Harper has requested his release
 

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D4TPptiXkAAaN56.jpg

Actually pretty sad about this.

Picture from his last Twitter post

A good talent, arguable should have been in WWE Title match at WM33.

I'm far from being of the mindset that AEW should just sign up every former WWE talent, because then you just turn into TNA.

But Brodie Lee is somebody who adds something different to the table for them. He's a big dude compared to most of the roster there, but he still moves really well for a guy his size and I think he could work well in a variety of roles.

Imagining Brodie Lee vs. Pentagon in a hardcore match and fuck that would be fun.

I'm going to start betting on the least popular guy in the group from now on because every time I faction starts up it's the people you never expect who end up staying Heath Slater Erick Rowan and at one point we did think Seth Rollins was going to be left behind in The Shield.

Absolutely SHOULD have, from a story perspective. Somehow, a bunch of writers, who SHOULD have some idea of what storytelling is, couldn't figure out why Harper got over with the story as it was told. But, because he wasn't Orton or Wyatt, who the official story as it was written was about, he gets a 6 month vacation.

Here's one of the more infuriating Vince stories I heard: he wasn't sold on Harper as a singles guy after his initial split from the Wyatt Family because he couldn't do a southern accent, and "a guy that looks like that needs to have a southern accent"

I hope his contract is about up

Yeah, I don’t see WWE granting him a release. Probably gonna have to wait til his contract is up

Great talent who deserves better. Him and Rowan as the Bludgeon Brothers was pretty fun.

Unless he's going to be another one-off release like Tye Dillenger, he's probably stuck until the end of his contract.

Brodie Lee vs. Minoru Suzuki

Just hook it to my veins

It made no sense that he was off TV just because Rowan was. Then the fact that Rowan came back to a solid spot, while Harper was stuck doing nothing was absurd. It is even worse considering he is the worker that carried Rowan in the tag team.

It's a shame WWE didn't give him better. All accounts are that he is well liked and a good dude, so hopefully WWE will do him a solid like they did for other likeable good dudes Tye Dillinger and Hideo Itami.

Pentagon vs anybody is fun.

Harper is one of the most talented guys that have and had an honorable run in an environment not for him. I hope they grant him a release given his age. If not, I hope they appease him with a push.

Love Luke Harper. He’s one of those guys who fits too well as a pro wrestler to be stuck in WWE.

Nah, BB was a shit gimmick. I hope to see Luke in AEW where he isn't a mute redneck horror character.

Bludgeon Brothers was a fine old school tag team but had no hope in today’s WWE where everything is hotshotted and has a 2 month shelf life at best.

you're better at the words. i agree

Which was weird because every time he spoke, people were like he should speak more.

He did better Bray Wyatt promos than Bray did.

I don’t know if I’d go THAT far. Bray was a master at making meaningless, directionless bullshit sound creepy and cryptic. He probably made the most promo-wise out of WWE’s nothingness storylines and character development over the past decade.

If that man had any substance to work with, he’d be a legend already.

Sad to see Harper go. He's turning 40 this year so I guess of he's gonna leave, now is the time.

I think people exaggerate how often Bray Wyatt’s promos were jibberish. Yes, the nonsense promos do exist, but more often than not, there was clear message there.

Love Wyatt promos. Fight me Triple A, you fuck.

Do we know if he is gone? WWE shouldn't let these guys get away with this.

Get away with what?

Speaking of honorable run, he seems the type likely to show up at ROH.

Based on a recent tweet, seems Alexander Wolfe might have also requested for a release and have his be granted.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Thank you! <a href="https://twitter.com/KillianDain?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@KillianDain</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/NikkiCrossWWE?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NikkiCrossWWE</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/TheEricYoung?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TheEricYoung</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RIPSAnitY?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#RIPSAnitY</a><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WWE?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WWE</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SmackDownMontreal?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SmackDownMontreal</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SDLive?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SDLive</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SuperstarShakeup?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SuperstarShakeup</a> <a href="https://t.co/jaBHFDnwlC">pic.twitter.com/jaBHFDnwlC</a></p>&mdash; Alexander Wolf[e] (@TheWWEWolfe) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheWWEWolfe/status/1118313136996724737?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 17, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

EDIT: Never mind, he's staying according to a report from Pro Wrestling Sheet. Ryan Satin reported that the "Goodbye WWE" part is likely due to him getting pulled from the main roster in favor of going back to NXT.

