I, "The Student of the Game" Russ Stevens, will be giving my opinions about pro wrestling as someone who the Downstate Illinois scene did away with when I was tired of playing "wrestler" and was locked out for calling out the socially unacceptable behavior. While pursuing the dream, I missed Ruthless Aggression. Thus, my indie tape/DVD library and indie attendance became the basis of what I like in. This blogger hopes to educate/correct you about what you should expect from wrestling today.
Turn and Face the Strange: Championship, Time Slot, and Philosophy Changes
The thought of an obligatory wrestling blog is bugging me. If only NinetyForChill.com did not turn into its own thing, but the repetitive content was making it larger than my primary website, MainEventOfTheDead.com.
Too bad "Main Event of the Dead" only works as a name for a wrestling
card or screenplay. My web publications would be so much easier if it
could serve as a podcast name.
As
for the screenplay option, I have written a Z-movie called "Main Event
of the Dead". It is a comedy about desperate indie wrestlers who end up
taking a booking against reanimated competitors. If you have suggestions
about how to get the project out of developmental hell or if you would
like to read a revised treatment, send an email to russthebus07@gmail.com. Thank you.
There
really is not a lot to offer opinions about when it come to televised
wrestling. I am doing my best to stay spoiler free in terms of the New
Japan Cup, but there is a bit of catching up to do. Getting around to
watching those events in a timely manner is nearly impossible, at
least this week. In turns out I needed a rewatch of "Phantasm III: Lord
of the Dead", so I think "Phantasm IV" and "Phantasm V" will need my
attention for next week's Don Coscarelli's episode of "NinetyForChill
dot Com - The Podcast".
And then I am cursed by referring back to previous episodes of the podcast. @QuidPro_Joe
suggested that I give "Twilight" a chance. That will at least give me a
chance to use my "Previously, on Ninety For Chill dot Com The Podcast"
sound bite to give the illusion that the pod will be sophisticated. I
think I need to dedicate the day I record to strictly British
programming to further that angle. Unfortunately, we are in the midst of
my 13-day work week.
Perhaps
it is just a bad time to require a pro-wrestling blog. Every
Disgruntled's Real Championship Wrestling page needs to feature at least
one blog about what the blog's title promises.
Current Disgruntled's Real Championship Wrestling's Champions:
Real Men's Champion: AEW's Kenny Omega (defeated John Moxley)
Real Women's Champion: AEW's Hikaru Shida (won from Smackdon's Bayler)
Real Tag Team Champions: AEW's Young Bucks (defeated FTR)
Poser Men's Champion: Universal Champion Roman Reigns (defeated "The Fiend Bray Wyatt)
The OCHO (WWE US, IWGP US, IC, TV, NA, XD, Nat, TNT) Champion: Intercontinental Champion Big E (won from AEW's Cody Rhodes)
"WWE
Raw" is too long. Both of AEW's "Dark" shows are still too heavy on
developmental talent to warrant their near two-hour lengths. "Impact Wrestling on AXS TV"
lacks the presentation to keep me enthralled after the 8:00 pm (CST/CDT) paid
advertisement from AEW. I will not watch "WWE Smackdown" because every
Fox News ad they offer features fear-mongering narratives.
The week has not been too hectic after putting together my Stuart Gordon tribute episode of NinetyForChill.com - The Podcast.
In other words, my pleas on Wednesday for a guest for next Tuesday's
episode did not fall upon deaf ears. At this time, the plan is to bring @QuidPro_Joe to discuss TV shows that were adapted into motion pictures.
Wrestling
promoters and baby boomers can just avoid that element of modern life
it seems. I needed my folks to scan and email a lease they were going to
cosign for. That resulted in me getting an earful from two sides. The
landlord was not happy that they needed to extend the deadline. My
parents were disappointed that I would think they would frequently check
their email.
...
And
if they have to look into their mail boxes, everything must seem like
crazy talk to them. If you have a wrestling idea that is a bit timely,
do not email it to them. When they get to it three months later, you
become a person they will not take too seriously.
When revisiting 1985's "The Care Bears Movie" is part of pursuing your current goals, perhaps they were right.
I
have been trying to makes things better for myself, but the gatekeepers
are not budging. And to think, I almost thought I could finally have an
excuse to leave weekend retail.
...
Perhaps
Skimbleshanks needs to be replaced. If I need to replace my ward, maybe
I should just sacrifice him. Do eunuchs count as virgins? Do I want to
abandon my atheistic views to appease imaginary beings just because it
may be fun? If the results are as crazy as "Dagon" or "The Lair of the White Worm", how can one not be tempted?
I
brought up the latter film to some coworkers received a not so
surprising response of, "Where do you find these movies?" Am I the only
person who does not consider the algorithm's suggestions? With a title
like "The Lair of the White Worm", how do you not click on it? Once you
see that it stars Hugh Grant before he was HUGH GRANT and Peter Capaldi
(The Twelfth Doctor) in an obviously campy flick, how can you not place
this in your queue?
I
did not even need to consider that it was directed by Ken Russell of
"Altered States" and "Tommy" fame. With that said, "The Lair" tells me I
need to give the prior of those films a watch.
"The Lair of the White Worm" (1988; 1 hour 33 minutes)
Pardon
this blog post if you get a downer vibe. My 41st birthday was a day
prior, and there really is not too much good to say about that weekend.
And this blog will expand the depression a week, but in general, my
forties have been pretty lackluster.
Click on the read more to read my 41st birthday rant.
Thanks
for putting up with the birthday venting. Better here than on Facebook
last night. I suppose it was necessary to get to the reluctant wrestling
blog I need to write. It is about celebrating, and how people demand it
instead of working towards it.
