On 4/12/2021 at 6:11 PM, rovert said:

There's been genuine WWE/NXT cuts rumours the last 3 weeks or so internally. People are on edge.

Well, they have to pay for Nick Khan's $5 million sign-on bonus, $6.8 million in stock awards and his base salary of $498,462.

And Vince's $3.9 million ($1.4 million in base salary, $1.64 million in stock awards, $854,000 in incentives and $20,583 in other compensations).

And Princess Steph's $2.2 million ($724,115 base, $464,778 stock, $222,650 in incentives, and $775,723 in other compensation - her performance/merch contract).

And while they're throwing money around, loser son-in-law Hunter needs $2.38 million ($724,115 in base salary, $464,778 in stock awards, $222,650 in incentives, and $906,737 in other compensations - his performance/merch contract) to help pay the bills.

Black sheep Shane-O has a has a performer's contract paying a minimum of $820,369 (for what? A handful of interviews and 15 minutes of sweating profusely wrestling?)

Source: Proxy statement issued under SEC regulations

I gotta say. Vince and Steph are underpaid and I'm not even kidding. 

I'm pretty sure they make their real money with their company stocks. They'll be fine lol

Yeah the McMahon family (other than Shane I believe) make all their money off their ownership of WWE stock, and honestly since Nick Khan was the one who made the billion dollar Peacock deal happen he deserves all the money they paid him. 

 

What kind of psycho was calling the WCW Hotline in 1993 to talk to Ole Anderson at midnight?

5 minutes ago, strobogo said:

What kind of psycho was calling the WCW Hotline in 1993 to talk to Ole Anderson at midnight?

If the internet has taught me anything, it's that if something exists there's someone that's into it. And I mean "into it" in all possible contexts. 

Well there was some real implication that if you called the Hotline, Ole would tell you sex stories about Missy and the Nasty Boys. If someone was into it, I hope they were put on a list and are still tracked to this day.

On 4/12/2021 at 9:11 AM, rovert said:

There's been genuine WWE/NXT cuts rumours the last 3 weeks or so internally. People are on edge.

I've only heard the opposite with AEW and no matter how much fans online write spurious and bafflingly lists of talent they would cut in a recent fad.

Sorry to quote myself but this has materialised. Billie Kay and Mickie James gone

Not sure why it's baffling to you that people would make lists of expendable AEW folks, they clearly have too many people signed for the TV time they have. Tony's made it clear he doesn't want to cut people until things are back to something close to normal and he sees AEW as a lifeboat for wrestlers during the pandemic. So clearly they aren't going to actually cut anyone based on a list compiled by some rando on the internet. Besides, wrestling fans in the internet like to make lists of things, it's what they do. 

 

It's crazy how much better of a wrestling program Saturday Night is in 1993 compared to Raw. In terms of like...everything. Better wrestling, better commentary, better production, better squashes, better weekly storylines, better build to PPVs, better characters and motivations. I think the only thing you could maybe argue is better on Raw at this point was the ring mat.

1 hour ago, strobogo said:

It's crazy how much better of a wrestling program Saturday Night is in 1993 compared to Raw. In terms of like...everything. Better wrestling, better commentary, better production, better squashes, better weekly storylines, better build to PPVs, better characters and motivations. I think the only thing you could maybe argue is better on Raw at this point was the ring mat.

I always thought JCP/WCW had better jobbers and squash matches than WWE did. It felt like WWE always had bottom of the barrel job guys except when Cornette was bringing like Rhino and the Hardys in.

18 hours ago, Mad Dog said:

I always thought JCP/WCW had better jobbers and squash matches than WWE did. It felt like WWE always had bottom of the barrel job guys except when Cornette was bringing like Rhino and the Hardys in.

I don't know... WWE's jobbers had actual characters and personality - Brooklyn Brawler, Barry Horowitz, Jim Powers, Duane Gill and Barry Hardy, Jim Brunzell (who was a bottom of the barrel job guy by the early '90s), etc.

