ORANGE COUNTY

Will Braunwyn Windham-Burke's Girlfriend Kris Appear on RHOC? Hear Her Answer (E! exclusive)

"Season 15 of The Real Housewives of Orange County may have just come to an end, but talk to any fan and they'll tell you that a lot has happened since filming wrapped—namely, Braunwyn Windham-Burke coming out as a lesbian and revealing she has a girlfriend named Kris.
The couple's relationship obviously didn't make the cut this time around, but does Braunwyn plan to introduce Kris to her castmates on *RHOC'*s next season? E! News' Daily Pop got the exclusive scoop.
"Yeah, I think she'll film with me," Braunwyn told co-host Justin Sylvester. "Not a lot—the women can be a kind of tough crowd— so I think I would like to keep it a little to myself."
The 43-year-old reality TV star clashed with said "tough crowd" a number of times this season, especially when it came to her sobriety. Of all the ladies, Braunwyn said Gina Kirschenheiter "has been the most supportive, hands down."
So far, she's had the opposite experience with her longtime husband Sean Burke. The two are still married, live together, remain "best friends," and even though she'd be "heartbroken" if Sean "ends up falling in love with someone else," Braunwyn would remain by his side, she said.
"We joke about the fact that it would be so much easier if [Sean] was gay," Braunwyn told Justin. "'Cause he's not. So, everyone that DMs him every day—he gets about 100 DMs—Shawn is straight! But of course, I would support him. I support my husband no matter what...We are family, and just like we support our children, we support each other."
The pair has seven children together—Hazel, 2, Koa, 4, twins Caden and Curran, 7, Jacob, 15, Rowan, 18, and Bella, 20—and when Braunwyn came out, "It wasn't hard at all with the older kids."
"Jacob and Rowan, they are sexually and gender fluid...They go to an art school and they are surrounded by very open-minded people in their own lives," she explained. "So for them, they were like, 'Okay. If you're happy, if dad's happy, that's all we care about."

Emily Simpson Celebrates Her 45th Birthday in Sexy Thigh-Baring Black Ensemble (Emily Simpson Instagram/Bravo)

MIAMI

VIPs flock to maskless, 150-guest private concert in Miami (Page Six exclusive)

"A top party promoter hosted a full-blown private concert in Miami over the weekend — complete with a slate of chart-topping performers, VIP guests and a crowd of 150 revelers.
We’re told rapper Post Malone, Scott Disick, Lil Pump, Tyga, and YouTube star Jake Paul all attended the huge bash over on Star Island to see performances by rapper Lil Baby, 24kGoldn and Gucci Mane.
According to spies, there were few masks and no social distancing at the Saturday night event.
We’re told the rager was a birthday party for Electric Feel Entertainment founder Austin Rosen, whose roster includes Malone and Goldn.
The party was held at the manse of “Real Housewives of Miami” alum Lisa Hochstein and her plastic surgeon husband Lenny (known as the “boob god”) and hosted by nightlife vet Richie Akiva.
Instagram videos from the night show maskless partiers packed together at the front of the stage.
One insider told us locals were “appalled” by the scenes.
But a less anxious source told us, “Miami is open bitches!” The unapologetic insider said that performers went on at midnight, which is the time when restaurants and other places in the city are required to close. “House parties are happening because people don’t want to go home, they don’t want the party to stop. People do not give a f–k,” says the source.
We are told guests were on an “honor system” to get COVID tests before the bash.
Hochstein insists it was all by the book: “We offered the backyard of our home to a friend that wanted to plan a last-minute get together … They were required to hire private security and cap the capacity at 150 people,” she told us. “Guests were temperature checked upon arrival and could only access the outdoor space surrounding our house. Guests were told to wear masks when not eating or drinking.”
DALLAS

‘RHOD’ star D’Andra Simmons is worried about memory loss after COVID-19 (Page Six exclusive)

“Real Housewives of Dallas” fixture D’Andra Simmons is worried about the long-term side effects of having COVID-19.
“I’m really scared about the fatigue because … I’m having a hard time sleeping,” she recently told Page Six. “So then if I don’t sleep, I can’t get the rest I need for healing. And also the body aches are lingering. As far as the memory loss, I haven’t had as much of that as my husband has, but that’s my biggest fear in the world, is losing my cognitive ability.”
The Ultimate Living founder was hospitalized with the coronavirus in December, and later said she was grateful to have been released from the COVID ward in time to celebrate the new year at home.
Now, her experience with the virus has led her to make a product, which is currently in the development stage, to help with cognitive functions.
“A lot of people that have been through COVID like myself, have noticed the cognitive decline, the memory loss,” she told us.
Still, Simmons found some humor in her illness.
“I will tell you the silver lining for me for COVID, you’re going to laugh your head off,” she said. “So, of course, I gained that quarantine 15, 20 like everybody else, I sat home and ate the whole time. So I plumped up. You can see that on the show. But then now having COVID I lost the COVID 15, 20!”

How Dr. Tiffany Moon ended up on ‘Real Housewives of Dallas’ (Page Six)

"You might be wondering what anesthesiologist Dr. Tiffany Moon, the latest addition to “The Real Housewives of Dallas,” is doing on a TV show more famous for drink-throwing than peer-reviewed medical journals.
Moon provided the Bravo franchise with both its first medical doctor and first-generation Asian-American star. And as a practicing physician who’s stayed on the frontlines of her city’s battle with COVID while raising a family, she admits she had limited familiarity with the show before joining.
“I don’t watch TV in general,” Moon, 36, told Page Six recently. “Honestly, I work, and I hang out with my kids and my husband, and then, I work. People are like, ‘What are your hobbies?’ And I say, ‘What’s a hobby?'”
However, she added, “Dallas is small. You run into the same people over and over again.”
So Moon has notched blink-and-you’ll-miss-her cameos in “RHOD” before, and says she’s known veteran cast members D’Andra Simmons and her mother, Mama Dee, “for many years.”
“D’Andra had always joked, ‘You would be perfect for ‘Housewives.’ And I would say, ‘Last time I checked, I was a full-time physician and mom. I’m not gonna do the show.’ That was a serious conversation we had around 2017. But things change. I went to some of the tapings, I saw that she was enjoying herself, and I thought, ‘You know what, why not?’ I’ve done everything else in my life exactly by the book and exactly how everyone expected me to. This time, I’m gonna do something totally out of my comfort zone that no one would expect of me. It’s not every day that Bravo knocks on your door.”
So Moon went about applying the rigor of her “day job” to her decision to join the show: “I made an Excel spreadsheet of the positives and negatives,” Moon explained with a laugh. “I did it in the most methodical, nerdy sense that I knew.”
Her list of reservations was short but impactful: “I have young children and I wanted to think about them; my husband is a prominent businessman in Dallas and I did not want this to reflect poorly on his business or embarrass him.
“I have very conservative Chinese parents that go to a Chinese church with my Chinese aunties and I didn’t ever want them to go to church and say, “Ai-ya, I saw Tiffany on TV and she’s embarrassing us,'” she continues. “Because that’s what Chinese aunties do. They gossip and drink tea.”
And lastly, “I worked my entire life to be where I am right now, and I did not want that to be invalidated because I was on TV arguing with women about petty things.” Ultimately, “I thought it would be a good platform to showcase a real-life working mom and use it to share my story and educate and inspire young women.
“No one tried to talk me out of it — not in my immediate family, at least.”
Moon, who was born outside of Beijing and immigrated to the States when she was six, wants that experience to be a part of her “RHOD” presence. “I want to represent the Asian-American community. We constitute a large percentage of the American population at this point and that’s not reflected in the media.” (Thus far, she has been vocal about educating the show’s other cast members about being on the receiving end of racism.)
“Maybe that sounds naive,” she admits. “Maybe in a year I’ll look back at this when it’s all been just a s–tshow and be like, ‘Why did I do that?'”
Moon also has several causes important to her that she wants to pull into the “RHOD” spotlight: One is North-Texas-based domestic-violence advocacy group The Family Place, on whose board she serves. She’s also judging a Valentine’s Day poetry contest (“I like Emily Barrett Browning; I like a little sad, forlorn poetry”) for Texans Can Academies, a nonprofit education organization that runs a network of dropout recovery schools.
“I was cleaning my house recently and I found the essay I wrote to get into med school, and it was all about how I wanted to help people and change things,” she says. “I was reading it, and I was like, ‘Oh, girl. You’re so innocent.’ Now I’m so jaded with organized medicine and everything that’s going on with the world … but reading that essay, I also thought, ‘God, I miss her.”
NEW YORK

RHONY alum Heather Thomson says she is returning to the hit Bravo series... following firing of Dorinda Medley: 'I'll be back' (Behind the Velvet Rope podcast/Daily Mail)

"Heather Thomson has made several appearances on The Real Housewives of New York City since leaving the cast in 2015.
And the Yummie founder might be coming back in a more permanent capacity, after a slot was left open.
She recently revealed that she's making a return to the Bravo reality series in the upcoming 13th season, after Dorinda Medley was fired last year, as she appeared on Behind The Velvet Rope with David Yontef.
The 50-year-old said: 'There was a lot of buzz of me coming back and you know, I said, I think it was on stories, I did a video, you know that I'll be back, I'll be back. I'll be back. I'll be back. And I will. And I hold true to that.'
But it's not quite clear to what extent she'll be returning, whether she'll be joining the cast again or making a cameo.
She added: 'I, I have made a cameo on just about every season since I left the show. I've been off the show for six years, almost seven years. I haven't been on the show, but I've made a cameo each and every time. And I like my relationship. And until that doesn't feel good anymore, you know what I mean? Then I'll continue to do it.'
Yontef prodded for a firmer confirmation, referencing a recent lunch she had with co-stars Ramona Singer, 64, and Luann de Lesseps, 55, as well as a photo of 'the cast' that featured her, posted by new cast member Eboni K Williams, 37.
'No, she, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know,' Thomson responded, to which the host countered: 'That doesn't that, you know that doesn't tell us whether you're back or not Heather?'
She teased: 'Well, you know the answer to that question, you're going to have to tune in. And wait and see.'
Thomson referenced the promo images of the main cast: 'I don't know that I'll ever hold an Apple again. Does anyone hold apples anymore? Are they still, do they still at the beginning, hold the Apple. I don't even think they do.'"
BEVERLY HILLS

Photos of the BH ladies filming at a Rinna Beauty event for BH11 (realhousewivesfranchise Instagram)
Lisa Vanderpump Says RHOBH Has Lost Its ‘Gravitas’; Reveals Why She Finally Said ‘F–k It’ To Being A Housewife Plus, Announces New Show And New Las Vegas Restaurant (The Skinny Confidential Him & Her podcast/All About The Real Housewives)

"Lisa Vanderpump is sharing her two cents on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills cast.
The former RHOBH OG recently appeared on Dear Media’s The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast, where she said her former show had lost the “gravitas” it once had. She also dished on her new reality show and new Las Vegas-based restaurant.
During the interview, host Michael Bosstick noted that he’s not a fan of the Real Housewives. Oddly enough, Lisa agreed.
“Nor am I,” she confessed. “I do think it’s probably lost a bit of its gravitas.”
When asked what changed on the show, Lisa noted that her June 2019 exit from the series seemingly pulled the show in a different direction.She also pointed out that she was an anchor on the show and brought levity and a “down to earth” attitude to the program.
“A lot of people thought I was the anchor on the show and the narrative in terms of, maybe being somebody that kind of ignited conversation, but I’m also somebody who saw things in a very down to earth fashion, just actually brought some kind of, a level really to [the show],” she explained.
As for why she ultimately left RHOBH, Lisa says she couldn’t handle doing another reunion with all of the women coming at her.
Lisa explained that over the years, she had multiple negative housewives experiences with her former co-stars “coming at me.”
However, at this point in her life, she was done with “constantly being a target on that show.”
She also admits that going into season 9, she experienced an “emotional dilemma” as she was “really struggling” with her brother Mark Vanderpump’s suicide, which left her “beyond devasted.”
“I did suggest I take that season off didn’t feel strong enough,” she noted.
Lisa explained that she had “been the subject of a few gang-ups before, so I knew I had another one coming.”
When it came time to film the season 9 reunion, Lisa says she just couldn’t handle having the cast “all against me again.”
“This time, I thought fuck it – I can’t do this anymore,” she confessed. “I’m searching for happiness. They were all against me over this nonsense. It had no benefit for me. It was bullshit. Something clicked, and [I was like] I’m done.”
Meanwhile, Lisa hints that she has a “new show coming along” but says she’s “not allowed to talk” about it.
She is also planning to open a new restaurant in Las Vegas, which will mark her second venue in Sin City. In 2019, Lisa opened up the Vanderpump Cocktail Garden at Caesar’s Palace.
“We’ve just started work on that now,” she teased about her new Vegas venture. “I’ve been designing that with my partner, Nick Alain. [I am] so excited about that, but that will be quite a few months away.”
MELBOURNE

Pettifleur's night of fun with John Travolta (New Idea Australia)

"Pettifleur has left the glitz and glamour of the housewife life behind to brave the jungle instead.
This show is a far cry from RHOM, but still there’s plenty of opinions and clashes, would you say IAC been easier or harder?
IAC is completely different to RHOM. However, both shows have their challenges.
On IAC, we support and rely on each other and it's easy to be vulnerable. The trials, hunger, and the environment are very tough; many of us suffered from severe coffee and sugar withdrawals.
RHOM is very exciting to film with the glitz and glamour, amazing holidays, fancy lifestyles etc. However, the show is based on drama and it can be personally challenging to sustain the high level of drama all the time.
I wouldn’t call them clashes, just different opinions on IACwith heightened emotions due to the tough circumstances.
It’s been some time since your days on RHOM, are they behind you now or would you jump at the chance to return?
I wouldn’t say I’d jump at the opportunity right now, but I would never say never and shut the door on RHOM.
You never know what’s around the corner, after all it is the show that launched my television persona and I am forever grateful for the opportunity and very thankful to the people who believed I had something to offer RHOM.
Sparks are flying between certain camp mates, are you enjoying nay romance of your own since filming?
Sparks are certainly flying between some camp mates. Right now, I am not looking for romance. I am very content with my single life and enjoy my own schedule. I have my sons and they keep me young and happy.
What would you say are you biggest fitness tips to get a body like yours – it’s incredible!
Thank you. Weight training is very important to stay strong and protect your joints and bones. Start training when you're young, you will benefit from it when you get to my age; I started when I was 22 years old, hence my muscle definition.
Make exercise a part of your daily routine rather than a chore; being consistent makes it easy to stay healthy. Feed your body lots of good quality food and drink plenty of water: you cannot out-train a bad diet so its important to get your food intake right.
Do not diet, nourish your body with lots of wholesome food. I think a mix of activity is important so that you will not get bored. I do weight training, boxing, yoga and walking to balance my week.
In 2019 you met Hollywood superstar John Travolta, what was it he like to meet in real life?
It was a "pinch-me" moment meeting John Travolta backstage.
That smile, those beautiful blue eyes piercing through my soul as he looked in awe of me as he said "those are your sons? I don’t believe it you look so young!" I hadn’t felt more flattered in my life until that moment.
I will never forget how silky smooth his hands felt to the touch and how warm and genuine his embrace was.
On Instagram you proved to be very passionate about him – is safe to say you’re are a big fan?
When I was young, I had every magazine cover of JT pinned up all over my bedroom walls and my school bag was covered with stickers of JT in Saturday Night Fever and Grease.
I dreamed about meeting him one day. Never in my wildest dreams did I think my dream would come true. I became a mad Bee Gees fan because of JT.
You even used a flame emoji’s on a picture of him, would you say John is your type?
I think every lady from my era wanted to be Sandy. He is definitely a stud. I even got a pair of Sandy’s black pants. I think you are getting the picture. But most of all he is just a genuine and humble superstar."

