Lloyd Talks Fatherhood, Tour Life, Irv Gotti, Ashanti + More

AVENGERS 4 ENDGAME: Trailer 2 (2019)

WWE Fastlane Review

WWE's last pay-per-view before WrestleMania 35 took place tonight in Cleveland, OH, and the night started with The SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos vs. Shane McMahon and The Miz.  Unlike their previous championship match last month at The Elimination Chamber event, The Usos took control early on.  McMahon was isolated by the twin sons of WWE Hall of Famer Rikishi, but he eventually made the hot tag to the hometown star and his tag team partner.  Shane continued to put it all on the line when he appeared to be going for a coast to coast dropkick in the corner to Jimmy Uso, but he intercepted Jey Uso with a dropkick in mid air to prevent him from putting the nail in the coffin with a splash to The Miz.

The finish of this match saw The Miz try an unusual high risk maneuver from the top rope, only to be rolled up for a pinfall victory and The Usos retained their championships.  After the match, Shane blindsided The Miz following an embrace between the latter and his father who was sitting ringside.  I expected this heel turn to happen, but hopefully WWE lets The Miz be similar to Chris Jericho during The Attitude Era on the mic and play the smart mouthed babyface.

Asuka defended her SmackDown Women's Championship against Mandy Rose in the night's second match.  After Asuka started the match on fire with knee strikes and kicks, Mandy was able to take advantage of Sonya Deville's outside distraction.  It's obvious that Mandy's time will come, but tonight was not her night.  As Deville went underneath the ring to grab a kendo stick, Mandy slipped on the ring skirt which led to Asuka retaining her championship.  Despite the tension between the former Tough Enough competitors, I expect Deville and Rose to be in contention for The Women's Tag Team Championships next month at WrestleMania.

Kofi Kingston was led to believe that he was getting a shot at The WWE Championship after a backstage encounter with Vince McMahon, but this led to a handicapped match vs. The Bar.  Cesaro and Sheamus put Kofi to rest despite a valiant effort and an attempt by Kofi's tag team partners Big E and Xavier Woods to make the save, but they were attacked from behind by Rusev and Shinsuke Nakamura.

The first match of the night from Monday Night Raw saw Aleister Black and Ricochet and Bobby Roode and Chad Gable challenge The Revival for The Raw Tag Team Championships in a triple threat match.  The Revival isolated Ricochet early on with classic tag team wrestling.  Gable inserted himself into the match by taking advantage of the rules and tagging Dash Wilder of The Revival.  Ricochet was eventually able to make a tag to Black and despite a breath taking flip over the turnbuckle and out to the floor by Ricochet, The Revival was able to retain their championships.  After the match, chaos ensued with Roode hitting a DDT on Scott Dawson only to turn around into a Black Mask kick from Black and a 630 splash from Ricochet.  This finish leads me to believe that we will see a rematch at WrestleMania with another team possibly being added.

Samoa Joe defended his newly won United States Championship in a fatal four way vs. Andrade, Rey Mysterio and R-Truth.  This was a hard hitting match which included a hurricanrana from Rey to Andrade as he was on Truth's shoulders.  Joe dived outside of the ring and showed that a 280 pound man can do more than be a power threat inside the squared circle.  A match like this could draw more attention to The U.S. Championship which has been lacking for the most part since John Cena and Kevin Owens did battle in 2015.

Bayley and Sasha Banks defended The Women's Tag Team Championships for the first time against Nia Jax and Tamina.  Despite the size differential between the champions and the challengers, the champs battled through and were able to retain after Bayley countered a powerbomb attempt by Nia into a hurricanrana and a pin.  After the match, Jax and Tamina took out their frustrations with a beatdown on Bayley and Sasha until Beth Phoenix who was a guest commentator stood up to them.  Jax and Tamina were too much for the youngest hall of famer in WWE history, and future hall of famer Natalya tried to make the save, but Jax and Tamina stood tall.

