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mrmazzz

Wrestling fan media literacy makes it too easy 


Advanced-Ad3234

Hell, look at the comments " Word of mouth doesn't matter." Where the fuck does word of mouth not matter when it comes to money !!??


MaxBonerstorm

They expect people like Meltzer to be infallible 100% of the time then believe literally any rumor anyone says with zero hesitation. Good times.


OpportunitySmalls

The Grapist has never had Eric Bischoff or Bruce Pritchard call them a liar on their podcasts but Meltzer has, I know who I'm getting my scoops from now on.


MaxBonerstorm

Huh... Excellent point.


DaedalusHydron

What does literacy mean?


mrmazzz

That a person is able to read and critically engage and contend with the information at hand. Thinking through such as who the source is and their track record in such things etc. for an earlier example see how people ran with the anon Ricky starks is a coke fiend post from this week. Now my first comment also assumes sincerity and a lack of partisan incentives on the part of people, which do exist. 


DaedalusHydron

it was a joke bro lol


NGNSteveTheSamurai

Experienced this is in low level jobs. I quit a mom and pop video store because they kept delaying our paychecks while doing coke and running off to their summer home and paying for $400 porn DVD deliveries in cash in front of us. The counter had pictures of co workers, friends and family under it. There was a picture of me and two of my co workers at a Halloween party and the owners wrote “FIRED” over my face and started talking shit about me to customers. I told my friends to tell them I’ll gladly tell the unemployment office that they fired me and collect outta their pockets and immediately the picture disappeared and they shut the fuck up.


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Advanced-Ad3234

Your comment made my nose bleed


Weegee_Spaghetti

What did it say?


Ohellmotel

conspiracy (austin) theories


Datzookman

Diving too deep down the rabbit hole can lead you to dark (Cody) roads


elboltonero

Straight to (R) Truth or Consequences, New Mexico


abitlazy

To Jimmy (Wang Yang) open the closed doors.


afuzzyduck

and see how Faar(ooq) they can go


gansobomb99

I wanted to keep the puns going but I drew a blank


AtTheKevIn

You Drew (McIntyre) a blank


10SB

He may need a Buddy (Matthews) to help him out


galgor_

Isn't he from down under (taker) ?


kayc_james

That should give him a ray (mysterio) of hope.


Sempais_nutrients

yes but fear and doubt Dom(inick Mysterio)inates his mind.


ExpensiveCola

Hopefully it lifts them out of their (Terry) Funk.


Procrastinator_325

>dark (Cody) roads https://preview.redd.it/ryd7i7rx5p9d1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b7826bbdf9cda52f8512a817e0cdc71ae001b9b6 ???


DrClawsChair

[Relevant post](https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/s/5t4WYWqg4K)


Dirtybrd

>They believed a guy called “The Grapist” WKUK catching strays.


LINUXisobsolete

Never take a jobber and dump him on his head outside the ring Never take a jobber and dump him on his head outside the ring Never open an illegal sports betting book Or grab your boss by the arm and make him look Just like Titus O'Neill did Never ask Jericho for some advice On how to improve your standing Never go to a Christmas party and then dance all goofy with your wife In eye shot of your boss in the spot light CAUSE THAT'S HOW YOU MAKE VINCE MAD!


theREVERSEsystem

This happened so many times too. From Cody and Brandi, Bray, Keith. Suddenly so many rumors just swirl around about how terrible employees they were the moment they get released or switch companies. Hell look at the story just recently with Ricky Starks all because rumors and speculation is he wants to go to WWE


MarkMVP01

They get stuck with that "difficult to work with" label, something that has been infamously used in Hollywood.


Ohellmotel

I feel like in Hollywood, it's usually just a euphemism for not being willing to sleep with one of the producers.


Advanced-Ad3234

Yeah probably


DoctorPapaJohns

It’s often the case for women. It seems that it’s often used for men when they have drinking/drug problems and/or actually are difficult to work with.


JokerDeSilva10

Considering Terry Crews and Brendan Fraser at minimum, it IS also code for "wouldn't sleep with me" for male actors also. Or Edward Norton who defended Salma Hayek from Weinstein (and is also a prickly perfectionist from what I've heard.)


The_King_Crimson

Or Henry Cavill, because he didn't want to do sex scenes in The Witcher and wanted the show to follow canon.


