WWE Super Showdown 2019: Come for the Wrestling, but no stay for the executions

[SomethingSavage]

5 hours ago, Mad Dog said:

He was screwed from the start. During the Shield reunion he should have punched Ambrose right in the face and said fuck that guy he said I deserved cancer. And then had that match at Mania instead of a lukewarm McIntyre feud. 

He is in a weird spot now where he is in this meaningless feud with Shane that just eats up huge amounts of TV time doing the same treadmill routine every week. Their feud is absolutely exhausting and I think people are just tired of it. 

Except that is their formula for literally every program on their TV.

Everything is tired. Everything is stale. Everything is exhaustive. Everything is meaningless, time-killing, unfulfilling nothing.

Even their big monthly "special events" are booked like placeholders.

They continuously show such a blatant disrespect for their viewers' time and patience.

And they get away with it, because the niche audience allows it. Because they constantly show loyalty and refuse to demand anything more - or anything better.

Instead of demanding greater quality, the "Universe" is content with a high quantity of horse shit.

Sony is experiencing a similar dilemma with Dark Phoenix at the box office. It's become public knowledge that the X-Men franchise is ending, and the film series will reboot under the MCU umbrella at some point.

Dark Phoenix is a placeholder. It's meaningless filler as a film. It's a literal waste of time. And so people can easily pass on seeing it.

WWE is always this. Every show. Every week. The outcomes never matter. The results won't make any difference. Who is champion of what has never mattered less than it does now. And so championship opportunities don't mean a thing. Challengers are irrelevant. And on & on & on.

Now they're running this shitty Corbin/Seth program "up top" for three or four months? My god, y'all. How do you do it? And why?

They're basically flashing a big neon sign that's telling you nothing on their television will matter one bit through the summer. Why even bother? If you're truly that bored or bedridden or whatever, please believe I can point you in the direction of better wrestling and/or better television shows.

You don't have to do this to yourself.

[Brandon-E]

Is Corbin right now more overpushed than Justin Credible was in ECW?

[sek69]

9 hours ago, El-P said:

What was ever gonna happen to him ? Nothing. He posted a pic on his Twitter. Wow. What a hero. Now, refusing to go and posting "I'm not gonna go to this show and work for this regime because of their treatment of LGBT." on his Twitter, that would take some actual balls. LGBT's (and friends) doing a Gay Pride demonstration in Istanbul when it's actually *forbidden* and getting bashed by the police takes balls. This is having your cake and eating it. Pretty weak if you ask me. Don't go or shut the fuck up.

What was going to happen to him? I don't think he's untouchable status in WWE, so there was a chance the company would get upset at him for doing that and possibly upsetting a large source of income for them. Not to mention the inherent risks of doing anything pro LGBT while actually *in* Saudi Arabia. It wouldn't shock me to see Finn on the "not allowed" list for the next Saudi show, which might have been his plan all along. 

[El-P]

42 minutes ago, sek69 said:

What was going to happen to him? I don't think he's untouchable status in WWE, so there was a chance the company would get upset at him for doing that and possibly upsetting a large source of income for them. 

Come on now. They are gonna fire him over that ? So he can go straight to AEW ? And even if there was no AEW, so fucking what ? Either you are an active supporter of a cause, either you aren't. You get fired from WWE ? Do something else. If you're afraid of even asking not to go because that could hurt your income, you've got shrunken little frozen balls actually.

42 minutes ago, sek69 said:

Not to mention the inherent risks of doing anything pro LGBT while actually *in* Saudi Arabia.

For all we know he could have twitted that while on the plane back to the good ol' US of A. And seriously, you think he was in any danger whatsoever ? Really ? Let's be real now.

42 minutes ago, sek69 said:

It wouldn't shock me to see Finn on the "not allowed" list for the next Saudi show, which might have been his plan all along. 

Yep. Which makes it even worse, because he did not have the balls to actually make a stand if the LGBT rights were that much important to him, but now, after going there *three times* and getting the blood money, he can safely stay home and play hero and feel good about himself. Hey, he can even give the money to some LGBT charity you know. 

