The Thread Killer

I seem to make it a point to only agree with @El-P about twice a year, since we seem to have totally divergent opinions on pretty much all things related to Pro Wrestling. This appears to be one of the rare occasions I couldn’t agree with him more. When the man is right, he’s right. Seriously. The Miz is infinitely inferior to MJF by pretty much every measurable metric. It’s not even close, really. Sure, Miz might be one of the best at cutting scripted, Vince language, approved verbiage, WWE style heel promos. But if you put him in the ring across from MJF with a microphone in his hand and no script? MJF would eat his lunch. And in the ring, MJF just keeps getting better and better. MJF has had better matches in AEW over the past 12 months than Miz has had his entire career. Miz can’t even master throwing a goddamn worked kick. Honestly, he’s the shits. People really need to stop comparing the two of them because it’s not even close. Miz reminds me more of Peter Avalon than he does of MJF.

via 411: Big Sexy is set to join the world of podcasting. CuCommunications and Podcast Heat have announced that Kevin Nash will launch his own podcast this summer. ‘Kliq This: The Kevin Nash Podcast’ will launch on July 11 and be co-hosted by Sean Oliver. Here’s a press release: “Kliq This: The Kevin Nash Podcast” Set to Join Podcast Heat Kevin Nash and Sean Oliver team up for weekly podcast Former World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW) heavyweight champion, original New World Order (NWO) member, and WWE Hall of Famer, “Big Sexy” Kevin Nash is set to jack-knife power bomb the podcast world with the launch of “Kliq This: The Kevin Nash Podcast.” Starting on July 11, Nash, along with co-host Sean Oliver (Kayfabe Commentaries), will bring their uncensored and unfiltered conversations to Podcast Heat, with new episodes dropping every Monday on both audio and video podcast outlets. “Kliq This listeners will get a magical mystery tour into all aspect of life,” said Nash. “No topic is off limits or out of bounds. We will be pop culture driven, but not too timid to attack today’s current cancel culture.” “Kliq This will be the best of what fans loved about our shoot interviews together, just on a much broader scale,” added Oliver. “Fans will slide up to the bar next to Kevin and me for banter and guests ranging from the stars of wrestling, to entertainment, to music and Lord knows what else.” “Before podcasting became common place for professional wrestling, Sean Oliver and his Kayfabe Commentaries shoot interviews were the fans ‘go-to’ for behind-the-scenes stories and information,” said Podcast Heat founder Dave Greene. “And of all his interviews, Sean’s conversations with Kevin Nash were can’t miss. I can’t wait to hear what these guys have in store when the conversations can extend beyond just professional wrestling.” To interact with “Kliq This: The Kevin Nash Podcast” on Twitter, follow @KliqThisPodcast.

Are the Hardys really that much bigger than the Bucks? I always assumed they were pretty much the same size.

I hadn’t even thought of that, but you are right Johnny Dynamite would’ve been a much better name. Oh and Joe’s still got it, dammit. He has looked a lot better in AEW that he did the last time I saw him in NXT. He is hardly in his prime anymore but I think he can still go if given the chance.

I had heard that as well, that it was a large venue. That makes very little business sense to me. Due to my background in charity fundraising I know how much it costs to rent and run a venue of that size and it is not an insignificant number. They are going to be in the red from renting that venue alone, never mind what they are probably paying all that talent. I can’t imagine that Stroman or Overeem are coming cheap. I suppose it is possible they are getting a percentage of the gate and not a huge upfront guarantee, but I doubt that. Then, as you said… There is the ridiculous lack of leadtime going into this event. Less than a month to promote it does not give them much chance of getting a decent crowd out. I think those guys are going to be sorely disappointed with how this works out. And that’s not even getting into the actual quality of some of those potential matches. The odds of them making any money on this event are pretty much infinitesimal.

Comedy roasts (when done correctly) can be absolutely brutal. I would imagine that this is going to end up being more gentle joking than actual comedy roasting. Lord knows Ric Flair has given his critics a ton of ammunition over the years, but there is no way in the day and age that we live in right now that anybody will be able to truly “roast” him with material that would ever be allowed to air. Not to mention, if you are going to allow yourself to be roasted, you have to be an extremely good sport and have VERY thick skin. Flair has been known to be sensitive to criticism (remember how he reacted to what JR and Shawn Michaels said about him in the 30 for 30 Documentary?) so if anybody actually said some of the things they COULD say…I can see this going very wrong. Kind of like that Iron Sheik roast that Kayfabe Commentaries tried to have a few years ago, when Scott Hall tried to attack one of the comedians for making an Owen Hart joke.

