Rene Dupree sues WWE over royalties from WWE Network:

http://www.sescoops.com/wwe-sued-by-rene-dupree-over-potential-wwe-network-royalties/

Dupree is attempting a class action suit hoping to get paid for WWE using his likeness on the WWE Network. He claims language in his 2003 contract entitles him to royalties from the network. Jerry McDevitt claims that Dupree signed a contract in 2011 with this clause and failed to tell his lawyers:

quote:

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7.5 No Royalties Paid to WRESTLER. Except as specifically set forth in Section 7.1 through 7.3 above, WRESTLER shall not be eligible for any payment or royalties with respect to any other goods, services or otherwise including without limitation to the following: television license fees; television subscription fees; internet subscription fees; subscription video on demand fees; magazine subscription fees and/or advertising; and/or distribution fees of any kind paid to PROMOTER by any entity in connection with the exploitation of the Intellectual Property.

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Plus he's French too. Sue former employer, now have less of a chance of any return or HOF induction than the Heartthrobs or the Basham Brothers do. Shoulda just stuck with your hoppy-hop victory dance, Rene*.

* can't have two Rene's in the company anyway, even if one's a boy and one's a girl; fans might get confused something something something something something

According to the latest issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, WWE Fastlane 2016, which was the lead-in pay-per-view for this year's WrestleMania 32 event, drew only 43,000 buys -- 18,000 in North America and 25,000 outside of North America.

The 43,000 figure would make Fastlane the least-ordered pay-per-view event in WWE history.

http://rajah.com/node/51535

👆🏽 buy rates?

With the network, I'm surprised there is still such a thing. Doesn't feel overly compelling.

Kinda what I was thinking. I was surprised by the paltry number outside of the US, but then again I'm not entirely sure how many countries they've rolled The Network out in at this point. If most of their primary overseas markets have it at this point then there obviously isn't any cause for alarm.

Given that it was WWE's previous holder of such an ignominious "honor" I wonder how many buys December To Dismember would've done if The Network was around 10 (Jesus, 10!?) years ago? According to Wiki The event did 90k in buys, 55k of it domestically and was the lowest bought PPV until the introduction of The Network, which is to be expected. Any math whizzes out there want to posit a theory?

Yeah, this one feels like a whole lot of nothing....

Basically Fast Lane did 46k buys in 2015... so the drop to 43k really isn't that big of a deal. This is down from 2014's Elimination Chamber that Fast Lane replaced, which did 183k buys.

The Royal Rumble... definitely one of the big PPV's for the WWE saw it's 2014 number of 467k PPV buy rate drop to 145k.

Even the big whale of PPV's; Wrestlemania, dropped from 690k in 2014 (WM30) to 259k in 2015.... Except the combined numbers for the 2015 WM31 saw a combined network and PPV purchases come in at a staggering 1.326 million... UP from 2014's 1.185 million purchases.

The network launched in February 2014 in the U.S. and for all intents and purposes Wrestelmania 30 was the first PPV to show on the network, which helps explain such a steep drop off for the Rumble and Fastlane from 2014 to 2015. It's important to note that the WWE has upwards of 1.5 million paying network subscribers, with another 340k that signed up for the free offering of this years wrestlemania....

So bottom line.... 43k people used an out-dated model to consume WWE content, but upwards of 1.84 million people watched Fastlane in addition to that 43k.... I'm sure the WWE has the means to tell how many people are watching what on the network, and it's not likely they'll share that info, but bottom line is about 1.5 million people paid money to them whether they watched Fastlane or not.

I mean another way of looking at it is that in 2015 the WWE reported $9 million in earnings for the first QUARTER from PPV earnings..... Under the network model they are pulling in about $15 million PER MONTH.

So "LOWEST PPV EVER" must make for a more click bait worthy headline than "WWE NETWORK A SUCCESS".

Here's where I got some of the numbers from:
http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2015/0430/592878/wwe-pay-per-view-buys-for-the-royal-rumble/

Flash just killed it

quote:

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Originally posted by CM Crunk

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Ah thanks guys; I really just stole what was in that link and cobbled it together with the recently reported network enrollment figures.... but none the less, thanks for the love.

Not odd at all in that the wrestling "news" media is completely ignoring what Vince himself said at a corporate conference call just over a month ago, in that ratings and buy-rates are no where near as important as they used to be. Revenues are significantly up, thanks almost entirely to the Network, so the weekly/monthly ratings stats mean fuck all now. Maybe the newsboys will catch up on it someday, that a Neilsen box installed in an Iowa farmhouse or in a Florida retiree's condo apartment doesn't represent jack-shit anymore. Yeah, it was also pretty cool back in the day when a single-piston-engine propeller-driven fighter plane could hit 500 mph in a dive. Doesn't mean anything when a dual-engine fighter jet travels at Mach 1.5 as it's basic cruising speed.

* someone help Gambit re-size his av. the lovely Alexa is borking the board size.

[Edited on 4/9/2016 by Paddlefoot]

I don't know if I'd go so far as to say that ratings mean shit.... they still make a crap load of money off of selling Raw and Smackdown around the world, and the better the ratings, the more money it makes.

While I'm sure we'll one day see the Raw replays drop down to a week or so, in lieu of the current month wait before it get's uploaded to the network, having those shows out there is basically a money making commercial for the network.... as while there'd be nothing stopping them from going live with Raw on the network and still selling the show.... it likely wouldn't mean as much money coming in anymore as why watch it on TV with commercials when you could watch it on the network relatively ad free.

Plus; if they stopped using Raw/Smackdown to sell the network, it would mean that they'd have to put a crazy amount of money into advertising the network otherwise in order to grow.... might be a bit tougher to snag those non-wrestling fans to sign up for something on a chance, than it is to hook them when they flick through the channels and get hooked that way.... bonus, someone is paying you for your shows.

PPV buy rates are really just gravy at this point (43k buys isn't nothing after all); so agreed they are pretty much a thing of the past.

I think the WWE Network is the way forward, and they will slowly move more and more across to it - the first thing they may do is try to monetize NXT a bit more by putting just 1 or 2 adverts in the first run version, so that if you want to watch it pretty much live, you can't skip it. It's advertising during live sports that keeps the TV industry going these days, and I think it is only a matter of time before you can get ESPN as a stand alone set of channels in an over the top network.

You can already get the UK top tier sports channels through an over the top app for playstation, roku etc - so if say there were two big games on any one day you wanted to watch, you could buy a 24 hour pass, if its a big week you can get a 7 day pass etc - thats for about 6 sports channels combined, and if you're a casual viewer its a great way to dip in and out of stuff, and I think ESPN will go that way sooner rather than later too.

Then you have the issue that NBC are probably currently concerned about as far as Raw goes, and whoever has the TV rights as far as NFL goes - what if they want to break away? What if they do want to move Raw, Smackdown etc all to the network, and keep the smaller advertising revenue for themselves? They already have SOME adverts on the network, so its not impossible they'll go this route.

There was an interesting article on this the other day in the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/09/sports/football/the-nfl-has-seen-the-future-and-it-is-wrestling.html?_r=0

WWE, leading the way again - first it was PPV, now it's this...

quote:

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Originally posted by Gobshite
WWE, leading the way again - first it was PPV, now it's this...

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I think the man's personality will overshadow his accomplishments similar to Richard Branson. He'll be remembered more as the guy who did an unthinkable amount of things for a man of his status and age all in the name of providing entertainment to his audience along with so many rumors and myth surrounding his personal life.

When Vince eventually dies (and the scenario involves him lying in a hospital bed with a doctor dropping his arm three times to check hes dead) i think there will be a deluge of stories about him.

^ Best funeral ever. THIS IS AWESOME! chant builds up steam in the back pews of the church.

If he dies in a way that doesn't involve an exploding limo, then his body needs to be put in a limo and then said limo explodes as the finale to his funeral. Or alternately the hearse bearing his coffin explodes en transit from the memorial to the burial. All covered on the WWE Network of course.

"If you missed the explosive finale to Vince McMahon's funeral, you can catch the replay on the WWE Network. Not a subscriber? No worries. It's just $9.99 a month, and if you're a first time subscriber you get your first month free."

Allowing his death to become sports entertainment and drive network subscriptions is how Vince would want it. You know it's true.

[Edited on 4-10-2016 by williamssl]

You know Vince is forward thinking and money driven enough that it would not surprise me if the guy already has an autobiography, and dozens of hours of candid on screen thoughts recorded just waiting for a year to the day after he dies to go to print.

Ah hell, who are we kidding; Vince has probably found a way to download his consciousness into some kind of clone body, or at least recorded literally thousands of "decisions" that are set to be played for countless possibilities... yeah it'll be dated thoughts on what makes for a good champion, but when has that stopped Vince?

Honestly though, dude's looking old.... Could probably still kick most of our asses, but the last few years have seen some changes in him.

quote:

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Originally posted by Foxcalibur
* Addendum: I could totally see Rowan and Strowman doing a wrestling take on Tucker & Dale vs. Evil. Everyone is terrified of them, but they're actually perfectly decent dudes. Rowan is even really smart and well-spoken.

---

� She has no idea what WWE is doing with her character. She doesn�t know if she�s a heel or a face and doesn�t know if she�ll be used at RAW tomorrow.

� If she could wrestle an intergender match against any man on the WWE roster, it would be Seth Rollins. She also said she�d like to work with Dean Ambrose and the Wyatt Family.

� She's a fan of the new Women's Championship belt.

� If she could change anything about the Women�s Division, she said she�d have more storytelling behind the matches. She let fans know that this will be changing soon and �there are storylines coming that you guys will see.�

� Her favorite women to work with are Sasha Banks, Nikki Bella, Emma and AJ Lee.

HOLY SHIT, @NickJacksonYB!!! #NJPW #njattack pic.twitter.com/M0BnwI8D2Z

— LARIATOOOOO!!! (@SenorLARIATO) April 10, 2016

皆さんが心配してるコーディこんな感 376;でした #njattack pic.twitter.com/3OOdauHpHj

— 挨 (@timeofai) April 10, 2016

If you believe in GOD please pray for @Cody_Hall1 . He was injured last night at a NJPW show https://t.co/3SVtgz46C4

— Scott Hall (@SCOTTHALLNWO) April 10, 2016

We just left the hospital. @Cody_Hall1 is going to be okay. No fractures. No concussion. But he's pretty banged up. He sends his love.

— The Young Bucks (@MattJackson13) April 10, 2016

* some ambiguity in his comments but it looks like Bobby Roode is going to NXT

http://www.dailywrestlingnews.com/update-on-bobby-roodes-wwe-status-roode-comments/

quote:

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Originally posted by Flash
Vince has probably found a way to download his consciousness into some kind of clone body

---

I just want the Undertaker to be in charge of all the funeral arrangements.

Best to keep Kane away from the body though....

Alternatively if Vince were to be cremated. As he is placed into the oven, the entire roster can shout out...



[Edited on 11/4/2016 by Katie Vick killer]

quote:

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Originally posted by Jumbie

Of course, this being WWE, he's probably going to be in Steph's body...

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I'm more concerned with whether or not Dunn's relationship to is Vince is a parasitic one, and if not whether there are any doctors in the Stamford area who would be able/willing to perform a Kuato-ectomy. Y'know, just so they could release him into a river or something. Native habitat and such.

Edit:autocorrect fuckery

[Edited on 4/11/2016 by CM Crunk]

Start the reactor*, Shane!

* and by 'reactor' we really mean the wood chipper we want Bukkky put feet-first in

Shame the ravages of time denied us Bossman dragging Vinces coffin round the cemetery with Shane clinging to it.

quote:

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Originally posted by The Hitcher
Shame the ravages of time denied us Bossman dragging Vinces coffin round the cemetery with Shane clinging to it.

---

quote:

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Originally posted by Paddlefoot
Start the reactor*, Shane!

* and by 'reactor' we really mean the wood chipper we want Bukkky put feet-first in

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quote:

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Originally posted by Paddlefoot
Start the reactor*, Shane!

* and by 'reactor' we really mean the wood chipper we want Bukkky put feet-first in

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Katie Vick killer
Alternatively if Vince were to be cremated. As he is placed him into the oven, the entire roster can shout out...

---

WWE tweeted earlier this morning "BREAKING: Due to overwhelming social media support, @shanemcmahon will once again be in control of #RAW TONIGHT!"

I really hope they're going somewhere with this creatively instead of just having their cake and eating it too and just hoping we won't notice. I know the mantra these days is that wins and losses don't matter but this is getting ridiculous. I'm really hoping that I'm being played here because as it stands right now it seems as if this past Wrestlemania isn't going to mean shit in the long run.

quote:

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Originally posted by CM Crunk
WWE tweeted earlier this morning "BREAKING: Due to overwhelming social media support, @shanemcmahon will once again be in control of #RAW TONIGHT!"

I really hope they're going somewhere with this creatively instead of just having their cake and eating it too and just hoping we won't notice. I know the mantra these days is that wins and losses don't matter but this is getting ridiculous. I'm really hoping that I'm being played here because as it stands right now it seems as if this past Wrestlemania isn't going to mean shit in the long run.

---

quote:

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Originally posted by bigfatgoalie

quote:

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Originally posted by CM Crunk
WWE tweeted earlier this morning "BREAKING: Due to overwhelming social media support, @shanemcmahon will once again be in control of #RAW TONIGHT!"

I really hope they're going somewhere with this creatively instead of just having their cake and eating it too and just hoping we won't notice. I know the mantra these days is that wins and losses don't matter but this is getting ridiculous. I'm really hoping that I'm being played here because as it stands right now it seems as if this past Wrestlemania isn't going to mean shit in the long run.

---

A lot of WrestleManias mean shit in the long run. It's all about creating a Mania moment, and then moving on. Ryder got his moment, but we've moved on to the Miz. There was a solid run of Manias where the main event was the conclusion of a story. Now? Not so much.

---

quote:

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Originally posted by CM Crunk
I suppose you're right, yeah. But it seems like we're moving farther and farther away every year from Mania being the big "season finale" and more just a bloated version of every other show. Hell, think of how many things were undone the very next night?

---

quote:

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Originally posted by Count Zero

quote:

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Originally posted by CM Crunk
I suppose you're right, yeah. But it seems like we're moving farther and farther away every year from Mania being the big "season finale" and more just a bloated version of every other show. Hell, think of how many things were undone the very next night?

---

Thank you. I think you just helped me figure out why I'm mostly dissatisfied with the past couple of WMs. It used to be The Final Act. They figured out what they wanted to have happen at WM, and then wrote backwards from that. The recent trend -does- seem to be "well shit, what's going on now, and how can we get to a WrestleMania Moment from here?". Hopefully this -is- due to the injuries they suffered, but that too is a bit of a problem. They will most-likely-always have "injuries" to "key performers", because that's the nature of the physical-entertainment-business. If you're relying on people to stay healthy, and have to scramble when they're not.. Well, I guess this is what we get?

---

Well, it would be trollishly-funny if he pulled that. Jericho did it for a couple of weeks and it worked. It is possible, however, to end one story and then start another. Other tv shows do it all the time.

Isn't that where the writer dnonkeys come from? "Other tv shows"? It's really hard to tell.

[Edited on 4-11-2016 by Count Zero]

Rene Dupree's lawyer dropped the royalties lawsuit against WWE because his client failed to mention a 2011 contract Rene signed that specifically addressed the topic.

That's one way to unnecessarily torch whatever bridge you might have had:

I'm suing your asses!
Oops - nevermind.



Also, congratulations people! The talk-that-has-its-own-thread has not produced talk here in 5 consecutive days!

quote:

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Originally posted by williamssl

---

That or he's supposed to be using his left hand to do the self-back-pat. Either way, we know of at least 1 wrestler who can't be accused of having OCD. And a bOOard member who can

No wonder he stayed enhancement.

Not a rumor, but Titus O'Neil is going to be on this Friday's 100th episode of Tanked. The episode also apparently features the guys visiting the WWE training facility.

quote:

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Originally posted by CM Crunk
I suppose you're right, yeah. But it seems like we're moving farther and farther away every year from Mania being the big "season finale" and more just a bloated version of every other show. Hell, think of how many things were undone the very next night?

---

* TNA can't afford rent anymore, moving into dad's garage.

http://www.dailywrestlingnews.com/tna-hq-moving-into-the-shoptna-warehouse-soon/

I know this looks like the last edition of #TNAfail, but I don't fault them for this one... things are tight for them, so trimming some of the fat of running two locations is a good move.

What is troubling is that they seem to be surrounded by a few deep pockets, but no one is willing to buy in.... So either they know internally enough that the future is bleak, or there's some conflict over selling themselves off/someone wants to stay in charge.

I'm also surprised that at a time when various sports entities like Fox Sports is looking for cheap live content they keep winding up on fringe channels... that again suggests that maybe someone is hard to work with or doesn't have their act together.

Maybe they'll eventually go full circle and have to set up the ring in Jeff and Jerry's back yard again.



derp dee dee tumblity tumbly derpy dee der derp

quote:

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Originally posted by Flash

I'd almost mirror Summer Slam and Wrestlemania as your two high points.... Make (I think's it's) TLC into KOTR with the winner getting the Summer Slam title shot in a way akin to the Rumble being the kick off of the road to Wrestlemania... they did that once with Billy Gunn I do believe, and while he may not have been everyone's first choice, the idea is still a great one that set's up, furthers, or potentially ends several feud's while building anticipation to your end point.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Flash
I'd almost mirror Summer Slam and Wrestlemania as your two high points.... Make (I think's it's) TLC into KOTR with the winner getting the Summer Slam title shot in a way akin to the Rumble being the kick off of the road to Wrestlemania... they did that once with Billy Gunn I do believe, and while he may not have been everyone's first choice, the idea is still a great one that set's up, furthers, or potentially ends several feud's while building anticipation to your end point.

---

Two are dead, one is insane and the other is a windup toy that only responds to cold hard cash.

Bit of a jinx, old KOTR.

You'd probably have to go back to King BOOKAAAH back in the mid-Aughts to find the last time a KoTR was booked legitimately. Regal was his successor and lined up for a monster push as the arena-lights hating heel GM and reigning King but...unfortunately we all know what happened there.

That aborted Regal push still ranks right up there towards the top of my own personal list of greatest "what-ifs" during my near-lifetime of wrestling fandom.

quote:

---

Originally posted by williamssl
Rene Dupree's lawyer dropped the royalties lawsuit against WWE because his client failed to mention a 2011 contract Rene signed that specifically addressed the topic.

That's one way to unnecessarily torch whatever bridge you might have had:

I'm suing your asses!
Oops - nevermind.

---

A NEW LEGAL CHALLENGE HAS ENTERED THE RING

Shane-O is being sued over YOD Securities trading. I'd be lying if I said I understood it beyond it being about the money. Moneymoneymoneymoneymoney dolla dolla https://www.scribd.com/doc/308052456/YOD-Shane-McMahon-Lawsuit

quote:

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Originally posted by CM Crunk
That aborted Regal push still ranks right up there towards the top of my own personal list of greatest "what-ifs" during my near-lifetime of wrestling fandom.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by TomS
A NEW LEGAL CHALLENGE HAS ENTERED THE RING

Shane-O is being sued over YOD Securities trading. I'd be lying if I said I understood it beyond it being about the money. Moneymoneymoneymoneymoney dolla dolla https://www.scribd.com/doc/308052456/YOD-Shane-McMahon-Lawsuit

---

quote:

---

Via Investopedia
What is the 'Short-Swing Profit Rule'
A Securities & Exchange Commission regulation that requires company insiders to return any profits made from the purchase and sale of company stock if both transactions occur within a six-month period. A company insider, as determined by the rule, is any officer, director or holder of more than 10% of the company's shares.
BREAKING DOWN 'Short-Swing Profit Rule'
The rule was implemented to prevent insiders, who have greater access to material company information, from taking advantage of information for the purpose of making short-term profits. For example, if an officer buys 100 shares at $5 in January and sells these same shares in February for $6, he/she would have made a profit of $100. Because the shares were bought and sold within a six-month period, the officer would have to return the $100 to the company under the short-swing profit rule.

---

I only see the first three pages. But between that and your description it's an Insider Trading allegation.

There are increasing levels of "insiders"

Most companies post Windows that those with knowledge of the inner profitability of a company are restricted to trade in. They are usually the day after an earnings release and extend out a few weeks.

Trading can be done outside of the Windows, But must be on a predetermined schedule that is filed...with I assume the SEC.

More senior insiders may resort to blind management of options, where they swear ignorance of the investment group that trades their options. I'm uncertain if this is still an acceptable practice.

The plaintiff alleges that Shane's profited on quick trades based on info Joe Q. Public didn't have access to. Theoretically damaging the stock price via natural trading. It looks like the remedy is to recoup from Shane any profit he made from said trades.

Regardless of what the say about the company not really being a defendant, Fault is also laid on the Company as they did not address it internally. I would think this should be an SEC complaint and not litigation, perhaps the SEC is ignoring any complaints, or not acting fast enough to allow litigation before the ...mind blanks...time limit expires.

Non legal opinion, no big deal, it's civil litigation for a nine figure millionaire. Yawn...

[Edited on 4-13-2016 by merc]

* Scott Steiner interviewed by local media in Georgia after witnessing an attempted murder, which has to come as a great shock/disappointment to those of us who were expecting him someday to be the one that did the attempting.

http://www.dailywrestlingnews.com/video-scott-steiner-talks-about-witnessing-an-attempted-murder/

Too bad it wasn't a female reporter because that eliminated any possibility of Scotty going for a "be with a real man!" try to pick her up.

* also, it's been pretty much confirmed that TNA had to move their offices to their warehouse because they were going to be evicted from their former lease rental.



[Edited on 4/13/2016 by Paddlefoot]

Balls Mahoney passes away age 44

http://www.wrestlezone.com/news/697383-ecw-original-balls-mahoney-passes-away-at-age-44

Police and ambulances seen at the scene, sounds bad.

I got to meet Balls at an Indy show in 2010, he came across as a genuine nice dude, who had time for the fans.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Paddlefoot
* Scott Steiner interviewed by local media in Georgia after witnessing an attempted murder, which has to come as a great shock/disappointment to those of us who were expecting him someday to be the one that did the attempting.

---

* Jeff's too busy doing some work for the latest ponzi scheme to help out Scotty:

http://www.dailywrestlingnews.com/jeff-jarrett-getting-in-on-scamming-people-with-new-gold-business/

* WWE posts new vid of the ten new Performance Center trainees





[Edited on 4/13/2016 by Paddlefoot]

Bray Wyatt injured himself again. Discussion started on it in the Raw thread, but I'm also posting it here so my post count can be one higher.

At least it's not his back. It's apparently a calf injury, and reported by wwe.com, in case you actually want to find out here instead of in the Raw Thread.

Well, shit

Atleast, this leaves room to do something with the remaining Wyatts. With Bray out of the pciture, somebody else takes Rowan and Strowman under their wing(a more serious Stardust?) to become the ''new Face of Fear'' setting up a strong return angle for Babyface Bray Wyatt which we already saw can work.

Shades of Neville's injury because apparently all that happened to Bray was that he slipped awkwardly in the corner. I had something similar happen to me once. Foot skiffed a bit off the grass during a badly positioned golf shot and pain ripped through my lower leg like someone just shot me in the back of the calf with a broad-tipper arrow. Hurt like fuck and was limping like an idiot for at least a week afterwards.

quote:

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Originally posted by Paddlefoot
Shades of Neville's injury because apparently all that happened to Bray was that he slipped awkwardly in the corner. I had something similar happen to me once. Foot skiffed a bit off the grass during a badly positioned golf shot and pain ripped through my lower leg like someone just shot me in the back of the calf with a broad-tipper arrow. Hurt like fuck and was limping like an idiot for at least a week afterwards.

---

I was wondering why they brought up so many NXT guys last week. It's because everyone is, or will soon be, fucking injured.

Adam Rose and Konnor have both been suspended for 60 days for their 2nd wellness violations...

That's probably the end of both of them in WWE. Neither will be missed much, although Rose has some potential that hopefully another promotion can tap.

I never really saw Rose or Konnor in NXT; and while there were obvious signs of a misfire in how they handled on Raw, neither guy set the world on fire.... I'll cut them some slack and put it as much on the WWE, but there didn't seem to be any way they weren't destined for enhancement talent.

Hanging by a thread like that gotta wonder what they were thinking... mind you a Wellness violation doesn't have to be just sticking needles in your butt, but still.... hanging by a thread like they both probably were you'd think they cash those cheques for as long as they could.

Hey, what's Alan Flowers - Nightclub DJ Extraordinaire, doing in the Impact Zone, Josh?

Stands to reason they'll be going. They're getting close to the annual post-WM pre-SS culling of the extras anyway.

I maintain both Rose and the Ascension were utter botches on the part of WWE whose failure had little to do with performers' abilities. Neither was going to be a main event megastar, but both had solid upper midcard potential.

AFAIK, WWE is no longer doing the yearly culling. I think now they're just letting contracts run out without renewals, yeah?

[Edited on 4-16-2016 by Foxcalibur]

Adam Rose was a huge misfire, IMO. I think the gimmick had legs, but it wasn't booked very well at all. I don't think he'd have become a main eventer, but I thought he could have been at least an entertaining mid card contender.

The Ascension would've had a chance until that promo killed them. It's stupid - they were booked as a throwback to big bruiser 80s tag teams and they ran down the classic teams because they're heels and that's a totally legit thing to do is to run down legends that remind viewers of you - but no, the sensitive egos of those old guys couldn't be ruffled and that was it for The Ascension.

At the same time, I was never a big fan of them even in NXT (although their finisher was cool), so I don't feel like I missed out on anything.

[Edited on 4-16-2016 by salmonjunkie]

I think the Ascension suck ass.

I had not seen them til WWE, but their look is jobber, and their act weak.

Buh bye

quote:

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Originally posted by Foxcalibur
AFAIK, WWE is no longer doing the yearly culling. I think now they're just letting contracts run out without renewals, yeah?

[Edited on 4-16-2016 by Foxcalibur]

---

Thought about it a little more - I wonder if The Ascension's career path in WWE would've been the same even without the infamous promo. They're really not that impressive in the ring, their size isn't nearly as imposing as it seemed in NXT. Hell, for all we know, the promo didn't affect them as much as we (or I) think and they were still given a chance but dropped the ball?

What's the story on that Ascension promo? Did they go off script with the whole LOD direction? Because if they were told to say that, and then got buried for saying it, then that would be the most idiotic thing I've ever heard.

quote:

---

Originally posted by denverpunk
What's the story on that Ascension promo? Did they go off script with the whole LOD direction? Because if they were told to say that, and then got buried for saying it, then that would be the most idiotic thing I've ever heard.

---

Yeah, I have no idea if it was scripted or not. I only know that Bradshaw, Animal, and maybe one or two more people made a stink of it, and then we started see them losing. If it was scripted - if they were told to say that and got repercussions for saying that then that's really fucked up.

I guess we'll all find out when post-future-endeavored Konner does a podcast on Colt Cabana's podcast or something.

quote:

---

Originally posted by salmonjunkie
I guess we'll all find out when post-future-endeavored Konner does a podcast on Colt Cabana's podcast or something.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by CM Crunk

quote:

---

Originally posted by salmonjunkie
I guess we'll all find out when post-future-endeavored Konner does a podcast on Colt Cabana's podcast or something.

---

Hopefully he confirms my long held suspicion that he, Colt, and Pete Gas are related...and then reveals plans for them to start a Huey, Dewey and Louie gimmick in CHIKARA.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by janerd75

quote:

---

Originally posted by CM Crunk

quote:

---

Originally posted by salmonjunkie
I guess we'll all find out when post-future-endeavored Konner does a podcast on Colt Cabana's podcast or something.

---

Hopefully he confirms my long held suspicion that he, Colt, and Pete Gas are related...and then reveals plans for them to start a Huey, Dewey and Louie gimmick in CHIKARA.

---

Don't...don't do this to me, because now I expect it. Alternate Universe Wrasslin' Wormholes Are The Worst And Most Tragic of All Wormholes.

[img]InsertSadCornetteFaceHere.gif*[ /img]



*lol, there's no such thing as a sad Cornette face you stupid marks

---

The Ascension is a terrible tag team and they were terrible before they got called up from NXT, too. Nothing about the team was impressive. All they did was punch, kick, punch, kick, punch, kick, BODYSLAM, punch, kick, restholds, punch, kick offense. They looked dumb and were only booked as the most dominant tag team in NXT history because they were the only tag team in NXT for a large portion of their run as tag team champions. It was so bad at one point that Scotty 2 Hotty and Grand Master Sexy were paid to put them over on one of the first Takeover specials. The NXT tag team scene has come a long way from when the Ascension set the longest reign as tag champions.

Yeah, pretty much ^this. I had a bit of sympathy for them because of The Promo, buuuut they always seemed like a Gimmick Out of Time to me. Fare thee well in your future endeavours, fellas, but you were not the rush we were looking for.

I can see the same sort of effect happening with The Vaudevillains, even if they're significantly more talented in-ring than the Ascension is. That kind of gimmick might work well with the smark fans at NXT who are more knowledgeable and able to appreciate it. Not so on the main roster where their appearance on SD so far was a big "meh" for the most part from the casuals in the crowd. If they're on SD for good it'll get even worse when they take the show to Latino crowds in the southwest states because I'm sure that the viewers down there if you asked them what Vaudeville was the majority of them would just look confused and respond "que?". Between that, the Ascension, and Adam Rose they're kind of putting the kiss of death on some of these NXT call ups by giving them gimmicks that are best described as dumb-fuck.

Meh. I think Ascension were fun to watch and had a lot of presence. Viktor especially seems to have decent chops and stiffer dudes than Konnor have played Hot Tag Catcher in good teams. They had a fun retro gimmick, though could never compete with LoD and Demolition for sheer roidy hugeness.

I thought their transitional promos were great fun, but had hoped it was all a setup to debut as stealth faces, playing on that nostalgia vibe, the way Kurt Angle debuted as a stealth heel. "The Promo" wasn't even a bad promo, and the dudes who got butthurt about it and demanded vengeance are ridiculous. But of course, as soon as they were fed to a gang of olds, that was pretty much that for the Ascension.

