NintendoLogic

And of course we have Cody calling Rock an asshole and accusing him of having little dick syndrome the day this story drops. LMAO.

Per today's Observer subscriber exclusive, some of the talent are none too happy about double standards as pertains to The Rock and non-PG language. Quote: "But one person noted that there was a feeling that the era of Vince McMahon’s double standards for his handpicked stars and for everyone else was over under Paul Levesque. But now Johnson has shown that it’s exactly the same." Have any of these people ever worked a real job in their lives? Of course a global superstar of Rock's caliber isn't going to face the same restrictions as Austin Theory. The more you bring to the table, the more leeway you get. That's how it works in every organization on Earth.

I remember that thread. First off, a couple of the comments quoted in the Power Slam piece were clearly sarcastic. Second, taking a contrarian perspective on Angle and HBK's work was warranted to a degree, but the mid-2000s backlash against them at places like DVDVR definitely went too far. "JBL is better than Michaels and Angle" is an Armond White-tier bad take. I think someone in that thread even said that Snitsky was a better worker.

Let's wait for the quarter hour breakdown. Mercedes was in the opening segment, so I'm willing to bet viewership fell off a cliff between Q1 and Q2 and never recovered. Either way, it was still #3 on the night for cable, so there's no need to press the panic button just yet.

I'm really not (although I have been pretty stressed out lately). There's just something about how heavy-handed the whole presentation was that rubbed me the wrong way.

I'm already sick of the "CEO" chant.

This must be what watching this company fall apart in the early 2000s was like. You could even draw parallels between House of Torture and Makai Club. On the bright side, Jack Perry apparently has a new finisher called the glass jaw, which is pretty amusing.

Vince made the payoffs with his own money, but they should have been declared on WWE's financial reports because they provided the company with a material benefit. Also, he signed the NDAs in secret and failed to inform WWE even though he signed them in both a personal capacity and in his capacity as chairman of the company. He reportedly did the latter on the advice of Jerry McDevitt. The man he had relied on for decades as his fixer being responsible for the bad advice that ends up taking him down for good would be quite the twist.

Gunther/Sami has the potential to be an all-timer. The best offensive wrestler in the company vs. the best seller in the company. The story writes itself.

HHH isn't one of the individuals named, but you figure he had to be in on it if his wife was.

I agree that Roman's 2015-2018 run was consistently strong (I can't give him too much credit for the Shield years because he was largely hidden and protected by the six-man format and he looked pretty lost in most of his singles matches from that period), but the Tribal Chief run has been actively awful from an in-ring standpoint. I can't help but wonder if his last bout with leukemia robbed him of much of his athleticism and necessitated filling his matches with smoke and mirrors.

Qevin Qelly. Thank you, I'll be here all week.

Seth actually got the crowd to chant "diarrhea" at Rock, so I guess I'll have to eat my words.

$500k sounds awfully low for a WWE star. When Punk returned at Survivor Series, Meltzer wrote that the money for WWE headliners is well above what it was when he was there last, and HHH's verified downside in 2012 (his contract was included in WWE's SEC filing for that year) was $1 million.

I figured Mike Rotunda would have gotten in as IRS before going in with the US Express.

That DESTIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO shit he did was the absolute dirt worst. I also hated how he'd do the Bobby Heenan "my monitor went out" shtick whenever a babyface did something illegal.

I've long contended that Okada is best by far as a cocky prick, so I'm looking forward to heel Okada in AEW. By the way, Tokyo Sports reported that his deal was for three years and $13.5 million. Just to give you an idea of what the pay scale is like for top stars these days.

On a somewhat related note, Lex Luger, who is under a WWE Legends deal, said they gave him permission to attend Sting's farewell as long as he wasn't shown on camera.

Speaking of people losing their minds, let us never forget that the best thing about the Shockmaster segment is the fact that Sid was able to keep it together and tried to get things back on track while everyone else was losing it.

Bull was more successful in the States, but Aja Kong was better overall. Hopefully she also gets in someday.

Didn't Kurt Angle do a number on this guy during Tough Enough? Too bad he didn't finish the job.

"You know what Forbidden Door needs? House of Torture run-ins." -TK, probably

Re: House of Torture, I could see someone having the mindset that an act that relies heavily on heel heat couldn't be fairly evaluated while pandemic restrictions were still in effect. Now that fans are allowed to fully cheer and boo, they do seem to be effective at drawing heat. Whether it's the kind of heat that draws money is another question.

The ultimate responsibility lies with the referee and the medical staff, but it's not unreasonable to expect Sammy to recognize something was wrong when his finisher involves hoisting his opponent on his shoulders. If he did know or suspect and blew it off because he had to get his shit in, that should be a firing offense.

He might be delusional enough to try, but there is zero chance he would actually succeed. You need a TV deal to be successful at all but the lowest levels and no media company will touch him with a ten-foot pole at this point.