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


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A Fightful report indicates that an argument with Vince McMahon regarding a pitch McMahon made to Ali regarding a direction for his character could have been the catalyst for Ali not being used. Ali shared a vignette on his Twitter account back in November that was filmed, initially approved, then ultimately rejected by WWE brass.

The report goes on to say that Ali was off on paternity leave, but has been ready to return since December. Ali's last television match came on the October 29, 2021 SmackDown, where he lost to Drew McIntyre in two minutes.

 

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3 hours ago, christopher.annino said:

I sincerely hope this is a legitimate story, Ali gets his release, and after the no compete he goes to AEW because motherfucker has everything needed to be a top star and, by most everything I've heard, is an incredibly fucking awesome human being as well so dude deserves it. ??????

In addition to all of that, he's a Chicago dude. That's just the cherry on top for everything else. 

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4 hours ago, RIPPA said:

There is a chance that it is part of whatever this new gimmick he is doing is

He tweeted this back in Nov

Which was a promo that got edited off of SDL

I mean the NEWZ~! is reporting it as a shoot but who knows

Vince would've pushed him to be a heel, obviously.

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Meltzer said on the radio show this morning that apparently it was Vince came up with whatever the character was supposed to be and Ali didn't like whatever the character was supposed to be and now we are here.

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In my headcanon, Vince is suffering from dementia and thinks it's 1984.  He absolutely walked into the room and said to Ali, "here are some friends of mine that are going to get you over like nobody's business, pal!"  And proceeded to hand him a keffiyeh and some pointy boots.

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39 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

In my headcanon, Vince is suffering from dementia and thinks it's 1984.  He absolutely walked into the room and said to Ali, "here are some friends of mine that are going to get you over like nobody's business, pal!"  And proceeded to hand him a keffiyeh and some pointy boots.

Vince would do that, but thinking "The Iron Sheik is pretty popular online but he hates me personally, so what can I do to piss him off?"

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I mean, that's obviously a heel gimmick even if most of his points are true. It's literally Muhammad Hassan 15 years later, except at least played by an actual person of the culture being depicted. A face or even a true tweener can't be openly hostile to the audience. Once the fans start booing your smug superiority, any good points you make will not only be lost, but seen as wrong and bad. Then you get an established face coming out and saying "I know the people of (insert city) aren't racist" and it's all over.

If you want a successful anti-racist angle in wrestling, the character has to be an unambiguous face, then you use established heels to be the racist assholes. The announcers and other established faces should also denounce the racism. Nothing undercuts a "nuanced" gimmick like the announcers saying "Well, I don't agree, but it's America, so he's entitled to his opinion."

Basically, you can't expect one PoC to make an anti-racist angle work, it has to be a company-wide effort.

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8 hours ago, Technico Support said:

In my headcanon, Vince is suffering from dementia and thinks it's 1984.  He absolutely walked into the room and said to Ali, "here are some friends of mine that are going to get you over like nobody's business, pal!"  And proceeded to hand him a keffiyeh and some pointy boots.

This is literally what I would use as my genie/monkey paw/leprechaun wish for myself. "I'LL MAKE IT WORK, MR. MCMAHON!" Imam Axl ben Future, baby. I guess it would have to be 1984 as well, really. Brass ring, here I come.

Edited by thee Reverend Axl Future
added more STUFF
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15 hours ago, Go2Sleep said:

I mean, that's obviously a heel gimmick even if most of his points are true. It's literally Muhammad Hassan 15 years later, except at least played by an actual person of the culture being depicted. A face or even a true tweener can't be openly hostile to the audience. Once the fans start booing your smug superiority, any good points you make will not only be lost, but seen as wrong and bad. Then you get an established face coming out and saying "I know the people of (insert city) aren't racist" and it's all over.

If you want a successful anti-racist angle in wrestling, the character has to be an unambiguous face, then you use established heels to be the racist assholes. The announcers and other established faces should also denounce the racism. Nothing undercuts a "nuanced" gimmick like the announcers saying "Well, I don't agree, but it's America, so he's entitled to his opinion."

Basically, you can't expect one PoC to make an anti-racist angle work, it has to be a company-wide effort.

