Trump is tweeting about people calling him the King of Israel and the second coming of God. Just after he tried to buy Greenland.
This has entered Caligula levels of weirdness.
Sick and fucking tired of having one of the most stressful, busy years of most of our lives being treated like we were all on some jolly because we didn't commute.
So, for the non (or lapsed) wrestling fans, I'm going to explain why this guy is at the centre of the greatest, most agonising, most wholesome pro-wrestling story in years. And it's a story that's about to hit the home stretch.
Ashley Massaro recently died. Her affadavit when she sued WWE includes her being encouraged by Vince McMahon not to report that she was drugged and raped by US military staff while on tour in Kuwait. Content warning - this is sickening reading. (1/2)
But she caught me on the counter (It's a matter for Sue Grey)
Saw me bangin' on the sofa (It's a matter for Sue Grey)
I even had her in the shower (It's a matter for Sue Grey)
She even caught me on camera (It's a matter for Sue Grey)
Been thinking about Dracula and what, in the novel, the Count's plan actually was before it gets rudely interrupted by the good and wholesome Scooby gang. And it's a nasty, effective one.
A reminder. If you've been social distancing and self-isolating, you may well have already saved lives. Including your own. You've been cutting down the odds. Keep it up.
Out of all the comedians that do left-wing stuff, Nish Kumar seems to come in for a lot of vitriol. I have no idea why weird right-wingers might dislike him so much. None at all.
I mean, really, the Kate Middleton thing is about the royal family having power without accountability, and their relationship with a subservient press that would rather keep on their good side instead of telling the truth.
I've been told this is a distraction from Epstein. Except it's a distraction from the economy. Except it's a distraction from putting kids in cages and denying them care.
This isn't 4-dimensional chess. You haven't cracked a code. He's not a genius.
He's simply a disaster.
Many of us have sacrificed and worked hard over the last year and a half. Many of us barely saw our families. To be told 'back to work!' in this patronising manner is just a 'fuck you'.
And let's not pretend Johnson and the Tories give a shit about young people, while reducing the amount they have to earn before repaying loans. This is all about landlords of shitty office blocks.
Some further details around WWE head Vince McMahon and her being discouraged from pursuing anything. Also worth taking note of how the culture made her fear for her job. Full affadavit here:
Thanks to twitter being shit now, threads are now lousy for engagement, so this was as much me getting this out of my head as anything else. If you've read this far, though, what do you think? Does that sound like the plan?
After the last year and a half, if someone gets overwhelmed and cries at anything, be it wrestling, a concert, a ball game or a film, you shut the fuck up and let them feel the moment.
Margot Kidder posed for Playboy back in 1976, on the condition that she had approval over the images and wrote the accompanying article, where she talked about her own issues with her body and self-image growing up. It's worth a read.
While basically everything is wrong with Giles Fraser's idiotic piece, one bit that got lost in the middle of all the sexism and nostalgia-wanking was his misunderstanding of the modern workplace.
Saw Alanis Morissette. At one point, a (mostly women) crowd was almost entirely on their feet, singing "You Oughta Know" at the top of their voices. Two guys next to me and one said to the other "...this is terrifying".
One thing you'll see a lot of HR/people-management experts talk about is how young people are less loyal to employers than ever before. But they never talk about how employers are less loyal than ever before.
I still can't quite believe that the prime minister told people that if they want to stop getting death threats, they should do what the people making death threats want.
It seems like the primary defences of
#PresidentsClub
is that the women involved all knew what they were signing up for and all of the men had no idea.
Smart move by Kevin Dunn to resign before he was cut.
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For one night, all is right with The Elite. They get their moment. And Adam Page spends a significant amount of the match/brawl chasing people on a horse.
This is Hangman Adam Page. He's an AEW wrestler, and has been part of a slow-burn storyline since their first show. And it's all about him believing in himself.
We have seen time and time again that some of the British media will happily destroy someone's life and privacy when it suits them, but will treat the royal family with complete deference at all times.
And that's where we're up to. An arrogant heel champion who doesn't believe his former best friend is worth anything. And Hangman Adam Page trying to overcome his own insecurities and finally become champion.
First off, if you haven't read the book, read the book. It's an absolute belter, and enormously fun. And there's never been an adaptation that nails it.
