Flappy Bird exploded in popularity several years ago with its simple gameplay and background elements that had pretty clearly been inspired from the Super Mario series. It was pulled and made largely unavailable–unless you had an Amazon Fire TV unit–shortly after it became huge. However, one developer has managed to bring the game back via an unexpected platform: the MacOS notification box.
With a cheeky tweet asking if others knew that such a thing was even possible, developer Neil Sardesai showed the full Flappy Bird game running via the Mac’s notification window. It’s actually based on a clone of Flappy Bird rather than the original version, but it’s pretty much indistinguishable.
You can try this clone directly in your web browser by clicking the link we put above, so playing it in the notification box is pretty much pointless. It’s not always about whether it is necessary for the ambitious, however, but merely whether it’s possible.
Flappy Bird is extremely difficult to master because of its physics, which force you to keep the bird popping upward as its weight tries to drag it down, but it also only requires single taps to play. This makes it perfect for the notification box, particularly if you want to get really angry several times a day while you’re also working on your computer.
Getting the game to work via MacOS Big Sur does require a workaround, which Sardesai explained in a later tweet. If you really want to play Flappy Bird via your notifications, however, it’s probably a step you’re willing to take.
The UserNotificationsUI framework was added to macOS in Big Sur. But for some reason there’s no Xcode template for Notification Content Extensions on macOS. So you have to make one for iOS and then change all your UI’s to NS’s
Just be careful if you decide to put the game on your computer. It was pulled, at least in part, because creator Dong Nguyen felt guilty about how addictive the game could be. Even with so many other games available to play on your computer, it could be hard to stop.
Space Jam is a 1996 film directed by Joe Pytka, adapted from his 1992/1993 shoe commercials, which follows the Looney Tunes characters as they recruit basketballer Michael Jordan to help free themselves from the tyranny of nefarious space aliens. Space Jam: A New Legacy is a 2021 film by Roll Bounce and Girls Trip director Malcolm D. Lee, which follows the Looney Tunes characters as they help basketballer LeBron James free himself from the tyranny of a nefarious computer system. The sequel, coming 25 years after the original, owes its existence to audience nostalgia; despite not being particularly good, the original nevertheless enthralled a generation raised on Jordan’s celebrity, persisting as comfort viewing ever since.
Nostalgia has always been big business, going back to 1973’s American Graffiti and even earlier, but the past decade has put it into overdrive. Aging films and franchises are resuscitated in the likes of Ghostbusters or Top Gun: Maverick. Shows like Stranger Things attempt to recreate the feeling of a bygone era, or at least of its pop culture. But the most interesting, uniquely late-capitalism category of nostalgia film is one championed by Warner Bros. – a category into which Space Jam 2, while also a sequel to a quarter-century-old movie, fits perfectly.
The philosophy behind this subgenre: Why stop at reviving one brand when the studio has a whole library of them at its disposal? In addition to the Looney Tunes characters, Space Jam: A New Legacy contains appearances by and references to (among others) The Iron Giant, King Kong, Batman, Robin, Superman, Mr. Freeze, The Joker, The Penguin, Gandalf, Scooby-Doo, Yogi Bear, the Flintstones, the Jetsons, Space Ghost, The Mask, and characters from The Matrix, Mad Max: Fury Road, Game of Thrones, It, The Wizard of Oz, The Conjuring, and maybe even Whatever Happened to Baby Jane. Famously, predatory cartoon skunk Pepe Le Pew does not appear – but the rape-obsessed “droogs” from A Clockwork Orange do.
What stands out here isn’t hypocrisy over which specific sex offenders Warners elected to include in a kids movie, or even the selection of characters at all. It’s Warner’s cynical approach to its intellectual property.
