Whatcha Bleedin' Watchin'?

[Mustang]

You caught me during my down moment with wrestling. I haven't watched nor followed anything wrestling for 2 months now. I just found out that the Royal Rumble happened 2 weeks ago lol. From what I've gathered is basically Rock making a splash at Wrestlemania and now everyone is pissed? Rock fits in that same category as Punk (As much as I like Rock).

Now you see why I'm always on and off with wrestling. The problem as a whole, new talent is terrible at developing their character and sounds like "insert old head" on the mic. Old head not stepping down nor helping new talent build character (I tell my brother all the time that development need to have these folk take acting lessons or something). The ones that got "IT" are small in numbers and old heads gun for their spot.

Cody losing to Reigns at the last Wrestlemania was a HUGE mistake. Cody, Reigns, USOs, Drew all pushing 40, and it's damn near time to bring in the next group. (Look at Lebron. He's also pushing 40. You start losing steps at 40. You start depending on others to carry more.) Can you still perform? Absolutely, but you start taking more days off. Father-time will rear it's head, especially in contact sports. Losing to Reigns and then putting so many people in his way, this almost seems like punishment for leaving the company.

But yeah, I have been off with WWE since I haven't cared much about how some folk have been handled (Drew and Cody being the main 2 and then Shayna Baszler)

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Drew has been excellent lately as a heel. His promos have gotten so much better.

Also, the crowd tonight was super anti-Rock.

[Dr. Insomniac]

So the new Shogun's pretty cool. Loving the production values and the command Hiroyuki Sanada has whenever he's on screen.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Watched the first episode of Three Body Problem, and I was mostly just bored. I should've known based on the showrunners, and I thought the book was fine but not anything particularly special when I read it ages ago, but it was a disappointing boredom because a few clips I saw beforehand seemed kind of cool and I was hearing people talk nonstop about it. Only interesting parts was noticing Brad Pitt, Rian Johnson, and Rosamund Pike were executives in the credits, and how many Game of Thrones alumni D&D brought back like Liam Cunningham and Samwell's actor.

[Mustang]

WWE stuff. Just top 10's from the past 2-3 months to get caught up. Very well aware of Wrestlemania and the matches. I'm being told it's the best Wrestlemania ever. I'm not going to dispute that, but it is causing me to raise an eyebrow. I might go down a Wrestlemania wormhole just to see if the older ones hold up.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Did you watch Wrestlemania 40? Just curious.

Calling it the best Wrestlemania ever screams of recency bias, IMO, but it was a pretty damn good Wrestlemania overall. I think the most important thing is that it signifies that we are officially done with the Vince McMahon era and are firmly in the Paul Levesque (HHH) era. I'm not going to pretend like everything to come out of Vince's regime was terrible (the person himself can rot away until his final days as far as I'm concerned), as many stuff we all love came out of that era, but it almost always felt like it was despite Vince's influence rather than because of it.

Seriously, though, that main event was a total clusterfuck, but like the best kind of clusterfuck. As a "Pro Wrestling" main event there have been far better ones, but as a spectacle it was basically WWE's version of Avengers: Endgame and I'm not going to pretend like I didn't mark out for all of the appearances on there. Loved the long-term story-telling with Roman opting for Revenge on Rollins rather than taking out Cody when he had the chance, which lead to his downfall at the finish of the match. Say what you will, but it was a pretty memorable 3+ year title run that I doubt we'll ever see anything quite like it again (certainly not for a long time).

The Rock being a heel is something I thought I'd never see again ever since he became a bland, generic Hollywood movie star, but it has been a real treat seeing him play up to being an entitled ass-hole in story-line. That said, it's not quite as good as his Hollywood Rock run from 2003, which felt way more natural and much less rehearsed. Credit where it's due, he did about as good of a job in the ring on the Night 1 main event as you could expect for someone of his age and conditioning who has been away from the business for as long as he has. It wasn't an all-time match my any means, but it was what it needed to be and was undeniably fun to watch.

The Sammy Vs. Gunther match stole the whole show, IMO. It's one of those matches I would show to a non-wrestling fan as a way to get them to understand why people like myself love this stuff when it's at its best.