WWE's version of Captain Planet also known as Daniel Bryan defended his WWE Championship vs. Kevin Owens and Mustafa Ali in a triple threat.  The vocal crowd in Cleveland chanted for Kofi Kingston throughout the first 10 minutes of the match after his was mislead into believing that he would be a part of the match after his conversation with Vince McMahon.  Despite this, the three men were able to put on a competitive back and forth battle with Ali and Owens looking like they were going to win on different occasions before Bryan's bearded brother Erick Rowan got involved.  Ali, Bryan and Owens won the crowd over and the we want Kofi chants eventually turned into this is awesome chants due in part to a top rope spring board tornado DDT by Ali onto Bryan and a plancha by the 265 pound KO.

I imagine that WWE will book DB vs. Kofi for The WWE Championship at WrestleMania after DB retained tonight.  It is hard to believe that they will not capitalize on the momentum that Kofi has picked up in the last month even if this singles match doesn't see the 11 year veteran leave Newark with the most prestigious championship in the company,

Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair took place to see if the most charismatic wrestler in WWE today would be added to Flair vs. Ronda Rousey for The Raw Women's Championship at WM 35.  Flair took advantage of Lynch's injured knee early in the match.  Lynch would continue to fight back with everything she had despite being on one leg.  As Lynch was going for her armbar finisher, Flair was able to counter into The Figure Four leglock until Rousey caused a disqualification by elbowing Lynch thus adding her to the match.  This finish made both women look strong heading into WrestleMania.

Elias got heat throughout the night with his songs aimed at hometown start The Miz, Cleveland sports teams and The Man Becky Lynch.  After being interrupted by Lacey Evans who apparently is working on becoming a runway model, Elias was hit with an RKO by Randy Orton.  Orton then turned around to a Phenomenal Forearm by AJ Styles after weeks of interrupting his backstage interviews.  Orton and Styles have only had one singles math on TV since the latter signed with WWE in 2016 which was won by Orton, and these 15+ year vets are on a collision course for a match next month at WM 35.

Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins reunited one last time to reform The Shield and faced Baron Corbin, Bobby Lashley and Drew McIntyre in a six man tag.  There was chaos towards the end of this match which saw Rollins jump from the front row of the crowd onto Lashley and McIntyre.  Reigns appeared to be in a dire situation as Corbin, Lashley and McIntyre tried to triple powerbomb him through a table, but their plans backfired.  McIntyre was eventually driven through a table and Lashley suffered the fate of a curb stomp from Rollins on a table.  Corbin was left to fend for himself and suffered a triple powerbomb and The Shield wrapped this one up.

I expected Ambrose or Reigns to turn heel or a possible appearance from The Wyatt Family to attack The Shield after the match, but the hounds of justice stood tall to end tonight's event.  Rollins' road to WrestleMania is already set in stone as he will face Brock Lesnar for The Universal Championship.  It will be interesting to see if Ambrose (who is reportedly leaving WWE next month) and Reigns will possibly face each other or go after The Raw Tag Team Championships.  It will also be interesting to see what happens with McIntyre who had a wave of momentum heading into January's Royal Rumble pay-per-view. 

Blvdave Radio Ep. 41 "Dusse Nights"

Devil May Cry 5 Review

'Captain Marvel' Review: Does It Deliver?

Captain Marvel' makes the her debut as the first major stand-alone female super hero from the Marvel MCU. Does it deliver on all it's promises?

Box Office RESULTS: "How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World." Take the #1 spot

Debuting with an impressive, $55.5 million is DreamWorks Animation's How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. The performance led the weekend box office, closing out the final weekend within what has been a rough start to the first two months at the domestic box office this year. The weekend also saw MGM's expansion of Fighting with My Family, which debuted at the lower end of industry expectations, while Roadside's Run the Race found itself within the top ten from just 853 locations.

With an estimated $55.5 million, Universal's release of the DreamWorks Animation title How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World delivered not only the #1 movie at this weekend's box office, but the largest debut of the year so far, surpassing Glass by more than $15 million. The opening is also the largest debut in the How to Train Your Dragon franchise, topping the $49.4 million opening for How to Train Your Dragon 2 back in 2014. The film's overall domestic performance so far totals over $58 million once you include the $2.5 million it brought in from an exclusive Fandango event earlier this month. The question now is to wonder how the film will perform from here.

