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A theory on why some people lack confidence [(very) long read]

(Reading time: at least 15 minutes)
​
I speak from experience. I'm one of those people who lacks what the average person would call confidence. I never really understood why until recently I found myself unable to sleep one night (a fairly common occurrence in my life). Life is full of seemingly paradoxical bits of advice. To get to sleep in life, switch your computer or phone off a full hour before bed, in fact don't do anything. Unless of course you've been in bed for two hours and still aren't asleep. Now the advice becomes "go and do something". For better or for worse, I switched the light on and found myself reaching for my phone. YouTube, incognito, just show me something random. Somewhere on that first page was Jordan Peterson talking about predators (the human to human kind), and how most people are - despite their parent's best intentions - taught to do completely the wrong thing. It piqued my curiosity just enough to give it a watch. I already think my mum tried her best in life, but ultimately got a lot of stuff wrong, so could this be one more thing?
​
From the quick snippet from one of his lectures, I get the impression, that yes, she probably did do the wrong - according to Peterson's hypothesis anyway. He talks about how kids are taught to be afraid of strangers - "stranger danger". If you see a stranger, be scared of them! They're evil nasty people, who are much bigger and stronger than you are. The only thing you can do is run away - but don't run. You need to look brave, so instead, calmly walk away. I can't remember exactly what I was taught by own mum (single mum at that), but it was something along these lines. The more I look into this, it seems a lot of single mothers teach their kids this despite the fact it's completely wrong.
​
Firstly, let's take Peterson's view on this. An actual predator knows how to put a scared kid at ease - this is exactly who they want as a target. If you ran away screaming like a lunatic who'd escaped the local asylum, the predator would run in the opposite direction. That noise attracts attention that they don't want! However if you try to be brave, stay calm, quiet and don't create a ruckus, the whole incident has a better chance of going off unnoticed. For as long as no one's looking, your predator has time to soften you up, and make you believe they're friendly, and as mentioned before: they're good at this (verging on being an expert at this particular craft).
​
Now I'll start to add my own input to this based on my own upbringing. Not only have I now been thoroughly taught to be afraid of strangers, but what exactly is a stranger? Is it a big tall six foot tall man, who hasn't seen you before and thus shouldn't be talking to you, until your mum's introduced you to him? Or is it just anyone you've never met before in your life? Even other three year olds? I don't really have many memories of myself being a three year old. I remember being taken to a play group at a local methodist church. I have memories of myself in there, but no memories of actually playing with anything or anyone if that makes sense? I must've done something while I was there, she wouldn't have taken me every week if I just stood there and did nothing. However I have no memories of playing with anyone, which I know most kids would do. Up until I watched this Peterson video, I'd always assumed that I'd tried, and that for reasons I either don't remember (or they just never gave in the first place), they didn't want me.
​
When you're trying to analyze your life thirty years down the line, to have worked out that I was rejected for no reason whatsoever isn't particularly helpful. There's not really much I can do with that. I can't improve my own life with that, neither can I realistically prevent other people making the same mistakes I did. After all, what use is it to tell people "Above all else, make sure you never do nothing wrong" Once you've got your head around resolving the double-negative to mean "Above all else, make sure you're not perfect", the person I've just given the advice to will be left scratching their head. "Not perfect?"
​
Peterson's video gave me a new possibility. One I'll probably never be able to prove, but a new possibility all the same. What if they didn't reject me? Even worse: Is it at all possible that other kids did try to befriend me? With me - following my stranger danger - training, walked away from this danger I'd been warned about? Worryingly, I think it actually is possible. Time machines don't exist so I'll never know, but I really can't discount this possibility.
​
When I started nursery (in the US you call this is Pre-K - name aside, they're functionally identical), it was the same situation: I can't really describe anyone there or anything I particularly did there, but I can tell you I didn't have any friends there either. Except of course for my brother. Twin brother as it happens - and yes, and most will figure out, but amazingly some people still struggle with this, we're non-identical (we pretty much couldn't be any less identical from a physical perspective). Some people still associate twins as being the same sex, when with dizygotic twins, opposite sex is just as common as same sex. Anyway, he was the only other kid I'd play with. If ever I was missing, the staff knew to look in the "phone booths". Not real ones of course, just two booths with wooden block handsets in each. Each ear piece was hose pipe'd to the mouth of the other - It was 1989, the idea of giving kids real phones was unheard of. I wouldn't play with anyone else though. Again, I don't know if that was down to them or down to me.
​
By the Autumn of 1991, I was now starting school. If you're in the US, you've probably already correctly linked this being Kindergarten - the only difference is that here in the UK, you start school in the same as your fifth birthday - not your sixth, we start school a year earlier here -- also completely off topic, but when I was that age, you were allowed to leave school at 16. I don't know if Tony Blair's Labour government changed that, or if it was just something they really wanted to change, but in any case, I got out of that hellish part of my life at 16 in 2003 - not a day too soon. Back to my first days. More of the same I'm afraid. I can't remember too much about the early days - where the first impressions that count would've been. Again, I've always thought that I surely must've tried to be friends with other kids, only for them to point blank refuse. Once again though, it's possible they did try and in fact it was me who snubbed them.
​
This possibility actually wouldn't surprise me. Throughout the years as I get a little bit older, and thus better at retaining and recalling things I've been taught, I can definitely recall that we absolutely weren't allowed to play outside except for our own garden, which would've been no more than 20 foot wide and 20 foot long. Firstly we lived in a bit of a bad spot for road safety. Two A-roads: one on the front, one on the back, both with double yellow lines. If you're not from the UK, and don't know our road markings, the yellow line in the gutter means you can't park here (single lines are between the times shown, double lines indicate it's a 24/7 restriction). We've got two quarter-mile stretches of road where no one can park. It's a 30 mph limit, but we regularly saw people in the 40s and 50s, and we've even caught a 72 at one point on one of those "your speed is" electronic signs. Two little kids without much road sense playing in a tiny little area, barely 1/10 mile long and 1/10 mile wide before we're on one of these two roads.
​
Mum saw a potential danger and protected us from it. I'm not faulting her for that, but it begs the question, why did she not take us over the road to other kids houses where we could then play in relative safety? You probably already guessed, there's a little more to it. The other kids in the area were what my mum considered the worst thing a person could ever be... "Common". She grew up in an upper-middle family. Six bed fully detached house with a garden all the way around the property, except for the front which could only be described as a parking lot. You could easily fit 20 cars in there, like how many cars did they expect to have visiting them??? She ran away from that life aged 17 because her family, whilst wealthy, wouldn't buy her anything except bare essentials, instead insisted she get a job and buy her own things. She married a builder in protest just to get one over on her rich parents.
​
However that was a decision that would affect her own kids (us) in the long run. She wanted a nice house in a nice area, it would've cost £8,000 in 1972, instead her husband talked her into buying a cheap house in a cheap part of town four miles away for just under £5,000. This area was full of common people. I can only assume she intended to trade her way up the property ladder to somewhere else. She wanted a four bed semi, but ended up with a three bed terrace, which would in time become a two bed when the downstairs bathroom was moved upstairs, swallowing up the smallest bedroom in the process. To make matters worse for her, four months after we were born, she threw him out. He'd been caught having an affair with a woman half his age who worked at Kwik Save! The cheating would've been bad enough on its own, but with someone who works in a discount supermarket?! I can only imagine her reaction.
​
She was now firmly stuck in an area she didn't like, didn't want to be in, couldn't afford to move away from, was full of commoners, and had two dangerous main roads, meaning we weren't allowed out. I'm sure she did what she thought was best, but ultimately, what she actually did was completely isolate us. So when we went to school not only did we have no real friends for one reason or another, but also, I seem to distinctly remember being taught that I was better than everyone else. I don't know if I was taught this as a response to having no friends, or if I was taught this first. I don't really think I've got enough information to figure it out either way. It's possible that she tried to reassure me with something along the lines of "Awww, don't get upset! Don't worry about not being friends with those kids, you're better than them anyway". What I can say with absolute certainty is that if I've got no friends, and I then proceed to walk around feeling like I'm better than everyone else, it's only going to make the problem worse.
​
Anyway, when we were 11, she might've thought the bad years were finally over, and that we'd finally made it in life. We got accepted in a grammar school. A state operated, free to attend one (she couldn't have afforded one set of fees, let alone two at the same time). It didn't matter that it wasn't one of the prestigious, highly coveted private school ones, a grammar school was a grammar school - infinitely better than those secondary moderns (or comprehensives, or whatever it was they were called by 1998). Finally we'd be among other middle class kids! Never mind the fact we could barely afford the school dinners and we didn't even qualify for free ones because she wasn't claiming one of the correct state benefit handouts. I have a better recollection of this first day, although even it's pretty patchy... I remember being nervous as hell. I'd never had friends before, and worse, I didn't really have anything in common with any of these kids.
​
The biggest standout for me was the most of these kids all came from well off families - they all had phones. Back at this time, phones still had monophonic ringtones, in fact, the big breakthrough of the day was that they had a screen! They had a much shorter fixed antenna that you didn't have to extend to improve the voice quality, and you could send text messages silently to each other without your teacher knowing! It didn't matter which phone you had, they all had this identically groundbreaking functionality, all that mattered was that you had one at all... Not only did I not have one, but also I didn't really have any money to join the other kids in the mall after school. Also, I'm very nearsighted, something like 20/50, and school was 7 miles away from home. I had to go home with my brother because he could read the number on the bus at long range. I couldn't, so I'd have to flag every bus down until it was a couple of feet away, and then wave it on. Bus drivers would think I was doing it on purpose and eventually just wouldn't stop for me. Or at least, this is what scared and timid little me was terrified of. What I now understand in my mid 30's, is that to have real friends, you have to be friends with people outside of school/work, and I didn't, for what I always believed were factors beyond my control.
​
Also, a concept I'm sure is familiar across high schools all around the world. In those first few weeks everyone's sizing each other trying to determine a pecking order. The one place you don't want to be is last place. Last place is often the first to be decided. Whoever gets picked on first is probably in last place, and no one wants to let you of out of, because they then might take your place. Who's mouth do you suppose lent them the nickname rat face within the first two hours of high school? Strange concept isn't it: the one kids who never had friends before and had something visibly undesirable about them was first to be kicked down in the metaphorical sense. The idea of "just be confident" got a real kickdown here. Nervous as I was when I got through those gates and slowly waddled over to my first ever classroom, I bravely did it anyway. How pathetic would it have been if I'd hid in the toilet? To be honest, I doubt it would have been any better or worse. Rat face would still have been discovered when I was found and dragged into my classroom, and now I would've shown people that I haven't even got the confidence to face the crowd in the first place. So, having never been shown how to be confident: I came, I tried, and I failed spectacularly. The remaining five years never really saw anything improve.
​
In fact in many ways, high school was worse than junior school. At least towards the end of junior school, the sporting side of had started to come out. I couldn't play football, but I could play most other sports reasonably well towards the end of junior school, to the point where I wasn't even the last pick any more - a world apart from my early days. It was as if I'd found my calling in life, especially in my last year of junior when during a game of rounders (which is like a British take on softball), the teacher bowled the ball to me, and called "no ball" while it was in flight. I almost never hit anything that was bowled at me, and those I did landed inches from my feet. Not this time though. There was a loud "thwack!" and it flew away. We had a rule where if you shouted the word "taken" on a no-ball, it became live. I'd never hit a ball like this before, so I took it and cleared all the bases. You could see the respect in the eyes of the other kids for having done it - guess I wasn't this loser they thought I was after all? Shame it was like June and we only had a couple of weeks left of our final year.
​
No one else in our junior school went to this grammar school, and of course, being a grammar school, sports weren't really an emphasis here. Sports were always seen as being for stupid people. Indeed, I was in all the bottom sets, but thanks to this snobbish mind set, I was determined not to be thought of as stupid, and so the only thing I was ever any good at would take a back seat. There was no respect gaining moment to be found in subjects like English, maths and science. It sounds obvious now, but respect is usually gained from skills and abilities - something you can do that few others can. What skill do you need to read a poem or solve an equation? Especially when everyone at this skill is almost equally good at these subjects, where's the distinction? What separates you from others? If ever any type of school was like a mass production line, that produces thousands of identical clones, it's surely a state run grammar school. Private schools at least have extra curricular activities - state schools, usually not.
​
It's got me thinking. Where does confidence ultimately derive from? If you ask me, it's personal skills and abilities, especially ones that aren't universal. You got the top grade in English? Gee whizz, go write a poem or something... You can shoot a three pointer from beyond the center court line? Oooh, watch people eyes open up nice and wide when you can do something like that. In my life I was always taught that being smart would make me the envy of the world. In reality, I think that might only be even slightly true if you've got a natural aptitude for it. For someone like me though, it's very obvious that all I was doing was pretending to be someone I'm not, and that's never admirable. But right from the first real memories I ever had, this is all I can ever remember. "You're really clever", "you're better than them", "you're going to be rich one day", "you're going to be their boss one day". It's not that healthy competition is a bad thing. From the sports I played when I was younger - you win some, you lose some, but you still sake the other teams hands. All I've ever seen from my own mum though is the idea that if we win, we cheer - and if we lose, we sneer. I don't behave like that now, and haven't done for as long as I can remember, but it eats away at me, recently discovering the possibility that in the crucial formative years that I can't remember, I could've been robotically following her training.
​
So how do I be confident now? It's something I've made leaps and bounds of progress over the last ten years, but it's still far from complete. There's more to it than just "don't be scared". I imagine this like a switch on a hairdryer with three positions, but with a difference. Instead of it being 0,1,2 it's actually 1,0,2. In that middle state it's off, switch it left and it's cold, switch it right and it's hot. In this analogy, left is scared, middle is off, right is brave. As you see, there's no confidence on that switch, but the idea of "don't be scared" could leave some people to leaving the switch in the middle. In reality, it's got to go to the right, but that's only part of the puzzle. There are other switches, and only the correct combination across all the switches will result in confidence. Bravery is just one component. Another is following your own heart, and not doing what I did in my early years, which was try to impress my mum. I couldn't be who she wanted me to be, and so she was only ever going to be let down by that. When I was growing up, I felt like I owed it to her, but in reality, I owe her nothing. The fact that I can't be who she desperately wanted me to be is her problem, not mine. I used to feel guilty about this, when I was a kid, but not any more.
​
To anyone who's still trying to live up to their parents' expectations like I was. All I can say is: statistically, it's unlikely to happen. Perhaps it'd be better to let them down gently earlier on and focus on yourself now? Otherwise you'll lose years of your life, until things eventually come crashing down on you, and it'll force you into a corner. Now you won't be able to (in a manner of speaking) "come out on your own terms", you'll have to react in the heat of the moment, explaining why you've (in their eyes) "failed", and to make matters worse, there'll be no sign of any significant progress elsewhere in your life to explain it away.
​
To wrap up a fairly long exploration of the early years of my life, looking into where my lack of confidence might've come from, I do think Jordan Peterson might be have a point, and I'd like to see more research on it. Teaching kids to be afraid of strangers might have the unintentional side effect of making them scared of everyone. Made worse by the fact predators know how to overcome scared kids anyway. Literally nothing good comes from it. It's certainly a possibility from what I can piece together of my own life. It probably isn't the only cause, but I think in my case, when that was coupled with a mum who thought she was better than anyone else. Who sneered at everyone else on her way up, and continued sneering at everyone else on her way back down. I think the two could have formed a disastrous cocktail. I do wonder how many other FA's have similar backgrounds. Overprotective parents (usually mothers) who inadvertently taught them to be scared of everyone in their attempt to keep us away from dangerous people?
​
I got back into fitness a few years ago based on my own love of it as a child, and whilst it's not been a magic bullet, things have improved massively. I'd put it down to the fact that I'm taking charge of my own life rather than accepting what my mum dictates to me. I've felt felt my confidence grow, and whilst that hasn't yet translated into anything, and I've still got my rat face, that doesn't mean the confidence isn't there. All I can do is continue to water that flower, of which my own personal interest (fitness) was the seeds.
​
To close, a quote from my own text that I think you might like:
All I was doing was pretending to be someone I'm not, and that's never admirable.
Perhaps you'll also like
to have real friends, you have to be friends with people outside of school/work, and I didn't, for what I always believed were factors beyond my control.
submitted by quartzlump to ForeverAloneWomen [link] [comments]

