#david vs goliath match

[wrestlingarsenal]

Zach Reno suffers a humiliating beating by the massive" Van Gore" in this video recently posted to Weekend Wrestling. Zach wears skimpy little purple briefs that can barely stay up around his hips as the big man twists and stretches him in various and sundry contortions.

The theme of the match seems to be the placement of Zach's banging body on full display, while his manhood is always just millimeters from full exposure.

Both Van Gore and Zach Reno are fantastic in their respective roles (i.e., gigantic Heel beast vs. gorgeous out-matched stud), but I also want to give kudos to the camera crew in this one! They do a stellar job bringing our eager eyes right inside the ring, practically rubbing our faces against Zach's treasure trail, our noses nearly brushing his spandexed bulge several times.

To the Weekend Wrestling guys, if you're reading this, I don't know if you've hired a new camera guy, or maybe you're just trying out some new angles, but keep doing what you're doing! I noticed and I appreciate it!

[emeritusterzo]

love to see danhausen wrestling guys he loves, nothing better than watching my guy persevering and getting to do this shit again

[m00sebaby]

i could say something about the six kings slam but i will probably get in trouble so i will just keep my mouth shut.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

AI is a WMD

I'm in TARTU, ESTONIA! AI, copyright and creative workers' labor rights (TOMORROW, May 10, 8AM: Science Fiction Research Association talk, Institute of Foreign Languages and Cultures building, Lossi 3, lobby). A talk for hackers on seizing the means of computation (TOMORROW, May 10, 3PM, University of Tartu Delta Centre, Narva 18, room 1037).

Fun fact: "The Tragedy Of the Commons" is a hoax created by the white nationalist Garrett Hardin to justify stealing land from colonized people and moving it from collective ownership, "rescuing" it from the inevitable tragedy by putting it in the hands of a private owner, who will care for it properly, thanks to "rational self-interest":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/04/analytical-democratic-theory/#epistocratic-delusions

Get that? If control over a key resource is diffused among the people who rely on it, then (Garrett claims) those people will all behave like selfish assholes, overusing and undermaintaining the commons. It's only when we let someone own that commons and charge rent for its use that (Hardin says) we will get sound management.

By that logic, Google should be the internet's most competent and reliable manager. After all, the company used its access to the capital markets to buy control over the internet, spending billions every year to make sure that you never try a search-engine other than its own, thus guaranteeing it a 90% market share:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/21/im-feeling-unlucky/#not-up-to-the-task

Google seems to think it's got the problem of deciding what we see on the internet licked. Otherwise, why would the company flush $80b down the toilet with a giant stock-buyback, and then do multiple waves of mass layoffs, from last year's 12,000 person bloodbath to this year's deep cuts to the company's "core teams"?

https://qz.com/google-is-laying-off-hundreds-as-it-moves-core-jobs-abr-1851449528

And yet, Google is overrun with scams and spam, which find their way to the very top of the first page of its search results:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/24/passive-income/#swiss-cheese-security

The entire internet is shaped by Google's decisions about what shows up on that first page of listings. When Google decided to prioritize shopping site results over informative discussions and other possible matches, the entire internet shifted its focus to producing affiliate-link-strewn "reviews" that would show up on Google's front door:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/24/naming-names/#prabhakar-raghavan

This was catnip to the kind of sociopath who a) owns a hedge-fund and b) hates journalists for being pain-in-the-ass, stick-in-the-mud sticklers for "truth" and "facts" and other impediments to the care and maintenance of a functional reality-distortion field. These dickheads started buying up beloved news sites and converting them to spam-farms, filled with garbage "reviews" and other Google-pleasing, affiliate-fee-generating nonsense.

(These news-sites were vulnerable to acquisition in large part thanks to Google, whose dominance of ad-tech lets it cream 51 cents off every ad dollar and whose mobile OS monopoly lets it steal 30 cents off every in-app subscriber dollar):

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/saving-news-big-tech

Now, the spam on these sites didn't write itself. Much to the chagrin of the tech/finance bros who bought up Sports Illustrated and other venerable news sites, they still needed to pay actual human writers to produce plausible word-salads. This was a waste of money that could be better spent on reverse-engineering Google's ranking algorithm and getting pride-of-place on search results pages:

https://housefresh.com/david-vs-digital-goliaths/

That's where AI comes in. Spicy autocomplete absolutely can't replace journalists. The planet-destroying, next-word-guessing programs from Openai and its competitors are incorrigible liars that require so much "supervision" that they cost more than they save in a newsroom:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/29/what-part-of-no/#dont-you-understand

But while a chatbot can't produce truthful and informative articles, it can produce bullshit – at unimaginable scale. Chatbots are the workers that hedge-fund wreckers dream of: tireless, uncomplaining, compliant and obedient producers of nonsense on demand.

That's why the capital class is so insatiably horny for chatbots. Chatbots aren't going to write Hollywood movies, but studio bosses hyperventilated at the prospect of a "writer" that would accept your brilliant idea and diligently turned it into a movie. You prompt an LLM in exactly the same way a studio exec gives writers notes. The difference is that the LLM won't roll its eyes and make sarcastic remarks about your brainwaves like "ET, but starring a dog, with a love plot in the second act and a big car-chase at the end":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/01/how-the-writers-guild-sunk-ais-ship/

Similarly, chatbots are a dream come true for a hedge fundie who ends up running a beloved news site, only to have to fight with their own writers to get the profitable nonsense produced at a scale and velocity that will guarantee a high Google ranking and millions in "passive income" from affiliate links.

