The Thread Killer

I'm still betting on Sabu getting suspended at best, or fired at worst, and RVD getting jobbed out (which he already did last night) and then suspended for a while until this thing blows over...or a "firing" where all parties agree that he can come back after things calm down. This has been done in the past, and I bet that's the way they handle it this time. Although, the two X factors are that ECW probably needs those guys, and that Johnny Ace is a big moron...so who knows how those factors will play into how this all works out.

I'm betting they "fire" both of them, with the understanding that if RVD stays out of trouble, he gets hired back in a few months, like Duggan, Eddie, Noble etc. Sabu I would guess is pretty fucked though.

From Puroresu Power: (NOAH) Kensuke Sasaki will replace Kenta Kobashi in the "dream" tag match main event of the 7/16 Nippon Budokan show. It's now Yoshihiro Takayama & Kensuke Sasaki vs. Jun Akiyama & Mitsuharu Misawa. The Takayama/Sasaki vs. Misawa/Akiyama match has many storylines to play off of. First, Sasaki was the guy Takayama fought on 8/8/04 in Osaka in the G-1 and ended up causing Takayama's stroke (with this match taking place a week after Sano and Takayama had a slugfest in the NOAH ring in Nagoya). Second, Sasaki can now be set up (with a win) for a GHC title match against Akiyama to buy time if Kobashi cannot return. As a fill-in, Sasaki was the man who had the epic chop battle last year with Kobashi at the Tokyo Dome. Third, Misawa was the man who sent Takayama to the hospital after a GHC title match (September 23, 2002 at Nippon Budokan). Also added to the 7/16 Budokan card is Takeshi Rikio & Takeshi Morishima vs. Naomichi Marufuji & KENTA.

Dave Ditch from Puroresu Power and Inside Pulse summed it up really well...

From Zach Arnold @ Puroresu Power: (NOAH) A shocking announcement was made today by NOAH President Mitsuharu Misawa, as Misawa announced that Kenta Kobashi would undergo medical treatment to remove a renal tumor (kidney cancer). The tumor was discovered during a medical check-up. Medical consultation is currently taking place. There is some concern that the tumor could be malignant. His participation in the "dream" tag match (he was going to partner with Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Jun Akiyama & Misawa on 7/16 at Nippon Budokan) is now canceled. Misawa noted that Kobashi was maintaining his strength both physically and mentally. Tamon Honda also commented on the situation, given that he and Kobashi are the GHC tag champions. The hope is that due to the early detection of the tumor, Kobashi will be able to get it removed and continue his wrestling career. Let's hope for a speedy recovery. From Green Destiny: Kobashi Undergoes Operation to Remove Tumor NOAH President Mitsuharu Misawa announced today that during a routine medical checkup on the 19th, a CAT Scan found that Kenta Kobashi had a 4-5cm tumor in his right kidney. It is unclear at this stage, pre-extraction, whether the tumor is malignant. The course of treatment is still to be decided, with Kobashi recuperating at home. Due to this condition, Kobashi has been forced to cancel all upcoming bookings he is scheduled for, including his part in Takayama's dream return tag match. Kobashi made a statement, apologizing to both the man he was going to stand beside after a 2 year hiatus from the ring, Yoshihiro Takayama, and all the fans that were looking forward to the match. Kobashi said that it was the encouragement of the fans that he has continually received that will help him rally through his current condition, and that he was grateful for the continued support of the fans and hoped the fans would continue to support Pro Wrestling NOAH in his absence. Misawa made one final footnote to Kobashi's statement, stating that Kobashi's first concern upon learning of his condition was for the effect it would have on his wrestling matches, rather than his own body. Typical words for a man who has given so much for the sport of Professional Wrestling. It's terrible whenever anybody gets cancer, no matter who it is...but this is stunning news. I'm hoping for good news about this situation.

