#roh fan fiction

[bullet-clubs-bitch]

Okay, hear me out: Do you mind writing a NSFW alphabet about CM Punk? :P

CM PUNK NSFW ALPHABET I8+ NSFW content

NSFW ALPHABET MASTERLIST MAIN MASTERLIST

CM PUNK MASTERLIST

A = Aftercare (What they’re like after sex)

He is very loving and nurturing 

He will hold you close and tell you how much he loves you as he whispers sweet nothings as you fall asleep

Although Phil has a bit of a mean streak, intimacy is something he won’t take for granted with you

B = Body part (Their favourite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

On him, his favourite part is his tattoos (which you agree)

He loves the way his painted canvas looks against your bare one

He loves the sight of his tattooed hands around your throat 

On you he adores everything 

He could never pick just one thing

He is obsessed with you, he worships your body like a god

C = Cum (Anything to do with cum basically… I’m a disgusting person)

He is a dirty old man, he loves the sight of you covered in his seed

Whether it’s pouring out of you or dripping all over you, he loves it

D = Dirty Secret (Pretty self-explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

His little secret is how obsessed he is with you 

He completely obsessed with you, in an insane crazy way

Even before you started dating he would stalk you

Punk would kill with his bear hands if it meant he could have you

E = Experience (How experienced are they? Do they know what they’re doing?)

With age comes experience, he is very experienced 

He has been with many many women in his age so he knows s thing or two

F = Favorite Position (This goes without saying. Will probably include a visual)

Missionary; he loves the intimacy it provides 

Cowgirl; he loves it when you ride him

G = Goofy (Are they more serious in the moment, or are they humorous, etc)

He is very serious, almost a bit mean

H = Hair (How well groomed are they, does the carpet match the drapes, etc.)

Clean shaven 

I = Intimacy (How are they during the moment, romantic aspect…) 

When he wants to be Phil can be quite the romantic

Worshiping your body like a temple

Slowly making you come undone

He loves to take his time with you

J = Jack Off (Masturbation headcanon)

Multiple times a day

He needs that release, mainly because he is always turned on around you

K = Kink (One or more of their kinks)

dd/lg (heavy on this)

Daddy kink

Hair pulling 

Impact play 

BDSM

Breeding kink

Pregnancy kink

Bondage 

Biting 

Cock warming 

L = Location (Favorite places to do the do)

Anywhere and everywhere he will take you anywhere he can 

Besides the privacy in your home or hotel, he loves water sex, the beach, the pool all of it

M = Motivation (What turns them on, gets them going)

Anything 

He gets turned on by anything 

Your sent, your smile, the way your fingers linger on his for a second too long

He’s embarrassed about the effect you have on him

He’s like a horney teenage boy around you

N = NO (Something they wouldn’t do, turn-offs)

Sharing, he’s a selfish man

O = Oral (Preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc)

Although he gives he would rather receive 

He loves the sight of you underneath him gagging on his cock

P = Pace (Are they fast and rough? Slow and sensual? etc.)

He is hard and rough

Fucking you into obliviation 

He loves to turn your brain into mush 

He can be mean during sex but behind the tough guy act there is so much love behind it

Q = Quickie (Their opinions on quickies rather than proper sex, how often, etc.)

When he needs you he needs you

Although he is not the biggest fan of quickies they occur more often than you think

They will occur backstage before a match or when one of his co-workers gets a bit too friendly with you

Sometimes he might take you in the car if you misbehave 

R = Risk (Are they game to experiment, do they take risks, etc.)

Phil is a risky man, he likes to play games

However, he will always pass them by you first before trying something new

S = Stamina (How many rounds can they go for, how long do they last…)

I don’t see him lasting very long, typically before you

However, he can go several rounds in a row before getting tired

T = Toy (Do they own toys? Do they use them? On a partner or themselves?)

He has a special collection just for you

Silk handcuffs, a variation of vibrators 

He loves to use them with you

Oh and don’t forget the collar (IYKYK)

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

CM Punk is a big tease, he loves to mess with you all the time 

He will feel bad for it after but in the moment he loves it

He loves it when you beg him to go faster after purposely going painfully slow

Begging for your orgasm

V = Volume (How loud they are, what sounds they make)

He’s quite loud

W = Wild Card (Get a random headcanon for the character of your choice)

👀👀👀👀

X = X-Ray (Let’s see what’s going on in those pants, picture or words)

6 inches

Y = Yearning (How high is their sex drive?)

So high, like a teenage boy

It’s not normal

Z = ZZZ (… how quickly they fall asleep afterwards) 

He doesn’t fall asleep fast at all

He would probably watch you sleep tbh

[gunbun]

Gunbun's Pro Wrestling Explainer For FFXIV Players Who Don't Understand Graps Very Well

Hi! Are you an FFXIV player whose only exposure to pro wrestling is the tales of how Vince McMahon is a piece of shit? Do you have thinkthonks about the raid storyline so far but aren't clear on how it relates to pro wrestling? Do you think "correct me if I'm wrong, but…" about any part of pro wrestling, but you're not a watcher? Are you interested in obtaining a little bit of knowledge and context about what it is we're seeing in the Ascension Arcadia Championship?

I gotchu. This whole raid storyline is a large homage to the highs and lows of professional wrestling, and from my knowledge as a fan of WWE in particular, its storyline so far is unfolding just like the fictional storylines that unfold in our real-world on a regular basis.

I posit that the present Ascension Arcadia Championship is a pro wrestling promotion that exists in Solution 9. And that it's not only helpful but entertaining once you become a little genre-savvy about it.

Sidebar For The Smarks: Yes, other professional wrestling promotions exist. We got TNA, ROH, AEW, all the indie promotions, AJPW, NJPW, STARDOM…. there are many. I'm just using WWE here as an example as it's the promotion I'm the most familiar with. There's more to pro wrestling than WWE. But I'm using one promotion as an example to explain the tropes of these kinds of storylines to folks who might not understand.

Preface: A List of Wrestling Terminology

Pro Wrestling has its own lingo. This is not an exhaustive list, just trying to cover the terms I'm gonna use in the essay part.

Promotion/Federation - a company that presents a stable of wrestlers fighting to compete to win a title to the greater public for sports entertainment. Talent can move from promotion to promotion. Federation is an older-school term for the same.

Title - the cool belt that the champion gets to wear. disclaimer: may not always be cool.

Talent - a professional wrestler.

Heel - the Bad Guy character.

Face - the Good Guy character.

Gimmick - basically the core of the talent's character. Are they an undead wizard? A genre-savvy angry Canadian man? A sexy male stripper? Pro Wrestling Barbie? A maybe-stoner Samoan who turned YEET into his catchphrase? These are all gimmicks that have existed or do exist in pro-wrestling today.

Booking - where the management of the promotion decides who fights whom and what the stakes will be (title defense, match style, etc).

Bump - when wrestlers collide with either one another, or the mat, or the turnbuckle, or the announcer table, or the ring steps, or the barricades…..

Work - this is stuff within the entertainment itself that furthers the fictional story of kayfabe.

Shoot - this is stuff that is Real Life that may affect the fictional story of kayfabe.

Promo/Promo Segment - speeches/skits done between matches to further storylines.

Pin/Pinfall - when one guy pins the other guy for a count of three. it usually means they win!

Submission - when one guy taps out after the other guy usually twists them into some kind of painful position. it definitely means they lose.

Kayfabe - the illusion that the characters, rivalries, and championships within a promotion are anything more than stuff that the talent does to get a paycheque. Both the talent and the audience suspend their disbelief and buy-in to the idea that the match has real stakes. It's the fiction that plays out as part of the matches. ------

Part One: PRO WRESTLING IS FAKE AND GAY

First thing I want you to do, while the smarks are still distracted above because I neglected to mention their favourite promotion, is hop over to YouTube and watch….. oooh! How about Drew McIntyre vs CM Punk in Hell in a Cell at Bad Blood 2024? Content warning for blood, blood, so much blood, but you can view this match here.

Did you see how CM Punk just annihilated Drew McIntyre with that toolbox? Did you see the absolutely balls-to-the-wall violence on display? The athleticism?! I went to that match in person and Drew had to have his head stapled back together! It was intense.

BUT WHAT THE FUCK, GUNBUN, you say, I THOUGHT PRO WRESTLING WAS FAKE.

Nope. It's predetermined. It's booked. It is a live performance involving people beating the shit out of one another for the entertainment of a crowd. It is done deliberately, with full consent of all parties, and today is done as safely as is possible.

In my other posts, I said that wrestling is predetermined and semi-choreographed. However, saying this does not mean that the bumps are not real and that they do not hurt. It doesn't mean that the talent aren't giving it their all.