Following a $43.7 million opening, the first film went on to gross over $217.5 million in 2010, a nearly 5x multiplier. The second film, while still strong, mustered a 3.58x multiple and just over $177 million for its domestic run. Like its predecessors, Hidden World received an "A" CinemaScore and was well received by critics, earning a 91% score at RottenTomatoes. Here are the top 10 films at box office this week at a glance:

TW	LW	Title (click to view)	Studio	Weekend Gross	% Change	Theater Count / Change		Average	Total Gross	Budget*	Week #
1	N	How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World	Uni.	$55,527,000	-	4,259	-	$13,038	$58,027,000	$129	1
2	1	Alita: Battle Angel	Fox	$12,000,000	-57.9%	3,802	+12	$3,156	$60,681,068	$170	2
3	2	The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part	WB	$10,015,000	-51.9%	3,833	-470	$2,613	$83,619,039	-	3
4	40	Fighting with My Family	MGM	$8,012,000	+5,673.2%	2,711	+2,707	$2,955	$8,227,021	-	2
5	3	Isn't It Romantic	WB (NL)	$7,510,000	-47.3%	3,444	-	$2,181	$33,768,742	-	2
6	4	What Men Want	Par.	$5,200,000	-51.3%	2,389	-523	$2,177	$45,061,066	$20	3
7	5	Happy Death Day 2U	Uni.	$4,988,000	-47.5%	3,212	+5	$1,553	$21,611,880	$9	2
8	6	Cold Pursuit	LG/S	$3,300,000	-44.8%	2,320	-310	$1,422	$27,085,567	-	3
9	7	The Upside	STX	$3,210,000	-41.5%	2,148	-633	$1,494	$99,749,409	$37.5	7
10	N	Run the Race	RAtt.	$2,273,050	-	853	-	$2,665	$2,273,050	-	1

50 Cent talks BMF Series, Le Chemin Du Roi, 69 and more

WWE Elimination Chamber Review

The 2019 WWE Elimination Chamber pay-per-view took place tonight in Houston, Texas, and the event started with a thrilling EC match to crown The WWE Women's Tag Team Champions.  The match which featured Bayley and Sasha Banks vs. Billy Kay and Peyton Royce aka The Iconics vs. Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville vs. Nia Jax and Tamina vs. Carmella and Naomi vs. Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan got the night off to a hot start.  The first of two EC matches displayed some brutality with Logan slamming Sasha's injured shoulder into one of the chamber pods, Nia and Tamina swinging the Iconics into the steel chains that surrounded the pods and Jax going through one of the pods in an attempt to spear Bayley.  Carmella and Naomi were the first team to be eliminated with an innovative pinning combination on the latter by The Iconics.  However, the celebration of this elimination was short lived as Kay and Royce were eliminated simultaneously by Jax and Tamina after a Samoan drop and a splash from the top rope by Tamina.

Jax and Tamina continued to impose their will eliminating Logan and Morgan following a Samoan drop from the middle rope by Jax on Morgan.  The window of opportunity opened up for the remaining teams when Jax's attempted spear on Bayley resulted in her crashing through a pod.  Banks, Bayley, Deville, and Rose created a temporary alliance to eliminated Tamina.  This left Banks and Bayley vs. Deville and Rose.  After a back and forth battle, the match ended with Banks tapping out Deville to The Banks Statement using her good shoulder and wrapping her knee around Deville's throat for the tap out.  Bayley and Sasha had The Match of the Year in WWE when they were a part of the NXT brand in 2015, and four years later, everything came full circle culminating in them becoming The WWE Women's Tag Team Champions.

Shane McMahon and The Miz vs. The Usos for The SmackDown Tag Team Championships is up next.  McMahon and Miz gained the upper hand in the first portion of the match.  This was a little surprising considering that The Usos won more Tag Team Championships together (five) than McMahon and Miz have had matches together as a tag team (three).  McMahon's death defying leap which saw him put Jey Uso through a table was not enough as Jimmy Uso countered a Skull Crushing Finale into a roll up and The Usos became six time WWE Tag Team Champions.

