sek69

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.

it makes no sense that Bryan is putting his and potentially his family's health at risk, for what? He's famously frugal with his money so it can't be that. He's not going to be positioned as a top guy so it wouldn't be some misplaced desire to not let the company down. Is he that invested in the angle with Drew Gulak? He doesn't seem like a guy who's going to be brainwashed by some corporate BS, plus as stated he's told the company no before. I wonder if he somehow feels he "owes" this to them somehow? It just doesn't add up that a guy who's universally known as one of the smartest folks in the business would make a choice like this.

Finally got to watch Smackdown, and realizing at some point Dana Brooke ended up with permanent duck face. Also I know they are working for a limited roster now, but her and Carmella 1. suddenly being a tag team and 2. expecting a title match instantly was a head scratcher.

They were used awesomely in NXT, when the tag division was a featured part of the show. I don't understand the argument that they weren't poorly used on the main roster unless we're lowering the bar to the point where not being completely buried and humiliated is being "not used terribly". There was the point where they were scooting around like a dog with worms when the Usos put icy hot in their gear so I'm not even sure you can make that argument.

Cash Wheeler definitely sounds like the name of a guy who knows where the best meth is, I'll say that. I suppose if the idea is to be maximum 80s then mission accomplished.