Prepared with commentary by Maplestrip

← Last week's report – Next week's report →

Syria: A Wrestling Ring

Confusion abound this week. That our readers can't differentiate between TH1RTEEN R3ASONS WHY (#2) and TH1RTEEN R3ASONS WHY (#3) is the least of our worries. When a whole country is unsure if an actor like Vinod Khanna (#16) is still alive or not, it starts to become an issue. The kind of confusion that is currently happening in Syria (#25) is just too much. Whether Donald Trump (#24) should have fired Tomahawks (#7) at Bashar al-Assad's (#8) country is practically unknowable, as it's unclear if the April 4 attack was intended to release sarin (#11). Perhaps it was just as random as the Lake Nyos disaster (#18)?

Meanwhile, I'm not even sure if John Cena's (#12) proposal to Nikki Bella (#14) was the real deal. The nice thing about professional wrestling is, however, that it allows you to forget about the confusions of the real world. The feuds presented at WrestleMania 33 (#1) may be similar to those being fought out in the Syrian Civil War (#20), but at least there was no collateral damage during the matches between The Undertaker (#4) and Roman Reigns. Surprises are only fun when there are no lives at stake...

For the week of April 2 to 8, 2017, the 25 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the WP:5000 report were:

Rank	Article	Class	Views	Image	Notes
1	WrestleMania 33		2,332,911		It's not that I have a dislike of professional wrestling. It's just that basically my only exposure to it is through American fictional television series. Every comedy show has its pro wrestling episode, after all. I did watch a match or two of pro wrestling a few months ago, just to see what it is all about. These people are incredible acrobats, so I'm not surprised that the art is as popular as it is. WrestleMania 33 took place on April 2, just at the start of this week, and because of that, this is its second week in a row where it has the top spot. Skimming through the article, I wonder if MOS:PLOT should apply to pro wrestling...
2	13 Reasons Why		1,612,409		Yet another US Netflix series. The thirteen episodes of TH1RTEEN R3ASONS WHY were released on Netflix on March 31 and has clearly spurred a lot of interest since. Its plot revolves around a shy nerd, played by Dylan Minnette (pictured) (#23), who receives an elaborate series of video suicide notes from a classmate who recently passed away.
3	Thirteen Reasons Why		1,579,828		The novel on which #2 is based is also stylized as "TH1RTEEN R3ASONS WHY", so I am sure many people landed here while looking for the streamable series. Jay Asher's (pictured) book was a New York Times best-seller back in 2011 and has won various young adult-specific rewards before then, so it was due for somekind of adaptation.
4	The Undertaker		1,275,605		Apparently one of the greatest WWE wrestlers ever, this beast of a man (damn, does he look cool in pictures) has been in a feud with Roman Reigns. He was eliminated by Reigns at Royal Rumble 2017, but had a chance to get back at him during last week's WrestleMania event (#1). However, The Undertaker lost again... Embodying the rule of cool, The Undertaker left his gloves in the center of the ring, kissed his wife Michelle McCool, and walked off into the sunset.
5	Don Rickles		937,162		This 90-year old actor passed away on April 6. You may know him from Run Silent, Run Deep and Kelly's Heroes, or perhaps the voice of Mr. Potato Head in Toy Story. Good career, he will be missed.
6	Fazlur Rahman Khan		844,712		This Bangladeshi-American structural engineer and architect was honored with a Google Doodle this week. You could perhaps say he invented the modern sky scraper, being hailed the "father of tubular designs" for high-rises. Khan also pioneered computer-aided design, and I can't overstate how much impact that has had on structural design. It is a name to remember. Khan died of a heart attack at the age of 52 in 1982...
7	Tomahawk (missile)		825,491		On April 7, Donald Trump (#24) ordered for a missile strike on the Shayrat Airbase in direct response to the Khan Shaykhun chemical attack on April 4. At least 16 people were killed by the attack, among which nine civilians. Russia isn't happy, the US Congress has mixed feelings, Turkey and the Kurds supported the strike (as does most of Europe), and ISIL may take advantage of the chaos. As for the 59 Tomahawk missiles used in the attack? Well, for those who are interested: they carry a load of 1,000 pounds (450 kg) of high explosive and cost $1.87 million USD each.
8	Bashar al-Assad		728,853		The President of Syria and commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces may or may not have directly ordered the above-mentioned chemical attack that killed at least 74 people, but he is definitely held accountable for it. The United States government lost interest in trying to force him out of power, but Trump's policy has changed in the past week.
9	Deaths in 2017		661,455		Wikipedia readers continue to keep an eye on the list of those no longer with us. Though interest hasn't decreased by much, the list appears six places lower on a the list, which shows that things have picked up again.
10	Lali Espósito		660,945		Interest in this Argentine pop diva has increased greatly in the past week, both on Spanish and English Wikipedia. What spurred this surge of interest? Using my Google Translate skills on Google News articles, it seems like Espósito has been touring Europe. Mobile view counts are low, so there may be something sneaky going on...
11	Sarin		642,587		This may be my least favorite article to see pop up on this list. The Khan Shaykhun chemical attack shows how deadly this substance can be.
