MoS Posted January 14, 2022 Report Share Posted January 14, 2022 Okay did someone who is both a massive Austin fan AND a massive Alexa fan cook this up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strummer Posted January 14, 2022 Report Share Posted January 14, 2022 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveJRogers Posted January 15, 2022 Report Share Posted January 15, 2022 On 1/14/2022 at 6:10 AM, MoS said: Always fascinates me just how massive a box office draw Steve Austin is, 20 years after his run. He's barely been on TV for years too. He always pops a rating too, even when everyone knows he is going to come and do absolutely nothing but say 3:16 and whoopas and What a bunch of times. At this point I am willing to consider him the biggest, most enduring box office draw in WWE history, even more so than Hogan. Especially when you consider how short his time as the unquestioned company ace actually was (1997 face turn through losing the WWE belt to Jericho in December of 2001, so a little under 5 years) in comparison with other big runs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted January 15, 2022 Report Share Posted January 15, 2022 WWE going back to the same old playbook, giving quotes on how the competition is promoting women self mutilating (referring to the blood in the TayJay vs Bunny/Penelope match), which is probably not the right wording to use when you're about to be hyping up the next Saudi show. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ragemaster Posted January 15, 2022 Report Share Posted January 15, 2022 Yes because they would never sell a show on a guy having to have his eye gouged out to lose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted January 15, 2022 Report Share Posted January 15, 2022 Yeah I think it was cubsfan who pointed out every time WWE complains about someone else's violence they always seem to do something worse than what they were complaining about within 3 weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted January 15, 2022 Report Share Posted January 15, 2022 Also don't forget WWE thinks blading is barbaric but wanted the Orton/Lesnar match to have blood so they just told Brock to hardway him (which ended up in a concussion). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirEdger Posted January 15, 2022 Report Share Posted January 15, 2022 Really? I always was under the impression that neither Brock or Orton actually told Vince about what they were gonna do prior to the match Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted January 15, 2022 Report Share Posted January 15, 2022 I mean I'm sure it was all done mafia-like where Vince didn't say the exact words, but IIRC they were given the impression that blood would be okay to get the match over but also they don't want sponsors to see someone doing a blade job and left the rest up to them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reel Posted January 15, 2022 Report Share Posted January 15, 2022 At some point, based on the mountains of evidence over decades, you have to stop expecting wwe to be intellectually honest or think they'll do anything not in their own best interest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rah Posted January 16, 2022 Report Share Posted January 16, 2022 Mustafa Ali just requested his release. According to SRS he hasn't been on paternity leave. Reading between the lines, WWE has kept him on ice for some reason. I guess he got sick of waiting? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted January 16, 2022 Report Share Posted January 16, 2022 From Fightful: As Ali revealed weeks ago, there was a vignette filmed for a Mustafa Ali "New America" gimmick that looked promising for the star. According to those in the know, initially the character was accepted, before those in power in WWE changed their mind. We're told that in its place, there was a pitch from Vince McMahon for "something Mustafa Ali would never have done," and it led to a heated argument between the two. Ali hasn't been around since. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted January 16, 2022 Report Share Posted January 16, 2022 It should be noted that Ali has been adamant that he did not want to play any stereotypical Muslim/Arab gimmicks and for him to have a heated argument pretty much tells me that's probably what Vince was trying to pitch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMJ Posted January 16, 2022 Report Share Posted January 16, 2022 I'd put money on the idea that Vince wanted Ali to do something anti-America as I believe we're coming up on a few years since the last time someone did such a gimmick and its one of those tropes that the McMahons have routinely used. Nobody here needs a history lesson, but good for Ali for likely standing up against such a tired and, in many cases, career-crippling gimmick. I wasn't as huge into Ali as others were a couple years back, but this is another great example of WWE having a talented performer with a back story that was a slam dunk from a marketing perspective who, at one point, was getting solid reactions, and then just completely letting him die on the vine to the point that I think he'll need some rehab on the indies before a company like AEW should sign him. Then again, maybe Tony Khan being of Pakistani descent will be more open and eager to telling Ali's story and capitalizing on it with a segment of the audience that is underrepresented and underserved? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NintendoLogic Posted January 16, 2022 Report Share Posted January 16, 2022 WWE going back to the early Monday Night Wars playbook. But they're clearly not worried about anything AEW is doing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted January 18, 2022 Report Share Posted January 18, 2022 The use of the word "women" is really telling too. Not even "women wrestlers" (and really, they could have simply said "wrestlers"). Just "women self-mutilating". Such a dirty, shameless tactic. Of course apparently blading and bumping on tacks is sleazy but promoting an authoritarian regime run by a war criminal is not, but hey, capitalism is hypocrisy so of course sponsors would care less about this (when are the Olympic Games taking place already ? What ? Uyghur ? What is that ?). As far as Ali wanting to get the fuck away, I can only imagine the kind of angle they would have him play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blehschmidt Posted January 18, 2022 Report Share Posted January 18, 2022 So according to Fightful, WWE has trademarked the name Gunther Stark. Which also happens to be the name of a WWII Nazi U-Boat Commander. They really need to get an office temp that knows how to use Google. I just hope this isn't a main roster name for Walter... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted January 18, 2022 Report Share Posted January 18, 2022 4 minutes ago, Blehschmidt said: I just hope this isn't a main roster name for Walter... What else ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted January 18, 2022 Report Share Posted January 18, 2022 On top of that, WWE has a weird phobia of having two people with the same name at the same time and they have Zoey Stark in NXT. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strobogo Posted January 18, 2022 Report Share Posted January 18, 2022 More likely for WALTER is a segment where Riddle calls him "Walt" and starts talking about Disney and then his name is officially changed to WALT and he grows a Disney mustache and then is back in Europe within 14 months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-P Posted January 18, 2022 Report Share Posted January 18, 2022 Just now, strobogo said: More likely for WALTER is a segment where Riddle calls him "Walt" and starts talking about Disney and then his name is officially changed to WALT and he grows a Disney mustache Well, that is still a nazi gimmick in a way... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert S Posted January 18, 2022 Report Share Posted January 18, 2022 3 hours ago, Blehschmidt said: So according to Fightful, WWE has trademarked the name Gunther Stark. Which also happens to be the name of a WWII Nazi U-Boat Commander. They really need to get an office temp that knows how to use Google. I just hope this isn't a main roster name for Walter... To be fair, if you come up with a somewhat common German name, chances are that there was a Nazi (or Wehrmacht soldier, which is not really the same thing) of that name. The German Wikipedia lists three Günther Stark and the u-boot commander is not one of them, i.e. he was not a very prominent Nazi. And with that name, he could form a team with Roderick Strong (because "Stark" is the German word for "Strong"). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted January 18, 2022 Report Share Posted January 18, 2022 When you search it on the English Wikipedia, there's no direct page but the fourth result is for the type of U boat he commanded and mentions his name. Either way, it's more of less standard protocol for any major company to run even a perfunctory search to see if the name/term they want to copyright has any negative connotations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dale Wolfe Posted January 18, 2022 Report Share Posted January 18, 2022 Knowing this lot the idea of naming him after a Nazi commander is probably a plus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sek69 Posted January 18, 2022 Report Share Posted January 18, 2022 18 minutes ago, Dale Wolfe said: Knowing this lot the idea of naming him after a Nazi commander is probably a plus I can just imagine the discussion: Bruce: uh Vince, that name we just trademarked? Turns out it's the name of a Nazi commander. Vince: Oh wow, really? *pause* THATS GOOD SHIT, PAL! TELL THAT BLOOM KID HE'S GETTING A NEW GIMMICK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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