The wrestlers are still beating the absolute shit out of one another. They use their skills and know-how to do their best to keep it from causing severe injury. In fact, wrestlers are always contending with one injury or the other. The vast, vast majority can be stapled up and given some PT and are back to work (wrestlers are in insanely good shape; they have to be!), but sometimes it's career-ending. Look up Diamond Dallas Page or Big E or Charlotte Flair and what they've been contending with lately/in their past. It is rough on the talent, even when practiced as safely as is possible.

The 'fake' part comes from the wrestling principle of kayfabe. Kayfabe is the fictional world wherein the promotion exists, it is the personae of all the talent in the promotion and the way they interact with one another.

I asked ya to watch the HIAC highlight reel for a reason. In real life, CM Punk is a guy named Phil and Drew McIntyre is a guy named Andrew and this match is the culmination of months of matches and feuding between their characters. Phil and Andrew, the people, are working together to create a spectacle for us, the audience. Punk and Drew, the characters, want to kill each other. It was expected that there would be blood during this kind of a match, and it was expected that Punk was gonna clobber McIntyre with that toolbox, but the cut was not expected to be that severe. And yet, this is live. They can't stop. And they deliver what is shaping up to be an all-time classic match. You'll notice everyone cheering and chanting. This is the other part of kayfabe: the promotion presents us the fiction, and we play along. We cheer for the faces, boo for the heels, or are die-hards for our favourite talent. One of my favourite wrestlers right now is undergoing a heel turn, where his character is moving from being a face to being a heel, and the reasons why are very dramatic storytelling.

If you think about it too hard, it's stupid as hell. But the talent love to do it and pride themselves on doing it well, it is undergoing kind of a renaissance right now from its shady past, and it's the modern-day gladatorial combat.

(The 'gay' part? Just…. just google Rhea Ripley. Then Damian Priest. Then Drew McIntyre. Then Roman Reigns. Then Tiffany Stratton. Then Becky Lynch. Then Jey Uso. Trust me.)

--------

Part Two: OKAY BUT WTF DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH THE ARCADION

I am already 1200+ words deep into this, so I looked at the introductory cutscene for the raid. And…. um, friends, Romans, countrymen, puks that I know: kayfabe is demonstrably and textually alive and well in AAC. The Arcadion is a show. What is my proof? First conversation, Metem, the promoter of the federation tells the WOL it's a spectacle. That's the word he uses.

He then says the purpose of the Arcadion is "By providing them with gripping entertainment it is our hope to have them forget their cares." However, to shock the citizens out of their stupor, they need someone new! New entertainment is the best way to get them to think about something that isn't their dead queen and the horrifying realization of what regulator usage means, after all.

Well, how about the hero of the day, the one who killed the king?

That's what the mysterious behind-the-scenes president of the federation (Metem's boss) thinks WOL can be the next champion. And then immediately tells us the storyline he wishes to cultivate and discusses WOL's remuneration for participation.

WOL agrees.

Opinion time: At first I called him Lalafell JBL because of the hat, but having reviewed the cutscene Metem is totally giving me NXT-Shawn Michaels vibes. I love it. Anyway.

WOL enters THE LOCKER ROOM. We are introduced to the three combatants AS THEIR CHARACTERS. We don't learn their names yet, but all right.

Honey B talks about sharing the stage with the WOL.

Brute Bomber talks about meeting WOL the ring and how he's gonna take them down!

This is literally and explicitly kayfabe we are walking into. It is not a matter of opinion. It's in the text. It's in the tropes. The three other combatants are doing the kayfabe thing of establishing themselves. Metem explains that they're characters (literally) and that this is their way of welcoming WOL to the locker room. Metem then explains how AAC works and he and WOL work out the deal for the souls from the repository. This isn't anything deeper than making the battles align to an 8-man raid. This is all Alexandrian flavor.

The shoot is the WOL saving souls. The work is Fresh Flavour for the Arcadion. Metem tells us he'll tell us more after our first match.

Thus begins M1: Black Cat is our foe who uses a feral soul to become .... that thing. This is Black Cat's gimmick. In the Arcadion the gimmicks are literal transformations via feral souls, but they serve the exact same purpose. WOL's gimmick is LOOK MA, NO REGULATOR, in case it wasn't clear.

WOL is told that all of this hullaballoo is in place in order to provide the audience with a spectacle. it's first and foremost entertainment.

Metem explicitly tells you this is entertainment, this is a show. Right there in the cutscenes.

Like IDK what else I can say. It's kayfabe. QED.

I am not going to get into the storyline for M2-4, but it is almost a shooty nature: something from real life is affecting the fighters and it's being covered up. THIS is the wrong that WOL will right. The spectacle continues because it is the way of life for people.

[shaykai]

Ruh Roh Raggy I’ve been reading fan fiction again (never stopped but shhh) have some doodles

[buffyfan145]

Really enjoying the Von Erich family's podcasts and learning so much more about the family and stories Kevin tells. 😀 First though, for the fellow AEW fans it seems even more likely Ross and Marshall have signed. Last night during live Q&A with their dad Kevin they mentioned they have something to announce for July 20th, which happens to be the kickoff of AEW's Texas Residency for "Collison" and ROH. Also when Dustin Rhodes was on last week he even said how glad he was the boys are with them now at AEW. So seems likely we'll be getting lots of news with them this summer. 😏

Now onto the movie it's very interesting to hear the family's comments on it. For myself I only knew the basics of their story so I loved the movie, and that seems to be the divide between if you knew the true story or not and if you liked the movie or not, and if you can judge the movie as a fictional movie on it's own.

Overall they are supportive of it and of the cast. They feel the actors did a great job with what they had, but are unhappy with how inaccurate some of it is, especially dealing with Kerry, Fritz, Doris, and Pam. None of them were accurate.

They've extended invitations to the cast/crew to be on the podcast and hoping they do. Kevin and Zac apparently text each other all the time so we'll see.

They wish they could've been involved to help develop the script.

They do feel Zac, Harris, and Stanley did the best and Kevin, David, and Mike were portrayed correctly, as well as all the wrestling scenes being so realistic. The sibling bond between all the brothers was right, especially between Kevin and David as irl they were pretty much like twins and inseparable.

To them Holt nailed Fritz' look and voice, but again he wasn't as villain like as the movie made him and some of how he was, was actually Fritz' father they called Baba/Meaner Fritz. They also left out Fritz' uncle Ross (who Kevin named his son after) who raised Fritz for the first ten years of his life till Fritz' dad came back, and they were much closer than Fritz and his dad.

They also said Chris is in the movie and it's Jeremy's character. They praised Jeremy's acting but that wasn't Kerry's personality at all but Chris's. Chris wanted to be so much like his brothers but he was short and had health problems. Also took Mike's death the hardest, which Kerry's daughter Hollie pointed out that is very similar to Jeremy's character Carmy on "The Bear". So they feel Chris and Kerry were mashed up for the movie but what we saw was really Chris living out Kerry's life.

Kerry's daughters and ex-wife were really upset with how his story was portrayed as it wasn't correct. The only things that were was about the Olympics, getting into wrestling after that, winning the title in honor of David, and the motorcycle accident. Kerry's real personality was the funny, light-hearted one, and was also a photographer. He also deeply loved his girls and his wife. His addictions were left out of the movie too and that's really what drove him to end his life. They also think another actor should've played him and possibly an actual wrestler, with Jeremy playing Chris.

Also Kevin and Pam went to school together but didn't date till he left college from that football injury and moved home. They actually reconnected at a Willie Nelson concert. LOL

They do think too the other wives, girlfriends, and daughters should've been in it. Ross and Marshall are actually the youngest of the grandchildren, and there were 5 girls before them. The family dynamics changed too once the granddaughters were born and all the men became much more doting on the girls. David also was alive for the first 3 years of Kevin's daughter Kristen's life so he did get to be an uncle.

They also wanted to see more of the brothers traveling to other countries and wrestling there. Kevin and David actually both first went to Japan in the late 70s too as a tag team.

Kevin, Kerry, and David also faced each other in the ring once when The Freebirds didn't show up one night at WCCW. This would've been so fun to see and Kevin said they had a great time actually fighting each other.

They do have interest in making a miniseries in the future to tell their story accurately besides Kevin writing a memoir. However, these things take years so it would be a whole new cast/crew, but I likely will watch too if it happens.

