WWE Elite Series 61: AJ Styles

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By Robert Greenwood

“The Phenomenal One” AJ Styles has had a storied career in professional wrestling and he has now garnered more respect and attention from the “casual” audience. He is simply one of the best in the business right now and his Elite Series 61 figure represents why he is the G.O.A.T. (Greatest Of All Time) at what he does.

Series 61 is the build-a-display set which includes a base and card back so you can display your action figure as if it was a high end collectible.

AJ is boxed in the typical Elite packaging and the window display shows pretty much the whole figure and his one accessory, an extra hood.

The back of the box shows off a brief description about AJ putting up his United States Championship against Tye Dillenger and Baron Corbin.

This figure is designed to represent AJ Styles’ entrance look. Yet even though the package talks about AJ defending his US Championship, it does not include the title belt as an available accessory.

The figure does what it must do and that is: look absolutely amazing! The sculpt looks like AJ from his tattoos on his right side of his rib cage (his initials AJ and his kids’ birthdates) to his “soccer mom” hairdo. Which, no matter how you make it look, it’s just 100% AJ. Of course, with the Elite Series, you get full range of articulation, which is ideal for a wrestling superstar like himself. With these added points of articulation, this figure can definitely live up to the high flying technician that is “The Phenomenal One.”

I want to briefly talk about the hood accessory. At first glance, it seems maybe a bit silly or cheap, but once I added it to the figure, I ended up liking its design more. It simply snaps in and becomes a hood he can have over his head as his music plays then stands at the top of the stage or snap in the hood that is sculpted to be down so when his music kicks in, AJ can lower it down and head to the ring to do what he does best. Either way, it works. Actually this might be better than if Mattel used a fabric hoodie.

Overall this figure is just…(wait for it) phenomenal as is AJ himself. If I had to pick some negative aspects, I guess we could have done without the hoodie and instead included the US title. And the build-a-display isn’t a bad thing, but would have benefited having something more like a static image from his TitanTron entrance.

With all that aside, I am honestly an AJ fan from his days in TNA to his time in NJPW and, of course, how well he has excelled here in the WWE. The figure is a must buy and, being that it’s Summer Slam weekend, the AJ Styles figure will first be released during this time on the Amazon Treasure Truck in Brooklyn, NY.

So, if you are going to be in NYC and attend Summer Slam, try and get him at the Amazon Treasure Truck!

Once again a big thank you to Mattel for the review sample.

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WWE Elite Series 61: Tyler Breeze and Fandango

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By Robert Greenwood

Before we do our review, we want to take a moment to remember Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart who passed away on 8/13/18. He was one half of one of the most iconic tag teams pre-Attitude Era, The Hart Foundation.

When the music hits, you just have to dance and make sure you take the perfect selfie! Thanks to Mattel, we have our look at Breezdango, the tag team of Tyler Breeze and Fandango. The “Fashion Police” are here in Series 61 of WWE Elite.

Tyler Breeze and Fandango have been gaining so much popularity amongst the WWE universe as of late that seeing them in the newest wave of the Elite Series was more of just a matter of when. These two Elite Series figures are packed with the build-a-display, which are simply a stand with a cool background image of each wrestler. Now being these guys are tag team partners, you would think that they are perfect to pick up together, but honestly, each separately was the smarter way to go.

Tyler is more than an accomplished singles wrestler, his time in NXT gave him a decent group following. His figure has all that should be expected for an Elite figure. His face perfectly sculpted with the “duck lips” look is absolutely genius because how else do you take a selfie? You can’t have Tyler without his signature selfie stick and cellphone that is attached to the end.

Both figures come with the Fashion Police shirt that simple velcro in the back. They also get sunglasses and sport the “official Fashion Police” caps.

But with Fandango, his sculpt of his face isn’t as exact as with Tyler. Sure you can tell it’s him, but it’s not as accurate as it could be. Fandango seems super jacked, but the paint apps on his pants really capture his ring gear.
Nonetheless, you will need them both to take down ugly fashion trends in the WWE. Maybe even have them give a summons to AJ Styles for the “soccer mom hair” he is always sporting.

