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I will never understand the people who think that they owe their job their dignity. I had a boss that was an abusive dick, and he was always picking on this one guy to the point that that dude would break down crying. I remember one day he really lit into the guy and as they were walking out of his office and I looked at a coworker and said loud enough for my boss to hear me, "If the choices are to come out of that office crying or coming out of that office in handcuffs for beating his ass, I'm choosing the handcuffs." I never had an issue with him. If Lio Rush thinks the bullshit is beneath him, it is fucking beneath him. Point blank. Period. He gets to make that choice for himself. So, if you let your job treat you like shit, and make you do things that insult your dignity, make that choice, but don't push that shit on other people.

It's an American culture thing, I think. My grandparents, and to an extent my parents, saw a job as a place where you just take the bullshit for a paycheck because that's what you're supposed to do, and gosh, you're lucky to have that job anyway, right? This mindset is harmful, but it especially doesn't work in a gig economy where many jobs are only contract or are easily disposable. In some cases, that makes workers MORE scared to speak out (see all the scandals with game developers talking about the highly-abusive work cultures in their industry that are popping up every month now). For other workers, it's freeing. You don't have to put up with the shit at work because you can always just go get another gig or two to replace it. But we do need a culture shift in this country. I'm not even talking about unionization, though of course workers should unionize whenever possible to protect themselves. People in general need to let go this idea that you're supposed to take a certain amount of shit because it's just what you do to keep your job and to advance. This attitude is what causes sexual harassment and assault at work, abusive relationships between supervisors and workers, racial harassment at work, etc. I go to work to do a job well and to get paid for it, not to put up with anyone's fuckery.

"If I let 200 guys touch my dick, maybe a hot chick will touch my dick" sounds like the premise to the shittiest 80s teen comedy ever.

Why are there so many people that leap to Joey Ryan's defense insistent that people SHOULD like him (or intergender shit in general)? I don't want or need any of it in the wrestling I watch, so I don't watch it. It doesn't make me a bad fan or Jim Cornette or no fun or whatever. I think it sucks, so I steer clear of it. What's wrong with that? The WWE threads would be far easier to read (and post in) if people stopped watching the things they clearly hate.

You're not allowed to pay the wrestlers more. The shareholders(ie, Vince and the like) need more money to blow on stupid frivolous bullshit like the XFL.

WWE isn't the most noxious promotion in terms of a plantation owner mentality, they are simply the biggest and most visible. The time is quickly approaching where this sad old dog ain't gonna hunt no more. People are either "independent contractors" or they are "employees" and if the latter, and you as a company are demanding that they travel as part of their duties... Well open up the wallet, daddy y'all need to pick up the tab for that shit. Sure, you can ask talent to pay up front and reimburse them monthly, quarterly, whatever's in the contract, but you must pay for travel-related expenses. This idea that WWE workers are independent contractors is laughable and if it ever makes its way to court VKM will be a very unhappy man when all is said and done. But like I said, WWE isn't the only one guilty of this sort of behavior, most indy promoters share this mentality. In other entertainment worlds, this shit isn't even a discussion; you want me to come in to a town (or towns) and do readings and sign books? Okay, I'm good with that; I'll need transport from the airport and from the hotel to the destination as I don't drive, actually a hotel/motel within a mile of the event would be cool as I don't mind a walk; I like to eat three meals a day and I'll expect them to be covered; as long as the hotel/motel is an acceptable facility (Best Western or better), we're good to go. This is so typical that to consider anything else is kind of hard to wrap my head around except for having been a wrestling fan for fifty years and having known what a fucked-up business it is for about forty years.

I never underestimate just how petty and vindictive WWE can be.

There was a period a few years back where it felt like PWG put a Candace vs Joey match on every show. And guess what? They were all pretty good matches, well-worked and laid out logically. Joey would get the heat being a misogynistic shithead, she'd come back and give him his comeuppance, then there'd be a finish. Pro Wrestling 101. A purist's wet dream of match structure if you could get past the "OMG man vs woman is ruining wrestling" shit. Later, he and Candace formed a pretty over babyface tag team. Have you seen any of that or do you just judge the dude's whole career based on some gifs and some higher principle of what you think pro wrestling should be? God damn Vic. I really try to be nice and not just come after people on here, and I'm sorry, but shit like this is so trying.

