Other Comments on David Brooks’ Column on “the Bad Guys”
The New York Times’ on August 2 published a David Brooks’ column entitled, “What If We’re the Bad Guys Here?”[1] and on August 9 this blogger published his blog post about that column.[2]
Now on August 12 the Times published the following comments by nine readers of that column.[3]
Michael Hadjiargyrou (Centerport, N.Y.)
“I am sick and tired of people like Mr. Brooks telling me that I am the…
Unranked: Dante Chen, Guru Raaj, Hank Walker, Javier Bernal
It's been sixteen months since WWE started dismantling Triple H's vision of NXT, and about five months since Vince McMahon retired and left Triple H in charge of creative. It's telling that almost no one on the roster during the Wednesday Night Wars is still here. I suspect Vince's "up or out" mentality is still in effect, and NXT won't see another long-term mainstay like Johnny Gargano or the Undisputed Era.
On the other hand, I think Solo Sikoa is the only NXT 2.0 performer who has been called up to the main roster. At that rate, it might take a few years to completely turn over the roster again. When Vince was in charge I would have expected Breakker, Jones, and Wagner to get called up by April 2023 whether they were ready or not. As it is, we'll have to wait and see how long Triple H wants everybody to spend in developmental.
Men's tag team division - babyfaces
Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods (NXT men's tag team champions)
Josh Briggs & Brooks Jensen
Edris Enofe & Malik Blade
Brutus Creed & Julius Creed
Andre Chase & Duke Hudson
Men's tag team division - heels
Pretty Deadly - Elton Prince & Kit Wilson
Tony D'Angelo & Channing Lorenzo
The Dyad (Jagger Reid and Rip Fowler, formerly James Drake and Zack Gibson) and Indus Sher (Veer Mahan and Sanga, formerly Rinku and Saurav) are featured on TV but haven't wrestled in the past month. I'm surprised they haven't done anything with Gallus (Mark Coffey, Joe Coffey, and Wolfgang), who are apparently still employed but you'd never know it from watching the product.
Women's singles division - babyfaces
Roxanne Perez (NXT women's champion)
Alba Fyre
Wendy Choo
Indi Hartwell
Nikkita Lyons
Fallon Henley
Thea Hail
Women's singles division - heels
Cora Jade
Isla Dawn
Zoey Stark
Elektra Lopez
Kiana James
Unranked: Amari Miller, Lyra Valkyria, Sol Ruca
NXT shot itself in the foot by building the entire women's division around "Mandy Rose is super hot" for 400+ days, and then abruptly releasing her for being too super hot. Having her put over Perez is all well and good, but she could have spent the next year or so giving the rub to several other women.
If you don't want your talent posting nude photos on the internet, you need to pay them enough to make it worth their while. And if you don't want to pay them enough, it makes no sense to push them so strongly. So now Mandy's making a shitload of money and living her best life, and all I can say about NXT's women's roster is "Roxanne and a bunch of nobodies who couldn't beat Mandy."
Women's tag team division - babyfaces
Kayden Carter & Katana Chance (NXT women's tag team champions)
Ivy Nile & Tatum Paxley
Women's tag team division - heels
Toxic Attraction - Gigi Dolin & Jacy Jayne
NXT can still only scrape together three women's tag teams, which is still better than Raw and Smackdown put together, which is kind of sad.
No TV or PPV matches in over 30 days: Jagger Reid, Lash Legend, Oro Mensah, Rip Fowler, Trick Williams, Valentina Feroz
No TV, PPV, or streaming matches in over 30 days: Ava Raine, Boa, Cameron Grimes, Ilja Dragunov, Joe Coffey, Mark Coffey, Meiko Satomura, Nathan Frazer, Quincy Elliott, Roderick Strong, Sanga, Sarray, Tyler Bate, Veer Mahan, Wolfgang
Boa has been on the NXT roster since like 2017, and the only reason I know that is because I keep track of things like that for stuff like this. I don't want anybody to lose their job but I am genuinely perplexed how he survived all the releases over the past three years.
Not listed on NXT roster: Aleah James, Blair Davenport, Noam Dar, Stevie Turner
In August, WWE shut down NXT UK and released much of the roster. Everyone else got reassigned to Original Flavor NXT...except these four, for some reason. WWE.com still lists them as "current superstars" but not for any particular show. I can only guess that several of them are awaiting a rebranding like Aoife Valkyrie/Lyra Valkyria and Oliver Carter/Oro Mensah. But Davenport already has a WWE-owned name, and I haven't heard of her being injured, so I don't know what's up with her.