And Drew McIntyre Vs. Seth Rollins for the World Heavyweight Championship to open up Night 2 was a really solid opening bout, but the aftermath with CM Punk attacking him and Damien Priest cashing in was just A+ storytelling. I can't wait for the feud between them when Punk fully recovers and is back in ring shape. I know you aren't particularly a fan of either, Mustang, but you have seriously been missing out if you haven't seen how good their promos have been over the past few weeks leading up to Wrestlemania. Drew has been on fire on the Mic this year, and Punk continues to be the best talker of any active pro wrestlers working today (Paul Heyman is still the best talker in the business today overall, bar none).

Anyways, it was a pretty great show. Not perfect by any stretch. Some matches were just there, but most were good. The only outright bad match on the entire card for either night was Jimmy Vs. Jey (their whole feud has been a dud for me, honestly), but it was short enough to be just a minor blemish on the quality of the overall show.

[Mustang]

Did you watch Wrestlemania 40? Just curious.

Nope.

Calling it the best Wrestlemania ever screams of recency bias, IMO, but it was a pretty damn good Wrestlemania overall. I think the most important thing is that it signifies that we are officially done with the Vince McMahon era and are firmly in the Paul Levesque (HHH) era. I'm not going to pretend like everything to come out of Vince's regime was terrible (the person himself can rot away until his final days as far as I'm concerned), as many stuff we all love came out of that era, but it almost always felt like it was despite Vince's influence rather than because of it.

And this is why I'm considering going down a Wrestlemania wormhole. I only remember spurts from some of the main events of the older ones. I would agree that calling it the best is recency bias, BUUUUT, if only 1 or 2 matches were duds from the entire show that might be saying something. Only reason I question it is because of the star power of the old. I want to see if some of those older Wrestlemania's holds up and considering I'm not that same little dude that gets WOW'd by titan's clashing these days (I was a huge fan of Hogan vs Warrior and Piper vs Mr. T) but I'm curious to see if they can get any sort of reaction out of me. I'm 40 and hard to please these days lol.

And Drew McIntyre Vs. Seth Rollins for the World Heavyweight Championship to open up Night 2 was a really solid opening bout, but the aftermath with CM Punk attacking him and Damien Priest cashing in was just A+ storytelling. I can't wait for the feud between them when Punk fully recovers and is back in ring shape. I know you aren't particularly a fan of either, Mustang, but you have seriously been missing out if you haven't seen how good their promos have been over the past few weeks leading up to Wrestlemania. Drew has been on fire on the Mic this year, and Punk continues to be the best talker of any active pro wrestlers working today (Paul Heyman is still the best talker in the business today overall, bar none).

It was this match that caused me to get caught up on everything lol. Oddly enough, it's only Punk that I have a problem with. I know he's a fighter but I was never convinced he was a good wrestler. I have nothing against Damien Priest. Dude is a beast. Nah, my problem is the money in the bank. It was a problem since it became a thing. Hated it with Edge, and I'll hate it until it's gone, but a lot of people were saying this was there match of the night (other being KO, Paul and Orton). As far as Drew goes, I'm still a fan.

Will HHH era get me to hop back in regularly? Nah, especially with them going to Netflix. I'll continue to do my on and off again's. Need a lot more star power in order to get me hooked and they continue to lack that. I am curious to see how much will change going forward though.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I can't really agree that Punk is not a good wrestler. Certainly not when he was in his prime, but even in recent years. He's never been a technical prodigy like Bret Hart or Kurt Angle, and lacks the flashiness of HBK or Seth Rollins, but just about everything he does in the ring makes sense and helps to tell a compelling story. His Dog Collar Match with MJF a couple of years ago is a modern classic, IMO.

To me, if a wrestler can elicit a response from the audience with their promos and make you care about the outcome of a match (whether as a face or heel), then they are doing their job. CM Punk is a polarizing figure but nobody can really deny that he's able to hold the attention of most audiences that he performs in front of, both on the mic and in the ring. So that makes him a successful wrestler in my book.

And let's not forget the fact that it's Drew's obsession with antagonizing Punk that is the crux of this feud. It's impressive how he manages to stay relevant when he isn't even featured on most shows during his recovery.

