Technico Support

I've never seen the Hogan mystery belt. I did some reading on it and I'm not sure what's better: 1) they literally made a belt with Hogan's face on it or 2) they got rid of it after three uses because Hogan didntt like how it fit on him.

I learned something new today. Thanks man!

I downloaded this game but, reading all this, I can't muster the desire to play it.

Hall of Shame: two of the most uninspired and bland belt designs ever: The WWF Title around Mania 3, which came between Hogan's funky eagle belt and the winged eagle: The IC title they went with after the awesome "classic" IC design: For great belts, I'm partial to the classic 80s WWF IC and tag belts. Also, I loved the old UWF title belt. "Just put the initials on there as big as you can!" ROH ripped off the idea years later but you might as well steal from the best.

http://vincentcrow.weebly.com/5/post/2013/05/wwes-ace-of-belts-dave-millicans-10-favorite-championship-titles.html I posted just as @The Green Meanie posted. So I've heard Denver, Wisconsin, and Minnesota as the source for the belt.

The inmate belt! Its replacement was pretty sweet, too.

Yeah dudes but come on. Car insurance is bullshit. You're calling out the extreme example of some entitled twit wanting a whole new great car for free after totaling their current one. What about the fact that car insurance is the only insurance you're afraid to use? As soon as you file a claim, your rates go up. Shit, sometimes your rates go up without filing a claim because too many other people filed claims and the insurance company's profit projections got fucked for the year. That happened to me. My insurance went up so I called the company to ask why. They literally told me, "we had a bad winter." I said, "let me get this straight. My rates are going up because too many other people had accidents in the snow and ice?" Yep. To reiterate, car insurance is bullshit.

The belts all looking the same had to be the idea of a person with too much experience in marketing and not enough experience in wrestling. I'm sure words like "brand," "verticals," "platforms," and "paradigms" were all bandied about in the meetings that led to that very bad decision.

Cornette tweeted something about the dogs being in the enclosed pool area, no idea what's up.

How much he makes isn't important. Being classified as an independent contractor, but being treated like an employee, and losing a big chunk of it to things your employer should cover but doesn't because they're sleazy, is a bad thing. If you made 500K but lost a major piece of it to trans, road expenses, health insurance, etc., you'd be a little salty over it, too. Read the list of employee characteristics that @joseph2112 posted. It's sad. These guys are absolutely employees of WWE. Vince is having his cake and eating it too. You see these arguments in sports fandom all the time. If a player complains, there are always fans who say, "that guy's a millionaire, fuck him!" Meanwhile that player's being screwed by billionaires.

Spielberg's masterful checkmate of Sheinberg is the best part of that story

@Fallacy! Yeah, that's pretty ridiculous and I'm glad Thompson somewhat calls him out on the bullshit. Like when asked if the polka dots or Sapphire for Dusty, or the Red Rooster gimmick for Taylor, were ribs. Prichard's pat response is, "why would Vince blow money on ribbing someone?" Come the fuck on. Vince is a lunatic, that's why. Prichard's dismissal of most modern stuff would be maddening if it weren't so obvious that he has no idea what he's talking about. When discussing Sami Zayn, Thompson said something like, "his work on the indies as El Generico was.." and Prichard cut him off with, "generic!" Spoken like someone who never saw an El Generico match in his life. Again, listen for the old stories (for the most part), tune him out when discussing modern stuff.

The "independent contractor" thing is an absolute joke. The plumber I hired to fix a broken pipe in my house is an independent contractor. Can I tell him he can't do plumbing anywhere else, how he has to dress, exactly how to do his job, where to be tomorrow and what time, etc? That was my point when I mentioned it being amazing that WWE still gets away with treating wrestlers like this. They are a publicly traded company with all the hallmarks of any other large corporation in 2016, yet it's built on the backs of a group of people who are being absolutely conned and taken advantage of. I'd say it's insane that they're getting away with it but, again, the biggest marks are in the locker room and nobody in a position to speak out will do so.

I already clicked like but holy shit.

All I get from this are that wrestlers are dumb and/or desperate to be in the business. Is WWE's EVP of Marketing paid a small downside guarantee and then a share of some nebulous amount to be determined arbitrarily at a later date based on how well the business does? Does Vince hire his IT staff and tell them they're being paid low but are being "given an opportunity?" Does his Business Development team pay their own trans? Like you said, wrestlers will never be able to organize. Also, nobody blows the whistle because anyone who could is so desperate to be in Vince's good graces. Imagine an article on a non-wrestling site, one that's taken seriously, where actual wrestlers describe their working conditions. This shit would change overnight.

This. I'm amazed that, in 2016, the biggest wrestling company on the planet, who runs every other aspect of its business like a typical corporation, still conducts business with regard to its employees (sorry, "independent contractors") like it's still a 1983 mom and pop territory.

Act 1: Find a dead person whose brains were eaten Act 2: Conduct an investigation Act 3: Turns out a zombie did it

I just read a story about how, when Walking Dead was pitched to NBC before AMC picked it up, NBC executives asked if it could be redone as a police procedural and maybe not include zombies. Exhibit A in your argument, "why the broadcast networks are dogshit, artistically speaking."

Kaepernick got a raw deal. York built an awesome team and system around him, just enough for some big short-term success that enabled York to get a new stadium and a sweet deal to move the team. Then once he had what he needed, he let the team fall apart, got rid of the coach, and is now scapegoating Kaepernick. Yeah, scrambling, more one-dimensional QBs don't have prolonged success for the reasons Tabe pointed out but come on. Kaepernick's dropoff was even faster than usual specifically because all the other good players were swapped out for also-rans once York got what he needed out of them. I mean holy shit, he even signed Kaepernick to a contract that was mostly based on performance incentives, then took away all his ability to actually earn it. God damn, that is some bald-faced con artistry right there. SMH at the absolute balls on this guy. I'm a Ravens fan -- as far from a Niners fan as you can get -- but this is bullshit.

Are there any access codes out yet? I like how the Westworld logo looks like the Weyland Yutani logo.

The difference between Austin and JR is that Austin, while he does have a few subjects he constantly nitpicks, still actually enjoys wrestling. As a matter of fact, I don't think Ross ever enjoyed wrestling. I get the impression he fell into wrestling and stuck with it for the steady paycheck and would rather be calling COLLEGE FOOTBAW if he had his way.

So he does all his moves really fast with really bad form?

Just Charlotte

Hopefully he was focusing more on his legs

I see your point but I'd put it on him for agreeing to it. How stupid is it to agree to a spot where 1) you're not in control of the bump 2) you're bumping on a hard, vertical surface that is decidedly not a wrestling ring i.e. the surface you're taught to bump on and 3) you have to trust your opponent to gauge the exact distance? These guys are trained to fall flat on a huge surface, not make an exact landing on a small area. It's a dumb bump to take.