Space Jam: A New Legacy isn’t the first Warners film to do this. It is, at the very least, the fifth. Three of its four Lego movies see most of their active participants come from Warner properties like Batman, Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter (or rival franchises licensed through Lego). Ready Player One added more external brands to Warners’ own, largely due to director Steven Spielberg’s unparalleled pull with the industry. And now, Space Jam joins the fray, with a near-identical roster of Warner Bros. characters and even a digital-universe aesthetic evoking that of Spielberg’s film. The connecting factor? The screen is filled, constantly, with cameos from numerous disconnected pieces of pop culture.
Crucially, these aren’t homages, like The Cabin in the Woods’ sly remixes of horror icons. They are the actual characters, plucked from the Warners vault with no licensing necessary, and chosen seemingly for that reason. And sure, the studio has plenty of history to celebrate. Beyond Space Jam’s franchisey background extras, Warner Bros. has one of the best back-catalogues of movies for adults, ranging all the way up to envelope-pushing films from auteurs like Nicolas Roeg and Ken Russell. Its output in the 1970s was a series of spectacular wins for mature entertainment, winning audiences and Oscars alike. Of course, it’s laughable to think that you’d see The Devils or Performance referenced in A New Legacy – but realistically, it’s just as bizarre for the other stuff to show up in a movie that has no connection to it whatsoever.
War Boys and droogs and Scooby-Doo — and many other familiar faces pop up in the Space Jam 2 trailer.
Decisions like these aren’t driven by story or character. It’s hard to argue that the new Space Jam wouldn’t be purer of story, style, and purpose (as much as those things matter in such a film) were it to stick to the Looney Tunes exclusively. For all the first Space Jam’s faults, the basic premise – a sports movie governed by cartoon physics – has potential, as proven by the existence of Shaolin Soccer. These decisions also aren’t even really aimed at the film’s ostensible child demographic; who among them would have any idea what a War Boy is?
Rather, the target audience for these character roll-calls is adults with cultural memories that fondly remember titles like The Iron Giant, Game of Thrones, and Hanna-Barbera cartoons. It’s an audience that probably owns, or has thought of owning, one of those posters that has a whole bunch of pop-culture icons hanging out in close proximity. It’s the audience that will go see the upcoming DC, Matrix, Harry Potter, and Conjuring films Warner Bros. has on its slate, so it makes sense to wave those brands in front of them. For that generation, the cameoing characters’ familiarity (and incongruity, when seen together) sparks an instinctive chuckle of recognition. “I remember enjoying that,” muses Warners’ idealised nostalgic viewer, “thus I must also be enjoying this.” The same could be said for memories of Space Jam itself.
This aggressive IP-brandishing makes depressing sense given the current media landscape. Every studio is busy consolidating brands, mostly angling them toward in-house streaming services. Disney is the most visible, with acquired brands like Marvel, Lucasfilm, and 20th Century Fox helping to sell its various streaming offerings around the world. Warners has been doing the same with HBO Max, but movies like the Lego films or Space Jam are more blatant statements of intent. Where Disney’s dominant branded entertainment has been mostly regular and confident, there’s a different tone to the Warner Bros. brand assertion. Like a street hawker spreading a coat full of watches, the studio comes across as desperate, machine-gunning its popular characters into audiences’ faces to remind them that some treasured memories come from Warner properties, too. Ironically, screaming that these brands are still relevant only makes one question whether they actually are.
The sad conclusion one must draw from all this speaks to the specific ways in which the studio values its back catalogue. Based on films like Space Jam and Ready Player One, the studio doesn’t see context or stories in its vault. It sees only IP to be exploited; iconography to be rubber-stamped into new environments, sometimes wildly inappropriately, to keep the properties relevant. Some of that exploitation lucks out and produces good films (Mad Max: Fury Road being probably the most wildly successful of the bunch), but ultimately, it’s still exploitation. IP is only as valuable as an audience’s awareness of it, after all, and they’re not going to get that gritty Clockwork Orange reboot off the ground if today’s kids aren’t raised seeing the droogs in their basketball cartoons.
