Thirteen Part I: Censor with Mercy

Now is a good time as ever to really get into wrestling. I've been watching WWE for thirteen years and after some debating, I decided that now is a good chance to really talk more about what I liked growing up now that I'm older. So, there will be thirteen parts to this, talking about every year I've watched wrestling, from the house shows I can remember attending and most of all, my top three matches from that year that really stood out to me. Hop that anyone who reads this can enjoy something that I've been watching for so many years.

I: Censor with Mercy

Age: 8

Year: 2000

Hard to believe that my journey as a wrestling fan started in 2000. Well towards the end of the Attitude Era and close to the demise of WCW, I have no idea as to what is going on right now. Before anything, I did watch some wrestling here and there way before (my dad can always remember Sting for some reason). But to really pinpoint where I started watching wrestling, it would be before No Mercy 2000, where Kurt Angle defeated The Rock to become the WWF Champion. At this time, I was interested and this slowly started to build towards something I would love. Little by little, I started to know who Austin was, who Triple H was, who Angle, Taker, everyone at that time was. This was a time where I was just a interesting fan of this unknown show on television.

This was also around the time I was introduced to my first stable that I hated: The Right to Censor. There was no DX or nWo for me since hell, I started late watching wrestling. But these guys, man, I just hated them (however, while annoying, their theme song went to a nice little beat). At this point, you can see how sad this was for me to start at a time where everything was dying down from the Monday Night Wars that happened way before. But, as I said before, a fan of the sport has to start somewhere. It was also a time where I found out about Eddie Guerrero during Survivor Series of that year.

As the year came to a close, it took one match to really get me into it WWF at the time and this was the start of a ride I won't be forgetting anytime soon.

Top Three Matches of 2000

3. The Rock vs. Kurt Angle for the WWF Championship - No Mercy 2000
This was my first PPV match that I saw ever. This was pretty much what made me like The Rock and hate Angle at this time because of the way Angle won the title. At this point, I can at least know who the faces are and who the heels are and this was a good way for me to at least start my appreciation of wrestling as a whole.

2. Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Triple H - Survivor Series 2000
Now, from what my 8 year old brain could understand at this point is that Triple H was the mastermind behind the attack on Austin that sidelined him the previous year. I liked this match because at the time, it provided me with a chance to think that something from the previous year would come into ahead the next year. This match would be one of the many matches that would lead me to understand that to really like the present, you must look back in the past.

1. Armageddon Hell in the Cell Match for the WWF Championship - Armageddon 2000
This was the match of the small year for me because we had 6 men inside this large cage, trapped inside (not for very long mind you) in the hopes to leave Satan's Playground as the WWF Champion. The moment where Undertaker threw Rikishi off the cage into a truck was the highlight for me for the year. Even after only watching wrestling for such a few months, I felt so amazed at what was going on at the time and I was hooked. By the time 2001 rolled around, I was introduced to even more matches and something I always joke about on The Rant: The InVasion.

The FMW/Y2Jant Origins

The power of both video games and wrestling can go hand in hand. For quite a few years, I've been using Fullmetalwwant and Y2Jant to express who I am, both as a wrestling fan and a gamer. But sometimes, a few people ask me how and why did I create such names in the first place. Just for now, I will share with you how these names came to be and why they have a strong connection with me for all these years.

Depending on who you are, Fullmetalwwant has been my gamer tag since I first created it many years ago when joining Xbox Live. The story behind the name is something anime fans should know (or even from a certain movie). My first taste of anything anime related would be Full Metal Alchemist and one day while thinking of joining Gamespot, I decided to create something based on the anime, thus making the Fullmetal part. The other part was just a young me declaring a war with ants, thus, war with ants, or wwant. Combined the two and Fullmetalwwant was born. Plus, it's funny how the online gaming community try to call me during games.

Y2Jant on the other hand started as something that I didn't knew I was going to be apart of something so big. The year is 2008 and just before Wrestlemania 24, I was on Myspace (I know, I'm old school like that) and Double A was hosting a Wrestlemania 24 show, talking about everything related to the big event that day (plus the infamous caller who said he was friends with John Cena) so it was on that night I had to create a name that at least can be related to wrestling in some shape. I decided on three things that night:

1. The name can be related to Chris Jericho, coming back to the WWE in November of 2007, hence using Y2J in my name.

2. That it should maybe use my name in a way, Antonio so using ant in the name.

3. To show support to Double A in some way.

So, quickly I created Y2Jant, combining Jericho as one of my favorite wrestlers, my name and the support of The Rant. And for 5 years, I've held the name proudly. So there you go, a little inside as to why I created my gaming/wrestling names. Not only for the love of the games and anime I watch, but also for the love of wrestling and the support of a show.

