What in the World? Too Many Champions

In the week leading up to WWE’s annual Hell in a Cell Pay Per View, a large number of fans are dreading the return of wrestling’s biggest draw, John Cena. Not only is Cena’s return far ahead of schedule but his reintroduction into the product is inserting him straight into feud with the World Heavyweight Champion, Alberto Del Rio. This situation has drawn the ire of many fans due to an incrediblly similar event 5 years ago at Survivor Series - John Cena returned from injury (ahead of schedule) to win the World Heavyweight Championship from Chris Jericho. Some of the complaints can be valid, as it’s inconsistent booking to award a title shot to someone who hasn’t had a match since August. On the other side of the coin, many will argue that this set up is actually a benefit. I’ve heard people claim “This will give the World Heavyweight Championship some much needed credibility.”

Because the champion of the world isn’t credible enough?

But the argument isn’t irrational at all; it emphasizes the already obvious problem that WWE’s second World title has struggled for relevance in recent years. The fact that there is a positive buzz over a supposed main event championship getting main event exposure leaves me scratching my head. I remember browsing a few forums around the time that Punk was announced to come back from hiatus; there were many ideas suggesting that Punk should pursue the World Heavyweight Championship for 2013. Some fans flinched at the idea, declaring it a “step down” for CM Punk. Something that I noticed over the recent years were my disparate reactions to certain title wins. For example, when CM Punk won the World Championship in ’08 and ’09 it was a good moment but not spectacular. While it showed that management were fond of the Second City Saint it didn’t really bill him as a top guy. Fast forward to Money in the Bank 2011 where we see Punk winning his first WWE Championship from John Cena – THAT was a spectacular moment and I genuinely felt like Punk won ‘the big one’. The same situation applies to Daniel Bryan’s main event accomplishments: his first World Championship at TLC was a nice boost to promote Bryan. The magnitude of it’s significance however is completely squashed by Bryan’s first WWE Championship at Summerslam. The former felt like the IWC were just being handed a bone to chew on, whereas the latter actually showed a positive step forward in the booking of talents. Guys like Dolph Ziggler, despite a former World title run, still seem to be struggling to break out of the upper mid-card.

When looking at the record book, it seems that WWE mostly use the World Championship either as a test run for possible future main eventers (Jack Swagger, Dolph Ziggler, Daniel Bryan) or a “Thank You” reign to commend a veteran who never got their moment in the sun (Mark Henry, Big Show, Kane). As they become more fond of said talent and want to really cement their legacy, it’s time to transcend them to the WWE Championship which is (Let’s be honest) WWE’s apex title. It may sound OK in theory but it can dilute the importance of championship reigns. Looking at it from WWE’s perspective, why have one top dog when you can have two? But a wrestler’s championship status is dwarfed if you have another wrestler who is holding another title that, in name, is entirely equal to the former. Non-Wrestling fans may chuckle out of having two top champions on the same roster and I can’t say I blame them because in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t really make any sense. Juggling two world champions is something that WWE have clearly struggled with in recent years. Wrestlemania 27, 28 and 29’s World Championship matches have all been lacklustre in both story content and build up. 28 being a particularly blatant example, with the match being relegated to an abhorrent 18 second bout, making it clear that WWE just didn’t give a shit at the time. Alberto Del Rio vs Jack Swagger was an undercooked story despite featuring good talent. There’s a problem when the biggest aspect of the feud was wondering whether Ziggler was going to interfere at the end or not. 

In recent months, Del Rio himself has also been trundling along without much material to work with – he’s just kind of there. Oh yes, he’s a champion but that’s the problem, he’s not THE champion. His match with Christian at Summerslam felt empty regarding it’s purpose, other than to just have a something for the two of them to do. This was entailed by a series of matches with RVD and to be fair that did have a story: it was just completely boring. His manager was Del Rio’s old manager, har har. It got funny after the second week, WWE. I am by no means ranting on Del Rio. Despite my qualms with his overall character his workrate is superb and those matches he had with Christian and RVD were also good. But again, they were just….there. Alberto Del Rio is just a guy with a belt that some other guys might want but hey, they can just get another singles belt. See what I mean? There’s two world champions, just go for the other one, dude.

