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Is the empire crumbling before our eyes?


flyonthewall2983

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1 hour ago, sek69 said:

I think its less fellating Vince than them covering their ass in case the whole thing falls apart without him, so they can point to that line and tell the investors "well we said this might happen". 

You're way underestimating the cult aspect of WWE. You got all these old fucks talking about Vince "going into retirement", completely ignoring he was actually pushed out the door for at very least sexual harrassement stuff. We're nearly at 20 millions dollars now, which is an absolutely insane sum of money, spanning almost 20 years up to the pandemic era, when the company was cutting people left and right for "financial reasons".

And you're got Trip talking about how he was that genius who got pro-wrestling out of small bars. They're absolutely still living in Vinceland and the official storytelling of the company will remain the same. Wait for the A&E documentary in a few years telling how Vince quietly retired as WWE opened another chapter with wholesome "Papa Trip" (fuck I already can't stand that ridiculous nickname where the audience is self-infantilizing themselves) becoming the ever benevolent patron saint of pro-wrestling fighting the good fight against evil billionnaires trying to steal their talent.

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Not denying the cult aspect, but there is a business aspect in not burying Vince on the way out to people who only put their money in because they believed he was the be all and end all of pro wrestling.  They desperately want to convey to investors that everything is fine and it's business as usual without him, when it's already clear to regular viewers that things are different than they used to be. 

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1 hour ago, sek69 said:

Not denying the cult aspect, but there is a business aspect in not burying Vince on the way out to people who only put their money in because they believed he was the be all and end all of pro wrestling.

True. Then again, when Vince got booted, the stock rose instead of collapsing, so maybe those people aren't that dense.

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Of course stock did not rise due to product change. No one is saying that. The product changes are still minor. Hell, the ratings are going up despite those really minor changes (you won't tell me that because of Karrion Kross or fucking Dexter Lumis all of a sudden that makes a huge difference in how the product is perceived, it was already drawing better).

But the image of Vince being protected still is as much cultish brainwash as anything else. No one in Hollywood would have protected Weinstein's image. No one in a real life business would have done it. All these people talking about sad it is are making a fool of themselves, all of them, Flair, Bret, Cena and the rest of them. There's still a guru appeal to the figure of Vince within the company and an entire generation of guys, Trip included (hence the "bar" comment, which went beyond any previous ridiculousness on the matter). 

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Also someone like Hunter has a vested interest in keeping the image of Saint Vincent the Great intact, lest people keep digging and look into things like Trips turning a blind eye to his boy Hugh Morrus doing weird shit in NXT training camps. 

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Danielson is about as “Left” as a wrestler gets, and even he wouldn’t say anything bad about Vince in all of this. (Granted, his father-in-law-in-law was also implicated, so he may have a legal reason to stay quiet.) To the extent that it’s “culty”, I think it’s just that Vince has an interpersonal charisma and magnetism that doesn’t translate in anecdotal form.

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It’s also possible to be friends with a person who holds political beliefs you don’t agree with. Glenn Jacobs might have beliefs that Danielson strongly disagrees with, but I have heard Danielson talk about how much he respects him as a person.

The Vince deal is different obviously. I myself have a couple of friends who have wildly divergent views from mine, but I still care about them and consider them very close friends. If I was to discover that one of them had done something unethical or illegal, that’s a different matter. For me to be friends with somebody, I have to have a basic level of respect for them. Based on some of the things that we have heard Vince has done, I don’t know how easy it would be to respect him as a human being.

Then again, I guess loyalty goes a long way. I know a lot of people feel extreme loyalty towards Vince McMahon due to things he has done for them or opportunities he has given them. I guess everybody has their own different limit of how far that loyalty will stretch.

 

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4 minutes ago, NintendoLogic said:

I think most people would find it difficult to completely turn on someone who helped make them rich and famous beyond their wildest dreams regardless of what misconduct that person might be guilty of.

Yup. Even before this scandal, Danielson had been saying in interviews he loves Vince and that people "don't understand" what he did for him. So him not backing out of those words isn't very surprising.

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I say this as a SJW left-wing social democrat - 95% of people don't care that much about politics, and also, this is the wrestling business. Plus, considering they're all pretty well-off and "independent contractors", and thus, have screwy tax situations, I bet lots of even the more socially aware wresters probably have some views on taxes closer to Kane than Bernie Sanders.

When it comes to Vince specifically, the reality is most of these guys are still probably friends w/ people who the only reason they haven't done as shitty things as Vince is becaus they don't have the power to do so, because they're in a business of carnies. Look at the smoking crater that is the UK indy scene. Hell, look at the NFL - how many players on any other team are going to speak out against DeShaun Watson when a healthy amount of their current or former teammates have done shady things.  

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(The thing is, "Income Tax" isn't a tax, it's an interest payment. Governments regret calling it a tax as it's thought to make people instantly hostile to the concept. People think they "made" or "earned" a hundred grand last year, not realising they just borrowed it. Every year they're asked to pay the interest on their borrowings; it's rare the government calls in the capital. It's a debt, not a tax. Pay your debts.)

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If Jarrett just started that job in May and they are firing him already, I am betting he is getting himself a big, fat severance package too. With a lot of those executive jobs, it is written into the standard contract that even if they fire you for cause, they have to pay you out to get rid of you.

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Yeeesh. 

I know Jarrett is as carny as they get, but getting rid of him and hiring Road Dogg is like two steps forward, five yards back. (Or is it five decades considering Road Dogg's views on race?)

This is the kind of move that I refuse to believe isn't motivated more by Triple H wanting "his guys" around than by Road Dogg actually being worthy of the job.

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