The Thread Killer

SHADES OF SATORU SAYAMA!!!

The more that comes out about Mauro, the more I tend to agree with that. Although still, there is no justification for JBL bullying anybody, even if it turns out Mauro is a total jerkwad. It does make him less sympathetic, though. Having said that, I'm for anything that exposes and potentially changes the stupid old school hazing culture.

I don't disagree with you regarding Dave, if there is more he can say about the situation, even if it is his opinion, he should just be out with it. There is nothing more annoying than cryptic remarks from a reporter. If he knows more, he should say it, or not bother alluding to it at all. I hate the whole "I know a lot more about this...but I can't or won't tell you" shtick. I would imagine JBL isn't saying more because he either wants to keep his head low, or maybe he has even been told not to comment. In Mauro's case, he might not be at liberty to discuss the situation until his contract expires in August?

I hope it's The Headbangers or The Spirit Squad again.

There are a couple of classic Bas Rutten stories out there, one about him almost punching out Brian Urlacher, another about him knocking out a bunch of bouncers in a bar...one of whom was an off duty cop. There is an animated version of that story on YouTube that is pretty funny. If only somebody had told him that was called assault and that people tend to get arrested for such things.

That's called assault and people tend to get arrested for such things, particularly people who are trained fighters and intentionally try to injure someone. Really?! Thanks for the civics lesson, Helpy Helperton. I didn't say that Bas Rutten was going to hop in his car and go hunting for JBL so he could kick his ass. However, it has been fairly well established that JBL is a bully. He picks on people like Justin Roberts and The Blue Meanie, people who either can't fight back or are afraid to do so. Because he gets away with it, most of the time. Bullies don't usually pick on people who are likely to stand up to them, or who have friends or family who are going to stand up to them. Once in a while, he picks on the wrong person like Steve Blackman or Joey Styles, and gets his ass kicked. I am saying IF JBL was trying to bully Mauro Ranallo, if he ever crosses paths with Bas Rutten, it's not beyond the realm of possibility that Bas would want to add to the list of people who have punched JBL in the face. I am close friends with somebody who has trained with Bas Rutten, and he told me a couple of things. Firstly, he's one of the nicest, most unassuming guys you'd ever want to meet, who is friendly, has a great sense of humor, and is a pushover to his kids. Drives a mini-van. Secondly, he is one of those people who are so legitimately tough that they feel no need to brag about it or act like they're tough but he has the aura that if pushed or provoked, he would respond with great vengeance and furious anger. I get the feeling if JBL and Bas actually crossed paths, if Rutten felt like punching JBL in the mouth, the fact "that's called assault and people tend to get arrested for such things" most likely wouldn't prevent him from doing it. Sometimes grown men hit each other outside the confines of a wrestling ring or MMA cage. It has been known to happen.

Yeah, I was thinking that too. I'm surprised JBL messed with Mauro at all since he is friends with Frank Shamrock and Bas Rutten. Both of those guys could seriously fuck JBL's shit up. Especially Bas. He'd do it, too.

Speaking of WWE Trios, I am hoping Bo Dallas ends up going to SDL and teaming up with Bray Wyatt, The only reasons I think this is a possibility is because in the lead up to Wrestlemania, Wyatt gave a press interview where he was asked about it and said he'd love to work with his brother. Secondly, Bo has started growing a mighty beard, which leads me to suspect it might be in the offing. That. or he's just given up on shaving. It's not like they're doing anything else with him, may as well stick him with Wyatt and Rowan. And I don't care what anybody else here says, I like The Wyatt Family as a stable, dammit. I think Harper is better off without them, but I still like the concept.

Hang on a minute...what possible issue would he have with guys working for indies? How else are they supposed to break into the business, if he doesn't like indies and he doesn't like NXT? (Or maybe he doesn't mind NXT, but if you really like it, that means you're gay, bro.)

Which is why I said sad, not surprising. The only way anybody will ever do anything about this is if it comes from attention from outside the industry, of course. If Vince gets even a tiny bit of bad press that might cause WWE stock to go down, I have no doubt that he'll drop JBL like a hot rock. But as you guys have all pointed out, no reputable media outlet gives a crap about WWE, which is why they got away with doing stuff like posting a glowing tribute to a murderer just a couple of months ago. I hope and pray this story gets mainstream attention, but I have no faith that it will.

Since this thread is pretty much the de facto Vince Russo thread here at PWO - I know we have this thread too but I think the Worst Booker thread is better - I wanted to share the newest gem I read today about Russo online. I was going to say it was a new low for him, but when you have a body of work like his, that's a very tough call. I wish there would be some kind of backlash against him for this, but I fear there won't be. And I know he's just trolling for attention at this point, but still I would love to see somebody call him out for his nonsense. Aside from Jim Cornette.

Jim Cornette and his podcast cohost debate JBL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kR8dqFFSN3Q&t=73s Sad to see Cornette as a JBL apologist...

