|
|
Post by hijuko on Aug 23, 2022 11:16:38 GMT -5
It was his choice not to want to continue living in the world of wrestling. I can't understand why fans had such a hard time accepting his decision at the time.
|
|
salz4life
Grimlock
Prichard is a guy who gets that his job is to service his boss.
Posts: 13,967
|
Post by salz4life on Aug 23, 2022 11:18:55 GMT -5
Because fans are sometimes dumb.
|
|
|
|
Post by Aceorton on Aug 23, 2022 11:24:12 GMT -5
Not defending the fan reaction, but I think there was an element of "He came in and made a bunch of money, and two years later he thinks this is beneath him and that he's just going to waltz into the NFL." And the WM20 match with Goldberg was seen as a waste of everyone's time since neither guy would be sticking around.
|
|
|
|
Post by Feyrhausen on Aug 23, 2022 11:25:21 GMT -5
In my opinion he came off quite spoiled at the time. Hired right out of school on a massive contract, pushed to the moon, put over everyone, paid extremely well. Reports were at the time that he was upset over travel which was I get, but everyone has issues with that and they were not getting paid anything near what he was. Reports also said that he was upset that he would be feuding with Taker after Mania and be on the losing side. Everybody has to job now and then Brock. The other thing was that he sprung this on everyone just a few weeks before Mania. I dont know when his contract as due but I doubt right after Mania (2 years since his debut, roughly 4 since his hiring, WWE contracts usually 3-5 years). It would have helped his rep at the time if he finished up his time before he left.
Now I read his book but I do not remember his side of the story. And certainly there is a different view of WWE with hindsight. These were just some feelings at the time.
|
|
|
|
Post by Jindrak Mark on Aug 23, 2022 11:32:32 GMT -5
Thankfully it's not as much of a thing now (although you still get stuff like deranged AEW/WWE fans calling the likes of Cody Rhodes/Bryan Danielson traitors for leaving one company) but back then if you were leaving a company fans would turn on you with you sold out chants and stuff like that. Even Rock got them when he started appearing less and was first getting into acting. Ironically Lesnar was one of the people fans cheered over Rock when they had decided Rocky was a sellout and booed him out of the building at Summerslam. They were so hostile that the company scrapped a planned Rock MSG appearance the next night on Raw because they knew he would get another bad reaction. Then less than 2 years later the same New York crowd would be treating Lesnar the same way on his way out.
ECW fans were probably the worst for it. They were incredibly toxic to anyone who they knew was about to leave for WWF or WCW. Taz in particular got it pretty bad.
|
|
|
|
Post by crowley1986 on Aug 23, 2022 11:35:46 GMT -5
In my opinion he came off quite spoiled at the time. Hired right out of school on a massive contract, pushed to the moon, put over everyone, paid extremely well. Reports were at the time that he was upset over travel which was I get, but everyone has issues with that and they were not getting paid anything near what he was. Reports also said that he was upset that he would be feuding with Taker after Mania and be on the losing side. Everybody has to job now and then Brock. The other thing was that he sprung this on everyone just a few weeks before Mania. I dont know when his contract as due but I doubt right after Mania (2 years since his debut, roughly 4 since his hiring, WWE contracts usually 3-5 years). It would have helped his rep at the time if he finished up his time before he left. Now I read his book but I do not remember his side of the story. And certainly there is a different view of WWE with hindsight. These were just some feelings at the time. believe they had him tied down to a ten year contract like Orton/Henry before |
|
|
|
Post by "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay on Aug 23, 2022 11:43:30 GMT -5
Fan entitlement has always existed, it is just louder now because of social media
This crowd was chanting 'you sold out' at a guy who took a mega pay cut to go start near the bottom of a whole other industry. One of the worst applications of that phrase I have ever seen
|
|
|
|
Post by The Summer of Muskrat XVII on Aug 23, 2022 12:05:25 GMT -5
In my opinion he came off quite spoiled at the time. Hired right out of school on a massive contract, pushed to the moon, put over everyone, paid extremely well. Reports were at the time that he was upset over travel which was I get, but everyone has issues with that and they were not getting paid anything near what he was. Reports also said that he was upset that he would be feuding with Taker after Mania and be on the losing side. Everybody has to job now and then Brock. The other thing was that he sprung this on everyone just a few weeks before Mania. I dont know when his contract as due but I doubt right after Mania (2 years since his debut, roughly 4 since his hiring, WWE contracts usually 3-5 years). It would have helped his rep at the time if he finished up his time before he left. Now I read his book but I do not remember his side of the story. And certainly there is a different view of WWE with hindsight. These were just some feelings at the time. believe they had him tied down to a ten year contract like Orton/Henry before Yeah, he signed a 10 year deal sometime in 2003 if I’m not mistaken. He wasn’t even a full year into it when he quit, which is why WWE tried to place some insanely broad “non-compete” restrictions on him. The judge basically laughed WWE out of court when they tried to claim NJPW, who only operated in Japan at that time and had little or no North American distribution, were direct competition. |
