I haven’t watched a second of WWE programming since the Saudi deal. Even then, I held it at arm’s length, mostly because I grew up in the Territorial Era watching Crockett, Dallas, Memphis, and Puerto Rico, but also because there was something I intuitively found icky about that company and Vince in particular.
I was able to enjoy wrestling without WWE, even before AEW. New Japan was kicking ass, and ROH and the indies were great. Now there’s AEW. Maybe people should spend less time moaning about how imperfect AEW is and more time being thankful that it exists and that it is not [gestures towards Titan Tower] THAT.
I hear the point about boycotts hurting the employees, but I’ve boycotted WWE off and on since the early 2000s, as it doesn’t feel right to me to support them. I grew up in their territory in the 80s, too, but gravitated more towards the NWA and any other territories, but Vince has always been repugnant and I’ve hated sending any of my money his way. That company needs to remove all of the people complicit in this mess, and then I’d consider supporting them again.
This hit me right at the bone. I also stopped watching all of wrestling after the Benoit incident Like you, him and Eddie were my guys. Form that point over 1000 of vhs tapes and multi years of the wrestling observers, all chronologically ordered in plastic sheets all sat dormant, untouched in my home for years. Then the WWE network came out in 2013. And there I was, suddenly, all the way back in. A decision, today, that I wish I had never made.
I came back, selfishly, because someone paid me to watch WWE. I'm not sure anything could ever capture me the same way again. Once you've been burned like that, it's hard to really invest in a wrestler the same way.
Scratch a billionaire entrepreneur and you’ll find someone animated by relatively vile/base perversions. Vince’s low-class sensibilities and semi-public depravity is disgusting but no surprise, an odd sort of territorial-era relic (imagine Don Fargo in this position!); I can only imagine the bill for whatever is going on behind the scenes at Tesla/X/SpaceX, provided that ever comes due.
“Sjoberg said she initially didn't know who the British royal was, until Maxwell took her to get a caricature puppet of him from a BBC show. Then, she said, she sat on Andrew's lap, while Giuffre sat beside him on the couch with the puppet in her own lap. The group took a photo with the Prince Andrew puppet groping Giuffre's breast, and Andrew himself groping Sjoberg's.
In an excerpted transcript from a deposition of Maxwell released among the documents unsealed this week, she seemingly confirmed the existence of the puppet — which she called "Not a puppet. I don't know how you would describe it. A caricature of Prince Andrew that was in Jeffrey's home." When asked about the incident Sjoberg described, she said, "I don't recollect. I recollect the puppet but I don't recollect anything around the puppet," before saying again it was a "characterization of Andrew."”
Well said. As I get older, it is harder and harder to be a fan of some of the things that I enjoy. I grew up being a fan of WWF, and I have been a fan of the UFC from the beginning. I still remember going to the video store while I was in high school and college to rent wrestling and ufc videos, because I couldn’t afford to buy them live. I became a lapsed wrestling fan until the past few years as it was something I began to enjoy again as my kids got older. Unfortunately, I can’t help but lump both organizations together because they both make me feel more than a little bad to be a current fan. Like you, I will also be watching the Royal Rumble tonight with my kids. At least they are still young enough to just enjoy it and not feel grimy about it. Maybe ignorance is bliss.
I haven’t watched a second of WWE programming since the Saudi deal. Even then, I held it at arm’s length, mostly because I grew up in the Territorial Era watching Crockett, Dallas, Memphis, and Puerto Rico, but also because there was something I intuitively found icky about that company and Vince in particular.
I was able to enjoy wrestling without WWE, even before AEW. New Japan was kicking ass, and ROH and the indies were great. Now there’s AEW. Maybe people should spend less time moaning about how imperfect AEW is and more time being thankful that it exists and that it is not [gestures towards Titan Tower] THAT.
I hear the point about boycotts hurting the employees, but I’ve boycotted WWE off and on since the early 2000s, as it doesn’t feel right to me to support them. I grew up in their territory in the 80s, too, but gravitated more towards the NWA and any other territories, but Vince has always been repugnant and I’ve hated sending any of my money his way. That company needs to remove all of the people complicit in this mess, and then I’d consider supporting them again.
This hit me right at the bone. I also stopped watching all of wrestling after the Benoit incident Like you, him and Eddie were my guys. Form that point over 1000 of vhs tapes and multi years of the wrestling observers, all chronologically ordered in plastic sheets all sat dormant, untouched in my home for years. Then the WWE network came out in 2013. And there I was, suddenly, all the way back in. A decision, today, that I wish I had never made.
I came back, selfishly, because someone paid me to watch WWE. I'm not sure anything could ever capture me the same way again. Once you've been burned like that, it's hard to really invest in a wrestler the same way.
Harrowing. Wrestling is such a tragedy.
Scratch a billionaire entrepreneur and you’ll find someone animated by relatively vile/base perversions. Vince’s low-class sensibilities and semi-public depravity is disgusting but no surprise, an odd sort of territorial-era relic (imagine Don Fargo in this position!); I can only imagine the bill for whatever is going on behind the scenes at Tesla/X/SpaceX, provided that ever comes due.
“Sjoberg said she initially didn't know who the British royal was, until Maxwell took her to get a caricature puppet of him from a BBC show. Then, she said, she sat on Andrew's lap, while Giuffre sat beside him on the couch with the puppet in her own lap. The group took a photo with the Prince Andrew puppet groping Giuffre's breast, and Andrew himself groping Sjoberg's.
In an excerpted transcript from a deposition of Maxwell released among the documents unsealed this week, she seemingly confirmed the existence of the puppet — which she called "Not a puppet. I don't know how you would describe it. A caricature of Prince Andrew that was in Jeffrey's home." When asked about the incident Sjoberg described, she said, "I don't recollect. I recollect the puppet but I don't recollect anything around the puppet," before saying again it was a "characterization of Andrew."”
Well said. As I get older, it is harder and harder to be a fan of some of the things that I enjoy. I grew up being a fan of WWF, and I have been a fan of the UFC from the beginning. I still remember going to the video store while I was in high school and college to rent wrestling and ufc videos, because I couldn’t afford to buy them live. I became a lapsed wrestling fan until the past few years as it was something I began to enjoy again as my kids got older. Unfortunately, I can’t help but lump both organizations together because they both make me feel more than a little bad to be a current fan. Like you, I will also be watching the Royal Rumble tonight with my kids. At least they are still young enough to just enjoy it and not feel grimy about it. Maybe ignorance is bliss.
You can watch Collision tonight instead of the Rumble.
Remember when your buddy Punk quit, and said all these things about WWE and how he'd never go back?
Where's he working tonight?
He went "home."