NoFistsJustFlips

Essentially they paid two 1st round picks and one 3rd round pick to move up nine spots? They better be rock solid sure of the person they are taking at #3 or else Shanahan will be shot into the sun.

This is actually a very good point. This isn't a movie from 1966. This was Vince McMahon in 2005. Fucking yikes lol. Thank you for putting that in the right context.

And just to reiterate, I am in favor of erasing the black face segments. I have zero issue with those being erased from history. And the audio of any slur. My issue stems with who gets to decide what is problematic? There's 7 billion people on this planet and we all have a different scale of what is problematic. Do we get the person who has the highest standards of what's considered problematic? If so there's not much left on the network outside of Brad Armstrong matches. (Well except from 1999 on, because Buzzkill is a drug reference and those are problematic). I don't want to diminish the original issue. Black face is fucking gross and wrong and should be gone. Period. We agree on that. I think everyone universally agrees on that.

Niners thinking out loud saying hey they started editing A, wondering if this means they will edit B, C, D, & E now too does not make him a bad person. Write as many paragraphs as you feel necessary. But he isn't saying anything vile or hurtful by wondering if the flood gates are open now and they will edit everything, since the process has begun. Any instances of slurs should be edited out of commentary. The Nicole Bass quote of JR's you mentioned is disgusting. Erase the audio. The problematic part is the slur. So my point is let's not erase whole segments and matches. Does cutting Nicole Bass' existence out of WWE history help anything? No. Just cut the shitty thing JR says. Same with Goldust. But are you of the opinion that the entire Goldust character should be erased from existence, just because there were a lot of unsavory issues with it? Because once you start down that path you realize that's all pro wrestling in The United States has been for 30 years. Capitalizing on the shittiest segment of society with stories and characters designed to piss people off enough to pay money to see the resolution. Once you start down that track, what is the point of the network? Who wants 15 minute Raws from 1999? Who wants PPVs with 6 matches edited out? Taking them out doesn't erase it from history. Pretending it didn't happen doesn't make it so. Wrestling has done some fucking shittyyyyy things. But that's true about every aspect of society in a time period. Put content warnings on in. Have a sit down PSA before you play that event. Film someone eloquent like Titus explaining why things are the way they were for Goldust (just using him as an example). "In 1995 being gay was seen differently. In the 90s people wrongly judge based on your orientation. That's why Goldust's opponents acted the way they did in the following event. In 2021 we know how wrong that is. But in media in the 90s this was seen as okay. We've come a long way, but still have a ways to go to be a well rounded inclusive society. For more info go to yada yada yada" Wouldn't that be more helpful? Doesn't solidifying why something is wrong help us learn from it?? Especially vs just trying to pretend it didn't ever happen in the first place?

Listen I think there's a rational middle ground between the two sides represented here. Black face is highly offensive and I agree with Piper vs Brown & the DX / Nation segment being scrubbed. Vince dropping the N word as well. But Niners is going further down the path of what if and I don't think that makes him a bad person wondering out loud. We all agree black face has no place being celebrated. But then all the Goldust segments were mentioned. Nicole Bass. Bra & Panties matches. Overly bloody matches. Steph drugged and married. I don't find Eugene and George Steel stuff very tasteful at all in hindsight. If we start taking entire chunks of things off the network based on the past offending people in the present it starts getting pretty incomplete. If we scrub Goldust and Eugene and George Steel & attitude era women & massive blade job matches from history... well there goes WM3 Savage v Steamboat classic, almost all of Flair's amazing catalog, the majority of Trish Stratus' career among a bunchhhhhh of others. At a certain point it gets to be the more level headed sophisticated answer is do what Disney & Warner Brothers do. Put content warnings on there. Say hey this was different era and there's some unsavory things but we're keeping it in here and letting you decide what stuff you want to watch with the proper historical context. Changing and erasing the past doesn't fix our mistakes in the present. (And just for the record I fucking hate the term cancel culture. There's no such thing as cancel culture. It's literally just society weeding out the shit bags. If you don't want to get "canceled" don't do vile disgusting shit. Pretty simple way to live life.)

