The Thread Killer

It’s hardly a technical masterpiece but for my money this Swerve in our Glory vs. Shane Taylor Promotions match is a lot of fun.

The consensus I am seeing on Twitter is that Dralistico was supposed to kick out but didn’t do it in time…so rather than pretending he did, the ref went ahead and counted three. I have a hard time believing Fox & Christian were supposed to win that, especially in that fashion.

Something definitely got seriously fucked up there but I am not sure what. Those guys did not look like they were on the same page for the entire match, and a bunch of stuff got screwed up, but something went very wrong with that finish.

I missed the whole Preston Vance unmasking deal…no Rampage here. So at first I was: “Who the hell is that dude with Rush?”

That entire pre-show was great. Gran Metalik vs. Jeff Cobb was a lot of fun.

It’s his life, Darby can do what he wants. I appreciate him basically killing himself for our entertainment. But you would think he would take a serious look at the way Matt Hardy hobbles around the locker room and can barely move, and understand that is definitely in his future… if not worse. But I don’t understand the mentality of those daredevil types. Ever since Misawa died, it makes me a lot more uncomfortable watching guys do physically risky stuff in the ring. Especially because it is easily possible to have a great match without doing that kind of stuff. But as @Timbo Slice pointed out, Darby has been doing that stuff all his life. If he wasn’t doing it in AEW he would be driving his bike off a roof or something.

I was enjoying the build up to the feud between Miro and The House of Black and was really looking forward to Miro vs. Malakai…but that didn’t happen because of Black’s injury and then Miro vanished into the Tony Khan Booking Bermuda Triangle.

FTR/BRISCOES III BITCHES

Exactly. I don’t think TK should take the World Title off MJF yet, it’s way too soon for that. But I really hope Ricky’s push doesn’t evaporate after next week, although I suspect it will. I am really starting to doubt if TK has the ability or attention span required to juggle multiple storylines at once. Unless they involve Daniel Garcia and/or Wheeler Yuta…in which case his attention to detail is unmatched.

Man Starks was on fire there, damn. He knocked that out of the park. You never get to hear great passionate sounding promos like that in WWE. The format might be similar. but AEW has it all over WWE when it comes to segments like that.

That Battle Royal spot where Jungle Boy dropkicked Brian Cage in the back, who then very slowly kind of threw himself over the top rope? That was fucking terrible. Cringeworthy.

I am really hoping that Tony Khan doesn’t make us wait any longer than tonight to find out who FTR are defending against on Saturday. I am also hoping The Briscoes will be getting a match with somebody as well. I am also a little bit afraid that it won’t be a straight up Tag Title match. I am hoping we don’t end up seeing a 4 way or whatever. I would just like to see the remainder of the ROH show finalized tonight, considering the damn show is in less than 72 hours.

Strongly disagree, but I am admittedly partial to his in ring style.

I think Regal loved the character based stuff he has done throughout his career. I think for a guy who is known as a great technical wrestler he has a vastly more open minded opinion of the “sports entertainment” aspect of Pro Wrestling than most other “technical” guys of his era. He gets how important that is. But I think if you asked Regal to choose between being an on screen character and working as a coach and helping develop talent behind the scenes, he wouldn’t even bat an eye before jumping at the coaching job. I think he wants to share what he knows, and he’s going to have a vastly greater chance to do that in WWE. Plus he gets to work for his friend, and with his son. The guy is a pro, through and through. He’s not going to have a negative word to say about AEW once he leaves, nor should he. His run there was successful in its own way. It was a great opportunity for him to work with his old friends. But it’s pretty obvious that if he had known when he got fired that Vince was going to be out and Triple H was going to be coming back in (in charge no less) there is no way he would’ve ever taken the job with AEW.

So Tony Khan made it official today during the ROH media call. Regal did have an out clause in his contract, and he asked Tony Khan to exercise it so he could go back and work as a coach in WWE, and Khan allowed it. Sounds like the only condition is that Regal cannot appear on WWE TV as an on screen character for the entire year 2023. I guess one of the factors leading to Regal asking to go, was that he is just working in AEW as an on screen talent, whereas in WWE, he will be working as a coach. His son Charlie Dempsey/Bailey Mathews was one of the talents who survived the closure of NXT UK and is now on the NXT roster, and Regal apparently cited that as a big motivation for wanting to go back to WWE to help bring his kid along. It is pretty obvious from listening to Regal’s podcast that his passion is for coaching not for being on screen. So now that Vince is gone, it makes all the sense in the world that he wants to go back where he will be most useful.

I haven’t watched MLW in years, but I just read the unfortunate news that Richard Holliday has Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and is in the middle of chemotherapy. That’s very sad news. Back when I used to watch MLW, he, MJF and Hammerstone were the highlights for sure. Even if he manages to beat this, being able to work again after that kind of debilitating illness is a long, tough road back…if it is even possible.

I am hoping it means they work Wrestle Kingdom in January at least.

