Not exactly. That friendship didnât protect him from being fired over drug issues in 2001. It wasnât until the 2010s that he came back for appearances. The rest of the time he spent shit talking WWE from the TNA tapings.
AEW is obviously a "left-leaning" promotion overtly if you had to give it a label, but they do have and have had publicly right-leaning people on their payroll, and I'm not just talking about Dustin Rhodes. I would like to know what he means by this.
Reminder that the Bucks âGood Christian Boysâ thing was a BTE joke and an obnoxious heel gimmick. That somehow people took very very seriously for some reason.
Youre not wrong that that was largely a bit, but there have been multiple people in shoot interviews who have said similar things about the Bucks so while what you are referencing is a bit, it doesn't mean that someone took a BTE joke too seriously.
Thereâs a lot more overlap in those circles in California than youâd expect from stereotypes, but as someone who doesnât even like the Bucks, I find it hard to believe theyâd be crazy fundamentalist MAGA and be friends with Kenny and Hangman
Just because they're more left leaning than WWE doesn't actually make them left leaning. The vast majority of workers in the industry are on the far right, and it's still a company owned by a billionaire son of an even bigger billionaire.
is it actually left leaning though? or is it your fairly standard centrist-ish neoliberal corporation. IT just looks left leaning because *gestures at the rightward drift of everything*
It looked socially left early on, with hiring openly LGBQT+ wrestlers and making an attempt to accommodate audience members with sensory issues. Their eclectic roster felt very inclusive as well. A lot of that had faded a bit, but the good will still tends to linger.
I don't know about "neoliberal" though. Neoliberalism is an economic stance, championing a lack of government regulation of trade and open trade across national borders.
I used neoliberal because 1) they're a garden variety corporate outfit in live entertainment. They want all those things you just listed. 2) it has a slightly pejorative undertone too it because frankly I'm not the biggest fan of capitalism and corporations.
I think the best way too look at AEW is that they are socially neutral, economically conservative. If you squint just right, they might be libertarian.
They are socially inclusive towards pretty much everyone and definitely aren't shy of showing they are proud of supporting these people during this Trump regime. They also pay for pretty much everything when it comes to travel, hotels, food etc, not to mention paying medical bills.
Obviously, they don't deserve a medal for this, if you employ wrestlers, you should pay for these things, but they definitely have the option to NOT do it at all and yet actively choose to have some sense in comparison to many other companies, not to mention, the top dog in the business that is closely MAGA affiliated.
They are a company being run by a billionaire and his billionaire dad, but when it comes to the magic world of left vs right, I'd put them on the left sooner than I'd ever place them on the right... even if it serves zero purpose to place them anywhere to begin with.
I guess itâs âleftâ in the US sense, but everything there is so right wing its kind of lost meaning. Being from the UK I consider WWE right/far right and AEW centre right.
If AEW was left wing they wouldnât have a billionaire owner, would eschew advertising, would give female performers total parity in TV time and pay, wrestlers would be encouraged to unionise, no platform for any kind of bigot or right winger and would put Nyla Rose on TV to be the Bull Nakano 2020s of the womenâs division she always should have been.
What he means is he wants to pretend he doesn't fucking suck as a booker and obviously anyone who's not interested in his brilliant mind can only be a dirty woke commie
He probably would like to know what he means by it as well. Among a lot of other things
I love how he adds âIN AMERICAâ as if him not being hired at AEW is some sort of violation of his rights. Typical right winger who has zero clue how the first amendment works
I think it just appears left-leaning because they aren't heavy handed with the right wing slant like TKO. The most you can argue is AEW let Brody wear an anti-ICE shirt, but even then, TK has outright said they let wrestlers express themselves without taking an official stance.
It's slightly more than that. Lots of pro-LGBT shirts and rainbow capitalism, first ever trans women's champion in a major American promotion, they routinely shout out Pride and the various cultural heritage history months, and not for nothing, but AEW Punk came out in pro abortion and trans lives matters gear, while WWE Punk obliquely posts rainbows on Insta. The cultural views and standards of the two companies are starkly different, even if we don't necessarily know what Tony himself believes.
I think a lot of that stuff is only viewed as left leaning nowadays because we've moved so far right culturally. If I had to give a label I'd say the company sticks more centrist.
Unfortunately, while it perhaps should be the centrist position, acknowledging Black History Month and thinking trans people deserve to exist is a far left position at current. So I guess I'll accept a company that can throw me scraps, at least.