|
|
|
Post by Feyrhausen on Aug 23, 2022 12:05:29 GMT -5
In my opinion he came off quite spoiled at the time. Hired right out of school on a massive contract, pushed to the moon, put over everyone, paid extremely well. Reports were at the time that he was upset over travel which was I get, but everyone has issues with that and they were not getting paid anything near what he was. Reports also said that he was upset that he would be feuding with Taker after Mania and be on the losing side. Everybody has to job now and then Brock. The other thing was that he sprung this on everyone just a few weeks before Mania. I dont know when his contract as due but I doubt right after Mania (2 years since his debut, roughly 4 since his hiring, WWE contracts usually 3-5 years). It would have helped his rep at the time if he finished up his time before he left. Now I read his book but I do not remember his side of the story. And certainly there is a different view of WWE with hindsight. These were just some feelings at the time. believe they had him tied down to a ten year contract like Orton/Henry before And I believe that contract was post debut so if he had 8 or so years left it makes it a lot more understandable. But more notice would still have been a good idea. I am sure his leaving really hurt his Smackdown co workers pay. |
|
tafkaga
Samurai Cop
the Dogfather
Posts: 2,115
|
Post by tafkaga on Aug 23, 2022 12:26:52 GMT -5
Fan entitlement has always existed, it is just louder now because of social media This crowd was chanting 'you sold out' at a guy who took a mega pay cut to go start near the bottom of a whole other industry. One of the worst applications of that phrase I have ever seen I was PISSED at Scott Hall when he walked into Nitro. F'ing traitor. I boycotted Nitro for a week. |
|
Mozenrath
FANatic
Foppery and Whim
Speedy Speed Boy
Posts: 121,078
|
Post by Mozenrath on Aug 23, 2022 12:33:11 GMT -5
Fans don't like feeling rejected and sometimes take stuff personally that is ultimately between the wrestler and the office.
|
|
|
|
Post by Lance Uppercut on Aug 23, 2022 12:36:22 GMT -5
believe they had him tied down to a ten year contract like Orton/Henry before And I believe that contract was post debut so if he had 8 or so years left it makes it a lot more understandable. But more notice would still have been a good idea. I am sure his leaving really hurt his Smackdown co workers pay. It’s actually kind of interesting that he returned around the time his 10 year contract would have ended |
|
|
|
Post by Natural Born Farmer on Aug 23, 2022 12:39:40 GMT -5
To be fair, the guy had a rookie year that will almost certainly never be equaled, he'd become their biggest star in a very short amount of time, and the company obviously had huge plans for him going forward.
For a guy to walk away from that after so much was invested by both the company and fans does seem very unappreciative.
He had completely legitimate reasons for leaving, and if at some point he'd engaged to just say "I'm beat the f*** up, I'm struggling with booze and pills, and I need time to get my head right", people would've understood that.
|
|
|
|
Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Aug 23, 2022 13:32:46 GMT -5
Not defending the fan reaction, but I think there was an element of "He came in and made a bunch of money, and two years later he thinks this is beneath him and that he's just going to waltz into the NFL." And the WM20 match with Goldberg was seen as a waste of everyone's time since neither guy would be sticking around. This pretty much hits it on the head. He was seen kind of as Ultimate Warrior 2.0. A guy who comes, makes a lot of money, then bounces. Especially since during their respective exits the WWF’s/WWE’s business was going downhill and they struggled to make new main eventers. |
|
|
|
Post by dangerousdanpotato on Aug 23, 2022 16:50:31 GMT -5
Because "Dis Bizness..."
|
|
|
|
Post by Raskovnik on Aug 23, 2022 17:32:34 GMT -5
They knew how important it was to Stand Up for WWE
|
|
|
|
Post by EZ: Brainy Bae on Aug 23, 2022 19:07:56 GMT -5
I was in my early teens and was pissed about him leaving too. It was less betrayal and more "really gonna leave all this cool stuff on the table, huh?". I was looking forward to seeing him face Deadman Taker or going to RAW and facing Batista/Evolution/Edge etc. I knew him leaving would lead to a decline in quality/star-power. Then I thought "Alright, at least he's facing Goldberg on the way out, that should be fun". Lol no. With that piss poor match I instantly stopped caring.
Obviously Brock was right to pursue his wishes and it worked out in the end. But that wasn't my or any other fan's concern and I don't blame them for making their opinions known by booing.
|
|
