It’s frustrating not to get more engagement on the women’s basketball work I do.
Thinking of what I believed were quality & insightful stories I wrote on Kymora Johnson’s thought process, 2 HBCU coaching hires & a deep dive on coach Frese.
I guess I need to be better. 🤷♂️
A moment of transparency.
Today was my last day at Jack Porter Inc. after 3.5 great years. I now find myself officially unemployed, and officially uninsured - both extremely scary.
I am now aggressively seeking my next full time job in graphic design. Friday I make my move to Orlando, FL and I have an immense amount of time on my hands. I am ready to work, I can begin immediately, and I am a driven designer who values intentional, meaningful design.
I am looking to take on as much freelance work as possible to bridge this gap of uncertainty. If you are looking for a designer who values strong, intentional creative, I would love to connect.
If you would not mind taking a second to retweet and share this post, it would mean so much. There have been so many great members of the design community who have been looking out for me, and I am extremely thankful.
This time will pass, and I will look back at it as a growing opportunity. I would genuinely just love a chance.
Thank you!
https://t.co/uwCE9uh2Ev
They sought mainstream coverage and acceptance. Mainstream outlets are burying the show. They do things believing it’ll attract extra casual eyeballs. Casuals on IG, TikTok, Twitter thought the show sucked.
The truth is it’s entertainment for nobody except soulless content creators that attend the event as a show of status. And media partners.
Stephen A has to sit there and pretend to know and care about pro wrestling while his alleged favorite team was playing a playoff game. Remember this when he makes severe, declarative takes on First Take about the NBA playoffs.
It’s a 4 hour ad grab. They’ve even forgone video packages in the name of more ads. They know the audience is a bunch of suckers. You have WWE fans paying $40 to watch this event and defending commercials, you can’t help these people.
WWE has always been about the pomp and circumstance, the pageantry, the theatrics, but it always did its brand of entertainment within the confines of a wrestling promotion. At present, it has never ever felt like less of a wrestling promotion.
I don’t say this because it brings me joy to say, I’m a big fan of numerous talents on the roster. I say it, because it is so blatantly the truth now, and there’s no revoking of access that any company can dangle over me that’ll discourage me from being honest.
Not only is it not actually for the casuals or the hardcores, it’s not even for the wrestlers themselves. I actually feel bad for the talent who still dream of getting their big wrestlemania stage appearance and match. The people on that undercard were background actors. Outside of your top guys, the stars of the show were Hulk Hogan, Wheatley’s American Vodka, RAM Trucks, Minute Maid, and Fanatics.
It’s not going to get better. The people that run this operation are all focused on preserving their backs and making sure the money continues to roll in at the same rate and they’ll do whatever they need to get there, even if it means an extra ad where video packages used to be. Ads where a charming backstage segment used to be.
It’s not for you or me, it’s a ruse. The undercard talent only get to have actual matches on the TVs and the big show hits you over the head that the TV doesn’t actually matter. You’re insulted for caring and paying attention because the TV stories are incongruous with the things that happen on the big show.
In past bad eras of WWE, it was bad wrestling produced by wrestling minds. This is something entirely different. To describe it as a facsimile of wrestling would be too charitable to its proximity to pro wrestling. It is a dystopian, synthetic, cynical, corporatized, vaguely similar recreation of a sports entertainment product and it’s produced by businessmen that’ll free their hands of it and dump it off to the next sucker that’ll buy it the first chance they get.
HOT TAKE
The moment WWE started letting streamers and analyst into their spaces the plot was LOST. And, the moment they started raising ticket prices and excluded the every day fan, the quality dropped (on top of the desperate for better writers) 🤷🏾♂️ there’s so much I can say
WWE is a promotion on the back end of a hot streak, running on an institutional confidence that has transformed into blind arrogance.
The road to Wrestlemania last year was a complete mess, building matches that never happened and failing to build the matches that actually happened, leading to a cold set of shows and a universally panned main event.
The John Cena Retirement Tour was one of the biggest wasted opportunities in that company's history, right up there with The WCW Invasion.
They spent months focusing the Netflix shows around Jey Uso and Seth Rollins to no one's benefit.
And their complete lack of elevating anybody new during the hot streak has lead to relying on a beat down, ice cold Drew McIntyre to be the foil for Cody Rhodes, who himself is as cold as he's been since coming back.
They had a terrible 2025, yet they still thought people were gonna come running for these WrestleMania tickets when they're priced as high as they've ever been in the same city as last year's mediocre shows? This is blind arrogance, and a slapdash Mania card and another messy build are only going to make these issues worse.
I hate how all of my initial fears about the #WWE2K26 Ringside Pass (battlepass) nonsense are coming true.
If I pay for content I shouldn't have to grind to unlock it or pay even MORE money if I don't have time to grind.
Regardless of all the cool things added this year, I think I might be skipping this year's game entirely out of principle. Speaking with your wallet is the only way companies like this listen.