WWE's Plot To Own The Entirety Professional Wrestling

[multiverseman.com]

Is anyone else noticing the overt snake moves that WWE these guys are making? You can't even paint what I'm about to say as a conspiracy theory because it's so blatantly obvious what they're doing that they're not even trying to hide it. They want to literally own all of pro wrestling in its entirety, beginning to end.I won't bother to get into the illegality of their independent contractor scam they've gotten away with for years.

They're already been trying to make "pro wrestling" into "sports entertainment" for decades now. Sure, it hasn't worked and nobody actually says that in real life, but they still embarrass legends at their Hall of Fame by making them use that BS term over and over again. Not to mention their cult-like Orwellian language that they try to brainwash people into using like "superstar" or "WWE universe". That little "tribute" to wrestling legends like Frank Gotch they sped through was disgraceful. Everything is about co-opting anything real and organic and implanting it with their sports entertainment virus. The JBL show is basically the O'Reilly report to their Fox News.

Speaking of which let's talk about their network. They basically bought every tape library they could so they could own every important wrestling event that took place before and during their existence. Then they carefully re-write the narrative to make anything they didn't create look inferior to them. WWE can make it look like their went to war with Ted Turner when he barely gave them two thoughts in his whole life. Now they poach all the indie talent and try to make NXT into the glorified King Of Indies.

Yeah I said it. NXT is a glorified indy designed as a vanity project for Triple H and a way to choke off the indy scene. When ROH wouldn't play ball, they sunk their talons into Evolve. Now their little Global Cruiserweight tournament will sign up all the good high flyers who will take a paycheck not to go anywhere else, but never see the light of day on NXT and definitely not the main roster.

It's not like anybody can sue them for monipolistic and predatory tactics. Pro wrestling isn't a thing you can claim ownership over anyway.

 

[Farese12]

Is this a joke of a post?

It's called cornering the market? Why would they pass up everything that you highlighted? When you own a business, isn't your end goal to be dominate in that market? I just don't understand why you have a problem with their business tactics?

Are people complaining about WWE now, just cause?

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Is there some point to this thread or is it basically you ranting about how much you don't like WWE? And yes, it can e painted as a conspiracy theory, at least a good deal of it, because that's exactly what it sounds like. I don't see Vince McMahon as being interested in "owning" pro wrestling as a whole, he wants to do whatever he legally can to make sure that his company stays as the largest, most successful and most profitable wrestling company in the world. The alternative is to do what nearly every other wrestling promotion does: barely scrape by or, sometimes, not even be able to scrape by at all.

There's a saying that goes something like "there are no accidental billionaires" and that's essentially true because you don't get to be as wealthy as Vince McMahon by being a sweet, cuddly, easy to get along with guy who everyone to get along. I also have little doubt that damn near any promoter in wrestling would trade places with him in a heartbeat because in spite of protestations to the contrary, they'd love to be the owners of a multi billion dollar company that's known worldwide even to people who've never watched a pro wrestling program in their lives. I'm not going to rain hate on Vince McMahon just because he's successful; he saw the writing on the wall during the 80s whereas his contemporaries either didn't or didn't want to and the result is that most of those contemporaries are gone and owned properties of WWE.

As for the WWE Network, what's wrong with people being able to access the libraries of those wrestling companies of decades past? I do agree that Vince likes to rewrite history too much, it's not something I'm particularly fond of about him, but it doesn't surprise me because the man's ego is bigger than his bank account.

As for NXT being a way to choke off the indies, not really seeing it and I certainly don't see NXT as some sort of vanity project for Triple H. It costs a lot of money to run what's essentially a separate wrestling promotion that has the production quality and well known names like we've seen in NXT, Vince also didn't get to be as wealthy as he is by throwing away money on things like vanity projects to keep his son in law happy. As for working with various indie companies like Evolve, so what? You think those companies are working with NXT, and thereby WWE, out of the goodness of their hearts? It's a business arrangement in which everyone involved is making money.

WWE tries to expand its product to reach more people, thereby generating more money. That's what businesses traditionally are supposed to do, so while I don't always like or agree with some decisions or choices Vince McMahon makes, I can't argue with the results he's had overall and I can't blame him for doing all he can to keep his company growing.

