An AEW Fan Who is Embarrassed to be an AEW Fan

 It's been a day or so since the April 10th edition of AEW Dynamite in which the company made the decision to dredge up the All-In London incident by showing the video footage of the Jack Perry/CM Punk fight. And I've been trying to really bring into words why I personally am frustrated by it, so I figured in lieu of doing one of my monthly recap blogs (might be a tester point for future blogs), I would get my feelings out in a full blog. Because I feel like, especially after the recent Dynamite, I feel like an AEW fan who finally feels fully embarrassed to be an AEW fan. 

Since the company's inception in 2019, I have followed them through their first PPV Double or Nothing, and every week of TV and most (not all, especially with the larger yearly count of the past few years) of the PPVs. I honestly prefer AEW on most weeks, especially in the midst of the WWE's drain circling era of the late 2010s where the product had become so poorly managed amongst Vince McMahon's depraved megalomania, anything would have been a better alternative. And AEW offered that, opening me to more wrestlers who have become some of my favorites. Eddie Kingston, Hangman Page, Orange Cassidy, Willow Nightengale, MJF. And especially the career growth of Swerve Strickland, one of the best examples of how the WWE squandered and haphazardly fired talent. 

I think an AEW existing is important for the business. And, while even the most stoic WWE defenders will never admit it, it's been beneficial for WWE. Without AEW, we likely never would have seen Jade Cargill. Without AEW, Cody Rhodes wouldn't be WWE champion right now, or at least his road back wouldn't be as prolific. Without AEW, WWE wouldn't put in more effort and we'd be trapped in the Vince cycle of ripped scripts and rudderless booking. And without AEW, we probably wouldn't have CM Punk back in the wrestling industry. The industry thrives when there's a larger market and not just one place. And having an alternative, especially when WWE was at their worst, was something that I am glad to have. 

Gibraltar! (February 2024)

It's time for February, which both went super quick and also still felt like a lot more happened worth talking than what January offered, especially in the wrestling circle. And some other stuff worth updating on what I've been up to. So let's pump out a February recap and do what Cody Rhodes can't, and finish the story for this month.

One Month Deep Into Hell (January 2024)

 CONTENT WARNING: DISCUSSION OF S*XUAL ASSAULT

January has come and gone and unfortunately this was a month that's going to focus almost exclusively on wrestling news, which is why the content warning is placed above this one, because oh god, fuck this month. Do I have the energy and the wherewithal to pump out about 1000 words on the matter? I'll give it my best try, like I usually do. Let's get to talking about why January was big for all the wrong reasons.

So WWE's month was a fucking roller coaster, huh? Started strong with The Rock returning on the Day 1 episode of Monday Night Raw, sparking the embers of that long awaited Rock vs Roman match that may or may not happen, especially given the state of things at the end of the month. WWE were also high on their build for the Royal Rumble which in turn was also the build towards Wrestlemania. At the start of the month the stars seemed aligned for CM Punk vs Seth Rollins being the night one main event. Then Seth Rollins tears his MCL. With three months to rehab he could still realistically make it. His opponent? Well, we'll get there.

But things were riding high going into the week of the Royal Rumble event with WWE announcing a major partnership with Netflix seeing Monday Night Raw move to the streaming platform in 2025 as the exclusive home to Raw. And for everything else in Canada, which shit, I guess I have to get Netflix now. Ah well, add it to the Youtube premium pile of shit I don't want to pay for but I guess I have to just to not deal with this shit and not have to constantly put my computer at risk with other methods. And The Rock also would become a member of the TKO board, which is probably the best news ever given he could work well as a much beloved face of the company. Which, given what followed a day later, is probably what they really need right now. Shit, I gotta talk about Vince, huh?

One day later, The Wall Street Journal would reveal a lawsuit by one Janel Grant alleging former WWE head Vince McMahon and John Laurinaitis of trafficking and forcing into many horrific illicit acts which I will not be repeating here because holy shit are they abhorrent. The suit also alleges that a name involved in the trafficking of Grant was a former UFC Heavyweight Champion, with all signs pointing to Brock Lesnar. While WWE have mostly tried to keep their heads in the sand and press forward, the damage was already starting to form with Slim Jim briefly pausing sponsorships with other sponsors also threatening cutting ties. Vince would fully resign from his role in the TKO board and as of right now Brock Lesnar is persona non grata.

So my thoughts are pretty cut and dry. Vince can go to hell. I'd say fuck Vince McMahon but that's the last thing that should happen. We knew things were coming after the hush money revelation sent him into a brief retirement, and that something far more sinister was in waiting, but for everything people expected, nobody could have predicted this. Though if you knew of his Playboy interview where he admitted to wanting to do something abhorrent to his cousin, this comes as no surprise. Do I think he gets what's coming to him? Donald Trump is facing criminal charges for a litany of acts and he might be president again by year's end. That's my answer to that. I hope Vince suffers but he won't. Though not long after typing this down, news broke that a federal investigation is officially underway, so maybe?

