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.