The Thread Killer

It all depends on who your cable provider is. I am a Bell customer, and have my television packaged in with my home phone and internet through their fiber optics service known as "Bell Fibe." It's a pretty good deal, but unfortunately I cannot access any of the WWE Network On Demand or Vault content through the website. You can apparently do that with some cable companies in Canada, but not with Bell. To answer sek, I pay $10.99 a month, and for that I get the "live stream" but as an actual television channel on my TV. It's listed right next to The Fight Network and all the other Sports Channels. Also, like Duke said, if I use the On Demand feature on my remote, I can access a very limited range of WWE Network content through my Bell On Demand service. They have some classic content and a limited range of some of their network exclusive shows and documentaries. They continually rotate the content on a weekly basis, so it all depends what week it is when you check out the listings. They have about 30 of the DVD documentaries listed, for example. The reason it is like that in Canada, is because in order to make money the WWE signed an exclusive deal with Rogers Cable in Ontario for a while, to give Rogers exclusive rights to offer the ongoing Network Stream as an actual cable channel, for a monthly fee. Other cable companies got in on the deal later when fans made a huge stink. (Rogers is not available in all areas, or some people like me are not going to sign up for Rogers just to get the Network, when I have all my other services bundled together with Bell, it makes no sense.) When Rogers and WWE made their stupid exclusive deal and screwed Canadian fans out of all of the On Demand content, a lot of fans went the VPN route and got the WWE network through back channels. It became such an issue that Rogers later ended up offering a limited amount of On Demand content in the manner I described above, to try and placate fans and keep them from cancelling or signing up through backdoor methods. I considered using a VPN and hooking my laptop up to my TV using an HDMI cable, that way I could watch the live stream on my TV and have the entire On Demand archive from the American WWE Network available at my fingertips, but so far I have not done it. Partially, it is due to laziness. Right now, I can get the live Network Stream as a TV channel just by turning on my TV. That means I get every PPV, NXT and every Network Exclusive show on TV, and some limited On Demand content at my fingertips. Also, the TV channel for us is the exact same as the live Network Stream for people who have it on their computers, but at least I can record and save events on my PVR. I already have my PVR set for the NXT show and Summerslam this weekend, for example. I still have a ton of content from the past couple of years saved on my PVR. It does irritate me that we don't get all the WWE Network content that Americans get, but as I said, if it gets to be a major issue I can easily get around it for the same amount of money - and having the network as an actual TV channel is pretty convenient.

Well, I'm sure that Scott Dawson getting injured a few weeks ago didn't help, considering that The Revival were scheduled to wrestle the Hardys at Summerslam. I agree. They came out of the series of matches with Cesaro and Sheamus okay, and were heading into the angle with The Revival which I thought had some promise, when Dawson got injured. That looks to have left their plans for the Hardys up in the air, and in the meantime I guess this deal with Miz, Axel and Dallas is their stop-gap solution.

Isn't this the third or fourth time this has been rumored or reported since his aborted comeback last summer? I'm getting to the point where I'll believe it when I see it. If it does happen, I hope for his sake it works out more like a Jinder Mahal comeback, rather than a Curt Hawkins.

