sek69

It can happen if, say, they have to back out of a 10 year deal set to pay them $40-50 million a year and investors react badly to it.

Funny thing is all three ended up putting in their notice, Flair only stayed because it was the key in TBS buying the company, and the specfic change they wanted (removing Dusty as booker) happened anyway.

Agreed that was the first big raid, along with Rick Steamboat going to the WWF after taking a hiatus after Youngblood's death. In one swoop, nearly everyone involved with 1983 being a boom year for business was gone.

Bryan was saying that the plan was for them to work a "shoot feud" but Aries legit got upset about Johnny calling him short, and then made a comment basically calling Taya fat which Johnny didn't appriciate. Also their press conference brawl ended up running over one of their sponsors which would not have been part of the plan. So it looks like they worked themselves into a shoot and then turned it back into a work. Rasslin. What a business.

It's just striking a lot of people as odd that all these tales of New Japan strife come out just as the Elite guys are about to become free agents.

If I'm WWE, I ask the Saudis if I can skip this show due to the political pressure and wait and see how the waters are for next time (assuming the deal was for spring/fall shows every year). It would probably be a safe bet to assume there would be less outrage by then due to the goldfish-like memories we have as a society now. Of course that all assumes there's not a more horrifying story waiting to drop after this one. (Doesn't it seem so long ago when the biggest problem with these shows was the lack of women?)

Well it wouldn't matter if Matthews had a good showing or not since she's apparently banned from the US for five years for visa reasons.

IIRC his opponent tried to say if he won he'd spend all his time in WWE and not running the town, and his response was if he won he would devote his time to the office and not wrestling. To the surprise of no one, that has not been the case so far.

To be clear, I don't think Dave is being dumb, but he does kind of have a history where he develops blind spots for guys he gets close to. By that I mean he's doing everything above board, but at times I think he forgets just because he has friendships with guys that means they stop being workers looking out for their own interests.

Alternate theory: they want to stay in New Japan, and floating stories of potential unrest could prompt New Japan to make a larger offer than they would have to keep and/or pacify them. Right now everyone knows they want to stay, and that WWE really doesn't like upending their pay scale, and that WWE likely doesn't see all of them worth backing up the money truck (maybe they would for Kenny but probably not for Cody and the Bucks), so what motivation did President Harold have to make them a bigger money offer? I could see their play being to see if they can make him pay up if they make him feel he's losing the room.

Also it gives them cover from any backlash from their fans if they go to the Evil WWE Empire to say "well things went downhill in Japan so we had no choice".

Yeah it looks like the Elite crew is stirring shit up, which is funny because they are proclaiming a united front when there's no way Omega would walk away from his spot as the face of their expansion efforts.

Their best bet is to just promote the show and try to minimize mentioning anything else. Problem there is that it's clear MBS is giving this money out to make sure the recipients promote how progressive the country is. They are going to expect the full BJ treatment they got last time, and that's going to look ridiculously bad for WWE.

Not unless Vince digs his heels in and has a public knock-the-papers-out-of-Bob-Costas's-hands tantrum about it, which is not an impossible thing to happen. I would imagine the Board of Directors probably has Vince tied up Hannibal Lecter style to prevent that.

With Benoit, it was a terrible thing that unfortunately happened on their watch. This thing is something they are actively talking part in as the optics just get worse for them.

So, recent events might end up having WWE's relationship with KSA blow up in their faces in a big way. It's looking more and more like the Prince had more than a passing involvment in making a journalist from the Washington Post disappear for being an outspoken critic. Having a big Saudi love fest a month after all this hits the fan is going to be an awful look for the company.

Also, I knew it happened, but it always boggles my mind when I'm reminded Hijo del Santo techincially worked for the WWF.

It's amazing that Dave's not wrong here, but it would still have been better than how they actually ended up ending the streak.

So in this photo the guy who's ex KGB, probably has had people killed, is the embodiment of 1980s Cold War propaganda, and the defacto leader of the US is probably #3 on the list of people I'd want beef with in that room.

There's a list on Wikipedia here that seems to pretty accurate.

Hogan and Nash's eternal power struggle is really one of the more underrated aspects of late era WCW.

The Jimmy Hart role of the pipsqueak manager who's annoying but can also bump when someone gets their hands on him is one of those things that always works. I'm not sure why it fell out of favor not just in WWE but everywhere it seems.

...and now they are rushing to book Cormier vs Derrick Lewis at MSG despite DC having a broken hand and Lewis getting his ass beat for 3 rounds before pulling out the KO win. The new owners are so desparate to get PPV buys to pay their loans off, concern about fighters' health goes out the window. These guys are making WWE look like caring employees by comparison. At least WWE tries not to kill their folks.

I'm now imagining the head of TNN was Rev. Lovejoy from the Simpsons.

Apparently Alexa has an arm injury.