Chapter 6-Page-19-A New Wrinkle
Feb15
on February 15, 2013
at 12:02 am
Can Sabrina leave Rival Angels for Battling Ring Angels/Millennium Wrestling Alliance? Takashi seems to think so and if it’s true, what should Sabrina’s answer be? You’d have to think it’d be something worthwhile if she’s even considering it, right?
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So, Sabrina was just working week to week? Yikes.
I gather that previously, Sabrina had been in BRA as a favour to Gabrielle. Possibly she’s still under contract with RA. But now, having seen her get a win over me, (a jammy one, frankly, but it counts nonetheless,) he can’t wait to lock her up long-term.
What is wrong with working week to week?
Better than not working week to week.
Or night to night… *glancing at Callie
Sod off, Bren. I’m not one of your customers.
I’d say it’s worth it, but it’ll be interesting if you follow thru and try to find a way to integrate the regular cast with this.
Albone is a way smart so he can do it. It will be like when the two footballs leagues merged back in the 1920s to form the NFL!
As much as I would hate to see ‘Brina leave Rival Angels, it’s an offer ‘Brina would have to seriously consider, any girl would have to.
If the upper brass of RA can’t sort themselves out and stop leaving my girl hanging in limbo (regardless of my Bring Back ‘Brina campaighn! *pout*), then she has to start thinking about her future.
Actually, they might have been getting ready to do exactly that: bring her back.
At first she says that she’s “…going to miss working–” with the logical next words being “here” or “for you” or something.
So my guess would be that he told her “Hey Sabrina, I just got a call from Gabrielle Reni. Rival Angels is ready for you to start wrestling matches for them again.”
Meh. The comic is about Sabrina first and foremost, right? And the comic’s title is Rival Angels, right? Is it a generous enough offer for her to actually think about it? The fact that she didn’t give a yes or a no right then and there indicates it was. But if the comic is about her above all others and she leaves the league the comic is named after fo something else, then… Hey, that’s a decision anybody in the business may have to make at some point or other in their career, I’m not arguing that, I’m just saying if two things are set in stone…
Addendum: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Curse you, Boney, and your weekend cliffhangers.
Dun dun dunnnnnn!
Thank you, Red Mage. :tongue:
Exactly!
Okay… This would be a great time to end the chapter right here, but something tells me you got some more BIG THINGS planned for this chapter, right ? 🙂
I mean talk about the way to choose between door #1 and door #2, huh ? 🙁
So at first I thought “Wait, can she accept that before her Rival Angels contract expires?”
And then I thought “Wait a minute, you already know that the world this takes place in is different. Maybe wrestlers legit trying to beat one another isn’t the only thing that’s different about wrestling; maybe in this world, a wrestler doesn’t have to tie herself down to a single promotion in order to make good money.”
I should mention that everything I’m about to say is coming from somebody who has no firsthand experience working in the wrestling business. I’m just going to be repeating things I read, or heard, or making assumptions, some of which may be inaccurate. Anybody here should feel free to tell me if I’m mistaken about something.
In the real world, independent wrestlers have more freedom, but they make less money than people in WWE because ROH, DGUSA, Chikara, SHIMMER, SHINE, PWG, CZW, et al have smaller payrolls and (this is both a good thing and a bad one) run fewer shows. On the bright side, being paid per appearance means that if you don’t like the way you’re being used, you can walk. Unlike poor Chavo Guerrero or Natalya Niedhart, both of whom were locked down in contracts to WWE and who had to keep jobbing to Hornswoggle and farting on national television, respectively, week after week.
In the real world if you’re in the ‘E, the pay is better. I’m pretty sure even guys like JTG make six figures. However, the schedule is brutal. It had been around 300 days a year before, and while I read something somewhere about it being reduced for 2013, I have no idea how much. I read an interview with Jesse Ventura a little while ago where, to paraphrase him, he said “Yeah, steroids and painkillers and other drugs aren’t good for you, but it’s just about impossible to work WWE’s schedule without them, because you have so little time to rest in between shows. Brock Lesnar actually told me once that wrestling was harder than MMA–not the match itself, mind you. A single match in MMA is tougher than a single wrestling match. But with MMA you just have the one fight and then you have plenty of time to rest before the next fight. In wrestling you just have to keep going and going and going, and it takes a toll.” Which is why, and I’m not exactly going out on a limb with this statement, there are so many prematurely dead wrestlers and so many wrestlers who are currently still alive but suffer from drug addiction.
Being under contract to WWE means that you’re making great money but have very little freedom. They don’t want you working dates for other companies, obviously. They don’t have to pay for health insurance or anything because they claim you’re an “independent contractor” rather than a full-time employee and thus not entitled to it. It’s bullshit and it would be nice if lawmakers called WWE on this, or change the laws to ensure that WWE can’t get away with this kind of thing, but they don’t. Oh yeah, and if you’re in WWE, do not even think about saying “Hey, people in other professions have unions, why don’t we form one too?” Because word will get back to Vince and you will be made an example of. Unions would give employees a say in how they were treated after all, and god forbid that ever happens!