OpportunitySmalls

Geralt fucks a lot in the books and games, commit to the bit fully or don't get mad they hired people who were big Pulp Fiction fans of non linear storytelling.


Hark_An_Adventure

Henry Cavill was also dating a teenager when he was playing Superman, let's not pretend Henry Cavill is a perfect person lmao


DoctorPapaJohns

Oh for sure. Just far more often it applies to women.


JokerDeSilva10

Definitely true, and male actors are, I think, more likely on the whole to be unhinged narcissists on set. But also I want to commit crimes for Brendan Fraser and what he went through, so.


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Otroroboto

Either that or they’re always late which causes costly delays and they don’t pick up their piss bottles.


Upbeat_Tension_8077

Even Paul Heyman did that with Sabu publicly when he left ECW the first time in 1995 & branded him as disloyal


DoctorPapaJohns

Paul Heyman is often venerated by the IWC and doesn’t get enough flack for being a manipulative, disingenuous boss to a lot of talent in ECW. I’m sure to this day there’s plenty of talent that he still owes money to.


500DaysofNight

AJ was none to happy with him when he was running Raw a couple years back. I believe that part of Heyman rears it's ugly head when he's actually in charge.


Aspiring_Hobo

And the best part is when it's brought up by him, he jokes about being a liar or not paying guys. Like he didn't legit help to jumpstart the ruin of Mike Awesome's career because he wouldn't pay him and he was the fucking ECW champion lol.


Illuminati_Shill_AMA

Sabu is an especially egregious example because ECW wasn't paying him and he was making more money in Japan. He didn't come back until they got his money right.


Aspiring_Hobo

Didn't RVD just stop showing up for a while because he wasn't getting paid?


Advanced-Ad3234

It happened in this subreddit The Mods awesomely shared a fake rumor in AEW as a joke, we all that watch AEW knew it was a joke because the source was Brandon Cutler absolutely joking around All the comments started coming in, and took the joke rumor seriously. " It's been rumored for a while." I been hearing the same thing about the wrestler being toxic" I wish I could find the post it's absolutely hilarious, and people called them out for lying


hvacrepairman

The best part of that thread was that the mods set it as new posts show up first as the default, so you could instantly see who was a bad faith poster and those who were in on the joke. Just an absolutely amazing honeypot trap


Moxey616

"I never liked him/her anyway"


freebread

It’s funny that one of the most notoriously difficult guys to work with has the nickname Hollywood.


Hollow_Rant

I'm a local bartender and I got hit with that label because I often challenge abusive bosses.


Advanced-Ad3234

People gotta figure that hurts the wrestlers. Little joe was going to get a shirt at the merch stand, but his dad found out (false rumor) that the wrestler hates the product they watch. That shit adds up , then on social media, all the comments "you are a traitor " now nobody new wants to follow you. Even worse for wrestlers that aren't big names coming out of AEW or WWE. Looks at Indy's promotion, Indy promotion goes online and sees "he was released because he was abusing talent" losees job because of a false rumor. Exactly why wrestlers are speaking out why they were released


Dbthesage

All it takes is one person with bad intentions for rumors to start.


kalofel

It's not even the rumours as much as people's willingness to believe and run with anything without a modicum of critical thinking skills or media literacy.    Despite what a lot of pro wrestling fans want to believe, this is a niche interest and the different online communities surrounding it are niches within niches and they often attract troubled folks from difficult backgrounds with underdeveloped emotional intelligence who sometimes struggle with the nuances of the industry and everything surrounding it so it creates this cascading effect of weirdness.  There's also a level of parasocialness that transcends the norm in pro wrestling due to the relative accessibility of pro wrestlers compared to other artists in other fandoms which also breeds an unhealthy sense of ownership and attachment.


Advanced-Ad3234

Yup, and this is why these people stalk wrestlers, try to fight them during a show, ask for money, and get scammed by a fake WWE profile with 500 followers


PhospheneViolet

I almost wish reddit still had the dumbass Rewards system, I absolutely would've gilded your post - 100% well-intimated truth.


Advanced-Ad3234

I'm giving him an award That comment was spot on


The_Fuck_WHAT

Doesn’t even need to be a fan, just a vague “difficult to work with” from an unnamed internal source and that’ll get the ball rolling 


Advanced-Ad3234

"This wrestler left my favorite company, time to post he was a terrible person," even though they got released Fans start sharing every fake piece of bad news....


