Tag: oracle

Is there a more perfect show than Batman the Animated Series?

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

This is more of a rhetorical question because the answer is no, there really isn’t.  Obviously this is subject to personal preference, but I can’t imagine that I’m the only one out there who has this particular opinion.

I had finished watching WWE Elimination Chamber, and it was a pretty mediocre show overall; although the men’s and women’s chamber matches had outcomes that I didn’t get right, the Becky vs. AJ and the Balor vs. Punk matches were very obviously predictable.  Danhausen being the mystery crate reveal made me feel like the whole buildup is this generation’s Gobbledy Gooker, but probably more accurately the WWE’s need for a wacky character they can push towards the younger audiences and kids to help move merch and gain wider appeal.

But the overall feeling I had once the show was over was general disappointment and apathy, but mostly disappointment that mythical wife had actually paid real money for ESPN Unlimited so that I could watch PLEs, and it just so happens that the first one I come across is a relative clunker.  I think it might be a safe bet that once Wrestlemania passes, to pull the plug on the service since we already have like four other services we’re subscribed to.

Anyway, seeing as how the night wasn’t quite too late even though I would benefit from getting more sleep than I do on the regular, I felt like I didn’t want to end my television watching experience with an underwhelming wrestling show, so I switched to HBO Max where I knew that they had the entire library of Batman the Animated Series, and where I’d been watching an episode here or there, because it was perfect in the sense that it was high quality content that I’d already seen a million times and could multitask during, and the episodes are just 22 minutes, which means they’re no major time commitment.

It was while watching the episode of Clayface’s debut, it dawned on me that the reason why I seem to feel that Batman TAS has become somewhat of a default fallback, is because of what I just said, that it was the perfect show.  Not just for the aforementioned reasons, but holistically, the show is just perfect, in just about every other way as well.

Art direction, execution, writing, music, an entry of DC comics storytelling, light years ahead of its time, parading around as a kid’s show.  Believe me, I have seen every single episode of the show, and I’m having a really difficult time at thinking of any episodes that are actual 100% clunkers, with no redeemable quality to them, and by that criteria, I can’t say there are really any.  Sure, there are some episodes that I may want to skim or possibly skip, like the one where Batman is gassed by the Penguin, and he has to be saved by some kids, but by and large, I anticipate myself going to really enjoy the steady, gradual and methodical rewatch of Batman TAS with an episode or two every now and then.

And anyone who knows me knows that I almost never rewatch anything, because there’s so much content out in the world, lots of which I want to watch, that I very seldom go back and rewatch anything, because that time could be spent imbibing on something I haven’t seen before.

But Batman TAS?  It’s perfect in just about every subjective and measurable metric, and the most important thing is that it’s extraordinary ability to chase any shitty example of viewing media and bring me back believing that there’s good television out there, and that there’s really no bad time to catch an episode of the TAS.

The return of Sasha Banks is afoot

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

You heard it here first: the journey of the return of Sasha Banks has begun.  Obviously, I’m not really in tune with the industry as much these days, but every now and then I like to try and flex some of my old Oracle™ predicting power to see just how much the same the wrestling industry is no matter how much things seem like they’ve changed throughout the course of time.

When I saw that Kairi Sane had returned to the WWE and immediately gotten back with Iyo Sky, I didn’t think much of it.  But when I heard and then saw that Asuka had flipped and joined up with Kairi and Iyo, into Bayley’s Damage CTRL stable, I began to think, hmm.  Considering the long-storytelling here, and the obvious outnumbering of Bayley and an injured Dakota Kai, I feel like it’s only a matter of time before the Japanese girl-trio turns on Bayley and kicks her out of her own stable, and killing it in the process.

Charlotte has been the frequent victim to this new union, and now Bayley will be out on her own.  Somehow, Becky Lynch will get entangled in this affair, mostly because Iyo is a Women’s champion and that will be the clause needed to bring them all together despite differing show affiliation, and now we’ve got a nice little even three-on-three going on, after some reluctant teaming between the three of them which will hopefully be told in a manner that doesn’t treat the fans like idiots.

But obviously, something will feel missing the entire time, because there will be someone who is missing from the whole equation from the Four Horsewomen, and this is where I would be willing to wager, that if the rumors are true, and Giulia from NJPW/Stardom does sign with the WWE, she’ll be the fourth member to Japanese girl-squad, and it becomes all but inevitable that Sasha Banks has to make her return to the WWE at this point.

Perhaps it’s The RAW after Wrestlemania™, or maybe even sooner, maybe later, like next year’s Survivor Series or a War Games event separate, but at this point, I would wager that within the next calendar year, we should expect to see Sasha Banks return to the WWE.  As known as the Four Horsewomen name is, the stable has never been made official, the team has never competed simultaneously, and the company hasn’t merch’d or marketed them as such, and this would be as good as time as any for them to do so, especially when there would be a super-talented stable of Japanese girls to work with.

All of them get to start a new chapter in their careers, and it seems like good timing for all four Horsewomen to do such, considering Charlotte and Becky are kind of floating around in limbo, Bayley can probably do some entertaining work gradually phasing back into a face persona, and Sasha can steal all the spotlight with a grand hero’s return, en route to being the one who moves on with a championship.

The stars are not yet in alignment, but they’re all swirling around close enough to where it’s not going to take a lot to make it all work out.  The real challenge really will be trying to keep things under wraps, because once Becky joins up with Charlotte and Bayley, it’s going to be pretty obvious that Sasha is coming back, and knowing the WWE’s obsession with creating moments and surprises, anything short of a hero’s return might be enough to stall the inevitable.

The point is, from the day she left, I always predicted that it was never a matter of if, but when Sasha Banks comes back to the WWE, and I strongly feel like the wheels for that return have just begun moving.  It’s hard to get a straight answer from the internet, but to my knowledge, Mercedes Mone is basically a free agent since she was supposedly doing a per-appearance arrangement with NJPW, and considering how long she’s been out with an ankle issue, the timing seems appropriate for her to be able to make a return within the next few months.