The Thread Killer

Did anybody see the spot where Kyle Fletcher powerbombed Adam Cole on the back of his head on the ring apron? That looked brutal, and considering Cole’s history of concussions it struck me as pointlessly dangerous and unprofessional.

The tickets for All Out in Toronto are now on sale. They are opening around 8,000 seats for this show. From the seating map, it looks like they are going to block off about 1/3 of the arena with the stage. They have already sold 5,600 seats with about 2,400 still available. The cheapest seats are going for $52.00 so obviously Tony Khan learned his lesson last time around. (Which I would hope he would have considering that last AEW Canadian tour was a total disaster as far as ticket sales. There was that Collision taping in Hamilton where they sold less than 1000 seats in Copps Colliseum.) I am guessing that if (as speculated) this is the show where Copeland and Christian reunite, they will have no issue selling the rest of those tickets, provided they announce the card well enough in advance and do some local publicity (which is never a guarantee with AEW) because those two guys are so well known here.

Dang, that Triple Threat Money in the Bank Qualifier match that started off RAW was great.

I can’t remember back to a time when this show wasn’t happening.

Strongly agree. I forgot how great FTR are as heels.

That was especially impressive because the promo started out with people obviously not taking him very seriously and even giving him the “What?” Treatment, but he ended up, sucking them in and engaging the crowd in the end.

Agreed. This new stable with Heyman would be awesome were it not for the fact that the centrepiece is Seth Rollins.

That sumbitch can MOVE for a big guy. He was hauling ass outside the ring, and he looked great coming off the top rope as well.

Welp, I guess Bronson Reed isn’t part of Solo’s new Bloodline anymore.

That’s the thing…I couldn’t really care less if Cobb is “fat” or has a big gut. Firstly that would make me a giant hypocrite because I’m a fat guy, but also much like Good Bubba @C.S., I appreciate the long, rich, storied history and tradition of fat guys in Pro Wrestling. Dusty was a fat dude and he was in some glorious bloodbaths. Some of my favourite matches involve Abdullah The Butcher who might be King of the Fat Guys. And I actually like guys like Vader, Rhino, etc., guys who weren’t even really overweight so much as they were stocky and powerful and knew how to use their body size to their advantage. Guys with a “Hugh Morris” type physique are actually ideal for Pro Wrestling. I prefer those kind of guys over the muscleheads who can’t work worth a damn. And that was the kind of guy I used to think Jeff Cobb was. According to Cobb, he wrestled his last two months in New Japan without a contract. His last date in New Japan was April 19, his WWE contract went into effect on April 21, and he made his WWE debut on May 10. That’s only 3 weeks, but I’m just saying that by the looks of him, he didn’t spend a lot of time on a treadmill during those three weeks. Maybe this is nothing more than a case of ring rust, and once he gets to working regularly again, he will look the way he used to in New Japan.

I just read an article where they talked about the fact that WWE has been trying to run a major event in Mexico for years, but it is not financially feasible because of the economy, the exchange rate, and the fact that the Mexican government will not pay them to come there like so many States have bid on the right to host major events. In fact, the article claimed that WWE actually lost money the last time they ran a show in Mexico, so they might be willing to take the bullet for TV or something like that, but I doubt they would be willing to take a loss on Wrestlemania considering what a huge chunk that whole week is of their fiscal year. I know I said it probably wouldn’t happen (and that opinion was never because of “morals” because I don’t believe that TKO has any limits on what they would do to make a buck.) I just never figured that WWE would undertake the hassle of moving the entire apparatus of the whole week of Wrestlemania all the way to the Middle East. That will be a colossal undertaking which I didn’t think would be logistically feasible or worth their time. However last week, Grand Prince Whatshisname who works for the Saudi government appeared on Ariel Halwani’s podcast, and he admitted that the Saudis have been bidding on Wrestlemania for quite a while and that he thinks they will get it by 2026 or 2027 at the latest. So there you go. Apparently I was wrong. I guess I keep forgetting that for the Saudis, money is literally no object. They are willing to pay pretty much whatever insane amount of money is required to get what they want. The funny thing is, I remember way back when WWE first announced their deal with the Saudi government, somebody asked Dana White, who was actually a partner in Zuffa, the company that owned UFC at the time, if UFC would be going to Saudi Arabia as well, and White said they NEVER would. They ran shows in the UAE, where MMA is hugely popular, but never in Saudi Arabia. But then the Fertitta Brothers sold to Endeavour, and Dana White cashed out his shares and became the president, and UFC became part of TKO, and now… There is no limit to what the Saudi government will pay, and there appears to be no limit to what TKO will do for money, so I guess anything really is possible.

