post, via email at thedailyspotlight2@gmail.com and on twitter @TommyOnTheSpot.  Without any further ado let’s get right into it.

  • I want to take a minute to wish everyone observing the Yom Kippur holiday a safe fast.  I am celebrating myself but wouldn’t call myself overly religious.  I actually consider myself half Jewish and half Catholic as my mother is Jewish and my father the latter so I was raised this way.  My views on religion are basically that one should be able to practice their religion as they choose.  I don’t agree with celebrating or practicing something the right or wrong way, it should be a personal choice.  I feel that if your comfortable with the way you celebrate or observe than kudos to you.  Personally I am at work today and observe the holiday of Yom Kippur by both fasting and not driving for the day.  This meant that in the wee hours of the morning I walked four miles to work this morning and will walk those same four miles later today to the Yizkor service later today.
  • I’d also like to take a minute to acknowledge the passing of one of the best baseball players in the history of the sport, Yogi Berra, who passed away through the night at the age of 90 years old.  Many of you know that I grew up a Yankee fan and growing up,  I always heard stories about Gehrig, DiMaggio, Ruth, Mantle and Berra.  It truly is the end of an era as Yogi was the last living member of that era that was still pretty active even until very recently.  I used to go to Old Timer’s Day at Yankee Stadium every year, and while that franchise has iconic players from every era, there was a different feel whenever Berra was introduced. The legacy of Yogi Berra will be remembered forever through his many catch phrases and his incomparable accomplishments on the field.  He will truly be missed and my thoughts and prayers are with his family during this time.
  • Tonight Survivor: Second Chance premieres on CBS with a 90 minute special at 8PM EST.  I’m really looking forward to the season as it feels like just yesterday we were looking at the different contestants that we wanted to see on the show and tonight the 31st season of Survivor finally kicks off.  My plan is to be here with coverage of each and every episode of Survivor:Second Chance at some point during the week following each episode.  In general this is one of my favorite television nights of the year because CBS debuts the first episode of Survivor, the same night they air the 90 minute live Big Brother season finale.
  • A quick note on the Big Brother 17 season finale, to me the end of Big Brother signals the official end of the summer.  Times flies by right after this, we will blend right into Halloween, then Thanksgiving and before long after that, Christmas.  As for the finale, as much as I wasn’t a fan of Vanessa, I expect that if she wins the final HOH, she will win the season going away.  She has played the best game of the season and has played a role in every single person going home.  There is a small chance that all of the blood Vanessa got on her hands, will rub people the wrong way but honestly, if I’m Steve or Liz and I win HOH, I’m sending Vanessa home.  It’s good to see Big Brother getting an extra 30 minutes for the reunion.  There may not be a show that, if you follow along, takes over your life quite like Big Brother based on it being live and on going with the internet feeds, the twitter feeds, the three broadcasts a week, and the lack of TV competition during the summer. It’s sad to see it go.
  • The Washington Nationals very slim playoff chances continue to take a hit as despite the Mets losing a game they had no business losing last night, the Nationals lost as well.  To make matters worse, Jordan Zimmermann has a stiff neck and has refused to move up his pitching day to Thursday to face the tough Orioles.  That means the Nationals will have Tanner Roark on the mound tonight and the Mets magic number to clinch the division may in fact be down to 4 tonight.  I’ll be rooting hard for my Nats until that magic number is 0 but that may be before long.  Tonight we’re all Braves fans.
  • Lastly, there is a brand new episode of WWE NXT on the WWE Network tonight.  If you haven’t been watching NXt recently you have really been missing out.  I’m not sure if I could remember the last time I enjoyed a tournament as much as I have with the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team tournament.  The teams have been so unique and just a lot of fun to watch each week.  I caught up on last week’s episode and thought Johnny Gargano and Tamasso Ciampa looked great again and would love to see them get deals.  NXT continues to differentiate itself by putting a real focus on some aspects of wrestling we don’t see as much of in WWE, it was first the women and now tag teams.  I also think they’ve done a good job promoting that tournament matches would be taking place on the live shows as it gives fans an added incentive to go check those out.  I was hoping that the semi finals of the tournament would be added to the MSG special on the network but putting the semis and the finals on the Takeover special builds up that show as well.  I for one can’t wait to see Gable and Jordan vs. Dawson and Wilder tonight.

Well, that’s going to do it for me but a really big night for television tonight (even Empire is back),  I may have to break fast with a cold one on the comfort of my couch tonight! In any event, if you haven’t done so please do check out a really fun piece I did on a Dean Ambrose autograph signing that I attended a few weeks ago right here https://thedailyspotlight.com/2015/09/23/the-spotlight-on-dean-ambrose-at-iplay-America/ and stay tuned for more great stuff right here on thedailyspotlight.com.  Tomorrow, I’ll be back with my pick for the Thursday night Football game between the Giants and the Redskins.  I’ll also be back with another edition of the daily spotlight blog for tomorrow and I have a few more fun things that I’ve been working on.  Until then, have a great day!