Like its spiritual predecessors, Space Jam: A New Legacy will undoubtedly do well at the box office. Warners will surely be watching to see if, say, Jabberjaw the cartoon shark becomes a breakout character. Regardless, the studio is screaming into the void, yearning to prove itself in an entertainment market where IP ownership is king. The actual characters don’t matter, only their place in the collective consciousness. A Clockwork Orange used to be known as a singular work of artistic vision. Now it’s just another piece of iconography to slap onto one of many inevitable Space Jam Funko Pops, sandwiched somewhere between Scrappy-Doo and Pennywise. Hope you like brands, because they’re the future.
The semiconductor shortage that is affecting everything from computers to car production is also hitting the video game industry, and according to Nintendo, that could lead to Switch console shortages later this year.
In an interview with Nikkei (via VGC), Nintendo CEO Shuntaro Furukawa said that while the company has the materials it needs for “immediate production of semiconductors” necessary for Nintendo Switch units, that could change later.
“However, in Japan and other countries, demand has been very strong since the beginning of the year, and there is a possibility of shortages at some retailers in the future,” Furukawa added.
Thus far, it has been a perfect storm of difficulties in acquiring a new game console. This has been true particularly for the Switch’s main competitors, the Xbox Series X|S and PS5, which released last November but have been extremely tough to find. Retailers’ supplies were limited out of the gate, and many brick-and-mortar businesses weren’t stocking the system at all. Online, resellers using bots were able to snag many of the systems and put them on eBay for two or three times their MSRP.
In Nintendo’s case, the Switch is still struggling with stock. Amazon won’t be shipping the standard Switch bundle with red and blue controllers until mid-May. Other sellers looking to capitalize on the shortage can get away with charging more in the meantime.
Multi-platinum rapper and performing artist Bad Bunny made his Wrestlemania debut at Wrestlemania 37 in a tag team match with Damien Priest against The Miz and John Morrison. Bad Bunny, real name Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, had already made a splash in the company capturing its 24/7 Championship and even taking it to SNL.
The match started with a grand entrance with dozens of Easter Bunnies before Miz and Morrison hit the ring. Priest came down to the ring with standard fair, but Bunny came out riding on top of a semi-truck. Bunny started the match off against Miz and managed to get some offense in against the former WWE Champion. He managed to hit a flying crossbody on his opponents on the outside.
Eventually Bunny nailed a top rope crossbody with help from Priest lifting Miz on his shoulders, almost like the Legion of Doom preparing for the Doomsday Device to pin Miz for the win.
The lead into this Wrestlemania match started a few months back as Bad Bunny performed at the Royal Rumble performing his song “Booker T” with none other than WWE Hall of Famer Booker T. How apt, right? In the weeks to come, The Miz and Morrison would slowly become jealous of the performer’s fame and even do their own song of their own. Eventually, Bad Bunny would accept a match with Damien Priest against the two veterans at Wrestlemania.
The weeks leading up to the match, footage of Bunny at WWE’s Performance Center surfaced as he properly trained to get ready and actually took several bumps. A lifelong WWE fan, Bunny fulfilled a dream of performing in the company.
Update: Wrestlemania had been delayed to inculcate weather. After WWE Chairman Vince McMahon came out to welcome back fans and was supposed to start the show after America The Beautiful, fans inside the Raymond James Stadium were asked to come back inside. This is the first time in Wrestlemania, and maybe WWE history, that there’s been a rain delay for a live event. There was a Monday Night Raw that was canceled years back with a blizzard that rolled into Denver, but never with fans actively at a pay-per-view.
After the delay was confirmed, they cut to various superstars cutting promos and hyping up their respective matches, including Drew McIntyre and Bobby Lashley who even said that if the match has to be fought backstage, they’ll do it. Around 8:30 PM ET, the promo package for Lashley vs. McIntyre began playing, as the severe weather has passed.
Original story: Wrestlemania 37 faced a possible delay from a huge thunderstorm that rolled into Tampa early Saturday evening. Fans were reporting and tweeting about having to relocate and getting weather alerts while entering Raymond James Stadium.