I
would like to think that I am not one who expects to be celebrated.
With all of the shitheads I grew up with in Morton/Peoria getting
chances to further enjoy life despite the reasons that warrant being
labeled crap craniums, the thought of why I need to do so much to be
believed in frustrates me, but I will take the time to figure out the
more I need to do. Sadly, as my last NinetyForChill.com - The Podcast implied, working hard for something is not something that I am convinced the "woke" culture is up for.
The
Poetic Critic and I were discussing how there are people who have just
abandoned cinema pre-1975 because it was typically centered around the
exploits of white men who exploited women and minorities. This art is
not worth their time because in many cases, the artists were not great
people...or the artist are right to tell you the MCU is not art.
I
went on to discuss how I think it is Millenials and Gen Z white kids
who want to appear woke without putting the work in. This means by
saying something is wrong, they have made an effort to change the world.
That is obviously not the case.
TPC
was suggesting that the subscription streaming service pay walls make
it difficult for today's youth to access the classics like the offerings
of the Criterion Channel. In other words, they have an excuse to be
ignorant of truly brilliant cinema. These kids might even claim that
older white males hold their films so high
compared to corporations whose films do not demand your attention, the
films are only for the white elite.
What
I am getting at is that these woke kids expect everything to be
provided to them including cultural progress. If you do not give it to them, you are
labeled a pariah. This is definitely the case when it comes to women's
wrestling.
This
rant stems from a Twitter spat between @GrandestWWEAEW and myself when
they were called out AEW CEO Tony Khan announcing that BR Live was
going to have a women's wrestling special featuring Thunder Rosa versus
Riho. The person behind the grand Twitter account claimed it was
disrespecting to women for not showing this match on AEW Dynamite. I
applauded Tony Khan for providing me where to watch a show centered
around Riho and Thunder Rosa. And I did say that anyone complaining
about this just wants to write a pro-WWE narrative about their two
women's segments a show making them the better company.
Now bare with me through out the rest of the narrative. @GrandestWWEAEW blocked me after my replies, thus a lot a paraphrasing.
This
Twitter account claims that it is not about brand superiority it is
about doing the right thing. I responded with doing the right thing is
fixing the environments on the independent scene where promoters only
focus of one female grappler and only book her matches instead of
booking multiple women's bouts. After #SpeakingOut last year (And I will
say it again, book Marty Scurll. He was twat towards a woman six years
ago, but not a sex offender.) and the parenthetical, lots need to be
done before we have a strong women's wrestling scene. If there is not a
strong scene, women's wrestling is not demanding more television over
the talent that AEW fans have anticipated since the company's inception.
My
statement about the women's wrestling scene was blown off and retorted
with NXT and Impact's strong women's divisions. I responded with these
being necessities for those promotions. NXT is relying on male indie
darlings, so the only product they can develop are women. Impact ruined
their X Division to become WWE light, so the Knockouts (sexist) Division
was the only thing that made them different that WWE. When it came to
WWE's main roster(s), I pointed out that they are not any better
than AEW's.
The
response to me was that AEW has the money to hire free agents to fill
out their women's division. I said if those free agents warrant FTR not
being on, I see their point. But, AEW is not having a viewership
problem, so there is no reason to spend money if there is not a problem.
For a Twitter argument, I had given it two too many responses to their
demands, so I left it there. There was a response prepared to show my
support of women's wrestling, but I did not want to get into the, "Going
to Shimmer does not make you a feminist" argument. Who wants to be
accused of mansplaining...@GrandestWWEAEW?
My
stance is, if you want great women's wrestling, go out and find it.
When I was a teenager in the 90's, we did not have anime streaming
services and Toonami was not as prevalent. If I wanted to see the best
anime, I had to mow lawns and buy the tapes on my own. Satisfying my
nerdom helped make the high school wrestling off season tolerable.
Once anime became accessible, it lost some of the luster to me because
it did not require research to get.
I
am not saying that women's wrestling is more special because it is
difficult to find as much as men's wrestling. I am saying that if I
really want to see it, I will put the effort into it. And is it really a
lot of effort to find it when the founder and president of the company
tells you where to go? The content was free and encourages the viewer to
give other BR Live content a try, but because you need to take sometime
to try something new, it is anti-women.
I
just do not think it is fair to complain about the lack of cable
women's wrestling when there is more women's wrestling content than
there has ever been. It almost sounds like those who complain think that
YouTube is like a forest with no one around. They wonder if it is not on
TNT, did the bout even happen?
Did
they realize that AXS TV had Women of Wrestling? Where was that show's
viewership if women's wrestling was so important to them? This all
explains why Vince McMahon has not held "Evolution 2". WWE Network
subscriptions paled in comparison to TV viewership. Since the true
pay-per-view numbers and attendance was poor, the McMahons do not think there is a large
enough audience to warrant a sequel.
Where were the demands for the Mae Young Classic to be aired on Raw or Smackdown.?
If
you want to watch women's wrestling, watch women's wrestling. You do
not have to imply that the Young Bucks, Cody, and Kenny Omega think of
it as an after thought. The product is available to you, but if it is
not as convenient as these fans would like it to be, they think it is not worth seeking
out. These fans can increase the views of whatever women's content they
watch on YouTube. Once you prove it is more profitable to replace a
ranked men's tag team bout with another women's segment, it will be
done. Unless you are going to pay AEW directly, it is not going to
change.
Why
are the people behind @GrandestWWEAEW not showing pictures of themselves in
Britt Baker, Hikaru Shida, and Penelope Ford t-shirts? They are not
making an effort to pay for the change.