One of the premier profitable nonsense companies is Advon, which helped usher in an era in which sites from Forbes to Money to USA Today create semi-secret "review" sites that are stuffed full of badly researched top-ten lists for products from air purifiers to cat beds:

https://housefresh.com/how-google-decimated-housefresh/

Advon swears that it only uses living humans to produce nonsense, and not AI. This isn't just wildly implausible, it's also belied by easily uncovered evidence, like its own employees' Linkedin profiles, which boast of using AI to create "content":

https://housefresh.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Advon-AI-LinkedIn.jpg

It's not true. Advon uses AI to produce its nonsense, at scale. In an excellent, deeply reported piece for Futurism, Maggie Harrison Dupré brings proof that Advon replaced its miserable human nonsense-writers with tireless chatbots:

https://futurism.com/advon-ai-content

Dupré describes how Advon's ability to create botshit at scale contributed to the enshittification of clients from Yoga Journal to the LA Times, "Us Weekly" to the Miami Herald.

All of this is very timely, because this is the week that Google finally bestirred itself to commence downranking publishers who engage in "site reputation abuse" – creating these SEO-stuffed fake reviews with the help of third parties like Advon:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/03/keyword-swarming/#site-reputation-abuse

(Google's policy only forbids site reputation abuse with the help of third parties; if these publishers take their nonsense production in-house, Google may allow them to continue to dominate its search listings):

https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2024/03/core-update-spam-policies#site-reputation

There's a reason so many people believed Hardin's racist "Tragedy of the Commons" hoax. We have an intuitive understanding that commons are fragile. All it takes is one monster to start shitting in the well where the rest of us get our drinking water and we're all poisoned.

The financial markets love these monsters. Mark Zuckerberg's key insight was that he could make billions by assembling vast dossiers of compromising, sensitive personal information on half the world's population without their consent, but only if he kept his costs down by failing to safeguard that data and the systems for exploiting it. He's like a guy who figures out that if he accumulates enough oily rags, he can extract so much low-grade oil from them that he can grow rich, but only if he doesn't waste money on fire-suppression:

https://locusmag.com/2018/07/cory-doctorow-zucks-empire-of-oily-rags/

Now Zuckerberg and the wealthy, powerful monsters who seized control over our commons are getting a comeuppance. The weak countermeasures they created to maintain the minimum levels of quality to keep their platforms as viable, going concerns are being overwhelmed by AI. This was a totally foreseeable outcome: the history of the internet is a story of bad actors who upended the assumptions built into our security systems by automating their attacks, transforming an assault that wouldn't be economically viable into a global, high-speed crime wave:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/04/24/automation-is-magic/

But it is possible for a community to maintain a commons. This is something Hardin could have discovered by studying actual commons, instead of inventing imaginary histories in which commons turned tragic. As it happens, someone else did exactly that: Nobel Laureate Elinor Ostrom:

https://www.onthecommons.org/magazine/elinor-ostroms-8-principles-managing-commmons/

Ostrom described how commons can be wisely managed, over very long timescales, by communities that self-governed. Part of her work concerns how users of a commons must have the ability to exclude bad actors from their shared resources.

When that breaks down, commons can fail – because there's always someone who thinks it's fine to shit in the well rather than walk 100 yards to the outhouse.

Enshittification is the process by which control over the internet moved from self-governance by members of the commons to acts of wanton destruction committed by despicable, greedy assholes who shit in the well over and over again.

It's not just the spammers who take advantage of Google's lazy incompetence, either. Take "copyleft trolls," who post images using outdated Creative Commons licenses that allow them to terminate the CC license if a user makes minor errors in attributing the images they use:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/01/24/a-bug-in-early-creative-commons-licenses-has-enabled-a-new-breed-of-superpredator/

The first copyleft trolls were individuals, but these days, the racket is dominated by a company called Pixsy, which pretends to be a "rights protection" agency that helps photographers track down copyright infringers. In reality, the company is committed to helping copyleft trolls entrap innocent Creative Commons users into paying hundreds or even thousands of dollars to use images that are licensed for free use. Just as Advon upends the economics of spam and deception through automation, Pixsy has figured out how to send legal threats at scale, robolawyering demand letters that aren't signed by lawyers; the company refuses to say whether any lawyer ever reviews these threats:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/13/an-open-letter-to-pixsy-ceo-kain-jones-who-keeps-sending-me-legal-threats/

This is shitting in the well, at scale. It's an online WMD, designed to wipe out the commons. Creative Commons has allowed millions of creators to produce a commons with billions of works in it, and Pixsy exploits a minor error in the early versions of CC licenses to indiscriminately manufacture legal land-mines, wantonly blowing off innocent commons-users' legs and laughing all the way to the bank:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/02/commafuckers-versus-the-commons/

We can have an online commons, but only if it's run by and for its users. Google has shown us that any "benevolent dictator" who amasses power in the name of defending the open internet will eventually grow too big to care, and will allow our commons to be demolished by well-shitters:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/04/teach-me-how-to-shruggie/#kagi

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/09/shitting-in-the-well/#advon

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

--

Catherine Poh Huay Tan (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/68166820@N08/49729911222/

Laia Balagueró (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/lbalaguero/6551235503/

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

[miath3great]

One thing that will never cease to baffle me is how zionists talk about Israels enemies. It’s all talk about „the David Israel vs. the Goliath Arab world“, when that has never been the case. Hamas was using rockets made from plumbing materials that could not be expected to land within a kilometer of their target. Israel has an iron dome system that caught almost all projectiles. In 2017, a Hamas rocket barage got through and killed a few israeli citizens, the retaliatory strike killed as many people as palestinians had killed up to that point combined. They matched the destruction that palestinian resistance had done in decades in one singular strike.

