Here is your news for April 29 2020
Let’s Dive into some major headlines for today
Gerald Brisco Comments On his release
WWE Wiling To Release More Employees
WWE Releases Another Big Name
Chris Jericho’s Advise To Released WWE Wrestlers
Doctor Advises AEW Wrestler To Retire and MORE!
We’re starting today with news from WWE, as the company is reportedly dealing
with releases in a very unique way.
Up until recently, the company was locking down talent in long-term, big-money
deals, to prevent their roster going to AEW, but now WrestleVotes are reporting a
different attitude backstage, saying:
Hearing from a few different sources that WWE is willing to grant a release to
“just about anyone” who requests one. Basically if a talent wants out, they can
go. Will be interesting to see if anyone REALLY does want out, especially during
this uncertain time.
It’ll be interesting to see if any Superstars do walk away from the company, as
given the ongoing global situation, there are little to no independent shows
operating right now.
This would likely mean that stars will be hesitant to walk away from their lucrative
contracts with WWE, especially with so many former Super stars being cut from
the company earlier this month.
Whilst AEW is still operating, and has big money backing them, it’s also been
reported that the company is trying to run on a budget, meaning they may not be
looking at signing new stars at this time either.
Speaking of releases, Dave Meltzer recently reported that Gerald Brisco had been
let go from WWE after 35 years, but according to the former Hardcore and 24/7
Champion himself, that isn’t exactly what happened.
On Twitter, the Hall of Famer explained Meltzer’s error by saying that he had been
furloughed, and the word is that WWE are hoping to bring back many furloughed
staff as soon as July, though of course this timeframe depends on when people
are able to travel again.
As a former wrestler and backstage personality in WWE, it shouldn’t be too
difficult for Brisco to land a gig somewhere in the industry, especially as he’s
credited at recruiting a young Brock Lesnar to WWE.
Speaking of WWE’s recent releases, another huge name has been reportedly cut
from the company, as Cain Velasquez is no longer a WWE Superstar.
On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer said that WWE had released the 37-
year-old former MMA fighter, after he signed a multi-year deal with the company
back in October last year.
Appearing on the 1000th edition of SmackDown to confront new WWE Champion
Brock Lesnar, Velasquez was handily defeated by the beast at Crown Jewel, and
didn’t appear on WWE TV since, due to recovering from knee surgery.
It is believed that Velasquez was cut due to the company’s recent cost-cutting
measures, which has seen several staff members be furloughed and top executive
salaries being cut, and Meltzer commented on how little the former UFC
Heavyweight was being used, even before the current global situation. He said:
Obviously the only thing they [WWE] wanted to do was so Brock Lesnar
could get his win and they could have a celebrity for Saudi Arabia. After
that, he was going to be in the Royal Rumble and then for whatever
reason they decided against it and they haven’t even thought about him
since. He worked a show in Mexico City, but that was it.”
Meltzer added that Velasquez hadn’t been training at the Performance Center
lately, and whilst the WWE had him scheduled to be at the Royal Rumble Pay Per
View, that obviously didn’t happen.
Though he had just one televised match in WWE, Velasquez has shown great
potential as a professional wrestler, fans won’t be seeing him compete in Vince
McMahon’s company for the time being.
One man who knows all about what it means to leave WWE is Chris Jericho, and
the former AEW World Champion has shared his thoughts on WWE’s recent releases.
Speaking to TV Insider, he explained:
It’s an interesting time right now because a lot of guys got released. By
proxy, you went from a business that was very profitable in many
different levels to everything grinding to a halt. Hopefully, many of them
will get picked up by different companies.”
“Some guys may have to go overseas. I don’t know what AEW has
planned. That’s not really my wheelhouse. But I’m sure everybody is going
to land where they should land. It’s just how it goes
Many of the stars released have shown an interest in AEW, as Zack Ryder, who is
already close friends with Cody Rhodes, used a popular AEW attorney to lock
down some trademarks.
The company also teased The Revolt joining the company during the latest Being
the Elite, and it’ll certainly be interesting to see which former Superstars were All
Elite after all.
Now we all know that Stephanie McMahon has a lot of accolades to her name,
including part-time wrestler, former Women’s Champion, General Manager and
WWE’s Chief Brand Officer, but now the Billion Dollar Princess is adding another
big claim to her resume.
This week, Stephanie joined the Board of Directors for the Ad Council, America’s
leading non-profit organisation dedicated to using communi- cations to drive social change.
Not only is the board chaired by the Chief Revenue Officer of Facebook David
Fischer, but McMahon will be surrounded with like-minded successful people,
including Blake Chandlee, the VP of Global Business Solutions for TikTok, and
Jamie Lomas, the Director of Global Advertising Sales for Amazon.
In an address from the Ad Council’s CEO Lisa Sherman, she spoke about how the
group will continue to drive lasting changes, especially given the current global
situation, as the WWE Chief Brand Officer is going to be even busier in the coming months.
We’ve got news from AEW next, and whilst MJF recently revealed on Dynamite
that he is suffering from a terrible elbow injury, it seems that nobody believes him.
On Twitter, the self-proclaimed Salt of the Earth addressed his doubters, and
posted a note from his alleged doctor, who claimed that the injury is so severe,
that the doctor urged for MJF to retire from the ring for good.
Perhaps this medical note would seem more believable If the so-called doctor
didn’t describe MJF a “truly better than us,” or describe the AEW star’s elbow as
“over-healed,” and we can’t think of many medical experts who sign their notes
with pink crayon.
Clearly, this note is a fake by MJF, who continues to be one of the most
charismatic heels in AEW and with the company set to tape new content in the
first week of May, hopefully MJF and his quote “strongest elbow in the history of
humankind” will be a part of the tapings.
