matthew tyler jones

dumb wrestling fan

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Insight on the design of coffee lids.

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Last night at about 3:00am, I was typing up a very long post detailing my thoughts on the Rumble. I just logged on for the first time today and I see that it’s not posted, nor saved as a draft. It’s probably for the best - if I don’t remember what became of the post, it probably didn’t make any sense. I’ll just have to wait for Raw and Smackdown to happen and do a write-up about that. I’m going to put my predictions up against what actually happened at the PPV in a future post, too, and try to keep track of that throughout the year.

I really hate being behind on the programming most of the time. Life doesn’t permit sometimes, and I miss some of the fun being able to fully watch a PPV live with my entire attention instead of in the background at work.

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I haven’t watched any new movies or TV shows besides wrestling, or read any new comic books this month. I am reading a book-book, but I haven’t done that in so long that sometimes I’ll forget I’m reading a book, so it’s taking me forever to get through.

I’ve got to consume something other than wrestling so my brain can have an equal amount of rot all the way through.

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Shotgun Saturday Night

I was really young when Shotgun Saturday Night first ran, and I wasn’t aware of it’s existence. I don’t think it ran in my TV market, anyway. But I’ve always been curious about it, so this past week I watched the first four episodes. Since the show’s not on the network, the episodes I watched were VHS rips uploaded to DailyMotion, but I think they were all complete. I have a few notes:

1. Sunny is the most annoying commentator ever. The episode where they were teasing her sex tape (which ended up being the “fondle-me-Elmo” sketch) was almost unwatchable because of her. The other announcer, Todd something something, he’s god awful, too.

2. There are some funny gags, like the Flying Nuns being arrested for “solicitation”, then showing up as the Headbangers. They teased a video of Goldust giving birth, but that never came to be.

3. The show has often ended while the main event is still in progress, and the promise to show the ending to the match the next week. So far, they haven’t done this. Maybe they’re missing from the rips I’m watching, but I don’t think so.

4. The segment with Terry Funk and Steve Austin has been the best so far. Best match so far out of the first four episodes I think is Rocky Maivia vs. Savio Vega. Looking forward to more Savio.

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Royal Rumble 2018 predictions

1. Women's Royal Rumble

First Two Entrants: Tamina and Mandy Rose

Final Four: Natalya, Asuka, Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch. I want to put Bailey on here, but I know better than that.

Winner: Sasha Banks, but damn, I want to say Becky so bad. It'll come down to her and Asuka, and this won't count as a defeat 😉

2. The Usos vs. Shelton Benjamin & Chad Gable, best 2/3 falls, Smackdown Live Tag Team Championship - Usos pick up the first fall, then Gable gets one, then maybe a screwy finish with the final fall that makes the champions unclear, either a DQ or count-out against the Usos.

3. Jason Jordan & Seth Rollins vs the Bar, Raw Tag Team Championship - Jordan & Rollins lose due to Jordan's dumbassery. Then they will have a rematch the next night that will end in much the same way, and the tag titles can finally move on to other contenders, if there are any.

4. Brock Lesnar vs. Kane. vs. Braun Strowman, Universal Championship - Brock wins by pinning Kane. Strowman somehow gets eliminated from the match.

5. AJ Styles vs. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn, WWE World Heavyweight Championship - God damn, I hate it when two people team up to get a singles title. This would never happen in real sports. Anyways, Styles pins Zayn, this starts the breakup of the boys. It would be awesome if Zayn would win the title and Owens becomes super jealous of him, harboring resentment until Wrestlemania when the best friends could fight it out for the most prestigious title at the grandest stage of them all, the culmination of decades, yeah? Not getting my hopes up.

6. Men's Royal Rumble

First two entrants: Elias and Aiden English. You've seen this idea online already, but it's a good one.

Final Four: Roman Reigns, Bray Wyatt, Finn Balor, Shinsuke Nakamura

Winner: Shinsuke eliminates Finn.

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recent music

I want to do proper formatting - bold artists, titles in italics, and I want to refer to everything by it’s proper name, but I’m on my phone with 10%, so I’m just going to bang this one out real quick.

