Is the empire crumbling before our eyes?

[Blehschmidt]

What happened with Jazmyn Nyx? 

[C.S.]

2 hours ago, strobogo said:

Because Bryan said he made it up at one point

Fair enough!

The weird "the gay community!" quote is real though.

2 hours ago, Blehschmidt said:

What happened with Jazmyn Nyx? 

According to Reddit, she and her boyfriend laughed at someone with disabilities.

I honestly have no idea what happened, if anything did.

[Blehschmidt]

I saw the video. Her boyfriend seems like a total fucking douchebag who thinks he is absolutely hilarious. They are walking through what I think is Disney and are being filmed for some reason and the boyfriend is saying all kinds of stupid offensive shit through the whole video, and she is giggling at him like a smitten school girl.

He fist bumps what appears to be a person with downs and then looks at the camera and says something along the lines of "I think he just growled at me bro!"

Not taking up for her, but it's hard to tell if she is actually laughing at the person, or just giggling at her boyfriend.

My take is that the boyfriend is a piece of shit, and she is just stupid. Which I hate to see since she is a graduate of the University in the town I live. (Sigh)

[Ricky Jackson]

"Mods" hahaha 

[sek69]

Not to defend what she did, but Jasmine Nyx is a young person doing young person dumb things.

Also as far as  the politics talk, I get both points of view. On one hand, yes WWE seems to be getting more comfortable with being more openly MAGA (which they always were but just started hiding it when Trump became more polarizing). On the other, it does come off as beating a dead horse when it seems like its all some folks here want to talk about and I can see how it can be off putting. 

So while now it's becoming more on-topic to discuss politics because WWE itself is talking about it, there's nothing wrong with being cognizant of those who may be getting tired of hearing about it. Sometimes folks just want to watch a rasslin show and turn their brains off.

I just don't want to see fights break out all over the place over it is all.. Perhaps we should have a dedicated MAGAMANIA thread or something so the folks don't want to see it don't have to.

 

[C.S.]

4 hours ago, sek69 said:

Perhaps we should have a dedicated MAGAMANIA thread or something so the folks don't want to see it don't have to.

Isn't the "Empire Crumbling" thread meant to chronicle exactly this kind of shitty behavior? I personally don't see the need for yet another thread. It's not like this is in the WWE TV Megathread. I'd see the point if this kind of talk took place in that thread when people just want to talk about Raw or whatever.

[El-P]

4 hours ago, sek69 said:

I just don't want to see fights break out all over the place over it is all.. Perhaps we should have a dedicated MAGAMANIA thread or something so the folks don't want to see it don't have to

Sorry but no one posts or reads this very thread to shut their brains off. At *best*, you're gonna get shit about people getting cut, pettiness and blood money washing. At worst, the Janel Grant case and MAGAMania running wild. This is the thread. People triggered by it can ignore it all they want. 

[El-P]

On 4/18/2025 at 4:58 AM, Graham Crackers said:

What are the odds Vince appears with Trump at WrestleMania?

"Thank you Vince, I love you". Triple H. *audience claps*

And before anyone drops the inevitable "It's his father-in-law", first this is not real life. It's a scripted TV show, which he is the creative director of. Also, the "this is family" excuse has already been dropped for him showing up at his mother-in-law confirmation she'll be part of a fascist government taking the role of destroying the education system. "Family" is never an excuse, unless you're in the mob. Also, Triple H inducts himself in the HOF first year he gets in control (oh yeah, sorry, he was "surprised" because it was not his doing, SURE). He doesn't have to do this. But he does. 

My feeling is that if this goes to arbitration and the case is "settled", Vince is eventually gonna be back on TV and the audience is gonna cheer. 

[strobogo]

I do not ever see him coming back to WWE TV in any form, more so that everything is a lot smoother and more chill without him than the optics from his case.

[Blehschmidt]

So last night while inducting Michelle McCoole into the Hall of Fame, Undertaker while discussing how hard she worked to make it said "My Wife didn't come in with a famous last name." and the camera immediately cut to Natalya sitting in the audience.

Wow. I think if I were her, I'd take that personally.

I also think maybe Taker shouldn't kid himself. If he were fucking Kelly Kelly, we'd have been inducting her instead 

[El-P]

1 hour ago, Blehschmidt said:

So last night while inducting Michelle McCoole into the Hall of Fame, Undertaker while discussing how hard she worked to make it said "My Wife didn't come in with a famous last name." and the camera immediately cut to Natalya sitting in the audience.

😂

What a bunch of assholes.

Yeah, she totally gets inducted because of her talent and contribution to the industry. No other reason. I mean, who else could they have induct ? It's not like Mickie James is around town... (ya know, the same Mickie James who is getting replaced by... Michelle McCool on season 2 of WWE's new Tough Enough that nobody talks about. Again, absolutely not because Taker asked for it)

WWE's NXT and AAA doing a Worlds Collide PPV is a mariage made in heaven considering how awful AAA has been the last few years. PLEASE tell me Alberto works the show. He's their world champion, there's no reason not to. 

