Roman Reigns Is No. 5 and Ranting About the Judgmental

*This blog post was started on October 5, 2021.

Last night was dedicated to producing my podcast and laundry. I actually got all that done at a reasonable time, but when I start being productive, I think I might get manic. So all the sleep I lacked due to movie research this weekend still needs to be made up for.

At least that is my story for the headaches. In other words, further deep cleaning my apartment is not on the immediate agenda. The windows are still shut and the air conditioning is running. This is leaving me to prefer the seasonal change from Winter to Spring. I think I would rather deal with knowing when things are warm than waiting for the cold.

If only I could just place amateur wrestling mats on all the floors to remind me of the best times from high school. Why would I complain about near 90 degree temperatures? I did not complain about it back in the day.

That is saying something because weight cutting was never a problem for me. If anyone had a right to complain, it was I. It is ironic how the team I captained was always annoyed by me. They could have not made excuses and be supportive of the coach's agenda.

There were a few good teachers back at Morton High School. I guess I can never have kids because I would not know where to live so that they would be in good schools. Living in the city is what I like, but you know the schools are subpar. Living in the burbs, you know the entitled "old" families have brat kids. Living in the country, what education?

I suppose shit did not get bad for me till I was in fourth grade. Homeschooling might work out after the kids get the socializing established. Your real friends keep in touch. That seems nicer than finding that out after high school.

All this ranting really makes me wish that you could use hyperlinks with my online dating profiles. I would rather be judged on this than "Two Truths and One Lie" boxes.

If that does not turn them off, then the wrestling chat below will. It is better than me going on a rant about the "libertarian" next to me who is reinforcing their racist and transphobic prejudices via fringe video sites. Do I report what they are watching to YouTube just to make sure they know where their content filters are failing?

I guess I should not complain too much about them thinking that they should be allowed to judge people. My hometown will think that I did that in this post. My only defense is, I was just stating my experiences. If you have not had the same experiences than the people you are judging, are you in no position to judge?

Which allows me to go on and on and on about pro wrestling. The worst think you can say about me as a critic is that I am only a critic because I was a failed performer. Personally, I got a suitcase with a weekend's worth of gear in my trunk, so I do not want to use verb tense. Or at least just call me a wrestler who is failing. In the end, those who cannot do, teach.

Teaching is still an expression of passion. And I can go on to say that if people gave a shit about me and my passion, my pro-wrestling, Z-budget, zombie-comedy feature film, "Main Event of the Dead" would not be in development hell or I can at least participate in a wrestling scene where there are few who have put in the time to be true professionals. Downstate Illinois without friends makes me want to consider taking up auto-erotic asphyxiation.

With the scenario above coming off as a plea, I might as well make it official. If you want to help get "Main Event of the Dead" off the ground, send an email to russthebus07@gmail.com. I would appreciate any advice on how to get the feature to a crowd-sourcing stage and am more than happy to send out a treatment of my script. Thanks for the consideration.

Obviously, I am just writing what is immediately coming to my mind with this post. That was not necessarily my intent, but now we have the party next to me watching anti-vax videos. It is just building up the angst. So how much fun do I think me taking up the old Apter Magazines format will be?

Lets find out.

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.

A Belt for the IWC? The Disgruntled’s Real World Champ - Part 3

It was a pretty good week of wrestling without the WWE Network or indie shows to attend. Sunday was spent in the old venue for Freelance Wrestling, The Bottom Lounge, to see Pig put on a great set. A woman actually was impressed by my industrial rock-themed vest and may be sending the materials to build her one. For something that I was hoping to use as ring gear someday (anyone have 12-grande to help me start a wrestling promotion), my indie credibility seems secured.

It is also proof that my creativity is there, so if you want to help me out in finding a way to promote my B-movie pro-wrestling zomcom, Main Event of the Dead, I would happy to send you a treatment if you e-mail me at russthebus07@gmail.com.

Only downer was the breakup of Okada and Gedo. Right after I had bout the shirt that featured both of them being very kawaii.

