The Thread Killer

No, that won't work. What the angle would need to succeed is the involvement and interference of at least one (if not more) of the McMahon family. And then lots of fake shooty twitter comments. The way you presented the idea is far too simple, would work far too well, and makes far too much sense.

@WingedEagle just my suggestion, but you might want to start with the series of episodes they did this past winter reviewing several years of the Starrcade PPV's, there is some good stuff in there.

Myself and a couple of other posters have been discussing the differences between STW and the improving 83 Weeks here in the 83 Weeks thread. Check it out and see what you think?

You're not kidding about that. Even if people want to make the argument that Eric Bischoff is lying or being intentionally misleading on 83 Weeks to make himself look better (which I don't think he is, at this point) there's still the book "Nitro" by Guy Evans which presents a ton of facts which fly in the face of the traditional "Meltzer approved" narrative regarding the rise and fall of WCW. That's probably the reason they talk about that book on 83 Weeks so much, even though the book doesn't always paint Bischoff in the most flattering light. One of the thing that seems to drive Bischoff the most mental, is that Meltzer frequently attributed creative or managerial decisions that were made in WCW after Bischoff was named "Executive Producer" in 1993 to Bischoff - when in reality Bob Dhue and Jim Barnett were still in charge then. Bischoff wasn't given the authority over creative or other major executive decisions until he was promoted to Executive Vice President in 1994, after Dhue resigned.

Agreed. And I'll take MLW and Impact's production style and camera work in a heartbeat over the ridiculous nonsense you see during WWE productions. The constant camera angle switches, the pointless zooming and shaking...it's like all their cameramen are first year TV production students playing with their new equipment and experimenting how many different ways they can frame a shot in 60 seconds. I'm half-ass expecting them to break out a kaleidoscope lens any day now. It's so distracting from the actual action.

The problem is, even though they changed the name and have new ownership and management, Impact still have the residual stink of Dixie Carter and TNA on them with most hardcore fans, and I don't know if they'll ever get away from it. You still see fans online basically saying "LOLTNA" whenever anything is reported about or announced by Impact, and it's a damn shame. If you take the Impact roster right now and put on the shows they have been for the past 6-9 months, but they were a brand new start up without the whole sordid TNA history, I'd be willing to bet most fans watching with an unbiased eye would be praising them.

Universal Champion Brock Lesnar returns to Raw in Chicago, where his WrestleMania opponent Seth Rollins will be waiting. Will we bear witness to a physical confrontation between The Beast Incarnate and “The Beastslayer”? Also on Raw, Kurt Angle reveals his WrestleMania opponent, Seth Rollins battles Drew McIntyre, Finn Bálor teams with a partner of his choosing to take on Intercontinental Champion Bobby Lashley & Lio Rush and Ronda Rousey defends her Raw Women’s Title against Dana Brooke! In other news: AJ Styles has re-signed but The Good Brothers won't and have been pulled from Live Events! None of the RAW shows leading up to Wrestlemania have sold out and it looks like they won't! EC3 is already in the doghouse and is jobbing to Shelton Benjamin on house shows because Vince McMahon doesn't like him! DJZ and Robbie E have signed with WWE and will be reporting to NXT! Dash Wilder claims the Revival pitched a Best Out of 3 Falls match against Roode and Gable at Wrestlemania! Finn Balor might appear as "The Demon" at Wrestlemania but I don't know why that's news! I think the exclamation point key on my laptop might be stuck!

I'm not going to bother breaking the episode down, but this past week's show on Uncensored 95 was another home run for sure. Really entertaining episode with some interesting insights from Eric, and it was also funnier than normal. As usual, Eric is refreshingly honest - especially about the debut of The Renegade and the quality of the Main Event. My personal favorite quote is when Conrad wonders why Jimmy Hart inserted himself in the Main Event and Eric says that it was because he saw the red light for the camera was on. I'd check this one out if you get the chance, it's quite entertaining.

Yeah as we've talked about in the 83 Weeks thread, Bischoff is at least a lot more fair regarding Meltzer than Prichard has ever been. For the most part, Prichard dismisses every single thing Meltzer reports out of hand, and won't even discuss it or give Meltzer any credit for anything. Bischoff gives Meltzer credit a fair bit of the time, and can even be quite complimentary towards him about certain things. When Bischoff does get a wild hair up his ass is whenever Conrad reads something Meltzer reported about the inner workings of Turner Broadcasting, because a lot of the time history has shown that Meltzer was way off with a lot of those stories - as in he was either flat out wrong, or he got worked. I forget which episode of 83 Weeks it was, but Bischoff actually goes into detail and names the Turner insider whom he knew was leaking Meltzer deliberately false and misleading information. When you boil it down, Bischoff's main issue with Meltzer is that he would get information from sources and report it as fact, seemingly not considering the fact that he was getting worked.

