Board 8 > All-Purpose Wrestling Topic Part 500: The Posting Business

(+) Yeah! (+)

They all stop, wait for someone to cautiously cut a ring rope with a chain saw, then all cheer uproariously at this accomplishment. This is beautiful.

https://twitter.com/MahaIicia/status/1291917214220603392?s=20

Edit:
https://twitter.com/WWE/status/1291919060918206464?s=20

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Oh man, tonight apparently featured 3 Baron Corbin segments, two of them being matches!

It's like a dream come true!

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You're welcome.

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Wait was Alexa Bliss really kidnapped by the Fiend for a week and nobody really made a big deal out of it? lol

WWE security is the literal worst. Between Fiend kidnapping people, these not-antifa people breaking in constantly, and this underground fight ring, wrestlers now, MORE THAN EVER, need to unionize!

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Get Miz and truth on that

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Sorry, Miz is too busy with this.

https://twitter.com/GifSkullIV/status/1291897562073427968?s=19

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https://twitter.com/mongo_ebooks/status/1292125455731089409?s=21

This really happened
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I'm not kidding when I say I'm THIS CLOSE to watching this ironically. This is the most Wrestlecrap I've seen WWE in a long time. It's hard to think of a worse time in WWE creatively. This is reaching end days WCW levels of bad.

Like when Raw advertised the Raw Underground stuff, they kept saying it would be at 10. And then they showed it early and it ended five minutes before 10. On a taped show. That is so WCW.

And then there's this horrible, awful Retribution group, but WWE is advertising and showing clips of it and they're just like "Woah these wacky folks are breaking into our performance center and breaking everything! Here's some video of their mayhem!" We live in an age where people are going to clip the fuck out of it and throw it on Twitter or YouTube. You could actually get mileage out of this if you don't show anything and let the fans talk about it and build interest to watch later. Also, they advertised the debut of their anti-WWE faction on Monday.

What is even happening anymore?

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I actually forgot Braun Strowman was champ before seeing this. I couldn't even tell you who he beat for the title.

https://twitter.com/SoDuTw/status/1292178129679798273?s=20

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I feel like it was Reigns.

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It was Goldberg you sillies
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Oh right, duh.

I should get partial credit though since Reigns was technically the reason he won.

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Jakyl, the last Wrestlemania was like six years ago. Cut us some slack.

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Dexter Lumis is legit injured doing that heavily edited spot where he did a flip outside of the ring.

Who in the world thought that spot was a good idea?

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DIVES
dives

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PrivateBiscuit1 posted...

Jakyl, the last Wrestlemania was like six years ago. Cut us some slack.

It just shows that Strowman isnt THE most forgettable top champion in recent memory
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Oh yeah, remember that lawsuit about WWE lying about Saudi Arabia and scamming their shareholders? They had tried to file a Motion to Dismiss to get the whole thing dropped. The Judge denied their Motion, so the case is going forward. He threw out literally none of the testimony, including Dax Harwood/Scott Dawson's testimony about the 'hostage situation'.

Happy to have been totally right on this one. The argument is ridiculously strong on the Plaintiff's side. In fact, to know just how badly WWE tried to argue against it (likely because they had little argument frankly), the Judge said this:

Ultimately, none of defendants numerous arguments succeeds. Basically, this is because the complaint, while not a model of clarity, adequately alleges an overall claim of securities fraud that is not only plausible, but also complies with the relevant heightened pleading requirements applicable to this kind of action. While defendants have trotted out a virtual herd of objections to the (lawsuit), on close inspection, none is a winner.

Edit:

WWE said in its motion to dismiss that its executives "honestly believed" the optimistic statements about a deal, but Judge Rakoff sided with the investors.

"Parties with a relationship as unworkably tense as plaintiff describes are unlikely to have reached 'an agreement in principle' at any point," he said.

Ahahahahaha Judge Rakoff calling this shit out. I'd be sweating if I were WWE right now.

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So you're saying even WWE's lawyers are complete failures now too?

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Strife2 posted...

So you're saying even WWE's lawyers are complete failures now too?

They once lost the rights to their own name
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I'm saying they had like, nothing to work with.

WWE says get this dismissed and there's only so much you can do. You make the best argument you can, even if it's not great, and you tell them the odds and hope a Judge is out to lunch. If this case wasn't as absurdly stacked as it was like I said before when I ran down the Complaint, I could argue they might be bad. But I really couldn't.

My prediction is they end up settling for a large amount. I don't see WWE fighting this to trial.

Also, if anyone is interested in notes on the Judge's Order on Dismissal, let me know. Reading through it now but I won't bother summarizing it if nobody cares about the nitty gritty.

