DavidB6937 Posted April 16, 2020 Share Posted April 16, 2020 People will have sat down and figured this all out. It's a massive business and these decisions aren't taken lightly. It's all well and good us sitting here and analysing what we think they should do, and what is morally right etc - but are morals going to keep their company surviving through all of this? Vince isn't stupid. Neither are the other people in charge of the company. Dodgy folk indeed, and plenty of questionable behaviour over the years, but EVERY business out there is doing what it can at the moment to get through this unusual situation. Especially considering the nosedive in TV ratings etc, I completely understand why they want to be more careful with money at the moment. It's about longer term survival. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Devon Malcolm Posted April 16, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted April 16, 2020 Some great efforts to make kidzero look almost alright in this thread this morning, lads, nicely done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Chris B Posted April 16, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted April 16, 2020 8 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said: People will have sat down and figured this all out. It's a massive business and these decisions aren't taken lightly. It's all well and good us sitting here and analysing what we think they should do, and what is morally right etc - but are morals going to keep their company surviving through all of this? Vince isn't stupid. Neither are the other people in charge of the company. Dodgy folk indeed, and plenty of questionable behaviour over the years, but EVERY business out there is doing what it can at the moment to get through this unusual situation. Especially considering the nosedive in TV ratings etc, I completely understand why they want to be more careful with money at the moment. It's about longer term survival. 57 minutes ago, JNLister said: How much cash/credit WWE have on hand is only relevant if keeping these guys on staff is going to put WWE in the red. If they're saving $4 million a month, that means they'd have to be on course for less than $48 million a year profits before these layoffs are necessary to avoid eating into cash reserves. Last year they made just under $100 million in profits and that was with only four months of the new TV deals. This year they've got the ludicrous money coming in all year, with a rise in September. There's no house shows for the foreseeable, but they weren't making much of a profit on those anyway. They're still getting a healthy wodge from the Network even if subs are falling. Merchandise will be down because they've got fewer outlets to sell it. The Saudi money's probably gone, though the profits on that aren't as high as they seem given the payoffs to the big names. Upshot is, it's highly unlikely the profits this year wouldn't have been enough to pay these guys, so the size of the piggy bank is a red herring. This doesn't sound like survival. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members BomberPat Posted April 16, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted April 16, 2020 1 hour ago, Winston said: AEW won't want to flood their roster with all these guys right now either, they'll be going through the same financial hardship and will only do what budget dictates. I think guys like Rusev, Ryder & EC3 would be a shoe-in though. Even if this happened in ordinary times, I'd be wary if I were in AEW's shoes. I can see Cody et al probably want to hire everyone they can, because a lot of them will be their mates and they don't want them out of a livelihood, but while you can get a lot of kudos for hiring someone and being able to say, "WWE never saw this person's potential, we'll let them reach it", it's a fine line between that and picking up every WWE cast-off you can get your hands on. The OC getting released actually surprised me most, because they've just gone from a featured part in a Wrestlemania main event to the employment line, and because for whatever reason I figured Anderson would be set for life with an agent's role after he retired. Karl Anderson had been the main gaijin booker for NJPW during his stint there, so if he's prepared to go back to Japan for an extended stint (I believe part of his justification for signing with WWE was being able to wind down his career closer to his family) there's absolutely a role there waiting for him - though at the moment, it looks like NJPW may effectively not be running shows until next year. Both of the OC will have a guaranteed spot in AEW if they want it, I'm sure. I feel bad for Spud, because he's exactly the kind of guy WWE should be trying to keep under lock and key. He's entertaining, and clearly game for anything. He's never going to make them a ton of money, but he's not going to be costing them much either, and he has that William Regal quality of being prepared to do the most humiliating, ridiculous skits possible if it's going to get a laugh, to be a talking head on whatever documentary they want, and basically slot in wherever they want him. Madness to let him go, and sad that he's basically considering packing it all in because of this. I feel bad for Lance Storm, too. Packed up his wrestling school, sold of all its assets and whatnot, uprooted his life to come work for WWE, and he's gone less than a year later. Hopefully once things are up and running a lot of the producers/road agents they've sacked off will be welcomed back. Speaking of producers, though, if there is a "get" for AEW, it should be Fit Finlay. Selfishly I want to see him doing another mad world tour fighting all over the place like he did last time he was released, but AEW could do a lot worse than bringing him in as an agent and hoping he can give their women's division the sort of boost he gave WWE's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted April 16, 2020 Share Posted April 16, 2020 16 minutes ago, Chris B said: Should have just given them PS4s on their way out to make everything okay. Zing! 11 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said: People will have sat down and figured this all out. It's a massive business and these decisions aren't taken lightly. It's all well and good us sitting here and analysing what we think they should do, and what is morally right etc - but are morals going to keep their company surviving through all of this? Vince isn't stupid. Neither are the other people in charge of the company. Dodgy folk indeed, and plenty of questionable behaviour over the years, but EVERY business out there is doing what it can at the moment to get through this unusual situation. Especially considering the nosedive in TV ratings etc, I completely understand why they want to be more careful with money at the moment. It's about longer term survival. You're right, Vince isn't stupid. He's morally bankrupt, of course, but that's well known. As I said, he's probably been advised that he should cut the staff he did now, who'll get paid their three month downside and can be recalled during that period if business picks up, rather than wait until the shit really hits the fan before letting them go and having to cover the three months at that point. What's more surprising to me than Vince doing what he did is the anger and disbelief that he'd do something like this. He's a cunt, anyone who knows anything about him knows that. His business comes first. Always has. