Generations

The rape story was discussed, yes. The difference here is that Laurinaitis confirmed that WWE higher ups knew it happened and actively had it covered up. - Prior to this story breaking, it was just kind of assumed that it got ignored, or people were looking the other way or whatever. (They made it Ashley's word against officials). - This is the first time that a former official was basically like "Yes, it 100% happened, and we intentionally told her to suck it up", etc.

Nah...that's a lie. Everyone who left WWE did so because they weren't being used there. -Edge was more or less retired if he didn't go to AEW. WWE didn't want to work with him anymore. They didn't have anything for him. Even if his matches aren't these big "over" spectacles...he's doing what he wants to do, and is having fun. -Samoa Joe is world champion. -Swerve is bigger than ever. -Toni Storm is world champion and is bigger than ever. -Adam Cole is about the same. Almost exactly the same. Also injury prone and his own worst enemy. -Bryan Danielson/Claudio/Mox...all huge stars. All massively over. All doing exactly what they want to be doing. Mox and Claudio have won additional belts and all three have had high profile matches since leaving WWE. Bryan is able to work a lighter schedule and fill out his retirement tour with matches he actually wants to have. -Christian is TNT champion and is more over than he has been in years. -FTR toured the globe and won tag titles all over. They are WAY better off after leaving WWE. -House of Black are an established tag team. Maybe Malakai would be more over in WWE. But they also used him like shit before he left. We can't just assume they would have done anything with him. He left for a reason...and he formed a great stable that people will remember. Murphy wasn't going to be a top guy anywhere. Sorry...he's just not that guy. He's a mid guy, and his AEW push has been pretty adequate. I think, you have people like Matt and Jeff Hardy, Miro, Keith Lee, etc...and it really comes down to factors like age/injuries and a lack of drive. Most of those guys have very legit reasons why they aren't featured prominently or "doing better" in AEW than they did in WWE. Overall...I don't see how you could say that the majority of former WWE people were tarnished or anything like that. Most of them are doing fantastic. There are a few exceptions...and those exceptions have legit reasons outside of just "AEW dropped the ball". Very few of them could be perceived as "losing value". Like I said...it's really just that small handful of names who are losing value for other reasons to begin with. Compare Mercedes Moné to someone like Bayley. - By all accounts, Bayley has been more active and more prominent, and should be perceived as the bigger star. She's about to main event WM for the women's title. But Mercedes Moné is all the wrestling world is talking about. And that's what true value looks like. Mercedes has that. She isn't going to lose that...because it's just something that she learned how to do. To the contrary...WWE took Jade. She had her rumble spot and a few appearances, but she's not regularly featured on the show. She's certainly no bigger than she was in AEW. She has her own starpower and her own aura, much like Mercedes....which is why I don't think it matters how Moné is used in AEW. They can't harm her starpower...it persists without any sort of push.

Typical salty response. (Both of you). AEW can do no good in the eyes of some people. Lol I've never been a huge Sasha Banks fan...but Mercedes Moné is a star. She's a good example of someone who can draw a crowd by doing very little. How many matches did she even have in Japan before being injured? Like 3? And yet...she's huge. Bigger than ever. It's all about presentation. She will help AEW a lot with their overall image. Sometimes there's more to a performer than just how well they actually wrestle. *cough CM Punk* ... Moné has mastered the art of manipulation. She can have a staredown or tease a single match and make it mean something. - That's special in this era. It's something that most lack.

Really great show tonight, and AEW is once again on track with big things. Future looking VERY bright.

Replacing him in a position of power...not removing him from WWE history. It could happen.

You know...if WWE does have to replace HHH at some point, Scott D'Amore wouldn't be a bad shout. At all.

