2022 WRESTLERS LEAVING COMPANIES THREAD (Releases, FAs, etc...)

[paintedbynumbers]

5 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

 

I'm not sure if I'm not expressing myself properly or if you guys are reading things into what I'm saying that aren't there.  I just have a real distaste for a wrestler being "carny" now.   I don't care if any wrestler is just out for money instead of "love of the game."  I just don't like guys just straight up lying every second they're in public.  This is no better than Hogan.  I stopped listening to Prichard's podcast when it became crystal clear he's just a carny liar and paying any attention to him is a waste of time.  This is the same thing.  If you're cool with it and that's just rasslers being rasslers, we just disagree.

I agree with you 100%.  Just because he his in the wrestling business it's supposed to make it right? That's the logic I am getting from everyone else. 

[John from Cincinnati]

Do y'all get this worked up when some actor goes on Jimmy Fallon's show or a podcast and blows smoke about a new movie they're not really feeling? I can't imagine applying this rigid standard of public honesty to any other type of entertainer. I guess it'd be nice if people were straight with you, but it's not a requirement and being so demanding of dudes on TV is weird as shit to me. 

Beyond that, the "lying every second they're in public" is clearly a gross misrepresentation. It's okay to just dislike the guy without making up nonsense justifications. 

[SirSmUgly]

5 minutes ago, John from Cincinnati said:

Do y'all get this worked up when some actor goes on Jimmy Fallon's show or a podcast and blows smoke about a new movie they're not really feeling? I can't imagine applying this rigid standard of public honesty to any other type of entertainer. I guess it'd be nice if people were straight with you, but it's not a requirement and being so demanding of dudes on TV is weird as shit to me. 

Beyond that, the "lying every second they're in public" is clearly a gross misrepresentation. It's okay to just dislike the guy without making up nonsense justifications. 

Like seriously. People bullshit at work all the time. I know everyone in here has had an external reaction to something at work that didn't match their internal dialog. 

I think Cody working his fans who hate WWE with "I hate them too" and then going back there to work isn't "lying every second they're in public." Now Prichard is a different deal because his whole podcast is a wholesale laundering of history, but I mean, that's way different than Cody working a crowd by telling them what they want to hear in character. 

[Guest Stefanie Without Stefanie]

There are people who develop parasocial relationships with celebrities, especially in this era of social media where we think we have all this access to them because we can see their tweets or their instagram posts or their vlogs. "Hey, this celebrity likes this thing, that's just like me because I like this thing too!" Then they get tremendously hurt or offended when the celebrity does something they wouldn't expect, because they've projected this entire set of values onto this person that they don't truly know, all because of what they see through the lens of little snippets of their life and make assumptions based upon that.

I won't go as far to say that "wrestlers are all liars", but I will say that perhaps one should consider how deeply one should trust the word of someone they've never met, and how deeply you should truly be disappointed in them if they make a decision for their career that doesn't actually impact you outside of what channel you watch them on TV.

Edited March 21, 2022 by Stefanie the Human

[AxB]

Wouldn’t it be funny if Vince tricked him into signing over the rights to the name “Cody Rhodes”, and so when he’s released in two years, he has to start calling himself Virgil Brandi Junior.

[Octopus]

7 minutes ago, AxB said:

Wouldn’t it be funny if Vince tricked him into signing over the rights to the name “Cody Rhodes”, and so when he’s released in two years, he has to start calling himself Virgil Brandi Junior.

*Neck Tattoo McGoo

I'll see myself out.

 

[SirSmUgly]

8 minutes ago, AxB said:

 Virgil Brandi Junior.

The love child of Virgil Runnels and Tom Brandi, delivered via surrogate.

And the surrogate was Claire Lynch's mom. 

Somebody really should give me the book. 

[Raziel]

3 minutes ago, SirSmellingtonofCascadia said:

 

And the surrogate was Claire Lynch's mom. 

 

How bad is it that I understood the reference without having to look it up?

[AxB]

Is Smoke and Mirrors a CFO$ tune? Because if it is, it’s probably not coming back.

[Gordi the BJW fan]

Hawt take: it's OK to value sincerity, even within a traditionally insincere business.

Also: this is pretty intriguing:

What does Dusty's daughter know that we don't?