Also, considering how many people in AAA vocally support Cuatrero, I'm sure Stephanie Vaquer is thrilled about that one. 

[DMJ]

I'm all about pro-wrestling as escapism, but the pre-Mania media blitz has had an undeniable, unmistakable political element. 

This isn't us talking about the tariffs or the deportations or DOGE, this is dialogue about the WWE, Triple H, Nick Khan, Roman Reigns, and John Cena. If those entities/names don't qualify as fodder as "Pro Wrestling Only," I don't know what does. 

As for enjoying WrestleMania, I'll still be watching it as I usually do - over the course of a few days, while I exercise - and I'm hoping to enjoy many of the matches. I am willing to accept that, even just by watching, I am supporting this awful company and its awful people because I am part of the statistic the company uses to promote itself and sign ever more lucrative deals, one of the 5 or 10 or however many million people who watched WrestleMania. But I don't buy merch. I don't buy tickets. I don't buy video games or toys or replica championship belts. I tell myself my Peacock subscription is going towards the Law & Order franchises, giving Homicide an eternal streaming home, and, hopefully, more seasons of Killing It. 

This also won't be the first time I've waffled on my view of CM Punk. At times, I really like the guy and what he stands for. I like that he goes out on TV wearing tee-shirts that support causes he believes in. At other times, I think he's a selfish egomaniac (which makes sense considering most of his celebrity "punk" friends are also unapologetic capitalists and, in some cases, groomers or groomer-adjacents). But if the rumors are true and Trump shows up tonight, then, yeah, he can eat some shit for it. It doesn't make him a hypocrite or a scumbag...but it also means he can drop some of the holier-than-thou rhetoric and reflect a little on what he truly has done for the business and "the boys." He's been a trainer. He's given advice and supported others. He walked out of the WWE for his health and sanity. He's done a ton of charity work. But lots of guys have done those things. Its great, I support all of it and applaud him for it, but you can basically say the same thing about any number of guys, including Moxley and Christian and Cody and others who have done these things or similar things. He's a guy who does good things, but that doesn't make him the Ghandi/Che Guevara/Rosa Parks of wrestling. In fact, the three guys I mentioned earlier - Mox, Christian, and Cody - did more to to make the non-WWE wrestling landscape a better, more lucrative place for "the boys" than Punk ever did. 


Moving on to Triple H...yeah, he's always been a fucking doofus. Still carrying water for his rapist father-in-law. Nice to see Linda in the crowd too, taking a night off from trying to make sure kids with disabilities never learn to read. Also, to keep it PWO, Triple H is one of the most overrated wrestlers in WWE history and you can tell that he's the type that laughs at his own jokes loudest. 
 

Oh, and Taker's induction speech...yikes. Felt like the Phenom google-searched "Hall of Fame induction speech wife ideas" on the flight and then selected the cliche that he thought sounded the smartest without actually considering if it was remotely true. I'd feel bad for Michelle McCool, but well, you married this brain surgeon. Her new Hall of Fame ring will go great with her tacky-ass True Patriot tee-shirts. Undertaker said how important she was, making it possible for the women of today to do what they do. He must've confused her with Mickie James, Ivory, Gail Kim, Molly Holly...I mean, I thought these types hated stolen valor? 

[sek69]

To be fair, the MIchelle McCool/Layla stuff was usually pretty entertaining but yeah she wasn't a trailblazing pioneer.

[El-P]

Paul Heyman on the Pat McAfee (vomit) show, making comparison between CM Punk and Shannon Sharpe (some ESPN guy accused of sexual assault and such apparently), making jokes about deportation of Latinos... 

Oh, but "he's working in character". (which considering everything we know about the WWE office, is pretty irrelevant)

Sure. Doesn't make it less incredibly shitty in both the current political context and the fact WWE has two lawsuits on their ass for sexual abuse.

All that on a show hosted by a MAGA dipshit.

Heyman needs to get fucked. He's trash and his vision of pro-wrestling is godawful anyway.

[El-P]

When you put all the things together, with how unhinged they are becoming, this AAA stuff is gonna be morbidly fascinating.

[Jmare007]

Couldn't last more than 1 day without his Tribal Chief before crashing out, poor Paul.

[sek69]

So there's audio leaked that a fan recorded of Nia Jax shitting on Charlotte at the Wrestlemania Roast deal that Charlotte wasn't even at.  Seems like the women's roster one by one is getting tired of her. I can't wait until Ric has another crash out on social media.

[El-P]

7 hours ago, sek69 said:

So there's audio leaked that a fan recorded of Nia Jax shitting on Charlotte at the Wrestlemania Roast deal that Charlotte wasn't even at. Seems like the women's roster one by one is getting tired of her.

