Another staged assassination attempt happened and unfortunately, no one of less importance died. Still, a lot of dumb shit has happened in the past month as it does get hard to keep up with what is really going on as I no longer trust the news with anything these days. I go to Reddit and whatever Yahoo and Google posts from whatever credible news publications are saying. Still, it is not enough as I have been spending a lot of time at home not really doing anything except re-watch a few James Bond movies. Yet, I feel relaxed about it as it took off a lot of pressure in keeping up with new releases and anything else I have not seen. Plus, I have shifted my focus on a couple of things while also paying attention to the Atlanta Braves who are starting this baseball season doing well as they have won over 20 games so far and have not lost a series. Then there are the Atlanta Hawks who were winning 2 games to 1 against the New York Knicks only to get eliminated by the time I post this.
Being away from the world of film has made me relax a bit as one of the things I am anticipating for although to a less degree than previous events from the past, which is the FIFA World Cup. Raised on soccer for much of my life as I went to the 1982 World Cup in Spain when I was only a year old as I am sure it was exciting. This year should be exciting except for the fact that things here in the U.S. are horrible with a country seriously divided while Mexico is going through their own issues right now. The other thing about this year’s World Cup that has intrigued me is not just in who will be at the Cup, but who is not at the World Cup. Earlier this month saw a shocking event in a qualifying game between Italy and Bosnia-Herzegovina where the latter beat Italy in penalties and for the third time in a row. Italy has failed to qualify for the World Cup as I am in shock that this happened. Yet, I realized that I should not have been shocked considering the state of Italian football and what I learned was even more shocking.
At the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Italy won the whole thing yet there was a scandal at that time that would overshadow their victory and this recent failure to qualify has the country and many in the world wonder how this happened. It all goes back to the 2006 FIFA World Cup and Italy’s stubbornness to evolve in the game where after being eliminated in the group stage at the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Legendary Italian player Roberto Baggio came to Italy’s football federation where he spent a lot of time researching and going to various individuals to see what is wrong as well as what other European countries are doing. Spain, Germany, France, and England are among these countries that not only has top leagues in Europe that is worth a lot of money but also strong youth leagues that are accessible to everyone as well as teaching kids the fundamentals of the game. In 2011, Baggio created a 900-page report on how to fix Italian football, but the federation ignored him while the Italian press also were dismissive of him as he would leave the federation a few years later.
In 2021, the famed Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho made a return to Italy to coach Roma having previously coached Inter Milan in the late 2000s to great success. Upon coaching Roma, he was shocked by not just the state of Italian football but also its aging infrastructures, the lack of Italian football players in favor of foreign players in Serie A, and the league itself. Despite his success with Roma, he would be fired in 2024. This loss against Bosnia-Herzegovina proved that both Baggio and Mourinho were right about Italy as they now face the threat of losing the chance to the host the 2032 Euro Cup with Turkey.
Italy’s decline was a revelation into what has happened to its soccer program and failure to evolve with the game, yet I found myself not finished into looking at what else is happening in relation to the World Cup. That led me to what is happening in Brazil as I still remember the infamous game against Germany at the 2014 World Cup where Brazil got destroyed by the Germany 7-1 at the semi-final. What I did not realize is that Brazil for years has lost their identity where the team are going to be at this year’s World Cup but not as contenders. Brazil’s decline is due to their homegrown players going to Europe and play a more European style as opposed to the looseness and creativity that many of their players had done in the past. Youth academies in Brazil are more polished than in the past where kids would play in broken concrete, dirt fields, and other things as they would figure things out in their playing. Now, kids are being forced to play a certain way as well as learn tactics at an early age which is not the way to get kids into a game.
Right now, I have Argentina, France, Spain, and Croatia as my top 4 picks to win the World Cup though I do not feel excited about the event as tickets are enormously expensive. Speaking of expensive ticket prices, WrestleMania 42 happened again in Las Vegas, and they did not sell as well as they wanted in comparison to the previous year despite Pat Magafee’s attempt to get ticket prices at 25% off. Yet, this is not in WWE’s hands for why ticket prices have been extremely expensive as it comes from their parent company TKO and its CEO Ari Emmanuel. Their involvement in some of the creative decisions for WWE has been horrendous where they brought in Magafee and Belly Flop into the main event of the first night of WrestleMania 42 between Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton for the Undisputed WWE Championship. The first night of WrestleMania 42 was not well-received though the 2nd night was much better thanks to a solid main event between CM Punk and Roman Reigns for the WWE World Championship, Oba Femi destroying Brock Lesnar into retirement, and Rhea Ripley vs. Jade Cargill for the WWE Women’s Smackdown Championship.
Still, WWE is going through a mess ever since they sold the company to TKO a few years ago as fans have become restless while these fans deserve the shit they cheer for since some of them were chanting “thank you Vince” during the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony during Stephanie McMahon-Levesque’s speech during her own induction. There are very few positives in the company but the number of ads during WrestleMania that overshadowed the event has turned people off. With next year’s WrestleMania coming to Saudi Arabia, this serves as a golden opportunity for AEW to create something to fulfill wrestling fans who feel spurned by WWE. AEW is going through its own resurgence following a troubled period from 2022 to 2024 despite their own uncertainty in relation to the Skydance-Warner Discovery merger. Still, AEW has managed to win over fans while maintaining strong relationships with other wrestling organizations such as New Japan Pro Wrestling and CMLL in Mexico as the latter company is the hottest wrestling company in the world.
In the month of April 2026, I saw a total of six films in one first-timer and 5 re-watches. Not a bad month to be honest with you as I am surprised that I had the time to watch some of these films.
Monthly Mini-Review
Godard in Fragments
While I have still yet to see the feature film work of Kogonada, I have however had seen a few of his video essays. This one on the works of Jean-Luc Godard in French New Wave period is one of his finest experimental shorts. Notably as it uses footage from all those films from A bout de souffle to Week-end in a collage that plays into the many themes that Godard did in his work at that time. It is this kaleidoscopic short that really play into Godard’s brilliance at that time and how innovative he was in reinventing film language even though the stuff he did post-New Wave are still interesting.
Well, that is all for April 2026. I have no idea what I will do next month though I am tempted to see The Mandalorian and Grogu. Other than that, I have no idea though I prefer not to know what I will do. Before I bid adieu, I must acknowledge on those who have passed away this month including David Allen Coe, Alan Osmond of the Osmonds, Dave Mason of Traffic and Fleetwood Mac, WCW wrestler Van Hammer, comic book writer Gerry Conway, film sound mixer Steve Maslow, comic writer Len Strazewski, film director Adolfo Aristarain, Nedra Talley of the Ronettes, actor Matt DeCaro, Patrick Muldoon, Tony Wilson of Hot Chocolate, production designer Dean Tavoularis, Ricardo de Pascual of El Chavo del Ocho, Nathalie Baye, BBC Radio 1 deejay Andy Kershaw, songwriter Don Schiltz, actress Joy Harmon, author Ian Watson, actor John Nolan, Sid Krofft, actor Mario Adorf, music producer Don Landee, and the legendary hip-hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa. Until then, this is thevoid99 signing off…
© thevoid99 2026
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