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The 2021 WWE Forever Purge - Part 3 of ?


Gonzo

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Is someone really advocating that no names like Jessi Kamea hire an agent to negotiate a fair contract? I mean, I don't know her financial situation, or how much a sports agent costs, but I assume she'd owe her first two years of salary, at least, to the agent because they can't be cheap. I'm sure Mick Foley or Goldberg or Jericho weren't hurting to have Barry Bloom represent them, but calling for curtain jerker level talent to also have agents is just fucking weird.

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If you can't afford an agent, let alone a good agent, I'd think you could at least get a lawyer to get a contract the once over. Look at how many real athletes go the lawyer route in order to save an agents commission. 

That said, I'm sure Vince would hold it against any talent that didn't just sign blindly. 

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40 minutes ago, jstout said:

The non-competes can stick because the talent's still being paid through the length of the non-compete. A non-compete where the talent doesn't get paid probably wouldn't stick in court, because you have to allow people to make a living doing what they do if you take that living away from them by firing them.

What WWE does isn't a non-compete, it's a 90 day release notice where they're still technically under contract and getting paid for 90 days.  Most wrestlers take it because why would not take free money and have time to get your ducks in a row before moving forward. 

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25 minutes ago, odessasteps said:

If you can't afford an agent, let alone a good agent, I'd think you could at least get a lawyer to get a contract the once over. Look at how many real athletes go the lawyer route in order to save an agents commission. 

That said, I'm sure Vince would hold it against any talent that didn't just sign blindly. 

To add on to what Casey just mentioned and what I said earlier, I think the reason why boxing for example has always had great representation (even if boxers still got robbed blind) even today is there enough parity of great talent within several different boxing outfits (Golden Boy, Top Rank, Eddie Hearn's Matchroom Boxing, PBC, Frank Warren, etc.). You cannot fuck someone over and then expect them not to sign somewhere else with a better deal. The reason it doesn't exist in MMA (and I'm safely assuming WWE/wrestling for the longest) is there is one company with domain over everything and then everyone else. There are managers like a Tiago Okamura or some of the people in the past like Monte Cox who managed to stick around, but that's because they didn't make waves and stayed in the good graces of the UFC. If you don't do that, your people aren't in the UFC no matter how good they are. Hell, perhaps the greatest MMA fighter of all Fedor Emelianenko never fought in the UFC because the UFC had a grudge against M-1, Fedor's management group. Up until recently when M-1 didn't have any power at all and Fedor was pretty much washed up as an elite fighter did someone who fought in M-1 go on to fight in the UFC.

Another good example: Several years ago now, there was a disagreement over likeness rights for the UFC video game (which was a real hot commodity since there was several years between UFC video games) with fighters from American Kickboxing Academy where Cain Velasquez among others trained. All the AKA fighters were repped by Dwayne Zinkin. They (the UFC) didn't sit down and negotiate with anyone to work things out and smooth it over. They got rid of EVERYONE who was associated with Zinkin in like one night. Granted, they hired them back not too long afterwards because even that's a bit too draconian by UFC standards. Point still remains.

That's how you freeze people out and scare off current and future talent representation.

You cannot get just some lawyer who has no real knowledge of wrestling politics or WWE's business tactics and get them to be your consultation. Not when WWE employs take it or leave it.

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Oh and the reason why some lawyers might work with athletes is they see $$$ immediately and willing to work something out on the backend. They're going to have their tentacles around them for the long haul just because they might cash in on a lottery ticket eventually. As good as a WWE might pay, wrestlers aren't make large sums of money to justify that early help. What are you negotiating on the backend if your guy ends up working in Game Changer and Defy not even three years later? Pro Wrestling Tees' money?

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2 hours ago, Wyld Samurai said:

Im more surprised the contracts dont have buyout clauses. 

I dont out any blame on the WWE. Business is business. The independent contracters know the risks, and if they were smart they would include a buyout clause.

The most a wrestler could ask for is a no-cut clause. Say they sign a 4-year deal. MAYBE they can ask for writing that guarantees they'll be kept for 2 years without risk of release. 

But they're unlikely to get it. Perhaps someone like Reigns, Orton or Becky can pull it off (Roman and Becky have Hollywood agents who surely look over their deals for them and can ask for some assurances even if not that direct clause). But they're not at risk of getting cut, anyway. The ones who need the protection aren't in a position to ask for it.

