How Victoria Azarenka is like WWE champion CM Punk

Two weeks ago, I was not a Victoria Azarenka fan.  Like many of the female tennis players, she’s a bad server but a great returner.  She was # 1 in the world but tennis rankings have always baffled me because there’s so many tournaments, I feel it’s unrealistic that a player can play that often and travel as much as they are required.  But, if you miss a tournament, your ranking gets affected in a larger amount than is fair.  True, every player has this same problem but this is how Caroline Wozniacki was # 1 but never won a major, she played more tournaments than anyone.  So, I could believe the “experts” when it was all about Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova and nobody cared about Azarenka.  That being said, I still picked Azarenka to make it to the finals and lose to Sharapova so I did trust her over Serena.  But, nobody really believed me. 

I am one of the few people that is not in the closet about being a WWE fan.  I’ve had to defend my fanship to almost everyone for over a decade.  After watching Azarenka win, I realized one more reason I’m a WWE fan.  The superstars in the WWE treat their audience like adults.  Yes, you can insult us.  You can insult the city where we live.  We’ll get over it, it’ll be okay.  Right now, CM Punk has been going on for months about how sheepish the masses are and how all someone has to do is mention the city they’re currently in and they go nuts.  Fans boo him immensely but then he mentioned the town they were in right after mentioning that if he did they’d cheer.  The crowd cheered loudly at the mention of their city.  He then rested his case.  He openly talks about how he doesn’t need the people and the people don’t matter.  Tomorrow is the Royal Rumble; the writers of the WWE have expertly set up the championship match of CM Punk vs. The Rock.  The dichotomy is obvious.  The man who despises the people vs. the man who calls himself “The People’s Champion.” 

Interestingly, the women’s tennis final was set up in the same way without any script (I think).  Usually the crowd unfairly attacks Azarenka for her grunting.  The William sisters, Sharapova along with many other women grunt.  It may not be as loud or as long as Azarenka but Azarenka is the only one that constantly gets mocked and ridiculed by the fans for it.  In the semi-finals, Azarenka got hurt so left the court for a training break. This is completely legal.  When she came back, she ended up beating Sloane Stevens, the 19-year-old sensation that the world, including me, fell in love with.  International news syndicates came out attacking Azarenka for manipulating the rules.  CM Punk has been champion for a modern-era record of 434 days, and a lot of matches he too gets counted out or disqualified since the title can’t change hands on these things.  Again, CM Punk is well within the rules to do it.  He is not the only champion to do it by a long shot.  But, he gets vilified more than anyone else.  Same thing happened to Azarenka.  So then the finals took place.  Sure, Stevens captured the fans attention with her charismatic, funny and charming interviews but now we have one of the oldest women on tour, Li Na.  Li Na has been cracking up fans for years with her surprisingly candid and honest interviews.  One of the reasons I like tennis is that interviews aren’t all the same, they are quite funny and Li Na is one of the best.  Li Na plays her best at Australia for reasons she can’t explain.  This was well documented in her run to the finals beating two of the top women, Radwanska and Sharapova.  As she kept highlighting how she loves Australia, just as how CM Punk predicted, the fans loved her for complimenting their country. 

So, at 3AM eastern time, I sat down on my couch to watch Victoria Azarenka, the woman that has been attacked and crucified in newspapers across the world for the last two days vs. Li Na, the woman that everyone loves for her charm and hilariously candid interviews who loves Australia, battle it out for the championship in Australia.  The fans didn’t boo Azarenka except for one time during the match.  But they were notably silent when Azarenka did well and cheered much louder for Li Na.  It was obvious who the fans wanted, and there’s nothing wrong with that.  Li Na would collapse on the court twice for a twisted left ankle and had to receive help from the trainer.  Nobody cared, unlike when Azarenka did it once just two days ago.  The 2^nd time Li Na fell, she banged her head pretty hard and they were worried about a concussion.  If the fans didn’t love Li Na before, they certainly did now.  The woman has come back from twisting the same ankle twice, possible concussion, but she’s going to fight to the bitter end.  She’s not tapping out, she’s not going to quit, she’s going to stand on the opposite baseline and battle the number 1 player in the world.  Victoria Azarenka would beat her in three sets. 