The concept of two champions did work at one point. In 2002, after acquiring ECW and WCW, WWE had an issue regarding their bloated roster. The solution? Create two separate brands with their two main television shows (RAW and Smackdown!) and promote both of them as entirely different. Simply put, this was a good idea as it helped divide the roster at the time which had a large portion of huge talent from the 90’s wrestling boom. The idea of the two champions interacting made for an exciting premise, which is amusing when nowadays we get “Champion vs Champion” matches on free TV. Since 2011, we’ve had the brand split informally extinguished where wrestlers can jump between both shows because they’re free to do so. Again, this was a good idea as WWE’s star power has been lacking and merging the rosters kept a stronger focus on both shows. The roster doesn’t have enough star power to house two world champions and this is something the higher ups really need to recognise because everyone else pretty much knows it at this point. The top storyline on RAW is continued on Smackdown! the following Friday. We don't need a second World Championship because neither show has a separate identity anymore.

Just to clarify, I’m not entirely negative on this situation. Earlier I mentioned how the World Championship is basically a way to build up a guy to a higher position at some point if they’re happy with their performance; a test run if you will. It’s clear that the World Championship is a number 2 title but that’s exactly what a promotion needs. There should be a lower tier championship that still holds some weight to it and when a contender wins the championship, fans should think to themselves “I wonder if one day they'll win the WWE title”. In the past, this need was filled by the Intercontinental Championship. Yes, one time the IC title actually had a purpose instead of being as valid as a nipple tassle. But the end of the 20^th century saw it’s importance wind down greatly and things got even more awkward when another second midcard title became introduced. My main problem with the World Championship is that it's declared to be a WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP. The name itself is erroneous and ignorant to the fact that it's nothing more than an upper mid card title. 

Under the WWE title, you have 3 other singles championships eligible to obtain and WWE’s roster isn’t vast enough to properly showcase them all in a grand light. Our current U.S. champion is Dean Ambrose which should be a big deal but he also has to share time with Curtis Axel (The I.C. Champion) and Alberto Del Rio. How much more significant would Ambrose be if he was the only midcard champion underneath the top guy? There aren’t enough minutes in the WWE’s programming to properly establish these champions as they also have to share screen time with other main eventers and a blooming tag team division. Don’t forget Triple H’s 20 minute promos, he’ll break into spontaneous combustion if he doesn’t get his precious opening promo.

I think it’s time to start sending some titles to the retirement home. The World Championship served it’s purpose and has given us many great moments and matches but we’re stuck with the same problem we had in the aftermath of the Invasion. We don’t have enough star power to stick with another brand split though. At the moment, it may be appropriate to declare an Undisputed Champion of the world - a move like this could really solidify Daniel Bryan’s push. Underneath the grand champion, a second tier title (Combining the U.S and I.C belts) can be used to groom your future top stars. It's not the only thing you have to do to make a title important. There's also factors like logical booking, meaningful title reigns etc. but it's a good first step to making a decent number 2 belt that actually means something and doesn't cause contradictions. All in all, I’m sure Del Rio vs Cena will be a fun match despite Cena’s premature return. Hey, maybe it will even close out the show. When was the last time that happened? The fact that I said that and have heard that phrase before sort of highlights the problem we have here.

Gotta Have Faith, Faith, Faith: The Wolf Among Us

“You’re not as bad as everyone says you are”

Confession time – I’m not a fan of Fables, sorry Bill Willingham. While that may be enough reason for you to ignore me already, I can’t say that I have anything against the comics. It’s not like Kick Ass where I rip my hair out and scream “WHY IN CHRIST’S NAME DO PEOPLE LIKE THIS!?” entailed by curling up into a foetal position. Don’t get me wrong, any comic book that has Goldilocks as a gun toting left wing militant is certainly worth a glance or two. After reading two trade paperbacks I didn’t find myself wanting to knock Fables down and rip its clothes off. We just sat together on the couch, awkwardly avoiding eye contact while I thought of a nice way to explain why I needed to go read Scalped some more. That’s not to say that the setting wasn’t inventive however, perhaps the series improved as it went on or maybe I couldn’t see the big deal.

Telltale Games recently released their adaption of the popular comic book series called The Wolf Among Us. The keywords in that sentence being Telltale Games in huge italics. “Why?” you say? Last year Telltale released The Walking Dead, a faithful adaption of the comic book series of the same name. To shortly summarise, the game featured fantastic characters, excellent moral choices and one of the most acclaimed stories in the medium. It captured the excellent, grim setting that the comic books are known for and added life to the dull parade of zombie games and settings that flood the market each year. So ever since then I’ve been keeping a close eye on Telltale’s upcoming projects; checking for updates, reading previews, watching them sleep at night etc. Sadly, the news of the Fables game didn’t do much for me as I expected a similar lukewarm experience. But it dawned on me that the concept of episodic gameplay is ideal for a person on the fence; spending £3.99 isn’t exactly going to set you back much. I went ahead and purchased the first episode titled Faith from the PSN network, so let’s see what Telltale are up to.

