The Thread Killer

This is starting to smell like a very poorly executed work. Aldis and Corgan have been slagging each other off in the wrestling media this week, and then it was announced today that Aldis will be appearing at Night 1 of the PPV and will be addressing the NWA in an “Open Forum.” I imagine it is safe to assume that something will happen which ends up with Aldis being inserted into the Main Event on Night 2. Or, Matt Cardona is supposed to face a mystery opponent on Night 1 maybe that will be, who knows. Trying to “work” online wrestling fans makes no sense whatsoever. It’s just irritating. It’s irritating when AEW does it and it’s irritating in this situation as well. I checked out the card for both nights of the pay-per-view and man, I don’t recognize half the names on that show. I know that thanks to NXT, MLW, AEW, and Impact, the NWA has basically no decent homegrown talent to pick from, but boy oh boy is that a talent pool weak. It’s like a who’s who of has-beens and those who never will be.

It’s a small wonder they did not promote it, it was nothing more than a simple show with good pro wrestling matches. I always assumed that Vince either didn’t know it existed or he forgot about it, otherwise he would’ve put a stop to it right away.

I didn’t hate NXT UK. They definitely flew under the radar, but if you looked for it there was some very good stuff there. Better than what was going on elsewhere, a lot of the time. Pete Dune’s reign was exceptional and produced some great matches. WALTER’s stuff was phenomenal. I would stack his matches against Bate and Dragunov against anything else that was going on anywhere in Pro Wrestling at the time…including the so-called “Main Roster” or even AEW or Japan. Those matches were good shit, pal. I don’t live in the UK so I did not have any particular investment in the independent scene over there. Obviously it sucks if WWE was using that brand to put UK indies out of business. But on the other side, thanks to that brand I got exposed to a lot of matches and talent I never would have seen otherwise I don’t think. I could only judge the brand by what I saw, and a lot of what I saw was very good. But clearly a lack of long term vision for the brand, corporate ineptitude and the pandemic all combined to kill it dead. We will have to see if NXT Europe ever actually happens. I wouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t.

If Jarrett just started that job in May and they are firing him already, I am betting he is getting himself a big, fat severance package too. With a lot of those executive jobs, it is written into the standard contract that even if they fire you for cause, they have to pay you out to get rid of you.

Yeah…then we ended up trading for Whit Merrifield from KC, so he ended up having to get jabbed anyhow

It’s also possible to be friends with a person who holds political beliefs you don’t agree with. Glenn Jacobs might have beliefs that Danielson strongly disagrees with, but I have heard Danielson talk about how much he respects him as a person. The Vince deal is different obviously. I myself have a couple of friends who have wildly divergent views from mine, but I still care about them and consider them very close friends. If I was to discover that one of them had done something unethical or illegal, that’s a different matter. For me to be friends with somebody, I have to have a basic level of respect for them. Based on some of the things that we have heard Vince has done, I don’t know how easy it would be to respect him as a human being. Then again, I guess loyalty goes a long way. I know a lot of people feel extreme loyalty towards Vince McMahon due to things he has done for them or opportunities he has given them. I guess everybody has their own different limit of how far that loyalty will stretch.

I don’t know how true it is, but I have seen rampant speculation that Dave Meltzer and AEW have begun to fall out of love with each other.

This week’s episode was about Foley’s match at Hostile City Showdown with Sabu. I found the episode to be pretty lacklustre and disappointing. I am a massive Sabu mark and was disappointed that there was very little discussion about him in the episode. I was hoping for some insight and didn’t get any. Foley seemed really lethargic this week and not into it, his memory was terrible. Conrad kept reading quotes from Foley’s book about the match and there were a couple of occasions where Foley said that he hadn’t remembered specific things that he himself had put in the book. He had a hard time remembering his actual reasons for quitting WCW in 1994, he actually ended up contradicting himself. Like I said, he seemed really off this week. Next week the topic is WWE Vengeance 2007. Not looking forward to that one at all, I didn’t even realize he had wrestled in the main event of that show.