Eventually, fans were allowed back in, and as the saying goes, the show must go on. However, WWE fans and even some personnel had some fun in the meantime trying to make the most out of this dreary situation.
Vince McMahon beat God in a wrestling match in 2006 (i think that was the year), and son of a bitch, Vince did again. Lightning storm in Tampa? Vanished.
Of course, WWE producer Hurricane Shane Helms having the most fun and still on the clock.
We’ll have all of your Wrestlemania 37 coverage, delays, and all, as the night progresses. And remember after tomorrow night, you can check out Chris Jericho on the Broken Skull Sessions.
Last week, Xavier Woods spoke with GameSpot about his upcoming Wrestlemania match against AJ Styles and Omos, and Woods had some not-so-nice words about Omos’s fashion choices. “If you want to rock the bathroom custodian look, you know, if you want to offer me a mint after my match and some hand sanitizer, that’s cool but I mean it’s not what I would wear, but do you,” Woods said. “[The turtlenecks] look good on him, I’ll be honest. His fashion choices are strange to me because sometimes he’s wearing a big coat. I’m shirtless, and I’m sweating.
“I don’t weigh as much as you. I’m not as tall as you, so I know that your body is overclocking right now you are dripping from the pits, why do you have this on? I don’t think he thinks about his fashion choices. I think he just kinda throws stuff on. His mom lays it out on the bed for him–or maybe AJ. That’s okay if you want to live your life like that, but I’m a grown man. I dress myself. I pick my own clothes. That’s just me, though, but if it’s not you that’s okay.”
WWE’s Wrestlemania 37 will be the biggest PPV event for the company throughout 2021. Numerous championships will be defended, feuds will come to an end, and the walking BBQ zombie The Fiend will get revenge on Randy Orton–as Orton set The Fiend on fire months ago. Like last year, Wrestlemania 2021 will be a two-night event, Saturday and on Sunday. Check out the final results for Night 1 and reviews of each match below.
Months of preparation, story building, and production design have gone into this year’s Wrestlemania, which takes place at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. This is the home of the NFL team the Buccaneers, so hopefully, WWE puts the giant pirate ship inside the stadium to good use–because why wouldn’t you? In the US, if you want to watch Wrestlemania, you’ll need to be signed up for a premium Peacock account, NBCUniversal’s streaming service.
As Wrestlemania 37 is a two-night event, the 14 matches for the PPV have been split between the two nights. On Night 1, there will be three championship matches. And the rumor is that Sasha Banks vs. Bianca Belair will be the main event of the evening. However, we’ll have to wait and see if that’s true. Check out the Night 1 match card below.
Night 1 match card:
Bobby Lashley (c) vs. Drew McIntyre – WWE Championship
Sasha Banks (c) vs. Bianca Belair – Smackdown Women’s Championship
Bad Bunny & Damian Priest vs. The Miz & John Morrison
Cesaro vs. Seth Rollins
Naomi & Lana vs. Mandy Rose & Dana Brooke vs. The Riott Squad vs. Natalya & Tamina – Tag Team Turmoil
The New Day (c) vs. AJ Styles & Omos – Raw Tag Team Championship
Braun Strowman vs. Shane McMahon (Steel Cage Match)
Throughout the evening, GameSpot’s Wrestle Buddies–Mat Elfring and Chris E. Hayner–will be updating you with the winners and losers as the show airs. Additionally, a few minutes after the conclusion of each match, we’ll be delivering reviews of each match, offering up our wrestling fan expertise. Make sure to come back to GameSpot on Night 2 for coverage of the show, and following the conclusion of Night 2, there will be a special post-Wrestlemania episode of Wrestle Buddies.
Kickoff Show:
The Kickoff Show has begun. You can watch it live for yourself below in this handy-dandy YouTube link. It’s free to watch, whether you subscribe to Peacock or not. Throughout the Kickoff Show, there may be some changes, and if there are, we’ll note them below.
Because of the storm in Tampa, there may be some delays, but who knows? We’ll keep you updated regardless. Have a great Wrestlemania everyone!
