The Thread Killer

I respect Bobby Eaton, but I can see how some people think he might be over-praised. I enjoy RVD in the same way I enjoy Bruiser Brody, Abdullah The Butcher and Sabu. Fun to watch in the right circumstances, enjoyable...but that doesn't make them "good." It's like watching a stupid "popcorn" movie that you have fun watching. That doesn't mean it's an all time great or it should win an Academy Award.

I didn't mind Raw so much this week, but man...that three hours can be a chore to get through. I know it will never happen, but I really wish they would go back to two hours. I can't believe how hot Enzo and Cass have become in such a short time. I wonder if it's true that they are moving tons of merchandise. Based on the crowd, it seems they are. I hope they are allowed to have a good run before they get broken up for Cass's inevitable singles push. Since the company is going with The Club vs. New Day for the titles, I am glad Enzo and Cass are working with Jericho and Owens at Summerslam. The mic work in this rivalry has been fun so far, especially the interplay between Jericho and Owens. I have to admit I always end up laughing my butt off when Jericho does this new routine where he tells an obvious lie and then can't back it up with any details and he gets all shifty eyed. Ugh...Foley is so played as an on screen character at this point. He was gone for so long, yet not long enough. And back in the day, I used to love that guy. Now he just makes me half sad, half bored, with a side order of mildly irritated. Hooray for the continued Strowman squash matches. I have come around on Seth Rollins when it comes to his mic work. He actually comes across as convincing to me, but that promo he cut tonight still seemed pointless and boring. Will the Cesaro/Seamus rivalry ever end? Will Seamus ever be enjoyable to watch? All signs point to no. Seriously? A post wedding celebration with like...three cakes in the ring? Well I for one did NOT see Lana getting pushed into that cake, because that has never ever happened in wrestling before. A better question would be, has there ever been a cake on television that did NOT end up in somebody's face? I'm all for Reigns and Rusev for the U.S. title, but this was just stupid beyond the realm of stupid. I don't care what anybody says, I like the Dudleys, I was glad they were on RAW, but I was sad to see them job to a thrown together team like Neville and Sin Cara, especially since Sin Cara looked unimpressive to me during that match. Everything else on the show was pretty much just there, to me. As far as the Ambrose interview... Every time I see one of these things, as soon as somebody says or does something that comes across as legit, some fans always react with "that was a work you got worked lol." With this interview, I dunno. First off, if I didn't know better I would have sworn that Ambrose was taking the marijuana pills or something, because he was sitting there with his eyelids drooping and acting all mellow to the point where Austin kind of called him out on it. I guess Ambrose likes to keep a "chill vibe." Okay...but you do know you're giving an interview that a ton of people are going to be watching...right? Secondly, was it just me or was getting any details or exposition out of Ambrose about his life before wrestling kind of like pulling teeth? He was being so damn vague it was kind of annoying, really. Also, I have to admit that I have a pet peeve with people who basically brag about their lack of education while implying that they were smarter than their teachers, didn't need to learn, could have achieved straight A's if they wanted to, but didn't want to end up with dead end jobs like their teachers. You can tell from listening to Ambrose that, while he may have street smarts, it probably wouldn't have killed him to pick up a book. He might be as smart as he apparently thinks he is, but I doubt that. I don't understand people who gleefully brag about their lack of education or worse - their lack of desire for an education. He talked later about how kids look up to him now, he might have remained mindful of that fact when bragging about how he dropped out of school. But whatever, not a huge thing. The interview kind of picked up from there...although it seemed a bit uncomfortable when Ambrose claimed he never quit the business to work in a health club and asked Austin if he was getting his information from the internet?! Awkward. I found it very interesting that he claims he can't remember scripted promos so at this point Vince lets him say what he wants. Especially if you look at the promo he cut on Ziggler last week on Smackdown, it was some of the best mic work I have ever seen out of either guy. You have to wonder how scripted it was, and if it wasn't, would somebody backstage clue into the fact that sometimes promos are better when they aren't written out ahead of time? Also found it interesting that he was okay with The Shield being broken up when they were, since they were on top and hadn't gotten stale. Interesting perspective. I'd love to know what the producer he was talking about said to him, and what agent it was. On my feed, the whole thing got beeped out on the time delay, so he must have said something they didn't want out there. To me though, the jewel of this interview was his statements about Lesnar. This is where I think he was being honest, but I am sure there are those who will claim it was a work. He basically admits their match at Wrestlemania wasn't as good as it could have been because Brock is Brock...and that he's lazy? GOLD. I was so happy to hear him say that, and I hope he doesn't get heat for it. It just confirms what so many people suspect, and what Brock has basically confirmed, it's just a job that he wants to do with the minimum amount of effort. The vibe between Austin and Ambrose at the end seemed really weird to me, but I'm interested in seeing what other people thought of the interview.