"You know, I really regret blowing your house down at this point."

For those not in the know, the world of Fables consists of (You guessed it) characters of fables and their adventures while living in New York City. They live in a small community called Fabletown, which is low on morale and is rapidly going downhill with drug abuse, prostitution and violence. The characters were cast out of their original homes by an unknown adversary and are trying to make the most of an awful situation. Their community is protected by a spell called “Glamour” and plays a large role in their daily lives. In this town of decadence, Bigby Wolf (As in the Big, Bad Wolf) tries to protect the unfortunate saps from their worst enemies – themselves. Bigby takes on the role of a Sherriff and also Detective (Because what else are you going to use with that sense of smell?) Perhaps I lost you after the word “Fables" because the setting may take a while to sink in. By the way, I wasn’t joking about Goldilocks earlier: it’s totally a storyline. The game is quick to establish the bizarre premise and roll on with the opening cutscene before you have the time to say “How does glamour work?” and “How did they get here?” But the unique setting of Fables is part of its charm - it breaks all hope of ‘happily ever after’ and tosses it into the abyss of harsh reality.

Faith is impressive right out of the gate with its visual style. The sharp contrast of dark, neon colours from the lights of NYC establishes the macabre setting very well. Night sky purple clashes with the bright, yellow street lights as they bleed on the towering walls of the concrete jungle. There’s a unique, artistic atmosphere that surpasses The Walking Dead, which was somewhat realistic in terms of colour palette. Characters are excellently animated and compliments the voice acting which is also impressive. Accompanying the visuals is the despondent score by Jared Emerson-Johnson. Solitary piano keys will play in the background as Bigby explores the gritty environments. A particular piece informally titled Mirror, Mirror perfectly sums up what Fables is all about without any words at all. It made me feel lonely and cold but there was some remnant of softness. Beneath all the morosity that engulfs the entire cast of Fables, perhaps there’s a sense of hope that they can return to some sense of stability.

I've heard people bring up the disparity between the settings of Fables and The Walking Dead. At first there might be some dissimilarities but a few parallels can also be found. The characters are forced out of their regular lives by a calamity that is out of their control. After being forced to flee they attempt to rebuild another society and try to maintain civility. Some individuals will be lost to the madness while others will at least attempt to make a positive difference. Enter Bigby Wolf, who isn’t that far from Lee Everett from The Walking Dead. Both men have done things they are not proud of and the player can either choose to embrace a cut throat mind set or try to handle situations in a more courteous manner. Except the big difference is that Lee isn’t a wolf and who doesn’t want to play as a big ass wolf? Although Bigby must conceal his animalistic form and is clad in the typical detective fashion: 5 O'clock shadow, gelled back hair, sleeves rolled up to show they mean business etc. Many characters are quick to establish how Bigby hasn't been much of a paragon in his past life. As the Sherriff of Fabletown, many snort at the thought of a monster who once terrorized their homes is now a supposed figure of stability and order. In this episode, Bigby finds his authority challenged by a murder with a message that he can't seem to figure out.

The opening section of Faith effectively introduces Bigby’s character depending on how you play. Coming across a domestic spat, I tried to placate the hostile party but had no choice but to resort to fisticuffs. When you’re put into the shoes of the hard boiled fable, you’ll wonder whether there’s any point in trying to utilize a fair approach when dealing with these corrupt individuals. Even when I tried to do the right thing, I still felt like I had fucked up someone else’s day in the process. Attempting to help characters can also be somewhat ill advised as there seems to be a layer of duplicity in their words. Perhaps it’s easier to throw all sense of decency to the wall and instead use your position as a method of scaring the population into following the law.  This is where the moral choices come into play. As Bigby digs deeper into his investigations you can either aggressively coerce your suspects into giving you information or try to Sherlock your way through – taking note of what is said and picking out inconsistencies in their web of lies. The latter way of playing can culminate in a smug sense of superiority, although it is only temporary when you realise that you merely outwitted a toad.

