TheRetroStyle

Welp, the time's come again folks. My annual review/rant post on MetLife Stadium:

Party in the Pits: Was almost cancelled due to inclement weather before opening. Thankfully it held up for the entire time it was open, and for safety reasons, El Toro Loco was not hung on a crane this year. Overall good pit party despite threatening weather.

Racing: First time I got to witness a Chicago style course in MetLife. I was amazed by how nobody crashed, although El Toro vs Crusader in Round 1 was crazy. Transmission problems for Mad Scientist threatened to send Lee O'Donnell packing after his Round 1 race, but he returned for 2 Wheel. Tom Meents ended up winning the bracket, and ended his interview by saying "The 11 time champion is back." Hell yeah!

2 Wheel Tricks: Adam was the first one out, and almost repeated Foxboro, this time wrecking. BJ Johnson was just about to win it when Todd LeDuc in Mutant blew it for him. Several competitors tried out the bicycle, and LeDuc almost rammed into a dumpster when he did it.

Freestyle: For only a 14 truck field, everyone gave it hell. Matt Pagliarulo had huge air, as did Linsey Weenk, who ended up getting stuck in the dirt close to the backflip ramp. BJ Johnson had a great run, as did Bryce Kenny and Lee O'Donnell. The BIG highlights, however, came from Todd LeDuc and Tom Meents. LeDuc had massive air and an awesome save, while Meents also caught huge air, and pulled out a save that made me want to yell HAS THIS GUY GONE BERSERK!? (You'll see exactly why when you see what happened). With that epic run, Meents won Freestyle, but just missed the Overall win to Todd LeDuc and Mutant.

Final Rating - 9.25/10 -  Amazing show, but I would call it only equally as good as 2014. Next MetLife Stadium show is on April 21.

EDIT: Looks like I goofed -- Meents took the Overall win by 1 point https://www.monsterjam.com/en-US/results/east-rutherford-nj-june-17-2017-metlife-stadium

Goin' to MetLife Stadium on Saturday, and the weather's looking very questionable. Some sources say we're gonna get rain, while others say a white sky. I just hope that the latter is the one that's correct, or even better.

Crazy new thing in Foxboro; every time a truck did a backflip, fireworks were set off, as shown here:
 

Also, weirdest break ever:

I see a Monster Energy logo...will they ever make up their minds already?!

Either way, something tells me this truck is gonna end up like that international Verva truck from 2009; only runs for a few shows, and then just randomly disappears.

And seeing as how Foxboro's lineup is already full, this truck will most likely show up in an encore.

NGK Spark Plugs Vote Update 6/5/2017: Tom Meents's run in Goldberg from 2001 wins the Round 1 vote over his run in Team Meents from 2002, 54% to 44%

Next Vote: Charlie Pauken - Monster Mutt - 2010 VS. Jim Koehler - Avenger - 2011; Pauken is winning so far 74% to 24%.

Update 6/8/17: Charlie Pauken's run in Monster Mutt from 2010 wins Round 1 in a landslide over Jim Koehler's run in Avenger from 2011; 73% to 27%

Next Vote: Tom Meents - Maximum Destruction - 2006 VS. Pablo Huffaker - Captain's Curse - 2007; Meents is winning so far 80% to 20%.

Yeah looking back at the runs, Lupe definitely had the best run of the three.

On the plus side of Monster Jam's evolution, at least truck bodies have improved. If you look back to 2007, very few trucks had 3D bodies. Batman, Predator, Prowler, Taz, El Toro Loco, and Bulldozer are some examples. Nowadays, almost every truck has a 3D body, making them look better and therefore making them more popular.

My odds for MetLife:

Racing Winner: Ryan Anderson - Son-Uva Digger - To quote Scott Douglass, this guy has been "10 feet tall and bulletproof" ever since he won his Racing championship. Unless if a fluke happens, I see him keeping it going.

Freestyle Winner: Tom Meents - Max-D - This'll be my first time seeing him actually compete in person, and seeing as how just last year he held a streak of freestyle wins, I can't wait to see him through down and possibly win it.

Donut Winner: Linsey Read - Wonder Woman - Her first show since last summer, and she did well in Scooby. Here's to hoping she does even better in her new ride, and possibly take home a Donut win if she doesn't make the bracket.

EDIT REGARDING BANGOR: Buddy Young is driving Master of Disaster in Bangor, and Buddy Tompkins got an Overall win Saturday Evening (Indies FTW!).

