EVA Posted January 11, 2023 Share Posted January 11, 2023 21 minutes ago, Greggulator said: Nobody is leaking a red herring rumor like that to NEWZSLAM or whatever. No Comcast executing last night was rapidly using his phone to see if this was true. What you’re missing in this response is that these rumors were clearly leaked to everybody, including Meltzer, but most (wisely) wouldn’t touch it at all or just vaguely hinted at it so that people would at least know they were in the loop on it (lol to that btw). Somebody plainly wanted this out there to create a social media furor last night. (And succeeded nevertheless.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dolfan in NYC Posted January 11, 2023 Share Posted January 11, 2023 3 minutes ago, Matt D said: Instead of wrestling journalists, we should only listen to journalist wrestlers. On second thought, that leaves us with Alvarez, Bruiser Brody, and Gregory Helms. Shame his final story got cut. Spoiler 4 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobra Commander Posted January 11, 2023 Share Posted January 11, 2023 In the end, Al Isaacs will scoop CNBC and the WSJ to reveal that Yokozuna will join the Hart Foundation next week on Raw 6 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Octopus Posted January 11, 2023 Share Posted January 11, 2023 1 hour ago, Zakk_Sabbath said: Excellent point - especially when the leaked 'potential suitors' have something to the tune of $620B in the bank/'fund.' I'm shit at math, but that's like, 60 Shad Khans (or three Disneys). Who would win in a fight: 60 Shad-Khan-sized Disneys or 3 Disney-sized Shad Khans? 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greggulator Posted January 11, 2023 Share Posted January 11, 2023 24 minutes ago, EVA said: What you’re missing in this response is that these rumors were clearly leaked to everybody, including Meltzer, but most (wisely) wouldn’t touch it at all or just vaguely hinted at it so that people would at least know they were in the loop on it (lol to that btw). Somebody plainly wanted this out there to create a social media furor last night. (And succeeded nevertheless.) Nobody at the corporate level of America cares about Meltzer, either. It was leaked to a bunch of goober wrestling journalists who are it up. Who do you think is talking to the wrestling website people? It is no one who would know anything about this except from possibly fourth hand, which is not anything. If your source is some NXT wrestler you met at an indie show a few years ago, that is not a source for something like this, and that is my suspicion of how this got out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Go2Sleep Posted January 11, 2023 Share Posted January 11, 2023 Low-level wrestling journalists have no incentive to not run with such a rumor. If they're right, they'll get to coast off breaking that one story for years. If they're wrong, they'll continue to spam social media without consequence. I still think the Saudis are a very real option, but that's based off the previous few years of WWE happily running their propaganda for large amounts of money, not one particular rumor of a movie-like midnight sale. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister TV Posted January 11, 2023 Share Posted January 11, 2023 I get the Saudi's sports washing with golf, the folks who shuffle around the VIP tents at golf tourneys are who they want to win over and do non-oil related projects/investments with. What do they gain with buying the WWE? The WWE fan having a favorable opinion about the Saudi's is kind of irrelevant, is it just a dick wagging thing for the them? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Go2Sleep Posted January 11, 2023 Share Posted January 11, 2023 Dick wagging, legit billion dollar business, and at least one member of the royal family seems to be a huge fan from the 90s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted January 11, 2023 Share Posted January 11, 2023 The seeming blind obedience of many Newcastle fans now show you how well sportswashing works. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoeCristyV.1.6 Posted January 11, 2023 Share Posted January 11, 2023 I wonder if Yokozuna as Main Eventer is part of the deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon Bones Posted January 11, 2023 Share Posted January 11, 2023 11 minutes ago, Mister TV said: I get the Saudi's sports washing with golf, the folks who shuffle around the VIP tents at golf tourneys are who they want to win over and do non-oil related projects/investments with. What do they gain with buying the WWE? The WWE fan having a favorable opinion about the Saudi's is kind of irrelevant, is it just a dick wagging thing for the them? I’d guess, based on what I saw from the first Saudi show, was they took a chance to put out some propaganda that would never survive an editorial process through any other avenue. No American advertisers to answer to and a fairly sizable audience to potentially reach. