Extreme Rules 2012
And normal service is resumed with the post that a small minority of you were waiting for – a preview of WWE Extreme Rules! This, to be honest, is a show I won’t be ordering because I won’t have time to watch it in the next few days – but it’s also an unusually newsworthy B-show, built around the return of Brock Lesnar after eight years.
Extreme Rules started life as a successor to the WWE’s successful ECW reunion pay-per-views which paid tribute to the influential 90s promotion. After the WWE revived the ECW brand for a short-lived and entirely unsuccessful weekly show, their annual PPV was rebranded under the current name, and basically ended up as a show full of gimmick matches. “Extreme Rules” used to be the WWE’s preferred term for ECW rules (i.e., no count-outs and no disqualification), but for the purposes of this year’s show, it seems that pretty much any gimmick is deemed acceptable – there’s nothing especially “extreme” about a best-of-three-falls match, but they’re doing one anyway. Mind you, it’s not as if wrestling referees are exactly noted for their rigorous enforcement of the rules in the first place.
This year, Extreme Rules also follows Wrestlemania in the PPV calendar. This slot has traditionally gone to a generic show called “No Way Out”, but this year No Way Out is taking place later on and is being rebranded as a show full of cage matches (a gimmick which worked surprisingly well for the distant number two promotion TNA with their annual Lockdown show).
But the main story for this show is…
More housekeeping…
Well, so much for probably getting a chart post done earlier in the week…
Fortunately, things should now be getting back to normal (ish), so here’s the plan: podcast tomorrow, reviews catching up over the next week or so, wrestling preview coming up, charts catch-up at some point too.
Honest.
Housekeeping
No reviews this week. Haven’t received the books yet and I’m terribly busy anyway. Probably a chart post at the start of the week, and we’ll be back with comics with a podcast and X-Axis post next weekend.
Charts – 15 April 2012
It’s the busiest week for new entries in ages – 7 new entries, plus three surprise re-entries from the back catalogue. One of them very surprising indeed, in fact. But sitting serenely above them all…
1. Carly Rae Jepsen – “Call Me Maybe”
Second week at number one, and for the second straight week she outsells the number two single 2:1. It’s almost certainly going to hang on for a third. It’s a huge hit.
2. Justin Bieber – “Boyfriend”
No video for this yet, but it’s a fairly blatant example of Bieber trying to grow with his audience and turn into Justin Timberlake. Can you take seriously the idea of a sultry Justin Bieber? No, me neither.
The X-Axis – 15 April 2012
It’s a podcast weekend, so check out the post below and download the show, where you can hear Al and me talk about Secret Service, Courtney Crumrin and America’s Got Powers. Over on the X-books, it’s an extremely quiet week, so I’ll chuck a couple of other books in as well…
Avenging Spider-Man #6 – This is the start of the three-part “Omega Effect” crossover, which also runs through Daredevil and Punisher. In fact, it looks suspiciously like a Daredevil storyline which has sprouted some guest stars in the name of mutual sales-boosting. The story is built entirely around that book’s Omega Drive subplot, in which Daredevil has ended up in possession of a hard drive full of information about the Marvel Universe’s major criminal/terrorist groups. Naturally, they’d like it back. And for equally obvious reasons, the Punisher would quite like it too.
House to Astonish Episode 82
Plenty of stuff to get through in this episode, as we’re looking at the new Buffy spin-offs, the GI Joe/Danger Girl crossover, the new version of The Crow, Archaia and DC’s forays into “digital first”, the launch of Thrillbent Comics, Matt Wagner and Simon Bisley’s The Tower Chronicles and the Thief of Thieves TV show. We’ve also got reviews of Secret Service, America’s Got Powers and Courtney Crumrin, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe is going up in the world. All this plus Scott Allie’s burning bush, Ted Bundy Comics and Brian Michael Bendis as Widow Twankey.
The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud. You can also, as noted in the previous post, check us out on Stitcher.com, or use the embedded player below. Let us know what you think in the comments, on Twitter, via email or at our Facebook fan page.
Housekeeping: House to Astonish on Stitcher
In advance of tomorrow’s episode, we’ve got a quick bit of info about another way in which you can now get hold of the show.
If you listen to a variety of different podcasts then you might have heard of Stitcher – it’s a site (and a free app for iOS and Android) that lets you put together what are essentially custom radio stations, “stitching” together podcasts and radio from their available sources. They’ve got a bunch of podcasts that I normally listen to, such as the Bugle, Answer Me This and Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me, as well as some other comics podcasts like Comic Geek Speak and Around Comics. They’ve also now got House to Astonish, so if you’re looking for another way to listen to House to Astonish (and to be honest, who wouldn’t want another way to listen to House to Astonish?) then check it out – their site is here or you can get the app from the iTunes or Android app stores.
Charts – 8 April 2012
It’s another exceptionally quiet week, with a bare handful of new releases, and some older records making a resurgence further down the chart. Mercifully, Chris Brown’s sales flare out after a single week, and he drops to number five. He is replaced by a much better pop single.
1. Carly Rae Jepsen – “Call Me Maybe”
No less than two “tribute” cover versions of this song were floating around outside the top 40 last week, which should have been a tip-off that it was going to sell rather well. It takes thirty seconds or so to get going, but then it launches into the chorus and pretty much stays there for the rest of the track. Well, okay, there’s a second verse. But it’s not very long. It’s a very good pop single, and it looks like it’s got a decent shot of staying on top for a second week.
The X-Axis – 8 April 2012
Well, after all the hype, we’ve finally reached Marvel’s big event of the year. Also available in exciting “augmented reality!” Yeah…
But first!
Age of Apocalypse #2 – I’m still not really sold on this book, but it does have something. In theory, there’s some potential in doing an inverted Marvel Universe where the mutants are all lunatics and in control, while the human villains become the plucky underdogs whose anti-mutant agenda becomes utterly reasonable. And I like the use of the depowered Jean Grey and Sabretooth, who end up stuck with the human resistance – though it’s perhaps surprising that they don’t get more to do, given that they’re among the book’s most recognisable established characters.
Charts – 1 April 2012
I never did get around to doing last week’s chart. So I’ll catch up now. We’ll run through this week’s new entries, and the tracks from last week that are still around. Last week’s number 1 was a one-week-wonder new entry, which we’ll come to in a bit. But first…
1. Chris Brown, “Turn Up The Music”
Oh, Britain. Oh, really.
Chris Brown has been around since 2006, but this is his first UK number one. His previous best was debut single “Run It!” back in 2006. His success in the UK is decidedly patchy – his last single, “She Ain’t You”, failed to make the top 50 last year. But this is the start of the campaign for his new album, so inevitably it’s doing better.
