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Umaga - great gimmick, but a bit of a rapist.


IANdrewDiceClay

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9 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

If anything high profile enough happens to kickstart a "#MeToo of Wrestling", the whole business is fucked. But would it need to be a Rock/Hogan level star, or Vince himself, with a mainstream publicity push behind it, to pick up any traction, and get any degree of justice, closure or even a fair hearing for any of those who have been affected. Even at the height of #MeToo, Randy Orton routinely getting his knob out in a hazing ritual didn't remotely bother the headlines.

You may remember we discussed this a while back (it pops up depressingly often as a topic, to be fair). There eventually emerged a bit of a consensus that if the Benoit incident didn't bring any further public scrutiny to WWE, chances are very little else would. Benoit may not have been huge name to non-fans, but the incident was horrendous enough to be in the mainstream news.

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In fairness, it's off the back of Benoit and Guerrero that the Wellness Policy was instituted, and heightened focus on awareness of concussions and CTE. So Benoit did increase scrutiny on the WWE, at least in the short term, but in a less public way than something like a mass scourge of wrong'uns from the roster would take.

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9 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

In fairness, it's off the back of Benoit and Guerrero that the Wellness Policy was instituted, and heightened focus on awareness of concussions and CTE. So Benoit did increase scrutiny on the WWE, at least in the short term, but in a less public way than something like a mass scourge of wrong'uns from the roster would take.

True, but that tells me more that WWE and McMahon wouldn't be static targets; their handling of the Guerrero and in particular Benoit situations would suggest that they're fairly adept by now at managing and re-directing any scrutiny they do get. 

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I was only thinking yesterday reading a post on here that it's astonishing that some of the more common urban legends have never attracted mainstream attention. it did eventually but it seems crazy that the Jimmy Snuka story, for instance, never got more play considering how everyone seemed to know he did it. Disagree that they didn't come under scrutiny after Benoit because they clearly did but it was almost all about the drugs, and a little on concussions, and they were lucky that no-one really dug up the seedy underbelly. In fact, apart from the Rita Chatterton allegations, it seems to just be drugs that anyone is interested in. Seemingly, no-one gives a shit about this fake sport other than when the "fake" athletes pump themselves up.

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3 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

I was only thinking yesterday reading a post on here that it's astonishing that some of the more common urban legends have never attracted mainstream attention. it did eventually but it seems crazy that the Jimmy Snuka story, for instance, never got more play considering how everyone seemed to know he did it. Disagree that they didn't come under scrutiny after Benoit because they clearly did but it was almost all about the drugs, and a little on concussions, and they were lucky that no-one really dug up the seedy underbelly. In fact, apart from the Rita Chatterton allegations, it seems to just be drugs that anyone is interested in. Seemingly, no-one gives a shit about this fake sport other than when the "fake" athletes pump themselves up.

Sorry, that's my fault for wording it wrong - I meant that they didn't get any further scrutiny that might have been truly damaging or impactful in the way that it's hit other sectors of the entertainment industry.

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I wanted to write a massive investigative piece looking at the treatment of women within wrestling in general and the WWE in particular, but since I'm a nobody with only he said-she said stories (mainly he said, since a lot of these guys quite openly brag about this stuff) and zero connections in the wrestling world, I wasn't even able to get a polite go fuck myself when I raised the issue with some prominent wrestling journalists so hit a bit of wall.

As far as this accusation goes, maybe it happened, maybe it didn't. What does she have to gain by making up a story about a guy who is dead? Nothing except getting the truth out there, so I lean towards believing her.

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@SpursRiot2012 Probably less to do with you being a "nobody", and more that the journalists themselves will never expose it, due to who their sources are. Meltzer just refused to report of any of the horrible stuff Flair does. Mike Johnson's not going to unearth all those secrets about his ECW pals, which would land them all in jail for years.

