Jesse Ewiak

Yup, this is no real difference to this than an NBA 10-day contract running out or cut days in various other sports. Hell, this isn't even new in pro wrestling - 90-day rolling contracts were a thing in WCW for years. Want a fully guaranteed contract? Then negotiate for one. Otherwise, WWE wrestlers are in the same position as millions of other people in the United States, many of them making far less money than they are. On my grand scale of sympathy, professional wrestlers who choose this profession rank fairly low on the list, in all honestly. At this point, it's kind of infantilizing of wrestlers to act like they haven't known historically you can be released at any time. Just like every NFL player should know they can get released at anytime, every WWE wrestler should know they can be released at anytime, in all reality - the only difference is, you don't get paid for 90 days afterward if you're the 55th guy on an NFL team. The only thing is people should stop believing the "budget cuts" lie - the reality is the WWE doesn't think these contacts are worth it anymore, and use budget cuts as a nice way to not directly tell the wrestler the office doesn't see them as worth it.

The reality was the stuff that had non-niche appeal was done, and the rest of it would deal with too many people who'd be smart enough not to say anything that would get them in long term trouble w/ WWE. Plus, most of the big DSOTR stories that were salacious that same way true crime is, not kind of quite frankly, depressing stuff like Speaking Out. People are OK watching a TV show about a wrestler possibly being involved in the sleazy 80's Texas drug trade. They're not into stories of hearing that their favorite wrestler is probably a creep or covered a creep, just by the percentages.

I mean, was this an actual two-hour meeting about how to dress sexy, or a two-hour meeting where the possibility of doing so was brought up? After all, a worker is still a worker. Also, can you point me to anybody on the main roster or NXT who is actually dressing sexier than they did in NXT 1.0, to any large extent? Because the actual supposed "horny" characters either existed in basically the same way pre-NXT, wherever they were (Nikkita, Mandy) or aren't doing anything horny beyond making out with their in character boyfriends (the former InDex girls). Plus, if you've actually look at the various social media of the girls who are dressing sexy in NXT, it's not as if they're aren't in some ways, dressing even sexier on social media, than they do on-screen. If there was somebody who was obviously covered up OOC, but being forced to do so IC, this would be a problem, but it's not like they're pushing the former Rok-C dressed much differently than she was on the indies. Am I sure Athena feels like she's been left behind? Sure, but the last paragraph shows what the actual problem likely was beyond the usual WWE booking issues - typical locker room issues.

Somebody on Twitter pointed out that Austin got more into it after taking his first bump, and thought it was more of a case of, "oh, I took a bump and didn't die. Let me do some more shit."

I suppose there were probably letters to the Observer complaining Bruno didn't put over Piper either. For all the talk of "not listening to the fans," do people honestly think a single person in that crowd wanted Austin to lose?

I mean, if he ends up at the Seth/KO/etc. spot where you're Roman or Brock, but you're still right below them, is that worse than he was going to end up in AEW w/ the Elite, the Undisputed Era, Pink, Danielson, etc.? Plus, if you're not going to have creative control, better to be told no by Vince McMahon than by the rich kid you likely think you brought into things in the first place?

For all the talk of Ronda/Charlotte "not working," we just saw the Smackdown ratings go up, I think, 300k-ish for the final quarter hour with a Charlotte/Ronda confrontation two or three weeks back. At the end of the day, hardcore fans may care, but Ronda vs. Ric Flair's daughter appeals to causal fans.

The hilarious thing to me is the faux concern so many people had for Sammy & Tay's previous privacy only a couple of months ago.

I mean, don't we all remember how much time Meltzer and others gave pages upon pages to the fact that women's ratings in the WWF fell off a cliff after the Angle/HHH/Stephanie love triangle was snuffed out? Yes, there are women's wrestling fans who enjoy good wrestling and such, obviously. But, just like the vast majority of casual and even quasi-serious but not smarkish male fans watch people they think look cool and badass (the same exact reason Marvel & the Fast and Furious franchise makes bank), it's not a surprise the casual/quasi-serious female audience shows up for storylines they're into, and that appears to be soap opera stuff, just like the reality show stuff they're into.

