NintendoLogic

Maybe I'm in the bubble, but I'm curious as to where you guys are encountering fans who categorically dismiss all wrestling from Mexico. I'm sure there are random dudes on Twitter who do that, just like there are ones who think that puro is just Japanese men chopping each other. But I don't know of anyone whose opinion carries weight in any organized fan community expressing that view.

I agree that there's a tendency for people who aren't really into lucha to treat it with kid gloves. But that only seems to apply to lucha. When people criticize Tanahashi, they don't limit themselves to saying he's not for them or bend over backwards to acknowledge the things his fans like about him. They flat-out say he sucks. I think it's because you'll get far more pushback for saying something ignorant about lucha than for saying something ignorant about puro, at least on this corner of the Internet. I've seen people say some of the dumbest shit imaginable about Kobashi without anyone saying a word in response when they'd get raked over the coals if they said something equivalently stupid about Negro Casas.

I honestly think that doing a deep dive to try to "get" a certain style of wrestling is a waste of time. I'm not saying that tastes can't shift or that context isn't useful. But if something doesn't have that immediate visceral connection with you, the amount of effort it takes to "get" it is far out of proportion to intellectual rewards it provides. I mean, come on. It's not Shakespeare, it's fucking professional wrestling. It's supposed to be comfort food, not something you try to choke down and learn to like the taste of because it's good for you.

World Class promoted several Star Wars shows on major American holidays. The ones on Independence Day and Labor Day were held at the Fort Worth Convention Center while the Thanksgiving and Christmas ones were held at Reunion Arena. In addition, they had the David Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions on the first Sunday of May at Texas Stadium and the Cotton Bowl Extravaganza in October.

She broke Chaparrita Asari's nose in a match on Raw.

The thing is, it's only certain kinds of puro that American fans tend to gravitate toward. For the most part, it's limited to the All Japan crew and guys like Muta and Liger who wrestled high-profile matches in WCW. Stuff like shoot style is just as esoteric to most Americans as lucha, if not more so.

Who in lucha should have won MOTY/WOTY/Most Oustanding Wrestler but didn't?

On a national level, absolutely. It's not just about market share. It's also about barriers to entry. To be a nationally successful promotion, you need TV in a good timeslot on a channel people actually watch, which is pretty much an insurmountable obstacle. Part of that is due to TNA poisoning the well, though.

In matters of taste, "it's not for me" and "it sucks" is a distinction without a difference.

Smackdown seems to manage to do it.

I'm going to assume that it's because someone must have finally realized who would want to buy a book about some silver spooned rich girl's life experiences and the details of the career she has due to nepotism.

To me, the no-double-inductees rule is the most indefensible aspect of the WON HOF. If the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame had that rule, Led Zeppelin would be ineligible for induction because Jimmy Page was already in as a member of the Yardbirds.

Well, WWE. http://www.carlbeijer.com/2016/10/notes-on-wrestling.html Nothing terribly subversive so far. In fact, most of the analysis is Shoemaker-esque (he even cites Shoemaker at one point). But it has the potential to be interesting.

The commentary in the DIY/Revival match made me think of Monsoon. When Gargano was in the inverted figure-four and Corey Graves was screaming about how we was definitely going to tap, he made it obvious that he wasn't and completely killed the drama of the moment. To me, that's far worse than anything Monsoon ever did. People like to bitch about him not putting over a headlock as a potential match-ender, but I don't remember him ever burying legitimate submission finishers.

Randy Couture was a top guy in UFC well into his forties.

I'm more mystified by the love for Bobby Roode than for Tye Dillinger. He's basically The Miz minus the charisma and with better entrance music.

What?

I'm pretty sure that was the worst match in WWE history. The fact that it was at least twice as long as any other contender puts it over the top.

I'm this close to yelling "END! END!" at my screen like Tom Servo.

OK, disregard my comment. I was checking my phone and only saw the End of Days.

Kendrick wins by DQ after Corbin attacks Kalisto? The fuck?

The Revival can do no wrong.

Does Lana use her real accent on the show or her Russian one?

The thing is, most of the folks reaching for coloring books aren't Mexicans at risk of being deported, LGBT at risk of having their families split up, or other marginalized groups. They're white students from comfortable backgrounds. The trauma they're reacting to is the existence of contrary viewpoints. People like that are completely useless in a fight against Trump and what he stands for.

To get back to the point I was trying to make, most conservatives aren't opposed to political correctness because they oppose civility or support bigotry. It's because they see it as a tool to delegitimize non-leftist viewpoints by declaring them to be outside the bounds of acceptable discourse.