 

[King Patrick Star]

I noticed the overt snake moves that WWE is making. Conspiracy is the last thing I would call it and it is blatantly obvious and they never try to hide it. If you take a good long look at everything, they do own all of Professional Sports Wrestling Entertainment, and made it quite clear especially after they created the “Legacy” wing of the WWE Hall Of Fame. As far as legalities and the independent contractor “scam”, as you put it, that means as much to me as non-Title matches.

The Championship is the Title. The Belt is the Strap. Pro Wrestling is Sports Entertainment. I, myself, refer to it as Professional Sports Wrestling Entertainment. I’m not sure what the issue here is with the name. I’m not sure how that’s embarrassing to the Legends at their Hall Of Fame inductions. To call this form of entertainment, “cult-like”, is both over and under stating it at the same time. I’ve been practicing McMahon-ism since 1989. Yes, it’s just a TV show, but there is nothing in the World like it. The closest show we have to Raw is Smackdown. Every show that has a following has their own “language”. On the Walking Dead, zombies are called walkers. I actually like the idea of calling Women Wrestlers “SuperStars”. I like the idea of calling fans of the WWE, the “WWE Universe”. It makes it brand specific. The tribute to the Legends from the early 20th century was a great. How can anyone think that paying tribute to the originals is a bad thing?? Taking anything real and organic, and making it theirs is not bad at all. It’s actually best for business.

The WWE Network is the greatest thing to ever happen to the WWE, for the WWE Universe. Buying everything to own everything is exactly what they should have done. I’m one of those that believe WWE should buy TNA out, specifically for their library, but also for the SuperStars who should be displaying their talents on the Grandest Stage. When it comes to history, it is always (re)written by the victors.

If you don’t think NXT is the King of the Independents, you must not watch NXT. NXT is far from a vanity project for Triple H. If NXT stands for NeXT, then Triple H is the NeXT person to run WWE after Vince. When the WWF bought WCW and ECW, Vince himself said, “You have to take your competition by the throat!!” Well, NXT’s competition is the rest of the Independent circuit. HHH is basically recreating what Vince did in the 80s. There are fans out there that are saying NXT is better than TNA and ROH. What does that tell you?? That tells me that WWE’s so-called competition is actually competing with WWE’s minor league. This Global Cruiserweight Tournament can only be good for those in the Tournament as well as the fans. The participants will get the much needed exposure and the fans will get to see who could be the NeXT WWE SuperStar.

Monopolistic, yes. Park Place or Boardwalk?? Why not both!?

Predatory…maybe. Free agency, trades, “taking my talents to South Beach” all happens in every Sport. They can scout who they want and if they have the money, buy them and their time.

Cannot claim ownership of Professional Sports Wrestling Entertainment, no. If you don’t think the WWE already runs the Professional Sports Wrestling Entertainment World, then you need to do some more research. Find out when was the last time TNA, ROH, or any other Wrestling company on Earth was featured on ESPN. Find out when the last time the TNA Champion and the Knockouts Champion were on the Today Show the morning after Bound For Glory. Find out when A.J. Styles was at his happiest. Find out what Daniel Bryan thinks his biggest accomplishment was, holding the Ring Of Honor World Championship Title Belt and the Ring Of Honor Pure Championship Title Belt at an ROH show in England, or holding the Big Scratch Belt and the Big Gold Belt at WrestleMania XXX.

Now give me my Belts and hit my music!!
(WWE Anthology, Disc 3, Track 11)

 

[sMark]

This is not WWE's fault, that any other promotion )mostly) waste money on former WWE talents released for a reason, instead of pushing and giving these same money to best wrestlers around the world. TNA could do this years ago, instead they hired Hogan & co

 

[filthyanimalz]

No secrets here, for years now WWE have been signing up a lot of great talent with no intention of promoting them to their main roster. They are in a win win situation as not only do they stop the other promotions from building their companies around these talents but after some of these talents with great potential and ability are released after 'floundering/failing' in WWE developmental they are actually seen as WWE rejects and have no credibility what so ever.

 

[Azane]

WWE rebrands wrestling to Sports Entertainment to try and change the stigma of Strongman carnival games that follow the sport.

Vince has talked about how WWE encompasses more than wrestling, which includes the stories, the reality skits, the drama etc... Which, if you look at it, Wrestling is usually only 1/4th of a show at most? unless you're doing ppvs which will be like 60% wrestling, 40% promos.

