Instances of WWE Propaganda

[LiamMcDuggle]

One thing VKM was good at was always twisting narratives to make WWE look morally better than it really was. They have stated MANY times WCW "stole" all their talent, when in reality almost all the talent WCW took was first poached by Vince from the AWA. By 1987, the WWF roster had more former AWA stars on its show than any old WWWF stars. The only major holdovers from the Vince Sr days was Greg Valentine, Tito Santana, and Snuka.


WWE has also stated "WCW went out of business". Uh no, when you buy a company, and ecorporate dozens of their employees, while still representing its likeness, it's legally defined as a merger. When you go out of business, everyone is fired; the business ceases to exist and assets are auctioned off so the money can go to creditors. This is not a matter of marketing, both of these things are legally distinct. 

[chrom]

Where to even begin?

[mo]

Yup pretty much anything WCW related. When you see how much some people here and elsewhere try to downplay Bischoff and his legacy, they did a good job at making people believe some of it.

[tafkaga]

If you look at the WWF roster in '96, most of their upper tier stars were guys who WCW put on the map, and had been upper tier in WCW within a few years of signing on with Vince. All the while Vince is running ads about WCW stealing their rasslers.

[chazraps]

Remember when they had Bill Watts on the Legends of Wrestling Black History Month roundtable special in an effort to rehab his image from outspoken virulent racist who wasn't above making money off of black talent despite his personal feelings to "aww shucks, just a misunderstood ol' country boy."

[chazraps]

Mar 2, 2024 14:47:44 GMT -5 mo said:

Yup pretty much anything WCW related. When you see how much some people here and elsewhere try to downplay Bischoff and his legacy, they did a good job at making people believe some of it.

Everything ECW related too. Painting it as much more niche than it was while also downplaying Paul Heyman's blatant shadiness and self-destructive tendencies. And the ripple effects of seeing people who don't know better parrot that as bad faith fears of AEW's choices shows the further effects of re-writing history.

[THE FVNKER]

Mar 2, 2024 15:06:41 GMT -5 chazraps said:

Mar 2, 2024 14:47:44 GMT -5 mo said:

Yup pretty much anything WCW related. When you see how much some people here and elsewhere try to downplay Bischoff and his legacy, they did a good job at making people believe some of it.

Everything ECW related too. Painting it as much more niche than it was while also downplaying Paul Heyman's blatant shadiness and self-destructive tendencies. And the ripple effects of seeing people who don't know better parrot that as bad faith fears of AEW's choices shows the further effects of re-writing history.

Even Bischoff has gone one before downplaying ECW’s success by saying “nobody watched it”. Maybe it wasn’t being watched by millions like WWF/WCW but by all accounts ECW was still well known nationally and of course it was huge with fans in the know.

[LiamMcDuggle]

Mar 2, 2024 15:06:41 GMT -5 chazraps said:

Mar 2, 2024 14:47:44 GMT -5 mo said:

Yup pretty much anything WCW related. When you see how much some people here and elsewhere try to downplay Bischoff and his legacy, they did a good job at making people believe some of it.

Everything ECW related too. Painting it as much more niche than it was while also downplaying Paul Heyman's blatant shadiness and self-destructive tendencies. And the ripple effects of seeing people who don't know better parrot that as bad faith fears of AEW's choices shows the further effects of re-writing history.

An actual quote from Paul E "WCW stole Eddie, Benoit, Konnan, Rey".

They all appeared in WCW during crossover shows with New Japan and other promotions before they went to ECW and Bischoff remembered them from that. 

it's such a pointless lie.

[Cyno]

Any WWE-produced thing about the Monday Night Wars is so blatant in its pro-WWF/anti-WCW bias. Complete revisionist garbage.

ECW is weird because I think WWE somehow both downplays and lionizes its influence and importance to the industry.

[Alice Syndrome]

Mar 2, 2024 15:23:44 GMT -5 THE FVNKER said:

Mar 2, 2024 15:06:41 GMT -5 chazraps said:

Everything ECW related too. Painting it as much more niche than it was while also downplaying Paul Heyman's blatant shadiness and self-destructive tendencies. And the ripple effects of seeing people who don't know better parrot that as bad faith fears of AEW's choices shows the further effects of re-writing history.

Even Bischoff has gone one before downplaying ECW’s success by saying “nobody watched it”. Maybe it wasn’t being watched by millions like WWF/WCW but by all accounts ECW was still well known nationally and of course it was huge with fans in the know.

ECW was big enough it had a frigging TV deal over here.

[Gerard Gerard]

The gaslighting around Yesslemania is especially egregious. We've all been witness to WWE revisionism but rarely in real-time like that. To state Daniel Bryan's ascension to WM30 was planned, despite the main player directly contradicting that narrative, is so shameless it is almost admirable.

[GOTHIC CHARISMA 🧊 🥶❄️FURY]

...the whole ass company? like everything about them?

picking one individual moment or event feels too easy. they're the kings of propaganda and why wouldn't they be, they went decades insulting the fans memory length

[WayTooPolitical]

Prior to Vince buying the company from his dad, wrestling was all bush league shows put on in small, smoky halls to an audience of nobody.

[The Dark Order Inferno]

The WWF had to screw Bret, he was going to leave with the title, despite having a decent chunk of time left on the clock until a departure that was negotiated with their blessing and the company having dotted avery I and crossed everty T when it comes to the trademarks and ownership of their title.

[hyperstorm]

Mar 2, 2024 14:25:14 GMT -5 LiamMcDuggle said:

One thing VKM was good at was always twisting narratives to make WWE look morally better than it really was. They have stated MANY times WCW "stole" all their talent, when in reality almost all the talent WCW took was first poached by Vince from the AWA. By 1987, the WWF roster had more former AWA stars on its show than any old WWWF stars. The only major holdovers from the Vince Sr days was Greg Valentine, Tito Santana, and Snuka.


