Month: June 2020

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Wrestler John Morrison competed in WWE from 2002 to his departure from the company in 2011. After spending time working promotions like Lucha Underground, AAA, and Impact, Morrison returned to WWE in 2019, reteaming with his former tag team partner The Miz. Now, the duo is taking on Braun Strowman for the Universal Championship at Backlash.

The WWE PPV is taking place on Sunday, June 14 at the Performance Center, and the interesting caveat is that it’s a handicap match for the championship, meaning Miz and Morrison (Hey hey, ho ho) will be facing the champ as a team. But how does that work? Who becomes champion if they can defeat the Monster Among Men, Braun Strowman?

“We’ve talked about it both ways,” Morrison told GameSpot. “Co-champions would be nice. We could cut the belt in half and make some sort of a Universal Championship pendant. Sell that as merchandise, and probably get a really nice royalty check for that. Or the other way we were thinking it is whoever gets the fall would win. If I win–if I beat Braun–then Miz would get the first shot at me. Or if Miz pins Braun, then I would get the first shot at him.”

While the aftermath of a possible win is an interesting one to think about, Morrison went on to explain that the duo is more focussed on the actual match. And the lead up to that has been the numerous pranks the tag team duo have played on the champ, which led to Strowman flipping over a surveillance van they were in on the June 5 episode of Smackdown.

While Morrison was the Smackdown Tag Team Champion since his return–along with Miz–this is the highest-profile match he’s been in since his return to WWE. “One of the reasons I was excited about Backlash–one of the reasons I came back to WWE–because I never got that big win,” Morrison said. “I was, at the end, a multiple-time tag team champion, but never the World Champion, never the Universal Champion.

“That is one of the things that I want to achieve. In addition to that, there’s a lot of guys on the roster that I have not yet taken [on]. Guys like Roman Reigns, [Seth] Rollins, Kevin Owens, Aleister Black, Ricochet, which is funny that I say that because I wrestled Prince Puma [Ricochet’s ring name in Lucha Underground] plenty of times, but Ricochet not much. There’s a lot of unfinished business that I feel like I have, which to me is exciting. The other reason I came back was to have fun. I feel like I missed that a little bit on the first run. And now my mentality is everything I do should be fun.”

While discussing the current roster at WWE, Morrison brought up his infamous quote, made on The World According To Wrestling podcast years back, about Roman Reigns. “Someone asked me if I wanted to wrestle [Reigns],” said Morrison. “I said, ‘Yeah, I’d love to wrestle that guy. Maybe in 10 years once he learns how to wrestle.’ And they screen capped that with a really jerky picture of me smiling. And I stand by that then, but I’ve been in the ring with him once now, right down to seeing the caliber of matches that he’s capable of now. That’s another example of a guy who has really come into his own.”

Although Morrison spent some time away from WWE, he feels his journey through other promotions made him an overall better wrestler. “I’m a complete wrestler now that I wasn’t before,” he explained. “I won Tough Enough. I’ve trained at OVW. And everyone probably says this about themselves, because you’re always the hero of your own story, but I sell myself as the hardest working guy at OVW on the road. I was always in the gym. I was always watching tapes. And when I left it’s like my world expanded.

“I went to Mexico. I was the first ever Triple Crown Champion of AAA. Champion of Lucha Underground, Champion of Impact wrestling, Champion of Five Star Wrestling in the UK. And each one of these organizations is a different style. A different group of people. And just that experience, for me, over the past nine years has leveled up my thought process about the business, my strategy, my in-ring ability. My skillset is more diverse than ever, more diverse than anyone on the roster.”

More importantly, Morrison found what he loved about wrestling during this time. “When I was here before, I put so much pressure on myself that a lot of times I forgot to have fun,” said Morrison. “And that’s one of the things that I have been trying really hard to make sure I do every time I’m in the ring. Wrestling is supposed to be fun.

“I had fun when I was watching when I was a kid, and I want to have fun every time I’m in the ring. And that doesn’t mean don’t work hard. That doesn’t mean don’t take it seriously. That just means enjoy it. So that, for me, has unlocked what I feel was kind of blocked from me before, which was the personality, and how I was on the mic. That one thing is the most important thing, and there’s a lot more to it than that, but I feel like I’ve leveled up that aspect of my pro wrestling game to just who I am.”

