The Thread Killer

To quote Conrad Thompson: “I love you for that.”

I think it pretty much boils down to how much of a fan you are of Lucha as a style, and how much you are willing to suspend disbelief when you watch Pro Wrestling. I myself am a fan of old school Pro Wrestling and/or the harder hitting striking style, or mat based grappling stuff. I have never been able to really enjoy wrestling that is blatantly cooperative, with guys doing obviously choreographed tumbling routines that involve the opponent having to manoeuvre themselves into a particular position and then just stand or lie there for an extended period of time, waiting for the guy on offense to finally execute the move. That always takes me right out of the match. I saw that Vikingo/Komander match from the last ROH PPV. I have a buddy who is big time into Lucha, and he went nuts over that match…he said it was actually his favourite match on the whole show. For me, I was never bored during that match (how could you be?) but I can’t honestly say I enjoyed it, either. It’s just not a style I can get into. I certainly respect and admire the amount of skill it takes to do that kind of stuff. I have never been much for the “I love this style, so you should too and you’re an idiot if you don’t” attitude. I get why people love Lucha, and I can get why people think guys like Komander and Vikingo are some of the best and most exciting modern examples of that style, but I can’t honestly say I enjoy Komander matches either.

PAC is an outstanding talent and he absolutely should be on that show. Not in the Main Event, but I would have no issue with him competing for one of the secondary championships. The show is in England and he’s from England, his being featured on that show is a no brainer.

Strongly agree that The Righteous are what the original Wyatt Family could and should have been. Them doing a cult vs. cult feud with The Dark Order in ROH actually does have potential…provided it’s the original Dark Order. Vincent & Dutch vs. Uno & Grayson. If Bateman returns for The Righteous then Dark Order bring in John Silver.

To me, when it comes to Tony Nese it’s not a matter of ability, it’s a matter of booking. When he was in WWE, he was essentially enhancement talent. He has not been booked as much more than that in AEW. When they first announced that he and Josh Woods were going to be a tag team, I was extremely interested in the “Varsity Athletes.” Unfortunately, they never get booked on Dynamite, and they never win any matches, so what was the point? And then on the rare occasions I do see them, they are stuck with Aria Davari, Mark Sterling and this ridiculous “Trustbusters” gimmick. They are essentially the same as The Dark Order. Guys who never ever win, but are shoved down your throat.

In other news, Dax Harwood made a cryptic tweet this evening, saying that he will be making an announcement this week regarding the future of his podcast. So either he is trolling everybody, or he himself realizes that this is a very bad idea and the plug needs to be pulled for the sake of locker room harmony.

I agree. I have been looking around the “IWC” and reading some reviews of ROH on Honor Club, and a couple of other fans and reviewers have made the same points that I made in the weekly TV thread this week. Namely, there has been a noticeable decrease in the quality of the ROH TV show since they stopped airing the episodes filmed at Universal Studios. The shows which have been taped before or after Dynamite and Rampage just haven’t been as good. They don’t feel special or unique, and the matches have not been as good. (I am also glad to see I am not the only person who is not happy about paying money for the “privilege” of seeing Tony Nese and Mark Sterling EVERY WEEK.) Tony Khan needs to make a decision if ROH really is going to be a unique brand, or if it’s just the same as Dark and Elevation. And if it’s the latter…I will not pay for it. This point is especially important since it seems pretty much official that the new 2 hour Saturday Night TV show AEW Collision is going to be debuting on July 8, which is going to stretch Tony Khan even further.

Yes, Turner’s dementia is pretty advanced at this point unfortunately. Eric Bischoff mentioned on his podcast that he had communicated with him in the last year and things are not going well.

I would certainly hope, and I have enough confidence in Tony Khan to assume, that he is going to take full advantage of the relationships he has formed with companies like NJPW and AAA to pull out all the stops. AEW loves to throw around the term “Dream Match.” If he is ever actually going to book some, that sure would be the time.

It got reported this past week that Omega’s AEW contract has basically been extended until November because of all the time he missed last year with injuries. I know a lot of people were speculating he was actually thinking about testing the waters and seeing if he could go to WWE, not that I think that was all that likely anyhow, but now that Vince is back you have to assume that’s not even on the table. I would guess that the next contract Omega signs will be probably his last contract, and I would assume it will be dividing his time between AEW with some trips to New Japan and Mexico. Not unlike the contracts FTR just signed. I just hope guys like Omega and Punk make the smart decision for themselves and their families. They probably both only have a limited number of big matches left before their bodies totally break down, so I hope they go where they are properly compensated and can do the kind of work they want to do. In Omega’s case, I think the style that he works, puts a tremendous amount of pressure on his body and he does not strike me as the kind of guy to tone his style down, just to save himself from injuries. As far as Punk, I think it’s probably just age and the accumulation of his entire career catching up with him as well.

I love FTR to bits, and I listen to Dax’s podcast on occasion, depending on the topic. (I’d probably listen to it a lot more if Matt Koon didn’t cohost it.) But I do question the wisdom of an active pro wrestler, who is working for a major organization having a weekly podcast where he basically pulls back the curtain and talks about stuff that he probably shouldn’t be talking about. I don’t know why he can’t wait until he retires to do this. Apparently the biggest no-no in the business used to be letting “outsiders” into the lockerroom. I guess they used to have a very strict rule about that in the business, not that long ago. Now you have guys openly talking about backstage stuff on a podcast. It’s a small wonder that some of Dax’s coworkers don’t like it. I find that more often than not, I actually agree with his opinions on things, but I still think it’s a dumb idea to be sharing them at this point in his career.

