Citing imdb

The Wall Between Brian Peck and Dan Schneider

2024.04.22 11:50 wiklr The Wall Between Brian Peck and Dan Schneider

IMO one of the reasons why people try to compare Dan & Brian's offenses is because the documentary separated them in story telling, rather than intertwined in their history.
https://i.imgur.com/aAh1kn1.png

Two Pickles in a Pod

Early in their careers, both Dan & Brian worked on sex comedies, Last American Virgin and Hot Resort. Both films were written by the same person. Dan later worked with Brian's co-star and admitted to having a crush on her in a 2004 blog interview about Better Off Dead.
Their paths would cross in 1993 in ABC's Home Free, where Dan was part of the main cast and Brian was an extra. After working as a writer in All That, Dan briefly left Nickelodeon to make his own show, Guys Like Us at UPN. Brian was also in an episode as Happy Pants the Clown. And in 2002, LA Times cited Dan & Brian running comedy boot camps for kids while working for Nickelodeon.

Who hired Brian Peck?

Tollin/Robbins Production was not involved in Home Free & Guys Like Us where Dan and Brian Peck worked together.
In Dan's youtube video, he claimed it was Tollin/Robbins Productions who hired Brian Peck. In the Hollywood Reporter exclusive, it clarified Dan did not hire Peck on All That. Sources at Paramount said Brian Robbins (of Tollin/Robbins) was not involved in hiring Peck at Nickelodeon. This distinction is important because Brian Peck also appeared in Dan's first show as creator: The Amanda Show.
The Amanda Show ran between 1999-2002 and lasted 3 seasons. However it presented multiple problems each passing year. For one, splitting the salary of female writers Jenny Kilgen and Christy Straton where the issue was reported to the union. And in 2000, Jenny Kilgen sued the show's production company alleging gender discrimination, harassment and hostile work environment. Dan was said to behave inappropriately in the writer's room, asking female crew for massages and showing pornography from his computer. Raquel Lee left the series in the beginning of the 2nd season. In the Quiet on Set documentary, she talked about being neglected by the show when she raised her concerns about being disrespected & demeaned as a child actor. Then in 2001, Brian Peck's abuse against Drake Bell began. And finally in 2002, Amanda Bynes, the star of the show would decide to leave Nickelodeon to start in a new show What I Like About You at Warner Brothers.
(Brian Peck appeared in 2 episodes of What I like About You, and Dan Schneider wrote one episode he appeared in: S01E02)
Despite Amanda's parents firing her manager at Tollin/Robbins in 2003, Tollin/Robbins continued producing her show What I Like About You. Based on Taran Killam's Vulture interview, he said he shared the same manager as Amanda. Goldman was hired by Tollin/Robbins in 1997, then moved to Power Entertainment in 2004 taking Dan Schneider along with him. And in 2010, People Magazine reported that Amanda was spending a lot of time with Dan and his wife during the plans to emancipate her from her parents in 2003.
Also in 2003, two employees who both worked on The Amanda Show and All That were arrested for child sexual abuse.
Tollin/Robbins were still credited as executive producers on All That until 2005 but the collaboration between the network and the creator halted after. These series of events seemed to have severed the production company's relationship with Nickelodeon and also Dan Schneider.

"Drake & Josh" and the Letters of Support

After Brian Peck was arrested, Drake & Josh continued to be developed with now Schneider's Bakery producing. Here's where things become peculiar about Dan denying hiring Brian Peck.
Three people who wrote letters of support for Brian Peck, also worked on Drake & Josh:
Both Kimmy and Beth would use their letters to testify against Drake:
Kimmy worked with Brian Peck since his first movie, Last American Virgin. While Beth worked with Brian on Boy Meets World.
Beth wrote 2 letters. The first was dated June 17, 2004. And the second one, containing the quote above was written October 5, 2004 - a mere two days before Brian was sentenced.
Taran did not have an extensive relationship with Brian compared to other letter writers. He wrote them when he was 22, before his career took off. According to SNLinReview, it was Dan who got Taran an agent while he was still at UCLA. In his case, he not only owes Brian, he also owes Dan. On top of also sharing the same manager as Dan.
Not only did Kimmy, Beth and Taran worked on a show created by Dan Schneider, they were also under his production company: Schneider's Bakery.
When asked whether Nickelodeon executives reached out, Drake said only Dan was there for him. And Dan said Drake's mom asked him for help to write her letter to the judge. Dan seemed to be a confidant for mother and son, but did he also know Brian Peck's friends and supporters were on set?

Child Actors in the Courtroom

The story doesn't end there.
In Quiet on Set episode 5, they played a clip of Will Friedle from the Pod Meets World podcast stating:
(Brian) then asked us to support him and go to court with him, which a lot of us did, and we're sitting that courtroom, on the wrong side of everything, of course having no idea of this, filled with child actors. To the point where the victim's mother turned to us and said, "Look at all the famous people you brought with you ..."
In this interview with the producers, they talked about the reason why not all letters of support were made public. They said:
They didn't release the names of folks who were minor when they wrote. They redacted the names of minors who wrote the letters.
And in the KCRW interview, the host mentioned Nickelodeon stars.
We do know that Brian made friends with a lot of people. But Drake also said this:
... many people turned away and said no I won't write a letter ...
Through the course of investigating Dan Schneider's inappropriate behavior on set & sexualizing kids on screen, the documentary found out about the letters of support from sources who rejected supporting Brian Peck. They raised questions on what conditions the minors were put under, and if there were undue pressure or influence involved in making them support Brian Peck.

That's All

There was little to no coverage of Brian Peck throughout the years, up until the documentary An Open Secret named him to have abused a Nickelodeon star in 2014. And the Daily Mail put him back on the news in 2015. And in 2017, Dan Schneider would post on his instagram, a signed poster of All That season 8, filled with messages of appreciation:
Oh Dan - You can dip my pickle in dill juice any time! I owe you!!! xxoo Love always, Pickle Boy aka Brian Peck
For someone who is desperate to disassociate himself from Brian Peck, he had no problem reposting this for the public to see. Even more curious, is how Quiet on Set never used this information. And instead placed a separation between Brian Peck and Dan Schneider, as if they never interacted, as if they were never friends.
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2024.04.19 17:04 wiklr Quiet on Set Timeline

https://i.imgur.com/yy4GzHS.png

Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV

References
Reddit Research

Timeline

(Note: Some Film/TV show dates are when it was released or when a documentary related person appeared in an episode)
1981
1984
1986 - 1991
1987
1988
1990 * The Willies): Brian Peck (director & producer), Kimmy Robertson
1993
1994
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2009
2010
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019 * March 14 - JustJared Drake Bell & Josh Peck spotted at a business meeting * March 15 - Drake Bell teases Drake & Josh reboot * March 18 - Seventeen interview of Drake Bell * November 16 - All That (Revival) Season 11 airs * December 16 - Deadline reports Turner & Hooch reboot (Disney+)
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
Let me know corrections / things to add. Organized references to follow.
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2024.04.17 00:56 ShortLicker YMS Adam x BRIDGES: Clips, topics, questions [EFFORT POST]

As a big fan of the discussions between Adam and Destiny, I was thrilled to hear that Adam will be a guest on the podcast next week. Since I'm familiar with Adam's taste, humor, interests, and beliefs, this post can serve as an introduction to the DGG community and assist Kyla with topics, questions, and clips that will hopefully result in a quality and engaging interaction.
Roughly, the idea of the Bridges Podcast as a whole is to foster serious conversations around politics and current events. So, how can Adam's interests in art, music, movies and edgy humor be brought back into politics?

Bridges Podcast Ep. 5 w/ Adam Johnston (YMS)

Even at a fundamental level, it can be argued that Adam's interest in watching movies extends to the political realm. He's less concerned with "WHAT is shown in the film" and more focused on "HOW things are shown in the film." This preference leads him to favor movies that provoke thought, while disliking those that “turn off” your brain for relaxation. Adam is famously critical of the term "it's a kids movie" because it implies that films can exist devoid of political implications, where every decision by characters and directors is justifiable and never contradictory. That's why on Twitter he follows individuals from various political movements, including some of the more radical ones, seemingly in a perpetual attempt to contradict himself. So yes, Adam actively follows USA politics and periodically watches online political figures like Kyle Kulinski, Vaush, and his boyfriend is also a big Destiny fan (Oh, and he dislikes Hasan).
Why is Adam doing this? Can't he just enjoy a movie and shut up? As individuals our consciousness is not an isolated phenomenon, but rather emerges through our interconnectedness with others. Even if there was such thing as a non-political film, our reflection in the film's narrative inherently introduces political elements. When we see ourselves reflected in a movie, it stimulates our ideas and emotions, prompting us to seek out other people experiences and opinions. This leads us to read others perspectives on Twitter and watch YouTube reviews where we hope to find recognition once more. Thus, the politicization extends beyond the films themselves to include the viewers.
Individuals tend to connect with art that aligns with their own ideological values and beliefs. This explains why FREE GUY resonated with Jordan Peterson, given his focus on Jungian psychology and archetypes. However, for Adam, who watches around 500 movies a year, archetypes represent movie tropes that makes the film predictable, boring and with an bonus Ryan Reynolds cringe humor you get 2/10 movie.
Remember, Adam may enjoy a movie with stereotypical archetypal content, but after watching so many movies, he starts to see the film's form as well. Unlike Peterson, who would never enjoy a movie with a gay furry man because he only sees the content, not how the film presents itself. This doesn't mean that Adam can only relate to a film through its form; on the contrary, he's aware that there's hidden content within the form itself and therefore avoids making binary divisions. This skill is developed through watching movies but extends beyond them. Kids these days like to call it media literacy.
This makes it easy to spot manipulative videos, and fake news because you're aware of the hidden content within the form itself. Especially now in times of war we witness propaganda from both sides. For example, in THIS clip, Destiny pointed out several times that the video was edited, but Alex couldn't grasp why because his brain was ignoring the cut and its implications in real life. In private, I'm certain that Adam would agree with Destiny's point on this clip without doing any research. But I doubt Adam would feel comfortable publicly reacting and speculating, because, just like Destiny, he avoids talking about things he doesn't know. So, he likes to do deep research before coming to a conclusion publicly.
Proof of this is the Kimba video, in which Adam essentially debunks the Lion King and Kimba the White Lion conspiracy by doing research and delving into extensive detail. I swear, this video and controversy are so fascinating, they could spend the whole podcast discussing it. On a smaller scale, this serves as an example on why and how conspiracy theories are formed, how people consume information, and how it can be debunked by just one person. Keep in mind that this controversy has been around for over 20 years, including a college professor who helped propagate the false conspiracy by giving TED talks and writing an entire book about it without ever watching Kimba or The Lion King. This "controversy" lasted for decades because no one actually bothered to watch Kimba, except for one horny Canadian.
Similarly, individuals like to form opinions about movies, without watching them. Movie reviewers like The Critical Drinker provide surface-level analysis of these "bad blockbuster films" to their audience, who often don't actually watch the movies but experience them through the “movie review”. *Simulacrum - shouted Destiny.\* Ironically, they also don’t watch their own films, like SOUND OF FREEDOM, where they bought empty seats to financially support the movie, knowing that it's boring, yet still good enough to proclaim it one of the best .
They fabricate narratives about political elites wanting to prevent them from seeing the film. Adam addresses this in a video, illustrating how conservatives interpret everyday occurrences, such as a malfunctioning air conditioner in a theater, as evidence of malicious intent by politicians to stop them from watching the movie. If those politicians were a little bit smarter, they wouldn't have allowed the film to be distributed in theaters to begin with. Common conservative propaganda: the enemy is simultaneously too clever and too foolish.
For them, society along with culture and art are in decline. Often, these individuals argue that feminism is the main reason for the decline of modern films. The conservative trap that Destiny falls into is the suggestion that "perhaps we should push a little harder for the representation of women in movies", and then conservatives counter by claiming that women have historically been portrayed equally, citing a short list of the same five female characters they bring in this argument every time. However, we know that this is not the case, as women were largely excluded from film production roles except for editing. Instead of relying on the same five movies featuring female leads, why not examine how almost all supporting female characters were portrayed until the 2000s?
It would be interesting if Adam, Destiny, and Kayla were to discuss nudity in movies and how they portray the male and female bodies. Why do people take issue with nudity in general? Alternatively, if you really want to get under Adam's skin about moral topics, bring up how every movie doesn't have the balls to show children being killed even in rated-R movies.
​
Okay, I'm starting to realize that this is more like shizopost than an effort post that nobody will bother reading. Let me cut it short with a few topic suggestions:

Anything Else? Podcast Ep. 3 w/ Adam Johnston (YMS)

I love Dan, butsometimes he seems a bit retarded. If he doesn't want to prepare with research, why does he insist on structuring it around topics he doesn't enjoy? Why not to go full retard and start shitposting?
Get another retard on the podcast. I heard Adam is going to stay in Miami for a few days. He already knows you and follows both of your Twitter accounts. You share a similar sense of humor and have same life experiences with gaming, early YouTube, internet culture...... And most importantly, unlike the beta male Destiny, Adam enjoys alcohol and cocktails, so you'll have great company.
Additionally, Destiny will finally have someone to openly discuss pedophilia, rape, sexism, and all his favorite topics. Adam is full of interesting stories; you could talk about his furry stuff, the time he was almost abducted in Vegas , crazy parties, and both good and bad drug experiences. GET HIM ON PLS!
submitted by ShortLicker to Destiny [link] [comments]

2024.04.12 12:22 Audioworm Humanzees to Basement Eels, Bike Lanes = Votes 04.12.24

In episode 1658, Jack and guest co-host Blake Wexler are joined by comedian and author of The Advice King Anthology, Chris Crofton, to discuss… Guy Created Underground Eel Pit In His Basement, More People Are Commuting To Paris By Bike Than Car, Rich People Getting Second Passports and more!
footNOTES
submitted by Audioworm to thedailyzeitgeist [link] [comments]

2024.04.08 15:41 Player_X_YT Androids - The 2010s animated TV show

In 2010 I was only 5 so excuse my faulty memory.
I remember there being an animated show on YTV(?) called "androids" about a kid using an abandoned(?) junkyard to build robots. Other kid(s) gets dragged into the junkyard and shenanigans ensue. I distinctly remember it because it was the first TV show that I didn't watch on the TV, but the website (ytv.com if it was ytv). If I try to google phrases like "androids ytv" I just get sent to the play store for the ytv app. IMDb makes no mention citing 2 movies exist 1 not done yet and the other live action. The modern YTV site does not have a historical search and their list of programs only show currently airing programs. Finally I tried archive.org where searching for the show outright yields nothing and the web.archive.org snapshots are full of flash panels that ruffle doesn't support.
I know it exists and I just want proof of it, although the show itself would be nice.
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2024.04.01 22:26 Amadeus3000 Classic Show of the Week: I Love Lucy (1951–1957)

Classic Show of the Week: I Love Lucy (1951–1957)
CBS, 1951–1957 • Situation comedy • 6 seasons, 180 episodes
With Lucille Ball (Lucy Ricardo), Desi Arnaz (Ricky Ricardo), Vivian Vance (Ethel Mertz), William Frawley (Fred Mertz), Richard Keith (Ricky Ricardo Jr.)
The wife of a band leader constantly tries to become a star – in spite of her having no talent, and gets herself (along with her best friend) into the funniest predicaments. (IMDb)
Stream It Now: Paramount+
One of television's early groundbreaking programs, I Love Lucy is still often cited as one of the medium's best sitcoms. What are your favorite episodes? Does it make your pantheon of classic television?
submitted by Amadeus3000 to ClassicTV [link] [comments]

2024.03.30 15:42 TypewriterTourist Especially the lies: review of 3 books on psychic spy programs in the US and USSR/Russia

I was long fascinated with the Cold War era military psychic programs in the US and USSR.
This is a review of several books I read on the subject in an attempt to piece together what transpired between early 1960s and 2000s. Spoiler alert: it feels like there is a lot to the story but much remains unclear. (I kept delaying it but now when the 60 minutes report is coming out, I want to post it before the report, to see how it stacks up.)
The Star Trek: DS9 quote comes to mind when reading these different accounts. The claims sometimes contradict and sometimes corroborate each other. The origin story claims are always contradictory, so that part is still a mystery to me. As Lyn Buchanan, one of the US "psychic spies" and author of one of the books (The 7th Sense) beautifully put it:
There is also admittedly a great deal of misinformation, disinformation, and misdirection involved in almost everything you will read about the unit and its work. This was, after all, an intelligence unit for the government. Your grandchildren may someday learn the whole, real truth about it, but you never will. There are basically three facts of life you must understand when dealing with the world of governmental and military intelligence:
  1. You must remember that in the intelligence world, every truth is part lie and every lie is based on some truth. If you try to separate the two, you will only wind up confused and frustrated. If you are an outsider, you will slowly learn that there is no separation of the two - the lies and the truth are just two of the many sides of the same ever-flipping coin. If you are an insider, you will slowly and often painfully learn that sometimes the coin lands by chance, sometimes the way it lands is rigged and you’ll never know by whom, and sometimes there is not even a coin at all.
  2. If you are lucky and work hard, you will find some of the truth. If you are lucky and work really hard, you might find the whole truth—as someone wants you to know it. If you are phenomenally lucky and really work your tail off, you might even go on to find the real truth. But no outsiders, and in fact very few insiders, ever—ever—learn the whole, real truth.
  3. All assumptions are wrong.
Sadly, Buchanan himself seems to be following these principles to the T. With too much self-aggrandizing and his more recent interviews with WTF grade claims, his book is probably the least reliable source of information of the three.

The books

ESP Wars: East & West by Edwin May, Joe McMoneagle, and Victor Rubel

The most comprehensive and informative of the three, ESP Wars is a compilation of accounts of the participants in the psychic espionage programs in both the US and USSR. The authors made an effort to show differences and similarities between the two programs that ran in parallel. Ed May and Joe McMoneagle tell the story of the US unit, while generals Alexey Savin, Boris Ratnikov, and Nikolai Sham (senior enough to have served as a deputy director of KGB at some point) represent the Soviet/Russian side.
The similarity that stood out to me was that all of them complained. Bureacracy, office politics, looking for sponsors, very long commute, the "giggle factor", and occasional spectacular success. Much of the book is tedious description of procedures and office dynamics. Contrary to the sensasionalized title, there weren't actual "wars". Only a handful of described tasks involved spying on the USSR, most notably, the Typhoon-class submarine report; on the Soviet side, they seemed to focus on domestic issues and regional conflicts (specifically, post-USSR 1st Chechen war) plus esoteric explorations.
The most surprising and disturbing part of the Soviet/Russian program was outsized involvement of their senior officers in major political developments (further below).
It appears that on the US side, the programs were initiated by private parties (SRI) and then "sold" to the government. In the USSR, private parties lobbied the Gorbachev government and the experimental unit was created. But many of my questions regarding the history remained unanswered, sadly.

7th Sense by Lyn Bunchanan

An insider's account of the program by one of the psychics, as well as a discussion of remote viewing in general. Buchanan has axe(s) to grind. Many, many axes. And also many, many spectacular claims. Take the most extraordinary claim you've heard about the secret government UFO programs and multiply it by a factor of 10. Given Buchanan's own disclaimer about lies, and the impression that he is generally a bright dude, my gut feeling is that many of his claims are intentionally introduced fiction.
The part describing the process from the psychic's perspective, however, is surprisingly good. If you ever had some sort of a paranormal experience or even sudden eureka moments, no matter how minor, you will nod along to some of his descriptions. Buchanan compares remote viewing to a martial art:
Once the CRV [=controlled remote viewing] methodology became public knowledge, and people began to find out how much work it really is, a number of quite unscientific “remote viewing” methods began springing up. Most of these claim to be improvements on the original CRV. In reality, they are simplifications of CRV, for the purpose of making training easier and quicker and therefore more appealing to would-be students. Unfortunately, they sacrifice depth and advanced capabilities in the process.
The real thing is very much a martial art, and requires the same diligence, time, and effort as any other martial art. Anyone can go in, sign up, and get their white belt the first week. But it may take years for a person to earn their black belt status, and then only through continued practice, training, further instruction from more experienced experts. Similarly, you can’t get your black belt in a martial art by watching a how-to video or reading a book.
Buchanan described some of these exercises that sound a bit like "wax on, wax off". I suppose it answers a question I heard many times, "if it works, how come the government made the knowledge public".
Buchanan's perspective on why the program got closed is, unsurprisingly, a finger pointing at everyone else. Even Jessica Utts was, according to him, missing the point, even though Buchanan's own narrative sounds very much like the conclusion of Utts: yes, it works, but no one knows how to control or manage it and its usability is a hit and miss.

