Is the empire crumbling before our eyes?

[sek69]

I guess that's the people who were being talked about for the last round of cuts. 

[NintendoLogic]

Well, this aged like milk.

[kas]

The Drake Maverick one feels extra cruel considering the whole 'fight for a contract' storyline.

[sek69]

Imagine having Hit Row signed to your company and not thinking they were worth keeping around. As much as I want to LOL at Top Dolla for his tweet that was just begging to get dunked on, that's just mind boggling to me. 

[C.S.]

11 minutes ago, sek69 said:

Imagine having Hit Row signed to your company and not thinking they were worth keeping around. As much as I want to LOL at Top Dolla for his tweet that was just begging to get dunked on, that's just mind boggling to me. 

They weren't enough like Men on a Mission for Vince's liking?

[KawadaSmile]

Oh my

[Strummer]

Haven't Hit Row been featured on SD lately? But then I have to keep reminding myself that stuff doesn't matter anymore 

[KawadaSmile]

Man, I love Roman Reigns and he's probably the wrestler I've followed the most since mid-00s Marufuji, but even him having this career run ain't enough if he only has like 3 viable feud options. This sucks so much ass.

They ARE going to sell WWE, there ain't no other option.

[KawadaSmile]

lol not John Cena giving Spud the big endorsement (very good video btw)

[Timbo Slice]

None of those are really “major” though, to be fair. 

[Johnny Sorrow]

1 hour ago, C.S. said:

They weren't enough like Men on a Mission for Vince's liking?

They debuted them in fucking Wichita to a bleh reaction.  I'm sure that's what killed them to Vince. Cause if you can't get an AfricanAmerican  Hip Hop act over in fucking Wichita, how can they get over in almost every other major American city? 
I just happened to be watching SD that night and I was gobsmacked that they debuted them in fucking Wichita. They were dead in the water, that crowd didn't care. 
Wichita! What the fuck?

[TonyPulis'Cap]

For me, irrespective of all the creative and onscreen issues - although there's probably a clear link - is just what an awful place WWE sounds like to work if you are a performer. I'm sure, to some extent its been forever thus, but when you read about all the bizarre things that go on, the pettyness, the fact that the corporate way the company operates sounds on the one hand so incredibly stifling, but on the other does nothing to protect employees from the whims of a senile sociopath and his inner cabal of yes men, how would it motivate you when you are at work? The fact you can just be seemingly hired and then fired a few months later irrespective of anything you've actually done must be soul destroying and basically means that working for WWE gives you all the job 'security' of working for Mike Ashley's Sports Direct on a zero hours contract. Like again, how does it create a positive working environment that is conducive to helping employees thrive when your whole world can be just thrown upside down at the snap of someone's fingers.

I haven't watched WWE since the mania that ended with Brock vs Roman the second time (no idea of the year anymore) and NXT a few months later since they ran Gargano vs. Ciampa into the ground. It's not really anything to do with the wrestlers themselves, or match quality, I just cannot stand the presentation and all the forced directives and tropes that are so tired and eliminate every bit of spontaneity and creativity from the product. If you can still watch, or separate the odd 'good match' out and watch it in a vacuum then more power to you, but it is very much not for me Clive anymore.     

[NotJayTabb]

It really does show the lack of direction in creative when you look at these releases. Tegan Nox gets called up, is undefeated on TV in 3 months, gets released. Hit Row are called up, given TV time and hyped as a big deal, released. Even Jaxon Ryker gets a mini run where he beats Elias every week, then does nothing before being released. It really does give a sense of pointlessness to everything. 

[RingoPlaysDrums]

Call talent up to the main roster from NXT, see if Vince takes a liking, release them if not. Leaving them with 90 day no compete clauses rather than 30.

[MoS]

Poor Top Dolla picked a fight with the Bucks AND Indian fans on Twitter after his "diss track" on Jinder or whatever it was, really doubling down on being a good soldier, only to have his entire team released in a matter of weeks. On the plus side, this does leave him some time to figure out what "maharaja" means. 

[El-P]

Let's put in into words. A few years ago, WWE signed everybody under the sun with the aim of smothering any competition, including killing off the UK indies and trying to prevent AEW from surviving. Which mean : preventing pro-wrestlers to be able to make a decent living outside of their "Universe". During the pandemic, while even smaller companies like IMPACT or ROH kept all of their contracts, WWE, while making record profits, released people. Now, as AEW has grown into legit competition and whose existence really isn't in danger for the years to come, but also has already way to many talent under contract and can't allow themselves to sign everyone under the sun, WWE is releasing more and more and more people (and that's including tons of office people who aren't been talked about as much), knowing full well they can't all be picked up, especially now that ROH has more or less turned into a non-contractual indie at best. While, still, doing records-making profits. When you add the brainwashing of their emplo independent contractors with the idea that there's no life outside of WWE, the whole things reeks of the most disgusting cynicism and pathetic ubercapitalism greed you can find. These people are complete trash. WWE management is complete trash.

