fakeplastictrees

The first 6 months of Hogan's run was like putting all of the good and bad stuff of the MNW era into a blender. NWO, Val Venis, Montreal, ECW, Sting, Monday Night Wars Part II, Russo & Bischoff being major players in creative, and other non-sense. It's really amazing how committed Impact was to being a 90's nostalgia promotion.

WWE has never done anything or gone anywhere substantial with its nostalgia. Look at the Smackdown 1000 show and all the other anniversary shows. One of the most recent Raw anniversary shows featured people, who were paid thousands of dollars a piece, standing on a stage and waving. WWE is completely content in nodding to the past, without any idea of focus on the present. It will not save them this time. Wrestling fans are, for better or worse, evolving. WWE's inertia nostalgia will continue to clash with the paradigm shifts and thus ultimately do more harm than good. If a trip down memory lane is planned with no destination in mind, cancel the trip.

XFL 2.0 is going to be so fun to follow. The company spin , the backstage meltdowns, the random departures, ratings discussions, and so much more. I'm all in!

If I had to guess what Vince was thinking, I believe he might have thought the blood made fans think WWE made Guerrero bleed or that the blade job went bad and the fans would feel bad about a blade job gone wrong. This is of course is going under the assumption that Vince thinks that all smart fans can't/won't get into a angle, wrestler, storyline, etc. without thinking and/or blaming Vince and WWE.

Yes! That's going to solve the systemic and institutionalized problems. Bringing over Roman Reigns, Charlotte, and others over to Raw and thoroughly, yet again, negate the brand split. I am not sure how WWE hasn't figured out that putting all the eggs in the basket of a few may be all well and good when considering the historical curve of pro wrestling history, but that doesn't mean a promoting should ignore adding and having a depth to everyone else outside of the main event picture. It is insane to think the same man who headed The Attitude Era and the mid-to-late 80s boom doesn't understand that the mid-card need needs to have personalities.

The best thing about this podcast is that these guys are reviewing some pretty good shows. Soon, nothing will be left but the crying.

I love Mark Henry, but I disagree with the passing down eating shit to the next generation. If Mark had to carry bags and drive people around, that's bullshit. It was bullshit then and its bullshit now. Just because it was 'acceptable' in the 90's doesn't mean it should fly today. It sounds as though the locker room is purposely creating second and third (and fourth?) class citizens. Honestly, any wrestler that isn't supportive of the Lio Rush "I will not carry your water" initiative, is problematic. Wrestling is a hard business.

Glassdoor is a trip. I read it some years ago and I can totally see Vince wanting everyone to work like him. I knew at least 3-5 people who worked at WWE HQ and what you read on glassdoor is pretty accurate. Also, sad but true, HR for a lot of companies doubles as a PR team. The jizz always rises to the top.

The devil is in the details. Is that 300K per year for five years or 60K per year for five years? Does this include royalties? I'd be curious to know if its one of those contracts that have a base rate (let's say 85K) with the potential of making 300K as long as certain marks are met that are both in and out of Lio's control. This is Tyler Reks in 2014 speaking about WWE pay for lower talent: "It [pay] was getting crappy when I left, and the guys I've talked to now say it's beyond crappy," Tuft said. "People assume you once you're on TV you make a load of money and drive Lamborghinis and stuff, and that's just not the case. Here's a perfect example: I hate to spill my salary on the internet, but when I left I got a bump to $100,000 a year. But a third of it goes to road expenses. The only thing they pay for is your flight. You pay for your own hotel, and car, and food. Could you imagine trying to eat out five times a day? As a body guy, you have to maintain your physique and that means eating five times a day. Spending all your money trying to maintain that? Good luck. Then Uncle Sam takes 20%-30%. You guys do the math and see how much I walked away with, which was next to nothing. I was making more money fresh out of college as an engineer fresh out of college in an entry level position than being on TV. "That's gotten worse from what I hear. They do a ton of tours, and some guys would be making $30,000-$40,000 in the day. I went to Europe and I think I brought home $5,000. Then there was one tour I flew overseas and did a ten day tour and made less than $2,000. I made less than $500 a show. The video games are getting worse - guys use to get paid up to $100,000 for being in the video game and now it's much, much less. The reading audience will think that's a lot of money, but when you're on the road it's not. We don't all have busses like John [Cena] and [CM] Punk and [Big] Show. You're breaking your body to barely pay the bills."

WCW did this towards the end. Impact did it a number of times with the latest incarnation happening not too long ago on Pop TV. I am not sure how or why people think this is a good idea. Moving chairs around the Titanic doesn't stop the leak. WWE used kayfabe and non kayfabe platforms to the stick blame on the talent. You want an interesting Raw? Let's bring in EC3. Shareholders worried about low attendance? No worries, Reigns is back and no one of note is out due to injury. This is crazy. Everything mentioned in this thread are relatively easy fixes. Bringing up Undisputed Era, Trevor Lee, and ACH to Raw isn't going to fix the problem. More McMahons will not fix the problem. More of the same isn't going to fix the problem.