Tom Meents is back in the lineup for all P.O.D. shows including MetLife. Seeing as how Foxboro is only a week from tomorrow, this time it may be 100% confirmed.

46 minutes ago, Pink Guy said:

She drove Scooby in 2016 but left for this winter to have her first child. Good to see her back, figured Wonder Woman was debuting at the summer stadiums (she's also driving in East Rutherford and Nashville$

Hell YEAH! Wonder Woman comin' to MetLife with a Scooby driver behind the wheel is the one thing I really wanted to see. Makes me more excited wondering when these next two weeks will just be over and done with.

Monster Jam has just announced a show in Singapore for the first time on August 19. Lineup currently includes:

Grave Digger (Adam Anderson), Max-D (Neil Elliott), Dragon (Scott Liddycoat), El Toro Loco (Marc McDonald), Monster Mutt Dalmatian (Candice Jolly). Additional trucks/drivers to be announced. Trucks/drivers subject to change.

I'm not gonna lie, this is an amazing lineup already. Adding the fact that Scott Liddycoat returns in this show is a bonus.

Pretty sure none of us knew about this, but El Toro Loco was on display with Dan Evans appearing this past weekend at OCBC Square. Could this mean something?.....

9 hours ago, Painkiller said:

Any news on the Stafford entry list?

Got it right here, if this is what you meant:

Mutant driven by Steven Sims, Grave Digger driven by Pablo Huffaker, Monster Mutt driven by Kevin Crocker, Team Hot Wheels driven by Scott Buetow, Carolina Crusher driven by Gary Porter, El Toro Loco driven by Kayla Blood, Stinger driven by Zane Rettew, Master of Disaster driven by Paul Strong, Additional trucks/drivers to be announced, Trucks/drivers subject to change.

Huge list, but here goes nothing:

• The Three Way Tie in 2004 - Tom Meents had the best run by far, but the other two also had spectacular runs.
• Madusa winning Racing in 2005 - Proved that it's not just males who can become world champions.
• John Seasock winning Racing in 2008 - Showed Meents that he's not the only one who can go back to back in world championships.
• Adam Anderson's winning freestyle in 2008 - Hats off to Dawn Creten for her run, but Adam pulled out a run that was as crazy as Taz himself.
• The first ever backflip attempt in 2009 - Though unsuccessful, this invaded all social media sites.
• Dennis Anderson vs. Tom Meents in the Final Round of 2010 - You just couldn't take a pick with this race. Heck, we almost saw a repeat of it in 2014.
• Charlie Pauken's winning freestyle in 2010 - Once deemed the all time greatest World Finals freestyle. Won't be surprised if it wins the NGK Spark Plugs Vote.
• Jim Koehler's winning freestyle in 2011 - Became the 2nd driver to win Freestyle more than once that year, and honestly had a better run than Cam.
• Tom Meents winning his 10th World Championship in 2012 - The impossible happened...and it may happen again with Grave Digger by the end of the decade.
• Cam McQueen's winning freestyle in 2012 - Frontflip and a backflip. 'Nuff said.
• Todd LeDuc's winning freestyle in 2014 - One of the all time greatest Monster Jam freestyles. If Pauken doesn't win the vote, this is my next pick.
• Mike Vaters II's winning freestyle in 2015 - Shows why you should NEVER underestimate a rising star.
• Ryan Anderson's freestyle in 2015 - Definitely robbed, but was an insane run.
• Morgan Kane winning racing in 2016 - You know you've had a hell of a World Finals if you become a world champion on only your 2nd year competing in it.
• Cam McQueen's corkscrew in 2016 - Who would'a thunk it.
• Ryan Anderson winning racing this year - I was flipping out so much after this victory that I needed to take my inhaler. That's how happy I was.
• Lee O'Donnell's frontflip and winning freestyle this year - First time we saw two new champions on the same year since 2007. The frontflip spread like wildfire everywhere.
• Neil Elliott's freestyle this year - Can't deny that it was one of his best freestyles of all time, but I can't say he was most certainly robbed, either.

I like to be a mixture of Charlie Pauken, Jim Koehler, and Ryan Anderson. Huge, and I mean HUGE air is something that I love to get, and I can sometimes take a cyclone on two tires. If I get the opportunity to pull off a massive save, I always do it.

For those who didn't know, Buddy Young is driving Stinger in Halifax, as is JR Seasock in Master of Disaster. The other 6 trucks have their normal drivers.