I'm A Celebrity's Pettifleur Berenger, 56, says she can steal Ash Williams from Abbie Chatfield if she gives him the 'green light' in the jungle (Daily Mail)

"Abbie Chatfield and Ash Williams have been getting hot and heavy in the jungle on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!
But it appears a love triangle is forming in camp with Pettifleur Berenger, 56, confessing she could steal the hunky comedian away from Abbie.
During Monday night's episode, The Real Housewives of Melbourne star said she could take Ash if she gave him the 'green light'.
After looking at Abbie and Ash cuddling in camp, she said: 'Abbie is very keen and Ash is going with the flow. You can't blame the guy, right?'
Pettifleur then spoke with co-star Grant Denyer in a private conversation about her affections for the muscled comedy king.
'[Abbie's] scared that he's going to slip away, so she's hanging tight, I reckon,' Pettifleur said. 'And if I give Ash the green light, she's going to lose him.'
Grant got Pettifleur to explain what the 'green light' was for, with her saying: 'Oh, to have a bit of a kiss and a cuddle.'
Pettifleur said the comedian has made her feel 'a lot softer' since coming into the camp with her admitting she has had her barriers up.
'I've been barricading myself in this big iron cage,' said Pettifleur, before Grant suggested maybe she should look for an unattached campmate.
'He's ticking all the boxes for me at the moment. He's really started chipping away at me,' said Pettifleur.
She then lamented her frustration with Abbie: 'You can't even get, like, frickin' two seconds,' she added. 'Like, that would be gone if I really wanted to.'
Ash later spoke with Grant and Alli Simpson saying 'he was in trouble' with the women fighting over his affections.
'So, she's legit huh,' Ash said, talking about Pettifleur.
'I'm going to have to actually talk to Paulini and get her to simmer the whole thing,' he said, of the women fighting for his affections."
JERSEY (UK)

Real Housewives of Jersey: Kate Taylor reveals illness battle left her in bed for 18 months (Entertainment Daily UK)

"Real Housewives of Jersey star Kate Taylor has opened up on her battle with depression after splitting from her ex-husband.
The 52-year-old reality star has revealed exclusively to Entertainment Daily that she was left bed bound for 18 months, as she battled through the “lowest point of her life”.
Thankfully, Kate overcome her struggles “a little while ago” following a trip to Bali.
Kate’s struggles began soon after her bitter split from her ex-husband.
Speaking to ED!, she said: “I spent 18 months basically in bed with a horrible depression. I’ll never go back there again.
“I didn’t expect to be on a TV show back then – I was lucky enough to want to see the next day. I used to have my girl called Friday, she would beg me every day to get up out of bed.
“That was the lowest point in my life.”
During her break to Bali, Kate took part in daily yoga and meditation sessions.
And while the decision to remain celibate following the spiritual trip seemed to be a good idea at the time, Kate told us otherwise.
She added: “In Bali I did this love, relationships and intimacy course. Because I’m such a [bleep] I went celibate for a year, then we went into lockdown.
“I mean, have you tried getting laid at a two-metre distance?!
“I’m the most sexual, tactile creature in the world. If someone said to me, ‘What’s your favourite past time?’ Well, it used to be trying to get as much attention as I could from my husband.”
Kate’s marriage came to a tragic end after her ex-husband moved on with a younger woman.
Despite things not being great with her former partner, Kate is working to improve her relationship with son Finn.
Fans of the ITVbe series will know the star has shared a strained relationship with the 21-year-old following her marriage breakdown.
So how are things between them now?
“I saw him Christmas Day,” she admitted. “He came around and it was the first time he had ever been to the flat!”
Proving she’s still hopeful the two can work through their issues, Kate added: “Finn is the most beautiful soul you could ever meet. I know that’s all the other side of the family that are drip feeding him poison, but that’s not my problem.
“He will come around. You cannot break the bond of love between a mother and a son.
“This is just a phase he has to go through before he realises my true worth.”
In the meantime, Kate is keeping busy with best pal and neighbour Margaret Thompson.
The pair, who have known each other for over 30 years, live next door to each other in Jersey.
Despite their close bond, Kate is still unsure whether she’ll join her bestie on the next season of the reality show.
In fact, she’s keeping her options open until the finale episode.
When ED! asked Kate whether a series two was in the pipelines, she explained: “They don’t know! I think they’re lining us up a little bit for it.
“They’re seeing if we’re interested and if we would want to do another season. I’ve promised Margaret I will not make up my mind until the last one has gone out.
“We’re in week four now, so in six weeks when I’ve seen it all I’ll make a decision.”
CHESHIRE

RHOCH's Tanya Bardsley appears to flout UK travel ban by jetting to Dubai as she and co-star Lystra Adams enjoy glitzy dinner with Salt Bae (Daily Mail)

Wrestling Observer Rewind ★ May 16, 1988

Going through old issues of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and posting highlights in my own words, continuing in the footsteps of daprice82. For anyone interested, I highly recommend signing up for the actual site at f4wonline and checking out the full archives.
• PREVIOUS •
1987
FUTURE YEARS ARCHIVE:
The Complete Observer Rewind Archive by daprice82


1-4-1988	1-11-1988	1-18-1988	1-25-1988
2-1-1988	2-8-1988	2-15-1988	2-22-1988
2-29-1988	3-7-1988	3-14-1988	3-21-1988
3-28-1988	4-4-1988	4-11-1988	4-18-1988
4-25-1988	5-2-1988	5-9-1988	*

The big stories this week really won’t hit until late in the issue, so read down I guess.
[NWA] The Midnight Rider angle lasted just a whole two weeks after his initial arrival. The whole thing began just four or five weeks back with a baseball bat and punching Magnum T.A., and all that work was wasted when they pulled the plug. The Midnight Rider gimmick just wasn’t working, so they did an official announcement that Paul Boesch convinced the NWA board to reinstate Dusty. All the panicked decisions lately leave Dave with the impression that the NWA is in worse shape than they seemed to be a few weeks back, and things don’t look likely to change any time soon. More of a surprise to Dave than the fact that it wasn’t working is the fact that they did it so quickly when the angle was supposed to last through the summer. He thinks that has to be hard on Dusty’s ego. So them setting up a feud between Dusty and Barry Windham when the logical feud should be Luger and Windham seems a desperate move to placate Dusty. And there’s no predicting what the NWA will do next, because the people in charge don’t seem to know what they’re doing week to week.
Ex-NFL star Steve Courson makes his pro wrestling debut this week at a Pennsylvania independent show. He’s barely trained and being rushed into the ring to capitalize off his NFL fame. The guy was a heavy steroid user back in the NFL and admitted as much, and his career ended due to health issues a couple years ago. Nevertheless, he’s got an anti-steroid book about to hit bookshelves. Seems carny enough for the business.
Roddy Piper showed up at Don Owen’s April 30 card in Portland. Billy Jack Haynes’ rival promotion debuted on May 7 and starts its tv program on May 14. Haynes claims he didn’t delay a week due to Piper’s April 30 appearance, but because his ring lights were late in arriving. They were lighting Chris Adams’ ring, I’m sure. Anyway, Piper showed up in the interview area and never entered the ring, and when Mike Golden told Piper to scram during his interview, Piper acted passive and backed off to help put Golden over. Golden then produced a contract for a match on May 7 and tried to goad Piper into a match, to which Piper retorted he’s lost a lot of weight and isn’t a fighter anymore, only to finally get into it with Golden after more taunting and Golden spitting on him. Fans left with the idea that Piper would fight Golden, but Piper never appeared on May 7 and no announcement of them having a match took place.
Variety Magazine reports that all the weekly pro wrestling shows have dropped out of the top 15 in syndicated ratings. So the real story is the way that the wrestling shows made it into the top 15 in the first page. The WWF network had 5 shows, Crockett network had 4, and All-Star Wrestling network had at least 6, and each of those packages added up the ratings of all the shows in them and reported that rating. Compare to say, Wheel of Fortune, which is just the one show, and so you had the combined ratings of anywhere from 4-6+ shows trying to act like all the shows in that package were competitive ad space to a show like Wheel or Jeopardy, which is unfair to those single shows that pull in massive ratings. Anyway, those who calculate ratings have done away with those network packages in their calculations to level the playing field, so WWF isn’t getting ahead of Oprah and her single show’s 9 rating by combining five shows to pull a 10 rating anymore. Superstars, which is definitely WWF’s most watched show, doesn’t even come close to the top 15 on its own. For Dave, this isn’t a big deal, other than that it’ll be harder to track ratings, which are the best way to measure interest at the moment. Dave’s tv industry contacts think this is a big blow to wrestling as an industry, however, and more damaging to Crockett than McMahon since Vince has sold most of his ad slots for the year already. Nothing has materially changed, but advertisers are going to see wrestling as less hot, and their places in the top 15 have been taken by shows like Love Connection, Star Search, and Hollywood Squares. A wrestling network package might offer the same number of viewers, but advertisers look at the rankings to decide what’s hot, and wrestling’s not going to appear there anymore, and their ads in trade publications won’t be able to boast WWF or NWA as among the highest rated networks in syndication. Long story short, Promoters are going to have to chase advertising dollars rather than advertisers chasing promotions, and that spells an eventual downturn for the business.
[NWA] Clash of the Champions II, called Miami Mayhem, has been announced for June 8. Dave gets the feeling that it won’t be as hot a show as the first Clash and that those in the company think they might have given away too much on the first and thus hurt themselves at the gate. Dave thinks they did indeed give a lot, but they also failed to take advantage of a lot. Like, the barbed wire match was the end of a feud and they didn’t even know it because despite the heels being beaten quick and clean, they’re still running the match when there’s no point in continuing the feud. Dave thinks they had a lot of momentum coming off the first clash and they squashed it by downplaying everything in favor of the now-aborted Midnight Rider angle.
Randy Savage is now being billed as Undisputed WWF Champion. They’ve dropped the word “heavyweight” and Dave’s been told they’re planning to no longer use it, for whatever that’s worth.
WWF is working on a bunch of non-wrestling specials. Kind of like the Slammy Awards in the way they’ll sell the shows and in their hopes for ratings. Dave hopes not similar in terms of quality, at least.
Managers Mr. Fuji, Jimmy Hart, and Frenchy Martin appeared on WWF’s May 7 Boston house show. No idea if it’s just certain New England cities they’ll appear in or what, but yeah, that’s the update on the managers at house shows thing.
Dave and his friends were joking that Ultimate Warrior vs. Andre the Giant would be the worst possible match this generation. Lo and behold, Dave found out that they put that match on a few weeks back in Switzerland on a European tour. Dave asks “What did the Swiss ever do to Vince McMahon?” I can't find anything from Switzerland, but I did find a clip from Italy on that same tour.