The Russos were talking about how for many people, it's an incredible reunion now, but there are many people out there who grieved and moved on only to suddenly have their ex or whoever reappear, with literally no time having elapsed for them. That's heady shit that I don't see how they'll ever be able to really address it in the MCU

Harrison Ford's statement on Mayhew's death gets me right in the heart.

My entire life I've struggled with the fact that a place who likes to refer to itself as the home of the brave promotes so much cowardice. Our entire society is based on being scared to lose the little we got. Fuck that, I don't have enough to be scared to lose it. I have a strong enough support system that I could lose everything today and be working on getting it back tomorrow. I've never really felt the fear to protect my ass over my dignity. My ass will get better, but I'd hate myself if I didn't stand up for my dignity. Hell no, but it is up to him to stand up for his own dignity. He seemed to be OK with that type of behavior from our boss. Like he would take up for him when we told him he needed to stand up to him.

Vince is a weirdo with strange hang-ups and the attitudes of an 1880s robber baron, but that aside, I don't really trust the word of Rush, company-man Mark Henry, or whatever nebulous company sources there are. We do know enough about this company, however, to know that it has a dumb culture and a capricious owner. At this point, if a wrestler has a lick of talent, some small following to grow upon, and marketing sense, it might just be better for the wrestler to raise their profile outside of the WWE machine and sell their t-shirts and keep 100% of the profit for themselves. Social media has changed the game because it's not like in the mid-'90s, where if you weren't on USA, TNT, or TBS every week, you were totally forgotten about by most people within a year. Now, the people who watch wrestling are the type of people who will follow you from tiny company to tiny company if you're good enough and if you know how to reach out to your fans out there. I can't imagine that dealing with that schedule and that work environment is worth it for people who are good enough and know they're good enough to just bet on themselves. And if you're good enough to make it to WWE from the indies in the first place, you're in that top two percent that probably can make it on their own.

On Vince: It's the same old story. He's from the south.. ashamed as much as he ever was. Lives most his adult life a hop, skip and a jump from my neck of the woods. Pissed off because a guy who was actually BORN IN NEW YORK cannot pull off a southern accent... Fucking moron.

He's absolutely right. Having the black kid carry bags and water for a bunch of dudes who look like they're in a biker gang is a terrible look for the company. Never mind the fact that he is far more talented than most of said wannabe bikers..

I don't understand Bobby Roode's gimmick anymore....

I do not understand the people who think it was some sort of rip off that Arya killed the NIght King and not Jon, when her entire storyline built led up to this. Seriously, Jon is the rightful king, he gets the girl, he rides a dragon, and he has to kill the Night King? I'm just saying, what the fuck is everyone else supposed to be doing?

Or, maybe, MAYBE, you don't HAVE to check out any of that. Maybe you could just say, "I don't like what I've seen, but that's limited to a YouTube clip or a gif and that's enough to make me not interested in seeing any more of him." No one can argue with that. No one. The most you could say to that is, well, you may find that you're missing out, but if that's not your thing, then fine. Instead it becomes Joey Ryan is a child molester or he's disgusting or he's this or that or the other thing, which is what invites people coming to Ryan's defense.

Honestly, though, that has been one of the weaknesses I've seen with intergender. Intergender matches are fine, except they have the fatal flaw that there's only really one possible way to script the match: "Plucky young babyface woman who's fighting for respect and girl power!" vs. "evil big mean brute man who doesn't respect her as a wrestler because he's a big, mean, brute man." They have a wrestle. Maybe the woman wins, maybe she loses- but what's more important: She won this wrestler's RESPECT. Then she does it again next show. And again the next show. And again the next show. And maybe she has to fight the same wrestler again a few shows later because apparently earning someone's respect is temporary in the sport. The issue isn't that intergender isn't a perfectly natural match style to do in pro wrestling- but that they need to find a way to develop how women can be the heel in the match, without making the match inherently icky for obvious reasons. It's worse with national matches, when Matt Striker basically destroyed it in Lucha Underground with the way Sexy Star was built as: (Sexy Star on offense) "Sexy Star is fighting back and striking a blow for women everywhere, showing you can do anything you set your mind to!" (Sexy Star on defense) "HOW COULD YOU? How could you hurt this innocent little flower? She's only a defenseless woman! She'd never be able to fight back against you, you big mean brute man!"