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I'm definitely interested, and at a place where I don't have time to peruse the documents involved.

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PrivateBiscuit1 posted...

I actually forgot Braun Strowman was champ before seeing this. I couldn't even tell you who he beat for the title.

https://twitter.com/SoDuTw/status/1292178129679798273?s=20

On top of that, the inclusion of Alexa Bliss was possibly the first (and only) remotely interesting thing to attempt giving life to this feud. Then yesterday they have Braun say "lol I don't care"

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But in regards to that tweet, what ARE some of the weakest world title programs going into Summerslam in history? Off the top of my head, the following come to mind...

Diesel vs Mabel
Braun vs Bray
Jinder vs Nakamura
Both of Khali's world title matches at Summerslam

You could possibly make arguments for Sheamus vs Del Rio and Ambrose vs Ziggler as well

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My vote goes to Ambrose vs Ziggler
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Punk vs JBL would also qualify

I feel like it has to be one of those two, because they managed to be 4th-tier billing on their respective shows
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Judge's Order on Motion to Dismiss
This is basically a description of what the Judge decided, backed up with legal theory, should happen with WWE's Motion to Dismiss on the court case filed on them after they lied to shareholders about what was happening with the Saudi Arabia deals.

The Judge outlines this in the intro before giving this juicy quote "Ultimately, however, none of defendants' (WWE) numerous arguments succeeds." This is outstanding. They couldn't even convince this judge on anything in this case.

I. The Complaint's Allegations

Summary of the Complaint.

• "Plaintiff alleges that although this latter partnership [with Saudi Arabia] was somewhat controversial, it provided highly lucrative for WWE, and was emblematic of WWE's increasing dependence on its international media rights agreements as a source of growth."
• Basically, he has a full understanding of the case and how WWE blatantly lied to the shareholders. He's sharp.

II. Legal Standard

He lays out the arguments WWE made which were the typical dismissal arguments, plus additional ones regarding securities fraud, i.e. lying to shareholders. Less familiar with this one.

III. Alleged Violation of Rule 10b-5

This rule says it's unlawful to make any untrue statements in connection to sale of any security (stocks). This is what the vast majority of the Order deals with. They need to satisfy 5 clauses to dismiss it on these grounds which will be outlined below.

A. Misrepresentations and Omissions

• WWE had argued they were offering misrepresentations, but the Plaintiffs are allowed to do that so long as it's about the specifics of the case (OSN Agreement and media rights agreement, specifically). This is to protect the Defendant from just going "Nah they lying" and forcing them to throw out the case.

1. Particularity of the Allegations


(The Judge disagrees.)

2. Misrepresentations Regarding the OSN Agreement

This part is fucking massive.

• Judge points out that WWE did not dispute the timing of WWE agreeing to an early termination and them saying they're still renewing the contract... and their actual argument is amazing. Just read this screenshot and take it in.

• Very bold strategy. I would not go with it. Basically, they argue that the usage of the word "renewal" obviously means that it is renewing in the MARKET, not the contract they have. Let's see what the judge thinks:
• "Defendants argue the Plaintiff and other investors would have known this special meaning based on other prior statements by defendants, and thus that Plaintiff could not have reasonably believed that Defendants were negotiation with or planning to renew an agreement with OSN, even though that was the only previously-existing agreement and therefore the only one that could be "renewed" in ordinary English."

• "The Court accepts as true the complaint's well-pleaded allegations of fact.." - This is when you're WWE and concerned about the steep of an uphill incline you realize you're on now.

• Essentially, the Judge has now told them "Get the fuck out of here with this shit." Meaning they can't even try to argue this again. Mostly because it's outrageous. Absolutely outrageous.
• WWE also argued it wouldn't have such a big effect if they disclosed that part specifically and the Judge says yes it would and cited case law why.
• The Judge even argues they were not even close to finding a replacement according to what the Plaintiff alleges, so they can't argue their own weird definition, even though WWE claims they totally had a lot of viable options lined up.
• Judge has more or less made it completely clear he doesn't buy any of this and doesn't want to hear it again. lol

