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Post by Final Countdown Jones on Mar 29, 2022 20:44:38 GMT -5
A few thoughts (if I break a rule here, and I don’t think I’m even nearing the edge, I apologize and please delete): 1) I see the problems people have with the shirt and, more so, how the company handled this. 2) I don’t really think it has anything to do with it not being a wrestling shirt. If it was the same symbology and a shirt for a wrestler, I think a lot of people would assume it’s a CYN or similar promotion (or wrestlers associated with same) and still find it troublesome. 3) To me, if you say your shirt company caters to ‘Pro wrestling, Music and more’ you are most decidedly NOT advertising yourself as a company that deals only on pro wrestling merch. No matter what the name of the company, no matter if it’s associated with a Vince McMahon commentary saying or not, the company has explicitly said it carries merch for more than wrestling/wrestlers and has (apparently) actually done so. They liked the WAM (as in wham) name — easy to remember, has ‘impact’ or whatever, etc. — presumably. But it’s like having a comic store with a sign in the window saying ‘We sell Comic Books, Vinyl Records and More’ and someone being upset because you sell something other than comic books. At least that’s what I think. I’ve never ordered anything through this company and doubt I ever will. I think they clearly screwed up here (a simple explanation when it posted would have avoided all this) and then doubled down rather than a simple explanation and apology for any confusion, making it worse. I have ordered from PW Tees before but I don’t think I will there again either — the data breach could happen to anyone but they couldn’t have handled it much worse. I don’t want to belabor the point, and I think it’s been articulated better by This Charming Mothhausen than by me, but when you run a store called What A Maneuver, the VAST majority of your vendors are wrestlers, and the few music or “other interest” merchandise you offer is within the same general sphere as the wrestling fandom, it’s striking when you suddenly offer a shirt like this that is not even remotely within (and is in many ways the antithesis of) the general genre that you’ve marketed your store to be. It’s obviously not the only reason this was a controversy, and perhaps was not a reason that it was a controversy at all, but I do think it’s a large reason why it blew up as quickly and as spectacularly as it did. There's definitely a case to be made that when your branding is wrestling and your social media is all wrestling and you're posting wrestling articles to your website, you're pretty balls deep on the whole wrestling thing. But I think even if they've angled for Wrestling Plus Other Stuff, it's abrupt to pivot hard into overt, not-related-to-anything political stuff that isn't even for a brand or a creator personality or a show but is straight-up just political clothing. Some businesses sell lots of different stuff but there's often overlap to those things. A friend once dragged me into a military surplus store that also sold bongs. Very specific, sure, but I get it. If they sold DVD box sets of CBS sitcom Becker, with just boxes and boxes and shelves full of Becker DVDs, that would seem pretty out of place. Maybe not to the point anyone would do more than ask "Hey did you get all these Becker DVDs super cheat at like an estate sale or something?" but it would stand out. Except in this case we're not talking about something that's only weird and out of place like Becker DVDs we're talking about some pretty heavy political statements that caused a lot of issues because of how this site had marketed itself and who it marketed itself to.
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Chainsaw
T
A very BAD man.
It is what it is
Posts: 90,480
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Post by Chainsaw on Mar 29, 2022 21:48:42 GMT -5
Honestly, there's a pessimistic part of me that wouldn't be surprised if he did this deliberately, so that he can shut down the business while getting to masquerade as a "victim of cancel culture" and be treated as a martyr by the lowest common denominator of his fanbase. He certainly wouldn't be the first. Don't think that hasn't crossed my mind at least once this week.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Mar 29, 2022 23:56:07 GMT -5
Anyone else noticed Champa’s shirt looked strangely similar on NXT tonight?
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Post by EoE: Well There's Your Problem on Mar 30, 2022 1:18:05 GMT -5
Anyone else noticed Champa’s shirt looked strangely similar on NXT tonight? You mean this one? All we have to create context is the word “Ciampa”, a black heart where the fifty stars would be and a tag on the bottom for NXT. Anyone puts those clues together will find that it’s a wrestling shirt for NXT wrestler Tommaso Ciampa, who was nicknamed “Blackheart” at the time of the shirt’s release some, what, three years ago now? Long story short, it’d be a little bit of a stretch to try and imply that this shirt is trying to make the same kind of political/religious stance as the Liberty76 shirt, which basically smacks you in the face with it.
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Post by Lizuka #BLM on Mar 30, 2022 1:57:45 GMT -5
Long story short, it’d be a little bit of a stretch to try and imply that this shirt is trying to make the same kind of political/religious stance as the Liberty76 shirt, which basically smacks you in the face with it. Also Ciampa first used that flag shirt like four years ago.
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Post by Oh Cry Me a Screwball on Apr 1, 2022 13:39:02 GMT -5
Yeah, sure. I hope this somehow sells negative t-shirts.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Apr 1, 2022 13:44:46 GMT -5
Yeah, sure. I hope this somehow sells negative t-shirts. Good Lord, imagine being so proud of your unhinged tirade that you thing that your customers would want to wear a shirt memorializing probably the lamest part of it. I can't fathom who the target demographic for that is.
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Chainsaw
T
A very BAD man.
