Wrestler Wisdom Fridays #32

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Each week, the ISB endeavors to enlighten our readers by offering the unedited words of the Warrior Scholars of the squared circle, for who among us cannot benefit from the wisdom of Macho Madness, Hulkamania, or the American Dream? The instruction we offer should be considered carefully, meditated on, and applied to one’s own life for the enrichment of the self and others.

34 thoughts on “Wrestler Wisdom Fridays #32”

  1. Is there any chance of ending these wrestling things? They’re never funny, and it’s getting tedious to click passed them each Friday.

  2. yes this “clicking past them” is far too much energy for me to expend this day and age

    I demand significantly less clicks for my court jester

  3. I don’t think Chris should end these until he’s done a Piper retrospective, inconvenient clicking be damned!

  5. Sigh. If you want to be featured on “Big Ups to All My Haters” you’re gonna have to bring more to the table than that, Nico.

  7. Jayfarer, yiou are misrepresenting Nico’s argument. It’s “clicking PASSED them” and you should be ashamed of yourself for deliberately misquoting them like that.

  8. I believe you should begin “Sports Entertainment Saturdays” in honor of Nico…

  9. I used to really dig this blog, back when you posted original content instead of links to your post on ComicsAlliance, but I suppose there’s no point in pining for what’s clearly gone.

    Best of luck in your future endeavours, Chris.

    [-1 RSS subscriber]

  11. Oh, and one more thing:

    “I used to really dig this blog, back when you posted original content instead of links to your post on ComicsAlliance.”

    You do get that CA (and Heavy.com, etc) is Chris’ job, right? He doesn’t write stuff for them, he doesn’t get paid. Getting paid > Saving you a couple of clicks.

  14. Nico: I’m sorry you’re no longer enjoying the ISB. I’d probably be a little disenchanted with the arrangement too if I was a reader rather than the guy running the site, but the fact of the matter is that I’m writing about as much as I can. Writing two columns a day for ComicsAlliance, plus the weekly column for Heavy, plus Awesome Hospital and an unannounced project (with my co-writer, Chad Bowers), plus trying to get things like Woman of A.C.T.I.O.N. #2 and Solomon Stone #3 finished, plus picking up whatever freelance work comes my way (like the recent articles for SciFiWire and Moviefone) just doesn’t leave a lot of time to devote to writing things here, even though I’m writing more now than I ever have in my life, and — given the freedom editors like Laura Hudson and K. Thor Jensen have given me — having just as much fun doing it.

    With the demise of the Week In Ink (which came about because Euge and I record War Rocket Ajax on Thursday nights, another project I forgot to mention above), Wrestler Wisdom Fridays and The Many Emotions of Batman are really the only things I do here at the ISB anymore, and even though they ensure that I never actually have a full day off from working on something, I still do them for one reason: I think they’re funny. And if you think I’ve sold out because I only post two pieces of original content here in addition to everything else I do, then there really is no reason to be reading the ISB. I’m not exactly shy about pointing out that you can already find the bulk of my current work elsewhere.

    In other words, I ain’t go no damn integrity. How do you think I got so far?

  16. Look pal, you can try and justify it all you like but the truth of the matter is you blogged with the hope of getting noticed as a comedic writer and you were successful at that and now we, your readers who don’t want to pay you any money personally, have had to suffer the burden of your success just because some other people have decided to pay you to do what you were already doing anyway. The nerve. I don’t know how you sleep at night.

  17. Hey, I’m not crazy about the Wrestler Wisdom entries either, but only because its appealing to a demographic I’m just not a part of. Haven’t been into wresting in 10 years, and even then I only really watched WCW! (According to my few sources that means I wasnt a ‘true’ wrestling fan) That being said, I may not ‘get’ these jokes, but this is Chris F–king Sims here, on HIS blog. Kind of hard to complain about what he posts on it and not look like a jackass. I fully support him posting whatever the hell he wants, and if that means I may not get a joke here or there…oh poor poor me. I guess I’ll just have to ‘click passed it’.

  18. Nico loved it when you posted original content here, but hates it when you post direct links to your original content here. How dare you make money for even more work!

  19. Let’s see… we get more Chris Sims material nowadays, and we still don’t have to pay for it. Mr. Sims, on the other hand, *is* getting paid now to write all this stuff for either our or his own amusement. The only difference is most of the material is on other sites, but he always links to those other sites here regardless, so… yeah, no real loss there, unless you apparently have one of those mice that makes you pay per click (/sarcasm). (Well, okay, the other sites usually don’t have the alt-text on the images like the ISB does. So there’s that, but that’s fairly minor.)

    I mean, really, how can one complain that Mr. Sims actually got paid to write his most recent review of Tarot? Cripes, we probably all owe him a kidney for reading that series for so long! (Better you than me, Sims!)

    Although he has been slacking on the Anita Blake front, even after being recognized for his Annotated series, but, really, who can blame him there…? :P

  20. Thanks for your response, Chris. As someone who’s been creating web-content for fourteen years, I can sympathize with the time and effort involved, and I think it’s fantastic that you’ve been able to score a gig writing for another site, but I can subscribe to those feeds on my own and don’t require a pointer for every post – it becomes nothing more than unnecessary duplication.

    I can understand that you’re spread thin, but why not reserve this blog for those more controversial things you can’t say elsewhere (such as graphic breakdowns of Tarot and the Anita Blake series, for example)? The wrestling thing doesn’t work for me, but it has at least one supporter, and I could learn to ignore it again if there was a reason to. Further, your choice to monetize this blog or not remains your own, but why not incorporate advertising and affiliate links if that’s what will make it more worthwhile?

