WWE TV Megathread

[Timbo Slice]

That tells you all you need to know about what they think about ADR. Plus, WWE Canon usually dictates how they want to start things, regardless of what’s already in place. 

[sek69]

Fightful has said on several occasions when asked about Alberto going back to WWE that pretty much across the board no one in the company wanted him back.

[NintendoLogic]

https://corporate.wwe.com/about/news/2025/05-27-2025

This just happens to be the weekend of All In. A mere coincidence, no doubt.

[C.S.]

16 hours ago, sek69 said:

So on Raw they billed Vikingo vs Chad Gable on Worlds Collide as being for the AAA Mega Championship. One problem, Alberto's still the champ but he has  match with Vikingo on AAA's next taping on 5/31. Not the best start for WWEAAA spoiling upcoming results.

On the one hand, it feels like a sloppy WCW move. On the other hand, who gives a fuck about Alberto Del Rapist? His loss is a foregone conclusion anyway. I just hope he doesn't no-show the match. Not like he'd have anything to lose. Other rape apologist carny promoters will book him in a second, and there are tons of those in wrestling.

[JRH]

So getting back to SNME a bit, there's a debate going on if Jesse going after Damien Priest for simply exiting the cage through the door was essentially him crapping on the finish or just true to Jesse's character.

[C.S.]

1 hour ago, JRH said:

So getting back to SNME a bit, there's a debate going on if Jesse going after Damien Priest for simply exiting the cage through the door was essentially him crapping on the finish or just true to Jesse's character.

Someone found a clip from the first SNME with Jesse saying Boss Man should've walked through the cage door.

Update: It's this awful troll account, but you can see the clip. 

https://x.com/MeltzerSaidWhat/status/1926461201984135290

 

[sek69]

I just saw it as Jesse being the same heel commentator he's always been, I guess its been so long since there's been one that isn't fake sounding as hell people aren't used to it.

[sek69]

I've also seen people thinking the TNA president looking grumpy after Trick won the title was some sort of "shoot", but I suppose to be fair if there's one company that wouldn't smarten up their execs it *would* be TNA.

[The Thread Killer]

Having Je’Von Evans debut on SmackDown and then eat a pin from Los Garza doesn’t exactly bode well for his chances on the Main Roster. Unless this isn’t really a call up, they were just featuring him because he’s going to be competing at World’s Collide next week. Either way, it seems like an odd choice.

[C.S.]

2 hours ago, The Thread Killer said:

Having Je’Von Evans debut on SmackDown and then eat a pin from Los Garza doesn’t exactly bode well for his chances on the Main Roster. Unless this isn’t really a call up, they were just featuring him because he’s going to be competing at World’s Collide next week. Either way, it seems like an odd choice.

I bet Je'Brone Evans is regretting that dumbass "crackhead" tweet. He's not exactly off to a great start and feels like an upcoming future-endeavor already. But you're right, if this isn't actually a call-up, it probably doesn't matter as much.

[The Thread Killer]

7 minutes ago, C.S. said:

I bet Je'Brone Evans is regretting that dumbass "crackhead" tweet. He's not exactly off to a great start and feels like an upcoming future-endeavor already. But you're right, if this isn't actually a call-up, it probably doesn't matter as much.

That kid is crazy talented, though. I think he has a ton of potential. I really liked the Main Event of Stand and Deliver between he, Trick Williams and Oba Femi.

But I agree with you, C.S. in that Evans (and a lot of younger talent in both companies) really need to learn to stop saying everything that comes into their heads and posting it on Twitter. It’s bad enough that there is so much tribalism between the fans, the talent in the competing companies probably don’t need to contribute to it.

[C.S.]

41 minutes ago, The Thread Killer said:

That kid is crazy talented, though. I think he has a ton of potential. I really liked the Main Event of Stand and Deliver between he, Trick Williams and Oba Femi.

I mean, Apollo Crews is crazy talented, Ricochet is crazy talented, etc. The kid's 120 pounds, so no matter how good he is, there's probably a ceiling there - even under Triple H. 

42 minutes ago, The Thread Killer said:

But I agree with you, C.S. in that Evans (and a lot of younger talent in both companies) really need to learn to stop saying everything that comes into their heads and posting it on Twitter. It’s bad enough that there is so much tribalism between the fans, the talent in the competing companies probably don’t need to contribute to it.

Exactly. Maybe he'll main event WrestleMania - I doubt it - but burning a bridge regardless, especially for no reason, just isn't smart. The reality is that Evans is probably not someone who is going to ever become enough of an attraction to overcome that no matter what. 

[sek69]

The funny thing is Je'Von is a much better fit in AEW than he is in WWE, so burning that bridge for no reason was an extra dumb move.

[NintendoLogic]

https://x.com/RonKillings/status/1929194390737530916

whaaaaat

[DMJ]

When R-Truth came out as John Cena on Saturday Night's Main Event, holding up the "One Last Time" (or whatever it says) towel, it did strike me that maybe this was, in a weird way, some sort of "secret" retirement match for him.