I agree about Money in the Bank, though. It's a gimmick that cheapens the top titles in the company and frankly should be done away with by the new regime. That said, since Priest already had the briefcase from last year, this was pretty much the best way for it to be used in story-line.

[Mustang]

I can't really agree that Punk is not a good wrestler. Certainly not when he was in his prime, but even in recent years. He's never been a technical prodigy like Bret Hart or Kurt Angle, and lacks the flashiness of HBK or Seth Rollins, but just about everything he does in the ring makes sense and helps to tell a compelling story. His Dog Collar Match with MJF a couple of years ago is a modern classic, IMO.

To me, if a wrestler can elicit a response from the audience with their promos and make you care about the outcome of a match (whether as a face or heel), then they are doing their job. CM Punk is a polarizing figure but nobody can really deny that he's able to hold the attention of most audiences that he performs in front of, both on the mic and in the ring. So that makes him a successful wrestler in my book.

Will probably always agree to disagree on Punk lol.

Let me see if I can explain this clearly this time lol. I'm gonna home in on that bold in a few.

TL:DR, Punk is Sami/KO but reverse. Punk in the ring does nothing for me while he is exceptional on the mic (whereas Sami/KO are exceptional in the ring but they do nothing for me outside it)

The long story.

I don't know if you played sports, and while I haven't played professionally (obviously lol), I did play football back in High school up to my senior year and could've made college (I got injured during my senior year and wiped me out for good) and I also competed in karate so while you're coming at it from an entertainment (I'm assuming) angle, I'm coming from the athletic side.

That being said, the bold, I think we can say there are relatively 4 types of wrestlers. Technical, Flashy, Power, Striker give or take. As you said, Punk is not Bret or Kurt, he's not Shawn or Seth, and he's not Drew or Roman. That leaves him as a striker and even then, not a fearful one, but like I said, I know he can legit fight. And going back, the only striker that I can remember that did decent was Steve Blackman and even he had to adjust. Before him was Ken Shamrock and he was great. Unfortunately this is not boxing or MMA, and you're not going to entertain me with strikes. Ultimo Dragon was a striker but also flashy. Matt Riddle (I CAN'T STAND THIS GUY) is a fighter but he can wrestle his ass off. You get the gist. Hell, Drew, Roman, Samoa Joe, Brock, Keith Lee, Bray (Rip) and Undertaker (just to name a few) were/are special. Big guys that can perform with the smaller folks. For someone of Punks size if I can't get flashy or technical, you better be like Rip Hamilton OR in the case of WWE, Jimmy Hart lol, constantly running all over the place.

Now to be fair because I never would've had a problem with Punk. You bring in getting a reaction from the audience  and that is where everything comes from. I cannot stand the audience. I don't fit in with the audience at all (Don't get me started on AJ Lee). I don't care about transparency. I don't remember if they popped at the same time, but Daniel Bryan (ask me how I really feel about him lol) getting push from the audience as well as Punk, yeah, I was done.

I'm not taking anything away from Punk. Punks deeds are his deeds. He will be a hall of famer for sure. His matches don't do anything for me. I'll tell you this while it's in my head as well. The pipe-bomb did nothing for me. Again, this is me coming from a locker room a setting. The locker room is sacred grounds. If a fight bust out in the locker room it was squashed and handled in the locker room. No one outside would know about it.

All that being said, I need HHH to go pick up Adam Cole, Cesaro and Chris Breeze so they can reunite with Xaiver Woods for DaParty (I know they still together, but still, I need them to come home)

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Aight man, I'm not going into all of that because it's late. Genuinely not sure what Punk matches you're referring to. He's hardly a striker, much more a deliberate methodical type with holds and such being much more in his repertoire. I'd liken him to a modern day take on Roddy Piper or Harley Race albeit not with as much size as those old-school guys (to be fair, the average size of top guys these days is much leaner than the classic era of wrestling in general).

But the basic gist I get is: being a good talker, having matches that make sense, and generating heat (whether positive or negative), to generate business and revenue (backed up by merch sales and ratings) is bad. Being an indie-riffic wrestler that does a million flips and suicide dives (referring to Adam Cole and people like him here) that nobody will remember the next day while breaking your body in the process is good. I think that about sums it up.