If we go further back to the first war that israel fought, we see an alliance of four states, that was using outdated equipment. As an example, Egypt was fielding the german made Panzer 4 Ausführung F2. This tank was introduced in the first half of WWII. It was long outdated by 1945 and absolutely inadequate. Israel was using french made AMX-13 and M-51 tanks, both far superior in firepower and far more modern.

The war started with a preemptive strike by Israel. Through the betrayal by Jordan, one of the four nations was not able to send any significant amount of troops, down to three that were not able to match Israeli combat power.

During the 2006 war with Lebanon, the weapon that showed the most effect against Israeli and American forces was a cement truck stuffed with fertilizer. It was a weapon that required the death of the user to work.

During the earlier days of the Gaza invasion, the IDF was fielding Merkava 4 tanks, which are among the most modern and capable tanks in the world. The Hamas answer to that? Bags of high explosives attached by hand.

Israel is the definition of a Goliath. They are not bravely defending Judaism against the Arab terror. They’re kicking people while they’re down to crush any thought of resistance. This can never be the face of anyone‘s safety and while I’m not jewish I think it is safe to say that this should never be the picture we have of jewish people.

[sparkbeast20]

aside from obm lucifer, whb kings would sweep the floor with their obm counterparts

I love my demon brothers... But if I have to say...

Most of them sadly, maybe cause Solmare isn't using the demon brothers powers or they just slap *they cast a spell that solve the problem*

Note: Even though I believe that power scaling is a big components in battle/fights. I'm a truly believe in David and Goliath style of fighting. Where strength isn't everything you can outwit your opponent it just leans on how experience they are.

Let start, I'm open to debate with these.

WHB!Mammon has defense and OM!Mammon has speed. WHB!M can create a building around him or use his shield to protect him, OM!M has to be quick about it. Cause once shield is up or his protection, OM!M hope that WHB!M ran out of his power. Cause WHB!M has one of the best defenses.

WHB!Leviathan and OM!Leviathan is the closest I could see matching, both can summon monsters and both can survive being underwater.

WHB!Belphegor and OM!Belphegor, Hm... Sorry, Belphie. But have you seen Beleth's event where WHB!Belph place everyone what is close to a infinite tsukuyomi/Genjutsu and he turned into a three eye skeleton that shoot lasers. Though, WHB!Belph had said that he might be powerful but because of his sin. He won't fight as much. OM!Belphie has a chance if he attacks first.

WHB!Satan and OM!Satan, you might think that is a brain and brawns fight. But WHB!S knows his ways around a battle field, hell he lives to the fight and violent. I kinda think that OM!S has a chance if he can outsmart him with traps and curses. But OM!S has to deal with WHB!S devil form.

WHB!Asmodeus and WHB!Asmodeus... *Leaving out the they'll just fuck joke here* Both seem to have mind altering powers, however again WHB!A has experience in battles... *insert that one official pic of him fighting with his dick out.* OM!A might have fought in the celestial war, and I doubt that Asmo would fight him.

WHB!Beelzebub and OM!Beelzebub, OM!B has the strength and durability that can last a fight, so WHB!B has to outsmart him by using all his ability to tire him out.

These are my thought and I'll happy to hear from people's thought on the brothers vs Kings.

I've been think of these demons/devils fighting ever since Asmodeus from WHB was revealed, I want to do a second part of my om x whb fic.

[soviet-supersoldier]

I can't accept that's not Red Jr. So I did research.

Victor is 6'6 and Arkady is 6'11.

Yeah, it does seem like he's being drawn too short in this mini, which is always something that bothers me a bit when Victor and Arkady are sometimes drawn on the same page: they will sometimes make Sabretooth either bigger to match Arkady or make Arkady smaller to match Victor.

While Victor and Logan have their own "David and Goliath" thing going on with their height difference, I think artists tend to forget that Sabretooth isn't always the biggest guy on the page -- nor does he have to be. It might have something to do with Victor's animal-like personality -- that since he's more feral and wild in spirit, the thought is that he should be bigger and bulkier than everyone else. And he is, at least until he's put up against Arkady.

As Sabretooth himself put it, the difference between him and Omega Red is "nature vs. supernature," so it makes sense why Arkady is bigger than him and what their dynamic is on that front (they do have a very complicated history and dynamic that will be fun to really dig through at some point). Omega Red was modified and enhanced to be what he is, while Sabretooth (when he doesn't have the adamantium skeleton anyway) is all-natural.

Of course, Arkady’s kids are a different matter entirely. They're pretty normal in size from what I've seen of them, and definitely not Arkady’s height and size. It is possible that this is Red Jr. I do believe Hickman was the one who had the Omega Clan included on a page in the House/Powers of X series (have to look back to see if I can find it) so he just may have an interest in writing Omega Clan stuff. We'll have to see what the next issue gives us for material to see if the intention is for this to be Arkady or Red Jr.