A well-booked Ascension could've been thoroughly entertaining, even if they never kept up with guys like the Usos and New Day.

Quick rule of thumb: If you're not enjoying a WWE performer, the fault is at least 50% with WWE's objectively terrible writing and character work. At least. In the case of Adam Rose, it was more like 78%. A non-moron could put together hours and hours of wonderful TV with the talent pool WWE has. So yeah, the Ascension ended up sucking. That has relatively little to do with the Ascension.

quote:

---

Originally posted by CM Crunk

Damnit, you might be right. Closest I could find more closely resembles 'vague constipation' than anything else.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by merc

quote:

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Originally posted by CM Crunk

Damnit, you might be right. Closest I could find more closely resembles 'vague constipation' than anything else.

---

I fixed this for you

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by denverpunk
What's the story on that Ascension promo? Did they go off script with the whole LOD direction? Because if they were told to say that, and then got buried for saying it, then that would be the most idiotic thing I've ever heard.

---

To my recollection it was a pretty standard "we're the greatest tag team of all time.... better than LOD, Demolition... ect" promo(s) and JBL pretty much buried them right away on commentary, and then a week or two later they were destroyed by a combination of the APA, NAO, NWO, CIA, FBI, NAACP, and I think WWF (the animal one, not retro WWE).... There was some word.... and I specifically remember Animal from LOD doing some online bitching; but I think it was because it was that the WWE had these guy's do it in less of a getting heat fashion that would lead to a payoff, and more of a disrespectful way where they served up a far lesser copy and tried to call it the real deal (I think there was something about the departed Hawk getting buried as well....).

Honestly; 2 up and coming talents got beaten down by 7 "legends" of varying degree's; 2 of which (the NAO) they'd go on to beat at the Royal Rumble.... not as damning from an objective POV as it seemed at the time.

Did the WWE and JBL more specifically do them wrong.... probably; JBL is your heel colour guy, so he probably should have played up their greatness and potential instead of getting his panties in a twist (JBL whale tails like nobodies business BTW) and verbally burying them for weeks.... the big "legends" beat down probably should have happened after they beat the NAO's as well.... one of those missteps where you look strong first, then lose to superior numbers in lieu of getting beat down, and then eking out a win over the only semi-active team left.

I also think the WWE didn't find the right tone for the Ascension's gimmick.... it should have been tongue in cheek; over the top, and camp in a lot of ways... maybe throw out some very 80's style training video's and a work out montage or two.... People might have been in able to get in on the joke a bit more and click with the gimmick instead of it looking like two Road Warrior knock off's being no where in that league but being force-pushed as such... You knew the joke was there, or the parody.... but you weren't sure if it was intended that way, or if the WWE was really just out of touch and thought that's what worked so do it again.

Lastly, and a lesson that the WWE hasn't quite learned yet (ahem.. Tyler Breeze, Adrian Neville) is that not everyone watches NXT.... this would have been more true in 2014 when the network was in it's infancy... that you do still need to work a gimmick when calling a guy up instead of just throwing them out there.... you need to give guy's a chance to sink or swim before deeming them a complete failure to be relegated to Superstars or picking up Vince's laundry.

To me it seems like more of a weird game that Vince and (probably) Bukukky decided to play with them, maybe to stick it in Hunter's eye for some insane reason. There's no way the Ascension did that promo without it being scripted by Creative. Also JBL isn't trashing on them during the promo without Vince yapping away at him over the headset telling him to do it. So what happened here exactly? These guys got the call-up to the main roster, practice their first promo like good noobs should, and then without their knowing it Vince uses JBL to tank them in the middle of it? Because it was all downhill for them after that. A few minor wins over cannon fodder like impromptu Fandango/R-Truth team-ups and then that was it. What was the point of even bringing them up if they were just going to get the Public Enemy treatment with them being made into a running joke?

As previously mentioned the inevitable Colt Cabana podcast or YouTube shoot interviews with these two guys should be fascinating. I wanna hear whose corn flakes it was that they pissed in for WWE to decide to ruin them after giving them a year or whatever in NXT building them up as a major force to then just to wreck them for laughs.

Was the guys first wellness violation in between those promos? That'd make sense I guess.

Otherwise. Yeah.

My theory is that the tanking of the Ascension and Tyler Breeze and Adam Rose is less a malicious "burial" than the natural result of a general disdain for Gimmicks.

WWE creative generally dislikes outlandish characters and likes athletic competitors. As a reaction to laughable nonsense like Abe "Knuckleball" Schwartz and Duke "the Dumpster" Droese, they tend to think wrestlers who aren't purely about wrestling are obviously just joke characters, to be treated as jokes.

(This barring obviously successful Gimmicks like the Million Dollar Man, who they try to recreate all the time, and the Undertaker, likewise.)

So if you show up as, say, an Instagram narcissist, or a party dude, or an 80s throwback, the creative team will think, "Lol, joke character!" and treat you accordingly. They'll just have nothing worthwhile for you. Wrestling is Serious, and wrestlers must take it, and themselves, seriously. If they don't, they are simply the opposite of serious, and thus are comic relief.

It's not retribution against what they did, it's creative prejudice against what they are.

---

The Ascension thing I really don't think was a burial. I think it was legit meant to get them over as heels. You know why? Because Vince assumes people think (or should think!) like he does, and to him, nothing is more sacred than his successes, and anyone who bags on them is a real shit, and should be hated and should lose. Hell, he even let them get over on the NAO before sending them back to jobbertown.

Here's how the Ascension-vs-Olds storyline should've gone.

1. Ascension bags on classic teams
2. NAO challenge Ascension
3. Ascension beats NAO
4. Olds gang up on and beat up Ascension
5. Ascension hunts down each and every person involved in said beatdown
6. Bradshaw tries to save Ron Simmons from Ascension, gets his shit pushed in
7. Ron Simmons manages some young team like Prime Time Players to beat up Ascension
7a. Ron Simmons, having been a member of two monster teams, betrays Bradshaw and manages Ascension. Because fuck Bradshaw.

[Edited on 4-17-2016 by Foxcalibur]

* A couple sites reporting that Rock turned down guest reffing the Mania main event because he didn't want to be associated with Reigns's boos when he won.

* Dixie has narrowed the field of TNA investor's down to two. She wants to remain majority owner and primary creative voice which has been the main sticking point in negotiations.

* There is a great deal of vitriol in the Lucha Underground lockerroom over MVP's termination. He is close friends with several guys on the LU roster such as Vampiro, Mundo, Chavo and Striker, and they were all shocked and incensed at his dismissal. The decision was apparently made at the corporate level by attorneys rather than handled backstage by the boys.

quote:

---

Originally posted by CCharger

* Dixie has narrowed the field of TNA investor's down to two. She wants to remain majority owner and primary creative voice which has been the main sticking point in negotiations.

---

quote:

---

* There is a great deal of vitriol in the Lucha Underground lockerroom over MVP's termination. He is close friends with several guys on the LU roster such as Vampiro, Mundo, Chavo and Striker, and they were all shocked and incensed at his dismissal. The decision was apparently made at the corporate level by attorneys rather than handled backstage by the boys.

---

Here's the Ascension getting their assess handed to them by the legends.



My GOD, I forgot how terrible Konner is on the mic. Viktor is ok, too bad for him he's the smaller of the two and therefore is always the one pinned. In fact he's pretty much the smallest person in the ring when all of the legends are in there, tied with X-Pac. Konner is about the size of Billy Gunn. How the hell are these two guys supposed to be imposing?

Stone Cold Steve Austin reveals he participated in his Wrestlemania segment with a torn rotator cuff:

http://411mania.com/wrestling/steve-austin-suffered-an-injury-before-wrestlemania-32/

He said he was able to catch all the beers because he was on adrenaline but couldn't drink a beer after he got backstage. Well if you can't drink a beer, then what is the point of life?

quote:

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Originally posted by royberto
Well if you can't drink a beer, then what is the point of life?

---

E! has announced the new series �Total Bellas� with Nikki and Brie Bella, a spinoff of the network�s hit series �Total Divas.�


I swear....if one of you is responsible for this....I will find you. I will hunt you.

Oh my....

* Finn Balor main roster debut is being teased for tonight's RAW

* Bret Hart is supposed to be in Nattie's corner tonight as well as she has another round with Charlotte and Old Man Flair

* Virgil is the guest tonight on the E&C; show

* Bellas show is only supposed to be six episodes so there's a limit to how much trauma it will be causing

quote:

---

Originally posted by williamssl
E! has announced the new series �Total Bellas� with Nikki and Brie Bella, a spinoff of the network�s hit series �Total Divas.�


I swear....if one of you is responsible for this....I will find you. I will hunt you.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by janerd75

quote:

---

Originally posted by williamssl
E! has announced the new series �Total Bellas� with Nikki and Brie Bella, a spinoff of the network�s hit series �Total Divas.�


I swear....if one of you is responsible for this....I will find you. I will hunt you.

---

Wait, wait, wait, hold on one goddamn second. Johnny F. Ace is in that promo picture and was on the vid. A quick wiki search into TWOODNAAVE lore indicates he's shacked up with and engaged to the Bella's mom, thusly putting him on course to be D-Bry's father-in-law?!?

---

I would watch that Thanksgiving special: A Very Bella Thanksgiving - Turkey with the Bellas and their Extended Family

[Edited on 4-18-2016 by williamssl]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Paddlefoot
* Finn Balor main roster debut is being teased for tonight's RAW

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by williamssl
E! has announced the new series �Total Bellas� with Nikki and Brie Bella, a spinoff of the network�s hit series �Total Divas.�

---

Johnny Ace back on TV? I haven't been this excited since Super Dave Osborne was regularly doing specials on Fox back in the 90's. What role will he play? Flummoxed patriarch in a houseful of nitwits? Will he eventually transition and become Connie Laurinaitis*?

*just want to pat myself on the back for spelling that right on my first try even though it gave my phones autocorrect a goddamn panic attack.

[Edited on 4/18/2016 by CM Crunk]

quote:

---

Posted by The Hitcher
Was the guys first wellness violation in between those promos?

---

The WWE actually puts it's Wellness policy online;

http://corporate.wwe.com/wellness/substance-abuse-drug-testing-policy#C15

Sounds like you don't even get a chance to burn off one of those violations until you rack up two of them.

Per rajah.com, which does not name its source:

* A Nashville-based marketing agency named Aroluxe is in the running to buy TNA. Ron & Don Harris are involved in the company, which TNA reportedly owes money to. To update on this, PWInsider reports that there may be a corporate takover if TNA doesn't pay them what's owed.

Aroluxe reportedly handles all of Impact Wrestling's production including expenditures, and TNA is to reimburse them and pay for services. PWInsider claims that TNA owes Aroluxe at least one payment, and based on their contract, if the payment isn't made, Aroluxe would then be able to claim majority ownership of TNA. This would leave Dixie Carter a minority owner, and likely bring drastic management changes.

Aroluxe has been handling Impact Wrestling's production since January 2016. PWInsider reports that Ron and Don Harris have been working in different areas of TNA so regularly that there likely wouldn't be any transitional issues if their company does take over.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Flash
The WWE actually puts it's Wellness policy online;

http://corporate.wwe.com/wellness/substance-abuse-drug-testing-policy#C15

Sounds like you don't even get a chance to burn off one of those violations until you rack up two of them.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by CamstunPWG187

quote:

---

Originally posted by Flash
The WWE actually puts it's Wellness policy online;

http://corporate.wwe.com/wellness/substance-abuse-drug-testing-policy#C15

Sounds like you don't even get a chance to burn off one of those violations until you rack up two of them.

---

It's not surprising, given how WWE had to twist and mangle the wellness policy entirely around Randy F. Orton' adolescent 20-something fuck-ups.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by gambit3
Per rajah.com, which does not name its source:

* A Nashville-based marketing agency named Aroluxe is in the running to buy TNA. Ron & Don Harris are involved in the company, which TNA reportedly owes money to. To update on this, PWInsider reports that there may be a corporate takover if TNA doesn't pay them what's owed.

Aroluxe reportedly handles all of Impact Wrestling's production including expenditures, and TNA is to reimburse them and pay for services. PWInsider claims that TNA owes Aroluxe at least one payment, and based on their contract, if the payment isn't made, Aroluxe would then be able to claim majority ownership of TNA. This would leave Dixie Carter a minority owner, and likely bring drastic management changes.

Aroluxe has been handling Impact Wrestling's production since January 2016. PWInsider reports that Ron and Don Harris have been working in different areas of TNA so regularly that there likely wouldn't be any transitional issues if their company does take over.

---

Did someone mention TNA?







Hitler, errrr, Dixie Carter had a lot of great ideas, y'know.

Did NAZI that coming.

Ryback had a very candid interview where he expressed frustration at how he is being used, and implied that he may not return to the WWE when his contract expires later this year.

Here's the interview:

https://youtu.be/3x8WgSHDpnU

Here is a snippet:

�I�ve heard in this business hard work doesn�t always pay off. So maybe The Big Guy has to go find another world where that does pay off. But you work really, really hard at something and you dedicate yourself, and you sometimes have to be told you�re somewhere else. That�s a tough pill to swallow time and time again but I�ve never stopped believing in myself and I never will. Next year should undoubtedly be a big year for The Big Guy.�

If the big guy grows a tiny mustache he could head up the newly acquired TNA

quote:

---

Originally posted by williamssl
E! has announced the new series �Total Bellas� with Nikki and Brie Bella, a spinoff of the network�s hit series �Total Divas.�


I swear....if one of you is responsible for this....I will find you. I will hunt you.

---

I mean, it makes sense for the Bellas to try and transition into a reality show focused specifically on them, especially since neither is on the road with the company at the moment. I know it's not to the taste of most of the people who frequent this board, most notably our glOriOus leader, but I doubt it will have any impact on WWE TV at all.

quote:

---

Originally posted by GodEatGod
a reality show focused specifically on them

---

Take it for what it's worth but here's some more alleged details on the TNA/HarriSS Brothers situation.

http://www.dailywrestlingnews.com/could-dixie-carter-lose-tna-over-a-missed-payment-this-week-backstage-updates-on-tna-panda-more/

quote:

---

Originally posted by GodEatGod
I mean, it makes sense for the Bellas to try and transition into a reality show focused specifically on them, especially since neither is on the road with the company at the moment. I know it's not to the taste of most of the people who frequent this board, most notably our glOriOus leader, but I doubt it will have any impact on WWE TV at all.

---

People Power! is in effect in the Bella household, and what the people! want is to see Nikki walk around topless for the entire day.

quote:

---

Originally posted by TomS
The Harris Brothers? Selling the company to actual Nazis is the most TNA thing TNA could ever do.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by williamssl
E! has announced the new series �Total Bellas� with Nikki and Brie Bella, a spinoff of the network�s hit series �Total Divas.�


I swear....if one of you is responsible for this....I will find you. I will hunt you.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by salmonjunkie

quote:

---

Originally posted by williamssl
E! has announced the new series �Total Bellas� with Nikki and Brie Bella, a spinoff of the network�s hit series �Total Divas.�


I swear....if one of you is responsible for this....I will find you. I will hunt you.

---

Here's the publicity photo of the happy family



Anyone know who the other Bella sister is and the guy she's with?

[Edited on 4-19-2016 by salmonjunkie]

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Paddlefoot
People Power! is in effect in the Bella household, and what the people! want is to see Nikki walk around topless for the entire day.

---

Steve Austin went on his podcast and reviewed Wrestlemania. In doing so, he criticized the main event:

�It was way too long. That match should have been 15 minutes. I mean, from bell to bell, 15 minutes, and, that being said, all the bells and whistles and action that needed to happen within that 15 minutes. And just, this is a deal where, okay, if it�s Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels and you�re out there, hey, give them 30 [minutes] because they can go 30 [minutes]. But here�s a case, and Triple H can go any amount of time you want him to go. But what needed to happen on this, just to make Roman, because if you�re going to let Roman go over clean in the middle of the ring, shine him up like a million bucks. Let him bounce Triple H all over kingdom come. Finally, let Triple H just get a frog�s hair of heat on him. And then boom, big finish, bam, 1-2-3. Make an impact with that match. Make an impact with the finish. And make a statement for the kid! It�s about getting this kid over and at least within the confines of the 20 x 20..."

�You�re trying to make Roman Reigns. I don�t think you make him in a 28-minute chess match. This match needed to be all about excitement, explosion, and testosterone out of Roman and that�s how I think they should have booked it...making Roman Reigns work this long exposed more holes in his game than we�ve already known that exist.�

I think this is a fair critique. Love him or hate him, it's clear that Reigns has shortcomings in the ring But so did Sting early in his career. Yet, in 1988 Flair let Sting bump him all over the ring to get him over. This should have been the pay off for Reigns. Let him semi-squash HHH and bump him all over the ring to blow off the feud with the Authority and begin his era with, well, authority.

quote:

---

Originally posted by jefft221
All I know is don't the Bellas have a brother? Maybe the guy is the brother and the woman his wife? Though scary how much the wife does look like his twin sisters.

Harris Brothers/Neo-Nazis.... on that black tank top is a symbol that basically a stylized "SS", and that "SS" is also "hidden" on their arm tattoos, it's Nazi imagery. Sooooo.....

---

I for one cannot wait for the Harris Brothers to introduce the new American History X-Division.

quote:

---

Originally posted by CCharger

Yet, in 1988 Flair let Sting bump him all over the ring to get him over. This should have been the pay off for Reigns. Let him semi-squash HHH and bump him all over the ring to blow off the feud with the Authority and begin his era with, well, authority.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by anglefan85
I for one cannot wait for the Harris Brothers to introduce the new American History X-Division.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by anglefan85
I for one cannot wait for the Harris Brothers to introduce the new American History X-Division.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by salmonjunkie

quote:

---

Originally posted by anglefan85
I for one cannot wait for the Harris Brothers to introduce the new American History X-Division.

---

I'm looking forward to the rechristening of their second singles title to the Grand Wizard Of The Mountain Championship.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by salmonjunkie

quote:

---

Originally posted by williamssl
E! has announced the new series �Total Bellas� with Nikki and Brie Bella, a spinoff of the network�s hit series �Total Divas.�


I swear....if one of you is responsible for this....I will find you. I will hunt you.

---

Here's the publicity photo of the happy family



Anyone know who the other Bella sister is and the guy she's with?

[Edited on 4-19-2016 by salmonjunkie]

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by SpiNNeR72

quote:

---

Originally posted by Paddlefoot
People Power! is in effect in the Bella household, and what the people! want is to see Nikki walk around topless for the entire day.

---

Wrong Bella, but I get the sentiment.

If this spells the end of Total Diva's, then thats fine. The fringe reality show can carry on (god knows there is an audience for these things i guess) but with everyone inactive except Cena it wont impact on WWE so much.

---

Geez that must suck for Cena. The show will probably force the entire goddamn Bella family to basically move in to his house.

Guy must be itching to come back.

Yeah; while I'm sure Cena doesn't mind the extra paycheques, between his WWE responsibilities, and squeezing in various movie roles on his days off, I'm sure one of the last things he wants to do is have the camera's there in his private life too.

But otherwise; lookout A'noi family, out of the way Hart family, and beat it McMahon-Helmsley brood.... We've got a new power family stepping up!

So.... Wrestlemania 55 can feature such legacy kids like the Cenalsion's taking on StepHHH's kids.... and Beth Phoenix and Edge's daughter in there for good measure.

What the fuck is wrong with the marketing department?!

Anyway, slight chance we might get Lesnar earlier than anticipated?

[Edited on 4-20-2016 by First 9]

No, no, I think you're mistaken. The WWE is TV-PG. Otherwise their motto wouldn't be WWE: It's For Fucking Children. Wait, no...

Revived nightmares of ODB and Cody Deaner's date night, except with some fucked up ladybugs or something. Blarf.

The newest WWE World Heavyweight Champion......


https://youtu.be/kgtJIZZOiFQ

^
Seventy year old clip and it's still booked better than Reigns.

quote:

---

Originally posted by CCharger

Yet, in 1988 Flair let Sting bump him all over the ring to get him over. This should have been the pay off for Reigns. Let him semi-squash HHH and bump him all over the ring to blow off the feud with the Authority and begin his era with, well, authority.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by merc

quote:

---

Originally posted by CCharger

Yet, in 1988 Flair let Sting bump him all over the ring to get him over. This should have been the pay off for Reigns. Let him semi-squash HHH and bump him all over the ring to blow off the feud with the Authority and begin his era with, well, authority.

---

what the hell...

The 88 NoC match was a 45 minute draw. Sting just hanging was what put him over.

Comparing 88 Flair (or later) to Haitch isn't good. Ric had pretty much become a same match guy regardless of who he went up against. As chickenshit heel, he called the match the same way with the same move sets. He didn't really care about the faces strengths. It got worse, the older he got, but late 80's was the start.

I've read a couple of books where the view on Middle-late Flair was less than complementary on in ring psychology. He just wanted to run his moveset and move on.

I think Haitch still works a story and will adapt to his opponent. I agree he should have taken the beat down /quasi squash; but what's good for business isn't always what's done.

---

I still say replace "bump" with "fuck"and it reads better.

Everything goes better with fuck.

Also today:

* Viktor is being added to the Social Outcasts to replace Adam Rose

* career suicide in progress? Adam Rose challenging test results and the overall wellness policy? Statement here:

http://www.dailywrestlingnews.com/adam-rose-issues-interesting-response-to-his-wwe-suspension/

[Edited on 4/20/2016 by Paddlefoot]

Rose probably knows he isn't going to slink any lower on the card short of selling popcorn, and can probably guess that he's on the short list of "we're not calling it future endeavouring anymore".... So why not try and right his name if he truly believes in what he's saying. Plus, he was about as diplomatic as you can get...

We can't attest to how things play out behind the scenes, but the WWE (on some issues) has let some people challenge them publicly.... Darren Young called them out on their Dubai (I think it was there?) tours, and while she left on her own accord shortly thereafter, AJ didn't seem to suffer too much over slagging the women's division much to Stephanie's chagrin... Foley's smashed a TV over how crappy Raw has been, and get's a new show on the network.

Becky Lynch jumped at Conor McGregor's retirement announcement and nabbed herself an ESPN headline by inviting Conor to WWE:

http://espn.go.com/mma/story/_/id/15280104/comejoinmebro

Congrats, Becky. One tweet gets you an ESPN SportsCenter moment.

If this is about McGregor not wanting to take part in all the promotion for UFC 200 as Dana is saying, then the WWE is probably the last place he'd want to go.

Thinking about Adam Rose (Stop it you perverts!),I struggle with the independent contractor concept in WWE. They behave as if the talent are employees, for example the "suspensions" or former future endeavors. Neither are appropriate terms for severing or failing to renew a contract.

I think if those in the talent pool that desired to "unionize" focused their efforts on having the DOL or Connecticut's equivalent (perhaps in the revenue arena {think income tax}) focus in on W2 v. 1099 relationships they would find a fairly quick path to government changing the relationship. The hurdle would be the amount of income earned outside of the Nutmeg State; so talent with established residence in CT. would play a key role.

Just thinkin and typing.

Whoops.

[Edited on 4-21-2016 by Foxcalibur]

quote:

---

Originally posted by merc
I think if those in the talent pool that desired to "unionize" focused their efforts on having the DOL or Connecticut's equivalent (perhaps in the revenue arena {think income tax}) focus in on W2 v. 1099 relationships they would find a fairly quick path to government changing the relationship. The hurdle would be the amount of income earned outside of the Nutmeg State; so talent with established residence in CT. would play a key role.

Just thinkin and typing.

---

Not really "news" since it happened at a house show and it doesn't "count", but it makes me happy to see Dean Ambrose getting a win over Triple H. If only this were to have happened at Road Block

Dean Ambrose beats Triple H with Dirty Deeds 😱 #WWENewcastle pic.twitter.com/JaFdGPArd1

— KD Sweets (@ProjectKenny) April 20, 2016

Not really a rumor either...

I'm surprised HHH is doing house shows. Do you know if it was a major city?

quote:

---

Originally posted by merc
Not really a rumor either...

I'm surprised HHH is doing house shows. Do you know if it was a major city?

---

* Word is that TNA is literally in it's death throes...no, no...I know we've heard that before, but seriously...they are dead ass broke.

Meltzer had this to say:

"They clearly need to make a deal to get some money in, because they don't have any money. That's been obvious for a while ... Financially, it's really bad. You wouldn't believe how bad it is. When I say they're out of money - they're out of money."

It sounds like a deal needs to be made soon, or TNA will file for bankruptcy and go out of business. Rumors have been that Dixie wants to remain majority owner and be in charge of creative. It will probably get to a point where one of the interested groups will call Dixie's bluff and she will be forced to sell it all.

Either way, we will see TNA cease to exist or some dramatic change in ownership. I'm guessing we will see it sooner rather than later.

For as LOL as TNA has become...

ECW- 1992-2001
WCW- 1988-2001
TNA- 2002-?
ROH- 2002-?

Out of that crop post-Vince McMahon changing the wrestling landscape they really aren't fairing all that badly in terms of longevity... and that would only be if they completely closed up shop tomorrow.

ROH is maybe going to have a legacy of being a developer of stars, a wrestling factory, but really hasn't grabbed that big national attention yet.

WCW was massive... competing with Vince is their legacy.

ECW.... obviously the extreme stuff is their legacy, with a nice side order of giving a platform to a lot of future stars.... but I'd argue that the biggest thing about ECW..... is their initials. Smarks aside, probably the thing that most rank and file fans know about ECW is to chant it's name over and over when someone goes through a table.

This is where I think TNA falls down... and why they are a bit LOL.... I'm not sure if in a decade plus they really carved out a legacy aside from the "What's former WWE star ____________ doing in the impact zone?" Don't get me wrong, there was probably some nice stuff in there... the 6 sided ring was an effort to set themselves apart, the X division and the Knockouts.... but those seem to have been so badly mishandled at some points that it's muddled their legacy a bit... and honestly, those things are probably still a bit overshadowed by the WWE.

The last rumour I heard was that there were two serious offers on the table for TNA, but that Dixie didn't want to give up control.... pride cometh before the fall?

I see it as two TNA's...pre-Hogan/Bischoff and post-Hogan/Bischoff.

Pre-Hogan, TNA could have really challenged Vince for viewers, and were carving out a niche as the anti-WWE. They had the cool 6-sided ring, the innovative X Division, and a great tag team division. They were everything the WWE was not at the time. In fact, prior to Hogan, you could argue TNA had a better women, better cruisers, and better tag teams than WWE. They had young talent that they had developed and built and a loyal fanbase. I believe that if they had continued on that trajectory, they would be in much better shape and would have changed the course of wrestling history.

When Hogan and Co. rolled in, the 6-sided ring was ditched, the X Division was made a joke, the tag team division suffered, and the "TNA guys" were buried in favor of Hogan loyalists or over the hill former WWE guys. It became WWE Lite rather than a viable alternative to WWE TV. Even when Hogan and Bischoff bailed, Dixie never changed the course they set and now here they are.

In hindsight, Dixie Carter hiring Hulk Hogan might be the biggest business blunder in wrestling history.

I don't know if I'd go so far as to say that TNA might have changed the course of wrestling history, as I think Vince had gotten so big by that point that the dollars might not have been there to compete with him, and the rise of MMA probably grabbed a lot of attention that Wrestling once basked solely in.... but otherwise yeah, I think the rest of your assessment is spot on.

It's funny; I remember right before Hogan et al came to TNA there were a lot of stories going around about Paul Heyman being approached and he basically gave them a take it or leave it deal.... How different history might have been.

Meh, we could play what if all day, but I still think that if TNA got their shit together with the handful sports channels out there looking for cheap programming or even live original stuff, TNA could be a viable entity.

Bray Wyatt's injury is supposedly not serious and he'll be out of action "only" 4-6 weeks.

He got injured about a week and a half ago, so factor that into whatever math and speculation you want to do about when he might return to the ring.

quote:

---

Originally posted by merc
Not really a rumor either...

I'm surprised HHH is doing house shows. Do you know if it was a major city?

---

@wwebalor See you soon, buddy.

— Kevin Owens (@FightOwensFight) April 22, 2016

quote:

---

Originally posted by ThePunisher

@wwebalor See you soon, buddy.

— Kevin Owens (@FightOwensFight) April 22, 2016

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by merc

quote:

---

Originally posted by ThePunisher

@wwebalor See you soon, buddy.

— Kevin Owens (@FightOwensFight) April 22, 2016

---

Surprised they are sending Owens back to NXT. I thought he was doing OK

---

Holy shit! They're copying Our Sport!

http://screengrabber.deadspin.com/grizzlies-mascot-back-to-putting-opponents-through-tabl-1772612208

Sounds like Jack Swagger is done with WWE. Alluded to such on Twitter and his wikipedia page has already been updated to reflect that he is leaving.

If true, it is a bummer for me as I really enjoyed just about everything he did. I thought his gimmicks fit him perfectly, as did his name (to match his face). Solid in the ring and had the size that WWE likes. Never sure where it went wrong for Jack, as I thought he had a shot to be a solid main eventer. But maybe I am in the minority and he pretty much lived up to his potnetial where he as at?

Swagger was horrible on the mic which aided in his inability to be taken seriously as a realistic threat. He was also boring in the ring and his American pride gimmick is something from the 80s that just doesn't have the same propelling power nowawadays. I never saw him as anything but a big, goofy guy with a lisp and a dumb face with a ceiling only as high as the slanted walls of an attic. It's embarrassing that he has World Heavyweight Championship reigns to his name.

For those keeping score, it is
Yay Swagger 1
Boo Swagger 1


I put Matte in the boo camp since he seemed to tilt that way more so.

quote:

---

Originally posted by williamssl
For those keeping score, it is
Yay Swagger 1
Boo Swagger 1


I put Matte in the boo camp since he seemed to tilt that way more so.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Count Zero

quote:

---

Originally posted by williamssl
For those keeping score, it is
Yay Swagger 1
Boo Swagger 1


I put Matte in the boo camp since he seemed to tilt that way more so.