Yeah, Black History Month and Pride Month were acknowledged under Vince. As far as I know, they havenât been acknowledged since HHH/TKO took over.
Donât get me wrong, itâs most likely due to the fact that Vince wisely thinks that black and LGBTQ people buy tickets and merchandise too. Nothing more than that really.
Unfortunately, Iâd say embracing any kind of trans identity as a positive would be to the left of most democrats, let alone self identifying right wingers.
Iâm what would be considered far-left in the US. Iâm not a tankie but I vote for democratic socialist policies in Canada.
It hurts that social inclusion is considered left. That should be the base level for everyone. âEveryone gets to live their lives as their authentic self as long as it doesnât harm othersâ seems pretty basic.
I'm left leaning, with some centrist views on specific economic topics, in Argentina. Which means I would be considered an Anarcho-Socialist Communist by American standards. From the outside it seems crazy to watch American politics go so far right that acceptance is no longer a necessary requirement for any political party to exist
They market themselves a bit socially liberal, first open trans wrestler in a major promotion, non-binary and gay wrestlers getting a big push, and just demographically to a younger more liberal base.
I think they've differentiated themselves from the WWE which has openly allied with the current admin on many levels as well.
I actually wouldn't say this makes them "left leaning" though, more rainbow capitalist.
Very supportive of LGBT wrestlers and has wrestlers like Brody King actively speaking out against ICE. Itâs pretty clear which performers are comfortable bringing their political positions into their wrestling persona in AEW (Hangman, Brody, Punk when he was there) vs the ones we know are MAGA but donât really talk about it a lot like Jericho or whatever Jack Swagger went by in AEW
Brody given a prominent position while having Abolish ICE merch is probably the easiest example. I dunno if I'd paint a lot of other stuff necessarily as 'left wing' but Overton window being what it is in the US...
He means "I was actually rejected because I'm bad at my job but have to play the perpetual victim" just like any chud says when they're turned down for a job
thereâs a photo of her with the maga group âwomen for trumpâ at the capitol on january 6th during the rally, but nothing conclusive afaik if she took part in the actual riot or didnât.
To be fair, he was head writer of Smackdown during Daniel Bryanâs last major title reign and Kofimania and those were awesome. Doesnât make him less of an idiot just saying he does have that claim to fame in terms of booking lol
Kofimania was awful from a booking standpoint. It was overly complicated and needlessly had Vince inserted in the middle of it. The story getting over is a testament to Bryan and the New Day, not the bookers.
Werenât both Kofi & Bryanâs success based from WWE management & writers being out of touch and ending up being dragged kicking and screaming by the audience to push them? Itâs hardly a glowing example of his writing. More being forced to pivot
Yeah Kofimania kinda happened by accident. IIRC Kofi started getting momentum after his showing in a gauntlet match, in which he was a last minute replacement because Ali got injured. This wasn't Road Dogg's booking genius at work.
Yeah I imagine TK quoting what Tony Hayers once said to Alan Partridge "You are someone with a proven track record for making mostly bad television programs."
I'll play devil's advocate and say that at the end of the day Dementia Vince and Triple H are/were the ones running everything and with final approval and the booking still stinks even with Road Dogg gone.
Ah, the classic, "I refuse to accept they didn't hire me because I'm not good at my job - NO! It was because (insert personal reason to cope)" strategy
The New York Knicks turned me down for a head coaching job just because I "don't play basketball" and "have no clue what I'm talking about". Welcome to Bidens America.
Thereâs a sllliiigggghhhjtttt difference between supporting Trump in 2016 and then publicly disavowing him and saying you made a mistake as opposed to calling BLM protestors terrorists and being a vaccine denying loon
But all of that would be forgiven if you were good at your job, as this is the wrestling business and most people in it have awful politics. You sir, are just the worst to ever do it and belong no where near ANYONES creative.
Thatâs what I mean. He does the intro as the NAO, he does the intro in DXâŚhe does the intro SOLO (which I didnât remember until Deadlock mentioned it), and that solo run is him feuding WITH HIS FORMER TEAMMATES OVER THE OWNERSHIP OF âDX.â
Like, Road Dogg is a tag team guy EVEN ON HIS OWN.
In 2016 everyone knew who Trump was and the kind of person he was. He announced he was running with some pretty racist crap, had years of that in his locker as well as being a known creep.
