A fair estimate of the content on Floslam was that 70-80% of its content was derived from WWN products. It was the most major company to sign with Flo and the only one that has remained loyal to the site for the entirety of the company's run (HOH may be as well, but I would be shocked if a single subscriber signed on for them). WWN increased its output to meet this role and became the face of Flo for better or worse.Bix wrote:I have to be careful how I reply to this because a decent bit of what I know that's on-point (though far from all of it) was said off the record.Joe Lanza wrote:I can confirm that it never really became what he pitched, because I know a lot of the ideas first hand.thisredengine wrote: 5. Firing Botter was a big mistake. The site was his baby and never really became what he originally pitched.
Full disclosure. I was in informal talks with Botter for a job with Flo shortly before he was fired. There was no specific title discussed, but it wasn't the same role that McCarron accepted/quit, or the role many others interviewed for. We discussed a number of roles, including writing, "indie hunter"/point man in negotiations with indies, podcasting, and even an on camera role for a behind the desk wrap up/news show covering Flo promotions. I was local, had years of writing & podcasting under my belt, and most importantly, I was in tune with the wrestling scene, something Flo personnel obviously lacked, so it made a ton of sense. So yeah, Botter had a lot of outside the box ideas, and almost none of them came to fruition.
It reached a point where I was asked to submit a resume, which I did, either on the day or day after Botter was let go. That's where things ended, as I was his recruit. Another Flo employee (not on the FloSlam side) warned me that whatever Botter potentially had cooking with me was likely unknown to his bosses. I reached out to Toby to see if my name ever came across his desk, and never heard back. Of course, Toby was eventually fired as well.
RE: NJPW negotiations. I think this is bullshit, unless Botter was bullshitting me. In my conversations with him, he noted that they wanted to negotiate with NJPW, but didn't have the proper connections and continually hit dead leads. In fact, I was asked if I could get them in the door. I know a few people employed by or connected with NJPW, probably not the right ones, but of course I said yes anyway. I was sniffing around for a potential job, after all.
Between your post and stuff said to me privately, the vibe I'm getting is that Botter was being super grandiose in chatting up other reporters/media types even when it had little connection to reality. For example, the alleged offer to buy the Observer (or Observer site, it's not clear), which I had heard Dave told friends about with a dollar amount attached, was something that I was told earlier today was a Botter pipe dream not run by upper management. The story you tell sounds similar.
The whole company sounds increasingly like a clusterfuck, but it still seems likely that they're the wronged party in the WWN dispute. So...yeah.
Falsifying numbers, whether done because you have really no real data or malicously and intentionally deceiving someone, is wrong, 100%. If a client of mine suggested doing so, I'd tell them that either they should not do that or to find another attorney. And if I were being given data, I would demand proof especially if millions of dollars were involved.
With that in mind and ignoring the many issues apart from this that WWN and Gabe have (and that I personally have with their product that I've spent more on this year than in any previous years), I have a hard time with anyone casting Flo as a the wronged party. They didn't do their homework, they let their ambition trump logic and they were clearly shooting way above the pay grade. When you look at the extent of their ambitions (buying the Observer, getting ROH and NJPW), it's clear that they were desperate to get any deal and WWN got lucky as the one viable target for them. It was a bad deal for Flo, but no worse than the many, many deals that other companies flush with investor cash have made in the past.