Big Sean & Metro Boomin: out of the hip hop albums I heard lately, I expected to like this one the least. But I like it the most! Big Sean doesn’t sound nearly as corny as he usually does. Metro, he’s always on point.

Travis Scott & Takeoff: these guys just sound cool as hell.

Gucci Mane - “El Gato: the Human Glacier”: I’m playing the fuck out of “Peepin Out the Blinds”, but the rest of the album I could take or leave.

Mattiel - self-titled: very fun. She has a very retro sound that reminds me of variety shows I the 70s in a comforting way. That makes sense to me, I swear.

Shopping - “the official body”: absolutely love it. Reminds me of Gang of Four.

ShitKid - “this is it”: I remember liking it, but not much else about it. Certain parts from “Yoooouuuuuu” play in my head on repeat.

THEY. - “nu religion: hyena”: hazy album that crosses genres, mostly stays in the hip hop/rnb lane, but there are moments that call back 90s alt-rock. Interesting to say the least.

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Thinking about the Rumble

Usually this close to the Rumble, with all the pre-PPV storyline already shown, I have some solid ideas about what I want to happen and what I think will happen. This year, though, when I think about how the Rumble match is going to go down, I keep drawing a blank.

It seems like there are several “favorites” to win. The names I’m seeing the most - John Cena, Roman Reigns, Shinsuke Nakamura - I mean, I can see all of them winning, and none of them seem more likely than the other. John Cena was brought up most during Jinder’s run with the WWE title and talk of him winning has cooled down a bit. Roman Reigns has been the projected winner since after last year’s Wrestlemania when rumors started that we were on a year-long build to Brock/Roman II. That still may be the case, but a Smackdown guy could win the Rumble and we get Brock/Roman some other way. Not to mention, the Rumble is in Philadelphia, a city Roman has an interesting relationship with. I can’t see either of the long-shot “return” victories, and by that I mean CM Punk and Daniel Bryan, though Bryan has gained some traction as a possible winner. Personally, I like all the possibilities. It’s a much better feeling than last year, when everyone knew Orton was going to win.

As far as the women’s Rumble is concerned, I think there are only two options that are acceptable: Asuka and Becky Lynch. Those are the only two I see getting a major reaction, besides maybe a legend returning or Ronda Rousey (who I don’t think will be there at all). But what would either of those options do in the long-run?

Wow, I’m almost embarrassed to say this, but I can’t think of any other matches on the card besides the Universal title match. Does that make me a bad fan? Are Jason Jordan & Seth Rollins going up against the Bar? I know I’ve been watching TV, why is it all so hazy?

I’m going to have to take a look at the announced match-ups and post my predictions later on in the week. I guess I should try and sneak in this week’s Smackdown while I’m at it, still haven’t had a chance to watch.

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It sucks when there’s terrible real-life drama interferring with what’s happening on screen, especially when it involves a truly entertaining performer. But real life is real life, and it doesn’t matter how entertaining you are on camera if you make mistakes off camera. No outsider for sure knows what’s going on with the Enzo situation, and it’s none of our business anyway, but I can’t imagine WWE letting go of a title-holder and major character if it weren’t necessary.

That said, it’s always interesting to see how WWE books themselves out of whatever hole real life has dug for them, that’s why I’m excited to see 205 Live tonight for the first time in... well, a long time.

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The general consensus seems to be that Raw was a total disappointment for everyone who was at the Manhattan Center. Apparently all they got to see in person was what was shown on TV from there, plus two short cruiserweight dark matches, and run-ins from Miz, Rollins, and Ric Flair. I’m going to round a little bit and say that’s about an hour’s worth of show in-the-flesh, with more than double that being shown to them on TVs. Supposedly these people paid hundreds of dollars to be there. They got ripped off.

As a fan watching at home, even I was disappointed by the lack of content from the Manhattan Center. I feel silly getting worked up over something like rope color and crowd size, but a big selling point of the show for me was the retro feel, and it was noticeably absent.

I see a lot of the “it was a nostalgia show, what did you expect?” defense being used online. I don’t think anyone was really too disappointed by the nostalgia segments. They announced so many names ahead of time, and if you’ve been following WWE for any amount of years, you knew what this was going to be. The big problem is that the show around it was lackluster, made worse by the misuse of two venues. Since the cruiserweights were at the MC, I’m sure Enzo was supposed to be used there and the fans got shafted by his suspension. Still, the roster is so big, they shouldn’t have had any problem filling that void.