April is not that far away. I love FTR. They are one of the main reasons that I even watch AEW to begin with. But if there’s even a chance they are going to walk in April (and I’d say there is) then there is no way that TK should take the World Tag Titles off The Acclaimed and put them on FTR. And I say that as the biggest FTR fan I know. AEW has captured lightning in a bottle and actually managed to build on a natural phenomenon with The Acclaimed. They should do everything they can to ride it out and not mess it up. A lot of people seem to think that a TV deal for ROH is imminent. If that’s the case, leave the ROH tag titles on FTR and let them have classic matches in ROH to their hearts content. And they also have the IWGP belts, and that ain’t nothing either. I say leave The Acclaimed alone.

Regal is hardly one of the veterans that is going around grumbling about how things were better back in his day, these kids today can’t work, blah blah blah. He is on the record as being a fan of Orange Cassidy. He even did that hilarious bit where he sold being cursed by Danhausen. He doesn’t hate modern wrestling or modern wrestlers. This whole thing is ridiculously simple. Regal is a lifelong friend of Triple H, and along with Shawn Michaels was one of Triple H’s key guys. When Trips fell out of favour with Vince, Vince fired Regal to fuck with Triple H. Bryan Danielson loves Regal (as do a lot of other guys) so he helped get him a job with AEW. From there, it sounds like nobody really knows what the truth is…including Meltzer. Some people say Regal signed a nine month to one year deal. Some say it was a three year deal. Some say whatever deal he signed has an “out clause.” Some say it was a handshake deal. The version I heard, that I’d like to believe is true, is that when he signed with AEW, Regal told Tony Khan that if he ever got the chance to go back to WWE, he’d like to. Tony Khan has been very open about how much he likes and respects Regal…so maybe he agreed to that. Bottom line is, there is nothing we know about Tony Khan that would lead us to believe that he would ever let Regal have the same level of influence in AEW that he did in NXT/WWE. So why force him to stay? There has also been nothing to indicate that TK is a vindictive asshole like Vince McMahon and would force Regal to be there out of spite. It’s not like he’s an active wrestler like Black or Andrade. I could see Khan granting Regal a release under the condition that he doesn’t appear on screen during the duration of his AEW contract term. I have seen both on Twitter, and another pro wrestling message board that I frequent a bunch of AEW fans who are basically roasting Regal for having the audacity to want to return to WWE. Calling him disloyal, and that is where this whole ridiculous narrative seems to be coming from that Regal wants to leave because these punk kids in AEW won’t listen to him. There has been absolutely nothing to indicate that Regal is a Jim Cornette type. In a lot of cases, it seems like hard-core AEW fans are basically butthurt that somebody would dare to leave Xanadu and return to the evil empire. Fuck those people. They are just projecting their own stupid tribalist bullshit onto a guy who wants to work with his friend in an environment where he can be most useful.

Yeah I have mixed feelings about them going back as well. Triple H certainly has a much greater respect for Tag Team wrestling than Vince ever did, as evidenced by the tag division in NXT when he was in charge. Plus, unlike in AEW they’d probably be featured on TV and PPV consistently. The fact that they go for weeks at a time without being on TV in AEW, and the fact that they did not have a straight up Tag Team match on the last two PPV’s is just ridiculous. However, the level of competition would probably not be as good for them if they went back to WWE, they probably would not be able to go to Japan if they wanted to, and they probably would not be able to work the Indies. Plus, the schedule would probably be a little bit harder for them. I just wish Tony Khan would feature them consistently.

Lord knows they don’t have a future as promoters, after that fiasco this past summer.

I actually really liked Eric Young as the leader/mouthpiece for Sanity in NXT. Problem was they got called up to the Main Roster and were promptly Vinced. Sanity was a perfectly acceptable midcard stable. Hell, at one point I had been hoping they’d end up as Bray Wyatt’s new Family…but obviously that never happened. IIRC, Sanity were a Triple H project. So who knows? Maybe he brings back Wolfe and Dain too, and gives them another shot? Why not? They’re a million times better than Hit Row at least. I thought at one point, Trips was very high on Dain but maybe he needs EY as a mouthpiece?

Although I think the name LA Knight is ridiculous, for the first time in years I think the stars are aligning for this guy and he’s finally going to break through. He’s a solid worker and he’s got the proverbial “it factor” that you can’t teach. He is a natural on the microphone and he connects with the audience. I know some people like to slag him off as a hybrid wannabe Stone Cold/Rock type…but he is still head and shoulders above most of the WWE roster when it comes to charisma. He is one of the reasons I have finally started paying attention to WWE again. When it comes to Kross? Yeah…not so much. He had a great look, and that was about it. When you are a bald muscled up guy, it’s probably not a great idea to grow your hair out and work for a company that tests for steroids, let’s put it that way. Especially when you have nothing else to bring to the table.

Did it really lose viewers? I actually really appreciated TK putting that match in the Main Event, because as soon as it started I knew it was safe for me to change the channel for the rest of the show and because it was the last match, I knew I wasn’t going to worry about switching back in case I might miss anything important after the flip and dive show.

Yeah, that guy does nothing for me. I thought him and Josh Alexander were an outstanding Tag Team but I couldn’t give less of a shit about him as a singles wrestler. He’s the definition of unremarkable.