It ought to be acknowledged that wrestling press conferences are one thing of a farce to start with. They’re the equal of asking the solid of Recreation of Thrones to fulfill the press proper after a season finale, or no matter different present you need to substitute in. Are you asking the character a query or the actor? They’re nonetheless a part of the theater of the entire enterprise, which is a boon for the theater side, however possibly not the journalistic quotient. There are some media members who’re glad to play together with the advancing of wrestling characters and tales in these settings. And there are some who’re really making an attempt to get solutions and discover out one thing behind the scenes, which solely provides to the murky standing that every one of wrestling lives in between actual and kayfabe.
Nonetheless, there comes some extent the place Paul Levesque (HHH to some) or Tony Khan, who’re actual life executives and never characters, must reply precise questions or present precise data, the place the facade is meant to drop. Maybe no wrestling press convention in historical past was beset with one thing as heavy because the one after Saturday’s Royal Rumble, which was the primary time Levesque would face the media after the lawsuit filed against Vince McMahon by Janel Grant grew to become public.
Disgrace nobody ready him for one thing so essential.
Even a peon like me is aware of that one of many first guidelines of PR and injury management is that one ought to by no means, ever level to their accomplishments or rewards as a substitute of, and/or earlier than, speaking concerning the points which might be inflicting stated disaster. It appears to be like like a deflection, or minimization of the particular story, or perhaps a justification.
Levesque just about broke all the guidelines after the present on Saturday. Even only a ready assertion at the start would have been thought-about par for the course. As an alternative, Cody Rhodes and Bayley, the winners of the 2 Rumble matches, had been trotted out to both delay or distract from the elephant sitting within the nook. It makes these wrestlers, who had nothing to do with something, at finest seem like pawns or kevlar.
When it got here time for Levesque to take questions, once more there was no ready assertion or perhaps a whiff of dodging questions behind, “I can’t comment on an open legal issue” or one thing to that impact. Whereas some within the scrum didn’t ask concerning the lawsuit for varied causes, that solely gave Levesque extra ammo to attempt to shove it to the facet with discussions concerning the new TV cope with Netflix or WWE’s booming scores and attendance, which exactly nobody desires to listen to about when probably the most well-known identify within the business, and one of many largest in leisure, has simply been accused of being an absolute monster.
When it lastly got here time for Levesque to reply questions concerning the lawsuit, issues didn’t get any higher. He admitted to not having learn the lawsuit, which is both an entire lie or an entire abdication of his duties. This has the potential to scrub home on the higher ranges of WWE, and Levesque didn’t have time or the inclination to learn it? Or did Levesque already know what was in there?
When requested what protections WWE had in place to forestall this sort of factor occurring once more, not solely did Levesque give probably the most basic reply potential of “everything possible,” he labeled it beforehand as probably the most basic reply potential. Which isn’t a solution in any respect. A former worker has detailed the methods she says she was assaulted, violated, tortured, abused and damaged, and that is the most effective you bought? Not one element? Not one protocol? Not one change? After already admitting he hadn’t felt the necessity to learn the lawsuit and now he’s primarily swatting away the concept of how the corporate is defending each different worker, leaving the impression that there aren’t any protections.
Levesque went on to push to “focus on the positive of the week,” akin to Netflix or the success of the present simply concluded, as if these are in some way on an equal degree of what allegedly went on in WWE places of work and never mere particulars within the background for a corporation that allowed their CEO to do that.
Maybe the “allowed to do this” is what had Levesque such a deer within the headlights. As a result of the lawsuit lists four unnamed executives who had been complicit in McMahon’s actions, together with one board member. Levesque is a WWE board member and was on the time that Grant cites, as had been Nick Khan, Stephanie McMahon and Frank Riddick.
Actually Levesque is in the midst of this on a pair ranges, as McMahon is his father-in-law, in addition to the investigation that Grant’s lawsuit mainly labels as a sham was carried out whereas his spouse, Stephanie, was the interim CEO. None of that was helped by the mealy-mouthed responses that Levesque got here up with on Saturday evening.
Whereas merely citing ongoing authorized processes as a cause to not reply something would have been irritating, it wouldn’t have made Levesque and WWE seem like this was merely a minor occurring in one other week on the firm or that they don’t have any protections in place for his or her staff, or that they also have a grip of the enormity of what’s been alleged. It felt like Levesque, and whoever else he would have consulted with, figured his capacity to chop a promo in a previous life would suffice at this press convention, once they wanted a seasoned professional behind the mic on this one.
This type of dismissive and incomplete angle is precisely the type that permits for somebody like Ms. Grant to allegedly be so closely abused within the firm. Which is why there’s a lawsuit within the first place.
