The Thread Killer

I was convinced he was trying to win the Robert Goulet lookalike contest.

I have been following MMA and UFC before Dana White was ever involved as a promoter or owner. Years ago, I even briefly worked as an MMA columnist. Back when I first started watching UFC Dana White was just a boxing manager who managed Chuck Liddell, before Zuffa bought into UFC. Trust me, as bad as Dana White can be, he is a total amateur when it comes to being an evil billionaire compared to Vince McMahon. He is no treat, and he has done some really sketchy shit, but there is no way he is anywhere near as bad as Vince.

What is the general consensus about all this stuff going on in the media this past week between Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins? There have been claims that they legitimately don’t like each other and got into a physical confrontation backstage. They have been pretty much slagging each other off in interviews, which is weird. WWE is not known for airing their dirty laundry, it’s not like they are AEW. Is that meant to be leading up to Seth being his first challenger when Cody wins the title?

I just assumed it was going to be LA Knight. Haven’t they’ve been doing an angle with him where he’s pissed he is not on the show and his guaranteeing that he’s going to be there? If Randy is really going to be making a surprise return, I would’ve imagined they would do it tomorrow night on RAW since that’s traditionally how they do things with surprise returns, the night after Wrestlemania and all that?

It’s funny you mention that, I was struck by that exact point just recently during the whole “Riho deleted her Twitter account after being bullied by Jim Cornette” fiasco. It has since been pretty much conclusively proven that Cornette had nothing to do with it. I don’t understand why people go to such great lengths to attribute stuff to Cornette that he didn’t actually do…when there is such a wealth of stupid shit that he DID do to criticize him for.

You are exactly right and I just can’t believe that Ari Emanuel is dumb enough to think that Vince McMahon would settle for the exact same deal.

Ari Emanuel is the CEO of Endeavour. He is the guy calling the shots, but he has been content for Dana to be the public face of the UFC, especially since Dana knows the MMA business better than pretty much anybody else. The difference between Dana White and Vince McMahon is that Dana was never solely in charge of the UFC. First he had the Fertitta Brothers and now he has Emanuel. Despite all of his bluster and his public persona, White knows how to take orders from somebody else when it comes to his company. There is NO way Vince will take orders from Ari Emanuel. I can’t see him and Vince coexisting. The only way this will work is if Vince has a title in name only, and basically takes a massive step back and never goes to work. And when has he ever shown the ability to do that?

At least Sasha actually let Kong get near her. I always laugh my ass off when I see one of those pictures where she’s posing with some fan whom she makes stand 4 feet away from her.

That’s what I thought. I remember when I first read the rumour about them buying the entire company, I looked up the “Saudi Public Investment Fund” and I was pretty shocked at the number of high profile companies that the Saudis own a not insignificant piece of.

So much this. No professional corporate board is going to put up with Vince McMahon’s control freak behaviour and micromanaging crap for long. No way.

That is not what he said about them. That’s an old Davey Richards/Austin Aries talking point which they tried to use against Cornette. He said Steen could “work his ass off” but needed to lose weight, or he’d end up blowing out both his knees. Cornette also said that Steen was a pain in the ass to deal with backstage and only ever wanted to work with his friends. Cornette absolutely did say that nobody would ever make it big time in the business wearing gear like Steen does, and he needed to trim his beard because he looked like a homeless person. But he never said Steen wasn’t good enough to make it in the business. Cornette is actually quite complimentary about Steen/Owens in ring work. Cornette said that Zayn was crazy for wrestling in a mask and not wanting to cut promos, since he’s a natural promo and his facial expressions are great. Over the past year, Cornette has been singing Sami’s praises so much as the best promo in Pro Wrestling that Zayn actually joked about it on Twitter with him. The while “Cornette saw nothing in Steen and Generico” talking point is about as true as the “Cornette secretly wanted to work an angle with The Young Bucks” talking point.

The other thing is, I suppose it’s technically possible for the Saudis to buy up a big chunk of the remaining stock after the sale, no? Don’t they already own a big piece of Newcastle United and a bunch of banks and stuff?

I just watched the ROH post show press conference. I know there are a lot of people who do not share Mark Briscoe’s spiritual beliefs. But even if you don’t, when you listen to him talk, he is one of the most inspiring people. He has shown so much strength throughout this whole ordeal, it’s really something to see.

I just watched the ROH show. It was really good, but there were a couple of problems. Firstly, I don’t mean to sound like Jim Cornette here, but that injury to Dante Martin pretty much perfectly encapsulated what I hate about modem Pro Wrestling. That kid badly injured himself and is now going to be out injured for who knows how long, and why? Doing a stupid dangerous spot during a match full of stupid and dangerous spots. Top Flight are talented enough, they don’t need to be doing insane shit like that. In the last year alone, look at what happened to Rey Fenix and Julia Hart and I’m probably forgetting a bunch of other accidents as well. Secondly, having Mark Briscoe lose that match, in front of his weeping parents and kids, and then following that up with Eddie losing too? That certainty is was…a choice. I am all in on the new ROH. I subscribed to Honor Club, I watch the new show every week and it is generally excellent. I will gladly continue to pay for the pay-per-views. I am on board. But I think TK needs to put a little bit more thought into balancing his shows out a bit better and knowing that at some point you have to send the fans home at least a little happy.

