Snore Games (November 2025)

November was rather quick this month. It was also my 41st birthday this month so, you know, behold the ravages of age and all that. It wasn't much of a month but I do have a few things I can talk about, including actually talking about wrestling this month so if you actually like my wrestling ramblings, then this is the month for you I guess. So let's see what I can pull out of November to cover for a good thousand words or so. 

Let's start with WWE. It's November, which means it's Survivor Series season. And for the last several years now, Survivor Series has been altered from the classic 4 on 4 or 5 on 5 elimination matches to the War Games match. And on paper, it's a strong enough pair of War Games matches, with the company building on the men's main event match in particular. Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes, CM Punk, the Usos vs Bron Breakker, Bronson Reed, Drew McIntyre, Suicide Forest Guy and the alleged sex trafficker. Which sadly worked to help sell out the show and have people shell out money for overpriced tickets. And the end result was a boring show. Neither War Games match being bad mind you, but both feeling too kid gloves and lacking in the "war" element that the matches are known for. Hell, when the match spends several minutes redoing Jey Uso's entrance mid-match then yeah, I'm not feeling the high energy and excitement that a War Games match should provide.

Which is why AEW beat WWE to the punch with this year's Blood and Guts, offering what I feel were two exciting and brutal matches. With the highlight being the first ever women's Blood and Guts match. It delivered on the violence with beds of nails, thumbtacks, glass, mirrors and more, all while allowing each of the women to look strong and stand out in the match itself. Easily my favorite match all month. The men's was also solid, but I didn't care for it as much. It also got a bit excessive, namely with the Pac/Darby fire spot, but Kyle O'Reilly getting the win over Jon Moxley was something I didn't expect and was pleasantly surprised by. I don't know where the Kyle push will lead since while he's great he's always felt like a wrestler with a ceiling to him, but I'm all for it. 

Full Gear was also this month and it was another strong show. Not as strong as the likes of All Out, but better match quality-wise than October's Wrestledream, which was also a great show. A few shock title changes, namely Samoa Joe winning the AEW World Title for a second time against Hangman, which lead to the return of Swerve Strickland. I'm guessing we run back the triple threat match between Joe, Swerve and Hangman at World's End, which should be a solid match. Though at this point I'm just waiting for the fireworks factory of MJF returning and cashing in his title shot for real. But, most importantly, the Continental Classic is underway, which means both Dynamite and Collision will be chock full of awesome matches, so the weekly shows are feeling must-see again, which is always a good thing. Hopefully when I cover December 2025 I come out feeling very positive about how things go down with AEW. I'll also cover the Cena retirement match then. I could do it now, but really, I'd rather wait to see how much of a mess it ends up being. 

On the VHS front, not much to report. While October was just nonstop finds, this month I was slower on collecting much throughout since I had to save my money for the majority with less to really pick stuff up with. Best find of the bunch was a near-mint condition copy of Army of Darkness. Had to pay 14.99 for it compared to the usual 3 bucks a tape I'd find at thrift stores, but it was worth it. I've only seen the first Evil Dead and I have seen bits and pieces of Army of Darkness when I was a kid, so I definitely want to watch the entire movie series down the line. Would be a good excuse to review it for Letterboxd, which I have been using more this month now that I'm watching many of the tapes I've purchased. Get some use out of them besides just as nice shelf fillers.

NES finds this month was much better. I'll start with the games I got at the end of the month. The star finds being Kirby's Adventure and Ninja Gaiden, though I do like the other three. Kirby was a game I did have as a kid in the timeframe before I got my Sega Genesis, so it holds a lot more nostalgic value than the others. It's also fitting I nab a copy of this just as Kirby Air Riders hits the Switch 2. Haven't gotten it yet, but I'm interested in it. Might be a bit though.

Bit it was the middle of the month where things were more interesting. I had birthday money so I could use it on some game pickups. But I also still had my old Nintendo Switch pretty much gathering dust. So I initialized it, sold it and managed to nab what is currently the rarest, most expensive game in my collection, Dragon Warrior IV. 

This means that I now finally have all four Dragon Warrior games once again. When I had the whole set prior, I did manage to beat the first three. I got deep into Dragon Warrior IV, but then I made it to Casino and just messed with that until I petered out of the game. No wonder Balatro did a number on me. 

I also managed to get my hands on the original Metroid and the gold carts for Zelda and Zelda II. Honestly two of the most near-immaculate looking copies I've seen in the wild. So I believe that makes the entire Classics rerelease set complete. This now takes me to 55 NES games picked up. Still a ways to go from when I had over 300 NES games, but you gotta start somewhere. Still a few titles I'm hunting for, and now that the Canada Post situation is settled (for now) I can order from eBay again. Meaning that it's time to start getting the Mega Man games again. I already have 2 and 3 on the way and am working from cheapest to most expensive. Thankfully Christmas is coming up so that should cushion the blow of having to pay for a copy of Mega Man V. 

In other games, it's been mostly the same this month. WWE 2K25, Pokemon Z-A, the odd other game. Again I do intend to get Kirby Air Riders but it'll be a bit. I also plan to get the Switch 2 upgrade for Sonic Racing: Crossworlds and then I'll put more effort into that game as well. I also nabbed the SpongeBob games The Cosmic Shake and Titans of the Tide and am slowly working on those. Mostly Cosmic Shake which I'm enjoying so far. 

And that's pretty much my November. Mostly wrestling related and NES focused. Given how December looks, it might be more of the same, especially with Christmas on the way. While I'm not a big Christmas person, I also want to watch more Christmas movies this year, at least ones that fit in the bucket list of movies I've never watched in full. So next month I might have a lot more to cover. We'll see if that holds true next month.