Tag: observations

Setting the value of today’s WWE titles

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Watching wrestling these days, I can’t help but think about how much has changed throughout the decades I’ve been watching this crap. I’m amazed and aggravated at just how over Ryback is, considering he is the verbatim second-coming of Bill Goldberg, but somehow worse because he has an even more limited arsenal of moves, speaks too much during matches, and has the annoying habit of bobbing his head to his own music.

I’m also concerned for the WWE in regards to just how many shows they have now. Off the top of my head, they have RAW on Mondays, Smackdown on Fridays, and I believe they have shows on Wednesdays occasionally and also a Saturday morning program. I don’t know if they have any reality television shows at the moment, but they have developed a fairly prominent YouTube channel, which now puts the onus on WWE performers and personnel to provide content for, while they’re not being pressured to engage the “universe” with their seemingly mandatory Twitter accounts. The level of saturation they’re reaching at this point is enough to kill WCW twice over at this point, and I know the WWE is very adaptable and a smart-operating company, but it still heeds an orange-level warning as far as I’m concerned.

But anyway what this post is about is in regards to the seemingly excessive number of titles that are circulating throughout the WWE at this point. And I guess this would be useful for an older fan hoping to pick up watching wrestling today, despite the fact that I’m pretty sure nobody reading this would fit that criteria, but it seemed like a good idea to write at the time. But what I’ll basically be doing is taking today’s current array of WWE championship belts and achievements, and appropriately providing an equivalent from an older generation, to help provide perspective for today’s viewers.

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I don’t get you people sometimes

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Back in 2007, pro-wrestler Chris Benoit was discovered dead, along with his wife and his son.  Immediately afterward, the WWE broke all storylines for one night, and put together an entire tribute show for Chris Benoit and his family, where there were some great matches, but most notably an array of tear-filled, emotional outpourings of interviews of Benoit’s fellow wrestlers sharing touching stories and memories of their fallen comrade.

Days later, it was revealed that it wasn’t an attack on the family by a second party that ended up with the Benoit family dead; it was Chris Benoit himself, who had murdered his wife and his son, before hanging himself.  Suddenly, all of the RIPs to Chris Benoit were rescinded, the WWE did everything they could to break association with Chris Benoit, and wrestlers everywhere expressed emotions of betrayal, disappointment and disgusted sadness at the guy they all thought they once knew.

It wasn’t really “rest in peace” anymore, as much as it was “good riddance, you fucking murderer.”

Recently, a player on the Kansas City Chefs, Jovan Belcher, murdered his girlfriend and mother of their three-month old child, and then killed himself.  This has all been confirmed and is all fact at this point – Jovan Belcher was a murderer before he killed himself.

So why the fuck are so many people bidding him to rest in peace?  The guy is a fucking murderer, and fellow football players, and people all over twitter are wishing him the same farewell, reserved for people who live their lives honorably, or at least without committing murder?

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Ironic double standards

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I get accused of being a racist a lot, but to be perfectly honest, I deserve it.  I derive an immense amount of humor out of politically incorrect things, and I love to point out when things seem racist in my opinion.  I say a lot of politically incorrect things around those I have confidence around, but when the day is over, I’m not going to act on my racism, because that would be bigotry, and that, I do think is pretty wrong.

But today was an example of why I get the impression that I’m generally disliked by my fellow Koreans, in an ironic case of I guess, self-racism.  There are a lot of Koreans that work in my building in general.  I’ve made their smoking habits the subject of my observations of people, but for the most part, I have no ill-will towards them.  I don’t necessarily think it goes the other way though; the impression I get from these Korean people are about the same as I tend to get from most other Koreans who have immigrated to the United States; an overwhelming desire to stay away from me.

I’m a very observant person, if it’s not well known to those I know.  Whether I like to or not, I tend to recognize faces, recognize patterns and tendencies of people, whether I know them or not.  Especially with a building where everyone sees everyone on a long enough timeline, I’m fairly good at remembering little, inconsequential and unsubstantial details on a sporadic basis.

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Axing Questions

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

There was a guy I knew when I lived up in Virginia.  He was the first guy I ever met that routinely used the phrase “axe” when he was obviously trying to say “ask.” And I’d routinely call him out on it, and blurt out “AXE” whenever he said it.  Or whenever I’d have a query for him, I’d say, “let me AXE you something,” putting an excessive amount of emphasis on the axe part.  Although if you saw the guy, you’d think black guy, but in truth, he was from the Virgin Islands, if that makes any difference.

Anyway for a while, the epidemic of people using the word axe kind of vanished from my radar.  Either I wasn’t noticing it around me, or I just wasn’t around enough inquiring people to put myself in scenarios where questions were to be axed.  But at least over the span of the last few years, I have noticed that people have been using the word “axe” in place of “ask” a lot more frequently, and I can’t help but notice that they’re all black.

So naturally, my inquiring assumption is that the verb “ask” has an Ebonic counterpart in the word “axe.”  Despite the fact that the word “axe” is a noun, meaning a well known tool and/or weapon.

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Thoughts on Girl Meets World

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

I don’t hide the fact that I was… am a fan of the old sitcom, Boy Meets World.  Recently, there’s been news circulating that a spin-off show is being created “cleverly” named Girl Meets World.  With the basic premise is that it’s going to be the same show pretty much all over again, except instead of the protagonist of the showing being Corey Matthews, it’s going to be a girl.

But get this, not just any girl – it’s going to be Riley Matthews, the purported daughter of Corey and Topanga, who got married at the tail end of the Boy Meets World, and have clearly gotten busy since the show ended.  I don’t really know quite how to feel about this.

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Desperately Seeking Shay

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

“Whatcha reading?” she asked, coming down the lobby steps behind where I was sitting.

The voice was mostly unfamiliar, but I had an inkling of whom it could possibly be.  I looked up, and she was now in front of my table.  She smiled, and asked if anyone was sitting with me.  I said no.  She asked if I minded if she hung out for a little bit.  I smiled this time, and said by all means.  She sat down, drinking a strawberry daiquiri.  A waitress came by, and she ordered another.  I ordered another Bloody Mary.

We met briefly the night before.  Her table was next to mine during dinner.  She was in a party of three, with another couple.  When my table’s food arrived, both our tables got quiet, and all eyes were on the entrees brought out to us.  She glanced over and said to me that I should let her know how my entrée was.  I smirked and said will do.  In all honesty, despite thinking it was good initially, the more I think back to it, I didn’t really think it was all that great.  I ended up forfeiting half of it, because I was full on snack bar junk food, and the far superior seafood ceviche not too terribly long ago, and I simply didn’t want to finish this fish.

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HEY CHING CHONG CHANG

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

A street merchant actually yelled that out to me.

Instinctively, I laughed.

Something NOT lost in translation down in Mexico – Racism

Other things said to me as I walked down 5th Street in Playa del Carmen:

“Are you Japanese??” I say no.  “Are you . . . Filipino??” Seriously?  He went from Japanese to Filipino?  Is it possible to go to such complete different ends of the spectrum?  Filipinos don’t even like being lumped in with Asians anymore.  They’re Pacific Islander. It’s like asking a dog if they’re a lion or a Dodge Stratus.

“KONNICHIWAAAA!!!”

“Hey chino, want some weeeeeed?”  I say no, I don’t smoke.  “Eets not too late to staaarrrt, amigo!”  Persuasive argument.  Be that as it may, I still say no, gracias.

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