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Prepare the crabs

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Hi, have a taco

Hey guys

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It’s my second year on tumblr with this account since my last one was deleted by choice during the botpocalypse but I’ve been here for about 5 years, if you’ve ever interacted with any of my posts I’m sorry for your loss….speaking of

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A cool thing I noticed about legendary Pokémon

At least one subsequent legendary builds on the concept of a legendary from last gen. Allow me to demonstrate

Gen 2: lugia is the master of the legendary birds, and ho oh built off mewtwo’s theme of artificial life with resurrection of the beasts, natural life

Gen 3: kyogre built on lugia being the guardian of the sea and the weather trio in general expand legendary Pokémon to the embodiment of concepts rather than just extremely powerful Pokémon by explaining the creation of earth as it is.

Gen 4: we go from the physical creation that is earth to the creation of everything with literally god

Gen 5: truth and ideals may seem like a stretch to connect to the creation trio but I would say the dragons build of the lake trio, without emotion you would lack the ability to care about either truth or ideals, you need knowledge to know the truth, and willpower to realize your ideals

Gen 6: I think the best fit has to be zygaurd. A Pokémon that protects the balance of nature. Going by just truth or ideology alone won’t get you very far. They have to work in tandem, in balance

Gen 7: I would say necrozma is an antithesis to zyguard. It’s otherworldly, not of nature, seeks to distort the balance

Gen 8: eternatus feels like an ultra beast and has come from our space telling us that maybe they aren’t so otherworldly

Gen 9: really the whole games theme of past and future feels like the contrast between galars legend of the darkest day, and history repeating itself in the reawakening of eternatus by chairman rose who wanted to solve a future energy crisis

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Hear me out, it’s because hot man alex shelly is punk as fuck and if you put Chris in standard black trunks and boots he’d look like a regular ass northerner I think~ an American who watches mostly British wrestling

MCMG are some of the most British looking non-British people i have ever seen in my life 💀

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Why pro wrestling magic is one of the best things in New Jersey

Look i’m gonna be upfront… this is just gonna be me gushing for however long this takes you to read but assuming you’re a Wrestling fan already I gotta spread the word.

PWM has been running for a long time but I am a new fan. Their past season was the first one I watched in full they have an off season around august. But this season brought a ton of amazing players and storylines.

First of all prolific FUCK HARD, respectfully, this season mostly had Isaiah wolf fighting his own partner Ruthless Lala after she got possessed by the spirits of the ancestors. Leading to an amazing last one standing match which ended in a draw but mark my god damn words it’s their year, doesn’t matter if it’s wolf, lala, Tyree Taylor or markus marquee, someone is getting gold and the year will be prolific.

But honestly the amount of groups in pro wrestling magic that rule need to be studied. You have prolific obviously, but you also have hispanos unidos led by the og ROH talent Azreal, stressed and depressed is also there, then my second favorite group project mayhem.

Speaking of project mayhem let’s talk about genuinely my favorite story out of this company, the implosion of project mayhem. Notable indy vet smiley ended up in control of the company and was rather hostile. Taking the dark arts title off of Steve off. Until Steve battled back, at which point smiley shifted his attention to shane fair and just being an ass. Trixie the manager of project mayhem gets fed up with his shit and it turns into a “mommy and daddy fight” leaving vi Daniels and Eden in the middle conflicted. They hold onto their titles but Eden becomes increasingly frustrated with smiley, he refuses to injure someone and as Vi does Eden goes off telling him he’s not smiley. As the vendetta against Shane fair continues trixie tells smiley he won’t have anyone if he does this basically having an intervention but it falls on deaf ears. Until a one ring war games match for control of the company. Smiley has vi and Eden by his side until he goes too far, shane fair is untrained and fucking diabetic and smiley wants Eden to help take him out. A moment of thought before Eden kicks smiley in the fucking face, and Vi who was probably the most indoctrinated by smiley joins eden, vi unmasks himself and the two walk out together. Project mayhem lives, it breathes, and continues without smiley. They would go on to keep hold of the junior tag titles for a few defenses before losing in a fatal 4 way tag match to stressed and depressed. They started number 1 in the tag title unification gauntlet beating The Rep, Surviving SAD, and then dying fighting till the end to the combined 800 pound team of monsters known as meat locker.