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EVA Posted January 11, 2023 Share Posted January 11, 2023 18 minutes ago, Greggulator said: Nobody at the corporate level of America cares about Meltzer, either. It was leaked to a bunch of goober wrestling journalists who are it up. Who do you think is talking to the wrestling website people? It is no one who would know anything about this except from possibly fourth hand, which is not anything. If your source is some NXT wrestler you met at an indie show a few years ago, that is not a source for something like this, and that is my suspicion of how this got out. I guess my question would be how you know they didn’t try to leak it to business media prior to or concurrently with the wrestling media, as well? As evidenced by how only the lowest level wrestling journalists and anonymous posters were willing to stake their credibility on reporting it, this was a flimsy leak that was difficult to verify. If you pass a story that doesn’t check out to the WSJ (or somebody in that space)they’re going to punt it and move on, and definitely not post a cryptic “I hear big news might be coming” tweet like most wrestling journalists did. You wouldn’t necessarily know. Moreover, and I think you should know this given your beat, but in the Year of Our Lord 2023, it really doesn’t matter who started the social media fire. All that matters is that there is one. And if it gets big enough, people have to respond to it. And when WWE’s sale to the Saudis is dominating social media, as it was last night, I can assure you that notice was taken by interested parties and there was a response. Was it the response WWE wanted? Who knows. Perhaps time will tell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimLivingston Posted January 11, 2023 Share Posted January 11, 2023 (edited) That fire is the result of a rumor that was generated from likely months or years of back room discussions where Vince has been feeling out buyers and Saudis are narratively driven most to buy. It’s essentially the same as a journalist or deep cover detective working towards actually having something tangible or going with something at the first chance to gain eyes, which the good ones never do. Edited January 11, 2023 by TimLivingston 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nice Guy Eddie Posted January 11, 2023 Share Posted January 11, 2023 8 minutes ago, MoeCristyV.1.6 said: I wonder if Yokozuna as Main Eventer is part of the deal. At this point, Yoko has to have dropped the weight WWE wanted him to lose. 1 1 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSmUgly Posted January 11, 2023 Share Posted January 11, 2023 1 hour ago, Dolfan in NYC said: Shame his final story got cut. Hide contents Too soon. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSmUgly Posted January 11, 2023 Share Posted January 11, 2023 9 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said: At this point, Yoko has to have dropped the weight WWE wanted him to lose. Also too soon. You goddam MONSTERS 1 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greggulator Posted January 11, 2023 Share Posted January 11, 2023 Here is some conjecture on my end after thinking some things through today: 1) This is going to drag on for a while, and not because Vince wants to take over all aspects of the company, but because of the economy and trends going on in mergers and acquisitions. Both the total number and the values of companies merged or acquired over the past 10-15 years or so has largely gone up. 2021 was the all-time high. But last year, those figures returned to where they were in 2021 and have really really really slowed down in recent months. The main reason for this is because we have an incredibly bizarre and weird economy right now. So we all have seen inflation eat out of our paychecks. To calm down inflation, what the Federal Reserve and the like do is raise their key interest rates that work their way through the economy in order to slowdown price growth. Since 2008, interest rates around d the globe and especially in America have dropped. The main reason was to grow the economy since we were in an awful recession in 2008. The economy turned around and then grew and grew and grew, and without any inflationary spikes. And then COVId came and everyone was insanely worried about a total economic collapse so interest rates his historic lows. It was as cheap as possible for people and businesses to get loans. And when you are a business buying another business for a few billion, you will need some kind of loan. Since loans were cheap, that drove a lot of mergers and acquisitions all while many companies were doing well or you could see how they could do well. But now we have a really big spike in inflation for all kinds of different reasons and the Federal Reserve has quickly hiked its interest rates to bring down prices, and they have hiked them by a significant amount in a very quick time. EX: In 2020, I got a new mortgage for my home and our interest rate is around 3 percent. A lot of people were taking advantage and buying homes. So housing prices all over the country climbed by a lot where it became problematic for people to buy homes and the like. Now, just two years later, mortgage rates are around 7 percent. This has cooled how many homes are being sold and prices for housing in a lot of areas have come back down. There is not any real difference between those dynamics and when a business goes out and buys another business. Except the amount of loans needed for those types of transactions are a lot longer and the terms of those loans