As for the WCW job guys, I always thought Mike Thor would get more of a push. He seemed to have "the look." I never understood why Rip Rogers was a WCW jobber either.

With all of that said, the one awesome thing WCW did was that Battle of the Underdogs series on WCW Saturday Night. Bob Cook was pretty great. Mustafa Saed was also in it.

WWF jobbers had so much character and personality they would end up being cult favorites like Pete Doherty in Boston.

JCP/WCW also had the unfortunate trend of relying too much on masked jobbers. Sure, WWF did that too (The Conquistadors, Black Demon, Black Knight), but WCW kind of used it to excess, to the point where they even showed on on Clash of the Champions shows, pretty much helping to kill the credibility of masked wrestlers (it wasnt until the luchador explosion in the US, and later Kane, that masked guys were taken seriously again).

WWF jobbers in the Raw era sucked outside of Chris Hammerick doing his bump once in a while and a couple of cool names like LA Gore. Otherwise it's just a bunch of shitty ECW guys and like....Thrasher. The squashes themselves also weren't fun unless it was the Steiners or Yoko killing dudes. Unlike WCW where those jobbers got WORK. 

Watching Wrestlewar 92, anyone know what the story was behind the Ron Simmons/Junkyard Dog vs Mr. Hugues/Cactus Jack tag match? Cactus takes out JYD before the match leading to it being changed to a Ron Simmons vs Mr. Hugues singles match. Was JYD injured? Some storyline reason to take him out? 

24 minutes ago, Flyin' Brian said:

Watching Wrestlewar 92, anyone know what the story was behind the Ron Simmons/Junkyard Dog vs Mr. Hugues/Cactus Jack tag match? Cactus takes out JYD before the match leading to it being changed to a Ron Simmons vs Mr. Hugues singles match. Was JYD injured? Some storyline reason to take him out? 

No idea if he was injured, but having Junkyard Dog and Mr. Hughes on opposite sides probably led to the angle where JYD accidentally blinded Hughes by punching his sunglasses into his eyes, showed compassion, and Hughes turned babyface and became tag team partners with Junkyard Dog as "Big Cat" Curtis Hughes.

I vaguely remember reading a few months back about this A&E doc series that would start its run with an Austin doc - didn't realise it's already here. Is this series WWE-afiliated or will they actually approach taboo topics for their subjects?

The documentary was ok, but didnt delve into anything we didnt know already. Actually, I enjoyed the show afterwards where Foley and some other guy visited wrestling memorabilia collectors to acquire rare items more.

Did they mention any of the Austin issues behind the scenes, like his domestic abuse, or was it all a total fluff piece?

Pretty much a fluff piece, though he did say he "did some bad things" during his departure from the WWE. Legal issues probably prevent him from going into details about him and Debra.

16 hours ago, Coffey said:

Did they mention any of the Austin issues behind the scenes, like his domestic abuse, or was it all a total fluff piece?

Did you really think it would go anywhere near his domestic abuse issues? 

Am I the only one who thinks Ice Train was underrated? I'm going through a watch through of 1996 PPVs, and I just got to the Fall Brawl match he had with Scott Norton and I have to say, he was actually pretty good. He had some well-done power moves and moved around quite well (and a few shows before that we had that banger with him and Norton vs the Steiners). He's apparently working on a comeback, hopefully it goes well for him.

Ice Train was awesome. WCW had amazing jobbers. Ice Train, Pittman, High Voltage, etc. were awesome. Powerhouse Hobbs reminds me of Ice Train. That pretty much made me an instant fan. I hope Train does something fun and impressive in 2021. In other news, Alex Wright is in great shape. I want all WCW 90's jobbers and midcarders are surprise 2022 Rumble entrants.

I always wondered what Ice Train did between leaving in 1997 and coming back ask M I Smooth in late 00/early 01.