You can find the Bad Dog Comedy Club and Bar on the boundary between the Christie Pits neighborhood and Little Italy in Toronto, with Koreatown slightly to the east. As you walk down the block you’ll pass a dry cleaners, an Ethiopean restaurant, a McDonalds, an income tax center, Ali Baba’s Middle Eastern Foods, a Minimart, and a sushi restaurant, all jumbled and jostling together. The comedy club itself is tucked above a post office,…
Author: J.J. McGee
I'm an American expat who lives in Japan and spends most of my free time being painfully earnest about narrative, character development, and slippage between kayfabe and reality in wrestling.
Part 5 and conclusion of the Road to R-Evolution: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 On November 25, 2019, almost five years after his WWE debut, Kevin Owens cut a promo on Seth Rollins where he summarized his bedrock continuity across the years: “I have known who I am since the moment I first laced up a pair of wrestling boots, twenty years ago!” he said, looking into the camera–not just at Rollins, but at…
Part 4 of the Road to R-Evolution: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Kevin uploads a new episode of his Weekend Escapades web series on January 1, 2014, covering the end of one year and the beginning of the next. It features the usual shenanigans: Kevin blearily explaining his next few shows in the pre-dawn dimness, filming Colt Cabana taking a shower, wandering around Chicago in the dark, admiring the Christmas lights of Muncie Indiana. Near…
[Content warning for discussions of suicidal ideation.] In The Empire Strikes Back, Luke Skywalker arrives on Dagobah to begin his Jedi training. We see him meet Yoda, see him lifting objects and being lectured by his teacher, see him confront the apparition of Darth Vader. It’s implied that he’s on the planet for a month, maybe two. All this goes by in about 30 minutes on the screen; two months of Luke’s life compressed into…
It’s August, 2015, and it’s the go-home show before TakeOver: Brooklyn, the very first TakeOver to be held outside of Full Sail University. Kevin Owens–who will be gunning for Finn Balor’s title one last time before heading off to the main roster–comes to the ring to hype the match, and when he mentions Brooklyn, the Full Sail crowd erupts into boos and “Brooklyn sucks” chants. They’ve always been able to witness TakeOvers, the payoffs to…
Part 3 of the Road to R-Evolution: Part 1 | Part 2 When people talk to me about the wrestlers they love, one of the emotions they mention over and over is pride: a deep, suffusing pride. “When he looks out at the audience chanting for him and his face lights up, I just feel so proud of him.” “When she walks to the ring with that swagger, I’m just so proud.” “When they held…
(Part 2 of a series putting together Sami and Kevin’s timelines in 2013-2014: Part 1 is here). Putting together the beginnings of Kevin and El Generico’s story is like assembling a crazy quilt: scraps of cloth in a dozen different colors and shapes that sometimes don’t fit together quite right anymore because some of the pieces have gone missing. So many snippets and loose ends, such a challenge to piece them together. 2013-2014 are a…
Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens are going to be back in action again in the next few months, and everything is going to be great. That’s what Kevin thinks, at least, and we know because he’s told us so. When Sami Zayn went out with injuries to both of his shoulders in May 2018, Kevin spent the next five months reminding us of his best friend, Sami Zayn over and over again. If Sami were…
This is a story about one of the greatest feuds and rivalries in wrestling, the story of the relationship between a man and one who hurt him so deeply he carried the grudge like a live coal for years until he could achieve his bitter vengeance. It’s the tale of a relationship full of abuse and degradation, leading to utter annihilation. It’s a story of hatred and revenge. Strange as this may sound, it may…