I am operating under the impression all of this is true. We don't know. The true is always somewhere in the middle. Assuming the news is true, who is Finn Balor? Who is Finn Balor to tell someone who can and cannot be in the locker room? If he feel its his duty to keep people out of trouble, is he keeping the same energy with Cena, Mysterio, Ronda, and Taker's S.O. show up? Or is this done with the people he feels he can bully? Maybe Balor and Rush are friends and Balor wanted to let Rush know because Balor heard rumblings and didn't want his friend to get into trouble? Who knows?

Let's be honest, tomorrow WWE offers the entire main roster a chance to leave. Who walks? The Revival, Sasha, Bayley(?), The Club, Tyler Breeze, Harper, Ziggler (?). Honestly, I can see about 15-20 people easily wanting to explore AAA, CMLL, NJPW, ROH, Impact, or AEW. If there was a time in the last 10 years to really explore one's worth, now is the time. The brand is the draw non-sense works in a barren landscape. I am not going to pretend that TJ Perkins and Tye Dillinger being out in the wild now is going to light the world on fire but the combination of a motivated wrestlers like Ziggler and a company that actually gives a damn and isn't operating like WCW 1994, and there will be problems. The fans have made it clear that they want stars and not this cog in the machine presentation WWE has gotten away with over the last 10 (if not longer) years or so. Vince doesn't want anyone to be bigger than the WWE brand for a reason. I get it. But his fear of being stood up yet again is going to continue to cause people to leave the product. As for the Lio Rush stuff, I with him. It is pretty obvious WWE is a toxic place to work. Reading the Glassdoor reviews and listening to wrestler shoot interviews, I am not surprised to hear someone is on a shit list because he doesn't want to play WWE games. I cannot imagine owning a bakery and hiring one of the best bakers in the world and then have that guy do everything but bake and then get upset because he wants to bake and believes he is the best baker in the world and can make both him and I a ton of money. Isn't that what I hired him for? Isn't making millions of dollars good for both our families? Vince's brass ring speech is very famous, but the moment someone actually gets over with WWE, then that person gets buried. God forbid someone have confidence that wasn't given to them by WWE. Wasn't Shawn Michaels confident individual? Bret Hart as well. And let's not pretend Hogan, Savage, Warrior, Flair, and others were humble as humble can be. There is no one way someone can read the Rush story and come to the conclusion that Rush is the heel in all of this. He comes off as the biggest babyface. A guy who knows his worth and wants to do a good job while showcasing his skills to the world. Rush is not satisfied with just getting a check and doing hazing routines that are in place by a billion dollar company to keep The Gratitude Era going. A man who wants to reach for the brass ring and feels his skills are better utilized not handing out bottled water is, to some people, the heel in all of this?!

Lashley's accomplishments are due to being " athletically gifted" and having a ton of "raw natural talent". Miz, on the other hand, accomplished his title victories without the "raw natural talent" and had to use hard work and his intelligence. To be fair, Miz did not specifically go down the hard work and intelligence route, but this is a historically bad narrative that has been pushed in American sports for a very long time. I am not sure how Miz was suppose to be the face in that exchange.

@SomethingSavage hit-it-on the head. Everyone on the roster, for the most part, realizes when do to their video game entrance and when it do something else. An exhibition match to open Impact? Dance away? The culmination of a two month feud? Might want to be a little serious. It's the little things Impact gets right which really adds to the production. As much as the curtain calls annoyed me, they are few and far between in Impact. I don't like it and don't want to see it, but its bound to happen. As long as it occurs in small doses, I'll live. I just re-watched the six man today and it was amazing. I really wish Impact had a costume designer because The Rascalz need a new look and signature music. The work is there. They are young and look great, but they don't stand out. Also, it would be awesome if their different personality traits played into the matches. Perhaps Trey is all about "having fun" and he handles the majority of the comedy spots. Maybe Desmond is all about strategy and is known to setup something early in the match only to use it later on. There is a lot to do with those guys and I really hope Impact does something with them. I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't seen the main event, but Fenix says he is okay. I do not believe that at all.

The coded language on Miz TV was more disturbing that the back shaving. WWE is behind the times on so many things.

I don't mind the NWA being a hub for other pro wrestling companies. An alliance that is really a promotion, but at the same time not a promotion nor really an alliance. I'm hip. I can dig it. However, the presentation really kills it for me. I am not asking for the NWA to look and sound like everyone else, but surely there is a way to pay homage to the past while completely embracing the present and setting up something special for the future. Does anyone know the target audience for the new NWA? Is it "just wrestling fans", because not too long ago someone else had that same target demo and after losing millions of dollars, she was finally ousted. I feel Corgan's only selling point is nostalgia. There is nothing else in the chamber. If the NWA's main goal is to have less than 15 shows a year while running the tour champion gimmick and drawing 1200-1500 people into an arena; then Corgan has his formula.