Yes, I live in Toronto and I subscribe to The Fight Network as well. I originally subscribed for the same reasons you did, I think. They had the weekly Ring of Honor television show, they had AAA, CMLL, New Japan and TNA (not that I cared about that.) They had even announced plans to start airing Tommy Dreamer's House of Hardcore. On top of that, they had a lot of wrestling from the UK. The problem was that I discovered that the AAA and CMLL they were carrying was not current at all, I am not sure how far behind the shows were, but they were seriously out of date, and the announcers were horrible. On top of that, the NJPW show was also very far behind and it was not the show from AXS with JR and Barnett, it was basically a show with random matches featuring Mauro Ranallo on commentary, and I can't stand him, so that was not a big selling point for me. I don't know if they ever did show any HoH but if they did, I never saw it. Then their parent company, (Anthem) bought TNA and that really killed it for me. From that point, it seemed like 99% of the programming was "classic" TNA and current TNA/GFW stuff. They still show some other stuff here and there, but it seems like every time I check the listings it's TNA related programs. I decided I was going to cancel, but then they announced plans to show the G1 in the USA shows live, so I kept it. Big mistake. The first night was full of technical problems and the second night never ended up airing, they just showed a replay of the first night, without the technical problems. I tried watching that SMASH show since it is a Toronto based indie, but that show is horrible and I couldn't even get through the first episode. When I first ordered the channel, I did it because I am such a huge wrestling fan and I couldn't see myself passing up on all that content right in front of me for only a couple of bucks a month. But I have since come to realize that their content isn't really any good. Even more, the fact of the matter is that I have a full time job. I am currently following WWE, although many weeks I save it to my PVR and fast forward through the crap (which some weeks means most of the shows.) That's 3 hours of Raw, 2 hours of Smackdown, and 1 hour of NXT, so 6 hours of wrestling a week, just to keep up on WWE alone. I can't usually fit all that in, and then you add all the stuff on The Fight Network, I'd end up watching nothing but wrestling during my waking hours. The wrestling on TFN isn't really any good, and there are other non-wrestling related shows I follow, especially once September comes. I don't need or want The Fight Network anymore. If I was really inclined, I could watch ROH on one of their syndicated stations, and order New Japan World to see current up to date NJPW, not the old crap with bad commentary they have on TFN. But I can't do that, it sounds good in theory but it's just too much wrestling and I have to be judicious with my time when choosing what I am going to watch. But what really killed it for me was Anthem buying TNA and making TFN all TNA all the time, with a lot of old UFC thrown in for good measure. I am planning on dropping them from my subscriptions this month.

I've always wished there was a comp available featuring the best promos and matches of the Lawler/Dundee feud. I assumed it wasn't available commercially because of issues with the rights, and I never heard of anybody else putting one out.

And once again, you don't enjoy a dick spot. (because he's a heel... a dick... see what I did here ?) See, I'm not going to be a stingy reviewer like you. You're getting 4 1/2 stars for that joke.

I don't get that. This is one of my biggest pet peeves right now in all of wrestling. The End of Days involves Baron Corbin picking up his opponent, holding them on top of him, and then hurling himself backward so he lands back first on the mat as hard as he can, with the added bonus of his opponent's weight on top of him. He is essentially giving HIMSELF the Rock Bottom. HOW IS THAT A GOOD FINISHER? Also YES...bald guys who don't want to admit they're bald and grow the rest of their hair long, with a few last remaining strands on top? These people are meant to be laughed at behind their backs, not admired.

I agree, that headline is unfair. "Why has Randy Orton's entire career been so bad?" would be much more accurate.

Harts vs Killer Bees is the only thing close for me. Grimmas, I know you are from Toronto. Were you of the right age to have attended the Frank Tunney Memorial Tag Team tournament at Maple Leaf Gardens? I was there, and (as I recall, although this may be nostalgia, not an accurate reflection of quality) it was great. The Killer Bees won the tournament and got a shot at The Hart Foundation in the Main Event. For a long time, many of the matches were available on YouTube but sadly I don't think they are anymore. Anyhow, +1 for the Killer Bees vs. Harts love.

If I had a co worker say that to me I would have blasted him with a Stone Cold Stunner! If I ever lost it and attacked one of my coworkers, I always saw it being more along the lines of the time Mankind attacked Jim Ross after their interview. I'd give them the mandible claw, while making that loud screeching noise Mankind used to make. I could see myself snapping and doing that, and then afterwards sitting on the floor cross-legged, rocking back and forth while I waited for security to come and get me.

What?! Only a 1/4 star? Your ranking system is too tough. In the interest of full disclosure, when I responded to your post I had just worked a 12 hour night shift and hadn't eaten. It's entirely possible I was being snarky when I responded and could have done it a bit more diplomatically. The end result is, I have established that I don't care for Joey Ryan or his spot. I respect and understand that there are lots of people who do. We'll just have to agree to disagree on this issue. I agree with this sentiment. If nothing else, the issue gave me an entertaining diversion while on my break at work. So in that sense, I guess you could say Joey Ryan and his dick-spot entertained me.

