The Thread Killer

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.

The obvious problem is that they don't have enough writers. They need to hire some more.

Yeah as far as making introductions, having Ric Flair for a Father-In-Law means there probably are not a whole lot of doors closed to him at this point.

I don't really listen to The Jim Cornette Experience, and that was the show he was doing those "Deep Dives" on. From what I understand, he hasn't done one of those so far this year, I think the last one he did was in December, I'd have to check. Brian Last did mention those episodes always get great feedback and the most downloads, so I am a bit surprised that they haven't gone back to reviewing SMW or OVW year by year. I love Cornette's incredible depth of knowledge when it comes to the history of Pro Wrestling, and I tend to agree with his opinion on the current product - but I could not possibly care any less about what he thinks of Donald Trump. It is on The Experience that he tends to devote a fair chunk of time ranting and raving about politics, so that is the show I tend to avoid. He and Brian Last appear to be trying to keep the Drive-Thru a history only, politics free zone, so that is the show I check out every Monday. Even when it's a bit bland because of the lack of good questions, it's still moderately entertaining - and as I said, for some reason this past week I found it really, really funny.

Jeff Jarrett has mentioned in a couple of interviews that Conrad has really been trying to persuade him to join Team Conrad and do a TNA themed show, but Jarrett didn't want to do it. I can't help but wonder if Jeff knew he'd be going to work for WWE and that there was no way he could do that podcast while working in WWE full time (for a variety of different reasons.) Conrad has also apparently been trying to find the right person who worked behind the scenes in ECW to do an ECW themed show with. Depending who his co-host would be, I'd be up for either of those shows, although logistically I don't know how he'd ever have time for it. He already runs his mortgage business, is married to Ric Flair's daughter so you'd have to assume he has a home life, plus the three existing podcasts and their additional hectic live show schedules, he runs those Starrcast conventions, and if rumor is to be believed, he's somehow involved in AEW behind the scenes.

If anybody here is looking for a good laugh and has some time to spare, I can't recommend this week's episode (#84) of Jim Cornette's Drive-Thru enough. Cornette and Brian Last are both in great moods, and the opening segment where they debate Brian "smartening up" his daughter to the fact that The Tooth Fairy is a work is worth the price of admission alone - not to mention the great questions and answers. This show can be hit and miss, but this week they are on point.

I agree, the Superbrawl series has been excellent. I was worried there wouldn't be much for them to talk about with SuperBrawl III, since I knew Eric Bischoff had just taken over as Executive Producer of Television around the time of that PPV, and that his position wasn't involved with creative (yet) so he wouldn't have much to say about a lot of behind the scenes stuff. Sure enough, Conrad did pitch him some questions that he just couldn't answer because he didn't know. However, there was plenty of meat on the bone in that episode. I loved getting his take on the fall of Bill Watts and I thought his opinion of a few of the matches on the show itself were refreshingly honest. His feelings about the RnR vs. Heavenly Bodies match were especially insightful, as well as his comments on Jim Cornette. If listening to this particular episode doesn't convince you that Eric Bischoff is being honestly introspective on his show, I don't know what to tell you. I have listened to a couple of recent episodes of STW recently, I listened to the Sid episode and the Gorilla Monsoon episode. They were both good episodes, but they really underscored to me how Bischoff is now doing Prichard's show better than Prichard. You can really tell how much Bischoff enjoys doing the show by how engaged he is. I especially enjoyed this week when he basically asked Conrad's permission to go "into the weeds" and get off topic in order to answer a question. One side note, having listened to 83 Weeks, WHW and STW I can't help but get the impression that Conrad considers Tony and Bruce friends, but that his relationship with Eric is really all business, and it's possible that Conrad might actually not even like Eric all that much on a personal level. Is this just me, or does anybody else get that vibe?

This is the thing now and forever though, right? Since Austin vs. McMahon, these guys have convinced themselves that a Main Event level storyline can't really be interesting to the fans or compelling, unless they are somehow involved. Remember the Main Event of Wrestlemania 2000? A Fatal 4 Way with The Rock, Triple H, The Big Show and Mick Foley for the WWF Championship wasn't good enough...there had to be a "McMahon in every corner!" I'm not a huge Mick Foley fan, but I found it interesting in his book The Hardcore Diaries when he talked about pitching stories and angles to Vince and the Creative Team, only to find that the sole focus of Vince and everybody else was the angle between Vince & Shane vs. Hunter & Shawn. Nothing else deserved attention, because come on...three McMahons in one angle! And when the roster was beat up and there was nobody to fight The Undertaker a few years ago, don't bother elevating somebody into that spot to make a new star...no! We need Shane back. Whenever anything starts to gain momentum or get popular, it's now pretty much a foregone conclusion that it's only a matter of time until a McMahon shows up to insert themselves. I honestly think these people have deluded themselves into thinking that is what the fans really want to see.

Yeah, a little bit of me died inside when I read that.

I've spent a lot of time around Senior Citizens, and discovered the hard way that statement isn't necessarily true.

Funny story... In the late Summer of 1999, the local "all sports" radio station in Toronto announced that Terry Funk was coming to town, and would be wrestling in his official Retirement Match! (Not to be confused with his retirement match in August of 1983 in Japan, or his retirement show in Amarillo Texas in September of 1997, or...) They made a big deal about Funk's history in Toronto, how he lost the NWA World's Heavyweight Championship to Harley Race in Toronto almost 22 years to the day earlier, etc. It was announced that Funk would be fighting Sabu, at a Strip Joint called Diamond's Cabaret. The show was called "Last Dance." Of course upon hearing this, I was there. So myself and my girlfriend at the time, along with some other friends headed off to the peeler joint to see Terry Funk fight Sabu. We had a great time - even when Sabu did one of his suicide dives after balancing off the top rope and almost killed everybody in our row. After the match, Terry got on the house microphone and made a touching speech about how he was too old to keep doing this, his body was wearing down and how he loved all his Canadian fans and was glad to be retiring in Toronto where he'd had so many famous matches. My girlfriend asked me if I was sad to see my favorite wrestler retire, especially in such a sad way - in a scummy strip joint in front of 300 people. I replied that no...I was pretty sure we'd be seeing Terry again, sooner rather than later. Sure enough, there I was watching WCW Nitro not five months later and there's Terry! That was the run that he had when this PPV (Souled Out 2000) took place. My girlfriend noticed Terry on TV and was a bit surprised to see him. She asked me how I knew he'd be back. I explained to her that Terry Funk retirements didn't tend to stick. For the record, yes you read that right...I took my girlfriend to a Terry Funk vs. Sabu match at a Strip Joint. In retrospect, this may explain why: a) She's not my girlfriend anymore and... b) I am currently single and seem to have difficulty maintaining successful long term relationships with women. He's retired multiple times since. Terry Funk wrestled as recently September 2017. He's about as good as staying retired as I am at staying in a relationship.