theFRANCHISE

Much of SD Live's success can be credited to the writing philosophy of Ryan Ward, who was previously head writer of NXT during its peak years. Ward and Triple H share much of the same beliefs as to how wrestling should be booked, and SD is intentionally booked as "the wrestling show" while RAW is more of a variety show. Even though both are under the WWE umbrella, both are meant to cater to different segments of the audience. RAW is for casual fans (hence the third hour, for increased ad revenue) while SD is for the hardcore fan.

The booking was really well-done, especially on RAW. I attribute that to: 1) Simpler, more efficient booking; not everything needs to be a long, drawn-out scenario full of swerves. 2) Constant moving parts; think of the Attitude Era when everyone had a primary and secondary storyline to stay relevant. 3) Very little filler; everything and everyone had a purpose, and the promo segments didn't drag.

I'm alive! Just been really, really, really busy. I never got a chance to read Bischoff's book but I'd heard it was great. He's still got wrestling knowledge to offer, he's just better-served as a consultant or sounding board these days than an actual booker. He's nowhere near as out-of-touch as Jim Cornette or Vince Russo.

I won't share too many details about my private life, but I'm involved with an independent pro wrestling promotion. On-screen, I'm currently a broadcaster but my full job title is Backstage Producer and Director. My job is to coach the talent on their interviews and help develop their characters. I also pitch story ideas and will give feedback between shows. Additionally, I record voiceovers for all of our video packages and I occasionally participate in storylines. It's not my full-time day job, but it's my passion and defines much of who I am outside of Ravens football.

It takes two to have a great match, and John Cena put on a modern classic with Kevin Owens at Elimination Chamber. Now the world understands what I've always seen in Kevin Steen, and why Triple H is so high on him. As long as they keep some of his mystique and don't overexpose him, they've got an overnight sensation in Owens and caught lightning in a bottle.

The cost of fame is having to always have your guard up. McDonald clearly isn't being smart if he's continually putting himself in positions where he's been accused. When you play with fire enough times, you eventually get burnt.

Wins and losses don't really matter in wrestling; it's how you win or lose. So far, all of the NXT guys have fared extremely well against Cena. They look like bigger stars as a result. Cena is in the twilight of his career and they're using him to elevate the midcard. Much better than putting him in the world title picture. I have no complaints.

Another one of my Delaware Blue Hens to Baltimore!

Sony will offer the ability to stream PS3 games on PS4 in 2014 using Gaikai, a streaming service they acquired awhile ago. There are no details about how this will work, but most likely, it'll involve inserting a physical disc for verification and paying a one-time $5 or $10 license fee for access to that digital copy, OR they may allow you to purchase a digital copy without a disc for a higher fee. Just speculation on my part.

I'd argue that, rather than focus on getting exclusive licenses, Microsoft needs to scout and acquire studios. That way, they can cultivate an ecosystem of titles from within rather than mining titles from the outside, and they'd have more control over the quality of the final product.

Any publisher would be lucky to have Naughty Dog as a first-party studio, but for Sony to have Naughty Dog and Sucker Punch, both of whom have a long history of great franchises and a terrific pedigree to match? That's ridiculous. That's not to mention Sony's own self-branded studios in Santa Monica (God of War), San Diego (MLB: The Show), and Japan (Ico). Microsoft owns some impressive properties in Halo, Gears of War, and Forza Motorsport, but their own first-party stable of developers doesn't have much distinction. In fact, despite Gears of War being Microsoft-exclusive, Microsoft doesn't even own the studio who developed the series.

Day One launch numbers are about even for both the Xbox One and PS4, with both having sold 1 million units. The difference? Xbox One sold 1 million worldwide...but the PS4 sold 1 million in North America alone. Sony doesn't launch in Europe and Japan (its biggest markets) until next week and early next year, respectively. Public relations clearly played a huge part here. Well-done by Sony to bounce back after the mistakes made during their last launch.

But, how is the cloud supposed to offset the issue of games getting bigger and bigger and needing to be installed for optimal performance? And, even worse, how are we supposed to play offline if servers are down for maintenance or get attacked? Microsoft needs to temper its push of the cloud. Although digital distribution and cloud storage is the way of the future, for right now, it's not feasible to do everything online because of bandwidth limits.

Not only am I waiting for a price drop before I grab an Xbox One, but the lack of a swappable hard drive is a huge deal breaker for me. They need to rectify this in their next redesign. When you consider that some games require a 20-50GB installation before playing, this makes it difficult to have a large collection on Xbox One without needing to occasionally delete installation files. Sure, this is a minor inconvenience to some, but it's an inconvenience that'd easily be solved if they'd allow us to swap out hard drives as you can on the PS3 and PS4.

It feels bigger but lighter. I can't quite describe it. I can't go back to using the 360 or PS3 controller anymore. The concave analog sticks and new trigger buttons are just too comfortable. My only issue is that the Options button (which replaces the traditional Start button) is so small due to the large touchpad. However, I absolutely love that I'm able to plug in my favorite studio monitor headphones into the controller and listen to full game audio with zero latency.