From what I’ve read, Finn sprained his ankle doing the top-rope foot stomp, that’s all. They’ve already taped NXT up through to Takeover 9: Developmental Does Dallas, so he’ll probably be ready to go by then and they won’t have to throw the current program out the window.
I’ve always hated his finisher, maybe this will give them an excuse to give him a new one
The Chikara show I went to had a huge I-beam supporting the ceiling that ran directly over two ring corners. Some of the wrestlers would grab it and swing from it. I could just picture Finn bonging his head jumping off the corner for the double-stomp.
Yeah, I eventually got very bored of the Bischoff era product but I do think he’s maligned unjustly (and I agree JBL is a smart guy outside of wrestling.) I think Bischoff took the product which when he took over was in a bad place both financially and creatively and made it entertaining again. I think his decision to pull live events (which WCW lost money on) and build up a TV fan base again then start live events up again once the fans were there was a smart move, and I think lead to the first time WCW had turned a profit in years and did something crazy like triple their revenue.
Some of his downfall really wasn’t his fault, he had been given a blank check by Ted a few years later and basically told he could spend what was necessary to bring WCW up to par with WWF/E. That’s the reason Bischoff turned the ink red–he was told he had the backing of a multibillion dollar company that was willing to go red for some time to build up the brand. Then when the Time Warner deal happened, Ted is no longer effectively in charge, and I believe resigns as Vice Chairman after like a year, and suddenly the $ situation changes. But there were quite a few long term contracts that couldn’t be waived away, so without being willing to continue investing in WCW like Ted had done Time Warner basically signed WCW’s death warrant. I think it could’ve continued on under outside ownership if they had been able to keep their Monday night slot on TNT–but Time Warner killed that deal by indicating they didn’t want wrestling on TNT. A strange decision I’ve always questioned, since Nitro was far and away their best rated show, and nothing they replaced it with, I don’t believe, ever approached its rating’s share. The interregnum there at the end where Bischoff was sent into exile (was still being paid but was relieved of all duties) and Vince Russo took over creative was also a nightmare and did a lot to kill off the WCW brand in terms of fan interest–proving that without the moderating influence of Vince McMahon Russo really wasn’t able to do things very well on his own.
Now, I do fault Bischoff for an over-reliance on stars like Hogan, Flair, Sting, Hall and Nash who had lucrative contracts that didn’t require them to wrestle very much. Sting probably is the least guilty of that in WCW and Hogan the most guilty–there were long stretches of time in which Hogan had the belt and never appeared on Nitro, but would main event the PPV in matches that many of the fans had little to no interest in. Pushing Goldberg is a mixed bag, it worked early but was probably carried on too long, and he was super dangerous in the ring. After his initial streak ended they probably should’ve taken Goldberg off TV and let him spend more time at the Power Plant–guys like Bret Hart may have gotten another decade of wrestling out of them if they had done that.
Bischoff also underutilized a lot of major talent on his roster, like Chris Jericho and Eddie Guerrero, due to them not fitting his 1980s Vince McMahon idea of what a main eventer “looks like.”
Well, looks like DBD tried to ‘give notice’ to WWE and they not only blocked him from doing so, but used the ‘injury’ clause to extend his contract another year.
Article had some of the wording of the contract. I’m very surprised (but probably shouldn’t be) that there’s no out clause for the wrestlers themselves to decide they want to quit.
I hope in the event they do part ways, DBD goes back to RoH and nowhere close to TNA.
Either WWE doesn’t want to risk losing ratings or they really do plan to use him once he recovers enough not to be a potential lawsuit.
I’m unclear on why Bryan wants to give notice if WWE is willing to continue paying him. There’s no way he’d make more by leaving and going to ROH. I get that maybe it’s a true love of the ring sort of thing. If it’s just because he wants to retire to his home it doesn’t really make sense either, WWE is paying him to essentially not work right now.
Bryan was also spotted yesterday boarding a plane to Seattle, from whence Raw emanates tonight. Whether that’s because he wants to meet with Vince in person and tell him to shove his contract up his ass, or he’s going to appear on Raw and drop a pipe bomb, is anyone’s guess. (One hopes the latter, because a Bryan-less Raw at the Key may result in rioting.
Watch for me (and my Glo-Worm) in the fifth row.
Iiiiiiiinteresting.
If the Superstar is retired, can they do indies? Is this a “ok you won’t release me so I’m retiring and going somewhere else?”
Gotta give him credit. He’s doing the right thing for his future health. Maybe we’ll see him again in a “mentor to a young wrestler” role, a nice callback to his relationship with HBK.