12	John Cena		582,330		This pro-wrestler, who I only know about because of a dank meme, started a feud with The Miz. Cena defeated The Miz and his wife Maryse Ouellet in a tag team match, together with his girlfriend Nikki Bella (#14). Afterwards, Cena proposed to his girlfriend, which I think is real, but I am not sure how Wikipedia handles kayfabe. It seems like the two are engaged now, anyway.
13	Gonzaga University		561,661		Apparently it's now "Gonzaga University Month"? To back up a little, Gonzaga University is a Catholic school in Spokane, Washington with a good track record of notable basketball player alumni. Gonzaga made it to second place in this year's NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament, which is the peak of college basketball. Interest in the article died off unusually quickly, which makes me suspicious, but I give it the benefit of the doubt.
14	Nikki Bella		555,745		The fiancé of John Cena (#12) is taking some time off to recover from a neck injury.
15	Ghost in the Shell (2017 film)		553,550		I fairly recently decided to watch the 1995 film so I wouldn't have to worry about spoilers. Sadly, I have found that I really dislike Oshii Mamoru's directing style, so like with Angel's Egg and The Sky Crawlers, didn't enjoy it much. Watching the trailer of the reboot, it seems like Rupert Sanders hasn't been improving much. Reception of the new film has been mixed, so you're probably better off just reading the manga.
16	Vinod Khanna		553,332		This Indian actor was admitted into a hospital on March 31 due to severe dehydration. An image showing the actor in bad shape went viral, culminating to the Bharatiya Janata Party observing a two-minute silence to pay respect to the actor at the end of the week. However, Khanna is very much alive and steadily improving. I hope the 70-year old actor will recover from the rumors.
17	The Walking Dead (season 7)		531,920		The finale of the seventh season of the The Walking Dead TV series aired on April 2. Directed by Greg Nicotero (pictured), the episode was watched by over 11 million people. I'll stick with the video game series myself.
18	Lake Nyos disaster		517,997		I actually still remember the first time I heard of the Lake Nyos disaster, as a Dutch reporter went back to Cameroon nearly forty years later to ask the population how life has gone on. It never really did. When 1,700 people die overnight... Anyway, as you may have expected, interest rose due to a Reddit thread.
19	Beauty and the Beast (2017 film)		512,806		The live action remake of the classic Beauty and the Beast fairy tale stars Emma Watson and Dan Stevens, so I'd be happy to watch the film just so I can look at these two gorgeous people. Though I assume Stevens wouldn't look like himself for most of the feature...
20	Syrian Civil War		481,705		Oh boy, it's a good time to try to get an understanding of the many parties involved with the Syrian Civil War. The war is fought between the Russian-backed Syrian government (red), the US-backed Kurds (yellow), various independent Syrian rebels (among which the Free Syrian Army and Tahrir al-Sham) (green), ISIL (grey), and there's some prodding from Russia-backed Turkey (north of Syria). It's a mess. I don't think anyone could really understand what's going on here. It's starting to look like somekind of powerstruggle between the US and Russia to me, though...
21	Ox		461,726		Today I learned that an ox is simply a steer or bull that has been taught to pull a plow. It's not actually a separate species of cattle. That's interesting!
22	Prison Break (season 5)		455,412		Eight years after the season 4 finale, Prison Break is back! I suppose I could say Prison Break is part of my childhood, but I have fairly little interest in seeing its story continue. I never really cared about the overarching narrative: I just liked watching the characters plan and execute their escapes. Those cliffhangers are intense! The new season, which premiered on April 4, features the same cast as the original series (pictured) - I wonder how they ended up in jail this time.
23	Dylan Minnette		435,390		This 20-year old actor plays Clay Jensen role in 13 Reasons Why (#2). apparently, I am "not wrong for having a crush on him" because he was scouted in Chicago and... he has a girlfriend. I am confused by the logic of this pop culture website.
24	Donald Trump		406,762		Besides the obvious missile strike (#7) he ordered, US president Donald Trump has been in the news for signing a resolution to allow Internet Service Providers to sell their customer's Internet history, removing Steve Bannon from the National Security Council, meeting with King Abdullah II (pictured), and meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping, among many other things.
25	Syria		397,882		What should I even say of Syria? Its political situation has been unstable, to say the least, since the Arab Spring. Since 2011, the only thing you can really talk about when it comes to Syria is its civil war (#20). Over a 150,000 people having been killed thus far, many families have been ripped apart, and millions of people have fled to neighboring countries. The picture I selected was taken in December last year, after the Syrian government captured Aleppo from rebel forces.

Exclusions

• This list excludes the Wikipedia main page, non-article pages (such as redlinks), and anomalous entries (such as DDoS attacks or likely automated views). Since mobile view data became available to the Report in October 2014, we exclude articles that have almost no mobile views (5–6% or less) or almost all mobile views (94–95% or more) because they are very likely to be automated views based on our experience and research of the issue. Please feel free to discuss any removal on the talk page if you wish.
• As others have done before me, I've decided to exclude XXX (film series) and XXX, as there's still no reason for them to be here. I've also excluded Earth, due to its low mobile view count.

Note: If you came here from the Signpost article, please take any discussion of exclusions to this article's talk page.