Mysticism and Philosophy of Special Services (in Russian)

The last book is, AFAIK, not available in English. I found it following a link in the Russian Wikipedia article about Unit 10003. Much of the book made it to the ESP Wars... however, not all. Some of these chapters are worth mentioning.
Overall, it is also a compilation (not too orderly, sadly) of memoirs. The memoirs are less conciliatory than in the ESP Wars; some stuff would normally be classified as conspiracy theories. The milder ones were included in ESP Wars with disclaimers, the batshit insane ones weren't. While May and McMoneagle were talking about how they went to Moscow in 1990s and had a great time with the Russian team, being relieved at no longer being enemies, the bulk of the authors (with some exception) in the Russian book held a hostile attitude toward their counterparts. The chapters are mixed with half a dozen different authors. The attribution is inline only (e.g. "See below Major X's account"), which makes it difficult to keep track who is who and who said what. The foreword is written by someone else (as it seems), who is closer to the batshit insane grade.
The last part is a utopian (or dystopian - if you're not in the camp of Alexander Dugin fans :) ) description how a proper state is to be run. Basically, think today's ruling ideology in Russia with its Messianic traditionalism, "surrounded by enemies", etc. and take it up a notch. Among other categorical and eyebrow-raising statements, "the state must be a dictatorship". (Are you happy now, guys?) My quick searches revealed that people linked to the authors (specifically, Sham) were a strange combo of jingoistic zealots, snake oil sellers, and sometimes persistent researchers of the paranormal.
The two parts I found most interesting are deliberations on how the psi phenomena work, and mentions of the "psychotronic" tech, even though in passing.

Programs

US

Most people talk about the psychic program as "CIA psychics" or Project Stargate. That is an oversimplification and wildly inaccurate. According to multiple accounts, CIA was the entity that got the custody of the program closer to its end, and saw it more like an unwanted headache. They were the ones to start the studies headed by Jessica Utts (as the main advocate) and Ray Hyman (as the main opponent).
Stargate was just one among the different names the program had. Before Stargate there were Project Grillflame, Center Lane, and others. All run by the same team. Many of these papers are now in public domain, and very much in line with the books, the programs were managed by the military (INSCOM). That said, the programs seemed to have been a baby of SRI with the key people constantly looking for government sponsors.
Many people point at Puthoff and his experiments with Uri Geller, but Puthoff joined the psychic program when it was already running. He was instrumental in setting up the protocols, but was not the person who started it.
My impression from both Buchanan's book and ESP Wars was that much honest effort was aimed at repeatability. Some of it was successful, some wasn't. It appears that they could not determine who can be trained better and what determines the magnitude of psychic abilities. So instead, they were recruiting those who already had those.

USSRussia

ESP Wars says that the US program was trying to work out a repeatable protocol based on human training (and, apparently, the result was a hit and miss), while the Soviet/Russian program was trying to come up with actual tech. The Soviet approach seemed less result-oriented and more about chasing various directions and ideas. So-called "psychotronic tech" seems to have been only studied in the USSR; the ESP Wars believes it was due to the "Marxist-Leninist" slant and firm refusal to deal with mysticism. Soviet researchers were supposedly looking for an electromagnetic solution only. In 1990, they invested a lot in researching so-called "torsion fields".
It's not entirely accurate, however. Both ESP Wars and the Russian compilation mention experiments with "querying the collective unconscious" (in a way, similar to the US INSCOM programs). In the post-Soviet period, they engaged in "white elephant" areas like improving the quality of consciousness.
In the US part, everyone is complaining about not being taken seriously, overworking, and general chaos. Seems like on the other side of the fence, it was more chaotic. However, unlike in the US, the psychics seemed to have influence. It's like it was all experiments and no protocols, and good old-fashioned "friends in high places" that kept unit 10003 operational.
While the book stops before Putin's ascent, it appears that today Russia still takes psychics seriously. The unit was dismantled in 2003 under pressure of Eduard Kruglyakov from the Russian Academy of Sciences, but years later, Patrushev himself (Putin's right hand, as they say, even more paranoid and xenophobic), cited a story told by Ratnikov about reading Madeleine Albright's mind as a fact.
The book mangles the history of the US program, and mashes together many different events. It touches the creation of Unit 10003 from the view point of Savin. It doesn't explain why his superiors decided to create the unit and whose initiative it was.

Claims of interest

Some of the claims have nothing to do with paranormal but are interesting from the historical point of view. It appears that at least in the USSR and later Russian Federation, the psychics had (have?) influence much greater than one would expect from an experimental military unit.

Meddling in political decisions: Kuril Island dispute

Source: Russian compilation
The most disturbing case described in both ESP Wars and the Russian book is an episode involving a long-running territorial dispute between Russia and Japan. Kuril Islands are a small group of islands controlled by Japan until the end of WW2. They are tiny and there is some speculation that Russia wants to use them in a future sea route, but apart from that there's not much going on there. Goes without saying, the issue has been a source of tensions between the two countries.
The chapter in the Russian book (ESP Wars tells the story somewhat differently) starts with a "cold open" where Savin describes an attempt to query "energetic-informational field of Earth" to read the mind of then US President George HW Bush. Bush "said", "let Russia produce metal, consumer goods which are harmful to health and energy-intensive in production, let them store nuclear waste, use their cheap manpower, while we're going to advance high technology and build huge national parks". Then they "queried" more and somehow, everyone around was an enemy.
Both books claim that Yeltsin unilaterally decided to resolve the dispute and give the islands back to Japan. He was planning to do that during his visit to Japan in 1992. Russian economy was in a pitiful state, and trading tiny pieces of land barely in use for billions in Japanese investments seemed a no-brainer.
But patriotically-minded psychics in unit 10003 decided otherwise. In addition to their mind-reading sessions that determined that everyone around was an enemy, apparently, there was some sort of a complex plan in place that would provoke a war with China after the Kuril Islands are returned (?). Ratnikov as quoted in ESP Wars:
We prepared a very skilled psychic to connect with the information field. We conducted a session and received information that indicated that as soon as Yeltsin transferred the islands to Japan, China would lay claim to territories they disputed with Russia. This situation would be favorable to many political forces in the world, so their goal was to steer China’s leaders toward a military confrontation with Russia, and have the international community declare China an aggressor. Then the United Nations and a number of countries could apply economic and political sanctions against China as an aggressor that had encroached on the sovereign territory of another state. This would be very advantageous for China’s political and economic competitors. But that wasn’t all—the situation would go much further. China could react to the pressure in this case and undertake local military action against Russia, as it had at the end of the 1960s. However, in 1993 it would have resulted in a large-scale war in Southeast Asia.
So they took on themselves to derail the visit by nitpicking on some sort of technicalities (safety of Yeltsin). While the psychic unit was then classified, and the particulars of the story were not confirmed, an old NYT article from 1992 says:
President Boris N. Yeltsin abruptly put off a visit to Japan today, only four days before he was scheduled to leave, after negotiations throughout the summer failed to resolve a bitter territorial dispute that has haunted Moscow-Tokyo relations since World War II. ... In Japan, officials said they were surprised and somewhat insulted by the Russian leader's sudden action. As late as today, Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa was meeting with aides to plan for the visit, and a senior diplomat said he would be "very surprised" if rumors of a cancelation proved correct.
The chief Cabinet Secretary, Koichi Kato, said in a statement that the Government "regrets the postponement," but he used a word that also meant "deplores."
It is a loud claim, the circumstances around it sound batshit insane, but given this public knowledge, the mess in the Russian government at the time, and the known influence of these guys on the top brass, I am inclined to believe it.

Psychic discovery of Typhoon-class submarines

Source: ESP Wars / Joe McMoneagle
One of the stories is how Joe managed to dedude and describe an experimental submarine that the USSR was building that was unlike anything every built before. It became known as Typhoon-class submarines, the biggest submarines ever built.

Men in black and Mikhail Gorbachev

Source: Lyn Buchanan.
Of all the claims made in all the books, this one absolutely takes the cake and makes me wonder whether the number of true stories in Buchanan's book is 0.0001% or lower.
Buchanan tells about a visit of "men in black". According to him, they are not otherworldly beings but a special unit of government operatives who operate virtually without oversight.
These ones met him in 1985, when Gorbachev only rose to power. They asked Buchanan to kill Gorbachev, psychically.
The MIBs are not known for their subtlety. He ignored my question and said, “We want you to kill Mikhail Gorbachev.”
“No,” I answered flatly without hesitation.
He sat and stared at me, waiting for me to qualify my statement.
I sat and stared back at him, unflinching. There would be no argument or concession of any kind. He finally motioned to the driver, who took us back to the parking lot.
When we arrived, the man beside me got out. I reached to open my door and found that the inside door handle did not work. He came around the car and opened the door for me. I got out and stood there, waiting for some other instruction or comment. None was given. The man walked back to the front passenger side of the black sedan and opened the door.
“I’ll tell you what I will do,” I called to him. “I’ll try to get Gorbachev to get rid of communism.” He looked at me blankly, then got into the car beside the driver and they were quickly gone.
I was joking, of course. It was a stupid thing to say, but it did relieve the tension. However, throughout the afternoon, I got to thinking of how great an experiment that would be. I dismissed the idea, but over the next couple of weeks, it kept coming back to me. Finally, I decided to at least try it. Over the next two and a half months, I worked repeatedly to instill the idea into Gorbachev’s mind that communism was not working on many financial, social, military, and political levels. I used specific phrases that I had designed to access his subconscious mind, where they would have the most effect. But, after two and a half months of work, nothing happened, so I gave up and began working on other things.
I think that I was probably the most surprised person in the U.S. when Gorbachev made his famous speech that effectively ended Communist rule in Soviet Russia. Had I had some influence on his decision? I did not know. It took me another month, but I finally got a transcript of his speech and within it were all of the subliminal phrases I had been trying to pump into his subconscious during my sessions. I have no grandiose illusions that I brought about the end of communism in Russia. Ending communism was a logical and intelligent thing to do at the time, and I truly believe that it would have happened, had I not been involved. But I still wonder: Did I just pave some subconscious pathways that allowed the thoughts to occur more easily?

Life on Mars?

Source: Lyn Buchanan.
No sailors fighting in the dance hall here. Buchanan was asked to conduct a remote viewing session by one of his least favorite coworkers, who kept breaking protocols. After some reluctance, Buchanan agreed. He saw some worm-like organisms underground.
I can’t really say whether or not there were any aliens hibernating there. However, right before I received the move command, I had already bilocated to a place in which I did perceive forms of alien life much like large segmented worms. They were very active and not at all in hibernation. I had just looked up and realized that there was a way out of the chamber I was in when I received the command to “move up one hundred feet and describe.” How much of that part of the bilocation was accurate, I cannot even guess.
Supposedly, Buchanan was in the vicinity of the "face on Mars", which he recognized later from a poster and claims to have never seen before.

Soviet contact with ET in 1991

Source: Russian compilation
In 1991, a certain Mark Melkhiker with a group of psychics petitioned Gorbachev himself about a planned visit of extraterrestrials. Supposedly multiple psychics in different cities were in contact with these entities. Surprisingly, Gorbachev forwarded it to the minister of defense Yazov, and eventually it was delegated to the head of Unit 10003 Savin.
One of the requirements of the supposed aliens was to disable anti-aircraft artillery around Uzbekistan where the meeting was supposed to take place. Only Gorbachev had the power to disable the AA defenses, so Savin was wondering if the entire thing will take place. Amazingly, Gorbachev approved the request, and they flew to a middle of nowhere, near Zarafshan in Uzbekistan.
They've been waiting and waiting and waiting at the agreed upon coordinates. Nothing happened, the helicopter pilot lost it, and started verbally attacking Melkhiker. Melkhiker suggested to hypnotize the pilot and bring him in contact with the aliens. The pilot agreed. In trance, the pilot acted as an intermediary, and produced, among other things, some sort of scientific data dump which was recorded on a tape. The pilot was told that the landing did not eventuate because not all the conditions were fulfilled.
Savin concludes the story by saying, "while we haven't seen the aliens, we encountered a phenomenon whose nature is not yet understood".

Psychotronic weapons and Havana syndrome lead

Source: Russian compilation
Possibly the most important episode that ties in the upcoming 60 Minutes coverage.
The Russian Unit 10003 compilation has a chapter conspiciously missing from the ESP Wars, describing Yeltsin's sudden maladies. Before that chapter, the book makes eyebrow-raising claims that, even with the rest, make me question the mental health of those who wrote that part.
On pages 275 - 277, the book claims that "in 1985, the Pentagon declassified materials about application of neuro-linguistic programming..., having dedicated much attention to methods of contacting the brain of targets by the operators of informational centers". "Built today in several countries systems, portable with 6 watt power and stationary with up to 10 kW power are called psychogenerators and are probably the most formiddable weapon of 21st century. Having been tested in space, sea, and ground locations, the psychogenerators produce a stable effect of seeing a phenomenon called the UFO, as well as create emotions like gloom, loneliness, hopelessness."
"An example of successful realization by a group of operatives of NLP methods is an information contact of an operator that occurred on December 3, 1988 with the brain of the director of CIA. Over the course of the contact, a "conversation" was conducted about the main directions of the US intelligence towards the former USSR. In March 1991, a similar contact was conducted through an operator with the brain of Robert Gates, who took over the position of Webster as the director of CIA."
Supposedly these technologies are (were?) spreading and developing to the point of developing "mind viruses" similar to computer viruses.
The book claims that these technologies have been in development since mid-20th century. They claim that "the greatest successes were achieved by the US, UK, France, Germany, Denmark. In China, the extra-sensory perception and psychotronics research is conducted by over 100 scientific organizations... Israel focused on research aimed at achieving new capabilities by self-regulation, mind state alternation, and human body potential. In Japan, psychotronics are researched by an institute of religious psychology."
With the compilation being both vague and not too orderly, it is hard to determine who was behind this purported tech. It appears to be a loosely defined group of "in and out of government" actors, likely with the same set of nationalistic esoteric views as the major figures in the book.
The interesting part is this:
From the first days of its existence, the new division faced a number of serious problems. The issue is that in the Soviet years, the ninth directorate of the KGB of the USSR developed a wealth of theoretical and practical experience regarding identifying, developing and preventing a different range of threats against the country’s top leadership. In the event of an operational need, the entire staff of the USSR KGB worked for the "Niner". While the security department of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR, when Yeltsin as its chairman had virtually no such opportunities, and the staff of the department consisted of no more than twenty former state security and law enforcement officers without a lack of relevant experience, except for A.V. Korzhakov.
At the same time, the most unconventional threats sometimes arose, and it was one of them that prompted the leadership of the 175th security service to study unconventional influences on the country’s leaders.
It so happened that the office of the Chairman of the Supreme Council was located on Krasnopresnenskaya embankment in the White House [for the avoidance of confusion: not the one in DC)], the security of which was entrusted to employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. And soon, after the occupation of the office by the new Chairman of the Supreme Council, a scandal erupted, provoked by the discovery by employees of the security department above the office of Yeltsin of a whole room, with special eavesdropping equipment. The KGB tried to pass it off as equipment for protecting against unauthorized removal of information from Boris Nikolayevich’s office, but the invited technical specialists put everything in its place.
And a few weeks later, Korzhakov suddenly began to notice that as soon as Yeltsin worked for an hour and a half in his office, elements of inadequacy began to be registered in his behavior: forgetfulness, inappropriate answers, jumping from topic to topic, headaches and general discomfort that literally drove him away from the office. But as soon as he left the office within half an hour, all his health would be restored and he would return to his normal state. This circumstance suggested that some unusual external influence was being exerted on the Chairman of the Supreme Council. To test this assumption, it was decided to thoroughly search the entire office.
The entire office was carefully examined, especially the shelves with political literature. It turned out that the security officers' assumption was correct. A microwave antenna was found behind the bookshelves, which was a flexible rectangular frame measuring 120x120 cm with rubberized fabric stretched over it. In the middle of the structure there was a radio emitter, protruding for about ten centimeters. The antenna was connected to the electricity and was in an active state. An OTO specialist invited by Korzhakov confirmed the fears of the security department, assuring that Boris Nikolaevich’s inadequate condition was explained precisely by the impact of a high-frequency electromagnetic pulse on his body.
So for the first time in practice I became acquainted with a new class of threats - the impact on the human body of electromagnetic radiation of low power and different frequencies.
I am also pasting here Russian original (starting pg 175) for those who need it.
С первых дней своего существования новое подразделение столкнулось с рядом серьезных проблем. Дело в том, что в Советские годы у девятого управления КГБ СССР в плане определения, разработки и предотвращения различного спектра угроз в адрес высшего руководства страны был наработан богатейший теоре- тический и практический опыт. Ведь в случае возникновения оперативной необходимости на 9-тку работал весь штат КГБ СССР. А у отдела безопасности Верховного Совета РСФСР в бытность Б.Н. Ельцина его председателем таких возможностей практически не было, да и штат отдела насчитывал не более двадцати бывших сотрудников госбезопасности и правоохранительных органов без отсутствия соответствующего опыта, кроме А.В. Коржакова.
При этом угрозы порой возникали самые нестандартные, как раз одна из них и подтолкнула руководство 175 службы безопасности к изучению нетрадиционных воздействий на руководителей страны.
Так сложилось, что рабочий кабинет Председателя Верховного Совета находился на Краснопресненской набережной в Белом доме, охрана которого была поручена сотрудникам МВД. И вот вскоре, после занятия кабинета новым Председателем Верховного Совета разразился скандал, спровоцированный обнаружением сотрудниками отдела безопасности над кабинетом Б.Н. Ельцина целой комнаты, с подслушивающей спецаппаратурой. КГБ попытался выдать ее за аппаратуру защиты от несанкционированного съема информации из кабинета Бориса Николаевича, но приглашенные технические специалисты поставили все на свои места.
А спустя несколько недель Коржаков вдруг стал замечать, что как только Ельцин час-полтора поработает в своем кабинете, у него начинают фиксироваться в поведении элементы неадекватности: забывчивость, ответы невпопад, перескакивание с темы на тему, головные боли и общий дискомфорт, буквально гнавший его из кабинета. Но как только он покидал кабинет в течении получаса все здоровье восстанавливалось и он возвращался в свое нормальное состояние. Это обстоятельство наводило на мысль, что на председателя Верховного Совета осуществляется какое-то необычное внешнее воздействие. Чтобы проверить это предположение, было решено тщательно обыскать весь кабинет.
Весь кабинет внимательно осмотрели, особенно стеллажи с политической литературой. Оказалось, что предположение сотрудников безопасности оказалось верным. За книжными полками была обнаружена СВЧ антенна, которая представляла собой гибкий каркас прямоугольной формы размером 120Х120 см. с натянутой на него прорезиненной тканью. В середине конструкции находился радио излучатель, выступавший сантиметров на десять. Антенна была подключена к электросети и находилась в активном состоянии. Приглашенный Коржаковым специалист ОТО, подтвердил опасения отдела безопасности, заверив, что неадекватное состояние Бориса Николаевича объясняется именно воздействием на его организм высокочастотного электромагнитного импульса.
Так впервые я на практике познакомился с новым классом угроз – воздействием на человеческий организм электромагнитного излучения малой мощности и различной частоты.
More related reading: Tom Rogan on Patrushev and Havana syndrome connection

Origin story

My biggest frustration is that none of the books provided a reliable and consistent origin story. Buchanan claims that the US programs started because they found that the Soviets were studying it. The Russian compilation claims otherwise and never explains why the Soviet/Russian unit was formed and what preceded it.
Many name Puthoff as the originator but it's probably not the case. Several sources claim that Puthoff joined the SRI program that already existed because he did some experiments independently and could contribute.

Is it all true?