TNA's comeback had heart. It was a success story. Now it means nothing. - If talents are as angry as it sounds like they are, then I give TNA till the end of the year before it's dead entirely. People are gonna jump that sinking ship in droves. - I don't know why corporate interests always think they understand how to run a wrestling show better than the people who do it. Every single person close to TNA has called D'Amore the "heart and soul" of the company. That means something. I wonder if they're dumb enough to see the Vince stuff and just assume that all wrestling insiders are the same. Like..."we better get rid of anyone who's been here a long time and replace them". I wouldn't even doubt it. Corporate America is soulless as *Censored*.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/88x7ex/ashley-massaro-vince-mcmahon-john-laurinaitis-rape-cover-up-wwe There it is...what we all suspected/feared/knew to be true... They're responsible for what happened to Ashley. RIP

In what can only be described as one of the biggest head-scratchers in recent memory...TNA has fired Scott D'Amore and replaced him with their own handpicked guy. - Scott is one of the few people in pro wrestling who always seemed to be well-liked and respected by everyone. He always seemed to have a genuine desire to see his talents succeed. To say this is shocking would be an understatement. Especially after all the success of the rebrand and the stuff with Jordynne and the Royal Rumble. It remains to be seen if the WWE dealings are behind any of this. https://tnawrestling.com/2024/02/07/anthony-cicione-named-president-of-tna-wrestling/

Man...I really want Sheamus to return around St Patricks Day in March...using an updated version of 'Written in my Face' and just kicking people's heads off. - I miss him.

Vince being a republican has jack shit-all to do with anything here. The way that other people have acted in this investigation has proven without a doubt that the things Vince is accused of have happened. - It's called critical thinking. (You need to be able to put two and two together). Laurinaitis went into full "save myself" mode and threw Vince under the bus. He admitted in-full that the sex behind closed doors was happening and claimed he was forced to participate. It's a smoking gun scenario. There is no "innocent until proven guilty"...Vince's own guy admitted he was guilty. If none of it happened, there would be no need for that. He would have said "Vince is innocent, and I'm innocent as well. And we will fight this together." - He didn't say that, because that's not what happened. I can't believe after all these years, you're still being a weird little troll around here.

More like...she WAS the help. Pro wrestling is a man's world, and Moolah advanced in it by pimping girls out. She would promise the world to aspiring athletes and then force them to do stuff they didn't want to do. By all accounts, she was probably one of the worst people in professional wrestling history. She knew that she wasn't going to see any fame as a lady's wrestler on her own merit, so she forced other girls to sleep with promoters. Whereas, Vince was the big boss in charge and it seems like he mostly did the things he did because he was sick and twisted and enjoyed doing them...Moolah pimped girls out because she saw a path to wealth and fame. I'm not sure if that's better or worse...but she was definitely an abuser.

One female wrestler has stated that she wishes she could speak out, but she still needs to work in the industry, and it wouldn't be heard anyway. Which says all that needs to be said. - These women are still scared of what might happen if they speak...even with Vince gone. That means there are other abusers. Probably a ton of them. "There's no positive on speaking out" literally means "it would hurt my career".

That's good, IMO. If she went to WWE, there would be some predictable feud with Nia Jax or Jade Cargill or something. - Of course, Kamille vs Rhea Ripley would have been awesome...but that's just a one and done thing...then what? I think AEW offers more with their expanding women's roster.

They dropped the ball with Drew when he chose not to join Judgement Day, IMO I'm not against the comedy Judgement Day we have now with the Truth segments. BUT...I think a serious and dark Judgement Day with the addition of Drew and an actual sword would have been a neat little turn in the road.

It's worse than the Benoit case in terms of what the fallout will be. - The Benoit case is worse in terms of people actually losing their lives. A terrible thing. So...a sex scandal doesn't compare to that. BUT...overall number of people directly affected? The Vince thing is bigger. It's ongoing, consuming...it's a cancer. Benoit killed two people and himself...and then it was over. The Vince stuff has implications that last...and it didn't happen over a single weekend, it happened over decades.

If anyone is unfamiliar with Austin...just know, logic doesn't work against him. Critical thinking is not a skill he possesses. Don't ask him to put two and two together to make four...because, he won't do it.