And speaking of Freelance, Muhammad Ali really impressed me for the first time on “205 Live (via Hulu)” since his bout with Buddy Murphy. Since he is someone who is ripping off DJZ and never a strong promo (at least on WWE TV), he left me hoping they will not ditch the brand. If only the Hulu version could cut out the non-match segments. I cut the WWE Network off because of the sexism, but I was not missing contract signings and championship-related, face-to-face verbal sparring.

NJPW World, Being the Elite, and sales at Pro Wrestling Tees: keep this formula up and it may lead to me never consider a WWE World Champion as the premier champion in the industry. Just wait till I tap into the Honor Club. Is the Highspots Network worth it?

Regardless of my thoughts on the future champions, when Puroresu was being established, I think most of us agree it was a totally different style. Besides for swapping your American World title to a Japanese wrestler on his soil to build another fan base, there was very little crossover. Story lines are what drives the American-style while an in ring athletic spectacle is what you watch Japanese wrestling for. You can just pick a NJPW match to watch and never need a video package to give you context.

So, what I am getting at is it may not be reasonable to put the IWGP Heavyweight, GHC Heavyweight, or the Triple Crown in the running as possible Real World Heavyweight Championship.

Fortunately, there was Samoa Joe and Chris Benoit who were there to make us not necessarily watch the majority of JBL’s title reign and to make things further interesting in regards to this narrative.

A Time for the Internet Wrestling Community

49th Real World Heavyweight Champion - WWE Champion Eddie Guerrero - 2/15/2004 - 6/27/04.

50th World Heavyweight Champion - World Heavyweight Champion Chris Benoit - 6/27/04 - 8/15/04

The Big Gold Belt finally headlined Wrestlemania and the celebration between the two most successful Radicalz can never be ruined. If the lack of WWE’s acknowledgement of long-term concussion trauma that led to the 2007 incident makes this moment uncomfortable, play the Gamecube’s “WWE Day of Reckoning” where a random star will recreate that moment with your avatar (mine was creepingly Charlie Haas, which might explain my attempt to change my ring name to R.C. Staley. I’ve got a funny Tyler Black anecdote about that, but I’ll digress).

It seemed like WWE was finally recognizing the desires of the industries most invested fans. But WWE is meant to fulfill the desires of the two most delusional McMahons not on Donald Trump’s cabinet. Benoit’s win may be a way to keep us from being too upset when JBL became WWE Champ via anti-immigrant sentiment.

End ROH's Relevance. A Conclusion to the Disgruntled's Tag Team Champs

When I originally wrote my series of blogs about who "The Disgruntled Real World Heavyweight Champion" is/was, 35 years of wrestling was covered within five blogs (1983 to 2018). With my current blog series about the tag team championship, 19 years had been covered in five blogs (1983 to 2002). The number of champions proclaimed in this series is the same as its predecessor (88), two belts are still recognized at that point (WWE World Tag Team Championship and the current incarnation NWA World Tag Team Championship), and the Ring of Honor and WWE Tag Team Championship are about to be introduced. This makes me wonder, if I should backtrack from the best tag team champions currently (January 28, 2019. I am leaning towards The New Day.), but there may even be more variables to consider.

Can TNA/Impact still be looked over? Has New Japan's influence come into play like it eventually did with the original World Heavyweight Championship? I shall not forget All Elite Wrestling.

I guess we are going into spoiler territory, but let me get to the idea of the "End is the Beginning is the End". That sounds more fun than transcribing my review for the too bad for Netflix Streaming "Skeleton Crew".