The Havana syndrome story alone and the rogue elements in KGB installing antennas in Yeltsin's room do not require anything supernatural. If someone found out how to irradiate the brain, it does not break today's traditional understanding of how the mind/brain works.
But the big question is, what's up with the psychic insights that could not have been random? What's up with the well-documented instances of psi insight and non-psi phenomena which is hard to explain with the modern model of mind, like terminal lucidity?
We know next to nothing about how the human mind works. Today's psychiatry today can do as much as the rest of the medical science could do in 19th century: turn off cognitive function, keeping the patient in a permanently altered state without addressing the core reason. Its core concepts are being disputed and dismantled one by one. Even schizophrenia is being disputed as a concept.
My opinion is similar to that of Jessica Utts: psi is real but not usable. It is not reliable, at best being a noisy channel. One of the students of Bob Monroe, Tom Campbell, formulated a "psi uncertainty principle": psi is designed as sort of "cheat codes" not for mainstream use.
Which is why the psychics can tell the truth and indeed tap into remote sources of information, but it is as luck-based as a day of a hunter gatherer looking for game to kill.
The same Joe McMoneagle of the Typhoon fame published a book with predictions; they are mostly off the mark.
Astrophysicist Rudy Schild of Edgar Mitchell's FREE Foundation suggested a dual model of human mind, which may explain it. In a way, it assumes the mind to be similar to a computer connected to the internet: large part of "software" (the conscious mind) runs locally, while the other part (the unconscious, which the psychics use) is connected to the larger network.
submitted by TypewriterTourist to HighStrangeness [link] [comments]

2024.03.19 17:49 acekingoffsuit The 20 Worst Matches in WrestleMania History (according to Cagematch) and Why They're So Hated

Over the past month I've written about a lot of bad wrestling. That run (probably) comes to an end today with my look into some of the worst matches in history according to the users of Cagematch, an IMDB-like site for wrestling. Its users can share their ratings on promotions, events, and even individual matches.
This time, I'm looking at the lowest-rated matches in WrestleMania history. ‘Tis the season for all of the sign-pointing, story-finishing, and the wonderful matches that deserve to be contested at The Granddaddy of Them All. ‘Tis also the season to reflect upon all of the terrible matches that didn't deserve said honor but were part of the Showcase of the Immortals anyways.
Please note that matches under five minutes in length are ineligible as Cagematch does not allow for ratings on matches under that threshold by default. That means that classics such as Hulk Hogan versus Yokozuna or the boxing match between Butterbean and Bart Gunn are not included. Despite that limitation, there are still more than enough bad matches to fill this list.
If this sort of thing is up your alley, this is part of a series of posts on really bad wrestling. Yo u can find more in the links below:
Worst Events: WWE WCW Non-WWE/WCW
Worst Matches: WWE WCW Non-WWE/WCW
Ratings accurate as of March 7, 2024, and are on a scale from 0 to 10
#20 (tie): WrestleMania I Andre the Giant vs Big John Studd ($15,000 Body Slam Challenge) - 2.30
We start, appropriately enough, at the beginning.
This should come as no surprise, but the Andre the Giant/Big John Studd match from WrestleMania I - one where Andre would win $15,000 of Studd's money if he could slam Big John but retire from wrestling if he could not - was not a technical showcase. Neither man was exactly fleet of foot (although Andre moved better on this night than he would two years later in his world famous match against Hulk Hogan) so it was all strikes and rest holds. Andre put Studd in a bearhug for a minute and a half (which was more than a quarter of the entire match’s length), then put him in another rest hold just seconds later.
It wasn’t a thrill-a-minute encounter, but the fans did not care in the slightest. The fans absolutely loved The Eighth Wonder of the World and desperately wanted him to get his revenge on Big John. They loudly chanted “Slam! Slam!” during the bearhug, then cheered even louder when he slammed the villain. This is not a match that holds up to scrutiny under current expectations, but in that moment it delivered exactly what it needed to deliver.
#20 (tie): WrestleMania XXIV Melina & Beth Phoenix vs Ashley & Maria (Playboy BunnyMania Lumberjill Match) - 2.30
The lone women’s match on the ‘Mania XXIV card is a tough watch for reasons that have nothing to do with match quality. The recent wave of allegations against Vince McMahon have brought new attention to allegations that Ashley Massaro made against WWE in regards to an assault she suffered while touring with the company and their alleged role in asking her not to report it. Even if you can somehow separate those horrific allegations from what happens in the ring, the Playboy BunnyMania Lumberjill Match is not an enjoyable affair.
WrestleMania XXIV is the first of a six-’Mania stretch where neither the Women’s nor Divas’ Championships were defended at the Showcase of the Immortals. Those champions were either involved in tag matches or not on the card at all. There were more important stories to deal with, like former Playboy cover models Ashley and Candice Michelle trying to talk Maria into posing for the magazine. (Spoiler: they succeeded.) Maria’s on-screen partner, Santino Marella, was not a fan of the idea to say the least. He broke up with Maria and aligned with Melina and WWE Women’s Champion Beth Phoenix, as the women opted to settle things in a Playboy-branded Lumberjill match where Snoop Dogg served as emcee.
The match itself wasn’t the worst women’s match ever, especially considering that both of the babyfaces came into the company through the Diva Search rather than the indies, but it was far from great. The fans were largely disinterested (perhaps because they were still recovering from the previous match, Ric Flair’s WWE retirement match with Shawn Michaels). Not even the electricity cared; the lights went out during the final couple of minutes, and the tech team scrambled to shine a spotlight on the finish.
#19: WrestleMania NY/NJ “The World's Strongest Man” Mark Henry vs Ryback - 2.24
Mark Henry versus Ryback at the WrestleMania that took place in New Jersey (but WWE desperately wanted to loop New York into it as well) was not a great match by any definition of the word, but it wasn't terrible. It was a perfectly serviceable TV match that would have been right at home on a random SmackDown instead of the Showcase of the Immortals.
The match itself is typical big meaty men slapping meat. Ryback was built like a tank and Henry was a legit strongman champion so one would expect nothing less. If you are a fan of big man versus big man matches then you'll probably enjoy the match for what it was… at least until you get to the ending. After a short back-and-forth affair, Ryback hit his Meat Hook Clothesline on Henry. He then impressively picked Henry up for the Shell Shock, but Henry grabbed the ropes and fell into Ryback. The blow knocked the former Nexus member out, allowing Henry to pick up the win. Oddly, when Henry attacked Ryback post-match, Ryback fought back and actually connected with the Shell Shock.
Why didn't they just let him hit the move and pick up the impressive win? Especially since he turned heel the next night and started a program with John Cena? Who knows?
#18: WrestleMania X Lex Luger vs Yokozuna (with guest referee Mr. Perfect) for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship - 2.17
It's never a good sign when fans chant “bulls--t” at the end of a match.
1994 Royal Rumble co-winners Lex Luger and Bret Hart were each given a title match at WrestleMania X. Luger, by virtue of winning a coin toss, got the first crack at champion Yokozuna. The winner would defend the belt in the main event against Bret Hart, who faced brother Owen earlier in the evening to ensure fairness. The Bret versus Owen match is viewed as one of the best in company history. Yoko and Lex’s bout… not so much.
Yokozuna, who was over 560 pounds at the time of Mania X, was already 60 pounds heavier than he was when his character debuted in October 1992. The more weight he gained, the more he struggled with his cardio. He generally needed to work a bit more of a slower style than he had in the past, as evidenced by the inclusion of four separate lengthy rest holds in the middle of the fight. He had to pace himself particularly strictly on this night since a) this match was going to be 15 minutes, and b) he had to work a second match against Bret in the main event.
Like many other bouts on the list, this match had an unsatisfying finish. Luger bodyslammed Yokozuna and hit him with a Running Forearm, then knocked out Yoko’s managers Jim Cornette and Mr. Fuji as they were on the apron. Luger then went to cover the big man, but surprise guest referee Mr. Perfect opted to check on Cornette and Fuji instead of counting the 1-2-3. Luger shoved Perfect in frustration and got disqualified, ending both his title hopes and his WWF main event push.
#17: WrestleMania V Andre the Giant vs Jake "The Snake" Roberts (with guest referee Big John Studd) - 1.92
The gigantism that helped make Andre the Giant into one of the most popular wrestlers in the world took a tremendous toll on his body. That much was apparent at WrestleMania III, where he worked one of the most iconic matches of all time despite his physical limitations. Two years later those limitations were more plentiful and painfully more obvious.
All of that made the choice to have Andre work a ten-minute singles match all the more odd.
Andre clearly struggled throughout his match with Jake “The Snake” Roberts, and it makes for a tough watch. The big man plodded around the ring throughout the contest, and he needed to hang on to the ropes to maintain his balance after nearly every punch he threw. At one point he rammed his shoulder into Roberts’s midsection and stumbled backwards, forcing Jake to act as if he caught Andre with a phantom knee.
There were efforts made to cover up for Andre’s immobility, including the addition of old rival Big John Studd as guest referee and a run-in involving Ted DiBiase attempting to steal Roberts’s snake. Eventually it led to Andre attacking Studd to cause a disqualification, but not before the giant was chased from the ring by The Snake and The Snake’s snake.
#16: WrestleMania XI King Kong Bundy vs The Undertaker (with guest referee Larry Young) - 1.85
The entire basis of the King Kong Bundy vs Undertaker match - aside from the inclusion of real-life MLB umpire Larry Young as referee - was that Million Dollar Corporation member Bundy helped Ted DiBiase steal Taker’s urn. That’s the entire setup; DiBiase has it, and Taker wants it back. It’s a simple conflict, but it works.
So what happens when you settle that conflict a third of the way through the match?
DiBiase brought the urn with him to the ring, because reasons. A couple of minutes into the bout Taker went to the outside, simply grabbed the urn out of DiBiase’s hands, and handed it over to Paul Bearer. Moments later DiBiase called upon Kama, who stole the urn back from Bearer and ran to the backstage area. The story took a turn and advanced to the next phase.
Had this all happened after the match, things would have been just fine. But all of this took place in the opening half of the contest. Taker and Bundy had to finish up the match in a situation where there was no heat and no real stakes because the thing they were fighting for was already gone. The match went from dull to dull and pointless.
#15: WrestleMania IV Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake vs The Honky Tonk Man for the Intercontinental Championship - 1.82
Gunther and The Honky Tonk Man are two vastly different performers who are linked by the Intercontinental Championship. As of this writing, each man had exactly one title defense take place at WrestleMania. Gunther’s defense at Mania 39 against Drew McIntyre and Sheamus, is widely regarded as one of the best WrestleMania matches of all time. HTM’s defense at Mania IV against Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake… isn’t.
There are a few things that are commonly associated with great ‘Mania matches. You will find none of them here
  • Great technical work? No. This match was cartoony, even by the standards of the era and even for a match featuring a hairdresser and an Elvis-tangent singer. Brutus went for multiple wind-up punches and seemed more obsessed with cutting hair than winning gold. Honky didn’t do a whole lot of mat work by design, as his entire reign was based on him only hanging on to the title by hook or by crook.
  • Non-stop action? No. Honky Tonk Man rolled out of the ring to break up the action on three separate occasions, an impressive feat in a match that lasted less than seven minutes.
  • A clean finish? No. While Brother Bruti had HTM in his signature Sleeper, Jimmy Hart whalloped the referee in the back of the head with a megaphone, leading to a disqualification.
#14: WrestleMania VIII Hulk Hogan vs Sid Justice - 1.70
In all fairness to the Hulk Hogan/Sid Justice clash that closed ‘Mania VIII, it wasn’t much different than any of the countless other ‘Hogan faces the Monster of the Week’ bouts in WWF history. And it does close with the memorable return of The Ultimate Warrior after a months-long absence. There are three things that make this match infamous: what the match could have been, how it was promoted, and how it ended.
What could have been: The initially-planned main event for WrestleMania VIII would have seen Hogan challenge Ric Flair for the WWF Championship. It was a dream match for many, as it would have seen WWF’s flagbearer square off against the man who left WCW as its champion and proclaimed himself to be the “real world heavyweight champion” upon his WWF debut. However, after disappointing box office performances when the two worked together on house shows, plans were changed. Instead of Hogan vs Flair, Hogan was paired up with Sid Justice while Flair defended (unsuccessfully) against Randy Savage. The two matches were billed as a double main event, but Savage/Flair was the fifth match of nine on the pay-per-view broadcast. Hogan’s bout, of course, went on last.
How it was promoted: WWF never said outright that this would be Hogan’s final match, but they implied the hell out of it. It’s a tactic that worked at the time, but it feels a whole lot tackier in hindsight knowing that the Hulkster would still be in a wrestling ring 20 years after ‘Mania 8. To be fair, Hogan did leave wrestling after this match… for about 10 months. The fact that his absence happened just as Vince McMahon went on trial for steroid distribution and Hogan had a disastrous interview on The Arsenio Hall Show about the topic was a total coincidence.
How it ended: The most famous part of this match was what happened at the end… or rather, what didn’t happen. Hogan slammed Justice and hit The Big Leg, then went for a cover. Papa Shango was supposed to sneak in and break up the cover, but he either missed his cue or underestimated how long it would take him to get to the ring. Either way, the lack of Shango meant that Sid had to kick out of Hogan’s finisher, making him the first man to do so. Hulk, Sid, and Sid’s manager Harvey Wippleman bungled around in the ring to stall for time until Papa finally arrived.
#13: WrestleMania 2000 Head Cheese ("The Lethal Weapon" Steve Blackman & Al Snow) vs T&A (Test & Albert) - 1.61
Before Al Snow and Steve Blackman began their tag match at WrestleMania 2000, Snow introduced the team’s new mascot: Chester McCheeserton, a little person in a cheese wedge costume with butt cheek holes cut out of the cheese block. Snow then started a “Let’s Go Head Cheese (clap clap clapclapclap)” chant, with Chester slapping his ass for each clap.
And they say that the Attitude Era was worse than we remember.
The odd couple tag team of the deadly-serious Blackman and the off-kilter Snow took on T&A, the new tandem of Test and Albert managed by WWF’s newest signing, Trish Stratus. (Get it? T&A? Test and Albert? Tits and Ass? GET IT?) This was supposed to be a bit of a showcase for the new monster heel team, but the match was hardly spotlight-worthy.
In a bit of an oddity on this list, the match wasn’t notable for big botches or performers who weren’t in great shape or anything like that. Everyone was pretty competent in what they did. The problem was that the match had zero flow. There wasn’t much of a beginning or end, just a long, unstructured middle. There were few periods of extended dominance or back-and-forth, and every pin but the final one was broken up by the non-legal partner. It was just a bunch of A hits B, C hits A, D hits C, rinse and repeat. Things occurred, but nothing really happened. The only really memorable parts of this match were Jim Ross’s mic cutting out, Jim Ross low-key insulting the contest throughout the match when his mic did work (“This match has those bowling shoe tendencies: somewhat ugly”), and Snow and Blackman attacking the mascot after the match.
On the bright side, your patience for sitting through this encounter is rewarded instantly. One of the worst tag matches in ‘Mania history is immediately followed by one of the best: The Hardyz versus The Dudleyz versus Edge and Christian in a three-team Ladder Match.
#12: WrestleMania 35 Kurt Angle vs Baron Corbin - 1.48
Kurt Angle’s final match is on this list because of what it was, but it's also on here because of what it wasn't.
When Angle announced that ‘Mania 35 would be his last hurrah, fans had a laundry list of dream opponents for his final match. Perhaps Brock Lesnar in a rematch of the ‘Mania 19 main event? What about fellow future hall-of-famer Rey Mysterio? Or maybe his last opponent could be the first man he faced in a WWE ring, John Cena?
What Angle and his fans got instead was Baron Corbin.
Corbin wasn't a bad choice in a vacuum. His style was safe and meshed well with the physical limitations Angle had after two decades in the business. He was good at being a heel and really embraced the hatred he received for not being a ‘dream’ opponent, going as far as busting out Cena’s “you can't see me” taunt during the match. But the pick did not go down well with fans, especially since Corbin was seemingly good for three appearances per week on Raw at the time.
The match itself was about what you would expect. Angle brought out some of his greatest hits (as well as his body would allow) and Corbin heeled it up on his way to a victory, running one last bit of mud in the faces of Angle’s fans.
#11: WrestleMania XXVI Bret "The Hitman" Hart vs Vince McMahon (No Holds Barred Match, with guest referee Bruce Hart) - 1.38
On paper, this is a great revenge story. More than a decade after the Montreal Screwiob that led to his departure from the company, Bret Hart returned to WWE. Vince McMahon goaded a revenge-fueled Bret into a match at ‘Mania and, despite having a broken leg, Bret agreed to a No Holds Barred Match. Once the match was signed, The Hitman revealed that his leg was A-OK and that he'd be prepared to destroy his former boss at Vince's own signature event.
At the event, Vince played his final trump card: the entire Hart family. Vince bought off hired DH Smith, Tyson Kidd, Natalya, and the rest of the Harts to serve as lumberjacks for the match, with Bruce Hart serving as guest referee. But in a satisfying double-cross, the family remained aligned with Bret and cheered on as Bret destroyed Vince in an extended squash match.
That's all great, but the segment had no business being TWENTY-TWO MINUTES.
Bret was 52, had retired from wrestling due to concussions, and had suffered a stroke. He obviously couldn't take any bumps so, aside from a brief bit of attacking by the lumberjacks, the entire match consisted of Bret hitting Vince over and over and over and over and over again. It was an 11-minute match that felt like it went 40.
#10: WrestleMania 23 The Great Khali vs Kane - 1.31
The Great Khali is a man who's as big as a tiger and as nimble as a housecat, so long as the housecat is Garfield. Kane is a bit more graceful in his movements compared to the Punjabi Playboy, but only slightly. The idea of having these two behemoths clash at WrestleMania was to create a spectacular demolition derby of violence, but the end result was much closer to a trainwreck.
Kane was not bad as the smaller giant trying to take down the bigger man, but he’s much better as an unstoppable monster than a scrappy underdog. He’s a literal horror movie villain for crying out loud. And if you forgot about that, this match gave you a reminder; Kane used his the chain from his See No Evil chained hook to land a low blow. Khali’s role kept him closer to his strengths, but those strengths weren’t really strong. His movements and strikes were awkward compared to the rest of the roster, so his dominance over smaller wrestlers never really clicked as well as it did for someone like The Big Show or The Undertaker.
Towards the end of the match, Kane bodyslammed Khali in a nod to what Hogan did to Andre the Giant twenty years prior in the same city. As impressive as the feat was, all it really did was drive home the fact that Khali is no Andre.
#9: WrestleMania XX Goldberg vs Brock Lesnar (with guest referee "Stone Cold" Steve Austin) - 1.22
Goldberg versus Brock Lesnar was a slam dunk of a match on paper. Two of the biggest monsters in recent memory engaged in a cross-brand blood feud. Lesnar screwed Goldberg out of a Royal Rumble win, and Goldberg screwed Lesnar out of his WWE Championship. Add in “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, who was named special guest referee and had come to blows with Lesnar, and you had a highly-combustible must-see event.
One problem: Both men decided that they were going to leave the company after ‘Mania. Goldberg, unhappy with the edgy direction of WWE’s product, decided weeks before the event that he was done. Lesnar, burnt out by travel and other demands of life as a WWE Superstar and wanting to try out for the Minnesota Vikings, made his decision known just days before the event.
Okay, I lied. There was a second problem: The fans knew both men were leaving, and they were not happy. They serenaded Lesnar and Goldberg with chants of “you sold out,” “na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye,” “Austin,” and “this match sucks,” among others.
I lied again. There was a third problem: They tried to build tension by not having the pair wait nearly three minutes to actually make contact. The only action of the first five minutes was a pair of lock-ups that ended in stalemates. It took nearly seven minutes - about half of the match’s length - for anything of substance to happen. The fans didn’t get to see anything they enjoyed until after Goldberg got the victory, when Austin dished out Stunners to both of the departing performers.
#8: WrestleMania 33: Randy Orton vs Bray Wyatt for the WWE Championship - 1.21
At some point between its debut and WrestleMania 33, the Bray Wyatt character changed from dangerous charismatic leader of men to dangerous supernatural leader of men. The challenge of leaning into supernatural elements is that it's tough to find the right amount of spooky. You want things to be strange enough that it actually feels supernatural, but not so strange that it doesn't work within the realm of wrestling.
This match did not strike that right balance.
After a short-lived alliance, WWE Champion Wyatt defended his title against Royal Rumble winner Randy Orton. The feud was intensely personal, including Orton burning down the Wyatt Family compound and Wyatt ‘baptising’ himself in Sister Abigail’s ashes, so you know that things were going to get vicious. Not even the sperm-like digital snake that followed Mr. RKO down the aisle could put a damper on this intense encounter.
Wyatt’s secret weapon turned out to be… a projector.
His big psychological play once he gained the upper hand in the match was to run into the corner and project a film clip of maggots onto the ring canvas. He did it twice more with clips of earthworms and roaches. Believe it or not, these non-attacks were not effective. Just as Wyatt was going to follow up post-roach clip, boom. R-K-O, 1-2-3, ding-ding-ding.
Oddly enough, even with the gross slide show, this match is not rated as the worst Orton/Wyatt bout in WrestleMania history. That honor goes to…
#7: WrestleMania 37, Night 2 Randy Orton vs "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt - 1.19
If you thought the first Orton/Wyatt feud was strange, this version ratchets everything up to 11. The promo package starts with Orton setting The Fiend on fire and only gets weirder from there. (Seriously though, does Randy have a thing for fire?)
After a build-up that included a possessed Alexa Bliss, Orton vomiting black goo, and a caramelized Fiend returning by ripping a hole in the ring from underneath and climbing through it, Randy and Fiendie were set to settle the score at ‘Mania 37. The Fiend made his entrance by popping out of a Jack-in-the-box and went on the offensive immediately. The match itself was fairly standard. Nothing in the way of spooky business or extreme violence or anything you'd expect out of a feud where one person immolated the other.
Things didn't get weird until the finish, when The Fiend was set to hit Sister Abigail. At that moment fire shot out from the turnbuckles and Bliss appeared atop the Jack-in-the-box with black goo pouring from her forehead. The visual distracted Fiend long enough to let Randall recover, then boom. R-K-O, 1-2-3, ding-ding-ding. Orton got the hell out of Dodge, leaving Fiend and Bliss staring at each other. The lights went out, and by the time they came back on both demonic figures had disappeared.
How did Wyatt respond to getting betrayed? Essentially, he didn't. His Firefly Funhouse character returned the next night, claiming to look forward to a fresh start. Then he disappeared from TV and got released a few months later.
#6: WrestleMania V The Bushwhackers (Butch & Luke) vs The Fabulous Rougeaus (Jacques & Raymond) - 1.15
The Bushwhackers aren’t remembered for being high ‘workrate’ guys. They weren’t the guys you’d throw out there to have a 30-minute mat classic. They were guys who were able to act a bit goofy and make the fans smile. Their biggest strength was getting the crowd involved.
So what happens when the crowd doesn’t get very involved?
The Men from Down Under faced off against The Fabulous Rougeaus at ‘Mania V, and the crowd was oddly disinterested. The fans cheered loudly when the Bushwhackers entered and cheered just as loudly when they picked up the win. But between those two moments, the faces couldn’t get much of a reaction out of the Trump Plaza crowd. They cleared the ring of the French Canadians (who at this point had started presenting themselves facetiously as all-American guys) and did their signature march to little response. They got on the turnbuckle and appealed to the crowd to little response. They hit a Battering Ram on the villains to little response.
If you’re a fan of what the Bushwhackers do, you probably won’t hate this match. But if you’re not a fan, the match itself combined with the lack of crowd reaction means that you’ll likely find this more painful to get through than their usual fare.
#5: WrestleMania II "Rowdy" Roddy Piper vs Mr. T (Boxing Match) - 0.99
There are a lot of things that WWF tried for WrestleMania 2 that just didn’t work all that well. The card was held across three cities (New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles), meaning that each arena got a small card of matches. The company upped the amount of celebrity involvement to the point of seeming desperate for anyone even mildly recognizable. And they decided to have a staged boxing match as the main event of the New York portion of the card.
Roddy Piper did box at a high amateur level before he became a wrestler. Mr. T won some toughman competitions where boxing matches served as the final round before he became famous, and arguably his most famous role was that of boxer Clubber Lang in Rocky III, so a boxing match made sense. The challenge in staging a boxing match is making it look at least somewhat like a legitimate contest. The pair succeeded… for one round. Rounds 2 and 3, dominated by Piper and T respectively, looked far more like a pro wrestling match where the competitors could only punch. Round 4 was effectively a Strong Style chop battle with boxing gloves, as the pair exchanged blows one at a time without even attempting to cover up before Piper shoved a referee and slammed T to get disqualified.
Part of the lack of chemistry may have been due to personal issues between the pair. Both men were part of WrestleMania I’s main event, and Piper was upset that a celebrity who hadn’t paid his dues was going to be in a prominent spot instead of an actual wrestler. That real-life beef was the basis for the start of their feud, but it’s possible that it reignited during the match. T left a good amount of daylight on a punch that knocked Piper out of the ring, and Piper responded by throwing his wooden stool at T before the start of the fourth round. It may also explain why Piper’s hands (according to him) were taped into a fist before they were gloved, so that he could not do too much damage to the A-Team star.
What was beyond explanation was the absolute mish-mash of celebrities involved in the match. Some made sense, like the two men who served in the corners of Mr. T and Piper respectively: boxing champ “Smokin’” Joe Frazier and trainer Lou Duva. Some were a bit of a stretch, like ring announcer Joan Rivers and commentator Susan St. James (a.k.a. the Wife in “McMillan & Wife”). And then there’s the absolute grab bag of a judging panel: jazz legend Cab Calloway, NBA star “Chocolate Thunder” Darryl Dawkins, and (I kid you not) Watergate co-conspirator G. Gordon Liddy.
#4: WrestleMania IX Giant Gonzalez vs The Undertaker - 0.77
Giant Gonzalez’s one and only WrestleMania appearance is widely cited as the worst of The Undertaker’s 27 matches at The Showcase of the Immortals. The showdown between the two provided a striking visual of Gonzalez (not quite his billed height of 8’, but still massive at 7’7”) towering over the massive Taker. That visual would have looked even cooler had the massive Argentinian not been dressed in a flesh-colored bodysuit airbrushed to make him look like a naked Sasquatch, complete with ass-crack and happy trail.
Things didn’t look much better once the match began. Every move Gonzalez made looked slow and awkward. The blows he landed on Taker looked too slow to cause any damage, and he sold the blows landed on him in a comical way. It was an ugly affair with a disappointing finish; The Undertaker won by disqualification after Gonzalez held a chloroform-soaked rag over his mouth.
This sounds like an indictment of Gonzalez, but his struggles weren’t due to a lack of effort. Much like Andre the Giant, Gonzalez’s career was greatly impacted by his gigantism. His tremendous height made him a potential basketball prospect and led to him being selected with the 54th pick in the 1998 NBA Draft (one spot behind future Sixth Man of the Year Anthony Mason). However, the toll that his size took on his knees was a big reason why he never played a minute in the league. His size got him signed to WCW but his awkwardness kept him from finding success there. The WWF brought him into the company in early 1993, but history soon repeated itself. He was gone from the company by the end of the year, having wrestled in just eight televised matches.
#3: WrestleMania XV Sable vs Tori for the WWF Women’s Championship - 0.63
Tori was put in a prominent position for WrestleMania XV, but she was not set up for success.
Tori challenged Sable for the WWF Women's Championship. Tori was a veteran who had worked in Japan with certified Joshi legends, so a big spotlight match shouldn't have been too much for her… if she had recently worked in Japan. Or recently worked at all. She had taken a five year break from the business, and Mania was just her second match post-hiatus. Sable wasn't exactly in position to lead the match as she had fewer than ten singles matches to her resume at that point.
And if the stakes weren't high enough, this was the first women's match on a Mania card in five years.
When you take all of that into consideration, the end result was hardly a surprise. Tori and Sable had a clunky, awkward match. There was a pair of very obvious botches, one of which saw Tori stumble as she slipped out of the Sable Bomb. The only woman who came out of the match looking impressive was Nicole Bass, who debuted at the end of the contest to help Sable retain.
#2: 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania Miss WrestleMania Battle Royal - 0.25
WWE had two top belts for its women's roster, yet the company did not feel the need to have either one defended at WrestleMania 25 (which, despite its branded name, is NOT the 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania. Your first date with someone is not your first anniversary). Instead, the company invented a new honor for the women to try and win: Miss WrestleMania. The prize was important enough that nearly every woman on the roster fought for it, including Women's Champion Melina and Divas Champion Maryse.
And Santino Marella.
See, the entire match - which was the only women's match on the card - was made for the sole purpose of getting Santino over. He tried qualifying for the match in the run-up to ‘Mania to no avail, but he had a trick up his sleeve.
The match itself was not all that different from the typical Divas Battle Royals of the era, full of nondescript action and a flurry of meaningless eliminations until the final handful remained. The only real differences were that half the women grinded on Kid Rock during the entrance, and there was one unknown woman who was avoiding the action for most of the match until- oh no that's Santino in drag and oh no he just won the match dear God why would they do this.
Surprisingly, this wasn't a one-off joke. Santino actually defended the title of Miss WrestleMania. Multiple times. He lost it and he won it back. He held onto the honor for the better part of three months until his firing at the hands of… Donald Trump, temporary owner of Raw and the man who spoke the Guest Host era into existence.
Late-00s Raw was a fever dream in all of the worst ways imaginable.
#1: WrestleMania XXVII Michael Cole vs Jerry "The King" Lawler (with guest referee "Stone Cold" Steve Austin) - 0.19
A former wrestler and a commentator walk into a ring. Thirty minutes later, they walk out with the honor of having wrestled (according to Cagematch users) the worst match in WWE history.
In 2010, WWE made the odd choice of turning Raw lead commentator Michael Cole heel. The move wasn't bad because Cole was bad in the role; just the opposite. He was good at being the annoying cheerleader for the villains. But he was annoying for the entire show, week in and week out. Couple that with being the voice of the Anonymous Raw General Manager (if you think you want to learn about the Anonymous Raw GM, I can assure you that you don’t) and you have someone who fans wanted to see taken down a peg. The man to do it: Cole's co-commentator Jerry “The King” Lawler.
This match shares the same cardinal sin as the Vince McMahon/Bret Hart match from earlier in the list: it asked way too much of people who were not regular in-ring performers. Michael Cole had never been a wrestler and Lawler was 61 years old, yet they were given an entire 30-minute segment. Granted, most of the 15-minute match is shtick, but that could have easily been compressed into five or six minutes without losing anything.
There is one key difference between Vince/Bret and this bout: Vince/Bret had a satisfying ending. As drawn-out as that match was, it ended with the hero getting his revenge. This match appeared to end with a Lawler victory, but that was reversed by the Anonymous Raw GM due to alleged officiating bias by “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. Cole got the win via disqualification since the powers that be decided that the Cole/Lawler feud needed to get stretched out until May.
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2024.03.18 02:26 wrongochongo [Partially Lost] Cartoon Network Fridays Halloween Bumpers 2006