What?! NO! No Mauro Ranallo on NXT! I'm kind of hoping Mauro doesn't come back, or if he does, they give him some office job like they gave Joey Styles. I can't stand JBL, there is no excuse for his ridiculous behavior and history of bullying and I hope he gets fired. But Mauro Ranallo is terrible and his voice and commentating style make me want to stick something sharp into my eardrums. When you're so bad that your commentating makes me wax nostalgic for the smooth tones and eloquent verbiage of Michael Cole, then that means you suck.

I don't much like Aiden English's odds of having a successful career in WWE without Gotch around. Not that he had much of one with Gotch around. I wonder if they're going to reboot the Vaudevillians, or just let him languish in some new lower card stable like 3MB or The Social Outcasts or something.

I couldn't help but laugh at... "That's not how you spell soft!"

I loved both incarnations of Doctor Who, as well. I have a massive collection of the Classic Series on DVD, and loved the return - until Series 5 of the new show, when Steven Moffat starting ruining everything. And I enjoy TOS and TNG pretty much equally, although Season 3 of TOS is pretty much crap, and TNG had a much longer run of good episodes.

Yeah, I hadn't watched any NXT in quite some time, and the first thing that struck me was how the quality of the commentary team had dropped drastically. Nigel is not so good and Percy is pretty much useless. One of the things I liked most about NXT was how good the commentary was thanks to Phillips and Graves. Now, not so much.

I agree. They remind me a bit of Raven's Flock in WCW. It's not like any of the guys in that stable are being held back or would be better served in another role. They're being used pretty much perfectly based on their level of skill and ability. I thought that opener was fun, although the girl on the face team struck me as green.

That sounds like it would be a waste of perfectly good cocaine. I am going to watch the show live, but my expectations are very low based on the card and quality of the buildup over the past few months on Raw and SD. I just don't get some of the booking decisions they have been making. I can see their point with the whole Lesnar/Goldberg feud, even if I don't personally agree with it. But wasting AJ Styles in a match with Shane McMahon, the ridiculous buildup to Orton/Wyatt, and the fact that guys like Joe and Harper aren't on the show, and Stroman (who they've been pushing like mad) is all the sudden in a Battle Royal on the pre-show...the decisions this company makes just make no sense to me at all.

Let's not forget that JBL has a history with this type of stuff. Even if you want to ignore the JBL stories that have been proven as true, like the infamous Blue Meanie incident, remember that JBL thought it would be funny to relentlessly pick on Joey Styles backstage until Styles snapped and knocked JBL out cold. Since Meltzer is actually friends with Mauro Ranallo, I'd think his reporting would likely be accurate on this story, never mind the fact that there is every reason to believe that JBL would bully somebody into a mental breakdown. I can't even stand Mauro Ranallo, and I'm glad he's off the air, but it sounds like JBL needs to be knocked out again.

I thought the Luke Harper/Bray Wyatt match was excellent. Harper is great, I really hope they do something with him after Wrestlemania. Which they probably won't.

Pardon my phraseology. Many moons ago when I studied French, my teacher went to great pains to explain the difference between Quebecois and what he called "Proper Parisian French" meaning the French which would be spoken in France. I have heard that are differences between the French spoken in the Montreal area, and that which is spoken in the parts of Quebec where English speakers are in the minority. I wouldn't know about that - I live in the Toronto area, I only took French in Grade School and as a result my French is useless, really. My one foray into Quebec outside Montreal was years ago and quite disastrous as it was around the time of the French Separation referendum and I had wandered into a rather militant part of Quebec City. My French is quite poor, and my efforts were less than appreciated by my countrymen who were either unable to speak English, or not inclined to do so. Needless to say, they were not interested in speaking English or attempting to understand my feeble attempts to speak French. Which is unfortunate, because all I was doing was paying for gas and buying food for the road...but as I said, things were tense between French and English then. I assume the La Resistance gimmick was intended to imply that all French people are from France, and all French people are bad...or something? I also never understood how Dino Bravo waving the Quebec flag around in the early 90's was supposed to bother Americans, either. I know it would get great heat with English speaking Canadians, especially out west, but I don't know why it was supposed to bother American fans.

Since they were both born in Quebec, I would imagine both Steen and Zayn were raised bilingually, but having said that there really is quite a significant difference between the Parisian French dialect and Quebecois. I'm not surprised when somebody from France cannot understand a Quebecois, or vice versa. If nothing else, people from Quebec tend to mix in a lot of English, since the province is Bilingual. I always laugh when somebody who speaks Quebecois gets in a huff when they go to Paris and people don't understand them perfectly. I don't say this as an insult, but Quebecois is actually kind of a bastardization of the more grammatically proper form of Parisian French.

There's something to be said for how far you can get when there is just natural chemistry with the hosts. You can tell those two guys really are close long tern friends who just enjoy hanging out with each other and joking around. The banter between the two of them alone makes it a pretty easy listen.

I wonder if Mauro Ranallo's Bi-Polar Disorder is acting up. Or maybe WWE figured out that he's terrible.