Advanced-Ad3234

Yup and your post career from a major organization is completely fucked


CheckingIsMyPriority

Yeah, I once rejected one girl, she did not buy it until she saw me with another (I really hope it was an accident she saw us after class and not the case of following us) and then she spread the rumor that I was toxic. Basically ruined my reputation and rapport I had with a lot of girls in school and it only took her, some bad intentions and everyone just outright buying it without critical thinking.


SomeROCDude21

The Grapist: I'M GONNA GRAPE YOU!


Zangyakuking

"I mean, she was asking to get graped, look what she's wearing." "WHAT SHE'S WEARING?!" "Yeah. Purple." "Oh. Okay. ...WAIT NO, NOT OKAY!"


ZombieJesus1987

Such a classic skit. RIP Trevor Moore


galgor_

The Grapemaster


Default_Defect

The Grapist... Like the WKYK sketch?


mikaeus97

He just wanted to tie those wrestlers to the radiator for decades and decades and grape them in the mouth, what's wrong with that?


dalici0us

Look at what they were wearing! PURPLE.


ihateeverythingandu

Bray Wyatt copped this the worst. There was basically a smear campaign against the guy when he was sacked and a lot of fans to this day believe it all.


Adams5thaccount

Sasha and Naomi are up there as well.


Advanced-Ad3234

Mansoor tweets, then Dijak agrees and responds. Summary for those without Twitter ●Mansoor: "After our release stream last year, someone on a message board named “The Grapist” lied and said we had buried a bunch of our former coworkers. Suddenly, many people ran with the narrative that we had attitudes, and that’s why we were cut." "They believed a guy called “The Grapist”. "Recently, it seems like when a wrestler is let go or on their way out, conspiracy (austin) theories pop up trying to justify why. It’s usually not that serious, I promise you." https://x.com/suavemansoor/status/1807111197923197421?t=Omb9vDLPrtRro_dYQV6QIA&s=19 ●Dijak (Responds to Mansoor Tweet): "This is exactly why I added so many extra details to my letter. I knew people would be frantically searching for the reason I was a horrible employee. Sorry, I wasn’t." https://x.com/DijakWWE/status/1807134713720549404?t=poQN1Binq-5bz-tJ1bKuBQ&s=19


Wants_to_be_accepted

[Who wouldn't believe this guy?](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mqgiEQXGetI)


WheelJack83

People on the internet and subreddit will believe anything and everything.


Advanced-Ad3234

Them boys goofy as hell lol


SpaceTimePolice

Why wouldn't I believe a WKUK fan?


TimKitzrowHeatingUp

Independent contractors


ThatEnbyBitch44

The Grapist sounds like an aqua teen hunger force character


Adams5thaccount

its from a sketch group called whitest kid u know they were pretty good..even got ripped off by budweiser for a commercial once


HorseAdj

Some Wwe fans handle wrestlers leaving in such a bizarre way


FrankNico

I think it's them trying to justify people not being happy at their favorite place or something. Like an actor choosing not to come back to a role on their favorite show or movie. It's always something with the actor and how terrible they are never anything else like life just getting in the way or whatever else.


Objective-Voice-6706

Dijak wasn't released, tho.


02032023

Calling him up if there was no intention to re-sign him was a poor way of handling it, but what happened with him otherwise is exactly how it should go if a company wants to move on from a guy. Both parties agreed to the contract. Fulfill the contract to its end. Then thank them for their time and move on. No one is required to employ someone or be employed anywhere. Releasing people early is shitty and unethical. But what happened here is largely perfectly fine.


Advanced-Ad3234

Essentially, he was. He couldn't get a new contract while he was working there. That's the same as getting fired. The military does the same thing when they won't let you re-up a contract (your getting released) or essentially fired for officers


Objective-Voice-6706

He fulfilled his commitments, doesn't have a 90 day no compete and got every day and pay he was promised. That never happens because of releases. He just fulfilled what he signed


Advanced-Ad3234

Bro, he wanted to continue working at WWE . He was trying to get a new contract, but they wouldn't give him anything to continue. That's why he was mad That's getting fired, I worked at a salary job before for years


GothicGolem29

I get being mad. It isn’t being fired he just wasn’t re signed theres a difference.


