And yet they’re independent contractors.

“We only give opportunities”

The video(s) are less revealing than the Playboys they used to promote 15-20 years back, but also some odd decision making from Mandy. She's clearly topless. You can see and she makes no attempt to hide anything while she's under-water, but when she's not, she covers up as if she's unaware she was that exposed. Almost makes you think she didn't watch the video before posting it, but she's apparently standing by it.

Doesn't seem worth risking a firing over, but probably will explode her subscriptions. Guess she'll either be back in a few months or go full blown Chyna/Sunny with the adult stuff, though there doesn't appear to be the same type of drug problems here.

Lord Tensai/A-Train apparently was the one to rat her out to Mr. Born-Again HBK

I hate this type of argument. If they were promoting Playboy 1-2 yrs ago then that would be relevant but to bring up something from 15-20 yrs ago shouldn't even be in the mix. They have clearly moved on from that era and are no longer that type of company.

Oh sure, they're a paragon of virtue now.

I wouldn't have any real problem with a company cutting ties with someone on the basis of something like this; it doesn't seem outlandish for a company to take measures to project the corporate image they want to project. But the independent contractor scam they brazenly run in broad daylight does make the whole thing feel a lot grosser to me.

Mildly interesting article: 10 worst things about wrestling in the 80s

If you don't want to sift thru, here is the list:

10. Syndication (different regions saw diff. events)
9. Hard life on the road for wrestlers
8. Too many DQs/Countouts (TV wasn't as important)
7. Weak finishing moves
6. Less entrance music
5. Bullying
4. Slow pace
3. Steroids
2. Sexism
1. Racism

4 and 6 aren't great in a vacuum, but I think we've gone way too far in the other direction w/fast paced, zero psychology matches and worthless finishers.

I would add 7 in there too. Some might call them weak finishing moves, but psychologically, the crowd got up for things that looked like they hurt but didn't really. Guy went through a table and he was out for weeks. Now, it's the middle of a match. You can almost kill someone and they're expected to get right back up.

The problem with 5 and things like it is that heels aren't able to do a lot of heel things anymore, so now they're cheered as cool heels. Bad guys should do bad things. If you can get away with it in a movie, you should be able to do it in wrestling.

Off this topic and back to the other one, I just read that Mandy has made over $500K since being fired. I apologize for saying that her decision making doesn't make any sense. It seems she's doing just fine without WWE. I wonder if the rest of the females are going to follow her lead. Obviously, not all of them, but some might.

Yeah, a model where Barry Windham's superplex was a finisher beats the hell out of a model where a prolific wrestler almost always uses a superplex into a falcon arrow as a transition move that never actually wins anything.

I think there are limits to this given the live crowd aspect, especially given the makeup of WWE crowds. You can portray sexism/racism in movies in a way that purely 100% vilifies it, where in wrestling the crowd isn't always going to process it that same way even if the announcers are trying to put it over appropriately as being terrible.

Yah, the article specifically singled out DDT and super kick as 2 finishers that should still be ending matches. It's kinda silly that these days you can be kicked in the head 15x in a match and you're fine.

Lol, I knew what gif it was going to be before I even zoomed in

Norton's finisher should've been taking a barrage of punches/kicks without flinching until his opponent falls over in exhaustion and Norton just pins them.

wtf is Vince doing

He's taking over!

Was Vince wearing a salmon jacket when he fake retired?

I suppose this news hurts less since I hadn’t let myself get overly attached to the improved regime.

The most distasteful part of all of this is that the stock shot up.

Yeah, this part makes no sense to me.

It's the concurrent announcement of pursuit of a sale.

If they’re actually gearing up for a sale, then it’s going to be massive roster cuts and layoffs all over again.

Started following WWE again (after a long hiatus) after he left. Even re-subbed to WWE Network.

Guess I'm off again.

At least it'll save me from seeing the huge pop that scumbag will undoubtedly get from the crowd when he shows his face on a show again.

Hopefully this causes Rock and Cena to refuse to work Mania. I don’t necessarily expect them to hate Vince, but they may wish to avoid his stink.