Watch: Andre vs. Warrior

Dave saw the program for the Central States April 28 show in Kansas City and it’s the funniest thing he’s seen in a while. The program talks about the Freebirds (supposed to be coming in) and says they’re managed by Michael Hayes, and it has a picture of Hayes taken from their original heel days in Georgia in 1980. Bob Geigel runs the promotion and makes his own programs, and it’s good to see how up to date he’s managed to be.
Ken Mantell sent a letter to every promotion except WWF and NWA offering for World Class to work with them. World Class isn’t running a full-time schedule, so Mantell’s looking for ways to get his guys out there, but they only have a couple guys with any significant name value. Michael Hayes, Terry Gordy, Terry Taylor, and maybe Chris Adams could give a boost to a promotion getting into things with a local babyface, but just sending Taylor and Adams to have a match against each other won’t help anyone (they did that for the May 2 show in Memphis). Talent sharing isn’t helpful to the other promotions unless they can do a tv angle or work several shows rather than a one-off date (with the rare exception of a Michael Hayes date in Atlanta, or Gordy doing an independent show with a match against Brody or Abdullah).
[Memphis] Eddie Gilbert beat Jerry Lawler on May 2 to keep Missy Hyatt’s hair on her head. The finish saw Lawler punch Paul E. Dangerously (who manages Gilbert in Continental) after Missy failed to distract Lawler with her open shirt trick. Dangerously showed up when Lawler went after her, and then Kenny Dee, who was managing Lawler, threw powder in Lawler’s eyes, leading to Gilbert getting the pin. Money wound up changing hands from Dangerously to Hyatt to Dee after the match, so Kenny Dee is a newly minted heel manager.
Also in Memphis, the Iceman King Parsons vs. Kerry Von Erich match from the same show got little reaction. People came to see Lawler and Gilbert, not them, and Dave still doesn’t understand putting this match on and billing Parsons as a world champion when the next show is Lawler vs. Hennig for the AWA World Title. It’s just undercutting that match to act like the WCCW title is a world title and then turn around and go “Well here’s a different world title” and being very inconsistent in their recognition of world championships.
More on the special referee poll for the May 9 LawleHennig match. They’re running the poll from a 1-900 number (which means a cost of $1 per phone call), so the company was profiting off the poll. That explains the amount of promotion they were doing saying that Larry Hennig was winning the poll by a narrow margin due to fans in Minnesota flooding the line with votes for Hennig. They were doing no such thing, but it’s a smart way to bilk the local fan base. In Memphis, they run their tv show live, so when it started at 11 am, they did a segment where they said the poll would close at noon (Hennig still leading the results) to keep fans voting until the last minute, even doing another segment at 11:45 am. At noon, Lawler came out and acted all serious with his best Bad News Barrett impression and said he was afraid he had some bad news. “Bad news for Curt Hennig, that is,” and announced Jackie Fargo was the winner of the referee poll. Dave guesses the reason for the charge is probably to drum up enough money to pay Curt Hennig enough to be happy, but this sure is a new way to try and make money off wrestling.
There’s a newcomer in the Oregon territory named Steve Austin. No, he’s not stone cold, but he’s also used the name Steve Winters (Dave believes this is his real name), and he’ll wind up wrestling for Stampede in the future under the name Lance Idol. Dave’s seen him a bit before in his early days in the Bay area and recalls him being a good worker trying to emulate Ray Stevens in style.
Don Owen’s May 7 show had the best case for allowing blading that Dave has ever heard of. They had a Northwest Tag Title cage match with Steve Doll and Scott Peterson beating Avalanche and Mike Golden to regain the titles. Owen believes you need blood in a cage match, while the Oregon commission has banned blading, so how do you suppose Owen got around the issue? Mike Golden got bloody hardway, and they wanted Peterson to bleed too, so they had Golden and Avalanche try to hardway Peterson with potatoes to the forehead. Dave hears they did some 14 hard punches to Peterson’s head and none of them opened him up. One did bust up his nose a bit, though. This is what happens when blading is banned and wrestlers feel the need to get color - they’re going to be really unsafe and hurt themselves.
Tatsumi Fujinami beat Vader by countout on April 27, in a show that drew 5,000 in Osaka. For comparison, All Japan’s Brody/Tenryu match there last month drew 4,000. Fujinami had vowed to retire if he couldn’t beat Vader, so they kind of had to have that finish if they wanted Vader to keep his monster aura without honoring a retirement. Anyway, Dave isn’t sure if this is legit or just an angle, but Fujinami is being reported as trying to make a play for the top spot now that Inoki’s foot is broken. He’s even got a new haircut to symbolize his change from being a young disciple of Inoki to being his own man.
All Japan Women’s May 15 show has a hell of a triple main event lineup. At the top of the card you have the Crush Girls vs. the Jumping Bomb Angels. Then you have Mika Suzuki vs. Kaoru Maeda for the jr. championship (not a weight class, but rather a title exclusively for wrestlers with under 2 years experience). Lastly, Erika Shishido and Nobuko Kimura defend the AJW tag titles against two of the standout rookies from the class of 1987 who are getting their first crack at major exposure, Manami Toyota and Toshiyo Yamada. Erika Shishido, by the way, is a 17 year old from the class of 1986 and the company has big plans for her as a future heel star and partner for Bull Nakano. You may know her better as Aja Kong.
Windy City Wrestling drew remarkably well, drawing $40,000 at International Amphitheater in Chicago. It’s the largest gate Dave’s ever heard of for an independent promotion. The card had Col. DeBeers, Candi Divine and Debbie Combs, Paul E. Dangerously, Buddy Rose and Doug Somers, and a bunch else going on. Based on ticket prices, they pulled an audience of over 4,000 people. The promoter sold the show to the venue for $10,000, so they made a big profit on the event. WWF has taken notice and already there’s talk of them running the same venue, because they believe it may tap into a different crowd than the Rosemont Horizon.
[Stampede] Owen Hart’s reign as North American champion has ended as of May 6. He dropped the title to Makhan Singh, whom he beat for the title on April 10, 1987. Definitely a step toward Owen’s departure from the promotion here, as his last match with Stampede if he does go to the WWF will be on May 14 before he does the IWGP series for New Japan. Owen did agree to go to the WWF for a masked gimmick, either a Tiger Mask or Mighty Mouse type, but he’s apparently having second thoughts, perhaps related to a personal goal he supposedly has of having the match of the year with Ric Flair. Sadly, Owen’s never going to get that match. Bret and Davey Boy Smith are pushing hard for Owen to come to WWF.
Heading to Stampede is Steve Blackman. Blackman’s done some jobs for WWF in the past and is kind of a powerlifter type. He’s being paired with Brick Bronsky, whom Dave describes as an untalented lifter type (Dave rates the May 7 Edmonton match between Kerry Brown and Bronsky at -3.5 stars and calls it one of the worst matches Stampede will ever have), and their team name is the Abortion Alliance. Jeezus, Bruce.
A new women’s wrestling promotion is supposed to start up, doing tapings at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. Wendi Richter and Misty Blue are said to be the top stars and Gordon Solie is said to be on board for announcing, and there’s supposedly tv contracts lined up.
Ted Turner is working on a new cable station called TNT. It’s gonna have a lot of MGM movies and sports events, and probably eventually some Crockett wrestling. The FCC is expected to change some regulations, which would put WTBS back to only being Atlanta-local and all the superstations will revert to local tv.
Looks like a lock that Financial News Network will be taking on Continental by the end of the month or early June. As for a deal with New Japan, that seems to be on hold, as neither side could come to an agreement.
Lawsuits corner. WWF is suing FNN over their Hulkamania package. Larry Sharpe is suing Bam Bam Bigelow for breach of contract. Sharpe was Bigelow’s real manager back in Japan.
The best match on an independent show in Brooklyn on April 29 saw Lou Fabiano (a former WWF jobber) team with Cactus Jack against George Skaaland and Tom Brandi. Cactus Jack is a trainee of Dominic DeNucci, and Dave hears that he’s a top flight worker.
Word is that Futahaguro (real name Koji Kitao), the yokozuna who got kicked out of sumo, is reporting to the Monster Factory in New Jersey to train under Larry Sharpe. He’s in New York this week on other business (mostly talk shows), so no definite word, but that’s the rumor coming out of the area.
The Von Erich Parade of Champions drew an estimated 7,000 fans. Dave anticipates a more accurate estimate and gate next week. The show was… Let me just give some highlights. The first match was terrible. The second match was mostly rest holds and had no heat, and after winning the match Mike George grabbed the mic to make sure the fans knew he was recognized as World Champion in Kansas City. Nobody cared because nobody cares about the Kansas City promotion. Steve Casey was supposed to challenge Eric Embry for the light heavyweight title, but he came in 1.5 pounds over the weight limit. After the crowd heckled Embry, he agreed to a non-title match, which Casey won in 19 seconds. That extra weight made all the difference, I reckon. Bill Irwin vs. Black Bart was fair. Then you had Michael Hayes vs. Terry Gordy in a triple tower of doom and Dave says that while there was heat, the gimmick’s a total dud because you can’t do any moves or take any bumps the way it’s all structured. They then gave the crowd something good, as Terry Taylor beat Chris Adams to keep the Texas title in a great match. The Texas roundup in the triple tower of doom, on the other hand, was the opposite of great. If Dusty plans to actually use this concept, he’s got a lot of work cut out for him, because not one fan in the building understood what the hell was going on. Bruiser Brody carried his match teaming with Kevin Von Erich against Buddy Roberts and Solomon Grundy, and nobody cared about Kevin. They had to replace Schaun Simpson with Terry Gordy due to injury suffered in the Texas roundup for the Wild West/Texas tag title unification match, and Gordy/Simpson won by disqualification. It’s unclear if that makes the Simpsons Wild West tag champs and Gordy/Simpson Texas tag champs, or if it unifies the titles on the Simpsons, or what. In the end, Kerry Von Erich regained the WCCW title. Nobody cares. World Class is every bit as fucked as WCW in 2000.
Dave’s got the lineup for the second Clash, and he thinks the NWA is now afraid to put on a hot show. Windham vs. Ricky Santana, Koloff vs. Al Perez, Dusty vs. Larry Zbysko, the Garvins vs. Rotunda and Rick Steiner, the Fantastics vs. Sheepherders for the U.S. Tag Titles, and Blanchard/Anderson defending the NWA tag titles against Sting and Steve Williams. No Flair, Luger, or Road Warriors in sight.
When the NWA announced Dusty’s reinstatement, the reaction was pretty negative. After a moment of silence, one woman cheered and two more joined her, and they were swiftly drowned in a chorus of boos.
Night 2 of the Crockett Cup grossed $115,000 at the gate. The Cup as a whole managed a combined gate equal to the merch sales gross at Wrestlemania.
They’re building a new Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina, and it’s supposed to open in the fall. Word is that WWF will get the first two shows there and Crockett will be relegated to the 2,500 seat Charlotte Park Center, since the old Coliseum building will be torn down. WWF can’t run the existing Coliseum for the same reasons Crockett can’t touch Madison Square Garden, but the new Coliseum has different management with no relationship to Crockett, so they’re going to give WWF a chance.
Gordon Solie and Mike Graham’s new Florida Championship Wrestling has opened up and did their first tv taping on April 30. They’re looking to run five days a week in central Florida starting real soon.
Antonio Inoki’s injury has led to New Japan declaring the IWGP Title vacant. Tatsumi Fujinami battles Vader on May 7 for the title. Seems to be a lot of behind the scenes tension between Fujinami and Choshu as well. Fujinami walked out after the April 27 show, leaving only Choshu of the original four top draws in the company.
Tiger Mask (Mitsuharu Misawa) is getting married on May 10 and will unmask for the wedding. He’s marrying movie star Tomomi Shiina. After the wedding he may stop wrestling as Tiger Mask and go back to his real name.
As soon as TNT is available in 30 million homes, Crockett’s tv will be moved there. All kinds of rumors are swirling about Crockett and Turner, but as far as Dave’s aware no firm deal of any kind has been reached.
The NWA, Mike Rotunda, Kevin Sullivan, and the city of Albany are all being sued for “torturous acts and personal injury” by 16 year old Mike Strickland. Strickland alleges that on February 9 he was patting wrestlers on the back when city police officers working security for the show seized him and arrested him, then took him to a secluded area where Rotunda and Sullivan “wilfully, intentionally and purposefully assaulted and attempted to commit violent and illegal physical injury” on him and that the police did nothing to stop the beating.
Dave wants us to know that although it was extremely predictable, he found the Midnight Express’s party on the WTBS show really entertaining. Yeah, when you have a cake in wrestling it winds up in the heel or announcer’s face, but the banter between Cornette and Stan Lane was really fun.

Watch: Jim Cornette gets caked

Ted Turner’s got some kind of package deal he’s pitching, using the July NWA ppv as incentive to get cable systems to buy in on TNT. Or maybe it’s the other way around. Dave understands that the cable companies will likely get a higher share of revenue for the PPV from the show than the usual 50/50 split, and Dave says this show is really do or die for Crockett.
Abdullah the Butcher and Kamala no-showed Jerry Blackwell’s May 8 show. They had turned down a spot at the Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions to do that show, so that’s ironic.
”JERRY LAWLER PINNED CURT HENNIG TO WIN THE AWA TITLE ON 5/9 IN MEMPHIS BEFORE 9,500 FANS." The match was apparently “not great” and saw Lawler win by grabbing Hennig by the knees and kangaroo flipping him headlong into the ring post for the pin. Great reaction to the finish, but yeah, Lawler is the new AWA champion. More on this next week.

Watch: the finish to Lawler vs. Hennig

One letter writer chimes in that “loser groups” like GLOW and POWW don’t deserve time in the Observer. In fact, he hopes they lose their time slots in New York and Boston to Continental and Memphis to give WWF real competition. Yeah, because those groups are going to be able to do that.
Still a bunch of letters sniping back and forth about Clash vs. Wrestlemania. One says they can’t believe anyone could think FlaiSting was the best match they’ve seen in years. Another says that for “Vince McMahon to put WWF fans through that show constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.” As usual, wrestling fans are level-headed and gracious in their disagreements. It warms my soul to see us carrying on this proud tradition of sober discourse on reddit in 2020.

NEXT WEEK: AWA Champion Jerry Lawler, reports from Texas Stadium, Fujinami becomes IWGP champion, Oregon-Washington Wrestling Federation debut show, and more

My writing portfolio

Rachel Schneider
ENG 477
Date 1/11/2021
Marsha Blackburn
A Writing Portfolio
I want to write my own fiction stories one day; I have had a book or two swimming around in my head so I will put the computer to good use and get that typed out one of these days. In this instance I chose my 5 stories and even though one is a marketing inquiry I had fun writing it, so here are my things and some background some of them.
Resume: It is a basic one because my photo ones were not particularly good, and this is an honest resume besides the ones I made for class and I did fudge on those.
Cover letter: I made up the cover letter though there is a penguin Books but it is always fun to use your imagination!
Hike with Drew: I got the concept from a Writer’s Digest and entered it into a contes I never got a response but good practice.
Short Story Vegas: Was one I did for another class but in here I changed it and the story was much better the second time.
Marketing Flyer: This was fun to do those are stock photos of the dogs and squeaky toys, but I like Pit Bulls and dog toys are fun as well.
Scott part 1-This is a story I am working on with another writer, warning its very sexy and some naughty words are in there as well.
Writing Samples: I made these three samples up one day because as I have looked for writing work, I have seen people want a sample of your work, so I came up with these.
Rachel
Schneider

3867 Houghton Ave Riverside CA 92501 📷
951-743-8911 📷
[email protected] 📷
Rachel Schneider 📷
Rachel7Tori-Twitter 📷
📷

Objective
To get a career going in the fiction/short story writing industry my imagination can run with any scenario and to write is to live.
📷

Education
Bachelor of Arts in English | Grand Canyon University
2017 – 2021
Took 15 different writing courses, creative writing and even two fun marketing classes all to polish up my craft. Carried a 3.0 GPA and did the courses all online as well.
No Degree Obtained | Riverside Community College
June 1994 – December 1996
Took these college courses but did not finish got 32 Units of Child Development Courses though which is what I was going for
📷

Experience
Cafeteria Worker 1
2008 Currently Employed.
Cook, Prep, serve food in a middle school setting, also clean, count inventory and do next day prep, cash handling and POS register experience.
Bell Ringer | Salvation Army
November 2007 – December 2007
Rang bell and collected donations for the salvation Army in front of various stores during the holiday season.
📷