The Kikuchi/Morton comparison is interesting...I had actually never though of that before, but you can't argue that Kikuchi didn't have the whole face in peril act down to a science in AJPW. Hell, a couple of weeks ago I saw Kobashi/Kikuchi vs. KENTA and Marifuji and I was still entertained by Kikuchi, and he's basically held together by bandages at this point. I was saddened when Kobashi went with Honda as his partner to go after (and win) the GHC Tag Titles over Kikuchi. I guess they wanted Kobashi and Honda to be "Team We Can't Walk" or "Team Huge Kneepads"

I wish they'd hurry the hell up and work out a Canadian TV deal. It's a pain in the ass having to get one of my friends to download the show and burn it on a DVD...and by the time I get it, the spoilers are going to be all over the net. Vince is being a dick. The Fight Network wanted the ECW show on their schedule, but he won't make a deal with them because they show so many other feds as well. According to Dave Meltzer, Vince "wants the Fight Network to fail." I highly doubt it will, because they show a lot of stuff, boxing and MMA, and fighting movies on top of just wrestling, it appeals to more than just wrestling fans. Vince needs to accept that it's a good way to get his show out there and stop being a jackass. His not supporting the channel isn't going to break it. TSN already has RAW, Sportsnet has Smackdown, and in the meantime, we get no ECW dammit. And I agree that people online need to: a) Stop expecting the new ECW to be exactly like the old ECW and Stop Predicting doom and gloom right away. We're two episodes into the new show, and the ratings for the first one were above expectations. Even the XFL took an entire season to tank...and it's ratings pretty much sucked from day one. This is SO much like the fucking idiots who hate on TNA and bitch non-stop about how the company is going to go under any day now. FOUR FUCKING YEARS LATER they're still bitching. GAH! Sometimes I hate "smarks."

There are two other ways of looking at that. 1) When you take steroids, you get injured a lot. (See: Batista.) 2) Karma's a bitch.

They are totally repeating the same mistakes, which is insane. The other thing that is driving me bonko, is that they are not treating ECW as a seperate brand. The next WWE PPV has a bunch of ECW guys on it. Gah! On the plus side...Sabu's attack on Cena had me marking out like mad. Damn I love Sabu when he's on.

Hey TC, I don't know if you ever used to hear about those independant shows that Ricky Johnson (Rocky Johnson's brother) used to run down at the CNE in Toronto...but I got to see Sabu fight there a bunch of times. I saw him fight Scott D'Amore before he was a big fat load, Scorpio, and Funk even. One of the guys who worked there told me that Sabu stays in character 24/7 unless he's around his friends or family. They had to pay him a ton to get him to do some autographs. I actually have a piece of smashed table autographed by Sabu, and the guy who worked for the CNE who sold it to me told me that Sabu scared the shit out of all the guys who worked there.

Actually, I didn't get into ECW until I came online in early 1997. I heard all about it, and decided to order some tapes. I started watching before Barely Legal, but not by much. I ordered the two tape set they used to offer called "Extreme Revoultion" I think it was, which was more or less a highlight set for new people getting into ECW. I was hooked from there, and went back and ordered everything I could get my hands on. I saw a lot of the best stuff from 94-97 after the fact, but as of 97 I started following it and that's when I started going to shows in Buffalo and whatnot. So in truth, I never saw a lot of the "classic" stuff until afterward. For example, Foley was already in the WWF by the time I started watching...and I only caught the tail end of the Raven/Dreamer feud, and The Eliminators. Pretty soon, they were off to WCW.

I'm as big an ECW fan as you'll find out there, and I don't think ECW was about wrestling alone. As I've said elsewhere, one of the things I loved about ECW was that it provided a bit of everything...storylines (Raven vs. Dreamer, Raven vs. Sandman, Foley vs. ECW)...comedy (Early Dudleys stuff, Mikey Whipwreck)...women (Francine, Beluah, Kimona)...insane brawls with guys like The Sandman, Sabu, Funk, and Dreamer...and then wrestling with guys like Eddie/Dean, Lucha Stuff, or RVD/Jerry Lynn. You add all that together combined with the ECW fanbase, and that was what made ECW what it was.