I agree with @El-P in that there is probably something janky going on with this deal behind the scenes that has not come out yet. And considering it is TKO involved, I’m going to bet that it involves money. Rumour does keep coming up that they are going back to Vegas for no other reason than the amount of money they made this past year with Wrestlemania. I keep in mind that UFC is basically based in Vegas, and they run a large amount of their shows there. I assume there are financial incentives for them to do so, and TKO has certainly showed themselves so far to be concerned with the bottom line and how much money they can make at the expense of all other considerations.

I’m not going to argue that AEW has not improved creatively a great deal over the last six months, but let’s not pretend that they are drawing anything resembling “strong gates.” They can’t even sell the same amount of tickets to a huge stadium pay-per-view like “All In” that WWE usually draws for B level PLE or even an episode of TV. Last I checked, AEW are still hovering around 15,000 tickets sold for Texas Stadium.

I don’t disagree with you that being forced to fit into the “WWE style” does a lot of damage to a lot of guys, however, contrast Jeff Cobb with Jacob Fatu. They basically came into the exact same angle under the exact same circumstances, but Fatu looks like a killer and he has gotten over like gangbusters. The fans are literally chanting for him even though he was supposed to be a heel, and it looks like they are about to turn him because they don’t have any choice. Jacob Fatu hasn’t changed his style or moveset at all from what I can see, if anything he has cranked up the intensity a notch since I last saw him in MLW. I will grant you that it will take some time for Cobb to adjust to WWE I guess, but he also has to bear some of the responsibility for how soft and ineffective he has looked since his debut. And again…I don’t dislike Cobb at all. I really liked what I saw of him in AEW, and the limited amount I saw of him in New Japan. And I’m not “body shaming” him either, but compare what he looked like when he was in AEW or even New Japan last year, to what he looks like now, and I think you will notice a definite difference. Whereas they are saying that Jacob Fatu dropped almost 60 pounds before he came into WWE because he knew how much was riding on this. I really wanted to enjoy Jeff Cobb in WWE. Hell, they have even managed to make some sense of the fact that he is not directly related to the rest of the guys in Sikoa’s version of the Bloodline, as referenced by Fatu’s “I don’t know him, I don’t like him, and he ain’t family” promo last night. All I’m saying is some of the responsibility for this lame debut has to fall on Cobb, just as much as it does WWE.

So Meltzer is apparently reporting that WWE actually wanted to call Jeff Cobb “JC Matanza” as a hybrid of his real/NJPW name, and his name from Lucha Underground, but they discovered when they bought the main ownership interest in AAA that did not include the intellectual property from Lucha Underground, and on top of that, apparently Cobb didn’t like the name, so they settled on JC Mateo. Tonight, at least he wore his traditional Jeff Cobb ring gear, but in my opinion, he still didn’t look great. He still looked chubby and out of shape, and he still broke out the useless rear bearhug during the commercial break.

If they ever do Wrestlemania in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi government is going to have to pay TKO an absolute fortune to do it. And that’s taking into consideration the fact that the Saudi shows usually actually generate more income for WWE than Wrestlemania does already. People come from all over the world to attend Wrestlemania, but there is always a huge contingent of fans who come from all over the United States and Canada. If they ran the show in Saudi Arabia, obviously that would no longer be possible, because even the most diehard of fans is not going to travel to the Middle East just to see a Wrestling show. So that will eliminate all the extra income they generate from the fanfests, and all the other promotional crap they do the week of the show, not to mention all the extra TV shows like Raw and Smackdown and the NXT shows and other stuff they shoot in the city at the same time. If you add all the production equipment and all that stuff to the equation, it would probably be a logistical nightmare to pull off. So the government would really have to make it worth their while. I’m not saying they won’t do it because they have definitely shown their willingness to spend ridiculously stupid amounts of money on entertainment, but it’s probably going to have to be a lot more than they normally shell out. I know the Royal Rumble is already going to be held there next year, but I always figured that was going to be about the biggest show they’re going to get. But then again, who knows. TKO certainly seem capable of doing just about anything if the price is right.

