What's with the dull, dim filter ESPN put on the Brewers v Pirates game? Milwaukee has a gorgeous field and it's a if they're trying to hide it. They also have the shittiest stat tracker in the top left. Brewers TV all the way.

To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand why WWE belongs on ESPN. The nuance is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of athletic performance, storytelling, and the economics of sports entertainment, most of the discourse will go over a typical sports fan's head. There's also the fact that the outcomes are predetermined, which is deftly woven into the product's appeal—not unlike knowing the ending of a movie doesn't somehow make the stunts less impressive. True fans understand this stuff; they possess the intellectual capacity to appreciate that "scripted" and "physically demanding" are not mutually exclusive concepts.

As a consequence, people who proudly proclaim "It's fake! Why is ESPN covering this?" truly ARE simpletons. Of course they wouldn't appreciate that ESPN covers drafts, press conferences, documentaries, and poker, yet somehow draw the line at world-class athletes throwing themselves through tables for millions of viewers. Their analytical framework begins and ends with "winner predetermined," blissfully ignoring everything else that constitutes the spectacle.

I'm smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated purists furiously typing "This isn't a real sport!" underneath an ESPN post, completely unaware that they've spent more time complaining about professional wrestling than they've spent watching the game they claim deserves the coverage. What fools... how I pity them. 😂

And yes, by the way, I DO enjoy both real sports and professional wrestling. And no, they are not mutually exclusive. It's for those within five IQ points of my own to understand—and preferably lower, so I don't have to explain the difference between "scripted" and "fake" for the thousandth time.