It's not TNA execs, it was SPIKE

Who are all these nameless TNA executives and wives anyway? This from a company that has had little people masturbate in trash cans on television.

Not that I disagree with the point of your post, Loss, because I think you're right, but Puppet the Psycho Dwarf was from TNA's early days on PPV, before Panda got involved. Not that TNA hasn't put questionable things on TV tons of times, just look at the Jordan "milk" incident from a week or so ago.

 

I'd imagine the executive in question would be some Panda energy bigwig or maybe someone with Spike. I can understand them going to a hotel bar, they're usually a bit more upscale than your average standalone bar.

 

Edit: Kris beat me to the punch.

It's not TNA execs, it was SPIKE

I didn't think it was a TNA exec. Either Spike or a sponsor or some other related high roller.

 

And in a sense, he was a dumb ass for taking his wife into a bar around wrestlers if she would get offended by *anything* vulgar.

 

That's not to say Jordon's boyfriend wasn't being stupid as well.

 

John

Who are all these nameless TNA executives and wives anyway? This from a company that has had little people masturbate in trash cans on television.

You get the feeling that Spike executives wouldn't watch an entire show all the way through. We're wrestling fans, and even we have a tough time with it.

 

Orlando's boyfriend was put in one of those strange, only in wrestling spots. On air, TNA is pushing the relationship and going over-the-top in it. He could have read into it that what he was doing in the bar was perfectly acceptable in that crowd because it wasn't terribly different than what TNA was pushing on air. He probably didn't understood the wrestling business isn't even at the "center right" part of the spectrum... though one would think Orlando does, and would hip him. The on air side of the angle exists simply to get Orlando heat, and almost certainly over time to play as a joke. And much of TNA doesn't care for the storyline, and probably the majority that don't mind it are of the mindset that they's just as soon *not* see a pair of gay men together "off hours" when hanging out.

 

My comment about Orlando's boyfriend possible being "stupid" hits that: Orlando and/or he sadly need to know that the hipocracy of pro wrestling is that no matter how hard TNA pushes the storyline on air, they're still going to run into lots of TNA related folks who don't care for it. They're going to catch shit for it, and no doubt run into double standards. There are folks literally looking for reasons to get rid of them. He needs to be smart in what fire he does or doesn't add to it. Smarten up and don't unwittingly give them a reason.

 

John

Dave also mentioning families walking out of the taping is something he was sort of cryptic about. Was he just reporting as fact, or was he saying that based on that, they should drop the angle? Because Dave has spoken out against portraying black wrestlers as heels because of the perception the audience is racist in the past, so this would be no different, would it not?

Here's what Dave said about this angle two months ago, which is after they shot the first "gay kiss" angle but didn't air it:

 

Fact of life in wrestling

 

It is not about enlightenment.

 

It is about building an audience.

 

If the angle causes people to turn off their TV sets in disgust, even if they shouldn't, that's a bad angle.

 

Paul E learned that one the hard way when everyone praised him about some lesbian kiss, and then they got kicked off one of their networks over it. It wasn't a good angle either.

Can anyone confirm for me that Heyman claimed that the Beulah/Kimona angle was part of a plan to attract bisexual fans? Mitchell made reference to that in a '96 Torch column but I've never heard it anywhere else.

Is it really that out of reach for a wrestling company to portray a gay character in something resembling an intelligent matter? I think the problem isn't so much as "he's gay... that's sick" but rather who'd want to see a guy come on stage and freak someone out by squirting whats supposedly semen all over himself. Even soaps run gay storylines all the time and never seem to offend people and god knows their writing isn't anything special.

Wrestling fans are predominately male between between the ages of 18-49 and I would bet a solid majority of them don't view homosexuality in a favorable matter. Soap operas go for the female demo of the same age and it's a totally different situation.

Is it really that out of reach for a wrestling company to portray a gay character in something resembling an intelligent matter? I think the problem isn't so much as "he's gay... that's sick" but rather who'd want to see a guy come on stage and freak someone out by squirting whats supposedly semen all over himself. Even soaps run gay storylines all the time and never seem to offend people and god knows their writing isn't anything special.

I'm not talking about anyone here, of course, but the problem with that line of thinking is that wrestling isn't marketed to the same audience as soaps, it's marketed to, well, total meatheads. I bet they didn't do too many gay kisses on Baywatch.

 

I just can't believe they're doing this angle when Bischoff knows full well how it's going to pan out thanks to the Lenny and Lodi thing: the crowd is going to chant "faggot" during OJ's matches, someone from GLAAD will take notice and he'll be pulled off TV by the summer. But nobody in TNA has learned anything from WCW.

That's the key thing: they think WCW "worked". Anything and everything that went wrong in WCW as someone else's fault.

 

They really are a delusional bunch.

 

John

Shocking news: Todd Martin didn't like tonight's Raw.

 

At this point, I really don't get why he keeps watching a show he clearly hates. They're never going to do anything he likes, why keep punishing himself? Dave doesn't pay for these gigs does he?

very clear that Dave, Bryan and Todd had no idea who Forte and Wiig were (or any idea about the MacGruber character) This would all be fine if they didn't make fun of Vince McMahon for knowing nothing about pop culture

Yeah, I loved this quote:

 

This was the sort of segment that enhances the perception that only mentally handicapped people are fans of 21st century WWE.

Although, when I say stuff like that, I mean it as a compliment.

I thought Todd retired from recapping? Was it simply leaving WO-4 and heading elsewhere?

 

John

I was surprised to see it up on the WON site as well this morning.

I'm guessing there was a write-in campaign to keep him recapping.

 

John

HA yeah I'm sure it was Babinsack & Wahlers doing the writing in.

Looks like Dave and Bryan got Todd to stay by giving him his own fortnightly guest appearance on Figure Four Daily.

No....NO.

Looks like Dave and Bryan got Todd to stay by giving him his own fortnightly guest appearance on Figure Four Daily.

Fuck, that's like the equivalent of Vince convincing a wrestler with a bad character and not much of a push he doesn't want to stick around by promising a World title run down the road.

Dave and Bryan are trying to heed their own advice and focus on building new stars.

Dave and Bryan are trying to heed their own advice and focus on building new stars.

Okay... that had me choking on the granola bar that I was eating.

 

John

Yeah but this is like pushing Sean Waltman as a main eventer in 2000.

I hope Todd mentions that WWE needs more long-term planning and clean finishes, should stop giving away big matches on free TV, should focus more on championship belts, needs to create new stars, and needs to just use bullet points for promos instead of scripting them. Because we don't hear those points enough.