Surprisingly, there was no Kickoff Show match for this year’s Mania–just a lot of commentary about the upcoming matches.
Main Card
There’s a rain delay, so it’s a bunch of backstage interviews going on right now. This could be a very long night.
Fans are being let back in, and the promo package for the WWE Championship match has begun.
Bobby Lashley (c) vs. Drew McIntyre – WWE Championship
Winner: Lashley by submission
Mat: How about that 40 minute rain delay? That was fun, right? John Morrison had glasses on that said “Drip drip” in a backstage interview while WWE was trying to kill time. Anyway, this is a match of two very large, muscular men challenging each other to tests of strength–a teeter totter of momentum. You know what you’re getting with a match between these two: power moves, breaks in between said moves, and muscle-men posing. That’s not a bad thing by any means, as long as I am entertained.
This is what I want from these two. It’s a match contained within the ring–for the most part–and it’s straight-up powerhouse wrestling. Neither is the underdog, which makes for a little more of a compelling match, as this could go either way. Of course, Lashley is the heel here, so of course MVP comes into play, with him helping get Lashley out of the ring, and distracting McIntyre as well.
I’m also going to probably say this a lot, but isn’t it great to have a live reaction from a crowd? It just adds so much excitement to the match. It was pretty cool to see the audience shocked over the McIntyre loss. I’m probably scoring this higher than I should, since it’s Mania and there’s an audience again, but I really enjoyed this one.
Rating: 8/10
Chris: Wait, the show started? Sorry, I was napping. Honestly, the company did great filling the time before they could actually start the show by letting the wrestlers great with promos do just that. When we finally got to Lashley vs. McIntyre, I honestly kept waiting for them to call for another rain delay. Honestly, what happens if officials evacuate mid-match?
On the surface, it’s hard to imagine this match being much different from the 2020 bouts between these two. However, this was the perfect place-setting for WWE’s return to live audiences: Two beefy, sweaty boys slugging it out for all their worth just for the opportunity to call themself champion.
I have to say, the right decision was made for the winner, but the way it happened was kind of a cop-out. MVP distracted Drew just by yelling from outside of the ring? I don’t really buy that, especially since he was yelling for most of the match. Regardless, this was a super fun match to kick the show off with and it’s the right choice to not feature as the main event.
Rating: 8/10
Tag Team Turmoil
Winner: Tamina and Natalya by pin
Mat: Wait, this is a gauntlet match and not an elimination–everyone in the ring at the same time–match? As you may or may not know, but during our predictions episode of Wrestle Buddies, Predictionbot3000 predicted The Riott Squad to win.
Naomi and Lana go out early to Carmella and Peyton Royce. Honestly, I missed it because I was typing about a bit from the podcast. Riott Squad took out Carmella and Peyton Royce with a nasty-looking tag team maneuver. Mandy or Dana slipped while walking to the ring, and that was pretty funny. I couldn’t tell which person it was.
This has been a showcase for the Riott Squad, but not a good one. It’s sloppy. There’s no time to really build a story here between all the competitors. Did I mention this is sloppy? Anyway, after all this goodwill is built up around the Riott Squad, Natalya and Tamina win. Everything about this match was bad, including who was booked to win. Sorry, Predictionbot3000.
Rating: 2/10
Chris: This was…awkward. Gauntlet matches can be hard to pull off and, sadly, his one didn’t pull it off for me. I think one major issue is the number of makeshift tag teams that simply haven’t had the chance to distinguish themselves yet. Beyond that, some of the work was just way too sloppy and the weather interfered when Mandy Rose slipped on a wet ramp during her entrance. Even the announcer botched a spot, announcing that the wrong team was eliminated at one point.
Additionally, it’s a shame that Naomi isn’t a cornerstone of WWE’s women’s division like she should be. It’s also a shame that nobody in WWE seems to realize Billie Kay is doing better character work than almost anyone else in the company. And Peyton Royce isn’t even on the card–why are we still without an Iiconics reunion?