are really complicated and in many cases you will need loans from multiple lenders. And those loans are very expensive compared to just a year ago. Money is no longer cheap. And this has dramatically slowed down how many companies are being bought and the value of how much they are being bought for. Plus, we are coming out of the pandemic and figuring out how that will structurally change the economy, a predicted recession, the war in Ukraine messing with Europe’s economy, China being insane, supply chains being screwy and more. It is all a lot more unpredictable than a few years ago, and that further makes it difficult for deals to get done. (EX: You aren’t going to buy a house if you think you are losing your job.) That is not to say this will happen to anyone who buys the WWE. These are of course trends and not universal truths and recent valuations of sports teams that were sold rose and we can also see the value of the WWE right now - $6.6 billion. Anyone buying a company has to pay above the price in order to make it worth it for the shareholders who own the company. But there are only a limited amount of entities that can pay over $6.6 billion for a company, and those companies will have to take on debt to make that happen. (Except for the Saudis who have the cash to do so if they want to spend it.) And this is in a volatile economy. So, big acquisitions are going to take a lot more consideration and time. That is the bigger economic picture surrounding this. 2) A deal can get done quickly. One of the things Vince talked about in his return was how he thinks the time to sell should go concurrently with the next round of TV deals. So that puts a timeline on when a deal will occur. But that does not bode well for how much Vince can get for selling the company. If this is the case, it is not too different from a panic sale and will reduce the possible acquisition price. (EX: You got transferred from your job and have to move to a new city — you are going to need to sell your house as quickly as possible and the easiest way to do that is to reduce the price to entice a buyer to snap it up.) 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greggulator Posted January 11, 2023 Share Posted January 11, 2023 36 minutes ago, Mister TV said: I get the Saudi's sports washing with golf, the folks who shuffle around the VIP tents at golf tourneys are who they want to win over and do non-oil related projects/investments with. What do they gain with buying the WWE? The WWE fan having a favorable opinion about the Saudi's is kind of irrelevant, is it just a dick wagging thing for the them? 1) Winning the hearts and minds of ‘Muricans who might not be as outraged when something terrible happens. 2) Vince is friends with Trump. Linda had a post in the Trump Administration. They think Trump might win the next election and this can curry favor with him. They had a stop on their golf tour at Trump’s golf course in New Jersey, and Trump was there hobnobbing with the Saudis in attendance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Natural Posted January 11, 2023 Share Posted January 11, 2023 31 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said: At this point, Yoko has to have dropped the weight WWE wanted him to lose. Legit LOL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piranesi Posted January 11, 2023 Share Posted January 11, 2023 Can we all agree tho that this is also what Kevin Nash would have done? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piranesi Posted January 11, 2023 Share Posted January 11, 2023 Page 20: we jumped from denial to bargaining because we are already all full of anger. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Log Posted January 11, 2023 Share Posted January 11, 2023 I see this whole sale going down exactly like the episode of the Simpsons where Mr. Burns sells the power plant to a German company. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirSmUgly Posted January 11, 2023 Share Posted January 11, 2023 I'm not angry; I'm fascinated. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dog Posted January 11, 2023 Share Posted January 11, 2023 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig H Posted January 11, 2023 Share Posted January 11, 2023 When all is said and done, I will not be surprised if WWE is sold to the Saudis. They would be the ones to outbid everyone else, they would be the ones to definitely keep Vince in charge, and they would be the ones to probably make a sale easier than any of the other bidders like NBC or Endeavor. And while I try not to be cynical, and I said this before, but I don't think any TV network is going to care that much who owns WWE as long as it continues to be business as usual. If you look at the fervor from the rumors late yesterday, it was mainly or only from nerds like us. Ultimately, it won't matter if the Saudis own WWE. There will still be a TV deal, women aren't going to have to cover themselves up, and people are still going to watch like they currently do. From a "for the greater good" standpoint, we obviously don't want WWE to be sold to them and we want Vince out of the picture. I think for everyone else, it just doesn't matter that much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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