Is the empire crumbling before our eyes?

[El-P]

Gotta love :

1/TKO lauching a boxing promotion with the Saudis. Really, it's just a matter of time before Mania happens in beautiful, progressive Djeddah. Gotta love the cognitive dissonance when that one happens (hell Rumble already happens next year, wonder if CM Punk will dance around that one)

2/Taker pulling his strings so his HOF wife (which in itself is funny already) replaces Mickie James in S2 of that reality TV show they are doing. 

3/The Carmella stuff which really no one talks about because WWE is such a great place to work now and they treat everyone really well and have you seen the gates ? Wow. So great.

[C.S.]

WWE = MAGA

For those of you who are fortunate enough not to have heard of Tony Hinchcliffe (which is still most of America, I imagine), he's the unfunny racist idiot who called Puerto Rico "a floating island of garbage" during a Trump rally.

[El-P]

They don't even pretend anymore. Soon enough they'll have the Tate brothers in the audience.

I'm sorry for anyone still genuinely enjoying the product despite its political agenda, but WWE (well TKO as a whole) are a full-on fascism supporting company at this point.

Pro-wrestling of course is a just a blip on the radar, but this is just the worst timeline...

[Robert S]

Seriously, fuck this company. As bad as WWE was at its own, somehow TKO made it even worse. I finally cancelled my Network subscription a couple of months ago (not that I was interested at all in the current stuff, but the back catalogue kept me there) as I could not give that detestable company any more of my money in good conscience. Fuck them and fuck a lot of the people who work there.

[The Thread Killer]

If WWE has any brains, they will hire Gail Kim as a producer/agent either in NXT or on the main roster for their massive women’s division, now that she has been let go by TNA. And now that Vince is gone, she may actually take the job. Considering the huge amount of female talent they have in NXT, you have to figure Gail Kim would be invaluable as a coach.

[El-P]

Why do you think TNA fired her ? 

[The Thread Killer]

  On 3/25/2025 at 9:42 PM, El-P said:

Why do you think TNA fired her ? 

Expand  

Fightful is reporting it. Anthem let go a bunch of management level people and announced Hunter Johnson aka Delirious as the new Head of Creative.

[The Thread Killer]

I actually made the colossal mistake of going to Dave Melzer‘s Twitter feed to see what he was reporting about the TNA firings, but of course, aside from one throwaway line, he seems to be far too busy getting into stupid arguments with trolls about AEW vs WWE.

[El-P]

  On 3/25/2025 at 9:46 PM, The Thread Killer said:

Fightful is reporting it. Anthem let go a bunch of management level people and announced Hunter Johnson aka Delirious as the new Head of Creative.

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Yeah, I saw that. No, I meant, why do you think they fired her ? WWE is taking control. Whether it's for a buy-in at one point or just use it as a way to show how much they're not going for a monopoly *wink wink nudge nudge* and just keep it as a "friendly" promotion they can use, they are taking control. Which is why I would be shocked if Gail Kim ended up in WWE after this.

Delirious had been in creative for a while, but I think he was just part of the creative team. Booking has sucked all year long last year, and has been especially shitty since last Summer. Which is another case of actual good product having zero to do with popularity.

Anywoo, this sucks for the landscape. 

BTW, have you seen GCW is running a WWEID tournament during Mania week. Lauderdale and Effy sure got the most out of trashing AEW and TK. Well, their cred as "outlaw promotion" is completely shot, but there you go.

[The Thread Killer]

  On 3/25/2025 at 10:02 PM, El-P said:

Delirious had been in creative for a while, but I think he was just part of the creative team. Booking has sucked all year long last year, and has been especially shitty since last Summer.

Expand  

I shudder to think how much worse it’s going to get with Hunter Johnson totally in charge of creative now. He’s terrible.

[C.S.]

Surprised there's been no mention of Triple H putting his foot in his mouth - again! - with these insanely dumb comments about Trump:

“Nick Khan [WWE president]... always has this thing about, ‘The most charismatic guy wins, it doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter your policy, whoever the most charismatic guy is in the debates wins.’ And you can historically look at that — pretty accurate, right? And I think Trump’s ability as an orator, as — like him or hate him, the way he does it… but he’s charismatic in so many ways. And I think he likes getting under people’s skin, generating [heat].

Schulz then chimes in to say that Trump “plays a great heel”. Levesque continued:

“He does. It’s amazing and it’s genius, and it worked in our business.

“Do I think he got that from our business? I think he innately understands it. It’s been his whole life. Think about that. There’s a lot of billionaires in the world, I suppose, why is he the most famous one? Why was he the one that was in People magazine every week with everybody under the sun? Why was he seen as the epitome of that billionaire status and all that stuff? It’s because of his charisma, and his character, and who he is, and the way he can speak about it and do all those things.

“He just captivates people and I think that’s why he is where he is.”

https://www.cagesideseats.com/wwe/2025/4/14/24408367/triple-h-dismisses-internet-bitching-complaining-wwe-admires-donald-trump-interview-andrew-schulz

Yeah, Paul, makes perfect sense for the President of the fucking United States to be a "great heel." 

[The Thread Killer]

  On 4/16/2025 at 3:30 AM, C.S. said:

Surprised there's been no mention of Triple H putting his foot in his mouth - again! - with these insanely dumb comments about Trump

Expand  

I don’t know if it’s that the comments flew under the radar, or if it’s just that people really don’t care at this point.

