I’ll watch WWE from time to time, but I’m not paying for it and I’m not buying any merchandise until Brock is gone and they stop kissing Trump’s ass and selling out to the Saudis. AEW hasn’t plastered advertising on everything and Tony Khan has made a point of continuing to keep ticket prices family-friendly - I spent $50 for a seat at Dynamite last week, where I might have spent ten times that much for a comparable seat at Raw when they came through a few weeks ago, and I didn’t see a single ad for anything other than merch.
TKO’s president says they have full creative control, there’s going to be more celebrity wrestling going forward, and that if fans don’t like having to manage half a dozen subscriptions to watch the product, that’s too bad for them.
And that’s why you NEVER sell to private equity.
Disagree. Private Equity often gives billions of reasons to sell to them. But expect the product one may have spent a lifetime building to be buried alive. In a deep, deep grave, after one’s product has been hollowed out of everything that made it worth billions.
Some WWE releases were announced today.
Looks like Bo Dallas/Uncle Howdy, Nikki Cross, Joe Gacy, Zoey Stark, Andre Chase, and Alba Fyre were released.
In other news, Lucha Underground is coming back maybe?
Tiffany Stratton defeated Guilia to win the WWE Women’s United States Championship on SmackDown.
Guilia’s reign was her second with this belt, and it lasted 114 days.
This is Stratton’s first reign as U.S. Champion.
Fatal Influence from NXT (the stable of Fallon Henley, Jacy Jayne, and Lainey Reid) disrupted a match between Charlotte/Alexa and Paige/Brie, attacking both teams and causing a no contest.
Fatal Influence is now on the SmackDown roster.
All of the Wyatt Sicks have been released, along with Aleister Black, Zelina Vega, the Motor City Machine Guns, and even Kairi Sane.
I don’t know what the hell they think they’re doing, releasing MCMG and Kairi.
TKO needs the money to give the people more of what they’ve decided the people want - by which I mean Logan Paul and Jelly Roll.
Good for this Laredo crowd - while Asuka was attacking Iyo Sky tonight, they chanted, “We want Kairi!”
Former IWGP Heavyweight Champion EVIL has debuted in NXT.
I just hope they don’t turn him into one of Sikoa’s white-faced stooges.
Hahaha, Sami Zayn destroyed a Gingerbread Man mannequin and Trick Williams came out to make the save and then threw up the “X”.
Oh, Lord, they did the whole serious voice “Owen Hart has passed away” voice and did an In Memoriam picture for Gingy.
OH MY GOD, they’re doing a funeral for Gingerbread Man next week.
New Day are gone, as are Jeff Cobb and Tama Tonga. Kofi has been with WWE for ~20 years (2006); they really dropped the ball with ND’s heel turn. I like Cobb, but WWE did nothing to make him relatable or use him in any useful way.
Tonga Loa, not Tama Tonga (Saw the post on PW Insider before it was corrected - at least Mike Johnson owns his mistakes.)
TKO were reportedly trying to force New Day to accept a pay cut from the deal they signed last year, which lead to them deciding to quit instead.
The line-go-up MBA bros are strangling this company.
Which one was the one who was contradicting Solo recently? Tama Tonga, or Tonga Loa?
Tanga Loa is the one that used to be Camacho.
“So, we know we’ve raised ticket prices through the roof, we just had our single biggest gate in company history, we’re slapping product placement and ads everywhere to squeeze every last penny out of the viewer, and you guys are literally the only reason anyone watches any of this… but you wouldn’t mind taking a 50% pay cut, would you? Ari needs another yacht.”