But that’s not the only banger they have, if you’ve been watching the northeast indys for a while you probably know about the meadowlands monster, or el oso blanco bruno. He is one half of an amazing rivalry turned tag team, turned rivalry again with jon tella. Now admittedly the whole rivalry pre team up is something I haven’t seen yet but commentary does such a good job explaining it that you don’t really need to see it all immediately. Bruno turned on tella again before a match with meat locker sacrificing the tag titles in the process, which probably still hurt a little as death row were the longest reigning champions. They had a contract agreement so they couldn’t touch. In a grudge match tella got revenge.

Let me tell you about someone else to keep an eye on, Troy Locke. He’s a ball of rage with technical skill just waiting to break someone into bits, he will suplex and roll you into dust. He’s already held junior heavyweight gold in pro wrestling magic but he really could go anywhere. I straight up cackled when he was booked to take on donavan.

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In case anyone finds it helpful because mobility aids are horrifically expensive and inaccessible…

And for those people who have access to mobility devices but might benefit from a second chair they can abuse without risking expensive damage…

Erik Kondo has made a website, Open Source Innovations, that details plans for DIY wheelchairs. These wheelchairs can be made from common materials like wood, plastic, and pvc. They are lightweight and can be custom fit to the user allowing from the same degree of movement you would get from a custom chair. And they are durable and easily repairable. (he has been stress testing his latest design by dropping it down stairs, dropping it out of a car, launching it across a driveway, and throwing it off a deck). Its 12lbs and I think he said its was in the $200 ish range for parts.

He also is working on cheap, open source, accessible designs for beach chairs, off road chairs, motorized attachments (think smart drive), and so on. Plus he skateboards in his wheelchair. Cool dude, helpful info, pass it on.

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Okay, art friends, look at me. You have heard this 1000 times again but I’m gonna say it again and explain it. It’s okay to post “bad art” you fucking should actually. No listen….every step of your art journey matters. You see artists around you posting art that to you looks amazing and they say it isn’t their best but “yours looks so much worse than theirs.” Stop that. You already know it’s because they’re more practiced than you right now. Those around you telling you they like your art aren’t lying or just trying to be supportive…trust them you are doing something they like. Art being subjective also means others have the chance to like your art you deem “bad”

I’m not one to just say shit im gonna put my skill where my mouth is. I got into art to make comics, so that’s what I’m gonna do, doesn’t matter if i think the art is bad it’s what I got into art to do so fuck it.

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When you’ve never seen this before

when she says she doesn’t send nudes

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The prince, honestly to your relief, explains that he would like not to marry you but instead give a job. Your flowers are the best quality in the kingdom and the royal advisor saw you going around the small graveyard and laying flowers on every single grave. Every poor peasant, every nobleman and woman, even the last queen. People that would not know nor care about you. He thinks you deserve to be paid for doing this.

“My grandmother, she’s not remembered fondly by many people. She did many horrible things certainly but she…she was still~”

“Your grandmother, of course. It must have been hard for you when she passed”

“We never bonded that much as she never had time such frivolities being a queen but she was still the kindest to me.” The young prince began to break down into a sobbing mess as your arms wrapped around him. Your tone became softer as his advisor slowly began to console him.

“My grandmother also passed a while ago that’s why I leave flowers it’s her…my garden I grow them from. She taught me how to bake, I can teach you.” You say with a smile.

“I would enjoy that.”

You are a poor girl selling flowers. Today is your birthday but no one knows. When you return home you find the prince of the kingdom waiting for you with a birthday cake. "Are you sure this is the one?" He whispers to his advisor.

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“You made a sandwich and named it after…me? Someone who isn’t even a food based villain?” They asked almost in surprise standing at the counter almost floored by the gesture.

“Yeah of course” you responded kindly “I don’t know your reasons for becoming Dr Digital but do you remember that time you caused a citywide tech crash to get the banks to give you a million dollars?”

“Yeah, it was one of my favorite things i did this year.” He smiled with a little pride as you talked about his work.

“I noticed something, it didn’t target the hospital, the animal shelter, or anyone’s insulin pump. Just the corpos. That my friend is punk as shit and that’s always welcome here. I now present in your honor the giga bite.” You gave them their sandwich, scrambled eggs with chopped veggies and bits of grilled chicken folded in and put on some nice fluffy toast.

“Oh this, this is the best sandwich I’ve ever had. How did you choose the ingredients?” They inquired upon finishing the meal.