[thunderbunny24]

Trying this writing thing again

I used to love writing fan fiction...back in college...in my 20s. Now 20 years later I have recently been re-inspired. What got me to come back to it? Matthew Lillard. I have been a fan since Scream and Five Nights at Freddy's reminded me how good he was. Then I heard that the original Scream cast was going to be a Texas Frightmare Weekend and I was all for it. I got to meet Neve, David, Jamie and Skeet but Lillard's line was too long and we (husband and I) only had 1 full day there. I was sad that we couldn't meet him but decided the next time he was nearby I would try again. Then I got back home and started hunting down all the movies and TV shows he had ever been in that I hadn't seen and started to devour those. Then one day, I decided to hunt for fan fiction and I stumbled onto here and ran into 2 writers that I am devouring their fiction. Apparently FNAF really got people back into wanting to devour Matthew via Steve/William. When I wrote back in college, it wasn't about characters but about the real celebrities. My main muses were NSync (loved me some Lance) and WWE wrestlers. I am going to dip my toe back into the writing world and try to write a story about Matthew. I don't know if it will be any good or if anyone will even want to read it but I figure it's worth a try. Thank you @yellowbunnydreams and @ruh--roh-raggy for making me want to try and be creative again. Your stories have truly inspired this old lady.

[uponawhitehorse13]

What Fate characters do you plan on writing for? Also are you going to add any new fandoms soon?

Ok so regarding Fate/Stay Night other than the characters I've written for I have to do Sakura when I finally finish Heaven's Feel and Medusa. I may have to see if I'll delay Medusa to after I've played at least a bit of Hollow Ataraxia just to get a bit more familiar with her character.

I may not take requests for Archer and keep the alphabet as a one off thing. Small chance I do one for Lancer though.

Regarding other Fate media other than Medusa there are other characters in Hollow Ataraxia that I might write for like Bazett and Caren. Luvia is also a popular character but doesn't seem that deep so I might end up skipping her. Almost done watching Zero but there isn't really anyone to write about there. I am planning on playing EXTRA and CCC after I finish the VNs. Due to the way routes work in those games I might write only for Nero and not Tamamo since she doesn't seem that interesting. I will be writing for the Sakurafaces especially for Passionlip since a friend of mine is a big enjoyer of her story arc.

New fandoms are a bit harder of a question. I am seemingly picky about choosing fandoms to write for. This is more a consequence of the way I approach my posts as character analysis instead of fantasy fulfilment. I often see writing for really shallow characters which ends up just looking like a person projecting their fantasy onto an attractive shell. The worst example of this is those posts that are a blurb that lists a bunch of characters below it. I also care a lot about being accurate to a character because I find it pointless to write things that are ooc. If you don't write for a character as they are just don't write for them at all. Make an oc or something. I'm not looking through fanfiction just to read someone playing dolls.

Another thing is that as strange as it may seem I'm not a big fan of anime. The only anime I could confidently say I like and think is good is Jin-Roh. Other ones I've seen are either disappointing or just too weird with too little justification for it. As such the only thing I've considered doing is a one off Kill la Kill post. I've also watched RWBY almost twice but that show sucks. Small chance for some Yu-Gi-Oh posts since that show really knows how to set up a great character and then just completely piss on everything they did and set it on fire.

With videogames I'm mostly a shooter guy so there isn't much to write about. Like I have seen people write for Halo and Payday but that just feeds into my point about shallow characters. Similar situation with fighting games. Other than Blazblue while I know enough about both Under Night and Guilty Gear I don't see much fun stuff to write about. I do have some jrpgs that could have interesting characters to write for but I would need to finish them. Digital Devil Saga has really interesting concepts but there may not be much to write about with the characters. I also have Tales of Berseria but it's kinda boring and I probably won't finish it. I am pretty familiar with Persona but I don't like it that much and there's more than enough writers for it. One of my friends did recommend a VN called Katawa Shoujo recently and that honestly has the biggest chance of getting added as a new fandom.

I won't be writing for any live action stuff since I'm not interested in anything that way and it would feel a bit weird to write for. Same goes for real person fiction since that is honestly just really fucking gross.

Anyways if you there are any fandoms you want me to write for you're always free to ask anyways. You'll never get something you want if you don't ask for it.

[en-lista]

🖥 ... ⃕  THE CIRCUS UPLOADED A NEW VIDEO !

description : on the latest episode of mirror mirror, the studio is blessed by the goddess of hearts’ presence. oh, and she brought a enchanting friend too!

warning : mentions of low self-esteem, cyberbullying, and other things that may be triggering. viewer discretion is advised.

“hey, i’m enhypen and pandora’s calista. thank you for inviting me!” the female idol bows to the camera before taking her seat. 

her fictional counterpart walks into view and shyly waves at the camera.

“my name’s naeva, it’s nice to meet you all.” she speaks so softly, and with such a pretty smile on her face, you can hear the staff cooing.

we, the editors, decide to leave that sound in because #relate.

“we’re here to answer some questions that you, the audience, have sent in.” calista looks over at the lavender-haired girl and holds up her fist in a hwaiting motion. “shall we get started?” 

“mhm, let’s do it!”

THE GODDESS OF HEARTS : CALISTA !

👤 : what do you want to be remembered as in the future?

“i’d like to be remembered as someone who, despite having the odds stacked against her, pursued her dreams. life’s too short to play everything by the standards, do what you love without restraint.” 

calista looks proud of her own answer, until she hastily tacks on, “of course, within non-harmful boundaries!”

do what you love without restraint, but within non-harmful boundaries — roh aejeong, 2023

👤 : favorite concept you’ve done so far?

“since i haven’t properly debuted with pandora yet, i’ll pick my favorite from enha. honestly, i really enjoyed the concept we did for dimension-dilemma. compared to most of our eras, tamed-dashed had more of a carefree.. summery type of vibe, you know?” 

she pauses to look at naeva, who nods; the latter obviously invested in her words. 

“we didn’t have to worry much about acting seriously or pulling dangerous stunts because we were given the opportunity act like people our age.”

👤 : who had the most negative impact on your life?

“i wish i could answer but..” calista pretends to clear her throat before continuing, “well third place would be those who claim to be fans. it’s hard to just act like those criticisms and negativity don’t exist because they lurk everywhere, acting like they enjoy our music and watching our content when they actually find joy in tearing us, and others who come to our defense, down. 

so while i acknowledge that they’re here, waiting for me to slip up or even just breathe, i refuse to fall to their level. because at the end of the day, they’re just insecure people hiding behind screens to feel better about themselves.”

👤 : who’s your celebrity crush?

“at the moment?” 

the production crew gasp dramatically, eliciting both girls to laugh. it’s adorable, the way they try to cover their mouth but end up revealing their angelic smiles between peals of laughter.

“i just wanted to clarify- okay, i wouldn’t call it a crush, but i really admire zb1’s jiwoong. i’ve been following him from his acting debut to boys planet. he’s so cool and confident i just wanna ask him tips on how to do that too.. maybe i’ll ask gyunnie to put in a good word for me..”

to hourglass’s gyuri, please introduce calista to zb1′s jiwoong. love, the circus ♡  p.s. everyone here on this channel loves your group, never stop being queens! 

👤 : an idol you’d like to collaborate with?

“i’m stuck between seventeen and txt.. and no it’s not because i have friends in both groups.. okay maybe a little-”

calista pouts, causing the staff to fawn over her.

“seventeen are such exceptional performers that if i ever got to collab with them, i think i saved an empire in my previous life. at the same time though, txt are well-rounded idols with fantastic concepts to match so yeah-”

👤 : pandora or enha?

“or.”

calista’s smiling, yet it doesn’t quite reach the corners of her eyes. she fidgets with the ring sitting prettily on her index finger, the golden rose acting like her anchor. the memory’s still vivid—she scolded the guys after seeing the price tag they forgot to discard.

“i’ll never choose only one of them, not when they’re all amazing, talented, sweet people. and while i haven’t known my girls for as long as i’ve known my boys, the time that i’ve spent with them so far makes me certain that choosing to debut with them isn’t a regret.”

she sheds a shaky breath. one of the producers ask if she’d like to take a break. calista shakes her head. “thank you for your concern but i’m okay, don’t worry.”

nevertheless, a staff member walks onto the scene to give her some tissues and water. 

👤 : would you like to continue acting as a full-time career?

“if you asked me this three years ago, i’d have said yes. but when i get on that stage with my members, and i hear the cheers of our engenes and planetes, i feel like i’ve found my true calling. but i am still open to receiving acting gigs. who knows, maybe you’ll see me in the next season of all of us are dead..”

“wait, are you implying that you didn’t..” naeva hesitates for a second before making some motions—a sequence of gestures that hopefully won’t give away the story for those who haven’t watched the show yet.

the idol merely looks at the camera with a smirk.

👤 : what’s your favorite song to perform?

“in terms of enha, i love performing drunk-dazed. it’s got these hypnotic beats, along with a bold and energetic choreography to complement it. i can’t deny that at the end, i’m absolutely winded from all the jumping and spinning on the floor, but it really is fun to perform for engenes.”