Skills
Food handlers Card
CPR First Aid certified

Grammar Proficiency
Spelling Proficiency
Can work from home
📷

Activities
Have good use of social media and can help update or bring in new followers with my creative writing side. Have a Reddit account as well with 30 stories up on that site. Can speak a little Spanish and Hebrew as well.
951-743-8911
[email protected]
3867 Houghton Ave Riverside CA 92501

Rachel Schneider

Writer

Penguin Books

Dear JENNIFER MCGREGOR,

1/21/2021
Jennifer McGregor
Fiction Publisher
4587 Tropicana Rd.
Las Vegas NV 89102

I have included my resume for the short story writer for young adult novels. It has been a few years, but I currently work in a middle school, so I do see all the angst and sass that goes with being a young teen. I do hope my writing samples can help me move to the top of the list. I look forward to working with Penguin Books and letting kids know being a teen is hard at first, but it does not last forever.
Sincerely,
Rachel Schneider
Rachel Schneider
3867 Houghton Ave
Riverside CA 92501
It had been a long cold winter Drew and I could not get out for a morning hike till today. Being 75 degrees, we did not have to wear many layers. He is an extremely sweet inquisitive boy who always asks a lot of questions. Why does moss grow on the north side of trees” he asks? Its times like this when it would be nice to have my husband here, but he is overseas where the work is. “well, it’s not just the north side it’s on the shadier side because that is where the moisture is.”
On we went looking at snails on the ground watching the deer pass by along a ridge. Being quiet as to not startle them. “Mom he whispered it’s a bunny den they are coming out for food, he leaves a few carrot and lettuce scraps from last night’s dinner. I walked down the path and spotted some glorious Blue Jays and a Downey Woodpecker. “Listen Drew the woodpecker is getting the bugs out of the trees.” My sweet Drew was staring at the Bunnies, they are cute and fluffy after all. We followed our path down further after the bunnies went back to the den.
The skies were getting cloudy, so I hoped the rain was not going to come back. Though the weather report said there was a chance. My little explorer with his school uniform on was undeterred, I wish I could wear shorts on a 75 day and not be cold, it is always nice to be young. Walking along our path we spot some squirrels running in circles around the tree. “Why do the chase each other like that” Drew asks. “Maybe it’s a game for them like ring around the Rosie.”
On we trek to our favorite stream where the deer family are taking their drinks. I tell Drew we cannot skip stones right now we do not want to scare them. We look through the grass for more of his favorite bugs, saw some worms just below the dirt by a tree. Looking up we see a big spider web being made between two branches. The crows were making their calls in the distance. We are finally able to skip our stones in the stream. He gets some great skips going, and we collect some new rocks for our little garden back home.
Walking past the stream we climb up the embankment and up along the ridge where we see a Fox off in the distance. He or she walks the opposite direction we are going so it is a relief we can continue to the clearing. Where there are more bugs, rocks, and Bunnies. We pass the Deer family as they run up the hill to were, they mostly frolic or maybe they live up there. We stop for a snack of Apples, Almonds, and some cheese sticks. When we were finished Drew put a couple of slices in his pocket to feed the Bunnies, I am sure.
“Mommy we’re getting to the clearing now we can see the Bunnies and the last time Daddy, and I were here I got some neat rocks too.” Drew told ne enthusiastically, I did love his passion for nature, though again my husband is much better at the nature stuff. I am a pastry Chef ask me about desserts and I am your woman, about why moss grows on trees and hello Google. Since Dad is unavailable, I step in and let him explore and see the world outside of the house and off the screen.
It is just another half mile and it is on to the clearing. He starts to pull me hand a little harder I know he is excited. We pass under the tree I glance up and see the Fox again. Then we stop and see “Daddy home……
Name: Rachel Schneider
Course: ENG 361
Date: 4/14/2020
Instructor: Debbie Graves
One Week In Las Vegas
The countdown started Friday at 2pm I got the week off from this thing I call a job (just over broke). The car was packed, it was time to hit the road. The traffic was average and climbing the Cajon Pass was not that bad. I stopped in Baker to have my favorite meal at Bob’s Big Boy, the chili spaghetti, no onions. After making my way back on the highway the traffic picked up going out of Baker, through to Primm and Stateline. I had to stop for gas at Whiskey Pete’s, so I also went in and got some snack goodies. My favorite trail mix and some cheese potato chips because vending machines are too expensive. The road was beckoning so off I went, traveling through Jean is always nice, not much to see. A prison, a few remaining casinos, some outbuildings, and a truck stop. There slogan was always fun 40 smiles closer than Vegas. You can get bored so be sure to pack some music you can have your own car concert. “I’ll face it with a grin I’m never giving in, on with the show” (Show Must Go on by Queen)
Finally, the Vegas skyline is in sight, the lights are not on yet, but they will be needing to navigate around the strip. I do say a few words the terrible drivers. This vacation was so needed my job is crazy, my kids are older now and do not need mom around anymore. Off they went to grandma’s house and I booked the week at the Delano, it is attached to the Mandalay bay so perfect access to all the fun of the strip, and just enough luxury to not look cheap. Getting the valet to take the car I check into my genuinely nice room I have a great view of the Luxor light (that comes off the top of the hotel) and the Excalibur. Now off to indulge in that genuinely nice bathtub and get some overdue reading done. My bathroom with a view has the Luxor light and that is the brightest light on the Vegas strip it comes right out of the top of the Pyramid shaped hotel. A brightness of 42.3 billion candela, you could read a paper from 10 miles straight up if you wanted to.
Once I was well soaked and finished with my chapters it was time to find something to eat besides my snack foods. After cruising the room service options, I settled on some Mexican food of chorizo and eggs with nice corn tortillas. That hit the spot so with the extra energy it was time to get out for a stroll of the property. The indoor pool is nice but small and I want to soak up the sunshine and get some exercise so I shall hit the outdoor pool tomorrow. Back in the lobby I grab those ads for things to do in the city so I can plan out the rest of my trip. There are thousands of things to do in Vegas. Do not be disappointed if you do not get everything done, that is what the next trip is for. I have a beautiful week and I want to have a good time and not have to wait for anybody, I can do what I want. I got those and cruised up through the lobby and toward the casino on my way there I saw a sign for a food and wine festival. With that guy Zac from the travel channel. Thinking hmm I did not know he was interested in food or wine. I went down and found my favorite penny slot game Lucky cat. After 15 minutes I came out putting 20 in and winning 500, so I called it a night and went to the bar to catch a hockey game and grab a fun fruity drink (I like tequila sunrise, (Tequila, grenadine, and cranberry juice). As I am rooting for the Golden Knights (local Vegas hockey team) I looked over to my left and there was Zac from the travel channel, and he likes hockey too this is awesome, and I am trying not to be a fan girl.
The game was in intermission and the Knights were winning so it was time for a new fruity drink so this time I turned around to get back to the bar and bumped right into Zac, boy was my face red. After some apologies and an offer to buy my next fruity drink (a Strawberry Daiquiri) it was a yes and I spilled that I was a fan. He told me he does have an interest in food and wine not just chasing ghosts with his crew. We had some great conversation and when the game came back on, we both sat in the booth cheering the golden knights to their victory. Now I am buzzed and standing up was going to be fun, but Zac was a true gentleman and helped me to my feet. He offered to buy me dinner. The Taco Hut was a good place the tortillas were fresh, and the company was so cool. The conversation turned to food, wine, travel, and some stuff about me. The midnight hour rolled around, and Zac had an early morning, so we said goodnight, but he was staying one floor above me, so we agreed to go to the diner in the lobby for breakfast or brunch. At 10am I was enjoying my company and this great stick to your ribs breakfast (scrambled eggs, sausage, hash browns and some great watermelon) The food offerings in Vegas are so varied you can get everything from a hot dog and beer for 1.99 at the Orleans, to a 5-star meal at Caesar’s Palace the buffets are great too. Although sometimes you want a nice sit-down dinner.
The conversation was effortless the attraction was deep. We made plans to see each other again after the food contest he was judging was over. Saying goodbye was a bit hard but the hand holding was sweet and made me feel like a schoolgirl again. After saying goodbye and I did watch him walk into the convention hall I went back to my room to plan out the rest of my day. I chose a tour of the Mob Museum, they say that Vegas was built with Mob money, but it was a Mormon founded town that later Hollywood discovered. Then many people in Hollywood who were well connected (such as East Coast mobsters) financed Bugsy Segal to build the Flamingo Hotel. As I was putting my shoes on, I got a knock on the room door and as I opened it, I got some flowers (pink roses) and an all-access pass to the food and wine festival courtesy of Zac. Let us just say the Mob Museum can wait for later I got to go to a food and wine festival and spend the rest of the week with Zac. “hi Zac thanks for the flowers it was sweet of you to remember.” He said, “It’s always right to remember a ladies flower preference because that’s the right thing to do.” Smiling the rest of the day I meet other travel channel celebrities and got to taste some great foods and many different wines. The food and wine offerings at the hotels and restaurants are varied, the Las Vegas area have become very international, so the varieties are endless.
The week went by in a blur of food, wine, conversation, and some sweet dates. I never thought I would get over the break-up that happened the week before. Getting a private Vegas tour was something completely special. I did get to see the Mob Museum, Mandalay Bay Fine Art Museum, seven magic mountains, Pinball Hall of fame and a private dinner at the food and wine festival. My days in Vegas were down to one. We had reservations at Rivera right here at the Delano the view is amazing, the food is impressive with Italian and French offers. “I have had a wonderful time this week Zac thank you for mending my broken heart.” He looked at me for a minute and said, “it’s been a pleasure to get to know you and I would not mind visiting your hometown, you always have a reason to come back to Las Vegas. The next food and wine festival is around Christmas, this one will include chocolate.” Hitting the 15 early the next morning I have visions of Christmas, a pass to the food and wine festival, also a brand-new relationship to take back home with me.
The End
When writing a short story, you want to keep it from rambling and have enough details to keep it fresh. When your reader gets into the story you want them to feel like they are there with you, going to the food and wine festival, on that hike through the seven-mountains or touring the mob museum. The details are the thing to see and make sure to watch out for punctuation and common language. An average short story is within 6,00 words or 24 pages. If you wanted too you could go short-short story and that is between 500 and 2,00 words. That comes out to be 6 pages (Minot, Steven Ch. 7 pg. 41), talk about short stories. The story is all your length and style matter as much as how you want it to come into focus.
Minot, Steven and Theil Daniel Three genres the writing of literary pose, poems and plays Ninth edition Pearson Publications 2012
Bouncing Dog Toy Emporium
August 18,2019📷📷
24755 Holly Grove Way
Brookings OR, 97415
Dear Dogs, Rule the World
I am Rachel Schneider from the Bouncing Dog Toy Emporium we make extra bouncy dog toys for our furry friends. We investigated different marketing companies and choose you to do our direct to customer marketing. The way the website is set up the customers can get the product’s directly from you is easier than a multi-level marketing plan. The distribution of Bouncy Dog Toy will be a one level channel, we will provide the toys you market, and we sell them. I would like to get some videos of our company dogs Mac and Stella playing with the toys so you can post on the website. A link for the company can also be included so the consumers know where the toys came from, what they are made of and any other facts about Bouncing Dog Toy Emporium.
Sincerely, Rachel V Schneider
Mac and Stella company dogs and testers 📷
📷 📷📷 📷A sample of our products, our bounciest toys.
Scott’s Story Part 1
I am Scott Thorn, and I am going back to WDU for the first time in 15 years, I went here for a year but after I came out as gay there really were no gay dudes. I am all men but yeah lesbians were all around some BI guys but no real gay dudes. I went back to the mainland and attended Preston University I majored in administration and minored in Literature. I did at one point in my life have a girlfriend and wanted to marry her, but I could not quash the gay lifestyle. That part of my life is over and now the old school offered me a counseling job, have not done this in a while. I get to help students toward there after college career.
I sit here on this boat and keeping an eye on my 75 Triumph I have some nerves, but it is mostly about seeing this place again, so as the boat pulls up, I get my bike going and make a stop at my new on campus apartment. Its west facing because I like sunsets more than sunrise, so I did not know it needed so much work. I have some handy skills but a little at a time. The kitchen is decent and so is the bathroom. The floors will need some polish and the deck needs to be stained, this is a duplex, so I hope the neighbors are quiet. It is furnished and done nicely so I cannot complain too much, but back on the bike to see the Dean.
I get my bike set with the kill switch and walk up the way to the Admin building, I am pretty much the only one dressed. I am wearing my good black jeans and my dress shirt, in my favorite color Maroon. I do remember this place was obsessed with sex so I will stick out wearing clothes, as I enter the building at least more admin people are dressed. Miss Grant the secretary shows me to my new office, its spacious much bigger that my last one at Preston where I shared a cubicle with another person. I have files from past students and current ones, so I started filing them when Dean Kane walks in, booty shorts and a tank top. “Welcome back to WDU Scott, we look forward to seeing you succeed you come very recommended.” I could hardly concentrate because this Dean was hung but I persevered and said, “Thank you sir I look forward to helping young students find there after WDU careers.”
After he left, I had to get my rise to settle then I continued filing and looking through some files. Clarissa Love that was a name that got around even all the way to Preston. I think she does the Jax in the bedroom or something like that. I started looking around and thought I need some life in this office so I asked Miss Grant about decorating and she said I could do what I wanted but no painting, so I went to town and checked out a flea market. I found some pictures of the beaches of Canada, some old homes in the area and a few movie posters from Rocky horror Picture Show (it is my favorite). The flea market said they will deliver to the school tomorrow so I told them I will be there at 9am.
Now with my day done I get to the store to buy some groceries and realize this place uses sextons and I was down to my last few, so now I will need to exchange but thankfully a bank is nearby so I can get some of my mainland money exchanged. I pull up to my new pad off load my few groceries and notice some other tenant left beer in the fridge, talk about luck. I got the beer went to the deck and watched the sunset over the sky. It was going to be new here, but I needed a fresh start after getting dumped and losing the job because my ex was in upper management, never will I do that again. I will find someone who does not work in the school system. After I ate a roast beef and cheddar sandwich for dinner, watched some cooking shows it was time for bed. As I was brushing my teeth, I heard the neighbors having sex. Oh, goody they are not quiet. hope they do not have super energy either. Tomorrow is my first full day and I have decorating to do, fantastic they stopped, that is the thing with us older people we do not fuck like bunnies anymore. As far as I know the neighbors are lesbians so who knows.
Sample 1- If I try my hardest, I could muster up enough courage to ask the prettiest girl in school to prom. I had a suit; bolo tie and I will shine my old boots up. The thing is my courage is not as strong as my best friend Nick, now there is one brave dude who just asked the girl I wanted to go to prom with and of course she said yes. I gather myself close my locker and put on my best smile for them both. Nick and I high five and I hug her, trying to be genuine but it is hard. I head to my Social studies class and sit down next to Megan she looks at me with some concern I tell her what happened, she then asks me to Prom…...
Sample 2-Wishing I did not have to be here I sit at the back of the funeral and think about my old high school principal. I grew up in a small town and everyone knew everyone, we only had one school and you went there for kindergarten through senior year. After my graduation I packed up my old car and headed out to what I thought was the real world. Living in a bigger city only helped spur my loneliness so who says you cannot come home again, well Mom for starters because I abandoned my family, I am not welcome at home ever again (so tired of her drama), so I am staying at Principal Mason’s house yes, the same principal that I am at a funeral for I held her hand as she lay there succumbing to cancer……
Sample 3-If you really want to get over a breakup getting back on the horse will help things along. I thought that too seven lousy dates ago so here I am on date number 8 and I am not seeing any birds singing or rainbows in the sky. He steps away to take a call he is a particularly important lawyer after all (I need to fix my picker) after he comes back, he says it go time the jury has come back so off he goes. I finish my drink and head back to my brownstone close by, I pass the new chocolate shop that just opened, and I get inside and see chocolate heaven. Looking around I do not see him at first but there he is my old college lab partner Sam I just saw a rainbow…….

