WWE Talent Upset

[haVoc 0]

WWE talent morale continues to sink as house show business and TV direction drift. The Smackdown house show last night drew only 1500 fans for a $40,000 gate. Bad house show gates hurt most WWE talent directly since their bonuses are directly related to them. Right now, some shows do such low gates that talent barely breaks even when factoring their road trip costs.

 

The word is that now even the loyalist of WWE's talent is starting to get upset with Vince McMahon and the direction of the company. The feeling is that the McMahons are more or less ignoring the problems and not addressing them, instead opting to continue going down the same route that has caused business to fall.

 

Surprisingly, even Kurt Angle has been vocal lately about WWE's direction. Angle at times has been one of WWE's most positive guys, always having faith in the direction.

 

Credit: 1wrestling.com

[eirejmcmahon 0]

I don't visit 1wrestling at all myself so, out of interest, do they ever publish similar articles about NWATNA ?

[1234-5678 0]

Bad house show gates hurt most WWE talent directly since their bonuses are directly related to them. Right now, some shows do such low gates that talent barely breaks even when factoring their road trip costs.

That sucks. I hate hearing about how the guys are having a rough time these days.

[Sideburnious 0]

Vince will probably just blame the talents preformance because of the low house show attendance just like he did in the past.

[dubq 0]

Surprisingly, even Kurt Angle has been vocal lately about WWE's direction. Angle at times has been one of WWE's most positive guys, always having faith in the direction.

Direction? This company has a direction?

[OldSchoolWrestling 0]

I don't visit 1wrestling at all myself so, out of interest, do they ever publish similar articles about NWATNA ?

I can understand the conflict of interest point you may be trying to bring up, but I haven't heard anyone complain about TNA in any interviews on any sites. Has anyone?

[Guest Mulatto Heat]

The only direction the company has involves the McMahons.

 

See: future plans for Taker, Kane/Shane feud.

[Dangerous A 0]

The next big ppv has a bunch of McMahon's (Vince, Shane, and now HHH) in high profile singles matches while all the good talent(Jericho, RVD, Booker, Steiner, Christian,Angle,Benoit, Lesnar,etc) gets lumped in non important elimination matches.

 

Way to put the talent over guys. I'm willing to bet that Vince and HHH go over in their matches and while Shane might lose, he'll scoop any heat Kane may get with a non sensical bump from a very high place.

 

This company is so predictable.

[Jobber of the Week 0]

But then again there's HHH with the opposite ear on Vince's head... until HHH himself also sees the direction the WWE's going in a bad light (not the one with all the younger stars threatening his spot for crippled prima donna bore), it's going to be an uphill battle for Kurt.

Vince has been part of the SmackDown crew for months now. I doubt he's seen HHH much at all aside from the Bachelor Party and the Wedding.

[1234-5678 0]

I don't visit 1wrestling at all myself so, out of interest, do they ever publish similar articles about NWATNA ?

I can understand the conflict of interest point you may be trying to bring up, but I haven't heard anyone complain about TNA in any interviews on any sites. Has anyone?

TNA doesn't do house shows, so there is no low payoffs. Plus they have medical insurance. What is there to complain about?

[{''({o..o})''} 0]

Vince has been part of the SmackDown crew for months now. I doubt he's seen HHH much at all aside from the Bachelor Party and the Wedding.

 

Uh, Vince and Steph are at pretty much every television event.

[OldSchoolWrestling 0]

I don't visit 1wrestling at all myself so, out of interest, do they ever publish similar articles about NWATNA ?

I can understand the conflict of interest point you may be trying to bring up, but I haven't heard anyone complain about TNA in any interviews on any sites. Has anyone?

TNA doesn't do house shows, so there is no low payoffs. Plus they have medical insurance. What is there to complain about?

Actually now that I think about it, wasn't Ron Killings upset with how they were using him? He went from world champ with a cult following to being over, but not really in the limelight.

 

Suprising not many complaints have been heard regarding JJJ and Russo.

[Guest Mulatto Heat]

Speaking of, yesterday I downloaded and watched JJ/AJ from last week.

 

I loved how the commentators gave AJ little to no chance without Russo at his side and declared him "unproven", and JJ, despite being the face, controlled the middle portion of the match with various knee-related offense.

 

The parody almost writes itself.

[Guest nikowwf]

Hey, thats NWA. Only WWE holds people down. In NWA, this is perfectly acceptable booking.

 

niko

[Guest Megatron]

Vince has been part of the SmackDown crew for months now. I doubt he's seen HHH much at all aside from the Bachelor Party and the Wedding.

It's pretty much common knowledge that HHH is at almost every SD! taping.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

Killings is upset because he's been buried (where was he A YEAR ago when that burial took place?)

 

Styles is mad that he has to turn face because he thought he was getting over as a heel finally. I didn't see that...but I understand his point.

 

No one is going to be upset about payoffs because they all get paid the same no matter of their placement on the card. CM Punk squashed in the opener or CM Punk squashed in the main event still nets him his same pay.

[eirejmcmahon 0]

You're always going to have people moaning, and I'm not disputing that the WWE is on a major downtrend at the moment but it always irks me that I see a lot of nebulous reports credited to 1wrestling ('WWE wrestlers aren't happy') but never anything in connection to TNA (even when the Observer and Torch (yeah, yeah, I know carry reports that certain wrestlers on their roster aren't happy.)

 

1wrestling used to have a great pattern, hell, they might still follow it :

 

Step 1. Raw airs

Step 2. Something happens which outrages IWC

Step 3. 1wrestling reports that WWE management are very, very happy with the way the event which so-outraged smarks went down.