Inactive
Tiffany Stratton (head - unspecified injury)
Yulisa Leon (right knee - unspecified ligament tear)
I wouldn't be surprised if there are more people sidelined on the NXT roster, but reliable information has gotten harder to find as the brand has become less relevant.
female characters you’d like to see as counterparts?
okay ! don't mind how long this list is now about to be ! i'd love to see taylor jewel from the summer i turned pretty, claire standish and allison reynolds from the breakfast club, sandy, frenchy, marty, jan and rizzo from grease, cher horowitz and dionna davenport from clueless, olivia baker, layla keating from all american. aria montgomery, spencer hastings, alison dilaurentis, mona vanderwaal, maya st germain, emily fields from pretty little liars, bella swan, jessica stanley, bree tanner, alice cullen, rosalie hale, and esme cullen from twilight, frances houseman from dirty dancing, allie hamilton from the notebook, barbie roberts from barbie, kim kelly and lindsay weir from freaks and geeks, cheryl blossom, betty cooper, and veronica lodge from riverdale, buffy summers, anya jenkins, tara maclay, willow rosenberg, faith lehane, and dawn summers from buffy the vampire slayer. joey potter and jen lindley from dawson's creek, blair waldorf, serena van der woodsen, and georgina sparks from gossip girl, marissa cooper from the oc, georgia miller from ginny and georgia, sabrina spellman and libby chessler from sabrina the teenage witch, brooke davis, peyton sawyer, haley james, rachel gatina, quinn james and alex dupre from one tree hill. sidney prescott, tatum riley, gale weathers, and casey becker from scream. bonnie bennett, elena gilbert, katherine pierce, caroline forbes, liv parker, and vicki donovan from the vampire diaries. fran fine from the nanny. shelly johnson and laura palmer from twin peaks. stephanie tanner, dj tanner, becky katsopolis, kimmy gibbler and gia mahan from full house. monica geller and janice litman from friends. heather mcnamara and heather duke from heathers. sarah cameron, kiara carerra, cleo anderson from outerbanks. paris geller, sookie st james and lane kim from gilmore girls. marcia brady from the brady bunch, grace le domas from ready or not. jo harvell from supernatural. beca mitchell, chloe beale, aubrey posen, cynthia rose, stacie conrad, emily junk, lilly onakuramara from pitch perfect and dana scully from the x files. if more are needed, as always, send another ask and i'll do my best to give another list !
9-1-1 Lone Star : charlie ryder. gabriel reyes. gabriella reyes (oc). marjan marwani. owen strand. t.k. strand.
Alexa & Katie : alexa mendoza. katie cooper. lori mendoza.
Bella and the Bulldogs : Bella Dawson. Newt. Sawyer.
Degrassi : zoe rivas. zig novak.
Emergence: Piper
Family Reunion : ami mckellan. jade mckellan.
The Fosters: jesus foster. jude foster. mariana foster. sophia quinn.
Full(er) House : donna jo tanner/fuller/hale. jackson fuller. joan gladstone. ramona gibbler. max fuller. michelle tanner. roxanne mahan. stephanie tanner.
General Hospital : brook lynn quartermaine. cameron webber. charlotte cassadine. emma scorpio-drake. josslyn jacks. michael corinthos III. oscar nero. violet barnes.
Gilmore Girls: lane kim. rory gilmore.
Girl Meets World/Boy Meets World : auggie matthews. ava morgenstern. cory matthews. isadora smackle. maya hart. riley matthews. topanga lawrence/matthews.
La noche de Reyes tuvimos la primera gran cita de la temporada de premios. Los Globos de Oro han consagrado a Joaquin Phoenix como Joker y sorprendido al público con el premio para 1917. La cita número 77 de estos premios tuvo lugar en The Beverly Hilton Hotel de Beverly Hills, California. Lo he dividido en dos entradas para que no se haga muy pesado. Y en esta primera veremos también los nombres…
What texts make up your personal canon? Including political, economic, theological, ethical, literary, etc. If your full canon is too many to list, top fifteen or twenty texts within it
alright. as usual, the following is not exhaustive:
the iliad and odyssey by homer, beowulf, the aeneid, the vedas (especially the rigveda), the gita, the prose edda, poetic edda, le morte d'arthur, metamorphoses of apuleius, the satyricon, aesop's fables, fragments of heraclitus, fragments of celsus, writings of cicero (especially the republic, on the laws, on duties, and on the nature of the gods), lives and moralia of plutarch, the works of plato, the works of aristotle (especially his ethics and politics), enneads of plotinus, proclus' elements of theology, chaldean oracles, orphic hymns, orations of emperor julian (esp his hymn to helios), de rerum natura, complete works of sappho, complete works of arnaut daniel (and other troubadours, but him most of all), machiavelli (especially his discourses on livy), essays of montaigne, essays of seneca, discourses of epictetus, bruno's shadow of ideas, the works of boehme, the works of leibniz, spinoza's ethics, montesquieu's spirit of the laws, the works of hegel (esp philosophy of right), works of goethe (esp faust), works of schiller, works of schelling, works of fichte (especially his closed commercial state), works of novalis, works of de sade, works of ben franklin (especially the nature and necessity of paper currency), the selected letters of the founding fathers, the works of john adams (especially his defence of the constitution, thoughts on government, and discourses on davila), the federalis papers, hamilton's report on manufactures, friedrich list's national system of political economy, ethan allen's reason: the only oracle of man, thoreau's walden, essays of emerson, writings of john muir, works of walt whitman (esp leaves of grass), works of ezra pound, milton's paradise lost (and his other writings), works of edgar allen poe, melville's moby dick, the last of the mohicans, works of emily dickinson, works of mark twain, the works of friedrich nietzsche, whitehead's process and reality, works of mishima (esp patriotism and sun and steel), sorel's reflections on violence, gentile's doctrine of fascism and other works (esp theory of mind as pure act), spengler's prussianism and socialism, the works of schmitt, works of brooks adams, marinetti's futurist manifesto, works of d'annunzio (esp child of of pleasure and the flame), works of ezra pound (esp cantos), harmony of interests by carey, works of mencken, works of shakespeare, works of rilke, works of evola, hudson's america's protectionist takeoff, mahan's influence of sea power on history, melman's profits without production, patten's economic basis of protectionism (and other works), works of baudelaire, works of bataille, works of veblen, knapp's state theory of money, works of lovecraft, etc.
