WWE TV 04/29 - 05/05 Bolsonaro's strategy is worse than Jon Snow's

[Pterois]

Young wrestlers having to kissing the asses of the veterans is the side of wrestling I hate the most. Well, it's also the case of many companies.

[The Thread Killer]

6 minutes ago, C.S. said:

Lio Rush addresses the rumors:

https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/exclusives/exclusive-lio-rush-gives-fightful-his-side-wwe-heat-rumors

I guess he doesn't give a fuck if WWE fires him. With that said, I'm on his side all the way.

I've said it before, but I'll say it again (and to paraphrase The Iron Sheik): Fuck the Lio Rush.

That stunt he pulled at his final CZW show before reporting to NXT where he no-sold being powerbombed from the top of a ladder through a table was one of the most unprofessional things I've ever seen.  As was his "joke" about Emma getting released.  As is his behavior right now, taking his problems with his job public and trying to make it about his race.  He's in the exact same boat Enzo Amore was in, he's an immature jackass.  Fuck him.

[C.S.]

5 minutes ago, The Thread Killer said:

I've said it before, but I'll say it again (and to paraphrase The Iron Sheik): Fuck the Lio Rush.

That stunt he pulled at his final CZW show before reporting to NXT where he no-sold being powerbombed from the top of a ladder through a table was one of the most unprofessional things I've ever seen.  As was his "joke" about Emma getting released.  As is his behavior right now, taking his problems with his job public and trying to make it about his race.  He's in the exact same boat Enzo Amore was in, he's an immature jackass.  Fuck him.

FECK U, JABRONI! I MAKE YOU HUMBLE.

Also, this:

I agree with you about the Emma tweet though. In that instance, he was just being a dumb, immature kid. But that stupid, inconsiderate, assholish mistake doesn't make him wrong now. 

[FMKK]

8 minutes ago, The Thread Killer said:

I've said it before, but I'll say it again (and to paraphrase The Iron Sheik): Fuck the Lio Rush.

That stunt he pulled at his final CZW show before reporting to NXT where he no-sold being powerbombed from the top of a ladder through a table was one of the most unprofessional things I've ever seen.  As was his "joke" about Emma getting released.  As is his behavior right now, taking his problems with his job public and trying to make it about his race.  He's in the exact same boat Enzo Amore was in, he's an immature jackass.  Fuck him.

Doesn't mean that the guy should be getting such shitty payoffs from WWE

[Blehschmidt]

Here is the report from 411 on the Harper situation. This company is an absolute shitshow, and this hording of wrestlers is insane.

It was reported late last month that after asking for his release in a social media post, it was revealed that WWE would not be granting that request. More than that, WWE is reportedly adding six months to his contract due to the time he missed with an injury. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that Vince McMahon told Harper himself, in writing, that he wouldn’t release him.

Harper was reportedly set to work a feud with Sami Zayn after Wrestlemania, but WWE later decided not to do it. Apparently that decision was made after McMahon saw him in his return match. Vince said that he didn’t “get him” and complained that he “couldn’t even do a Southern accent”, which was something he wanted him to do four years ago. Harper reportedly pitched ideas frequently when he was out and turned down each time. He wasn’t booked after being cleared and only appeared at Fan Axxess, but then McMahon suddenly wanted to know why he wasn’t in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, which is why he was added at the last minute.

The end of the battle royal was said to be a “mess” anyway, as Braun Strowman forgot his spots. That is believed to be one reason why Strowman “hasn’t done much” since he won.

Harper was supposed to start his feud with Zayn the day after Wrestlemania, but was told he wasn’t needed for TV and went home. He came back on Tuesday for a dark match with EC3 to test the pairing of EC3 and Drake Maverick as wrestler/manager. McMahon watched the match and reportedly hated the manager spots that were set up by the agents.

When McMahon was asked which brand Harper would be on during the Superstar shakeup, McMahon brought up again how he couldn’t do a Southern accent. He then added that the match with EC3 was “bad”, so Harper wasn’t put on a brand and that’s when he asked for a release.

 

[Strummer]

My guess is Vince saw Harper's look and thought of a psycho hillbilly type Deliverance character.  He probably thought the voice didn't match the look which is huge for him according to a bunch of the old timers from the 80s.  IE he hated George Steele's "shoot" voice and made him change it to the grunty version in the 80s

[Loss]

Frustrates me that they try to box everyone into something they just aren't. Harper should look insane and recite Shakespeare or something.

[C.S.]

14 minutes ago, Charles (Loss) said:

Frustrates me that they try to box everyone into something they just aren't. Harper should look insane and recite Shakespeare or something.

They're kinda, sorta doing something similar with Aleister Black now, and it isn't really working for me.