What’s my point? Well, maybe Sabrina can have the best of both worlds in her world.
Maybe it is possible for her to make six figures while also maintaining her freedom, choosing how heavy or light a workload she was comfortable with, not having to do demeaning things in order to keep her job, etc. Maybe there’s even a union!
Actually: Albone, if this is the kind of thing you hadn’t ever really thought about it and if it’s totally up in the air, let me go on record as saying that while I’d enjoy this comic no matter what, I’d be very happy if everything or most things in that last paragraph turned out to be true.
Getting back to the story, though: if they were, then that would probably mean Takashi would be offering Sabrina millions…
WOW!!!
I don’t mind Sabrina changing… to BRA
we can see BRA and RA..
side of view.. which will be nice..
Yeah!
Hmmmm, quite a dilemma. On the one hand, all Brina’s friends and family are back in the US, and she was a big star in RA. On the other hand, going back means she’d have to deal with Balloon Boobs Brooke, Yvonne constantly trying to recruit her, and eventually, Chloe and her jacked-up nose are going to be comming back in some capacity. On the other other hand, in BRA, she get’s what sounds like a decent paycheck, a lighter work load, and Yoshi. On the other other other hand, BRA also has the pains in the butt, Ian and Atlas…
It’s nice..
To know and wait..
‘ WHITE QUEEN’ CHLOE DE SADE’s come back in Rivalangels..
Yup, Fright Queen, Chloe Da Schnoz
ya know- Sun seems eternally grumpy this story arc
Interesting dilemma we have here. On the one hand, experience elsewhere is a good thing, and Brina’s at a good point in her career to do so. But we need to know what that “Oh… going to miss working…” is about before deciding.
Was she just told RA is hauling her back? We don’t know. It could be the boss told her he’s moving on and dropping a cherry in her lap on the way out the door.
Boss, you are so Mean!!
He so totally is! And on a Friday!!
We have to wait days…DAYS!!…until we know what happpens next!
*pout*
IT’S A TRAP!!!!
…or not… but ya know…probably…
Its an impossible choice to make..new life and new options vs. old life and the main focus of your career. I do worry though, you hear it all the time from wrestlers..the second you find a new job, be it tv, music, movies, or fashion.. you already have one foot out of the ring. Eh.. become a model sabrina.. im sure the money/life style is way better.
I’ve often heard that wrestling is a sickness… that is, once you have it, it stays with you and takes over your life. It’s why guys like Terry Funk were never able to quite stay retired… he’s been in wrestling for so long and loves it so much that it’s very hard to walk away.
What does this have to do with anything? Well, it comes down to Sabrina and what she really wants. She appears to be enjoying her time in Japan, she’s made some new friends, she doesn’t have anywhere near as many people breathing down her neck. It’s a lighter schedule, which in wrestling is a definite selling point due to the physical nature of it. She has opportunities to do side projects that she apparently lacks in Rival Angels. All selling points.
However… it’s been mentioned that BRA is akin to the Divas division in WWE, meaning it’s a sideshow at best and apparently they don’t even have a title to aim for. Let’s just say take everything you know about All Japan Women’s in its heyday and realize that none of it applies to BRA. Simply put, this is not the place where the likes of Manami Toyota, Bull Nakano, Aja Kong and the like gain the respect of fans around the world for wrestling just as seriously as the men. BRA is an afterthought in the same way that the Divas are in WWE, and simply put you are not going to get the level of respect that you would in SHIMMER.
It’s a real decision. I think for Sabrina RA is really the only true choice. There she can live out her dream in a genuine sense with a real notion that what she does *matters*. BRA… no. Nice place to visit, but her wrestling career won’t be going anywhere there.
I do find it sort of curious how traditional roles have been reversed here. IRL, Japan is where women’s wrestling is taken more seriously (not to the degree it once was, unfortunately) while in the US it has to fight and scrape to get any kind of foothold, with groups like SHIMMER having to work with the knowledge that the big dog in the yard, WWE, is not likely to make any real effort to elevate wrestling for women any time soon, and TNA’s Knockouts division has taken a serious downturn from what was once very promising. In this comic, it’s effectively reversed… Rival Angels is big enough that they can run full arena shows with an entirely female roster, while BRA barely gets a mention in their home organization.
I’ve read all the above comments with the fors and againsts interms of an actual argument but in terms of the comic itself it is called Rival Angels not Sabrina the Wrestler so I think she has to return to the RA.
Other points to support this:
1) unfinished business with Brooke
2) personal development
3) eventual showdown with Damage Inc. (whether she joins them or not)
4) show down with the reformed Hell’s Belles
That being said there has been a lot of character development with BRA so a cross promotion between RA and BRA would be awesome.