samijey + small touches

I feel attacked and it's just a picture...

#basically this moment summed up in a nutshell:

"The struggle in the ring, the human struggle of the man in the arena whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who if he fails, fails daring greatly. Questions are answered in the arena"

the opening to this match is very special to me (the whole match is very good at least in my opinion); things i noted:

the lighting - so sick how for the first portion there's a notable difference between how shawn has the spotlight on him (presentation/entrance purposes, but also illuminates him as a bright "babyface" figure - the connotations are very hopeful and exciting for the crowd) and the placement of the shadows on hunter make him feel more deep within the cage itself (it feels very instinctually predatorial - especially given the eye contact and pacing in the first portion); hunter's placement within the cage (back to the wall in a way that sizes up the area) also screams "animal that has adapted to its environment".

the difference in eye contact - shawn takes his time getting to the ring, and he spends a lot of moments posturing for the crowd, his attention kind of scattered in multiple places (usual for him); hunter maintains his eye contact solely on shawn, tying in to how intrinsically linked he is to him, regardless of whether he likes it or not. shawn has a characteristic enthralling pull to him, and this is something that hunter has known for the entirety of his time here (which, for sake of kayfabe, is the entirety of his existence, from the start in which he breathed life into the character/gimmick. inadvertently, this makes shawn some level of a figurehead in his mind. this is coupled with the ceremonious lighting and spectacle of shawn's entrance here) - it should be noted too how the shadows let up and hunter is flushed with light the minute shawn steps into the ring with him. (to me, this just seems like pulling back the curtains and allowing for some level of intimate truth to be shared between them through the violence of the match; shawn drinks up hunter's attention on him, and begins to share the glance.) the cage is lowered and there is a level of separation just for them, that is doubled through those watching through the camera lens. hunter states how much he enjoys HIAC matches, and i feel that it couples with his own strange intensities - which are increased during his rivalry with shawn -> it always had the feeling of a man obsessively trying to kill their own personal deity, with the undercurrent of two lovers scorned in different ways.

of course, as it is with all wrestling matches that have heavy chemistry among its participants, there's the feeling of deep-rooted sentiment and intimacy within the violence and physicality. i love how drawn out the introduction is (even after shawn makes it to the ring and the cage is lowered/bell is rung, they still stare at each other for a good while) and i haven't yet seen one similar to this (no promo, no talking, no nothing) - but, there probably are others out there

Moon over the Parthenon temple on the Acropolis of Athens, Greece.

loved the contrast between seth's sheer chaotic joy at winning the gold in 2015 and the much more? sober acceptance of responsibility in 2023

Diesel vs Bret for Survivor Series 1995

wwedeutschland: Respect 🤝

WWE Hall of Fame 2024

A new story begins! ✨

Day 59 of posting hook photos

situation ongoing..