I had a girlfriend who lived in Japan for two years for work reasons. By the end, she could read and write kanji, but her conversational Japanese was still very basic, and it wasn't from a lack of trying on her part. She loved the culture, the people and the language, and she made a concerted effort to learn to speak Japanese, but she found that it is actually a very difficult language to learn to speak. In the end, she learned the most useful phrases and responses, but she couldn't have a detailed conversation. She had coworkers tell her that English was fairly easy to pick up so they preferred to speak to her in English, but it was a common complaint that even conversational Japanese is extremely difficult to learn. In the case of most pro wrestlers, you have to wonder how hard they even try to learn the language. Apparently, it is very easy to get by in Tokyo with English only. Having said that...I'd like to think that after 15 years I'd be fairly fluent. Isn't there a regular poster here at PWO who lives in Japan? Is it Ohtani's Jacket, or am I mistaken? Perhaps he could contribute to this point.

I was just looking around, and another rumor I read is that his contract was up and he wanted to leave. Yet another claimed that VP in Charge of New Media or whatever position Joey had (basically in charge of WWE.com) was the job Shane used to have, so maybe Styles got nosed out so Shane could have the job back? Not sure of the reliability of either theory. Will be interesting to see what Mr. Meltzer comes up with. I can see sek being right, though. Even if his contact wasn't coming up, Styles always struck me as a guy who had no issue speaking his mind, regardless of the consequences. Even though he looked like a bit of nerd/geek, he wasn't S-A-W-F-T. Hell, this is the guy who knocked out JBL.

I didn't see the video in question, but rumor has it that he did video Q & A on Facebook a while back where he made some shooty shoot comments which may have upset the WWE office - including some statements about Vince's stubbornness regarding the Reigns face push. As I said, I didn't see it, but that's the big rumor as of this moment. Anybody see the video in question? It has apparently been yanked from FB and YouTube, which seems to lend some credence to the theory that it upset somebody.

The other thing is, it's a common misconception that all people who identify as conservative/right wing/Republican share the same ideology as the religious right. An equal if not greater number of right wing conservatives have libertarian leanings, believe in the separation of church and state, and strongly feel that morality cannot be legislated. Anyhow, as people have pointed out...opinions can change. I know my political leanings have change significantly over the past few years. As I said earlier, there is evidence to suggest the JBL we see now is not the same guy who soaped up Brian Christopher or gave a cheap shot to The Blue Meanie.