I am officially withdrawing my "Shut Up and Take My Money" demand regarding United We Stand. This week they announced Tessa Blanchard vs. Joey Ryan. Fuck that noise. I don't like intergender wrestling under the best of circumstances, and anything involving Joey Ryan and his goddamn dick is definitely not the best of circumstances. I'll buy fucking front row fucking VIP tickets to see fucking Nickelback before I spend one goddamn nickel that will go into the pocket of Joey Fucking Ryan. Fuck him, fuck his fucking penis bullshit, fuck this match and fuck Impact for booking it. I really wanted to see RVD & Sabu vs. The Lucha Brothers but fuck this noise. Fuck.

I hear you on that, 100%. I put that Orton/Foley match and the Edge/Foley WM match in the same category. Matches that could have and probably should have sucked, if not for extensive work being done laying out the match ahead of time, plenty of gimmicks (fire, thumbtacks, etc.) and most importantly, as much as I don't like him - Mick Foley's willingness to pretty much kill himself to pull an entertaining match out of somebody. Maybe this is unfair, but to me Foley gets all the credit for that match.

I agree. Just like @NotJayTabb and @KawadaSmile pointed out...I love AJ as much as the next guy, but he's not a magician. If anybody thinks AJ is capable of "carrying" less than motivated/capable workers, I refer you back to his interminable feud with Kevin Owens - also known as "Chinlocks Forever." Most (if not all) of the matches in the AJ/Owens angle were excruciating to sit through. I didn't blame AJ for that, but the point is that he isn't one of those guys who can take somebody who either can't or won't put in the effort, and produce a watchable match every time out. I still can't figure out how/why AJ had great matches with Samoa Joe and Nakamura in other organizations, but when they hooked up in WWE the heat was off. Maybe it was Joe's age and accumulated injuries. Maybe it was the ridiculous storyline Joe/AJ got saddled with. Maybe it was the fact Nakamura is reportedly lazy and/or not as good as most thought he was. Or maybe (and this is my guess) having guys who could do whatever they wanted in Japan and the Indies have to conform to the "WWE style" took something significant away from what were previously good rivalries. But the point is, within those confines, AJ couldn't just will a great match into existence. In this particular case, I'd like to think Orton is game enough to go full tilt in the ring with AJ. I'd like to think that Orton would care enough about it being Wrestlemania that he kicks it into high gear. Hell, I'd like to think that both AJ and Orton would use this match as a chance to "show off" and prove that they deserved to be booked in a more significant angle or higher on the card. Kind of like an opening act at a concert blowing the main act off the stage. But this is Randy Orton we're talking about. He's proven he is technically capable of being in a great match, but when you compare his actual number of great matches to the length of his career and the grand total of matches he's had...the math doesn't make him look all that great. But who knows. Maybe he likes AJ, wants to work with him and wants this deal to be good. If nothing else, the promos seem to paint him as somewhat motivated.

Oh that's right, I remember him being at Wrestlemania last year for the Battle Royal. I never watch the Greatest Royal Rumble so I didn't know about that. I remember reading somewhere that the Saudi's specifically asked for JR and Lawler as the broadcast team but I have no idea if that's true. So even though he was under contract, he hasn't worked for them for almost a year. Damn. You'd have thought with the Network they'd have found something for him to do.

I remember way back when, (like in the early days of STW) that Conrad complained that Austin didn't like him, and he claimed he didn't know why. He said Austin had gone so far as to block him on Twitter. I suppose money talks, however. A lot of water has gone under the bridge since then and Conrad has become a much bigger presence in the industry with the success of his three shows, Starrcast and not to mention becoming Ric Flair's son-in-law. I suppose an Austin/Conrad show could happen. I have been curious what happened to Austin's show disappearing all of the sudden. That's what happened with "Bischoff on Wrestling" and the next thing you know...83 Weeks.