“Well you’re name is Dr digital so I wanted it to make it something you could feel good eating at a computer, quality ingredients, not messy, and good for you.”

The fairy meek man reached over the counter to give you a piece of paper. “That is my number, if any systems you need go down don’t even try tech support, I am your new tech support”

You own a sandwich shop in the heart of a superhero city. After gaining customers by making sandwiches based on heroes, you decided to try making some based on villains. Today, a villain stopped to review theirs.

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Ok so as a lover of science fiction the whole ai sentience debate is boring to me there are idiots who would be racist there would be blind defenders, what is far more exciting to me is the vessel. I want a world where indistinguishable androids coexist with humanity along with the funky lil robots I can pack bond with like the toaster in the kitchen I know I can make toast in the oven but if I deprive my faithful block of stainless steel it’s primary function I will make myself upset. I want to pat a funky lil bot on the top of it, give me robots shaped like fundamental 3D shapes.

[grave-queen-jakrabitt]

PROGRESS wrestling in the 2020s and why it’s so captivating

So I’ve told the story of the reign of Cara noir, his rivalry with spike trivet, and the rise of kid lykos but to be honest I don’t think I did a good job and I want to approach it from a more analytical perspective. So I’m going to do that by looking at how the booking strategy affects it.

It’s no secret that pre nxt uk progress was what you may consider a super Indy and post pandemic progress really isn’t. Pre 2021 progress was fucking nuts, it put on dream matches and made people take notice of England, but the fact is it was quietly able to build its rep since 2012. WWE UK was built on its back. 2020s progress doesn’t exactly have the same roster depth but it has another strength. It’s limited roster made it’s booking really good and the Tale of the swan, vulture, and the wolf is the best example.

Spike trivet and Cara noir came into the company in 2019. Cara would go on to win the progress title and take it into the restart. Spike would ask for a title match and he would be denied….this single decision would inform the next 2 years of progress wrestling. Meanwhile kid lykos would win in the tag title tournament alongside kid lykos II losing them after 96 days to the smokin aces. Lykos gets a few wins and gets a shot at Cara promptly eating swan shit and focusing on tag wrestling losing a title match, making friends with a wrestler named Warren banks along the way and getting some backup.

Spikes vendetta against Cara really kicks in and he screws Cara out of the championship against one of the best wrestlers on the planet Jonathan Gresham. Warren banks is next in line for a shot but kid lykos screws Warren over and helps Gresham as the two have history, on that same show Spike brutalizes Cara. This is extremely important because it sets off a chain of events. Keeping Cara and spike away from the title picture but still extremely relevant, giving the title picture space for a masterpiece.

Gresham being American only had time for a short reign with the belt, but he’s so good nobody can really beat him. Gene munny asks to face Gresham as a qualifier for super strong style 16 2022. But Gresham has a stipulation forced upon him. If he cheats or lykos gets involved he’ll be stripped of the title. Lykos sees a chance. He knows he can’t beat Gresham but if the title is vacated it’ll be crowned in the tournament. He turns his back on Gresham solving that problem, munny says he’s not going to strong style without a 3 count and smashes lykos 2.

In the tournament we get the revenge of Warren banks as he knocks out lykos, along with eventual crowning of distant contender Chris ridgeway. But we also see trivet vs noir in an I quit match …loser leaves progress. The silent black swan speaks after the vulture threatens his wife, the swan is gone. Spike says he can stay as long as he just goes by his real name with no gimmicks and doesn’t use his signature moves. Unfortunately he would be injured for a bit, this unfortunate bit of fortune would lead to a brilliant idea, a terrible, awful, brilliant idea. The match known as the thunder bastard. Pinfall or submission 9 people enter in 3 minute intervals winner gets an anywhere any time title shot. Spike enters close last and this match is a good example of the way spike works there are very few people he can out work so he plays mind games and he orchestrates. He blinds Dan Maloney so he spears man like deriess and jams the prop key in dans eye for the win. The mind games with cara showed how desperate spike is for control, so what happens when a machiavellian gets chekhov’s gun?