I loved the match but at the end during the ceremony I watched intently to see Azarenka’s speech.  Unfortunately, she did the classy thing.  She got up there and thanked the fans.  I know the logic, without the fans there couldn’t be the large prize money reward for playing tennis.  But, I’m an economist, if it wasn’t for what these players could do, the way they can entertain the masses, they wouldn’t show up.  There are much more people that like watching tennis than can play tennis at the ability of those on court.  Lower supply, higher cost, Azarenka deserves the money.  If CM Punk beats the Rock, he will come out on Monday Night Raw the next day and say, “Once again, I have beaten your hero.  Once again, I have proven that you don’t need the people to be successful.  Once again, I can’t be stopped and have beaten everyone in my path for 435 days to prove that I am the Best in the World”

Now, I didn’t expect Azarenka to say that.  If she did, I’d love her for it.  But, if I were her, I wouldn’t have thanked the fans.  She broke down crying after she won.  I understood it, through all the adversity, having a nation against her, she walked into enemy territory and still got the job done.  Athletes should be mentally tough, but what she went through is unfair and it had to be tough.  I normally dislike crying in sports by male or female but this time I was okay with it.  So, I know I don’t have a big following.  But I will say it for Azarenka since she’s too classy to say it herself.  “I have come out here, and I have beaten your heroes.  Back to back I took out the two non-Australian players you love the most.  Boo me if you want; mock me if you want; but this (as she holds up the trophy) says that I am the champion, this solidifies that I am unquestionably, undeniably, indisputably the Best in the World!  

XFL too early?

As the football playoffs are down to the final four, I look at the NFL and wonder
about where today's sports have come.  Over 10 years ago, Vince McMahon came up with
an idea called the "XFL," which kept football pure.  He had a professional football
league in America that still allowed you to hit players.  Trash talking wasn't
penalized and players and teams were paid more for wins.  Even back then, there
seemed to be discontent with how babied the NFL has become.  Defenders are sometimes
penalized for "leading with their head when tackling."  Looking at the NFL players,
I noticed that all of them have their heads located above their shoulders.  To make
a tackle, they bend down and drive their shoulders into an offensive player.  Given
that, given the placement of the head on a human body, in order to drive your
shoulder into someone, you have to lead with your head.  Football is supposed to be
a hard hitting manly sport.  Now since pretty boys like Tom Brady play it, defensive
players are fined constantly for making hard hits on players.  Defensive players
complain about this all the time, especially now.  But, when Vince McMahon offered
them an alternative, the XFL, it was rejected.  Almost nobody watched.

I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, a very big football town.  My high school has the
state record for most state championships in football.  Because of this, there were
many football jocks in my high school and they all seemed excited about the XFL
since it would allow them to watch real hard nosed football again.  But, alas, this
didn't happen.  No matter what McMahon did, he couldn't get people interested in the
one year that the XFL was in existence.  It ran during the off-season of the NFL and
it still didn't catch.  Now when I hear NFL linebackers complaining week after week
because Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the NFL, fined them for tackling someone
hard, I wonder if maybe the XFL's problem wasn't that people didn't want to watch
hard hitting football but that people hadn't hit a fever peek yet with the kid
gloves of the NFL.  Have we reached the fever pitch now?  Was the XFL tried too
early?  Will a Vince McMahon come out of the wood work and offer an alternative so
people can play real football again?  Are fans really upset to see the
overprotection of kickers and quarterbacks and the main defenders on their favorite
teams continually suspended for a game because of a hit that would have been
perfectly legal not too long ago?  Or have Americans really gotten too soft to
appreciate a violent sport?  In a country where anything that could possibly be
construed as taunting is harshly penalized and victimized, maybe people just aren't
built to handle someone looking them in the eye and saying "you suck."  Maybe they
can't handle a bruise on their skin without running to their mommies or wives crying
like a little girl.  Throughout the years, records will be broken, but I will never
give credence to any of them because if you were allowed to hit the way you could in
the old days, these players probably wouldn't be achieving these numbers.