I have no earthly idea why anyone would want to work for them at this point. The creative completely sucks anyway. Let's be real, with the profits they are making, the workers are all underpaid apart from a few top stars. Just unionize. Actors are unionized. NFL players are unionized. It's not the 80's anymore. Pro-wrestling is supposed to be a legit business ? Treat it as such an unionize already, pro-wrestlers of all countries !!! (I know, I'm giving an epic Internationale fell here )

Can you imagine John Morrisson and Taya ? Fired, the both of them, one after the other, after they moved from California. Please AEW, PLEASE, just sign both of them and push them like stars, they could be so much fun used as they were in LU or IMPACT.

I guess it's Black Friday soon. Get pro-wrestlers for nuthin'.

[NintendoLogic]

HHH's downfall was hilarious at first, but it's actually become pretty sad. Especially considering his health issues, which must be serious given how hush-hush everyone is.

[KawadaSmile]

Between ROH basically dying and WWE releasing like a thousand wrestlers, there is a possibility of a 3rd big company emerging. Or just a new age of the indie scene. 

But it needs to be said how dirty they done Tegan. Suffered TWO horrible knee injuries in a row, gets called up, beats the tag champs but never gets a title shot, goes undefeated, doesn't show up, and is fired. Fuck all that.

4 hours ago, MoS said:

Poor Top Dolla picked a fight with the Bucks AND Indian fans on Twitter after his "diss track" on Jinder or whatever it was, really doubling down on being a good soldier, only to have his entire team released in a matter of weeks. On the plus side, this does leave him some time to figure out what "maharaja" means. 

On the other hand, he'll have more time to write his own songs. We all lose here.

But yeah, him being extremely dumb online (plus casually racist lyrics) made me retroactively side with the fucking Bucks over the whole dumb sneaker discourse. Dude really put his foot in his mouth. And double down. Tripled, quadrupled.

[El-P]

7 minutes ago, KawadaSmile said:

Between ROH basically dying and WWE releasing like a thousand wrestlers, there is a possibility of a 3rd big company emerging.

There is already too much pro-wrestling on TV though. The ratings are going down for everyone. It seems we're closer to a pro-wrestling crash than a pro-wrestling boom. Which makes it even worse for everybody involved. Sure, it may fuel a new cool indie scene though, but for the workers, it's not nearly as good of a context as it was when AEW was just getting the new TV contract.

Yeah, Top Dolla, whoever he is, is an idiot. I don't believe in karma, but hey, I'm gonna make fun of this imbecile anyway.

[Coffey]

What's crazy to me is that outside of like Roman Reigns, WALTER & maybe Bron Breakker, there's very few people in WWE I care to watch anymore. Most of the talent that I'm interested in is already elsewhere or available outside of WWE.

Once WWE became a publicly traded company, I feel like this state of the promotion was inevitable. Eventually, everything takes a backseat to appeasing shareholders. 

Imagine if WWE lost Xavier Woods & Big E. I feel like those two guys are most likely directly responsible for the people still employed by WWE not burning the house down. And I feel like WWE is already on their bad side.

[DMJ]

Last week, on Veteran's Day, Hit Row were heavily featured in segments on RAW Talk about not only honoring people's military services but hiring veterans. 

And they paraded Hit Row out there because two of them served in the military.

And a week later they fired them. 

Now I'm not saying every veteran deserves a job for life, especially if they're bad at that job. But Hit Row seemed like they were fun enough and getting over. its just such a dick move to use them as the WWE's "Look, We Support Veterans!" poster boys and then drop them like this. Just the most hollow public relations ploy imaginable. I hope the WWE gets roasted on social media when Tribute to the Troops airs.

[NotJayTabb]

I always felt I'd be pretty offended if I was the Young Bucks. Not by Top Dolla, but by everyone on Twitter who decided "He's talking about wrestlers who wear shit trainers? That has to be the Bucks"

[KawadaSmile]

3 hours ago, Coffey said:

What's crazy to me is that outside of like Roman Reigns, WALTER & maybe Bron Breakker, there's very few people in WWE I care to watch anymore. Most of the talent that I'm interested in is already elsewhere or available outside of WWE.

That's almost the point where I'm at and I am the dude who posts weekly threads. I have no fucking clue of what they are doing anymore. Like, they are doing the opposite of what they did a while ago, which was to overinflate their roster. Now it's paper thin. 

In regards to being a TV show, they have 100% lost any resemblance of direction. One could argue that was the case for a while now, but after releasing people they JUST CALLED UP or were unbeaten on television, it is even clearer nothing makes sense - because nothing matters, as they are turning in record profits. As as business, they are booming. 

Something tells me they are going to cut more people before year's end.

[strobogo]

Some of those are not surprising, like Ryker/Thorne/Spud. John Morrison is a little more surprising but also they did just can his wife so probably not totally unexpected. Hit Row literally being called up a month ago.

[Coffey]

On 11/5/2021 at 12:08 AM, Coffey said:

John Morrison better not answer his phone!

Whomp.