The Thread Killer

How was the Briscoes/Good Brothers Tag Title match? I had wanted to see it, but I thought the Good Brothers had really lost a step over the last few years, specifically Gallows. I know the Briscoes can pull a decent match out of pretty much anybody but I thought the Good Brothers might be a challenge, even for them.

The outpouring of condolences on social media for Tim White is pretty overwhelming. It sounds like that guy was loved by everybody who knew him.

I wish Conrad would use Jon Alba as the cohost on all of his other podcasts and get rid of Paul Bromwell. Although, I am pretty excited he is working with Sean Oliver now for the Kevin Nash podcast.

I too frequently attend live Pro Wrestling events and hold up signs which are completely blank. I feel it adds to the aura of mystery which surrounds me.

The thing I find hilarious about this whole discussion, is that from what I gather from reading other posts they have made, I think it is a pretty safe bet that both @C.S. and @El-P are pretty far to the left on the political spectrum. Never thought I’d see the day that I would see somebody accuse Jerome of misogyny. Terrible taste in wrestling sure, but never this.

He has given a bunch of interviews where he has said that he has no interest whatsoever in ever being a full time singles wrestler. He also claims he wants to retire very early. But who knows, I have heard a lot of guys say that and then they end up sticking around for a variety of reasons. At this point he seems pretty sincere about being a Tag Team wrestler exclusively.

Uh, can I just be the voice of reason here, and point out that Vince McMahon is innocent until proven guilty? We don’t know what really happened behind the scenes. If anything, it sounds to me like this is all on Johnny Ace and Vince might not have even known what was going on. That has happened in the past, Johnny Ace has cruelly mistreated somebody and we have later found out that Vince was unaware. Like when all those talents have been released, many of them said that Vince or Hunter liked them and would have kept them around but it was Johnny Ace who fired them. Not Vince. I’m just saying, based on everything we know about him as a human being and as a professional, if anybody deserves the benefit of the doubt it is Vince McMahon.

There is a hilarious clip on YouTube of the late, great Norm MacDonald as a guest on Conan O’Brien’s show. They are talking about that sprinter who killed his girlfriend Oscar Pistorius. Norm mentions it, and then Conan quickly interjects and says “allegedly.” Norm agrees, and says “Yes, allegedly. But also…really.”

Because on the off chance that Hardy actually decides to fight the charge, and is miraculously found not guilty, he then has a legal case for libel against anybody who declared him guilty before a legal conviction. The odds of that happening are minuscule of course, but on the off chance it could happen, the theoretical slanderer could conceivably have to pay thousands just to defend against a charge of libel. Better to just throw the word “alleged” in as a qualifier, to legally cover your ass.

I finished the second episode last night. It was pretty good but @Matt D is spot on and pretty much hit the nail on the head in his analysis of the dynamic between Matt Koon and Regal. Regal is very charming and interesting to listen to, but I can see his standard responses getting really old, really quickly without a host that can keep him on topic and hold his feet to the fire a bit more.