Look at how Wade Keller and Mark Madden were treated when they reported on the SMW race riot. Jim Cornette called a security guard the n-word and a big fight broke out between the redneck fans in the crowd. Wade Keller and Madden reported on it, talking about how this was bound to happen due to Cornette booking a cheap heat angle featuring the Gangstas and the Rock n Roll Express to bite off the OJ Simpson/LA Riots stuff that was going on at the time. How does Cornette respond? By calling Keller and Madden's houses (both living with their mothers at the time), and left a message on the answer machine, where Cornette said something about slapping the "n-gger cock" out of her mouth. Keller said on his audio update a few years back he still has the message on a cassette.

I love wrestling journalism. Its fucking madness, and gossipy and I love all that. But at the heart of it, most of them are all protecting their friends. Its a horrible business.

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Yeah, there's no 'in' with a lot of these guys from an outsider's perspective. In most cases, I made it clear that what I mainly was looking for was some indication that whatever particular story I was looking at, that there was actually something credible there. You know, "hey Dave, remember when X said Y did Z? You don't have to go into detail on it, I just need to know if there's anything actually there or if it's likely, in that case, to be bullshit."

Meltzer properly pushes the idea that he's a journalist in his reportage. But no real journalist, no journalist with ethics - shit, journalistic ethics is like lesson one of journalism school - or morals, would turn a blind eye to some of the shit we all know about just because he happens to like the person involved. I've actually lost a lot of whatever respect I had for Meltzer, gradually, over the years because his biases are so blatant that it's hard to give him credibility. Yeah, he has sources, and he should protect those sources no matter what, but he can protect his sources while also behaving like an actual journalist would.

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Did you try reaching out to those who came forward with their stories of abuse?  They'd be more likely to want to get their story out there instead of those who want to bury the story and keep it hidden.  The insular nature of wrestling is really apparent.  Football is bad enough for an outsider but it seems like in wrestling you've got no chance.

3 minutes ago, SpursRiot2012 said:

but he can protect his sources while also behaving like an actual journalist would.

The fucker can't even behave like an actual person would.

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12 minutes ago, SpursRiot2012 said:

Butďťżďťż no real journalist, no journalist with ethics - shit, journalistic ethics is like lesson one of journalism school - or morals, ďťżwould ďťżturn a blind eye to some of the shit we all know about just becauseďťż he happens to like the person involved.

Journalists without morals or selecting the story that suits them or their preferred circle is not exclusive to wrestling. Let's not be naive here. 

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1 hour ago, IANdrewDiceClay said:

@SpursRiot2012 Probably less to do with you being a "nobody", and more that the journalists themselves will never expose it, due to who their sources are. Meltzer just refused to report of any of the horrible stuff Flair does. Mike Johnson's not going to unearth all those secrets about his ECW pals, which would land them all in jail for years.

Look at how Wade Keller and Mark Madden were treated when they reported on the SMW race riot. Jim Cornette called a security guard the n-word and a big fight broke out between the redneck fans in the crowd. Wade Keller and Madden reported on it, talking about how this was bound to happen due to Cornette booking a cheap heat angle featuring the Gangstas and the Rock n Roll Express to bite off the OJ Simpson/LA Riots stuff that was going on at the time. How does Cornette respond? By calling Keller and Madden's houses (both living with their mothers at the time), and left a message on the answer machine, where Cornette said something about slapping the "n-gger cock" out of her mouth. Keller said on his audio update a few years back he still has the message on a cassette.

I love wrestling journalism. Its fucking madness, and gossipy and I love all that. But at the heart of it, most of them are all protecting their friends. Its a horrible business.

To be fair, they were old enough to not be living with their mommy any more. 😉

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If its bad now imagine what the likes of  Sherri went through in the 80s 

Saying that wasn't she universally respected and it considered an honor to receive her as a manager??

Remember a shoot where Michael's said he moaned about landing Sherri but was then told by the locker room it was a BIG deal as she only worked with the stars. 

As a total aside, easily for me the best female valet, wrestler, heel of all time. 

 

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