Look Back in Anger: The Women's Wrestling Power Rankings (and a Cody Hot Take).

 *This blog post was started on February 22, 2022.

It is tough to come up with a good excuse for not having posted anything beyond "NinetyForChill: The #Podcast" in the past 20 days. I have had a Tuesday or Wednesday off the past three weeks from my soon to become full-time job, so I can claim that these were the ideal times to run errands. Still, these days off did not seem overly productive when it comes to the long term consequences. Until there was a job offer from my current employer, 2022 just felt like it was to be a rough year.

Things maybe changing. The deep hurting that I experienced watching "Foodfight!" came before I finally got to accept my job offer. My federal tax return has arrived, so I should be able to navigate my finances for the next few months. And it seems that I have the freedom to finally say that Marine Bank is responsible for the uncaring (and at least in one case, selfish) managers who came up with a bullshit reason to leave me panicking for nearly two months.

The bank can blame IDES for ignoring my appeal. If the state does not want to pursue the $604 the bank should have coughed up, I am hoping to bury its reputation. Of course, they may have the last laugh. It seems my retirement plan which was a lesser one than what Super Pantry provided me in 2009 needs a notary to be rolled over to my preferred bank. I only know one institution with free notary services, and they are the assholes who fucked me over for telling them to treat their staff better.

Too bad I cannot come up with a song title from the 1980's to state that feeling. I am too proud to be "Living on a Prayer" and I will not imply mastery of puppets for the Springfield-based profiteers I spoke of. "Janie Got a Gun" seems a little problematic. "Scary Monsters" could empower the awful salaried workers at their Champaign branches, but I think I have a Bowie title from that era to use.

And since I do not see these rankings below changing much from "For the Ladies: True Crime and Britt Baker", perhaps I should be upset.

The Disgruntled's Women's Wrestling Power Ranking (2/22/2022):

I guess this is just a testament to why there is only a sixth of women's wrestling content on televised professional wrestling. There have been four primary men's championship changes (Hangman > Omega; Lesnar > Big E; Lashley > Lesnar; Lesnar > Lashley) since these top three performers have won their championships. It is either there are too few women's wrestlers to make things interesting or the lack of depth is beyond apparent. You are going to get my best effort to make this appear interesting, but I think we have six more weeks of a static scene.

The Number One Women's Wrestler in the World:
Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D.

• She is the current Disgruntled's Women's Real World Champion.
• She is the current AEW Women's World Champion.
• She is the only current Western, televised wrestling women's champion with a secondary title holder beneath her further cementing her importance.
• I do not see AEW allowing her to be defeated at this point in her current feud with Thunder Rosa.

The Number Two Women's Wrestler in the World:
Becky Lynch

• She is the current Smackdown Women's Champion (A belt that has been recognized as the Real World Championship).
• She will be challenged by Bianca Belair, the only other woman to win a WrestleMania main event.
• She has actually defended her championship at the last two WWE premium live events.

The Number Three Women's Wrestler in the World:
Charlotte Flair

• She is the current Raw Women's Champion (A belt that has been recognized as the Real World Championship).
• She will be challenged at WrestleMania by the number one celebrity in women's wrestling, Rhonda Rousey.
• She will probably headline a night at WrestleMania despite not deserving to.

The Number Four Women's Wrestler in the World:
Kamille

• She his the current NWA Women's World Champion (A recognized world title by DRCW).

• The NWA Women's World Championship was being used as a secondary title briefly in AEW, hence it cannot outrank a primary championship.

• She is by far the most imposing of all Women's Champions at this time.

Superluchas: Stardom: «Ryogoku Dream Queendom 2021» Syuri es doble monarca

The Number Five Women's Wrestler in the World:
Syuri (Debut)

• She defeated Utami Hayashishita to win the World of Stardom Championship (A belt recognized as the Real World Championship) in a Winner-Take-All Bout (Syuri defended and retained the SWA World Championship).
• She was one of the first women to compete at NJPW's Wrestle Kingdom (15).

The Number Six Women's Wrestler in the World:
Zoey Skye

• She is the current Shimmer Champion (A recognized world title by DRCW).
• Impact did their best to protect the previous champion, Kimber Lee, by putting her in tag team matches and as the second to their Women's Champion.
• She currently lacks a Wikipedia page. This may mean that she will be the next big thing, but it will be a while before we can prove that.

The Number Seven Women's Wrestler in the World:
Bianca Belair (Debut)

• She had won the Elimination Chamber to challenge Becky Lynch for the Raw omen's Championship.
• Her story can only be satisfying with a title win at WrestleMania after Lynch stole her Smackdown title at Summer Slam.

The Number Eight Women's Wrestler in the World:
Thunder Rosa (Debut)

• She had defeated AEW Women's World Champion in a lights out match.
• She seems lined up to defeat Baker for the the AEW Championship, but I do not see that happening until after Revolution 2022.

The Number Nine Women's Wrestler in the World:
Rhonda Rousey (Debut)

• She is a former Strikeforce and UFC Bantamweight Champion (which was created to avoid her facing Cyborg Santos).
• She won the Royal Rumble to earn a shot at WrestleMania.
• I could see her failing to defeat Flair at Mania and be a strictly part-time competitor.
• If Lynch retains at Mania, I can see Rousey winning to set up the unification at Summer Slam.

