Wrestling Newz

[BrodyGraham 612]

Is this the new mega thread?

ROH have announced the passing of their second ever Champion, Xavier.

A former ECW security guard, Xavier started as a decent mid card body guy in ROH before turning heel to beat Low Ki for the belt. In a way he was a proto Cena/Roman, the ROH fans reacting badly to the perceived push above his station and it wasn't long before he dropped the belt to Samoa Joe, helping to launch one of the better wrestling careers so far this century.

I loved early ROH and Xavier was fairly prominent at the time. He's been retired for a while but was supposed to wrestle Jay Lethal at the throwback shows in March before Covid put paid to that.

 

[Supremo 6,868]

Rusev reveals Vinny Mac thought the fans were chanting “Rusev Day,” ironically. Incredible. This company would miss The Rock if he came around today.

https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/rusev-vince-mcmahon-told-me-fans-were-mocking-me-when-chanting-rusev-day?amp&__twitter_impression=true

Appearing on The Ryback Show, Rusev discussed wanting to become a diverse perform in WWE, similar to Kurt Angle, who could switch from a comedy act to a wrestling machine and people still bought into the character. 

Rusev wondered why he couldn't do the same thing.

"Why can't I do that? Why can't I show my personality backstage? Why can't I go in the ring and do what I do? Then I was told, 'Don't look at the people, don't smile, don't do this.' Really? Everything I'm doing, it seems the people are liking it. Why am I getting over and you're telling me to do the opposite? I didn't understand, I had a conversation with Vince and he told me that with Rusev Day, they were just mocking me, they didn't mean it," he recalled.

Rusev continued, "[Rusev Day] was going on. There was no way the office didn't notice because it was before, after, during the show. It was everywhere. I always felt defeated because what was I doing it for? It was all competition and finally, I got to a point of, 'wow, we're doing something right.' There's no way it wasn't noticed. The first meeting it was, 'they're fucking with you, they don't mean what they're saying.' I respect and I listen because I always want to listen from Vince. He had everybody on his side. In my mind, I knew it wasn't true. They started putting my segments early so the 'Rusev Day' chants would go away. I was not even supposed to be on WrestleMania, the year I lost to Jinder. I was not on TV for three weeks. I'm sitting backstage all night and listening to people chant 'Rusev Day.' I went to one of the writers and I'm like, 'This is not right.' This is the first time I yelled at a writer, and I felt bad. He was like, 'We don't know what to do.' What do you mean you don't know what to do? Just listen. They'll tell you what to do. They're shoving me down and I don't understand why. What am I fighting for? I did everything, right? I went to acting classes, I started working on my body, I did all the extra stuff. I was just defeated. When Vince said the second time, 'they're fucking with you,' I said, 'Vince, we have sold out all of our merchandise.' 'What do you mean?' 'The shirt is sold out.' 'Well, maybe they didn't make enough.' 'They didn't make enough shirts, that's why it's sold out? Not because we're doing good? Really?' Then they didn't know what to do, good guy or bad guy, come on, man."

He concluded by saying, "What am I doing, why am I giving everything I had? I understand it's my dream, but gosh darn. Thank God I did good enough with my investments, I don't need to work there at all. My wife works there, she is happy, good for her, I am done."

 

[Snitsky's back acne 768]

Vince has officially lost it. 

[HarmonicGenerator 3,655]

I had wondered how they so wilfully ignore audience reactions these days. Telling themselves the fans are “fucking with you” when they cheer for people. Wow.

[Winston 73]

2 hours ago, Supremo said:

Rusev reveals Vinny Mac thought the fans were chanting “Rusev Day,” ironically. Incredible. This company would miss The Rock if he came around today.

https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/rusev-vince-mcmahon-told-me-fans-were-mocking-me-when-chanting-rusev-day?amp&__twitter_impression=true
 

 

Awful reading that. They are completely incapable of getting the people they want over and the people who get over organically get punished for it.

 He's literally running his own company into the ground. It's completely unrecognisable from the product we all fell in love with as kids.

[Your Fight Site 1,071]

5 minutes ago, Winston said:

He's literally running his own company into the ground. It's completely unrecognisable from the product we all fell in love with as kids.

Why do people keep trotting this line out? Is he? WWE is a multi-million dollar company. Hardly on its arse.

[wordsfromlee 3,244]

WWE have just had their most profitable quarter ever. Hardly call that “running his own company into the ground”. 
 

