06vwgti
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Post by 06vwgti on May 4, 2024 19:17:49 GMT -5
I think Ring The Belle had a pretty rational take on the situation, all things considered. He mentioned that its fine that Jade and Bianca won the titles, but Triple H should probably at least try to make Damage CTRL credible and give them something major soon, especially during AAPI month, which WWE is pushing very heavily. The optics are absolutely piss poor right now on that front. I have gotten like three different emails from WWE, WWE Shop, and WWE PR in my inbox plugging an AAPI shirt/merch, and how the company has some of the best representation and portrayals of Asian talent in the industry today. But if you want to get on to technicalities, Damage CTRL aren't AAPI, someone like Wendy Choo, Kayden Carter, or even Nia Jax would be.
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Post by mistery on May 4, 2024 19:32:38 GMT -5
I think Ring The Belle had a pretty rational take on the situation, all things considered. He mentioned that its fine that Jade and Bianca won the titles, but Triple H should probably at least try to make Damage CTRL credible and give them something major soon, especially during AAPI month, which WWE is pushing very heavily. The optics are absolutely piss poor right now on that front. I have gotten like three different emails from WWE, WWE Shop, and WWE PR in my inbox plugging an AAPI shirt/merch, and how the company has some of the best representation and portrayals of Asian talent in the industry today. But if you want to get on to technicalities, Damage CTRL aren't AAPI, someone like Wendy Choo, Kayden Carter, or even Nia Jax would be. AAPI is shorthand for Asian American Pacific Islander, which going by US definition, includes anyone living in America who is from Japan, India, China, etc. And the email had included pictures of Dakota, Iyo, Kairi, Asuka, Solo, etc as part of it.
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06vwgti
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Post by 06vwgti on May 4, 2024 20:06:09 GMT -5
But if you want to get on to technicalities, Damage CTRL aren't AAPI, someone like Wendy Choo, Kayden Carter, or even Nia Jax would be. AAPI is shorthand for Asian American Pacific Islander, which going by US definition, includes anyone living in America who is from Japan, India, China, etc. And the email had included pictures of Dakota, Iyo, Kairi, Asuka, Solo, etc as part of it. Yet I always heard people differentiating and separating those who are native born and naturalized us citizens vs those who are foreign nationals, but what do I know. So you are Asian given your strong stance towards this stuff?
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Post by mistery on May 4, 2024 21:15:03 GMT -5
AAPI is shorthand for Asian American Pacific Islander, which going by US definition, includes anyone living in America who is from Japan, India, China, etc. And the email had included pictures of Dakota, Iyo, Kairi, Asuka, Solo, etc as part of it. Yet I always heard people differentiating and separating those who are native born and naturalized us citizens vs those who are foreign nationals, but what do I know. So you are Asian given your strong stance towards this stuff? No, but I have a friend, coworkers, and business partners (who are based in Japan as we develop software for them) who are super into wrestling who are Asian, and want to see much stronger Asian representation, especially in the big western promotions, because both WWE and AEW are pretty bad at portraying Asian stars as big deals. It's baffling, because it seems like Asians in particular are treated as much lesser compared to other minorities (African American and Latino are the most prominent examples). It feels like WWE in particular occasionally throws Asian fans a bone (see pretty much every Asuka title reign, and Iyo's title reign), but then immediately takes it back away by constantly booking said talents very poorly during the reign and afterwards. Like I understand Iyo had a long title reign, but it was booked incredibly poorly, and didn't even scratch the smallest bit of surface on what she can do. The same goes for Asuka and Kairi. They always feel lesser than compared to women like Bianca, Jade, Bayley, Becky, etc. And that's not even touching on Kairi returning, Asuka joining, and then all of them being immediately fed to Becky, Bianca, Charlotte, and Shotzi for no reason at Survivor Series last year either. When the story was very much on the side of Damage CTRL, and it would have made more sense. You could have had Bayley f*** up at the Rumble or something and accidentally eliminate Asuka and/or Kairi, instead of costing them the match at Survivor Series. And then you have Shinsuke, where he had every advantage in the world last year to win the title from Rollins, but WWE decided "yeah instead lets feed him to Rollins". This is why I feel like WWE's ticket sales for the upcoming Japan event are going to be kinda poor, if not outright abysmal. Ratings aren't great over there, and a common sentiment among Japanese wrestling fans at least is that they feel slighted at how...lesser Asian (more specifically Japanese) talents in particular are in WWE, which could be a reason why WWE is struggling to break into the market. It's because WWE seemingly goes out of their way to sabotage any sort of momentum or upside