The Number 10 Women's Wrestler in the World:
Mickie James

• The current Impact Knockouts Champion.
• Multiple time WWE Women's and former Diva's Champion.
• Impact has the greater exposure, so it places their championship ahead of America's first secondary championship, the Heart of Shimmer.
• James brought the championship more exposure by participating in the Women's Royal Rumble.

I guess if there is any thing that may upset wrestling fans is the lack of Jade Cargill in the rankings. She maybe 27-0 and the first TBS Champion, but she is a manufactured sports entertainer, not a wrestler. This is the influence that Cody Rhodes had on the AEW Women's Division. It is kind of fitting to see that he was never an indie star, just Matt Cardona before the former Zack Ryder became the Deathmatch King.

NinetyForChill: The #Podcast...Goes to B-Fest

NinetyForChill.com: The #Podcast

Episode 57: NinetyForChill: The #Podcast...Goes to B-Fest (Dalton of Roller Skates)

With "Showdown in Little Tokyo" sharing the marquee at the Norris University Center at Northwestern University, Cool Movies Darth was obligated to attempt to make it through the 24-hour, B-movie marathon that is B-Fest. He spent all 24 hours in the McCormick Auditorium, but did he watch all the movies? Sometimes, there are things so bad, you just need to shut the brain off.

I had made it through two Ed Wood features ("Final Curtain" and "Plan 9 From Outer Space") that are not unwatchable. "Firewalker" disappointed as I ponder how Chuck Norris had his prime throughout the whole of the 1980s, but I cannot be too mad at a good Louis Gossett Jr. performance and a John Rhys-Davies cameo. Who cannot appreciate the sheer, unintentional comedy that is "The Brain That Wouldn't Die"? You would think that would be enough to skip the edibles and choose to constantly drink Monster Juice energy drinks to claim that you made it through the DEEP HURTING.

"The Night of a Thousand Cats" was virtually unwatchable, so it was easier to take the time to update my Letterboxd lists for this podcast, so I felt ready for the 3:00 am show. There was disappointment days later when I found that Quentin Tarantino has an appreciation for that Mexican film, lifting the film's antagonist's name, Hugo Stiglitz, for Til Schweiger's character in "Inglourious Basterds". My disconnect with QT hurts. This feature was the first to be booed at the festival, but not nearly as angrily as that for "Foodfight!".

I have seen more Francis Coleman movies than most. I have seen "Manos: The Hands of Fate" and "Birdemic: Shock and Awe". I made it though "The Room". None of these films made it a point to piss off the audience with every line of dialogue delivered by B-list celebrities. If the animation was better than PlayStation One, PERHAPS this would not be the worst movie I have seen.

A friend of mine told the story about how the original animation was stored on what became stolen hard drives, so one maybe too harsh on this celebrity-endorsed consumerism allegory about the holocaust. (Since this animation is "Veggietales" simple, is this how morons have been brainwashed in believing the Jewish genocide did not occur?) I doubt PlayStation 3 graphics would save this. Every scene is just another decision to make the audience scream, "Fuck You!" at the screen. By 4:40 am, we just lacked the strength to keep up with it. 

We got the boos out of the way, but after that, in my seating row, I slept through "Marihuana: The Weed with Roots in Hell", Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Hercules in New York", and "The Return of Doctor X". It was necessary. Watching "Showdown" on a big screen was too important. 

If only it was not tradition for B-Fest to show "Plan 9" at midnight the past 38 years. There were some great films to discover/rediscover which could have softened the masochism that came with "Night of a Thousand Cats" and "Foodfight!" It was great to see "Return to Oz" at an age greater than five. Who would not appreciate the feature debut of Patrick Swayze in the roller disco film "Skatetown U.S.A."? But the highlight for me came with the second feature of Friday night, "Master of the Flying Guillotine".

The only thing this martial arts film was lacking was (aside from coherency) was a "Fight to Survive" montage. It has "Bloodsport" vibes, inspired "Street Fight 2" characters, and had weird Asian-on-Asian racism you cannot help but giggle at. This is a feature that has a lot of promise be it a cinematic remake, an arcade tournament fighter, or a new take on "Alien: Isolation". All it takes is an Ang Lee or Bong Joon Ho, and we will have a 21st century classic.

If you attended B-Fest and want to chat about the high and lows of the event, feel free to email russthebus07@gmail.com to arrange a Zoom meeting.

If I do not hear from anybody who attended the marathon, the Michael Dubois's Gene Wilder trilogy will begin on March 8. I do not like to post episodes on my birthday week. It is easier to just go social media silent than to ponder about whether or not a Facebook well wish from a high school classmate is genuine.

Follow me on Twitter @catbusruss. If you want to be on the show, contact me on Twitter or send an email to russthebus07@gmail.com. All we need is a theme, movie, director, or actor and a focus on sub 100-minute material. As long as the credits start before the 1:39:59 mark on the runtime bar, the movie qualifies.