Back in the Saddle: A Fine Song Title for the Disgruntled's Real World Champion(s) of Wrestling

*This blog post was started on February 1, 2024.

Lets see if I can at least get my blogging back on track. It seems my life or at least my mind is more of a mess than pro-wrestling. I better get right into the title histories right now.

The Current Disgruntled's Real World Champions of Pro Wrestling
Title Histories from September 24, 2023 Forward.

The 104th and Current Disgruntled's Real World Champion (Men)
AEW World Champion: Samoa Joe (2nd Reign)

His second reign began after defeating DRCW Real World Champion/AEW World Champion MJF on December 30, 2023.

Samoa Joe is a surprising champion. This is a bit ironic because there has not been a more legitimate looking heavyweight champion than him in the past 20 years. Brock Lesnar is now persona non grata to the business, but his reigns after his return to the business seemed very artificial. Kurt Angle should have solely put over Joe instead of being used to try and make TNA look like a competitor to WWE.

The biggest advantage to Joe as the champion is that whoever beats him will be a made man. Who cares if Cody Rhodes finishes his story? Roman Reigns is not going to be around to chase for the championship. Is there anyone in WWE right now who makes you legitimately fear for Cody's title reign?

Tony Khan should be declared the best booker of 2023 because he managed to course correct wrestling for all of those who knew the importance of the Ring of Honor style.

*This blog post was resumed on February 8, 2024.

I suppose I am pretty busy between Thursdays. It was my long night at the secondary job was Wednesday, so blogging was not my top priority. Friday was the eve of #FreePubTrivia's Tournament of Champions in Wrigleyville, so saving my energy was the goal of the night. Sunday and Monday were devoted to dealing with the sense of alienation and futility of existence that was featured in the prior blog post.

Of course, we can save the current head trip for next time. Though my memories from my wrestling career could lead to triggering events. Fortunately, I do not actually know any of the people who will be written about on a personal level.

It was a good thing to establish that Seth Rollins is not the Disgruntled's Real World Champion.

As an aside, I ended up composing this blog under the wrong blog (ninetyforchill.blogspot.com). This means that I copied the HTML to put this blog in the right location. Unfortunately, the original draft was deleted before I realized that I did not copy and paste the title. Thus, Aerosmith's "Back in the Saddle" was not my original choice.

The 52nd and Current Disgruntled's Real World Champion (Women)
WWE's Women's World Champion: Rhea Ripley

Her reign began when Toni Storm defeated the AEW Women's Champion Jayme Hayter on May 28, 2023.

So, perhaps I am losing my credibility at least when it comes to talking about wrestling. WWE is not a product that I go out of my way to see. If *title/name redacted* did not need Peacock to catch the Buffalo Bills in December, I would not have watched the Royal Rumble.

I will fully acknowledge my tribalism. Personally, it is something that I think is necessary. If there are not rabid supporters on both sides demanding that their beloved product remains on TV, there would be no noise. No noise, no interest from the media conglomerates.

All I can say about women's wrestling is that AEW was a little too concerned with getting pops than building a strong champion. They did not want a heel to win the title from another heel in London, so they put the belt on Hikaru Shida to trade it back and forth with Saraya. And then it ended up back on Toni Storm to get over her new character.

As for WWE, Ripley is the most influential person in the best faction. There have not been many spectacular defenses, but she has left a mark. When it comes to the Smackdown side, I think they are lost since they are not focusing on their top athlete, Bianca Belair. Iyo Sky and Asuka are great champions, but they are only there to give Bayley a moment.

The 48th and Current Modern Poser Champion:
WWE Undisputed Universal Champion: Roman Reigns

His second reign began on August 30, 2020, winning it from Bray Wyatt.

The 155th and Current Real World Tag Team Champions:
TNA World Tag Team Champions: ABC (Chris Bey & Ace Austin)

Their reign began when they defeated The Rascalz for the Impact World Tag Team and DRCW Real Tag Team Championships on October 21, 2023.

This is a tough one to figure out. The build to Sting and Allin versus The Young Bucks makes the Bill/Starks reign worthwhile. I think it made sure we knew that Bill, the former Big Cassidy, was a force to be reckoned with and Starks will be treated as a top AEW guy. They were a frankenteam, but they were a fun team and actually allowed for more focus on the experimental American trios divisions.