---

Is this a Swagger on a Poll match?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by merc

quote:

---

Originally posted by ThePunisher

@wwebalor See you soon, buddy.

— Kevin Owens (@FightOwensFight) April 22, 2016

---

Surprised they are sending Owens back to NXT. I thought he was doing OK

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Matte
American pride gimmick is something from the 80s that just doesn't have the same propelling power nowawadays.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Matte
Swagger was horrible on the mic which aided in his inability to be taken seriously as a realistic threat. He was also boring in the ring and his American pride gimmick is something from the 80s that just doesn't have the same propelling power nowawadays. I never saw him as anything but a big, goofy guy with a lisp and a dumb face with a ceiling only as high as the slanted walls of an attic. It's embarrassing that he has World Heavyweight Championship reigns to his name.

---

quote:

---

Posted by Sam Is Neat
Never sure where it went wrong for Jack...

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Sam Is Neat
Sounds like Jack Swagger is done with WWE. Alluded to such on Twitter and his wikipedia page has already been updated to reflect that he is leaving.

If true, it is a bummer for me as I really enjoyed just about everything he did. I thought his gimmicks fit him perfectly, as did his name (to match his face). Solid in the ring and had the size that WWE likes. Never sure where it went wrong for Jack, as I thought he had a shot to be a solid main eventer. But maybe I am in the minority and he pretty much lived up to his potnetial where he as at?

---

That's a good thing that Jack's staying because all I could think up was "Hey, what's Jake Strutter doing in the Impact Zone, Josh?!?!?!?" and it sounded way too lame. That and TNA's likely to be out of business altogether before Swagger even arrived at Dixie's new office above her dad's garage for his first interview for the job.

Dixie strikes me as the kind of person who would do job interviews via Skype, or FaceTime. Maybe that office above the garage only has one chair?

Probably via e-mail because I doubt that TNA can afford the fancy Windows XP or Vista (student editions) programs that they'd need to run something like Skype.

[Edited on 4/24/2016 by Paddlefoot]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Slade

quote:

---

Posted by Sam Is Neat
Never sure where it went wrong for Jack...

---

Are you serious?

I'm pretty sure it all went wrong for him on February 19, 2013, when he was arrested for DUI and possession of drugs. It probably could have all gone much better for him had he not gotten arrested at a time when he was getting a major push going into Wrestlemania, of all events!

---

I think Swagger fits into the category of "good hand"- he's very serviceable, could carry his end of a feud so long as he had a mouth piece, has a good look and move set, but at the end of the day just didn't have that comfort on the stick, or it factor to be a top guy.... his booking after his first world title was terrible, and even that Wrestlemania spot he got a few years back was so out of left field that it was hard to take it serious.

Jack Swagger is a -really- awesome wrestler name that I always felt kind of got wasted on that guy.

I always remember when he won MitB at WM years ago and, with seven people there all doing a pool on the card, literally no one picked him to win the case and at least three people went "Wait, who is that guy anyway?!?" Just completely took the air out of us when he won because it seemed just...random. A little how I felt when Zack Ryder won the IC belt this year.

He's fine in the ring, but never spectacular. I dunno, he's a guy. It was funny watching him lose the Madden tournament to Rollins last year, partly just because Rollins is SUCH a sore winner and took great joy in burying him.

* today in history, Trish Stratus had sex with a table



http://www.diva-dirt.com/122731/today-history-trish-stratus-gives-bubba-ray-dudley-table-tips-3/

quote:

---

Originally posted by Flash
I think Swagger fits into the category of "good hand"

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by williamssl
For those keeping score, it is
Yay Swagger 1
Boo Swagger 1


I put Matte in the boo camp since he seemed to tilt that way more so.

---

I like the part where Jack gets intense and the lisping during "we thhhhh PEOPLE!" looks like he's spitting the words out. Odd in hindsight how the patriot gimmick with Swagger and Zeb ended the way it did. With Rusev and Lana emerging victorious is was probably the first and only time in WWE history that a USA vs. the foreign baddies ended up as an overall American loss.

Swagger just had the rotten luck of coming in the dark era shortly after the rise of Cena/Batista/Orton and before the rise of Punk/Bryan with WWE was hyper-controlling and tried to make every single promising guy fit into a Orton-like mold.

Kennedy,MVP,Rhodes,Dibiase,Swagger, all of these guys were made to be interchangeable with how WWE booked them.

Swagger has impressive credentials, but his body language, facial expressions and voice make him come off as too goofy. WWE should have turned it into a strength instead of trying to present him as something that he's not. And then, there's him not being a responsible adult and hurting his chances even more.

His first World Title Reign wasn't any worse than Sheamus' or Miz's(yeah he got a WM Main Event but it's gone down as history as one of the worst) and it's shame he couldn't recover it and vindicate it like the other two did. Now, he's probably only second to Khali as the most WTF World Champions ever.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Matte
Swagger was horrible on the mic which aided in his inability to be taken seriously as a realistic threat. He was also boring in the ring and his American pride gimmick is something from the 80s that just doesn't have the same propelling power nowawadays. I never saw him as anything but a big, goofy guy with a lisp and a dumb face with a ceiling only as high as the slanted walls of an attic. It's embarrassing that he has World Heavyweight Championship reigns to his name.

---

This spot is empty for now.

[Edited on 4-24-2016 by merc]

This Space For Rent.

Please contact merc for more details.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Paddlefoot
* today in history, Trish Stratus had sex with a table



http://www.diva-dirt.com/122731/today-history-trish-stratus-gives-bubba-ray-dudley-table-tips-3/

---

Trishie gifs here.

http://www.dailywrestlingnews.com/busty-trish-stratus-gifs-from-the-642001-wwe-raw/

and here

http://www.dailywrestlingnews.com/gifs-of-trish-stratus-looking-good-in-all-black-on-the-10152001-wwe-raw/

Don't anyone ever say that I don't care.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Paddlefoot
Trishie gifs here.

http://www.dailywrestlingnews.com/busty-trish-stratus-gifs-from-the-642001-wwe-raw/

and here

http://www.dailywrestlingnews.com/gifs-of-trish-stratus-looking-good-in-all-black-on-the-10152001-wwe-raw/

Don't anyone ever say that I don't care.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by bigfatgoalie

I�m a simple man. I like pretty Canadian women and breakfast food.

---

Now who in their right mind could have had anything against that match?

There was a lot of discussion about bleeding in the NXT thread. Cena had some recent comments about blood in the WWE and the TV-PG product overall. I thought they were interesting, especially coming from a guy who has personified the TV-PG product for 10 to 12 years.

"I'd much rather it be a program geared toward me, whether that's TV-14 or sometimes even more graphic than that, which is what I like. For one thing, profanity brought fire out of people with personalities that backed the language. It's very difficult to say, 'Oh, you're being poopy,' especially when they're meant to be fighting words. And now, if someone starts to bleed, the referee intervenes to stop the bleeding. But before, you'd just let it fly. Blood is one of the things that made fights cool. Like, you knew it had gotten serious. I understand why we don't do it anymore. Vince has been a coach to me, a father figure, a boss and a friend, and his goal and my goal are the same: to make the company be as big as it can be. But, yeah, the blood is one thing I miss."

Getting things back on the right track (aka pretty Canadian women), Renee Young spoke with Planeta Wrestling indicating that while she'd be OK with being involved in an angle, she has no desire to wrestle.

In terms of me calling Swagger a "good hand" I just meant he's a serviceable enough guy that you can either relegate to Superstars/Main event, or prop him up to somewhat convincingly look like a short term threat (the Rusev feud probably ended that...). I'm not talking champion level; but short term utility guy I'm fine with.

I also think Swagger has gotten a bit of a bad name in terms of being unsafe to work with; to the best of my knowledge he's "only" hurt Ziggler and Barrett since coming into the WWE in 2008.... that's a lot of matches where stuff went right. I mean even some of the all time greats like Edge, or Owen have delivered some pretty major injuries to their opponents.... it happens unfortunately.

Some guys aren't main eventers; maybe they could have been if not for whatever reason(s), but we still need those convincing jobbers; Swagger is that for me.

* WWE.com posted the following today:

The Champ is here. Well, almost. John Cena announced via his official Twitter account today that he would be making his return to WWE on the Memorial Day edition of Raw.

The WWE Universe has not seen Cena compete in a match since January when he injured his shoulder. As he mentioned in the tweet, original projections had him being out of action for upwards of nine months, but following intensive rehab and his surprise appearance at WrestleMania 32, The Leader of The Cenation will defy all expectations and make his official return to WWE next month.

***SPOILERISH***

Apparently, in the heat of a promo on Smackdown, Ric Flair told Nattie to go kill herself. This was in response to Nattie's claims that her uncle, Bret Hart, could handle Ric Flair, come Sunday at Payback, to which Ric started prattling on about how he has beaten Bret Hart everywhere and ultimately ended with the line above.

While I assume it is edited out, I do wonder, if the reports are true, if this is the beginning of the end of Ric Flair as a weekly character. Dude is crippling his own legacy each week he goes out there as it is. He would do himself a huge favor to disappear for while, let his daughter grow as a performer, and save whatever fan fare he has left for truly special moments and events.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Sam Is Neat
***SPOILERISH***

Apparently, in the heat of a promo on Smackdown, Ric Flair told Nattie to go kill herself. This was in response to Nattie's claims that her uncle, Bret Hart, could handle Ric Flair, come Sunday at Payback, to which Ric started prattling on about how he has beaten Bret Hart everywhere and ultimately ended with the line above.

While I assume it is edited out, I do wonder, if the reports are true, if this is the beginning of the end of Ric Flair as a weekly character. Dude is crippling his own legacy each week he goes out there as it is. He would do himself a huge favor to disappear for while, let his daughter grow as a performer, and save whatever fan fare he has left for truly special moments and events.

---

* File this under WWE officials obsessing over trivial shit: apparently Lilian Garcia announced Colin Cassady as "Colin Cassady". She was apparently harshly reprimanded by Bucky the Beaver backstage for it because the WWE is now billing him as "Big Cass". If it makes anyone feel any better, Lilian reportedly gave him shit back and it turned into a rather heated argument.

[Edited on 4-27-2016 by CCharger]

Even as the shadows deepened over Theoden's degenerate court at Meduseld, Lady Eowyn was one of the very few who had the tenure and enough spine to be able to tell the wretched Grima to go fuck hisself and get away with it. Good for you, lovely horse-faced lady.

Calling a wrestler by his wrestling name is bad? They should train the talent to not say "in the WWE". THAT makes no sense.

Given WWE's track record with Flair, Natalie will get fired for Ric being a batshit moron.

They were always billed as "Enzo Amore & Colin Cassady" on NXT, and Big Cass was just his nickname. I forgot that once guys are brought up to the main roster, they aren't allowed to have first and last names anymore.

Also, for a company that was always so damn concerned with having multiple guys with the same name, they sure don't care about having a bunch of dudes whose first name is Big.


Re: Ric Flair... I agree that I'm beyond sick of his gimmick with Charlotte, and I wish he would go the fuck away, but the promo thing isn't THAT bad. He probably got worked up and went into old school mode for a minute. Not kosher in today's WWE, but nothing that can't just be edited out and easily ignored. Let's not act like he called Nattie a "fucking cunt" on live TV or something.

When it rains, it Flairs...

http://deadspin.com/ric-flair-had-a-rough-morning-at-logan-airport-1773402986

Sounds kind of serious if it isn't alcohol-related. Hate to think it but maybe he's entering that stage where some kind of dementia from the career head injuries is beginning to manifest itself.

Earlier reports had him being loud in a bar prior...and then erroneously stating that he was detained and not allowed to board because of intoxication. Even though the back half of that has been updated to make this injury-related and him being able to board the plane, the drinking part is still out there. This was an a.m. flight/incident too. Not that having a drink(s) in the morning by itself is always a bad thing, but in Flair's case....I think we can pretty much universally agree that it was.

quote:

---

Originally posted by CCharger
When it rains, it Flairs...

http://deadspin.com/ric-flair-had-a-rough-morning-at-logan-airport-1773402986

---

I dunno. Between that welt on his head on RAW this week, and now this incident with another possible head injury involved, there could be something mentally or physically wrong happening with him. Unless he's really hitting the bottle lately and they're only saying this as a cover about him needing to head off to dry out for a while. Cops wouldn't participate in this kind of thing though. If they said he wasn't drunk at the airport bar where this all began then he wasn't. One of the top wrestlers of all time means nothing to them because Ric Flair is no where near moneybags enough to be able to get police co-operation on smoothing things over when something stupid happens in public. Fucking embarrassing as hell for Charlotte though because it can't be a lot of fun for her having him prominently involved in the storyline if he's going through some kind of meltdown.

I don't know; if I was a cop, and a fan, and I ran into a guy like Flair who's maybe being a bit loud I'd probably see if I could calm him down and sweep it under the rug so long as I thought he got the message, and wasn't in too bad of shape.

I think most cops will try to cut people a break, and when it comes to celeb's maybe even a bit more so given all the shit they have to deal with for stuff that isn't that big of a deal but get's blown up by TMZ.... also, were I a cop I'm not sure I'd want my picture or name plastered all over marching maybe one of my childhood heroes out in cuffs.

Hell, look no further than the last few post where rampant speculation is in play, and unlike other stories we've been given an official statement.

I can see that if it's some lone cop pulling someone over in the middle of the night with no one else around. I can't see the local detachment commander doing it though, not in a busy place like an airport with enough witnesses where there's no way it won't hit the news. Even if the local squad is full of wrestling fans from top to bottom they wouldn't put their jobs on the line for Ric Flair, because there's too many cop-haters out there watching who could use an incident like this for some scalp hunting. This day and age they wouldn't fib and say he wasn't drunk if he really was because too many tempests in a teapot get kicked off by cutting someone a break

Probably making a discussion out of nothing. Still seems like Old Man Flair's got some issues one way or another that have reached a breaking point. WWE should sit on him for a while and force him to go for help either way so it doesn't hurt Charlotte or come back to bite them on the butt. "Thet Ricky Flay-uh, he got thome kind of a problum wit thh thawth....".

[Edited on 4/28/2016 by Paddlefoot]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Paddlefoot
Even as the shadows deepened over Theoden's degenerate court at Meduseld, Lady Eowyn was one of the very few who had the tenure and enough spine to be able to tell the wretched Grima to go fuck hisself and get away with it. Good for you, lovely horse-faced lady.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Paddlefoot
"Thet Ricky Flay-uh, he got thome kind of a problum wit thh thawth....".

---

NESN (New England sports network) has been working the story.

http://nesn.com/2016/04/no-one-seems-to-really-know-what-happened-to-ric-flair-at-logan-airport/

They should have just put him in a rocker and sat him by a window. He could have grinned.

quote:

---

Bath Salt King of SoFla posted:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Paddlefoot
"Thet Ricky Flay-uh, he got thome kind of a problum wit thh thawth....".

Whilst the Grima Bucktongue ref was the tits, the above quote is elegant and highly descriptive in its simplicity and should be taught in schools or AA meetings.

---

---

Bit O' news today....

*The WWE wants more money....
Well, that's pretty much the long and short of it, so no more sharing your password with your friends, they'll have to get their own WWE accounts as the WWE has tossed out the Netflix playbook of allowing you to share the love depending on your account type you have, and wants everyone to get their own.

Meh, I can't really knock them on this one- but the language is pretty heavy handed.

*Bret Hart is.... well, Bret Hart.
Bret wouldn't be Bret if he didn't take the opportunity in a recent interview to complain about something, and this time it's HHH... who apparently only likes, and pushes body builders.... despite, you know.... NXT. HHH was also apparently never a real wrestling fan like Bret was.

Bret being Bret did however actually bury some good thoughts after a wack of griping, and this time up it was all the part timers taking all the biggest, and best paying spots at Wrestlemania.

*Michael Cole 2.0 given the boot...
Rich Brennan has apparently been given the old heave ho from the WWE after getting replace by Mauro on Smackdown. Word going around is that he was fired for not wanting to get ugly tattoo's of Cole's family all over his body a la Cole, so Vince thought that people would eventually be able to tell the apart.

Vince planned eugenics program is still in full swing though; as evidenced by the new Bella's super-family show, and the eventual plan to breed the McGrand-kids with the Cebellyanaurinitis progeny.

*Chyna's manager dishes dirt...
He says she died of an accidental overdose of Ambien and Valium. The official report is still some time off.

*May Flair was just trying to out crazy Janetty?
Apparently Marty Janetty was kicked out of several Dallas bars over WM weekend, while also no showing a show. He was also spotted.... by Lance Storm's daughter no less.... walking around in a hotel fountain.

*Nobody loves Tna....
Apparently Dixie has now gone around offering %10 shares in TNA to it's UK and India based broadcast partners, but had no takers.... TNA is now moving from their merchandising warehouse to a local YMCA.

*er.... maybe someone loves TNA...
There are two names that have come out as potential buyers; one is Aroluxe, which a Google search pegs as some kind of marketing slash TV production company.... Dixie is apparently rejecting them as being too professional sounding, and that they might know what they are doing.... the other is rumoured to be Sinclair Broadcasting, which is apparently where the CEO of Aroluxe used to work, and is also the parent company of ROH. Should Sinclair grab them up there is talk of it being a very Turner/WCW type arrangement, and that TNA would likely be moved from POP.

Bret sure knows how to hate, like he's turned into someone's nutcase Rush Limpbaugh/FOX News-addicted grand-dad. It's like he needs it or something to give his life meaning. He can't rip on HBK anymore after the rapprochement between him, Shawn, and Vince so HHH remains the last Screwjob-involved target standing. It's as if Bret has been pissed off and bitter for so long that he can't imagine not living that way, which is pretty fucked up. If he's at home still stewing over Montreal '97, and making up braindead shit in his mind like "Hunter only loves bodybuilders!" then there's probably not much anyone can do to get through to him. Gonna have to leave Bret behind because life is too short to listen anymore to someone that mentally messed up with their alternative optics on how the world is.

Wonder if anyone had any thought about intervening on Chyna before that stupid show on A&E; was ready to premiere. Y'know, to save her life and shit. Surrounded by leeches at the very end apparently, the kind of users committed only to their own profit no matter how much it ended up hurting her. Sick fucking world, these "reality" show bottom-feeders have made for themselves, way fucking worse than the regular Hollywood freakshow is.

*Per Meltzer, Eric Young has officially signed with NXT.

quote:

---

Originally posted by CCharger
*Per Meltzer, Eric Young has officially signed with NXT.

---

BREAKING NEWS: @TheEricYoung has arrived to @WWENXT!!! pic.twitter.com/F0Y5bL3Icg

— WWE (@WWE) April 28, 2016

The new era of @WWENXT... @TheEricYoung @SamoaJoe #WeAreNXT pic.twitter.com/BA3KM7kvAA

— Triple H (@TripleH) April 28, 2016

#WeAreNXT #WeWereTNA

I can get behind NXT picking up Young. Under-rated talent, plus his veteran status can help with the up-and-coming talent.

quote:

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Posted by CCharger
#WeAreNXT #WeWereTNA

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Originally posted by Slade

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Posted by CCharger
#WeAreNXT #WeWereTNA

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INDEED!!!

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Two reasons for the WWE signing of TNA talent

1) Ultimate troll. To show how to make money off of this roster.

2) To get in the good graces of all the TNA wrestlers for when Vince buys the TNA tape library for $20 at the garage sale they are about to have, the WWE can make a box set of "The fall and fall of TNA" with great matches and great stories about how screwed up the place was.

Any word on a "TNA: Best of Eric Young" dvd boxset being fast-tracked for release...?

I'm not gonna lie, and I honestly don't mean this to sound as negative or persmarkity as it probably will, but the signing of Eric Young does absolutely nothing for me. Doesn't move the needle one bit, so to speak. Granted my opinion doesn't matter much seeing as how I've been off the TNA bandwagon since around the time Hogan and Bischoff mucked things up, but I never really "got" EY. I appreciate him for what he is/was, and that's someone who does decent character work, throws himself into his role etc. I just never found myself able to take him seriously, which is almost by design given the way he was booked back when I was regularly watching.

I don't know... It's like finding out that Santino Marella signed with ROH. Sure it'd be surprising, but I feel like after that initial pop wore off it'd be like "where do we go from here?" "What exactly will he bring to the product?"

And you know what? Judging by the results from the tapings, it doesn't exactly look like they're planning on building the brand around him. Which I'm sure was exactly nobody's concern/expectation. And sure he'll be another veteran to have around to help guide the rookies, but how much wisdom can a guy who spent the past 12 years or so (and 99% of his career) in TNA provide? Aside from making sure the rookies' bank accounts have overdraft protection?

But I'm digressing into snarkiness, and that's not my intention. My intention was actually to say that this signing initially puzzled me, but then I took a step back and realized that NXT doesn't really have any homegrown male singles talent ready to step up into the main event. With all of the great work that they've been doing developing the Womens and Tag division, it's easy to overlook the fact that there isn't anybody ready to step in as a dance partner for Samoa Joe. B�lor's getting his rematch at the next Takeover in June, and after that I have to imagine he's full-time, main roster bound in time for Summerslam. In that time frame I hope that maybe they decide to go with Joe/Nakamura for Takeover: Brooklyn.

So it makes sense that they're padding their roster with some vets, and folks with indie street-cred (even if it's "just" TNA experience) from outside the system to bolster their World Title scene. I'd rather have legitimized workers vying for the title than have them hotshot the belt onto works-in-progress. And thankfully with the combination of their taping schedule, vibrant Womens and Tag divisions, and their additions of ROH/TNA/etc workers they won't have any trouble padding their cards with quality matches while they develop their next class of viable singles competitors. While they're busy doing that, I won't mind seeing guys like Joe, Nakamura, or Aries holding keeping that World Title scene afloat and further legitimizing that belt.

Oh, and when the fuck are they going to get around to signing the MCMGs?

I still say that for as much as it the general sentiment is LOLTNA; if this is the end they've had a good run.... and I could probably count on one hand how many times I've seen TNA since they moved away from the old PPV exclusive model they started out with.

They've lasted longer than ECW, and WCW, and have achieved a bigger global presence than ROH has. I mean TNA has had a lot of failings and a head scratching lack of a good business plan at times; but in terms of going from nothing to a global presence in 14 years it's been a fairly impressive run.

I know history will show that signing Hogan and Bischoff is probably that moment when they screwed up the worst.... less because it was Hogan and Bischoff for as much as the IWC likes to mock the orange goblin, but more because it was probably that moment where they basically turned their back on the workrate and Indy flavour that was their niche.... but at least you can see where looking at the money those two have made in their time in the business it would be a bit seductive to get in bed with them.

I dunno... no one is probably ever going to be able to compete with the WWE; they are quite simply the Kleenex, or Google of Wrestling at this point and have been for a long time; but a good second tier promotion that offers something different isn't a bad thing to get behind.

I think being thin on NXT Title challengers has simply been a combination factors rather than them choosing hot signings over building up talents. Two guys who could have challenged got called up at the same time(Corbin,Crews), Itami taking longer than expected to come back, and certain new acts like the Drifter and Heel Riley not really catching on.

Personally, I think that the day TNA blew any chance to compete (i.e., strong #2) with the WWE was November 19, 2006 when Kurt Angle went over Samoa Joe at Genesis. Joe was the one guy that could have been built into a superstar and Angle could have freaked out and began trying to kill everyone for another shot at Joe. That feud could have been legendary, but TNA hot-shotted it and did severe damage to Joe's mystique in the process.

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Originally posted by bopol
Personally, I think that the day TNA blew any chance to compete (i.e., strong #2) with the WWE was November 19, 2006 when Kurt Angle went over Samoa Joe at Genesis. Joe was the one guy that could have been built into a superstar and Angle could have freaked out and began trying to kill everyone for another shot at Joe. That feud could have been legendary, but TNA hot-shotted it and did severe damage to Joe's mystique in the process.

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Originally posted by GodEatGod

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Originally posted by bopol
Personally, I think that the day TNA blew any chance to compete (i.e., strong #2) with the WWE was November 19, 2006 when Kurt Angle went over Samoa Joe at Genesis. Joe was the one guy that could have been built into a superstar and Angle could have freaked out and began trying to kill everyone for another shot at Joe. That feud could have been legendary, but TNA hot-shotted it and did severe damage to Joe's mystique in the process.

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I totally agree with this. That said, I can understand that they were more interested in being in the Kurt Angle business than the Samoa Joe business at the time. While his star may have waned over the years with the obvious health and legal problems, Kurt Angle was a very big deal at the time and easily TNA's biggest signing to date. Plus, I'm sure Kurt didn't want to make a big splash by coming into the company and jobbing right out of the gate.

Again, I totally agree, that would've been a way more interesting story. But it's easy to understand why it's not the story they told.

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I am one of the people that blame Hogan and Bischoff and crew for ruining TNA for me and many others. They flipped the show from a decent up and coming product trying to establish itself into an obvious backstage shitshow based on Ego and vanity, in which idiots like the Nasty Boyz were now back on tv and winning matches. They removed the 6-sided ring, and instantly became "shittier 2001 WCW" overnight. After their aborted attempt to switch to Monday Nights, I never watched TNA again. It was obvious where it was going. And sure, blame Dixie Carter too.

A shame, to be honest. At one point TNA was better than WWE in enjoyment, rivaled it in stories (even if TNA always ran them too long), better in the ring, and had a real energy to it. Then it all ended pretty much all at once. Oh well.

[Edited on 4-30-2016 by Quentil]

Over the course of the last 10 years, I bought 3 episodes of Impact on my X-Box: the gauntlet episode, the post-Pacman Jones Angle Family Thanksgiving Extravaganza, and one other one between the two. Even with WWE guys like Booker, Angle, and Christian, it still managed to be fun. So, naturally, when I tried to rewatch one of them Thursday, I got really depressed because that'll never happen again in anyone's lifetime. It's WWE or bust, and it is mostly the faults of Hogan, Bischoff, and Dixie.

And I can't wait for that 3-disc DVD set where WWE reveals they purposely let Bischoff and Hogan go because they knew Dixie would give them that much control to do whatever they wanted, because I still can't believe anyone could think that programming was a good idea.

I think that's what bugs me is that from 2005-7, TNA was really good. And then they blew it. And then they've lingered on for a decade as a stinking corpse basically advertising to the world that no alternative to WWE can exist.

I was perfectly fine with Angle coming in and beating Joe, the only issue was that the match was somewhat underwhelming and the bad follow-up.

Joe was TNA's Ace, the guy who beat the World Champion on a B PPV before the big show, he had literally beaten every big name in the company with the exception of Sting. Running into the brick wall that was an Olympic Gold Medalist, a guy who had a WM World Title match the same year was a fine way to end his Streak without hurting him.

They just didn't follow it up, the first Joe-Angle match drew twice the buyrates they should usually did and it deserved a proper rematch rather than the quick one it got. Joe-Angle 1, Joe finally meets his better, Joe-Angle 2 Joe gets even, and then Angle wins the belt via some multiman match and they build for the BOFG Main Event Joe-Angle 3 for the gold.

I remember being so pissed off at the arrival of Hogan that I gave up on TNA right then. I kept following the Knockouts because it was the one aspect of the show, the fight between Kong and Bubba The Cum-Sponge notwithstanding, that Hogan left to itself and didn't ruin. For all the great single performances that guys like AJ, Daniels, the X-Div guys, Joe, Christian, Beer Money, and Angle were still putting in, the writing was clearly on the wall. It wasn't just going to be a repeat of how WCW was destroyed either, it was going to be even worse. It wasn't a golden goose situation like WCW, it was like watching a bright and healthy teenager with a hell of a lot of potential get stricken with cancer and slowly start dying right in front of everyone. I take no satisfaction in saying we detractors turned out to be correct on the issue but at the time here in OO we certainly took a lot of shit, even having our posts mangled by TNA sk8rbois with mod powers, when we began to bring up the WCW comparisons to what was happening. Pessimists aren't appreciated very much, even when they turn out to be right. As for TNA at this moment there's no point to any of it at all anymore. I'd rather go back to watching the old all-kayfabe Saturday afternoon wrestling shows from the 1970's and '80's than give any of my time to Dixie's mistake.

ETA: comment here from Chris Sabin on TNA's current situation

http://www.dailywrestlingnews.com/chris-sabin-on-if-hes-talked-with-wwe-where-tna-went-wrong-wrestling-being-cool-again-more/

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It�s hard to think about the talent roster that TNA had at one time and look at what they went on to doing nowadays. If they would have realized the star power and potential that the guys actually had and put their resources and their TV time to getting these certain guys over � the guys who were pretty much over with the fans. I don�t think who the fans wanted to see mattered to TNA. I don�t think 100-percent. I think it influenced it, but it had to do more with what they perceived. It was what they perceived the fans wanted them to see, but not what the fans actually wanted to see.

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While we're talking about TNA, here's another one for the rumor pile.

http://wrestlingnews.co/report-bobby-roode-eric-young-left-tna-because-they-were-owed-six-figures/

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If you are one of the very few people still wondering why TNA is so damaged as a brand, watch PWR host Dameon Nelson and David Herro talk about TNA�s problems on the Pro Wrestling Report. Herro is the founder of Great Lakes Championship Wrestling and he has a ton of contacts in the wrestling business.

In regards to TNA�s issues with paying talent and perception by fans, Hero said, �When they do pay their talent, they�re paying them nothing. Their biggest stars [are] Matt Hardy, Jeff Hardy and EC3.� He added, �Their TNA Wold Heavyweight Impact Wrestling Champion is a guy that was doing 2-minute jobs on Monday Night Raw 2 and a half years ago.� Hero noted that Galloway is a stud and a great wrestler. He added, �You�re telling the wrestling world that was watching 3MB doing jobs to Hornswoggle, [that Galloway] is now the champion of your wrestling company.�

Hero pointed out that it�s not a dig on Drew and it�s the fault of the way he was booked. He also pointed out that EC3 was fired from NXT and is now one of TNA�s biggest stars.