https://youtu.be/Fgj9_v7tvns?si=qMPKMI7N2uP5OmJM
Throughout October of 2006, Cartoon Network’s Cartoon Fridays programming block aired every Friday with hosts Tommy and Tara leading a Halloween themed tug-of-war contest each week. As far as I have looked across compilations on YouTube/Archive, posts on TV/lost media sites, general searching on different engines, I’ve never found any clips from these specific broadcasts.
However, today I have found and uploaded a partial recording of the October 13th block, with the princesses vs. cheerleaders tug-of-war segment, from a bootleg DVD of the live broadcast of Scary Godmother 2: Jimmy’s Revenge.
I know the specific airdate because the block also features a performance by Jesse McCartney, whose IMDB page cites that date as his guest appearance on Cartoon Fridays. I cross-referenced this with the airdate schedules available on the Cartoon Network Wiki, which also say Scary Godmother 2 and Cartoon Fridays aired on that date.
Unfortunately the commercials were cut out from the recording so some of the bumpers appear to be missing or partially missing, as well as the entire Jesse McCartney musical performance. The clips shown are all that I had on my disc. I also don’t know anything about digitizing stuff yet so all I have for the moment are these recordings I took on my phone off an old dvd player earlier today.
During the tug of war portion, the host mentions there also being a knights vs. clowns match, and a pirates vs. ninjas match, both on different weeks. So there’s at least 2 others specials/sets of bumpers for Cartoon Fridays Halloween, maybe 3 if they did one each Friday of October that year. I have another bootleg copy of Scary Godmother 1 I plan on looking at tomorrow, hopefully it’s from the same year and contains one of these sets of bumpers as well.
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2024.02.28 04:53 Lineockon Hot Gay List for 10 You Will Love Them!

Hot Gay List for 10 You Will Love Them!
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https://preview.redd.it/5vuq42pwy8lc1.png?width=1280&format=png&auto=webp&s=3a627190528bd16f04e2d6586e4300602cc32ea4
Want to know famous and handsome men in the gay community? Check out them in this hot gay list in the spotlight.
Perhaps when you find out that you are gay, you feel a great deal of shame. However, when you really start embracing your sexuality. You will surely realize that being yourself is the best and being gay is also very wonderful.
In this blog post, I have put together 10 of my favorite sexy gay men.

Troye Sivan

Image credit: Pitchfork
On August 7, 2013, Sivan publicly admitted to being gay via a YouTube video.
Troye Sivan Mellet (born June 5, 1995) is an Australian singer-songwriter and actor. In 2023, he released his third album, Something to Give Each Other, on October 13, . Both "Rush" and "One of Your Girls" reached the Top 40 on the UK Singles Chart. The songs "Rush" and "One of Your Girls" reached the Top 40 in the UK Singles Chart and charted on the Billboard Hot 100. Sivan received his first Grammy nomination for the song "Rush."

Omar Rudberg

Image credit: IMDb
Omar Josué Rudberg (born November 12, 1998, as Gonzalez) is a Swedish singer and actor. He is internationally known for his role as Simon Eriksson in the Netflix teen drama series Young Royals.
The second season of Young Royals premiered on Netflix in November 2022. During the season, he released the single "Simon's Song," an original song written for the show.
In June 2019, Rudberg opened up about being part of the LGBTQ+ community in an interview with Swedish LGBTQ+ magazine QX: " As a person, I'm very open-minded. I dare not put a title. It feels so damn scary. Sometimes I hang out with guys, sometimes with girls. It varies. I don't know if it's because of my age, but I'm still young. I feel lost, not in a bad way, but just lost in life." (information from Wikipedia)

Hugh Sheridan

Image credit: IMDb
Hugh Sheridan is a famous Australian actor, singer, and television presenter best known for his role as Ben Rafter in the television series Packed to the Rafters. Sheridan is a four-time winner of the Logie Award for Favorite Actor.
He was married to Venezuelan actor Rafael de la Fuente from 2009 to 2018.
On March 5, 2021, Sheridan proposed to his boyfriend, Kurt Roberts, on the opening night of the Hugh Mann Stage Show; they announced in November 2021 that they were separating.

Jim Parsons

Image credit: The Holliwood Reporter
James Joseph Parsons was born on March 24, 1973. He is an American actor. From 2007 to 2019, he played Sheldon Cooper on the CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory.
On May 23, 2012, a New York Times article stated that Parsons is gay and has been in a relationship for the past decade. He is married to art director Todd Spivak, and in October 2013, Parsons described their relationship as "an act of love, coffee in the morning, going to work, doing laundry, taking the dog out - a regular life, boring love." Parsons and Spivak married in May 2017 in New York City.

Michael Holbrook Penniman Jr.

Image credit: IMDb
Mika was born in Beirut, Lebanon, and raised in Paris and London. He is a singer-songwriter.
In a September 2009 interview with Gay & Night, Mika commented on her sexuality, "I've never ever labeled myself. But having said that, I've never limited my life, I've never limited who I sleep with ... Call me whatever you want. Call me bisexual if you need a term for me ..."
Why he is in our hot gay list? In an August 2012 interview with Instinct magazine, the singer described himself as gay.

Lukas Gage

Image credit: IMDb
Lucas Gage was born on 5/28/1995. He has appeared in American Saboteur, White Lotus, You, and Happiness.
Hair stylist Chris Appleton confirmed his relationship with Gage on The Drew Barrymore Show. On April 5, 2023, Gage announced his engagement to Appleton. Nineteen days later, it was announced that Appleton and Gage were married. On November 13, 2023, Appleton filed for divorce from Gage, citing irreconcilable differences.

Thomas Dekker

Image credit: IMDb
Thomas Alexander Dekker was born on 12/28/1987. He is an American actor, musician, singer, director and producer. He is known for his roles as John Connor in The Terminator, Adam Conant in The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Zach in Heroes: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, John Connor in The Secret Circle, and Zach in Heroes.
Decker has stated that he was a victim of sexual molestation for much of his childhood. On July 13, 2017, Decker came out as gay and revealed that he married Canadian actor Jesse Haddock in April of that year.

Michael Urie

https://preview.redd.it/knhlcohlz8lc1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=8c5a5a2db96626f50fca872354408c8d33decc08
Michael Lorenzo Urie is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Mark St. James on the ABC comedy-drama series Ugly Betty. He played Bobby Kerns on the original BroadwayCast.com podcast soap opera The Curtain Rises.
In 2009, Yuri described himself as "a member of the LGBT community" on his social media. In a 2010 interview with The Advocate, he said he was in a relationship with a man and considered himself "the cool guy." That is the reason for he is in this hot gay list.

Matt Bomer

Image credit: NBC News
Matthew Staton Bomer is an American actor. He has received honors such as a Golden Globe Award and a Critics' Choice Television Award. He has also been nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award.
In this hot gay list , Pommer married Simon Halls in 2011. The marriage was not publicized through the media until 2014. In 2012, Boehmer openly acknowledged his homosexuality when he thanked the Halls and their children during the acceptance speech for the Steve Chase Humanitarian Award. He is also an LGBT rights activist.

Joshua Bassett

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Image credit: joshuabassett.fandom
In this hot gay list, Joshua Taylor Bassett was born on December 22, 2000. He is an American actor and singer.
Bassett sings and plays piano, guitar, ukulele, bass, drums, and some saxophone. 2021 On May 10, 2021, he opened up about being a member of the LGBTQ+ community in an interview.
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2024.02.27 23:18 UsefulEngine1 I watched Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx (1972)

How/why: A bit of a convoluted path to spending some time on this one: my YouTube feed gave me this video in which Paul Giamatti goes into the "Criterion Collection Closet" to pick out some interesting films. I wondered what movies I might recommend if I were asked to do the same, so I perused the Criterion Collection film list and found, while most of my all-time favorites are not there, this series was. I vaguely recalled seeing a couple of scenes from one of these movies but had never watched a full film; I also recognized that this was cited as an influence on The Mandalorian and, belatedly, also realized that it is the model for Hawk & Chick on Bob's Burgers. It's also apparently one of the earliest film adaptations of a Manga. With a set of links like that, and the opportunity to upgrade my film pedigree by watching a real foreign film from the vaunted Criterion Collection, I pulled up this second entry in the series (said by fans to be the best one).
So, without spoilers, I can say that this film, viewed today, is by turns intriguing, hilariously over-the-top, and downright bizarre. I'm no expert at Japanese cinema (though I've watched and enjoyed some Kurosawa and many Godzilla films) but I'm aware that there is often much more going on than is visible on the surface. It's just that the surface here is so strange to modern western eyes.
The basic premise is simple: a widowed Ronin and his young son travel the land as assassin-for-hire. There is some Lucas-esque trade-war intrigue exposition as they accept a job from the head of a province of textile workers to track down and kill a defecting craftsman who carries the secret process to their proprietary dyeing technique. Cub is a cute little guy often riding in a wheeled cart pushed by his stoic mercenary dad (seeing the Mando connection)? Lone Wolf is far from a leading-man type, he looks the part of a haunted former soldier. The father-son relationship is adorable and the whole film is presented somewhat through the eyes of Cub; it has the look and feel of a family-friendly adventure, until those big eyes start watching ol' dad slice and dice his way through an escalating series of enemies.
Which brings us to the violence: it's crazy. On one hand, it's hard to take seriously as great geysers of neon-red blood spray like (literal) hoses from severed heads and limbs. On the other hand, some genuinely disturbing shots dispel the idea that the intent here is purely cartoon fun. I think I need an expert guide to the symbolism of blood spray in Japanese film. Or maybe I'm just over-thinking it, but I do wonder how domestic 1970s audiences were meant to react to these scenes -- where they "fun" over-the-top violence (the way we might view Kingsman or 300 today), or intended to be deadly serious? Was this family viewing, or adults-only fare?
Speaking of the 1970s context, it's also worth noting that this film features a troupe of badass female antagonists, led by a truly terrifying female boss; in battle no quarter is given on either side based on gender. This is so far ahead of its time -- fifty years later Furiosa is still an anomaly -- that it might be the most impressive thing about the film.
The battle scenes are interspersed with more lyrical sections. While LW&C are traveling the countryside, they are also crossing lots of rivers and boundaries in a symbolic traverse of "hell" which is seemingly part of Lone Wolf's penance for his prior life (there's a mythological layer to the story that seemed to be at least partially lost in translation) and there are lovely nature shots and compositions. The transitions in tone can be sudden and jarring -- in one case a character stops mid-death to recite a rather stunning poem about a warrior's death in a slow-motion haze like something from a Malik film; then the action suddenly resumes with the gusher of fake blood. In what may be the strangest scene to modern eyes, Lone Wolf shockingly appears to be preparing to violently rape a female character, only to reveal that he's just removing her clothes so that she, he and Cub can huddle together to conserve body heat -- is the nudity here (first appearing to be real sexual violence and shortly later played for comic effect) exploitive in context the way it would have been in an American film at the time?
All in all, I don't think I understood it fully but I'm glad to have watched it for the sake of some additional context to other things I've seen or hope to see, but I can't say I'm hankering to watch more of the series.
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2024.02.13 19:34 acekingoffsuit The 15 Worst non-WWE/WCW Shows in History (according to Cagematch) and Why They're So Hated

