Samoa Joe = Finally TNA World Champion!!! The Lockdown PPV Recap

Turns out that Lockdown was another good PPV for TNA (They always deliver every year with Lockdown anyway). Okay I haven't watched it yet (maybe tomorrow if it is up online somewhere) and read the results. For the long version and more details, go to WrestleZone's article. Let's go to the obvious news....

- Samoa Joe is the new TNA Heavyweight Champion!! - In arguably the best match against Angle since their first match at Genesis 2006, Joe finally wins the big title. This match was promised to be MMA-focused and did deliver on that front. Good old fashion wrestling in this match with no interference despite Karen Angle being there just to watch and Kurt ordered her to leave.

Team Cage defeats Team Tomko in Lethal Lockdown

- Lots of heavy spots in this match like a ladder at the top of the cage (reminding me sort of the good HIAC matches in WWE) as promised with Rhyno surprisingly getting the winning pin.

Booker T & Sharmell defeated Robert Roode & Peyton Banks.

- Hopefully this is the last match of this feud, it got too long for me.

Gail Kim & ODB defeated Awesome Kong & Raisha Saeed.

Super Eric won the Cuffed in the Cage match

- It is like Eric Young is TNA's version of Cena except they cheer for him and I hate his superhero gimmick.

BG James defeated Kip James

- Kind of the not looking forward to this match for everyone, but this match signifies Kip's heel turn.

Roxxi Laveaux won the "Queen of the Cage" match.

Jay Lethal retained his X Division Title in the Xscape match 

- Great opening match from what I read.

Overall, Lockdown delivers and hopefully Joe has a long title reign. For Sacrifice, TNA's May PPV, we already have Joe vs. Scott Steiner for the TNA Heavyweight Title. Kind of nice that TNA is mixing it up with title contenders (well Big Poppa Pump has had that briefcase for a while) and King of the Mountain is likely in June, so it will be interesting how TNA will handle Joe's title reign.

Music Video for the Day (4/13/08) - Paris, Tokyo

One of my favorite songs from Lupe Fiasco's latest album, The Cool, gets the video treatment, which is Paris, Tokyo. This is really a chill song to listen to and the video also gives you that chilling vibe. Another good video from one of the best artists in the music game now (Looks like Hip Hop Saved My Life didn't get too much love for the video playback and I still hear Superstar on Big Boy's neighborhood on 105.9 FM every morning). Hopefully, this single can attract the mainstream crowd because I think it can.

Maximum Tune 3 Soundtrack Appreciation

With mainstream music continuing to suck these days (there are some exceptions), I always ventured to my favorite genre of music for escape, mainly electronica and techno. Other than that, it is mainly game music I have been listening to. A couple of months ago, I was crazy about the Super Smash Bros. Brawl soundtrack (yeah I downloaded the whole thing) and that was amazing. Lately, even though it is kind of late to the party, I have been blasting the Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 3 Soundtrack.

I have mentioned Maximum Tune 3 in a previous post, but the soundtrack alone sells me to the game, composed by Yuzo Koshiro, who did the music for the Streets of Rage games too. His music is just flat out fun to listen when playing the games he has music in mainly Streets of Rage 2 and the Maximum Tune games. Especially, for Maximum Tune 3, it is basically perfect driving music to listen to while driving compared to racing games here at the United States filled with crappy licensed music (Burnout Paradise for example). Plus, it makes you want to go fast in straightaways and whatnot when out on the freeway. Usually for racing games like Burnout and Forza 2, I usually listen to the electronica and techno other than the crappy mainstream rock EA tends to put out in their games.

Pretty much the whole soundtrack for Maximum Tune 3 is a blast to listen to. Here's the YouTube links to the album thanks to Yuzoboy. If u like electronica, techno, or trance, then I recommend listening to this soundtrack.

1) EntryMaxi3

2) SelectMaxi3

3) Inexhaustible Energy

4) In Your Dream

5) Get Down to the Drive

6) Top-Flight Mechanics

7) Wanna Try One Last Time

8) Get You Cornered

9) Love to Rise in the Summer Morning

10) Evil Association

11) Cause You're Different
12) Supreme Folly

13) Control Your Body

14) Shrewd Critic

15) Feel The Moment

16) Black Pressure

17) Phantom of Blue

18) Result Maxi3

19) Just Flat Out

20) Midnight Sanctuary

21) Shine

22) Opening Maxi3

Clip of the Night - Clone Wars CG Trailer

I guess we're still in the Star Wars mood, here's a trailer for the Clone Wars CG series.

If this one gets taken down, I'll try to find another one. Other than that, it seems okay to me so far. The Cartoon Network mini-series before Revenge of the Sith was pretty cool, but I don't know what is left to tell in this new CG series. I guess we have to wait and see.

UPDATE - Considering it was some international version, it did get taken down so I put up the old trailer that was released a month or two ago to refresh your minds.

Some new Street Fighter 4 tidbits and footage...