That aside, of course Vince wants all the content. He doesn't care about owning the companies, or talents per-say, but Vince wants as much content as he can get. The WCW deal being the biggest acquisition in the industry of course, was all about Vince having the entire WCW library in his vault, and honestly, when I first subbed to WWE Network, it was for WCW's content.

There's been conspiracy theories for years about Vince doing underhanded stuff (Which, he has, on record, done a ton of amoral business practices that would make Donald Trump look like a saint). Some of the big ones were Brad Siegel sabotaging WCW to make it cheap for Vince to scoop up, a ton of talent plants in WCW that intentionally dogged their matches to weaken the product, and many more. Real life Vince is very much the "I've injected the WWF with a lethal dose of POISON" Vince.

Competition is healthy in rating wars, but in investment, having no competition is good, the WWE's marketability and prospect have always looked strong since they've had a virtual monopoly on the business since the WCW buyout, even when the products doing terrible, it looks fine on paper for the most part.

I think NXT is Hunter's project to bring in talent that's already established, FCW was known for making stars before it rebranded to nxt, the only difference now is that national coverage that the network affords it, allowing them to spend more budget to get bigger indie names like when we had Tyler Black or now Nakamura, Kona, and AJ almost went there.

And the Network, well, that's the biggest gamble in "sports entertainment" history, as they've shifted their entire business model from selling a show to selling the network, something we've seen a shift in focus, PPVs of course are still really important events, but the focus is now on them putting over a much bigger overall product (Average PPV quality has dipped in my opinion, but that's another topic). This shift to content based subscriptions over month to month buys, is huge, and it will show if Vince's cunning buyouts of content were worth it over focusing on creating compelling wrestling.

It's not a conspiracy, it's common sense, Vince not wanting to own all of wrestling is a ridiculous notion, he's always wanted the biggest and most extravagant product, the more of his competition he owns, the bigger and "better" he can make it.

 

[dsotm5150]

At the end of the day it's a business, and when you are top dog you do what you gotta do to stay top dog. NFL does it all the time, comes down to what the individual talent wants to do, Should I sign with the Patroits for 3.5 million a year and ride the bench all season, or should I sign with the Jets for 1.2 million a year and get to play ball. 9/10 people would take the 3.5 and the rub from having Patriots on their resume. Same with WWE, it looks good on the resume.

 

[FromGlasgow]

They haven't really got any competition and most likely never will have, Which is bad news for everyone as I believe competition would improve wrestling for everyone, Maybe their trying to make every other wrestling company look inferior but I don't think their succeeding as watching the other companies on the network just reminds me how great some of the other companies were and how much I miss watching them.

 

[multiverseman.com]

If a tech company, phone company, or toy company had done what WWE does and continues to do, they'd be sued into oblivion and broken up by the federal government. Since it's "rasslin" there's nothing anyone can do.

 

[dsotm5150]

If a tech company, phone company, or toy company had done what WWE does and continues to do, they'd be sued into oblivion and broken up by the federal government. Since it's "rasslin" there's nothing anyone can do.

There isnt anything illegal about securing unsigned talent and WWE isnt violating the antitrust laws in any way by doing so, if they were, the FTC would have gone after them back in the '80s when Vince was buying up all the territories, and certainly in 2001 when he bought WCW and ECW. There are over 3 dozen wrestling promotions operating in the United States and Vince could buy up every single one of them and it still wouldn't be a monopoly because it's entertainment. Now if Vince were to start buying up TV and movie studios and radio stations then yeah the FTC would start looking into the WWE for attempting a monopoly, until then it's all legal. Immoral? Yes but not illegal.

 

[timothy26]

There is nothing wrong with what WWE are doing at all. It's standard business, you sign the best workers to work for your company in most cases if possible. If they can offer these workers a bigger paycheck and more exposure why wouldn't the talent want to go there? I do agree that NXT has evolved from being "developmental" to essentially signing the best TNA /NJPW / Indie guys and doing somewhat of a supershow with them but it's done so well that I have no complaints. The last 3 or 4 NXT takeover specials have been fantastic and solid PPV style events in their own right.

 

[Un-Bo-Lievable Jeff]

Could be totally wrong with this, but think back in the late 80's early 90's vince admitted that it was fake, and that the performers were putting on a show with a predetermined finish, in order to get some form of tax break.