Wrestling history is filled with matches and events that aren't well-liked. Some of them have faded into relative obscurity, while others have reached incredible levels of infamy. I thought it would be fun to take a look back at some of these cards to relive the moments we all wish we could forget and rehash the ones that we blotted out of our collective memories.
My source for this list is the "Flop 100" from Cagematch, an IMDB-like site for wrestling events. The site gained a bit of notoriety in recent months when AEW owner Tony Khan cited its user ratings as a metric of AEW's success. That led to Cagematch Discourse, which virtually guaranteed that I had to see this project through.
I previously looked at the 20 lowest-rated matches from WWE, which can be found here. I also made a post about WCW's 20 lowest-rated events which can be found here.
The wrestling world outside of the companies involved in the Monday Night Wars is vast and wild. In recognition of that, unlike the WWE and WCW lists, shows that were not broadcast are eligible here. The only requirement is that the event received at least 10 valid votes (which means Wrestlicious is off the hook... for now). You will find some very familiar names from the past and the present, as well as a few events that you likely had not known existed.
Why is this list only 15 entries long instead of 20? Well, once you go beyond the top lists Cagematch offers, it becomes very difficult to compile any sort of comprehensive list. Creating a top or bottom 20 for a single promotion is pretty easy, but trying to search through every single event put on by all 3,828 promotions in Cagematch's database is nearly impossible.
Cagematch ratings are accurate as of February 12, 2024, and are on a scale from 0 to 10
#15: Circle 6: Queer Punk Outlaws (also promoted as Brother, Can Ya' Spare A Dime?) (Mar. 30, 2023) - 2.27
Brother, Can Ya' Spare A Dime? was a show co-promoted by California's Circle 6 and New York's Queer Punk Outlaws. The show's was part-wrestling card, part-burlesque, and part-party event that took place over the most recent WrestleMania weekend. That focus on things other than wrestling might not have been immediately apparent to those tuning in for the show. In fact, nothing was apparent to those who tuned in. The show, which took place outdoors, was delayed by approximately 45 minutes due to weather. For a three-match card, that was a significant chunk of time.
Fans did get to watch all three matches eventually. The opening contest featured by Delightful Dan the Goddamn Candy Man, who is instantly my favorite wrestler of all time sight unseen based on the name alone. Fans at home might not have heard that name, however, due to technical difficulties with the audio caused by the weather. The other two matches on the card suffered from continued technical issues, as well as from not featuring Delightful Dan the Goddamn Candy Man.
It might be possible to overcome a late start, or technical issues, or wrestling that doesn't quite hit the mark. It's tough to overcome all three.
#14: CZW Cage of Death (Oct. 16, 1999) - 2.18
Up until the start of the pandemic, Combat Zone Wrestling's Cage of Death was an annual highlight, especially among fans of deathmatch wrestling. Even those who don't like ultra-violent matches have typically been able to find something to enjoy; its cards have featured the likes of Lio Rush, MJF, Shane "Swerve" Strickland, and Jonathan Gresham among others, all of whom have held the company's top title. But one thing fans of tecnhical and hardcore wrestling can agree on is that a show with a bunch of undecisive finishes sucks.
Unfortunately, the inaugural Cage of Death event falls into that category. Of the card's seven matches, two definitely ended with no winner. Trent Acid and White Lotus fought to a time-limit draw (only to team up and beat The Kashmerino Brothers in an impromptu tag immediately afterwards), and Ric Blade and Nick Gage's match ended in a no-contest thanks to run-ins.
A third match may have ended in a draw, but I'm not entirely sure. Wifebeater and Zandig's First Blood Match ended with the referee seeing both men bleed. Supposedly he saw Zandig bleed first, giving Wifebeater the win. However, this is in dispute. Cagematch lists the match as a Wifebeater win, while the Internet Wrestling Database lists it as a draw. Even looking at fan reviews, I found one that said Wifebeater won and another that called it a draw. I would greatly appreciate any clarity that a CZW fan could provide.
#13: XPW Freefall (Feb. 23, 2002) - 2.08
A lot can be said about XPW. It was (and is again) owned by a porn mogul who served time on felony obscenity charges. It embraced the deathmatch style that some really love and some really hate. One of its top acts is called MAGA Butcher. One of their matches at Here Comes Revenge 2023 included a spot where someone stuck a syringe in their opponent's exposed penis. Yet despite all of that, there is still one moment that reigns supreme in terms of infamy.
Freefall's main event was a Scaffold Match between Vic Grimes and New Jack. The pair had wrestled a match in ECW two years prior, where miscommunication during a match caused both men to fall off of a 20-foot structure onto concrete with Grimes landing on New Jack's head. The spill caused New Jack brain damage and permanent blindness in one eye. The XPW encounter was supposed to be a chance for fictional revenge, but the Gangsta made things all too real.
Near the end of the bout, New Jack broke from the script. He pulled out a hidden taser and used it on Grimes to the point that Grimes reportedly could not feel his legs. Jack then launched Grimes off of the scaffolding and almost completely beyond the table-filled ring below, his fall only broken by the top rope. Grimes suffered multiple injuries, but thankfully was only sidelined for a couple of months.
In the years following the match, New Jack claimed in multiple interviews that his intent was to throw Grimes into the turnbuckle post and kill him.
#12: IWA Mid-South Queen of the Death Matches 2008 (June 21, 2008) - 2.07
IWA Mid-South's third annual Queen of the Deathmatch tournament ended with Rebecca Payne on top after she defeated Mickie Knuckles in the tournament final. Unfortunately for IWA, the finale was overshadowed by the ugly scene that took place in Knuckles's semifinal match.
Mike Levy was an inexperienced wrestler who somehow got onto the card. His role was to complain about being invited to the men's tournament, accept Knuckles's challenge to serve as her women's tournament semifinal opponent, and lose. During the course of their match, Levy did a poor job of selling Knuckles's offense and even tagged her when he landed a headbutt. Knuckles responded by landing some stiff shots on him. Eventually Mickie got the win, but that's when things took a serious turn. Promoters Devon Moore and Tank came out and began to viciously assault Levy. Mid-South owner Ian Rotten joined in on the attack as well. As did Rotten's 12-year-old son.
Surprisingly, the incident did not dull Levy's desire to wrestle. He continues to perform in and around North Carolina to this day.
#11: IGW Superstars of Wrestling: Rodman Down Under (July 30, 2000) - 2.00
Australia's short-lived i-Generation Wrestling promotion lasted less than a year and ran just one PPV event: Rodman Down Under. As you would expect from an event named Rodman Down Under, its biggest selling point was that hall-of-fame basketball player Dennis Rodman was in the main event. As you would expect from an event whose biggest selling point was hall-of-fame basketball player Dennis Rodman was in the main event, the match was not very good.
The night's fifth and final bout pitted The Worm against Curt Hennig in an Australian Outback (read: hardcore) match for the Hennig's title. It was the third hardcore-adjacent match of the night; a Tables Match between the Road Warriors and Public Enemy served as the opener, and that was followed by a hardcore match between The Barbarian and Brute Force (Ed Leslie getting as close as he can to his Brutus Beefcake name without getting sued). Unlike those other two matches, this one somehow ended in a disqualification.
If you were wondering if the finish led to a hotly-contested rematch: it did not. US audiences had a chance to watch the show on pay per view in December, which was the same month the promotion ran its final show. Rodman, clearly heartbroken by the show's struggles, hasn't wrestled professionally since.
#10: TNA Victory Road 2011 (Mar. 13, 2011) - 1.99
Victory Road 2011 would probably go down as a pretty good show had the event's final two matches been cut. Heck, even if the semi-main was included - a defacto #1 contender's match between Ken Anderson and RVD that resulted in a double countout and ended in dueling chants of "Re-Start the Match!" "No!" - it would probably be remembered as okay. But the main event did happen, and it marked a low point for both the company and the competitors involved.
TNA World Heavyweight Champion Sting was set to defend his title against Jeff Hardy. The problem: Jeff Hardy was clearly inhebriated. He was allowed to stumble his way to the ring under the influence of some substance or substances. Eric Bischoff came to the ring and cut an impromptu promo to change the match to a no-DQ affair while telling both competitors to end it quickly. The match itself lasted just 90 seconds. As a frustrated and disappointed Sting stood at the top of the ramp to 'celebrate' his victory, a handful of fans chanted "bulls--t." Sting turned to them and said "I agree."
And somehow, this is only the second-lowest-rated Victory Road event, but more on that later.
#9: WCPW Loaded #12 (Oct. 15, 2016) - 1.92
WhatCulture Pro Wrestling, the British promotion run by the crew that would eventually become Cultaholic, was not afraid to spend some money and bring in some big names for their shows. That trait was on full display here. The episode included Bret Hart cutting a promo to announce the company's new tag team titles, and ends with a triple threat match featuring Travis Banks, El Ligero, and Alberto del Rio el Patron.
The problem: Both of those segments were re-airings of things that happened at Refuse to Lose, the company's first ever iPPV event. If you were a fan who paid money to watch that show, a good chunk of this episode was a rerun. In their defense, the triple threat match was for the Internet Championship, and the company had promised that all matches for that title would be free to watch on YouTube. But still, hardcore fans were a bit miffed that a good chunk of this episode was stuff they had already seen.
If you were someone who watched Refuse to Lose, the only new in-ring action on view here is a three-team triple threat tag match that lasted just under eight minutes, and a match where Primate squashes four jobbers at once.
While WCPW is no more - it changed its name to Defiant in 2017 and ran its final show in mid-2019 - the Loaded episode in question is still on its YouTube page. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
#8: AEW Dark #75 (Feb. 4, 2021) - 1.84
AEW Dark was originally created to air the company's dark matches that took place before and after Dynamite. Once the COVID pandemic set in, however, the program's focus shifted largely shifted to pitting established AEW stars against talented independent wrestlers. The matches served to bolster the records of those under contract while giving the unsigned performers a paycheck and a chance to showcase themselves.
The issue with episode that hit YouTube on February 16, 2021 was that a lot of those wrestlers didn't get much chance to show what they could do. Most Dark matches were relatively short one-sided contests, but this particular episode's matches were significantly shorter than usual. Half of the episode's 12 bouts lasted 2:15 or less, including three matches that failed to hit the 60-second mark. There was a grand total of 36 minutes of in-ring action during this episode, compared to 60 the previous week. A 40% reduction in in-ring action on a show catered to fans who were big fans of in-ring action was not a popular decision.
AEW's response? The next episode had 90 minutes worth of matches.

If you want to see what the hubbub was all about, the episode is on AEW's YouTube page in its entirety.

#7: JCW Legends & Icons (Aug. 12, 2011) - 1.84
If you're a fan of the Insane Clown Posse then you'll probably enjoy the vibe of their Juggalo Championship Wrestling promotion. If you aren't down with the clowns, the wrestling itself might not be enough to keep you around. Never was this more true than for Legends & Icons, an event featuring stars of yesteryear. They might as well have been shooting stars, because many of them were in and out in a blink of an eye.
Aside from a half-hour battle royal, none of the other matches reach the seven minute mark. In fact, two matches - Midnight Express vs Rock 'n Roll Express and Tracy Smothers vs Tommy Rich - were done in less than a minute. Other highlights include 61-year-old Bob Backlund being the workhorse in a match with 67-year-old Ken Patera, and Greg Valentine and Tito Santana squaring off in a cage match that was done in under four minutes.
The main event, which was supposed to be Rowdy Roddy Piper (in his final ever match) versus Terry Funk, but Cowboy Bob Orton decided to insert himself into the match for... reasons. This eventually morphed into Piper and Orton versus Funk and event commentator Mick Foley, which was won by the heel team of Piper and Orton as chants of 'bulls--t' rained down from the crowd.
#6: TransGraps presents Wrestle Queerdom (Oct. 6, 2022) - 1.75
Wrestle Queerdom organizer Sally - known by the social media handle TransGraps - provided a stage and platform for many trans and non-binary wrestlers to show what they could do in an inclusive place. What TransGraps did not provide to those performers was money.
Wrestle Queerdom's low rating isn't because of what happened at the event - which included action from Kidd Bandit, Sonny Kiss, VENY, and Candy Lee, among others - but rather what was discovered afterwards. Even after borrowing thousands of dollars from her own mother, TransGraps mishandled funding for the event to the point that there was no money to pay talent. Several performers who were asked to get other wrestlers to the event or provide other services got stiffed out of money. Kidd Bandit, Aiden Von Engeland, Dark Sheik, and others scrambled to gather funds to make sure that those who needed to get paid got paid. Most of the talent got enough to get home, if not the original amount they were promised.
Samantha Riedel wrote a more in-depth look at both the event and some of its performers for them.us. It is absolutely worth checking out.
#5: NWA Powerrr #8 (Oct. 1, 2019) - 1.75
NWA Powerrr's goal was to recreate the feeling of the studio wrestling shows of the 80s, with a heavy emphasis on promos and interviews. This particular episode was perhaps a bit too successful in emphasizing the non-wrestling elements. Here's a rundown of the episode:
  • Promo, interrupted by another promo
  • Match recap and promos
  • Pre-taped segment
  • Match recap
  • Aron Stevens/Question Mark (RIP) promo
  • 74-second match won by Question Mark
  • Debut recap, followed by an interview
  • Pre-taped segment
  • Reveal of a new challenger for the NWA title
And that's it. One match, which lasted less than 80 seconds.
This episode was also notable as the first one to air after Jim Cornette's resignation. Cornette, who was a color commentator for Powerrr, came under fire for his remark on the previous episode that Trevor Murdoch was the only man he knew "that can strap a bucket of fried chicken on his back and ride a motor scooter across Ethiopia."
#4: TNA Victory Road 2009 (July 19, 2009) - 1.66
Modern fans don't understand how good they have it when it comes to celebrity involvement in wrestling. Between Ronda Rousey, Bad Bunny, Logan Paul, Stephen Amell, and others, it seems like every big name that decides to step into the ring can more than hold their own. But it wasn't always like that.
As far as bad wrestling goes, Victory Road '09 is a one-match show: Sharmell versus Survivor's season six champion Jenna Morasca. Both women were part of the Main Event Mafia; Sharmell as Booker T's husband, Morasca as a financial backer. The pair clashed constantly, tensions boiled over, and the two had to settle it in the ring.
Morasca was a rookie to wrestling. Sharmell had wrestled some, but wasn't exactly a ring general. Yet that's the role she was asked to fill against the wrestling debutante Morasca. TNA could have turned the battle into a tag match, since Awesome Kong and Sojo Bolt were in the corners of Morasca and Sharmell respectively. Instead, TNA brass asked Sharmell and Morasca to carry the bulk of the segment. If you are curious about how well it went... the infamous MINUS! FIVE! STARS! soundclip comes from a description of this match.
TNA has uploaded the entire show to its YouTube page for free. Check it out if you dare. Jenna/Sharmell starts around the 1:10:00 mark.
#3: Blackcraft: No Apologies (Apr. 5, 2019) - 1.62
Blackcraft Wrestling, an occult-inspired indie run by the alt clothing brand Blackcraft Cult, had no issue dabbling in dark themes. That was never more true than at its fourth ever show and first ever WrestleMania weekend show, No Apologies. The show started with a crucifiction of a fan, ended with the murder of its authority figure, and directly lead to the death of the entire promotion.
No Apologies was scheduled to start at midnight but kicked off about a half hour later. That probably wouldn't be a problem for most cult-themed shows, but the venue had a hard closing time of 2:30am. That meant that a lot the matches did not get as much time as planned. A five-team Gauntlet Tag match became a five-team-at-once match that lasted less than 4 minutes, and Penta el Zero Miedo's match with Simon Grimm was done inside of the 4-minute mark as well.
Once the clock struck 2am, the time crunch went into overdrive and the card went into the land of infamy. Paige/Saraya's mom won her title match via countout after a brawl, with that match officially lasting just 25 seconds. Then came the advertised main event, where Blackcraft Champion Johnny Blackcraft/Nitro/[Company He's Wrestling With At The Moment] beat David Starr with a rollup in eleven seconds. Afterwards, Matthew Justice demanded a title shot, slitting the throat of the company's authority figure (The Preacher, played by Doug Bradley of Pinhead fame) to get it. That match lasted just nine seconds.
The show - and the promotion - ended with the actual main event: a 28-person Battle Royal that lasted less than 5 minutes. But even that was too long; the houselights came up in the middle of the match, indicating that the show was over.
YouTuber Benjamin Falbo put together a documentary about the promotion's brief history, including interviews with several of the company's performers. If you've got an hour to spare, it's worth checking out.
#2: UWF Blackjack Brawl (Sep. 23, 1994) - 1.17
Herb Abrams's Universal Wrestling Federation (not to be confused with Bill Watts's promotion of the same name) was launched in 1990 with an ambitious owner, a broadcast deal with SportsChannel America, hopes of competing with WWF and WCW. Four years later, the promotion had been without a weekly TV show for two years and was on its last legs. Blackjack Brawl, the company's first live TV event, was a last gasp at potentially earning a new TV deal. Unfortunately, the show did not leave a great impression on most of its viewers.
Non-finishes were a reoccurring issue with UWF's weekly television, and even with a two-year break those issues returned. Cowboy Bob Orton and the former Ludvig Borga fought to a double disqualification. Cactus Jack and Jimmy Snuka's Lumberjack Match somehow ended in a double countout, defeating the entire point of a Lumberjack Match. Not even the main event was immune: "Dr. Death" Steve Williams won his UWF World Heavyweight Title match against Sid Vicious (a match which took place with a visibly broken ring mat) via disqualification thanks to a Dan Spivey run-in.
Two other random notes that I wanted to include:
  • Nine of the 11 matches on the card were for a title. Six of those nine titles did not exist before this show, and five of those did not exist after this show.
  • Mando Guerrero's entrance song was (I swear I'm not making this up) "Taco Grande" by Weird Al Yankovic.
#1: Heroes of Wrestling (Oct. 10, 1999) - 0.29
Infamous indie pay-per-view Heroes of Wrestling was an event full of some of the stars of yesteryear (so long as they weren't under contract with WCW or WWF at the time). The show didn't feature highs and lows as much as it featured lows and lowers. For those of you who value Dave Meltzer's opinion, he gave one of the matches zero stars and it was still the third-best rating on the eight-match card.
The least bad, according to both Big Dave (1.25 stars) and Cagematch (4.42/10): a bout between 2 Cold Scorpio and another bonifide wrestling legend, 28-year-old Julio Dinero. 2 Cold Scorpio got the win when he completely whiffed his Tumbleweed finisher but Dinero sold it like it connected.
The comically bad: a nine-minute tag match between The Bushwhackers and the tandem of The Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff. Volkoff, just days short of turning 52, was the youngest man in the ring. It was so bad that Bryan Alvarez awarded it "minus more stars than there are in the universe."
The tragically bad: Jake Roberts, at one of his lowest points, cutting his infamous '21' promo and walking to the ring in no shape to compete. His match with Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart was changed on the fly to a tag-team match, with main eventers Yokozuna and King Kong Bundy teaming with Roberts and Neidhart respectively. Unable to even hit a DDT on a heel manager to send the fans home happy, Roberts ended the show holding Damien between his legs like a phallus. This is the lowest-rated US match in Cagematch history.
The most accessible way to experience the show may very well be OSW Review's review of the event for their 100th episode.
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2024.02.10 00:02 acekingoffsuit The 20 Worst Shows in WCW History (according to Cagematch) and Why They're So Hated