The choices you make can drastically change the way that you see Bigby as a character, which is one of the things I’m still ambivalent about. In my Walking Dead playthrough, Lee Everett was a flawed but decent guy who just wanted to protect Clementine from a cruel world. But I felt like the development was weakened when you can go onto Youtube and watch a video of some guy roleplaying as "Lee the Bellend", who eats the last apple in front of two starving children. Perhaps it’s a good thing to set up two polar opposite protagonists but it can be hard to execute. Dishonored’s moral choices suffered from having a bland protagonist in order to have neutral cutscenes so that they didn’t clash with you playing as a saint or a dickwheel. In a way, I can see both sides of the coin in this tale; Bigby can either be a flawed cop trying to make up for his past sins or a power hungry bully. However, the full story needs to play out in order to make a proper analysis.I'm curious to see if the game manages to provide enough paths to satisfy everyone's preferences.

The few choices in the first episode were debatable (In a good way). One character begs for you to keep a secret from another. What do you do? Lie to the other person? Lie to them about lying to the other? That might not be the best option. Perhaps it’s not the best way of going about matters as lying to people can mar relationships and come back to haunt you. A good moral choice is one that you can argue the ifs and buts of each choice, neither option being right or wrong in the objective sense. Perhaps what’s advantageous to you may not be best in the long run or vice versa. This is where a lot of games fall flat and just leave you with a choice of either save everyone or blow up shit (I’m looking at you, InFamous). Along with these moral choices are dialogue trees that work very well and can simulate the anxiety of quick decisions. There are many times in this episode where I said something I didn’t quite mean at first, or I thought sounded much better in another way. You may want to go back and undo some perceived errors but that may spoil the point of it all. What’s done is done and you’ll just have to make do with what you’ve got, or as Bigby puts it, “You play the hand you’re dealt”. In the future you may want to please a character that you previously vexed or wronged, I know I certainly will. Pleasing everyone is difficult and this may become more frequent as the episodes continue.

Wolf Among Us also has some combat sequences by which I mean, “Push a load of arbitrary buttons!” Quick time events aren’t my favourite gameplay features but they’re decent enough to carry the scenes which could easily be non-playable. Some moments may require you to quickly search for an object to use but you can sometimes lead to a game over because you didn’t know which fecking stupid bottle to grab in a heated battle. Every one of these scenes made me feel that the game was saying “Pushthatbuttonnowpushthisbuttonohnoyoudon’tknowwhichbuttonwellfuckyouthen!!” Sometimes I didn’t even know if I was required to search or if a non-playable section was still going on. The course of these moments can change dramatically depending on what you choose, which means that the game has to frantically throw up the next sequence that matches your decision. And yes, these leads to an assload of lag (Assload being a scientifically recognized unit). In one case my game crashed and I was forced to look at the Woodsman’s face halfway through some kind of derpy expression. The soundtrack glitched which sounded like the orchestra spasmodically fell to the ground but decided to attempt to keep playing. Crashes aside, this aspect of the game can still be considered quite enjoyable. It goes hand in hand with the dialogue sections and highlights the core of Bigby’s character depending on how you play. I opted to try and get about situations without glassing anyone despite throwing in a punch or two because hey, the enemies started it anyway. Punch therapy is a viable form of calming someone down. With gorgeous art style, excellent character development and top approach to world building I was more than happy to give Faith a bold thumbs up.

Then the ending happened.

Without spoiling, let’s just say that the ending is clearly a dupe. First, it fucks with the series’ canon. Second, it ruins a very strong part of the narrative which the game spent a long time working on. Third, the second episode is called Smoke and Mirrors, so expect a twist like you’re at a HankBallard and the Midnighters gig. Overall, the ending is the biggest flaw for me - It’s funny how Telltale’s greatest strength soured my whole experience. While the game deserves a firm slap on the wrist for pulling a cheap cliff hanger, my first impressions are mostly positive.

I always thought that the Mirror was really shitty at ....being a mirror.

Telltale can be heavily lauded for drawing my interest into an IP that didn’t catch me the first time round. It can even be reason enough to revisit the comics for a second look. I’m not saying that they told a better introductory tale than Bill Willingham but….actually that’s exactly what I’m saying. Smoke and Mirrors will be a definite purchase, although seeing as I’m an Eu PSN user I expect to be fucked around by release dates because I probably did something abhorrent to Telltale in a past life.