*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.