Legends is an excellent show. The interview with Booker T was very good. You can tell that JBL (or somebody who works for him) did research, and his strength is clearly drawing information out of his subjects about their early lives before wrestling, and their personal lives. He does a very good job at that. On the negative side, he tends to be pretty leading with some of his questions, almost inserting his own opinions in their answers, or making it blatantly obvious what he wants their answer to be, or what point he wants them to make. That's a tad annoying, but you can see that there has been definite improvement as the show has progressed, so there is every reason to believe that he will continue to refine his interviewing skills. I think a lot of people don't appreciate the art of being an interviewer, how to use silences or properly worded questions. Just look at the differences between the RF, Highspot and Kayfabe Commentaries shoots. I'd say JBL is already a million miles ahead of Rob Feinstein and whoever does the Highspots interviews. With experience, he could be as good as Sean Oliver, who for my money is an excellent interviewer. My only other complaint with Legends - and this could be the production, not JBL - is that they tend to jump around sometimes in the timeline of the interview. But that could be because of editing or time restrictions. The Brian James interview was pretty good, but I thought the Ron Simmons interview could have used a second hour, there were a lot of questions that went unasked due to time, I think. The Eric Bischoff interview was very well done. JBL got way more out of Bischoff in terms of details and opinion than any other shoot or podcast I'd ever heard him do, with the possible exception of when he was on Stone Cold's show. After I saw the Michael Hayes interview I liked Hayes a lot less than I did before I watched it. It had nothing to do with JBL. As I mentioned earlier, at times JBL can be ridiculously leading when he asks questions, and it was totally obvious that JBL was asking certain questions to help Hayes rehab his image. The problem was, JBL led him to the water, but Hayes went way overboard with his answers. I once saw RVD describe Shawn Michaels as "dripping with insincerity" and to me, that describes how Michael Hayes came across in his interview. To a degree, every guy JBL has interviewed has been working the interview, for sure. But in my opinion, Hayes was so obvious about it, and he just couldn't pull it off. Rather than say: "Back in my day, we all used the N Word. I'm not racist, but I used it. Times have changed. I got drunk, I said something I shouldn't have said, and I got demoted and suspended for it. Mark Henry forgave me, there are no hard feelings, and I'm never doing that again" we got a convoluted half explanation/half justification with a side order of apology, sort of. All that nonsense about the Confederate Flag and Richard Prior and his ex-wife's stepdaughter just came across as sadly out of touch. Anybody who doesn't agree with me is free to watch the interview and judge for themselves. I actually feel sorry for Michael Hayes. He reminds me of Jake Roberts and a lot of other old school guys. So used to trying to work everybody at all times that he might not even know who he really is. Hell, maybe he is so clueless that he actually believes some of that crap he said. Either way, it was Hayes who came across as looking totally out of touch in that interview. He seems to be respected by a lot of the people who work with him, so he obviously has something to offer to the business, I guess. But that interview just made me shake my head at how out of touch he seemed. As for JBL, don't even get me started. There is a staggering amount of evidence to support him being a horrible bully and all around awful person to be around when he was an active wrestler. Rumor has it that his getting KTFO by Joey Styles coupled with his retirement helped make him a much more likeable guy backstage. A lot of people now seem to give him credit for the work he does as a color commentator putting guys over. And so they should. But don't act like people like JBL or Michael Hayes are disliked for totally unjustified reasons, due to "smarks." There is plenty of reason to not be a big fan of either of those guys.

It seems like wherever I go as a fan, Mauro Ranallo haunts me. He was the play-by-play guy when Stampede briefly had their comeback on A Channel here in Canada. Then he shows up during the dying days of PRIDE. Then he's on The Fight Network calling all sorts of stuff, including Japanese wrestling, so if I want to see Puro with English commentary, it's got to be him. Now I start watching WWE for the first time in 15 years, and there he is on Smackdown. My issue with him has always been that he comes across like he's trying too hard and is trying to beat you over the head with how smart he is, or more accurately, how smart he thinks he is. He has to use the long form name for every move executed, and give you a bio of who invented the move, or perfected it. Then he has to try and be clever and throw out his wordplay and wannabe Howard Cosell descriptions of the action. In some ways, he reminds me of all of the things I hated about Matt Striker. I can appreciate it when the commentator knows a lot, but when it seems like they're trying to beat you over the head with it, it grates on the nerves. He's better in WWE than Michael Cole or a guy like Byron Saxton would be, but that is damning him with faint praise. For my money, Tom Phillips and Corey Graves are the best broadcast team in WWE, hands down.