In the end, Natalya and Tamina–a heel team–win and will face Shayna Baszelr and Nia Jax–a heel team–for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships. So, honestly, I don’t even know what we’re doing here.
Rating: 3/10
Cesaro vs. Seth Rollins
Winner: Cesaro by pin
Mat: ReversalMania! Do you enjoy wrestling matches with a lot of counter, reversals, and never-before-seen moves? You should because it’s awesome and constantly surprising. That’s what Rollins and Cesaro was: a bunch of “how they do that?” moments.
So the Cesaro Swing is great and all, but bless Cesaro for bringing back the Airplane Spin–a devastating finisher in like 1950. Cesaro brings an element of fun to in-ring competition without being a comedic character, and as a giant goofball myself, I appreciate the hell out of that.
In all honesty–this is a review, so I’m supposed to be honest, I guess–this match lived up to my expectations, which were high. This is a real cool Wrestlemania moment for Cesaro, one of the best wrestlers in the company. Now, WWE… let’s keep that momentum going.
Rating: 8.51/10
Chris: First thing’s first, I love Rollins’ new music. And, of course, we got the swing in. But Rollins made Cesaro work for it, coming up with a number of creative reversals to avoid the dastardly dizzying move. And we saw some new tricks from Rollins, who executed a corkscrew splash from the top rope–and it looked fantastic.
I’m going to be honest here, I don’t like the swing. I don’t like being dizzy, but also it’s been so overused over the years that I’m just not a fan. But I’m clearly in the minority. It’s super over with the audience and I love it for that.
But let’s talk about the outcome. We’ve been talking on Wrestle Buddies how this was the moment to elevate Cesaro to become a main player in WWE and with a decisive victory over Rollins, I really hope that’s what ends up coming to pass. This man is too talented to not be one of the top names in the company. But regardless of what happens next, these two put on a wildly entertaining match with a crowd-pleasing outcome, some interesting high spots, and plenty of hard-hitting moves.
Rating: 8.52/10
The New Day (c) vs. AJ Styles & Omos – Raw Tag Team Championship
Winners: AJ Styles and Omos
Mat: Big E introducing The New Day made me so very very very happy. Like tear-to-my-eye happy. Hearing the crowd chant “New Day Rocks” made me very happy. The New Day just makes me happy.
The story in this match is “AJ is going to tag Omos, eventually.” It’s so weird that we’re not seeing The Phenomenal AJ Styles here. It’s more of Styles just trying to tag in his very tall friend. Then, Omos finally gets tagged in and all the agility and wherewithal that The New Day has goes completely out the window, to cater to the in-ring debut of Omos–who did very little here.
When all is said and done, Omos and Styles have the win. I don’t mind those two getting the titles, but the first half and the second half of this match have two very different versions of The New Day. It just didn’t feel real to me. I know, this is wrestling, it’s predetermined and what not–but I need it to feel real.
Rating: 5/10
Chris: Big E kicking things off with a proper New Day introduction was exactly what we all needed. That said, this match is so odd to me. I’ll say this, it was wildly entertaining. The New Day were amazingly funny throughout, and seemed to be having the best time making AJ Styles look foolish. But why is AJ Style made to look the fool? This is a multiple-time world champion and one of the greatest wrestlers in the business. Making him look like an incapable moron seems to be bad planning, long-term.
Now, let’s talk about Omos. He’s a great visual. He’s a giant just throwing people around. But having him thoroughly destroy the New Day in seconds for the tag titles, to me, is incredibly short-sighted. AJ gets nothing from this, Omos needs more seasoning to live up to this. Again, I’ll say this was an entertaining match, but let’s be clear: Omos didn’t have to do much. The New Day bumped around the ring like lunatics for everything he hit them with and then the match was over. I don’t know how to feel about it.
Rating: 5/10
Braun Strowman vs. Shane McMahon (Steel Cage Match)
Winner: Braun Strowman by pin
Mat: This match does nothing for anyone. You know from the get-go that this was all about Shane taking a massive bump, which he did from the top of the cage into the ring. But hey, Braun ripping apart the cage while Shane escaping happened, and that was a thing.