“what about pandora?” naeva asks, then initially gets silence as an answer.

“it’s hard to pick because again, i haven’t debuted with them yet..” the idol drifts off again, head tilted while she looks up at the ceiling—seemingly expecting the answer to fall from up there. “i’d say, mainly because we’ve practiced this song several times, blue & night is my favorite.”

👤 : which country would you like to perform in?

“oh that’s easy, the u.k!” calista smiles fondly as she recalls, “while chobao and i were hanging out with chiara unnie, she told us a lot about the country, especially the cities she grew up in. thanks to that, i’d love to perform there and have a few days to explore the places.”

naeva raises her hand. “if it’s not too much to ask, who’s chobao?”

“it’s not, don’t worry—that’s lanfen! she might come off as mean and blunt but beneath that impression is a considerate and hilarious fluffy cat.”

“when you put it like that, she reminds me of jaan. maybe they could be friends..”

“maybe, but they could also butt heads due to their similarities.”

“at the same time though-”

this commercial break is brought to you by the guests who spent five minutes engaged in a debate about whether two tough softies can get along, and how long can they last. 

👤 : if you could go back to the past while knowing your future, would you change anything?

“as cliché as it sounds, i’m the type of person to believe that everything happens for a reason. decisions may not bear good things right away and that’s okay. while i have made some choices that make me go ‘i shouldn’t have done that’, i wouldn’t change any of them because i did get something precious out of those.. admittedly at times.. dumb decisions.”

the answer receives applause that resonates throughout the entire studio. calista’s bottom lip juts out as she jokes, “can i keep everyone here in my pocket? you all are so sweet to me and nana.”

“you’d need a very big pocket for that.” naeva giggles even more when the determined female looks past the cameramen and clasps her hands, “please nayoung unnie! pretty please!”

to be continued.. 

THE HEART’S REFLECTION : NAEVA !

👤 : who is your best friend?

“how do you define a ‘best friend’?” she wonders, looking over to calista for guidance. of course the older girl readily provides it, “it’s someone who, among your friends, you’re closest to.”

“then that’d be solon. he’s always there for me no matter what. when i need to talk to someone about something, he’s ready to listen. or if i’m confused about a certain subject, he’ll break it down so i can understand. he’s quite protective too—nowadays, i rarely ever go to the sea without him or jino accompanying me.”

“it sounds like he really cares about you.” calista approves before gesturing to the camera. “why don’t you leave a message for him, just in case he watches this.”

naeva shifts in her seat and beams warmly. “thank you nono, i really appreciate everything you do for me. i’ll always do the same for you so please don’t be afraid to approach me.”

👤 : what is your favorite subject at school?

“i have two, but one isn’t an official subject, is it okay to mention both of them?”

when one is so polite and soft-spoken, how can the crew say no? 

translation: of course it’s okay, anything and (almost) everything is okay when it’s for naeva the sweetheart.

“i really like creative writing. there’s something enjoyable in being able to unleash your imagination on a piece of paper, as well as stirring ideas around to see what can be made out of them. at the same time though, i enjoy after school because nightball practice occurs at that time, and it’s pretty much one of the few occasions i get to see my friends together so that time is really important to me.”

👤 : does it feel like you don't fit in sometimes?

similar to her human counterpart, the hybrid hesitantly nods and strains her rosy lips to show a smile. “yes there is. it’s not easy being a supernatural creature, let alone being the offspring of a common and rare species. maybe that’s why i don’t have much friends outside of the brothers and sooha—everyone else is scared that i may use my allure on them.”

naeva falls silent shortly after that, her head hung low as she stares at her lap. it only lasts for at least 30 seconds before she hastily fixes her posture and rubs her palms against her skirt.

“i don’t mind it that much, my little group is more than enough for me. they may have different personalities, and sometimes they hang my sanity over the edge of no return, but none of them have ever made me feel like i don’t deserve to be in decelis; like i don’t deserve to have them as my friends. they trust me, and that’s what makes me happy.”

👤 : are you and sooha friends?

“yes we are!” the excited lilt in her voice makes everyone’s hearts flutter; some even acting like they got struck by cupid’s arrow. she doesn’t notice as she’s busy rolling up her sleeve to reveal the beaded bracelet sitting snug on her wrist. “unless my memory’s foggy, we made each other matching bracelet during our first girls’ night. granted, we live in the same dorm building, but we hadn’t really been able to hang out one on one until then.”

out of the blue, a sheepish aura begins to surround the student. “don’t get us wrong, we love our other friends but..”

“..but it’s nice to have a girl friend to spend time with, discuss and do things you can’t do with guys?” calista guesses, though the twinkle in her syrup-tinted irises says she’s far too familiar with naeva’s struggle.

“exactly! she also doesn’t use me as an armrest or suddenly leap on me to get a piggyback ride so my head and back manage to get a well-deserved break.”

what an.. interesting taste in furniture and transportation..?

👤 : what is your biggest secret?

“if i tell you then it won’t be a secret anymore, right?” she jests, the apples of her cheeks lightly heating up when her joke is met with laughter and agreement. “i’ll tell you a wish of mine.

when i was younger, i met this boy, and he became my friend for a day. i don’t recall much about him—just that his eyes were so pretty, i felt like i was staring into the sun, and he had a tendency to give more than he should.”

her fingers instinctively rose to her necklace; specifically, the silver pendant that hung on the middle. with nostalgia injected in her smile, she summarizes, “if i ever meet him again, i’d like to thank him for showing me that even if the world turns its back on me, there will always be someone waiting for me with open arms.”

👤 : are you a day or night person?

“oh, i’ll have to think thoroughly about that one.”

how to think thoroughly and look cute while doing it, according to naeva:

first, play with your sleeve while you ponder about it. next, begin to mentally compare the pair of times. finally, snap your fingers as you come to a satisfying conclusion.

“i’ll say night because that’s when my mind’s will to be productive is at its peak. i mean, i do manage to complete tasks during the day, but it tends to feel like i’m fighting tiredness while doing so. meanwhile, when the moon is hanging above me, i have so much energy that i genuinely enjoy the things i do like watch the nightball practice, practice writing a novel, play around by the sea—those kinds of activities.”

at the end of her explanation, she notices the look of awe some of the crew are giving her. while she attempts to ignore the urge to curl into herself, she meekly asks, “did i say something wrong?”

“have you ever considered becoming a rapper?” someone pipes up.

..hiding her face behind her hands shall suffice for now.

👤 : have you ever wished that, even if it was temporary, you could be normal?

“yeah, definitely, but that’s in the past. i’ve stopped caring about people’s impossible ideals, and now i’m content with who i am.”

it’s not hard to tell—not when she speaks confidently and exudes it. of course, calista sounds like she supports the ‘younger’ girl.

“i like that you mentioned embracing yourself, regardless of whether you fit others’ definition of ‘normal’ or not. at the end of the day, the only opinion that matters is your own, so be kind to yourself. never be afraid to be your own monarch.”

be your own monarch — naeva & calista, 2023

👤 : do you have a crush?

naeva purses her lips and looks at everything but the cameras. the mannerism doesn’t fall short on calista’s radar, and her lips curl into a cheshire smile.

“who is it~?” she playfully prods efore leaning closer to the blushing girl. “you can whisper it to me if you’d like.”

lavender tresses momentarily create a halo around naeva before they fall against her back once more. she hastily explains, “it’s just a silly little infatuation, i’ll get over it sooner or later.”

“let’s check in later to see about that..”

all of a sudden, there’s a sly kitty and bashful puppy in the studio.

👤 : what are your abilities?

“i have quite a few, yet the most notable is imitation. what that means is i can copy others’ abilities and use them how ever i wish.” naeva recites it without much thought, it sounds like she’s explained it before.

her companion hums, thoughtfully nodding along. “you mentioned allure before, is it okay to explain what that entails?”

“oh yes, i have this special song that when heard, lowers a person’s guard enough for me to take control of their mind.” her voice falls a little towards the end as she adds, “but i swear i’ve never used it unless absolutely necessary, like in a battle.”

calista pats the lavender-haired girl’s armrest, a small gesture of assurance. despite that already being enough, she tells her, “we believe you.”

👤 : heli or jino?

the girls share a look of confusion before one falls into a stream of laughter. it doesn’t matter if she covers her mouth, everyone can tell calista’s gigging at the question. on the other hand, a mortified naeva slouches in her seat and stares up at the sky.

fly high naeva’s spirit!

once she’s calmed down, calista can’t help but note, “that’s such a random question, what on earth..” 

