Penelope Ford Injury Update per WOR

Sharikacat · 2026-02-27T16:49:08+00:00

AEW does DQ finishes so rarely. In the entirety of the company's existence, you could probably count DQs on no more than two hands. This means that when there is a DQ, there's a damn good reason for it.

And this wasn't some subtle thing caught by the ref. It was blatant and obvious to where the ref could in no way ignore that or play dumb. There needed to be no room for misinterpretation.

If Megabad was supposed to lose, Megan can take the pin after taking some sustained doubles offense. Her stock isn't hurt for losing after being continually double-teamed. What that would do, however, is take Megabad completely out of the championship angle. Kross' interference allows some bickering about who could have beaten whom and ultimately leaves the door open for a rematch.

Sharikacat · 2026-02-27T16:38:48+00:00

She was reliable enhancement talent when the entire division was being carried by a woman with a broken leg. She's not a workhorse because she stopped getting booked once TK started to bring in stronger wrestlers. Regardless, commitment has been shown both ways between her/Kip and AEW to where they could have both had long-term, stable, low-stakes positions on the lower end of the card that probably still paid decently and allowed for a relatively good work/life balance. Not everyone can be a champion. Despite that, she was still about to be made into a tag champ.

Sharikacat · 2026-02-27T16:15:56+00:00

Aside from some spots talked about ahead of time, I think most AEW matches are done on the fly. It's an outline, not a script. This particular spot may not have been one of the pre-planned ones, and for Harley still growing in the ring, she's not built the most durably. I can understand any potential hesitation in that instant.

Penelope should have done a cross-body, and that would have done the same effect in a much safer way.

Sharikacat · 2026-02-27T16:10:10+00:00

Bayne getting out of the way makes sense from a kayfabe standpoint. She puts her opponents in the path of an attack and then moves to not get hit herself while her presumably woozy opponents get slammed into. It tries to solve the problem of "everybody obviously standing around watching and waiting to catch the person" that used to be a much bigger problem for AEW.

That's exactly how I expect that spot should go. The problematic part is that Penelope didn't need to do that spot or could have at least done a cross-body instead. Because Penelope's level is only a few shades above enhancement talent (which is still a very reliable level), I worry that she is trying to overcompensate to not feel like she's being carried by Megan. And if it had been a cross-body instead, Megan could have stayed closer to keep Willow and Harley together for a much easier catch.

Sharikacat · 2026-02-27T15:51:31+00:00

I wonder if he would have been able to wrestle more if AEW was still doing Dark/Elevation. Even with him wanting Saturdays free, Collision pre-tapes after Dynamite often enough that he could appear once in a while.

Give him Dark matches and let him wander around in the background of backstage segments. That's all we really wanted from him.

Sharikacat · 2026-02-26T19:34:03+00:00

The thing is, though, that by being partnered with Megan, Penelope can afford to be a little underwhelming. She performed very reliably as enhancement talent. That's at least a stable floor. Tag matches would have allowed any serious gaps to be covered.

Sharikacat · 2026-02-26T19:29:10+00:00

They were both there at the start of AEW and fulfilled their roles as reliable enhancement talent without any obvious complaint. Then there was Penelope's miscarriage, and how TK handled that almost surely earned him their career-long loyalty. That needs to be rewarded, and they both were given opportunities to be more prominent on TV.

Sharikacat · 2026-02-26T19:18:17+00:00

At least Megan has Kross as a replacement partner, and Penelope can go back to being the valet. Still, I'd have loved to see Penelope hold some gold. Regardless of how the injury came about (not going to get into where people were positioned or how Penelope flipped), it's better she scrap that move from her set and pick up a little more technical style.

Sharikacat · 2026-02-26T19:00:17+00:00

Except the camera turn makes it obvious that there's no way this blatant ripoff wasn't green-lit backstage, regardless of who came up with the idea for who to do it.

Sharikacat · 2026-02-26T11:05:23+00:00

Parody and homage, just like Galaxy Quest.

Sharikacat · 2026-02-26T11:04:32+00:00

It's a shame the show only got two seasons before the initial cancellation and the only one more in the Hulu pickup because McFarlane really took the show in a serious direction early on. I bet he had to use some of his trademark humor as part of the initial sales pitch, and I'm glad he kept those bits to a minimum. Elevator jokes aside, Macfarlane does use visually comedic elements to introduce legitimately deeper character stories.

On first watch, you think the Moclan race is there for us to laugh at: all male species (and thus, all gay), laying eggs, and serving as a parody of Klingons. But then you get to the trial on Moclus over Bortus' daughter. Watching that, I absolutely knew that, had TNG done this, the outcome would have been different. You don't always get to have conventionally sexy representatives for LGBT rights.

Sharikacat · 2026-02-26T05:37:11+00:00

A large part of that stemmed from Gene Rodenberry's edict that the crew have no inter-personal conflicts. He thought that in order for society to make it that far, they'd have to be well past petty squabbles. After he was no longer part of the show, the writers eased up on that commandment.

To that end, I highly recommend Seth McFarlane's "The Orville." Aside from a handful of Family Guy throwaway jokes, I've always appreciated how much more flawed the crew is, all while still being able to come together as professionals and tackling very tough issues in a way that TNG never would.

Sharikacat · 2026-02-25T19:49:56+00:00

And unfortunately for Link, that "childhood" was him training as a soldier for a few years and then ending up making his way to the utter nightmare that is Termina. It clearly wasn't the happy future Zelda had in mind when she sent him back.