2020 Black Friday/Small Business Saturday/Cyber Monday Sales and Releases Masterpost

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We're back again for 2020! Thank you to everyone who contributed last year, it was a lot of fun! Posting this a little earlier this year so people can plan ahead.

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Other roundups + useful links:

Text List

Last updated: 11/28 12:00pm PST
Brands added today: Rumination Jewelry
Brands updated today: Lotus Noir Perfumery
Adept Cosmetics Now - Nov. 30 at 10PM MST.
25% off almost everything (excluding Plain Jane palette, ACD & ACI shades, depotting tools) with code BF25
Aewen Jewellery 11/27-12/25, possibly starts earlier
Until Christmas (25th December) everything has a 25% discount. The discount is added once you add things to the basket.
Alkemia (Etsy shop) 11/30 1pm EST
Winter Collection release 11/30 1pm EST. Holiday three pack gift bags for $25 containing 3 "gourmandy" scents. All December orders over $50 receive free GWP Winter Solstice Alchemy 2020, all December orders over $35 receive free GWP Yuletide Blessing if you let them know you are a member of a forum (such as IMAM!) in the notes at checkout.
AlterEgo/Wisconsin Soap unknown dates
Save 50% off entire purchase including indie nail polish starter set with code BF-AE-2020
Amearth Jewelry 11/22 - 12/2
15% off of all orders, free gift on €20+ orders
Andromeda’s Curse 11/27 - 11/30
30% off
Apocalyptic Beauty 11/25-11/27 (at least)
25% off most products (seasonal grab bags are excluded), discount is automatically applied at checkout.
Arcana Wildcraft 11/27 - 12/1 (free US ship until) 12/5
New Winter collection out now, plus rerelease of past scents. FREE SHIPPING: Shipping is FREE for all domestic orders now through December 5. As always, international orders of $40 or more will ship for only $8.
FREE LAYERING NOTE: Now through December 1, you can get a free Layering Note when you spend $60 or more. (And the Layering Notes have been restocked!) No code is needed, but you will need to place your free LN(s) in your cart.
Astrid Perfume 11/27-11/30
Wintertime collection now available. GWP: Purchases of $25 will receive a 1.8ml vial of the Black Friday Cyber Monday blend of the customer’s choice. Purchases of $50 will receive a 1.8ml vial of the BFCM blend of the customer’s choice and one vial of my choice. For every $75 spent, the customer will receive one full bottle of the BFCM blend of choice. Details of GWP on sheet.
Au Naturale Now - 11/30
25% off all orders with code BFCM25, 30% off orders $100+ with code BFCM30, 40% off orders $150 with code BFCM40
Aurora Beauty Sunday 11/15 at 1 pm pst/ 4pm est.
Shop restock with a charity polish launching. Affiliate codes available from brand reps for 15% discount.
Beautometry 11/21-11/30
30% off excluding AEngland new releases, pre-orders, prior purchases and no combined shipping. Use code BFCM20
Black Baccara 11/27 at 8pm EST - 11/30 at 11:00pm EST
Save 20% off everything on the website, including jewelry, with code SNOW20 excluding purchases of gift cards. GWP tiers @$100 and $200, see sheet for details.
Black Hearted Tart Now through 12/01/2020
Black Friday all month long, 15% off entire site with coupon code BLKheartedFRI. Can't be combined with any other offer. UPDATE: Buy three 10 mls and get one free! (Includes any combo of perfume oil rollers, layering notes, and EDPs)
Black Moon Cosmetics 11/23-11/30 at 11:59PM PST
Up to 40% off all single items, up to 25% off bundles and gift sets, no code necessary
Botanica/Vitale 11/26-11/29
All 5mLs and 10mLs will be 10% off, excluding custom orders and sample sets
BubbleCat11/24-11/30
15% off with code Spiralsgiving
Bygone Apothecary 11/27/2020 8am PST - 11/30/2020 9pm PST
Grand Opening Black Friday 11/27 @8 am PST. Sales TBA, please comment and tag u/theyellingcat with updates!
Cattail Apothecary Now - midnight EST 11/30
15% off all orders over $25 with code SHOPSMALL15, 25% off all orders over $100 with code SHOPSMALL25
Orders that are still over $100 after discounts will also receive free domestic shipping (and $10 flat rate to Canada.) AND, every single order placed will receive a free sample of one of our loose leaf tea blends. New product releases, details on sheet.
Cellar Door Bath Supply Co 11/25/20-11/30/20
Save 15% on orders of $25+ with code GRAVY15, Save 20% on orders of $75+ with code: CRANBERRIES20, Save 25% on orders of $125+ with code: TOFURKY25, Save 30% on orders of $200+ with code: CASSEROLE30
Chris Rusak Perfume unknown timeframe
40% off Discovery Sets; discounts on 30 and 50ml bottles. Free US shipping @$29
Cirque Colors 11/23-11/30 11:59PM EST
20% off site wide, excluding holiday sets with code HOLIDAY2020
CocoaPink 11/27/20 12-2pm EST
15% off everything except sample vials (limit 3 sets per person)
Color 4 Nails Now - 2nd December 2020 (no timezone listed)
25% off almost everything excluding KBShimmer (15%) and final sale with code BLFR2020
Color Spectrum 11/27 @ 12pm (possibly am/midnight?)EST - 11:59pm EST 11/30
25% OFF shop wide (excluding new releases), 3 for $10 Mystery Bags, FREE US SHIPPING with all orders over $35 (after discounts). FREE MINI polish with every order, no minimum, FREE EXCLUSIVE BLACK FRIDAY FREEBIE POLISH with every order over $45, while supplies last
Concrete Minerals 11/25-? unknown end date
40% off sitewide, including already discounted sets.No code necessary, applies at checkout.
Cupcake Polish 11/25 to 11/30 at 11:59pm CST
30% off sitewide with code THANKFUL2020
Dark Tales 11/27 only, unknown times
Black Friday is almost here! 20% off on everything just for one day
Dawn Eyes Cosmetics Now - ?, no end date given
30% off
Death and Floral 11/26-11/27
20% off and Exclusive GWP for orders $20 and up. UPDATE: GWP is Capitalist Figs: Black figs, blackened honey wine, and swirling black sugar on a bed of black patch
Deconstructing Eden 11/27(?) unknown dates, assuming Black Friday.
$25 - 10% off, $50 - 15% off, $75 - 20% + samples of The Nice List & The Naughty List, $100+ - 25% off + 5ml bottles of The Nice List and The Naughty List. BF exclusive scents + Winter Releases. More details on sheet and here
Deep Midnight Perfumes 11/26 12pm CST - 11/30 at 11:59 pm
20% off all products, goody bags included with $65 purchase while supplies last (60 available).
Devinah Cosmetics 26th 12pm PST/3pm EST, unknown end time
35% off with code Blackfriday20
Different Dimension 12am 11/20 EST - 11:59pm 12/1 EST
35% off entire store with code BF2020; GWP for first 100 orders; $6 mystery doorbusters; sporadic flash sales
Dreaming Tree Soapworks 11/27 9pm EST - 11/30 9pm EST
Winter release, restock and the biggest sale of the year: use code 'evergreen' for 20% off your entire order
Druidcraft Jewelry Now - 12/1
15% off everything with code SUPPORTSMALL
EcoSlay 11/27 12 am-11:59 pm, EST
40% off 12 am - 1:59am, 30% off 2 am - 11:59 pm
Emily de Molly (Australian site) USA/Int'l: 11/27 at 6pm EST; Australia: 11/28 at 10am AEDT
20% off orders over $30; $25% off orders over $100. Discounted shipping rates.
Emme Cosmetics midnight 11/26 - midnight 11/30
All the website will be 20% OFF.
Enchanted Polish 11/2712AM PST - 11/3011:59PM PST
10% off store-wide, no minimums & free US shipping with code HOLIDAY10
Fairypants Now - 11/30
20% off everything with code UGH2020
Fan Chromatic Nails 11/276pm PST - 11/30 11:59pm PST.
Free shipping on all orders over $20, with different daily deals. Friday: For every $10 you spend, receive $5 worth of free mystery items. Saturday: For every $20 you spend, receive $5 of store credit to use on a future order! Sunday: GWP @ $50 and $100. Monday: For every $25 you spend, get 1 month free in our exclusive Nail Polish of the Month Club! More details on spreadhsheet
Fantome Perfume 11/26 midnight PST - 11/30 midnight
Free gifts with purchase, must add to cart and then use code to get it for free. Does not stack with any other promos, including Nov. promo. GWP @$40, $65, $115, $160, $200, all details on sheet!
UPDATE: EDP + rollerball gift sets available through 11/30
Fancy Gloss 11/27 8 PM EST - 11/30 11:59 PM EST
25% off all polishes with code FANCYBF25, free mystery thermal with first 15 orders of $50+ (before shipping)
Fennec Design
20% off sitewide (discount applied at checkout)
Fictional Boutique Now - 11/30
Up to 40% off everything, free 60 ml candle on orders over $35
Floating Intentions Now - 12/2
10% off any order with code BLACKFRIDAY. Automatic 25% off at checkout on $50+ order
Forelsket Now - ? (assume Black Friday)
35% of 2+ items with code EARLY
Grandmother's Buttons 11:45pm 11/26 - 11:45pm 11/30
25% off everything online with code HAPPYDAY, 30% off for $250 and above orders with code BUTTONLOVE30
Hand Scrubs by Faith 12 am 11/27/20- 11:59 pm 11/30/20
30% off the entire site with code save30
Haus of Gloi 11/27 9am PST - 11/30 midnight, new release at 9am 11/30
Yule collection release, plus "secret surprises" will be in the shop this Monday 11/30 at 9am Pacific. 20% off all EDPs all weekend
Heather's Hues 11/27, 9 am - 11:59 pm EST
Use code BF2020 for 20% off storewide. 20 random orders receive a free gift valued up to $20. First 20 orders over $20 receive free Black Friday exclusive polish ($20 must be order total before tax/shipping). Other restocks/releases on sheet
High Garden Tea 11/27 only
20% off all black teas and black tea blends with code BLACKTEAFRIDAY)
ILNP "all weekend" = 11/27-11/29?
25% off site-wide, double rewards points with code BF2020
Kaleidos Now- 11/30
25% off site wide, orders over $70 get a hair bow, orders over $180 get a face towel, small suitcase, and original version of Mars Melter. 40% off lips, 40% off Cyber Bronze palette.
Kalos Jewelry Co. 11/27
30% off all necklaces AND a pair of free 14k gold-filled earrings on all orders over $50 with code BLACKFRIDAY
KatsEyeCharms Now - 12/1
20% off all items in the shop
Kheimistrii 11/27 only
35% off from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM CST, 25% off from 12:01 PM to 4:00 PM CST, 15% off from 4:01 PM to 8:00 PM, 5% off from 8:01 PM to 11:59 PM CST. No coupon code required
Kitten Cosmetics now - 11/30
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Friday November 27th is 25% off of everything with a $25 purchase minimum, Saturday November 28th is 20% and Monday November 30th is 20% off
Leesha's Lacquer November 25th thru December 2nd
25% off + free shipping, no code needed. 3 limited edition charity polishs with 50% sales donated, see sheet for details.
Lethal Cosmetics 11/27 9am CET - 11/30 midnight
Up to 40% off various products, new release of large Prismatic palette, new gel liners, new eyeshadow shades
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30% off Friday 12 am thru 1 pm CST, 20% off 1 pm CST Friday - Sunday. Free shipping over $25.
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25% OFF of your ENTIRE ORDER with code BLACKFRIDAY
Lollies by Leah 11/27
New Winter collection of 36 flavors releasing 11/27 (they appear to be available now, the full collection set will be available in limited numbers Nov 27- Dec 1 (or until it sells out)
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Free 2020 Bingo lip balm with purchase of $35+ (before shipping)
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Half off most everything with the code THANKS. New 6 piece Victorian Christmas collection just 30 dollars with the THANKS code. Various GWP and mystery bags, see sheet for details.
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submitted by theyellingcat to Indiemakeupandmore [link] [comments]

