#also takeshita in the feud feels so random what

[wnightingales]

when the cinnabon boy shows up and you love him but you wanted the eyepatch cowboy

[ohnojustimagine]

what are your feelings on all the damnation boys?

This is a very appropriately timed ask, because I just watched the Damnation produce show from last night and so am having a lot of feelings about them right now. (Such a great show! SHUJI! Smiling happy laid back Shuji [which we do NOT get in All Japan] SINGING to close the show just like old times! Osugi and Sekine making me miss Basara even more acutely than usual! Actually, I think my favorite moment of the whole show was Sekine holding the ropes open for Endo at the start of their match and Endo kind of hesitating, but then going through. And they were so genuinely affectionate with each other afterwards, it was just gorgeous. [Second favorite moment tied for the singing and Linda's undertrunk undergarment, which was AMAZING.])

But I love them, I love how they're ostensibly heels but they're all far too lazy to be genuinely terrible.

I enjoy that Charisma's so useless at being the badass he pretends he is, and that despite the whole "we don't conform, kiss ass or get married" thing he instantly falls in hopeless love with and proposes to almost any woman he shares the ring with. And I still miss BIG LOVE, because they were the cutest tag team in history, and it was so nice that Asuka was absolutely nothing more in that story than a woman who was way too good for Daisuke, which she soon enough realized. But they were so sweet for a while there.

Love those weirdly creepy shorts he always wears at Beer Garden, loved when he was gearing up to fight Dieno and he kept practicing in the lead up by wrestling in fishnets and extremely small underpants. (They had the Scream ghostface mask on the crotch, if I'm remembering right?)

And Endo! My favorite Endo entrance caption ever was "In charge of having a sexy body in Damnation" which is 100% true, and he's pretty remarkably dedicated to that. I do miss a little bit that he is not as bad of a corpser as he used to be, because Endo giggling helplessly in the corner of the ring while anyone spoke used to be extremely delightful. Also it was pretty great when Dieno was obsessed with him for a while and we got to see his ass a whole lot while Shuji and Sasaki very seriously defended his honor as an innocent country boy in the after-match comments every time. And I am so into the fact that even after all these years, there's still a thing simmering between him and Takeshita that rears up every now and then in the best way. And the man loves boobs so much he named his finisher after them, kudos for that.

Paulie's happy expression remains the best thing I have ever seen, that wide-eyed open-mouthed smile thing he does. And he likes being led around on a leash, so very much my type there. Everyone's type, it would seem, because one thing that is lacking in the covid era is all the random "PAULIE!" exclamations from the women in the audience. I don’t know if they did Red Paulie this year? I had a little DDT break for a bit there because there were a few things that were irritating me, so if they did it I would have missed it but Red Paulie is EXTREMELY fun if like, slightly appalling. (Much like any number of things in old school DDT, ha.)

Soma is so very pretty and I love him, I've always loved him, but let's be real, the man was like a personality VACUUM before he joined Damnation. And he's still not the most expressive person, but it suits his character now and I love how he's found his niche being the whatever, done-with-it-all heel because wow but he was not particularly over back in the Smile Squash days. To say the least. But now he's where he belongs!

Nobu is very sweet with his endless energy and dedication to his sign. He just keeps on! That is literally how he joined the group, he would NOT give up until they accepted him, and it took a LONG-ASS time, but they did. And with the sign too, they all used to plainly find that annoying but now they carry the sign themselves even when he's not there. And his recent transformation from Chunky Little Pocket Hoss to Short But Real Cut has been very nice indeed. Him and Endo's gym insta stories are pretty great.

And ugh, sorry, but I really really really hate the fact that we now have #DAMNHEARTS. Hate. It. But Cima is by FAR the worst part of that and him not being around at the moment makes the whole thing far more tolerable. Still think T-Hawk is so very boring, but Linda is and always has been adorable and can stay forever. It was the cutest thing ever when back in the day he and Nobu had their aggressive feud about who was shorter and his current ringside support is my favorite thing, especially when he's there for Paulie, they are so sweet together. Also, as mentioned as above, THE UNDERWEAR.

I am very tired, so that is very rambly, sorry, but they really are one of my favorite factions of all time.