I agree with this sentiment by the way. But I did want to highlight this quote because it demonstrates exactly what I mean. WWE let McIntyre go 5 or 6 years ago with the same thought process they have about Andrade now. That he wasn't a star, that he wasn't ever going to be a star, and that he wasn't even worth having on the roster. So were they right about Drew then, or are they right about him now? It's a conflicting stance and the best representation of them not knowing what they have / what they're doing than any analogy I can come up with. WWE is straight up plug and play. You can't base too much value on how they do book a guy vs how they don't book a guy because of it. Anyone can become Jinder Mahal and go from jobbing to The WWE Championship out of nowhere with a commitment to a push, whether warranted or not.

I do see what you're saying. I guess my outlook is just different from yours (which is okay). You cite Bret Hart as an example, but Bret wasn't in a place mentally after having his world shattered to produce at that point. Vince fucking him over so publicly in Montreal and more importantly Vince mind fucking Bret's own self worth by devaluing him so much he just let him go to WCW just ruined him. You can't analyze his run in WWE in 1997 vs his run in WCW in 1998 as if it was the same person. He was a totally new, totally broken man. As for my tastes, give me one too many surprises vs none. WWE's current programming is what I think of when I think of driving the speed limit in a Hyundai. Boring. Gets you to where you need to be on time. But there's no heart. There's no soul. In WWE there is no pulse and no reason to expect any surprises will ever happen. You don't ever have to kick yourself because you didn't tune in. There is nothing there that is can't miss. I prefer having too many guys doing too many things where you may not always be able to keep track of everything, or dudes may get lost in the shuffle or whatever, vs that super sterile predictable no frills programming. But that's just my opinion. If you don't agree that's okay. Gasp! Lol. I'm not professing he's a huge star. But dude. How can you add that "he would still be with WWE" part? Like they know what a star is anymore. They don't want stars. They want burger flippers. They wanna churn out content. They don't want gourmet chefs. They're McDonalds. 99 billion served. Same McDouble every time you pull in that drive thru. Saying he's not with WWE therefore he isn't a star / an asset / someone worthy of having is a point of view I just can not get behind.

I guess I just don't understand where you're coming from. There's dozens of situations they can announce things ahead of time and build anticipation for it. Especially with the roster that's already in place. But at it's core, isn't wrestling it's best when you don't know what's coming next? This isn't a catch all for every situation. But surprise is one of the main elements that make a wrestling show a destination program. "Oh shit wonder what's gonna happen this week gotta tune in." You never know who is gonna show up. You don't always know what's going to happen. And that's exciting. Now that's not discrediting anything you've said. I just don't understand why you think it would be better for them to say "Andrade will be here on the April 20th Dynamite, how cool is that. He's going to face Kenny Omega. That will be a great match!" vs him showing up and doing something unexpected or working a match with no tease. Dude just became available two days ago. Let's use the very rare element of surprise that's almost never possible under these circumstances. Sure they should reign in the stuff you complained about. But I don't see how any of that is relevant for a free agent that somehow got WWE not to do a no compete and he can show up just three days after he's a free agent. Use him as soon as he's willing to be there. And DON'T announce it ahead of time. Because the last time they teed up some anticipation for a new signing, everyone complained it was the most over hyped thing ever in the history of wrestling. So don't over hype, just do it.

Direct promotion, sure. But they built up The Exalted One until he was free to debut. They knew that was going to be Brodie. We didn't. But they did. Impact promoted a couple of the recently released dudes were debuting on that one PPV last year. they didn't say who directly. But they still built it up. What I'm saying is there is wiggle room to do things and build up them coming in when you can't have them right now. But this is a case of being able to have a dude right now. Will it matter as much if you let 90 days pass anyways? Seems like a waste of a rare opportunity.

Fair point. And I agree they have relied on that too much. But that's really the only way to capitalize on him being able to start right away. They can do vignettes and build to matches with dudes that have 90 day no competes. This one specific case, unless he shows up somehwre in person and does something it's kind of a waste of this unique situation. But again that assumes Andrade even has AEW on his radar. He very well may not want anything to do with them. It really does depend on what his goal is.

I mean, it depends on what his goals are really. But it can be as simple as starting Dynamite with Matt Sydal's entrance (he's booked to face Omega, if he wins he gets a title match) Andrade jumps him and beats the fuck out of him and demands a title shot. Omega is like fuck no you just murdered that dude I'm not wrestling you tonight with no notice. Then the powers that be sign the match for the main event. It can really be as simple as a one off match. He's hot. This lets AEW benefit from his buzz. AEW & Omega are hot right now doing the forbidden door shit. This lets Andrade get a high profile match in to raise his stock before signing elsewhere / prove he really does have a higher ceiling than US Title JAG midcarder. Like they don't have to sign him to a long term deal. They can get a shock moment / a dope match / and set everyone up for success by literally just pushing Matt Sydal's story off one week. I have the sense Andrade is going to more interested in NJPW / CMLL. But this move as a one off is totally do-able. And they could always revisit signing him longterm down the road. But it doesn't take a whole lot of creativity to get someone that's hot to fit in, at least for a one off.

