Ahoy! Shots in the Dark IS the official podcast of Shotgun Reviews, so we thought we’d hit you up with an all review episode (after the Gatling Geek news segment, of course). We went a little outside the box, though. First, Janelle reviews The Sims 2: Freetime, the likely final expansion pack to The Sims 2, and even gives you a sneak peak of The Sims 3, due out next year.  Then we take a deep look at the first 7 “episodes” of Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield’s FreakAngels; the completely free webcomic. Head over, take a listen, subscribe through any and all podcasting services, and be a better human being. Or Warren Ellis will send the arse eels. It’s your choice.

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Chelsea Clinton again blew a chance to respond to a question that would make her mother seem like a stronger candidate. Once again, she was confronted with a question about her mother’s public handling of the Lewinsky affair, and once again, she muffed it.

There was an opportunity here for the Clinton campaign to be forthcoming. There was an opprotunity here to attack that lingering issue head-on.

Let me make one thing clear: I don’t think that a president’s sex life is our business. I don’t care. I honestly, 100% don’t give a shit. I’m less worried about where the president spends his night than whether or not he’ll put down a children’s book and take care of business.

The original question turned not on how Hillary felt, but on how the situation made her look weak by her lack of response. This is a sensible question. He didn’t ask if Hillary cried, he didn’t ask how long Bill slept on the couch, and he didn’t ask if Monica did something Hillary wouldn’t do. He asked about the public reaction to an issue that the whole country discussed for over a year.

Chelsea could have said, “I think that my mother has proven herself often enough since then.”

She could have said, “My mother left that behind and became a U.S. Senator. I’d say she handled it fine.”

She could have said, “I fail to understand the substance of the question, because my mother is one of the final two Democratic candidates for the highest office in the land.”

Instead, she fell back on “None of your business.” Not once, but twice.

So much for trying to restore honesty and transparency to the White House.

One More Thing: Before I get the usual garbage from both sides, my political take this time around is pretty even: all of our choices kinda suck.

Results from Gerweck.net:

I don’t know about you, but I thought all of the news coming out of Orlando last week leading up to Wrestlemania last night was pretty dull.

And then, as if to appease my disappointment, there was Robbie-Gate.

If you didn’t watch TNA Impact last Thursday night, then you probably don’t know what I’m talking about. WWE wrestler Robbie McAllister was in attendance at last Thursday’s live TNA Impact show. It’s been reported that he was there just to visit his friend Johnny Devine, but oops! That’s in violation of an edict sent down earlier in the week from WWE management to stay away from situations where they could be seen with TNA wrestlers.

Obviously, there is a point to such a decision. There were literally thousands of wrestling fans in town for the festivities last week, and many of them probably went to Universal Studios where TNA tapes their shows. Stupidly, WWE asked for some of this by staging events there as well, but hey, I guess you go where the people are instead of expecting them to come to you. I doubt they would get a welcome reception at Downtown Disney. By the way, WWE, there were still TNA guys getting into your events and past your security. Just so you know… hopefully, these guys will not include last weekend in their work experience on their job applications with the TSA. By the way, AJ Styles, Earl Hebner, and other TNA wrestlers got into this event and told fans to watch TNA Impact.

The best part now is that some of the TNA wrestlers are mad at their own TV production people for putting Robbie on camera and outing him in the first place as a cheap publicity stunt. Apparently these guys were never around for TNA’s other cheap publicity stunts with those guys that got kicked off of Survivor, Pacman Jones as tag team champion, offering Bob Knight a job, etc. So, obviously they would be shocked SHOCKED I SAY that TNA would engage in YET ANOTHER cheap publicity stunt like that. Here’s what I have to say about it: if Robbie wanted to watch Impact so badly, do it in your hotel room, but telling a wrestler to stay in his hotel room when everybody else is out partying is like telling a Catholic priest to keep his hands off the altar boys.

You know what? I’m going to use the same argument that I use on my father-in-law every time he complains about not getting to see his grandkids often enough. The roads go in both directions, so do the cars and the airplanes. If Robbie wanted to hang out with his buddy Johnny Devine so badly, then he should have done it some other time in the week that wasn’t a TV night or let Johnny come to him. Don’t do it the week that every jackoff mark is going to be watching your every move and ready to snap every misstep with his jackoff camera phone. Don’t go to the other company’s turf and expect that no one will know you are there. It’s just utter stupidity on his part, and he got what he deserved.

By the way, as far as this “edict” from management goes, it apparently didn’t apply to Jeff Jarrett and Johnny Ace, Edge and Christian Cage, MVP, Mr. Kennedy, Shelton Benjamin, and the Undertaker (who was seen with Booker T). But, hey, I guess only Vince McMahon ordered the wrestlers to do stay away from TNA… it’s not like it was LINDA or anything. She’s the REAL boss.

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That’s the way it looks like. I hope so since it gives other people to play that are “across the pond” and beyond.

Here’s hoping for a new trailer.

I’ve been pondering what seems to me to be a big blunder: the Sex and The City film. However, I think that I’ve just heard of one that might be bigger: Kathie Lee Gifford will now be hosting the fourth hour of Today on NBC.

Let me rewind a minute: I liked Sex and The City. And I liked the end of the series, which essentially wrapped the characers in a nice little bow. By opening the story threads back up (and by shuffling off Big, one way or another, a fact that’s all but guaranteed in the trailer), the creators risk angering fans who felt like they had a complete run of tales capped by a fitting ending.

