The General Wrestling Thread

[Warner2BruceTD]

Instead of behaving like a good soldier and keeping quiet, the former A.W. went off on Twitter, which, if you understand Vince McMahon, is actually the smart way to get your job back.

Among his recent comments:

"Let this be a lesson to up and coming talent in the WWE don't try and be great like the Rock or Stone Cold. WWE isn't the same."

"Thank you WWE for creating me and then killing me because I only portrayed what I grew up watching."

"I love entertaining people and the standup stage is what is next for me. If you think that Kobe joke was bad wait till you hear my Vince jokes."

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Brian Jossie, who played AW, hinted in a twitter post that he was gone from WWE. At this point the WWE has not acknowledged it. We were told earlier today that they were making a decision on his future and he was likey gone.

WWE has since confirmed the firing on their web site.

He wrote to Titus O'Neil and Darren Young: "Thank you for allowing me to speak on your behalf. You guys are the best and Im glad to call u my friends."

He also wrote, "I've offended the wrong people that taught me how to have attitude. It was the WWE that made me bold and now it has turned its back on me."

It will be interesting to see if any talent comments on this because privately the reaction I've gotten has been as negative as to any firing in a long time.

 

[ThomasTomasz]

There was potential, but I could tell that, when I started watching again, they were trying hard to push AW and his stable but it wasn't going anywhere. Seems like he had ideas and a goal, but WWE didn't share it.

He'll probably do some standup, but either TNA or ROH could probably pick him up and run with him if they loosen the reigns on him.

 

[SHOGUN]

AW was awesome. Very lame move.

 

[SuperKevin]

In my opinion, if there was ever a bigger need for a 3rd major promotion it's right now. The WWE's squaky clean PG rating and TNA's overall white trash feel are really hard for me to get behind.

 

[SuperKevin]

There was potential, but I could tell that, when I started watching again, they were trying hard to push AW and his stable but it wasn't going anywhere. Seems like he had ideas and a goal, but WWE didn't share it.

He'll probably do some standup, but either TNA or ROH could probably pick him up and run with him if they loosen the reigns on him.

I really doubt TNA does anything with him. They seem to embrace their fan base being southern white trash

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

There was potential, but I could tell that, when I started watching again, they were trying hard to push AW and his stable but it wasn't going anywhere. Seems like he had ideas and a goal, but WWE didn't share it.

He'll probably do some standup, but either TNA or ROH could probably pick him up and run with him if they loosen the reigns on him.

He told an off color Kobe Bryant rape joke, live on RAW. That's why he was fired.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

IT'S BACK!

W2BTD'S "How many of these mid card geeks can you name?" GAME!

 

 

[JimLeavy59]

He told an off color Kobe Bryant rape joke, live on RAW. That's why he was fired.

Big Show told a similar joke a few years ago.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Big Show told a similar joke a few years ago.

Big Show, good company man for over a decade, main event player.

AW, undercard geek fresh up from developmental.

 

[JimLeavy59]

lol this show is why I hate marks.

http://www.wrestlezone.com/news/259...ect-in-his-statements-about-benoit-a-guerrero

 

[SuperKevin]

IT'S BACK!

W2BTD'S "How many of these mid card geeks can you name?" GAME!

 

Yoshi Tatsu?
Jack Swagger
Rey Mysterio
Kofi Kingston
Santino
Sin Cara
Primo?

 

[JimLeavy59]

One of them is a ref.

 

[JimLeavy59]

WWE really needs to put a belt on Antonio Cesaro. And call up Seth Rollins and Chris Hero already for fuck sakes.

 

[ThomasTomasz]

He told an off color Kobe Bryant rape joke, live on RAW. That's why he was fired.

So why did they let him come back on Raw the week after?

WWF may not have embraced something like that, would have made him apologize but that would have been the end of it. Probably few people would have cared anyway.

 

[JimLeavy59]

Will Rey Mysterio ever do the clean job?

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

So why did they let him come back on Raw the week after?

WWF may not have embraced something like that, would have made him apologize but that would have been the end of it. Probably few people would have cared anyway.

I'm not defending it, just saying what happened.

They are making an example out of him. At the end of the day, they probably figure he's insignificant in the grand scheme.

Remember too, Linda McMahon is running for senate. This type of humor, on what they claim is a PG product, does not play well in what has become a nasty senate race. She is taking a lot of heat for the past raunchiness of the product.

 

[EmpireWF]

Big Show told a similar joke a few years ago.

Washington apparently did it on the fly, off the top of his head.

Big Show's joke was almost definitely written for him plus, they didn't pretend to be a kiddy show while the boss' wife is running for elected office.

 

[ThomasTomasz]

I'm not defending it, just saying what happened.

They are making an example out of him. At the end of the day, they probably figure he's insignificant in the grand scheme.

Remember too, Linda McMahon is running for senate. This type of humor, on what they claim is a PG product, does not play well in what has become a nasty senate race. She is taking a lot of heat for the past raunchiness of the product.

I understand the Linda thing, I had forgotten about that. The problem is, AW would have been a fit even five years ago. I think someone posted a viewer graph over the last decade, and up to a few years ago, there were 8 million people tuning in (am not a 100% certain on that but I do remember something similar) Raw 1000 didn't even get that much. That is a huge problem, and one would think that this change of direction has hurt the company. Unless of course, they are making up for it in event and mercy sales which is a good possibility.

 

[EmpireWF]

I understand the Linda thing, I had forgotten about that. The problem is, AW would have been a fit even five years ago. I think someone posted a viewer graph over the last decade, and up to a few years ago, there were 8 million people tuning in (am not a 100% certain on that but I do remember something similar) Raw 1000 didn't even get that much. That is a huge problem, and one would think that this change of direction has hurt the company. Unless of course, they are making up for it in event and mercy sales which is a good possibility.

Not exactly, 8 million is too high over the last decade. Put it this way, the most watched/highest rated match/segment in American pro wrestling history was from June 1999 when Austin beat Taker for the title.

Combined with Nitro, the total pro wrestling audience watching Monday nights at the height of the war was over 11-12 million. It dwindled a bit when WCW turned into total shit and then after it died, a large sector of the wrestling audience never returned.

For the majority of the past decade, WWE's top number has been around the 5 million mark (give or take a few hundred thousand). Ironically, the modern WWE audience skews older (much older than their audience during their most successful period) as far as TV & PPV viewers go but they market towards kids who are the bulk of their live event business. They're leaving a ton of money on the table with their current format, but at the same time, I guess they're happier being known as kid friendly and in bed with companies like Mattel.