Nice that Bill Simmons and Kevin Dunn stay up late night running channels. A&E's Biography did a documentary on Andre in 1999 called Andre the Giant: Larger than Life. Guaranteed to be better than anything Dunn can produce, even 18 years ago.
With this having the potential of being the weakest Mania card in history, don't forget about the deal between Vince and Dana. Dana is allowing McGregor and Rousey to come over to WWE for them allowing Brock to go to UFC for a fight. Look for McGregor vs. Cena and Rousey vs. Stephanie matchups or potential tag-team. THAT sells tickets through media.
The almighty, rich WWE does not pay ANYTHING for healthcare for the wrestlers. All of them are considered "independent contractors" and therefore self-employed. Try telling an insurance company that you're basically doing stuntman work for 4 days a week and see what rate they come back with. Not pretty!!! If you've ever been in the parking lot when the guys come or go to an arena, you'll see that 4-5 of them travel together to cut down on travel expenses. They stay at the cheapest motels possible, all shopping on Priceline, and all stay in 1 room with 2 beds. No catering at house shows, only at tv or ppv. Sad to watch the guys grab leftovers that have sat out on the tables all day to eat later at night while they drive themselves to the next city. Meanwhile, the execs like Dunn, the writers, etc, get limos to take from PPV to Raw to SD. The camera guys and crews are on the tour buses that you see parked everywhere, basically glorified taxis to the wwe paid for hotel. To say that WWE is very misguided as to how they treat the wrestlers vs. their employees or execs is a severe understatement!!! By the way, I know this because I am a crew guy and have been the past 6 years. Coming from the rock and roll side of entertainment, WWE wrestlers are treated like garbage compared to the rock stars!!!
If only the WWE was a big enough fish for the feds to give a damn about. WWE treats their "contractors" like total garbage!!!
All these comparisons of professional sports pay to WWE wrestlers' pay are good and all, but someone should take a look at inside WWE alone. Compare the corporate suits' pay to the wrestlers' pay. How much money has the WWE Movie Department exec generated for the company vs. what he's been paid? How much does Dunn get paid to yell at unpaid interns through his beaver teeth vs. wwe wrestlers? Go down the line of the countless, needless execs in this company and compare to the roster. Most of these execs make more money than Cena. Sad....
So hypocritical of a poorly ran company. They are going to be tough on policy, but suspend only if/when it suits the company's needs. Case in point - they knew before the PPV that Reigns had failed his test. So, instead of immediately suspending him, they let him work the show, drop the belt, then suspend him. Would have made a much stronger statement if they would have come out, made the announcement that he was suspended for violating their wellness policy, stripped him of the belt, and let the mitb winner take on the #1 contender for the title. But why should anyone be surprised at this, since they don't require Vince, Stephanie, HHH (all classified as employees), or any guest of the show (Rock, Brock) to be tested, since "employees" are exempt, yet "contractors" are not. Would love to see a HHH test result during his on cycle around mania times. Yeah, that won't happen.
I hope you're being sarcastic. They can EASILY be replaced by a recording from the sound board, played exactly like the entrance music. Garcia works less than anyone, 1 day a week unless it's a PPV. That 1 day is about 3 hours of tv, 2 hours in make-up, and another hour in catering with her "special requests". All inside info, and the crew guys/wrestlers reading this now are laughing and agreeing.
Lucky for everyone that wwe employees a translator that speaks "beaver" language to understand Dunn talking through those gigantic teeth as he fights that Napolean complex he has. Sucks to be under 5 ft tall.
Once again, wwe outsmarted by another company, and bleeding money because of it. If you saw LeBron wearing the shirt, and you wanted it, you'd immediately go to the wweshop website to buy it, right? Too bad they didn't design it, don't have it, own it, offer it for sale, or get it to LeBron to wear. It was the guys from Homage that did, though. Sure, Homage probably paid a general licensing fee to wwe, but that is nothing compared to the amount they are raking in from the sales of this shirt. GREAT job Homage!!!
The "one-off" statement by wwe is them saving face. Brock is done with wwe and ufc has no deal with wwe for rousey or anyone else. Wwe hopes they have Brock for Summerslam, but not a done deal. Once again, Brock getting the upper hand on Vince and his depleted roster.
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Contraption