Yeah, agree to disagree there like you said. I respect your opinion, but just can't agree with that logic.

[Mustang]

Wow, relax chief. It ain't that big a deal. But I'll keep it pushing.

I'll try out Shogun next.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I wasn't trying to be antagonistic to you or anything, so sorry if it came off that way. That is genuinely my opinion, but I also probably shouldn't post when slightly cranky because I can't fall asleep, lol.

[Dr. Insomniac]

In lighter events, a certain death this week got me to watch the OJ: Made in America miniseries, a thorough dissection and look at the kind of culture and series of events in American history that would generate a guy like OJ, give him the kind of career he's prosper in, and eventually create one of the most infamous miscarriages of justice known in pop culture. Everyone knows the story, but this delves hard into all the reasons why OJ was the kind of guy he was, and what a tragedy it was that nobody noticed the signs until it was too late. Saddest part is all the interviews with his childhood or longtime friends, and they all spoke well of him, but it's all in the past tense and you can see how clear it is to them that the man they knew and the man in reality were very different people.

I also saw a bit of that reality prank show he tried to make back in the 00s, and I assume OJ had a case of CTE or some form of cognitive decline, because I don't know how he can look at that and think it wouldn't convince any of his remaining defenders that he absolutely did it and karma doesn't exist. Even by the already low standards of prank TV shows, it felt like watching some freak's homemade porn but with the sex scenes cut out. Even if you try to ignore that it was made by a guy who killed 2 people and got away with it, it still carried a sense of utter dismay.

[Dr. Insomniac]

So the new season of The Boys is messy, isn't it? A lot of tired "Yeah, I know the point you're making, but everyone already made it a few years ago" political satire mixed with very haphazard attempts to keep the shock value fresh. Somebody pointed out to me that Hughie getting sexually assaulted was somehow depicted in a more tasteful manner in the comics than the show. The Seth Rogen part of the production is seeping in more and more, and not for the better.

And what's Sage's deal? Because the smartest person in the world doesn't seem to have any insurance in case using the emotionally unstable psychopath with laser vision as a pawn backfires. Yeah, there's foreshadowing in her plotting to have Homelander suffer a Julius Caesar-style end, but the "how" isn't explored.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, I've found this to be a series of diminishing returns with each new season. Like, I get why it got popular with people, especially a particular faction of people who were put off by all of the MCU and Superhero franchise content that has been churned out over the past decade plus. However, at this point I have to ask myself if people who are still praising this show are actually watching the same show as me? I have seen it get just as tropey and ridiculous as the superhero media that it parodies, right down to not even being able to kill off major characters in most instances. Remember Queen Mave surviving her big "heroic sacrifice" and also that didn't even kill Soldier Boy anyways? And sure, Buthcer or A-Train may get it this season or next but it's in the most telegraphed, cliche way possible.

For a show that's praised by it's fans for it's writing, I don't get how it can keep getting away with the same tricks over and over again. A-Train's will-he or won't he redemption arc has been going on since the end of season 1 and it feels like it's just a repeating cycle of regressing to the same point (and not in an intentional way) before the writers finally decide to pull the trigger on it. The repeated attempts to be shocking are just eye-rollin at this point. I literally called almost exactly a lot of the gross-out death scenes that we would get as soon as the opportunity was presented. Like, I knew Ryan would end up brutally killing that stunt man because Homelander would have put him up to it, or that Homelander would laser that guys dick off as soon as the concept of that came up in the dialogue. It's at the point where I don't feel any sort of tension in Homelander's scenes anymore, because the writing fails to make me actually care about any of the characters that he's threatening.

The woke media and fans vs. the right-wing nut-jobs thing has been so done to death since the second season that I just feel like I'm watching the same story unfold again each season. Butcher's character arc is another one where he just regresses each season to try and learn the same lesson by the end of it of valuing the people around him over revenge, and at this point I'm wondering why this show even needs a fifth season to end it when a bunch could have been solved by now if the status quo didn't just keep resetting itself at the convenience of the writers. For a show that's supposed to sattirize lazy pop-culture media produced by greedy, corrupt corporations, it kind of feels like that's what it has become at this point. The fans are just willfully blind to it.