Also, in relation to Finn Balor, I give you this short video: EXCLUSIVE: Bayley cheers up Finn Balor | How do you cheer up an injured WWE NXT Champion? Women's Champion Bayley showed us how in Indianapolis tonight, bringing a smile to Finn Bálor's face.... | By WWE | Facebook
Cageside Seats and Meltzer have said that at least based on other leaked contracts, essentially the answer is “no.” Vince can terminate any of the standard contracts with 90 days notice, the talent has no mechanism of ending the contract early. If Bryan is publicly announcing retirement along with him indicating to WWE he will no longer do anything for the company, then WWE can stop paying him his downside guarantee, and terminate the contract–at which point he’d be free to work elsewhere. But WWE could also just keep paying him the downside guarantee and keep him essentially “locked up” indefinitely, because there is a clause in the contract that periods of injury do not count against the contract term. So if you had a 1 year contract and get injured after six months, the entire time you’re out on injury doesn’t count against the year, so WWE still has you for 6 more “healthy months” regardless of how long you’re injured.
If WWE had never terminated CM Punk’s contract then he couldn’t have signed with UFC until it expired (but he’d have continued getting his downside guarantee–but WWE may have been able to dock him for no-showing appearances.) But the timer on his contract would’ve kept on ticking, Danielson’s timer is frozen for as long as he’s not cleared medically. I’m not sure who adjudicates a dispute on medical clearance between the WWE doctor and doctors the performer has gotten second opinions from. Again–this is all assuming Bryan Danielson’s contract is similar to other recently leaked contracts (which all use standard boilerplate from WWE lawyers in this area.)
I remain confused about Bryan’s motivations in avoiding a guaranteed check. The fact that WWE is allowing Bryan to appear on TV to announce his retirement suggests to me they will option a termination of his contract, if they were still wanting to hold him under contract against his will I doubt he’d be invited on TV. So they’ve obviously come to an agreement. But I’m confused again, as to why he wants out of the guaranteed downside contract money.
I would say the short answer is that he’s not content with sitting around and getting paid, he wants to do something he loves and that’s wrestling.
I can’t imagine retired life is any different than just not being allowed to perform, but if WWE said, “Two things are happening, you aren’t coming back ever and we aren’t releasing you” then maybe he’s actually doing us fans a favor and retiring so that we don’t constantly hope for his music to hit at (insert PPV here)
That would be incredibly fan-forward thinking on his part, so there’s a part of me that thinks that’s not the case, but it’s possible
Courts tend to take a dim view of this sort of thing. Sure, he’s still being paid, but he can argue the whole medical thing in court and that their permanently sidelining him and preventing him from working damages his long term economic interests.
Fortunately I live in a Sinclair Broadcasting market so I get ROH (I only watch it very intermittently) but if Bryan appears on ROH I’ll definitely tune in. I don’t think his retirement is an expression of a desire not to wrestle–he wouldn’t have gone and gotten cleared by two non-WWE doctors if he wanted to lace them up. I think Bryan is looking at it as “if I can’t wrestle, then I can’t, but I have two really good doctors who say I can”–which is very different from the Edge situation where he was told he could be paralyzed from further wrestling."
I agree with Chimera that the medical argument is adjudicable, and I don’t think the court will really allow WWE to hold Bryan forever. They’ll probably let WWE hold him for some period of time, but not indefinitely.
I’m thinking this may be his best path to getting out of that indefinite contract hold.
“Retire”. Keep your mouth shut. Ride out whatever period WWE wants to give you.
Then sign somewhere else and flip Vince the bird.
Time for a little WWE Jeopardy!
The answer is:
The six words that pretty much guarantee that a city’s next scheduled house show will be cancelled without warning.
[SPOILER]What is, “Free Daniel Bryan! Free Daniel Bryan!”?
I half-expect a crowd reaction like that tonight, and I would fully expect Vince to react that way if there is.[/SPOILER]Then again, there are reports that the latest set of tests/scans show that while DB “could” wrestle again, that’s like saying that Edge and Taz “could” wrestle again. I was also about to suggest that DB become the RAW Commissioner to ride out the time, but how would you explain The Authority giving him the job?
Yeah, without being privy to Bryan’s medical results I hope that he doesn’t have Edge like results and feels those mean he’s safe to wrestle. My understanding is Edge was told impact could cause paralysis, so I don’t see how two independent doctors could clear him to wrestle if that was his situation.
Welp, he could always take the Corey Graves route and join the announcing team. Or be a GM-like figurehead.
Maybe the “retiring” is a swerve, as in he’s retiring from injury status. It gets real confusing because I’m so convinced everything WWE does is a work. It may not have begun that way, but it soon will be.