But then I kinda thought, "No, if he was going to retire, they'd make a bigger deal out of it and use that to get more heat on Cena and I'm seeing 'signs' where there are none."

And then, based on what's on Cagematch, it looks like he fought Jeff Cobb on SmackDown two days ago too. 

Any which way, as much as I know some would scoff at yet another ex-WWE guy going to AEW, especially one who is so much of a "sports-entertainer" than a wrestler at this point, but he's one that I think would be great there for a short run. Great connection to the crowd, supposedly very well-liked backstage, and he'd be awesome as Ricochet's "back-up," for example. Even at 53, he can still work as a tag guy too, which could make for some good Collision fodder.

[C.S.]

FUCK

THIS

COMPANY

[sek69]

Can't imagine this is going over well in the locker room since R Truth is one of the most beloved guys possibly ever. He's in that rare category where you can't find anyone who has a bad thing to say about him. 

[C.S.]

Carlito is gone too.

[Blehschmidt]

1 hour ago, C.S. said:

FUCK

THIS

COMPANY

But....but.... budget cuts!

[The Thread Killer]

Some kind of interesting points for discussion coming out of the departure of R-Truth.

-> A lot of people were initially reporting this as a release, which it isn't...apparently his contract was up, and he was told that they aren't going to re-sign him.  Same thing with Carlito. I guess this pretty much confirms the "TKO is cutting costs" story that came out recently. Office staff have had their wages frozen, apparently the wrestlers either aren't receiving complimentary tickets for friends/family to the shows anymore, and then they recently purged a bunch of talent who were labelled as either being lazy, or having a bad attitude. 

The next phase seems to be keeping talent who aren't a problem but are designated as not being particularly useful, but then letting their contracts expire with no efforts made to re-sign them. Ron Killings has been with WWE for 17 years. I would imagine that each new contract he signed involved some sort of pay raise. After 17 years, I'm guessing this situation was getting to the point where they asked themselves why they were paying that much money for a comedy act who was over 50 years old.

-> One thing I find really strange about this situation, is that it looks like a "the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing" type of deal between the creative and financial departments in WWE. Or if it isn't, the whole thing is really bizarre otherwise.  R-Truth has been heavily featured on TV over the past month or so. They set his angle with Cena up in a highly publicized incident at the Backlash press conference. They give him primo valuable TV time (during which he cuts one of the best promos he has cut in...a very long time.) They even give him a new T-Shirt, which is just bizarre for a guy on his way out. Then they give him a match on Saturday Night's Main Event. Even though he basically got squashed, that is still some prime TV real estate. And then...he's gone.

I've seen the arguments made online that Cena basically made that happen because he wanted to work with Killings one last time. I've seen the argument made that they did it as some sort of farewell gift to Killings because they knew he was going.  It still seems like a really weird thing to do, to me.  Why invest all that time and creative energy into a guy when you know he'll be gone in a couple of weeks?  It's basically saying to the audience: "Hey, see how popular this guy is? See how good his promos are? You should buy his new T-Shirt! Oh yeah by the way...he's gone now."

They did the same thing on a much smaller scale with Braun Strowman. He's in a feud with Jacob Fatu, one of the most popular guys on the roster. He actually has a pretty high profile match with Fatu on both Saturday Night's Main Event, and then that excellent Last Man Standing match on Smackdown...and then they fire him.

I guess you could make the argument that they were squeezing every last bit of value out of those guys to use them to put guys over on their way out the door, but it still seems like a strange decision to me, to feature people in such high profile spots, when you know they are on the way out.

-> I talked about this somewhere else at PWO, but the more time goes by, the more WWE fans are seeing how TKO/UFC does business.  There are some parallels to the way UFC handled Chuck Liddell and the Ron Killings situation.  Dana White had long declared that Chuck Liddell had a job for life with the UFC because of everything he had done for the organization...and one of the first things Endeavor did when they took over was unceremoniously dump Liddell and a bunch of office staff.

-> Some people are saying that yet again, this release proves that Triple H is racist, because it was his decision. Other people are saying that financial decisions in WWE are under the purview of Mark Shapiro and Nick Khan. Basically they decide who gets paid how much.

-> One thing that has been really interesting is the public outpouring of support for Ron Killings from the WWE roster. I had no doubt that this wouldn't be a popular decision, but the fact that so many of the wrestlers are willing to go on the record and talk about it publicly is noteworthy. I guess there is a difference between people talking about how much they love the guy, and the people who make thinly veiled complaints about it.  Hell...Road Dogg of all people actually tweeted about it, grousing about "Bean Counters."  Which is kind of amazing, considering the fact that Brian James may be one of the all time greatest corporate ass kissers/stooges in Pro Wrestling history.