Let’s face it, the guy that is president of the other major company which is part of TKO is literally best friends with Donald Trump, and nobody seems to care about that anymore. So I don’t think anyone is going to fuss over Paul Lévesque making some inane but innocuous comments. I think the outrage bar has been cranked up quite a bit over the last few months. It’s probably going to take a lot more than these types of comments to garner any attention at this point.

[El-P]

The more time passes, the more they are getting at ease with the fact they are full-on MAGA.

Wait, am I talking about WWE or their audience ? 

But this is it. TKO is 100% a MAGA company, obviously WWE also is. There's no more attention to garner at this point. People are either in denial or they are ok with it. 

It makes wrestling as a whole incredibly dirty, because everyone is tainted. Guys like CM Punk and Chelsea Green can post stuff about trans-rights all they want, they are taking a fat check from a company that is tied with a fascist government that wants to eradicate trans people (and are actually putting every effort in doing so).

So there. MAGAMania is running wild indeed. The irony of the "Vince is gone now, the bad guy is gone, everything is fine now" discourse is that TKO is infinitely more evil as a company than McMahon-run WWE ever was.

[strobogo]

I don't think the audience is in the same spot as the management and I'm 100% positive if Trump pops up at WM like he does UFC shows, he will get booed out of the building to the point they have to cut audio or do it fully backstage without a live crowd. Crowds booed the shit out of him at college football and the Super Bowl (which also used fake audio to cover it). 

[El-P]

But then they'll give standing ovations to "Papa Trip", uh ?

https://bsky.app/profile/iamjohnpollock.bsky.social/post/3lmwslpwto225

(no bluesky integration ? Damn, forums are old)

Nick Khan on AEW: “Nothing but respect for the father who finances it and owns the Jaguars and all those other things.” - The Bill Simmons Podcast

Says the guy who still praised Vince the Rapist (a self-made man himself of course) *after* he was outed from the company the first time around. Nick Khan is such a huge piece of shit. He fits right into the picture with the rest of his MAGA promoting partners.

Also, the president of the company talking like a random podcast grifter/X troll is quite embarrassing, really.

[strobogo]

The petty shit of having Seth on TV and in media for WM repeatedly talk about Punk working for a billionaire's son, and now the CEO specifically pointing out the same thing. It's like Vince never left.

 

[El-P]

The underdog 😂.

These people are so fucking pathetic. It's good for them they makes so much money, because that's all they have. They are rich ass clowns. 

[strobogo]

Don't worry, the people in charge of the government, who are friends with these people, speak exactly the same way despite being 100% in control of every branch of government and their preferred media outlet being the dominant news outlet for about 30 years now. The pathology of these fuckos.

[C.S.]

  On 4/16/2025 at 3:19 PM, El-P said:

Nick Khan on AEW: “Nothing but respect for the father who finances it and owns the Jaguars and all those other things.” - The Bill Simmons Podcast

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Not that I want to defend Nick Khan, but didn't Tony Khan fire the first shot when he called Nick Khan a "Khan (con) man" for no reason whatsoever other than to appeal to the "sickos"?

Both sides are infantile here.

[El-P]

No, you can't put an equal side between the two of them. They are not in the same position of domination. TK has been under attack since day one with petty remarks like "pissant company" and such. WWE had been trying to prevent AEW from even existing since day one. So no, it's not equivalent. 

Since this week is Dynamite going longer than Nitro, it has to be said how much I LOVED Uncle Eric being a complete shithead with WWF at the time. It was funny as hell and they deserved every bit of it. Sometime I wish TK would just say "fuck it" and take the same kinda attitude and shit all over the opposition. And it would not be hard to do considering the ridiculous bagage. Between Nick Khan stupid ass quote about being the underdog and how they don't sign talent to park them (holy fuck) and Paul Levesque's quote talking about how NXT talent are complacent when they get to the main roster (aka "I'm not responsible for anything that happens, it's the talents fault when it doesn't work out"), it's just free shots being handed over. Without of course going into the really sleazy stuff.

[JRH]

Oh, WCW was going after the WWF long before then. They were going to bring in Giant Haystacks as a jobber named "Titan" in 1990, with the intent being that the announcers were going to make a bunch of snarky comments about "Titan" getting dominated, but Haystacks' wife got sick so it was cancelled. But going after the competition can backfire, just remember them giving away the result that Mankind was going to beat the Rock (and just to show WCW wasnt also making mistakes, Bobby Heenan claimed that the Billionaire Ted skits just told people where they could see Hogan and Savage).

[El-P]

Of course. This is as old as wrestling wars are.

Honestly it'll all irrelevant and in the grand scheme of things, TK should probably ignore these MAGA fuckheads. But still. Both Nick Khan and Levesque came off like what they are, insecure little shits and very, very little men. Like everyone of their ilk are.

[Strummer]

 

https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/roman-reigns-opens-about-his-support-donald-trump-says-he-doesn-t-back-everything-trump-does

[El-P]

  6 hours ago, Strummer said:

 

https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/roman-reigns-opens-about-his-support-donald-trump-says-he-doesn-t-back-everything-trump-does

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There.

They are slowly but surely getting more confortable with it, because they trust their audience in term of denial/approval/acceptation.

The Big MAGA Dawg.

It's gonna get more and more difficult (because yeah, I realize there are probably a whole bunch of MAGA shithead in AEW too, we know some of them already).