I know this is a massive thread bump, but I figured this was the place to post about this news. Jim Ross reportedly announced on his podcast today that his WWE contract expires on March 29, 2019 and at that time he will be parting ways with WWE once again. I don't even remember the last thing he did for them, maybe the original Mae Young Classic? Anyhow, he apparently made some comments about how he still thinks he has something to contribute to WWE but those around Vince have convinced him that he doesn't. Anyhow, the point is that he apparently claimed that the deal is pretty much done for him to start a new podcast with Conrad Thompson, which will replace the Jim Ross Report podcast that he is currently doing with Westwood One. Conrad Thompson was on Matt Koon's podcast this week and apparently confirmed this. I guess the original thought was that the Conrad/Ross podcast would kind of be replacing Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard, except Prichard now intends to try and continue doing his show on a weekly basis, although he won't be touring and doing live shows since he's back on the road with WWE full time. Also, I can't imagine that Prichard will be able to keep up working with WWE and doing his podcast for very long. I have mixed feelings about this news. I don't hate Jim Ross anywhere near as much as some hardcore fans seem to. I actually quite liked him as an announcer and I don't buy every rumor I hear about his backstage reputation. The big question is going to be how Ross reacts to the Conrad formula. He's going to have to be honest and straightforward when Conrad asks him questions, and if he isn't Conrad is going to have to call him on it, and I'm not sure I can see Conrad doing that, or JR reacting well to being told he's full of crap - something Conrad has done with Prichard, Schiavone and especially Bischoff. This is going to be a whole new format for JR, no more interviews, no more monologues, and only time will tell how he and Conrad mesh. Also, since JR is now away from WWE and not happy about it, I'd like to think he won't be in totally carny mode like Prichard was most of the time, trying to protect the company secrets. Hopefully JR feels he is truly done with WWE now and can make a decent living of this new show. If Eric Bischoff is to be believed, the guys who do shows with Conrad make quite a decent living from the ads, and especially the live events. If JR embraces that and is actually open when they do this new show, it could be good. If he tries to keep his secrets and does his crusty old JR act, then we all know it will fail. Should be interesting.

Neither of those ideas are as good as my preferred method of dealing with physical conflict. First I shriek like a little girl: "Please don't hit me, I'm a hemophiliac" then I put my hands over my face, start sobbing uncontrollably and run away as fast as I can (still screaming) until I can find a tree to hide behind.

I take back what I said. I would pay $99.00 for a chance to meet The Casio Kid, but only if I was allowed to punch him in the mouth with no legal repercussions afterward. That would be money well spent, in my opinion. I'd guess anybody who has heard The Casio Kid on "What Happened When" would agree with me.

I don't think it's any coincidence that as the Patreon content dried up over the past few weeks, the overall quality of the actual weekly episodes of 83 Weeks dipped as well. Specifically, I wasn't crazy about the "Ask Eric Anything" or the "Ric Flair turns 70" shows. Prior to those two episodes, the entire run of Starrcade, Souled Out and Superbrawl shows had been the highlight of this podcast so far and Eric and Conrad were really firing on all cylinders. However, I found that Eric sounded kind of tired and a bit out of it during the Ask Eric Anything show. From the sound of his voice, I also suspect he may have been drinking during that show (as he has during some others) because his focus tended to wane, the longer the show went on. For example, he was asked about the logistics of producing the World War III battle royal, and he started talking about War Games - and Conrad didn't even bother to correct him. By the end of the show, Conrad sounded a bit exasperated with Eric but this time I think it was pretty justified. Eric has gone on record about how much he loves to drink, but I think they need to hide the Scotch when he's recording a show. Having said that, there was some good in there, but mostly that episode was a miss to me. And then the Ric Flair show was really a bizarre choice, if you ask me. They had just done an in depth Ric Flair episode in September, it seemed way too soon to be going back to that topic, for me. I got the impression that they only reason they were revisiting Ric Flair again is because neither Conrad or Eric had time the previous week to watch a Pay Per View and make notes, so they went back to a topic they knew would draw some listeners. Anyhow after those two somewhat lackluster shows, I was really happy to see them return to form with a vengeance this week with their episode focusing on Uncensored 97. I guess now that they have covered Starrcade, Souled Out and Superbrawl they are going to be reviewing all of the Uncensored shows. This was a really good episode of 83 Weeks in my opinion - right up there with the Starrcade episodes. This episode illustrated how engaged Eric Bischoff is in this whole podcast process. What I mean is, Conrad started reviewing the show, and Eric says: "Wait we have to go back - we didn't discuss the opening!" Then at one point he actually mentions the time code of a particular spot when Sonny Onoo hit a spin kick, which made even Conrad comment on how much detail Eric was putting into the review. (Earning him a patented "I love you for that.") Later, Conrad casually mentions a backstage promo, and then starts talking about the next match, and Eric says: "Wait, let's go back and discuss that backstage promo." Put it this way, have you ever heard an episode of Something to Wrestle where Conrad is reading the results of a PPV, and Bruce tells Conrad that they need to go back and review a particular spot or promo that they glossed over? Eric is watching these shows and making tons of notes, and his level of engagement is really making the show much more fun to listen to. There were some fun points in this episode. Eric continues to hate on Buff Bagwell and Jeff Jarrett's wardrobe choices, Eric surprises Conrad with his review of The Public Enemy vs. Harlem Heat, and we discover Conrad's deep-seated hatred of Prince Iaukea, of all people, Eric marks out over Dusty's commentary, especially during the aforementioned Public Enemy match. We discover that Eddie Guerrero actually tore his pectoral muscle during his match with Dean Malenko, and that this show actually did a better buyrate than Wrestlemania, a fact which Eric claims to be totally ignorant of. Finally, Eric is his usual honest and blunt self in his review of the Main Event. If you get a chance, I'd give this one a listen. I think you'll enjoy it. @SomethingSavage and @El-P I'm curious to see what you guys thought of it. I'd ask @C.S., but I know you usually don't listen to the shows. Next up is Uncensored 95 next week, and then Uncensored 96. I know Conrad is looking forward to busting Eric's balls about these two shows and I can't wait to hear about "The Alliance To End Hulkamania." Eric kind of groaned when he found out these shows were coming, and I can't say I blame him. But it's good news to know they are doing another series of PPV reviews because these shows have been excellent, in my opinion.