So I'm so still very excited for Street Fighter 4 (it is my #1 hyped game for a reason), but some new details that came out of the latest location test for the arcade version at Japan made me go a little nuts...

Supposedly, this new location test had more stages and 4 more characters playable. El Fuerte, the masked lucha-libre we knew about already, finally made his playable debut and this video shows why he could be a fun character to use (Well all lucha-libre type characters are kind of fun to use - El Blaze from Virtua Fighter 5 and La Mariposa from Dead or Alive 4). Watch out for his Ultra move as well because it looks like a move straight out of Ultimate Muscle (I liked that cartoon for a bit).

Another new character is revealed in this location test, which is Rufus. Rufus is some fat dude who does crazy things. This video below shows him in action, but not much. Nothing else was unveiled for Rufus at this moment compared to El Fuerte, but we will know something about him in the coming weeks maybe.

Lastly, word from the streets at Japan is that the four original bosses from Street Fighter II have reunited. We already know Balrog and Sagat are in SF4 from a previous location test, but Vega and M. Bison are also playable in Street Fighter 4. Bison alone in this game makes the story somewhat interesting to fans considering what happened to him about Super Street Fighter II Turbo. No screens or footage have surfaced yet for Vega and M. Bison (Claw and Dictator for the hardcore crowd), but eventually they might show up.

The excitement for Street Fighter 4 continues to rise for me. I don't care if I suck at this game to hang with the Evo-type competition, but I want to be good at it like the Tekken games. If this game ever sees a public playable debut, hopefully it is at the San Diego Comic-Con in July, but maybe at Evo 2K8 in Las Vegas in August (thanks to BronsonLee and SDTekken's MarkMan for putting out the videos on YouTube).

Saturday Morning TV Recap (4/12/08)

Okay, I woke up and watched GameTrailers TV with Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and so far it looks pretty good for what they shown.

Playing as Darth Vader in the beginning seems cool and it seems like it is the first time this happened in a Star Wars game. Even for a Star Wars game, this has the most ambition I seen since KOTOR. LucasArts seems determined that this will be truly special for Star Wars fans being the bridging the gap between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. They're even putting out action figures and Legos related to Force Unleashed which seems nuts that I would consider collecting them. In the end, it seems cool that Force Unleashed is being marketed and treated like one of the Star Wars movies with the hype, merchandising, and hopefully making Star Wars fans happy.

There was also new Soul Calibur IV footage featuring the two Star Wars characters Darth Vader and Yoda revealing new gameplay. All I can say so far regarding those two is that Yoda is already "broken" with that juggle combo he did. They showed Vader doing a Force-like throw, so at least Project Soul is keeping the characters faithful. Most of the footage was culminated in a new Star Wars stage, which is the Death Star hangar. That stage alone does not fit within the Soul Calibur universe at all, which is similar to the Halo stage in Dead or Alive 4 not fitting at all, but still a nice touch to see. That kind of made me glad Namco didn't do console exclusive stages in Soul Calibur II relating to Link, Heihachi, and Spawn, but then again it could of made sense having a Zelda stage, a Spawn stage, and a Tekken stage. I'm still excited for Soul Calibur IV (more details later this month at a Namco press event I think), but as seen in my top 10 Most Wanted list, it is not the fighting game I'm anticipating.

I randomly stumbled upon Cartoon Network and saw the Blue Dragon anime (There's an anime of this in English??). It seemed like the first episode of the series so far with the characters being barely introduced and accurate to the game. Shu seemed like he can't control his dragon shadow yet while Giro (spelling??) has his own problems with his minotaur shadow. Vola is currently playing leader training the two boys to became stronger with their shadows. The other girl (forgot her name) is still in the crossroads of the love triangle like the game. They haven't met the annoying pet thing yet, which is I think the next episode. Seems like a typical anime to me for the kids.

Other than watching another Pokemon D/P episode that is still the same feeling to me, that's it for now.

Clips of the Night (4/11/08) - Trailers of TNA Impact and Resistance 2

Okay, the PS3 peeps have been waiting all week for this and here it is..... A Resistance 2 Teaser.

Okay, not the greatest quality, but for a HD version of this cool looking teaser, go to GameTrailers.com or watch tonight's GT TV on Spike at midnight for more. I have to say that it is a good teaser and we have to wait till June 13 for more footage, which is okay. Resistance 2 is already living up to being the PS3's #1 game for the Fall leading the lineup with Killzone 2 (if that is still out this year), MotorStorm 2, LittleBigPlanet, and SOCOM Confirmation. Let's just say a lot of people at NeoGAF are freaking out over this damn teaser.

UPDATE - Another new trailer for TNA Impact! (The TNA Wrestling game) debuts on GameTrailers TV and here it is...

So far, still looks good and currently looking better than Smackdown vs. RAW 2009. I'm becoming more a TNA fan in the past 2 or 3 years so this game better be good being my wrestling game to buy in a while. Even though Midway is publishing and developing as well I think, I still have high hopes for the gameplay to be better than the Smackdown games.