WWE Storylines
This is a recurring theme in my journal posts: as an amateur writer I've looked at the scripted stories (yes, everyone knows that wrestling is "fake", that matches are scripted with predetermined outcomes). I don't recall when I watched my first wrestling matches, but I think it was during undergraduate school, probably a diversion from the constant stress of academia. I know it was before I visited my maternal grandfather/godfather over the Christmas break over which I turned 18 (my college sophomore/junior year; my Dad and family were at a US AFB in Germany). He was in his early 70's and particularly amazed by a younger Andre the Giant. I think that was the start of my interest in how promoters booked matches, because it was clear to me that Andre could have easily dominated any champion they would put against him. There were few wrestlers who could credibly match up against him. I recall the promoters pitting Andre into handicapped matches, against tag teams, and Andre would dispatch them, barely breaking a sweat.The problem with booking Andre champion is how do you take the belt off? Do you turn him heel and book a David-Goliath type story?
Now Andre had always been booked as a babyface (good guy) vs. heel (at least in the promotions I followed), so it was difficult to see how they could book a dream match against ally and babyface champion Hogan in WWE. As I recall, WWE booked envy into Andre's character by presenting Hogan with a huge trophy and Andre with a tiny one. There are other ways to book a similar thing, e.g., booking Hogan into a tag match where Andre does all the work, but Hogan tags himself in to take credit for the winning pin. Or maybe Hogan interrupts an Andre interview to do some self-serving promo (they did do this) or gets overheard saying, in response to a hypothetical, that he would handle him like the big men before he conquered, "the bigger they are, the harder they fall".
Hogan won his Wrestlemania encounter with Andre with a rare bodyslam (which rarely ends a match) followed by his signature leg drop. Andre eventually goes on to take the belt, only to turn it over to his benefactor "Million Dollar Man" Ted Dibiase (who I remember to have been a heel tag team champ with "Dr. Death" Steve Williams in a mid-South promotion)
What about the WWE today? Well, the big development was right after they booked Roman Reigns over Brock Lesnar, Reigns was forced to surrender the title when his doctors came down with a diagnosis of leukemia. The WWE quickly put the Universal belt back on Lesnar. They've teased another Lesnar-strongman Strowman matchup, but then booked Strowman into an event disqualification. It seems like WWE is pushing Royal Rumble winner Seth Rollins, Roman's former Shield mate, to topple Lesnar at Wrestlemania, although they booked Rollins into a squash confrontation against Lesnar (i.e., Lesner threw him around like a rag doll) when supposedly Rollins was set to choose his opportunity against Lesnar or WWE heel champ Daniel Bryan. I don't think Rollins formally announced his decision, but clearly Rollins has a motive to go after Lesnar. WWE has had Lesnar's limited contractual appearances work its way into storylines, as weekly workers take exception to a part-time champion. There are also lots of rumors that Lesnar wants to restart his UFC comeback. (Ironically Dean Ambrose, the last Shield member, is due to depart WWE after Wrestlemania.)
I don't have an issue with WWE putting the belt on Rollins; he's definitely paid his dues and has impressive technical skills. But other than McIntyre, who has been an impressive heel in his second WWE run, I find the most impressive heels are in the Smackdown promotion. It's possible they could turn Rollins heels, even resurrect the old "Authority" (McMshon Family) storyline.
The most preposterous heel storyline is environmentalist heel WWE Daniel Bryan who rants about fans' rank consumerism/waste; more recently, he even attacked the leather portion of his championship belt, producing an alternative made of hemp. This is more annoying and boring. And they've returned heel Rowan as a disciple of Bryan, after his long tenure as Bray Wyatt's acolyte. More recently, WWE inexplicably had Nakamura job to Rusev only to put the belt back on Nakamura, and then have R-Truth win the belt on the next Smackdown and defend it against Rusev. It looks like their way of turning Nakamura and Rusev into a heel tag team. To be honest, it looked like the creative team were running out of ways to book the two heels as solo performers.
The women's division seems to have picked up with new tag team titles to be introduced at the next PPV (I would be shocked if it's not Sasha Banks and Bailey), and "The Man?!" Becky Lynch challenging RAW champ Rousey. (I would have booked Nia Jax against Lynch and Flair against Rousey. I suspect they'll now book Flair against Asuka in a Wrestlemania rematch.
Am I interested enough to reinstate my network subscription? Not by a long shot.
My Favorite Auto Service Place
Several months back I had my nearly-20 year old GM car serviced by a local tune-up shop. I had a broken part related to my transmission stick control. GM had discontinued my car brand before I had even paid it off. It still only has just over 104K miles on it. But I had a brake line problem (the second time in 2 years) while in South Carolina where the Chevy dealer after a week wouldn't touch it because of an OEM issue. (I found a brake specialty shop that fabricated its own lines, a very expensive repair but less costly than buying a replacement car.) Deja vu on the broken transmission shift mechanism. They could only find an OEM part in Puerto Rico, which had just gone through a devastating hurricane; the chances of getting that part anytime soon were remote. The shop's manager started checking out local salvage yards and finally found a part, went out to pick it up on his own lunch hour. The repair wasn't cheap but could have been worse. I only lost about 4 hours PTO from work. I was impressed enough to write a positive online review, one of the only ones I've ever done.I have since returned to the same place for routine maintenance like oil changes. Except the last time I went for an oil change, on a flex day off, I found they couldn't fit me in, and I ended up going to a national oil change chain (the most expensive oil change, i.e., bloated bill, of my life; they likely won't see me again).
I've had all sorts of big repair bills over the years (a replaced transmission, at least 3 major brake jobs, etc.), but the one that drives me crazy involves my 4 power windows, each of which has failed at least once (and the 2 driver's side twice). And so when I started having having problems with my window sticking on the way up with the cold before I went on my holiday trip to Texas, I thought to myself, "Oh, no. Not again." It wasn't as bad as the other times where the infrequently-used windows slowly sank into the door frame, but let's just say it wasn't pleasant getting into an ice-cold car in single digit weather and robust wind.
I knew when I drove in the light snowy weather on my flex-day off that it wasn't going to be cheap (they started at $100 just to open the door panel); the alternator needed to be replaced.
My favorite mechanic, who still personally remembers repairing my broken shift cable, joked, "I see you've been cheating on me." Uh-oh. He saw the oil change place sticker. I pointed out that I did make a good-faith attempt to give them my business but they couldn't fit me in that day.
He later told me he had to jump my battery in finishing the repair, didn't pressure me to do it then but said it was just a matter of time; that was a legitimate but expensive add-on. I had last replaced the battery maybe 5-6 years back. So yeah, let's do that. I don't want battery issues in the middle of winter. They did a few things to help out with the final bill; for example, they waived the labor charge for installing the battery, applied a repair discount code, etc.
But getting into a warm car for the first time in over a week almost made me forget the minor sticker shock bill of a few hundred dollars.
