The month didn't start off good for me as my PC that I had since 2016 straight up died on me. I think it was the hard drive finally giving in after about seven years of service. So because of that, I had to borrow about 700 dollars for a new PC that I have to pay back over the next couple months, meaning that I really have nothing this month to show for collection stuff. Barring any other calamity, that will be back on track mid-October. The new PC I got is pretty good. Nice and fast and does everything I need it to do. Still need to get used to Windows 11, but otherwise, I'm as content as I can be on that front.
Didn't do as many new blogs this month, though I did bring Tooncrap back up from the muck to dunk on the Elon Musk episode of The Simpsons. Speaking of which, he continues to suck balls as X continues to worsen and his continued awful ideas like the removal of blocking which might be the straw for most people. It's like he can't live without making someone suffer, so this fits in his horrid wheelhouse. In other blogs, I finished up (Woo!) Party Summer with Fear Street Super Chiller: Goodnight Kiss 2, one of Stine's better efforts and also added a new blog for Screammates #01: Haunted Cleats. A pretty pedestrian book all told.
In other news, Charles Martinet has officially retired as the voice behind Mario and many other classic characters. Now branded as Mario Ambassador, although it's uncertain what that even means. It's sad to see the end of Martinet's run, but I'm at least glad that Nintendo isn't just throwing him out callously like some people feared was the case. And it is interesting that Charles' final roles in this universe were with the Super Mario Bros. Movie as both Giuseppe, as well as Mario and Luigi's father. A fun yet bittersweet way of ending a 30+ year era as the character.
Bob Barker died this month at the age of 99, which was sad, but expected. A shame that, like Betty White, he didn't make it to 100, but what are you gonna do? The Price is Right is my favorite game show, mainly in how much variety there was in the games, Plinko and Punch A Bunch being my favorites. It was the perfect afternoon show on a sick day from school. And while Drew Carey has managed to carry the legacy of the game show quite well, nobody will ever top Bob Barker. So honor his memory by helping control the pet population. Have your pets spayed or neutered.
And now we enter the wrestling front for this month and my god what a month this was. For good reasons but far more for bad. Two major deaths rocked the world of professional wrestling back to back. Terry Funk passed away at the age of 79. The Amarillo native spent 50+ years in the industry, as a team alongside his brother Dory Funk Jr. and more notably as a singles star. A former NWA Worlds Champion and embroiled in classic rivalries with the likes of Ric Flair, Jerry Lawler, Dusty Rhodes and more. But for me I remember Terry best for revolutionizing the hardcore wrestling style in Japan alongside longtime rival and friend Mick Foley. A terrific wrestler, a great promo, a tough SOB and by all accounts one of the nicest guys in the industry, Funk's legacy will last forever.
And then came the other death.
And while the company often dropped the ball with Wyatt, what always shone through was his boundless creativity. Best exemplified via the Firefly Funhouse segments of 2019 which brought way to The Fiend, the darkest side of Bray made manifest. And when Bray returned to the company in 2022 it was clear he had a lot more ideas in him as exemplified in the short era of Uncle Howdy and the supposed Wyatt Six. Now unfortunately left to be a wrestling "what if?". As a fan, it sucks to lose a wrestler that you liked, hell to lose almost any wrestler is bad, but that's all superficial. I feel for Windham's family, his friends, his colleagues, really feeling the weight of his loss.
In other wrestling stuff, We bookended the month with two big events. WWE Summerslam this year was an okay event with a fairly solid card. Its main event featuring Jey Uso vs Roman Reigns for the championship. A strong main event that, while Reigns' retention was obvious as hell, feels like it was the beginning of the jumping of the shark for the Bloodline storyline as Jimmy Uso turned on his brother, costing Jey the title. I get it, we need to extend storylines especially given we might not be seeing Reigns for a while, but I don't know, this feels like a case of going too far with the attempts at "gotchas" to the point that I kind of don't want to even watch a Roman title defense given that it's a sure thing that it'll be more lame bullshit to get this title run limping its way to Wrestlemania where they'll TOTALLY FOR SURE finish the story with Cody Rhodes.