The King Maker

My first post. I thought reddit would be a good place to share my writing. Elvis Presley is one of my favorite musicians of all time. Just thought this would be a cool idea. Word count: (907)
December 20, 2020
Las Vegas, Nevada
Amongst the bustle of traffic, a young man walked the streets of Las Vegas. His gelled up blonde hair shined in the Vegas moonlight. The Kentucky boy came to Vegas to strike it rich. He had one gig at a crummy motel and he blew it. He walked with his guitar on his back wearing a tweed suit and skinny tie. He loved the classic rockabilly sound. People in 2020 however, did not like good old fashioned rockabilly. The young man was named Charlie Mackenzie.
As he walked, he walked up to a Mexican restaurant. A festive sombrero topped a sign advertising a carnitas platter special. The restaurant was small but inviting. “Alejandro’s Tex Mex”. He saw people eating through the glass windows and yellow curtains.
Charlie entered the Mexican restaurant and sat down with his guitar. No one minded the young man as they munched on their cheap tacos and fajitas. He pulled out his phone and ordered a plane ticket back to Lexington. If he was lucky he could get his old office job back in Lexington.
A young waitress walked up and clicked her pen and asked the young man what he would like to order. “I’ll have a fajita and a Pepsi.” Charlie said as he scrolled on his phone looking for a plane ticket home. The waitress obliged and left. Charlie put his hands on his face thinking that his music career was over. The steak fajita came along with a Pepsi, and some corn chips with salsa. Charlie rolled up the tortilla and put the steak and veggies onto the tortilla. As he ate, he thought about the great stars of the past. He thought of those that influenced him. Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Fats Domino, Little Richard and his favorite and final influence. Elvis Presley.
He could never top the king. He thought as the steak juices ran down his face and the ice cold cola went down his throat. It was there were Charlie gave up and clicked the “book” button to go home to Lexington.
Charlie has left the building. Not Elvis. Charlie thought as he finished his meal, put the money on the table and left the good people of Vegas behind. He had a flight to catch that night. He wasn’t going to sleep.
It was a long walk to McCarran International Airport. 10 Miles to be exact. Charlie walked alone in the night. Only a few hundred dollars to his name and an apartment back in Lexington that had rent due in January. Charlie just kept walking in the lonely night. The lights of Las Vegas being his guide.
He passed Caesars Palace, the Golden Nugget, and eventually made it to the airport. TSA was a bitch, as he took his shoes of and they scanned him. Shit would have been easier years ago. 9/11 made everyone a bunch of terrified little pussies he thought to himself.
He sat down in the terminal. He had about an hour before boarding so he practiced his guitar one last time. He took out his amp and plugged in. He decided he was going to sell it. He remembered buying it and saving every penny to buy it. It was the same model as Chuck Berry’s guitar. It was a Gibson’s limited-edition Chuck Berry 1955 ES-350T. The wood on it was beautiful and polished. The sounds she made were from heaven itself.
The last song he played was its now or never by Elvis. “It’s now or never, come hold me tight, kiss me darling, be mine tonight.” He continued to strum and sing under his breath. The people that were going to be on the plane clapped as they listened to the young man play.
“Hey can you play some more?” An older gentleman asked. Charlie frowned. “I’m not any good.” He said as he unplugged the guitar and put it back in the case. “Listen kid, you have real talent. You just need exposure. Trust me.” Charlie scoffed as the first boarding call was made and people started getting on. Charlie grabbed his guitar and bag and boarded the plane.
Charlie put his guitar in the overhead compartment along with another smaller bag, his other clothes were already checked in when he got to the airport. He closed his eyes and would sleep through the safety briefing which he had seen 100x before.
The plane left Las Vegas. It had a connecting flight in Dallas before Charlie would be home in Lexington. The passenger jet soared over Nevada and eventually Utah. “Ladies and gentleman we are experiencing minor turbulence. Please remain calm.” The pilots said as the plane shook. Charlie woke up. He straightened his tie. The plane lit up into a fireball in the night sky over Utah. Metal debris fell to the desert ground below. Sirens wailed in the distance as the authorities came to investigate the crash.
March 26th 1957
Charlie stirred in a bed that felt alien. The sheets clearly weren’t his. He fell out of his bed and looked in a mirror in the other side of the room. Looking back at him was Elvis Presley! Thoughts raced through his head as he stared at the foreign figure in the mirror. Last thing he remembered he was on a plane, and felt a searing hot pain. Right. He died.

Plans for the future?

SimCasino is in early access. I was curious if the devs have any kind of a road map for features they plan to add in to the game.
But in the meantime, here are some ideas I'd love to see implemented one way or another...

Poker Room. This should be a zone-able room. I could potentially make the same case for blackjack and other table games, for the sake of being able to set the same rules for a whole room full of similar games without setting the rules for the entire casino, but I think poker especially should have a room. A poker room would allow a poker desk where the poker room manager handles making/breaking tables. Instead of the player deciding how many tables are Hold'em or Omaha or whatever other game, the player can select what games are allowed at the poker desk and let the poker floor manager run the making & breaking of games (this is how it works in real life). Additionally, a poker room would allow the tables in a specific area to be connected to each other in order to allow for poker tournaments. Poker tournaments are generally less profitable for casinos than normal cash games, but they can help the poker room fill up empty tables at otherwise less busy times.
Spas, shopping malls, restaurants, golfing, sports arena (boxing, mma, etc), convention center. Lots of casinos, especially in Las Vegas, aren't casinos so much full featured resorts that happen to also have a casino attached.
Megaprizes. Think National Lampoons Vegas Vacation where Russ ("Papa Giorgio") keeps winning the cars. It'd be great to be able to pop in a car attached to a slot machine that serves as both a gambling interaction point for guests, but also decor and entertainment. It'd basically be a jackpot-only slot machine. It could be a car. It could be a giant oversized slot machine with a huge jackpot.
Standalone restaurants. Unless I'm missing something, the only dining option currently is a buffet. It's probably the best option if you only have the one option, but one of my favorite parts about visiting Las Vegas is actually the food. All of the casinos are full of restaurants under the name of celebrity chefs. Looking at just Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, there are 2 Gordon Ramsay restaurants, 1 Bobby Flay, 1 Guy Savoy, and a few others by less famous yet still celebrity chefs. And that's just Caesar's Palace alone.
VIPs. Whether famous professional poker players or just general celebrities, it'd be neat to have the opportunity to attract them as a visitor which in turn could drive more normal guests to your casino. To a degree, this could even have your casino develop a reputation (think modern Rat Pack?).
Events. Ocean's 11 style heists. Super Bowl weekend overflowing your SportsBook. Major poker tournaments (special higher limits versions of the poker tournaments mentioned above, think like WSOP, WPT, etc). Major conventions in town spiking demand for business guests. Downturn in economy just overall reducing demand across the board. These would all be events outside of the player's control. But there should also be promotional events the player's can run to encourage certain kinds of behaviors. This would include aforementioned poker tournaments.. but weirdly, casinos also have slot machine tournaments. Casinos also can do things like give away "free" chips when you check in to a hotel room or for signing up with the player's club (I say free because usually they're special chips that can't actually be cashed out, but can be used at the table games [other than poker] as if they were real).
A more fully fledged tech tree. I'd kind of like to immediately build blackjack tables without any research. But also other table games would have to be researched. Also, additional rules for blackjack (that ultimately improve the profitability of the table) should be researched. Meanwhile, with slot machines, we should start with slot machines that aren't even in the game yet (the ones with the 3 spinners, 3 lines and you need to make a line or diagonal, with cherry, bar, etc.). These get researched into 5 spinners, 5 lines and then you can go to the computer poker machines (which are in the game) and more modern fully digital slot machines and stuff. With slot machines, after the ones with the physical spinners, the research would be more along the lines of unlocking the different themes for them.
Roaming staff. I don't know, maybe I'm not there in the game yet... but generally in a casino, you have servers walking around trying to bring alcohol to patrons (and in the poker rooms and sports books, this can even include full food deliveries from the restaurants). In Las Vegas, this is free in every casino I've ever been in. Outside of Vegas, you typically still have to pay for the alcohol, but nonetheless someone is bringing it to you... because the casino wants you sat in front of that slot machine continuing to feed it.

Crossovers and References Buffy has had, and things that Referenced and Crossed Over with Buffy.

