The Thread Killer

Is it too soon to tell if this lawsuit actually has any merit? The good thing about TNA was they were very leaky, so we knew all the sordid details about their problems as they happened. This story needs more of that.

I have a question. Is it a really slow news day for the IWC, or is this story a lot bigger than I think it is, and I'm missing something? Twitter is abuzz with all the latest back-and-forth about this story, and I don't see the big deal, really.

You can't really compare the two broadcast teams, due to the eras they were in. Look at Jerry Lawler as a traditional heel-biased color guy when he first came into the WWF, and then contrast his performance with a few years later, when all he seemed care about was "puppies." *shudders* Then for a while after the attitude era was over, he seemed to be sympathetic to the babyfaces, or at the very least didn't have any clear allegiances. We'll never know how JR and Lawler would have sounded calling WWF in the 80's, and thankfully we'll never have to hear Gorilla Monsoon calling something booked by Vince Russo.

I started my career working in prisons. The phrase "Who's your boy?" had a much, much different meaning there. And I second New Jack, but I would also not call him "my boy" for a couple of different reasons. The main one being I don't want to get stabbed in the head.

Yeah, it used to be a breeze to cross the Canada/US border, but after 9/11 it kept getting harder and harder. First they made it so you have to have a passport, which you never used to need. Now, they run your name and if you have a criminal record, they might arbitrarily decide not to allow you in. It doesn't matter if the charges are ancient or not violent in any way. I have a friend who has crossed with no problem several times, but once he got detained for 5 hours and turned back, due a couple of minor misdemeanors on his record from over 20 years ago. From the sounds of Jim Cornette's story, that is pretty much exactly what happened to him.

They should have brought it back as a pog. "Remember Starrcade? It's back...in pog form!"

This is devastating. He was a great manager, but I loved The Brain and Gorilla so much as a broadcast team too. One of my favorite memories of Bobby Heenan was such a goofy little nothing moment, but I'll never forget it. Heenan was doing color on a match, with Gorilla on play-by-play. (This was while Heenan was still managing the Heenan Family, before he moved to commentary full time.) Somebody (I forget who) was fighting a masked jobber named "The Gladiator." The Gladiator looked suspiciously like another regularly used enhancement talent by the name of Rick Hunter, and was not exactly an imposing figure. You never knew how The Brain would call these types of matches. It would depend what kind of mood Heenan was in. This time, he decided to try and add some drama and mystery to the proceedings. Bobby Heenan: "That could be a dangerous man there. We don't who that is under that mask. That could be anybody." Gorilla Monsoon (in a thoughtful voice): "That's true. That could be Haku." *incredulous pause* Bobby Heenan: "It's NOT Haku!" (King Haku was managed by Bobby Heenan at that time, of course.) I don't know why, but that kind of back-and-forth between the two of them used to crack me up to no end. From that day forth, whenever my friends and I saw a masked wrestler, we used to put on serious voices, nod thoughtfully, point at the wrestler in question and say to each other seriously: "That could be Haku." One of my favorite Bobby Heenan memories (of many) and just a small example of the fun and irreverent commentary both those guys used to provide. You could just tell that there was legitimate friendship and camaraderie between the two of them. They were having fun and we had fun listening to them. First we lost Gorilla and now Bobby Heenan, and the world is so much the worse off. On their best days, the guys who call wrestling now could never match that kind off-the-cuff, unrehearsed, goofy fun. That's what wrestling was and is supposed to be, as far as I am concerned. It has lost something from becoming so scripted, slick and over-produced. We will never see another team like Gorilla and The Brain. What a one-of-a-kind talent. RIP Bobby "The Brain" Heenan.

I'm just stoked that we're finally going to get to see Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens.

My sentiments exactly. Any old school JCP fans who might want to complain that WWE is reviving and then doing anything negative to the legacy or memory of Starrcade only need go back and watch Starrcade 1999. I can't think of anything WWE could do to Starrcade that Vince Russo didn't already do. To me, this has Triple H written all over it. He is a confessed mark for JCP era NWA. The fact that it is in Greensboro like the first four events were, and that Ricky Steamboat and the RnR Express will be there already shows me it is more of a tribute. I'd imagine that if he is healthy enough, a certain Nature Boy might be making an appearance as well.

