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HHH taking over from Vince on RAW


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Honestly, I just figured they were arranging the deck chairs to give Hunter an EVP title now so when the time comes shareholders won't freak over someone with no executive experience taking over.

 

 

In a related note, it was funny to hear Dave answering a reader question by stating WWE hasn't used Mick Foley since bringing him back because Hunter still gets irritated that the consensus is the matches with Mick made him a star.

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John, I know that Levesque has been "EVP, Talent" since last year. He had the title concurrently with Laurinaitis being "EVP of Talent Relations." Levesque being "EVP, Talent and Live Events" with Levesque officially being demoted from executive officer status is what's new. It's been known for a while that Laurinaitis was reporting to Levesque and that the talent relations department would become Levesque's, but I don't remember any speculation about Laurinaitis losing his executive officer status or maybe being fired as an office worker, which is a pretty big deal.

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John, I know that Levesque has been "EVP, Talent" since last year. He had the title concurrently with Laurinaitis being "EVP of Talent Relations." Levesque being "EVP, Talent and Live Events" with Levesque officially being demoted from executive officer status is what's new. It's been known for a while that Laurinaitis was reporting to Levesque and that the talent relations department would become Levesque's, but I don't remember any speculation about Laurinaitis losing his executive officer status or maybe being fired as an office worker, which is a pretty big deal.

Laurinaitis wasn't EVP of Talent Relations of talent relations no later than 03/16/12: he had been removed from the Executive Officers in the companies DEF 14A Statement filing with the SEC, which is far more authoritative than anything we can gleen off the google. He had been on the one filed the year before, while Trip wasn't.

 

March at the lasted, but frankly a good deal earlier since there's no way it happened the day they filed nor something inserted / deleted in the last round of editing the document before filing. Logically it happened when Trip got promoted to EVP since you typically don't have an EVP reporting to and EVP. But even if it wasn't Aug 2011, it probably was no later than the turn of the year given the filing.

 

As for there being a lack of reporting / speculation... it's the freaking Pro Wrestling Media. Like they're always hip on this stuff if it doesn't slap them in the face? How many of them actually regularly go over to EDGAR to read and think about the public filings? If they had, something was staring them in the face in the March filing and they could have asked their sources in the WWE when and why Johnny had gotten demoted.

 

John

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As for there being a lack of reporting / speculation... it's the freaking Pro Wrestling Media. Like they're always hip on this stuff if it doesn't slap them in the face? How many of them actually regularly go over to EDGAR to read and think about the public filings? If they had, something was staring them in the face in the March filing and they could have asked their sources in the WWE when and why Johnny had gotten demoted.

To be fair - Dave was on this, I just can't remember the issue.

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Huh, how about that: http://yahoo.brand.edgar-online.com/displa...cik%253d1091907

 

Wonder why it took them so long to change the WWE Corporate website. And what HHH's official corporate role was before the August 2011 promotion (he has a salary listed for 2010, but not 2009, so it's not referring to his talent contract).

That SEC filing is the one mentioned and quoted above.

 

As far as his old title:

 

http://www.wrestleview.com/viewnews.php?id=1283981091

 

http://whatculture.com/wwe/jim-cornette-sa...cmahon-dies.php

 

Senior Advisor / Executive Senior Advisor

 

Old stuff. Just don't think any of us were paying that much attention because it doesn't change all that much: Vince runs the place, Trip & Steph are the heirs, Shane has checked out.

 

John

 

John

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As for there being a lack of reporting / speculation... it's the freaking Pro Wrestling Media. Like they're always hip on this stuff if it doesn't slap them in the face? How many of them actually regularly go over to EDGAR to read and think about the public filings? If they had, something was staring them in the face in the March filing and they could have asked their sources in the WWE when and why Johnny had gotten demoted.

To be fair - Dave was on this, I just can't remember the issue.

 

I think the general concept of it was always out there: Trip has been groomed to run aspects of the business. That was guessed at for about as long as he's been banging Steph. It just got more explicit when things like Corny's comments came out, and again last year after MitB.

 

As far as Johnny taking it in the shorts, or appearing to, that's mild news and probably worth someone digging deeper into like MKJ.

 

John

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Johnny's whole career has been based upon him being able to kiss the ass of whoever is in charge, it would be interesting to see if he ends up the first head to roll since it's been mentioned several times Hunter and Steph want to replace all of Vince's flunkies when they take over.

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Johnny's whole career has been based upon him being able to kiss the ass of whoever is in charge, it would be interesting to see if he ends up the first head to roll since it's been mentioned several times Hunter and Steph want to replace all of Vince's flunkies when they take over.

"Hey, Hayes...Remember when a drunken you almost ruined our wedding reception? See Ya!"

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Johnny's whole career has been based upon him being able to kiss the ass of whoever is in charge, it would be interesting to see if he ends up the first head to roll since it's been mentioned several times Hunter and Steph want to replace all of Vince's flunkies when they take over.

The real post-Vince WWE could be fascinating for a while, watching how they handle the change.

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Johnny's whole career has been based upon him being able to kiss the ass of whoever is in charge, it would be interesting to see if he ends up the first head to roll since it's been mentioned several times Hunter and Steph want to replace all of Vince's flunkies when they take over.