Interesting look at the rankings based on download numbers, of North American Pro Wrestling podcasts for last week, as determined by Apple podcasts: 1. Foley is Pod 2. Gentleman Villain 3. Jim Cornette’s Drive Thru 4. Talk is Jericho 5. Something To Wrestle With 6. Busted Open 7. The Jim Cornette Experience 8. Grilling JR 9. Oh You Didn’t Know? 10. My World 11. To Be The Man 12. The Sessions with Renee Paquette 13. DDP Snake Pit 14. 83 Weeks 15. The Steve Austin Show (?!) 16. What Happened When 17. AEW Unrestricted 18. What Culture Wrestling 19. After the Bell with Corey Graves 20. The Kurt Angle Show *** Granted, this is only based on Apple podcast numbers and not any other platform, but you have to assume that the rankings and total downloads are probably pretty similar no matter the platform. Some interesting observations here: - Everything single one of Conrad’s podcasts are ranked in the top 20 except for Arn and Matt Hardy’s. There have been rumours going around that Arn’s podcast is barely getting any listeners and that they are thinking of pulling the plug on it, and based on this those rumours might be true? - There have been no definitive figures released, but rumour has it that Foley‘s podcast has done monster numbers so far. - Pritchard‘s podcast is still a beast even though it has gone downhill steadily and he has been phoning it in for the last few years. - 83 Weeks has taken quite a nosedive. At one point it was Conrad‘s second most popular show. I think the fact that they have run out of new topics and have been reduced to doing watch alongs of old Nitro episodes has really hurt the show. Mind you, Bishoff has that new AFS Exclusive show with Jon Alba called “Strictly Business” that concentrates solely on the business and financial end of Pro Wrestling. I have heard good things about it from people I know that are still signed up with AFS, but I am not re-subscribing at this point. - Busted Open is way more popular than I would have expected. Same with Renee’s show. - I can’t believe Road Dogg has a podcast in the Top 10. I can’t help but wonder if this is still a novelty or if the show has legs. - What Culture has a podcast?! - I can’t believe how popular the Steve Austin show still is, it is totally reruns now. He hasn’t released a new episode in a very, very long time. Conrad once said in an interview that Austin’s show does crazy numbers, and based on this I have to believe it. - Both Conrad and Brian Last have claimed separately that if you have a podcast that does more than 350,000 weekly downloads, you can easily make a six-figure income from your show, based on getting a contract with a Madison Avenue advertising agency. Sean Oliver confirmed this as well in an interview I saw with him. Jim Cornette has not one, but two shows in the Top 10. That dude must be laughing all the way to the bank. And LOL at the fact that not one of Brian Last’s other multiple shows are sniffing the Top 20. No wonder he is so crazy jealous of Conrad Thompson and never passes up an opportunity to take a shot at him.

That’s pretty much my concern too. I am not sure if Matt Koon has the ability (or the inclination) to reign Regal in when he starts to meander. That’s kind of why I now wish that Conrad was hosting the show. He has a ton of experience from dealing with Eric Bischoff in keeping the host on topic, or at least getting them back on topic when they wander off.

The first episode was about the NXT reaction to the launch of AEW. The second was the “Real Man’s Man” gimmick. The next is about the first NXT Takeover. I am starting to worry that Conrad and Company don’t know that Regal wrestled in England or WCW.

I am into the second episode now. I don’t hate it. Over the years, Foley has gotten on my nerves at times, but the man is a natural storyteller and the last few years of doing his one-man show have definitely helped him hone the ability to recount different tales from his career. Both of these first two episodes are pretty much rehashing stuff that Foley covered in his books, but they are still pretty enjoyable. If you have not read his books, I would highly recommend this podcast. If you have, you are not going to hear anything new here but that doesn’t mean it is not worth listening to.

They erroneously assumed that because he worked backstage in NXT that he would be able to share the details of how NXT reacted to the launch of AEW. That was very poorly planned for two reasons. Firstly, Regal was not around in NXT at that point because he was literally on his deathbed. Secondly, he has made it pretty clear he has no intention of dishing dirt regarding the backstage details of stuff in WWE/NXT. Regal did a very good job of hiding his illness from the so-called “wrestling media” because as I said, I think the story flew pretty much under the radar at the time. So I don’t necessarily blame them for not knowing that, however to me it seems to be common sense that you would run the topic for the very first show past the host well ahead of time, and find out if he had anything to contribute to the conversation. It almost felt as if Matt Koon was finding out while they were recording that Regal had nothing to contribute to the topic. As I said though, that does not mean this is not worth a listen, especially if you like to hear William Regal’s take on the industry in general and him explaining his general philosophy. Like I said in my original post, I think it’s hilarious that they managed to do over two hours on a topic that Regal really was not involved with directly. The topic for next week is the “Real Man’s Man” gimmick.