It was a bit of hyperbole, to be honest. Wyatt was hit and miss, especially the longer his run went. Harper made the most of the few times he got to talk outside of the Bludgeon Brothers.

I'd say if they want to try hard to keep him, they need to do something like having him work with Hosses. Seriously, how much would a Baron Corbin benefit from having someone like Harper teaching him? Maybe he'd be something other than aggressively bland.

If not, he will be fine. A guy that big who can talk, work, and play a believable gimmick will never be unemployed for long.

he would be great with the brisco's

Quite a bit of that was making him look like shit in presentation, though. FCW/NXT Bray Wyatt was a scary and dangerous individual who had the big men with him, but was just as deadly, if not moreso, than his heavies. Main roster Bray was a glorified manager and usually did jobs and "babbled".

Requesting their release.

They should put their foot down and release them for shit like this.

It's a shame, as he's a solid worker for a man his size. But aw well, I'm so used to people being misused in WWE that I'm just not really phased by it anymore.

If their not gonna use him then they should just grant the guy his wish.

Makes good sense to send Alexander Wolfe back down to NXT, as much as I enjoyed Sanity very much there, their is no point having them as a collective if they are not used. EY will wrestle in Main Event, Wolfe to NXT, Killian Dain is an interesting one. The monster heel spot will be taken up by Lars Sullivan, which doesn’t leave room for him, maybe they could team him up with Nikki Cross. I’d even suggest sending him across to NXT UK so at least he gets to wrestle.

wrestletalk said his contract is up in November so I see him out till jan next year.

I was sort of hoping this stuff with the buzzard puppet (and now doll) was leading to a Harper return rather than a Bray thing in a bit of a swerve, and that maybe Eric Young moving to Raw would allow for Harper to recruit Sanity as his “family”, guess not on either count.

No, they should put their foot down and hold them to the contract. Keep them frozen until the end of the deal or release with conditions of no AEW for the length of the rest of the contract.

This is such a laughably bad take.

Like, it'd be one thing if Harper was getting booked in shit storylines and wanted out. I wouldn't blame him for asking his release but would understand the company be like "hey, at least you're getting screen time" and playing hard ball to keep him under contract.

But he's not even being booked at all. He's been cleared for months and they've given him one house show, one Axxess match, and the Andre Battle Royal for which his return had zero follow up even during the Superstar Shake Up when they were debuting and re-introducing characters.

Dude's nearly 40. Either use him or let him go.

Just let talent that don't want to be there go. Fuck.

I wonder if harper will sit out till November or will he job out on main event till then.

Khan should pay you guys for the amount of ball washing you are doing for AEW.

It’s got nothing to do with AEW. The dude might just want to retire.

A wrestler can "end" their contract by retiring. It freezes the contract and if they un-retire they are bound to the original contract.

Cool.

Not really the point, but.

STD is so pissed when any company other than WWE dares try to put on a wrestling show and now he’s pissed when pro wrestlers want to leave WWE so they can wrestle. It seems like he wants to take CyNick’s gimmick but he’s not quite doing it right.

I just don't see the point in keeping disgrunted employees under contract. Especially if they are 39 and you've got no intention to use them as anything more than a body. Let the guy go.

Please explain to me your actual issue here. I understand you love WWE but they literally aren't using this (very talented) guy. He wants to seek more personally fulfilling pursuits. Why should he want to earn a paycheck and rot when hey can just release him so he can work?


Also, you are a dumbfuck.

Welcome to STD posts.

Is that actually how wrestling contracts work, though? It's not like retiring from the NFL and coming back to play for a different team.

Feel like someone could "retire" from WWE and sign a contract with another company without worrying about the WWE contract at all.

