The Wall Street Journal Vince McMahon Thread.

[Technico Support]

1 hour ago, odessasteps said:

I guess the hypothetical question would be: if Vince brought a woman (Jamel or anyone else) from CT to MSG or a PPV show for the purpose of having sex with Johnny or another person, would that qualify as either sex trafficking and/or prostitution? 

Yes, I believe I heard or read that example given when this first broke.

[Greggulator]

17 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

Yes, I believe I heard or read that example given when this first broke.

Yeah, that's pretty much what was in the lawsuit. I think the lawsuit focused more on "Vince had people cross state lines into Connecticut" but it's the same theory. I'm no legal expert by any means, but the lawsuit talked about traversing state lines.

[piranesi]

Quote

“He told me not to let one bad experience ruin the good work they were doing,” Massaro said of McMahon in the affidavit.

 

How sick is it that what Vince said to this woman is basically what all the rich famous workers are all asking us to do with all of it.

But it's not one bad experience. Now it's two women who were professionally and efficiently raped that we know of (and some others that we kind of know about...and the many many others that deep down we know about but don't "know" yet).

I repeat my original question. How many gang rapes does it take before we can be okay with ruining the good work of the WWE?

The sane answer was always and remains: 1...1 is enough to tear this company down and for any person who has the slightest human conscience left in them to never have anything to do with it again.

The new answer is: As many as it takes to keep the $$$$ flowing, I guess but I'd rather focus on my Wrestlemania moment right now.

and that's basically the answer you get too from your boss about how many people have to lose their pensions. How many people have to get laid off this week. How many people have to drown in the Rio Grande or the Mediterranean.  How many poors have to die of painkiller ODs. How many nurses have to work triple shifts until how many patients live their last days being warehoused like dogs to be put down.

A lot of these situations are far bigger and harder to solve and more difficult to avoid being part of than this one. And few are a simple and clear a line staring us all in the face as this one. And yet we still wait for one human being to emerge from this company and say anything other than "let's not let one bad experience ruin the good work we're doing."

 

[piranesi]

"We're just such a close family it's hard to process."

father of family after a family member is given a paralysis drug and raped at a show "Kid, shut up about it, this is good PR for us. Remember we're all a family."

So who is in the family I wonder? I guess Brock is family. But Ashley Massaro was not and neither was Janel Ganet. Nor was Rita Chatterton part of "the family." All those ring boys weren't part of "the family" either.

It's kind of like how most companies will tell you this is a "team effort." Who's on the team? Not the workers. Maybe the top executives but no one below that. Not the customers. Not the small owners you sell products to. It turns out "the team" is like five guys and everyone else is blood for the machinery.

I wonder how many people who are going to tell us soon how much of a tightly knit family the WWE is were or are really part of the family? How many really think they are part of the family. I guess the family dog is sort of part of the family. But most families wouldn't do to their pet what these families do to their sons and daughters.

[Sublime]

Any company that says they’re like a family treats they employees like garbage. And the whole WWE is like a family thing is awful cause what it means is what we’re seeing they’re a family and they’re not gonna talk about the awful things any family member has done, that’s family matters so we all won’t understand.

[Andrew POE!]

The Rock is right. Tomorrow's press conference will definitely be remembered forever. And it won't be because of he politicking his way into the main event.

Hopefully he, HHH, Roman Reigns, and everyone else have better answers to questions about Janel Grant, Vince McMahon and now Ashley Massaro other than "we have a lot of momentum going to WrestleMania, this will be the best one yet."

I'm sure Seth Rolilns got himself in trouble for his comments about Vince McMahon too. If Roman Reigns wants to pick a time for "this didn't feel right to me for me to jeopardize my life and wrestle," this would be the stance to take (but he won't do that).

[zendragon]

5 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

What year is HHH up to in his pop culture references? 

I might start watching WWE again if they start lifting from Donnie Brasco. Of course, from what I read they're lifting from Seinfeld now. Maybe we'll eventually have a wrestler who only goes by his last name turn out to be named Cosmo.

Turns out Gunther is his last name

[Technico Support]

11 hours ago, Greggulator said:

Yeah, that's pretty much what was in the lawsuit. I think the lawsuit focused more on "Vince had people cross state lines into Connecticut" but it's the same theory. I'm no legal expert by any means, but the lawsuit talked about traversing state lines.

If Vince coerced Grant to meet Lesnar in another state for his gross approach to “contract negotiations,” I believe that qualifies as well.

[Zakk_Sabbath]

1 hour ago, Technico Support said:

If Vince coerced Grant to meet Lesnar in another state for his gross approach to “contract negotiations,” I believe that qualifies as well.

I was wondering if Vince's transmitting the materials electronically would somehow loosely qualify under any of these new revenge porn statues

[RazorbladeKiss87]

He could probably get some type of enhancement for using a phone and the Internet in the commission of a crime if they determine he did in fact do so.

[Casey]

16 hours ago, Andrew POE! said:

The Rock is right. Tomorrow's press conference will definitely be remembered forever. And it won't be because of he politicking his way into the main event.