I mean, I'm not watching the show, so feel happy to disregard my opiniion, but the description of this show doesn't sound like that much different from the descriptions I've read other weeks that's been treated as this fantastic thing - the hot young babyface World Champion being like the 8th most important person on the show behind Jericho, Mox, Bryan, MJF, Punk, etc., the women being booked on autopilot with only one feud allowed on Dynamite, a shocking debut that'll be shunted off to Dark within a couple of weeks, and an indiefied match with too many spots. Seems like the only thing that was missing as opposed to the past few weeks is the MJF/Punk promo segments and either Danielson or Moxley in a match that actually matters.

I can totally see as Austin being like the median voter - fine with trans people and agaisnt w/ Texas is doing, but also OK with a dumb 89 genders joke. Most normies who aren't politically involved mostly have conflicting and hypocritical stances on things.

I think that's the point - he's not the Triple H anymore. He was shunted off to the side, basically in a corner away from all the stuff that actually mattered (Mox/Danielson/Omega/etc.). So yeah, he could stay and have a couple of segments a week feuding with other people Tony has no plans for or people connected to him via his school, but instead of being you could argue, at worst, the #4 guy at All Out, he's now behind all the other EVP's, Mox, Danielson, Punk, and now maybe even Page and Cole. Now, perhaps, if he goes back, he's having heatless matches against Boogz by the end of the year, but in the long run, is that really that different from a feud with Dan Lambert? I don't even like Cody that much, but I can totally understand why he'd go back to the fed.

I mean, from all reports, actual top guys like Roman, Rollins, Brock, etc. to get plenty of input on what they want to do. As Sami pointed out in his interview, not everybody in the WWE is being oppressed. If you're a top guy, things seem pretty fine. Now, maybe you think Cody wouldn't eventually be treated as a top guy in the Fed, which is entirely possible, but the same thing seemed to be happening in AEW.

I don't think this is that surprising, if Tony taking more control of the booking, etc. is true. If you're the son of Dusty, would you rather be told 'no' by Vince McMahon or by some punk rich kid who in your mind, would probably still be helping his Dad run the football team if you hadn't Tweeted out a bunch of opponents you wanted a few years ago or Tweeted about a 10,000 seat indy show.

I mean honestly, yes. Obviously, there is a difference in the quality of booking, but another chunk of it is yes, you're not a kid anymore. There will be lots and lots of kids with nostalgia for this era of WWE? You know how I know this? Because I've seen nostalgia for every era of WWE ever, and hell, some for TNA, from eras that were railed online at the time. Hell, the era you're talking about was hated by smart fans at the time as well. In 2029, there'll be a post in the MetaVerse about how cool Alpha Academy were by a 15 year old from Malaysia or something like that. I'm not saying 2022 WWE is good, but the other reality is, @El-P's point about the modern WWE being about pushing two guys ahead of everybody else, and forgetting about the undercard...has been standard practice in Stamford since...1963. Push Bruno, Backlund, or Morales like mad, push a strong guy for a couple weeks to get him ready for MSG program, then cycle him down. Obviously, yes, there are differences, but at it's core, people book what they know, and what did Vince grow up learning? Vince Sr's booking. As somebody pointed out on Twitter, I think, the WWE has always been the most turnkey of wrestling operations, and that's true even today. Even during the Attitude Era, the show was basically Austin/McMahon/Rock/Triple H/Foley + assorted crap. Since, let's be honest here, the reason why The Godfather is a beloved nostalgia character and Lenny & Lodi is seen as Wrestlecrap is because one was in front of stupidly hot crowds, and one was in front of dead Nitro crowds. This is not a defense of the WWE - but rather, an explanation that they've always done this, and all it's led to is near-monopoly control of the wrestling business, billion-dollar TV deals, and now, they don't need to even give a crap about MSG receipts. After all, Vince is the person who pushed the old people who'd been MSG front seat ticket holders since the 50's away for a new audience - I think people just have to accept the WWE is basically the Globetrotters or Ice Capades - they're not really focused on long-term storytelling or even consistent storytelling, because it doesn't really matter, as they're still 1-2-3 in cable when the NFL isn't around and consistently #1 on Friday nights, and that's not even getting into the huge numbers they do on social media on the regular that people just kind of ignore.

Possibly still injured, but OK enough to go for a limited.

I agree - based on what I've heard, it sounds like a spotty 3 1/2 star match on the old Metlzer scale.

