sek69

The details of the story (them on the floor crying) was so obviously fed to him by someone in the company to make them look bad. He didn't stop for a second to consider if what he was be being fed was in any way not on the level. It's something that carried into his FS1 gig as well. He reported everything WWE handed him without a sniff of analysis and/or criticism. I'm sure it's probably how he got the job, they knew he would just pass along everything they gave to him.

I'm not, the allure of hiring someone who was fairly high up on the WWE food chain (for a non McMahon) would have blinded most companies from paying attention to the ugly parts.

I mean, you were right even with all this happening now. I would argue drug use is probably at an all time low, and by and large the current generation has normalized activities other than going to the bar after every show (well maybe not in the UK). Folks used to get mocked for staying in the hotel and playing video games, and now you have people like Xavier Woods making a second career out of it that can carry him after his wrestling days are over. In fact I would argue one of the reasons this stands out even more today than it would in the territory days is that it *had* been cleaned up to a large degree. I see tons of promotions interacting with fans on social media, and less treating fans like dumb marks to be fleeced. I would also argue that probably a big reason a lot of the folks not named did not realize such scummy behavior was going on around them is the belief that it was something that was not a part of wrestling like that anymore. Things that were exposed in the last week or so was Business As Usual in past eras that most folks in place now don't stand for. I get it though, after what happened it's real tempting to just throw your hands up and yell "fuck all of it" and toss the whole industry in the dumpster. It was my first instinct too, but I have hope that there enough people who are still good who will make sure this is something that gets eliminated.

Sent an unsolicited dick pic to a female wrestler.

Oh hey, Bruce remembered Alistar still works there.

It's funny, but since Rey looks like he's permanently 12 years old, his son looks older than him now.

Impact has officially fired Joey Ryan and Dave Crist, and Mike Elgin was suspended.

I don't know if "Bayley Dos Straps" is supposed to be a subtle reminder that Bayley is actually a POC, but in my head canon it is.

Peyton with a perfect (no pun intended) Fisherman's suplex. That was a thing of beauty.

I don't know if there was a match I've gone from "hey this should be pretty good to "oh my god I do not care anymore" faster than the Street Profits vs Viking Raiders. They could have had a decent series of matches, but we got endless lame comedy bullshit instead.

I didn't reaaaaally need Dolph vs Drew, but they are paying attention to recent history, so I give them props for that. Unfortunately it's a another feud for Drew where the outcome is not in question so that hurts him.

Yeah, I didn't even think to consider Havoc could still be a manipulator with all this. Also it's not so much a Florida law as more as (I believe) an ADA thing that was intended to keep employers from punishing workers trying to seek help, so if it is Havoc manipulating things to his advantage that makes it even more scummy.

That was my impression as well. He does apparently have actual substance issues, so there's a chance that perhaps having everything exposed was his rock bottom moment that he needed to realize he should get help. I'm probably being way too optimistic, but at this point its all we can hope for.

To be fair we should probably stop judging every company by assuming they will handle it like WWE does. So far AEW has handled Sammy (a main event or at least upper level guy) the same as Havoc (midcard tag team guy) which is already 100% different than WWE would do. I would suspect Sammy will be back and Havoc won't, but that's more based on the severity of their actions rather than company bias. What other cases is AEW ignoring? The only one I saw was someone's story that people connected the dots to assume it was Jake Hager but I haven't seen it was confirmed to be him. I also fully admit I may have missed another case since I was mostly offline yesterday.

If AEW doesn't do anything, they get accused of letting someone skate for making disgusting comments right on the heels of them handling the Havoc situation less than ideally. I don't think Sammy's going to be gone for months, this is pretty much the equivalent of putting him in a time out and letting him think about what he has done. You can dismiss it as "woke", and undoubtedly there is some PR to all this, but dude is facing repercussions for his words and at the end of the day that's what anyone should want to happen. He doesn't deserve to be fired/shunned/thrown to the wolves since what he did wasn't on the level of other more disgusting people did. I think what AEW is doing is appropriate. He seems to have learned his lesson and and reached out to the person he directed the comments to. Just like I still got grounded by my parents when I did something wrong even if I understood what I did was in fact wrong, Sammy can survive being benched for a couple weeks as part of this.

Sammy apologized without still trying to defend what he said, reached out to Sasha to mend fences. This was the best possible outcome and proves you can own up to past shitty comments and learn from your mistakes.

Neither, they sell Mid Atlantic DVDs and I think they run fan conventions.

I just remember it becoming a meme that TNA would announce they re signed BRAM every 6 months ago to make it sound like they weren't a sinking ship everyone was trying to flee from in the last gasps of the Dixie Era.

Was he married to Charlotte when she had her blowup with Ric that the cops got involved with or was that the other ex?

It's a weird Japanese cultural thing where having Yauzka ties is considered the cost of doing business, but if you get too blatant about it or get exposed, it's a great embarrassment to the company and no one will want to do business with you. Bushiroad wanted to be as clean as possible when they took over, so while it's not as obvious as back in the 90s when the whole front row was mobbed up looking dudes, I'd wager the actual involvement is much lower than ever before (but probably not completely zero since I'm sure they still have connections with the buildings/concession companies/truck companies etc).

The scale is different of course, but it shows what can happen when a woman speaks out against institutional sexual abuse and folks aren't ready to hear it.

That reminds me, the world really owes Sinead O' Connor a huge fucking apology for vilifying her for telling us about that shit like 10 years before it all came out.

People keep harping on this, and yes he did support Trump at one point he stated after the whole Muslim Ban fiasco he would no longer support him. As far as I know he hasn't done so since. Yes it was a case of ignoring the obvious until something finally affected him personally but it's still more than most people in position would do. The Havoc thing was poorly handled, no argument there. I can see how they wouldn't want to be seen as shitting on someone going to rehab to hopefully turn their life around, but offering best wishes to an accused rapist was not a great way to do that.

I can only hope the fallout to all this will be better oversight of wrestling schools (it's long past time for that anyway even without any of the sexual assault issues) since so many of these stories seem to involve taking advantage of trainees/people trying to break in to the business. It wouldn't completely fix the issue, but it would be a hell of a start. Also I hope WWE reads the room here, as it seems like they are going to take the same approach with this as they do with Wellness Violations: toss anyone low on the totem pole and find some way to exclude anyone they perceive as a name. I get it, I really enjoy Matt Riddle matches and it sucks his name is brought up in this, but it sucks more for the women he allegedly forced himself on. If these claims have any merit he has to go to. WWE going to the mat (pun not intended) to defend guys while their lawyers smear the accusers is not going to be a good look. Matthew Randazzo also brought up a good point: when are the vocally progressive "woke" (I hate that term but whatever) members of the WWE locker room going to put their money where their mouths are and stop working for a company that supports people and causes politically they are diametrically opposed to, but also run by a person who more likely than not has done everything all the people have been accused of doing all week by himself at one point. Guys like Bryan, the New Day, Punk (he works for FS1 technically but come on) all talk the talk and walk the walk when it comes to saying the right things and raising money for causes, but at the end of the day their checks are signed by a openly sexist and racist old man, but someone who's been accused of at least one rape and basically got out of being charged over exposing himself because of who he was.

Dumb things I notice department: when Braun isn't sporting the usual WWE Wet Hair, it looks like he's wearing one of the Viking Raiders' headgear.