Wrestling history is filled with matches and events that aren't well-liked. Some of them have faded into relative obscurity, while others have reached incredible levels of infamy. I thought it would be fun to take a look back at some of these cards to relive the moments we all wish we could forget and rehash the ones that we blotted out of our collective memories.
My source for this list is the "Flop 100" from Cagematch, an IMDB-like site for wrestling events. The site gained a bit of notoriety in recent months when AEW owner Tony Khan cited its user ratings as a metric of AEW's success. That led to Cagematch Discourse, which virtually guaranteed that I had to see this project through.
This list covers all of WCW's weekly episodes, major events, and PPVs which were broadcasted in some form. If you want to see WWE's 20 lowest rated events, you can check out my write-up here
To give you an idea about how things are gonna go, the January 4, 1999 Nitro featured Tony Schiavonne spoiling Mick Foley's title win and dismissively saying "that'll put butts in the seats." It ended with the infamous "Fingerpoke of Doom" where feuding NWO factions reunited around Hulk Hogan. Yet that scored a 3.36, only good enough for 26th worst in WCW history.
Buckle up.
Cagematch ratings accurate as of February 7, 2024, and are on a scale of 0 to 10
#20: Bash at the Beach 2000 (July 9, 2000) - 3.18
There's a lot that happened at Bash at the Beach 2000. Vampiro and The Demon fought in a Graveyard Match that was so poorly lit that viewers couldn't see anything, and Goldberg unnofficially ended Scott Hall's WCW career by beating Kevin Nash for control of Hall's contract and ripping it up afterwards (Hall had made his final appearance months prior). But it's what happened around the World Heavyweight Championship that is remembered the most about this night.
Hulk Hogan was set to defend his title against Jeff Jarrett. Vince Russo wanted Hogan to drop the title, but Hogan - who had creative control over his character - wanted to win and retain. They negotiated a solution: Jarrett would lay down immediately for Hogan, who would win the match and storm off. Russo would then nullify the match, 'fire' Hogan, and announce a new main event of Jarrett vs Booker T. Hogan would return a few months down the line to reclaim 'his title.' And that's exactly what happened... except when Russo announced the new title match, he said some things about Hogan that (allegedly) had not been cleared beforehand. This led Hogan to actually leave the company and file a lawsuit against Russo, claiming among other things that Russo's promo was an act of defamation and false light invasion of privacy.
By the way, get used to seeing the number 2000. Of the 20 events on this list, nine took place took place that year.
#19: Clash of the Champions V: St. Valentine's Massacre (Feb. 15, 1989) - 3.15
While it's unfair to compare them to big post per views, the Clash of the Champions events were typically good for one or two marquee matches. That's not the case for Clash V, which wasn't its own event as much as it was a table-setter for the Chi-Town Rumble pay per view just five days later.
There were a couple of bright spots, including a big brawl to end the show after the main event face team of Sting, Junk Yard Dog, and Michael Hayes broke out of a padlocked room. But the big problem with Clash V was that most of the rest of the night was filler. The bulk of the card pitted a big name on the Rumble card against... someone of lesser acclaim. Ricky Steamboat and Rick Steiner faced Bob Bradley and Rip Morgan respectively . What's worse, some of these were much longer than need be - Butch Reed vs Steven Casey and Lex Luger vs The Blackmailer went a combined 31 minutes!
Chi-Town Rumble is still remembered fondly today thanks in large part to its all-time great main event, where Ricky Steamboat beat Ric Flair to win the 10 Pounds of Gold. Clash V... eh, not so much.
#18: Starrcade 1991: The Lethal Lottery (Dec. 29, 1991) - 3.09
Trying out a risky new idea could lead to a huge success. Trying out a risky new idea can also lead to a huge failure. Unfortunately, Starrcade '91 was much closer to the latter than the former.
The cornerstone of this event was the BattleBowl. And by cornerstone, I mean that every single match on the card was part of it. Forty men were drawn into 20 randomly-created tag teams, which were paired off in 10 randomly-created matches. The winners of each match would advance to the 20-man Battle Royal main event, and the winner of that match would earn a title shot at Superbrawl II.
You might be thinking that ten matches of "can they coexist?" might sound like a lot... and it was. WCW would run smaller versions of the format at Starrcade '92 and BattleBowl '93. But hey, at least this edition gave us such classics as Johnny B. Badd & Arachnaman (Brad Armstrong as Kirkland's Spiderman) vs Scott Steiner & Firebreaker Chip.
#17: Road Wild 1999 (Aug. 14, 1999) - 2.91
Road Wild '99 isn't really seen as an all-time worst pay per view, and none of its moments are really seen as all-time stinkers. More than half of all of Cagematch's ratings place this at a 3, with less than 10% of votes landing at a 1 or 0 and only a single vote going above a 4. From top to bottom, this show pretty much falls into the category of 'not good, but not offensively terrible.'
The main event was, for better or worse, a classic Hulk Hogan match. And by classic, I mean classic. He donned the red and yellow for one of (if not the) first times in over three years. He defended the World Heavyweight Title against Kevin Nash, who would be forced to retire if he lost. Hogan won to send the bikers home happy, and Nash rode off into retirement... for less than two months.
#16: Halloween Havoc 1995 (Oct. 29, 1995) - 2.88
WCW were clearly trying to channel WrestleMania III on this night. The main event pitted World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan vs a debuting Giant (a young "Big Show" Paul Wight) who was heavily implied to be the son of Andre. But while Hogan vs Andre was a seminal moment in wrestling history, this was one most people try to forget.
The pair actually had two clashes that night. The first was a Monster Truck Sumo match atop the arena where the pair drove actual monster trucks placed nose to nose and pushed each other back and forth. For nearly five minutes. Immediately afterwards, they brawled near the edge of the arena roof until The Giant fell off to his apparent death. Don't worry, he got better in time for the main event.
Even if you set all of that aside, the ending of the wrestling match was a mess. It consisted of a Jimmy Hart heel turn, a Giant bearhug of Hogan that looked pretty sexual, THE YET-TAY, a Lex Luger heel turn, a Giant & Yeti double bearhug of Hogan that looked really sexual, and the reveal that the Giant won the title via disqualification thanks to a contract clause inserted by Jimmy Hart.
If you need a visual aid to keep track of all that, you can watch the whole saga here.
#15: Monday Nitro #262 (Sep. 25, 2000) - 2.82
If you're wondering what would have to happen on a random Nitro to place it on the list of worst events in WCW history, wonder no more.
The main event of the night was a cage match for the WCW World Heavyweight Title. While Booker T was leaving the cage to secure the win, Goldberg appeared inside and delivered a vicious spear to Booker's opponent through the cage wall. This let the challenger escape the cage first, giving him the win and the title.
That is how Vince Russo became World Heavyweight Champion.
#14: Starrcade 1994 (Dec. 27, 1994) - 2.66
Starrcade is often thought of as WCW's biggest event of the year, along the lines of what WrestleMania is to WWE. Ideally the biggest card of the year would have the biggest main event. Starrcade '94 had three matches billed as main events including Vader vs "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan for the US Title and Sting vs Avalanche. But the final main event, the real main event, featured WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan.
Hulk's opponent: The Butcher. Ed Leslie. The former Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake. The future Man With No Name, Zodiac, Booty Man, and Disciple.
#13: Thunder #110 (May 3, 2000) - 2.64
Question 1: This episode of Thunder was:
  • A. The go-home show before Slamboree
  • B. A night where every match would pit the Millionaire's Club against the New Blood
  • C. New York Rules night, where there would be no rules, no referees, and wrestlers had to count their own pins
  • D: Main evented by a 22-man Battle Royal that featured run-ins by more than 15 people.
  • E. All of the above
The correct answer is E. It's always E.
Despite all of the goofiness here, this episode of Thunder was received much, MUCH more positively than the previous week's episode. But more on that later. (If you don't want to get spoiled, don't look up who was World Heavyweight Champion at the time and don't skip ahead to #1 on this list.)
#12: New Blood Rising (Aug. 13, 2000) - 2.56
Sometimes, less is more. Here is a simple list of some of the things that happened at New Blood Rising. None of these things really need additional context to explain why this event made the list.
  • After a mud wrestling match between Major Gunns and Miss Hancock, Miss Hancock clutched her abdomen in apparent agony due to a heavily-implied miscarriage. The announcers tried to sell as a real, unscripted happening.
  • Buff Bagwell beat Chris Kanyon in a Judy Bagwell on a Forklift match.
  • Sting beat The Demon in less than a minute.
  • Buff Bagwell beat Chris Kanyon in a Judy Bagwell on a Forklift match.
  • Goldberg abruptly walked out of his match with Scott Steiner and Kevin Nash, Goldberg was about to receive a Jackknife from Nash but Goldberg slipped out and stormed off, arguing with Vince Russo along the way. The announcers tried to sell as a real, unscripted happening, even praising Steiner for sticking to the script. Goldberg's refusal to 'stick to the script' was used as a selling point for the next pay per view, Fall Brawl.
  • Buff Bagwell beat Chris Kanyon in a Judy Bagwell on a Forklift match.
#11: SuperBrawl 2000 (Feb. 20, 2000) - 2.53
What's not to love? Between Tank Abbott holding a knife up to his opponent's throat (and Mark Madden attempting to play it off as shaving), Booker T and Big T (fka Ahmed Johnson) fighting for the right to the letter T, and an 8-minute main event that featured four different refs getting knocked out, there's something for everybody here.
Fun fact: The 4th match on this 11-match was a "Special Main Event" between The Wall and The Demon, formerly known as The KISS Demon. The main event billing was due to WCW's license deal with KISS, which required that the Demon get at least one main event match on a PPV event. Reception to the character was poor - its debut segment was among the lowest-rated in Nitro history to that point - so instead of a huge match at the end of the card, The Demon got chokeslammed and beat by a midcarder in less than 4 minutes.
#10: Great American Bash 1991 (July 14, 1991) - 2.38
For all the hoopla about "We Want Cody," the fans could at least still see Cody on the card. Those who chanted "We Want Flair" in 1991 had no such relief.
Bash '91 featured one of the most boring scaffold matches in history and a supposed mixed-tag cage match main event that got scrapped the day of the event because the state athletics commission wouldn't allow it. Those matches didn't help, but the real reason this card is on the list is because of the mess surrounding the title picture.
Ric Flair was supposed to defend his WCW World Heavyweight Championship against Lex Luger in a big, big match. But less than two weeks before the event, Flair was fired from the company and stripped of the title over a contract dispute. Instead, Luger fought Barry Windham for the belt. Fans chanted "we want Flair" throughout the night.
Slight correction: Luger and Windham fought for a belt. Specifically, one of the tag team title belts with a cheap plate slapped onto it. The Big Gold belt remained with Flair because WCW refused to refund his $10,000 deposit. Flair took the belt with him to WWF two months later, where Bobby Heenan proclaimed him to be the real World's Heavyweight Champion.
#9: Uncensored 2000 (Mar. 19, 2000) - 2.19
Late-stage WCW often struggled to hit its stride creatively, even at the best of times. When you add a change in creative leadership and some key absences to the mix, your chances of winning a good show drastic go down.
Uncensored 2000 came at an odd time for WCW. Vince Russo had been ousted from running creative but had not yet been brought back for the Russo/Bischoff era, leaving Kevin Sullivan in charge creatively. The Taskmaster’s task was made all the more difficult by a rash of absences; Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Bret Hart, Goldberg, Randy Savage, The Radical, and Scott Steiner were all either gone or out of action for one reason or another.
As for the event itself, Wrestling with Wregret’s Brian Zane described the night in his review as “a series of tiny trainwrecks.” There weren't any all-time stinkers to be found here. There were lots of run-ins and lots of unclean finishes as usual. The main event, the YAPPAPAI Indian Strap Match between Hogan and Flair, was more memorable for Hogan’s promos in the build-up than anything that happened in the ring. What damned Uncensored 2000 was that, while nothing was horrible, pretty much everything was bad.
#8: Uncensored 1995 (Mar. 19, 1995) - 2.17
"No Rules! No Mercy!" Those were the words on the front of the VHS sleeve for Uncensored 1995. Those words also weren't very apt, as the match between "Macho Man" Randy Savage and Avalanche ended in a DQ.
There were a lot of silly things going on here. "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan faced Meng in a Martial Arts match, which was as good as it sounds. Arn Anderson faced Johnny B. Badd in a Wrestler vs Boxer match where the wrestler could win by wrestling and the boxer could win by boxing. In the main event, Hulk Hogan dragged Ric Flair around the ring and touched all four corners to win his Strap Match... against Vader.
Perhaps the night's opening contest was a harbinger of things to come since both men ended up getting fired immediately afterwards. The Blacktop Bully (aka Barry Darsow) fought Dustin Rhodes in a King of the Road match that got both men fired. Bully and Rhodes both bladed to make the match - which took place on the bed of a massive truck driving down the road - look more brutal. The only problem: WCW did not allow blading. At all. Both men were quickly dismissed for their stunt.
#7: Great American Bash 1999 (June 13, 1999) - 2.10
Great American Bash ‘99 had quite a few of the issues that were common throughout WCW’s late days, including lots of interference and a refusal to let a main event end with a clean finish. But two matches in particular highlighted some of the things that made the company so frustrating to follow at the time.
You want swerves for the sake of swerves? President Ric Flair and Commissioner Roddy Piper had a match for control of WCW. The match was immediately rendered pointless when, 30 seconds after Flair’s DQ win, Piper turned heel and aligned with Flair.
You want wonky finishes? The end of Rick Steiner’s Falls Count Anywhere US Title defense against Sting was extra wonky. The moment the pair went backstage, the camera showed a (clearly pre-recorded) attack on Sting by Tank Abbott, both Steiner Brothers, and three dogs. Moments later, the Steiners returned to the ring and said that Rick pinned Sting, but the attack was too graphic to show on screen, making this one of the first matches in history to end via Trust Me, Bro.
#6: Halloween Havoc 2000 (Oct. 29, 2000) - 2.04
A Sting vs Jeff Jarrett match involved a run-in from a fake Sting. Actually, that's a typo. A Sting vs Jeff Jarrett match involved seven run-ins from six separate fake Stings. To be fair, each of the Stings represented a different era of the Stinger's career to that point, from the bleached-blonde, neon facepaint era to the black-and-white Crow era. A good idea on paper, but perhaps not in execution.
Much of the rest of the card probably couldn't even be described as good ideas on paper. There was the kickboxing match for the WCW commissionership (which was effectively a belt at this point) between Earnest "The Cat" Miller and "Above Average" Mike Sanders, Lex Luger returning from a months-long absence only to immediately turn heel, a DNA First Blood match between David Flair and Buff Bagwell to determine who fathered Miss Hancock's child, and a main event where Goldberg squashed a tag team.
#5: Uncensored 1996 (Mar. 24, 1996) - 2.01
Hulk Hogan made a career out of being wrestling's great hero, slaying the largest of giants and overcoming the greatest of odds. By the time Uncensored 1996 rolled around, this had been his character for 12 years straight. A growing segment of fans were becoming sick of seeing Hogan in that role, and this pay-per-view did nothing to quell that part of the fanbase.
Uncensored's main event was the infamous Doomsday Cage Match, an eight-on-two handicap match that pitted Hogan and Randy Savage against the Alliance to End Hulkamania. The heel team was composed of the Four Hoursemen (Ric Flair & Arn Anderson), the Dungeon of Doom (Meng, Barbarian, Taskmaster, and Lex Luger), Z-Gangsta (Tommy Lister Jr., aka Zeus of No Holds Barred fame), and the Ultimate Solution (Robert "Jeep" Swenson, who was originally billed as the Final Solution before Jewish viewers pointed out that naming a wrestler after Hitler's codename for the Holocaust was probably a bad move). Hogan and Savage won, of course, thanks to an assist from the Booty Man (Ed Leslie/Brutus Beefcake/Zodiac/etc.) and his frying pans.
There wouldn't be many more chances to see Hogan as a babyface after this. Just three months later he threw away the red and yellow and, with a little help from a couple of Outsiders, changed the wrestling world.
#4: Monday Nitro #182 (Mar. 8, 1999) - 1.79
If a show is ranked poorly, often times it's because of what happened at the end of the show. In the case of the March 8, 1999 episode of Monday Nitro, the low rating is due to what happened at the beginning of the program. Or, more specifically, what didn't happen. Viewers who tuned in saw no in-ring action for the first hour of the show. There were no matches, obviously, but there were no in-ring promos either. Viewers didn't even get the big pyro intro to the show.
What they did get was a lot of pre-recorded material, much of which involved people talking about David Flair. There was a pre-recorded Ric Flair segment (which had already aired on Thunder), a pre-recorded Hulk Hogan promo (which had also already aired on Thunder), a pre-recorded clip of Hogan and Kevin Nash watching a Ric Flair promo, a Nitro Girl get-to-know-her segment, multiple clips from a Nitro Party (remember Nitro Parties?), Konnan's music video for "Bow Wow Wow," a Lex Luger promo package, a couple more pre-recorded segments involving Hogan and Nash, and some Buff Bagwell and Scott Steiner shenanigans with security.
At the almost-hour mark, we finally see the inside of the arena and get the opening pyro. At that point, we're ready to kick things off for real... with a David Flair in-ring promo. Goldberg interrupts things a couple of minutes later and ends up in a staredown with Ric, but by this point there's a good chance that you've already flipped the channel to the start of Monday Night Raw.
#3: Bash at the Beach 1999 (July 11, 1999) - 1.73
Bash at the Beach '99 doesn't have one big moment where everyone can point to it and say 'yep, that's why this show sucked.' It did, however, have a whole lot of things that would make someone think 'yep, that's late-stage WCW:'
  • Buff Bagwell beat Roddy Piper in a boxing match. By hitting a wrestling move.
  • David Flair successfully defended his US title against Dean Malenko in a sub-four-minute match. With four run-ins.
  • The No-Limit Soldiers beat the West Texas Rednecks in an elimination tag match. Swoll, one of the two surviving members of the winning team, wrestled just 7 matches for the company in less than 3 months and made a reported $400,000.
  • Fit Finlay won an outdoor Junkyard Invitational match. The match legitimately injured nearly everyone involved, yet viewers couldn't tell because the lighting was so poor that viewers couldn't make much out.
#2: Great American Bash 2000 (June 11, 2000) - 1.72
In the buildup to what would be WCW's final Great American Bash, Eric Bischoff promised there would be a huge surprise that would change the world of sports entertainment. WCW needed a momentum shift, so who knows? Maybe this could be it. The huge surprise was revealed during the main event, a match between Jeff Jarrett and Kevin Nash for the World Heavyweight Championship. Nash was on the wrong side of the numbers game for most of the match thanks to Bischoff's chronies Ernest "The Cat" Miller and the Filthy Animals... but then Goldberg appeared!... but then Goldberg speared Nash and turned heel! The fans were not happy.
The rest of the card preceeding the main event didn't help either, with the most infamous of these encounters being a Human Torch Match between Vampiro and Sting. The pair battled atop the TurnerTron until the flickering lights went out. The lights returned moments later, just in time to see Vampiro set the totally-not-a-stuntman-who-swapped-into-Sting's-spot-during-the-blackout Sting ablaze and watch him fall to the floor below.
#1: Thunder #109 (Apr. 26, 2000) - 0.56
This was, for the most part, a regular episode of Thunder. Recaps of Nitro, lots of short matches (four of the six undercard matches went less than three-and-a-half minutes) - you know, nothing out of the ordinary. Until the main event, that is, where WCW World Heavyweight Champion Diamond Dallas Page put his title on the line in a tag match. He teamed with Ready To Rumble star David Arquette to face Jeff Jarrett and Eric Bischoff, and whoever scored the pinfall would become champion. If you don't know how this ended, I'll let Tony Schiavonne's commentary after the bell fill you in:
"Did David Arquette just-... David Arquette won the world title. David Arquette won the world title! David Arquette won the world title! Did David Arquette just win the world title? Did I see that? David Arquette just- He's got the belt! David Arquette's the world- David Arquette's the wor- I'm gonna say it again because I don't believe it: DAVID ARQUETTE IS THE WORLD CHAMPION!"
Arquette celebrated his victory - one that was contractually obligated due to his Ready To Rumble deal - with pyro aplenty. DDP celebrated with Arquette despite just losing the title to Arquette. And even though the storyline ended with a David Arquette heel turn (because why the hell not), some good came of it: he donated his pay to the families of Owen Hart, Brian Pillman, Bobby Duncam, Jr., and Darren Drozdov.
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2024.02.09 20:21 FuelDumper Joel Banow's 'cited' reference for the Moon Landing award. Whats wrong with this? https://m.imdb.com/event/ev0000212/1970/1/ What does everyone else have that he doesnt? I cant putmy finger on it.