My Mulubrhan Meme Manifesto

Disclaimer: I have been sitting on a version of this for a bit now and very much did not want to post it. I wanted to be somewhat careful when it comes to the discussion around young riders and did not want to be negative towards them nor give them any unwanted attention or pressure. However, after a recent and now deleted post on pelotonmemes (as well as all the other memes) I feel somewhat compelled to set the record as straight as possible, as I feel the prevailing narrative has become distorted. The discussion around Mulubrhan at this point involves undue negativity directed at even younger riders and other very young riders, and I’m not comfortable with that. I may be taking the meme to seriously, but I think it got out of hand and I want to address the root of the contention to end it. Anyway…
Recently parts of /pelotonmemes has been up in arms in support of the young Eritrean Henok Mulubrhan who currently rides for the NTT Development team. The prevailing opinion has been that Mulubrhan is good enough to race for the WT team next season, especially given the small budget they have access to, his background as an African cyclist, his results, and the fact he is already in the team's set up. It was recently announced that he would stay on with the Development team for next season, rather than being moved up to the WT team. So, the question we are faced with is, who is right /pelotonmemes or Qhubekha Assos's management?

The case for Mulubrhan stepping up to WT

The strongest case that can be made on Mulubrhan's behalf is based on his results in 2020. At the start of the year Mulubrhan scored decent results in 2 big stage races in Africa. Starting with 5th overall at the 2.1 Tropicale Amissa Bongo followed by 10th overall at the 2.1 Tour of Rwanda. Additionally since the end of lockdown he backed up his early season form with a very consistent string of strong results in Europe. The standout results being his 11th place on GC at the Baby Giro, and his 12th in the 1.1 Giro dell'Appennino, as well as strong results in a couple of U23 one-day races. As a result, he currently sits in 407th in the UCI rankings, placing him 14th amongst all riders in the NTT system in 2020. Another apparent advantage of promoting him is that he is already part of the Qhubeka-Assos system, and as a young rider will be a relatively cheap acquisition suiting the extraordinarily small budget the team has access to. A notable point of contention is Qhubeka-Assos have recently signed riders with relatively ‘weak’ results like Vinjebo and Vacek. On paper the recent results that they have (particularly in 2020) do not appear as good as what Mulubrhan has achieved. This lead to confusion around why Mulubrhan was not promoted to the WT team for 2021.
For a 21 year old, these are pretty promising results and I feel are indicative of a rider with good race-craft and the ability to be in or around the right place in the right time at the end of the race in the bunch (eg Appennino and Vendiamo), and that can pull off fairly consistent rides on back to back days during a stage race (Baby Giro, Amissa Bongo, Rwanda). I do also agree that his results in 2020 are more impressive than the likes of Vinjebo and Vacek, and based off his results this year Mulubrhan is likely more worthy of the WT deal. Essentially there are some very good indications that he is damn good at racing a bike and would likely be well prepared to step up to a higher level in this regard.

Why I think that Qhubekha might have made the right choice

Too Much Too Soon

Often in the past a balance has been struck between racing at the highest level a rider can, and not putting them in the deep end too soon. Its only in the last couple of years that we have seen the rapid rise of young hyper-talents like Bernal, Pogacar, Hirschi, and Evenepoel. The sort of riders who can win and consistently compete in the biggest races in the world while still eligible to race in the U23 ranks. However, I have a suspicion that performances from these riders has warped the perception of what a young rider should be doing in terms of racing.
In recent times similar talents like former Junior ITT WC Oskar Svendsen, former U23 ITT WC Campbell Flakemore, 2x Junior ITT WC silver medallist Adrien Costa, and Lennard Kamna all took indefinite breaks from the sport during their development after seemingly having their path laid clearly ahead of them. Kamna was the only to return to the professional ranks, all others retired. I think there is a message here that there is such a thing as too much too soon for a young rider. Of these I think Flakemore’s situation is worthy of closer inspection. I recommend reading this piece he wrote for CyclingTips about why he decided to end his professional cycling career. There are some parts of that article I want to draw attention to, and remember this is a rider who won U23 TT worlds and the opening Prolouge of Tour de L’Avenir the year before he quit. He was no slouch.
Not long after, I was on my first of many Nice-Brussels flights to my first Euro race of the year: Three Days of West Flanders. Even in my best form, I would have struggled, but after minimal training, and trying to sort out living amenities, I was on the rack for three straight days of getting hung out to dry on the cobbles… t was time to get battered again a few days later in the Three Days of De Panne. All the big boys were fine-tuning their form for the classics; this was proper racing. As expected, I was put through the ringer for three days. I had suffered “up north” before in the U23s but this was on another level. Not only was I getting physically smashed, but my confidence was at zero. By far the worst thing though was I felt like I was letting my teammates down. I just didn’t feel like I belonged in their company… I managed to get a bit of work done before the Tour of Romandie, but I was nowhere near top shape. The TTT I enjoyed, and the rest of the tour was leaps and bounds better than the long stint in Belgium, but it was still wet and cold, and I got another battering… Then I was back to Nice, and after a week of little riding and plenty of FIFA, I was off to Belgium for the Tour of Belgium. I got absolutely smashed, like I had never been before. I didn’t finish the last day. I was at rock bottom. I was on the team bus with still 50 odd km remaining in the race… That’s professional sport though, it’s a business, and a ruthless one most of the time.
The takeaway for me here is that being out of your depth in the pro ranks is extraordinarily tough, and that putting a young rider in that position is likely not the right thing to do.
We see riders performing at closer to their potential at a younger age nowadays, but that doesn’t mean we have to see young riders race at the highest level at a young age. Cycling is a brutal sport and I don’t think that chucking a rider in the deep end when/if they’re not ready is the right thing to do for their development. There are examples of better riders being drowned out and calling it a day, I’d rather avoid that situation if possible. I want to be clear I am not saying there promoting a young rider the WT before they’re ready will go this way, but I am saying that we should be somewhat cautious

But those race results still look good, don’t they?

Yes, the results do, but what about the performances underlying those results? They’re perhaps not quite as good. Well, what are we looking for? The WT level this year has been pretty high with 20-30 minutes climbs consistently being ridden in the 6w/kg range, 40min to 1 hour long climbs in the 5.5-5.6 w/kg range, seemingly regardless of their place in the stage or in a stage race for the climbing groups. The further up the field you go the higher these number become. I don’t expect a top U23 to be doing top WT numbers consistently but as a climber a handful of efforts close to/at this level in races would be a great start.
A point of comparison: Just to get into the break on his way to win the 17th stage of the Giro this year Ben O’Connor combined both of these with 24 minutes at 6.3 w/kg, on his way to 50 minutes at 5.7 w/kg . Yes this was the stage O’Connor won, but this was just the effort to get into the break, 17 stages deep into a GT, after being in the break the day before, and before he finished the day with a 26 minute effort at 6.2 w/kg.
I would not expect rides like this from Mulubrhan. However, evidence he can do at least 1 or 2 efforts at this level across the season in races would be a promising start, otherwise he’ll be there to fill out the team and just get around next season. So, is there evidence? In short, not really. The best performances in this range are a sub 20 minute climb to open the Baby Giro’s 8th and final stage at 5.8ish w/kg, a climb just after midway through Appennino at the same w/kg for 25 minutes, and a 14 minute climb in Stage 5 of the Baby Giro at 5.9 w/kg. Other than that, from what I have seen efforts at 6 w/kg cap out around the 10-minute mark in races and climbs longer than half an hour aren’t typically done at above 5.3 w/kg or so in races. For example during the Baby Giro there are efforts at 4.9 w/kg for 50, and 5 w/kg for 40, and 5.1 w/kg for 70 minutes. None of these are approaching the level of performance required to get into a WT level break.
Now let’s shift the goalposts to surviving decently well in the mountains for a climber. So where would these numbers get him in the backend of a Grand Tour like this year’s Giro? Shelled in all likelihood. Sticking with the front group up the first climb of stage 19 required 5.7 w/kg for 35 minutes (I’d say doable for Mulubhran), The second hour was done at 5 w/kg (this would be more marginal), and the first 23 minutes of the Stelvio was at 5.5w/kg for 23 minutes at which point James Knox got shelled and crossed the line 27 minutes down. In other words, Baby Giro race power numbers (Like those from stage 8) would see Mulubrhan dropped and crossing the line almost half an hour down when compared with a stage in race with over twice as many and considerably longer stages.

Ok fine. But comparing an U23 rider directly to a WT race is unfair, how does his numbers compare to previous U23 riders in stage races before they went WT?

This is perhaps the best question to ask as it pretty direct point of comparison. So, let’s see how he stacks up compared to the previous level at major U23 races, not top level WT rides. Looking at the numbers I reckon Mulubrhan is .2-.3 w/kg in races off the level I’ve seen at in the past for U23 riders at key stage races (L’Avenir, Baby Giro, Valle d’Aosta) who stepped up to the WT the next year. For example 5.7 w/kg for 40, followed by 5.7 for 24, and 5.5 for 45 all in one stage during the 2018 Tour de L’Avenir, for a similar GC position to Mulubrhan at this year’s Baby Giro. On that edition of L’Avenir the front group was doing 5.7 for 40 even on the final stage. I said earlier I was looking for one or two WT level efforts in races for and U23 before they step up, and these riders in the past delivered that, and naturally made the step up.
So what do I think these numbers from all these races mean? To put it simply I think there is a not insignificant difference between finishing 11th at the Baby Giro 13 minutes down like Mulubrhan this year, and finishing around the same position 5 or so minutes down overall (L’Avenir, Baby Giro, Valle d’Aosta in a number of previous years). As a result, I don’t quite think Mulubrhan is the level required to seamlessly step up to the WT level yet.