an Asian talent might have, because of some sort of fear of backlash among western fans. It's baffling because we are long past the era of crowds basically "WHAT"ing ESL speakers, and other sporting leagues/company have no problems sending an interpreter with the athletes to do media interviews. WWE very much lives in the past there. I know my younger sister tried to get Iyo, Dakota, Kairi, and Asuka onto the local news station (as she's a producer for it), and the station even offered to foot the bill for a translator when WWE was in town for a house show. WWE shot them down. So as you can imagine, it's kinda hard to not feel like WWE doesn't want an Asian talent to be at the top of the company for god knows what reason. It feels like they are still very much in the mindset that if you can't speak 100% fluent English, you can't be a true face of the company, which is a very outdated mindset. This is why I'm very passionate about Asuka, Kairi, Iyo, Shinsuke, etc. It's because they are insanely talented individuals, but it absolutely feels like WWE is intentionally holding them down, and more often than not, they are just seen as "good hands". It doesn't help that you see little to no fan pushback on the booking either. But then you have old timers like Jim Cornette, Mark Henry, etc who do nothing but say horrible (and sometimes racist) garbage about Asian talents, and the response from fans is largely muted. Like Mark Henry's infamous "If I were in that match, I would knocked Kairi's head off" remark he made over Wrestlemania weekend, which got him SOME backlash, but it was far more muted compared to if someone had made that remark about Bianca or Jade.
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PHD-FENDERBAUM
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Post by PHD-FENDERBAUM on May 4, 2024 21:42:05 GMT -5
Um....I think Io's sister is wrestling again....thought she was long retired but also I do not keep up with what Mio has been up to so idk if she even still wrestled occasionally.
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gl83
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Post by gl83 on May 4, 2024 21:43:49 GMT -5
Yet I always heard people differentiating and separating those who are native born and naturalized us citizens vs those who are foreign nationals, but what do I know. So you are Asian given your strong stance towards this stuff? No, but I have a friend, coworkers, and business partners (who are based in Japan as we develop software for them) who are super into wrestling who are Asian, and want to see much stronger Asian representation, especially in the big western promotions, because both WWE and AEW are pretty bad at portraying Asian stars as big deals. It's baffling, because it seems like Asians in particular are treated as much lesser compared to other minorities (African American and Latino are the most prominent examples). It feels like WWE in particular occasionally throws Asian fans a bone (see pretty much every Asuka title reign, and Iyo's title reign), but then immediately takes it back away by constantly booking said talents very poorly during the reign and afterwards. Like I understand Iyo had a long title reign, but it was booked incredibly poorly, and didn't even scratch the smallest bit of surface on what she can do. The same goes for Asuka and Kairi. They always feel lesser than compared to women like Bianca, Jade, Bayley, Becky, etc. And that's not even touching on Kairi returning, Asuka joining, and then all of them being immediately fed to Becky, Bianca, Charlotte, and Shotzi for no reason at Survivor Series last year either. When the story was very much on the side of Damage CTRL, and it would have made more sense. You could have had Bayley f*** up at the Rumble or something and accidentally eliminate Asuka and/or Kairi, instead of costing them the match at Survivor Series. And then you have Shinsuke, where he had every advantage in the world last year to win the title from Rollins, but WWE decided "yeah instead lets feed him to Rollins". This is why I feel like WWE's ticket sales for the upcoming Japan event are going to be kinda poor, if not outright abysmal. Ratings aren't great over there, and a common sentiment among Japanese wrestling fans at least is that they feel slighted at how...lesser Asian (more specifically Japanese) talents in particular are in WWE, which could be a reason why WWE is struggling to break into the market. It's because WWE seemingly goes out of their way to sabotage any sort of momentum or upside an Asian talent might have, because of some sort of fear of backlash among western fans. It's baffling because we are long past the era of crowds basically "WHAT"ing ESL speakers, and other sporting leagues/company have no problems sending an interpreter with the athletes to do media interviews. WWE very much lives in the past there. I know my younger sister tried to get Iyo, Dakota, Kairi, and Asuka onto the local news station (as she's a producer for it), and the station even offered to foot the bill for a translator when WWE was in town for a house show. WWE shot them down. So as you can imagine, it's kinda hard to not feel like WWE doesn't want an Asian talent to be at the top of the company for god knows what reason. It feels like they are still very much in the mindset that if you can't speak 100% fluent English, you can't be a true face of the company, which is a very