Honestly, Nia Jaxx shitting on a co-worker who even isn't there at a roast hosted by a racist MAGA "comedian" doesn't say anything about Charlotte's character. It does however says a lot about Nia Jaxx's.

Also at that hilarious roast, from the audio transcript (the audio having been pulled by WWE), there have been "jokes" about Nakamura eating dog, Shayna Baszler having a penis (a Paul Heyman joke, mind you), deportation jokes of course, Waffle House in reference to the Naomi vs Jade match, and even an Alberto del Rio joke (about Paige). Such good shit...  (and yeah, some idiots are making the "it was roast, you silly" excuse, which doesn't fly one bit when these "jokes" are made at an event run by a company tied with MAGA and it's racist, transphobic, rapist-loving office and politics)

(good guy Sami Zayn was a part of this BTW. That's what we call a "useful idiot")

[JRH]

As someone on another board pointed out, someone should have pulled a Norm MacDonald and deliberately sabotaged the roast.

[Al]

Beyond the optics of the roast itself, it kind of amazes me that they thought a work related roast was a good idea. Would you trust your job telling you to cut loose on your co-workers?

[El-P]

In other news, office people in AAA are already talking about how people are gonna need to learn English and work a more americanized style. It hasn't been a week. 😂

[DMJ]

Paul Heyman adding "I'm also openly racist" to his character gives him go-away heat with me. Wow, using current political awfulness to get you more heat - what an original and brilliant concept! /s

His mother was a Holocaust survivor, now he's making jokes about deportation/imprisonment without due process to help get his on-screen persona over. He does know that this is creating modern concentration camps, right? He can get fucked. He's been overexposed anyway and this new stable with Rollins and Bron already feels old hat less than a week later.

Also, people joke that he "knows where the bodies are buried." Yeah. Probably. And he also did nothing to stop any of it. Scumbag. 


As for the rest of the roast jokes, it sounds awful and also like the WWE doesn't actually know what a "roast" is. For starters, the people getting "roasted" are usually there, aware that they are "in the line of fire," and are somewhat "in" on the jokes. Most of the people who were made fun of at this roast were not there.

It seems the WWE just wanted an excuse to make racist, xenophobic, misogynist, homophobic jokes like the ones they used to tell in the locker rooms "back in the good ol' days." Oh wait, Orton was shitting in women's bags in the 2000s, Dok "P.S" Hendrix has never not been a racist, the guy at the very top up until semi-recently was a sexual trafficker, and the guy that heads creative now did blackface in the 90s. So, no, it wasn't that. It was just that the company is every bit as racist, xenophobic, misogynistic, and homophobic as it ever was. 


I've always been willing to watch WWE - even with all of its huge flaws - because of the wrestlers. To watch guys like GUNTHER. To watch guys like Danielson back in the day. To watch Asuka. To watch Rey and Cesaro and so many other wrestlers that I really enjoy. And, right now, their roster is as stacked as ever. I still like many wrestlers on the roster.

But this past week makes it really hard for me to even do that. It's all just become too much. I can almost tolerate "MAGA-adjacent," but straight-up MAGA is a bridge too far.

 

[KawadaSmile]

55 minutes ago, DMJ said:

I've always been willing to watch WWE - even with all of its huge flaws - because of the wrestlers. To watch guys like GUNTHER. To watch guys like Danielson back in the day. To watch Asuka. To watch Rey and Cesaro and so many other wrestlers that I really enjoy. And, right now, their roster is as stacked as ever. I still like many wrestlers on the roster.

But this past week makes it really hard for me to even do that. It's all just become too much. I can almost tolerate "MAGA-adjacent," but straight-up MAGA is a bridge too far.

I second this as much as I can. I am under no circumstance unaware of what the political stance behind WWE's upper management is and always has been, but seldom has it poisoned the on-screen product this much.

Yeah, having a character who's literally named IRS be a villain is not subtle, but it doesn't hold a candle to explicit, crass racism and all types of abhorrent shit.

[TheDuke]

47 minutes ago, KawadaSmile said:

 

Yeah, having a character who's literally named IRS be a villain is not subtle, but it doesn't hold a candle to explicit, crass racism and all types of abhorrent shit.

Wow i feel kinda dumb (my excuse is that Im Canadian). I totally didnt realize until you pointed it out here that IRS is a villain because a lot of political conservatives believe taxes are bad in general ( I always assumed it was because having to sit down and do taxes or getting audited was annoying)

[NintendoLogic]

The IRS gimmick came about because Vince was mad about being audited.

Anyway, current WWE is nowhere near the worst the company has ever been in terms of allowing the political views of the ownership to permeate the product. I personally find their overt propagandizing for the Bush administration in the 2000s to be far more reprehensible than anything they've done this year.