Step 4. Smackdown airs

Step 5. See step 2

 

Just a personal gripe really.

[eirejmcmahon 0]

No one is going to be upset about payoffs because they all get paid the same no matter of their placement on the card.  CM Punk squashed in the opener or CM Punk squashed in the main event still nets him his same pay.

Is there any official word on those contracts - to run with your example....C.M. Punk signs a one year contract with TNA. Now, in his current position with the company, I think it'd be fair to say that he's lower midcard.

 

Let's say that he kicks off a feud with Raven in three months time (shut up, 1inch ) that catapults him to the top of the card. He strikes an afinity with the fans and is, all of a sudden, a main event talent with the company. So, for the remainder of his contract, he gets paid the same money as when he started.

 

I'm just as murky on the WWE contracts - aren't their wrestlers paid X amount with Y extra coming from merchandise and Z from PPV bonuses ? With said PPV bonuses varying depending on your place on the card ?

 

Is there any provision for merchandise money in a TNA contract ?

 

Apologies to all, this should probably be over in the NWATNA folder.

[Guest Nanks]

Every time ratings go down 1Wrestling run this story. And frankly, I tend to give less credit to pieces of writing with glaring grammatical errors, are these guys meant to be journalists???

 

The word is that now even the loyalist of WWE's talent is starting to get upset with Vince McMahon and the direction of the company.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

You're always going to have people moaning, and I'm not disputing that the WWE is on a major downtrend at the moment but it always irks me that I see a lot of nebulous reports credited to 1wrestling ('WWE wrestlers aren't happy') but never anything in connection to TNA (even when the Observer and Torch (yeah, yeah, I know carry reports that certain wrestlers on their roster aren't happy.)

 

1wrestling used to have a great pattern, hell, they might still follow it :

 

Step 1. Raw airs

Step 2. Something happens which outrages IWC

Step 3. 1wrestling reports that WWE management are very, very happy with the way the event which so-outraged smarks went down.

Step 4. Smackdown airs

Step 5. See step 2

 

Just a personal gripe really.

Since those things keep happening (ex. Shane dominating Kane), I would say that 1wrestling is accurate there.

[teke184 0]

Surprisingly, even Kurt Angle has been vocal lately about WWE's direction. Angle at times has been one of WWE's most positive guys, always having faith in the direction.

Direction? This company has a direction?

Down the shitter is a direction, isn't it?

[SamoaRowe 0]

Every time ratings go down 1Wrestling run this story. And frankly, I tend to give less credit to pieces of writing with glaring grammatical errors, are these guys meant to be journalists???

 

The word is that now even the loyalist of WWE's talent is starting to get upset with Vince McMahon and the direction of the company.

I just question their sources.

[Michrome 0]

Punk said in an interview recently that he's frustrated with not being able to talk yet in TNA or wrestle long matches, but he said he loves working there and plans on running with the ball when he gets it. I think the work environment in TNA is generally good.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

Sorry I didn't answer that but I was off the board for a day and it fell off the page.

 

I THINK (meaning I don't know) that the TNA contracts are really just "Can't sign with WWE contracts".

 

I know TNA wanted to have total control over all the talent and their bookings, but I also know that Punk got them to give on that in his case (and I'm sure in many other people's too) because he's such a bigger star everywhere else.

 

That all being said...I don't think a major push would really change what Punk gets paid. What I mean is...even if they moved him into the upper mid card and a high profile feud with Raven he still wouldn't be working as long of matches as he does in...say...RoH because no one in TNA gets 20 minutes. So he gets his RoH paycheck for BIG matches a couple times a month...and probably wouldn't get a pay raise to be used more in TNA...since it still just couldn't be as much.

 

Now...what makes Punk interesting is that he is one of the people who benefits least from TNA (although getting steady work on Wednesdays is a pretty good benefit in the indys). What I mean is...I always read that TNA talent has been able to make more working other indys since they've been featured on TNA and more people have at least heard of them. Guys like Harris and Storm are obviously the biggest winners since TNA opened...but when you think about it...it's no longer necessary to get a guy like Styles or Daniels or Raven (three of the highest price indy guys) when you can headline an indy show with a cheaper names like Sabin vs. Kazarian (or something like that). Punk is far better known for everything and anything having to do without TNA and to this point, TNA is really a black mark on what he's accomplished everywhere else. I think that's about to clear up since Raven has a lot of control over his TNA storylines and he's obviously going to work with Punk sooner or later.

 

(Which I honestly think Raven's plan has been all along and he was almost the masked guy in the angle before someone realized that was impossible since Punk wrestled in some of the matches the masked guy came out in. Anyway...the angle has been slowly shifting from Raven vs. Mitchell to Raven almost gets Mitchell and then Punk and Julio (but last week especially...mainly Punk) kind of go against his "orders" and try to help but get in his way instead. I think Punk's turn and push is literally days away at this point).

 

 

As far as payment on the contracts...I assume they have the same standard payoff for merchandise that other indys do when they sell stuff. I can't imagine TNA making a change there.

 

I know that Styles got a pay increase when they made him into the star of the show (this was before the NWA title win too...just when they realized they had to have him locked down for a long time...In fact...I think Styles was the very first person to get a real long deal well before the new contracts came out...which Styles also signed). So if Punk were to get to that point they'd probably do the same as Punk could probably force the issue if he wanted. He's got alot on his side with Raven, his name already being of value everywhere else AND at that point he could point out how well he handled his misuse for the last several months.

 

The reason that probably won't happen though is that TNA is very much an indy trying to pretend to be more. So guys get paid their going rate to work much longer and much less profile all the time. It'll take a TV deal to change that line of thinking.