Another thing. His tweet was Disney/Motivational Quote level bullshit too. What the fuck does LGBT rights have anything to do with "love" being for "everybody" ? This is such PR bullshit, without even typing the fucking LGBT letters. People are emprisoned, tortured and executed in Saudi Arabia because of their sexual preference. That's the reality of things. Making a stand is refusing to go and making public why you don't go, not making a lame-ass tweet that doesn't mention the horrible treatment LGBT are suffering in the country and make vague, rose-colored glass statement about having a "Happy Pride Month" after going there *three times* working for the entertainment/propaganda of the criminal regime who torture and kill LGBT people. Not only this is not having balls, this is actually be a fucking hypocrite. I'm sure those emprisonned and tortured right now in the jails of MBS feel so much better because a pro-wrestler who work for a company who funds homophobic president Trump made a tweet about #love and #HappyPrideMonth. 

[FMKK]

I really hope they never get to do a fucking women's match on one of these shows because imagine how sickening it'll be to hear them crow on about it forever about how revolutionary they are.

[Coffey]

21 hours ago, Brandon-E said:

Is Corbin right now more overpushed than Justin Credible was in ECW?

Well, they've not put the world title on Corbin... yet. 

[sek69]

21 hours ago, FMKK said:

I really hope they never get to do a fucking women's match on one of these shows because imagine how sickening it'll be to hear them crow on about it forever about how revolutionary they are.

 

I really hope someone calls them out for continuing to conflate the "this is hope" chants from the Dubai match with having women wrestle in Saudi Arabia. Dubai is in the UAE, which is nowhere near as strict on women. WWE makes it sound like the while Middle East is one giant country with the exact same rules and restrictions, instead of many different countries that have different laws. Most countries in the region would allow something like women's wrestling to take place as long as the participants had appropriate attire, which is something that I really don't see happening in Saudi Arabia anytime soon. I know Dave keeps talking about the Russian circus that performed there that included women, but he never mentions (or maybe he doesn't know) that it led to government officials being fired for allowing it to happen.  

[El-P]

15 minutes ago, sek69 said:

I know Dave keeps talking about the Russian circus that performed there that included women, but he never mentions (or maybe he doesn't know) that it led to government officials being fired for allowing it to happen.  

Interesting to know. Obviously since they flew the women, they probably had no idea either and thought they could get them on the show somehow.

And yeah, Dubai and the other Emirates states are not Saudi Arabia. Huge difference here.

[NintendoLogic]

Also, here's battle royal winner Mansoor reenacting the Happy Merchant meme. Maybe he and Lars Sullivan can form a shitlord tag team.

 

[El-P]

Damn, people are stupid. Yeah they put a gun in Taker's face "TAKE THE FUCKING FAT CHECK FROM THE SAUDIS !!!!". Poor little Taker, they won't let him retire in peace... Him liking that post makes him an even bigger hypocrite too. 

The Mansoor thing is... fuck me.

[DMJ]

Not sure which thing above is more ridiculous.

1) People who want Undertaker to "retire in peace" like the WWE has a gun to his head and he has to perform. I don't know Taker's contract situation, but if Daniel Bryan can say, "I'm not going," the Undertaker can say I'm not going. 

2) Mansoor defended his anti-Semitic goofing as something he did when he was a "dumb college kid." Like Lars Sullivan's bigoted rants, I can understand that people make mistakes and deserve forgiveness/second chances. People can change. I still think having these abhorrent views means that if you do lose your "dream job," that's completely fair. You are/were a bigot, you let your hatred show, now you don't get to wear spandex and pretend to fight for a living. Go do something else. I guess what I'm saying is - fuck Mansoor and fuck Sullivan. If they've changed their views, that's great - I still can't find myself ever cheering for them or appreciating their "work." Not different than the Harris Twins.