The Spotlight On Dean Ambrose at iPlay America

Tom Lynch Reviews, Travel, Wrestling , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A few weeks ago, my girlfriend, her younger brother and I took the 90 minute drive from Queens, New York to Freehold, New Jersey to meet “The Lunatic Fringe” Dean Ambrose.  My girlfriend’s brother’s favorite wrestler is Ambrose and he wanted to originally meet Dean during Summerslam weekend at the Barclays Center but the cost was a little steep at $150 per person.  Thus, I did a little research on the WWE superstars appearances section of WWE.com and saw that Ambrose was signing autgraphs at iplay America for a fraction of the cost at only $50 per person and that included both a photo op and a signed 8 X10.  We also figured that we may be able to turn it into a bit of a day out in Jersey.  Let’s get into a bit of the highlights of the event.

Highlights:

 The iPlay  America Venue and Deal: The way that iPlay set up this event was just fantastic.  The second you approached iPlay America there was a huge Dean Ambrose billboard along the highway that immediately drew you in and also got you excited for the event.  Also included in your price tag for the autograph session was a $10 gift card to redeem at iPlay America the same day.  Iplay is actually a really big place and we ended spending a good amount of time there.  They have a state of the art arcade, lazer tag, a 4D movie (we did the penguin one and it was great), indoor rides, and so much more.  IPlay also had a number of different events going on from hosting a UFC viewing party later that night to hosting a free concert later that week with former American Idol contestant Casey James.  It also is a great place for families and birthday parties for the little ones.  It was really nice to see a venue so open to so many different things and offering deals and promotions to make the exciting experience affordable at the same time.  From Autograph Signing to WWE Event: We’ve all been to those autograph signings that can be a bit of a drag where you stand on line for 2 hours and it’s excruciating.  Then when you get up to meet the WWE superstar you get two seconds to grab your autograph and go.  If the photograph is even an option, it’s often as the talent is signing or you’re leaned over the table awkwardly.  Well I’m happy to say that this was not the case at IPlay America, not at all.  Instead, they made the whole event seem like a really big deal.  It started when you walked into a big arena setup where Dean Ambrose was and immediately you saw big screens everywhere playing Dean Ambrose entrance videos, best of WWE videos, and Dean Ambrose matches (against Bo Dallas, Bray wyatt, Sheamus and more) so that you could enjoy the matches while you waited on line.  From there they were also selling a variety of really unique WWE memorabilia and light up gimmicks at the event.  The highlight for me, however, was that Dean Ambrose was standing in front of a backdrop waiting for a posed photo.  I’ve never seen this at a signing and it was really cool as you got to stand for posed photos with Ambrose. Then, in order to save time, Iplay took a professional photo of you with Ambrose and, after you were finished talking with Dean and getting your picture,you were given the code to download your photo the next day and your signed 8X10.  By having Dean pre sign all of the 8 X 10s and eliminating anyone’s need for their own personal camera, it saved so much time and gave people the chance to just focus on their time with the superstar.  I feel like anyone running a signing should take a page out of iPlay’s book because it was really well done.  As for Ambrose, it was also great that (maybe because WWE had a show in town that night or because he was asked to do this) he was dressed like the Dean Ambrose you see on television and also acted the same way.  I remember one time I met the ultimate Warrior when I was a kid and he was wearing lounge clothes and a baseball cap, it was still cool but also sort of killed his allure.  Ambrose was out and about after the signing, checking out the iPlay America candy shop and walking through the restaurant on site.   It was a great experience but that wasn’t all. IPlay America also had a special guest in attendance as the host of the festivities which leads us too…

 Howard Finkel: If everything I wrote above wasn’t enough, Howard Finkel was on hand as the host of the event.  He hosted “OutThink The Fink” trivia contests for free tickets to the WWE event in Wildwood that night, Dean Ambrose T Shirts and IPlay America gift cards.  Fink would ask fans how long they’d been fans for and from there would ask questions ranging from “What is John cena’s catchphrase?” for kids to “What Sumo Wrestler did the Big Show wrestle at WrestleMania 21?” for lifelong fans.  This kept the fans entertained while on line and gave ambrose an opportunity to meet with some of the fans who paid for a VIP experience.  Howard was then available for a photo op of his own positioned right at the end of Ambrose’s signing and was also included in the price of admission.  I can tell you that Howard Finkel was one of the nicest people I’ve ever met.  He seemed genuinely touched by everyone in attendance their to meet him and chatted with everyone for as long as they wanted.  He was also open to taking selfies and signing autographs and even handed out free WWE trading cards to the kids.  A really cool bonus, in a way it was like Dean was there for the new generation of fans an Howard was there for the lifetime fans.  I personally got to reminisce with Howard about meeting him at the Fanfest for WrestleMania 10 when I told him I was afraid of every superstar there and he told me that I didn’t have to be because all of the superstars were told if they weren’t polite they wouldn’t get to wrestle at WrestleMania (protecting the business) which he got a good laugh out of.

Closing Thoughts:  All in all this was one of the best signings that I’ve ever gotten to go to.  I hope Iplay America continues to do events like these and I believe that they will because I did look back at their twitter feed and noticed that some of the superstars they’ve had in the past included Hulk Hogan, Roman Reigns & Daniel Bryan.  Even if their aren’t any WWE superstars their Iplay America is a great place to watch a UFC show and a great day for the whole family.  For more information on Iplay America, check them out at http://www.iplayamerica.com/ .