3. Misrepresentations Regarding Saudi Arabia Agreement

• This part is about the Saudi Arabia deal with the Prince and their media rights in the area.
• WWE claims the Confidential Witness (CW) who worked for the Saudi media company that said negotiations were worlds apart and gave those ridiculous numbers WWE expected for the rights of their show is just hearsay, even though he worked there and the Judge cites something related to this to support that he knew what he was talking about.
• WWE claimed that because they give warnings about how business development will not go expected terms and that their understanding of events make it possible that it wouldn't go as expected and that investors should understand that, but the Judge doesn't buy into this and says the misrepresentation was that there was never an agreement there at all because of how they were playing high ball with their contract.
• The fun part: Crown Jewel. Shout outs to definitely not Dax Harwood.
• "Defendants dedicate much of their briefing to disputing the truth of these allegations, suggesting that the relationship between Saudi Arabia was amicable throughout the class period." This makes sense. This is the thing they absolutely want to be dismissed so they can say "SEE! There wasn't a hostage situation with our employees! We were fine!" Judge disagrees though.
• "The Court is unmoved by defendants' protestations that the plaintiff's allegations are based on hearsay and unreliable news sources." Holy shit I need to read this Motion now. I'm sure there's so much salt on WWE's end.
• Basically, the Court has to assume these testimonies from wrestlers and news outlets are true by the law, because WWE didn't do anything to really disprove it completely.

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4. Statements of Opinion

• They argue that these are all statements of opinion and not remotely factual.
• The Judge is very scathing and blunt about how the renewal process for OSN was not ongoing because they knew they were not renewing and that WWE does not prove it's an opinion statement. Says the same about the Saudi Arabia media rights, which WWE argued hard that because they said they "believed" it was cautionary language. Which is bullshit and the Judge says so.

• Okay maybe WWE's attorneys aren't great after all (I mean they DO use K&L Gates, gross). This means they used cases that actively did NOT help their arguments.

• This tells you literally all you need to know about what the Judge thinks about WWE's arguments here and their verbal diarrhea and misleading language.

5. PSLRA Safe Harbor

• WWE had argued that they are safe by using forward-looking language, but the Judge says they were misrepresenting present facts, not future ones (such as the renewal thing).

B. Scienter

• Scienter is the legal term for knowingly doing something wrong.
• Basically, because WWE would benefit from it and knew they were lying, it meets this criteria

1. OSN Agreement Statements

• Outlines that WWE's stocks would have suffered if they had told a more accurate situation of the OSN Agreement.
• WWE claimed that the Complaint is bogus because it doesn't have any internal information... as if that's possible to have before discovery?

• There it is. McMahon selling stocks during this is argued as doing so with insider information they weren't sharing. They share case law to support this and also points out the timing of it and the stock drops.
• WWE argues McMahon sold these stocks to create XFL, but it doesn't really matter at this stage of the case.

2. Replacement Agreement Statements

• This refers to WWE's Saudi Arabia media rights contract.
• Judge basically rejects WWE's arguments about this too, with case law.

C. Loss Causation

• Loss Causation is, in simple terms, proof that when the truth comes out that the stock market reacted negatively to the news and that the business could see it coming.
• WWE claimed that Plaintiff didn't show this, but the Plaintiff's had a strong argument for this so it's weird they said this? Judge agreed.

IV. Alleged Violation of Section 20(a)

• WWE had argued that the case should be dismissed under this because none of the Defendants acted with scienter. Which the Judge already supported they did.

V. Conclusion

Just gonna copy this whole conclusion.


That whole first sentence says all that needs to be said.

My Prediction:

WWE settles in the end before things get to discovery. If things make it to discovery, that's when everything goes BAD. Because once discovery reveals information and it becomes public? WWE will not come out looking good from it. Moreover, this can be used in Vince's XFL case too against him.

I will be shocked if WWE continues to fight it to trial, because it's unlikely that they'll win a jury trial as the evil company that worked with Saudi Arabia, left their employees to be in a hostage situation, and oversold their value to the Saudi market and are noted company LIARS. I can't imagine the shit show this will be the moment that they get questioned about any of this in Court. Like fucking argue the hostage situation thing. Just try. Ask Vince McMahon himself to answer for that. It's not happening unless Vince has completely lost his mind and demands that this go to trial.

I'll check the Motion to see if there are any gems about the hostage situation.

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You didn't account for the fact that I just booked the judge to accept the king's ransom from Corbin

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https://twitter.com/SexyChuckieT/status/1292192466314108928?s=19

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https://twitter.com/njpwworld/status/1292320775882412032

promo of the year? maybe

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Obligation match? Does that mean the winner gets the money? Oh wait...it was the cost of the orange juice suit...I remember now.

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Oh, I wanted to say I did look at WWE's Motion to Dismiss.

I kind of got discouraged because the website I go to look at filings only has 3/20+ exhibits there for download for some reason. I wanted to see who they referenced in an exhibit as a "so-called wrestling journalist" because that salt was delicious. Overall, it's kind of an arrogant pleading with language that makes me go... mmmmmaybe you want to reel it back a bit and act more humble given that you're the big company working with fucking Saudi Arabia. But they did end up using a lot of their pleading, for some reason, trying to convince the Judge that people who spoke about the hostage situation and claiming that [not] Dax Harwood is just using second-hand information and that it's unreliable and that he "bizarrely referenced the Twitter of wrestlers' wives".