I agree with everybody who is expressing the sentiment that Smackdown seems to have a weird rotating visibility/TV time policy. At one point, Mojo won the Battle Royal at Wrestlemania, and seemed to be heading for something bigger, then he kind of disappears. Bennett comes in, then all of the sudden he is inexplicably off TV for a few weeks. (Which I am not personally complaining about, but it is symptomatic of the larger issue.) Luke Harper and Erick Rowan both seemed to be getting some exposure, and then they vanish from TV. And I actually forgot Becky Lynch was on Smackdown for a bit there. I thought the same thing was happening with Gable and Ziggler, but now both are back on TV again. I don't know if the issue is that the writers can't find enough time for everybody in the two hours they have, or if they just don't like the people they aren't using, but the whole thing is weird to me.

You are right about that. I don't do this all that often, but I am admitting publicly that I was wrong about his podcast and I am officially reversing my position. Much to my surprise, I have to say that I have become a fan of this show, despite declaring earlier in this thread that I was giving up on it. I get terrible insomnia, and over the course of a couple of weeks, I have been amusing myself in the wee small hours by listening to the archives of this show. I found that after a while, I began to really enjoy the show. It boils down to a combination of two things...firstly I enjoy the topics, and secondly I have discovered that after a (admittedly prolonged) settling in period, I am enjoying the dynamic between Bruce and Conrad. Conrad still annoys me by asking questions about money all the time, when it couldn't be clearer that Bruce just won't discuss that. I still think about half of Bruce's imitations aren't anywhere near as good as he obviously thinks they are. And it still bugs me that Bruce tends to toe the WWF line all these years later. But even still, there is a lot more good than bad there, when you look for it. This show definitely requires a while to get used to and is an acquired taste, to be sure. The Macho Man episode was an interesting listen. I freely admit that I laughed more than a bit, at Bruce's story of ribbing Macho by moving his stuff around while he was in the shower. His imitation of Macho's reaction to people touching his towel had me laughing my ass off. I was also almost moved by his recounting of the discussion that Savage and Prichard had, where Savage used a line from the movie "Mr. Saturday Night" to describe Prichard. Bruce claims he has never forgotten it, and quoted it to his kids. "Yeah...but you could have been nicer." I am slowly starting to see that with age, Prichard has been able to look back at his career in the WWF and admit that he was an asshole to a lot of people. I think in a lot of ways he probably still is an asshole, as evidenced by the way he acts on the show. But the way he reacted to being given that feedback from Savage, and a bunch of other things he has said sprinkled throughout the episodes in the archive, makes me believe there might just be a pretty decent guy in there somewhere. I think he is clearly the kind of guy who isn't going to apologize for anything he has said or done in his life or career, but I am always a fan of somebody who shows that level of introspection and self awareness.

Finally caught the episode with Shane Helms and thought it was excellent. That guy is so damn funny, they need to make him a regular like Tommy. (Tommay. TommayTommayTommay.) Looking forward to catching up on the episode with Shelton Benjamin.

Yeah, I actually knew who he was when he showed up in the WWF. Back in the 80's there was a terrible wrestling show on TV every Saturday afternoon called All-Star Wrestling. I'll never forget it, it was SO bad. It was filmed in a TV studio in Vancouver in front of around 50 people. The ring was huge. It was run by a promoter named Al Tomko. The announcer sounded like a game show host. Man it was BAD. I first saw Tenta there. After I wrote this, I looked it up and found it on YouTube! Check out how skinny Quake is. It's from 1986. This clip is hysterical. EDIT: Found another one. With 16 year old Mauro Ranallo on color commentary.