Yes, Anthony Bennett was not so good. Nese was better than him, and yeah he had muscles. In my opinion he is taking HGH, or some other growth related supplement or steroid to get those muscles. For those who may not agree with me, I refer you back to Barry Bonds. During his first few years in MLB, especially during his years in Pittsburgh, Bonds looked relatively normal. Some time after going to San Fran, his head began to show noticeable signs of growth. You can google before and after pictures, and there is no doubt that his head began to get bigger, specifically his forehead and upper cranium. Lo-and-behold, later it comes to light that he is taking all sorts of PED's and Lord knows what else. It is a proven fact that HGH and some roids and supplements cause the head to grow up to two hat sizes bigger. Robbie Lawler in UFC is another guy with the same problem. Early is his career, he looks fairly normal. Starts his career hot, cools off due to injuries, racks up a couple of losses, and then all of the sudden he gets hot again...but he is much more muscular and has a noticeably bigger head. Now he looks like the Great freaking Gazoo. At one point during his career, I noticed the same problem with Edge, although he seems to have gotten mysteriously smaller since he retired. My point is, Tony Nese is absolutely ripped. He also has a giant freak head. To quote Stuart Mackenzie, it's like an orange on a toothpick. His head's like Sputnik. Spherical, but quite pointy in parts. A virtual planetoid that has it's own weather system. He has the exact same massive forehead and disproportionate cranium that Bonds and Lawler have. Problem is, if he actually does get signed, he probably won't be able to keep that look and get it past the Wellness Policy, since they can now test for HGH. Also, one of the good things about Cruiserweights for me was that they didn't rely on the same old tired "he who has the best muscles gets the biggest push" philosophy. Cruiserwieghts were different, because it didn't really matter what they looked like, as long as the could go. I guess in a sense, Nese stands out because he looks like more of a bodybuilder than a wrestler, and compared to guys like Sabre and Mendoza it's not even close. Plus he can wrestle that Cruiserweight style. But I don't know how long that will remain an upside if he has to submit to regular drug testing.

I'd agree with all the "turn Roman heel" sentiments, except unless WWE are really trying to blindside us with the heel turn, it doesn't look like it's going to happen. The feeling I got from the way Rollins acted while Roman was suspended, and from Stephanie berating and humiliating him during the opening segment of Raw, is that we're supposed to feel sorry for him. He's just a hard working guy who made a mistake and owned up to it, but his dastardly former friend won't let him live it down, and his evil boss is picking on him for not bouncing right back. I am truly amazed at Vince's bullheaded determination to ram Reigns down the fans throats as a babyface, whether we like it or not, all evidence to the contrary. I'd love to see the heel turn, but it seems like Vince is determined not to do it, no matter what.

Because it's a two hour tribute show to a guy who brutally murdered his wife and kid ? And that's it's totally offensive and hurtful to the living relatives ?

That's entirely possible. It's also quite likely that I am just predisposed to being sympathetic towards people with speech impediments. My younger brother stutters terribly (as did my grandfather). With my brother it is so bad that for years he couldn't even answer a phone, because he would freeze up and couldn't say hello in time, before the person calling would hang up. Getting through something like a job interview was impossible. He writes, and I am so sick of seeing people read something he wrote and remark about how intelligent and well spoken he is in writing, basically implying that they thought he was an idiot just because he had a speech impediment. It has been really tough watching him struggle with it, since he is highly intelligent but it has hampered his life so badly. So he compensated by marrying a woman who never shuts up, which has eliminated his need to speak at all...but that's neither here nor there, I suppose. The point is, I can't help but root for Kenneth Johnson. I hope he makes it, at least to NXT.

I don't get the people pooping all over Kenneth Johnson. I thought his performance was perfectly passable, and he comes across as naturally likeable, as well.

I don't know about that All I know is that ratings are in the toilet and that USA are not happy (hence the split) and that WWE are ice cold as a show. I'm not sure about the overall picture of health for the network, but USA does have Mr. Robot as well, which is probably the hottest scripted program on television right now, in addition to being a critical darling. So there is some good news for them that doesn't rely on WWE.

I'm not worried about Randy Orton going to Suplex City. I'm more worried about Brock Lesnar going to Chinlock Town, the least exciting place on earth. And if Brock goes, all of us are getting dragged along for the long, boring ride. Whether we want to go or not.

