The Purge (Tony's Version)

[odessasteps]

I thought she was working in a different part of the Khan’s empire now and not the rasslin. 

[Elsalvajeloco]

24 minutes ago, Raziel said:

There's a reason why you're not supposed to say WHY you let someone go publicly.

That is unless you try to fight people. Then it's a-okay.

[Octopus]

45 minutes ago, John from Cincinnati said:

 

Who on NXT could use some Boys?

[TheVileOne]

53 minutes ago, Raziel said:

There's a reason why you're not supposed to say WHY you let someone go publicly.

I imagine Megha is having quite an afternoon.

Didn't she step back from AEW?

[dragonzombie]

Yeah she did.

[Curt McGirt]

1 hour ago, Octopus said:

Who on NXT could use some Boys?

It would be really funny to have Bron and Corbin with them for no reason.

[The Green Meanie]

9 hours ago, Zimbra said:

But still glad the Worlhorsemen are intact.

I wish we could say the same for The Wingmen.

[Stefanie Sparkleface]

The Boys posted their side of Tony's claim that they missed several dates:

https://twitter.com/TateTwinBrandon/status/1776330031536488749

TL:DR; they were booked to fly out of Nashville instead of Knoxville (their usual airport; Nashville to Knoxville is approximately a three hour drive with no traffic), and were told by the office that their flights would be rebooked out of Knoxville. They never heard back from travel or received instructions on what to do, and were told after they had already missed the show that they should have gotten a rental, driven to Nashville, and they would have been reimbursed because flights out of Nashville were $800 cheaper than Knoxville.

They also said they were told they were let go due to budget cuts, not for the no-shows.

So it sounds like a bit of a mess, really.

Edited April 5 by Stefanie Sparkleface

[MoeCristyV.1.6]

Lost almost all my braincells reading the comments from WWE fans under it. 

[HarryArchieGus]

I believe the Boys story, and I'm sorry in reality that they no longer have jobs. But... as a viewer, I'm very happy I don't have to watch them anymore. They may very well have been the two worst performers on the roster.

Edited April 5 by HarryArchieGus

[Casey]

*flashbacks of Punk’s travel issues in London for All In*

[odessasteps]

I don’t know if there is ever no traffic between Nashville and Knoxville, at least when I’ve been out there.

[Raziel]

46 minutes ago, MoeCristyV.1.6 said:

Lost almost all my braincells reading the comments from WWE fans under it. 

I'm losing just as many from the corporate apologists under it too.

[Elsalvajeloco]

Unfortunately, when you're the low guys on the totem pole, missing shows even for a good reason ain't best for your job security. Remember in the first several years of TNA, there would be major travel issues every other week. And that's a company that did all their television in one central location. A lot of those lower card guys ended up getting cut due to "budget" issues as well.

[Technico Support]

2 hours ago, Casey said:

*flashbacks of Punk’s travel issues in London for All In*

Didn’t he leave a day later than he was told to leave and thus ran into a transit strike or something?

[NoFistsJustFlips]

These cuts caused more damage than whatever minimal budget it saved. Anthony Henry has been rehired already because it was such a bad look. The Boys 100% are in the right on this too. And it makes the AEW office look bad. Instead of the he said she said leaving them hanging while you're checking on other people in other departments, just have some authority and say hey guys Nashville was necessary for this one. You're expected to make the drive and be at TV. We'll get you out of Knoxville starting again next time and we apologize. And boom, instantly you're on the reasonable and rational side of this incident.

But what happened to AEW honoring the deals they sign? It's not Slim J's fault TK gave Okada so much or Mercedes so much. In my own opinion, the only acceptable time for AEW to make cuts where it wouldn't ruffle my feathers is if they decide to drop the ROH entirely as a brand. In that case eliminating 15% of the roster would be totally understandable. But if that's not in the cards, you better not be cutting people when you're on record mocking the other guys for it.

And I'm sure TK just put his foot in his mouth by popping off about them missing shows when they were told budget cuts were the actual reason. There have been other glimpses of this like his comments about Big Swole after she left. But if you want to play the 'worker friendly' card, you can't publicly bash people on the way out. Or the workers are gonna start seeing through your shit.

I hate to say it but it seems like as AEW has grown TK has started becoming more like Vince. He's filtering out everyone but the very top guys from his accessibility. He's got his JR's and Johnny Aces' doing the dirty work while he only has time for the top guys. Everyone else gets shit communication and ignored. Very disappointed by how this is starting to trend.

[Casey]

32 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

Didn’t he leave a day later than he was told to leave and thus ran into a transit strike or something?

I believe there was a tube strike for certain lines or something. Either way, he took the tube and an Uber, so I’m not sure how much the strike affected anything.

[ExcellenceofAirPollution]

2 hours ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

Unfortunately, when you're the low guys on the totem pole, missing shows even for a good reason ain't best for your job security. Remember in the first several years of TNA, there would be major travel issues every other week. And that's a company that did all their television in one central location. A lot of those lower card guys ended up getting cut due to "budget" issues as well.