I don't care if some people thought it was funny or not. This is completely different. Vince Russo booked illogical shit, offensive stuff and violence against women and effectively killed off whatever was left of WCW and prevented TNA from ever growing past of its status because of it. Joey Ryan is an indy comedy wrestler who does an absurd gag spot. Get over it people. And yeah proposing his girlfirend during a match is relevant to the whole character, because it was also a spot in the context of a pro-wrestling match, and quite a cool one at that. (and since we're playing a "morality game" here it seems, yeah, those Dynamite Kid matches were awesome, weren't they ? Of course, the man was/is a complete piece of shit, but that never was considered an embarrassament to pro-wrestling, that biz where Jimmy Snuka gets a hero tribute video) As far as making pro-wrestling look stupid ? Watching Ric Flair placing the hand of his opponent on his chest before taking the same damn bump for no other reason other than "pop the crowd" makes pro-wrestling look stupid to anyone willing to think about it for two second with an "out of the wrestling bubble" mind. Hulk Hogan is stupid as fuck (really, he looks like a giant jingoist clown injected with steroids doing bad pantonyme). The Undertaker zombi sit-up ? John Cena's Five Knuckle Shuffle ? The People's Elbow ? Kicking yourself hard in the face until you bleed or get concussions like Shibata used to do ? Jumping off the Cell through the announcers table ? Mr. Socko ? Guys in masks carefuly rolling around doing gymnastics and very obviously collaborating with each others ? Men in underwear slapping each others' chests with open hands ? Working "stiff" despite not actually being in a fight ? A fucking Irish-whip ? "Do you smeeeellllalalala what the Rock is cooking" ? Playing on xenophobic, homophobic, mysoginistic clichés ? Cutting your forehead with a razor to draw blood to pretend you were punched hard ? Actually punch a guy hard to draw blood to pretend you punched a guy hard ? A fat man sith a G-string sitting on another guy's face ? Giant Baba's chops ? Guys catching other guys doing jumps and flips over the top rope instead of moving ? For fuck's sake. Pro-fucking-wrestling. It's a gag. With a dick spot hulking up. It's funny because it's absurd. And harmless. Get over it. (I probably spent more time today talking about Joey Ryan than I actually ever did watching Joey Ryan's stuff. And by stuff and don't mean anything specific.) Damn, you seem outraged over this. The outrage and vapors are quite funny. And ridiculous. Mostly ridiculous.

Holy crap, you literally couldn't be more wrong. Talk about your sweeping generalizations. Firstly, just because somebody doesn't like Joey Ryan and his dick routine doesn't mean they dislike ALL comedy wrestling. That would be like me saying to you that if you don't like Louie CK, you don't like standup comedy, or if you don't like Judd Apatow, you don't like comedy movies. I love comedy and I am not opposed to comedy in Pro Wrestling - when it is done properly. Chris Jericho is pretty much the epitome of a guy who mastered the art of comedic wrestling while at the same time being able to balance the serious aspects of the business and still get his character across. To a lesser extent, ditto for Edge and Christian. Secondly, I have been called a lot of things in my time and accused of a lot of character flaws, but I have literally never been accused of being self-serious or taking things too seriously. In fact, I've been criticized for the exact opposite. You are making a massive leap in "logic" and are being incredibly presumptuous by assuming that just because somebody isn't amused by Joey Ryan, they take themselves too seriously or have no sense of humor. I could just as easily turn around and accuse you of having no taste in comedy for liking him. I could ask why you don't have more respect for the tradition of professional wrestling, and why you would support something that makes it look foolish. I liked Enzo & Cass. I liked The Wyatt Family. I like Gallows and Anderson. (They're a couple of good brothers.) But I know a lot of people around here do not share these opinions, and in my 34 years as a wrestling fan I have learned that just because something is popular, that doesn't mean it's good. By the same token just because something is unpopular, that doesn't make it bad. I don't like Joey Ryan one little bit, but if you enjoy that sort of thing - knock yourself out. But the fact that I don't like him doesn't mean I have some sort of perceptive problem or personality flaw. You know the last time I was embarrassed about being a wrestling fan? When my co-worker asked me if I liked "the dick guy." I had to try and patiently explain that he was not a typical Pro Wrestler, that most of them are legitimate athletes, and that when it is done well, Pro Wrestling can have all the intrigue of a well written movie or television show, or all the athleticism of a legitimate sporting event or athletic contest. I have no issue telling people I am a fan. After all these years, it's pretty hard to hide. I just don't like having to try and excuse or explain stupid shit. I felt the exact same way then Mae Young gave birth to a hand, or when the world was introduced to Katie Vick. Not moments where I WAS proud to be a fan.

