They could come up with this, but it’s so out of character for WWE creative. Nothing about it feels like something they ever done or at least I can’t remember anything.
They overthink/overproduce everything they put out there. This doesn’t seem to have any of their normal weird WWE peccadilloes.
I’ll be really impressed if this turns out to be a storyline (even if it sucks).
I took this as Cardona tweeting in character.
Without weighing in further if it’s a work or not. I present two questions:
I’m sure there are extremely good answers to sway the answers to these relevant and valid questions (IMO) one way or the other.
Come up with your own answers. Whether this winds up a shoot or a work or a problem or a nothingburger doesn’t ultimately matter to me. I’m fascinated by the reaction to this and how deep everyone has dove into their belief in what is happening. Fascinating day to obverse the Pro Wrestling and Sports entertainment industry.
Question for everyone:
What’s the last time you’ve been worked by a wrestling company or wrestler?
Juice Robinson lol I believed him that he was gone and done.
Feels like the permeation of reporting and coverage has eliminated true works. It’s more bait and switch tactics now. Last one that comes to mind is also involving Sasha and her not showing up which never got publicly explained. Making public explanation here the abnormal behavior I think is worth questioning (and frankly disturbs me if I’m looking at management as an investor)
They also ran a work on the Q3 earnings call where they boasted about the best executive team hours before removing their CFO. They worked Wall Street there. Didn’t like it.
Pointing to press releases or public statements by this company as evidence is never reliable IMHO. Too much evidence of them obscuring truth. Doesn’t mean it’s a worked storyline but still worth acknowledging
What would even prove this was a “work”. Even if Sasha and Naomi come back and wind up in a feud with the two people they apparently had issues with per WWE, I’m sure everyone will say it was a “real” story that got resolved and they turned it into storyline. Too many smart fans and reporters today to truly execute a “work”. I don’t think we’ll ever see the full admission of anything being a work in the reality-era of our society where everything can be and will be used to sell content and entertainment and must not be questioned.
This is an Occam’s razor situation for me. Most logical explanation based on past history and available evidence is that Sasha got upset and walked out.
I guess I could go on the speculate that she may not be the easiest to deal with and wwe/Vince kinda lost it.
To be honest, there is absolutely nothing good or bad that surprises me about WWE. I think Vince is highly emotional and impulsive, and does whatever he feels in the moment. If you try to use logic or precedents to determine his thinking patterns, you will drive yourself crazy.
I’m with you @kliq
I don’t even know what would constitute a swerve or work or whatever at this point. It’s so whimsical. I disclosed on twitter today since I’m public about it that I sold into the the WwE stock strength today and realized profit. Still have shares and still can buy more later for roughly same price in a few months but I really don’t like whimsical Vince who irrationally handles this drama in weird ways. Trashing his own talent and a valuable asset in Sasha publicly isnt what I’m looking for out of them at this stage in the game. Maybe why I’m critical of the assumption this is entirely real. Because of it was it could have serious talent and employee ramification.
If talent were willing to so blatantly walk out and won’t get released, why wouldn’t they sue for their release and challenge employment status? That’s the “logical” next step here for such disgruntled and disrespected employee/talent right?
My guess is performers in the past have gone to a lawyer and been told something to the effect of “Based on the contract you signed, you won’t win and you will spend a boatload of money”. I think a case like this will only be successful if the wrestlers go against the company in numbers, and I just dont think that will ever happen.
I also think that while some of these performers may get frustrated with the creative (which I 100% get), at the end of the day they want to be there. There is no question that AEW has better creative then WWE, its not even worth discussing, but, nobody grew up watching AEW. For a lot of these performers, they have been conditioned into feeling WWE is the mecca of professional wrestling, and the accomplishments that matter to them are things like “being WWE champ” or “main eventing Wrestlemania”. While this may not matter to some fans, I do truly believe it matters to a lot of these performers. Its like a love-hate relationship. As much as they hate the creative at times, they love being there.
Lastly, its the money. At the end of the day we are talking a job where your career can be over in one move. When WWE offers you a huge contract, especially when you have a family, its hard to turn down. Some performers want to make as much money as they can to save up a nest egg so they have live comfy for the rest of their lives. While I’m sure AEW doesnt pay chump change, I think when it comes to the biggest names, they are paid better.
