Talent that Fightful Select spoke to said that TNA should be taking some of the blame for not having Max Caster run through his rap, and that everything seemed fine on the bus from the event back to the talent hotel.
America is the land of assassinations - I mean you've had about 50 presidents and four have been shot to death, another eight or so have had very close calls during failed attempts.
25% of US Presidents have either died or come within inches or feet of death - all at the hands of assassins.
True enough statement, but there's hasn't been the Klan, a single united organization, since the second iteration of it was destroyed in a cloud of scandals in the 1930s. Since the '60s, "the Klan" is actually several unaffiliated, much weaker Klan groups.
This is the underlying thing and why I find it hard to be pissed at him. I had interpreted the line as a shot at WWE for not calling off the PPV despite the bombing. That for sure is the only reason he brought it up. There is no chance at all he mentions it without Crown Jewel and WWE being implicated.
When the money man came and said it wasn’t okay, they rushed to change the narrative. I wouldn’t blame Caster at all, if anything that’s TNA’s fault because they didn’t say it wasn’t okay so they can’t be mad at him doing the rap if they let him make the judgement call to say those lyrics
I mean, I get the intent of what you're saying and I think that Saudi influence and power clearly played a role here but:
a) the logic of it is faulty; there are lots of groups that you "can't criticize" in some sense or another that aren't the real owners of anything. Max Caster could have said something virulently racist and ugly about Albanians and that probably would have gotten him fired too. That wouldn't mean Albanians own anything or anyone.
b) I'm sure you didn't know this, but the origin of the quote you're paraphrasing comes from a white supremacist and it was used as a dog whistle for anti-semitic conspiratorial thinking. Probably best to avoid using it.
b) I'm sure you didn't know this, but the origin of the quote you're paraphrasing comes from a white supremacist and it was used as a dog whistle for anti-semitic conspiratorial thinking. Probably best to avoid using it.
Yep. People like to attribute it to Voltaire, but it's from a Nazi, and a Nazi who also went to prison for CSAM at that.
Yea this whole thing is such a sham. Nobody who watched or produced the show cared. Some business partner who heard about it third-hand cared (and only because it made his country look bad, not because of what it meant for any of the victims).
Obviously if you look at what happened, it’s not a joking matter but Saudi Arabia is so disliked by the average wrestling fan that they 100% did not consider backlash until WWE stepped in.
Caster himself is really only getting heat because his stock is already at an all time low.
I'm pretty sure it was Qatar Pro Wrestling. Their owner made a public statement about it pretty quickly denouncing it and said TNA needed to act. They have a relationship with TNA and Mustafa Ali is their top champ (who was also upset at Max and thanked TNA for firing him on twitter)
Guys like Mustafa Ali are why wrestlers will never have a union. Praising management for firing someone performing at the behest of management is atrocious.
Now I'm in no danger of ever becoming a pro wrestler, but I certainly wouldn't want to share a locker room with a guy who doesn't look out for his coworkers.
Now I'm in no danger of ever becoming a pro wrestler, but I certainly wouldn't want to share a locker room with a guy who doesn't look out for his coworkers.
Do you not think a Muslim wrestler would be, at best, uncomfortable with a co-worker cracking wise about the death of fellow Muslims who were simply traveling on a religious pilgrimage? I feel like most people should be able to empathize... no differently than if someone used the Charleston Emanuel AME church shootings for cheap heat in its immediate aftermath.
I'm very proud to be a union member in an adjacent entertainment related field and truly believe solidarity is not suicide. The worst unions1 are the ones who refuse to acknowledge any fault within their jurisdiction. I would not cape for a brother or sister if they not only fucked up, but fucked up in a way that is completely expected. Saying all that, I would absolutely fault the employer for allowing this situation in the first place and putting themselves in a lose/lose situation. Doing shit that's bad for the business means less opportunity for work so any union worth its salt would not make this a hill to die on.
Caster's weak rap of "I drop bombs. You don't even have to fly to Riyadh" is essentially little more than him saying that he is vaguely aware of current events. It's not cheap heat and it certainly doesn't come close to expressing anything that could be construed as view about the morality of the situation. It's also not new or edgy.
Da Brat did worse in 1994 (on a Kris Kross song no less) with "I drop bombs like Hiroshima."
Maybe we'll find out how far Max is willing to go if he ever makes it to the Tokyo Dome.
Not a single person has said anything about the death threats Max has received, or the multitude of comments from that video of Saudi twitter’s reaction repeatedly calling him gay slurs.
The people that died were not the regime. Making light of innocent people dying is so fucked up but because it was in Saudi Arabia it's apparently fine and should be laughed off according to this sub
Because nobody was outraged about this until it became a dumb thing on Twitter.
By the way, we're 48 hours removed from Leon Slater winning the TNA title at their biggest event of the year and literally no one is talking about it because of this dumb story. This is the most TNA shit ever.
I mean, yeah, this is actually juicy drama and people know Max Caster and it was his first match after his AEW run. I don't know Leon Slater and I don't really care who is TNA champ atm, I probably would have heard very little about that even without the Caster drama.