They don't need a women's tag division, IMO. - Most promotions don't need one. It's just become so demanded by internet activists and equal rights type people, that they feel like they have to do it. - Then people just pretend like there are enough teams or storylines to warrant it (there aren't).

Kabuki Warriors' presentation is untouchable.

All-time garbage take from Austin. Common L.

I think another possibility (and maybe my favorite scenario) is that The Rock faces Reigns at Mania, but we get a "finger poke of doom" scenario where Rock lays down and lets Reigns pin him, then the two laugh their asses off and Rock raises Roman's hand while the pyro hits. Rock joins Bloodline as the biggest heel of all time...going on to cut promos about how easy it was to get Cody to throw his shot away, etc. Cody challenges Rock at Backlash. Beats him. Eventually challenges Roman for the title at the PPV after that or whatever.

Zero. - Because they know it puts them in danger as well. Someone in the company may have been involved...but, not someone as close to Vince as HHH or Stephanie. Anyway...we have a discussion in the drama section about all the Vince stuff...so we should probably get back to normal show discussion here. Just my opinion. - The Rock/Reigns thing could still work itself out. We don't know for a fact that everything will unfold exactly as it seems like it will. There's a lot that could happen in the next few months. - Especially of the Rock stuff is meant to be a distraction for the Vince stuff. If they're intentionally using the Rock and Cody discourse to distract fans from the controversy...then they could very easily drop all that before Mania and juggle some of the booking around. We also don't know what The Rock whispered in Cody's ear. (Was it part of the storyline, or a legit inside comment?). A lot remains to be seen.

HBK definitely raped chicks at the high point of his career. - It was BEFORE he was "born again"...and I genuinely don't think that person exists anymore. BUT, it was as good as confirmed that HBK and Janetty were drugging women, raping them...and then dumping them nude in the hallway outside their hotel room. Multiple sources have corroborated that. It seems to be a generally known and accepted story in the world of WWE. This is a separate thing, though...and will likely not impact HBK or HHH or Janetty in regards to what is happening now. - They got away with that back then, and the stories aren't enough...luckily for them. So, now we have the Vince situation and the text messages, and whatever other actual proof can be uncovered. That's all...

Now hold on...I think this is all a bit much. Honestly, I think HHH knew exactly who Vince was, and played him in various ways. I don't think he was the pathetic sort of groveling simp that you're making him out to be here. - But that's also how we know that HHH knows more than he's letting on. (He spent decades learning everything he could about how to get what he wanted out of VInce). Nothing that man did went under the radar of HHH...because that was always the game (no pun intended) that HHH was playing. When you know what you want, you pay real close attention to the person who can give it to you. I don't think Triple H was this pathetic "daddy's boy" character that you're claiming...I think he was a manipulator of circumstance...and it mostly worked in his favor (until it didn't). HHH didn't necessarily do anything himself...but he knows what is done, when it's done, and how it's done. He tried to force Vince out himself. (When Vince left the first time...both HHH and Stephanie voted "no" to letting him come back in. BECAUSE THEY KNEW).

Listen, Senex...HHH does a good job running things. Which makes it hard to accept that he *censored*ed up. But, he did. Everything you just typed was an emotional response. You need to step back and accept that people who enable behavior are just as guilty as the people who carry out those behaviors. He had opportunities to do things better. He didn't take them. Claiming that it's "not likely he's leaving any time soon" is an emotional reaction. Based on facts...it's kinda 50/50 that he might be getting axed. I don't see it as more or less likely either way. It's literally a 50/50 chance, IMO. - At the very least, he will be under a great deal of scrutiny moving forward, and will probably acquiesce in his power to a third party (probably The Rock). But it will all depend on what the investigations uncover. I can guarantee you, the company has already lost a good deal of faith in Triple H...and they are now looking into reasons why he might need to go. Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't...but it's a very real possibility. It will come down to what is best for business (ironically enough, given HHH's catchphrase). - If they find evidence that HHH knew a lot of what was happening...then he's definitely gone. - If they only find a little bit, and can give him the benefit of the doubt...then he might survive.