If they were advertised as genuinely competing against each other there was a certain tax they had to pay. After admitting it was staged, they didn't pay the tax.

Sports Entertainment has only come around since the rise of UFC. AS that is legitimate fighting and incorporates proper wrestling, WWE tried to move away so there was no comparison.

Throw in the law suit with World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) and it all ties together

 

[nwocongo]

If a tech company, phone company, or toy company had done what WWE does and continues to do, they'd be sued into oblivion and broken up by the federal government. Since it's "rasslin" there's nothing anyone can do.

Jessee the Body is that you?
Are you familiar with Time Warner Cable? Monsanto?
You could make the same argument about any of the major sports leagues and associations.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

This is exactly what Vince proposed in 1982 to his dad, which made Vince Sr. so mad and made him decide Vince had to BUY the company from him, not miss a payment and basically do it "over his dead body", which he did by the way....

Vince wanted total control even then, Vince Sr. balked because the business he built was based on honor, Vince's plans meant screwing every other promoter over.

33 or so years later, we're there - Vince has that almost total monopoly, even the Evolve deal and NXT mean the Indy market is nearly sewn up. There are some resistors, but WWE can and probably will starve them out... and their talent raid of NJPW means they ain't respecting country boundaries any more.

This isn't news, rocket science or even a problem... At this point it's the only way wrestling survives in ANY form. The nearest chance to a solution was GFW working as a new NWA - but that didn't materialise so like it, don't like it, but learn to live with the WWE Monopoly... the only spanner to their plans will be if SAG look to closely and force, via the courts them to unionise the same as their other TV show competition.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

WWE rebrands wrestling to Sports Entertainment to try and change the stigma of Strongman carnival games that follow the sport.

Vince has talked about how WWE encompasses more than wrestling, which includes the stories, the reality skits, the drama etc... Which, if you look at it, Wrestling is usually only 1/4th of a show at most? unless you're doing ppvs which will be like 60% wrestling, 40% promos.

That aside, of course Vince wants all the content. He doesn't care about owning the companies, or talents per-say, but Vince wants as much content as he can get. The WCW deal being the biggest acquisition in the industry of course, was all about Vince having the entire WCW library in his vault, and honestly, when I first subbed to WWE Network, it was for WCW's content.

There's been conspiracy theories for years about Vince doing underhanded stuff (Which, he has, on record, done a ton of amoral business practices that would make Donald Trump look like a saint). Some of the big ones were Brad Siegel sabotaging WCW to make it cheap for Vince to scoop up, a ton of talent plants in WCW that intentionally dogged their matches to weaken the product, and many more. Real life Vince is very much the "I've injected the WWF with a lethal dose of POISON" Vince.

Competition is healthy in rating wars, but in investment, having no competition is good, the WWE's marketability and prospect have always looked strong since they've had a virtual monopoly on the business since the WCW buyout, even when the products doing terrible, it looks fine on paper for the most part.

I think NXT is Hunter's project to bring in talent that's already established, FCW was known for making stars before it rebranded to nxt, the only difference now is that national coverage that the network affords it, allowing them to spend more budget to get bigger indie names like when we had Tyler Black or now Nakamura, Kona, and AJ almost went there.

And the Network, well, that's the biggest gamble in "sports entertainment" history, as they've shifted their entire business model from selling a show to selling the network, something we've seen a shift in focus, PPVs of course are still really important events, but the focus is now on them putting over a much bigger overall product (Average PPV quality has dipped in my opinion, but that's another topic). This shift to content based subscriptions over month to month buys, is huge, and it will show if Vince's cunning buyouts of content were worth it over focusing on creating compelling wrestling.

It's not a conspiracy, it's common sense, Vince not wanting to own all of wrestling is a ridiculous notion, he's always wanted the biggest and most extravagant product, the more of his competition he owns, the bigger and "better" he can make it.

The truth is that WWE is NOT Wrestling... the sooner people accept this the better - WWE is a SOAP OPERA, SET IN A WRESTLING COMPANY CALLED WWE...

Every acquisition Vince makes increases the scope and "backstory" of that brand and soap opera, that has it's own subscription. Does Days Of Our Lives go and buy up tapes of it's actors early work? or let you pay to watch every episode ever? No...