Another interesting tidbit from the show came at the 11:35 mark. Apparently, Bobby Roode and Eric Young left the company because of issues with pay. Herro said, �Bobby Roode and Eric Young left because they were owed a combined six-figures. How do you not pay those two guys? You let Bobby Roode go� a guy who could have gone to WWE but he wanted to be loyal to the company. Thank God he left. He�ll be a big star in NXT. He�ll make the main roster in a year from now. Same with Eric Young.�

How can you fix TNA? Herro says, �you need to bury TNA.� He says that they need to write it all off and be done with it. He added, �I wish Ring Of Honor would buy TNA. They already have the infrastructure in place. They already have the TV deal alone. They�re already in more markets than Pop TV. TNA does not get paid by Pop TV. They bartered for time.�

Herro noted that TNA was running house shows in the cheapest buildings and the worst towns. Herro said that there was a time when he helped TNA for house shows in Racine, Wisconsin and Chicago, IL and they sent him the posters with Grand Rapids, Michigan printed on them. The problem with that is that Grand Rapids is a 6 and a half-hour drive from Wisconsin.

TNA has not run a domestic house show since October 2015 and there are none scheduled, according to their website. Herro also noted that none of these problems are the fault of the talent because they are so handcuffed on so many things.

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I genuinely don't know the answer to this as we only have some occasional stories that they do well internationally; but I wonder what the value in salvaging the TNA brand name is?

On one hand, it's a very tarnished name on the domestic front; on the other they do seem to have some international presence that likely isn't as trashed as it is over here.

Even with a tarnished name there is some value there.... I mean if they got some positive news behind them (Dixie out, new sets, touring... ect) would people actively avoid them because the name is so far gone? Would it be harder to get people to give an unknown entity a chance than it would be to win back some fans? Like, years ago.... the whole partnering with the NWA was a bit of a mixed bag as on one hand it tied them to a known quantity, on the other everyone knew that the once powerful NWA went from millionaires running it to being run out of some guys mom's basement.

How far to the bone would TNA have to cut to "win" back it's name...? Obviously Dixie and Jarrett would have to be flown to Antarctica so that neither could ever be rumoured as being in conjunction with a resurrected brand. Should whomever buy's it let it go dark for a good period of time and maybe just start by running a house show circuit to build up some buzz first? Is there a guy out there that you could jump start things with.... someone not named CM Punk?

TNA needs a massive influx of money. WCW/NWA was in a similar situation before Turner took over. They were struggling competing with Vince and then Turner's bottomless pockets led to the Monday Night Wars. Unfortunately, I don't see any billionaires with a massive media corporation eager to buy and resurrect a moribund wrestling promotion.

I don't think it can be saved. And maybe even shouldn't be, because everything they've done for so long has been such a colossal failure it kind of deserves to be put out of it's misery. There's no way the name doesn't carry a bad stigma to it now. All I want is for Vince to scoop the rights up so those great matches from that definitive TNA crew won't be forgotten. That stuff needs to be archived and made available on the Network and on DVD. Just going by the omnibus X-Division matches, especially things like Ultimate-X, that would give fans access to the archetype of what a cruiserweight division should have looked like and, yeah, WWE botched their own division pretty badly too. Other than that which can be mined from their corpse there doesn't seem to be much point in TNA remaining alive. Hopefully WWE strikes quickly because when TNA gets evicted from their warehouse all the vids are just gonna either get seized by their creditors or end up in Bob Carter's garage and disappear into the mists of history.

I wonder if Dixie will try to sell only a 10% share in TNA's video archives, and that they have to leave her in charge of them.... that's how being the head of a failing business works right? You get to dictate terms?

ETA: You know the big difference I think that exists now, which would pretty much crush any future national alternative brand, is that when TNA started out 15'ish years ago, there was an extremely healthy supply of top end Indy talent out there, the wrestling landscape wasn't so far removed from ECW and WCW being a thing, and there genuinely "felt like" there was a void.

There's always going to be the anti-WWE/support the little guy fans out there, but by and large the WWE has diversified itself well enough with not only NXT, but that for as much as the WWE is where the giants roam, a good chunk of it's stars and recent stars are guy's that 10 years ago we'd have said there was little to no chance they'd be on the WWE's radar, never mind it's top guy (Hell, what was it... 4 years ago that Seth Rollins was destined to be the next Kofi Kingston perennial mid-card high spot guy?).

Now.... ex ECW and WCW guys are pretty much a kiss of death as talent on your roster... not that all of them universally suck, but the whole "what's so and so doing in the impact zone" is a bad joke, and we've seen it kill a few companies now.... and for as badly used and not his fault that Drew Galloway's WWE run was; the post above that talked about how this is TNA's champion and it's a bit of an image problem is spot on.

Lastly; not saying that the Indy scene is a barren wasteland now, but the WWE isn't just grabbing up the ripe fruit anymore, they are going to the tree themselves more and more... so while there is some talent out there still, there isn't quite as much of it as there was once; and that talent knows it... so they can either sit on the Indy scene and make a good amount of cash waiting for the potential offer from the WWE to come, or they can take a chance by throwing in with a start up/recovery project like TNA and possibly risk hurting their profile....

I'm actually a bit saddened in writing this... up to even a few days ago I thought that if maybe an entity like Fox Sports wanted to develop some cheap content that could deliver better ratings than Men's over 65 national lawn bowling championships while they scramble to pay a crap load of money for Soccer or some other not quite tapped out big time sport in the US, that there was a genuine hope for a 2nd, big time wrestling organization if put in the right hands....

Never say never in life, but after writing this I'm becoming a bit more convinced about just how hard it could be to get this off the ground.

[Edited on 5-1-2016 by Flash]

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Originally posted by bopol
Personally, I think that the day TNA blew any chance to compete (i.e., strong #2) with the WWE was November 19, 2006 when Kurt Angle went over Samoa Joe at Genesis. Joe was the one guy that could have been built into a superstar and Angle could have freaked out and began trying to kill everyone for another shot at Joe. That feud could have been legendary, but TNA hot-shotted it and did severe damage to Joe's mystique in the process.

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Originally posted by Flash... so they can either sit on the Indy scene and make a good amount of cash waiting for the potential offer from the WWE to come, or they can take a chance by throwing in with a start up/recovery project like TNA and possibly risk hurting their profile....

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Jericho confirmed he's done with this latest round:

Thanks @wwe....its been real. See you next time.

— Chris Jericho (@IAmJericho) May 2, 2016

Rumors going around about the Vaudevillians...

http://www.ringsidenews.com/wwe-news/vince-mcmahon-thinks-the-vaudevillians-gimmick-is-stupid/

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"Vince McMahon has already soured on the Vaudevillians. He thinks Aiden English and Simon Gotch's throwback gimmick is stupid. This has added to McMahon's frustration that NXT isn't focused enough on developing talent that fit well on the WWE main roster."

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That's a pretty out there complaint... I mean outside of the Vaudevillian, Adam Rose, and Ascension most of the NXT talent don't really have all that out there of a gimmick....

I mean it's not like Stardust, and Goldust don't contribute.... let's not forget comedy acts like Santino and the Boogeyman. There's also the fact that the Undertaker is likely the greatest gimmick/talent the WWE has ever produced.

Not every guy coming into the main roster is ever intended to be the next Cena... five hours of TV a week is a lot of time to fill.

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Originally posted by williamssl
Jericho confirmed he's done with this latest round:

Thanks @wwe....its been real. See you next time.

— Chris Jericho (@IAmJericho) May 2, 2016

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Normally I'd agree with you CiG, but as evidenced by last night and the short term booking that we can see; the wins and losses to Jericho didn't hurt anyone in the slightest, and were all entertaining in ring and storywise, so it's tough to complain too much.

In a vacuum it seems weird to have Jericho go over a few guys like he did unless you were building him up to have him job in a bigger more meaningful way; but maybe they were just using Jericho as a big name filler? (ie they had AJ pencilled in for Reigns at payback, and have bigger plans for Ambrose, but needed to buy some time as other opponents were tied up...)

I don't know... there's times when losing hurts a guy (well, I actually think it's what they do after a big loss that's what really makes or breaks a guy), but dropping a match to a high profile legend like Jericho every now and then so that each time Jericho comes back it's not an automatic that he's just there to put over a guy (which would then essentially make it useless) isn't a bad thing.

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Originally posted by Chris Is Good517

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Originally posted by williamssl
Jericho confirmed he's done with this latest round:

Thanks @wwe....its been real. See you next time.

— Chris Jericho (@IAmJericho) May 2, 2016

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Arrive, job out AJ and Zayn, put over the one guy on the roster who is too massively over to benefit from the rub, leave.

Cool, Jericho. Thanks for playing.

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RUMORZ say the original WM plan was for Jericho and Ambrose to square off....and if that's the case, we got that in mini edition last night.

If memory serves, Jericho and Styles split their series, each with a RAW/SD win and each with a PPV win. If that's what jobbing out to someone looks like, I bet there's a lot of folks on the roster who are gonna be fighting to be first in line for that treatment.

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Originally posted by G-Spot
Rumors going around about the Vaudevillians...

http://www.ringsidenews.com/wwe-news/vince-mcmahon-thinks-the-vaudevillians-gimmick-is-stupid/

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"Vince McMahon has already soured on the Vaudevillians. He thinks Aiden English and Simon Gotch's throwback gimmick is stupid. This has added to McMahon's frustration that NXT isn't focused enough on developing talent that fit well on the WWE main roster."

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...and I'm sure if this is true, Bucky's in Vince's ear about it as well.

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AJ Styles is getting a lot more out of a Wrestlemania loss to Chris Jericho than Fandango got out of a win.

I've gotta agree with CiG on this one, mainly regarding AJ losing to Jericho. I thought that win for Jericho was pointless and counter-productive in the first place and now I feel that way x 1,000!

Is AJ still in a really good place? Yes. But when we look back in 20 years and see that AJ lost his Wrestlemania debut match against an aged (and soon-to-be-leaving) Chris Jericho will we say "What the fuck??" Yes.

And has been said, we're all looking back at Fandango's WM win and saying "yep - THAT put him on the WWE map!"

Opinions. Assholes. IWC R Us.

This is just breaking, but:

pwinsider.com/article/101736/wwe-star-off-tv-due-to-contract-dispute.html?p=1

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Ryback, who lost to WWE United States champion Kalisto last night during the WWE Payback Kickoff Show, is not at Raw in St. Louis tonight.

The word making the rounds, according to multiple sources, is that Ryback was sent home and will be, as of this writing, off TV indefinitely. One version of the story is that Ryback himself asked to be pulled from TV.

Ryack's contract with the company expires this summer and the two sides have been, according to several sources, at odds over negotiations for a new contract.

Ryback first worked for WWE in 2004 as part of The Million Dollar Tough Enough season that was integrated into Smackdown. He was signed to WWE developmental in 2006 and debuted on the first season of WWE NXT. After extended time off TV due to a badly broken angle, he returned as the current incarnation of Ryback and has been a regular on the main roster, and at times a PPV main eventer, since.

More as we get it.

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Tough one for Ryback;

I'm working my way through Raw from 2012 onwards, which of course features his first main event level push... Yeah he'd had his limitations, but there was a stretch there where he was massively over... So I could see how he could think he's still worth what they were paying him (or more) as he's probably a decent push away from holding down an upper mid-card spot (especially if the brand split happens). He probably also knows that depending on how lowball of an offer the WWE is making, he could likely work less dates for equal money overseas and on the various domestic Indy's. He could also be looking at Hollywood... he's probably not a leading man, but grabbing a few bad guy muscle-bound henchman roles wouldn't be out of the question.

On the other hand from the WWE's POV he's limited in the ring, has suffered a few injuries, and of course the ultimate trump card he's a disposable talent to a company that's the biggest game in town.

The WWE is always going to have the promise of making millions a year going for them, and being the dream of many a young person to perform in, but they've lost, and appear to be losing a good amount of talent over the last few years who've had no problem telling them to stick it.

Honestly, good for him for standing up to the WWE... while they are the biggest, and highest paying game in town, you start letting too many name guys go (or see them walking out the door) .... Well that's not good for the old image.

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Originally posted by Chris Is Good517

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Originally posted by williamssl
Jericho confirmed he's done with this latest round:

Thanks @wwe....its been real. See you next time.

— Chris Jericho (@IAmJericho) May 2, 2016

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Arrive, job out AJ and Zayn, put over the one guy on the roster who is too massively over to benefit from the rub, leave.

Cool, Jericho. Thanks for playing.

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Originally posted by gobbledygooker
I've gotta agree with CiG on this one, mainly regarding AJ losing to Jericho. I thought that win for Jericho was pointless and counter-productive in the first place and now I feel that way x 1,000!

Is AJ still in a really good place? Yes. But when we look back in 20 years and see that AJ lost his Wrestlemania debut match against an aged (and soon-to-be-leaving) Chris Jericho will we say "What the fuck??" Yes.

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I posted a link a few days back of an interview Ryback did in the UK, and he sounded downright despondent. He was very candid about how terribly he's been booked, and that he was willing to walk away from the WWE when his contract expired. I think Ryback would get over huge in Japan. He's a giant, scary-looking American who works stiff as hell.

quote:

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Originally posted by gobbledygooker
I've gotta agree with CiG on this one, mainly regarding AJ losing to Jericho. I thought that win for Jericho was pointless and counter-productive in the first place and now I feel that way x 1,000!

Is AJ still in a really good place? Yes. But when we look back in 20 years and see that AJ lost his Wrestlemania debut match against an aged (and soon-to-be-leaving) Chris Jericho will we say "What the fuck??" Yes.

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quote:

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Originally posted by CCharger
I posted a link a few days back of an interview Ryback did in the UK, and he sounded downright despondent. He was very candid about how terribly he's been booked, and that he was willing to walk away from the WWE when his contract expired. I think Ryback would get over huge in Japan. He's a giant, scary-looking American who works stiff as hell.

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quote:

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Originally posted by CCharger
I posted a link a few days back of an interview Ryback did in the UK, and he sounded downright despondent. He was very candid about how terribly he's been booked, and that he was willing to walk away from the WWE when his contract expired. I think Ryback would get over huge in Japan. He's a giant, scary-looking American who works stiff as hell.

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Ryback issues statement on his dispute with WWE:

http://www.cagesideseats.com/wwe/2016/5/3/11582718/ryback-wwe-issues-money-commitment

Talk about falling on your sword for others;

There's some really interesting stuff in that link above, and Ryback comes off very well.... yeah I know he wrote it, but between his twitter and this it's clear that the "Big Guy" has a lot more to him that he's been allowed to show on TV.

Taking him at his word the whole WWE pay system is a problem... a very archaic territory/promoter style system that leaves everyone unclear about who's getting what, and depending on what time you went on, or if you win or lose, the take home can be very different. I know Jericho wrote a bit about this in his book for when he wrestled HHH at Wrestlemania and he got wind of what HHH took home.... only to be told that the pay was determined by who they thought the fans wanted to see, and who they wanted to win... Turns out HHH had a couple more zeroes in his take home than Jericho did until Jericho bitched to Vince.

Anyway; can't see the WWE taking this public discussion of stuff well; and the two were likely heading for a split anyway (although to be fair, Ziggler leaving was a lock a year or so back as well, and that didn't happen)... But good for Ryback for dragging something like this out into the light.

No doubt the pay system in WWE is strange. Guys get paid a base minimum, but what they get from PPVs and house show tours is basically up to the discretion of Vince McMahon. It is completely arbitrary. Prior to guaranteed minimums, it was even worse. I can't imagine the anxiety of not knowing what your income will be month to month. You could make $50,000 one month and $5000 the next.

ETA: Ryback's post is already hitting the mainstream:

http://deadspin.com/ryback-asks-wwe-for-more-money-questions-the-companys-1774538124

http://www.foxsports.com/wwe/story/wwe-ryback-raw-contract-dispute-pulled-programming-indefinitely-050316

Also, one of the sticking points is control over the trademark "The Big Guy". Both sides claim they have a right to it.

[Edited on 5-3-2016 by CCharger]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Slade
AJ Styles' loss at Wrestlemania was so counterproductive that it set up Jericho going out the next night on RAW and demanding a WWE World Title match only to end up getting put in a fatal fourway match where Styles pinned him to become the #1 contender and get at least two PPV World Title main event matches out of it.

What the fuck were they thinking, indeed!

---

I think Jericho going over is going to be one of those questions that can't really be answered for quite some time.... ie I think a good reason for him to go over is that it was unexpected and keeps us know it all fans on our toes. Jericho letting every up and comer go over him helps no one as it devalues him putting them over.... us outright expecting him to put so and so over is almost just as bad (it's similar in a lot of ways to this past Sunday.... NO ONE could imagine a scenario where AJ was taking home the title). Now yeah it sucks that Jericho is heading out for another one of his sabbaticals (although maybe not quite yet, as apparently he might be doing a Highlight real this Tuesday on SD).... but this is just as much about throwing some doubt on the next time he's back, or even setting up something for Summer Slam. In short, we aren't going to know the answer to any of the above until the next time he's back and we see what the WWE does with this.

The other way of looking at it is why does it matter? We got an entertaining little feud, even if AJ hadn't gone on to face Reigns his staying over or not would likely take a few feuds to accomplish that... This isn't aimed at CiG but we all spend a lot of time looking at what the WWE should have done, how it hurt someone despite often times other evidence to the contrary, and how much better someone would have been off but for some event.... instead of just enjoying what we got. It's nice to see the guys we like on top, but the WWE has continued to truck along making money and keeping a show on the air that we all love for a few decades now, so they are probably doing far more right than wrong.

It's like in a lot of ways the old bit about HHH burying guys.... I can't find the link but someone basically went through and looked at all of those guy's careers and the numbers just didn't pan out the myth... but we have whole heartedly embraced it.

I just saw it as a consequence of moving so fast with AJ. He beat Jericho in his debut, he beat Jericho in their first PPV encounter and then he would beat Jericho again at WM? That would be way too much.

Something better balanced would have been AJ beating Jericho in his debut, losing the following matches and getting his second, decisive win until WM.

Ryback isn't the only one making waves for the WWE and calling out some of their practices publicly; Adam Rose has now tweeted out a picture of his doctors note prescribing Adderall as he promised to do when he took to twitter to call shenanigans on his wellness policy suspension.

Jericho winning hurts AJ not a bit because Jericho is a legitimate and respected legend who can still go in the ring. I also agree that him jobbing for every young guy he feuds with means constantly diminishing returns (even if AJ isn't exactly young). That's what happened to Mick, unfortunately, because he only ever came back to lay down, albeit in spectacular fashion. Jericho can still be a worthwhile tool in WWE's box and there's no reason to throw him out just yet.

quote:

---

Posted by Chris Is Good 517
Are you trying to suggest they couldn't have gotten there without Jericho winning at WM? Because I'm not buying that at all. Yes, they made chicken salad out of some chicken shit booking but that doesn't justify the booking. There's just no benefit at all to anybody for Jericho going over AJ. Maybe it doesn't hurt AJ in the long run (or even the short-term, as it turns out, although it certainly could have), but how does it benefit Jericho? He doesn't need to go over a rising babyface at Mania, he's already Chris Freaking Jericho.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by First 9
I just saw it as a consequence of moving so fast with AJ. He beat Jericho in his debut, he beat Jericho in their first PPV encounter and then he would beat Jericho again at WM? That would be way too much.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Flash
Jericho letting every up and comer go over him helps no one as it devalues him putting them over.... us outright expecting him to put so and so over is almost just as bad

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Chris Is Good517
And I see you guys in the back bringing up Fandango

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Chris Is Good517
Arrive, job out AJ and Zayn, put over the one guy on the roster who is too massively over to benefit from the rub, leave.

Cool, Jericho. Thanks for playing.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Chris Is Good517
Jericho was willing to put over a nobody like Fandango at Mania, but not an already confirmed semi-established Something Special like AJ?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by First 9
I just saw it as a consequence of moving so fast with AJ. He beat Jericho in his debut, he beat Jericho in their first PPV encounter and then he would beat Jericho again at WM? That would be way too much.

Something better balanced would have been AJ beating Jericho in his debut, losing the following matches and getting his second, decisive win until WM.

---

* Adam Rose sez he was suspended for Adderall, and that WWE knew he had been taking it for a year

http://www.dailywrestlingnews.com/adam-rose-reveals-which-drug-wwe-suspended-him-for-posts-letter-from-doctor/

* Here's Maria Kanellis being cheeky in a Supergirl costume

quote:

---

Originally posted by Flash
Tough one for Ryback;

I'm working my way through Raw from 2012 onwards, which of course features his first main event level push... Yeah he'd had his limitations, but there was a stretch there where he was massively over... So I could see how he could think he's still worth what they were paying him (or more) as he's probably a decent push away from holding down an upper mid-card spot (especially if the brand split happens). He probably also knows that depending on how lowball of an offer the WWE is making, he could likely work less dates for equal money overseas and on the various domestic Indy's. He could also be looking at Hollywood... he's probably not a leading man, but grabbing a few bad guy muscle-bound henchman roles wouldn't be out of the question.

On the other hand from the WWE's POV he's limited in the ring, has suffered a few injuries, and of course the ultimate trump card he's a disposable talent to a company that's the biggest game in town.

The WWE is always going to have the promise of making millions a year going for them, and being the dream of many a young person to perform in, but they've lost, and appear to be losing a good amount of talent over the last few years who've had no problem telling them to stick it.

Honestly, good for him for standing up to the WWE... while they are the biggest, and highest paying game in town, you start letting too many name guys go (or see them walking out the door) .... Well that's not good for the old image.

---

The day after WM, Chris Jericho stays in kayfabe mode and responds to criticism of him winning.

quote:

---

"So angry that Jericho beat Styles. 'Oh, Jericho buried Styles.' You're damn right I did! I buried him! I'm going to bury everyone I work against! ... I will bury everybody from this moment forward."

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by williamssl
I'm just going to go ahead and assume you meant something different, or something that didn't come across in such a dicktastic way, because obviously you're not THAT kind of person.

---

Something that just poped into my head, is Jericho currently the top heel? HHH is gone, Stephanie is hanging around on smaller doses, Lesnar and Wyatt are not currently there.I think the only other guy who could be argued to hold the spot is Kevin Owens.

quote:

---

Originally posted by First 9
Something that just poped into my head, is Jericho currently the top heel? HHH is gone, Stephanie is hanging around on smaller doses, Lesnar and Wyatt are not currently there.I think the only other guy who could be argued to hold the spot is Kevin Owens.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by First 9
Something that just poped into my head

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by williamssl

quote:

---

Originally posted by First 9
Something that just poped into my head

---

Uhhhhh......

---

"What is Elijah Burke doing at Raw, Cole??"

Rumors that WWE is releasing people tomorrow (Friday May 6th). No word on who those releases will be but supposedly they are guys who have been with the WWE for "several years."

I suppose this could technically be Ryback, Adam Rose, the one dude from Ascension. Or perhaps Barrett and Mark Henry but their contracts are expiring soon, so I assume they will just have those guys on the roster until they officially expire.

Any guesses as to who might get the axe on Black Friday?

I could see Hennig/One Man Band being let loose, as could Damien Sandow.

I would expect Sandow, Hennig, and Fandango to be tops on that list. That's a shame too because I think all three of them are very talented, but were shamefully mishandled. Bad gimmicks and bad booking.

Looks like Hornswoggle, Alex Riley, and Zeb Colter have been released in the first round of Black Friday.

http://www.wwe.com/article/hornswoggle-alex-riley-released

Feel bad for Zeb. He's a legend. Alex Riley was talented but never really had IT.

I could not care less about the others.

Not surprised with any of them.

Cameron seemingly came out in support of Ryback earlier this week and then clarified her comments yesterday to be broader than speaking to Ryback's specific situation. Linky




Insert retaliation theories here.

quote:

---

Originally posted by williamssl
Not surprised with any of them.

Cameron seemingly came out in support of Ryback earlier this week and then clarified her comments yesterday to be broader than speaking to Ryback's specific situation. Linky




Insert retaliation theories here.

---

El Torito also sent packing. Dark day for midget wrestlers....

And also Santino.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Sam Is Neat
Rumors that WWE is releasing people tomorrow (Friday May 6th).

---

Barrett's gone, albeit on mutual terms

Barrett is the latest "casualty".... well, they probably just asked him if he wanted out early, but still....

The return of "future endeavouring" came out of nowhere

Barret gone now as well, he had until the end of the month but negotiated to get out now.

EDIT: Three at once. Kinda like Melina and cocks.

[Edited on 5-6-2016 by ulsterphil]

And just like that, Cameron might have just paid for her big mouth with a nice Future Endeavoring.

Say hello to unemployment.

Bitch.

quote:

---

Originally posted by CCharger

Insulting members of the WWE Universe is probably not the best way to stay employed by the WWE.

---

The original list was:
Alex Riley
Zeb Coulter
Cameron
El Torito
Hornswoggle
Santino



Barrett was (as of this moment) the only add to the list. Probably a "hey if we're gonna be in the news cycle for folks getting let go, let's agree with him to do it now and do full rip the band-aid off instead of making the news cycle again whenever his contract expires."

Makes sense that he would be a day-off add instead of part of the initial batch since I'm sure today being Endeavoring Day was not on everyone's calendars and once things broke, then they spoke with him rather than risk him being in the know and potential loose lips.


If anyone else gets added, my bet would be folks similar to Barrett's situation e.g. Mark Henry .

[Edited on 5-6-2016 by williamssl]

On the one hand, Barrett had a pretty good career in WWE. Multi-time IC Champion, on TV a lot, KOTR... On the other hand, I think he could've had a better one. I think many of us agree he should've beat John Cena during the Nexus angle. He had a few back-to-back injuries that derailed good programs for him as well. The League of Nations was a good idea with absolutely terrible execution. A lot of bad luck for Bad News. I'm sure this isn't the last we'll see of him, though. I have a feeling he'll be on our radar in some form or fashion sooner than later.

My understanding was that Barrett was legit frustrated with his character's direction in the WWE and wants to start fresh elsewhere (Japan, etc.) I think the WWE would have kept him, had he wanted to stay.

Sandow gone. That one's a shame for sure.

quote:

---

Originally posted by salmonjunkie
He had a few back-to-back injuries that derailed good programs for him as well... A lot of bad luck for Bad News.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by jefft221
Sandow gone. That one's a shame for sure.

---

There's something very wrong if Curtis Axel is also cut today and WWE brings Hulk back in the next few months. Granted "Macho Mandow" was way out of Sandow's wheelhouse (then again he was never supposed to get over in the first place), but the only reason both guys stopped their Mega Powers bit was because Hogan got caught saying racist things.

Then again, classic Hogan: at least one person loses their job and he gets rich and forgiven for saying racist stuff.

quote:

---

Originally posted by CCharger
My understanding was that Barrett was legit frustrated with his character's direction in the WWE and wants to start fresh elsewhere (Japan, etc.) I think the WWE would have kept him, had he wanted to stay.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by jefft221
Sandow gone. That one's a shame for sure.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by salmonjunkie

On the other hand, he could easily become the next TNA champion after a few months in the company.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by CCharger

That's assuming TNA lasts for a few more months.

---

By next week TNA will be running shows out of the VFW Hall in Gatlinsburg.

How is Santino released? I thought he retired a while ago due to injuries. Plus it seems weird to straight up release a guy who is a great favorite and could always be an ambassador to the company.

quote:

---

Originally posted by ulsterphil
This is a shame and a disgrace. Sandow had the fans eating out of his fucking hand from very early on. I really liked the guy and I feel that its a complete waste.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by CCharger
By next week TNA will be running shows out of the VFW Hall in Gatlinsburg.

---

To be honest, most of these guys I thought were already unemployed. My guess is WWE did too. They probably had someone finally look at the books and go "Wait what? We are still paying the midget leprechaun and midget bull?"

[Edited on 5-6-2016 by Sam Is Neat]

Sandow's upside was his feud with Cody. Maybe he goes to TNA, ROH, or Japan and finds another gear.

Barrett needs to go to Japan, figure out his character, nail down a finisher that doesn't suck, and either make a bunch of money in Japan, or come back to the WWE for an AJ like push.

I imagine Zeb/Dutch could easily get an office or backstage job at WWE if he wanted to.

I'm also surprised with Santino. I wonder if he'll have a backstage job at some point.

[Edited on 5-6-2016 by salmonjunkie]

quote:

---

Originally posted by bigfatgoalie
Sandow's upside was his feud with Cody.

---

Personally speaking - this is my destination wishlist for certain released or soon to be released performers:

Ryback - New Japan
I'm sure I've seen other people echo this sentiment and Michael Elgin has tweeted openly about wanting him to come over - I actually find myself more excited about the prospect of Ryan Reeves in New Japan than I ever could have anticipated. I'm not a huge Ryback fan by any means. I don't mind the character as he can be fun at times. The guy behind the character seems genuinely likable if not necessarily super bright. A tour of Japan could do wonders for him.

Damien Sandow - Lucha Underground
With the character work he's shown that he's capable of doing, I can't really imagine why they wouldn't jump at him. I would love to see what kind of character they attach to him and watch him dive right into it. I could see him potentially playing off Dario Cueto as either a lackey or foil.

Wade Barrett - Hollywood
I don't need to see Wade Barrett wrestle again but I would love to see him try his hand at acting. He's got a great look and voice that could potentially take him places in that realm. Especially if he's playing a villain. I'd love to see him in a Bond film.

This is one of those things (with Sandow) when I really hate when users say things like "yeah, he was involved in an angle with HBK super kicking him to open up RAW and holds MITB. His spot is so bad right now" while never trying to look at the reality of the booking.

As Ryback has said: if you are jobbing, you aren't getting paid nearly as much as the winners, and your stock in the company is a lot lower than others.

People need to stop assuming that just because these guys are rubbing the spotlight with legends who make them look foolish in segments, that it actually means they have a career to stardom for themselves.

[Edited on 5-6-2016 by CamstunPWG187]

quote:

---

Originally posted by CamstunPWG187
And just like that, Cameron might have just paid for her big mouth with a nice Future Endeavoring.