[littleeyesofpallas]

It's such a nothing detail at this point --after what almost 50 years now?-- but it always bugged me that Lady Shiva is called Lady Shiva... Like... Either do something interesting with her heritage to align her with the Hindi namesake, or call her by some kind of Chinese equivalent of the same Destroyer god. Or like at least tie the Indian epithet to her having learned Kalaripayattu or something. I dunno I just wish her name made a little bit more sense. Although so long as I'm griping about Lady Shiva stuff...

I'd actually really love it if they took her reputation as Master of All Martialarts to heart. It already makes for a great implied dynamic with Batman where he has a reputation that precedes him but by all rights isn't actually a master martial artist so much as just a very competent jack of all trades who supplements what he lacks in martial arts specifically with his deductive reasoning, broader situational awareness, and gadgets. But if her quest to master every martial art took her back to the cradle of civilization it'd make for a cool sort of feather in her cap. She could have more run ins with the likes of Sportsmaster to draw a line around Martialarts as sports vs martialarts as real combat, vs as art, vs as living cultural artifacts. She could have some back and forth with Vandal Savage as a guy who ostensibly knows more about lost histories than any other person on Earth.

Also dumb nothing side bit but how have we not had her do the full blown Bruce Lee, or Bruce Lee inspired blurry anime arms thing to match her Shiva title?

And like, as shitty as his plots have all been, there's just so much more that could be done with David Cain if anyone really gave a shit. I know it's super lame that he's literally named after Cain & Abel, but there's something kind of cool about the idea of a guy better known for training assassins than actually being one having this association with a mythical First Murder. Cain would just make for a much better codename than anything. It'd be really interesting if he was never a martial arts expert or even master assassin at all but just a guy dabbling in experimental operant conditioning and desensitization, trying to master The Art of Killing from the basest level.

Because really learning martialarts and bodily discipline as a first language fits Shiva's shtick better anyway. Cain's deal should be about breaking down the psychological resistance to killing and violence. Among other things there's really no reason for him to even be Cassandra's biological father. It would make way more sense to just make him a weirdo abducting or otherwise buying people's kids to try and get them as tabula rasa as possible. That being said he should also have closer ties to Damian specifically as the recipient of Cain's eventual perfected training methods.

(oh you know I don't know why I never thought of it but is he supposed to also be named after the biblical David? Like as a reference to David and Goliath? So he's named after two biblical guys who killed someone with a rock? Honestly the name David is so plain it never crossed my mind to even look for a connection)

But that all being said there's this implicit untapped synergy between the themes of The First Killer among men, and the Hindu Destroyer God that would be really cool to explore, obviously thru Cass and how she should be the marriage of their two themes, along with any siblings we want to acknowledge in any given timeline. Like, she should really be a perfect embodiment of bothe parents' ideals but also the perfect counter point or refutation of each. Like, I know we all love pure hearted Cass and the whole idea that she could just shake off her lifetime of training and condition to just know that killing is wrong, but I dunno it's a little corny? (I do like the idea that Cain's blindspot was that training her against professional killers meant she never learned the body language of fear in someone who can't fight back, though. That sort of culture shock is a fun part of that moment.) Instead it would be really interesting to acknowledge that, yeah, Cain's training worked and she can pretty easily take a life without much hesitation or guilt, but that doesn't mean she can't make the rational or ethical or moral judgement to not kill, it just means she isn't making it based on reflexive disgust or shame or trauma.

The loophole to her being a perfect killer and unmatched fighter being that if she's truly unmatched then other fighters don't actually pose a threat to her, and without her life at risk she has no actual motive to kill someone. In a way she should operate on a moral perogative more akin to Superman's than Batman's, just scaled down to a street level, or in the specific realm of martialarts.

Unrelated to really any of this while I do hate Cain's dumb "Orphan" moniker working with Mother, and especially the idea of Cass taking it, I almost would have liked if it had been that version of Cain that had had the weird eugenics program with his other kids. (I mean that it just ditch him and make Shiva the one with a bunch of protege kids, and instead of trying to make a perfect killer, it's just Shiva trying to make her perfect adversary) It would make more sense for him to have an entire line of failed experiments preceding Cass that she'd have to prove herself against.

But also if there was going to be a whole legacy of "Orphan" operatives, it would have been cool to make it a mahjong thing; there's a uniquely difficult hand in mahjong called The Thirteen Orphans, where the 13 tiles in your hand form absolutely no pairs, triplets or straights, despite those being the entire backbone of the game. You only get one pair to make it a winning hand and there could be a neat way to single out Shiva and Cass as a matched pair.

[ndcgalitzine]

Barcode vs JJ 💪💪💪 (aka. David vs Goliath, except David was absolutely  annihilated) *WHY DID THEY PICK POOR BARCODE TO GO UP AGAINST JJ IN AN ARM WRESTLE MATCH??

(*gif purely for science)

[puckpocketed]

24/12/2023 - San Jose Sharks vs Vancouver Canucks

The Summer I Fell For Hockey - Hunger.