It's so sad that all people think of now is him slapping Chris Rock (who, after his story about knowingly having enough money to help his close friend who was falsely imprisoned and choosing to just not help came out from him talking about it on a podcast, probably deserved a slap) like why is WILL SMITH of all people on some eternal movie purgatory and treated like he killed Chris Rock? There's people who actually do stuff that just are walking around
It's so sad that all people think of now is him slapping Chris Rock (who, after his story about knowingly having enough money to help his close friend who was falsely imprisoned and choosing to just not help came out from him talking about it on a podcast, probably deserved a slap) like why is WILL SMITH of all people on some eternal movie purgatory and treated like he killed Chris Rock? There's people who actually do stuff that just are walking around
That's a whole can of worms that's above Reddit pay grade.
The Oscars gave an award to a convicted rapist, Kid Rock and Tommy Lee got into a fist fight at the MTV VMAs, Jim Carrey sexually assaulted Alicia Silverstone live on stage at the VMAs and the response to all of that was nowhere near the backlash Will Smith got for slapping known douchebag Chris Rock.
Will Smith will be fine, both Bad Boys sequels he released after the slap made tons of money and got decent reviews but the people that tried to make it seem like Will Smith is bloodthirsty will forever be weirdos.
Judd Apatow saying "what if that was Betty White" is still an all timer.
I'm glad we're finally coming around to how ridiculous that whole saga was, I was getting demolished for years on here defending how weird people just turned on Will Smith overnight when he hadn't done anything like this before or after.
They talked about him like he was some disgusting brute who's just waiting to snap and attack someone when he's a pretty mild mannered guy (who allegedly ranges from kinda to super weird but that's mostly rumors)
I think it's weird how many people are trying to downplay the actual line, like, I get shitting on TNA for only caring until they got backlash then acting like they always cared, I get laughing about the idea that WWE probably gave them a nasty phone call, HHH probably flexed his new hair to a bald Carlos Silva. But the line itself was still super bad and in awful taste to do days after a two day airport attack lmao
Twitter bots, the guy who runs a pro wrestling company in Qatar, the champion of that company who also works for TNA and would very much like to continue getting money from the Qatari promotion
This is what any respectable carny booker scumbag would have done.. and then not actually have the match or at least do a quick DQ finish to draw it out. lol
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u/MabvllAssistant to the Head Slapdick, Tony Schiavone.17h ago
To think they had an opportunity to sell the company to Scott D'amour when it had higher value and turned it down to be WWE's resident cuck.
I've got to be honest about this, I didn't know Leon Slater won anything. I also wouldn't have found about that regardless, because I don't follow TNA and genuinely do not care other than it's funny to see them do stupid things as they have for the last 30 years.
The average American hates Saudi Arabia similarly to Israel. The left hates it for being an evil ass country that hacks journalists to death and the right is islamophobic.
People probably found it hilarious thinking it was a pure military action until people brought in the sobering civilian death count.
At the end of the day, Caster is only getting really backlash and pseudo accountability because his stock is so low. People love an edgy charismatic guy, that’s what got him over in the first place and him making fun of internet wrestling fans’ least favorite country is not going to change that unless he’s already disgraced himself and is furthering the damage.
It doesn't even matter whether they cleared what he said ahead of time. They were fine with what he said, until they weren't. They put it on all their socials.
No, I don't want to hear excuses about "It was just the unpaid interns who put it up."
They hired the guy knowing (or at least they should have known) that he's a habitual line stepper with his raps, were happy to clip it and promote it online, then threw him under the bus when they got pushback. They're a shit company.
The intern thing pisses me off. Did interns run those accounts like 12 years ago? Sure. No one in 2026 doesn't have a social person, at least as part of their responsibilities. It's the forefront of marketing for everyone
They sat on that audio for a month and had no issue with it. Until the backlash. They could've removed the line at any point and no one would've noticed.
Tna holding max castor to a higher standard than society holds the american president who less than a week ago "jokingly" invited a foreign nation to bomb two californian cities
This dude says a bar less offensive than cm punks infamous tweet and is fired over low stakes twitter backlash.
If Max had seized control of the judicial system, the military, and the congress of the most militarily powerful nation on earth, and then created a secret police force with no oversight to go around murdering people he probably would have gotten away with it.
Fair enough but he was fired for upsetting the company that enthusiastically supports the tyrant that started the war that led to the strikes so maybe everyone just sucks really bad.
To be fair, the main story of that event was the fact that they sold no tickets to it and no one was talking about it. Compare that to last year when they drew a good crowd with the Hardys vs. the Dudleys.
True but they could’ve moved past that story with a decent event ultimately. This Max Caster thing basically guaranteed that no one really registered anything about the event other than the noise around it
Not my personal sense of humor but doing a "Canceled Max Caster" indie run is at least an angle, would be an easy pivot with what his brand already is like
Same. Was it the wrong move for him to use that line? Obviously. But if TNA was actually shocked and appalled by it, they would have denounced it immediately. Instead, they promoted it on social media until there was a backlash.