Braun ends up getting the pin–instead of escaping for some reason–and nothing will come of this. He also flexed in front of the pirate ship, which was the most enjoyable part of the match. Make Braun a pirate.
Rating: 2/10
Chris: This match was a bust for me from the jump. I refuse to believe, in any way, that Shane McMahon could physically best Braun Strowman. Yet, in the early parts of the match that’s what happened. The end result was never in doubt and the feud that it was built on was a massive failure. At least it didn’t last long, I guess.
Rating: 1/10
Additionally during the evening, 2K Games announced WWE 2K22, and revealed the first–very early–footage for the game. If you want to learn more, check out the Wrestle Buddies mini episode about the footage we watched for a press event below.
Bad Bunny & Damian Priest vs. The Miz & John Morrison
Winner: Bad Bunny & Damian Priest by pin
Mat: The match opened with a bunch of bunnies coming to the ring, then John Morrison and The Miz performing one of their songs live. I did not appreciate WWE commentary crapping all over it. Booker T enjoyed it though, and that made me happy.
For the majority of the match, I was putting my kid to bed, so I missed almost everything else. Family comes first, even during Wrestlemania. Unless I was actually at the show, then he’d have to read a book to himself.
Here’s what I saw. Bad Bunny doing some great selling. Bad Bunny caring about wrestling as a craft. Bad Bunny doing a Canadian Destroyer. Again, while I can’t rate this match, from what I saw, it was a blast. Bad Bunny rules.
Rating: NA
Chris: This is a match of amazing entrances, from an army of bunnies to Bad Bunny on top of a semi-truck. It all looked awesome and, had the match ended there, it would’ve been perfectly serviceable. That said, this match was actually a lot of fun. Bad Bunny has clearly been training for his Wrestlemania spotlight. He may not be a technical marvel, but he more than held his own in a very entertaining match. Heck, he even busted out a Canadian Destroyer!
This was also a showcase for Damian Priest, in his Wrestlemania debut, and he delivered. Hopefully, this leads to him getting a substantial push on Raw. As for Bad Bunny, chances are this is the last we’ll see of him but what a way to go out on top. In the world of celebrity involvement, this has been one of the best.
Rating: 8/10
Sasha Banks (c) vs. Bianca Belair – Smackdown Women’s Championship
Winner: Bianca Belair by pin
Mat: Hey look, a main event quality match that’s actually the main event. There’s a reason these two are center stage for Night 1. Sasha Banks puts on high-quality PPV matches and Bianca Belair is everyone’s new favorite wrestler because she’s a monster in the ring.
So many moments from this match were the moment of the night, and Belair carrying Banks above her head, walking up the stairs, and throwing her in the ring was amazing. I have not been this invested in the match and the in-ring storytelling between two wrestlers in years. This was captivating, and although my expectations were high, it somehow surpassed it. I don’t see anything else on Night 2 being this good–and this is after a long day where the show was delayed for an hour.
I’m at a loss for words. I’m simply wowed by these wrestlers. Hell yes. Thank you.
Rating: 10/10
Chris: I’m glad this match is the main event. It deserves it. The feud leading to it was a bit hit-and-miss for me, but there are no two more deserving to headline this show and them having an excellent match was a foregone conclusion.
Sasha Banks deserves a lot of credit for her heel work here, and the use of Bianca’s braid against her was practically perfect evil wrestler material. But holw cow, Belair showing just how powerful she is over and over again was just fantastic. I honestly don’t have any critiques. The story that was told from these two, the innovation in the ring, all of it was just top notch and so worthy of being a Wrestlemania main event. I dare any match from Night 2 to top this. And good luck getting the sound of that hair whip out of your mind.
Rating: 10/10
See you all tomorrow night.
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During Wrestlemania 37, the very first video was released for WWE 2K22. After the franchise took last year off, a new entry is coming sometime later in the year, and 2K Games plans on delivering more early-concept footage prior to launch.
