The NY 64: WWE's Most Disgusting Promotional Tactic

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Best Not WWE Name This poll is closed.
Up North	70	41.92%
New York	21	12.57%
Titan	12	7.19%
Stamford	18	10.78%
The XXX Porno Wrestling on the Other Channel	46	27.54%
Total:	167 votes

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davidbix: Jun 14, 2016; Wow, Bix. First K.Rool, then Steve and now SEPHIROTH? Your dream game is real!

Gumball Gumption posted:

He kind of did but not really. Bix covered it all better then I can, https://deadspin-com.cdn.ampproject...blow-1828409695

Headline wasn't mine, BTW.

# ¿ Dec 20, 2018 22:44

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 14:40

davidbix: Jun 14, 2016; Wow, Bix. First K.Rool, then Steve and now SEPHIROTH? Your dream game is real!

The easiest explanation is it being factored into kayfabe cover-up bullshit.

But it also seems like:

* It wasn't being taken seriously (especially by Vince).
* Mel was being protected by Terry Garvin.
* On the wrestler side, not everyone knew about the young boys part. Bret Hart, in his book, mentioned a referee rooming with Mel and waking up to Phillips sucking on his toe ("So I asked him to stop!"). Then, shortly after he was gone, the bus during a European tour was greeted by a bunch of kids asking where Mel was.

# ¿ Dec 21, 2018 23:27

davidbix: Jun 14, 2016; Wow, Bix. First K.Rool, then Steve and now SEPHIROTH? Your dream game is real!

Here's what everyone always forgets about OTE '99: Owen falling to his death broke the ring. So everyone had to be herded out to wrestle in an unsafe ring that their friend/colleague had just broken by falling to his death. Yeah.

So I voted OTE continuing.

# ¿ Dec 24, 2018 01:53

davidbix: Jun 14, 2016; Wow, Bix. First K.Rool, then Steve and now SEPHIROTH? Your dream game is real!

mkay0 posted:

Pretty shocked that so many people see hazing as worse than money laundering to manipulate the presidential election process.

Here's the thing, as I wrote in my Deadspin article late last week:

While there could have been a quid pro quo in mind, it's not like anyone was expecting Trump to be president anytime soon in 2007 and 2009. And, if it WAS WWE like the Foundation's tax filings say, there were perfectly legitimate companies donating to the Foundation in lieu of an appearance fee and the like, such as Norwegian Cruise Line and (probably) Comedy Central. The simplest possible explanation is that it was WWE and they got skittish about the company itself being tied to the Foundation once Trump became more toxic with the birther stuff. That also tracks with how they keep WWE completely divorced from Trump by never mentioning his HOFer status or Linda being in the cabinet.

Vince and Linda doing it personally really doesn't make any sense based on the available facts. Why not use their own foundation for the donations, for starters?

# ¿ Dec 24, 2018 22:47

davidbix: Jun 14, 2016; Wow, Bix. First K.Rool, then Steve and now SEPHIROTH? Your dream game is real!

coconono posted:

The timeline I saw had Vince being present during the police interview of Snuka(which happened a few weeks afterwards). AFAIK, they didn't take a statement from Snuka at the time of discovering the body. Again, the whole thing is suspect as gently caress.

Snuka was interviewed the next day and Mirandized without Vince or a lawyer present. The Vince interview was the next day and was not recorded as far as anyone can tell.

More here in my Vocativ article from when Snuka died: https://www.vocativ.com/falsestart/395847/jimmy-snukas-lies-murderer-legacy/index.html

# ¿ Dec 25, 2018 21:25

davidbix: Jun 14, 2016; Wow, Bix. First K.Rool, then Steve and now SEPHIROTH? Your dream game is real!

MassRafTer posted:

Even if Melanie had absolutely zero emotion for Brian and faked the whole thing the WWF's first instinct after he died was still "How can we exploit this poo poo. Let's have the widow on Raw!"

Didn't she ask to do it, though? (As a warning to other wrestlers' wives to get their husbands to straighten out.) Even if Vince shouldn't have agreed, of course.

Davros1 posted:

Remind me, was Pillman the first major drug related death WWF had on the roster at that time?

First on the roster since Rick McGraw in 1985, yes.

# ¿ Dec 27, 2018 17:44

davidbix: Jun 14, 2016; Wow, Bix. First K.Rool, then Steve and now SEPHIROTH? Your dream game is real!

Karmine posted:

Ok so devil�s advocate here. The Owen Hart thing was an accident (a preventable one, born out of recklessness and disregard, but I don�t think Vince McMahon willfully killed Owen Hart). Not paying road expenses is one of a zillion labor abuses that has benefited the company�s bottom line for years and years. So if we�re just talking �sleaziest business practices� then for sure it�s road expenses. If we�re talking �shittiest thing WWE ever did� then yeah, Owen, no question.

Labor abuse is a thing that really pisses me off and it�s insane how many things this company has done that I find more offensive than the way they exploit their workers.

