The Thread Killer

Opinions please... Is it just me, or was the Banks/Bliss match at Great Balls of Fire better than this one? This one doesn't seem as good to me, although that might just seem that way to me because there really hasn't been a good match yet on this show yet, and we're 90 minutes in.

What the hell was that? We didn't even get a patented Randy Orton rear chinlock spot! I feel ripped off. But on second thought, I can see why they made the call to cut that match short. There just isn't enough time on this show.

Damn, trying to watch this match with Enzo dancing and shouting from above the ring is annoying. Not that it would be all that great anyhow, but still.

You guys are right. This crowd is dying and they were HOT during the New Day/Usos match. Something cooled them off.

To me, Corbin's whole schtick seems to consist of: Execute a basic maneuver, effectively but slowly and unspectacularly. Wander around the ring, mug to the crowd and shout at them a bit. Repeat. Like I said, plodding. And I have no proof that Cena ever did hold anybody down, but it has been speculated that he did. Edge and Jericho flat out said on a podcast that he campaigned to squash the Nexus. But whatever, maybe he did, maybe he didn't. But if he is going to do that to somebody, it may as well be Corbin, as far as I'm concerned. For a scary moment there, I was worried that Cena was going to put Corbin over before he left for Hollywood to make Transformers movies. I just honestly don't think that Corbin deserves that kind of rub. I don't think he's good enough. Maybe he will be someday. But not today.

That match was not so good. To me, the word best used to describe Baron Corbin is: plodding. As in "slow-moving, unexciting...lacking in imagination or intelligence." There have been those who have said that Cena has held down younger up and coming talent like Wade Barret or Alex Riley. This is the one case where if it's true, I am totally fine with it.

YES YES YES!!! Outstanding match, which obviously had no place on the damn pre-show. This whole Usos/New Day feud has been GOLD, I tell you. Gold, Jerry. Gold! As much as I rag on WWE, to me there is no doubt that their Tag Team match style is SO much better than the stupid New Japan/ROH Tag Match style. Good, solid action without all the stupid multi-team spotfests. That was outstanding, I got totally caught up in that match.

Man, either I was late to the party when it comes to appreciating the Usos, or they have really improved. Since their heel turn they are rapidly becoming my favorite team. Also, I don't like New Day, but I am a big fan of Big E's cloak. And Xavier Woods is excellent at selling, in my opinion.

You're right. I'm not even saying Tozawa doesn't deserve the recognition and a title reign, but to me the deal with Titus as his manager was overshadowing him. The announcers spent more time talking about Titus Worldwide than they did about Tozawa. I just don't know if now was the right time to end Neville's reign, and I don't know if the division could sustain a prolonged Tozawa reign...right now. I can see it eventually, absolutely. I suppose it would have opened up some new challengers and title matches, but to me Neville is the division right now. You are absolutely right, I don't see how the way this was handled helped anybody, to be honest. Yeah, I figured we were heading for Miz vs. Jordan too...but that win in the six man looked pretty decisive. Weird.

The only person it looks bad on is Jordan. Hardys are permanently over and Miz just needs one good segment on Raw to get himself back. Do you think this is part of a larger angle where Jordan gets a shot at Miz, or is he on to a new contender?

I don't disagree with you there, sir. The whole angle seemed poorly thought out, in my opinion. I was against them ending Neville's reign since (to me) the way he held that title made it seem like something. Now the continuity of the length of his uninterrupted reign is gone. I was against them moving it for essentially no reason. The last thing that division needs is for their title to become like the US title.

I respectfully disagree. I love Neville with that title. He carries the entire division on his back, I don't think Tozawa can do that. Especially with this deal with Titus as his manager, to me that just comes across as odd. They do need to get some new blood up from NXT to challenge Neville, though. Also, how do the Hardys and Miz feel knowing they went on before the Cruiserweights? Not a sign your career is on the proper trajectory.