I like to keep track of what TV Shows/Movies/Books cross over or give nods to other series and considering the implications of it, so I specifically focus on those that imply (or brazenly state) that the characters share a universe. Buffy and Angel have had quite a few, so I thought I'd share to alleviate some boredom.
From the Shows/Official Canon:
In the very first episode of Buffy, we get a nod to "The Old Ones", which are part of the Cthulhu Mythos of H.P. Lovecraft. There are other more explicit references elsewhere, but this is how we kick things off.
Bad Eggs features the Gorch Brothers and mentions that they massacred a town before they were turned into vampires. This is a reference to the film The Wild Bunch.
Buffy vs Dracula is an obvious example, as Dracula is one of the most crossed-over characters in fiction. He stands proud alongside the aforementioned Cthulhu, Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan, and Batman. We will be seeing a few of those down the line. Dracula gets nods and references several times in the Buffyverse. These include Buffy/Angel crossover comic Past Lives which is steeped in Dracula stuff.
Listening to Fear has Joyce name-drop "Wally's World" which is from National Lampoon's Vacation.
Soulless was directed by Sean Astin of Lord of the Rings fame and he just HAD to feature a tomb full of dwarven runes front and center in a prominent shot. He just HAD to!
Harm's Way has probably my favorite crossover, where a Wolfram and Hart trainee video mentions their clients: "Weiland-Yutani (Alien), Yoyodyne (Buckaroo Banzai) and Fox News Corp."
That Vision Thing has Wesley mention a creature called a "Wan-Shang Dhole" in his research. That creature does appear somewhere else, an episode of The X-Files, which was written by the man who wrote That Vision Thing.
Hellbound has a double nod and some pretty awesome ones at that. While looking at texts for their research in re-corporealizing Spike, Wesley notes the "Necronomicon de Mortes" and "The Magdalene Grimoire". The first is an obvious alteration of the Necronomicon Ex Muerte from the Evil Dead series. The second is a nod to Neil Gaiman's Sandman.
Buffy Season 8 #6 has a brief cameo of The 10th Doctor and Rose from Doctor Who.
Buffy Season 11 #12 has the dragon that kicked off the season utter distinct roar onomatopoeia: "Skreonk!" A giant dragon from the pacific ocean that utters THAT sound could really be an Erzatz Godzilla for the story.
Dark Horse Free Comic Book Day 2012 "In Space, No One Can Hear You Slay" is a sort of Buffy/Aliens crossover.
Crossovers From Tie-In Material/Expanded Universe:
The comic miniseries (and its sequel) Angel vs Frankenstein is self-explanatory.
The novel These Our Actors has a flashback where Spike sees A Scottish Play where the lead is played by a dead-ringer for James Bond, Hamish Bond. Other details make this little nod more of a crossover thanks to other James Bond crossover notes.
Tales of the Slayer vol. 2 "House of the Vampire, London, England, 1897" has, naturally, another nod to Dracula (Peter Van Helsing is the watcher of the current slayer), but also two nods to Sherlock Holmes, as well as wax figures or Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde, Jack the Ripper, and Lizzie Borden. They start the adventure by chasing the legendary Springheel Jack. Springheel Jack also shows up in the novel Out of the Madhouse.
In the first issue of Spike vs. Dracula, a flashback is shown where the Slaughtered Lamb appears. This is the infamous bar from the excellent An American Werewolf in London. Later, in the 5th issue, Spike lays into Dracula's reputation, talking about how he's fought Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, King Arthur, and Zorro. The thing of it is, all of those exist as published stories!
In the novel Night of the Living Rerun, the "The Book of Eibon", a Cthulhu Mythos tomb, appears.
The novelization of the Angel episode City Of has Angel and Doyle reference/pass by the "Greystoke Mansion." The Greystoke family is best represented by its most famous family member: Lord John Greystoke, who grew up as Tarzan.
City of Despair was a webcomic once hosted in the Dark Horse website where Buffy and Angel are kidnapped to be gladiators in an extradimensional arena. In the background in the barracks are a Yaut'ja/Predator and Hellboy. Given the timing and other factors, I like to think of it as "That Time Buffy Participated in Mortal Kombat" but that is partly speculative.
Tales of the Slayer Volume 4 has the story "Undeadsville" where the Slayer in question is implied to be the sister of Illya Kuryakin, a Russian defector from the series The Man from UNCLE.
The comic tale Viva Las Buffy has a cameo of characters from the Dark Horse comic The Devil's Footprints (which was done by the writer of that story arc).
Angel Spotlight: Doyle has Doyle say he's mistaken for a man named Mark Healy, which he says happens to him all the time. One of those "Nod to an Actor's prior Roles" sort of things, this time, to the show Rosanne.
In Buffy Vol 1. #43-45, Spike needs to borrow a Shear of Cytorrak. Cytorrak is a Marvel demon-god thing that empowered the Unstoppable Juggernaut.
Spike: Asylum has our bad boy in a demon/monster sanitarium meant to cure them of 'evil' that was created by Ivo Shandor, who was the source of the problems in Ghostbusters.
Spike: Old Wounds has Spike and Angel battling a Kandarian Predator Demon. Kandarian demons are from the Evil Dead series.
Angel Spotlight: Wesley has Gunn mention the "Ilithid" case, referencing the Dungeon & Dragons monsters.
Dark Congress, a Buffy Novel, has "Shuggoths" and "Yurgoths" (which is a minor corruption of Shoggoths and beings from "Yuggoth" from the Cthulhu Mythos). It also claims that Lovecraft died closing a Hellmouth in Providence, Rhode Island, which mixes pretty well with how he was portrayed in Supernatural. Though that he was given monster-cancer by the Venitori Umbrorum for selling their secrets to the Thule society in the Dresden Files adds a wrinkle to it.
Fallen Angel: Reborn has Illyria try to reclaim her power in the city between worlds run by Lee, the Fallen Angel.
Blooded, a Buffy Novel, has Lord Byron appear in the past talking to the Slayer of the time period. He gives her an off feeling. The writer of this novel also wrote novels for Highlander, and guess what? In Highlander: The Series, Lord Byron was an Immortal.
From Other Series:
Since Charmed started as an attempt to cash in on Buffy, it's unsurprising that they nod to it a few times. One episode ("The Power of Two") has the old "Where's Buffy when you need her?" line. Since Charmed gets a few nods from other crossover series listed below, I'm including this one here.
An episode of the Sci-Fi show Eureka, "God is in the Details" has a character suggest that the town's location was built on a Hellmouth. Since Buffy came out, the term has skyrocketed in use since... the 14th century. So, for Crossover Purposes, it is being referenced.
Simon R. Green's Ghost of a Chance has the "Scooby Gang" of Sunnydale mentioned, alongside them are mentioned to the Cthulhu Mythos, Ghostbusters, Carnacki, The X-Files, Drinking Midnight Wine, Frankenstein, and The Monkey's Paw.
Andy Barker P.I.'s one claim to fame is name-dropping the Double-Meat Palace.
The Interdimensional Metafictional horror Mary Shelly Lovecraft battled Cassie Hack of the comic series Hack/Slash in the story"Something Fishy" and tells Cassie "You are interesting. Perhaps not as widely loved as that summers girl... but still compelling.” She goes on to say that she brought Deep Ones (Cthulhu Mythos) to Haverhill (the real-world source for Archie) to cause a metafictional disruption. Mary also mentions “I should be glad it’s you, the girl with mommy issues and no special skills, instead of that red devil boy” (Hellboy),
The Deacon Chalk novel Blood and Bullets allude to Sunnydale, as well as having crossover nods to Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter, Night Huntress (a novel series that began with 2007's Halfway to the Grave), Sonja Blue, Dracula, Supernatural and Blade. A later novel in the series also includes Buffy alongside nods to Solomon Kane, King Arthur, and Evil Dead among a few prior nods.
The 2002 Doctor who Novel Camera Obscura has "William the Bloody Awful Poet" attend a seance with Eighth Doctor and Anji Kapoor.
Supernatural "The Mentalist" has an Orb of Thesulah mentioned. Earlier, in "Hell House," one of a pair of dwebish paranormal investigating, the Ghost Facers, tries to calm the other by asking "What would Buffy do?" to which the other replies "But she's way stronger than me." If not for the other reference, this would be dismissed as simple pop-culture call-outs, but now it becomes a sign that these two were more clued in than the episode otherwise suggests. Finally, in Season 15, a Hellmouth is featured.
The Gen 13 Novel Netherwar is penned by a writer I've alluded to several times as a writer who does a LOT of tie-in novels for TV shows, Christopher Golden, Buffy among them. A Hellmouth is a prominent plot point in this Vegas adventure. 'De Vermis Mysteries' of the Cthulhu Mythos is referenced, and the story implies that the adult leader of the team, John Lynch, is Nick Fury.
The movie House of the Dead 2 states that Cuesta Verde University is "Just Outside Sunnydale."
The 2011 comic miniseries Legion of Monsters featured Elsa Bloodstone, Morbius the Living Vampire, The Living Mummy, Manphibian, Werewolf by Night, Dracula, Daimon Hellstrom, and another Hellmouth.
West Coast Avengers vol. 3 #10 has Dimension-Hopping Heroine America Chavez use her powers to lead her teammates in an escape -- the World of Nothing But Shrimp that Illyria mentioned several times.
In American Horror Story Apocalypse “Could It Be...Satan?”, one of the witches from Coven refers to the Hotel Cortez as a Hellmouth, in an episode written by Tim Minear, making it a more solid reference.
In the Cacophony:
The novel Crépuscule Vaudou is one of those "Mega Crossover" Stories with nods and shout-outs all over the place. Buffy is among them. As is White Zombie, The Black Coats, Arsene Lupin, The Cthulhu Mythos, Brother Voodoo (a Marvel character), Child's Play, Tales of the Zombie, Revolt of the Zombies, James Bond, Angel Heart, Duke de Richleau, I Walked With a Zombie, John Thunstone, Kolchak the Night Stalker, Pirates of the Caribbean, Captian Blood, Lorna Doone, Gulliver's Travels, the works of Stephen King ("Jerusalem's Lot"), Leatherstocking Tales, Charmed, Treasure Island, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, John Carter of Mars, The X-Files, Moby Dick, The Narrative of Arthur Gordan Pym of Nantucket, Mayfair Witches, Doc Savage, The Phantom, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, The Wild Wild West (TV Series), Gone with the Wind, Oz, The Lone Ranger, Sherlock Holmes, Martin Hewitt, The Shadow, The Body Snatchers (the story on which Invasion of the Body Snatchers was based), L'Enigmatique Fen-Chu, Carnack: Ghostfinder, Atlantida, and The Exorcist.
Oddly, the Buffy reference in Crépuscule Vaudou isn't to anything from the show, but one of the tie in novels (Tales of the Slayer II "Blood and Brine"), so, points for novelty.
Eugenics Wars: The Rise of Khan Noonien Singh Volume 1 is a story about Gary Seven and Robert Lincoln's attempts to stop a project to create supermen. So Many crossovers. Among them, there's an encounter with Robot Housewives in Connecticut that is mentioned in passing (Stepford Wives). One of the eugenics workers is a sallow bug-eyes man named Mr. Eyegor (Young Frankenstein). A scientist named Maggie Erickson is featured, who is engaged to a man named Mr. Walsh. So, when they marry, she becomes Maggie Walsh. The original Frankenstein is referenced. Other references/cameos/nods include Avengers (TV series), Six Million Dollar Man, The Pretender, Beauty and the Beast (80s TV Show), Bionic Woman, Modesty Blaze, Knight Rider, and The Equalizer. This is also, obviously, a crossover with Star Trek.
Tales of the Shadowmen, a celebration of crossover nods*,* has a few Buffy issues to its name. Volume 7: Femmes Fatales features a story Fiat Lux with nods to Buffy, The Nyctalope, Cyrano de Bergerac, The Three Musketeers, The Scarlet Pimpernel, the 1950s tv series The Invaders, and the Belgian comic series Blake and Mortimer.
Volume 10: Espirit de Corps has the story "True Believers" has a Hellmouth referenced. It also has appearances or references to: Sâr Dubnotal, Blithe Spirit (1941), Lensman, Simon Ark, Sherlock Holmes, Dark Shadows, Semi-Dual (The Occult Detector (1912)), Doctor Strange, John J. Malone, Kenneth J. Malone, Network (1976 film), I Dream of Jeannie, Northern Exposure, Jane Arden, The Continental Op, Nate Heller, Judex, Dr. Spektor, Some Like It Hot, Little Caesar, Scarface, "Robin and the 7 Hoods", Dick Tracy, The Big Lebowski, Morris Klaw, Suicide Squad (Novel Series that began with Mr. Zero and the FBI Suicide Squad), Theodosia Throckmorton, John Thunstone, Fergus O'Breen, Rocket to the Morgue, Call Northside 777, Ghostbusters, Cthulhu Mythos, "Bell, Book and Candle", Mr. Mulliner, Carnacki, Special Unit 2, and The Quincunx of Time.
Volume 11: Force Majeure "Don't Judge a Book By Its Title" is a fun run on "Wait, you have the wrong Necronomicon" at the core of its story. Here are references to the Cthulhu Mythos, Evil Dead, Ghostbusters, Sâr Dubnotal, Baal (of Renée Dunan's 1924 novel of the same name), and Female Vampire (a 1975 film). And the Buffy nod? Ash thinks that, aside from being the one "Destined to fight the forces of darkness," hangs out with the band Slayer.
Volume 12: Carte Blanche has a collection of nods to Doctor Omega (an Erzatz Doctor Who), The Adventures of a Parisian Aeronaut in the Unknown Worlds, Arsène Lupin, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, C. Auguste Dupin, Fantômas.
The Merkabah Rider series is another "So full of references its nuts" series. In "The War Shaman," The Watcher's Council and the Order of Kun-Sun-Dai (from Angel "Awakening" and "Cavalry") are referenced as allies to the Merkabah Riders. Other series references in the story are the Cthulhu Mythos, The Lord of the Rings, Moby Dick, King Arthur, Doctor Who, Quantum Leap, and Monk. Also, the entity known as Misquamacus takes its name from a novel series that was turned into an utterly bizarre movie called The Manitou. The story "Merkabah Rider: Once Upon a Time In the Weird West" has Richard Wilkins the First show up, alongside nods to many of the things previously references, as well as Simon of Gitta, Meaner than Hell, Solomon Kane, Kull, Conan the Barbarian, Steve Harrison, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Ghostbusters, Kung Fu, Indiana Jones, Batman, Something Wicked This Way Comes, House II: The Second Story, Oz, Winchester '73, The Wild Bunch, The Quick and the Dead, Hombre, Zorro, and The Lone Ranger.
The Quest of Frankenstein is similar. In this novel series, many crossovers are made. The Master of the Order of Aurelius and "His Blond Companion" Darla appear. Other series referenced include The Mythos once again, "The Creeper" (from The Pearl of Death, House of Horrors and the MST3K feature The Brute Man), Doc Savage, Conan, John Kirowan, Bran Mak Morn, Solomon Kane, Carmilla, Dark Shadows, World of Watches, Nosferatu, Underworld, Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter, Black Sunday, The Vampire Chronicles, Vampire City, The Black Coats, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Most Dangerous Game, The Vampyre (1819), The Count of Monte Cristo, Tombs of the Blind Dead, Lord Peter Wimsey, Waldemar Daninsky, Curse of the Crimson Altar, Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter, P. G. Wodehouse's Works, Viy, The Mummy (1932), and She (Who Must Be Obeyed).
Harry Dickenson vs. The Spider has a short story in it called "The Mark of the Red Leech" -- this World War I Tale has a Colonel Wyndham Price appears investigating the vampiric attacks of the "Red Leech" (Varney the Vampire). Private Henry Jones Junior (Indiana Jones), Captain Dickenson (Harry Dickenson), Colonel Renwick (an ally to Doc Sampson), Private Simpson (The Simpsons), Captain Eliot Spencer (who eventually becomes the cenobite known as Pinhead from Hellraiser/The Hellbound Heart), and Captain Ulysses Paxton (The Master Mind of Mars, part of the Burrough's Mars series) appear in the story. Obviously, Harry Dickenson and The Spider appear as well as nods to Dracula, and The Wandering Jew's Daughter.
There are a lot of "Bland Name Products" in media, to prevent lawsuits mostly. One of the most prolific is Morley Cigarettes. This thing has its own Wiki page). And the fictional company's wiki has a few more video games listed that reference it indirectly.
Another Bland-Name Product, Sugar Bombs, or Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs, appears in many series. It shows up in Out of My Mind in Buffy. Most notably, Sugar Bombs have shown up in Marvel's Runaways (Vol 2, #7), The Incredibles 2, the videogame Fallout, and, of course, Calvin and Hobbes. There are a few others, but none truly worth noting. And, given Fallout, that has to be taken as an Alternate Universe.
And in the realm of Notable Parody:
Vampirella vs. Fluffy is one of the... lamer versions of this sort of thing. It's always galling to hear a female character talk about how her Sling Swimsuit is totally empowering and no one should judge when the story is written by a man. At least Vampi doesn't kill the Buffy analog.
Big Wolf On Campus has "Muffy the Werewolf Slayer" as an episode. This is definitely more homage than parody. Oddly, between the timing of it, and the look of the title character, "Muffy" could very easily be Faith Lehane if the crossover is incorporated.
But I am always on the search for more.

