The Thread Killer

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.

There's a couple of mugshots of him online, but they are both from his arrests for violating protection orders. They haven't released a mugshot from his arrest last night. There is a mugshot of a guy with a bloody face circulating online which some people are claiming is the guy, but it's not Zachary Madsen, the guy who attacked Bret Hart.

So based on all available evidence, the guy who attacked Bret Hart last night has some fairly serious mental issues. This appears to be more than a simple case of an idiot fan getting drunk and jumping the rail. This guy has a couple of arrests on his record for violating protection orders - leading to the assumption there must be serious issues at play in order for somebody to feel the need to file restraining orders against him. His Twitter and YouTube accounts are both public and are pretty disturbing. He has been publicly challenging The Shield to a 6 Man Tag match at Wrestlemania, and then venting when Triple H and Vince McMahon didn't answer him. He has been ranting about the Main Event at Wrestlemania featuring women, he appears quite upset about that. His YouTube channel was really something to behold - his latest video was an interview with himself, and other videos feature him unable to talk without giggling uncontrollably and rolling his eyes back in his head. I initially assumed this was just some moron trying to get attention, but it seems this guy is really in need of mental help.

Yeah, that's a really great point. There's no way Bret actually had any good feelings about his own brother-in-law, who also happened to be one of his closest friends. All the nice stuff he's said about The Anvil over the years - including the times Bret got him hired different places - that was totally a work, bro.

I know this is pretty much a recurring theme with every Takeover, but Mauro Ranallo really is the fucking dirt worst. His ridiculous shit actually takes me out of matches I was otherwise enjoying. At some point during the opener, he compared Black and Ricochet to Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. I don't even know what that fucking idiot is trying to prove half the time when he opens his mouth. Another highlight is his introducing Vic Joseph as the voice of NXT UK during the Dunne/Walter match, and then proceeding to interrupt Joseph and Nigel a bunch of times when they're calling the match, so he can shoehorn his stupid shit in. Because gawd forbid we have one match on an NXT show where Mauro doesn't make some ridiculous analogy or pointless rhyming pop culture reference.

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.