Punish everyone for the faults of the few

It’s amazing to me how easily people can mess up something for everyone.  Just because one person decides to have a bomb in his shoe, everyone has to walk either bare foot or in their socks through a metal detector in an airport.  The thing that’s even more fascinating is how willing Americans are to bend over and just take it.  The example I’m going to give here is the recent soda ban in New York City that will take place in the next couple months.

For those of you who don’t know, New York City is banning soda to be sold in quantities above 16oz in any state-sanctioned business which is pretty much all places except grocery stores.  The US government has no right to tell me that I cannot have a soda above 16oz.  They are doing this because Americans are becoming so obese so they want to try to counteract that by being big brother and forcing them to consume less soda.  This is especially true for poor people because when poor people get obese, they get sick, end up in the hospital and, since they have no health insurance, the state ends up picking up the tab.  Given this, all Americans of all income brackets need to suffer.  If this was really the problem, then the simple solution is to no longer allow soda to be purchased with EBT or food stamps.  That way it only affects the poor.  Of course, they did try this and it had no significant difference.  Why not treat soda like alcohol? if I order a soda, I have to show that I have a health insurance card in order to get above 16oz.  It seems ridiculous but at least I don’t have to suffer since if something happens to me, I do have insurance to alleviate the price to the state.  But alas, that’s not what Bloomberg (mayor of New York) is doing. 

A woman I respect thought that Bloomberg’s logic was sound. To which case, I believe that anything and everything can be banned using the same logic.  Flowers should be banned because flowers have thorns, thorns can cut people and since poor people live in unclean environments, their risk if infection is higher, so their cut from the thorns gets infected, they have to go to a hospital, and the tax payers fit the bill.  Even if you ban thorns on flowers it wouldn’t help because flower pedals can fall, they are slippery, someone slips on the flower pedals they go to the hospital for their fall and the state has to pick up the tab.  Therefore a bouquet of flowers should be banned to limit the amount of pedals that can fall and risk poor people slipping on them. 

For those of you who think this is a New York problem, consider this: New York City banned smoking indoors in 2003.  Shortly thereafter, many states followed the New York model and did the same in their state.  Now, most states have an indoor smoking ban.  America looks to New York, their biggest and most profitable city, as a model for them.  The indoor smoking banned forced bars and industries across the country to close down from a lack of revenue. 

I predict that by 2015, more than 25 states will impose the soda ban.  The idea that soda is solely responsible for obesity is asinine.  If you go to any fast food place in New York, poor people are lined up to eat there.  Two brothers pizza, a New York pizza chain that sells 2 cheese slices and a can of a soda (phew, only 12oz) for $2.75 almost always has a line of people you would not want to see an alley one day.  They also sell fried chicken for cheap.  Given that two slices and a drink normally costs like $6.50 at other pizza places, they do have an excellent deal.  Given all the poor people huddled at two brothers across the city, you think that maybe that contributes.  Healthy food costs a lot of money, that’s why poor people don’t eat it.  Rather than deny the population, hit the problem on the head, if you have an unpaid medical bill, you are not allowed treatment at the hospital.  That simple.   

I often wonder what is the tipping point.  When will Americans stand up and say, “Enough.”? When will we stand up for our freedoms?  Why must I suffer because of the few?  But no, Americans are soft.  They bend it over and take it up the ass.  I will do my part and buy two 16oz sodas with my meals.  Given that I normally get a 20oz, I will be consuming 24oz instead of 20, so the soda ban will actually hurt me as far as the calorie intake.  But I suffer on.  America is really embracing socialism and big brother.  In the late 70s, high interest rates, kidnapped Americans in Iran and inflation under Carter made American says enough is enough I want the conservative Raegan, and the economy soared.  Maybe Obama can ruin the economy to Carter standards before Americans wake up.  But I’m losing hope.  It’s hard to turn the tides.  Americans want the nanny state as was evident by the Obama overwhelming victory.  The last great superpower is folding because they looked to collapsed nations on how to run theirs.  Retards run the asylum and this is what you get.  Fuck mayor Bloomberg.