What does proposing to his girlfriend have to do with anything? Aside from his girlfriend - and you apparently - who gives a shit about that? I'm sure he loves his mommy, and thinks kitties and puppies are cute, and he cried at the end of Toy Story 3, too. Equally irrelevant. Joey Ryan makes a living pretending he has a super-powered penis, I don't think that exactly qualifies him for Man of the Year. As far as the bigger picture goes, I'm not "outraged." I don't like him. But I freely admit, his super-dick routine is intended to be a joke. Okay fine, Joey Ryan is comedy wrestler. Be careful what you wish for, Joey. As I said, I strongly suspect that when all is said and done, he is going to go down in the annals of wrestling history as a guy who achieved a brief period of fame and notoriety for doing a comedy spot based around his penis. Maybe that is why he got into the business. If so, mission accomplished. Mind you, if we apply your logic...most of the stupid crap Vince Russo booked in WCW and TNA, now that I think about it, I'm sure there were plenty of people who found that stuff funny, right? And Vince Russo made a living doing what he loved, got over, got fans, didn't hurt anyone doing it, and he's been married to the same woman for something like 27 years! That sounds like all good and fun to me. Except... I don't like stuff that makes Pro Wrestling look stupid. I don't like being embarrassed for being a fan of Pro Wrestling. You can quite easily trot out about a million examples of things that have been done since the first day Ed "The Strangler" Lewis pulled on a pair of wrestling boots that were stupid, insulting to the intelligence and embarrassing. You can even argue that by it's very nature, Pro Wrestling IS stupid and embarrassing. That's not the kind of Pro Wrestling I like. I liked Dynamite Kid vs. Tiger Mask. I liked Flair vs. Steamboat. I liked Misawa vs. Kawada. There were very few penis spots in those matches, that I remember. Of course, I also laughed at Edge and Christian playing Triple H's theme song on a kazoo. I laughed at Kurt Angle driving a scooter while wearing an enormous helmet, trying to show the Undertaker that he too was a badass biker. I laughed at the List of Jericho. But I wasn't embarrassed by any of those things, and people who weren't fans could look at those things at see that they were making fun of characters and situations, not making a big joke out of Pro Wrestling itself.

I'm sure if Joey Ryan was offered an NXT deal he'd turn it down on principle, out of an unwillingness to compromise his art. The one thing I enjoy about this is that he's forever going to go down in history as the guy who wrestled using his penis as a weapon and aside from that, accomplished...dick all.

Exactly. I don't think Joey Ryan is going to be the end of the wrestling business as we know it, but I also don't think he's just a harmless guy doing a comedy spot, either. It's hard enough being a wrestling fan and admitting it to people. 99% of people who aren't fans feel the need to break it to you gently that it's fake. I actually had one coworker of mine once say: "I can't believe you're a wrestling fan, I thought you were intelligent." I had another question the validity of my University Degree, assuming that anybody who watches wrestling can't possibly have a post-secondary education. When that stupid video of Joey Ryan went viral, and ended up on the news and all the stupid late night talk shows, I actually had people ask me: "Hey Dave, you're a wrestling fan...are you a fan of the guy who beats people up with his dick?" Joey Ryan is a mediocre talent at best, who was never going to make it big based on his skill level. He did something stupid to get attention, it worked better than he ever could have possibly hoped, and now he's milking it for all it's worth, regardless of how stupid it makes pro wrestling or pro wrestling fans look as a whole. To paraphrase The Iron Sheik: Fuck The Joey Ryan.

