The Wall Street Journal Vince McMahon Thread.

[Elsalvajeloco]

3 minutes ago, Zakk_Sabbath said:

Hard agree, and going a step further, I'd argue that with Steph leaving and Dunn retiring, we already reached that point without any of us really knowing it yet at the time. I mean, Steph's resignation was worded so closely to what you wrote in your post, I'm about to click 'submit reply' without truly knowing 100% if this is a joke that went over my head or not

No, I am dead serious.

So lets just say it turns out someone was running this prostitution/escort ring/operation and it comes out, do we get the "I just want to focus on the positives" still OR do we have this full blown scandal ala Vikings party boat but on steroids where it could lead to serious changes within the WWE even with these tremendous TV rights deals and other huge deals?

[Zakk_Sabbath]

1 minute ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

No, I am dead serious.

So lets just say it turns out someone was running this prostitution/escort ring/operation and it comes out, do we get the "I just want to focus on the positives" still OR do we have this full blown scandal ala Vikings party boat but on steroids where it could lead to serious changes within the WWE even with these tremendous TV right and other huge deals?

Purely my opinion/conjecture, but I think it's gonna be nearly impossible to keep doing the "focus on the positives" thing once names start being named - which as others have noted, WILL happen now that it looks like Johnny Ace is essentially publicly setting up to flip already.

To your point on TV rights/other deals: other than sponsors pulling out (which, let's be real, Slim Jim didn't last a full 24 hours) I think those may be in less danger at the moment than one would think, simply because TKO/their partners can still pull that "He's gone, he's not here" card. It's juuuuuust enough 'plausible deniability' to keep the cycle of $$$ going.

On another note, which came to me while thinking about TV deals etc.: yet another of 1000 drawbacks of "WWE = WRESTLING" in the general public's mind is how this could affect business for AEW, TNA, and others, even having nothing to do with it. Trying to figure out how best to illustrate this; the average person may think "If a scandal befalls Coke, that's good for Pepsi" but the flip side is the risk of the world at large going "Yeah, soda's for fuckin' perverts." Look at the Waxman steroid stuff after Benoit: the guy never even worked for TNA, but they still dragged Dixie up Capitol Hill. Food for thought

[Elsalvajeloco]

Not to belabor the point, this is where it's hard to see everything just to stay the same. Cleanse is too strong a word here but insert some corporate word for efficiency when some company does a Zoom call to lay off 5%-15% of their head count in one major department. I have yet to see a major scandal rock a major entity and everyone keep their job even several years removed from the fact. That's never how it goes.

[RazorbladeKiss87]

Vince could get steroids in prison but they're expensive and the civil suit (and any additional ones to come) could wipe him out. Plus with a sexually oriented case he won't have the easiest time in there. It's not quite as bad as a case involving minors but a sex case is a sex case. Plus he'll get enough time to bump him out of a low security federal prison, probably. You need twenty or less for that. 

I'll just say that R. Kelly is singing songs for commissary from what I've heard from friends in the system. I don't think Vince can sing. 

[Curt McGirt]

I'm still amused that somebody in my group therapy session picked "I Believe I Can Fly" for so-called "music therapy"*. I really really really wanted to say "I bet he wish he could fly out of the prison yard" but I held my tongue. 

* The big hit these days is Jelly Roll. That shit isn't therapy, it's straight torture. We had to sit through THREE of his songs/videos the other day, BY REQUEST. One dude was bemoaning the fact that he needs to lose weight so "he stays with us to keep giving us his genius". His GENIUS? He's an obese dude with face tats that raps about addiction and remorse over sad pop country tunes. The only thing genius about him is that he wasn't pressed out of a mold to feed to the public sooner and showed up on his own. 

[RazorbladeKiss87]

Dudes in rehab LOVE Jellyroll. I'd heard of him from juggalos so I didn't know he sang country now. I feel your pain.

[Elsalvajeloco]

I left "I Believe I Can Fly" in 1996/1997 along with "Stomp" by Kirk Franklin. Yeah, the new era of gospel music is suppose to be hip now. We get it, Kirk.

[Just Dave]

20 hours ago, mystman said:

On the topic of redemption, I can't speak for Jarrett, but I always viewed the Christian idea of redeeming yourself as being in the eyes of God. I think too many people view it as a get out of jail card, and it's not. It's you repairing your relationship with God, and part of that is accepting your punishment in the mortal world. So while it's always possible Vince could be redeemed, any claims of such shouldn't be taken at face value, and it shouldn't mean he gets out of earthly punishment.

Oh, this is 100% true, and I think evangelicals by and large get very loose in their interpretation of "redemption" as it pertains to presidents who, i don't know, banged p-rn stars while their wives were in labor or megachurch pastors who embezzle money but tell their congregation what they want to hear about their faith aligning with their personal values. It's my very least favorite thing about religion. Here in the south it's running rampant...

[SirSmUgly]

Elsalvaje hating on Kirk Franklin in here, SMH.

Clearly he's been going through some things that have really got him down. He needs someone, somebody to help him turn his life around, IMO. 

 

[Curt McGirt]

The wack thing about therapy is I've got all kinds of depressing songs about addiction I could have played but my audience won't have it. Everything has to be uplifting or about remorse or penance or forgiveness or something, and nobody likes electric guitars anymore. It's completely foreign music to everyone if it hasn't been written since the turn of the century or doesn't have pop melodies. Meanwhile I'd rather force them to get through "Dying Inside" by Saint Vitus. There is one I have in my chamber for the right moment though, and that's "Fucked Up" by Dead Prez, and they're gonna have to listen and like it. 