-> I have seen rumors on Pro Wrestling Newz sites, Twitter, Reddit etc. about a supposed change in creative direction for WWE this summer.  Apparently (if you believe rumors) there is about to be a house cleaning on the Main Roster because Netflix isn't thrilled about the numbers WWE is getting, considering the insane amount Netflix is giving them. This ties into the fact that the WWE Main Roster is definitely getting older, quickly.

- AJ Styles is 48

- CM Punk is 46

- Finn Balor is 43

- Kofi Kingston is 43

- Rey Mysterio is 50

- Sheamus is 47

- Kevin Owens is 41

- LA Knight is 42

- The Miz is 44

- Randy Orton is 45

- Nakamura is 45

On top of those guys, there are a ton of guys like Cody, Roman, Rollins, McIntyre etc. who are in their late 30's or about to turn 40.  When you consider that, WWE deciding not to renew the contracts of guys like Killings and Carlito, who are both well north of 40, makes sense to a degree.  WWE really is due for a youth movement at some point, if they want to invest in their future.

Over the past few weeks, we've already started to see a lot of NXT talent showing up on the Main Roster. Roxanne Perez, Giulia, and Stephanie Vaquer have all finally debuted. Rumor has it that Ricky Saints is about to debut imminently. We saw Je'Von Evans last week, and you have to think Trick Williams is soon to follow, as soon as this angle with TNA is done.

All I'm saying is...if this is true, if I was over 40 and my contract was about to come up in WWE, I'd be nervous.

-> When it comes to Ron Killings, he has reportedly been smart with his money, so hopefully for his sake he can just do the whole autograph show circuit and make a decent living from that. Of course there were immediately some people clamoring for him to show up in AEW, but I can't see that happening for a couple of reasons.  Firstly, the LAST thing Tony Khan needs is to hire a guy who has spent the past 10 years as a comedy act. I honestly don't see what that guy could possibly bring to AEW that they need...the negatives would far outweigh the positives at this point.

Secondly, Ron Killings was/is personal friends with Vince McMahon...which is supposedly the reason he lasted as long as he did in WWE. Vince apparently just loved having the guy around, and once Vince was gone, that protection was no longer in place. I haven't seen it myself personally, but apparently Killings has publicly made statements supportive of Vince McMahon since Vince was ousted from WWE, (much like Undertaker and John Cena.) If I was Tony Khan, I wouldn't touch a guy like that with a ten foot pole...but hey...that's just me.

Besides, the one thing that a lot of people seem to be dancing around with this whole thing is that, quite honestly...Ron Killings is not that good.  It's great that he was the most popular guy backstage and everybody loved him, but seriously? Considering how long the guy was in WWE, can you even name five matches he had in all that were classics? Because I can't. He was a comedy act, with stuff like Little Jimmy, showing up in the wrong matches, trying to tag in during a Battle Royal, getting people's names wrong, and stuff like that.  I laughed at a lot of the stuff he did, but the way some people are carrying on about this release online is kind of hysterical, in my opinion.  As I've said before, I never want to see anybody lose their job...but considering the level of talent, his age and his performance history, Ron Killings had a hell of a run.

 

[Timbo Slice]

The one thing that was always creepy with Vince liking Killings and him being close was that it was pretty obvious Vince saw him as a minstrel of sorts; looking back, there are plenty of cringey moments that made me feel bad for Ron given the racial stuff Vince was obviously getting at.

And I get where TKO is coming from, but also? That doesn’t allow you the leeway to actually create stars. One of the main reasons why I’ve been out on UFC for a while strictly for the in-octagon product is due to the fact that the fighters have become homogenized and it’s tougher for them to become notable unless they do something stupid. It’s also what allows TKO to continue to underpay them and why certain stars were able to get their own paydays by calling their bluff and proving value elsewhere. If that’s where they see the need to send WWE, then for all the complaints we have now, we are gonna be drowning in them like AI slop in the coming years. 

[strobogo]

HHH picked Truth and Carlito because they had to cut some money....and then they immediately pulled Truth's top selling shirt from the merch store. Not even just let it sell out of stock. Just pulled it. He's not even gone from the company yet! I guess the 25 people cut 2 months ago didn't make the numbers look good enough.

[The Thread Killer]

45 minutes ago, strobogo said:

I guess the 25 people cut 2 months ago didn't make the numbers look good enough.

It’s never going to end. This is the new normal. It’s always going to be about squeezing every dollar out of every possible situation for TKO. They are going to milk every possible potential revenue stream (apparently they are now going to be putting ads on the tables) while at the same time slashing every expense they can to maximize profits. It’s always going to be about the quarterly earnings for them.

[strobogo]

They already have ads on the tables on PPVs. It's gonna get real gross corpo real fast under TKO. Just cut corners every quarter to get the numbers to look better on paper with no care or pride in the product being produced, which is pretty much how every company in America works. But post TKO merger they've really been speedrunnning it. I would imagine a bunch of office and crew people are going to be cut soon like with what happened to UFC a couple years back.

[C.S.]

Sarah Logan/Valhalla not being renewed either, but that's less surprising, since I think most of us assumed she was let go several release cycles ago.