outdated mindset. This is why I'm very passionate about Asuka, Kairi, Iyo, Shinsuke, etc. It's because they are insanely talented individuals, but it absolutely feels like WWE is intentionally holding them down, and more often than not, they are just seen as "good hands". It doesn't help that you see little to no fan pushback on the booking either. But then you have old timers like Jim Cornette, Mark Henry, etc who do nothing but say horrible (and sometimes racist) garbage about Asian talents, and the response from fans is largely muted. Like Mark Henry's infamous "If I were in that match, I would knocked Kairi's head off" remark he made over Wrestlemania weekend, which got him SOME backlash, but it was far more muted compared to if someone had made that remark about Bianca or Jade. ....or Maxxine Dupri. Funny how everyone tripped over themselves rushing to Maxxine's defense, yet Dakota was the only one to back Kairi up.....
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PHD-FENDERBAUM
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Post by PHD-FENDERBAUM on May 4, 2024 21:51:36 GMT -5
No, but I have a friend, coworkers, and business partners (who are based in Japan as we develop software for them) who are super into wrestling who are Asian, and want to see much stronger Asian representation, especially in the big western promotions, because both WWE and AEW are pretty bad at portraying Asian stars as big deals. It's baffling, because it seems like Asians in particular are treated as much lesser compared to other minorities (African American and Latino are the most prominent examples). It feels like WWE in particular occasionally throws Asian fans a bone (see pretty much every Asuka title reign, and Iyo's title reign), but then immediately takes it back away by constantly booking said talents very poorly during the reign and afterwards. Like I understand Iyo had a long title reign, but it was booked incredibly poorly, and didn't even scratch the smallest bit of surface on what she can do. The same goes for Asuka and Kairi. They always feel lesser than compared to women like Bianca, Jade, Bayley, Becky, etc. And that's not even touching on Kairi returning, Asuka joining, and then all of them being immediately fed to Becky, Bianca, Charlotte, and Shotzi for no reason at Survivor Series last year either. When the story was very much on the side of Damage CTRL, and it would have made more sense. You could have had Bayley f*** up at the Rumble or something and accidentally eliminate Asuka and/or Kairi, instead of costing them the match at Survivor Series. And then you have Shinsuke, where he had every advantage in the world last year to win the title from Rollins, but WWE decided "yeah instead lets feed him to Rollins". This is why I feel like WWE's ticket sales for the upcoming Japan event are going to be kinda poor, if not outright abysmal. Ratings aren't great over there, and a common sentiment among Japanese wrestling fans at least is that they feel slighted at how...lesser Asian (more specifically Japanese) talents in particular are in WWE, which could be a reason why WWE is struggling to break into the market. It's because WWE seemingly goes out of their way to sabotage any sort of momentum or upside an Asian talent might have, because of some sort of fear of backlash among western fans. It's baffling because we are long past the era of crowds basically "WHAT"ing ESL speakers, and other sporting leagues/company have no problems sending an interpreter with the athletes to do media interviews. WWE very much lives in the past there. I know my younger sister tried to get Iyo, Dakota, Kairi, and Asuka onto the local news station (as she's a producer for it), and the station even offered to foot the bill for a translator when WWE was in town for a house show. WWE shot them down. So as you can imagine, it's kinda hard to not feel like WWE doesn't want an Asian talent to be at the top of the company for god knows what reason. It feels like they are still very much in the mindset that if you can't speak 100% fluent English, you can't be a true face of the company, which is a very outdated mindset. This is why I'm very passionate about Asuka, Kairi, Iyo, Shinsuke, etc. It's because they are insanely talented individuals, but it absolutely feels like WWE is intentionally holding them down, and more often than not, they are just seen as "good hands". It doesn't help that you see little to no fan pushback on the booking either. But then you have old timers like Jim Cornette, Mark Henry, etc who do nothing but say horrible (and sometimes racist) garbage about Asian talents, and the response from fans is largely muted. Like Mark Henry's infamous "If I were in that match, I would knocked Kairi's head off" remark he made over Wrestlemania weekend, which got him SOME backlash, but it was far more muted compared to if someone had made that remark about Bianca or Jade. ....or Maxxine Dupri. Funny how everyone tripped over themselves rushing to Maxxine's defense, yet Dakota was the only one to back Kairi up..... THAT is the one that bugs me so f***ing much. Mark Henry literally threatened to physically harm this 110lbs Japanese woman....and only 1 of her colleagues came to her defence ONLY 1! Yet Maxxine gets booed by less than a handful of people and here comes just about every woman out the woodwork to shit on fans. Something is seriously rotten in denmark with that.