Say hello to unemployment.

Bitch.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Planet Starbucks

There's only one word to describe how badly 'creative' handled Sandow - incompetence. I know it's unrealistic to expect anyone to get everything right, but how they managed to fuck up so badly with him I'll never know.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by williamssl
The original list was:
Alex Riley
Zeb Coulter
Cameron
El Torito
Hornswoggle
Santino
Barrett

[Edited on 5-6-2016 by williamssl]

---

Sandow was still getting good crowd reactions. I saw him at the St. Louis Raw on Monday, still getting a good response despite losing to Darren Young with little fanfare on the Superstars taping and then being an afterthought in the battle royal.

quote:

---

Originally posted by denverpunk


I think Riley got hotshotted too soon. He was great at the Miz's sidekick, and got shockingly good reactions when he beat up the Miz, but in hindsight, that was more on Miz than Riley. It seemed like he had improved in NXT, but making an enemy of Cena doesn't usually bode well for anybody.

[Edited on 5-6-2016 by denverpunk]

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by denverpunk

quote:

---

Originally posted by CamstunPWG187
And just like that, Cameron might have just paid for her big mouth with a nice Future Endeavoring.

Say hello to unemployment.

Bitch.

---

Probably, although she may have seen the writing on the wall and thought she had nothing to lose. Bitching at the fans does not work out anywhere, though. Kind of weird of how she was in the right and then totally in the wrong in so short a time.

[Edited on 5-6-2016 by denverpunk]

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by niles81
Wade Barrett - Hollywood
I don't need to see Wade Barrett wrestle again but I would love to see him try his hand at acting. He's got a great look and voice that could potentially take him places in that realm. Especially if he's playing a villain. I'd love to see him in a Bond film.

---

Jesus, how many of the original NXT guys are left? I think it's Darren and Slater from Season 1, Axel, Wyatt, Titus, from season 2, Naomi season 3, and Fandango from season 4.

I mean, I'm not that suprised since there were only like 6 or 7 guys who adapted to WWE and became legit stars(Bryan, Barrett, AJ Lee, Ryback, Kaityln) and besides that you either had talented guys who never found their footing(Kaval, Justin Gabriel, Bateman) or performers who weren't ready yet.

But still, the roster is massively different to what it was 5 years ago.

quote:

---

Originally posted by First 9
Jesus, how many of the original NXT guys are left? I think it's Darren and Slater from Season 1, Axel, Wyatt, Titus, from season 2, Naomi season 3, and Fandango from season 4.

---

I wonder how they come up with their fire list....why Sandow and not Darren Young or the ascension? Of all the talent Ive seen in years that makes no sense to me Sandow is one of the oddest cold shoulders Ive seen the WWE give. I wonder if he legit pissed a higher up off. There has to be more to the story than this, because he was clearly getting over and loved even though he had little TV time. I thought he was the last dude trained by the dude that trained HHH and that HHH really liked him.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Paddlefoot
Speaking of Orton, there was a g̶l̶i̶t̶c̶h̶ hack today on WWE.com where his profile page c̶o̶u̶l̶d̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶a̶c̶c̶e̶s̶s̶e̶d̶ was replaced with an add for rape-scented Axe Body Spray. That got s̶o̶m̶e̶ ̶m̶i̶n̶d̶s̶ c'mon we all know who a̶c̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ praying he was on the list of r̶e̶l̶e̶a̶s̶e̶s̶ untreatable cancer patients in an A.I.D.S ward. WWE fixed it later and t̶h̶e̶ ̶d̶i̶s̶a̶p̶p̶o̶i̶n̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶g̶u̶n̶-̶j̶u̶m̶p̶e̶r̶s̶ Dom had to calm down.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by CCharger
By next week TNA will be running shows out of the VFW Hall in Gatlinsburg.

---

Maybe Sandow was being payed more than guys like Young and that's why WWE decided to cut him off since he was at their level anyway.

yeah that would make sense....you know the more I think about Rybacks letter, the more he makes sense. I use to back McMahon in the Bret vs McMahon feud because I figured Brets job was to do what was best for business (you know for real), and that meant if you were asked to do a JOB you do it, because hes your boss, and thats how it all works. Everyone works together for the common goal of promoting the best show. Everyone that jobs is important to the over character or they never become over to start with.

Watching these wrestlers like Bo Dallas, Heath Slater, Damien Sandow, Cody Rhodes all do these jobs and watch their character just take hit after hit in a way washes up who they can be and without any major changes they have no chance of being a big time player. Seems kinda crazy they base pay on your wins and losses. I always thought contracts were based on where you were on the card (Adam Ryland must have made me think that way) I figured there were like rookie contracts that everyone gets, and then they give you a contract based on where you were on the card and you got paid the same reguardless...and all the money was split from shows based on your contract and the type of contract you have. Its kinda of crazy the way they pay, and while I can see it being a huge motivating factor to move up the card, these guys for the most part are fairly hungry and in excellent shape....I don't think drive is a problem for them.

Ryback has really changed the way I think of wrestling...and I know from a owners point of view they don't want to have to give more money to the talent, and its easy for me or any wrestler to say they should. It does seem like whatever money is given to the talents...needs to be distributed in a manner that acknowledges the main eventers wouldn't be main eventers without the ones that put them over.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Nobledictator1278
Ryback has really changed the way I think of wrestling...

---

I generally agree with Ryback's thinking, although I suspect there's a certain chicken and the egg aspect to the whole thing (is this guy getting paid more because he's booked to win or is he getting booked to win because he's better paid and so they have more invested in him?). But certainly for anybody short of the main event, it doesn't make much sense for anyone to be paid more than others, except perhaps based on seniority. But they've worked very hard for a long time to try and keep that stuff opaque - I know Kevin Nash in shoots talked about one of the things the Kliq did to change the game for themselves is to share what they got paid to make sure none of them are getting screwed.

The problem is, you need a guy higher up the food chain with the leverage to help you do that and most guys are, understandably, selfish and mostly concerned with what they make, not raising the pay for the guys below them (even if, again from Nash, doing so usually pushes YOUR rate up, too). It's utterly clear that, as well paid as WWE guys are to some degree, they're certainly undercompensated for elite athletes at the top of their field.

I didn't know where else to put this, but the WWE/Evolve relationship got very interesting at the Evolve show last night when EC3 showed up to align with Galloway against Johnny Gargano, Drew Gulak, and TJP (3 guys now working for NXT). EC3 cut a pretty good "shoot" promo on the independent wrestling world and becoming showcases for WWE/NXT. Could lead to some pretty good matches and possibly a return for EC3 & Galloway to WWE.

quote:

---

Originally posted by DevilSoprano
I didn't know where else to put this, but the WWE/Evolve relationship got very interesting at the Evolve show last night when EC3 showed up to align with Galloway against Johnny Gargano, Drew Gulak, and TJP (3 guys now working for NXT). EC3 cut a pretty good "shoot" promo on the independent wrestling world and becoming showcases for WWE/NXT. Could lead to some pretty good matches and possibly a return for EC3 & Galloway to WWE.

---

I find it amazing that the whole generation that complains about "millenials" blaming everyone but themselves for their problems...tends to whine about how everything is other people's fault.

quote:

---

Further, it is only fair that the old timers who were never under WWE contract deserve something from those midnight viewings of old NWA and AWA matches

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by merc

quote:

---

Originally posted by DevilSoprano
I didn't know where else to put this, but the WWE/Evolve relationship got very interesting at the Evolve show last night when EC3 showed up to align with Galloway against Johnny Gargano, Drew Gulak, and TJP (3 guys now working for NXT). EC3 cut a pretty good "shoot" promo on the independent wrestling world and becoming showcases for WWE/NXT. Could lead to some pretty good matches and possibly a return for EC3 & Galloway to WWE.

---

You could have made a thread for it. Sadly we have all gotten lazy and everything is a rumor.


Since there is some discussion around pay- this article takes rumors & assumptions to a new level:

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2016/05/wwe-has-a-problem-with-the-past-the-wwe-network-an.html

[Edited on 5-8-2016 by merc]

---

Did Ace have control over NXT? I thought it's been Hunter's project since they made the change-over from FCW or whatever the fuck it was called.

Good way to get Hunter's attention for a possible rehiring with a major fuck-NXT diss-promo. Don't know if there was any personal friction between the two of them but it should be buried. From what EC3's done over the last several years, turning himself into one of the best heels in the business as well as being one of the few bright lights that TNA has now, should be enough to get him a second chance. Christ, if they can have Punk on the roster for seven years with him doing an excellent job on the mic and in the ring but not getting along with anyone backstage then they can certainly afford to give another shot to Bateman even if he has some kind of tension with Trips. Bring along Spud too as his sidekick too while they're at it because there's no way that little goofy jabroni isn't gold for anyone he works for.

[Edited on 5/9/2016 by Paddlefoot]

* more WWE future endeavourings are expected to occur throughout May

* talk is that the road stress is what's setting off some of Ric Flair's recent bad behaviour (i.e. the Logan Airport incident) so he'll be doing the TV shows only and no longer appearing at untelevised events, with more time at home hopefully being sufficient to calm him down/sober him up

* idiocy with Colin Cassady's name still happening; Vince is wavering on Big Cass because they've already got a Big E; they're trying to decide between his real name and "Colin Cass", how about D.H. Smith because no one's using that at the moment

[Edited on 5/9/2016 by Paddlefoot]

[Edited on 5-9-2016 by coxito]

For some of the talent that got released it wouldn't entirely surprise me to see them back down in NXT in a year... if this is being done as part budget cuts, and part razing of the mid card to make room for NXT talent that is ready, then it might be a bit damaging/make no sense to just demote some guys.... On the flip side, letting them loose where they can go out and still earn a good living in Japan, Mexico, and on the Indies, and then come back into the fold in some capacity.

I'm not saying that for everyone; but a guy like Sandow is maybe a good example of this. He doesn't have a huge upside in the eyes of the WWE, but he's very serviceable, and because of his history in the WWE could probably come in for some shows in NXT and look like a very credible threat.

* Word is that they are making a move about Andre the Giant's life. WWE is reportedly not involved in the production. Most interesting detail is that it is rumored that former WWE wrestler Kurrgan will play Andre.

quote:

---

Originally posted by CCharger
* Word is that they are making a move about Andre the Giant's life. WWE is reportedly not involved in the production.

---

Robert Maillet is a super cool dude, too. I met him when he was wrestling as the Acadian Giant in Atlantic Canada about 15 years ago. He was the nicest guy. Although, he was absolutely frightening when he was screaming at me and threatening to put me in the Kurrgan Claw because I was talking trash at him from ringside. He was the heel, so it was my duty to give him hell. Anyhow, I hope he gets the role. He's done a great job with the other roles I've seen him play.



On a completely unrelated note, Cage Side Seats is reporting that Steve Lombardi, aka the Brooklyn Brawler, has also been released by WWE. This comes as a big surprise to me because he hasn't had an on-screen role in forever and he had been employed by the company for 30 years. You would think that someone with that much tenure might not have to worry about losing his job.

EDIT:

I've also read that some wrestling fans in Hawaii have noted that a local advertisement for a house show on June 29 had announced John Cena vs. Shinsuke Nakamura and Brock Lesnar vs. Kevin Owens for the event. It's like WWE is booking a Wrestlemania card in Honolulu for an exclusive crowd of about 8000 people. WWE.com is not confirming that these matches will take place and Brock Lesnar is not even confirmed on the list of performers expected to appear at this house show, so it is far from certain that the announced matches will take place. Still, talk about a pair of fantasy wrestling dream matches on the same bill!

[Edited on 5-11-2016 by Slade]

Charlotte vs Asuka is apparently on that card too.

Isn't that show rumoured to be a Network Special?

quote:

---

Originally posted by bigfatgoalie
Isn't that show rumoured to be a Network Special?

---

Included in the releases last week was Steve Lombardi aka the Brooklyn Brawler. 30 years with the company and he doesn't even get wished best of luck in his future endeavors.

quote:

---

Originally posted by williamssl
Included in the releases last week was Steve Lombardi aka the Brooklyn Brawler. 30 years with the company and he doesn't even get wished best of luck in his future endeavors.

---

www.pwinsider.com/ViewArticle.php?id=101919

quote:

---

Raymond "Adam Rose" Leppan was arrested this morning by The Hillsborough, Florida Sheffiffs office at 1:30. He was charged with Tampering With a Witness and Battery Domestic Violence. As of this writing, he has not been released yet.

Obviously, this not a good thing for a person already serving a 60 day WWE suspension.

---

Adam Rose went and got himself arrested on witness tampering and domestic battery charges. Welp...looks like he is most likely next on the chopping block.

My best guess is that his girlfriend was being a lemon and not a rosebud, baby.

ETA:

* Vince confirmed via shareholders conference call that Cena, Orton, Rollins and Wyatt will all be back in action within the next 30 days.

[Edited on 5-11-2016 by CCharger]

Official Florida Man booking photo. Only slightly less of an embarrassing team than the Social Outcasts to belong to.

That is the look of a man wondering if TNA is hiring.

Honestly, he looks terribly depressed. Easy to say since he was just arrested, but look at his eyes. He looks defeated. Between getting suspended a 2nd time, arrested on some serious charges on top of everything he has to deal with regarding his son's health...I feel bad for the guy.

Might be cracking under the pressure.

What's Roy Leppard doing in the Impact Zone, Josh?

I don't know, Josh, but he's just been attacked from behind by someone in a guinea pig costume!

quote:

---

Originally posted by bopol

What's the Staten Island Scrapper doing in the Impact Zone?

---

I honestly couldn't tell you who the TNA World Champion is right now.

I actually find myself in that position with the US Title in WWE. A (the) problem with having it be held by guy who is in a tag team.

I know the challengers.

And then I get reminded who has it because his partner gets sent out on a Raw or SD to get the shit kicked out of him by said challenger to set up whatever upcoming title match there is (see: Ryback, this week's SD).

Sad to say, I watched the show.
* Currently, Drew Galloway is the TNA champion. Number one contender is Bobby 'brought to you by the makers of Nyquil' Lashley. Man, that guy could pull a Crocodile Dundee with a charging wildebeest but instead of two fingers, they hand him a microphone and the whole herd collapses.
* Jeff Hardy and James Storm teamed up as the 'Charismatic Storm' to take on Decay. They ended up losing when the first of 3 Willows appeared to distract Jeff. He took the dreaded mist and the Black Hole Slam from the beautiful Abyss for the loss. Jeff heads to the back where he finds one Willow, then another shows up and then another. One of them could have even been Jeff it was so confusing.
* And speaking of James Storm and Bobby Lashley, how long can they defy the odds and wrestle entire matches with head bands on? New Jack must be in the back with his staple gun adhering these things to their heads.
* Ethan Carter, fresh after getting pinned for the first time in over 30 months by Michael Bennett with that sweet ass by his side, wants a rematch and he is not leaving until he gets one. Instead, Bennett with that sweet ass by his side, tells him he has to basically run a gauntlet of opponents and if he beats them all, he will get his rematch. The first one is Rock Star Spud in a 6 sides of steel match. Guess there was no one else available as they are all in NXT. But come on, find someone close to his weight class at least. Anyway, Spud and his 'bedazzled belt of doom(not a championship belt, the one holding his pants up)' give Carter a run for his money but eventually lose. duh No announcement of who he has to beat next week, although since Hornswoggle and El Torito just got released, speculation has started.
* Oh, and Al Snow is back front in center, 'screaming' a promo from his wrestling school about respect and earning your spot. He gets beat by Shera after a distraction from Grado. Not sure who they are and admittedly, don't really care. Sure there will be more to follow on that though.
* Some other stuff happened but I have bored everyone enough.

[Edited on 5-11-2016 by Caesar guy]

According to "The Coach" Jonathan Coachman on The Ross Report, ESPN is producing a "30 for 30" film about the XFL:

http://411mania.com/wrestling/wwe-news-espn-working-on-an-xfl-special-finn-balor-returns-to-nxt-tonight-more/

Now that I have to see.

[Edited on 5-11-2016 by royberto]

I also would love to see a 30 for 30 on the XFL.

Was actually a fan of the league and went to see NY/NJ Hitmen games in the cold and party with friends. It was a good time back in the day.

Shoot they XFL made the cover of Sports Illustrated, which was a legit accomplishment then.

[Edited on 5-11-2016 by Slick]

XFL gave us the overhead cam that the NFL stole for kickoffs and returns. That is probably the longest lasting impression and legacy that the XFL left. They are also responsible for resurrecting the career of Tommy Maddox and launching "He Hate Me" Rod Smart.

Other than that, I am not sure what else there is to cover, other than a back story of Vince McMahon and his craziness, how the deal was struck with Dick Ebersol and why and when it failed.

Actually...that is plenty to cover.

Nevermind.

I should probably just delete this since I have had this revelation.

I honestly didn't mind the XFL as a thing. I like football, and I watched some of the games. The sports entertainment parts were sort of dumb, and they had too short of a preseason and it showed in the first few weeks. But by the end of the season, the games themselves were decent to watch.

I was a bit sad when it dissolved, to be honest. It wasn't ever going to replace the NFL, but it certainly could have survived in a fashion similar to what Arena football manages.

I went to the XFL Championship Game aka "The Million Dollar Game" between the LA Xtreme and the San Francisco Demons at the LA Coliseum. It was a lot of fun. $20 for a championship football game where everyone had a 50 yard line seat (because there were roughly only 2000 of us in a 93,000+ capacity stadium) with UCLA Bruin Tommy Maddox leading his team to victory? That was fun. Championship football in Los Angeles? Hell yeah. There should have been a goddamn ticker tape parade for the Xtreme.

WWE has issued a statement announcing that it has suspended Adam Rose indefinitely. According to the statement, WWE has a zero tolerance policy for matters of domestic violence.

I wonder if he Ray Leppan will now try to publicly defend himself by blaming his suspension for this. Like maybe he could get his doctor to write him another note, this time absolving him of responsibility for him violating WWE's domestic violence policy and post it to Twitter.

Man, you beat me to it with the doctors note joke.... Oh well...

I'm a big conflicted about the response we sometimes take to domestic violence situations; don't get me wrong, hitting women and using violence to solve your problems are not okay in my books.

No, where my conflict comes from is okay we've fired the big bad wife beater (or permanently suspended them) but isn't this in some ways also hurting the "victim" as well? Isn't taking away a man's job just adding more pressure to an already volatile situation?

This isn't about protecting the offender, or excusing them; more just a question about is there maybe a better way to sometimes deal with these situations. Can we look at a situation that might be a one off bad day nightmare moment for Rose, versus a serial batterer? We don't quite know all the details about Adam Rose's situation so it might not be the best example, but I look at something like that football player a year or two ago (Lewis?) who knocked out his wife in an elevator. Clearly she forgave him as they got married afterwards, and she has said that this was just a one off event that reached a heated conclusion.... and yet the media jumped all over this probably victimizing her far more than that one moment did, and on top of that they (the NFL) suspended the player which also took millions of dollars away from his family.... the victims they were trying to protect. (looking at in a sarcastic way what person out there wouldn't take a punch to the head in exchange for millions of dollars?).

I dunno.... messed up planet we live on where there are no perfect answers, and sometimes reacting quickly to appear on side, than it is to take a difficult path.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Paddlefoot
What's Roy Leppard doing in the Impact Zone, Josh?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by the goon

quote:

---

Originally posted by Paddlefoot
What's Roy Leppard doing in the Impact Zone, Josh?

---

Forming a tag team with Bram?

---

All joking aside, I'm worried for the guy's mental health through all of this.

I hate that I even had this thought, but I'm hoping that nothing further happens, whether it be to himself or others.

I'm thinking that they might been thinking the same, which is why he's suspended indefinitely instead of being let go entirely.

quote:

---

Originally posted by anglefan85
I'm thinking that they might been thinking the same, which is why he's suspended indefinitely instead of being let go entirely.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Flash
Man, you beat me to it with the doctors note joke.... Oh well...

I'm a big conflicted about the response we sometimes take to domestic violence situations; don't get me wrong, hitting women and using violence to solve your problems are not okay in my books.

No, where my conflict comes from is okay we've fired the big bad wife beater (or permanently suspended them) but isn't this in some ways also hurting the "victim" as well? Isn't taking away a man's job just adding more pressure to an already volatile situation?

This isn't about protecting the offender, or excusing them; more just a question about is there maybe a better way to sometimes deal with these situations. Can we look at a situation that might be a one off bad day nightmare moment for Rose, versus a serial batterer? We don't quite know all the details about Adam Rose's situation so it might not be the best example, but I look at something like that football player a year or two ago (Lewis?) who knocked out his wife in an elevator. Clearly she forgave him as they got married afterwards, and she has said that this was just a one off event that reached a heated conclusion.... and yet the media jumped all over this probably victimizing her far more than that one moment did, and on top of that they (the NFL) suspended the player which also took millions of dollars away from his family.... the victims they were trying to protect. (looking at in a sarcastic way what person out there wouldn't take a punch to the head in exchange for millions of dollars?).

I dunno.... messed up planet we live on where there are no perfect answers, and sometimes reacting quickly to appear on side, than it is to take a difficult path.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Flash
Man, you beat me to it with the doctors note joke.... Oh well...

I'm a big conflicted about the response we sometimes take to domestic violence situations; don't get me wrong, hitting women and using violence to solve your problems are not okay in my books.

No, where my conflict comes from is okay we've fired the big bad wife beater (or permanently suspended them) but isn't this in some ways also hurting the "victim" as well? Isn't taking away a man's job just adding more pressure to an already volatile situation?

This isn't about protecting the offender, or excusing them; more just a question about is there maybe a better way to sometimes deal with these situations. Can we look at a situation that might be a one off bad day nightmare moment for Rose, versus a serial batterer? We don't quite know all the details about Adam Rose's situation so it might not be the best example, but I look at something like that football player a year or two ago (Lewis?) who knocked out his wife in an elevator. Clearly she forgave him as they got married afterwards, and she has said that this was just a one off event that reached a heated conclusion.... and yet the media jumped all over this probably victimizing her far more than that one moment did, and on top of that they (the NFL) suspended the player which also took millions of dollars away from his family.... the victims they were trying to protect. (looking at in a sarcastic way what person out there wouldn't take a punch to the head in exchange for millions of dollars?).

I dunno.... messed up planet we live on where there are no perfect answers, and sometimes reacting quickly to appear on side, than it is to take a difficult path.

---

He'll be on the list for help from WWE when the time comes to get it to him. Right now though? They'd be insane not to suspend him indefinitely until the crisis moment is over. There's no way they're going to drop their due diligence and let themselves get Benoit'd again if Rose is going through some kind of mental and emotional breakdown.

Ric Flair is in even worse shape than any of us thought:

quote:

---

In an interview with MLive.com, Ric Flair spoke about his favorite current WWE star and more. Here are highlights:

On his favorite WWE stars: �Roman Reigns for sure. Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose. I�m also a big fan of Dolph Ziggler. I�d really love to work with Roman Reigns, though.�

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Paddlefoot
He'll be on the list for help from WWE when the time comes to get it to him. Right now though? They'd be insane not to suspend him indefinitely until the crisis moment is over. There's no way they're going to drop their due diligence and let themselves get Benoit'd again if Rose is going through some kind of mental and emotional breakdown.

---

* Adam Rose to be released from custody on a $1000 bond after his wife pleaded in court for him not to be served with a restraining order

* Ryback's contract will be allowed to die out without an official release; apparently he wanted a guaranteed contract with full payout if terminated, something that hasn't been done since the end of WCW and which WWE has never done; he also wanted an all-expenses-paid guarantee as well

* Cameron apparently wasn't even on the chopping block until she tweeted support for Ryback which apparently pissed off WWE big time, hence her rapid dismissal afterwards

* police confirmed that they arrested Chyna outside her apartment back in November 2015 for public drunkeness when she was found passed out on the sidewalk

* Christian is still with WWE for the E&C; Network show but has officially been released from his in-ring contract which puts an end to his career as an active performer

* AJ Styles is fighting some nagging injuries and will see less in-ring action in the build-up to Extreme Rules

quote:

---

Originally posted by jefft221

quote:

---

Originally posted by Paddlefoot
He'll be on the list for help from WWE when the time comes to get it to him. Right now though? They'd be insane not to suspend him indefinitely until the crisis moment is over. There's no way they're going to drop their due diligence and let themselves get Benoit'd again if Rose is going through some kind of mental and emotional breakdown.

---

Yes, the current suspension is good... but I don't see how that precludes him from getting help at the same time...?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Paddlefoot
* Christian is still with WWE for the E&C; Network show but has officially been released from his in-ring contract which puts an end to his career as an active performer

---

Bad news for Dolph Ziggler, or rather, his brother.

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2016/05/brother_of_wwe_wrestler_killed.html

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The man accused of killing a Marine Corps veteran at a downtown Cleveland hotel shot him during a drug deal, according to court records.

Donald Nemeth pleaded not guilty Wednesday in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court to aggravated murder, murder, kidnapping and felonious assault charges in the death of Joshua Mascol.

He is being held on $1 million bond.

Nemeth, 29, and another man police have yet to identify met Mascol Jan. 23 at a room at the University Hotel and Suites on Euclid Avenue to complete a drug deal, according to court records.

Police previously said that Nemeth tried to rob Mascol during the encounter. The men got into a fight.

Nemeth pulled a pistol and shot Mascol three times, records say.

Paramedics found Mascol shot in a seventh-floor hallway. They later pronounced him dead.

Police obtained an arrest warrant charging Nemeth April 26. He was arrested two days later. A grand jury indicted him May 6.

Nemeth is the brother of WWE superstar Dolph Ziggler, according to public records and social media posts.

Ziggler, 35, was born Nick Nemeth and attended St. Edward High School in Lakewood. He wrestled at Kent State University and signed with WWE in 2004.

Public records show the two men lived at the same West Side Cleveland address in the past.

Cleveland police are still working to identify the second suspect in the slaying.

Edited to add the link in case anyone wants it.



[Edited on 5-12-2016 by jmble]

quote:

---

Originally posted by lz4005

quote:

---

Originally posted by Paddlefoot
* Christian is still with WWE for the E&C; Network show but has officially been released from his in-ring contract which puts an end to his career as an active performer

---

I thought he retired like 2 years ago.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by punkerhardcore
Ric Flair is in even worse shape than any of us thought:

quote:

---

In an interview with MLive.com, Ric Flair spoke about his favorite current WWE star and more. Here are highlights:

On his favorite WWE stars: �Roman Reigns for sure. Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose. I�m also a big fan of Dolph Ziggler. I�d really love to work with Roman Reigns, though.�

---

Jesus. I know we've had our concerns in recent years about his age and mental state, but I don't think any of us realized he was this far gone.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Paddlefoot
* Cameron apparently wasn't even on the chopping block until she tweeted support for Ryback which apparently pissed off WWE big time, hence her rapid dismissal afterwards

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Paddlefoot
* Christian is still with WWE for the E&C; Network show but has officially been released from his in-ring contract which puts an end to his career as an active performer

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by salmonjunkie

quote:

---

Originally posted by Paddlefoot
* Christian is still with WWE for the E&C; Network show but has officially been released from his in-ring contract which puts an end to his career as an active performer

---

What's Christian Cage doing back in the Impact Basement, Tazz?

Real question - do you think we'll see Christian get in to the WWE Hall of Fame sometime in the next 5 years?

---

For those wondering, Brooklyn Brawler has been working behind the scenes for quite a few years. He is a producer who helps wrestlers put together matches and is on the creative team. In fact, it was believed that Vince was quite loyal to Brawler and Brawler's like or dislike of a particular wrestler went a long way on whether Vince would push them or not.

There are very few performers in WWE history with more titles than Christian. He's for sure a Hall of Famer, but not a headliner.

quote:

---

Originally posted by G. Jonah Jameson

quote:

---

Originally posted by Paddlefoot
* Cameron apparently wasn't even on the chopping block until she tweeted support for Ryback which apparently pissed off WWE big time, hence her rapid dismissal afterwards

---

The one main-roster woman WWE didn't book at Wrestlemania wasn't on the chopping block? OK, sure, wrestling "news" site.

---

CageSide Seats is reporting that the next round of releases will occur shortly after the Extreme Rules PPV. Some names being bandied about:

Darren Young
David Otunga
Fandango
Tyson Kidd
Natalya

*I think Christian is a great "B" guy to put in the HOF, and given the amount of tag titles him and Edge racked up could maybe even squeak in a second time... long shot, but he's going in sometime soon.

*Just to clarify my comments on the whole domestic abuse thing (and thanks for pointing out that it was Ray Rice); I didn't mean to put Victim in quotation marks; that's my bad.... I don't think we should ever turn a blind eye to violence regardless of gender; I just think we need to sometimes think about how we approach it a bit differently. I na�vely hope that as we continue to evolve and become more educated and aware of social problems like this it will be less and less of a problem.... but then there's that whole pesky human nature thing.

Bottom line; here's hoping that Rose get's some help, and that maybe the WWE considers some kind of subsidy for at least Rose's family during this suspension... I mean if the guy reacted the way he did to the Wellness suspension, what's he thinking after this destroys his name? Yeah he's maybe made some money in the WWE thus far, but with a kid with health problems that money could be going out the door just as quick, and now he's stuck in a position where he can't go work for other promotions as he's only suspended, but he's not getting paid by the WWE.

*Apparently before Sandow was released he was assured by the WWE that it was not due to anything that he did, but more a victim of them wanting to freshen things up on the roster. Damien already has several Indy bookings lined up.

