NintendoLogic

WWE's 2012 SEC filing includes HHH's booking contract, which contains the following clause (emphasis added): "In the event WRESTLER desires upon reasonable notice to PROMOTER during the Term of this Agreement either individually or through his authorized representative(s) to participate in movies, films, commercials, product endorsements, videos, television programs or similar activities, whether or not procured by PROMOTER (collectively “Permitted Activities”) and promotional events for the Permitted Activities, WRESTLER may do so subject to PROMOTER’s approval, which shall not be unreasonably withheld or delayed provided a written sublicense is executed between PROMOTER, WRESTLER and any relevant third parties and further provided WRESTLER shall not utilize the Intellectual Property in any manner in connection with such Permitted Activities without PROMOTER’s written consent, which shall not be unreasonably withheld or delayed, and that PROMOTER retains first priority, to the exclusion of any such Permitted Activities, with respect to the use and scheduling of WRESTLER’s services at all times during the Term of this Agreement, as defined herein. It is further agreed that PROMOTER shall receive from WRESTLER a management fee to reimburse PROMOTER for its reasonable administrative costs incurred in connection with WRESTLER's participation in each such Permitted Activity, provided that PROMOTER's costs shall not be less than ten percent (10%) of any fees received by WRESTLER for each such Permitted Activity described herein. Additionally, all monies earned by WRESTLER from such Permitted Activities in a specific Contract Year shall be credited against the Minimum Annual Compensation for that Contract Year as set forth in paragraph 7.1 below." So not only are any outside endeavors subject to WWE approval, any compensation they get counts against their WWE salary.

Still waiting for JvK to give a valid reason why someone who is contractually bound to work exclusively for a particular corporation shouldn't be considered an employee of that corporation. Until he does that, there's really no reason to continue this discussion. And no, "it might lead to Ted DiBiase's son being pushed more than I would like" is not a valid reason.

It's only a real choice if the former option entails actual independence (meaning the wrestler is free to take outside bookings, turn down programs, walk out if they so choose, etc.). The current classification scheme serves no purpose except allowing WWE to evade payroll taxes.

Dave said on Twitter that WWE has hired a lobbyist, so they clearly think it pertains to them.

Jerry, it's been pointed out to you repeatedly that WWE wrestlers are already employees in all but name. You mentioned Pretty Boy Larry Sharpe, but he was free to work for any promotion that would book him. He was also free to walk out at any time if he didn't like how he was being booked or paid. Neither is the case in current WWE. They treat wrestlers like employees when it comes to controlling their work and like independent contractors when it comes to benefits. It's the worst of both worlds.

It's worth pointing out that "not an argument" is a Stefan Molyneux catchphrase. When did JvK go full alt-right?

WCW in 2000 would have still lost money even if every wrestler on the roster had worked for free.

$4 million in career earnings sounds like an absurdly generous estimate for a late 2000s-early 2010s WWE midcarder, but let's go with it. That averages out to about $667k a year. Once you subtract taxes, road expenses, and health insurance, his actual take-home pay would have been closer to half that. That's not a hand-to-mouth existence by any means, but it's far from being set for life. WWE is set to receive a billion dollars in guaranteed TV money. They can easily afford to sign all the indy guys they want and pay Ted to stay home if need be. They could choose not to, but that would amount to handing talent to the opposition.

I do believe that someone who works full-time for a billion-dollar corporation should receive benefits and a pension, yes.

Your LOLWWE moment of the week:

What promotions in 1970 signed wrestlers to full-time exclusive contracts and had billion-dollar TV deals?

https://www.mandatory.com/wrestlezone/news/1134383-genichiro-tenryu-all-japan-pro-wrestling-stroke Well, shit.

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There's a sequence in the Ishikawa Sumo Hall match that encapsulates both the best and the worst of Miyahara. After a Fire Thunder on the apron, he clenches his fist to check for nerve damage. That's the kind of subtle detail you only see from the true greats. But less than two minutes later, he pops up after a superplex so he can do a fighting spirit comeback. It's stuff like that that makes him so frustrating. He'll build a match around sublime selling and deep layered storytelling, but then he'll throw it all away so he can get his shit in.

Except the Joe Savoldi who worked as a spy during WWII and the Joe Savoldi who was Angelo's son are two different people. In fact, Angelo's real name was Mario Fornini. He was given the name Angelo Savoldi by promoter Jack Pfefer so he could be billed as the older Joe's brother, the same way Ricky Steamboat was billed as a relative of Sam Steamboat.

Based on these MSG shows, it looks like the three biggest stars in WWE right now are Steve Austin, Undertaker, and Shane McMahon.

What the hell happened to rock and roll? Even bloated septuagenarian Flair is a million times cooler than these rock "stars."

Only 34? It'll be at least a decade before he's worthy of headlining Wrestlemania.