The problem is that the Judgement Day first reign and FTR's most recent reigns ended on the same night. And, they both lost them to Duos instead of teams.

Chris Bey used his "Feast or Fired" to gain him and the partner he defeated the Motor City Machine Guns with another shot at the Impact Tag Team Championships. It was not a surprise cash in. They issued this challenge at Bound for Glory, and they were successful 16 days after issuing the challenge.

The 154th Real World Tag Team Champions
The Impact World Tag Team Champions: The Rascalz (Zachary Wentz Trey Miguel)

Their reign began when Big Bill and Ricky Starks defeated FTR for the AEW World Tag Team Champions on October 7, 2023.

This blog was resumed on February 25, 2024.

Let me get this typed and see what I need to recap. I last worked on this blog nearly three weeks. There was definitely the time to finish this off, but that was paid vacation from my primary employer. You bet I was going to sleep and drink as much as I could. Until B-Fest, my Letterboxd (cmdarth) demonstrates how much (or how little) that I accomplished.

But, it is good to take a break, and then be told I owe the Feds $400. It is a pain to correct that for next year (My secondary employer telling me that it would be easy to do from home proved false.). My research suggests that my accountant may have been wrong, but I do not want to argue with the guy footing that bill. And, to make a one percenter pay taxes...I do not feel too butt hurt.

All I can say that besides getting my Bluesky (@catbusruss.bsky.social) account set up (fun content, but not as friendly as Mastodon), I have this years promoting of "Ninety For Chill: The Podcast with CatBusRuss" figured out. If Reedpop would have communicated better, I may have gotten a panel set up for the show.

I was about to call that my only loss recently, but a good man was murdered by a coward with a gun. Brandon Hardway, let alone anyone, should have suffered like that. If you want to take a life, you better have the dignity to put your life on the line. We need stop giving the gutless a means to destroy with risk.

Please quit voting Republican.

THE BIG LIE: AEW Is For Everyone

 *Blog post was started on May 13, 2021.

There was a lot to like about the May 12 episode of "AEW Dynamite". It at least gave us a title change which means I may have to update the OCHO: The Disgruntled's Real Secondary Championship (Sheamus holds it, but if he were to lose it, I think Miro has the edge over Apollo Crews.). The Forbidden Door gave us a great match up for the IWGP US Championship (Jon Moxley's reign during a pandemic puts him behind Crews and Miro in claiming the OCHO.). Tony Khan showed his flexibility as a booker to get to the ideal championship match for his next pay-per-view. Who better than the Young Bucks to disband The Addiction/Bad Influence (With no Scorpio Sky, was it really SCU going into the bout?)?

Of course I am bringing up all the grand things to say that something really got under my skin. That segment was Cody Rhodes's patriotic promo to hot shot his bout with Anthony Ogogo. Is there anything wrong with patriotism? In the United States, maybe?

Rhodes promo went on to say the world looks down on us over our screwy election. What was screwy with the election? He says that foreigners like Ogogo fail to see how far this nation had come from there being slavery in the South to him marrying a black woman who he is expecting a daughter with. The idea that we should all be proud of that schools are not segregated anymore was suggested as well. This seems to imply that racism is over.

The promo wanted to imply that Ogogo was a hypocrite for coming to America to find the "American Dream" and not the "English Dream". I think he was hired by AEW because of his international celebrity, thus more markets to sell the product to. If Cody was offered to act on the West End in London, would he turn that down?

There was also a rant about Shahid Khan reviving Jacksonville's economy with Flex-N-Gate, but after visiting their website and looking for job opportunities, there were none in any of Florida or its neighboring states. AEW has definitely not done much to improve the life of Jaxsons. I can even say that going to full capacity for "AEW Double or Nothing" in the midst of a pandemic in a state that just trusts you will not have COVID instead of asking for proof is going to harm many of this city's citizens.

Cody Rhodes said that what make America great is the freedom to argue. The problem with that statement is that it does not require any intellect or compassion to argue. Chris Jericho had demonstrated this with his calls to reopen. The gender reveal for Cody and Brandi's daughter shows they are a little more about them than WE. To call this patriotism is a mistake. This is selfishness that you are having everyone try to relate to. Selfishness is bad.