If you believe Meltzer, Punk’s comments about Page were unplanned. I read elsewhere online today that my suspicions were correct, that interview Page gave last weekend was legit and he really doesn’t have much use for listening to advice or feedback from veterans. Apparently that rubs Punk the wrong way. Some are even reporting that there was legit tension between them leading up to their match when Punk won the title. Considering the way Page has been presented so far in AEW, walking around crying, carrying a glass of booze and hanging out with the Dark Order…maybe he ought to start listening to advice from veterans. Aside from that very brief period before his title win, he hasn’t exactly been setting the world on fire. And in that interview he gave at the convention, he kind of comes off like a bit of a jackass. I don’t think he’s had the kind of career so far where he can afford to be turning down advice from anybody, and if he does I don’t think it would kill him to be a little bit more respectful about it.

I hadn’t noticed that. I must have been too distracted by his copious bacne. I am sure I am probably in the minority with this opinion, but that Main Event did nothing for me. It came across like a choreographed tumbling routine. Not to mention, Kenny hadn’t even made it down the ramp before he was irritating me with his facial expressions and mannerisms. I didn’t miss him. There, I said it.

If they had to stick Wardlow and FTR in a six man match at the PPV, couldn’t they have picked one of the other million six man combinations or stables in AEW? Why does it have to be against these three guys? I don’t mind Lethal, but Dutt and Singh? Come on.

That bleached blonde security guy is getting more screen time on Dynamite than FTR ever does.

Memo to Jungle Boy: You have to hold the microphone in front of your face if you want people to hear you. OMG…AEW fans are doing the “What” chant?!

I was kind of hoping that the team that has been working on the independents lately, of Pillman Jr. & Brock Anderson, managed by Arn, might start happening in AEW?

Austin Gunn is SO strong that when he throws a punch, he doesn’t even need to connect…just the breeze is enough to knock somebody flat on their ass. Seriously though…WTF is this the night of the shitty looking strikes or something?! And while I’m bitching, FTR and Wardlow are both super hot right now, I can’t believe TK is putting them in a six man tag match with the geek squad at the pay-per-view.

No! No Hager! No Hager!

When I saw those punches, I could hear the voice of Stone Cold Steve Austin in my head: “Hell son, lay your shit in!”

That was my thought. AEW does have a history of using out of the ring stuff like that to build angles off TV, so maybe it was. It just struck me as too much of a coincidence that Punk would say those things about Page right after that interview got publicized.

I thought the exact same thing. For a guy who is supposed to be one of the biggest brawlers in Pro Wrestling, his punches looked like shit. He’s been working in GCW too much. Those were Janela punches. Still in all, great segment though. It’s just that Punk is on a level above Moxley, and that segment illustrated it clear as day.

I have to give huge credit to CM Punk, he actually managed to make me interested in seeing a Moxley match…which is not some thing I thought would ever happen, ever.

I think it might have something to do with that interview Page gave last weekend where he basically admitted that he does not listen when veterans try to give him advice. I don’t know if it was a legit interview or not, if it was I imagine it probably angered Punk, who is a big fan of respecting veterans and the people that came before him. That sounded like what he was alluding to. https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/hangman-page-says-he-s-too-stubborn-take-advice-takes-pride-trial-and-error

I think at this point, if the Bucks have anyone other than Omega as their partner, you are going to see some very upset fans. Even if it’s Adam Page, who has done precisely squat since losing the title. Also…I really don’t get this Daniel Garcia push. I know he barely ever actually wins a match (the recent win over Danielson being the obvious exception) but it’s more that I can’t believe the amount of TV time Garcia gets. He’s on TV practically every week, or at least it feels that way to me. And skills wise, he’s okay I guess but I don’t think he warrants the amount of attention he gets, especially compared to some of the other younger guys in AEW. Maybe I am missing something, I don’t know. But to me, Daniel Garcia does not come across as a future face of the company or a guy you build around.

I’m siding with @C.S. on this one. In my opinion, Gilbert > Janela. Mind you, in fairness I believe… A Potted Plant > Janela.