So they just announced All Out is going to be in Toronto in September at the Scotiabank Arena. You can seat around 18,000 people in that arena for Pro Wrestling but it depends how they configure the place, of course. They have only sold about 15,000 tickets for All In Texas, and that’s a stadium show, so I assume they will be draping off part of the arena for All Out. I guess that All Out being in September means Tony Khan figured out that doing All In and All Out on consecutive weekends isn’t going to work, especially if you don’t offer some sort of discount for people who purchase both shows. I have a buddy who really wants to go, but I don’t live in Toronto anymore, I’m a few hours outside the city now, plus there’s no way I will be able to afford a ticket anyways. Last time they ran Toronto, the tickets were $1,200. They finally came down a few days before the show because they didn’t sell out, but I honestly can’t be bothered. I think my days of going to Live Pro Wrestling shows are over, for a variety of reasons. EDIT: Oh shit…I just saw somebody mention online that the fact that they are doing the show in Toronto could indicate that this is where they are planning on having the big Cope & Christian vs. FTR match finally. That makes sense.

You could try contacting Charles via DM on Twitter, he will probably get back to you and maybe have some input about adding some new mods, at least.

When they initially started calling him “JC” at the start of the show last night, I didn’t think it was a big deal. I figured they were going to just keep calling him Jeff Cobb, but use JC for short. But then when he had the match, that’s when they rolled out the “Mateo” part, and I had the same thought as you…he was Jeff Cobb last Saturday, so what changed?

I have seen very little of Jeff Cobb. I saw every appearance he made in AEW, and a few select matches in New Japan back when I subscribed to New Japan World. The Jeff Cobb I saw back then did not resemble the “JC Mateo” I saw last night, believe me. There is a 3 minute or so highlight clip of his win over LA Knight last night on YouTube so people who don’t agree with me can feel free to check it out for themselves. After the show last night, I checked out the reviews and show recaps at a couple of different sites, and there was more than one reviewer who agreed with my opinion. His debut was not impressive. Like I said, I know Cobb was stocky before, and that’s fine, it was part of his look. But I don’t remember his belly hanging out like that. Either his old gear was a compression singlet to hide his gut, or he has put on weight lately. The bigger problem is that he was sucking wind like a vacuum cleaner, huffing and puffing after executing even the simplest moves. Mind you, I saw the commercial free version of the show where they stuck with the action during the commercial breaks, but still, Cobb spent a large portion of the match trying to hold Knight in some sort of weird rear bearhug or bodylock. Not only was it boring, but it was obvious that he was doing it because he needed to catch his breath. He managed to execute an impressive looking standing moonsault, but in my opinion, for the most part, he looked like total crap in that match. The stupid new name and the crappy new ring gear are definitely on WWE. They are hardly setting him up for success with that stuff, but if he keeps wrestling like he did last night, I don’t see him going very far.

OMG Cobb looks like shit. He took his shirt off and his gut is hanging out something serious, and he’s sucking wind like he’s out of gas already. I’m sorry this guy does not look good.

I can’t believe that the basis for the burgeoning rivalry between Jacob Fatu and Solo Sikoa is that Solo is upset that when Jacob tells Solo that he loves him, he doesn’t sound like he means it. I once had the exact same basis for a feud with one of my ex-girlfriends!

Jeff Cobb is shorter than I remember him being. He’s shorter than LA Knight! And his belly sticks out more than I remember. And now his name is JC Mateo. And he wrestles in his street clothes?

Jim Ross has colon cancer and is going in for surgery this week. Considering his age and his medical history, that is not great. Thankfully, JR no longer works for Vince McMahon otherwise we might be subjected to another hilarious “Dr. Heinie” comedy routine.

So apparently Billy Jack Haynes has been declared mentally unfit to stand trial for his wife’s murder. He has been sent to a mental hospital until he is deemed able to stand trial. I have already seen some people freaking out about this like he is getting away with something, but from my experience working in the system, life is a heck of a lot easier in prison than it is in a secure, state run mental hospital. Those places are a nightmare.