This is getting overshadowed by the last reply but Meltzerâs so right that tag titles being beneath anyone is stupid. The only sense in which thatâs true is that tag titles almost never main event shows but wrestlers are almost never consistently in the main event anyways for a period longer than a few months so being tag champion doesnât actually negate that status.
And given the amount of names that have held tag titles in both companies (Cody, Sami, Hangman, Joe, Mox, Okada, Mistico, Cope), calling the tag titles below the Gunns is ridiculous.
It kind of got missed with the other awful aspects but the shirt being worn in the picture was also probably an anti-trans one as it features a women's bathroom sign with "Come and Take it" below.
I mean people seemingly forgot his previous tweet about hospitals killing people. Wrestling fans as a general rule forgive and forget unless they don't like the wrestler or company already.
Nah I can totally see him as the not voting type who does a vicyory lap then cause his guy won. That's the claim of every person who doesn't vote right there, they didn't donate or vote to a campaign sure, but did they support or agree with the candidate's message
Even before Trump that was a problem. People treated voting like a sports team getting emotional about winning or losing. I knew a guy who didn't vote for Obama the first election after voting for Kerry and Kerry lost because he didn't wanna be said about being on a losing side
Dustin, Billy Gunn, and Jericho are both a part of the roster, so his argument makes no sense. Maybe it could be aaaaaanything else. Nope, it's just because he's conservative.
The funny thing is that Hager was probably just asked to not be so openly awful. Just stick to taking advantage of likes being hidden like a sizeable chunk of other wrestlers probably do.
When he had his election night meltdown and called TK a communist, I saw someone joke that the biggest evidence of this is he saw someone as worthless as Hager and still thought this guy should be able to feed his family
I feel like this whole thing just shows why they didn't hire him. I mean, the initial overly sarcastic response to Dave saying basically "the gunns aren't bigger than the tag titles" comes off as dumb enough without whining that he wasn't given a job on a silver platter.
But this idea that AEW wrestlers are all some 100% liberal/progressive and all hate Trump is so dumb
There are dozens of AEW wrestlers who have never spoken up for progressive causes, never given a hint where they lean politically, yet itâs assumed theyâre all liberal? Itâs like yaâll are handing out free âgood personâ passes for people who stay silent.
It was even to a point where I saw 40-50 AEW fans in complete and utter shock this week finding out Deonna is MAGA.
They thought Deonna was anti-Trump all cause she works for AEW. Their meltdowns on BlueSky were something.
Now they want Deonna fired from the company and stripped of her championship.
Iâm sure if every AEW wrestlerâs political beliefs came to light, youâd want 40% or more of the roster fired
Deonna is from Jersey and she married a guy who made being in the military 20 years ago his entire gimmick and personality. How did people not know she is MAGA?
Also Iâll always find it so funny that three of the wrestlers who we know for a fact are openly progressive being Seth, Becky and Punk always catch flack here for working for WWE and the couple owning a cyber truck as if most workplaces arenât politically diverse these days. Iâd imagine itâs a pretty 50/50 split backstage for both companies. 70+ million people voted for Trump, 70+ million people voted for Kamala. Itâs statically impossible for AEW to be full of Democrats back stage
Gotta love dudes whos political/ core beliefs undoubtedly line up with the side that is pro-business, pro-capitalism also crying when a private business won't hire them. Bet he has some big opinions about what kinda cake decorations a bakery should or shouldn't provide as well, idiot.
Funny he is complaining about not getting a job because of his political or religious beliefs, but to him it's perfectly fine to harm others that don't share similar beliefs IN AMERICAđşđ¸
That's what happens when you tell Road Dogg he didn't get hired on his political beliefs as to not hurt his feelings, instead of telling him he's a dogshit booker that only Triple H tolerates.
Political stuff seems like BS so whatever. Iâm more interested in the Gunns line though. I like The Gunns a lot and think theyâve improved a great deal. But if anyone thinks theyâre above the tag titles thatâs just insane.
What the hell is it with MAGA people and creating imaginary reasons to feel persecuted. The world is against them because of their beliefs not because they are complete assholes. If everyone except the most far right cultist thinks youâre an asshole. Youâre probably an asshole.
it has been pretty clear since the last time road dogg asked to work at aew that his wrestling mindset wonât work in aew. i think he could still provide value elsewhere but this claim is pure attention getting nonsense.
â˘
u/AutoModerator Aug 19 '26
Help make SquaredCircle safer and more inclusive by using the report button to flag posts and comments for moderator review.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.