The schmuck who runs WrestleVotes is at it again.  Piggy-backing off of the story of AJ Styles getting a huge contract offer from AEW, he is now claiming that AEW has offered “an outstanding” offer for a specific and unnamed wrestler under the WWE banner.

That name is AJ Styles, a name he’s “not releasing”, for no reason other than he’s making up a rumor.  He’s known for finding rumors on Reddit and re-purposing them as his own, and people eat it up.  I’ve looked and asked around and I was told that AJ Style’s dismissal of his re-signing with the WWE already wasn’t nothing.  There is some talk of Styles looking to move on from the WWE, as he’s in a stage in his life where he wants to make as much money as possible, which is why he spurned TNA’s offer in late 2015 to return to the promotion.  AEW’s offer is supposedly as nice, if not better than the one they gave Chris Jericho.

This story of AEW being interested in Styles IS NOT NEW.  Nor is it news.  We’ve already knew that there was an offer made.  What WrestleVotes is doing is scummy, but not at all too uncommon.  What he’s about is gaining notoriety and then doubling down on insulting those that criticize him.  He is not a journalist, nor is he even aware of the ethics that go into being one.  For instance, he claims that revealing the name of the supposed AEW offer would ‘burn sources’, but that’s not at all how it works.  Could you imagine that being the case?  Could you imagine Watergate going down and t Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein saying; “Sorry, we can’t tell you who in DC is committing traitorous acts against the Constitution, we don’t want to burn our sources.”

He wants to be respected, and that’s pretty clear by the way he insults and dismisses critics.  He can’t take criticism.  A “journalist” like him is as trustworthy as a snake.  He should not be trusted.  Journalists who use vague stories aren’t journalists, they’re gossip columnists.  He keeps it vague so he can’t be held responsible.  He’s a goon.

As for the major question of how AEW can offer a wrestler a contract, despite being under contract; well, here’s the thing, the world of pro sports is the only place where negotiating before a contract expires is against the rules.  There is a grey area however and that goes into contract tampering.

Here’s the issue though; the WWE has a history of violating contracts and tampering with contract negotiations.  If the WWE were to throw down the gauntlet on any purposed tampering, they would be exposed in a court for doing the same thing; thus making it hard for them to have any moral or ethical high ground, resulting in the case being dismissed.

It also comes down to how each contract is worded and that again comes into play here; the WWE cannot prohibit their wrestlers from listening and agreeing to offers outside of the WWE, due to the fact they are listed as “independent contractors”.  The reason why this so rarely happens is due to the WWE’s ability to schedule said talent for WWE specific dates in order to make them unavailable. This was the alleged reason for why Wade Barrett left, due to the WWE making it impossible for him to grow and work beyond the company in regards to acting.

The WWE only ever lets wrestlers act for WWE sponsored roles or through affiliated channels like anything under the NBC banner.   This also applies to their time on UPN, SyFy, The CW and other places.  Fox will be interesting, as they sold their studios, so they may not have many cameos in their scripted shows.  Any other assignment has to be cleared with the WWE prior.

This circles back to the “rumor” and how it’s possible; the WWE can’t stop talent from talking to other outlets about work.   They’re simply unable to sign a deal or work outside of the company when the WWE has a vested interest in that market.   Yet, once that deal is up they’re free to do what they please.  This is something that people often forget.  The WWE talent are not contracted employees; yet athletes for a specific league are.

Ergo different limitations.

In Other News…

RAW continues to decline in ratings again, dropping another 200,000 from 2.7 last week to 2.5 this week.  This is a similar trend we see against all WWE programming, with Total Bellas reaching a series low, and SmackDown also being down this past week.

Former WWE writer Kzeem Famuyide has announced on his Twitter that he’s left the company, but was very glowing in his exit from the promotion.  No mention as to why he left was given.

Quick Hits – NJPW has announced that Katsuya Kitamura is done in NJPW, due to his injury situation.  Another indy wrestler dealing with injuries is Kris Wolf, a top female indy talent, who announced via her YouTube channel that she was being forced to retire due to lingering post-concussion symptoms.