Joel Banow's 'cited' reference for the Moon Landing award. Whats wrong with this? https://m.imdb.com/event/ev0000212/1970/1/ What does everyone else have that he doesnt? I cant putmy finger on it. submitted by FuelDumper to u/FuelDumper [link] [comments]

2024.02.04 20:52 acekingoffsuit The 20 Worst Shows in WWE History (according to Cagematch) and Why They're So Hated

Wrestling history is filled with matches and events that aren't well-liked. Some of them have faded into relative obscurity, while others have reached incredible levels of infamy. I thought it would be fun to take a look back at some of these cards to relive the moments we all wish we could forget and rehash the ones that we blotted out of our collective memories.
My source for this list is the "Flop 100" from Cagematch, an IMDB-like site for wrestling events. The site gained a bit of notoriety in recent months when AEW owner Tony Khan cited its user ratings as a metric of AEW's success. That led to Cagematch Discourse, which virtually guaranteed that I had to see this project through.
This list covers all of WWE's weekly episodes and PPVs/PLEs which were broadcasted in some form. If there's interest, I'll do something similar for indies and WWE's competitors.
All WWE weekly shows and PPVs/PLEs that aired in some form are eligible for this list, except for:
With all that said, here's the list.
Cagematch ratings accurate as of February 3, 2024, and are on a scale of 0 to 10
#20: Monday Night Raw #1354 (May 6, 2019) - 1.79
Vince McMahon kicked off the episode by announcing a Wildcard rule, allowing some Smackdown stars to appear on Raw and vice versa. This somewhat undermined the point of the Superstar Shakeup, which took place just two weeks prior. Oh, and the Usos put Ucey Hot in the Revival's tights, which was peak comedy.
Peak. Comedy.
#19: Friday Night SmackDown #1276 (Feb. 2, 2024) - 1.72
Royal Rumble winner Cody Rhodes opts not to challenge Roman Reigns at Wrestlemania, allowing The Rock to take his place. The fans were, by and large, not happy.
Side note: For a few hours immediately after its airing, this was among the ten worst-rated shows in WWE history. It has since 'stabilized' inside the Bottom 20.
#18: Monday Night Raw #1332 (Dec. 3, 2018) - 1.71
While not as disliked as the previous week's episode (more on that later), this one continued a streak of poorly-received Raw episodes. WWE was so desperate for an answer to sagging ratings that, two weeks after this episode, the entire McMahon family would openly apologize to its fans for the things that weren't working... while also blaming on-screen GM Baron Corbin for them.
#17: Monday Night Raw #865 (Dec. 21, 2009) - 1.67
If you don't remember the year-long Guest Host Era where random celebrities showed up to plug their projects host Raw, count yourself lucky. Baseball player Johnny Damon was the week's host for an episode that took place in Tampa, Florida, home of the Tampa Bay Rays. Damon had spent the past 8 years playing for two different teams, both of which were divisional rivals to the Rays.
In perhaps an odder choice, the main event segment featured The Big Show calling out "the real Santa Claus."
#16: Monday Night Raw #845 (Aug. 3, 2009) - 1.61
Jeremy Piven and Ken Jeong were the guest hosts of this episode.
Piven called Summerslam Summerfest.
Piven and Jeong turned heel on John Cena.
Jeong took a bad bump out of the ring and smacked the back of his head on the floor.
There were no winners here.
#15: Super ShowDown 2019 (June 7, 2019) - 1.58
Have you ever seen the clip of an exhausted Goldberg lifting up The Undertaker and dropping him on his head in the worst Jackhammer in recorded history? That clip was from the main event of this card. What this card didn't feature was John Cena, Daniel Bryan, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, or any of the company's female performers.
This is not the last time you'll see Super ShowDown on this list.
#14: Monday Night Raw #1426 (Sept. 21, 2020) - 1.57
This Raw featured the in-ring debut of Retribution, the totally-not-a-response-to-BLM-protesters group with "badass" names like Slapjack, Mace, and T-BAR. Retribution wanted to take down WWE. WWE responded by... giving them contracts and allowing them to show up on a weekly basis.
#13: ECW December to Dismember (Dec. 3, 2006) - 1.53
WWE's first, last, and only ECW-branded PPV. Only two of the six matches were announced before the event began, one of which was an Extreme Elimination Chamber match for the ECW World Championship. Fan favorites CM Punk and Rob Van Dam were eliminated early in hopes that fans would get behind eventual winner, a pre-All Mighty Bobby Lashley. Needless to say, the fans did not get behind Bobby Lashley.
#12: Monday Night Raw #1315 (Aug. 6, 2018) - 1.50
An episode that included Ronda Rousey's first TV match (a quick win over Alicia Fox), a Paul Heyman promo, and practically nothing else of note.
#11: Monday Night Raw #843 (July 20, 2009) - 1.42
Squarely in the middle of the Guest Host Era, ZZ Top oversaw a card that featured Chavo Guerrero and Hornswoggle squaring off in a Sharp Dressed Man Tuxedo Match.
It was exactly as good as it sounds.
#10: Friday Night Smackdown #1194 (July 8, 2022) - 1.39
The theme of this episode of SmackDown may have been "I'm here for a good time, not a long time." Four of the show's five matches were done in under two-and-a-half minutes, including The Usos over Los Lotharios in 2 minutes and The Viking Raiders over Jinder Mahal and Shanky in 75 seconds.
Those disappointed by the shorter matches on the undercard held out hope that the advertised main event, Drew McIntyre vs Sheamus to determine who would challenge for the title at Clash at the Castle, would be a banger. Their hopes were dashed at towards the end of the episode when the Celtic Warrior withdrew from the match after claiming to have a (storyline) cough that could potentially be COVID. Instead, fans were treated to McIntyre vs Butch to close out the night. And in keeping with the theme of the episode, Drew needed just 90 seconds to dispatch of the former-and-future Bruiserweight.
#9: Monday Night Raw #1331 (Nov. 26, 2018) - 1.29
Do you like AEW's Jon Moxley? You know, the performer who used to be known as WWE's Dean Ambrose? Do you want to see why Jon Moxley is now AEW's Jon Moxley instead of still being WWE's Dean Ambrose? Then I have an episode for you!
The reason this show is rated so poorly isn't the 20-plus-minute battle between Seth Rollins and Dolph Ziggler for the Intercontinental title. It's not the fact that Baron Corbin featured in both the opener (seconding Lashley versus Elias) and the main event (teaming with Drew McIntyre to face Finn Balor in a handicap match). It's not even the fact that Jinder Mahal was involved with two matches (seconding Alicia Fox in her match against Ember Moon, then himself taking on No Way Jose - also, remember No Way Jose?).
No. It's because of a promo where Dean Ambrose tells the world that he doesn't want to get infected by their germs. And to drive the point home, he takes a series of vaccines, including a massive needle in the ass. It's somehow less crude and more bizarre than I'm making it sound.
Five months later, Dean cashed in his chips and walked away from the table... only to walk up to another table a month later and go Double or Nothing.
#8: King of the Ring 1995 (June 25, 1995) - 1.29
Bask upon The New Generation in all its [Vince McMahon]Unbelievable[/Vince McMahon] glory.
Does Bam Bam Bigelow and Diesel versus Tatanka and Sid sound like a random match from early Monday Night Raw? Screw that! It's the main event! Of a pay-per-view! That people paid money for!
How about a Savio Vega match? Forget A Savio Vega match, we've got FOUR Savio Vega matches! He won a qualifier in the pre-show to make the King of the Ring Tournament, then made it all the way to the final... only to fall to King Mabel. To set up a Mabel/Diesel match for a main event! Of another pay-per-view! That people paid money for!
Oh yeah, there's also a Bret Hart versus Jerry "The King" Lawler match in which the loser has to kiss the winner's foot! On a pay-per-view! That people paid money for!
If you want a deeper dive into this event, Wrestling With Wregret has you covered.
#7: NXT Season 5, Episode 4 (Mar. 28, 2011) - 1.20
What does the 'game show' era of NXT do on the Road to WrestleMania XXVII? A whole lotta nothin'.
The show opened with an arm wrestling contest among the NXT rookies, which was won by Titus O'Neil. It closed with a six-rookie tag-team match won by Byron Saxton, Conor O'Brian, and Titus O'Neil. Between those two contests was a whopping 35 minutes of hype packages for Mania. It was almost like WWE forgot that the show was supposed to be a competition. Which was fitting, because WWE dropped the game show elements and let the show exist on its own plane of existence once the field was narrowed down to three. That lasted until the following year, when NXT rebooted into a developmental brand. Derrick Bateman, the show's last remaining rookie, would become EC3 and take control of his narrative for years to come.
If you want to watch the whole thing for some reason: here you go.
#6: Superstars #208 (Apr. 1, 2013) - 1.09
[Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V]
What does Superstars do on the Road to WrestleMania XXIX? A whole lotta nothin'.
Much like the NXT episode above, the bulk of this episode is dedicated to hype packages for that weekend's Mania. If you want to get excited about The Rock and John Cena's 'Twice in a Lifetime' matchup or CM Punk vs The Undertaker, then you've got a lot to enjoy here. If you're looking for in-ring action, however, you'll have to settle for this episode's sole bout: The Great Khali in all of his Punjabi Playboy splendor dispatching JTG in less than three minutes.
#5: Crown Jewel 2018 (Nov. 2, 2018) - 1.09
When events are rated lowly, there's often one aspect of the show that draws most of the negative attention. Crown Jewel 2018 arguably has three such focal points:
  • The show took place a month after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside of a Saudi embassy in Turkiye. WWE faced lots of criticism for going forward with the show, which was the second event of the company's 10-year, 20-show deal with the Saudi government.
  • The WWE World Cup, an eight-man tournament that would crown the "best in the world," was won by SmackDown's then-Commissioner Shane McMahon. Shane-O-Mac replaced a kayfabe-injured Miz in the final and beat Dolph Ziggler in a sub-three-minute match that featured a Baron Corbin run-in.
  • The main event of the night pitted Triple H and Shawn Michaels against Kane and the Undertaker. Featuring three men over the age of 50 - one of whom (Michaels) hadn't wrestled in 8 years - would have been a dream match a decade prior. Instead, it was a near-30-minute nightmare that 'won' the Wrestling Observer award for the year's worst match.

#4: Main Event #183 (Mar. 30, 2016) - 1.00
[Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V]
What does Main Event do on the Road to WrestleMania XXXII? A whole lotta nothin.'
Much like the Superstars episode above (and the NXT episode above that), the bulk of this episode is dedicated to hype packages for that weekend's Mania. If you want to get excited about Triple H's title defense against Roman Reigns or Shane McMahon vs The Undertaker, then you've got a lot to enjoy here. If you're looking for in-ring action, however, you'll have to skip the first 42 minutes of this 51-minute episode to find its sole bout: a classic encounter between Ryback and Fandango.
#3: Monday Night Raw #1558 (Apr. 3, 2023) - 0.80
The words "Raw after Mania" typically generate a lot of excitement. Where are stories going to go? Who's going to show up? What's going to be the big surprise? For many fans, however, the Raw after Mania XXXIX managed to generate more anger and frustration than anything else. At least, it did so among Cagematch reviewers.
Much of the focus was on Cody Rhodes, who many believed(/believe) should have been the one to end Roman Reigns's historic title run. He called out Roman for a rematch, but the Tribal Chief refused. Instead, it would be Reigns and Solo Sikoa against Cody and whoever wanted to stand beside him. Enter a returning Brock Lesnar, who shook Cody's hand and made the night's main event official. So while Cody fans wouldn't get to see a title match, they would get to see a huge tag match... or at least, they thought they would. Before the bell even rang, Brock attacked Cody to set up a story for the American Nightmare that, at least for the time being, did not involve another shot at Roman Reigns. The Tribal Chief would not defend his title again for another four months.
Thankfully, WWE learned its lesson and made sure that the next time Cody had a chance to finish his story, he would do so. Don't fact check that.
#2: Super Showdown 2020 (Feb. 27, 2020) - 0.77
The first handful of events under WWE's deal with Saudi Arabia were often seen as weird, largely-inconsequential house shows dressed up as major events. They often featured one-off matches and that didn't really lead to anything else afterwards. The Tuwaiq Trophy Gauntlet Match from this card falls into that category; the gauntlet was was won by The Undertaker to set up his eventual Mania match with AJ Styles, but the trophy itself was hardly mentioned afterwards.
But that's not the cause of the low ratings here. No, most of the bad scores can be attributed to the event's two biggest title matches. In the WWE Championship bout, Brock Lesnar squared off with Ricochet. What many hoped would be a competitive exhibition that elevated Ricochet instead was a dominant 90-second win for The Beast Incarnate in which Ricochet did not get in a single bit of offense. And in the main event, the nigh-invincible Universal Champion Fiend scored two Mandible Claws and nothing else before losing the title to then-53-year-old Goldberg.
Unfortunately, underwhelming wrestling events would become the least of our problems within a few weeks of this event.
#1: NXT Season 3, Episode 4 (Sept. 28, 2010) - 0.27
What makes a wrestling show? If you said 'wrestling,' you'd be wrong. At least you would be in this case.
What made this episode notable was that there were zero matches. Each week would usually feature a match or two along with the game show competitions, but this week was just the game show stuff. And believe it or not, wrestling fans would like to watch... wrestling. You got wheelbarrow racing. You got Diss the Diva. You got lots of other hype packages between those two events. But you got no actual wrestling matches.
As an aside, this was actually the final episode of NXT to air on television for nearly a decade. The series moved from SyFy to the WWE's website, as SmackDown was moving to SyFy that week. So, barring a one-hour special in 2017, this was the lasting image TV viewers had of the NXT brand for nearly 9 years. And what an image it was.
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2024.02.03 21:14 zlaxy In Cambridge, Massachusetts, exactly 20 years ago, the Pentagon shut down Project LifeLog

In Cambridge, Massachusetts, exactly 20 years ago, the Pentagon shut down Project LifeLog
Cameron Howard Winklevoss and Tyler Howard Winklevoss are twins, American rowers and entrepreneurs. The brothers are the founders of the social network ConnectU and have long sued Mark Zuckerberg, insisting that he stole the idea for his Facebook website. Back in 2013, the twins invested approximately $11 million in bitcoins, buying around 1% of the cryptocurrency’s volume, and in December 2017 became the world’s first (publicly known) bitcoin billionaires. In 2013, the brothers bought bitcoins at $120 per bitcoin, and in December 2017, the cryptocurrency reached $20,000. Today, the Winklevoss twins remain one of the biggest investors in bitcoin, which is considered “an improved version of gold”.
One might note that the news release of the major media outlets about twins and bitcoins has correlated markedly with the price of the cryptocurrency itself:
https://preview.redd.it/tjdybl07hfgc1.jpg?width=742&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f21adb48c3d0fa236911e0e7cad9eb4304666815
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2013/11/09/the-11-million-in-bitcoins-the-winklevoss-brothers-bought-is-now-worth-32-million – shortly after the release of this news the price of bitcoin jumped several times, from $200 to $1100.
The dynamics of the twins’ popularity demonstrates that they gained their fame not due to their sports achievements, creation of a social network, litigation with Mark Zuckerberg and even not due to Ben Mezrich’s novel about the creation of Facebook. Their fame came precisely the month of the release of the Hollywood movie The Social Network by popular director David Fincher.
https://preview.redd.it/9uba76f9hfgc1.jpg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=260527aad250b9f899443689a3804ba9506e517a
Release date: October 1, 2010 (United States)
The film shows how:
They try to create an intra-university social network and invite Zuckerberg to work as a programmer. Secretly from the twins, Mark and Eduardo begin to develop the idea they pitched of emulating real communication online: an exclusive social network for students.
One would think that a Hollywood blockbuster would give the impression of some special technological foresight of the twins, since Zuckerberg himself stole the idea from them that gave him success. That said, according to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the CIA and the Pentagon have tirelessly “worked behind the scenes on over 800 major movies and more than 1,000 TV titles.” And perhaps The Social Network is no exception in this case.
https://preview.redd.it/t3lo149ahfgc1.jpg?width=560&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=59171a49a0d5685ccae7aaa80a90c62c0d0aac9c
In Cambridge, Massachusetts, exactly 20 years ago, the Pentagon shut down Project LifeLog.
The Pentagon canceled its so-called LifeLog project, an ambitious effort to build a database tracking a person’s entire existence. Run by Darpa, the Defense Department’s research arm, LifeLog aimed to gather in a single place just about everything an individual says, sees or does: the phone calls made, the TV shows watched, the magazines read, […]
The LifeLog program was canceled on February 3, 2004 after criticism concerning the privacy implications of the system.
In Cambridge, Massachusetts, thefacebook.com was registered the following day.
On February 4, 2004, Zuckerberg launched “TheFacebook”, originally located at thefacebook.com. ix days after the site launched, Harvard seniors Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra accused Zuckerberg of intentionally misleading them into believing that he would help them build a social network called HarvardConnection.com. They claimed that he was instead using their ideas to build a competing product.
Perhaps the key to Facebook’s success is not Zuckerberg’s implementation of the project itself or the original idea of the Winklevoss twins. Perhaps it is the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, that is key. In that case, if Facebook was originally a front for the LifeLog program, and the Hollywood movie that made the Winklevoss twins famous was just a successful public relations act by the Pentagon, then the twins’ credibility as “technological visionaries” – who had a noticeable impact on today’s bitcoin price – may be called into question. Moreover, if such a link does exist, then the price of bitcoin appears to be indirectly dependent on the share price of Facebook, and indeed the US military-industrial complex as a whole.
Plus, a recently declassified report indicates that the bitcoin cryptocurrency project itself may be an NSA invention whose development at the agency began more than a quarter century ago:
National Security Agency Report Raises Systemic Security Issues Related to Anonymous Electronic Money A recent report prepared by the Cryptology Division of the National Security Agency’s Office of Information Security Research and Technology discusses the potential for security failures in certain electronic cash systems and their likely consequences. While demonstrating concern over the attributes of non-traceable electronic money, the report points out methods that may be used to minimize security breaches and losses, including limiting the number of coins that can be affected by a single compromise, requiring traceability for large transactions or large numbers of transactions in a given period, and the creation of a mechanism to restore traceability under certain circumstances. The report contains an excellent summary of basic electronic money cryptographic tools, electronic cash protocols, authentication and signature techniques and related security issues.
https://web.archive.org/web/19970711091814/http://www.ffhsj.com/bancmail/21starch/961017.htm
This NSA report was published in full a quarter-century later on the MIT website: https://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.805/articles/money/nsamint/nsamint.htm
The anonymous authors of the NSA report cited works of mathematician Tatsuaki Okamoto, who was previously suspected as a C++ developer hiding under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.
submitted by zlaxy to ThisDayInHistory [link] [comments]

2024.02.02 20:21 LanchestersLaw There is one best voting method, let's end the non-discussion

My choice in saying “best” is both meant to be incendiary to inferior voting methods and to counter the notion that there cannot be a “best” voting system. In particular I want to counter the defeatism this often brings. TL;DR summary in the conclusion
Key points summarized:
  1. All ranked order voting systems fail Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem, but cardinal systems pass
  2. Cardinal systems have fundamentally more information.
  3. Score voting dominates all ranked choice voting systems.
  4. Maximizing social utility is the best criteria to evaluate voting systems.
  5. Oppression of the majority.
  6. Yes, you can have proportional or multi-winner elections.
  7. Meaningful changes to politicians and parties.
  8. Simple to implement.
  9. TL;DR

1 “But Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem proves all voting methods are flawed!”

Not quite. In his book titled “Social Choice and Individual Values” he sets forth 5 conditions on a reasonable voting system and paradoxes that arise for ranked choice voting. Almost all voting systems pass every criterion except #3. Since Condition 3 is a real doozie let’s explore what it says:
CONDITION 3: THE INDEPENDENCE OF IRRELEVANT ALTERNATIVES Let RI, • • •, Rn and RI', • • • , Rn' be two sets of individual orderings and let C(S) and C'(S) be the corresponding social choice functions. If, for all individuals i and all x and y in a given environment S, x Ri y if and only if x RJ y, then C(S) and C'(S) are the same (independence of irrelevant alternatives).
Arrow elaborates further with an example:
In particular, suppose that there are three voters and four candidates, x, y, z, and w. Let the weights for the first, second, third, and fourth choices be 4, 3, 2, and 1, respectively. Suppose that individuals 1 and 2 rank the candidates in the order x, y, z, and w, while individual 3 ranks them in the order z, w, x, and y. Under the given electoral system, x is chosen. Then, certainly, if y is deleted from the ranks of the candidates, the system applied to the remaining candidates should yield the same result, especially since, in this case, y is inferior to x according to the tastes of every individual; but, if y is in fact deleted, the indicated electoral system would yield a tie between x and z.
The problem with independence of irrelevant alternatives is a fundamental problem of ranked data and cannot possibly be fixed no matter how complicated your voting system. In fact, the more complicated your ranked voting system, the more it runs into problems with irrelevant alternatives. Voting systems which satisfy the much-hyped Condorcet Criterion are positively begging for voters to give cyclic preferences and fail the hardest when new alternatives are added and removed. Once you have identified the problems as being a byproduct of quirks of ordinal data (more on that later) which all have values relative to each other, the solution is blindingly obvious. Don’t rank alternatives.
For hundreds of years scientists studying voting have pre-supposed that ranking is necessary and created avoidable self-imposed problems. Any ballot that looks like this and has voters list preference in order has failed to notice the opportunity provided by simply having voters rate each alternative on a predefined scale (say 0-5 stars). Doing this immediately solves all of the fundamental problems of ranking without much effort and is a solution that fits on exactly the same sheet of paper. Choosing to rate a candidate like a movie might not seem like it changes anything, but this has profound and surprisingly deep implications on how elections are evaluated. I will argue this fixes democracy, but more on that later.