So you mean to tell me that Doug Ryder was right!?

No. I think Doug Ryder’s statement about there being no up and coming African talent, is wrong. Henok Mulubrhan is a big talent, Natnael Tesfatsion (also of the NTT U23 team) is another very big talent from Africa. I’m confident saying that they both have WT potential, but as of this year it is still unrealised, in Mulubrhan at least. I think Ryder’s comments were just an offhanded attempt to deflect from the apparent lack of young African rider coming to his WT team for 2021. I don’t think he expected it to get the scrutiny it ended up getting. And to be fair to him I didn’t see the mainstream cycling press jump as hard on this as Mulubrhan supporters on reddit did. But that being said I think Mulubrhan is talented, but not quite ready yet for the WT. If he continues improving after another year’s worth of development at the top U23 races, I do think that he would be in the ideal place to step up into the Qhubeka-Assos WT team for the 2022 season, or even late in 2021 if needed.

Good things come to those who wait

I do think you could justify moving Mulubrhan to the WT team for the 2021 season, if you look at his results alone. However, I think they made the right move in not doing that. Qhubeka-Assos have in their hands a strong rider, who can race well, who has strong performances in him, and would continue to make their development program look strong. I’m (I think) justifiably concerned that, as of right now Mulubrhan’s level is not quite high enough to step up seamlessly and risks being drowned out as pack filler in the WT in 2021. And if that happened, I worry that a talent would go to waste by having his development rushed for the sake of a cheap and easy signing. It may seem like the common-sense signing, but I don’t think it is the right one. If mid 2021 Qhubeka-Assos need a rider to fill a spot in the squad they’ll likely have one ready to be promoted in Mulubrhan. However, I do think the right path forward is probably signing him for the 2022 season.

PAQs – Pre-emptively Answered Questions:

Why? I don’t like shitty memes, and this turned into a shitty meme and it needs to be put to bed.
Did you cherry pick data to stack it against Mulubrhan? No, I don’t think so. I picked his best power in the biggest European races suited to his strengths as a climber, which gave his best results. I then compared his bests to comparable stages from a top U23 race in a previous year and WT level performances very late in a GT. If anything, I feel gave Mulubrhan the better end of the bargain.
Mulubhran was just doing the same Watts as the group in these races, it’s an unfair comparison? He finished 13 minutes down in the Baby Giro, if there was more there it would be more apparent.
Still, comparing an U23 to good GT performances is still a little unfair though, isn’t it? Possibly, but the level of racing this season has been very high and top U23 riders in the past were capable of similar numbers in their races. If he was to be promoted as a climber, I think it’s a reasonable point of comparison.
Have you missed something? Probably. I limited myself to publicly available race power data from big races to make this a fairish comparison. I tried my best to double check w/kg values for multiple riders on the same climb for some integrity, but it is possible they are all out or I missed something obvious.
What do you know? I don’t know, but I think/hope enough to put this meme to bed (if it’s not there already).
Is Mulubrhan good? Yea, he’s really good. But probably not quite ready to be a climber in the World Tour yet.
The title is just for alliteration isn’t it? Yes.
Is this the end of the post? Yes. Except for the TL;DR.
TL;DR: Mulubrhan is a good U23 with WT potential and I think another year at the top U23 level would be good for his development. I don’t think he is ready yet. I don’t think the excessive memes, shitting on other (especially young) riders and desire for the immediate promotion of Mulubrhan is the way forward. It might also pay to be best to be patient with young riders, like Mulubrhan so they don’t get drowned out when pushed through the levels. I think he’d probably be a good signing/ internal promotion for 2022.
submitted by JustOneMoreBastard to peloton [link] [comments]