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Just lol at the idea of "wrestlers should ask for a buyout clause." As if WWE wouldn't just say "nah," pull the offer, then move on to somebody who will accept their terms. If the wrestlers were actual employees and had a union, then maybe they could start chipping away at things like that. Anyone suggesting you shouldn't feel sorry for the wrestlers here because they are dumb and didn't negotiate better like those smart business people in the corporate office has definitely absorbed too much uncritical capitalist propaganda.

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Keeping a Twitch stream alone is a non starter for WWE. There's no fucking way they're ever going to agree to buyout clauses or no cut clauses. And the notion that if a wrestler can't afford an agent then they should have a lawyer look over the contract instead is laughable. Lawyers are fucking expensive. Maybe if you even knew of a contract law attorney in your area you could get them on retainer for $1000 if you're lucky, but the chances of that all falling into place are slim and none and most of these indy workers don't even have two dimes to rub together. 

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24 minutes ago, NoFistsJustFlips said:

This doesn't make Nick Kahn a genius. It just makes everyone else in WWE stupid for taking the losses for however many years they kept sinking money into the studio idea.

 

 

Although even before Nick Khan Vince and company have made cuts that seemingly come out of left field, we'll be having these same talking points about how horrible WWE is for letting such and such go. Khan has completely changed, WWEs hiring and firing practices. If he was around years 20 years ago or longer before,  Vince probably wouldn't have had WWE Studios or XFL twice or even two brands. 

I've said it last year during the first Covid purge, it was crazy to see WWE pluck every to independent name not signed to AEW or ROH just to keep guys away from AEW. Now Khan convinced Vince to make everyone that's not Orton or Roman completely disposable. I give him credit for giving NXT and developmental more structure because being Early 2000s ROH or WWE version of PWG.

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12 hours ago, MoeCristyV.1.6 said:

Modern day WWE would have future endeavored Blue Chipper Rocky Maivia and the Ringmaster. 

This is absolutely true. Along with a bunch of others who later became at least a reasonable successess. Hell, come to think of it, today they could release those two for getting over on their own and also if it seemed like they were on their way to becoming "bigger than the brand"!

Edited by Shartnado
...it's probably even worse
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Would it be reaching if I believe that guys would refuse the Vaccine, just to get released from WWE?

I know that there are guys that are legitimately anti vaxx but if your unhappy with your standing in WWE especially if you have credibility outside of WWE that would be the easiest route to get put of your deal

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19 hours ago, jstout said:

The non-competes can stick because the talent's still being paid through the length of the non-compete. A non-compete where the talent doesn't get paid probably wouldn't stick in court, because you have to allow people to make a living doing what they do if you take that living away from them by firing them.

Brock actually fought WWE on this and won 15 years ago.

 

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A thing that currently is getting a bunch of attention on social media is Catalina Garcia (fka Katrina Cortez) tweeted that she received an email today that her visa expires next month (I would assume this means at year's end) and that she has to "sell all her stuff"

There is obviously a lot of gray area since it is just one two sentence Tweet without much further details. I would assume it wasn't because she was released by the WWE, instead her Visa was always gonna expire then (mainly because that seems way to quick for the government to be working on a Friday) but I could be totally wrong.

Anyway - it was another log on the fire for folks after this round of releases

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32 minutes ago, Casey said:

I'm pretty sure both sides agreed to settle this out of court, and the judge dismissed the case because of that.

yeah, that's how my memory runs it as well. plus, Brock left the country to wrestle, which, legally speaking, doesn't really look good on him.

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The Smackdown idea is great. However, I would only start watching again if both women pulled a Sakura Hirota and brought their children to the ring to have them stand on the ring apron and randomly interrupt the match.

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5 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

May be an image of text

Each PPV is now seven hours long. Six of those hours consist of recap and hype videos for each match. The main event is always John Cena against Randy Orton.

The co-main event is a cinematic match featuring The Undertaker against the top face that week. The "match" still features a 30 minute ring entrance.

Each week a new tag team debuts and wins the titles. The next week they lose the belts back to either The New Day or The Usos, then one member turns on the other. They have a match and one member is fired while the other is relegated to teaming with Dolph Ziggler for a month before spending the rest of their contract jobbing in dark matches.

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