Unranked: Apollo Crews, Commander Azeez, T-Bar, Veer Mahan
Raw's men's division looks deeper than Smackdown's, until you consider that Lesnar will likely disappear after April, Reggie and Tozawa are just undercard geeks getting their first real storyline in months, and in Omos is still in the "squashing jobbers" phase of his push.
It's worth asking who the top contenders will be for either Lesnar or Roman Reigns coming out of their title unification match at Wrestlemania. The only active wrestlers that are even in the orbit of Lesnar and Reigns are Randy Orton, AJ Styles, Edge, and Smackdown's Drew McIntyre. Which is probably why WWE wants to unify the titles--it effectively gives them twice as much time to a) establish more strong challengers or b) call Goldberg again.
It's worth noting that Veer, who's been "coming" for months in promo clips, has never really left. He's been wrestling every week on Main Event for months, so every live crowd since December has gotten to see him. By the time this guy re-debuts, there won't be anyone left who hasn't had a chance to see the sneak preview.
Men's tag team division - babyfaces
RK-Bro - Randy Orton & Matt Riddle (Raw tag team champions)
The Street Profits - Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford
Rey Mysterio & Dominik Mysterio
Men's tag team division - heels
Seth Rollins & Kevin Owens
Alpha Academy - Chad Gable & Otis
Dolph Ziggler (NXT champion) & Robert Roode
Cedric Alexander & Shelton Benjamin
It's hard to tell if RK-Bro, Rollins-Owens, and the Mysterios are headed for the inevtiable WWE tag team breakup, since they've gotten pretty good at faking us out by dragging it out longer. Regardless, I'd be surprised if all seven of these teams are still together in six months.
Women's singles division - babyfaces
Bianca Belair
Alexa Bliss
Dana Brooke (24/7 champion)
Women's singles division - heels
Becky Lynch (Raw women's champion)
Doudrop
Tamina
Nikki ASH
On paper it might seem like seven people/teams in a division is more than enough depth. But in practice, Belair has already cleaned out the division and she hasn't regained the title yet. I'm guessing Carmella or Zelina will go after her just as soon as they drop the tag belts, for lack of any fresher options.
Women's tag team division - babyfaces
Rhea Ripley & Liv Morgan
Women's tag team division - heels
Zelina Vega & Carmella (women's tag team champions)
For now the Wrestlemania tag title match is Vega-Carmella vs. Ripley-Morgan vs. Smackdowns Sasha Banks & Naomi. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see two or three more teams added to that. It's either that or attempt to bring back the Wrestlemania battle royales, and I don't think they've got enough women or men to pull that off.
No TV matches in 30 days: R-Truth
Part-timers/semi-retired: Edge, MVP
Inactive
Asuka (shoulder - unspecified injury)
Bobby Lashley (shoulder - unspecified injury)
Elias ("dead")
Lacey Evans (maternity leave)
Lashley reportedly injured his shoulder at the Royal Rumble, but WWE presented it like he was fine until "concussion protocols" were raised during his big spot at Elimination Chamber. It's possible the shoulder reports are wrong, and it's even possible the concussion line is more than just kayfabe. Either way he's out of action, and I get the feeling they're not sure how long it'll be.
Asuka, Elias, and Evans were all removed from WWE.com's Raw roster (but not the "current superstars" list) to sell the idea that they weren't drafted and became "free agents." I assume Asuka and Evans will just show up on Raw (or possibly Smackdown) when they're ready to wrestle. Elias was expected to be out until he got repackaged, but I'm starting to think that will never end up happening.