We don't get the Sci-Fi network in Canada, so we have no ECW yet. A friend of mine is downloading the show and burning it to DVD for me. I feel bad that the show sucked. I hope they get better. Filming at the same time as Smackdown is dumb, if you ask me. I am hoping the ECW arena show will be better.

After tonight, it's probably going to end up like 1995 all over again for a while. We're going to end up with a bunch of smarky smark types who point out that the matches were spotfests, or hardcore trainwrecks, and that anybody who liked it must be a mutant, or stupid...blah blah blah. ECW was, and I hope will be again, about more than the quality of each match. I always found that ECW shows were best viewed as a whole, and that like all of my fellow Kool Aid Drinking Mutants, I believe that Paul E. could bring the best out in his guys, and show them doing what they do best. If it's high flying spotfu, brawling, or whatever...they do what they can do best...and they don't half ass it. I attended a bunch of ECW shows, and they were unique in that the fans and their insane love for the product was a huge part of what made ECW into ECW. Vince doesn't own that, and he can't control it. He can manipulate it into making money for him, and it probably will make money for him...as long as he's smart and lets Paul E. run the show. The minute ECW becomes Raw or Smackdown style Sports Entertainment, it will stop being ECW in the eyes of ECW fans, and they will turn against it. As long as Paul E is writing it, I'll buy it. As soon as somebody compromises that, I won't. If that makes me a mutant, then so be it. I can live with that. All I know is that tonight I saw something that I haven't seen elsewhere for a LONG time...and that's a passion for a product. That's what the tOA types hate about ECW, Paul E., Joey Styles, and the ECW fans. ECW doesn't fit into their idea of what good wrestling is, or should be...aka Joshi or AJPW from 1989-1998. ECW fans love the product, they're vocal, a lot of them don't care that the shows aren't made up of * * * * * matches...so it does not compute. Not everything in wrestling does work on a technical level. ECW to me is about emotion, and cheering for the underdog. To me, Paul E. trying to make his vision of ECW fly under the nose of Stephanie McMahon and Johnny Ace is just as much of a "revoluiton" today as it was when he was trying to compete with WCW. It's about something that isn't glossy and pretty, and well produced, and sexy. I don't care who OWNS it...The Sandman, and Terry Funk, and Sabu will never be on the cover of Entertainment Weekly. It's not for everybody, but I loved it, so I'm glad to see it back, and to hell with anybody who has a problem with it.

I saw the show. The crowd was quite simply...INSANE. I have NEVER seen a rabid crowd like that before...they were louder than the ECW fans last year. Show started with the promo by Heyman thanking the fans for bringing ECW back. That was the gist of it. It should be noted that Heyman really seems to be building up the fact that this is not the old ECW, is it the NEW ECW. The Lawler/Tazz angle was next. The crowd was super-heated for this...but it ended right away. It was more comedy than anything, and I do believe that is because Tazz is in no shape to wrestle. Angle vs. Orton was a good match, but not great. Angle is wrestling a whole different style, tons of matwork and very little bumping. He is way over with the ECW crowd. Orton did a lot of stalling and running away. Angle won, it was pretty good. The tag match was meh. Crowd was hyped as hell for Tajiri. It was as good as a TV tag match. Big Show came out to new theme music and beat everybody up. I think they're doing with him what they did with Sid in ECW back in 99. JBL cut a heel promo, and got good heat for it, but really it was more of the same old shit from him. Nothing new or exciting, really. He's a wrestling god, blah blah blah. He's the new color guy on Smackdown I guess. Sabu vs. Mysterio was a SPOTFEST ROYAL but at least two of those spots were legit HOLY SHIT spots...especially the one that ended the match. I've been an FMW and ECW fan for years and the spot that ended the match still freaked me out, somebody could have been crippled there easily. Mick's prematch promo was hilarious. The match was a car wreck, but it was a good ECW car wreck with barbed wire, fire, and blood. I can't believe what Terry Funk put himself through in this match. It was something else, and the match of the night in my opinion. Balls vs. Tanaka was short, and to the point. Balls was WAY over, as was Tanaka, but he looked OFF. He's really slimmed down and he did nothing in this match. Balls caved his head in with a chair shot, and pinned him. That chair shot was BRUTAL. Eugene got caned by The Sandman. Yep. His new music is actually pretty good, but his entrance just isn't the same without Enter Sandman. The Main Event was...WOW. Cena got KILLED by the crowd. I have NEVER seen somebody so hated in my life, I don't think. They chanted just about every bad thing you could think of at him. I almost felt sorry for him for a minute. RVD looked okay, but in my opinion, his match against Mysterio on Wednesday was better than this. To me, the obvious ending is that RVD got the pin from Heyman, so Vince says it doesn't count...Heyman says it does...and there you go. RVD has a semi-legit claim to a title, but Cena has a legit claim to keeping it. This show was ALL about the crowd. I have NEVER seen anything like it in my life as a fan. The matches were all pretty much poor to fair at best, but the atmosphere and the novelty of the event more than made up for it. It wasn't a good wrestling show...but it WAS an EVENT that I'm glad I saw.