Those decisions drive the tape library acquisitions - sure it sucks that the guys aren't getting royalties but the reality is they were screwed YEARS ago out of not knowing the value of libraries. WWE got WCW at a steal, cos they knew the library was priceless. Anyone who DID get the value of it, like a Jesse Ventura, went to court early and secured their money or in Bret's case got rights linked to it as part of a settlement.

It's not much different to Michael Jackson wanting The Beatles rights in the 80's... McCartney bid more, but Sony wanted Jackson and it was a condition. So they sold to him... today others could do more with a tape library, but WWE will make getting it a condition of EVER doing business with them again... so they end up with the rights.

 

[dsotm5150]

Could be totally wrong with this, but think back in the late 80's early 90's vince admitted that it was fake, and that the performers were putting on a show with a predetermined finish, in order to get some form of tax break.

If they were advertised as genuinely competing against each other there was a certain tax they had to pay. After admitting it was staged, they didn't pay the tax.

Sports Entertainment has only come around since the rise of UFC. AS that is legitimate fighting and incorporates proper wrestling, WWE tried to move away so there was no comparison.

Throw in the law suit with World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) and it all ties together

Actually Vince coined the phrase "Sports Entertainment" in 1989 during the same hearing where he was successful at getting the Athletic Commission to deregulate professional wrestling. It gave rise the most expansive and profitable era in professional wrestling and opened the doors for the rise of the indie circuit. ECW probably never would have existed as we know it today without that move.

 

[Burritocover]

the only spanner to their plans will be if SAG look to closely and force, via the courts them to unionise the same as their other TV show competition._

SAG can't force anyone via courts to unionize. There's no law saying that any types of jobs have to be union jobs, it's up to the workers. If a union had to power to force membership o work forces every job would be Union because the unions would want those dues. I actually have a union job but even then it's optional. I could withdraw from it and work without a contract but it wouldn't make any sense. I also worked at a job that had a union trying to get us to join but it never happened. The only way workers unionize is by vote. A workforce can also vote to leave a union which I've also had happen at a job before.

Anyway if Vince really wanted to totally control all wrestling in the world he has the money to buy them all up. He could go buy TNA ROH and every other indie in the country if he really cared about it. They'd all sell to him. Lots of people like Jim Ross have said that after he bought/killed all of the territories he was totally aware that it was detrimental because it left no where for people to learn to wrestle. That's why they made deals with OVW FCW and it goes all the way back to UPW 15 years ago. That's what's happening to with Evolve now. They aren't signing talent to hurt the companies they work for. They are signing them to keep their own business going. Poaching talent is really a terribly ineffective way to put indies out of business because they can always make new stars. It would be way easier to just buy them out.

As far as owning libraries it's not about controlling history. Maybe they have put their spin on some things like wcw and ecw or the other promotions they've done DVDs on. But really we weren't there backstage to see what was happening so what's really accurate is speculation but I don't doubt they've spun them to some extent. Having those libraries is about having something to make a profit off of. They buy AWAs tape library and they can put out DVDs of it and put it on the network. It's about making money off of it, not control. Really if they wanted to control it they'd buy it and bury it and make sure no one ever sees it. That's control. As a fan I think it's great cause I never had access to the territories.

As far as the argument that it's a monopoly and would be broken up if it were something other than wrestling that's only partly accurate. Being an entertainment company it's very unlikely that it could be broken up for being a monopoly because it's not something that's really essential. No one has to have it. When AT&T was broken up in the 80s it was because it was an essential service that had a monopoly. The part that's not accurate is it being a monopoly at all. They aren't the only wrestling company. They do have competition. Being bigger and more successful than their competition doesn't make a company a monopoly regardless of how many other companies they bought or put out of business. They aren't even the only company with national tv, just the biggest. Another reason they aren't a monopoly is there's no barrier to entering the marketplace. Anyone with the money and desire can start a promotion. Lots of them have. There isn't even really a barrier to getting on tv. It can and has been done. Part of AT&T being broken up was they owned infrastructure and it was basically impossible for another company to go build another one. So not being broken up because it's wrasslin is not accurate at all, they can't be broken up because they aren't a monopoly.

 

[BestSportsEntertainer]

WWE is a business. In businesses, you do what you can to make and keep your business as the best. WWE is doing that by the recent signings and call-ups.