These two Elite figures are a must buy due into no small part to not only bolster the roster of tag teams, but add some much needed fashion in the modern era of WWE.

Big thanks once again to Mattel for the review samples.

Check out Rob on Instagram @alternativemindz and on Twitter @AltMindz

WWE 2K19’s Showcase Mode Is Putting The Spotlight On The Career Of Daniel Bryan

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WWE 2K19 will see the return of Showcase Mode this year (which was missing for the last two games) and this time, we will get to relive the career of WWE Superstar Daniel Bryan. I think that this choice is a good one since he came out of retirement earlier this year and has had matches on the main roster ever since. He has reunited with his former tag team partner Kane and has had feuds this year raging from Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Big Cass, Harper and Rowan, to now The Miz which has been building up since Bryan was the General Manager of Smackdown over two years ago. Daniel Bryan and The Miz will finally have a match on this year’s Summerslam. So far, his year is shaping up to be a very good one for him and the fans are happy that he is back wrestling once again. Now it is time to dive down to the news that came out today.

 

While he has been back in the ring to create new stories and memories for fans to remember, 2K Games took the time to revisit his best feuds and matches from the past. There is said to be about 11 matches on this mode and some of them features his first WWE match ever with John Cena on an episode of WWE Velocity way back in 2003, his tag team title win against Kofi Kingston and R-Truth back in 2012, His street fight match against Randy Orton on Raw in 2013, and his WrestleMania 30 match with Triple H along with the triple threat match later that night that included Batista and Randy Orton which was also the height of the “Yes” movement. We do not know yet of the other matches, but there will also be a “surprise match” on this mode that was not shown yet so everyone including myself can guess on which match that will be.

I would like to point out that CM Punk was also in WWE during Bryan’s career and with the controversy that surrounded him after he quit WWE a few years ago, many fans wonder if his [Daniel Bryan] matches with Punk will be featured as well. Another person that is not currently under contract with WWE as well is AJ Lee and she was involved with the feuds between Bryan and Punk along with Bryan’s feud with Sheamus. Only time will tell before we know if those particular matches will be included of the 11 matches. In fact, what if one of the matches i just explained is the “surprise match”. Other notable superstars that were there while he was there are Ryback, Wade Barrett, Justin Gabriel, and John Morrison as they were all also involved with his run in WWE in the early 2010’s. We will know very soon as the video game is released this October on Playstation 4, PC and Xbox One and there is a collector’s edition with bonus material that features WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair.

Follow me on Twitter and Instagram @julianexcalibur

Fear The Walking Dead News: Will Morgan Return to Alexandria?

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The second half of the fourth season of Fear The Walking Dead has arrived at AMC, and has revealed the odd unknown. Among them, we could know the desire of Morgan (Lennie James) to return to Alexandria, and has asked allies to follow him in his mission

After having been visiting the different survivors of Fear The Walking Dead, Morgan decides that it is best to return with his original group of friends to provide the necessary help. At the request to be followed, only seems to agree Al (Maggie Grace), who agrees to take him there. But, will there finally be another ‘crossover’?

Everything seems to indicate that no. Or, at least, for now. In response to the recent production decision to renew Fear The Walking Dead for a fifth season, the fact that both zombie titles merge into one is a probability that, in the short term, is not contemplated. This should not mean a resounding ‘no’ to Morgan’s return, as he could leave and remain in his origin series. But here lies the big problem:

The ninth season of The Walking Dead raises a temporary leap of no less than a year and a half, so it would be very difficult to make the two chronological lines come together. Also, Scott Gimple has indicated that there are no plans for a new ‘crossover’ soon. Of course, this does not close the door to occur in the future, but it is something that we can discard right now:

“No [excludes more crosses] That’s all I have to say, it does not, but I would not wait for it all the time, things could happen, you never know who could appear in Fear The Walking Dead. The Walking Dead and potentially to people in the past of ‘Fear the Walking Dead “.

However, an existing option is that the protagonists of The Walking Dead do march to Fear with the intention of following this plot in its corresponding timeline. However, it seems an unlikely option.

The ninth season of The Walking Dead will arrive at AMC on October 7th.