You can see Morrison and his teammate The Miz take on Braun Strowman for the Universal Championship at WWE Backlash on Sunday, June 14.

If you want to dive deeper into the weird world of wrestling, check out GameSpot’s weekly podcast Wrestle Buddies. Each week, Mat Elfring and Chris E. Hayner talk about the fun side of wrestling, from silly gimmicks to their favorite PPVs. Also, they occasionally interview wrestlers. New episodes arrive every Thursday, and you can check it out on Spotify, Stitcher, and Apple Podcasts.

Sony’s exciting PS5 event showcased a ton of new games, but it didn’t let us know when we would be able to play them. The company said that the PS5’s release date and price would come at some point in the future.

Once the stream was over Sony announced that they “will announce pricing and additional details for PlayStation 5 at a later date” via a press release. No further information about when those details would be announced was given.

We don’t have much evidence for what the price range will be outside the console’s lead architect Mark Cerny declaring that the price “will be appealing to gamers in light of its advanced feature set.”

Sony Interactive Entertainment president Jim Ryan has said that he expects PS5 games to be more expensive to make than PS4 games, although Sony doesn’t “see it as being a massive increase.” A jump in development costs usually means an increase in retail and digital download costs.

The closest we’ve come to finding hard evidence of a new price is by estimating the price of manufacturing, with parts shortages and specialized hardware reportedly pushing the PS5 up to $450 per unit in production. These prices are rarely indicative of retail pricing since Sony can choose to sell consoles at either a loss or profit. You can check out more of our thoughts on what the price might be here.

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Sony’s PlayStation 5 reveal event showed off lots of games and our first glimpse at the console design. But it also packed an extra surprise: the PS5 will launch as two consoles–one with a disc drive and a “Digital Edition” without.

The console design largely matches the controller, with a sleek white and black finish with blue highlights. The two versions appear largely identical, other than a small curve in the disc version to accommodate the drive. The debut of the two console versions appeared alongside other hardware, including an HD camera, headset, and media remote.

Sony did not detail how the two models will be priced, or any differences in drive space. We know that the PlayStation 5 uses an SSD, and that PlayStation 5 discs will support a capacity of up to 100 GB. If games do take that much space, the drive would have to be sufficiently big to let you load a good number onto your Digital Edition PS5 at once.

Though the big hardware reveal came at the end, the event was mostly focused on games. Some of the big debuts included Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, and Horizon 2: Forbidden West.

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The PlayStation 5 reveal event wouldn’t be complete without the reveal. To that end, Sony showed off the physical hardware for the first time, giving us the first clear image of the PlayStation 5.

As you may have expected, the PS5 hardware bears a family resemblance to the new DualSense controller. That controller debuted in April, showing off a sleekly refined form factor and a new dual-tone design. The PS5 matches with its own design features. And yes, although it was only shown off standing vertically, you can lay the system on its side.

The DualSense also includes haptics and adaptive triggers, allowing developers to adjust the trigger tension and give more precise feedback than the classic rumble tech. It will also retain the light bar from the DualShock 4, though its placement on the controller has been tweaked.

As for the PS5 itself, Sony revealed that much like the Xbox One S, it will be available in two variants: one with a disc drive, and one without. The discless model, called the Digital Edition, is noticeably slimmer, although it still bears the same form factor. However, while we finally got to see the actual system, no pricing details or release date were announced–that will come later, the company says.

We also got a look at some PS5 accessories, including a charging dock for the DualSense controller, HD camera, Pulse 3D wireless headset, and media remote.

Of course, we also saw a ton of PS5 games during the reveal event, many of which hadn’t previously been announced. Some of the highlights include Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, a brand-new entry in the beloved platforming series “built from the ground up” for PS5, and Resident Evil 8. Sony saved perhaps its biggest announcement for last: a Horizon Zero Dawn sequel. You can catch up on more news in our PS5 reveal event recap.