Precisely this. I myself have had a moustache (well, a goatee technically) for lo these past 29 years…yet in all that time, I can honestly say that while shaving, it has never ever crossed my mind even once to say: “Hey, you know what would be fun? Making myself look like Adolf Hitler!”

Honestly, I think the whole rumour originated because some AFS subscribers asked Conrad during an AMA that since he now has so many big names working with him and so many connections in the business, would he ever consider promoting his own show, and he gave them the old “never say never” answer which started the speculation. But then Jarrett and Bishoff both fed into it and have been dropping hints about it on social media. But as I said I am sure it is mostly done in jest.

I don’t know if this is urban legend, but wasn’t Buddy Rogers scheduled to wrestle again shortly before he died? I remember reading somewhere that he was supposed to have a match against Buddy Landell on some indie show. EDIT: Yeah, I googled it and apparently in 1992 at 71 years old, Buddy Rogers was scheduled to face off with Buddy Landell in a “Battle of the Nature Boys” but the promoter went out of business, and Buddy Rogers died a couple of months later before it could be rescheduled. So apparently, the moral of the story is, if your nickname is Nature Boy you are destined to be cursed with an overwhelming desire to wrestle once you pass the age of 70, I guess.

Honestly, my whole point when I made the original post about Carter’s apology, was that it was very poorly thought out in my opinion. I personally feel that when it comes to apologizing, there is no point if your apology isn’t well worded and most importantly…sincere. I don’t think there is any way you could read what he wrote and come away thinking he was really sorry for what he did. Which personally, I have no problem with, if he isn’t actually sorry. If you don’t think what you did was wrong, then don’t say sorry. If you are dealing with consequences because people are upset about what you said/did, then either don’t apologize and be willing to accept the consequences, or sure…issue a fake apology but at least make sure that it sounds sincere. If he can’t apologize for something that he isn’t sorry about and at least fake sincerity, then no wonder his marriage fell apart. That is one of the keys to a successful relationship. Carter was just making excuses, which really isn’t going to make the situation any better and it isn’t going to make it go away, after all this time. My personal opinion is that the whole situation was ridiculously stupid. I don’t think marital problems, relationship issues or interpersonal disagreements should be played out on social media for public consumption because exactly this kind of thing happens. It doesn’t offend me personally that he imitated Hitler because stuff like that generally doesn’t offend me. But I can certainly see why it would offend some people, and I can see why a corporation that is publicly traded would distance the from somebody who did that. And for the record, if you can’t see why some people would be offended by seeing a picture of somebody imitating Hitler? Then you’re a moron and there is no point in engaging you in a debate.

It immediately reminded me of Michael Hayes acting all baffled that people were upset with him for using the infamous “N word.” “But I’m not racist! We used that word all the time in the 70’s! And I was a big fan of Richard Pryor…and he said that word ALL the time!”

Rumours have been rampant for quite some time now that Conrad made some sort of deal with the Crockett family about running some sort of new promotion involving the Crockett name, Conrad‘s money and Jarrett and Bischoff running things behind the scenes. I could be wrong but I don’t think it’s going to happen for one damn minute. I think Conrad is just enjoying the speculation on social media. You can say what you want about Conrad Thompson, but the man is not stupid with his money. He has proven very adapt at making money from Pro Wrestling fans, not blowing it. I think he knows that unless he’s planning on promoting the odd one off Indy supershow combined with his Starrcast conventions, he would lose his ass on something like that. He could do the odd independent show at his events and make money with it, especially because he already has a pre-existing deal with FITE. I have even seen it speculated that Conrad secretly owns a piece of FITE although I don’t know how true that is. I like Bischoff and Jarrett a hell of a lot more than most people around here. I even think they might still have some thing to contribute to the business, but even I think that would be a colossally stupid idea.

Oh right, thanks for pointing that out. To be honest I never even saw them work in NXT. I don’t know which one was which after they showed up there. I saw them in Impact and knew who was who there, but never saw them after they made the jump. Except, didn’t there used to be three of them?

Am I the only person who thinks that this whole thing is one giant work? MJF is pretty notorious for trying to stick to what passes for “kayfabe” in 2022. I remember one of the first press conferences for AEW that was hosted by Conrad Thompson. MJF was there and he apparently took a bunch of shots at Conrad about being overweight. A bunch of Conrad‘s fans were outraged and asked Conrad about it. Conrad admitted to the members of AFS that MJF cleared it with him ahead of time and basically implied you should never trust that anything MJF says publicly is legit. I think he is trying to be as “old school” as possible and take great delight in working people as much as he can. Nothing would make sure that the AEW fan base continues to hate you more than heavily implying you can’t wait to leave there and go work for Vince.

