The Thread Killer

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.

Time for my weekly rant about ROH. Here is the lineup for Thursday’s show: * ROH World Championship Match: Claudio Castagnoli (c) vs. Metalik * Mike Bennett vs. Darius Martin * Skye Blue vs. Kelly Madan * Wheeler Yuta vs. Tracy Williams * Willow Nightingale vs. Little Mean Kathleen * Mark Briscoe vs. Ari Daivari * ROH Women’s World Championship Proving Ground Match: Athena (c) vs. Ashley D’Amboise * Katsuyori Shibata & Alex Coughlin vs. The WorkHorsemen (Anthony Henry & JD Drake) * Tony Nese vs. Stu Grayson Okay seriously…what the actual fuck is this garbage? Did a drunk monkey book this show? There is not one match on this card that isn’t either totally uninteresting, or the result is a foregone conclusion. Like I said in last weeks thread, the first month of the ROH TV show was outstanding in my opinion. As soon as they moved away from the matches they taped at Universal Studios, the quality has gone right down the crapper. They taped these matches before the Rampage/Battle of the Belts show last week. Apparently they are trying to continue the Kingdom/Top Flight feud which has been building since the show started. The only problem is that Dante Martin is going to be out for ages with a broken foot. So either Darius gets a new partner, or this whole thing seems kind of pointless. They are basically using Tracy Williams as an enhancement talent at this point, or in a Tag Team with Rhett Titus. There isn’t much doubt that Wheeler Yuta is going to beat him. Tony Khan seems determined to make Yuta a big deal, but I just can’t take that guy seriously. He is technically skilled I guess, but his promos make me laugh. He sounds like an angry kid who is upset that he got ripped off on his paper route. If you have seen the ROH show since the relaunch then you know that Ari Davari is ALL over these damn shows. Between him and Mark Sterling, they are on every episode, sometimes more than once. Obviously, Mark Briscoe is going to beat him but this ridiculous feud between Mark Briscoe and the so-called “Trustbusters” needs to end…now. I am definitely down for Shibata and Coughlin as a team but The WorkHorsemen? Come on. There are three women’s division matches on this show, and I have no interest in any of them. They have been pushing the hell out of Athena and she has been great in the role, but they seem to be picking some very strange opponents for her who are either totally obscure or people we are supposed to know, but I don’t. I have no interest in any of those three matches. Which brings us to one of the most egregious matches on this card. I pay $10 a month for Honor Club. So that basically means I am actually paying money to watch Tony Fucking Nese fight Stu Fucking Grayson. I can hear @C.S. laughing at me from here. The Main Event is probably going to be awesome, but as much as I love Metalik, does anybody think he has a hope in hell of beating Claudio Castagnoli? I will watch it because I’m sure it will be a great match, but come on. Call me old fashioned but if you are asking people to pay $10 a month to watch your damn show, shouldn’t you be putting something out there that is worth watching? I don’t know what the hell is going on, if Tony Khan deliberately booked an excellent first month of shows, and then made the decision to stop trying or stop putting as much effort into the matchmaking, but if he does not pull his head out of his ass, and start putting on better shows, I am definitely cancelling my subscription at the end of the month. It’s only been one month and look at that lineup. ROH has already become a version of Dark or Elevation except you’re expected to pay for it.

Tonight’s show could be alright. Cassidy vs. Buddy should be pretty good. Apparently TK has figured out from looking at the ratings that Orange Cassidy is guaranteed to bring in good numbers and he is featured now pretty much every week. I think they could be doing a lot more with Buddy, but you could say that about half the roster. i’m not crazy about Swerve fighting Darby. It could be and should be a great match, but Darby is being pushed towards the World Title so I can’t see him losing and I would hate to see Swerve lose this one. I am very curious to see how Keith Lee looks against Jericho. Based on those guys, that could be a very slow, lumbering match. Anything that gets Silas Young on TV is also good with me, but truth be told, he is basically nothing more than an enhancement talent at this point.

Tonight’s lineup so far… AEW International Championship: Orange Cassidy (c) vs. Buddy Matthews * AEW TNT Championship: Powerhouse Hobbs (c) vs. Silas Young * Keith Lee vs. Chris Jericho * Swerve Strickland vs. Darby Allin * Riho & Skye Blue vs. Ruby Soho & Toni Storm * Jon Moxley & Claudio Castagnoli vs. Brandon Cutler & Michael Nakazawa * MJF’s presence is mandatory

So there’s a news story going around that claims Vince McMahon’s new WWE contract has a morality clause or “Code of Contract.” Smart move by Endeavour, and hilarious if true.

True. I just saw him in the A&E Dusty Biography. Any man that is still rocking a mullet and Sam Elliott moustache over 30 years after stealing his biggest rival’s wife is clearly winning at life.

I agree. Swerve is fine the way he is. He really doesn’t need to be part of a stable or group or whatever. Just push the hell out of the guy, he’s awesome.