I found out what happened. About a month ago, Bell updated their service so that all of the content available through the Fibe TV package can now be accessed online on your laptop, tablet, phone, whatever. So essentially, as a Fibe subscriber I can watch TV on any device now. Not only did the WWE Network fall under that umbrella, but so did all of the On Demand content covered by Fibe. Bell did send an email out telling me that all Fibe content can be accessed on any device, but they didn't mention that meant that WWE Network subscribers could now have full access to the entire network. I guess I could have inferred that, but I didn't and I still think it would have been nice if they would have specifically mentioned it. Especially since so many fans have complained about not having access to the complete network. Ah well, I only missed about a month, and all is well that ends well. I am thankful for this thread, though! Otherwise I might have never figured it out.

You can tell that the commentary on the pre-show isn't being heavily produced. It's noticeably different.

Yeah, that was sad. It looked like a poorly attended indie show. If you have a two hour pre-show, you probably shouldn't throw one of the pre-show matches out there in the first hour. Sad to see the Hardys and the Intercontinental Champion reduced to that. It's a four hour damn show, you'd have thought they could have found some room for them somewhere. HEY...with The Revival being on the shelf again, should we expect to see The Authors of Pain called up soon to take their place in a feud with the Hardys? (Who have been awoken, apparently.)

Oh by the way, last night's NXT show was awesome and I loved it. Every match was good. I'd write more, but I'm exhausted from hating Mauro Ranallo so much. I need to go lie down.

I hate that Mauro gives away every nearfall like the kick-out of the Eclipse by Asuka by shouting stuff like "we have a new champion" before or during the pinfall attempt. Though that is less his fault and more the general way how WWE announcing is done. Last night made me hate Mauro Ranallo more than I already hated him. I hate his stupid booming deep voice and I hate his stupid shouty announcing style. I hate him using a bunch of Hip Hop references on the show last night, like "if you don't know, now you know" or talking about Tupac. Hey Mauro, you're a pudgy middle aged white guy with a bad haircut, not an MTV VJ from the 90's. Stop trying to be cool. I hate him for trying to shoehorn stupid rhyming schemes into his commentary, seeing how many words in a row he can use that start with the same letter, pretending he's goddamn Howard Cosell. Stop trying to get yourself over and just call the fucking match. Like Robert says, I hate the way he gives away nearfalls by hysterically proclaiming the match is over when we all know it isn't. Stop trying imitate Vince McMahon when he did play-by-play. I hate him trying to beat everybody over the head with how much he knows about Pro Wrestling, by trying to cram in as many references to other organizations and other wrestlers from the past, with his stupid "SHADES OF..." calls. Stop trying to impress the voters for the Observer awards. I hate him so much now, I'm starting to feel sympathy for poor JBL, who was picked on and victimized by all the cruel and heartless Ranallo fans. All JBL ever tried to do was help Mauro be a better announcer, and for that he became a victim of cyber-bullying and a ruthless online smear campaign. Every one of you who participated in the unwarranted character assassination on JBL should be ashamed of yourselves. I hate Mauro Ranallo and I hate that he's the voice of NXT. Hate hate hate hate hate.

Really? When I go to login on the website it shows Bell as one of the providers you can sign in with. After you sign in with your WWE.COM login, it takes you to a page with the logos of a bunch of different TV providers, and it looks to me like Bell is one of the ones listed. When I click on Bell it takes me to a different page that asks you to login with you MyBell login and password. Maybe try that? *checks* ... WHAT THE SHIT?! When the @#$%&*?!? did THIS happen? When they added the On Demand feature to the Bell package last March, the standard U.S. version Network was still not available, because I checked then. I even emailed WWE and asked them when and if the standard network would ever be available to Canadians, and I never got a response. Hell, the wikipedia entry on the WWE Network in Canada even still says... I even checked again about 6 weeks ago, and saw that they were offering the Network online to some subscribers, but not Bell Canada and not Fibe. Sometime since the last time I checked, they obviously added Fibe to the list of providers who can now offer the Network...and NEVER BOTHERED TO TELL THE SUBSCRIBERS. I don't know if I should be angry that I can get the Network now and never even knew thanks to Bell and WWE not telling me - or happy that I can FINALLY get all the On Demand content everybody else can, PLUS I get the Network Stream as an independent TV channel! Mr. Duke, you are now my official favorite poster at PWO. Thanks for pointing that out. I know what I am going to be wasting my time doing over the next couple of weeks! I can't believe this.

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.