I think Harper is much better than Black in every way though. 

[Jmare007]

4 hours ago, Strummer said:

Newest Observer says Bryan has been cleared to return

I guess I'm back to watching SD.

 

I hope they book a lengthy feud between him and Roman. I'm fascinated by the idea of Bryan doing everything in his power to get booed and Roman cheered at all costs. And the matches would be awesome.

 

That would also take away the "dread" of Reigns taking the main belt so soon.

[Stiva]

Vince repeatedly mentioning that a guy can't do a Southern accent whenever he's brought up is absolutely manic stuff. Harper is a super agile big guy with a great look who can not only work the style they want out of their major singles guys but do it better than a lot of them with the added bonus of it coming from a heavyweight. They obviously know that enough to recognise that he'd be a big get for AEW but not enough to utilise him because he can't do a certain accent? The leaps of logic baffle the mind.

[El-P]

2 hours ago, Blehschmidt said:

 This company is an absolute shitshow, and this hording of wrestlers is insane.

Yeah. Completely toxic. Meltz mentioned some time ago that friends of his living in the real world told him WWE had the dirt worst reputation, like it was the shittiest place to work (and I mean as an employee doing "normal" jobs). One day, the curtains will have to fall down.

[Alucard]

One thing I wish they'd do more of like they did in that 2016-2017 SDL era is use non-contracted guys for short runs, like bringing in the Headbangers as a tiny boost to a new tag division or bringing in the Spirit Squad to aid the excellent Miz/Ziggler feud.

On the Lio Rush front, dude just comes off like he has a huge ego and thinks he's above anything and everything. Supposedly he's been offered a 5 year deal for $300,000, turned it down and wanted double that. Fuck that, nowhere near worth that as an in-ring talent. Average at best and easily replacable by any number of 205 guys. Off TV and not missed already.

[sek69]

I dunno, I kind of see both sides here. Lio seems like a guy who will wear out his welcome quickly,  but also WWE should either be covering folks' travel expenses or bumping up the low end of the scale so that guys don't go broke doing their jobs.  He's far from the only person to point out you can end up losing money going to WWE since most major indies cover expenses and WWE doesn't. 

[Loss]

1 hour ago, El-P said:

Yeah. Completely toxic. Meltz mentioned some time ago that friends of his living in the real world told him WWE had the dirt worst reputation, like it was the shittiest place to work (and I mean as an employee doing "normal" jobs). One day, the curtains will have to fall down.

Check out their employee review page on Glassdoor sometime if you ever want a good laugh. Be cautious of the good reviews -- someone pointed out that their HR department was making fake profiles to balance out the bad reviews by talking about what a great place WWE is to work.

[sek69]

Something I just thought of listening to Bryan and Dave talking about services like DAZN: A lot of the content they are currently showing have contracts that end around the time WWE's latest TV deal ends. Unless a drastic shift happens, these services are probably going to lose their asses in that timeframe, which means all the properties like Bellator will probably be back looking for TV deals. WWE got their deal in part because Fox needed content to replace UFC and WWE was more or less the only major group left not tied up elsewhere. There's a better than good chance that WWE can do absolutely everything correct and fix their issues, and still lose out on the next round of TV contracts if there's more competition next time.

[DMJ]

- Yeah. I know "ratings don't matter," but a show like Hell's Kitchen brought in 2.5+ million viewers on Friday nights (and is dirt cheap to produce ) and Last Man Standing does 2.5+ million and even The Cool Kids had 2.16 million last week. Their lowest rated show last Friday was Proven Innocent, a new courtroom drama, and it had 1.69 million viewers. Now, that's not that different than SmackDown, which does consistently bring in 2+ million viewers - but Network execs are always searching for a surprise hit and consistency is not necessarily honored over time unless that consistency is winning*. SmackDown is not going to overtake shows on NBC and CBS that bring in 4-7 million viewers on Friday nights even when they're on reruns. So, yeah, as long as Fox is happy with a 3rd place showing, SD is probably safe...but, hey, the TV business has lots of moving and shaking at the top and we saw TNT, TBS, and USA all cancel or let wrestling go (when Raw when to Spike) when new bosses took over, even when they brought good ratings. I tend to agree with the prediction that it will end up on FS1 by the end of 2020 if not sooner.

- I was definitely more on Lio Rush's side of things based on what we've seen on Twitter and in various reports...but if you have a second, check out what Mark Henry said in a recent interview about it. As much as it is BS that Lio or anyone else is being asked to carry ice, etc., Henry's take is insightful and does offer an interesting counterpoint. The fact that its coming from Henry also makes me more likely to consider the other side than if it was coming from someone like JBL or HHH. 