I still think Sandow is a guy that we haven't heard the last from; he's only 33- maybe not an age for a long term investment should they later bring him back, but not exactly in the twilight of his career either. He's great on the mic', and very serviceable in the ring. Honestly, I'd even consider letting him keep the name as well, barring any TV related stuff. If he fizzles out there's no loss with the name, if he makes a bit more of a name for himself on the Indy's then the name also get's elevated.

quote:

---

Originally posted by CCharger
CageSide Seats is reporting that the next round of releases will occur shortly after the Extreme Rules PPV. Some names being bandied about:

Darren Young
David Otunga
Fandango
Tyson Kidd
Natalya

---

David Otunga's been on borrowed time for years, and I could see WWE letting Natalya go after spending so long without really giving her anything to do. I don't know about the other three, though. Darren Young just started that training angle with Bob Backlund, Fandango just formed a team with Tyler Breeze and dumping Tyson Kidd while he's still recovering from that brutal spinal injury would be a pretty serious dick move.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Paddlefoot
They did put more effort into her lately though, with having her train with Paige at the Performance Center and even gave her matches against Asuka and Alexa on NXT. She might have been on the bubble but it didn't look like they'd given up on her entirely until the tweets for Ryback happened.

---

AJ Styles has been taking off house shows due a back injury. No real confirmation on how serious it is.

As a guy who publicly said he wants to retire at 41 and signed with WWE at 38 I never had high hopes of AJ Styles , WWE Champion. But it still sort of sucks how good he's looked chasing for the belt, only for this to happen.

In terms of people who could be let go and not really change much of the on air product:

Jack Swagger
Adam Rose (for obvious reasons)
Alicia Fox (nothing special and nothing to do with The Bellas gone)
David Otunga
Curtis Axel
Konnor
Viktor
Ryback (assuming he wants to get out early ala Wade Barrett)
Zack Ryder

I don't think anyone would really miss any of those guys. Ryder and Swagger would be the only real names that might garner an eyebrow raise since Ryback's situation is already known.

The rest are just sort of there with no real consequence.

Does Ryder still sell higher-than-you'd-expect levels of merch? I know, at least a few years ago, he was worth keeping around just for that and the NY/NJ area shows.

Personally, I am a pretty big fan of Zack Ryder. I watched his old youtube show and cheered his internet championship antics and the skits with his dad and John Morrison as being truly good stuff. I'd be kind of sad to see him go, to be honest.

Something smells funny about this Ryback situation. To have a specific set of contract demands that are most likely for well established top stars it looks like he was either

A) chancing his arm to see what he would get and more likely gauge his position (as if he didnt pre-know) or
B) using these negotiations to self sabotage his deal and make as much polite noise going out the door so he can go somewhere else.

My thought is that the likes of Barrett can go elsewhere with ease, but Ryback is a thicker lunk of fish altogether.

As for Darren Young i hope they do release him because hes fucking useless. He was for the chopping block long ago and played a trump by coming out so it was media suicide for them to release him so soon after, but now its time to cut losses.

Apparently Paige and ADR are dating. Odd couple.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Paddlefoot

quote:

---

Originally posted by jefft221

quote:

---

Originally posted by Paddlefoot
He'll be on the list for help from WWE when the time comes to get it to him. Right now though? They'd be insane not to suspend him indefinitely until the crisis moment is over. There's no way they're going to drop their due diligence and let themselves get Benoit'd again if Rose is going through some kind of mental and emotional breakdown.

---

Yes, the current suspension is good... but I don't see how that precludes him from getting help at the same time...?

---

Who says they aren't going to help him during this time?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by ulsterphil

As for Darren Young i hope they do release him because hes fucking useless. He was for the chopping block long ago and played a trump by coming out so it was media suicide for them to release him so soon after, but now its time to cut losses.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Matte
Apparently Paige and ADR are dating. Odd couple.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Flash
Darren Young is a bit curious to me, and I hate to say it (but I will) Young is a HR person's wet dream, so for that reason alone you'd think they let him keep collecting some cheques until they get a bit more of a diverse roster. If Young goes, then I'm guessing Titus won't be long with them either... again, Titus is a guy who generates nothing but positive headlines for you, so he's probably worth keeping as he's a PR goldmine with all that he does.

I'd probably throw names out there like Heath Slater, both the Ascension, and it's about damn time they cut that Gobbledygooker.

---

re: Darren Young

Dude got new life breathed into him with the as-of-last-week Backlund pairing. Until and unless that fizzles, he's safe from endeavoring.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Matte
Apparently Paige and ADR are dating. Odd couple.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by williamssl
re: Darren Young

Dude got new life breathed into him with the as-of-last-week Backlund pairing. Until and unless that fizzles, he's safe from endeavoring.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by CCharger

quote:

---

Originally posted by ulsterphil

As for Darren Young i hope they do release him because hes fucking useless. He was for the chopping block long ago and played a trump by coming out so it was media suicide for them to release him so soon after, but now its time to cut losses.

---

Are you suggesting that Young came out as gay to save his job?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by punkerhardcore

quote:

---

Originally posted by williamssl
re: Darren Young

Dude got new life breathed into him with the as-of-last-week Backlund pairing. Until and unless that fizzles, he's safe from endeavoring.

---

I dunno... it wouldn't be the first time something like that was dropped and forgotten about without any explanation.

---

I can't even joke about TNA much anymore, I'm too dumbfounded at how they still get people that wanna work for them.

www.pwtorch.com/site/2016/05/13/pwtorch-report-tna-behind-paying-workers-leading-slammiversary/

quote:

---

TNA will be returning to Orlando in one month for Slammiversary and TV tapings with an upset and frustrated TV production crew if they do not catch up on payments.

PWTorch has learned from multiple sources that TNA is behind paying some production workers going back to January and March TV tapings.

After struggling to make payments on-time throughout 2015, TNA handed over the system to the Harris Twins through their production company Aroluxe, payable by TNA. Since then, payments have continued to be late. The situation has especially been exacerbated by TNA leaving their long-time office in Nashville and relocating to the merchandise warehouse.

Also, production workers have been met with resistance when inquiring about payments. PWTorch has also learned that some production workers have been told they will or might be replaced at the next tapings in June, likely in favor of independent production workers who do not have a history of late payments.

All of this comes while TNA is seeking an outside investor to pump money into the company. In the absence of a monthly live PPV, TNA�s main revenue streams right now are an Impact ad-share with Pop TV, international TV deals, and the �One Night Only� PPVs distributed in the U.S. and internationally.

TNA is also trying to reduce costs, such as moving out their Nashville office, and moving their TV post-production to the local Skyway Studios. The cost-cutting to make the company more attractive to investors is continuing to affect production workers who are vital to creating the content.

The next month will be significant for the company, both in terms of whether they get investment funds and whether they make right on paying production workers with the next PPV and TV tapings on the horizon.

---

Can I put a company in the dead pool? If it hasn't already been done.

Yet, TNA will still survive.

I've been calling for their death for the past 2 years, and they somehow trudge along, continuing to get away with their sleazy ways while still encouraging their wrestlers to publicly praise them.

So strange.

quote:

---

Originally posted by anglefan85


www.pwtorch.com/site/2016/05/13/pwtorch-report-tna-behind-paying-workers-leading-slammiversary/

quote:

---

After struggling to make payments on-time throughout 2015, TNA handed over the system to the Harris Twins through their production company Aroluxe, payable by TNA.

---

[Edited on 5-13-2016 by anglefan85]

---

I can't quite remember the story, but I do believe Young was outed, and then just kind of came out wherein it became a bigger story.

Honestly though, there's this demented part of me that thinks it would be absolutely hilarious if Young were not gay, and is just really committed to keeping his job by any means necessary.... I mean I know if I'm ever taken into a room with two managers (cause when they turf you, it's always two) that I'm prepared to either feign a heart attack or blurting out that I'm gay right before they start talking, just so that I can later claim that they only fired because I told them I'm gay. Meanwhile I continue to keep pictures of Jesus and Charlton Heston around my desk with a drawer full of chicken bones so that they worry about what will happen if they even think about firing me.

Sigh... if only I'd put as much work into my job instead of cultivating a personality of "Inepticrazy".... too inept to give any real work to, and too crazy looking to risk firing.

As for TNA... I'm surprised no one has gone to the labour board, or whatever you guy's have down there that you can complain to when your employer doesn't pay you. That really sucks for production people; talent can still pull in some cash with Indy dates, but barring a day job, those production people are probably dependent on this job.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Flash
I can't quite remember the story, but I do believe Young was outed, and then just kind of came out wherein it became a bigger story.

---

Maybe one of the OO Universe's Florida Men can confirm it but I believe that Rick Scott successfully turned the place into a payment-optional state where an employer can basically do whatever he wants to the employees short of locking them up at night. And they're working hard at the state house to get around that particular annoying-to-the-job-creators hurdle as well.

TNA should save money by working out of the "warehouse". The monthly payments on a 15' x 20' storage locker can't be that much. The merchandise contents (soon to be owned by Dave Hester) shouldn't take up much space to begin with. They never did big production runs on their swag because, realistically, what in the hell kind of incredibly rare and demented sk8rboi would buy a t-shirt from TNA anyway?

quote:

---

Originally posted by G. Jonah Jameson
That's fairly accurate. I want to say it was TMZ -- one of their "reporters" asked him a really pointed question on camera, and he came right out with it.

---

The Michael Sam era? What a time to be alive.

* Jimmy Snuka trial details below, with his attorney playing the brain-injury card and even going as far as to blame Snuka's current "condition" on Roddy Piper for whacking him on the head with the coconut in the infamous Piper's Pit segment; prosecution countered with footage of Snuka playing in a celebrity poker tourney in 2012 and showing no signs of injury-related dementia at all

http://www.dailywrestlingnews.com/jimmy-snuka-wwe-tv-segment-shown-in-court-today-update-on-snukas-health-more/

* some speculation that WWE might have quietly released Lillian Garcia; she's been away for a while due to illness in the family but hasn't yet updated her social media accounts; could this be true, especially after she yapped back at the notoriously vindictive Bukukky the other week for "fucking up" and calling Big Cass by his real name?

* talk of some backstage heat between ADR and HHH; Del Rio is allegedly getting pissed off because of the lackluster way his stories with Zeb Colter and the LON ended and because he hasn't gotten into the main title scene as he was promised when he returned to WWE; HHH allegedly doesn't think he's up to the task of going up against Roman/Cena/Bork/Orton/whoever else at the top of the card; there is some additional talk of keeping ADR happy if they can hire Melissa Santos** away from LU to act as his mouthpiece

** as the gremlins kept saying in the movie, yum-yum!

Since they're a couple now, they should hook ADR and Paige together in a From Dusk Til Dawn gimmick.

Lillian's writing's been on the wall for a little while to me - not that she's bad, it's just clear they think really highly of Eden and they tend to not be afraid to push forward now that they think she's ready. And they have Jojo to sing the Anthems now. Still, I know that it will hurt The Rick right in the...let's say heart...if LG really is gone for good.

Paige and ADR has now supplanted AJ Lee and Cesaro as being the sex tape that--no, I'd still rather watch the latter two fuck. Nevermind.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Flash

Honestly though, there's this demented part of me that thinks it would be absolutely hilarious if Young were not gay, and is just really committed to keeping his job by any means necessary...

---

I sort of wonder what exactly was the plan with Del Rio. They bring him back with a big money contract, have him beat Cena in his first night back, and then nothing.

Was it just wanting to keep him away from Mexico or fix the bad PR they got when they fired him?

quote:

---

Originally posted by CM Crunk
Paige and ADR has now supplanted AJ Lee and Cesaro as being the sex tape that--no, I'd still rather watch the latter two fuck. Nevermind.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by merc

quote:

---

Originally posted by CM Crunk
Paige and ADR has now supplanted AJ Lee and Cesaro as being the sex tape that--no, I'd still rather watch the latter two fuck. Nevermind.

---

Didnt see you for a baldy lover...

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Paddlefoot
* Jimmy Snuka trial details below, with his attorney playing the brain-injury card and even going as far as to blame Snuka's current "condition" on Roddy Piper for whacking him on the head with the coconut in the infamous Piper's Pit segment; prosecution countered with footage of Snuka playing in a celebrity poker tourney in 2012 and showing no signs of injury-related dementia at all

http://www.dailywrestlingnews.com/jimmy-snuka-wwe-tv-segment-shown-in-court-today-update-on-snukas-health-more/

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by First 9
I sort of wonder what exactly was the plan with Del Rio. They bring him back with a big money contract, have him beat Cena in his first night back, and then nothing.

Was it just wanting to keep him away from Mexico or fix the bad PR they got when they fired him?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by lz4005

quote:

---

Originally posted by First 9
I sort of wonder what exactly was the plan with Del Rio. They bring him back with a big money contract, have him beat Cena in his first night back, and then nothing.

Was it just wanting to keep him away from Mexico or fix the bad PR they got when they fired him?

---

He was too good in LU. Actually motivated and with charisma out the wazoo.

All that went right back out the window about a week after he got back to WWE.

---

Lillian has set the record straight; she's been off the road for the past few weeks helping to take care of her father who's health isn't so hot at the moment. She should be back at Raw this Monday.

quote:

---

Originally posted by GodEatGod


It really is kind of startling, the contrast. Some of it's obviously crowd - ADR was hugely over in LU the second he arrived and didn't need the crowd sold on how great he was. I think he did better in the very stylized, taped production bits, where he could get it just right and didn't have to go on the fly.

But his push in WWE has largely been botched on his return. With his look and skills, he should be pushed as the kind of legit MMA-style badass they all seem to salivate over, but it's like they just cannot get over the fact that he's Mexican. All the stuff with Colter and the League of Nations is just not an optimal use of him.

---

I'll tell you where they screwed up with Del Rio with his return. They should've had him as a face after he beat Cena. He's a good heel no doubt, but he showed us in LU that he can play a badass face quite well.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Flash
Lillian has set the record straight; she's been off the road for the past few weeks helping to take care of her father who's health isn't so hot at the moment. She should be back at Raw this Monday.

---

The heat between ADR and HHH stems from HHH reported casual racism especially towards Latino wrestlers. I know HHH is an IWC favorite now because something....something....NXT, but fuck him for being an ignorant bigot.

http://www.givemesport.com/519404-wwe-triple-h-accused-of-racism-by-alberto-del-rio

This seems to be a case of old news being news again;

The ADR-HHH story made the rounds back when ADR got turfed over the whole slap-gate thing wherein a WWE employee made a comment to ADR (I seem to remember it was something about clearing a tray a lunch or something like that), wherein ADR slapped the guy and was promptly fired.

The quote in the link above is an older one dating back to then (which is says as much in the link); where ADR said something to effect of HHH setting the tone from above, which by behaviour gave leave for the lower down the ladder types to make comments.

I remember getting a bit curious about this way back when it came out and they (meaning the mysterious source of all rumours coming out of the WWE) said that there was other behaviour from HHH.... so "they" pretty much went around asking all the usual Latino names that passed thru WWE about this, and it broke down as such:

HHH has called Ricardo Rodriquez "Bumble-Bee man" on several occasions, and may have called other Hispanic wrestlers this in the past.... He may have also buried Essa Rios.... which is of course further evidence that HHH hates all Latinos.

So; misguided term of affection, or unwelcome mocking I don't know... In a corporate environment probably not the best stuff to come out of one of your higher ups; On the other hand the WWE has evolved out of the old locker room nick-names and boys club life on the road... The fact that it's the boss doing it, and the power differential that this creates, further complicates things more... I don't know if "Bumble Bee Man" is one of those "OMG I can't believe you said that" comments that HHH should (if true) have know right out of the gate would be taken offence to, and it would depend on the situations it was used in, or what Ricardo's reaction to it was.... You know, all that messy stuff that makes people people that in a world where you recognize harm isn't intended, but instead it's just a clumsy negotiation of people interacting and not the next OMG SYSTEMATIC RACISMS headline.

Don't get me wrong, racism = bad, and if HHH was doing it to be a Dick, or was completely missing the fact that he was making another human being uncomfortable, then he needs to be sat down and given the long form HR tutorial and a swift kick n the ass, but otherwise I try to give the benefit of the doubt, especially on such things that I didn't witness with my own two eyes.

Ive always thought that wrestling could do a mafia type gimmic....a good one. I know its not cool but I see Del Rio and I think of the dude from Weeds..... who was a pretty bad ass Mexican overlord for a season before we find out its his chick that's running the show. I think Del Rio would excel at this gimmic. There is all sorts of angles you can run out of, from wrestlers refusing to lay down (for gambling purposes) to others being indebted to him for stuff (maybe interference, helping to win titles ...etc from his mob). Id have him keep the elitist character....but have him be subtle with his criminal dealings. Its got to be clear to the audience he is this guy...but they can't ever have the evidence on him. In the future you could debut someone who wants revenge on him for what they did to their family....all sorts of cool mob stuff you could do. Give him a stable (Id stay way from a all hispanic one), and he would definitely need a bad-ass silent bodyguard who never fights. You could do a angle where one of the members eventually wants to get out....but once your in your in for life.....all sorts of side stuff you can do to keep him and his stable busy for years.

CM Punk is reportedly doing "poorly" in his MMA training, and the belief among many in the know is that Mickey Gall will "run through" him when and if they fight.

However, the Observer speculates that Punk will never fight and his low media profile as of late is indicative of that.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/alfredkonuwa/2016/05/15/former-wwe-superstar-cm-punk-reportedly-struggling-in-ufc-and-why-he-should-retire/#334ecd8738cc r />
[Edited on 5-16-2016 by CCharger]

Similar to what GEG and bopol said, ADR is badly in need of a gimmick change. Maybe pairing him and Paige together on TV would be good for both of them, but I'd like that idea of a mafioso gimmick in a non-PG landscape. Or make him the new Eddie Guerrero?

quote:

---

Originally posted by denverpunk
Similar to what GEG and bopol said, ADR is badly in need of a gimmick change. Maybe pairing him and Paige together on TV would be good for both of them, but I'd like that idea of a mafioso gimmick in a non-PG landscape. Or make him the new Eddie Guerrero?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by CCharger
* Vince confirmed via shareholders conference call that Cena, Orton, Rollins and Wyatt will all be back in action within the next 30 days.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by denverpunk
Similar to what GEG and bopol said, ADR is badly in need of a gimmick change. Maybe pairing him and Paige together on TV would be good for both of them, but I'd like that idea of a mafioso gimmick in a non-PG landscape. Or make him the new Eddie Guerrero?

---

Ah yes, Salvatore Sincere. For ADR, I was thinking dangerous sicario, not goofy goomba, but good point. That said, Razor Ramon was a rip on Scarface and was great, so maybe?

I always thought that they needed to throw ADR a curve when it came to his first go around with the WWE.... Maybe through some kind of happenstance Ricardo wound up with all of ADR's money;

Which would give you:

1) A bit of a character reset on ADR; move him away from the Million Pesos Man gimmick.... Now he'd be much angrier, or even humbled, having lost everything and driven to succeed.

2) Ricardo doing a variety of entertaining stuff out on his own, but having absolutely no idea how to actually be rich... like super tacky purchases as he Brewster's millions his way through ADR's fortune.

I also thought at one point before they got into all the cars week after week that it would have been funny if ADR were only Mexican rich... that the millions he had were only pesos... (yes I'm aware the worlds richest man is Mexican). Probably a dumb idea as it would turn a pretty bad ass wrestler into a bit of a comedy gimmick.

Now?

I do like the idea of him heading up the "cartel"... which could be a great name for a stable (Primo and Epico maybe), but with the WWE not really having a major Latino face they could counteract the inevitable accusations of racial stereotyping I don't know that they'd run with that.

Honestly, I think he works better as a face... he can work well as a heel, but his ceiling as a face could be higher... No gimmick, just a guy who can take care of business.

ADR needs a good finisher. Give him the figure four. Give him the TKO. Hell, go the Eddie tribute route and give him the frog splash. A good finisher would greatly help.

Eddie's death brought Chavo's Kerwin White gimmick to a premature end. Let's finish what we started through ADR.

First off, Flash, I'd be all for them bringing back Ricardo. ESPECIALLY if they plan on turning him into Latino Zoidberg. As for ADR's finish? I still don't know why he dropped that spinning capture armbar that he used to do. But I get the feeling that the bigwigs don't want too many people running around with submission finishers at the same time. But don't get me started on that because then I'll just be complaining about the Anaconda Vice being a better finish than the Go To Sleep that that one guy who writes comics and watches The Walking Dead used to do.

* Emma took a bad injury at a house show on the weekend and has to have surgery for a ruptured disc

* AJ Styles is more banged-up than he's been letting on, with an ankle and a back injury bothering him right now

Here's an ASSLOAD of ADR rumors. They all seem a litte pat to be true, but they were reported on Cageside Seats:

* ADR is pissed because he was promised a main event run when he returned, and that hasn't been the case

* Meanwhile, WWE brass - particularly HHH - is pissed at ADR for his bad attitude, and HHH has never been a fan of ADR anyways.

* ADR reportedly fucked Charlotte sideways right before getting together with Paige, and this has caused some awkward heat between the two women.

* Vince has decided to capitalize on this real life heat, and has asked writers to develop a story line to re-boot the Paige/Charlotte feud.

Wow, ADR is DTF

ADR vs Cesaro in a grand BTF/F FTW tournament. Sex tapes to be released followed by widespread future endeavoringings as the PR value of over a thousand Cena make-a-wish visits is destroyed in a flurry of thrusting, squealing, and grunting.

[Edited on 5/17/2016 by Paddlefoot]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Paddlefoot
destroyed in a flurry of thrusting, squealing, and grunting.

[Edited on 5/17/2016 by Paddlefoot]

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by CCharger

quote:

---

Originally posted by Paddlefoot
destroyed in a flurry of thrusting, squealing, and grunting.

[Edited on 5/17/2016 by Paddlefoot]

---

WTF...

I'm glad I'm not your girlfriend.

---

So Canadians are the Dothraki to our Westeros?

quote:

---

Originally posted by janerd75
Then you'll also be glad he didn't add in the part of what they do when a Canadian female is "presenting". Molson's and maple syrup for lube, dude. They are a strange and mysterious people.

---

They call me Rubberneck! And there's nothing sick at all about watching tapes of Paige and the Flehr girl getting their happy places matchka'd to oblivion either. Not everything is poor ol' Tater Total levels of disturbing dontcha know.

Saw a rumor today that Vince is ready to concede that the Roman Reigns project is not working and pull the plug, but HHH is still fighting to make Reigns the guy (no pun intended). Vince is also reportedly very impressed with Nakamura and wants him on the main roster sooner than later.

Take that with the appropriate amount of salt.

Vince giving up on Roman Reigns? LOL

I'd take that rumor with more salt content than a Canadian's ejaculate.

Just gonna take your word that the latter has a lot of salt content to it. I trust you on this one.

quote:

---

Originally posted by CCharger
So Canadians are the Dothraki to our Westeros?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by CCharger
Vince giving up on Roman Reigns? LOL

I'd take that rumor with more salt content than a Canadian's ejaculate.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Count Zero
Wha happen when Florida Man meets Canadian Woman?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by bopol

quote:

---

Originally posted by CCharger
So Canadians are the Dothraki to our Westeros?

---

He's from Regina. They drink a lot of hand sanitizer in Regina.

---

Speaking of drinking hand sanitizer, that's what Vince would have to be drinking if he cut Roman off at the knees right now. I may be mistaken, but I thought Roman did a decent job of fighting for his life through the RoBOOOOOOOOOO's while on the mic against another relative non-talker in A.J. Styles. It wasn't Punk or Cena or Rock crowd redirect mastery, but I liked when he went after the fans for chanting for Rollins. He's in the hot seat, fer chrissakes, lets see how he handles it. It'd help if they took the...goddamnit...things literally used on horses people figuratively use to describe someone taking control of something...and let him sass it up on the mic a bit. The tweener-to-heel thing is "working", now let him have his full heel "fuck the fans" Poi Bomb moment and let that fucker go nuclear. And whomever slays him in the future shall be the droid we are looking for. Something something bath salts...

ETA: Hot of the rumor mill from CSS, but a discussed possible headlining match for Summerslam this year would be Roman Reigns vs. you guessed it...Frank Stallone....
.
.
.
.
.
.
...oh dearie me, the lulz. Cena. It's fucking Cena. Versus Reigns. In Brooklyn. Brooklyn. Yes, that Brooklyn. New York. Yes, that New York. The one with the pimp and C.H.U.D. problem. Ohpleaseohpleaseohplease, Vince...

[Edited on 5-18-2016 by janerd75]

---

CCharger - 5-18-2016 at 02:50 PM

* It's almost certain that Reigns vs. Cena will headline SummerSlam.

---

Paddlefoot - 5-18-2016 at 04:32 PM

I'll mark out for it. I like Cena. Reigns is a good wrestler no matter how much they've botched just about everything about him. The crowd will be memorably insane. What's not to like about this scenario? Yes, I want AJ to someday hold the WWE title, and I think he will given how popular he's been since he arrived. Realistically though it's too soon, they have a lot for him to do with the Bullet Club guys, and he has some nagging injuries to deal with as well. All in all Cena-v-Reigns for a while isn't something that needs a mass freak out of complaining attached to it.

---

williamssl - 5-18-2016 at 05:27 PM

1) Reigns/Cena was going to happen. There is no sense fighting this, or if you do/were, you were doing it at your own futility against something that was near 100% inevitable.

2) SummerSlam was where it should/would. This is a WM or SummerSlam match. Not one to be "wasted" on a lesser PPV (and yes I"m including Survivor Series and Rumble in that batch). SummerSlam and WM are the two that get the big media/fan access/etc treatments. If there's still consideration for WM33 picking up WM32's intended Cena/UT match, then SS it is.

3) Reigns needs his big match/feud with someone, well, big, to legitimize his championship. Yeah, people are going to pick apart my word choice in that statement, but it's true. He needs a signature feud and win, and this fits that bill perfectly. No disrespect to AJ at all, and many others on the roster, but Cena is a/the top dog and assuming Roman goes over (even if full heeling in the process), this would be the signature win.

4) Holy shit the crowd reactions. I could care less about points 1-3, or this being a match I was clamoring for for any other reason. The fan reactions to this - the build and the event itself - is a pure "get your popcorn, grab a seat, and prepare to be entertained in a big way."


In conclusion, it makes sense but more importantly,





PS -I know you're dead and all, but chew with your fucking mouth closed, pal. That's disgusting.

---

Paddlefoot - 5-18-2016 at 05:53 PM

Nevertheless there's still gonna be way way too much of this going on. WWE! They're ruining my whole fucking life!

---

williamssl - 5-18-2016 at 06:17 PM

Assuming there are IWC meltdowns over this, the popcorn applies there as well.

"Finn Balor should have gotten that spot, and Reigns should have put him over. I'm sick of veterans getting all the main event spots...and when a newer guy actually gets one, they get buried. See: AJ Styles at WM and now against Reigns, where he'll probably lose at Extreme Rules and have an 0-3 PPV streak going. "

---

CCharger - 5-18-2016 at 06:20 PM

Regardless of what the IWC thinks or wants, this match will make Vince a fuckton of money and will garner lots of mainstream attention.

I also second the thought of the crowd reactions. My mind whirls.

"LET'S GO, ROMAN" "THIS FUCKING SUCKS"

"LET'S GO CENA" 'THIS FUCKING SUCKS"

---

williamssl - 5-18-2016 at 06:28 PM

For those without their converters,

Fuckton > fuckload > boatload > lots

---

Paddlefoot - 5-18-2016 at 06:44 PM

quote:

---

Originally posted by williamssl
Assuming there are IWC meltdowns over this, the popcorn applies there as well.

"Finn Balor should have gotten that spot, and Reigns should have put him over. I'm sick of veterans getting all the main event spots...and when a newer guy actually gets one, they get buried. See: AJ Styles at WM and now against Reigns, where he'll probably lose at Extreme Rules and have an 0-3 PPV streak going. "

---

This has the makings of a great diss-the-IWC-sk8rboi's mockery-mania, with a daisy chain of fuck-you, written all over it. To wit:

"Ziggler should have broken Taker's streak at WM five years ago"

"CM Punk (380 day title reign, 8 cumulative title reigns, 2 x MITB winner) got treated worse by WWE than anyone's even been in the entire history of being treated worse"

Keep 'er going.

---

williamssl - 5-18-2016 at 06:58 PM

May I enlist you, sir, as my brother-in-troll, to...well....troll the heck out of this everywhere and every time it happens? We've got a solid 3 months until SummerSlam, and then a good 1-3 weeks afterwards, where the kvetching and moaning and gnashing of teeth will be going on, peaking in July/early August in the weeks leading up to the PPV.

Perhaps the gOOd community will surprise us and profess their love of popcorn and spectacle and have that exceed their inherent IWC purity and overwhelming need to tell us repeatedly how horrible this is and will be and that it is DOOM! DOOM I tell you for the now and future of wrestling EVER and that this is the last straw and WWE shall never (EVER!*) have their eyeballs gazing upon it.

This is potentially a very big job and, while I am strong and capable....I do not think I can do this alone.




* never (EVER!) = 1-2 weeks

[Edited on 5-18-2016 by williamssl]

---

anglefan85 - 5-18-2016 at 07:01 PM

I'm probably looking too far into this one, but nonetheless:

From the PWtorch

Pop TV did not include TNA Impact in their Upfronts listing for the 2016-2017 slate of TV programming.

�The network�s upfront programming line-up includes over 400 hours of original content and a diverse mix of eight original shows,� Pop noted in a press release. TNA did not make the cut.

At the very least, it indicates that Impact is not a priority to pitch to advertisers, especially in light of Pop battling uphill to draw ad revenue for two hours of original Impact programming on Tuesday nights.

In the Upfronts announcement, Pop stressed their original series �Schitt�s Creek� starring Eugene Levy and other programming in the works they are proud to present to advertisers and think could draw in new ad dollars.

At worst, it means Pop is not planning to renew Impact when their deal expires.

Most likely is Pop has soured on Impact, both in terms of not drawing enough revenue and not coming close to the 1.0 million viewership mark that Pop president Brad Schwartz unrealistically predicted before Impact debuted. If ratings were good, Pop would emphasize Impact as their most-watched program.

Further capturing Pop�s lack of attention to Impact, there is currently no mention of the TNA Hvt. Title match between Drew Galloway and Bobby Lashley airing on tonight�s Impact. Also, there is no graphic or general notice for Impact airing Tuesday nights on Pop. The website is highlighting Schitt�s Creek and their �New Kids On The Block� program.