Meanwhile shitwolf and el eijho de shit wolf have been trying to drive a wedge between the tag team champions, while lykos also began shit talking his former partner Chris brooks, Chris ridgeway loses the title to big damo, but in the matter of a few shows chekov’s gun would fire with the shattering of a glass bottle over Maloney’s head. The vulture swoops in and steals the title. His first defense was Eddie Dennis which had a dusty finish with his foot on the ropes then losing the restarted match by disqualification for again bottling someone

Then drew Parker comes home to the uk. both he and spike were part of do not resuscitate, drew starting it but spike handling a majority of the things they did. Spike brings up the scars from his first death match with drew. For those that those who don’t know spike trivet and drew Parker were 2 of the 4 pillars of uk death match along with Chris brooks and cliff margira but spike fell into a more standard style of wrestling. He berated drew for being a dogshit wrestler to get him to change his mind about a death match. It doesn’t work but this again proves my point, spike is a middle of the road wrestler so he cheats to get ahead, when the rules go out the window he can play the game but he knows he has to be careful, so he brought backup….his own personal bodyguard bullit.

The deadly viper tour’s California mountain snake sees the return of return of Chris brooks and debut of masahiro takanashi and the lykos gym a few days before brooks vs lykos at return of the fly, this time eating squid shit. But in the main event spike beats man like deriess but the water is getting deeper, he’s st

Return of the fly gives us the moment, lykos vs brooks, months worth of aggression taken out in no disqualification catharsis. Lykos gym bring out a door with fuck CCK written on it that will get used on lykos later. But something to highlight here is at a point Chris brooks gets ahead and honestly starts doing some fucked up shit. To the point where when lykos refuses to die the crowd start cheering, Chris hits his half of the CCK tag finisher dropping his partner of half a decade back first into thumbtacks…he stays alive, it devolves into a fistfight….he stays alive. Lykos goes to hit his diving swanton off the top rope Chris moves and lykos lands back first into the pins….and still he stays alive the blood soaking through the mask that now clings to his neck by a thread. His biggest bombs have been dropped and nothing could put brooks away from the Casanova knee, to the blood moon, mangy’s revenge, even pulling out his old full moon Spanish fly nothing worked so what does he have left? Skill, a roll up puts brooks away for a 3. After that the two partners make up and hug it out.

The next stop on the deadly viper tour sees kid lykos taking on Luke Jacobs. Jacobs is very familiar with lykos after he and his partner Ethan Allen were defeated by lykos gym in the final of the tag team title tournament. He then became atlas champion before losing it to big damo. Lykos is still a shitwolf but he’s been like that since CCK. Luke will been important later. But for now spike takes on drilla Dan Maloney….in a non title match. Spike made him so pissed that he didn’t care about the title. Dan wins but spike keeps the belt. This sets up a title match but also makes sure spike gets some comeuppance.

The next show sees lykos gym facing Kidd bandit and warhorse. However the biggest thing they do is jumping the tag champs and cutting the hair off chuck mambo one half of the champs. Actually cutting it next show. At the surprise unboxing show for the year spike barely beats big damo. But after the match gene munny totals spike setting up the match

First show of 2023, lykos gym vs the sunshine machine. Kid lykos actually tells off lykos 2 for cheating and repeatedly tries to make amends with chuck mambo. Mambo counters lykos’s blood moon for a pin. Gene munny gets jumped by spike and bullit trying to make sure he can’t compete. But munny asks if that’s all he’s got. As expected gene loses. But as spike tries to batter gene with a chair Tom Dawkins comes home to the ballroom, he lost a match to bullit and left for Japan.

Next show the smokin aces lose a title match to the sunshine machine and brutalize them, weather it was the gauntlet at the 10th anniversary, or the 3 way ladder match the sunshine machine have been the ace’s kryptonite. Then we get bullit and trivet vs munny. The aces make themselves involved on the side of spike

Chapter 150, non title trivet vs Dawkins Cara noir on the line. This match is insane, to begin with spike comes out in shit Cara makeup. Tom Dawkins made the point that after 10th anniversary spike said Cara had no friends, then he responded with “I don’t fucking need any friends because a couple of people in the back hate you” out come sanity to deal with bullit. He could probably deal with teicher but not him and damo. Tom gets close to pulling it off but one of his own students yanks the ref out of the ring. Bullit bullied him into it after the pre show. He instantly regrets it and bullit puts him through a table. Thanks to TK Cooper jumping them for busting open chuck mambo the smokin aces won’t be an issue. Spike takes the boots off of Tom then the kick pads, out of sheer desperation a capoeira kick blasts spike and in all but image Cara noir is back with a devilish smile. Swan At one point we get another reminder of the 10th anniversary beating, and like the I quit match Clair Dawkins gets involved, unlike that beating however she fights back showing off some excellent training. A swan woo dropkick to spike, ddt counter to bullit’s chokeslam, a moonstomp blackout sleeper combo. Madame guillotine, package piledriver, all hail the black swan.