Draft post

Update map with hut gletsch and hotel
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/1120-alpenwild-tour-in-the-footsteps-of-tolkien.php
Tolkien's Worlds: The Places That Inspired the Writer's Imagination By John Garth Tolkien’s gedling Tolkien’s switzerland
This is an updated version of an older post.
It is a Reddit favourite fact Tolkien once visited Lauterbrunnen, and that it inspired Rivendell (evidence here). But he also did far more in his trip to Switzerland.
I am a fan of Tolkien, but not a superfan. I have never touched The Silmarillion, plus I had to look up most of the named places in this post. I am much more of a Switzerland-Nerd really. This started as a quick fact-check that grew rather out of hand…..
---Basic facts:---
Tolkien visited Switzerland for a few weeks in the summer (July/August) of 1911 at age of 19. He and his brother were taken by the Brookes-Smith family who were a little eccentric sounding. They went as a very mixed party of 12 (with a local guide too) and did an impressive amount of walking whilst carrying heavy loads and often sleeping rough.
Most of the information about this comes from a letter (letter 306) that he wrote to his son 57 years later in 1968 at the age of 76. Some parts are clearly remembered and directly linked to places in the books, others are skipped over or rather more vague. So it is a little hard to figure it out exactly what he did (still not bad for a brief letter written so long after just being somewhere once). Another letter (letter 232) directly states that some of the events ended up in the Hobbit. I have put a full version of both at the end of this post.
It is mentioned elsewhere than an unpublished account of the trip by Colin Brookes-Smith contradicts some of the more extravagant claims by Tolkien in his letters. The only example given is that they actually stayed at inns most of the time rather than camping in cow sheds. The information seems to come from the book ‘Tolkien’s Gedling’ by Andrew H. Morton.
There are only 3 dates that can be pinned down:
It can be easy to read into everything and to start assigning connections to every little event or place, but I have tried to avoid that (see the blogs linked at the end for some enthusiastic work there). I think the films have also skewed the perception somewhat towards the Alpine landscape thanks to being shot in New Zealand. Really Tolkien spent far more time in the gentler English landscape and was for example quoted as saying that the hills were his white mountains between Gondor and Rohan, which is quite different to the endless high and lonely peaks that the beacons manned by mountaineers somehow sat on in the film SOURCE AND EXAMPLE. But it is open to whatever you want, so romanticise away if you like.
---The route:---
Just about all of the attention goes to Lauterbrunnen: being the touristy photogenic spot everyone likes to shout about Lauterbrunnen having the connection to him, but they did a bigger tour that certainly inspired other parts of his work.
Simply put it seems to go:
Birmingham – Munich – Innsbruck - Interlaken – Lauterbrunnen – Mürren – Kleine Scheidegg – Grosse Scheidegg – Meiringen – Grimselpass – Brig - Somewhere at the base of the Aletsch glacier (Belalp maybe?) – Zermatt.
My copy of ‘Von Casanova bus Churchhill’ also mentions Arolla, but
Google map of the rough route and places he mentions in Switzerland.
They certainly got about, and especially so if (as it sounds) they did it all by foot. By my estimate this is at least 232km with 8000m of height gain. And that is ignoring uncertain side excursions which would add a fair bit more height change on. Hardcore seemed to be the order of the day going by the diary of Miss Jemima Morrell who was one of the first package tourists to Switzerland.
---Then vs now:---
Clearly 107 years is a long time. There has been change, but the sights and feel would still be recognisable.
You can use the Swiss topographic map with its time-jump feature (swipe back and forth) to see how the whole country looked in 1911 compared to now (or any other year from the mid 1800s if you change the settings). In short there was much more glacier, and far less buildings then. The increase in buildings and infrastructure (especially the ski infrastructure) since then would probably give JRR a heart attack and lead to comments about “The Scouring of the Schweiz”. Not to say they are ruined industrial landscapes, but there is a hell of a lot more humanity around now than then. The noise of traffic (especially motorbikes) on the pass roads would really upset him.
”It is full Maytime by the trees and grass now. But the heavens are full of roar and riot. You cannot even hold a shouting conversation in the garden now, save about 1 a.m. and 7 p.m. – unless the day is too foul to be out. How I wish the 'infernal combustion' engine had never been invented.” (Letter 64)
Switzerland was a tourist destination now and then, but the number of visitors and infrastructure serving them has vastly increased which contributes to the above.
There are still Tolkien friendly old rural style Shire-like ways, but mostly with a modern twist. You can still see generations of a family collecting their hay with rakes and scythes from the fields in summer, though often most of the work is done by special tractors except on the steepest slopes. Farmers are even paid to keep historic elements like old fountains in good order. Cows still roam the meadows, though now little electric wires keep them in the right place (still got the bells though).
---Recreating this yourself:---
There are actually guided tours with this theme, but is cheaper (500CHF per day is insane) and easy enough to do it yourself. The footpath and transport system in Switzerland makes this very easy to plan and do. You could see all of it with 2-3 weeks of pure hard hiking, or a few days of relaxed public transport rides along the same routes with no physical exertion. (Almost) all of which are safe and worry free: you are never far from civilization for supplies or shelter.
I have written about hiking in Switzerland, and also Switzerland in general to quite an extensive degree before. My post on the Jungfrau region also covers a the area around a fair few of the early stages.
Surprisingly the local tourist offices don't make much of a fuss about it (beyond a cut-out of Aragorn in Lauterbrunnen). I have never noticed any signs, theme walks, tourist tack or anything like it in the area, which is a little odd as the Swiss love their themed tourism (see the Mark Twain walks at Rigi and Riffelberg, and the milking of James bond at Schilthorn). About the only thing is this page on the Jungfrau tourism website which is fairly well hidden. It starts out well, but then degrades into desperately trying to tie every tourist activity in the area to something from LOTR.
This all takes place in the German speaking part of the country, in most places along the way English is widely spoken due to the tourism industry. High-German will function if you know it, just don’t expect to understand the Swiss-German you hear (especially in Valais). You can probably imagine that Swiss-German is a Middle-Earth based language…… (if you do want to learn more about Swiss German then see this post))
Almost nobody has the time or energy to walk this whole thing in a perfect recreation, and frankly parts of this like Meiringen to the Grimselpass probably wouldn’t be much fun now (think endless reving motorbikes). But if you do want to do what I am going to term “the full Hobbit”, then I have made a hiking map here for the whole thing – Link. A 275 km hike with +15,000m / -12,000m height difference.
It is important to remember the context that he came from a heavily industrial city in the gentle landscape of the UK Midlands, passing through other industrial cities along the way before arriving in the rural alpine valleys. You might want to visit a giant Chinese industrial city first for a few weeks to establish the right feeling on arrival.
---Stages---
Stage 1: Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen valley
Source (306):
We went on foot carrying great packs practically all the way from Interlaken, mainly by mountain paths, to Lauterbrunnen and so to Mürren and eventually to the head of the Lauterbrunnenthal in a wilderness of morains.
As the easiest part to link to Tolkien this will get by far the most attention. (I wrote about the area before in more detail)
Route:
  • Easy:.
  • Hard:.
  • A quick comparison of the painting by Tolkien, and look at the name suggests Lauterbrunnen is a pretty exact match to Rivendell. Although you wouldn’t mistake Swiss farmers for gossiping elves.
  • The main iconic waterfall is the Staubbachfall which you can walk to from Lauterbrunnen village in 5 minutes (and go through a tunnel behind it for free in summer), more impressive but hidden (and not free) is the Trummelbachfalls which are about 30 minutes along the valley by foot (or an easy drive/bus ride). The marketing line “the valley of 72 waterfalls” has really stuck. Though just about any mountain valley will have lots of waterfalls, and unless it is actually raining you will have a hard time counting 72 (or even care about more than 10 of them).
  • One especially mad fan wants to build a Rivendell theme park there (chance of success is going to be about 0%).
  • Interlaken has nothing of interest (unless you love hotels and tourist shops), don’t bother with it other than somewhere to sleep or change trains. Despite being between the lakes it is not on either so it doesn’t have a lakeside feel.
  • Lauterbrunnen village looks pretty in photos but really isn’t that pretty or interesting in reality. I wouldn’t opt to spend any time in it myself.
To really enter like a hobbit one must look at two quotes, one from Tolkien himself:
”We went on foot carrying great packs practically all the way from Interlaken, mainly by mountain paths, to Lauterbrunnen and so to Mürren and eventually to the head of the Lauterbrunnenthal in a wilderness of morains.”
And one from the Hobbit:
“Here it is at last!” he called, and the others gathered round him and looked over the edge. They saw a valley far below. They could hear the voice of hurrying water in a rocky bed at the bottom; the scent of trees was in the air; and there was a light on the valley-side across the water.
  • To avoid the roads you can do mountain trails right out of Interlaken, up to Sulegg, and along to drop down into Lauterbrunnen. This fits with the book but would be a really hard start to the trip, it would however be a truly unique experience as the number of people doing this entry to the valley must be utterly tiny. You could do this all on foot as a 2 day hike Link, or you can also take the bus from Wilderswil Bahnhof to Saxeten to reduce it down to a single day hike Link. Either way you would understand how Biblo got so tired (and he had a pony too).
Alternatively the 1 or 2 day hike with massive height changes can be skipped with a 20 minute train ride directly to Lauterbrunnen from Interlaken Ost.
  • A more moderate route is to take the train in, wander up the valley to the Trummelbachfalle and back, then go up to Grütschalp and do the mountain trail to Mürren.
  • You can get in, about, and up the sides of the valley easily with public transport.
Stage 2: End of the Lauterbrunnental
A hike up to the end of the valley.
Source
”We went on foot carrying great packs practically all the way from Interlaken, mainly by mountain paths, to Lauterbrunnen and so to Mürren and eventually to the head of the Lauterbrunnenthal in a wilderness of morains.”
Source
“5 August 1911 Tolkien’s name is written in the guest book of the Ober Steinberg Berg-Gasthaus in the Inner Lauterbrunnenthal, south of Interlaken.”.
Route:
  • Easy:
  • Hard:
More info
  • The view of the Silberhorn (a secondary peak of the Jungfrau)) really stuck with Tolkien. He called it "the Silvertine (Celebdil) of my dreams" (the peak with the tower where the Gandalf-Balrog fight ends, I had to look it up too).
  • Tolkien talks about the morrains, which some people link to the strenuous experience of Frodo climbing mount Doom (and having climbed plenty of similar places I can agree there).
  • The hotel Obersteinberg is still there and can be reached from Stechelberg (bus from Lauterbrunnen). Otherwise from Mürren to Chlichbalm might be a good stand-in idea here. You can make these as easy or hard as you like really.
  • There is no super-easy option here in terms of pushing up into the very end of the valley by foot. Maybe going up by cable car to Schilthorn would be closest. It would be scenic at least.
Stage 3: Lauterbrunnen to Grindelwald
Source (letter 306):
We must then have gone eastward over the two Scheidegge to Grindelwald, with Eiger and Mönch on our right
Route
  • Easy: Train.
  • Hard: Hike.
More info
  • Up and down over the Kleine Scheidegg pass (car free).
  • Go via Wengen for best view up the valley (see the post photo which is the classic view taken around Wengen itself).
  • This can be done as a fairly tough hike (19km, +/- 1400/1150m), it is infact stage 11 of the Via-Alpina route. However the Lauterbrunnen-Kleine Scheidegg-Grindelwald mountain trains present an escape option if you get too tired at any point, or want to cut the length down. The Lauterbrunnen-Kleine Scheidegg-Grindelwald pass line opened in 1893 and was electrified before Tolkien arrived so it isn’t too big a cheat.
  • An obvious diversion here would be taking the train to Jungfraujoch. This opened in 1912 after Tolkien passed by, but they had partial service to the Eiger and Eismeer windows before then, so maybe he went part way up. The view is impressive, but not especially unique and it is slow and expensive to get up. It is something I have done once and never felt the need to do again.
Stage 4: Grindelwald to Meiringen.
Source (letter 306)
We must then have gone eastward over the two Scheidegge to Grindelwald, with Eiger and Mönch on our right, and eventually reached Meiringen.
Route:
Up and down over the Grosse Scheidegg pass (car free, bar the odd bus).
  • Again this can be done with a single rather tough hike (23km, +/- 1100/1500m), it is infact stage 10 of the Via-Alpina route, it could also make a very good 2 day hike. Or you can use the buses to reduce the length, or escape when you are tired.
  • During warmer months this can be done in less than 2 hrs by bus. If you take bus 128 to Schwarzwaldalp, then 148 down to Meiringen.
  • In the final approach to Meiningen you pass by the Reichenbachfalls of Sherlock Holmes fame (not bad falls, but far from the best around). The funicular there opened in 1899 and it is very likely that at least someone in the party would have wanted to see it.
  • On which note the whole Sherlock Holmes theme to Meiringen is really surreal. Otherwise Meiringen is pleasant enough but nothing exciting (though it does claim to be home to the Meringue).
Stage 5: Meiringen to Brig.
Up the Grimselpass (lots of cars), then down via Obergoms (much quieter).
Source (letter 306):
