Another largely sober episode from Taz. He even switched to calling play-by-play with Mark Henry on color for a match. There was a moment when Ricky Starks got confused on Southern California geography, but a better moment was from
Konosuke Takeshita vs Nick Comoroto
Ex: Comorato just drives Takeshita face first into the ring apron.
Taz: He’s a deranged individual. Speaking of Nick Comoroto, not the referee.
Ex: Well, you said some pretty uncomplimentary things about Rick Knox, but I digress. Hook of the far leg…
Taz: Knox might be a little deranged also.
Ex: He does live out here, in the empire.
Taz: That makes him deranged.
Ex: Actually, a lot of people do.
Taz: That makes them all deranged. You could state that about the whole state of California, where you live, but I digress. You have multiple homeless.
Ex: (chuckles) In a tent down by the river.
My wild guess is that Khan asked them to tone it down to appease Warner. Even though this is YouTube content, Khan probably wants the entire brand to be presented in a way that’s mostly Warner-friendly. And some of Tazz’s stuff was quite off the rails in the past.
WWE’s board of directors is investigaying a $3 million hush-money payment Vince reportedly made to an employee he had an affair with, and there may be several other payouts made over misconduct by himself and John Lauranitis.
Will Linda walk this time? She already forgave him at least once. Does she need these headaches in her 70s? Of note, the affair was allegedly with a paralegal, not a wrestler. As for Lauranitis, other than he is just a general asshole especially towards women, I don’t know what to make. No more dinners at the Danielson household?
well Jim Cornette shared a story that allegedly where in a meeting Vince told him and jl that they needed some more female wrestlers because a few had been out with injuries so Jim calls up all the indy places to get talent share deals going
so what did johnny ace do? he went and bought a few cheesecake calendars and lingerie mags and called the publishers to see if the girls he picked out had agents or were signed to modeling agencies telling them no prior knowledge of wrestling was needed
Another story was he tried to get tryouts for his favorite girls from an escort agency but Steph and a couple of the girls went to Vince over it So yeah if Vince had to pay out money over jl’s antics I’m not surprised
As far as I remember, they haven’t done any cursing on the YouTube shows, and Taz didn’t make any overtly sexist comments. I remember him doing so in WWE, and then getting his “just desserts,” but that was Vince’s thing. He seems to be emulating his TNA days in commentary nowadays. Hope that doesn’t last long. I miss the unhinged Taz.
So far, it seems all the reports are just copying one version. Several of the better sites have yet to run the story…the sites which will actually confirm a story before (internet) printing it.
So do I. As I said, it’s my wild guess, as it seemed to happen out of nowhere. Tony Khan is under the scrutiny of a new regime, and may feel that toned-down Tazz is better for his overseers. Either that, or Tazz is just better about taking his meds before doing commentary. I did notice several wrestlers giving each other the finger on Dynamite (mostly Guevara), but I can’t remember any foul language, or maybe just one or two lesser curse words.
ETA: Could be that Tazz would just go off on tangents and TK wants the product to be more polished and professional and has told the team to stick mainly to calling matches and much less talking about Tazz’s orange hovercrafts, helicopters, jets, etc.
I don’t know to which era it dates, but it is basically “commonly known” among wrestling industry people that Vince and Linda have been separated for many years, probably at least a decade or more. They reportedly have not cohabited in all that time and lead entirely separate lives. I would wager it goes back to at least 2009-2010 which is when she left the company and ran for Senate, and she never has returned to working with WWE but has pursued political and other interests.
It’s basically said that a combination of wealth and other ties being so intricate meant it was easier for them to just separate but remain legally married, and part of that agreement was Vince being willing to fund her various political ventures basically with a blank check.
At the same time, if Vince is truly out as CEO and all this public embarrassment is out there, Linda may decide the “arrangement” no longer makes sense.
Truly an end of an era if it “sticks.” As a wrestling fan going back to the 70s, Vince has been involved in the business essentially as long as I’ve been aware of the business. While I think he’s a very complicated figure and an interesting one, and quite obviously a huge piece of shit on many levels (proven time and time again going back 40 years), at the end of the day he is clearly the most important figure in wrestling history from 1980 to Now, and maybe ever. The business is definitely going to change with his exit, maybe for the better, but that’s hard to say.
I’ll also wait to see how true his resignation is, he’s weather storms before and has previously even stepped down for a time but continued to run the business basically without a formal title (Linda was CEO for ages.) It seems like his family may not be on board with helping him do that this time though, I have to think Stephanie’s decision to step away a few weeks ago has to be tied into all this, and probably signals she wasn’t willing to take on an interim CEO title to keep control with the family. I believe it’s expected Nick Khan takes over now.
Edit to add: I should have checked twitter before I posted…it looks like Stephanie has come back to the company and taken on the interim CEO job.
Vince managed to stand his ground during the Steroid scandal, and he’s consumed rival feds like Godzilla. I doubt this will be that much of a setback for him.
WWF wasn’t a corporation at the time. The board is being responsible and this could turn out quite differently depending on what he’s done. They have a responsibility to protect their shareholders. He may not be back as CEO but I wouldn’t be surprised if he performs the same functions and has all the power without the same title. If Vince were to relinquish control WWE would have 6 month to a year spurt of new popularity after some changes before it all falls apart.
McMahon won’t completely disappear from the company. He will retain his role related to WWE’s creative content while the investigation is ongoing, and will appear as a character during wrestling matches.
He’s going to turn this into an angle, I bet. Which lucky diva will be his secret lover? I bet it’ll be Eva Marie, since that pretty much fits all the accusations we’ve made about her.
I did notice several wrestlers giving each other the finger on Dynamite (mostly Guevara), but I can’t remember any foul language, or maybe just one or two lesser curse words.