SO... Lana's Battleground Promo...

[Milk]

The way I see it is the entire reason the Rusev/Lana gimmick exists in the first place is to do with Russia's prominence in the news the past year or so. WWE capitalized on Russia as a hot topic and used it in their programming just like many other shows have and will use various other news events in theirs. To date, as far as we know, nobody has complained about the characters, forcing WWE to rethink Rusev/Lana and we are several months into the storyline already so it seems unlikely that someone will now. In regards to the comment last night, was it cheap, tasteless and uncalled for? Yes, but it wasn't out of character and would be a bit strange had a huge news story like that not been mentioned by those characters.

All in all, the comment wasn't super disrespectful or even the main focus of Lanas promo and even though I wasn't offended I can see why some people would be. IMO It was simply the defense of Russia by a kayfabe pro Russian character. Add to that the fact that this is all heading toward these characters getting their comeuppance then I see no problem with it personally. Also, in regard to it being so soon after the tragedy to mention it, the WWE puts out so many shows a week in which these two are featured and happened to have a live PPV this weekend so if they were going to, ever so briefly, mention it, then they had no choice but to do it then or not at all.

I can see the argument for wanting to escape from reality when watching wrestling and I understand and agree with that but when a gimmick is so heavily influenced by current events and the heat Russia is getting/has gotten then it's kind of unavoidable to an extent. Plus, 15-20 mins out of a 3 hour show which is mostly made up of non topical storylines is only a small portion of reality which seems okay to me.

[Steveweiser]

The Daily Mail, the biggest troll website/newspaper in the world, covering wrestling's biggest troll company. Almost a perfect match.

[KobashiChop]

Wait, "recent current events"? That was it?


f*** the Daily Mail, talk about a mountain out of a molehill.

[sybaku]

This one of those things people love to be "offended" over. In the age of the internet, the whiny man is King.

Also Daily Mail? I haven't been to England in a few years that's still a tabloid posing as a newspaper right?

[mrbananagrabber]

Jul 21, 2014 7:31:06 GMT -5 sybaku said:

This one of those things people love to be "offended" over. In the age of the internet, the whiny man is King.

Also Daily Mail? I haven't been to England in a few years that's still a tabloid posing as a newspaper right?

It's right wing idiocy posing as a newspaper.

[realg]

What did she say that was so wrong?

"You blame Russia for recent current events"

Well.. yeah, everyone kind of is, how can you be outraged at that?

[4real]

Thought WWE would mention it, they did, I wasn't surprised, watched the match, match ended, moved on to the next match. At this point I'm not shocked WWE would mention it, I came to expect this out of them. They used Lawler's heart attack, they used Eddie's death, they used the Iraqi war. I can't be offended by this when I know this is exactly what WWE would do. It's being blown about of proportion anyway Id forgotten about the comment about a minute later.

[Crappler El 0 M]

Washington Post blog has another article...

"WWE alludes to Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 during ‘Battleground’ and it did not go over so well."

From Washington Post blog: www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/early-lead/wp/2014/07/20/wwe-alludes-to-malaysian-airlines-filght-17-during-battleground-and-it-did-not-go-over-so-well/?tid=pm_sports_pop

[Knailsic From Now On]

Jul 20, 2014 23:08:23 GMT -5 madness50 said:

After watching Rocky IV earlier today on AMC, I want the Rusev-Lana angle to end like that movie did lol.

You want Rusev to kill Big E?

[Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]]

Jul 21, 2014 8:12:10 GMT -5 Knailsic From Now On said:

Jul 20, 2014 23:08:23 GMT -5 madness50 said:

After watching Rocky IV earlier today on AMC, I want the Rusev-Lana angle to end like that movie did lol.

You want Rusev to kill Big E?

I'd rather Xavier Woods considering he played an Apollo Creed ripoff in another company...

[Ben Wyatt]

What I want: Rematch at Summerslam. Swagger wins hard fought match.

What will probably happen: Rematch at Summerslam (if not Raw tonight). Rusev wins to the delight of nobody

[Nickybojelais]

Well if anyone is the authority on what is tasteless, it is the Daily Mail.

[Hawk Hart]

Jul 20, 2014 23:38:02 GMT -5 @boliever said:

The reason the non-American members of this forum were not upset is that the US military has killed civilians in the past, and the WWE continued to do a pro war/pro America stuff. They have even ran adds for the military.

Or maybe it was because it wasn't that offensive. I'm an American that comes from a long line of members of the military and I didn't find it offensive. Leave the armchair psychology alone, it's not your wheelhouse.

[repomark]

As much as I hate the Daily Mail, I think it was in poor taste to make any reference, even vague, to the recent disaster in Ukraine.

The argument WWE might make is that "recent events" was just referring to the unrest in the region and general relations between Russia and the west, but it really didn't come across that way.

People were questioning if WWE would continue the Rusev/Lana Putin lover gimmick in light of the disaster prior to the ppv, and with that in mind using the term "recent events" was at best a poor choice of words, and at worst an unacceptably shameless use of a tragedy to get heat.

I tend to think it was the former, but either way it is time to get rid of the Putin references and general Soviet vibe. Nikolai Volkov would even be questioning the politcal correctness of this gimmick.

[OVO 40 hunched over like he 80]

Jul 21, 2014 4:18:10 GMT -5 Threadkiller [Classic] said:

Jul 20, 2014 23:25:18 GMT -5 OVO 40 hunched over like he 80 said:

Well Vince recently lost a shitload of money, he definitely needs more subscribers, in the near future people are going to use the atrocity as inspiration to produce movies and books amongst other things why can't the wwe use it? Isn't hoping that the fictional character of Rusev gets his comeuppance the same as watching a movie?

The difference is that a book or movie about the tragedy will have a certain element of remove from that tragedy. It's not like anyone is releasing a book or a movie about a tragedy four days after it happened. Also, a book or movie that comes out in four years isn't beholden sponsors right this moment.

What difference does it makes exploiting a tragedy a year later or 4 days later?
I was thinking about the children, their biggest demographic, they don't understand the magnitude of the situation, that we're on the verge of another war, the culprits I don't think will ever be punished, thats where Rusev comes in, the kids need to see him lose so that for them everything is right in the world, I now understand the importance of guys like John Cena, the kids live vicariously through him, he brings them hope.

[Kevin Hamilton]

Deadspin just tweeted an article bout it.

deadspin.com/wwes-russian-characters-referenced-the-malaysian-airl-1608239659?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_twitter&utm_source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

[Allie Kitsune]

It may be incredibly insensitive, but I just do not care.

If heels can't be insensitive and offensive, then there's not really much they can do except the old tired "arrogant jock" routine that we see over and over and over again.

The only place where I'd draw the line, at all, on a heel being offensive, is them calling out a private citizen by name and tearing them apart over their "identity" attributes (though, ironically, that's exactly what I wanted them to have CM Punk doing to people at one point in time). Not even a generic identity group, but a private named person (like a crowd member who wasn't planted, or someone they met at the bar the night before, etc.)

[madness50]

Jul 21, 2014 8:12:10 GMT -5 Knailsic From Now On said:

Jul 20, 2014 23:08:23 GMT -5 madness50 said:

After watching Rocky IV earlier today on AMC, I want the Rusev-Lana angle to end like that movie did lol.

You want Rusev to kill Big E?

No lol, I want to see someone kick Rusev's ass and give an impassioned speech about how everybody can change. Crowd would eat that shit up with a spoon.

[Lancers]

From that Deadspin article...

[Magic knows Black Lives Matter]

This was pretty awful but unless someone from NBC Universal says something, expect it to continue.