Some would say the opposite. By that, I mean everyone. 

[Hannibal Scorch 3,117]

It's like us saying The Simpson's is shit now, and has been since season 10. A whole new generation is watching it now, and so we're no longer the target audience. So with WWE, we can say it's currently awful, yet my 10 year old godson would think it's amazing, because it's what he is used to watching. Hence why it's financially doing so well.

[Shy Dad 1,236]

I am still baffled how they didn't push him further or make more money with him. His Twitch and YouTube have shown him to be charismatic in front of a camera while chatting and it's not as if even if he is Bulgarian people struggle to understand what he's saying with his accent. People like The Rock hosted Saturday Night Live and Cena makes movies, it's hard to understand how a big, likeable, comfortable talking guy wasn't being pushed by corporate more to be on chat shows, like the space that was there with him and Lana to do something along the lines of Miz and Mrs or have him be more prominent in Total Divas. 

You just I guess hope that they don't drop the ball with Big E right now. The guys essentially in Rusevs position a few years ago where he's standing head and shoulders over a lot of the roster in charisma, untapped potential and talent. 

[andrew "the ref" coyne 131]

5 hours ago, Supremo said:

Rusev reveals Vinny Mac thought the fans were chanting “Rusev Day,” ironically. Incredible. This company would miss The Rock if he came around today.

https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/rusev-vince-mcmahon-told-me-fans-were-mocking-me-when-chanting-rusev-day?amp&__twitter_impression=true
 

 

Fuck me. I feel for the guy. That is prime beef gas lighting right there. Reminds me of a company I previously worked for;

You work your arse off, knock all your goals, continue to train and generally do everything right, only for your unethical as shit manager to tell you your doing a shit job (and thus lose out on pay rises and bonuses). Meanwhile the useless guy, whose parents happen to be friends with the owner of the business, gets all the credit and preferential treatment. It happens in the real world and it's fucking disgusting.

Thankfully I've moved on to a new company who are treating me very well and recognizing my work. The best thing you (or Rusev) can do is move on. But it's hard... because you're working for a company that everyone believes is the greatest company in it's industry, so you feel a pressure to succeed in that environment. It's soul destroying.

I hope Rusev goes on to NJPW or AEW and be allowed to be whatever he wants. He's fucking awesome.

[The Cutting Edge 153]

I think some guys want and think they deserve to what they want creatively and forget its still a job and they are the employee or "independent contractor".

I get its a creative and artistic business of sorts but they're views and ideas may not match those of the company or direction they wanna go in.

It's the same in my job I get to use my ideas but same time I'm paid to do a job.

AEW needs to find a balance between it 

 

[air_raid 3,556]

19 hours ago, BrodyGraham said:

In a way he was a proto Cena/Roman, the ROH fans reacting badly to the perceived push above his station and it wasn't long before he dropped the belt to Samoa Joe, helping to launch one of the better wrestling careers so far this century.

He was the total opposite.

Cena and Roman were pushed as top babyface and people booed them because they didn’t like them enough to see the “push” as justified, the opposite reaction to what the company wanted.

Xavier was a heel who cheated to get beyond where his ability should have taken him, dethrone a beloved champ and constantly thwart beloved challengers. People booed him because they hated him, the exact reaction the company wanted.

[hallicks 971]

On 8/17/2020 at 9:48 PM, Your Fight Site said:

Why do people keep trotting this line out? Is he? WWE is a multi-million dollar company. Hardly on its arse.

I think blithely approaching the edge of the waterfall is a better analogy. The ratings are in the bin, they have an ageing audience, there's too much first run programming gradually wearing even the most hardcore fans out, the television production could be world class but it's implemented appallingly, everything is written to the taste of a strange old man.

Sky left them after 30 years. Raw is a loss leader for USA. Fox paid over a billion dollars for Jeff Hardy chucking a glass of wee over Sheamus. Financially, they're fine at the moment but I don't see them getting the same kind of money for TV next time the deals are renewed. It just feels untenable. "Yes, Vince, here's $2.5 billion for your show watched by 400,000 people."

[The Dart 462]

21 minutes ago, hallicks said:

Financially, they're fine at the moment but I don't see them getting the same kind of money for TV next time the deals are renewed. 

Isn't that what everyone was saying last time?

[hallicks 971]

15 minutes ago, The Dart said:

Isn't that what everyone was saying last time?

True, but there must come a point at which they don't keep getting more money for less and less viewers.