Well, if you can't trust rovert as an unimpeachable news source, then who can you trust.

I saw the extended promo for Simon Gotch's just released RF Video Shoot Interview, and there are clips of him just burying the hell out of Enzo, and giving examples of why he is so hated. One of the most interesting examples is Enzo claiming to be a protege of Dusty Rhodes, while knowing next to nothing about Dusty's career. I'd rather die a painful death than put one dollar in Rob Feinstein's pocket, so I shall not see the interview, but it looks quite interesting.

Did anybody hear the "Paul Heyman in the WWE" episode? I swore I wasn't going to listen to this show anymore, but the fact that the topic was Paul Heyman's time in WWE combined with a killer case of insomnia caused me to go back. It wasn't a terrible episode, I listened to the whole thing, but a few things really jumped out at me. Firstly, despite his claims that he and Heyman are friends, or friendly at least, it's blatantly obvious that Prichard is crazy jealous of Heyman's reputation. (The good parts of Heyman's reputation.) He goes to great length to try and take away any credit Heyman got while he was the Head Writer of Smackdown. He goes so far as to basically say that the title of Head Writer was just a figurehead title, and that both shows were written by the entire creative team, so whatever credit Heyman gets for his time writing Smackdown, the entire creative team should get. He claims he had never heard of the "Smackdown Six" which may be true. Basically Prichard pretty much refuses to give Heyman any credit for the success Smackdown had while Heyman was the Head Writer. Refreshingly, Prichard openly admits that Smackdown was always the "B Show" and was always seen as the "B Show." We all know it's true, but it was nice to hear him talk about it as if there was never really any doubt. Prichard takes great joy in bringing up some stories of when Heyman was wrong about characters or pushes. Specifically, he claims that Heyman lobbied long and hard against Cena getting the "White Rapper" gimmick, claiming it would kill his career and haunt him until the end of his days. He also claims that Heyman loudly opposed Eddie Guerrero being given the World Title, claiming it would never work and that Eddie was only over with the Latin audience. Prichard also claims that Heyman buried and did not support any ECW "original" talents being given pushes in WWE, aside from RVD. For example, he opposed them hiring Sandman, claiming Sandman is an alcoholic. Somebody really needs to get Prichard to do all of his imitations, and then compile a list of which ones are good, and which ones aren't. He should then be forbidden to do the bad ones. For example, his Vince McMahon and Johnny Ace? Great. His Jim Cornette, his Pat Patterson and most specifically his Paul Heyman imitations are AWFUL. And unfortunately, this episode was packed with his Heyman imitation for obvious reasons...and it sounded NOTHING like Heyman to me. Also, we need to pass a rule where Conrad needs to stop asking Prichard questions about how much money guys made. Prichard never knows, and when he does know he refuses to say, but Conrad keeps asking. This podcast is a year old. When is Conrad going to figure out that Prichard won't talk money? I don't want to give the impression that this episode was without good parts. There was good in here. For one thing, I have heard from a variety of people that Heyman's greatest flaw was that when he thought he was right about something he just wouldn't let it drop, and would keep pushing the issue until everybody wanted to kill him. (Actually I think Stephanie talks about that on the Paul Heyman DVD.) Prichard confirms that here, and provides some other insights too. Some parts were odd...like Prichard insisting that Heyman was never really interested in purchasing Strike Force when it was for sale, because how could he purchase it since he had gone bankrupt? Heyman has been pretty clear that he was part of a consortium that was looking to buy Strike Force, not that he was going to buy it out of his own pocket. But like I said...to me it became pretty clear that Prichard doesn't mind Heyman as a human being, but is really unhappy that Heyman has a reputation in the wrestling industry as a creative genius. He trots out the old Heyman talking point that his greatest strength is showcasing a talent's strength and hiding their weakness...but he also claims that Heyman used Meltzer and the internet to pump up his reputation. I really got the feeling that Prichard thinks that he himself should have a reputation like Heyman, or something.