Overall, Impact has struggled to fit in on Pop TV since debuting in January. Pop�s programming skews toward female viewers, whereas Impact reverses to a 65/35 split of males 18-49 vs. females 18-49. Impact has not drawn consistently enough viewers to make up the difference and appeal to Pop�s standard advertisers.

Pop tried to shift the Tuesday night replay to Saturday mornings to create a second audience, but the replay timeslot only lasted four weeks. The first airing drew decent viewership, but the last three airings drew about half of the audience.

Through the first 19 weeks of 2016, Impact averaged 372,000 combined viewers on Tuesday nights, DVR viewership added an average of 43,000 viewers per episode, and the the total audience average was about 415,000 viewers.

---

nOOb - 5-18-2016 at 09:35 PM

I imagine they still have two or three more complete failures before they finally go under. Why WWE hasn't just bought them out yet is beyond me: you get a library AND you can explain both long gaps in history for guys disappearing as well as being able to say more about AJ Styles other than "He was in Japan for a little bit and other places".

---

CCharger - 5-18-2016 at 09:38 PM

Here's a legit, non-snarky question:

What is TNA worth? Vince bought WCW for just $24 million. I'd doubt TNA is worth half that.

---

Paddlefoot - 5-18-2016 at 10:08 PM

Good question and the only answer is probably a combination of what Vince thinks it's worth and what Bob Carter can get to avoid being humiliated when it's over. I guess one of the things that is different from when WCW went under is that with TNA Vince doesn't have a personal stake in it this time. Whatever jibes TNA might have aimed at him have fallen so short that they could quite literally be completely beneath his notice. It was different with WCW because they could have put WWF out of business. And the insults were personal too, from first hiring Hogan to signing Bret to Bischoff's challenge for Vince to show up at a PPV. Paying only $24 million for WCW when a couple of years before they were probably worth three times that probably still makes him laugh out loud when he remembers it.

With TNA Vince has no reason to be vindictive, not when he has his own 100% WWE-brand feeder system in NXT that's pretty much inarguably superior to TNA. It'll probably be a handshake deal with Bob Carter and handing over maybe two to five million when the time comes and that'll be it. The only real impetus WWE will have will be to get control of the TNA archive so that it doesn't end up in the hands of some old timer NWA flake who thinks he can extort $10 million for it later on. If that happens WWE won't even bother negotiating any further and all those great matches that happened under the TNA banner will get tucked away in a basement somewhere, or get sold as third-rate DVD's over the internet without the added sales benefit of being backed by the WWE merchandising machine. That would be a tragedy because just from the X-Division and Knockouts sections of the archive alone they could probably put together about ten compilations in the first year of ownership that would earn them back the money they paid for it.

---

anglefan85 - 5-18-2016 at 10:26 PM

quote:

---

Originally posted by CCharger
Here's a legit, non-snarky question:

What is TNA worth? Vince bought WCW for just $24 million. I'd doubt TNA is worth half that.

---

Not to mention that buying TNA also means taking on their debts, which at this point have to be around how much the company is worth.

---

janerd75 - 5-18-2016 at 11:18 PM

quote:

---

Originally posted by williamssl
May I enlist you, sir, as my brother-in-troll, to...well....troll the heck out of this everywhere and every time it happens? We've got a solid 3 months until SummerSlam, and then a good 1-3 weeks afterwards, where the kvetching and moaning and gnashing of teeth will be going on, peaking in July/early August in the weeks leading up to the PPV.

Perhaps the gOOd community will surprise us and profess their love of popcorn and spectacle and have that exceed their inherent IWC purity and overwhelming need to tell us repeatedly how horrible this is and will be and that it is DOOM! DOOM I tell you for the now and future of wrestling EVER and that this is the last straw and WWE shall never (EVER!*) have their eyeballs gazing upon it.

This is potentially a very big job and, while I am strong and capable....I do not think I can do this alone.




* never (EVER!) = 1-2 weeks

---

My preferred SS Card:

Owens vs. Zayn for the IC Title OR Zayn vs. Orton for the IC Title which could potentially give us...

Bork vs. Owens just for shits and giggles.

Cena vs. Cesaro for the U.S. Title. Maaaaaaybe add Rusev and Hot Lana to the proceedings.

Thusly leaving the Main Event to the SHIELD...

Reigns vs. Rollins vs. Ambrose for the Heavyweight Title.

Buuuuuut, since I'm all aboot trainwrecks and have an impeccable shitposting record, if it's Reigns vs. Cena in Brooklyn you want...

---

Slade - 5-19-2016 at 01:22 AM

quote:

---

Originally posted by anglefan85

quote:

---

Originally posted by CCharger
Here's a legit, non-snarky question:

What is TNA worth? Vince bought WCW for just $24 million. I'd doubt TNA is worth half that.

---

Not to mention that buying TNA also means taking on their debts, which at this point have to be around how much the company is worth.

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If the company has more debts than assets, which I think it is fair to assume it does, then wouldn't that mean that the company is worthless?

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bopol - 5-19-2016 at 02:11 AM

quote:

---

Originally posted by Slade

quote:

---

Originally posted by anglefan85

quote:

---

Originally posted by CCharger
Here's a legit, non-snarky question:

What is TNA worth? Vince bought WCW for just $24 million. I'd doubt TNA is worth half that.

---

Not to mention that buying TNA also means taking on their debts, which at this point have to be around how much the company is worth.

---

If the company has more debts than assets, which I think it is fair to assume it does, then wouldn't that mean that the company is worthless?

---

Yes, that's why you sometimes see companies bought for free because the new owner assumes the debt.

As far as what TNA is worth, who knows? It'll be worth what someone will pay for them. I wouldn't be surprised if VKM buys them for $1 M if he can get their debtors to accept 50 cents on the dollar.

---

salmonjunkie - 5-19-2016 at 02:31 AM

If Vince buys TNA, do you think they make a deal of it at all on TV? Do they then recognize the TNA championship reigns that some of their current roster have? I imagine they would in the case of AJ and the Dudleys, and maybe Christian would be allowed to say he was champ when he does a HOF speech.

Do they count their NWA Championship reigns during TNA as well? I assume that maybe they would since they count those the NWA/WCW championship reigns, but I would also argue that NWA-TNA championship reigns aren't as prestigious in their eyes as NWA/WCW championship reigns.

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OORick - 5-19-2016 at 03:23 AM

On WWE TV? No. Just no.

But a TNA "invasion" of NXT? Yes, please. My reasons:

(1) It would be "beneath" Vince, so it's likely a story to be told by competent writers/bookers, and would give us a chance -- albeit on a smaller stage -- to see what a GOOD inVasion might look like. My read is that you could acknowledge TNA went out of business, and WWE gobbled up all its assets, but those TNA talents are NOT happy about being treated like second class citizens (just because their previous ownership was inept does NOT mean they are not world class performers; or something like that), and so they decide to band together to gain some modicum of power/respect. Not "we sincerely intend to take WWE down," but more "WWE treats us like TNA is a stigma, and they bury us, but we sincerely intend to show everybody that if you throw politics out the window, we belong here."

It'd be neat if HHH would visit a bit more to treat NXT like "his baby" and be the Uber Politician trying to keep TNA guys down, but it could work just as well with Regal, so long as you make it clear that Regal is receiving guidance from Corporate, and is gladly doing their bidding, since he, too, has a vested interest in "his" crew getting preferential treatment over interlopers.

(2) Samoa Joe as NXT Champ creates a lot of options for shifting allegiances and drama. He and Styles are really the only two guys (unless Jeff Jarrett materializes) who really have TNA in their DNA to the extent that they might be TNA "moles" or whatever. None of the WWE guys who slummed it in TNA has any reason to reveal "Oh, hey, I LIKED it when I left the big time, and got paid sporadically to wrestle in front of 400 people" (for Flair or Foley or the Dudleys or Hardys or Angle, it's main roster, and pretend-TNA-never-happened, and that's that). And we've already seen that not even TNA's next-step-down guys like Storm and Young are really all that over on their own. A big SLEW of Storms/Youngs/Roodes/Galloways/EC3s/etc can make a splash, and then -- since AJ's not coming down from the main roster any time soon -- Joe is the perfect guy to make sure the entire concept has traction and legs.

It could even be a subtle sort of deal where Joe has no loyalty to TNA (they treated him poorly at the end), but he IS loyal to a lot of the GUYS from TNA, who he considers great wrestlers in their own right. Regal/HHH could keep forcing him to do damage to the "insurgents," and Joe keeps feeling guilty for beating up his friends, until NXT drives him into the arms of TNA. It's but one way you could do it, without the forced face/heel dichotomy that existed with WWF/WCW or WCW/NWO. There would be faces and heels on each side, because their motivations for being on that side would be different.

(3) Instant repopulation of the NXT women's division. Right now, the only ready-for-TV women left in NXT are Bayley, Asuka, Jax, and Alexa. There's no quick fix for that; it's just a case where they'll have to grind away for 12-18 months to get another handful of women who are both good enough and over enough. That is, there's no quick fix, unless you just bring in a few women claiming TNA affiliation (yes, this means keeping Gail Kim, then quietly signing a few who haven't been around TNA lately, for money or political reasons, and then claiming they were TNA all along).

But even if you do this, it's basically a 6-9 month story, and you're still buying TNA for the tape library, and not much else. I can't see the price tag being much more than low 7 figures.



Rick

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First 9 - 5-19-2016 at 03:35 AM

I disagree about Storm not being that over on his own.He got a great reception in his debut and it seemed to generate hype. It all just fizzled out quickly when he left two weeks later for more money in TNA.

Anyway, my favorite part of a possible NXT invasion is what they could do with EC3. Yeah, he's not a big name but he's a quality performer who would thrive as the backstab-happy dick between TNA and NXT.

---

Flash - 5-19-2016 at 03:36 AM

quote:

---

Originally posted by anglefan85

quote:

---

Originally posted by CCharger
Here's a legit, non-snarky question:

What is TNA worth? Vince bought WCW for just $24 million. I'd doubt TNA is worth half that.

---

Not to mention that buying TNA also means taking on their debts, which at this point have to be around how much the company is worth.

---

It'd probably depend on how their company is structured, and when TNA becomes available... I'm guessing if they go into bankruptcy then their assets (which is a grand total of their library) would probably get tied up... if they swoop in now and buy up the catalogue and trademarks then it'd probably be on the cheap, and debts be damned.

Let's face it, TNA's library really only has value to one person, and that's Vince. If he's going to grab the whole library then the name would probably need to be bought as well...

Just out of curiosity where is the $24 million figure for WCW coming from? Is that including the various contracts he did take on? I'm only asking as I'd heard numbers that were far lower, and Jericho once famously said that if he'd known in advance how cheaply Vince got WCW for he would have bought it himself... Y2J has done well for himself, but I don't know if he's done that well.

---

merc - 5-19-2016 at 04:29 AM

quote:

---

Originally posted by CCharger
Here's a legit, non-snarky question:

What is TNA worth? Vince bought WCW for just $24 million. I'd doubt TNA is worth half that.

---

You are incorrect & correct in the same post!

WWE bought the WCW tape library & name for 2.5m and also picked up $1.8m in liabilities.
( http://quote.morningstar.com/stock-filing/Annual-Report/2001/4/30/t.aspx?t=:WWE&ft;=10-K&d;=498a2b58b94c536c ) - scroll down to page 10.

So yeah,TNA ain't worth 12 million.

Wait for the filing and buy at auction. There is no Turner Broadcasting prolong this puppy up.

---

bopol - 5-19-2016 at 04:31 AM

Personally, I'll say if they do a TNA invasion, then do it right.

1) The wrestlers are a personal stable of Jim Cornette & James Mitchell.

2) They are only doing this because Jim and James promised them back pay that they are owed by Dixie.

3) They all travel in a rent-a-car that's way too small for the stable and they regularly stop at Dairy Queen drive-throughs. Needless to say they stay in dives and all share the same room.

4) Jim Cornette has hired them basically to go after sports entertainers that he hates. Needless to say, Santino needs to be hired back for the group to destroy him. Then they can go after guys who represent everything Jim Cornette hates it wrestling (it's really to him, dammit) like reality stars (the Miz), high flyers (Neville), fat asses (Owens), guys who fucked him when he wanted to put the entire company on his shoulders (Zahn), big muscleheads that remind him of Batista (Ryback). And because it's Cornette, you know he'll be mad at someone.

5) In the meantime, James Mitchell can unleash evil stuff on Bray Wyatt because you're not legit until you blow off your finger.

6) With the right mix of TNA talent (Samoa Joe, Eric Young, EC3, James Storm, Bobby Roode, Abyss, Spud), you've got a variety of talents that can put on good match with WWE wrestlers.

If done right, you can give guys a chance to have a storyline in between big rivalries. Basically, a Paul Jones army from the Mid-Atlantic days of the 80s. Sure, I don't know why he was so mad at Jimmy Valient, but it kept the lower card fresh and created an awesome freak show when contrasted with the 4 Horseman/Dusty-Magnum work.

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GodEatGod - 5-19-2016 at 04:48 AM

I would probably take 3 things from current TNA and scrap the rest

EC3 - He's blossomed since leaving NXT and has shown he has the kind of talent to make it on the big stage.

Drew Galloway - See EC3 - he's been a maniac and shown a ton of charisma that he never got to show in WWE. I suspect going through the depush/firing loosened him up a bit and took the pressure off.

Maria - I mean, she can bring Mike, I guess, but I just want Maria on my TV, like, all the time. Maybe the hottest woman ever in wrestling, my personal opinion, your mileage may vary.

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Foxcalibur - 5-19-2016 at 04:56 AM

I also am fine with a TNA "invasion" of NXT, though I don't actually see why NXT brass would be opposed to any such thing.

I think part of making NXT its own unique brand is to dispense with the idea that NXT management gives a shit about home-grown vs. foreign performers the way Vince does. One thing I've loved about General Manager William Regal (besides his ability to glower as t-shirts bounce off his face) is he welcomes everyone from indy darlings to Japanese legends to TNA mainstays.

So I can see him surprising the NXT roster with an infusion of new blood from TNA, and making the competition to see who's the best a driving factor for NXT TV for the next year. Just let chaos reign a bit as everyone forms factions and the TNA guys prove their stuff.

Then you'd escalate the storyline over time as the sides calcify and dig in and get territorial. Maybe someone from TNA forms a pretty good tag team with someone from NXT, and both sides get irked. Maybe Samoa Joe falls under pressure to choose sides. And the whole time Regal just sits back and smiles as competitors get competitive and characters create drama.

Eventually the whole thing comes to a head at a knock-down drag-out war at Takeover, with both sides scoring points.

Then the next night, TNA is "buried with honors," everyone agrees they're all NXT now, and all the WWE legends who set foot in TNA come out and give it a round of applause. Maybe Jeff and Jerry Jarrett even show up to take a bow.

What I DON'T want is Evil Corporate Overlords dictating arbitrarily that "These competitors must be Kept Down because The Man prefers These Other competitors." Because actual corporate executives would want the best competition possible. Because money. And I'd be fine with Triple H secretly being in on Regal's plan to just let NXT and TNA duke it out.

Not saying Rick's idea is a bad one. I'd watch it. I'm just sick as a bloody parrot of Evil Irrational Corporate Overlords. I like my Corporate Overlords Xanatosy: Reasonable, rational, and capable of enlightened self-interest. Why would they give a shit if former TNA guys currently under their employ outshine long-time NXT guys also under their employ?

[Edited on 5-19-2016 by Foxcalibur]

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Paddlefoot - 5-19-2016 at 05:39 AM

As there's no real need for Vince to engage in any final humiliation of TNA, because they never came even slightly close to being a competitor to him, I can't see how any of these scenarios would ever come to pass. There's just nothing in it for him to insert TNA's existence into any storyline. And maybe that's a good thing too. From the WCW Invasion through to the handling of booooooo-Reigns as examples, do we really want them scripting out something for an entity as inept as TNA turned out to be, when on the cosmic scale of things their own Creative department shows themselves to be as fucked up as TNA is on far too many occasions? Just buy the fucking archive already, get EC3, Spud, Storm, and some of the residual Knockouts into the ranks, and move past it all like finally ejecting an annoying burrito that's been producing bad gas and disturbing stomach rumbles for far too long.

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Foxcalibur - 5-19-2016 at 05:46 AM

Oh Pad. I know. Nothing good will come of expecting WWE to book things well. NXT booking feels like good booking because it's simple, but it's by no means capable of any sort of riveting, bravura storytelling with structure and layers or anything. All of this is just fantasy booking spitballing.

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merc - 5-19-2016 at 11:31 AM

timing is bad for the talent in TNA. Right now there's a lot of new blood on TV, with injured old blood due back (how many days for Orton Dom? ). From a talent = inventory perspective, Supply is high and demand is low. I doubt there will be a lot of money in any deals.

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SpiNNeR72 - 5-19-2016 at 12:13 PM

There are some great shows in the TNA archive from 2005-2007, when Style, Joe and Daniels were on fire, and some great tag team stuff shortly after, but as already mentioned it really means nothing to WWE.

Even the current runs of AJ, Joe etc can easily have highlight package clips sourced from other indies so even that isn't much use to them.

Also, why associate yourself with the dying company when the best of the talent are going to end up with WWE anyway?


In other news, Cena is being advertised in the dark match for the 30th May RAW, whether thats a hint he will be working with Reigns after AJ's run is up to your interpretation but I'd go for it as a rare chance for Cena to be cheered for a bit..

[Edited on 5-19-2016 by SpiNNeR72]

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denverpunk - 5-19-2016 at 06:59 PM

According to his Twitter feed, Cena is booked to host the ESPYs. As bad as that show is, it's still a really high profile booking for Superman.

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royberto - 5-19-2016 at 08:11 PM

quote:

---

Originally posted by denverpunk
According to his Twitter feed, Cena is booked to host the ESPYs. As bad as that show is, it's still a really high profile booking for Superman.

---

ACcording to ESPN too:

http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/15594027/wwe-superstar-john-cena-honored-host-espys

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coxito - 5-20-2016 at 12:45 AM

Vince could still buy the library and hold on to it for 5-10 years so when some of their recent acquisitions start to retire and they want have network specials and dvd collections. They still have plenty of footage in the archive so they arent in need of the content currently. Its always been mentioned that he is preserving the history of professional wrestling and i understand that its partly so he can control what history remembers but i dont think TNA did anything to piss him off enough for him to want to whitewash it from history.

[Edited on 5-19-2016 by coxito]

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CCharger - 5-20-2016 at 12:59 AM

The focus of WWE right now is the Network. If they think they can get more subscribers by offering TNA content, they will snatch it up in a heartbeat.

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bopol - 5-20-2016 at 02:16 AM

quote:

---

Originally posted by CCharger
The focus of WWE right now is the Network. If they think they can get more subscribers by offering TNA content, they will snatch it up in a heartbeat.

---

So, since TNA can't get viewers right now, how many subscribers you figure TNA will get you and, by extension, what is the content worth?

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CamstunPWG187 - 5-20-2016 at 02:26 AM

I haven't read the entire topic, but that 24 million figure is ridiculously false. Vince paid such a paltry amount of money for WCW that Chris Jericho admitted that he would have bought it outright had he had known the negotiated price.

Wasn't it revealed to have been around the 3 million mark?

I don't see Y2J having 24 million at the time.

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futurelegend91 - 5-20-2016 at 02:49 AM

quote:

---

Originally posted by CamstunPWG187
I haven't read the entire topic, but that 24 million figure is ridiculously false. Vince paid such a paltry amount of money for WCW that Chris Jericho admitted that he would have bought it outright had he had known the negotiated price.

Wasn't it revealed to have been around the 3 million mark?

I don't see Y2J having 24 million at the time.

---

If memory serves me correctly, your figure isn't that far off the mark. Since there was no TV time attached to WCW, Vince was able to acquire it for a song.

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Paddlefoot - 5-20-2016 at 05:21 AM

quote:

---

As a result, AOL Time Warner sold the copyrights to WCW's name to the WWF for $2.5 million, in 2001. Shortly after the purchase, Vince McMahon purchased the entire WCW videotape library for an additional $1.7 million, bringing the final tally of World Championship Wrestling's sale to $4.2 million.

---

Wiki

Did Vince get stuck with the contracts of the guys who refused to wrestle at the time (Goldberg, Nash, Hogan, etc.) or was that still AOL Time Warner's responsibility? Can't see Vince being the kind of guy not for force them to show up for appearances if he was paying them, and those contracts would have been the only way that overall purchase price could have ballooned up to $24 million.

[Edited on 5/20/2016 by Paddlefoot]

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anglefan85 - 5-20-2016 at 06:07 AM

411mania.com/wrestling/update-on-tna-june-tapings-being-cut-short/

quote:

---

Due to lack of budget and money, TNA had to cancel two dates next month in which they were to tape TV shows. The originally plan was to tape every day of the week after Slammiversary but because of the severe shortage TNA is going through, they are only taping three days instead of Monday thru Friday.

---

Taping over 5 days was bad enough for the wrestlers who had to work multiple times during that time period and getting burned out in the process, and now TNA's cramming more into 3 days?

If nobody gets hurt during these tapings, its gonna be a miracle.

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Slade - 5-20-2016 at 07:28 AM

The likes of Hogan, Savage, Nash, Hall, Luger, Sting, Goldberg and Flair, as well as a few others, were still collecting their guaranteed contracts from AOL Time Warner after WCW was sold. I don't think there were many wrestlers on the lower part of the card with those same contracts. However, DDP and Booker T opted out of their guaranteed contracts to try to become stars in WWF. I remember DDP once said that he figured he didn't have many years left in him and thought that he might have been able to make more money as one of the biggest names to make an immediate cross over. Booker T may have also assumed that his chances of stardom and bigger pay days were greater by jumping earlier while all of those other guys were sitting on the sidelines. I think it is fair to say that the decision worked out wonderfully for Booker T and didn't really pan out for DDP.

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Gobshite - 5-20-2016 at 01:19 PM

I wouldnt say it failed for DDP, it just didn't go as well as he might have hoped.... But then we have no idea what DDP's goals were, how long he had left on his WCW contract, and what he accepted as the buy out value on that contract. Plus, he definitely bagged himself a bunch of goodwill by being prepared to take the chance, and that still sees him tied to the WWE to this day.

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Paddlefoot - 5-20-2016 at 03:12 PM

And we'll never now what might have happened for him if it hadn't been for that career-ending injury. The crowd marked out great for his debut against Taker and his "and that's a good thing!" lifestyle-coach gimmick was picking up steam before he got permanently hurt. He'd probably be retired by now but there was no way that he wouldn't have held the IC or US titles at least once, and maybe even been able to brush up against the main belts during the brand split too. He was just too good at his job and well liked by everyone not to get a chance at something significant. Hell, put him on SD permanently and those would have been some great Smackdown Seven matches against Angle, Edge, Eddie, Benoit, and the others that were there at the time ten-odd years ago.

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Dominator - 5-20-2016 at 09:50 PM

quote:

---

Originally posted by royberto

quote:

---

Originally posted by denverpunk
According to his Twitter feed, Cena is booked to host the ESPYs. As bad as that show is, it's still a really high profile booking for Superman.

---

ACcording to ESPN too:

http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/15594027/wwe-superstar-john-cena-honored-host-espys

---

This could be the greatest ESPYs ever. Especially if Cena goes off-script a bunch. Like he should.

He should MUST reprise the Doctor of Thuganomics for his monologue.

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Cherokee Jack - 5-21-2016 at 06:45 PM

Per his Twitter, Cody Rhodes/Stardust has requested his release from WWE.

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Il Palazzo - 5-21-2016 at 06:52 PM

Part of me is hoping this is just playing into him changing things up again and getting a fresh run in WWE, but I'm more than prepared to take it at face value.

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merc - 5-21-2016 at 07:48 PM

quote:

---

Originally posted by Cherokee Jack
Per his Twitter, Cody Rhodes/Stardust has requested his release from WWE.

---

So this is a rumor? (Channeling my inner Matte)

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Paddlefoot - 5-21-2016 at 08:38 PM

Eden's twitter gives him "full support" so it could be legit. Hope not. He still has way too much to offer and should be a perennial competitor for the mid title belts.

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vonLampertheim - 5-21-2016 at 09:02 PM

quote:

---

Originally posted by Cherokee Jack
Per his Twitter, Cody Rhodes/Stardust has requested his release from WWE.

---

What's Cody Dreamer doing in Korakuen Hall with the Bullet Club, Yoshi Tatusu?

[Edited on 21-5-16 by vonLampertheim]

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Matte - 5-21-2016 at 09:32 PM

quote:

---

Originally posted by merc
So this is a rumor? (Channeling my inner Matte)

---

Thanks for doing my part.

Also, I'm currently petitioning to name all future iterations of the rumor thread "Rumor/News Crap [year], [part]" in order to resolve this pressing issue once and for all.

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anglefan85 - 5-21-2016 at 10:10 PM

Wow, when I was coming home today, I had this feeling that I was gonna go online and read something I didn't wanna see. My feeling was correct.

Such a wasted talent, Cody should have been a main-eventer.

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Flash - 5-21-2016 at 10:21 PM

quote:

---

Originally posted by Cherokee Jack
Per his Twitter, Cody Rhodes/Stardust has requested his release from WWE.

---

If this is true, then that's a shame; to use an NHL comparison Rhodes is that perfect 3rd line two way player who can also play second line minutes. He's had quite a few distinctly different gimmicks/characters in his almost 10 years (he's only 30, so think about that for a second)...

Off the top of my head;
*The blue chip rookie mentoring under Bob Holly
*Legacy
*Dashing
*Dr. Doom Cody
*Mustached Cody
*Just Cody w/ Goldust
*Stardust

I guess I kinda wonder if how long he's been around as a mid carder is hurting him... I mean 10 years treading water around the mid card for that long probably hurts your ability to really break out; for the WWE to find something fresh about you and really shake off that much time doing 3 minute matches as a semi-disposable guy.

Still; despite that maybe stigma, Rhodes has managed to reinvent himself time and time again and get over... so maybe this is a case where you've got to go away to come back bigger thought process that's going through his mind. At age 30, and with his legendary pedigree he's got a lot of years with the WWE ahead of him if he'd want it I imagine, and while he's maybe not quite got that it factor to be at the very top of the card, some time away might give him and the WWE an opportunity to have him come back in a high profile way.

Then again there's still nothing up on the WWE.com homepage about Rhodes taking a walk, and it is a bit weird for this to come out while it's still in the asking phase... So maybe this a case of a "real" story playing out... Not that we've seen a lot of tantalizing names get recently endeavoured, but how cool would it be if all these endeavours were just a work and you've got a new kind of Outsiders faction brewing?

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GodEatGod - 5-21-2016 at 10:40 PM

Yeah, I feel like this might be a work of some sort. Cody's wife, for one, is also a WWE employee and I don't see him going from that to working some random indy road schedule while she's on tour with WWE. Also, his brother works there and they have his father's legacy. That isn't to say he shouldn't want more or want to progress further. More likely, I think it means that Stardust may be coming to an end. I love Stardust, but I get that he's kind of become more of an anchor around Cody's neck than a help. But I'm a big fan of Cody and hope, whatever comes, that he gets a chance to be on TV more.

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First 9 - 5-21-2016 at 10:59 PM

Could be a number of reasons besides his place on the card. All the traveling getting to him, wanting to try his hand at acting, stand up, or other feds to raise his stock, or wanting to rehab an injury that he simply couldn't while working for WWE.

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Dominator - 5-21-2016 at 11:07 PM

Cody will be fine when he returns at the Rumble feeling refreshed as the American Kid Cody Rhodes and goes 55 minutes and steals the show with a 3rd place finish all will be right with the world.

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First 9 - 5-21-2016 at 11:58 PM

Remember when the hottest prospects on the roster where Wade Barrett, Cody, and Ziggler?

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merc - 5-22-2016 at 12:32 AM

quote:

---

Originally posted by Matte

quote:

---

Originally posted by merc
So this is a rumor? (Channeling my inner Matte)

---

Thanks for doing my part.

Also, I'm currently petitioning to name all future iterations of the rumor thread "Rumor/News Crap [year], [part]" in order to resolve this pressing issue once and for all.

---

That could work, or maybe just the " 2016 thread for those to lazy to create a thread and rumor thread"

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Flash - 5-22-2016 at 04:31 AM

Couple of rumours;

*As of right now, there are no plans for a second season of Edge and Christians show.

Meh, I don't think this is exactly like networks doing their up fronts; I think the WWE just throws ideas at the wall and see's what sticks, and otherwise do things on their own schedule. The show is likely cheap enough to produce that once they string together enough ideas we could see the whole "no plans" thing change on a dime.

*Babyface Stephanie McMahon here to stay?

Steph' has an autobiography coming out shortly, so there's some expectation that she'll stay as a face when and where she appears on TV over the next stretch as they are planning a pretty major promotional tour of the book. The book itself is part of a succession strategy to raise her profile outside of the company (in addition to all the other stuff she's been doing lately) to soften any turmoil that might come with the aging Vince's passing one day.

Honestly, I'm not sure what to make of a Steph' biography; she's not exactly a rags to riches story of overcoming hardship. I won't deny that she's probably done a lot of shit jobs in the WWE (I know she used to work the sales phone lines and fill t-shirt orders back in the day) but for as competent and hard working as she may be, there was probably a certain inevitability that she was going to have a seat at the top table in some shape or form.

This probably also isn't going to be a backstage shocker either where we find out once and form all Macho Man was black listed because of ploughed the bosses daughter either...

At a guess?

Nice stories about Andre, slogging it out in the mail room, and maybe overcoming some kind of personal tragedy like bulimia.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure it will be at times interesting, but this feels like a crafted puff piece coming out way.

Now the 7 tomb Vincent Kennedy McMahon: How I took over the world is the one I'd be waiting for.

