Why does every time something like this comes up, the first excuse is "I WAS HACKED"?

1 minute ago, SirEdger said:

Why does every time something like this comes up, the first excuse is "I WAS HACKED"?

There are legit cases where it happened but it buys you time and instantly buys you a crowd of defenders.

3 minutes ago, SirEdger said:

Why does every time something like this comes up, the first excuse is "I WAS HACKED"?

Same as before. Dumbfucks.

2 hours ago, El-P said:

Sending dick pics to underage girls ? Hum....  

And really, if his days with WWE aren't over if that stuff is confirmed, WHAT THE FUCK ? Wait, it's WWE we're talking about. Nevermind.

I mean, Lawler took it a step further and suffered zero consequences whatsoever, so I wouldn't hold my breath.

They could release him, as they did with Rich Swann, but I can totally see him returning in 3-4 years.

I had to turn off Smackdown in that opening segment. Those long talking segments with no audience actually make me uncomfortable because they're so bad.

The whole presentation is so stale and bland has been for years.  The talent not being very interesting doesn't help either.  

That final segment on Smackdown was something else. A rare Vince appearance and a Katie Vick mention on broadcast TV.

Vince looks OLD. I guess I forget just how old he is because for the longest time, he has seemed immortal.

Given the story of him calling WWE to make sure Vince was OK after the exploding limo angle, it's entirely possible he believes HHH's title wins were shoots.

Macron is terrible, but you are so fucked.

2 hours ago, MoS said:

Vince looks OLD. I guess I forget just how old he is because for the longest time, he has seemed immortal.

Given the events of over the last 2 weeks or more. I was expecting to be angry the next time I saw Vince on screen but he was just old and ambling along here. I find my ire being impulsively drawn to Triple H instead even though Vince is actually calling the shots.

That cognitive dissonance is nothing new. For years, people have railed against WWE, but they do the "we're not worthy" bow every time Mr. McMahon walks out on TV. People have separated "WWE" from "Vince McMahon" (and possibly "Mr. McMahon") for whatever reason.

2 minutes ago, Loss said:

That cognitive dissonance is nothing new. For years, people have railed against WWE, but they do the "we're not worthy" bow every time Mr. McMahon walks out on TV. People have separated "WWE" from "Vince McMahon" (and possibly "Mr. McMahon") for whatever reason.

 

People "separating the art from the artist" I would think. Plus, wrestling fans are in a somewhat unique position where a lot of people's entire concept of wrestling is due to Vince and his creations. It's not like real sports where if the owner of your favorite team is an asshole, it's something that existed before him and will exist after him.

Well, people blame "the writers" or for years, they blamed "Stephanie". Vince has always had full autonomy over his company, but people like to place blame elsewhere. I don't know if it's because Vince has personal sentimental importance to people or what, but he ends up personally shielded from a lot of criticism.

The revisionism and crocodile tears when he dies are gonna be spectacular.

I think a big part of it is the frequent disparity in quality between Raw and Smackdown, which makes it difficult for people to wrap their heads around the idea that the same guy is responsible for both. I have trouble making sense of it myself. But I think the pendulum has shifted over the past year. I've seen plenty of chatter about how crazy and out of touch Vince is handcuffing the genius Paul Heyman and forcing him to book embarrassing cuckolding storylines. In fact, I'd say Heyman is the guy most consistently inexplicably shielded from criticism.

Vince clearly hasn't always given Smackdown his 100% attention at times, which even though he makes all  the calls at the end of the day, makes it easier to create the narrative that he's responsible for all the bad and Heyman/Hunter/whoever is responsible for all the good. 

1 hour ago, NintendoLogic said:

I think a big part of it is the frequent disparity in quality between Raw and Smackdown, which makes it difficult for people to wrap their heads around the idea that the same guy is responsible for both. I have trouble making sense of it myself. But I think the pendulum has shifted over the past year. I've seen plenty of chatter about how crazy and out of touch Vince is handcuffing the genius Paul Heyman and forcing him to book embarrassing cuckolding storylines. In fact, I'd say Heyman is the guy most consistently inexplicably shielded from criticism.

These days, he probably does get shielded, but I'm someone who tends to point fingers at the top first. Heyman hasn't had the final say on anything in wrestling in nearly 20 years.

I think Vince gets that reaction when he comes on TV because he is a legend on-screen as well and people have respect for it. If anything, hasn't the narrative been that Vince no longer has it and HHH is going to save wrestling when he finally ascends to the top? NXT is no longer as hot as it used to be, but really, I think the person shielded most from criticism in the last few years has been HHH, which is hilarious when you think about it. 

8 minutes ago, MoS said:

I think the person shielded most from criticism in the last few years has been HHH, which is hilarious when you think about it. 

Makes me wonder if it's deliberate on WWE's part because he's the "heir apparent."

21 minutes ago, C.S. said:

Makes me wonder if it's deliberate on WWE's part because he's the "heir apparent."

Maybe, but Hunter is smart enough to know how to endear himself to the fans he was trying to attract to NXT. Always talking about being a fan of all the type of wrestling Vince dislikes, turning NXT into an indy dream fed with a WWE budget. Always being able to position himself as Uncle Paul who's looking out for all his "kids", that is until it became clear they are just being sent into the main roster meat grinder.

4 hours ago, Loss said:

I don't know if it's because Vince has personal sentimental importance to people

We know Santa's a drunk and he didn't bring us the TrapperKeeper 2020  like we asked for and we'll go on Facebook and call him a wanker, but come next year we'll be sitting on his lap excitedly asking for the TrapperKeeper 2021. And we think he'll come through this time because he's got new elves and Mrs Santa's been removed from creative and he said he listens to us and reads every one of our letters. And because he's got personal sentimental importance to us, we'll temporarily forget the bad times and tell him we love him.

Or something like that...

On 4/25/2020 at 12:32 PM, Tim Evans said:

That final segment on Smackdown was something else. A rare Vince appearance and a Katie Vick mention on broadcast TV.

I watched the clips of that on YouTube and... What the F@&K are they going for with that segment? Who the hell is that supposed to amuse or entertain? Honestly, I think that $#*t is proof - rock solid evidence - or the fact that these shows are really only being written, booked, and produced for an audience of one. 

I can kind of understand Rovert and others maybe feeling sorry for Vince here. His bit in particular was so very very bad that I couldn't even get any schadenfreude out of it. 

I loved the "See, Hunter loses at Mania all the time, he isn't insecure at all" portion of that segment. 

 

Also it was like some kind of meta reference to Shawn by having Vince coming out looking like he was in no condition to perform.

23 hours ago, MoS said:

Vince looks OLD. I guess I forget just how old he is because for the longest time, he has seemed immortal.

Remember he really didn't age for a long time and then he tore his quads and he got old looking almost overnight.