Yeah I can't wait to listen to this week's episode. I'm on a stretch of 4 day 12 hour night shifts, so it will be a while before I can listen to it, probably Tuesday at the earliest. (I like to listen to the entire show in one sitting and I can't do that when I am basically working, coming home, sleeping, and going back to work.) As soon as I saw that Shane Helms was the guest I was IN. That guy is legitimately hilarious, I've never seen or heard a bad interview with him. He is an incredibly entertaining guy. He was a guest on Killing the Town a couple of weeks ago and that interview was great too. Really looking forward to this episode.

The weirdness with the Jarrett/GFW story continues. Apparently he updated his Twitter and Instagram profile talking about how he has new projects coming and is looking forward to things to come. He also posted a bunch of inspirational slogans about working hard, etc. Basically all giving the general impression that he is moving on to a new project or projects of some kind.

I have every show from the first few years of ROH on 1st Gen VHS in a big box in my closet, and then another huge box of DVD's from their next couple of years (some of them unopened.) I never watch them and likely never will. I should catalogue them and sell them on eBay, I might make a couple of bucks.

Ah yes, the brilliant Mr. Ed Nordholm. This is the business and legal genius who decided to release evidentiary documents via Twitter while he was in the middle of litigation and a potential settlement to end said litigation. First Dixie and now this yahoo. Where does TNA manage to find these people?

According to Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated... No idea if this story is true or not, but considering the history of this company, I wouldn't be surprised. It wouldn't be the first time that Anthem/The Fight Network made some weird business decisions that put them in financial jeopardy, I know that much. That company has been in serious financial peril before and has even teetered on the brink of collapse themselves.

This is unexpected and seems to be totally out of the blue. Just this morning he tweeted about all the stuff that was going to be happening in Global Force this month and how excited he is about it. Something strange seems to have come up out of left field all of the sudden?

Here's the problem with that. If you don't agree with him, you had three choices: 1 ) Say you don't agree with him, and explain why. 2 ) Decide that his opinion is so off-base that there is no point even arguing with him, and ignore the post OR 3 ) Make a rude, insulting and (most importantly) pointless comment that adds nothing to the discussion - other than making you look like a dick. Which means either you're not capable of forming a coherent argument against his point or... You're so thin-skinned that you can't let an opinion be expressed here that you don't agree with without adding your two cents or... You're just a dick. I've read your posts plenty of times. I don't always agree with you. I often don't. But there's no reason to be a dick about it and screw the thread up for everybody else. So disagree if you must. But please...don't be a dick.

Well that escalated quickly. Always great to see enlightened debate here on the ol' Pee Dub Oh. Yes, his insightful, reasoned, well thought out and eloquent rebuttal of your post really made me stop and consider his position. This is just like the Gore Vidal/William F. Buckley debates.

I've read this quote several times and I'm having a hard time figuring out who you're angry with. Internet fans for speculating on the "real reason" JBL is leaving? Internet fans for pointing out Taz is bitching about the fans? Taz for bitching about the fans?

Exactly. For the past who knows how long, the guy wrestled 3-4 times a year. Who cares if he wants to come back and wrestle in some sort of special attraction type match, or whatever. Your garden variety WWE fan would probably want to see it, just not the hardcore fans who care more about the quality of the in ring product.

And Nigel is replacing Graves on 205 Live and Main Event. Hmmm. So it that story is to be believed, JBL quit because they were pressuring him over making his own travel arrangements and not wanting to spend as much time on the road? Plausible. So this means RAW will be Cole, Graves and King Bookah, and SDL will be Phillips, Graves and Saxton? They're really going to be working Graves into the ground. Which from a selfish perspective is great, because he's excellent. I especially enjoy he and Phillips working together. I have no issue with Nigel working 205 Live because Graves was wasted there anyhow. Your #1 color guy shouldn't be on your C show.

Please expand. Although, as soon as this story broke I thought it smelled highly fishy. I wouldn't at all be surprised if this actually was a result of the Mauro Ranallo situation - like Vince asked for his resignation at the time but agreed to put it off for a couple of months so it didn't look like they were caving to pressure from the outside. At the very least, I don't think he's really quitting to devote more time to charity. I think he's quitting or being forced out for reasons we don't yet know. Just my opinion.