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Paddlefoot - 5-22-2016 at 05:12 AM

Dunno if I'm capable of that cynicism, man. Watched the opening for Raw the night after Owen died on YouTube yesterday and Stephanie's crying almost made me start crying (again). I don't doubt that she knows her corporat-ese by know and won't deny she has to shoulder her own fair share of responsibility for botched pushes and dumb plotlines over the years. With some of the other characters in this business though, including some that are also still inside of WWE, if it were my line of work I don't think that I'd mind working for StepHHH. Not being a suck-up, just acknowledging that there's way worse out there to be employed by.

* apparently both Cody and Dustin Runnels left this week's SD tapings early before they began filming; their profiles as Stardust and Goldust are both still up on WWE.com but then again so is Adam Rose's

[Edited on 5/22/2016 by Paddlefoot]

---

Flash - 5-22-2016 at 07:39 AM

My post wasn't a criticism of Stephanie; I do genuinely believe that for as much as she was probably always going to draw a salary as an executive of some kind, she's definitely put in the work to make sure she's a respected leader (for the most part), than an outright act of nepotism. I'm also not suggesting that her life has been perfect and free from drama either....

My point was I'm just not sure of how compelling a story that might be, coupled with the fact that this book is being put out with a clear agenda in mind.... that often tends to lead to a kind of false drama.... I dunno; it's like that Disney movie Remember the Titans... great message, decent acting, overall a good movie... but you could feel the "...and cue sad music now" moments coming a mile away.... on the flip side a movie like Schindler's list was also exposing you to something, but it was in the hands of a master story teller so you really experience that emotion....

Eh... I think it's too late and I've just devolved into gibberish.... when somehow you go from Stephanie McMahon being compared to desegregation and the holocaust you know it's time to go to bed.

---

bopol - 5-22-2016 at 03:43 PM

Maybe she'll fess up about the relationship with the Macho King.

---

Chris Is Good517 - 5-22-2016 at 05:03 PM

I think Cody's done, at least for the immediate future; he went to school for acting and my guess is he wants to try his hand at that rather than just leave to wrestle elsewhere. I don't think it's out of the question that maybe he pops back up in 3-4 years and I think having the stench of midcard joke washed off of him will be great for his career.

But if he's done, leave 'em wanting more, I guess. He'll be one of the bigger "what could have been"s of the current era, but that actually seems depressingly standard for the last ten years of WWE.

---

TomS - 5-22-2016 at 07:49 PM

I think he may be working us:

https://twitter.com/PrinceCGR/status/734453843589660672

quote:

---

All the reports I've seen are 100% false & just speculation.

Hope to provide answers by this evening.

---

Huh, I wonder what else is happening this evening?

---

Paddlefoot - 5-22-2016 at 09:08 PM

* Rollins is now fully medically cleared for his return and will be backstage at the PPV tonight, and hopefully he gets one of the biggest pops of all time tomorrow if he shows up at the end of Raw tomorrow and clocks Reigns from behind

* Sasha Banks apparently was injured at a house show back on May 15 when she got concussed after being accidentally kneed in the head by the referee; no word on her return date

* Naomi is close to being medically cleared to return from her knee injury

---

First 9 - 5-22-2016 at 09:56 PM

It might not be the most daring decision, but I hope the next chapter in AJ's uneasy alliance with the Club is Anderson and Gallows ditching him in favor of Rollins. Leading to a long run of AJ vs Rollins classics.

---

Matte - 5-22-2016 at 10:12 PM

http://www.wwe.com/article/cody-rhodes-released

"WWE has come to terms on the release of Cody Rhodes as of today, May 22, 2016. WWE wishes Rhodes the best in all his future endeavors."

---

salmonjunkie - 5-22-2016 at 10:43 PM

I always thought it sucked that Stardust and Goldust never got to properly finish their feud at Wrestlemania or even the following PPV.

---

the goon - 5-22-2016 at 10:55 PM

quote:

---

Originally posted by salmonjunkie
I always thought it sucked that Stardust and Goldust never got to properly finish their feud at Wrestlemania or even the following PPV.

---

Agreed, not to mention that Goldust/Stardust were really entertaining as a tag team.

With that said, I'm not quite as high on Cody as a lot of people seem to be. He just screamed "perennial midcarder" to me and even though he's a talented performer, I just feel like he was missing that certain something that separates the main-eventers from the rest of the card.

---

denverpunk - 5-22-2016 at 11:51 PM

Wow, not even two years ago would I have ever thought that Cody would be misused to the point that he quit. Maybe it's more of a Christian situation, and he can come back later after elevating himself in Japan or Lucha.

In any case, this should be a cautionary tale for most of the roster.

---

Paddlefoot - 5-23-2016 at 12:06 AM

Full Cody statement here via the twatter machine.

My one&only statement on the matter. No podcasts or tell-all nonsense.

Thank you friends. pic.twitter.com/c5MNKw6spH

— Hyrule Husky (@PrinceCGR) May 22, 2016

---

Flash - 5-23-2016 at 12:08 AM

"Tell-all nonsense" OMG secret jab at CM PUNK!!!!!

---

Paddlefoot - 5-23-2016 at 12:54 AM

quote:

---

Originally posted by Flash
"Tell-all nonsense" OMG secret jab at CM PUNK!!!!!

---

Kind of interesting how that one will play out over time. Those who wrestled Hogan say he's a diva and arrogant as fuck. Macho was paranoid beyond belief. Warrior was insane but basically all talk. Orton a pure moron but safe as hell. Punk though? Probably everyone who isn't named Colt Cabana will say something along the lines of him being one of the greatest of all time but a genuinely miserable son of a bitch with a personality like a bag of broken glass.

---

Count Zero - 5-23-2016 at 12:55 AM

And as for "no tell all", he kinda went full-silo on the "head writers". One of them "pretending" to be Brian G and the other chasing develeopmental divas around, allegedly. That's telling something, I think?

---

ulsterphil - 5-23-2016 at 01:37 AM

First Barrett and now Rhodes with a bit of bang. I would say that theres a few more guys backstage sick of treading water hoping for a spot that isnt coming. Who do you think is next?

Insert popcorn gif here.

---

CCharger - 5-23-2016 at 03:32 AM

quote:

---

Originally posted by ulsterphil
First Barrett and now Rhodes with a bit of bang. I would say that theres a few more guys backstage sick of treading water hoping for a spot that isnt coming. Who do you think is next?

Insert popcorn gif here.

---

Don't forget Ryback going rogue too. It would appear that lockerroom morale leaves a bit to be desired.

---

bopol - 5-23-2016 at 04:04 AM

I bet it has to do with guys like Styles, Owens and Zahn getting immediate pushes into good programs while they spin their wheels.

---

Matte - 5-23-2016 at 04:12 AM

quote:

---

Originally posted by CCharger
Don't forget Ryback going rogue too. It would appear that lockerroom morale leaves a bit to be desired.

---

#FeedMeMore during #ExtremeRules if you want to see Ryborg in the Impact zone...😉

— The Big Guy (@Ryback22) May 23, 2016

---

Flash - 5-23-2016 at 05:58 AM

quote:

---

Originally posted by bopol
I bet it has to do with guys like Styles, Owens and Zahn getting immediate pushes into good programs while they spin their wheels.

---

I'm sure it's a combination of things; those guy's they'd maybe say paid their dues; but who knows....

I'd personally peg it down to a few things;

*Reliance on part time guys taking prime spots on what were some of the guy's biggest pay day PPV's.

*Not a dig at Roman Reigns; but is there a more clear example of the WWE brass just going ahead and running with their plans instead of giving opportunities to guys who are getting over. Before you get over, you draw more... you draw more, you get to run with the ball a bit.... now you either get over on the WWE's terms, or you get shuffled further down the card.

*Money.... who doesn't like it, and I'm sure it made for a bit of temporary cure-all for locker room discontent... I think it was a couple years ago talent saw some of their "bonus" revenue streams like video game payouts shrink among other things, and now it's the Network taking away what might have been some lucrative PPV profit sharing in favour of bonuses.

*The Road.... that's always going to be the big pain in the butt in being in the WWE, but the days of a UK only PPV and a few house shows once or twice a year are long gone in favour of several tours all over the world. On top of that I'm sure that the WWE no doubt pushes the whole social media thing which means a few more hours on the clock without pay.

*Other opportunities being out there.... WWE is probably the big dog when it comes to pay, even on the down side, but there is still a lot of other money out there that would let you live a very comfortable life no doubt, minus about 80% of the work and hassle... plus, who thought Batista was going to be a star in Hollywood... if he can do it, why shouldn't others try their hand at it.

---

TomS - 5-23-2016 at 09:15 AM

Speaking of talent spinning their wheels, I wonder how Ziggler is feeling right now? (I've not seen Extreme Rules yet, so I'm going on the assumption he lost )

But yeah, Cody seemed like one of those "can't miss" talents. And they missed several times over with him.

---

ulsterphil - 5-23-2016 at 10:02 AM

quote:

---

Originally posted by CCharger

quote:

---

Originally posted by ulsterphil
First Barrett and now Rhodes with a bit of bang. I would say that theres a few more guys backstage sick of treading water hoping for a spot that isnt coming. Who do you think is next?

Insert popcorn gif here.

---

Don't forget Ryback going rogue too. It would appear that lockerroom morale leaves a bit to be desired.

---

I had totally forgot about Rubsack indeed. Although i think thats more indicative of him as a worker than anything else.

---

CCharger - 5-23-2016 at 02:58 PM

Well, if it is a morale issue, the explanation isn't complicated. WWE presents itself as a company in which if you work really hard and are great at what you do, you will be recognized. If you grab the "brass ring", you will get a push.

However, their actions have demonstrated quite the opposite. They tried to bury Daniel Bryan who was the most over guy since Steve Austin and was a phenomenal in ring worker. Then they insisted on pushing Roman Reigns despite his lack of ability and crowd reaction. That frustration for guys who are busting their ass and trying to grab the brass ring and then getting passed over for a poor worker with zero charisma can be defeating. CM Punk expressed as much.

When your boss tells you to work hard and you'll be recognized only to work hard and have your promotion go to the new guy two cubicles away who can't tie his shoes, you start getting the "who gives a fuck" attitude.

---

denverpunk - 5-23-2016 at 03:58 PM

quote:

---

Originally posted by CCharger
Well, if it is a morale issue, the explanation isn't complicated. WWE presents itself as a company in which if you work really hard and are great at what you do, you will be recognized. If you grab the "brass ring", you will get a push.

However, their actions have demonstrated quite the opposite. They tried to bury Daniel Bryan who was the most over guy since Steve Austin and was a phenomenal in ring worker. Then they insisted on pushing Roman Reigns despite his lack of ability and crowd reaction. That frustration for guys who are busting their ass and trying to grab the brass ring and then getting passed over for a poor worker with zero charisma can be defeating. CM Punk expressed as much.

When your boss tells you to work hard and you'll be recognized only to work hard and have your promotion go to the new guy two cubicles away who can't tie his shoes, you start getting the "who gives a fuck" attitude.

---

Quoted for fucking truth.

---

salmonjunkie - 5-23-2016 at 05:36 PM

It's so shortsighted of the writers to not listen to Cody's idea of shedding Stardust and going back to Cody Rhodes, especially if he had a what, why, and how involved. There could have been some great storytelling involving others. That they'd ignore him goes counter to the long thought notion of the top brass being open to people's ideas.

Also, this reads like Stardust wasn't his idea, either. Although, he definitely did a good job with establishing the character. Unfortunately, for him, the character only got pushed so far. I was hoping that after the program with Stephen Arnell, he would have gotten a decent push. Adding the Ascension as his goons could've been a good idea if they did more with it - that they kinda suck didn't help, but being his goons could have been a good thing for them as well.

Anyway, if Cody wants to go to Japan, ROH, or Lucha Underground, I think he'd do very well in any of those. Hell, even stupid TNA. He'd be world champ his first month in.

Speaking of stupid TNA, Ryborg's tweet was great (quoted from above if you're too lazy to scroll up).

quote:

---

#FeedMeMore during #ExtremeRules if you want to see Ryborg in the Impact zone...��

� The Big Guy (@Ryback22) May 23, 2016

---

[Edited on 5-23-2016 by salmonjunkie]

---

Paddlefoot - 5-23-2016 at 05:57 PM

* word is that Cody might not be working for a while as WWE is going to hold him to the non-compete aspect of his contract until it's officially expired; apparently Cody wanted to ditch the Stardust gimmick at WM32 but Vince and Hunter said no

* apparently Adam Rose asked for and was officially granted his own release by WWE in order to address his personal issues



[Edited on 5/23/2016 by Paddlefoot]

---

Matte - 5-23-2016 at 06:00 PM

quote:

---

Originally posted by Paddlefoot
* apparently Adam Rose asked for and was officially granted his own release by WWE in order to address his personal issues

---

http://www.wwe.com/article/adam-rose-released

"WWE has granted Adam Rose�s request to be released, as of today, May 23, 2016. WWE wishes Rose the best in all his future endeavors."

---

anglefan85 - 5-23-2016 at 06:03 PM

No way is Cody ever going to TNA, and I can think of at least two reasons that are aside from TNA basically being a sinking ship.

For one, his brother and wife still work for the WWE, and having him jump to their "competitor" might make things worse for them and their career.

And secondly, his brother worked for them, and he won't even speak publicly about his time there. Goldust had a pretty big drug problem while working for TNA, a problem that TNA didn't seem to do anything about. If my sibling was in that situation, I wouldn't wanna work for a company that didn't seem to care for their well-being.

---

Paddlefoot - 5-23-2016 at 06:12 PM

I'm not sure if I want to see any of the released/future endeavoured end up in TNA because:

1) it won't do them any good because TNA won't stop being stupid just because some more WWE castaways arrive
2) it won't do TNA any good because none of these guys are big or talented enough to save TNA
3) odds are that Dixie will do something with them so moronic that it makes their last days in WWE look like fun for them in comparison
4) they aren't exempt in the slightest from getting shafted on their paycheques the way that too many other TNA people are, including ones that are still there

All in all it's like being a bench-warmer in baseball or a fourth-line center in hockey looking for yet another team to sign to in the off-season. Get old enough and they all turn into Crash Davis before too long. Happens to everyone who wasn't lucky/talented/favoured enough to be one of the genuine stars. That feeder system at NXT is turning out to be far too good at creating fresh stars so the odds of any of the released ones being brought back at all are much lower now than they were for veterans from the late 1990's who could cycle through WWF then WCW then ECW and then come back in some capacity. The writing is really on the wall if WWE is so steeping in talent right now that they can legitimately tell Kurt Angle or the Hardys that, no, you're not coming back because we simply don't need you and we're not obligated to put up with your crazy bullshit again. At that stage with all those kind of obstacles, if I were young enough still and relatively uninjured, I'd pack it in and move onto the next part of my life. Fun's fun and all but at some point they need to get serious and do something else.

Agree too with Anglefan about TNA simply not giving a damn at all about most of the people that work for them. Ask Daffney and the one Wolf who was basically at the point of being Dynamite Kid-levels of crippled, and they still forced him to work, about how well TNA regards anyone with an injury.

---

salmonjunkie - 5-23-2016 at 06:25 PM

I don't think Cody is stupid enough to go to stupid TNA. Just saying he'd be hotshotted to the main event if he did. But really, I see Japan, ROH, LU, or even NWA-affiliated indies as much more likely places he'll spend the next two or three years, rather than stupid TNA.

That applies to Wade, Ryback, Adam Rose, etc. No one who was released from WWE should go over to stupid TNA until they get their business shit back together - and I honestly don't think that will happen. (exception - Wade's buddy Drew is champ over there. So I do think there's a slight chance we'll see him show his face there briefly, even though I don't think it's the best move for him)

I pretty much can't type "TNA" without typing "stupid" in front of it these days. Stupid stupid stupid TNA.

Anyways, sorry I brought them up. Let's not talk about that silly company anymore for now. I'd much rather focus on just talking about the individuals rather than stupid TNA.

[Edited on 5-23-2016 by salmonjunkie]

---

williamssl - 5-23-2016 at 06:30 PM

But isn't TNA at this stage by definition stupid, in which case you could just type TNA and everyone would know you're talking about stupid stupid TNA?

It's like when people say "close proximity". Proximity means "near or close".


Word economy.

---

vonLampertheim - 5-23-2016 at 06:33 PM

I know any kind of "What is so-and-so doing in the /insert second tier bingo hall/, /insert third tier announcer/?" reply gets dismissed as not being serious, but Cody having monster two year run in NJPW as part of the Bullet Club would seriously be the best thing for his career. He would get to learn all the intangibles about getting/staying over from a similarly-sized Kenny Omega, his stock rises exponentially and he breaks through that midcard ceiling, NJPW gets one of WWE's best rough diamonds after losing talent to the recent WWE raid, and Cody can come back to the delight of the WWE crowd in two years a la Luke Gallows. Plus, all the Iron Chef reruns he can stomach---Sakai ftw.



[Edited on 23-5-16 by vonLampertheim]

---

Flash - 5-23-2016 at 07:23 PM

I can't see any of these guys going to TNA... I mean they'll have bills to pay, which would require actually being, you know, paid.

I don't see Cody ever coming back as a main eventer, but a consistent upper mid-carder once he can shake the quasi-jobber status with a few years away is very likely... plus; who knows what two years from now might hold... I'm not talking about some mystical new promotion rising to the level of respectability, but with the network, a true brand split isn't out of the question. Cody Rhodes probably isn't ever going to be the Raw champ, but a Smackdown, or NXT champ isn't out of the question (and for the record him being Raw champ shouldn't be either).

Anyway.... best of luck to Cody; you were a master of turning the crap they gave you into some pretty entertaining stuff.


As for Adam Rose this was probably his only play... He likely knew once he came back from suspension he was destined for the chopping block, and while he was suspended he couldn't make money.

---

anglefan85 - 5-23-2016 at 07:43 PM

Hmm, Cody Rhodes in the Bullet Club. I could get behind that.

---

salmonjunkie - 5-23-2016 at 08:57 PM

quote:

---

Originally posted by anglefan85
Hmm, Cody Rhodes in the Bullet Club. I could get behind that.

---

I second this

---

anglefan85 - 5-23-2016 at 09:42 PM

Now for some positive news for TNA:

www.wrestlezone.com/news/711249-pop-tv-president-speaks-out-on-tna-wrestlings-current-status-says-impact-wrestling-is-not-being-canceled-and-will-rema in-on-the-network

They've got a multi-year deal. The network just forgot to mention them.

---

Paddlefoot - 5-24-2016 at 12:56 AM

In Pop-TV's defense keeping TNA is now about as significant as keeping the same custodial company for another year that sends cleaners out at night to spruce up their office bathrooms and empty the waste bins. It's nice for the janitors but who the hell else really gives a fuck about it.

---

salmonjunkie - 5-24-2016 at 01:43 AM

Stupid TNA just won't die, will they? Ok, Fine.

My terrible prediction: Cody, Wade, and Ryback will all ambush Drew Galloway and be known as "The Group".

---

Paddlefoot - 5-24-2016 at 02:05 AM

Jesus Christ, Josh! What are Moonrock, Ward Bennett, and The Large Man doing in the Impact Zone?!?!?!?

I don't know, Josh, but they seem to be taking their frustrations out on the other newcomer Ray Leppard, the Extreme Badger!

---

Flash - 5-24-2016 at 02:07 AM

Couple of rumours, or at least stuff getting fleshed out a bit more...

*Cody's departure from the WWE was apparently not on good terms, and there is talk that the WWE might try and stick it to him not just for the old 90 no compete period, but for the length of time that was left on his contract. Apparently this beef was coming from Vince reneging on letting him go back to being Cody.

I can see the 90 no compete, but the rest is probably just noise... The WWE hasn't had a lot of luck enforcing that stuff in the past, and starving out the son of a legend, and a guy who gave you 10 years in his own right is heavy handed by even WWE standards.

*Mayor Kane? Apparently Kane, who's 49, is giving some serious thought to running for the mayor of Knox county Tennessee. Kane has been fairly prominently attached to some different public positions in the past, lending his name in support to others who've run, and appearing in some conservative papers/interviews.

At 49 the guy can't be long for the ring, although you wouldn't know it... is a mayor spot going to be the one that he opts to hang up the mask for? The guy also owns an insurance agency for the past several years, so he seems like he's been planning for life after the WWE for a while now.... although the idea of Kane selling you home insurance, completely with coverage for HELL FIRE... makes me laugh a bit.

*George "the animal" Steel is dealing with some pretty serious health conditions right now per his twitter... no details, but here's hoping he pulls through.

*After Extreme Rules went off the air Rollins celebrated with the belt for a few moments and then left. Reigns then woke up from his nap and was promptly booed out of the building. Apparently Bubba Ray took offense to the anti-Roman chants, and took to twitter to air his grievance.

*We may be getting a women's MITB match this year.... I just don't think they have enough depth to warrant this yet.

---

ejspoon - 5-24-2016 at 12:54 PM

Adding Cody to the Bullet Club, at least the Elite version, might be a bit much considering Cole and Page just joined. But Cody vs. Lethal? All sorts of awesome.

---

jefft221 - 5-24-2016 at 03:29 PM

I think WWE would have to keep paying Cody the rest of the contract if they want to keep him not wrestling for that plus 90 days.

I wonder if he'd be able to be Cody Rhodes elsewhere or have to be Cody Runnels.

Team Street Smarts?: Cody Streets & Damon Sandien?

I had thought about a Women's MITB match, but thought a twist on it would be different. I had dreamed up a "Bank-Vault" match instead. Still have a contract but it's at the top of a cage. So confined to being in a ring, ~4-5 women would be plenty so depth of ~6-8 wouldn't be an issue, might be a bit safer trying out a cage match than a ladder match with the women and would give it it's own identity apart from a MITB ladder match.

But then WWE makes an Asylum match the month before and now that'd feel redundant.

---

CCharger - 5-24-2016 at 04:48 PM

quote:

---

Originally posted by Flash
Couple of rumours, or at least stuff getting fleshed out a bit more...

*Cody's departure from the WWE was apparently not on good terms, and there is talk that the WWE might try and stick it to him not just for the old 90 no compete period, but for the length of time that was left on his contract.

---

I thought the CM Punk and ADR situation's both proved that independent contractors cannot be held to a no compete.

---

Paddlefoot - 5-24-2016 at 04:54 PM

Cody has to keep in mind that if he doesn't co-operate that they might take it out on Dustin and Eden, just like when AJ Lee had to bail out on them when their fight with Punk just got too intense for her to stick around any more. Whether they actually would try to take some kind of petty revenge is debatable but the apprehension will always be their with some of the potentially vindictive personalities at the top of the WWE food chain. Kind of typical with all bosses everywhere. If you're lower on the totem pole than they are you never can full trust any of them.

---

CCharger - 5-24-2016 at 05:04 PM

quote:

---

Originally posted by Paddlefoot
CWhether they actually would try to take some kind of petty revenge is debatable.

---

Yeah, I can't imagine Vince or HHH ever being petty, vengeful, or vindictive.

---

Paddlefoot - 5-24-2016 at 05:27 PM

All I said was there's probably apprehension about revenge being taken and that's a healthy feeling for anyone anywhere in an inferior power position to have, not just at WWE. Anyone who fully trusts their boss is a fucking idiot, and that applies to every employee or sub-contractor on the planet. That being said when it comes down to the belief that Vince & StepHHH are extra-vindictive and out to nuke any employee that goes astray there's a real lack of supporting evidence. They didn't do anything to derail Owen after Bret punched Vince out after the Screwjob; if anything, going by some of those YouTube shoot interviews, both Vince and HBK said that the bad blood stopped with Bret and assured Owen it wouldn't affect him at all. AJ probably would have been in more trouble for mouthing off at Stephanie on Twitter than she would have for being married to Punk. Cody might not push the issue and just take the time off in order to ensure there's no repercussions for Dustin and Eden even though in all likelihood they wouldn't do anything to them anyway.

I'm just guessing here but I assume that most of your venom for WWE comes from your support for CM Punk and how he was "mistreated" by WWE even though he was a central figure and multiple-times title holder during his six or seven years there. Just wondering why you feel this way considering, as I've stated, there's a clearly lack of evidence that WWE is out to "get" anyone. There's people they'll clearly never hire again (Jarrett, Angle, Dupree) and they'll still botch more than enough storylines because they far too often can't see a great talent even when it's standing right in front of them (Bryan). That's a far way from proof though that they're insanely revenge-driven and out to mash those that fall into to their bad books into the ground. For all their quirks and eccentricities there's a hell of a lot of other wrestling bosses out there that have been significantly worse to work for than the McMahons have been.

---

CCharger - 5-24-2016 at 06:41 PM

I don't know if WWE is extra-vindictive. But apply it to the real world of business. If you work for a multi-million dollar media company and one member of a married couple quits in a huff, how often does that company attempt to destroy or harm he remaining spouse? Not many. Why? They'd get sued up the ass. WWE can get around this by blaming any burial on "creative direction" rather than any acrimony.

---

Paddlefoot - 5-24-2016 at 07:13 PM

Not really. Not when it was widely available public information that the relationship between Punk and WWE had turned to shit long before he made his final departure. I highly doubt that AJ was in any lasting trouble at all, even with the Twitter beef with Steph that happened, and that she'd be in the thick of things for the women's title right now if she had stayed. She was simply too talented and visible and popular to downgrade her to a Tamina or Rosa Mendes status, not when all those matches she could have had with the NXT call-ups were just begging to happen. When it gets down to it I'd bet far more that she left simply out of loyalty to Punk, and to put an end to any internet soap opera over the issue, than because of any problems she might have had with WWE management.

---

CCharger - 5-24-2016 at 08:50 PM

I'm not talking about Punk. You're talking about Punk.

---

bigfatgoalie - 5-24-2016 at 10:43 PM

quote:

---

Originally posted by CCharger
I don't know if WWE is extra-vindictive. But apply it to the real world of business. If you work for a multi-million dollar media company and one member of a married couple quits in a huff, how often does that company attempt to destroy or harm he remaining spouse? Not many. Why? They'd get sued up the ass. WWE can get around this by blaming any burial on "creative direction" rather than any acrimony.

---

How often does WWE?

AJ got a prime spot on the Mania card AFTER Punk left.

Lana's social media blunders didn't hurt Rusev.

Drew McIntyre was just as involved in his wife's mania meltdown...and his depush had as much to do with injury.

On the subject of morale, what is interesting is that a lot of the guys speaking out recently had kinda peaked. Ryback, Barrett, and Cody were all usable guys to have on the roster. But they were quickly out classed by guys like Owens, Rollins, Ambrose, and even Roman. But Rhodes has made it clear that he thought he had shown he was a top talent. Which bring up an easy to answer question: is Cody Rhodes capable of being the blue chip guy you build RAW around?

No.

On the same scale...Ryback complained about money, and how the guy who loses shouldn't be paid more. And I don't doubt the WWE pay scale is bonkers...when you look at the top 10 paid performers...it does make sense. Should Ryback be making as much as Cena? Dear lord no. But if we are basing it on value...he shouldn't be making as much as Ambrose or even Sheamus. I mean...has lacking Ryback hurt RAW or Smackdown?

No.

Will not having Cody hurt the product?

No.

Do I agree with Cody that he could have been better used? 100%. Do I accept that the writers probably ignored him because his ideas weren't there own? Sure. Is a writer trying to hook up with young talent while avoiding his job deplorable? Very much. All of these are valid points.

But at the end of the day the main disagreement the leaving or soon to be leaving talent has is that they think they are more valuable (either in turns of pay, push, or WM main event worthiness) than the WWE does. Does it completely discredit their complaints about how the WWE works? No. But it is a reminder to take their bitterness in stride.

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The Hitcher - 5-25-2016 at 05:35 AM

Edens apparently asked for and been granted her release as of my Facebook feed so, probably a non starter on the en-shaftening.

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First 9 - 5-25-2016 at 06:44 AM

Yeah, they're vindictive but only when they get hit in their wallet. Punk left in the middle of WM season forcing them to rearrange a huge portion of their biggest event of the year and left them without one of their top players.

Cody asked for his release, Vince and HHH probably won't feel any real effects of his sudden departure, and they probably couldn't give a fuck about Cody violating the 90 day no-compete clause. There's no avenue for Cody to compete that puts him in direct competition with WWE. It's either Japan, Mexico, or the small American feds. The closest thing they might give a shit about is LU or TNA, who both have money issues and probably couldn't afford him. Not to mention the shitload of tapings they sandwich together so who knows when the debut of Cody Runnels would make it on the air.

Now Adam Rose on the other hand might get blacklisted for trying to make their drug policy look like an unfair and ineffective system. That's their public image that runs of the risk of being tarnished, now that they probably won't just forget if Rose tries to come back.

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SpiNNeR72 - 5-25-2016 at 02:14 PM

Lets face it, Cody was a good hand but, as the chants many years ago went, "you're not gold dust" I was shot down when I mentioned the end of Stardust due to AJ Styles arrival, and still can't imagine anyone could have missed how much Cody based his character on Styles, but whatever.

Fact is he can be a big name due to his heritage almost anywhere else, and will raise his value to return one day (we all know bridges get rebuilt)

However, something I have thought about a lot would seem to apply to a lot of these recent releases - we often hear the "if you dont wanna be champ and lead the company then why are you here" type lines, but thats incredibly narrow minded.

There is nothing wrong with being a solid midcarder, and even a solid jobber. If I could be any wrestler on the current roster I'd pick Heath Slater! Gets lots of cool spots without the presure of being in the top spot, or trying to stay/get there.

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CCharger - 5-25-2016 at 02:19 PM

* PWInsider reporting that the brand extension is returning and that Smackdown will go to live TV on Tuesdays

* Mickey Gall, CM Punk's scheduled opponent, posted that he has been told he will fight Punk in "late summer" which would mean UFC 202 or 203. It should be noted that is the same date that Dana White is trying to re-schedule the Diaz-McGregor fight.

* The Rollins-Reigns feud is expected to continue all summer leading to a blow off match at SummerSlam. There are no plans to take the belt off of Reigns before then.

* AJ Styles is still very much in the plans for WWE. It's likely he will get a run with the IC belt.

* Word is that Vince likes the Social Outcast gimmick and that they could get a big push moving forward

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williamssl - 5-25-2016 at 04:42 PM