On the last day before the NHL goes on break for Christmas, my body decides it's had enough of being healthy. I come down with a pounding headache and am wracked with the phantom sensation of all my muscles being squeezed simultaneously. Going against the advice of friends and family, I end up necking two Panadol. I peel myself some oranges, make my peace with being one of those hockey guys who has more than one live feed open at a time, and settle in for the games. It’s a truly outrageous day for hockey, it turns out, and I don’t regret pushing through the pain at all.  Not one but two Michigan goals are scored, out of the less-than dozen ever recorded in the NHL; my Kraken win another match (though, that’s not outrageous so much as just plain wonderful); and of course, the Dallas Stars somehow manage to rob the Nashville Predators of a regulation win by scoring twice within the last 13 seconds of third period. But I don’t want to write about any of that. I know there’s a lot to say — maybe one day I’ll even get around to saying it — but it’s my summer memoir and today I want to talk about the Sharks.

I operate at all times with a low-level desire to mention the Sharks. They slip into all the writing I do about hockey, like how someone with a crush always finds a way to bring up the object of their desire. But crystallising how I feel about the San Jose Sharks has come so much slower than it has with my other team. The passing affection is easy; that’s been there since I saw their teal jerseys, silly cartoon shark biting through a hockey stick; but all the rest? It’s come as a slow, spreading honey-drip. 

And so, a full post-game is only now happening after what was a marathon 60 minutes of hope and heartbreak against the Canucks. That’s all Sharks games, I’ve concluded (at least, this season). Every time I’ve watched, no matter how far down they were, I’ve never really believed they were completely out of it. Which some might say is stupid of me given that they’re the absolute bottom of the league standings. But I’ve supported worse performing teams — I waded through the Shanghai Dragons’ 42-game loss streak after all. And the Sharks don’t feel anything like the Dragons.

The Vancouver Canucks are at the top of the top of the entire league, hovering equal first or tied second depending on the matches played. This can’t be stressed enough. David, meet Goliath; and tough titties if you left the slingshot at home, we’re playing for keeps this time. Within two minutes of the puck drop, the Canucks score off an absolute cannon blast from Kuzmenko, which only happens because of a no-look pass that fell into the wrong hands. Kuzmenko scores again off the Canucks’ power play not long after, and we know it’s a Sharks game now because they’re going to be playing catch up from here on out.

The LA Kings nearly shut them out the week before this match. I watched most of that game from behind my hands. So many failed dump-and-chase attacks, failed rushes, failed battles along the boards. An impossibly strong defence from the Kings, as I came to find out later; hockey built on denying a clean attack through the neutral zone. It was a slaughter. Yet at no point did it ever look like the Sharks were done.

I have to leave the Canucks game for less than half an hour. When I come back my Sharks are somehow miraculously even with them at 2-2. It terrifies and thrills me all at once. It seems such a simple concept; thinking there’s always a chance you can win and playing like you mean it. I mean, it’s always true. When my friends and I watch esports we like to say that while not every game is ‘winnable’, every game is ‘throwable’. No matter how far ahead a team is, there is always a non-zero chance they’ll throw it away.

But saying something and living it are two very different things. I think the Sharks live it, and I think they’ve somehow made it fundamental to their hockey. This doesn’t mean never faltering or feeling demoralised after losing a lead — that’s normal, that’s competition — what it means is working and working at the problem anyway, and continuing to work at it until the last second of the game. 

 This is hardly a unique trait; plenty of teams refuse to give up, and you could make the argument that this is a marker of a good team, that it’s a requirement to climb. Here, you could bring up the Stars vs Preds game. But it’s easy to keep going if you’ve got ample proof that it’s going to work out, that it’s worked out before. The Stars put on an excellent show, dug deep and didn’t stop playing, no one’s saying they didn’t. But it must be so much easier if you’re them, and you have a pretty good record on comebacks, and you’re already doing so well in the division standings. When you already know you’re good, that drive is resting on something solid, that faith has already been rewarded — but what if you’re the Sharks? Where does the faith come from then? I think it becomes something else once you’ve left it too long, morphs into something that’s got mass and pull, that breathes and is alive. Players and coaches and casters might call it ‘grit’ or ‘stubbornness’. I’ve begun to think of it as hunger.

During the LA Kings game, I held my breath as the minutes to the end of third period ticked down, I waited for them to flag. I waited for them to fall apart. They sort of did, I’m not going to deny that; giving up a shorthanded goal on the power play while their net was empty. It hurt to watch. But then, in the last 90 seconds of the match, MacDonald slammed it into the back of the Kings’ net from the blue line. The cheer I let out, the cheers that came from the sparse crowd in attendance at the Shark Tank; they didn’t feel like cheers from people who knew the game was over — even with the 4-1 scoreboard and 1:19 left of the game. The cameras cut to fans standing up in their seats, screaming as the home goal horn sounded for the first time that night. The players squared up for the ensuing faceoff after casual celebrations; they didn’t look happy to simply not get shut out. They were still out for more.

The Canucks bring the score back in line during second period: two goals in a row, spaced about five minutes apart. Were I watching the Kraken, at this point we might’ve broken out the memes in preparation for a loss — but I’m watching the Sharks, and all I do is press closer to my screen and clench my teeth. The Sharks aren’t done yet, I tell myself and my blog and the perhaps three other people hanging out in the live tag, to resounding agreement. I think we all actually believe ourselves. The Sharks players must believe it, too, from the way Zetterlund answers the Canucks with a goal of his own. 3-4 isn’t the insurmountable gap that 2-4 was, and winning the match still feels like a shimmering possibility, despite the chasm between the Sharks and Canucks’ place in the standings.