[No Point Stance]

In hindsight, Vince selling the company then subsequently cashing out and retaining the rights to his life story seems - to me anyway - a lot like someone who knows there are storm clouds on the horizon and is trying to both secure himself financially and control his narrative (which is a phrase I generally hate as it's used almost exclusively by douchebags, though that makes it apt in this instance). I suspect he knew he was fucked back when he was subpoenaed. 

[Technico Support]

17 hours ago, piranesi said:

"He's gone. So he's not there. He's gone."

Better learn how to face it!

2 hours ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

I left "I Believe I Can Fly" in 1996/1997 along with "Stomp" by Kirk Franklin. Yeah, the new era of gospel music is suppose to be hip now. We get it, Kirk.

Is that the “GP ARE YOU WITH ME?”  Song?   Fuuuck

Edited February 2 by Technico Support

[zendragon]

4 hours ago, Just Dave said:

That’s fair. Some of this has been worded in such a way that I’m not sure I understand who’s doing the inquiries and whatnot. 
 

I guess the point of my post is “I have no idea how Trips and Shawn escape this unscathed…”

Trips I think is smart enough to have maintained plausible deniability in all this, now if they start digging into Shawn…

[Elsalvajeloco]

10 minutes ago, zendragon said:

Trips I think is smart enough to have maintained plausible deniability in all this, now if they start digging into Shawn…

Paul Levesque is the same guy who pulled the Hulk Hogan and said in the prime of career, "Matter of fact, I did take steroids but it was for injury recovery".

You cannot rule him out.

[jaedmc]

Wonder if that stock sell off back in November, when Vince got $670 million for 8.4 million of his shares is going to come back up in all of this. That felt weird when it happened.

[Eivion]

35 minutes ago, zendragon said:

Trips I think is smart enough to have maintained plausible deniability in all this, now if they start digging into Shawn…

So Shawn did a media thing just a day or two ago for Vengeance Day and had little issue answering questions. Around half of them were related to the Vince stuff and just general questions into how NXT protects the people there from such situations. Someone even asked about the Brutus allegation which apparently Brutus had recanted long ago. Shawn might be better off than HHH at the very least.

[piranesi]

Some current and former talent:

 

“Don’t answer the phone this week.”

 

”Are they laying people off?”

 

”no. Federal prison.”

 

 

[Zakk_Sabbath]

51 minutes ago, jaedmc said:

Wonder if that stock sell off back in November, when Vince got $670 million for 8.4 million of his shares is going to come back up in all of this. That felt weird when it happened.

Thank you for mentioning this, because I completely forgot the specifics earlier when I so elequently posted about figuring the grand jury was for "SEC stuff."

What I was referring to was something I read around that time indicating that the stock sell-off could potentially be a big issue if Vince quick-sold to Endeavor specifically to either A) regain his position or B) gain monetarily (both of which happened) when there were possibly better offers on the table from other buyers.

[zendragon]

I’m reminded of someone saying “Donald Trump lived his life as someone who never intended to run for public office and then did” its live Vince never thought about going public and that’s going to be his downfall.

@Eivion I’m not naive about what wrestling was like in the80s and 90s  but something coming from a Brutus Beefcake shoot interview has to be taken with a grain of salt, that’s not exactly a deposition 

[Matt D]

19 hours ago, piranesi said:

Do you know how much I hate myself right now for knowing who the owner of XPW was?

Like that's messed up. I would not date a man who knew that.

I would not let anyone I know go on a date with a man who knows that.

If it helps, the other person on the date probably is obsessed with True Crime podcasts like 70% of the country.

[odessasteps]

We were wondering what would have happened if this had come out when Linda was still in the cabinet. 

Edited February 2 by odessasteps

[Greggulator]

4 minutes ago, Zakk_Sabbath said:

Thank you for mentioning this, because I completely forgot the specifics earlier when I so elequently posted about figuring the grand jury was for "SEC stuff."

What I was referring to was something I read around that time indicating that the stock sell-off could potentially be a big issue if Vince quick-sold to Endeavor specifically to either A) regain his position or B) gain monetarily (both of which happened) when there were possibly better offers on the table from other buyers.

He didn't sell the shares to Endeavor. How it works is this -- Vince sold 8.4 million shares to an underwriter (it looks like Morgan Stanley) who paid him $670 million or so. The underwriter and the company came up with a price per share based on where the price of the stock was around the time they were negotiating the deal. The underwriter then owns the stocks and then can sell them, which is usually done to the "open market." I put that in quotes just because it's a little tricky to explain. 

But in this case -- Endeavor then paid the underwriter $100 million to buy back however many shares that could get them. And at the same time, a few board members also decided to buy some shared ($1 million each or so.) 

There's nothing on its face too wild about any of this.  The most likely reason why Vince sold his shares was "I want $670 million." You'd also have to be insane if you're Endeavor's executives to sign off on some kind of stock manipulation or what not when the SEC is already out in the public about looking into the WWE for Vince paying NDAs out of the company piggy bank without telling anyone. 

[Zakk_Sabbath]

@Greggulatorthanks for the clarification, I know you mentioned earlier in the week this is your area of expertise so I really appreciate you putting the "work" hat on for me/any other financial illiterates among us at 5 on a Friday.

[Just Dave]

2 hours ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

Paul Levesque is the same guy who pulled the Hulk Hogan and said in the prime of career, "Matter of fact, I did take steroids but it was for injury recovery".

You cannot rule him out.

It worked for Andy Pettitte.

[Elsalvajeloco]

2 minutes ago, Just Dave said:

It worked for Andy Pettitte.

Andy didn't gain 60 pounds of muscle on the Yankees. It'd be a hell of story if he did.