X-7 Going On 29

Wrestlemania 29 is upon us at last and now ol' Y2Jant is now looking back at watching wrestling for over 13 years. Hard to believe that I've been watching WWE for that long and seen so much that has happened. I recall Stone Cold turning his back to the fans and winning the championship with the help of Mr. McMahon at X-7. Or what about the great match between Hulk Hogan and The Rock from 18? XIX was good and XX was something to look upon with great words.

My favorite match comes from Wrestlemania 21 when Eddie Guerrero faced Rey Mysterio. Over the years, I loved, hated and wondered the many things in wrestling and with a great group of friends over at the TWRNetwork, talking wrestling is always interesting. I lived through the InVasion angle, Kurt Angle winning his first WWE Championship, Brock Lesnar debuting and so much more memories that things tend to go unnoticed. But I decided to write this up not only to reflect but to hope for many more great years ahead of me as a fan.

Now, I'm going to get this out of the way but I love and respect Zeus for liking what he currently likes. Since around 06, he's been watching wrestling and his favorite wrestler is of course, Jeff Hardy. At that point, I've been watching wrestling for 6 years and was still reeling from a death that changed my view on wrestling forever.

October of 2005, I was behind many wrestlers but one that stands out is of course, Eddie Guerrero. When I heard the news of his death a month later, I was devastated. A month before, I shook his hand at a television taping of Smackdown right here in Reno. And then just like that, Eddie is now in the heavens with some of the other greats in the business. To me, that was a life changer for me as a fan because I realized that I needed to look at the past to really love the present. That's when I lost steam in watching wrestling and now watch and not cheer till my heart's content.

But now, 13 years of watching wrestling and now I feel like I'm the median of wrestling in a sense. While I didn't grew up on WCW (which I wish I did watch it, InVasion didn't help me like WCW) and watching how wrestling was back in the day, I look towards the younger fans who watched for just a few years and also see how the two can clash. Zeus is on that hand because his love for Jeff Hardy but nothing against him really. Zeus is to Jeff like I was to Eddie. We saw something that stood out against everyone else at that time and said, "You see that? I'm a fan and I don't care what anyone says." This is why I respect Zeus regardless on what he says. We are just fans of something great. Does that mean I like Jeff? Yes and no, I respect Jeff for what he has done for the business for the 13 years I've been watching. Zeus is the kind of friend I would have when it comes to wrestling, someone to think differently that you don't see. Remember, it wasn't until Eddie's death did I realize how important wrestling was before the Attitude Era. How WCW had great wrestling, how WWE was before changing to what we see today and how the indies can produce even better action then before.

All in all, Wrestlemania 29 is going to be one hell of a show and this was a chance to see something great and hope for a better Mania then last. This will be my 13th Wrestlemania, my 5th year knowing Double A, Lex and everyone back when Double A hosted the Wrestlemania 24 show and my 2nd year listening with the network. They say that 13 is a bad number, I think it's a great number for me as a fan of wrestling.

Y2Jant Video Game Preview: WWE '13

We are very close to playing a game some of us, well, alright, most of us are very excited to play, WWE '13. I'm not here to post any previews of the game and such, we already have a lot of information, we just want the damn game already. What I want to talk about is what version of the game I will get it on and what I'm going to do as my very first match of the game.

Some might know that I own all the current gen systems: The Xbox 360 (third one actually, first one Red Ringed on me and I gave away the second one), Playstation 3 and the white looking box Nintendo made a long time ago. I love each system but in this case, I will be getting WWE '13 on the PS3, just so I can play online since I haven't renewed my gold membership.

That's out of the way, I always play Exhibition first and have a singles match just before diving into anything else. This allows me to get used to the controls and see the entrances of the superstars. But my question to everyone is; what will be your first match from any mode actually? Are you going to dive right into the story of the game? Or just have a match just for the hell of it? I would actually start with a typical singles match against whoever I want to face. This year, from looking at the roster, I would start with Ken Shamrock. I don't know, I guess I really like his theme and feel that I could use him in Universe Mode in some way. Maybe out him up against Eddie Guerrero or relive his feud with The Rock.

There is just so many options to play the game that I know I will be buried with it until next year. I can say for a fact that I can't wait to see how they do the Attitude Era story. I've been watching WWE since when I saw Kurt Angle beat Rock to win the WWE Championship at No Mercy and at that time, I've missed the early years of the Attitude Era so I would like to see what happened. Trust me, I still need to do some history lessons on everything before 2000 to get up to speed. But this would be very interesting to see what was happening at the time with everyone at the time.

One last thing I do want to say is I love the WWE games. No matter what, at some point or another, I've played every game for the last couple of years and I can't really complain. As some of my friends have said many times before, no matter what you put in the game, people will b**** about something about the game. I knew that they can't have everything perfect (ala Kelly Kelly) but I'm not going to complain. Why you think we have a community to help with creating whatever we want so we can bring that in from the game. I just love this game and I can't wait to play it sometime in the next week after it is released.