I actually read Russo's first book, entitled "Forgiven." (I got it for $5 in the bargain bin.) It was a surreal experience. I guess he had written the entire book, which covers his career from the start, up to his departure for WCW. It was a tell all, mean and vindictive, The two main targets in his book were Jim Cornette and Jim Ross. But sometime before the book was scheduled to be published, Russo underwent a religious conversion and he decided to change his ways. So he published the original "angry Russo" manuscript, but alternated it with chapters written by the new "religious Russo" where he emphasized how much he has changed since then. After my reading it, I couldn't understand - if he had truly changed and didn't have the same bitter, vindictive feelings anymore - why he had still published the original manuscript as part of the book, which still had all the anger and bile included? Anyhow, the point is that even in his own book, Russo admits that the booking committee was made up of Vince McMahon, Pat Patterson, Jim Cornette and himself. Pat Patterson retired, leaving just Cornette and the two Vinces. That is who booked WWE for the majority of "The Attitude Era." Even Russo admits it. Now in his book, Russo claims that he finally went to McMahon and gave him an ultimatum that either Russo or Cornette had to be kicked off the committee, and McMahon chose Russo. According to Russo, that is when the true brilliance began. Cornette was off the committe and Russo and Ferarra were in charge. I am not sure exactly how long a period of time it was, but even Russo admits, there was a very limited time period when he had exclusive control over the creative process in WWE. That's not what he told WCW when he went looking for the job there, of course. When he went to Turner he claimed responsibility for writing all of the Attitude Era, which is why they hired him. But fact is, the whole "Russo wrote the Attitude Era" myth has been pretty much debunked by now. Even if Russo himself hadn't admitted that he worked with McMahon, Patterson and Cornette for a large chunk of that time, his work in WCW proves it's not true. We got to see what "free reign" Vince Russo looked like in WCW from November 1999 - January 2000. The attitude era never looked anything like that. Like I said before, I can't stand Jim Cornette. I think he's a close minded, stubborn, ignorant, overly opinionated loudmouth with antiquated thinking who has no respect for people with ideas other than his, and an ego that parallels and in some ways far surpasses Vince Russo's. He himself has said some absolutely ridiculous things over the past few years, and I think if he ever got a chance to book a promotion he would sink it quickly with out of date Southern Fried Rasslin. But when it comes to Vince Russo, he's not wrong.

And the thing is, as much as I can't stand the guy and despise what he did to the sport of Professional Wrestling, he has every right to make a living. He has a family to take care of, I respect that. But what has always driven me crazy about him is the total lack of respect he has for the business. He uses wrestling to make money while at the same time bashing it and doing everything he can to ruin it. It's maddening.

I checked that out. It looks like Russo went and deleted the tweets that you re-tweeted which showed clear examples of him not taking responsibilities for his professional failures, (after he blocked you, of course.) The man is hysterical. You pointed out what a hypocrite he was being by saying that, and provided evidence, and he responds by erasing the evidence and blocking you.

Vince Russo published a new blog at RussoBrand.com, where he explains his relationship toward the end of his tenure in TNA and then working with them as a consultant and his contact with Pop TV, which he discussed on a podcast with Disco Inferno. Below is an excerpt from the blog: I never fail to be amazed by Russo's logic. This is even better than his famous "the real reason people hate me is because I'm from New York" rant.

Exactly. Just like his epic meltdown (which is covered earlier in this thread) towards Dave Meltzer, when Meltzer reported that Russo was talking to Lucha Underground about a job. Russo went mental and denied it to the hilt, claiming he only went to the LU show to interview somebody for his podcast. It has long since come out and been confirmed that when he went to the LU show he did ask them for a consulting job, but they wisely told him they were not interested. If somebody waved a booking job in front of Russo, he's jump all over it in a heartbeat. Thankfully, there is nobody that stupid. It's like Cornette says, as scary as this sounds, writing for a Pro Wrestling Promotion is the only thing Russo is "qualified" to do. He has no other transferable skills, so of course he's going to make the rounds of every possible promotion asking for work. Since he can't really write, it's not like he can do novels (aside from co-authored autobiographical stuff) or scripts. He'd have to have somebody hold his hand and help him every step of the way. I'm starting to suspect that was Ed Ferrara's role in their relationship - translating Russo into English. At least Ed Ferrara has a college degree and experience writing scripts for television. As scary as this sounds, Ferrara actually teaches writing now. I doubt we'll ever see Vince Russo fall back on writing scripts or teaching writing.