Since WCW died WWE has monopolized pro wrestling. No company will ever come close to challenging and competing with WWE ever again. WWE is a household name. People associate WWE with pro wrestling, and I'm willing to bet most people can't name any other pro wrestling company or even knew they existed.

In conclusion, you make your business the best in order to make money and provide an entertaining product for your fans. That's what WWE is doing.

 

[EastCoastFan]

You're only discovering this now? A monopoly on the wrestling business has been Vince's goal since he bought the company from his father in the 80's. He wasn't content to just have one piece of the pie - he wanted the whole thing. He regularly signed away the top talents of other promotions, then would start running cards in that area to steal the fans away (Memphis survived during this time because their top talent, Jerry Lawler, was a part-owner of the territory, which meant he made more money than what Vince was offering). He would buy the TV time from local regional promotions. Bill Watts nearly sued him for predatory business practices back then. He started the Survivor Series so he could run a PPV opposite Starrcade in 1987, and the first Royal Rumble card aired on cable opposite Crockett's Bunkhouse Stampede card in January 1988 (JCP/WCW would fire back by airing the first Clash Of Champions special opposite WrestleMania).

 

[rmp0012002]

Vince absolutely wants to own and control all wrestling and it's not a conspiracy to think that way. He buys up wrestlers not because he thinks they will improve the WWE but just so other companies can't use them. It's not a new concept as it goes on a lot in baseball at the trade deadline but in Vince's case he would rather own the entire team rather that one player.

 

[Navi]

McMahon is a businessman and wants the best for his company to succeed in the future. I have no problem with him hiring wrestlers that he thinks can do that, and these wrestlers have every right to take the best deal possible, for them.

The only thing this is doing is absolutely killed any competition the WWE would ever have, and that isn't good for business. TNA is a joke right now, NJPW and ROH are considered indy darlings by the majority of WWE fans, therefore they get no respect. GFW in going nowhere quickly, so fans when they get sick of what the WWE is offering them, have no where really to go.

A lot of my friends that used to watch WWE are now into MMA, and they won't be coming back to the WWE anytime soon. Vince and Co. might have some of the best talent in the world, but they can't book them worth a shit. That's what's hurting the WWE so much, not lack of talent, it's lack of knowing what to do with them.

Vince can hire every single wrestler out there, but until they are being used in the way that they should be, and I'm not one for fantasy booking so I don't know how that would work, we will get the same shit week in and week out.

Sometimes competition is a good thing because it keeps you on your toes and you strive to be better. In this case the WWE is the best, but at times they look like they have no idea what the hell they're doing. Their plan for taking over professional wrestling comes across like an episode of Pinky and the Brain and their quest for world domination. Failure every time.

 

[Woodstuff]

To what end are you rambling on about WWE being a big evil company?

Guess what. Things happen outside of your bedroom. Companies make money, and rich old men become more rich. That's how the world works.

There's a reason you're here crying about WWE buying up talent, and not some pissant promotion from the territory days.

 

[Rayne]

If a tech company, phone company, or toy company had done what WWE does and continues to do, they'd be sued into oblivion and broken up by the federal government. Since it's "rasslin" there's nothing anyone can do.

I have to admit I'm not familiar with the nuances of the Sherman Antitrust Act, but I'm pretty sure there isn't a clause in there exempting professional wrestling companies.

 

[Navi]

If a tech company, phone company, or toy company had done what WWE does and continues to do, they'd be sued into oblivion and broken up by the federal government. Since it's "rasslin" there's nothing anyone can do.

You are talking apples and oranges here. When it comes to tech, toy and phone companies, there is and always has been more competition out there. They reach a broader market, and let's face it everyone nowadays owns a computer, cell phone and most kids have lots of toys. Not everyone though is into wrestling. It's a very niche sport and their fanbase while large isn't the same.

The government would never get involved in professional wrestling, mainly because I don't see anyone else crying there is no talent for them to use. Sorry I just can't see the US congress telling someone like Nakamura he can't work for the WWE he has to stay in NJPW, simply for the reason he's not allowed to make the WWE better than let's say TNA.

All wrestling companies have access to these wrestlers, it depends on who puts out the better offer and where the talent wants to be. I can't blame someone for taking the best offer they can for their own financial security.