WWE Intercontinental Champion Bobby Lashley and his hype man Lio Rush vs. Finn Balor for The Intercontinental Championship is the third match of the night.  The seeds were planted during a backstage interview prior to the match that Rush could possibly cost Lashley The IC Championship.  This stemmed from Balor pinning Rush on Raw when Balor was at less than 100% following an attack by Lashley prior to the match.  Lashley dominated Balor, but Rush inexplicably tagged himself in when it looked like Lashley was going to put the finishing touches on the match with a spear. 

Balor was able to take control after the tag, and with Lashley taken out after a plancha to the outside, Balor hit Rush with a Coup de Gráce to win his first championship in WWE in two and a half years.  After the match, it appeared as though the team of Lashley and Rush ended when Lashley chokeslammed Rush out of frustration. 

WWE Raw Women's Champion Ronda Rousey made quick work of Ruby Riott in their match for The Raw Women's Championship making her look like an enhancement talent.  This was a kind of a shock considering that this could have been done on an episode of Raw instead of pay-per-view. Following the match, there was a stare down between Rousey and her WrestleMania 35 opponent Charlotte Flair.  During this confrontation, the fans in The Toyota Center erupted as Becky Lynch made her way through the crowd and proceeded to attack Flair and Rousey using her crutches before being escorted out by security.  I expect Flair vs. Lynch at next month's Fastlane PPV to happen with Lynch's suspension being uplifted and The Man being added to the Flair vs. Rousey match.

Baron Corbin vs. Braun Strowman in a no disqualification match saw Strowman impose his physical dominance breaking the Kendo stick that Corbin used earlier in the match over his knee.  Strowman slammed Corbin through a table and looked to put him away before Drew McIntyre and Lashley interfered for a three on one assault.  I expected a returning Kevin Owens to make the save for Strowman because he was written out of the storylines by Lashley so he could have knee surgery.  However, The Monster Among Men was left to fend for himself and suffered a triple powerbomb through two tables to give Corbin the win.

The WWE Championship was defended in the main event of a PPV for the first time in a year when Daniel Bryan did battle vs. AJ Styles, Jeff Hardy, Kofi Kingston, Randy Orton and Samoa Joe.  The second EC match of the night started off with the world's toughest vegan DB playing a game of cat and mouse with the Samoan Submission machine Joe.  These two veterans traded chops leaving welts on each other's chests, but battled to a stalemate until the crowd favorite Kofi Kingston entered the match.  After seeing the chamber utilized by Kingston jumping off the top of the structure and AJ using a springboard elbow on Bryan, we saw Joe be the first one eliminated following a Phenomenal forearm from Styles.

Hardy was the next one to see his hopes of capturing The WWE Championship for the first time in 10 years come to an end when Bryan hit a Busaiku knee for the pin.  Orton looked to be in prime position to capture his 14th World Championship after eliminating Styles with an RKO as the latter was attempting another springboard forearm.  Kingston continued his momentum that he picked up from Tuesday when he lasted almost an hour in a gauntlet match and was able to eliminate Orton with a Trouble in Paradise.  The crowd exploded with chants for the 11 year veteran Kingston to win his first World Championship and become a grand slam champion in the process.

After back and forth sequences between Bryan and Kingston, Kingston went for it all with a splash attempt from the top of a chamber pod, but he came up empty.  Bryan was able to hit another Busaiku knee for the win.  After the match, Kingston's stablemates Big E and Xavier Woods came out to help him up and give words of encouragement as the crowd continued to show love and respect which included thank you Kofi chants.  Kofi got the opportunity to be in this match as a replacement for Mustafa Ali due to a concussion, but he made the most of it.  The performance by Kingsotn and the emotion displayed for him tonight could possibly lead to Bryan vs. Kingston at WrestleMania. 

The road to WrestleMania 35 has one more stop on pay-per-view before the biggest show of the year, and it will be interesting to see how everything plays out.

BlvdAve Radio Ep.38 " Hella Moves, Hella Trades, Hella Cray"

BlvdAve Ep.37 "Subway at 2am in Magacountry"