151, steel cage noir vs trivet one last time. Spike candidly speaks about how he felt like robbing Tom Dawkins of Cara noir would expose him…but spike was exposed, he promises to give Cara the fight of his life rather than the swans. And in an effort to keep what’s his now he fights like hell. It starts… with a handshake into a nose break. spike isn’t a bad wrestler but he’s not out wrestling the arguably best champion in progress history. So when spike taunts Cara into beating his ass instead of winning it again shows his strength, starting shit. But at this point they’ve both lost a lot of blood, Cara had his foot mangled by the cage and he fights on but he realizes he can’t anymore. Bowing to the vulture almost giving spike his blessing to finish him with the tower of silence. It feels wrong at first but the more you think about it it makes sense

Spike wanted something, but he didn’t get it, so he stole something from Cara. Cara for the better part of 18 months had been motivated to get back what was stolen, Spike had the championship he wanted so badly, Cara was back in full force they didn’t need to do this anymore. It was time for the wolf to go on the hunt.

Super strong style 16 2023, kid lykos makes it through big damo, Nick Wayne, Nathan Cruz and meets mark Haskins in the final. The ultimate shitwolf plays completely above board, especially since Nigel mcguinness is the referee, Haskins fakes lykos 2 tripping him to get him kicked out. Mark puts his hands on Nigel one to many times and as he’s about to brain buster lykos Nigel shoves him into a lykos brain buster. He calls his shot a few shows down the line. Next show, bullit vs lykos and lykos 2 vs spike trivet, it doesn’t go well

155: Feel the noize bullit vs lykos ends how you’d expect, lykos vs drilla Maloney is a great match, trivet vs Luke Jacobs, ends in an interference brawl with Maloney spearing trivet. Setting up Jacobs Maloney and lykos vs dominatus regnum (spikes group who’s name I couldn’t spell) and before I get to that I wanna talk about bullits side quest. See every member of dominated rectum has a goal, the aces wanted the tag belts and spike wants to solidify his reign so what about the one man armory? Simple, he wants to be better than big damo. And at chapter 155 bullit does it, he beats him no spike no aces. This is a good motivation and it also solves half DRs sanity problem. The tag match is chaos but lykos pins trivet, keeping the pin in as long as possible to show it wasn’t a fluke.

Hungry like the wolf is the next show. And it’s hard fought but again by the skin of his teeth trivet beats lykos. But at Novembers show vendetta it’s mask vs title. It’s as brutal as brooks vs lykos, glass, doors thumbtacks, but at a key moment bullit chokeslams lykos 2 through a table as a distraction. And lykos loses his mask. It’s the importance of what happened next that I wanna talk about. Lykos talks about how things is the first lucha wager match in British wrestling, and Spike lets him….he silences the crowd giving the floor to the shitwolf…to Ethan beach and shakes his hand. These two will meet again, they will hate again but all is said and done, spike has his prize, and the shitwolf never dies!

At unboxing and a movie lykos battles Eddie Dennis in the main event. Spike trivet puts his hands on one of the owners of progress getting himself suspended. Kid lykos 2 has a few words for bullit “kid lykos 2 is not your distraction, I’m not your decoy I’m your fucking problem.” Spikes suspension opens up the door, at light of the dragon it’s the thunderbastard match. Lykos enters at number one, he manages to outlast Connor mills, gene munny, Luke Jacobs, mark Haskins, Yoichi, and Tate Mayfairs. The very key that belonged to the vulture is now in the jaws of a wolf. And like strong style he calls his shot for February. Lifting the suspension of the vulture. He gets attacked by spike from the crowd. In February it’s another cage match. The last word however belongs to lykos “hey vulture, I’m still here”

Chapter 163: twisted metal

Smokin aces screw sanity over but out come cheeky little buggers. They goad the aces into a giving them a shot. Falcon brings up that the tag titles aren’t really gender specific. Crowley kicks out of the penalty kick piledriver. And by the same method the cheeky little burgers beat the aces.

lykos 2 vs bullit. Bullit beats the shit out of lykos 2 for a while, but the chokeslam is countered and built eats a Death Valley driver as the 5’6 shitwolf picks him up. Again the chokeslam doesn’t work, the spinebuster doesn’t work, lykos 2 has a mission. A sunset flip off the top, and the lykos gym brainbuster gets him the win, the giant goes down.