I have never liked Elgin. He is extremely vanilla and does nothing for me. Hopefully Impact will get him a mouthpiece as Cage can show personality at times, but its not enough to carry him and Elgin to any memorable programs.

That's interesting. I wonder how trustbusting would work in pro wrestling (in this case more specifically with WWE). The recent NXT signings and the entire existence of NXT UK, outside of the presence of a few people, is proof of WWE hoarding talent.

Is Sam Roberts running an Alt-Right gimmick? The constant berating of women and POC under the guise of "just giving my opinion" is sailing very uncomfortably into territory I rather not explored on WWE programming. Even Roberts comebacks to the the criticism is out of Twitter Jerk playbook. You know the move! Say something stupid, alienation people, and then claim it was all a joke, people are marks, and you are a good heel just getting over. The commentary does nothing to get these people over in any capacity and I am (not) surprised Vince and company continue to give this the green light.

Ryan is a lot of things, but he doesn't report BS. I want to give Sasha a little more credit and believe she isn't that much of a mark for herself that she has a shoot Christian circa 2002 meltdown. Perhaps, I am setting the bar too high? In my book, Sasha doesn't come off sympathetic at all in any of this. The cryptic tweets and general silliness doesn't help either.

I am not sure how people got "Sasha is crying and throwing a fit" from reports of her laying on the ground backstage at Mania. We have seen a lot of BTS footage over the years where the guys and girls are resting on the ground for various reasons. Stretching, boredom, just trying to relax, etc. I do not think it's too crazy to believe that Sasha and Bayley wanted to rest up, in some capacity, prior to watching the main event that started around midnight.

The biggest complaint coming out of Final Battle last year was ROH's decision to book the show with nothing major coming out of it and setting the clocks back to 2007. ROH heard this complaint and didn't know how to process the feedback. The results? A worked shoot that would 2000 Vince Russo cream his pants, the return of The Beautiful People to be part of ROH's heatless WOH division, a lukewarm Kenny King eliminating Liger and Muta, and Matt Taven as world champion. If someone told me Vince Russo was somehow involved in ROH, I would 100% believe them. I don't hate Taven as much as some people, but ROH has done everything to make him super corny and it appears the entire ROH world title division is being booked for the handful of Taven social media stans. ROH was part of one of the most historic shows in pro wrestling history and it folded under the pressure. NJPW has done The Dome and other big buildings for years and it showed. ROH was the inexperienced virgin showing up to date night with a bag of toys and memorized lines from Deuce Bigelow. Its sad to see. ROH shit the bed so much that PCO's Cactus Jack Clash of the Champions style bump hasn't been spoken about since. I hope ROH is smart enough to put that in its video packages going forward and any "OMG! Moments" youtube videos they decide to do in the future. The wrestling was good, but anytime the crowd gave a bad reaction to the show...it was because of something ROH did. Incredible.

And that is the million dollar question. How does a company with a banging roster (Tessa Blanchard, LAX, OvE, Rich Swann, Johnny Impact, Brian Cage, Willie Mack, The Lucha Bros, etc.), good matches, and overall solid booking overcome past transgressions? Impact is really a backwards company as for years they stayed in business despite producing absolute crap and now that the last few years has been pretty good, everyone on the roster and behind the scenes are still paying for the transgressions of Vince Russo, Carter, and others. It's both fascinating and sad to see happen. Impact and MLW are both enjoyable shows for me as the production issues in both add personality to the broadcast. I am not one of these people that believe every shot should be perfect. Don't tell me a match is chaotic and all hell is breaking loose while the director is able to easily capture everything while ensuring its all nicely framed. Yes, both can and should dump some money into the product to approve the lacking aesthetics.

WWE, in its own way, has gone all in (hehe) with Becky Lynch.

I understand the terms and the tongue-and-cheek way its used by Gringo. However, IIRC, he explained being a good base is essential in lucha libre. I get it. I understand the cute Lil B tie-in. My issue is why would a wrestler want to advertise how good he is in taking offense)and have the commentators screaming "This is why he is called the Base God!". This isn't Mike Foley getting his ass kicked, this is Dolph Ziggler walking through a mediocre match and bumping like a madman and getting a Standing O for his 'performance' and not because of actual emotional investment. Getting your ass kicked in a non-Mick Foley isn't a good thing and shouldn't be something that is advertised with zero irony. There is nothing tough, hardcore, or endearing, from taking a headscissors. Its just another "I make my opponents look good!" wrestler and I am not here for it. He needs a makeover.