As somebody who is a big MMA fan (I have been watching since pretty much day one, when it was “NHB” not MMA) and I have a large group of friends who are also fans of MMA, and not pro wrestling…including family who actually train in the sport… Believe me, “Interim titles” are not even necessarily all that popular with hard-core MMA fans either. @sek69 hit the nail right on the head, it’s really just a promotional tactic to try and sell PPVs, and it dilutes the importance and significance of championship titles. From where I sit, most interim champions are not seen as legitimate and I don’t know anybody who thinks they are a good idea aside from promoters. You end up getting a guy who misses one title defense because of an injury, and the promotion ends up slapping an interim championship fight in the mix for a short time. It’s really stupid, and like I said it delegitimizes the actual legit champions. Any other legit MMA fans around here can feel free to argue with me, but that is the way I have always seen it. I was disheartened to see that trend starting to appear in pro wrestling as well.

I am just really glad that they are not stripping Punk of the title and that they are going to have an Interim Champ. Because if there is one thing AEW needs, it’s more people walking around carrying title belts.

So the first episode of this show was released yesterday, and I just finished listening to it. I figured I'd share my initial impressions and see what other PWO Good Brothers thought. We talked about this podcast in the Conrad Thompson thread here in the Podcast folder, but I figured that now the show has officially premiered it probably deserves it's own thread. Firstly, this was definitely not like the other podcasts on the Ad Free Shows service. All of those shows follow Conrad Thompson's tried and true blueprint. Namely, the host (usually but not always Conrad himself) announces a topic and follows some very specifically researched questions/bullet points regarding that topic. The format is usually liberally sprinkled with quotes and opinions from Dave Meltzer and the Observer, who along with Wade Keller and the Torch, seem to be the primary research source for these shows. The star of the show then reacts to this research and shares their memories and opinions of the topic being discussed. The first difference with this show is that Matt Koon is the cohost. Once you hear his voice, you will likely recognize it. Koon has done a lot of voice-over work on the other AFS podcasts, especially in the early days of Something to Wrestle. Koon had actually stopped working with Conrad and moved on to other endeavours, however this past week he mentioned on Twitter that he came back to specifically be the new cohost of this show. I can't really rate how he did, for reasons we'll get into in a moment. Secondly...this podcast went off the rails pretty quickly, but not in a bad way. Matt Koon tried to follow the the Conrad Thompson blueprint, but he was unable to do it. The topic announced was "The Emergence of AEW." The problem was that William Regal had very little to contribute to the subject, because at the time AEW was forming and taking it's first steps, Regal was seriously ill and almost died. I know this story about Regal almost dying really flew under the radar. In fact, I had no idea that Regal had been seriously ill over the past few years. At this point, I highly recommend that if you didn't know about this story (like I didn't) you search out the two part episode of "Talk is Jericho" featuring William Regal that Jericho hosted with William Regal shortly after his AEW debut. It's really something. The entire first part of the episode is just Regal recounting his horrific health challenges that he has faced over the past few years. It is an extremely compelling, very emotional podcast and I really recommend it. During this debut episode of his own podcast, Regal actually asks his listeners to go and listen to Jericho show if they want to know about his illness, because he doesn't want to go through reliving it all again. I don't blame him, because during the Jericho show, Regal actually broke down reliving it all...something I am sure he didn't want to do on the very first episode of his own show. So unfortunately, Regal couldn't really discuss the birth of AEW, because he missed most of it...but that doesn't mean this podcast is not worth listening to. Far from it. As a matter of fact, they should really rename this show "The World According to William Regal." I never would have guessed it...but this man apparently LOVES to talk. And I don't mean that in an insulting way...but I am telling you, once Koon handed over the show to Regal, Regal pretty much took the ball and ran with it. I can't honestly tell you how Koon did as a cohost, because he barely got a word in edgewise. Once Regal started talking...about his life, his experience and most importantly his philosophy about working with talent...he was off to the races and there was no reigning him in. It's funny...I always viewed Regal as somewhat soft-spoken and reticent to talk about himself. Which in a way, I think he still is. I was worried that he wasn't going to have much to say or that the host would have to pull answers out of him, and I those fears I had are pretty much dead already. The YouTube version of the show ran well over two hours...and that was with Regal discussing a situation that for the most part, he wasn't even involved in! I can't imagine how long he'll go once they talk about something he actually experienced firsthand. I think the bottom line is this...if (like me) you are a William Regal fan and if you've found him engaging, informative or entertaining when he was a guest on other shows then I think you are probably going to love this show, because as I said...the man is not shy about sharing his philosophy about Pro Wrestling in general and he does not hesitate to go into great detail about how he views the industry and working with talent. If you are looking for a show where the host just reads off a list of questions and the subject gives answers and dishes backstage dirt...this is probably not going to be the show for you. Regal has already made it abundantly clear since he left WWE that he's not going to bash his former employers and he reiterated that here. That just doesn't seem to be the kind of guy he is, and I am personally fine with that...I am here for listening to his unique take on Pro Wrestling. The only other piece of advice I would give regarding this show would be this...I no longer subscribe the Ad Free Shows service and I didn't want to hear interminable ad reads, so I chose to watch the YouTube version of this show. That was fine...I didn't get the ads, but the editing was exceptionally choppy. Regal would frequently be cut off mid-sentence because Koon had to cut in with an ad read. And I get that...it's the nature of the beast. If you're going to listen to one of these shows, you either have to put up with the ads, you buy the ad free version, or you watch the YouTube version and put up with really third rate edits. Next time I will probably just listen to the version with ads...but we'll see. Anyhow, that's my take. If you like listening to William Regal talk and share his overall philosophy, you'll probably love this show. Did anybody else listen, and if so...what did you think?