Seats are starting to fill up. Fashionably late crowd. Seriously…Ethan Page would fit in perfectly in NXT and that’s not a compliment. If this is leading to a match Hook had better choke his ass out. Hook has it. Page not so much. LOL MJF compared Jungle Boy to Kanye!

Lot of visibly empty seats in this arena. Ethan Page is bland and his facial expressions are ridiculously exaggerated. I’m over Jungle Boy. Just watching Matt Hardy trying to walk makes me sad for him.

I don’t think Dave is on the AEW payroll at all. Hell, lately, he has even been sniping a little bit back-and-forth with TK. I just think he is ridiculously biased, and on top of that he treats what his precious sources tell him as gospel without bothering to look into both sides. And that’s a real problem because he is still looked upon as pretty much the final word in Pro Wrestling journalism.

I think calling Punk a “cancer” is taking a simplistic and somewhat one sided view of this situation, and Punk in general. There can’t be much doubt that he’s clearly difficult to work with, and that’s putting it kindly. Okay, let’s be honest…he’s an asshole. But there is definitely another side to the story and you can’t just write the whole thing off as Punk being a locker room cancer. You can tell quite a lot by taking a close look at who really dislikes Punk, and what kind of people they are, and what we know about how they behave behind the scenes. And then look at who does like Punk, and what they like about him. Punk should not have done what he did, but this is not all on him. I still say he brings a ton of value to AEW, and they were better with him than without him. One of the things that almost gets overlooked in this whole mess is how great a lot of did he did in AEW was. I think Punk is one of those performers who is not unlike a lot of different talented musicians, or actors or other types of artists. They might be a pain in the ass to deal with, but generally it’s worth it because they get great results. And I don’t think he’s acting like a jerk just for the sake of being a jerk, I think he is trying to accomplish something and gets pissed off when other people don’t share his philosophy. Dude definitely needs to relax, but I don’t think he’s a cancer.

I don’t know if it will happen and it probably won’t…but I still think there is money in an Elite vs. CMFTR feud and I think all those guys are professional enough to pull it off. And thanks to all this drama, the heat and fan reaction would probably be off the charts.

Strongly disagree. Saying “everyone” is an overstatement in my opinion. I think there is a large number of guys in the AEW locker room that don’t want him back, but there is also a bunch of guys who would be perfectly happy if he did come back. I don’t question the theory that the anti-Punk camp is bigger…but I don’t think we’re talking about everyone. The problem is that the guys who don’t want Punk back are a hell of a lot more vocal than the ones that do. And at this point, it seems to be increasingly obvious that a certain aging, balding, alcoholic, wannabe rock star is the one leading the anti-Punk ranks…not even the EVP’s.

I listened to the whole podcast and kinda wish I hadn’t. Clearly Moxley is not impressed with the absurd amount of backstage drama that goes on in AEW. (And really…how could you be?) But he was mature enough not to point fingers, name names, or do anything else which would perpetuate the cycle of stupidity and clickbait. The rest of the hour consisted of him talking about working the indies, their new cat, his wife kissing his ass and gushing over what great legs he has, and him grousing about how old timers have the audacity to criticize the fact that his matches are ridiculous over the top gore fests, and that he seems to be incapable of appearing on TV for more the 30 seconds without bleeding all over the fucking place. I’d say about ten minutes of the hour long interview was actually interesting, and that’s probably being generous. If anything, I found it interesting what he didn’t say…not what he actually said.

El Hijo del Vikingo is scheduled to defend his AAA Mega Championship against Kommander this Friday at Supercard of Honor as well. Should be interesting. I know it has gotten zero interest and discussion here at PWO, but the new weekly ROH show on the Honor Club streaming service has been outstanding so far. They have done a great build up to the PPV this weekend. I am especially looking forward to Claudio vs. Eddie Kingston for the ROH World Title, and Joe vs. Mark Briscoe for the TV Title. Plus Yuta is defending the Pure Title against Shibata from New Japan and there is a 5 Way Ladder Match to crown new Tag Champs. Even the build for the 6 Man Title match has been great, even though it will involve Brian Cage. At least that will be counter balanced by Metalik. I asked @Loss to add a new ROH subforum to the AEW folder here because I will likely recap the weekly shows going forward for the Tony Khan era ROH. It’s good shit, pal.

I agree that the most shocking takeaway from this whole thing is that Punk has never seen a Rocky movie, because dude WTF?

He has also always been a huge Dynamite Kid fan too…guess he took that to an absurd level as well?