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.

If you're a big fan of the Looney Tunes this month then well was this ever not your month. Because not even one day after the SAG-AFTRA strike and not too long after the WGA strike ended, David Zaslav couldn't help himself and get right back to tax shelving movies. And this was a big one as the movie shelved this time was Coyote Vs. Acme, an animated/live action comedy which would see Wile E. Coyote suing Acme. Its screenings went out positive, there was a lot of love behind it and seeing the behind the scenes of the film, it looked like a lot of fun. Too bad the guy running Warner/Discovery doesn't understand the complex human emotion of "fun". It explains why they want to replace everyone with AI.

Of course, nobody took this news well, and with people deciding to not even work with WBD and hell, almost seeing legal action with the government, the movie's status went from dead to on life support as it's supposedly being shopped to other services. In a recent interview, Zaslav tried to flimsily defend his choice of tax shelving movies as "difficult and painful but necessary. What content is going to help us win?"... Reminder that David Zaslav pushed for The Flash to be released and oh boy, that was sure content that didn't help them win. Honestly, double edged sword that Barbie made a billion because it at least gives WBD one more billion than Disney made all year. 

Oh, and if you thought kicking the Looney Tunes was finished this month, guess again because listed for removal from Max at the end of the year was, shocker, Looney Tunes. In fact, the list was full of Warner movies and shows. Nothing Discovery of course. I've had my theory that the plan of Zaslav's merger has always been to remove Warner's content and hollow out the brand before an eventual Discovery overhaul. Explains why they cut the HBO title from Max. Looney Tunes and Looney Tunes Show were taken off the removal list with the flimsy claim of it being an error. Feels like this error has happened one too many times at this point.

Wrestling front-wise, it was an interesting month that mainly has one major story coming out of it. One could say that Hell finally froze over on November 25th, 2023 as CM Punk returned to the WWE in his home town of Chicago after almost 10 full years. After leaving on bad terms, after being fired on his wedding day, after suing the company for negligence, for returning for their Backstage show then leaving after like a month, for his return to wrestling in AEW and everything that went wrong with that, one would believe that this is a moment that would have never truly happened. The last real major feasible shocker that I think the business will ever have. Even if it felt inevitable, especially after the AEW sitch, you never really thought it would happen. This will be the first year ever that Triple H will be proud to have a Booker of the Year award because holy shit we're about to witness a Tony Khan meltdown when it happens.

My feelings on Punk's return are more on this feeling that it's due for disaster. I want to be wrong about that, just to get that out there. But I said it with his AEW exit and I feel the same here that wrestling, for as much as Phil Brooks loves it, is bad for his mental health. It deteriorated within a single year in AEW, and while he's all smiles and clean slates now, how long will that last? There's a reason that there's a behavioral clause in his contract apparently. People are saying this is his last chance, but dude's lionized enough that he'll always be given chance after chance. It just boils down to if he'll actually be in the right mindset to make that chance worth taking, and WWE for now sees that as a chance worth taking. Either Triple H made the greatest call in his career or he gets outed as the doofus son-in-law. Only time will tell. 

AEW this month has been alright, but there is definitely that feel of muddling that we got last year following Brawl-Out. While the in-ring has been solid and I really like this Continental Classic tournament they're doing, it's otherwise been feeling like a void with MJF now super injured, Adam Cole still out, Bryan injured but still wrestling like he has a death wish, the Young Bucks gone for a while, and a feeling like a lot of names are just shuffled about or missing. But don't worry, Ric Flair is here! Wooo? And don't worry, even if he's not on TV every week (thank fuck), you get to see them hock his energy drink. Well why don't I just drink out of a toilet bowl? It would be healthier.