My View on the Nintendo Wii U

Well ladies and gentlemen, today was a big day for Nintendo. They finally opened up the curtains and told us what the heck we can expect the Nintendo Wii U. And I must say, I am surprised at what I heard and decided to dive into it just a bit to decide if it's really worth the money.

The Nintendo Wii U will be arriving November 18, mere days before Black Friday so I can see why Nintendo would release a new system close to the one day where all hell breaks loose. You can be able to purchase two types of bundles at launch or via pre order. For just $299.99, you can get your basic package, which comes with the system itself and a nice HDMI cable. For just $350.00, you get more memory and will include a copy of Nintendo Land. So for fifty bucks more, you get more memory, a game and a black Wii U. So, what's my opinion on this?

I say that I'm happy with the price and once again Nintendo does something good. However, I'm on the fence because of all the games that are coming out between launch and the future. I won't say there's a lot of blockbuster games but at the same time, I want more coming from Nintendo. Sure, there's Black Ops 2 (which I hate the Call of Duty series period), ZombiU, which in my mind will be a very good game to play, New Super Mario Bros. U, which will be a hot seller from the start and then, we got the rest of shovelware.

I'm not going to lie, I want a 3DS XL right now to get set for some good 3DS games coming out and with the Wii U, I think Christmas might be the right time to get it as more games are released. But on the plus side, you can play some Wii games on the Wii U so that's a plus actually. As the system is the first in the next gen line, I can only wonder what we can see from Sony and Microsoft. This is a step in the right direction and Nintendo has to take the ball and run with it. It's not everyday we get to see a new system and good launch titles and so far, it's looking good and I can see the system selling very well in the first week. I don't know if there will be anything special waiting for Black Friday for the new system but knowing Black Friday, anything is possible.

Here are some box art for some of the upcoming games:

Wrestlemania 28 Predictions

Ladies and gentlemen, it's been a long time but I have returned to blog about one of the biggest wrestling events in the world that will go down this Sunday: Wrestlemania 28. Just like last year, I will give my predictions on who will win in each match, as well as what match might be good, bad and a show stealer. So, let's get down to the bare bones and work our way towards a great Wrestlemania!!!

I guess I'm more confused as to why this match is happening in the first place. Still, I have to think that Kelly and Maria will pick up the win here at least. Either that or we will see something happen with Beth and Eve.

Here's a pretty good match between the Big Red Monster and The Viper. I see RKO picking up the win on this one to silence the monster.

Rhodes has held the title for so many months now and is a pretty good champion actually. However, Big Show is proving that it is his time to actually win a good match on the grand stage and I see him picking up the win and the title.

Here's a match that I'm going to pay attention to. Team Raw vs. Team Smackdown and this one can go towards either team. As much as I want to see Teddy win in the long run, I have a hunch that John and his team will pick up the win and have a more, exciting time on both Smackdown and Raw.

This is it, The End of an Era, the Hell in the Cell match between Triple H and Undertaker. Well, let's see what happens as everyone knows that the Deadman will indeed go 20 and 0 at Wrestlemania.

Both men have gone back and forth in this feud as Sheamus builds some steam heading into Mania. Daniel has the chance to really prove that he is the best in the business but when it comes down to the end, Sheamus might just pick up the big win.

The Best in the World vs. The Best in the World. Jericho and Punk are two great wrestlers and both deserve the spotlight. This year, I believe that CM Punk will pick up the win and proving to the world why he is the Best in the World.

Probably one of the biggest matches in Wrestlemania history, The Rock will take on John Cena. Rocky has all that goes for him and it's in his hometown crowd but Cena will be the one to pick up the big win.

My Thoughts On: Red Dead Redemption: GOTY Edition

It's not often I talk about video games on my blog but here's that I change all that. Red Dead Redemption is a classic among gamers. Rockstar knows how to make a great game and since it's release, it has plenty of DLC to go around, including Undead Nightmare, adding zombies into the mix. After months of releasing DLC, Rockstar decided that RDR needs a Game of the Year Edition of the game and includes the main game and all the DLC, at a price of 49.99.

I'm not the biggest fan of DLC besides Rock Band because they tend to get very expensive. However, RDR impressed me with it's story and the multiplayer is pretty good, better then Call of Duty standards anyways. Plus the DLC they give us is also at a nice price range for everyone. Having a Game of the Year Edition of any game that you love is a must have for most people who either:

1. Never played the game before and want to jump in.

And 2. People who don't own the game and get all the DLC.

I say it's a good deal, depending on if you want a great game with everything or not. I think the cost of when the game first came out plus the DLC is well over a hundred dollars, so your saving a lot of money if you never bought the game before. I think this is a trend for many games now. Fallout: New Vegas is releasing their collection of DLC sometime next year so I think we could start seeing more games take that plunge in giving gamers what they want.