There is a reason why patriotism in the rest of the Western World seems to lack importance. Oscar Wilde nailed it with "Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious". Samuel Johnson beat him to the punch with "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel". When you lack anything positive to warrant you actions, just proclaim them as the thoughts and acts of a patriot. Ever since the lock downs began last Spring, we have seen that.

That promo left me feeling like AEW is of the stance that everything is fine with the world as long as it is not affecting them. I cannot recall them addressing the civil unrest last summer like other sports. There were talents with BLM armbands, but no side was taken by the company. They may be hiring talents from all walks of life, but they are not doing anything to bring diversity to the audience.

It feels to me that the audience is the same one that ran me out of the scene back when I called out Peoria's scene for promoting babyfaces who sport the Stars and Bars. If that is their audience, why do anything to piss them off like speaking well of President Biden or shutting down their belief about a stolen election?

I find it difficult for me to be misremembering much of this. My personal DVR is filled with most of the episodes dating back to June when I moved to my current place in Urbana. Pardon me for not following more people than the amount who follows me on Twitter (@catbusruss). AEW's entire roster may have made the right statements, but that is a lot of content to scroll through.

It just feels like AEW is content with the audience just being rabid. If there is a woke portion, that is just incidental. This leaves me feeling like they are no longer trying to change the world. They got their success. As long as the video game goes off well, they will effectively rule the wrestling landscape at least from a domestic stand point.

If I can take solace in anything, it was the perceived knowledge that there was at least a woke Internet fan contingent. My live tweets calling Cody out for his mistakes received some likes. But, booking our way out of this means for Cody to trademark "The American Dream" moniker was not well received. My suggestions that the bout should end with Ogogo's fellow Englishman Marty Scurll coming to his aid worked up some keyboard warriors.

*May 17, 2021.

Wrestlecrap: Headlies: All Elite Wrestling Signs Joey Ryan’s Penis Druids

 

"Stop trying to make this pedi a thing." Was how @trollwrestle responded to my suggestion. He immediately blocked me when I responded to him. It was less of a headache than dealing with @TruePatriot112 who lived to get the last word in whenever I suggested that Marty Scurll maybe pro wrestling's Aziz Ansari, but at least the Patriot112 wanted to try and speak "sense" to me.

If anything, this reaction shows that there are at least two audiences for wrestling. Too bad they are both dedicated to letting us know how right they are. I was able to counter every argument to just be told that is what happens to people like Marty Scurll (Scurll claims to have had consensual sex with a partner who was of legal age [16 in the UK] but was jerk about it while the other party claims it was a sexual assault.) while other confirmed sexual offenders (predator Jimmy Havoc, asshole Sammy Guevera) are allowed second chances.

Once a pedophile and predator, always one regardless of the legality of the first accusation and the lack of evidence towards the second was the stance being brought up. Patriot112 also went of to bash Scurll's current girlfriend because she does not see him as evil. I wonder who knows him better.

I will not deny that I can come across as stubborn when it comes to some of my views, but if I am stubborn, it is usually a black and white issue. Promoting people who were proud that their ancestors fought for the right to own people is morally wrong. Telling me that believing the above may not allow me to be booked is wrong...and stupid (Just say we do not have any openings.).

Do I think Michael Elgin is a rapist? The testimonies of the parties and Elgin's past behavior have me leaning in that direction. Regardless of my thoughts on this, it is on its way to be resolved in the courts.

It will take a lot of rehab for me to become a Rich Swann supporter. Because I am a codependent person, believing that he manipulated his significant other into saying he did not commit domestic abuse is valid. My best friend committed violent acts towards me, but I did/do not see them as irredeemable. It maybe just an empathetic nature, but I can consider their state of mind when it happened. If his significant other is feels he is redeemable, my stance maybe a bit harsh.

When both sides said an event happened, it is just perceived by both parties differently, the lack of a body kind of leads me to say this is not "Rashomon". Both sides have been hurt by this issue be it trauma or finances. How much hurting do we want to continue? If Scurll is left out of the business, his passion was killed. If he stays, unless he can "Scarlett Letter" this situation, it will always be addressed because her trauma should be recognized.

