"Second Wind" for an Underemployed Pro-Wrestler & The Current REAL World Champions

 *This blog post was started on July 26, 2022.

I hate my obsessive compulsive nature. Not because it seems ridiculous to place things in order (How else are you suppose to look good?), it is because it makes me do things when I do not have the energy to. My next shift starts at 7:30 am, after a day off of course.

That is the start of the nine-day work week. Between work, "NinetyForChill: The #Podcast", a goth night on Thursday, and prepping for C2E2, writing does not feel like it should be a priority. But, discipline is something I can claim to have.

I have the second season of "The Boys" on in my peripheral in hopes of concluding the third season by the time of the next convention. That is not the discipline that I speak of. "Disgruntled's Real Championship Wrestling" has been used as my template for the podcast blogs since I am trying to balance the total number of posts on that blog and MainEventOfTheDead.com. Since DRCW is formatted to have three posts on the homepage at one time, there needs to be a wrestling-related blog amongst them.

As I have said previously in blogs (I have ended up writing four posts in the last three days.), wrestling has not had much for me to write about. Everyone has an opinion of Vince McMahon leaving the business. Mine is, you are suppose to get out once they give you the 40 years of service ring. It will be interesting with Triple H taking over creative, but he only gets the toys that Nick Khan wants him to play with. Thus, for a website about arbitrary rankings, I have little to write about.

But, we just had a company (Ring of Honor) change two championships this past weekend. Since my last Real Championship Wrestling blog, the AEW tag team championships have changed twice. Do these change the Real World and Tag Team Championships? No, but it does mean there maybe new Men's Doubles Real World Champions.

The Disgruntled's Current Real World Champions of Professional Wrestling
(As of July 26, 2022).

But before I get to that, it is nuts how I watch television. It has been easy to watch the "Star Wars" series(s) and "The Boys". These are two things that Ally of Ally's Accessories Shop on Etsy did not get into. "Star Wars" was not for her since Grogu was not as lovable the old school Yoda. "The Boys" because, despite she does not mind (and maybe encourages) my use of CUNT, the outrageous and hilarious, paradoxical violence is too much.

It is just a coincidence that the show came on near our break up. I guess trying to say maybe there were too many c-words flying in my household. This is why she needs to take Skimble in when she and her fiancé get that condominium. There is a chance that I am a bad influence on the little guy.

Sorry for the tangent. My therapy session got cancelled. I did get to use the time to converge my PS4 into my PS5.

To sum it all up, the break between "Westworld" and "Stranger Things" is probably a year longer than the time I have been broken up from Ally. This is my excuse for not being up to date on their fourth seasons. I will give Netflix credit. "Stranger Things 4" was the talk of FanExpo Chicago 2022 (and the workplace).

As for HBO, there has been little chatter about the new adventures of Dolores. Thus, I feel like a shitty fan. If I am not watching "Westworld", who is? It does not sound like a bad thing to martyr myself for. The things I have let happen to me in the wrestling business means I have had dumber ideas.

The 98th Disgruntled's Real Men's World Champion:
AEW World Champion
CM Punk (His third reign began on May 29, 2022)

All seems right with the wrestling world right now. The best guy gets to claim that he is and the booker who says otherwise is no longer in the business.

Obviously, Punk has not defended the championship, but how often has Roman Reign's defended his double championship since Punk's injury? The same can be said of Switchblade Jay White, but that is due to the G1 Climax Tournament. If anything, we have learned the importance of tournaments when you do not have a champion who performs.

The 49th Disgruntled's Real Women's World Champion:
AEW World Champion
Thunder Rosa (Her reign began on March 16, 2022)

When AEW has women's matches, they are better wrestling matches. The problem with AEW is that they do not create a lot of drama around this championship. It does not seem that important. But, Thunder Rosa can definitely out wrestle all other women's champions at this time.

The 151st Disgruntled's Real Tag Team World Champions:
WWE Unified Tag Team Champions
Jimmy & Jey Uso (Their second reign began on Jan. 5, 2022)

Was getting over Jungle Boy worth this slip up in DRCW? I guess with success of Omega and Page, why not roll the dice. The tag division is kind of in flux right now. Swerve in our Glory is a great team, but they are still teasing a break up despite the title win. And to do that over the Young Bucks? Just because WWE is not doing anything with tag team wrestling does not mean you should turn your belt into a prop. If FTR does not outlast the Bloodline's reign, all is lost with the division.

The 2nd Interim Disgruntled's Men's Champion:
IWGP World Heavyweight Champion
Switchblade Jay White (His reign began on June 12, 2022)

Roman Reigns already has a DRCW championship. Okada was a superior fighting champion than Reigns when an interim champion was needed. Jay White is probably suited to be the best heel in New Japan, and that means he is either the top champion or contender. If you want drama, he is the best champion who is not Will Osprey.

The OCHO: The Real Secondary Champion:
ROH World Television Champion
Samoa Joe (His third reign began on April 25, 2022)

WWE is completely ignoring their United States and Intercontinental Championships. IWGP is putting a lot of undo drama on their United States Championship. Joe might be too old and too big to hold the championship, but when he performs, it can be a main event attraction. You cannot say that for any other champion who is not THE Champion.