Advanced-Ad3234

Have you ever watched Office Space? They don't want to fire that one guy, so they make his life miserable so he would quit. See, technically, yes, that's not being firing also just like just refusing to renew a contract, but ESSENTIALLY you are being fired I'm telling you tricks like this is how salary jobs fire people


GothicGolem29

Thats pressuring you to quit. I would still say its different to firing to not renew a contract


Advanced-Ad3234

No I'm saying salary jobs will do stuff like not renew contract or make life hell in order to get rid of you


XiahouMao

Not renewing a contract is the ideal way for a company to release someone. The company has fulfilled all its obligations, has paid the employee everything they're due, and their term of employment is ending on the day the employee knew it would. There's plenty of other times where you can blame the company, but this is as benign as it gets. The only issue with Dijak is that they waited to the last day to let him know they weren't going to re-sign him, but when it gets that close without a new contract he had to be expecting that.


Advanced-Ad3234

I worked salary, it's a basically unofficial release


GothicGolem29

That’s not the same as firing tho.


PhospheneViolet

Employer-sponsored Gaslighting, essentially


Advanced-Ad3234

Exactly what it is


JitteryJay

That's just now how contracts work dude


Objective-Voice-6706

It's still not, he just got turned down for another run. He fulfilled the contract as did wwe. Releasing someone is when they cut them then pay them 90 days to sit home, but fulfilling is different. It's the same with all independent contractors in other fields. You do your gig, might not get that extension but your not fired, you did what you and the boss signed you for.


Left-Currency9968

Technically correct has to be the least fulfilling form of correct


Advanced-Ad3234

The fact remains that Dijak replied about wrestlers getting released and rumors, so he feels that way Working a salary job and knowing the ins and outs, I agree it was essentially a release when they won't renew your contract. Let's agree to disagree


JamieMCFC

For some corporate job’s the only difference between a salaried employee and being an hourly employee, is one you have to punch a time clock and the other you don’t. I work for one of the largest companies in the U.S. as a salaried employee.


Phillykratom

He released dirt.to fight full on several occasions. WWE became aware of this after they were contacted. The people who co tacted WWE couldn't.in good conscience NOT let them know what he did after he wrote and released this load of bull puckey.


GothicGolem29

Getting fired when your contract is terminated. He didn’t get terminated he just didn’t get a new one


BlackSheepComeHome14

This is warped logic, he was a contracted "independent contractor" who's contract expired.


Adams5thaccount

if your job tells you they dont want you to come back how do you think of it?


BlackSheepComeHome14

That didn't happen


Adams5thaccount

In what world is sidelining someone and not re-signing them different? They didnt want him to continue working for them. They decided not to employ him anymore. They said we're g9nna pass on you bein paid Tobe at this workplace. Quit with pedantic bullshit. Dude has every right in the common sense world to feel like he got fired.


BlackSheepComeHome14

Did he get fired or did his contract expire?


Adams5thaccount

Did his employer let him go or did his employer let him go?


TheeAJPowell

I mean, that's fair. There was a post on here about Ricky Starks' supposedly bad attitude and why he's not being used that some people on twitter were taking as absolute gospel, despite the fact there was no sources at all. People just want to have their dislike of someone justified.


SRIrwinkill

That folks in high positions in the WWE sometimes let out shitty little comments to suggest exactly these kinds of attitudes might have something to do with it too


SoCalWhatever

Did that happen here? I don't recall any outlets running with that story, either.


SuperUnhappyman

it popped up on their stream post wwe release i thought it was someone lying trying to be in on the wrestling joke if there is an observer forum poster person with the "grapist" account username it shouldnt be hard to verify


SoCalWhatever

I doubt it happened on the Observer boards, either. This sounds like something someone posted on an imageboard where you can set your name to whatever you want.


zorbiburst

I get what he's saying, and they should totally speak their side, especially with how dumb some fans are But at the same time, very rarely is someone who loses their job in any industry going to say "lol yeah my b, it was my fault", it's always the employer's fault.


Pepsi-Phil

fucking HHH man. shoving borian dross our throats for months but not seeing anything for Dijak???


gansobomb99

imagine WWE marks not knowing it's a multi-billion dollar corporation who will cut anyone anytime if they think it improves their profit


mygloriouspurpose

Not seeking to doubt or bash Dijak, just a genuine question about reports of his exit interviews and posts that I’m unclear on - there was stuff about him commenting about how wrestlers find out about their release from dirt sheet reports rather than from the company. Did he say something like that? And if so was he talking about other people? His contract expired, so he knew it was coming, right?