    Save the CA links for when you have something really unique to share, or you could post a weekly round up where rabid fans can stalk your content online, wherever it appears.

    I don’t think posting less would negatively affect your readership, which is clearly quite fond (and protective!) of you.

    Again, best of luck.

  21. I’m starting to feel like a douche, but fuck it:

    Further, your choice to monetize this blog or not remains your own, but why not incorporate advertising and affiliate links if that’s what will make it more worthwhile?

    What do you think those things down the left hand column are? The ones that say “Amazon”? And what do you think all those little pictures on the “Ask Chris” write-up here link to? If you’re not going to pay attention…

  22. I can understand that you’re spread thin, but why not reserve this blog for those more controversial things you can’t say elsewhere (such as graphic breakdowns of Tarot and the Anita Blake series, for example)?

    Because I’m already doing that exact thing at ComicsAlliance, where I’m reaching a larger audience and making more money.

    Like I said, with the exception of actual swearing (which I tried not to do too much on the ISB anyway), there’s not a lot that Laura doesn’t let me get away with. I mean, my article about the racial poilitics in the DC Universe was probably the most “controversial” thing I’ve ever written, and that was something she both thoroughly encouraged and stood behind when the backlash came.

    Further, your choice to monetize this blog or not remains your own, but why not incorporate advertising and affiliate links if that’s what will make it more worthwhile?

    I’ve been doing that since 2006. I make more writing for ComicsAlliance, although the fact that I have three years worth of daily content here still gets its share of attention.

    Save the CA links for when you have something really unique to share, or you could post a weekly round up where rabid fans can stalk your content online, wherever it appears.

    I don’t think posting less would negatively affect your readership, which is clearly quite fond (and protective!) of you.

    Why would I not want to link to the things I write? Actually, there are articles that I don’t link to; I occasionally do a short piece that’s just a gallery of neat stuff I’ve found that I don’t really think necessitates a link here, as it’d just be me going “Hey, click on this picture to go look at this picture in a slightly larger format.” Those, I skip, though I twitter about everything I do.

    But considering that the vast majority of what I write elsewhere is the same kind of content that I’ve been doing here (including stuff like Chris vs. Previews, an old ISB feature I’d given up on for being too time-consuming that I brought back because people liked it and I found a way to make it work better), and that getting hits at ComicsAlliance does things like keep me employed, why would I not use my website to promote myself?

    That is its entire raison d’etre. That’s why my name is the first thing in the title: Its primary function is to be a place where people can find the things I write, whether they’re written here or elsewhere. Lumping them into one digest-style post wouldn’t increase the time I had to write more; I’d still be doing the same amount of writing.

  25. NEEDS MORE TROMBONE PLAYERS!

    Seriously, I’m fine with you’re selling out as long as I continue to get the occasional kickback for being the Buddy Sorrell to your Mel Cooley.

  29. I think there’s a fair point being collectively made here. The ISB used to be “Chris’ Blog with Lots of Stuff Chris Wrote” and there has been a subtle change to “Chris’ Blog with Lots of Links to Stuff Chris Wrote Elsewhere”.

    I don’t think anyone really thinks there’s anything wrong with Chris focusing on paid work at Heavy, Comics Alliance, etc. However, with just about everything being elsewhere, this particular blog does have a bit of an identity crisis at hand.

    It seems like there are a few basic options…

    1.) Fold up The ISB and focus on work elsewhere.

    2.) Continue to use The ISB as a combination links to all of the stuff that can be found elsewhere, and the rare original content.

    3.) Stop posting links to other content, and use The ISB only for the rare original content that appears here.

    4.) Use the ISB for the original content, plus occasional links only to the best of the stuff found elsewhere.

    The choice is clearly with Chris. It’s his blog. I think Nico seems to be suggesting that Option 2 is pretty boring, which is something I’m sure other readers– and Chris– have probably considered already.

    To Chris: Keep up the good work, whatever you decide. I personally don’t normally read The ISB, since I already find out about everything you do by following you on Twitter, listening to Ajax, and regularly reading Comics Alliance.

  30. For someone who has written web content for fourteen years, Nico seems to have no clue how freelancing works. Then again, her “web content” might just be Spider-Man and Batman slash fiction.

  31. My personal take is that while part of me misses segments that used to appear more regularly on the ISB than they do now (or no longer appear, in the case of The Week in Ink), I find that I can’t complain too much about free content as a baseline position. And more specifically, Chris’ job at Comics Alliance allows him more time to write than he had in while he was working in the comic book shop, without depriving him of comic book access. He usually posts at least 2 articles every weekday on Comics Alliance, and he used to only do 1 post a day on the ISB-sometimes less.

    It is a little annoying to see a lot of new posts on the ISB that are just linking to his Comics Alliance work, since I still wonder if it’s new content, and then it’s an article I’ve already read thanks to his Twitter links (or just checking Comics Alliance on my own). But it wouldn’t be an improvement if the ISB mostly lay fallow, and a month’s worth of posts was all the Many Emotions of Batman and Wrestler Wisdom.

    To sum up, I do miss when Mr. Sims posted his original content directly on the ISB. But I think that what he does now is just as funny, and more frequent, and should be taken as a good thing overall.

  32. So, if I understand this argument, people are pissed off about reading a Batman joke and a quote from a wrassler every week, and clicking a link otherwise? And instead of following Chris’ Twitter feed, where he posts a link to nearly everything he does, complain about it in the comments?

    I’m sorry I asked for the return of Big Ups.

  33. Hey Chris, congrats on the success you’ve had over the last year! You and Euge were talking about all the changes in a recent WRA and seems to me most of it has been positive stuff. You two also seem like pretty decent, hard working guys and all that good has been well earned!