I don't know if you guys have heard about this story...but it has now come out that Vince Russo contacted both Destination America and now Pop TV behind TNA's back, trying to con the networks into giving him a job, basically trying to write for TNA directly for the network, not TNA. Apparently he was telling the networks that only he could fix the problems with TNA. The way this information got out? Russo admitted it himself! He hosted a podcast this past week, co-hosted by Disco Inferno. He admits that he went behind TNA's back trying to get a job, and even Disco called him on it, and told him it was a dick move. The story gets out, and Russo figures out...maybe I shouldn't have publicly admitted that, since it makes me look like a total weasel. So Russo takes the podcast down, but the story is out and several websites reported on it. Now...Vince Russo's arch enemy has the information and the shit is really on. Jim Cornette has launched a scathing rant aimed at Russo. Now of course, Cornette doing a shoot or podcast going after Russo is not news, but this is slightly different because it fleshes the history of the heat between Cornette and Russo out for those who don't know the story. Also, this is a vintage Cornette meltdown, even by his standards. This story and Cornette's subsequent rehashing of his history with Russo has brought a lot more about Russo out, that a lot of people who don't know him might not know. There are some interesting stories on this podcast which reinforce just how much of a backstabber Russo is. This is a guy who apparently has no issues going behind anybody's back (including his own "friends") when it suits him. A hilarious Russo side note, after seeing and reading a couple of interviews recently, I discovered that allegedly, Vince Russo has the writing skills of a child. I don't just mean he's a bad writer (which he is) I mean he literally can't spell. I have used a quote from a blog entry by Russo as a joke around PWO several times, where he uses the word "sediments" instead of "sentiments." At the time, I thought it was just a typo or a spell check error, but apparently there is more to it than that. Apparently, Russo's written show outlines that he handed out during TV production meetings were so riddled with terrible grammar and spelling errors that they were almost indecipherable. According to Cornette, TV network executives would look at these scripts and ask what the hell they were looking at. There is a saying among writers: "Writers read, writers write." Well, Vince Russo has gone on record as saying he hates to read. He doesn't read books, and doesn't even like to read the newspaper. He actually said in an interview that he didn't even like reading to his kids, that's how much he hates reading. So it's no surprise that in order to get his creative juices flowing when he was booking, instead of reading, he watched Jerry Springer for inspiration. The funny thing is, as much as I detest Vince Russo, I don't care for Jim Cornette at all. I find some of his opinions as ridiculous as Russo's (on matters like Lucha Underground, or Sami Zayn, just to name two.) I could also give less of a crap about Cornette insane ranting about politics, religion and every other thing that crosses his mind. The only issue I ever agree with Cornette about is Russo, but on that issue the man is right, even if he is terribly biased. It sure looks like he has every right to be. Point being, the more you find out about Russo, the more you see what a horrible person he really is. In my opinion, of course.

True...but I can't imagine they would go ahead with the match without Reigns around to help hype it up until 4 days before, would they? Aside from the practical problems that would create, it doesn't send much of a message to the rest of the roster either. "Get suspended, but come back just in time for your main event paycheck." I am also curious as to how they will explain his absence from TV, don't they normally just stop talking about somebody when they are suspended? It will a bit more difficult to write Reigns off TV, but I can't see them admitting a Wellness Violation on TV, what do they normally do, make up an on-screen injury or something?

Glad to see somebody else (whose opinion I respect) say that. I agree with you. Some times when you watch this stuff alone, you see something and you're not sure if you're seeing into some things due to preconceptions or expectations. I too was hoping for a bit more than what we got, not due to any faith in Cena's ability (of which I have little) but more out of respect for Styles (of which I have much, even more so after the two matches with Reigns.) To me, that match seemed lacking something and was kind of paint-by-numbers, not a bad match per se, but more just a collection of fairly well executed moves that lacked total cohesion. After, I wasn't sure if it was just me, maybe I had been spoiled into expecting too much after the Reigns matches, or maybe Cena had more ring rust than I expected. Whatever it is, I think you hit the nail on the head.

I just figured it had gotten slow around here because it's summertime. For those of us who live in climates where we only get 4-5 months of the year where it's actually nice outside, I assumed people were out more. That's the television network's logic behind summer reruns and fall premieres, no? It never even crossed my mind that people had decreased or stopped posting because of the GWE project. I'd hate to think that was the case, but maybe it is.

From what I understand, there is still a fairly good chance the decision will be overturned on appeal.