Well, it's pretty much confirmed now that Meltzer got at least half this story right. We may never know if Big Cass is a vocal Trump supporter, but the reports of Enzo having major heat backstage and getting booted off a tour bus have been confirmed by no less than JBL and Corey Graves on Bring it to the Table. They also confirmed that Enzo has some major heat on him in general. Sports Illustrated (which is all of the sudden breaking and reporting some stories with a degree of accuracy) reports that the heat on Enzo is apparently due to his being generally unlikable backstage. Corey Graves claimed that Enzo's backstage personality isn't all that different than his on-screen persona, and if that's the case, he must be as annoying as shit. Other claims are that he is partying like a madman. I don't know if anybody here has heard the stories about him going to a strip club in Buffalo all drunk and acting like a jerk to the dancers, one of whom posted about it on Facebook and the stories took off from there. Apparently that story got him some heat as well. Other claims are that he is concentrating too much on projects outside WWE, including music(?!) The main thing that has him heat right now is that he apparently brought some of his party friends backstage and these people were generally unwelcome and taking pictures to boot, which is a major no-no. I'm just a fan and even I can figure out that bringing strangers backstage and letting them take pictures is a really dumb idea. Like a lot of people speculated, apparently parts of Cass's promos during their split were supposed shoots, about how nobody liked Enzo and how Cass was getting sick of defending him and sticking up for him. My question was (and still is) that if he has so much heat backstage and is on the verge of being released, why WWE would let Enzo cut so many promos during the breakup with Cass (which have only helped him) and why they have featured him so heavily on Raw recently. Wasn't he in the closing segment last week? That doesn't seem like a guy who has heat and is getting buried. If they are going to release him for being such a doofus, they should probably just get on with it, unless they are planning on writing him out with a major injury angle or something, at the hands of Cass. The other possibility is that WWE is experimenting with working the fans and so-called IWC by perpetuating these stories on platforms like Bring it to the Table, when they aren't really true. Maybe he doesn't have heat and this is all a work, bro.

Man, if it wasn't for bad luck The Revival would have no luck at all. I think Raw and Smackdown are both in Toronto this week. I wonder how the crowds will be, Toronto crowds are notoriously weird when it comes to who they boo and cheer.

This is really sad. I have read conflicting reports about the cause of the injury. The first report I read about this injury said it was from a DDT spot gone wrong. Turns out no, the injury was the result of a sunset flip, during a match for DDT. I also read that this has caused a big financial burden on his family, which just adds further misery to an already tragic situation. I thought Japan had socialized medicine like we do in Canada, but maybe not? It's bad enough this happened to the poor guy, but for his family to be crushed with the weight of mounting medical bills on top of the accident, makes an already sad situation that much worse. Terrible news.

I guess I got off "lucky." My ex-wife never slapped me, hit me or threw anything at me. She cost me my home and business, bankrupted me, embittered me and disillusioned me toward the entire concept of romantic love forever, sure. But she never hit me.

I should mention that the reason I assume that this is not a standard case of domestic abuse, is that there is ample evidence that Paige poured a drink over Alberto's head, in public. In all of the cases I have ever read about, heard about or seen of spousal abuse, I have never known the victim to provoke the abuser like that. Never, ever. That is one of the things that makes domestic abuse so horrifying - that the abuser usually attacks the victim for no reason whatsoever, except for some perceived slight that only exists in the abuser's mind, which gives them some perverse justification. That is what makes me think they are involved in a co-dependent, mutually destructive relationship. It doesn't make what is happening with Paige any less tragic, it only makes it a different type of abusive dynamic. (And before anybody jumps down my throat, NO...I don't think if Paige dumped a drink over Alberto's head she "deserves" to be assaulted, either. I'm simply saying that in my experience most domestic abuse victims would never dream of doing anything like that, and would be terrified to do so.) The other thing I should have mentioned is, that for what it's worth, if I think Paige should be released by WWE then of course Alberto El Patron should be released by GFW. That goes without saying. I have no confidence it will happen, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I think that GFW is more concerned with having any ex-WWE wrestler with name recognition on their roster than they are with doing the right thing. Secondly, from what I understand Jeff Jarrett is in charge of making those types of decisions and I think Jeff Jarrett is the world's biggest Idiot Savant, minus the Savant part.