The Modern Poser Champion:
WWE Unified Universal Champion
Roman Reigns (His second reign began on August 20, 2020)

If you are not defending against AEW or IWGP wrestlers, how can you be the REAL champion?

The 160th Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Champions:
NWA World Tag Team Champions
Doug Williams & Harry Smith (Their reign began on 6/15/22)

The AEW Trios Championship better be worth a stunt title reign from the Young Bucks. Shane "Swerve" Strickland and "Limitless" Keith Lee are where their supporters want them, but because of the two weeks of Jackson reign, they cannot carry on any DRCW title lineage.

I know Williams and Smith have a tag team name (Commonwealth Connection), but Williams was semi-retired and Smith is an excellent utility player. They are a doubles set instead of a team.

I hope you enjoyed this exercise in futility. This leads me to think that I may need to investigate tertiary championships as my next task. 40 years of champions should mean I can stretch that out till the fall. If only I have the energy...or a chance to blog at work. Rest assured, I like everyone at my employer...but the customers.

NinetyForChill: The #Podcast - ”Mad God” = Expletives & Nutty Podcasters with Gregory Gathmann

 

NinetyForChill.com: The #Podcast

Episode 75: ”Mad God” = Expletives & Nutty Podcasters with Gregory Gathmann (The Case of Cinema Versus Art).

”Mad God” = Expletives & Nutty Podcasters with Gregory Gathmann

July 5, 2022

NinetyForChill.com's Guide to Shudder, "The Mudshow's" Gregory Gathmann needed five beers and someone to chat about Phil Tippett's magnum opus "Mad God", so he came to Cool Movies Darth. The two were impressed with this dialogue-free, stop-motion, animated feature that took 30 years to make, but what does it mean? Is it good cinema or merely superb visual art? These two podcasters try to make sense of this feature and perhaps even their lives.

Allow me to get out of third-person. Happy Prof. Shurtleff of Illinois Central College? I (CM Darth) will try not to make so much light of violent death in this summation. This is my declaration of changing perspective. 

So...the scheduling of how I am handling my podcast blogs is changing. This may only be temporary. Last weekend, I had ended up drinking three of four nights.

Night one was the monthly Bat Factory Goth Night by The Darkness Underground at the Rose Bowl in Urbana, IL. My therapist wants me to take on any social interaction I can get regardless of the 10-hour retail shift to follow. Night 2 was made up of trying to stay conscious enough to watch this film. Night 3 was for drinking and recording this podcast's episode. I also had to try and stay up after the recording (and 7-hour shift) to watch 1967's "The Producers" in preparation for another recording. Night 4 had me finishing off the $2 frozen July 4th cocktails (with added vodka) and recording that episode with Michael Dubois (this after an 8-hour shift).

Of course, I had to work the July 4th holiday. My exhaustion had not been this bad since I was starting my weekends on Thursday nights to exploit VIP room discounts at Big Al's, drudging through a copywriting shift and two hotel concierge shifts only to end up drinking on Saturday nights. At least that was a time where I would never allow myself to work seven days in a row. Remember the Sabbath I suppose.

The first week of July was going to conclude with my trip to all four days of Fan Expo Chicago. This meant at least two more long nights. I may have been sober for them, but I am really backed up when it comes to nerd culture. I have yet to start up season three of "The Boys" or season four of "Westworld". With Kevin Smith being my primary draw to the convention, it seemed necessary to complete his filmography with "Jay & Silent Bob Reboot". One thing for certain, binging "Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi" was a must. Thus, two more nights of little rest.

In the end, I knew I was not going to have the energy to edit this episode of the podcast or write up this blog post last week. Recovering from Fan Expo meant that I did not have the energy to write a blog post for my experiences at the con (which will be the subject of next week's episode). My plans are to leave Podbean once my contract ends because they only seem to promote hate speech on their network (Glenn Beck, Steve Bannon, Ben Shapiro, Joe Rogen, Right Side Patriots), but their distribution is great when it comes to Twitter updates about the pod. Hence, the blogs for these episodes will come the week after I exploit that system while I can.

As for this podcast, "Mad God" is a stunning piece of work that demands multiple viewings to understand. I first heard of this feature from listening to the "Screen Drafts: Adult Animation Draft". The drafters reason for not including this in the top seven was that it took 31 years to make. It was seen as much as an experiment as it was a feature. With no dialogue and nightmarish imagery from Oscar-Winning stop motion effects legend Phil Tippett, I can see why it would be tough for people to strongly suggest this feature to friends.

But I must have the right kind friends. Gregory Carl is fascinated my almost everything on Shudder. He once suggested "The Baby" which I kind of thought was too creepy. Of course, I had not had a guest for the show in weeks and this sounded cool, so who was I to deny him or the "Mad God". It is a violent nightmare with a sense of humor.

For some, that may sound like hell, but does the actual Lucifer have a sense of humor. "Mad God" is like a Rube Goldberg device of mayhem, so if you love Warner Bros. cartoons, you owe it to yourself to check this out. You may want to do that first and then let me and Greg try to make sense of it all.

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.