Sawyer Paul's Blog, page 199
May 10, 2011
The despair of the once-champion Christian
Christian's World Title reign lasted five days in canon, three days in real life, and nowhere near long enough for any fan's satisfaction. All week I've read opinion pieces on the story, and just about everyone agrees on these three items:
Nobody expected Christian's reign to last very long,
The match with Orton was very good,
The title change does not appear to be a part of any story, though we all may be wrong about this come next week.
I'm a quality man. I don't need to see hours and hours of wrestling in a week. I like to see the good stuff. And the Orton VS Christian match was very good. It came out of nowhere, of course, and made no sense in the lexicon of WWE (a face challenging and then beating another face? What?), but it made loads of sense in the lexicon of WWE politics (Orton is a better "draw" than Christian, and they still generally put titles on their stars). But, given the circumstance, I'd like to point out that Christian may be the only guy on the WWE roster that's had 100% quality matches as a world champion. It's a salty compliment, but it's true.
I've never been one to place too much emphasis on titles, instead preferring quality stories with or without trophies. But this wasn't a good story, either, and I believe it is this reason that most wrestling fans are upset. Of course, we wanted Christian to be World Champion for a little longer, but we're seethed that he was dumped so quickly, that he was never given a chance to perform in that position. I'm speaking for many people when I say that Christian is one of the best performers this art form has. That he's always been kept in the middle of the pack is a disservice to his craft. WWE's photography work catches Christian (almost all my favourite photos from their crew involve him in some way) in pain, weak, struggling, fighting. Rarely winning. Always trying to claw forward.
WWE has certainly cut short championships for political and timely reasons. But there was something about how long they held on Christian at the end of the match, how the camera stuck around to watch the look on his face. How he got up slowly, not because he was in pain, but because he was emptier. It was painful to watch because I back the guy, but mostly because he captured the feeling of an unfair, human loss, and we all felt it.
That they showcased this is proof that WWE sees this in Christian, too. It is perhaps his forte as a performer to embody the painstaken and beleagured—in that sense, all professional wrestlers are given this task, but few strike the perfect balance. And WWE is very guilty of typecasting a man to death. With the case of Christian, because he is so good at losing, it's unfortunate that we may never see him really win.
Did you finally get my email?!
nope. Send it again.
Das-Waisis
They need to be taught a lesson so bad. I hope someone calls them out on their lack of racial/ethnic sensitivity soon, because if they start feeling their oats and piss off the wrong, influential advocacy group? Then yeah, we all might suffer, especially if four hours of our Mondays and Fridays combined suddenly became freed up over said backlash.
Cheap heat means nobody wins.
May 9, 2011
Aggressive Reading
Once a week, I'm going to list a few good reads that fit within the realm of what I'm trying to do here. If you've got Instapaper, follow me (ksawyerpaul) and you'll get a lot of these early, along with a bunch of others, because Instapaper is the thing I use most on the internet (shocking).
Aggressive Reading #1:
There is No Explicit Meaning by Reynard Seifert (journalism):
I have a theory that writers are a little like dictators and artists are a little like terrorists; this itself is a dialectic, but what I mean is, writers really want to control people and lead them to an idea, whereas artists want to create a spectacle. The terms are not mutually exclusive — like I said before, there are no dialectics and there is no explicit meaning — teardrops don't flow two ways, but as many as the paths across one's skin allow (as in Jeff Goldblum running his hand over Sam Neill's wife's hand in Jurassic Park). Plus, they all splash eventually. When asked if he felt art was a crime, Stockhausen replied with a muddled response that the audience did not buy tickets to the concert. His remarks were crude and insensitive, but so is American black propaganda. His ideas of intelligence are exclusionary and elitist, but so is our intelligence community.
In Which I Make No Apologies for Calling Bullshit on Ridiculous eBook Pricing by Nik Fletcher (opinion):
Right now, publishers are stinging - or as Fraser more succinctly puts it gouging - eBook customers. I completely understand that there's costs involved to produce an eBook version of a work. However, when you're no longer smashing together some (entirely physical) pulp, pressing ink onto it, and shipping it some place, the idea that a premium should apply simply fails logic. The idea of paying substantially more for a digital copy of the exact same text can only be one set up by a publishing house who'll next year announce stagnant eBook sales - most likely as a result of people looking to buy digital texts thinking "Screw this, I'll buy the paperback cheap" or resorts to nefarious means.
The Last of the Slow Burn by Ava Longfellow (fiction):
Newly lit, the first high is the first kiss. The first touch of poison, the chemical imbalance, leaving me heady and feeling dangerous. The toxic chemicals permeating through the buds on my tongue, through the pores down my throat. Tonight, when no one else is watching, when I am not trying just to be next to someone in the cold and borrowing their cigarette as an excuse for company, I sit, I smoke, and I feel it.
How I learnt to stop worrying about the bomb, and went Zumba™ dancing instead by Charles Pitter (journalism):
But the bigger point is that I stopped worrying about how some people (i.e. small-minded folk) will perceive me for engagement in something that is seen as an almost exclusively female activity. Maybe it's subversive where I live but this boy just loves to dance and it's a whole lot more sexy than a knitting class. Rise-up heteros.
Ridiculous Tips For a Miserable Sex Life: April 2011 by Ben Reininga (humour):
The gist of this might be pretty accurate, but the spirit seems a bit off. I can't think of a single woman who'd be excited to have her vagina compared to George Foreman — the boxer or the sandwich press.
Enjoy.
The WWE Off-season
When WWE has a PPV in 12 days without a single match or obvious plot going forward, you can safely tune out for a few months.
A Night Of Big Reveals
TNA is pretty good at reveals, shocking moments, and moments where new plots begin. What they aren't good at is making good on the promise of their reveal, shocking moments that mean anything, and the middles and endings of almost all of their plots. That's been their 9 year history in a nutshell.
I wonder what Impact Wrestling will be good and bad at.
Pathe and WWE Partner on No One Lives
Harry Knapp, Producer, said; "We are thrilled at the prospect of working with Luke, one of the most talented actors of his generation. We know he is going to create a truly memorable villain!"
