This reminds me of the time Hunter hit JR with some stiff shoot punches in MSG cuz he was pissed about a payoff from years before and Vince had thrown JR under the bus for it. 

It's worth remembering that Gallows and Anderson had told the Bucks and Omega for six months that they were coming in no matter what and then re-upped with WWE right before they were scheduled to meet with Tony Khan. He understandably felt burned, which is why no AEW offer was forthcoming after WWE released them. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

Which also means WWE gave them stupid money not to leave, then used said stupid money as reason to fire them during a pandemic. 

10 hours ago, DMJ said:

 It hinges on the idea that Heyman thought it was a wise cost-cutting move...when, as far as I know, Paul Heyman has no incentive to give a single shit about the WWE's finances (which, by the way, were fine anyway). 

While I don't necessarily believe the story and think The Good Brothers and especially AJ Styles come across as excessively naive, one plausible explanation would be if Heyman was able to save two of his favorites - whoever that would be, let the speculation begin - by presenting Anderson and Gallows as better options for the chopping block instead. Their inflated contracts were probably no secret within the company.

19 hours ago, sek69 said:

Which also means WWE gave them stupid money not to leave, then used said stupid money as reason to fire them during a pandemic. 

Although you really have to question the lawyers on the contract if they got stupid money in a contract that allowed them to be cut with 90 days notice. 

I'd imagine that trying to negotiate the 90 day clause in order to sign a truly guaranteed contract would be out of the question for anyone outside of Cena and Brock. It probably would have been circumspect of them to do such a thing, and when it was inevitably declined use that as justification for turning down the money. I can say from personal experience that it's no fun to take the money and then get the rug pulled out from under you a short time later. It's also difficult to turn down the money when you know it's better than you'll get on the open market though.

In that case, then, this was unfortunately foreseeable. If you're getting paid far above your actual value, you're going to be a target of cuts. I guess you could say they felt at the time that WWE was years from ending their roster hoarding, but it goes back to the idea we've been discussing of not wanting to pin your trust on Vince McMahon.

So, WWE made record profit of USD 40 billion this quarter. The fact that there were any layoffs and furloughs because of the pandemic when the company is making money hands over fist is not surprising, but it should really show once and for all what kind of promotion WWE is. 

Vince also said that the reason AEW and NXT's ratings are back to pre-pandemic levels while Raw and SD ratings continue to drop is cuz the former are "newer", which is laughable. 

Those record profits don't even count the layoffs since those people were still being paid until July, which makes it even more gross. 

What was a real eye opener is what a money loser live events have been. Turns out when you pay to rent out a major arena and only draw 4,000  people you lose your ass, who knew.

 

Holy shit at that profit. They've had like a 6 year run were they product is atrocious (for the most part), they've lost a significant % of their core audience (let's not even bother talking about casuals lol) and most of the traditional metrics for a wrestling business are either way down or at the very least not very good....and they keep making a fuck ton of money.

Yes, having such a bad product, alienating their fanbase every chance they get and treating most of their talent like shit can't be sustainable. But it's amazing how even though they've done everything wrong when it comes to wrestling, they keep getting away with it.

 

At this pace they might fuck around and strike gold once again with a hot angle (by 2026 maybe? lol)  that revives their product before actually having their empire crumble

2 minutes ago, sek69 said:

 

What was a real eye opener is what a money loser live events have been. Turns out when you pay to rent out a major arena and only draw 4,000  people you lose your ass, who knew.

 

 

Vince might start streaming "house shows" from the PC via Zoom and charging $5 to see them.

15 minutes ago, Jmare007 said:

Vince might start streaming "house shows" from the PC via Zoom and charging $5 to see them.

Honestly I wonder if house shows will go away when the pandemic is over. There were people asking if they were still worthwhile before everything happened, and the consensus was WWE just does them because that's how things have always been done. With there being clear numbers showing what a money pit they are, I can see Vince only running TV and PPV shows and dump the rest. 

52 minutes ago, Jmare007 said:

Vince might start streaming "house shows" from the PC via Zoom and charging $5 to see them.

It's certainly doable. Rotate the three brands every Saturday night. Run the shows stripped down like they're doing with everything now, and nearly everything is pure profit.

The kicker is lower to mid-card talent will get shafted on pay. They're already missing that money because of Covid 19. With the news of how much profit WWE earned by not traveling, and they probably have no chance of ever getting that back. WWE's road crew has to be concerned, too.

That's the über-capitalism for you. Profits have nothing to do anymore with the real people working underneath nor what is produced. It's almost magic bullshit. And yeah, it's depressing.

1 hour ago, Jmare007 said:

 

At this pace they might fuck around and strike gold once again with a hot angle (by 2026 maybe? lol)  that revives their product before actually having their empire crumble

With the median age of their audience and the way the pandemic is handled in the US, by 2026 they won't have an audience at all...

3 hours ago, Jmare007 said:

 

Vince might start streaming "house shows" from the PC via Zoom and charging $5 to see them.

Oh, fuck. You cracked the code, bubba.

6 hours ago, El-P said:

With the median age of their audience and the way the pandemic is handled in the US, by 2026 they won't have an audience at all...

Oh, fuck. You cracked the code, bubba.   (Sorry, I couldn't resist!)

The important thing to remember is that revenue this quarter was actually below expectations. The profit was all due to reduced TV expenses. It's also worth noting that most of the wrestlers enjoy doing house shows (and to be quite frank, a lot of them need every opportunity they can get to rehearse their matches). Still, the past few months have hopefully opened their eyes to the raw deal they're getting in having to cover their own road expenses. *cue video of Bayley trying to explain to an incredulous interviewer why it isn't covered by their CBA*

13 hours ago, MoS said:

So, WWE made record profit of USD 40 billion this quarter.

Sorry...this doesn’t change the underlying point (well, I guess it would if it was really that figure), but the quarter profits were 40ish million, not billion.

Thanks, yeah, now that I think about it, 40B does sound Disney-like haha

1 hour ago, Cowboy Hats 4.0 said:

Sorry...this doesn’t change the underlying point (well, I guess it would if it was really that figure), but the quarter profits were 40ish million, not billion.

Awww man, I guess Vince can't gold plate his Limo this quarter!

Meltzer just reported on Twitter that Stephanie sold 43% of her WWE stock yesterday

Hunter made a similar sale not too long ago, makes you wonder what they are planning on using that money for. 

In  b4 Steph just cuts Brock a personal check to keep his salary off the books or the comapny, lol.

There are people who are VERY worried that the capital gains tax rate is going to shoot up if Biden is elected, which would be a reason to sell stock now. Maybe she's not a true believer in Papa Donald's chances of victory.

Weren't they going ti be investigated last time they did that?