I unfortunately think Brock will be back sooner rather than later. This right now just feels like laying low until the heat goes down and we'll be back to Suplex City again. Why do I think that? Because I think Triple H's track record of protecting alleged abusers is a frustratingly large list. And his awful attempt to deflect any questions about the investigation and the lawsuit certainly didn't make it feel like that wasn't the case. It's going to be a wild few months to see just how hard this hits the company, but for now, at least Vince is (mostly) gone and being erased from history. Joining Chris Benoit in the list of former Royal Rumble winners erased from history on account of monstrous acts. 

Since it's hard to really divorce things from that to where we are post-Royal Rumble, I'll give my quick thoughts. Jade Cargill's debut was pitch perfect and I'm now even more convinced that she'll be a mega star in the company. Loved the Jordynne Grace surprise and glad that the company put TNA over so well. Glad Naomi and Andrade are back, hope their runs go well. And I'm happy Cody was the one to win the Rumble again. Predictable? Yes. But I feel that Punk losing was actually a positive for him. It shows that he's willing to put others over and isn't going to be the control freak he was in AEW. The WWE and Punk needed to present an image of Punk that isn't the guy who'll ban people from the show he's on. And giving him a big Rumble return win akin to Batista in 2014 would have been a choice easy to scrutinize. Although now with his triceps tear making him miss Wrestlemania 40 entirely, it really ultimately feels nebulous in the scheme of things. Though with him now being out with a torn bicep, that's kind of nebulous as well.

So last month's plan to go with a PS2 again fell through as the system I got was ultimately faulty with a bad laser. So instead I switched to picking up an NES and trying to collect for that again. And so far we're starting hot with five out of the six Mega Man games (just missing the ungodly expensive Mega Man 5), Mike Tyson's Punch-Out Mario 1/Duck Hunt and Mario 3. All told a strong first batch of games to have for this system. The console itself also works really well with probably a new pin connector which would explain a lot. 2024 is going to be a year where I commit to re-collecting and not just selling things off, so I'll aim for other consoles as well, but the NES is a good starting point. In other game news, I coasted mostly this month with no updates to the PS4 platinum list. We'll see how this month goes in terms of my interest. Didn't pick up much for comics except for maybe a new Simpsons comic here and there.

Instead my focus this month was on drawing, which I did a lot of this month. To the point that I feel that my quality has improved a lot in recent months. Still just face work but that's what I wanted to improve on first before I even think of starting to learn to draw bodies. So here's some stuff I got done this month: 

Hope to continue improving over the next month or so, but I can honestly say this month was the first month I actually felt my attempts improving. So that's a definite morale boost to keep this coming.

Other than that, January was brisk for me. Mainly dominated by the wrestling news unfortunately. February should hopefully be also brisk, but given how this year is shaping up to be, I doubt too much news will come out of it. Hopefully a less chaotic month wrestling news-wise, but given how the Vince news is due to escalate, I very much dount that. Hopefully I'll have more actual news to give, but I think this is a fair enough quota blog for the month.

Speak of the Devil (December 2023)

December really flew by, huh? So much so that there isn't really much of anything to talk about. A little, but not much, so I could probably still spring forth 1000+ words to make this at least readable. Hope everyone had a happy holiday, whatever you celebrate, and let's get to talking about what went down in December. 

Coyote Fugly (November 2023)

November kinda just came and went, huh? Not that it wasn't one with some stuff to talk about, but still, it sure existed. As like last month, I'm keeping the major Israel-Palestine stuff out of this since this is mostly just joking on shitty billionaires and maybe things I did in the month, who knows anymore. But we're five blogs deep into this project and maybe I will get it to one full year. Let's see what November offered other than my birthday, which definitely happened.

Nobody Likes Milhouse! (October 2023)

 A little late on the October blog, but if you thought I was done with these (Or, I dunno, thought about them at all) then you're in luck because I'm back again with another look back at what was ultimately a pretty brisk October, all things considered. Little bit of stuff went down, enough for at least a thousand words, so let's do it to it. 

Note that I'm going to refrain on talking about the biggest issue right now involving what is going on in Gaza. It's a serious situation that's way too frustrating to do on a blog that's mostly going to dunk on a goofy billionaire, so yeah.

Yippie Ki-Yay, Mr. Falcon (September 2023)

September's over already? Well this was a quick month. Not as super eventful as August was given my computer woes and all that, but some things happened that are worth archiving I guess. Yeah, this one's going to be on the lower energy side of things. October hopefully will have much more to discuss. So let's get to talking about what September brought us.

Bitter Phil to Swallow (August 2023)

So, to prove that I'm going to make a commitment to these monthly blogs, here I am with my second one covering a really crappy month that I'd much rather not remember for a lot of reasons. But that would also go against the very idea of this blog so damned if I do, damned if I don't I guess. Let's cover why this month blew in every way possible.

Lowered X-Pectations (July 2023)

Welcome to my first blog for what is yet another blog I've made because I just like making them. This blog will be more of a monthly roundup if there's anything I've collected watched or just have thoughts on. Pretty straightforward stuff, as is usual with my style of bloggery. I'll also at least try to keep up with these over time and hopefully not burn out quick which is another thing I tend to do too much. But with t hat out of the way, let's talk about July 2023.