The game goes on. We trade another goal. It’s 4-5 halfway through third period — a gorgeous tip-in from MacDonald — and the stress begins to fracture my belief. My painkillers aren’t quite enough to keep the edge off the pain, and it’s distracting, and I just want the game to be over. “THEYRE STILL IN IT!!” writes one of my Sharks mutuals under one of my live posts, followed by three shark emojis. I breathe, refocus, I push through the pain. I watch my Sharks go hard in the last five minutes of the match; and even as they get scored on twice, I want to believe in them. I believe right up until the final buzzer. The next time they play, I’ll still believe in them.

Commentary on the San Jose Sharks that isn’t “they suck right now” is pretty hard to come by. Occasionally though, if you listen well during broadcasts, if you sift through the pundits on Youtube, if you leaf through enough articles, you’ll find a thread that they all have in common, the thing that everyone can say about the Sharks: you might win, but they won’t make it easy. The Canucks win 4-7. The Sharks didn’t make it easy.

A few weeks ago, the Sharks beat the Jets, who were close to the top of the Western conference, 2-1. Before that, they came back against the Red Wings, overcame the Islanders, nearly caught the Rangers and the Golden Knights. What I’ve learned about the Sharks, what’s finally crystalised my admiration for them, is this: the Sharks might be at the bottom of the league, but if you give even an inch they’ll swallow you whole.

I come to every Sharks game ready for something interesting to happen, ready to see them fight until the very end. Taking my cues from the Sharks, I arrive and I’m always, always hungry. If they can carry this with them into the future, into better management and a more developed roster, I think one day we’ll eat.

The Sharks are circling, ever circling — and eventually they’ll have blood.

[fantasticalbiology]

The Amazing Digital Battle Circus: Combatants vs The abstracted

Context: The Amazing Digital Battle Circus au

The abstracted combatants: The Amazing Digital Battle Circus: Combatants

Caine: Hello, loyal viewers, listeners and or readers to the greatest digital blood sport on the internet,The Amazing Digital Battle Circus. Today events are special as today is the day we let the beast have their fun. Today is abstract day in which our combatants will take on the abstracted

Bubble: So sir, who will be fighting who?

Caine: I’m glad you asked. Our first fight will be The absolute heel himself, the guy who most people love to hate and love to see his suffering, Jax. His opponent will be the poster boy for abstraction, the man who is no more then a feral monster, the man who literally has that dog in and out of him, The Hound.

Bubble: Wowie, Jax is most likely going to suffer.

Caine: That’s what the fans love to see the most in The ADBC. Anyway the next bout will be Jax’s “rival,” the ribbon wrangler herself, Gangle. Her opponent will be her old rival, the slipperiest combatant to ever grace these digital halls, Slinks the worm

Bubble: An oldie but a goodie

Caine: Of course, but the next match is a real david vs goliath situation as the broken veteran king goes up against someone of great stature and strength. That’s right fans the strategic master mind of the ADBC Kinger, will be going up against Big Eye the Big guy.

Bubble: You really think Kinger can win.

Caine: Of course bubble, I mean if he there in the head. Okay next match is Zooble vs Manny Mannequin I guess.

Bubble: Wait I thought today was abstract day, why is Manny here?

Caine: Because there was literally no one else and Manny makes fights interesting. Anyway our second to last fight is a main event and for some its the only fight that matters today. Let it be known that its a grudge between the Ragged Ruffian Ragatha and the Killer Klown comedian Kaufmo.

Bubble: I thought Ragatha and Kaufmo got along why the grudge?

Caine: Well, supposedly when Kaufmo first abstracted, he blind sided her and defeated her. Now Ragatha wants her run back as the kids say. But back to the event and our final fight. For this fight we have our rising star (snicker)... Nope still can’t say that straight face, Pomni. Her opponent will be the brutal queen of the arena and the brawn to Kinger’s brain, Queenie.

Bubble: Once again wow sir. The most pathetic combatant to ever grace the hall The ADBC going up against the most accomplished who is now possibly even more dangerous. If I had hand I would applaud you for your sadistic choice.

Caine: Remember Bubble we here at the ADBC don't pulls punches and nor do we have weight class. I hope for all you digital blood sport enthusiast to witness these brutal fight only here at the Amazing Digital Battle Circus

[homoeroticgrappling]

I want to see Brody King and Serpentico have a David VS Goliath style match

[sepublic]

            When initially fighting the Decepticons, humanity attempted to face them head-on in open battlefields and the like, testing the full might of their most powerful engines and weapons in a contest. This was a mistake; Human technology was no match for Cybertronian armaments, and your typical Decepticon footsoldier was more agile, durable, and hard-hitting than any tank. Battles in Mission City, Shanghai, Egypt, etc., made this clear.

         But as Sector 7, and then NEST, gathered experience, advice, and teamwork from the Autobots, eventually the best strategies were figured out. So by Dark of the Moon, humanity knew better than to tackle the Decepticons in open confrontation; That would only get them killed. Instead, it accepted its limitations, and opted to make the most of what its puny little form might entail against these giants.

         It became David vs Goliath; Instead of bringing the Decepticons’ attention, humans would take advantage of their small size to sneak up on unsuspecting enemies who normally towered over them, planting small energon-powered explosives and other debilitating traps. Focus on speed to evade their enemies, since durability was otherwise wasted. While the Decepticons focused on their more obvious Autobot enemies, human snipers would support from afar to take out their optics and other key points. Guerilla tactics were key.