They’ve frozen the contract of AJ Lee in the past. Not sure where that all stands now. I remember reading something about Bryan needing to appear in order to work off his contract too, but not sure how legit it was. But when Brock left, the no-compete WWE wanted to give him was laughed out of court.

Honestly, if wrestlers made a stink, I can’t see WWE holding onto them indefinitely. Seems like bad PR, and a contract is supposed to be mutually beneficial. If one party feels that it’s not working out, it just seems ethical to have outs (like WWE has when they can release talent). I dunno, seems fucking cold and monstrous to keep people beyond them giving you appropriate notice.

This talent being locked down will hopefully encourage talent to ensure that them getting out is a possibility. Bret had it in his ‘97 contract. Make sure you can give Vince a number of weeks to finish you up and get out.

if harper refuses to work then his contract can be froze but if he works then nothing vince can do harper leaves November.

It’s just such bullshit. A contract is about terms as much as anything. When the terms no longer fit, Vince no longer gets Harper, but Harper no longer gets Vince. It just rubs me wrong that WWE can force independent contractors to go out and take bumps when they don’t want to.

Jesus, Dale. Get Tony Khan’s dick out of your mouth.

The latest word on Harper is that not only are WWE not going to release him, they've extended his contract by 6 months for his injury so now he's tied to them through next year's WM.

Supposedly they want to send a message that they won't play ball with talents who publicly express their frustrations with the company.

For comparison, Goldust was hurt and they could've extended out his deal, but he caused no issues and never said anything public so they allowed him to walk away free and clear.

I feel like Harper went about this the wrong way. Should have just gone to management and asked for his release. When it wasn't granted, he just sucks it up and stays till November.


Like all this talent wants to jump to AEW right away which I understand. At the same time though, just relax. The promotion could be gone this time next year. It could be the next Impact, floundering on a random cable channel until it dies out. Or it could be a very big promotion. But if it's the latter, then it will be there when you finally get your release from the company.

At some point, someone needs to just go after them for mislabeling them as Independent Contractors. It'd help the boys immensely.

Asking for a release is different than asking and the posting it online. They trying to show wwe up and somebody who does it needed to be made an example of.

They let 10 gimmick man get away with it.

How dare they hurt Vince’s feelings by posting about their professional life on social media.

Vince should pay you for the amount of ball washing you’re doing for WWE.

There are reports circulating stating that Vince actually wanted to do the same thing to Goldust and add 8 months onto his contract, but Triple H talked him out of it and convinced him to just grant the request. I'm not so sure Harper making it public has anything to do with Vince's reaction, Tye Dillinger and Jack Swagger both did the same thing as Harper and they had their requests granted.

I mean, it could be that Vince doesn't think Dillinger or Swagger will move the needle for anyone whereas he thinks an athletic big man like Harper would be a great get for a competitor.

Which makes it all the more dumb that they don't fucking use him.

Has anyone ever seen the terms in a standard WWE contract? It doesn’t hold up to logic to be termed an independent contractor given all the restrictions they put in there to the point I don’t understand how nobody has really held WWE to account for it.

Del Rio called them on it, didn't he? To get his no compete clause waived. I seem to remember him either threatening to or taking up legal action since the whole independent contractor gimmick can't hold weight in court given that they're not afforded with the same flexibility as a real independent contractor.

In his case, it was more of WWE hitting him with about 6 months to a year of no compete and including Mexico to the places he wasn't allowed to be booked for.

WWE's no compete clauses usually only cover the US and maybe Canada which is why he got pissed off and threatened them with a lawsuit.

I wonder if Harper or anyone else threatened legal action, if wwe would just outright release them. I can't imagine wanting to hang on to an employee who doesn't want to be part of your company. Harper being unhappy and wanting out means he's no longer a viable asset. Let him go.

Probably depends on what the exact wording is in the contracts.

WWE technically doesn't have to release anyone early if they don't want to but "freezing" and artificially adding time to contracts does open themselves up for legal action if its done for shady reasons or a request is made around that time.

Like with Rey, WWE kept adding extra time whenever his contract was close to expiring due to "injury time" excuses. They only stopped due to Rey getting closer to filing a lawsuit and reaching a compromise on where he could work for a while.