“it’s not when you know someone who’d definitely ask this.” naeva mumbles, the face of a certain troublemaker immediately popping in her mind. but before she can begin plotting what to do with the culprit, she recalls the question. 

she thinks about saying the name of the boy with the pretty golden eyes; the boy who’d stay up with her, talking about everything and nothing while her lithe fingers played with his ebony tresses..

“jino. in terms of people i’m close to, he’s right on solon’s heels. even though he can’t be near water, he always comes with me to the sea to make sure i’m safe. whenever i don’t feel good about myself, he’s popping out of thin air to dispel the negativity.” 

she wanted to say more, but the words don’t get past the tip of her tongue. instead, she beams with a crescent eyed smile.

“to my candlelight, let’s stay together forever, okay?”

“we have made it, thanks for sticking around ‘til the end!” calista bows in gratitude, her companion shortly following suit.

“if you enjoyed this episode, please tap the like button..” naeva send a glance to calista to check if she’s doing the outro right and gets a thumbs up in return. “then subscribe to this channel if you’d like to see more, thank you.”

“this was enhypen and pandora’s calista..” 

“accompanied by naeva..”

“..and we flipped your heart.”

taglist : @stealanity​ @lost-leopard-beanie​ @annoyingbitch83​ @starmaniic​ — send an ask / dm to be added !

[d2kvirus]

28/10/24 Fact or Fiction

Statement #1: Jon Moxley’s heel turn has been better than Roman Reigns’ face turn. FACT - The biggest advantage of Mox's heel turn and BCC's pivot is it's realigned the direction of AEW's uppercard which has been needed for a large chunk of the year due to the Undisputed Era flatlining on arrival due to both Cole and MJF being out injured for a significant amount of time while the current configuration of The Elite just doesn't have the right amount of punch to it to make it a viable headline act (and, let's be real, Elite Melodrama storylines were getting repetitive before we were in Lockdown) - in comparison, Reigns' face turn has led to the crushing tedium that is Zombie Bloodline where we have Tonga Loa on our screens because of reasons, when realistically a line should have been drawn under The Bloodline in the months immediately after Reigns dropping the belt as I just cannot feign enthusiasm for the inevitable Bloodline vs Zombie Bloodline match which will likely headline Survivor Series

Statement #2: You believe WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “HHH” Levesque when he says that he doesn’t see color/race when it comes to wrestlers who work for him. FICTION - Because he was describing how he books PPVs when he says he doesn't see colour, as opposed to his booking where all Latino wrestlers are bundled into Legado del Fantasma or the Latino World Order, Damage CTRL are basically an all-joshi stable these days, Zombie Bloodline is bundling Samoans and Tongans into the same group and assuming that nobody will ask any questions

Statement #3:  The Ospreay-Ricochet-Takeshita match from AEW WrestleDream is one of the great triple threats of all time. FICTION - Was it great? Well...yeah, but there's a gap between "great" and "greatest" and I can't see Ospreay/Takeshita/Ricochet being spoken of in let's say five years in the same way that some other highlight triple threats have such as Low Ki/Daniels/Danielson from ROH, Joe/Styles/Daniels from TNA, Benoit/HBK/HHH or Angle/Jericho/Benoit from various WrestleManias, and so on

Statement #4: MJF will be AEW Champion again before either Swerve Strickland or Hangman Adam Page. FICTION - Working on the basis that Darby might be the guy to knock off Mox for the AEW title, at this moment in time Hangman is the most logical guy to take the belt off Darby which also allows them to run back Hangman vs Swerve for the title

Statement #5: If Zack Sabre Jr. had remained in WWE the whole time following the Cruiserweight Classic, he would have become World/Universal champion by now. FICTION - Based on who's booking the company these days, he'd be in a stable with Drew McIntyre and Finn Balor because Englishmen, Irishmen and Scotsmen are tall the same thing and definitely not the basis for a lot of jokes that punch down harder than Sasha Baron Cohen

Statement #6: WWE TV should no longer be considered a pro-wrestling show since the content now is mostly promos, vignettes, entrances and matches interrupted by commercial breaks. FICTION - That would be like saying that Match of the Day isn't a football programme because, while it's sold on Premier League highlights (unless you're a fan of a team the BBC decide only exist when they're getting merked by Liverpool or Man City) there was a long stretch between the late 90s to mid 2000s where somebody might argue in a university essay (alright, I argued...) that the term "sports entertainment" could be applied just as easily to the show as at that time it was becoming less about the highlights and more about the pundits' yakking with the most forced "banter" outside a B-tier Britpop band announcing their third or fourth reunion that it was making the highlights often feel secondary - but the fact remains it still remained a football show, even when they were joshing with whichever pundit was on Celebrity Come Dancing that year being to the rumba what Timo Werner is to finishing one-on-one chances

[pamprinninja]

Professional wrestling is a strange blend of fact and fiction; a form of theater in which the characters are extensions of the athletes that portray them. Fans are encouraged to participate in the performance; to display the sort of passion and vitriol normally reserved for world sporting events.

To be clear, however: it is a performance; and there should be no room for the kind of fans that cannot distinguish between, say, booing a villainous character, and hurling the kind of abuse that leaves performers and fellow attendees deeply disquieted.

I have attended AEW / ROH events; and they are upfront about their expectations regarding fan conduct, and the consequences of violating said expectations (up to and including immediate ejection from the arena).

However:

At one such event, I had the displeasure of being seated next to a small cadre of inebriated fans that kept up a continuous stream of obnoxious, disrespectful, and at times, highly offensive chants for the entire duration of the show.

In wrestling parlance, these fans were attempting to 'get themselves over'; a phenomenon that could be understood as similar to heckling in that a portion of the audience has decided that they, in fact, should be the focus of the show.

(And - also much like heckling - neither those performing, or those also in attendance, care for this behavior.)

Having grown weary of the group and their incessant personal grandstanding, I asked arena security to intervene - who promptly did no such thing. The chants were also sufficiently loud that Christopher Daniels - then sitting at the commentator's desk - signaled for these fans to desist (which, inevitably, they did not).

I am deeply sorry that Skye Blue - one of AEW's quickly-rising homegrown talents - found herself in the position of suffering a tirade of abusive comments from a fan with zero comprehension of appropriate conduct.

However, I am more frustrated that the man in question was not removed until the match had concluded.

I am not sure as to why the delay; and when in doubt, try to apply Hanlon's Razor (i.e. inaction as the result of mismanagement; rather than some sort of malicious intent).

Whatever the case may be: while AEW has the right idea regarding their policy of fan conduct, they need to be a great deal swifter in applying it.

Skye Blue is such a lovely lovely wrestler its so sad she had to go through this

i dont understand why theres still people like this in 2024 :(

[wrestlewriting]

‘Taken Back By You’ Universe Masterlist - 2/18/18

I have finally given a name to the Adam Cole/Brenna Marlow(OC) series of stories. BOOM.

Story 1: Insolence (Completed): You had a good life as an independent wrestler, with good friends, and happiness. Then things changed... You're trying to rebuild your life, but it's not going how you want it to. Especially not with regards to Adam Cole. (Slow burn. Angst. Drama. Fluff. Smut. Humor. Romance.)

Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Part Five Part Six Part Seven Part Eight Part Nine Part Ten Part Eleven Part Twelve

Interlude (Random): Set between the end of Insolence and the start of Be Here Now

One

Story 2: Be Here Now (In Progress): They're in a relationship, finally. But can Brenna and Adam Cole manage to stay that way as their jobs and lives shift around them? (Angst. Drama. Fluff. Smut. Humor. Romance.)

Part One Part Two

~--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------~

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrvZB4A10HA - Taken Back By You - New Found Glory. It’s fitting, trust me.

And nothing beats not knowing What's gonna happen next For all the nights you've held me so long I'm taken back by you, taken back by you

Yeah, I owe everything to you Every darkness, I'll shine through I have doubts, don't blame me Don't let this slip, don't let this slip

It's all those things you say out of nowhere I'm for all the nights you've held me so long I'm taken back by you

~--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------~

Super special amazing shout outs to: @running-ropes @spine-buster @allhailthe-demonking  @thegenericluchadora @sleeplessandcynical @chasingeverybreakingwave

@running-ropes occasionally adopts Adam & Bren so you should go check out her writings. Kenny&Ryan are one hell of a pair. (also that’s my wifey, she’s awesome.)

@sleeplessandcynical just makes me envious and strive to write better so check out their stories too. seriously. go make your life happier.

