Declaration of Intent

Ok, y'all - here we go with yet another blog where yet another wannabe writer spews his hot takes on the artform/grift known as professional wrestling. FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH:

Hi! My name is DJ. If you know me from anything that existed before this here blog, it may have been from this noise rock band or this mathy indie-rock band. Locally here in Milwaukee, I also occasionally write stuff for Milwaukee Record, announce roller derby for the Brewcity Bruisers, and have even provided commentary for Mondo Lucha's World of Wrestling DVD. And thus begins and ends my practical real-world pro wrestling credentials. I did once get paid-ish for writing about wrestling – I was a contributor to Fansided's Daily DDT for a few months in 2016 – but the less said about how much that site required someone with a day job to churn out soulless content multiple times a week to even qualify to get a menial impressions-based payout, the better. Like many other writers doing it for the love of the game, I've also started and stopped my own prior wrestling blog over on another site. I wrestled (heh) with starting up a new blog on a more modern platform for a while – am I actually gonna stick with this, or no? – but various stimuli have led me here, to Ghost Dot Io:

1) The Current State of Things. I'm sure it'll come through at some point, but my politics veer from Democratic Socialist to Anarcho-Communist depending on my mood. (If you do not agree that trans rights are human rights, I would actually prefer you not read this blog, thank you.) The Current State of Things has me desperate to find ways to avoid doom scrolling and, thus, spend less time on social media (especially anything Meta). Bringing some creativity back into my routine (my last Match of the Year post is from, what, 2021? Yeesh) will hopefully alleviate some brain rot while I try to maintain my sanity in the World As We Know It.

2) The Current State of Wrestling Internet Fandom. Yo, is wrestling Internet toxic or what? Trying to read about pro wrestling on line can be exhausting. News sites aren't afraid of posting the most absurd rage-baity clickbait (I blocked a news site on BlueSky after seeing them post an article with the real-ass headline "FORMER WWE STAR HUMILIATES RICOCHET AT AEW PPV." Come on, you dorks, Swerve Strickland hasn't been a WWE guy in years. Related: I'm on BlueSky if that interests you), and tribalism has turned most wrestling blog comment sections into sewers of bile. So I guess I'd like to contribute something to The Discourse that is largely positive? So on that note, here's what you'll largely see from me here:

• Deep dives into specific wrestling matches. Stuff like this post of mine from 2020. I get a kick out of dissecting the storytelling of individual matches, and digging into the theory of wrestling, as it were. I'm definitely going to focus more on stuff I like than stuff I don't like. So maybe it would be more beneficial to let you know what you won't get here:
• No fantasy booking. God damn, I hate that shit. Oh, you think a booking decision was dumb because it's not what you, a wrestling fan or writer who has never worked in The Biz, would have done? I don't care.
• No idiotic tribalism. Look, my preferences lie toward New Japan, AEW, and the indies, but I still keep tabs on WWE even if their product is more shiny and loud and dumbed down for my tastes. (I'm not re-joining Netflix, though, until they get rid of the auto-play when you're just hovering over menu options trying to make a god damned decision about what you want to watch, good gravy.) I'm not going to waste my time commenting on what AEW is doing better than WWE or vice versa. Bianca Belair vs. Sasha Banks at WrestleMania 37 is one of my favorite matches and I'll probably get to it at some point, but what really hooked me into the possibilities of what pro wrestling can really be was the Steamboat/Flair series of 1989, specifically the nearly hour-long, 2 out of 3 fall New Orleans Clash of the Champions classic. Oh man, that's the good stuff.
• Among other stuff you may see: I'm sure I'll probably expand to the occasional post about music or other cultural stuff here and there, because just writing about wrestling might get boring. So there's that.

So with that, on with the show. Hope you dig, subscribe if you want to. I'm ultimately just going this for funsies. Wrestling fandom should be fun, not a miserable anger mill. Let's talk about fun stuff.