Just seems ludicrous that you can have a contract that can be ended at any time by one party, but that same party can hold you to the same contract.

NFL contracts?

The validity of non-competes are determined on a case by case basis. Typically though, if the employer is using the non-compete to protect a reasonably protected interest of the employer, the non-compete does not place an undue burden on the employee/contractor, does not adversely affect the public interest, and there's no bad faith on the part of the employer, than the non-compete is enforceable.

A reasonable protected interest for an employer can include things like company specific or specialized training, an established personal relationship with a customer, a trade secret, the exclusive services or talents of an individual, or something not publicly available. For example, The Undertaker was a character developed and marketed by WWE and then WWE trained and allowed Mark Calloway to exclusively perform that character and he is now synonymous with the character. WWE has a solid argument that the character and thus Mark Calloway's exclusive services to WWE is a protected interest.

The undue burden on the employee or independent contractor is determined based on a reasonable test. Being barred from chosen employment is typically not deemed an undue burden so long as the length of time and (often) the geographic area limitations are reasonable.

As a result, most talent probably don't want to risk the expense of lengthy litigation with WWE over their non-competes, especially given that their odds of winning are probably at best, essentially a coin flip. In addition, violating their non-compete can open talent up to liability for litigation and/or damages to WWE that could cost them money, even potentially even more than they make from the violation.

Developing Slik's idea of how Luke Harper should-have been in the WWE Championship match at Wrestlemania 33 (in 2017), I would-have booked:

1) Luke Harper wins, with the help of Bray Wyatt and Erik Rowan.

2) The following Raw, Wyatt calls Harper "an extension of myself" and demands he "hand-over the belt, like the hand-maiden you are!"

3) Harper decks Wyatt with the belt. As Rowan clotheslines Harper down, Randy Orton runs-out to even the odds.

4) The General Manager at the time (Daniel Bryan?) then makes a tag match of Harper and Orton vs. Wyatt and Rowan, as the night's main event.

5) During the tag match, Harper has Wyatt reeling. However, after Luke connects-with a discus lariat to Bray, Randy runs-in; beats-down Harper; and joins the Wyatt Family for real-real. (Remembering how he had fake-joined the Wyatt Family in late 2016, before "burning down the Wyatt Family compound" in spring 2017, which was a not-so-subtle reference to the Waco massacre.)

Very happy SenatorJPO has returned.

Thank you, I.M.K. Gertner.

I returned because my private life was becoming more stressful, and TPWW seems-like a good "escape."

Also, the last time I posted on TPWW for a brief period, things improved in my life! (Coincidence?)

"I don't like this toy. I don't understand how it works, I think it might be broken. It's rubbish."

"Can another child have it?"

"No, it's mine."

This fucking company it hates its fans and screws over it's workers incredible

Ok, Vince isn't using Harper because he didn't like the match with EC3 because of reasons not involving Harper and because he can't do an accent he doesn't even like.

When you live in a bubble

CBS New York/CBS Local) —█WWE has a problem. Actually, the sports entertainment giant has a number of them. Fans are tuning out in droves, as both█Monday Night RAW█and█SmackDown Live█have shed hundreds of thousands of viewers over the past year. Ratings for the flagship show on Monday night are down 14 percent, nearly matched by a 13 percent dip on Tuesday nights. That drop is also being reflected in attendance at live events, which has declined by 11 percent, and merchandise sales which are down 11 percent. The company partly blames the latter on its attendance woes.

It doesn’t take a business degree to figure that fewer fans watching on TV and even fewer paying to go to the shows and buy merchandise means less money for the company. Revenue is down three percent, and the company posted an operating income loss of nearly $7 million for the first quarter of the year, compared to a gain of $22 million during the same time last year.

Wall Street wasn’t smelling what WWE was cooking, as investors laid the smack down on share prices, which plummeted more than 13 percent by the close of trading.

In terms of slumping television ratings, the company feels that it’s current predicament can largely be chalked up to a bevy of talent absences due to injuries and other factors.