@spine-buster is always there for a brainstorm and a sounding board and writes stories I wish I could be as good as. she’s the bomb dot com. #WriteForever

[bullet-clubs-bitch]

Older

Inspired by Older by Isabel LaRosa

Cm Punk X fem reader Word Count: 1300

Summary: Cm Punk was always jealous of the relationship between Y/n and Wardlow, he never understood their relationship. Sure he and Y/n had an 18-year age gap but he knew he would treat her so much better. When Wardlow cheats Punk knows now is his only chance to get with Y/n. “I can be your new Daddy” 

MAIN MASTERLIST CM PUNK Masterlist

Die For You (Pt 2) Obsessed (Part 3)

I knew it was wrong, everything about this was wrong. Y/n was young, way younger than I, 18 years to be exact but I couldn't help the feelings I had for her. I was jealous of the guys that spoke to her, they were head over heels in love with her and I couldn't blame them, she was the most gorgeous thing I had ever laid my eyes on. She was delicate like a flower, yet wrapped in barbed wire. She had a sensitive soul yet she hid it from the world, building walls around her years ago. I watched as the blond girl ran past me with tears in her eyes and I knew something was wrong. I walked to catering and noticed Wardlow trying to run after her. 

“What the fuck did you do?” I yelled walking up to the large man, stopping him in his tracks 

“It’s none of your damn business Punk” He spat, shoving me out of the way. Without realizing it I went to swing at the man when I felt someone grab me from behind. 

“Woah there big guy, he’s not worth it” I turned to find Cash and Dax, both having concerned looks on their faces. 

“What’s going on?” I asked the two men in front of me

“He cheated on her” Dax replied 

“What a jerk!-” I yelled

“Okay man, I love you but you are causing a scene” Cash interrupted me “Let’s talk somewhere else” I looked to see everyone looking at the three of us like we were madmen. 

We walked down a few halls to the private locker rooms and passed Wardlow pounding on Y/n’s door. “Y/n, I’m sorry, okay. Open the door” I gave him a nasty look before heading into my locker room. 

“Okay, what really happened?” I asked Cash and Dax, closing the door behind us

“Do you remember how she was upset after he had that fit at Revolution?” Cash said 

“No-” 

“Oh that’s right you weren't there” I gave him a nasty look. “My bad, so anyways he lost the TNT title, blew a fit and left right before Y/n won the title”

“What an asshole” I muttered under my breath

“So apparently when he left, he got with some groupie. Fucked up right, worst part is after she finally forgave him and everything because he was literally begging on his hands and knees for her to take him back he kept sleeping with randos in each town we went to” 

I said nothing, I just sat in shock, trying to comprehend what I just heard. I never understood the relationship between the two of them, she was too good to be with someone like him. Their relationship always seemed weird, like something was always off, but I could never place it. I was lost in my thoughts when I was interrupted by a loud knock on the door. 

Cash and Dax exchanged a confused look before opening the door, revealing a quite angry Wardlow. “What the fuck do you want?!” I asked the man who now stood in front of me. 

Sure the four of us were friends but for some reason I never quite liked Wardlow. I was always civil with him but maybe it was my jealousy that made me secretly despise him. 

“Can you get her to open up?” He asked, referring to Y/n who had understandably locked herself in her private locker room. “Why should we help you?” Cash asked, “Your just going to cheat on her again” I spat “You have no idea what you are talking about Punk” Wardlow spat back “This is none of your business” “Well it sure seems like my business if you are out here asking for our help” “Tell us why we should help you?” Cash asked, not buying a thing coming out of wardlows mouth. “She’s mentally unstable, she is literally crazy. I’m scared she is going hurt herself in there” I could tell his words were sincere, however, I did not buy the fact that Y/n was mentally insatiable. Sure her whole gimmick was being a hardcore Barbie but I knew deep down she wasn’t really crazy, or was she? 

We agreed not to help Wardlow but to help get inside Y/n’s locker room. “You two stay with him, I will check on her,” I told Cash and Dax, not trusting Wardlow within a square inch of Y/n. 

I carefully knocked on Y/n’s door, waiting for a response. “Go Away!” She yelled through the door “It’s just me” “What do you want Punk? I’m not talking to him” “This has nothing to do with Wardlow, I just wanted to see if you are alright. I saw what happened.” Y/n opened the door and let me inside. “So everyone saw,” she said as the tears began to reform in her eyes. “Don’t worry about them” I told her sincerely, joining her on the small couch which sat in the middle of the locker room. “So what happened love?” “I don’t wanna talk about it” I know I shouldn’t be asking such an invasive question but I just had to know “What do you see in him?” “What?” “Wardlow? What do you see in him? He is a big idiot with big muscles and probably a big dick” Y/n laughed at my comments, which made me happy to see her smile. “So you’re only interested in his dick?” I asked playfully “No” “Then what is it?!” “I dunno, he made me feel safe. I know that sounds stupid but it’s true. He’s huge, he kept all the creeps away, and the sex was a nice bonus” I mean it made sense. When they were first an item I noticed how protective he was of her, I wonder what happened. “I could take better care of you. I know I’m not as tall as him or as muscular but the difference between the two of us is that Wardlow is a boy and I am a man. I bet I could make you feel just as good as he did. I would do anything and everything for you.” Y/n said nothing, I knew she was shocked at my words. I knew I was better for her, I would spoil her with expensive gifts, and praise her every day. I knew she was into older guys, she and Wardlow had an eight-year age gap, the only thing the two of us would have was eighteen years. 

“I mean it,” I told Y/n softly as I carefully lifted her chin so she could look at me. “I will give you the world. You will never have to worry about a single thing. I know you Y/n, you act all tough, you live for violence, love the taste of copper on your tongue. Fuck, I’ve seen your matches the title of ‘The Queen of Hardcore’ serves you well but I know that’s an act to hide who you really are. All you want is to be cared for. You like being with older men, the way they protect you, the way they love you better, the way they spoil you. You kill yourself in that ring to have someone like me put you back together, hold you close when you cry, love you to death. Tell me when I’m telling lies” I could tell by the look on her face that she knew I was right 

“Forget about Wardlow, I can be your new daddy” 

[wrestlerecs]

Wrestling Writer Masterlist - Updated 5/14/17

Please let me know of any to add! This will always be a work-in-progress.

@50shadesofadamcolebaybay

@ambootyos

@beckylynchs

@bibalor

@bitchesgonnabemad

@bombomiver​

@concussed-to-pieces

@fan-fiction-galore

@hardcorewwetrash

@heelturn-timesten

@helluvawriter

@hiitsmecharlie

@imagines--assemble

@imaginingwwesuperstars

@imnobodiesbitch

@kailynnyukari21

@llowkeys

@misswweuniverse

@running-ropes

@sammiielli

@sethwriting

@sfgfics

@sjwrites22

@sophiagriff

@somewrestlingimagines

@wildandfreepinkv0dka

@wwe-fluff-fic

@wwe-smutfics 

@wweimaginesposts

@wwesmutdonedirtcheap

@wrestlingbabe

@wrestlingnoob

@wrestlewriting

@xfirespritex                              

[imagineringside]

We’re Back!

It’s been five years since our heyday, but we’re finally bringing Imagine Ringside back from the grave!  Requests are currently open! Ask your little heart away. Just a few notes to remember:

- We do any wrestling promotion. - We ask that you be patient for your imagine to be written. - 2 requests per person at a time, please! Don’t be greedy. - Over the next few weeks, we’ll be rolling out new features and add ons to make this a better experience for everybody involved, so please be on the lookout for that! 

[creativenicocorner]

Me @ me when I hit a block mid scene: 

[ineffable-bisexual]

Spoiler from chapter two of my angst fic:

Aziraphale gets some woo pitched at him (involving a rather handsome middle-aged character I just made up)

Aziraphale proceeded with locking up the register and covering it with a plastic tarp. “It’s been a rough time for me lately, I’m afraid.”

“I see. Sorry to hear that.” Mr. Graves looked around the shoppe. “Say, I, uh...I haven’t seen that shady bloke in here lately.”

“Shady?”

“Yeah, the ginger with the dark glasses and ponytail.”

“Ah...you mean Anthony…” His voice choked as he said his name. “He’s, um...away.”

“I see…” repeated Mr. Graves. “Don’t suppose you’d like to go for a drink?”

Aziraphale blinked. He hadn’t had a drink with anyone else in so long.

“Oh, I can’t. I have--”

“Just one drink; my treat.”

On the other hand, he did feel isolated lately, and he knew it would do him some good to get out of the shoppe for a moment.

He nodded and grinned. “I shall get my coat.”

-----------------

After a few rounds, Mr. Graves walked Aziraphale back to the shoppe.

“Look here, I…” the gentleman started then paused, rubbing his hands. “Um...I don’t know if you’d be interested, but…”

Azirphale gave him a curious look. “Yes?”

“Well...at the risk of looking like a fool...I’d like to ask you to dinner.”

“We just went to a pub.”

“No, Mr. Fell...I mean a proper dinner. Just you and me.”