East Rutherford 2016 was epic. My dad and I went and I got to see all 16 trucks competing, some in which I'd never seen before. We took pics with Bari Musawwir, Nicole Johnson, BJ Johnson, Todd LeDuc, Steve Sims, and Bryan Wright. Chuck Werner's sky wheelie gone wrong was great, and I witnessed my first ever backflips from El Diablo, THWF, and Metal Mulisha.

6 hours ago, Hornetguy97 said:

I was pondering this today and was wondering your thoughts. What is the point of having the World Finals this early but continue to have shows right after? The finals should be the end. I know its the end of the first quarter but i think that if they are just gonna have show after show right after, then it needs to be at the end of the year with like a month off

I honestly don't think that would be a good idea because most, if not all the time, the World Finals lands right in the middle of Spring Break for thousands of fans. If it happened towards the end of the year, there is that possibility that a lot less people would show up.

Things that I found surprising about this past weekend:

Salinas - This may have been the best show of Rosalee Ramer's entire career. She won Wheelies and Donuts, and finished 2nd in Freestyle, finishing 3rd in Overall standings. With a lineup that includes Steven Sims, Pablo Huffaker, and Jimmy Creten, that's a major accomplishment. Speaking of Sims, he won Racing in his first show driving Mutant.

Moline - On the first show of the weekend, Camden Murphy barely nudged out Bernard Lyght for an Overall win...without winning a single competition. Tip of the hat to him, because that is a very rare achievement. He took another Overall win in the next show, this time winning Racing, Donuts, and Freestyle.

I honestly didn't find anything too surprising about Manchester. I guess you can bring up the fact that Bryce Kenny almost took two Overall wins, just missing both, But other than that, a lot of things were expected.

Chad Tingler in Pirate's Curse...Alx Danielsson in Monster Mutt?

This lineup is very confusing, but at the same time nice.

• Donkey Kong - Not because I'm biased, but because this was the truck that put Kreg Christensen and Lee O'Donnell on the map.
• Monster Mutt Junkyard Dog - What the heck happened to this truck? One year it's new, the next it's gone?
• Taz - Same reason as DK, but with Adam Anderson instead of the two mentioned.
• SOBE - Bonus points if you remember this truck.
• U.S. Air Force Afterburner - This is a truck that would rock the house at every show it appeared in. Would love to see that happen again.
• Superman - It ran in Saudi Arabia, and they got the rights to DC back, so why not?

Zombie driver Ami Houde was in tears after taking her first ever Overall Event Championship in Uniondale this afternoon. Congrats to her

Big Kahuna driver Shane England also took his first Overall of the season this afternoon in Tallahassee.

8 hours ago, tyrannos said:

one thing we can blame feld on is the termination of mj youtube channels. way to go feld. way to go. screw feld

MonsterJamFilms got all of his Monster Jam videos taken down, so because of that he is losing subscribers fast.

MONSTER JAM LIVE (Yes, the name of it is in caps), a channel that uploaded various highlight videos from Monster Jam events, as well as Countdowns, got every single video on it taken down. Not only that, but that affected him down to the point where he decide to rename his channel to MONSTER TECH.

What confuses me is how those two channels got hammered, but Pat Roy didn't.

Santa Clara has me confused; With the removal of McGruff and the change of Monster Energy to Mutant, there are now 12 trucks in the lineup. Are they going to keep it that way or somehow make another last minute change?

43 minutes ago, Warwizard said:

Honestly its gonna be hard to enjoy Monster Jam without Scott Douglas. He was such an amazing commentator. Luckily he isn't 100% retired yet.

 

In other words, I'm gonna be so confused if the new Monster Energy truck is an all new truck. The Mutant drink thing honestly shouldn't be a truck. Like, its almost like having two Pringles monster trucks: one being original and the other being sour cream and onion color

Even if we do end up losing our good friend soon, Ryan LaCosse is honestly really good. But yeah, I agree with you on that.

Turns out Mutant is officially the new name for Monster Energy; Todd LeDuc has been added to all Path of Destruction lineups except for Nashville.

7 hours ago, Pink Guy said:

So apparently Scott ISNT retiring according to Ryan LaCosse? Even though he posted an Insta photo that was phrased like he was... okay can we please just have both him and Dennis announce their retirement formally? I love them both but this constant waning them while not announcing an actual retirement is getting annoying

Scott was just doing commentary for the World Finals 18 episodes on FS1. One in which, did not air yet as of the time I'm making this post. Seeing as how he's likely going to do commentary for the Path of Destruction shows this year, I don't see him retiring just yet.