“We had a very unusual situation in terms of top talents as well as mid-card talents being out,” Vince McMahon, WWE Chairman and CEO, said on a conference call with investors. “Some 15 talents were out during the course of that period. When you don’t have talent, you don’t have storylines. When you don’t have storylines, you’re not going to do that well in terms of live events and television ratings. It was like a cascade of things that happened.”

Among those who stepped aside were top stars like Roman Reigns as he battled a recurrence of leukemia. John Cena, meanwhile, continues to make only sporadic appearances for the company.

McMahon is confident that things will begin to rebound for WWE as those talents return. He also is also hopeful that the new talent that was created during their absences will help correct the ship.

The more shit you hear about how this company is run, the more you feel compelled to openly root against them.

Yeah like AEW will be run any better? There are reasons why people go into wrestling. It's cheap to produce, fans pay a lot and very low overhead because of independant contractor status.

AEW will not have employee-wrestlers either except for Cody, bucks and Omega.

My guess is the people working for AEW will actually be proper independent contractors and will enjoy the freedoms that come with the status versus wwe where they are actually employees.

lol you're thicker than a catholic priest's dick around an alter boy

I fucking hate WWE. I fucking love they are getting their balls busted.

You wouldn't even be here talking about wrestling at all if it wasn't for WWE.

You're aware there was wrestling without WWE? WWE didn't invent wrestling you fucknut.

Why is std a Stan for a product that clearly sucks and shitting on a product that hasn't even started yet?

Vince is clearly full of shit. The star he really lost was Reigns. That's it. Rollins, Strowman, Ambrose, Styles, Orton, Nakamura, Bryan, Rousey, Charlotte, Lynch, etc have an been healthy. The reason his product is seeing losses in ratings, attendance and merchandise sales is because it sucks and people aren't desperate enough for wrestling to sit thru 5 hours of tv when at least half of it is bad and Raw is seemingly rewritten on the spot right before showtime.

The best part is that storyline nonsense. What was the last long term build they had? The guy they've anointed as the man was supposed to win the title multiple times only for that decision to be reversed at the last minute. Vince is so full of shit.

Even if that’s true for me, it’s not the way forward. I hate their product and I hate their practices. I am rooting against them now. That’s fine for me to do.

I hate your practices.

Ban Noid!

I mean wrestling would still be around in one form or another

Me I'm just counting down the days till either Vince McMahon dies or this company just completely implodes.
People can say oh well they're doing well in other areas but the truth is wrestling is always going to be contingent on the interest from the public. They can venture out into other things but the image of them being big muscle-bound bad actors (with the exception of a few) is all they ever really will be no matter how they try to make themselves out to be whatever Vince thinks they are he slowly but surely losing his main audience and despite what he has Sami Zayn come out and tell us it really is all his fault.

Yeah, wrestling was immensely popular before WWE and then outside of WWE. Baffling STD post.

Also, the argument could definitely be made that without WWE, wrestling would be more popular now than it is. It may not have ever reached the peaks of the 80s and 90’s but Vince not building his monopoly would have prevented it from reaching the low it’s reached.

Nothing wrong with that in the least as long as you keep in mind that it's fine for others to enjoy the WWe. I can take it of leave it myself but do i dream of the day that more local wrestling programs return. I watched Stampede in the 70's and early 80's and I can deal with similar quality programs now.

I think what Vince did was inevitable. Someone was always going to do it eventually. Vince just had the grapefruits to do it first.

I doubt wrestling would exist in any measurable way. It would have died out to near extinction like Roller Derby.

Wrestling would exist without the WWF/E. Gtfo.

I understand that when we start talking about an alternate reality, “right” and “wrong” is bound to become more fuzzy.

But you’re wrong, STD.

Wrestling at its peak without WWE is not comparable to fucking roller derby.

I guess that's why Vince McMahon buying the Georgia Championship Wrestling slot was called White Saturday and led to such wonderful ratings for TBS. So much so that Ted Turner didn't have to worry about alternate programming ever again.

You are actually the biggest fucking idiot and a huge mark.