Looks like the era of Takeovers being part of Big 4 PPV weekends is officially over. Will they start being counter-programmed against AEW PPVs? Or will WWE try to undercut AEW by running them on USA? It's a lot harder to justify spending $50 on a PPV when there's a PPV-level card on TV every few months, to say nothing of the impact on AEW's ratings.

Casas has to be setting some kind of record as a full-time serious wrestler in a major promotion, right? Giant Baba and Rusher Kimura were both full-timers into their 60s, but they had long been relegated to old man comedy matches by that point.

Didn't Monsoon have an ownership stake in the WWC? Vega and Perez both started their careers there, so that would explain that connection. Also, I've never really thought of Puerto Ricans as being heavily involved in organized crime.

Dave posted on the F4W board today that he got into an argument in 1997 about Rey Mysterio with Buddy Rose, who said that Rey didn't know how to work and you could find someone like him on every street corner in Tijuana. Is Buddy Rose cancelled?

My wrestling universe has expanded significantly over the past seven years, so I decided to revisit this. Also, I thought some of our newer blood might be interested in sharing their thoughts. This time around, I limited my selections to matches I feel strongly about and am completely certain of or close to it. Note that the lineages of the WWE world and tag titles are so convoluted that I picked one match for each to represent all of them. WWE Championship: Eddie Guerrero vs. Brock Lesnar, No Way Out 2004 WWE Tag Team Championship: Shawn Michaels/Diesel vs. Razor Ramon/123 Kid, Action Zone WWE Intercontinental Championship: Randy Savage vs. Ricky Steamboat, Wrestlemania III WWF Women's Tag Team Championship: Jumping Bomb Angels vs. Glamour Girls, 11/24/87 NXT Tag Team Championship: #DIY vs. The Revival, NXT Takeover Toronto 2016 NWA World Heavyweight Championship: Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat, Clash of the Champions VI WCW World Heavyweight Championship: Vader vs. Sting, Great American Bash 1992 NWA/WCW United States Championship: Lex Luger vs. Ricky Steamboat, Great American Bash 1989 NWA/WCW World Tag Team Championship: Dustin Rhodes/Ricky Steamboat vs. The Enforcers, Clash of the Champions XVII NWA/WCW United States Tag Team Championship: Steiner Brothers vs. Nasty Boys, Halloween Havoc 1990 WCW Cruiserweight Championship: Eddy Guerrero vs. Rey Misterio Jr., Halloween Havoc 1997 IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada, 4/7/13 IWGP Tag Team Championship: Hiroshi Tanahashi/Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Minoru Suzuki/Kensuke Sasaki, 12/11/04 IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Jushin Liger vs. Naoki Sano, 8/10/89 WWF Junior Heavyweight Championship: Dynamite Kid vs. Tatsumi Fujinami, 2/5/80 Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship: Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada, 6/3/94 World Tag Team Championship: Mitsuharu Misawa/Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada/Akira Taue, 6/9/95 All Asia Tag Team Championship: Kenta Kobashi/Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Doug Furnas/Dan Kroffat, 5/25/92 GHC Heavyweight Championship: Kenta Kobashi vs. Yoshihiro Takayama, 4/25/04 GHC Tag Team Championship: Mitsuharu Misawa/Yoshinari Ogawa vs. KENTA/Naomichi Marufuji, 4/25/04 GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship: KENTA vs. SUWA, 9/18/05 WWWA Championship: Aja Kong vs. Dynamite Kansai, 8/30/95 AAAW Championship: Aja Kong vs. Meiko Satomura, 9/15/99 OZ Academy Openweight Championship: Aja Kong vs. Hikaru Shida, 9/17/18 AWA World Heavyweight Championship: Nick Bockwinkel vs. Curt Hennig, 11/21/86 AWA World Tag Team Championship: Midnight Rockers vs. Buddy Rose/Doug Somers, 8/30/86 AWA Southern Heavyweight Championship: Jerry Lawler vs. Bill Dundee, 6/6/83 ROH World Championship: Bryan Danielson vs. Takeshi Morishima, Manhattan Mayhem 2007 TNA X Division Championship: Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles, Turning Point 2005 WLW Heavyweight Championship: Takeshi Morishima vs. Daisuke Ikeda, 6/1/04 Real Pro Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship: Vader vs. Nobuhiko Takada, 8/18/94 KO-D Openweight Championship: Dick Togo vs. Antonio Honda, 1/30/11 CWA World Heavyweight Championship: Bull Power vs. Otto Wanz, 12/22/89

There's two things I wish for above all else. One, no automatic rematches when a champion loses a title. Two, any contender who gets a title shot and comes up short moves to the back of the line.

Tuesday Night Titans actually moved to Fridays on January 4, 1985. It moved to Wednesdays on April 2, 1986 and remained there until the end. For the first few episodes after the initial switch, Lord Alfred Hayes introduced the show as "Tuesday Night Titans on Friday Nights." Beginning with the January 25, 1985 episode, he introduced it as simply "TNT," at which point it presumably became an orphan initialism.