We later crossed the Grimsell Pass down on to the dusty highway, beside the Rhone, on which horse 'diligences' still plied: but not for us. We reached Brig on foot, a mere memory of noise : then a network of trams that screeched on their rails for it seemed at least 20 hrs of the day.
This is one place with a direct connection as Tolkien sent a postcard from Gletsch SOURCE. The glacier would have been visible and much more impressive then.
Quite a bit would have changed along this section: the dams, the road opening up to much more tourist traffic, the power cables.
  • This is about 73km with 2000m of height gain and loss. That combined with the first half being right next to a popular pass-road makes me suggest that walking the whole thing wouldn’t be the best idea.
  • During warmer months a Postbus (#161) runs from Meiringen to Oberwald. From there you can take the train down to Brig. However the bus only runs twice a day or so, so you can’t hop on and off wherever it takes your fancy sadly. Otherwise you can detour via Meiringen-Interlaken-Spiez-Brig on the train. This would be pretty but would take you away from the “true” route.
  • If you do want to walk some of it I would suggest doing that in the Obergoms area which is a beautiful valley with meadows and small (mostly wooden and rustic) villages. For example from Gluringen to Fiesch (via the suspension bridge).
  • The Aare gorge just outside Meiringen opened to tourists in 1888 (and was actually more extensive then) and Tolkien would have had to have walked through or near it.
  • Brig is fairly forgettable. The old town is small but pleasant, and the Stockalper Schloss is pretty enough. Tolkien talks of “screeching trams”, I presume he meant the trains which were running down the valley then as Brig doesn’t seem to have ever had a tram network.
Stage 6: Around the Aletsch glacier.
Source letter 306:
Route
  • Easy suggestion: .
  • Hard suggestion: .
Misc
Up the mountainside to the foot of the mighty glacier (all car free up there). This is the real unspoiled fantasy-land where you can quite easily get at least a bit of the way into the UNESCO region.
  • Quite where he stayed is impossible to say exactly. Maybe for the actual foot of the glacier “Oberer Aletsch” or “üssers Aletschi” would fit, but they are literally a few remote Alp sheds so are not the best option (or if you are hardcore they might actually be the best option). Bealp or Riederalp are much more practical with shops and cable car access. Access around there via train and cable car is easy from Brig or anywhere else on the valley floor.
  • He directly states that events like a stone fall from the melting glacier narrowly missing him, and a thunderstorm that forced them into shelter ended up in the Hobbit.
  • The Aletsch Glacier is one of the biggest highlights of Switzerland. It is hard to stress just how big it is (the little blips at the front bottom are people) The best viewing point is from the Eggishorn. You can take the cable car up then hike alongside the glacier to Bettmeralp.
  • The Aletsch Wald (a forest growing amongst glacially carved rocks) is beautiful and in part eerie. The hike from Riederalp to Belalp or VV via the suspension bridge is fantastic (11km +/- 700/880). Or just drop down from Riederalp where it starts quite close to the village.
  • Another option is the panorama trek linking all the areas together.
  • A guide or skills and equipment are needed if you want to go on the glacier itself.
Stage 7: Zermatt.
The final stage up Zermatt for a view of the Matterhorn.
It seems Tolkien went over the pass and down to Arolla, but that is going to be above and beyond for most people.
Source (letter 306):
After this we went on into Valais, and my memories are less clear; though I remember our arrival, bedraggled, one evening in Zermatt and the lorgnette stares of the French bourgeoises dames. We climbed with guides up to [a] high hut of the Alpine Club, roped (or I should have fallen into a snow-crevasse), and I remember the dazzling whiteness of the tumbled snow-desert between us and the black horn of the Matterhom some miles away.
Source (306):
25 August 1911 Tolkien signs the guest book at the Cabane de Bertol, above Arolla on the Col de Bertol (Bertol Pass). This is presumably the day trip to a high-altitude hut recalled by both Tolkien and Colin Brookes-Smith.
Route
  • Easy suggestion: Gornergrat above Zermatt. It isn’t the right hut.
  • Hard suggestion: . From. There is no path.
Misc
  • There are various options for a similar experience. I am going to pick the Monte Rosa hut, as you can easily substitute going up to nearby Gornergrat for this. You can hike up there, or take the train up (the fully electric train opened in 1898). Whether you want someone to drag you across a glacier is up to you.
  • Given how much parts of the trip seem to translate directly to the Hobbit you might see it that the Matterhorn is the Lonely Mountain reached at the end of a long and perilous journey. Though clearly it is lacking a lake, and isn’t THAT lonely, so the inspiration wouldn’t be 100% direct.
  • Once in Zermatt itself you have plenty of hiking and other activities to do. I have written about it before too
  • Hiking the Edelweissweg and the ridge up beyond the Gornergrat are favourites of mine.
  • Mark Twain also came here, his ascent of the Riffelberg and to Gornergrat is well worth a read.
How I would do this:
If that was too much info and you just want a fixed plan then this is what I would suggest for 10-14 days (for shorter time frames you could use public transport to skip whole sections). This is full on, so add a rest day in as you like.
  • Day 1: Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen by train. Walk along the valley to the Trummelbachfalls, double back to Lauterrunnen, take the cable car to Grütschalp and then the Mountain Trail hike to Mürren.
  • Day 2: End of valley hike.
  • Day 3: Hike over the Kleine Scheidegg to Grindelwald. (Shortcut up or down with train)
  • Day 4: Hike over the Grosse Scheidegg to Meiringen. (shortcut with bus)
  • Day 5: Meiringen to Brig via bus and train. Hike along a section of the Obergoms (eg: Gluringen to Fiesch).
  • Day 6: Cable car up to Eggishorn, admire the glacier and follow the path along to Bettmeralp.
  • Day 7: Hike from Rideralp to Belalp via the Aletsch forest.
  • Day 8: Train to Zermatt. Take a gentle hike up to Zmutt.
  • Day 9: Zermatt. Take the train to Gornergrat and adventure along the ridge.
  • Day 10: Zermatt. Hike the Edelweissweg.
You could then spend a day or two travelling to Chur and visit the Greisinger museum. Though I would try and avoid the Glacier Express and take local trains myself. Stop off at places like the Rhein gorge to make the most of it.
Misc:
  • It is a bit out the way of this route, and nowhere near where Tolkien himself went, but the Greisinger Museum sounds like it is worth checking out. Basically a dedicated/mad Swiss bloke made a museum containing Hobbit-hole near Chur. You can book tours by language on their website. At 50CHF it isn’t cheap (but is still cheaper than Hobbiton in NZ).
  • The building at the St Beaten caves near Interlaken looks like it fell out of picture of Rivendell but are probably nothing do with Tolkien. The site was a tourist spot then and it isn’t far from Interlaken so maybe he went (if he did he didn’t mention it). Apparently there is a part of it that dates back to the 1500s as a chapel, but as far as I can tell the structure is for the most part very modern and as likely to have been inspired by Tolkien as VV. Still the caves are pretty and there is a myth of a dragon residing in the area too. My post on visiting there.
  • Villa Vals is often posted with the nick name of the Swiss Hobbit House, though it is far too exposed and concrete to really look like that.
  • It is said in his biography that at some point in the trip Tolkien bought of postcard of “Der Berggeist” by Josef Madlener which he kept and wrote on it “origin of Gandalf”. However the daughter of the artist says the painting was most likely done 1925-1930, so he probably didn’t pick it up in Switzerland.
  • Tolkien never went anywhere near it, but Appenzell is basically the shire (if a little steeper). A very traditional rural area (women in Appenzell Innerrhoden couldn’t vote on local issues until 1991) that is worth a few days to explore. Yet again see this post of mine.
Some other resources on this topic:
http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2013/10/25/81121-in-tolkiens-real-misty-mountains/
http://www.tolkienlibrary.com/press/1120-alpenwild-tour-in-the-footsteps-of-tolkien.php
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/21/travel/down-the-hobbit-hole-in-switzerland.html
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20140523-in-alpine-villages-hobbits-lurk – really not written by someone who knows the area.
https://www.lucyfuggle.com/blog/living-and-hiking-the-literary-heritage-of-tolkien
The letters:
I have just kept the relevant parts. Letter 306 goes on afterwards for a while about religion.
Letter 306 – to his son (1967)
I am.... delighted that you have made the acquaintance of Switzerland, and of the very part that I once knew best and which had the deepest effect on me. The hobbit's (Bilbo's) journey from Rivendell to the other side of the Misty Mountains, including the glissade down the slithering stones into the pine woods, is based on my adventures in 1911: the annus mirabilis of sunshine in which there was virtually no rain between April and the end of October, except on the eve and morning of George V's coronation. (Adfuit Omen!)
Our wanderings mainly on foot in a party of 12 are not now clear in sequence, but leave many vivid pictures as clear as yesterday (that is as clear as an old man's remoter memories become).
We went on foot carrying great packs practically all the way from Interlaken, mainly by mountain paths, to Lauterbrunnen and so to Mürren and eventually to the head of the Lauterbrunnenthal in a wilderness of morains. We slept rough – the men-folk – often in hayloft or cowbyre, since we were walking by map and avoided roads and never booked, and after a meagre breakfast fed ourselves in the open: cooking utensils and quantities of 'spridvin' (as the one uneducated French-speaking member of the party both called and wrote it, for 'methylated spirit').
We must then have gone eastward over the two Scheidegge to Grindelwald, with Eiger and Mönch on our right, and eventually reached Meiringen. I left the view of Jungfrau with deep regret: eternal snow, etched as it seemed against eternal sunshine, and the Silberhorn sharp against dark blue: the Silvertine (Celebdil) of my dreams.
We later crossed the Grimsell Pass down on to the dusty highway, beside the Rhone, on which horse 'diligences' still plied: but not for us. We reached Brig on foot, a mere memory of noise : then a network of trams that screeched on their rails for it seemed at least 20 hrs of the day.
After a night of that we climbed up some thousands of feet to a village at the foot of the Aletsch glacier, and there spent some nights in a châlet inn under a roof and in beds (or rather under them: the bett being a shapeless bag under which you snuggled). I can remember several incidents there! One was going to confession in Latin; others less exemplary were the invention of a method of dealing with your friends the harvestmen spiders, by dropping hot wax from a candle onto their fat bodies (this was not approved of by the servants); also the practice of the beaver-game which had always fascinated me. A wonderful place for the game, plenty of water at that altitude coming down in rills, abundant damming material in loose stones, heather, grass and mud. We soon had a beautiful little 'pond' (containing I guess at least 200 gallons). Then the pangs of hunger smote us, and one of the hobbits of the party (he is still alive) shouted 'lunch' and wrecked the dam with his alpenstock. The water soared down the hill-side, and we then observed that we had dammed a rill that ran down to feed the tanks and butts behind the inn. At that moment an old dame trotted out with a bucket to fetch some water, and was greeted by a mass of foaming water. She dropped the bucket and fled calling on the saints. We lay more doggo than 'men of the moss-hags' for some time, and eventually wound our way round to present ourselves grubby (but we were usually so on that trip) and sweetly innocent at 'lunch'.
One day we went on a long march with guides up the Aletsch glacier – when I came near to perishing. We had guides, but either the effects of the hot summer were beyond their experience, or they did not much care, or we were late in starting. Any way at noon we were strung out in file along a narrow track with a snow-slope on the right going up to the horizon, and on the left a plunge down into a ravine. The summer of that year had melted away much snow, and stones and boulders were exposed that (I suppose) were normally covered. The heat of the day continued the melting and we were alarmed to see many of them starting to roll down the slope at gathering speed: anything from the size of oranges to large footballs, and a few much larger. They were whizzing across our path and plunging into the ravine. 'Hard pounding,' ladies and gentlemen. They started slowly, and then usually held a straight line of descent, but the path was rough and one had also to keep an eye on one's feet. I remember the member of the party just in front of me (an elderly schoolmistress) gave a sudden squeak and jumped forward as a large lump of rock shot between us. About a foot at most before my unmanly knees.
After this we went on into Valais, and my memories are less clear; though I remember our arrival, bedraggled, one evening in Zermatt and the lorgnette stares of the French bourgeoises dames. We climbed with guides up to [a] high hut of the Alpine Club, roped (or I should have fallen into a snow-crevasse), and I remember the dazzling whiteness of the tumbled snow-desert between us and the black horn of the Matterhom some miles away.
I do not suppose all this is very interesting now. But it was a remarkable experience for me at 19, after a poor boy's childhood. I went up to Oxford that autumn.
Letter 232 – to Joyce Reeves (1961)
I always like shrewd sound-hearted maiden aunts. Blessed are those who have them or meet them. Though they are commoner, in my experience, than Saki aunts. The professional aunt is a fairly recent development, perhaps; but I was fortunate in having an early example: one of the first women to take a science degree. She is now ninety, but only a few years ago went botanizing in Switzerland.
It was in her company (with a mixed party of about the same size as the company in The Hobbit) that I journeyed on foot with a heavy pack through much of Switzerland, and over many high passes. It was approaching the Aletsch that we were nearly destroyed by boulders loosened in the sun rolling down a snow-slope. An enormous rock in fact passed between me and the next in front. That and the 'thunder-battle' – a bad night in which we lost our way and slept in a cattle-shed – appear in The Hobbit. It is long ago now. ....
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How WWE Should Have Booked Asuka

