The Thread Killer

Why didn't they call them "The Iconic Experience?" The name is right there! Oh and change their names to "Kay" and "Pey" because otherwise it's too confusing.

It's something I read in an interview somewhere, so it could be bullshit. However, it has the ring of truth to it, since he sat out his entire contract without working anywhere else. Not a lot of guys would do that, 99% would ask for their release and keep working begrudgingly if they didn't get it. He just walked, which I kind of respect.

I don't know how much longer he's going to get sympathy cheers for beating Cancer, sadly. I fear that it won't be long before he's back to getting his usual reactions.

Vince gets punched in Montreal a lot.

That's not why he did it. He apparently got along fine with Enzo (and was one of the few people who did.) He asked to be called up to Raw or Smackdown, and they apparently told him he was 205 for life, so that's why he walked.

If Elias hits Vince over the head with his guitar, I'll mark out like a mofo.

I read somewhere (I forget where, but I remember it was an interview with a friend of his) that Neville is financially independent and doesn't "need" to work for WWE, so when they made it clear that "creative had nothing for him" he just walked and was fine with waiting out his contract. Most guys can't afford that or have the mindset that if they don't make it to WWE, they don't make it. Thankfully, it appears more and more guys are now rejecting that mentality, which can only be good for the business in the long run, IMO.

If you die and go to hell, you wake up watching a match being called by Mauro Ranallo with Byron Saxton on color, as Nickelback plays in the background.

So what's the deal, are The Bar broken up now?

To be fair, I think Murphy actually wants this job. Neville apparently just didn't care, and Aries is well...Aries. I don't know how anybody expected him to last based on his history.

Agreed. I don't like Corbin at all, but his work and especially his promo delivery is miles ahead of the IIconics. Corbin is capable of talking, and one day might even be able to be carried to a watchable match. Those two? I think not.

I was just wondering about that. Nothing says that the brand split and shakeup means absolutely nothing more than having the announcers make a huge deal about Lars being exclusive to Raw last night - only to have him show up on Smackdown tonight. I think they're doing this shakeup based on a drunk monkey throwing darts at pictures of the roster. And then the monkey writes the show.

THANK YOU. This X 1000. I am so sick of seeing people praise them, as if the fact that they can't wrestle well and their promos suck are somehow part of their gimmick. Being bad at your job isn't a gimmick, it just means you're bad at your job. It really says something about the state of Pro Wrestling and WWE in particular when fans confuse heels being annoyingly bad as some sort of perverse "heat."

The dude on the far left. I don't care what anybody else says, I liked Sanity. I thought they were a perfectly acceptable stable, who got totally buried when they got called up. I don't get the logic behind calling up talent from NXT when you have nothing for them to do. They never even got a chance on Smackdown, they were buried from the get go. I always thought they'd be great as new lackeys for Bray Wyatt, or as a stable to feud with a reformed Wyatt Family...but nope. Nothing, nada, zip, zero. If you don't have anything for them, why not release them? Why call them up and then ignore them? It makes no sense. There seems to be no rhyme or reason behind the majority of their NXT call ups.

So Sami Zayn's new gimmick is copying Daniel Bryan's gimmick, basically?

Yeah, you could tell that Atlas was really trying to use this episode as a chance to make himself out to be a hero. I found the part where he complained that he needed to talk about the murder right away, because he was bursting at the seams to tell his story to be a bit much. I'd buy that if he hadn't talked about the murder in a bunch of shoot interviews, it's not like this was the first time he ever told his side of the story. You have to wonder if the story doesn't get a little more detailed with each telling.

Hey now that Sami Zayn is back, they should do some sort of angle involving him and Kevin Owens in some way. I don't think they've ever done that before anywhere, have they?

Oh right, and that was supposed to be a buzzard puppet, I guess.

How do we know for sure that puppet vignette was for Bray Wyatt?

I wondered what happened to Lars.

To paraphrase a quote by Captain Woodrow F. Call from Lonesome Dove: "That don't recommend him much." But hey...I guess at least Cole is better than Mauro Ranallo.

lol wut

Even though I've seen the Savio Vega, Dutch Mantell and Tony Atlas Shoot Interviews where they discuss the murder, read the Brody book by Barbara Goodish and Larry Matysik, and seen the "Wrestling's Last Rebel" documentary done by Highspots, I still found this Brody episode really interesting. They got a ton of good footage that wasn't available to Highspots, and interviews with Abdullah (who appears to be full of shit, as usual) and Brody's son, which I think is a first. I've never seen him speak about this anywhere else. It's too bad they didn't get Savio Vega for this episode, because in recent years he's had some interesting information about the murder. Specifically, Vega has some interesting insights into what happened afterward - stuff that people who only spoke English couldn't know about Gonzales. One thing I found interesting was the discussion of Gonzales's motives. I've heard so many stories over the years about why Gonzales did it. Some claim it was revenge for Brody roughing him up in the WWWF. Some claim Gonzales was in the middle of a mental breakdown due to the death of his daughter. Some believe that Colon and Jovica bullied him into it, because Brody wasn't listening to Gonzales as the booker - he was changing finishes, refusing to comply with the dress code, and being disrespectful. Savio Vega's story seems to back that theory up. Hell, some people actually believe it was self defense...that Brody and Gonzales were fighting in the shower, and Gonzales really did stab Brody in self defense. One popular theory I keep hearing is that WWC traditionally held back money from the wrestler's pay to cover "taxes" and Brody didn't want them to do that. He was insisting on paying his own taxes and wanted his money back, and Colon and Jovica weren't happy about that. In the political vein, what I'd never heard before this episode is the story about Brody buying out Gorilla Monsoon's shares in WWC, this was the first time I've ever heard about that. That certainly adds a new angle to this story, because I am sure the last thing Colon, Jovica and Gonzales wanted was Brody owning a piece of Puerto Rico. This episode was very well done.

Yeah, I agree. This isn't an "either/or" situation. I don't think anybody should celebrate a guy who clearly has mental problems getting his ass kicked, but conversely the fact the guy has mental problems doesn't totally absolve him from any personal responsibility for his actions, either. I've worked with and been attacked by violent mentally ill people before, and I literally have the scars to prove it. Mental illness does not mean that somebody is incapable of distinguishing right from wrong. Even if he legitimately believed Bret Hart was some sort of threat to him, that doesn't justify his own violent reaction. I'm just happy this guy didn't hurt Bret Hart worse than he did. If anything, people (especially Vince McMahon) should be pissed at the shitty security that let this guy get as close as he did. In addition to the stage set up for the HOF being goofy for this show, which invited this kind of attack, somebody was clearly asleep at the switch.

Ugh, Eli Drake has been released. He was one of the few (quasi) original names Impact had on the roster who looked like he could turn out to be a big deal in the long run. This is not so good. I don't blame them for releasing him early, his contract was up in May and he's been pretty much slagging the company off in interviews lately - but it sucks to see them lose such a big name. If rumors are to be believed, it sounds like Drake is a bit of a pain in the ass behind the scenes.