The last moment of the reign of terror, lykos comes out to a video of his highlights from progress. The vulture of progress comes out flanked by the aces. Spike fakes out putting on a lykos mask and tosses it to the man himself who throws it aside and smashes spike. Like a coward spike runs for escape but he can’t. Lykos gets busted open from a shot to the cage. Spike is in his element now and the crowd taunts him with his real name. He tries to escape the cage but lykos grabs his ankle. He goes for a pin but lykos kicks out. Lykos gets up and spits blood at the vulture. Defiant but he takes a beating for the trouble. He knees trivet, a flurry of offensive blows gets him control. He goes to the top but he’s caught by spike. But again lykos claws back. A package piledriver by lykos gets kicked out of, as is the piledriver by spike. The two slam each other’s heads into the cage as an escape attempt goes south. Lykos goes for the door but Charlie sterling slams it on his head. The right hands that spike uses to crumple lykos earlier stop working. A massa takanashi nose grab, a lariat from Luke Jacobs, the late mad Kurt’s saga mega driver, Chris Brooke’s octopus stretch. The aces break it up but the locker room clears out. Spike is alone in the wolfs den, a superkick, a brainbuster, a kick out from spike, the dive off the top rope from lykos. After a two and a half years the reign of terror ends….let the new horror begin the vulture all hail the shit wolf.

Having told you that tale I think there’s a theme throughout the 2020s for progress in the form of identity. You can certainly see it in a lot of the title reign of spike trivet, robbing Tom Dawkins of Cara noir, making it seem like drew Parker’s identity as a death match wrestler made him lesser, trying and failing to rob lykos of his identity and failing. It goes further down the card, from the sunshine machine thriving as tag team champions when as singles wrestlers they floundered, the entire crux of Nina Samuels vs Alexis falcon. Since the restart progress has been about identity. I feel like that’s because it’s kinda been without one. When it started it was punk rock pro wrestling and you could feel it you understood it, after the pandemic it kinda lost some of that feeling. Not only do I feel like it got it back it’s only gotten stronger. They don’t have all the names that made the scene, names they built but they proved they can make more. They thrived when the pressure was on and what’s more punk than that?

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When people don’t want you to exist, finding reasons to not only live but enjoy it no matter how small is the easiest form of protest

Regardless of how tomorrow goes, I want to tell every trans person on here one thing.

You have to live. You have to live. Even if by some godforsaken reason he wins, you have to live. You have to keep pushing on and living loud and proud. It might be hard, but you absolutely must live.

We will do what trans people have done since the beginning of time. We will resist. We will find our communities and we will thrive, even if it has to be in the shadows. We will live and we will resist no matter what comes tomorrow.

Get out there and vote!!! Ensure a bright future for yourself and your brothers and sisters!! GET OUT THERE AND VOTE BLUE DOWN THE BALLOT!!

[grave-queen-jakrabitt]

An in depth guide for how to get into professional wrestling (as a fan)

As a long time fan of wrestling I’ve tried to get a few people into wrestling and have found a few problems people usually have with getting into it. I’ll be breaking those down along with terms newbies might need for interacting with the fandom, it can be really intimidating to ask questions if you feel like you should know things by default so I made this

The WWE and AEW aren’t everything: there are so many companies 324 smaller North American and even some Asian companies formed independent wrestling television. You can watch more wrestling than you know what to do with. If you can’t pay the 10$ a month (absolutely no judgement like be hard) the internet is a treasure trove of free wrestling even without the ole yo ho ho. But this leads to another problem

“How will I know what I like?”: You won’t unless you’re gateway was catching wrestling while channel surfing and thinking it looked cool. Try everything once but don’t expect to like everything. Find a few indie matches before looking for anything specific so you can find a little bit of everything, you might like the showmanship, the technical details, weapon based violence, it may change with your mood but if you’re making an effort to get into it you’ll find something just take your time