Willfully? No. But it was considerably more preventable than most people realize. WWF went to their usual stunt rigger to ask if they could lower Owen, but with some kind of quick release to unhook himself because it took too long to get him out of the harness on live TV. (I believe the pratfall idea was the egg, not he chicken.) The rigger said no, that's incredibly dangerous because it could trigger while he's hanging, but I'll do the normal version for X price. When they don't call him back to confirm, he freaks out that they found someone willing to do it and tells his assistant to call the WWF offer to do it the same way himself for half of what his boss charged. They didn't bite.

Everyone should read the relevant portions of Broken Harts if they haven't.

Also: They came very close to killing THREE people. As alluded to earlier, there was an idea for Max Mini/Tzuki to be strapped to Owen in a Blue Blazer outfit, but Owen nixed it as soon as he was pitched the idea. Then, when Owen fell, he actually touched Jim Korderas on the way down, if just barely.

# ¿ Dec 29, 2018 23:14

davidbix: Jun 14, 2016; Wow, Bix. First K.Rool, then Steve and now SEPHIROTH? Your dream game is real!

Rarity posted:

So WWE doesn't pay travel costs to its wrestlers but what about all the other guys who are travelling around week after week. Production crew, referees, ring agents... Does anyone know what the deal is with them?

Refs are talent. They don't get their expenses covered just for refereeing. Contractually, they're the same as wrestlers, right down to being under the Talent Wellness Program. But...

Ring crew, while still independent contractors, do get their road expenses covered. So if you're a referee on the ring crew, you get your road expenses covered.

Production crew I believe get all of their road expenses covered.

Road agents/wrestling side producers are employees and thus get not only their road expenses reimbursed, but also full benefits packages.

# ¿ Dec 29, 2018 23:17

davidbix: Jun 14, 2016; Wow, Bix. First K.Rool, then Steve and now SEPHIROTH? Your dream game is real!

LividLiquid posted:

What really gets me is that Russo lived through that. All of it. And Lance Storm told a story a long time ago, I think on his website, about how one night Sting was to repel from the ceiling again during Russo's tenure, and he was stressing out backstage because there wasn't enough time for the safety procedures to be followed properly between one appearance on the show and his trip to the rafters and back down again because Russo books like seventeen segments an hour and still couldn't separate the two appearances and Lance told him "just don't do it. It isn't worth your life. You're Sting. What are they gonna' do?" And he didn't do it.

After going through Over the Edge, Russo learned loving nothing from Owen's death.

Somebody should ask Lance about it on Figure Four or Twitter so we can hear all the details.

This, broadly, is one of the main reasons why I find it hard to see Russo as anything other than a grifter. His version of what happened (that the rigger happened to be in Kansas City at Over the Edge, so he was told that day to think of something the rigger could do and write it into the show) is so completely divorced from reality that I can't remotely buy that it's simply the byproduct of a bad memory.

# ¿ Dec 31, 2018 23:48

davidbix: Jun 14, 2016; Wow, Bix. First K.Rool, then Steve and now SEPHIROTH? Your dream game is real!

It's hard to get me to vote against the scenario were WWE was basically told "No, seriously, don't do that, you'll kill someone" and killed someone while coming dangerously close to killing two other people in the process. Well, at least until it ends up against the ring boy stuff. THAT will be a tough one.

# ¿ Jan 7, 2019 20:21

davidbix: Jun 14, 2016; Wow, Bix. First K.Rool, then Steve and now SEPHIROTH? Your dream game is real!

TTBF posted:

famous helicopter parent.

my God

# ¿ Jan 20, 2019 00:20

davidbix: Jun 14, 2016; Wow, Bix. First K.Rool, then Steve and now SEPHIROTH? Your dream game is real!

Smoking Crow posted:

Invader I wrestled in WWWF

He even wrestled Brody

Yeah, he had two separate full-time (W)WWF runs, he absolutely counts, even if it's limited to people who spent time in WWE. Gonzalez even held something of a grudge stemming from Brody guzzling him/arguably taking liberties in a match they had at the Nassau Coliseum, though it's not believed to be his motive for the murder per se. Colon might be worth including, as well, given the HOF induction and his role leading the cover-up.

# ¿ Jan 22, 2019 08:39

davidbix: Jun 14, 2016; Wow, Bix. First K.Rool, then Steve and now SEPHIROTH? Your dream game is real!

Shiki Dan posted:

Oh yeah, I forgot about Jimmy Del Ray, who got fired for raping a woman in a hotel, shaving her head, and leaving her a bloody smear along a hotel wall.
Even worse, he got initially Tatanka framed for it and unfairly suspended.

Vince at least had some decency to fire him and never take him back.

WCW hired him the next year.

Plus, one poster here summed him up perfectly: "He even looks like he should be on the sex offender registry. Like, all of them."

Where did those specific Del Ray details come out, anyway?

Also, wasn't he only let go because it happened in Anaheim and they were worried that WM12 publicity would cause problems?

# ¿ Jan 28, 2019 08:36

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 14:40

davidbix: Jun 14, 2016; Wow, Bix. First K.Rool, then Steve and now SEPHIROTH? Your dream game is real!

...how is that, specifically, being too online?

# ¿ Nov 21, 2019 02:50

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