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WWE COVID-19 RELEASE MEGATHREAD


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1 hour ago, Peck said:

Adam Pearce. Corino. Scott Taylor down in NXT.

 

Oh God, I hope none of the fired workers are dumb enough to ask Corino for advice:

 

"Yeah, so first thing you want to do is find a money mark and start your own indy promotion.

 

You're gonna wanna run it out of Braintree, MA and book yourself as lead heel, with Jack Victory and C.W. Anderson as your flunkies.

 

After that indy fails, you're gonna find another money mark and do the exact same thing all over again.

 

And if all that fails, than just steal your ex-girlfriend's credit cards and charge everything to her until the cops catch you."

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Ha, apologies for the length. Regards to Ticketmaster, a lot is up to the artist if a refund is offered apparently.

I can say that the Jason Isbell show was rescheduled and no refund is being provided. 
Actually there was a fair bit of mainstream coverage on the policy yesterday.

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21 minutes ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

I don't believe this is true.  Maybe it is under normal circumstances but I had tickets for a Monday Night RAW.  It's been rescheduled, however, I clicked on refund and the quote was something along the lines of "if your event has been impacted by Covid-19"  

They said it'd be about 30 days to process the refund. 

This is a new policy they just announced that obviously people are pissed about. I was (hopefully) able to get a refund for Tool in June because I requested a couple weeks ago. I got the same 30 day message which hopefully comes through. But apparently it’s different now. 
 

Last night I requested a refund from AXS for Double or Nothing and they responded this morning and said I’ll have it in 5-7 days. 

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10 hours ago, Web Conn said:

I’m holding out optimism that when the day non competes are up we are aloud to gather in public again and all these releases put a jolt in the arm to the Indie scene 

Honestly, beyond the worries of what will happen after public gatherings and which indie promotions can survive- this big firing spree may have done more to kneecap the indie scene than anything else WWE could have done.

Today's firings alone was the largest one-day release spree WWE has ever done before. A lot of talent got fired today, a lot of GOOD talent got fired today- and even on the backstage side, there's a lot of talent who were good enough that they could run around outside of WWE again if they chose to and weren't furloughed...and that's just if this was everyone and there's not more waves of it. 

Even ignoring if the climate right now is bad for promotions signing people, there's such a deluge of talent leaving the WWE after today (let alone in the next few days) that even if it was a best-case scenario, AEW/ROH/Impact/New Japan-USA wouldn't be able to absorb them all...and moreover, even beyond the people who get absorbed into those promotions, the indie scene just went from "maybe there's one or two ripples from former WWE names into the pool" to "WWE just did a cannonball into the indie pool, and they may be planning for more."

This is not going to be a good thing for indie wrestling even in a best case scenario. Let's not mince words: The independent wrestling circuit has low-key been about as homogenous as WWE's roster has been...well, honestly as far back as Ring of Honor's formation when indie promoters realized "wait a second. Doing what WWF/WCW did and aggregating all the top talent under one roof could work for us, too!". The top names on the indie scene work everywhere, with any local talent on the undercard scene giving you the differences for that promotion specifically. People have always been angry WWE was hoarding top indie talent and not using them to hurt the indie scene...no, it's the exact opposite. WWE isn't the logger clearcutting the indie forest, but rather the hunter culling the herd. For every one big indie star who a national promotion signed away from the indies, that cleared out a spot on that national indies for a new person to take their place- and then on the level beneath them, a spot for both the old person and the spots this new top star can't make, and more spots on the level below them, and more spots on the level below them, and the amount of new spots opening up does trickle down all the way to small indies and new wrestling school graduates. In the process of the huge amount of movement that even one big indie star signing with WWE or AEW gets, the indie scene remains freshened up, and as long as it's fresh, indie wrestling can keep getting bigger and bigger (compare this to Ring of Honor, which has managed to keep a large portion of their biggest stars...and because of that, they got more and more stagnant and eventually started the decline they were in.)

This mass of firings will likely show that the one thing WWE could do to choke out the indies was never "make a mass hiring spree just to have them"...but rather the exact opposite- "make a mass firing spree and suddenly have a lot of the WWE talent suddenly go back to the independent circuit."  It seems much more likely the result of these releases? It's going to lead to a temporary jolt in the arm to the indie scene. Indies will come back, and it'll be wonderful. Every big ticket firing will get to be in a series of indie dream matches against all the top stars of the independent scene! Even the smaller, more goofy talent will have benefits- even if a super indie won't want someone like a No Way Jose, there's dozens of smaller indies that'd gladly book a chance for families in the area to get to join the conga line for his match! The indie scene will be revitalized by all these great talents ready to be booked by your indie promotion...

 

...and it'll be like that. Probably for at least 6-9 months. Any good indie worth its salt is going to book AT LEAST one of these releases. Even if indie shows come back relatively soon, These releases are going to basically determine what indie wrestling looks like for at least 2020-2021 ...maybe a little less than that depending on which names get absorbed into the national promotions and which names get weighed, measured, and found wanting, and see their bookings dwindle as it happens...but maybe longer than that depending on how many wrestlers assimilate into the indie scene and become major indie names as well. Any up and coming indie talents out there just had a huge barrier put on their rise to independent stardom, because suddenly a lot of those spots that they'd need to break out on the post-COVID indie scene will be taken up by all the WWE releases and dramatically lower their chances at indie success...and in the process, make the indie scene stagnate more and more and inevitably decline. 

