For the honour of grey whales!

Fake it. Smile and wave when people reveal their politics or weird shit (that we all have) that doesn't vibe with you. Keep it shallow and surface level, like talk about music and movies and shit. Indulge in conversations about this restaurant or that brand of tea or some shit but never show them who you really are. And they won't even notice that they don't really know you and it's all good being an alien. Maybe everyone does this on some level.

And I'm protecting insanely here in case you couldn't tell (but that's because I relate) but instead of saying "go to therapy", I'm gonna say do yourself a favour and spend some time lurking in some mental health related communities / spaces and see if you relate to any of the things that people say there. And how much of it you relate to. And look up "autistic burnout" too.

As I say (just making double clear), I'm giving you this advice based on my own life so far. So maybe your story is different. But I related a lot to a lot of what you said here.

Haha that reminds me of a conversation I was having with a friend once upon a time where I said something like: "I just want to meet someone that wants to spend Saturday night at home watching series and smoking a joint. But that person for me probably doesn't exist." And my friend responded with "Nah, they do exist but they're busy spending Saturday nights at home watching series and smoking a joint, so you'll never meet."

Also, small towns fucking suck and this is not a generational thing. You're stuck between a rock and hard place where the same people who are telling you about the 'bro code' and enforcing it on others, are all playing musical chairs with each other's boyfriends and girlfriends because the dating pool is so small.

If there's another piece of advice I could give you, fuck the bro code. It's a lie. None of these assholes will follow it themselves when the opportunity comes up for them and you'll be the only idiot trying to stay 'honourable'. Very few people that you ever meet have never dated someone before, so you're going to be always dating somebody's ex and you're going to be always breaking the code anyway whether you like it or not. And in a small town, you can't afford to pass up opportunities for the sake of assholes that you'll probably not even be friends with 10 years from now. And who would do the same to you without a second thought.

Also, I don't know if you saw my edit but I can't say this enough. Keep the heavy shit about marriage and children to yourself. Keep it light. Coming on too strong is the biggest romance killer. Try to put that shit out of your mind until much later in the relationship, if you can.

If I had to guess, they're probably copying what they see in easy to access for all ages online porn.

Yeah I was actually kinda thinking that while I was typing it. It's probably going to be difficult finding a wrestling promotion where pieces of shit haven't been involved in some way. It's just that the TNA thing is fresh and blatant and the timing of them hiring Tessa Blanchard, right when a bunch of companies were bending over and removing diversity and fairness, was fucking awful.

But I agree, I have felt a bit like a hypocrite saying that I'm gonna drop TNA for NXT. I'm just not sure where else to go for good women's wrestling from the USA. Maybe things have changed but I very much have the impression that it's an afterthought in both AEW and ROH. And I'm not prepared to put up with people like the Young Bucks just for one women's match in 3 hours lol.

But I'm hooked on Stardom right now anyway and haven't even been in the mood for TNA or NXT. And I found a website that also has TJPW and a bunch of Japanese stuff. So it might be keeping me busy enough in the next few months to not even miss American pro wrestling.

I'm about halfway through now. Probably gonna do part 2 later.

Hope you don't mind me dumping this here, just gotta say, so far it looks like I'm gonna be liking everyone from Oedo Tai based on first impressions. But God's Eye also looks like a faction to keep an eye on. Also I'm immediately a fan of Saya Iida "Gorilla Power" lol.

Just finished the first match for the 'Future of Stardom' championship, I'm guessing these ladies are kinda like young lions or in the development division. Seems like a great match to start with and give me someone to follow on their upward arc.

I honestly zoned out most of the commentary and Pink Devil did a victory speech at the end that sounded snarky and cocky as fuck. I'm honestly thinking I could just get by with looking up old reviews afterwards, and looking up any specific wrestler I'm interested in though.

And I'm glad to hear that I seem to have chosen a time to start when problematic management has just been ousted.

Nice, seems like a perfect place to start. I actually started watching TNA around the time of a regime change too, so it works.

Haven't started watching yet, although I've checked out about 5 minutes of the beginning segment with the four hosts (commentators?) talking about stuff. I was kinda hoping it would be a subtitled download by now but funnily enough, after a few repeated watches of the Ghost in the Shell franchise, it's not complete gibberish to me anymore.

I don't know exactly what they're talking about but I can figure out what's going on and get the idea. And pick up basic shit yes or no and types of greetings. Makes me wonder if I should pair getting into Stardom with some Duolingo.

Holy shit I had no idea. If these guys hadn't all kept their mouths shut, I might've been considering jumping ship earlier myself. There was brief panic after Scott was relieved of his duties but basically everyone on the inside was like "settle down everyone, nothing to see here", so it seemed all good.

Starting to make sense why Motor City Machine Guns (another good reason to switch) just packed up and left without so much as a mention on TV. Those guys bled TNA.

Edit: and I wonder if any of this has to do with Giselle Shaw disappearing.

Fine going out on your back but to Tessa Blanchard? Come on now, so they're replacing Grace with Blanchard basically. I don't know but this almost feels the same as certain companies dropping DEI programs and certain social media platforms allowing forms of verbal abuse. The timing of hiring a scorned bigot as their next big star makes it seem like it was an easy decision.

If Jordynne Grace is WWE bound, maybe I'll follow. At the very least I'm more interested in checking out NXT than I have been in a long time. Although watch Tessa Blanchard get regularly used in this crossover that they're doing anyway.

Feeling like jumping ship a little right now. AEW kinda comes across as a little smarky for me and as someone that hasn't watched much, doesn't sound like they give women's wrestling nearly as much focus as TNA does.