AEW has taken the approach of rehabbing people who have done or said worse things than Marty Scurll's act. You can call what Scurll did pedophilia but I have screwed up my search history enough to say it cannot be considered that (I am just assuming that searching "age of consent" does not look good.). We cheered on Luke Wilson in "Old School" for doing what Scurll did. Do we just abandon people if they get caught? If that is the case, why is Guevera working?

A company that you have a working relationship made their world champion someone who may have blackballed a #SpeakingOut victim. How can you say that after Havoc and Guevera that Marty Scurll is too much drama too handle?

So is AEW for everyone? I would say no. It is for the same wrestling fans that have excluded those who are different than them. The people they deem untouchable come from an audience that wants to seem concerned, but they are just trying to prove they are not the moron who held up insensitive signs during the Monday Night Wars (I will not call it the Attitude Era) or chanted degrading things toward women.

An ALL ELITIST Take on the Apparent Lack of Women's Wrestling

 *Blog post started on March 2, 2021.

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. 

 

FMK: Wrestle Kingdom 15, @Marty Scurll, The OCHO: The NEW Real Secondary Championship

 *Blog post started on January 4, 2021.

I somehow ended up with a three-day weekend, so productivity was not a primary concern. If anything, the schedule left me worried that a furlough is coming up at my retail job. After December 27, the curbside pickup shelves were pretty barren. The upside to this is that it should have at least made the "weekend show up and walk out" coworker have to be counted on. What a way to celebrate a birthday. This seems like inverse karma, but I will enjoy it however it comes.

With how I like to ideally lay every one of my blogs out, we are do for a wrestling one. It has been a week since Brodie Lee has passed, so I think I should be able to write about the business in a calm place. Having to put out my year end blogs ("A Call for Podcast Guests and Honorable Ninety-Minute [or 97 min] Film Discoveries of 2020" and "Best 2020 Ninety-Minute [or 97 min] Film Discoveries for Chilling") when it came to sub-100-minute cinema let me avoid the topic.

Unfortunately for pro-wrestling, a lack of productive fandom was present. WrestleTalk and WhatCulture released a lot love with year end lists, but since I work a day job and January 4th did not fall on the weekend, I have not seen any of Wrestle Kingdom's first night. Fate's bigger kick in the teeth is that the bank's five-day work week regardless of Saturday coverage means I will have a day off in the middle of the week. Sadly, that is Wednesday, thus I cannot watch eight hours of wrestling in one sitting tonight to be up to speed.

I blame fate, but now that I am the third most powerful person at the branch (That does sound like being the third tallest on an "NBA Jam" roster.), the wisdom should have been their to request those days off in advance. Not watching Wrestle Kingdom 15: Night 2 live is inexcusable for someone who has essentially become nothing more than a mark. Thank the gods for COVID-19 so I can just proclaim any non-signed talent is in the same status as I. If you are finding booking because of lack corona virus restrictions, you have a priority issue or an inability to accept reality. And that sounds like the pot calling the kettle their word.

*January 5, 2021

A pot of coffee has been brewed at the bank. It is not for me. The new hire needed it to plow through the regulatory training and the new father only had three hours of sleep. Though, since the new dad talked about finishing "Cyberpunk 2077" (as a nomad) last night and restarting (as a corpo), I doubt the son was the reason for that. This is all a long way of questioning what kind of wrestling fan I am. Surely I could have stayed up and watch the live stream of Wrestle Kingdom: Night 2 and not be any worse for wear.

I did work through Night 1, and it was a pretty solid card. My change would have been Will Ospreay defeating Kazuchika Okada because you should not let both up and coming talents loose out. Hiroshi Tanahashi put over the young upstart Chris Jericho the year prior, so he should not be made to lose to The Great-O-Kharn. Okada got to delay the Kota Ibushi ascension last year, so he should not be hurt by doing the favor. Call me old fashioned, but your Super Bowl is suppose to be the end of the story not the beginning. Are we working towards Okada giving Ospreay his win back next year?

Surprisingly, WrestleTalk did not cover the event. They are based in London. No one would have to stay up all night to watch it. At worst, you are waking up at six in the morning. It is your job guys. We all wake up at least an hour before the time clock needs to be punched. I am not regretting being a patron with the laziness being displayed.

They may have been covering it live on the Wrestle 2 channel, but if you do not even do predictions video for the second biggest show in wrestling on your primary channel to promote your secondary, did you really care.?Cutting those ties to a #SpeakingOut name (Will Ospreay) are we?