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Woo
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Post by Woo on May 4, 2024 22:05:03 GMT -5
Fantastic match with Damage CTRL against Cargill and Belair. They lost, but they looked like absolute stars.
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Post by AwamoriRock on May 4, 2024 22:45:17 GMT -5
Um....I think Io's sister is wrestling again....thought she was long retired but also I do not keep up with what Mio has been up to so idk if she even still wrestled occasionally. Mio refs in Ice Ribbon and works as a heel ref in Oz (which sometimes means getting involved in matches) she’s “retired” as a wrestler but will wrestle matches as a pinch hitter in Ice Ribbon when needed. This seems a little different though,
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schma
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Post by schma on May 5, 2024 1:53:12 GMT -5
Well, I accidentally got spoiled on the ending of the match before I had a chance to watch it (though let's be honest, it wasn't really a spoiler). That said, I was surprised at how long the match was and the fact that Kairi and Asuka did get some genuine offence in on not just Bianca, but also Jade. It's a shame things got confused in the middle, but I thought that Damage Ctrl looked better in defeat here than they typically do when going up against Bianca.
Either way:
Well I had an image of Frodo saying it's over, it's done but that image has disappeared.
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Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]
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Post by Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-] on May 5, 2024 1:57:07 GMT -5
Well Damage CTRL can only go up from here you'd think
But man talk about a group falling face first into a mound of shit after they proclaimed to "Get rid of the problem" lmfao
And that's what you want for a babyface triumph, but... the heel faction should probably still keep SOME credibility... now that that's in the dirt, maybe they can build up again
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Post by mistery on May 5, 2024 6:21:31 GMT -5
Well Damage CTRL can only go up from here you'd think But man talk about a group falling face first into a mound of shit after they proclaimed to "Get rid of the problem" lmfao And that's what you want for a babyface triumph, but... the heel faction should probably still keep SOME credibility... now that that's in the dirt, maybe they can build up again I would not hold my breath there. They are on RAW now and I would be floored if they aren't jobbing to Becky and likely Lyra by the end of the year. If not month.
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Post by EoE: Workin On My Night Cheese on May 5, 2024 6:36:12 GMT -5
I noticed last night that Kairi had her knee heavily strapped… Any word on when she might’ve hurt herself? Not to forget that Asuka’s been working hurt since before WM when she tweaked her own knee a couple of weeks out.
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Post by mistery on May 5, 2024 7:17:38 GMT -5
I noticed last night that Kairi had her knee heavily strapped… Any word on when she might’ve hurt herself? Not to forget that Asuka’s been working hurt since before WM when she tweaked her own knee a couple of weeks out. No, but they've been working every house show for awhile now, so I wouldn't be shocked if Kairi's injury happened at one of those. They just need to pull the Kabukis off the house show circuit for a bit so they can heal up. If not pull them off of TV entirely for a bit. Because I would have to check, but I think the Kabukis have worked the most house shows so far this year, at least among the women.
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schma
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Post by schma on May 5, 2024 7:23:29 GMT -5
I noticed last night that Kairi had her knee heavily strapped… Any word on when she might’ve hurt herself? Not to forget that Asuka’s been working hurt since before WM when she tweaked her own knee a couple of weeks out. No, but they've been working every house show for awhile now, so I wouldn't be shocked if Kairi's injury happened at one of those. They just need to pull the Kabukis off the house show circuit for a bit so they can heal up. If not pull them off of TV entirely for a bit. Because I would have to check, but I think the Kabukis have worked the most house shows so far this year, at least among the women. Pretty sure I saw a recent interview where they were two of the top three for matches worked this year or possibly last year.