Meltzer has strongly implied in the past that Stephanie is a Laurinaitis booster so I'm not so sure about that, especially since he's outright said they'll fire Kevin Dunn as soon as they get full control.
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If Dunn is smart, he will be setting up retirement at that point. He's 51/52. Barring death, Vince isn't going to step down today. 5 more years, Dunn is 55+. Rather than taking a fulltime gig, he probably could do consulting / advisory stuff with production companies.

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Johnny's whole career has been based upon him being able to kiss the ass of whoever is in charge, it would be interesting to see if he ends up the first head to roll since it's been mentioned several times Hunter and Steph want to replace all of Vince's flunkies when they take over.

Meltzer has strongly implied in the past that Stephanie is a Laurinaitis booster so I'm not so sure about that, especially since he's outright said they'll fire Kevin Dunn as soon as they get full control.

 

 

If Dunn is smart, he will be setting up retirement at that point. He's 51/52. Barring death, Vince isn't going to step down today. 5 more years, Dunn is 55+. Rather than taking a fulltime gig, he probably could do consulting / advisory stuff with production companies.

Dunn knows "where the bodies are buried". If Trips and Steph are smart they'll keep him him sweet. There's a reason James Dudley is in the Hall of Fame.

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I wonder if HHH is going to have consequences for some of the people he's burned on his way up once he gets to the top. Sure, they may work for him if he's the only game in town, but will he command the same loyalty that Vince has had?

You meet the same people on the way up as you do on the way down.

 

HHH is never going to get the same respect as Vince.

 

RVD was willing to talk shit about him, even when he was under contract and could have been buried.

 

Bret, Austin & Rock don't like him, and are all rich enough that they don't need a handout.

 

Would him and steph be willing to put people like that in front of a live crowd?

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Maybe the younger ones will respect him, but the wrestlers who have been around long enough to remember when he was "one of the boys" (even though he's been management for over a decade, albeit in an unofficial capacity for a lot of that) will never view him as a Vince-like figure.

 

What I wonder about is the treatment of some of the legends in a HHH-run WWE, specifically the ones he doesn't like. Would there be any place for occasional Bret or Foley appearances if he was the one in charge? Dave has reported that HHH was against Bret's comeback and all of Hogan's after the initial 2002 run, so I don't think he has Vince's capacity to put aside personal differences for business's sake, though that might change when it's his money and reputation on the line.

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Maybe the younger ones will respect him, but the wrestlers who have been around long enough to remember when he was "one of the boys" (even though he's been management for over a decade, albeit in an unofficial capacity for a lot of that) will never view him as a Vince-like figure.

 

What I wonder about is the treatment of some of the legends in a HHH-run WWE, specifically the ones he doesn't like. Would there be any place for occasional Bret or Foley appearances if he was the one in charge? Dave has reported that HHH was against Bret's comeback and all of Hogan's after the initial 2002 run, so I don't think he has Vince's capacity to put aside personal differences for business's sake, though that might change when it's his money and reputation on the line.

For all Vince's problem's. Showing ass isn't one of them. Would HHH be willing to do the same? Past history shows not.

 

Hunter has always striked me as a paranoid motherfucker. Would he be willing to let someone like Steve Austin, who not only has fuck you money and hates his guts, but is over like rover go on live TV...

 

Edit: ... and trash him to advance a feud? And then do the job if required. If it meant money being made.

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Dunn knows "where the bodies are buried". If Trips and Steph are smart they'll keep him him sweet. There's a reason James Dudley is in the Hall of Fame.

Trip and Steph aren't smart. The question is whether Vince "retires" and gets them to understand what Dunn knows, or if he dies suddenly and Trip & Steph go all Night of the Long Knives on their perceived enemies once in power.

 

John

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What I wonder about is the treatment of some of the legends in a HHH-run WWE, specifically the ones he doesn't like. Would there be any place for occasional Bret or Foley appearances if he was the one in charge?

This was aritcle was put up on a website today/yesterday.

 

yeah......

 

Wrestling Observer editor Dave Meltzer was asked by a reader during his radio show why WWE has not utilized Mick Foley on television more frequently since his return to the organization last November. He said this is due to wrestler/executive Paul 'Triple H' Levesque's lobbying, who is resentful of "The Hardcore Legend."

 

Meltzer reports Levesque deprecates Foley whenever his name is broached in creative meetings. While Brian Gewirtz, WWE's Senior Vice President of Creative Writing, feels Foley is a creative and a good performer, Levesque thinks otherwise. He says Foley 'doesn't look tough' and can't be taken seriously as an in-ring performer.

 

A former WWE creative writer told Power Slam in 2008 under the condition of anonymity that Levesque would disparage Foley whenever he appeared for the company, and in the process, diminished his value in the eyes of Vince and Stephanie McMahon.

 

"Foley is an out-of-shape nobody," Levesque was reported as saying by the writer. "No one cares about him at all. Funaki puts more asses in the seats than Foley does. He should pay us for coming on our shows."

 

Meltzer believes the real reason Levesque still holds Foley in contempt is because he gets irritated over the consensus of his closest co-workers that his memorable matches with Foley in 2000 'made him a star.'

 

Foley has criticized Levesque in the past; he took several veiled shots at 'H in his 2007 autobiography The Hardcore Diaries. He also took issue online with Levesque belittling ring announcer Lilian Garcia with a remark he felt was hurtful during an April 2010 episode of Raw. Foley acknowledged then that he may have cost himself professionally, but felt he had to stand by his principles.

......true or not? IDK, but I can't imagine how Trip is going to be when he gets old. Probably be 25 times more batshit and paranoid than Vince ever was.

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