Does he still look like he died of a meth overdose a year ago and nobody has told him yet?

So apparently the former Wes Carter finally got around to formally issuing an apology today for being photographed imitating Hitler and giving a Nazi salute, which is what ultimately got him released by WWE. I don’t know that there was anything he could have said which would have made it sound sincere or legitimate, but even taking that into consideration, he still managed to fall pretty far short of the goal, IMHO. Firstly, he managed to get in a dig at his ex-wife, so I guess we’re still doing that. Secondly, he actually almost tried to make it sound like he had to have it pointed out to him that you know…the Holocaust was a bad thing, and something that you don’t actually make light of. Because, how could he have possibly figured that out before somebody pointed it out to him?

I’m not worried about that. For a promoter to do something like that, they would have to be seriously unethical. And who has ever heard of an unethical Pro Wrestling promoter?

For a while, it seemed like MLW was heading in that direction. They had quite a few talents nobody else would touch with a 10 foot pole.

I hadn’t actually thought about those potential matchups, but now that you mention it…fuck yeah, give me those, please. You keep hearing and seeing rumours about possible AEW Trios or 6 Man Titles or a tournament at least, and there are a ton of potential matches with the roster they have right now: - Cole & ReDragon - Kenny & The Bucks - Christian & Jurassic Express - Team Taz Plus all the midcard teams like Dark Order, Best Friends, Gunn Club, Andrade Inc. etc that have more than two members. There are some potentially great 6 Man matches for HOB, BCC and Death Triangle.

I get what you are saying, but I am wondering…Pillman was trained by Lance Storm and has been wrestling professionally now for 5 years. How much more training and experience does he need? I am wondering if he is about as good as he is going to get at this point. Which as we have seen, is…not so good. I just don’t think he gets it, and I don’t think he ever will, unfortunately.

I have two observations after watching tonight’s episode of Dynamite. Big Cass appears to have improved a metric fuck-ton since the last time I saw him. I just hope for his sake, AEW and/or Impact do not drug test. But still, he looked quite sharp, I thought. On the other end of the spectrum… I had been feeling that in retrospect, I was being slightly unfair in mercilessly roasting Brian Pillman Jr. in this very forum over the last couple of months. I thought perhaps I was judging him too harshly, and I tried to watch his promo this evening with an open mind. As it happens…I went far too easy on him originally. He’s the shits. Seriously, WTF. How is this guy on TV.

I assumed that eventually they would have to get better, but from what I hear they didn’t. I found them painful to watch back in NXT. It’s pretty amazing considering how much experience they have gained since then that they didn’t get much better. No aptitude, I guess?

I don’t honestly know if they are even going to really play into the heel/face thing with this angle. It might just end up being a rivalry between The Elite and The Undisputed and TK lets the fans decide who to cheer for. Look at the BCC. They kind of started out as a potential heel faction, with a Danielson having turned heel on Hangman originally and then acting all aggressive, and insulting the fans etc. But since Regal showed up, they certainly haven’t been getting a heel reaction from the fans, and I don’t know that they ever will. People seem to love Moxley, and honestly what “smart” wrestling fan is going to boo William Regal? TK seems to just let the fans choose who they’re going to boo or cheer based on the scenario. Hell, last week Dan Lambert of all damn people seemed to be getting cheered over Sammy. I am not saying I like that, I prefer when the roles are clearly defined and obvious, but that does not always seem to apply in AEW. There are exceptions, like the Punk/MJF deal, but aside from that AEW seems to be a bit more… nuanced I guess. That’s modern wrestling for you, it has its pluses and minuses.

It looks like in addition to signing with Impact, The Briscoes are now working with the NWA. They have been there a couple of times since the Crockett Cup and apparently last night had an NWA World Tag Title match on Power(rrr) which was pretty good, if you are to believe the reports. I may have to start checking the NWA out again after all this time, if Dem Boys are going to be showing up on a regular basis. That episode debuts tonight on YouTube. I still hope The Briscoes end up figuring into the plans if and when ROH gets another TV deal or has another PPV though. I guess the rumors are true and AEW isn’t going to happen for them. ☹️

I assumed Hangman was the bad guy in this scenario. I can’t believe you guys automatically assumed Good Brother @sek69 is the heel. But if he is…he should get Good Brother @C.S. to be his manager. All C.S. would have to do is cut one of his “Mauro Ranallo is the GOAT” promos, and he and sek would have massive old school heat, brother. They would sell that mother out, lineups around the block.