Am I a WWE apologist if I put Ali & Ben Simmons on the same level - people who willingly signed a contract, and are now upset about it? I think it's pretty clear, even before Ali signed that if you want creative freedom, you don't sign for the WWE, so I've got zero sympathy for wrestlers shocked they don't get to do what they want.

Yeah, everything I've read as far as business goes is that Tanahashi basically stabilized NJPW business from the depths of the Inokism era, but Okada (along w/ the Bushiroad purchase) helped make them as financially successful as a wrestling company can be in 21st century Japan. After all, Omega left, and business didn't really drop at all in Japan.

Right, like we really going to overreact when the guy whose former group was called Ringkampf and is now called Imperium in NXT might've had his name changed that kind of lines up w/ an obscure Nazi? Plus, let's all be honest here - WALTER isn't some fantastic wrestling name that was unimpeachable. The most likely actual reason for the name change is that part of the reason he agreed to come to the US (aside from the new gf) is WWE gave him the rights to his name, and gave him a list of names to pick fro.

I think the WWE were slightly worried when AEW first debuted, but since in next couple of years since then, they've still never met the heights of their first actual show, I think the current feelings of Vince, whose mind everybody can read, is at about a 4 or a 5. If 10 is immediate post-nWO WCW, and 0 is the time period between the end of WCW & Spike TV putting TNA on the air. What happened w/ Triple H is yes, he failed. He was given free reign for his Workrate Indy cosplay fed and the moment there was an alternative for the smart audience, they fled over to AEW, so what's the point of overpaying a bunch of indy guys who think they should be able to do whatever they want, when you can hire a bunch of ex-football players and former college athletes and get nearly the same amount of viewers as Adam Cole got? After all, people don't report the Giants are "afraid" of the Cowboys because they just fired their GM & coach after not meeting the goals set by ownership. But I'm out of step w/ the current wrestling zeitgeist, since I don't think Vince is terrible, nor do I think AEW is some fantastic, great company. Corey Grave is being reinstated probably because he's been trying for years and finally got an OK from a doctor, not because Vince said, "dammit it, we need a Punk replacement," as he was personally planning on how to bury everybody the Internet likes.

Considering the lack of ratings movement from Punk, Danielson, and Cole moving over and the easy way WWE is cutting people, I don't think they're actually worried about anything AEW is doing, regardless of what the Internet wants to think.

I mean, it's really not that complicated. Between the NIL signings, and all the recent performance center pickups, and NXT 2.0, and with success like Bianca Belair and Charlotte Flair in the women division and other people they're obviously going to push once they get to the main roster like Grayson Waller, Bronn, etc., the message is clear - we're going to make our own products again, and AEW can have all the indy dorks who think they're big stars without any actual proof. Yes, if you're a good soldier like Owens & Zayn have them, you'll get treated well, but if you expect anything because you wrestled in Japan or a few hundred people in a building once chanted 'THIS IS AWESOME' after you did a cool spot. But yes, Toni Storm in blonde and beautiful, but they just signed multiple beautiful former college athletes who won't care about the angles they have to do or whatever booking WWE decides to do, but will do what they're told, and as a bonus, in many cases, will have social media following already. After all, the Cavinder Twins, who they just signed to an NIL deal, are blonde, young, and have 3.8 million TikTok followers. That's far more important to the WWE than some good matches in STARDOM. Ironically, the NXT Black & Gold Crew can blame AEW for their chances of a push dying - AEW's success was proof to Vince that Triple H's indy squad wsn't anything special, and in his mind, were likely full of themselves. Again, why deal w/ indy wrestlers who think they'rre hot shit when you just turned Bianca Belair from basically nobody to one of your bigger stars or when you've got somebody like Bron who is the type they like, and doesn't think they know how to work a match because Meltzer gave them some good ratings?

Yeah, I think they thought it would just be a silly gimmick, and nothing overly serious especially since all reporting is that HBK who seems to still have power within NXT despite any other changes, is legitimately "woke" thanks to his conversion. Like, the actual reality of things is Vince and the whole family are Connecticut Republicans, so deep down, they don't give a shit about this cultural stuff. They just want taxes low and to treat their workers like how they want, and I'm saying this as a social democrat who obviously dislikes their poltiical stances, but I dislike them for their actual positions, not weird stretches of their views.

Ciampa's won the title to put over one of the new kids.