The angel’s eyes widened. He had never had dinner with anyone else in a while, either.

“Oh, w-well, you see--” Aziraphale sputtered.

“I’m a hell of a cook,” Mr. Graves explained, “and I’d like to treat you to my mushroom risotto.”

“Yes, that...that’s rather generous.”

“It’s just...well, I figure you and I have a lot in common what with rare books and all, but I’d like to know what’s behind that...well, to be blunt...that silent and dapper exterior.”

“Oh?” Aziraphale was silent, thinking on this rather odd expression, until it finally clicked.

“Oh! You...okay--um, dinner….sounds...nice.” His voice kept getting caught in his throat and he cleared it once more. “But...in a few days, perhaps?” He quickly turned to his door to unlock it.

“Great,” Mr. Graves said, smiling. “I’ll call on you in a few days and we can wine and dine, yeah?”

Aziraphale laughed, just a bit too loud. “Ha! Yes! Th-thank you. Good evening!”

He shut the door and locked it behind him, and noticed that his cheeks were warm.

[d2kvirus]

17/11/23 Fact or Fiction

Statement #1: Pro Wrestling is broken.

FICTION – Okay, first of all, time to peel back the curtain just a little bit: when I got the initial pitch for this I thought this would be the usual five or six questions…and then I saw Jake’s response and realised that I might actually have to put some thought into this instead of being a snarky douche who makes references to British sitcoms that go over the heads of at least 90% of the people reading, though luckily the Movies FoF from the other day got most of that out of my system. Also, I’ll be honest here, when I saw the initial question I thought about the structure of wrestling itself, but when I got Jake’s side of the column which focused more on the mechanics of matches and angles I realised that I was thinking of a different version of the question itself – but because I already mentally plotted out some of what I was planning to say, I’ll do what my copy of the Hagakure says and dash in headlong.

For me at least, the issue with saying that wrestling is “broken” is that the statement itself is hyperbolic and sounds uncannily like the average caller to TALKsport…okay, maybe not that bad as that, as suggesting that wrestling is broken is a coherent sentence and TALKsport callers aren’t particularly good at that, but it underlines the issue with a hell of a lot of discussion about sport where the idea of using nuance makes you a filthy communist and instead you should pick a side between black or white, which is the exact same reason why it was really fun being a Tottenham fan for the second half of last season…

But more than anything else, looking at wrestling in 2023 and comparing it to what we’ve had in the past, while I certainly won’t be suggesting that we’ve never had it better – not least because every single wrestling fan has their own version of when they believe wrestling peaked based on the companies they follow and the era they were most into wrestling as everybody’s preferences and tastes are different – but what I will certainly say is that there have been moments in the past where it can be said wrestling has been broken in one way or another and the statement would have held far more weight.

The overall wrestling landscape This is the main place where wrestling is not as broken as it has been in the past, and all you need to do is cast your minds back five years for a pretty good example. In late 2018 the wrestling landscape was certainly a pretty grim place to be, because getting through an episode of Raw or SmackDown would at times feel like an endurance test as the product was dull, stodgy, and often gave the impression that it was created to spite people who dared want to watch wrestling – and yet the main alternative to watching WWE was…watching WWE, as NXT was still in the Black & Gold era and was a viable and refreshing alternative to the turgid dreck being pumped out every Monday and Friday. And this was the problem with the wrestling landscape in mid-to-late 2018: the readily-available alternatives were just not particularly good to watch at the time, as TNA was struggling for an identity on a TV channel you needed to Google who they even were and was mainly serving as a refuge for people who had gotten out of their Lucha Underground contracts, ROH was really starting to feel like a shadow of its former self and by that point they were hemorrhaging talent to the job security offered by NXT or New Japan, Lucha Underground’s fourth and final season was watching one talent after another getting written out as talent were leaving the company in droves, while Evolve was NXT’s unofficial developmental league by that point, so if you were looking for a viable non-WWE alternative your options were NJPW or a company that just wasn’t what it was even a few years before, and for ROHBots such as myself that option was particularly depressing at the time. Or for another example, remember the summer of 2001 where the main options available were to either watch Raw or to watch SmackDown, because with WCW and ECW going belly up there was no alternative unless you really wanted to convince yourself that Heat, Jakked or Metal was where it was at – or, worse, pretend that XPW had any quality whatsoever.

In comparison look at the current landscape: Raw and SmackDown have a far better balance of in-ring action and storylines and don’t seem to be created solely to tell wrestling fans that wrestling is stoopid, NXT has rebounded from the 2.0 Error (sorry, Era) and is putting on a good weekly show not quite up to the standard of the Black & Gold Era but it’s a consistently good watch, but the real difference comes from options outside of WWE: if you want to watch wrestling and don’t want to watch WWE for whichever reason there’s choice at the other end of your remote, starting with AEW as the most obvious example as they planted their flagpole on the wrestling landscape in 2019, while TNA have quietly been putting on a much better product than they have been able to put together for years, and thanks to streaming really improving in the interim there is plenty of indie, puroresu, lucha libre or joshi content available for fans of wrestling beyond the confines of USA, Fox and TBS which can be accessed without having to work out what the URL for WatchWrestling is that week.

Financial security for wrestlers This ties in to the overall wrestling landscape, but in late 2023 job security is certainly better for wrestlers than it was even five years ago…unless they’re Joey Ryan, of course, but fuck that guy.

Even five years ago, while there was plenty of job security for people coming up either with NXT, TNA and ROH all offering viable routes to get a regular pay cheque of varying sizes, there was very little security for people dropping down because if a wrestler was released by WWE, unless they were a Performance Center graduate, their earning potential was at the very least halved overnight because TNA had long since lost their contract with Spike so couldn’t offer the salaries that they were offering to the likes of Kurt Angle or Sting a decade earlier, and ROH was a step below that so unless talent bet on themselves like Cody Rhodes did and struck out to balance NJPW and ROH there was little security for them so it made financial sense to grip onto whatever spot they had within WWE with all their might even if their careers were going nowhere (admit it, you immediately thought of Dolph Ziggler when reading that sentence).

That has definitely changed between 2018 and 2023, because now wrestlers can bet on themselves without the potential risk to their financial security as AEW is a viable option, while Matt Cardona has shown that it is possible for a wrestler to make themselves a viable asset on the indie scene after leaving the WWE umbrella, so the threat of being wished well in your future endeavors has been defanged to a certain degree.

Availability of shows to worldwide fans One thing that certainly has to be said is that, for the longest time, if you didn’t live in the US or Canada you rarely if ever got to see shows live where you lived. Here in the UK we certainly did better than most as WWE would schedule Raw and SmackDown tapings in the UK once or twice a year, TNA would regularly tour…and I just remembered that utterly grim ROH UK tour from 2018 where I swear that I’ve been on buses with more people than those shows drew. Or for another angle, if you lived in the US or Canada you did get the chance to watch NJPW live at Madison Square Garden at the G1 Supercard…but we try not to talk about the G1 Supercard if we can help it. But if you lived anywhere else your only chance to see whichever company you followed live was a house show – unless, of course, you happened to be a Crown Prince who uses sportswashing to further grow your own personality cult, then you got major shows almost literally in your backyard.

Five years later this is not the case as various countries outside of the US and Canada are getting major shows: this year alone has seen WWE stage major shows in the UK and Puerto Rico while Australia and Germany are on the slate for 2024, while AEW staged All In at Wembley Stadium – and on the other side of the Pacific we’ve also seen NJPW stepping out of Japan more regularly in 2023 with them staging events in both the US and UK this year whereas before the only chance to see a NJPW star on British soil was if they were booked on a RevPro card, which means that there are far more opportunities for fans to witness major events as the major events are coming to them and, judging by the noise the crowds made at those shows, you could tell it meant a hell of a lot.

Creativity in booking When it comes to wrestling companies thinking outside of the box when putting together matches, five or ten years ago the results were very variable as for every positive such as NXT reviving WarGames to immediate success and acclaim, we also had the Shark Cage match which seemed to exist because Mattel came up with it. But what really came to the fore in the last decade was the rise of the cinematic match, with the Final Deletion setting the scene in that regard. Now for me even at the time I didn’t find the Final Deletion to be as good as people talked it up as at the time, given it served as Exhibit A for how the mid-to-late 2010s was a period where wrestlers seemed to be trying to create forced memes which Broken Matt Hardy and List of Jericho-era Chris Jericho were the main offenders, but as a self-contained piece the Final Deletion certainly worked. On the other hand there was…well, pretty much every attempt to get on the Final Deletion bandwagon, be it the House of Horrors match between Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton which was such a dud that Jinder Mahal played a major role in the finish, and to be honest I found the follow-ups to the Final Deletion match in TNA to be going back to the well too often while trying to be Very, Very Wacky.