         When it came to the Battle of Chicago, the humans didn’t arrive en masse; They sneaked in, using their size, and the fact that the architecture was built for them, to exploit various routes the Decepticons weren’t aware of or were ill-equipped to prepare for. In short, humanity realized the folly of fighting the Decepticons on their own terms and expectations; Let humanity take the fight to them in a way they didn’t expect, by using their rules. Let humans fight in the way that embraces what sets them apart from their Cybertronian counterparts.

         In essence, one could say humanity learned that to fight a Decepticon… one must fight like a Decepticon themselves, relying on trickery, deception, subterfuge, and stealth. They turned the Decepticon values of the underdog trickster against them, and like the Functionists they originally opposed, stuck to the roles their tiny little bodies were most equipped for. For those Decepticons who realized the poetic irony, it was quite a humiliating and frustrating realization, as those they disregarded as insects realized just how difficult it could be to hit such a microscopic target, from their experiences with their own insects.

         Cybertronians might be able to study the technology of their enemies to use against them, but humanity adapted by studying the tactics of the Transformers to use against them, understanding how they operate and think, and exploiting the blind spots of that vision. No need to use your own strength when you have the Autobots; Turn their massive size and power, even their own Energon-based technology, against them! Decepticons may have had ruthlessness and military prowess, but the Autobots had allies and the home advantage, now that both groups were one and embraced Earth. The Autobots worked with those who best understood this alien battlefield, those whom many of them fought for to begin with, to win.

[sexiestpodcastcharacter]

love the fact multiple Dndads fans are making negotiations for if Glenn gets close to winning (hah close)

I mean this in the most light hearted way I just think it’s funny

A) It's an important skill to set reasonable goals. Carlos is a behemoth, his husband got over 100,000 votes in the famed Tumblr Sexyman Rematch. DnDads fans know they're David up against Goliath, as I have seen both Glenn and Carlos voters refer to this battle as.

B) Glenn Close got one (1) initial submission with zero propaganda. As such, he wasn't given a high seeding and fought some tough battles to get here. From what I can recall, the beginning days of the matches against Pickman and Lovelace looked like they would go the other way. Glenn fans know that if they can close the gap they will have a much easier time gaining the momentum to overtake Carlos.

C) I did not gather statistics and so my perceptions could be faulty, but I feel like there were equal amounts of betrayal in the Glenn vs Lovelace battle, where voters would be very apologetic about voting for someone despite deeply loving the other one. In this round, I've mostly seen the betrayal go one-way as people ditch Glenn for Carlos. Glenn fans understand the value in enticing the votes of people who want Carlos to win.

[theuntitledblog]

WWE King & Queen of the Ring (2024) - REVIEW

I first got into wrestling after watching the 1996 King of the Ring which was famously won by Stone Cold Steve Austin and the event became a firm favourite of mine thereafter. Part of the excitement was that you never quite knew who was going to win and then pushed to the next big star. With a couple of exceptions between 1993 and 2002 (Mabel, Ken Shamrock, Billy Gunn), most winners of the King of the Ring went on to much bigger things but the event itself fell out of favour post-2002 and was only brought back occasionally but it never really seemed to mean anything. The 2024 King & Queen of the Ring tournament by contrast for me has been a great success in part because it seems to have been given a new leash on life by creative. OK yeah there were a few stars who pulled out due to injuries or other reasons, but it's hard to argue that this years King and Queen of the Ring doesn't mean anything especially with the added twist of a world title shot awarded to the winners. The respective final match of the tournament may lack storyline heat between the competitors but the stakes of the tournament more than make up for it. WWE has had a great year so far with its PLE's and this one is no different.

Women's World Heavyweight Championship Match - Becky Lynch (c) vs. Liv Morgan

A minor feud that felt hastily put together following the injury to Rhea Ripley that none the less delivered a solid match with some significant story implications due to the involvement of one Dominik Mysterio. The match itself wasn't a classic but it certainly showcased just how far Liv Morgan has come as a competitor from her days as member of the Riott Squad to now being World Champion. Perhaps the most memorable element to the match was it's ending with Dominik Mysterio representing the off-screen Ripley while accidentally (or not?) costing Becky Lynch the match and title. It definitely felt the right call as Lynch didn't particularly need another lengthy title reign whereas it certainly felt the right choice to put the title on Liv Morgan and spice up her feud with Rhea Ripley at the same time. A good start to the show for me.

3/5

Triple Threat Match for the Intercontinental Championship - Sami Zayne (c) vs. Chad Gable vs. Big Bronson Reed

This is by and large the biggest and longest running feud on this card that has been brewing since WrestleMania and involving stars who had been hovering around the Intercontinental title since the Gunther run. This match was incredible and was boosted by the Saudi crowd reaction to Sami Zayne who probably got one of the biggest pops of the night. It's also reassuring to see that the work Gunther put in to raise the profile of the IC title seems to be continuing and it felt right for Chad Gable and Bronson Reed to still be in the mix and adding variety to a rather small card. This had everything you'd want from a good triple threat match with high spots, plenty of near falls and the drama between Gable and Otis at ringside helped to add a little bit more to this match. Outstanding.

4/5

Queen of the Ring Finals Match - Lyra Valkyria vs. Nia Jax

The coldest match on the card that also wasn't helped by a lack of crowd reaction which is a shame because this was a showcase for a newer star with great potential and a veteran who is probably on her best run in WWE. Lyra Valkyria had a great entrance, look and put in a good effort in a David vs. Goliath style match where Nia Jax utilized her size and style to great effect. The finish in particular was very impressive and the result felt right with Jax finally getting some much needed and deserved recognition. An interesting clash between Bayley and Nia Jax at SummerSlam awaits.