Back to SmackDown now, and the Blue Brand’s mysterious hacker has stuck once
again with another strange video.
Over the past few months, the hacker has gone from sending glitches to the show
to interfering with actual angles, as fans have speculated that Mustafa Ali or Chad
Gable may be behind it.
It’s certainly interesting that the Twitter account being used, used to belong to a
WWE support campaign and it’ll be interesting to see which Superstar, or
Superstars are revealed as the SmackDown hacker.
Now, we all know that WWE hasn’t been able to tour lately due to the global
situation, but that means that one of the company’s biggest live events has been reorganised.
Last month, WWE rescheduled their traditional Road to WrestleMania show in
Madison Square Garden, and now the company is postponing the event once
again, pushing the event back to an unknown date, according to PW Insider.
The show was originally scheduled to take place on March 22nd, and feature both a
reunion by DX as well as the first NXT Women’s title match inside the Garden,
before it was pushed back to June, and now to an undisclosed date.
This isn’t the only major change for WWE’s touring schedule, as WWE’s live event
tour of Australia and New Zealand which was scheduled for August has officially
been postponed due to the ongoing global situation.
This news was broken by the live entertainment company TEG Dainty who also
issued a statement saying they were working with WWE to secure new dates, and
with shows in Melbourne and Sydney Australia postponed, as well as Auckland
New Zealand, this clearly isn’t good news for the fans who don’t get to see WWE
live often, even during normal times.
Things are going from bad to worse for WWE now, and the company is getting
sued, once again by their own shareholders.
This latest lawsuit was filed on April 24th by Shareholders Ryan Merholz and
Melvyn Klein, and some big names are being called out in the suit, including Vince
McMahon, Stephanie McMahon and Triple H, as well as former co-President
George Barrios and veteran member of the board Frank Riddick the third.
The lawsuit claims that WWE’s dealings with Saudi Arabia has led to financial
downfall, claiming:
“The Company’s most senior executives and directors took advantage of
WWE’s inflated stock price to sell millions of dollars’ worth of their own
WWE shares during this time period.”
The aforementioned sale took place a few days before the company’s 2019 first
quarter call to investors, meaning that those in WWE sold their stock knowing of
the Saudi problems, whilst other investors didn’t.
This lawsuit also calls out the recent treatment of WWE Superstars, who were
kept for an additional 24 hours in Saudi Arabia, alledgedly due to conflict between
Vince McMahon and the Saudis.
This wasn’t the only controversial part of the deal that was addressed, as the 44-
page lawsuit documents also noted WWE’s stock tumbling due to the
controversial nature of the Saudi Arabia, saying:
The Company and its management faced blowback from fans and
the media for their willingness to work with the Saudis, given
the *************** ********s, denial of equal rights to women and
minorities, and autocratic policies imposed during the reign of King
Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and his son, Crown Prince
Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (“MBS”).
It was added that this public backlash peaked after the decision was
made to continue with the 2018 Crown Jewel event after the ******** of Jamal
Khashoggi, aledgedly on the orders of the Saudi Royal Family.
The lawsuit also pointed out that investors were not told of the tensions between
WWE and Saudi Arabia, which ultimately affected the stock value.
The recent firings of George Barrios and Michelle Wilson was also noted, as the
company’s stock fell from over $100 a share to just over $40 in February, and it’s
certainly interesting that $282 million in company stock was sold by WWE
executives shortly before one of the investor conferences calls in July last year.
This isn’t the only lawsuit facing Vince McMahon right now, as he’s also being
sued by former XFL commissioner Oliver Luck for wrongful termination, and given
the global situation leading to crowdless shows, it’s certainly an uneasy time for
the Chairman of the Board.
Whilst a lot of people are suffering due to the ongoing global situation, one person
who seems to be doing fine is Frank Riddick the third, who has replaced former
Presidents Michelle Wilson and George Barrios in WWE, after the pair were let go
due to internal struggle, and disagreeing with Vince Mc Mahon’s vision for the company.
With under 11 years as a WWE board member under his belt, Riddick has been
appointed the compamny’s new Chief Financial officer, and has a very interesting
agreement with WWE according to some recently uncovered documents.
Being described as an “at will” employee, the WWE can part ways with him for any
reason, and Riddick is being paid a hefty $1.6 million, which equates to over
$66,000, every two weeks.
Upon signing his new deal, Riddick agreed to not conduct any insider trading,
which has been part of the aforementioned lawsuit by WWE’s own investors, and
though he’s expected to work a minimum 40 hours a week, it’s likely to be much
more, considering the company’s high demand.
And we’re ending today with news from Jon Moxley, as it wasn’t long after Dean
Ambrose left WWE, that Moxley became the top star of AEW.
While speaking to PW Insider Moxley described the differences between working
for Vince McMahon and working for Tony Khan, as he said:
[Khan] is business savvy, but also just an incredibly passionate wrestling
fan. He’s so easy to get excited, if I go up like, “Dude, I got this idea. What
if we did this?” And he’d be like, “Dude, that’s awesome. What if we did
this then? And then we can do that.” And he’ll get all excited like a little kid.
This is much different to how McMahon treated Ambrose during his time
with WWE, as he explained:
Whereas sometimes, I come in and talk to Vince and I’m all excited. I’m
like, “Dude, okay, here we go. We’re going to do this, this, this. Then this.
Then we do this on Raw. And then on pay-per-view this. What do you
think?” And it’s like talking to a door. Dude, hello, I’m giving you
awesome. They’re like, nope. We’re just going to do the same old crap we always do.
Moxley is clear enjoying his time in AEW, where his ideas are heard much
more, and it’ll be interesting to see which recently released WWE
Superstars make the jump to AEW when they can.