[XL]

It’s not not fine for Noid to be an asshole. Don’t get me wrong, the performative assholeness is tiresome, and not at all conducive to “good conversation”, but at this point we’re too far in for him to change tact. You’re fooling yourself if you don’t think there’s a part of him that loves the reaction; this is a guy who barely watches and thinks the forum is shit, yet comes here every day and shares more words than anyone else (no judgement there). You’re giving him exactly what he wants. It’s clearly having more impact on you than him. When I decided social media was causing me more anxiety than pleasure I closed my account. That was over 18 months ago and I a) can’t say I miss it and b) can’t say I feel worse for it. Just some friendly advice. It might feel like “letting him win” but what’s he actually won? More time on a shit forum?

As for the topic at hand, I 100% agree. I absolutely expect there to be no payoff. I absolutely expect there to be no “long term plan”. I absolutely expect it’s more of “same shit, different year”. However, there won’t be an objective outcome to the parameters that you’ve set for this bet. Noid won’t - nor should he really - the word of a “dirt sheet” and it’s so very easy to spin it any number of ways; Big E wasn’t working on top so they’ve changed direction if there’s nothing more for Big E, this was the plan all along if Big E ends up with another shot, or if not. We’ll never truly know. Same thing with the Kofi example; “Kofi was never going to be a star”. The Bryan example “he proved the company shouldn’t have bet on him as he immediately went down with an injury”. It’s all history that you’re able to revise and skew whichever way you want.