A few of my favorite fantasy bookings I’ve read that would have fixed some of last nights problems: Roman could have won the IC title back from the Miz at the Manhattan Center, and Slater could have faced a legend to get his money back from the poker game. Those both sound pretty fun. I read these on reddit, but forgot to save the sources, oops!

Of course, some things were handled right. Jason Jordan is playing his role perfectly. He sounded like such a dweeb, and I totally felt the second hand embarrassment from Rollins. Elias was great, too, even though I hated Cena in this segment. I think if you take the guitar away from Elias, he could be a good face. The music is the only thing making him heel anyway. Everyone wants to walk with Elias, just no one wants to hear him sing. I mentioned in a post last night how I liked the IC title segment. I’m still not going to get my hopes up about a Bryan return, but damn, it looks more possible every day. And did I mention I loved that X-Pac was there?

Tonight is the go-home show for Smackdown. Expectations are low.

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I’m still trying to process how I feel about tonight’s Raw, but I do know I got to see X-Pac hit an X-Factor on TV once again. Feels good.

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Just watched Roman vs. Miz. The match was pretty good, but the stare down between Daniel Bryan and Miz beforehand gave me goosebumps. I thought, way back when Miz started mimicking and taunting Bryan at the beginning of the brand split, that it would be a long shot for them to book Bryan’s return with this storyline going into Wrestlemania. They might not be doing that, but it sure seems like they are.

It was also great to see Asuka kicking ass at the end of that tag match.

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Finally got to turn it on, and it looks as cooler than I imagined! Why couldn’t they have made Barclay’s retro, though? Still awesome to see the original set.

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Going to be starting Raw a little late tonight, but fast-forwarding through commercials should catch me up quick. Super excited to see the red, white, and blue ropes, plus my man X-Pac on TV!

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Broke my toe right before two doubles, and I needed someone to work my shifts.

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A long time ago (it seems like, anyway), I considered myself a musician. I was in bands, played shows, and spent hours and hours upstairs in my makeshift studio recording songs with a digitial 8-track recorder. It was fun.

Then all my shit got stolen, I got depressed, deleted all my songs, and just stopped. I kind of got back into it when I downloaded FL Studio and spent some time playing around with the step sequencer and synths, but nothing I’m proud of has ever come out of it. I don’t think I’m very creative in other areas, so I’m in a slump.

I thought that all might change when Kara’s dad found an old four-track cassette recorder in his old house and gave it to me. The thing is retro, man. Like I said, it uses cassettes. But cassettes are the new vinyl, so I was pretty excited about it.

My plan was to take some of the tracks on my iPad, record them on cassette, then convert them back to mp3 to get that cassette sound. But it turns out that I don’t know anything about cassettes. I got a track recorded onto a tape, but when I played it back, it was slowed waaaaaaaay down. I guess this has something to do with tape-speeds? I don’t know, man. It doesn’t help that I don’t have any monitors to play back what I’m recording, so I have to haul the tape out to the truck for playback after I record it deaf.

Either way, I’ve got a lot to learn, and I’m trying ton convince myself it’s worth the trouble.

[jonesmatthewtyler-blog]

Changing the phone number associated with iCloud.

I bought an iPhone 7 to replace a 5S that I absolutely destroyed. I activated the phone with a new number. When I go to the contacts list, the entry at the top with my name and phone number has the old number listed. This is very annoying. How do I change it?

I have already tried to deregister the number from iMessage as instructed by Apple, but the directions call for me to have a working phone with that number. I certainly do not have that.

Incidentally, let’s say I send a text message to Person A. When my message appears on A’s lock screen, the “from” field says my old phone number, but when the message is fully opened, it is my correct contact name with the full number.

This is driving me up the wall, I don’t even know what to Google . Can anyone help?

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The refrigerator at work went out during the night, and we had to throw away a ton of product. The customers have been the pickiest of the picky. I have a pain in my side that won’t go away. The two vents above the cook line are blowing out cold air, and it’s below freezing outside.

2017 is trying it’s hardest on the last day, but I’m not going to break.