It seems like everyone in the chain of approval thought they could get away with it until they couldn't, but they're acting like it's solely Max's fault.
They deserve all of it. They knew what they were getting into, they knew who they were hiring. If they didn't want that they shouldn't have asked him to come/asked him to do a rap. And all of this over something relatively tame.
We know if this happened in another country nothing would have been made of it
They literally could've just had him do his "Best Wrestler Alive" gimmick instead of the insult rap gimmick and none of this wouldve been an issue. But TNA does what TNA does. I honestly think they get off on having stuff like this happen to them
And the irony there is that that one rap is what made Max Caster's reputation and got the Acclaimed on the map, wrestling-wise. It established the Acclaimed (at that time) as take-no-prisoners edgy rebels who had no boundaries. Something that, frankly, people tuned in to watch for. The Acclaimed, Scissor Me Daddy Ass, the tag titles, all of it came from them getting people to watch. And none of it happens without that rap from Max Caster. None of it.
People and companies want it both ways with Caster and guys like him. They want all the benefits of the news-getting line-crossing heels who ARE bad guys when they're out there, because you need legitimate heels that people WANT to watch and hate (or secretly love) ... but then they want to avoid any of the heat that comes with it. But if you create corporate products with corporate bumpers on everything, you'll always be limited to what's risk-averse and safe, and that's how you get to a wet paper bag stuffed with hard scripted lines like "sufferin' succotash."
Yeah I really don’t understand how people will say they hate Caster but love the Acclaimed, like he was 99% of the reason they got over in the first place.
The answer to this is probably someone who either is giving them money or wants to give them money called and said "This is unacceptable, deal with it". So then it became the worst thing ever in TNA's eyes.
Caster honestly got completely railroaded here. Sure, it was a dumb thing to say - but Max Caster is a guy known for saying dumb things, and TNA knew that when they hired him. An apology and a promise to vet things from now on would have sufficed, and instead they basically passed the entire buck to him and sacked him.
TNA absolutely should take some blame. Im not saying they didn't tell Caster not to say the rap but there is a chance they were perfectly fine with it till WWE gave the call from on high
People need to stop asking if they never heard Max's raps before.
Of course they did! That's why they hired him, put him in a top spot, and were promoting him... that's why they were very happy to put it all on social media afterwards.
It certainly wasn't for his legendary in-ring skills. Or because he has been a super hot commodity lately.
He did exactly what he was hired to do... and then they threw him under the bus when they got heat for it.
It just highlights how unprofessional TNA is. How can you have a wrestler on their debut night who is supposed to provoke and not check what he’ll say? And then as soon as there’s backlash you cut ties with him and take 0 of the responsibility? The job of a promotion is to make sure that this kind of stupidity doesn’t happen, that’s what you have creative and producers for. It’s a shame how well TNA is coming out of this while Caster takes all the blame.
TNA should absolutely be taking blame. They were more than happy to whack it onto socials and go viral for a bit until they realised it wasn't getting a positive response.
TNA has a pretty solid ppv and of course THEY screw it up. We should be talking about Leon Slater. I was pumped for Platinum Max and ordered the ppv for him vs Moose alone and that was probably my least favorite match.
The way they turned on Max is gross. They plastered his rap all over socials the whole damn night then in the morning they fire him.
To be fair, no one was talking about the PPV and Leon Slater winning anyway. That building was empty and look at how many people in this thread had no idea TNA even had a PPV this weekend untill this.
TNA is probably like, at least people are talking about us. Of course it's all negative and the guy people are talking about is no longer there lol.
They even promoted the rap and appearance on their socials that night and the next day. TNA thought it was perfectly fine until they got a boss call from Qatar.
Let's be real, even if they did check what he was planning to say, do we really think a bunch of wrestling creatives are the best people to accurately call how people are gonna react to whatever "oh, I'm so controversial" line he inserts?
Stupid of them not to check, but I don't have any faith this would've turned out any different even if they did
They threw that man under the bus for Saudi money. Its as simple as that. I didn't watch TNA before, but will now never watch them under any circumstance. I will always side with wrestlers over companies.
Of course it was, they obviously had no issue at all with it until Saudis/WWE decided to make a stink about it.
I feel awful for Max because he didn't deserve this and I am so fucking tired of these backwards troglodytes on the other side of the world enforcing their views and feelings on us.
TNA is genuinely the most pathetic company I've ever seen, they've become WWE's bitch in every sense of the word.
Just think if TNA didnt post this on their socials. Only the live crowd and maybe 100 people thay ordered the PPV would have seen his rap. And nobody else would of saw it limited the outrage. Just from the clips the crowd didnt care or didnt understand what he said.
I mean I think TNA handled this thing not great, but what is with everyone in this thread pretending what he said wasn’t an issue?
He made a joke about a bunch of innocent people dying hours after it happened at a wrestling show. I think it was a dumb mistake but it was still really stupid.
And to everyone assuming it was only TKO, Mustafa Ali clearly had a major issue with the comment and tweeted about it.
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