Is the empire crumbling before our eyes?

[Dale Wolfe]

Someone said earlier on twitter that every single one of the people released isnt vaccinated but i don't know how true this is

Just because you don't publicly broadcast it doesn't mean you havent had it? 

Hope Keith Lee is okay he really could take a good run at it 

[sek69]

It's hard to know for sure since the unvaccinated will say it's government overreach but if you press them they say they can't tell you if they are or not because if HIPPA (which besides the hilarity of it also being a government thing, it's not against it to ask someone's status). 

[C.S.]

9 hours ago, NintendoLogic said:

The latest Observer says the wrestlers released for refusing the vaccine weren't big enough stars to get away with it, so that would seem to rule out Nia.

In what galaxy is Nia a big enough star to get away with anything or even a big star at all?

I definitely don't think this necessarily takes her name off the list of possibilities.

Especially now that she has all but admitted to being a selfish fucking imbecile who willingly puts others at risk unvaccinated.

[sek69]

To be fair, regardless of her ability as a performer or her vax status it's shitty for her to ask for more time to deal with mental health issues only for the company to respond with "fuck you, you're fired". Even garbage people deserve the time and space to get their shit together. 

[DMJ]

I read somewhere that only a small number of the people released were unvaccinated. For example, a cursory google search for "Mia Yim Vaccinated" reveals she was fully vaccinated in April as she posted a pic with the caption "Fully Vaccinated" on Twitter. 

Is the vaccination issue more about Vince fearing that certain talent won't be allowed to perform in every state/country? Like, if specific arenas or cities require vaccination, that the WWE would have to book around them? 

I'm just wondering because nothing we know about the McMahon's political/social views or practices would make it actually be about preventing the spread of a dangerous virus. Surely, it has more to do with the WWE wanting to save themselves future headaches, right? Wasn't there even a rumor that they'd be doing a UK PPV at some point again? 

 

I really think it more comes down to Nick Khan and maybe to a lesser extent Bruce Prichard realizing/convincing Vince that the WWE is a TV show like any other, first and foremost, and you don't have 30 leads on a TV show. So, even if you need to fill 5 hours of TV a week, you can get by on maybe 40-50 wrestlers total (like they did for much of the 90s). I mean, they clearly don't mind running lots of rematches or turning a singles match into a tag match to make a 10 minute segment into a 25 minute segment or filling up their shows with recaps, ads, and bad comedy skits. And every year they get more money for doing less new matches, less new wrestlers, less new storylines. I saw someone in another thread mention they were excited to see another Usos/New Day feud and I'm just like, holy fuck, were the other 1000 matches they had not enough for you? I'm not even saying the Usos and New Day don't put on good matches, but this is the exact line of thought that makes the WWE wonder why you would even have more than 4 tag teams at any given time, 2 on each brand, and just re-shuffle them every year via a draft. Which is basically what we have now only there's maybe six tag teams instead. 

[sek69]

1 minute ago, DMJ said:

Is the vaccination issue more about Vince fearing that certain talent won't be allowed to perform in every state/country? Like, if specific arenas or cities require vaccination, that the WWE would have to book around them? 

The NBA is dealing with this now, players who are unvaxxed won't be allowed in the building in cities with strict rules like NYC or San Francisco. While I would imagine Vince probably sympathizes with the antivax people, I'm sure they also don't want to deal with the hassle of "this person can't work this show because vax".

[NintendoLogic]

11 minutes ago, C.S. said:

In what galaxy is Nia a big enough star to get away with anything or even a big star at all?

I definitely don't think this necessarily takes her name off the list of possibilities.

Especially now that she has all but admitted to being a selfish fucking imbecile who willingly puts others at risk unvaccinated.

WWE clearly saw her as a big star. She was always heavily pushed and protected and allowed to get away with what would be firing offenses for most wrestlers. But it looks like there's a good chance I was wrong on that call, so I'll take the L there.

As for the other releases, the Observer says the number going around is that 5 of the 18 were unvaccinated but one talent in the company says the number is larger.

[Dale Wolfe]

Truthfully outside of Keith Lee and Gran Metalik I don't think I'll miss any of them but i am surprised by Nia Jax.

She is fucking deadly but it did bring attention to the show earlier in the year with the Charlotte semi-shoot, considering how cold the product is you'd think they'd retain her. Must be the vaccine 

Personally i thought she was entertaining 

[Coffey]

1 hour ago, sek69 said:

To be fair, regardless of her ability as a performer or her vax status it's shitty for her to ask for more time to deal with mental health issues only for the company to respond with "fuck you, you're fired". Even garbage people deserve the time and space to get their shit together. 

This is such a tough & touchy subject too. Mental health & well-being in our country is still honestly really lackluster & comes with a lot of stereotypes & negative connotations. I like to think that we're turning a corner & coming around on it - myself included. I have made insensitive comments about it as well, even here on PWO in posts that I believe were deleted by moderators when I got into it with MoS over the way I careless expressed an opinion with over-the-top language. I was wrong, he was right & I overreacted due to pride & getting called out. And that was just like a couple months ago. I like to think people like Eddie Kingston coming out & speaking about mental health is a positive thing that will lead to more heading in the right direction. Or even more recently with C.M. Punk saying that if people need help, ask for it & get it. There's nothing wrong with needing help.