Back in the 80’s we used to snort lines of caffeine right off the bare backsides of strippers, 300 nights a year and twice daily on weekends, brother. Nowadays, all these kids want to do is play video games in the locker room while sipping their no-caff, non-fat lattes.

Lots of rumors circulating online today that TK is planning another ROH PPV for July. I’m there…but I best see The Briscoes on that card. Hell, considering the fact that they are partially responsible for the success of the last PPV, why not book Briscoes/FTR II?

I guess, but it begs the question why they fired him instead of just transitioning him out of his wrestling job into the coaching role when they decided they didn’t want to use him in the ring anymore. Lord knows they have done that with other guys. I guess the bar isn’t really set all that high if Billy Kidman got transferred from being an active talent into being an agent.

I find the logic behind Joe Hennig being hired as an agent/producer with WWE…confusing. ”Joe, you are not talented enough to warrant us pushing you, in fact you’re not even good enough to work here, so we are going to let you go. However…you ARE talented enough for us to hire you for a job where your responsibilities will be to help tell other people how to do their job. You know…the same job you weren’t good enough at to actually do yourself.”

I am glad you started this thread, @El-P. We had discussed it in another thread here but I think it got buried. I would hate to see his death go by without people noticing it. I hope people take a few minutes to watch that video about Goto made by @BAHU that I linked to, because it's really good and people might find it interesting if they are unfamiliar with his work.

I don't understand. The world doesn't make sense to me anymore. I watched that match. I thought it was okay. At first I appreciated the fact that they seemed to be going more Tupelo Concession Stand Brawl and less ECW arena brawl, so I was enjoying it to a degree. But then they pulled out the ladders, and the tables, and the barbed wire, and I became disenchanted. And then Jake Hager was involved in choking out Bryan Danielson, and I became upset. Bryan Danielson should be wrestling technical classics in the Main Event of PPV's, and Jake Hager should be appearing at the auto show and charging $5 for his autograph, and then getting depressed when nobody wants an autograph and more people line up to see Virgil than him. But then everybody started praising this match, and I became confused. Why do so many people whose opinions I usually respect love this match, when I don't? When I was a younger man, I used to go to ECW shows all the time, and I loved a good crowd brawl. Am I becoming the PWO version of Jim Cornette? Maybe I need to go back and watch this thing again.

Yet another story of a threesome gone wrong. It’s a tale as old as the ages. When will people learn? Whenever you have a threesome, somebody always ends up feeling left out, and chaos inevitably ensues. This could’ve all been avoided, if only threesomes were outlawed.