By who? Tenryu had a good stretch in AJPW from maybe 86-90. His matches against Chosu's Army and then his Triple Crown Matches were good. From there, he's been a big pile of MEH. He's awesome in his current cranky old guy role, but he hardly puts on good matches anymore, with the very rare exception. Maeda really only had his series of fights with Takada in the UWF, and then what else? I would say that he had a lot of influence on the course of puroresu with the advent of the UWF and his push for more realistic matches and clean finishes, but other than that, I've never seen a lot of people pimp him up as one of the all time greats.

I only stopped watching WWE partially because of the low quality wrestling. The main reason I stopped was due to the nonsense that had nothing to do with wrestling. From what I've seen, that hasn't changed. It's not Pro Wrestling, it's Sports Entertainment. Vince McMahon is challenging God to wrestle. Vince McMahon is making people kiss his ass on television. The "Divas" get all sorts of air time, and I don't want to see them. They bore me. But that's the problem. What gets WWE ratings? Ass Kissing segments, and Diva Search segments. I just don't like the WWE's style of storytelling. The shock stuff stopped being amusing in 99, and I really don't need to see Vince McMahon on television. People can say what they want about Jeff Jarrett giving himself so much time on television, but at least he can still be in a watchable match. His match with Raven last week was hardly a classic, but it was a watchable TV match. I'd take that over seeing Vince McMahon's ass, or over many other WWE storylines. All I've been hearing about lately is Finlay. Finlay this, Finlay that...he's the best active wrestler today, blah blah blah. So I watched Smackdown last week. He beat up a jobber, and then threw a midget at him. I don't deny that Finlay is awesome, but seeing him beat up a jobber and then throw a midget? I dunno. Not for me. Having said all that about WWE, to be fair I don't even watch IMPACT usually, I'm lucky that I am Canadian, so I get to see TNA Xplosion, which highlights all of the angles from IMPACT, plus throws in a bonus match or two. However, if it was down to WWE vs. TNA based on their television shows, you are right Loss...WWE would probably win. However, I have seen every TNA PPV since they debuted on Spike...and I can say that they have not yet had a PPV that I consider to be a bad show. They've had weak PPV's, but they've also had excellent ones. I would watch a TNA PPV without seeing the month of television leading up to it, out of confidence based on the fact that I have yet to feel ripped off by a TNA PPV. I have tried to watch WWE television a few times over the past couple of years, and I always get bored or disgusted with what I see. TNA does not bore me yet. (I can see that changing if Scott D'Amore and Team Canada keep getting so much air time.) I don't agree with everything they do...but I still like what I see so far. For the record, I was also a die hard ECW fan. I used to drive down to Buffalo to see them live, I watched and taped the shows, and collected the tapes. Hell, I even own a "EC F'N W" shirt. So I plan on watching the "new" ECW. I watched the special last night, and I really enjoyed it a lot...although I went to make a sammich during the Jazz/Mickie match. I am going to give the new ECW a chance...which is owned and operated by WWE, so I am not so blind in my WWE hate that I will ignore whatever they do.

