The Thread Killer

What?! Two giant, sweaty, fat, smelly dudes? At a Ring of Honor show? Well now I know you're lying. That hardly seems possible. Next thing you'll be claiming they had neckbeards or something.

Oh man, you got to see that live? Who cares how many "stars" that match got, that must have an been incredible, once in a lifetime experience. One of my favorite stories about that match is from an interview Joe gave afterward. Joe said that Kobashi was convinced the American fans either wouldn't know who he was, or would boo him and expect a stereotypical Japanese heel - sneak attacking and throwing salt at people, stuff like that. I remember Joe saying he had to keep reassuring Kobashi that the ROH fans wouldn't do that, and they'd know who he was. Kobashi was reportedly blown away at the reception he got.

You have to admit, beating up Big Bird is a good way to get heel heat. Except with me, I never liked that damn creepy bird. I was more of an Oscar the Grouch mark. He was like the ECW style of Sesame Street.

Exactly. Of all the many things I hate about Mauro Ranallo, that is one of the things I hate the most. I'll never forget at one of the NXT shows in New York he tried to quote Biggie and said "If you don't know, now you know." WTF? And there was the line he used on this show that I already quoted, about Velveteen Dream dropping elbows like DJ's drop needles. I don't even understand what he's trying to do when he says stuff like that. He can't possibly think he comes across as contemporary with an urban, hip hop vibe or something...can he? Is he trying to be ironic and funny? Like he knows that a pudgy middle aged white guy wearing horn-rimmed glasses and wearing a suit saying stuff like that sounds ridiculous? Whatever it is, it's just so damn annoying. I am not a violent person by nature, but after watching an NXT show I find myself fantasizing about punching Mauro Ranallo in the mouth as hard as I possibly can. Mama Mia.

I could not possibly agree more with all of you more. You hit the proverbial nail on it's proverbial head. This is why I find the fact that WWE has a so-called "creative team" with a staff of writers to be almost unbelievable. There is little evidence of creativity and I don't know what those writers are doing. You could get somebody to take a first year Creative Writing class and come up with better stories. I think these WWE "writers" are so busy trying to put words into the mouths of these guys that they've stopped even worrying about the motivation behind the words. To me, this is why Bray Wyatt has failed as a character. Remember when he first came up to the main roster, on the back of that series of outstanding vignettes? He was full of potential, which has been largely wasted and gone untapped. Wyatt was never going to become popular on the basis of his in-ring work, like an AJ Styles or a Daniel Bryan. He was going to have to capture the imagination of the fans based on his character. And the WWE writers have totally failed him, by failing to come up with even remotely compelling stories to involve his character in. It doesn't matter how intriguing his character is, if you can't follow up on that and give him something compelling to do. The Bray Wyatt/Finn Balor "feud" is a perfect example of everything that is wrong with WWE creative. They had a prolonged rivalry which spanned several Pay Per View events and weekly television shows, and even the announcers were unable to explain the reasons behind the rivalry. I will never forget Michael Cole saying during one of their matches that Finn Balor had "taken great issue" with Bray Wyatt. For some reason, Corey Graves asked why...and Cole actually responded: "I don't know...you'll have to ask him." I was shocked, I almost died laughing at the utter incompetence. This is a major, prolonged feud which had been going on for some time...which the announcers couldn't even explain. Total lack of competent writing. It's really quite pathetic. If WWE didn't have such great athletes and put on good matches, they'd never survive as "entertainment" because they sure as hell aren't storytellers anymore.

Oooh, "Wish You Were Here." Good choice, brother.

Maybe Renee is just depressed because she woke up one morning and discovered that she's married to Dean Ambrose. That would be enough to send most sane women into an emotional and mental tailspin from which they might never recover.

I would have thought that until I saw his 857 matches with Kevin Owens. AJ might be the best in the world, but he has to have something to work with.

I found that part of the documentary fascinating too, and I totally believe that about Vince McMahon. Bruce Prichard talked about that exact thing on one of his podcasts, how Vince has the ability to basically banish somebody from his mind once they have had a falling out. With Prichard it was discussed in the context of the Hebner brothers, but also as it pertained to Bruce himself. Vince can apparently legitimately love you, but once you have a falling out that can't be fixed, you're basically "dead to him" and he doesn't speak of you again - and apparently he does a pretty good job of banishing you from his thoughts. It seemed pretty clear to me that Vince and Andre didn't end on good terms so Vince tries to not even think about it. I once knew somebody who could do the same thing, and it's a scary personality trait, to be honest. I'm sure it comes in handy for Vince as a businessman, but still. I'm not sure how mentally healthy that is. You have to think at some point, feelings of sadness and regret are going to catch up to you, whether you want them to or not.