The short, 22-second clip features Rey Mysterio taking on Cesaro in the Raw arena, along with some hero shots of Mysterio, who is bound to be a future Hall of Famer. The footage is very polished and features some highly-detailed character models. Check out the video for yourself below.
In a briefing with press, a 2K representative told us that we’ll be seeing a lot more behind-the-scenes footage of progress working on the game, along with character models, motion capture, audio samples, and more in the months leading up to the game. This reveal comes much earlier in the year compared to when 2K typically begins to show off its annual WWE 2K wrestling game.
2K Games skipped out on releasing a WWE simulation game in 20201–although it did release the arcade-style 2K Battlegrounds. The last game released in the simulation series was the infamous WWE 2K20, which was exceptionally buggy at start. Patches followed in the upcoming months, in which the game saw many of the glitches disappear, but 2K Games took 2020 off.
At this time, no other info about the upcoming game has been released, and all we know is Cesaro and Mysterio are in the game. For more in-depth talk about the video, the upcoming game, and a Peacock press event, check out this brand-new episode of Wrestle Buddies, GameSpot’s wrestling podcast, below. Also, make sure to come back to GameSpot on April 11 for coverage of Night 2 of WrestleMania.
Bianca Belair made WWE history tonight as she is the first woman to main event her first super bowl of WWE PPVs at Wrestlemania 37. Having won the Women’s Royal Rumble this year, Bianca earned a championship match against whoever the champion would be at the time, and when it was announced that she and Banks would be the main event, she made herself the first woman on a very exclusive list.
The only WWE stars who had a main event spot for the first time at the big dance, outside the initial four performers at Wrestlemania I are Brock Lesnar, Ted Dibiase, and Sgt. Slaughter. Brock debuted in 2002 after Wrestlemania 18, and main evented with Kurt Angle the next year for the WWE Championship. Both Slaughter and Dibiase had just joined the company at their respective times and found themselves in the main events of Wrestlemania IV and VII respectively.
Obviously, this isn’t counting the one-off celebrity match between Lawrence Taylor and Bam Bam Bigelow at Wrestlemania XI, as neither made another appearance, but when we’re talking about how historical the match between Sasha and Bianca actually was, it’s substantially more when you add this element to it.
Both Sasha and Bianca made their own bit of history collectively as the first time two women of color have been in the main-event spot at Wrestlemania, but having Bianca becoming the first woman, much less a Black woman to join this list, is double history.
Age of Empires might not be one of Microsoft’s biggest series, but fans have been enjoying the history-filled real-time strategy and massive battles for a very long time. Age of Empires 4, developed by Relic Entertainment, will we the long-awaited next game, and a preview event has given us some new information on playable civilizations and improvements–including powerful war elephants.
The Delhi Sultanate will be a playable civilization in Age of Empires 4, and they have access to the massive War Elephant unit, similar to the second game, for causing massive chaos during attacks on fortresses. Sending a few of those through a group of enemy soldiers should be enough to disrupt their lines and let you push deeper into an area.
One of four campaigns available in the game, the Norman campaign begins at the Battle of Hastings in England and follows Duke William and descendants Robert, William II, and Henry I as they fight for control of the nation. This means it will take place over about 100 years, but shouldn’t be confused with the Hundred Years’ War that followed a few centuries later.
There are four Ages in total to play in Age of Empires 4, so the name kind of serves two meanings. Medieval, Feudal, Castle, and Imperial are all available, and in the Feudal Age you’ll be able to play as the Chinese and Mongol civilizations. These require their own tactics, with the Mongols excelling at hit-and-run attacks while the Chinese use technology and powerful defenses.
More content was also revealed for Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition and Age of Empires 3: Definitive Edition during this event, including new campaign, cooperative battles, and even a United States civilization in the latter game.
For more on Age of Empires 4, you can check out the Virtual Village. This gives you quick access to a whole bunch of gameplay videos and a teaser for naval action.