2 Cardinal systems have fundamentally more information.

By switching from ranking candidates 1-6 to scoring 0-5 the type of information changes. The class of information has switched from an ordinal (ranked) system to cardinal information. Consider racecars for example. I can rank all racecars from 1st place to 31st place. This tells me about where each car is, but I can only know that 1st is ahead of 2nd place. I can never know by how much. So I can never predict the impact of adding one more car. The distance behind the leader is a cardinal measure of position. In a cardinal measure I know the direction and magnitude of racecars relative to each other and the leader. This extra information now makes addition and subtraction valid operations. For certain cardinal measures, multiplication and division are also valid. First place is not twice second place; that makes no sense as it is an ordinal measure. But a 10m lead is twice as good as a 5m lead. With these cardinal distances I can freely add and remove racecars without changing the position of existing cars relative to the fixed point. Adding and removing cars can make a particular one change from 1st place to 25th place to 6th place because all rankings are relative. Adding and removing cars will never making a 10m distance into a 20m distance.
For a moment consider the insanity in trying to rank every single movie on IMDB and updating each ranking each time a new movie is released. If you have just one objective opinion it can kind of work, but if you have multiple critics each with an opinion on each movie the rankings will change wildly and be fundamentally unstable. The lack of preservation of distances makes attempting to compare different rankings an impossible task. Using a borda count the distance between two movies could change from only 1 to 400,000 by adding more movies even if the critic thinks they are all very similar. Now hypothetically suppose every critic rates each movie on a 0–5-star scale. Relative distance between movies is now always preserved and the system becomes more stable. Finding the overall highest rated movie is now as simple as finding the movie with the highest average rating. This method also coerces the transitive property (preemptively stopping paradoxes) and allows critics to express equal levels of preference between multiple similar movies.
We should also address the problems with this method of Likert scale rating. For one, not all the movies are evaluated at once. So, a movie which had 3 stars 10 years ago might now be 2 stars due to more movies being added to the pile. Unlike the hypothetical, the real set of critics is different for each movie, and they apply different sets of standards. Each critic has not experienced all movies and might erroneously give high/low rating from lack of information. The 0-5 scale is coerced into being relative instead of an unbounded scale to let critics express extreme pleasure and disgust. All of these problems are very relevant to assessing millions of movies, but none of them are problems to voting in an election. In an election voters generally have lots of time to decide, can see and (hopefully) have knowledge of all possible alternatives, get to rate all alternatives all at once, can understand how this scale relates to real outcomes easy enough, and gains a common scale from everyone else in the country having the same options at the same time. In a scale with a neutral value {-2, -1, 0, 1, 2} the concept of strongly disagree to strongly agree is intuitive enough and people generally answer honestly.

3 Score voting dominates all ranked voting systems.

Preferring rankings over cardinal ratings is like preferring 8-bit over HD TV. If the number of score voting rating classes is greater (which scales to infinity by allowing voters to write any real number in a range) than the number of alternatives, you have all the information to evaluate the election with all ranked choice methods while having even more information to spare. Even if you support a ranked choice method like Condorcet, Borda count, Black, instant runoff, multistage plurality elections, plurality, STV, or any other voting method currently being used at the national level; all of these elections can have the information needed collected from a ballot where voters rate instead of rank alternatives. The rating process is mentally easier than the ranking process while allowing equality of alternatives and coercing the transitive property onto individual preferences. It's just easier to be an honest score vote by rating candidates one at a time than it is to work out a ranking.

4 Maximizing social utility is the best criteria to evaluate voting systems.

Returning back to Kennith Arrow’s “Social Choice and Individual Values”, he writes on the ultimate purpose of an ideal voting system:
“the process of assigning a numerical social utility to each social state, the aim of society then being described by saying that it seeks to maximize the social utility or social welfare … As before, all that is needed to define such an ordering is to know the relative ranking of each pair of alternatives.”
Arrow came up with the 5 conditions for assessing voter fairness at exasperation from the difficulty in using ordinal (ranked) data to decide anything. What he actually wanted was the true social utility function. the measure of benefit to society. What good is a “fair” voting system if it minimizes the utility experienced by society? All other criteria are arbitrary. A voting system being nondictatorial is usually a good requirement, but if a dictator had access to the true underlying social utility function of society, then according to Arrow “the condition of nondictatorship loses its intrinsic desirability”.
Economists have developed very good theories for maximizing utility if you actually had the underlying true utility functions. The problem that has frustrated mathematicians, economists, philosophers, and social scientists for centuries is turning ranked choices into an approximation of the underlying true social utility function. In this very book Arrow cites and appears to be inspired by recently published research on cardinal utility functions. Arrow understood that all ranked choice voting methods have a fundamental flaw but didn’t realize that cardinal voting was an option despite recently reading about cardinal utility in assessment of consumer’s perceived value. The research cardinal utility he read is is now ubiquitous from rating uber drivers to amazon products and social media posts as 👎🤷👍. Arrow very narrowly missed the opportunity to declare score voting as the best method in 1951, something he later regretted.
While only a fuzzy appropriator, it is the best representation of the true utilitarian candidate that you are going to get. By upvoting and downvoting on reddit you are an implicitly endorsing cardinal voting. Whichever you choose, I win because you participated in a 3 class score voting system. Before someone leaves a comment how Black's method is actually best, consider the insanity you would impose in having to rank every single reddit post you read.

5 Oppression of the majority.

Many ranked choice voting systems go through hoops to ensure that the winner is able to claim a majority. Condorcet voting criterion in particular is hardline majoritarian requiring a majority of majority pairwise elections. Majority rule is certainly preferable to minority rule but is misplaced as it loses sight of value to society. To illustrate this, imagine a country that is polarized into two dominate factions A and B. Faction A proposes a policy of robbing everyone in faction B of -100 utility to give its members +20 utility. Faction B proposes a reverse policy. Both of these policies are net negatives to society and go out of their way to harm people. Now imagine a 3rd party C, which has a policy proposal which gives everyone +10 utility. From a strictly selfish position A voters value A > C > B and B voters value B > C > A. If A can squeeze out a 50.1% majority in this election, they are the Condorcet winner despite doing a net negative of -40 utility on average to society. If we use honest approval voting then C wins with 100% of the vote. In more complicated score voting systems voters can accurately give the opposing side an extreme punishment to accurately reflect extreme disparity of positions. Both A and B’s score trend towards the middle position as voters give extreme positive and negative scores while C can be comfortably ahead. The tendency towards majority candidates giving marginal advantages to their coalition with large damage to the well being of the outgroup is a winning strategy in any majority system. In a cardinal system, all voters have an impact on all candidates. At no point is it beneficial to switch strategies and actively harm one segment of the population.

6 Yes, you can have proportional or multi-winner elections.

One good argument against cardinal voting is that certain ranked choice voting methods have multiple winners allowing proportional representation. Israel for example has a proportional representation election in which each voter casts one vote for one party. The votes are tallied, and parties are given a number of representatives proportional to their votes. This is a significantly better system than first past the post but comparing it to single winner cardinal voting is apples to oranges. With a trivial amount of effort Israel’s plurality proportional system can also become a cardinal proportional system. The only necessary rule change is to remove the restriction on one vote per person and allow voters to vote for as many parties as they want for proportional approval voting. The total votes (now exceeding 100%) can still be apportioned proportionally to support. There is no longer a plurality winner dynamic, voters get a wider range of expression, similar parties don’t split votes, extremism pays off less, and a voter can reward a party without sacrificing support for their favorite. Many problems fixed by a very small rule change. There are a whole host of methods for picking winners in a proportional cardinal system, all of which benefit from the huge increase in information voters can communicate compared to ranked choice systems.

7 Meaningful changes to politicians and parties

I have already mentioned it a few times, but I want to hammer home just how easy, meaningful, and immediate changes from a cardinal voting system can be. Cardinal voting systems scale really well, remember the millions of movies that can evaluated on the same scale? This means there is absolutely no disadvantage in a party running multiple candidates at once in a general ballot. This is the fundamental property provided by meeting Arrow’s 3rd condition. Elections with many candidates and many parties have profound implications on how both politicians and parties behave. It makes the election more competitive and everyone more replaceable and beholden to the voters. With multiple similar candidates, if one happens to be revealed as a pedophile, voters who liked their politics are no longer forced to support them. They can pick a politically similar candidate running concurrently. An individual politician who breaks party lines when it benefits the general population is now rewarded instead of punished. This hurts parties with non-democratic internal structures and hands the power into the hands of voters. Cooperation and constructive compromise is rewarded instead of cyclical stalemate. Entrenched politicians with safe districts now have much more competitive elections.

8 Simple to implement.

“Ok you sold me, now what can I do?”
Cardinal voting includes the simplest voting system, approval voting. Approval has fewer rules than first past post and can be used immediately on most existing ballots. It’s also really hard to get an invalid approval ballot which is a good selling point to organizers. This practicality aspect is a good reason to prefer approval over a theoretically superior 0-99 system. Although a 0-99 system allows for more expression, previous experience with cardinal systems in consumer assessments shows most of the range is unused. Maybe this will be different in high states political elections. A 1-5 Likert scale can often capture the same complexity and give the same result as 0-99 scale while being much easier to administer and use. Arrow of Impossibility Theorem fame personally endorses score voting with 3-4 classes. I personally like odd number systems of 5, 7 or 9 classes centered on zero because of the central tendency, but getting any cardinal system is so much of an improvement over ranked order the exact number isn’t worth fighting over. I’ve already shown how the simplest cardinal (approval voting) has advantages over the one of the strongest ranked order system (Condorcet). The score voting method with the strongest political backing right now is STAR (0-5) voting and also has a considerable amount of research. Lobbying to implement these methods at first local and the regional and eventually nation levels is the clearest pathway towards general acceptance. Even if just a few districts start using approval or score voting it can disrupt the foundations of entrenched parties and politicians enough to precipitate change. The only thing required is the political will to change the sentence "pick one/rank" into "select all you like".

9 Conclusion TL;DR (even shorter TL;DR below)

In conclusion, the apparent impossibility of finding the best ranked choice voting system is an artifact of problems with ranking and ordinal data. Borda count for instance makes an erroneous and unnecessary assumption that all distances between ranked data are equal; this is strictly speaking an invalid interpretation of ordinal data. Trying to work around the flawed data quality of ranked choice’s ordinal data has led to complex set of voting criteria being used for evaluation. This is dancing around the impossibility of specifying a ranked system which picks utilitarian answers that maximize benefit to society. Maximizing benefit to society is the real goal most mathematicians, economists, and philosophers are actually trying to achieve in voting systems. In picking utility maximizing outcomes score/interval voting is the undisputed king of voting systems as the best way to approximate the underlying the social utility function. Cardinal voting is also easier and more scalable than most ranked systems. Any Condorcet or Borda hardliners must yield that score voting with enough classes fully communicates the information to evaluate by their methods and allows simultaneous evaluation of an election to see if the score voting winner is also the Condorcet or Borda or any other ranked system’s winner. If you seriously favor ranked order methods, a score voting ballot is an easier way to get the same information to evaluate a ranked voting method. Strategic voting impacts all voting systems but has the lowest impact in cardinal systems. Rank choice systems are fundamental unstable when adding and removing alternatives, a problem no cardinal system has. In addition to cardinal voting’s ease of use, higher resolution information, and better theoretical basis; a number of beneficial changes happen in how candidates campaign and take actions to win votes. Elections remaining competitive even if all candidates have high absolute approvals. Bad or polarizing candidates are more replaceable by voters and don’t rate highly as they do in ranked systems. In cardinal systems each candidate is beholden to the entire electorate as their coalition. All of these factors are why election science experts and organizations overwhelmingly support cardinal systems (approval and score voting). Representing ranked choice systems as competitive options it’s a bit like saying “all countries have poverty”. While this is technically correct is obfuscates the reality of what poverty looks like in Switzerland compared to the DRC. This is a field of study with a clear set of winners, losers, and real impacts on politics. Let's end the non-discussion.

TL;DR of the TL;DR much requested

Cardinal voting systems (score, STAR, approval, range) have large advantages over ordinal (ranking) systems (FPTP, Condorcet, Borda, instant runoff, STV, and any other nationally used system). Proportional systems can be either cardinal or ordinal with the argument for cardinal remaining valid. The advantaged shared by cardinal systems is that they preserve relative distance (by cardinally) and adding and removing alternatives has stable impact on the result. Rather concerningly all ordinal (ranking) systems can give different results when irrelevant alternatives are added and removed.
Mathematically speaking cardinal information strongly dominates ordinal information (details why above). If you collect cardinal information on an election, that implies the ordinal ranking and allows resolving the election by both cardinal and ordinal evaluations. You can add whatever ordinal evaluation criterion you want into a cardinal evaluation such as picking a Condorcet winner if one exists and if not select by average score. Cardinal ratings really do strongly dominate any ranking system by allowing a ranking evaluator as a subset of a cardinal systems rules. STAR is score average with an additional ordinal evaluator. Using the maximum average of cardinal values is an extremely good metric by itself or integrated in any system because it tends towards a utilitarian solution, is more stable than other methods against tactical voting, and strongly avoids loss maximizing candidates. This pressure increases the minimum winning coalition size of candidates and punishes candidates who distribute limited resources only within their winning coalition.
submitted by LanchestersLaw to slatestarcodex [link] [comments]

2024.01.23 18:00 LackingStory What is Furiosa's budget?

What is Furiosa's budget?
This was brought up on another deleted post. Regarding Furiosa's budget here's everything out there:
\On Deadline: arguing how Zaslav appeases prominent directors tolerating their bigger budgets, the article cites Miller's Furiosa as an example: **"Wait until you step on the set of George Miller’s Furiosa which is the biggest Australian production yet, fueling over* ***$233M* to the country’s local economy." See photo.
Note: it doesn't specify if it's American Dollars or Australian. Plus, the language "fueling local economy" can refer to "stimulating the economy"; which we know foreign countries hosting American productions are mindful of to prove the tax credits and rebate were a net positive. "Taylor Swift fuels 5 billion into the US economy" is a headline we're familiar with lately.
\*On IMDB: 162 millions, more details might be available on IMDBpro, so if you have one, let us know please. See photo.
\On Screenrant:* in an article they cite the same 230 number but without reference. But at the end of the page in an info card they cite 162 million dollars, the same number give by IMDB. see photos.
...............................................................................
\Deadline:* https://deadline.com/2022/05/box-office-downton-abbey-a-new-era-dr-strange-2-1235029308/
https://deadline.com/2022/05/box-office-downton-abbey-a-new-era-dr-strange-2-1235029308
​
​
\IMDB:* https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12037194/
https://preview.redd.it/40rjbqfyz7ec1.jpg?width=729&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3b3c2d537b94d487072d9b945115e661ff356102
\Screenrant:* https://screenrant.com/furiosa-mad-max-box-office-billion-franchise/
https://preview.redd.it/0gylooh808ec1.jpg?width=770&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7bb7c97d39c2ff89008bfa2e2cd11309bc2fd9dd
\Screenrant "bottom of page":[https://screenrant.com/furiosa-mad-max-box-office-billion-franchise/*](https://screenrant.com/furiosa-mad-max-box-office-billion-franchise/)
https://preview.redd.it/72z61uzb08ec1.jpg?width=1248&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=49ecb2fa35196cae75bd82db37495937e030f1f4
submitted by LackingStory to boxoffice [link] [comments]

2024.01.23 13:45 TNGSystems Jailed Safemoon CEO’s legal troubles grow as expensive lawyers back out.

I haven’t posted on Safemoon in what feels like ages! That’s a good thing as there’s a fair few things to treat you all with.
Hopefully as you know, John Karony was finally arrested on October 31st 2023 as a result of a 2 year investigation from the FBI, assisted by the SEC, DOJ, HMRC and IRS.
He’s been in Jail in Utah since then, getting transferred to NY at the end of December.
To start with, he hired a lawyer called Clayton Simms who played himself on “Real Housewives” a trashy reality tv show.
This lawyer was trying to arrange John’s bail, but forgot to tell Salt Lake Jail when Johns hearing was. The hearing started but John was still sat in his cell unaware that he was supposed to be infront of a judge. That pissed the judge off and the hearing was rescheduled.
At the second bail hearing, the DOJ successfully managed to argue against Johns proposed bail conditions, convincing the judge he was a major flight risk due to his ability to access crypto resources and his ties to other countries (John has spent much of the last two years living in the UK). The judge also ruled against John using a lawyer to post bail, claiming that a surety should be someone from Johns family, to motivate John to turn up to further court sessions if he is released on bail - otherwise someone in his family gets punished for it.
The SLIGHT problem with that is that John spent much of 2022 and 2023 suing his own mother in court over a civil matter, which has had the spectacularly predicable effect of turning his entire family against him.
So Johns mom makes contact with John in jail, and says “drop the lawsuit against me and we will see if we can post your bail”. John instructs his civil lawyers (which he spent a considerable sum on) to drop the lawsuit against his Mom, so things looked like they were finally falling in to place for his third bail hearing…
Except now the Department of Justice argued that Johns parents aren’t suitable sureties as he has a history of litigation against them… and the judge accepted that argument.
Thats where we were at, up until yesterday, when Johns expensive criminal trial lawyers submitted a motion of withdrawal, citing a lack of funds:
a limited retainer payment was made on behalf of Mr. Karony to the firm, and that payment has been exhausted by legal fees incurred to date.
He intended to keep paying these lawyers from the sale of his mansion, but unfortunately for him the US Government determined it was bought using proceeds of fraud and have seized the payment.
I would say John is now fully in the ‘Find out’ stage of ‘Fuck around and find out’
So what’s next? John will have to make do with a court-appointed public defendant, who likely won’t understand crypto, to try and argue why the fraud he did wasn’t fraud.
Just a reminder that he is up for potentially 45 years behind bars for his crimes and, had he sensibly taken a plea deal at the start, could have been looking at starting his reduced sentence now instead of looking at nearly half a century behind bars.
Ah well!
submitted by TNGSystems to CryptoCurrency [link] [comments]

2024.01.17 20:37 NotMeekNotAggressive I actually think that season 4 is True Detective going back to its season 1 roots.

It's no secret that Pizzolatto borrowed a lot of ideas from cosmic horror writers like Thomas Ligotti, Laird Barron, Ambrose Bierce, and Robert Chambers for season 1. One of the reasons some people didn't like seasons 2 & 3 as much as much is because none of those ideas were really present in those seasons, which made them feel pretty stale in comparison. This season feels like it's tapping back into that cosmic horror vein again. It feels like a mixture of True Detective season 1 and the show Fortitude. It also feels very much like a Laird Barron story with its characters and setting.
So, I think how much a person likes season 4 will depend a lot on which of Pizzolatto's influences they liked in season 1. His major categories of influences were cosmic horror fiction, hard-boiled detective fiction, and noir crime fiction, with him citing authors such as James Elroy and Dashiell Hammett as influences for the latter two. He pretty much entirely abandoned cosmic horror in later seasons of True Detective to the dismay of those of us that like that genre of fiction.
In short, the people saying that this season doesn't feel like True Detective probably don't realize that for some of us what made True Detective season 1 feel unique was the inclusion of the very cosmic horror elements Pizzolatto later abandoned. Now, we're getting back into those horror elements so the show actually "feels" more like season 1 than the other two seasons.
*As a side note, some people also seem to really care a lot that the main characters are female, but that didn't register for me as a big deal at all when I was watching the episode. I didn't even realize it was an issue until I saw the 1-star reviews on IMDB complaining about feminism. If there was some super feminist political message here, then I must have totally missed it.
submitted by NotMeekNotAggressive to TrueDetective [link] [comments]

2024.01.11 09:28 PhoenixDioramas Updated timeline of recent events with sources, documents, additional resources, and recommended documentaries for newcomers and skeptics.

---Updated January 12, 2024---
A timeline is my chosen method because I feel it best demonstrates the historical significance of the phenomena as well as the acceleration of disclosure and de-stigmatization since 2017. I have also included links to some of the best UAP footage I have found, additional resources, as well as documentary recommendations.

Timeline:

Additional Resources:

Possible UAP Footage:

Documentaries:

  1. UFOs: Investigating the Unknown.
  2. The Phenomenon.
  3. TMZ Presents: UFO Revolution
  4. Moment of Contact
submitted by PhoenixDioramas to HighStrangeness [link] [comments]

2024.01.11 09:24 PhoenixDioramas Updated timeline of recent events with sources, documents, additional resources, and recommended documentaries for newcomers and skeptics.

--Updated January 12, 2024--
A timeline is my chosen method because I feel it best demonstrates the historical significance of the phenomena as well as the acceleration of disclosure and de-stigmatization since 2017. I have also included links to some of the best UAP footage I have found, additional resources, as well as documentary recommendations.

Timeline:

Additional Resources:

Possible UAP Footage:

Documentaries:

  1. UFOs: Investigating the Unknown.
  2. The Phenomenon.
  3. TMZ Presents: UFO Revolution
  4. Moment of Contact
submitted by PhoenixDioramas to UFOs [link] [comments]

http://swiebodzin.info