Today, we're going to be talking about maybe my favorite female competitor of all time, the Empress of Tomorrow, the most dominant force that WWE has seen since maybe Hulk Hogan, Asuka. In NXT, she was the best champion they've ever had, but since she came to the main roster, she's seen some success, but she's also been hamstrung by some of the most baffling booking decisions ever that turned a dominant force of nature into a moderately strong, but kinda dumb upper-midcarder on the main roster. That's horrible, and it needs to be fixed. So let's fix it. In today's post, I'm going to try and fix Asuka's first two-and-a-half years on the main roster. From her debut in October 2017 all the way until Wrestlemania 36 in April of 2020. That should be more than enough time to get her back on track from a, shall we say, mixed start.
But let's start all the way back at her debut in 2015 on NXT. She was given the royal treatment on her way into the company, showing up in the crowd at Takeover: Brooklyn I next to Ric Flair, getting vignettes to hype up her debut, and signing her in-ring contract about a month later, which was interrupted by Emma and Dana Brooke. One week later, they were called into William Regal's office, and were shown an Asuka training montage. We couldn't see it, but we could hear punches, kicks, and screams, and we could see the horror on Emma and Dana's faces. They immediately knew that they had just made the worst mistake of their lives. From there, Asuka beat Dana at the next Takeover, Emma at the one after that, and just continued to rack up wins. In just over two years on the NXT roster, Asuka was pinned or submitted ZERO TIMES. In fact, she only competed in five matches that she didn't outright win. Three of them were Fatal 4-Ways on house shows where she didn't eat a pin, one was a house show tag match where she lost, but didn't eat a pin, and presumably killed and ate the heart of her former partner for handing her an L, and the fifth was in a #1 contender's battle royale on NXT TV, where she was eliminated late by Eva Marie and Nia Jax, aka the worst and second worst female wrestlers of all-time, I'll let you decide who goes where. (By the way, the match was actually won by Carmella, this will be important.) And also good news, Asuka kicked both of their asses just a few weeks later.
Soon enough, Asuka won the NXT Women's Championship from Bayley at Takeover: Dallas, and it was smooth sailing from there, perfectly undefeated on TV from then on. She ended up holding the NXT Women's Title for 523 days, longer than any John Cena World Title reign, longer than CM Punk's WWE Title reign, longer than the New Day's Tag Title reign of 2015-2016, even longer than Brock Lesnar's longest reign as Universal Champion. The only title reign in WWE's modern era that lasted longer was Pete Dunne's UK Title reign, and for like half of that reign, he didn't even have a show to call his own. There is a case to be made for Asuka being WWE's greatest champion ever. On the Mt. Rushmore of great NXT performers, Asuka is like three of them. And she also had some epic matches in that time: against Bayley both at Takeover: Dallas, and an even better sequel at Takeover: Brooklyn II; against Mickie James at Takeover: Toronto (probably Mickie's best match), an awesome Last Woman Standing match with Nikki Cross on TV, and two amazing matches with Ember Moon at Takeover: Orlando and Brooklyn III, the latter of which was her NXT swansong thanks to an injured collarbone, but this would be perfect timing, as now she would be ready for a callup.
And it was immediately messed up. Once vignettes started airing for her main roster debut, a bunch of women lined up to talk about how they were going to show Asuka a thing or two about the main roster. One of them, and the one who ended up getting Asuka's first main roster match at TLC 2017 was Emma! You know, the same Emma who looked like she's watching a snuff film back in Regal’s office? Yea, she's gonna be the one to bring her down a peg or two. Obviously she didn't, Asuka wrecked shop, and went on a really great run after that. She was the sole survivor for the Raw Women's team at Survivor Series, she won the first ever Women's Royal Rumble, and even won the first Mixed Match Challenge alongside the Miz to give her a little dose of comedic charm. However, this was all building to Wrestlemania 34, with Asuka challenging Charlotte Flair for the Smackdown Women's Championship. This was the litmus test. This would tell us just how all in the Dub was on Asuka. They weren't all in. Charlotte ended the legendary undefeated streak of Asuka at 914 days. At least it was a great match, easily the best women's match in Wrestlemania history, and it showed the world, at the very least, that Asuka belonged in that upper tier of women's competitors.
And besides, if they had Charlotte end the undefeated streak of Asuka, then they must be building up Charlotte for even bigger things, right? receives note Oh wait no, she lost the title to Carmella two nights later, via Money in the Bank cash-in. ... You know what, that's fine too I guess. Time was running out on her briefcase, and they probably wanted a strong Women's Champ on Raw since Ronda Rousey was about to be there, so Carmella couldn't go there, and they probably thought Carmella beating Charlotte would do less damage than Carmella beating Asuka, so fair enough, as long as Carmella is the transitional champion between Charlotte and Asuka, that's just fine. receives note Ok, let's see here, Asuka lost to Carmella at Money in the Bank after James Ellsworth returned, dressed in Asuka's clothes and caused a distraction. Like seriously, she just stood there for what felt like a goddamn eternity, mesmerized by this dork Ellsworth. Then Asuka lost to Carmella again at Extreme Rules with Ellsworth in a shark cage, after the cage was lowered to rescue Ellsworth, and Carmella rammed Asuka's head into the cage. And just like that, her mystique was gone.
Not long after that, she was relegated to a battle royal at Evolution, which she lost. Asuka and Naomi lost to the IIconics at Super Showdown, where at least she didn't eat the pin. She was eliminated at Survivor Series by Nia Jax less than a week after Nia exploded Becky Lynch's face, and she even lost Season 2 of the Mixed Match Challenge to Carmella and R-Truth, because Carmella is somehow Asuka's biggest rival. But things finally turned around for her in late November when she won a battle royal to join Charlotte and Becky Lynch in a TLC match for the Smackdown Women's Title, which she finally won!!! She got help from Ronda Rousey who pushed over the ladder that had Becky and Charlotte on it, but WHO CARES, ASUKA IS CHAMPION AT LAST!!!! From there, she had a match with Becky Lynch at the Royal Rumble, which ruled, and a match against Mandy Rose at Fastlane, which did not. But they had to be building up to Charlotte vs. Asuka II at Mania 35, like they just had to, with Becky off fighting Ronda for the Raw Title, this had to be the match. receives note I really don't like this bit anymore...
Asuka lost the title to Charlotte two weeks before Mania, so that they could shoehorn Charlotte into the Becky/Ronda match and make it a winner take all thing, leaving Asuka totally out of the Mania main card. She ended up in the pre-show women's battle royal, which surprise surprise was won by friggin' Carmella. She then teamed with Kairi Sane to become the Kabuki Warriors, because that's what the most dominant wrestler of my lifetime needs: backup. She was off TV for a shockingly long time, like they became a team right after Mania, and only had one televised match for like ten weeks. But they did eventually win the Women's Tag Titles in October, and had a pretty unremarkable run with it. She had another great match with Becky Lynch at the Rumble, which is now a yearly tradition. And then they lost the tag titles to BlissCross Applesauce at Mania 36. Well that was another year wasted, when are they finally going to pull the trigger on Asuka and let her dominate like I know she can?
receives note Oh boy, this again. Asuka won the Money in the Bank briefcase? receives another note And inside the briefcase was the Raw Women's Championship, which Becky Lynch had to vacate because of a pregnancy? OK, this is all good, but at this point, I'm kinda just waiting for the other shoe to drop. receives third note Yep, there it is, her second reign sucked balls. Versus Nia Jax at Backlash, double countout. Versus Nia the next night on Raw, win via fast count. Versus Charlotte on Raw, win via pre-match assault on Charlotte by Nia. Versus Sasha at Extreme Rules, no contest when Bayley put on the ref uniform and awarded Sasha the win. And finally Asuka lost the title to Sasha on Raw via COUNTOUT, to save Kairi Sane from a Bayley beating, which she didn't do, because that was the last time we saw Kairi in WWE. She did regain the Raw Title from Sasha at Summerslam, but not before losing to Bayley for her Smackdown Women's Title, because it’s impossible for Asuka to have a good day in WWE. Then she retained against Mickie James via botch, and had an actually pretty good match against Zelina Vega and that's where Asuka is now.
Granted, she is a Women's Grand Slam Champion, and they don't hand her many clean losses. But it seems like they know they shouldn't give her clean losses, so the bookers find every possible loophole, so that the losses she does take aren’t necessarily clean, but they still make her look dumb in the process. So let's fix that.
We begin with the vignettes that started airing for Asuka's debut in September of 2017. Now at this point, Triple H and Stephanie are trying to decide on where to place Asuka, and who her first opponent should be, and they land on Emma. She had some good matches with Asuka, and would make a good showcase to those who've never seen her. Emma's called into their office, and she's told that they want her to fight Asuka at the next PPV, and Emma tells them "absolutely not". Haitch and Steph are a bit stunned by this, why would Emma pass up this golden opportunity? Emma responds, "Fighting Asuka is like fighting a damn Terminator. You throw everything at her, you can hit her with your best shot, and she'll turn around, smile at you, and send it right back to you. I've fought her twice in NXT, and that's more than enough for my lifetime." This may make Emma look a bit cowardly, but she's a heel and that's not a character breaker, at least for me. And having Asuka be so intimidating that seasoned veterans like Emma are refusing to fight her will definitely turn some heads, I think. They keep asking around, and are having a hard time finding people willing to get in the ring with her. They've all either fought her in NXT, or have seen the carnage she brings. But there is one person who won't back down from Asuka, who isn't afraid of what Asuka may do to her, and that someone is Bayley.
Around this time, we're about three months removed from Bayley losing a match because she was too much of a wuss to use a kendo stick on Alexa Bliss, and around this time, she had just been cleared to return from a shoulder injury. She needs a rebound for her character. She needs to prove to everyone that she's learned from the humiliation she suffered at the hands of Alexa Bliss. And stepping into the ring with Asuka when no one else seems willing seems like a good case for Bayley getting her nerve back. Bayley does decently well against Asuka and fights valiantly, but the match is never really in doubt, and Asuka wins comfortably with the Asuka Lock. By the way, for this run, hopefully we can make Asuka a total tweener, just someone who craves competition, and will square up to anyone.
Next night on Raw, Asuka is set to face some jobber. The jobber is standing in the ring waiting for her opponent, and when Asuka's music hits, she nopes right out of there. She wants no part of Asuka, she tries to run up the ramp when Triple H stops her. The jobber doesn't want to get throttled by Asuka, and says she won't even ask for any money, she just wants out. Haitch offers to double her money, but she still says no. He ups it to triple money, she thinks and still says no. Haitch looks very annoyed, and glances at the crowd who clearly wants to see an Asuka match, and says "five times what you were getting". The jobber thinks, glances at Asuka, and weakly nods. She walks down to the ring, but Asuka rolls out to meet her, and she goes berserk on the jobber. Jobber girl takes a series of kicks and strikes and Asuka puts her away with the Asuka Lock. Afterwards, it's announced that women who compete against Asuka will receive five times what they normally receive for a match, so that they can actually have people willing to compete against her. Bayley says on Twitter that she wished that rule was in effect for her match, half-jokingly.
From here until Wrestlemania, I would change virtually nothing. This was the best period of her main roster run, mostly because she never friggin' lost. The Survivor Series match is particularly great here, because oddly enough, none of the women on the Smackdown side of this match had ever fought Asuka in NXT (Becky Lynch, Naomi, Carmella, Natalya, and Tamina). The only one who was in NXT at the same time as her was Carmella, and the one match they competed in together was that battle royale that Carmella won, so they could go into that match with plenty of unwarranted confidence. That confidence is wiped away when Asuka taps out Carmella and Naomi in the first two minutes. From there on, Asuka doesn't compete that much, let the match rebalance itself, until we get to the final two of Asuka and Natalya. Nattie pulls out all of her Hart tricks, but it's not nearly enough, and Asuka is the sole survivor.
I'd also like to throw in a match for her at Clash of Champions. At the real event, Asuka wasn't on the card, but I think a match against Mickie James would be really solid here. Their match at Takeover: Toronto was really good, and they could build on it, and further legitimize her with another win here. After that, she wins the Royal Rumble, no changes there, and she refuses to shake Ronda Rousey's hand, that was good. Not even the Baddest Woman on the Planet fazes her. She beats Nia Jax at Elimination Chamber to avoid her being added to Asuka's Mania match, and then at Fastlane, she challenges Charlotte to a match at Mania.
And here is where we start making big honkin' changes to the timeline, because at Mania 34, Asuka wins the Smackdown Women's Title. If you want to convince your casual, non-NXT-viewing audience that Asuka is as good as we who saw her in NXT think she is, you need to present her similarly, and a strong four months followed by a loss at Mania ain't gonna do that. So you have her win here, and let her soak in the joy of winning the title at Mania, instead of instantly taking away from that moment by making it about John Cena's fixation on the Undertaker. So Asuka is the champion now, but Charlotte thinks she has a plan for getting the title back. Charlotte thinks that Asuka is a flash in the pan, and that she can go hard out of the gate, but will tire out after a while. So, drawing influence from the 60-minute Broadways that her father would put on in the NWA, Charlotte challenges Asuka to a 30-minute Ironwoman match at Backlash. If nothing else, she claims that even if she doesn't win the title, she'll be the first person to make the Empress tap out. Hopefully that'll make the fans worry that her "never been pinned or submitted" streak will end here, but thankfully it doesn't. Asuka wins the match two falls to zero, but Charlotte comes really close to making Asuka tap, bridging the Figure-Four into the Figure-Eight just as time expires.
The next two pay-per-views show Asuka fighting against inferior competition who have a couple of tricks up their sleeves. At Money in the Bank, she fights Carmella. In this timeline, not only does she not have the Money in the Bank briefcase (she cashed it before Mania at some point), but she also already has James Ellsworth in her corner, and he tries to get involved in their title match at Money in the Bank, but gets kicked in the jaw so hard that the swelling finally gives him a chin, and from there, Asuka cruises to a victory. Then at Extreme Rules, Asuka fights both of the IIconics in a handicap match. Peyton and Billie get some offense going thanks to a couple of cheap shots, but Asuka makes Billie tap in the Lock.
Next comes Summerslam, and this part is tricky, because this is where the attempted Becky Lynch heel turn happened that accidentally turned her into a megastar. But we can solve that with basically the same match as in real life, just replace champion Carmella with champion Asuka. Doesn't that feel better? Like in real life, Charlotte wins the match by pinning Becky, and this causes Becky to fly off the handle and attack Charlotte afterwards. A rematch takes place at Hell in a Cell where the three women compete inside the Cell. These women throw everything at each other, and Becky wins the match, this time by pinning Charlotte. So we've managed to take the title off Asuka without pinning her, and let Becky and Charlotte have a run with the Smackdown Women's Title while their story is red-hot. Asuka can miss out on the next month or so of programming, no need to have her complicate a good story here.
The next time we see Asuka is at Evolution, where she winds up in the battle royale for a future title shot, and of course she wins the darn thing, last eliminating Nia Jax. The title match won't happen at Survivor Series though, as Becky Lynch is busy with Ronda Rousey, er I mean, busy getting her brains scrambled by Nia Jax, so she's once again in the 5-on-5 women's elimination match. Now at the real show, Raw pitched a shutout so that Baron Corbin could keep his GM job, but he lost it a month later anyway, and the whole storyline kinda sucked anyway, so let's kill it here. The women's elimination match opens the show, and Asuka once again has a really good showing here. Near the end, it comes down to Asuka and Naomi for Smackdown and Nia Jax for Raw. Corbin comes out to cheer on Nia, but he gets hit by a flying Rear View from Naomi, and Asuka wraps up Nia for the tap. Smackdown wins, this dumb storyline is put to bed immediately, so we don't have to think about it for the rest of the show, and just for good measure, Asuka kicks Baron in the head to put him out of his misery.