Agreed.

When I read all that from The Boys I was like, "man, you guys are lucky just to have jobs with a promotion that gives you TV exposure.  Guys used to drive thousands of miles with zero guarantee just for a chance to get booked"

Why are you texting the office complaining about the city you're flying out of and your car not being in great shape?  Can you imagine this in any other era?  Like the office doesn't have more important shit to deal with?  Be happy you're booked and have plane tickets.  Fuck.  I can imagine the person on the other end of the texts thinking the same thing, like who the fuck do these guys think they are?  And then they just sit around waiting for a change in their travel and don't make their date?  Even if AEW isn't the best at communication this is on them

I've been wondering for a while about some of these younger guys being entitled and not realizing how good they have it and how lucky they are that AEW even exists and Tony is willing to employ so many people.  This read like that 100% to me.

And I liked The Boys well enough, they bumped well and were a good part of Dalton's act, but this is ridiculous

 

[odessasteps]

Wouldnt want the billionaire’s kid spending any more of his money than he has to. 

[zendragon]

5 hours ago, Stefanie Sparkleface said:

The Boys posted their side of Tony's claim that they missed several dates:

https://twitter.com/TateTwinBrandon/status/1776330031536488749

TL:DR; they were booked to fly out of Nashville instead of Knoxville (their usual airport; Nashville to Knoxville is approximately a three hour drive with no traffic), and were told by the office that their flights would be rebooked out of Knoxville. They never heard back from travel or received instructions on what to do, and were told after they had already missed the show that they should have gotten a rental, driven to Nashville, and they would have been reimbursed because flights out of Nashville were $800 cheaper than Knoxville.

They also said they were told they were let go due to budget cuts, not for the no-shows.

So it sounds like a bit of a mess, really.

So your telling me The son of scrooge McDuck needed to save 1600 clams that bad

[Go2Sleep]

1 hour ago, NoFistsJustFlips said:

I hate to say it but it seems like as AEW has grown TK has started becoming more like Vince. He's filtering out everyone but the very top guys from his accessibility. He's got his JR's and Johnny Aces' doing the dirty work while he only has time for the top guys. Everyone else gets shit communication and ignored. Very disappointed by how this is starting to trend.

The billionaire family can have plenty of shitty labor practices without being compared to Vince, which is wrong for a lot of reasons. Even putting the personal stuff aside and just looking at Vince as a promoter, he was very meticulous about controlling the roster and the brand from top to bottom.

If anything, TK is turning more into Bischoff, which is pretty hilarious. Can't manage competing egos because he's too afraid to make an overt stand, alienates beloved figures in the process, fires people in shitty cowardly ways, etc.

Not to be fully negative on the guy, though, since I generally enjoy his company, he does have a lot of the positives of HHH and Heyman too. A lot of his problems could be solved by simply not talking/typing off the top of his head.

[Kevin Wilson]

I know this is partially TK's fault for selling it in the past he'd never cut people, but I really think The Internet is making this a bigger deal than it is. Just about every company in the world cuts/fires people that they feel aren't doing well, or just to save money, or because the CEO wants a bigger bonus. Most fans don't care about any of this stuff, as general wrestling fans are used to the occasional cullings since WWF/WWE has been doing it since the dawn of time, I think its just the vocal small minority of online fans that care that The Boys were cut and why.

I take no personal pleasure on people losing their jobs, and TK getting some side eyeing since he said he wouldn't do this is justified, but in the grand scheme of things this is just normal business. The lesson he needs to learn here is to never discuss the "why" part and just keep it moving, and probably don't cut people that were injured wrestling as its just poor optics and not very nice.

I do think its interesting that the Bischoff's "billionaire's kid" talk has seeped into DVDVR, I guess it shows if something is repeated enough online it stays in people's brains. Every wrestling promoter has been spending "someone else's" money, its such a weird criticism. Ted Turner funded WCW and Bischoff spent his money.  Rick Rubin funded SMW and Jim Cornette spent his money. All big billion dollar companies fire people sometimes, if you anti-capitalism that's fine but its weird to paint AEW as different just because its funded by one person and another is making the day to day decisions.

[Casey]

As far as I know, TK didn’t say they’d never cut people. He said they’d never cut people, during the pandemic, in response to WWE firing a slew of talent. It’s not like he said this in 2022 when the world was “done” with COVID and had moved on.

Also I wouldn’t want to drive from Knoxville to Nashville either. Fuuuuuck that. Saving a billionaire’s company $800 or whatever on plane tickets? Get the fuck outta here.

[Shartnado]

43 minutes ago, zendragon said:

So your telling me The son of scrooge McDuck needed to save 1600 clams that bad

That's probably not even the amount of cash that will be raining down from the ceiling during Okada's Dynasty entrance.

Well, I  personally would probably do things in order to save 1600 in legit currency, but given these circumstances, I have to wonder if that was the real reason?

[EVA]

Tony Khan doesn’t give a fuck about $1600.

But the person running AEW’s travel, who wants to be seen as running a financially efficient department, probably does!