WWE has also stated "WCW went out of business". Uh no, when you buy a company, and ecorporate dozens of their employees, while still representing its likeness, it's legally defined as a merger. When you go out of business, everyone is fired; the business ceases to exist and assets are auctioned off so the money can go to creditors. This is not a matter of marketing, both of these things are legally distinct. 

Except WWE didn’t actually buy or merge with entire WCW company, they bought the intellectual property, trademarks and tape library and some wrestler contracts. They didn’t acquire the physical assets like rings or stages and also only kept 4 employees from WCW’s office while the rest were fired by Time Warner. The WCW subsidiary of Turner itself changed its name to Universal Wrestling Corporation and continued to exist as part of Turner until 2017.

Also the legal definition of a corporate merger I can found states that a merger requires that the surviving corporation inherit all assets and liabilities from the corporation that is being absorbed, and WWE didn’t inherit the entirety of the assets or any of the liabilities from WCW, so it wasn’t a merger.

[Jaws the Shark]

Mick Foley and Steve Austin being nobodies who Vince McMahon headhunted and turned into main eventers all by himself.

[cjh]

Mar 2, 2024 14:25:14 GMT -5 LiamMcDuggle said:

One thing VKM was good at was always twisting narratives to make WWE look morally better than it really was. They have stated MANY times WCW "stole" all their talent, when in reality almost all the talent WCW took was first poached by Vince from the AWA. By 1987, the WWF roster had more former AWA stars on its show than any old WWWF stars. The only major holdovers from the Vince Sr days was Greg Valentine, Tito Santana, and Snuka.


WWE has also stated "WCW went out of business". Uh no, when you buy a company, and ecorporate dozens of their employees, while still representing its likeness, it's legally defined as a merger. When you go out of business, everyone is fired; the business ceases to exist and assets are auctioned off so the money can go to creditors. This is not a matter of marketing, both of these things are legally distinct. 

Isn't that what happened?  WWE only bought the WCW assets they wanted, not the company itself, while the company only stayed open afterwards so Turner Broadcasting could deal with WCW's unresolved lawsuits.  TB didn't officially close WCW as a company until December 2017 for some reason.

[EvenBaldobombHasAJob]

Mar 2, 2024 17:44:20 GMT -5 hyperstorm said:

Mar 2, 2024 14:25:14 GMT -5 LiamMcDuggle said:

One thing VKM was good at was always twisting narratives to make WWE look morally better than it really was. They have stated MANY times WCW "stole" all their talent, when in reality almost all the talent WCW took was first poached by Vince from the AWA. By 1987, the WWF roster had more former AWA stars on its show than any old WWWF stars. The only major holdovers from the Vince Sr days was Greg Valentine, Tito Santana, and Snuka.


WWE has also stated "WCW went out of business". Uh no, when you buy a company, and ecorporate dozens of their employees, while still representing its likeness, it's legally defined as a merger. When you go out of business, everyone is fired; the business ceases to exist and assets are auctioned off so the money can go to creditors. This is not a matter of marketing, both of these things are legally distinct. 

Except WWE didn’t actually buy or merge with entire WCW company, they bought the intellectual property, trademarks and tape library and some wrestler contracts. They didn’t acquire the physical assets like rings or stages and also only kept 4 employees from WCW’s office while the rest were fired by Time Warner. The WCW subsidiary of Turner itself changed its name to Universal Wrestling Corporation and continued to exist as part of Turner until 2017.

Also the legal definition of a corporate merger I can found states that a merger requires that the surviving corporation inherit all assets and liabilities from the corporation that is being absorbed, and WWE didn’t inherit the entirety of the assets or any of the liabilities from WCW, so it wasn’t a merger.

If WWF had inherited all of WCW's liabilities there'd be no WWF anymore. WCW was being used as a dumping ground for Turner debt for years.

[tafkaga]

Mar 2, 2024 18:22:29 GMT -5 cjh said:

Mar 2, 2024 14:25:14 GMT -5 LiamMcDuggle said:

One thing VKM was good at was always twisting narratives to make WWE look morally better than it really was. They have stated MANY times WCW "stole" all their talent, when in reality almost all the talent WCW took was first poached by Vince from the AWA. By 1987, the WWF roster had more former AWA stars on its show than any old WWWF stars. The only major holdovers from the Vince Sr days was Greg Valentine, Tito Santana, and Snuka.


WWE has also stated "WCW went out of business". Uh no, when you buy a company, and ecorporate dozens of their employees, while still representing its likeness, it's legally defined as a merger. When you go out of business, everyone is fired; the business ceases to exist and assets are auctioned off so the money can go to creditors. This is not a matter of marketing, both of these things are legally distinct. 

Isn't that what happened?  WWE only bought the WCW assets they wanted, not the company itself, while the company only stayed open afterwards so Turner Broadcasting could deal with WCW's unresolved lawsuits.  TB didn't officially close WCW as a company until December 2017 for some reason.

Basically, but I think "ceased operations" is a better way to phrase it.  AOL Time Warner could have kept WCW going if they wanted to, so it's not like they just couldn't afford to keep the doors open.

[XIII]

Mar 2, 2024 16:22:00 GMT -5 WayTooPolitical said:

Prior to Vince buying the company from his dad, wrestling was all bush league shows put on in small, smoky halls to an audience of nobody.

This is the big one. Almost from its inception pro wrestling was selling out huge stadiums and arenas. If anything it was running in small arenas in the mid 90s when Vince almost tanked it somehow.