Railroad

It's been perfected though, right?

11 years ago today

300K for a constant pain in the ass who isn't working matches seems like a whole lot, right? 60K is too low to even consider with that travel schedule, but if they're paying him $300K what are they paying someone like Apollo Crews or Dash and Dawson?

From that interview, all I’ve really gleamed is that Lio Rush doesn’t appear to realise he’s in the wrestling business

I am shocked that "The Silverback," "Sexual Chocolate," etc etc is just fine with hazing, guys demeaning themselves, and dehumanizing behavior in general. Where is my fainting couch?

Sounds like Mark Henry went on Busted Open Radio and very strongly pulled the veteran card on Rush.

Lio should be paid his share in royalties, and making Lashley actually watchable deserves all of the pay rises. But WWE is WWE, he hadn't been on the main roster a year and was in a managerial role similar to Spud for the most part. If he shut the fuck up and paid his dues and played the game like everyone else, he would have gotten that MF bag eventually. Toxic working environment withstanding, toxic behavior only makes things more toxic. Throwing one of your co-workers under the bus is a dumb move. Playing identity politics is cute however, we'll see how that one plays out. Ali is a perfect example of someone who represents himself in the best possible way and it's paid off ridiculously well for him. Go figure.

Probably not. This is the same guy that doesn't know what he's been eating for years is a burrito.

Good. Let him murder Ali, and take his spot in the MitB match.

BTW, regarding Daniel Bryan, he's back and is ready for TV again according to Dave. Dave keeps alluding to an injury by mentioning that DB was medically cleared, but I haven't even seen anyone else say with anything close to 100% certainty that he was being held off TV for medical reasons. I still think it's just as likely if not more likely that he was taking a month long break after WM because he's been on the go ever since the last WM. Either that, or it looked like he tweaked some part of his leg in the match with Kofi.

It has less to do with anyone thinking someone should like Joey Ryan and more to do with what he's done or who he is isn't nearly as bad as Vic or Corny describes.

I like AoS a lot and he was fucking awesome in it. But whether the show's connected to it or not he sold me on Ghost Rider so I'm interested to see how this goes.

Well this thread is going well so might as well throw this powder keg in too The bigger story is around what Rush claims they are paid (or actually not paid) but y'all do you. I am sure the thread will be closed by the time I go home

Ali should never, ever turn. It's very rare these days that someone is an actual good babyface in WWE. There is no level of cool angle that would make me not hate an Ali heel turn.

Someone takes wrestling just a little too seriously. Anyway, moving on from how Joey Ryan is supposedly going to bring about the downfall of pro wrestling and also usher in the penis apocalypse. Here's what the Observer has to say about the Luke Harper story. It's as dumb as you'd expect, because Vince McMahon is an old man.

I think they mostly were just hanging with NK and posing for heavy metal album covers.

Dude booked a show called a Penis Party and put over Vaginas. How can anyone not respect a booker who doesn't have an ego and will do the right thing for business? Joey is also a real cool guy so fuck anyone hating on him. Good on him making a ton of money, guy deserves it.

Kevin saying he looked in his Fritz eyes and knew his dad was gone hit me too. I can't comprehend how alone Kevin feels. He does have a wife and adult sons. But those ghosts never go away. Reminding you that life will never be right again. That all you can do is lie and put a smile on. Hoping if you say you are okay long enough, that one day it will be true.

From the Ambrose video, what every English major can recognize: Line: "The drapes were blue." English professor: "As you can see, the drapes were blue. This is clearly the author making a statement about the protagonist's internal pain and showing how deeply depressed he was, showing the misery that is inherent in the character, and indeed all the people around them...while giving a calming nature to say that maybe there's a chance their love interest could soothe their tortured soul..." The author: "...I like the color blue." The person who made this joke never saw how pro wrestling fans can act about a remotely mysterious video or storyline.

So, this is probably a good time to bring this up, but did this many of you really think Tony solved time travel in a day just after talking to Scott? I read that as Tony has been working on this for years because he's been obsessed with reserving the damage that was done and then after talking to Scott, he had his eureka moment.

It’s gonna be

I'm laughing, but I don't feel good about it.