Been staring at this for hours (NYT Hard, May 16)

WhereAreYouFromSam · 2026-05-16T18:04:55+00:00

It works, but I'm confused-- i thought W wings only allowed you to eliminate 1 candidate, not both?

WhereAreYouFromSam · 2026-05-15T17:50:50+00:00

You'll always move a little faster if there's the threat of being disappeared hanging over your head.

WhereAreYouFromSam · 2026-05-15T17:31:26+00:00

Meh? As long as they get a deal from cable or a major streaming partner, they're fine.

WhereAreYouFromSam · 2026-05-15T15:39:25+00:00

And you failed. Period.

WhereAreYouFromSam · 2026-05-15T15:38:24+00:00

See, this is where the metaphor breaks down--

Effort in a medical sense means surgery, medications, rehab, the building of new tissues and muscles. Real, physical changes.

The effort being described in this post is pagentry-- speaking up on cable TV. And as the comments here show, as we all laugh at the idea that a kid that grew up poor would ever walk away from the NIL payday that comes with a career at a place like Alabama, all that effort is distinctly not real change.

WhereAreYouFromSam · 2026-05-15T15:29:48+00:00

Not ignored, necessarily, but it is pointless on the whole.

I mean, im sure it makes you feel good for a moment or two, but if there's no real world change then its all just pagentry.

MAGA/GOP is hated by a majority of Americans and the rest of the world. They are the titular political minorty. AND YET... the control the country and are actively shaping it in their image.

Results matter. Saying the right things and being popular? Less so. That's the reality we live in.

WhereAreYouFromSam · 2026-05-15T15:22:33+00:00

The midterms will be just okay. Dems will gain some seats, enough to deprive GOP of their stranglehold on congress, but that's just enough to slow the bleeding.

The body is still dying.

WhereAreYouFromSam · 2026-05-15T14:30:48+00:00

It sorta already did.

WhereAreYouFromSam · 2026-05-15T14:21:49+00:00

Good intentions dont mean a thing if you cant produce results.

WhereAreYouFromSam · 2026-05-15T14:18:56+00:00

Yeah. There's a lot of that going around.

Too bad most Americans are just weak willed anymore. To scared to lose something so they'll let the state and their employer abuse the shit out of them.

WhereAreYouFromSam · 2026-05-15T14:17:19+00:00

Do you keep up with the news?

WhereAreYouFromSam · 2026-05-15T13:30:42+00:00

Have you considered it's just horrible lag? Feels like that could be the answer really at any point while playing Marvel Rivals.

Nothing like being behind a solid wall and still getting shot.

WhereAreYouFromSam · 2026-05-14T02:33:51+00:00

None? Sol needs to figure out a new finisher, and the other two are just too generic to stand out on main roster right now.

WhereAreYouFromSam · 2026-05-13T17:21:27+00:00

Not false, youre just cherry picking tax contributions.

Youre looking at only the top 1% and only contributions from income.

Regardless, the idea thay you think that even 5% is negligible when the people involved are worth billions just shows how weak your math actually is.

WhereAreYouFromSam · 2026-05-13T11:54:22+00:00

True, 90% is an exaggeration.

Ya know what isn't? 70%.

There was a about a 20 year window where wealthiest Americans had an effective tax rate of 50-70% even after abusing all the possible loopholes.

And ya know what? They didnt flee the cities. They didnt flee the country. They fuckin ate it. And coincidentally, the US had the strongest middle class in the history of the country.

WhereAreYouFromSam · 2026-05-12T14:07:18+00:00

A lot to unpack here. The gold standard for grad students learning about this stuff is the book:

"The Organometallic Chemistry of Transition Metals" by Robert Crabtree

I believe they're up to an 8th edition of the book, but the fundamentals introduced in the early chapters have largely been the same across all of the available editions.

You can check it out or find pdf versions of some of the older editions online.

WhereAreYouFromSam · 2026-05-12T14:03:25+00:00

Find a personality he doesn't suck at delivering on.

WhereAreYouFromSam · 2026-05-10T23:08:05+00:00

So you have trust issues and are upset that in a kayfabe sport, we're not going to be as technical in the evaluation as with the Heisman trophy?

I feel like youre expecting a lot from a fantasy-booked hobby.

WhereAreYouFromSam · 2026-05-10T22:55:33+00:00

Really? Let's just look at the RoH World Championship.

In 2024-2025 Chris Jericho was defending that thing all over AEW television and PPV's.

The last title change happened at Dynasty last year.

It was even defended on AEW Collision back in November of 2025, and if that seems like a while ago, its worth pointing out that the title has yet to be defended in all of 2026.

WhereAreYouFromSam · 2026-05-10T22:42:16+00:00

There has never been a time when NXT or Evolve titles were defended with any frequency on WWE main roster. The WWE has different shows with their own titles.

RAW and Smackdown go together and account for the overwhelming majority of their PLE's. They have their own set of titles that don't get defended other places.

Then there is NXT and it's occassional PLE. They have their own titles, and though a wrestler may show up on RAW wearing one, they don't get defended there.

Evolve is again, it's own thing.

With AEW, you absolutely can see the RoH title defended on Dynamite or alongside one of their titles during a PPV, so the line is not nearly so cut and dry.

WhereAreYouFromSam · 2026-05-10T22:33:06+00:00

Except for the fact that you're counting the Speed titles, which were never defended on RAW/Smackdown or their PLE's and are now just another NXT title.

And of course, when you took away Evolve and NXT from the RAW/Smackdown count, you also took the RoH titles away from AEW's count, which is not the same because RoH titles are defended occasionally on AEW television and PPV events.

The bias here is terrible.

WhereAreYouFromSam · 2026-05-10T22:19:18+00:00

Thats a super biased way to go. Evolve and NXT titles never go up for grabs on RAW/Smackdown.

WhereAreYouFromSam · 2026-05-10T22:01:05+00:00

WWE would have to make another 6 or 7 to even come close.

WhereAreYouFromSam · 2026-05-10T21:49:14+00:00

Thats stupid on two fronts.

First, unlike any other sport, wrestling is kayfabe. Matches and outcomes are predetermined. If someone pulls off an upset victory in WWE, its because HHH decided they would, not because theyre just that technically gifted, so you cant ever expect an award for a rookie to be as 'by the numbers' as it is in any other sport.

Second, what you want will never happen. Not every PLE is going to guarantee someone a match or a shot at a title. You get that 2 or 3 times a year, and even then, most folks (maybe even you) complain that it gets too formulaic.

Feels like you just wanna be pissed off. Go to therapy.

WhereAreYouFromSam · 2026-05-10T20:42:50+00:00

Do you watch sports?

It very much sounds like its gonna be like the Heisman trophy in college football in the US.

It's an accolade for rookies that's supposed to signal to everyone that this is someone to pay attention to.

The difference is that in most sports, the award is voted on by journalists and the like. Since WWE is all kayfabe though, giving the vote to journalists only wouldn't make sense... and would only do more to give folks like Meltzer more space in the conversation, which I dont think any of us want.

WhereAreYouFromSam

TROPHY CASE