Wrestling Observer Rewind ★ Feb. 1, 1988


1-4-1988	1-11-1988	1-18-1988	1-25-1988

The Bunkhouse Stampede Finals and Royal Rumble are in the books, and as a head-to-head it’s best described as a stalemate. Neither show is what Dave would consider among the best cards he’s ever seen, and from the perspective of a tv viewer they were about what you’d expect. No strong overall lineup for either, and what was delivered wasn’t spectacular either. WWF had the edge in glitz, but not as much as usual because of the live factor meaning they couldn’t rely on post-production editing tricks. Here’s a sentence that describes a typical Raw today: “The three-hour show had too many replays and looked like it may have dragged in spots if you were there live.” Dave’s gotten some word from people who were there for the Bunkhouse finals live, and all rated it terribly as a live experience. From the tv viewer perspective, though, it was better than Starrcade despite some major issues (Dave says they owe the audience an explanation for why the Rock & Roll Express and Steve Williams were absent, as well as for the lack of Mike Rotunda vs. Sting which was pushed on WTBS half an hour before the show).
Dave’s tired of writing a lot of the same complaints about NWA, but they do seem to be responding to fans. They’re going to start showing the finishes to matches that go off the air on the following week’s show and have made changes to the announce desk. Jim Ross did a great job on ppv and toned back on calling every match an all-time classic like he did at Starrcade. But there were eight no-shows among the wrestlers and on Thursday night they had a terrible show in Los Angeles. Most of the no-shows were guys they pulled from the card to save money on flights. The Bunkhouse Finals were advertised with a 7 pm start time, but many of the tickets had 8 pm printed on them, and the show itself actually started at 6:35. Pm and ended at 9 pm, so those arriving at 8 missed most of the show. Not all the no-shows can be blamed on the promotion (Mighty Wilbur got injured, Rock & Roll Express appear to have up and quit), but some kind of explanation needs to be made for the fans. Between all that, getting chants of “Refund” after the Stampede and Dusty getting booed (which fans watching on tv heard) when he won the finals, NWA has significantly hurt its position in two of the biggest markets in the country in LA and New York. They’re making changes, slowly, but some changes need to be made or they’re going to sink. NWA fans come for action, but you can’t get the kind of action the fans want with the schedule they’re running (contrast to WWF which can get by with less action because their guys are seen as stars and the fans want to see the stars). Doing cross-country double shots on weekends is killing NWA, and they need to make new stars. Turning Flair face, since he’s more popular than almost anyone else, isn’t even something to do right now because Luger’s turn is in full throttle and they don’t have a heel to take up the slack. They could turn Dusty heel and have him feud with the Road Warriors, but they won’t.
In the past few weeks, NWA has managed to lose several guys they really shouldn’t have. Terry Taylor is gone apparently because the office had it in for him because of when he left the promotion in 1985. Big Bubba Rogers had become a good worker and had a great gimmick going, but WWF poached him. Rock and Roll Express apparently quit because they were unhappy about their push (though Dave thinks despite their ability and work, they’ve been on borrowed time for nine months now). Dave gives Steve Williams 50/50 odds of coming back and just kind of gestures to UWF as explanation. Sean Royal quit, and Chris Champion, Eddie Gilbert, and Brad Armstrong are all but disappeared. And more are looking to get out. Dave hates writing all this stuff about what Crockett’s doing wrong on the front page, especially when he’s been talking about it for months, and especially because he’s a fan of the NWA. He wouldn’t classify himself as a fan of WWF, but they’ve earned his respect with what they’ve done to take the business to another level and in the next two months he expects them to blow the whole wrestling business wide open. But WWF’s success isn’t the reason for NWA’s problems. WWF doing counterprogramming has made Crockett earn less money than he would have unopposed, and Dusty probably books himself the way he does because he knows WWF won’t steal him (spoilers: WWF gets Dusty in just over a year) and it’s hard to leave the limelight, but WWF isn’t the reason for most of Crockett’s issues.
According to the newspapers this morning, Wrestlemania IV will take place in Atlantic City’s Convention Center. Capacity is 16,000. There were rumblings of Vince being close to a deal in Vegas for either UNLV Gym or Caesar’s Palace, so Atlantic City’s a surprise. Wrestlemania is going to be more focused on ppv than closed-circuit this year, apparently. But most of the audience can’t get ppv, so they’ll still need closed-circuit in major cities.
Two weeks after Wrestlemania will be the Crockett Cup. Place is to be announced, and Dave thinks it’s high time Crockett re-establishes working relationships with at least one or two other North American promotions in order to help make the Cup a big event. They just don’t have the talent roster this year to get away with doing otherwise.
A correction on Starrcade: Dave reported a 6.6 percent buy-rate, but the reality was a 3.3 percent buy-rate. Dave heard they got 20,000 buys and just assumed it was of the 300,000 homes available on cable, but forgot to factor in the 300,000 homes it was also available in via satellite. Dave’s received reports that there were 6 million potential homes for the Bunkhouse finals, but that seems high to him. Even matching the buyrate of Starrcade at that number would mean over $3 million in gross revenue, and Dave doesn’t think they were remotely close to that.

- Anyway, Dave goes through the Bunkhouse finals. An estimated 7,000 were in the arena, and the dark match was Sting and Jimmy Garvin beating the Sheepherders by DQ. Nikita Koloff retained the NWA TV title against Bobby Eaton in a 20 minute draw. -2 stars. Larry Zbyszko beat Barry Windham for the Western States Title, with the match starting slow and getting very good in the last ten minutes. 3.5 stars. Road Warrior Hawk beat Ric Flair by DQ in the NWA World Title match. 3.75 stars. Dusty Rhodes won the Bunkhouse Stampede finals. Lots of blood, a lot of guys going the distance you wouldn’t expect to have the stamina to do so (the match was 26 minutes long), and it was exactly what was promised and was good stuff. 3 stars.

Watch: a brief clip of the bunkhouse finals

- As for the Royal Rumble, the crowd appeared to be nearly sold out with almost 18,000 in attendance. Ricky Steamboat beat Rick Rude by DQ. Heavy with rest holds and stalling before the final two minutes had them trading near falls constantly and getting good heat from it. 2 stars. The Jumping Bomb Angels won the WWF Women’s Tag Titles from the Glamour Girls in a 2/3 falls match. They started behind with Judy Martin getting the first fall, then the Angels won two straight falls with each Angel pinning Judy Martin (sunset flip and double missile dropkicks, respectively). It was a good match, but not great - the Angels missed a lot of moves and seemed to be out of shape. 3 stars. Jum Duggan won the Royal Rumble, last eliminating One Man Gang. The match was much better than Dave anticipated, and the match went on roughly at the same time as the Bunkhouse finals match. Better camera work in it, and Dave notes that WWF seems to have fudged the two minute intervals after a bit. 3.5 stars. The Islanders beat the Young Stallions (Paul Roma and Jim Powers; Dave’s nickname for them is The Barbie Dolls) in two straight falls. He makes a weird joke about a submission actually working on a pushed guy (Haku submitted Roma with a Boston crab) making him go out for “Oriental food” afterwards because it was so surprising. I’m too confused to even know what to make of the line. 2.5 stars.

Watch: the finish to the 1988 Royal Rumble match

Outside the matches, Royal Rumble had some other stuff. Andre and Hogan had a contract signing for the Main Event, where Andre slammed Hogan’s head into the table and pushed the table onto him. Dave’s amazed people buy Hogan as a face, because there’s just something naturally dislikable about people who act the way Hogan does and he thinks Vince could probably get Lee Harvey Oswald over as a face. Dino Bravo attempted to set a world bench press record. Of course, the weights were as legit as the half a million dollars Dusty supposedly won, but Bravo’s supposedly able to bench over 600 lbs legit. Jesse Ventura helped him with “715 lbs” and then claimed he didn’t help at all (the Road Warriors are scheduled to bench on the 30th and were originally planned to use legit weights, but they’ll have to use bogus weights to keep from looking weak next to WWF’s monsters now). Anyway, now they’ll bill Bravo as unofficial bench record holder, and that should get him heat because of the obvious cheating.
Next up then for WWF is The Main Event on February 5. Dave’s told not to worry about Andre, because his back is in much better shape than last year. He and Hogan are practicing daily and have worked out the gist of the match. Dave says you can be sure to expect Ted DiBiase to interfere somehow on the 5th.
Stampede is continuing to do good business and nearly selling out all their big shows. Chris Benoit and Great Gama get 4 stars (from Trent Walters, who I guess submitted the reports for the matches in Edmonton) for their Commonwealth Title match from January 9 in Edmonton.
[Stampede] Jason the Terrible has been made an “honorary member” of Bad Company, Bruce Hart and Brian Pillman’s tag team. So now in addition to the hockey mask he’s also got sunglasses over the hockey mask and a bandana and a black leather jacket. The whole getup is hilarious.
Do you remember Central States? Mike George won the WWA World Title tournament on January 23. They had 800 fans. Match ended on blood stoppage.
Speaking of blood, Keiji Mutoh is headed to Puerto Rico.
Tatsumi Fujinami and Kengo Kimura won the IWGP World Tag Titles from Yoshiaki Fujiwara and Kazuo Yamazaki on January 18. Riki Choshu and Super Strong Machine were originally slated to face the tag champs, but Choshu injured his knee and had to miss the match. Dave expects Choshu and Machine to face Fujinami and Kimura on February 7. He then goes on about how bad Choshu’s luck has been lately. Dave thinks he was supposed to win the tournament, except the Maeda shoot happened, and he was definitely supposed to win the tag titles (the match was scheduled for his hometown and New Japan actually does nice things for wrestlers in front of their home audiences). And with all the work they’ve put into getting Choshu on tv, it’s surprising they’ve phased him down the card so much from where he was.
Lots of stuff about Vader’s look in New Japan. On December 27 he wore long tights and had Road Warrior Hawk’s hair, and it didn’t get him over at all. On January 4 he had a mask and full bodysuit to hide his size. January 11 saw him ditch the bodysuit and keep the mask. The evolution of a mastodon, I guess.
Antonio Inoki began negotiations with Fuji TV after TV Asahi scheduled NJPW tv to move to midnight Mondays, and TV Asahi caved. They’ll now be on a 5 pm Saturday time slot. It’s not as good as their old Monday evening slot, but it’s not a death slot like midnight Monday.
Akira Maeda turned down NJPW’s plan to have him go to the U.S. Also, he and NJPW are fighting over his contract. They offered him a new contract for 1988 with a 15% pay cut and he’s not willing to sign it.
There are rumors that Inoki will wrestle Koji Kitao (the sumo wrestler mentioned a few weeks back) at the Tokyo Dome in April. Kitao is 24 years old and 6’5.5”, weighing 345 lbs. The story of his exit from Sumo is he apparently lost his temper and started kicking one of his sponsors (who is 92 years old) and the knocked his stable master’s wife through a sliding door. Dave’s been told if this match does happen, it could draw very big. Kitao is denying he’s going into wrestling (nope). Kitao was made a yokozuna in 1986, just before he turned 23, because the sumo hierarchy felt they needed a new young star to create interest in the younger generation of fans. But Kitao liked the party lifestyle and didn’t care for tradition, and sumo does not tolerate that. But you can’t demote a yokozuna, and that made him controversial (it would turn out that most of this was made up because Kitao’s stablemaster didn’t like him and felt he was underperforming and wanted him out - more on Kitao’s sumo years here if you want to read it). Turns out sumo is kind of worked too, though not as much as pro wrestling.
All Japan is promoting a “Martial Arts Olympic” show on April 2 at Sumo Hall, to feature all kinds of stuff. Tiger Mask II and Giant Baba will team against some foreigners, Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling (the group running against AJW) will have two matches on the show (Miss A vs. Harley Saito and Rumi Kazama vs. Xochitl Hamada). There will be boxing, kick boxing, the original Tiger Mask Satoru Sayama’s “shooting” sport he invented, shoot boxing (boxing + wrestling with gloves), and more. The whole show is being billed as a memorial service to Ikki Kajiwara, who created the Tiger Mask cartoon and comic.
When baseball season starts, All Japan’s tv will be moved to 10:30-11:30 pm Sunday nights. Usually they get moved to Saturday afternoon during baseball season, and this shift will lose Baba lots of money and viewers.
While Crockett and McMahon ran big shows on January 24, Giant Baba met with their rivals in Las Vegas. Baba’s plan in the U.S. is to send his guys, as well as Bruiser Brody, Abdullah the Butcher, Jimmy Snuka, Stan Hansen, and Terry Gordy to smaller promotions to help them fight against the big two.
Dave finally saw Hennig vs. Tiger Mask II. Not terrible, but no heat and little action, he thinks. Meanwhile, John Tenta’s improving well, and Baba seems high on Akira Taue, though he’s so new it’s hard to guess what kind of future he has.
[AJW] Yukai Omori’s retirement show will be on February 15. This was announced after her January 15 world title match with Chigusa Nagayo, where she said if she couldn’t win the title she was ending her career. They went 32 minutes to a double count out in the ring after both collapsed.
[Memphis] Lawler vs. Hennig for the AWA Title on January 18 had Lawler’s ring on the line as well. Hennig promised to give his dad the ring if he won, and Larry Hennig was there. The Axe helped Curt win, and Curt gave him the ring, but Lalwer stole it back.
Memphis local prelim wrestler Jerry Bryant has been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Global Wrestling in Florida somehow turned what was an awful live show on January 22 into a good tv show. They taped on Friday night and by Sunday had it polished up into a good looking product. The miracles of post-production. Issues with the live show included starting 30 minutes late, long delays between matches, the ring mic not working, and bad wrestlers. What they lack in wrestling talent, though, they make up for in knowing how to make a tv show that’s on the level of World Class and better than Crockett or AWA.
Continental (Alabama) did a bench press contest between Lord Humongous (not Sid, but Gary Nation) and Doug Furnas. They fudged the weights here, as Humongous did 645 lbs and then Furnas did it twice (his best in competition has been 600) before Humongous pushed the bar down on Furnas and “injured his ribs.”
Apparently the Observer was mentioned positively in the Detroit News by Justice B. Hill in the January 17 issue.
Since Dave started writing this issue, he’s been flooded with fans writing about the Bunkhouse finals. The reaction he’s gotten has largely been negative, with those there live being extra negative about it. Crockett really needs to reserve three hours for the next time they do ppv - going too short pisses the fans off, and ppv viewers expected the show to last past 9 pm. Another difference between WWF and NWA is that WWF always gets their hottest acts on the mic at some point during ppvs and big live specials (twice in the case of Hogan and DiBiase at Royal Rumble), while at Starrcade they didn’t have Flair, Dusty, or Cornette talk once. Instead Jim Garvin gave the worst promo of his career, Michael Hayes was quiet for the first time ever, and they shoved Steve Williams and Nikita Koloff on the mic for some reason. At the Bunkhouse Finals they had no interviews, and getting mic time for Flair or Dusty or Luger while they set up the cage would have been a big help. More of Dave wondering when Crockett will realize they’ve killed the credibility of their world champion and thus killed the drawing power of the belt.
Michael Hayes has apparently quit Crockett and everyone expects him to go back to World Class. And if Steve Williams doesn’t come back, they’ll probably just forget about the UWF Title entirely rather than doing a unification match.
A couple letters this week requesting that Dave keep up the coverage of wrestling in Japan. Another couple letters praising how good Stampede has been lately. Canada and Japan, bringing us the best in wrestling.
Another letter writer asks Dave to realize how offensive it is to refer to a wrestling match as “a total abortion” and to consider that he’s probably offended many female readers of the newsletter. Dave apologizes and says he’ll stop using the term, before doing a “well, actually” bit. It’s a kind of weird response. Judge it for yourselves.