Then the pandemic happens. For a couple of months, due to location, The Bucks and Page aren't on the show. The Bucks return to set up a Stadium Stampede match at a PPV. They're attacked, and Adam Page handsomely runs down an entire football field for the rescue.
Two years of failure and self-loathing. His friends all gone. Feeling everyone's better off without him. Feeling like he's full of poison. And he's finally told by new friends that they believe in him, it's okay if he fails, and that he deserves this.
We've also seen, via the Meghan stuff, how utterly vicious the media can be when they're on the attack. And this stuff has been force-fed to us for years. It's not press - it's PR.
It'd be one thing if the messaging was "thank you all for doing so much, but we need to rescue our city centres". I may not agree, but at least it wouldn't be as insulting.
It's also interesting from an AI/Photoshop point of view, that not one person looked at that photo and thought it was real. But a bunch of the British media pretended to.
In their comedy backstage series, Being The Elite, Hangman drunkenly starts telling other teams how to beat The Bucks. With live censorship when he forgets he's in the shower.
Feeling like he's let everyone down, Hangman starts drinking. This isn't a bad taste alcoholism story or anything - Page likes a drink, is all. But he's definitely using it to help avoid how he's feeling. This has been a character trait since.
It's also worth noting the links between concussions and depression/suicide. This is an area being researched, but the lack of care around a traumatic situation cannot have made life easier.
You can see him here, back in his days in Japan (with the noose around his neck). This was part of the legendary wrestling faction 'Bullet Club'. The other three relevant characters - the two with bandanas (the Young Bucks) and the centre guy with the hair (Kenny Omega).
But Hangman's insecurities have still taken hold. He's struggling. He can be charming and funny about it, calling himself the 'Anxious Millennial Cowboy'... but he clearly doesn't believe in himself. And it's becoming a problem.
Kenny Omega is a big deal. Championships everywhere. The Young Bucks are his best friends, and arguably the best tag team in the world. They'd be in Omega's corner in major matches (both as heel/bad guys and face/good guys) while in Japan.
And he doesn't just bring over one coffin with him. He brings over 50 and places them in different parts of London, to give himself a freedom in one of the largest, most modern cities in the world.
I got my copy of Good Omens signed by both Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, which is when I learned they had an ongoing thing of writing set-ups and punchlines to each other.
That's why a lot of us, deep down, care. Because it's a really weird relationship, and we're told constantly that these people are special, and we have to show our support to them, while they cannot be bothered telling us even basic truths.
In fact, he's not done there. Omega travels to different wrestling companies winning multiple championships at once. Absolutely dripping in gold, and a cocky, arrogant heel.
The Dark Order became, unexpectedly, the most wholesome thing in wrestling in response. Partly, they claimed their new leader was Brodie Lee's son, who was a huge wrestling fan, and clearly has a blast messing around with them.
The Young Bucks befriended Hangman Adam Page years ago. And brought him into Bullet Club. He was young and inexperienced, but clearly had enormous potential.
The US should pay more attention to the Kim Darroch story. It's an even bigger Trump story than it seemed, but US followers may not appreciate who's involved.
A leak happened with the intention of damaging the UK government by deposing the UK ambassador to the US.
/1
Enter a new team, FTR. They're old friends of Hangman and they're more like him than the Bucks or Omega. They start drinking with him, and he's so desperate for friendship, he doesn't realise they're playing him.
Feeling he'd let everyone down, Hangman told the Young Bucks that he was quitting their group. He needed to get his head straight for a while. They refused to let him.
Ends up with Omega and Hangman vs The Young Bucks. There's a LOT of bad feeling between all the former friends. It's a great match, which Omega and Hangman win.
In terms of ambition, Dracula has to sleep in the earth. And it has to be the earth where he died. He doesn't have to sleep in a coffin filled with earth - that's his innovation. It let's him escape his natural confinement.
Kenny Omega has also had a few losses that he's taken heart. They're still both part of The Elite and friends, so they form a tag team. It's immediately successful.
Also finally giving into their true selves, The Young Bucks became tag champions, and have become cocky (hilarious) pricks as well. Everyone is doing better without Hangman Adam Page.