For the record, I dont think this is a work. But like I said before, nothing surprises me in wrestling anymore.
Im not sure, its hard to know because when they do you don’t really find out until years down the road in some random shoot interview. Didn’t you say in a post in this thread though that Cardona was working fans on Twitter? Or do you mean by a company?
Does Brock-Taker at that UFC show years ago count? Though I’m not sure if WWE was in on that.
Probably makes more sense to talk about works from a company I suppose. Individual wrestlers are probably always pulling small time works.
I was commenting that I thought cardona was tweeting in character and punk misunderstood.
I just can’t remember the last time a company got me. It feels like maybe Pillman but there must have been something else.
If two talent walked out and did so with any anticipation this would have polarizing reaction but they’d be the talked about talent and somehow earn sympathy from fans, I have a hard time saying they weren’t working people. Their employer, the fans. Because the alternative is they did this without any motive besides wanting to quit and they cannot quit. And since they cannot quit they walk out to make it a bigger story about them and drum up fan reaction. Sounds like a planned event by two talent that got maybe an outsized shoot reaction from WWE. But if you start with the assumed motives of Sasha and Naomi, can’t really speak to what their motive was. Which is wild how many ppl I saw assuming it yesterday without their comments on it.
TL/DR If you ain’t working you ain’t trying. Those girls definitely trying. And I don’t blame them one bit. But if they aren’t seeing this thru to a release of demand of one, this just became a story that got time and attention in the news outlet making them center of attention only to go back in short order like nothing happened. At which point call it whatever you want but I call it a work (even if just by talent and not coordinated with the company and their weird news release)
Here is the biggest thing having thought about it for a while.
Ultimately, they have every right to be upset at what they are being presented. There are numerous superstars who been upset at creative far worse than what they were proposed.
Look at Jon Moxley. He’s openly said he had numerous creative issues and would go and discuss them with the higher ups. Sometimes they would be changed and other times they would not. If they were not changed, he would try and do the best he could with what he had all the while knowing in his mind that once his contract was done he was leaving.
Another great example is Mark Hamill in the role of Luke Skywalker in the last Jedi. Given Sasha ties to the universe I think it’s a fair comparison. He was vehemently against the portrayal of Luke Skywalker in that movie and shared his grievances. However at the end of the day when it was shot down he did the best job he could with the material.
Ultimately, whether or not you agree that them headlining 2 PPV matches against the champions was bad enough creative or not it’s in the eye of the beholder.
They aired their grievances and it was shot down. At that point the professional thing to do would’ve been to go out and complete your job. After that, if you feel strongly enough you could quit the company, or you could suck it up until your next contract signing.
However walking out in the middle of the show seems inappropriate.
Think other walks of life. If I get a patient encounter that is not good because they are rude to me or something I can’t walk out in the middle and let them die. I can certainly at the end of my shift request they get a new physician etc. but in the heat of battle I have to do my job. I feel like there’s less sympathy for them from performers because they’ve all been in the role of poor creative and if they had major issues and felt they had to leave they could’ve done it after the show instead of during it.
To get an idea of Sasha‘s mindset you also have to watch the Steve Austin interview. I would have to say out of everyone he’s had on that show she comes across as the one who has the highest opinion of herself. Perhaps due to some of her other successes I suspect she was quite quick to pull the trigger here as opposed to wait until the end of the show at the latest.
I keep thinking about that wwe press release and the line about them not following their contract or whatever.
Those WWE deals are so fucking weird that you have to do what they say but vince can cut you any time he wants.
Seems like this wasnt a work.
So are we thinking Sasha doesnt want to work with Belair, is that the person…excuse me if someone else has already said this.
That was the excuse….the way I read the situation was they didn’t want to get title shots just to both job to the champs at HIAC thus making the tag division look weak.
I think you can look back over the years at both of Sasha’s “walk outs” being clearly over the handling of the Women’s Tag Championships and the lack of any planning or care for them.
To me she is a passionate talent, who seems to want to invest herself into what she is given. I think in both instances, it’s clear, that she’s given something that she can see straight through.
Looks like I was completely wrong and this was real. Rumours flying around that Sashas been let go. WWE are in desperate need of some more big stars.