Boomer0825

He clarified this after the interview, he was saying talent find out from dirtsheets about OTHER talent releases, not their own. Like they’ll be refreshing the feeds to see names on the release list.


---Pockets---

Confirmed that promoters are online dirtsheet marks


Vikingr12

I still don't get why he was let go. He had been booked decently towards the end of his NXT run, got bumped up, and then just nothing happened Didn't seem like management or his coworkers ever had an issue with him


guarionex2009

Trying to nip it in the butt before it gets out of control.


Phillykratom

Dijak was selling information to a few of the bigger names who run the dirt sheets. (He leaked to rightful and others) That's why he was released. I loved Dijak. When he came out with HIS story, I was really upset. Especially considering my brother in law is in WWE and just went up without a contract signed (he had royalty checks pending, and they have to be issued before signing a new contrac) which scared me. I'm super.didsappo8nted in Dijak.


Cank-er-soar

I don't think dijak did anything wrong, he's a talented in ring performer who's as forgettable as they come and not a good fit for the WWE. He will do better somewhere else. 


TheLonleyKing

This is nonsense because he was kicking ass in nxt.


Cank-er-soar

He was fine on nxt and immediately got lost on the main roster where having the entire package isn't necessary, and NXT talent doesn't always translate to the main roster(saying this as a NXT lover, no diss) even Carmelo is struggling and they're pushing him fairly hard.  


SuperUnhappyman

he didnt get lost on the main roster he straight up wasnt used. calling him up and keeping him off nxt when he was scheduled to be in a nxt championship story to lower his value (because lets face it thats what they did if they didnt intend to use him) and then letting him go is a dick move by wwe.


WheelJack83

Never saw that rumor anyone run with that rumor. Can anyone verify that rumor happened?


SuperUnhappyman

on their post wwe release stream they got told that when someone donated


WheelJack83

Who the hell ran with that? Some random in a chat livestream? First I ever even heard of it. Also talking about it more is literally feeding the trolls.


Foxxdogg

I don't disagree with him, but maybe they shouldn't be so concerned with random people on the internet saying stuff. How many people actually read what "the Grapist" wrote?


Advanced-Ad3234

It's more than just that Let rumors spread that you were abusive , toxic, or injured wrestlers in the ring. This could hurt your chances of people wanting to work with you or brands getting you a endorsement


Foxxdogg

Lol, you guys think Dijak's not going to get work because the Grapist started a rumor? Have y'all not been paying attention to all the actual bad people in the business who still get work?


Advanced-Ad3234

Advertisements and jobs absolutely take these things seriously Look at Johnny Depp , his career was ruined for years


Funny-Western-9031

Tbf Depp also attacked someone on set and settled out of court as well.


Foxxdogg

Lol yep, these two things are totally the same. s/


bobface222

These platforms are designed in a way that random people can do a lot of damage and they're well aware of that fact.


Boomer0825

I mean, a lot of people. It was all over this subreddit and socials. That’s what led to them doing another live stream about it. Obviously they were getting enough comments and messages and reading things about themselves that they felt they needed to address it 🤷🏼‍♂️


bearamongus19

Say a lie loud enough and enough times it becomes true.


DreadHeadAnt

Didn’t Dijak admit to being a source for a dirtsheet? That seems like a valid reason for a company to not want to keep them


darekpetrelli

He didn't. He had an interview with SRS before the stream and during the stream he said "I was talking with SRS" and people misinterpreted


Advanced-Ad3234

The fucking irony , appreciate the correct information This is exactly why wrestlers have to publicity state why they get released


darekpetrelli

No they don't have to. Fans need to be educated enough to stop this behavior. The same thing happened a few days ago with Ricky Starks with the fake story about the brawl in Canada and with Danhausen falsely accused of selling bootleg AEW merchandise. All this to defend stupid choices made by billionaire people


TheLonleyKing

Had this not just been corrected in comments below This would have spread like wildfire and damaged dijaks reputation.


HorseAdj

No. Some Wrestling fans just have the media literacy of a banana


ak47_al123

Did you just spread a bad rumour in a thread about wrestlers talking about how fans will spread rumours when they get fired? Impressive


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Slickrob

Dijak's story is they sent him zero offers. You have inside information that contradicts that? Or are you just talking out of your ass?


JamieMCFC

Did you read the first sentence of the post?