2.5/5

King of the Ring Finals Match - Randy Orton vs. Gunther

This was the polar opposite of the Queen of the Ring Finals match; a clash between two heavy weights in WWE who had never met before and with very different styles. That there was no real story between them going in felt irrelevant as their respective reputations alone made this a mouth watering prospect and it certainly didn't disappoint. This was an old school wrestling match with a deliberate pace, great selling (particularly from Orton) and a crowd that was into it at the start. It's a shame that the final pin by Gunther seemed to be botched with Randy Orton's shoulder not down on the mat but it doesn't take away that this was an incredible match with the right result.

4/5

WWE Undisputed Championship - Cody Rhodes (c) vs. Logan Paul

Coming off of a stunning finale at WrestleMania 40, it is fair to say that the one thing Cody Rhodes has perhaps been lacking is a compelling story since becoming champion. Sure there's the much teased feud with the Rock to look forward to but right now from a storytelling point of view, we're in a more episodic stage. On the plus side, the Backlash match with AJ Styles was outstanding and the match here, though not as good as the Backlash match, is still a very good main event. Rhodes and Logan Paul make for a good pairing with Paul in particular making for a natural heel against Rhode's babyface. It feels repetitive to say how impressive Logan Paul's in ring ability is given his experience, but he again puts in an impressive performance with Cody Rhodes in a compelling match that was otherwise predictable in its outcome.

4/5

[barbedwirepens]

Retro Match Review: Eddie Guerrero vs Brock Lesnar No Way Out 2004

This is an opinion based series where I watch matches and give my thoughts about them! I started out with one of my favorite matches ever with one of my favorite wrestlers ever. I hope you enjoy!

In February of 2004, one of WWE’s hottest stories was coming to an end. Eddie Guerrero’s popularity had skyrocketed and the “Next Big Thing” Brock Lesnar was looking for a way out. Eddie had collected various championships throughout his career, but one had evaded him- the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. However, the stars were finally aligning for Eddie to get a chance to get a shot at the big one.

The story leading up to the match was very David versus Goliath-like. Brock was the taller, younger, formidable heel. Eddie was the underdog. There was surely no way that Eddie could beat him! However, where Brock was harder hitting- Eddie was faster and more calculating. Where Brock was the rookie and lacked ring experience- Eddie was considered a veteran who knew the ring like the back of his hand.

One of the highlights of the feud leading up to the championship match was Eddie’s “I’m an addict” promo. Brock had been consistently mocking Eddie’s storied past with addiction, along with his Mexican ancestry. That promo, to this day, remains one of the greatest promos in Eddie’s career- if not one of the greatest in the entire company. Eddie wasn’t shy when he talked about his past. He even went as far as to detail a moment in his life when he was high in one of the locker room showers.

And one of the last things that Eddie says to Brock is: “Yeah, I am an addict. I’m addicted to the high I get from them!" He pointed to the crowd as passion spilled through every word that he uttered. That promo proved how much that championship meant to him. It proved how much the crowd and the fans meant to him. And I’m sure if you were in the vicinity of the building while he was speaking- your ears were sure to be ringing. In that moment after the promo, nobody had more of the crowd on their side than Eddie Guerrero.

Finally, we are at the long-awaited match between David and Goliath. The rookie and the veteran. Eddie Guerrero versus Brock Lesnar. The story going into the match was carefully crafted to make the crowd and fans at home believe that anything could happen. There was truly no way at that point to make a prediction. But you could feel that the crowd was so fully behind Eddie that even the viewers at home could surely feel the energy through their screens. They believed in Eddie. But was their belief in him going to be enough?

Whenever Eddie would gain an ounce of momentum, Brock was there to squash it. With every pin attempt there would be a kick-out. The final sequence of events was something out of pure cinema. The title was brought into the ring by Brock- who felt like he needed to resort to Eddie’s lying, cheating, and stealing ways to put his opponent down. When it looks like Brock is going to use the title on Eddie, Goldberg storms the ring and lays Brock out with a spear. The title is now in the middle of the ring as Eddie begins to stir.

He grabs the title as Brock slowly gets to his feet. He’s taunting Lesnar at every chance, just itching to get the pinfall. But surprise! When Eddie is about to hit Brock with the championship, Brock counters Eddie into an F-5. There is desperate cheering from the crowd. This can’t be how it ends! However, Guerrero is not out yet. He counters the F-5 into a DDT onto the championship.

Brock goes down. An exhausted Eddie throws the title out of the ring before executing one of the most iconic moments in WWE history. Taz’s cries of “Eddie cheated!” as Michael Cole cheers Eddie on along with the crowd as he hits a frog splash. Eddie calls for the referee, desprate to get in the three count before Brock gets up again. And in what seems like several agonizing minutes, the ref counts one…two…three!

The fans in attendance go absolutely insane. After years of fighting against his own personal demons and working his way back up the ladder, Eddie Guerrero has finally won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship! It is truly an unforgettable moment. This is the ultimate feel-good match. It is the match that you watch when you want to feel something. There is a reason that this match is on lists of greatest matches. It is one of the best from one of the greatest men to ever do it.