On the other side of the coin, I'm already seeing & reading comments online - not just from the wrestling communities that I frequent - how people are starting to use mental health as an "excuse" & that they think it's bullshit. I've already seen it about Nia Jax. And I've been reading it a lot the last month or so over Ben Simmons of the Philadelphia 76ers in the NBA in particular. They seem to think that now whenever shit hits the fan that a celebrity can just claim being mentally unwell like it's some sort of get out of jail free card or something. Which, even if that were true, which I don't believe it is, it wouldn't be worth throwing out all the actual mental health issues that others have to try to play a "got'cha!" against some famous person. I've seen it even be likened to when a celebrity adulterer used to claim being addicted to sex & checking into sex rehab to try to save their marriages. People will really jump through some hoops to try to discredit people they've never actually met because they don't like their answer to how they're dealing with something. It's kind of crazy. Social media has really compounded this issue exponentially too. You also see it now with how words or phrases like "woke" or "cancel culture" are being vilified. Or politically, how they've turned the words socialism & communism into weapons where they can just try to tie people to those words to discredit them. We see it with the pandemic & vaccinations pretty much daily at this point.

[sek69]

There's probably a non-zero chance her mental health issues come down to the company keeping after her to be vaxxed, which of course opens up other discussions, but I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt here even if it will likely make me look silly for doing so. 

[sek69]

Wade Keller is saying the word inside WWE was that  Keith Lee had "attitude issues" because he questioned the jobs he was doing on the main roster, which I guess means the whole internet has them too. 

[Boss Rock]

Seems to be the Fed's new MO: say someone was "difficult" to work with a la what they said about Bray.

[Mad Dog]

On 11/4/2021 at 7:38 PM, Boss Rock said:

Literally the night they announced record profits. I'm not surprised, but I also am kinda stunned at that kind of callousness.

Just my opinion. They're going to try to sell to Disney or NBC on the next TV deal and they are trying to get the highest profits possible to make it attractive.

[sek69]

13 minutes ago, Boss Rock said:

Seems to be the Fed's new MO: say someone was "difficult" to work with a la what they said about Bray.

It's also why it's frustrating to see online reactions to stupid WWE shit like "why didn't X just refuse to do it".....because if you do and aren't the select handful of people who have the stroke to get away with it, you'll be banished to the Phantom Zone for being difficult to work with, 

[Mad Dog]

21 minutes ago, Boss Rock said:

Seems to be the Fed's new MO: say someone was "difficult" to work with a la what they said about Bray.

They just pulled that on Bray. I thought it was particularly stupid in that situation because they could have said they were concerned about his injury history and no one would have really questioned it.

[Al]

13 hours ago, Mad Dog said:

Just my opinion. They're going to try to sell to Disney or NBC on the next TV deal and they are trying to get the highest profits possible to make it attractive.

It’s either this or a five year plan to position themselves to survive the AEW surge. Given Vince’s age I’m guessing the former.

[Clayton Jones]

With what a lightning rod for controversy WWE has been for decades and decades does anyone think a company that has the means to buy them would ever do so? I hear this theory a lot but it seems so far fetched to me.

[sek69]

At the end of the day it's all about money and WWE is a money making machine. Unless Vince goes on a public diatribe (which hey, isn't out of the question), WWE is a giant source of content for anyone. 

[Mad Dog]

It just feels like they are following the typical gameplan of trimming the fat and getting every cent of profit possible to sell. 

As far as their corporate image. I don't see them as any worse than other sports leagues as far as scandals go. 

[KawadaSmile]

15 minutes ago, Mad Dog said:

It just feels like they are following the typical gameplan of trimming the fat and getting every cent of profit possible to sell. 

As far as their corporate image. I don't see them as any worse than other sports leagues as far as scandals go. 

I'd say that in terms of avoiding mainstream controversies, WWE might look better to the public eye than the NFL. NBA is also having some problems recently, with the Suns' owner Robert Sarver being investigated for racism and misogyny. Donald Sterling also created shockwaves after appalling racist remarks etc.

And this is pretty sad - no matter how much we correctly point out how fucked up this company is, they still are going to be as profitable as they can be. It's the way the system works, I guess.

[Mad Dog]

NHL just had the Blackhawks story break too. So all three leagues have suffered black eyes recently. 

[Al]

Rumors have been going around about WWE selling. As far as image I don't think WWE is out of line with the rest of big business. The stuff we rake WWE over the coals for? A lot of it is standard operating procedure for most businesses. The music industry, movie studios, sports leagues, most of them are equally scuzzy. If they're profitable, people want them. 

[NintendoLogic]

Sounds like a great place to work for.

[sek69]

Taya (and Morrison) were happy living in Southern California, and since everyone in NXT is expected to work at the PC you pretty much have to live in Orlando. Reading between the lines, it would seem she tried to get some things guaranteed before uprooting her life and it appears they were just blowing smoke since she got cut just a few months lather. 

[C.S.]

2 hours ago, sek69 said:

Reading between the lines, it would seem she tried to get some things guaranteed before uprooting her life and it appears they were just blowing smoke since she got cut just a few months lather. 

Should've gotten it in writing... Never truck racist snake oil salesman carnies. 

I'm pretty sure "attitude problems" for Keith Lee meant a big black man "getting uppity" with Michael Hayes or one of the other MAGA/QANON/Confederate Flag wavers over there.