I'm confused about all these stories going around. First we assumed Brock was leaving and Roman was winning. Then Brock wins, and we hear Brock is staying and there are even rumors Vince is finally souring on Roman. Now the hot new rumor is that Brock really is leaving, and the story that he isn't is just a "work?" On top of that, you get these rumors that Brock threw the belt at Vince and Shane after his match, rumors that Vince changed the finish either right before the fight or if you believe some people, during the fight. Stories that the Anoa'i family are super-pissed at Vince (again.) There are rumors Vince is doing this because rich Saudis are paying him a ton of money for a title change on April 27. Now some people are saying Roman's promo on Raw last night was a "worked shoot." I wish I knew how much of this was true and how much is a strange attempt at some new kind of Russo-esque working the boys/media/fans deal. Anybody have any theories on which parts of these stories are actually true?

When I first started posting on one of the boards that indirectly spawned this one (The Rantsylvania Delphi forum) way back in 1999, I used the posting name DiamondDave2000. I posted for a few weeks, and I noticed that more often than not when I posted, nobody would respond and even worse, my post would be the last one in the thread and the thread would just die. I felt like not only did people not want to respond to my posts, but when I tried to contribute to a conversation I'd end up killing the whole conversation. That was why I changed my posting name to The Thread Killer and I've used it ever since. Ironically after I did that, people stopped ignoring my posts (for the most part) or even if they didn't, my posts wouldn't end up being the last one in the thread - the conversation would continue around me, at least. C.S. actually gave you the exact same advice I was going to. I don't think you should discount the effect an avatar or signature has on your profile. There are a number of posters here who don't have an avatar and they have what I consider similar or unremarkable posting names so it's easy to kind of unintentionally pass over their posts. When I go into a thread and scan it, I will usually look to see if people I know are involved in the conversation. Whenever I see the Mankind avatar I know C.S. is there, so I'll consciously make an effort to read it. Same with guys like Loss, Mad Dog, KawadaSmile, Ricky Jackson, TG, FMKK, Matt D and a bunch of others. I respect the opinions of those guys, but they also have very catchy avatars, so when they post it catches my eye and I make an effort to check out what they said. Even the guys who I don't agree with sometimes (like El-P for example) can come across as nice people who I will make an effort to follow, when I see they have posted. (Conversely, there are a couple who I make an effort to avoid, but we won't get into that.) Another good way to engage in conversation is start your own threads and solicit opinions of the other members. You might find common interests with other members or areas for debate and discussions will grow out of that. The important thing is (for the most part) this is a community. I have found that the majority of the posters here are pretty decent people. You get the odd one who is trolling for attention or sadly trying to work some sort of lame contrarian messageboard heel gimmick by being needlessly rude or disagreeing with everything (which is more sad than anything) but you're always going to get people like that. At least here, those people are in the minority and the mods are pretty good at weeding them out. I understand where you are coming from, Slasher. Don't give up on posting here. PWO needs all the good members it can get, to offset people like me.

Here's his Facebook Live chat from tonight, where he discusses the new show...

Good lord, Coachman is awful. "The Greatest Royal Rumble is going to be the best card since...Wrestlemania yesterday!"

Kid Rock wasn't there because he had other commitments and was never scheduled to be there to begin with. The whole rumor about him being told not to come because of the joke he made at the HOF about "body-slamming Democrats" is just Twitter B.S. that spread last night. I don't even like Kid Rock as a musician, nor do I agree with the way he expresses his "political views" but that rumor was just goofy. It's not like WWE didn't know who they were getting when they inducted him into the HOF.

What makes me think it might be a work is that with all due respect...Brock looked a little winded tonight. Like not in as good shape as he has been in previous matches. And you'd have to think if he really is training for a full time return to the UFC, he'd be in much better condition. He looked really sweaty and seemed to be huffing and puffing quite early into the match. In that kind of condition, I don't know how he could realistically expect to compete in the UFC. Unless he's going to train hardcore for six months before his first fight back, or something. But in my humble opinion, he didn't look so hot. Maybe I'm wrong, IDK.

They say that kid is the son of one of the referees. I liked the other explanation I just saw on Twitter: "What if Nicholas is Braun from the past?"

Did you even watch the show? Because if not, please help yourself to a nice hot cup of shut the fuck up. so im not allowed to have my view now wwe mark i guess No, you're not allowed to have an opinion. So do what I told you to do. Stop clogging up every thread with your stupid martyr act.

Well, that main event sucked. I like Roman but whatever it takes to drag Brock to a decent match, he doesn't have. I'm taking my dogs out, I need some air. Too damn long, too damn long.

"The most prestigious title in Sports Entertainment...except for...you know, our other most prestigious title in Sports Entertainment."

I'm not one of the international fans who is staying up all night to see this...I'm on Eastern Standard Time...and even I am having a hard time staying focused for this. Great show for the most part, but too damn long.

When Nia saw Alexis and Mickie talking shit about her, they should have made it because she saw it on GTV.

Hell, if Shane really does have a hernia and he did just get over a case of diverticulitis then he deserves all the credit in the world for getting in there. Uh oh, there's the attendance announcement. Somebody call Bix! Oh wait, he'll wait 30 years before he makes a big deal out of it. Never mind.

Honestly, aside from the obligatory WWE stretcher job, that tag match really wasn't all that bad, in my opinion.

Well, Owens is really good at...shouting.

The way he's looked the last year or so, I'm always worried Shane McMahon is going to have a heart attack on live TV.