 

Edited March 21, 2022 by Gordlow

[DragonZombie]

What's next for Brandi

https://deadline.com/2022/03/brandi-rhodes-diga-studios-1234983633/

[DreamBroken]

9 minutes ago, AxB said:

Is Smoke and Mirrors a CFO$ tune? Because if it is, it’s probably not coming back.

It was not. TV/TV was the band who did the original and Jim Johnston was credited on the later remixes. Personally always thought the original was the best.

 

Although, Downstait did cover it as well so that's possible

Spoiler

 

 

[Curt McGirt]

...is potato.

(You wont get that if you havent been watching Colbert recently)

[Technico Support]

2 hours ago, Gordlow said:

Hawt take: it's OK to value sincerity, even within a traditionally insincere business.

 

Thanks for saying that.  I probably should have just said it like that instead of coming on too strong with my opinion.  Note to everyone here: do not have a strong opinion on a wrestler’s behavior, lest someone label you as having a parasocial relationship.  

Edited March 22, 2022 by Technico Support

[Guest Stefanie Without Stefanie]

3 hours ago, Gordlow said:

Hawt take: it's OK to value sincerity, even within a traditionally insincere business.

Something to consider: The things we're sincere about can change over time, and the things we used to be sincere about we can no longer believe in, but we may not need to update the world when our feelings change.

[supremebve]

5 hours ago, paintedbynumbers said:

Brandi will be his sweet potato pie

Is this a Domino reference, if so, I approve.

[HarryArchieGus]

What does the name Flash Morgan Webster mean to this thread?  Is he the kind of Elite athlete that could bring some delight to a Wednesday or Friday night?  Or even a Monday or Tuesday for that matter?

[AxB]

It's very disrespectful of Flash Morgan Webster, to choose a name with those initials. Also, dude is doing a Mod gimmick, but didn't shave off his pandemic beard once NXT-UK tapings started back up. 

He's OK. He's an NXT UK wrestler, it's the same story with almost all of them. He wrestles like a man who is passionless, and not quite able to take himself seriously. 

[Octopus]

Octo-Thoughts

I guess I don’t feel inconsistencies with Cody wanting more creative control and then signing with the WWE. He wanted his backstage role to be the same/ what it was when the company started and he felt he was worth X. Tony Kahn as the owner of AEW wanted him to have less of a role with creative and felt his worth was Y.  In the negotiations, which we don’t know specifics, they couldn’t come to an agreement. The WWE also does not offer creative power (very safe to assume) but their offer of Z is much more appealing then Y. X was his goal, but without the perks, Z was better for him and his family. A family which now has a baby and I can’t judge someone’s family decision. I don’t see any of this as selling out. Maybe if he was actually offered X and was vocal about wanting that and still took Z, but they didn’t agree to the terms for X. 

Now, why specifically go to WWE? It seems odd being anti-WWE. A few factors make more understandable for me.

- Talks fell apart with AEW. Where else would he be able to go for the money he wants? He could bet on himself again and try and meet another lifelong wrestling obsessive who is also in a billionaire family. He could retire, but I don’t know his expenses and what the money is tied up in. If he has a specific number for what he feels he is worth, then WWE is the only other option.

- HHH is supposedly on the outs. He smashed a throne with a hammer, not a  large muscular picture of Vince in Zumba pants. Maybe he feels his position with the company will be better with Bruce and the gang. 

- Did he feel he was wanted in AEW? Both by ownership and the fans. He was getting booed and his recent segments (assuming they were his idea) were heavily criticized and panned. It hurt his positioning on contract negotiations but also if I was in his shoes, I’d maybe want a fresh start. Yes, back to WWE sounds funny as a fresh start. However, he has a new coat of paint on him and the landscape of WWE is different. If Seth or whoever puts him over in a surprise match at WrestleMania, he would be viewed as a legitimate Upper Mid-card superstar even to audiences that are not familiar with AEW.

 

As for upside and downside. I’m pessimistic enough to feel that even with the best intentions, his run could likely be butchered. I will say that after everything since All Out, I won’t bet against Cody. 

[The Natural]

Adrenaline, in my soul. Where art thou Cody Rhodes?

[AxB]

If he goes to WWE and his segments suck, he can at least claim that it was the writers. Whereas in AEW, with the power (we think) he had, it all falls on him and him alone.