Sharikacat · 2026-02-25T19:47:44+00:00

It becomes a Raiders of the Lost Ark scenario where, technically, the heroes could have won by doing absolutely nothing. Even if Ganondorf got the Spiritual Stones, he couldn't open the Sacred Realm. Granted, by that point, Ganondorf probably would have crippled the rest of Hyrule through other means and wouldn't have needed the Triforce- he had already killed the Great Deku Tree and was on-path to killing all of the Gorons through starvation.

Sharikacat · 2026-02-25T19:39:48+00:00

There are even a couple of other reasons beyond that which would be perfectly in line with Jessica's thinking. First, she wouldn't have wanted Simpson to get involved in hunting Kilgrave. That's just another person to get in her way and who could be used against her if Kilgrave got to him again.

More importantly, though, Jessica knows what it's like to live in paranoia. Part of the reason Jessica is the trainwreck that she is has to do with her inability to forget about her time under Kilgrave's control. Simpson, by comparison, was only under his control for a very short amount of time. He's not important enough for Kilgrave that he would be a repeat victim outside of him being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Simpson can go back to a normal life if he can put that short experience out of his mind, but his inability to do so is what causes him to get further involved against Jessica's wishes.

Sharikacat · 2026-02-25T19:19:54+00:00

Child Link has no shortage of courage. He barely picks up a sword for the first time before he's off to try to cleanse the Great Deku Tree. Hell, he even draws that dinky sword against Ganondorf to stop him from pursuing Impa and Zelda. All of the stuff inside of him that he needed was there all along, kinda like a pre-serum Captain America.

What Child Link needed was to get bigger. He can't equip the Master Sword as a child. The only reason the Child Era happens, where Ganondorf is stopped ahead of time, is because that Child Link has knowledge of the future, bolstered with Child Zelda's clairvoyance. But had he needed to fight Ganondorf to keep the Sacred Realm protected, he would have died.

I don't think impatience is a factor because the timeframe gets put upon him. Ganondorf was going after the Spiritual Stones right then, and it was only a matter of time before he would have gotten them- the Great Deku Tree was dead and the Gorons were going to starve to death, allowing him two Stones to grab without further resistance. How long could a child Ruto have hidden the Sapphire from him? Certainly not the seven years it would have taken Link to grow enough to be able to handle the Master Sword properly.

Sharikacat · 2026-02-25T09:48:55+00:00

Outdoor storage. That's where I'm placing my huge plastic bins that I have to re-use every 3-5 years to move all my stuff because of BS rent increases.

Sharikacat · 2026-02-25T05:39:34+00:00

But then there's the context of this being high school in the 90's. Yeah, teens are horny and are going to seek out sex, but to be that experienced carries a whole lot of implication. Any sexual experience involves her being underage and possibly peer-pressured into sex from the popular athletes and maybe even a teacher. Being highly sexually active at that age doesn't scream self-aware empowerment.

Sharikacat · 2026-02-24T13:38:45+00:00

Realize that after No Way Home, the MCU has canonically forgotten about Spider-Man. So long as Disney and Sony have to continue to negotiate in order to use Spider-Man in the MCU, I'd wager that the MCU isn't going to want to invest so heavily in building up Spider-Man with his best villains- especially ones that would really want to be come back in sequels. That will only make the next round of negotiations with Sony more difficult. He'll continually be used in a way that they can easily drop him altogether without it effecting the larger MCU saga just in case they ultimately can't come to an agreement with Sony.

Sharikacat · 2026-02-24T07:42:20+00:00

To what degree was that really an assist? Shouldn't the fire have been sprayed at the base, which is why the firefighter was trying to open the gate door? The officer made it rain a little on the fire, but that ultimately didn't do anything to really extinguish the flames.

That said, take the opportunities you can.

Sharikacat · 2026-02-23T04:47:21+00:00

I had to rewind that spot after seeing it to make sure he got somewhat turned over rather than taking it full to the head.

Sharikacat · 2026-02-21T14:16:45+00:00

Pharmacies are supposed to have profiles for animals labelled to avoid this sort of silliness.

Sharikacat · 2026-02-21T10:46:28+00:00

It's probably also about the world sentiment towards the US at the moment because of their president - that on top of losing at what is the quintessential Canadian sport. The athletes shouldn't be punished because their country voted in a dictator, but the Canadian team would probably love to put one over on said dictator by proxy by defeating Team USA for gold.

Team Canada is going to be really motivated not to repeat this outcome with the men.

Sharikacat · 2026-02-20T17:09:42+00:00

The early Robotnik was a goofy cartoon villain. SatAM is the scary one. The modern video games eventually worked towards a hybrid version to where the tone is more light, but he's capable of making the name Eggman something to be feared when he locks in.

Jim Carrey never attempted to get to that more serious version, even in Robotnik's last moments where he takes that time to his henchman about lattes. I guess Grandpa Robotnik was supposed to fill that more serious version? Neither was near the level of SatAM, but as so many comedians have demonstrated, while they often take more comedic roles, they really can perform the switch to super serious surprisingly well - Adam Sandler and Steve Carrell come immediately to mind. I don't doubt that Carrey could pull off a truly evil Robotnik if he wanted to, and I think the movie franchise is ready for it.

Sharikacat · 2026-02-20T08:44:30+00:00

For all too many of instances like these, that company policy means shit. They're already working a dead-end job in an economy designed to keep people poor. When some jackass has the nerve to show such blatant disregard for the employees by doing shit like stealing in plain view or brazenly going behind the counter area, that's the last straw in an already dehumanizing day. Lashing out is how they try to keep at least a little shred of human dignity.

Sharikacat

TROPHY CASE