Otherwise, things have been fine, albeit stagnant. The LA Knight push feels like it's in effect, but not exactly on fire right now given he's feuding with The Miz, which makes sense given Miz is in that Dolph Ziggler phase of his career in being the litmus test for new talent. I'm still not convinced it'll stay that way, but who knows? Iyo Sky's the women's champ, but still booked as a goober. And Austin Theory's no longer US Champ. Yay! Although he does get his rematch on Saturday so if I'm here in September talking about the return of the most boring title reign in modern history, then that'll suck for sure.
On the AEW side, All In London happened this past Sunday. AEW held a wrestling event in Wembley Stadium, which was the first wrestling event in that stadium since the 1992 Summerslam. It also broke ticket sales records with 81,000+ attended. As for the show, it was solid, with a lot of great matches and an incredible main event. Saraya won the AEW Women's title, which would be a cool moment if it wasn't accompanied with the music of her shithead fiance Ronnie Radke whinging about being "cancelled" because he's a piece of shit. Oh no, better not say that, I'm being ZOMBIFIED or whatever dumb shit. The main event of Adam Cole and MJF delivered, while doing the smart thing of not culminating the storyline of their friendship, while doing just enough possible turn segments to keep the drama up. AND SPEAKING OF DRAMA...
Almost 1 year to the day of Brawl Out, CM Punk is at it again. Really started earlier in August as Punk took more shots at Hangman Adam Page, claiming his action figure to be a peg warmer. Come on, dude. If any AEW figure is a peg warmer it's Jake Hager. Then stories came about with issues involving Christopher Daniels, Ryan Nemeth, and more importantly Jack Perry, as Punk took umbrage with Perry using real glass for a segment. At All In during the pre-show, Perry used real glass in a spot involving Hook, while also saying "cry me a river" on camera, a clear shot at Punk. Punk and Perry confronted each other back stage which led to Punk getting Perry in a choke hold, knocking a monitor on Tony Khan and just being another chapter in the wonderful era of the CM Punk/AEW saga.
So now Punk and Perry are suspended, which comes at the worst time given AEW is in Chicago all week and, oh yeah, have a PPV in Chicago on Sunday (one week after All In) which was supposed to be centered around Punk. At this rate, I hope they cut ties with him. There will never be an era in this company where bitter Phil isn't prevalent. Giving him his own Saturday show didn't change things, it just inflated his ego. And it leaves Tony Khan as looking pathetic in not reigning him in earlier and letting him run as roughshod as he has. This company had a show that should be important to the future of the industry and yet again, CM Punk made himself Madame Butterfly and squandered it.
I dusted off the PS4 and downloaded Twisted Metal 2 and Ape Escape, gaining the platinum trophies on both. Twisted Metal 2 is fun, but the controls are annoying, and certain cars just suck, especially when facing Dark Tooth at the end. I was considering that when I get out of this money slump that I might actually pick up the Playstation Plus service, but given the recent price hike, nah, screw that. Nintendo released a Direct for Super Mario Bros. Wonder and it looks really fun, though I only really care because Daisy is a playable character. That's all that's needed to excite me.
Other than that, there's not too much else to report. Still drawing regularly and while I don't feel the improvement as much this month, I'm still at least making an effort to draw at least once a night to try to get my mind into it. August was wet over here with more rainy days than sunny. The first two threats of tropical storms and hurricanes thankfully only led to rainier than usual days, and even those were overblown. But we still have some time to go in this hurricane season, so it's far from time to relax. I think Fiona woke a lot of people up in terms of just how bad things can get in an instant.
And that's August. A busy month, for mostly bad reasons. Hopefully September is better, though I just have a bad feeling about it right now. Be more fun stuff to report when I'm out of this money hole, but otherwise, the most important thing is that I at least HAVE a computer to be typing this all out on. So I guess it's worth it... a little.
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