- I can't believe anyone is arguing Vince is in the right about not pushing Harper because he can't do a southern accent. That's Vince saying Luke Harper looks like white trash but doesn't sound like white trash because white trash have southern accents. Even if that wasn't outright classist/regional horseshit, every single one of those writers and producers on staff should've had the guts to tell Vince that good TV writing is often about subverting archetypes. Hannibal Lector was a monster...who talked with serenity and calm. Walter White was sympathetic high school teacher with a deathly ill wife moonlighting as a drug lord! Harper being eloquent and clever adds much more to the character than him being the 2019 version of fucking Skinner.

 

* A quick note - I'm not 1000% sure Hell's Kitchen was airing on Fridays in 2017-18 (Season 18), but that year, its average was actually 3+ million viewers. At one point the show probably did an even bigger number on a different night, but as it started trending below 4, I'm guessing it was sent to the "death night." I bring this up as an example of how a show that is trending down, that does not seem to be picking up any buzz or momentum, is not something Networks tend to prefer over a "shiny new toy" that might be a hit. For the first 6 months of SmackDown on Fox, it will be that shiny new toy and Fox will put money behind it. They want it to succeed. But, right now, the WWE's TV ratings are trending down yearly and that is not something TV networks overlook no matter how much the WWE is reaching "record profits." Fox is in the business of having hit shows, period. 

[fakeplastictrees]

1 hour ago, Alucard said:

One thing I wish they'd do more of like they did in that 2016-2017 SDL era is use non-contracted guys for short runs, like bringing in the Headbangers as a tiny boost to a new tag division or bringing in the Spirit Squad to aid the excellent Miz/Ziggler feud.

On the Lio Rush front, dude just comes off like he has a huge ego and thinks he's above anything and everything. Supposedly he's been offered a 5 year deal for $300,000, turned it down and wanted double that. Fuck that, nowhere near worth that as an in-ring talent. Average at best and easily replaceable by any number of 205 guys. Off TV and not missed already.

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."

[fakeplastictrees]

1 hour ago, Charles (Loss) said:

Check out their employee review page on Glassdoor sometime if you ever want a good laugh. Be cautious of the good reviews -- someone pointed out that their HR department was making fake profiles to balance out the bad reviews by talking about what a great place WWE is to work.

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.

[...TG]

Lio is no doubt a pain in the ass but he's clearly right on the travel expenses. We all know what the answer is, but it's up to the talent themselves to get it together and organize - there are a couple of chances coming up to put some leverage on the company with the June show in Jeddah and SummerSlam in August. it's unlikely - I can't imagine Randy Orton participating in a walkout, for example - but it's way past time for this to happen. 

[C.S.]

Unfortunately, you have people like Mark Henry - who really should know better but clearly suffers from severe Stockholm Syndrome - stooging for the office.

I won't say Henry is entirely wrong - he makes a couple of good points - but man, it's kind of sad to read.

Henry's accusation that Lio told "a blatant lie to my face" is probably the worst take of all, when it's obvious to me that Lio didn't want get heat on himself, stooge out anyone else, or sound like a "problem child" in front of Henry. 

To me, Henry airing all of this out makes him 100x more unprofessional than Lio - especially when there's a clear power imbalance there, which is something you'd think Henry would be more conscious of. Lio would definitely get fired if he said all of the things Henry said, and may get fired for what he actually did say, but Henry's job isn't in any danger. 

Don't get me wrong: I love me some Mark Henry, but he's wrong here.

https://prowrestlingstories.com/news/mark-henry-on-the-recent-lio-rush-backstage-heat-he-lied-to-me/

Edit: Hoo boy! For all of the shit Lio is supposedly getting about his wife, Matt Hardy might want to start worrying too...

Now I'm wondering if Matt is the "ROH guy" Lio accused of spreading false rumors about him.

 

[sek69]

Yeah, it's always a bit LOL when a guy with tenure thinks everyone on the roster is treated equally or at least the same as they are.

[C.S.]

This is the absolute best.

 

[fakeplastictrees]

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.

[C.S.]

2 hours ago, fakeplastictrees said:

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.

They’re probably either secretly supportive but won’t admit it or so stuck in the bubble like Henry that they genuinely believe the bullshit that’s been fed to them about “respecting the business, brother!”

[El-P]

Mark Henry is a product of corporate culture brainwashing. He's spent his entire career in the E. He has no other point of reference. And as far as "eating shit", well, first off it's complete bullshit that it is still taking place, second of all, no matter how "hard" it has been for Henry in the locker room, the guy was signed to a ridiculous contract (back when money was dim) as a rookie, and it took him years to become even decent at his job. So he should probably shut the fuck up instead of playing veteran stooge.