It is what it is
Posts: 90,480
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Post by Chainsaw on Apr 1, 2022 13:56:21 GMT -5
Yeah, sure. I hope this somehow sells negative t-shirts. Good Lord, imagine being so proud of your unhinged tirade that you thing that your customers would want to wear a shirt memorializing probably the lamest part of it. I can't fathom who the target demographic for that is. He's gonna steer into the edgelord market now for sure. I'm sure that the guy who runs this clownery is secretly thrilled that his performative support of marginalized fans and wrestlers phase is over and he finally cater to the rest of the neckbeard creeps. I think this is the fastest I've ever gone from supporting a company sand wishing them the best to them going under and costing the owner everything. f*** this dude.
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Post by Final Countdown Jones on Apr 1, 2022 13:59:14 GMT -5
This guy is a f***ing toaster
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Kalmia
King Koopa
Happy to be here
Posts: 11,856
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Post by Kalmia on Apr 1, 2022 14:00:39 GMT -5
I think it's time for the pro wrestling community to just ignore WAM. The guy who's running it has gone past doubling down to celebrating the criticisms, and the only way to deal with that is to not give him air. Quote tweeting the shirt to dunk on it is counter productive, just block his ass and move on.
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Post by Final Countdown Jones on Apr 1, 2022 14:09:22 GMT -5
I think it's time for the pro wrestling community to just ignore WAM. The guy who's running it has gone past doubling down to celebrating the criticisms, and the only way to deal with that is to not give him air. Quote tweeting the shirt to dunk on it is counter productive, just block his ass and move on. On one hand I know you're right and I agree. On the other hand, the next time this guy makes an ass of himself I'm going to be in the front goddamn row. The duality of man.
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JoDaNa1281
Crow T. Robot
Jackie Daytona, Regular Human Bartender. #BLM
Posts: 40,621
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Post by JoDaNa1281 on Apr 1, 2022 14:25:39 GMT -5
This guy is a f***ing toaster We know which "slot" to stick the bread in.
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chazraps
Wade Wilson
Better have my money when I come-a collect!
Posts: 28,017
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Post by chazraps on Apr 1, 2022 22:15:32 GMT -5
I think it's time for the pro wrestling community to just ignore WAM. The guy who's running it has gone past doubling down to celebrating the criticisms, and the only way to deal with that is to not give him air. Quote tweeting the shirt to dunk on it is counter productive, just block his ass and move on. On one hand I know you're right and I agree. On the other hand, the next time this guy makes an ass of himself I'm going to be in the front goddamn row. The duality of man. Inside every forum account is two wolves...
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Lupin the Third
Patti Mayonnaise
I'm sorry.....I love you. *boot to the head*--3rd most culpable in the jixing of NXT, D'oh!
Join the Dark Order....
Posts: 36,336
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Post by Lupin the Third on Apr 1, 2022 22:17:21 GMT -5
Yeah, sure. I hope this somehow sells negative t-shirts.
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bob
Salacious Crumb
The "other" Bob. FOC COURSE!
started the Madness Wars, Proudly the #1 Nana Hater on FAN
Posts: 78,696
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Post by bob on Apr 1, 2022 22:18:09 GMT -5
This guy is a f***ing toaster he thinks he's
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Post by hentery on Apr 2, 2022 2:23:32 GMT -5
Found the store owner. Can’t post name here as it’s probably against the rules to do so and if it isn’t it should be. Just stop using WAM. Show the bullshit to ppl that use his service. If they don’t care they’ll stay on wam a lot won’t.
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Lupin the Third
Patti Mayonnaise
I'm sorry.....I love you. *boot to the head*--3rd most culpable in the jixing of NXT, D'oh!
Join the Dark Order....
Posts: 36,336
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Post by Lupin the Third on Apr 5, 2022 23:34:09 GMT -5
And WAM's Twitter is gone.
Can't believe how prophetic my post was back in January.
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Lupin the Third
Patti Mayonnaise
I'm sorry.....I love you. *boot to the head*--3rd most culpable in the jixing of NXT, D'oh!
Join the Dark Order....
Posts: 36,336
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Post by Lupin the Third on Apr 5, 2022 23:36:47 GMT -5
While it wasn't a data breach, this situation is probably as bad, if not worse. So...🍵🐸 No idea how that post became so prophetic and also somehow unintentionally underselling what might have been the thing to happen. Just call me Lupin Nostradamus the Third.
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Post by aka Cthulhu on Apr 5, 2022 23:51:46 GMT -5
No idea how that post became so prophetic and also somehow unintentionally underselling what might have been the thing to happen. Just call me Lupin Nostradamus the Third. Bit of a mouthful. How about we trim a bit of the Lupin and trim a lot of the Nostradamus. Lup in Nostradamus the Third.
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Lupin the Third
Patti Mayonnaise
I'm sorry.....I love you. *boot to the head*--3rd most culpable in the jixing of NXT, D'oh!
Join the Dark Order....
Posts: 36,336
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Post by Lupin the Third on Apr 6, 2022 9:16:57 GMT -5
Just call me Lupin Nostradamus the Third. Bit of a mouthful. How about we trim a bit of the Lupin and trim a lot of the Nostradamus. Lup in Nostradamus the Third. So I'm named after either a constellation or a disease. Nowhere in the middle with that one.
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