And despite numerous accusations of sexual misconduct and straight up sexual abuse, it's all good, Ric's here to make a promo about wanting to fuck 18-28 year olds! THANKS TONY! REALLY WORKING TO IMPROVE THE FEMALE DEMO! They announced Revolution and Sting's final match being in Greensboro, North Carolina and I continue to fear that Sting vs the fucking Grab-Ass Cryptkeeper is the planned final match. Fits with Tony bringing in Transphobe/Sandy Hook denier Ronda Rousey for Ring of Honor. Fucker's gonna bring in Matt Riddle. 2024's gonna be the death of me. 

Also, my match for the month (try to make it a regular thing) was Hangman Adam Page vs Swerve Strickland from Full Gear. A match that has of course garnered controversy for its ultraviolence and Hangman at one point drinking Swerve's blood like a cowboy vampire. While even I'll agree that was overkill, this match delivered for me because it felt like two men wanting to kill each other. Swerve invaded Hangman's house, put his family at risk, Hangman made some damning comments on Swerve. Of course these two want to kill one another. This is a Texas DEATH match, not a Texas WOUND match. Critics be damned because somewhere in the cosmos the spirit of Terry Funk would be damn proud. Also Swerve needs to be AEW champ ASAP. Winning all the belts in the Continental Classic isn't enough. Crown the man in 2024 with AEW's top prize.

On the gaming front, I dabbled mostly. Three more additions to the platinum front. Medievil Resurrection, which was a solid remake of the original, but I don't know, it didn't hook me the same way the other remake did. I think it's the focus on goofier comedy and adding a narrator character who constantly has to talk about what Dan has to do, because god forbid we have a (mostly) silent protagonist. Next up was Jet Moto, which, graphics, aside, holds up well enough for a jet ski style racing game. But the one major platinum was Final Fantasy VIII. I don't know what it is. Maybe that it's the first major FF game I played, or just that I like the cast of characters, but Final Fantasy VIII has always been the one I've liked the most. Even if I never finished it before this run through. And yes, the game offers cheats to advance through better, but you can still get One-Hit KO'ed even with the additions, so it's not exactly the quickest fix some would hope. 

I think it's just a game and a world I've always liked. Yes, the Junction system isn't great, and yes, the plot is very much convoluted, even for FF standards. But I like the cast of characters, with Squall being probably my favorite FF protagonist. I still think it looks solid on a visual level, with the remaster being rather clean. I love Triple Triad, even if the Card Club trophy wasn't ideal. I even like that it's a game where some of the theories, even if debunked, could still work. Did Squall die? Is Rinoa Ultimecia? All valid enough questions. And I like a game that makes you think after you played it, so extra points there. As for other platinums, been working on Tony Hawk 1+2 but am caught in the frustrating final few which might even be above my skill level at THPS. And I'm finally finishing up WWE 2K23 with the MyRise mode.

Getting back into sketching this month. Finger is nearly fully healed so it's less of a hassle. Drew me a damn fine Ringo. Hopefully I get back into a groove soon and maybe try to get back into learning, but we'll see.

On the collection front, a little bit of stuff but not much. Mostly Simpsons comics, which I did say I'd continue on collecting. A few neat finds, including Simpsons #43 which is actually a story told in reverse. Still collecting some MLP comics, and recently found a 1st edition of Goosebumps #12: Be Careful What You Wish For... 

WITH THE TATTOO INTACT! 

And that's pretty much November for me. Mostly bad news what with the Coyote vs. Acme situation and Elon's continual killing of Twitter by being his Antisemitic self, driving away advertisers who, shocker, don't think their ads being on Nazi tweets is a good thing, only for Elon, Modern Day Socrates that he is, to tell them to go fuck themselves. Between all that and PlayStation no longer allowing sharing to Twitter, I just don't see a future for Twitter in 2024. Hell, I said I'd see it til the very end but at this point, I'm starting to doubt I'll make it there. We'll see. But for all the bad news, at least Henry Kissinger finally died, which started the whole world living! So that was at least a plus to end the month on. What will December bring? How will the year end? Guess I gotta post another one of these next month to find out.