It's all good brother, I didn't take it as an attack at all.

The main point here is that there is a hell of a big difference between paying $9.00 a month and $99.00 dollars a month to support the show with Patreon, obviously. I thought paying $9.00 bucks a month was fair to support the show, when I was getting: 83 Weeks a day early every week, before it was released to the public No ads during the show Bonus content weekly, such as live Q&A's, watch-alongs, and bonus shows - which worked out to at least 2-3 times per week. That is what I got for a couple of weeks. When I first signed up as a Patreon supporter I actually couldn't keep up with the bonus content. The first two weeks there were live Q&A video chats with Eric where he would open the phone lines up and you could call and talk to him, a couple of watch-alongs that were chosen by the Patreon members, and bonus shows. Specifically, they did a full length bonus episode about the launch of AEW which was exclusive to Patreon supporters. On top of that, there was his live daily morning chat/current events show. The problem was, it all dried up after a couple of weeks. Just the weekly show early and without ads, and that's it. Then he did post a couple of bonus shows, but made them exclusive to the $99.00 a month members. That's when I cancelled my membership. Like I said earlier, I can see paying ten bucks a month as a Pateron supporter, provided the content is there. I don't care WHAT they are offering, there is no way in hell I would ever pay a hundred bucks a month to support a podcast, I don't care what the circumstances are. That's just insane.

All the Patreon content is archived. Ironically, I cancelled my Patreon membership for 83 Weeks today, so I wouldn't be billed for the month of March. When I first signed up, Eric Bischoff was posting daily updates (his goofy "Ass-Crack of Dawn" show) every day, plus doing 2-3 extra chats, Q&A's or match watch-alongs per week. Unfortunately, over the last month or so, that has pretty much dried up. I don't watch his "ACD" show because I am not getting up early in the morning just to watch him read the newspaper live and chat with him about the news. Plus, he appears to have stopped doing that anyway. I really liked the chats and Q&A's and especially the matches, but he isn't doing them as much (or at all) so right now the only benefit of being a Patreon supporter is getting the weekly show a day early, and without ads. That's not worth the money, to me. I am on Disability Pay right now, every dollar counts. To save $10.00 a month, I can wait an extra day and put up with Eric and Conrad talking about "Blue Chew." I should note, he apparently has posted some limited bonus content a couple of times over the past month, but it has only been available to the $99.00 a month level supporters, not people on my level. I'm sorry, I am not going to pay that much for anything, I don't care what it is. That's just insane. I really like 83 Weeks, it's my favorite podcast for sure, but if the day ever comes where I feel the need to pay a hundred bucks a month to chat with Eric Bischoff, I will tell my family that I need to be put down. I wouldn't pay that much money if he volunteered to come to my house and watch the shows with me, and then clean my apartment and shovel my driveway afterward. I can't conceive of anybody paying that much as a Patreon supporter, I don't care what the benefits are. In fairness, I know Eric has been exceptionally busy lately - he has mentioned it in the update emails they send out. I know he went to Japan to be part of the Masa Saito memorial, then he was in Los Angeles for the whole Hulk Hogan Biopic movie deal (which he is apparently producing) and on top of that he and Conrad are doing a fairly regular schedule of live shows. Plus he has a family and a ton of other business interests. I am sure he just doesn't have a time to sit around doing live chats with his Patreon supporters, that's fine. But if you want people to pay money every month, you need to consistently provide the content you said you would. I'm still a huge fan, but unless they up the amount of content for the Patreon supporters and do it on a consistent basis, I am not paying for it anymore. It started off great, but in the end it wasn't worth the money.