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UK Kat Von D Posted April 16, 2020 Share Posted April 16, 2020 12 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said: Some great efforts to make kidzero look almost alright in this thread this morning, lads, nicely done. Bootlickers will always jump to the defence of billionaires, they love it for some reason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grecian Posted April 16, 2020 Share Posted April 16, 2020 Not trying to defend Vince at all, just simply looking at things from a business and financial perspective. I think it's utter shit that it's happened, as it is whenever anyone loses a job through absolutely no fault of their own. Of those released, how many were being regularly featured on TV? Arguably Rusev with his cuck storyline, the OC as AJ's sidekicks, Sarah Logan was a body for Shayna to beat in the Elimination Chamber - I doubt any of the others were on the cusp of a main event push? How many already wanted to leave - Kanellis had publically asked for his release, Purrazzo has said she'd been struggling, Rusev clearly wasn't chuffed with life, the OC took a long time to sign a new contract. At least by going now, assuming they've had the 3 months pay WWE usually doles out for the no-compete clause, they can pretty much sign with anyone and go back to work in the summer. Again, I'm not saying it's right, not in the slightest. But for Vince, his company and his shareholders come first, as they always do for any businessman. I guess I've grown accustomed over the years to billionaires being utter shitbags - look at Mike Ashley's daily behaviour, Branson suing the NHS, Jeff Bezos and the treatment of Amazon staff. Why would anyone think Vince would act any differently now? To be honest, I'd be more surprised if he hadn't done this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperBacon Posted April 16, 2020 Share Posted April 16, 2020 14 minutes ago, UK Kat Von D said: Bootlickers will always jump to the defence of billionaires, they love it for some reason 23 hours ago, UK Kat Von D said: Well they aren’t holding live shows every week like WWE and have only announced one show to take place in five weeks time. So it isn’t really the same level as what WWE are doing. That being said they really should save it for when regular attendance shows are back on, for both safety and creative reasons. They postponed Blood and Guts because they knew it wouldn’t work without a live crowd, don’t see how this is different Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidB6937 Posted April 16, 2020 Share Posted April 16, 2020 13 minutes ago, David said: What's more surprising to me than Vince doing what he did is the anger and disbelief that he'd do something like this. He's a cunt, anyone who knows anything about him knows that. His business comes first. Always has. He's always always always been business first. Completely. He didn't give a shit about other territories, or other companies, or anything like that. Not unless there was something in it for him. So it's really not that surprising that he's let people go who probably wouldn't be of any long term benefit to him. I suppose the difficult thing about running such a massive company - and this goes beyond what Vince wants - is the shareholders and those invested in WWE, the sponsors, the TV networks, the areas relying on WWE coming to town and making them money etc. Decisions can't just be made because Vince says so and that's the end of it. I know it seems like it's just his playtoy a lot of the time, but there's a much bigger picture. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UK Kat Von D Posted April 16, 2020 Share Posted April 16, 2020 (edited) @SuperBacon I don’t understand what connection you are trying to make there? Are you accusing me of defending billionaires because I think three live shows a week is more than one show in five weeks? Edited April 16, 2020 by UK Kat Von D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members garynysmon Posted April 16, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted April 16, 2020 28 minutes ago, BomberPat said: Even if this happened in ordinary times, I'd be wary if I were in AEW's shoes. I can see Cody et al probably want to hire everyone they can, because a lot of them will be their mates and they don't want them out of a livelihood, but while you can get a lot of kudos for hiring someone and being able to say, "WWE never saw this person's potential, we'll let them reach it", it's a fine line between that and picking up every WWE cast-off you can get your hands on. TBH AEW's roster is already too big and can't feature what it has on TV as it is. You'd have to think that ROH, Impact and the NWA would be looking at some of these names, budgets allowing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperBacon Posted April 16, 2020 Share Posted April 16, 2020 6 minutes ago, UK Kat Von D said: @SuperBacon I don’t understand what connection you are trying to make there? Are you accusing me of defending billionaires because I think three live shows a week is more than one show in five weeks? Chill out babe, it's just a joke. I'm having a poo, and it amused me x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted April 16, 2020 Share Posted April 16, 2020 21 minutes ago, UK Kat Von D said: Bootlickers will always jump to the defence of billionaires, they love it for some reason Most aren't defending Vince at all though, are they? A few zoomers are, but for the most part it's just people looking at why WWE would go down this road beyond the "because they're cunts!" default position. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted April 16, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted April 16, 2020 1 minute ago, garynysmon said: TBH AEW's roster is already too big and can't feature what it has on TV as it is. And half of them are shit arses like Jimmy Havoc and Chuck Taylor. Though tbh I don't want a bunch of ex WWE guys coming to AEW. I'd be content with just Rusev and Drake Maverick (in a non wrestling role). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UK Kat Von D Posted April 16, 2020 Share Posted April 16, 2020 7 minutes ago, SuperBacon said: Chill out babe, it's just a joke. I'm having a poo, and it amused me x I don’t get it, but then I don’t understand why @David thinks my bootlicking comment wasn’t directed at him either. The guy thinks Epstein killed himself which is basically deepthroating the boot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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