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Unless it's backstage folks like agents/writers, that sounds like an extremely large cut for Smackdown. For as shitty as the other cuts were, the guys who were cut were largely folks not being used and of the ones who were being used you had Rusev who was in a contract dispute and Gallows/Anderson who were playing the Revival game of turning down offers to stay until WWE hit their magic number. The only guy being used who got cut was Rowan and his mystery box being revealed anticlimactically as a cartoonishly fake spider could have been taken as a write off. Looking at the list on Wikipedia that shows the current SD roster, I don't see anyone who really falls into that category other than Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel. Maybe Mojo too, I suppose it depends if the Gronk thing was a one and done for Mania or not. As far as NXT goes, Dave mentions in the new Observer that anyone who appears on NXT TV is probably safe since they're seen as the line of defense against AEW. Anyone in NXT who doesn't appear on TV or only does the Florida loop is probably throwing their phones out the window at this point.

As much as I agree, that's easier said than done for many reasons: 1. The nature of pro wrestling, and WWE specifically, means the wrestlers are conditioned to always fear for their spots. That leads to an understandably selfish mindset which would be hard to shake when it comes to trying to convince everyone to band together. 2. I'm sure WWE is no different from any other major company and floods everyone with anti-union propaganda, not to mention the top guys are in the tax bracket where it's in their best interests to not unionize and those are the ones who would be needed to make any attempt to unionize stick. 3. Tying points 1 and 2 together, it only takes one top guy (like Hogan did in the 80s) to stooge out to management and the whole plan goes down the tubes. So yeah, for like 85% of the roster forming a union would be the ideal situation. Unfortunately you'll likely never get the other 15% to go along with it for political and financial reasons. Could you imagine a mid card guy going to someone like Taker with his Blue Lives Matter shirts and Braun with his "just try not being poor" routine and attempting to convince them to unionize?

Is Lars on the injured list still? There's probably some kind of financial trickery where someone injured can be made to not count against the books.

It's always been a weird thing for me, being a fan of wrestling. I made my peace with wrestling being a shit business full of shit people early on, coming of age in an era where nearly everyone was coked up and banging ring rats of questionable legality will do that. I think it was when Brody got murdered that you kind of have to mentally separate things. Now certain things I still feel icky watching, like Benoit matches or Invader being pushed as a babyface post-murder in WWC. To me it's the wrestling equivalent of a Woody Allen movie. You can't really deny the artistic qualities involved, but it just feels wrong supporting something made by someone who's fucked up like that. It would be nice to distance yourself from all the scumbags out there producing entertainment, but the truth is to be able to do that 100% you damn near have to be Amish. The movie industry is full of people who make Vince McMahon look like a choir boy, and the recording industry was and still is built on the idea of screwing the artists as much as possible to gain all the money. It's very Matrix like in how once the knowledge is out there about how the sausage is made, it's very hard to go back to enjoying it as the same mindless entertainment it was before. "Ignorance is bliss", after all, and WWE's platitudes about putting smiles on faces comes off like trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube.

Greatest ring announcer and also the one who came up with the name "Wrestlemania". You can probably count on one hand the people in wrestling that no one has a bad opinion of, and Howard was definitely one of them.

Lotta folks had that "well he was a nice guy around me, so he couldn't have done bad stuff" mentality. That's frequently a coping mechanism used to try to mentally deal with your friend/co worker/spouse being a monster and you never realizing it. It was also kind of surprising when they were talking about Buddy Rogers, they didn't mention his wife was friends with Jimmy's first wife (not the one on the doc) and they saw her get beat up so bad she was unrecognizable. That was one of the reasons Buddy cut ties with him, along with not wanting to get pulled over with Jimmy holding coke.

Was the cruiser tournament taped in advance? Otherwise it's pretty weird to have him still be in it after getting let go.

It's weird seeing Sugar Dunkerton on national TV.

I'm sure they'll make a big production of whatever cut they take, then make it back a hundredfold by selling some stock when it rebounds.

I would give him the benefit of the doubt and say he's trying to go the Hunter route to ingratiate himself to management, but goddamn does he say some galaxy brain level shit way too frequently for that to be the more likely route. I can only imagine the amount of strained eyeballs in the locker room from rolling them at this idiot.

"Won't someone think of the company" at a time when they just purged people during a pandemic is a line I thought even he wouldn't cross, but I suppose those McMahon boots taste mighty good.

You would think as long as companies have womens' matches there would be a spot for a veteran who can help the newbies.

Speaking of Japan, reps from pretty much every wrestling company met with the government today. I couldn't even begin to imagine US companies doing that without backstabbing each other before they even get in the door.

Will Ospreay mentioned to watch if any UK guys get cut, since the government there apparently has some sort of program paying 80% of people's wages if they lost their jobs now. It smacks of something WWE can use to basically unload the NXT UK payroll to the government until things change.

Reports are saying the agents being let go are just being furloughed, which is just being fired with the promise of being brought back when things get back to normal. Can any of them really trust that will happen though? Also didn't Gallows and Anderson just sign "please don't go to AEW" contracts not too long ago? I wonder if they got any buyout for that (who am I kidding, WWE contracts are so stupidly one sided it probably cost them money)?

He wants to run a show on May 9, so probably.

It's almost like hoarding people just to hoard them ends up being a bad idea when you have financials coming up, and you have to try to maintain your pre-COVID profit goals. That's the rub, WWE doesn't have to release anyone right now. UFC is up to its eyeballs in leveraged debt, and Dana's promised not to cut anyone while this is going on. When Affliction Lex Luthor has the moral high ground, you know you done fucked up.

Thing is, as long as WWE is getting TV money they're still getting the vast majority of the income they would be getting if things were going as normal. Losing the Mania gate sucks, but it's honestly the financial equivalent of stubbing your toe when you're still getting those fat Fox checks.

Funny how Vince can budget the XFL for up to three years of $150 million+ losses, but the 'rona shuts things down for over a month and he starts putting WWE folks in the catapult.

The Jimmy Snuka episode was something. The Chief of Police came out looking like a complete dipshit getting confronted with all the evidence that Snuka killed her, and all he could do is just shrug and say he did the best they could. Really makes the tribute video they did for Snuka when he died look even more fucked up in retrospect.

You would think AEW would have more pull considering their owner also has an NFL team, so them not trying to run a show would speak volumes at how flagrant it is that WWE is allowed to. One of the reporters indicated that this ruling means the Orlando Magic could run scrimmages now and they aren't either.

Seems like a lot of the local news outlets are asking why WWE was deemed essential, and so far all they've got in response is a lot of shrugs in response. I saw one station even asking questions about political favors being cashed in, so perhaps they aren't going to get out of this totally scot free.

As Bix pointed out on Twitter, it should always be remembered that when Jerry wrote a letter about his accuser when he was messing with young girls he stated she shouldn't be believed because she had sex with a black man. So him being a racist fuck is par for the course.

Raw should just be Asuka dancing to other peoples' music and cutting promos for 3 hours.

That tweet was stupid either way you look at it, last thing she needs is to come off as Ronda's social media bodyguard and latch herself to someone making herself look bad on a regular basis even if they are IRL friends.