[El-P]

Also, newsflash : most people who are racist shit at 20 usually are still racist shit at 30, 40, 50 etc... I mean, cosplaying the Protocol of Learned Elders of Zion when you're in college, well... yeah you're pretty much an anti-semitic shit already. The whole "I've changed" bullshit which apparently happens a lot in the entertainment industry when evidence are dug up reeks of, well, bullshit that has nothing to do with real life, in which most racist shit at 20 are still racist shit all their lives, sadly (hell, it rather goes the other way around, people who weren't racist when then were young turn racist later on because of whatever brain fuck they go through). Ok sure, you *can* change, thankfully, but painting awful racist statements as "being young and dumb" is a huge cop out. You don't do racist jewish caricature just because you're dumb. You don't wear SS T-shirts just because you like bikes either. 

[C.S.]

Not to defend Sullivan or Mansoor, who both seem absolutely useless in every way, but what about those stories you hear of hardened tattooed Neo-Nazis, Klan members, racist gang members, etc. - presumably much more extreme cases - changing their ways? It's not unheard of.

But yeah, when it comes to the entertainment industry - and wrestling, in particular - it definitely reeks of "cover my ass" bullshit. 

BTW, this is the first I've heard of Mansoor being an antisemite. Did he grow up in Saudi Arabia? Well, that whole country and culture unfortunately seems fucked. I mean, I hesitate to paint the people with the same brush as the politicians, royal family, and/or whoever else makes murderous decisions, but there are obviously some deep-rooted issues there. 

Edit: One site referred to Mansoor as a "Californian." So, he's an American citizen, I guess? I literally know nothing about him other than what's posted here and the few stories/clips I've seen. 

Found this that's supposedly from him: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D8fiwI7WwAYoatT.png:large

 

[El-P]

21 minutes ago, C.S. said:

Not to defend Sullivan or Mansoor, who both seem absolutely useless in every way, but what about those stories you hear of hardened tattooed Neo-Nazis, Klan members, racist gang members, etc. - presumably much more extreme cases - changing their ways? It's not unheard of.

It's not. But it's clearly not as easy as "Oh, I was a different person back then, I was just dumb, my apologies, I'm cool now." I've seen a fascinating documentary not too long ago about this subject, and those people have a hard time dealing with their hateful past. Sometimes they are being harrassed by their former fascist friends and have to actually go into hiding because they are considered as traitors and are actually threatened. A lot are living in absolute shame and pain of what they have done during their hate years (that former neo-nazi guy telling with real pain in his voice he once kicked a pregnant woman because she simply was arabic, and how he sees her face everyday in his mind and has to live with the shame of it). It's like, a deep, long process, a lifetime thing of trying to get away from that thing. Which is why :

21 minutes ago, C.S. said:

when it comes to the entertainment industry - and wrestling, in particular - it definitely reeks of "cover my ass" bullshit. 

 

[The Thread Killer]

2 hours ago, C.S. said:

Not to defend Sullivan or Mansoor, who both seem absolutely useless in every way, but what about those stories you hear of hardened tattooed Neo-Nazis, Klan members, racist gang members, etc. - presumably much more extreme cases - changing their ways? It's not unheard of.

Way back in the early nineties when I worked as a Corrections Officer in a Detention Center for Juvenile Delinquents (criminals aged 13-17, or as we called them in Canada "Young Offenders") I worked with another C.O./Counsellor who had been a Nazi Skinhead earlier in his life, an actual member of the Aryan Nation and he had done prison time for some of the shit he did.  He reformed while he was in prison, ended up getting a pardon eventually and swore to spend the rest of his life trying to help kids avoid that life.  He was covered in these awful scars from where he had all his Nazi tattoos removed, which he said hurt like hell but he felt he deserved it.  In those days there was a minor epidemic in the Toronto area of gangs of Nazi skinhead kids "swarming" minorities on the subway and beating the hell out of them, stomping and kicking them, etc.  A number of kids who were arrested for that ended up doing time where I worked.  This guy helped turn a bunch of them around and get them out of the organizations they were in before it was too late.  I remember I once worked an overnight shift with the guy, and he told me he would be haunted for the rest of his life by some of the shit he said and did. I got the feeling that no matter how many kids he helped he was never going to be at peace.

So yeah, I believe people can change, for sure. However, I am also cynical when it's a celebrity or somebody who gets caught and then turns around and claims they have changed, I am less inclined to believe it.