Even if they did crush this part of it, at best the Judge could have thrown out this part as hearsay. I don't know why they focused on it that much aside from that considering the Judge probably wouldn't have dismissed it as other things met the threshold.

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You know, I've been starting to hear more about the women's side of WWE PC that makes it seem rough. I saw some stuff about Sara Del Ray blackballing women wrestlers who did intergender matches and that she's not really the hero of the women's developmental like we've been led to believe. Also, Deonna Purrazzo seems highly unimpressed with her time there.

https://twitter.com/DeonnaPurrazzo/status/1291873225849413634?s=20
https://twitter.com/DeonnaPurrazzo/status/1291878320829857809?s=20

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Man it seems weird that SDR would black ball for intergender given that she did lots of them.

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Maniac64 posted...

Man it seems weird that SDR would black ball for intergender given that she did lots of them.

Yeah, it's especially strange, but LuFisto seems to support SDR has done that. I dunno. It's weird but I do actually remember Meltzer saying around the time of Lucha Underground that WWE wouldn't hire some of these girls that do intergender stuff like this. Makes me wonder if it's because he heard about SDR doing that.

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Jericho is doing Fozzy concerts again?

Imagine risking getting Covid19 to see fucking Fozzy.

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TheRock1525 posted...

Jericho is doing Fozzy concerts again?

Imagine risking getting Covid19 to see fucking Fozzy.

He might Kill a Stranger if he goes back to doing concerts

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https://twitter.com/Uncensored_WWE/status/1292324207347617792

A lot of stupid idiots in this photo.

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RIP Kamala; passed away at 70

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he's become he's become he's becoming
judas in judas in his mind

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next round of new japan cards out; card for jingu updated:
naito vs evil
tanahashi and ibushi vs zsj and taichi
shingo vs suzuki
hiromu vs taiji
4 way KOPW 2020 match

in the weeks leading up to jingu, there's really nothing worth watching on any of these cards until the night with the 4 KOPW tournament matches (no not spread out, all on one night, the 26th)
sho vs sanada
desperado vs kojima
yano vs bushi
okada vs yujiro

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1. Wtf Jericho. Why?
2. RIP Kamala - I've heard he's always been the nicest guy. He's gone through a lot in his life.
3. Dasha is teaming with Rachael Ellering in the AEW Women's Tag Tournament

But in something more relevant, Seth Rollins gave an interview where he criticized fans, stating that they just don't have the patience for long-term storytelling and just immediately jump to saying something sucks before giving it a chance to play out! Also in this interview, Seth Rollins states he doesn't ever have any idea where his character is going and that he has no idea what is ever going to happen the very next week with his character. He does not see the correlation here.

Seth also says that he thinks the Eye for an Eye match was great because it made headlines! It made it to TMZ! And he thinks that's how they'll hook the casual viewer.

In other news, I'm excited to hear about how terrible RAW ends up being tonight.

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Vince has really gotten his hooks in him
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Seth has to be the most oblivious "top guy" ever. I mean, John Cena's recent comments about "Superstars should make due with what they are given and make chicken salad out of chicken shit to become stars" is pretty rich....

But Rollins man...he's on a whole nother level of stupid.

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I mean making chicken salad out of chicken shit is basically what Cena did his entire run. His booking was atrocious and he still managed to get over

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PrivateBiscuit1 posted...

Seth Rollins states he doesn't ever have any idea where his character is going and that he has no idea what is ever going to happen the very next week with his character.

He must be very bad at pattern recognition because his character has been horribly predictable for 3 months now.

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At some point, restaurants that continue to serve chicken shit get condemned
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Eddv posted...

I mean making chicken salad out of chicken shit is basically what Cena did his entire run. His booking was atrocious and he still managed to get over

Cena also had WWE fighting tooth and nail to get him over with kids and putting him over a number of legends and over characters too. Like can you imagine trying to get John Cena over in this landscape now? A vast majority of olds making up your audience? While he writes JBL is poopy on a car?

God knows they tried with Roman but he just never got to that level.

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John Cena was booked exactly the way he needed to be to get over with the crowd they were targeting. Its really hard to buy the idea that he was given atrocious booking. Quite the opposite, in fact.

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There's an argument to be made that, because they had targeted that young crowd so hard with Cena, that it ended up hurting them in the long run and scared off all of the teenagers and adults. Like, they worked so hard to get this young audience of kids and the demos reflect they have retained very few of them. Whether that be because they were only fans of Cena, that they failed to have Cena's character 'grow' with that audience, or because they decided WWE is fucking atrocious on their own and dropped it.

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