Hopefully he, HHH, Roman Reigns, and everyone else have better answers to questions about Janel Grant, Vince McMahon and now Ashley Massaro other than "we have a lot of momentum going to WrestleMania, this will be the best one yet."

I'm sure Seth Rolilns got himself in trouble for his comments about Vince McMahon too. If Roman Reigns wants to pick a time for "this didn't feel right to me for me to jeopardize my life and wrestle," this would be the stance to take (but he won't do that).

Do you remember the press conference for WrestleMania XXX?

Yeah it’s gonna be like that. Entirely kayfabe. This thing even has a preshow for fucks sake.

[Andrew POE!]

1 hour ago, Casey said:

Do you remember the press conference for WrestleMania XXX?

Yeah it’s gonna be like that. Entirely kayfabe. This thing even has a preshow for fucks sake.

Won't stop legit journalists from being there and asking questions about the lawsuit. Although you're right, it'll be all kayfabe.

[Greggulator]

Eric Bischoff said this somewhere so I did not initially believe it. But I checked it out. Laurinaitis’s attorney appears to be more of a Florida divorce attorney than someone who typically represents clients in a high profile sexual assault type of case with looming pending criminal charges. It probably explains the legal strategy of “saying a bunch of crazy shit in public” that in now way no how will backfire (I say sarcastically.). The dogs on the homepage are cute, though. 
 

https://www.lutzlegalcenter.com/about-us

[The Great ML]

I saw the web address and my brain said Lionel Hutz.

[BloodyChamp]

Has Michael Hayes ever done a shoot interview besides the WCCW docs? He was there for all of that, and this, and Fritz and the boys might have made what’s going on now look like Saturday morning cartoons. Real talk.

[Cobra Commander]

If Hayes bas been with the WWE without a break since 1995, then that puts him out of the era of most shoot interviews and also means Michael Hayes, of all people, is one of the longest tenured employees of the WWE.

[Godfrey]

I believe Hayes started in 99 replacing someone named Dok Hendrix

[Curt McGirt]

Michael may be dumb enough to say what he did to Mark Henry but he's smart enough to keep his shoot talk to the Territories show.

[JLSigman]

Bret Hart has finally, FINALLY, given up on Vince McMahon.

[Godfrey]

Seth has given the first “That’s not the Vince I knew” of the current roster, while also saying it’s disgusting and he should be punished if the allegations are true. Whether that flies as a defence is up to you, I have the feeling we’ll hear more of that kind of statement in the next few months. Personally, while acknowledging I may be being naive or too generous, I would like to hold space for the idea that a lot of these folks were as shocked as we were and are having just as hard a time processing it if not far worse

[SirSmUgly]

37 minutes ago, Godfrey said:

Seth has given the first “That’s not the Vince I knew” of the current roster, while also saying it’s disgusting and he should be punished if the allegations are true. Whether that flies as a defence is up to you, I have the feeling we’ll hear more of that kind of statement in the next few months. Personally, while acknowledging I may be being naive or too generous, I would like to hold space for the idea that a lot of these folks were as shocked as we were and are having just as hard a time processing it if not far worse

I would say, "That's not the Vince I knew" as well if I'd worked closely with him over the past few years, but wanted to implicitly deny knowing anything about what he was doing.

[Infinit]

21 minutes ago, SirSmUgly said:

I would say, "That's not the Vince I knew" as well if I'd worked closely with him over the past few years, but wanted to implicitly deny knowing anything about what he was doing.

I'm sure few of the men in the company would be exposed to "that side" of Vince.

[Steventon]

There's also degrees to this though right? You may know Vince is a sleaze and a old perv (frankly most CEOs of his generation probably are), you may not know he was an actual rapist and abuser

[odessasteps]

I could see some of the “new to the business“ wrestlers that have been recruited from real sports not knowing Vince’s whole sordid past. But if you are a second or third generation wrestler, you should be aware of the steroid trial, the ring boy scandal and maybe Rita Chatterton. 

[Elsalvajeloco]

1 hour ago, odessasteps said:

I could see some of the “new to the business“ wrestlers that have been recruited from real sports not knowing Vince’s whole sordid past. But if you are a second or third generation wrestler, you should be aware of the steroid trial, the ring boy scandal and maybe Rita Chatterton. 

People like Cornette (probably others of his generation and before) use 2000 as this year of delineation or demarcation of the business changing. However, folks have to realize that was a quarter century ago. I would say between 1995-2015, if you got into the business then, you're probably smart to just about everything that went on with not only Vince but most of the stories surrounding everyone. A lot of these folks are huge wrestling nerds. Hell, I think most of them probably got their info without even subscribing to the dirt sheets. Now yes, if pro wrestling wasn't your first option and you just started following wrestling within the last five years, you probably don't know much about wrestling at all. However, that's a very, very small percentage. Either way, that doesn't really apply to Seth cause he's been around for a hot minute.