I think this is pretty much why you want to stay away angles involving race, sexuality or gender identity (like having a Fallon Fox story for Nyla Rose). Shows like Law and Order can do "ripped from the headlines" type content but wrestling works in broad strokes, heros and villains. As a medium I just feel it lacks the nuance and subtlety to convey things that complex 

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26 minutes ago, zendragon said:

I think this is pretty much why you want to stay away angles involving race, sexuality or gender identity (like having a Fallon Fox story for Nyla Rose). Shows like Law and Order can do "ripped from the headlines" type content but wrestling works in broad strokes, heros and villains. As a medium I just feel it lacks the nuance and subtlety to convey things that complex 

And then, there's the fan base. Even if you do everything as respectfully as possible, there's no real guarantee that the audience will give you the reaction you were hoping for. The old ten foot pole-rule is a good one, when it comes to wrestling and these sort of angles.

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How does it work if someone quits?

Can WWE hold them on a 'No Compete" for the length of the contract?

I mean... getting paid to sit at home is fine in a "WCW 2000" kinda way but if someone like Ali really wants out, what's stopping him from terminating the contract? WWE does it all the time so there's gotta be some sort of exit clauses.

Edited by L_W_P
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2 hours ago, L_W_P said:

How does it work if someone quits?

Can WWE hold them on a 'No Compete" for the length of the contract?

Well, from what Meltzer said, Toni Storm still had to negotiate a release from her deal even though she basically just got up one morning and decided to quit the company and no-show that night's event.  Meltzer thinks the WWE agreed to release her from her deal with conditions (i.e., she probably agreed not to wrestle for AEW or not to wrestle in North America or whatever).

In general, quitting your job does not void a non-compete clause.  Usually, non-compete clauses can be enforced for whatever period of time is specified in the contract.  If you have a non-compete, you can quit your job and change careers or whatever, but you probably won't be able to go to work for a direct competitor of your employer.

I've never seen a WWE contract, but my impression is that the contract can only be terminated early by the company, not by the wrestler.  This sort of tracks with talent choosing to sit home or ask publicly for their release.  If Ali or Anderson and Gallows could simply walk out on their contracts, i expect they would do instead of sitting at home complaining or campaigning for their release publicly.  Also, Vince has added time to the length of contracts to make up for time the wrestler missed due to injury or whatever.  Dave says nine months are going to be added to Candice LeRae's deal to account for the nearly nine months she is missing due to pregnancy.  IRRC, Vince feuded with Rey Mysterio over his contract years ago and kept extending the contract to make up the time Rey missed due to injuries (against Rey's wishes, obviously).

From everything i've heard or read, WWE deals are very one-sided.  I'd feel a bit sorry for talent, but, at this point, they are knowingly signing one-sided deals, so..... 

Wrestling Observer says Sami Zayn signed a deal deal, so he won't be going anywhere for awhile.

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Pac had to take a full year off waiting for his contract to expire, at a time when AEW didn't exist. He just wanted to live in England again and work the indies, and Vince still refused to release him early. Brodie Lee took a bit less time than that, but same principle. 

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41 minutes ago, AxB said:

Pac had to take a full year off waiting for his contract to expire, at a time when AEW didn't exist. He just wanted to live in England again and work the indies, and Vince still refused to release him early. Brodie Lee took a bit less time than that, but same principle. 

Kairi in japan. A “spokesperson” for wwe in japan nowadays literally means nothing. I understand not wanting her in aew, but not letting her wrestle in Japan, when she’s never coming back? Crazy. Hopefully she’s showing up in Nagoya. 

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On 1/20/2022 at 10:28 PM, matt925 said:

Kairi in japan. A “spokesperson” for wwe in japan nowadays literally means nothing. I understand not wanting her in aew, but not letting her wrestle in Japan, when she’s never coming back? Crazy. Hopefully she’s showing up in Nagoya. 

The weird thing with Kairi is  they clearly were ok with the idea of her wrestling there at some point, but randomly changed their minds.

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1 hour ago, Eivion said:

The weird thing with Kairi is  they clearly were ok with the idea of her wrestling there at some point, but randomly changed their minds.

Which of course is in direct contradiction with what was said about Mickie James entering Royal Rumble while with Impact. "That's not a problem anymore", when it's someone working for WWE and all of a sudden it totally still is a problem once it should work the other way around. That's just peachy. Of course, the Kairi situation was prior to this, but I doubt their stance has actually changed on that all of a sudden.

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