Championships that Will Qualify for the List:

• National Wrestling Alliance World Tag Team Championship - When WWE was building up Kane to be the ultimate babyface jobber for Triple H, he was the tag team champion with The Hurricane. Too prove how strong he was, Kane successfully defended the championship in a four-team TLC match only to lose the belts with his partner the next week. Because of its history of being fought over in WCW, the NWA title was still "relevant" and was getting coverage when it was shown on TNA. Christopher Daniels and Donovan Morgan became the inaugural ROH Tag Team Champions two days before America's Most Wanted captured the NWA title, but AMW was going to be the more memorable team. Here is hoping for a reunion like the Rock 'n' Roll Express on NWA Powerrr.
• Ring of Honor Tag Team Championship - The title got its legs when WWE was trying to establish the WWE Tag Team Championship on Smackdown. If you consider that WWE all but forgot about tag team wrestling when the Alliance angle first gave them multiple championships, there will definitely be points when ROH can claim to have the more worthy championship.
• WWE Tag Team Championship - If you are a fan of history, this has the lineage of the World Tag Team Championship.
• WWE Smackdown Tag Team Championship - It all depends of the booking when it comes to which WWE Tag Team Championship is more meaningful.
• All Elite Wrestling Tag Team Championship - Their first tag team champions, Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky ended up defeating all of what had to be the most stacked tag team division at the time. The recognition may just be a blip because losing the championships to a team that is building for a Mega Powers Explosion may take some luster off the belts.

The Current (1/29/2020) Real Tag Team Champions: The Smackdown Tag Team Champions: The New Day (Big E., Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods) - Reign began on January 22, 2020:

It has been established for nearly two years that the dream opponents for The New Day was the six-person team of The Elite. That version of The Elite does not feature Adam Page.

The Last Real Tag Team Champions: 

AEW Tag Team Champions: So Cal Uncensored (Scorpio Sky and Frankie Kazarian): 12/13/2019 to 1/22/2020

The ROH Tag Team Champs lost the belt to a non-established tag team in Jonathan Gresham and Jay Lethal. I would refer to Super ACH when it comes to why Lethal got that spot.

2nd to Last Real Tag Team Champions:

ROH Tag Team Champions: The Briscoe Brothers (Mark and Jay) - 7/20/19 to 12/13/19

Since December of 2012, Ring of Honor had the titles only be won by established tag teams, most of whom would end up becoming champs in the WWE or AEW. WWE then goes to abuse the tag teams by letting their talents put over singles competitors.

The Guerillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tango Loa) - 4/6/19 to 7/20/19

Villain Enterprises (PCO and Brody King) - 3/15/19  to 4/6/19

The Briscoe Brothers (2) - 12/14/2018 to 3/15/19

So Cal Uncensored (Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky) - 10/14/18 to 12/14/18

The Briscoe Brothers (3) - 3/9/18 to 10/14/18

The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Saban) - 9/22/17 to 3/9/18

The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson) - 4/1/2017 to 9/22/17

The Broken Hardys (5) [Broken Matt and Brother Nero] - 3/4/17 to 4/1/17

The Young Bucks (2) - 12/18/2016 to 3/4/2017

12th to Last Real Tag Team Champions:

WWE Tag Team Champions: The New Day (2) - 9/18/2015 to 12/18/16

The WWE only had a single tag team championship at the time. Once they needed to establish a faction, The Shield, they realized that tag team wrestling was important again.

13th to Last Real Tag Team Champions:

ROH Tag Team Champions: The Addiction (Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian) - 4/4/15 to 9/18/15

The New Day had traded their tag team titles to try and get The Prime Time Players over. WWE was not quite ready to pull the trigger on Kingston, Woods, and Big E.

14th to Last Real Tag Team Champons:

reDRagon (Kyle O'Reily and Bobby Fish) - 9/21/2014 to 4/4/15

15th Last Real Tag Team Champions:

WWE Tag Team Champions: The Usos (Jimmy and Jey) - 3/3/14 to 9/21/14

ROH's champs were the Young Bucks, but I would say it was after Wrestle Kingdom 9 (1/4/15) that they put themselves on the map.

The New Age Outlaws (3) - 1/26/14 to 3/3/14

Cody Rhodes and Goldust - 10/14/13 to 1/26/14

The Shield (Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins) - 5/19/13 to 10/14/13

20th to Last Real Tag Team Champions:

Team Hell No (Kane and Daniel Bryan) - 10/14/2012 to 5/19/13

This is WWE's best example of rivals becoming champions, so it deserves to remembered for that and bringing back tag team relevance after the two previous championships were merged.

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