At least you can still count on them in regards to Western wrestling news. Knowing that Raw was would be the only show be covered in their daily news video, they mentioned that Marty Scurll coming to terms on his release from Ring of Honor, along with his #SpeakingOut allegation. I am just stuck wondering why Jay Lethal is still on the ROH payroll.

Reddit...Marty Scurll...if you want to see a sick pro wrestling entrance look him up

I do not want to come across as insensitive about abuse in the wrestling business. With what I gathered from the Marty Scurll situation was that he was just disrespectful to someone he was intimate with. If an accuser is not pursuing the predator criminally or civilly, I am open to overthink what happened. This comes from me being in a situation where I did nothing wrong except feel concern for someone who was coked up, angry, and dangerous. We reconciled over that incident, but are either of us admitting fault?

Most people who have heard my story seem to believe me, but I was definitely seen in a better light before hand. In retrospect, I should have been standing up for her and place myself in a position to understand her motives and fears, and making it clear that what she did in her past that did not involve the night in question should not lead to any assumptions about her. This thought process has lead me to unfollow a lot of Johnny Depp fans who think Amber Heard is evil thus Warner Bros should have canned Mera instead of Grindelwald. If she is not mentally stable or has any degree of PTSD, what she says cannot be called a bold-faced lie.

So, yeah, I want to see Scurll in AEW as soon as possible. He sounds more upstanding than Rick Swann. Scurll has never inspired a woman to run away from him to the point where authorities got involved. Scurll has undoubtedly been an asshole in the past, and it seems like he has paid for it. Unless the ROH deal was guaranteed money. If that is the case, I could see not booking him until Full Gear 2021.

I think my stance is better flushed out in my blog post "Postponing (Not Cancelling) @TheProductDS and the Disgruntled's Real Women's Champ" or anything under my #SpeakingOut category. If anything, I hope my views on the subject maybe evolving. COVID-19 has kind of ruined my chances to find parties with a better understanding of victims or have their own experiences of abuse. That is a scary statement, but I have found that most of us are dealing with trauma from abuse of some sort. Mine is documented in "#MeToo and the Disgruntled’s Real World Champ Part 4".

With all of my Disgruntled's Real Championship title histories seemingly always ending up associated with sexual trauma of some kind, I think I would be one hell of a shoot interview. Do the marks ever get those? But this blog post does not seem long enough, so lets get our current DRCW Championship.

If only I had decided to stay away from WrestleTalk this morning, I could have just transitioned into this topic based on Jon Moxley's Wrestle Kingdom promo which I hope leads to him facing off against KENTA at Revolution 2021 (I think I tweeted @tonykhan with "Full Gear". I was clean and sober, so that is a bit embarrassing.). That would be a nice throwback to the glory days of ROH not the Sinclair-owned era of picking and choosing of persona-non-grates.

Postponing (Not Cancelling) @TheProductDS and the Disgruntled's Real Women's Champ

*Blog post started on June 23, 2020.

As I start this post up, I wonder if I will actually be able to continue the Disgruntled's Women's Real World Champion title history. It is important for me to try and conclude my confusion with #SpeakingOut, so let us hope that I have a clever blog post name by the end of it.

With my last entry, it would not surprise me if I may have bored you with going over my previous attempts to address the issues of harassment and domestic issues in pro wrestling. If it means anything to you, the writing process did allow me to better understand my feelings and sense of unease with the #SpeakingOut movement. Wrestletalk's Olly Davis summed up everything pretty well in Monday, June 22, 2020's news video about why a lot of the predominantly male audience may be having issues digesting the situation. This video also noted that it is naturally going to lead to people debating which accusations are real and which HAVE TO BE FALSE.

My stance is that you have to start with believing the women and hope that due process will uncover the actual truth. With that said, I disagree with the canceling of Woody Allen because there was an investigation in regards to allegations based around Dylan Farrow that concluded in his favor. Most abuse cases do not even get that.

If I am wrong with my conclusion, I hope society will empower Farrow to state her experiences on her own, in the way that "Leaving Neverland" has reframed the Michael Jackson narrative. Let us hope we can have that before Allen dies because he should have to face the consequences. Personally, I know a lot of people who are still apologists for the King of Pop. It leaves me to believe if Michael Jackson had to defend himself a third time, he may have done a Bill Cosby and made an ass of himself and ruin his legacy.