And that’s just part of it. Even at its peak, Sex didn’t have TV’s biggest audience. Granted, syndication has spread the audience a bit, but let’s look at the HBO numbers. During its final season, the show was regularly drawing 7.9 million viewers. An additional 3 million joined for the series finale. If we call the base audience 8 million, and call the base ticket price $10, then the studio needs to get every single one of those people in the door to make $80 million. Granted, that would be decent box office, but not an earthquake. Additionally, sources place the budget (pre-advertising) at $65 million. I suppose that it could break even, or function as a loss-leader for DVD sales. At the same time, you’re risking a lot of goodwill by undoing that “happy ending”.

What do you think?

Hey kids! What time is it? That’s right, it’s time once again, for everyone to climb aboard the ho–Oops, that’s not what time it is. It’s time to take a look at what your favorite Shotgun contributors have been doing around teh internetz this past week.

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He’s the “limousine-ridin’, jet-flyin’, kiss-stealin’, wheelin’ and dealin’ son of a gun,” and there will never be another like him. Thanks for all the memories, Naitch.

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It’s Wrestlemania weekend, so let’s celebrate by taking a look at some of the greatest moments in wrestling history.

First up: From 1990, Sting’s new tag team partner saves him from an attack by the Four Horsemen.

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Time to shoot on the granddaddy of them all. This time Birdsong sits in and gives his obviously pro-Hulk Hogan rhetoric on this year’s Wrestlemania. (Actually, that’s not true. This is the first time I’ve read something of his for more than 5 minutes were the big yellow-and-red cheese isn’t mentioned, and that’s not Captain Marvel either.)

Anyway, here’s the opening question for the roundtable: will Floyd Mayweather’s involvement in Wrestlemania help WWE recoup his $20 million price tag?

Jonathan Birdsong: Buyrates go up in general when it comes to Wrestlemania. In theory this is a good card, so depending on the performances I imagine DVD sales of this show will be up too. It has the potential to be GREAT, but in the same breath it also has the potential to be mediocre. There’s nobody from the International scene (Japan/Mexico) wrestling on the card, so we’re not really seeing anything new here. $20 mil, recoup…smells like Jay Leno and Karl Malone in WCW all-over again. There will be budget-cuts come Summer Slam!

The Russ: I’m not sure how much money Donald Trump made last year, but did he really do anything to help sell the show besides show up on video every so often on Raw? They didn’t even do anything on The Apprentice with any cross-promotion. At least Mayweather is heavily involved in doing appearances and physically getting involved on Raw, and his name gets a lot of run on the sports talk shows, which is WWE’s target demographic. But, you’re right… Wrestlemania is traditionally the end of WWE’s fiscal year, and April is generally when people get released. If they don’t do some Mike Tyson-like numbers, I would bet that a lot of folks will get whacked next month and they will quite rightly point the finger at this particular business decision.

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This was the debut of Daimon Striker on WCW Pro in 1996. His match was against Meng, accompained by Hugh Morris. The match doesn’t go one long, but the young star gets proper television time. If the name “Daimon Striker” doesn’t sound familiar, it is because the jobber now goes by another name…

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by John Stvan AKA Halcylon
Edited by Vince Scalabrino

Much like the fabled unicorn, Achronos is elusive, majestic, and beautiful.  Well, we assume he’s beautiful.  Regardless, the Shot in the Dark crew managed to track down this mythical man and cornered him.  He agreed to grant us three wishes.  The first two were wasted on Lucas’s wish to have Spider Man’s super powers and Vince’s wish to have Codemaster’s “Overlord” become a reality.  With Spider Lucas out the window and The Dark Lord Vince safely within his evil tower, the rest of the crew were left to have their final wish granted: that Achronos answer a battery of questions.  The following is a relatively exact representation of what ensued.

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Steve Austin shoots on WCW during his “cup of coffee” in ECW:

Two things I love about this promo:

1) Austin’s great impression of Dusty Rhodes, including the requisite lisp;

2) Austin calls himself the “biggest potential superstar in wrestling” at least two years before becoming the biggest superstar in wrestling history.

One of the things I like most about Wolverine’s character is the way he acts as a surrogate big brother to all the younger, female X-Men like Rogue, Jubilee, Armor, and especially Kitty Pryde. So when Marvel announced a new ongoing series focusing on everyone’s favorite Canucklehead bonding with my biggest fictional nerd crush, it was a lock I’d be picking it up–especially since it seems like it’s the only way I’ll get my monthly Kitty Pryde fix, since I know Joss Whedon is going to break my heart in next month’s Giant-Size Astonishing X-Men #1. (Luckily, after that he’ll go back to turning Buffy into femslash fiction before he can screw up any more of my favorite characters.)

This first issue doesn’t disappoint. Fred Van Lente does a great job of capturing the feel of Claremont’s work on Uncanny X-Men in the 80s without slavishly mimicking it, and Andrea Di Vito perfectly visualizes the whimsical feel of the writing. Wolverine is a cranky, violent bastard. Kitty is smart, sweet, funny, and her courage belies her youthful age. At first, their contrasting personalities clash, but Van Lente does a fantastic job of showing how and why they eventually bond. Their chemistry together is irresistible, and so is this series.

If you listen carefully, there’s a little bonus music for fans of In Through the Out Door.

I found this video via a link from Dave’s Long Box, and it was just so awesome I had to swipe it and post it on Shotgun.

BTW, you should all be reading Dave’s Long Box. It’s one of the best comic book blogs around.