So it looks like Bahu's YouTube channel is gone. He posted on Twitter this afternoon: "Someone from Japan reported every video I have on my site including unlisted videos and non Samurai TV footage (my Hayabusa singing video that I took myself got reported) so my YouTube site is gone." I'd like to find out who did that to him and punch them right in the groin. As I've said repeatedly, this podcast is excellent but the YouTube version with all the video and pictures is really captivating stuff. I know how much work he puts into every episode. He said that he should have a new channel up later this week but it might have to be invitation only, so this doesn't happen again. Which sucks, because when you work as hard as he does on a show like this, it's a crime to have to hide it from the public. I just hope the channel goes back up okay.

I know Roman is making an appearance tonight, and as a cancer survivor I have a lot of empathy and respect for what he has gone through. They've even supposedly confirmed that he's going to be in the opening segment. I am somewhat tempted to tune it and check it out...but I find WWE TV so tedious and hard to watch, I don't know if I'll be able to bring myself to watch it. At this point, I find it excruciating to sit through that crap. Every time I try, I am reminded why I don't watch their TV anymore. WWE TV is so boring and poorly formatted that WWE could announce that the opening segment on RAW was going to feature the Second Coming of Jesus Christ who has come to deliver us from the end of days, and I'd be all: "Meh. I'll check out the highlights on YouTube." Not to mention, if WWE did host the Second Coming, they'd find a way to insert Stephanie somehow, and give the McMahon family credit for the whole thing.

Having watched a ton of shoot interviews over the past few years, it has always amazed me how many different versions of that story there are - especially by guys who weren't even there. That story competes with the "I'm the one who arranged to bring Hulk Hogan to WCW" story for the total number of bullshit artists who try to take credit or insert themselves into the narrative after the fact.

I'm not sure I'd buy the idea that Vince would go to all the trouble of hiring Prichard just to screw with Conrad and Starrcast for booking the Undertaker. There's no doubt that Vince McMahon can be vindictive and incredibly petty, but that theory seems to be a bit too much, even for him. Despite how their relationship ended, I think Vince McMahon thinks very highly of Bruce Prichard. Don't forget, Prichard (along with Pat Patterson) was basically Vince's right hand guy from 1987 to 2008, (omitting 1992.) He fired Prichard because he wanted Stephanie to take over creative and the position basically wasn't big enough for the two of them. By his own account, Prichard didn't react well to being pushed aside and starting putting in a half-ass effort at work, showing up late, taking extended vacations, etc. That's not to mention rumors of escalating drug use and oh yeah - bringing a gun to work. There is no way Vince worked with Prichard all that time and didn't consider him to be a valuable asset, but Vince obviously wanted a family member running the creative team and Bruce's reaction to that decision sure didn't help. He made himself expendable, otherwise he'd probably never have been let go. Now that Stephanie is out of creative, it makes sense that Vince would want to go back to what worked for him during WWE's two previous high points. Prichard was right there for a good chunk of the 80's and The Attitude Era. I think that might especially true since Vince is most likely going to be busy with the XFL. He won't have time to micro-manage creative like he usually does, and if he has decided that he doesn't want Stephanie running things, then he's going to want one of his most notorious Yes Men to be his eyes and ears, won't he? Besides...I think it's pretty clear that the well has run dry for Bruce Prichard when it comes to Something to Wrestle. We've been talking about this a fair bit in the 83 Weeks thread here at PWO, but Prichard has been phoning it in for quite a while on STW. A lot of the time he sounds unenthusiastic and not particularly engaged. I think the bloom might be off the rose for him in that venture. At the very least, this probably means no more STW live shows and weekly podcasts, although you never know - they may renew SETW on the WWE Network. If this is really happening, I have to wonder what it means for Triple H more than anybody. You'd think that if Vince is wanting to shake things up and make changes due to stagnation, rather than firing old producers and hiring a bunch of new ones and doing unexpected NXT call-ups, he'd give Triple H and Stephanie the reins for a bit to see how they'd do, but instead he brings back his former #1 lackey? It's weird.