I apologize for that one and will quit using the term. Actually the term abortion for a bad match is a business term just like jobber, mark, babyface and the rest. But there are a few business terms (mainly for ethnic wrestlers and ethnic fans) which are in bad taste that I don’t use, so I’ll add that one to the list.

Tickets for Wrestlemania IV go on sale January 30. The best 2000 seats in the Convention Center are being reserved as freebies for casino high rollers. And as a heads up, this is the location it does take place at. They called it Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino during the show, but it’s the same building. More on that as we get to Wrestlemania.
If Dave can find the space next week, he’s going to talk about whether or not “30 minute matches which ‘tell a story’” work for today’s fans. He really enjoyed the Windham/Blanchard match on tv but there was no crowd reaction, so he’s beginning to wonder if this is even a style that resonates anymore.
Everyone’s asking Dave for predictions about Hogan vs. Andre. So here’s his prediction (and he is way off on many parts of this):

DiBiase will interfere and Andre will pin Hogan on 2/5, however Jack Tunney will prove he can’t be bought and hold the title up so Ted doesn’t get the title, and order a rematch in a cage at WM4 so Ted can’t interfere (and also so Andre can lose without doing a job). Hulk will win on a fluke, and they’ll run Hulk vs. Andre over the summer in your local cities after Hulk gets back from playing Hulk Hogan in the movies.

”There was a clip in Detroit about Hogan, saying that ‘he’s nice[r] than Kirk Gibson, but not by much.’” Gibson’s reputation is of being a total asshole to fans, especially kids.
Crockett is billing FlaiAnderson vs. LugeWindham on Feb. 6 as the first time Flair goes against Lex anywhere. It’s forgivable to forget Lex’s Florida days, but they’ve got FlaiBlanchard vs. LugeRhodes booked for February 2.
Apparently Road Warrior Hawk’s neo-nazi line is just a quote from The Breakfast Club. Okay. So I guess the first letter writer was mishearing him and he’s saying “Neo-maxi-zoom dweebie”? TVtropes gives us this, from the October 3, 1987 episode of NWA World Championship Wrestling: HAWK: "WELL, Tony Schiavone, There Are Two Kinds Of People, as far as me and Animal are concerned. Clamheads and Neo-Maxi Zoom Dweebies." (the Road Warriors consider themselves the latter). And corroborating with the WWE Network, yeah, the line comes through pretty clear. Network 4 minutes in, and yeah, he’s not calling himself a neo-nazi. Definitely an error by that letter writer, and what a weird line for Hawk of all people to utter.

THURSDAY: WWF’s Big Four are born; The Main Event; Rock & Roll Express, Michael Hayes, and Steve Williams update; Tenryu wins all the awards in Japan; and more

Queering a campaign: LGBTQ identity and the search for belonging

During the campaign, I was baffled by the reoccurring think pieces that talked about how Buttigieg was reluctant to embrace his gay identity or was somehow downplaying it. It has been painfully obvious to me since at least last summer that Buttigieg’s campaign was fundamentally queer in a way that other presidential campaigns have never been. Obviously when you have a gay man running for president with his husband by his side, shit’s gonna be pretty gay. But beyond the representation of having a gay candidate, Buttigieg’s campaign was shaped by his gay identity.
A couple of really important points to start:

There is no one “LGBTQ identity.” Buttigieg’s experience as as gay man is informed by race, class, religiosity, sex, and a million other factors. Factors he does not share with other queer people. How he experiences being queer is different that how other people experience being queer.
Buttigieg is always gay, but he isn’t only gay. His campaign was also shaped by his time in the military, his religious beliefs, his work as a mayor, and other things. In fact, some of those may be more salient to his campaign than being gay. Please do not take this essay as me reducing the campaign to only the gay stuff. It’s just one lens through which I’m looking.

Bringing your whole self

One of the things Buttigieg has talked about when discussing coming out is that he finally got to be a whole person. We are all at our best when we get to bring our whole selves to bear when we do anything. Being queer will shape how you see society and how society sees you, which means it will influence your experiences and privileges and change your approach to life. This is true for Buttigieg and is something he acknowledged in a Rolling Stone interview:

I do think we all bring our whole personal combination of experiences to every role that we have, and to our jobs. I realized very early as mayor that I would be judged, and wanted to be judged, by how well I did the job. As a minority of any kind, there’s a risk of being viewed as representing your group rather than just doing your job. I don’t get up in the morning thinking, “How can I be the best gay mayor today?”

While he is wary of being held up as the The Representative of Your Kind, Buttigieg also acknowledges that we bring our whole selves to our work. This thinking is echoed in his second Breakfast Club interview:

As much as we might want to believe our marriages are gonna be treated the exact same, we just move through society like everybody else, and we’re just living our lives, like, no this is actually a thing. Kids are putting bullets through their heads over this.

He continued on to say:

I’m not out to be the president of gay America. I’m out to be the president of the United States of America. But it’s part of who I am. It’s part of my experience. It shapes me. I think it informs the way I come at the world…. The fact that I belong to a group that’s been impacted by hate does effect the way I understand the world.

I believe that one way bringing his whole self informed the campaign was in the way Buttigieg talked about America itself.

America as a place of a pain and hope

Being queer - or a member of any minority group - influences how you see America in this moment. People who face discrimination knew what Trump was. I have exactly zero surprise that an openly gay student of history pointed out that losing the next election might result in a slide into proto-facism.
Marginalized people know there’s no honest politics that revolves around the word again. As Buttigieg has said, “We in the LGBTQ community know when we hear phrases like ‘Make America Great Again’ that that American past was never quite as great as advertised.”
A reoccurring line from his stump speech, this theme predates his run for president. It was a focus in a chapter of his book, where he discusses how many people are left out by Trump’s longing for a racist, sexist, heterosexist, and bigoted past (which is not to suggest that the present is a utopia of equality). But this theme surfaced even before Buttigieg’s book was completed. The keynote speaker at the IDCCA Chairs Brunch, Buttigieg said:

Like some of you, I live with the knowledge that there are people in power today who would if they could deny my family the right legally even to exist for the simple reason that my spouse is a husband and not a wife. So you see this isn’t academic for me. It’s personal. It’s existential. It’s not that I don’t feel like going back. It is that I literally can’t.

Yet in this same speech, Buttigieg talks about how his personal story also gives him hope and how he does not have the “luxury of pessimism” when politics means so much for our health and life and families. This line of thinking was more fully formed by the time of the Liberty and Justice Dinner in Iowa.

And what lies on the other side of that fight is the hope of an American experience defined not by exclusion, but by belonging. That is what we are here to deliver.
And if talking about hope and belonging sounds optimistic to you for a time like this, fine. Call it optimistic but do not call it naive, because I believe these things not based on my age, but based on my experience….
I have seen what American can do, and so have you. After all, you’re looking at someone who as a young man growing up wondered if something deep inside of him meant that he would forever be an outsider. Would never wear the uniform. Never be accepted. Never know love. And now you are looking at that same young man, a veteran, a mayor, happily married, asking for your vote for president of the United States. That’s why I believe in this country.

As a member of a minority group, Buttigieg knows that America is a place of great pain, but it also is a place of great hope. A hope that springs in part from the changes he saw as a young person who went from growing up in the shadow of the AIDS epidemic to credibly running for president as an openly gay married man. His candidacy centered both that pain and that hope in his campaign.

Building a better politics

In my opinion, Buttigieg understood why people vote better than anyone else running. It wasn’t about the size of the city he ran or the amount of money in the budget. It’s about bringing people together to build a coalition where people feel good and are motivated to support you.
Buttigieg reached out to “future former Republicans” in an effort to usher them into the right side of history. An approach that he often explained by tying it to his experience as an openly gay politician:

Coming out while he was mayor also helped emphasize to him the political importance of meeting people where they were. He mentioned an older woman in South Bend who had greeted him after a public event by saying how impressed she was with his “friend.” This could have been a moment to discuss the difference between a friend and a partner, or how important it is not to be euphemistic about love, but Buttigieg decided against it, because the woman obviously felt so good about recognizing his “friend”—for her, this was progress. “So much of politics is about people’s relationships with themselves,” Buttigieg said. “You do better if you make people feel secure in who they are.”

The undercurrent to this approach is that Buttigieg emphasized reconciliation and grace. Reconciliation can be particularly fraught for LGBTQ people, because many live in a space where they have been hurt greatly by close friends or family. Do you forgive the parents who kicked out out of the house after you came out? Do you reconcile with your sister who outed you?
What do you do after someone harms you, as Trump voters harmed the country in 2016?
Charlotte Alter first noted this tie between his political approach and his identity in her Time Magazine cover article:

Some of Buttigieg’s fellow officers who had used gay as an epithet in his presence reached out to express their support. “I bet some of them still go back and tell gay jokes because that’s their habit, you know?” he says. “Bad habits and bad instincts is not the same as people being bad people.”
All this informs his belief that it’s still possible to reach across America’s political divide. “We’ve got to get away from this kill-switch mentality that we see on Twitter,” he says. He has seen once disapproving parents dance at their gay son’s wedding and homophobic military officers take back their words, and so he believes in the power of redemption and forgiveness.

Forgiving people who have done terrible things is not uncommon in LGBTQ spaces. If forgiveness and reconciliation weren’t on the table, many queer people would have no relationship with their biological family at all.
I want to take a moment to state something very important: many LGBTQ people haven’t forgiven people who harmed them and that’s fine. How Buttigieg thinks about this is not The Gay Way. Expecting gay people to be magical forgiveness fairies here to make straight people feel better about their bigotry is horseshit. This worked for Buttigieg. He tied it to his experience as a gay man. That’s cool. But don’t assume that’s how all LGBTQ people feel or think or that it’s superior to feeling righteous fucking anger. Both are valid.
I’ll add that Buttigieg was not blindly welcoming. He was explicit that Trump voters at best ignored Trump’s racism and frequently talked about those voters he would not try to reach because of their bigotry.
Buttigieg turned to his queer identity not just as a way to explain his approach to political rhetoric, but also as motivation for working for others.

An impetus to action

Being gay also informed Buttigieg’s approach to working for members of marginalized groups. In the November Democratic debate, Buttigieg discussed how he felt an obligation to work for others who are not like him in the same way a diverse coalition worked to give him the right to marry.
I think an even more direct example was one given in an interview with BET:

"I know a little bit about what it's like to belong to a group of people that has been feared, hated and denied opportunities and subject to random violence,” he says. “It propels me to make sure that anybody who is on the wrong side of exclusion in this country, which in some way or another is most of us, has a voice in the White House."

The language of service and obligation to others were common motifs of the campaign, and both had roots in Buttigieg’s experience as a gay man. It helped motivate him and shaped perhaps the most significant calling of the campaign: creating a sense of belonging.

But being gay just like every other fact about me from where I grew up to what I look like means that I have a story. And if I look to that story I can find the building blocks not only for empathy but for the impetus to action, because the more you know about exclusion, the more you think about belonging. And we have a crisis of belonging in this country.

The search for belonging and the good you can do

Somewhere, Buttigieg’s campaign pivoted. I’m not talking about the mythological shift to the center or walking away from progressive policies to appeal to more voters. The beginning of the campaign spoke more frequently of creating an intergenerational alliance or the core values of freedom, security, and democracy. But by the end, while those values were still the foundation of the campaign, Buttigieg spoke more often of exclusion, America’s crisis of belonging, and the good the campaign itself could do.
Buttigieg explicitly tied those narratives to being queer.
At the Matthew Shepard Dinner in Iowa, Buttigieg reflected on learning - before he realized he was gay - that you could be killed for being gay. He also said this:

“I know there have been times where you felt that you did not belong, moments you believe that you were taking up space,” Buttigieg said. “There was a time in my life that I would have cut the gay out of me if I knew how. Now I know this unexpected, complicated gift has helped me do some good in the world.”

In an interview with the New Yorker, Buttigieg spoke of the good he does simply by being himself, and how moving it is to meet people overcome by emotion at seeing an out gay man run for president. He also discussed how he felt we can use our identities to break down exclusion by talking about Bridgette, an Iowa supporter with autism:

There are so many differences about every different reason people have been singled out or discriminated against. But I will say that there’s also this chance for solidarity that I’m seeing, that my own personal piece of this story, as part of the L.G.B.T.Q. community, has opened my eyes to.
One of the best moments on this whole campaign was a teen-ager—I think she was maybe sixteen—came up to me and let me know that that my candidacy—this was in Iowa, in a back yard—she said my campaign let her go to school and be who she was and stand up for herself and not be ashamed of having autism. And I thought, Wow, we’re really getting somewhere now. Because what that meant is this campaign spoke to her in a way that I’d never guessed or would have known and lets her know it’s O.K. for her to be herself. And if everybody who has been on any side of a fence of exclusion—which, look, in some way, shape, or form, is all of us—can tap into that as a reason to support others not quite like us, that could bring about an incredibly needed conversion for our country, and could help us get to that era that we are hoping to open up right now.

Charlotte Alter was again the only reporter I saw who made the connection between the campaign and Buttigieg’s orientation. And Buttigieg acknowledged that the focus on belonging and exclusion was motivated in part by his experience as a gay man:

Buttigieg reflected on how being gay has affected his campaign message. “Our message about belonging is designed to make everyone feel welcome, and my own search for belonging of course partly has to do with being different because I’m gay,” he said. “But it’s also part of what motivates me to help make sure anybody who’s been made to feel on the outside knows that they have a home in this campaign.”

And last

Buttigieg wasn't reluctant to talk about his queer identity. He frequently pointed out that it informed his politics and view of the world. But the moment that really caught my attention came at the end of the The Daily podcast:

It’s a strange thing to think about, that the one thing [being gay] that I couldn’t control, the one thing that might have meant it would be better not to have an aspirations related to politics at all, could be the very thing that anchors the moral and emotional purpose of this entire campaign.

I don't see how anyone can listen to that comment and think that Buttigieg's orientation was anything less than profoundly important to the campaign.
Being queer was not the only thing that shaped Buttigieg's candidacy, and no one should be reduced to one part of their identity. But being gay informed Buttigieg’s approach to politics and messaging and outreach. Obviously, Buttigieg is not the only politician to talk about service or belonging or hope for America’s future. He is, however, the only candidate to explicitly talk about how being gay framed his understanding of those ideals and that should be celebrated.

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Housewife highlights/Daily shit talk - January 20th, 2021