More recently, though, companies have definitely had a much better hit-to-miss ratio when thinking outside the box for constructing matches, with WWE reversing their previous duds when attempting to put together a cinematic match with both the Firefly Funhouse which was ingenious in how it told and presented its story while the Boneyard match was arguably the perfect sendoff for Undertaker after the career that he had and did so much to erase some of the matches he’d had in the two to three years before that, while outside of WWE we had AEW creating Stadium Stampede which while not comparable on the storyline front to the previous couple of examples (but then again, what is?) it was a hell of a lot of fun and couldn’t have been done in a regular match setting. Have there been duds when flexing the creative muscles in the last few years? Absolutely, as the Pitch Black match just didn’t land while if the Tooth & Nail match between Britt Baker and Big Swole hasn’t been inducted to WrestleCrap yet it surely will sooner rather than later – and this is just using cinematic matches as the yardstick, because there’s numerous other stipulations and layouts which have expanded beyond the regular matchup to keep things fresh, and by and large they’ve all worked…even if the pyrotechnics for the end of the match didn’t.

Fan toxicity Alas, we now get to the place where it is possible to say that wrestling certainly has a few dents around the edges that weren’t there five or ten years ago, and that’s the point where wrestling fans – or, to be more accurate, wrestling fandoms – have really become an anchor to trying to enjoy wrestling, to the point as I type this I’m guessing there’s a 50/50 chance that somebody read the first paragraph or two and stampeded to the comments to suggest I’m making out that AEW is the beacon of hope of all wrestling because the whole black/white nuance/dirty communist thing I mentioned earlier. So if you have done that, whoever you are, thanks for unwittingly proving my point.

And this is the thing, using 411mania as the sample base (since I wouldn’t touch Wrestling Twitter with a 15 kiloton nuclear warhead) ten years ago the toxicity was basically broken down into three categories: obvious trolls whose accounts could be easily identified by all of them stanning either Kane or Batista’s OVW gimmick, posters who could not let an article about a specific WWE wrestler go by without having to chuck their tuppence worth into the comments (and by complete coincidence, their targets always seemed to be people who came into WWE via ROH instead of OVW/FCW/NXT…), or TNA Mecca posters who came on here with an army of alts to upvote their every comment which was just lame. So in short, while fan toxicity did exist – not least that one Meltzer fanboy who tried doxxing me because I dared suggest The Word of Dave wasn’t sacrosanct – fan toxicity was more often than not a mild annoyance.

Fast forward to the present day and, Abdul Alhazred, it’s become a bit of a shitshow with the relentless fan toxicity, hasn’t it? It turns out that Paulie Walnuts/Kermit the Frog/Uncle Ivan was just the tip of a particularly fetid iceberg where you see fans WWE hurling ordure at AEW, AEW fans coming to the conclusion that the best solution would be throwing ordure back at WWE fans because that’ll help, TNA fans popping up to hurl ordure at AEW apparently forgetting that they were the kicking post of WWE fans during the Monday Night Massacres, and the occasional obvious concern troll who hasn’t quite figured out that the regulars on this site know what they’re up to, which often means that comments section to some articles are more a circle jerk where anyone making a valid point or offering constructive criticism get submerged below a sea of effluent. And most of all, the biggest issue with it is just how boring it is to see the same “joke” which wasn’t funny the first time continue to not be funny the ten-thousandth time I read it (whoops, there’s some of that hyperbole I mentioned earlier…) making it wrestling fandom’s answer to “I identify as an attack helicopter!!!!!!!!!1!!!1!” even though there are already places where incurious bores can regurgitate the same “joke” ad nauseum, and those places are r/soccer and the Babylon Bee.

Moments where you say “Eff this” The thing with admitting to being a wrestling fan is that, no matter how much you like the product or how much the product has improved, in some circles saying you like wrestling will get you looks similar to the one I got as a teenager when my parents walked in on me while I was enjoying one of the finer performances of Shannon Tweed’s cinematic oeuvre late night on Channel 5, and there’s no getting past that. Similarly, no matter how much tighter the booking or the writing of any show has gotten you’re never too far away from a match or a promo or an angle that will cause you to cringe so much that your neck is running the risk of becoming an internal organ, as the members of my monthly support group for people who vividly remember the one time AEW let Marina Shafir go in front of the crowd with a live mic and straw hat will surely attest.

Cringe, however, is something that can usually be brushed off and left for RD Reynolds & Co to write up after the fact, on the other hand there’s those moments where wrestling finds a way to make a fan hang their head in shame at what they have just had to sit through such as the segment where Dean Ambrose said Roman Reigns’ leukemia coming back was “karma”, or TNA sending a clearly out of his gourd Jeff Hardy out to the ring at Victory Road, or WWF continuing Over the Edge after Owen Hart’s fatal accident, or an angle where Jose Gonzalez pretended to stab Atsushi Onita to hype their upcoming match, and countless other examples of carny bullshit that has always been one of the pillars which props up wrestling as a whole, but the question is whether this is so common in 2023 as it was in the past?

Honestly, this is harder to answer because while so much of the stuff done for shock value or for gits and shiggles for the one guy booking the show has by and large been consigned to the dustbin of history while so much of what makes the wrestling industry look like a tawdry sideshow run by borderline (or actual) crooks is mainly something covered years if not decades after the fact by Dark Side of the Ring…mainly, though, and that’s the issue because there’s still going to be something that will make fans dread having to spend weeks or even months going over the same topic time and time again, for one obvious example the whole hornet’s nest that is the situation between CM Punk and The Elite which isn’t embarrassing in the way you can shrug off but instead embarrassing in a way that all you can do is shake your head and mutter a few expletives in response because the whole situation was caused by neither party wanting to be the bigger man or taking the higher ground and instead both parties wanted to be the smaller, pettier man doing the most smaller, pettier things to needle the other party until the whole thing became a complete shitshow that nobody came out of looking good while leaving plenty of damage in its wake.

So on one hand things have improved as the product itself is far less likely to go out of its way to make a wrestling fan regret watching the product due to absurd choices by whoever is putting the show together, but on the other hand there’s still moments where the wrestling industry finds new and innovative ways to make being a wrestling fan feel like a full-time job in all the ways that is not a compliment.

Bad booking habits …or, to put it another way, I couldn’t think of any way to put these things into a coherent section.

The thing about being a fan of something is there is always something that is going to bug you no matter how much you enjoy the whole, case in point I still enjoy Frasier twenty years after its main run ended…but the second I remember that the episode features one of Daphne’s family in a prominent role then the urge to grumble to nobody in particular rears its head.

Much like how every wrestling fan has a different moment in time or moment for whichever company for when they believe that wrestling itself peaked, similarly every wrestling fan has their own list of things that they have an opinion on which means something to them but other wrestling fans think they’re being a Nostalgia Critic about. For example, for me it’s the lost art of the false finish, as the closest we get to that these days is the whole “Wrestler X outside the ring clocks Wrestler A near the ropes so Wrestler B can roll them up, only for Wrestler A to kick out” trope which does still get used or somebody kicking out when the opponent has a handful of tights, and as a result that has meant finisher kick outs have gone from something you would see a handful of times per year at WrestleMania or when the leading lights of AJPW or NJPW would face off to something you expect to see on every PPV/PLE as no bookers or agents trust that crowds would bite on a rollup or a small package as a false finish anymore. For others there’s referees enforcing tag legalities, which popped into mind as I remember one poster on ROH World who refused to rank a match above a B grade if the ref did not strictly enforce tag legalities… which is an example of somebody being a Nostalgia Critic about something, just so we’re clear.

So with the idea firmly established, does booker having some bad habits and not correcting them so those bad habits spread mean that wrestling is broken? Well…not really. Sure there is a problem with bookers relying on finisher kickouts to pop a crowd but because they lack the subtlety to create a proper false finish which was an issue with Golden Era ROH just as it was Black & Gold Era NXT (especially when Adam Cole and Johnny Gargano were the top guys) just as it is in AEW, but for somebody else the problem might be that bookers think tag legalities are allowed to go out the window for the last couple of matches to make the finishing sequence as OTT as possible, while for others it is seeing the DDT or the superkick go from a match-ender to a transitional move and/or the setup for the whole “Both men are down” spot, or whichever booking bad habit you cannot help but notice every time it happens which some people might agree with you while others might think you are overthinking things, none of these mean that wrestling is broken. Can it be improved? Yes it can, especially if you need a second hand to count the number of finisher kickouts in a match, but the biggest takeaway is that if there is one bad habit of bookers far and wide which you have a disproportionately strong opinion of, that means one thing: one of us, gobble-gobble…