Asuka finally gets to cash in her title shot against Becky Lynch at TLC in a TLC match. And these two go absolutely mental on one another with ladder shots and dives. In the end, like in real life, Ronda Rousey comes out at the end, and tips over Becky's ladder as she's just fingertips away from the title. Yea, this might feel a bit like a cheap win for Asuka, but Ronda and Becky have been going back and forth on Twitter for months now, and this will be the opening salvo in their eventual Wrestlemania main event feud. So after Becky is taken out by Ronda, Asuka swoops in and takes the title. For those looking for a Rousey-less version of this match, may I interest you in their match the following month at the Royal Rumble, where Becky and Asuka fight one more time in a steel cage? This match opens the show, and they go fifteen minutes without ever once thinking about leaving the cage, because they're warriors. Asuka wins the match here, but Becky comes back at the end of the night and wins the Royal Rumble.
After this, Asuka gets a couple more title defenses under her belt. Naomi has been asking for a title shot for months after winning the Survivor Series match with Asuka, as well as having a strong showing in the Women's Royal Rumble. The match is competitive and won by Asuka. At Fastlane, it's Sonya Deville's turn. Mandy Rose got the match here in real life, but Sonya has more upside, so she'll get the match here, with Mandy at ringside. Sonya's MMA background actually matches up well against Asuka's submission and striking game, so Asuka has to pull some new stuff out of her bag, like maybe some aerial moves. Asuka scores another win here.
Wrestlemania 35 has to be Asuka vs. Charlotte, they're the two biggest women on the Smackdown side to go along with Becky and Ronda on the Raw side. In the build-up, Charlotte can talk about how much of a down year it's been for her. She's had so many title opportunities, and she’s only won one of them, she didn't even get to celebrate it, and she lost it a month later. And this crummy year started with her loss to Asuka, so a win over her here would be the start of her redemption. But don't feel too inspired by Charlotte's story, it's basically just "I'm a Flair, why am I not holding a title right now?" At the Mania match, Charlotte throws everything she can at Asuka, but it does nothing. Asuka kicks out of a Big Boot at 1. She takes back-to-back Natural Selections and kicks out at two. She gets put in the Figure-Four, but Asuka reverses the pressure. Charlotte's thinking "what do I have left?". But then, she has an evil little epiphany. She "accidentally" takes down the ref with a Big Boot, and she calls for another ref. And that ref is Charles Robinson. Oh no. Byron Saxton immediately knows that something's fucky. Charlotte puts Asuka in the Figure-Four, and as soon as Robinson gets in the ring, he calls for the bell. Asuka loses the match via screwjob, ending her undefeated streak at 1,278 days. WWE loves to do this kind of finish, but here it would have some real heft to it.
In real life, Charlotte ended Asuka's undefeated streak, but didn't do much with it. She lost the title to Carmella right afterwards, and has only had a handful of short reigns since then, none of them lasting longer than a pay-per-view or a Takeover cycle. At least Brock killing the Streak turned him into a monster again, and he went on the run of his life not long after. But in this story, ending Asuka's undefeated streak by screwing her over like this would turn Charlotte into the most detestable person on the face of the Earth. For her to steal Asuka's streak like this would just be the worst, and it would galvanize people against Charlotte. Also, by doing it this way, you can actually get two rubs from Asuka's streak, this one and whoever actually beats her cleanly down the road. Just have the face commentators say that Asuka never really lost, it would still work.
After the bell rings, Robinson and Charlotte am-scray and Asuka is bewildered. She goes to the first ref and pleads her case but to no avail, it wasn't his decision. Then she sees Robinson and Charlotte halfway up the ramp and she puts two and two together. She marches up the ramp, and Charlotte wants no part in Asuka's fury, so she literally throws Robinson in front of her, and Asuka feasts on Robinson's bones. She spends the next couple of minutes absolutely decimating Robinson until the other refs try to make the save, but no dice. Robinson is a dead man walking, and Asuka beats him down to the point where we don't see him again after this. Charlotte watches this from the top of the ramp, and thinks "I won the title, but what did it cost?" And Asuka basically responds "everything".
Next Smackdown, Charlotte comes out with a mile-wide smile. She gloats about ending the undefeated streak of Asuka, and berates the fans for siding against the greatest Women's Champion of all time. She also reveals that because Asuka laid hands on a ref, she's been suspended for thirty days. Ha ha ha. But that doesn't stop Asuka from trying to get another score of revenge. She hops the barricade, but gets held back by an army of refs, while Charlotte points and laughs. Suddenly though, Asuka breaks free, gets in the ring, and unleashes a flurry of punches on Charlotte. It looks like a scene from Fist of the North Star and Charlotte is already dead. Eventually, Asuka's dragged away by the police, and Charlotte is clutching her title, almost in the fetal position.
From there, Asuka's suspension is lengthened from 30 days to 90 days. During the Superstar Shake-Up, Bayley comes over from Raw, and stands up for Asuka. She says that screwing over Asuka like that was "a coward move", and if that's what Charlotte's snuck to, then she'll be easy pickings for her. Also during this time, it might be wise for Charlotte to get someone to help her from ringside. I mean, she is a Queen, maybe she needs a Princess? Maybe one from the Staten Island part of New York? I think Charlotte and Carmella would make a nice, little pairing while Charlotte is the champ.
Bayley gets three shots at the Smackdown Women's Title. First up, Money in the Bank, standard match, Carmella brains Bayley with the Title, and holds down Bayley's feet while Charlotte covers her. Charlotte scores the win. Next up, Stomping Grounds, Carmella’s banned from ringside. Bayley's doing well here, and may be on the verge of a win, but when Bayley is down in the corner and the ref goes to check on her, a pair of brass knuckles goes flying into the ring from the crowd. Charlotte catches it, but the person who threw it isn't seen on camera. Charlotte slips them on and KO punches Bayley. Finally at Extreme Rules, these two fight in a steel cage match. Once again, Bayley is looking good, until Carmella reaches through the hole of the cage and grabs Bayley's leg. She pulls her leg into the hole, trapping Bayley in the cage wall. Charlotte looks very satisfied, and starts to climb out of the cage. As she turns to wave goodbye to Bayley, Asuka's music hits. Her suspension would be up by now, and she full-sprints down to the cage, and climbs up it, meeting Charlotte at the top. Carmella manages to grab Asuka's leg and tries to yank her back down, but Asuka is able to climb back down and gives a righteous beating to Carmella. So now Charlotte’s on a time-limit; she needs to end the match before Asuka gets done munching on Carmella, so she drops back into the ring, and just starts booting Bayley in the head over and over again. Charlotte thinks she’s got the win here, so she pulls Bayley out of the cage wall, and covers but Bayley just barely kicks out. Carmella’s been killed off by Asuka by now, and she’s starting to climb the cage, so all Charlotte can do is bolt up the opposite wall to escape the cage. Charlotte gets over just as Asuka lands in the ring, and survives the cage match, but she knows what’s coming next, and she has to stop it from happening.
On the next Smackdown, it’s announced for Summerslam, Asuka vs. Charlotte for the Smackdown Women’s Title. Charlotte and Carmella storm into Trips and Steph’s office, and demand to know why Asuka is being rewarded with a title shot. “The last memory we had of Asuka before last Sunday was of her breaking her suspension to earn an even longer suspension. She shouldn’t be getting title shots, she should be in jail.” Steph calms her down and says that for starters, Asuka’s never got her rematch from Wrestlemania. But she also says that in the contract for the match, Asuka has to play nice in the build to Summerslam. If she attacks either Charlotte or Carmella in the build-up, the match is off. But if they attack Asuka, then she’s free to defend herself. Charlotte and Carmella glance at each other and they know what they have to do: piss off Asuka. They spend the next four weeks doing whatever they can to provoke a reaction. They trash Asuka’s locker room, they crash her rental car, they beat down Bayley, who’s become something like Asuka’s friendly rival by this point. At one point, Charlotte even makes some racist comments toward Asuka. Now normally I don’t like racism to be used as a heel tactic (it feels lazy), but if the goal is to provoke a reaction, it might be just the ticket. Asuka nearly bites there, but restrains herself and walks away. Go home show to Summerslam, Charlotte and Asuka sign the contract for Summerslam, and Charlotte spends the whole time talking about how she’s going to retain the title, and hold it for the next decade, and how there’s nothing Asuka can do to stop it. Asuka simply says “For now, I can’t, but she can”, and Bayley slides in behind Charlotte and smashes her in the head. Bayley tries to fight them 2-on-1, but can only do so much. After a bit of a beatdown, Charlotte’s holding Bayley up, telling Carmella to hit Bayley with a Superkick. But as she goes for it, Asuka dives in front of the kick and takes the Superkick for Bayley. Carmella has now officially laid hands, er feet, on Asuka, meaning she’s free to defend herself, and she does so with extreme prejudice. Asuka annihilates Carmella, and when Charlotte goes to try to save her partner, she can’t, because doing so will require attacking Asuka, and that would mean they’d have to fight. So Charlotte throws up her hands and walks away, leaving Carmella to fruitlessly tap out in the Asuka Lock.
At Summerslam, Carmella’s out of the picture, and it’s just Charlotte and Asuka, and Charlotte is being humbled, she gets blown up at every opportunity by Asuka, who’s just having fun out there. After one particularly rough sequence, Charlotte’s just like “nope, I’m done here”, and peaces out, running fast as her beaten up legs will carry her. She loses by countout, but retains. Charlotte spends the next several weeks just trying to hide from Asuka basically, because she knows Asuka wants blood. For Clash of Champions, it’ll be these two again, this time Falls Count Anywhere so that Charlotte can’t try to leg it. Charlotte goes to Steph and Triple H again, but this time, instead of confidently trying to disparage Asuka, she’s nervous, paranoid, and panicky. She doesn’t want this kind of match, and legitimately begs for the stipulation to be removed. Steph tells her to get a hold of herself, and says that the match will go on as announced, and that Charlotte is the champion, hell Charlotte is the Queen, and she needs to remember that and start conducting herself as such. So Charlotte sucks it up, and straightens her posture, thanks Steph and leaves. Although, PG swearing can be heard on the other side of the door as Charlotte storms off in frustration. Right before the match happens, Asuka knows that Carmella will be assisting Charlotte in this match, so Asuka stalks Carmella backstage, and once she’s alone, Asuka pounces on her, locking her in the Asuka Lock, and once she’s worn out, she throws her in a closet, and props the door shut. Charlotte comes out first, wondering where in the world Carmella is, but an evil smile from Asuka during her entrance gives her all the information she needs. The two get to brawling and the action spills backstage pretty quickly. Charlotte knows her best bet is to find Carmella, so they can team up on Asuka. So she spends more time opening every door looking for Mella, then actually engaging with Asuka. After about ten minutes, Charlotte eventually finds the locker room and frees Carmella, but by this point, they’re both on spaghetti legs. Asuka dispatches Carmella one more time, puts Charlotte in the Lock, and Charlotte taps out. Asuka is back on top.
Hell in a Cell is next, but by this point, Charlotte is just tired. She’s been put through the Asuka meat grinder a bunch by this point, and Charlotte is about done with her. But Carmella motivates her to pick her chin back up and to keep being the Queen of WWE. And this is just enough to get Charlotte going again. Charlotte wins a #1 contender’s match, she wins a couple of big matches on Smackdown, and by the time the PPV rolls around, it’s actually Charlotte’s idea to put the match in the Cell. Asuka happily agrees, these two have met in the Cell before, two years ago alongside Becky Lynch, and now they’ll face off one more time. This is probably Asuka and Charlotte’s most competitive match, Charlotte looks particularly strong here, and pushes Asuka to her absolute limit, but after a grueling 25-minute match, Asuka just defeats Charlotte and walks away with the belt. Carmella consoles a frustrated Charlotte in the post-match, and they go on to win the Women’s Tag Titles not long after this.
Next is Survivor Series, and the match is once again a triple threat between the three women’s champions, Asuka as Smackdown Champ vs. Becky Lynch as Raw Champ vs. Shayna Baszler as NXT Champ. This match will rule, these three women are maybe the best in the business at what they do (Becky as a beloved face, Shayna as a total asshole, and Asuka as being Asuka). The three women trade the advantage back and forth, but in the end, Asuka has the Asuka Lock on Shayna, but Becky makes the save. Becky and Asuka go for a bit before Asuka puts the Lock on Becky, Becky is moments from tapping when Shayna knees Asuka in the head, locks on the Kirifuda Clutch, and taps out Becky. Shayna wins the match, and afterward, Asuka is fuming. On the next Raw, Asuka comes out, screaming in Japanese at Becky, but Becky calms her down by talking back to her in Japanese, and Asuka simply replies “you don’t deserve that title”, and storms off. Couple weeks later, Asuka wins a multi-brand battle royale for a shot at the Raw Women’s Title, much like the one that happened in real-life before Summerslam 2020. In this match, we get the final two of Asuka and Shayna Baszler, and after some intense back-and-forth, Asuka takes out Shayna. Asuka faces off with Becky Lynch at TLC, and during this match, Becky Lynch takes Asuka’s left arm to town. She plays a smart, submission-based game with Asuka, where she never relents on the arm, constantly softening it up for the Dis-Arm-Her. Near the end of the match, Asuka gets the Lock on, but her arm is having trouble keeping Becky in place, so it’s basically just a rear choke instead of the Asuka Lock, and Becky manages to free herself, slam Asuka’s face to the mat, and lock on the Dis-Arm-Her. Asuka stays in the hold for a long time, but finally after a full minute in the hold, Asuka… taps. After 1,530 days, more than four years, Asuka has cleanly tasted defeat at the hands of The Man, Becky Lynch. Becky is stunned, she was sure she could win, but even still, seeing Asuka tap is like seeing God bleed. Becky celebrates her win while keeping a wary eye on Asuka to make sure she doesn’t snap. Eventually, Asuka gets up and gets face-to-face with Becky and tells her, “you were ready for Asuka”. Asuka raises Becky’s hand and pays her respect before bowing and leaving the ring to let Becky celebrate for real. The torch has officially been passed.
From here on, we see a much more reserved and, dare I say, friendly Asuka. She could still turn you into a jigsaw puzzle, but now she can kind of relax a bit. For the Royal Rumble, Bayley earns a shot at the title, and Asuka is happy to give her friend a chance, they start getting real buddy-buddy. In the build, Asuka and Bayley actually earn a crack at Charlotte and Carmella’s Women’s Tag Titles. They lose that match, with Charlotte pinning Bayley. Charlotte runs off, celebrating like she just won the everything, finally happy in the knowledge that she technically beat Asuka. But the loss doesn’t get to Asuka like it would in days past. Asuka and Bayley fight at the Rumble, and it’s a fun back-and-forth match where Bayley ends up looking pretty good, but Asuka just gets the win. At Elimination Chamber, she faces a new target, Alexa Bliss. In this story, she still has Nikki Cross in her corner, but they’re both heel, with Nikki working as Alexa’s deranged enforcer. Alexa is absolutely ruthless in this match, absolutely taking it to Asuka, with Nikki getting in little pot-shots wherever she can. Alexa straight-up dominates a lot of the match, but Asuka snags a lucky Asuka Lock and forces Alexa to tap. Asuka survives, but something seems off.
Finally, we’re on the Road to Wrestlemania, and the Royal Rumble winner, Shayna Baszler has a decision to make. Does she get a rematch with Rhea Ripley, who just took her NXT Women’s Title? Does she face Becky Lynch, who Baszler made tap at Survivor Series? Or does she go for Asuka, who seems to be ripe for the picking? It’s announced on the first Raw after Elimination Chamber that Shayna will make her decision. All three women’s champions meet in the ring and await Shayna’s decision. When Shayna gets in the ring, she first addresses Rhea. She says that that title isn’t worth her time anymore, she wants that Wrestlemania payday, so she tells Rhea to take a hike, which she does. This leaves just Becky and Asuka, when suddenly Ronda Rousey sneaks in, and bashes Becky, while Shayna goes for Asuka. After a quick beatdown, Rousey has Becky in her Armbar, while Shayna has the Kirifuda Clutch on Asuka, and the two Mania matches take shape. Later, Shayna reveals that she picked Asuka for two reasons. One: Becky and Ronda have some unfinished business, so Shayna basically let Ronda take Becky. And two: Asuka has gone soft, “she’s no empress, she’s a clown who tries and fails to be a badass”. And she confidently boasts that there’s nothing Asuka can do that she isn’t ready for. On the first night of Wrestlemania 36, Ronda defeats Becky to reclaim the Raw Women’s Title with the help of the other Horsewomen. Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir win a Four-Way Tag Match against the champs Charlotte and Carmella, Bayley and Sasha, and the IIconics, and then on Night Two, it’s Shayna vs. Asuka, and Asuka gets bodied. Shayna just comes out of the gates swinging, and never relents, never gives Asuka a moment of reprieve, and just batters her, winning convincingly with the Kirifuda Clutch. From there, all four MMA Horsewomen hold the main roster gold, and Asuka may need a couple of months to regroup and come back stronger, but that I think is enough for now. I’m nearly at the character limit, so thanks guys and I’ll see y’all later.
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