Damn if that's true, it's a severe departure from their norm. And there would have to be a reason for it. I guess we'll see in the next week or so if he pops up anywhere.

For the sake of the board I'm just putting dude back on ignore. Sorry for the thread detour guys.

Strike one. But I'll find ya. Only so many ring announcers in FSW history lol. For the record I don't actually care who you are. I just wanna make sure I don't accidentally book any stooges that run to the internet to spread the hot gossip to validate their desperate need for acceptance.

There's a 90 day no compete for every wrestler released by WWE. So end of June is the soonest he can appear for another promotion. The only people without 90 day no compete clauses are the ones who let their contract expire. When the contract ends organically you are free to do as you please. When WWE cancels the contract (early release) there is always a 90 day no compete to prevent someone showing up tomorrow when the news is still hot.

"Thank you for the info"

This means one of two things. 1. You're part of IWC's ring crew / digital team or something. In which case running to the internet to blab plans for someone you consider a friend / colleague is just... really shitty. 2. You're a fan. One that's been around a long time and thinks that makes you more than a fan. But still just a fan. In which case my initial joke is still relevant. If you are in the business in some way, I would think that you'd know better than to post private conversations told to you in confidence about future plans. Which is why I assumed you fall in category 2 and made my joke.

Dude. Britt Baker is not going to just blab all the real booking plans to a random fan at an indy show lol. She's obviously working him. "Oh yeah man it's crazy I'm gonna do this big face turn and save Rosa then we're working The Bucks for the tag belts. Get your bet in early on Fan Duel and make some money!!"

I was saying to myself this thread didn't have enough talk about Bat Shark-Repellent, thanks for reminding me.

I thought the opening action sequence was amazing, but the rest of this bored me to tears. I know they have to set the ground work for the important story beats but man... sitting through like 10 minutes of Falcon trying to get a bank loan is where I draw the line lol.

I know right lol. Every sports reporter is treating Golladay like a WR1 and a big get for The Giants. I don't remember hearing his name too much so I looked up his stats and he had two solid years. But definitely not WR1 numbers. I hope maybe it's one of those transcendent player kinda things that trumps stats that I'm just not seeing looking at numbers alone. That's a lotttaaa money to be throwing out there too. But hey, can't be any worse than ole gator arms Golden Tate was.

He went with the most valuable team of all, money lol. He took a one year deal this year in a market crippled by a low cap. Next year with be a market ready to spend with a big jump in cap space due to the new TV deals. So he's betting on himself having a good enough year this year to get paid next year vs cashing in this year on lower numbers. He's got a good agent.

Wow have never seen a close up HD version of The Hogan Picture Belt. Very understated. I would like that design a lot better with a globe instead of a picture tho.

Two big reasons outside of just being worried all the content won't come over / they will abandon uploading rare things: 1. The search function on Peacock sucks vs The Network. On The Network you can search any wrestler's name and if they have a match on the network, it's in the results. Current talent, old talent, and even enhancement talent. You could also search for any specific match and jump right to that match without having to wade through an entire show to get to it. Peacock doesn't have matches specified at all and have already said they aren't doing that. So that great feature is just gone. A search on Peacock just shows a few recent clips of current stars and the ability to find whole shows. (Although searching WCW found zero results, but searching just WC brought up all the WCW content they had up). 2. The watch from beginning feature for live events is gone. If you wanna watch Fastlane better have that shit turned on right at 7PM. As is now, The Network's best feature was being able to get home an hour after the PPV started and clicking watch from beginning for a live PPV. You could even fast forward through dull stuff. Can't do any of that on Peacock. It's just a live stream with none of those features.

Ugh. Why couldn't Titus host it alone? Or at the very least get someone else to host it with him. Literally all anyone is going to talk about is the shitty optics of this. Titus makes sense in this spot as he's basically a community celebrity in Tampa for all the charity and community outreach he does. But Hogan already has a spot waving in the HOF deal so why did they need him in this spot?