 

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10 minutes ago, SorceressKnight said:

 

 

That's a point I was making in another discussion with a person complaining about hoarding talent.  I more or less said the same thing.  What would happen if WWE cut the roster in half.  You would have wrestlers scrambling for indy work and if they got desperate enough start demanding lower paydays to undercut others then the young  wrestlers looking to break in have lost spots.  Next couple of years will be fascinating for sure.  Except for Facebook wrestling groups where people are all AEW needs to sign them all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Edited by Serious Darius Bagfelt
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SorceressKnight makes some great points. How quick will an AEW, NJPW or other smaller promotions be to pick up these other talents when everyone who is not WWE or AEW are virtually shut down right now? 

At the very least, AEW will be able to take some of these guys. Yeah, I imagine they won't be able to take most of them. But some of these guys are going to bounce back and find some decent work, hopefully when the dust clears. 

What sucks right now is that it's hard to see the other side of this. Especially if mass public gatherings won't be restarting again soon.

Edited by TheVileOne
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A lot has happened since I last went online. I'm most surprised by Mike Chioda and Drake Maverick's releases. Mike Chioda for how long he's refereed for, figured he'd be a lifer there. That's loyalty for you, WWE. Drake Maverick along with R-Truth and Carmella really made the WWE 24/7 Championship what it was, he does a good job as WWE 205 GM. Right in saying he's still to wrestle in the Interim WWE Cruiserweight Championship tournament even though he's released? Jesus. I’m not watching his video, seeing the thumbnail was bad enough.

Shame to see Rusev, Zack Ryder and Heath Slater go. Rusev got over on his own with Rusev Day but you can't be doing that in WWE. See Zack Ryder, also released. Rusev also made things work that had no right to. Rusev was underused ever since his undefeated streak ended at WrestleMania XXXI. Slater was there a while and was trusted enough to work with Bret Hart in 2010. Lance Storm shutting his wrestling school up to become a WWE agent, that didn't last long.

Edited by The Natural
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11 hours ago, Web Conn said:

I’m holding out optimism that when the day non competes are up we are aloud to gather in public again and all these releases put a jolt in the arm to the Indie scene 

?

 

Yeah, I'm sure Curt Hawkins, Rusev, Alexander Jaksic, etc. are all chomping at the bit to headline the Berwyn Eagles Club.

 

 

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Just now, Casey said:

Curt Hawkins runs a school that runs their own events anyway.

Hawkins and Ryder at least were branding themselves already outside WWE now that they have their own YouTube channel and podcast up and running. I mean they're no Joe Rogan podcast or anything, but their fanbase is steadily growing and they've got their own branded merch for their podcast. 

Can't say I really didn't see this coming for Ryder and Hawkins. I love the guys but they've largely been irrelevant for the past two years. Even their WrestleMania 35 match was a throwaway match from the company's standpoint. And what I mean by that is that all the buildup and promos to the match were thrown away on social media. They never built up that match on TV really.

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I forsee Create-A-Pro developing a working relationship with AEW, to be honest. Statlander and MJF are both graduates. I could see that happening more than anything else - Gallows and Anderson to AEW? Yeah, probably. But out of all the others, I don't see anything happening besides the Hawkins school being loosely affiliated with them and maybe sending some guys to work shows (whenever that becomes available again) and train some more.

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Zack Ryder is still one of the most boggling burials I've ever seen. Vince is all GRAB THE BRASS RING DAMN IT. So Ryder does that without any help from them what so ever. It's a shame the WWE's pettiness is like this with guys who just do what they ask. Get over. Was Zack going to be the face of the company and a multi time world champion? No. But there's no reason he couldn't have been ultimate underdog who gets the big wins and has a nice midcard title run. Like there was no reason he couldn't have held the IC Title at least a month after he won it at Mania. 

I honestly don't know what the future of wrestling is going to be like assuming this pandemic dies down in the next couple of months. I can see a lot of these guys going to the NWA and getting massively over. Like Zack Ryder would be a perfect Television champion for them. I don't think it's a given that AEW is gonna swoop in and sign a lot of people. I just hope when its all over this stop's Vince's doctrine of sign everyone so no one else can have them...who cares if they just sit.

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2 hours ago, The Natural said:

Found this:

 

In retrospect it was clearly talent who would normally be released by the company during past spring cleanings, and guys who were on the fence to leave due to not wanting to be there. What puts it over the edge is all the Agents/Bookers/Producer, and writer firings.

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MSNBC straight up ethered WWE earlier tonight over everything from the positive coronavirus test from last week, the essential business stuff, and them releasing people after that.

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Meltzer on the radio show had the following notes

- there will be no more main roster cuts 

- there will be more NXT cuts (or at least the rest of the ones that happened will come out)

- there were definitely some NXT signings cut who hadn’t even started working for them yet (he mentioned a few names but they were people I never heard of)

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Wait, Aiden English was cut? I don’t watch WWE TV. Wasn’t he a commentator?

...And yeah like Soceress said; there is no way AEW will hire all these people. Khan already has pieces on his roster, and adding to the budget would be a bad move, especially during this Coronavirus crisis. 

Those two fired executives who told Vince to subtract from their roster will probably put this on their respective resumes as “I told him so”.

Edited by LoneWolf&Subs
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