If you want an unpopular wrestling opinion, especially online...it's easy. I am a TNA fan.

Wha? Link please!

I don't know why people keep saying that Stampede is on the Fight Network. I now get the Fight Network, and Stampede isn't on there. They have ROH, they have FMW, NOAH, Memphis and St. Louis...but no Stampede.

I respectfully disagree. While I agree that many of the posters at DVDVR are major league dickheads, and that the mods there all deserve to be slapped in the teeth, the Lance Storm thing is different. If you remember, Storm actually made the statement that people who aren't wrestlers are incapable of discussing what makes a good worker, and that even trying is "insulting." He's very wrong on both points, of course. Secondly, Storm did work in Japan. He worked in WAR, and he also worked against some Japanese talent in ECW. I honestly don't think Lance Storm is all that great of a wrestler. He seems like a fairly nice guy from his site, and I love his taste in books...but go back and watch his most famous matches. He had very little ability to tell a story in his matches. He seemed technically sound enough, however he was almost robotic in his execution. Look at Storm, a guy who spoke perfect English, and then look at Kobashi, a guy who doesn't. Kobashi conveys far more emotion in his matches than Storm ever could. Even Misawa, who shows very little emotion in his expression tells a better story than Storm. Not to bring up a bad attempt at an angle, but I truly do feel that Storm was "boring." How many of his matches can you name that you rate as all time classics? Secondly, his execution of brawling moves was weak. His punches and kicks have especially come under fire for looking very fake. He himself has admitted this, but claimed that he'd rather look fake than risk hurting somebody. As Mick Foley said, there are plenty of wrestlers who can throw fake looking punches that actually end up hurting you. Then there are those who throw real looking punches that look real because they are (Vader.) The best are those who throw real looking strikes that aren't all that "stiff." If anything, it was Lance Storm who came off looking like a whiner when he went after the DVDVR. It was obvious that he was insulted that Kawada was listed as #1 in the 500...since in his mind, he was just as good as Kawada.

Shinsuke Nakamura. I don't know much about him, since he's from New Japan and I don't watch New Japan (I'm a NOAH guy, and thank gawd they send their guys to ROH so we don't have to worry how Johnny Ace is going to screw my favorite guys up) but from the sounds of it he's one of NJPW's top names. He's a former IWGP, NWF, U30, and IWGP Tag Team Champion...and that ain't nothing to sneeze at.

Holy crap dude...chill out and take a rest already. I'm hardly the authority on what's good and not good around here, however I found that article to be nothing more than a poorly written opinion piece where he made snide little smarky comments about why the new ECW was going to fail...without providing any actual insight or new ideas. You could go to any messageboard, and find something equal to that, or in many cases superior. I'd wager that half the guys around here could write up a better column explaining why the new ECW will or won't work. If you're going to have an opinion, it would help if it's something you can back up with actual examples rather than "OMG Heyman is over rated!" I have no idea if the new ECW is going to fail or not. If McMahon carries it out the way he's carried out every other idea he's had since WM 17 or so, then it probably WILL flop...but it's too soon to say and as I said, that article you posted provided NO insight whatsover. It was a couple of paragraphs of Bruce Mitchell making smarky comments. Then again, I don't expect much better from the Torch. And if you can't handle people questioning your opinion, or if you can't defend your opinion and throw a spaz every time somebody takes a shot at it, maybe you should go back to TSM...but I wasn't saying you should. I was saying that column wasn't a good read...and it wasn't.

That's supposed to be a GOOD read?

So since I was bored, and since I'm planning on watching ECW when it starts up again probably, I thought I'd sit down and check out RAW tonight. This would be the first time in YEARS that I've done that. What a boring ass pile of CRAP. Then I go online, and see some people commenting about how this week's show was "pretty good" or "better than recently." I'm thinking to myself that either people are FAR too easily entertained...or I've become spoiled from watch mostly ROH, Puro, and TNA to the point where I have a very low Sports Entertainment tolerance level...because that show freaking sucked.