[username]

7 hours ago, Technico Support said:

 

I'm not sure if I'm not expressing myself properly or if you guys are reading things into what I'm saying that aren't there.  I just have a real distaste for a wrestler being "carny" now.   I don't care if any wrestler is just out for money instead of "love of the game."  I just don't like guys just straight up lying every second they're in public.  This is no better than Hogan.  I stopped listening to Prichard's podcast when it became crystal clear he's just a carny liar and paying any attention to him is a waste of time.  This is the same thing.  If you're cool with it and that's just rasslers being rasslers, we just disagree.

 

I have very bad news for you but kayfabe is alive and well, it just shifted from convincing you what is happening in-ring is 100% legit to convincing you that the person they project outside the ring and online is 100% legit, that they are just like you and you should buy their stuff. If this is legitimately a big deal for you then you secretly should probably hate a large number of your favorite wrestlers.

 

Granted my personal approach/advice is to just not go pulling on strings if you don't want to see what it'll reveal so we might actually be largely in agreement on that, but yeah we don't know what the vast majority of wrestlers are "really" like and shouldn't pretend that we do.

[Gordi the BJW fan]

In my experience, a lot of wrestlers are genuinely nice people.

Not always. I have personally seen Dynamite Kid curse out some children who asked him where Matilda was. I heard some very nasty rumours about how one wrestler who became nationally known behaved when he was working in the Vancouver territory. I have heard pro wrestling old-timers tell stories that they thought were very amusing but which seemed to me horrific.

On the other hand, I have had many more very positive experiences hanging out with pro wrestlers than negative ones. I can state with absolute confidence that not all current pro wrestlers are carny assholes who are only out for money. 

Abdullah the Butcher and Akira Hokuto both have reputations for being unfriendly to fans. Maybe there some truth to that... but both of them were extremely kind and friendly to me when I had the good fortune of meeting them. Well above and beyond ordinary politeness. So, my tendency is to think that people may not be kind enough in their assessment of some pro wrestler's actual personalities, rather than to assume the opposite. 

I have zero problem believing that the nice guy persona that Bryan Danielson portrays is a reflection of the thoughtful, positive, legitimately good dude that he is out of the spotlight. I've been in the same room as him a few times, spoken with him at length, seen how he treats other people... It's a small sample size, but I have never seen him do anything that would make me suspect he's not a genuinely warm and decent human being.

I think Danielson, Kingston, and Mox (to name three) have all given us glimpses of their true selves, recently.

I'm good friends with  a handful of wrestlers, on the Vancouver and Osaka scenes, and some of them at their worst are better than many people at their very best. 

Here is a very partial list of wrestlers who have been extraordinarily kind or friendly to me when they didn't stand to gain a single dime from it:

 

John Tenta, Bad News Allen, Gene Okerlund, Atsushi Onita, Bob Sapp, Asian Cooger. Ebessans 1 and 3, Tigers Mask, Chono, Irie, Akiyama, Apple Miyuki,  Dump Matsumoyo, Joe Doering, Tajiri, Mr. Hito, Kotoge, Harada, Tadasuke, Zeus, Bodyguard, Superstar Billy Graham...

 

So many positive experiences and happy memories over so many years.

 

It's cool that there's a diversity of opinion w/r/t how much importance we wanna place on wrestlers being sincere. 

It's fair to paint pro wrestling as a business with carny roots based on dishonesty and taking the marks for all they are worth.

However, my point of view is that many of us might be very pleasantly surprised by what many our current favourite wrestlers are like in real life. My experience is that the once-notoriously-carny business has an awful lot of very nice people working in it these days.

 

Edited March 22, 2022 by Gordlow

[HumanChessgame]

Schrodigner's Kayfabe - where someone may or may not have been working the fans depending on what kind of reaction their behavior gets

[Beech27]

Cody may be a tedious geek with an inflated and mercurial sense regarding his own creative powers, but he is — according to everything we’ve seen reported — one of those good and kind people. 

Were I to guess — and that’s what this is, so maybe I just shouldn’t — I’d say he suffers not from an excess of carny cravenness as much as genuine flighty earnestness. I suspect he meant all the anti-WWE rhetoric when he portrayed it, but ended up feeling jilted and under appreciated by AEW and its fans. 

Edited March 22, 2022 by Beech27