I used to think that about Cash too. I assumed he would get a little annoyed with how much Dax pulls back the curtain. But I saw him interviewed Wrestlemania weekend, and at one point he was saying that if it was him doing the podcast he would probably be even worse than Dax. I think in reality those guys actually are super tight and are actual best friends which if you think about it is such a rarity when it comes to a tag team.

Oh by the way…for those of you who have been wondering “What happened to Action Andretti after he beat Jericho and then was briefly kind of involved in the Jericho/Starks feud?” He kind of vanished after that. He showed up in ROH last night. The Kingdom have been working an ongoing feud with Top Flight, which I assumed was over since Dante Martin broke his foot at the PPV and is going to be out for quite a long time, I guess. It looks like Action Andretti will be teaming with Darius Martin from this point on, and the feud will continue.

So I guess one of the reasons we were robbed of the “feel good” moment at the last ROH PPV is because Eddie is injured. This is yet another reminder of why he is probably the best and “realest” promo guy in all of Pro Wrestling right now. This is from last night’s ROH TV.

I don’t know how everyone else felt, but I thought last night’s episode of Dynamite started out really strong but then kinda fell apart as the show progressed. Oh yeah…and a hearty FUCK YOU TONY KHAN for using Silas Young as a guy to be squashed in under a minute, when you have about 50 other guys who could have done that job that are nowhere near as good as Silas.

I saw an extended clip of that. What a bizarre theory from Meltzer. Punk doesn’t really want to come back because his potential return has been leaked…and if he really did want to come back it would be a surprise, therefore this is all some sort of Machiavellian plan by Punk to screw with the EVPs? I think even Meltzer’s biggest defenders would have to admit he has made some glaring and in some cases bizarre mistakes during his handling of this entire story, right from the start.

Under normal circumstances, I would agree with you. However, supposedly Kenny and The Bucks are perfectly happy working trios matches…and with that scenario there is less chance of Punk getting injured…again. They could do what Cornette and Brian Last suggested and run Kenny and Don Callis vs. Punk and Ace Steel.

That’s the thing. McMahon even looks like a stereotypical creepy rapey guy now. And with his voice getting all raspy he sounds like one too. Where the hell is Dylan Farrow when you need him?

I agree.

The six man match can’t be the only main attraction but I think it could be part of a great overall package. You have to load that card. Add in a Sting retirement match, hell throw in Goldberg putting over Wardlow or Hobbs (sorry @El-P I know the match would suck but it would draw, no?) mix in a Danielson vs Okada or something, plus an MJF World Title match against someone good?

There is so much money in that match and it would be so fucking awesome if they did it. I really hope TK can make it happen.

I figured at the time that Punk’s injury was actually a blessing in disguise. It gave the situation a chance to cool down because he couldn’t come back right away after “the incident” even if he wanted to. I was hoping cooler heads would prevail in time. Hopefully despite Chris Jericho’s best efforts, that is going to happen. Whether you like him or not, having Punk on the card will definitely help that Wembley show.

Usually between 90 minutes to 2 hours. Because it is streaming and they are not having to fit within a network TV format, that time seems to fluctuate, depending on the matches.

I guess my problem is that, let's look at this week's episode of Dynamite. I can guess who is going to win most of those matches, but I'm not 100% sure. I don't know that Buddy won't beat Cassidy for the title (especially since I saw a rumor that they want to get the International Title off Cassidy and move him into a feud with MJF after this whole "Pillars" angle is done with Perry/Allin/Guevara.) I have no idea who is going to win between Jericho and Lee. It's even possible (although unlikely) that something interesting could happen with Swerve and Allin. And that's on free TV. Meanwhile I'm paying to watch ROH, and I can already tell (without checking the spoilers) who is going to win every match...or it's a match I don't care about enough to even want to find out. It wouldn't piss me off as much if the first month of the show hadn't been so much fun. As soon as they left Universal Studios half the talent disappeared and we got left with more Tony Nese. Yippie. I don't disagree with you about The WorkHorsemen. They teamed up with Shane Taylor last week against Mark Briscoe and The Lucha Brothers and I was actually pretty impressed. And I don't hate the fact that TK is basically using ROH as a chance to feature AEW guys that he likes to get more exposure and ring time. But give me more than one or two decent matches in a two hour show, FFS. I am worried he is turning ROH into his own version of ECW on SyFy...except that show was actually decent a lot of the time and you could watch it for free.

Normally I only agree with about 00.01% of your opinions, but you could not be more right about this, you are 100% spot on. I cannot fathom the amount of total apathy on the part of pretty much everybody...especially the so-called "mainstream media" when it comes to Vince McMahon's conduct. He has been totally exposed as somebody who at best had inappropriate sexual relationships with female coworkers and then used company money to pay them off, and at worse he's a fucking rapist...but nobody seems to give a shit. Major corporations don't hesitate to do business with him and there seems to be no outrage or blow back of any kind. It's bizarre. His misconduct gets a brief mention in passing, and then it's back to business as usual. There has to be a ton of people in Hollywood who got the "Me Too" treatment that are asking themselves how Vince is getting away with this shit.