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Post by EoE: Workin On My Night Cheese on May 5, 2024 7:36:49 GMT -5
No, but they've been working every house show for awhile now, so I wouldn't be shocked if Kairi's injury happened at one of those. They just need to pull the Kabukis off the house show circuit for a bit so they can heal up. If not pull them off of TV entirely for a bit. Because I would have to check, but I think the Kabukis have worked the most house shows so far this year, at least among the women. Pretty sure I saw a recent interview where they were two of the top three for matches worked this year or possibly last year. Kairi has worked 34 matches this year so far, the most of any woman in WWE. Asuka is equal second with Belair on 30. It'd be this year because Kairi wasn't there for most of last year.
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Post by Saiyanic Panic on May 5, 2024 7:59:33 GMT -5
But then you have old timers like Jim Cornette, Mark Henry, etc who do nothing but say horrible (and sometimes racist) garbage about Asian talents, and the response from fans is largely muted. Like Mark Henry's infamous "If I were in that match, I would knocked Kairi's head off" remark he made over Wrestlemania weekend....what *investigates* Oh. I've now been informed of that. Double-downed on it too. Some of these folks who pride themselves on being old-school need to escorted off campus.
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PHD-FENDERBAUM
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Post by PHD-FENDERBAUM on May 5, 2024 9:12:01 GMT -5
Pretty sure I saw a recent interview where they were two of the top three for matches worked this year or possibly last year. Kairi has worked 34 matches this year so far, the most of any woman in WWE. Asuka is equal second with Belair on 30. It'd be this year because Kairi wasn't there for most of last year. Joshi ladies puttin in that work because IYO worked the most matches of any woman in 2023. I know people got on KAIRI lastnight but I wonder if this Injury has been plagueing her longer than we realize and it just has been affecting her in ring becauise most keep saying she has not been quite right in ring since she got back to WWE. Also maybe explains why she isn't in the queen of the ring tournament.
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clc
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Post by clc on May 5, 2024 9:36:29 GMT -5
....or Maxxine Dupri. Funny how everyone tripped over themselves rushing to Maxxine's defense, yet Dakota was the only one to back Kairi up..... THAT is the one that bugs me so f***ing much. Mark Henry literally threatened to physically harm this 110lbs Japanese woman....and only 1 of her colleagues came to her defence ONLY 1! Yet Maxxine gets booed by less than a handful of people and here comes just about every woman out the woodwork to shit on fans. Something is seriously rotten in denmark with that. I'll add to the Maxine thing...booing people is part of wrestling. Chastising the fans for booing but being silent about Mark Henry saying it's ok to hurt your co-workers... yeah that bugs me too!
Maxxine is sort of related to my next rant...why is it acceptable for people to be "learning on the job?" Reading the Jade thread people are saying things like, she'll get better eventually? This is the biggest most prestigious wrestling company in the world. Learning on the job should not be an excuse. Now with Maxxine, they built that into her character. Yet they are telling us Jade is the best ever once in a lifetime talent, when she clearly is not. So when I see 3 extremely talented people in Bianca, Kairi, and Asuka have to go out of their way to promote a rookie that can't do the job at the level of not only her peers, but people well below...that bugs me too.
You go to a Michel Jackson concert and the guitar player doesn't know how to play the Beat It solo so she chugs on an open d chord instead, would that be acceptable, becasue, "I'm sure she'll eventually learn how to play it"? No...that's why you hire Jennifer Batten and let her shred. Let the real talent shine! (sorry for my dated analogy. I don't know any new musicians)
Well, I'm hoping losing the tag titles will be a blessing and free up Kairi and Asuka to better things. I won't hold my breath though.
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J is Justice
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Post by J is Justice on May 5, 2024 10:16:39 GMT -5
After some extensive research, I can now confidently say that the awkward 2 minute spell in that match was, in fact, Asuka's fault. Apparently, she tagged herself in, got into the ring, but then climbed back out again. Anything you hear differently is wrong!!!
Now, please leave Kairi alone to live the rest of her life.
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