Stating that I am up to debate allegations leads me to how #SpeakingOut  came to prominence. It centered around UK-based American independent wrestling star David Starr's girlfriend alleging on Twitter that he assaults/rapes female fans and then gaslights them. She stated that she was one of Starr's rape victims. Starr being really good at Twitter came out and denied the allegations while acknowledging that he was an immature and shitty boyfriend to many girls. His accuser posted screenshots of text messages to Starr with her claims, and that seems to have been enough evidence to effectively end his career. And my immediate reaction was "Why now?"

Why now as in why did the allegations come out after he was being really good at Twitter? His voice for movements like Black Lives Matter, rent forgiveness during COVID-19, being a well spoken socialist was attracting attention and spoke for a lot of people beyond wrestling. It left me thinking that his ex-girlfriend was just being vindictive. He could not do good by her, so how could he do good by society?

I am not innocent of being a vengeful prick. The abusive junkie who lead me to an earlier bankruptcy (My spending was irresponsible, but I had a more level head before hand, so who is to say that I would not have made it back wrestling?) was called out by name and photo with my earlier website, Harshside.com. Perhaps it is fitting that the website has lost that page (There is a button at the top of MainEventoftheDead.com labeled "Poop List". If you want to try and backdoor that page, be my guest.). It took a few years, but I have let that person know that I have moved on and forgave her but will be cautious in any situation involving her. Most recently that was when she was trying to involve herself in the conversation between myself and a former neighbor (who we both knew) about a possible wrestling project in Peoria.

Is that person an immediate threat to others, I would like to think not. Because of that, I am not proud of that I tried to bring attention to our personal issues years after it had occurred. But, social networks were still in their infancy and there were no apps at that time. I did not have the chance to really ruin her in the moment, and judging that it took three years to write that cathartic web page, I felt a need to let the world know how bad she could be.

And I can totally see why I cannot accuse David Starr's ex of being vindictive by ruining any of the positivity he was spreading. It needed to be said for her sake. If it was not said now, then you might end up sitting on it for 15 years and feel guilty that you did not take care of the issue when it was an issue. My blog "#MeToo and the Disgruntled's Real World Champ Part 4" describes dealing with the trauma process triggered by the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation. The Trump administration has broken me.

My only concern though is that this case is still between him and her. With all the accusations all over the wrestling business, it is tough for me to want to dive into the #SpeakingOut directly. Most wrestling news is trying to avoid that as well, relying on the statements from promotions employing the accused or the accused themselves. So I do not know of any other direct accusations made towards Starr that supports his primary accuser claims beyond their relationship. Only one person is painting his character negatively at this time.

#MeToo had their cases of vindicated accusers like Chris Hardwick who was accused of being an abusive partner by an ex. In Harwick's case, it came after he was establishing his next projects after selling Nerdist for millions and after marrying into the Randolph-Hearst dynasty. Thinks were looking good, and then he was accused. He effectively was cancelled, but with time, it was determined that it was a tale of differing perspectives. This could be the case with David Starr.

Obviously, I am a fan of Hardwick. This lead to me being made aware via the Nerdist/ID10T Podcast of his codependency and control freak issues. That is not too far removed from myself. I consider those tendencies and what people have told me about how they perceive them, I can see why someone may think that a person may think they are an abusive asshole. It does not make it so. Because David Starr's issues are between two parties, I am leaning towards giving him the benefit of the doubt.

If you are traumatized after a relationship, you focus on the pain, so reality might develop hyperbole. I have seen this from my past relationship, friends who have been wronged in their relationships, and when I was involved in group therapy. Statements have to be dissected before reality is revealed.

This all comes back around to believing the women perspective, which I am going to do. Am I supportive of David Starr? Yes. We just have to listen to both sides and give it time. The time is needed for better people to come out of this. Hopefully, his accuser will get the closure she needs to move on and Starr will either be back in the ring for a WrestleMania weekend booking or in prison be it state, federal, or a shoot job.

UPRoXx.com - David Starr Got Political, Then Censored, Ahead Of His ROH World Championship Match In Israel