“Some companies have so much history it’s overwhelming”: unless you are a devoted little lunatic don’t try to watch everything from the start, I did that with progress wrestling and I would watch 10 or so hours of wrestling, I’m still 32 shows behind and they run monthly. Almost any show from any company is a good start but I’d say allow yourself to go back like 3 shows max unless you’re already aware of where you want to start

“Things in wrestling don’t make sense”: that is true but an important thing to understand is wrestling has its own internal logic like any show really, these can vary from company to company but it’s like inertia. You start at “okay so this is happening because it’s wrestling” and you get to a point where you’re choice to suspend disbelief carries itself to “fuck it this might as well happen this is wrestling” that being said

It’s entirely valid to not enjoy something a company does and please don’t just accept something or feel like you have to wait it out. Take a break, keep an eye on it try something new but don’t feel like you have to stay glued to a bed of sand paper. You will not enjoy everything done by a company

Bring a friend and be a friend: having a friend to watch with and help you learn is always good but don’t feel like you have to share their opinion about a person or decision, any good friend will be respectful of that.

rules

A normal wrestling match is usually won by one of 4 ways. pinning your opponent to the mat with their shoulders down for 3 seconds, submission, disqualification or knockout

Other small rules: being outside the ring means any potential victory (often aside from a ko for safety) are invalid, if a limb makes contact with the ring rope during a pinfall submission or hold it’s considered out of bounds and must be broken, if you are outside the ring there is usually a 10 count sometimes 20 if you don’t come back to the ring you get disqualified, ignoring a rope break or using an illegal move like small joint manipulation has a 5 count, don’t hit the ref, fishhook anything, bite, or hit balls. No disqualification matches exist

A tag team match: in its most basic has 2 or more teams of an equal amount, only one member of each team is allowed in the ring at once and the others have to wait on the apron, the other partner can come in when they make contact with their partner in the referees vision. A 5 count is issued for double teaming moves. Sometimes it’s everyone at once in the ring, this is a tornado tag match

Steel cage: they put a cage around the ring and you win by either normal means or depending on the match escaping the cage

lucha de apuestas: if you make any friends with any interest in lucha libre you’ll often hear this term it just means a wager match basically the competitors each put something on the line, their right to mask, their hair, a title, or their career.

Terms

Face/technico: the term used for a good guy, technico is usually reserved for Mexican lucha libre

Heel/rudo: bad guy

Over: if someone is over or getting over they’re ve a fan favorite or in the process of getting there

Heat: negative crowd response

Booking: how the show is being written and how people are being used in that process

Cultural differences in wrestling

You’d be able to find any kind of wrestling in most places if you look hard enough but it’s really interesting how different wrestling styles evolved

America: we have historically had a lot of carnival wrestling. How do you con a bunch of small towns out of money with wrestling? Fix them to be more interesting while still having enough skill to put the everyday challenges away without any suspicion. This became the rough and tumble 70s southern brawl style but until the 90s it really just boiled down to “be able to fuck people up so you don’t have to”

Japan: this is a tricky situation because there are really 3 main styles of Japanese pro wrestling. Strong style focuses on a lot of striking a resilience along with strong fundamental holds, kings road style was also very resilience based but had a more defined match structure and had a focus on throws like suplex’s and head drops. Most modern Japanese wrestling is a kind of blend of those, then you’ve got the younger brother and hardest for me to talk about bati bati. I’m admittedly not that well versed in its history but from my understanding it’s like if MMA and pro wrestling had a baby that didn’t suck. There are better resources than me to learn from.

Mexico: the origin of the highly acrobatic lucha libre actually has to do with a lot of old Mexican rings being modified boxing ring, the gymnastics of lucha are in service of minimizing bad landings. But there are 2 other important aspects to lucha, Your mask/pride and your family. In lucha your mask is your identity and your legacy, it’s essentially sacred. Losing it is often how careers end, if you’re not a mask wearing wrestler pride is the substitute. But the pride of your family is just as important as often times it’s a multi generational commitment.

Europe/the UK: I’m not slapping these together out of disrespect they’re just extremely similar historically. For a while British wrestling greatly resembled its American counterpart but too many bad actors ruined it for everyone and pro wrestling was briefly banned until being revived with a unified and more strict ruleset with world of sport in the 70s that 80s, taking more after catch as catch can. Where as it’s European brother found it’s stride in long grueling tournaments as a test of skill, a tradition still carried on mostly in Germany with WXWs 16 karat tournament, progress’s super strong style 16, and even the wwe uk title tournament